Road Trip Wednesday

Todays question from the girls over at YA Highway is:

The house is on fire and you’ve only got time to grab five things. What are they?

I already know I’m going to embarrass myself on this one, so here it goes. The very first thing I would probably grab is my baby blanket. Yeah, I still have it. My Aunt on my Father’s side made it for my older sister, but I stole it. I mean, who else could say they took their first baby blanket from someone? The next thing I would probably grab is my box of scrap-booking stuff, along with my notebook that has all of my notes for all of my stories, including the first draft of my Azreal story. Don’t want to risk losing all of my hard work, especially now that my laptop is officially kaput. Now what else would I take? Probably my belly dancing stuff next, like my zills and costumes…or my zills and cane…most likely my zills and belly dance costumes because costumes are expensive. I don’t want to  start again from scratch. It was hard enough acquiring what I do have.

At least I know I’ll have an easier time getting out of a fire than my boyfriend. He’d be stuck trying to choose between his weapons and numerous gaming consoles, including his computer.

So what would you grab if your house was on fire?

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Eclectic Monday: Lesson Learned

So today I found out that my laptop is officially done. The mother-borg is apparently fried so the computer guy can’t do anything to save it. Biggest sad face ever. 😦 What does that mean? Well, everything from all my stories (including the one I’ve been working on for over a year) to all of my videos and pictures are on that computer. And, being the smart and perfect person I am, who does know better, but doesn’t always do what she should, didn’t have a back up…of any of it. So imagine the heart-sinking feeling that ensued once I heard the devastating news. All of my memories, all of my hard work just gone. I wanted to cry, but am too embarrassed to do that in front of a stranger…or anyone for that matter. Crying is more of a lone activity for me.

Anyway, the computer guy, probably sensing my forlorn, then announces that as long as the hard-drive isn’t fried too, he can save all of my data. So, if I’m lucky, I haven’t just lost over a year of my life, and I’ve learned a hard lesson. Now, I’m going to price flash-drives and invest in disks, because I decided I never want to go through something like this again.

Now, I’m off to find my pencil…literally. Everything has to be handwritten now, that is until I get another computer–and maybe even then. You know, just in case. 😉

 

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Father’s Day

Just a quick shout out to all the Father’s out there on this very special day. Hope your day is filled with lots of love. 🙂

And to everyone else, please remember to let your father know how much you love and appreciate him (or whoever was the special person in you life that filled that role).

For fun I have come up with three words that describe my own Father:

Mellow, reliable, loyal

Note: My father’s nickname is mellow because relaxing is more of a feat for him than it is for most people, but my family wouldn’t have it any other way. 🙂

What three words best describe your own father? Let me know in the comments below.

Have a great day and hopefully I’ll have another post soon. 😉

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Alejandro Sanz

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get bored. I get bored with doing the same thing over and over again, just like a get bored with listening to the same type of music over and over again. So the other day, while I was listening to the same songs for the thousandth time, I decided I needed a change. Not just a new artist kind of change, but an entirely new view type of change. The result? I came across Spanish pop singer Alejandro Sanz. Now, my Spanish skills are minimal at best, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the unique sound of his voice and inflections within it. The visual wasn’t too bad either. I normally am not a fan of tattoos, but on the right guy…:) Anyway, music is a universal language for a reason. Instruments, chords, keys are the same in all of them. Also, living in the most connected age in history makes it easy for someone like to me to go and look up the lyrics to his music in English so I have some clue what is being said.

But I’m really enjoying this. A whole ‘nother world of artists has been opened up to me. People I can learn something from in more than one way. First I have the message of the lyrics, then there are the way things are phrased. I have heard many times that English isn’t as easy to write in because it’s not as “flexible” as other languages. On top of that, it gives me a chance to brush up on my high school and college Spanish. Something that is very rusty. All this is very important to me, especially when it comes to my writing. I think it’s easy for writers, especially those who speak only one language, to write from that one view. But, if I have a bi-lingual character whose upbringing was mixed, or a character that embraces their ancestors culture, knowing things like the pop artists and at least bits and pieces of the language can really help in creating an authentic character. Not some stereo-type that no one connects to. Right now I’m working on a story in which on of my main characters is Hispanic. So right now I’m trying to create his personality and find out who he is. I think exposing myself more to this culture will really help me shape who him.

So tell me, what do you to when you need a change of perspective when creating a character? Let me know in the comments below.

Now enjoy this video of Alejandro Sanz while I find my pencil. 😉

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Nothing

Nothing

Every breath I take filled with emotionless air.
Suffocating in nothingness for too many years.
Unable to hurt, to cry, to love.
Not even a sliver of guilt
When you tell me I don’t care.
So fed up with pretending,
The facade is slowly breaking.
Nothing left to give, Nothing left to take.
Will you stay beside me if I finally let you see?
Or, will you leave if I take down my defenses
In order for you to glimpse,
The nothing that is me.

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Cairo Caravan

So a little over a week ago I attended the “Cairo Caravan,” an annual belly dancing event that takes place on the Queen Mary. Belly dancers (beginners to professionals) come from all over the world to attend this three day event. It’s really a fabulous experience to watch how many different ways people express themselves through the art of belly dance and it’s even more exciting to feel the support even the least experienced receives. Vendors also litter the place, along with drummers. After we performed my sister and I joined a drum circle that had gathered outside for an impromptu dance. Anyway, it was an exciting day and I thought I’d share the youtube video that was posted of our tribal troupe. 🙂

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