Well, it looks like I'll be stealing Lampur for an extra project: and that would be the personal essay for the Common Application.
Seriously. I'll need him, too, since for some reason, this ONE essay is really hard for me to write.
Honestly, writing this sort of essay isn't usually hard for me. Personal essay? Okay, what do you want me to write about? Any topic? Word count? A little over 500? Alright, please wait about half an hour...
Even the other essays! They're all, for the most part, not hard to write at all. I've churned out so many drafts of all the essays and mini-essays it's not even funny, and usually they don't take more than half an hour to go from reading the prompt to having a finished draft. My plan is during one weekend in October (probably that long weekend when I'm not writing for GothNoWriMo) I'm going to take all the drafts and go through and edit them, but I probably won't be redrafting most (if not all) of the essays at that point...
EXCEPT FOR THE STUPID MAIN ESSAY FOR THE COMMON APPLICATION!
I mean, SERIOUSLY! It's like, I know I want to write about NaNoWriMo for it, since that's really the only thing that's happened in my life of any interest, but it's just not working out for me.
I did try to write an essay about another topic. I tried to do a "funny-type" essay about house cats (specifically, my cats), and I personally really liked it. It was one of those things that was rough, but I knew it could be really good. Unfortunately, the topic itself (cats/pets) and the fact that it might only be funny to me (the dangers of attempted humor in college application essays) ended up killing the essay.
So yeah. NaNo it is, then.
And at least five separate drafts later, I still don't have a completed draft I think could be edited to something good. I've done a bunch of different ways to frame the essay, since I tried to do a flat-out "I DID NANOWRIMO YAY FOR ME" essay, and it was HORRIBLE. I compared it to an interview, I compared it to the humdrum of normal life, I compared it to autumn/November, I compared it to...other stuff that I can't remember...
And none of it works!
Guh!
So right now, I'm working on a new way to frame it that I think could work, and I'm pulling in somebody who means a lot to me. The big guns: my narrator from the novel I wrote during that fateful NaNoWriMo.
Lampur and I always seemed to get along. I'm hoping that by pleading for his help during this essay-writing madness, I'll be able to get out a draft that, while maybe not perfect or even editable, could hit the nail on the head in terms of topic and approach. I mean, if I can find a topic/approach that works, that would be progress, and I want progress. RIGHT NOW.
So he and I are scheming! We're going to write about a late-night character-and-writer-tag-team-type epiphany that supposedly happened around 2 AM on Wednesday, November 14.
This, of course, is an entirely fictitious event. The heart-to-heard I describe is actually happening more like NOW, but I think it would be much more impressive if it happened during NaNo itself. :P I might change the date, though.
Hooooopefully, the college admissions people won't find this blog and be like, "oh, she lied! She and her character actually had this conversation during September of the following year! Her integrity is shot! REJECT REJECT REJECT!"
So yes.
So...um...
Dear possible college admissions officer: Sorry the essay you read is sort of fake. This actually is how I think - Lampur and I just had a little trouble finding a time when we could chat like this. We decided it would be best to describe the conversation in the context of the actually novel-drafting challenge. In reality, during that time and even now, I've always been in contact with Matt and Sissy, the two main characters of the PREQUEL to the book I was writing. You know, the one with Lampur (and Jamie, if I mention her in the essay you just read).
I would have used Matt and Sissy, or even some other characters (like Diego, Christine, Ariel, Ben, Pheng, and Tehm from Battlefield: Red), but I thought Lampur and I would work better for this. I even talked to Matt and Sissy about it, and even though they were sort of a bit put-off that I wasn't using them (Sissy, especially), they agreed it would work better.
Um...please accept me? I love you? So very, very much?
...Yeah...
So anyway.
Wish me and Lampur luck! (And if this works, Lampur, I PROMISE you I'll listen to you a ton more for the Highness rewrite, will include you when I work on Urban Myth and Eternal Flame, and even write this so-called "fourth book" you keep telling me is going to happen.)
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Copied from Facebook: Goal Reached
Actually, I reached this awhile ago. But here's what I thought about it!
One of my "lifelong goals" was to go across the western US on a train. Well, I did that...and then I kept going! Read on:
heyheyyyyyy. So I guess some people wanted to know what it's like to go across the USA on a train.
So I'm gonna tell you about it. :) And then I'm going to upload pics from the train later, and some videos maybe. But I took so many pics that it'll take awhile to look through them all. I went across the whole friggin country. There were a lot of photo ops.
Okay. So basically, when I did the train trip, we first took the California Zephyr from Emeryville to Chicago. Then we spent about two days there, then we took the Lakeshore Limited from Chicago to Albany, then switched to a coach train from Albany to Boston. (Trains have weird names.) On the CZ I was in one of the "luxury bedrooms" (the nicest option), and I shared it with my mom. On the LL I was all by myself in a roomette (the middle option). Some people road coach the whole way (which is just like sitting in a really nice chair). I felt bad for them.
So...CZ was definitely nicest. That was probably cuz I was in a nicer/bigger room, cuz the scenery was better, and cuz the train was nicer in general. The best part of the trip was from Emeryville - Denver (about 36 hours), because the Sierras/Nevada deserts/Utah deserts/Rockies are really pretty. After that was just cornfields and floods (which were depressing).
Riding the train Emeryville - Chicago is pretty nice (also I was in the bedroom). The bedrooms are fairly roomy, and you have a separate little bathroom/shower and sink/storage/mirror. The two beds are perpendicular to the way the train is moving (which I think helps when you want to fall asleep), and are sort of like bunk beds. During the day, the top bunk sort of swings up out of the way, and the bottom becomes a "sofa". Across from the sofa is another seat, but not as comfortable (though you face the way the train is moving on that one), and there's a little foldout table thing.
So that was us in the sleeping car...the next car over was the dining car, which was really nice. You get to sit at a nice table with these fake flowers and nice plastic plates (so they don't break - but they still look nice). They have a menu and stuff, though it's harder if you're a vegetarian. They still had some vegetarian options, though, except they ran out during the extra meal offered when we were six hours late. There was a lot of meat...I didn't usually eat it, though. The garden burgers weren't that great. D: Hot dog (what I got for the extra meal due to lateness) was fairly good. Salmon and lasagna were great. Breakfast was pretty good, too, and lunch was fine. Yeah.
And there was an observation car the next car over, with these huge windows, places to sit (and stuff to buy to eat), and some skylights sorta. I spent some time there, but not much, since I was trying to get work done, and people were talking a lot there. It was really nice, though. I think they had some "guided tours" of the places we were going through (like, a national park ranger-type person or something would have a microphone and talk about the places we went through as we went through them).
The best part of that trip was definitely going through the Rockies. There was this one canyon we went through that was really pretty - it was raining, and so the water brought out the red colors in the rocks and made the plants look really green and lush. It was really amazing.
The stops were okay. It was super hot and muggy for most of the stops (and smoky cuz a lot of people smoked), but this one stop in Colorado (Granby) was really nice because it was about to rain, so it was really cool and cloudy. It felt good to get off the train and walk around.
On the train, people seemed really nice. More social than I think they would normally be, because sometimes you sit with other people during meals or in the observation deck. The staff on the CZ were really cool, too. Our attendant in the sleeping car was named Reggie, and he was like, the most awesome person ever. The other two staff people I saw a lot, Elliot and Teresa, worked in the dining car, and they were really cool, too.
But it also seems like only one demographic really rides the trains. It was kind of weird. Part of that demographic was that they were all old, so I felt like the only teenager. That was fine, though, since I wasn't really in the mood to make one-day friends. :P
The LL (Chicago-Albany) was definitely not as nice, and NOT JUST because I didn't have as nice a room. But the room definitely made a difference. The roomette had similar bunk beds (except the bottom bed became two chairs facing each other instead of a couch), but not as nice, but that was pretty much all there was. Also, there was a toilet/sink, but they were right there in the room. Which was weird. No shower there, either, I think there was one down the hall. (But luckily, it was only 24 hours, so I just showered before and after the trip and skipped out on the weird shared train shower for this part).
Also, the windows weren't as clean - although, since I was in the top bunk the whole way from Emeryville, I at least HAD a window for this part (even if it was dirty). Also, I think the roomettes in the CZ didn't have their own bathrooms. But whatever.
I had a lot of trouble sleeping on the LL. The train rocked really violently back and forth, and I think because the beds were parallel to the way the train moved, that made it worse. I almost fell out of bed a lot (but the blankets were really tight around you, and there was this net thing, so I was okay). It was also really cold. And then I woke up at 5:45 after very little sleep, and decided just to stay awake...
The dining car was similar, but the staff wasn't as friendly. It just didn't seem quite as nice, maybe. The staff in general wasn't quite as friendly. The attendant, whose name I think was...actually, I forget her name...but she was sort of nice but removed. Not very chatty. The observation car was not nice at all - just some tables and some chairs and somewhat big windows. I spent a little time in there in the morning, though, because it was a bigger table.
I think the food wasn't quite as good in the LL, too, but that might just have been me being grumpy about not getting any sleep. :P That, and the scenery wasn't all that interesting. Riding coach from Albany to Boston was almost better, since the chairs were bigger and the scenery was nicer.
But yeah.
The train.
Overall, doing it across the country was okay, but it took a total of four days (not including the time in Chicago), and the best part of it was all at the beginning. So unless you want to do it just so you can say you went across the continent in a train, then go for it, but really, the part that was the best was Emeryville - Denver. So if I were you, and you wanted to take the train, I would do Emeryville - Denver on the California Zephyr. Oh, and make sure you go with friends and bring stuff to do, because otherwise it would be boring. :P
Oh ya. And you don't always have cell service, and there's no internet. I was only able to send people (mostly Kelly and Janice :P ) text messages because the calls would get dropped, and that was only sometimes. So yeah. Plan ahead. :P
One of my "lifelong goals" was to go across the western US on a train. Well, I did that...and then I kept going! Read on:
heyheyyyyyy. So I guess some people wanted to know what it's like to go across the USA on a train.
So I'm gonna tell you about it. :) And then I'm going to upload pics from the train later, and some videos maybe. But I took so many pics that it'll take awhile to look through them all. I went across the whole friggin country. There were a lot of photo ops.
Okay. So basically, when I did the train trip, we first took the California Zephyr from Emeryville to Chicago. Then we spent about two days there, then we took the Lakeshore Limited from Chicago to Albany, then switched to a coach train from Albany to Boston. (Trains have weird names.) On the CZ I was in one of the "luxury bedrooms" (the nicest option), and I shared it with my mom. On the LL I was all by myself in a roomette (the middle option). Some people road coach the whole way (which is just like sitting in a really nice chair). I felt bad for them.
So...CZ was definitely nicest. That was probably cuz I was in a nicer/bigger room, cuz the scenery was better, and cuz the train was nicer in general. The best part of the trip was from Emeryville - Denver (about 36 hours), because the Sierras/Nevada deserts/Utah deserts/Rockies are really pretty. After that was just cornfields and floods (which were depressing).
Riding the train Emeryville - Chicago is pretty nice (also I was in the bedroom). The bedrooms are fairly roomy, and you have a separate little bathroom/shower and sink/storage/mirror. The two beds are perpendicular to the way the train is moving (which I think helps when you want to fall asleep), and are sort of like bunk beds. During the day, the top bunk sort of swings up out of the way, and the bottom becomes a "sofa". Across from the sofa is another seat, but not as comfortable (though you face the way the train is moving on that one), and there's a little foldout table thing.
So that was us in the sleeping car...the next car over was the dining car, which was really nice. You get to sit at a nice table with these fake flowers and nice plastic plates (so they don't break - but they still look nice). They have a menu and stuff, though it's harder if you're a vegetarian. They still had some vegetarian options, though, except they ran out during the extra meal offered when we were six hours late. There was a lot of meat...I didn't usually eat it, though. The garden burgers weren't that great. D: Hot dog (what I got for the extra meal due to lateness) was fairly good. Salmon and lasagna were great. Breakfast was pretty good, too, and lunch was fine. Yeah.
And there was an observation car the next car over, with these huge windows, places to sit (and stuff to buy to eat), and some skylights sorta. I spent some time there, but not much, since I was trying to get work done, and people were talking a lot there. It was really nice, though. I think they had some "guided tours" of the places we were going through (like, a national park ranger-type person or something would have a microphone and talk about the places we went through as we went through them).
The best part of that trip was definitely going through the Rockies. There was this one canyon we went through that was really pretty - it was raining, and so the water brought out the red colors in the rocks and made the plants look really green and lush. It was really amazing.
The stops were okay. It was super hot and muggy for most of the stops (and smoky cuz a lot of people smoked), but this one stop in Colorado (Granby) was really nice because it was about to rain, so it was really cool and cloudy. It felt good to get off the train and walk around.
On the train, people seemed really nice. More social than I think they would normally be, because sometimes you sit with other people during meals or in the observation deck. The staff on the CZ were really cool, too. Our attendant in the sleeping car was named Reggie, and he was like, the most awesome person ever. The other two staff people I saw a lot, Elliot and Teresa, worked in the dining car, and they were really cool, too.
But it also seems like only one demographic really rides the trains. It was kind of weird. Part of that demographic was that they were all old, so I felt like the only teenager. That was fine, though, since I wasn't really in the mood to make one-day friends. :P
The LL (Chicago-Albany) was definitely not as nice, and NOT JUST because I didn't have as nice a room. But the room definitely made a difference. The roomette had similar bunk beds (except the bottom bed became two chairs facing each other instead of a couch), but not as nice, but that was pretty much all there was. Also, there was a toilet/sink, but they were right there in the room. Which was weird. No shower there, either, I think there was one down the hall. (But luckily, it was only 24 hours, so I just showered before and after the trip and skipped out on the weird shared train shower for this part).
Also, the windows weren't as clean - although, since I was in the top bunk the whole way from Emeryville, I at least HAD a window for this part (even if it was dirty). Also, I think the roomettes in the CZ didn't have their own bathrooms. But whatever.
I had a lot of trouble sleeping on the LL. The train rocked really violently back and forth, and I think because the beds were parallel to the way the train moved, that made it worse. I almost fell out of bed a lot (but the blankets were really tight around you, and there was this net thing, so I was okay). It was also really cold. And then I woke up at 5:45 after very little sleep, and decided just to stay awake...
The dining car was similar, but the staff wasn't as friendly. It just didn't seem quite as nice, maybe. The staff in general wasn't quite as friendly. The attendant, whose name I think was...actually, I forget her name...but she was sort of nice but removed. Not very chatty. The observation car was not nice at all - just some tables and some chairs and somewhat big windows. I spent a little time in there in the morning, though, because it was a bigger table.
I think the food wasn't quite as good in the LL, too, but that might just have been me being grumpy about not getting any sleep. :P That, and the scenery wasn't all that interesting. Riding coach from Albany to Boston was almost better, since the chairs were bigger and the scenery was nicer.
But yeah.
The train.
Overall, doing it across the country was okay, but it took a total of four days (not including the time in Chicago), and the best part of it was all at the beginning. So unless you want to do it just so you can say you went across the continent in a train, then go for it, but really, the part that was the best was Emeryville - Denver. So if I were you, and you wanted to take the train, I would do Emeryville - Denver on the California Zephyr. Oh, and make sure you go with friends and bring stuff to do, because otherwise it would be boring. :P
Oh ya. And you don't always have cell service, and there's no internet. I was only able to send people (mostly Kelly and Janice :P ) text messages because the calls would get dropped, and that was only sometimes. So yeah. Plan ahead. :P
Friday, September 12, 2008
BFS Update: September 12
1. Two novel drafts - 0/2 - Ugh, I'm SO CLOSE to finishing up Red, but I'm just so lazy! Sigh. Literally, I probably only have a couple more hundred words to go, and I can even make it shorter and more abstract or something. I'll (hopefully) have this goal halfway done (in terms of the official count/not counting Travels in Dreamland) by the next time I update these goals!
2. Script Frenzy '08 - Previously done.
3. Regular exercising (twice a week) - 15/100 workouts - School has disrupted my workout schedule, but I bike most days and I still managed to get in some workouts. The number is still an estimate, though. I don't think I'll make this goal, though. :P
4. Regular journaling (seven pages per week) - On track, although I have yet to journal this week. Oh well, it's Friday. I have about 24 hours to start to write seven pages - no big, I've done it before. A lot. :P At least I'm still on track to finish with this one!
5. Regular creative writing (one piece per week) - 24/50 pieces, 6/12 accompanying images - Ugh, I should have written one more little thing so that I could get to half way! But I've gotten in a groove of doing more of these, and I even did a sketch to go along with one of them. (Actually, I did a poem to go along with a sketch, but oh well, same difference.)
6. One contest + one submission - Previously done.
7. More socializing - 23/40 events - School has started up again, so people are busy, but I think that between now and August 10th, I've done a couple things with people. I just can't remember...so this number is still an estimate. I'll try to start going to events with people on the weekends, I think, or at least studying with my friends or something.
8. "Progress" - Previously failed.
9. More studying/earlier start on homework/"good grades" - Hahaha, I started trying to "tackle procrastination" for a project for Psych, and it did okay for the first week. Then I started procrastinating on it. :P So I dunno...ahahah. Yeah. Although I've been doing really well with this, actually! I've been starting my homework at 3-4-ish, usually around 3. So I'm making this RED!
10. Summer job - Still bitter...even though it's September...heheheheheh...
Total:
- Not started: 0
- In Progress: 6
- Completed: 2
- Failed: 2
Overall goal: 5/10 goals by the end of 2008
2. Script Frenzy '08 - Previously done.
3. Regular exercising (twice a week) - 15/100 workouts - School has disrupted my workout schedule, but I bike most days and I still managed to get in some workouts. The number is still an estimate, though. I don't think I'll make this goal, though. :P
4. Regular journaling (seven pages per week) - On track, although I have yet to journal this week. Oh well, it's Friday. I have about 24 hours to start to write seven pages - no big, I've done it before. A lot. :P At least I'm still on track to finish with this one!
5. Regular creative writing (one piece per week) - 24/50 pieces, 6/12 accompanying images - Ugh, I should have written one more little thing so that I could get to half way! But I've gotten in a groove of doing more of these, and I even did a sketch to go along with one of them. (Actually, I did a poem to go along with a sketch, but oh well, same difference.)
6. One contest + one submission - Previously done.
7. More socializing - 23/40 events - School has started up again, so people are busy, but I think that between now and August 10th, I've done a couple things with people. I just can't remember...so this number is still an estimate. I'll try to start going to events with people on the weekends, I think, or at least studying with my friends or something.
8. "Progress" - Previously failed.
9. More studying/earlier start on homework/"good grades" - Hahaha, I started trying to "tackle procrastination" for a project for Psych, and it did okay for the first week. Then I started procrastinating on it. :P So I dunno...ahahah. Yeah. Although I've been doing really well with this, actually! I've been starting my homework at 3-4-ish, usually around 3. So I'm making this RED!
10. Summer job - Still bitter...even though it's September...heheheheheh...
Total:
- Not started: 0
- In Progress: 6
- Completed: 2
- Failed: 2
Overall goal: 5/10 goals by the end of 2008
Awesome! I don't have anymore goals that I have blacked out as "not started"! Yee-yah. :) I definitely think I'll be able to get 5 goals met by the end of the year, especially since I have two completed, one as over halfway, and two as really-super-close-to-halfway, and that's not even counting the journaling goal! So maybe I'll be able to get six goals by the end of the year - or seven, if I feel that I met the "no procrastination goal". Which might actually be possible, since senior year seems to be a whole lot easier to handle than junior year.
Not like it's going the way I wanted it to, or anything, but it just seems "easier". Maybe not simpler or normal-er, but I think it's easier.
Or, at least, I'm getting more sleep than I did last year.
Meh.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)