Remind Me Again Why I Title These Updates?

Let's face it, my cyberland readers. Whenever I title my blog updates, I never stay in context to said title. My brain can't handle staying on topic for more than like five minutes.

I blame school. Everytime I write a paper for class, I have to stay on topic. Which isn't necessarily bad, but because of that, I feel like my free writing doesn't have to stay on topic, so I don't force myself to.

So I'm being creative and different, and not really using descriptive titles. Like now. It has nothing to do with the fact that I am perpetually tired and chronically lazy for the summer. Nope, doesn't play a part one bit.

Speaking of which, working this 5 am shift is crazy! I get up at 4 so that I have time to eat something and get ready for work, and then my day is off and running. I have discovered that I pass out now before 10:30 every night, and my body naturally wakes me up between 4 and 7 in the morning.

I have never been one for sleeping in, just cause since starting school last summer, I've always had early morning classes. So I guess my body just adjusts itself. Which could be weird, but I'm going to go with it.

Another random thing - I love fanfiction. I love reading it, and I love writing it. This week's contest on my favorite forum is to write a skit involving Pearl being stuck with the other characters (in my case, basically just Mike and Crow). I know, right? How fun is that? I love to do that with characters, mainly for my own enjoyment at watching them squirm.

The prize, though, is totally off the hook, so to speak. The gentleman who is hosting this week is married to the one and only Mary Jo Pehl. Mary Jo Pehl, for those who don't know, is the woman who played Pearl Forrester in the Sci-Fi era of MST3K (I may have talked about this, but Pearl and Brain Guy are the only reasons I have to watch those episodes, cause they are awesome! :D). She's also the only female riffer with CT, which automatically makes her awesome in my books.

(For a while, I was the only female player in my improv group, until Stacy came along and we started ganging up on the guys. It's tough sometimes, but fun. Anyone who can play with a bunch of men has my respect. )

So anyway, the prize for the winner is the newest CT DVD autographed and personalized by the Titans themselves. Which is incredible.

A fun contest, a fun prize, and an excuse to write AU fanfiction? I am so there.

So I wrote up my entry, and got it submitted. I'm only a little nervous because it was the first entry, it turned out fairly long, and I wrote it in script format. I generally don't do script format because I just don't like the style; third person narrative gives me so much more control over what the reader experiences. Plus, I chose to leave Mike on the SOL, and I generally don't watch a lot of Mike episodes, so I'm not convinced I got his personality right...

But it was an excuse to write all day pretty much, and I really enjoyed taking my idea and running with it. It was one of those where it pretty much wrote itself, and the characters ran with it. And even if I don't win, I have now contributed to the small fanfiction kingdom for MST3K. As soon as the contest is over, I'm going to upload it to fanfiction.net.

And that has been my day so far. It's almost 10 and I'm wiped, but hey - tomorrow is a holiday. My dad is home, and I don't have to work either, so my family and I are talking about doing something. Of course, dad has to take the car to get the oil changed, so we'll see how the day progresses...

Until the next time, Cyberland.

~birdgirl90

Reasons Why I Write

So, I got to thinking, and since I'm actually advertising this blog in as many places as humanly possible for reasons still unknown to me, I figured, I should probably update more often, even if it feels like word vomit.

Yes, that's right - word vomit. One of my favorite terms, so you should learn it.

Anyway.

So then I thought some more and decided that I never actually explained why I was doing a blog or why you should read it. I'm of the mindset that things are better late than never, so I'm going to give it to you now. Be warned - I am tired and running off pure energy, and I have not had a Coke today.

Let's begin.

I think blogging for me started off as an experiment of sorts. I have always liked to write, and I've been told that I'm a pretty decent writer. I have this far out dream of getting published one day down the road, and I really want to get my writing known to the public as a whole.

I'm not entirely sure why, because when I started this blog two years ago, I was fairly shy and I didn't like having a lot of attention drawn to myself. In a way, I am still like that - I consider myself to be more outgoing than I once was, but having attention drawn to myself makes me feel self-concious in most aspects.

But I have also discovered that my writing is the one thing I don't mind having people look at and read. I like to be acknowledged when I write something decent, and when I write something that I feel is particularly good (I won't say great, I have a long ways to go before then), I want to share it.

That's where my username comes in. I have been using the username birdgirl90 since I was 14 and started writing fanfiction. I try to use it for everything, because if people like my stuff, I want them to be able to find me conviently. As it is, if you google birdgirl90, everything that comes up on the first page is me.

This is not to sound conceited, for the record. I do not feel like I am God's gift to fanfiction, fiction, blogs, and writing as a whole. Far from it, actually. I don't know how many times I've read the works and writings of others and realized that my own skill has room for improvment. There is always room for improvment, and I am very aware of it.

Instead, I want to be able to share my experiences with others. I want to be able to take whatever bit of knowledge that is stored in my head and spread it around. Likewise, I want to be told when my writing sounds bad. I feel like I will never be able to grow as a writer unless I have feed back, both positive and not-so-positive. This is not to say that I want it to be mean, but I believe that constructive criticism is one of the best tools in the trade.

And so I blog. And I write fanfiction. I carry notebooks around in my backpack when I am at school for free writing between classes, and when things happen or ideas hit, I write them down and date them.

So, in short, I write this blog for my own entertainment and to help me grow as a writer, as well as to share my day with you, in hopes of making you laugh or think about things. Because, in the end, isn't that what we all do when we write?

~birdgirl90

I Don't Care If This Counts as Word Vomit

I'm going to do it anyway.

This is the second blog for the day, but I am so awake right now that I feel like blogging all over again. Besides, holding in words is a bad thing. It is always good to get them down on paper or the computer or even on a napkin, cause you never know what sort of ideas you are going to come up with on a whim. (The people who know me know that I usually by college ruled notebooks in bulk - this concept is why.)

Anyway, I was kind of having a time of it. My roller skates are a pain (or at least the arguments they have brought about with my mom have been a pain, as I have yet to take the skates outside..), my job is sucking the life out of me, new job applications freak me out, change is scary, school deadlines are approaching, etc.

My dad picks me up from work tonight, though, and things changed a little. It turns out that he Googled my username (birdgirl90 - it's my username for everything except youtube, if anyone was curious...) and it turns out all of my stuff showed up on the first page of searches. This thrilled me, as I am trying to get noticed for something like my writing or my wit or whatever it may be that people notice with me.

So I tried it, and sure enough. This blog came up, my accounts at various forums came up, a lot of my old fanfiction came up, and my Myspace page came up. Which is funny, cause I really prefer Facebook over Myspace and pretty much don't use Myspace anymore.

Still, I am estatic. I may not have a page view counter on this (I have yet to figure that one out) but I have a feeling people are reading this. Especially considering how much I've been whoring out this blog on all the forums and Facebook and everything else I'm a part of.

This then brings about a question: do I even write about anything that is of interest to other people besides me?

I thought about it for all of two seconds and decided it ultimately did not matter. It's my blog, I can write about what I feel like, and if the general population likes it then great, if not it really is no skin off of my nose.

That being said, I like having other people at least share in the drama of my day to day life as a Colorado young woman.

Anyway, that made my day and made me want to blog. I really should be getting to bed now, though, as it's almost 11 and I have class in the morning. One last thing before I go: if anyone is interested in following me at Twitter (I still am not sure how I feel about it, but I think I like it), I am @birdgirl90 and you are more than welcome to look for me. I have a Facebook page too, but I don't feel like giving that out here.

Okay, I'm done. Goodnight, my dear Cyberland Readers, and sweet dreams of the golden keyboards.

~Meaghan

I Keep Doing This in Hopes Someone Out There Reads It

I know it is a very odd title for a post, but I often wonder to myself: How many people actually read this?

To count, I know of one who reads it fairly consistanly, and that would be my father.

That being said, I still keep it up. I like to read and write, and writing on a daily basis, a blog or the occasional fanfic I produce, makes your writing improv. I write to please myself or to vent or to hopefully settle things in my own head.

Still. It would be nice if I eventually got noticed. Granted, it is the mind of a teenage girl on the brink of turning twenty, and that market is saturated. However, I want this blog to eventually reach someone outside of the people I know, maybe get a complete stranger to think about something from a new angle or whatnot.

At this point, I must admit that I am sick with a nasty ass cold that includes sneezing, low grade fever, and the inability to focus on anything or think straight. If this sounds as rambly as I think it probably does, that would be why.

Anyway. If you are reading this blog post, I hope that you take away something from it, either a piece of information that you didn't know or think about, a laugh at the expense of the author (always a good thing too), or even a headshake with the thought of "man, she is weird...".

Because that is why I blog. To make the world (or at least a piece of the world) think and laugh.

Good night, Cyberland, and good luck-
I mean, until next time,

~Meaghan

A few things I've been thinking about

So I'm trying to decide if I want to start another blog, one that is set aside just for music and book reviews. At this point in time, I think I am going to pass on it, as I have enough trouble maintaining this blog and updating regularly.

Another thing I've been thinking about is whether or not I'm going to take on another job. Currently I work part time at a Sylvan learning center (my other job finished up). If I were to take on a second job again, it would probably be at someplace like King Soopers (where I worked for a few months in 2007) or Chick-Fil-A. Chick-Fil-A has the benefits of being closed on Sundays and if I could get a schedule worked out where I was working mornings, then it would be ideal. Still, I'm hesitant to take on more than I can chew...

And finally, I'm trying to get a good night's sleep. I can not remember for the life of me the last time I slept a whole night without a nightmare or waking up at least once at some point. Sleep depravation is not good - I am one of those people who need a ton of sleep to make it through. So we will see how the next few weeks pan out.

I have to say, 2009 seems to be going fairly slowly and blurry thus far. I'll keep you posted.