So again today I sat down to read one of the Olympian books, the third book, The Titan's Curse.  The first two books were like written crack, this one was good but not quite the same as the first two.  Not sure why, but it was good - don't get me wrong, I'm still very much a fan!

I liked that the author pointed out one of the crutches he was using and even gave it a reason for being used like that.  I am really starting to like Rick Riordan's style of writing and I just got wind of a new series he's doing using Egyptian mythology; I'm getting excited about this.

Back to the point - yet another good, vivid, read that I would suggest!

This last year my goals were far too grand and amazing for anyone to reach. I realize this now.  I have a tendency to push and expect great things from myself.  I get very motivated by being able to scratch things off a list so I'm going to set my goals lower so I can actually reach them instead of pining after something I'll  never be able to do.  I'm also letting this post stew in my edit bin until I'm really set on these goals.  Letting this post set has been so difficult, but I'm bound and determined that it will go out on January 1st! Now if only I could somehow make myself look at my blogs with blinders on....

Random Goals

Eat more fresh produce - I'm done with weight loss goals; I think instead I'll make good habit goals, like eating more fresh stuff.  Apples, veggies, etc - you get the picture!

Do something daily - Like, play my Wii Fit, or take a walk, or a job or something.  It's not so much for my weight or health as it's just something good to do for yourself.  I get a lot of great ideas on walks and it exposes you to new stuff.

Go to a parade - I think this one was on my last years goals, but I still really want to do this one.  Something big came up the day I was going to go to the St Patrick's Day parade and then I just never went to one so hopefully this year!!!

Get a family photograph - My mother commented about this the other day in my apartment; we only have one picture of the three of us together and that's at my graduation - and my dad looks annoyed that he had to even be there.  I'm hoping I can convince them to do something, it'll probably be a one shot ordeal and I'd like something outside, personally, but I'll settle for whatever I can get!

Organize and cull closet - If you saw my closet, you would understand.  I horde clothes, I just don't get rid of them.  I have about a ten foot walk-in closet, both sides have a hanging rack all the way back and one side has two; it's almost full - of clothes.  I want to organize it and cull it by 10%, not counting my band tshirts I think I want to make a quilt of.

Spiritual Goals

Stay faithful to one church for a year, volunteering in some capacity - I'm on track to do this, but I'm great at sabotaging myself.  Currently I volunteer in the youth group, media and the coffee shop and it's honestly too much.  I think I'll be forgoing the coffee shop and sticking with the youth group and media instead.  I really do like the youth group, it's fun and there's some kids I'm already getting to know, hopefully I can do more.  Media is a bit trying at Fellowship just because on the weekend I do media - it's ALL I can do, period.  It's that much of a time commitment.

Do a devotional book either solo or with someone or a group - I'm terrible about getting bored or frusterated with devo books or just finding them generally uninteresting.  I'm going to push myself to do one and not counting the one my Home Team wants to do; I don't think that should count really.

Music Goals

Go to more concerts.  Music is big to me - and I somehow forgot that in 2009.


Listen to more Christian music. Not because I think it's the only thing worth listening to, but because overall I'm questioning some of my priorities.

Find new groups. I really like discovering new things to listen to and haven't gone out of my way to do that this year.

Writing Goals


2010 NaNoWriMo - I had a great experience doing it in 2009 and I'd really like to do it again! Bring it on!!

Finish Premonition - December has been a huge trial on this goal already; I'm hoping that I can finish it instead of just leaving it hanging.  It's a good story and I want to get it out and on paper.

Edit Suspicion - This will be a beast; there will be so much rewriting involved I could almost say I'm just rewriting it completely but it's for the greater good, I swear!

Edit Premonition - I think this will be rather easy once written and once Suspicion is edited and ready to go.

Research for another project - I don't want to jinx this project by talking about it too much so I'll just say that I really want to research for this project and I hope to begin writing it, though I'm only aiming to start the research in 2010.

Outline for my Graphic Novel idea - I say only outline but I also hope to write some and start finding an artist or something for this.

Outline for Love Unexpected - this is a Christian novel idea, I wrote the first two chapters and didn't like them, though I really like the overall idea; I want to go back and better outline because I think it could be very good if done right.

Write something I believe in - I think this is self-explanatory; I want to write something this year I feel passionately about, that I think is good and I take pride in.


Complete another draft of a story - any of my ideas or something else - Really this is just me saying that on top of writing something I believe passionately about, on top of my NaNoWriMo '10, the other outlining projects, I want to write something in its' entirety so that in 2010 I will have written three complete works, not counting things I'm finishing from '09.

Reading Goals

Read at least two writing books - I'm getting a jump-start on this one; I have Stephen King's On Writing and Gail Carson Levine's Writing Magic on my to-read shelf right now and it's killing me to wait until January!

Read all the Robin McKinley books - I'm pillaging Half Priced Book stores looking for these; I'm up to four on my shelf right now, so it's a start!


Read something in a genre I'm not accustomed to reading - I tend to stick in my corner and read nothing else, I want to change that this year.  I have a few things sitting on my to-read shelf that aren't things I'd normally pick up.  I'm also going to try to read the Opera book club books which are never anything I'd pick on my own.

Act on more book suggestions; at least four - Really, I mean it! Except for the people who tell me I should read Twilight, I'm going to continue to ignore them.  I have my trusty little purple book, suggest something to me and make me write it there if I like the idea!

Crafty Goals


Learn three new knitting things - Post-NaNoWriMo there are some people who have shown some interest in getting together for crafty night stuff so I'm going to be pro-active about that and getting people together to do crafty stuff!  And I'm being totally selfish because a few are good knitters and I can learn from them, or just watch over their shoulder a lot until they get annoyed at me.

Have a successful patio garden - I tried this when I first moved to Irving, but my patio was terrible for this so it didn't work at all.  My patio now is awesome and will hopefully lend it's self well to raising stuff.  I'm excited!!  I know I need to get to work on this soon, at least deciding what I want to plant and getting seeds or starting stuff indoors - just wait till after Christmas, please?

Make Presents.  You heard me! I want to make presents for people this year more than just buying something.

Money Related Goals

Pay off Express Credit Card

Pay off Khols Credit Card

Both of these are very do-able and will free up a little money to put towards my albatross credit card I've had since I was 18.

I'm cleaning today. Aren't you impressed?  Anyways, I took a quick inventory of everything knitting I have in these two baskets that fit nicely in my entertainment center.  I discovered a few things I didn't know I had - or that I had started. 

A scarf. I have no memory of ever having started this scarf.  Or who it might have been for.  Anyone recall asking for an absurdly wide, black scarf from me? I think it's 30 stitches across.....which is the width I made my friend, Kevin's, green scarf.  This is perplexing.


I'm not altogether sure what I originally intended this to be - but now I will call this my throw-in-the-works.  It'll be a slow process, but someday I'll make this into a baby-blue throw, which I will probably give away.


I haven't the foggiest idea of what this should have been.  It's an orange bath mat, maybe? It's not even on needles....


....It's a very large black square.  I have no idea what this is for or why I did it.  Do you?


I think this is left over from that first batch of yarn I bought with the intent of making shifter colored things.  I'm wondering if I could take it back and exchange it for a color I would actually use.


Navy yarn for something I never started.  I could see a nice, navy scarf, perhaps...I'm not crazy about it though, but for some of the things I'll be trying to learn in the near future it could be good to keep around since I at least like the color.

I actually know why I bought this.  The idea was to make a shawl for my bride's maid dress in Danielle's wedding, but as you can see, it didn't really happen.  I'm thinking of unraveling this, rolling it and making a scarf to give away as a present at some point or perhaps keeping for something else.  The yarns not very soft, but it is pretty for a sparkly thing.


These are new. I just bought these....last week? Not even a week ago!  I want to use them to knit a stripy scarf; I really like the colors and it's a yarn I've never played with before.  I think it'll be really fun!


This is another new purchase.  I got it specifically because I want to learn how to knit this headband pattern with it.  It's super soft, lightweight yarn and I like the charcoal color.


This is a scarf for a friend who demanded a scarf...that I have yet to finish.  It'll be done someday and I actually like both the yarn and the knitting in the round thing; I anticipate it'll be what I finish after this birthday present I'm doing now...


This birthday present to be exact.  My friend just let the cat out that her birthday is this coming weekend; I won't be able to be there for it, but she's hinted that she wants me to make her something as well, so here we go! A homespun scarf in her absolute favorite color; red!  I'll probably stick in a movie today once I finish the cleaning I'm currently ignoring and knit away at this for a bit.


This basket is my new project basket.  It was actually part of a present from my boss and after coming home, yarn decided to live in it.  Currently it has the finished green scarf, the gray and blue scarf and the red scarf residing in it as things that need immediate attention.  I discovered it's quite handy for shoving in whatever I'm working on and sticking on the back of the couch or in an out of the way spot for when people surprise me and come over to play Wii.

This was a present to myself - a late Christmas present.  It was on the list of things I wanted but no one got it for me - so I got it for myself! I have this terrible habit of passing by yarn and grabbing needles and yarn - as if you can only use the needles once - and I've also been guilty of grabbing more than one set of needles in some size I already have.  This is my attempt to solve that problem; a nice, neat organized place for all my needles....even the size 17 ones.

Well, that's my Knitting Inventory!

This is a rant.  I will not really apologize for this.

It all started innocently enough; someone asked me what I was reading and I responded I'd just picked up The Sea of Monsters tonight by Rick Riordan and I'm about halfway through it already.  The conversation then proceeded to spiral downwards as one person launched into how terrible and cliche these types of books are.  Perhaps they are a bit cliche and silly - but they're teen-young adult books; they're going to be a little cliche.  Unnamed person continued to go on at length about how high fantasy books are awful and people need to write more real, gritty, bloody books.  This person went on at length and continued to be utterly intolerant of anyone else's view.  It then made me want to laugh outright because it was then announced that said person was writing a book from the viewpoint of a sarcastic college student who experiences some abnormal things; which means that said person is basically writing a dream book about what they wish their life is about.

I generally don't react well to intolerant people.  I think that while I don't like everything, I can learn from it and appreciate the value of something I don't necessarily like - to other people.  It's kind of a way I operate universally; opinions, beliefs, all of it.  I will offer my own opinions, views or what have you and when it's offensive I'll state this is my opinion, you might not like it, but I'll just express it this once.  This happens a lot with religion; I have a lot of friends who are not even remotely friendly to the subject.  I have had the conversation many times when I explain what I believe, that it's important to me that my friends understand that, and if they don't want to hear about it - okay - I can live with that, but at least saying it once is important.  I do it nicely, but everyone's respectful.  I don't berate people for having a different opinion than myself - even if I think it's hair-brained ridiculously stupid.  I do not, however, take well to people who believe their way is the only way for something to be done. 

Of course the one thing I do believe in whole heartedly that is the only way - is Jesus.  In my mind believing that Jesus is the one true Son of the Living God, who was killed, resurrected, and sits at the Right Hand of the Father is the one and only way to enter Heaven.  I can - however as much as it pains me - understand that not everyone shares my belief.  There are things that this belief dictates that I, personally, think are wrong or not permissible, but I can also understand that not everyone sees things the way I do - and I can love them despite that.

I think that intolerance is an issue.  We aren't a segregated country anymore, but intolerance still ferments.  It grows into something else.  I'm rambling now, so I'll stop and go clean.  Maybe I've said something of value here, maybe I've just ranted about something that makes no sense to anyone but me. Oh well.

Okay, so I read the previous book, The Lightning Thief, in about twenty-four hours. I dashed that record to pieces; I started reading The Sea of Monsters around 5pm when I got home, with a break to eat, and also a break to run to the pet store and finished reading the whole book around 11pm.  It's good.  It's infuriatingly good!  I wouldn't want to start it and put it down - I'd rather just devote a handful of hours and read the book straight through.

The characters are just as greatly crafted, the setting wonderfully vivid, and the plot intricate and surprising enough you actually have to think about some parts of it.  I like that.  I also wish I knew the formula for creating a page-turner like this.  I'm eyeing the next book in the series wondering if I should start it tonight, or tomorrow - or even hold off until Sunday....

Go read The Lightning Thief.

I've discovered the three places I get hit by the inspiration train. 

• In Bed. Either from the thoughts just before I go to sleep, my dreams, or whatever I'm thinking about when I wake up, these thoughts have often lead to a creative gold mine.
• While Driving. I do a lot of thinking, playing music and mussing through stuff here.  It used to be more pronounced but even now I get a lot of good ideas while driving and thinking and listening to music.
• In the Shower.  This has been the place to go for the last few weeks.  Don't ask me why, I don't understand it, but I get in the shower, washing my hair, and I'm slammed by ideas.

So yes, maybe I'm strange, but these are where I get a lot of my ideas.  Yesterday I was in the shower thinking about this vampire short story I was writing - and just had this awesome idea.  Okay, I think it's awesome.  Anywyas, I realize that using it will completely take it out of the short story realm and plop it into novel length, but it has potential and could go somewhere, so I'm going to put it on the back burner and plot it out a bit better and go back to working on Premonition in the hopes that I can finish it in January and start editing Suspicion.  I'd really like to get both in some semblance of neatness in the next few months, truth be told!

Last night I went to go see Sherlock Holmes, I think I'll make a semi detailed blog about it that critiques bits of it - overall I thought it was good but I was not in love with it like so many seem to be.

Finished V for Vendetta, will write up a review of it later - I highly suggest reading it!  [edit] Review done!

I'm not sure what to read next; if the book club book came in today I should really start on that, if not the next book in the Olympian series after The Lightning Thief might tempt me to read it.  It's actually not as thick as the first book, so it will probably hold me through the weekend - even with my brother in town!  We'll see what I pick out tonight I guess.

I keep forgetting I have a rabbit at my place now; she makes noises around her cage that my Chins do not and it keeps startling me.  It could be that she's on the opposite side of my apartment's living-room from the chins for temporary quarantine purposes; Chinchillas are rather delicate creatures.  I'm going to run to the store tonight to pick some stuff up for Lady Gray - the rabbit - since she came to me with a cup for water, not a water-bottle, and has special bedding that I don't use considering there's a tray in the bottom of my Chin's cage.

I finished the green scarf I was working on for a belated birthday present for my boss and have since started another homespun one in red for a friend's birthday - which will also be a late present considering she just told me when her birthday was....Ug! Maybe I'll get a lot done tomorrow on it....I can hope, right?

This morning I was late to work - I've been cutting it really close, but this morning I was straight up late.  This is not good. I think I'm going to start forcing myself to go to bed earlier and kick people out of my apartment at 9pm.  I have noticed that I cannot go from having people over to being in bed; I need an unwinding period where I sit down and veg for a bit to get myself to a point where I can actually get in bed; problematic I think.  The only solution I can see is creating a buffer time where people are gone and I'm alone to get stuff done or whatever.  It won't be fun, I know people are going to not be happy about it, but I need to be better on top of things for work; it is what pays my bills after all!

In completely random news: men's razors are by far more awesome than women's.  I heard it said, I doubted it, I tried it, and omg was I wrong! I was paying about $10 for a package of three of those silky razors which did a pretty good job but $10? It hurt me to buy them.  I paid $4 and got six razors and the results are by far much, much better.

Nathan B posts a blog about how even in the book industry - where authors used to be drunken, druged up loons, it's not tolerted anymore - go read No More A-Holes. Plot to Punctuatin wraps up it's 2009 with a list of the Top Character Development Ideas of 2009. Are you a moralist? What do you think about stealing?  Go hit up the Fuse blog about To Borrow or To Steal.

I will admit here and now that I am so very biased on this book.  I really, really, really am.  If you didn't like the movie, if you aren't an idealist, you probably won't agree with me and I'm okay with that.  Really, I'm okay with disagreeing - just do me a favor and don't rant about how much you hated it for some such reason.

First - I have not read a comic much less a graphic novel in a very, very long time.  The first 50-80 pages were a struggle because I was getting far too distracted with the pictures, the detail, and most certainly getting confused.  Then I hit a roll with it yesterday and read the rest of the book all at once it seems.

I really like how Alan Moore does the setting; I've heard and understand Watchmen is similar in that regard.  I just find the whole alternate setting fascinating, how it's conveyed and made real.  I do wish he'd said more about the rest of the world - but maybe I missed some of the more subtle details on that account by plowing through it like I am known to do.  I really liked how the portrayed The Shadow Gallery, a maze of rooms and places, each with a distinct purpose that resonated with the government and yet was his own.

The characters to me were difficult to keep track of - but I blame that on me and not the writing.  I liked V in the book as much as I liked him in the movie.  I liked Eve moreso.  He really conveys deep charicters very well and I thought I had a good idea of how each of them were different, who they were and their motivations.  After those first 50 pages I steadily figured them all out easier, except for a few pages where I had to flip around to remember exactly who whats-his-face was.

The plot - I still adore it, even more in the book. I thought the movie was sort of abrupt, how yes the government was gone - but what now? I like how the book gives a continuing idea of it's not just one man, one event, one house-cleaning, it's a steady, persistent process.  The story was riveting and had me really going.

If you like the movie - read the book. You'll probably like them both better after wards.

You ever have those days that you get up and get ready and it's effortless and you just look awesome? That's me today. Unfortunately I'll be in the office by myself all day today, and I only plan on being home tonight doing housey things after grocery shopping.

I had a very strange dream last night and I will blame a good portion of it on a conversation we had over dinner last night about my friends cousin dating an Asian girl and his parents trying to learn how to say her Korean name instead of calling her by the American name she picked for herself.  So last night I dreamed I went to an English boot camp and had an Asian boyfriend who was very tall.  It was rather weird, because in the dream I wasn't there for the boot camp but met all the people in it - the Asian guy was one of them.  Through a conversation it was decided I needed to quit my job and do the boot-camp and in semi seriousness the Asian guy asked me to be his girlfriend.  I started the boot-camp late and got poked at for not really knowing if me and the guy were dating or not but we both said yes ... and the rest of the dream was a montage of me studying note cards.  I don't even want to know what this dream means!

I'm working really hard on finishing the green, angel hair scarf I started in October. I utterly failed at getting it done in time, but if I'm lucky I'll have it done soon enough and can move on to finishing the navy and gray scarf I'm knitting in the round and after that I have another scarf request or two...loosing count here! I'd also like to attempt something else....for my own sake.

So my friend Jessica asked me to babysit her bunny for two weeks; looks like Molly and Polly are getting a neighbor!!!!

I'm getting back into reading my blogs religiously.  If you have some time, and love reading other real life, outrageous drama, read Robin McKinly's blog about what another author posted on Amazon; read the blog!  Writing Excuses has a new podcast/blog up on Tragedy.  Paperback Writer has some great tips on places looking for novel submissions.  When I first got turned onto the Guide to Literary Agents blog I was really into reading it and I've slowly gotten bored with it - but it's the things they publish like this article on an Authors Platform that make me keep following them; not amazing news, but interesting and useful.

Whew! Okay, so a recap of Christmas and this weekend...GO!

Christmas was good; the roads by 10:30am had cleared and after a few miles of careful driving I cruised the rest of the way to my family's place at about 50-70 mph.  Not bad!  We had lunch since I missed breakfast, then opened presents and watched movies.  I have to say, I rock at gift giving; it's the best part of Christmas for me.  I have low expectations for the gifts I receive because it seems that even when I give my mother a list she gets stuff that's not on it and likes to ignore the bold, underlined, italicized and circled stuff.

I got what I wanted most: a new camera.  It's a Kodack, while I'm not crazy about, but I never said anything other than I wanted one and I'm just happy to have it! And it's blue!!!  Thanks to that, I will now proceed to document everything else with pictures.

I swung by my friend Amanda's place and played some games with her family Christmas night before going home and crashing.

Saturday I put together and figured out my presents.  First up was my laptop table.  I'm not sure how useful it's going to be, but I'm sure that it will be infinitely helpful for writing and stuff later on, just not to use at my couch.

I also got to enjoy my yearly chocolate pie my grandmother makes me. It's sort of one of the highlights of the season every year.


I watched The Muskateer as well during all of this and I think I've seen the whole thing before - but never all at once.  I seem to recall something about when it came out about the person who did all the fighting choreography did a big named oriental movie - which it was kinda obvious.  It was an alright movie, but if I'm going to watch a Three Musketeers movie, I'll take the '93 version please!

At some point all of this was done with and two of my friends came over and we all went to go see my life long friend, Levi Weaver, play at Ridglea Theater.  It was super fun because Jenny & Tyler opened for him and the other opening acts were all super good as well.  I felt bad because Levi was really sick and it was kinda obvious, but hopefully he gets better.  Here's some pictures!