The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me.

This offer does have some restrictions so please read:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
- What I create will be just for YOU & you are allowed to make requests (and I will try to honor them).
- It will be done before 2011.
- It might be cookies, a mix cd, a necklace, an original haiku, a scarf, who knows!
- You'll need to PM me your mailing address if you're one of the first

Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
When I was little, Unanswered Prayers by Garth Brooks made me weep like a baby.
This boy is freakishly country, so I'm posting his cover.
Nowadays, what makes me cry varies on what kind of mood I'm in, or what day of the month it is.  
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
I don't really have one, I guess.
I'm pretty uncultured.
But who doesn't love this photograph?


( Still four days behind...18-30. )

Day 14 → A non-fictional book
My non-fictional book of choice is...
!
The Tipping Point was seriously one of the coolest books I've ever read. It goes into really cool scientific detail about the way trends start, the way child programming affects children, what in the human mind will cause a group of people not to call the police when a woman is being murdered just because they are a group of people. Really fun human psychology. I loved it.

Day 15 → A fanfic
Oh goodness...I pick three.
And, whaddya know, they're not all J/B!
First is from fanfiction.net, called Letters on the Kitchen Table. The author with the penname Girl Who Writes wrote this really great Lupin/Tonks fic, definitely one of my favourites.

( Read more... )

Next is Hail Mary Pass by midnight_jo, first place winner of both community choice and mod choice in the first round of sortofbeautiful's drabble contest. It's an amazing story.

( Read more... )

And last but not least, Ace of Cups written by quamquam20, another contestant in the drabble contest. This story didn't place, but I thought it was great, and voted the heck out of it.

( Read more... )

FIRST, let me say that I just finished my last final and am officially on break. Whoo! It feels so good. I don't feel like I did as horribly as I thought I would...although I felt that way with the midterm and ended up with a C. Oh well. I can deal with a C.

SECOND, I got my Milton imitation paper back. I got a D on the essay section (I focused more on my own work than on Milton's, apparently), but 85 on the assignment as a whole, because I got an A on the actual imitation section of it. I am thrilled, to say the least. My professor literally had nothing negative to say about the imitation, and she said that I "gave a lot of thought to the style" and that "it is terrific." She said that I am "an excellent narrator" and that I "have a feel for Milton's voice." I was like, wha?! I expected to do well, but really, the praise made my day.

On a less happy note, I can definitely feel myself getting sick. My head's heavy, my throat's getting all blocked up, and it almost killed me to wake up at 8am after eight hours of fairly solid sleep. Sounds like an equation for sick to me. Blech! Well, at least it waited until after exams.

Oh, and I also made my icon. I'm pretty jazzed about that. Andrew taught me to use photoshop, so I managed to shrink it and pick the part of the picture I wanted. I did the colouring on Picnik, though, because the colouring on photoshop seems a little strange to me. I'll figure it out sooner or later, though.

That's all. I should probably find some actual work to do now...or perhaps start Leviathan. Yeah, starting Leviathan sounds good.

Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Today, what tickles my fancy is Stray Italian Greyhound by Vienna Teng. One of the girls over at sortofbeautiful posted it the other day, and I haven't stopped listening to it. I basically just keep it on repeat all the time. I pressed 'play' over at YouTube probably 30 times before I broke down and bought it on iTunes (99cents, what a bargin!). iTunes says I've listened to it 24 times so far (bought it Sunday), and that's not counting how many times I've played it on my phone. Basically, I can't get enough. So I'm gonna share it with you guys! I suggest reading the lyrics while you listen. Makes it even better.


Day 13 → A fictional book
Well, I just finished Stargazer, so I'll use that one.

Stargazer is the second in Claudia Gray's Evernight series. The main characters consist of Bianca, part-vampire daughter born to full-vampire parents (she'll be a full-vampire someday), Lucas, Black Cross vampire hunter (can you guess who he falls in love with?), Balthazar, a 300-something year old vampire, and Raquel, Bianca's human friend who knows nothing about the supernatural going on. They all go to Evernight Academy, a school to teach vampires how to live in the modern world, which is now, for some reason, admitting human students. A lot of hullabaloo happens in Evernight that would be completely spoiled if I talk too much about Stargazer,, so I won't, just in case anyone who reads this thing ever wants to read that thing. I highly suggest the books. Two more, Hourglass and Afterlife, are in the process of being written, too! Hourglass is set to come out in March. Whoo! So excited. And if you read them and like them, you can follow Claudia Gray on Twitter at @claudiagray. Awesome lady.

( Days 14-30! )

Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
I don't have one ATM...I'll get back to you.

Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
This was taken...fairly recently. At the garage a few months ago.
Awh. (:


( Days 12-30...I fell super behind. )

And this is all in one conversation, mind you. 8/07.

"I see a kid excited to read, and an adult taking away his books. I also hear this argument a lot--why so dark? How about something lighter? Where are the "positive books?" It's too simple. I'm all for leavening gloom with humor, but why not take the kid out for ice cream and to a funny movie? Reading is so personal. No one in their right mind would censor an adult's reading choices, why are we so quick to do it to young people? Fear is an opportunity to read the books too, and then talk about the stories with each other. It seems like premature concern otherwise."

"...Choices! Open. Exactly. I am striving to be open-open instead of closed-open (which I think is also called righteous). It's hard; righteousness is in the very air. It takes unlearning."

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why I want to be a librarian. I want to learn and unlearn and provide gloom with the humor, and humor with the gloom. "Fear is an opportunity to read the books too, and then talk about the stories with each other." If I can't make people think with my own writing, I want to make them think with someone else's. I want to think I know something about something, and then have someone else tell me something else.

Anyway.

Day 09 → A photo you took

( 10-30 still to come! )



I took this in October when Jojo and I went to see Scott Westerfeld in Wellesley. I took a bunch of really random pictures that day, but I really like the way this one came out.

Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad

I'm gonna make this quick, because this computer is buzzing like whoa and it's driving me crazy.

( Anddd, 09-30 here. )

Picture that makes me sad...

COME ON. YOU CAN'T TELL ME THAT DOESN'T MAKE YOU WANT TO CRY.


Picture that makes me sad irl...

This, and others like it. I've been looking at wayyy too many old pictures on Facebook lately. Bah.

Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy

( More excitement (approx. 23 days worth) under the cut! )

Okay, so because this is MY livejournal, I'm splitting this into two catergories.
First, my "photo of people I don't know" that makes me happy.
Anddd, I just stumbled upon this one today! How lucky!

Put it together, and it's mooostly one picture. Just not.
Adorable, right? Right. Moving on.

NEXT, an irl photo that makes me happy.

This is by no means is it the best picture of us. My hair hadn't been washed in, like, two days (TI will do that to you), and I was wicked tired (TI will do that to you as well). But it's our first picture together. He grabbed the camera from me, snapped the picture, and handed it back. It would have meant nothing if he'd done that with anyone else, but it meant the world to me. This picture held a secret. And now look where we are. (:

The lovely bluesuzanne over at sortofbeautiful , best comm ever, held a drabble contest a few weeks ago. The prompt was "Meet me on your best behavior/Meet me at your worst," and the only rules were that the story stay at 500 words or less (which was difficult), and that it be Jake/Bella (obviously). Sixty two amazing drabbles were written, and you can read them here (which I highly recommend). Neither of my drabbles placed, but I really liked the way they both came out (if I can say that without sounding too conceded). Some of the other girls in the comm said that they were making Better in the Morning their own personal canon...which means I've done my job. (: Haha. So, here they are!


( Maybe Next Time )

&&


( Better in the Morning )

Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy

( Days 07-30! )

Today, what tickles my fancy is...
Sister Claire!

Sister Claire is an adorable nun who loves cats and helps defeat the evil nun with water guns. She is currently learning the art of Nun-Fu, and she is also miraculously pregnant. Literally, miraculous. No sex involved.
Oh, and there's Gabrielle. Here she is!

She's kind of Claire's guardian angel. She comes through the toilet, and she's basically helping Claire out with everything. She's pretty fab.
The artist has tendonitis at the moment,but she's still updating. It's wonderful, so CHECK IT OUT. (:

I just saw this scribbled into my Bible. I'd forgotten I'd even written it down there. I don't remember who said it, or if it was actually quoted from anything, but I love it. I came to post it here and realized that Day 05 of 30 Days of Sharing was "Your Favourite Quote." Since I skipped a day at the beginning and therefore owe you an extra day, how perfectly does that work out?

Day 05 → Your favorite quote

( Days 06-30 here. )
there's too much beauty
&& pain in the world
to ever be bored again.

Day 04 → Your favorite book

Oh goodness gracious, are you kidding me?
My favourite book, singular?

( Days 05-30 under the cut...I'm sure they'll all be easier than 04... )

Okay, so. Um.
How am I even supposed to pick?! Guh.
One of my favourites is Teach Me, by R.A. Nelson.


Also, An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.


Also, The Host by Stephanie Meyer (I just pretend she didn't write it).


Also, the Uglies series (of course), by Scott Westerfeld.


There are a ton more, really. I'm only posting these because they're the ones I came up with off the top of my head. They probably aren't actually my favourites. Just so you know.

"You can read the steampunk movement as a response to the realities of modern consumer technology. Take the iPhone: its form gives no clue as to its function or who made it or where it came from. There are no screws. You can't hack it. It's perfect, but it might as well have been made by aliens and fallen to Earth in an asteroid.

The same way punk took back music, steampunk reclaims technology for the masses. It substitutes metal gears for silicon, pneumatic tubes for 3G and wi-fi. It maximizes what was miniaturized and makes visible what was hidden. Where the iPhone is all stainless steel and high-gloss plastic, steampunk is brass and wood and leather. Steampunk isn't mass-produced; it's bespoke and unique, and if you don't like it, you can tinker with it till you do."

Original article here.

Day 03 → Your favorite television program

That's a toughy! I'm going to be awful at picking just one for each of these questions, by the way.
This question should be more like, "Out of all the shows you love, which ones do you look forward to most each week?"
In that case, the answers would be...

Glee...


Bones...


&& The Big Bang Theory.


I really love The Vampire Diaries, too, but I haven't seen the last two episodes. ):



( Days 04-30 under the cut! )

Oops! Slacking already. Here's day 2!

Day 02 → Your favorite movie


( Days 03-30 under the cut. )

Although my list of favourite movies is growing, there will only be four that remain forever.
That's right, FOUR. I'm picking FOUR.

Say Anything..., 1989.


Second, The Goodbye Girl. 1977, NOT 2004.



Benny & Joon, 1993.


Beauty and the Beast, 1991.