Monday, November 30

NaNoWriMo Winner and Very Mild Super Powers

YES!!50 000 words have now been written and Scott, I have finally joined you!
All month people have been asking my why I was crazy enough to try and write 50 000 words in a month and, well, this feeling I have now is what made it totally worth it. Who would have thought that 50 000 words of pure torture would wind up being the worlds best drug? What can I say? I'm a masochist.
Although, even though I have now finished NaNoWriMo the stupid book is no where near finished. But don't worry, once I'm done and have edited it it would probably have been cut back down to something like 20 000.
Even so, after a full month of writing I think I'll be concentrating on other things for a while. I want to read more Skip Beat and One Piece and there are thousands of novels I want to read. I've finally started to read Lord of the Flies. And my friends have been bugging me to write the second issue of my comic, "Very Mild Super Powers".
I wrote the first one for an English assignment about belonging so the characters are all based on my friends and me. My character is Lorizzle (that's my brother's nickname for me) and my very mild super power is the ability to tell when someone is lying. Unfortunatly I don't understand sarcasm and am pretty much the dumb one in the group. Well we and Little Willy. He can secrete moisturiser from his pours.
The other characters include Ben Boy, who can shoot C-grade lazers out of his eyes, Pieman, who knows how things work, Bookman can read books through osmosis, Riksta, who can talk her way out of things, Kon, who can turn invisible when no one is looking, Confusious, who can confuse anyone, Court, who can turn hot things cold and is the only member of the tean who can swim, and Davetron who can sharpen objects with his mind.
I'm thinking of posting the first issue of the comic but I'm not sure how well it would work out.
Anyway, I'm really just rambling now so, Good day. I plan on going and buying Rise Against tickets for February.

Monday, November 23

The Daughter of...?

I finally got around to reading Percy Jackson and I don't care if it's a kids book, I love kids books. Having been banned from reading books of my own choosing for about a year and only reading Great Expectations and Virginia Woolf it was a great relief and an awesomely fun time to read something so fun and easy.
In case you don't know what Percy Jackson is about I'm sure you want a summery or something but I really can't be bothered doing a good job so instead you get this:
Percy Jackson is this dyslexic ADHD twelve year old (so he's like my Legal Studies teacher crossed with that kid in year 8 except more interesting and less sleazy (I slapped that kid once. He was cruisin' for a bruisin' with those lines)). Some things go down and Percy finds out he's half Greek God (a half blood). Then things get awesome and he goes on a quest but I'm not going to tell you about it because that would spoil the book for you and I seriously couldn't be bothered.
Okay, well, moving on from my dodgy blurb that more described the crumminess of my school than the book.
Up until year 10 when I became intrigued in modern war history I was fascinated with Ancient mythology and I would still be able to retell any myth for you. The Dictionary of Greek Mythology was my most read book until I devastatingly lost it.
I loved reading Percy Jackson and revisiting my mythologically fascinated youth. It was packed full of mythological references which I was excited to find were pretty much accurate (except the author used the Roman Hercules), and I was thrilled by the references to my favourite myths.
(Just so you know, my top favourite myths are unfortunately all love stories: Eros and Psyche comes in as number 1, followed by Hero and Leander, Echo and Narcissus, then probably Persephone)
Anyways, I'll get to the point now (if I can remember what that was). So, this book got me wondering, if I was half blood which Greek god would I have as my parent?
My first thought was Artemis because she's my favourite goddess but the whole chastity thing could make things awkward.
Next I thought Hera. One day, I decided, Hera will want to give Zeus a taste of his own medicine and I want to be the product of that. (Is that a weird thing to want?)
Otherwise I would probably choose a minor god. I just don't really feel like Big 12 material. So, because it's my favourite myth, I want to be the daughter of Eros and Psyche. Psyche's a human so I'd still be half blood. I also like this idea because it would be absolutely awesome to call Aphrodite grandma.
So that settled it. I'm the daughter of Eros, grandkid of Aphrodite.
I realise this post was pretty much one big ramble but if you made it through it, who would you be the kid of? Which god is your parent?

Thursday, November 19

Smooth Nerds

So I love nerdy pick up lines. I love them. I tend to write them everywhere, on forums, in random places (they make the best graffiti!), but I realised I haven't written any here yet. So here are a few:

  • Would you mind if I gravitated towards your events horizon?
  • You must be a biochemist; I could feel my dopamine levels rise from across the room
  • Baby, I may be no geologist, but I know how to make your bed rock!
  • With those harmonic curves I can see some serious vibrations between us
  • If I were sin^2x and you were cos^2x we could be 1

And now some of my favourites:

  • If you were a phaser you'd be set on stunning
  • C'mon baby, light my Bunsen!
  • Are you doctor Who cause I want to go for a rise in your tardis

And the greatest pick up line of all time:

  • If I were an enzyme I'd be DNA Helicase so I could unzip your genes

Have you got any pick up lines in your arsenal or have you had any good ones used on you?

Monday, November 16

Zombie Contingency Plan

My younger brother is probably one of the world's number one Zombie experts. I say this because he has already drawn up a Zombie contingency plan, which is actually pretty good and has had a lot of thought put into it. While I am seriously concerned about his growing paranoia, when the zombies do come (which he promises me, will happen) I will be prepared and may survive (I say may because the cocky always die first). Or at least, I may survive until the second decimation, that is, when I will probably end up committing suicide.

So for those of you who wish to live when the zombies come here is a brief summery of his Zompocolypse Survival Plan 0.1 (he refuses to let me release his updated 2.0 version because "an influx of people tagging along could be the doom of us all")
Before we begin I should point out my brother uses a lot of slang for the zombies, this may include Z's, Zed Heads and Zacks

This is only a brief summary, the full Contingency Plan (involving plans for
multiple types of zombies, maps, where to find weapons, supplies caches etc) is
still in development.

The Zombies: This initial part of the contingency plan is dealing with typical shambling zombies, probably the ones depicted by Max Brookes or George A. Romero (minus the intelligent one). Further Contingency Plans will be made to deal with fast, rabid, smart, return-of-the-living-dead zombies. We shall also assume that due to the geopolitical environment the zombies have amassed into numbers significant enough to threaten humanity.

Weapons: Our main weapon will be the Steyr-AUG; all of us having the same weapon will make it far easier to supply the correct ammunition in quantity. We also want a uniform pistol. A friend suggests the Five-Seven for the high number of rounds it can hold, its armour piercing rounds (which probably won’t be that useful unless we encounter other survivors or armoured Z’s), it is not that common in Australia but is used in quantity in the U.S. and other parts of the world, it is also ambidextrous [I'm left handed, so this comment by my brother is directed at me.] We also want at least one Sniper Rifle to thin the ranks of incoming Zed Heads, The Steyr-AUG can potentially fill this role however. At least one shotgun for close quarters combat. I haven’t researched shotguns so I’m not sure what will be the best(auto-shot guns are n00b c4nnon5 but will they expend to much ammo to quickly, what is their availability) I have decided an RPG will be to cumbersome and dangerous in the hands of an untrained civilian and have thrown that idea out of the window. However, the Steyr-AUG can be equipped with a grenade launcher. I will need to debate upon the usefulness and dangers of this. The weapons we’ll have to use before we can get our hands on these will have to be civilian owned hunting rifles. It is also relatively easy to make your own basic firearms out of household materials (yes, there are guides on the Internet).

Plan: So far we seem to have two main plans. One, go a near by army base and pray to God that the government is smart enough to turn it into a refugee camp but dumb enough not to initiate some form of the Redeker Plan*. The second is barricading us in a pool, filling it with supplies and electrifying the fence. This doesn’t need to be a pool. An electric fence around a two story house with stairs destroyed and an attic stocked full of supplies. The main danger there is accidentally causing a fire. We’ll need a generator, a massive rain tank, a vegetable garden (hopefully) and solar panels. It is important that we have stashes of food already at our safe-house as rioting and looting will quickly destroy shopping centres and they will be raided of all food they contain.

* Redeker Plan: A theoretical plan where the government sets up designated refugee zones with only basic military protection to divert, slow down or distract Zack while the main military can set up base and prepare to counter-attack. It is likely that a significant amount of the designated refugee zones will be overrun and the inhabitants killed.

Notes: It is general consensus by the Zombie Survival community that the main dangers, in order from most dangerous to least are:
1. Other Survivors
2. Lack of Water
3. Lack of Food
4. Zombies
So don’t hesitate to shoot, even if you can’t tell if it’s already dead. Also, those who have read this and laughed, “Ha, zombies, yeah right!” I’d like to bring up a true story:
Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana, killing 1577 people. Bridges were destroyed, nearly one million people were left powerless. Many people were stranded in the city or caught in traffic. Petrol stations were running out of fuel and so were cars. Some people had decided to seek refuge inside the Superdome with hundreds of other refugees. The situation inside the building was described as “chaotic; reports of rampant drug use, fights, rape, and filthy living conditions were widespread. At the time, as many as 100 were reported to have died in the Superdome, with most deaths resulting from heat exhaustion, but other reported incidents included an accused rapist who was beaten to death by a crowd and an apparent suicide”. And then there was a group of 13 Zombie Survivalists who were way out in front of the crowds, safe and sound from the Hurricane, sleeping quietly in their designated safe-house.

See my brother's true story, that just proves he's paranoid. But either way, lets be prepared for when the zombies come.

Thursday, November 5

Rise Against Fantasies

I was listening to Rise Against while studying and had to turn if off because I kept getting distracted by jumping out of my chair and singing and dancing to songs like Six Way's 'til Sunday, Ready to Fall, Savior, Black Masks and Gasoline, Paper Wings and the Good Left Undone.
Anyway, it got me thinking. I'm not one to cave to peer pressure but I've always said to my brother that if Rise against came to my door and asked me to become a vegan, I would. If Rise Against came to my window and serenaded me about becoming a vegan than I certainly would. It's similar to how I'm straight edge, I've always sort of planned of staying straight edge, and I enjoy being straight edge. But when I discovered that Rise Against were straight edge it really motivated me to stay straight edge.
Anyway, this sort of got me fantasising. How doesn't imaging your favourite band serenading you not make you fantasise?
My fantasy pretty much involves Rise Against coming to my window and serenading me about become a vegan and then, when I agree, we fly to the coast in a hot air balloon while they play more songs for me and then we walk along the beach barefoot eating chips.
Is anyone else willing to admit absolutely ridiculous fantasies?

Wednesday, November 4

NaNoWriMo

Well. I only have one exam left. Extension History. Its been tough. Expectially when the clock stopped during my Modern history exam. But so far I've made it through, and I don't really care what happens to me afterwards. As long as I'm surviving, I'm okay.
You may have noticed my banner to the left: "NaNoWriMo participant"
Well, this November (so right now) I'm participating in the National Novel Writers Month where I have to write a 50 000 word novel by the end of November. I'm not really able to start until after my exams end on the sixth but I'm still attempting it. It's good motivation to finish something I write for once.
I might post some of it here, or start another blog for it, where you can read it. I enjoy constructive criticism and all that nonsense.
...I just lost my tissue and I have hayfever...
Alright, that's better. I'm feeling really positive about NaNo so I'm hoping to convince some people to join, even if its a bit late. But there's always next year!
Anyway, that's the end of this. Let's Write!