Up and Away!

 I'm feeling... blue today? Meh, I don't know how to describe it really. Sort of one of those days when you figure if you were depressed more often you might decide it would be a good day for suicide. Luckily, I am not one of those people that is depressed often and thinks about killing themselves.

My dad told me that I had to stick with guitar for three years. This year, those three years will be up and for some reason I have developed an unusually large passion for learning to play the trumpet and actually improving at it. My parents are sort of skeptical because they want me to stick with one instrument and really get good at it, but I really only wanted to learn how to play the guitar so that I could play chords better and whatever. When I did piano when I was six, I was sort of forced into that and never really liked the methods stuff (it's a little bit more interesting now, but I'll consider it later). So anyway, I'm in a losing battle with the trumpet thing.

As for skating, my parents have just found out that I am interested in competitions. I have no idea what they thought I wanted a solo for, but obviously, now they know. Of course, now they're telling me how I need to become more serious and everything and start taking the dry-land courses and possibly putting in one more day a week to improve. That means that I will probably have to stick in on a Friday to skate, but it's not like I had anything better to do on Friday's. Usually I left it open for the option that someone would want to hang out then, but I guess I was wrong.

I feel like I'm being overwhelmed with homework, and not just mine. I'm the type of girl that knows the answers to a lot of things, so naturally I have a lot of people coming to me and asking me questions. A lot of the questions are reasonable because the questions are hard to understand, but usually when it comes down to that I'm either not at the question yet or I don't understand it either. On the other end of the spectrum, the questions I get asked are obnoxiously stupid. They're the kind of questions where if the people were smart enough (and they are, they're all passing with A's and got asked to math honours) they could figure it out easily. I'm getting fed up with those kinds of stupid questions.

There are people that are making me a little depressed now too, but I won't dive into that too much. I'm probably already boring you with all my ranting, but I feel like I needed to share it with something to make myself feel a bit better.

 So I figured a quick update would do as well as a little thing I stumbled upon elsewhere :D

End of term testing is over, however, the homework doesn't seem to have lessened. Don't teachers know when to cut a bit of slack? I need to go find my paint sets or buy a new one, so that's kind of driving away motivation.

Missed a competition this weekend because my solo isn't polished. I don't know why my coach decided not to work with me as much as he worked with another girl. I mean, don't get me wrong, Penny is a nice kid, it's just that I sort of wanted to go to the competition. Oh well, maybe next time.

Slow and boring. There's nothing good in my life right now so I'll just move on to a little survey thing ^^

Fandom: Pokemon

1. The first character I fell in love with:
Gary

2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now:
Brock

3. The character everyone else loves that I don't:
Ash and Dawn

4. The character I love that everyone else hates:
James

5. The character I would shag anytime:
Volkner ;)

6. The character I'd want to be like:
Brock or Zoey

7. The character I'd slap: 
Ash or Jessie

8. Favourite character: 
Barry <3

9. Who are your five favourite characters?
Barry
Misty
Brock
Zoey
Gary

10. Who are your five least favourite characters?
Jessie
Ash
Dawn
Kenny
Paul

11. Which character are you most like?
May

12. What is your deep, dark secret regarding this?
She's the only one that obviously, doesn't like Ash as much as the others (though I do support Pokeshipping ^^)

13. A pairing that I love:
Twinleafshipping (Barry/Jun/Pearl x Dawn/Hikari/Platinum)
Contestshipping (Drew x May)
Pokeshipping (Ash x Misty)

14. A pairing that I despise:
Pearlshipping (Ash x Dawn)

15. What are your five favourite things about your fandom?
The Pokemon
The shippings
The well-written fanfiction
The well-drawn fan art
Barry

16. What are your five least favourite things about your fandom?
Dawn
Crappy fanfiction
No romances
Lack of Barry
Dumb trainers 

 I was thinking that maybe I needed new icons for the year... but that would involve possible credit, and I'm so lazy with that kind of stuff. However, I will find a way. ^^

Anyway, my cousin, her husband and her step-sons are coming up this weekend from Las Vegas to experience the amazing snow we have. Guess who's have a rapid temperature rise? That's right: us. So now the only place that's going to have any snow by this time tomorrow will be the ski hill which is an hour's drive out of town. I hope they planned on doing some other things too.

End of term is fast approaching and I've got this huge mass of tests and quizzes and projects. I have a science test Monday, math and French on Friday and a socials project that's due before the twenty-ninth of January.

In other news at school, I think I broke my finger removing a weight, but more on that another time.

Solo got revamped in skating so now we're just trying to piece things back together and get going with the music. Apparently I don't skate fast enough -_-" 

I'm thinking of holding another Pokemon giveaway soon. I'm running out of room for all these Poliwags I've been hatching. They just take over the boxes! Whatever I can giveaway will be not be missed, though I may have to release a lot of them if I run out of room as I'm still catching Pokemon I don't own already (and trading of course, you can't forget that).

So... new icons sometime this... year and possibly some other stuff. We'll see how it goes.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been caught up with like, six million different things, which I am not here to tell you all about.

So I was asked to join the Math Honours 9 course at my school. Me being me, I accepted and will now have to work in one more class out of school sometime to my already busy schedule; as if I needed it -_-"

I've got quizzes left and right, homework and projects that all need to be finished by January twenty-ninth, which is term cut-off. Any work handed in after that is not counted towards my grade.

I received a new piece for jazz band. It's hard looking. Seriously. It makes me cry at night (kidding). I guess I'll just have to tough it out and hope that when we play at festival my horrible non-ability to play certain parts will just blend away to the better kids. Of course, I hope to improve by the time festival rolls around.

The solo is being revised as we speak (switching to skating now). The layout is just not working with the music. However, we have now developed the beginning, which is somewhat okay with me. Of course, not being as coordinated as others, I still have trouble with it now and then -_-"

Other than that, there's not much in my life. There's not room for story writing as life has once again taken over. I can only look forward to weekend skiing, next week when my cousin shows up with her family and spring break because I'm going to Hawaii. But, dear reader, we can tough out the months, weeks and days ahead. We'll make it. I think. 

 I realized I didn't do a whole lot for the month of December. In fact, I did practically nothing. I procrastinated, wrote very little and barely even popped in here to say anything.

This year has been a hustle and bustle of everything. I made some friends, lost some, made some more and lost some more and so the cycle will continue. I went to my first wedding in April and got to travel to Las Vegas. I had my first green Christmas in ages and yet another dull New Year's Eve. I started figure skating again, read some darn excellent books and some darn awful ones too, and heard some great artists appear on the scene.

As for the life of an online nobody, I published seventeen stories to Fanfiction.net and one to here which has not been published elsewhere. I started this LiveJournal, started my Serebiiforums account and got back into playing Pokemon Pearl. I roleplayed a lot more and worked hard on character applications because I found that they were my favourite part of the experience.

I started a Percy Jackson fic and haven't heard back from my Beta since October, so maybe I'll get some news from her sometime this year.

I went through crushes and whatnot and still can't get my heart to figure out who I should be goggling at every day at school. I danced with one of them, though, which is a huge achievement on my part.

Compared to a lot of other people, I haven't done anything extraordinary this year. Even to myself I feel like I haven't done too much. But hey, that's what the New Year is for. It's all about a clean slate and a head start for the next decade of my life.

So here are some goals for myself; whether they be for my life away from the computer or on it:

I resolve to get active more.
I resolve to finish a chapter story.
I resolve to keep up my good grades.
I resolve to keep my good friends.
I resolve to make it to at least one figure skating competition.
I resolve to win a medal at a figure skating competition.
I resolve to land an Axel.
I resolve to start a successful roleplay on Serebiiforums. 
I resolve to stay with LiveJournal until July 1, 2010 and hopefully beyond.

So there's my list of goals for 2010. Hold it against me please so you can make sure that this list gradually gets smaller. And as for any monthly goals? Finish a few OneShots, get some chapters up, the usual.

I wish all of you a Happy New Year and all the best for 2010. It's gonna be one helluva year <3

 New chapter! Wahoo! :)

Title: The Kanto Saga: Max and Jasmine's Indigo Adventure
Author: caddyeverafter7 (Me)
Fandom/Pairing: Pokemon/None
Chapter Word Count: Somewhere around 3,000
Notes: Un-Betaed

Here!

And here is the updated list of my goals for December:

Write One Chapter for a Multi-Chaptered Digimon Fic
Write a One Shot for Arthur and Morgana
Write another One Shot for Max and Mariam

So that's all for now, but check back soon ^^ I'll probably have some after-Christmas stuff to write about ;)

Just realized I never made any goals for November either, but here are some late goals that I meant to put up earlier this month.

Finish at least one chapter of my Pokemon Story.
Write a OneShot for Arthur and Morgana.
Write another OneShot for Max and Mariam.

Now that that's done, I guess I'll give you a quick update on my life.

School has been a little hectic in the sense that I've got projects due and quizzes to take. There's also the thought that if we blow our behavior in math and science we'll get a mid-term on Friday rather than a party. I don't know about you, but I don't really want that.

As for skating, I've finally started my solo. There's not much to it at the moment, but I'm hoping for some more tomorrow. I didn't have a class on Thursday due to some testing, so I was disappointed. However, I'm back and ready to hop to it.

And for the highlight of my week: I've got a band concert on Tuesday night. I love the band concerts, and this year it will be even better because not only am I performing with the concert band, but also with the jazz band too. How cool is that?

And to top everything off, there's only twelve days left till we race down the stairs and rip all that beautiful wrapping paper off the presents under the tree. Look forward to an exclusive all night report from me as I head into Christmas Day with no sleep at all ;)

My life has been a blur of trying to get things done and practicing and lots and lots of procrastinating. -_-"

School is the most time-consuming; I've got a huge science test tomorrow which will hopefully bump up my grade in science if I do well on it. I recently had a quiz the other day that was out of ten. Naturally, I only get seven questions right which is the equivalent of a C+. After the retest I got eight out of ten which means I'm at a B and overall I've managed to squeak into the A category with an 86.7%. Wherever that seven percent came from, I don't care. It's the only thing that's keeping me up there at the moment.

With just under three weeks left of school though, I'm hoping that things won't be as hectic now as they were for the end of term.

Skating is starting to lift off a bit. My coach just found me some music so hopefully tomorrow I will be working on a solo; something I haven't done in about six years. If I can polish this baby off soon I might be able to compete with it in January, which makes me very excited. In all the years that I've practiced the fine art of figure skating, I've never been to a contest and if I'm correct, the ones taking place in January are the provincials.

Of course, if I never get my sit spin and camel spin perfected I can kiss that dream goodbye.

Today I woke up extra early to go to a Disabled Skiers workshop. I spent the better part of the morning there and ended up coming home with a loaner jacket. Therefore, I will now be spending part of my time this winter snowboarding with the Powder Hounds, a non-profit organization that takes disabled kids down our local ski hill to let them experience the joys of skiing. I can't actually become a full-fledged member until I'm fifteen, but until then, I'm fine with this gimmick.

I started up my Pokemon Pearl again today and am now very determined to catch a Shiny Pokemon. I've taken the Poke Radar approach and after a quick tutorial on it I am slowly but surely inching my way up the chaining game. My record is nine and apparently I need to get to forty. Darn. I'm also starting to migrate from a friend's Emerald, but I keep screwing things up with the time and everything so I have to wait till tomorrow morning before migrating my next group.

I've got some writing I have to get done too. I need to finish the fourth chapter of my Pokemon story, and I promised this forum I'd get another chapter of an RPF story up there before Christmas. Let's hope I can keep to that promise.

So there you have it folks. Things are pretty uninteresting, but sometimes that's a good thing. It means that life is stable at the moment and nothing bad is happening.

Even though I have tonnes of school work and instrument practicing I should be doing, I decided instead to take the time off and finish up my entry for Azika's challenge. So here's my entry for the Max and Mariam OneShot contest.

Title: Five Things: A Max and Mariam OneShot
Author: caddyeverafter7 (Me)
Fandom/Pairing: Beyblade/MaxMar
Chapter Word Count: Roughly 1,600
Notes: Un-Betaed but Proof-Read
Summary: Four Kisses Max and Mariam Almost Shared and One They Did. My take on Azika's Max and Mariam contest. If you didn't already guess the theme it's about four kisses Max and Mariam almost shared and one they did and it's Max and Mariam all the way.

( Read On, McDuff )

Wow. It's been a busy past few days, but it seems that I have managed to pull myself through.

After an intense science blowout this weekend in order to finish up my first project for the start of term two I am officially scienced out. Too bad I still have it last block today -_-" On the plus side, I didn't have enough homework yesterday that I needed to bring home a binder ;)

I'm really close to getting a program in skating... I just need some music. However, I did recommend my coach start listening to music from the Disney/Pixar animated film, Up. Whew, I just loved that movie.

The Max/Mar story is coming along pretty good. I just have one last thing I need to type out and then proof-read it and submit. I'm getting it done way faster than I thought it would take me.

Pokemon story is a little slower. I'm focusing on this contest piece and real-life at the moment, so who knows when I'll get back to it? Soon, hopefully, though I wouldn't mind some more reviewers ^^

Post is short, but I have school today and I haven't had breakfast.

Catch you on the flipside? ^^

Okay, I know I said somewhere way back in the archives that I wasn't going to change my theme for a while, but I couldn't resist. Besides, I like this one better than my old one.

So how many of you remembered to take a moment of silence at eleven o'clock this morning? I'll admit it, I was too busy watching Pokemon Anime to remember, but if it wasn't for my friend Kim texting me I wouldn't have remembered at all that hour. So I took time at 11:11 AM to remember the soldiers we have lost in the wars. Lest we forget.

Anyway, quick updates on life are in order.

School: End of term one is on Friday so we're all scrambling to study for tests and work on projects. My science project is a mess of notes and jumbled thoughts as I prepare to bring something in for tomorrow and get to working on it so I can finish it for Monday. I also have a big unit test on Friday, but unless I finish my math portfolio I'm not allowed to take it and will probably lower my mark.

Also, due to having the H1N1 flu virus last week I only got to do two days of volleyball, my favourite thing to do in gym. Next class we start fitness training which involves doing a circuit course. -_-"

Skating: Still working on those god forsaken spins. Why can't they just come easily to me? Started preparing for my entry into my Axel, which I'm rather nervous about.

Oh, and I got poked in the eye by a nine-year-old girl. -_-"

NaNoWriMo: Kind of lost it after I failed to meet the 11,000 word deadline for the first week. Can't write anymore. 

MaxMar OneShot: Haven't even started. However, I do have the base idea for it, but I just have to finish off all this homework so I can actually get started on it. Perhaps once my science project is out of the way.

Is life going better to you, Reader? I hope it is. 

 So I decided to join the Max and Mariam contest over at FF.net simply because they are my pairing of the decade (Arthur and Morgana are my pairing of a lifetime as they seem to be going on for the past several centuries ^^ Expect a OneShot about them sometime in the distant future). Anyway, I'm so excited to start writing something for them again. It feels like it's been way too long, and seeing as there's a bit of a prompt, I won't have to think up the entire plot on my own. Of  course, discovering a way for them to get together is always tough, but I'll figure it out in the end.

By the way, if you want to check out the contest just follow this link.

And the other reason I'm here is to update my Pokemon chapter fic. I don't think anybody here is reading it, but just in case you are and you have never felt like commenting on it, here's the next chapter.

Title: The Kanto Saga: Max and Jasmine's Indigo Adventure
Author: caddyeverafter7 (Me)
Fandom/Pairing: Pokemon/None
Chapter Word Count: Roughly 3,500
Notes: Same as always.
Summary: Also same as always.

</div>

 Here's the next chapter to my story. I have decided to use this as my NaNoWriMo story, mostly because I have good motivation to get more words out on it ;) So here's the next chapter.

Title: The Kanto Saga: Max and Jasmine's Indigo Adventure
Author: caddyeverafter7 (Me)
Fandom/Pairing: Pokemon/None
Chapter Word Count: 4,108
Notes: Un-Betaed, though I did proof-read.
Summary: The beginning of a journey for two young teenagers could change the rest of their lives. Based loosely along the lines of FireRed and LeafGreen, the Max and Jasmine will encounter friends, foes and of course, Pokemon.

( Chapter II: The First Step of Many )

 

 So while I wait for Aish to get back to me sometime on my Percy Jackson story, I thought maybe I could start posting a Pokemon story. I also have it on my Fanfiction site if you want to read the author notes and stuff, but here it's just kind of free of all that junk, you know? Haha. So anyway, here's the info!

Title: The Kanto Saga: Max and Jasmine's Indigo Adventure
Author: caddyeverafter7 (Me)
Fandom/Pairing: Pokemon/None
Chapter Word Count: 3,786
Notes: Un-Beated, though I did proof-read it.
Summary: The beginning of a journey for two young teenagers could change the rest of their lives. Based loosely along the lines of FireRed and LeafGreen, the Max and Jasmine will encounter friends, foes and of course, Pokemon.

Before you say anything, I did not write nonsense in my subject line. However, I will get to that in a bit while I give you a small update on... a few things.

I got my interim reports today from school. If you don't know what an interim is, it's basically a small report card that isn't as important (but it's still important). I got an A in pretty much everything, which I'm happy for.

Unfortunately, the next leg of fitness testing begins on Tuesday. Today I did thirty push-ups just to get fifteen marks for it. I still have a sit-ups test, flexibility and a running test, all which I'm pretty confident I won't even get a B on (except maybe the running one). I guess it just goes to show that I'm not very athletic.

Skating could be better. I still suck at spinning and my Lutz isn't really going anywhere, but I hope it will ^^

And I like someone new, but I don't think that's really important to people who read this :P Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Anyway, back to the subject. November is National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo). By going to the NaNoWriMo site you can join the contest. The goal is to write 50,000 words in just the short time of November (of course, November is one of those months with just thirty days -_-"). I doubt I'll meet the goal, but it's always fun to try your hand at getting something like a novel finished. 

Seeing as the only person that actually reads this journal that I know of is an author, I decided that maybe you'd like to sign up for it. If you do, look for Double-oh-Platypus. That's me (-_-"). 

Anyway, I have the day off tomorrow so that definitely lightens the mood :)

 Hmm... I feel like it's been like a million years since I've posted here, so I'll just update you a bit on how my life is going (not that there's a tonne of people lined up to read this).

Random: I got the game Scribblenauts for the DS. It's surprisingly entertaining, but also quite frustrating. Basically the object is to get to the star in the level. You can write anything and watch it come to life as long as it's not vulgar language or a copyrighted object (like Pokemon). Such as yesterday, I needed to pass this guys record for distance off a ramp. I drew myself a unicycle and flew past him. All in a days work for a Scribblenaut ^^

School: Going pretty good. My math and science marks are excellent, if I do say so myself. I'm at 96.9% in Math and 97.0% in Science. Of course, that mark could drop as I don't get my first report card till around November, but I still think I'm doing pretty good.

In English we're watching this Italian movie. It has sub-titles, but my teacher is from Italy so he felt like sharing the movie with us would be great. Seriously though, none of us are complaining. What better way to spend an hour and ten minutes than by watching a foreign movie? At least we're getting our English in by reading.

I have this stupid Picture Dictionary I have to do for Socials class. I really just need to colour everything, but there's like, forty-four pictures and I've only done around sixteen. It sucks.

Skating: I can complete Loops and Flips with ease now. ^^ Celebrate! I've now moved on to Lutz's, which are actually really difficult. I don't think there's too many people in my group that can do a Lutz, and if they can do it nobody does them as well as Jess, Matilda and Rachel. They're all younger than I am and they're all much better skaters.

The one thing I need to work on now are my spins. Like, my forward spins. My backspins are looking pretty good, but for some reason I can't spin the other way on the other foot. Seriously, I should have passed this problem before I left the last level, but I can't seem to spin on the ball of my blade. I always seem to dig my toe in and I leave these big, incriminating scratches in the ice. It's actually kind of embarrassing. 

So that's my report for the day. Sorry it's not something more exciting. I'm still waiting for Aish to send over the copy of my first draft so once that happens I can post it to here and we'll have some fiction to read. Yay! Haha. 

 Hmm, it seems that I have completed one of my goals, but I forgot to mention it. So now, my goal list looks a little something like this:

Write at least two stories for English

You know what? I don't even think that's going to happen, but whatever. At least I got one thing done, which is a big improvement from last month.

Also, just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians out there. I hope you don't get snow. ^^

One last announcement: I might start posting a random fictional story up here. I don't know yet. I barely have anything of the first chapter done, but I just kind of decided to start typing it out yesterday, so we'll see where it ends up. 

Have you ever read that book? I swear, it's like the only book I've ever read so far that could make me cry if I thought hard enough about it. It's just full of nonsense but it's also full of everything that everyone goes through: crushes, fear, friends. If you haven't read it, I recommend it .

"It's about time and love." --Jerry Spinelli

( Smiles to Go, by Jerry Spinelli )

This certainly goes on my list of favourite books. 

Anyway, for the rest of the day I have school (bleh) and skating (hmm). I'm starting my Lutz jump in skating today, so we'll see how it goes.

 As promised, I have finished a story for the new Bradley/Katie community here on LiveJournal. Unfortunately I'm not skilled enough to post the link to it, but there is one on my profile page I believe and there's one in herchampion as well.

Without further ado, here's the info:

Title: The Subject and the Predicate
Author: caddyeverafter7 (Me)
Fandom/Pairing: RPF/Bradley James and Katie McGrath
Word Count: 1,561
Notes: Un-Betaed but I did proof-read
Summary: After a brief English lesson from her niece, Katie finds that things between her and Bradley are changing. Now, between their regular bantering there are underlying feelings that are peeking through, and a bit of a challenge to go with it.

 

 

 In order of appearance in the title.

This week I did exceptionally well in skating. I'm quite proud of myself with the progress I'm making not only in my skills, but also in my social life at the rink. That's right, I'm making interactions.

The homework hasn't been too bad, but I guess I better get going on that math homework for Monday. I don't know when I'll squeeze it in this weekend though, we have company for most of it.

My work on the saxophone is also improving. I can already hear the difference, mainly because I'm playing louder. I still miss Ms. Wilden though. She was a great band teacher, and really funny at that.

Moving on.

I'm considering putting up a short story that I may have to write for English class. If I get it done and over with here, then it can be all ready for next class and then I won't have to do it for homework. See, there are perks to be a writing geek. :) I think a lot of my short stories will kind of revolve around a few central characters, so you'll probably see people making multiple appearances, though they may or may not know each other.

Finally...

...If you didn't notice, I didn't finish any of my goals for September. Therefore, I'm going to narrow it down a bit: 

Write at least two short stories for English
Write one OneShot for a pairing of my choice or request

There. I think that's manageable. If it's not, I'll probably smack myself upside the head. I mean, come on. That's three pieces of writing. I can do this... right? Right. -_-"