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NaNoWriMo: What is it?

Put the ice queens, princesses, witches, monsters, pirates, Doctors, and whatever other costume the kids wore away.  Halloween is almost ove...

Sunday, December 31, 2017

Sports and Games and Writing

First, let's just all admit it's been a long and tiring year.  To be completely honest, I'm typing this as I listen to an anime I decided to finally try to watch: Haikyu! after having gone out with my husband to watch Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.  While watching this I started to compare volleyball and basketball.  They almost mirror each other in a strange way.  This is going to severely simplify things. 

See volleyball has six players per team on the court at any time.  There's an out of bounds area, but the biggest thing to remember is to keep the ball in the air - to hit it across the net in the center of the court.  For basketball, there are five players on the court and an out of bounds area, but that's about it for the similarities other than taller people tend to have a better time playing the sports or at least they tend to get more recognition.  Instead of keeping the ball in the air and from hitting the ground, a player has to dribble the ball.  This means it has to keep hitting the ground.  The only time to have the ball in the air is to either pass or shoot for a basket.  Basketball keeps track of points during a specified amount of time.  Volleyball takes its time to reach the points to win a game.  So as I said - they mirror each other oddly.

The other reason I started to type this particular post?  The new Jumanji movie got me thinking.  I think I want to write a story with a similar concept, but more like really throwing the stereotypes on their heads.  We've seen instances where guys and girls switch bodies and people either age or get de-aged, we've seen general change-ups in stereotypes: mostly the exact opposite.  Some examples would include the jock whose actually a brain, the "ugly duckling", and my personal favorite (note the sarcasm in this bit) the gamer girl.  Obviously, there are a lot more, but for this story, it would be a take on the gamer girl.

Well, that's it for this year's rants.  Hopefully next year I'll be better at my weekly aimed posts.   Have a Happy New Year for 2018, everyone!

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Skillshare: a First Foray

I've been seeing a lot of things about ways to learn about things for free.  I mentioned MOOCs back in Super Bowl and FutureLearn, but I've found other programs since then.  Recently I decided to actually look into something both recommended by various acquaintances and advertised regularly on Facebook: Skillshare.

There's a lot to know about this site and eventually, I will post a review about the overall site, but I wanted to highlight something about one of the free courses I signed up for.  The course is called Blogging Basics and I chose it hoping to learn more to make me a better blogger.  The first assignment is basically to figure out what your blog will be about, and that is where I'm having a hard time.

When I finally decided to actually start a blog, I knew I didn't have much to offer.  I don't currently have any degrees in anything except the school of life where experience is the degree.  I never truly got into any of the fandoms that I found fleeting fulfillment in.  In fact, everything about my life is more of spontaneous decisions, going with the flow, and finding ways and excuses to keep from trying too hard.  So why did I start a blog?

I was feeling unheard on topics that my husband is not a fan of.  Then I realized just how hard it is to find reviews about certain things, so I set up two blogs.  One is a review blog.  I'm not a critic or professional reviewer, but a review is basically someone's opinion.  Some of them have more merit than others for various reasons, but all a review boils down to is that it's an opinion littered with facts about the reviewed topic(i.e. specific book, movie, event, item, etc.)  Sadly, I've yet to truly start on this blog though I have a list of things to review and post.

My second blog is this one.  It's not regularly posted to and I haven't done guest blogs or interviews for it, yet.  Maybe as I figure out where my niche is, I'll get some.  For now, however, I'm still exploring my options is the best way to put this blog.  Well, that and a way to air out what I think about various things.  It basically is my way to vent when I feel unable to truly unleash my thoughts because I'll be countered or agreed with before I get a chance to explain my thoughts.  Don't get me wrong, I love hearing counterarguments and various viewpoints of the same subject.  That would be why I follow so many different subjects.  The issue is that sometimes I feel as though my particular viewpoint isn't heard.

My husband is bad about trying to argue his point without truly taking in what I've said.  I'll try to understand what he's getting at with his point, but it doesn't feel like he wants to do anything but hammer home his particular opinion and ignore any new information in regards to the subject.  We actually spent over an hour once arguing over the wording used to say basically the same thing.  I had stated it originally, then he tried to claim to disagree but kept repeating what he was saying, not even trying to figure out if there was a different way to say it to get me to understand what he had said.  I, on the other hand, had tried to figure out what he meant and how exactly it was different from what I was saying.  When he finally did change what he said, it was the same thing I'd said.  Don't get me wrong, I can dig my heels in and be stubborn as well.  It's just I never seem to be listened to and, apparently, he almost always has to be correct.

That's not to say he isn't correct about a third to half of the time.  It just means that I got tired of trying to get him to hear what I was saying and found a different place to say it.  I don't typically air out issues he and I have more because I feel it's private and not necessary to share with the world than anything else.  This is an issue that makes me wonder if I'm actually speaking clearly or not since it happens with more than just my husband.  Once upon a time, I loved trying to argue my point, but now it feels like the more I try to argue it the less I'm willing to defend it because it feels as though I'm not going to be understood anyway.

It doesn't stop me from wanting to get information about things and what I feel about them out there.  So I found another way and that's where the blogging comes in.  I doubt this is what the teacher meant by building a platform for your blog, but I've never been able to focus on a specific subject for a long period of time before changing subjects.  After a while, I'll return to a previous subject.  I have many interests and decided I didn't want to keep myself forced to follow only one thing, especially when there are so many things that I'll be looking forward to remarking about, just check out some of my past posts.  There are reactionary posts as well as a small variety of random information.

Camp NaNoWriMo, April 2017: The Start

So, two weeks ago, I could have sworn I had typed up about five or six posts, only to realize on Monday morning that I hadn't completed and posted or even scheduled to post even one of them.  Then last week, I swear I had meant to type up a post, but I got seriously side-tracked by the Pokemon Go water event and work, again.

Now, I know yesterday was April 1st, and you are likely expecting some kind of prank or joke, but I don't want to do that when there are so many other pranks being performed out there (Collinsville ketchup bottle, anyone?) so I've decided to start on my Camp NaNoWriMo, April 2017 posts with this one.  The title indicates that there will only be 5 posts, and that is because there are five Sundays this month, but the fifth also happens to be the final day of April.  I'll be focusing this month on two main works of fanfiction, but I've chosen one for my Camp main project, but everything typed is accepted.  My goal is 25,000 words for the month.  Since there are discussion boards for a couple of my courses and there are these blogs that'll likely be used at the last minute to up my count, I might actually win!

So, to give you a bit of information on the two projects that I plan to work on.  The first is a crossover between Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter and League stories.  I can't help but think about Styxx being taken in by Thraix and Dagger before Artemis sends him to live through Acheron's memories.  There's also the reaction to the Andarion fangs by both Daimons and Hunters.  Even the fact that they don't rely on the same deities.  I know the first meeting would be when Fang and Vane are trying to protect their sister's pups, and that they would be meeting Styxx when he's been coerced by Dionysus.  There are some other things I'm aware of including a major slash element and some instances of male pregnancy, but not completely sure yet of an end game which is slightly annoying to me.  There are some changes to the source materials for my fic and it will definitely not be everyone's cup of tea, but then, what is, right?

The second project is a multiverse crossover based on the Assassination Classroom anime.  The first one that I'll be focusing on in what will be a series, is Nagisa attending the boarding school in Princess Princess.  So far I seem to be focusing on crossovers with other animes, but that's because the Assassination Classroom is set in Japan and it's kind of hard to find things that use Japanese schools that aren't based in either anime or manga.  I plan on crossovers with Bleach, Ouran High School Host Club(OHSHC), Fruits Basket, and Eyeshield, though more are planned.  It's definitely starting with their high school years, but it's likely to follow them until a future reunion, Not the one used in the anime, but one even later.  Some years after Nagisa has been teaching [and likely gets hired in future years at Namimori of Katekyo Hitman Reborn!(KHR!)] to get the most from my ideas in one series.  There is one pairing in KHR! that I really can't see splitting, even if they aren't cannon.  That pair is Karma and Nagisa.  I don't know why I see them together, but I do.  Can I read others where they aren't a pair? Yes, however, I doubt I could ever write one.  After the high school years, I do want to go into various after school stories.  If Nagisa isn't hired in Namimori, then either he or another of the Assassination Classroom would have been drafted into the mafia and called in to aid Reborn.  Obviously, there are going to be timeline alterations throughout the series just because of the combinations that I want to explore.  I've got a few of the high schools chosen, such as Karma remaining at Kunugigaoka and Itona and the human version of Ritsu attending Ouran.  The Ouran line will be fun, but currently, only Nagisa is willing to inform me of their antics, though some of them include some of the others...Oh, and Karma is grinning evilly about the Namimori part, so there's that.

As of this posting, I have 200 words towards my goal.

How about you?  Will you be participating in Camp NaNoWriMo April 2017 and if so, what are your goals and projects?  Have suggestions for either project I'm working on?  Leave a comment, I promise you won't be bitten...unless you have Hibari nearby, then who knows, lol!

1May 2017 Edit: Instead of doing a post every Sunday, I'll do this one and one about the month's journey after the month is over (this upcoming Sunday.)  Apparently, I had an exceedingly busy month outside of writing, but more on that in the end of the Camp post!

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Dancing With The Stars Season 24: a New Set for New Complaints

Recently, I saw an article (I can't remember where it was nor am I willing to hunt it down so I can link it to you) that claims Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) is no longer full of "has-beens" and "never-going-to-bes."  The reason for this according to that particular writer is one particular star on the recently announced casting list.

Now, before I fully read the article or even knew who had been included in Season 24's star list and whom they'd be paired with, I thought maybe they got Johnny Depp, Katy Perry, Anne Hathaway, or some other celebrity that is so much in the limelight that it would draw in viewers of all ages, castes, and occupations.  I was confused when the star they wrote of was Charo.  The article claimed this artist as the most popular in a list of stars that includes Mr. T, Chris Kattan, Heather Morris, Erika Jayne, and Normani Kordei.  Do I recognize all of their names?  Of course not, but that doesn't mean I don't recognize their picture or the role they played in a show.  Then there's Mr. T.  I'm sorry but I think of him as more well-known than most of the others.

Then I thought back to previous seasons, and while yes the first few seasons weren't nearly as star-studded, they've had some popular celebrities in the past.  I still don't really recognize the names of season 1's contestants, but season 2 held Drew Lachey and Stacy Kiebler not too mention Jerry Rice.  Season 3 held Vivica A. Fox, Sara Evans, Jerry Springer, and Emmitt Smith.  Season 4 included Joey Fatone and Billy Ray Cyrus while season 5 contained the very popular Sabrina Bryan, well-known for her part as Dorinda in The Cheetah Girls.  I'll admit that season 6 seemed to be more "has-beens" and "little-knowns", but then season 7 came back with Kim Kardashian.  Season 8 had Lil' Kim and Season 9 brought Melissa Joan Hart.  Season 10 brought Kate Gosselin and Season 11 was Bristol Palin and Kyle Massey though they placed 3rd and 2nd respectively.  They were beaten by "has-been" Jennifer Grey.  Season 12 contained Chris Jericho and Kendra Wilkinson.  Rob Kardashian and Rikki Lake competed in Season 13.  The only name I recognized from season 14 was admittedly "has-been" Jaleel White, a common occurrence for many of the names I recognized.  Season 15 brought back past competitors.  Season 16 however, held another huge star at the time, though it was through Disney - Zendaya.  Kellie Pickler was apparently making waves in the country music world as well.  Season 17 had members of the hit musicals High School Musical and Glee - Corbin Bleu and Amber Riley, respectively.  I really don't feel like continuing to list names that were big at the time they were on DWTS, even if there are only a few more to get caught up on.

It just annoyed me that someone claimed that DWTS has never had celebrities that were popular in the year they competed like how they managed to get this Charo for season 24.  According to ABC.com, season 24 will start with the 400th episode on Monday, March 20.  Recently, they celebrated 10 years on the air, now it's on episode 400 which is great.  Sadly, I miss the days where they had a results show that went over what they expected for the dances and various skits, like Len Goodman's judging scale (You get 1 point just for showing up; a two for actually moving on the dance floor.)

Anyway, here's to hoping you can enjoy another wonderful season of DWTS.  Oh, and don't forget to wear green on Friday, March 17!

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Laze-about

Okay, so last week I actually had the intention of typing up a post about some thoughts I'd been having about Pokemon GO and the buddy system, then I had thoughts about Charmed that I thought of making into a post (and I still plan on doing each of these eventually) but as Sunday got closer and closer, I felt myself losing interest in writing much of anything.  Finally, on Sunday, I ended up just lazing about.

What I mean is that I spent the day, a day I should have been cleaning, doing schoolwork and finalizing my weekly blog post just laying in bed, reading.  And I wasn't reading regular books either.  Confession time: I was reading fanfiction.  I know, it's not much of a confession when I look at previous posts.  If I write them, I have to read at least a few, right?  But here's the kicker: I was reading fanfiction as a way to detach myself from a world I've found myself increasingly losing interest in.  It's hard finding stories that don't piss me off in some way - and fanfictions are the worst for it.

It's not like I can justify disappearing to the library for hours of reading anymore.  I also can't just go out and buy every book that interests me and read as quickly as I used to.  Part of it is because the few people I deal with seem to delight in distracting me from whatever I might be working on.  It truly does annoy me when I'm reading to be drawn from a well-crafted world just to answer a question about something like dinner or a new game or going out that night for a walk...It shouldn't though.  I just have always found reading the best way to escape from a world I don't understand and, more importantly, don't wish to understand.

So, I spent last Sunday just reading, or at least trying to when a friend of ours shows up just as I was starting to get the energy to actually get up and do some much-needed housework done.  Suddenly I felt sapped.  All the energy I had gained from the enjoyable day before and the reading I'd done that morning was gone.  I didn't want to think or work or write, so I returned to finding fanfics to read.  I didn't go outside for Pokemon GO - lost that week's seventh-day rewards.  I didn't eat much.  I didn't even log on to my e-mail or Facebook...not that I check my Facebook that often anyway...  I just felt completely drained again.  Between my husband wishing to go out all the time and friends popping over to borrow our internet, I don't think I've had more than an hour to myself in the last three weeks, if not longer.  It grates on my nerves and makes me unwilling to do things I may once have loved doing.

Hell, I can't look at my stories because I know I have ideas, but there's no time for me to get all the proper research done, like rewatching a show to ensure things get written properly, but I can't seem to get ideas for the stories out of my head unless I hunt down fanfics and then I get annoyed because the stories that may actually fit the ideas in my head are either with pairings that I can't stand to read about (Harry/Hermione in anything HP related, for just one example) or use gender-bending, not as a part of the story as such that it had to occur or that the person truly felt that wy in their story, no, they use the gender-bending because they wanted to rename the character with a different name, or they will give them another sibling for that sole reason.  It doesn't matter what it was, most gender-bending stories I can't stand.  I'd rather read a story with male pregnancy than read one where this guy was actually born a girl and raised to believe they were a boy complete with all the bits.  That's not to say anything against Haku's story in Naruto.  That one is actually one I'm still unsure of their gender...

Anyway, I just needed to get a few things out of my head, and while it annoys me to no end that I feel a need to constantly strive for some time that is strictly for me and constantly failing, I love my husband who is always trying to get out and go places or spend time with me, and I love my dog who is curently sleeping after a late night in the city.


Sunday, February 19, 2017

Valentiny Pokemon

I know, I know.  It's been three weeks since I last posted, but please allow me to defend myself...again.  I work two jobs and have school.  I have a husband and dog and we have friends that I'm expected to socialize with.  In fact, if I don't take the time to spend time with others either online or in real life, my husband starts to bug me about it, which must have happened.  On top of having to socialize, one of my jobs asked me to work an extra day each weekend - two weekends in a row.  I had made plans to actually have the articles done and take advantage of the scheduling ability, but, as I mentioned, I also have school.  Then there's the housework and my own pieces of work.  I deeply apologize for the long wait.

I've been thinking a lot lately about energy levels.  Most people have their daily reserve, the main reserve and a reserve reservoir of energy.  Not everyone operates using only the daily, nor is everyone able to get their daily reserve refreshed as often as they should.  Personally, lately, I feel so deeply drained that I can't seem to find the reserve reservoirs at even half full.  It worries me because sleep, reading, writing, listening to music, and watching a show I find interesting with others who can comment on said show without completely negating the want to watch it (it's been years since I've watched a show that I truly liked without hearing something negative about the show causing my love of said show to diminish) used to help revive my energy, but it feels as though nothing will help.

For those who celebrated Valentine's Day, I hope you had a happy one.  Also, there's a bunch more Pokemon available in Pokemon Go!.  I spent a bit of time catching a few, but not as much as my husband who has caught at least 20 of the 80 newly available Pokemon.  Good luck hunting them to all my Pokemon players!

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Popcorn Day?

Apparently, this past Thursday (January 19) was National Popcorn Day.  While someday in the future this will be a part of my articles about holidays, that's not why I'm remarking on it.  At one of my jobs, we get free popcorn on Thursdays.  So this past Thursday, I find out it's National Popcorn Day and get a bit excited thinking we'll be getting free popcorn.  Ironic, huh?  Well, if you think the reason I'm typing about it is because it didn't happen, you'd be right.

Apparently, according to the guy in charge of making the popcorn on Thursdays, the popcorn machine really did not want to make popcorn.  He got it going and before the first batch has gotten started popping, the agitator stopped working.  If you've ever worked a popcorn machine, even at home, you know that the popcorn cannot just sit still in the oil as it's get heated because the kernels closest to the bottom (furthest from being able to pop out of the heat) will burn, if not the entire batch.  So, he immediately stops making the popcorn and calls maintenance to hopefully get it fixed.  Maintenance believes it's fixed and the guy managed to make a few batches of popcorn.

When he goes to make more, the agitator is once again not working.  This time he hasn't even added the kernels or oil so it doesn't need to be cleaned out from the only partially used popcorn and oil as he'd had to do previously.  So maintenance gets called again.  After the supervisor takes a look at it, they realize they have to order a new motor for the machine which means no more popcorn.  The popcorn that was previously made was gone before noon with an "Out Of Order" sign on the machine.  Go figure, right?

Did you get any free popcorn on National Popcorn Day?  What about other funny anecdotes about things going wrong?  Feel free to leave a comment about it!

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Reboot Charmed?

Sorry, about last week's skip.  Between birthday celebrations and house cleaning that needed to be done, I kind of put my blog on a back burner.  But I am typing and I promise to attempt to release a blog post each week, preferably on Sundays.

Now, for the thoughts running through my head recently.  First, I only recently read about the Charmed reboot.  I saw it posted on Facebook and haven't really looked into it other than to learn that it's supposed to be set in the 1970's.  While I have great hopes for anything that is remotely related to Charmed, this post is not going to be based around the reboot and my hopes for it.  Saying that, I should most emphatically admit that there are likely to be things that I hope or have thought of being added to the Charmed series.  Sometimes I'll be writing about something or thinking of something and it'll be another thing I'll be like "Ooh, I wonder how this would translate in the actual universe," or "You know, I really wish they would expand on this..." such as the Prudence Halliwell and Andy Trudeau friendship.  Some other things would be various events that are referenced but never truly explained or explored during the series, including Phoebe's rebellious phase and how that may have been changed because of going into the past and changing Grams' personality.  I should also admit to doing my best to stick with the television series since I haven't been able to read the comics continuation and only a few of the books that were written.  I don't have easy access to said books, however.

Thinking on Charmed and all of the things they did in a period of eight years, there were things that annoyed me, like how the sisters made a pact to never give up their magic in season 1, and then, at the end of season 4, Phoebe and Piper consider it once again, seeming to have forgotten the pact they made with Prue.  Speaking of Prue, it always annoyed me that they never brought her back.  They referenced her a number of times, but in the final season, she's hardly ever even alluded to and the iconic picture of Prue, Piper, and Phoebe is conspicuously absent.  If it weren't for the marriage counseling episode, I wonder if Prue would have ever been mentioned or in the series again.  I always thought we were dealt a bit of a disservice to her character in that respect.

So one of the things that keeps popping up in my head is how in All Halliwell's Eve when the sisters are transported on Halloween to colonial America to aid in the birth of one of their ancestors, Phoebe plays along with one of the practices to find a person's true love.  This practice is to breathe on an apple peel with only thoughts of love before dropping it in water.  For Phoebe, the letter that is first in her true love's name is "C".  At the time she believed it to mean Cole and throughout the seasons he did pop up numerous times.  There were also other lovers for Phoebe that didn't always begin with "C" like Jason and Drake.  Despite hints toward her living with them, such as her premonition of marriage, her true love ends up being a cupid named Cupid or Coop for short.

It was nice that this return to an old occurrence became fact before the series ended even if others did not ( the premonition of Prue owning her own company with blonde hair ring a bell?).  It was something that sometimes annoyed me since some of their travels could and would affect their future.  It was also aggravating that the sisters, while considered the strongest witches of the Warren line, were never given the understanding or respect from certain others that they probably should have had.  I mean, they saved the world from magical creatures and when Piper is at death's door, Leo is not supposed to try to heal her, despite the fact that her death would ruin her sisters.  In fact, the saving of Piper and Phoebe but not Prue always upsets me when I think about it, but perhaps that was because Prue's true love had already died.  It's a thought that has always plagued me about Charmed.

Think about it for just a moment.  Prue and Andy Trudeau were best friends in their childhood.  Such best friends that Grams was willing to risk him learning their secret to allow the girls to play with him.  This is proven in the episode they travel back to the seventies to save themselves from an enchanted ring that would kill them.  Grams unfreezes a young Andy after the older Piper and Prue manage to "kidnap" their younger selves.  After Andy's death at the end of season 1, it felt as though Prue had lost herself.  In fact, to me at least, it seemed as though she had lost the one thing that mattered most to her.  After his death, she quits her job and just seems to be unsure of what she wants anymore.  By the time Piper is infected with a fatal disease contracted by smuggling in tropical fruits, it seemed as though the only reason Prue had stayed was for her sisters' sakes and she would otherwise have gone to the "dark side".

This leads me to believe that even if Grams claimed that Prue hadn't taken her own death well, it was likely not for the reasons so many others would have thought.  No, it wasn't that she hadn't wanted to die, but rather that she felt her sisters still needed her, especially Piper.  After all, it was Piper, Phoebe, and Prue who were "summoned" to colonial America as the "most powerful good witches of all time" (Eva, All Halliwell's Eve), not Paige.  It's Prue who managed to handle an empath's power that was never meant for her and Prue who managed to counter the sins.  It was also Prue who managed to channel enough hate to destroy a dark lighter so as to save their white lighter and his charge while they were power-switching in one episode.  You know, Piper and Leo have switched powers/bodies numerous times.  I wonder if there were many side effects as Chris and Wyatt were growing up hearing about their parents' misadventures?  I digress, though.  Everything indicates that Prue was the most powerful witch of the three, even if when it becomes Piper, Phoebe, and Paige, they are still powerful as the Charmed Ones.

On that point, I seriously have to disagree.  In fact, there are any number of hints that Piper is actually the strongest of the Charmed Ones.  It's not a bad thing, it's just something that when it seems as though Phoebe is being portrayed as strong or that Paige has an inferiority complex in regards to her taking Prue's place in the sisterhood, I can't help but think about.  Piper has during the course of the eight season series died a decent number of times, fallen in love with warlocks, ghosts, and white lighters, been turned into a veritable zoo of magical beings and still puts up with being a witch even if most of the time, she hates it.  But these aren't why I think she's the strongest of the trio - I mean quartet.

No, it's something much different than an overview of what has happened to her or how she's reacted.  It doesn't even have anything to do with being the Lady of the Lake to Wyatt's King Arthur.  It's the fact that when she thinks of Grams - the matriarch of the modern day Halliwell's - she is taken to her future self.  There's a lot more to it than just that, and I'll put it in its own post.  But something else to think of: Piper has had to fight to control her power, often at awkward times.  She's had to fight even harder than any of the others for her true love, and yet she's always been the most motherly of the sisters.  How could she be relegated to almost a side-note in so much of the series?  Even when they tried to focus on her journey, it felt almost more focused on Leo or Phoebe or Paige or Prue; even Cole had his own journey of "This is me, deal with it.  I'm the one who's got a story to tell!"

Charmed was largely about the sisterly bond between the three but in the monkey episode (Sense and Sense Ability) the trio found that they had an innate bond that when they focused on each other they could use it to utilize each other's abilities and heighten them.  As far as I can remember, at the time of typing this, they never again show the capability to do so.  In fact, family was such a big thing that it only made sense that the final acts of the series would be for another bond very similar to the Charmed Ones be turned to use against them.  In that case, meet Billie and Christie.  Don't worry too much.  The Ultimate Power was separated at a young age and the kidnapped one turned against anything that we would typically perceive as good.  The other had to hunt for her sister alone while also learning to use her own powers which didn't really manifest until she was older.

Despite everything, I hope that reboot doesn't focus too much on the actual Charmed Ones even if they are born in the 1970's.  It feels like almost a cop out.  References to them and spotlights with guest stars would be wonderful.  So would the truth of Patty and Victor and Sam's love triangle, but I think it would be much better if they focused on a different branch of the Halliwell tree...maybe that drunk cousin they mentioned in the pilot episode?  Well, whatever they do, I hope they keep in mind the reason the original Charmed was as well-liked as it was.

Sunday, January 1, 2017

New Year 2017

Welcome to my first post of 2017, done on the first of the year.  Corny, I know, but I couldn't help it.  Anyway, Happy New Year's to all and hopefully I can get back to typing up these once a week.  I know, I still haven't carved a niche for myself and these are still somewhat sporadic, but I promise I am trying.

I thought about starting my Holidays series today, only to realize that I'll have to probably start it later this month.  I'm really late on typing up this post, but I am determined that something other than my Pokemon GO journey in 2017 is going to start out correctly.  I am determined to get this Holidays series started, though.  When I get it started in its first post, I will explain more about it.  Yes, my first post is hopefully going to include information (probably only a paragraph or two) about New Year's Eve and Day.  Eventually, (most likely at the end of this year) they will receive their own post.

Other posts I plan on writing out include my DCOM 100 article referenced first in Catch Up and NaNoWriMo, a Six Flags post (this will include a link to a review based on the short amount of time my husband and I spent there), and something about some of my writing and fanfiction thoughts.  When it comes to fanfiction, if a reader reads one of my ideas and wishes to write their own version, they are more than welcome to.  I will not be offended and will more than likely be proud that someone else actually liked my idea.  If a person is impatient enough on currently being worked on stories, hopefully, they will try to help me find the muse for said stories again.  Just a heads up, some start as dreams and others I've been stonewalled because of the loss of progress that I had already completed.  I also do plan to get those D&D series going soon, but it's getting a bit hard for me to keep track of everything I want to post on.

Even my cooking series has had to take a backseat to any number of other things, but hopefully, with this fairly decent start, things will keep in a generally good direction.  I promise I haven't stopped writing or posting, it's just that real life tends to avoid allowing me to just take a few days to be generally worry-free.

I mentioned that my Pokemon GO journey for 2017 has started out correctly, and I guess I had better explain this so that it can be understood a little better by those who actually play the game.  My husband and I decided to spend the time after we got up this morning hunting for pokemon that we just don't have.  With the current event, we weren't that worried about the original starter Pokemon, nor were we worried about pikachu.  In fact, the first pokemon we decided to go for was seel.  Seel was reported to have a nest on about a 45-minute drive from where we live, approximately, so we decided to check the spot out.  We were there for an hour and managed to see ten seel, two magikarp, and a bulbasaur.  I also hatched a pichu, smoochum, magikarp, and voltorb.  After that hour, we decided to go to a known water-type nest, where we caught enough magicarp that my husband finally got his first gyarados and to top that off we caught two dratini! We also caught a couple of ditto, a bulbasaur, and saw/caught numerous other pokemon, but I really don't feel like looking them all up again.

Here's to hoping your New Year's Eve was fun (we played a horror-based D&D campaign) and that your first day of 2017 has at least been good, so Happy New Year everyone!