Tuesday, January 31, 2012

I Get All Gushy And Embarrassing On You.

"The circus arrives without warning.

No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

The towering tents are striped black and white, no golds or crimsons to be seen. No color at all, save for the neighboring trees and the grass of the surrounding fields. Black-and-white stripes on grey sky; countless tents of varying shapes and sizes, with an elaborate wrought-iron fence encasing them in a colorless world. Even what little ground is visible from outside is black or white, painted or powdered, or treated with some other circus trick.

But it is not open for business. Not just yet."

One hundred points if you know where this came from. 

Also.... I love you all. Thank you for bothering to read this blog. Thank you for being here. I know that it's been dreadfully boring from the start, but just.... thank you.

The few of you who read this don't go unnoticed (mostly because I'm religious about checking my stats bar).

Monday, January 30, 2012

Post-NaNo Slump Is OVER.

I'm finally writing (seriously writing) for the first time since December 1st--one day after NaNoWriMo finished for 2011, and Chris Baty (founder!) declared that it was his last year as Executive Director of the office of Letters and Light.

I had the post-NaNo slump. The slump that everybody said that I was going to have when NaNoWriMo finished.

Would you believe me if I said that I didn't believe them? I was all like, "Haha that's what people say. People who don't work under deadlines and have a hectic schedule."

"I don't have a hectic schedule, though!" I wagered. "I homeschool. That's the very definition of free time."

I got the post-NaNo slump despite the Keep-it-going-1,000-words-a-day nonsense going through my head.

I think it was because I was writing the sequel to a novel that, on December 2nd, I scrapped entirely and decided to start anew.

Anyway, back to the story I was beginning this blog post with.

A few days ago I forced myself to start writing again.

4,000 words later, I'm still going strong.

And I love my story so far.

Things are happening. People are meeting. The setting is incredibly incredible.

I'm in love with my characters.

Ah, young love.

Monday, January 23, 2012

An EXTREMEMLY Boring Post On Cabbage Worms.

Today I would like to teach you about cabbage worms.

The term cabbage worm is primarily used for any of four kinds of lepidopteran whose larvae feed on cabbages and other cole crops. Host plants include broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, collards, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, radishes, turnips, rutabagas and kohlrabi. This small group of similar pest species is known to agriculturists as the cabbage worm complex.
(Credited to Wikipedia, for being so darn smart.)



A cabbage worm, doing what I suspect cabbage worms do. Which is this.



(Okay, are all of the new readers gone yet? Have I scared them off?)

Here's the real deal:


I'm going to have a garden someday. Or, rather, not a garden, but a backyard. I figure it'll be a small backyard, as I will probably will only have a condo or something equally small with little turf room.

So I figure that since I'll have a small backyard with little turf room, it ought to be a cool backyard.

Something that people want to look at. Something that I can play chess on.


Something that I will have big, mossy trees in it (as I will live in a condo and big mossy trees grow next to condos in big cities where I suppose condos will be).

Something that has a chessboard in the design.

Something with an underfed, pale model-looking girl laying dead in the center.



Yeah.

Yeah...

No.

I'll probably just have a regular backyard, with regular, non-mossy trees, and normal looking girls laying in the center of the lawn.

Haters Gon' Hate. Wombats Gon' Hate... And Maul Your Face Off.

I've missed my blog severely, over the past few days. I've missed spamming your dashboard with my posts. I missed berating you with videos to watch (this is always fun on my end, as I quite enjoy sucking up your life on earth). I've missed listening to my writing playlist on YouTube while I laugh meniacly and plot out ways to torture you here, at TalesUnpublished.

I've also missed--


Nah.


Not even gonna go down that dark and lonely road (obscure song lyric time! My favorite!).


Where have I been all of this time?

What, were you personally counting the days? Really?

Really?
\
Okay, you can count them. It's fine with me. In fact, it's more than fine with me. That means that maybe you perhaps, perhaps enjoy my pestering you with videos about throwing books into fishing nets, or about me pairing up fabrics that shouldn't go together, simply out of boredom while finding myself standing in a small-town quilting shop. Perhaps you like my huzzahs! and -Os. Perhaps you like it when I slam the P-dub (that's the Pioneer Woman, by the way. It's what she calls herself.). Perhaps....

Perhaps you're getting bored, and you want me to get to the point of my blog post, so that you can return to your cup of fast chilling, over-priced coffee, return to reading another, much more interesting blog post about wombats, or Arbor Day. In fact, weren't you just learning about how to cut an artichoke when my blog caught your attention?

So, back to the point:

It's been ten days since I've posted.

Ten days where, to the people who hate this blog, but decided to follow it anyway (crazy loon! You're supposed to divert away from here if you hate it), finally got their lives back. Finally got to enjoy their cups of over-priced coffee.

Unfollow my blog, please, because I quite enjoy posting.

Back to the point again.

At this point I don't even remember what my point was.

Oh, blarg.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Why Math Is Suddenly Fun Again




This girl's name is Vi, and she is a mathemusician.

So I was watching old Vlogbrother's videos on YouTube, and John Green mentioned Vihart's channel as being 'AWESOME,' so I checked it out.

Now I'm suddenly interested in math again.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Wherein I Say Wherein

Hello, there, Avi, Jesusfreak and Neville. (And mom).

I've decided that I finally need to finish some of the books that I got for Christmas (and Great Expectations).

Here's the list:

  • Eragon
  • Sweetly
  • the Night Circus
(The Fault In Our Stars Is coming tomorrow. I can feel it in my bones.)

Sadly, this isn't my copy of the Night Circus. It's somebody in the UK's copy.






Right now I'm reading the Night Circus.

And the picture is right in saying that this is a marvelous book. In fact, it is one of the best books I've ever read (or, um, reading). But there's one problem with it:

Though I love the plot, love the setting, love the characters, love the writing (it's safe to say that I love everything about this book, so far)... I can't seem to get through it.

Like, I'll sit down and read it for a while, but I'm not getting anywhere.

It's like I'm staring way too much at the flashy, intricate cover.

Monday, January 9, 2012

EXCITED

OH MY GOSH THE FAULT IN OUR STARS AND A MILLION SUNS COMES OUT TOMORROW.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Mango Fail

So I did eat a mango last week. I just neglected to take pictures.

I stink at this blogging thing.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

The Scorpio Races

I haven't gotten around to mangos yet, so I figured that I'd start off the new year with a book review. Maybe later tonight I'll do the reflecting part of 2011, but right now, I just want to say some stuff about this book.

It's The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater.


I have to admit that I totally judge books by their covers. If a book has an awful cover and I've never even heard about it, then I won't even look twice at it.

The Scorpio Race's cover really turned off the 'I WANT TO TOUCH IT' button for me. I know that several hours were spent on this cover, but it still... err. Shiver (oh gosh, I didn't mean to do that).

But I'd heard really good things about this book--and, it's Maggie Stiefvater. She wrote the Shiver series (and now do you see where I messed up in the last paragraph?).

So I read it, and I was instantly hooked. I flew through the pages like lightning. Or, as fast as the Capaill Aisce, the water horses in the book.

I seem to be saying this a lot about books lately, but this book has a really crummy ending. It was sad, and it nearly broke my heart. I cried.

I also screamed at the book during the middle.

"NO! NO! Maggie, why? Why? WHY?"

I seriously hated the author when I was screaming at her book. She made things so... hard. She mixed up my feelings for the book. What I felt about the characters, who I was supporting more than the other. 

What I've got to say, now that the book is over?

The cover suits it.

Even though it still stinks.

Keep writing, Maggie Stiefvater.