Another Week...

another essay. My creative juices are running a little thin with all of this school writing.

Next week is the state Quiz Bowl meet.

I don't feel like I have much to say. What I want to do is work on my actual Senior Project. I find it incredibly frustrating that I am unable to do so because of all of the other whatnot. I know that there are people who feel exponentially more frustrated about Senior Project than me, so I'm glad that I am not one of them.

I am emailing out my first chapters today. I missed my original date of November 1 due to everything else. Little tasks seem to get pushed out of my mind when I have other massive deadlines looming.

In Economics, we are beginning to write a "Vision" paper of what we want to be doing in five years, lifestyle-wise and money-wise. We also need to say what we're going to doing the next four years to reach this ideal. Honestly, I cannot see myself past college. I cannot see myself working. If anything, I see myself in a scantily filled apartment with books, a laptop, and a lot of pens and paper. After college, the only job I can think of right now would be a copy editor or something. Getting to read books for free and fix their mistakes. Sounds wonderful to me. I don't even know where I want to live after college. Not Spartanburg, honestly. Maybe California or North Carolina or Germany. No idea.

This is a hard paper. Lots of thinking and right now, thinking is a scary thought.

Progress...?

I actually wrote for about an hour and a half last Saturday. It was at a party (yes I know that's weird) but the environment was quite productive.

If you didn't hear, we, the Oakbrook Quiz Bowl Team, are now SCISA Regional Champions. We beat Richard Wynn and St. Joseph's to take the title. The funny thing is, it was really close in the end (200 - 195) and when it was announced that we won, the entire room was silent. Everyone was in shock because, let's face it, we never win these things, especially against St. Joseph's. So we are going to the state meet. Amazing.

I feel better now that another wave of massive homework load has passed. I should be good for another week or two before the next wave comes.

Whistle

I have not worked on my book at all for a while now. That really, really bothers me. As for the research paper, I haven't touched it since I turned it in. That kind of bothers me too.

Right now, I'm not feeling very motivated and I really don't know what to write about here.

I might be applying to UNC Asheville next week so I can apply for their scholarships. It would be nice to get an acceptance under my belt. Now that I'm actually filling out applications, I keep looking back at other options and wondering if I disregarded them too soon... Nyah.

Whistle.

Deviant Journal Entry

Yes, I feel better now that the rough draft is done. It is definitely not one of my better works. The paper is really just a string of connected quotations, but I have a month to fix that.

On college news, I am not going to be able to meet Stanford's Early Action deadline. I entirely forgot about sending off my SAT scores, and apparently it takes five weeks for scores to be sent... yeah. I could spend an extra twenty dollars getting the scores to California in two days, but I feel shaky on the essay anyways, so I don't feel too bummed about the decision to wait for the regular deadline.

I finally got the last member of the critique group contacted. He is a male seventh grader who goes to Oakbrook. I will be emailing out the completed parts of the novel to the critique group over the weekend.

As to my actual writing, I am doing it bit by bit. Now that the rough draft is done, I might get some more writing done tonight. Not much to be done this weekend though, because I've got about four major things (quiz, book review, article, abstract) due on Monday.

The future is looking bright, right? It will be nice to have an evening where I don't need to work on school-related stuff until ten thirty and need to wake up early to complete it.

I have the urge to end this post with a quotation. Let's see... here's one.

"Don't judge a thing 'till you know what's inside it." - Bryan Adams

Ah heck, here's another one.

"Not all those who wander are lost." - JRR Tolkien

Outline

Yes, I forgot to write a blog post last Friday so I shall do it today.

Below is the outline for the book I am writing. If you do not want any spoilers, then do not read the words between the dashes...

Warning: It's quite long.

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I. Andor and the Palace

a. Andor

i. Before Arrest

ii. Arrest

b. Time at the Palace

i. First Few Days

ii. Banquet

iii. Return to Andor

iv. Parent Reveal

v. Poisoning

vi. Ignis Flower

vii. Engagement

1. Reveal

2. The Necklace

3. Reveal Once More

4. Escape

II. Adventures in Falleon

a. Motel Business

b. Fenicks

i. Intro to Filio

ii. Training

iii. Leyes’ Backstory

iv. Phoenix

v. Whispered Conversation

vi. Escape/Departure

c. Gallowtown

d. Rabbit Business

e. Festival – Lights on Water

f. Fire Business (Rabbit Recall)

g. Ignatio Light’s Manor

i. Training

ii. Return to Falleon City

1. Orphanage

2. Palace

h. Mint Leaf Bay

i. Find the Elves

i. Dragons (perhaps)

ii. Erise Story

j. Epic Battle

i. Filio’s Icicle

ii. Blasted Elves

iii. Capture

iv. Death

III. The Castle Once More

a. First Day(s)

b. Training

i. Flight

ii. Fire

c. Horseback Riding

i. Friend Sighting

ii. The Kiss

1. Heart Loss

2. Release

d. Contact with Erise

e. Water Moment in Library

f. Almost Did It

i. Didn’t Do It

g. Marriage

i. Threaten Leyes

ii. Reveal

iii. Regain Heart Essence

1. Realization of Weakness

2. Mockery from Oramus

a. Erise’s Release

b. Corinth Notices, Does Nothing

iv. Erise’s Push

1. Grabbed Too

2. Leyes Helps

v. Corinth’s Finale

IV. Wrapping It Up

a. Government Set Up

b. Parents

c. Pasin and Leyes on Mountain

i. Option to Go

ii. Decides to Stay

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Okay, it's safe now.

Honestly, I am not sure if this is what a book outline looks like; I just wrote what came to mind. As you can tell, the formatting is messed up on here. Sorry.

Thesis and Other Whatnot

Right. So my thesis for my research paper is as follows...

"Fantasy books invite children to use their imaginations and explore their worlds creatively; reading fantasy books encourages creative thinking, innovative problem-solving, and the curiosity to explore unorthodox options."

Honestly, I have not gotten very far with my paper. Today, I printed out three more sources to read through making my grand total of sources come out to five. -fanfare- I will probably be working on that later tonight.

I just read Rebecca's blog and I honestly agree with her sentiment. It's not that I hate what I am doing in my classes - the problem is that everything is stacked up on each other. I would really enjoy learning about this topic for my research paper if I didn't have all my other work to deal with. Yes, I know that's how the real world works. I am not going to say I like it though.

Lately, I've been feeling like my writing has been stagnant and just... wrong sounding. Like what I've written so far in my blog. I feel like I have this wooden thing blocking the fluidity of my thoughts so that they come out wrong. I am kind of scared that the Economics paper I turned in today had the same problem.

I wrote two pages more in my book this week. Yes, I wrote them in government class, but they are written.

By the way, if I haven't answered your comments, it's not because I'm not reading them. I am used to having a reply button on comments so that the author is notified when I reply is made. From now on, I will simply leave my comment below the first. My bad, mea culpa, es tut mir leid, etc. Sorry.

Gah, I feel like I have more to say but I can't remember it. Kind of like how I feel when I am in a debate.

Wooden words. Ugh.

College?

Let's see, I just got back from a college visit about six minutes ago and realized that I had to write this blog post for tomorrow. At least I remembered...
I visited Elon University in (-drum roll-) Elon, NC. I liked it for the most part; the student body is around 5000 people and that seems a bit big for me. Also, I signed up to sit in on a Creative Writing class and the professor never showed up. Other than that, I enjoyed the trip. Their mascot is a phoenix, which doesn't hurt.
Alas, I have done little (aka nothing) with my Senior Project this week except draft an email and perhaps write three lines in my book. I'm too busy worrying to do anything. And I'm only half-joking when I say that.
If I think about what I still need to do, I might a) have a panic attack b) freeze with worry or c) laugh hysterically until everyone around me thinks I've lost it. Which might happen.
Hopefully, the stress and deadlines will push me to get an extraordinary amount of work done and give me hope for the future. That would be nice.