My Other Blog

I've had a WordPress account for a while, but didn't really have anything to do with it. I'd been mulling over the possibility of using one blog for personal things and the other exclusively for writing, and now I'm going to try that experiment. Not that I'll never talk about writing over here or anything, but, if I can manage it, that's all I'll talk about on WordPress, and hopefully more in-depth over there.

I'm also planning to read and record some pieces I've written. I've finally figured out a decent method that eliminates most of the background noise and makes it easy to record, convert, and upload. So I now maintain this blog, a writing blog, a weekly dA update, and my creative writing journal. Four journals yall. So hardcore.

Priorities; I Have Them.

I wrote a poem tonight. Awesome.

I had already written Chalk White and knew I wanted to do more with it. But I had more or less forgotten all about the Poetry Screams contest. For some reason, I remembered tonight and pull my Word document up.

I like to research things when it comes to my writing. Initially, I was getting a bit of a Civil War vibe from the piece. It went in a totally different direction when my Google searching somehow landed me on will-o'-the-wisps. Then I found the local legend of a weird lantern light not far from where I live. It worked perfectly with the "beckoning lanterns" line I already had.

I love it when things fall into place. I do want to work more on it some time, but I like it a lot where it stands.

Oh yeah, and I voted today too. Whatever.

Suddenly Popular

Today has been surreal.

I woke up around noon and logged on to dA to find 94 messages. It's too early to be another DD - it doesn't take me long to realize my Words the English Language Needs has taken off and even made the news footer.

I am utterly baffled by the popularity of this article and every time I glance at the footer I do a double take XD So it's hardly any different from getting a DD really. What really tickles me about the whole thing is that most of the people commenting/ faving are visual artists; I haven't seen many names from the Literature community. I feel like an ambassador =P

Over the course of the day I've been trying to keep my messages under control. Every time I got one set of faves deleted, ten more popped up. I've been giving out llamas instead of individually thanking everyone for the love. Everyone wins with llamas. I've given out somewhere around 150 badges today. I got my inbox down to 8, went out for an hour, and came back to 55 messages.

Now I'll probably have to expand the follow-up into a full news article. Who knew educational articles were so popular?

Send Me Topics

Because I've run out of things to write about at the moment. I don't feel up to being creative in regards to my blog right now. And not a whole lot is happening IRL, so I'm rather at a loss :/

Midterms

So I dropped my tutoring internship. It's just been too much trouble - I was never shown what I was supposed to do, no one ever answered my e-mails or even seemed that willing to help, and I was wasting too much gas to keep coming to Little Rock five days a week to sit in a classroom and fail. And that's probably what was going to happen - the grade is based on participation and the paper you write detailing your tutoring experiences. As I didn't HAVE any tutoring experiences, this sounded like the only move I could make.

Everything else is going fairly well though. I had my Algebra midterm yesterday and I think I did alright. Made an 89 on my History of English language midterm which is totally awesome; I thought I was struggling in that class. Film was a B, mainly because I missed seeing Nosferatu. I'm not too worried about Approaches or Perspectives either. They don't even have a midterm.

I've slacked off in postcards as I've run out of international stamps, but have been exchanging letters instead. I'm okay with that =D

I Forget to Update Sometimes

If I ever get my camera memory card back, I could upload all these postcards I've gotten the past few weeks. But my brother likely has no intention of ever getting it back, so I'll have to wait until I get a new camera.

So I was looking up some class information and I noticed something; I don't think I'm enrolled in the Internship course I signed up for ages ago. This is a problem.

I'm not sure if I was ever in it, or if I was somehow removed, or if it's some sort of glitch, but I kinda need that sorted out.

In other news, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep =D I haven't started it yet, but I'm taking it with me to class tomorrow. I've got a nice three hour gap to get some gametime in.

It's Been an Odd Week

Monday was business as usual. Tuesday was me sleeping through my alarm, a fire alarm interrupting Algebra, Approaches to Lit. was cancelled, and I didn't go to Adolescent Lit. because I had to meet Mom for art. Wednesday, Career Perspectives was cancelled due to lack of speaker and Film was a test I finished in 30 minutes. Thursday was mostly normal, though I left Adolescent Lit. early to make writing class where one of the members that we haven't seen in a month showed up and I got to say "fuck" a lot. And today, Friday, after my usual middle school not-tutoring stuff I went to a party downtown for the school literary magazine and spent most of the time reading because the place is apparently also a bookstore.

So I feel like I've accomplished nothing and a lot this week. It's a weird sensation.

Also, I wrote a bunch of color poems.

I Fail at Pattern Recognition in My Own Life

I don't know why I only realized it a few days ago, but I give my writing away a lot.

My postcard project that I've been leaving for Dr. Minnick, my writing notebooks, my supposed-to-be-exclusively-for-classwork reflection journals, inserted into letters, left on sidewalks in chalk or on dry-erase boards - it's like I have this pseudo-obsession with leaving it all lying around for somebody to find.

I'm not sure what this says about me - that I want to be read? Discovered? Or I just like making somebody's day a little more surreal? (I think it's the last one.)

Last week, Dr. Minnick was asking if I kept the original copies and drafts of my work, which is how I noticed this pattern. I do keep all of my work - right up until I give away another notebook. I often post initial drafts online for feedback as well, so things are rarely lost for me. Still won't use Stash. Anyway, I was explaining my habit of mailing off my notebooks to him and he's the one all of my postcards go to; having the two things side-by-side in my head made me realize how often I just give my work away.

It honestly puzzles me now that I think about it. Aren't writers supposed to be possessive of their work or something? I never really thought twice about it until now.

I Am Terrified of Things with Exoskeltons

I needed a shower tonight. I got one, but in the aftermath was forced into hand-to-wing combat with Nature's terrorist: the cockroach. And let me tell you, fighting terrorism is no fun when you're naked and your hair is wet.

The formalities began when I entered the bathroom and flicked on the light. Being of sensitive peripheral vision, I immediately noticed the scurry of brown far below, and also being of supremely excellent reflexes jumped a good six inches backwards over the threshold with, I might add, enough of a muffled scream that my grandmother did not rush to see what was happening.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, I made a quick spot check to see - yes, the roach was hiding around the sink cabinet. Making a tactical retreat to grab a shoe, I returned to find my enemy vanished; to where, I knew not. No doubt to some dark crevice whence I could not follow.

It was late; I still needed a shower. I shrugged off the situation as best I could, but not amount of hot water could ease the apprehensive tension growing between my shoulder blades. I would have to fight this enemy again. With any luck at all, my foe would not rear his exoskeleton until after my nightly cleansing ritual.

Luck was on my side, but She is a fickle goddess; though my shower remained unbugged, I was attacked almost immediately upon my exit. And this time, I had nothing heavy on hand, no weapon of smiting. Looking around for something, anything to MacGuyver with, the cockroach took the opportunity to scurry across the floor and begin crawling the wall. I spotted my makeshift weapon - a tissue box. The roach made it to the towel rack.

As a towel rack is a rather awkward shape, one less than ideal for smiting, I waited. Waited for him to move to a less advantageous position. This was a mistake. For he readied himself with a twitch and FLEW RIGHT AT MY FUCKING FACE FUCKFUCKFUCKTHISAAAAAAAAHHHHHH.

He missed - towels make excellent shields. He hit the floor and ran. I slammed the box down and held. Then pulled up to do a body check. No good - still alive. Hit him again. And again. Once more for good measure. Then sweep him under the rug and find something heavier to grind the body to crumbs with.

Then I finished drying off and got dressed. And thus ends my epic battle with a cockroach. Lauren: 1, Terrorism: 0.

October

One of my favorite months <3 Been having some lovely weather lately - kinda grey and rainy, though not very much rain. It's very relaxing.

I didn't catch up on as much homework as I would have liked over the weekend, but I managed a lot. Mainly my Lit. journal. Need to finish some linguistic stuff before Thursday too, and get my Algebra website issue straightened out, but I feel a little more balanced than I did last week.

Other than that, I've been working on a piece for Poetry Screams. Dr. Minnick is wonderfully helpful and I really do need to buy him lunch sometime. It's the least I owe him. Currently on my third draft of this thing; my library group aside, I don't have much occasion to share my writing with people I know IRL. And even less occasion to ask advice from people who really know what they're doing.

He really wants me to do something with those postcards though - apparently that's a publishable idea. I'm not really sold on that, but I guess I can at least mull it over and try some things. I'm glad he likes reading them because I really enjoy writing them X3