Building Characters

Hey guys,

(** Brief note before I start, I have links to every outside webpage I used for this, however the links look like the rest of the text, so if you come across a link just mouse over the words to find the link, it'll turn white when you mouse over it.)

Today I wanted to go on a brief rant about building characters. This is going to be a little long, so prepare yourself. I usually create characters in my head and then create a story around the character. This is because of how my mind works. For the novel I'm working on right now I started off with two characters in my head: they were in love but something was keeping them apart. This developed in a very complex situation and even I don't know if their relationship can ever work. I honestly prefer starting with characters, but whatever you prefer to start with, characters or a plot, is completely up to you.

I'm going to start by saying that I am going to be creating a character from scratch as I go through this post, I have no inkling of what's going to happen right now, so bear with me.

Alright. First things first: we need a gender. We can't even go about naming a character before we have a gender. If you already have a gender in mind for your character, awesome! Since I'm doing this on the fly, I'm going to flip a coin: heads for a guy, tails for a girl. *Flips coin* Heads: we're creating a dude today.

Next I'm going to figure out what he's going to look like. If you have a certain nationality in mind this can help you refine your search. If you need inspiration for this you can do one of a few things:

• Go to one of your local establishments and people watch. See someone you like? Borrow a few features. See a few people you like? Make a chimera!
• Use Google Images and simply search the gender. Use the same policy as above for choices.
• Seventh Sanctum has a lot of character creating tools that can help with the image and even the basic character traits of a character.

I'm going to use the Google Images method. I like making German characters, so I'm going to base my character on a German Guy. *Google Images Search: German Actors* I've chosen this image. This guy is named Matthias Schweighöfer. I'll be honest, I have no idea who he is. But he's going to be the visual inspiration for the character.

Now that we know what gender our character is and what he looks like we can come up with a name. There's a wealth of websites on the internet for specifically this purpose... well, more so for the purpose of naming children, but it works just as well for this. My personal favourite is Name Berry, but other good ones include 20000 Names, Baby Names, and Baby Names World. Each of these websites have excellent search engines. The reason Name Berry is my favourite is because you have the ability here to look through lists of names that have been grouped together under titles such as "If you like the name Alexander then you'll love..." or "Mad Men Names" or "Michael's International Variations". I'm running a "Super Search" using the parameters "male" and "German" under the origin. To narrow the search I'm going to put in a letter for the name to start with, and I'm going to choose "H". 40 options came up, and I think I like Horatio.

So: our guy is now named Horatio, and he needs a surname. What I like to do is simply Google popular German surnames. I like the sound of Horatio Koch, so I'm going with that. (Koch was number 12 on the list of most popular German surnames)

So, now we have a person with a body and a name. If you have no idea where to go with this envision this: you're interviewing people. You walk into the waiting room and call the name "Horatio Koch". A young man with dirty blond hair and blue eyes walks up to you. You take him into the interview room and commence with this young man whom you have never met before in your life. Since you'll be playing his role just answer what you would expect him to answer, or what you wouldn't expect him to answer. Answer each question as it comes up to literally build your character from the bottom up.

To conduct this interview I highly recommend this 101 question interview from deviantArt. I couldn't find the original creator of the questions, but I found a blank copy of them.

All you have to do now is relax and let the character's voice come to you. I find it really easy to find my character's voice if I listen to music while I do this. For this, I'm listening to my collection of Rammstein on my iTunes. Listen to whatever inspires you or makes you think of your character. Maybe music in his/her original language? That's partially why I'm using Rammstein, they're an excellent German industrial metal band.

I'll make notes throughout explaining some things I've used in his character sketch. I'll put these in purple font.

101 Questions You Should Be Able to Answer About Your Character

1. What is your full name? Do you have a nickname?

My name is Horatio Koch. My English friends call me "Cook".

2. How old are you? When is your birthday?

I am 21 years old. I was born on the 16th of May in 1990.

3. Where were you born? Where do you live now? Are you patriotic?

I was born in Duisburg, Germany (This is where my father was born, it's the first city that comes to my mind when I think of Germany.) and I currently live in Ottawa (I have NCIS on the brain, so I'm going to make him a government agent. He'll be a liaison agent between Germany and Canada. I choose Canada because I'm Canadian, no special reasoning there.). I love both of the countries that I am affiliated with.

4. Who are/were your parents? (Names, occupations, personalities, etc.)

Albrecht and Anna Koch. My mother was a school teacher and my father was a Doctor. They were very... minimalist people.

5. Do you have any siblings? What are/were they like?

I have an older brother, his name is Albrecht after my father. He is a successful engineer in Berlin. I also have a younger sister named Valentina. She is still in primary school in Duisburg.

6. What is your occupation?

I am a liaison officer between the German Secret Intelligence Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

7. How tall are you? How much do you weigh?

I am 6 feet and 2 inches tall. (By saying his height this way, I get a feeling that he is a very formal and polite person in conversation. Learn things about your character through conversation as you would with a real person.) I weigh 220 lbs. (You can see I've beefed him up a little bit. This is where we can modify the concept image to fit the needs of the character. It wouldn't make sense, after all, to have a 5'10, 160 lb ex-military government agent would it?)

8. What color is your hair? What color are your eyes?

My hair is kind of blond, I guess, and my eyes are blue. (Personality will come through with commonly used turns of phrase. "I guess" being one of these. He may be polite as determined above, but he has some conversation insecurities with women [assuming I was actually interviewing him].)

9. What is your race?

I am a German.

10. To which social class do you belong?

My family is comfortably middle class, but I am starting to climb a little bit higher than that. (At this point I can make note of some things happening in my imagination. As I "talk" to this character his mannerisms become more clear with each question. He gives me a crooked smile every time he gives me an answer that is deeper than a number, such as his height. His eyes show his apprehension to putting himself up for judgment but there's also a mischievous glimmer in his eye which tells me that there is an underlying sense of humor. Consider posture as well: this will be demonstrated between this question and the next. He is currently sitting with his elbows on his knees and his hands loosely clasped before him.)

11. Do you consider yourself to be attractive? Do others?

I... I've had girls tell me I'm attractive... (He sits straight-backed, clasping his hands tightly in his lap. He's afraid of being judged on his appearance. This suggests self-consciousness and possibly a fear of appearing to be self-absorbed, which may stem from life events. Each detail is about questioning why a character does something. Each tick has a purpose.) I... I don't think I'm hideous. (Crooked smile.)

12. What is your style of dress?

Some kind of pants and usually a button-down shirt. (His choice of vocabulary matters as well. How long has he been studying English? Does he know the nuances of the language? He would know the nuances of German inside out, so for the purposes of this demonstration I'll imagine that I'm speaking to him in German. If I were doing this for an actual piece I would take more care in discovering the limits of his English.)

13. Do you have any scars? Tattoos? Birthmarks? Other unique physical features?

I have a scar on my ribs, it hides under my right arm. I made a bad judgment in combat and my enemy cut me with a knife. I do have a tattoo, as well. I have a stylized heart over-top of a sword and shield on my shoulder. It symbolizes my siblings: Valentina the heart and Albrecht the sword and shield.

14. Do you have any allergies, diseases, or other physical weaknesses?

I am very healthy, I am lucky.

15. Are you right- or left-handed?

I am right-handed.

16. What does your voice sound like?

I think it sounds normal, I suppose? It's a medium pitch, I think, and it sounds pretty smooth. It's hard to tell, because I don't hear my true voice! You tell me what it sounds like! (Here we can get a feel of his more playful side. His posture has relaxed since the attractiveness question.)

17. What kind of vocabulary do you use?

In German my vocabulary is very good and in English, well, I've been told it's very good for someone who has only been studying for three years. I use relatively formal language, and I rarely curse outside of combat training.

18. List three quirks or other defining characteristics.

I don't know... I can't lift my right arm as high as my left, because of the nerve damage from the scar, I got it only 7 months ago. I have trouble making eye-contact with women I don't know very well. I am passive aggressive in tense situations.

19. How often do you bathe? Do you wear perfumes?

I bathe daily, but I rarely wear cologne.

20. What kind of facial expression do you commonly wear (dour glare, wry smile, etc)?

I suppose I look... I look blank a lot. But really I'm thinking very deeply. I don't plan it this way, it just happens.

21. Do you use body language? How?

You can tell a lot about how I'm feeling depending on how I'm sitting.

22. Do you have a commonly used saying?

I sound very indecisive...

The rest of this character interview can be found in the link above. The key to filling this out effectively is to literally try to see your character and imagine exactly what kind of person they would be. It's very similar to meeting someone new whom you've never seen before, you learn things about them as you talk to them and that's the secret behind this.

I go through this process, or one similar, for each major character I create. It helps me get a handle on who they really are before I get writing. Knowing your characters is a key concept to writing, without knowing who you are writing about you cannot properly develop a plot.

I really hope that this was helpful to you. Good luck guys!

~Alexandra

Inspiration

Hello,

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about inspirations in writing. This is obvious going to be applicable to more than just writing, but I really wanted to talk about how I get inspired and what I do to inspire myself.



This is just a sample of the things that inspire me. I've talked about most of these things before, but I'm just going to talk a little bit about how each of these things has changed me as a person and as a writer.

In the top corner is a picture of a belly dancer. This is my favourite belly dancer; her name is Sadie. If you watched America's Got Talent in 2010 you'd remember her, she and her dance partner Kaya got into the top 48 with their wonderful belly dance style. I like to incorporate her style into my own because of the wonderful uniqueness of her movements. Bellydance is one of my greatest inspirations because it opens me up to a world that is so different and beautiful and evokes so many vivid images in my head that I absolutely love to work with.

Next to Sadie is a small red shape. This shape is the logo of the Mirror's Edge video game; the shape is of the main character's eye, which she had tattooed. This game inspires me in so many ways. The beautiful music for one thing, the wide open and wonderfully dystopic world for another. This video game introduced me to dystopian fiction and has inspired me to write with the genre. This is what sparked the world of Klashiva, for which this blog is titled.

On the right is an orange CD cover from Rammstein. Rammstein is one of my favourite bands, they are a German industrial metal band. What inspires me about their music is not only the unique industrial sound of it but the depth and edge of their lyrics. They sing about real problems and tell dark and truly bloody and disgusting stories that show the more morose side of humanity. I love this. I hate happy endings and stories where everything is sugarcoated. Their music is what I want my writing to be: grungy and thought provoking while still being beautiful and having an impact.

On the left is another band that I love, this one is Evanescence. This band provokes so much emotion with their music, I love listening to them for inspiration if I'm trying to put together a scene of sadness or darkness. This band has been one of my favourites for almost 5 years now, and it's one of the things about me that has remained constant since my turbulent ride through adolescence.

Between the band images is another CD cover, this is the Movements album by Solar Fields. Solar Fields is one of my absolute favourite artists, it's a guy named Magnus Birgersson from Sweden, and if you haven't listened to his music you should. It's very ethereal, ambient sound. It's absolutely beautiful. I listen to this when I'm trying to get ideas for Klashiva. Incidentally, he did the soundtrack for Mirror's Edge, which was where I found him. That soundtrack is my favourite album of his.

Beneath this is an image of a geisha. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden is my favourite novel ever. I used that novel as the basis of my IB extended essay and I love both the book and the movie. And the soundtrack, but that's another story. I have since fallen in love with the geisha mystique and the geisha look and I have spent literally hours researching the makeup and hair alone. I love the mysterious nature of this section of Japanese culture. I don't know if it will ever come into my writing, but I still love this.

Next to this is the Blind Threshold album from Beats Antique, a music group created by a tribal belly dancer and some friends who were musicians. I would call the sound distinctly steampunk, but it was made for tribal belly dance. I adore the sound of this group and I listen to it when I want to dabble in writing steampunk, which has not yet been a successful endeavor, but I want to keep working at it.

The Firefly logo. I love this show, and I'm so sorry that I was canceled. I only watched the show this year, but I've come to love it completely. The style of the show was so unique and that's something that I want my writing to be.

Under this is the Call of Duty: Black Ops logo. If you've been reading the blog for a while you'll know that I am addicted to this game. I'm not wonderful at it, but I'm definitely getting better. This game actually turned me on to researching the Cold War which may be incorporated into my writing at some point. And the Nazi Zombies stuff is awesome too.

There's a Star Trek logo here for a few reasons. For one: I love Star Trek. For another I made the greatest improvements in my writing when I was doing a Star Trek fanfiction piece.

Castle! This show is fantastic, I watch it religiously every week. It's about a writer (Nathan Fillion) who works with the NYPD while he works on a series of novels based on the detective he works with (Stana Katic). This show is about a writer, and the show is awesome. That's really why it's on here.

The German tri-colour. This is important to me for several reasons, one being the fact that I am German. My father moved to Canada from Germany when he was 12 years old. Also, I enjoy researching German 20th century history, from WWI onwards. I think it is a fascinating country with a fascinating history.

Finally, the archery picture. Archery is my sport, I love it, and it influences my writing in so many ways. I can meditate on my stories while I shoot, and sometimes shooting ends up in my stories. It's a fantastic thing.

Inspiration can come from anything: other writings, music, film, history, or even medicine. One of the things that I didn't have on here is some kind of medical influence, my writings are influenced HUGELY by the field of medicine. If you have a passion for something, there is a way that it will affect your writing whether it be by incorporation of the subject into your writing or by the subject changing you and your outlook on life so that your writing changes.

I hope that this post was helpful in some way, and I plan on doing more posts about writing soon.

Yours,
~Alexandra

P.S. Credit for the Influence Map goes to `fox-orian on DeviantArt.

Alright

As you can tell I haven't posted for a few days. It's been relatively busy, and I'd like to share some good news.

I'm registered for my courses for first year! I'm very excited about this mostly because of the wonderful variety of classes I'm taking. Well, not so much variety as number of things I'm interested in.

Fall Term:

• Biology 205 (mandatory for my degree)
• Russian 201
• German 200
• French 315 (I got in because of my IB credits)
• English 203

Winter Term:

• English 205
• English 233 (Non-Fiction Lit course. Could be interesting, it's not a genre I delve into often... I'm hoping it's along the lines of The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston? Only if I'm lucky. Or that other guy who wrote Running With Scizzors...)
  
• English 265 (CREATIVE WRITING INTRO COURSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
  
• Law and Society (201?)
• Greek and Roman Studies 209 (The mythology and literature course)

Again, I'm very excited to finally be registered and I'm really happy that I got into (mostly) what I wanted. I really wanted English 395 and 397, Speculative Literature in Sci-Fi and Fantasy respectively, but I need to be a second-year to take that unfortunately. I'll just have to wait. Now I just need to find some way to get from my Bio to my Russian in 10 minutes, which may be more doable than I'm making it out to be. I need to investigate soon.

In other news OTAfest is on this weekend. Basically it's a giant anime and video game convention at the U of C. This year I am dressing up as the one and only Faith Connors from Mirror's Edge, my all time favourite video game even though I haven't finished it yet. I finally found pants for the costume today and now all I need to figure out is how I'm going to do the arm tattoo. I really want to do this well because I love this video game and I love this character. And I love the cosplay even though I'm a rather hip-y white chick playing a fit Asian. Yeah, it's gonna work so well. Whatever, we're not about being perfect, it's about having fun.

So, with that I'm going to go back to finding some kind of wonderful waterproof black makeup with which to do the tattoo.

Farewell!
~Alexandra

Been away for a few days

But I had a good reason! I went to Edmonton yesterday for the Rammstein LIFAD concert. It was excellent! I only didn't know one song that they played, and it's now on my computer because I really liked it. It was a wonderful experience for so many reasons, not the least of which is that the only concert I've ever been to before was that of Hilary Duff back in 2005 or so. I go to Sarah Slean concerts quite often, but they're akin to operas in the actions of the crowd. The experiences from those are not even remotely close to the feeling of this concert.

I felt like part of an experience, it was very unique and I'm not sure how to describe it.

The music was fantastic and I officially like Christian Lorez, the keyboardist. He's an awesome performance artist, and a very... white... dancer. I enjoyed it muchly :P

Anyway, I'm kind of tired and feeling ADD tonight, so I won't write that much, I just wanted to let you know what I was up to. I hope every one had a good weekend!

~Alexandra

So tired

I have not been sleeping well lately at all. I feel like death warmed over. That being said, I've accomplished some things. Firstly, I got my henna website up and running complete with pictures and everything, so now I might be able to start getting some appointments set up and I can get some money.

As well, I made it into the school's talent show with a belly dance drum solo based on this performance by Sadie and Kaya. I only did the second half of the performance, the drum solo half. If looks really good and I'm really excited. I'm going to ask the coordinator tomorrow if she'll let me wear my belly dance bra instead of some stupid shirt. It would be so much cooler! I've already got a heck of a list of people coming out to watch me, so I'm very excited about that.

Other than that not much is going on, I've got my English Paper 2 tomorrow. Wish me luck!

~Alexandra

Ugh...

More fun with the parents. We're discussing the arrangements for our aftergrad party, which my 6 friends and I would be attending here at my house. My parents have the need to emphasize the need for me to inform my very platonic friends not to f*** each other in our house. Obviously we're planning a very sweaty orgy when they fall asleep. Sometimes I hate my parents.

This isn't a one time occurrence, either. I went shopping with two people once and my mom started going on about how they're probably shop-lifters. I was mortified to say the least.

And when I went to Europe, mom was begging me to lock my suitcase because the girls I was sharing a room with were going to rob me blind. They're all IB students and they're beyond innocent.

Why do my parents insist that the whole world is out to get us? What ever happened to trust? What ever happened to innocence? Why do we have to live on defense for our entire lives?

I'm tired of living with this paranoia. It's just one of the reasons that I'm thinking it's getting to be time for me to leave.

~Alexandra

Feeling Dejected

Hello,

Blargh... well, today I went to school at regular time, but I don't have to be in 1st period until after the May long weekend, so I just sat in the gathering area and read a couple of "Serenity" graphic novels I borrowed from a friend. I wrote a practice History HL Paper 1 exam in social class, worked on stuff in Bio and did nothing in French, as usual.

I came home and vegetated, talked to my friend and fell asleep. I woke up to an instant message from her informing me that I was being kidnapped. I have 5 minutes to dress and get my stuff in order before I had to leave. We watched "Tangled" at her house, and I officially love that movie. So sweet!

I decided to be a responsible young adult and tell my mother about my alcoholic shopping I did yesterday in the hopes that I would gain big-girl points for being straight-forward and honest. All I got was the "you're such an irresponsible teenager" talk. My mother informed me that I'm drinking every two days, which I was unaware of; I assumed that last night was the first time I'd had anything to drink in at least two weeks. Why is it that every time I try to be the responsible one I end up being the stupid teenager? In my mind, just because my mother drinks a half-glass of wine once a month and I'm interested in drinking on a social level twice or three times a month does not mean that I'm a chronic drunk waiting to happen. And I hate being compared to our neighbour, who is known for binge drinking. I have never gotten drunk and I certainly don't plan on it. I'm halfway to deciding never to tell my mother anything anymore, I'm tired of being the bad guy.

Anyway, that's all the griping I needed to do tonight. Thank you for listening!

~Alexandra

Another Meme

I felt bad leaving something so short last time, and I never really blog about my writing, so here's a meme to attempt to rectify both of those things.

What’s the last thing you wrote?
A few blog posts and little bits and pieces for some projects I'm working on when I'm not in school.

Was it any good?
The blog posts are mediocre at best and the other writing is not too bad.

What’s the first thing you ever wrote that you still have?
I have a little blue plastic duotang with my 3rd grade Journal class stuff in it in the basement somewhere... I want to find that soon.

Write poetry?

Not if I can avoid it...

Angsty poetry?
If I do write poetry, it does tend to be angsty, yes.

Favorite genre of writing?
I love science-fiction. Anything to the tune of X-Men or Star Trek is great for me! I adore writing it and reading it can be fun to, though I can never quite find what I'm looking for, I'm very picky that way.

Most fun character you ever wrote?
See, there's this satyr, his name is Iakobos. He is the perfect mix of mild badassery, gentleman and stereotypical satyr; i.e. lusty and drunk. He's just a riot to work with. Also, I think I met his human counterpart once...

Most annoying character you ever wrote?
Most annoying... Iakobos when he's in satyr mode. He's just... such a pervert and he's so difficult. It IS fun letting my other character beat on him for it, though!

Best plot you’ve ever created?

The project I'm working on which I plan to be my first novel. I won't go into detail but it's working itself out quite nicely and it's getting more three dimensional by the day.

Coolest plot twist you’ve ever created?
I haven't really ventured into plot twists much... but I guess the one where I was writing a murder mystery and the culprit ended up being after the dead guy's daughter... he wasn't a very obvious suspect.

How often do you get writer’s block?

During school I get writer's block all the time. There's just so much going on that I can't focus on anything writing related, which is why I get so little done while I'm in school.

How do you fix it?

I've found memes, music and YouTube to be good assistants in alleviating writer's block.

Write fan fiction?
That used to be all I could write. I've pulled away from it now, but I will say that an idea for a fanfiction actually fueled the plot for my novel WIP.

Ever written romance or angsty teen drama?

I did a romance once. It was a (God forgive me) Star Trek 2009 fan fiction. And it was pretty well done, too.

Do you type or write by hand?

I think better when I write by hand but my word count is nearly 5-fold on the computer.

Do you save everything you write?
I do, and I'm running out of generic titles for everything...

Do you ever go back to an old idea long after you abandoned it?
Not at the moment, what I've done so far isn't worth going back to, even to re-write in the hopes that it can be improved.

What’s your favorite thing that you’ve written?
So far... I think my favourite thing was that Star Trek fanfiction I did. I really thought it was a break through for me, I learned the basics of plot twists and I wrote a KILLER ending for it.

What’s everyone else’s favorite thing that you’ve written?
Everyone else seems to like a) the Star Trek fanfic or else b) a Star Trek 2009/NCIS crossover. I will be honest, I enjoy that one a little bit as well because I actually pull off the time difference well and I built a good basis for a story. Someday I'll finish it.

What’s your favorite setting for your characters?
I love nightclubs. I get a feeling from the ultra-mod atmosphere like something big and wonderful is going to happen, so I make it happen.

What’s one genre you have never written, and probably never will?
Chick lit.

How many writing projects are you working on right now?
I've got two novel ideas in the works plus another novel project that will be exclusive to Figment.com

Do you want to write for a living?
That's the plan, I'm going into English is university and I'll be focusing on Creative Writing in my second year.

Have you ever written something for a magazine or newspaper?
Yes, I did a few articles for a magazine called YouThink here in Western Canada.

Have you ever won an award for your writing?
I won a minor writing contest at my school last year, if that counts.

Ever written something in script or play format?
I was actually considering going into screen-writing for my master's but I don't like the industry. I enjoy writing in that format, though.

What are your five favorite words?
Darjeeling, proliferate, existentialism, aristocrat, and bolshevik.

What character that you’ve written most resembles yourself?
I think Amata Gerald from the Star Trek FanFiction. She's everything I am and more.

Where do you get ideas for your other characters?
Sometimes I just imagine them and sometimes they're caricatures of people I actually know.

Do you ever write based on your dreams?
Not really, my dreams aren't really that interesting.

Do you favor happy endings, sad endings, or cliff-hangers?
I prefer the ending that would most likely happen for the given story. I like endings that would be true to life.

Are you concerned with spelling and grammar as you write?
YES.

Does music help you write?
I usually require music for writing. I generally play artists that have a style similar to the style of the project.

Quote something you’ve written. The first thing to pop into your mind.

A solemn air fell on the room. Looks were exchanged, thoughts were considered. No one knew what to do.

And that's my meme. Enjoy!

~Alexandra

Getting there

Hello,

As of today I am done 1/3 of my IB exam sittings. I have three days next week and then 2 days the week after that and then I have to go in on Victoria Day (our day off) to write the French exam.

So far I have completed:
- English HL Paper 1
- Math SL Paper 1
- Math SL Paper 2

To Complete:
- English HL Paper 2
- History HL Papers 1, 2 & 3
- Biology HL Papers 1, 2 & 3
- French HL Papers 1 & 2

I'm almost there.

~Alexandra

Exams

Hello there,

So, I've already had two IB exams, my poetry/prose commentary for English (ie paper 1) and my no-calculator Math exam (ie paper 1). They were interesting.

In interesting news concerning Black Ops, the Escalation map pack came out yesterday and, needless to say, I downloaded it. I played each of the maps at least once last night before I went to bed, I had an exam today after all, and here are my initial thoughts.

Despite the fact that Stockpile is a massive campfest I think it's my favourite of all 4 of the maps. There's plenty of room to hide and there's also enough room to see clear across the map, at least enough to get some killing done.

Convoy is very confusing. That's all for now.

Zoo is... interesting. I'm not sure whether I like it or not yet, but give me a few more days and I should be decided.

Finally there's Hotel. That's a unique one, it's very modern looking for the time frame we're looking at with the game, and it's relatively large. Finding my way around has proven difficult but with time I should get that.

Then there's the new Nazi Zombies map: Call of the Dead featuring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Danny Trejo, Robert Englund, Michael Rooker and a special zombie version of George A Romero. If you haven't played this map yet and don't want spoilers, skip the rest of this paragraph. Don't shoot or hit Romero!! He gets angry and carries a spot light which he will beat you senseless with and he doesn't back down. Be careful!! I only had to lose on round 1 once before I learned.

That's the extent of my thoughts on that... none of these maps can beat Berlin Wall for me. I love that map so much, it's excellent!

Anyway, I hope you're all having a good week. Mine's being interesting, I'm arguing with the University over something that's my IB coordinator's fault. So I'm waiting on some results from that, and I'm still working hard on prepping for my remaining 7 exam sittings. Wish me luck!

Tschus!
~Alexandra

Feeling Useless... and Loving it!

Hello!

I haven't done anything for the last few days. Literally. I've been coasting through school as my classes are winding down now that May is here and all of the much anticipated IB exams are on the horizon. In lieu of homework then, I've been playing a lot of CoD this weekend. I even dusted off Modern Warfare 2 and started playing multiplayer on that, which was unique. I don't know how any of the maps work, so I'm completely lost. That being said, I've been getting positive K/D's this weekend, which almost never happens. I had a 2.20 K/D ratio on Black Ops yesterday. I think I was 11 and 4? Anyway, that was the extent of my excitement this weekend. I'm going out to dinner with a friend of mine to the restaurant he works at so I can finally try the food. I'm very excited!

I hope your weekend has been more eventful than mine!

~Alexandra