So I know I started out with 4 different blogs, but I've decided that it would be easier to just handle one, and I'm deciding to stick with my LiveJournal. If anyone has a severe problem with this let me know.
You may now find my blog here: http://jaded-catalyst.livejournal.com
There is currently a blog post on there regarding my long absence, if you did not already recieve the message via email.
-JC
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Happy Holidays!
Yeah yeah I know x-mas is almost over here in the west coast and is already over elsewhere, but who says the spirit can't live on? Now, I had a lot more planned for the holidays this year for you guys, but then I thought, "Wait, the holidays are meant to be spent with friends and family and other loved ones? Why am I on my computer?"
So... all I have is this little thing I threw together in about 10 minutes. Have a good one, everybody and Happy Holidays!
So... all I have is this little thing I threw together in about 10 minutes. Have a good one, everybody and Happy Holidays!
-JC
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Productivity from a Clean Slate
I had one productive day, if I do say so myself.
I don't know what hit me today, but I'm glad it did and I hope it hits me again. After the disaster of losing some pretty valuable data when my old hard drive died, I was able to re-obtain all my music, and if you knew me well enough, you'd know exactly how important that really is to me.
I also finished writing two chapters of A Time for Goodbyes, one chapter of Autumn Eyes, and finished rewriting the intro of Unspoken Oblivion. Woot!
And today wasn't just writing day either. I even managed to finish one Naked Brothers Band music video, one Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children music video, and half of another NBB video.
I'm on a roll and I'm loving it! Ah... it's good to be back on track.
That's it for now. Have a good one, folks!
-JC
Currently Doing: Organizing my writing folders
Last Thing Worked On: Unspoken Oblivion
Currently Reading: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom (Almost done with it!)
Currently Listening To: Anberlin - Godspeed
I don't know what hit me today, but I'm glad it did and I hope it hits me again. After the disaster of losing some pretty valuable data when my old hard drive died, I was able to re-obtain all my music, and if you knew me well enough, you'd know exactly how important that really is to me.
I also finished writing two chapters of A Time for Goodbyes, one chapter of Autumn Eyes, and finished rewriting the intro of Unspoken Oblivion. Woot!
And today wasn't just writing day either. I even managed to finish one Naked Brothers Band music video, one Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children music video, and half of another NBB video.
I'm on a roll and I'm loving it! Ah... it's good to be back on track.
That's it for now. Have a good one, folks!
-JC
Currently Doing: Organizing my writing folders
Last Thing Worked On: Unspoken Oblivion
Currently Reading: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom (Almost done with it!)
Currently Listening To: Anberlin - Godspeed
Monday, December 15, 2008
Computer Troubles
2 words: Major. Setback.
It was really random. My computer ran out of batteries. I plugged it in and turned it on to make sure things were dandy. They were.
I took a shower. I came back.
I open the computer and am faced with a screen that says "A disc read error has occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart."
I restart it.
I am then faced with a screen that says "A disc read error has occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart."
I blink. I stare. And there's nothing I can do about it.
Anyway. I got a new computer, which is alright. I did, however, lose all the data on my old computer, which sucks. We even went to the professionals and they said nothing could be recovered. However, since I meticulously back up my writing folders pretty often in about 4 different places, I managed to avoid that major disaster.
Still, I lost about two weeks of a good work on the site and a few chapters of my work since I wasn't able to back it up at the time. Plus, I lost progress on three amazing videos I was almost done making. I also lost all my pictures and music, so I'm kind of bummed.
Anyway, things will go as planned and the site will return on New Years, but right now I'm just trying to reconfigure things and get back on track somehow. Ugh.
I hate setbacks.
That's it. Have a good one all!
-JC
Currently Doing: Reconfiguring my comp
Last Thing Worked On: I don't remember, but whatever it was, it's gone now. :[
Currently Reading: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Currently Listening To: Jack's Mannequin - Bruised
Monday, December 8, 2008
Dreaming Big Never Felt So Good
Oh boy does finals week suck. In trying to keep myself grounded and sane, though, I've started looking ahead. It was then that I realized how far up into the clouds my head really was.
Disclaimer...ish: I don't mean to brag. This blog post is just meant for me to share my thoughts with all of you. If you are the kind of person who will get jealous or think that I'm bragging or being arrogant or whatever, I suggest you stop reading this right now before it's too late.
So let's see where I want to begin in my whimsical little mind....
Well how about I start by showing off this little thing here:
[] I will be completing and submitting the Unspoken Oblivion for the ABNA.
So even though I am still going to be writing my fanfictions and running my site and what not, I just wanted to give you guys an overview of what I'll be doing in the background.
A few other little side notes that sort of relate to this post are that I'm working and hoping to receive my third degree black belt (in Tae Kwon Do, for those who don't know) in September 2009. Also, my martial arts academy is having an end of the year award ceremony this Saturday (December 13). There is a possibility that I will be getting an award for instructing or some dedication because I still manage to surprise them by assisting all the weekend events I can even though I have already left for college. I just thought I'd share since I was already telling you all about what I hoep to be accomplishing in the near future.
Anyway, finals are hitting me decently hard at the moment, so I'll be getting back to all of you later. I guess what I'm really trying to say is this:
I'm dreaming big. What about you?
Have a good one!
-JC
Currently Doing: Studying for a Biology final
Last Thing Worked On: A Time For Goodbyes [NBB Fanfiction]
Currently Reading: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Currently Listening To: Sum 41 - Fat Lip
Disclaimer...ish: I don't mean to brag. This blog post is just meant for me to share my thoughts with all of you. If you are the kind of person who will get jealous or think that I'm bragging or being arrogant or whatever, I suggest you stop reading this right now before it's too late.
So let's see where I want to begin in my whimsical little mind....
Well how about I start by showing off this little thing here:
That's right! I began the journey into NaNoWriMo and I've succeeded! For those of you who don't know what NaNoWriMo is, I'll give a brief explanation, but you can probably find a better one at http://www.nanowrimo.org/. NaNoWriMo stands for Nation Novel Writing Month and it takes place every November and 2008 was NaNoWriMo's 10 year anniversery. Yay!
Anyway, the goal for the WriMos, as the participants are called, is to write a 50,000 novel in 30 days. That's about the size of The Great Gatsby or double the length of Animal Farm. That means writing about 1667 words a day to keep on par. Another key to this whole fiasco is just letting your creativity take you where ever you let it. Although some planning and a few notes are allowed, some people dive into it with little to no idea what they are saying. In the month of November, the inner-editors of all WriMos curl up in a corner and die as quality is sacrificed for quantity. WriMos like to refer to this as "literary abandon." There is always time to edit after the manuscript is completed. November is not about writing something amazing.. its about writing something - anything.
Many people do not make it, especially on their first try. That's not to shine the spotlight on me or anything. I am one of 21,683 winners of NaNoWriMo 2008 out of a total of 119,301 participants. That's an 18.2% win rate - a new record! Overall, though, all participants this year wrote a collective total of 1,643,343,993 (tha'ts in billions) words this year, and I want to congradulate all my fellow WriMos. Even committing to the attempt is quite a feat indeed.
Anyway, back to being selfish and talking about me.
All NaNoWriMo winners can get a free paperback proof of their manuscript, provided by Amazon.com. Now, how can I turn down an offer like that? I even have the option of working with Amazon to release it to the public, but I have to look into that. The offer is quite tempting though. :D
My NaNo is titled Obsidian Earth and I am very proud of its plot. However, since it is a recent NaNoWriMo winner, it has the quality equivalent to a mouthful of sand. My 52,074 novel should probably have ended 20,000 words earlier. It will be going through an intense editting process before being released. It still has the makings of a great novel, though, and I can't wait until it's ready for public eyes. Who knows? Maybe it'll someday be avaliable on Amazon.com! But I don't want to get ahead of myself, though. Gotta keep my feet on the ground.. sorta.
But speaking of being published.....
Amazon.com also has a competition coming up known as the "Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award." You can check out the details over at http://www.amazon.com/ABNA. But it is basically a competition for an author to get a novel published. It's a free competition and the prizes are quite the incentive. They accept a total 10,000 entries and those who make it into the Quarter-Finals (500 quarter-finalists possible) then you receive a review from Publisher's Weekly as well as many Amazon.com users...a good enough incentive for me. I just want to see how far I can get, and if I get far enough, what the general reception of my work is.
Of course, dreaming big can't hurt, so i'm still keeping my eye on the other prizes. 3 first prize winners get a trip to Seattle to the award ceremony where the Grand Prize winner is announced. The Grand Prize winner gets $25,000 cash prize as well as a full publishing contract with Penguin Publishers and promotion for the winning novel on Amazon.com.
However, even first and second prize winners sometimes get publishing contracts with Penguin or other companies. Who says publicity can't be a good thing?
So.... a basic recap of my ramblings are:
[] I am a winner of NaNoWriMo 2008.
[] I will be obtaining a paperback proof of my NaNo Obsidian Earth sometime in summer 2009.
[] Obsidian Earth may become avaliable to the public via Amazon.com, depending on how things go.Anyway, the goal for the WriMos, as the participants are called, is to write a 50,000 novel in 30 days. That's about the size of The Great Gatsby or double the length of Animal Farm. That means writing about 1667 words a day to keep on par. Another key to this whole fiasco is just letting your creativity take you where ever you let it. Although some planning and a few notes are allowed, some people dive into it with little to no idea what they are saying. In the month of November, the inner-editors of all WriMos curl up in a corner and die as quality is sacrificed for quantity. WriMos like to refer to this as "literary abandon." There is always time to edit after the manuscript is completed. November is not about writing something amazing.. its about writing something - anything.
Many people do not make it, especially on their first try. That's not to shine the spotlight on me or anything. I am one of 21,683 winners of NaNoWriMo 2008 out of a total of 119,301 participants. That's an 18.2% win rate - a new record! Overall, though, all participants this year wrote a collective total of 1,643,343,993 (tha'ts in billions) words this year, and I want to congradulate all my fellow WriMos. Even committing to the attempt is quite a feat indeed.
Anyway, back to being selfish and talking about me.
All NaNoWriMo winners can get a free paperback proof of their manuscript, provided by Amazon.com. Now, how can I turn down an offer like that? I even have the option of working with Amazon to release it to the public, but I have to look into that. The offer is quite tempting though. :D
My NaNo is titled Obsidian Earth and I am very proud of its plot. However, since it is a recent NaNoWriMo winner, it has the quality equivalent to a mouthful of sand. My 52,074 novel should probably have ended 20,000 words earlier. It will be going through an intense editting process before being released. It still has the makings of a great novel, though, and I can't wait until it's ready for public eyes. Who knows? Maybe it'll someday be avaliable on Amazon.com! But I don't want to get ahead of myself, though. Gotta keep my feet on the ground.. sorta.
But speaking of being published.....
Amazon.com also has a competition coming up known as the "Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award." You can check out the details over at http://www.amazon.com/ABNA. But it is basically a competition for an author to get a novel published. It's a free competition and the prizes are quite the incentive. They accept a total 10,000 entries and those who make it into the Quarter-Finals (500 quarter-finalists possible) then you receive a review from Publisher's Weekly as well as many Amazon.com users...a good enough incentive for me. I just want to see how far I can get, and if I get far enough, what the general reception of my work is.
Of course, dreaming big can't hurt, so i'm still keeping my eye on the other prizes. 3 first prize winners get a trip to Seattle to the award ceremony where the Grand Prize winner is announced. The Grand Prize winner gets $25,000 cash prize as well as a full publishing contract with Penguin Publishers and promotion for the winning novel on Amazon.com.
However, even first and second prize winners sometimes get publishing contracts with Penguin or other companies. Who says publicity can't be a good thing?
So.... a basic recap of my ramblings are:
[] I am a winner of NaNoWriMo 2008.
[] I will be obtaining a paperback proof of my NaNo Obsidian Earth sometime in summer 2009.
[] I will be completing and submitting the Unspoken Oblivion for the ABNA.
So even though I am still going to be writing my fanfictions and running my site and what not, I just wanted to give you guys an overview of what I'll be doing in the background.
A few other little side notes that sort of relate to this post are that I'm working and hoping to receive my third degree black belt (in Tae Kwon Do, for those who don't know) in September 2009. Also, my martial arts academy is having an end of the year award ceremony this Saturday (December 13). There is a possibility that I will be getting an award for instructing or some dedication because I still manage to surprise them by assisting all the weekend events I can even though I have already left for college. I just thought I'd share since I was already telling you all about what I hoep to be accomplishing in the near future.
Anyway, finals are hitting me decently hard at the moment, so I'll be getting back to all of you later. I guess what I'm really trying to say is this:
I'm dreaming big. What about you?
Have a good one!
-JC
Currently Doing: Studying for a Biology final
Last Thing Worked On: A Time For Goodbyes [NBB Fanfiction]
Currently Reading: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Currently Listening To: Sum 41 - Fat Lip
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Back From Thanksgiving Break and Loving Life
It's funny how things work out.
Yeah, I was supposed to post on my blog a while ago, but my personal life exploded once again, except this time for the better. Then again, you guys don't really wanna hear me ramble on about that, right?
Sooooooo, he's the scoop on my hiatus.
Aside from the fact that I felt like I really needed some time to myself to get my life back on the smooth tracks, I just wasn't feeling the creative juices flowing the same way they used to. I think it was because I just just pushing it too hard. It's I was trying to hard to write for the readers than write for myself. Now, I do realize that having a bit of a fanbase helps push me along, but I think I let it push me a bit too hard. I just burnt myself out.
So I'm taking this hiatus to repair myself, in a sense.
Aside from NaNoWriMo, which is actually going rather well, I've been working on a lot of other creative outlets in private, trying to get to where I want to be. As Jack London once said, "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."
Now, I think I've gotten it back. Actually, I'm sure that I've gotten it back. But I don't want to chase it away by pushing it too hard. I'm going to write and write and write, but not throw out a timetable for myself. It's like when a strong flowing river gets stopped up. As soon as the dam breaks and the ideas break through, you have to wait for the flow to stabalize before throwing out any restrictions or regulations on it. [Apologies for the bad metaphor]
So even though I'm still writing, I'm going to be taking a break from posting stuff online. I need to just let things flow on their own for a little while.
Your patience will all be rewarded with many goodies when I return, though. Aside from what I'm hoping will be a large amount of new written content, I will have a few videos and images for everyone to enjoy.
But I will keep this blog updated on a regular basis. I'm still working on ways to get the mailing list just the way I want it, so I recommend trying to follow one of my blogs, which will have more detailed upates anyway. =^^=
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving break. Winter break should be just around the corner! Have a good one, everybody!
-JC
Yeah, I was supposed to post on my blog a while ago, but my personal life exploded once again, except this time for the better. Then again, you guys don't really wanna hear me ramble on about that, right?
Sooooooo, he's the scoop on my hiatus.
Aside from the fact that I felt like I really needed some time to myself to get my life back on the smooth tracks, I just wasn't feeling the creative juices flowing the same way they used to. I think it was because I just just pushing it too hard. It's I was trying to hard to write for the readers than write for myself. Now, I do realize that having a bit of a fanbase helps push me along, but I think I let it push me a bit too hard. I just burnt myself out.
So I'm taking this hiatus to repair myself, in a sense.
Aside from NaNoWriMo, which is actually going rather well, I've been working on a lot of other creative outlets in private, trying to get to where I want to be. As Jack London once said, "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."
Now, I think I've gotten it back. Actually, I'm sure that I've gotten it back. But I don't want to chase it away by pushing it too hard. I'm going to write and write and write, but not throw out a timetable for myself. It's like when a strong flowing river gets stopped up. As soon as the dam breaks and the ideas break through, you have to wait for the flow to stabalize before throwing out any restrictions or regulations on it. [Apologies for the bad metaphor]
So even though I'm still writing, I'm going to be taking a break from posting stuff online. I need to just let things flow on their own for a little while.
Your patience will all be rewarded with many goodies when I return, though. Aside from what I'm hoping will be a large amount of new written content, I will have a few videos and images for everyone to enjoy.
But I will keep this blog updated on a regular basis. I'm still working on ways to get the mailing list just the way I want it, so I recommend trying to follow one of my blogs, which will have more detailed upates anyway. =^^=
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving break. Winter break should be just around the corner! Have a good one, everybody!
-JC
Friday, November 21, 2008
Nothing Ever Works!
Let's ignore the fact that I was so tired last night that I just fell asleep before getting the chance to post anything. I'll get to that in between classes later today if I can get internet where I am.
Anyhoo, I'm just going to let you know that the technical difficulties are seemingly endless at this point. I was going along my merry little way onto my site, and *dundundun* ZendFree decides to crash on me. On top of that HelioHost was working just fine. Some time this morning, it switched and HelioHost was down while Zendfree was up.
So my hope is that during the hiatus I've set for myself, HelioHost will be able to straighten out its problems and I can just stick with it. Fingers crossed everyone!
Oh yeah, and then I went on to check the working ZendFree this morning and my Cbox wasn't working... Technology is wonderful, isn't it?
So yeah. I'm cursed wtih all of this and we just have to hope that things will be good and dandy when it really really matters. So I'm just letting you all know that both sites may be going crazy, but you can always keep updated on my blogs since there's nothing much on the site right now anyway.
Have a good one, y'alls!
-JC
Anyhoo, I'm just going to let you know that the technical difficulties are seemingly endless at this point. I was going along my merry little way onto my site, and *dundundun* ZendFree decides to crash on me. On top of that HelioHost was working just fine. Some time this morning, it switched and HelioHost was down while Zendfree was up.
So my hope is that during the hiatus I've set for myself, HelioHost will be able to straighten out its problems and I can just stick with it. Fingers crossed everyone!
Oh yeah, and then I went on to check the working ZendFree this morning and my Cbox wasn't working... Technology is wonderful, isn't it?
So yeah. I'm cursed wtih all of this and we just have to hope that things will be good and dandy when it really really matters. So I'm just letting you all know that both sites may be going crazy, but you can always keep updated on my blogs since there's nothing much on the site right now anyway.
Have a good one, y'alls!
-JC
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