So, I'm sorry I didn't post anything last night. I was distracted.
There's been...stuff...going on in my family. My grandpa had been feeling sick for a long time, and we finally got him to go see a doctor yesterday.
He has lung cancer. It's a big tumor and inoperable where it's placed, but we're not yet sure if it's malignant or benign. Please, make it benign.
I'm not good at this mushy emotional stuff, I'll tell you outright. For me, the less drama in my life, the better. So right now, I'm kind of in a quiet state of shock or whatever. What can I say, I'm a bottle-it-up type of girl. And something inside me is thinking that if I ignore the bad possibilities, they won't happen. And they won't, right?
My mom, sister, and I went to visit him today. There was lots of family there when he got back from tests, so we went to Barnes & Noble for a few hours and came back when it wasn't so crowded. We don't know anything more yet.
It's strange, seeing my mom cry. She didn't really cry, but her and everyone else's eyes were rimmed red all day. And everyone was sad, too. Sure, they tried to be lighthearted and keep a strong face, but there's this weight that pushed all their attempts down. I can feel it, too, like something is digging a hollow in my chest. It sounds like one of those crappy metaphors in a romance novel, but it's true. It really is.
But I won't bother you any more with my sadness. It's mine, after all, and not yours. So, goodnight.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Ev'ry Day I'm Shufflin'
Okay, if you don't know what story shuffles are, here's a quick 'splanation for you: You set your iPod on shuffle and write a really short story that's related to the title or lyrics of the song. Or, in my case most of the time, you just find a song you like and decide it would fit the Leviathan characters, so you write it.
The song "Safe and Sound" by Taylor Swift, which is ironically for The Hunger Games soundtrack, just happens to be one of those songs. I like it so much, in fact, that I wrote TWO story shuffles about it. Feel free to weigh in on which one you like better.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Leviathan characters, Scott Westerfeld does.
Safe &Sound- Taylor Swift, attempt 1
The fire was everywhere. It crawled up her arms, leaping to everything around her.
The song "Safe and Sound" by Taylor Swift, which is ironically for The Hunger Games soundtrack, just happens to be one of those songs. I like it so much, in fact, that I wrote TWO story shuffles about it. Feel free to weigh in on which one you like better.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Leviathan characters, Scott Westerfeld does.
Safe &Sound- Taylor Swift, attempt 1
The fire was everywhere. It crawled up her arms, leaping to everything around her.
“No! No, please! Not again...” she pleaded with it, but it didn’t listen to her, just continued to eat away at all that she had left. “I thought I’d escaped you!” she cried, wishing the fires would just go away. They followed her everywhere, even here into her new life with Alek.
Oh no. “Alek!” she screamed, but he was already gone, the flames had taken him away, leaving her alone like they always did.
“Deryn? Deryn, wake up!”
There were tears streaming down her face, and she reached for him blindly, craving his solidness, the reality that he was still there, still alive. “Don’t leave me alone, don’t ever leave me, please.”
“It’s alright, Deryn. I’m here. It was just a nightmare. You’ll be okay. Just close your eyes, Deryn. I won’t let you go.”
“Don’t ever leave me alone.”
“I won’t. We’ll be together, safe and sound.”
So that's that one, now here's the other:
Safe and Sound- Taylor Swift, attempt2
The ground was shaking. At first they had been small tremors, but they had grown larger steadily. Alek could feel it on his bare feet as he rushed to Deryn’s room. Another blast came, and the chandelier in the dining room clanged against itself. He pushed her door open and rushed to the bed, finding her shaking worse than the floor. She looked at him, face pale and tears gleaming on her cheeks, and he gathered her into his arms. “Come with me, Deryn, we’ve got to get to the basement.”
This wasn’t the first they’d heard of the bombings, but never before had they been this close. Dr. Barlow had warned them before she left on a mission that the Clankers would be targeting London soon, but Alek hadn’t thought it would be this soon.
Don’t you dare look out your window, darling, Alek pleaded with the girl silently, everything’s on fire. It was the one thing that terrified Deryn Sharp.
They scurried down the hall and under the trembling chandelier to the basement stairs. He led her to a corner and their they huddled, watching the dust fall from the ceiling with each new bomb. Alek tried to look brave as he brushed away the tears streaming down her face.
Her wide blue eyes met his as the ground shook more violently. “Don’t leave me here alone.”
“I’ll never let you go,” he assured her. “Just close your eyes. The sun is going down.”
She nodded and took a deep breath. Alek leaned his head onto hers, kissing her hair.
“You’ll be alright,” he breathed. “No one can hurt you now. Come morning light, you and I’ll be safe and sound.”
The second one very closely fits the lyrics to the song, and even though their weren't really many bombings in WWI, there weren't living airships, either, so I figure it could happen.
If you like my story shuffles of Dalek and other Leviathan characters, please say so below, and I'll post more.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Less of Lounge Days...
Ouch. I'm sore, guys. I worked out today, and actually did my chores (Weird, right?), which my muscles were less than used to.
Another shocking thing is that I didn't get on my computer at all until 8 o'clock tonight. Turns out its not that hard to do if you have it stored in your room and you have something else to do, like sing along to some music by The Script while cleaning. (Gasp! Who knew?)
I was on a roll with my chores. First I folded laundry, and then I cleaned the kitchen a bit, and the bathroom. Please, hold your applause, they're hardly necessary.
So then I read Goliath for a while, and I was ready to just about take a nap when the rest of my family came home, and that's when we all went in to the Rec Center to get some exercise. I really didn't want to, but I need it, so I went in and lifted weights with my puny little arms and legs and ran around outside in the cold. I got done waaaay sooner than the rest of my family, who were all swimming laps, so I read a sports magazine in favor of "Better Homes & Gardens" and listened to music while I waited.
Mulan is a great movie. I thought so even before my "Girls who are B.A. and generally awesome, especially when they dress up like guys" stage (It has to do with Leviathan), by the way. It's just one of those movies that's so well put together, like pieces of a puzzle, and you don't feel like some parts were just...underwhelming, like some other movies over the ages. How to Train Your Dragon is another one I love (It's my favorite movie, in fact), but I'm mentioning Mulan right now because I watched it tonight. You should, too, at some point. Breaking out the old VHS tapes and putting on some Disney movies can cheer you up right quick, I've learned. Really, try it on a rainy day. I guarantee it'll make you feel better.
Well, that's all for tonight, I think. Happy Wednesday! (No, I don't know why I just wished you a happy Wednesday, so don't ask. :) ) Goodnight, everyone.
Another shocking thing is that I didn't get on my computer at all until 8 o'clock tonight. Turns out its not that hard to do if you have it stored in your room and you have something else to do, like sing along to some music by The Script while cleaning. (Gasp! Who knew?)
I was on a roll with my chores. First I folded laundry, and then I cleaned the kitchen a bit, and the bathroom. Please, hold your applause, they're hardly necessary.
So then I read Goliath for a while, and I was ready to just about take a nap when the rest of my family came home, and that's when we all went in to the Rec Center to get some exercise. I really didn't want to, but I need it, so I went in and lifted weights with my puny little arms and legs and ran around outside in the cold. I got done waaaay sooner than the rest of my family, who were all swimming laps, so I read a sports magazine in favor of "Better Homes & Gardens" and listened to music while I waited.
Mulan is a great movie. I thought so even before my "Girls who are B.A. and generally awesome, especially when they dress up like guys" stage (It has to do with Leviathan), by the way. It's just one of those movies that's so well put together, like pieces of a puzzle, and you don't feel like some parts were just...underwhelming, like some other movies over the ages. How to Train Your Dragon is another one I love (It's my favorite movie, in fact), but I'm mentioning Mulan right now because I watched it tonight. You should, too, at some point. Breaking out the old VHS tapes and putting on some Disney movies can cheer you up right quick, I've learned. Really, try it on a rainy day. I guarantee it'll make you feel better.
Well, that's all for tonight, I think. Happy Wednesday! (No, I don't know why I just wished you a happy Wednesday, so don't ask. :) ) Goodnight, everyone.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Lounge days...
*Sighs* I hate computers. With a passion.
Why is this, you ask, that I hate computers? Well, concerned reader, it is because they are so barking addictive! I got onto mine after I got home from going out to eat for my dad's birthday (delayed celebration), and before I knew it it was 5:30 and all I had to show for it were a bazillion read fanfictions and the feeling that was a lazy bum. Then I went and played on the Wii with my brother. Another barking computer. They just seem to suck the time away from me. He got on his computer and started doing something fun, so I got on mine and now it's TEN O'CLOCK!!!
Argh. It would be so much easier to get my chores done without them around. That's what I was going to do today, by the way. My chores. You can see how well that worked out by taking a glance at the pile of laundry on my floor. *headdesk* I am such a dummkopf.
Yes, I realize that at this moment I am on a computer. It is only adding to my dummkopfness. I can feel my brain turning to mush, ruining my 14 hard earned years of nerdiness. Goodbye, knowledge, I'll miss you.
You see that right there? And this whole blog post? My attic is a jumbled mess of mush, I tell you!
I should probably get off of the computer and save whatever shred of dignity I have left, huh?
Good idea.
Bye!
Why is this, you ask, that I hate computers? Well, concerned reader, it is because they are so barking addictive! I got onto mine after I got home from going out to eat for my dad's birthday (delayed celebration), and before I knew it it was 5:30 and all I had to show for it were a bazillion read fanfictions and the feeling that was a lazy bum. Then I went and played on the Wii with my brother. Another barking computer. They just seem to suck the time away from me. He got on his computer and started doing something fun, so I got on mine and now it's TEN O'CLOCK!!!
Argh. It would be so much easier to get my chores done without them around. That's what I was going to do today, by the way. My chores. You can see how well that worked out by taking a glance at the pile of laundry on my floor. *headdesk* I am such a dummkopf.
Yes, I realize that at this moment I am on a computer. It is only adding to my dummkopfness. I can feel my brain turning to mush, ruining my 14 hard earned years of nerdiness. Goodbye, knowledge, I'll miss you.
You see that right there? And this whole blog post? My attic is a jumbled mess of mush, I tell you!
I should probably get off of the computer and save whatever shred of dignity I have left, huh?
Good idea.
Bye!
Monday, December 26, 2011
Happy Birthday, Dad! FanArt included
In case you hadn't realized from the title, it's my dad's birthday. He's 57 today, I'm pretty sure.
Alas, today was not as interesting as the last few, from any reader's standpoint. I found it rather exhausting, though. I got a visit from my three cousins, all under the age of 7 1/2. Like I said; exhausting. I wasn't in the best of moods, I'll admit, because I was in the middle of drawing Eugene William Newkirk. Here it is!
Alas, today was not as interesting as the last few, from any reader's standpoint. I found it rather exhausting, though. I got a visit from my three cousins, all under the age of 7 1/2. Like I said; exhausting. I wasn't in the best of moods, I'll admit, because I was in the middle of drawing Eugene William Newkirk. Here it is!
For you, Rachel. You're welcome! I'll send it in to Scott, and maybe he'll post it on FAF, and if he does, it will probably be the first Newkirk FanArt... cool beans, if it happens!
Oh, well. I really think that's it, for now. Feel free to study my FanArt in awe with the time you would have otherwise spent reading a long blog post.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Merry Christmas! (Or whatever holiday you celebrate)
Hey, everyone. I'm back. Yay.
So, yeah, it's probably just a little lame that it's Christmas day/night and I'm spending time on my computer writing a blog post, but obviously that hasn't stopped me from doing it. Tada!
Happy holidays, guys and gals! I had a very eventful day today, and I think a few people may find it funny, too.
One of the highlights was...wait for it... I got my very own copies of Leviathan and Goliath by Scott Westerfeld for Christmas from my mom! Gasp! That's so amazing! (My sister got me Leviathan, too, and I will trade that in for credit or whatever toward Behemoth, the middle book in the Trilogy.)
Let's just say they will be going everywhere with me from now on. No joke, ask my family.
Us three kids made appetizers at my aunt's house (my job was dipping stuff in chocolate, so it became "Melissa and the Chocolate Factory") and then we went to my Grandma's for the famed Christmas dinner.
One thing you should know about my grandma is that she is very opinionated on the subjects of Taylor Swift, Ellen DeGeneres, and Cardinals (the bird, not the team). She says Taylor can't sing, write songs, and many other things, and that Ellen can't dance, and she's in a never ending battle with the birds who sit on her car mirrors and poop all over.
It's very easy to get her riled up about it, so the three of us and another aunt decided to play a practical joke on her. What we did was get a few little cardinal figures (styrofoam) and printed out a picture of Taylor and a picture of Ellen. The birds we placed around the house for her to find, the Taylor we framed and replaced another picture with, and the Ellen we cut out and put on a dancing palm tree.
She saw the tree first, and that made her laugh. When she saw Taylor, her words were "What the h*** is up with this s***?" exactly. I swear all of us laughed for a minute and a half straight, and it seems my whole family is against her for some reason, and that sparked a whopping 45 minutes of debate. Yeah. She found the cardinals throughout the evening, and they made everyone laugh. So it was a hit. Yay!
Okay, does anyone else feel like that took a long time? I do. Sorry for the longness.
I reiterate, Happy Holidays!
So, yeah, it's probably just a little lame that it's Christmas day/night and I'm spending time on my computer writing a blog post, but obviously that hasn't stopped me from doing it. Tada!
Happy holidays, guys and gals! I had a very eventful day today, and I think a few people may find it funny, too.
One of the highlights was...wait for it... I got my very own copies of Leviathan and Goliath by Scott Westerfeld for Christmas from my mom! Gasp! That's so amazing! (My sister got me Leviathan, too, and I will trade that in for credit or whatever toward Behemoth, the middle book in the Trilogy.)
Let's just say they will be going everywhere with me from now on. No joke, ask my family.
Us three kids made appetizers at my aunt's house (my job was dipping stuff in chocolate, so it became "Melissa and the Chocolate Factory") and then we went to my Grandma's for the famed Christmas dinner.
One thing you should know about my grandma is that she is very opinionated on the subjects of Taylor Swift, Ellen DeGeneres, and Cardinals (the bird, not the team). She says Taylor can't sing, write songs, and many other things, and that Ellen can't dance, and she's in a never ending battle with the birds who sit on her car mirrors and poop all over.
It's very easy to get her riled up about it, so the three of us and another aunt decided to play a practical joke on her. What we did was get a few little cardinal figures (styrofoam) and printed out a picture of Taylor and a picture of Ellen. The birds we placed around the house for her to find, the Taylor we framed and replaced another picture with, and the Ellen we cut out and put on a dancing palm tree.
She saw the tree first, and that made her laugh. When she saw Taylor, her words were "What the h*** is up with this s***?" exactly. I swear all of us laughed for a minute and a half straight, and it seems my whole family is against her for some reason, and that sparked a whopping 45 minutes of debate. Yeah. She found the cardinals throughout the evening, and they made everyone laugh. So it was a hit. Yay!
Okay, does anyone else feel like that took a long time? I do. Sorry for the longness.
I reiterate, Happy Holidays!
Saturday, December 24, 2011
My First Blog
Okay, guys, even I'm going to admit that I have no idea what I'm doing right now. But, hey, the first step to solving ignorance is to admit it's there, right? Or something like that.
You may be wondering, "So, Melissa, why did you suddenly decide to write a blog?"
--no, I don't care if you weren't really wondering, I'm going to tell you anyway since you're reading this--
You see, I recently read this awesome trilogy by Scott Westerfeld (Consisting of: Leviathan, Behemoth, and Goliath. This is me recommending you read it.) and I basically became obsessed with it, so far that I even risk my life in saying I like it better than The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Not that I wasn't totally obsessed when I read the books. It's just that not as many people die in these ones and the characters are so deliciously wonderful...).
But I'm getting off subject here.
Anyways, this obsession with the trilogy caused me to look for something more to quench my thirst (yes, clart-ey metaphor, I know.) for more of the books, and in that search I found amazing sights like Scott Westerfeld's official website (Obviously.), www.fanfiction.net (Which I now have an account on), deviantArt (Which I also now have an account on. And I've posted something on both of them!), and now blogger.com (Hopefully you came to that conclusion by now, as that's the website you're barking on!). This one in particular was because another person who was on the Westerblog has a blog/account, and I decided it would be a cool thing to try.
And, with the excessive parenthesis included, that is the reason I started my own blog. Yaaay!
So, now we're moving on to other fun stuff, like me having my first paid acting job today. I played an elf for the long term care unit in a local hospital, spreading holiday cheer. (Okay, technically I wasn't being paid for being an elf, it was a Christmas present, but those are just little details...) It was good to make some of the older people feel happy, especially since this may be the last holiday season for some of them.
We still felt jolly after that so we drove around to the houses of people we knew and caroled and such for them. It made a few peoples's day, so I figure it was a winning thing to do.
Goodnight, all of my (probably) zero readers. :) I have a holiday to enjoy in the morning!
You may be wondering, "So, Melissa, why did you suddenly decide to write a blog?"
--no, I don't care if you weren't really wondering, I'm going to tell you anyway since you're reading this--
You see, I recently read this awesome trilogy by Scott Westerfeld (Consisting of: Leviathan, Behemoth, and Goliath. This is me recommending you read it.) and I basically became obsessed with it, so far that I even risk my life in saying I like it better than The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Not that I wasn't totally obsessed when I read the books. It's just that not as many people die in these ones and the characters are so deliciously wonderful...).
But I'm getting off subject here.
Anyways, this obsession with the trilogy caused me to look for something more to quench my thirst (yes, clart-ey metaphor, I know.) for more of the books, and in that search I found amazing sights like Scott Westerfeld's official website (Obviously.), www.fanfiction.net (Which I now have an account on), deviantArt (Which I also now have an account on. And I've posted something on both of them!), and now blogger.com (Hopefully you came to that conclusion by now, as that's the website you're barking on!). This one in particular was because another person who was on the Westerblog has a blog/account, and I decided it would be a cool thing to try.
And, with the excessive parenthesis included, that is the reason I started my own blog. Yaaay!
So, now we're moving on to other fun stuff, like me having my first paid acting job today. I played an elf for the long term care unit in a local hospital, spreading holiday cheer. (Okay, technically I wasn't being paid for being an elf, it was a Christmas present, but those are just little details...) It was good to make some of the older people feel happy, especially since this may be the last holiday season for some of them.
We still felt jolly after that so we drove around to the houses of people we knew and caroled and such for them. It made a few peoples's day, so I figure it was a winning thing to do.
Goodnight, all of my (probably) zero readers. :) I have a holiday to enjoy in the morning!
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