Thirty Day Challenge: Day 1

So my lovely sister-in-law started this on her blog and I thought it would be fun. So, here goes.





Day 1-Recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself.


Day 2-The meaning behind your blog name


Day 3-A picture of you and your friends


Day 4-A habit that you wish you didn't have


Day 5-A picture of somewhere you've been to


Day 6-Favorite super hero and why


Day 7-A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you


Day 8-Short term goals for this month and when you'll accomplish them


Day 9-Something you're proud of in the past few days


Day 10-Songs you listen to when you're bored, happy, sad, mad, hyped


Day 11-Another picture of you and your friends


Day 12-How you found out about blogger and why you have one


Day 13-A letter to someone who has hurt you recently


Day 14-A picture of you and your family


Day 15-Put your ipod or shuffle on-first 10 songs that play


Day 16-Another picture of yourself


Day 17-Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why


Day 18-Plans/dreams/goals you have


Day 19-Nicknames you have and why you have them


Day 20-Someone you see yourself marrying or being with in the future


Day 21-A picture of something that makes you happy


Day 22-What makes you different from everyone else


Day 23-Something you crave for a lot


Day 24-A letter to your parents


Day 25-What I would find in your bag


Day 26-What do you think about your friends


Day 27-Why you are doing this 30 day challenge


Day 28-A picture of you from last year and now how have you changed?


Day 29-In this past month, what have you learned?


Day 30-Your favorite song

So, I know, this is cheesy, but this is the newest thing in my life. His name is Marcus and he's pretty much the most adorable man ever.

Fifteen interesting things about me:

1. I had an extra tooth when I was a kid. It was just a baby tooth and when I lost it, there wasn't a new one in its place. Weird, right?

2. Sometimes, I'm sure I have insomnia because I just cannot fall asleep at night, even when I was younger. My mind is always racing.

3. I have always wanted to travel to London. I'm going to someday. For real.

4. I love to dress up in costumes. Which is why my job at Taylor Maid is perfect for me, because I get to dress up all the time, and not only that, but my costumes are actually legit. I will look for any excuse at all to wear a costume. I don't really know why, it's just really fun to me.

5. I have had 28 different roommates since I moved out of my house. And I can list all their names. Notice how many Amy/Aimees there have been: Angie, Makale, Terra, Jessica, Rachel D, Lauren, Nikki, Amy F, Judith, Destini, Amy, Laramie, Melissa, Aimee, Kendra, Nashelle, Winona, Makayla, Tiffany, Julie, Amy G, Lalitha, Rachelle, Caitlin, Cosette, Kira, Alexa, and my sister Rachel. Just think: that many girls have dealt with my messy tendencies. Well, I take that back because I was a clean freak when I lived with Judith, Destini and Amy.

6. I clean when I'm feeling really anxious and need something productive to do with my hands that doesn't take much thinking. Otherwise, I just don't bother ha ha. Hence why I cleaned so much when I lived in Creekside, because that was just not a good time of my life.

7. I really liked doing theatre when I was younger. I'd like to do more of it, but I don't really have that many opportunities right now. Shows I have done (onstage and backstage) are: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Schoolhouse Rock, Once on This Island, Les Miserables, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Honk!, Guys and Dolls, Seussical, Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast, Into the Night, Pickle Chiffon Pie, Grease, A Lie of the Mind, and Aladdin. I also wrote two One-Acts and directed one of them. I miss theatre.

8. My favorite animal is a kangaroo.

9. I love Harry Potter. Really I do. It's weird, I know, but I really appreciate a well-structured story that is not only a good story, but can teach you good values. And I love finding themes in those stories, which is kind of what this blog is supposed to be about, if I wasn't such a slacker.

10. I am ridiculously attracted to men with Peter Pan complexes. Probably because I have one too deep down, and I love it when they bring that out in me.

11. I have never broken a bone. Knock on wood.

12. I miss people a lot when they're not in my life anymore. I just get really, really super attached. I blame my parents for being so loving all the time. Even if things didn't end well, I still miss them. Like my two best friends from middle school/high school, Kelsey and Tristan. I'm pretty sure they have no idea that I miss them or that they even still cross my mind.

13. I am a crier. I really cry a lot. Like it's weird for me to get through a whole week without crying at least once, and depending on what's going on in my life, sometimes it's weird to get through a whole day. It's not always because I'm sad, I cry a lot when I'm happy or I see something beautiful. Just whenever I'm filled with a lot of emotion, it all spills out.

14. I love singing! Singing feels as good to me as kissing--which feels really good, or crying--which also, surprising or not, feels really good. It's the same kind of release I feel like. I love it. I love it so much. There will be singing in my house when I get married and have children. It will be music all the time!

15. I hope to be a writer someday. It may even be someday soon. ;) We'll see.

Ok, it's past midnight, but this post is for November 3rd. I will blog again tomorrow. It'll be a great time.

Just For Tonight

It's not like it's the end of the world
Although I feel that weight in my heart
All over again

But I know that Life has a funny way of working out
And I trust his judgement
If anyone deserves a happy ending, it's him

I have been inspired to be a better person because of him

I refuse to live in the past
I refuse to let old dreams drag me down
I know someday I'll find just what it is that I need.

But tonight, I need to be sad.

The Death of Music

So I know this post has nothing to do with reading, but I just went on a major rant this morning and decided that my opinion was worth sharing, so here it is:

I think that Brad Paisley killed music. Like seriously, his music is SO BAD that it makes me wanna stop listening forever. If I have to hear that STUPID Tick song one more time--or even worse--that STUPID song called The World, I think I may just vomit. I mean none of his songs have any value whatsoever. I have no problem with songs that are light-hearted or funny, but his songs are so corny--I mean I guess if you're a redneck and you have no higher level of thinking then maybe you might enjoy them.

I love just about any kind of music, but Brad Paisley makes me wanna barf blood.

I'll get back to the space travel thing, really. But I decided that since it's gonna be a part of my next book, I'm gonna go to the library and do some real research on it. It'll be awesome.

Turning

Like a shattered glass Christmas ornament
It still shimmers
All broken on the ground.

To Infinity And Beyond!

I just watched a documentary on the History Channel about light speed, and it blew my mind, basically. And it reminded me of two books I've read, and also reminded me just how ridiculously cool science fiction is. Not to mention, I've just started to plot out a new science fiction book of my own.
Anyway, the most interesting part about the documentary was the possiblities it presented for space travel. Really, it said that the amount of energy required to move at the speed of light is infinite, so therefore, it would be impossible to move that fast, although scientists have been able to send particles close to that speed. And, according to Einstein, it's impossible to move any faster than light speed, as put forth by his theory of relativity. Now, I'm not going to pretend like I understand even the slightest bit of the theory of relativity at all...I'm a very curious person, but I always feel like scientists take the excitement out of discovery by giving things these long, boring names (like one of the galaxies they talked about didn't even have a name, just a combination of letters and numbers) and attaching all these weird numbers and equations to them. Now I'm rambling. The point though, is that light bends around objects and space and time are "stretchy", and furthermore, if a person traveling at lightspeed were to run in circles around a person who is in normal human time, the person in the middle would age much faster than the person in lightspeed. Which is exactly what the scientist who got sent to planet Treason in the book "Treason" by Orson Scott Card must have figured out, because all of his descendents were able to control their own personal times to speed up or slow down according to their own will power, so could make a moment last for years or spend many years in one moment. Although, I think that the fast moving people aged faster in the book, because they were spending their own personal allotted time. I'm not sure how that worked exactly. But, I can say that "Treason" is a surprisingly good read, if you can get past the weirdness of the main character and how his body starts growing extra parts. Which, I'm still reading the book on characterization that I mentioned in my last post, but Card did mention in the section that talked about how main characters are often the reflection of the author, that he wrote a book and one of his friends that read it commented: "Wow, you must really hate your body." And he said that it was true that he did have a negative view on his own body which translated into, I think, this story about a boy who can't control the fact that his genes have hardwired him into becoming a many-limbed monster, hated by his father, the king. It's a pretty good story, even though I've just realized that apparently the time idea works just the opposite of the way it really would in real life. But that's fiction for you!

Alright, I've got more to say on this lightspeed topic, but I want a break in this post, otherwise, it'll be too long. In Part II, however, I'm going to talk about one of my all-time favorites, "A Wrinkle in Time," which also has a lot to do with space travel.

Freely Giving Your Best Gifts

"Our objective as storytellers and writers isn't to make money--there are faster and easier ways of doing that. Our objective is to change people by putting our stories in their memory; to make the world better by bringing other people face to face with reality, or giving them a vision of hope, or whatever other form our truthtelling might take. You want the widest possible audience to receive this message; when you use your best skills to open up your story to other readers, you aren't 'pandering to the masses,' you're freely giving your best gifts." --Orson Scott Card

People keep asking me: "Why would you go to Virginia for school?" See, the guy that wrote that quote teaches there.

I really do believe in writing and stories and that it can change people. It can be something as simple as just changing someone's mood. I know that if I'm in a bad mood, sometimes all I really need is a good scifi book, and it'll change my whole outlook on the day because let's face it, life never gets as bad in real life as it does in scifi novels. It can even be as grand as reading parables in the scriptures--something that can change your life. A story doesn't have to have really happened to be true. Fiction is a mirror through which we can examine real life. It's a glimpse into someone else's perception, which helps us to forget ourselves for a moment, and in doing so, find ourselves.

The quote at the beginning of this post comes from a book I'm reading by Orson Scott Card called Characters and Viewpoint. Normally, I don't really like How-to writing books, because I feel like everyone has a story and can tell a story, and I don't like being told how I should say something that's in my own heart. So it was really a combination of me not being ready to move onto another book after finishing Catching Fire, because I'm still not over it (is anyone really surprised about the lack of boyfriends in my life?), and still needing something to read. But I am actually finding this book really insightful. I'm not sure that's what you're supposed to get out of a how-to book.

One of the things Card brings up, and I've often had the same thought, that we are, in effect, telling our own story through what we write. And it's true that in the novel I've written, I see more of me in the main character than I had intended, which is scary because she's so rash and immature and melodramatic. What can I say? If I were to list some of my bad qualities, those would make it to the top ten. Also, I used to read up on Harry Potter a lot, and therefore I've also read a lot about JK Rowling and her thoughts on the books. It may surprise some people to discover that a lot of Harry Potter is actually about religion, especially the last book. She said that she had a lot of confusion about religion and had done a lot of soul searching. In the end, there are at least two direct quotes from the Bible in the final book ("for where your treasure is, there will be your heart also," "death shall be the last enemy that is conquered"), and ultimately, the whole series is about gaining that complete and unconditional love for people that leads you to be willing to lay down your very life for them. I think it's interesting that for someone who felt like she needed religion, the Harry Potter books are what resulted.

There are so many other amazing examples of fantastic books, and I think it helps people like me to process life when I read or when I write. It certainly does a lot to calm my nerves and soothe my frustrations.

There's so much that can be done through writing, and I love that because that's exactly what I want to do.

Twilight

Sorry about the double poetry posting. Couldn't help it. I wrote some more poems, but I don't know if I want to post them just yet. Not that it matters, because I have like 3 followers, but someday, this blog will be more awesome.

Anyway, back to the job at hand, and why I decided to make this blog. Basically, I love reading because it makes you think, you know, besides all the other awesome benefits of an escape and all that. But it really makes me think about life. Which is why Twilight makes the list of books I will discuss.

Now, at first, I didn't want to read it, because it had been my experience in middle school, whenever I was looking for a new book to read (this is when I discovered Madeline L'Engle), if ever I picked up a vampire story, it was completely saturated in sexual overtones with lots of things my little 12-year-old mind didn't comprehend. But I never actually read any beyond the summary or the little tag lines, because even they were dirty. So I started hearing about this Twilight book when I moved up to Snow College, and there was this girl in my ward who was reading it, and then I heard that the author, Stephanie Meyer, was LDS. And then my roommates read them and really liked them, so I thought, hey, what the heck, right?

The first book...well, let's just say that I'm not a mushy romance kind of person. And at least 80% of the book is spent detailing Edward's perfect features. Bleh. It's not that I didn't imagine a very attractive man in my mind, which is fine, I mean, I like attractive men, but that was it. He was just good-looking, and had this weird chemical attraction to the main character.

The following two books were much better. Partly because in the second book, Jacob actually had a personality, unlike Edward (hence why I was always a Jacob fan), and then also because Stephanie Meyer upped the action--which I love. I mean really, if I'm reading a story about werewolves and vampires, there better darn well be some sweet action scenes. I love a good romance, but only if it's more like an accessory to the overall outfit of action and adventure.

Anyway, mostly I wanted to focus on the Edward phenomenon. Why are so many girls attracted to him? He is the world's most boring character--you know, except for the part when he's super creepy and watches Bella sleep. The protectiveness he feels for Bella is attractive, I'll give him that, but seriously, that's it. And I hate that everyone idealizes him as "the perfect man." Because there is no universal "perfect man." There's the man that's best for you, but your perfect man should in no way align with my perfect man.

Perfection is boring to me. I mean, if the person you met was already perfect, then how could you learn and grow together? After all, "love is what you go through together."

I was talking to my really good friend the other day, and he said that if you don't think someone has faults, then you don't know them well enough. The trick is, once you learn what their faults are, you love them anyway. And he's a really good example of that. I really never approved of the romance between him and his girl, but since he told me that, I just couldn't help but feel happy for them. That is beautiful.

Everyone has faults, so Edward is completely unrealistic and flat as a character. And why would you ever want to fall in love with someone like that? True love is knowing that someone is imperfect, but loving them anyway.

And that, my friends, is why Twilight is not better than Harry Potter. Ha ha.