How would you like...

...to wake up to find this parked on the ceiling above your bed?


Yeah, I thought so. That, my friends, is the common House Centipede, or Scutigera coleoptrata to use the Latin. Also known round these parts (specifically, and possibly only, in our apartment) as the Crickepede.
As far as mutant hell spawn go, these are supposedly a very useful type to have around, as they attack, inject with venom, and devour other household pests such as spiders, termites, roaches, silverfish, rodents, small babies, salesmen, and politicians. That does not alter the fact that they are by far the creepiest bugs I have ever seen. And I'm not the whimpering girly girl sort. Or so I claim.
So far we've found four adults (ranging from 1 to 1.75 inches long by my estimation) and two youngsters. Apparently we (or possibly a neighboring apartment) have got a small infestation. Granted we've got no other pests to speak of, thanks to the diligent work of our little Crickepede buddies, but still!
I've been desensitizing myself by looking at pictures on the web, but I still don't like them, useful or not. Eh, nasty Crickepedes. So creepy...

So far...

...my classes have been really great this semester. I love philosophy, and apparently I'm pretty good with rats, so Win.
And I now have keys to a "restricted area". Double Win.

Here it is...

Today is the day. My submission is the daily story on 365 Tomorrows. And it is here in the archives.
I'm just so damn proud...

Well that's cool...

A couple of months ago I found a site called 365 Tomorrows. The aim of the site is to present one short-short story of the sci-fi persuasion, no more than 365 words long, every day for a year. Most of them that I have read are pretty awesome. Today's and yesterday's (August 13 and 14th) stories were particularly good in my opinion.
Anyway, they have staff writers and they also accept some submissions. When I learned of this, I thought to myself, "What the heck, why not?" and so I took a few minutes to type up something random. I personally don't think it's that great, buuuuuut yesterday I got an email saying that it had been accepted for publication.
I'm not sure when exactly it's going to be featured, but it will be on the main page as the daily story, and then put in the archives. I'm pretty excited about that. First time I have ever been published by anyone other than myself, my school newspaper, or Jaime. So yeah. Awesome.

I've seen my share...

...of robot movies, but I have to say that "Wall-E" is a mighty good one. We laughed, we gasped, we "aww"-ed, we got to the point where, were we a good bit sappier and had onions on us, we might have cried. It was a good movie. A very fun (and funny!) movie, with touching and poignant bits thrown throughout. Bit o' symbolism here and there for those who want to look for it, but generally the movie stayed away from the slap-you-in-the-face stuff, so you could watch it as a lighthearted thing as well if you so desired.
Overall a really good movie. We had a great time. I give it an A+.

Yeah, it's awesome...

Who knew Neil Patrick Harris could sing?
So far it's been all that I hoped for.
(Watch it before the 20th, while it's free.)

Here we go again...

So the other day I got in my car and went to my friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart in order to exchange some cash monies for physical supplies, and guess what I found when I got back out to the parking lot. No really, go ahead and guess. Did you guess a dent in the hood the size of a small dinner plate? Well you are correct!
Somebody jumped on my car! There were a couple of slightly dusty footprints, and that is how I know how my car happened to have its hood molested!
Somebody jumped on my car! How can you jump on somebody's car unintentionally? The answer: You can't! Jumping on something as big as a Toyota Corolla is, as a general rule, a premeditated action. Who says to themselves, "I believe that I will leap upon the bonnet of this automobile that is not under my ownership."?
There is a slight chance that whoever did it did not realize that they caused damage, but I imagine it probably went more like this:
"Ah f**k dude! You dented it! Hahaha! Nobody saw so let's get inside and get that Blue Moon and Cheez Whiz that we came here for!"

Human Race, I have a serious problem with you! Consider yourself on notice!

Watermark...

As of today I have passed both the marks of 75 chapters and 50,000 words for Knowing Andrew. The story line isn't anywhere near being finished, but whenever it is, as of this point, it will be my first novel-sized work. I couldn't be more pleased. Writing it has been an absolute blast.
I remember back to last year when I was all like "I've written 12 chapters for KA and I'm just so proud of myself!" So long ago. So young. So naive...

Of all the things...

Many things happened this weekend that are worth talking about. I will now talk about them.

On Friday I got the album Back to the Light by Brian May in the mail, and it is fantastic. I’m trying to think of my favorite track on it, but...it’s just so hard. Let’s go this route: My least favorite of the 13 is I’m Scared, but that’s not really saying much, because I like it too. It’s just a really awesome bunch of songs/music. May does the vocals and plays the great majority of the instruments for the album, with the late, great Cozy Powell on drums. He um, he wasn't dead when they recorded it...
Anyway, the album consists of ten songs and two instrumentals, all but one of which are May originals, with collaboration on music for three of them. The last song on the album is a bonus remix track. I'm still trying to decide on a favorite and it just doesn't seem to be happening. I don't think I can make that call.
All in all, unquestionably a great album. May is an absolute virtuoso. And also apparently Moses for a short while in his younger day...

On Saturday I helped re-pot and move a ten-foot tall fig tree. I also trimmed back the dead branches and twigs and helped clean off the dust and whatnot that had settled on the leaves. I learned some valuable things about how to keep trees alive indoors whilst in conversation with Ms. Kay, whom I was helping. I'm quite interested in plant biology and cultivation and I’ve wanted to grow a tree for some time now, so it was a very educational and interesting experience for me.

I also went to the 36th Annual Indiana Fiddlers’ Gathering over in Battle Ground on Saturday with some friends to hear some bluegrass/folk music, and it was quite a blast. An interesting sub-community to be sure. My favorite band consisted of three guys who played acoustic swing with a fiddle, a guitar, and a string bass. They were awesome. All three of them just real masters with their instruments, and I highly approved of the song style. They were Aaron Weinstein (violin), Frank Vignola (guitar), and Jim Cox (bass). Should you ever get a chance to hear them, I recommend it.

The sunset over the trees in the glen was gorgeous, and the weather great for such an occasion. For a bit, later in the night, it looked like it was about to rain, but then the clouds cleared and you could see the stars above the clearing, with the Big Dipper dead center. It was very nice.

By far though, the best part of Saturday was when The Foghorn Stringband (whom I didn’t really like that much) paused for a couple of seconds between songs during their set and some guy sitting a ways behind me yelled out “Freebird!!!” I smiled first, because of the setting, and then I laughed out loud when it suddenly struck me that this was a man that was not at all connected with SOG, Benji, or I, and he was yelling for Freebird at a bluegrass festival. Even if I had not enjoyed anything else about the evening, that pretty much just made the whole thing worth it.

Run for the hills...

I am extremely angry right at this moment. So much so that my stomach is aching. I ran across a link to an article on the Poles whilst going through the Yahoo nexus, and thinking that it would be a quick and interesting read, followed it. Unfortunately, I never got to reading the actual article. The first thing that came up was the title and short blurb for the article with another link to get to the body. Right below that were the comments that people had left. I read the first page of them before closing the whole thing in disgust and rage.
These types of comments can be neatly placed in four distinct categories. Ehem:
First you have the people who are intelligent enough to do a bit of research, know what they're talking about, and, *gasp*, actually give a rat's left buttock about what's going on in the world around them.
Then you have your folks who seem to want what's best, but don't really know what's going on. (aka They've watched a Michael Moore film, and that's all the research they need. Those would be the good-hearted "OMG! The polar bears are gonna die!" people.)
Thirdly are the people who are sceptical, which in and of itself is a good thing. Except that they don't follow up on that scepticism. They just sort of hang neutral, spreading their non-opinions around like slow-churned, low trans-fat, heart-healthy, butter substitute product, and basically just convoluting things as much as they can whenever possible.
And lastly (my absolute favorite in all the whole wide freakin' world!), there are the imbeciles that blatantly ignore facts, turn their backs on research, shun simple observation skills, and then go around preaching their strongly held, sarcasm laden, pseudo-scientific "findings" with all the determination of Al Sharpton at the annual CivCon! I'm talking about the type of person that would defend strip mining the Alaskan tundra with their life if they thought they heard Rush Limbaugh say that it would be a good idea one morning whilst they were driving to work in their Ford Expedition. It is these people that absolutely kill any faith in humanity that I happen to have picked up in between times!
I cannot stand willful ignorance, particularly when it is combined with arrogance. Of course, I guess when some people get an idea caught between the only two brain cells that they have floating around in their skulls, it can be kind of hard to knock it loose again.

*Primal scream* Use your brains, people!!!

... ... My stomach doesn't hurt anymore...

Desperation...

~ Churning, writhing,
destroying from the inside.
Is there no stopping it?
Killing me slowly, quietly,
like a horrid disease.
No cure for this one.
They say chin up.
Tomorrow is a new day.
But I know,
it will come back.
When I'm lying in the dark,
contemplating.
It approaches,
silently through the night,
slipping into me,
over me,
covering me,
choking me,
like a curse,
only more painful.
When will it end?
Maybe never. ~

~From the mind of Renee

Pause for thought...

If you're interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3jol1S0BTs&NR=1

Sound in silence...

Cut off, I'm left to wander.
Roaming the wasteland, looking for something.
Looking for peace of mind maybe.
Cut off by actions and lack thereof.
I had a hand in my isolation.
My loneliness is partially by my doing.
Cut off by silence.
And not just my own.
Is there anyone out there?

Being greeted by friends in a strange house...

Peace: "Hey."
Lauren: "Hey."
Angel Hair: "Hey."
Kamikaze: "Kitty!"

Along the way...

So some of you probably know that I am in ENGL 238 for the first summer module here, which is a bit more than half over incidentally. I love that class and it is just going fantastically well and that makes me very happy. One of the options for the two book projects that we get to do is to write a scene or a chapter from the perspective of a character who is not the narrator of one of the books that we're reading for class. My group chose to do that on a book called Inexcusable for the first of the two projects, and so I wrote a chapter for that that was about 11 pages long (double spaced) and I think it turned out pretty well.
I think maybe what pleased me most about it is that I had some free time at work, so I just sat down at the computer and started typing some stuff up. Two or three years ago, I probably would not have been able to do that. It's one thing to engage in something that you enjoy, quite another to be able to see yourself growing and (hopefully!) improving along the way. I'm not professional caliber by any stretch of the imagination but I do think that my writing has come pretty far and really in a relatively short amount of time. At least it seemed short to me!
One of the things that has changed is that I've reached the point where I am willing to put some of my writing out there. A few years ago I would not have had enough confidence in it (and for good reason!) to present a story to my classmates and offer it for use in a project.
I think starting Aiden was a big step for me because it broke into doing something that I'd never done before, and that was writing something that was not premeditated. I've really grown in that area since then I think. It's been about a year now since I began Aiden's story and I can see definite changes in my writing since then.
Here's to evolution.

The Island...

~ I park beneath the Aspen tree that spills over the high, concrete retaining wall. Get out of my car and stand in the parking lot, nearly empty, breathing the damp, rain scented air. Droplets fall on my pad of paper and I feel that I could stay here forever.
Around me the sounds of traffic, behind me I hear a door open and a janitor beat the dust from a push broom. The droplets fall faster, bleeding the ink, wetting my hair. This should be uncomfortable. This should feel awkward.
The wind makes the branches above me, newly green with the fresh verdance of early summer, dip and sway. The Aspen, the touch of nature here, dances with the wind.
The rain falls harder.
The damp paper rues ink. ~
~ From the life of Renee

Inexcusable talent...

http://www.jibjab.com/sendables/share_view/nExJ7BoIbCZFV0g32vxrM0JR

Many thanks to Angel Hair and T. Rex for putting this together, and of course to Stuart for the use of his head.

Pressing the issue...

I just saw Iron Man, and I have to say, what a fantastic movie! I thought is was great. You should see this movie. I think that it may have found a place in that hallowed "Top 5" list. It is quite awesome. Most definitely worth the price of a ticket to see it on the big screen.

Don't you hate...

...being wrong?

All but one of my final exams are done and over with. Now comes the time of reassuring dread that what is done is done.

I have a few goals for the summer. I'd like to study Spanish every day so I have a bit firmer of a handle on it come Fall semester. I'd like to build up a bit of a backlog of Knowing Andrew chapters so that I won't have to worry about that so much in November (remember that NaNoWriMo goal?) And finally, I'd like to complete Aiden, if possible. And I think that it is possible. I'd also like to run some sleep deprivation experiments, but that's not so much of a goal as a curiosity.
Next summer I think I might like either an internship, or if it's feasible, to go abroad.

This semester has gone by very quickly. Sometimes I feel like my life is slipping away and that I haven't accomplished anything yet. I guess all you can do though, is try to enjoy each day. How sickeningly optimistic, right? I couldn't be a hippie. I like to bathe...

Choose your own hybridized adventure...

So I've been working on some sort of bastardized template for KA so that I can get the best of both the old and the beta versions. It's not going as smoothly as one might hope.
On the lighter side of that subject though, I have completed over 50 chapters of Knowing Andrew, and been working on it (relatively) steadily for over 6 months now. Woo. Somebody pat me on the back.
I was talking with a friend the other day about doing NaNoWriMo this year. Might be a fun challenge. Something to think about.
We went to Michigan, as I said we were going to, and it was awesome. The trip was a blast, the accommodations excellent. Our set got cut by about 50% because a couple of -ehem- bad troupes went overtime with their badness, but we handled it professionally, and got what was left of the audience back after one of those particularly bad troupes finally vacated the stage. But, the two troupes that went after us, they were pure gold. Loved every minute of it. Overall it was just a really fantastic time, lotta group bonding, inside jokes, and all that good stuff that dreams are made of.

~ "Life is good... LGizzle. LGizzle Electrizzle. Fo shizzle!" ~
~ Stu