Good Books, Good Friends, Good Times.

Mikey and I went book shopping all morning. We ended up going to four places and still no Maureen Johnson books.  I did end up getting Shiver, Leviathan, Extras and Eragon though.  I've told myself I have to finish re-reading the Twilight series before I can start any of my new stuff.  Oh the torture!

After a few hours at home, we went to watch UFC and hang out with some friends we haven't seen in quite a long time.  It was really fun.  This is the first time in a while I've been able to hang out with a group of people that I haven't seen in a while and be totally comfortable.  After watching the fights we played some drinking games.  We played the most intense game of memory ever!  Haha.  It started out as a joke and ended up to be epic.  We then played 3 Man, which I've never played before.  It was pretty awesome. I recommend learning to play.  The game consisted of some great laughs and even a very serious heated discussions.  This was the best night I've had in quite a while.  Here's a very poor quality picture of Mikey as 3 Man.

 

That's about all for today.  Going to sleep like a baby now.  I intend to read all day tomorrow.  I promise!

Dear John,

I think I'm in love with you. Don't tell my husband. 

Haha.

We saw Dear John tonight. It was pretty awesome. I love Channing Tatum. I've been obsessed with him since Coach Carter in 2005.  He has definitely developed as an actor.  He was phenomenal in this movie.  Hands down his best performance to date. Amanda Seyfried was amazing too. I downloaded the Dear John album and her singing is so awesome.  Her acting has also gotten so much better since Mean Girls. Both Channing and Amanda are definitely becoming actors to take seriously instead of just teen movie worthy.  Anyway, I can't wait to read this book.

We also saw previews for The Last Song and Remember Me.  Both look like they'll be pretty good, but I'm not sure how I feel about Miley Cyrus.  Her acting leaves something to be desired and she makes the most horrid facial expressions.  The Last Song is also a book, so I want to check that out too.  I can't wait till we get tax money so I can get more books.  Not that I don't have enough to read already. Haha.

I can't remember what else I wanted to write about for today. I really need to start writing things down during the day.

Um...I started reading more Twilight Fanfic.  I feel like such a nerd but there is one author I've read before and she is actually a really good writer.  I don't even think of her characters as Twilight characters.  You can read her stories here.  I recommend her stuff even if you don't like Twilight.  She definitely has amazing skills as a writer.

Oh and Boomhower from King of The Hill works for Safe Auto.  I had to call about some issue with our insurance and the customer service guy sounded exactly like Boomhower.  It took a lot out of me not to bust up laughing while I was talking to him.  Oh man how this guy got a phone job, I will never know.

That's about all I can think of right now, I'll throw in an edit if I think of anything else.

I'm still reading New Moon, so no book updates. Sorry. You know you love me!

Damon Salvatore and #GenderinYA

I watched last weeks episode of Vampire Diaries today and then watched tonight's episode.  I love this show.  It's getting so good!  Last weeks episode was my favorite episode so far.  I went squee a couple of times.  I love Ian Somerhalder, as you can probably tell.  I read the whole Vampire Diaries series last year and he is PERFECT for this character.  I admit the show is much more mellow than the books were, but it's still amazing.

I also spent a good amount of time in a discussion via Twitter with a bunch of authors and book lovers today.  You can probably still find it all under #GenderinYA.  We were discussing Male POV and how it is mostly lacking in the YA genre.  Very few authors write YA novels from a male prospective and it may be something that is needed to appeal to male readers.  Majority of YA readers are female, so of course it's benificially for an author to appeal to their readers.  Also many authors of this genre are female and therefore write what they know.  I want to try my hand writing from a male POV, but I'm not sure this is something I'll do right away.  I'm comfortable with female POV and every character I've created in my head is in face female.  Some interesting stuff was tweeted today though.  Go check it out for yourself. You can find a PDF file of most of the conversation here.

I spent a lot of my day online today, catching up on my blog obsessions, and finding some more cool sites to wander through.  I got a new follower too! Hi Patty! You can check out her blog here.  I like to think people are actually reading what I write.  It makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Anyway, I'm off to drag my hubby away from Pokemon and watch some Bones.  Catch ya'll later!  I promise to read some before bed.

2 Posts In One Day??? I'm Crazy!

I contemplated leaving the contests as today's post, but I decided that was cheating a bit.  I'll write a bit to help my conscience. Feel special, you get two posts today! :)

I spent today wandering around my favorite blogs and entering contests.  I read a bunch of book reviews and added my favorites to my Amazon "I Must Have" list.  If you haven't already browse through my favorite blogs, there is some good stuff there. 

I'm having fun reading about new books and such.  I plan on going out this weekend and visiting a couple used bookstores in my area and trying to shorten my "I Must Have" list a little bit.  It's getting out of control.  So many books, so little time.

I also was reminded how much of a loner I am.  Erg, I hope to fix this problem once we move, if we move that is.  I'm a nice person...be my friend! :)

Anyways, not much else to write about today.  I finished reading Twilight and I'm moving on to New Moon tomorrow.  My husband doesn't understand how I can read them so many times.  I don't get it either. I'm strange I guess. 

Well that's all for today. :) See ya tomorrow.

Current Book Count: 13

Contests Are Fun!!!

Contest #1

Contest #2
http://www.fireandicephoto.blogspot.com/ Check out Italian Alessandra Fusi's Art and enter to win a free handmade ring and bookmark!

I Want to Get LOST.

Lost The Final Chapter started tonight.  I've never watched a single episode of Lost, but decided tonight that I'd check it out.  I watched the hour re-cap and then the 2 hour season premiere.  I think I might be hooked.  The re-cap alone had me wanting to know more.  I guess I have to add this to my list of shows to catch up on. Yay me!

I started reading Twilight again.  I'm going to re-read the whole series since I own them all now.  I figure I'm allowed to do re-reads and I want to read Breaking Dawn again, so I might as well read all four.

I really didn't do a whole lot else today.  I had a really bad headache all morning, so I slept in pretty late.  It made the day go by really fast.  Oh and I watched Wimbledon.  I've never noticed before, but Kirsten Dunst is kind of ugly.  HAHA.  It was a cute movie though. 

That's about it.  Going to watch some more Bones!  YAY!

We get money Friday! YAY! 

YAY!

Happy February.

Well It's officially been a whole month of 2010.  My year of blogging and reading is already one month down.  I've read 12 books so far and I've written everyday.  I'm pretty awesome.  In celebration of getting through my first month I'm going to tell my non-existent readers a little about myself.

1. I love to read.  Ok so you may already know this, but I don't think you understand the extent of my book obsession.  I own a very large sum of books (I plan on counting them when we move) and I've read a very large number of books in my life time.  I used to go to the library as a kid/teen, check out 30 books and have them all read in about 2-3 days.  I was a maniac. I still sort of am this way.  I read 12 books last month (a couple of them were Harry Potter). I am a freak.
2.  I love people.  I love watching people in real life, reading about people, and knowing about people.  This sounds strange and it probably is.  Since I was a kid, I've always loved people watching.  I'd sit somewhere in public and just watch people go about their daily lives.  I think this is why I love Vlogs and Blogs so much.  I'm able to delve into peoples lives from the comfort of my own home. My favorite quote on this obsession is, "Yes, I'm listening to you and you may end up in my book".  I've come to realize lately my ability to pick up on people and who they are and what they are up to is partly do to my writer's mind.  I told my husband recently, "I'm not creepy, I'm just analyzing Human interaction for my novel".  OK I'm a little creepy.
3. I get really obsessed with things for a short time and then never think about them again (at least not for a couple months). Examples of this; Neopets, Gaiaonline, Tumblr, Runescape, SIMS, Harvest Moon, Watching shows/movies online, Internet Killed Television, etc.  I tend to get really obsessed and spend hours and even days doing one thing non-stop and then all of a sudden not caring about it anymore.  The worst is when I all of a sudden months later want to start up where I left off.  I did this with Dexter. I really wanted to watch all the seasons.  I watched it straight for 2 days and now I really have no desire to watch it anymore.  Weekly tv shows are really bad for me because most of the time I stop caring half way through a season. This tends to creep into my reading habits, that will be part of my challenge this year. ARG.
4. I'm really a little kid at heart.  I love kid shows, kid games and especially kid books.  I love the Disney Channel, coloring, and online rpg's meant for kids.  I know I'm a loser.  You don't have to tell me.  I've felt better lately realizing there is a whole community of adults online who love YA novels as much as I do.  At least I'm not alone.
5. To follow on that last one, I get a long better with the 12-18 age bracket then I do with people my age.  I don't know why that is and sometimes I worry about myself, but whatever.  I really do want to write YA novels and I actually really would love to be a Youth Pastor again.  The Pre-teen/Teen years are such an impressionable time in a persons life and I like the idea that I can encourage positive growth. This quote basically sums it up, "In a world that is so busy, and demands so much of all of its inhabitants, young people need a secure environment, where they can experiment and decide who they want to be. They need significant people to be there to help them through this process. They need role models to follow."  I strive every day to be this person.

That's enough delving into the Manda psyche for today.  I hope you feel enlightened.  I feel like maybe I'm wasting space on this blog since I don't write long insightful posts everyday.  This is me.  This is who you get.  Hopefully I'll get better as time goes on.  That's the point of this anyway, really.

Oh and I finished reading Rebel Angels today.  It was awesome.  I wrote a review on YA Books Central. I really don't feel like writing another one.  I'll put a link to it here.

Alright off to watch Bones. :)

Current Book Count: 12