It's that magical time of year again...

...when winter is just around the corner(strictly in the calender sense, living on a peninsula of a peninsula in a subtropical region means true "winter" never occurs), when people put away their Edward Cullen costumes and begin to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas, when people like me start freaking out over presents for the latter occasion.



Since I'm a Christian and I come from a Christian family, I celebrate Christmas and that's it. No (C)Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Winter Solstice or Festivus or Ritual of the Prancing Lamb, just Christmas.

 Festivus for the rest of us!

That's it.  And my family celebrates it pretty religiously. (See what I did there? Religiously? Christmas? Sometimes I crack myself up...*) We have the usual fare; tree, lights, presents, stories of Santa Claus descending out nonexistent chimney and eating the cookies we never leave out out for him, but also have various nativity scenes and we try to celebrate the real reason for the season**, the Birth of Jesus. All of this stuff is well and good and great, but there's one bad thing about Christmas:

Presents.

I am probably the crappiest gift-giver alive. The combined facts that I am a poor college student and that I am only creative when it comes to the Big Five (Fiction, Poetry, Songwriting, Playwriting, and Lying) usually means that I usually spend the better part of my time second-guessing myself when I try to buy gifts for my friends(my family has learned that I need a list of gift options, otherwise they're all gonna get weird presents.) which results in me purchasing the most generic of all gifts: Giftcards. *insert dramatic music*

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently wrong with the giftcard. It's just that it can seem to be so friggin' impersonal. 

So last year, I wrote down a list of solutions to this gif-giving conundrum, which i have now enclosed for your viewing pleasure.

Option 1-Just flat out ask recipient what they want.
Pros: Simple, to-the-point, guaranteed good gift. *Works well with guys*
Cons: No surprise involved, can be seen as overly forward.

Option 2- Ask the recipient's family and closest friends what they want.
Pros: Can be very effective.
Cons: Can be very weird if talking to people you don't know.

Option 3- Stalk the person, then create a chart on what they buy and deduce what you should buy for them.
Pros: Can be quite thrilling.
Cons: Creepy, odd, and illegal. And did I mention creepy?

Option 4- Create something as a gift.
Pros: Uber-personal and heartfelt.
Cons: Writing poetry, songs and young-adult dystopian fiction can seem cheap, and I don't think girls like it when you write songs and poetry to them, something about "sending the wrong message." Also, if all you're good at is vacuum repair, you're screwed.

Option 5- Pay attention to what people don't have, then guess on if they would want it.
Pros: Shows you pay attention to your friends (if you guess well)
Cons: Results in a confusing, lame, or useless gift (if you don't guess well)

Option 6- Giftcards/money!!!
Pros-Practical.
Cons- Impersonal, can be seen as reducing a friendship to the money it's worth.(Definitely not a good thing.)

So you can see why I'm so torn on what to do. Normally, I'd be an Option 5 person, but I'm constantly second-guessing if what I'm buying is somebody a person wants, as opposed to what they need.

I'm gonna do some work over the coming weeks in gift-plotting, and if you have any ideas, please let me know!

—Z

PS: If you are a friend of mine, you could also send me a list of what you want. That way, you are moderately surprised at what I get you and you at the same time don't receive an INCREDIBLY crappy gift. :)



*-This is not one of those times.
**-Which is terribly cliche, but it's so dang catchy at the same time!

A Day in the Life...

Being a college student, I usually spend most of my time on campus in a classroom.  But last week, I had a rare treat; my English Lit class was going to the USF Library Special Collections Department of Really Friggin' Old Books to check out some of the rare Victorian-era books the Library housed. Everyone was really excited, for 3 reasons:

Reason Numbah 1: We were tired of our classroom. The desks are uncomfortable, the room is alternately too hot or too cold(sometimes it flip-flops between to the two mid-class), and some of the lights flicker ominously.*

Reason B) We were tired of our teacher. She's normally okay, but for the last few days, she's been painfully boring to listen to. Naturally, a change of speaker seemed a welcome concept.

III- We're English Majors. You say "Look! Books!" and we immediately go into a literary frenzy. "Books?! Where are they? I want to read them!!!!" (In all reality, a couple of English Majors** would inform you not that "Look!" and "Books!" were not full sentences or statements, and that you should be ashamed of yourself.)

So we made the arduous trek through the Florida heat to the library.

This was the sand trap we encountered on the way to the library.  Several of my fellow English nerds didn't make it.


Anywhom, when we got to the Special Collections Department (of Really Friggin' Old Books), we were informed that the librarian had accidentally double-booked us with an Africana Studies workshop, so we had to sneak past the workshop, which had been discussing "Aryan supremacist propaganda in the 20th century," to get into the conference room booked for us. (A note: perhaps this is only true at the University of South Florida, but from what I've seen, English majors tend to be Caucasian.[and exceptionally pale to boot]) This made for a more-than-slightly-awkward moment, because the leader of the workshop did not just ignore the score of students passing through the back of the room, he stopped his lecture. To stare at us. This caused the rest of the workshop attendees to stop what they were doing and stare at us as well.

Fun stuff.

After we finally got into our conference room, we saw what made our road of trials worth trekking:

a mountain of books.

We then were seated at a long table that made me feel like we were in the midst of a very formal business meeting, so naturally, I leaned forward and, with my most professional tone, said,  "Well, I'm sure you're wondering why I called this meeting..."  And to my relief, some people actually laughed! And no even those laughs you hear when someone tells a very painfully lame joke either!

We got to check out some of Charles Dickens' novel in their original form, in serial sections that are something like comic books, except without awesome superheroes...or pictures... but they did have something that no one excepted: ads.  To finance the printing of the serials, the publishers inserted ads of every sort, from gowns and dresses for the ladies to sticks designed to wipe crap off of shoes(I kid ye not) which helped bring down the price of the booklet-thingies immensely.

Some of these serials were 150+ years old, and on more than one occasion little tiny book-bits tumbled down into my lap when I opened the book, which was both cool and slightly off-putting.


Seriously, Zack?  Old book crumblies weirded you out?
Yes, ItalicsMan, but just because the bits in my lap were over a century and a half old, and also because each little serial was worth it's weight in gold. and let me let you, those serials added up to a lot!


So that was a short look into my life, I hoped you enjoyed it.

—Z


*ominously= annoyingly.
**-A couple of English Majors=All of the English Majors

Two posts, one song.

Wow, two posts in one day?! Shocking, I know...

I finally got around to typing this out.  This is an "odd" song that I recently wrote, still not sure how I feel about the imagery and the tone to it. I also haven't played for anyone yet, maybe I should do that, too...  Your comments and impressions are more than welcome!

"Drown"


Verse 1
Fall into the sea,
Where we can finally be
Alone and so free,
Drowning peacefully,

No one can save you,
There's nothing you can do,
Nothing to hold to,
Just sink into the blue

Prechorus
Let your last breath out,
Wash away your doubt

Chorus
Drown with me,
Stolen by the sea,
We'll grow gills and fins,
And let our new life begin,
Underneath the waves

Verse 2
This is how we hoped it would end
You and I together again
Breathe your first breath in
First of the mer-women

Forever we can be,
Explorers of the sea,
The ocean's king and queen,
Living blissfully

Prechorus 2
Our new home is here,
What have you to fear?

Chorus 2
Drown with me,
Sleep in the sea,
Our scales shining in the sun,
When our new life has begun,
Underneath the waves.
*Fin* (Dah-bum-pssh)

Tell me what you think!

—Z

I suck at blogging...

...but if I said that every time several weeks passed between my blog posts, all of my blogs would be titled "I suck at blogging..." Which is true, yes, but not particularly creative or witty.

"And now for something completely different."

I'm still working on my story idea for NaNoWriMo, which scares me just the teensiest bit because it begins on Sunday, and if I still haven't decided what I'm doing by then, it's gonna end up looking like a major hot mess come December.  This is what I know so far...
1.

It's not a ghost story. (or Ghostbusters story, for that matter.)

2. It involves dystopian America. Yes, I know, that's the 'it' thing nowadays (or it might not be, I dunno.  Are people still obsessed over vampires? I hope not...), but I really like the idea of deserted city-ruins and wastelands.

3. It involves bad guys called the "Truthless Heroes," which is a name I stole from an album by Project 86, pixx0r'd here:

 (Said Truthless Heroes are neither superheroes nor bodies with monitors for heads.  But they ARE evil.  And truthless.)

4. One of the main characters is named Six.  Whether that's his actual name or a nickname I haven't decided on yet. Probably the logical former.

5. There are going to be two minor characters named Lora and Emma who are making a documentary during the events of the story.  In all likelihood, they will be nothing like my friends Lauren and Emily, but you never know...

6. There's going to be a lot of misdirection and chaos. But that's just how I write :)

I'll give you guys more updates on the story as I figure them out, and I might post excerpts if I have time.

Take care!

—Z

First time in a long time...

Wow, haven't posted on here in a while... Sorry. That's seems to be a constant theme with me, hopefully i can get myself back into the swing of blogging regularly. Another semester of school is upon me and I'm actually managing to stay afloat so far, which is good. I decided on a lighter course load so I could work more, and both school and work are keeping me pretty busy. I'm working at a campus bookstore, saving up for too many things, and praying the pieces will fall into place for me.

I had hoped to also return to a regular vlogging schedule, but the XP desktop that I had for 3 years finally crapped out, on me, and the only computer I can use is my family's laptop, which is slow and, for some ungodly reason, hates video files. I was (and still am) part of a collab channel on youtube called Stephandemmy (http://www.youtube.com/stephandemmy) with a group of my friends, but the stress of working around a difficult computer and not having a camera of my own nor the time to sit down at a library computer to bang out the weekly video meant I had to take a sabbatical from the channel, which is an immense bummer for me. I'm working on saving for a computer of my own, so I can return to the channel, but even that is turning into a chore of its own. My parents have decided that they're setting a date by which I need to get a car of my own. That's a huge, enormous, gigantic setback for me, because I only make so much money. That's more than likely gonna force my return to the channel back a pretty good amount, but hopefully the other vloggers will understand. This is not how I want it to be.

But not all I have to say is doom and gloom, the Potterwatch Project (http://www.myspace.com/thepotterwatchproject), the band I'm part of, is now working on recording our first album, which is really exciting. I can't say too much, because a lot of things are still up in the air and because we also want to keep an air of mystery around the album until it's ready to release. I'll update you when and if I can, I promise.
Other than that, there's not a whole lot going on with me...I'm still doing a lot of reading and writing, except now most of it has a scholastic taint to it. I haven't had a lot of free time to write poetry or fiction of "my own," but that's just how it goes sometimes. I'm actually doing a lot of songwriting, that's where pretty much where all of my freewriting ends up going. (One quick note: That last poem I posted is actually the last poem I've completed, which would both me more if I didn't like it so much. i'm not trying to toot my own horn, but I still enjoy that poem...even though it's sad.)

Well, I figure that's enough for now, my future blogs will be less information-heavy and hopefully in a brighter spirit, so stay tuned! I've missed you guys :) —Z

VEDA is over at midnight...

...and that makes me sad. I liked VEDA, even though I ran out of good ideas fairly quickly. Haha, listening to "Emily will make a man out of you" and Rach just started singing. 'tis hilarious. I just finished recording at USF, and I have some shots to do at home, but those will be quick, so the video should be up before 5. BLARG!

New Poem

I wrote this today for my poetry class, but it's not going to work with the theme I was supposed to follow. Oh well. It still needs a title, maybe you have a suggestion for that? Let me know what you think!

"Untitled"
She wanted to find
herself,
but I couldn't help her look.
I can still feel her lips pressing against mine,
kissing me good-bye.

I got letters,
sometimes
postcards,
of where she was and
where she was going,
searching for her elusive self.
I bit my tongue
as I wrote back to her
lost soul,
shaking my head as her words
came back more lost. I don't know

if she found herself in her travels,
she never said that she had, but
a call at two in the morning told me that
she was found

at the end of a velvet noose
in Paris. Thirty-five
thousand miles from home,
from me.

I’ll never know
her last words, feel
her soft hair in my fingers, hear her
sweet laughter echoing throughout our home,
now mine
alone.

—Z

Reading List

1. The Reptile Room(Book 2 of A Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
2. The Wide Window(Book 3 of A Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
3. Call of C'thulhu by H.P. Lovecraft.
4. The Holy War by John Bunyan
5. Watchmen by DC Comics*
6. Batman: No Man's Land Volume 1 by DC Comics*
7. Batman: No Man's Land Volume 2 by DC Comics*
8. Sabriel (Book 1 of the Abhorsen Trilogy) by Garth Nix
9. Lirael (Book 2 of the Abhorsen Trilogy) by Garth Nix
10. Abhorsen (Book 3 of the Abhorsen Trilogy) by Garth Nix
11. The Ruins of Gorlan (Book 1 of the Ranger's Apprentice series) by John Flanagan
12.The Land of Silver Apples (Sequel to The Sea of Trolls) by Nancy Farmer
13. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
14. Looking for Alaska by John Green.
15. The Burning Bridge (Book 2 of the Ranger's Apprentice series) by John Flanagan
16. The Miserable Mill(Book 4 of A Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
17. The Icebound Land (Book 3 of the Ranger's Apprentice series) by John Flanagan
18. Paper Towns by John Green
19. The Battle for Skandia/Oakleaf Bearers (Book 4 of the Ranger's Apprentice series) by John Flanagan
20. The Sorceror of the North (Book 5 of the Ranger's Apprentice series) by John Flanagan
21. Grim Tuesday (Book 2 of the Keys of the Kingdom series) by Garth Nix
22. Drowned Wednesday (Book 3 of the Keys of the Kingdom series) by Garth Nix
23. Lord Thursday (Book 4 of the Keys of the Kingdom series) by Garth Nix
24. Lady Friday (Book 5 of the Keys of the Kingdom series) by Garth Nix

25. The Fall (Book 1 of the Seventh Tower series) by Garth Nix
26. Superior Saturday (Book 6 of the Keys of the Kingdom Series) by Garth Nix
27. A Clash of Kings (Book 2 of the Song of Fire and Ice series) by George RR Martin
28. A Storm of Swords (Book 3 of the Song of Fire and Ice series) by George RR Martin
29. The Tales of Beetle the Bard by JK Rowling
30. A Feast for Crows (Book 4 of the Song of Fire and Ice series) by George RR Martin.

*-Denotes a Graphic Novel, which I might remove.