australia day

Happy Australia Day!

As I live in Canada, I have to wait until July to show my true patriotic passion (or something like that). I've never been to Australia, but I would really like to. I'm convinced that, post-graduation, a few of my friends and I should spend two months in Australia. Well, it kind of varies between Australia, New York City, Peru, and the moon.

But if you live in Australia, or if you've been there before, I would love to hear more about it. What's it like? What's your favorite part of Australia/favorite thing to do/strangest thing you've ever seen there?

Also, as I have a deep, burning love for marsupials, have you ever seen a kangaroo? Or a wombat? Or a koala?

I'm sorry that basically all of my ideas about Australia are complete cliches. Here's a completely relevant picture of Jesse Spencer to make it up to you.

IT'S JESSE SPENCER!

"Holy Haberdashery, Batman!"

Oh, Batman. When I was little, my brother and I loved to watch Batman cartoons on TV. One Halloween, we were even going to dress up as Batman and Robin. My brother cut the Batman logo off of a cereal box and taped it to his t-shirt--but then, at the last second, he changed his mind, wore loose-fitting clothes, and dressed up as our dad, instead. So I was Robin. Just Robin.

Because I just had my English provincial exam, I'm going to through some terminology at you guys. Robin is a foil for Batman. He's the young, naive, sometimes-misguided sidekick who asks stupid questions and relies on Batman for answers. Batman is as wise as he is tough, and is always ready to impart his cool genius through gems like, "In good bat-climbing as in good driving one must never sacrifice safety for speed."

The point is, they just don't work without each other.

So I thought I'd spend today looking back on the wisdom of Batman. His over the top morals--Robin's overuse of the word "gosh". It was good times. It was the best of times. Also, you can thank Batman for teaching children everywhere the importance of grammar, paying parking meters, dental hygiene, and pureness of hearts.

Robin: "You can't get away from Batman that easy!"
Batman: "Easily."
Robin: "Easily."
Batman: "Good grammar is essential, Robin."
Robin: "Thank you."
Batman: "You're welcome."

Batman: "Better put 5 cents in the meter."
Robin: "No policeman's going to give the Batmobile a ticket."
Batman: "This money goes to building better roads. We all must do our part."

Robin: "Holy molars! Am I ever glad I take good care of my teeth!"
Batman: "True. You owe your life to dental hygiene."

Batman: "Haven't you noticed how we always escape the vicious ensnarements of our enemies?"
Robin: "Yeah, because we're smarter than they are!"
Batman: "I like to think it's because our hearts are pure."

Robin: "That's an impossible shot, Batman."
Batman: "That's a negative attitude, Robin."

All quotes are from here. Have a great day.

little things 1

Because I can never think of anything remotely worth blogging about (sorry!), I've decided to post little things that make me smile, every Saturday. So here we go:

1. New toothbrushes
2. See-through teapots and flowering tea
3. Books in alphabetic order
4. That funny feeling you get when you think about someone you really like
5. Chewy ginger snaps

What about you? What makes you smile today?

Erika

baby animal of the week: penguin

In honor of the extremely slushy and snowy weather I've been walking through all day, I bring you the baby penguin:

I wonder if adorableness counts as a method of self defense. Like, leopard-seals-can't-even-bring-themselves-to-eat-you cute.

Hope you have wonderful weather,

Erika

tuuuesday

I have exams next week. Oh my gooooosh, I need to study, extremely lots. Sometimes I feel like if I try to stuff anymore information in my poor little head, I won't be able to remember my name, or where I live, and I'll just wander around without a home or a place for the rest of my life. Which, compared to the alternative of no studying whatsoever, sound, eh, alright.

I've been studying plate tectonics and poetry terms. What? I can't wait for my English provincial, when I start listing the layers of the Earth and their thicknesses, rather than talking about situational irony.

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday. One week from now, I will be done my exams, and that will be a very happy thing. Till June, when they multiply.

So we'll end the day on a positive note. Sunflowers are happy... right? Where am I? LITHOSPHERE!

(image from weheartit.com--let me know if it belongs to you!)

Have a monumental (damn it--I should've used that on Monday!) week, boys and girls.

Love,
Erika

in defense of fanfiction

I feel really bad that, all of the times I've mentioned fanfiction in the past, I've referred to it as something that takes time away from "real writing". Just because the original work on which your story is based was written by someone else, a good fanfiction still begins with an unique idea.

Maybe it's just me, but I often see people describe fanfiction writers as something "less"**. The main purpose of a fanfiction (and sorry for using the word so many times--I can't seem to think of a decent pronoun) is to entertain. Like all stories should. Writers = entertainers = story tellers. It's the same thing, no matter what your genre or starting point is.

Some of the most creative scenes and characters I've read have been in fanfictions. That's why I love sites like fanfiction.net that provide a place to publish your stories. Writing fanfiction isn't just a fun hobby to exercise your writing muscles--you can get feedback and critiques on your writing, plus make a few friends who are interested in the same things as you. Okay, sorry, way to sound like a greeting card. But think about it--let's say you really hate the ending of a book (for example, the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). By writing a fanfiction, not only can you write as some of your all time favorite characters, you can control the outcomes.

The one good thing about fanfiction not being considered as important or artistic by some people as, say, writing a novel, is that you don't have to take yourself too seriously. Come up with a username, write a story, and put your work out there. You can have fun with random scenarios, one-shots, and the most ridiculous dialogue (the term "Merlin's magic panties" came up the other day). And if you want to improve your writing style, why not work at it while doing something fun?

In short, yes, I write a fanfiction. No, I'm not a crazy fan-girl, and I don't spend all my time on it. In the future, I want to be writing novels--but writing fanfiction is a really fun way that I can connect to people who like the same books as me, and apparently like my writing. Huh. How about that.

**I'm sorry, I really don't me to generalize, but bring up "fanfiction" in a conversation has always made me feel weird and kind of inadequate compared to those people--you know, the ones who read Tolstoy when they were six, and are working on their latest work of speculative fiction.

I want to have fun with writing. I believe that I like having fun.

city of updates

I don't know if anyone else is a massive Cassandra Clare fangirl (we can be friends!), but I have seriously been falling down on my duties as a City of Bones freak. Not only has the cover of the fourth book in the Mortal Instruments series (City of Fallen Angels) been revealed, Lily Collins has been cast to play the main character, Clary, in the movie.

OH MY GOSH Cover:
NO WAY Lily Collins:
If you haven't read the series, and thus have no idea what I'm going on about, here's one of my favorite quotes from Jace, the MMC:

"I don't want to be a man. I want to be an angst ridden teenager who can't confront his own inner demons and takes them out verbally on other people instead."