Morning Commute by Scott Zavoda {Short Story Review}

Today I am reviewing the short story Morning Commute by Scott Zavoda. It's short enough that I'm not going to use my typical review method, but instead I'm going to talk about some things I did and did not like about it.

Synopsis from Amazon.com:

Want a fast-paced, breathtaking read that’ll tingle your nerves and make you laugh?

Go no further, because this is it!

Stifling heat, late for work, stuck in a heap of traffic. What can be worse?
The pervert driving next to you of course. The one staring creepily at you. For Mary Duvall, things get a lot worse. Her morning commute spirals rapidly out of control in this hilarious, tense, over-the-top, thrill- ride. Hang on and don’t let the suspense kill you on the way!

If another driver has ever cut you off, then you need to read Morning Commute!

First of all, there is a lot of swearing in it. Personally, I don't really have a problem with well places swear words, but this was definitely more the the story needed. That is something that turned me off of it a bit, but it might not bother other people.

The mood of the story I found rather interesting. It has the feeling of being somewhat dream like, in a nightmarish way. It worked well in this format, I think. I'm not sure if I would have wanted to read too much more in that style.

Mainly, what I have to say about it is that it started weird and got weirder. It was short, and took me only a few minutes to read from start to finish.  I know this isn't a long review, but it's not a long story.

My final verdict is that I would recommend this short story to people looking for something short, funny and a little strange to keep them busy on a rainy afternoon or on a train ride.


I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Books that Taught Me About Books

Last month, I posted about a book and author that I feel shaped me. Today, I'm going to continue in that vain. In this post, I'm going to do things a little differently, and briefly discuss some books, and how they changed me or my reading habits. Click on any of the cover images to go to that Amazon.com page.

Another book that I think really changed me as a reader is A Wrinkle in Time. That book, which I read for the first time when I was about eight, is a big reason I ever bothered with sci-fi. That's not to say that I would never have gotten into dystopians without having read it, but it made me far more open to a genre I used to think was all aliens and space cowboys. Not that I have anything against those.

The Giver (which I read at 11), marked my official leap in to the realm of dystopian novels. It also taught me that just because I dislike the ending to the book doesn't make the book bad. It was also the first book I remember reading with that kind of an ending. The type of ending that made me realize that I am a pretty pessimistic person.

The Mysterious Benedict Society taught me that the suggested age on the book doesn't have to mean anything. That book is wonderful however old you are.

For some reason, I couldn't find the original cover on Amazon...

Twilight taught me that you can enjoy a not very good book. I will honestly say I enjoyed reading those books. They are quick reads, and they are page turners. When I finished Breaking Dawn, I though back on it, and realized there wasn't a whole lot I liked about the book. I didn't really like the characters, the plot, or the writing. But I still enjoyed reading it, and I don't regret reading it.

My favorite Sarah Dessen book.

Various Sarah Dessen books taught me that, despite my aforementioned pessimistic tendencies, I am a sucker for a good romance, and I will NEVER expect the ending to one of her books. Honestly, I keep reading them in the hopes that one of them will work out.

The Fault in Our Stars taught me that a sad ending can still be a good one. I actually cried a little at that one.

Which reminds me, I can only remember crying a few times while reading a book. Along with TFIOS, the only one I can remember is Little Women, though I'm sure there must be more. I came very close to crying at the end of Darkling Plain (the last Hungry Cities book).

What books taught you things, or changed the way you thought, either as a reader, or in general. Also, what books made you cry?

*This post contains affiliate links.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Pt. 2

Today, I'm going to start up where I left off yesterday.

Season Four

Season four was definitely not a favorite of mine. It had it's good parts (such as Spike coming back, and the introduction of Tara, and Anya becoming a main character), but I didn't like Riley, and much of the situation at the University was a bit weird. I disliked the Initiative, and Adam was just plain weird. I did like the cross overs with Angel. After this season, they seem to completely forget about each other. Oz leaving was sad. He was a favorite of mine.

One of my favorite Buffy episodes ever!

Season Five

Season five was weird. We have the introduction of Dawn and the death of Joyce right off the bat. Luckily, the Magic Box finally gives them a home base again, which they were really missing after the school blew up, and the graduated. I was quite glad when Riley left at the beginning of the season, leaving the Scooby gang in a far more stable state. At this point, the gang is Giles, Buffy, Willow, Zander, Anya, Tara, and sort of Spike

Probably my favorite couple on this show.

The best part about Season five in my mind was how well they set up Season six. There were lots of story lines all set up at the end of the season. For example, Warren is introduced, Zander proposes to Anya, and Tara and Willow begin to argue about magic. Buffy's death was done quite nicely.

Season Six

Season six I really liked. There were no major upheavals in the Scooby Gang (well, until the end), and there were more demons then Season five, but still plenty of main story lines. You can see dark Willow starting to come out in the beginning, but of course it doesn't get truly bad until the end. What with Willow's addiction, Spike and Buffy's relationship, Dawn's kleptomaniac tendencies, and Xander and Anya's issues, this is the season in which all the characters felt incredibally human to me. Even though half of them aren't. :) Really, though, they all are flawed, and they all have issues to get past. Part way through season six comes my very favorite Buffy episode ever:

The Season Six ending was pretty incredible. After Xander manages to keep Willow from destroying the world, Spike goes through hell to get his soul.


Season Seven

From the series finale.

Season Seven is something in and of itself. The Magic Box is no more, after the Season Six finale, so the Summers house is now the home base for the Scoobies. Who exactly that is is a bit of a confusing question. We've got the usuals (Buffy, Willow, Xander, and sometimes Giles), plus Spike. Then there is everyone else. Anya drifts in and out, Faith shows up near the end, Wood is there in some capacity, Dawn is Dawn, Andrew is... something, and then there are all the potentials (particularly Kennedy).

Andrew.

Season Seven is the end, and you can feel it all the way through. Some of the best parts of the season included Nathan Fillion as the villain, and the scene where Spike dies.


So, there you go. My Buffy the Vampire experience. This was really fun. Maybe I'll do it with some other shows...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Pt 1

Last night, I watched the final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After nine months of watching 7 seasons of Buffy (and 4 seasons of Angel), it's finally over. I think it's time to over analyze it. :) While I generally am pretty careful to keep my reviews spoiler free, this one will have tons of spoilers, so beware. I'm going to go over it season by season, so if you've only watched through Season 3, don't read the section for Season 4 (unless you really don't care). This post will cover the first 3 seasons. Four through seven are coming tomorrow.

I'm sure this will go totally overboard and ridiculous, but it'll be a ton of fun. Let's get started with...


Season One

I wasn't a huge fan of the first season. It was pretty cheesy, and it lacked the story lines that are so great in the later seasons. Yeah, there was the Master, but he wasn't all that bad of a Big Bad compared to later seasons.

Some good things about Season One were Cordelia (even though she is incredibally shallow, she was pretty awesome), mysterious Angel (remember, we don't even know who or what he is until half way through the season), and the Good Ol' Scooby Gang. Only in Seasons 1 and 2 do we really have the traditional gang (Giles, Buffy, Zander, Willow, Cordy, and sometimes Angel) meeting in the library.

Season Two

Season two was much better than Season 1 in my opinion.  We have Kendra, and we first meet Spike and Drusilla. Oz shows up for the first time, and Giles (sort of) dates Jenny Calender. The story lines got much better, and the show began the switch away from it's monster of the week format. Angel's death at the end was very dramatic.


Season Three

Poor, poor Amy.

This season is probably my favorite. We still have the classic Scooby Gang (Giles, Buffy, Cordy, Buffy, Willow, Zander, and Angel) plus we have some other great characters joining in such as Oz. Plus, Faith, Wesley, and Anya all find their beginnings in this Season. The Mayor may be my favorite Big Bad of the show, particularly after he pulls in Faith. Angel's leaving is sad. Here are some extra pictures to commemorate a great season:

One of the best Cordy-Buffy moments.

This was Jonathon's 1st episdode!

Homeschool Friday: English {School Subject Indepth Series}

Sorry this post is so late! I intended to write it this morning, but, well, I got busy. Anyway, this week is going to kick off a series of Homeschool Friday posts that will go indepth on a particular school subject. I'll talk about all the curriculum we've used through the years for that subject (at least everything I remember), and I'll talk a little about how I feel about the subject.

This week we're going to kick it off with English! I'm going to try to fit all Language Arts type stuff in here, so that might take more then one post. We'll see. To make it a little easier to navigate, I'm going to divide it into individual topics (spelling, grammar, reading, and writing), and cover one at a time. Hopefully I can fit it all into one post, but if not, I'll cover the rest next week.

Spelling

When we first starting homeschooling, we used Spelling Workout, which is what Susan Wise Bower recommended.The link will take you to the first book in the series, which I believe is the first half of first grade. While it worked fine, I don't feel like I learned a whole lot with it. It focused a lot on wrote memorization, which has never worked well for me. Both my sister (who is going into 6th grade) and I used it through part way through 4th grade.

At that point, we both switched to Megawords, which is absolutely amazing. Each day, there is a page to do in the workbook. It is always a game, or dictation, or some kind of copy work, but all based on phoenetics. The thing that I think is really great about it is that there were never weekly spelling lists to memorize. Each chapter took as long as it took (often several weeks, and at the end was a spelling test. Each chapter focused on one phonetic rule (i before e, or suffixes for example, and had a list of 30-60 words. After I finished the whole chapter, my mom would pick out 20 words to test me on. With this method, the test is about how well you know the rule, NOT how good you are at memorization.

Grammar

I started out in 2nd grade by doing First Language Lessons .  I think it really helped build my foundation in grammar.

From 3rd grade through 8th grade, I did Growing With Grammar. Honestly, I can not say enough good things about this program. It is done completely independently. The student textbook provides a brief, compact description of the lesson topic, with several examples. The student would read this, and then do the designated two pages in the student workbook. The first page is always new material from that lesson, and the second page is review from previous lessons. Another great thing is that this book teaches outlining every year. This program was perfect for me, and I absolutely loved it. I highly recommend it.

Reading

I have never really done much of a formal reading curriculum. My mom regularly assigned me books to read and do book reviews on when I was in elementary school, but for the most part, all the school reading I have done has been part of history, particularly the last few years. 

That's it for today. Writing is going to be a somewhat long section, so I'm going to save it for next week, along with some of my thoughts on English as a subject.

*This post contains affiliate links.

100 for 100

This year, I am participating in Go Teen Writer's 3rd Annual 100 for 100 challenge. My goal is going to be to write at least 100 words a day of something, either fiction or nonfiction, that gets published, a day. That means any posts for this blog will count toward that total. Also, any short fiction I write (I hope to write quite a bit), that gets published within two days, will count.



This is where my brand new blog comes in. I didn't want this blog to become to cluttered, so that is where all random pieces of writing, including poetry and flash fiction, will go. Things will continue as normal on this blog.

Head over there to see my introductory post, where I will be listing out the rules for the 100x100 challenge, and what my game plan is.

Life Update! {John Mayer Concert and A Question for You}

This post may be long, and will probably ramble some. In it, I am going to talk about things going on in my life, and some changes I'm considering for the blog. I'm also going to do a little round up of some other posts that fit here. The first big thing is:

Write On! Teen Writing Conference

I started writing this a a short segment for this post, but it got too long, so I published it in a separate post, which you can read here.


John Mayer Concert

In mid July, I attended a John Mayer concert in Vancouver, WA, not far from Portland, OR. I really enjoyed it, and it was a ton of fun. I'm not a huge John Mayer fan (unlike my mom, which is why we were there), but I really like his Born and Raised album, and he sung a lot of songs from it, since this is the Born and Raised tour.

Other Life Stuff

We are getting ready to start school again in about two weeks.  My mom went back to work (she works at a community college, and gets most of the summer off) today, and that always means that fall will be here soon. After school starts, I'll do a post about all the new curriculum and stuff. On Friday, I'm going to kick off the Homeschool Friday subjects posts with English.

Blog Stuff

I hope to participate in the 100 for 10 challenge put on by Go Teen Writers this year. Instead of writing one big fictional project, I am going to try to write and publish a a blog post every day. Regular blog posts like this one will count, but there will probably be some flash fiction in there, and who knows what else. My question for is is this: Do you think I should do that on this blog, or should I create a separate blog of the purpose of doing this. After this is over, I would hopefully still use that blog for flash fiction, non-fiction pieces, and other non blog postish writing. That's what I'm leaning towards at the moments, but I would like to know what you think. Please, let me know in the comments!

*This post contains affiliate links.

Write On! Teen Writing Conference

Way back in the end of June, I attended the wonderful Write On! Teen Writing Conference at a local bookstore. Here are some of my thoughts on the experience.

First of all, I loved all the sessions I went to. The first one, which was run by a local improv teacher, was not one I was super excited about. I am not a huge fan of doing any acting type stuff (or really even talking) in front of a bunch of people I don't know. It ended up being my favorite break out session of the day however, since that was not how it went at all. She (the woman leading) taught us a bunch of great exercises for coming up with everything from plots to characters to settings. We practiced them as group games, which were very nonthreatening, and then she helped us adapt them for personal use. We then practiced writing using each of those techniques.

The second breakout session I went to was a bunch of short writing exercises. He would give us a prompt to write from for 60 seconds (such as "As a writer, I have learned," or "I noticed"), and then he would ask each of us to read a sentence or two that we wrote. We would then briefly discuss each person's writing, or the idea they were talking about. At first this made me nervous, but everybody did it, and sometimes we would have a wonderful, well written,  very articulate observation on life or writing, and sometimes it would be "I noticed an oddly large quantity of apples on the trees for so late in the year." (That was a real sentence I wrote that hour. :)) He made us all come out of our shells a little, and I wrote some pieces I really liked.

The third breakout session I attended was by Nick James, whose book, Skyship Academy: The Pearl Wars, I reviewed here. It was interesting, and he had some good ideas about how to show and not tell, but there was nothing earth shaking in that session. :)

I'm going to end this post with a quote the second breakout session leader gave us, which I really liked, and found thought provoking. Let me know what you think about it in the comments.

It's better to have failed as a novelist then to have succeeded as anything else.

                                            - George Orwell

*This post contains affiliate links.

Personality Type

Have you ever tried one of these tests? I've done them in the past, but not in a while, so I decided to try it again today. If you want to try it along with me, click on this link. To understand your score (if you're not familiar with the Meyers-Brigg's test) click here, and read that first.

 The most important thing to know about the scoring for this test is that there are pairs, of which you have one of each. But, it is done on a scale, so you have between 1% and 100% of either one. The rest of your percentage is the other. The pairs are: Extraverted (E) vs. Introverted (I), Sensing (S) - Intuition (N), Thinking (T) - Feeling (F), and Judging (J) – Perceiving (P). Again, for a more on how this works click the link in the first paragraph.


Now that you (hopefully) understand the scoring, and have maybe had a chance to try the test yourself, I'm going to share my score with you. I am an ESTJ, which is what I have been in the past when I took this test. I'll break down the percentages for you.


I am 1% Extroverted, 25% Sensing, 62% Thinking, and 44% Judging. Interesting...

Just for fun, if you do the test, once on the results page click on the "Self Growth and Personal Awarness" box. It will bring you to a page with all sorts of descriptions of your personality type. Here is mine. 

Here are some famous ESTJs. :)

Carrie Nation
Elliot Ness
John D. Rockefeller
Bette Davis
Robert A. Taft (U.S. senator, son of Pres. Wm. H. Taft)
Sam Walton, owner and founder of WalMart stores
Barbara Stanwyck
Rev. Billy Graham
Dale Bumpers (U.S. Senator, D-Arkansas)
Phil Fulmer, head football coach of the U. Tenn Vols
Pat Head Summit, head basketball coach of the Lady Vols
Bill Frist, M.D. (U.S. Senate Majority Leader)

Fictional:

Lucy (Charles Schultz's Peanuts character)
Mrs. Harbottle (Herriott, All Creatures Great and Small)
Mrs. Rachel Lynde (Anne of Green Gables)
The Mayor (The Music Man)

In the comments, tell me what your type is! Does it surprise you, or does it seem about right? Mine seems almost exactly right!

What is Perfection?

I have so many posts that I have promised to write on all sorts of subject, particularly book reviews. I am getting super behind on posting this summer. Unfortunately, I'm not going to get started on that list today, but instead I have some more ramblings. Bear with me, and things will go back to normal after school starts (on September 2nd).

I have a problem. I worry too much. I plan too much. I think too much. Sometimes those are good things, but more often then not, they hold me back. For example, my mom goes back to work in a week, effectively meaning that summer is about over for me. My first reaction is to freak out. I naturally would spend that whole week worrying about how boring and sad things are going to be when she goes back to work, and I have to get up early and spend the days with my dad.

I need to stop doing that. My goal this week is to not worry about that. I want to enjoy every day of summer, and spend time with my mom while she is home all day. When the day comes, and she has to go to work, it will be sad, and it will be hard in lots of ways, but there is no reason to worry about it now.

Another way these tendencies of mine hurt me is my perfectionism. There are many things I am terrified to do because I am afraid I won't be perfect. When I started dancing last September, I was so nervous because I was sure that other students would be better then me, or would learn faster then me. Over the last year of dancing, I have found that I really love it. It's true that I am not the fastest learner in the class. I don't have the best rhythm. But my teacher has told me that my form is great, and that my best quality is my persistence. 

It is still hard sometimes, because I know that most of the other girls remember the choreography better then I do. I know that they will probably perfect the new steps faster then I will. But I also know that once I learn a step or a dance, I will never forget it. If I put in the time, I will learn it, and I will learn it well.

I need to stop worrying about being perfect. Dancing has helped, but I have a long ways to go. The stress I feel when things don't go according to plan is not right. I know that I don't need to have perfect grades, or the best posture, or the best hair, and in a way, I don't even care. But something in me cares so deeply.

I'm working on it. It may take a lifetime, but I've already made the first steps. What is perfection, anyway, and why should I need to attain it?

I hope that was not too boring. :) A little window into my brain!

Envisioning the Future

Today I am participating in the Let's Homeschool Highschool monthly blog hop! Today's topic is "Envisioning the Future."

When I think about the future, I don't know exactly what to think. Where will I be five, ten, twenty years from now? Today, I'm going to make some guesses, predictions, and ask some questions about the future.

In five years, I will be twenty years old. I imagine that I will be getting ready to start my junior year of college. I think it is likely that I will be going to a small, private, liberal arts college in Washington or Oregon. That, at least, is what I would like to do. It is also possible that I'll be going the college in town and living at home. That would be the more economical option most likely. Where will I be living? Will I keep in touch with my friends? Will I have a job I like? What will I be studying? Will it be English, or something else? These are my questions for my twenty year old self.

In ten years, I will be twenty five. I really don't know what to expect. I hope that I am living in a place I like, and that I have a job I enjoy. Will I have kept in contact with all my friends from today? Will I have a boyfriend or even a husband? Will I be in grad school? Will I be a librarian or editor, or will I have gone in a totally different direction? Will I be living here, in my home town, or will I have gone somewhere else, maybe to a larger city like Seattle or Portland? These are my many questions to my twenty five year old self.

In twenty years, I will be thirty five. By this point in my life, I would like to be settled down, maybe with a few kids. According to family tradition, I have to have a child when I am 31. :) My grandma was born when her mom was 31, my mom was born when my grandma was 31, and I was born when my mom was 31. I hope I have a job I love. Today, I envision that involving books, writing, or literacy in some way, but things can change. Where am I living? Did I stay in my bay side college town, or did I leave for somewhere bigger? Am I still on the West Coast? Right now, I can't imagine ever leaving, but things can change. Am I happy where I am? Have I done everything I wanted to do by this point in my life? This is my main question for my thirty five year old self.

I hope you didn't find my musings too boring. :)

Homeschool Friday: Year in Review {9th Grade}

Today I am restarting (a week late) Homeschool Fridays. I'm going to start this week by doing a quick overview of the school year. I'll go more in depth about each subject in the following weeks.

This year, I did school completely independently. I had no teachers in any subject, and my mom only helped me with things occasionally. This worked out pretty well in most subjects, and (more because of necessity then anything) that is how things will continue next year. There are a few subjects where that was not a great method, as you will see later.

English

Having done eight years of grammar already (1st through 8th grade) grammar was not a necessity, but I love grammar, so I did continue doing it. The program I had been using (more on that in an upcoming post) only goes through 8th grade, so I switched to Rod and Staff. It has a very strong Christian influence, which was a big reason we had not used it before, but it really seemed like the best idea at this point. I did half of the book this year, and will do the other half next year.

Math

For math, I used Life of Fred: Advanced Algebra, but it was not working very well, so at the very end of the year, I switched to Teaching Textbooks. Again, that will have it's one post soon enough.

History

I used History Odyssey Level 3 Ancients, which I loved. It had a lot of writing, so it was most of my English too. I did a lot of reading, including The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, and The Boys and Girls Herodotus, among others.

Science

I started the year doing Oak Meadow Biology, but quickly switched to CK-12 Bio. The online textbook is pretty good, and was far more ingageing then Oak Meadow. I did not do almost any expirements, but it does not really matter since I'll be taking Bio again at the community college in a few years with Running Start.

Latin

I did Latin Alive. There is a lot to talk about here, so expect another post soon.

Art, ect.

I took a print making class this spring, as well as a stained glass lantern making class.


I hope you enjoyed this very quick review of the year. I'm in a bit of a hurry today, and we are leaving town in less then an hour, but I'll be back on Monday to add all the links and stuff. What did you do last year?