The Road

Please, just read this:

Well, I think we're about two hundred miles from the coast. As the crow flies.
As the crow flies.
Yes. It means going in a straight line.
Are we going to get there soon?
Not real soon. Pretty soon. We're not going as the crow flies.
Because crows don't have to follow roads?
Yes.
They can go wherever they want.
Yes.
Do you think there might be crows somewhere?
I don't know.
But what do you think?
I think it's unlikely.
Could they fly to Mars or someplace?
No. They couldnt.
Because it's too far?
Yes.
Even if they wanted to.
Even if they wanted to.
What if they tried and they just got half way or something and then they were too tired. Would they fall back down?
Well. They couldn't get half way because they'd be in space and there's not any air in space so they wouldnt be able to fly and besides it would be too cold and they'd freeze to death.
Oh.
Anyway they wouldnt know where Mars was.
Do we know where Mars is?
Sort of.
If we had a spaceship could we go there?
Well. If you had a really good spaceship and you had people to help you I suppose you could.
Would there be any food and stuff there?
No. There's nothing there.
Oh.

They sat for a long time. They sat on their folded blankets and watched the road in both directions. No wind. Nothing. After a while the boy said: There's not any crows. Are there?
No.
Just in books.
Yes. Just in books.
I didn't think so.

-Cormac McCarthy.

And that's exactly as it is in the book. No speech marks, and no apostrophes in places. It's an amazing book. Won the Pulitzer Prize. I love it.

Anyway. Today has been pretty good. I slept for ages last night and therefore wasn't so tired today. Got up at 11AM, did some chores, checked my mail. Then we had lunch, which was bread rolls with cold meats (beef and ham and stuff) and tomato and cucumber and things. And then we played Monopoly, Tori and Ellie and I. It was a very, very good game. You know those games where everything just quickly goes to shit? When one person has all the money and all the best streets and you're like fffff. Well, I had the browns, light blues, pink and reds and hotels on everything, and Ellie had the yellows and dark blues and Tori had everything else, and it took something like 3 hours and even then we just had to quit because it was dinner soon.
And for dinner we had lamb patties with pita bread and couscous, and now I'm on here.

And tomorrow we're going to play Scrabble :D

xx

And Suddenly

Ohhhh noooo. I just realized that applications for the Victoria University Halls of Residence open on August 1st, which is on SUNDAY. WHAT am I going to DO? I don't have level three yet and so the highest form of education I can put on there in Level 2 and that was my crappiest year.
Sooo once again I am perving around the website of VUW, trying to see if I missed out on any info the first ten thousand million times.

Alrighty. Anything else? Well, it's Friday. That's always fun. This morning I woke up so incredibly warm and cosy and almost couldn't get out of bed. I hope to recapture that tomorrow. I'm looking forward to a nice long sleep in and maybe a bit of reading. Currently I'm reading The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. It's weeeird. There's an apocalypse, but at this point (130 pages in) I still don't know the characters' names, how the apocalypse happened or what they did to avoid it. Frustrating, indeed.

Wore my dress thing again today. Should have known better than to wear a short skirt with a shoulder bag, cause when I walked the bag hitched the skirt up a little at a time and it made me very paranoid. Not fun.

Know what else isn't fun? My mum telling Tori that looking at me is scary enough to cure hiccups. FML, and thanks, Mum. I love you too.

Things That Have Happened Lately

This'll be another short one. Just a list. I can't write incredibly interesting shit on my blog so I'm probably going to keep it short from now on, unless there's a huge emergency that demands longness.

- My card declined at the cafe, which was a hilarious event for everyone.

- The movie that I bought on iTunes (Zombieland) fucked up and so I am watching it now, on Megavideo, for free.

- I figured out that getting into University might not be as hard as I thought it would be. A huge weight has been lifted.

- I have half decided for myself, half been pressured into going to the senior ball this year. When I told my Mum she said that she is going to take me shopping and she is going to pay for everything. I'm just a little bit worried about her taste vs. mine.

- It was sunny today, and then it was not. The weather should make up its mind. I was enjoying the sun and then all of a sudden it was hailing and windy.

- I'm running out of things to say. See y'all tomorrow (it's Friiiidaaay!).

Ma Jour Ennuyeux

- signed up to donate blood next Tuesday at 11AM. I did this last year and it was cool, apart from when they had to test my hemoglobin count, which hurt more than the actual needle.

- discovered new song: Tighten Up, by The Black Keys. Go listen.

- went to drama and got lots of praise, so woo me.

And that's all. Apparently my long posts are boring, so I'm leaving it here for today :)

(No comments on yesterday's post? I'm disappointed.)

I Also Write Like...

Please be aware: this entry consists of a lot of showing off and many excerpts from things I've written over the last year or so. You were warned.

I'm sorry, but I can't help getting a little big headed about this. I went back, and it said I write like Charles Dickens. I've never read anything by him, but from what I hear he's pretty good. This is the passage:

"I did not know I could hate so fiercely. How dare the birds sing! Everything is in shades of grey, the sky, the grass, my dead sister’s pretty dress.
I let my tears fall, for this, I am the emotional kind. I water the grass, keeping my eyes on the ground. I try to drown out the words that are sending my sister into the earth. I want to run up to her coffin and climb in beside her. I do not care what they would think. Perhaps my parents would let me go; there is nothing they love in me.
What will they do with her piano? Will they keep it as a memory of their beloved Anabelle? Or will they choose to rid of it now she is gone, now the thought of her causes them so much pain."

Oh no. Stephen King again. It must be wrong. He's awesome. I'm not.

Ah, Charles Dickens again!

"The door burst in, crippling under the pressure of the men beating at it from the outside. Heavy footsteps pounded down the hall as Alina, Ilya and Nicolai escaped out of the back door. Outside, the snow was still falling. The houses stood silently with black windows and white-coated rooves; every so often there was a plop as the snow dropped off into the sea of white waiting below. The dirt road was muddy and covered in puddles, and dimly lit by the light coming from Alina's house. The night was still. They stood near the fence, back to the wall, guns poised in their hands, scared out of their minds."

I seriously want to know how accurate this is, because though I've had some critique I've never had someone tell me that I'm terrible. I want your HONEST opinion about these excerpts and the pieces from yesterday. If you want the whole thing I'll give you a link. Most of them are quite short.

Oooh, Kurt Vonnegut. I hear he's good:

"Alina laid still, her life bleeding into the snow. Ilya stood with his arms hanging uselessly at his sides. Nicolai knelt softly onto the ground next to her, and took her hand. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to. The sky, black above them, glittered with stars. The snow continued to fall. The last thing Alina heard was the soft rush as the flakes hit the ground, and the last thing she saw was Nicolai's face, pale and streaked with tears in the moonlight."

Ha. I just ruined THAT story for you.

Oho, Neil Gaiman! Now, I know he's good, so this must be false, because this is something I wrote in December 09. Everything I wrote back then was a little lackluster.

"My hand paused on the dish I'd been about to lift, while hers fiddled, unworried, with a newly sharpened red pencil. She put the pencil to paper and drew a tree trunk, with thick branches sticking awkwardly from the sides and twigs further extending the crimson limbs. She then picked up the light blue and, with her forehead almost touching the paper, drew individual leaves, one by one."

That's enough. I've exhausted my supply of literature and no doubt you lot are bored, that's if you haven't stopped reading already.

Remember. I want critique. I think I've fixed the comment thing.

xx

About A Car

Helloooo.
I am on here to talk about a car. My Uncle Walt just arrived in this:


Now, I'm no car person, but this (1971 Vauxhall Viva) is awesome. What's more is that it only cost him $500, and it's only a few months away from become a Classic car.
I'm not sure what this car says about me. Someone tell me if it's weird to like it.

Also Blogger isn't showing the links for comments on my last post, and this one too. I don't know why, and it's really annoying me >:(

Anyway. I'd better go.
I have to go and find a worthy substitute for peanut butter, and something tells me that my search will be useless.

xx

I Write Like...

If you want to find out who you write like, here is a link.

Here are my people:

Stephen King: okay. That's awesome.

"His watch says that thirteen minutes have passed since he stepped out of the taxi, and he is still walking alone down Lucy's road. The dark has intensified, it seems, since he started out, and so, he realizes, has the pain in his head. All of a sudden there are drums beating, and his arm is hurting. There are fireworks crackling inside his eyes, whistling like kettles at the boil, screaming into the sky to explode magnificently in a dazzling burst of short lived fire. There are sirens; shrill screams in the night air. His head hurts, and his arm hurts, and suddenly he is lying on the pavement, and it is so, so cold through the thinness of his hospital gown."

Chuck Palahnuik: (he wrote Fight Club).

" I think I'm getting better, Lucy. I feel so young, so healthy. How do I look?
His hair is almost all gone and his skin is red and sore but she says he looks wonderful.
Good enough to get a pretty girl to go out with me?
Of course.
How about it, then? I know a fantastic place downtown. See if you can get the night off and we'll go and have some fun. What do you say?
I can't do that, Mr. Simpson, I-
It's David, godammit! He shouts, and swings his legs over to the side. He pulls the covers to the side, and his gown slips up to show a sickly length of thigh.
I'm better now, Lucy, I promise. You can leave your husband and we can go out to dinner. That would be nice, wouldn't it?
Lucy calls out for help."

Also J.D. Salinger (yeugh), Margaret Atwood (unlikely) and (using a piece of my last blog post) Stephen King again.

It's probably inaccurate, but awesome all the same :D