Hey

It’s been a while…again.

I’ve been meaning to post for a long time, but each time I didn’t have enough to say to make a meaningful post, so I decided to compile all those short posts into one long posts, so as not to waste time/annoy people.

I owe most of my misery to academics and extra curriculars this year, and I’ve been super busy, as shown in my post count from this year (which may or may not be hovering around zero). Most of the blame for my cramped time goes to swimming which I’ve become more serious about this past year.. I’m pretty proud of myself, because I’ve improved a lot. Practice hours have stretched so long, and ended up taking up lot of time that could have been used studying, and well…I’ve gotten through exams pretty well, but not as well as I am capable of.

In the fall & winter I was super busy with band, and I was very lucky to make it into several honor bands, which was such a fun experience. One of my directors was Robert W. Smith, who is an incredible director and composer.

I’m also pretty stressed about moving schools. For high school, I’m transferring to this prestigious private school . Everyone is excruciatingly friendly and nice there. Being an unsocial person, this unnerves me. However, I get to take some pretty fun “related arts” classes that I’m excited about and aren’t offering at my zoned local public high school.

One last thing that I’m hyped about: I just won a recent poster contest! The first place prize is $50 (which is actually a bit lame, but I’m grateful anyway), so I look forward to spending it.

I’ll try to post more from now on (though that’s what I said last time..), but I don’t want to annoy everyone with like short posts that say nothing except “hi”.

Have a nice day

 

A series of rhetorical questions.

INCOMING RANT.

SOME OF YOU HAVE ENDED SCHOOL ALREADY. OH MY GOSH. *headdesk*

Why does my school end mid-late JUNE? While most of you end/had ended THIS MONTH? I mean, I haven’t even taken my FINALS yet. I haven’t done any end-of-year thing-a-ma-jigs yet. The only thing is a statewide Bio exam, blah blah blah… WHY BIO OF ALL THINGS?

*facepalm*

Anyways, my birthday is getting closer asklgwgoah

AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I WANT. AGAIN.

Why does it have to be like this every year ever since I grew too old to play with toys? *sigh*

Why do I keep drawing the same things over and over again?  Why do I keep on talking about the same old things? Why am I thinking about the same things? Why do I jump around and dance in my room with my headphones on only to find Mom or Dad Tomato looking at me and I just stand there like an idiot? Why? These are all rhetorical (is that spelled right?) questions.

BT out from this topicless rant.

 

Writing.

So, I finally finished my novel on the 17th of this month! I renamed it Black as Obsidian, and it ended up with 70.8k words, which I’m quite proud of. It took me a while to finish, in between watching Frasier and relentlessly munching on Pringles.

I managed to introduce one friend to the Sherlock fandom, so I now I have someone to squeal to. And I finally got to around to watching Start Trek: Into Darkness and it was incredibly engaging. It was even better than the first Start Trek movie. Benedict Cumberbatch was amazing as an evil guy!

I also have three Writing Buddies now! This is amazing! I used to just drown out my teachers’ voices in Science, SOSE and French and work on my novel alone, but now there are three people doing it with me. (Well, my main Writing Buddy has been writing with me since halfway through April, but two more have said they will also join our writing cult.) And these three Buddies are going to be doing Camp Nano in July, so hooray!

For July Nano, I debated on whether to do the next installment in the Parallel series, with Pandora and everything, or start an entirely new series set in modern times, and eventually decided on starting something new. It would be best to take a break from Pandora and her unending melodrama.

I’m not quite sure what will happen in my new book, but I do have certain ideas, and I’ve been doing research and fleshing out these ideas.

Basically, there’s this girl called Anastasia Holloway who’s sixteen and lives in Dover, in South East England. Dover is the closest point in England to France, with only 34km between Dover and Cap Gris Nez of France. This is ideal, because it allows for easy travel between England and France.

Anyway, Anastasia Holloway is the daughter of the head of quite a small business, with several branches based in the county of Kent. Dover, however, is where the main branch is. The business is Holloway Lucid Dreamers (see, I’ve been too obsessed with lucid dreaming), a business that hires LDIs. An LDI is a Lucid Dream Inducer and is trained to get to know clients and teach them how to lucid dream. They may want to apply for the company’s service for several reasons: either they have nightmares, want to explore their inner self or just want to try it for fun.

Lyson Rogers is one of these clients. He’s a twenty-two-year-old man recently released from jail. He’s been in there for a long time, having been wrongly accused of the murder of Anastasia’s science teacher. During the night he experiences nightmares and often chooses not to sleep, simply to avoid these horrible dreams. When he sees an advertisement about Holloway Lucid Dreamers, he thinks it’s a godsend.

He goes to the branch thingy and chooses his LDI – Anastasia Holloway.

As this is Ana’s first time being an LDI, she is nervous, and Lyson is a sharp-tongued, witty man who wastes no time teasing Ana. Their relationship at first is rocky, but when Ana discovers Lyson’s secrets, she will have to learn to get along with him.

What is this secret?

I’m not entirely sure. Something to do with him having abnormal powers while he lucid dreams.

I want the whole book to kind of be, like, spy-ish and awesome. There’ll government conspiracies, guns and shooting, spying, being sneaky, midnight meetings, and corrupt agencies looking to use Holloway Lucid Dreamers’ neurotechnology for evil. I am also planning to make Lyson and Ana accidentally blow up the Eiffel Tower, and I want the bad guys to shoot people walking down the Champs-Elysees. This is convenient because in my trip to France (July 11-July 4), I’m going to Paris. When I write about Paris all the details will be fresh in my mind.

Well, that was rather long. Sorry to have bored you.

-Nicola

P.S. Who’s doing Camp Nano in July?

 

angsty exams shuffle

Point the first: Chat?

The last three days have been crazy!

Maybe I should cut down on long, rambling posts.

Three parts:

• Angsty whinging makes everyone roll their eyes
• Exams are not as bad as they sound this semester
• Shuffle meme is amusing!

 

Ahahahaha

So I wish I could go back and read everyones’ posts!! But like I have to study really badly because I have NO idea what happened in American history 1830-1929 so that’s kind of bad (APUSH exam tomorrow YEAH)

But I’ve been studying all day so I decided to take a break and make up a little iPod shuffle game for you guys! I don’t know how your end-of-the-year schedules are shaping up, but I know that this is a really stressful time for a LOT of people so hopefully this will help you guys unwind if you need to? And maybe it will be fun? I just don’t know though I haven’t written it yet it might totally stink.

I’m going to try a more loose approach and just define sort of the setting? And then hopefully the music will provide the tone of the scene! Maybe. It is a mystery at this point.

1. Intro/Prologue

2. Preparing for the Big Event

3. The Guests Arrive

4. Who’s That Boy/Girl?

5. The Banquet

6. Well that was… Not what I expected

7. Singing on the Balcony

8. S/He heard me/What’s your name?

9. Interrupted!

10. Morning Search/Does anyone know where I can find (X)?

11. My Sister’s Wedding/Royal Wedding

12. Something’s Stirring

13. The Dance

14. Spying/a New Partner-in-Crime

15. Midnight Expeditions

16. We Shouldn’t Have Done That

17. Running/Did they see us?

18. Omens and Consequences

19. Research in the Library

20. Finding the secret passage/a clue!

21. Cornered

22. Fight Back/Rescued

23. Putting it together/We were right/The Kiss

24. Final Confrontation

25. (Near) Death Scene

26. Avenge the fallen

27. Victory (OR Flight)

28. You’re Alive! (Only if you chose Near Death scene and not just Death Scene)

29. Explanations/Apologies/Resolution

30. What’s next?/Confessions

31. Closing monologue

so ok this probably makes zero sense but it’s a combination of brain deadness and the 56789876543 stories circling in my head right now rhdfjhd

Anyway I hope it’s doable?? But most of all I hope it’s fun!

Sorry for the random like rambly post ok anyway back to studying now

 

Graduation :)

I’m finally graduating today.

I, of course, was forced to wear a skirt and a pair of high heeled death traps to match.

Luckily, I got the ‘honor’ of choosing them, which apparently was supposed to make this situation better somehow. (Not even slightly. But it made my mom happy, so that’s what I’m gonna wear. I’ll get over it.)

I just can’t wait to see everyone else’s dresses/outfits, and maybe my friend had better luck with that self tanner this time.

The only thing that worries me is the fact that I forgot to bring my shoes to practice this morning so I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to get through the ceremony without falling on my face.

Whatever, I’m getting the heck outta Jr. High today!

 

Noteflight

Look, guys! I wrote music!

• The Mistwood
• Night Waltz

I seriously didn’t know what to call them.

So, I’ve just discovered that I love to compose. You guys should try it, too!