Woah, Where Did November Go?

It has been about a month since I last posted, but in my defense it has been a ridiculously crazy month. First of all, it was Nanowrimo so every time I thought about posting here I would feel guilty because that writing time really should go to that. Nano, by the way, went pretty well. And when I say pretty well I mean that I managed to finish by writing 30,000 words in the last 3 days of November. I just barely managed to finish by hitting 50,000 words at 11PM on November 30th, but hey! I still finished :D Then, my classes went into insane mode (despite the fact I had my midterms in October) because I had a bunch of projects and just... insanity. The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 premiered (although, really, that's more of a reason to blog than not to blog) and I've just been attempting to keep up with my life. I also seriously considered switching my major, but now I think I'm back to sticking with my major but perhaps switching an endorsement or two.

Which reminds me, they make it way to difficult for people to become teachers (in my opinion). Don't they want more teachers? Or is this some failed attempt to try and get smarter people as teachers? Admittedly, I had some really amazing and really intelligent teachers throughout my compulsory public school career. Then again, I also had some really under qualified and not very intelligent teachers. However, I really don't think the number of loopholes you have to jump through in order to become a teacher makes it so you get smarter people as teachers. I think the ones who are smart will jump ship, and then you just get the ones who aren't smart enough to realize they should leave and the ones who are smart but crazy enough to stay. I'm hoping I fit in the latter category, because for some reason elementary/middle school teaching still seems to be the path I'm choosing. I did pay $85 to register to take some state required test in order to get into the teaching program at my school, so that right there shows some decisiveness. $85 though XD

So now, I'm currently hanging out in my apartment that has been very excellently decorated for Christmas (complete with lights, fake fireplace made out of paper with stockings hung by it, Christmas tree, two mini trees, nativity scene, and more tinsel than someone should own) on a Friday night, trying to decide what project I should work on or what final I should study for. Mostly this is because it seems like everyone I know already has plans or has to work, so I'm just hanging out here like a lemon.

Oh! Speaking of being lame and hanging out by myself I bought World of Warcraft the other day as a "Yay! You finished Nanowrimo!" present. In my defense, it was purchased because I told a friend I would play it with him over break (so, see, I'm using it to be social with people I know) and because they had a crazy deal to buy $90 worth of World of Warcraft for $20. So, I was already planning on buying it, AND THEN they made it super cheap. Sign from the universe. I haven't bought a subscription for it yet, though. That's going to be my, "Yay! You're done with finals and fall quarter!" present to myself. And I fully realize that's probably why they made the game so cheap, because then you'd be roped into paying them your soul $15 a month for the rest of your life when you wanted to play it.

On that note, I'm going to end it here. I've posted quite a few videos on WeThreeChallengirls this month (including one HERE at the Harry Potter movie premier) and I also posted a video on my personal channel today that I meant to edit and post a month ago where I show you the part of my yarn stash that I have at college. That video is HERE. Watch those if you have the inclination, and I will see you in a month next time :D

Wait, it's November?!

Haha, oops. Look at that. October just kind of flew by, didn't it? Well, it did for me anyway. My life got a little crazy with school (and midterms), social life, and just general life-ness. I definitely thought a lot about blogging, but a lot of it came down to not being interesting enough to say, or me not being sure how to put it into words. Meh.

However, this month is November, which means I have lots of things to put into words! 50,000 of them to be specific. For those of you who don't know, I'm doing Nanowrimo (stands for NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth). Nano, during the month of November, is a huge online-based challenge where everyone participating tries to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. You can write more than that (or less than that really) but the somewhat arbitrarily picked number by the folks over at http://www.nanowrimo.org is 50,000. You can view my profile and progress HERE at this link. I'm a little behind right now at almost 5000 words, but every year since 2007 I'm always behind the entire month. But then I write 30,000 words over Thanksgiving break. Makes me wonder how much I could write if I had more time to devote to it. I'm going to try and be less behind this year, but since I'm getting The Force Unleashed II and Fable III from my brother this weekend, my free time is going to be a little... divided. Plus, my homework is only building on itself, so what free time I do have is limited enough in itself.

Speaking of which, homework is really what I should be doing. I'm currently trying to write a paper for my Japanese class (in Japanese) about this book called The Pillow Book written in the early 990 in Japan by a woman we don't actually know the name of (it's attributed to a Sei Shonagon, but Shonagon is a title based on her position at court and Sei was gotten from her father, so no one knows what her real name was). I've been enjoying my research a lot as I'm super into literature (especially classic literature, big surprise), but I'm getting a little intimidated by the paper. But tonight I will start to conquer it! Hopefully. Maybe.

This could be interesting.

See! Look! I have excuses!

Oh, blog. I feel I have neglected you. But my schedule has been crazy! Seriously, look at this awkwardly screen captured picture of my schedule!

Not to mention the increased travel time it takes to get to class compared to last year, increased time for food making and chore doing (dishes, etc), need for alone/me/fun time, a social life, early morning trips to the rec center, and then pile on mounds of homework and you've got quite the full schedule. I'm not sure how I'm going to manage nine (eight? I can't remember) more weeks of this, but I'm sure I'll manage. I always seem to.

But, October just started and I LOVE October. That slight chill in the air, pumpkins, pumpkin spice lattes, increasing ability to drink tea and wear scarves, impending holiday season starting with Halloween, and the fact that it's Nanowrimo preparation month! Yes, I know. I'm crazy. I have officially declared October to be "Prepare for a month of crazy noveling"-month. I feel it's necessary, even though the preparation is more mental as I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm writing about this year. It's actually a sequel to my first Nanowrimo novel, so it'll be interesting writing a sequel.

In other news, I really enjoy walking. Yes, it does take at least 30 minutes to get to my classes from my apartment due to the fact my classes are in school buildings about as far away as they can be from my apartment, but I enjoy those 30 minutes. The weather has been so nice lately, it almost seems ridiculous not to walk (if I have the time). There have been a few mornings where there just would not have been enough time to walk, so I took the bus. Still, I'm hoping to keep up this walking habit while the weather decides to keep up the nice-ness of it.

And, I realize this is another quick post, but I really do need to go read some Native American poetry for my English class. I admit that I spent all day yesterday playing Halo and watching TV and movies instead of doing homework, doing laundry, getting groceries... so now I'm paying the price.

And I forgot to buy aluminum foil for the recipe I wanted to make for dinner. Fail.

Trying To Figure Itself Out

I find I get the best bouts of inspiration at ungodly hours. Namely, those hours being after the time one should be in bed if that person wants to wake up before noon the next day. If I decide to wait until the morning to climb out of my bed and turn on my laptop in order to take advantage of the inspiration, it's gone by the time I wake up. If I decide to stay up and take advantage of the inspiration, I feel awful and will refuse to do anything the next day. My muse is evil. Or amused with him/her/itself. Or both. Yes, probably both.

Last night was one of those nights after I watched The Young Victoria with Emily Blunt playing Queen Victoria. A friend recommended the movie to me, and after I watched the trailer I knew I had to see it. Plus, I have LOVED Emily Blunt sine I watched her in The Devil Wears Prada. Thankfully, it's on netflix play instantly at the moment (I freaking LOVE that part of the service) so I watched it. I really enjoyed the movie and, according to Wikipedia, it seems somewhat historically accurate (although a few things are changed for the purposes of drama as all movies based on historical events are). Although, it's odd because Prince Albert is played by the same actor who plays Mr. Wickham in the recent Keira Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice. Except, the guy is absolutely adorable and awesome from the moment he appeared on screen, and I instantly wanted to marry him. If you're into movies like Pride and Prejudice, or any sort of period drama with a bit of romance, you should check this one out. I'm tempted to watch it again right now actually. Again, I know I love a book/movie/story when I want to start writing after I watch it, so this one is going into the favorites.

Speaking of writing, the rewrite is going surprisingly well. I thought I would hate rewriting it, but I'm loving how the story is changing and morphing into something better as I go along. This attitude will probably change once I hit those lovely moments of getting stuck, but for right now I'm having fun with it and not minding the whole rewriting thing. I'm not sure what will happen with the rewrite when November comes and I attempt to write its sequel (which has been in my head since shortly after I wrote the first one for Nanowrimo in 2007), but it'll probably just go on hold until December.

In other news, I have finally started using the crafting blog I set up ages ago. If you ever looked at my profile and saw a blog called "Stardust Stuff" sitting there doing nothing, this is what it's meant for. You can find it at http://starduststuff.blogspot.com/ where I've currently got an introductory post set up. Check it out if you're interesting in my crafting adventures.

I'm not sure when the next time I blog will be as I'm going camping with the lovely Chelsea this week, but when I return there will be tales of epic road trip adventures! Or complaints about how it always rains when you go camping in the Pacific Northwest. Or both. Yes, probably both.