September Session

(Credit goes to original owner)

We got a new TV Saturday! It's HUGE!!! Seriously, I ought to take a picture of it! Imagine a movie theater screen, but smaller, obviously, but maybe like...1/3 of it's size? I really need to get a picture of it, though there may be a glare from the sun that gets in the way...Anyway, we put the Playstation there, and we're going to use it whenever we watch movies. My parents did it with X-Men: First Class - goes, I love that movie SO much! :D And they talked about getting Star Wars and rewatching it, and my Mom said that my smile couldn't have gotten any wider when she said that :) *blushes*

I finished Titanic that day, too! It was pretty good - I liked how it wasn't just about romance but also some historical fiction (some historical figures were in that movie, too!) - but gosh, it was so INTENSE!!! I knew the Titanic sinking would be intense, but...well, I always imagined for some reason that it'd just sink straight down, not flooding people with the leaking water and BREAKING IN HALF sending bodies flying to the water and making people commit suicide because there aren't enough lifeboats!!! :O As much as I enjoyed it, I don't think I ever want to see another disaster film again! Okay, that's an extreme, but still! The movie's almost ruined any boat experience I'll have again :/

I don't really remember what happened Sunday...at least, according to my diary xD I've started writing in it and then copying what I've written onto my blog, which, of course, takes a lot of work after a week's worth of logs! (Some are short while others are VERY long!) But there's something about writing down in pencil and paper (I may try pen later; it feels better on my hands) that's relaxing, or just enjoyable. Hey, that's something I logged about! Haha :)

Actually, I did have this one thought that I was debating whether or not to post on here, but what the heck, I'll do it anyway: why are we afraid of being vulnerable? I felt that way that day, and I realized that others did, too, but no one talks about it! I think that's the problem: we all struggle but no one talks about it, so we create this illusion in which we're the only ones struggling and no one else does. That leads us to keeping secrets and lying to people (saying "I'm okay" when you really feel like you're about to cry). I know this from experience, of course...It's something I'm still working on, but that realization has given me a lot to think about...I hope it will give you guys a lot to think about to. I'm always looking for ways to challenge my brain :)

Not much happened Labor Day; no one came over or anything. My sister Amber and some of my siblings and I did watch First Class (or I at least watched a part of it) on FX, and I caught parts of Avengers, another superhero movie that I love :) I don't know why I love it so much - I think it's because it's a superhero crossover on the big screen, and I just love seeing all of the superheroes in one place! I think that's the best part :)

Meemaw also came over that day! She was wearing the shirt I gave to her for her birthday :) And my parents had left but when they came back, they brought her a cookie cake! So we sang a (belated) happy birthday to her :) In the Lloyd house, we celebrate birthdays weeks or possibly even months (if it's a late gift) after the actual date, which I'm sure others do, too, but I just like saying that we Lloyds do that, cause we're a VERY special family, one way or another ;) lol

I also finished last week's (at the time) episode of Under The Dome, and, well, it was kinda weird. To be fair, the whole show has always been kinda weird and held a Lost-esque vibe, and the main reason we watched it was because my parents met two actors from the show. But it is pretty good. It's just...well, Barbie and Pauline and Lyle and that other guy who was working for Barbie's dad were escaping that weird place that took them out of the dome to the "real world" and three of them (not that other guy) had weird visions of the past.

Oh, and this week's episode (or last week's) - FYI, BEWARE OF SPOILERS ON MY BLOG AS I TEND NOT TO THINK ABOUT POSTING THEM UP HERE - Barbie is Melanie's half brother!!! I saw it coming whenever they started talking about how they remembered each other, but WOW! And technically Melanie should be MUCH older than Barbie, actually Pauline's age, but because she had to protect that freaky egg (WHY is she so obsessed with it anyway?) that got her killed and brought her back to life, she's not (yeah that's a weird sentence.)

Here ar some other things I learned from the show that day:

• Joe and Norrie have become kinda useless. No offense to them, especially SINCE I MET THE ACTORS IN PERSON, but they don't really have a purpose now other than Joe getting wifi under the dome
• The egg can scream (don't ask...)
• Pauline continually has freaky visions that get people killed
• Melaine has a weird obsession with the egg
• Junior and Melanie kissing is not creepy because physically, she is his age, but I couldn't help but think of him kissing a girl who was his mother's age...I suppose stranger things have happened...
• The dome likes sending replicas of real people (Angie this time) to people just to give them an ambiguous message
• Junior's family is MESSED. UP. Seriously, you've got Big Jim, the power-hungry megalomaniac; Pauline, the woman who gets crazy visions and had one that led her to fake her death and lie to her husband and son; Uncle Sam, who KILLED his nephew's girlfriend and wants to kill his nephew's girlfriend's brother and girlfriend because he thought it would stop the dome from coming down, and Junior, who LOCKED his girlfriend in a cellar to supposedly protect her from the dome...
• Big Jim is still a jerk. Seriously, I thought after the situation with Pauline he'd at least try to become a better person like he told Pauline that he was a supposedly "changed" man, but then he trapped his wife INSIDE of her house when the egg was screaming and was getting one of her freaky visions again. And then he held Joe at GUNPOINT when he forced him and Norrie to give the egg to Barbie's dad and the people outside of the dome and knocked the egg down - but guess what? Just like Norrie, Melanie, and I think Pauline worried, something bad happened - the egg caused this freaky thing that I can't remember to happen! Great job, Jim! *facepalm* I don't even care about him anymore :/

Haha, that was a fun list to do xD Anyway...

Manny, Imani and I played Shrek 2 on the Wii (it's backwards-compatible so that we can play old GameCube games). Talk about nostalgia! Not that you guys have played it because I'm sure some of you haven't (or maybe a lot of you), but I remember when that game was in stores! It was SO much fun and it still is! I could be blinded by nostalgia, but I don't care. I love that game and I love the memories it brings me :)

We started a new workout *cringes*. The exercises we were doing looked easier, but trust me, they weren't! And we did more reps of them! I'd like to know why pretty much EVERY workout sheet or ideas for workouts contain squats, pushups, and/or planks??? THEY. ARE. EVIL. (Lol, just kidding...they FEEL evil, but the only reason I'm doing them is to keep myself healthy.)

I might not do Lizard-Man this month...scratch that, I likely won't. I'm just getting so bored with his character - I think he feels too much like an archetype to me - so I'm doing Rising Heroism (another  superhero story) instead, because I prefer the characters. Actually, I was supposed to do a Star Wars fanfiction, but I chickened out xD I need to gain self-esteem with my writing in that and stop thinking that I'm going to "ruin" the story - I'm not! There's a quote about writing that goes "To write is to be vulnerable" (I can't remember who said it), and I'm going to keep reminding myself of that.

But I don't want to just stop Rising Heroism - now, I'm running out of ideas for the stories, but the characters - I'm just getting started, baby! I came up with a new arc for one of my protagonists that I hope will help flesh out her character and explain why she acts a certain way - I saw a great quote about developing characters and how you get to know them like how you get to know people: ask questions. The questions that help develop them, of course, shape them into who they are. And characters must react to certain situations. That's pretty much it, I believe, or could it be summed up into one rule? I know that there are no "rules" to creating characters, but I only want a few tips so that I don't have all of these to remember.

Creating characters is so difficult for me, as I sure it is for everyone, and I have a feeling that it's never something I'll just "figure out". I have gotten better, though, as every writer gets better with practice. You have to make them human. Humans have conflict and struggle and work their way to overcome the struggles. That's why we love stories so much, the ones that really strike us in the heart - we can relate.

What else happened? I didn't get much reading in this week - I haven't been to the library (though I hope to stop by it today) and I need something good to read. We have Eragon (Manny bought it), but I just can't get into it. It's meh. And I need money for my Star Wars EU books, which I hope to buy soon enough, so my next stop is the library! I think I'll probably read either The Summoning (first book in the Darkest Powers series) by Kelley Armstrong or Need by Carrie Jones (I liked the second one pretty well but I never finished it).

I might start making Friday movie night! Let's see...a few weeks ago (or a month), I watched "Mean Girls", which was REALLY good and I can't stop thinking about it - I was watching clips of it the other day on YouTube! (I think it's my new favorite movie :) haha. That Saturday, I think, I saw The Parent Trap, and I think that following Friday I watched Freaky Friday, which was also really good, and I may have taken a break. But another Friday I watched Titanic, which was pretty good but too dark for my taste, and yesterday I saw Teen Beach Movie, which was pretty good! I loved how it parodied musicals and random musical numbers and how it didn't take itself too seriously and admitted that it was cheesy. It was a cute, fun film :)

Well, I can't really think of what else happened. I didn't really log in my diary things that happened to me physically, but emotionally, I guess, but I'm not sure I'm ready to share everything on here yet. I'm sure I will eventually, or at least tell you about some of the things I thought. Have a good day, everyone! :)