Painful Prompts and Another Book Haul

Hey guys,

I had so much trouble writing my prompt tonight. It took me a solid hour and a half to finish the two notebook pages of writing that I do every other night in 20 minutes. I guess I just wasn't into it tonight. I'm 57 prompts in out of 100. If you don't know what I'm talking about, skim back a few posts.

The exciting part of tonight's entry is my latest book haul! So, I went to see Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows on Friday with two of my friends. There's a Chapters right next to the movie theatre so it's kind of a given that once a movie's over you go to Chapters, grab a copy and snoop. So we did. And I found a few things. Firstly, I picked up a copy of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy because the movie is coming out soon (starring the adorable Benedict Cumberbatch nonetheless) (and Gary Oldman, he's awesome) and I wanted to read the book first. I also grabbed a book called The Sherlockian which I've seen floating around in hardcover at the U of C bookstore, but I managed to find it in paperback at Chapters so I made it mine.

Lastly I grabbed a Supernatural novel Nevermore. I am so obsessed with Supernatural right now it's actually not even funny. I'm 8 episodes into the first season which isn't bad considering my scholarly duties at the moment. Now I'm reading the books too. They are easily as compelling as the show. I'm almost half way through already!

That's all I have for you for now, so I'll let you all get to sleep and I'm going to go to sleep as well.

Goodnight!
~Alexandra

Rammstein's Coming Back!

Hey guys!

I'm very excited because I learned yesterday that Rammstein is coming back to Canada for their Made in Germany tour! Now, they're not coming to Alberta this time but they are coming to Vancouver. I've been running the numbers and I think that if I offer to pay my own way so that they only have to pay for my brother, we might just be able to do this.

They'll be playing one year to the day from when we saw them last in Edmonton this year. I am actually really excited for this, I really want to go! They put on an excellent show and the fans are all very nice so overall it's actually a good experience.

Cross your fingers that I can convince my parents, it'll be the first time they'd be letting me and my brother travel without supervision of an elder of some description. It'll be a hell of a trip! If not, I think I know someone (mentioned in the last post) that might be interested in coming along.

I hope you're all doing well! I've got my Political Ideologies exam this afternoon and then my science friends and I are hitting up Thursden for a nice change of pace.

Yours,
~Alexandra

In Which I Actually Have Something to Rant About

Hey guys,

Again, sorry I left you for long, my computer crashed as a result of something wrong with Firefox so I had to delete it- thus deleting ALL my bookmarks- and had to start from scratch. I forgot to put the Blogger thing back on my quick links bar but now I've remembered it and I'm good to go.

So today I actually have something to talk about. I was approached by the 14 year old girl in my archery class today and she said "I have a question for you. I need an expert's help, 'cause I'm only 14."

"Okay, shoot."

"So there's this guy..."

"Oh."

I've never actually had a boyfriend. I've had a semi-stalker for the last 6 years, but nothing like a boyfriend. I told her this and she just looks at me slack-jawed, wide-eyed and says "Why? You're so pretty!"

Flattered as I was by her compliment, I honestly didn't have an answer for her. Which has lead me to thinking for the last few hours: what the hell is wrong with me? I have no problem picking up friends, but why can't I find someone who could be more than that?

I've had my fair share of run-ins with what most teenagers would define as "love" but what I would describe as problems waiting to happen.

There's the "stalker" I mentioned above, whom I really should give more credit, he's one of my best friends and up until I was 14 I loved him back until I realized that he filled the role of my gay best friend... who wasn't actually gay. Which has made for a confusing dynamic in the friend circle.

Then there was this one guy at archery who I liked for a few months. He turned out to be a self-righteous idiot who stole other peoples' ideas- including mine- and tried to pass them off as his own to make himself sound big and important and intellectual. He was an ass and I could kick myself for ever thinking otherwise.

Another guy from my archery class was a twin. He was the twin that had all of the medical problems due to the pregnancy. He was lovely at heart and I really liked him. He turned out to be a racist and a homophobe. I don't care for either of those traits, so I moved away from him.

Then there was this guy last year. I'd liked him since I saw him in 10th grade and last year I finally solidified our friendship and told him that I liked him. He ended up dating- and is now f*cking- a mutual friend of ours. And he never told me, I found out on Facebook. I still hurt from that one.

Lastly there was a guy when I was 14. He's one of my best friend's cousins. He was 16. We met on MSN and began and ended our friendship there. To this day we have not met. He seemed so nice, we would talk for hours about everything. Then, it came up that he had a girlfriend. And he was having a thing with a 12 year old at his local A&W. And he was doing what he was doing with me with my best friend. He began saying very inappropriate things. They escalated from asking for cybersex to saying that I would "look good pregnant". He was suicidal and I was afraid to leave him because I was afraid that he might kill himself and the blood would be on my hands. I did a very mature thing that day, for a 14 year old. I actually told him what I thought and how I was feeling and I actually managed to reach a point with him where I could leave and he wouldn't make me feel guilty about it.

I suppose what I'm trying to get at here is that I'm wondering what is so wrong about wanting someone normal? I don't want someone who's full of himself, or racist, or crazy or clingy. Why do I have to sit by and watch all of my friends get together and be happy while I sit here and spend all of my happiness on them? I want to be happy for once too.

On the plus side: I've met a guy in my Russian class. We've been talking non-stop since we first said hello, and we actually got together after his exam today and talked for 3 hours. It's so easy to talk to him... he seems really nice and I'm hoping that this leads somewhere. There may be hope for me yet.

I hope that you are all doing well. I'm sorry if this post seemed like a pointless rant, I'll post something interesting soon.

Yours,
~Alexandra

Happy December

Hey guys,

I left you alone for a while again, sorry about that. I don't have much new to report, it's the last week of school so my time has been peppered with last minute essays and tests and of course work on top of all that, but things are going well and I'm keeping up rather well.

I have my final test in English tomorrow, which I am not ready for in the least, but I should do alright on it, especially if I read one or two of the books tonight. They're rather short so it shouldn't be a stretch.

My best friend's birthday is this Friday, she's finally turning 18 so we're all getting together to drink and make merry and play CoD at her place. It's going to be fantastic. It's also awesome because I'm getting paid the same day, so I can actually afford our trip to the bar that we're making. That is, assuming that I remember my ID for once. I never get checked because, let's face it, I like I'm 20. But I need to have it just in case.

I have to do one more German project and a Bio project for Friday, I have a Russian test Friday and I have a German test Wednesday. It's going to be an interesting week.

I hope you're all doing well, and I'll try to update more often here since I won't be at school as much.

Yours,
~Alexandra

P.S. The prompt list that I'm working through it going well, I've finished 43/100 as of last night!

New Layout!

Hello!!

As you can see I've updated the layout! I'm very excited because this one is a little bit more cheerful than the last. I never really liked that one anyway, the picture always seemed too out of focus for me...

In honour of the new layout I decided that I wanted to treat you guys to some thoughts on writing. I haven't done this in some time so I decided that now would be good.

Anyway I want to talk Fan Fiction today. More specifically I want to talk about a certain portion of the Fan Fiction world that I have recently found to be extraordinarily handy for my writing and developing of Klashiva.

I want to share with you the "Fan Fiction 100". The list can be found on LiveJournal. I found this back in my days of Fan Fiction writing (yes, I wrote Fan Fiction, sue me) but I never used it for its intended purpose. Instead I tracked down this version by ~god-head on deviantArt. I've been working my way through this list since the end of October and I've finished 26 of them so far.

I was skeptical about how this would work out and whether or not I'd actually be able to use what I came up with for these. I've been quite surprised, actually. Since I'm planning on making Klashiva a serial I've found that this has been an indispensable brainstorming device for coming up with plots for installments. I've already gotten my pilot into the planning stages as well as two other installments.

I know that people often look down on Fan Fiction as "not real writing". I myself am guilty of this but I was tough on it because I was doing it and I love beating myself up. What people, including me, don't realize is that even these more fringe writing forms have their merits. This community offers the FF100, for instance.

** Tangent: Also, I find that the FF community generally has more supportive and kind reviewers that actually offer assistance instead of what reviewers do on original writing websites; they simply rip apart your work and tell you what's wrong with it instead of offering input on how to help fix it or by subsequenting a review with positive feedback.

I recommend searching the internet for various versions of the FF100, because there are some interesting lists out there. Here are a few of my favourites:

• 100 Songs Theme Challenge - ~Akikorossella
• Fashion 100 Theme Challenge - ~Akikorossella
• 100 Theme Challenge - *deathisheaven
• STEP UP - ~KuroTsuki003
• 100 Flavors Challenge - ~hiyakiya

Have some fun with this guys! I hope it helps!
~Alexandra

I have neglected you for so long :(

Hey guys,

Sorry about being away for so long, I don't have a good excuse. I do, however have plenty to talk about today.

Firstly, it snowed. Again. Which I don't like in the least. So I've skipped my Biology class in lieu of hiding in the language centre because I have all of my other classes in here today, therefore I don't have to go outside.

Once all of my classes are done I'm off to do my German project with my friend. After this I'm going to a talk about mimicking accents when learning second languages. This should prove to be most fascinating, I think, and I'm very much looking forward to it.

After all of this fun I'm going to Sarah Slean's concert tonight! I love her music so much and this will be the third time I've gone to see her. If you haven't listened to her music I highly recommend it, it's stupendous.

In other news I'm fairly certain that I have a stress fracture in my right foot. It hurts like a b*tch and I can't stand for more than 5 minutes at a time. Which really sucks because I have a 4 1/2 hour shift tomorrow. F*cking wonderful. And there's something wrong with my ankle, too.

Have I mentioned that I hate this body of mine? It breaks so much more often than it's worth.

I promised you some time ago that I would tell you about what is wrong with me and I suppose now is as good a time as ever since I have an hour to play with before Russian starts.

I have a genetic bone disorder called osteogenesis imperfecta. Basically this means that I have brittle bones. I've broken 17 bones in my life- not counting broken fingers, toes and stress fractures- and my last fracture was five years ago when I was 13.

On a genetic level OI is a mutation of the 17th chromosome which codes for collagen formation. Collagen is the protein which makes bones strong and forms a few appendages like your ears and your nose and things. Imagine collagen working in the bones like when you interlace the pages of a phonebook. Only two tanks pulling in opposite directions can tear those phonebooks apart. With my bones, it's like the phonebooks are only partially laced, so it takes considerably less to pull them apart.

I am actually very lucky; there are many types of this disorder and I have the mildest form. Children with the most severe forms won't live for very long. But, even within forms there is variation. Some kids with the same type as me have had upwards of 50 fractures. I have had 17. My brother has had 3, and he is 16.

If you have ever seen the movie Unbreakable with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson you will note that Jackson's character had the same type of OI as I do; it's called Type 1. I promise that I'm not as crazy as his character, though. At least not quite.

The scale for ranking the severity of OI is a little... nonsensical to say the least. I'll only rank the first 5 types, because I'm not sure exactly how types 6 and 7 play into all this, they're relatively recently discovered. Mildest to most severe:

1. Type 1
2. Type 4
3. Type 5
4. Type 3
5. Type 2

People with this disorder reach their peak just after puberty when the body is finished developing and the bones are strongest. I have essentially grown out of the disorder and for all intents and purposes I am normal. That doesn't mean that I go bungee jumping, I'm still very careful about the activities that I participate in and how I conduct myself in the winter- hence me sequestering myself in the language building.

If you have any questions about OI or about life with the disorder don't hesitate to leave a comment, I'd be more than happy to share about my experiences with OI.

I'm going to leave you with that for now. I hope you guys are all doing well!

Yours,
~Alexandra

Creative Writing Club

Hey guys,

I actually submitted a piece for the creative writing club this week, which I may have already mentioned, and I've got about half an hour before the meeting in which it will be critiqued. I'm really quite nervous. I know it's a passable piece, I had a good point to it and I think that the writing itself wasn't bad at all. But I'm still so worried... I wrote it a year and a half ago so it's not exactly an accurate representation of my current writing skills, but it's something I put a lot of thought and heart into.

Today didn't go too badly, I had to be up early for my 9 o'clock class this morning which wasn't exactly fun, but I have to do it three times a week until December so I better get used to it.

After classes I found my friends and we grabbed some food and ice cream and hit the loft. We watched a couple episodes of Deadliest Warrior before we migrated to my friend's Dad's office where there were free drinks. Now I'm charging my computer as best as I can before the club meeting so that I have enough in me to actually pull up the pieces as we go through them.

Wish me luck on my critique, I'll let you know how it goes after we finish.

I hope you're all well! Happy November!
~Alexandra