Sorry, not creative enough for a title today...

And so, today marks my 24th year of existing. So far, this living thing is interesting. I've learned a lot so far, done so many things, and encountered all different kinds of viewpoints and people. I look forward to more years of living and learning.

Hope your Thanksgiving and Black Friday were safe and happy ones. If your birthday was today also, then join me in reveling for about 30 more minutes.

Calling it now

I can't finish The Prince of Tides for NaNoReMo for two reasons:

1) procrastinated on it

2) the dialogue makes me want to whip out my red pen and edit it (I mean, damn!)

One common criticism I get on my writing is my take on dialogue. Totally fine, I've been working on it. Conroy makes me look like a stellar literary conversationalist.

So, I have a new goal: finish the eleven books I've been reading right now (including Just Kids) before the end of the year. The Prince of Tides can just go sit in the corner and think about what it's done to dialogue in fiction.

And stay there until I deem it time.

Go Patti Smith!

Joyous news! Smith's memoir Just Kids was awarded the National Books Award for Nonfiction. This is an excellent book, probably one of the best musician memoirs I've read so far. I originally read an excerpt (in all places) in Rolling Stone. Bought the magazine out on a whim and came across the excerpt, read it, and then I bought the book on its first day of release.

In honor of such an achievement for this amazing lady and equally-amazing novel, I shall reread it and review it. In addition, a bonus review of her prime album Horses. Expect this all on the first week of December!

~

Go here for information about the book and its author and watch a clip of Ms. Smith reading the book, along with a nice a cappella performance of "Because the Night":

An absence and social anxiety

I've been doing a horrible job keeping up with this blog. But it's not just that, I haven't written a thing (other than Tumblr blogs, but those are only twice a week). I've also lapsed on my reading.I only give myself enough time to surf the Web and do other random things, instead of things I enjoy doing. By day's end, I realize that I haven't done anything productive. I still haven't sent out a resume and cover letter for a potentially awesome job yet. I have to send in my chance before it goes away from me!

~

I had plans on checking out a local art show, see a few friends and all that, but after napping and assessing my overall mood; decided not to go at the last minute. I hate to do that, I really do, but sometimes getting up and going somewhere social takes a lot of effort for me. Not that I don't want to see friends, no no no! It's just... social events are really hard for me. I'm trying to get better at it, but sometimes it's harder if my mood is lower than usual. So, I'm very sorry to those that were expecting me. Whenever it happens again, I'll go.

~

I'm reading books on how to handle social situations, so I can quit being so damn scared of them. And also, how to watch and fix my moods. So dear friends, you'll be seeing more of me in the future.

No thank you, I don't want your pity. If you want to do anything, root for me. Because hey, I never thought I would ever stop biting my nails and I did.

Dude, I love the Internet.

*To those who are interested, I'm now posting on Tuesdays and Thursdays on my Tumblr*

So, as usual, I was faffing about on the Internet when I came across one of my new favorite blogs: Women Running from Houses. It got me to thinking about a long-lost book I saw/had many years ago. All I recall was the title had "fire" and "emerald" and there was a lady running from the house (hence why the aforementioned blog had me recalling it). Now that I think of it, this sounds like a request someone would make at my job. Aieeee.

Anyway, sure enough, 20 minutes of Googling led me to this. I'm so fucking awesome.

Now looking at it, the title is purple prose like whoa. But man... I kinda want to read it. It's gonna be predictable and ridiculous, but why the hell not read it?

Then, I decided to solve more childhood mysteries. Okay, I recalled a teen series with a character with the surname McVie. (I kept seeing results for Christine McVie. Kinda lulzy.) Annnnd survey says... boo-yah! Here's the trippy part: I never read the series, just happened upon an advert in an old book and remembered the last name (yes, because of the Fleetwood Mac keyboardist).

Thanks to the Internet, I can relive some wonderful childhood memories. Oh wait. Except this one. Uggghhh.

Quick thing

The three album reviews of recent (My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, The Red and the Black, and Easy Wonderful) will be included as part of the "24 Reviews...", since I didn't think to consider album reviews. The book review titles will not change, instead it will reflect how many of the book reviews I've done.

So far, overall, I have done 10. 14 more to go. Damn.

I may actually review Rock Band 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, have them count.

~

It's NaNoReMo time again! This time around, it will be The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. So far, it's a decent read with probably some of the worst dialogue I've ever read in a while.

~


Not much else here, see y'all on Friday...

Midterm Elections (in which I sorta reveal my home state...)

Man, I'm not the least bit surprised how the elections went on in my state. The winner came to the surprise of absolutely no one, yet I'm still flabbergasted. Why the world do all my state-bound peeps still want Rick Perry? Are Democrats too scary? Do you like his fantastic hair? What is it?

Joking aside, I voted Democrat because I'm tired of my state being one of the lowest in education. I'm tired of having to hear the governor make ridiculous claims that we could secede. Don't even get me started on the textbook nonsense.

While I didn't like the Democratic choice, but it was anybody but Perry at this point. I want better education for this state. We deserve it. It's great that my state is surviving this economical depression so far, but that doesn't change much for the well-being of many. People still can't get jobs, higher education is expensive beyond hilarity, and we're not handling the border situation well at all. We can do better than this and we failed by reelecting Perry.

To all those who hate me for voting for White: I'm sorry that I believe in silly things like giving everybody a chance to have a good life.

~

Side note: I'm not as well-versed in politics as I like to be, but I'm slowly making amends to that.