|
|
|
December 23rd, 2009
12:03 am - 30 Days of Sharing - Thirteen & Fourteen
I got into the fiction writing course!
I got an email yesterday from the English department, just to let me know that an override had been placed on the course code, so it won't prevent me from registering when I try to do that. But I still have no idea what the prof thought of my portfolio, or how many other people are in the class or how many applied or anything. Guess we'll see in a few weeks!
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
I really had no idea what I was going to do for either of these, considering that my "favourite book" post a few weeks ago basically encapsulated much of what I would have written about here. And I didn't want to write about whatever books I was reading at the moment, because that would slightly defeat the purpose of my gigantic end-of-the-year book post that I'm planning for (probably) New Years Day.
BUT. I do still have last year's gigantic end-of-the-year book post to write up, finally. I can't remember why I didn't just do it at the time!
First, a list of all the books I read, and then my Top 10, which you should all read! Here goes:
( Read more... )
And the rest:
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy
|
December 20th, 2009
01:31 am - 30 Days of Sharing - Twelve
I went to the Sens game tonight! Mom and I went early and had dinner at one of the restaurants there. It was my first game of the year, and it was actually an extremely belated birthday present from my parents. I had told them at the time that all I wanted this year was tickets to a game, and gave them a list of the ones I was most interested in seeing - and this game was top of the list!
It was against Minnesota, who I kind of like, but I wasn't too worried about the price or about there being copious amounts of Minnesota fans in the crowd to annoy me. But the real reason I wanted to see this game is because Martin Havlat plays for the Wild now, and he was always one of my favourites when he played for us. So the fact that we won, but he got the Wild's only goal, made this just about the perfect night!
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
The concert that I was at last night was one of the best I've ever seen, right up there with both Great Big Sea concerts I've been to.
We sang at the NAC Family Christmas concert last night, which we've done before, but I don't really feel like I can put this in the same category as the other times we've done it. We were only onstage for two songs, and one of them just involved us leading the audience in a bunch of Christmas carols. So it didn't really feel like much of a concert on our part. Basically for the rest of the evening, we were treated to a free performance by the Leahy family.
( Read more... )
The others:
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy
|
December 18th, 2009
01:07 pm - 30 Days of Sharing - Eleven
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
As much as I kind of despise the vast majority of photos taken of me for much of my childhood, it's possible that I like recent pictures of me even less. Especially when I'm posing for a picture I know is being taken ... I've become really self-conscious about the way I smile in photos, and how I apparently cannot stop tilting my head, no matter what I do.
The pictures taken of me from my graduation last month are particularly bad - I wasn't tired, exactly, but my eyes felt really heavy, and apparently I was overcompensating, because in just about all of them I have this awkward deer-in-headlights expression. Anyway, this is one of the only ones that is not painful to look at.
November 14. Me with some of the other girls from my Shakespeare class. This was at the reception in Raven's Nest after the ceremony.
And the rest:
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy
|
December 16th, 2009
07:40 pm - 30 Days of Sharing - Ten
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Alright, back to this, finally. I was hoping to post this a couple days ago, but I had trouble deciding on a picture at first - from about grades 2 to 8 I'm not fond of most of the pictures of me. But I didn't want to go back much farther than that either, since my last entry for this meme already included a really old picture. So I resorted to combing through all the shoeboxes full of old pictures that I keep under my bed. I hadn't looked at them for a long time, so there were a lot of interesting discoveries on my part. I toyed with posting a picture from my very first Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph(and therefore very first Central Choir performance), but when I stumbled upon this one, there really was no other choice.
Spring, 1997, so I was 11. Wade Redden was 19, at the end of his first year as an Ottawa Senator. I had been lucky enough earlier that year to attend a game at the Corel Centre, in the box suite that he had purchased for kids at CHEO. My Dad took me to the game, which was against Vancouver (and we won). They gave all of us pizza and hot dogs and things, and then at the end of the game we got signed player cards - I remember specifically wanting one from whoever got the game-winning goal.
Then, at the end of the season, we were all invited to a lunch party at CHEO, which my grandfather took me to. Partway through the party, Wade arrived. This was the first time that we would get to meet Wade face-to-face, and to thank him for the wonderful opportunity. Clearly, I got my picture taken with him, and I got his autograph, which I still have somewhere.
It was hard for me in the years since then, when he faced a lot of criticism in Ottawa, and even harder when he was traded, because all I can think of is how my interest in hockey at all dates back to this guy. Even then, I think I was conscious that a lot of other 19-year olds would not be so generous, but the older I get, the more I realize how remarkable this was.
Coming up:
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy
|
December 13th, 2009
10:18 pm - "There's a light that shines in our land. There's a torch we hold in our hand..."
I know I've been MIA for the 30 days of Sharing, but I hope to get back into it tomorrow.
It's been kind of a hectic week, and I thought this stuff deserved its own post before I get back into things.
So, I bet you thought I wouldn't get that portfolio in, didn't you? You would be wrong! I was up kind of late on Wednesday night getting it finished, but I did hand it in on Thursday. I'm supposed to hear in the next couple days whether I got in or not.
The bigger story of the last few days occupied the greater part of my weekend. We were invited to sing on Parliament Hill when the Olympic flame came to town! We were joined by Gregory Charles and two other choirs. We've been rehearsing the music for a while now, and then on *Monday* we were given this impossible new O Canada to learn - the one time we have actual words to sing, they're in Cree! Ironically, that was the easiest part of the song to learn. The rest of the time was all "hey ha" and "way ya hey". Eep.
We had to be on the hill for much of Friday afternoon/evening for a sound check and rehearsal with the cameras. We were waiting around behind the stage *forever* before they would let us on, because they were running late. I can't even begin to tell you how cold that was - I may never be warm again. And it wasn't any better once we were on the stage, despite their reassurances about the lights and lack of wind and everything. Only part of the choir was there at that point, so the only thing we did was O Canada, but it did give us the chance to hear it with Asani for the first time. I really wasn't sure about the song at first, but it did grow on me, especially when we realized we were also going to be doing a 'normal' version of the song at the end of the show. Still, it was kind of impossible to learn, and they wanted us to have all of our music memorized. Not that having our folders would have helped much, since turning pages with mittens on doesn't work so well.
After rehearsal, we went across the street and they provided us dinner. We were supposed to have another rehearsal after that, but luckily they said we could go, once we had picked up our uniforms - green jackets, blue hats and scarves, and those AMAZING red Olympic mittens. I bought a pair of my own the very first day they came out, and those things are the warmest thing in the world - I went to the Santa Clause parade last weekend, and only after like an hour did my hands *start* to get cold! And we all get to keep everything!
Then, on Saturday we had to be downtown at about 9:00. Rehearsal didn't start for another hour after that, but they wanted to be sure there were no problems with us going through security, since we spent the entire day in Centre Block. Unfortunately, I had to be there even earlier than that, since we had to drive my brother to his exam for 8:00, and weren't going to go back home after that. We spent the time before everyone else got there taking pictures of some of the architecture near the rooms where we were rehearsing.
The morning rehearsal was kind of dreadful - Gregory Charles and College Vocale were fantastic, but they spent the majority of the time trying to teach us the choreography to the pieces we were doing, and reassuring us that it was not difficult and that we should not be nervous and just have fun. Except that I am supremely uncoordinated and can't clap and sing at the same time. Ugh. At least the music was beginning to sound good?
They provided us lunch, and then we had to go outside for another sound check, now with everybody present. It was the first time I really heard all the pieces of the song Gregory Charles wrote for this event come together. That's another one that's really grown on me - I keep getting it stuck in my head today! There were a lot of problems with us being unable to hear ourselves, each other and the track over him, but eventually we got everything sorted out. Still, in spite of our lovely, lovely mittens, we were freezing by the time we could go back inside.
We really wasted a lot of the time between then and the show - we looked over a few Christmas carols, some of which would be a part of the Christmas lights lighting ceremony thing, which coincided with the arrival of the torch. A couple of those were okay, but none of us knew the third one at all. Luckily, College Vocale was singing them, and we were just singing the choruses with them. Then we looked over a few others, to be sung in case the torch was delayed by protesters! I really wished we had spent more time looking over O Canada, but it didn't happen.
Finally, after an early dinner, we were outside. Walking down to the stage, it didn't seem like a huge crowd, but we were kept backstage for quite a while again, and it had really grown by the time we finally walked out - today I heard an estimate of about 15,000, which makes me ridiculously happy. There were all these red lights when we looked out into the crowd, and I couldn't figure out what they were at first, but people were holding little white through red cups, and it looked really cool from the stage. Someone told us that this was the biggest show they were putting on for the torch until it reaches Vancouver! In some ways that should be kind of a given, but I was really excited about that as well.
Predictably, we spent most of O Canada just pretending we knew what we were doing. I'm pretty sure the sopranos missed a good two pages in the middle somewhere. And then during this gospel medley, one of the cameras was in my face for a good ten seconds, which wasn't great, because I was attempting to sing, clap and smile at the same time. I haven't seen the video yet, so I don't know how successful I was!
The rest of the ceremony went pretty quickly after that. There were these cool native hoop dancers, and then speeches by John Furlong, Gordon Campbell, Stephen Harper ... maybe a couple others? And then the torch finally arrived, carried by Joé Juneau. It was really cute - as he was coming up the steps to the stage, there were these little Inuit kids lining his path, banging hockey sticks on the ground, and then before he lit the flame they came up on stage. One last O Canada, and then we were done! They rushed us off the stage pretty quickly after that, because of all the dignitaries, a few of whom did take the time to shake our hands before we disappeared.
But then that was it! I had been looking forward to that day for months, ever since we first found out about it, and now it's already behind us. And then we were right back downtown this morning, because Fanfair was at the NAC today. It wasn't one of the better years, I don't think - the guy conducting both of our pieces took them super fast - but the carols are always fun. And Sleigh Ride is really what makes this concert one of my favourites of the year. It's not until now that I really feel like Christmas is almost here.
One more concert (Family Christmas concert with the Leahy Family on Friday), and then we're done until January!
|
December 6th, 2009
07:16 pm - 30 Days of Sharing - Nine
Day 09 → A photo you took
I'm really not much of a photographer. I have a camera (one of several gifts from my parents upon my graduation from Hums last year), but I don't use it as often as I should. It's a vicious cycle - I don't love most of the pictures that I take, so I don't practice, so the pictures I do take don't improve. I also don't love being in pictures. More often than not, I'm standing beside the photographer (usually my Dad), telling him exactly what to take a picture of.
I was reasonably proud with how this picture I took turned out, though.
It's from my trip last year, with my Dad, to visit his family in northwestern Ontario. We had flown there, spent a few days with his brothers and their families, then drove down to Wisconsin for a larger get-together with all of his siblings and their families, and then back up to Canada for a few more days. On our last night in town, my uncle took all of us in his boat to a restaurant across the border.
This picture was taken after dinner, as we were making our way back to the marina after a detour to see the mermaid. It was going to be the last time out on the water for that vacation, so it was the first of many goodbyes for me, as silly as that sounds. I was really trying to capture the essence of this place for me, and the lake is a huge part of that. I really wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, given the fact that the boat was moving, but I was pleased. My one disappointment was that Sunset Country didn't deliver for me that night!
And the others:
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy
|
December 4th, 2009
10:30 pm - 30 Days of Sharing - Seven
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
I have to say, I've been looking forward to this one for a while. At first, I toyed with the idea of looking through my own pictures to find one, but I gave up on that idea pretty quickly, because I just wouldn't know what to choose. It seems like none of my happiest moments are ones that get captured on camera anyway. At least, not in pictures I like!
But then, I remembered this picture:
I can't even tell you how much I love it. When I first discovered Cute Overload (thanks to Jen, if I remember correctly?), this was one of the newest pictures, and I've just kept coming back to it. I love pictures of cute pigs anyway (Telus commercials, anyone?), but this one's even better. It's vaguely disgusting but far too adorable all at the same time, and none of the pictures since then have been quite so memorable.
I'm still stumped on what I'm going to post tomorrow!
Still to come:
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy
|
December 3rd, 2009
04:54 pm - 30 Days of Sharing - Six
That December 10th deadline is getting closer and closer, and I still haven't done much of anything yet for my portfolio. I think I know what I'm going to submit as examples of my work (after some editing), and I have a (very) rough draft of my letter of interest and biography, but I haven't touched them in a while. Start nagging me, people!
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
I've been wondering for a while what to do with this one ... I definitely feel like I do a lot better at these things when I have a bit more direction and guidance. Lacking that this time, I'm falling back on what is on my mind today - the Oscars!
You're probably thinking that, since the awards are still several months away, it is much too early to be thinking about such things. But you would be wrong! In fact, awards season kicked off this week, with the National Board of Review announcing their picks today. And then in two weeks, both the Golden Globe and SAG nominations will be announced. It's just the beginning, of course, particularly since many of the top films won't even be released until the end of the month, but things are at least beginning to come together.
If you hadn't already guessed, I'm something of an awards junkie - music, TV, but movies are definitely my favourites. Starting in about March or April, this website that I visit begins compiling its predictions for the Academy Awards ceremony for the following year. It deals with the more minor awards shows as well, but the Oscars are definitely the focus. I use this (and many other sites) to start making a huge list of movies that I think I'll want to see in the coming year(s). Inevitably I only end up seeing maybe five of them (and not even many of the Oscar-caliber ones, at that!), so my picking favourites is mostly arbitrary by the time the nominations and then the ceremony roll around. But it's interesting to me to watch how the expectations for some movies fall completely flat, while others come out of nowhere almost at the last minute.
So far this year (that I can remember), I've seen:
Marley & Me
Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince
The Time-Traveler's Wife
Julie & Julia (Meryl Streep is just about considered a 'lock' for a nomination)
The Blind Side
I'm sure I won't see all of these movies in the next couple months, but here are some that I'm interested in, and that seem like they will be ones to watch out for:
Up - didn't see this one this summer, but I'm guaranteed to be seeing it over Christmas ;) . From everything I've heard I can't imagine it not winning Best Animated, but there's certainly talk of it being nominated elsewhere as well.
( Read more... )
Let me know if you see anything of them! Do you think I'm missing any?
And the others:
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy
|
December 2nd, 2009
12:29 pm - 30 Days of Sharing - Five
Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Another difficult one, but not exactly in the same way - not because I have too many real favourites to narrow down to just one. While I often think about favourite books or movies or whatever, quotations are just not something you think about that much. Or at least, I don't. If I do, more often than not it's to identify a favourite moment in a TV show or book. Or opening lines - I love picking out my favourite first lines of novels.
For this, though, I sort of wanted to choose quotes that can stand on their own, independent of their source. Here are a few that I like:
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture - it's a really stupid thing to want to do." - Anonymous
"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying,
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying." - To the Virgins to Make Much of Time, Robert Herrick
"There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot." - The Lady of Shalott, Tennyson
"Is anyone approaching you or your loved ones with a large cross and iron nails? Because if that is not the case, you have little enough to complain about." - The Book of Love, Kathleen McGowan
And the others:
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy
|
December 1st, 2009
12:40 pm - 30 Days of Sharing - Four
Didn't finish writing this in time last night :( And I had been doing pretty well, too.
Day 04 → Your favourite book
Okay, let me explain something to you: I am a Lit grad. A Hums grad. An English grad. A BOOKWORM. This is not going to work.
I'm capable of being more reasonable about this than you probably think, however. I won't drown you in a huge list - just a few. But I will, of course, have a million things to say about each of them, so you might want to get comfortable!
For me, the big criteria here is that it's a book I can return to again and again, to the point that the book's spine has (unfortunately) long since been broken, and much of its contents have been committed to memory. Unfortunately, while I've read a LOT of books in the last few years, for school and otherwise, I've actually reread very few of them since high school. Maybe it's partly because of me deciding to maintain a list of all the books I've read since then, but I've sort of become obsessed with reading more books each year than I did the year before, so that now I'm constantly reading something new.
Another reason that a lot of these won't be all that new is that I kind of feel like any book that I call my favourite really has to be one that I own my own copy of. How much can I really love something I've only borrowed from the library?
( Read more... )
And on the subject of my New Year's list, I think I'm going to do something a bit different this year. For one thing, I'm pretty sure I forgot to post my list last year, so I'll have to get that one written first. But also, I think I'm going to make my Top 10 of the year (not necessarily ones that were published this year, but books that I read this year for the first time). I'm already thinking about which ones are going to make the cut!
And the rest:
Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy
|
November 30th, 2009
12:05 pm
Wow.
Do you guys remember, back in September I mentioned the issue that happened with Serena Williams at the US Open, where she lost it and started screaming at the lineswoman? She was fined something like $10,000 at the time, but with the knowledge that the incident was under review, and that the fine could later be increased, depending on their findings.
Well, it has been! It was announced this morning that she will now have to pay $82,500, which I believe is a record. She's also on probation, so that if anything like this happens again in the next couple years, that fine could be just about doubled, and she could be banned from competing in the following US Open.
I had mostly forgotten about this incident, to be honest. When the story died down after a few days or weeks, as they always do, I kind of assumed that nothing more was going to come of it. I'm glad that's not the case! Not because of anything personal I have against Serena or anything, but just as a sign that they take these things seriously, and that conduct like hers will not be tolerated. Whether she should be or not, she is a huge role model for a lot of children, and to see that even someone like her has to face the consequences when they do something wrong can only be a good thing. Serena's lucky in that even a huge fine like this is nothing, really, compared to the millions that she brings in every year, but to just about any other player I can only imagine that this would be devastating. I hope she and the others can all learn from this experience!
I'll be interested to see what kind of statement (if any) we get from Serena on this!
|
01:21 am - 30 Days of Sharing - Three
I've been meaning to mention this for a couple days now, but if you haven't already, you need to see The Blind Side! I am so far from being a football person it's not even funny, so I was kind of skeptical about seeing this movie. I do like Sandra Bullock, though, and I kept hearing good things about it, so when I had the chance to see a movie with my grandmother this past week, I asked her if she'd be up for this one.
I loved it! You really don't need to understand/like football in order to get the message of this movie. The whole cast is great, but Sandra Bullock really steals the show - they're even talking Oscar buzz for her! I think what makes it even cooler is that it's based on a true story, and a recent one at that. I know there are a lot of differences, as always in Hollywood, but a lot of my favourite parts seem to have a basis in fact.
Now, on with the meme. Late again! *Sigh*.
Day 03 → Your favourite television program
Now, I watch a fair amount of TV, but I think you're going to be surprised at my answer for today.
I tend to go in phases with my TV-watching. I don't think I've ever entirely abandoned a show that I've liked once, but I certainly do become more and less interested in them, depending on what is taking place in a particular season. I love Grey's Anatomy and House, for instance, but have recently been disappointed in a number of their creative decisions. I still watch them every week, and enjoy them, but I don't spend nearly as much time in between thinking about and discussing these shows. To some degree I think I hold these shows to a higher standard, because of the enormous talent in their cast and writers and everything. When they do a good job there is rarely anything better, but too often I feel like they waste their talent on silly storylines, ones which you know aren't even going to go anywhere or have any consequences!
This fall, the show that I've looked more forward to each week than other is actually The Biggest Loser, but I can hardly claim that as my favourite show ever, when I've only been watching for a season and a half. There are other reality shows that I've watched for much longer, but I've never really been able to watch an episode more than once. The suspense is basically the entire point, and when you already know the outcome of the entire season, it loses much of its pull.
In identifying my favourite show, I wanted to think of a show that I've loved for a long time, one that I can watch again and again without tiring of it, one that I can be sure is not just my answer today, but will continue to be so in the coming years. With that criteria as a basis, I realized that I had my answer.
( Read more... )
Still to come:
Day 04 → Your favourite book
Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy
|
November 29th, 2009
12:29 am - 30 Days of Sharing - Two
I know this is late, but I started writing it long before midnight, so I say it counts ;)
Day 02 → Your favourite movie
This one is much easier to answer than yesterday's. I could create a list just a long of tons of movies that I've loved over the years, but, if I'm honest with myself, there is one film that I do love more than any other. I don't suppose that it will surprise any of you to learn that this movie is The Sound of Music.
( Read more... )
And the others:
Day 03 → Your favourite television program
Day 04 → Your favourite book
Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy
|
November 27th, 2009
10:52 pm
So, clearly the whole NaNoWriMo thing failed. Miserably. I scrambled at the end of October to get that outline written, and then the grand total that I completed was those 400-odd words that I mentioned the last time I posted here. I haven't even opened that file on my computer since then. Ugh.
While I've given up on that for this year, I do still hope to at least apply to the fiction workshop at school, even with the distinct possibility that I won't get in. I sort of lost track of time and missed the tentative deadline, but then I had an email from the professor (who I had contacted to see if I could even apply, no longer being a student), and the deadline has been extended until December 10th. DO NOT let me let this one slip away.
Now, I'm deciding to take on a meme of sorts that I think will be a lot more manageable, and I'd encourage all of you to do it too! I'm stealing this one off Alice. It's called 30 Days of Sharing, and basically each day you have to post whatever the instructions say.
Day 01 → Your favourite song
Ha.
Now, anyone who knows me will understand that this is just not a reasonable question. It cannot be summed up with a single simple answer. Songs from choir, songs from musicals, songs from movies ... and that doesn't even begin to touch pop music. So, being the indecisive Libra that I am, will refuse to give just a single answer here. I have a feeling that, even if I try not to, this will become a recurring theme over the next little while. I've split my favourite songs into a few categories, and I'll try to mention some that might be less obvious. I could spend all day doing this, and writing pages and pages about them, but here are just a 'few', and there's a story behind just about all of them that make them favourites. Ask if you're curious!
( Read more... )
This took me forever because I kept getting distracted and listening to just about all of them. You should too! Here's the rest of the days:
Day 02 → Your favourite movie
Day 03 → Your favourite television program
Day 04 → Your favourite book
Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy
|
November 2nd, 2009
12:29 am
Not the greatest start to NaNoWriMo, guys. I only wrote 419 words today, about 1/4 of what I would ideally have accomplished. I would get about six words written, and then go watch another segment of Biggest Loser Australia on YouTube. I'm getting through that season very quickly...
And as it is, I am already finding myself really trying to slow myself down, and not just jump from one big moment to the next, but to let it unfold the way that the books I enjoy do. It's not easy! Not that I expected it to be, but I hoped that, knowing it was going to be something I struggled with would help, somehow. I'm not sure yet.
What little dialogue I wrote today was also weaker than I would like it to be. Again, I'm not sure if the fact that I recognize this is a good sign or not, because it hasn't seemed to make me able to write anything better.
Still, it's very early, and I can only hope to improve from here. I've already noticed myself borrowing techniques from my academic writing, leaving 'notes' to myself that at some point I want to come back and write a paragraph explaining something in greater detail, or leaving blanks when I haven't decided on the perfect word. We'll see how that strategy works out for me.
|
October 30th, 2009
11:14 pm
Finished my outline for NaNoWriMo ... and now I'm questioning whether it's worth doing. I just don't know.
How does this happen?
Edit: Also ... totally on the verge of caving. Stupid Twitter...
|
October 29th, 2009
11:35 pm - Meme
I haven't done a meme in a while, so I'm stealing this one off Alice.
( Read more... )
|
October 28th, 2009
09:07 am
This whole getting back into writing thing is proving to be even more difficult than I thought, and I haven't even really started the difficult part yet! For the past several days I've been trying to come up with something of an outline for NaNoWriMo, so that on Sunday I can just start writing. Not that simple.
This story has literally been in the back of my mind for YEARS, and I worry that somehow I've waited too long to start trying to write it, because while there are parts of it where I know exactly what I want to do, most of the rest of it is no further along than it's ever been, and that's frustrating.
I'm good with the big, dramatic scenes. At least, I hope I will be, since, as I said, I haven't actually begun to write them yet. But I know what they're going to look like, if by some miracle I can ever get them written. But it's all the other stuff, all the ordinary moments connecting them, that I just have no idea how to write. Not to mention the actual writing quality itself, and finding that "voice", which doesn't come nearly as naturally as academic writing any more. It's frustrating because I can point to so many examples of the kinds of writers I admire and would like to sound like, but I just don't. Not, I realize, that I should be trying to sound like somebody else in the first place. But you know what I mean.
It's never really occurred to me before that I could (or should?) write fiction the way that I've started to write my essays in the last few years (a long, complicated process that would really bore those of you who haven't already heard it). But it's looking more and more like maybe that's how it's going to have to be, because otherwise I may never get anything done.
|
October 16th, 2009
05:43 pm
Further to my decision to start getting in the habit of writing again, here's what I've got planned writing-wise for the next little while:
I'm going to try to participate in NaNoWriMo this year! Not officially on their website or anything, but just for myself, and I'll try to come on here each day and update on what I've accomplished. For those of you who might not know what NaNoWriMo is: it's short for National Novel Writing Month, and it's basically a project that encourages as many people as possible to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. If I've calculated correctly, that works out to approximately 1666 words each day. I've wanted to try this pretty much every year since I first heard about it, but being in school meant that November was really the worst possible month to even contemplate any writing on top of what I was already required to do for my classes. Now, however, that problem no longer exists, so I really have no excuses.
I've got an idea that I've been wanting to work on for years (a different idea from the one I asked you guys for help with the other day!), so I'm hoping to spend some time in the next couple weeks creating something resembling an outline, so that once November 1st hits, I can just get started. We'll see how that goes! I'm really excited about the prospect of writing that much without taking the time to stop and edit and go over what I've already got ad nauseum, which I would otherwise be prone to do. Apart from the fact that I procrastinate getting started, and then I have troubling finishing when I do, I think that's what's prevented me from writing most of my ideas so far, because I'll get hung up on some small section that doesn't sound right yet, and be unable to move past it. Hopefully the fact that the NaNoWriMo process sounds exactly like how I've written all of my essays in the last couple years will be helpful to me (despite the fact that they all nearly killed me).
I had also thought about getting into writing fanfiction more seriously in the near future as well, but I think that will have to be put off until after November. I have literally dozens of ideas for stories that I've (again) wanted to work on for years, and just never bothered to do. I even got in touch with another girl in one of my fandoms this summer and asked her about co-writing with me, and we're both interested, but we keep getting back in touch with each other when the other is busy haha. And then I kind of chickened out the last time I talked to her, coming on the heels of my India Class of Doom, but I'm hoping that enough time has passed since that that I can get over it.
Finally ... there's this fiction writing workshop that's offered as a class at Carleton, and I'm seriously considering getting in touch with the professor about it. I'm not sure if I could even take it, considering that I will have graduated by the time the class starts (it's offered in the winter term), but I figure it can't hurt to ask, even if it just means auditing it or whatever. I have no idea. It's not a class you can just register for - you have to submit a portfolio by mid-November, and, in truth, I had planned on having worked on it a lot by now, but somehow I got confused the last time I looked at the course calendar and thought that the class had been cancelled. But now I see that it is being offered, so I'll have to put the idea of it back on my radar. This is another one of those classes that I was dying to take all through university, but it never seemed to fit in my schedule, or else I would run out of time before the portfolio was due. Again, this time I don't have so much of an excuse.
Wish me luck!
In other news, I just heard the best news - the cast of Glee is apparently in talks to go on tour next spring/summer! I have no idea if they'd come here (with my luck, they won't), but I can always hope! Tell me the rest of you guys are all watching this?? I was kind of iffy about the first episode or two, but it has become really amazing. At first I felt like they were trying too hard to be funny, being so edgy that it really wasn't that much fun to watch - but even then the music was good. Since then, it has become hysterical, especially the last episode. And based on the sneak peeks I've seen, I can't wait for next week!
|
October 11th, 2009
01:08 pm
Hey guys - kind of weird question for you.
In an attempt to start writing again, I've come up with what I think is a good way to structure something I've been working on, on and off, for a couple years. But I need your help.
What I'm looking for are quotations that contain the expression "In those days" - could be ordinary quotations, poems, songs, novels, anything.
I already have a bunch of these, but any other ideas you can think of would be great. Thanks!
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
lilacmermaid's journal