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?)

The day that never was!

February 29th is here people! Get your act together!

Today is that extra day of the year you always wish for; That extra time to do things you don't normally do.

Enjoy! With this video as your companion, you can accomplish all the things. These people are my new favourite. Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks. They got their act together and now they're going to be famous. I'm going to see them at the Sasquatch festival. Pretty stoked.

Days of the week are harder to learn than Curling.

I was literally just about to write this and call it "Monday bumday" and then I heard my roommate say, "Oh, Tuesdays..." and continue to ramble about who she'll be working with.

Welp. Shows what I know. I've had four days off, and this is the last of it. I booked it off to go skiing, but decided not to go skiing, so... I got a lot done, actually! But it's making my brain mushy. When you don't have to write the date down all the time it's easy to forget what day it is. This brings me to Ciao Monday! Which is still appropriate because it says "Ciao Monday / I'm through with you." Which is a fact. It's by Emm Gryner, a Canadian singer. Listen to it:

Anyways, I digress. Where has The Advantage taken me today? I practiced curling! To be good at curling (or anything at all) one must curl (or do said anything at all). Now, I've been curling all my life. Doesn't make me any good. And I curl on a mixed league twice a month. Still, doesn't mean I'm any good. Anyways, the sheet next to me housed a lady teaching another lady how to slide. I heard her say things like, "Don't drag your knee," and, "Don't lean on the rock," and, "Keep your forward foot down."

Then I looked at my own sliding technique. My knee was down, I do lean on the rock and my foot was always bent when I slid out. How is it that I've been doing something for so long but I've forgotten the basics?

I suppose we all need refreshers from time to time on how to do what we're used to doing. So, lesson learned: Don't just do what you want to be doing, do it actively and engage yourself. It will lead to better results.

No half-assing it in the arena.

Updates:

Drinking: I'm doing very well at drinking when someone else is paying. I'll get ya'll back when I'm loaded. Also, it's my roomie's Birthday dinner tonight. At Julio's. So I'm going to HAVE TO buy some bulldogs. Good thing I've been saving it up

Eating: Great! No fast food, no chips and no processed stuff. Also, remember when I said I'd quit drinking Green Tea? Why? Why didn't somebody stop me? That lasted all of three terrible days. Green Tea is also, as @KrrristenW pointed out, pretty much the healthiest thing ever.So I'm happily back on that train.

Writing: Going great! I am working on some web content that I will post once it is done. I've also made a proposal offering my services as a Tweeter. If any company is looking for someone to do their social media, I'm their interested and willing individual!

Personal writing: I think about it a lot... does that count?

Practicing the accordion: Uch. I want to say to myself, "Carrie, there is no such thing as not having time, just not making time." Ok. So. Where is this time? Maybe I need to... I don't know. MAKE MORE TIME!!

**New Project: ** Develop a concoction for Time, and then make more of it.

Will keep posted.

Also, thanks to everyone who's reading! I really appreciate it. Let me know what you think! I love comments.

And pass me on to your friends, if you think I'm so great, like seriously already. Gawd.

No pressure.