My last word on procrastination

This morning I've decided that I'm not going to procrastinate stuff anymore.......

*Edit* Well, how do you like that? I say I'm not going to procrastinate and then I get distracted and get back to this post hours later?! This is for real. I started writing this earlier, but then I remembered that I had to do some SAT studying. For those who don't know, I'm taking my second ever SAT test on March 14. Little more than 2 weeks away.

Q, you are right. SAT = death. Well, maybe not completely right. It's like a slow death, of the brain...

No, no, I'm just kidding. I'm really good at math. It's only the tough, advanced math concepts that give me some trouble. Where on earth is anyone going to use coordinate geometry in their life, answer me that. I'm sure not going to use it! And doing arithmetic with negative numbers, don't get me started. You have to remember that if you multiply two negative numbers, it will turn out positive, and if you multiply one positive and one negative number, the result will be negative. I've got a good handle on reading and writing, but I need to study hard for math. Plus I should work on my essay writing.

Anyway, I was going to talk about procrastinating. I've developed a small list of things that I will stop not doing.

1: Making headway in my Imazia book. I need to show some progress, man! And that stupid schedule didn't turn out to be helping matters any. Instead I'm going to promise myself to work on my novel for 4 hours a day in two 2-hour shifts. Now I'll just have to figure out where to put those 2-hour slots...

2: I will try taking walks as much as I can. If I can't get out during the day, the least I can do then is to do a hundred jumping jacks. I tried that today. It sure gets your heart pumping like a Jumanji drum, don't it? Know what else I did today? I helped my brother tie a thick stick to a rope that we attached to a tree and we called it a swing. It's actually quite fun to use. Our own private swing. I wish we had a tire swing. I love those. Or better, I wish we had a huge trampoline, like some of our friends have...

Oh, I'm going off topic again, aren't I? I'm stalling because I'm not sure what else I don't want to procrastinate. My list isn't very big. Many of the things I don't want to leave off are small things, like doing the dishes more, cleaning the birds' cage, that sort of thing.

I think in order for me to achieve these things and not put them off anymore will be for me to end a few activities, if only for a few days. I talked about them in last post, you remember? First, I'm going to take myself off reading good books for a week or so. If I can keep my nose out from between the pages of an awesome fiction novel for several days, I'm sure I can get some pretty productive work done.

Second... yes, I'm sorry, don't give me that look. I have to say it. I'll need to stop blogging for awhile. Hey, at least I'm warning you, aren't I? Having my mind on my blog is not helping me. It's lots of fun talking to friends online, but I need to take a break, okay? Just give me that. So, I'm not going to be checking out any comments you leave this post. I'll check them later. And any new posts you guys put up I'll have to read later, too. Hopefully after a week I'll have some good material to read.

I'll miss you, guys. Good luck on your 100th post, Jacoby. Perhaps you can write on my book club blog while I'm gone. I'm not going to be reading anything, after all. Wish me luck!

By the way, here are some more funny procrastinating pics.

Promises and Procrastinations

I feel like I've got a lot to write about. I'm kicking myself because I wanted to write so much yesterday, and all I wrote were a couple of book posts on my other blog. I wanted to write about what a fun Sunday at the beach I had, my take on how the Oscars went, maybe a post about how much I remember loving Dashner Dude's Journal of Curious Letters and how I can't wait for book 2. (James, if you're reading this, you are allowed to skip all this and scroll down to item number 3. What do you think?) I also know you guys are probably wondering about my Imazian story and hoping I'll write more about it, eh? No? Well, if you don't, that's fine too.

The problem is, my biggest flaw is that I'm a huge procrastinator. It's easy for me to let certain things slide, and then I regret them later. What is the biggest cause of my procrastination? The books I read. I love to read, that's all, and some of the books I pick up are too good for my own good. I must keep turning the pages or I won't know what happens next, gosh darn the consequences.

Um, you probably won't like this, but I also think that maybe -- only maybe -- the second biggest culprit of my procrastination is... blogging. I'm sorry, but seriously, I spend a lot of time with blogging on my mind, and I fear it's almost too much. I check my emails all the time (that's how I get comments. Do you know how to do that?), I'm always going up to my dashboard, seeing if any of my friends have come up with something new. It's madness!

Speaking of which, I got my MAD yesterday. It's a pretty good issue. I like the cartoons the best. Also the fold-in. How many of you guys get MAD? None? Well, it is a bit of a stupid magazine, so I can understand, but I like it's brand of humor.

Okay, that was off subject. Sorry about that. So how am I gonna make my conscience feel better? Well, I think the best thing for now will be to write about each of the things I mentioned as brief as I can. So here I go:

1 ~ Sunday at the beach was so much fun. I relaxed and read my book Join Me (got nearly half way through), I ran into the ocean and swam all the way to the sandbar (though I only stayed in for, what, a minute? It was pretty cold!), I played Acey-Deucey with my friend Anna (Acey Deucey is a variation on the game Backgammon, BTW. It's named so because the most special roll of the dice in the game is a one and a two. An Ace and a Deuce), and there was this live music thing playing where my young brother, Adam, dressed up like Elvis and sang Blue Suede Shoes.

He was reeeally good! Everyone on the beach heard him and loved him. Well, except those people waaay in the back, near the shore, they couldn't hear him. But everyone in the near vicinity thought he was awesome. I'm sorry to say I didn't get any footage of him doing it this time, but if you want to see the next best thing, my brother sings the very same song in this YouTube vid. It's the most popular vid on our channel!

Also near the end of the day, my parents introduced me to their friend Mike, who I thought was nice. We got talking and they (my parents) said how good my twin sister and I are on computers. Geniuses, whizzes. (I'm so modest!) So Mike says we're probably good at hacking and stuff, and I jokingly reply, "No, we use our powers for good, not evil." He laughed at that. Powers, yeah right. But he thought it was a good slogan for us. I suppose it is. Hmm... Maybe I'll put it in my title. "I promise to use all my powers for good, not evil." What do you think?

2 ~ So later that night, I was excited for watching the Oscar awards. My mom told us that the Jo Bros would be interviewed by Barbara Walters. That was sooo cool to watch. These guys have really come far. It's amazing how none of her tough questions seemed to phase them. I loved seeing the pictures of when they were younger. Alright, enough Jonas talk.

I watched all of the Oscars show, if you'll believe me. Stayed up to watch all the awards handed out. I recorded everything in my notebook as it was happening. Which famous celebrities came out to announce the nominees, which films got nominated (I didn't write down names of the people who worked on the movies, only actors. Directors and costume designers and all those people in the background, I don't much care about them. Also, I don't much care about the foreign films or documentaries, so those are the exceptions), and which films won.

My sister has already said this in her blog, but I was a bit personally offended when the movie Wall-E won only one Oscar and Slumdog Millionaire won eight. What on earth does Slumdog Millionaire have over Wall-E? For those who have seen this multi-Oscar winner, it might not be a mystery to you, but for me, who has not seen it, it is. So there.

3 ~ Well, let's see. I finished Dashner's first 13th Reality book a few months back. It's almost scary how long ago I read it! But I think I can still remember how good it was. It was all about this kid who recieved mysterious letters containing very unusual riddles that he had to solve for something really important. I loved the riddles. How the heck did you come up with them James? It was so fun trying to figure it out for myself, but I guess Tick was smarter than me in that case.

There are funny characters, Tick has close shaves in Alaska, he makes a friend from Italy. He even involves his dad in the whole adventure. How many parents of book characters can say that? I'm also fascinated with Quantum Physics, and it's cute how it's referred to as the Kyoopee (did I spell that right? I forget now). I also liked that another friend Tick makes was from Florida, and he and his two friends keep in touch through the internet and it's so much fun. The best part was when they went to that other Reality though, and actually did some world saving stuff.

I cannot possibly wait to have Dark Infinity in my hands so that I can read it! I believe I'm about as excited as when I was waiting to buy the 7th Harry Potter book a year or two back. I was in Israel at the time and we bought it the day after it came out (yes, Harry Potter books I will buy. I've got all 7 stacked in my room). I remember holding it so reverently and wondering what kind of story would be revealed in its few hundred pages. *sigh* I think Dashner's book is going to hold the same feeling for me when I get a hold of it.

BTW, I saw that the countdown has now changed to days until Maze Runner. I can't wait for that to come out either. Please tell me James. Is this review worthy of an ARC? Or will I have to wait almost an entire year until it comes out? Go ahead, be cruel.

4 ~ I don't know about you, but I don't think I have the energy to write about my book here. It'll probably take too long. I know I have a lot to tell, so it's best if I save it for another post. Sorry to disappoint you.

Good. I wrote about everything I could. I'll write again soon. I hope. Don't miss me if I don't. (Sorry about not having any cheerful pictures to look at while you scrolled through this long post.)

*Edit* Oh, by the way Q, thanks a lot for your email about my Imazian character post. I liked your advice and I'm going to think about what you said. If you have any tips for me in the future, I will highly appreciate them.

Welcome to Imazia!

This is going to be a lot of fun for me! And you, I hope. What I'm going to do here is tell you how some of my characters came to be, plus a little about what their role is. Most of my favorite characters live in Imazia, my majikal country. That's because their names are mostly plays-on words, which is so much fun.

1 ~ Magenta Carmine Roberts --- My main characters full name, as those who've read my past posts know. She is called Maggie throughout the book, since it's short. I didn't come up with her middle name until probably the last year, Carmine. You know it's a special shade of red? Look it up. Don't ask me why I picked Roberts. I could have given her any other surname. It's just a name that seems to go smoothly with the rest of the name. Whether you say Magenta Roberts, Maggie Roberts or Magenta Carmine Roberts, it gives a very nice ring to it, don't you think?

2 ~ Mark Simon --- This is Maggie's crush in the story. I named him Mark because a long time ago I once had a dream of meeting a really cute guy and I woke up somehow knowing his name was Mark, even though it was probably never said so in the dream. That's a bit of an embarrassing story to share, because it makes me sound like such a hopeless romantic, but that's where I got Mark. My dream boy turns into Maggie's dream boy. Simon I got too just because it sounded good next to Mark.

Alright. My next characters are all from Imazia. These are the good ones. Trust me.

3 ~ Diggory --- A talking mole who is the first Imazian creature Maggie comes across. It's a perfect name for a mole (note the word dig inside it). In the beginning I also meant it as a reference to the boy Diggory from the Chronicles of Narnia. Remember in the Magician's Nephew? Well, if you don't, that's okay. He's a little gruff, speaks with a Hagrid-like voice.

4 ~ Mac and Dameon Nuts --- Twin brown squirrels who are friends of Diggory and like making mischief. Mac is a bit of the dominant twin, more daring and reckless, while Dameon is slightly more cautious and sensitive. I knew I wanted twins in the story, and talking squirrels sounded really cute to me. They take mostly after HP's Fred and George Weasley. (They and Diggory are the only ones I base after Harry Potter, don't worry. I'm not that much of a cheat.)

I remember coming up with their names one day when I was shopping, in

line at the supermarket, I think. My favorite type of cookie is

macadamia nuts and white chocolate. We weren't buying cookies, but the wonderful play on words just hit me and I loved them right away, because they had such good names. Macadamia = Mac and Dameon.

5 ~ The Warlock --- My villain. His title alone just makes you hate him, right? He basically wants to take over Imazia. The picture I basically paint of him is a classic bearded old guy with a long nose in dark robes. Is that too cliche? His unique and most frightening feature is his two different colored eyes. One blue and one green. Like Erec Rex, I guess, except it's not a dragon eye, he was born with different eyes. I gave him weird eyes because a couple years ago, when I took a trip to Israel, I went to someone's house and their huge cat had two colors. I'd never seen anything like it. The cat was very nice, but I knew that two eyes would make the Warlock sound a lot more evil.

6 ~ Gris Feldgrau --- The Warlock's young right hand man, er, elf. Did I mention that all the people in Imazia are elves? He does most of his dirty work. Gris is grey in spanish, and the word feldgrau means "field grey." I didn't give Gris a last name until relatively recently. It all suits him perfect. He may work for the Warlock, but he's only there because he's trapped under a complicated spell. You know the story of the swan princess? Well, Gris turns into a raven by day, and by night he can either stay raven or turn back into an elf at will. This is good for the Warlock because then Gris can fly across Imazia and spy on stuff, for example, the strange human girl who has mysteriously appeared.

7 ~ Flora Sunnair --- A girl elf as old as Maggie who has long, wild blond hair. I really like her because, like Maggie, she's kind of an alter-ego of myself, except she can do majik. She leads Maggie on a long journey across Imazia so they can find the Great Unicorn, who will apparently whisk Maggie back to Earth. Flora is a little unpredictable in her moods, but she and Maggie manage to become friends along the way, after Flora starts teaching her the art of Majik and they save each other's lives. BTW, Flora's long lost brother is Gris. Shhh!

8 ~ Bina --- An albino squirrel who is Flora's companion. She isn't sooo important to the plot, but she is a fun love interest for Mac and Dameon. Her name is great because it sounds like albino and it's like my name without the "ett" in the middle. See?

The rest of my characters are in groups. They're more like minor characters, but their names are really cool. For instance, to make the long journey to the Unicorn, Maggie and Flora ride a couple of talking horses named Naylah and Whinnis. They don't say much, but still.

Also the Warlock has an army of gnomes at his disposal. My gnomes are short, stocky creatures with hard, grey skin, almost like they're made of rock. My formula for gnome names is a body part and something rock related. So far I have Boldaphist (boulder + fist), Slabak (slab + back) and Lymeer (limestone - stone + ear).

The last characters I'll mention are a pack of wolves who somewhere in the middle of the story trap Maggie and her friends in a cave. The leader of the pack is a fierce wolf named Alphawere, named for being the alpha male and for "were" as in werewolf. He has a great group of comrades, such as Baine, Padder, and Omegar. (He's sort of at the end of pack. Get it? Omega? I hear wolf packs have those kind of social ladders. He's like the one that eats last, the one who trails behind because no one really cares about him.) Alphawere also has a mate named Bayda, which is obviously perfect. Alpha, Beta?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alright, this was a very long post. I am sooo sorry. It's my honesty post all over again. Dang it! I didn't mean for it to go on and on like that. Hopefully you liked getting to know my beloved characters and you won't steal them away from me for your own selfish purposes. They are mine, you hear?! If you use any one of them, I promise I'll sue.

He he, so moving on. I'll bet reading about these characters revealed about as much of myself as the truth thing did. Do you think these characters will make it into the published world? I sure hope so. I suppose I'll have to tell you about my story as a series some other time. It would just take up a bunch more space here.

BTW, how do you like the pictures I put up? I just decided to search all of them and they all were so very appropriate. The ones of Mac and Dameon, Gris and Flora are especially majikal. I'm so glad I found them. Good ol' Google Images!

Guilty

Okay, this will be an ultra short post.

I didn't keep my promise to myself to write today. I didn't work on my story at all. Didn't look at it, or even think about it much. So for that I feel a little gulty. But I'm not too glum. Don't feel bad for me. Tomorrow I'll share some more of my self-created universe with you. I'll reveal some characters, how I created them and what their purpose in my story is. Maybe also different ideas that I had about my book as a possible series.

Of course, I'm not saying anything to you now. You'll have to wait for tomorrow. I don't mean to make you suffer and I hope you don't lose any sleep on this. This is not for revenge or anything, I just want you to know what's coming next. Hmm, here's some food for thought. If information is revealed about the future, is it better or worse that you have the knowledge? Or would it be better to know nothing at all and just be surprised? Well, too late for you. See ya!

Improv Class

Before I start, I just want to thank you guys for showing interest in my book. I thought it was funny that a couple other people started talking about their work soon after I did. I should share my stuff a lot more often. Besides, it feels good sharing with you. Maybe next time I'll tell you about some more of my characters. Just remember not to copy anything from me. (Except for J.N., he's got dibs on imagic. ^,~)

Anyway, I wanted to blog about what happened last night. Remember from Inside my Head? I talked about this improv class of which I knew nothing about? Well, I took it. And it was so much fun!

There were 14 kids in all, including me and my sibs, and to introduce each other we played a game where we say our name, say a funny adjective that has the same letter as our name, and then make a wild motion. Then we go around and repeat all the names we hear and copy the motions.

It's very effective, and fun. I learned a lot of peoples names by hearing them as Saucy Sam, Energetic Eric, Robotic Robin, Notorious Noah, Artistic Ariel, Radical Rebecca, Jumping Jordan, and a bunch of others. I was Brilliant Bettina, in case you were curious. ^,~

There were a bunch of games we played to exercise our improvisation skills, like the Mirror Game. I partnered with Saucy Sam, who is tall with curly hair and blue eyes, but he's 13. He's still really funny though. And a game called This is Your Life, where one person is the main character who knows nothing about his life except for what other characters tell him. Like, we have to establish a relationship with him right away so he can react to us. I pretended to be a girl's grandmother.

Oh, something incredible happened at the class, I almost forgot. Before class even started, like early yesterday morning, I kind of had a premonition that I would see a friend or two from my old rehearsals of the play High School Musical. The play wasn't so good, but I made a lot of friends there. I played Taylor (even though I'd reeeallly wanted to be Gabriella) and I was good friends with my understudy, Lexi. I also liked the guy who played Chad, named Eric. Anyway, I was thinking what if I saw a couple of my friends at improv class, but then realized that chances weren't high. Still, soon after we arrived, I saw Lexi come in and I was really surprised and glad to see her. It's good to have a familiar face. Plus there was Energetic Eric, but he wasn't the Eric I knew. I liked my Eric better; Energetic Eric didn't want to participate much. He just wanted a chair to sit in, so he wasn't that energetic. Even so, that's a whopper of a coincidence, huh?

I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this Improv class. We only have 8 more sessions to go. I definitely have to learn to improvise while keeping a straight face, because some things are funny. Keep watching, er, reading! Especially for Imazian updates. I think today, because of you guys sharing your stories-in-progress, I'm inspired to write some more today. But I'm definitely going to share more with you later.