Movies

There are several movies coming out today, and for no reason in particular, I have made several predictions regarding their success.

The four movies coming out today are "Step Up 2", "Definitely, Maybe", "Jumper" and "Spiderwick Chronicles". By the end of today, the ranking of money made by each of these movies will be as follows:

1. Definitely, Maybe: This film will win on Valentines Day, and then essentially disppear. It is a date movie and that will get it viewers on Valentines Day. But after that people will realize it sucks and it will fade into obscurity.

2. Step Up 2: I doubt this film will be particularly good, but it will get solid earnings on the first day, because of the wildly popular Flo Rida song, "Low". The song is in the movie, and most of its money will be made from fans of the song. I predict it will be a close second to "Definitely, Maybe"

3. Jumper: This movie is the best movie on the list, and will probably dominate the box office becuase it combines the superhero appeal, with some horror/suspense. The reason it is number three is that it is essentially an unknown.

4. Spiderwick Chronicles: Kids movie adaptation of moderately popular kids book. The fans of the book and those needing a kids movie to take their child, or younger sibling to will watch this. Then they will all realize it sucks, and it will also fade into obscurity.

Now these predictions are only for today. By Saturday, the only people going to see "Definitely, Not" will be weepy chicks with too much time and money on their hands, seeing it for the tenth time becuase they lost their boyfriend on VD. No one will have heard of "Spiderwack Chronicles" except the hardcore book fans. Step Up 2, will do alright becuase dancing movies are a relatively safe bet.

On Valentines Day, those brave souls who risked their time and money on the awesome unknown, "Jumper" will realize its awesomeness, tell their friends, they will tell their friends, and word of mouth, the best advertising ever, will have this film dominating by Saturday.

So if you are going to the movies with your girl today and you let her choose the movie, keep these things in mind depending on the movie she chooses.

Definitely, Maybe: Deal with it, you might get some
Step Up 2: Cool, you have girl with decent taste
Spiderwick Chronicles: Find a girlfriend who has moved past the training bra.
Jumper: Your conversation should go something like this:
You: What movie do you want to see?
Her: Jumper
You: Will you marry me?

Markets

I mentioned in a previous post that I got "Novel & Short Story Writer's Market" recently and was overwhelmed by the huge number of entries. But its better now. I want to get paid for my writing, so I went through all three big lists of short story markets, literary magazines, small circulation publications, and consumer magazines and put every paying market into an excel document. This was about 150 markets. Then I went through and eliminated the markets that only work with established writers, and the ones that only publish things I will never write, like Christian magazines. This narrowed it down to 85 markets.

At this point I did a "save as" and began yet another round of eliminations. This time I chose a specific story of mine and eliminated all the markets that would never publish it, based on length or genre. Now I am down to 33 markets, two of which are consumer magazines. The next step is to sort the markets into the ones that seem best for this story, and the others that are not an excellent match. This will determine the order in which I send out these stories. Also if a magazine does not accept simultaneous submissions then they will have to have their own round of submissions. I suspect this may be true of the consumer magazines.

But right now I am going to submit my story to my writer's group, so it can be brimming with as much awesomeness as possible before I start sending it out. Wish me luck!

Alas!

I have neglected my duties to my audience that probably does not exist. I have gone more than two days without making a post. My last post was Saturday and it is now Tuesday. I blame Hamlet. Though it really is a great play (yes I'm a lit nerd) I don't like writing essays and I needed to write some Hamlet essays, yesterday, and in fact right now as well. Goodbye!

Publishing

My copy of "2008: Novel & Short Story Writer's Market." just arrived in the mail today. Now I have to sort through the several hundred listings to find short story markets that will accept me and pay me for my glorious work. That way when I attempt to sell the brick I mentioned in my last post I will have some publishing experience to prove my merit. Apparently being the self-proclaimed, Grandmaster of the Universe won't be enough to catch an agents eye.

Brick

This November I wrote a novel for National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. If you're interested there's a link on the left. But I only wrote the first fifty thousand words of it. Then for the next six weeks I finished it coming in at a whopping 107,000 words. (Which for the record is not terribly long for an average book) So I ran it through spell check which took about a week, cut out the big chunks I knew didn't belong, and then spent a small fortune having it printed. The good news is that if I ever sell this novel I can write that off as an expense.

The bad news is I have a stack of papers nearly four inches high waiting to be edited. I've done the first 19 pages or so, but the whole thing is 610. My english teacher, in her infinite awesomeness has agreed to look at my novel once I edit it. I told her I would have it ready around late March, early April. In order for me to pull that off I need about 14 or 15 pages of editing done every single day. Being a writer is hard.

Irony

Today, is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Last year for Lent I gave up the internet. Ironically, this year for Lent I am committing to more internet.

I have had this blog for a while, but I only post rarely. I've started up others blogs where I make a few posts, then forget about it. But I like the idea of having a blog. The blog culture appeals to me, and overall I think blogs are pretty neat.

So this year for Lent, I am keeping up this blog. My goal is to post at least every other day. So then by Easter I will have finally learned whether a blog really is for me. I know I will do this, because I'm doing it for Lent, but if by Easter keeping the blog is starting to seem like a chore, then I will be satisfied in saying that blogging is not for me. However if I find that I love it, I will get in the habit and I will have an active blog. So all will be well.

Morning

4 o' clock in the morning. My head is stuffed up, and my nose hurts. Except I mean that the other way 'round. See? My brain is messed up too.

I don't know if I'm sick or if allergies are just making me feel sick. I'm hoping for sick, because I really don't want to go to school today, and we're really not doing anything of extreme importance today. Just as I typed that sentence I remembered that I was supposed to perform a scene from Hamlet today. Though if I had to miss anything, that would be it. That gives me and the others in my group more time to study.

The bad news, is I am probably not sick. I know these symptoms, they are simply the symptoms of silly syphilis. No I lied, I just felt like being alliterative. Allergies and dehydration, is what I have. It sucks.

Allergies

Need I say more?

Hail

Today was a rainy, cloudy, generally depressing day. Normally this would put a real damper on my mood, but on my way home it began to hail. At this point you are probably wondering why hail is an improvement. In fact it was not. What improved my mood was the song that played on my ipod, just as it began to hail: "Take Me Out" by Frank Ferdinand. Listen to the song below. You'll see what I mean.

I really should be writing right now

I'm in the midst of writing a novel, and Ive set myself to write a thousand words a dat until it is done. I have rather detailed plans for what to do with the novel, once the first draft is finished. But those plans are going to be useless I actually finish the rough draft. Which I should be working on right now, but instead I am here.

I had about twenty minutes of silence in this room, but now my father is back watching TV. So instead of just writing another thousand words like I should be, I am writing here. I saw a t-short once that said, "Procrastination: Crack for Writers" Need I say more?

100 words

I am doing a new thing this month. I have joined this site: 100words.com, where the goal is to write a piece each day of the month that is exactly 100 words long. In the hope that my batch will get read I am going to be posting my daily piece here. These are the pieces for the first and second of July

1

One hour and fifteen minutes until the deadline for today. I was going to wait until tomorrow to do today’s and tomorrow’s, but I figured if I am going to do this right, I probably shouldn’t start out being late. So here I am at ten forty five at night, trying to hit one hundred words on the head. I realized recently that my writing has a prevailing theme of learning. Perhaps it is the teacher in me, but I think I will try to make that a prevailing theme for this month’s batch. Or just spew out random stuff.

2

Once upon a time there was a story. This story began with an attractive person in some sort of difficult situation. Because of a series of often magical coincidences the difficult situation is averted. They all live happily ever after. Throw in some talking animals, and unsavory relatives and you have the plot for just about every single fairy tale in existence. Why don’t the heroes or heroines of these stories ever live sadly ever after? Why don’t they live happily for the next three weeks and then die a painful death? The villains have to, why not the protagonists?

See you guys tommorow!

Friday Fifteen

Yet another meme post, because I couldn't find the video for the post I wanted to do. This one, originating from this website www.fridayfifteen.com, encourafges you to post fifteen things about yourself. They give several suggestions, one of which I am using becuase I can't think of my own theme this late at night, and I am rather disappointed I couldn't do my original plan.

Fifteen Favorite Cartoon Characters

A quick note before I begin, I am including anime characters in this list, even though some might consider it separate from cartoon, due its incredible level of awesomeness. Also, I have in parentheses the name of the show from whence the character originated

• Shikamaru (Naruto) If you know the show then you know this character. He is incredibly smart, yet hopelessly lazy and unmotivated. Just like me! Also, his shadow possession jitsu gets points with me for the darkness thing.
  
• Iroh (Avatar: The Last Airbender) The uncle of the central villain for the first season of this show. Despite being on the side of the antagonists, his eccentricities, and endless wisdom makes him impossible not to like. On a related note, his voice actor died in the fall of last year, and actually received a tribute in the show. RIP Mako.
  
• Slade (Teen Titans) Ah, the villain. I think one of the main reasons I like this character is for his voice actor, Ron Pearlman. His deep, thick voice captures the cocky, powerful villain. This is the central villain for most of the series, made all the more interesting by his hidden identity. He is incredibly powerful, and always seems to have control over the situation. His presence had added so much to the show, including Terra's betrayal, and Robins obsession with capturing him.
  
• Raven (Teen Titans) One of the five Teen Titans, this goth girl is definitely one of my favorites. She has the ability to control a dark energy, but only manages to maintain that control by keeping her emotions in check. I personally ship her with Beast Boy, the extrovert of the group, though her and Robin is a popular choice as well. Her season was one of the darkest and scariest of all, and definitely got me hooked.
  
• Chase Young (Xiaolin Showdown) The central villain for the show, or rather one of them, this young man is similar in demeanor to Slade. Yet his control over events seems to be even greater, and he always draws it to the attention of the protagonists, especially Omi, who he is always trying to convert to the side of evil. He is one of those villains, that never seems to lose, even when his enemy is victorious.
  
• Odd (Code: Lyoko) The outgoing, artistic one of the show. He gets on the list for one reason, and one reason only. The Hair
  
• Spongebob Squarepants (Spongebob Squarepants) This one is not something you would expect to be on my list, looking at the others, but Spongebob, is what I like to call happy incarnate. It is impossible to be depressed after watching Spongebob. Try it. I dare you.
  
• Beast Boy (Teen Titans) This shape-shifting, green teen titan has a spot on this list, for a few reasons. The first of these is I felt obligated, being an avid BBRae shipper, to include him along with Raven. Also, because his personality is so much fun. And the third reason is that because he can change into animals, he is a vegetarian, and I have to respect that.
  
• Ron Stoppable (Kim Possible) This kid is about as non-conformist as they come. Owning a naked mole rat, and dating a world saving cheerleader at the same time is something that I can't help but admire
  
• Wallace (Wallace and Grommit) He is a brit who loves cheese. Need I say more?
  
• Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender) Zuko has accomplished what I believe no other Nick character has ever managed to this extent. Character development. In the beginning of the series he was a spoiled brat with an obsession. When he was outcast by his own country he began to act like a decent human being, but not without a fair helping of obligatory nastiness. That is the type of depth you rarely see in books, let alone in a Nick cartoon.
  
• Gaara (Naruto) The single scariest character ever. This sand ninja's power is out of this world, but that's not what makes him so scary. He has decided that his purpose in life is to kill others. Without this death he sees no reason to live. This is not just the ramblings of a depressed teenager either (Gaara is actually only 12 years old). He truly believes it. As we find out more about the Sand Demom inside him, and his terrible childhood, the emotions of the otaku go crazy. You want to feel sorry for him, but you know that he is a sick murderer, but you also know that he got that way from his circumstances. Any character that can envoke that much emotion has to be good.
  
• Sasuke (Naruto) I used to find this guy's emo-ness to be extremely annoying. But as more about his past has been revealed in recent episodes, he became more and more interesting. His amazing power enabled him to come very close to defeating Gaara. But when his brother entered the scene his was nearly destroyed.
  
• Third Hokage (Naruto) This character recently died, making him an almost obligatory favorite. When a show has the courage to kill off a major character, they earn a whole lot of my respect. Not only that, but I'm a sucker for the wise sensei type, so this guy is a shoe in
  
• Master Fung (Xiaolin Showdown) This is another of the Wise Sensei types. He has many of those seemingly easy tasks for his students, that end up being very difficult, and teaching some important lesson.

Whew, that was really long. But it gave me some good ideas for further blogs, so that's good.

Thursday Threesome

I found this idea here. These people post three rather silly questions each Thursday. In an attempt to be noticed, and because I have nothing better to write about. I am going to go with this, for a bit.

::Pimentos in Olives::

Onesome: Pimentos-- in Olives? Useless decorative effect? ...or something you maybe enjoy? ...and is there something you can only stare at and wonder about at the snack bar?

Pimentos, in olives, hmm. Well, the only place that I could imagine that being would be in a martini, and as I do not drink, the first part of this question is rather beyond, my knowledge, and not interesting enough to be worth researching. I do know a bit about the two vegetables(?) separately, and so begins my answer.

I have had pimentos before, and to me it seems that they serve no purpose other than to add color to an otherwise drab looking dish. Which brings up the question: Why would someone put pimentos in their dish. Does it make a dish that is appealing to the other senses (i.e. taste, smell) also appeal to the eyes as well. in that case, the addition of this product can result in no suspicions about the dish whatsoever.

But on the other hand, if you put pimentos on your dish, perhaps it means that you are compensating for an unsavory meal, with a splash of color. My guests won't mind if my food, results in days of projectile vomiting, the innocent housekeeper reasons, as long as their vomit is sprinkled with festive colors! So in conclusion if you are planning on using this as a colorful addition to your meal: don't.

As for the second part of the question I feel obligated to bring up the king of useless foods, parsley. Restaurants always put it on every single dish in an attempt to make the food look more visually appealing. This brings up the same issue of overcompensating, but fortunately, the majority of restaurants, have decent food, so this is not an issue. My problem with parsley at restaurants is that you always end up eating it. You order a soup to go with your entree, and the soup come almost immediately. But once you finish your soup, you are still hungry, and your meal has still not arrived. And so your eyes inevitably drift to the sprig of green on your plate, that looks as though it was freshly cut off the tree in the adjoining alley . But before you know it, you find yourself gnawing away at the thing, all the while knowing that it isn't meant for eating, but still a slave to the need to have something in your mouth. And then your food comes, and you have parsley in your teeth, which has a tendency to stay put, making for a very embarrassing addition to your smile, especially if the nature of your outing is romantic.

Twosome: in Olives though? Who thought of that one? No, that's not your question ; rather, what combo of things do you put together in the food arena that's been know to strike others as a bit strange?

Hmm, that's a toughie. I can't really think of any odd food habits, that I have, so I will be forced to tell all about the annoying food combinations I have seen in my life. And because you are probably beginning to lose interest in all of these paragraphs, I will present it in easy to digest, bullet form. (hmm, digestible bullets, I wonder if there's a market for that?)

• Hot dogs with peanut butter
• Strawberries (with the leaves still attached)
• Pizza with ranch salad dressing

Wow, is that really all I can come up with? Ah well, on to threesome

Threesome: Olives-- on fingertips (preferably black olives!). What food do you "play" with when you're feeling a bit silly?

Never, tried the olives on the fingertips bit, but I may just give it a shot the next time I find myself at a salad bar. (yeah right, like I can afford to eat out) but another fun fingertip food is Bugles. The corn chip in the shape of a cone, and just begs for finger top placement. This food can make for lots of fun,(despite the danger of nipped fingers) especially for the little ones