#ROW80 – R3C6 – Rest & Relaxation

I took this past week off from ROW80. I read about three chapters and didn’t do anything else. No writing. No exercising. I didn’t even blog on Friday.

It was nice.

Part of me feels guilty, because I know I was just being lazy. I’m going to blame it on the obscene amount of stress I’ve been feeling both from work and home, and hope you guys just go with it. It isn’t stress that I can control, so I’m just trying to let it roll off me from now on.

It also isn’t stress to worry about. Nothing bad is going on with me or anything like that. Let’s just say…this will be an interesting chapter in the book about my life and leave it at that.

More to the point, I’m going to get back on track now. Here’s a rundown of what I’m trying to accomplish this round, in case you’ve forgotten. Hopefully I’ll have some cool things to report to you for next week.

Today is for organization, which is something I’ve need for a while.

MAIN GOALS

These are the daily goals that won’t change throughout the round.

1. Exercise for half an hour each day, five days a week.
2. Edit or write every day.
3. Read one chapter every day.

FLUCTUATING GOALS

These are the goals that will change from week to week.

1. Edit story #2 in my collection.

ROUND GOALS

I like knowing what I want to accomplish over the course of this round, as that will help determine what my weekly goals will be.

1. Finish The End, my horror collection. Get some beta readers.
2. Begin editing Lifetimes, the novel I’m focusing on right now.
3. Enter at least one competition or submit at least one article to a magazine.
4. Read at least four books this month.

Extras

These are things that don’t warrant a full post, but are definitely items I’d like you to check out if you’re interested.

1. I’ve updated my “Projects” page and I’ve added an “Accomplishments” page.
2. Not much else to report right now, but hopefully I’ll have a few good things for the next couple weeks!

Treasures from Around the World

Wednesdays are usually reserved for art, but today I’m going to stretch that definition just a little bit. I want to show you guys some of the cool things I’ve picked up from my travels over the years.

Now, I’ve been known to keep everything from my receipts for chocolate (because I can’t go to a new country and not try their chocolate) to my tags for luggage. But these souvenirs are more beautiful, and all picked out to represent the country I was in.

First up is a gorgeous plate from Morocco. It’s all hand-hammered metal, inlaid with different colors. It was so hard to pick out just one because they had a million of them! I love the colors in this one though, and it was the perfect size. I gave it to my Mom.

This vase on the left is from France. Normandy, to be specific. They had these things all over the place. They’re handmade and so beautiful! On the right is a mini Eiffel Tower. Both were also gifts for my mom. (Although she was a little put off when she saw the size of the Eiffel Tower that I got myself, haha.)

My mom loves the ocean and the beach, so naturally she’d collect sand. These are from my various trips. Sometimes, when I’m lucky, I can find a bottle with the name of the country on it too.

Here’s my Eiffel Tower. Mom’s is about 2” tall. Mine is about a foot tall. She was a little jealous, haha.

I actually didn’t pick this up on one of my trips, but it did come from another country! My friend from Argentina gave it to me. It’s used to hold mate, a type of tea. (I tried the tea. It was really gross.)

These came from Greece. They’re two of my favorite goddesses – Artemis and Aphrodite. I wanted a whole set of them, but that would’ve been waaaay expensive.

Yes, yes that is a chocolate frog box in the background…

Here’s another gift I’ve received. This is a keychain/cell phone charm from Korea I got as a present from a friend who went there for a Karate tournament.

These are also from Morocco. We went into a giant store full of awesome mosaics and neat pieces like this. I know they’re miniatures of some traditional dishes in Moroccan culture, but I can’t remember exactly what they were for.

This one is from France. I love the original painting, and it seemed only fitting to get this neat clock! Only…it’s really, really loud. So it stays in our basement.

Lastly, this is a beautiful fan I brought home for my mom. It’s from Seville, Spain. These are the big thing over there and I have a weird affinity for fans anyway, so I had to get one! They’re hand painted and made of wood and cloth.

What kinds of things have you picked up from your travels? What is the one thing you would have to pick up if you got a chance to go to your dream country?

Karmin in Concert

This post is a late one, but hopefully I’ll be back to my usual schedule soon.

Yesterday I told you that I went to see Karmin in concert on Saturday. It was amazing! This was just another point to add to my long list of reasons why I love this duo. If you’re unfamiliar with them, check out this post I wrote a while back for some history. If you’re lazy (and I wouldn’t blame you if you were), then all you need to know is that Karmin is made up of Amy and Nick, who got their start on YouTube and got famous covering Chris Brown’s “Look at Me Now.”

Well, the day started off with sweltering temperatures. I went with my two BFFs and we wandered the grounds of the Spiedie Fest for a couple of hours. (For those of you who aren’t in the know – which is about 99.8% of the world – a “spiedie” is specially marinated chicken thrown in a hot dog bun, sub roll, or piece of bread. Pretty simple, but oh-so-delicious.) We got in line around 5:30, and the concert wasn’t supposed to start until 7:00.

So, we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Finally they let us in. And we waited some more.

At 7:00 on the dot, a 13 year-old-girl got up on stage and began performing. She was pretty good, but her vocals weren’t super strong. Still, she had a great stage presence and she really didn’t sound that nervous. I believe she sang original songs, because I didn’t recognize any of them. The crowd started getting restless and didn’t really respond well to her, except for clapping at the end of each song. I felt bad because we were all hot and tired and just wanted to see Karmin, which wasn’t her fault at all. But she finished out strong and got one more performance under her belt, which is all that matters.

Then we waited some more.

Apparently they were having technical difficulties because it took them over an hour to set up the equipment. I think it had to do with the mics. When they finally came on after 9:00 (they were supposed to start at 8( we were all so relieved and super excited!

They started off the concert with a brand new song. I don’t know what it was called, but it was awesome. It was another rap and I just remember thinking the lyrics were really great. Something closer to the harder raps that she does like “I Told You So.” I’ll be looking forward to getting that one.

Then they sang every song on their album, save for “Brokenhearted,” which is their biggest hit to date. At this point my one friend, who hadn’t really heard much of them before this, turned to me and said, “This just made me a fan of them.” She really, really enjoyed them and loved all of their songs. I’m going to give her my CD to download the next time I see her. I love converting people into fans of the things I love with such a passion.

Amy: “Some people say, ‘Amy, you’re hogging the spotlight. This is a duo. What about Nick?’ And I say, they’re absolutely right. There’s an awfully handsome man up here. It’s his turn to sing.”

And here’s Amy stepping to the side and letting Nick sing. These two are so adorable together.

Next, she asked who could rap to the song “Look at Me Now.” I raised my hand because I’ve practiced so hard to get most of those lyrics down. I can’t do the entire song (read: the really fast part in the middle gets me every time), but I can do a good portion of it. She asked who wanted to come up on stage and do the song with her and I promptly ducked down and out of sight. Sorry! Too shy! The girl who went up did a good job, but she was a little overwhelmed I think – and rightly so! It was a fairly big audience and those lights are bright. Amy finished out the song – flawlessly, I might add – and the girl went back to her spot in the crowd with a big grin on her face.

Next, Nick told us that he was really sorry about the wait and thanked us for being so patient while they got it figured out. In return, he asked us if we wanted an extra song…

“YEAH!!!!”

So they sang their cover of Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass,” which is another favorite of mine.

They had us sing the beginning to their song “Brokenhearted” without any music playing, and we sounded awesome. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must’ve felt like for them to experience something like that when, just about a year ago, they were making homemade YouTube videos of themselves and posting them online.

What a rush that must be.

Amy sang “Brokenhearted” and they exited the stage, thanking us for being such good singers and promising to come back soon. I hope they do!

My friends and I scurried around to the side of the stage hoping that they’d come over and do some signings (there were no backstage passes like we were hoping there would be). And guess what? They did! They were super gracious and took pictures, hugged, and signed everything that they could. I even heard stories that their manager kept trying to usher them out of there, but Amy kept ignoring him, ha! When I got a chance to say something to Amy, I told her that they did an incredible job – she was so thankful and really appreciative of that.

Can I just say right here, right now, that I hope they never, ever change. It’s so important to me that the people in the entertainment business that I look up to are humble, gracious, kind, and appreciative of their fans. I don’t care how much talent you have – if you’re not a good person, I can’t fully support you. Too many actors and musicians and artists think they can act like they own the world when, really, we’re the ones that give them that power.

Right. Soap box.

Anyway, that was my experience meeting Amy and Nick from Karmin. It was a perfect way to end the night, especially because I got to spend it with two of my best friends. If everything goes right (read: if I bribe the right people), I might actually get to go see Karmin again in a couple of weeks.

No, I’m not obsessed. I’m just…enthusiastic.

Did you ever participate in a talent show or contest? If so, have you ever had a less than stellar crowd? Have you met any of your idols? Were you disappointed by their behavior, or were they everything you’d hope they’d be?

ROW80 – R3C5 – So Much for Perfect

Well, there goes my perfect record.

Life got in the way on Friday. Someone very close to me sort of…went off the grid for a few hours. It was a horrible feeling – that gut wrenching, panic inducing, heart pounding terror that occurs when you realize you might never see someone again.

Needless to say, I didn’t bother thinking about ROW80.

Everything is settled now. Everyone is fine. No damage was done, actually, and we’re all in good spirits again. I’ll be back on track for next week. I’ll just try for a perfect round some other time. Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly), I’m not all that upset about it.

Here’s what I did happen to get done:

MAIN GOALS

These are the daily goals that won’t change throughout the round.

1. Exercise for half an hour each day, five days a week. 3/5 Thursdays are so hard for me. You’d think it’d be Wednesdays, but Thursdays are when I get restless. Lately I haven’t had too much of an issue with it, but this week I just watched the Olympics instead. I was going to make it up on Saturday, but with everything that went on, I didn’t bother. Also, I ate a lot of junk food. After a month without anything bad in my system, it made me feel kind of ill. But I needed it. I had too much stress for anything less than a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream.
2. Edit or write every day. 3/7 I’m nearly finished editing my next story, and I should be able to wrap it up this week.
3. Read one chapter every day. 3/7 Started a brand new book which seems promising. It’s pretty big, so it’ll probably take me a week or two to get through it.

FLUCTUATING GOALS

These are the goals that will change from week to week.

1. Edit story #2 in my collection. Still working on this.
2. Pick one contest or one magazine I’d like to participate in for this month. Done. I chose an e-magazine to submit one of my better horror stories. I’m going to wait until I get to editing this story before I do anything more with this goal.

ROUND GOALS

I like knowing what I want to accomplish over the course of this round, as that will help determine what my weekly goals will be.

1. Finish The End, my horror collection. Get some beta readers. This is 100% complete and now just needs to be edited again (and again, and again, and again…).
2. Begin editing Lifetimes, the novel I’m focusing on right now. 0% I’m waiting until my beta readers get back to me, then I’m jumping into this one head first!
3. Enter at least one competition or submit at least one article to a magazine. 0% Getting closer to achieving this goal! I have my magazine picked out. Now I need to edit, edit, edit!
4. Read at least four books this month. 25% And working on another one!

Extras

These are things that don’t warrant a full post, but are definitely items I’d like you to check out if you’re interested.

1. I finished Christopher Stocking’s book London Darkness: Infernal Inventions. If you like steampunk and a quick pace, consider checking it out!
2. I got to see Karmin in concert! They were SO good. I also got their signatures on their album cover.
3. That last surprise didn’t quite go official yet. But I’m hoping it will this week!

Balancing a Dual Personality

I read a great post the other day, from one of my all-time favorite bloggers: Belle DiMonté. It was titled “On Maintaining a Fantasy Writer’s Image,” and in it Belle discussed her role as a fantasy writer – and whether she lived up to the picture most of us unconsciously project when we hear that someone writes in this genre. Velvet dresses, candles, and braids. That sort of thing.

It came at a perfect time for me because I’ve been seriously struggling with my own image and the reputation that I have on the internet. Except I have a different problem, and sometimes I feel like I have dissociative identity disorder.

On the one hand, I’m (mainly) a fantasy author. Although I don’t wear velvet dresses, only light candles when the power goes out, and rarely put my hair in braids, there is a certain way that “we” act. A certain way we speak (or type/write, in this case). A certain way we behave. I’ve been told, much like Belle, that I have a way of writing and speaking that isn’t exactly modern, but lends itself fabulously to my career choice. I think this applies to all genres of writing, not just fantasy. Most writers live in other worlds half our lives, so we tend to bring those same tendencies back across the void and into reality. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Then, on the other hand, I have Hypable. I love this site to death. I donate hours at a time each night to doing various things for it. I will forever champion it as one of the best websites on the Internet to get all your fandom news and interesting articles about things that you love. And along with that comes a different way of speaking, a different way of acting. You have the various memes that go around the internet. Shorthand, like saying “obvs” for “obviously” or “ofc” for “of course.” It certainly doesn’t lend itself to a fiction writer’s mind, but at the same time this is the slang that is used all across the internet. If you know what it means, then you’re in, you’re cool.

So, what happens when these two sides decide to butt heads? Well, I’m still trying to figure that out. I feel most self-conscious about it on Twitter. Most of my followers are writers, though I interact with only a handful of them. I have a good selection of Hypable followers as well, who are much more active and attentive to my tweets. Because of this, I sometimes struggle with what I should say and how I say it. I have a perfect pair of tweets (from a long time ago, when it actually wasn’t as much of an issue) that displays this war that’s raging inside of me. The first is Hypable-acceptable, while the other is my writer personality rearing its head.

(And just some warning, this was after watching Rumble in the Bronx, which is a terrible movie, but is still a Jackie Chan classic.)

Despite some poor choices in movies, no one can deny Jackie Chan is a BEAST.

—
Karen Rought (@Karen_Rought) February 18, 2012

Sometimes I fall ill to the terminology of my generation. I apologize.

—
Karen Rought (@Karen_Rought) February 18, 2012

Part of me is unapologetic for the first tweet, and any similar tweets to it. Pop culture is something that I’m practically bathing in now. With Hypable, I’m forced to read about all the current news. I know about projects, like movies and TV shows, ahead of most other people. I get to read reviews for advanced screenings. I’ve memorized the names of actors I didn’t even know existed six months ago.

Yet, the other half cringes. Did I really just say that? I couldn’t have taken the time to write out the word “obviously”? I already think the English language is dying – why am I adding to it by continuing this trend?

But, in the end, this is me. I’m a complex and often contradictory person. Yes, I like people who use proper grammar, but at the same time, lolcats makes me laugh like you wouldn’t believe. No, I can’t stand certain memes or catchphrases (ie. YOLO), no matter how popular they are. Sometimes I prioritize watching Supernatural over writing.

So, perhaps that’s a little explanation for my Twitter behavior. I often think to myself, “some people will think this is funny or will care, but others won’t.” I might even risk losing followers if I tweet too much about Doctor Who or if I retweet too many links to other blogs. But is that really an issue? Is that really why we tweet or write blog posts? Just like I know not all of you enjoy my Wednesday posts about art, I know that not all of you will enjoy every tweet. But, hey, that’s okay. We’re all different. In the end, I’ll write/tweet/blog what I want, because I think it is funny or because I care about it. I encourage everyone to do the same.

What about you? Do you have warring personalities? Do you ever think twice about what you tweet or blog, afraid that someone might not be on the same page as you?

Wandering Bard: Italy (Pompeii)

Pompeii was one of the most incredible and surreal places I’ve been to. Not to mention one of the strangest.

Just in case you’re unaware (or have forgotten your high school history class – and there’s no shame in that), Pompeii is a city located in Italy. More specifically, it’s a city located at the base of Mount Vesuvius. That name should sound familiar.

Mount Vesuvius is the volcano that blew its top in 79 A.D. and literally buried both the town of Pompeii, and its cousin Herculaneum. The stones, ash, and lava flows killed roughly 16,000 people and hid these towns for hundreds of years.

Here’s the unassuming entrance:

But, little do you know the secrets hidden within this quaint little town.

First, there’s the sacrificial alters (for animals only):

The dog, it seems, is a brave fellow.

Then there are the bodies. The picture below is a just a cast, but you can see (in horrifying and realistic clarity) how so many of these people died. This particular person was huddled in the corner, unable to escape the hot has that descended upon the town.

Then there’s this lovely shot that I took:

It doesn’t seem like much, but I guarantee it was also deadly. The caption I put on Facebook for this photograph seems to sum it up pretty nicely:

“The Pompeiins were very smart and ingenious people…except for two things: They lived at the foot of a volcano…and they used lead pipes.”

But the biggest (and dirtiest) secret of all is put right out in the open. If you know what you’re looking for, you should have no problem discovering it. (Why do I have a feeling Natalie/Natalie’s husband is going to love this part?)

If you’re new in town and don’t know where to go, there are clues all over the place to point you in the right direction:

(And, yes, that’s exactly what it looks like.)

Then there’s the sign:

This is a sign warning of a Lupanare. That’s the Italian term. You might be more familiar with the word “brothel.” It was referred to as a Lupanare (the base of that word being “lupus,” which is Latin for “wolf”) because the women used to howl to get the attention of their customers.

Then there’s this beauty:

Imagine doing the deed on that thing.

Not sure what you want? Don’t worry. They had a menu:

The vendors outside the walls of Pompeii sold all sorts of trinkets that probably are not appropriate to bring home to the kids. Nonetheless, they were pretty funny.

And although it completely shocked me when I realized some of the places that were within the walls of Pompeii, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. History happened here. A tragic history, yes, but one that you can feel in your bones when you’re there. It was an amazing experience.

Enter a totally embarrassing five year old picture of me standing in front of Mount Vesuvius (in one of the nerdiest shirts I owned at the time, no less).

Ever been to Pompeii? Ever seen a place as explicit as this one? What’s the nerdiest shirt you own? (I’ve stepped up my nerd-game recently. Now my nerdiest one is definitely the Doctor Who shirt I ordered just the other day…)