Life Post: Friends, Babysitting, and Writing

The Most exciting aspect of my past couple of days is that I got to see my friends Haley and Jordan and hang out with them for a while. It was really nice. I'd only seen Jordan once this summer, and this was the first time I'd seen Haley. It sucks that it's so late in the summer. I'm terrible at realizing how much time is actually left of break and making plans to see everyone before the very end. We had fun though, and it was awesome getting to catch up with them for a while.

Other than that, I've pretty much just been babysitting and writing. Tomorrow is going to be my last day babysitting since school starts soon, which is more a relief than anything. This week is only one of the kids, so it's not too bad. Watching both of the boys at once was stressful though. However, it made me some extra money this summer, so I'm not complaining about that.

Writing wise, I think I should be finishing up the first draft of this Hunger Games fanfiction at least within a week from now as long as nothing major happens that stops me from writing. That's really great because I definitely want to have a draft of it done before school starts again. This story has been a struggle to write in a lot of ways, but that also makes me really proud of it in a way I didn't feel about the story it's a companion piece to. That story almost seemed to write itself, and while I'm really happy with that one, there's something about how challenging this story was but still being able to make it into something I'm happy with. They just seem to each be turning out pretty nice now, but of course, the one I'm working on now still has a lot of editing to go through.

Life Post: I Need to Work on My Sleeping Schedule.

I'm always so exhausted after waking up to babysit, even if it's the next day and I got to sleep in. That's a bit scary as the time I have to wake up to babysit is the same time that I'll be waking up for classes four days a week this coming semester. I may need to figure out how to deal with that. It'll be the first time I've had eight AMs in a while and the most days of the week I've ever had eight AMs unless you count the entirely of school before college. Since I was always sleep deprived back then (especially in middle school when I had some major problems), I may have a problem, especially since I just naturally go to bed way later than I did back even in high school on school nights. I seriously can't fall asleep at the time I used to anymore, but I may have work on that, even if it means nights of laying in bed for hours before finally falling asleep.

Anyway, not much is happening today that's eventful, but I have an insanely long to do list. I'm flying through it, but there still seems to be so much to do. I don't even know how it got this long. I've written about half of the words that I want to today in order to hit my word count goal. I've actually done more than half of my to do list already, but there seems to be so much more. I guess I should wrap this up so I can get to the next item on that list, which is getting some more writing done. I'm reaching the point where I can see the end of this story, which is exciting. I'm looking forward to finally having a draft done.

Life Post: Babysitting and a Close Birthday

I'm back to babysitting today, although I only have one of the kids this week. This is definitely the easiest because the kid I'm watching now causes absolutely no problems. The other two don't really either (except when they fight), but I've actually seen her only once today because she's been in her room. This is also the last week I'll be babysitting, and I have to say that it kind of flew by. That also means summer is close to coming to an end though, and I can't really believe it. It's gone by fast, but when doesn't it?

Today also marks one week until my twenty-first birthday, and that is also so strange. I cannot believe it at all. I don't feel like I should be that old, and I'm a bit scared about it. My dad referred to it as when I'll be a "real" adult, but I don't know about that. I know I won't feel anymore like an adult. I'm pretty sure I won't feel like a real adult at least until after college graduation, but I don't even know about then. I'll probably be too worried about being thrust into the "real world" to worry about how adult I feel. At any rate, this birthday has me just a little bit freaked out, I'll admit. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it.

Life Post: Weddings and Moves

Yesterday, my cousin who's a year younger than me got married. While I wish them both the best, of course, I can't get over the weirdness of it either. Two younger cousins has gotten married already, but they were each second cousins once removed, and while it's still weird to think of each of them as married, it isn't as weird as watching one of my younger first cousins get married last night. I have no idea why it was weird than the last two weddings because, despite the first cousin thing, there's really no difference between how close I am to all three of them (in fact, I might be the least closest to the first cousin all things considered), and all three of them are about the same age. Maybe it's just the fact that it's the third now, I don't know.

I hope they're both very happy though, especially since they have to move and everything. (My cousin's in the Air Force.) And it was a nice wedding and all of that. The Maid of Honor forgot to bring the ring with her, so there was a rush for it during the ceremony. That will definitely result in some memories for the future.

In an attempt to get more driving hours, my mom has pretty much started making me drive absolutely everywhere and sometimes for no reason. Today we went to the pharmacy and to return some clothes and then my grandmother's house to drop something off and visit. My grandma just sold her house almost right after it was put on the market. She doesn't even have somewhere else set to live yet, so hopefully she finds something soon. She has several apartments she's looking at, and I'm almost positive that she'll find one. The house looks a lot emptier already though, even though she's not moving quite yet. I think she's been in this house four or five years now, so it'll be weird adjusting to her living somewhere else. We've done it multiple times before though, so it'll be fine.

Legend of Korra Review: Book 3 Episode 8: "The Terror WIthin"

It's been a rough week for the Korra fandom, and while I definitely want to talk about this digital move that we're getting, I'm going to save that for the end of the post. For now, I'm going to stick to talking about the episode we got this week.

First of all, this season has been unbelievably amazing so far. There hasn't been even one episode that I was just neutral on, and there certainly hasn't been one I hated. This one in particular was extremely suspenseful the entire way through. My mom walked in the room about five minutes into the episode and asked me if it was over, and I think that's because five minutes into the episode we were already getting the sort of dramatic stuff you expect to be at the end of the episode.

At the beginning of the episode we see that Korra has, of course, caught onto metal bending incredibly quickly. I would say, "Of course she has. She's the Avatar," but after her struggles with airbending I don't think that really applies. At any rate, I feel sorry for Bolin, but I have complete confidence that he'll eventually get the hang of metalbending.

I'm still absolutely loving Bolin and Opal's relationship. They have just the right amount of cuteness and hilarious ridiculousness in their relationship. My favorite line of the episode was probably either, "Every time I eat raw kale, I'll think of you" or "At least we have kale." It's that sort of thing that I really enjoy about the two of them, and I'm really hoping they'll be together when the series ends. Bolin's kind of gone through a lot of girls for someone who gets so nervous around them, and I'm really hoping that Opal is finally "the one" in regards to who he stays with for the rest of the series. The fact that she'll be going to train with Tenzin and they'll be together again is definitely a good sign in that regard, I think.

Korra getting kidnapped was shocking. I thought they'd manage to get into the city somehow after all the bragging about how safe it was, but I really thought they'd get away with her, which I hadn't been expecting. They didn't, of course, but that had me on the edge of my seat for most of the episode. I particularly loved Pabu freaking out and Bolin's reaction. Mako when they had Korra though was the absolute best. They may not be together anymore, but that really showed that he still cares for her, which made the shipper in me freak out. His "let her go" line was perfection and had me jumping up and down. The emotion in his voice was just insane.

There are two other things about that entire fight scene that I really want to mention (other than the fact that the entire thing was just amazing, which was a given). 1. I loved Lin and Su working together. That was great. 2. I loved Mako believing in Bolin, and then Bolin saving the day. I love any sort of development with Bolin's character, and that was great timing since he'd been so down about being unable to metal bend.

Overall, the fight scene was just great, and like I said, it had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. The fight scenes in this show are just spectacular.

When they started trying to figure out who had let the villains into the city, I'll admit that I initially suspected Varrick. I can't be the only one. They even included his interrogation in the episode. I didn't for a second believe it was the one young guard though, and I'm glad the Krew suspected it wasn't either. I love any time we get to see detective Mako.

I'd started suspecting that it was Aiwei as soon as I realized it wasn't Varrick, so I was getting really excited when Mako suggested it could be him as well. I feel so bad for Su when she trusted him, but I also love that that gave us Lin comforting Su a bit. That was a sweet moment.

The bomb going off almost gave me a heart attack because I panicked and thought the Krew was really going to get hurt. Thank God for Korra. I have never been more relieved than the moment that I saw she had protected all of them. I actually couldn't find Asami at first and almost freaked out, but then I realized she was hunched down and just kind of hidden. So there were two moments of panic and then relief there.

I'm a bit worried about the hit Lin and Su's relationship will take once Lin finds out what Su did, but the Krew chasing down the villains should definitely make for some exciting episodes. I really look forward to seeing how that goes.

I talked a lot about this week's episode considering we only got one instead of two, which brings me to the next topic: the switch from television to digital. The new episodes are only going to be on the Internet instead of the TV. I don't think I've ever really gone on a rant here about how angry Nickelodeon makes me over their handling of Korra, but if you follow me on Twitter, you've seen it all. They've done a terrible job since A:TLA, and it seems like it's only gotten worse with Korra. I am unbelievably thankful that we're still getting the show and it wasn't just canceled. I just have to focus on that because there's nothing we can do.

The one thing I will complain about Nick right now is that they haven't even advertised the digital switch. There was no ad anywhere around this new episode that told people the episodes would be airing online now. They could have put an ad near when they usually put the ads for next week's episode, but instead there was nothing. The die-hard fans all know of course, but how can you not put something on TV to make sure everyone who watches knows? Nick just blows my mind sometimes.

Anyway, I'm going to try and not complain about the switch anymore. It's happened, and I'm just happy that we still have the show. I'll still be reviewing each week's episode of course, but I'm still just as excited to see what happens next.

Life Post: Comic Con and a Hatred of Driving

Comic Con has started in San Diego, so I'm going through my yearl thing where I watch what's happening from afar and think about one day in the future where I hope to actually be there. I've even stared longingly at the schedule, but I have to admit that makes me thankful I'm not there. There's so much going on at once that you have no choice but the make really tough decisions over what to do. I'd still prefer to be there of course, but even if I was, I'd still have to miss out on a lot of awesome stuff.

Anyway, I've been spending most of my morning writing as usual. I still have a lot more I want to get done, but that probably won't happen until much later in the day. Right as I was beginning this post, my mom came to talk to me about going driving. I need to do it because I don't have nearly the amount of hours I need to get my license, and that was one of my plans for this summer. It's so difficult though! I can only drive when one of my parents can take me, and that's almost never. Plus, unless you seriously do nothing but drive around, you can be gone for hours and really not have driven that much when it's put together. And this is taking into consideration that we live about half an hour from anything that we can even do. I'm just kind of fed up with it all. It doesn't help that I despise driving. Absolutely despise it. I could spend hours ranting about my hatred for it. Since I don't live somewhere that cares about public transportation though, it's absolutely a must that I get my license. It doesn't help matters that I'll probably have a panic attack while taking the driving test like I did the last time. I just can't see this actually ending well.

That turned out a lot more negative than I had planned, and I already went on a slight rant about that on Twitter last night. I really am just frustrated, but hopefully driving today helps and all of that. I'll hope for the best.

Life Post: House Guest and More Writing

I'm still in one of those moods where I want to be doing these sorts of posts, but not enough is really happening to write about. The only even remotely notable thing I can think of is that one of my sister's friends from Austria (she was in exchange student not last year but the year before) is going to be staying with us for a week before she goes back to Austria. (She's been here for a while but staying with different friends.)

Other than that, there's really not much happening other than attempting to get more writing done. I've reached about the halfway point in the Hunger Games fanfiction I'm working on, so that's pretty good. I started writing it about two weeks ago, so if I keep this up, it'll have taken me a month to write the first draft. That's doing pretty good for me, but it's not as fast as I was writing earlier this summer. I wish I'd been able to keep that speed up. I'm still incredibly impressed with the amount of writing I've gotten done this summer though, so I'm not complaining!

Book Review: The Zero Marginal Cost Society by Jeremy Rifkin

ISBN: 1137278463
Published: April 1st, 2014
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Trade
Read from July 6th to 10th, 2014
Synopsis from Goodreads:

In The Zero Marginal Cost Society, New York Times bestselling author Jeremy Rifkin describes how the emerging Internet of Things is speeding us to an era of nearly free goods and services, precipitating the meteoric rise of a global Collaborative Commons and the eclipse of capitalism.
Rifkin uncovers a paradox at the heart of capitalism that has propelled it to greatness but is now taking it to its death—the inherent entrepreneurial dynamism of competitive markets that drives productivity up and marginal costs down, enabling businesses to reduce the price of their goods and services in order to win over consumers and market share. (Marginal cost is the cost of producing additional units of a good or service, if fixed costs are not counted.) While economists have always welcomed a reduction in marginal cost, they never anticipated the possibility of a technological revolution that might bring marginal costs to near zero, making goods and services priceless, nearly free, and abundant, and no longer subject to market forces.
Now, a formidable new technology infrastructure—the Internet of things (IoT)—is emerging with the potential of pushing large segments of economic life to near zero marginal cost in the years ahead. Rifkin describes how the Communication Internet is converging with a nascent Energy Internet and Logistics Internet to create a new technology platform that connects everything and everyone. Billions of sensors are being attached to natural resources, production lines, the electricity grid, logistics networks, recycling flows, and implanted in homes, offices, stores, vehicles, and even human beings, feeding Big Data into an IoT global neural network. Prosumers can connect to the network and use Big Data, analytics, and algorithms to accelerate efficiency, dramatically increase productivity, and lower the marginal cost of producing and sharing a wide range of products and services to near zero, just like they now do with information goods.
The plummeting of marginal costs is spawning a hybrid economy—part capitalist market and part Collaborative Commons—with far reaching implications for society, according to Rifkin. Hundreds of millions of people are already transferring parts of their economic lives to the global Collaborative Commons. Prosumers are plugging into the fledgling IoT and making and sharing their own information, entertainment, green energy, and 3D-printed products at near zero marginal cost. They are also sharing cars, homes, clothes and other items via social media sites, rentals, redistribution clubs, and cooperatives at low or near zero marginal cost. Students are enrolling in free massive open online courses (MOOCs) that operate at near zero marginal cost. Social entrepreneurs are even bypassing the banking establishment and using crowdfunding to finance startup businesses as well as creating alternative currencies in the fledgling sharing economy. In this new world, social capital is as important as financial capital, access trumps ownership, sustainability supersedes consumerism, cooperation ousts competition, and “exchange value” in the capitalist marketplace is increasingly replaced by “sharable value” on the Collaborative Commons.
Rifkin concludes that capitalism will remain with us, albeit in an increasingly streamlined role, primarily as an aggregator of network services and solutions, allowing it to flourish as a powerful niche player in the coming era. We are, however, says Rifkin, entering a world beyond markets where we are learning how to live together in an increasingly interdependent global Collaborative Commons.

Review:

I recieved this book in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway in exchange for a review. Rifkin has quite a few books, and although I didn't realize this until later, seems to have a pretty strong reputation for writing controversial stuff too. As with all of my reviews, I try to review a book based on the book itself and not whether or not I agree with a book, although that's sure to seep in at least a bit.

I enjoyed this book. I don't necessarily think that Rifkin is right about everything in it, but I do think it raises a lot of interesting questions. Rifkin also does a very good job of presenting his argument in a way that makes it make sense. I'm not really interested in economics at all, but I was interested in this book. Rifkin's writing managed to hold my interest the majority of the time, although I'll also admit that there were parts of the book that I skimmed. I still read far more of it than I would have almost any other book on economics.

There are a lot of good things I took away from this book. It made me think about ways the Internet is changing the economy, and whether or not Rifkin was exactly right, I do think the Internet is changing the economy (as it is changing almost everything else) in a lot of ways. I'm glad there's a book discussing that, and I think it's an interesting topic to explore.

I would recommend this book to anyone who's interested in economics, the Collaborative Commons, or the way the Internet is changing the world. I think it presents a lot of very interesting ideas.

Life Post: I'm Almost 21. What?

My life has become remarkably uninteresting lately. There was so much happening, and then it all just kind of stopped. I'm glad because it was not a good kind of craziness, but I've had the sudden realization that I'm now in the final month of summer break. I feel like I should be doing some awesome stuff, but all of my most note-worthy plans for this break have already happened. I guess I should just be enjoying the calm before school starts, so that's what I've been trying to do.

My days have become getting as much writing in as I can before school starts, but really that's what I've been doing the entire break. I already wrote about what I'm writing in the last of these posts though, and not enough has changed for me to really have anything to say.

I suppose I could mention that my twenty-first birthday is now less than two weeks away. I can't believe it at all. I don't feel old enough. I'm still not used to the fact that I'm not a teenager anymore. There are small reminders sometimes though. For example, I got life insurance yesterday as part of this organization I have membership in, and that was weird. It was a surprise to get that in the mail. Overall though, I don't feel like an adult at all, even if I hope that I've matured a lot. I still don't feel like what I think an adult should feel like, but I kind of think I'll always feel that way. Besides, I don't really enter the "real world" until after college, so I guess that's when the real challenge of feeling like an adult begins.

Life Post: Writing Struggles

I haven't posted in anything in four days, although it feels like longer, for a variety of reasons that I really don't want to get into here. I want to change that though and get back to posting. Since nothing that I want to talk about has been happening, I'm just going to stick to talking about what I'm currently writing for this post.

I've started writing a new Hunger Games fanfiction. This one focuses on Gale and Johanna, which is something new for me. I was struggling at first, and I think that was entirely due to the fact that I was struggling writing Gale and Johanna. The funny thing is, I'd written both of them before. I'd just never done anything from their point of view, and I struggled with that more than I thought I would. I knew exactly what I wanted to do storyline wise. I had the entire thing planned out, and I knew what the characters were going to do. I just couldn't get a good voice for each of them. Then, a couple of days ago it's like it just snapped into place while I was writing, and I finally figured out how to portray their thoughts and all of that. Now I have some re-writing to do in the future over what I already had, but things are going a lot better.

I'm hoping this is a good sign for the rest of the story. This is a companion story for Rebuild and Recover, which was my last Hunger Games fanfiction that focused on Peeta and Katniss. Now it's starting to actually feel like Rebuild and Recover did, and it's all just coming together a lot better. I was a little worried for a bit that it was going to turn out terrible, but I'm feeling much better about it all now, which is nice. I'm really happy with how it's coming along now.

Life Post: Babysitting Makes Me Sleepy

I hesitated to even write this post. I was planning on posting something yesterday, but so much happened that there was no way it was going to happen. There's just been a crazy amount of things going on the past week or so, and it's making social media and this blog a bit difficult at the moment.

Anyway, moving on. I was babysitting the past two days, and now I'm absolutely exhausted. Even after getting to sleep in today, I hardly feel awake. I have to babysit again tomorrow too, but I'm hoping I can really catch up on sleep after that.

Other than that, I'm not really doing much. I've been spending my morning writing, and I'm hoping to get back to that after I write this. I'm actually really surprised at how much writing I've gotten done so far because I forced myself to not check Twitter (except once right when I got up) and Tumblr until I've hit my word count for the day. It was a good decision, but it also feels really weird. I'll probably keep that up in the future though. Anyway, it's lunch time, so I'm going to go find myself some food before I get back to writing.

Life Post: I'm Not a Fan of All This Heat

Today's been a long day when I really haven't done much. I say that because today's my family's church's summer social, which means I've been out in the heat for a lot of the day, and I never handle heat well. I came home the first time and had a migraine, so I took medicine and watched Korra for a couple of hours. Then I went back down there in the heat again while I still had a bit of a headache. I feel terrible even though all I did was walk around or sit the entire time. The days they set as the summer social each year always end up being the hottest. Today was the hottest day of the entire week, not to mention the humidity. I'd be okay just staying inside for another week now. It's one of those times where you're sweating the second you walk outside.

I was supposed to work, but then there was a mix up and that didn't happen. I'm extremely thankful because I'm pretty sure I would have gotten sick from the heat if I stood out there much longer. I have no idea how some people aren't affected by heat, but I really wish I was one of them. It's a bit odd because I get cold so easily, but I also can't handle heat at all. I have such a narrow range of temperatures that actually feel comfortable to me, and I really despise it. I'm either shivering while everyone else is perfect or I'm getting migraines and nausea because of heat.

After all of that, I've pretty much thrown out everything I planned to do today because I just can't be bothered. I spent all of my time not at the social so far watching my new Korra DVDs (It's so great to finally have both Books 1 and 2 on DVD.), and I just recently pulled out my computer. I filmed a Korra review earlier, but I'm going to wait to edit it. I think for the most part I'm just going to watch shows and stuff for the rest of the day and possibly read. That's all I feel like doing.

I'm back to babysitting tomorrow after two weeks, so I'm sure I'll get a lot of writing done tomorrow while I'm over there. That makes me feel a lot better about not getting any done today. I keep telling myself that I'm going to give myself one day a week where I don't write anyway, and then I never actually do that. Now I'm giving myself that day today. I've finished two fanfictions recently anyway, so I've been doing good. I've already made some decent progress with my newest one too. I need to stop being so hard on myself that I'm not writing more because I'm writing way more than I usually do already.

Anyway, I feel like this turned into a mostly complaining post, which I didn't plain. I just get that way when I'm tired, which I already was today before going out in the heat. Waking up early to babysit tomorrow should be interesting. I look forward to the writing I'll get done though.

Even More Harry Potter Stuff, and I Love It

Only a few days after I wrote a post about the new Harry Potter short story I got, we got even more on Pottermore. The Quidditch World Cup has been going on, and Pottermore was updating on that. Then, yesterday we got the World Cup final, and that included a live update thing written by Ginny Potter and Rita Skeeter. The first thing I have to say, seeing "Ginny Potter" written so many times really threw me, and it could me pretty excited each time. It's been years since the epilogue, but seeing that is still a bit strange (in a good way) to me.

The entire thing was so much fun though. I loved how Ginny was focused on updating about only the Quidditch match, but Rita is only focused on the VIP box with the Potters and Weasleys. Ginny mostly ignores here, but there are a few times where she just can't retrain herself and has to correct Rita. It all gave me a fantastic mental image of angry Ginny. I love it.

As for the actual information we got on the characters, most of it was small, but most of it managed to be absolutely adorable. Ron kissed Hermione on the cheek, and Luna and Rolf were holding hands. That was all just so adorable. Teddy and Victoire also spent the entire time flirting other than when they were separated by Bill once. At this point, I'm absolutely shocked that James was shocked to find them snogging in the epilogue. Clearly everyone else could tell what was going on, and they don't seem to have been hiding anything.

The absolute best bit of information that we got, as far as I'm concerned, is that Neville is Albus's godfather. I freaked out when I read that, and I loved how much Neville seemed to be interacting with Albus from the little tidbits we got too. He's definitely a fantastic godfather. It makes me so happy. I can't even begin to express. I definitely think Ron and Hermione are James's godparents, which I love as well, but having Neville as Albus's godfather makes me even more happy. I just love that connection, and I would love to see Neville's reaction when Harry and Ginny asked him. It's all just wonderful.

There is one other thing I want to mention quickly that isn't directly about the actual story stuff we got. Some people have been talking recently about whether or not this stuff should even be considered canon since it's not in the books. It's a valid argument, and even I typically follow the argument that, if it's not in a book, it's not technically canon. Stuff that's not written down in the actual books (or seen if it's a TV show or movie) is no more valid coming from an author than it is a reader. (This Pottermore stuff does get a bit complicated since it's written down in a story-like way, but it isn't actually in a Harry Potter book.) I get that, but that doesn't keep me from getting any more excited about this stuff. If someone chooses to disregard all of this stuff we're getting, I have no problem with that. I definitely don't think it has to be considered canon, but all of this stuff makes me happy, so I'm going to continue to freak out about it anyway. I kind of few this stuff as being in between canon and fanon. I'm putting more stock in it than I would fanon, but I'm fine with it not being considered absolute fact as far as canon is concerned.

Now that the Quidditch World Cup is over, I'm not sure if we'll be getting more or not. Some people are beginning to speculate that we'll get something special on Deathly Hallow's seventh anniversary (which is July 21st), and a lot of people are pointing towards Rita saying her book is coming out July 31st in that one article. Doing something on July 31st would be incredibly fitting as far as I'm concerned since it's both Jo and Harry's birthday. I'm not sure if anything will happen, but I'm definitely going to keep my eyes pealed in case something does happen. I'll be incredibly excited if we really do get something really good.

Life Post: Korra on DVD and Starting a New Hunger Games Fanfiction

My mom has taken me to Walmart twice this week. She was walking down aisles today that we were just down a couple of days ago even though almost everything was exactly the same. As someone who's not a fan of shopping, it wasn't exactly fun. It was even less fun when you consider the fact that we went to Menard's first.

It may have actually been worth it though because I bought Books 1 and 2 of Korra on DVD! There was an entire display of them in the middle of the aisle that I swear wasn't there just a couple of days ago. I was really surprised but also really happy to see it, and I wasn't going to buy them at first. My mom actually kind of talked me into it which is surprising, but I'm so happy right now! Plus, there's two new episodes tonight, so I'm just all around really excited about Korra right now. I really want to go back and rewatch both parts of Beginnings now because I've been wanting to see that again for ages.

Because of that shopping trip though, I've hardly gotten any writing done today. That story I was talking about in my last post, the one I was struggling with? Yeah, I gave up on it. It just wasn't going to happen, and I couldn't keep going with it. Instead, I've started work on a new Hunger Games fanfiction that's a companion piece to one I've finished writing but have yet to post. It's going far, far better so far. I've actually been mulling over this idea forever (pretty much since I started writing the story it's a companion piece to), so I'm really excited to finally get it down. I'm not far, but I'm hoping to get more of it written before Korra comes on tonight.

Life Post: A Bit of Trouble with a Story and Dying My Hair Again

I haven't done one of these in four days, and that's pretty much because nothing has been happening. I haven't babysat at all this week, which makes the second week in a row. They haven't called or anything during that time, so I have no idea when I'll be babysitting again or what's going on.

I've been trying to write over the past several days. I started working on a new story though, and I'm having trouble getting as into it as I have been the last several stories I've written. It's still going well, but I'm not being as productive as I've gotten used to. I still have quite a bit of writing I want to get done today with that. I actually debated working on something else instead and letting this one sit for a while, but I've decided against that at least for the moment. I want to see what comes out of this first. Like I said, it's not that it's going bad, I'm just not that into it at the moment. I'm hoping I'll get there soon.

The only time I've really done anything over the past several days was going to Owensboro with my mom yesterday. We ended up being in Walmart forever, which isn't my favorite thing in the world, and then I stepped in gum right outside the car after we left. It got all over both of my shoes, and I had to spray this dissolving stuff on them when we got home. It was some of the worst smelling stuff, and I'm a bit worried my shoes are going to smell like that for ages.

I also bought hair dye though that's as close as I could guess to my natural color. However, I'm not sure my hair's going to actually wind up my natural color because my hair is darker at the moment, and this dye isn't bleach. That's not really important though because my main goal at the moment is to tone down the red so that I can do something else with it in the future. This dye says on the box that, if used on red hair, it'll cover the red, so I'm hoping that's what'll happen. I'm expecting my hair to turn out some sort of shade of brown honestly, even though it's a dirty blonde hair dye. It could turn into a complete disaster, I know, but that's a chance I'm willing to take. We'll see what happens. I don't even know when I'll get a chance to dye it since I have to get someone willing to help me. (I don't trust myself enough to get every patch of hair.)

Anyway, I'm off to get some more writing done. Hopefully I'll hit some sort of groove with the story and really get into it. If not, I'll give it a few more days, and if it's not working, I'll move on to something else.

We Have a Short New Harry Potter Story and I'm Still Freaking Out!

Today we got a bit of new Harry Potter material, and I'm still so emotional over it that I don't even know where to begin. I've tweeted a lot of my immediate reactions already, but I really wanted to get some of my thoughts down in one place. (If you haven't read it, it's here, but you'll have to login or sign up for Pottermore.)

I woke up to the news. I always scroll through Twitter right when I wake up, and when I first saw people freaking out, it took me a bit before I actually worked out what was going on. I pulled Pottermore up on my phone because I was too impatient to get my computer, and after a few problems with the site freezing my phone, I was able to get to the story. Then I just read it and cried for a bit, and I mean actually cry. It was just so unexpected and nice, and since I'd just woken up, I was a bit overwhelmed.

The story itself isn't all that much really, but it provides us with a glimpse of what the characters are up to today (and it took me far too long to realize this would be present day), which is so amazing to me. I loved the sense of all of them gathering together. It was even fun that it was "written" by Rita Skeeter, and I never thought I'd say that. Of course she turns a negative spin on things, but you can tell what's real and what isn't. The entire thing is just so much fun and so nice to get. I loved it.

Some of my favorite bits were the reference to Hermione having a future in the ministry that involves her continuing to move up. Now I'm picturing her as Minister of Magic, but who knows. I also loved that we now know that Ron worked at the Ministry of Magic for two years before leaving to work at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes because I don't think we actually knew how long he was at the Ministry before this.

The tidbit about Hannah becoming a Healer and applying for the Matron position at Hogwarts was nice too. I love the idea of Neville and Hannah both working at Hogwarts together.

And the image of Luna "sweeping around" the camp in her robes made out of flags is just absolutely perfect, and even though we got so little information on her, that image is so Luna that I'm completely satisfied.

Also, I loved the bit with Teddy and Victoire. This is three years or so before the epilogue, so there was clearly something going on with them for a while. I'm wondering why James was so surprised to find them snogging in the epilogue when Rita Skeeter had already published that there was something going on between them a full three years previously. And why are they so worried to tell their families that they sneak around for at least three years? It raises questions, but I still absolutely loved it all.

The book that Rita plugs at the very end is something I would pay money to read, and so much of me wishes that it was real. This little thing that we got was amazing though, and I am beyond thrilled over it.

Life Post: Family Gatherings During 4th of July Weekend

I've had a pretty awesome Fourth of July weekend. On Saturday, I was at my aunt and uncle's most of the afternoon for the yearly get together that my mom's side of the family has. It's the only time each year that so much of the family gets together at once, so it's always nice. It's also a chance to catch up on how all of the my cousin's kids have grown. I always have to relearn them each time because they grow so much (and there's a million of them which is hard to remember with my terrible memory).

Nothing terribly eventful happened though except checking up on family. My cousin had to jump in the lake really quickly at one point because one of the little boys was hanging off of his older brother, and even with the adults yelling at him, he wouldn't let go, which was causing his brother to keep going under. Everything was fine though, even if the whole thing did result in some tears. That was probably the most dramatic moment of the day, although there were a few other incidents that result when you get a huge group of kids ten and under all in the same lake.

The best part was definitely seeing a few of my cousins that I hadn't in a while. One cousin was visiting from far away, and another has just moved back to the area. (Her husband's in the military.) Seeing both of them was nice as well as the rest of the family that lives around here but who I don't always see (and even less so since I started college and am not here year-round).

I even got to see some of that family again today because they came to our house after church, so that was nice as well. It's been a really great weekend.

Life Post: Happy 4th of July!

I just wanted to post something really quickly to wish all the Americans a happy 4th of July. If you're not American than happy Friday!

Unfortunately, I got sick in the middle of the night last night, and the entire night was rather unpleasant. Today, though, I'm feeling far more awake than you'd think after being up a good deal of the night, and I'm only feeling a few remnants of what I dealt with last night. It's really not that bad, and I'm just thankful that it wasn't worse. My mom says she got sick during the night too, and I'm not really sure what it was, but my personal theory is that it was the dinner we ate last night (which I was actually a bit hesitant towards before even eating it). The very beginnings of it for me were about an hour after we ate, and I ate a snack after that only to feel worse afterwards.

Anyway, it's all better now, so it's not a big deal. We don't really have any 4th of July plans for today, but I still didn't want to spend the holiday sick. Usually we set off some small fireworks at the house, but my brother hates fireworks and my mom decided not to spend money on them this year. It's a bit of a let down I suppose, but I'm not too bothered by it. There are always future 4th of July's for fireworks.

I hope that all of you celebrating have an amazing day/night though, and I hope you all enjoy whatever fireworks you set off and/or go see!

Life Post: Monotony, Writing, and a Holiday Weekend

This week has become just a tad bit monotonous. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for a week off of babysitting, but it also means that a lot of my days recently have been sitting around at home writing. That would be great if I managed to write as much as I do when I babysit. For some strange reason I get less done at home, probably because I'm too easily distracted here.

I'm doing a pretty good job today of getting writing done though, just like I did yesterday. I finished up another draft of my How I Met Your Mother fanfiction, and now I've moved on to editing a draft of the original urban fantasy story that I've been working on quite a long time at this point. I still want to make quite a bit more progress in that before I consider myself done for the day though, and I'm hoping it doesn't take too much longer.

With this weekend being Fourth of July weekend, I'm not sure how much writing I'll be getting done over the next several days. It depends on what happens with my family's get-together this weekend. You never know how long we'll be there and whatnot. I'm definitely hoping for cool weather though. I've never handled being out in hot weather for long periods of time well, and my mom's family is too large to fit all in one house. That's why we only ever get together as one big group during the summer. My aunt and uncle have a good size chunk of land, and we always gather where there are pine trees and a lot of shade, but that's only so much help on the really hot days. (There's also a lake to swim in to be fair, but for various boring reasons, I haven't swam in it in years.) The point of this little ramble was to say that if it's really hot that day, I'm going to come home feeling somewhat sick, and I can pretty much guarantee no writing will be happening then.

Anyway, I still have things to get done, so I'm going to get back to all of that. I hope all the Americans are preparing for good Fourth of July weekends!

Life Post: A More Successful Day of Writing

I didn't end up babysitting today. At this point, I have no idea when I'll babysit next. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week. We'll just have to wait and see I guess.

Today's been going pretty well in comparison to yesterday because I've managed to get a good deal of writing done already. I finished edits on the Hunger Games fanfiction I've been working on already this morning. A friend currently has a draft of it (now a previous draft) in order to read over it and make suggestions and all of that, so I'm waiting for that still. After she sends it back, I'll go over everything again, and then it'll be ready to post. In the mean time, I'm going back to work on my rewrite of the How I Met Your Mother finale again. It's really short, but since writing it was unexpected, I kind of wrote it and then set it aside. Since it's not long at all, it shouldn't take too long to go over, so I'm thinking I'll have another draft finished today. Then I want to see about getting someone to beta read it for me. After all of that it should be up online.

Even with hoping to get that done today, I only have so much time to write today. I have to drive my brother to his dentist appointment. I've been sitting in the waiting room so often for one or the other of my siblings recently that I feel like I'm becoming an expert. I'll be sure to take a book with me. I should also probably charge my phone. It's close to dead right now, and it died on me the last time. I still have a few hours until that though, so I'm off to go get some more editing done in the mean time.

Life Post: I Hate Allergies

I really think I need to get some new allergy medicine because I swear what I've been taking the past two weeks or so has done absolutely nothing. The amount of sinus headaches I've been getting is insane, and I'm starting to think it's just a permanent state that'll never end.

Anyway, I don't want this to be a complaining post. It's just that's all I've really thought about today. I'm incredibly behind on everything I wanted to do today, and I think most of it is because my allergies have really gotten to me today. Like yesterday, I still need to go through and clean my room some, and I also still have writing I need to do today. Overall, I've just been feeling a bit down today (again, mostly from allergies I think), so I'm finding it hard to get myself motivated and actually do something.

I want to get stuff done today though because I may be babysitting tomorrow. (They still haven't called to say for sure or not.) That definitely means I should get as much done as possible. My brother also just came to tell me that supper was ready, so I suppose that's a good reason to procrastinate. I'm off to eat, and then I swear I'll finally finish up what I need to do.