Nanowrimo 2009

Here's some news hot off the press: I managed to do 50 000 words in less than a month. There's hope for my writing career yet.

The funny thing about writing is that I want every chapter, every paragraph, even every line to be interesting in some way. People walking around their daily lives should sound like they've stepped into a painting, and every dramatic event should be dramatic. But I don't want to overload the readers with too many adjectives, so what's the alternative? Probably taking a step back from writing and then coming back to it in another month's time to start again. Or printing it out and putting all 270 pages up on my walls. Hmmm... That idea sounds awesome.

Writing is possibly the greatest thing I've ever committed myself to trying, and with a trilogy mostly written, and ideas for two other books I'm hoping that I can really do something about this. I'd really like to take a writing course, though, since I've never done much writing outside of what they teach in high school, which is pretty much obsolete 4 years later. I can barely even remember the linguistic rules taught in primary/high school English, and then there's the authors who say things like, "Were you taught in school never to use 'and', 'but' or 'because' at the start of sentences? Well, throw that out." Which has actually made writing something other than a pronoun at the start of each sentence a lot easier.

Chrissi

A Freakish Coincidence...

This afternoon I decided not to catch my usual train home because I had a friend that wanted to catch up for coffee, so I was waiting for her. I did, however, still walk to the station because I have to cross over it to go to the place that we were meeting at. As I was standing there talking to a girl from my class I saw the physical manifestation of the main male character in my story, the story that I've been writing since around April, long before I started studying again.
Have you ever seen a guy (or girl for you males) that you literally cannot look away from, though you know you shouldn't stare? This person that was walking towards me just couldn't possibly exist in real life, looking so much like my character, especially since I wrote him so completely beyond the ordinary (as you do with fictional characters). So I thought I'd write it as a bit of a story, mainly because I'm in the mood to write.

The day had gone quickly, and though I was eager to go home I was meeting up with my best friend, who I hadn't seen for weeks. The weather had turned annoyingly warm, the kind of warm that presented an omen for the summer to come, and the excessive temperatures that are to be expected from living in Australia. I walked to the station with a girl from class, listening to her chatting away about her plans, first date embarrassments, and the impending horror that would be this particular male's meeting her family experience. I liked that I had finally become comfortable with talking to people that I didn't usually have anything to do with, and since I had time to spare I listened, and offered my own little anecdotes where I could. For the first time in ages I felt confident, albeit in a 'why-did-I-wear-this-particular-skirt' kind of way (because I'm just one of those people who isn't completely comfortable with themselves at all times).
A warm breeze pushed my fringe towards my eyes as I saw him. He was walking away from the university in my direction, and suddenly I couldn't hear what the other girl was saying, I was just shocked. His hair was the darkest black, and his skin was almost olive, but white from months of winter. He had amazingly neat clothes considering it was the afternoon, a beautiful blue shirt and perfect black pants, and the way he walked was as if he wasn't really there. He had a walking stick, due to what I'm assuming was some sort of accident, and something about the way he walked was hard to look away from. He had an air about him that was detached, and rather than looking at anything he was simply looking. It was hard to believe that anyone like that existed outside of the movies.

Now, I'm not one to write rants about complete strangers, but the point is that he is my character, and I was completely shocked. It made my writing a bit more real for me, though I still hope it will retain it's air of fantasy to others.

On a completely different note, I keep having dreams that come true a few months later. Now, these dreams aren't about anything remotely interesting, they're about ordinary, every day events. Every time something happens that I dreamt about it starts as a strong sense of deja vu, and then I suddenly recall having dreamt about the conversation months earlier. Needless to say it's frustrating. I never dream about winning the lottery...

This is why I don't interact with teenagers

So, I've started studying on-campus again. It's something that I've thought of doing for a few years, because studying via correspondence really hasn't been working for me. So now I'm in a class with a wide range of ages, and I'm in the upper-half of the age groups.

Some of the girls are quite immature. I can see their group dynamics forming already, though we've only been in class for three weeks, and it's strange to know that at some point I had a place in a group too. But we were nothing like these girls. We had a mix of males and females, which made for a much less... bitchy atmosphere.

You know those people who say something mean, but in a nice voice so you're confused as to the actual meaning of the sentence? Well, we've got one of those. She also happens to be racist enough to offend even me, who mainly identifies as an Aussie, rahter than Russian-Australian. Then there's the followers, people who don't have an opinion, or personality, of their own, but sure are happy that they're in a group. Lastly you have the nice, quiet girls, who are in that group because they have no where else to go. They'll talk to other people away from the bad influences, but are otherwise ruled by the group dynamics. It's a shame, really, but as long as I can just stay out of it I'll be able to finish this course with no problems, even though I'm already sick to death of them...

20 minutes in the life of a teen... from a 21yo's POV

So, I was waiting patiently for the train after class today, reading Interview with the Vampire, and minding my own business. There were a couple of girls a few metres away from me, and even without a breeze I could smell their perfume quite strongly, which definitely reminded me of a few people I knew back in high school. Plus they were playing their Top 40 music loud enough for all to hear, but I still managed to ignore them. Then a group of three young teen girls girls walks past me and sits down a few feet away from me (watch as I seamlessly transition between the metric system and that other one used by other countries *wink*). They were chatting, and then one of them calls her father to pick her up from whatever station she was going to alight at. When he apparently got annoyed at her for being so late getting home (they were young enough that they would've had a time limit on their day out), she put on a high, whiny voice, and yelled at him for jumping to conclusions, saying that her friends went to the movies and that's why she was so late. So, apparently they held her at gunpoint and forced her to stay out with them. Interesting. Then she went on to tell him to be at the station because he had to drive her straight to dance, and then hung up. I know I haven't been out of my teens for many years, but when did please and thank you go out of fashion?
Then the other two friends started fighting about borrowed money, or something, one friend threatened to slap the other one, things got a bit heated, and then the one on the receiving end walks all the way to the other end of the station just to get away from her. This last bit happened within the space of maybe 7 minutes (though I wasn't keeping track of time). Guess what girl number 3, THOSE AREN'T REAL FRIENDS. I can just see them making up, the more dominant friend being apologised to by the other friend, after saying potentially damaging things about her behind her back, things will be awkward for a few weeks, and then it will get back to normal. How is that a good thing? High school sucks at the best of times, and when you have friends like that it actually makes it really bad for some of the time, but that is completely outweighed by the fact that you've actually got friends, regardless of how they treat you. I don't know how to stop this happening, and really it's none of my concern, but I can't help but think back to a few non-friends I had in my earlier years of high school, and how much better my life was when I got rid of them and found the group I finished high school with. They think that they're different to us older generations, and I probably thought the same thing when I was their age, but they're not. History is repeating itself time and time again, and the only difference is that we've now entered the 'Bubble-Wrap' Generation, where you can't say any negative words to children (eg instead of 'don't run inside' you must say 'walking inside please') because apparently a child will just fall apart otherwise. I've got news for you, when they go out and get real jobs their bosses aren't going to say 'Walking inside please', they're going to say 'Don't run in here, that's a major OH&S violation, which you should already know from training. Do it again and you'll be given an official warning.' I can just see this generation falling apart at the seams every time someone tries to teach them anything in the real world.

That's my two-cents worth

If music be the food of... well, everything really...

I'm the type of person that's effected by music. That's why I can't settle on a few favourite bands, or genres, because it's not the bands or genres that influence me. Sometimes I like rock, pop, even country on very, VERY rare occasions. Classical is good if I'm really in the mood for it, and I like to sing along to 70's and 80's stuff (which prompts my mum to ask how I even know any of those songs considering I was born at the end of the 80's) if it happens to be playing. Sometimes an unpopular song moves me because of the emotion behind the singing, or the lyrics. Right now I like Muse, which is following a bit of a pattern for me, liking bands that do some rock, and then throw in a soft rock song somewhere in the mix (like Falling Away With You), and of course I'm really into Rob Pattinson, who proves that just because most of the time no one can understand what you're saying, it doesn't mean that your message won't get across. On TWILIGHT TILL DAWN, I found a song called Almost Lover, and it became an instant favourite. I always used to get annoyed, because when answering questions like “What's your favourite band/singer?” I could never actually answer, and I thought it was because I had no original thought. Than one day I was randomly talking to a guy about music and he said that rather than only listening to the music I also feel the emotion of the song, which is why sometimes I really don't like some songs on the Top 40 charts, even though they sound fine.

Here's a random little thought I wanted to throw in, though it was something I was considering a while ago. I believe that Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls would've been a good song for Twilight, not only because it has the right sound to it, but because the lyrics really represent Edward's story. It doesn't matter what the words meant when they were written, but what they could have meant in terms of telling Edward's story, from his point of view. No, I don't have a lot of time on my hands, I just randomly noticed it one day... :)

IRIS – THE GOO GOO DOLLS

And I'd give up forever to touch
Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now

And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breath is your life
And sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
All the moments of truth in your lies
When everything feels like the movies
Yeah you bleed just to know you're alive

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am

For a great take on all news Twilight and New Moon related, check out the TWILIGHT-HEADED blog, and follow them on Twitter: @SpankRansom
@Ginger_Swan
@MeadowC
@SpidrMonkey

As always, feel free to follow me: @ChrissiD


Images from a Google search, and lyrics typed by yours truly.

Hmmm, A bit of a Twitter rant...

I'd just like to know what the obsession is with Twitter. Or more specifically, what MY obsession with Twitter is. Is it the allure of the limited character count that prompts me to share my random thoughts, or is it the fact that I instantly feel closer to celebrities because I can send them a tweet in reply to their own random thoughts? It's hard to say really, but all I know is that I'm finding it very hard not to tweet about things like my fascination with Twilight, shows I've watched during the night, movies I'm thinking of seeing, or have recently seen, and of course my neverending cynicism about whether certain celebs actually have a Twitter account or not. Come on guys, it takes two seconds to update, we should all have it!! I find the fact that my obscurity and the fact that I've never been anywhere, nor have anything all that interesting to say. leaving me with only about nine followers, completely disheartening. One day I may just say the most brilliant 140 character thing ever, and no one will be around to comment on it's brilliance. What a shame for the rest of the world. Thus the sarcasm continues, because I don't really care if I'm followed or not. If I got all the people on my Facebook to join I'd probably be as popular as a Z-list Celebrity, but that's not really the point. People will follow me because my world views are what they want to read about. Until then, I'm just going to continue following celebs, and hoping that I'll have something to contribute to the ever-important world of Twitter...

Follow me on Twitter: ChrissiD where my latest comment about Australian weather is a must read...

Just another rant... continue life as normal...

Ah the beauty of a blog when one has nothing to write but still wants to. I suppose I could gripe about the fact that I have ten thousand plans for my life and I just can't seem to get one started, but I won't. Or the fact that one of my best friends is moving across the country at some unforeseeable future time, but again, I won't. How about the fact that one of my other supposedly good friends always comes to me when he's feeling down about his life and needs my reassurance? There's another no. Although so far this already seems like griping. It all doesn't really matter, I mean, these people matter to me of course, but that doesn't change the fact that I can do nothing about the situations at this point in time. I just need to get my own stuff done right now. I have an application to start a course I've considered doing over and over again but haven't gone for, that I sent a few days ago. Even though I'm a shoe in to get a place in the course it doesn't lessen the scariness of the situation. It's exciting too, though, it really feels like I'm starting to work towards what I really want, which is to move overseas for a while, and I can't do that without some sort of financially viable career, which is where the diploma course comes in. So it's all a nice, neat little package (as long as it all works out). Too vague for you? Oh well, I'm not one to go into specifics until I'm more sure of what's actually going to happen. It's sort of like the whole fairytale of making a wish, but not telling anyone because then it won't come true. Just in a more adult sort of way, less wishing, more doing.
In general I'm happy anyway, so it's all good. Though it's getting colder here by the day, but we are starting winter here in Australia, so naturally the whole drop in temperature makes sense. I do like the cold, but of course I can still complain about it, it makes it kinda hard to think when you're too busy trying to control the chattering your teeth make in the cold.
Random rant over, feeling much more inclined to go to sleep now (good old 12am).

Stay tuned in the next few days for part 2 of my Twilight analysis. Part 2: The Acting continued.

Laters

PS. Happy 23rd Birthday for the 13th May, Rob Pattinson. I hope you had a great, relaxing day, and that the fans left you alone a bit more to enjoy some quiet time.

It's time to escape from this one horse town... ;)

Do you ever get the feeling that change is coming? The kind of feeling that is strong, and confusing, because you can't really believe it's possible? Well, I've had that lately. It's strange, because I've started to accept that maybe the things that I most want in life will never happen, not in a depressed "why me?" sort of way, but more like "maybe it isn't SUPPOSED to happen for me" sort of way, because not everyone is supposed to get what they want. It's just that lately I feel like maybe I can change what's happening, and make my life a bit more interesting.
My main concern is the travel thing, really. Ever since I was a little girl I've been fascinated by the rest of the world, especially Europe (if I had to choose). I've studied all sorts of languages, and researched what exactly I'd have to do to go overseas, but it just hasn't happened for me. I keep hearing about all these people I knew in high school who have gone overseas multiple times since we graduated (damn Facebook constantly updating me on these things), and it just frustrates me that I can't seem to get it together. Yet over the past week I've been feeling like it's time to actually start planning and saving, and I'm feeling a pull towards England, so it looks like that might be where I'm headed. Who knows. I really want to believe that it's possible, but after spending so much time not believing in my ability to put events in motion I'm struggling to come to terms with facing what I want.
Anyway, I'm happy. Things may not always go the way that I want them to, but that hasn't truly bothered me for a while now. I think I've started down the whole "there are plenty of people worse off than me" road, and that's taught me that I can't let my own problems get me down. They still do, to a certain extent, but I'm not crushed by them. Plus, now that I look at it, I don't have too many problems to really worry me, and it'll all work out in the end.

I'm going to leave this with a quote that I really like, which doesn't have any relevance to the blog I just did, but I'm random, so it's inevitable.

Everyone says that love hurts, but that's not true. Lonliness hurts. Rejection hurts. Losing someone hurts. Everyone confuses these things with love, but in reality love is the only thing in this world that covers up all the pain and makes us feel wonderful again.

Laters

Two blogs in one day... NOW who's overtyping...

Okay, so this rant is about social networking sites. They're all the rage, obviously, and I've used a few of them myself over the years. I just thought I'd run through my own opinions on the ones I've been on, because hey, why not?
MYSPACE: This was the first site that I was on. It was good for finding friends, chatting, and I liked that I was able to customise my page. I made it very bright and colourful. Unfortunately there wasn't much else to do on it, so when I joined Facebook I realised that I really didn't need two chat sites with the same friends. I am thinking of going back to it, though, there's stil interesting things on it, like a lot of new musicians just starting out like to use Myspace to get started.
FACEBOOK: I like this one because it has a lot to do. There's games, quizzes, fan pages, etc etc. Unfortunately you can't yet customise pages, so they can look pretty boring. Plus the administrators have an annoying habit of reorganising the site every now and then, which stuffs up the site for a while, plus applications also enjoy stuffing up a lot.
TWITTER: This is my newest favourite site. I know at first it looks like just a chat site, which technically is, but it's fun to write random nonsense whenever you feel like it, and plus celebrities like to write random stuff every now and then too. Don't believe every page claiming to be a celebrity though, there are a lot of fakes around, but Twitter page valebrity sources out the real ones from the fakes, so they're an excellent page to follow. It's easy to use, and you can customise the background and theme colours, so it is a good site if you don't have that much time to waste on a larger site.
BEBO: Apparently I have an account on this, but I saw no reason to use it. It's another chat site, and yeah, it's become relatively popular, but it's not that interesting to me. Finding friends is annoying, and you have to be in the same school network or something to actually make friends with them. I think it's more for younger people, so I can't really be bothered with it.
Yeah, so that's it for me. There are actually a few other sites as well, I can't believe how many there are even though there's really no need for them, and I'm certainly not planning on trying them out any time soon.

The Official Christina D blog

Have you noticed how everything a celebrity does has to say 'official'? Now, I can understand that, of course, there are so many people out there trying to impersonate celebrities that it takes A LOT of verifying before a page can be trusted (if you're on Twitter check out valebrity for real celebrities twitter accounts). Well, I'm no celebrity, but this IS my official blog, so I may as well call it that. I'm still trying to decide where exactly this is going to lead, whether it turns into social commentary (although I don't pay that much attention these days so it may be just commentary about the 'one-horse town' in which I currently live), or just continues as ramblings that may or may not have a solid basis in reality. Either way, it's gonna be crazy.
I've looked at a couple of blog pages today, and they are FUNNY. Funny strange AND funny haha. See, if I wasn't here in Australia, away from absolutely anything of interest happening in the world I'd have a lot more to write. As it is I just have to write about my own life. Which reminds me. One of my best friends is thinking of taking a spectacular job offer in Perth. For those of you who don't know Australia, that's about 3700kms away from where I live, which is about as far as you can move away while still living on continental Australia. Totally not my fault, I SWEAR... Nah, it's a good opportunity for him, but seriously, the other side of Australia??! What's the deal?? Plus there's a lot more desert over that side!! I'm just saying, let's see how great he feels after moving there and dying of dehydration... Rant over, super happy for soon to be missed top 5 friend's list friend.
Omg, how did it get to be almost 1 o'clock in the morning??

Gotta go, sleep calleth the tired (look at that sentence, I AM tired)

Two random blogs and a loss of sanity...

So, I wasn't planning on writing a blog entry today, and I certainly don't plan on writing one everyday. That would be like trying to write a daily diary, which a lot of people do of course, but I remember the last time I attempted that, and it was basically a sentence a day. Having said that, it was in Year 8 in high school, and I'm not sure my writing skills were really at any great level by then.
It was a really funny day today, with the family over, and friends too. My friend's little boy is the most fascinating kid in the world. Four years old with the most exuberant little personality. He's smart, too. I know that when my siblings and I were kids we were called smart, but I just haven't met a smart kid in a long time (not that I actually know that many children), so it comes as a surprise. He kept telling me that I was under arrest, and when I asked what I'd done he said "Nothing, you're under arrest." If you think about it that's a pretty insightful commentary on today's society, not that that was his intention. He likes to call me his best friend, and he's already becoming a mini me. Like today I was talking in a range of different accents, I think I was feeling particularly silly with all the visitors there, and by the end of the day so was he.
Plus, my twin sister was over. I noticed that we seem to have these very "us only" conversations, that can occassionally include our younger brother, but don't really manage to include any one else. Just an observation, we're just crazy twins, what can you do about it? lol We certainly had fun entertaining our little half-sisters for a while. Unfortunately they have a lot more energy than us 21 year olds do, which made the resulting noise more annoying than cute. Plus the littlest one kept chasing my dog (Snoopy) around, and by the end he was hiding in the laundry. Our cat (Xyna) had the right idea. She hid somewhere in the house all day and wouldn't come out until everyone left. She doesn't like change. Any time we move something around, or mow the lawn etc etc she gives us a look as if to say "I did not grant permission for this change to occur." (Said in a rather haughty voice). Whereas Snoopy's like "Hey guys, love the new look. More exploring for me to do!" (Said in an enthusiastic voice).

Well, that's a short run-down of the days events. I feel like I had something to say, something potentially meaningful and life-altering... Or just random, who knows? It's so frustrating because I've been doing a lot of writing lately, but every time I have an idea I have to race to the computer, or write it on whatever I have handy. But with this I was like "It's all cool, I'll remember." HA! Good luck with that one genius. Don't worry, one day my rambling will make so much sense that everyone will appreciate the crazy lengths I took to get there...

Au revoir

The first day

Have you ever noticed how good it is to write a blog? It's a release, of course, and even though it's like writing a public diary, there's something really cool about it (Yes, I really couldn't think of a better word than cool...) These remarks are pretty random, right? As far as can be seen this is my first entry. But alas, I've already been writing a blog, but I decided it was time to start anew, on this particularly random, non-eventful day. So what do I write? Well, maybe about the progress of my other writing, or the fact that it took me all day to print that other work because my printer decided it wanted a day off. Ah yes, the fun times I've had because of inanimate objects that think they have rights. Most of the time I can handle technology, but if something goes wrong my tendency is to get frustrated if an easy fix cannot be found.
So anyway, the rest of the family is coming over tomorrow. Another chance for me to be defeaned by my rather rambunctious little half-sisters. If I were ever to wonder if I could handle having children, all I'd have to do is remember how I deal with them, and if I can cope with them I can cope with anything. They are great little characters, don't get me wrong, but they are very tiring.

Okay, okay. That's probably as far as the ridiculously colourful style of writing will go for today. I plan on writing an epic blog sometime in the future, but for now I should probably let someone else have the internet (stupid lack of functioning network connection at the present time).

Ciao