Yesterday's Headdesk

This minus the fact that I love Revenge of the Sith.

Big Whoopee

NaNo! I'm excited now. I have a cover for the book, and I haven't even written the first word.
FEAST YOUR EYES READERS, FEAST YOUR EYES!!

Coming together this November.

Any guesses on what the plot is? Please feel free to give out inklings & ideas in the comment section. I don't have an outline written out, but I have one in my head. I guess we'll just see where we go when we get there.
Also, I was wondering: Which do you prefer to read: first person or third person? First person is more fun to write, but third person gives me more wiggle room. This is quite a conundrum.

...Oh, by the way, have any of you ever hiked Humphreys Peak (located in Arizona)? If you have, I need your brain. And if you by chance happen to farm pinto beans, I need to have a few words with you.

Last night I made this awesome guy.

I pulled out a bent needle, some cheap thread, and a reeeally old pair of cut up blue jeans that I forgot to throw away years ago and just hand sewed it up around my arm. The best part? It actually zips around my wrist because I was able to keep the zipper and thread it into the rest of the material. Tonight I'm working on the left one. This one is different though, because instead of a zipper, it uses a sting of leather and laces up.

'nywaze, that's what's up.

Back at ya later,
K-Minty

Hedgehogs Be Praised

For the second time in bloggerworld, I have been tagged! Seriously, is being tagged not the best feeling ever? =D

John the hedgehog from Banana's Aren't Good was nice enough to grant me the glee of being tagged! Here were his eleven questions:

1. You don't like bananas, right?

They are sometimes squishy and gross. Besides, I don't like monkeys.

 2. Do you want to build a snow man with me?

Oh ever so much! It doesn't snow here. =(

 3. Do you like movies with sand in them? I do. Jack's friend does too and that is how I saw the movie with sand in it.

I am not a beach person.

 4. Will you see the movie with the boy named Jack Frost in it?

If you buy the ticket.

 5. Will you read the books before the movie?

Serious doubts.

 6. Do you like books?

They smell nice.

 7. Do you have someone like Jack to read them to you?

No. But sometimes the ghosts in the closet come out and listen.

 8. Do you have a boring big brother like I do?

In all fairness, he does not bore me that much.

 9. Do you like cold chocolate or hot chocolate more?

Hot chocolate season is short-lived here. Cold is the way to go.

 10. Is your birthday the same day as my birthday?

Negative.

 11. Do you want to put candles on your tree?

I do not think my tree would like me if I did that. I read books in her leaves, and I have a desk made out of plywood up in her branches. However, candles are not to her liking.

Someday I will live in a treehouse.

And here are my questions:

1. Are you okay with bats?
2. If I asked you to check out a book called "Lasagna for Breakfast" at the nearest library, what would your first thought be?
3. Something on your "bucket list"?
4. Is it cheesy to say gesundheit?
5. Are monkeys cute or creepy?
6. First guy's name that comes to your head?
7. If you were to break your arm tomorrow, how would you do it?
8. Best shoes to dance in?
9. Would you recognize any Beatles's songs if one randomly played on the radio?
10. Something that's bugging you now is...?
11. The last video you played on YouTube was...?

And now: THE TAG-EES!

Ely @ www.quillquizzer.blogspot.com

Lauricia @ www.giveitsomestyle.blogspot.com

E-Jai @ www.divingintochaos.blogspot.com

Leauphaun @ www.thelifeofleauphaun.weebly.com

Reg @ www.monsterchinchilla.blogspot.com 

Isabelle @ www.singing4life-isabelle.blogspot.com 

Alosia @ www.thecastleintheskies.blogspot.com

Once again, thank you John the hedgehog! You are a good hedgehog friend, and I look forward to hearing more from you.

God bless!

K-Minty

"The Time I Kill is Killing Me"

There are a few things that we as humans don't seem to have figured out yet. For example, why do we complain about time flying, yet at the same time, when asked how our day went, we moan:

"SLOOOOOOOWLY.",

Punctuated with exasperation. It just doesn't make sense to me. Shouldn't a slow day be a blessing? If time is such a short, fleeting element, wouldn't it be right to revel in it? There's that saying about sitting back, breathing, and letting it all go. Well that sounds nice, but if you let it all go, you may not have anything left by the time you wake up. There are certain things that anchor you to what matters. Things like Hope. And Hope is important. The minute you let him go, you will realize that you need a bigger road map. Lucky for us as believers---we always have hope!

And that, as Gandalf said, is a comforting thought.

          1 Corinthians 7:29-31

²⁹ What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; ³⁰ those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; ³¹ those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

           Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

There is a time for everything,

    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

² 

    a time to be born and a time to die,

    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

³ 

    a time to kill and a time to heal,

    a time to tear down and a time to build,

⁴ 

    a time to weep and a time to laugh,

    a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵ 

    a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

⁶ 

    a time to search and a time to give up,

    a time to keep and a time to throw away,

⁷ 

    a time to tear and a time to mend,

    a time to be silent and a time to speak,

⁸ 

    a time to love and a time to hate,

    a time for war and a time for peace.

James 4:14

¹⁴ yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Elucidation.2

Plot twist: Sometimes you have to lose multiple times to win.

An error occurred while trying to save or publish your post. Please try again.

You find a lot interesting things while researching for your NaNo.

For example, have you ever needed to survive a 35,000ft plummet from the sky? Or have any of your relatives been diagnosed with FFI (Fatal Familial Insomnia); a disease that kills its victims by making them slowly deteriorate from a complete lack of sleep?

My poor characters. They are about to have a very rough time.

If any of you are die hard fans of BBC it is likely that you will sit up and point with exclamation, shouting: "THAT'S THE KID FROM MERLIN!"
Okay, so it is. What have you to say?

I've found it is a help to find a visual of your fictional characters. Some sketch theirs, while others tend to surf Google, questing to find their interpretation of protagonist A, B, and C. In my opinion, it makes the story come to life.

I like snails.
In fact, I ate one once, shell and all, at age three. I do not advise picking things up off the sidewalk and swallowing them.

And that is all.

An airplane carried me to bed, Where I slept above the coast, And dreamt I had become a ghost...

Blueprints

Sometimes trusting God to do all of his work in us to the full can be painful. He never promised it would be easy or comfortable. But he hears our suffering and lets us know that it will all turn out beautifully in the end. But for now, all we can do is trust in his plan and know that someday our eyes will be opened.


Pslam 34:18 (message)
If your heart is broken, you'll find GOD right there; if you're kicked in the gut, he'll help you catch your breath.

John 13:7 (message)
Jesus answered, "you don't know what I am doing now, but it will be clear enough to you later."

Pslam 56:8 (message)
You've kept track of my every toss and turn through the sleepless nights, each tear is entered in your ledger, each ache written in your book.

* * *

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Evil Eyes and Airplanes

I wonder when people started to use the figure of speech "fish out of water". I guess it's just "one of those things".
Which, of course, causes me to wonder when that figure of speech originated. =P

Anyhoo, I write now to talk about writing. Doesn't that just sound like the funest thing?! I'm still wondering about this whole NaNoWriMo thing. In fact, what I really want is for you to give me something to write about. I'm kind of tired of thinking up my own things (never thought I'd ever say that). As of this exact moment I just want someone to give me a fun and interesting novel substance, then give it a thirty day shot. If you'll just wait for a minute though, my mind will switch and decide that I can do it ON MY OWN.

I'm very much an ON MY OWN sort of person, don'tcha know?

More of my writerness if about to get used for other things (not including lab write ups) as well. I'm strongly considering trying my hand out for a low-key essay contest (there is a pun in those last words that only one person who will ever read this can find), as well as speeches for a government class that I'm taking. Being a lobbyist if fun stuff, but my speech writing is soon to be tested for the first time.

Those are the three:
NaNo
Essay
Speeches

Can I knock 'em all down? And if I attempt, should I go with the left hook or the right? Maybe I should just become a kick boxer and work on my evil-eye.

Speaking of.

Okay, before you ask me why I'm going all creepy "emo" on you, lemme assure you, I am not about to go and shroud myself in black and walk swiftly and silently throughout the night, all alone with an evil glint in my eye (quite literally). 

I just had lots of fun on Picasa photo editor today! =D

Finally! I've discovered the advantage to having deep brown eyes! They edit very nicely into crimson. I often sit back and wish that my so-called pudding eyes had SOME sort of color in them, but for right now, I think it's cool how they can come out in the edits! 

 Also, I've kind of decided that I'm going to put a watermark in the center of my pictures (like the first one there) whenever I can. In digital art class we talked about copyrights and other neat things in relation to that and I realized how lazy I've been with making sure my work still stays my own.
---I know, I know, the watermark is annoying, distracting, and will probably steal your Captain Crunch when you aren't looking, but I'll try to keep it as transparent as possible, 'k? If you want a copy of a non-watermarked version, just let me know in a comment and I'll work on getting it to you.

This week our homework for digi art was to design a logo and tagline for ourselves/our work/our company/etc. Since I didn't want to use this

and was supposed to make something new, I decided on this simple lil' design:

The K and K stand for "Kreative Kompositions", which I've chosen for my tagline as well. And as for the paper airplane?

I s'posed it was just an easily identified object that shoes ingenuity, creativity, and an admiration for flight. After all, what Kismint doesn't love the sky?!

'Tis all.

K-Minty

Elucidation

Today my dad said that sometimes you have to lose in order to win again. I told him that was a good quote.

Yann Tiersen || Atlantique Nord

 

When I listened to this song for the first time, it nearly startled me

This is the soundtrack to my dreams

I'd never heard this until today

But it gives me an eerie feeling

And that's because it's familiar

Remotely.

NaNo-ness

I'm kind of stuck here. I want to write for the annual NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writer's Month). But as of late, I have pretty much turned m' back on the attempt of novel writing. Yeah, I'll write in a blog, but writing books?? Psh. Kismint still has a hard time trying to write three measly paragraphs.

But NaNo is a chance. These crazy people literally encourage the imprisonment of your inner editor (for a month).

To be honest, I really wouldn't care about book writing---if it weren't for one annoying little thing.
My head is a saga-creating machine. There is not a moment when my brain doesn't have something it's juicing up.
I have a library full of stories and a circus full of people in there (to my surprise, it happens to hold an amazing amount of capacity). Creating things is the way I function and entertain myself. It's just a thing about me.

If I were to do a NaNo this year I'd set an exceedingly small goal for myself. Most people go with the intention of writing about 50,000 words in 30 days.

Yeah.

Well I'm not most people. And that doesn't really work for me. It takes me hours to write five hundred words. I don't have enough time to write more than triple that every day ON TOP of (increasingly piled up) school work, house work, and the Thanksgiving festivities that come with November.

Small goals aren't bad. Maybe a short story will work. I really just want to type out the words "THE END" on something. That's all. That's it. I want a finished work of jumbly-mumbly. Last year I went almost a week at writing 1,700 words a day and then crashed. This time I'm thinking that I might just give myself an hour each day to spill out a little of the accumulating plot.

And I'm sort of kind of maybe possibly and indirectly attempting to for a suitable plot.

Back in August I had the brilliant idea to steer nearly every original literary idea that's burst through my cranium into a collision and make on whopper of a tale out of the best parts of each piece.
Well my MC (main character) is probably getting mad at me by now because he's been sitting in the same history class waiting for his teacher's next words for a few months now. HOWEVER *ahem* from that collaboration I have devised the beginnings of a sub-short story that will take place in the same places.

Yeah (for the second time).

Woohoo...

Another problem that I happen to have is the fact that I don't know much about the topics that I like to write about. Actually, I don't really much about anything---but that's another topic for another time, hmm? =D

The other thing that might become a conflict is lack of inspiration. Notice that I don't say writer's block. I think I've decided there's a difference.

See, writer's block is when you can't decide what your MC(s) are going to do next.
Lack of inspiration is when, for the life of you, you don't WANT to type what your MC(s) are going to do next...or even HOW they do what they are going to do next.
I don't have questions of what they should do next. I just can't get myself to get them to their desired destination.

I guess writing a novel is kind of like being in control of people at a train station.
Something or other like this:

You need Mrs. MacAurther on train 224 heading to Westbond and Greyfarthing at 12:15 sharp. Then, over here you need Mr. Gary and his entire family of nine on the rail going to Detroit at 1:30 PM. In addition, you have the Maryvilles, the Rootes, AND the Jetsons who are vacationing together and need to get on the quickest train to the nearest airport (wherever that might be---but you're in charge so it's up to you to help them get there). There are more, but it's rather exhausting to elaborate.
Also, in order to make their trips more appealing to a general audience, you are to send a batch of man-eating badgers to attack one of them (that character will fend them off with his cleverly-concealed crossbow), an infestation of robots to damage tracks, and a mad hamster in a ball who happens to be bent on enslaving the human race. These are your story conflicts.
In the end, a selection of your characters passengers must mistakenly die, then come miraculously back to life, a romantic relationship must be expanded upon, and each one should eventually have their lives concluded in a full-length biography (otherwise called an "afterword").

Your one thing standing for you?

Music.

The most excellent writing tip ever:
When epically chronicling your masterpiece, listen to all things Thomas Bergersen (one of the reasons why YouTube is actually very awesome).

Happy NaNo-ing!

Spider Hands

Yesterday.

Now watch it a thousand times so that it can become viral. 

God Bless!

The Man: He Resembles Both Owl AND Hobbit

Sorry it looks squished.

Someday I'm gonna have a fangirl outburst. Dread that day friends. Dread that day. 

It's weird how I already can't wait for his next work of art to be produced, published, and public-ized. Seriously, this guy is one of the most amazing artists of the century. And when I say artists, I don't even mean music. I mean artistry in the fine craft of photography and wordsmithing too. This dude is good at things. Things that I very much want to be good at. And to top if off, he still keeps his head and faithfully follows our Savior. Even when fame is a very nasty, twisted, and tangled business, he openly proclaims the truth:

http://www.ayoungblog.com/post/32385164655/to-him-be-glory-forever-and-ever

I guess this is just a re-statement of what I've said in previous posts. But why not have two more copper coins in the jar? 

Another reason to love Owl City: 

Every time I hear this it's like childhood nostalgia dances a tango straight into my ears.

^_^

G'night.

Whoa There Windspeaker!

Do I call on the wind, expecting it to howl, or do I simply want it to sweep me off my feet? Some say that you can't whistle to a thing as wild and free as it is, and then simply expect to have it at your side within the hour. But I guess I don't believe them. At any rate, I whistled and it came.

I'm one of those people you don't like to think about. Not because I'm a terrible person per se. More like because I concern you. People in general tend to become uneasy when someone unlike "normal" society is among them...and, well...I'm probably not the most normal of beings you might find in a big city like this.

But even here you have to wonder. Even here you'll find a few things under the surface that aren't quite what they seem. After all, you don't really think that the air just circulates on it's own, tunneling its way in and out of these subways like it has its own road map.
Nope.
The authorities aren't rearing to speak of it, but they really do have several Windspeakers working down in the tunnels---even the ones right beneath your feet, or the ones below Times Square itself.

Imagine it! The stations you happen to use, day in, day out, work to home and back again, are made possible only by my people. Well, it's a jolly good thing we don't require much credit or attention, otherwise you'd have a National crisis on your hands. If the Windspeakers went on strike, all the oxygen and air that reaches below would stop short, like a tab turned off. And that would be the end of something.

And the beginning of something else.

 

 

 

* * *

I literally just had this weird inkling: A book plot which takes place in modern day about the percentage of population who can actually control wind (and windspeed). One of the jobs available to them would be to control and stabilize air content in subways (like the really big metros used in NY and DC). Without them, underground travel would be impossible.

Like I said, "weird".

 

Hmm...Dear old slapdash inspiration strikes again. Anyone wanna use my new found idea?



Of Snippets and Socks

"What is it?", they say.
"What will it be?", I say.

And then I forget about it and dump it in my ever overflowing closet.

* * *

Hi all! How are you this fine afternoon (no, it really is fine---overcast and cool...The WINDOWS ARE OPEN!)? Lately you may have noticed the local trend of me posting random dialogue in the beginning of each post.

In explanation: I get these all the time. Just random snippets from some unheard of story that is non-existent and never will be.

Nice isn't it?

And by the way, my closet doesn't always overflow. That's just my fictional characters as she talks to you all in the three-lined snippet inserted above. I think I'll be doing that more often. I like to start blog updates off by picking you up onto your toes with randomness.

So now that I've started, where shall I begin?

*runs through titles in head*
Chapter one, "My Life As Recorded in 5 Minutes worth of blog time"...
*shakes head*

Nah. I won't bore ya. Nothing going on that would be extremely excited to the lot of you wonderful cyber friends. However, I do come baring a picture of what some may call "Awesome Sauce".

 

(Apologies for it not being the greatest of quality...)

*evil laugh*
My socks!

While throwing my room upside down and shaking the pennies out of its ears cleaning my room, I happened upon this pair of socks I seemingly forgot I had ownership of.
In conclusion then, I feel that now is the appropriate time to announce that to the world.

That is all.

K-Minty

P Sherman and All That

Hiya all.

Ever notice that when you're listening to a really good song and writing at the same time, all you wanna do is type the lyrics? That's what I've been feeling like. I've been walking around in agonizingly repetitive circles wanting to create something beautiful. I don't care what with---gimme anything: words, photos, music, crayolas,---ANYTHING!

But I can't.
Actually, I don't mean that like a "can't can't" more like just a "can't". Get what I mean?

It's something horrible to be an abstract thinker. I have a swirly twirly line of ideas and dreams dancing in my head, and I can't get the orchestra to play a number slow enough for me to catch up with them. I'm not an insomniac, quite the opposite really, but there are those weird nights when my brain is literally doing this to me:



You get the idea, right?

It's a colossal whirlwind of voices, words, pictures, and past. That's when I want my fingers to fly over a keyboard and start writing out every inkling I get...but it doesn't work that way. Inspiration comes to fast and leaves before I can hang up it's coat and hat on the rack.

Ain't that annoying?

So long live dashes of inspiration that I can never quite get down, eh? ;)

"And now we pause for a moment of abstract reflection..."

Those stars shine pretty brightly out there. You were one of them.

All I had to do was flip the switch that said "Skyline" and the night would have glowed finer than that time the moon exploded in our faces. They said to make a wish, but I was so caught up in the moment, I forgot to until it was too late. My chance was gone, and that meteorite dissolved behind the chimney tops. 

For a long time now, the sky has been a sort of obsession to me. I'm afraid of heights, but love the thrill of fear. I could hang up there for hours, climbing on those cumulonimbus' like a boss

Even if I can't see the blue in the sky, I still rejoice in the static charges that flit around, bouncing back and fourth, throwing lightning bolts hither and thither. 

But it's really great at night. That time when everything you never thought would wake up does. Those stars aren't all that visible from where I live, but I still know they're there. The moon is a floodlight, the helicopters fireflies, and those funny little bugs that fly in loopdeedoos around the porch light are the shrapnel of it all. Nighttime is like a fiery explosion of light that stands out at exactly the time you aren't looking noticing.

Here is where

I happen to live.