The REAL Reason

I don't know if you all were aware of this, but I wasn't exactly truthful about my reasons about why I hadn't blogged this week in my post last Wednesday night. I got a vote for #1 from my mom and a vote for #3 from Brandlyn... although she did add that if I go back, I should take her with me.

The true reason why I have not been blogging this week has a whole lot to do with my future. I've become very stressed over the last week over those two essays I have to write for my application into the UT school of communications. I was able to get both drafts done in the last week (one of them I did last Thursday and the other this last Tuesday. If it sounds like I'm cutting it close, that's probably true. I am one of those people who truly works and thinks better under pressure. The realization that I know I have to focus is the spark for me.

So I have been working on like a madwoman on them every day, several times a day. I have almost finished them and I will have them done by tomorrow night. They are due on Sunday (March 1) and after that I will be able to breathe easy and anxiously await my acceptance (or rejection) from them. I can only hope that they see that I would be a valuable addition to their school. In any case I have a spot at UT and that is good enough for me right now.

The whole stress of applying and waiting and being nervous about acceptance is sending me back to last year. This time around it is a lot less paperwork but no less anxiety and stress. I am looking forward to the end of the weekend already just to know that I'll be done with those essays and that it is completely out of my control from that point on.

My week has been completely encompassed by these two essays. They are always in the back of my brain. I was so relieved to get them out of my head and on paper - a process that only took about an hour and a half for each of them - but when I mentioned this to Mom, she told me that I had to remember that I have been planning these essays for two months now. So many hours have gone into these essays, not just the writing but the planning and the editing and I can only hope that they are the best that they can be by the time I submit them.

The only remaining thing that both of the essays need are strong conclusions. Conclusions are always the most difficult part of any essay for me, no matter the topic. (I think the only easy conclusions I have ever written are the ones in my fanfiction stories. It is always easy to finish a piece of fanfiction. On occasion it is bittersweet, but easy.)

I have given them a quick edit this evening and I think that I am done with them for the day. I am going to close the documents, crawl into bed with my laptop, watch a movie and then go to sleep. Tomorrow morning, I will open them up again and hopefully have good, strong conclusions for them.

I owe a big (huge, massive, humongous) thank you to my mom, who has helped me so much this week and through the whole process. She's walked me through the strengths and weaknesses of both essays so many times that she could probably recite them back to me now. She has been there to tell me that either "This part sucks" (though she never said it like that), "This is something you should emphasize more" or "This is great!" She's made me cry several times, but mostly just because she's so nice. She tells me how wonderful I am and how I don't need to worry so much because I'm a really good writer and I forget that fact a lot. (Thanks, Mom. I love you.)

-----

On an aside, Brandlyn and I were chatting while I was walking back from class, and she was remarking on how lovely the weather is, though we could do with a bit of rain. She told me, "I really want to buy some rain boots... but I don't think I'd ever get to wear them because it doesn't rain here!"

Maybe if she bought some wellies then it would rain. Get on that, Brandy. We need some rain.

Why I Haven't Blogged This Week

I apologize for not blogging so far this week. Here are a few reasons why I have not blogged. If you can pick the true story, you win a prize!

1) I was swept off my feet by a prince from far far away who took me to his kingdom where he apparently could not figure out how to slay his dragon. I used my sly cunning and great creative genius to tell him a perfect plan involving duct tape, spaghetti, and white board pens. Thanks to my plan, he promptly was able to slay his dragon and wed his princess. I, having of course fallen in love with the prince during my stay far far away, turned him and his wife into orangutans (because, of course, I am also a witch) and made them film several Tang commercials before I left and only just arrived home where I plan to air those commercials and hopefully make a bit of spare cash.

2) I was lounging around in my living room with Lawrence when there came a knock on my door. When I opened it, I was immediately abducted by aliens who looked like the brass instrument section of an orchestra. They took me into their saxophone shaped spacecraft where I was tortured for hours a day with badly tuned instruments and off-tempo quartets. When I finally cracked and spilled the information that I thought they wanted, they stopped and told me that what they really needed was a director for their orchestra. It turns out they were trying to impress, not torture me! I wiped the tears off my face and immediately began shaping up the brass section aliens and even negotiated with other alien nations and united their people with the wind aliens, string aliens, and percussion aliens and have since successfully united their people into one glorious orchestral alien population. Now they all live in harmony and perform every Thursday and Friday nights at the Martian Bar third star from the left. After being so successful at uniting their people, the aliens were unhappy to let me go, but I told them that I had deadlines to meet and so they reluctantly left me back on my couch.

3) I was creating an alphabetical list of the population of the Earth when I happened to glance over at my bookshelf. A strange portal-like object was forming in front of the books! I was curious, of course, and so naturally I stuck my face into it. I was then sucked into it! Except when I got there, the people in the alternate dimension said they hated me and sent me right back! I was tossed back into my living room (with a thunk that probably annoyed my neighbors downstairs) and immediately started researching and planning something that I came to call my Dimension Offensive. I wanted in on that alternate dimension! I wanted to meet Harry Potter and Frodo, and since they didn't exist in my dimension they had to exist in that one! Using my fabulous researching skills (I am still in school...) I figured out how to trigger the portal opening again (it turns out that you have to write "Chuck Norris" backwards) and forced my way into the alternate dimension, where I promptly wreaked havoc and launched my Dimension Offensive into full effect! The people there eventually surrendered, named me their queen and I finally got to meet Harry Potter and Frodo. I requested to meet Legolas, but he was busy brushing his hair. I reigned supreme for several years at which point I got bored and went back home. Though I had been in that world for years, time moves differently there and so I only was gone for three days.

One of those three reasons is why I could not blog this week... but which one is it?

Meet Lawrence

Guys, I have someone for you to meet.

My faithful laptop of two years, Jessi, has officially kicked the bucket. She's been with me many places - Europe and New York, to name two - and unfortunately she met her demise yesterday when I was so stupid as to spill milk on her. (But, as they say, there is no use crying over spilled milk!)

Today, after much discussion, Mom and I decided that it was worth getting a new computer. We had been planning to get me one for next year, but it seemed that gravity and karma had another idea. So farewell, Jessi. You've been good to me.

I would like yall to meet Lawrence!


Lawrence is an HP (my first HP. I've only had Dells up to this point). He is a Pavilion DV5 Notebook, he is brown all over (which I find a nice change from black and silver) and he has simply charmed me into loving him. He has about a billion hours of battery life (well, almost 7), has a 15.4" screen and is so beyond fancy that I am just elated to have him. I went to Best Buy this morning and spent a long time debating over whether I wanted another Dell or if I wanted to go with the HP. In the end, I went with this one. (A major factor of not buying the dell was that it had a 17" screen... I can't imagine lugging that thing to class every day!)

He's pretty on top, too!

So from now on I will be blogging and facebooking and tweeting (and of course, taking notes!) from Lawrence. Hopefully, he'll last me a good long time.

Just Lookin Around

My week has been extraordinarily ordinary. Tonight, I bring you a tour of Things That I Can See from where I am sitting.

I can see the one dish that I forgot to do about half an hour ago. (Abby and I made spaghetti tonight.)


I can see my iPod. My favorite game right now is the Helicopter game... which apparently I cannot play while looking through my camera. (I died right after this.) My high score is around 6204. Yay! The object is to navigate the helicopter through the little barriers. There's a web version here. (Warning: don't click the link unless you want to get addicted to it.)


I can also see my iPod wallpaper. Isn't it cute?!


I can also see the new sheet music I printed out yesterday. It is from the Twilight score, and it is Bella's Lullaby. It is simply gorgeous, and really easy to play. Here's a link to someone playing it on youtube. I am hoping to memorize it so I can just break it out sometimes and sound impressive.


Also around me... two full shelves of books. I am pleased with my bookshelf.


I love my watch. It's really cool. I love the glass, because it looks like a gem! The only downside is that I can never see the time in the dark, because the light can never get through every facet at once.


I also love my husband. He's always there for me, through thick and thin; good days and bad days. He's extremely supportive, and soft and squishy, too. He always lends an ear and a nice place to take a nap. Abby has tried to borrow my husband, but I won't let her. Like most husbands seem to, mine lives on the couch in front of the TV.


So that's my tour! Now you can't bug me to blog. Maybe something relatively interesting will happen tomorrow, so yall can have some good reading material!

OH I just remembered some good reading material! I wrote one of my essays to apply to UT. It took all of an hour just to smack down on the paper... and I've gotten a start on the other one... so hopefully those will get done this weekend.

A Blog about Rusty (and Carly) and Knitting

(Rusty is helping me blog tonight!)



Tonight I am babysitting for Rusty, my favorite babysitting charge, and when I showed up today I was met with a new, sweet, and fuzzy nose at my knee.

Rusty (in the month that I have been at school in San Antonio) has acquired a rescue dog and named it Carly. When asked why he named her Carly, he said, "I don't know - it just kinda came to me."

Carly is a sweet little doggy, about seven months old. Her birthday is July 21st. The poor dog has some arthritis problems and had to have surgery about a week ago and so she is stuck looking like a flashlight for a while.



(Somehow, I think looking like a flashlight looks better than a baked potato.)



Carly is brown and white and she has a cone on so she doesn't worry her stitches from her hip surgery.

Tonight, Rusty and I have played with cameras and also played a round of Old Maid. We also played 'Naptime' which is my favorite game. ;) We then proceeded to make those paper fortune tellers... but we usually never actually finish them. We usually fold the paper, unfold the paper, and then draw all over the triangles!



(Now, an hour and a half later, I've put Rusty to bed and Comedy Central is distracting me from doing homework that desperately needs to be done. Yuck.)

This afternoon was awesome. I went out to lunch with Mom and Aunt Leslie and we met at Waterloo, which is always good. (Except for that one peppercorn blue cheese burger I had. It was pretty heavy on the peppercorn.)

This afternoon, I went to a "Texas Loves Ravelry" afternoon at the Knitting Nest, which was a celebration and thanks for the team that runs the website Ravelry. There were prize givings, lots of people being social and (of course!) lots of knitting. I spent two or three hours there, finished a sock, bought some delicious malabrigo sock yarn with the money that Gramma gave me for Valentines day (Thanks, Gramma!) and actually won a doorprize of a little toy, some lovely mahogany straight needles, and an alpaca and wool Cascade blend that is purple and would make lovely mittens. (I think they will become mittens. They are calling to me...)

The house is quiet now, and I have some more homework to get done now.

Pluto, and my opinion of it

For Brandlyn, who gave me the heads up when the moon was just perfect.


Now, onto other things. Some of you may have noticed that I've had a lot of tests this week. It's true, but I am no worse for wear. I just hope that next time all of my professors don't hold another "How can we make life more difficult" meeting when it comes to test dates. Four tests in three days was not a pleasant experience for me.

This morning I had my French exam, my last exam of the week. Based on the chapters, I (and the rest of the class) anticipated it to be a really hard exam, but the reality was completely the opposite. It was a three-part exam. A 5 sentence composition started it off, then a 20 question listening comprehension section, and then 30 multiple choice questions. I was able to finish the composition and get nearly the entire way through the multiple choice questions before my professor started the listening comprehension part, and then after that I had to go back and finish four questions. And voila!

After the test, I was looking forward to the "break" that I would get in English, where I could finish writing my essay on the Demotion of Pluto. Oddly enough, I actually consider in-class writing as a break. It's easy, and the professor doesn't expect a perfect argument or anything. My take on the issue was this:

Pluto is not a planet and the likelihood is that the ruling will stand, even if the methods were a little less than satisfactory. The guy who discovered Pluto in the early 30s was - let's face it - basically an intern; an untrained guy who was paid to search the sky every night for the theoretical "Planet X" while the real astronomers probably drank coffee and talked about the economy in the break room. While the decision in 2006 was ridiculous (Since when has science ever been a majority vote?), too many bodies of Pluto-like size are being discovered in the Kuiper Belt every year. We've got a spacecraft (called "New Horizons") flying out there right now, which is supposed to get to Pluto in 2015, and we'll know more about both Pluto and the Kuiper Belt then. However, as much as everyone moans about the unfairness of it all, Pluto doesn't care. He's a chunk of rock. What should be more important is focusing on creating a definition of planet, be it a single definition or a multi-part definition. A lot of words have multiple definitions based on circumstance - why can't 'Planet'?

Sorry, Pluto. You're stuck being a Dwarf Planet.

Lucky

All of you guys know how much I love my camera and it's fantastic zoom. I've taken a few photos of the Moon over the past few months and finally remembered that tonight was the full moon, and I haven't ever gotten a picture of that. So I added it to my "To Do" list and hoped for a good night - maybe even a good photo of the moon rising over the horizon. Unfortunately, my dreams were put to rest by this freak rain that occurred this morning. Of course we need the rain, we've been in a drought for nearly a year and a half now, and I am very glad that my shoes finally met some mud on the way to school this morning... but I was honestly very disappointed that it was cloudy and overcast all day. I went out earlier this evening and couldn't even see where the moon was - though I could guess. Mom even blogged and gave me a photo of the moon from where she is. (Thanks Mom!) And I waited, and waited... watched the Daily Show and the Colbert Report and then saw my camera sitting sadly on the table. Waiting. Mourning, even.

I ducked outside (just in case) and saw that the moon was out and only covered by a thin layer of hazy clouds! So I dashed back in, grabbed my Fancy Camera and my tripod and set it up... et voila!


The moon, la luna, in all her glory. I hope to get out there on a perfectly clear night someday and get a really, really good and clear shot... but for now I am perfectly happy with this lovely, if hazy, full moon. I kind of like the haze effect, though. Don't you?

(So Mom... think you can blog about how I completely failed all my exams this week? Because if you do, with this 'moon logic' it means I'll ace them.)

On Writing, Pluto and a Question

Last night, I spent a good long time talking with Siobhan on MSN messenger. She's one of my absolute best buds and the only person who I rely on to edit for me. Our friendship and our longstanding writing buddyship makes us perfect for editing each others work. We both know exactly what the other really wants to say and what message we want to get across and I can't ever really express how grateful I am to her for her work on my stories. We compliment each other's styles in a way that I will probably never understand!

I love talking writing with her. Most of the time I feel like she is the only person who I can talk to about it, and I love when we can have long conversations like we did last night. We run story ideas by each other all the time. Somewhere around 2 in the morning, I remembered about this story that I had thought up about four or so years ago and I ran the idea by her - just to see what she thought. (She loved it, of course! :D) I reread what I had done in 2005, and decided that giving it another shot would be a good idea and this afternoon, in amongst the laundry, I started drafting a collection of short stories. It feels good to write my own stuff. Real good. It requires a whole other set of thinking, though, to sort out all the possibilities. Fanfiction is so much easier, in my opinion! I'll write it out and keep yall updated, cause I think that once I get it right they'll be worth something.

I've been procrastinating this afternoon. I had to do some small research for an in-class essay that I have to write in English on Monday and Wednesday, and I decided that I'd choose a topic I was interested in: Pluto's Demotion. It took absolutely forever to find some good articles, but in the end I did. I ended up finding four good ones, and now I just have to skim them over and glean what information I can from them before I have to write about it. If this were more than an in-class essay, I'd attempt to prove whether Mars is a planet or not, (there is debate!) but I guess that's a discussion for another time.

I have a question for yall! I made a potential new banner for the top of the blog. What do yall think? Like it or not? (I think it's hilarious, except that yall might not. It's making fun of that really odd review I got that I mentioned in my last post. ;) )


I've got another cute one rolled up my sleeves. If yall have any ideas for blog banners, I would put them up there!

Well that's enough of that. Writing, essays, and banners were my only important topics of the day!

(Tee hee hee! I just clicked the "Check Spelling" feature up there, and the only words that it found wrong was "MSN", "buddyship" and "yall"... except that it found 'yall' five times. I love that word.)

An Expose of Reviews (AKA How To Review My Story)

Dear Readers on FanFiction.net,

I understand that you are busy, but now that you have read the chapter I have posted and I would greatly appreciate it if you would click on the button that says "Review this chapter!" and type something nice in the box.

It doesn't take long, and I love it when you do. However, there are a few guidelines I would like to share with you. (Names have been omitted for their safety, I suppose. All excerpts come from the "Not Knowing" list of reviews.)

This is not a good review:

It says nothing to me. It neither informs me of what I want to hear nor what I could possibly improve on. (Want to know what's even better? The same person reviewed every single chapter past chapter 10 with this review. That, my friends is 22 reviews of "Nice chapter." and I consider that spamming.)

This is also not a good review, but a little better.

The reason I don't appreciate this review is that there is no punctuation. And, like the last review, it's got no real content.

This is a pretty bad review, too:

I question whether or not you actually read the chapter, and that does not make for a very happy author.

However, not all reviews I receive are bad! Here is a better one.

In this, they very kindly told me that they read my stuff, but don't always push the button to review. I appreciate knowing that they're out there and, of course, I will keep writing for these people who occasionally pop up and tell me that they love me.

Also in the "Slightly better" category, you can find these kinds of reviews:

They try and appeal to my sense of pity and beg for more. This, however, does not make me improve at all. If you could improve your review, maybe I could improve my writing?

This is also an alright review. I'd take this, if anything.

However, they spelled "amazing" and "excellent" wrong and there is no capitalization at all... but other than that, they flattered me. They could improve on their wording a bit but overall, I appreciate these reviews.

And then, there are reviews that really flattered me (and still do), but could improve in the overall quality, such as this one.

Crystal Snowflakes is an amazing fic-writer, and when I received this review it practically sent me into spasms of delight. However, the all-caps thing and the 'byez' sends me into slightly less pleasant spasms.

Some reviews skip flattery and go straight into bribery.

And some reviews are just plain strange.

(There was more, but the indefiniteness of the screenshot should explain it all. To this day, I continue to use this review as a way to make me smile.)

And finally, here are the good reviews. These are the ones that make writing and putting myself out there worth it:

Thanks, person. You made a good point. I appreciate knowing that little part of information, especially because at age 14, I didn't know that little tidbit of information either. Glad you could point it out.

And then there's this one. (Well, an excerpt from it, since it was five paragraphs of solid constructive criticism.)

You know what? I want to kiss them. This review was one of the first reviews I ever received and it made me reevaluate where I was taking the story. It made me make better choices as a writer and made me eventually continue the story.

My dearest readers, you think that I am making fun of you, and I probably am, but I hope this brief guide to reviews has helped you make better choices.

So in conclusion, read it, review it, let me know if you love it or hate it.

Love, Stefanie.

P.S. Just because I am of a devious mind, I am going to show you Siobhan's first review to me and hopefully she will be mortified (or at least a tad embarrassed) at her shameless self-pluggedness at the end there. ;)

P.S.S. I have received really awful, vulgar reviews and for the sake of the relative cleanliness of this blog, I decided not to include the insulting ones. They aren't worth anything, but I wanted to let you know that not everything that I have received has been good.

iTunes and Taken

Wondering where I've been? Not writing my essay, thanks for asking. I got a flood of emails and calls from yall, giving me all sorts of advice... and I really took it to heart. Thanks, guys. It means a lot to me to know that you're out there and care about me so much.

What I have been doing is putting off my work with a honed expertise. It's not procrastinating if I actually intend to do it, is it?

Last night, I decided - because I had no imminent work due the next day - that I would do a little bit of a weeding and cleanup-yness of my iTunes library. Those of you who follow me on Twitter (which is everyone, of course! Right? Right?) would have seen a lot of iTunes related tweets last night. Nearly five hours worth of tweets, actually.

I wiped my entire library clean. All of my music is on my external hard drive now. Want to know exactly how much music I have? (The 'five hours' clue should have been an indicator, by the way.)

I have this many!

(Ooh lookit my fancy screenshot clip! I just discovered that I can do that like a month ago. :D Boy, I wish I could do screenshots of life. Oh wait, that's my camera. Speaking of which, want to see something funny?


Am I really? Driving on a road? Thanks Gladice. You are a very informative GPS system and I appreciate how hard you work for me.)

Anyway. Did you see those numbers? I have thirteen and a half days worth of music. That, my friends, is 324 hours 55 minutes and 23 seconds worth of music. So no wonder it took so long to get all of that into my library! (Ooh, and did you catch the part where I said that I weeded my library? As in, that's the music that I want in my library, not even the stuff that I don't care about and never listen to.)

But wait, you think the fun stops there? No, my friends. It gets even better! Now that I've weeded and sorted it on my computer, I have to get it back onto my iPod! But first, I have to download the new software update (15 mins), put the new software update in my iPod (30 mins), wipe my iPod of the old stuff (7 mins), and put everything back on to my iPod (4 hours).

(4 hours is how long it took me. Time includes walking to and from class.)

And that, my friends, is my story about iTunes. Want to know what else I was talking about in my title up there?

Mom was nice enough to drive down here this evening and we went out to dinner (it was alright - nothing spectacular) and to see a movie. Tonight's choice: Taken. We probably wouldn't have seen it, except that my french professor offered extra credit if we went and saw it and wrote a short paragraph about it (in French) to turn in by tomorrow. (The movie was filmed in Paris and was directed by a French guy - Pierre something.) It was really frustrating to write the paragraph in French, especially because I kept diving into my brain and bringing up how to write it in Spanish. I could have written a whole essay about it in Spanish... but in French I only know the present and past perfect tenses. (Past perfect = "I have been here".) It makes for a very entertaining time of rephrasing and inventing new ways to say things.

The general consensus is that it was a good movie. When we came out of the movie mom said, "You're never going to Europe again." A joke, of course, but I am glad that that movie did not come out before last summer... I think Mom worried enough about me as it was! I am glad that I was able to see Taken in the theater - I don't think you can get the same experience on a smaller TV. (Plus, Liam Neeson's voice - oosh. He could read me the phonebook and make me weep.)

Well, Mom's called me and told me that she's home and I'm finished with all of my work for the night... So now it is time for me to take a shower and get to bed!

Aaaaaaargh!

I don't frequently want to bang my head against a wall, but this is one of those unfortunate infrequent moments.

My history class was canceled this afternoon and I decided that I would grab a coffee and smack my arse down in a chair and start to write, at the very least plan my essays that I have to write to get into the UT School of Communications. I need to write a "Describe an issue in your community," and a "Statement of Purpose" essay.

I am drawing a blank, and it is the most frustrating blanks I have ever drawn. I know that I have time (a month) to write these essays, and that if I smack them down now that I can spend the next month sending it to my family members and having them critique and edit it... but I just cannot find the words to write.

Finding the words is something I pride myself on. I've always got the words when I write. I haven't had trouble writing an essay since... well, probably since last year, when I had to write essays to apply to colleges.

Right now, I feel like everything I write is just ridiculous, or stupid, or not going to impress them. I know that I am a good writer and I know that I have what it takes to get into this school, but suddenly, faced with the fact that I have to impress these people, I am balking.

So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find a wall.

Sneaky Me!

Mom would laugh if she could see me now! I am, at this very moment, typing from my old laptop in my hallway and I cannot believe that I even tried to resurrect this thing. I turned it on about fifteen minutes ago and it has been thinking very hard for the entire time.

So, a bit of back story.

I am in Austin right now... surprised? So was Mom. I decided this morning that I would drive up and surprise her at the superbowl party Mike was hosting. When I got there, most everyone had arrived, and so they were all enjoying drinks in the kitchen... and poof! Around the corner comes Stefanie.

Mom looked at me for a good seven or eight seconds before she realized that it was me and that I was actually there. It was priceless - exactly what I had hoped would happen! I could see the cogs staring to turn in her brain as she connected two and two together. I am glad that I was able to surprise her. She missed me, I missed her, and we a ll had a good time tonight... even though we were all rooting for the carinals to win!

Tomorrow morning I will be heading back to San Antonio (who was that guy on the Steelers team... Santonio something? I think I'm going to start calling San Antonio that!) and I am sure I will blog then.