Christmas 2010: A Summary

I got up pretty early yesterday--sixish, I'd say. Apparently my sisters were also awake, so we woke our mother up and waited for our dad to arrive. He brought Launa (the big dog) over, and she and Coco (my Chihuahua) played around on the floor for ages. As it got lighter out, we began to open gifts. The most notable of mine, I think, was an Amazon Kindle (which I think I wrote my thoughts about a while back, in the post "Conversion"). I  tend to buy more books than I have time to read, and this was no exception. Just today I finished Cecelia Holland's short story "Dragon's Deep" in The Dragon Book, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. I really liked it, and it even inspired a future project of mine. I love dragons - I always have - and they were among the first things I wrote about.

My sister Laura received a marshmallow shooter...do I really have to describe what went down after that? We pretty much stayed at my mom's house the whole time, although at the end my father took us children over to his house. I woke up this afternoon (I had chatted with Hannah until two in the morning) and saw that it had indeed finally snowed. I ran around in it with Launa for a while, and then walked to Laura's friend's house to see their new kitten. I must say, this snow was worth the wait: Even at the end of the day, after people have been running and driving in it, the white blanket is still a beautiful sight. It actually looks kind of like the background image at the time of this post, what with ice and snow clinging to the skeletal branches.

I've probably mentioned something before about expanding my media (reading/watching/listening to more genres), and I'm now reading a graphic novel, namely, Preludes and Nocturnes, the first of twelve volumes in Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. I love Neil Gaiman; he's a very clever man who has done a variety of things in his time. My aunt met him a while back, and I plan to someday do the same. Hannah has been acting as my guide in helping me choose comics/graphic novels to read. Maybe I'll even try Manga sometime. I hope I don't lose reading focus; I am still reading Philosophy for Dummies, along with Olivia's NaNo book from last year. Perhaps I'll remove The Vampire Archives 1: Blood Suckers from my plate. It's not bad, but the others I've been planning to read for a while.

Another thing I have been planning on indulging in is also by Mr. Gaiman: The Graveyard Book. I bought it on the Kindle section of Amazon, and should get around to it sooner or later. We saw Tron: Legacy on Christmas Eve, and I loved it, even though I've not seen the first one. I plan to watch it soon. Coco and Launa both seemed intent on the Christmas ham, especially after we caved and gave them a few pieces. (Note: LAUNA is my sister LAURA's dog. It was her clever idea to give the animal such a clever name.) I talked to my mom on the phone today, and she said Coco wanted to go outside, however, when she opened the door, he felt the wind and ran the other way. Last night, at my dad's house, we watched David Cross (whom I was new to)--he is hilarious, but curses quite a bit. Wow, this was a long post. Seeing as I read faster when off of school, I shall go an do that now.

To all a good night,
LMW

Oh, and here is a link to the video in which I discuss winter holidays.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4SzkwngskU

NaNoWriMo - An Afterthought

As some of you may already know, I did not participate this year for several reasons, if any:

• Not ready
• Not sure what I wanted to write
• Lazy
• Having bad noveling experience at the time

So yeah, shoot me. But before you pull the trigger, I have this to say: I might (and probably will) do it next year. I think I'll practice focus (something I need not only in writing) and elaboration. I wrote a short story last night and sent it to my friend Hannah (http://mockbookgirl.blogspot.com/) and may or may not read it at our group next time--this depends on if I've written anything else worth reading. I will admit this here to Olivia (http://elfarmywrites.blogspot.com/): I'm still reading Clockwork! She's pretty cool, so I suppose I'll survive, but still. I just need to sit down to it more often, especially considering that I printed out 400 pages on my printer simply so I could use a bookmark (I don't favor having to scroll down 986,731,342 pages every time I open a document).

What will I write? I haven't the slightest idea, but then again, I'd have nearly a year to change my mind if I did. I've written a lot of fantasy stuff in my time, but I may try for something realistic. This probably will not be for my Nano, nor do I think it will take up the majority of my prose, but it will be an occasional thing to try. I've been journaling and blogging more, so that ought to help. Saw Orson Scott Card on Wednesday. I've only read a few pages of one of his books (Ender's Game), but he seemed like a cool guy. I didn't actually meet him, but I think my aforementioned friends did. I'm sure I'll get another chance.

We should be getting a tree today. I don't call myself Christian, but I like the atmosphere of Christmas: it makes me thoughtful, just like rain. And while some people might say I can't celebrate Christmas when I'm not Christian, I ask them this: Is it illegal? I didn't think so. We will not be making our usual Illinois trip this year, but I don't know what we will do instead. I probably won't leave the country, but that should happen in the next few years now.

Random notes: Saw Tangled not long ago, and it was hilarious and (for me) inspiring. Or rather, rekindled an old idea. I loved Maximus the horse and the whole getting-Flynn's-nose-right joke. ~ I hope to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 in IMAX. I've already seen it twice in standard theaters, and I think Nagini's "jumping" scenes would be awesome in IMAX. I really ought to read the books again, but the choice remains: American again, or should I try the European editions? ~ I think my sea cucumber died. Not a common pet, but this one never moved much and we could never tell, but now it's balled up and collecting brown stuff. I mourn its life, but I am glad if it did not suffer. ~ After reading American Gods, what do I turn to but another Neil Gaiman book? It is a collection of short fiction calld Smoke and Mirrors.

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Good-day!