Friday, May 31, 2013

Picking a Username or Blog Name


Do you look like this when choosing a user name or password? Me too!


Here are a couple of easy ways to pick!

Usernames first!
Do you have a favorite word?
I like the word Schadenfreude.

Now check yourself and ask:
Will people be able to remember this to find me, or mention me later?  Probably not.

How about a shorter word?
Let's go with Elven!

Okay so we have the first part of the username, but it's still too short. Not for a second part.
Now pick your favorite animal/sci fi alien type or character.

I love Llamas.

My username would be: TheElvenLlama

You can also combine your favorite hobbies and movies, like I did with mine.

Now for a blog name!

What will you be blogging about?
For this blog I knew I'd be blogging about EVERYTHING. I am passionate about cupcakes and star wars. "Cupcakes to Star Wars" would have been a bit boring, and it sounds better to have two objects, as apposed to an object and an abstract.

Anyways. This strategy usually works: Your favorite drink combined with your favorite item. I like coffee and books so mine would be: Coffee Stained Pages

If you're blogging about a specific thing, make sure your name reflects it.
I run a fitness blog called "Finding Our Fit". A friend and I run it together to document our journey to fitness. The name tells you what to expect in a creative way.

Make sure it's catchy! Often using the same first letters in most of the words of your title will help with that. You need to make sure it's memorable.

Don't make the name too long.

Use words you like!

If all else fails, ask a friend or open the dictionary!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Buying Books When You're Broke


         If you're a book lover, then you know how expensive books are. It's incredibly frustrating to be withheld from our favorite books due to a price tag. Here's how I save:
    NOTE: These don't always help if you want new books or you want a certain book in particular. This is for the avid reader who just has the desire to get as many good books as possible for a low price.

I often go to places such as Goodwill or a local thrift shop. they sell books there, often for anywhere between a quarter and a dollar, and other shoppers usually aren't looking for books. You're left with your pick of what you want and they're cheap and in good condition!

        The library usually has a book sale table. I five books in almost perfect condition from a series once. They cost about a dollar all together. I also got Divergent from the library for a quarter. Sometimes these racks are bare or almost empty. Ask your library when they'll fill up again. 

Yard sales. It seems people tend to get rid of books first. I personally, as a book hoarder, don't understand that. Usually they just want to get rid of them so they're really cheap!

Look around on Amazon. Sometimes you can get books for just pennies (plus that dratted shipping)

         If you're a blogger, check this out! You sign up and they review your blog. If you're accepted to be one of their reviewers you get a free book (Which I did, and it's on it's way in the mail! Eek! One I really wanted to read too!) Check it out :D
                          http://www.thebooketeria.com/

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Confessions of a Failure of a Blogger

    I've neglecting you, my massive army of,well, sixteen followers (AND ALL THREE OF YOU WHO READ MY POSTS). I used to blog all the time but I am here to tell you the tale of why your feeds have not be graffiti 'd  with my name.
   Well, first of all I've been in driver's ed. that's four hours a day, six days, until Saturday. What does driver's ed teach me? That I want to go home... in something other than a car... while avoiding railroad tracks.
   School has been excruciatingly hard.I just keep reminding myself that if I don't do well this will be my future:
I won't graduate
I won't go to college
I'll work at McDonald's
All I'll be able to afford is McDonald's food
I'll die of a heart attack before I'm thirty.
I DON'T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN!
At least, if I die now from the pain and torture of school, it will be quicker and with more honor.
    If my brain explodes, I want pieces of it to be sold on Ebay. The rest of me should be fed to starving cannibals. I want to start a campaign to save them. No one cares about the poor, starving cannibals in other countries. It's a tragedy.
   I haven't had any free time, and for some reason blogging isn't considered a priority to my family. I don't understand that at all. I've been working and doing school in the morning and have had somewhere to go the rest of my day.
    I just learned I'll be losing my job at the end of may,so I need to concentrating on finding a new one. Maybe I can find an ostrich farm to work on.
 Imagine being one of those people who own llama farms.
 "What do you do?"
 "I have a llama farm."
"No, seriously."
 "Really! I do!"
 "Oh...so you don't have a job."
"I do! I RAISE LLAMAS!"
"Narcotics,eh? Maybe I should call the cops."
*Shudder*
   Anyways! That's all of my excuses. Do you forgive me?

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The Torture of Being a Writer

          

      Do I love writing? Yes, it's an seraphic escape from the demonic frenzy of the world, of life. There is something about letting all the thoughts and feelings that can't escape my mouth pour from my fingertips. Words are clay that I use to sculpt; my sculptures are are rarely seen by the chiseling eyes of outsiders. Too many of them are grotesque self portraits,  an honest depiction of the twisted mirror in which I see myself. I fear that if anyone saw the canvas that I once was, that is now painted over with blithe, animated characters, my suspicion, that I am an outcast, would be confirmed. Is there anything that can condemn a person from being a human that is deserving of love? It seems as though, if such a thing exists, it will be found in some poorly concealed crack in my fragile frame.
     I remember when I first started writing. Words just sprung into my head. I've never been an exceptionally talented writer, or a good writer at all, but I hope to someday truly deserve the title. I continue to write simply because I cannot stop. This is where the torture makes it advent. It bares an invisible chain of indomitable strength to bind you to words, to writing.. There is not freeing ones self from the trap of seeing, thinking and speaking as a writer. Sentences wrap around you and refuse to let go. You feel the pain of every morose stranger, see every detail of your surroundings. Worst of all, as a writer, I see another world, created by the broken bits of purity in this one. There is always a place where circumstance breaks the strain of monotonous days; new conversations sprout and grow free of the practiced phrases we speak every day simply because we have to.
       There is a place in my mind in which death has meaning and life is celebrated. Away from this place where vitality is sought out just to be destroyed. This place gives me the ability to do something right, to create something beautiful that cannot be razed. Words cannot be killed, murdered brutally in utter selfishness.
     Then I remember my shifting version of utopia can never exist.
     I see every flash of light, every shade of grey, every micro expression that flutters across and passing face. There is always an attack on my mind, take it all in, take it all in, that threatens my sanity. All of this is channeled into my writing. It is because of writing I began to see all of this.
   Writing a curse, and a love. It is torture, it is life.