Wednesday, August 25, 2010

7 things to love this week.

one.

Our new landlords, Don and Donna (yes, those are their names), brought us fresh, homemade applesauce earlier today.  It is the best applesauce I've ever had.  In fact, I'm tempted to say that it's the only applesauce I've ever had.

two.

Next week, our friends The Honey Dewdrops are coming to stay with us for a night as they pass through.  Is this the coolest thing?  Yes.  

three.

Adelaide.  It surprised me how much I missed the cat when we were away.  This is one of my favorite pictures of her, being a rascal in our old apartment.

four.

Coolato Gelato.  It just has to be my favorite place in Knoxville.  We played Settlers of Catan for hours there last night.  I guess that means:

five.

Settlers of Catan.  It took me a while, but I finally came around.

six.

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer.  Technically, it's the second of a trilogy.  I enjoyed the first book (Life As We Knew It) as well, and I have yet to read the third one, but The Dead and the Gone just blew me away.

seven.

Our entire trip to the D.C. area was amazing.  We got to see friends, eat amazing food, and experience D.C. from the local perspective for the first time.  We went to church in a movie theater.  We ate fresh, delicious food from Eastern Market.  

And, you know, I got to see the dinosaurs.  Rawr.


Monday, August 23, 2010

some crazy things.

the internet is a thing of wonder and beauty, full of all sorts of zany stuff.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

who do you write like, anyway?

The other day, I consolidated my completely unfinished, unpolished, rough rough rough draft, and the total (or should I say "working" total, har har) is 36 pages.  36 whole pages of what-the-heck-is-this-mess.  It's fabulous.  I mean, it's complete garbage (how do you translate ideas into narrative again?), but I've never written 36 pages of any one thing in my life.

In other news, I recently discovered a very strange, counter-productive site called "I Write Like," which tells you just that.  I put in part of my rough rough rough 36 pages. The result?




I write like
Stephen King
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!



Really.  Interesting.  Have I ever read Stephen King?  Nope.  Thinking this was maybe a fluke, I skipped to a section I wrote a while ago, and got this:




I write like
Neil Gaiman
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!



That's more like it.  Also, how did I get from Stephen King to Neil Gaiman?  Naturally, I had to keep experimenting.  So, in the next section I got this:

I write like
Annie Rice
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I'm pretty sure that's not even her name, people.  Seriously, I clicked the link and it said, "Did you mean Anne Rice?"

At one point, I even wrote like Dan Brown.  Ha!


My personal favorite:




I write like
Charles Dickens
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!



Honestly.
You know what would have been easier?  Using the whole 36 pages.

Here goes...

I write like
Neil Gaiman
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Gaiman wins.  I can live with that.
And now you know.