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Thursday, February 3, 2011

NAMES!!!

Writing is a disease. 


And I have it baaaaaaaaaaad. 


What's the big idea? 


Here's the problem: Names. I can't even decide on names for my characters, and I. AM. SERIOUSLY. STRESSING. OUT. ABOUT. THIS. Yes, you can tell I'm the type of person who freaks at just about the slightest thing. This is one of those. I'm having a moment right now, so could you please ruin it. PLEASE!!! 


All right, y'all must be about 100% confused about right now, so I'll clear it up right now. I just needed to get it out, you see. I have a question: Is it wrong to steal someone else's character name for your story?

For example, I really really really REALLY like the name Isilee, which Shannon Hale uses in her book, The Goose Girl for her main character Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee. First she goes by Ani, but by the end of the book and for the rest of the Books of Bayern series she goes by the name Isi, as a shortened version of a part of her extremely long first name, Isilee. So you see, I really want to use this name, but I don't want to sound unorginal by copying another author's uniquely-devised name. Hale made this name up - it doesn't exist in real life. I almost wish she didn't make it up, that way it would be different. But unfortunately, it's all due to Hale's cleverness that the name now is in existence, and she's the only one to use to BECAUSE SHE MADE IT UP. So, is it wrong? I know it's not plagiarism, but still, there's such a wrong feeling of utter un-originality about this that I'm not sure what to do. 



 Someone please answer me quick! I'm in a dilemma here.   

私は桜の花が好き

You know how I lived in Japan? (See older post titled "Feelings of nostalgia). Yeah, so recently, I've been having this almost frenzied obsession with sakura - in English, cherry blossoms. That's what the title says, by the way. TRANSLATION: I like sakura flowers, or, if you guys want the transliteration and want to learn some Japanese, here's how you say, "I like sakura flowers": 


watashi wa (I) sakura no (sakura) daisuke (love them). 




IN honor of my obsession, I included a picture of a sakura tree somewhere in Japan. 

Writing is a disease

Seriously. If it weren't for the fact that it's good to let your creative juices flow sometimes, I probably would never ever write another story again - or attempt to finish another novel (and I have never finished a novel, just to let you know - but who's asking?). 


Writing is more of a mental disease than a profession or a hobby - I think every author will tell you that. It's a frustratingly addictive force for us writers who get the jitters when we don't write for more than six hours. That's bad - trust me, I know. When I moved to a new house (right across the block from our old house) I couldn't keep still because my dad hadn't set up the computer yet and all my writing stuff that I wanted to continue was on that thing (I know, bad idea. Always keep a hard copy. Lesson learned) and I literally COULD NOT KEEP STILL because I was THAT impatient to continue writing. And then a week or so later when my dad FINALLY set the whole thing up, I sat down at my desk to write . . . and absolutely nothing came to mind. NOTHING. How frustrating is that, you wonder? Let me tell you, EXTREMELY frustrating. 


Writing is hard. It is, I swear! You have this tremendously awesome idea in your head and maybe even the whole darn storyline plotted out into perfectly miniature movie scenes (like I do) but when you go to write it out on paper, or type it on a computer, you end up staring at that stupid blank thing for who knows how long. Argh!! 


The only trouble I don't have with writing is writing these blog posts, mostly because I'm letting out my feelings of frustration here. Actually, I started this post last night but never got to finish because it was getting late and I had to sleep, but afterwards, I got this brilliant idea for this novel I've been trying to finish for the past two years and for the two other novels that go along with it, and I was like, "Hey! A spark!" And then I went to write it down on paper, and . . . (drum roll please) . . . SOMETHING ACTUALLY CAME OUT. I was SOOOOOOO happy! 


But yeah, those are the rare times. I have school tomorrow (finally) after a week's worth of pushed-back midterm days and two snow days in a row . . . so I won't get to write like I am now, which is a huge bummer. But oh well. At least I got the idea written down last night, right? That's what counts. So there we go. 


The point of this story? Writing is a disease, and if you are a writer, then be prepared for the rest of your life to fight this thing with all your might until you defeat it and come out victorious - by which I mean, at least one writing piece finished.  

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Dedicated to Eeshie . . . who wanted a picture of an animal for herself.

Eeshie, this is for you. Knock yourself out. 


Doesn't this describe you perfectly? Ha. Ha. 



Feelings of nostalgia

I know Im posting a lot today - more than usual, at least. Well, it's just because I have a lot of time to think about stuff OTHER than school and to sort out my thoughts. And here's what I came up with: We take a lot of things for granted. 


Actually, I think we take most everything for granted. From anything to our eyesight to the fact that we have a roof over our heads and food in our stomach. But most of all, for those of us who've had a nice childhood, we take that for granted. 


That'd be me, unfortunately. Right now I'm listening to Japanese songs, actually, I'm listening to a particular song over and over again. See, I have a little history with that country, or rather, I have history in that country. I grew up there for the beginning part of my life, before I moved to New York. I went there with my parents when I was two-almost-three and stayed there until I was seven. So a good, solid four years, at least. And I had a lot of fun there; at least, I had fun of the times that I remember spending there, and from the pictures and videos I saw.  Yup. I had a lot of fun. The Japanese culture is very unique and they have a distinct sense of themselves, since it's for the most part a very homogeneous country. So we (my parents and I) still feel a connection to there and thus satisfy those feelings by sometimes eating sushi and the other traditional Japanese foods that we used to eat back when we lived there. 


My point is, when we were living there, except on weekends and school holidays and festival times (they have A LOT of those) I didn't think too much on it because I was living there, going to school there; basically going about a normal life. But now that I reflect back on it and see the pictures and watch the home videos again, I think how fun it was and how many people get to live in such a unique country in their lifetime - during their childhood? Let me tell you, hardly any. But I did, and I thank God for everything (and of course, my parents) and I dearly regret not making every moment count back then and now I would do anything to go back to that time and relive it again and again, forever and ever. But I can't. 


So, the moral of this story? People, make it count. No matter who you are, where you are, life is short and expected to be lived to the utmost best. And no matter what condition we are in, we still have to be grateful that we aren't any worse because there's so much suffering in this world today and thank God (or whatever you believe in) that you're here today, alive, and reading a blog post with an eyesight. 

Dedicated to idontthinkso123 . . .

So if you haven't seen the heated little 'battle' me and idontthinkso123 have gotten into in one of our comments, go look at it. Click on the Comments sections under the blog post on Wednesday, December 29, 2010 and read them if you care.   


As you can see, all 20-something comments all began with her (I now have reason to believe it is a girl) posting as a random comment, "I know who you like." 


What kind of a person writes such a random comment on a blog post like that? I mean, honestly, if idontthinkso123 wanted so much to intimidate me (or whatever else she was trying to do while trying to spend her time) then she should've at least put in some more effort. I mean, even though I admit that yes, she accomplished her goal in that it weirded me out and thus I responded back, leading to this whole darn thing. But you know what? I'm done with it. I have better things to do, so idontthinkso123, whoever you are, stop posting weird comments. Please. Oh, and go learn some Japanese while you're at it, too. (Inside joke). :D Ha. Ha. 


I mean, she didn't even bother following my blog - no, she just went and posted a weird and completely random comment on one of my Question of the Week blog posts. And the Question wasn't even about liking someone, for Pete's sake! 


But whatev. 


So goodbye, idontthinkso123. 

I LOVE Stumbling Upon Things . . . don't you?

First and foremost, many thanks to labaticha for sharing with us on her blog www.thecreativemuslimah.blogspot.com about StumbleUpon.com - now here's a website where, based on your chosen interests, the crew at StumbleUpon will display the corresponding webpages. 


So here's a funny video on two cats running on a treadmill I discovered when StumbleUpon stumbled upon a certain site. 



Cats On A Treadmill - Watch more Funny Videos

Welcome Steve Finnell!

Just what it says. A BIG hearty welcome and thanks to Steve Finnell for deciding to be one of my cool followers.


When you guys follow my blog, you get THIS picture of an elephant holding an umbrella (drawn by me) dedicated to you on my blog. Hooray! :D 


So here you go, Steve.