Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Direwolves! (and actual wolves...)

If anyone is interested in George RR Martin's work, please consider the following:
For a $100 donation to the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, you will receive a signed, personalized, first edition  hardcover of A Dance with Dragons. For $10, you can receive a signed 20 page chapbook. Not only can you get a unique signed book, but you can also help wolves!

Also, Martin said that if enough money is raised he'll, "let some Starks live a little longer..."

Here is a link to the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary George R.R. Martin donation page.
Here is a link to Martin's blog in which he discusses the charity. 

I think the offer ends on Sunday, the first of July, so get going!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

A Game of Pugs

I recently adopted a pug puppy named Pickles.

She's a handful, but she makes me happy. The first few days were difficult and I almost regretted my decision, but after learning her habits and training her a bit, it's gotten a lot easier. I've already taught her to sit and (kind of) stay! She's also well on her way to becoming potty trained. She'll be ten weeks old on Tuesday.

I've also slowly been making my way through George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. It's the first series I've read in a very, very long time (Harry Potter was the last, I do believe. Maybe Lord of the Rings?). I was very reluctant to begin it since each trade paperback book nearly hits or surpasses a thousand pages. A bit daunting! And he's not even done writing them. What if I put all this effort into the series and he croaks or decides he's tired? So much commitment! I was also concerned that it is considered fantasy. I am not very interested in fantasy. I have a hard time following some of the terminology and am generally more interested in character driven fiction. However, Game of Thrones has proven to be just that. It's absolutely brilliant. I'm looking forward to watching the show after I've read the books. I'm currently halfway through the second installment, Clash of Kings. 

If you're reluctant to purchase a whole set of books to catch up, there's a very attractive and affordable (it's currently on sale for $20.50 and there are new or used versions available on the marketplace for $8!) paperback boxed set of the first four novels available on Amazon. I purchased the set and am very pleased with it. There's also the Kindle version, but it seems to be at bit more expensive at $29.99. The first chapter, however, is free to preview. I encourage you to check it out!

Friday, June 1, 2012

Mixer Publishing!

Hey! My story "Holler" is up at Mixer Publishing under the realism category.
I'm super excited and have really enjoyed working with them throughout this process.
I think I finished writing the story a year ago today, which seems more symbolic than it really is, and I think I submitted the story some time in July, so it's been a long wait!

Give the preview a look!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The Lantern

Check out this article in Ohio State's newspaper, The Lantern.
Mosaic magazine commemorates 35th anniversary at Ohio State.

It's all about Mosaic. Mostly I'm just happy because they said my name... hm...

Our unveiling went well. I have a sprained ankle so I had a little trouble setting stuff up, but it worked out.

Huzzah!

Friday, May 25, 2012

A Goodbye to Mosaic

In the coming week I will be ending my reign as one of the editors-in-chief of Mosaic Magazine, Ohio State's undergraduate art and literature magazine.

At first I was relieved to pass on the baton, but now, I'm feeling kind of sad. Even though it was stressful and downright chaotic at times, I really did have fun. I made a lot of friends and forged some contacts in the art and literature community. Today, I had someone thank me for "doing a service for the artists at this campus." Wow. I hadn't even thought of it that way before. I found that really touching.

This is an exciting time for Mosaic. Our magazine comes out Tuesday, our editors were interviewed today by the Lantern, the newspaper here, and I just signed us up to contribute to a national anthology, Plain China.

I wish the new editorial board the best of luck and encourage them to stick with it! Even when we don't know what room we're meeting in!

 www.mosaicosu.com

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

New Computers!

Well, my laptop officially died. A year ago, it fell onto a hard floor after mysteriously being knocked off of a desk. The hard drive was shot and there was a weird crack in the side that I gobbed up with super glue.

After getting a new hard drive, it seemed to be working well, but the screen started flickering and going out. Apparently this is a problem that a lot of HP laptops have (something about some kind of connection ribbon?). So I lived with it for a while because I am one to accept my fate. Minecraft was terribly difficult, you know.

Then, at the beginning of this summer, I yanked the laptop open and it made a terrible cracking sound. The flicker was gone, but the hole in the side had popped open and was much wider than before. My good friend Dylan told me that his mother had the same laptop and hers did the same thing. For some reason this made me feel better about the whole thing.

Then it burst into flames. It was very exciting.

After it burst into flames, I figured it was probably on its way out. It took two whole weeks for the monitor to fall apart completely and, being the lazy girl that I am, I did not back up any of my files in those two weeks. I am thinking that since the monitor seems to be the only thing that is damaged, I can hook the thing up to another monitor and transfer files that way. The only things I really need are my resume, a few pictures, and two stories.

I got two new computers to make up for the flammable one. I've decided that I'm done with laptops for now and purchased a desktop computer with a 21.5 inch touchscreen. It's an all-in-one and I think I'm going to use it instead of a TV (I was going to buy one for my dorm next year since I won't be living with anyone I can talk into bringing a TV). It's really nice, but the touch screen is very sensitive. At night, the screen is the brightest thing in the room so all of the bugs in the world like to crawl on it/bounce against it/gently caress it with their antennae. I cannot count the times tiny bugs have closed my windows this week. There must be a way to turn the sensitivity down, right?

My second computer is a tiny netbook. It is a funky shade of blue and has dimples like a golf ball. It is very aerodynamic, I guess. I got a netbook in addition to a desktop because I plan on leaving the big computer at college when I come home for a weekend or break or something. I also need something to play around on when I'm at work (I'm an office assistant. My main objective in life is to hand people in the dorm toilet paper). And I guess it's good to be able to take a computer to a group meeting or class or something. I don't know.

Hopefully all of these new computers will make writing easier. For some reason, being at this huge desktop makes me feel really productive and powerful. Mmm.


In other news, I have discovered Netflix. My sister and I are watching Lost. I hope we get it done before I have to leave for school. We are halfway through the second season. It is looking bleak. I also watched the newest Harry Potter today. Is it just me or does Snape look like the smoke monster from Lost when he's zooming around all smoke-like?


I recently went to West Virginia with my mother, her boyfriend, and my sister. We went to a family reunion. I have never heard more gossip in my life. They even have forums dedicated to local gossip. According to these websites (where they use these people's real names when they spread gossip about them) every woman under 250 pounds is a cheating, lying home wrecker. Every man under 65 is a pill-popping thief. The people on these forums will even complain about your hair. Watch out, bros.

We went four-wheeling while we were there. We went up Charlie Cutlip Mountain. A day later, my great-uncle rode up there to pick berries and found a dead man. What if we had found him? Jeez. My uncle says he shot himself, but the gossip forums said he gassed himself because he was a cheating, pill-popping thief. Please, never let me join a gossip website.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Clean all the things!

I cleaned my room for the first time since I left for college. It was ridiculous. I got three bags of trash and four bags of clothes to donate out of there. I also took my bed apart. It was completely disgusting underneath. Why would I need to have old Popsicle sticks, dirty socks, rocks, panties, cookies, and Lawry's Seasoning Salt under there? I don't know. I'm really glad I got it all out. I feel healthier already.

The whole reason for cleaning my room was because I got a new bed frame. My old one was on a crazy slope because my sister did a body slam on it when we were children and two of the legs snapped off... It'll be nice to sleep on a level surface tonight!

I'm thinking about taking my old desktop computer out of there. It'll be bittersweet. It was the first thing I ever really saved up for and I did a lot of cool things with that computer. But I guess it doesn't work so well (it's six or seven years old and has been used quite heavily) and everyone here has their own laptops now, so I'm going to turn the desk into a writing zone.


Huzzah!