Blogging

(In Honor of the A-Z Challenge going around I'm going to attempt to Alphabetize my posts this month. Yay to all A-Zers!)

I have been blogging for over a year with 114 posts (!) and 96 lovely followers. So I thought it would be fun to take a step back and see where this has brought me and what it has taught me.

But let's take a quick look back at the beginning and see what started it all... Blooooooop.

Ah, LOST. I am a firm believer that it's never the Big Choices that change your life. It's all the little choices before that big choice that changed your life.

Deciding to watch LOST was one of those. I shouldn't have even ended up loving the show. I saw one "Before on LOST" and was so confused. I decided I should Never Ever watch the show.

The same thing happened to my sis. But then she ended up watching it anyway.

I came in during one of the many Run-Through-The-Forest-To-Creepy-Music-And-Hope-You-Don't-Die scenes. I went to bed. And was haunted. I had to watch this show! Well. Then I followed Rebecca's lead and snooped around Nikki's blog. And started a blog.

And then started a second one. And then started a Twitter. And a second Twitter for my Spakes. And then I started a Tumblr. And I made Awesome Friends. And I learned that the world of Publishing is much more Vast than I had imagined and that Writers are way cool people to hang around and that there are lovely Random people out there who are weird like me.

I also learned that unlike these strange Western Thinkers I do not live linearly.

I don't know why, but this is what I think of when

I think of the word 'Linear'

I live in circles. Which is why for a few months I'm heavy on the internet, and then for a few months I'm not, and then for a few months I almost never turn on my computer.

And maybe that's okay. To be circular.

This is Chain Mail. This is what I think of

when I think of being 'Circular'

I have learned so much here in this blog-o-sphere. I have so much support over here. It is extremely Awesome. And I am super excited to get to know more of you, to re-aquaint myself with some of you, and just have a generally good time during this Second Year of my blog.

And here are a few things I learned:

1) I am not disciplined enough to do anything regular on a blog yet. Ha. Except be Regularly Irregularly Random

2) Closing my eyes and setting my hands atop GLOM does not magically transfer Blog info up into my brain. This may be lame, but it's true.

3) Some Blog people have super cool Book Recommendations. Even if it's not something I usually read, I should read it anyway, just to see if I like it.

4) Wombats will one day save the world

5) People can get published. It is happening all of the place in this bloggy world.

6) Um...

7) #otherstuffthatiforgot

I know some other lamnams blog birthdays are coming up or recently passed. (Like Wolfie402's)

Congratulations Everybodies! :D

Random Video Fun

Oh wowsies. I can't believe I haven't posted this thing up yet. For some reason my brain has been everywhere but in bloggy land. I miss you guys. *hugs GLOM* Hopefully that hug transfers through to your computers.

WELL... In case you have yet to hear of it: I am obsessed with Spakes. They are mythologically real creatures and I talk about them pretty much incessantly.

People throw things at me.

It can be bad.

SO in order to attempt to get my Facebook friends to become fans of Spakes on Facebook (which you can totally do here if you happen to have a Facebook page. I keep meaning to make a linky-do-da but I am lame and so have not done that.) I made this video, and I thought I would share it with you, if I can get it to load. It takes a day to load to youtube, so I haven't done that yet (I now hate youtube). We'll see if this works...

Woah! I think that worked :D So exciting. Anywaydles... Hope you enjoy. I'm going to try and pop around tomorrow, unless I have to do an emergency stand-in for my sister at work. Her thumb's still a bit of an owie. Have fun! :D

The 37 Things I Learned This Year

As it is the End of December/Beginning of January I am going to become reflective and think about what I learned this year, though generally I leave reflecting to the mirrors and ponds of the world.

1) Putting things like metal into your mouth is bad for your teeth. You can supposedly chip your teeth this way. Who knew?

2) Just because a musical has puppets in it does not mean it is appropriate for children.

3) If you are on vacation you will most likely get sick.

4) When you slide on ice and tap the back of a large pick-up truck and they say "that's alright" what they really mean is "In three months I'm going to call your insurance and try to blame you for a totally unrelated incident."

5) Sometimes cautious drivers will stop at a yield sign even if no cars are coming. Especially if they are foreign and do not know the difference between a stop and yield sign.

6) When you hit the back of a car that has stopped at a yield sign even though no cars are coming, it is quite possible that awful green liquid will ooze out of your car. And you will cry.

7) No matter how much you love your Nissan Maxima, it will not magically reappear in your driveway.

8) No matter how much you love the truck you're borrowing from a friend they will not hand it over. Even i f you bake them brownies. Or write a love song to the Nissans you adore.

9) Writing a book in 8 days will turn you into a Zombie.

10) Trying to accomplish NaNo after spending 8 days writing a novel is not a good idea.

11) Just because there are exploding wardrobes in your novel does not mean that you will be able to finish said novel in 30 days. Sadly.

12) An all girl's college is very weird. And not necessarily in a bad way.

13) Never transfer from a place that will hold your transcripts hostage.

14) Be careful while writing. Do not empath too much with a suicidal character. Or a character obsessed with shoes. Bad things can happen.

15) Bloggy friends are Amazing. Never lose them for they will keep you sane.

16) Summaries aren't as hard to write as you thought they were.

17) Do not tell people your car exploded in the middle of the highway. It does not go over well.

18) Even if you work in a store clearly marked "Calendar Store" customers will still ask for things that have nothing to do with calendars. Like asking for fish food.

19) Researching agents can lead you to discover some really wonderful books that you might not have read otherwise.

20) If you go to the library multiple times a week the librarians will start knowing you by name. This is not a a bad thing.

21) The insanity of writing is cantagious. You may or may not cause others to start hearing character voices and you may or may not cause certain parents to worry for their children's sanity.

22) Do no talk to your characeters out loud while at work, even if it is late and no customers are around.

23) Age doesn't matter as much as people think it does.

24) Sometimes you have to actually study what you're learning in class. It does not magically enter your brain through some sort of Learning Portal.

25) Polaris is the most Amazing Convention Ever!

26) BEA is also up there on the E.o.M

27) Spakes are a whole lot more complex then you thought they would be.

28) Sometimes, even if you only have one chapter left a novel will not let you end it. This can be an okay thing.

29) Some bosses are better than others. Some should be avoided, some should not.

30) Catholics can be pretty cool people.

31) Some jobs are worth fighting for, some are not. Sometimes you will not be sure which truth applies to the situation.

32) If you leave coats/notebooks/Bibles lying around at some church buildings they will disappear and you will never see them again. This will very likely sadden and frustrate you.

33) Having an organ-obsessed brother can be a good thing, and can even produce some pretty darn good music.

34) Aristophanes is one funny guy, and Aeschylus has some really Spake-appropriate quotes.

35) You cannot go to college for anything cool until you do graduate work. This is unfair.

36) There are times that it is perfectly acceptable to go into the city to meet people you've met online. As long as your parents know about it and you go in pairs.

37) Sometimes you will write blog posts that are not your best work, but people will read them anyway because they care about you and it will blow your mind.

I'm Back! I... Think.

So I'm pretty sure I'm over my: "Blogging is stupid" as my mindset has been lately. Even though I don't really believe that... But anyway. I do have an Exciting Story to tell at a later date, hopefully sooner rather than later, but until then I have a question to ask.

I really, Really, REALLY, want to query this agent-man. But I want my query/synopsis to be the best, Best, BEST that it can be. I was whiny this morning (because I always whine in the mornings. Mornings should not be allowed to exist. Except. That would probably mess up the tides. And for most people 12:30 is not the Morning. Anyhow.) and my sis, Rebecca, said: "Why don't you ask your LamNams for help? I'm sure someone would be willing to help you out." So this is a cry for help. If Anyone is willing to read either my query letter, or synopsis, or both, you can e-mail me at achinghope(at)gmail(dot)com. And if Any of you have a query letter and/or snyopsis or whatever, and you need help with getting someone else's perspective, let me know. I would love to help you guys. I mean, you guys have been so Awesome and supportive of me. (Sometimes, I'm not sure why.) And I know I haven't been around lately so it seems really selfish to me to ask this of you guys, but my goal was to query this agent-man before the end of the year... And it's pretty much December. So...

Anyway. That's my plea.

And for all my lovely LamNams:

COOKIES! :D

And though my smile will not be like that, because it's Creepy, I will be smiling regardless, because you guys are Amazing.

Just a Warning

For whatever reason, this month I have been entirely Anti-Blogging. I have no idea. Probably because of NaNoWriMo... I'm not sure. Either way, I want to warn you guys that I won't be around for probably about a month... Even though I have a list of you guys that I want to read your blogs and stuff, but every time I try I decide to write or stare off into space, or go eat breaded cheese sticks.

Mmmmm...

Eventually I will be back though... Like I said, it's probably just being in the NaNoWriMo mindset, where nothing matters but to Write, Write Write. I hope y'all are having a good month and for those of you writing (whether for NaNo or just for yourselves) I wish you um... not luck because that's not awesome enough.

Yes. I wish you the power of Mythological Creatures. Or something like that. ANYWAY... Fare thee well, my LamNams.

Blogger Invasion Blogfest: Late, but Here

So I totally forgot I signed up for my sis' blogfest so here it is, late, but here.

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Zombies. I knew it not just by the smell, but because they were lurching, and decomposing and well… It’s just pretty obvious. I hunkered down behind the over-turned couch and looked over at the two people on my left.

“Ready?”

The first one, Palindrome, cocked her gun and nodded. “Ready.” An evil grin spread over her face and I was suddenly intensely glad I wasn’t a Zombie. “I’m just about… Shhh,” the other one, Falen, pulled at her aviator cap and shushed the little yipping dogs next to her. “Yvie!” Then she turned and pulled out a strange looking steam-powered device. “Ready.”

“Me too!” I turned to look on my other side, at Rose, a short girl with not-blond hair. She held up a Spake knife and grinned. “This should work on Zombies too.”

“And I’ll use my Karate-chop-action-skillz,” Sonshinemusic said, because despite being sunny and bubbly she also has mad skills.

“Okay, just be careful.” I held in a short breath. “Okay, on the count of three. One, two…”

“NO!” Mia shouted, rushing into the room, trailing a stream of sparkles in her wake. At first I didn't know where the sparkles were coming from, until I saw Tessa dancing behind Mia, a huge grin on her face, waving a bucket of glitter labeled 'Zombie Stuff.' The Zombies stopped, staring at the glitter like dolts. “#Zombiesaren’tevil #youshouldtotesnotkillthem.”

I stared at her, awed by the genius of hashtags. But then I shook my head. “These ones are evil! I know because they are ruled by the Zombie Queen Joan Crawford, and those zombie kittens belong to Evil Blam. They must be destroyed!”

"I think Thor agrees," Amalia said, nodding her head. "He doesn't like Zombies. They get glitter everywhere, and everyone knows glitter is my arch nemesis."

“Wait!” Laura Marcella came dancing in, holding a book above her head. “I know there’s a quote in here somewhere that will solve this problem.” Palindrome sighed noisily, probably distressed with the thought that she couldn’t shoot anything. One of Falen’s dogs went over to sniff one of the Zombie kittens, and Rose went over to poke one of the Zombies.

“Hehe… It feels funny,” Rose burbled.

“Here,” Laura Marcella pointed to something in her book, and I peered over her shoulder, curious. “In order to stop Zombies from being evil, one must give them Rubber Duckies to feed upon.”

“Weird,” said I.

“That #rockssocks!” said Sonshine.

“I have ducks!” said J.M. Neeb, appearing out of nowhere. He threw a couple of Rubber Duckies at the Zombies, who ingested them readily, and the Evilness drained straight out of them. “Hooray!” we all shouted happily, except Rose who didn’t think the story was violent enough.

“I think I’ve forgotten something,” I said, and suddenly the front door opened and all my bloggy friends came tumbling, prancing, and walking primly in. We started a whole sha-bang of a party, Zombies and all.

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Yay! Hope y'all enjoyed. I'll try to get around to anyone else who did this blogfest. Oh! And if you want to write one, go ahead. It's okay if you're late or whatever. I was, so I don't think it's a huge deal. This is mostly about having fun and showing love for fellow bloggers (my lamnams!) Anywho...