Actor, Writer, Jedi, Singer,

Actor, Writer, Jedi, Singer,
You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you

Thursday, December 31, 2015

The end of 2015 and New Years Resolutions



GIFS NOT MINE. I got them from tumblr.

Okay, so 2015 is coming to a close and since I have already covered my year elsewhere, I won't go into much depth. However, I will say that the year has been filled with good and bad. I did well in both of my college semesters like I was hoping I would (A's both times :D ), I got caught up on SPN, I sewed a shirt and built a birdhouse myself, and I decided to transfer to a new school. I also got book 1 edited and I'm preparing to send it to a publisher :D And my re-write of book 2 is done and I'm currently on my re-write of book 3 :) Got better in Spanish too which was great! :D And getting a new job.
There were some crappy stuff as well (such as the abomination TFA coming out and all the shitty backlash and hateful shit from some Disney Wars fans and shitty people at college and people being crappy in the world in general) but I don't want to dwell too much on that for now.

Now for my New Years Resolutions.

For 2016, I hope to-

Get cast in a play- some shitty directors playing games screwed with me at my last school so I'm hoping to get cast in a play next semester at my new school or get in one of the shows at the community theater. I also hope to improve my auditioning skills and become a better actor. OH, and get more involved in the film industry where I currently am.

Get book 1 PUBLISHED :D I really can't wait for everyone to read it! Also get my book 3 re-write finished and get started on the re-write of book 4.

Get my Red Belt in Taekwondo (since I'll be much closer to my TKD school now, I can continue going! :D). And improve my sparring skills.

Continue doing well in college and getting good grades and learning a lot.

Go to a Supernatural con and get a photo op with Jensen Ackles!! :D (and a HUG). Also, ask more questions to more actors.

Get another job.

Read a lot of the books on my to-read list

watch more movies and TV shows that I've been meaning to see and keep up with Supernatural :D (and no, posting less about Dean Winchester/Castiel/Destiel or pro- Star Wars EU/anti-Disney Wars stuff is NOT a resolution...hahahaha XD).

Stand up for myself more and not let assholes walk all over me (seriously, next time someone is rude about my appearance or my movements, I'm going to say they are rude).

Get my face cleared up. I have too much acne :( (people have been making comments about it...waaah)

Work out at the gym and get my muscle back.

Learn to socialize better (or, at least, not make a complete fool of myself). Basically, guard my voice better and not let people know I have aspergers, that I was homeschooled, and that I'm ace/demi.

Continue to improve on my singing






Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Books of 2015


I made my boyfriend read with me XD Hehehe (isn't he cute? XD) 

How many books read in 2015: 
Not sure. Around 30- 100,  I guess? (I'm in college so I don't read as much)


How many fiction and non fiction?: 
mostly fiction


Male/Female author ratio?: 

About the same, as always.



Favorite book of 2015?: 

In order that I read them

The Torch Keeper: The Sowing (excellent plot twists, good characters and story, nice bit of diversity, an actually good dystopian world). 
Lost Tribe of the Sith short stories (very well-written, fun to read, great characters, very seamless)
Seraphina (fun fantasy novel, awesome usage of dragons, very creative history, good setting, loved the musical aspect)
The Children of Hurin (I love Middle Earth, so it was nice to be back in that world.)
Cinder (I've always liked Cinderella and this sci-fi version of it was a lot of fun to read. The main characters were also quite enjoyable and I loved how tomboyish Cinder was).
Elantris (AMAZING fantasy story, great characters, nice feminist messages that aren't overbearing, the whole 'villain/anti-hero is in love with the hero' was in it and it was utilized perfectly (he actually helped her!), the world building was fantastic, it was SO GOOD. Seriously, READ IT).
The Raven Cycle ( OH MY GOSH, THIS SERIES IS AMAZING!!! READ IT! Lovely characters, writing, nice diversity, actual well-written romance, good focus on friendships, loved that the adults ACTUALLY did stuff, etc)
Tales of the Jedi Omnibus part 1 (AMAZING! Especially the Nomi Sunrider chapter!)
Avatar: The Last Airbender comics (read "The Rift" parts) (lots of fun as always! :D) 
The Old Republic:Annihilation (hilarious, fun, funny, loved how the main characters saved the day in their underwear XD)
and Paradise Lose/Paradise Regained was a good, if difficult, read as was "The Art of War" 


Least favorite?:

"The Secret" and "The Magic of Thinking-Big" which I was forced to read by this jerk :P Stupid, worthless crap. Ghost Rider wasn't the greatest either but it wasn't terrible. 

Newest?: 

Not sure..."Blue Lily, Lily Blue" or The Old Republic: Annihilation, perhaps?


Longest and shortest book titles?:

The Old Republic: Annihilation for longest

Cinder for shortest







Longest and shortest books?: 

Elantris was probably the longest

The shortest was the short story "Precipice"


How many books from the library?: 

Most were from the library



Any translated books?:

The Art of War



Most read author of the year, and how many books by that author?: 

John Jackson Miller since I read all the Lost Tribe of the Sith shorts. I also read a lot from Maggie Stiefvater 



Any re-reads?: 

No :( 


Favorite character of the year?

The leads in The Raven Cycle- they were all really awesome and likable (even with their flaws)

Hrathen, Sarene, and Raoden from Elantris 
Seraphina 
Cinder
Lucky Spark (he was SO good in the The Sowing)
The various characters in Lost Tribe of the Sith
Nomi Sunrider (AHHH!!!!!!)
Theron Shan (he cracked me up so much)
Gnost-Dural
Satele Shan




Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading?:

All over America, China,  Middle Earth, various planets in Star Wars, and Elantris.

Which book wouldn't you have read without someone’s specific recommendation? 

I wouldn't have read those crappy books, I wouldn't have read the books for school, and I guess The Raven Cycle and Cinder. 


Which author was new to you in 2015 that you now want to read the entire works of?

 Maggie Stiefvater! :D 


Which books are you annoyed you didn't read?:

I'm annoyed that I haven't finished 'Fangirl' yet, or "Heir to the Empire" (both of which I am currently on). Also wish I could have gotten to the Ender's Shadow series, gotten further in The Lunar Chronicles, and read more Star Wars books. I also started "The Iliad" and I hope to finish that.


Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read?

YES

Paradise Lost/Paradise Regained
Elantris 
The Children of Hurin
A Hobbit Journey: Discovering the Enchantments of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth (FINALLY)
A New Hope novelization
Lost Tribe of the Sith 
Death Star
Seraphina
Tales of the Jedi (part 1 of the Omnibus) 
The Art of War
On Writing Well
The Old Republic: Annihilation 
Childhood's End


What books are you planning to read in 2016?

I want to finish "Fangirl", "Heir to the Empire", and "Half-Bad"
Clariel 
Shadow Games
More Star Wars books and comics
Freedom
The Summer I Wasn't Me
Morning Is A Long Time Coming
The Raven King (CAN'T WAIT)
Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer
The last Torchkeeper book if it comes out
The next 'Senet' based novels
The Hidden Oracle (Trials of Apollo) 
The rest of the Lunar Chronicles
Scarlet
The Iliad (which I've started) and maybe even The Odyssey Ender's Shadow series
Fan Art
Scoundrels
The Crown of Ptolemy 
Emma
Persuasion
Sense and Sensibility 
Death in Venice
Maurice
Oliver Twist
David Copperfield
The Scarlet Letter
Also, I want to read more science fiction novels in general 

Sunday, December 27, 2015

My Third Semester of College



So I'm back from my third semester of college (and now on Christmas break). This past semester was kind of a nightmare with it's good moments. It wasn't the most awful experience or anything, but I ended up having a sucky roommate (more on that below) again, I didn't get cast (due to being screwed over by one of the directors; it was NOT my fault and I SHOULD have been cast) so I decided to transfer to another university (this one closer to home, so no more roommates!), housing was INCREDIBLY shitty, and not only that but I had to deal with some infantilizing behavior from some of my peers and teachers. As I said, though, it wasn't all bad and I had a lot of fun in my classes and I learned a lot and made straight A's yet again! :D 


I got a new RA this semester, which was a relief, since she knew what she was doing. Our hall's theme this semester was "Once Upon A Time", which is a show I used to like (it just got too weird with too much problematic stuff so I had to stop). 
My roommate showed up around the time I fully moved in (I had all my stuff there a week or so previously but I moved in that weekend before classes started). At first I thought she'd be okay (and she was nicer than my last one) but I still had some issues. The first was that she wouldn't wear deodorant so the room smelled like BO most of the time *I had to spray the room and open the window so often*. Secondly, she wouldn't listen to me when I asked her to lock the door to our room when she left (and she mocked me when I began hiding my laptop) and only started doing so when I got the RA to come in there. Not only that, she stole my food (I got onto her and she didn't do it again), and would pick on my appearance and how I did things :( For some reason she thought I was gay (I'm ace/demi and mostly attracted to dudes) because I was 19/20 and have never had a boyfriend.....hahahahahaha XD (and she's from the world's most homophobic country...yikes! :O ). 

(little song I made up, which goes to 'School's Out For Summer')
No more roommate
No more smell
No more getting called a hoe
or dirty looks! 


Cool bathroom they put in my dorm. 


This summer, Arda came to visit and gave me this little Castiel doll. Because it was so cute and cool, I decided to bring it with me to college. Here's a picture of poor Cas who got sickies :( I put  melaleuca on his tummy to help him feel better.


Cas and his good friend Obi (my brother's doll but I have one just like it :) ).


A dragon fruit 


Castiel decided to come with me on my first day of classes. 



Doing some Spanish homework. I took Spanish II this last semester and we had to do homework almost every day O_O Of course, I was one of the few to always have it done :)



Started reading "The Raven Cycle" around this time (read book 1 before the semester started. This is book 2) and it was just amazing! Definitely a must-read! :D


Before getting a job, I kept up with my work out sessions pretty regularly (sadly, I wasn't able to and have lost weight and some of my fitness- though not too much- again :( . I will get it back, though!!).


First semester as a college sophomore! :D


My sister and I made up a joke that Dean Winchester was hiding in my closet XD So this is Cas saying hi to him (and helping me pick out a dress for auditions). 


Cas and his lego wings :)


For English, I already owned the two books I needed. One I had from last semester and the other- One Writing Well- was a book I had gotten for Christmas several years previous. So it was nice to finally get to it :) (and that I didn't have to buy it).




Moon outside :)


August Calendar page


My roommate was really messy :P (this isn't so bad, since it was way worse at times). She got her weave EVERYWHERE and stained up things.


A friend of mine at college invited me to go to this event led by the Korean Exchange Student group on campus. It was a ton of fun! :) We played some games (which I didn't like since I never liked games) but after that it was great! :) We made some delicious food which you can see in the above bowl. It was SUPER tasty and healthy. After that, there was a raffle and my number got called. I had to sing to get my prize and everyone thought I was good :) Then there was a dance competition and I did that as well. It ended up being me against this one Korean guy after everyone else got voted out (who won because, well, most of the people there were Korean too) which was so great since I haven't done dance classes in years. And I got even MORE prizes! :D


Here are my prizes! :D







So I finally was able to get a job (first job, yo!), which was at my college's cafeteria. I'd never had a job before and it was definitely a good first job :) My co-workers were really nice and the setting was fairly calm. I was sad when I had to leave :( 
Here's Cas with my hat. 


Cas angry cause people keep asking what is wrong with my face and giving me unwanted
 advice about my acne (and bringing it up out of the blue) :( 


Ghosts in the health food store



So they had a Star Wars day at my work! :D And, can I say, THANK YOU FOR ACTUALLY HAVING YOUNG OBI-WAN KENOBI! :D He's always getting left out of everything! So thank you! :)


Luke Skywalker


Chewbacca


Stormtrooper


Death Star Krispies 


Wookie Cookies 


Artoo-Detoo 


Pumpkin





Herose 


Prince Charming petal (since that was my person by the door)



Cas wrapped up in a blanket like he was in the episode "The Bad Seed"
Since I got all caught up on Supernatural over the summer, I was able to start watching season 11 as it aired :D So far the season has been amazing and I can't wait to see where it all leads.


Went to the pumpkin patch with my family and got this cute pumpkin :)



Some yummy chocolate bars (I LOVE WHITE CHOCOLATE!!!) 



A fall day.









Scene shop :) I worked back here a LOT O_O For my set building class, we had to work for 35 hours in the shop for a large percentage of our grade. I thought I would work a show and get through some of that. Turns out I was given WRONG information, so I had to shove a bunch of hours in during the last few weeks. Thankfully, I was able to get ALL of my hours and got an A in the course :)


Band saw


Chop/Miter Saw


Another chop saw


Orbital Sander


The first project in my scene building course was to make a Gubbins (which you can see here). I made it with one of my friends (we were partners) and we got an A on it :)





The second project was that of a flat (which you can see the skeleton of here). I made it with a guy in my course and we got an A on it. 








Halloween in the Cafeteria. 



Dean in the episode "Baby" which is my favorite of the season so far :)


Cas and my 'Halloween haul' XD


Cas with a leaf


Some pumpkins in the pumpkin decorating contest. 





Some more fall leaves






A random wreath of randomness 




Happy Halloween


Cas and the rainbow bridge (birthday tradition). My birthday is shortly after Halloween and sadly it fell on a Monday. I've been homeschooled my whole life so it was the first time I had to do school on my birthday :( Waaaahhhh! 


Cas keeping watch over my charging phone.


Dean Winchester :) 


Some cool balloons. 


After we finished the flat, we had to put muslin over it and then paint it for our third project. We had to do three different painting techniques (brick, stone, a wash, and a wood grain). Here is my project half done.



Here's my paint base.


Here's the finished product :) I did a fairly decent job if I do say so myself :)


Brick


Stone


Wood grain


Wash


Our final in the set building class was to make a birdhouse all by ourselves O_O While I had made things in class, at home when I was a kid, and in the shop for sets with help, I had never done anything like this by myself. All things considered, I did quite a good job :)
We had to draw a topic to base our birdhouse on. Mine was religious, so I decided to make it resemble Notre-Dame in Paris :) (I also painted Abrahamic religious symbols on the sides)




November calendar page


December calendar page


After I cut the pieces of wood out and assembled birdhouse, I added layer of primer.



After the primer had dried, I put on a couple of gray coats to the entire construction.



Later on, I added the last few details. I printed a picture of the front of Notre-Dame to get a good idea of what details to paint. I think I did a good job considering the brushes weren't small enough.


Star of David for Judaism 


Cross for Christianity 


Moon and Star for Islam 


English class room number


English class room. I sat in the front row on the side closest to the door.


Spanish class room number




One of my last meals on campus :(


Waiting outside in the cold and took this cool picture.


My last omelette :( I really loved eating these for breakfast. They were super yummy. 


Some water and coffee. 


One last photo of my bed.


Me in my room after we'd begun taking everything out. 
Housing really sucked since, due to me breaking my contract and moving out during the middle of the school year, I have to pay 957 dollars (nearly 1000 dollars). Luckily I do have a loan left over I  can use, but seriously. F- them. I could understand a couple hundred dollars. But nearly 1000 for a crappy room? No. That's just wrong. I hate you, housing. You have been nothing but a pain in the ass and I look forward to never having to deal with that shit ever again. 


Like I did the last few times, I will give you my thoughts on my classes. 

Improv 

For the most part, this was an incredibly fun class! :D I love acting and I played make-believe a lot as a kid, so this kind of thing was a breeze and a lot of fun. I also enjoyed our final (except they cast me out early on/ignored my parts for a lot of stuff ) :( Story of my life) since any time a final is performing, I know I will have fun (we also had a written test which was super easy and pretty much just our opinion). 
Sadly, the kids did WAY to many inappropriate things (seriously, this porn-y stuff in class is getting OLD people! I don't watch porn for a reason. Seriously, get a room).Also, I got treated like a baby a few times and was disrespected. First thing was, during a game, we had to ask for things from a specific topic (for example: school subjects, things in a bathroom, etc). Everyone else got to do their picks but when I asked for the names of Jedi, they were all "you have to get out of your comfort zone" (ignoring the fact that I DO get out of it a LOT, often times of my own volition, and that they stick within their 'sex obsessed' topics, Who needs to get out of their comfort zone, HUH?) and gave me something else and when I tried to argue the unfairness of it, I was treated like a whiny baby (I did end up setting the scene up in the laundry room of the Jedi Temple, SO HAHA on them). I also got patted on the head when I stood up for homeschoolers (they have some really creepy beliefs about us O_O). Also, I was trying to take a test and someone kept making noises with their phone in different frequencies and since I have aspergers it was hurting my head and making it that much harder to concentrate (and when I asked the teacher to make him stop, she wouldn't do so). 
But, overall I did really enjoy the class and it was a lot of fun.

Semester (on three semester course) class on Arthur Lessac 

This class, in short, was a huge waste of my time. Sorry if I do sound whiny, but still. I knew everything and there was no reason for more than at least two semesters at the max. We had to do an assignment that confused everyone including me, who can understand most things like that. Suffice to say, I was so glad to be done with this course.

Scene Building Class 

I enjoyed the practical aspect of this class a lot. The lectures kind of went over my head (since I do better hands on with that sort of thing), but I really enjoyed working in the shop and helping build sets and paint. The projects were also fun and I'm proud that I was able to build so many things when previously I didn't know I could :) 

English Composition 2

This, along with my Improv class, was probably one of my favorite courses of the semester. The teacher was really nice and the kids were all pretty cool and smart (I wasn't having to answer all the questions like I usually do, so yay!). We wrote 4 1-page research papers and 4 full length papers and we got to pick our topics which made the class even more fun. We also had discussions that we all had to lead one of, which was fun (sadly, only a few people answered my questions, but oh well). The teacher was also my type (heh...) and I was glad to talk with him during class and our conferences regarding my papers. 

Spanish II 

Since apparently I had the hardest Spanish teacher in the department last semester, my second semester of Spanish was a lot easier for me. I got mostly A's in this class (compared to last semester where I had to work really hard to get that final A) and it was a lot of fun. I learned a lot of Spanish and I'm glad to say I did well (even a Spanish speaking girl asked me for help before our final XD). Really hoping to get fluent in Spanish over the next few years and I'm hoping to do a work study somewhere in Spain over the summer sometime soon :) . 

Overall, I had a good semester with a lot of bumps in the road. While I'm sad to say goodbye to this university (I will miss a lot of the people I met, the campus, and my work), I think it was ultimately for the best and I look forward to starting my upcoming semester in January :)