It's kinda cold out!
Fall arrived over the weekend
Sent from my iPhone
Greenway
Sent from my iPhone
The setting
The story takes place two generations after near-apocalypse. Humanity has turned back an alien invasion at great cost and is now working to repopulate and to build safeguards against future invasions. To the first end, cloning has become a major industry, and the Mazarin family are at the top of the heap. To the second end, science, technology, and warfare academies have sprung up everywhere. The most elite of those is where we find our characters. The school gets plenty of private donations from industrialists, including Neville Mazarin himself. This is a school for commanders, so obviously it’s where everyone wants their child to go. Tuition is astronomical, but there are a fair number of scholarships available. Some students are there on recommendation of an industrial titan or politician. It’s unclear why others are there, especially the ones who seem to have little interest in classes.
The boarding school is part of a self-contained city that can, thanks to alien technology, move, although this is not frequently done due to energy costs.
Character sketches
Celia Mazarin: Popular, drop-dead gorgeous, and wickedly intelligent, but doesn’t have any real friends and considers herself shy. Doesn’t know how to relate to anyone as her background is so different–she’s the daughter of the richest man in the world, so none of the other students can really compare. Sophomore who has attended this school since kindergarten.
Natalie “Byron” Ryan: Unpopular, beautiful but slovenly, antisocial, theatrical, and a brilliant musician. Byron is more likely to be cutting class and smoking than paying attention to teachers. Sophomore. Transferred in freshman year.
Mick Allen: Seems rather uninteresting at first. Newly-transferred sophomore, but keeps to himself and doesn’t excel or fail. Tends to stress out privately.
Julien Straub: Quiet senior with few friends, most of them girls. An artist.
Amaris Martin: Child of diplomats with a gift for languages. A junior. Plays the flute.
Maran Martin: Amaris’ older brother, a senior. Plays piano.
Bill Anderson: The quintessential nice guy. Student body president, baseball player, senior.
The Franks
Milla Frank: Bill’s on and off girlfriend. Makes decent grades but hasn’t really found her calling. Senior. Eldest Frank child. Feels like she should accomplish something great, but isn’t sure what that would be.
Phillippa “Phil” Frank: A junior. A genius in physics, especially electromagnetic phenomena. A marriage has been arranged for her with a college-age boy, but she’s having him wait until she’s satisfied with her education and life experiences.
Thaddeus Frank: Phil’s twin, a junior. Often makes fun of his sister about her arranged marriage. On the baseball team.
CD Frank: A sophomore.
Josephine “Joey” Frank: The most outgoing of all, Joey is also the baby of the family. She loves anything and everything cute, but surprisingly is rather timid around animals. She also has an insatiable sweet tooth. A freshman.
Raquel Pella: A loudmouthed sophomore.
Serena Midler: Alpha female of the main sophomore clique.
Mindy Clark: Serena’s number one. Dresses perhaps too sexily when not at school. Has most guys at the school wrapped around her little finger.
Stacy Keane: The rather sharp-witted member of Serena’s clique.
Beth Wagner: A shy girl who seems somewhat out of place in Serena’s group.
Chad Birkenstock: A freshman who has become something of a gofer for Serena.
What does your browsing history say about your gender?
This guy uses known demographics about the visitors to certain sites to check your browser history and guess your gender. It’s kind of interesting to see the male-female ratio of visitors to some of these sites!
Here are my results:
Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 92%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 8%
| Site | Male-Female Ratio |
| google.com | |
| myspace.com | |
| youtube.com | |
| mapquest.com | |
| amazon.com | |
| facebook.com | |
| blogger.com | |
| imdb.com | |
| flickr.com | |
| weather.com | |
| nytimes.com | |
| allrecipes.com | |
| noaa.gov | |
| wachovia.com | |
| snopes.com | |
| cbsnews.com | |
| mininova.org | |
| barackobama.com | |
| zillow.com | |
| bhg.com | |
| feedburner.com | |
| godaddy.com | |
| payless.com | |
| pandora.com | |
| rollingstone.com | |
| johnmccain.com | |
| tinyurl.com | |
| usanetwork.com | |
| pair.com | |
| yousendit.com | |
| kw.com |
(I only visited rollingstone.com to tell them to stop sending us their magazine. I have no idea how we got subscribed. :P)
NaNoWriMo?
The other day Hai asked me if I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year.
“Hadn’t even thought about it,” I responded.
Hai’s first response was an emoticon: =O
Then, “Don’t you do it every year?” he asked.
“No,” I responded. “I think I tried once or twice.”
It was twice. The first time, in 2004, I actually did pretty well, writing at least one scene every day for the first third of the month. Then the story sort of fizzled out and died. I couldn’t figure out where to go next, so I gave up. The second time was right after the fire in 2005. While the idea I had was actually pretty interesting, and I still think about it now and then, I was too emotionally drained from losing everything and trying to deal with living with the in-laws to write.
I was cavalier about the topic with Hai, partly because I was busy at the time we were talking, but also because it hurts to think about how writing has been gradually disappearing from my life. Ever since I left school, then the AMRN, I’ve had less and less drive to write creatively. No deadlines, no one to read and review. No expectations. And now even my blog has dried up–Twitter allows me to be lazy and not craft long pieces anymore.
I’ve talked about giving up writing before, but the truth is I don’t really want to. It would be a waste. I don’t want to be the personification of lost opportunity. There are so many things I’m good at, but I don’t work nearly hard enough to hone any of my skills. It both feeds and is fed by my lack of direction: I can’t pick one, so I don’t do any of them.
It has to stop. I need a kick in the pants.
Maybe NaNoWriMo would be a good start.
I’ve been thinking about a story involving my two favorite AMRN characters, Celia Mazarin and Natalie “Byron” Ryan. Originally I’d planned to make it a webcomic, but I’ve always written in story form. If I could just finish the story, I could always reimagine it as a comic later.
NaNoWriMo begins one week from today.
I think I’ll do it.
Martintown Road
I didn't have enough time to go to the end, so I turned back here.
Morning ride
I decided to leverage the sunlight to my benefit. Can't ride at night
anymore…
Lunch
Sent from my iPhone
United Way spoils
We had a United Way presentation at lunch today. Free food, and I won
a cup!
Lunch at Atlanta Bread Company
Sent from my iPhone
Tomato-Tuna-Green Bean Salad
Ingredients
1 bag SteamFresh cut green beans
1 can light tuna in water
2 T light mayonnaise
2 tsp mustard
dash onion salt
1 c cherry tomatoes
Instructions
Steam the green beans in the microwave.
Mix tuna, mayo, mustard, and salt in medium bowl. Slice cherry tomatoes in half and fold into tuna mixture.
Rinse green beans in ice water. Drain.
Put half the green beans on one plate and half on another. Top each with half the tuna mixture.
According to Weight Watchers Online, all this food is only 2.5 Points. Enjoy!
Note: This recipe is not for finicky eaters. My husband took one bite and refused to continue. Meanwhile, I found it absolutely delicious. It’s all a matter of whether or not you can stand cold green beans.
(Sorry about the picture…the tuna fish is a little flat due to being saran-wrapped in the fridge.)
New picnic table
I haven't eaten at the park by work in forever!
Measurements update
Today I decided to see how I’m doing on toning up. The results are great news for my chest, waist, hips, and neck. My thighs decreased a little and my calves are the same, while my right arm is actually bigger. I guess I’ve built some muscle there…
Here’s the breakdown:
| Undated | June 29 | August 20 | October 14 | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| chest | 48.5" | 48.5" | 47.5" | 45.5" | -3" |
| right bicep | 17.5" | 15" | 14" | 15" | -2.5" |
| left bicep | 18" | 16" | 15" | 15" | -3" |
| waist | 48" | 47" | 45.5" | 44.5" | -3.5" |
| hips | 56" | 55.5" | 53.5" | 51" | -5" |
| right thigh | 30" | 29.75" | 28.5" | 28" | -2" |
| left thigh | 30.5" | 30" | 28.5" | 28" | -2.5" |
| right calf | – | 17 7/8" | 17" | 17" | -7/8" |
| left calf | – | 17 7/8" | 17" | 17" | -7/8" |
| neck | – | 16.25" | 15.5" | 15" | -1.25" |