"I'm a lunatic!"

My sister Becky has taken up a strange new catchphrase. She often walks around the house saying, "I'm a lunatic! Come on, say it with me!" I don't know where she made this up. I have a feeling that I may have influenced it in some way, shape or form, but I never actually said it. It has led to much bemusement on the parts of everyone who lives with her (i.e. me, Mum and Dad).

Mum was interrogating her a bit on this matter today.

Mum: "Who says that?" (thinking it's from a cartoon or movie or something)
Becky: "Me!"
Mum: "Who made it up?"
Becky: "I did!"
Mum: "*laughs* You know, I think it's funny. Not the 'I'm a lunatic part', because I actually don't like it all that much. But it's the 'come on say it with me' that I think it hilarious!"
Becky: "Come on, say it with me!"

That's pretty much how it's been for us.

Untitled

My sister's hamster, Fluffy, died today. Remember Fluffy? He's the one who looked like a tribble. He died this morning...Becky was really sad about it. She still is. And I think she ought to be. It's really weird, though, because we had that hamster for less than a year. Hamsters generally live a little longer than that...but then again, we don't know how old he was when we first got him.

I just had to get that out of my system...sort of...

NaNoWriMo!

Yes, it's THAT time again. You know what I mean! It's November. And - think - what happens in November? No. I'm not talking about Thanksgiving. Or the anniversary of Freddie Mercury's death. Or even Election Day (although it's happening...). And I'm not even talking about the anniversary of when Nikki and I met!

I mean National Novel Writing Month.

Yes, THAT. The exciting time of the year when, once a year, all silly little writers like myself gather together via the internet to all join in the process of writing a 50,000 page novel in thirty days! Wow! I had a chance to do it last year, but I didn't. Let's just say there was a huge list of reasons why I didn't (they were thus: I was recovering from various things, I was very very busy, and I took my writing seriously then). But now that I'm not recovering from very much, I'm not too busy and I don't take my writing seriously (it's my MUSIC that I take seriously, and even then not all the time), I can do it! Yeah!

Obviously you want to know what my story's about. The working title is "The White Lens of Perception". Yes, a big long title. But a main theme of the story is perception. See, at risk of saying too much, it is about a guy named Harrison (actually his last name) who finds a mysterious door in his house and goes through it, only to find himself in a dream-world that his long lost childhood ex-friend created. And so they're trapped there. And they have to get out. The friend wants to destroy the dream world and start from scratch. Harrison just wants a way out.

I have made remarkably good time in writing this novel. I am 10,000 words in so far. And I'm not even kidding. All I can say is this: I stayed up until midnight last night to see November in. 10,000 words is a fifth of what I have to write. And it's only the second day. Egad!

Stay tuned for further and similar updates!

Novemberists?!?!?!?!?

Okay. I have a new problem. I don't know what a Novemberist is now and it's really bothering me.

See, it all happened because of a song I wrote. It featured the line "See Novemberists in the street". It referred to picketers...I think...but it really bothered me because the next day, I had no idea what a Novemberist was. I didn't question it the night I wrote it because, well, there was meletonin in my brain. In other words, it was late and I was tired. (Note to self: weird and fantastic things happen when I try to write while there is meletonin in my head.)

But the next morning I woke up to read what I'd written that night (see, stuff written late at night or early in the morning usually needs some rewriting to make sure I don't come off in a rather bad way). It was all suitable for inclusion into a song, but I came across the Novemberists line. And I thought, "What the heck is a Novemberist?"

I do know where I got the word. It had to do with Decemberists. As in, the absolutely fantastic modern band that nobody's ever heard of! I basically took the month before December (i.e. November) and made a word out of it.

I asked my friend Sasha, who didn't know what a Novemberist was, but she did know it had to have something to do with Decemberists. I then asked two friends, Rebecca and Stephanie, if they had any idea. Neither of them brought up the Decemberists. Though, Stephanie said, "You wrote it, right? You ought to know what it means." I then stated that I don't know what much of my writing means anyway and I can only decipher a very little of what I write. Rebecca said (jokingly), "Bad songwriter! Bad songwriter! Don't make other people listen to your music until you know what it means!" This I actually found funny.

I've just come to the conclusion that "bike" is a funny word.

You know you're in love...

You know you're in love when...

Those songs on the radio which you would originally have called "mushy" now make sense to you (and you even consider some of them "profound").

The object of your affections is all you can really think about. S/he's on your mind all the time...in the car going places...doing chores around the house...swimming in the pool...

You write a sonnet for the object of your affections (now come on, who HONESTLY writes a sonnet...?)

You prolifically write love songs about the object of your affections but get rid of more than half of them because you think they express your emotions a bit TOO accurately...

The Vegetarian

I met my friend Alexandra at the park today. She proudly announced that she is going to become a vegetarian. I thought this was a very interesting and rather admirable idea. (She's still going to eat mealworms and crickets though. She likes eating bugs, and she claims that the bugs were not mistreated, thus she can eat them.) I thought this was actually a pretty good idea. I couldn't become a vegetarian though. I really need to eat my meat. I'm sort of a carnivore. My sandwiches contain meat, and I like to eat chicken and rice for dinner. Actually - since I had chicken and rice for dinner, and my meat sandwich for lunch, and my breakfast included bacon, I had meat at every meal today. Actually, I'm sort of proud of this fact, though I can't tell why.

Pippin SINGS! (oh no everybody, run and hide!)

Ever noticed how I keep insisting that I'm a musician except none of you have ever actually heard me sing? Well, today's your lucky day! I've uploaded a few recordings of my singing on YouTube! Note that they're only covers. This is because I'm not at the point where I'm ready to put up my original songs. (But they'll be on there someday, I promise!)

Seven Seas of Rhye

Rhiannon

Wish You Were Here

Any comments on them would be ever so greatly appreciated. I've gotten curious what people think of them anyway.

Maybe it's just me...

...or maybe it's my obsession with classic rock. I dunno. I've been watching Star Wars films as of late with my sister. I have nothing against Star Wars, I actually think it's quite brilliant (despite all the ideas and situations it presents that have become cliched over time; I don't think most of them were very cliche when it came out). However, while watching Revenge of the Sith, I realized that Anakin looks somewhat like Syd Barrett. (Well, there's this one picture of the band, with all five members, and he DOES look somewhat like Syd in that picture...) And when I watched A New Hope last night, I thought Luke looked sort of familiar...then I realized it! He looks like John Paul Jones! Somewhat! No, not the Revolutionary War guy! The Led Zeppelin guy! I defy anybody to prove this wrong! Yeah!

Huh...maybe it's just me, though...am I right? Or am I crazy?

Oy vey!

Oy vey! It's been a long time since I last wrote here. Lots of stuff has gone on since then. Like what, for example? Well, I've written a new album. Which amazed me, 'cause it took me only four days to write and record ALL the material. I think it's because the arrangements are simpler this time. Mostly it's just me and my guitar. Yeah...I've also written and recorded a brand new song. Actually, two songs. This might not seem so cool, except - they're over 20 minutes long. Yeah! I've decided to stop talking about those legendary progsters and become one myself! Pretty awesome, huh? It's going to be on an album of mine entitled A Round Trip and Back Again. (It's sort of a joke - The Hobbit is also called There and Back Again, and it's sort of a round trip because it starts and ends similarly. Also, it's alphabetical. My first album was called Phoenix, then the next one shall be called Queen of Hearts, and then Round Trip...see? It's the alphabet!)

I will do what I can to record more on here. Partly I feel discouraged because nobody actually reads this stuff that I put up. At least, nobody comments on what I've written! What's wrong with you readers? Comment more! Argh! Comment! Comment! (No I'm kidding...though I'd really appreciate it if more than one person commented.)

Hee hee!