Make a Wish

It's 11:38 now. But a little while ago, it was 11:11. Which means, make a wish. In honor of 11:11, I have created a wish list to share with you:

-Air conditioning. My mother has decided that we don't need A/C until it's something like 95 degrees outside. It's in the low 80s right now. I don't want to waste energy or anything, but my room is disgustingly hot. Not sure why. I want it cool.

-Time to write/read without feeling like I should be doing thesis instead. Of course, that's not gonna happen until December of this year. And at that point, I'll feel like I should be doing college/financial aid applications instead of thesis instead of writing or reading. Guilt is something I'm gonna have to get used to.

-A solution to these story issues. Right now I feel like I'm writing a completely different story from my old one, but it's just a rewrite...the characters and the basic premise are the same. But it's so vastly different. Wow.

-More openness from people. I think there are a lot of people who are very accepting and other people just don't realize it. I wish that people didn't feel like they had to be afraid to say things because of what someone else was going to think or do.

-A strawberry or watermelon slushie. Some sort of cold, fruity drink. Have I mentioned it's like a boiler in here?

-To not have to worry about college yet. Because seriously? I don't know where I want to go, or what I want to do, or anything. And I am definitely not old enough for college yet. Am I? There's no way. Time is insane. Eek.

And those are my wishes for the night. Some of them are a bit more simply stated than others, some are rather more profound than others, I'll leave it up to you all to determine which are which. For now, I'm trying to figure out New Chapter One.

Love,
Bex

Space Cowboys!

So, since KD is already feeling all vindicated, I'ma give her one more outlet and credit her here too. Love you bunches K.

What, you may be wondering, is the mysterious and wonderful KD feeling so vindicated about, you might ask? The answer is: because I watched the pilot episode of the show Firefly and admitted that she was completely and utterly right to work so hard at convincing me to watch it.

Seriously, you guys. It is AMAZING.

Nathan Fillion, and space cowboys, and plastic dinosaurs, and legitimately funny jokes, and Wash (who is seriously the best character likeever), and ahhh it's fantastic. Watch it watch it watch it. ♥

Ahhh Firefly = awesome.

Also CH has convinced me to try Skype. I was under the impression that Skype was just for video chats, but apparently it's got regular IM too, so I've been figuring out Skype this afternoon. It'd probably more interesting if I had more contacts than just CH and KD, especially since KD's laptop is in the shop so she can't use Skype. Hmm.

Does anyone else out there use Skype? What do you think of it?

And what do you think of FIREFLY?! It's amazing, riiight? Yes. You know it is. XD ♥

Must get some sleep, I have to take a pre-cal final in the morning. Much love,
Bex

Drafts

So, remember that vampire story I've told you guys about?

Yeah. That one. The one that I kind of quit working on because I got so sick of "Good Vampires" (even though there are a lot of really awesome good-vampire stories still out there, such as the Vampire Academy series and the House of Night series and the Evernight series and the Blue Bloods series and a lot of stand-alone novels like Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, and yes, even Twilight - someone remind me to tell you about my thoughts on Twilight later). There are good ones out there and they are fun to read, but I was tired of being hit over the head by Good Vampires every time I walk into Barnes & Noble. I didn't want to write one.

But I missed Eliza. And Ben. And Greg.

Well, I had a brainstorm. And it involves Bad Vampires. YAY!

I lovelovelove this new idea. It's gonna do wonderful things for the character development and I think it's gonna make the story a lot more focused and a lot better in general and I'm really excited about writing it.

But it's gonna take some major restructuring and rewriting. There are going to be favorite scenes that I'm going to have to completely get rid of or at least alter significantly. I knew this was going to happen when I started writing. So so so many writers have said that you have to "murder your darlings" and be prepared to get rid of bits you like for the sake of the story. But it is sad.

At least now I'll have some deleted scenes to share if I ever get famous for it. XD

Also, the following entertaining videos were shared with me by my father. You should watch them. They're funny.

Bronte Sisters Power Dolls video
OSU Flash Mob: Don't Stop Believing

Now I'm gonna go figure out this new storyline. Because it's awesome. At least, I think so. G'night, all!

Love,
Bex

Spirit Bound

Okayokay so I know I have a limit of One Post Per Day, but consider this make-up for not having posted at all this weekend. I just finished reading Richelle Mead's newest Vampire Academy novel, SPIRIT BOUND, and I kind of had to post something.

I will warn you now that there will be a large part of this post that is gonna be highlighted because it contains SPOILERS. So please, if you haven't read the book and are planning to, don't highlight it, don't read it, just don't touch it. I don't believe in spoilers, but I have to get this out of my system.

SPIRIT BOUND picks up essentially where BLOOD PROMISE left off. Rose is still trying to decide between the two most important people in her life. Only now, it's a lot more intense. This right here is only a minorly spoilery synopsis, so if you've read the other four books and just haven't read this one yet, this bit should be fine. Very little that the book jacket won't tell you: So, Rose is on her Impossible Quest to save Dimitri from being a Strigoi, and they set Victor Dashkov free from prison to get information on how to do it. And when this quest puts Lissa in danger, Rose has to make some tough decisions about what matters. Meanwhile, there's all sorts of drama at the Court, not the least of which is Adrian Ivashkov. (Personally, I am now leaning toward Team Adrian, but I was a little that way to begin with.)

And THIS is where the mega-spoiler rant is gonna be (I'll keep it brief), so DON'T READ THIS unless you've finished SPIRIT BOUND: *ahem.* 1. I wanna know where Victor Dashkov has gotten off to. They kind of ditched that storyline halfway through. I want! 2. Tatiana = mystery woman. And now she's dead! What?! So, I wanna know who set Rose up. 3. I think I'm Team Adrian. But Dimitri...ooh this situation is tough. 4. Who set Rose up as the killer?!?! Oh wait - did I mention that already? >_>

*Ahem.* Okay. I think I'm done. (CJ, I'm calling you tomorrow. Expect it.) If you haven't read the Vampire Academy series, you really should. They're fantastic. And yes, they're vampire novels, but it's a totally different spin on vampires than TWILIGHT. If you're just as sick of "oh yes vampires are all lovely people!" as I am, fear not. Yes, there are good vampires in the VA series, but there are bad ones too, and there are no werewolves at all. (I don't mean to be hating on TWILIGHT. I just feel like it's overdone.)

Okay, I'm not making my point very well. Rose Hathaway, the VA protagonist, is possibly one of my favorite fictional characters ever. She's so much fun to read (she's gotta be fun to write - I should try a charrie like her sometime), and she's so real, and the stories have just the right blend of action and mystery and intrigue and romance and it's FANTASTIC. The first one is called VAMPIRE ACADEMY and they're by Richelle Mead, and you can find out more about her on her blog or her website.

Readreadread. ♥

And now I really am done blogging for today. Promise.

Love,
Bex

The End

So, I'd like to apologize for the conspicuous lack of posting over the weekend, but I was veeery busy. With thesis, with an AP Lang essay (seriously, why would you make an essay due the same day as a major thesis deadline, right before exams start?) and with thesis.

So this weekend marked the ends of lots of things. Probably the biggest "ending" was that of the academic portion of my junior year, except for the pre-calculus final on Thursday. Oh my gosh I am a rising senior now. How did that happen?! Seriously, freshman year was like yesterday.

The part of thesis that I have readily available teacher help for every other day for an hour and a half? That's over.

AND. LOST is over.

Last night was the series finale. And wow. I'ma not post any spoilers here because I don't know if CH has seen it yet and I know SH hasn't, but - ahhwow. A lot of people think that it really didn't work or that it sucked or that they wasted six years of their lives on this show, but personally, I liked it. I thought that lots of the ending stuff was really sweet, and I felt like the way they chose to wrap it up worked really well. I didn't like that Ben stayed outside (which is not a spoiler because you won't know what I mean anyway if you haven't seen it), but other than that, I felt like it worked.

I will warn those of you who haven't seen it, though - don't expect to have every question answered for you. There's a lot you won't find out. But they wrap up what matters.

It's kind of sad to see it over, but I think they ended it well.

Now I get to start FI - aghhh forget it, I give up on capitalizing show titles. I'ma start Firefly now. Tee hee mua ha ha.

Love,
Bex

The World According To Garp

...apparently consists of nothing but sex and death. So, the jacket-flap said it was a comedic novel about the son of a famous feminist struggling to become a writer in the post-WWII era. And I guess it was about that, so the jacket-flap didn't really lie...

Still, I wish I'd had a warning of some sort. At one point in the novel, Garp's editor, John Wolf, describes some of Garp's work as "an X-rated soap opera." I'd pretty much apply that to the novel as a whole. The plot in a nutshell: Jenny Fields rapes a dying soldier so she can have a kid without having to deal with a man in her life. Then she gets a job at a boarding school where her son, named Garp after his father, eventually goes to school. Beginning in his senior year of high school, Garp starts having sex with practically every other girl he meets. He eventually gets married and has children, but still has several affairs. People die. There's a lot of sex. More people die. His life sucks. There's some more affairs. Then he realizes that he still loves his wife, and instead of having sex with everyone he meets, he decides to start a campaign against the Ellen Jamesians and gets assassinated because they think he's an anti-feminist.

That said, I didn't hate the book. I thought there was entirely too much sex, and I disliked that it was always "f*** this" and "f*** that" when there was really no need for it, but on the whole it was okay. It was just...really tragic, and really X-rated. Not something I would have chosen to read, personally, but I know people who would probably like it if they picked it up on their own. (SP, you are one of them.) I also think I'd've enjoyed it a lot more if it hadn't been keeping me from the books I really wanted to read. School requirements do not do much to endear books to me.

Not my kind of book, perhaps, and not, in my humble opinion, one of the best books out there, but there were certainly parts that were laugh-out-loud funny and parts that were undeniably true. I'm going to put it out there as something that you might pick up if you don't have anything else to read and don't mind a tragedy - and I'm going to put a huge huge huge "X-RATED CONTENT" label on it.

Mostly, I'm just glad to be done because now I can read SPIRIT BOUND without feeling guilty. Too bad I won't see the wonderful and amazing CJ (who has agreed to lend it to me, which only adds to her fabulousness) until Monday. (C, dear, I love you muchably.)

And now, I'm going to go listen to "Awake and Alive." Again.

Love,
Bex

Awake and Alive

I have recently discovered (well, rediscovered, sort of) a song. Many thanks to KD, who introduced me to it. This song has been stuck in my head all day. Like, even while we were watching the very well-made documentary of a very horrible situation known as 9/11 in APUSH, my mind was playing this song.

(Incidentally, that documentary was just kind of...whoa. Like, everyone knows 9/11 was horrible, but it really kind of put you there. Wow.)

The song, as you may have deduced from the title of the post, is called "Awake and Alive." It's by a Christian rock band called Skillet, and it's quite awesome. My only warning is that it could get irreversibly stuck in your head. But guys, it's fantastic, and you should go listen to it right now.

"I'm awake, I'm alive, now I know what I believe inside. Right now, it's my time, I'll do what I want 'cause this is my life. Right here, right now, stand my ground and never back down. I know what I believe inside, I'm awake and I'm alive."

Ahhh such a good song. Listenlistenlisten.

Now, back to my thesis summer plan. Which would be MUCH EASIER to make if the other classes' summer assignments were on the website as I was told they would be. It wouldn't matter as much if they hadn't told me that they'd be there.

I mean, I'm not annoyed about this at all, nope.

Anyway. Going now. G'night, y'all.
Love,
Bex