Not Long Now

My living room is full of boxes, my bedroom is bare, and I have a large pile of laundry to do. What does that mean? Yeah, packing time. Uh.

So yesterday was the beginning of my family's journey of fitting everything from our house, into an apartment. We've been packing off and on for the past few months, but last night we really got to work and cleared things out. I'm not joking, when I woke up this morning the only things I had in my room were two shelves, an end table, my bed, my dresser full of clothes, and a box that will remain open until I have to move - at which point I'll throw my alarm clock and books inside and tape it up.

It was very strange to not bang into the half-closed door this morning (I'm clumsy) because my Harry Potter shelf was not behind it anymore, so the door was wide open. My desk is gone, too. Very large open space now.

Anyway, getting to the important stuff: my writing.

I had a couple of sucky days, but last night was great! After the WriYe Sunday Word Wars (I signed up for both) I wrote a total of 2,337 words yesterday. That makes it 12,484/30,000 words I've written for Oh, Baby! this month, and I've already written about 600 today. And 14,504/300,000 written for the entire year, when you factor in my role-playing applications.

Speaking of role-playing, the website I've been working on for the past month or so with Tippy is finally opening! It's called Tainted Blood, and it's the third in a series of rpgs Tippy's owned. I don't have much to say, except please join! Right now we have eight members - all of us amazing, of course - but we could use some new blood, pardon the pun. So, if you're a Harry Potter fan, and if you role-play (or not) join, pleeease! I play Fred, Luna, Joanna, and Patience at the moment, so contact me when you get over there. www.taintedbloodrpg.proboards.com

Unfortunately Tippy is sick right now (I'm praying for you, hun!) but the rest of us are still there. And once I'm finished my writing for the night, I'll be heading over there to finish Patience's app and starting some mega advertising.

That's all I have to say right now. Maybe I'll be back tomorrow. Doubtful as I'll have to get another newsletter out then. Maybe.

xoxo,
Lizzy<3

Getting Back in the Swing of Things

Wow, I can't believe it's been five months since I updated last. Yikes. Really, really sorry about that. Um, things have been weird and hectic and stressful lately, but I'm going to try and get you all up to date in this one post. Wish me luck.

First off, let's talk about life in general. The basic changes are: there's still a chance we're getting rid of my youngest cat, Mickey (did I mention that before?); we're moving! Probably going to Mississauga, probably at the end of next month. I went on vacation and had a great time there. I got a new printer/scanner for my birthday, so hopefully I'll soon be able to upload a picture of myself. Speaking of which, I'm nineteen, yay!! For my birthday I also got my best friend Tippy's book, Etched in Stone ( http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Etched-In-Stone-Book-One-The-Skyla-Chronicles/Tiffany-Marie-Saxe/e/9781606933732/?itm=1 ) which I'll be reading very shortly, but more on that later.

YouTube has been a recent obsession of mine. First it started as just watching Tippy's vlogs (http://www.youtube.com/user/tiffanysaxe ) but then I found the VlogBrothers (http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers#play/uploads) who, in turn, led me to the 5 Awesome Girls (http://www.youtube.com/user/fiveawesomegirls#play/uploads). I'm a dedicated Nerdfighter and you can find me over at the Ning (http://nerdfighters.ning.com/) under the username of Elizabeth Sabourin. I'm also trying to save money to buy a webcam or something so that I can start vlogging, which will mean more updates than normal blogging! =D

Kristina of the 5 Awesome Girls gave me the idea for the Book Challenge. Last year she read 50 books in one year. I want to do the same. I'll be starting as soon as I finish the book I'm reading now. I'll start with Tippy's book, and I've already got about 45 other books picked.

I'm still doing the writing course, but I don't want to talk about that right now. Actually, while watching Tippy's latest video in which she talks about her book projects, I realized I haven't really done that yet. I mean, my mom knows about my stories cuz she's a writer too and it's great to have someone to bounce ideas off of, but I've kinda kept the ideas secret from my friends. Hmm. Well, I'll talk about them in my next post (which might be tonight it all goes well).

If you're into role-playing you should check out Tippy's Harry Potter site, Something Wicked (http://hoggydays.proboards.com) where you can find me playing about ten characters, most recently Fred Weasley. We're also working to revamp her old HP rpg, Marauding Mysteries.

Ok, that's all I can think of right now. I'll get to work on the book-ideas post. =]

DFTBA!
-Lizzy

Mysteriously Wicked Royalty

Okay, I know it's Monday, but I don't have any movie news for you. My mom and I started watching The Librarian 3 last night, but we were too tired to finish. Sunday is just way to hectic a day to watch movies - or do anything productive, for that matter. I can tell you that it's shaping up to be better than the second movie in the series. Moving on, I'm here to promote those sites I've been telling you about.

First up, Marauding Mysteries. MM is a marauder-era Harry Potter role-play site, owned by my friend Tippy. The basic setting of the plot is that the Marauders, Lily, Snape and so on are in their sixth year at Hogwarts. The war is raging, and many sub-plots are already in effect. Lily (played by Tippy), while dating James, has started an affair with Severus. Meanwhile, Remus had a one-night-stand with a seventh-year Kyndrick (also Tippy's), and now she's pregnant and he's trying to figure out the best way to tell her that he's a monster. Lucius Malfoy (mine) is currently trying to deal with braking up with the only girl he's ever loved, while getting to know his long-lost half-sister, and keep his drunk mother and influential father out of his life.

More sub-plots of MM are taken from other books or tv shows. For example, we have a Twilight plot in which Tippy plays Alice Logan-Longbottom, and her brother Hayden(Edward). And my other friend Iris plays Serenity(Bella). We still need Jasper and Emmett's characters.

One Tree Hill also has a plot here. I play Haley who is in here seventh year, married to Nathan, just found out she's pregnant and is trying to help in the war. Unfortunately, we've only filled the roles of Haley and Brooke.

While MM may seem a little dead right now, I intend to make my four+ posts today or tomorrow which should get people back. Here's the link- http://hoggymysteries.proboards.com/

Next up is MM's sister site, Something Wicked This Way Comes. The history behind Something Wicked may be a little confusing, but I'll try to make it clear. On MM, I asked how far we had to stick to canon, seeing as we'd already changed so much. Eventually it was decided that we'd stick to canon, but Tippy wanted to make another site that would focus on what could have happened to our characters. So, the plot of Something Wicked is AU.

Basically, Severus made a deal with Voldemort to spare Lily and Harry's lives. He married Lily and had a daughter with her, and now they're trying to keep Harry from joining the Death Eaters, while pretending to be loyal to Voldemort. Remus' wife, Kyndrick, died when their daughter was five, and now Olivia Lupin is in her last year at Hogwarts. But guess what- she's so much like her mother that she becomes pregnant - with Fred Weasley's child! Then there's Lucius. Since his father's death, he's taken over the family business, bringing his sister into it. He and Narcissa are spies, loyal to the Order. But they haven't been able to tell Draco the truth about them so he's ready to go join the Death Eaters.

Many more plots are in effect. Aside from Lucius, I play Luna Lovegood, Blaise Zabini, Cooper Moon, and Haley James-Scott. I'll also be taking up 2-4 more characters. Yes, I know I'm insane. But I think it's allowed since at least four of them will be adults, and there aren't that many plots for them yet. Anyway, here's the link- http://hoggydays.proboards.com/index.cgi

Lastly, just a little notice for those of you who are keeping track of my projects, Tippy has offered to help me in making a site/blog that will focus on advertising role-playing sites. We will write reviews of sites we come across and post them up so people can find the perfect site to play on. Plus we'll have other features that sites such as RPG Directory, Blank Pages, and Caution 2.0 have. Can't post a link yet, but I promise it'll be amazing!

Oh, and on a quick side note, I finished New Moon a couple of days ago. Actually, after I finished my last entry I curled up on my bed and read until I was finished. lol. Uh, must be going now. Please, please, pleeeeeeeeeease join MM and Something Wicked, I'll love you forever if you do! And send me a pm when you do, or comment here. ^_^

xoxoxoxo,
Lizzy

Ending Hunger One Word at a Time!

Today I'm going to tell you about a great site my mom got me on to a year ago. It's called Free Rice - http://www.freerice.com/. If you haven't been to it yet, you should definitely check it out. Free Rice is basically one big online word game. The site gives you a word and you have to pick the correct meaning of the word from the four meanings they give you. You have the option of difficulty levels - which is great if you're not especially good at word games, like me. But what makes this game different from others you might find out there? For every answer you get right, they'll donate ten grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger!

I've been playing for a year or so, with my score being reset a while back. At the moment my new score is up to 3,000 grains of rice donated, and out of 60 levels, the highest I've gotten is level 20!! See if you can beat my score. Comment here with your scores. ^_^

xoxo,

Lizzy

Daily Addiction

Mood: tired, excited, proud

Currently Listening to: "Make Believe" by Thornley

Ok, technically Thursdays are the designated night for website rants, but I got so busy working on websites that I'm doing the rant today. So, you're probably wondering which site I'm advertising today. Is it one of my own? One of the many I work on? No! I'll leave the latest rpg news for Thursday and talk about a universal favorite instead. Facebook!!!

First there was LiveJournal (which never worked for me), then there was MySpace (which I was too busy to keep up with) and now there's Facebook. At first I was a little skeptical to join. My mom's friends were signing up like crazy and finally she got an account too. This was a little disturbing. My mom using Facebook when she can't even use an instant messenger without my help. Hell, she can't even copy and paste! But still I resisted the mighty pull of Facebook, sticking to my guns and repeatedly explaining that MySpace was better, even if I didn't go on it anymore.

Finally she got to me. I joined with only three friends, two of them being my parents (yeah, my dad signed up too), and the other being the son of my mom's friend. Someone I'd hardly call a friend of mine. But my dad and I had a good time, competing against each other in games. Although I was a bit disappointed that there weren't any blog-making applications. Anyway, fast-forward a year or so, and I was still a little unsure of Facebook. There are many things about the site that still baffle me. But then I got an email from one of my favorite p.c. gaming sites, telling me that Facebook had launched a new game called Pet Society in which you create a pet and take care of him/her while building and decorating their house, visiting friends, and more.

As it turns out, Pet Society had been out for a few months already, but it was still good nevertheless. I signed up right away, creating a tan kitty whom I named Alice, after Alice Cullen. Alice's house only started out with one room, but the more things you do, like cleaning/brushing/feeding yours and your friends' pets, the more points you get, and the faster you move on to the next level and receive better tools - and a bigger house. I started playing last month and Alice is now at level twenty-seven, nearly twenty-eight. Plus I created another Facebook account for the sole purpose of being able to create another pet. This one, looking a lot like Alice, I named Rosalie. ^_^

Anyway, for the last month, Pet Society has been my addiction. Every night at seven o'clock when my parents are at work I log on and compete in the ten daily races, earning thirty coins for each one I win. Then I visit all my friends' pets and take care of them too. And since my mom joined a couple of weeks ago, I've been doing triple duty with her pet, a tan puppy named Cobalt.

PlayFish, the game's developer, has a forum where I hang out for the majority of the day, finding more PS friends, or swapping pictures of our pets and houses. Or, the best part of all, trading items. You see, in PS there are shops where you can go to buy furniture or clothes or food. But some of these things, especially the things in the luxury shop, is very expensive. Quite a few things only remain in the shops for a week, and then they disappear. And then there are the box items. The things that only appear in Mystery Boxes. So, when we buy or receive something we don't want, we have the option of selling it back to the store, for a lower price than we originally paid, or trading it for something else.

The trick is knowing what everything is worth, and knowing how popular it is. For instance, Halloween items are hot. I'm forever seeing trades happen for the black cat stuffed animal, or the monster couch. Christmas things are also big, but mostly the food. Thanksgiving food is the same. I was playing through the Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day, so I was able to buy the specialty items and sell for big money when the week was up.

Contests and giveaways are frequently hosted on the forums as well. Rich players who have furnished their house and have reached the final level of game play are buy jukeboxes and lip couches (the two highest-priced items) and giving them away free! I actually won two jukes a few weeks ago. Of course, selling the jukes and lips back to the store for money will only get you 6666 coins as opposed to the 20,000 it takes to buy one, but it's still a good amount of money.

At the moment and in the middle of re-designing Alice's living room because I didn't like the old design anymore. She's only got five rooms out of the maximum six, but I'm already buying up furniture to put in it. I'm also dying to hold a contest of my own, because I'm having so much fun giving to less-fortunate pets. But my mom and I agreed that we'd help a whole bunch of people just as soon as our own houses are fixed up. And we're nearly there!! ^_^

Enough talk for today, must go and check on my trades. Here are some pics of Alice in her house.

xoxo

Lizzy

P.S. if you wanna add me on Facebook, go right ahead. here's the link to my page:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=680737570&ref=name

The Perks of Having Pen-Pals

Well, since my blog is clearly awesome, you must be awesome for reading it. So, I'd like to give all you awesome people a gift this fine morning by letting you in on a secret. I'm friends with a celebrity!! Yep, it's true. Oh, I'll bet money on the fact that you're not thinking of the right one. But still, one of my best friends is a celebrity.

Miss Tiffany Marie Saxe, known to all us commoners as Tippy, recently recieved some good news. Her book was published! 'Tis true, I've seen the proof with my own two eyes - and so shall you! The perks of having pen-pals is that before they get rich and famous, they have to advertise. So, for Tippy, the perk to having me as a friend (aside from many of my amazing qualities) is that I have this lovely blog that I can advertise on for her. The perk to having Tippy for a friend, aside from her great sites and random humor, is that she wrote a book that sounds wonderful. If only I had the money to order it .....

But wait! Maybe you do! Well, even if you don't want to send me a free copy, you can order your own on Amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/Etched-Stone-Book-Skyla-Chronicles/dp/1606933736/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233432600&sr=1-1 Or on Barnes & Noble - http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Etched-In-Stone-Book-One-The-Skyla-Chronicles/Tiffany-Marie-Saxe/e/9781606933732/?itm=1.

I believe both sites have summaries of Etched in Stone, so there you go. ^_^

xoxoxo

Lizzy

Death of Chaos

I'm a bit depressed, so I figured I'd talk about it here. About an hour ago I closed down my last standing Harry Potter rpg (role-playing game). I say last-standing because I've owned many sites. Lost and Founding, Levintara Academy, Throughout the Years, Worlds Collide, these are titles of HP rpgs I've owned over the years - and have closed down due to the inactivity of its members, sometimes including myself. Chaos is more special though. Why, you ask? Because it was the first rpg I opened. And although it's plot has changed once, we went through about three activity checks/member deletions, and I had to leave twice due to computer problems, I still remember discussing the possibilities of the plot with my mom two or three years ago.


I'll admit, Chaos has had some tough times, as shown above with the mention of the activity checks. But still, it's always been there. When my other sites died, or my friends didn't have any that needed my help, I knew I aways had Chaos. Hopefully I'll reopen later this year. Right now I've got my friend's site I'm a part of, and there are two other rpgs I play on too. That's enough right now. And I've got a brilliant rpg in the making. But more on all those later. I just had to vent tonight.


~Lizzy