BACK ON THE WAGON

How you know when wonderful things are happening:

1. When you're writing regularly.
2. When you're not afraid of writing regularly.
3. When you're trying something new with you're writing.
4. Where things happen to come together without a mother effing outline (I KNOW GUYS I'M JUST AS SHOCKED AS YOU WHATTT??)
5. When Tumblr and fanfiction are not enough to pull you out of that chapter you're writing because it is going so well.
6. When you have four types of coffee creamer, three types of coffee (TWO OF WHICH ARE GODIVA OMG) and a bottle of coffee flavoring syrup (vanilla).
7. When your roommates partake in your coffee addiction and recognize it for its wonder. 
8. When great things happen in life.
9. When great things happen to friends.
10. When that apple danish isn't finished but it's all yours.

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED

...over the past few days.

1. Porn is not suitable for workshop. Especially not in the first person. How am I supposed to look at you?
2. Once you get started on fanfiction it is like a fraking addiction. You can't stop. You know you have to or you'll fail all your classes, but you can't. You. Just. Can't.
3. Characters all need to have a purpose. Alas, convenience does not qualify as a purpose.
4. My professor is really, in fact, a fraking psycho. I'm a little fearful and resentful. Also, perhaps plotting rebellion.
5. I'm incredibly protective of my things: namely, coffee. If you use it and finish it, you must replace it people. I AM NOT A COFFEE MONEY MAKING MACHINE, GUYS. I'M JUST NOT.

One day, I'll get back to real posting. As it is, please make do with the lists I come up with until the craziness that is my life stops being so crazy. Also, contest winners, I haven't forgotten about you! Things will be mailed out in short order, I promise. As soon as I get a moment to actually mail them out. 

HOW TO KNOW YOU'RE STUCK

1. When you have entire days with nothing to do and instead of writing you are reading fanfiction.
2. When you are trying to figure out what is wrong and not coming up with answers.
3. When you are eying that stack of index cards so that you can rework your outline.
4. When you are trying to connect the beginning that you've written with the end that you want to write.
5. When you don't know what the ending you want to write actually is. 
6. When you are writing a post about how you know you're stuck.

Clearly, I am stuck. And just as clearly, I will figure out how to unstick myself when I don't have two critiques and a Milton midterm looming in my very near future. 

HOW TO BALANCE

...a giant workload.

1. Pull all nighters.
2. When you pull these all nighters, call them nuit blanche. It will make you feel better.
3. Stock up on coffee. And tea. And creamer. Also: chocolate, sugar, pancakes and an assortment of unhealthy food.
4. Have an awesome roommate/BFFL combination like @abundantchaos.
5. Have Russell Crowe kill people in the background and look all manly. Even when he doesn't talk.
6. Have your mom and little sisters visit you, and make fun of you. It will put things into perspective.
7. Giggle over nonsense.
8. Remember, there is no such thing as balance. You will fail inevitably. But realize that you won't stop climbing the hill anyway.
9. Also, you might want to buy a plot in a cemetery. Just in case.
10. Remember to breathe. This is only a phase in your life. Better things come later and to those who wait.

MANAGING TIME YOU DON'T HAVE

You are probably  a high school student, or a college student, or a parent, full time worker, a professional, a writer. You have a life. If you had it your way, you wouldn't but it's not your way. You don't have the necessary 40 hours a day, only 24. Rest assured. I have come up with a few helpful ways to stretch those hours to their limits.

1. Coffee. Coffee. If you do not have a coffee maker go and buy one. Starbucks? Caribou Coffee? These are weak substitutes for the lovely brew you could be making at home. I have a small one. I am going to get a big one. And I also have a CABINET OF CAFFEINE. This cabinet, you stock it with creamers, and coffee mugs, and different flavors of coffee (my favorite is French Roast). And then you bask in the glory of the thing that is your caffeine high.
2. Sleep. Sleep is overrated. You don't really need it. What you need is to budget it. You need 8-10 hours if you want to be a fully functional, awake, coherent human being. Drop that to 6 if you want to just be an awake human. Drop to 4 if you want to be awake. Drop to 2 if you plan on coasting through your day barely alive. 
3. Social life. You don't have one. Not anymore. You already have to write, work, study, read, cook, and clean. YOU DON'T HAVE TIME FOR PEOPLE. You don't have time to laugh or drink or go out and dance with that really cute boy. Just forget about that social life. Forever.
4. Spare minutes. You need them. You need them so much. Any downtime is not downtime it is time to get work done. It is time to outline that scene, or read that chapter, or skim those notes. If you think you have downtime, you are lying to yourself. You only have more time to get more done.
5. Multitask. This is a skill that will serve you well. Cooking? Pull out that book and read. Writing? Open up twitter and connect. Drafting that essay? Talk to your friends and listen to music. ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

*This is not actual advice. It's the way I choose to live my sad, unhappy life. Follow at your own peril.

I CANT BELIEVE IT HAPPENED

So, I promise I will get to all the LOVELY AND AMAZING AND OMG YOU GUYS MADE ME CRY comments on the post before last. I promise. But I have been working non-stop since I got back to school Sunday night and it's very sad. And time consuming. Rest assured, however, that I am slowly but surely getting back on track and  stuff. As I said in the last post, the schedule on here will shift from Tuesdays and Thursdays to Mondays and Wednesdays. When I miss those days, I will endeavor to post twice a week on other days.

So, I've been trying to write this post for two weeks. And then I went to see Inception and wanted to combine that post with something that struck me while I was watching it. But the two ideas, while compatible, could serve as two separate posts, so this post I will be talking about stakes and then the next post I will be talking about killing, and then after that I will tell you about the pitfalls of being both a writer and an English Literature student at the university level.

Right. So. STAKES.


Please be aware that this post will include spoilers for Inception. Which you should have seen. I am always the very last person to see a movie. And I have seen it. Therefore, you should have seen it as well.

The stakes in the movie are very clear from the get go. Cobb, with the help of trusty sidekicks, must plan an idea in the mind of Fischer, Jr. In return, he will be able to return to his family, from which he has been separated from on account of the United States government wanting to lock him up. The inception will take place on a plane headed for Los Angeles - if he doesn't succeed, the authorities will arrest him the minute he touches down on US soil. If he does, he's a free man.

The stakes are already very high. If Cobb doesn't pull this heist off in the time allotted to him a lot of bad things will happen. By the time they entered Fischer, Jr's dream I was on the edge of my seat. How could this movie get anymore gripping? I thought to myself. How could the situation be anymore tantalizing? 


And then it was.

Before I tell you how it was, let's back up. Because one thing went into making this moment SO OMG WHAT WHAT WHAT?!

I loved Saito. I loved him so much. I was invested in his fate.

So when he was shot, I was horrified that they might give him the kick and then he would be gone for the rest of the movie. No. No they didn't. Instead, he was actually dying and if he did die, he would float down to limbo and sit there, forgetting about reality, until he actually died.

And suddenly, Cobb and Company have an entirely new, just as pressing, reason to complete the mission in the alloted time. Because they could lose Saito forever. And Saito is the key to Cobb getting his family back. He's the only one who can make it happen.

This is what I've been trying to do with my work. Because you can't just have stakes. You have to have stakes that matter. And they have to be deeply enmeshed with the rest of the story - with its characters, with the story line, with the inevitability of whatever resolution it must come to. And finding those stakes is hard. Finding it in yourself to put those stakes to the test, to the very limit is sometimes even harder.

How do you guys do it? Any good examples? TELL ALL, IF YOU PLEASE.

ITS THE FEAR

Credit goes to Jordin Robin

So, originally I was going to talk about Inception and the amazingness that it was and basically what it taught me (in conjunction with some other things) but I've decided to slot that for a later date (probably Tuesday). I talk about a lot of things on this blog, and nearly all of it is related to writing. I've talked about doubt, sanity, insanity, madness, the writing daze, the writing craze, deadlines - the list goes on. Of course it does. I've been blogging regularly for more than a year now.

One thing I never talk about is fear. Because I like to avoid any and all mentions of fear and just keep trudging along with blinders on. But I've decided (in lieu of a revelation and a panic attack) that maybe I should tackle that topic today.

I've written two completed manuscripts. They are sitting in my little cyber drawers, gathering dust. The first terrified me so much that I never even revised it. I made revision notes, started school and then locked it away. The second I revised, received some agent interest, sent out to betas, queried only a very little (read, three times) and then decided I wanted to rewrite. The rewrite has exploded into something amazing and beautiful and I love it.

But I loved my first two manuscripts, too. I loved them so much. I wrote 20k of The Scion in one week - that's how much I loved it. And I wrote nearly (or more) than 80k of The Pawn (I don't want to talk about how INCREDIBLY MAMMOTH that book is) over the course of three months. I went on writing frenzies, and made covers and playlists and drowned myself in the worlds that I created. But when it came time to buck up and start sending out queries and trying to get my work out there, I freaked.

I love my work. I love it so much. So I'm not objective. I'm not a good judge of how publishable or marketable or good my work is. I don't write for trends. I don't write to please anyone but me. I write what I want and hope that in the end it's good enough, gripping enough, emotional enough, that the world will want to read it. That the world will want to pay to read it.

And I'm afraid. I'm so afraid that it's not good enough. That it's not gripping enough. That it's not emotional enough. I struggle and I gripe and I lay in bed at night avoiding thoughts of sending out queries and having other people who have the ability to reject me read it.

The fear dies down. It always does. But when it's there, it's crippling. Rejection is a reality in this business. Someone, somewhere is going to not like what I write. And I have to trust in the goodness of my work and  in the honesty of my beta readers. I have to trust that when I see a problem or one is pointed out to me I will work and work hard to fix it. That I will do what I have to do and buck up and be a writer.

I have to ask? Do you guys deal with this issue? How? I could seriously use some answers, haha.

COFFEE: I HAZ IT

Credit for image goes to PushOK 12

OMG. THE COFFEE. IT IS BACK. AND GLORIOUS. MY MORNINGS CAN ONCE AGAIN START OFF NORMALLY. I CAN BE AWAKE. I WILL NOT FALL ASLEEP IN CLASS. I WILL WRITE AT WORK. 

AND I HAVE ONE HUNDRED FOLLOWERS. 

What an amazing end to an amazing month! 

Posts will return as scheduled at the end of this weekend. With the promised give away that I keep pushing back because I'm so DARN LAZY. But yeah. Giveaway. Followers. Thanks.

coffeeeeeee....

THINGS I REALIZED IN RAMADHAN

So Ramadhan is nearly over and I can hardly believe it! By next Saturday, fasting will be done, Taraweeh prayers will be over and I will have my sweet, wonderful coffee back at 9am every morning and 2pm every afternoon. It has been a productive month in many ways and I've learned a few things. I will share these things with you.

1. If you know you need coffee to run on a full day, go to sleep at midnight (NO LATER!) and drink coffee at 4:30am (when you have to wake up for one of two meals you're getting that day). Otherwise, withdrawal symptoms will appear and you will suffer. A lot. 
2. Eat filling breakfasts. Note: filling and big are not the same. Oatmeal is good for tiding a person over the sixteen hours that you will be without food (and coffee).
3. If you know that you will be hungry by 2pm and you want to get writing done that day, write in the morning. Especially if you're a desk monkey with nothing to do except play Adventure Time games and watching The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack on your laptop. (Yes. I know. My life is sad.)
4. You can't think on an empty stomach that wants to eat you. It's. Not. Possible.
5. Seriously, though - write in the morning. You have to sleep early so that you can get up to eat at 4:30am. And you can't write between Taraweeh (that ends at 11) and midnight. Plus there's school. This is really in your best interest. 

What - if anything - have you learned in the past month (doesn't have to be Ramadhan related!)? 

MOCKINGJAY: NO SPOILERS

No spoilers, sweetie.

As Professor Song would say, no spoilers! Everyone is so looking forward to the surprise. If you've read it, wait at least a week before talking about the ending/conclusion/resolution on twitter/facebook/absolutewrite/blogs.  We will return to your regularly scheduled programming Thursday night with a special message from the Professor (I hope!). Happy reading everyone!

I AM LAZY TODAY

I've been pimping this video all week. If you haven't seen it yet, well HERE'S YOUR CHANCE. Happy Friday to everyone! I love you!

ANGELICUS

My week of rage is over. And I didn't want the last post of the week to be this heinous tribute to the horriblity of society so here is a lovely video that I love muchly.

LOVE IS SERIOUS B'NESS

So I am just bloggerty-mcbloggerton this week. Even though it's only Tuesday. But I'm going to call myself bloggerty-mcbloggerton because it's 6:30 in the effing morning and I don't want to be up right now. But this topic is screaming in my head and knowing me I'll dose until 10 o'clock and when I get to work (where I usually write up blog topics) it will have slipped out of my head like purple, yucky,brain goo. So blogging at 6:30 am it is.

We all know about trends in YA. We learn them, we love them, we hate them, we follow them religiously, hoping that our book will be the next trend-setter. Sometimes it pays to be trend followers. But yes. Trends are there. And we all know it.

And one trend that has got to go is: girl meets boy. Girl thinks boy is hot. Twenty seconds pass in which girl evaluates hotness of said boy. Girl professes love of boy to boy because boy is hot.

I feel like there is this misconception that is slithering through some (not all) YA writers' minds that teenagers, and more specifically teenage girls, don't know how to love deeply. That teenagers as a whole are a shallow breed and it doesn't take much for them to profess the L word outside of a hot car, smoldering eyes and a rockin' chest. That teenagers throw the L word around like it's nobodies business because, HEY! THEY'RE TEENAGERS, and they don't understand the weight that comes behind that yet. Because their amigdalas aren't fully formed yet. Or something. I don't know.

When my friends and I were sixteen we were talking about love all the time. It was on our minds like...like something that is always on something else. We talked about it, we watched it on television, we read about it in books. It was everywhere. Of course it was everywhere. It was (and still is) The Great Ideal (when done right). But even at the tender age of sixteen we were saying, 'Love is serious. You don't just throw that word around.' As in, a hot chest (no matter how chiseled) does not a love match make. Ever. You can like someone and you can lust someone but love takes time and commitment and work. And at sixteen we knew that.

And I'm not saying that sixteen year olds don't love or can't love because it's so heavy. I'm saying the exact opposite. And I'm saying that they have enough awareness of self and the world around them that the average, intelligent teenager is not going to go throwing that word around (the word being Love) unless there is a reason. To review: hot chest (or any other body part or combination thereof) does not equate a reason.

And to me the most upsetting part of this trend is that it is teaching girls (because most of these books are written for girls) that a) you don't have to aspire high or deeply for love, b) you don't have the ability to look beyond that and you don't need to, and c) that it's not okay to lust without love.

All three of those are lies. No matter a persons age, they should always, always aspire higher. Love is a selfish thing, and in my opinion it is always okay to look for a relationship that is not only physically satisfying, but emotionally satisfying (to you by the way, not the party involved. Ultimate love is reached when it's that way for both but you should be looking for you). When looking for love these should go together and not exclude each other. But it should also be okay for a girl or a guy to go 'that person is so, so hot, holy macaroni!' or whatever, without having to feel guilty for that thought and automatically connecting it to love.

Teenagers can love! But they don't have to.

And I wouldn't have written about this if I didn't think it was an actual problem in YA. And it didn't hit me as a problem that stemmed from these misconceptions about teenagers until (and I kid you not) a YA author in my twitterfeed tweeted something to the extent of 'I keep trying to develop this romance between my main character and the love interest. Then it hit me, they're teenagers. There doesn't have to be much development.'

Guys. GUYS! Teenagers have more emotional depth than a teaspoon. They are intelligent and they are aware. Stop treating them like dumb sheep and start thinking about them as fully formed or forming individuals with capacity and depth. Stop writing down or at them and start writing to them.

And oh my God, if you haven't already go talk to one. Remember what it was like to be one. Did you drop the L word like it was nobody's business? Did you?


ETA: I put this in the comments but I know not everyone reads the comments so I figured I'd put it here:

Thing is, I don't mind fast love. For instance - in Shiver Sam and Grace were in love super fast. M. Stiefvater took the time and energy to establish that Grace loved Sam not because he was super hot, but because he was sweet and kind and respectful and was a musician. Sam loved Grace not because she was beautiful but because she was strong and independent. And I wish that *this* sort of fast love was the sort that ran rampant through YA. Because it takes the ideal of immediate LETS BE IN LOVE with 'but why are we in love? do I have the ability to look beyond gorgeous eyes?' And they do and it's beautiful. Sam and Grace have both an emotionally and physically satisfying relationship. 

 And to illustrate this point is a beautiful post by the author herself on Love and if Sams actually exist, here.

TEENAGERS SCARE ME (EXCEPT NOT REALLY)

HOMG WHEN DID I GET NINETY FOLLOWERS?! I kind of want to faint at all the awesome that frequents this blog. You guys. REALLY. A bunch of awesome awesome awesome. It might inspire me to hold a back to school giveaway in September with some of my ALA loot. Heehee. So yeah. Keep it up with the awesome. It makes me happy.

Also. Yet another op-ed article sort of thing should be forthcoming, inspired by a conversation with a few of my crit group members. But in the mean time: a rant. Sort of. I don't like ranting. I prefer rambling. Hopefully it'll be more of the second instead of the first.

So. Teenagers. I was one, once. Two months ago. And sometimes I still find myself thinking of myself as a teenager and not an adult. Even though I'm doing adult things like working and saving up money and thinking about graduate school and trying to be dignified where I can. But it's only been two months and I'm not even legal yet. So. Teenagers. I kind of still am one.

I have been reading, according to my parents, since the time I was strong enough to pull my dad's chemistry books off the shelf and stare at the letters. In my twenty years of living (because that is a lot of living guys. really.) I've read widely. Science fiction. Epic fantasy. Contemporary. Romance. Chick lit. Mystery. Classics. Words are words and when they're strung together nicely and coherently I can usually enjoy them and enjoy them well.

So. Excuse me if and when I take offense to the idea that a teenager doesn't have the emotional and/or mental depth to deal with complex and layered ideas. And that, following that, the writing of the young adult genre should be written down to them.

I really don't understand this idea. I really, really don't.

Being a teenager doesn't equal being stupid. Being stupid equals being stupid. Being a teenager means that maybe you lack life experience, your mind is probably still developing, and you are dealing with issues that may or may not differ from that of adults.

A teenager can understand and comprehend racism and can react to it the same way an adult can. With bigotry or compassion. A teenager can understand and react to love the same way an adult can. They can make stupid decisions regarding their partner (lord knows adults do this all the fraking time) or with wisdom and understanding. Teenagers understand and comprehend world problems (whether they care is a different matter. And if you think all teenagers don't, then you're not talking to the right ones). They understand right and wrong. They have the capability to make tough decisions in tough times.

A lack of years doesn't mean that there is a lack of the ability to rationalize and think and act. It doesn't mean that there is a lack of comprehension.

Teenagers see the world differently, sometimes, yes. A break up with a boyfriend or a split between best friends sometimes seems like the end of the world to us them. But does that really negate their intelligence, and their ability to digest deep, complex issues? Does that make them any less able to understand hate and fear and love and that there are big, bad, terrible things in the world? Does that make them any less able to deal with them?

No. Hell no. Absolutely not.

And if you think so you're not looking hard enough or seeing deep enough.

CROSS THE T'S AND STUFF

So. *taps microphone*

It's no secret that I love the young adult writing and reading community. It's like the biggest un-secret that I have and I regularly encourage other people to make it their un-secret, too. The young adult community is one of the most supportive, loving and close knit places you will ever find. The people - both writers and readers - give, give, give. They're friendly, accessible, funny, and loving.

Which is why I hate it when people take advantage of the niceness there. I hate it when people forget that it - we - is made up of men and women and boys and girls that are kind and giving voluntarily. I hate it when people are mean or rude or mocking and pollute an environment that is the exact opposite.

Guys. Guys, we are all here because we love the same things: to write and to read. If someone offers to beta read for you, say 'thank you'. Even if you don't agree with their advice, don't throw the hard work and hours they've put into helping back in their face: say thank you for the effort. Don't put people on the spot by asking them favors in public places like forums or twitter. There's email, or IM or even DMs on Twitter. By asking them in a public place you're effectively taking away their ability to say no.

And don't - really, I can't emphasize this enough - knock an author, their work or their person. I'm not saying be nicey-nice and flowery and fake. Everyone has the right to point out flaws and say why something didn't agree with them or why they didn't like it. But be respectful. I once had a conversation with someone where they pointed out that the author of a work that they hated was fat. And they made it sound like it was a bad thing and affected the merit of their work.

Yeah. Because that impacts someone's ability to tell stories.

I know most everyone who reads this blog doesn't have this problem. You guys are smart, you're friendly, and you know what's what.

But spread the love around.

TWITTER: YOURE DOING IT WRONG

So. I have been remiss in posting regularly on the blog. You would think with all my free time at work that I would be posting left and right. But I always find that either someone has already talked about what I want to talk about or there IS NOTHING TO TALK ABOUT AT ALL. It's quite sad.

But. I've discovered something wonderful to ramble on about. Something that I love. And that something is TWITTER.

Twitter (for those of you who don't know) is this very spectacular networking tool. In less fancy terms, it's an amazing way to meet and chat with people who are also amazing in 140 characters or less. I'm not saying whether you should or should not use it; that's up to you and how comfortable you are being on it (believe or not some people are not comfortable on Twitter).

So. Yes. Twitter. I want to tell you things about Twitter. How to use it. How to not use it. How to not bug the hell out of the people nice enough to follow you. I will be using a list.

1. If you are tweeting 'via web' you are doing it wrong. The Twitter interface (no offense to the people who made Twitter. You guys are awesome!) is going to drive you insane. Especially if you're following more than a hundred people, all of whom tweet regularly. My advice is to get a Twitter app, my preferred being Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is really easy to use, and lets you update not only Twitter, but Facebook. Also, it has scheduled tweets, can auto-shorten tweets that are too long and lets you separate different Tweeters into different columns so that not everyone is in one long list together. 
2. If you are only tweeting links to your own blog, articles and retweeting things that other people have said, you're doing it wrong. People follow other people because they're interested in what they have to say. They're interested in you. A link doesn't say much and what other people say doesn't reflect on you at all. 
3. If you're not engaging with other people, you're doing it wrong. Reply to peoples tweets. Often times, for me, this is what gets me to follow other people back. You'd be surprised by how many people you come to like through conversations on Twitter. Have conversations. Joke around. Seriously. 
4. If you're following to get followers, you're doing it wrong. There's this myth that you  should autofollow who ever follows you. I don't think it's necessarily true. In my own (humble) opinion, Twitter isn't about followers. It's about connecting. It's about meeting people of like mind. Twitter is no fun if all you have is a really big number to stare at. 

I thought I would have a lot more to say, but...yeah. These are the things that really jump out at me. I hope you guys are all having a wonderful first week of June! And that all the good news that has been soaking through the YALit community keeps soaking through! 

Now. To find my bed....

TWO FOR TUESDAY

So, I kind of stole this one from Kate since I've been grasping at straws for what to post here. I do have an actual article style post coming up, but I'm still mulling over it to make sure that I don't sound like an idiot. Until then, I've got this for you guys. Two for Tuesday is a meme where you post two of anything on a Tuesday. Today, I'm posting the two songs that have, to a certain degree, been helping me create the world of my work in progress (which at the moment I'm going to be really mysterious about). So without further ado, Christmas in the Silent Forest and Flashback Memory Stick, both composed by Yoko Kanno.

A STUDY OF THIS YEAR

...via cellphone pictures. 

We start off bright eyed sophomores, despite the general sketchyness of our street.

We are then hit by the biggest blizzard in thirty years. We hole up together. For a week. No one dies. 

The weather clears (a lot) and we go do things in the sunshine. It's exciting. Can't you see how excited our shadows are?

I am attacked by ducks. In my own home. But I survive. I always survive.

We have epic sleepovers. These include mashing together mattresses on the floor and staying up until 4am watching Hindi movies. 

In these epic sleepovers, I become a purple genie pirate. That needs caffeine. Also - I have cool boots with beads on them. 

Birthdays. With sparkling, relighting candles. We nearly set Asma's bed on fire. But don't tell her that. She doesn't know how close she came to losing that comfy red cover. 

My desk, a reflection of my life, explodes. Also, I get awesome gift from TH Mafi.

Kate does a rain dance for me and I get rain. For .5 seconds. And then it clears up and I curse the world. This was my hermit stage.

The ducks stalk me to the Kennedy Center. I had a fit. THEY ARE ALWAYS WATCHING ME. 

I buy soup that I can't finish. Ever. No really. It's a vat of never ending soup.

There are lists. And pills. 

There are study sessions in the Minerva room. We kind of broke in. But not really. They left the back door open. 

There is motivation via caffeine and chocolate. 

There are If I had a Twitter Board's. 

Homages are paid to Star Wars day. Business School graduate students are much amused by the two Muslim girls sitting beside the Storm Trooper mask on the board. Don't worry guys. We're amused, too.

I think this might speak for itself. Finals. Someone lost a shoe. I happen to know said someone. 'Nuff said.

She wrote me a love letter. I'm a little disturbed that she called me cute. But whatever. It's the only love letter I'm going to get for a long, long time. 

We pack. 

We leave. 

Good bye GW for another four months. (Even though I'm going to see you all summer because I'm working there. I don't know what madness possessed me to do this. But I am. So good bye for a week?)

IN WHICH WE PROCRASTINATE

I am a horrible, horrible person. Do you know why? Because, I am about to give you the tools that could possibly rip the world asunder. Or...you know...prevent you from completing that really important assignment that your entire grade depends on. And yet, I feel little remorse.

Twitter: Have you not seen the almightiness that is Twitter? Go. Go! It is the most awesome thing since connective tissue.
XKCD: A funny comic for those nerd and non-nerd alike. Also: stick figures. So you can't even be jealous.

Also, don't forget to hover over the pictures. There are super cool messages (or not).

PhD Comics: Do you want to be a grad student when you grow up? Do you imagine having that prestigious 'Dr.' before your last name? Do you imagine that you will be lecturing students who hang over your every word? If so - don't read this. It will shatter your dreams and terrify you out of ever wanting to apply to graduate school (unless you're a masochist, like me). 

                                 

Seriously. This is me in the future. Yoda + PhD? AWESOME.

Youtube is also a great help in allowing you to procrastinate. There are all sorts of yum. Like what? you may ask. You must discover that yourself. I leave you with the song that has been filling my life lately:

IN WHICH I TAKE OVER THE WORLD (APPARENTLY)

So, my very good friend and BFFL, Asma, had a dream about me last night. In which I take over the world. And Hasan is my sidekick. Please read. And see what my daily life antics come to. And what my future (and yours) may hold. 

In which I take over the world and have a sidekick: 

In which said sidekick is miffed and compared to eels: