NANOWRIMO STARTS ON SUNDAY!!!
eek! i’ve been looking forward to this for almost a whole year! i’m fairly certain i’ve blogged about it before. but now that it’s getting down to the wire, i’m getting nervous. i’ve got so many other things going on right now! and i’m afraid the plot i choose won’t be good enough, or i won’t have enough in my head to keep going all month, enough words to add up to 50,000 (that’s what the word count of the average novel is)! i’m sure it’ll be fine, though. in all seriousness, it’s only around 1700 words a day, which is actually quite easy peasy for me, but i don’t always feel like writing every day. i’ve been lucky in the past month that i actually have felt like writing a lot. i’ve been a writing machine, and i really hope it lasts throughout november.
now, if you feel like you might maybe want to support me a teeny bit and sponsor me on my quest to write the perfect novel (it feels weird to say that…saying i’m writing a “novel” feels like bragging or something…i can’t explain it)…aaanyway, if you might want to donate $10 or so to the cause, hop on over to my page and do it to it! the cause, by the way, is “the office of letters and light“, which brings programs into both schools and adult communities to teach and inspire writing. their young writers’ program is especially awesome! if this had been around when i was in high school, maybe things would have been different for me. maybe i wouldn’t have lost my writing confidence… at any rate, at least check out my page. :)
and without further ado, here are the ideas for plots for nanowrimo. these ideas were born of my own pretty little head, and while i can’t use all of them for nanowrimo this year, i will more than likely develop them into something sooner or later. so pretty please don’t steal them. if you feel so inclined to vote, just leave a comment here with your favorite plot. here are my ideas:
1. guy is a druggie. guy meets girl, falls in love, and decides he needs to clean himself up to be “worthy” of her. girl leaves, and guy is so devastated, he goes back to his old ways, even though he doesn’t want to. he sees her face in his mind constantly, and the only thing that can numb the pain is the drugs. this will obviously be angst-filled, and i have to be in an angsty mood to write angst. if i’m not already in that mood, writing angst will put me there. it’s a good excuse to lock myself away for 30 days. 
it will also require a lot of research, as i have never been one to touch illegal substances (i was always afraid of getting into trouble! hahaha), and honestly don’t know that much about drug use, etc, aside from what i’ve read or seen in movies. however, i believe that this plot will be easily developed, and a sympathetic character will be easy to form.
2. a superhero realizes that he is losing his powers. he has to adapt to “normal” life. this will obviously be a little bit angsty, but i plan to include humor in it as well. nothing slapstick, though. i hate that. this plot would be a bit more of a challenge for me to develop.
3. guy and girl break up after years of a tumultuous relationship. she leaves for another man. they meet occasionally, sometimes amicably, sometimes not. both feel like their life has no meaning without the other, but they can’t get it together. he feels like he just needs to leave town, or else he’ll just keep reliving their relationship over and over again. i haven’t decided how it would end up, but it would also be very angsty. plot is based on a song by a friend. i was listening to the song when the characters popped into my head to say hello and tell their story. i haven’t written any of it down yet, which makes it eligible for me to use for nanowrimo. 
4. a fictional (based on non-fiction) memoir on being a navy wife. it would be humorous but also tell the hardships of a military spouse–finding friends, jobs, home, and then leaving them all multiple times.
5. a memoir on dating. i have some of this written in my head. it’s actually based on a specific past relationship in my life. it would be humorous with splashes of slight angst here & there.
6. a modern-day telling of cinderella. i know this has been done time & time again, but i don’t like those cheesy ones they made into movies. it would be an actual retelling of the story, only set in modern times, with relevant political and social commentary.
that’s all i’ve got for you. if there’s nothing interesting here, please let me know. my goal is to not only write a novel that satisfies me, but to write something that people will actually want to read. and not just because they know me, but because it’s just good.
just leave me a comment here with your vote on which plot you like best. please and thank you!
- Location:home
- Mood:
sick - Music:axl won't stop barking. it's driving me insane.
anyway, after conversation, explanation, etc, her opinion is that i have atypical bipolar ii disorder. this means that instead of what you would think of when you hear the word "mania", i have "hypomania", which is why i get those extreme irritable moods. i almost cried when i heard her say that, not because i was upset, but because THANK GOD there is a reason for my mood swings, and i'm not just a mean bitch.
a lot of people haven't seen me in one of my really agitated, irritated states, because for some reason i have an easier time controlling it around people outside of my immediate family.
so the treatment: she put me on a mood stabilizer, which i have to be very careful about, because if you don't take it EXACTLY as prescribed, you break out into a huge, very serious, weird rash. ewwwww, right? i'm on 25 mg right now, which i take at bedtime for 14 days. then i take 50mg at bedtime for 14 days. then i go up to 100 mg, and that is the dosage we're aiming for. if i feel like i have a problem with feeling down or depressed, then i'll go back on the wellbutrin as well, but i'm off of that for now (i have been for the past few weeks).
so the good news is that lots of really famous and successful artists were crazy too! LOL!! seriously, a lot of the most well-known artists had bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADD, despression and anxiety, OCD, etc etc. my drawing instructor talked at length about this on our first day of class. i thought, "well, then, this IS the right major for me, b/c i'm crazy as a loon!" just kidding. i know i'm not crazy as a loon. ;)
sorry it's been a long time since i've blogged. willy and i have both been really busy with school and stuff. i spent a very long time last sunday working on art history homework, only to find out that i did way more than i was supposed to. ha! chapter 17 was supposed to be split between two weeks. at least that means i get a little rest from the reading this week. chapter 17 was about baroque art, of which i'm not really a fan. some of it is nice, but a lot of it is too dark for me, literally. there's a lot of playing with mystical light, because religious mysticism was a part of the counter-reformation during the baroque era, which means a lot of artists used "mystical light" in their paintings. i'm someone who thrives on bright color.
because of doing all that extra art history work, i didn't get enough time to study properly for my astronomy test, which was supposed to be this past monday. thanks to ash & willy's persuasion, i decided to play hooky and make up the test next week so i could have extra study time. i'm really glad my astronomy prof is so cool about stuff like that.
speaking of grades and stuff, i finally got back some exercises/projects in my drawing class last week. the grades ranged from an 84 (a B) on a composition of blind contour faces, to a 98 on my graphite and charcoal gradations. he said to expect around a C on our first projects, so i suppose i can live with those grades, but this semester is proving to be harder than the past ones. i had all A's last spring and summer. this semester, i've got probably a B in drawing so far, a C in western civ (i got a 78 on my first test, but i will be much more prepared for the next one now that i know what she expects!), and no grade in astronomy! i do have an A in art history, with a 96 on my first exam. so that's good. ;)
besides school, i've been a writing MACHINE lately! i can only hope that it stays this way long enough for NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month) in november. this is a program in which writers commit to write every day in order to finish a novel in one month. it's really awesome. they use the reverse philosophy "quantity vs. quality" in this program. the point is to churn out words (a novel is around 50,000), and go back to it afterward (during december, or at the beginning of the new year after the holiday rush) for editing and rewrites, etc. i'm so, so, SO excited! i didn't find out about nanowrimo til the end of november last year, so i was too late to participate, and i've had to wait almost a whole year for it to come again! so i'm most definitely ready for it. i've got a few ideas written down. ooh, maybe i'll make you guys vote on which one i should use! the thing is, i'm not allowed to do *any* writing before november 1st. i can do research and other preparations, but NO WRITING yet.
ooh, now i'm really excited--putting my fate into YOUR hands by letting you choose what i write about. :)
*tiff, goddess extraordinaire*
- Location:the couch
- Mood:creative
- Music:"the big mistake" by the inlaws--record release party at eye level art this Sat!
psh. right. that didn't last long.
anyway, i've amended it. i delete a whole lot of crap & added some new stuff, to create my new list for the remainder of 2009. it is simply entitled:
fifty things.
1. blog at least once a week. i've been pretty good about this one. i blog multiple times a week, if not daily, at tifftastic & all the pretty.
2. organize studio for easier, more relaxing painting/drawing, and a good, clean area to do my school work.
3. read twenty new books this year. (2/20 completed)
4. go to two new places we've never seen. one is already taken care of: we're going to oklahoma in july for a family reunion.
5. go on a slip 'n slide. this is from last year's list too. i have yet to do it! where does one find a slip 'n slide these days?
6. lose twenty pounds. easier said than done, folks.
7. do handmade christmas again. it was so fun last year making instead of buying christmas gifts for everyone, so i'm doing it again this year! i even have a few new skills i can put to use. :)
8. sell artwork on etsy. i had a couple of photos & a drawing posted before, but they didn't sell. i'm going to do some new projects to post soon.
9. get friends to go on a ghostwalk. um, this should be prefaced with, "make friends." LOL.
10. ride a horse. don't know where i'm going to find a horse to ride. ooh, maybe at the family reunion in oklahoma!
11. try a new restaurant once a month. we've actually tried several new restaurants this year.
12. learn more french. this will be done with the help of my trust nintendo ds & the lovely program called "my french coach."
13. see fort sumter. can you believe i was born & raised here & have never seen fort sumter?
14. get a big bookcase. i need a big one for all my hardcover books. i want a library of classics.
15. get new flooring for downstairs. i don't know if this will be possible, but we can try. we've wanted it for a while, but right now we have to save up for fall semester tuition, and then transferring to college of charleston in the spring, which is going to be a lot more expensive.
16. paint brass chandelier & make it pretty. hot pink. yes. with jewels all over.
17. get a massage. i've had a $100 gift card for stella nova for over year now. i still haven't used it.
18. go to art museum. i've never been, and i *am* an art student. ;)
19. volunteer at race for the cure this year instead of joining the team.
20. purge stuff & give to goodwill at least once every two months.
21. get back into scrapbooking. but combine it with my fine art talents & make it more interesting. i've learned so many more skills since i quit scrapbooking.
22. start cooking again. srsly, this is one of the reasons willy & i have put on weight, & probably why his blood pressure has gone up again.
23. go to middleton place on a sunny afternoon. before it gets way too hot!
24. find or make a piece of art for our bathroom. i've been looking for one forever, so i suppose i'll just make one.
25. volunteer at a soup kitchen.
26. sew benji's eyes & nose back on. now that i know how to sew, this one will be a snap!
27.
28.
29. apply at c of c for spring semester.
30. save up $8,000 for c of c. yikes. this will be tough. and it will be an ongoing thing, as i'll be there for at least four semesters.
31. stay on the dean's list! yayyyyy!
32. take a dance class.
33. read crossing the rubicon. ugghhhh it's soooooooo long. but chock full of such good info.
34. watch the obama deception. i love alex jones's stuff.
35. try to keep up with current events & politics. another tough one, b/c i get too distracted for things like this.
36.
37. see about getting off of cymbalta. i'm tired of taking medication, & i don't feel like it helps my mood swings.
38. watch all season of star trek. i doubt i can do this all in one year, but we shall see! weirder things have happened...
39. watch the first season of true blood on dvd.
40. enter one of steve alten's contests to become a character in his next book.
41. SEE NEW MOON AT FIRST MIDNIGHT SHOWING IN NOVEMBER! WHOOOOOOOOO!
42. get a new ipod. since mine got stolen. still so pissed about that.
43. read walt disney's biography. it's sooooo long too.
44. start going to the gym again regularly. at least three times a week.
45. audition for a play at the flowertown theatre.
46. start guitar lessons again, or drum lessons.
47. participate in nanowrimo in november!!! this stands for "national novel writing month," & participants write at least 50,000 words that month. that's only like 1667 words a day, so it's really not that bad. it's just motivating yourself to write every day that can be difficult!
48. write in my journal more regularly.
49. get a betta fish & name his marvy 2.
50. look for a free or cheap piano. it's not that hard--craigslist has them all the time!
- Location:home
- Mood:
cranky - Music:collin & logan watching "batman"
i made the dean's list!!!!
summer semester starts june 1st. i've been grumbling for the past couple of weeks about my astronomy class that is going to last 8047523598720 hours every monday. but tonight, i got really excited about it for the first time. i shouldn't complain, b/c i get to take something i'm actually interested in instead of stupid biology or chemistry. thank GOD. the funny part is that i got excited about astronomy when we were watching the new "star trek" movie tonight. LOL. srsly.
by the way, that movie was all kinds of amazing goodness. it had a great story, and not any of those really annoying, long, drawn-out action scenes (i hate that with a passion). aside from the fab plot, it had this in it:
and this:
and this:
and, hold on to your panties, ladies, because this is the slew of man-candy you'll be seeing if when your hubbies/fiances/boyfriends/friends "drag" you to see star trek:
g-g-g-guuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
you're welcome.
*tiff, goddess extraordinaire*
DISCLAIMER: i did not mean to imply, in any way, shape, or form, that i am only excited about my astronomy class b/c of the man candy in "star trek." i am srsly interested in planets and stars and space and stuff. srsly.
- Location:laying *across* the couch instead of sitting up. hee.
- Mood:
mischievous - Music:futurama reruns
i was shocked to find that most people are not like this.
once again, i'm weird.
my sister & i will often discuss books or stories we've been reading, and i'll mention a certain detail that i went gaga over. she won't know what i'm talking about, and i'll be completely surprised.
"you mean you don't remember the part where this happened?" i'll ask, mouth agape.
"no. not at all. wait, maybe it sounds familiar..."
i've always wondered why i remember so many details. one day, i mentioned how i picture the movie in my head while reading the words, and my sister thought that was the weirdest thing. i, on the other hand, found it odd that someone could read and not have that constant stream of pictures going through their head.
i also always wondered why a lot of people seem to read so much faster than i do. and now i know, this is why.
my sister, my bff, and my cousin all say that they read through the words and contemplate them, but they don't translate into a streaming movie.
i believe this is why i remember things from books/stories/articles/whatever in such detail--b/c i not only read the words, but i actually saw the action taking place in my mind's eye. to me, it is as real as can be. the characters are out there somewhere in the world doing and saying what the words in the book say they are doing or saying.
i think this is why i am a writer. whenever i create a character, to me, that character is a living, breathing person.
here's the really funny thing: i've been having bouts of writer's block lately, so i've been looking up articles about writing, writer's block, etc, and writing down tips in a notebook, to which i have assigned the title "writing tips." everything that i've read challenges writers to do the things that i have always automatically done when reading or writing. i am fascinated, and encouraged that writing is what i'm supposed to be doing, by this.
i've always had an extremely active imagination. (ask anyone who watched me grow up or grew up with me--especially aunt sharon, who used to go on "driving trips" with me on nana's couch. or the time she took me to downtown charleston & convinced me that it was scotland. i'm sure that didn't take much convincing in my overactive mind!) it's what has always driven me to write. i'll get a scene playing over in my head, and i'll be inspired to write it down. when we had writing assignments in school, i'd always get in trouble for "daydreaming" & not writing down my ideas, but that's not how my mind worked, and it still isn't. the teacher didn't understand that i was writing my story in my head first, watching the characters do their thing before i could translate it into words on paper.
it's amazing that i thought everyone's mind worked that way.
i consider myself very lucky to have this talent. i feel like i get a lot more out of reading (and writing) this way. i'm extremely thankful for it. :)
*tiff, goddess extraordinaire*
- Location:the couch. imagine that.
- Mood:
dizzy - Music:vitamin string quartet's rendition of muse's "starlight"
without further ado, i am officially debuting my published photo here on the good ol' eljay! and here it is:
(you can click on the photo above and it will take you directly to the real-life website)
see that beautiful photograph near the upper right corner? it has my name under it! yay for me! i'm quite proud. it may not seem like such a big thing, but for someone who is majoring in studio arts, it's definitely a HUGE thing. to know that someone thought that a photograph that i took was pretty enough to include on their website is a great compliment. hee. i'm schmapfamous.
i know that thingy up there is kind of blurry and small, so here is the original photo:
oh, and according to ashley, i'm also googlefamous! one of our favorite "local boys make good" bands, the working title, had a cd release party last saturday night, which we attended. of course we bought the new album (called "bone island") while there. and of course it is amazing. anyway, i wrote a review about it on tifftastic, and ash said that when she googled reviews for the album, mine was on the first page of google results.
"congrats!" she told me. "you're google-famous!"
WIN.
i'm extremely proud of all the neat-o things i've been doing lately.
1. i posted an ad on craigslist to audition to sing in a band. i made a sample of my voice yesterday, and even stepped out of my comfort zone by letting ashley, mom, & dad listen to it. they *said* they thought it was good, but really, would they tell me if they thought otherwise? LOL. anyway, i've gotten a few responses, but two of them were for party bands, some guy who plays ambient crap and has banners for legalizing weed all over his "professional" myspace, and a guy who plays dinner music. not interested. tonight, i revised my ad and said that i would like to request people with similar tastes in music--rock, indie, et cetera. cover bands are okay, too. i love classic rock and stuff like that. just no huge party bands. anyway, i will keep you posted on that situation. it was really more of a challenge to myself more than anything. i'm not really expecting much to come of it.
2. i joined a creative writing group on meetup.com called "moving forward." it's for writers here in the charleston area. there's a meeting at the charleston library each month where we read, review, and give advice, creative criticism, etc. i have yet to go to a meeting, b/c i just joined it a couple of weeks ago. the first meeting i'll be attending is this sunday afternoon (yes, mom, i will still be able to make it to papaw's birthday cookout!) and i cannot wait. my assignment is 1,000 words on an inanimate object. i'm thinking about doing it from the perspective of the inanimate object, which will probably be the chair-and-a-half in my living room. i like to think it has a wonderful life story, even though it's only three years old.
3. i also joined a book club on meetup.com. seriously, folks, meetup.com is an awesome way to get involved in stuff! you join the groups and you get reminder emails and stuff like that so you won't forget about meetings or anything. anyhow, i haven't been to a book club meeting yet either. it's all ladies, and we're meeting at a coffee place i've never been to. next week is my first meeting, though i haven't read the book yet. actually, i've never heard of it. i can't even remember what the title is. but i've got a week to read it. i can do that. i'm really interested in making new friends and participating in intelligent conversation.
4. i've agreed to team up with a couple of internet friends to write a few different stories. maybe this will help me with my control issues. LOL.
5. i finally learned how to use the sewing machine, and now i'm a sewing FIEND! i've made pillows, a little change purse, cool bracelets, a hairband.... it's so cool. i'm going to eventually start selling those things on etsy along with my artwork, once i hone my skill. hee.
that's all i can really think of right now, but i think that's enough! i'm out of school for the next two weeks, and i'm going to have a pretty dang full plate once summer semester rolls around. not only do i have two online classes, but i'm also taking astronomy, which isn't offered in the online format. i have to *gulp* actually physically GO TO SCHOOL! eep! i have it on mondays from 10:30am til 5:30pm, b/c the lab is right after the lecture. suffice it to say that mondays are going to suck. royally. i have just the lecture on wednesdays, which isn't bad, b/c it's over at like 12:45. and because kristen got a summer job/internship thingy at roper, i agreed to keep collin & logan the mornings after her night-shifts. but that's a fun thing. i *heart* those boys! it's like i have nephews. :)
okay, i think i'm going to go to bed in a timely manner tonight. it's not even 11pm yet! wow. that's sorta new for me lately. lol. i just find that i am more inspired/motivated at night to do things. i'm such a night owl. i seriously think that i was created to be a nocturnal creature. maybe i was a bat in my past life or something. OOH, or a CULLEN!!!
*tiff, goddess extraordinaire*
- Location:the couch. BUT on a different cushion than usual!
- Mood:
la la la la la - Music:the fridge humming and axl & lola snoring.
1. i *finally* got a grade back for a paper i wrote for my english lit class at least a month ago. it was a reader response to dante gabriel rossetti's poem "the blessed damozel". in the poem, a lady in heaven watches her love on earth & waits for the day when they will be reunited. it was sort of written as a response to edgar allen poe's "the raven", in which the narrator's love has died, and he wishes for her to come back. so they're sort of opposites. anyway, i wrote a paper describing the parallels between these two poems, and i got a 100 on it! :) but that wasn't even the best part. here are my professor's comments:
Outstanding essay, Tiffany! You’ve opened up Rossetti’s poem in a fresh way, and I’m pleased to see the effort you’ve put in. Nice work.
pretty cool, huh? i love my english lit prof. he is so very encouraging. he has instilled in me more confidence as a writer than any other professor i've ever had. particularly more than that beotch prof i had in my freshman year of college who told me i was incompetent. hmph.
so anyway, i have that to be super proud of. and then this happened:
2. i hadn't checked my flickr account for quite a while, so i did so yesterday. and there was an email from a lady at schmap.com. google says: " ' Schmap' is the publisher of free digital travel guides for destinations throughout the world."
they're really cool interactive maps & stuff with photos of the places, and all their stuff is free. there's even a program you can download. anyway, the important part is what the email said. the lady told me that this photo that i took the last time we were in austin is being considered for their guide to austin! how cool is that?! i wouldn't get paid or anything, but i would get credit for the photo, of course. and just being considered is a great honor for me! so i'm really excited about this. it's another sign pointing me in the right direction of my studio arts major with concentrations in photography & painting. :)
so those are my two pieces of cool news. other than that, nothing else to report. oh, except that i somehow have to finish an english lit quiz today, an art history exam by sunday, my art history final by tuesday, and two (yes, count them, TWO!) english lit papers by wednesday! gaaahhhhh! i won't even have time to gawk at hot pictures of rob pattinson & jackson rathbone or twitter with kt & friends or drink coffee and type to my heart's content............ah, c'est la vie! but seeing how these are the last assignments for the semester, i'm sure i'll manage. ;)
all my love, mon chers!
p.s. if you've been missing my blogs, check me out at http://tifftastic.wordpress.com and subscribe!
*tiff, goddess extraordinaire*
- Location:couch, where else?
- Mood:
crazy - Music:boy with the coin by iron & wine
- Location:the couch
- Mood:
bouncy - Music:anthony bourdain: no reservations
i've been thinking so much about her that i actually looked up progeria on wikipedia. it's a disease that causes the aging process to speed up, and only 1 in 8 million babies have it. the earliest symptoms are failure to thrive (hello, psych101) and scleroderma, which is a hardening of the skin. here's what else wiki has to say:
"As the child ages past infancy, additional conditions become apparent. Limited growth, alopecia, and a distinctive appearance (small face and jaw, pinched nose) are all characteristic of progeria. The people diagnosed with this disease usually have small, fragile bodies, like those of elderly people.
Later, the condition causes wrinkled skin, atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular problems."
alopecia is loss of hair, by the way.
i don't really know why this has affected me so much. sometimes things just happen that way. the saddest part is that most children with progeria don't live past the age of 13, though some have been known to live into their late teens or early twenties.
i didn't mean to make anybody sad by blogging about this, but i just wanted to let everyone know about this show, and i really think if you find yourself at home on sunday evening at 8pm, you should really watch "hayley's story" on tlc and see this beautiful and intelligent girl.
things like this really put life into perspective and make you see that in the grand scheme of things, our little everyday problems are nothing.
- Location:couch
- Mood:
contemplative - Music:what not to wear. again.
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