What? You want a title for this?

With the aid of Crystal Journey Candles (thanks to Motivation and Abundance) and nearly-endless glasses of water, I have been busy doing some writing. Well, transcribing.

It counts, shut up.

I've been diligently keeping a pocket Moleskine for over six months, and now a Rhodia notebook, to keep notes for my novel projects. And now, the Rhodia houses about 3K of a short story that I started on last week. Once combined with what I wrote on the computer, I got to about 6K. A few more details and I have a decent first draft.

Sadly, that is the only success story in this so far. The rest of the time I am screaming internally for getting myself into this mess. For now on, once I finish a notebook, I immediately fish for the good stuff and then set it aside.

So if y'all excuse me, I have more fishing to do.

*turns to see stack of Moleskines about five high*

Awww... dammit.

The Best of 2014: The Everything Edition

I know I said I will not do these anymore, and I still stand by that. However, I feel like I should go ahead and talk about the 2014 media experiences I loved. And thus, this will be the last one I’ll ever do on here. The end of an era! And thank Heavens, I was getting tired of this s***.

~~

VIDEO GAMES

Let's kick this off by giving a shout-out to one of the best games I've ever played, bar none, last year. While it wasn't a 2014 release, I want to give it a ton of love: The Cat Lady. It's a point-and-click adventure game that is nothing that you think it is. When I bought it during the Steam sale back in December last year, I was raring for a fun adventure with a cat-loving lady. But whoa, when I started the game up, I was in a complete shock. I finished it in less than two days, it was that engrossing. Not only did this game have a very intense and excellent story, but a solid cast of wonderful characters. It is also *one of the best representations of depression and suicide and how it affects a human being. I wanted to high-five the entire crew for doing such a touchy topic the justice it rightfully deserves. Not once is it romanticized, it's brought to earth and also very metaphorical.

(*I attempted to play Depression Quest long ago and felt it was inadequate in presenting the experience of having depression. However, what happened to the game's creator was pretty awful.)

~~

MOVIES

Okay, y'all know I rarely watch movies. But when I do, I gorge myself in film until I can barely move from my recliner. The only major release I saw last year of note was The LEGO Movie. No, no "awesome" jokes. It was a genuinely good movie that, next to Pacific Rim, is one I look forward to its sequel.

Other films of note:
A Band Called Death (y'all, this was awesome! Too bad they never got big, stupid record industry...)
Blood & Black Lace (I went on a giallo binge late last year and this was my favorite of the bunch)
Tiny: A Story About Living Small (watch to see one of my favorite people talk about her house!)
Jodorowsky’s Dune (oh, if only it was made! *shakes fist to sky*)

~~

TV SHOWS

The only one that matters in 2014: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. End of story. Next topic.

~~

BOOKS

Alrighty, we'll split by two lists: one for 2014 releases and the other is for older books.

Top 11 Books of 2014:

1. Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay
2. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo
3. Nochita by Dia Felix
4. Green Girl by Kate Zambreno
5. The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte
6. Zen Pencils by Gavin Aung Than
7. Shoplifter by Michael Cho
8. The Big Tiny: A Built-It-Myself Memoir by Dee Williams
9. Promise Land by Jessica Lamb-Shapiro
10. MFA vs. NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction edited by Chad Harbach
11. Writing Wild by Tina Welling


Top 10 Books Not from 2014:

1. Thunder and Lightning by Natalie Goldberg
2. The Kick-Ass Writer by Chuck Wendig
3. Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames by Thich Nhat Hanh
4. Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness by William Styron
5. You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap) by Tammy Strobel
6. Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
7. The Case for God by Karen Armstrong
8. Twilight of the Elites by Christopher Hayes
9. Women Food and God by Geneen Roth
10. Amsterdam by Russell Shorto

~~

MUSIC

To make this easier, here are my Top 12 Albums I Absolutely Loved and Want You to Buy:

1. (Tie) In Cold Blood by White Sea and Brill Bruisers by The New Pornographers
2. Taiga by Zola Jesus
3. Run River North by Run River North
4. Too True by Dum Dum Girls
5. Last War by Haley Bonar
6. The Future’s Void by EMA
7. St. Vincent by St. Vincent (hell yeah, get that Grammy, girlfriend!)
8. LP1 by FKA twigs
9. Nabuma Rubberband by Little Dragon
10. Comet, Come to Me by Meshell Ndegeocello
11. Cry is for the Flies by Le Butcherettes
12. Stay Gold by First Aid Kit

~~

So there ya go, two months late, but here it is. And that's the end of these kinda lists from this point out. It's been not fun, so that's why this is the last one. Now, onto other things I rather do instead!

Is This Really the First 2015 Post on Here? Good Lord.

It's been a long time since I last wrote on here. No end-of-the-year lists or anything else. To be honest, I was considering putting the blog on a hiatus or even shutting it down for good. The funny thing is, I am still considering that. I'm not sure what I am doing on here anymore. Now that my time is being, understandably, taken up by my job and whatever else I can squeeze into my free time, I have to make a lot of changes to what I do on a daily basis. I spend less time checking email and other fun websites, I don't even shop that much anymore. I honestly don't have the time.

And now, here comes the big question: should the blog be the next cut? It takes less than a couple of hours a week to write a few entries, schedule them, and be done. But what is it all for? I know I have a scant audience (though, whatever audience I have, I do appreciate you all very much). But is my heart still into it? The answer: honestly, I am not so sure. It's hard for me to gauge right now.

I feel like I'm not putting out any interesting content, more repeating myself about not writing things and wasting time doing things I don't need to be doing. That can get boring after a while. So, I have to give all this a long think. Do I want to continue Musings of a Frustrated Lady Writer? And if I do, should I specialize my content? And if I don't want to continue the blog, do I leave it up as an artifact or delete it? Should I continue business as usual and write whatever I damn well please since this blog is really for me at the end of the day?

And also, let's be real here: if I decide to keep the blog, it's time to call it for the end-of-the-year lists. I may not make one up for 2014 since it's already near the end of February and releasing something now seems pointless. I honestly never enjoyed doing these because I'm not that good at keeping up with current releases and because I am saving up for something REALLY BIG later this year, sadly my book and music purchases have to take the back seat.

And I do mean it: no more end-of-the-year lists regardless of what decision I make. If I find an awesome current release, I'll share it as soon as I experience it.

This is the beauty of writing, my friends: you write what's in your heart and mind. Once you do that, you look it all over and the answer becomes clear.

...

Yeah, I think this blog ain't ready to be retired.