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