"A POST?!? What IS This Craziness?", And the Flying Home Adventure

....yeah, okay, so I haven't exactly been posting regularly. But I am now! Let's see, since August...

- I left Texas to go to college in Southern California (which has been AWESOME),
- Released my short film, Deadly Notes,
- Switched majors (Psychology with a theatre minor, baby!),
- Got a pretty new camera (*cough* Canon EOS Rebel T3i *cough*),
- Started writing a webseries, which I'll hopefully be filming next semester and releasing during the summer,
- Procrastinated finishing said webseries BIG TIME (it WILL get done though, which is why I'm telling you. Hold me to it!),
- Made it through finals week
- Flew home (which included a lovely little adventure I'll get to in a minute),
- Less than 12 hours later, left on a road trip from Texas to Illinois, where the extended family is,
- Decided that I needed to be productive, so I should either work on the webseries or write a blog post,
- Chose the blog post.

So that's life lately. Now, to the flying home story I hinted at!

Orange County, CA to Dallas, TX

I left California on a sunny but slightly windy Friday (this past Friday, to be precise). My roommate and I had flights an hour apart and both had connecting flights in Dallas with layovers that overlapped. So we arrived at the airport at the same time, and she headed through security while I went to check my big suitcase. That went smoothly enough, and soon I was heading through the lovely, quick-moving and not very crowded security line at John Wayne International Airport (which, so far, is one of my favorite airports anywhere).

I should pause here and mention that I fly A LOT. I grew up flying. When I was little, up until my brother turned two, we flew to Grandma's house every Christmas and most summers. We took planes when we went on vacation. When we moved to Texas and started driving north for Christmas, I started going to Higher Things, an annual conference for Lutheran teens, with my youth group, and we flew. I've flown at least once a year every year since I was three. Airports, planes, and security are basically part of my world. I've been pulled aside in security all of one time. I was about eight and I'd gotten a clock for Christmas that apparently looked weird under the x-ray. Since then, it's all been smooth sailing. Until that day.

They pulled my bag out after running it through the x-ray. MY BAG. My bag which had no liquids, no sharp objects, NOTHING except power cords for my computer and phone, a small amount of clothing, and a kitchen appliance (this was for the annual gift exchange we do with my dad's side of the family. Kind of like white elephant, but the gifts are actually useful/cool/fun. My mom asked me to pick it up before I headed home and save her a trip to the store). But the TSA agent opened it up, took out the appliance box (this was the last time I'll ever do any of my mom's Christmas shopping for her, by the way), opened the box, took out the appliance, wiped it with a little cloth thing which was then placed in a machine to analyze it for EXPLOSIVES...by this point, I'd noticed my roommate sitting at the gate across from the checkpoint, and I got her attention.

When I turned back, the TSA agent was done making sure that my exchange gift wasn't going to kill anyone, she closed up my suitcase, ran it through the x-ray again (just in case) and put it back on the table next to the explosives-analyzing machine and told me I was good to go. Then she left it there, and I hesitantly picked it up, afraid someone was going to yell at me for taking a suitcase out of the TSA mini-explosives-lab.

Finally, after grabbing a snack (a ridiculously expensive highway-robbery-priced snack, I might add), I settled in at my gate, and had no more issues until...dun dun dun...Dallas.

Dallas, Or The Reason I Don't Like American Airlines

I arrived in Dallas ready for a two-hour layover that didn't make much sense (I was only a 3-hour-drive from home, and I was waiting two hours to take a 33-minute flight and not get home until midnight). The departures board said that my flight, leaving at 10:35pm for Austin, would be at gate A20. I was in terminal C, so I hopped on the Skylink tram and sat through two stops before arriving at the right section of terminal A. I disembarked, pointed a lost-looking older lady in the right direction, and found A20... which now said Minneapolis/St. Paul. Coincidentally, that happened to be my roommate's flight, so I found her and said hi again before going back to the board. The board that said I now needed to go to C21. Sighing, I decided to grab dinner at the nearby barbeque place before making my way back to terminal C. They had a sign advertising breakfast, with no qualifications ("Breakfast served until 11 a.m., unless you want some, in which case we're no longer serving"...I have trouble getting breakfast during non-traditional breakfast times). I walked in, looked at the breakfast menu (which also had no time-related qualifications) and decided to ask what was on the Breakfast Platter. After waiting in line for several minutes, the man behind the counter informed me that they were no longer serving breakfast. I left, and began to grumble as soon as I was out of sight. Why is breakfast for dinner frowned upon in this society?!? ...Okay, maybe that's a whole other post right there...moving on!

Back at terminal C, I found my gate and, unfortunately, a lack of good food in the gate's immediate vicinity. By good, I mean not McDonald's and not overly expensive (I assume anything with a French name is expensive, even for airport food), so my dinner was a pretzel from Auntie Anne's. When I landed, I posted my location and layover time on Facebook, and now I was getting comments on that status from friend and high school classmate Chelsea, frantically asking for my gate. I told her, and subsequently discovered that she, two other friends and former classmates, and I were on the same flight! We met up, swapped first-year-of-college experiences, and before long it was time to board the plane.

We all got on, stowed our carry-on bags, and listened to the same old presentations on proper seat-belt-buckling, why you shouldn't try to inflate the bag attached to your oxygen mask, and where flotation devices can be found (in case we land in water between Dallas and Austin, of course). Take-off was normal, except the weird bang just as we lifted off the ground and the fact that the plane was vibrating for the next fifteen minutes (half the flight), until we were informed that our ENGINE was malfunctioning and we needed to turn around and go BACK to Dallas (because we couldn't just travel the same distance forward and be in Austin, could we?).

On the ground in Dallas, mechanics checked whether our engine problem was a quick fix (it wasn't), and we were told to get off the plane and wait at the gate for more information.

It was about 11:30 (the time we were supposed to arrive in Austin) by this point. I and my traveling companions/high school friends sat with our luggage, grumbled, and debated whether there was time to watch Bridesmaids before they had a new plane for us. Finally, at about 12:10, we were moved to a new gate and told that as soon as they cleaned the plane (not that any of us cared whether the plane was clean at this point), we could be on our way.

Then, at about 12:20, we were informed that something was wrong with the second plane, and they moved us to ANOTHER gate (several gates away), where we again waited, quickly losing hope of ever making it to Austin and wishing that 18-and-19-year-olds could rent cars (we were only 3 hours away!).

Finally, we got on the third plane, and were told that the overnight cleaning crew had already gotten a hold of the second plane and were taking it apart for a full cleaning. The first plane had apparently made a sound that sounded like engine failure, hence our return to Dallas.

Thankfully, this plane had no problems, and we landed in Austin at 1:55 a.m.. Of course, having a checked bag and living 45 minutes from the airport, I didn't get home until 3. I was supposed to meet friends that morning for breakfast.

New Twitter, Old Twitter, and the Definition of "Soon"

So if you're on Twitter, have been for a while, and you've been there in the last several months, you've probably heard of New Twitter (hashtag: #newtwitter). It's the big upgrade that's supposed to make Twitter better, easier to use, faster, cure cancer, prevent the common cold, and give you x-ray vision. Okay, maybe not the last one.

Problem is, that's not what New Twitter users are saying. A quick search for #newtwitter reveals the many disgruntled users:


"@---------- ****, dislike #NewTwitter! I gave you an unfollow! :o :-( *follow again*"

"I'm starting to suspect that #Newtwitter shows that u ain't following so & so [when IN FACT U ARE] but when u click the the fb button, u end"

"@--------- I still don't like #newtwitter either. Seems like I have to refresh the page or wait 20 minutes for new tweets to show up." 

 "There's only 2 things I hate about Twitter: #TwitterJail and #NewTwitter"

"The #NewTwitter has too many glitches and problems.. That's why I don't mess with it"

"Using #OldTwitter cause #NewTwitter is ****ing up"


 "#Urgh wish that #newtwitter would hurry up and just give me #oldtwitter back!"

Okay, so maybe the majority of Twitter users don't have the best spelling/grammar/communication skills. And there are a few tweets sprinkled among the spam and the hatred of the new version that don't paint it as such a bad thing. But the point is pretty clear: New Twitter may not be all that Twitter promised. Users have had problems following other users, including a glitch where they don't appear to be following someone they are, and in trying to follow them again accidentally click "unfollow". Other issues include unusually small profile pics, slow loading times, difficulty seeing what tweet someone has replied to, problems viewing direct messages, and the list goes on.

Twitter has addressed some of these issues, but as old problems go away, new ones arrive. Problems that the old version of Twitter didn't have (what problems did it have, by the way? Nothing I've noticed). In response, users have clung to the option that Twitter has left in place that allows them to keep using "Old Twitter" while everyone adjusts to the change. I'm among those users, and I plan to stay with Old Twitter as long as possible. 


However, Twitter seems determined that we, the stubborn users, make the transition. First, we had a bar at the top of the page encouraging us to make the switch, telling us that Old Twitter wouldn't be around for long. Then they added a link to a survey, inviting us to tell them what we didn't like. Then the link disappeared, and we believed that the switch was about to happen whether we liked it or not. 


It didn't. Instead, after months of the blue "this version won't be around much longer" bar, Twitter gave us the "very, very soon" bar:

Click on it - it gets bigger :)

Very, very soon... Yeah, it's been there for a while now. Twitter, check a dictionary for a word besides "soon" - one that means what you're actually trying to say. No rush, though. I just wish that, if you're going to let me keep Old Twitter forever, we could do away with the yellow bar. It's so...yellow, and with the "very, very soon" and the big blue button, it's almost like you want me to do something...Nah, that's silly. You wouldn't force a change that so many of your users don't want, would you?

Europe: Part 1

Hey everyone! I’m back from Europe! I had a lot of fun, but sadly, very little internet access. That made it hard to post while I was there, but now that I’m back I can tell you ALL about it! :D It’s a long story, so here’s the short version: Europe was beautiful, we hit Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Nuremberg, Munich, Dachau, Innsbruck (Austria), Vaduz (Liechtenstein), and Lucerne over ten days.

Want the longer version? Here’s part one!

Getting to the airport:

Making it from the parking lot of my church in Austin where our group met to carpool to the airport in Houston was an adventure in and of itself. By 1:10 pm or so we were packed up and heading out. I rode in a car with a friend (hereafter known as Friend #1), her mom, and another friend (hereafter known as Friend #2), along with a bunch of luggage (not mine though, it was in another car). Somewhere between Brenham and Houston, Friend #1 looked at her passport...and discovered it was actually her dad’s. A laminated photo copy of the picture page from hers had been stuck in there somehow, so when her mom grabbed the passports she saw Friend #1’s picture...and so there we were, hours from home and another hour or so (if traffic was nice, which was doubtful) away from the airport, only a couple hours from the time we HAD to check in (or we wouldn’t get to fly) and no passport for Friend #1.

Okay, a little background on why this matters. In 6th grade, the event I was most looking forward to was my school’s 7th grade Germany trip. Then, halfway through 6th grade, I switched schools. No trip. Then, at the end of sixth grade I switched schools again, and in 8th grade I was promised an end-of-9th-grade trip - to Germany. Finally! Nope. At the end of 8th grade, we moved to Texas. So by the time this trip came around, I was afraid that I was somehow cursed to never make it to Germany, and SOMETHING would come up to stop me this time.

Many, many phone calls later, Friend #2 switched cars, since the car she switched to had room for one more, and also had her luggage. We were driving back to Brenham to meet Friend #1’s dad, who was driving down with her passport. But by this point, I was no longer concerned that I would miss a third chance at Germany. Instead, I was stubbornly determined that somehow, some way, I would make it on that plane. So while I was concerned for Friend #1’s chances of making it on the plane with me, I was relieved when I found out that rather than waiting in Brenham and risking Houston traffic, we were going to drive the rest of the way to the airport and have Friend #1’s dad meet us there. That way I could check in and they would at least be ready to go when her dad arrived.

We got there, I checked in at British Airways (more on them in a minute) and headed upstairs toward security with our group leader, the mom of another friend (hereafter known as Friend #3). We made it through security without too much trouble, and I even managed to avoid both the dreaded TSA scan AND the thorough pat-down! We got dinner, sat at the gate, and waited, hoping and praying that Friend #1’s dad didn’t get stuck in traffic. They’d talked to the British Airways people, who kindly allowed them to check in an hour later than what was normally required if they needed to. Which they did. Finally, with only about an hour until our departure time, Friend #1 and her mom made it to the gate! They had just enough time to grab dinner, and then we all boarded our plane to London.

On the plane:

Oh, international flights! Our plane left at 8:30 pm and landed in London at 5:30 am (Central Time). Yeah, 9-hour flight! Yay! *sarcasm*. Actually, it wasn’t all that bad.

We got on the plane, and I discovered Long Flight Heaven: free movies and TV, where you choose what you watch, when you watch it, and you can pause, rewind, fast-forward, whatever! I turned on The Adjustment Bureau, which I’d missed in theaters but really wanted to see. The flight attendants (who all had awesome British accents) brought us a choice of either chicken curry or pasta for dinner (never mind that we’d already had dinner at the airport - shh!) and then brought us TEA. We had British TEA in a TEACUP with sugar and milk and everything! It was amazing. Then, somehow I managed to sleep despite the uncomfortable seats, and woke to the sunrise and breakfast, which came in a box. A breakfast box. A muffin, some weird-looking granola thing, raisins, more (wonderfully British) tea, and a yogurt drink. Then, to wake myself up, I watched Unknown, which opens with the main character on a plane landing in Berlin (deja vu?). Not long after I finished that, we landed in London!

In London, we had to go through security AGAIN, even though we were just catching a connecting flight. Thankfully, all my liquids were in my checked bag, so it went smoothly enough. Unfortunately, not so for one of the guys, who got pulled aside for a full search of his backpack. Luckily, our connecting flight was delayed, so we had plenty of time.

After another quick flight, we landed in Berlin, got our bags, and met Dionesia, our tour guide (the best tour guide ever, actually). She took us to a charter bus, where we loaded our bags and headed off toward our hotel, the Ibis. There, we put our luggage in a small room in the hotel lobby before heading back out to meet the other two groups we’d be joining, one other group from Texas and one from Minnesota.

Dinner came soon after, at a little buffet place on the top floor of a department store. Then we went back to the hotel, checked in, and discovered that wi-fi was free only in the lobby. Thus concluded day #1!

Writing Inspiration From Castle

Sitting at Salt Lick across the table from my English teacher and next to one of my friends at the end of the Senior retreat last month, I was introduced to a show that would change my life - and my writing - forever: Castle.

They discovered their mutual love of the show, and discussed the most recent season. My friend tried her best to keep from ruining the finale for my teacher, who hadn't seen it yet. Then they looked at me, and simultaneously had a revelation: I needed to see this show.

"It's right up your alley," they said. "Crime and writing." Of course, I was sold, but they went on:

"It's a writer who shadows a police detective for inspiration. He has a poker game with famous writers like James Patterson, who actually appear on the show."

Okay, there was no way I was missing this show now.

A quick YouTube search revealed that all the episodes up until the most recent season finale are available online (and the finale can be found on Hulu), thanks to a wonderful fan of the show who I owe my eternal gratitude. So, I started watching, beginning with the pilot. And ending with the finale of season 3.

The show is wonderfully written, a perfect combination of serious, professional, down-to-business Detective Kate Beckett and witty, silly, lighthearted, flirtatious Richard Castle. She learns how to have fun, and he learns that love isn't just about warm fuzzy butterfly feelings. They make each other better people just by being together (and, of course, because TV writers can be cruel, they refuse to admit their feelings for each other despite the fact that everyone knows. Including them).

That, in itself, makes the show a good one to study for certain elements like dialogue, character interaction, plots, and subplots. Then there's the fact that he's a mystery writer looking for his next novel.

What makes this show unique from other crime shows is the contribution that Castle makes to the process of solving crimes: to him, a suspect's guilt is primarily based on whether it would make a good story. And he's usually right.

Throughout each episode, he comments on the case as though it were one of his books, even creating possible conclusions and spinning them out for the team in beautiful prose, leaving everyone hanging on his every word (including Kate, despite the fact that she does her best to hide it). Watching a few episodes is bound to get the wheels turning, giving you ideas for all kinds of twists, surprises, motivations, and secrets that will make your stories as intriguing as his.

All this, and it's great for those days when you simply don't feel like writing. As much as we have to remember that writing isn't about the glamor of signings and photo ops and movie deals and bestsellers, it doesn't hurt to daydream. Richard Castle has 22 novels, all of which have been bestsellers. He's famous, has connections with the mayor of New York City, has been on the Most Eligible Bachelors list for years, an is filthy stinking rich. He is what most writers secretly (or not so secretly) hope to someday be.

Castle was introduced to me at a time when I’d lost motivation to write. I’d stretched myself too thin on projects I didn’t really want to start, much less finish, and hadn’t had time for the ones that I cared about. I felt burned out. And then I was trying to make myself work on the novel I’d just started, only squeezing out 300-500 words a day. If that. Castle inspired me to write again, and inspired me to write mystery. That inspiration developed into ideas for the first few novels in a series, and outlines for the first two (don’t worry, I’ll finish my novel-in-progress. Now I just have something for NaNoWriMo). Castle really made a difference. If I ever do make enough money writing to take it on as a full-time career, that show will deserve some of the praise. A lot of it, actually. I recommend this show to writers, mystery fans, crime show fans, fans of shows with adorable “will they/won’t they” couples, fans of comedy...really, just about everyone. But especially writers. We can learn so much from Richard Castle and the way he sees the world.

I linked to the pilot earlier in this post, but if I hadn't sold you on it yet and now I have, here it is.

More updates!

Woohoo! I didn't wait another two months to blog again!

Film update:

Due to the stupidity and unpredictability (mostly the latter) of Texas weather and other lovely (not) little incidents, filming is taking a lot longer than expected. My hope (crossing fingers) is that we can finish this weekend, before I go off on my long-awaited Europe trip next week. Again, FINGERS CROSSED.  And toes. And...eyes? Whatever helps. But if we can manage to get all the footage we need, this movie is going to be amazing. Just saying.

Writing update:

Work on Flash is going a little slow, but what I'm really excited for is Camp NaNoWriMo, a very exciting new program from the National Novel Writing Month people. This will let all of us crazy people who think we can write a novel in 30 days do it all year round! I'm excited because I've learned from past experiences and from my work on Flash that, because of my procrastination, I need firm deadlines in order to get anything done and that only through NaNoWriMo can I actually finish a novel in a reasonable amount of time.

Camp NaNoWriMo begins in July, so here's my plan:

June: Do what I can with Flash and outline my next novel, Clandestine Services. I'm excited about this second one because it will be the first in a planned series of mystery novels starring NYPD Detectives Dhanya and Dave. I'll also be finishing work on Deadly Notes somewhere in here.

July: I'll participate in the FIRST EVER CAMP NANOWRIMO! Excitement! Yay! Cheering! Here, I'll attempt to write all 60-70k words of Clandestine Services during the month of July. When I'm "taking breaks" (a.k.a. procrastinating) I'll outline for the next novel in the series.

August: Camp NaNoWriMo will be going again, and so will I! During this second run, I'll either a) write the next novel in the series or b) break the "start a new project" rule and use the time to finish Flash, depending on how tired of Dhanya and Dave I am by that point. Again, I'll take breaks to outline when I "have free time" (a.k.a am procrastinating). Part of the novel will be written on the road, because in late August I'll be heading off to college in California!

Acting update:

I've submitted for a few projects, but the problem is that most of their audition, rehearsal, and shooting dates conflict with when I'm going to be out of town. I have quite a bit of free time in July and August, so hopefully after my Europe trip I'll be able to land a role or two (while I'm writing novels and editing Deadly Notes, of course).

So that's life right now! So much for a relatively free summer...