Day 200: November 24

from the newsdesk: 
Books are so novel

I am [attempting] to write a novel. I started out doing it just for me, but then found this website that can track your words and then verify it as a 'novel'. But to have it verified, it has to have fifty thousand words. As of today, at 8.54pm, I had ten thousand and three words [10, 003] and 19 pages. I can't believe I actually got to 10,000. It seems like just yesterday that I had under 1000 words.

I probably won't finish it by the end of November, as I've got just under 40,000 words to go and a week to get there. Including school. But my aim is to finish by the end of the year and by [hopefully] writing about 10,000 a week, I can get there. Before this, the longest story I'd ever written way probably closer to three pages.

Day 200: October 11

From the newsdesk...

"Our Quarterback"

That was officially the single most emotionally draining episode of a tv show I have ever seen. And I have watched A LOT of television.

Sue [Sylvester] got me. I cried when she spoke. She was so rude to him when he was alive and now - now that he's gone - she will never have the chance to tell him how many she actually like him. That really got me. How she could NEVER turn around and say 'sorry'. It made death sound so final and obsolete. 

And it wasn't even just Cory that died. It was Finn too. Finn, the first 'cool' kid to ever talk to, let alone join, the Glee club. Or Finn, who went out with Rachel or Finn, the man who never had a mean word to say about anyone. I can't say, as I never had the pleasure of meeting him, but it seems like Cory's personality seemed to come through in the later stages of Finn. 

But the thing about this episode is that is this episode, they weren't acting. The we're replying real life with a few changes names here and some changed locations there. The tears, the grief, the heartache - all real. The actors had to take their grief and show it to the world. They had everything twice - the funeral, tears, heartache, heartbreak. They had to replay possibly the worst moment in their lives. 

But I'm glad for the tribute and when Mr. Schue said "I'm glad to see that so many of you could make it", it seemed like he was talking about the actors and how many of them had come to not only mourn and celebrate Cory as a person, but as an actor as well. 

Santana (Naya Rivera) was fucking amazing. You could actually see the emotion in her face and her rendition of If I Die Young (The Band Perry) was especially heart wrenching and absolutely devstating when she ran off halfway through because she couldn't deal with it. 

R.I.P. Cory Monteith (1982-2013) 

"The show must go on... all over the place... or something"

Romy Rosemont (Carol - Finn's mom) was jaw-droppingly incredible. 

Day 199: October 5

From the newsdesk...
Eye herd a storey 

This tail is confusing
I mussed admit strait out

I can’t begin too understand
Eye’m stuck without a doubt

I highed a helping hand

Someone to work me threw

This riting disaster of a poem

Someone who said he new

The help was a pear of twins

Who hailed from an aisle in grease

One was a buoy and one was a girl

and they advocated four world piece

The twins maid me reed

This poem to them allowed

I didn’t struggle all two much

And fore that I’m very proud

I cent the twins out fast

They were boring seouls

I wanted someone fun; mary

Sum won outta control

I maled out a letter
A dressed to the ‘funny sun’

And quikly received a reply

At precisely five seconds passed quarter two won

He said heed help me -
“no problem, for shore”
We then maid a date
for July first at twenty past for

The sundae arrived

I could bearly weight

The clock was ticcing slowly

But I was feeling grate

After the son set

And evening became knight

Funny man was a know show

Butt I was going all right

I would fight thru the poem

All the ups and the downes;

All the inns and the outs

To get the holey crown

I would beet it all

Ay was better than the best

I would bee number won

I wood win the final quest

Day 198: September 30

From the newsdesk...

Things that make me happy

So wow!! 

It's been nearly a month since I've been on here and nearly a year since I've had this blog! I think my writing has definitely improved since last year this time but there's still a long way to go. 

I think when I go traveling (one day) I want to keep a blog (as opposed to a diary), because while I think diaries are more special an personal, I always seem to give up on them about 2 weeks in. Maybe with a blog I'd be more consistent, but also maybe not. 

Oh well, I've got over two years to figure it out.

Things that make me happy 

1. Michael Buble's songs 

2. Miniature Objects

3. Dinosaur (Kisschasy)

4. It's nice to be alive (Ball Park Music).

5. Books

6. When the weather is at the perfect temperature 

7. My friends

8. Peanut butter flavoured things 

9. Doing well on a test I thought I was going to do shit in 

10. Pastels 

11. Owls 

12. Things that are related to Harry Potter

13. When the June picture in a calendar is good 

14. Fruit salad 

15. Cool English (language) rules

16. Snow globes 

17. Jangly bracelets 

18. Grapes 

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” 

- John Lennon 

Day 197: September 1

From the newsdesk...
September

September is the ninth month of the year and is one of the four months to have 30 days. It is named after septem, the Latin for 7, as it was previously the 7th month.

Today is September the first, a day celebrated (or not celebrated) by many. Why? Well I'm glad you asked because here's a list:

SPRING: Gone are the days where you are greeted by condensation every time you breathe and you can feel the cold under your skin. Instead we're greeted by the sounds of sneezing thanks to hayfever and the birth of many new bugs and insects. Jokes aside, spring is a lovely season filled with blossoms and baby animals and pretty perfect not-too-hot weather. Its a frivalous time and its time to break out that hat and the sunscreen and get joyful.

Father's Day: In the Land Down Under, we celebrate Father's Day on the first Sunday in September, which this year happens to be September 1st. So here's to the last 16 years of homework help, dad jokes, anchovies (small salty fish my dad likes), halva, billtong, advice, boring biscuits, cynical comments, running and just being there when I need you (and also often when I don't)

SEPTEMBER 1st: What does this mean you mere muggles ask? Well September 1st is the faithful day on which Hogwarts students go through the wall onto Platform 9 and 3/4 and take the puffing steam train known as the Hogwarts Express to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It doesn't bother me hugely that my letter is 5 years overdue or that I live in Australia (and Hogwarts is in Ireland). But soon my fellow witches/wizards we will be walking up and down the 432 (?) moving stairs of Hogwarts, transfiguring match boxes into mice and looking into crystal balls with Professor Trelawney. Soon.

(Also for people who live in the northern hemisphere, school starts today).

So stop what you're doing, grab a straw hat, your favourite Harry Potter, your dad, a picnic basket, a mat and skip down to the nearest park for a father's day celebration. The Harry Potter book is for when he goes to BBQ the meat.

Day 196: August 24

from the newsdesk..
City of Bones 
So today I saw The Mortal Instruments: The City of Bones. I have been wanting to see this movie since, I don't know, forever. It's like me waiting too see Harry Potter but not really because Harry Potter is pretty much perfect and nothing can compare to it, and I just used it as an example because it was the first thing that popped into my head.
Here's how I analysed it:
Lily Collins was the perfect Clary.
Didn't think Jace would look like that [Jamie], but I still reckon Jamie is a pretty perfect Jace. I just need to get used to to (and also meet him).
Cheekbones.
I didn't like the Silent Brothers because I thought they would glide more and be less human but they walked and seemed like they were human-ish.
Robert Sheehan was Simon.
Izzy was beautiful but maybe wasn't mean enough? 
Luke didn't look like I think he would
Jocelyn was pretty spot on and her and Clary could be twins. (Seriously at the beginning, when Clary first came on screen I was like Jocelyn or Clary?) 
Hodge was good - nothing special (but he looked like the image in my head). 
Magnus was perfect (and him I want to meet too). 
I think Alec was too old (but that was just the casting). Like he seems so much older than Jace and I think they're meant to be around the same age? 
I didn't know Madame Dorethea would be black ( I just never thought of her like that). 
Valentine.. I just thought he would be more monstrous - more Voldemort-esque.

But I am totally nitpicking and the movie itself was amazing and damn, the special effects were brilliant and three cheers for Harald Zwart [the director] for pulling it off how he did. Obviously there were bits missing [as in every movie] and maybe bits that were considered important, VAMPIRE & RAT, but I guess they'll come around in the next one!! But the main parts were there and the GREENHOUSE SCENE was the cutest/best/loved it and I really liked Jace's sense of humour [maybe arrogance] and I would've loved to have seen more in the movie. I also like some of the things they added, like the PIANO, but a certain person  turned into a DEMON [pretty sure she didn't in the book] and that threw me off course completely.

But I think I would have been completely confused if I had gone in there, having not read the books. Sometimes in movies, when I don't understand something, I try watching it from the POV of someone who hasn't read the book. In this movie, I think it was a little bit confusing with whom was related to whom and what happened to Hodge and quite a few other things that I don't think I would've known if I hadn't had the prior knowledge. Sometimes book knowledge can be a hindrance - when movies go a different course - but sometimes you just need that extra knowledge. They did make things more obvious in the film (LIKE SAYING 'OH WE SHOULD LIE ABOUT THIS PERSON AND THIS PERSON BEING RELATED), whereas in the book, we don't find put that they're not actually related by reading the next book. WE HAD TO WAIT. Feels. It's mostly an easy movie to follow, but I think if you want to get the full value out of this film, I recommend reading the book first because that way, you'll pick up on the small details that take it from being a good film to a great film.  

(Guys did you know that I have met Cassandra Clare - and also got a rune necklace [and autograph] from her!?)  
So when is City of Ashes coming out? 

Day 195: August 18

From the newsdesk...

Leave 

I just want to leave. 

To get out of this house; to go somewhere unfamiliar. 

To get away from these four whitewashed walls and same people. 

Just to escape the routine of life: exactly the same day in and day out. Conversations are even routine. 

What would you like for this meal?

How are you? 

How was school?

Does that even matter. 

I want to take a plane, a car, a ferry, a unicycle; hell, I'll walk - to someplace else. Somewhere unvisited. Somewhere different; exotic. 

Less of the same, more of the unusual. More colour and less experience. More variety, more glitter. 

It'll be a field. A market. A bustling street in New York City. It'll be the house that looks like a farm. 

Let's go to Ikea in Sweden. 

These four walls are a trap. But it's disguised cleverly; you can't tell. It beckons you in with familiarity and security and warmth and comfort and you get comfortable, but then you also want change. But by then, it's too late. 

Everything works like clockwork so why would you want to change that? Sure, there's a few bumps in the road, but they'll pass. What's life like without a few bumps anyway, say the people who haven't experienced anything more than a straight road their entire lives. 

Wouldn't you like to know?