Summer To-do and Summer Done

Continuing my Summer To-do List...

1. I published those Skulduggery reviews I promised, got a comment from Derek Landy himself (!!!!!), and got three new followers. Thanks, Kallista, Queen Nessie, and Legolas!

2. Find new series. I was literally about to give up on finding any books to love, when I found The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. It's not a series. Yet. I hope it turns into one though. I look for books that make me care. I care about characters, so I look for books with phenomenal characters, but it seems whenever reviews praise a book for its characters, it's a dull book with bland characters. However, Neil Gaiman praised this book for its "heart," and I think maybe that's what I'm looking for. J. J. Abrams also described heart, as when he sees a movie and FEELS something. (He was speaking of his movie Super 8, and it did have some heart, but to be honest, it wasn't that great). When I started Girl Who, I thought it would be a quirky story with creative puns, settings, and concepts. It is, and that's enjoyable enough, but it also encompasses several original yet universal insights into the human condition, and its heroine, September, is likewise original yet relatable. And that's what made me really care. Not the cities of cloth or elaborate fairy feasts or intriguing plot points, but September and her friends and enemies and the insights they provide. I've read books that made me care MORE, it's true. Nonetheless, I had to go through at least a dozen books (half way) to find one book that made me care. In other words, it's pretty worth the read.

3. Read, read, read. Like I said, I was discouraged by all the boring books out there. Maybe I'm just picky, but I tried many popular books and wasn't interested.

4. Write 13 short stories. No good. I didn't get a single one written yet. We'll see how this month goes.

5. Finish any other stories. No good. We'll see, once again, how this month goes.

6. Watch, watch, watch. Was doing okay with this. I loved The King's Speech. But now the Wii isn't working and I haven't been to the rental store in a couple weeks.

7. Blog, blog, blog. I could be doing perhaps slightly better, but it's hard to top my performance during the last few weeks. =) I have a post on God and religion coming up. Just as a warning.

8. Stuff I SHOULD do. I did a bit of that last night in fact, but I should be doing more.

9. Try to meditate. Not so far.

10. Drink hot beverages. Not so far.

11. Do new stuff. Um, yeah. I guess. I did try loitering, but as I'm not familiar with it, I was properly baffled by those obstacles called "streets" and the guides known as "Walk/Don't Walk." You can probably guess I don't spend a lot of time in town. I actually tried to get a tan this year. Most years, I don't worry about it, because it leads to wrinkles and I like my skin pale just as much as I like my skin tan. But this year, I had a book to read outside (Girl Who Circumnavigated) and I thought it might be fun to get that glow I see on kids who spend every moment outside. On them, a tan looks like adventure. Let's see if I can fake it. Not the tan. The adventure.

(By the way, I used to add a Fact of the Day to every post, but I think, from now on, I just do that now and again.)

New Follower!

Holy cow! I finally clicked on the Stats button on my dashboard and just learned about Referring URLs. I gotta stop clicking on links from identifiable sites. How could I have been so ignorant?? I even went to the trouble a few months ago to put Statcounter on here, and I've barely looked at it since and I've learned little about what kind of information it can gather.

Anyway, I know it's been quite a while, and I'm sorry, but I've been doing school and learning that I have a problem with perfectionism, which is why even one class takes up all of my time. I see no excuse not to do my best, and doing my best means putting in as much time as possible, and as much time as possible means all my time.

I wanted to write this post to say hi to all you who read this blog, including my new follower! Woohoo! I was just scrolling down my blog and saw the followers box. I was like, "Yep, three followers...Wait." So, thank you, Amy Forder, for following the blog. =)

I want to at least start another post tonight, but I'm not sure I'll get it published. We'll see. Happy March!

I Don't Write Like Shakespeare

After the last post, I mustered courage to follow more blogs. Click on my profile to see which. Anyway, Eleanor Roscuro has followed me! I have TWO followers now! Twice as many as before! As many as before plus 1! And minus 0! 1 plus 1 minus 0 plus 1 minus 1! That makes 2! Unlike math, new followers bring me exhilaration. Thank you, Eleanor!

To give this post more of a reason to exist, I present my results from I Write Like. I Write Like has been popular for a while now. It's where you enter a piece of your writing and the site analyzes it and tells you what famous writer you write like. I entered my blog posts, and this is what I got:

Cory Doctorow, Cory Doctorow, H. P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury, David Foster Wallace, H. P. Lovecraft, Cory Doctorow, Cory Doctorow, Cory Doctorow, Cory Doctorow, David Foster Wallace, H. P. Lovecraft, Cory Doctorow, Stephen King, Isaac Asimov (for that post on swearing), Cory Doctorow, Cory Doctorow, Margaret Mitchell (for the first post on the Palins), H. P. Lovecraft, Dan Brown, Vladimir Nabokov, Cory Doctorow, Cory Doctorow, Cory Doctorow, Mary Shelley, Douglas Adams – (for the second half of the post on computer vs. pencil animation), Stephen King, William Gibson, Cory Doctorow, James Joyce, Cory Doctorow

If you skimmed or skipped that paragraph, I completely understand. (Yes, I had a lot of time on my hands that day.) Mostly, you should notice that I got "Cory Doctorow." A lot. I'd never heard of him before, but the next day, I noticed a book in B&N with a familiar name on the cover: Cory Doctorow. The book was "Little Brother," and it looked interesting. Maybe I'll check it out, see if I really do write like him.

I also entered text from a story I'm writing ("writing" here meaning "neglecting with half a chance of ever finishing"). This is what I got when I entered short excerpts:

Stephen King, Stephen King, Raymond Chandler, Raymond Chandler, Stephen King, Stephen King, Stephen King

I didn't realize my story was that scary...

This is what I got when I entered 3 entire chapters:

J. K. Rowling

I am gonna be an EPIC bestseller! Right? Right?

Right?

It's ok. You don't have to break it to me. I realize even if I entered gibberish into IWL, I could garner comparisons with famous, bestselling writers like Dan Brown,
Stephen King, David Foster Wallace, and James Joyce. I know because I actually entered gibberish into IWL and garnered comparisons with those famous, bestselling authors. (Were they actually bestsellers? I don't know.) Don't expect me to remember the precise wording, but I entered text to the effect of, "ahdk a kdhoeiw aj dja id bhehwa d oaiuek,a dhbeal." And that was just ONE line. Brilliant, I know. My insight probably changed your perception of reality. That line alone could inspire more movie scripts than any two current bestsellers put TOGETHER. Yes, TOGETHER. Right? Right?

Right?

Just joking. I also created and entered this text: "That our webs would lead to rain and faraway scallops to the downy bed of rose petals. For in that scarlet lethal box what pyres set by must scrawl away abysmal." By now, I bet you're annoyed of my insight changing your perception of reality.

Kidding. I was just trying to write glittery babble structured like Shakespeare's words, "To sleep, perchance to dream. Aye, there's the rub. For in the sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause." I was hoping my babble would garner a comparison with Shakespeare, proving that Shakespeare is no better than babble. I don't think highly of Shakespeare. Most people assume that means I'm an uneducated baboon (even if THEY have never read Shakespeare - hypocrites). I'm not. I'm way ahead of my time, is all. It's not that I don't understand Shakespeare. I do. Let me read a Shakespeare passage once, maybe twice. I understand it fast. Well, not that fast, since I'm a slow, careful reader to begin with, but I DO get Shakespeare. I just don't get why it's so great.

People say the language is beautiful. It's alright, sure, but truly beautiful writing is clear and understandable, which, hello! Shakespeare's not. Not to most people. Besides, beauty means nothing without substance. Who cares HOW Shakespeare says anything if the content is repulsive? (Well, apparently, the whole world, but forget that.) Shakespeare filled stories with ridiculous, stupid, cruel, manipulative, evil, or wholly insane characters who are often rewarded for their immorality and sympathized with for their stupidity. Just to mention the character element. The proof is in the pudding, and Shakespeare pudding tastes more like Medieval mud (not that I know what that tastes like). Why? WHY is Shakespeare a classic? I just don't get it.

Ok, so I haven't read that much Shakespeare. I haven't read all his plays. I haven't read a single play all the way through.

Oh, dear. My argument sounds less and less convincing, darn it. But I've read enough excerpts from a wide enough variety of Shakespeare to know that I can understand it very well and it isn't that beautiful. I've seen enough movies and TV shows and read enough summaries to know the stories. The stories are what counts. The stories are awful.

Anyway, IWL didn't give me "Shakespeare" for my aforementioned babble. It gave me "James Joyce," and I don't know who that is. I would have tried again for "Shakespeare," but I lost interest.

Moving on, I present a glorious Rapunzel (Tangled) poster. I love the expressions on their faces. They look like intense, swashbuckling adventurers. With lots of hair and gorgeous colors. =D