Tabs! :D

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Winners: But Wait! There's More!

So... A little while ago I had a contest, and Rebecca had a contest, and both drawings were Completely blind drawings and somehow Hannah/Palindrome won Both Contests. Which I laughed about pretty hard. But I didn't want any of you to feel Cheated, and I was having so much fun making mini-pillows (which, I thought about posting a pic, but I want the pillows to be a surprise for the winners... Like Christmas! Only, the person giving you the gift has never really met you before, and they kinda' stalk you, and it's a little bit more awkward and stuff. But like Christmas. If you have a demented family. Anyway.)

Where was I?

Oh yeah! So I decided to draw another name! and give more prizes. So one person will win...


The Infamous Be Happy Book, a pillow, a packet of Herbs, and the Spoon in the Bathroom Wall, because I really loved that story. And even if you don't like the story, Brett Helquist did the artwork for the cover, and who doesn't like Brett Helquist? Ahem. Anyhow.

So the winner, without further ado, is...

A person...

With a face...

And a hat...

And they have a dog...

And they have a name...

And their name is...


YAY!!! :D

And I'll have to have another contest sometime, because I did have fun making pillows. Even if they are crooked. And not really professional looking. They are cute. Um. Wait. That sounds self-absorbed. Um. Okay. I'm leaving now. Bye! :D

P.S. Dude! By the way, how is everybody doing? I feel like I haven't been around in Seventeen Years. How's your life and stuff???

And here's a picture: (because I like pictures)

Have a Wonderful Weekend!!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Spake Update

As someone of you know I have a slight obsession with Spakes.

For those of you who don't know, well, now you pretty much do.

What is a Spake? You might ask. Most simply put a Spake is:

"A mythologically real creature that stalks Innocents and feeds off of their soul essence."

I've been keeping it hush, hush for a Long time, because I'm afraid of someone stealing my babies, but at this point the Spakes have exploded so much, I don't think anyone Could steal them without me pointing to all sorts of Evidence that I created them. I mean, their voices are on my head for Pete's sake. Ahem. Though, who Pete is I don't know and I'm not crazy, I swear. Or I am, but I believe that's a necessity for being a writer at least 63% of the time.

But beyond my insanity there is a reason I'm telling you all of this. I want you to know that now you can become a Fan of Spakes on Facebook --> CLICK ON THIS!

And if you don't have a Facebook ignore that and know that you can also follow Spakes on Twitter! Hey, if they're going to follow you, you might as well follow them, right? --> CLICK ON THIS!

And if you don't have either a Facebook or a Twitter don't worry. I'm working on a website thingy. It's not going to be complete real, with my own domain name or anything. It's just for fun and for me to play around with stuff.

Okay.

Fine.

It's already up, but I'm still working on it. It was so much fun to put together, and if any of you go over and look at it and have any questions, or hate it, or anything, feel free to let me know. There's an easy-peasy link over there that you can e-mail me on and everything. --> CLICK HERE!

YAY! :D There's even Explosions! Well... Kinda'...

This reminds me of Spakes *sigh*

Friday, September 10, 2010

WINNERS!

The Super Sister Contest is now officially over and the winners have been drawn over at Rebecca's and over Here for the writing contest. And now I'll let you know what the winners were for the Contest here.

At first I was going to do something Spectacular! and Wonderful! and Amazing! but I started writing and didn't stop 'til three in the morning, and started up again yesterday and then got distracted and.... Suffice it to say, nothing happened. So I used the Convenient random.org

And guess what???? There are Winners now!! Yay!

Aw, isn't he cute and excited??

The Two Winners of the Chocolate Book, the Be Happy book, a packet of Herbs, and their very own mini-pillow are...


Wait for it.







Wait for it.






Kaitlyn from Kaitlyn in Bookland

and



Woo-Hoo!!!!

This is Hairy.
He's very excited that you won.

And the Winner of a signed Karin Slaughter book and the owl key holder is...

aLmYbNeNr whose musings can be found Here

Despite being creepy, this dude is happy that you won

And that's Everything!

Thank y'all for entering!! Your packages will be mailed shortly.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Mockingjay: Nothing to Mock About

WARNING!!!! If you have not read the book yet, you probably don't want to read this because it is spoilery!!! Also, I warn that I wrote this right after reading the book, so it's probably emotionally jumbled... But it's pretty much exactly how the book made me feel, so... Here you go:







In one word: Devastating.

Now, I've heard from some people that they thought Mockingjay was too dark, and too bloody and um... Did you read the first two? It's a bloody story. It's a horrific story. As I said above, it was emotionally (and in my case) physically devastating. I can't explain to you how much I want to throw up and curl up into a ball and weep and retch. Mostly, because I don't think any of you want me to explain that to you.

Now, I don't like watching documentaries of war, I don't like watching war reenactments, but I've seen them. And when Collins was describing, toward the end of the book, the rush of the Rebels, the Peacekeepers, the innocents, all tangled in a mess of shooting and death... I wasn't thinking of Panem. I saw flashes of World War II, I saw the concentration camps, I saw every war that the stupid Human race has ever gone through...

I don't watch the news, I don't read the newspapers, I don't listen to the radio. Why? I can't deal with real life stuff, because I can't stop war, I can't stop people from dying, I can't do anything from my home here. But I can read about Panem, and I can read about their rebellion and I can retch and cry over them... And I wonder why that is.

Sitting here I'm tapping on a computer, a laptop, one that I own. My sister owns two laptops, my dad has one, my brother has one, plus we have two other computers. I'm listening to my sister douse herself in water, taking a shower- while people die everywhere because they don't have clean water. It made me see my life in a way I never, ever, wanted to see it. If my world were the same as the world that Collins describes, I would not be one of the districts. I would be part of the Capitol. Sure, I feel bad about stuff, but I'm okay staying where it's safe, and cold, and boring.

And that's the thing about books, about stories, about literature. It takes our world, re-names it, re-labels it, and shoves you inside to live in it. Really live in it. And it can either unaffect you, leaves you able to go back to life unchanged. Or a story can make you think, stays on the surface of your skin, but it fades after a few days. Or a story can completely ruin you, devastate you, cause you to fall flat on your butt and really look at life and ask 'Why?'

Another thing I did not expect from this book was the fact that it made me jealous. Yeah, go figure. But you see, Katniss lives in a world where it has already happened. The Capitol already took over, District 13 already rebelled... But I'm living in a world where that could easily happen, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. As far as I know, my children could live in a world very similar to that, and there's very, very little I can do about it. It reminds me of a quote I heard from someone around the blogosphere that I am not going to quote right, but he was saying that dystopian fiction is getting big right now not because it's a future that might happen sometime, but because it's a future that could be theirs.

So instead of being completely depressed (though, I still will be emotionally wrecked tomorrow, which is wonderful since I have to go to work), shouldn't I let this Story remind me to be careful about life? I still have my sister, I still have my family. I don't have to be psychologically ruined and scarred for life. I can still find a way to live my life with Meaning.

Katniss and Peeta, though severely mangled in so many ways, were still able to have some sort of decent life. And that's the thing. This story is not completely depressing, there is that ever-present light of hope.

It reminds me of the power of words, and I can only hope that one day I can do justice to that Power.

And though some would disagree with me, looking at the world through the eyes of Mockingjay, it leaves me ever more grateful that I'm not in control of the world. 'Cause even if sometimes God confuses my brain out, I still know He's in control, and I know He can use things like this book to wake me up and get me moving again.


Yup. Those are my rambly thoughts. Thanks for listening to me rant *smiles and nods off to sleep*