Another blog post about The Hunger Games

Yup, everyone has written about it. (Like Kristen and Beth) Everyone knows it's awesome. Everyone has read, seen or vowed to never read or see The Hunger Games and its counterparts. Just read them. Seriously. It's hip to be cool.

Also, it leads to cool collaborations like this:

 

This is Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars (whom I'm going to see at Sasquatch!) 

And I love this song. It's eery and weird like the books. Leaves you feeling all heeby jeeby like the movie. 

Having said that, I had to sit front row at the movie theatre the other day in order to watch said movie. Eff that noise. 

What does this have to do with the Advantage of Doing? Suzanne Collins wrote these books, accepted these movie contracts and inspired a whackload of artists to make songs. The Arcade Fire one is swell, too:

 

 I digress. READ THESE BOOKS SO WE CAN HAVE TEA AND TALK ABOUT THEM.

Thanks a shit ton. 

Of Course It's Snowing

It's just the end of March, and it's just been the mildest winter ever, anywhere, and I just wanted to spend some time outside today, so of course it's snowing.

I know it's futile to ask the weather to cooperate, and it is, honestly, stupid to ask it to level out. Especially in Edmonton. I know it, you know it, the birds and the bees know it: The weather here is unpredictable. Like a crazy person who doesn't know exactly what they're doing and one minute they're just buying a hot coffee, next they're pouring it down their own pants, next they're yelling at traffic in jibberish, next they're wondering why they're in the middle of Jasper Ave with a coffee crotch.

The point is, the weather is crazy and there is no way to institutionalize it. So we just have to deal. And deal I shall. I have the day off you see, so I plan on writing lots! I'm working on an outline for a book I plan on writing, and I'm working on some copy for a website! (A real job, if you will!)

I do have about a bajillion other things to do AKA I cleaned out my closet, but sort of left off when it was all scattered across my room and still haven't come back to it. And on that note, I have a backpack, for my trip! I borrowed it from my aunt. It's super cute, a dusty navy blue with a big Canadian Flag patch on it, but it's kind of small... I'm currently working on seeing if I need a bigger one. I'm going to pack it and see.

I'm desperately hoping this doesn't trigger any emotions that will cause me to jump on a plane and leave everything behind, including this crazy weather.

I'll keep you posted.

Guts - My March Doer of the Month!

This is my friend Brianne. She's one of the bravest and most amazing people I know. Sometimes we disagree on things and sometimes our personalities clash, but then she pulls moments like these and makes me cry.

Brianne does Slam Poetry. I admittedly thought it was pretty weird the first time she told me about it when she moved to Vancouver and was learning about all these indie, modern, "cool but not too cool cause that's not cool anymore" stuff. I thought it was interesting and expressive and neat, but fleeting. And yet, she stuck with her guts, and is now performing with the very people she looked up to in the beginning of her exploration.

This IS the Advantage of Doing, people. She wanted to do Slam Poetry, so she did it. She went to the shows, met the people, wrote the goods, practiced and practiced and practiced and DID IT. Good Show!

Congrats, Bri! I think this was one of the most beautiful speeches, and the last sentence totally hit me! True that, if I may.

And this post may contradict the very point of your poem, but I did try to call you to your face, however I suppose it's a little early over there in Van...

Thanks, I guess :$

I'm assuming y'all can't help but notice today is Friday...

I'm dog sitting in Stony Plain, and didn't have internet for about a day and a half. So there.

And as for my writing assignments!

The song: I got two rough drafts that need a lot of polishing.Maybe I'll sell one to Gaga and one to... Underwood! Yes. Shake up the industry standards. BAM.

The Sci-Fi: I have this really cool awesome idea that I will share with you soon and I actually started writing it down. Gaaaaassssppp. More surprising than any Sci-Fi I've ever read, really.

The Creative Non-Fiction: I got really caught up in the Sci-Fi... But I did do some Inkshedding on it!

Point is, I consider this assignment a success. I wrote things down on paper. And I loved it. So, by the end of the month, I want to be able to share those songs with you, and the main plot of the story I'm writing. A synopsis, if you will.

Anyways, regardless of if you were all, "Carrie, you're assignments are late" or if you weren't, it really helps having an audience to rely on. A peoples to respond to and assume they'll be mad and/or sad if you lie to them.

So thanks, readers! I truly appreciate it.

Inkshedding!

OMG! and/or EUREKA!

Every feel so super ecstatically pumped when you find something that you had no idea you had lost in the first place?

I took a course in the summer of my first year at Grant MacEwan. It was Creative Non-Fiction with Gigi Meade. I enjoyed in immensely, learned a ton and got to read some really cool books that I never finished but moving on...

I learned the art of Inkshedding! Omg. Just thinking about telling people about it makes me all excited. Ok, ok ok so, what you do is... write! But the catch is, you can't stop. Get a notebook, paper, whatever, put your pen to it, and just write write write! It's good to give yourself a topic, such as "What should I do today" or "What would my character do in this situation" or "What if that crazy cat lady was right and I should build a bomb shelter" or, simply, "What should I write about?"

That last one is the question I posed to myself the other day. Specifically what form of Non-Fiction to write (and you though I'd forgotten this assignment) and I started Inkshedding and remembered how so honestly freeing it is.

You see, the point of an Inkshed is to simply get the ideas down, regardless of grammar, spelling, correctness in any form; hidden agendas, hostile take over by writer's block, holding back. It's great to just write and write, and remember don't stop! Not to fix spelling, or put in commas or anything. Just keep going, even if you have nothing to say, or you lose your train of mind, just write, "I have nothing to say," or "I lost my train of thought" and never stop moving that pen!

Try it. Enjoy it. Let it free your mind to just think: All you're doing is recording it. You might surprise yourself.

One of the great things is rereading what you've written. Half of it, if not more, will be crap. I'm sorry. But the rest of it will be pure and polished gold ready to be molded into fine jewellery and beautiful things of the like.

Let me know how it goes!

Ok. The Advantage of Writing Assignments

One of the things I should be doing in order to be doing it is writing, as I've written here before. You see how I sound to myself? Like a broken record sometimes. Carrie, write. Carrie, practice accordion. Carrie, sing. Carrie, write. Carrie, practice. Carrie, how about, be cool?

So. I calmed myself. I'm giving myself a writing assignment. If this works, I'll do it more often. Problem is, with real assignments, I had either a wonderful or terrifying Professor who would either make me want to finish to impress or just to not get scolded. There were marks. These were important.

Can I be my own Prof? Can I mark my own work? No. I can't. That's your job. Not that I expect you to start putting this in your calendar and looking for 12pt font, double-spaced, 1" margin papers on your desk or anything.

In fact, I don't know how this will work. But, a week from today I want a rough draft of a Creative Non-Fiction piece, a Sci-Fi piece and a song. These are my three favourite things to write, and to read (or listen to).


So, that's March 8th. If I don't finish, I expect I'll be avoiding this blog altogether. (Just kidding (hopefully)).

I'll keep you posted. Thanks in advance for your stern teacher face and/or proud Professor face. If it's any consolation, I'll be sharing these pieces with you! Obviously not next week. Those will be shitty first drafts. As we affectionately call them. But one day soon they'll be shining final drafts. Like Clay Aiken.

Well I actually hope it's a better transformation than that.

(Ps, is it weird that I capitalize Professor and not teacher?)