Date a girl who reads…

I'm posting this in its entirety here, mostly because I don't want it lost, but also because there's no original blog to link to....only others who have reposted it in its entirety.

So enjoy. And if you want to find the original author, she’s on Facebook and here’s how she came about writing this in the first place….as just something for her friends, a writing exercise, something casual that became a hit and touched people across the net.

"Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes."

200+ ways to get your creative juices flowing again

Most writers have hit writer’s block. Most workers have hit burnout. Most couples have run into ruts. Wile the list from WritetoDone is aimed toward writers, creativity is something every single person could use a little more of to make their world spin a little more smoothly….or at least with a little more fun along the way.

 

Here are some examples:

• Talk to a monkey. Explain what you’re really trying to say to a stuffed animal.
• Work on the title. Quickly make up five distinctly different titles. Meditate on them. What bugs you about the one you like least?
• Carry a notebook everywhere.
• Wake up ten minutes early, then go back to sleep and dream.  (I do this every day anyway…..now I have a great excuse for it, wee!)
• Drink a beer with your buddies. Being happy will make you more productive. It will also give you greater enthusiasm.
• Give gratitude. Thinking about all the things you are grateful for produces a positive energy flow and vibration.
• Be in the moment. Athletes call this ‘being in the zone‘. Give full attention to whatever you are doing: eating, washing dishes, making your bed.
• Name the colors in a box of crayons. Name them with abandon, using words like squashed-pea-green, severed-arm-blood-red, or dancing-fairy-silver.
• Just say screw it. What I do know is that everyone gets jammed sometimes, even the pro writers you look up to. And when that jam happens, it’s important to remember that no one forgets how to write well. It doesn’t disappear. It’ll always be there. And maybe… maybe you just have to say screw it and stop looking for it so hard.
• Avoid logical thinking. It’s often the enemy of truly innovative thoughts.
• Play
• Don’t be afraid to be stupid and silly.

 

What do you do to put a little more pep in your step and creative flow in your life?

Can you describe your life in 6 words? Six-Word Memoirs

Not Quite What I Was Planning:
Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure

Just six words? I struggle with anything that asks me to limit my words to only 100 or 250. Yeesh. I love reading what the others have said, though, and if you check it out on Amazon, you can actually read the first few pages worth, along with the editorial descriptions and commenters who posted their favorites.

Some are sad like the 9 year old who wrote "Cursed with cancer. Blessed by friends," or "Girlfriend is pregnant, my husband said." Others are funny like "Seventy years, few tears, hairy eyes," or "Catholic school backfired. Sin is in!" Yet others are thought-provoking, confusing, pure truths, or just whatever.

They're written by famous people, unknowns, kids, older people, artists, pop musicians, doctors, homeless....you name it, it's there.

Savethewords - Don't let them fade away into nonexistence

Savethewords.org is well, about saving words. Hosted by Oxford Dictionaries, it's filled with tons of old words that are fading away and can be "adopted."

No worries, you don't have to pay a cent. By adopting a word, you're promising to use it in conversation as frequently as you can to help save it from fading away. Turn up your sound to hear the pleas of these endangered words.

If nothing else, it's really interesting to scroll over the collage of words and check out what some of them mean. If you happen to find one that really jumps out to you, don't be afraid to adopt it. I'm sure it'd be muchly appreciated. <3

Back to school time all over again

To kick it off, enjoy these detailed instructions about how to really write a paper in university. For those of you who have written your fair share of college papers, you'll love this one. Oh so true!

Dr. Seuss Parody Page -- Rewrites and Analyses

The Dr. Suess Parody Page

Full of links, this site is a great collection of stories that people have rewritten or analyzed. From How the Grinch Stole the Election to Spam-I-Am (Email spam, of course), there are definitely some worth a few giggles, especially if you grew up with Dr. Seuss books or are a huge fan like I am. There's even the Freudian analysis of the Cat in the Hat, and Dr. Seuss's version of the New Testament.

Anything can happen

Still good words for all you adults out there who have given up on your fantasies....

Listen to the MUSTN'Ts, child,
Listen to the DON'Ts
Listen to the SHOULDN'Ts
The IMPOSSIBLEs, the WON'Ts
Listen to the NEVER HAVEs
Then listen close to me--
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be
--Shel Silverstein

Struggling with Nanowrimo?

For all you Nanowrimos out there attempting to write 50k words this month, Fairyhedgehog found a nifty little tool: Write or Die. Put in your goal amount of writing for the session, and if you stop writing before you reach it, these are some of the consequences:

• Gentle Mode: A certain amount of time after you stop writing, a box will pop up, gently reminding you to continue writing.
• Normal Mode: If you persistently avoid writing, you will be played a most unpleasant sound. The sound will stop if and only if you continue to write.
• Kamikaze Mode: Keep Writing or Your Work Will Unwrite Itself

Sounds like some interesting "gentle reminders" that might just get you to writing some more. Good luck with the last half of the month!

100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know

And their parents...and college/online school graduates....and drop outs....and military men....and...you get the idea. Here's what the editor's of American Heritage dictionaries came up with. If you ask me, I'm sure most of us are lacking in the area of many of these particular words. Yikes!

"The words we suggest," says senior editor Steven Kleinedler, "are not meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language."

The following is the entire list of 100 words:

abjure abrogate abstemious acumen antebellum auspicious belie bellicose bowdlerize chicanery chromosome churlish circumlocution circumnavigate deciduous deleterious diffident enervate enfranchise epiphany equinox euro evanescent expurgate facetious fatuous feckless fiduciary filibuster gamete gauche gerrymander hegemony hemoglobin homogeneous hubris hypotenuse impeach incognito incontrovertible inculcate infrastructure interpolate irony jejune kinetic kowtow laissez faire lexicon loquacious

lugubrious metamorphosis mitosis moiety nanotechnology nihilism nomenclature nonsectarian notarize obsequious oligarchy omnipotent orthography oxidize parabola paradigm parameter pecuniary photosynthesis plagiarize plasma polymer precipitous quasar quotidian recapitulate reciprocal reparation respiration sanguine soliloquy subjugate suffragist supercilious tautology taxonomy tectonic tempestuous thermodynamics totalitarian unctuous usurp vacuous vehement vortex winnow wrought xenophobe yeoman ziggurat

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/booksellers/press_release/100words/

Random Searchers

Dear Random Searcher,

When you searched for "youtube, Dear Carbs," I know my blog was not your intended destination. You'll be happy to know that I did a little digging and the video you're looking for is likely called "Love Letters," not "Dear Carbs." To make it easier for you next time, here ya go:


Love,
Quirky Jessi

P.S.-You probably shouldn't watch this when your kids are around.
P.S.S.-You probably shouldn't follow the chain of events inside either.
P.S.S.S.-You probably should just eat the carbs...

101 Best Websites for Writers

And for all you writers or writer-wannabes out there, here's the 101 Best Websites for Writers. Even if you have no desire to write, you might want to check it out anyway because there's even a site listed with a section of gifts for writers, so keep your writer friends in mind before you skip to the next entry. Don't like writing at all, but you enjoy reading? Yep, that stuff's there, too....after all, writers often times read, too.

The Quirky People in Jessi's World

Alrighty, I told you I would do it. I didn't realize I'd do it this soon, but hey, whatever. Why waste any more time when I wanted to do it anyway, right? And I can always do another one later....again, like I originally mentioned in the first post about it. So here it is...my own version of the x365 challenge.....The Quirky People in Jessi's World. I have about the first month's worth ready, whether actually typed up and saved in Blogger, or jotted down in my planner....but who knows how long I'll keep on top of it. Wish me luck with staying with it the entire year. Weeeee!

BloggerTalk

~Deleted banner~

Recently I was introduced to a set of forums that revolved strictly around blogging. After exploring for a couple hours over the course of a few days, I realized that they had much, much more than just forums....and that even their forums were quite amazing, ranging from technical support, to suggestions on how to improve your blog, to even just fun conversations. I'm a member of a popular writing board, in general, but their blog board is nothing compared to this one....and it's quite outstanding given the fact that they've only been around for a few months.

Babbling won't cover everything they offer, though, so I'll shut up and just give you the link. If you're interested in knowing 'anything' more about blogging, then it's worth your clicks. Enjoy!

Here's the link to link.....blog directory, tons of articles, and lots of resources.

And here's the link to link themselves. Come join us! (There's my plug for the day, lol).

~Edit~ I don't want to simply delete any posts I've made, but I no longer support this site and don't want to point people in the wrong direction.

Edgar Allen Poe-Annabel Lee

So a random tidbit jotted in my planner says:

Edgar A.P.
Annabel Lee
1st Verse

What did I naturally go do then? I went and searched for Edgar Allen Poe's Annabel Lee so I could read the first verse. Then what did I do? I read the rest of the verses. It seems vaguely familiar, but I honestly don't know if I've read it before. Regardless, I'm passing it on anyway, because it obviously caught the attention of someone, somewhere to publish it or mention somewhere for 'me' to catch drift of it....which obviously caught my attention enough for me to jot it down and go look it up, for it to 'recapture' my attention, so yeah. Here it is:

Annabel Lee
by: Edgar Allen Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in Heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the side of the sea.

How to Write English....Or Not....

Courtesy of Dave, here are the rules of proper writing....broken.

*How to write English Properly*

1.  Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects.
2.  Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3.  And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
4.  It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
5.  Avoid cliches like the plague.  (They're old hat)
6.  Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.
7.  Be more or less specific.
8.  Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
9.  Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
10.  No sentence fragments.
11.  Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.
12.  Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
13.  Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's
highly superfluous.
14.  One should NEVER generalize.
15.  Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
16.  Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
17.  One-word sentences?  Eliminate.
18.  Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
19.  The passive voice is to be ignored.
20.  Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary.  Parenthetical words
however should be enclosed in commas.
21.  Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
22.  Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
23.  Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth
earth-shaking ideas.
24.  Eliminate quotations.  As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate
quotations. Tell me what you know."
25.  If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist
hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
26.  Puns are for children, not groan readers.
27.  Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
28.  Even IF a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
29.  Who needs rhetorical questions?
30.  Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

And the last one...

31.  Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

Jealousy

Jaded by the thoughts that are
Enveloping my mind
Always blurring my vision
Leaving sanity behind
Officially envious but
Underneath the skin
Slinking about helplessly
Yearning to die within

It's amazing what jealousy can do to people, isn't it? *sigh*

Snark Attack!!!

Apparently, snark has taken over the blogosphere. I must say, I've never seen it used anywhere else....and I guess I'm fairly new at actually 'reading' other people's blogs with the exception of a handful that I've kept up on over the last year or so....but they don't say snark. Everybody else does. I've been seeing it for a while, but after rummaging through the randomizer for the last hour while I was on the phone, I ran across the word over a dozen times (and I started keeping track of them after the first 4 that really stood out, lol). That's way more often than usual, so I really felt like I'd been attacked by that little word.

Its meaning has become quite apparent over the course of time, and some people use it a bit differently than others, but here's what Wiki has to say about it:

Snark, is a derivative word from snarky, "Irritable or short-tempered; irascible" from Dutch and Low German snorken (note that spell check does 'not' acknowledge this, and it reminds me of the Snorkels), of imitative origin.
Some claim that it is a portmanteau of the phrase "snide remark", refers to a belittling or sarcastic style of speech or writing. It could loosely be described as irritable, backhanded or "snidely derisive"; hence, 'snarkish', 'snarky', 'to snark at somebody'. It does not necessarily have negative connotations and can be used humorously. (It seems that mean people use it in a more humorous than insulting way).

Snark is also often used in fandom to describe a character's/writer's comment, action, way of acting/ writing style.

Example:

Jane: That comment made by Sydney Bristow was snarky!
Jimmy: Thank god for J.J. Abram's writing genius.

So there's my dedication to snark. Consider yourselves introduced. And if you see me write 'snark' or 'snarky' in the next month, please slap me.

Seriously.

I'm A Male......

This will be a short post. I'm still coming to terms with it, so I don't feel qualified to discuss it. When I finally get a grasp on the concept, I may come back. Please...no sympathy comments or telling me it'll be okay. You have no idea. But yes, it is true. I am indeed a male.

Gender Genie

The first time it told me, I wrote it off as a fluke. So I took the test again....just like they tell you to do with a pregnancy test. Nope, still male. My third test gave me some hope and told me I was female...but just barely. Something like 25-35 tests later, and the majority said I'm male.

It's not my fault. I don't know what wrong. I thought I'd done everything right...taken all the right precautions, but alas....I'm male anyway. I'm sorry....

(And fyi, here's the chica who turned me on to the genie...)

Pave the Moon

Pave the Moon! You can put whatever you want on it, but the trick is to figure out how to make this monumental step in as few words as possible.

In case you can't read it, the above says "Whatever maintains the buoyancy of your aquatic vessel".....I get tired of saying "Whatever floats your boat." Nothing wanted to fit and I didn't want to spend any more time trying to find insightful words of wisdom to plaster on the moon :(. I wish you better luck.