Another Day, Another Week, Another Month, Possibly Another Blog

Hello there, guys!  I know I haven’t updated in a while, and I’m sorry about that. I’ve been very busy with a number of things, such as schoolwork, church trips, school plays, failing at Camp NaNoWriMo, wasting time on Tumblr, and the like.

I may have mentioned something about potentially switching to WordPress at some point previous to now, but I can’t remember if I have or not, so let me explain myself.

Most of the blogs that I like to keep up with are WordPress blogs. I think it’s neat that readers, whether they have accounts on WordPress or not, are able to subscribe to your blog via email, which is a feature that does not automatically come with Blogspot blogs. Now, I know that is something that can be done, but I am technologically illiterate for the most part, and I have no idea how to do that, or even how to find out how to do that. Another added bonus is the fact that WordPress has an Android app, which I can download to my Kindle Fire, whereas it is difficult to access this blog from my Kindle, since I have to go through the web browser, which tends to be very slow.

So, what I will do is create a WordPress account, and post a link to it in a few minutes. I will post a few times on this blog, as a trial, and then, if that goes well, I’ll switch over from this blog permanently!

So goodbye for now! A link coming soon!

The Gun Debate: Stephen King and That Other Dude

Lately, I've been doing a lot of reading, and now that the play is over, I have a little more time to write about it. Ever since the Sandy Hook incident, and even before that, gun control vs. gun rights has been a hot topic in the news and even in everyday conversations. In an effort to branch out a little bit, and keep up with what's going on in the world around me, I read two essays on the topic: Guns by Stephen King, and the poorly titled Stephen King Don't Know S--t by Rick Carufel.

This has put me in a tough spot. Mr. King makes a lot of good arguments, and I see where he's coming from, and I highly respect his intentions. He is a gun-owner in support of gun control, which gives him a nice balanced stance that I can respect. However, he doesn't mention one thing that I think is very crucially important to the issue. Think about the time period in which the Constitution was written. America was still very newly out of a revolution, and had just separated themselves from a tyrannical king. Therefore, the Second Amendment was intended for something deeper than hunting and going down to the gun range for fun. The Second Amendment was written so that the American people would have the opportunity to defend themselves against a tyrannical government.

Now, Mr. Carufel acknowledges this point in his thesis. However, the title that he has given his refutation instantly puts the reader's back up, so to speak. Can I just say that accusing your opponent of not knowing "s--t" instantly makes you look like an immature brat who was raised by a pack of wolves, and also, that it's really hard to earn back a reader's respect after a stupid stunt like that? I understand that the title was chosen for the purposes of getting attention, and yes, it catches attention, but not the kind of attention that any respectable rhetor wants.

His essay is also not as well-researched and not as well-written as Mr. King's. (Mr. Carufel claims to be a horror writer as well. There's a reason you've all heard of Steven King. It's the fact that he's been writing for who knows how long, and with all that experience comes skill that a less experienced writer will generally lack.)  Essentially, though he understands the intent of the Second Amendment, which makes him more correct than Mr. King, he makes himself look like an idiot who can't and shouldn't be taken seriously, all for the sake of grabbing the reader's attention, thus putting Mr. King on top for this round.

Mr. Carufel, try to be more dignified next time, and maybe you'll actually win a few points in the debate.

Play Week... AAARGH!

What a stressful week this has been so far, and will continue to be….

My drama team is putting on a production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest this Friday and Saturday, and, of course, drama queen that I am, I'm in it. I will be playing the fabulous Laetitia Prism, a role that feels like it was cut out for me. I love being in plays, I do, but, as anyone who's ever been in a play knows, the last week before the show is the most stressful experience of the whole process. Well, sometimes auditioning is more stressful, true. I suppose what I really should say is that the week before the play is the most stressful part of the process if you already know whether or not you're in the play.

At first, I wanted the role of Gwendolen, but I  didn't realize how well suited I was to the role of Miss Prism. Now that I've memorized my lines, and really gotten a feel for the character, I couldn't imagine myself as anyone but Miss Prism. I even have a Laetitia Fan Club at this point in time.

I'm just  tad overwhelmed by the sudden  and terrifying mixture of school, extracurriculars, church, home life, sleep, and all that. There's so much I need to do, and not a lot of time to do it. Pray for me, wish me luck, et cetera. I'm in a tight spot right now.

Introducing...Skinny Fiction!

You may be wondering what all I've been doing lately, hmm?

Well, I doubt it, actually. But I'll tell you anyway.

I've been doing all sorts of things, which include reading, practicing for an upcoming play that I will be in (playing the fabulous Laetitia Prism), recovering from a wisdom tooth removal surgery, submitting to a neat little literary journal,  and things like that.

All in all, my life's going very well, and now, rather than rant about my own life, there's something very special that I want to tell you about.

Have you ever heard of something called, "skinny fiction?"

Yes? No? Maybe?

You can learn more about it and even read examples at the conveniently located and aptly named "Skinny Fiction" tab at the top of this page. There's two skinny-fics on the page right now, and hopefully there will be  another on there soon. I just have to talk to my "dealer…"

Anyway, do go and read them, and if you'd like to write and submit one of your own, follow the link on the page. It's a very fun movement, and if you'd like to get in on it, please do! ~ Jess

The Starving Playwright

Have you ever had a huge school project, or a paper, or something that you were assigned by someone, that you had to do, and get done, and you tried and tried to do something good, but you hated your own work, and you went a day without working on it, and you felt so guilty, and you had the worst case of writer’s block ever, and you absolutely didn’t know what to do with the piece of junk in the first place?

Well, I have, and it’s not even schoolwork. Allow me to tell you about it.

If you’re one of my followers on Tumblr (which right now is only my friend MaKaylah, actually, and I don’t even think she’s reading this), then you might already know about this, but my youth group and I do this talent show every year, and we usually do a human video, but this year, we decided we’d rather do a play. I’m the only person who’s big on writing in my youth group, that I know of, and I also volunteered my services, so I’ve been selected by my pastor to write a play. Now, this is my first time trying to write a play, or at least, more than three or four pages of a play, and so I really have no idea how this is going to go. I got the official assignment last Sunday, and my youth pastor has very high expectations. He wants it to be humorous, but also tug at the heartstrings, and to have a theme of resurrection, and to feature true stories of the struggles of kids in the youth group, and alos to maybe have some songs and dances…It seems like he thinks I’m an amalgamation of Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Shakespeare, which, for the record, I’m not.

So far, I’ve written two whole scenes, and I’m working on the third one. I have maybe the worst case of writer’s block that I’ve ever had in my life, and I keep reading it and thinking, “Oh, this is so cheesy,” and “Oh my gosh, none of the kids are going to want to act in this,” and things like that. Allow me to state the obvious and say that writing is hard. Also, writing a play is much more difficult than I had expected. I suppose it comes naturally to some, but I’m more used to writing in basic prose, or in epistolary form. However, I do enjoy the challenge, and like I said in my last post, I do have a great story idea that I think would work better in the form of a play than in a novel… I suppose I’ll consider this as preparation for the future.

Oh, and I’ve forgotten to mention that I read The Hobbit shortly before Christmas break ended, and so, I’ve begun the semester with 125 extra credit points in my Lewis/Tolkien seminar. I was very disappointed in three aspects of the ending…cough…if all you Thorin/Fili/Kili fans get what I mean… L

Jessie and Kili forever!  Or, if you’re a Twitter addict, who doesn’t mind using hashtags outside of Twitter, #jessieandkiliforever.

 ~ Jess ~

A Family Drama

It seems like the past couple of weeks have been full of drama, in all sides of my family. I won’t go into details, but there’s been a lot going on in my little family, and I have to say, I think we’re all handling it pretty well. Every family goes through their own troubles at some point, and right now, we’re having our fair share of them.

Do you know what this makes me want to do? It makes me want to write.

There’s plenty of good, classic family dramas out there- take The Glass Menagerie. There’s also even more modern examples, movies and such. It’s a common genre, really, but that’s because there is an audience for it. It’s such a relatable topic, and it’s one that sounds like tons of fun to write.

Yes, in case you were wondering, this is how I deal with the things that go on in my life. I turn them into words. Ever since I was young, I’ve written in various forms, going through phases with writing journals, novels, and poetry. It’s just so therapeutic for me- it helps me to view the events in my life in a more objective way, and it helps me stop looking at what I perceive as “unfairness,” and look more at the big picture. Even now, here I am, still writing novels and poems, and blogging. This is how I cope with my struggles, and how I sort things out, and so, this is what I do. Writing clears my head.

So here I am, writing after a botched attempt at a nap, still working on this blog that I figured I would have dropped by now.  Well, I guess it’s a good thing that I haven’t dropped it- it’s turning out to be quite beneficial for me, whether anyone actually reads it or not.

Back to the topic of family dramas, I’ve had this little idea rolling around in my head for a while now. This is not necessarily something that I would want to write in novel format, but there is a NaNoWriMo-esque thing in April called “Script Frenzy” where you have to write 100 pages of scripted material in a month, and whenever I think about this idea that I’ve had, it seems to lend itself more to a movie, or perhaps a play...more on the idea itself later. I’ve got to go write down the details before I forget them!

Love, Jess

Giving Back This Year (Important Things)

Happy (slightly belated) New Year's, guys! Let's break out the sparkling grape juice and the confetti!

So, one might wonder what I've been doing since my last blog post. If I had any readers, they might ask, "So, Jess, what have you been doing since you posted last?" Well, my answer would honestly be, "Nothing of consequence." I've been playing silly games like Fruit Ninja, Subway Surfers, and things like that on my new Kindle Fire, spending the night over with friends, and doing crazy nonsense. At my friend Cathy's house, I literally stayed up for 40 hours straight. We went bowling for her birthday (yes, because we're the cool kids), then we came home and had a dance party, and stayed up all night watching movies. I finally saw (500) Days of Summer, which was great, because how often do you see Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Matthew Gray Gubler in the same movie? Never. And they're beautiful. I watched the first half-hour of Ted, and was bored to tears, then watched Pitch Perfect, which I was expecting to be like Glee, but it was actually pretty neat. Then, since I'm a diehard Tyler Perry fan, I watched Why Did I Get Married? and one of my old favorites, Daddy's Little Girls. 

That's all fun, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not life-changing. I want to do something that will really positively affect someone. That's why tonight, when my youth pastor mentioned going on a mission trip this year, instead of our usual beach conference, I was so excited. He called it to a vote, and all the kids that were speaking up seemed really excited about helping others, so I thought that the vote would be next to unanimous. However, half the group apparently voted for the beach trip. All they want to do is go hit on people and get a tan.

I don't usually blurt things out in the middle of church, but tonight, I couldn't help myself. My pastor and the rest of the leadership, as well as most of the older kids, who actually get that things aren't all about them, were clearly upset, and so was I.

"Excuse me," I declared, "but I just have something I want to say to the kids that are voting for the beach trip."

My pastor looked at me hesitantly- like I said, this kind of thing is unusual for me. "Ummm, sure. Go ahead, Jess."

"I'm not trying to be mean, but how lazy, and how selfish can ya'll be?" I demanded. Yes, I said "y'all." Most of the time, I don't have a Southern accent, but my "angry elf," as I call it, came out, and when I get mad about things, I turn into some weird hybrid of Madea and Jessie the Cowgirl. I don't remember what else I said, but I was really telling off some of these kids. Most of them looked appalled, but a few of the older, less shy kids looked proud of me.

My pastor fought a grin, let out an "oooooh," like I had just slapped someone in the face, and otherwise went on like nothing had happened. Most of the other kids didn't say anything about it later, but one girl, who just left children's church, came up to me, and apparently just had to say something, even though the vote was anonymous, and I wouldn't have known which way she voted if she hadn't said anything.

"I'm not selfish," she blurted out, "I'm just not ready for that." And with that, she ran off.

See, the mission trips we're looking at are difficult jobs. More than likely, wherever we end up going, we'll be building houses for the less fortunate. Yes, we'll be working out butts off, with few of the modern luxuries that we are used to, but still. I respect this girl for speaking up, but she just proved my point. That's the problem right there. It shouldn't be about when we're "ready." You think any of these people living in abject poverty were "ready" for their misfortunes? No. Are you kidding? Forget being "ready." This girl is 11 or 12, and has more expensive clothes than I do. I'm not saying anything bad about her, but really, this is how people raise their children nowadays? If you're not "ready" to give back to your fellow man, especially after all that you've been blessed with, you really need to check yourself.

And that was my little rant. Here, let me plug my favorite made-up charity, the Gorgeous Actor Fund. These men were the highlights of my movie marathon at Cathy's house, and we should give them all money because they're cute.

Say hello to the amazing Joseph Gordon-Levitt, star of such films as Inception, Premium Rush, Looper, and (500) Days of Summer.

Next, we have the fantastic Matthew Gray Gubler, regularly featured as Dr. Spencer Reid on Criminal Minds. Yummy.

Lastly, Idris Elba, star of Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls, who's also been in other films, but you sure see a lot of his biceps in Daddy's Little Girls. He's also British, which adds like 50 hotness points.

Well, that's enough eye candy for one night. Remember, think about other people. Like these three.
~Love, Jess