Faith Sans Staicase (& Snowboarding)

What I'm Listening To: Flora's Secret-Enya

"Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true"-Dr. King

My body has finally recuperated from snowboarding at the Tyrol Basin. It was my first time and so naturally there were about 500 million spills and excruciating pain that lasted for a week after. I now know how Sir Euric von Leichtenstein/William Thatcher felt when he was getting his arm set back into his socket and in that bedroom scene right after he finished "jousting for true love" (and if you don't know this reference from 'A Knight's Tale' SHAME, see the movie, if not for Heath Ledger alone) After mastering the art of getting up on the snowboard (and I still can't do it normally-I have to roll over onto my knees and get up backward) which managed to take almost the entire day, I finally managed to snowboard down one of the hills. It was the greatest feeling ever, even though I still have no sense of balance what-so-ever and due to my knees bleeding into the snow, I had to cease perfecting the art. Although it was fun while it lasted, I believe that winter sports are ridiculous. For me, the difference between the Winter and Summer Olympics is that normal people have a chance to do the Summer Olympics while Winter Olympics are based off of skill, and you could basically murder people. Think about it--and I'm sure that there are studies done on this--how many more people die in the Winter Olympics than Summer Olympics. You could off someone in speed staking, the toboggan could malfunction, you could die doing a trick in snowboarding. The people who do these sports are reckless, I salute them.

Today is the celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Day. It is so easy to go to the "I have a Dream Speech" as the example for what Dr. King is most known for, but I would challenge people to go investigate further. Educate yourselves. This was an extraordinary man who didn't just have DREAMS, but he was also a man of ACTION. It is very important to combine the two if you are to have any meaningful affect on our world. This man was a revolutionary in every sense of the word, but one of the most successful examples of how hate and violence don't have to be the fuel for a revolution. Understanding and love are pivotal examples of how society can work together without divisions, animosity, and past man-made horizons.

"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase"- Dr. King

Movies are...Unoriginal Sex Plots

What I'm Listening To: Us-Regina Spektor

Soon and very soon, movie theaters are going to start showing porn. I'm almost certain about this. My mother jokes that PG-13 is the new Rated R and I used to laugh at her, however I think that she may have a point. When the movie industry comes up with a movie like Black Swan (which was amazingly fabulous by the way) and then puts the two stars of that movie, Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis each in a movie where they have sex with their friends and supposedly have issues because of it, you know it's going downhill. No one seems to have original ideas anymore (except for Christopher Nolan-I'm biased-and a few others) and when you rehash books into movies and essentially ruin them as well as make an unoriginal plot for a movie that probably the only plus side to it will be that it shows gratuitous sex, it really speaks to how far you've come...or not at all. Personally, I don't think that Friends with Benefits or No Strings Attached are going to be amazing movies because I'm pretty sure 3/4 of the citizens in America have done the plot already and either did or didn't have the same issues. Or maybe people will relate to the movies because of this fact, I don't know. And apparently all we need to make a good movie is for some hot chick to take off a shirt and aggressively have sex with anyone, anything, or herself. However, an emphasis of how artistically and devastating and beautifully disturbed Black Swan is has to be reiterated. I smell mountains of awards.

I love a good action movie or the movies based off of Marvel Comic books, even though I haven't read the comic books. I look forward to seeing Stan Lee in all those cameos, it's like Where's Waldo, only it's Stan and you don't have to pick him out of a crowd of  a thousand other people that you could care less about. I think he deserves that star on the Walk of Fame for all his cameo work! And from my endless babbling about it, you've probably figured out that Inception is on my list of top movies of all time, right up there with Man on Fire and The Adventures of Robin Hood. I most likely give people too much credit by assuming that they don't want to watch mindless drivel. Don't get me wrong, sometimes you need to. You've had a hard day at work, your brain is mush, and you can't focus on anything except the most trivial. That's understandable.

In other news, Queensland Australia is drowning under water. It's crazy the amount of natural disasters that have happened in the past couple of years, and the fact that the world doesn't know/is not prepared to deal with it. But that's for another post.

Year of 20/20 Vision

What I'm Listening To: I'm the World's Greatest-R. Kelly

It was my birthday today. Usually I write in my diary about my reflections upon the past year and how I thought it was. It's funny because usually people think that each year is going to be a good year, which I guess is good because it keeps down pessimism. I learned a lot of things this year, and I keep asking myself if it will ever get any easier. In lieu of the diary entry, I thought I'd just write this post. Everything has suddenly drastically shifted in my life and I am left having to wonder where I'm supposed to go from now. Eventually it will all sort itself out, as it usually does, but when you're going through something, you usually don't think about such things. You usually think it's the end of the world, well kind of...

I brought cookies for people at my new job and they loved them. I'm glad I'm getting to know more people and I can't wait until my first pay check next week. I started on Tuesday and I think I'm getting the hang of things. I don't like to make a huge fuss about my birthday. I hate drawing attention to it so most of the time I don't even mention it when it's the day. Jeff, Britt (the two besties) and I went to eat at Maharajah, the Indian restaurant on the east side of Milwaukee. You know how Chinese food never fills you up? Indian food does the opposite. They brought out these little bowls and I almost was like come on, we paid $15 and you think THAT'S going to fill us up? Britt and I didn't even finish half we were so full. Tomorrow we're taking the party up to Madison to have lunch at Takara and see Sex and the City 2 with people. I'm excited because I can't wait to eat sushi again. Now I have to be good and reply to all of the people on Facebook that wished me happy birthday. Here goes another stab at another year....

The 5 Date Rule

What I'm Listening To: Now or Never-Josh Groban

I was watching I Hate Valentine's Day (just because I was bored and am on a slight break from watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and the big concept in the movie was one of the 5 date rule. Apparently five dates is the maximum number that a couple can have before what they have constitutes as a relationship and people start to get hurt. I think that the concept was very interesting, but the execution faulty. The main character's motto was "when the romance is gone, let's just move on." I think most of this thinking and her unwillingness to take risks was because she was hurt in her relationship with her father. Here are the guidelines for the dates according to her:

Date 1: breath less flirting
Date 2: broaden your horizons
Date 3: the adventurous date
Date 4: fun and fabulous
Date 5: make it the best date ever

What do you think about the system and would you ever try it?

Also, Nathan Bransford had an interesting post on his blog about the one book that every writer should read  A lot of people picked Stephen King's On Writing, some The Art of Fiction by John Gardner, or Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. For some reason there were a lot of votes for The Great Gatsby as well. All aspiring authors should at least have one of these books in their arsenal of books to become better writers, if they so choose.
There was also a good post about audience development from Writers Unboxed that people should read as well.

In addition, Rachelle Gardner has a great analysis of a query letter. If you haven't been looking at agent's responses to query letters, you should do so because they are the authority on what is a good one. Even though they all have different answers and preferences about what should stay or go, most of the time they will be in sync as far as the requirements and have good advice that can be applicable to all.

Official Eclipse trailer is out TODAY

What I'm Listening To: PYT (Pretty Young Thing)-Michael Jackson

So the Eclipse trailer is out for all of the diehard Twilight series fans (I'm not diehard but enjoy the books, movies are another story....). There's also a really cool fanmade trailer that I almost thought was real except for the slightly bad quality and the fact that the person mashed together pieces from other movies and the Victoria in the Eclipse movie is different than the Victoria in the first two movies. I have to say, I will be seeing the movie just because I started watching them so I will therefore finish watching them. Although the switch from Rachelle Lefevre to Bryce Dallas Howard was a little weird, but that was known months ago. Have to say, from the little bit I saw, they do look a like in the trailer and it will be interesting to see if Summit can pull this off. I just hope that Bryce brings her A-game to the table when she acts and then I'll have no complaints.

Basically, the Eclipse trailer is out as preview for Robert Pattinson's (NOTE: that was the cutest picture of him I could find and it was playing Edward) new film Remember Me. All I'm saying, is that I'm going to see it for Pierce Brosnan (he's still got it!) and then I'll see if Pattinson's acting wins me over. I have to see if I haven't been giving him enough credit, although in the roles that I've seen him in (Harry Potter does not really count) he has the tendency to play a brooder. Really the only other film I've seen him in is Little Ashes where he plays Salvador Dali. I thought the movie was okay, but I didn't think he was the greatest thing since sliced bread. He's attractive (only in Twilight as Edward) and I feel that if he did his hair once in a while and put on clean clothes once in a while, he could be to me. But before this sounds like me bashing him, which really isn't my goal, I'll move on.   

Had my midterm today for Communicative Disorders. Think it went well, but usually when I think that, they don't....so I won't jinx it. Plus, this is what I want to study, so I want to maintain a positive outlook, especially if things don't go as planned. Still waiting to hear back from BOA Editions about the poetry book, and ABNA results come in again next week to see who is still in the running for the prize. I just finished a ton of Study Abroad stuff and I'm following up with that and trying to plan to go somewhere every month in Europe. Some ideas tossed around were Octoberfest in Germany, Amsterdam, Paris for NYE, Ireland for St. Patrick's Day, Morocco, Egypt, London, and New Zealand. I honestly can't wait. Any ideas on where I should go?

Two Opposing Futures and update on NIKKI GIOVANNI

What I'm Listening To: Flower Duet- Deslibes

Many things have happened. The most important and most exciting is that I received a response from Nikki Giovanni who said that she really liked my piece "Pointless" that I sent her. I am literally on cloud nine. I wasn't sure if she was going to respond and this pushes up my publication time by a lot. Now I just have to see if she will let me quote her.

Moving on, I got kinky twists again. 5 hours may be torture, but the effect is worth it. Two experiences have had me thinking that relationships are crazy and why would people ever go through them and then that relationships are worth it because you could finally meet that someone that you've been dreaming about for the past who knows how many years. They are a Nigerian movie called "The Playboy" that I saw while I was getting my hair done, and Marquel McGhee's wedding that I went to in Minneapolis, respectively. I thought the main character in the movie was horrible. He was such a good actor, faked his own death, and played those girls. Sure, he was found out, but by that time the women had made fools of themselves fighting over him. He proposed to three at the same time, and reminded me that I have too much in my life going on for relationships. And then the wedding. I absolutely loved it. For me, it was the best one I've ever been to. There was a variety of music, everyone was beautiful, plenty of energy and comedy to go around, and God was just gleaming through the two newlyweds. It was the first wedding where I actually got sentimental and made me think about some things. Sure I'm nineteen now, but people usually meet their future mates around this time. My parents knew each other, went to school together, and married a little later. I mean, I think you have at least met whoever you're going to marry. I don't know. The wedding was fun though, everyone was dancing and it was great. But I think I'm leaning more towards option one.

We looked at the University of Minnesota for my brother, spent some time at Mall of America (like 30 min) and then came home. Oh, and this is my official nationality. My family and I finally got it all figured out: Jamaican, Irish, Chauktaw Native American, Sierra Leonian, and Egyptian. For too long, I didn't know what I was, so for those who have heard me say it before, scratch that, this is official.