Oops... [scratches back of neck awkwardly]

It's kinda been awhile, hasn't it?  Oops.  I've been busy though.  So instead of just picking today's topic--which is what? writing? I think so--I'm just gonna cover all the bases.

I've had Flavor of the Weak by American Hi-Fi stuck in my head for days because it played on my pandora station.  Think of You Later (Empty Room) by Every Avenue is one I've loved for months since I bought my Take Action 2009 CD...  Hey Lady by Thriving Ivory just got really stuck in my head at work yesterday and I've been singing it since.  Bitch, Please by Jeffree Star gets stuck in my head periodically... actually, fairly regularly, not gonna lie, haha.  Aaaaand...Mayday Parade's "Anywhere but Here" album is 100% amazing.  I love every second of it.  I'm itching to get my hands on Every Avenue's new CD, "Picture Perfect" and Flyleaf's "Memento Mori," but I haven't been to Minot yet to get them.  And I probably won't be able to get EA's, but... I still want it.  Oh, and thanks to a friend on Myspace, I'm now really into a punk/screamo band called Black Veil Brides.  They're really good, if you're into that kind of music, which I definitely am.  They don't scream all the time, and Andy Sixx has a really nice voice.  And he's pretty cute, won't deny.  =]  hahaha.  No, but the song "Knives and Pens" is really addicting... I think I'm going to go listen to it again... Just not immediately.  Well...in a minute.  Oh, and there are a few pop songs on the radio that I've actually been pretty into lately.  I'm not certain what's up precisely, but oh well.  It's music, and if it's good, it's good; that's all there is to it, I guess.

Celebrity figures who've caught my eye recently... mmm... Andy Sixx, but mostly just because of the BVB video last night and he's cute and has a nice voice.  I really don't know much of anything about him.  [shrug] Perhaps a research project for a later date.  Anyone else?  Mmmm... Nah, not really.

Books.  I've restarted Laurell K. Hamilton's first Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel: Guilty Pleasures.  I didn't really like it when I very first started it, but I'm pretty into it now.  It's L.K. Hamilton; how couldn't I like it?  I mean, really.  She's brilliantly descriptive, fresh, fascinating and fun!  Haha.  Seriously, though, if you're into sex and gore very clearly spelled out in your books--sometimes somewhat vaguely simultaneously--then Laurell is an author you need to pick up.  She's brilliant.  I love it.  =)

Writing.  I'm still working on In the Midst of Musicians and...the other one about the chick touring with her brother's band.  It doesn't really have a title yet... I'll find one. Eventually...  But other than that?  Mostly I've been writing letters! Haha.  A couple of weeks, I sent off 9 letters all at once.  I think 5 of them went to Canada.  It was a lot of postage, to say the least.  $5.51 in postage I sent out that day.  Mhm.  It was worth it though.  What's funny is that 2 of the Canadians just got their letters yesterday.  It took almost an entire week extra.  It usually only takes 7 days to get from here to there.  And they both got them the same day because they live in the same place!  Haha...  I don't actually know the one person; he's a friend of a friend, but now I talk to him more than I talk to her--or most any of my other friends, I think--and definitely more than she does.  They just go to school together, mostly.  He's a real sweetheart.  Maybe I should shut up since I'm giving him the address to this blog and he has the tendency to follow links I give him.  Haha.  Oh well.  It's not like I've said much of anything very telling.  (=  At least I don't think so.

As far as anything else goes, well, I'm a cheerleader.  I'm not 100% certain what possessed me to try out, but I did... and so now I am.  I've only had one practice in which we ran and did leg/core/arm workouts, and only one muscle in my lower stomach is sore, and only when I'm lying in bed and then try to sit up or stretch or whatever.  It's great.  I'm not as much of a fat blob as I thought I was!  Haha.  Okay, so not a fat blob, but I'm still a blob.  I don't ever really do much of anything... but sit at the computer...and Mom pretty much hates it.  Oh well.

In other news, one of my friends dropped out of high school a month or two ago.  His mother signed for him.  What a fucking idiot.  In reference to both of them, actually, not gonna lie.  That family's been having issues lately...for about a year or a bit more... maybe more, because I think Brittany was still here when they really started... God, has it really been so long?  Not that that'll mean anything to you, but it does to me...  Jeez... that's like, 2+ years... And they just keep getting worse...
They're coming up for Thanksgiving now next week... I'm sorely tempted to slap him across the face when I see him, but I know I won't.  I don't have it in me for one, and Mom would be pissed.  Oh, goodness, I don't even want to think about what Mom would do to me.  Plus, I don't really want to piss him off within seconds of seeing him for the first time in about 3 years... God... I can't believe it's been 3 years... Ugh. [whine whimper whine]

Lemme see...what else can I tell you... Oh.  I woke up one morning with an insane urge to color... so I've been coloring steadily for about 3 weeks or so.  I'm hardly writing during school at all, unless it's a letter.  It's kinda ridiculous, actually.  Weird...  OH!  And I preordered Laurell K. Hamilton's next book in her Meredith Gentry series; it comes out on the 24th.  I didn't really need to preorder it, but I did anyway.  Haha.  Just because I really wanted to.  I WANT IT!  And I've got a few other people hooked on these books, too.  It's kind of funny, haha.  One of them is on the same book as me, the other has to finish the 3rd one yet, and then my best friend has yet to start the 3rd book because she moved... So...yeah...  I don't know...  I might bring it to Minnesota with me when I go in December so she can bring it back to me after Christmas.

Oh, yeah, by the way, my mom and I are taking the train out to Minneapolis the night of the 18th of December so that I can go see my best friend.  I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.  =D  So yes...  Haha.

But that's it!

Until next time, with love,
--Emily
~~xoxo~~

"She screams for more, More than just a blue-eyed metaphor."
--Hey Lady: Thriving Ivory





Post Playlist (windows media player)
I Can't Stay Away--The Veronicas (Hook Me Up)
Home--Kill Hannah (Hope For the Hopeless)
Queen of the Club Scene--Jeffree Star (Beauty Killer)
Break Your Little Heart--All Time Low (Nothing Personal)
One Day Too Late--Skillet (Awake)
In Pursuing Design--VersaEmerge (Take Action! Vol. VIII)
Sore Winner--There For Tomorrow (A Little Faster)
Awake and Alive--Skillet (Awake)
You're Not In on the Joke--Cobra Starship (Hot Mess)
Therapy--All Time Low (Nothing Personal)

Wednesday!

¡Buenas tardes!  ¿Cómo estas?  ¡Muy bien!  ¿Y tú?
Okay, I'm done now.  Sorry for the Spanish.  I'm taking Spanish I this year and, strangely enough, I'm actually really enjoying it.  I figure it must stem from my love of language; I guess that it doesn't just include English.  Haha.  I'm good at language(s).
Anyway.  I believe Wednesday's topic is books, and even if it's not--which I know it is because I remember the last time I posted on Wednesday--I'm gonna talk about books anyway.  So there.  Stick that in your juice box and suck it.
So I went shopping Monday night and I was going to order the next book in the series I've been reading, and the guy types it into his computer and goes "Seventh book?"
"Um, yeah, I think so."
"Looks like this?"  He turns his computer and shows me a very provocative book cover, rather indicative of Hamilton's story line--and obviously what I was looking for.
"Yeah, that one," I confirmed with a nod.
"It's not published yet."
I was devastated.  It was tragic.  Anybody who doesn't read books like I do wouldn't understand, but it was truly tragic.  November 20th, though.  So at least it's not terribly far away.... Actually it is, but never mind.  Just means I'll actually have to read my other books, haha.

Speaking of other books, I'm reading Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison.  It's about this 14-year-old British girl and it's fricken hilarious.  It's written as a journal, and it's terribly amusing.  I've gotten to a point where I don't generally enjoy books about kids at age, like, 14....but I like this one a lot.  I don't know why; I just don't.  It's hard to explain.  It's kind of like "yeah, whatever" I think... I don't know.  There's just something about kids that age that bothers me a whole hell of a lot.  And don't roll your eyes at me, because I didn't like us when I was that age, either.  Someone's saying "wait, she didn't like herself because of her age?"  No, I didn't like myself and/or my peers because of the mentalities/states of mind that we were in because of our age.  So there.
Anyway!  About ATAFFS.  She goes to an all-girls' school and they have to wear berets--which causes some rather amusing journal entries--but anyway, as all 14-year-olds are, boys are her main focus, haha.  (I won't bother denying it.  They were mine, too.  Well, okay, not main, but they were definitely a key focus.)  And she has a totally massive bizarro cat named Angus.  haha. I know, right?  There's an amusing story with that, too.  So far, I have in my possession books 1-4, and I'm pretty excited about it.  haha.

One of my best friends also gave me My Fair Godmother by Janette Rallison to read, but I haven't started it yet.  She said it was really good though.  Despite a little cliche, which isn't always bad.

But I'm gonna conclude our book talk for today because my choir class just started and I really ought to get to that, haha.  My conductor's pretty cool, and I spent my EIE period in his office because another class was using the room. So anyway.

Until next time, With love,
--Emily
~xoxo~

Post Playlist (courtesy of http://www.pandora.com/):
Down--Something Corporate (North)
Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)--Lostprophets (Liberation Transmission)
The Rock Show--Blink 182 (Take Off Your Pants and Jacket [Explicit])\
Forward Motion--Reliant K (Two Lefts Don't Make a Right...But Three Do)
Memory--Sugarcult (Palm Trees and Power Lines)
Blurry--Puddle of Mudd (Come Clean)
Dance Inside--The All-American Rejects (Move Along)
You Found Me--The Fray (The Fray)
I Don't Know About You, But I Came to Party--Forever the Sickest Kids (Television Off, Party On EP)
She Is the West Coast--That Was Something (Down But Not Out)

It's Wednesday!

...What's Wednesday mean?  I completely just forgot... music monday, intro tuesday.... fucker... [storms out to check, grumbling]  BOOKS!!  That's it.  I forgot, obviously.  Whoops. My bad.

So I finished How I Became Stupid, and I liked the ending a whole lot.  It was quite amusing, as a matter of fact... although it did seem a little unfinished.  I think I give it....4.3 stars. (Of 5, obviously.)
Still reading Mistral's Kiss, but I'm almost done with it.
Deathwish is still just kinda sitting in the pile of stuff I carry everywhere...waiting for me to get to it.  Sorry, Cal; I'll read you eventually.

Today I think I'll talk about Generation Dead, and the sequel, A Kiss of Death--which I haven't finished yet, obviously.  Generation dead is about how all of a sudden, teenagers are dying...but not really.  They're coming back as zombies--ahem, my bad, "living impaired."--and some of them function quite well, others hardly at all.  They talk slow, have monotone-voices, and are, of course, quite pale.  However.  Anyway, there's a lot of controversy over the whole dead-kid issue thing and whether they were now citizens or not or whatever.  Some of them don't want to be with "the beating-hearts" and some of them do.  It's hard to really describe.  Regardless, the plot and writing style make it a really intense read, keeping you on pins and needles page after page until you've burned through the whole thing and you're left sitting there going, "Hey, hang on a minute!"
So then you get your hand on the sequel, A Kiss of Life.  And the intensity hasn't dropped at all.  It's still pins and needles through this thing--it's a wonder I got it put down, haha.  I guarantee, it'll be the first I pick up when I need another book.

So that's it for the week!  Short, I know.  I'm sorry.

Until next time, with love,
--Emily
~~xoxo~~

(sorry; no playlist again.  I've taken to writing these at night when it's unavailable.  I'll try to change it up one of these days and give you some music again.  kay?  ^.^ loves!)

Reading Wednesday

So....I totally missed yesterday.  Oops.  But I had work til 10 and when I got home, I just really didn't feel like bothering....so sorry. My bad.  Oh well, though. You'll go a week without a public figure, won't you?  I'm sure you'll make it.

So I'm only going to tell you about "How I Became Stupid" by Martin Page this week, because I told you about the other two I'm reading last week.  I could bring in "A Kiss of Life" but I think I'll save it until I'm back into it, okay?  Okay.

So...so far, Antoine has decided that intelligence is a disease, and he's very much afflicted.  So first he decides he's going to be an alcoholic, only a physiological difficulty makes that impossible.  (He got alcohol poisoning after half a glass of beer.  Keep in mind this is a book, although I'm sure it's possible.)  So then he decides he's going to commit suicide, because he figures he'd much rather be dead than alive...Only he goes to a class on how to do it, and at the conclusion of the class, he decides that, though he's not so enthused about being alive, he doesn't wish to be dead, either...
So finally, he arrives at the conclusion that he wishes to be stupid.  Because, quote: "ignorance is bliss."  So his doctor (funny story there, actually) gives him a prescription for "Happyzac"--real? fictional?--which is supposed to be some kind of stupidifying anti-depressant.  I'm still working on the results with this, but his friends are all concerned for him.  I'm not so sure about this guy, myself...  But I've only got a few dozen pages left to go--it's a short book--so I'll have it finished by the due date, at least.  [=  And then I'll have read another book that Harri has, and my life shall be one step closer to complete.  Haha, I'm kidding.

But that was awfully short....I'm tempted to bring up A Kiss of Life... perhaps I'll just recommend reading Generation Dead and leave you with that, hm?  Interesting book.  My friend had a hard time following it, but I didn't.  It's pretty intense, though.  Good read, however; definitely a good read.  I enjoyed it.  Thoroughly.  I kind of predicted the ending, in a way, but... oh well.  You're so wrapped up in what's happening per paragraph you don't have time to sweat predictability--which there isn't much of, really.  So yeah.


Until next time, with love,
--Emily
~xoxo~

(No playlist, because I wrote this in bed and in like, 20 minutes tops.  So there.  Ha.)

Novel Wednesdays!

Yay! It's time to talk about books. Always a topic I thoroughly enjoy. Haha, it happens when you're a bookworm. C=

So anyway. At present, I'm reading three different books. Well, two, and I just started one.

I'll start with the one that I'm reading most often--e.g. the one I pick up more times than the other(s): Mistral's Kiss--Laurell K. Hamilton

Preceded by A Kiss of Shadows, A Caress of Twilight, and Seduced by Moonlight,it's a continuation of a quite impressive--and intriguing--story line that I haven't been able to stray away from. I won't deny that they're graphic...in both senses of the term used here. There is a lot of violence in these books--about as much as there is sex. Oh, dude, there's so much sex in these books it's pretty much like porno in print! But at least it's good sex. Hah, I know, I shouldn't really be saying that, but come on. The series is about the princess of the Unseelie Court of Faerie, Meredith NicEssus--who goes by the alias "Gentry" when she's hiding from the court in Los Angeles--in a race to get pregnant with her cousin Cel--who's trying to impregnate one of his harem--to take the throne from her aunt (and his mother) Queen Andais. Each book is riddled with assassination attempts on Meredith and her men, along with torture and battle and magic duels, et cetera. Steadily, the Unseelie Court is regaining the power that it lost over the years--from various causes, including moving from Europe to America--and so are the members of the royal guard, now Meredith's, rather than the Queen's....and it's because Merry is having sex with them. Well, sometimes; sometimes if they're just around when she's having sex, then shit happens, but now we're back to sex, and I'm avoiding that bit. ASIDE from the sex, Laurell (the author) is a brilliant wordsmith and artist. She paints the most beautiful--or macabre--and vivid pictures with her words, it's just incredible. I can see everything she describes in perfect clarity in my mind, and that's part of the reason why I love her so.
Not really a book I'd suggest to the weak of heart....or those who can't handle reading sex...and really macabre torture and such... yeah.

Book 2: Deathwish: Rob Thurman
Preceded by Nightwish, Moonshine, and Madhouse, this book concludes the Cal Leandros series in ever-more hilarious tension, sarcastic comments, and unbeatable action. (By the way, these really are my words coming out here. I could write reviews for stuff, no problem, haha.) I love this guy, partly because his writing style is like mine on a really good day--only all the time--and his sense of humor is nigh identical to mine. That, and I actually happen to find men's habits and thought processes and reasoning amusing. Don't ask me why, I don't really know, but I'm sure it stems of the fact that I'm a girl. Haha. Anyway. The books contain great characters, thoroughly developed, but with things that you either like being left ambiguous, or wish they weren't. I haven't finished it, though, so there may be a few more things discussed. I'm hoping on a couple of things. [= Anyway. The series is about Cal and his brother Niko living in New York and fighting monsters, meanwhile trying to evade and kill off the nastiest monster of them all: the Auphe. They're like elves, but the nastiest, most terrifying elves you could ever in your darkest nightmares come up with...so far as I can tell. The description of them isn't so terrible, but if you let your imagination run wild--as I so often do--they get pretty ugly. Anyway. It's a really good series, and one that I totally would recommend to about anybody. They're just great. [=

And I just started this book called "How I Became Stupid" but I don't remember the title because I just got it from the library today. I picked it up on a reccomendation of a friend of mine from Fargo, the ever-amazing Harri Boyd. That kid's just great. I love him. He's one of the best writers I know, and I aspire to be as good as he is. He doesn't read a lot of books, and he's got the same reason as I do, only he freely admits to being kind of conceited about his writing talent--which he kind of has right to be, but he knows that he still needs critique, which is the important thing--so he hardly ever finishes books. Fat Kid Rules the World--another book I forgot the author of--was one that he finished, and I read, and thoroughly enjoyed. Hawksong--no author again, sorry; too lazy to go look--was another, but someone stole it from the school library, so I haven't read it. But my best friend Tara read it several times and loved it, so... I'm going to say it was probably a pretty good book. I'll get around to it later, perhaps. We'll see.

Well, that concludes my reading material discussion for the week. Next Wednesday, I might let you know about How I Became Stupid. Or I might talk about something else. Who knows? It's all fair game in the big wide world of Emily's Bookshelf.
Ha ha

Until next time, with love,
--Emily
~~xoxo~~

Blog tracklist (courtesy of www.jango.com and my own library):
TiK ToK--Ke$ha
Rock is Dead--Marilyn Manson
Say Anything (Else)--Cartel
On and On (About You)--Bowling for Soup
Don't Count on Me--The Secret Handshake
Heart Surgery Isn't That Bad--Jeffree Star
One Thing is For Sure--The Spill Canvas
Gunslinger--Avenged Sevenfold
In Fate's Hands--The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Now or Never--Madina Lake
Do It For Me Now--Angels and Airwaves
Sleeping with Giants (Lifetime)--The Academy Is...
Breathe Today--Flyleaf
Boyfriend--Ashlee Simpson (I normally wouldn't admit her, but I like this song.)
Homecoming--Hey Monday