twentyseventolife

Happy two year anniversary to me. Yes, it’s hard to believe, but my very first post on this blog was back on January 4th of 2008. I was twenty five and thought it was a catchy enough name for a blog. Now I’m twenty seven as of a couple weeks ago. It’s been a fun ride so far, and really I didn’t think I was going to make it this long. Here I am though, two years later, writing on the same blog. It’s kind of crazy where life has taken me in that time.

When I first started writing on here, I was living in Annapolis, working for the government, and struggling to figure out what I was supposed to do with my life. And you know what, I still haven’t quite found out what I am supposed to do with my life, but that really doesn’t matter to me any more. I realized that I couldn’t keep looking to some idealistic future that would hopefully happen one day. I had to just start living. Living in a way that was excited and involved risk. Getting away from what was familiar and safe, and stepping out to the unknown. It wasn’t an easy transition, but anything worth doing is never easy. Over the past year I’ve gotten to see some amazing places and become friends with some amazing people. I no longer feel like boredom and monotony take up the majority of my time. I don’t look for silly distractions to keep me entertained nearly as often. And sadly, I’ve written on here less and less at the same time because really, I don’t have lots of time to kill writing on my computer anymore. I think that it’s a good problem to have though.

So happy birthday twentyfivetolife. Here’s to two more years of random thoughts.

New habits

Remember what I said in that other post about me starting to write again? Well I really am trying lately and I’ve found that it’s not easy at all. Things seem so easy when they are in my head floating around, but the second I try to put them down on paper (well computer screen actually, trying to live green) it seems like nothing makes sense and I can’t put together a single coherent thought. Funny how that works isn’t it? I remember reading something about how you aren’t a writer unless you are writing at least a page a day. That might not sound like much, but to actually force myself to write something, even if it is only one little page, every day seems downright impossible. Is it one of those things that gets easier the more you do it? I suppose when something like that becomes habit it’s much easier.

When I was little I hated taking baths and showers, but now I do it every day (except for those 3 weeks I was driving around the northwest living out of a tent of course) without even thinking about it. I suppose writing could become a similar thing. I might hate it at first, but after I have accepted that it’s something that I have to do every day, I will just write out of habit rather than having to force myself. It sounds like such a simple idea, but these first few weeks are going to suck.

Oh and in case you’re wondering, I’m not working on my teen fiction series…yet. That will come in good time.

I took the photo above on the drive to Las Vegas.

Currently…

listening to M83

trying to stay warm from the 10 degrees it is outside

looking for cheap ski pants online

anticipating Avatar next week

missing my MD friends

feeling slightly old with a big two seven coming up

still upset about that 5 on the river last night that put me out of poker

out of things to say on this post

Vegas!

I’m leaving for Vegas tomorrow morning! So excited. This will be my first visit to this fascinating city. Can’t wait to walk down the strip, eat at a buffet, and play some blackjack. I’ll let you know how it is when I get back.

Turkey Day

I know there is only 10 minutes left, but I want to say Happy Thanksgiving to all. This is the first Thanksgiving that I have spent away from my family. It was a different yet fun experience. I had dinner with some friends from church which was great. After dinner, a few of us went to see Zombieland. Good times. I hope you are feeling as thankful as I am today for good friends, good food, and zombie movies.

My precious

I played on this amp last night and fell in love for little while. What is this you may ask? It’s Mesa Boogie’s coolest, most versatile, most button and switch having, amp they have probably ever made. I have been wanting to try one since they came out, but there wasn’t a lot of music stores in the wilderness in Alaska. On top of that they are pretty hard to find in stores. Just by chance last night, Guitar Center happened to have one just sitting there waiting to be played by me.

After noticing the object of my guitar gear desire sitting there. I casually kept looking around and even played on a little cheap combo amp, just as a little warm up I suppose. Finally I went over to the counter and asked the guy for a chord so I could plug into it. I flipped the power switch on and let the tubes warm up as I looked over the myriad of buttons that let you customize your tone to your hearts content. I flipped the standby to on and went through each of the 3 channels one by one. Was it my dream amp? Well, not quite. I don’t know if my dream amp exists in real life, but this thing sure did come close. It had tons of tone that poured out through the speakers in such a pleasant way. It made me want to hand the sales guy my credit card and take it home with me that night for the super low price of $2,000. Luckily I did not let the tone hypnotize me too much. I resisted. One day I will own a nice amp though. An amp that makes me giddy every time I crank it up. One day…

My new career as a teen fiction writer

I have decided to start writing on here again all the time. I hope that is ok. I hope that you want to read more. Maybe you were hoping I would stop writing on here, but then I guess you wouldn’t be visiting my blog if you didn’t want to read what I had to say now would you?

Sometime I think I would like to be a writer. Granted, I also think that I want to be a rockstar, director, stand up comedian, dive master, mountain climber, chef, etc, on a regular basis. Writing is different though because it is attainable now. I have a computer. I have a means of sharing what I’m writing with people. Really I am set. It just comes down to me sitting down with my laptop and typing out words. Kind of how I am right now.

I like to think about the things I would write about if I were a writer. Last week when everyone was going crazy about the New Moon movie I decided that I would like to write a series of books for teenage girls. Not because I would enjoy writing books like that really, but because I’m sure the lady that wrote the Twilight books has enough money to write whatever she wants now and it doesn’t matter. I think I have the formula down too.

First you need a girl that has a good dose of teenage angst along with some kind of strange family situation. Maybe she is raised by her aunt because her parents died, or something like that. She has to have something that makes her feel different and out of place in high school because, let’s face it, we all felt different and out of place in high school and kids will relate to that. Next she needs to meet some weird, dark, mysterious guy. Maybe he’s a vampire (already done). Maybe he’s an alien (like the Roswell High books). Whatever he is, he has to be really good looking and have some kind of supernatural ability. I’m thinking in my books, maybe he has a pet unicorn that he can fly around on. Maybe he’s a half breed with a human mother and an angel for a father? Whatever it is, it gives him super powers.

Now even though this guy is the hotness and has superpowers, he doesn’t go for the popular, pretty girl in school. No, he goes for the weird outcast girl that has no friends. Why? Well because all the weird, outcast girls reading the book want a guy with super powers to like them even though they are ordinary. No one wants to read a book about the popular girl in high school getting the half zombie Luke Perry. It really is a formula that preys on the insecurities we all feel as a teenager. It’s kind of sad, yet genius at the same time.

After you get that far, it really doesn’t matter what else you write. It’s pretty easy from there. As long as there is some kind drama about if the improbably relationship will work or not, people will keep reading. Maybe his unicorn gets kidnapped. Maybe his demon uncle shows up and tries to kill the girl. Whatever it is, the audience will be hooked.

So what do you think? Is teen fiction my calling? Should I start book one of seven? Or maybe I should just make it a trilogy so the movie rights will be an easier sell. Hm…

(The picture is from Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake)

A good day

Today was a good day. Don’t you just like it when you can climb into bed at night (and blog on your laptop if you are me) knowing that that day falls into the better than average category. So often I think I just go through one day after another without putting any kind of qualification on things. It’s like I’m living, not really remembering anything about life, good or bad. I would rather have bad than days not even worth remember I think. Bad days remind me how different the good days are. Here’s what I did today:

Went to church

Ate lunch at church with fun people

Went to Target a bought a black hoodie. I have been missing this staple of my wardrobe quite dearly.

Also bought a casserole dish to make something for Thanksgiving.

Finished watching a documentary about the Iraq war called No End in Sight that was quite good yet made me angry with our government.

Left to meet a friend for dinner and noticed that it started raining with a little snow mixed in.

Found out the Chinese restaurant we were going to eat at was without power and switched dinner to a middle eastern place.

Left the restaurant to find the precipitation was all snow now.

Debated whether to drive home for an hour or kill some time at Barnes and Noble before the movie I was planning on seeing.

Talked to Stephen my roomy on the phone in B&N and discussed the prospect of going back to Alaska for the summer. Ugh, I don’t want to even start thinking about that.

Read an interesting photography book that had some great ideas.

Worried that I got stood up for the movie because my friend didn’t call me.

Decided to wait outside the theater just to see if they would show up.

They did show up and I found out they had tried to call me but had my number wrong.

Watched Julie & Julia which was an a great movie. It also made me very hungry.

Came home and tried some of the Kashi Cereal I got today.

Good day. Good night.

(the photo is from Canon Beach in Oregon)

Antelope Island

I had a chance to check out Antelope Island this weekend. All I can say is wow. I was expecting some dinky little state park, but what was there was a huge island with mountains rising out of the middle and bison roaming freely all around. It’s hard to believe that this place is a just a short 40 minute drive from Downtown Salt Lake City. They filmed western movies here back in the 20’s and it definitely felt like you were in the old west.

More pictures to come.

 

 

Dear friend, as you know…

This song has been playing quite often on my computer lately. I just thought you might like to know.