Nyx Goldstone

Yesterday the book requirements were posted for my school.  …Yay?

This semester is book-light for me, since I took a couple of easy art classes. I planned on re-taking Claudia Suzanne’s Ghostwriter Certification Training class, but that schedule and my schedule didn’t mesh. So, I’m not gonna be as burned out this semester, which is still a yay! I managed to squeeze my way into both photography and the required ceramics class before I can take a wheel-throwing class. I love wheel-throwing.

So, what am I doing to get ready for the new semester?

Well, I started yesterday by working the internet hard and finding the best deals in textbooks. One of my housemates had previously sent me a link that worked wonders. Textbook Price Comparison isn’t the end all, be-all of textbook searching, but it gave me a good place to start. My range came out to between $130 and $213, depending on if I wanted to go to sites I didn’t know and trust such as Course Smart and Textbooks Now or if I had to buy all new from the school itself.

My next step is one where I sit and wait impatiently for all my end-of-year tax info stuff to come in. I hate waiting… I just want to fill out the stupid forms to tell the Government that I make no money so they can confirm to FAFSA that they need to give me money so I can go to school. You’d think this would be really easy. Actually, once you’re past 24, it is.

My dad refused to help me through school, so I figured I’d work full time to pay for that full time schooling. I bombed that. Still, at 23, the Government needed my parents’ tax information because I was still classified as a “dependent.” Yeah, kids, that’s right. They’ll not only need but base your award on your parents’ taxes until you’re the ripe old age of 25. I was rejected every year for FAFSA because my dad made too much, which was the salt in the wound since I had to fight every step for my dad’s tax info and I was paying for everything myself.

I think I digressed…

So, yeah, the big things are no where near done, but I’m busying myself with little things: school supplies, making sure I don’t forget my schedule, griping about how there’s only two weeks left before I have to start school again…the usual stuff!

I don’t think I can take TechCrunch seriously anymore. Then again, I don’t think I ever have.

This morning I was catching up on my LiveJournal friend’s page after avoiding it for November and December (NaNoWriMo eats my Friend List’s souuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuul!). I came across a post from Jakkal whom I love and adore for her art and quick wit. I especially love her “Don’t Do This” tag. It was that tag that lead me to the article that would cement my view on TechCrunch for now and probably forever.

Now, keep in mind that I went to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. For 75% of my high school career, I was surrounded by aspiring artists of every type from dance to music to visual art. 500 people ranging from 13 to 18 struggling for a career in their chosen art field, training for hours at a time. In the end, it’s all subjective. Did the teacher enjoy teaching you enough to enjoy your art to want to stick their neck out for you? Did the right person show up at the right performance at the right time? Did you choose the right piece to put in the gallery?

DeviantART reminds me a lot of when I was in high school. Most of it are kids who are terrified to know the truth about the creation they put a piece of their soul into, and yet are braving the harsh cruel world to find out. In fact, I seriously believe that the internet is an even harsher place then the competitive environment I got my critiques in. In cyberspace, there is no risk of having etching acid thrown at you for being a complete and total arse. Even so, in the end, it’s all about who views the piece and what they think of it.

Every form of art is subjective. What makes one trumpet player better than another? What makes my work nothing and Chris Sanders’ wonderful? It’s all personal preference. I love KhaosDog’s artwork, and the article writer used Khaos’ most recent piece as a prime example of mediocre artwork. I don’t think it’s mediocre. Actually, I think it’s kinda great. Unfortunately, I don’t have some high profile blog to put that in. What’s worse is this TechCrunch writer is supposed to be writing about technology. DeviantART is an art site. At least if he would have picked something steampunky or tech related, he’d have some leg to stand on.

As hypocritical as it sounds, I guess everyone with access to the internet and a blog feel they have the right to be a critic.

Computers age faster than dogs, so I understand completely that I’m working on a 7 year old dinosaur of a computer. Last night the computer worked and shut down normally. This morning went like this:

Me: ::hits power button and waits for computer to load::
Computer: Do do dooo… OH! Hey, there! You know you never installed a network device on me, right?
Me: What? You were using it last night!
Computer: And no sound card, either. Why would you neglect me so?
Me: You’re on crack! Check your pockets. ::reboots computer since that usually works for the missing hard drive issue::
Computer: Do do dooo… Oh! Hey, there!  You know you never installed a network device on me, right?
Me: ARGH!!!
Brother: Lemme finish this and I’ll come look at it.
Me:? ::stares at computer that is smiling stupidly as it informs that there is no network device or sound card. Ends up just shutting down to wipe the grin off computer’s monitor::
Me: [to Brother] The temptation to just pull the power cord and do a reboot that way like with the router…
Brother: Do it.
Me: ::does it::
Computer: Do do dooo… Greetings, my creator. All systems are up and running. Would you like to partake in some World of Warcraft or instant messaging first? I also brought you some fresh Java and the morning RSS feeds.
Me: Holy… It worked!
Brother: Wait… Really??

My brain is just not wired to take an online class. I swear, I just am not able to do it! Yet, sadly, I’m probably going to be doing it again next semester.

I might get a D in my Personal Finance class this semester because I missed the deadline for the final by 31 minutes. That’s right, it closed 31 minutes before I sat down to take the test. It’s my own fault, really. I fully admit that. When I read the email that the teacher sent out regarding the test time and date, I thought it would close at 1am PST the night of the 17th. No, no… It closed on the 1am EST of the 17th… So, tonight, being the 16th, when I sat down at my computer in the good old Pacific Standard Time of 10:31 PM, the test was already closed.

Confused yet?

When I attempted to attend the Art Institute Online, I had these same problems. I always read the date and time wrong for when things were due, so they were either late or never turned in because late work wasn’t accepted. Why? If anyone else can figure it out, let me know. Though, all things considered, I made the same date/time mistakes when I had Inventory shifts at Blockbuster. I never knew what night I was coming in at midnight so I drove my manager batty checking and double checking.

Now I’m just irritated at myself. It’s completely a “Should have known better…” moment. There’s nothing more I can do about it now. I already emailed the teacher to see if there is anything I can do to fix it, but I’m pretty sure that the only option is to retake the class and replace the grade.

Has anyone else had “experiences” with online classes, good or bad?

Well, I hate to admit it, but I did fail this year’s National Novel Writing Month challenge. I clocked in at a whopping 2,949 words.

Yeah, I know, pathetic, right?

I realize I’ve been seriously slacking in the update area. I promise, I’m not dead, but it sure as hell feels damn close. The event itself had its ups and downs this year, though happily it was more up than down. Man, some people can be crazy. Anyhow, the challenge is over and I get a bit of a breather from personal challenges AND school work to just focus on school work. I’ll be doing another one in April with Script Frenzy. I’ve even got a bit of a concept for that one already. Hopefully I won’t start doubting myself by the time April comes around.

What else… What else…

I finally figured out what my site is for until I get some published works out there. It’s kinda weird, but I’m still digging the idea after about a month, so I’m going to try and run with it. What is it? Well, I realized that I’m in my twenties (*coughcough*27*coughhack*) and just starting college, more or less (you know, not counting the high school college courses or the couple semesters at Fullerton College…). I’ve got a different view on the way classes are handled then someone fresh out of high school. Not to mention it’s my blog, so it’s a great way to vent about the over-romanticizing that teachers seem to be doing lately. Dude… Really… I swear, an ice cream sandwich is not some symbol for religion…

I will still be commenting on books I’m reading, since I plan on trying to continue the 100 New Books a Year challenge. Yes, I have been counting the books I read in class. Speaking of, this semester in English we read Never Cry Wolf. Now, being a bit of a wolf nut, I’ve owned a copy of this for a while but never read it. I vaguely remember attempting, but it always going over my head or something. This attempt stuck, though, and probably would have been completed much quicker if it wasn’t for that crazy “Gotta read on MY time-line, sister!” thing that teachers get. There’s some great lines in there, and while it may get a bit dry in places (unless you’re weird like me and find scientific jargon and field journals fascinating), Mowat is actually pretty darn funny.

Speaking of being on a teacher’s time-line, I’ve got an outline for a Never Cry Wolf essay to finish by tomorrow night.

If you’re supposed to add pirates if your plot stalls, what do you do if your story is already about pirates? I can’t add zombies! That was done a few years ago by a little movie called PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN!

I’m trying to not freak out, but it’s only about 44 more hours until NaNoWriMo, and I’m still stuck in research! Plus this year I have actual school to worry about. Am I nuts?? You bet! Oh…wait…I wasn’t supposed to actually answer that question, was I?

So, I think there might be a pool going. Will I reach 50,000 words? Will I reach that goal with school in the way? …Which includes an honors class and an online course? Yes? No? Purple!

If all that wasn’t enough, I’m also co-hosting the Friday write-ins for North Orange County. If you’re in the area, drop by! For sure, the first one (11/06) will have a guest speaker!

Claudia Suzanne will be giving a talk on The Elements Of Fiction at our write in, and will stick around afterward to answer any questions and give some advice. She’s also provided us with part of our kick-off package – a handy reference guide with expressions for your characters!

About the Speaker:
Claudia Suzanne is a professional Editor, Ghostwriter and teacher. She’s the only teaching ghost in the country, and she’s ghostwritten over 100 books. Her book, “This Business Of Books” is currently in it’s fourth edition, and is used in colleges across the country and around the world to teach writing, editing, and the book business in general. She’s a member of PEN International, Independant Writers of Southern California, and California Writer’s Club, as well as the founder of Professional Writers of Orange County. She’s worked as a Literary Agent, publisher and professional musician, and has worked with aspiring authors of all walks of life – from PhD’s to CIA agents. She’s considered an expert in the book business, and will be touring the Orange County write-ins this year, promoting her book and her ghostwriting class, a graduate-level course on everything you’d ever need to know to be a ghostwriter or book business expert.

Yeah, I know in my last post I said I was only updating a room, but while I was working on that, I realized that the theme I was using was very pretty and very, very useless for one very important thing I wanted.

I couldn’t see child pages! I wanted, NEEDED child pages! So, the hunt for a new theme began, with thoughts of making another attempt at trying to make my own. I still gave up on that one. I found this new theme, which works kind of like a computer desktop, which makes it really interactive and nifty! So, I’m not as happy as I was with the look, but the child pages are visible now!!

That is all…until later.

Well, okay, not so much a “room” as a section of the site. I learned recently that Laurell K. Hamilton doesn’t just not allow fanfictions of her works, but can and will actually take legal action. Knowing that, I had to take down Of the Faeries until I could get the parts that reference Merry Gentry edited out. So, the story isn’t gone, just…on a nice vacation. Hopefully to Hawai’i

…I miss Hawai’i…

Oh! Hi! I’m back! So, yeah, the Writing page is being reconstructed, slowly but surely. The stories will return! Other than that, I did some other things to the site and am planning others. For starters, I took down the shopping cart. I didn’t like the interface. It made me unhappy; and, really, I realized that when it comes down to it, if I’m not happy with the site I do so much less with it.

The other thing I wanna do is put a little Twitter box on the side panel. I just gotta figure out how. Fun, right? Really, it’s the little things that build up to bigger things that I enjoy most about creating a site.

Well, if I keep this up, I know I’ll at least make 50 books this year.

Books 35 and 36 were the 5th and 6th books in the Jack Sparrow books: The Age of Bronze and Silver. As much as I both do and don’t enjoy these books, I’m apparently destined to read them. I found Age of Bronze at a local Barnes & Nobel for a dollar new, and Silver used at Bookman for almost two dollars. In that order, even! Who am I to turn that away, huh? The series either is growing on me, or it’s getting better. The little notes when references to previous books are made still make me laugh a little too harshly, but they’re getting faster for me to get through. I read both books in two sittings.

My 37th book was Sarek. Yes, another Star Trek book. I’m thinking of changing my name to “Nyx No-I’m-Not-A-Trekkie Goldstone.” I keep getting ribbed by my friends for being so focused on the Vulcans. At least I’m not going stereotypical and going on about the Klingons, right? Of course, I’ve never done anything typical. Really… The Vulcans are far more fascinating to me than Klingons are. Though, I did geek out a bit while reading this and had to look Klingon words up to know what they were saying. I think I looked up 3 of them. I don’t remember now.

Speaking of geeking out… I confess. I picked up a new pet project when I read my first Star Trek book. While trying to figure out which books to read, I’ve noticed that not a single site has a complete list of books, nor what order they should be read in if you’re wanting to follow chronologically. I’m a big chronological person. I like to know histories and I like to understand references to previous events. I don’t plan on posting my progress until after I read a fair number of books, so it doesn’t look any stranger of a list then it already does. Yeah, that’s the other thing… So that I know exactly where it fits in the time line, the book won’t be added until I finish it. This is a long, long, LONG project in the works.

Go me, right? >.<

Just finished Spock’s World, my first attempt at Star Trek novels and the 34th book in my challenge. I’m glad I picked this book to explore this fandom with the written word. Since seeing the new movie, the entire concept of the Vulcan race intrigued me. Then, at the local public library, I found this book.

Every other chapter is a segment in Vulcan’s history, staring from the creation of the Milky Way galaxy and the white star that makes up Vulcan’s sun and bringing us “up to date” with the birth of Spock. Fascinating! With each jump in history, I learned a little bit about the Vulcan culture. Strange, coming from me, since I have little interest in very few human cultures (enough to get me by in my own, and a few that were just idle curiosities for me).

The main plot didn’t hold my interest too much. Will Vulcan secede from the Federation, or won’t it? Living with Trekkies, I already knew the answer. I think anyone who read this book already knew the answer before the question was asked. It was a nice tie-in with a season two episode of the original series, though. So, thus begins my newest obsession.

I’m only a few years behind the times, right?