The End of the Challenge

Currently listening to: Knife by Grizzly Bear

Remember that Harry Potter challenge I started a while ago? Yeah, well I was going through my files looking for my outlines, ready to start working again (YAY!) and I found the rest of it! So here it is. What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? 

 Day 11: What character would you say you are most like? I'm a lot like Ginny. I stand up for what I  believe in and have a hot temper. And I fall in love with Harry... just kidding

Day 12: Favourite relationship/friendship: the Marauders. It says in POA that they would die for each other. Enough said. 

Day 13: Least favourite movie: HBP skipped so much. Not a fan. 

Day 14: Team Voldemort or Team Harry Harry... obviously. 

Day 15: Who would be your best friends at Hogwarts. (three only) Trio-era: Harry, Ron and Hermione obviously and Marauder era: James, Sirius, and Dorcas (yeah in my world...) Anyway, I got sorted in Pottermore and I was a Gryffindor...

Day 16: Favourite professor McGonagall-I love how she changes throughout the books and shows her true colors as time wears on. She isn't just a strict teacher by book 7. 

Day 17: Are you excited about The Deathly Hallows movie or scared it won’t do the book justice? it didn't do it justice, but the experience of dressing up and going to the premiere was uneabatable

Day 18: Least favourite book 7 because it was the last. I love all of them for their own reasons

Day 19: Do you prefer the books or films? Books. There is nothing like a book to distract you and these books have been through so much with me.

Day 20: If you had to meet one member of the cast, who would it be? I already met Rupert Grint. Tom Felton next plz. or Emma Watson because I love her style.

Day 21: Out of all the characters that died, if you could bring one back, who would it be? Sirius. He made Harry truly happy without changing who he was (i.e. an orphan).

Day 22: Harry Potter or Twilight HP srsly?

Day 23: Any part of the books/movies that makes you cry? All of the memory scenes. And when Sirius died. And the end of 7

Day 24: Any particular scene you wished would have been put in the movie but it wasn’t? The whole Lupin/Tonks/Teddy and Harry being the godfather storyline. It's like passing the torch. I also wanted to see more of the Prince's Tale.

Day 25: Nineteen years later. Are you happy how it turned out, or do you wish something was different? Angelina? Srsly? Marry your dead boyfriend's twin?

Day 26: If you could be able to work one spell without a wand what would it be? Wingardium Leviosa, it would be hilarious. Doing one spell without a wand is not useful because if you get into a fight you only have that one spell!

Day 27: Would you rather own The Invisibility Cloak, The Resurrection Stone or The Elder Wand? invisibility cloak, and not just because it's the smart option

Day 28: Do you listen to Wizard Wrock, what do you think about it? I have a Harry and the Potters album. It's funny but I don't listen to it often.

Day 29: Did you enjoy A Very Potter Musical? YES. It's on my iPod! To witches and wizards and magical bests, to goblins and ghosts and magical feats! It's all that I love and all that I need at Hogwarts!  (gotta get back to schoooool!)

Day 30: What effect has Harry Potter made on your life and how much does it mean to you? It got me to start reading. It got me to love storytelling and writing. It inspired me to write my own stories, because if she could, I can. But not only that, there are characters who have inspired me. 

Gryffindors are "brave at heart," have "daring, nerve, and chivalry." That's something I strive for every day. 

UPDATES:

- Just finished reading the complete works of Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti!

- Starting to get out my fanfic outlines again to work on. YAY! Words of encouragement would be appreciated, I'm using up my free time to do this! I want to know if people want it!

- Still in Israel, still studying abroad, still busy as a bee...

- I noticed that I've started to become considerably more hipster. The music I've been listening to (Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, Neutral Milk Hotel...) the clothes I've been wearing (chunky sweaters and combat boots) and... yeah... well, that's about it... 

Great. I had two hours of time alone in my dorm after class today and I was going to use it to write... just used it to shower, go through all my files again and blog. Let me know if you're reading this, I want to know if people will be here for me while I write! 

!What's up-- from Jerusalem

Hi everyone! Someone recently asked me a question on my formspring and it made me realize that you all deserve an update and an explanation for my extended absence. Normally if someone leaves the fiction/fanfic community for longer than a few weeks, you assume that they dropped the project, got too busy, and/or are probably not returning any time soon. Just wanted to let you all know that THIS IS NOT TRUE! I'll be back for sure in February. 

"Here's how I responded to the sad question "where are you

I'm glad someone noticed I was gone! But don't worry... I haven't gone too far! I'm studying abroad in Israel and this semester is my university semester. It took me a while to settle in and then we didn't have internet in our dorms so it was impossible for me to keep up with everything on here (my stories, blog, and email.) The semester ends at the end of December. In January I have ambulance training (I'm working on an ambulance the second half of the year!) and then I'm going to Czech Republic for two weeks and then I have a bit of army training. (I'm not going into the army but everyone here is drafted into the army at age 18 so this is a program for international students to experience what they go through--feel free to ask me more about it if you're interested!) And then after that my life finally settles down and I move to a tiny development town in the desert to do volunteering. Everyone who has done this program before says that we have a lot of free time during that part of the year so I know I'll resume work on my stories then. Keep in contact, though, because I'll be working on everything intermittently before then!

Feel free to comment, email me at laurel.firemeup@gmail.com or contact me in any other way if you have any questions about my projects, progress, or even my life abroad! I'll be happy to share! Also, sorry about the weird punctuation on here... blogger is all in Hebrew now and that's written left to right so the punctuation gets all messed up. 

שלום ולהתראות

Shalom v'lhitraot! (bye and see/talk to you soon!

xoxo,

Laurel

Love from the Desert

A Quick Update!

Hi Everyone! I just wanted to apologize quickly for the lack of updates. I recently moved to Israel for a year before college and life has been extremely hectic. I'm taking classes and living in dorms and there is basically no internet in my dorm. ( I have a rare free hour at school right now.) Anyway, I'm still alive and writing! Well, I'm not writing too much right now, but my ideas are still flowing. Most of my projects will be on hold until January or February, where I move to a smaller town and begin volunteering. Everyone who has done this program in the past says that the pace of life gets a LOT slower during the second semester and people spend a lot of time reading and catching up on TV shows. What am I going to do? Write, of course! So keep me on your watchlist, I'm not stopping my writing!

Updates on my specific projects:
Meridian:As I planned, I will probably resume work in a few months. I'm still at a loss for ideas, but my brainstorming for other stories has helped.
Harry Potter Prequels: Also still going, don't worry! I just don't really have internet access to communicate with my beta readers, and I spend a lot of my free time that I used to use for writing exploring the city I live in and hanging out with friends and such. But don't worry. I got so far on that project and it still really excites me, so I'm still working! Feel free to ask me any questions if you have them.

(ps... it took me the longest time to figure out how to use blogspot here! The entire website is in Hebrew, which is why the formatting looks so weird.)

I'll update you all soon, when I start working again. They said they are going to be fixing the internet in my dorm building within the next week or two. I anticipate that I will begin writing a  bit again once that happens, because there are a few afternoons where I don't have class and my roommates do, so I have the room to myself and nothing really to do. So hopefully I'll be able to be productive again, because I really miss my stories! If you have any questions about anything at all, please ask me! Ask on here, on my formspring, on my email... whatever.

Until next time!
Laurel

Hunger Games, Dinner Club, and Earthquakes

Currently listening to:

Gunpowder and Lead by Miranda Lambert

Many interesting things have happened in the past few days. I've heard a lot about the book Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and have been meaning to read it for a while.

I found it sitting on the kitchen table--my younger brother had bought it the other day--so I stole it for the night and decided to finish it in one sitting. Admittedly, I fell asleep on it after an hour or two, but I finished it the next day. 

I definitely loved the book. The writing style took a bit to get used to, as it was all written in present tense and the sentences were a bit choppy. Overall, the effect was certainly unique and definitely made us feel like we were inside Katniss's head. At some points the writing seemed too simple and minimalist; I wanted more emotion.  Sometimes it seemed that Katniss was thinking about the wrong things--love when it should have been her family, family when it should have been love. It picked up about halfway through the second book, though. The dialogue was sharp and clever, the characters were full, and the narrator had a strong voice. She stated startling blunt truths, and the writing showed a lot of insight into the human condition. The book ended with a few twists (I'm not about to give them away), which I thought were at first extremely predictable, but I was satisfied with the way they turned out and led into the sequel. This afternoon I went out and bought the sequel, Catching Fire. So far so good, I'm two thirds of the way through. Love triangles usually make me angry, and this one is no exception. I'm a Gale person myself. He knows how to fend for himself, he knows where his priorities lie, and he has never changed. His anger is understandable. And I'm a firm believer that, in order to have a successful relationship, the two must be able to sustain a friendship first. Otherwise, there's nothing but PDA, and when you strip away that, there's not much left. The closer the friendship, the stronger the potential of the relationship, and Katniss and Gale were as close as you could be. So we'll see how that ends up. (And yeah, maybe I just have a thing for brooding dark-haired boys.) All in all, I really like the political basis of this book, and I'm no revolutionary, but I think it rings true in some ways in our country. I'll let you all know when I finish the book. 

It was funny, just as I came to the part about the tracker jackers, a HUGE wasp flew into my room! I relocated to outside to finish the rest. And about halfway through the book, an earthquake hit. Now let me tell you, I live on the East Coast, and earthquakes are basically unheard of. So when I was home alone (of course) and my entire house began to shake, at first I thought it was the garage opening. But no, it kept on going. My next thought was that it was a tornado, so I ran to the shelter. But no. It was an earthquake! We spent the rest of the day waiting for the aftershock that never happened, but they say it can take up to a week. 

All of my friends have either left for college or are this week. I'm one of the last to leave, and it's weird watching all my friends move away one by one, literally dropping like flies. My week has been filled with meeting friends for ice cream or dinner before they go off. Two nights ago we had our last Dinner Club. While we were at school, a few of my friends and I decided that we would form a sort of club, and every month or so we'd all get together at someone's house, cook dinner for each other, share gossip, and watch movies. We were all from completely different social crowds, but we all became friends in Calc class. Under different circumstances, you'd never normally see a group of people like us together. Let me just explain who these people are, so you get the full dynamic. There's Collin, the gay indie filmmaker. He wears skinny jeans and plaid scarves, is attached to his iphone, and knows all the ins and outs of the school gossip. There's Noah, the lax bro, who always wears Sperrys, pastel-colored shorts and a lacrosse t-shirt, and always has some funny news about the athletic crowd. The other boy is Jack, the clumsy one who trips over chairs and sometimes falls off them, knows nothing about fashion but works at a clothes store, and is a genius but you'd never know it. The girls consist of Ella, the artsy painter who usually wears huge tortoise-shell glasses and something handmade,  Ava, the singer and fairy princess who is the most whimsical girl I know and probably my closest friend at school, and myself, Laurel, who is just... me. I play some sports, I write and draw, I dress almost exclusively in Free People clothing, I can be snappy and intensely loyal, and people find me pretty hard to categorize. All in all, we're an eclectic, yet very fun bunch. I'll miss them. 

Updates: I'm taking a year abroad before college this year and I leave on Monday. SO much packing to do! I probably won't be physically writing much while I'm gone, but my goal is to finish the outlines for Meridian and my Harry Potter fanfic (I've finished the outline for the first book, now on to the following three!) So I'll keep you all updated on my progress. If there's anything you want to know about... anything, please ask! I never know what to write about in my posts. 

HP Challenge

Day 6: What house would you want to be in? Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart! Every time I take a quiz, that's where I end up. And people tell me I'm intensely loyal to my friends and not afraid to speak my mind. 

Day 7: Favourite female character: Hermione grows up so much, and she overcomes her greatest obstacle: herself. That's very honorable and probably the most difficult thing to do. 

Day 8: What would be your favourite lesson? Transfiguration or Charms. I see myself as someone who would be good at those. Transfiguration is more calculating, Charms is more about effect. 

Day 9: Least favourite male character: Peter Pettigrew. I have no room for a traitor.

Day 10: Horcruxes or Hallows? They're no good, destroy them both. Keep the Cloak, maybe. 

William Blake and Other Assorted Novelties

Currently listening to:
Barrel of a Gun by Guster

New things!

•  I don't know how you could not notice, but I've got an awesome new layout! A huge improvement on the last one, don't you think? It really fits with the silverware theme. (A very odd theme if you ask me, but I like it.) I'm still working on the design of the blog and the widgets and such, so if you have any suggestions, let me know!
• Another exciting new addition is the c-box. It's located on the right-hand side, under the post archive. You should still comment on my posts (hint, hint) but the c-box lets you talk directly to me and gives me a chance to respond! It's only a live chat if we're on at the same time, but it's a great way to ask me questions, give me suggestions, or just stop by and say hi! I'll love you forever if you write in it. 
• I've figured out a way to upload Word documents as a PDF so you can see some of my works in progress before I post. The first one I did is for my Harry Potter prequel fanfic. It's located under the "Harry Potter" tab, and you can see the rough prologue I wrote. Next, I'll probably be uploading a short story I wrote last spring entitled "Devil's Beach" as part of a collection of stories. 

I had jaw surgery last week and I was starting to recover, but I stopped being able to open my mouth more than an inch or so, and the after-surgery swelling never went down, so I have to go back in for a second surgery tomorrow morning. Joy. 

I couldn't really do much this week, so I sat with my big anthology of British poetry and read the entire thing cover to cover. I love William Blake, and I've read Auguries of Innocence before, but the first stanza struck me even more when I read it this time. 

To see a world in a grain of sand

And heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.

The poem just has such a serene feel to it. If you read it when you're agitated--the whole thing, not just the first stanza--it helps you calm down and accept whatever it is. I first read the poem in British Lit class in high school. It was a whole class devoted to British Literature, and I was in heaven! Well, admittedly, my mother forced me to take the class to get some "real" literature and I was less than happy about it, but my teacher was great and he had a way of getting everyone interested in even the most boring writings. He didn't care if we turned stuff in late, as long as we did it eventually, we never had any tests or quizzes, and we would just have whole-class discussions about our interpretations of the readings. I always imagine his voice reading this poem--it had a slow, low, soothing quality to it. The first stanza is all about seeing the world in different ways--through something tiny, something living (which is also a symbol for love), and to see time as something either ever-expanding or  with a limit.

Anyway, enough of that. I found this wonderful Harry Potter 30 Day Challenge, courtesy of Scandalacious Intentions. It looked like fun, but instead of doing full posts about every question, I'm going to do short answers and post five days' worth of questions for each blog post I write. 

Day 1: Your favourite book: Order of the Phoenix or Goblet of Fire. OOTP because of the places that book has been with me--Italy, camp, Wyoming... and GoF because it's the only book where I felt Harry was truly happy. 

Day 2: Your favourite movie: Prizoner of Azkaban, but only because of the cinematography.

Day 3: Is there any of the films adaptations that have made you angry because they’ve ignored important parts of the book? Deathly Hallows Part 2. It left out so much. I posted about it right after the premiere.

Day 4: Least favourite female character? Ginny, because I feel like she wasn't developed enough as a character. JKR started to, but stopped after the second book. She had the possibility to be a really deep, interesting character.

Day 5: Favourite male character? Sirius Black. He's such a complicated character--a case of arrested development, fiercely loyal to the point where he knows he would die for his friends, yet rash enough to risk everything. 

Updates:

Apps Galore!

Currently listening to:
FA FA by GUSTER


It's been a while! I've had a really eventful week--jetskiing, tubing, and a Guster/Jack's Mannequin concert! And yesterday morning I had jaw surgery! Yesterday was sort of miserable and I really can't eat anything, which is horrible. I've been having this gross rice-in-water combination and Advil liqui-gels along with my mega-painkillers. Good thing my brothers are away, they'd make fun of me forever. But I woke up this morning feeling a lot better (after the 5 hours it took me to finally get to sleep) and I'm just really sore now. It feels like I have a migraine in my mouth. But I went out shopping with my mom this morning and hung out with some friends tonight (I couldn't talk), so I guess you can say I'm improving! 


I'm going to devote this post to my favorite iPhone/iPod apps!


1) Words With Friends. Of course. What's better than playing live Scrabble against your friends?

2) iMailG is a handy little app for Gmail users. Even though iPhones and iPods come with built-in email, this app has all the features of Gmail, including threaded messages, Google+, docs, calendar...


3) Evernote. It's the same as the website, and you can even sync your accounts. It's really handy for writing, school, just about anything! Evernote lets you record and organize your thoughts in any manner imaginable--lists, pictures, videos, voice memos, anything!


4) iHeartRadio. Listen to hundreds of radio stations from cities all across the country. 


5) Kindle, self-explanatory. I don't use normal kindle, but some free stuff is always good to read when you're waiting somewhere. 


6) Songify. It's just really fun. Speak into the microphone and your words will come out autotuned!


7) Flood-It! 2 is quite possibly the most ridiculously addicting game ever. The goal is to flood the screen all one color by starting with the block in the left-hand corner and changing the selected blocks to the color of a touching block. It makes a lot more sense on screen.


8) Helsing's Fire Lite is a new find and I already love it. "When the implacable Professor Helsing and his assistant Raffton travel to The Shadow Blight, they'll need every weapon at their disposal to defeat Dracula's vampire horde. In this captivating, dark Gothic puzzle-adventure, use Dr. Helsing's powerful torch and tonics to save the world from the demonic uprising!" It's a lot of fun and the graphics are great!


Updates: Still working on Meridian and my Harry Potter prequel! You guys will be the first to know when I post anything. Also, check my project tabs above, because I've changed stuff! Feel free to comment!


-Laurel