Feature and Follow Friday!

Q: What do you do with your books after you are done reading them?

It really depends on where the book is from. If I own the book, I usually keep it for a number of years, then donate it to the library. If it's from the library, I obviously have no choice but to return it. 

Feature and Follow Friday & Celebrate the Small Things

Q: Today’s is the US’ Independence Day. Share your favorite book with a war in it, or an overthrow of the government.

         It may not surprise you to hear that I am not exactly the type of person who likes war. I, like Abe Lincoln and MLK, believe that violence leads to more violence, which doesn't solve the problem. Please ignore that bad grammar! However, the term 'overthrow of the government' does indeed make me think of a book. Hmmm.. which one?  Lord of the Flies, of course!! It's about a group of boys who are stranded on a deserted island and must fend for themselves. They try to make their own government, but they fail miserably. There is utter chaos, and absolutely no government to speak of! 

1. My first draft of the dreaded college essay has been written! It's my new WIP. The first draft of anything is always bad, and this is no exception! Hmm... maybe I should blog about that in IWSG next month? 

2. I am getting a new volunteer position at a hospital! 

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Reading Record!!!!

I know I don't usually post on Sundays, but this is so exciting that I just have to share it now: I broke my new record for most books read in 3 weeks. I read 6 books, and my library is now giving me a free paperback book for a reward! How amazing is that???!?!

Feature and Follow Friday PLUS Cephalopod Coffee House

Q: What is your preferred reading format? Hardcover, eBooks, paperback etc?

That's an easy one. I have and always will prefer paperback. They're lighter than hardcover, which makes them easy to carry. I cannot read online or on a kindle. I love the fact that with a book, I can have something physical to hold, as opposed to an ebook or kindle. Of course, I simply must have a paperback when I read a novel for english excuse me, English (never know what English teacher might be reading this!) class. It makes it easier for me to annotate/highlight. I've tried highlighting/annotating with an ebook on an Ipad, and it was not successful...not in the least! 

This month, I am participating in The Armchair Squid's monthly bloghop- the Cephalopod Coffeehouse. This is a new blog hop for me! Each month, members post about their favorite book they read during that month. My favorite book of the month is................ *drumroll*

This is the story of a girl, around age 17ish, who is so overweight that she decides to undergo gastric bypass surgery. She chronicles her recovery, and also takes us inside her mind and introduces us to 'skinny', a voice in her head that represents bad body image. This was incredibly pertinent to our society!!

Feature and Follow Friday!

Q: Activity: Favorite Literary Quote

             My Sister's Keeper

“An oncology ward is a battlefield, and there are definite hierarchies of command. The patients, they're the ones doing the tour of duty. The doctors breeze in and out like conquering heroes, but they need to read your child's chart to remember where they've left off from the previous visit. It is the nurses who are the seasoned sergeants -- the ones who are there when your baby is shaking with such a high fever she needs to be bathed in ice, the ones who can teach you how to fluch a central venous catheter, or suggest which patient floor might still have Popsicles left to be stolen, or tell you which dry cleaners know how to remove the stains of blood and chemotherapies from clothing. The nurses know the name of your daughter's stuffed walrus and show her how to make tissue paper flowers to twine around her IV stand. The doctor's may be mapping out the war games, but it is the nurses who make the conflict bearable.” 

“don't say it. don't tell me that nobody's going to stare at me, because they will. don't tell me it doesn't matter, because it does. and don't tell me i look fine because that's a lie.” 

“For the first time in my life I begin to understand how a parent my hit a child--it's because you can look into their eyes and see a reflection of yourself that you wish you hadn't.” 

                                        Tuesdays with Morrie

“So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” 

“If you hold back on the emotions--if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them--you can never get to being detached, you're too busy being afraid. You're afraid of the pain, you're afraid of the grief. You're afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails. But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your heard even, you experience them fully and completely.” 

Wordless Wednesday

Feature and Follow Friday!

Q: Activity: Spine Poetry. Create a line of poetry with your book spines (take a picture). Not feeling creative? Tell us about your favorite poem.

Hmm... this is really hard. I have always liked 'Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shell Silverstein. It's a true classic! I have never truly grasped the meaning of this particular poem, but maybe that's because I am too lazy to fully dissect it? *wink wink*. 

Feature and Follow Friday

Q: Have you broken up with a series? If so which one and why?

Yes. There are two answers to this question. 

1. I broke up with the Twilight series about 4ish years ago. The books were too long and drawn out, and they did not capture my attention at all. The concept of vampires got old, and I just got bored. Sorry, Stephanie Meyer!

2. I broke up with the Harry Potter series. I loved the first book, and I own it! After that, the plot got old and boring and confusing (please ignore the bad grammar- it's 10:30 p.m and I am frantically trying to get this post done so I can go to bed). Because of that, I decided to ditch it and find something better.

How To Be a Blogger

Since I just finished school, I have a lot of extra time on my hands. I haven't been reading much lately due to finals, but I did manage to find a hilarious article on here. I have put this article down below for your viewing pleasure. I just cited it for copyright purposes.

• Sunlight is for making raisins, not for bloggers. Your skin should be brighter than your monitor.
• If your F key falls off, a button will do the trick. In fact, pop off several more keys, and post a picture of your crafty keyboard to Pinterest.
• If you have 30 minutes to write a post, spend 29 minutes eating a burrito and watching GIFs, and the last minute trying InStyle hairdos. Then, go to your "EMERGENCY POSTS" folder and retrieve "Pez dispensers we would like to see.doc."
• Be generous with your BAMs.
• In the blogosphere, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is canonical.
• Watching T-Swift music videos counts as research.
• Professional writers aren't afraid of using emoticons. O_o
• If you aren't suffering for your art, you're not sitting on a Fitball.
• If you are writing in a library or study room, set your font to green Courier New and your background to black, and read your post aloud as you type, like they do on TV, and as I am doing right now.
• Never end a post with a "Conclusion." Always end with "and then the corn dog mascot and I bounced around in the jumping castle until we threw up."
• Blogging about rompers is just like investigating a murder, except most murders only have one victim.
• When your parents are like "blogging isn't journalism," tell them, "Yeah, and 'CATS ON KEYBOARDS' will never be a newspaper headline!" You both win this round.
• Bloggers sometimes wear suits. But mostly wear Snuggies.
• Blogs can lede the way, but newspapers can't LOL.
• Journalists are all "I'm going to blow this story wide open!" while bloggers are all "I <3 you guyz."

I hope you thoroughly enjoyed this! I have decided to post funny things like this every so often for anyone who needs a good laugh!

Finals Blogging Break

I am going to be away from the blogosphere for a few days as I prepare for finals. It's over on Wednesday, so I will see you all then! If you want some names of good books, check out my 'Favorite Books' tab! Or, if you're interested in my WIP, please see my previous post. See you all on Wednesday!

Fairy Prince Blogfest and WIP IT GOOD

For this blog fest, we are asked to tell readers who our favorite Disney prince is. For me, this is a simple one- I love the Prince from Snow White! I only wish he had an official name, but he's too mysterious for that. I love him because he is handsome, very personable, and has an AMAZING singing voice! I especially love the very last scene of the movie where he and Snow White ride off together into the sunset. I wish they could make a sequel so we could see what happens to all of the characters- especially the dwarves and the queen! 

I'm not sure if a speech counts as a WIP, but it's all I have. I am in the middle of finals prep right now and things are getting crazy!

WIP Title: Cancer 101

Word Count (projected/actual so far): 471

Genre: Nonfiction

How long have you been working on it?: About 7 Days 

Elevator Pitch (if you came across an agent in an elevator ride, what couple of lines would you use to summarize your book): My encounter with cancer as a teenager

Brief Synopsis (250 words or less): I was diagnosed with a really rare type of cancer when I was 15. I had three surgeries, and this is my story. I am proud to be cancer free! This piece discusses my experiences through my own eyes, including the events leading up to surgery. I focus quite a bit on my emotions during that period of time. 
Are you looking for a Critique Partner?: yes 

Are you looking for a Beta Reader?: What is that???

Feature and Follow- 5/30/2013

Q: What blogger would you most like to meet in real life? Tell us about him or her.

Oh dear... this is a really hard one, especially since I don't want to offend anyone by leaving them out! I'll list as many people as possible here. Everyone on this list has made some awesome comments and has helped me enhance my blogging experience!

1. Hilary @ Positive Letters

2. Trisha @ WORD + STUFF

3. Crystal @ Crystal Collier

Get Healthy Bloghop

Today I am participating in the Get Healthy Bloghop! My favorite ways to get healthy are sleep, sleep, and more sleep. Being the high school almost-senior that I am, sleep is always a hard concept. I either have 1) way too much homework or 2) a bad procrastination habit that causes me to do my homework way too late. More often than not, I feel so much better when I get at least 8 hours of sleep.

Speech Writing: Relay for Life 2013 Speech!

Relay for Life is a national event to raise money for the American Cancer Society. As a cancer patient/survivor, I have been asked by my good friend to give a speech at the event. I was hoping that some of you would be willing to give me some feedback on it in the 'comment' section of this blog. Thanks! The speech is below, and it's not done yet-- keep that in mind.

Relay for Life 2013 Speech

As Anthony Delmonte once said, “Cancer is never a face until it affects you or someone you know”. Cancer became a face to me on November 14, 2011. A day I will never forget. On November 14, 2011, I was diagnosed with a rare type of skin cancer on my scalp. Keep in mind that this was NOT caused by being in the sun for too long. I have never been to a tanning booth, either. The whole thing started on October 5, 2011. I had an appointment with the dermatologist to discuss my dandruff. I had also been noticing a bump on my scalp that had been there, oh, I don’t know, about 5-ish years? 3 pediatricians had told me it was nothing to worry about, and naturally I had believed them. I figured that as long as I was at the dermatologist anyway, I might as well show it to her. During the appointment, she gave me the option of having it biopsied because it looked red, which concerned her. I thought about it for a few minutes and then reluctantly agreed to go ahead with the procedure. 

     Getting the biopsy was terrible. I had to receive shots of local anesthesia in my head. On top of that, I had to deal with the constant worry of it harrowing and shocking test results. 

  The next day, on 11/14/11, we got the phone call from the dermatologist that simply said, “You have cancer. You’re going to need more surgery. I’m sorry”. Naturally, I broke down in tears. I didn’t even know what the true definition of cancer was, but nonetheless, it was staring me in the face. I could run from it, but I couldn’t hide from it. 

  The next few weeks were a huge blur. We must have seen three or four doctors. During that time, I had to get an MRI of my head to see how big the cancer was. Luckily, it was only the size of an eraser. Eventually, we decided on going to experts at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in downtown Chicago. That’s when things started moving really quickly. 

I ended up having two surgeries- one to take out the cancer and a skin graft operation to close the huge wound from the first surgery. The wound would never close by itself due to how big it was, so the doctors took a piece of skin from my leg and put it on my scalp. I’ll get back to that part in just a few moments. In the meantime, I first want to talk about how bad the first surgery was.

   I was awake and numb for the first surgery, which lasted for about 5 hours. During the surgery, the surgeon took a little bit of skin off and checked for cancer 

 This week, I have a lot of things to celebrate, and here they are!

1. I am officially a SENIOR in High School! 

2. I already know where I am applying to college.

3. I know what my college essay topic is.

4. I am seeing the plastic surgeon on 6/11 to begin the oh-so-lovely (sense the sarcasm?) process of scalp reconstruction to get hair growing again. This is actually a really exciting thing that I have been waiting for for the past 6 months! 

Bloghopsx3: Feature and Follow, Celebrate the Small Things, and Movie Remakes

AHHHH!!!! I'm TRIPLE  booked today! I have the Feature and Follow Hop, Celebrate the Small Things, and the Remake Blogfest. I am going to make this easy and just put it all in one really long post. That way, you can easily read all three entries.

Q: School is out! What is your favorite Summer Reading book?

Hmm... tough question! I could take the easy way out and say, " Anything that I am not forced to read for school!". While that's true, it's not a good enough answer. I really don't have a true favorite, but I love reading in summer in general. One of my favorite series of summer is 'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' (maybe because the books take place during summer?). My all time favorite in the series is the first one, and the movie is amazing as well. I try to read as many books as I can in a summer. My record for a summer is 7- we'll see if I can read more this summer! Comment how much you think I can read! We'll see what the trend is!

I have so much to celebrate this week!

1. I scored a home run in kickball in gym! Yes, I am in high school, and I still play that game...

2. My english paper that is huge was supposed to be due tomorrow was pushed back to being due Monday because we're having a substitute teacher tomorrow, and the main english teacher doesn't trust the sub.

3. I will be a senior in high school as of 6/7/13!!

Best: Freaky Friday. The new one is so good at depicting the typical high school student, while the old one was outdated. Gotta love Lindsay Lohan, although not so much anymore since she has drug problems!!

Worst: Annie 1999- Please, DO NOT WATCH this movie. It was so bad that I felt like I was just watching little girls in a preschool play. The 1982 one with Carol Burnett is way better!!

Mean Girls 2- Nothing can measure up to the original movie. Trust me. I watched the second movie, and it's nowhere near as good as the first one. 

Feature and Follow Friday

Q: Happy Mother's Day! Who is your favorite mom from fiction?

Hmm... This is a very hard question!! I would have to say that my favorite mom is Sara Fitzgerald from My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccoult. Sara's life is a balancing act. She has two daughters-Anna and Kate- who are both competing for her attention. Kate has leukemia, and Anna is suing her mother for making her donate her body parts to Kate. Sara is determined to do the right thing for both of her daughters, but does not always know what that is. She is determined to save Kate's life at the expense of Anna's well-being. She is determined not to loose Kate, but has a hard time knowing when to let go.

Attacked by Mr. Annonoymous!!

I logged onto my blog this morning, and saw that I had 2 new comments from early on in the A-Z challenge. As you might have guessed, this was a Mr. Annonymous! He was trying to persuade me to visit his blog and buy some sort of detox product- not gonna happen! As much as I appreciate a visitor, I only like valuable comments, not spam! Because of this incident, I have no choice but to change my comment settings. Don't worry- I'm not turning on CAPTCHA! I just want to make sure that I know who is commenting from now on and that they are actually interested in my blog. I also removed his comment immediately. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. Any comments from my followers are always appreciated! Please know that this blog is going to be more secure from now on.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

This T

This is one of my all-time favorite books. Even though it's meant for kids, I still love it! Here's the review from www.edwardtulane.com: Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a china rabbit named Edward Tulane. The rabbit was very pleased with himself, and for good reason: he was owned by a girl named Abilene, who treated him with the utmost care and adored him completely.

And then, one day, he was lost.

Kate DiCamillo and Bagram Ibatoulline take us on an extraordinary journey, from the depths of the ocean to the net of a fisherman, from the top of a garbage heap to the fireside of a hoboes' camp, from the bedside of an ailing child to the streets of Memphis. And along the way, we are shown a true miracle — that even a heart of the most breakable kind can learn to love, to lose, and to love again.

Avoidance

Avoidance is never a good thing, especially when you're avoiding writing a ten page english paper due in a week! Well, the draft is due in a week....

My paper focuses on how the media's perception of women contributes to negative body image, which in turn leads to eating disorders. I've done countless hours of research, revised my thesis, and have written not one but THREE outlines! I am so sick of this topic- sick enough to avoid writing a paper on it! I never thought this would happen, but it was inevitable...

I had the opportunity to interview a social worker who specializes in eating disorders. Though the process was slow (aka I had to nag her), she gave me some awesome answers, and I learned more than I ever wanted to know. Yes, I wrote her a thank you note..

Any tips on how to make myself write this paper?