I did my brain dump pages five out of seven days. With school getting ready to start, everything was shoved to the back burner for several days.

I did manage to find time to do my artist date. I decided to try a craft and made candles this week, which caused me to realize something. When I do something, I do it in a big way. A few hour project, making candles, actually took several days. I couldn’t just make a few candles. I made dozens. I have the same problem with just about every facet of my life. I don’t cook for three. I cook for ten. I don’t do what needs to be done. I overdo what needs to be done. The same thing applies to writing. When I sit down to write, I’m not happy until I’ve written for hours and hours.

Doing these tasks for The Artist’s Way has brought this problem to light, while doing the daily writing, brain dump, has started to show me that I can accomplish something a little at a time. It’s hard to learn this lesson and then keep implementing it. Overdoing things is how I’ve lived for so long that it’s a hard thing to change.

Suicidal but afraid you won’t go to paradise in the afterlife if you kill yourself? Get your teenager to kill you in your sleep! Just follow these simple steps:

1. Go to class with your teen. Sit at the front of the room in the big red chair facing the students. Wave and say, “I LOVE YOU, [Child's name]!” Be sure to say their name so everyone knows who you’re talking to.

2. If female teen, bring “girlie products” to her in front of her friends. Hold them up and ask if they’re the right ones, making sure everyone can see. If male teen, hold up a child’s jock strap in front of his friends and ask if it’s his or his dad’s. Answer yourself with, “Never mind, your dad’s is bigger.”

3. While your teen has friends over, walk into your bedroom, moan loudly and start banging the bed against the wall. They’ll think you’re just wrestling with yourself or spouse, right?

4. Show up to a community function or school event with a pair of boxers on your head.

5. Go shopping with your teen and reenact scenes from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. You’re the hunchback.

6. Meet your teen at a community function or school event with the highest heels you can find and makeup so thick you have to apply it with a trowel. Works best if you’re male, but works for women, too.

Disclaimer: May cause teen to die of embarrassment instead. Do this at your own risk!

Any other ideas? Lemme know!

Write or Die is a tool I found through Tweeps (Twitter Peeps) during last years NanoWriMo and I’ve continued to use it. I find it’s a useful tool when you’re stuck or just need to get words down on the page quickly. I have a really bad habit of writing the same sentence or paragraph over and over again, never moving on. Write or Die forces me to keep writing with time limits and punishments. Everything can be fixed, editted, and tinkered with later.

I mostly use it for my daily brain dump pages (basically journal pages), but it comes in handy when my inner editor kicks into hyper drive. So if you find yourself editing as you go along or you just need a push to keep going, give Write or Die a try.

• Actually got a little done today and the day isn't over yet. How'd that happen? #

I’ve spent a lot of time and effort researching things that *might* come into play in the book I’ve been working on. While the research is interesting, I know I’ve taken it to the point of stalling.

The scope of the project I’m doing is large and needs research, but where do you draw the line? Research too little or not at all and you’re ill prepared. Research too much and you’re not getting anything on the page. I don’t know where that line is myself, but it feels like stalling now. I can always do more research later, right?

So, I stopped stalling as of today and I’m writing. If you’re stuck in endless research like I am/was, think about what you’re doing. Do you really need it all or are you actually afraid to start writing so you’re stalling yourself where it’s safe?

Stop stalling and start writing!

• Doing a bit of research then some late night writing. I love this time of night. #
• Back to research. Having a hard time not getting distracted today. You people are just too interesting. #
• Where'd the day go? It was 2, then I blinked and it was 5. #

I did my brain dump pages (morning pages) six out of the seven days this week. I was feeling awful one of the days and just couldn’t make myself do it. I found myself writing about such a variety of things that I can’t really pin down a pattern. I wrote about everything from projects I’m working on to personal issues to mundane matters. I think the brain dump pages are helping to free my mind a little. I’ve found myself both looking forward to writing them and running out of things to write about. We’ll see how it progresses.

For my artist’s date I tried to take a walk. I was going to take a camera and shoot some random pictures along the way, but I didn’t get very far before I started dying in the heat. Realizing I’d forgotten to bring some water with me, I decided to go back home. So, the artist’s date was a bust, but when I got home I started turning pictures I’d taken into backgrounds for the laptop, which was fun. I found a couple of pictures that started some creative juices flowing, so it worked out for the best. Taking a walk in the over 100 degree weather… not my brightest idea. I really felt like taking a walk though.

Some of the tasks we’re supposed to do for the week don’t seem that helpful, but I’m still doing them anyway. It’s possible I’m getting something out of them and don’t realize it. Still, listing things I enjoy doing and then doing one of those things takes away from time I could be spending writing and doing all the have-tos in my life.

Affirmations still feel fake and weird, but today I noticed less objections from my critic/censor. I felt more apathetic about it. Positive step or step towards ignoring it? I’m keeping an open mind.

This is the first movie I actually can’t comment much on. I didn’t make it passed the first five minutes. The movie looks like it’s shot with a camcorder and not ala The Blair Witch Project
or Paranormal Activity, but like an actual home movie. There was a light facing the camera that put the two half clothed teens on the couch in shadow. At one point, the girl turns on other lights in the room, also facing the camera, which does little to illuminate the scene.

That’s pretty much as far as I got.

Synopsis:

I don’t know, so here’s the synopsis from Netflix:

In this campy parody of 1980s slasher flicks, a group of teenagers get together in a creepy abandoned house to hold a séance, at which point they can’t help but get naked and begin dying gruesome, improbable deaths. Of course, everyone’s favorite horror archetypes are in play, including the busty blonde, the fearless jock, a pair of uber-dorks, and two pretty girls who like to make out … with each other.

WTF Moments:

Every moment of the five minutes I watched.

Redeeming Qualities:

Stupid Teenagers Must Die is the first movie that I can actually say I couldn’t watch. That counts for something, right?

Last Words:

I should have watched it and done a real review. It might have gotten better. I just couldn’t.

• Sorry about that. Those weren't supposed to post. #
• What happened to all the diet strawberry pop/soda? I couldn't find any at 3 different stores. #

Heft a cold one in this 22 oz. ceramic stein with gold trim. A great “usable” alternative to the trophy. Make any day Oktoberfest whether with this impressive stein on the shelf or in-hand. Cheers!

via Bear-ly Sober Stein Baby Bear Crescent Moon Haberdashery.

Ah ha! I figured out how to make this work. Just takes a little tinkering. So, I’ll have to share things I’ve been working on from time to time. Eventually, I’ll be getting the Zazzle store set up as well so people will have a choice. Zazzle also offers some products that CafePress doesn’t and vice versa.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.