Month: June 2013

  • Well. . . .

    I’m not sure what to blog about today so I guess I will just blog about what I’ve been doing.

    I’ve been transferring my writing over to the new laptop. I made separate folders for poems, short stories and my book. I’ve transferred some of the poems over so far.
    Yesterday I delivered newspapers. It was hot out, but not as hot as it has been. Once the sun set, it cooled down and became really nice out. 
    I’ve been watching the Puppet Master series. It’s pretty good. The story is interesting and after a while, the puppets kind of grow on you. In their own way, they’re sort of cute. 
    I’m still reading the books I borrowed from the library the last time I was there. I’m currently reading The Time of the Witch by Mary Downing Hahn.
    I’ve also been thinking about my online store and what else I could sell. I’m not going to say anything yet, but I have an idea for something new I could sell. Next time I post a new item on here, I’ll say what the thing is I’m going to sell. 
    Not much else is going on. Today I will probably just stay home and read.
    What has everyone else been up to?

  • Book Recommendations: Goody Hall

    Goody Hall
    Book: Goody Hall

    Author: Natalie Babbitt

    Pages: 192

    Original Publication Date: 1971


    Hercules Feltwright was an actor, but decided to leave his acting troupe in exchange for the career of a tutor. And a tutor is needed at Goody Hall, where he is headed. 
    There he begins to tutor Willet Goody, who is the only child of the widow Mrs. Goody. 
    Willet’s father is supposed to be dead, but he doesn’t believe that is so. Soon he involves Hercules and together they search for the truth about Willet’s father.
    This book was a little slow to start, but it turns out to be quite good. There is a bit of mystery, which I definitely liked. The characters, I think, are all a bit strange in their own ways, but that makes them interesting.
    I found this to be a very enjoyable read. I love Natalie Babbitt’s style of writing. Her stories are just so. . . I’m not sure I can find a word for them. But they are imaginative and this one was just as good as others I’ve by her. I found that I really loved Goody Hall and it’s cast of characters. It’s a rather charming book that I would definitely read again.

  • Busy Weekend

    Well, my weekend was busy and so I wasn’t on Xanga much. I went away both Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday, I went to Hershey library. They had a talk going on there. Interesting stuff. Me, my mom and boyfriend went. David Lenker was talking and is the author of a book called The Knights Templar. 

    But David Lenker also discussed The Philosophy Of Freedom by Rudolf Steiner. It sounds like an interesting book that I’d like to read eventually.
    David Lenker is having another talk this month, but this time at The Stonehaven Farm, which is also located in Hershey, Pennsylvania. I will bring my camera in case I am allowed to take pictures. It will be on the 22 of this month. Me, my mom and boyfriend are all going to this as well. It sounds like it will be a fun day and I am looking forward to it. 
    I don’t know what I’ll be doing this week. Probably write, make some crafts and read the books I have from Hershey library. Currently I am reading Nancy Drew: The Kachina Doll Mystery by Carolyn Keene and like it so far.
    How was everyone’s weekend?

  • Wow!

    So I signed online and saw that I had over 100 e-mails!!!  It seems someone ( looking at you @Aloysius_son ) decided to start a party on my blog. I read all the e-mails and had fun reading them. 

    Thanks for volunteering my blog for the party. I never had a party on my blog before and this is the first time in about two years that I’ve gotten over 100 comments in a day! The last time I got that many comments is when the Featured Blogs were still around and one of my posts was chosen.  
    So, when is the next blog party? Let me know when and where and I’ll show up 

  • Movies

    This is a list of movies I’m looking forward to seeing this year.

    Monsters University. I love Monsters Inc and I am really looking forward to this one. It comes out June 21.
    Grown Ups 2. The first one is one of my favorite movies, I think it’s so funny. Grown Ups 2 releases July 12.
    I’m not sure if anyone has heard of this one, but it’s called R.I.P.D. and it is about police officers who have died, but in the afterlife continue their work. Instead of going after criminals, they go after evil spirits. I’ve known about this movie for a few years and have been waiting for it to have a release date. It releases July 19.
    The Seventh Son is a movie based off the first book in The Last Apprentice series. I’m not really happy with some of the things they’ve decided to do in the movie, but still looking forward to seeing it. It currently has no poster and releases October 18.
    The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. I’ve already read the book, so I’m ready for this. It releases November 22.
    I wasn’t able to find a poster for it, but The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. It is the movie I am most looking forward to this year. I loved the first one so much I went to see it in the theater twice. It releases December 13.
    What movies are you looking forward to?

  • Other Blogging Sites

    I’ve seen some people post their opinions on other blogging websites and thought I’d do the same. 

    Blogger – I haven’t been on Blogger in a while, but I know when I used to go on there often to read book blogs, it didn’t have a front page like Xanga does and there was really no way on the website to find other blogs. I started finding some book blogs because of Goodreads and through those book blogs I found on there, I found some other blogs to follow. A lot of book blogs I followed went to WordPress though. What I do like about Blogger is being able to customize your blog like you can do with Xanga.
    Tumblr – I tried this for a brief period and then deleted my account. I didn’t really like it. I see it was people mainly reblogging stuff and it seems there was no comment feature? At least it was like that when I was on there.
    LiveJournal – I like the groups (communities) they have. I joined the Diana Wynne Jones on there. It’s also easy to blog on there and they have nice themes to choose from for your blog. I also think you can have up to 15 profile pictures at a time with a free account.
    Thoughts.com - I just tried this a few days ago and haven’t been able to blog on there. I keep getting errors and “Page cannot be displayed” things.
    WordPress - I like that I can customize my page the way I want just like with Xanga. I also think it’s neat you can have more than one blog on your account and can create different pages on your blog as well. It’s not like Xanga with a front page or Top Blogs, but through searching different interests, I’ve found a number of blogs that I like and have followed. It’s not Xanga, but a nice blogging site.
    Open Diary – It’s been around since 1998 and has a small user base like Xanga. It’s the only blogging site I’ve found that to me feels similar to Xanga. You can add interests on there and find other users that way. It has a front page with a featured question but I think it’s called a weekly theme, as well as the latest blog entries and a reader’s choice thing. Open Diary also has a message board and there are Diary circles which you can post your entries to.
    Besides Xanga, the two blogging websites I like the most are Open Diary and WordPress. I don’t think I’ll ever find another blogging website quite like Xanga, but at least I’ve found a couple that I really like.
    Besides Xanga, what blogging website do you really like?

  • New Laptop!

    I’ve been saving for quite awhile, but I finally saved enough money to go buy myself a laptop to use just for my writing. It has Windows 8, which is going to take me a bit to learn how to use it. It’s quite a bit different from my Gateway laptop, which has XP. However, I really love it and I am happy to finally have a laptop that I can use just for my writing. Soon, I’ll be putting all of my poems and short stories that I have on my Gateway laptop to my new HP.
    Here are a few pictures of my new laptop :)

  • What Are You Reading? #8

    What I’m reading at the moment is The Fairy Rebel by Lynne Reid Banks. I’m about 30 pages in and I like it so far. It has a fun story, I like the characters and I’m looking forward to reading more of it.
    What are you reading?

  • Gettysburg

    On Saturday, I went to Gettysburg for the first time in 8 or 9 months. I didn’t go until later, but it was still nice to finally go to Gettysburg. We didn’t really get to spend any time on the battlefield since it closes at 10pm, but we drove around and I took some pictures. 

    For whatever reason, fireworks were being set off in Gettysburg and I got some pictures of those as well. We went to a few shops in town. The Haunted Gettysburg shop, which is my favorite shop, we went there first. I bought the first book in the Haunted Gettysburg series. We also went to Ghostly Images which has a lot of neat looking items and they do a lot of different ghost tours.
    We went out to Sachs Bridge for awhile. We got out our chairs and sat on the bridge. It was just nice being out in Gettysburg. I enjoyed going very much.
    And here are some pictures for everyone to see :)
    From on the battlefield.
    Sachs Bridge
    A picture of a moth I took while in Gettysburg.

  • Always An Xangan

    I joined Xanga on April 19th, 2005. A friend introduced me to Xanga and wanted me to join so I did. I didn’t blog on here very much the first few years I was on here. I didn’t come on every day, but I did come on every so often and change my theme and such. 

    By the time I had really started blogging on here, my friend had gone and moved onto Myspace. I started logging in on a more regular basis late 2008. I wasn’t blogging every day then, but instead just changing my theme and getting it the way I wanted. I began blogging almost every day in January of 2009. I started exploring Xanga around that time, read the Top Blogs every day and checked out the Featured Blogs (Remember those?). I joined a number of Blogrings (as they were called at the time, they are groups now) and started to make some friends on here. Some of the first people I became friends with on here, I still talk to them. 
    Over the years on here I’ve made some great friends. I even met an Xangan last year for the first time and it was just great. 
    I’ve shared so much on here. I have read my entries from the past and seen how my writing has improved, how I have changed and how Xanga has been here through everything. And although last year I did have a bad experience and started being more careful on what I post, I just can’t imagine not having Xanga. It’s hard to think of not logging in here every day. I have made such great friends on here, read many great posts on here, shared my writing on here, my happy and sad moments. How can it all just go away in a month and half? I have been here 8 years and I wanted to be here for many more.
    For years I’ve seen people say Xanga is dying and I didn’t believe it. Sure, Xanga isn’t exactly popular and we have a small community, but lots of websites aren’t popular and have a small userbase and they are still around. I don’t know if Xanga will shut down, or make the money it needs to continue. If it does, I won’t be here. I don’t have the money to pay to blog. But it seems so sudden, so short notice and it honestly reminds of what Duotrope did.
    Dutrope is a website for writers to find markets to submit their work. For years, it was free. But in December last year, they announced that January 1st, 2013, the site would go to paid subscription. Meaning that if you wanted to continue to find markets to submit writing, you needed to pay to use the website. People only had a month to back up their information on where they submitted and such. I was upset about that, as I used Duotrope, but I am much more upset about Xanga. I have been here so long and found great people who I call my friends. I just keep hoping that the Team Xanga will tell us they were just messing with us, that it was all a joke. But it seems that this time, Xanga may really be dying. And if it does make the money needed to save Xanga, I know I won’t be here anyway. I don’t think Xanga will be the same though, if they get the money to keep Xanga going.
    This is just a sad, sad day for me. I don’t want Xanga to be gone. I know I will miss it so much. But I’m going to give the links to other websites I’m on. I will start blogging on Open Diary once I can’t blog on here anymore. I will post the link to my Open Diary blog below. 
    Here are the places you can find me on:
    If anyone wants my e-mail address, let me know and I’ll message it to you.
    I will continue to blog on here until I can’t anymore. I hope to be able to get the archives to my posts soon because I don’t want to lose everything I have written. I have written over 1,000 posts on here. I am just really sad about all of this and I hope to be able to keep in touch with all of my friends on here. But whether Xanga shuts down or goes to paid blogging, I will always consider myself an Xangan. It was my first blogging website, one of my most favorite websites that I visit every day. Xanga will always be my blogging home, even if it shuts down. I just wish things were able to stay the same.