Friday 31 March 2017

March: wasn't overly exciting



 [Note: WHAT has blogger done to my cute little pictures? They're all squished! And I spent so long on them!]

It's the end of March (almost), and while I've had this blog for less than one month, I've read enough to figure out that end-of-month recaps are apparently the way to go.

Excuse me while I search my brains for momentous happenings this month.

*scratches head*

I may have to resort to some creative lies for colour.

So!

I've been preparing for Camp NaNoWriMo! My WIP has the working title Three Sisters. (I will not keep that title. For some reason it makes me think of A Tale of Two Cities. Which I haven't even read.) You can read a bit more about protective older sister Billie here on Camp, if you like; I'll keep it short here and just say that I started with Beauty and the Beast (whatever it may end up by the time Camp's over). My cabin has been really welcoming - they found me through a comment I'd written on a GoTeenWriters article, too, which I thought was cool. :)

For my blog, I tried to write a few posts to have up my sleeve for April (hasn't worked so well). Because seriously. My official goal is 15k (I know it's low compared to some of you guys' goals... but if I aim much higher I give up once I get a few days behind). I hope to get 20k, though. And obviously I'm not going to have the time or energy or inspiration to write many posts.

Not a lot to report. My family's fine. We've had a heap of late (out-of-season) rain, which has been really relieving because summer was pretty dry and I was getting nervous (we use rainwater and I didn't want to go into the dry season with the tanks half empty).

I started a bullet journal - got all my ideas off Pinterest - and so far it's been pretty cool. I also toured a dairy farm, continued working on my tertiary education course (about libraries), and read less than I'd like.


I can't find enough good new books to read! (Recommendations welcome. I like twisted fairytales - magic's fine, but nothing too dark - and modern runaway stories - Gordon Korman's On the Run series is one example. But I'll read across genres; just no vampires, gone-too-far romance, things like that.)

Reread some of John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice series, and Jennifer A. Nielsen's Ascendance (False Prince) trilogy. Read the latest [last?] two of Melanie Dickerson's fairytale series, The Golden Braid and The Silent Songbird, because I'm always looking for fairytale retellings; this series is sometimes predictable and historically unlikely (oookay, a little more than sometimes) but can be a cute, fluffy medieval romance read without too much kissing (fine a lot of kissing but nothing further) or fairies (no fairies). I actually would have liked some fairies.

Rewatched Avengers and An Unexpected Journey. Watched The Force Awakens and Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Oh, and season 1 of Legends of Tomorrow (rated M for good reasons; I do not approve of all the content. But I adored Captain Canary!) (...too bad the kiss that established my OTP was promptly followed by Snart's death like WHAT.)

Music: I've been listening to Piano Guys, Peter Hollens (Mary Did You Know, Loch Lomond, Amazing Grace with Home Free - this one's awesome), Mission Impossible cover/medley by Piano Guys and Lindsey Stirling, and a Star Wars medley by Peter Hollens and Lindsey Stirling. 

Also (I'm not sure where to put this, but it's on YouTube, so here?) Studio C's comedy channel. My cabinmates recommended it and I binge-watched for about two days straight. Then I ran out of internet data. 

[Again with the squishing of my picture like I SPENT LITERAL HOURS DOING THESE. huh.]


Newsies: the Musical. I'd never heard of it before, but this was on several blogs.
Captain America: Civil War was already on my list... I've been putting it off because I DON'T WANT TO SEE MY BABIES FIGHTING OKAY.
Testament of Youth. Don't know much about this one, but I watched a YouTube trailer and it looks... heartbreaking.
Amazing Grace - I want to rewatch it because I don't remember it very well. (Also because I was not familiar with Benedict Cumberbatch or any of his work back then. Which brings me to - )
Sherlock season 4. I've read spoilers. From them I have concluded that Moffat thought we were too happy. Because [ killing Mary and having John blame and utterly hate Sherlock]? That isn't nice. (Although I look forward to seeing baby Watson... baby, uh... you know, I've quite forgotten her name... *wizard voice*)
The Lego Batman Movie. I watched three trailers and cried genuine tears of laughter. It looks like it might be better than The Lego Movie. (Which had... different humour to the kind I enjoy. But my young male cousins loved it.)

For Love and Honor, by Jody Hedlund. Micaiah's review is entirely to blame! :)

(Yes, there are a lot of movies here. and not a lot of books. as I said, recommendations welcome... and if there's a movie you think I should see, mention that as well.)


Volunteering for a local comic-con. It's only in its second year, but I've never been to any kind of comic-con, so it will be a completely new experience for me. (It has steampunk, too, and dollhouse miniaturists, and a viking/medieval history group. And it's free. Pretty good, I reckon - especially if it could get big enough in the next decade to attract some big names. That would be excellent.)

And of course - Camp NaNoWriMo! *stresses and promises to plot next time* *like I promised myself last NaNo* *and the Camp before that* Okay, I don't plot.

That's about it for me! (I even managed to restrain myself from telling those creative lies.) Now I have to go catch up on everyone else's March wrap-up summaries. Instead of working on Three Sisters. Which I should be doing because it's April.

What cool stuff did you do this month? I'd love to hear! (And of course: Have you ever been to a serious comic-con?) And tell me, HOW STRESSED ARE YOU FOR CAMP? and if you're not, TELL ME YOUR SECRETS.

10 comments:

  1. Oooh. The squished pictures thing. I hate it when it does that. I had SO much trouble with that for a while. Fortunately I have now discovered a way to get around that...but I'm not sure if it would work for you or not, unless you use Microsoft Powerpoint to make your pictures. That's what I use. (The pictures in this post are adorable, by the way, even with the squishing! You did a great job on them!)

    Your story sounds really interesting! (I just checked out your camp profile.) Fairytale retellings are so much. Good luck with your writing!! :D

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    1. I do use Powerpoint to make my pictures, actually! So any hints would be much appreciated ;) And I'm glad you think they're okay... they're usually 'whipped up' at ten at night when I realise I have a blog post and no picture.

      And thank you! :D

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    2. Okay, so I'm not sure if this will work with pictures you've put together yourself, but whenever I crop a picture from a movie that I found on google or something, it always turns out looking squished on my blog. So I finally discovered that if I go to Shapes and insert a box, putting it behind the picture so you can't see it, and then group the two together...it shows up on my blog looking just perfect! (I realize this a very scientific, text book kind of solution...haha...NOT! But at any rate, it works. At least for me.)

      But yeah, like I said, I'm not sure if this would work for pictures you've made yourself, because I've never tried it. (And the picture I just put together real quick to try as an experiment didn't end up looking squished on my blog, so I really don't know why yours would be doing that! Sometimes computers make no sense.)

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    3. Hey, I'll definitely give it a go! Sometimes computers absolutely don't make sense... like when I try to save a bunch of pictures as an image via PowerPoint and it randomly leaves one out?? even though the last 12.7 times were fine and I haven't changed anything significant?? (also, not relevant but I spent yesterday messing with this blog's code and UGH I don't want to see it again) *computer rant over* Thanks for your technical advice! ;) *rewards you with chocolate bikkie* *sorry, 'biscuit'*

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  2. AACK all those movies that you listed. Narnia, Star Wars, Tolkien. *bounces* YES TO THEM ALL!! -ahem-

    Also -you have no idea how excited I am to find another Aussie blogger! *throws confetti* :D

    ReplyDelete
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    1. *fangirls quietly so as not to scare anyone away* *quietly but intensely*

      AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE! (plus, not Australia = odd time zones = hard.) *throws confetti back* *parties in confetti* *instead of NaNo-ing* ;)

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  3. Wow I loved reading this wrap-up! Good luck with Camp NaNo. I'm sure you'll do great :)

    Your month seemed pretty exciting. Do update us on your Camp NaNo progress!

    - Andrea at A Surge of Thunder

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    1. Thanks, Andrea! I will update you all on my progress (unless I'm too ashamed...) ;)

      Since you're travelling, I'm guessing you're not doing Camp? I hope your trip recharges your creative juices and you come back refreshed!

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  4. NEWSIES!! 💙💙💙 I also love Gordon Korman and Lindsey Stirling and the Piano Guys. :)

    Hailey
    www.haileyhudson.wordpress.com

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    Replies
    1. Hi Hailey! I just read your post on Newsies and now I want to see it even more :) (On the down side: there's no way I'm getting to Broadway. I'm not even in the same country...)

      I haven't met many people who know about Gordon Korman! *highfives*

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