I am moving to my wordpress blog. My initial idea was to wait until I hit 100 posts, but I have realized that it is too hard for me to maintain two blogs. Well, really it isn't; but I'm kind of tired of taking care of two blogs. So I decided to move even when this post is only my 93rd post. Just because 93 isn't as commonly used as 100 doesn't mean it's any worse. At least, I think it's the 93rd. I hope I'm right, because I'm so bored I even made a little cartoon praising the number 93:

Cute, right? I know. Even if it is a stick girl. It was Paint, and all I had was the little laptop pad.

So from now on, I shall be found at http://floatingfaraway.wordpress.com

As for what I'm going to do... basically posts like normal, except book reviews in between.

Merissa

I have a delightful cold

Well. Can you hear the sarcasm in the title?

Because I have a cold. I daresay that is very interesting. Although I am not sneezing right now. I was sneezing a moment ago. Now I'm not. Unfortunately.

(This cold is making all my sentences messed up, starting sentences with "because" and writing fragments. If I copied it to Word, everything would go crazy with green squiggly lines.)

It's my mom I feel sorry for. First my sister (she had a cold a few days ago, did I mention?), and now me. I am just glad I am not coughing.

With luck, my cold will wear itself out soon. I don't want to go to school on Monday with a cold.

Merissa

'Tis over!

It's December 1st. That means something different to everyone, I suppose, but what do you think it means for me?

It's over!

No, I don't mean the year. The year isn't over yet; that's January. When that comes, I shall devote a special post to it. But what is over right now? Come on, say it, say it...

NaNoWriMo!

There, I knew you had it.

I haven't finished. But I did pretty well, I think. This was my progress, based on the graph they provided at NaNo:

11/01/08 - 11/04/08: Understands that I have no plot, therefore does not write anything. Realizes that this is probably why you are allowed to sign up way before November, but also realizes that the words are refusing to come out, and because they are very important in a story, decides to obey them.

11/05/08 - 11/11/08: Forces self to write sporadically. Vexes family with repeated phrases: "I must write!" despite the fact that I am not writing as much as I am saying that.

11/12/08 - 11/18/08: Actually succeeds in writing around 1000 words a day! Or even maybe 2000! Is succeeding very prettily, although probably will still not catch up.

11/19/08 - 11/28/08: Sudden growth spurt of novel inspires some easy time, resulting in almost nothing written.

11/28/08 - 11/30/08: Realizes how close November is to ending and gets onto the computer. Then somehow forgets because of the extremely fatal disease known as procrastinating.

12/01/08: I know that because of this, I will be scolded for not focusing. Not only am I friends to geniuses online, but I have recently discovered that several aquaintances from real life have also finished NaNoWriMo ahead of time, time often being several days.

I'm pretty sure that's impossible. Even though I don't believe them to lie to me. Considering how smart they are, perhaps they built a machine to stop time and worked on it while we were all frozen in time. Next time, please let me out of time to write with you. I won't reveal your devious secret.

Although I can't say I'm as bad as that schedule makes me out to be. I think I'm just not the sort to be forced to write something so long in such a little amount of time. (And I did have an awful lot of schoolwork. I suddenly had to write several essays and creative writing pieces.) But I did write more than I've ever written in the course of a month. 20,000 words! So let's look on the positive side of things, shall we?

Now I have to congratulate the people who did finish. Congratulations! I wholly admire you for succeeding in that very difficult task. (Also, I ask you if I couldn't borrow your brains for a while, at least your writing brains, the part that makes you write.)

Merissa

Happy Thanksgiving!

That title will probably used dozens of times today, but I don't mind being cliched today. Thanksgiving is so cool. It's my favorite holiday. What other holiday to you get to go around thanking other people? And get thanked? It's so awesome.

I am thankful for:

1) God, the church, and all the saints who are so helpful day in and day out. I don't know where I'd be without all of you. Praying to God gives a certain peace, especially in time of trouble.

2) My friends:
a. My real life friends. You guys are great. And funny. Even when you guys get mad at me. Because then you all forgive me. Just like I forgive you.
b. My Internet friends. It's so fun to be able to have friends from everywhere, all with similar interests. Globalization rocks. It's inspires a lot of confidence in me when I realize that people can be the same as you even when they live thousands of miles away! And even on the opposite side of the world!

3) My family.
My mother, who is not saying anything despite the fact that my room is once again messy and that I simply cannot bear to put stuff away as soon as I'm finished. Or put them away ever.
My father, who does not mind when I read too much and is actually proud of me.
My sister, who is, you know, my sister. For nagging me and being the "perfect" little sister.

4) Being a nerd.
I know people are always making fun of nerds, but that's because they don't know how easy we have it. We get good grades; we do not have to worry about stuff like dressing in the latest styles; teachers like us; parents like us; etc., etc., I know! It's not as if we don't have any hard stuff, but compared to other people? If they knew, they would so want to be us.

5) Writing!
By writing, I mean all types of literature, published and non-published. I love writing because it gives me a way to express my feelings in an discreet way. If there was no such thing as writing... I'd go crazy trying to keep stuff inside of me. I mean, I'm already crazy talking to myself, but being crazy talking to myself is worse than being crazy keeping stuff inside. The only reason I talk to myself is to see how words sound together.

6) Music!
I love music. Music is so nice. Without music, everything would be silent right now. Do you know how hard it is to work to silence sometimes? Sometimes, yes, silence is good, but there are just as often times that sounds are good. And yes, I don't pay that much attention to it. Often I only become aware of it until it stops, but that means I am paying attention to it, just semi-consciously. Which is how I do a lot of things.

7) Sleeping.
I know that sounds super lazy, but I'm not thankful to sleeping because of sleeping. I'm thankful to sleeping because it gives us dreams. And dreams are so often abstract and everything, but they do get you to see things in a different light. They also give you remarkable insight upon your thoughts. You get to see what's been occupying your mind so much that you've been dreaming about it.

8) The ability to stop.
I've so not finished. I have a lot of more stuff to thank, but I'd go on and on. So many things to be thankful for... that by the time I'm finished, Thanksgiving would be over! And you so do not want that to happen. So I shall stop here.

Have a great Thanksgiving! And don't forget to give thanks, even if it's for one tiny thing Because everything matters.
Merissa

Winter

*I finally surrendered to the cold this morning and went to the bus stop in my winter jacket. I was very reluctant to do this, as it is not yet winter (although you wouldn't know that from all the freezing cold weather). Winter will not be in another month (hear that, weather? Warm up, please)

*By now it is certain that I'm not going to finish NaNoWriMo. But I figure I'll finish it by the end of December. Then I'll probably ignore it for the whole of January and go back to it in February.

*I made a wordle of my blog the other day. I think it's of the last few posts. Here 'tis.



I was being very creative when I named it "stuff" because that is the only word that can describe my blog accurately. And not even very accurately, at that.

*I am so excited for Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is so fun. I like it even more than Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving (a few days early)!
Merissa