2010 in Review

So 2010 is almost over. Overall, it's been kinda crappy.

I started in January with a Glaucoma scare at the doctor...

Went on to February and had tons of friend drama..

March brought my first Macbook pro and all it's loveliness

But April was full of work angst and but a writing workshop where I discovered I love to write but hate to be told to write...

May was my birthday month and slightly underwhelming due to anxiety issues

And then June was when I filed bankruptcy after two years of being broke and dodging collectors

July was hot and I ate terribly and slept a lot

August was when I really started to lose it at work..

And by September I was crying every day, despite a new iPhone and Kindle

October brought hope as I got a new job

November's training for that new job kept me busy to the point of being sick

And December has kept me sick, but the job compensates for it. I'm happy at work, lonely at home, and sick of being sick.

It's been decided I have Hypoglycemia so I get to start a new diet in 2011. One without white flour or starchy foods or excessive amounts of sugar. So..something completely new. I am excited for my first prosperous year with money in savings and the real possibility of a car on the horizon.

Book Review-Anna and the French Kiss

I am in love. With a book. More specifically, a Young Adult romance chick lit book. Not something I thought would ever be happening.

I picked up Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins after Amazon suggested I might like it. I wishlisted it and waited for it to drop in price, since it just came out in December. Then one day John Green raved about it, citing how it was written during NANOWRIMO and was just fantastic. I am a dork for my fellow NANOWRIMO participants so I purchased it and figured I would read it between calls at work since I wouldn't have to really concentrate on chick lit.

On a whim, I picked it up last night to read the first chapter and was absolutely enthralled. Perkins has managed to spin this tail of an American girl sent to a French boarding school. Withing giving too much away I will tell you it's AMAZING. It's got romance (duh) and croissants and English boys and real girls with real hobbies and interests. I can't tell you how annoying it is to read Mary Sues in actual printed books. Save that for Fanfiction.net. But Anna is so far from a Mary Sue, she's very real and emotional and finds herself in the situation that many of us do: hot English boy has hot girlfriend.

Something about this book just makes you want to keep reading. Every chapter is a cliffhanger in such a subtle way that you aren't annoyed, you just want more. By the time I finished I was giddy with delight and yanked out my laptop to search for more from this great author.

I'd give it ten out of five stars if I could. I've already began my author stalking for the next book. Stephanie Perkins is not only an excellent writer but a cool chick as well.

Everyone should go buy and read this fabulous book!

Bed shopping

I've been in the market for a bed and I've been frustrated at the lack of concrete information about beds. Apparently you are simply to go to a store, lay on beds and pay whatever price they are asking. Comparison shopping is impossible because mattress manufacturers change the names and models of their item for every store. Information about bed buying is sparse. Most of the info comes from the bed companies themselves.


Anyone have any tips for bed shopping?

Book Review-Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

I am one of those girls who reads a book thinking "Yep. Saw that coming. That too." I am not easily pleased and often dislike more books than I like.

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott is one of those books that makes me go "Whoa! That's different." This books is written from the point of view of a 15 year old girl. 5 years earlier she was abducted from a school field trip by a pedophile. He drives her a few hours away and keeps her locked in his apartment. For five years he starves her, abuses her, controls her. She wants out of the situation so desperately she is willing to die or sacrifice another little girl for her freedom. The story goes through her thoughts and fears as she and this man scout around town for her replacement and his next victim. It's not a fast paced story but the plot and the way it unfolds kept me turning and unable to put down the book until it was done. Then I dove onto the internet for more books by Miss Scott. I haven't found a book that gave me such a different take on a horrible crime. The world is littered with books about the heroin and her daring escape and spitting in the face of your captors before using your years of martial arts training to beat him to a pulp. Finally, a book that realizes that not all girls can kick ass and take names yet does not make the girl into a helpless "somebody save me" person either.

Swagbucks!

I found a good way to earn some free goodies. Swagbucks gives you points for searching and you get gift cards for the points.

Society disgusts me

Society and people have been disgusting me lately. For the non-Portlanders, I will fill you in on the gritty details of what’s been going down here lately. People have been bad and cops have been having to shoot them. People are mad cops are shooting bad guys.

Basically there have been two men shot lately. One man was very very late on his child support and refusing to let his ex-wife pick up the kids. She calls the cops. Cops arrive, guy grabs kids, dashes in house with them while brandishing a shotgun and parades in front of the windows with a kid in one hand and shotgun in other. He calls the cops and even makes demands and the cops figure they have a full blown hostage situation. They bust in and the guy runs. They give him the old “Stop or I’ll shoot” and he decides to fight a cop and keep running. They shoot him, he dies.

Second guy is harassing people in a very public park full of joggers, kids, and women with babies. He was homeless and mentally ill and went into the women’s bathroom and started cutting on himself with a large knife. When the cops arrive, he charges them repeatedly with the knife, and it takes four shots to get him to stop. He dies.

To me it sounds like two sad men made some bad decisions and paid for it with their lives. It sucks, but I’m glad no one else was hurt in their parade of psychotic behavior. To the anarchists and college kids of this town? Police brutality! Cops killing innocents! Shooting people is bad, even if they try to kill you first!

So then these people decided to hold a peaceful protest (read: RIOT) downtown during rush hour. They did it in the street with no permit and held up traffic. They all conveniently brought camcorders and cameras and waited for the cops to arrive to break them up. When the cops herd them onto sidewalks..POLICE BRUTALITY! The cops were pushy but the rioter landed the first punches. Several were arrested, they brought in the cops on horses to break it up (No one fucks with horse cops. Period), and everyone is crying even more police brutality over them breaking up the protest. They threw trash cans, broke some windows and doors of local businesses, and threw rocks at a grocery store. Yes, let’s protest violence with violence.

I’m with the cops on this. I don’t feel either shooting was uncalled for. And then they decided to set up the cops further by recording the cops shutting down their protest. Sometimes I dislike being in such a town with hippies and anti-government radicals, and anarchists. Then I eat their yummy vegan food and remember why I love Portland.

Nanowrimo

Since it's November I wanted to touch a bit on National Novel Writing Month or Nanowrimo. Every year people are challenged to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. It's a hard task to complete and takes a lot of motivation, planning, and hard work.

This is what Nanowrimo is about though. The work! It's about proving yourself or proving something to yourself. If you're a newbie or a repeat writer you still prove to yourself each year that you can pop out fifty thousand words in thirty days. It may not be the best novel. Writing in such a frenzy is the gateway to grammatical and plot errors. Several years ago I started misspelling my characters name around November 14 and had to page through it for hours in December and fix it.

Personally I just hit 10k words today and am excited to get out some more. So to everyone participating this year I wish you the best of luck. And may the odds ever be in your favor!

I've got to stop ending every motivational blog/sentence/text with that. Hunger Games is addicting.