Living in a Desert

A while back I decided I wanted to try out writing something in a second-person POV. The idea of a second-person narrative is appealing to me, but I decided to keep it simple and stick to a essay about what it's like to live in a desert; I like to assume that people are always wondering. The rough draft didn't take very long, but I've been mulling the idea over in my mind and editing it a bit more, so though it was written mid-Spring, I'm finally posting it now early Summer.


What it's like to live in a desert

You have to remember to turn off your fans when you wake up in the morning, both the ceiling fan, whose job it is to circulate air throughout the room, and the small table fan sitting on your desk, which points at your bed and keeps you cool at night. If you forget either, you'll be scolded for wasting electricity.

As much as you hate waking up early, the mornings are actually sort of nice. The house is cool when you leave for class, still a bit sleepy and weary-eyed, and you can imagine that it'll be like this all day.

Average morning temperatures are in the 80s, Fahrenheit – not as cool as you would like but noticeably different from the 105 daily average.

None of the schools here are indoors, like they are in the movies, and that kind of bugs you. Air conditioning costs make that too expensive. Instead, classrooms are lined up together in wings with their doors facing out into small courtyards. During breaks, students huddle together under the covered walkways or in the shade of trees or buildings. Freshmen unable to score Upperclassman guardians leave their backpacks where they can and run around in a way that tires out the seniors.

You lost contact with your Upperclassmen when they left for college, but you inherited your spot from them, just as your Freshmen will inherit it from you. That's the unwritten law here.

The state requires there to be a certain amount of water fountains on campus, but you can't imagine they get much use. During the winter your fountain is clogged and in the summer you have to hold the button down for a minute until the hot water flushes out of the pipes - and then you still have to ignore the bits of trash and dried gum collected in the bowl. The best water fountain is across campus from your spot, and you only bother if you're really thirsty.

And there's always the one classroom where the air conditioning doesn't work, and the one where the teacher's tricked out the thermostat with a heat lamp so it's always cold. The people at the district office hate it when teachers do that, but then they're not stuck in a room with 30+ teenagers.

You talk with friends at lunch about making plans for the weekend. Generally this involves going to the movies or to the local outdoor mall, if you decide to go out at all. It's getting into late spring, which is essentially the same thing as summer but the breezes are still cool, and it's generally agreed upon that one shouldn't leave the house unless one has a very good reason. Your parents may not like it, but if you're going to be getting together with friends then it will probably end up with everyone at your house, flipping through Netflix and musing that it might've been nice to go to Sammy's instead. Sammy's parents have a pool, but they're a bit wary of teenagers.

That's for Saturday, tho'. Tonight you'll go straight home and stay there, locking the door on your way in and pulling closed the west-facing blinds. You get an hour or so alone, until your parents get off work. In that time you leave the house dark, turn the air conditioning down lower than dad likes, and set the laptop to boot up while you take a quick shower to rinse off.

If you were planning to go anywhere this evening you might change into another dry outfit, but tonight you can change into pajamas and dedicate a large amount of time to the internet. You like to imagine that you'd be able to survive in a world without internet, but you don't actually know what you'd do if that world arrived today.

As you already caught up with your school friends, now it is time to catch up with online friends. That girl you've been chatting with from Ohio will have been out of class for four hours now, and she's already updated her blog. You kind of hate how the time difference means that you can only talk between the time you get home, late for her, and the time she goes to bed, early for you.

If this was winter, your evening would be very different. For one, you wouldn't feel the need to take a shower, and instead of closing all the blinds you'd be letting in as much light as possible. If it managed to get cold enough you might even be able to convince your parents to let you start a fire in the fireplace.

And then there's always that awkward time between winter and summer, when you feel the need to wear a sweater as you leave for class than then can't wear it for the whole rest of the day. This is the reason you got into scarves and arm warmers – much easier to carry around.

In the summer, tho', you have to remember to turn the air conditioning back up before dad gets home. If mom's home first she wont mind, and may even cover for you. Air conditioning can be expensive, but you both agree it is really hot.

Sometime you talk to people from other parts of the world and they sort of pity you for how hot the desert is. You used to feel the same way until your family took a trip one summer to the midwest, and you realized just how miserable humidity could be. Your desert is at least dry. When people online ask if 'dry heat' really makes any difference, you fix your computer with a blank stare and reply "yes. yes it does."

If people from out of town were to visit and ask you what there was to do, you could easily point them to the local 'zoo', which houses all sorts of plants and animals native to deserts, or to the date store, with the huge knight landmark out front, even though you've never been particularly fond of the palm tree fruit yourself. Those both seem to be necessary places to visit, but as a resident you haven't actually been to either spot in a long while.

However, it's not as if people come here to visit often. If non-residents do come down, they're either: visiting family; snowbirds, part time residents who take advantage of the 'good winter weather' and who are constantly made fun of, for some reason; attendants to one of the major annual music festivals, which you've only been to once because the tickets are expensive and you can hear the music pretty well at Max's house; attending the major sporting event, which involves tennis because apparently tennis is still a big thing in some circles; or rich, and just here for the golf.

You are biased against golf. It's never done anything bad to you, personally, but it's never done anything good to anyone either.

Generally it's you and your people who are leaving to visit other areas. Disneyland's pretty close by, and there's a beach only half an hour away, along with some other pretty neat areas because this is Southern California and SoCal is pretty neat in general. It's always kind of strange, leaving the valley, passing through the sprawling wind farm, because it seems to drop in temperature almost immediately. As if there's a pocket or barrier, and on one side is "desert" climate and the other... something "not desert."

And since you were nine and realized you could, in fact, leave your parents for good and decide on somewhere else to live, you've been firmly set on that place being somewhere in the "not desert."

Somewhere that there are seasons, where the leaves change colors and it snows, and summer nights are a blessing, not a curse. Somewhere that wasn't cut off from the nearby communities by a range of mountains, where you didn't have to worry that what you hung on the walls might fall during an earthquake. Where water droplets falling from the sky weren't mana from heaven, and where snuggling up in a cozy warm bed could be a comfort.

You're in high school now and that dream hasn't disappeared, but you're starting to wonder. As much as you really hate the desert, you really sort of love it too. And you're not even sure why. You still insist on moving out when you can, but for the first time in your life you realize that you may actually miss it, when you're shivering beneath multiple layers in the snow.

Writing Prompt Response #3

Finally, the third of the three writing prompts I was given about a month ago. This is a bit late not only because I waited until I was finished with the other two before starting, but because it took me a while to get into the feel of the story. I'm still not completely satisfied - will probably be coming back to this sometime, but I'm happy with what I have for now. I didn't completely stick to the prompt, and I didn't really tell everything there was to tell, but I have a tendency to do that anyways.

The original prompt was "Three siblings or best friends, overcoming (or attempting to) something that would otherwise threaten to split them apart forever."

Writing Prompt Response #2: Coffee Pirates

My second flash-fiction prompt response. This one took a bit longer because I wasn't so sure where to go with it, and it came out a bit longer as well (~3k - I don't really feel like the length did it justice, because I wanted to explore the characters a bit more, but any longer and it really wouldn't have been flash fiction anymore).

Instead of listing it at the end, here's the original prompt: A band of “pirates” in Seattle frequently raid coffee shops as part of an international coffee bean heist. But they're terrible at it.

Writing Prompt Response #1

((I texted a few close friends some time to see if they could give me some writing prompts. This is my first flash-fiction response to the first prompt I got back. The original prompt will be listed at the bottom.))

Markus had mulled it over in his mind and had decided that he did not like this, not one bit. He'd been stuck in this too-small tank for far too long, in an environment which he thought must be either too warm or too cold, and he was starting to ache in his fins from lack of movement. The water had developed a sort of staleness and Markus was starting to feel hunger growing in his belly, a feeling he never particularly cared for.

Unfortunately there didn't seem to be any feeders nearby. It was also dark and darkness was another thing Markus had never particularly cared for.

Markus thought back on how indignant he'd been when the feeders had loaded him into this uncomfortably tight tank and felt reassured that he had been right all along. Of course he was. Nothing good could come out of this strange game.

His mother, for whom he had never felt any particular fondness, had assured Markus that this was a routine transfer, that they'd be giving him his own space, and that this happened all the time and everything would be fine. Well everything wasn't fine, thank you very much. Markus had no idea where he was and it occurred to him that maybe the feeders didn't, either. Markus was lost - that's what it was. He had never felt lost before - well, he'd never actually left home before - and he thought sensibly to himself that he didn't quite care for the feeling at all.

Markus was, as far as he could tell, a shark, and being lost seemed beneath him.

When the world finally did flash into light, Markus could see that his tank had developed a sort of grittiness. The still water must have collected some dirt, or - he shuddered - dust. Vague figures appeared beyond the tank's surface, and Markus fixed them with a stare filled with as much reproach as he could manage. It did not do, he thought, to leave a perfectly innocent and harmless creature such as himself in a place such as this. He resolved to forgive them only after he had been fed.

Markus did get fed, but it was a strange sort of meat that he didn't like the taste of, and it was hard to get at in his confined tank; he still felt hungry afterward, and not very forgiving at all. When they finally changed his tank, it was cleaner and fresher, with moving water, but still too small and he shook his head in disappointment. Markus reminded himself that he deserved more, and pledged not to forgive the silly beings until they'd given him such.

The feeders got his tank moving again, as Markus reasoned that they must finally be on their way to his very own new water space. He applauded, as it were, his own ability to cope with what had happened, and promised himself never to do it again.

Not too long later - though much longer than he would have liked - Markus felt himself dropped into a pool of clean, fresh water. He waggled his tail in pleasure, happy to see he had quite a large area in which to swim, and then noticed he was not alone.

His new tankmate was a girl - it figured - and she haughtily informed him that he was late. Not wanting to start out on a bad note, Markus explained that it wasn't his fault, that he in fact had been shipped through the Chicago docks and that someone had misplaced his forms and forgotten to tell everyone where he was. She gave no reply and Markus wasn't sure if she was unimpressed with his narrative or if she just didn't care.

The next day a crowd came over to stare at him. Markus swam around the tank and their eyes followed him, and there was no place where he would wait peacefully for them to go away.

He looked at them unhappily and thought to himself that he really did not like this, not one bit.

((Original Prompt: A shark gets lost in Chicago.))
((So, I started writing this without planning ahead - which is always a fun way to write - and realized about halfway through that I had yet to mention Chicago, and there was never really a good way to work it in. I also considered doing another more magical-realist, with an actual shark just swimming through the air of actual Chicago, lost and asking for directions and such. I may yet do that.))

Re: Your Brains Flash Essay

A week ago one of my English teachers gave an assignment - and I'm cutting that sentence of here to explain that, yes, I have to English teachers I mean professors (man, so many things to remember in college). One of these professors I've had before, so I'll call him Professor One, but this is my first semester with this other professor, so I'll call him Professor Two.

Last week Professor Two assigned everyone to bring in the lyrics to a song we really liked. We're working on a poetry unit, and the idea was to look at the lyrics without the music, and critique it as a poem.

We were to bring in those lyrics at our next class on Thursday, and I spent the rest of Tuesday trying to think of an appropriate song, then most of Wednesday trying to convince myself not to use Johnathan Coulton's 'Re: Your Brains.'

If you haven't heard this song before, click here to listen to it on Youtube. Johnathan Coulton is a relatively well known comedic musician on the internet, and this song is probably his most famous.

I finally did bring in the lyrics to this song on Thursday, and we were asked to write a short 'flash essay' on the lyrics. I think Professor Two thought our songs would have a more serious tone, so I had a bit of difficulty writing about this one, especially since it's a simple narrative with no complex imagery to explain. A friend of mine asked that I let her read what I wrote, so I'm posting it here; remember, it's not that great, as I wrote it in only a few minutes, and for the most part it's unfinished.


Johnathan Coulton's song "Re: Your Brains" is a straightforward narrative about a zombie attack, told through the eyes of a zombi-fied office worker, politely asking a friend to come out of hiding so the zombie horde can get his brain. The song is meant to be satirical, suggesting that Bob, the narrator, is not the stereotypical mindless zombie.

The first few lines of the song really set the tone. It starts "Heya Tom, it's Bob, from the office down the hall/Good to see you buddy, how's it been?" At this point, a first time listener would expect something entirely different from the real message of the song. The character Bob is also making himself out to be a gentleman from the beginning, an illusion quickly crushed by the next lines, "Things have been OK for me except that I'm a zombie now/Really wish you'd let us in."

The song continues to try to paint Bob as the caring gentleman, especially in the chorus, which says "We're not unreasonable, I mean, no one's going to eat your eyes/All we want to do is eat your brains/We're at an impasse here, maybe we could compromise." The song achieves a wonderful hilarity by being straight-forward and sincere, ignoring the dark implications of the setting.


That's all I wrote in class, and unfortunately Professor Two didn't read the essays -though there's a chance he will later in the semester. If he does, I'll polish up my writing and try to obtain the same satirical tone Coulton wrote with (and, of course, share it with you all here).

A Desire to Make Things Better

Early last week a girl I happened to be following on Tumblr posted a query to her followers asking if anyone would be willing to edit an essay she had written. I, as you might know, have quite a bit of experience with writing and editing (or at least more than the average internet user), and I instantly thought that I could do so easily. Instead of informing her, however, I kept quiet; she seemed to be a relatively popular user, and of her many followers I was a random nobody.

She reblogged the query again an hour later, at which point I realized that, despite my expectations, nobody had responded. Since I really wasn't doing anything that afternoon, I nervously sent her a message, which she responded to a few minutes later, and before long I had her essay in my email box ready to be looked over.

Sarcasm Hand

The problem with sarcasm is that it isn't always easy to detect.

In speech, sarcasm is relatively easy. There's a certain inflection used when being sarcastic, stressing words to point out how obviously untrue, and thus sarcastic, a statement is. This becomes less clear when being sarcastic with a person you don't know very well, but most people tend to shy away from sarcasm with anyone besides friends.

Sarcasm becomes more of a problem in writing, because there isn't any good way to point it out. For example, I could write the statement "I love that movie," visually stressing the word 'love' with italics, but there's no clear way of knowing if I stressed that word because I seriously do love that movie, or if I stressed that word because there was obviously no way on earth I could love that movie.

The Amazing, Versatile Semi-Colon!

A few months ago, when my mom was boasting about how smart all her children were, I turned to her and proudly said, "My favorite punctuation mark is the semi-colon."

My mom looked back at me and said, "Never, ever, say that in public."

Sorry, mom; I'm obviously still in my rebellious phase.

Vacation Time: Results Show

Monday, August the first, my parents and I set out for our official summer-vacation-get-away thing. The goal, I believe, was to visit my brother in Utah, see a few people in Idaho, and get to know said-brother's future in-laws in Oregon while we scouted out places to eat in Portland for the upcoming wedding. My own personal goals, meanwhile, were to work through some of my 'to-read' backlog, figure out our new car radio, and drive at least one leg of the trip without mom yelling at me (she's a very nervous passenger).

The drive to Utah took about ten hours, and I drove the first three. The road goes straight through the Mojave Desert, which is relatively pleasant to look at but pretty boring to drive through. Add that to the fact that I didn't know where I was going, and I was kinda stressed (I'm not used to using the overdrive button, so there were a few people riding my tail, and mom was finicky throughout), and by the end of my shift my back was sore and I was ready to stop.

Like this, but with no clouds. Ever.

Vacation Time

This is a short update to you guys know that I'll be out of town for the next two weeks with sporadic internet access and probably minimal time to write. I'm hoping to be able to post at least one blog each week, and there are a couple of things I want to talk about (including a review on Cowboys and Aliens and a book I've been reading), but I can't make any promises. I'd suggest subscribing to my RSS feed or, if you have a Google or Blogger account, 'following' my blog to see when I update with new posts.

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer, and I'll be back to regular thrice-a-week updates when I get back!

Apologies

For anyone looking forward to my blog, this week has probably felt a bit like a cop out. On Monday, I just posted a list of facts which you may or may not have been interested in. Wednesday there was no post at all. I can console myself with the fact that I don't really have a huge readership yet.

As some of you may know, I'm taking two summer courses at the local community college, one of which just ended this week (I think). For my final, I had to give a ten-minute presentation, which I'll use as my excuse as to why my blog posts have been infrequent as of late. There was also an exam in my Psychology class as well, so I had to balance studying and preparing for my presentation at the same time; oddly enough, I ended up doing really well on my Psych test, only missing three question after barely studying, while previous tests with more dedicated studying had gotten lower scores. Hmm....

My presentation was on Internet Subcultures, and how they're forming the 'Modern Myth' (it was a Myth and Legend English course). It was an interesting presentation to prepare, and apparently everyone really liked it, even though I felt like subject was too broad, and I definitely had a different point of view than what people were expecting.

For today, however, there's really no excuse as to why there's no post. I spent the morning alternating between working on a puzzle with my mom (which you will definitely hear more about in upcoming blogs) and watching Netflix. Around noon or so, Mom and I decided to head outside and do some shopping, because, in all honesty, both of us needed to get outside a bit. I got some Animal Crackers from Target, which was exciting because I haven't had those in a long time.

Then we got back at 4:30 and I realized that I hadn't written a blog yet today. Instead of working on something substantial and posting it late tonight, I decided to give you, dear readers, this cheesy apology post and a promise to write something interesting next week.

Looking at my Blog Idea Book, however, I noticed that I'm running out of interesting ideas. I have a bunch of old ideas that don't seem nearly as interesting anymore, and a few reviews I need to write as soon as I finish what I'm planning on reviewing, but other than that, there are just a few mildly interesting 'Personal Opinion' pieces. If anyone has something they want me to talk about, please leave a comment below. If there's anything you'd like to hear my opinion about, any books or movies you want me to review, or anything else, I'll be glad to take any suggestions into serious consideration. Thanks in advance!

Five Interesting Facts

Several months ago, I attended a "You're growing up! Welcome to the older-kids class!" party-type thing at the house of one of my church leaders, with a few other girls my age. It was intended to encourage us to leave the teenage Sunday School classes and join the adult Sunday School lessons, though I admit that we haven't exactly done so since then. At the beginning of the lunch, we were each given a bag of M&Ms that we were told not to eat, and each M&M color was assigned a random category (red was hobbies, blue was college plans, etc.). For every M&M of each particular color we had, we had to share that many facts about ourselves within that category (for example, I had two reds, so I had to share two of my hobbies).

One girl had two yellows, and she was asked to share "Two random facts." The idea was to share two random facts about herself, but she ended up saying some random world facts (I forget what they were), and we all laughed at her wit. We ended before I got to yellow, and since I had five yellow M&Ms,  it would have taken me a while to think of five interesting facts anyways. I decided to save those five facts for an interesting blog post (much like my previous, and hopefully reoccurring, "What's Up With...?"s).

This weekend, I had lunch with my brother for his birthday. While touring his new apartment, he asked if I wanted to borrow the Goldeneye Wii game that I had gotten him for Christmas. Part of his reasoning was to "distract" me, because I was writing blogs so quickly. So I decided to fit my "Five Interesting Facts" blog in now, since it should be a quick read, and I can go back to playing Goldeneye when I'm done.

Monday the Fourth

I don't have a main topic for today's blog, so even though there are several things I'm going to go over, it'll be relatively quick.

About a week ago, I preformed a system restore on my dad's old laptop (which I've informally adopted) to clean it of any malware. For some reason, after the software reset, the 'Control' key fell off of the keyboard (In case there are any computer illiterates following along: there's no reason that something in the software would effect the keyboard hardware). I was unable to click it back into place, so instead of wasting the opportunity, I decided to sew the 'ctrl' key onto a bracelet that I could wear around, because the symbolism was too good to pass up. I don't know if I'll ever actually wear it, but it's pretty cool looking.

In other news, this past week has been pretty interesting. I managed to make all three of my blog appointments last week, so I'm really not doing too bad, but last Monday was a pretty late update (surprisingly, according to my stats, my post on the 27th got an unexpected amount of hits. Who knew people were so interested in hats?) I blame Monday's tardiness on my mom's compulsive desire to catch up to me on Psych.

Research Essay - Pluto

Last fall, for my final in my English class, I was assigned to write a research paper on any topic I chose. I had to have an opinion about what I found out, so I guess it was a double research-persuasive paper, and after going over several possible topics, I finally decided on one that I felt the most passionate about: whether or not Pluto should still be considered a planet.

I'm no scientist, and my opinion on the matter really has no credence, I understand, but I have done a lot of research on the subject, and I was pretty proud of myself for writing this. We turned our papers in on Finals day, and never bothered to pick it up from his office later, so I'm not sure what grade I got, but I passed the class and my professor complimented me more than once on my writing skills. I know a few people were interested in seeing what I wrote, so I decided for today's blog to publish, online, the final copy of my Pluto essay. Citations have been kept intact, and the photos were added just for this blog.

My Valedictorian Speech

Last year, I tested out of High School early, because my classes were boring me and I wanted to get on with  my life. I felt a bit like a traitor, leaving all the friends I loved because of my own desire to get out of school, but watching them graduate this week, I felt such a nervous excitement for them. I decided that, in their honor, I would write the speech I would have given had I stayed in school and become Valedictorian. Not that I ever would - I'm very happy with my B+ average, thank you very much, and don't see any need in overachieving. But the idea for this speech came to me, so I decided to write it anyways.

Just to clarify a few things

Once again, the blog I intended on posting today looks like it will take a bit more work, and so I'll publish it tomorrow. It's kind of a reply to the graduation ceremonies I got to attend last night. A few of my senior friends left on their grad-night trip (which around here means Disneyland from midnight to sun-up), so I intended on staying up all night and writing while they were there. I petered out around 2:00 AM and woke up around noon.

I do, however, have something I wanted to ask my reader; are there any blogs I should be following? I started this blog in an attempt to improve my platform and start writing more often, but I'd feel a bit hypocritical if I didn't start reading other peoples' blogs as well. Friends of mine who keep blogs can send me the links online or off so I can start following your activity. Also, if there are any blogs you know of that you think I might like, feel free to comment below with a link.

It would be rude of me to expect people to read my blog if I didn't read others' blogs myself. In any case, expect a great new blog post tomorrow! I'm researching Roman history, reading certain articles on Wikipedia, and watching the 'Atomic Shakespeare' episode of Moonlighting to prepare.

Finally!

I know this blog is coming a bit later than usual (not that anyone's paying attention, tho', right?) but today marks the end of Finals week! At least on my campus. That basically means that I spent most of this week either furiously writing a major essay for English, catching up on and studying old French homework, or procrastinating and goofing off. My Wednesday blog came after a five-hour bout of essay editing and bibliography writing, which explains why it was a bit dreary.

I can complain all I want, but I'm only a Freshman so it's really not that bad.

But good news on the horizon! I have an entire week off before Summer Semester starts, during which I can attempt to get some Blog rough drafts written and find a job! I'm also starting on some short stories to send around for contests and such, and hopefully I wont give up on that like I did with Short Story Writing Month.

By the way, if anyone was following, I gave up on Short Story Writing Month. I'll pause while you gasp in surprise. *pause* I know what you're thinking (or shouting, if that's the case). Yes, I did, I gave up, I admit it. Why? I'll tell you why - give me a second. No, I'm still the amazing wonderful person you've grown to admire, but I'm allowed to give up one one thing, right?

Basically, Short Story Month meant me writing 3.000+ words a day, depending on how long the stories are. I'm pretty sure that first one was arriving at 5.000 words, and as I was finishing up day two's story, I thought to myself, 'can I really do this?' My initial reaction was 'Yes! But every story from now on will have to be really short. Like, really short.' Then a couple days later I realized I hadn't written anything, including the essay I knew was due in two weeks, and I gave up.

I still plan on writing often! But I'll give myself one-a-week story standard instead of one-a-day. That'll give me more time for blog posts, summer homework, and hopefully a shift at the local bookstore (*fingers crossed*).

And taking more classes! In the Summer! In the Desert!
In 100+ degree Fahrenheit heat! Yippee!

In other news, I found the 'Stats' page on Blogger's Dashboard. Pretty interesting stuff - it basically lists how many page views I've been getting, which actual posts have been getting the most, and where in the world the majority of those numbers are coming from (side note - it doesn't include 'Antarctica' on the little map. That either means the Antarctic stations use a New Zealand, Australia, or Southern American country IP address, or the Google Blogger people are anti-South Pole bigots. Also, why isn't the word 'Zealand' in my computer's dictionary software?)

After seeing that information, I've got a few things to say:

• I do intend on finishing my 'Blogging Dragon Age' posts. I know I said I'd post them a month ago, and I've fallen way, way behind on that. I'll jump on it this week.
• As an American, I'm pretty isolated from the rest of the world. If I were to list every country in the world, in the order popped into my mind, Malaysia wouldn't be very high on the list - and yet, a number of my page views have been coming from there. I know this is because the internet is big and people happen to stumble onto random sites in a random fashion, but I find that to be extremely cool. If you're reading my blog, and you don't know me personally, please keep reading. Feel free to leave me a comment! I would especially love to be informed of things going on in the world that I may not know about. If you want to, my email is Kengirl01@yahoo.com (at least until I get a better account). I'm sorry if I don't reply right away - I don't check my email as often as I should.

I think that's about it for today's post. I'll keep you updating on myself or things I find interesting in the world. Remember, new blog posted every Monday/Wednesday/Friday!

The Contributor-Lurker Ratio

Also known as the 90-9-1 principle, the Contributor-Lurker Ratio is an internet-based statistical number which suggests that, for every one major contributor on an online group (who may seem to dominate the discussion, or post very often), there are nine minor contributors, who post every so often to make an appearance, and ninety-nine 'lurkers', or people who contribute very rarely, if ever. And in case you're wondering, yes, I did try to use as many big words as possible.

Like Godwin's Law, the Contributor-Lurker Ratio was proposed for online application, but it applies to real life as well. Depending on what communicative platform it is applied to, of course, the ratio numbers would change. For example, in a discussion between people who know each other very well, the 'lurker' number all but disappears, whereas in certain anonymous groups (like Wikipedia), the middle group is what disappears, and you're left with an extremely large group of lurkers and a small, tight-knit group of contributors.

Average Joe off the street isn't editing
Wikipedia, he doesn't have time for that.

The reason this ratio is good to remember is because everyone who uses the internet is on it. If you've ever read a news article online, you'll notice that you, along with the thousands of other people who only read that article, are lurkers. The people who commented on the article would be considered minor contributors, while the one person who wrote that article (or team, if it's for a major publication) is the major contributor.

Another reason you need to remember this is because websites don't like having lurkers. I don't think anyone does - lurkers are people who aren't giving you their opinion. In a debate, they're the people not telling you what side they're on. In retail, they're the people not telling you how they liked your product, or advising you how to be better. In class, they're the kids who never raise their hand, or never have an answer when called on. Websites in particular try to increase their user count by modifying content to please their users, but the 10% of users who have any opinion on the matter might not accurately reflect the feelings of the 90% silent majority.

When I was younger, I was a very active member of some smaller online forum communities. It wasn't until I was older that I started holding my tongue more online, lurking through discussions instead of giving my own input. Part of that may have to do with the sizes of the communities I visited; when I was younger, my online activity was limited to smaller groups with people I knew. As I got older, I joined larger websites with more anonymous members, and, hoping not the 'give myself away', I didn't say much when I didn't need to. About a year ago, I was to the point where the only content I contributed online was my own Facebook posts, and the occasional comment on a Youtube video.

Same idea as the pyramid above, but in reverse.

It was when I realized I was a lurker that I decided to start this blog. Within this blog itself, I am the #1 top contributor. I have the feeling of creating meaningful content again. I don't comment much on other blogs, rendering me still a lurker to the blogosphere-at-large, but as I get used to the feeling of contributing my opinions to the anonymous internet, and can start shifting those opinions to locations that will have a more major impact on reality.

Of course the real reason I started this blog was to increase my writing platform (y'know, trick a bunch of people on the internet into liking me and my writing, so when I publish a book someone'll buy it), but it was also a part of my own fear of becoming a nobody. Not that there's anything wrong with being part of the 90 - in fact, I'd hate to be really famous. Thinking in fiction terms, I'd rather be the side character who helps the protagonist than the actual protagonist. But I want to at least be in the story.

I think everyone, at some point in their life, does something meaningful, whether they realize it or not. Selfishly, I want to make sure I realize it. Doesn't everyone?
(Also, I'll stop being sappy now. Did you see my new Profile picture?)

Face Stealer

I can't actually find much information about this anywhere, so I'm going to assume that I'm one of a very small group of closet Inadvertent Imitators, specifically when it comes to fictional characters. Of course there are thousands of people who dress up as their favorite characters for cosplay conventions and the like, and may even adopt their favorite character's tenant or sayings, but what I'm talking about is accidental. It only happens when I spend a good deal of time around a certain character (be it a TV show, a movie series, or whatever).

A good example is Doctor Who. I started watching the revived seasons just this past summer in hopes of catching up to the new season. That meant I was speeding through the show, watching anywhere from one to six episodes a day if I had nothing else to do, and hardly taking breaks in between to watch other shows or movies. For four days (The time it took me to speed through the first two seasons), I watched nothing but Doctor Who in my free time. By then, I was thinking in an almost pure British accent. It was almost startling to talk and find myself speaking proper American. I had to force myself to not pretend to be British in my head, and I decided to take a week break to watch Dollhouse to get my head back in order.

This doesn't only happen to me with accents, though. After a week of watching Dollhouse, I found myself walking around the house like one of the characters in their Tabula Rasa state (blankly). After speeding through Firefly, I sauntered like the main protagonist and forced myself not to use their Chinese (though I allow myself the say "shiny" whenever appropriate). I remember coming home from seeing Cyrano de Bergerac and having mom chide me for trying to talk just like he does, though I hadn't realized I'd been doing it.

I think this stems from the childhood act of playing as characters in stories. As if, as an adult, I haven't broken this habit, but instead evolved it to fit my new lifestyle. I'm not sure about this, though; I honestly don't remember pretending, as a child, to be my favorite characters. The only reason I would have adopted the habit growing older would be to help my writing. I know that, while reading a book, I'll copy character's expressions as described in order to help me 'see' the character better. It's easier to imagine a character's grimace if I practice it on myself.

I've found one other blogger who mentioned doing this, so I know I'm not the only one. But it's definitely a goo biological reminder not to get too focused on a single story. As great as a certain TV show might be, once I start inadvertently imitating the characters, I know I've been watching too much.

National Short Story Month

Happy wedding day! May is National Short Story Month! Or maybe April is. It's a bit complicated - let me explain.

November is [Inter]National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short). It has been so for years (since 1999, to be exact) and was started up by a guy named Chris Baty who wanted to write a novel in a month just to see if he could do it. It's centered around the non-profit website (though they do have a shop and accept donations, etc.) which encourages people to, in the month of November, write a 50k word novel (approx. 1667 words a day). It's meant to get people to start writing, so at the end of the month they can start editing a work they may otherwise have never written.

Since NaNoWriMo got started, several spin-off 'Writing Month's have popped up, including Script Frenzy, Blogging Month, July Novel Writing Month, February Album Writing Month, Poetry Writing Month, and others. One of these spin-offs was National Short Story Month, or NaShoStoMo, a lesser known-about idea that someone, somewhere, started.

It originally was held in May, among the maybe-100 people who knew about it. The idea was to write one short story a day, of at least 200 words (which, if you didn't know, is about two good paragraphs). By the end of the month, participants would have 31 new short stories ready to edit, adjust, and send off to magazines or contests or whatever.

It wasn't well known, so it didn't really catch on with anyone, until this last March a popular blogger found out and posted an article urging his readers to participate. Since he posted it in late March, however, everyone got the idea (himself included, I believe) that NaShoStoMo would be in April. He had maybe 100 good followers, who decided to join him in the Short Story-Writing mission, which about double the amount of NaShoStoMo participants. They used Twitter to communicate and report their successes (#NaShoStoMo).

That's where I came in. Though I don't have a Twitter account, one of my brothers does, and he called me earlier this month asking if I'd ever heard of this. I hadn't, and I did some research to see what was going on. The idea seemed wonderful to me, especially since I really enjoy writing short stories, and haven't written enough. I was confused, however, with the conflicting dates in the past, and eventually found out the reason.

It turns out, April is also Script Frenzy (100-page script in a month) and National Poetry Month (poem-a-day). If NaShoStoMo catches on as an April activity, that'll make three semi-major writing challenges in one month, a little more than a single month can handle, in my opinion. So, in an effort to [hopefully] increase its popularity and push it back into May, I've decided to join in. Of course I'm also joining to increase my skill, but I'll be blogging about it regularly and trying to get the word out.

As far as I can see, the only other writing challenges in May are an alternate NaNoWriMo and National Crime Writing Month (NaCriWriMo?), neither of which should conflict with NaShoStoMo since alternate 'NaNoWriMo's can be done any month, and Crime writers might not be interested in short stories anyways.

So wish me luck in May! I've got a few ideas already, plus a 'writing kit' from Writer's Digest I was given months ago to give me inspiration. I don't plan on posting my short stories online, since I'll want to get them entered in contests or published, but I will let you know how I'm doing, and ask for encouragement. I'll see you in May!