2012 in 12 Favorite Posts.

Alright, it is somewhere around 10 pm...It is already 2013 in certain countries...So, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 What I have decided to do is take all 12 months, and post my personal favorites of each month. So, we will start with January!

January- This one is called "One of The Greats." I chose this one out of all the January posts because I laugh every time I see it.

February- I chose this one because it is basically just my Cat...When he was little...♥

March- Ah, so I actually have two for this month. And for good reasons too. We have music videos from Miranda Lambert and one from Taylor Swift. Here and here.

April- This one for April because I love these songs. I was listening to the CMT radio show they play on the Weekends, and Springsteen was number one this year!! I was so super excited because the song is brilliant...

May- Lookie... because I loved this poster....

June- There was absolutely no question about this one...It has to be my favorite of this month. Woot. Or should I say, OO OO OOA OWAH A AH! Heh.

July- This one for the comic...SO many of those things are funny, and then there are some that you are just like, "what??" But this one, meh. Awesome. CLICK!

 Take a pause here to stare up at the Twilight Zone...Strange, wonderful show....Hmmm...

August is next, correct? Here we go- Dis, and dis. The first one because I love how they did "A Thousand Years." The second, because, well, it's Howl. So really, no choice there. Hehe.

September- Eh, there wasn't much posted in Sep, so here: CLICKITY DOO DA!

October- This one, cuz well, Creepin' is on it. Yeah. 

November- Well, when I wrote this one, it was my Birthday. SO there. My reason. LOL--

December- *takes a breath* The last one and the last one of December of 2012...The winner is, Dragon's and Christmas Lights. :)

 AH so there we are! I need to take a break to see Taylor Swift preform on the ABC New Year show. Right after Gangnan Style...*Yeah*

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~Natsu~

Taking a breather...

Well, the holidays are over, and I have to say, I had quite a good one…How ‘bout you?

The snow finally came. It came, and came, and came. The roads were terrible and it was/is horribly cold—outside anyway. The old cat doesn’t like the snow…

I have spent this time working on my novel and drawing practice. For Christmas I received a sketchbook and I am working on filling that. So far I have a picture of Sai and Jiraiya…both of which are from Naruto. I am planning to draw Ken-chan and Kaoru next. They are from a manga called Rurouni Kenshin. -->

--I have recently gotten into reading that…And now I have been pretty much in a place between that and Naruto. Those, along with books like Yellowfang’s Secret by Erin Hunter, and Eldest by Christopher Paolini. I finished Eragon, and I have to say, that was one of the best books I have read all year…Really inspiring.

Anyway, that’s about it. I haven’t got much else to do. The New Year is almost upon us…which means…NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS! I don’t know how long they are supposed to last…The whole year maybe? Mine usually last a most, a couple weeks. BUT NOT THIS YEAR! No! I am working on my willpower this year! Yes. I have quite a few resolutions…But I won’t drag those into the picture at this time.

What I will be doing is listing my favorite posts of this year. Wednesday was the first year anniversary of Inside A Camo Bag. It’s really exciting! I honestly can’t believe it has been a year!! So I will do that…Hopefully before January 1st…

I shall go. But I will be back.

~Natsu~

Update 28-12- Fixed the typo ^.^

R.E.M.-2012

 Ah, hello. Seems the world failed to end...Good thing, too. I didn't return my Library books. The fine for eternity would have been impossibly huge.

  Last night on the news, they were playing this SONG . That is IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT (AND I FEEL FINE) BY R.E.M. It worked for today...This song was also on Chicken Little (2005), when the aliens were attacking...

 On the plus side, Christmas is almost here...and it IS SNOWING!!! ~Cue Mike Keaton dance from Jack Frost~  I really thought that it wasn't going to snow this year. It had been so warm and muddy...But HAZAH! We are going to have a white Christmas after all! That is, if the snow doesn't melt. Meh.

 Well, on a totally different subject, I saw Tron Legacy the other day. It was pretty ridiculous. IT WAS AWESOME!! When Sam was standing on the top of the building in the beginning, it had a Spiderman feel to it, but it was SO AWESOME after that.

Yup. That's all I have to say about it. The glowing was cool. The story was neat. I stated that I was going as one of the girls like this: 

--for Halloween next year, and my brother looks at me and says, "Please don't." So I won't.

That was somewhat funny...

Meh. Hope that the day goes well.

~Natsu~

Something I thought was funny.

 For some reason, I found myself reading this children's book. It was some sort of comic book that included the Muppets. I guess that's why I said, "Give it here, lemme read it."

 I was just flipping through pages because there where so many words...And I found this here:

 

I laughed my bloody guts out...Call me crazy. I don't understand what happened, but this "all-mime production of 'Death of a Salesman'" was extremely enjoyable. Thumbs up. Heh.

 

On a less strange note, turns out, we did win something from the Ginger-Bread house contest. THIRD prize in our category!! I was so so so surprised that we actually won something! Huh. I guess they couldn't resist the Mystery Machine. LOL.

 

Today I had some Peanut Brittle...Goooood. Very sweet.

 

Natsu~

GIF JOY!

Alright! So! My tech-freak brother helped me make this gif of Korra Water-Bending. I was so excited when he told me that he found a way to do it! The quality is a little fuzzy, but the original was so small, you couldn't even see it. Yay!

 

 

Well, Jeopardy will be on soon...I just wanted to blog it. Yay!

 

~Natsu

10:17 pm...*WHY?*

 Sooooooooooooo.

This has been an unbelievably long, exhausting day. Working most of the day, and then babysitting the rest of the day. Was there an upside? Yes! I saw the music video for Somebody's Heartbreak by Hunter Hayes just a couple minutes earlier. Yeah, so that will do it for today I guess...But I won't go on about that today.

 What I really wanted to scream to the world was that I got The Art of Brave from the library earlier this week! And I bloody love it. I have never actually been inside of an Art book besides the Art of Howl's Moving Castle--which was awesome by the way--and needless to say, I was amazed!


 From what I understand, it seems as though they actually started Brave in 2006. After Cars... if I remember correctly...I honestly did not know that it took that long! But then again, there is a lot that goes into those movies. The pictures from the Research Trip were amazing, if I might add...Totally a book that I would recommend.

 I have been seeing recently that Finding Nemo is now on DVD. I remember when that came out on VHS back a couple years ago. ~Insert chuckle~ My family got it for Christmas and we watched it countless times. Back when you could actually buy VHS tapes at the store. I really don't know for sure if you can't nowadays, but I haven't seen any. Unless you count thrift stores...but I don't think so...I just thought it was interesting...

 ~Yawn~

I have decided that I need a kitten. That has been an idea for quite a while...We'll see. Tee hee.

Goodnight world. I need a sandwich because I skipped dinner.
I know. I complain and complain. Again, Tee Hee.

~~~~Natsu~~~~

Dragons and Christmas Lights.

Recently I was able to see Dreamwork's How to Train your Dragon when it premiered on the FX channel the day after Thanksgiving. 

 It was actually really, really good! I hadn’t expected to it to be as good as it was. I had however, heard some things about it. Like it was a lot like Brave and all this stuff. But to me, it really wasn’t like Brave at all!

 The only things that I thought were similar would have been Hiccup’s father design and the point that they did have the accents...But other than that, I got nothing.

All in all, it was amazing. I liked the story, and the humor was good. The character design was awesome when it came to Toothless, ( Toothless was SO INCREDIBLY CUTE!) and they picked the perfect actor for Hiccup. He would be Jay Baruchel.

 Jay was on The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, (a movie that I had seen before Dragons...I was watching it and thinking, “Oh man, he sounds so familiar…Kind of like Hiccup from the Dragon show. (However, I had only seen commercials for the Cartoon Network series, that’s the only way I really knew the voice. Does that make sense? ;) ) That sentence kind of drifted away into its own creation. Moving on…

  The reason that this all came to mind is first, I wanted to post about it anyway because it was so cool, and second, because last night I began reading a book called Eragon.

Eragon so far, reminded me of How to Train your Dragon. I think it was because he had found a dragon egg and was keeping it a secret. Much like Hiccup did…But Eragon is so cool so far. More to come, more to come…

 Anyway! Now for the light portion of this…Heh. (Hope I have the right video here.)

 I am kind of actually really excited about this up and coming holiday! Christmas! And to top of the Christmas music the minute Thanksgiving is over, we have Christmas lights!

 My favorite part would have to be the glowing green cactus…There are some parts where it is just blinking alone. One day I am going to do this with my Christmas lights...It will be stupendous…

 Well. Other than that, we have moved on to Season 1, volume 2 of Naruto. In the Manga, however, we are somewhere in the middle of book 33. It has been cool, if not cooler, than the first part of Naruto. But that’s all I talk about these days…That or I am obsessing over writing Dialogue…

 ~~~Natsu~~~

Ah, so you didn't get my joke.

 Well! Yesterday night I was spinning around on an office chair while watching Episode V of Star Wars. I was talking to the television saying, "Vader, just say, 'I am your father' and then I can go to bed!"  So, long story short, Vader and Luke were fighting and Vader was breathing really hard.

 So of course, it's my place to make a lame joke. I turn to my sister and say, "Hey, you know what? He's breathing so hard. He's hyperVADERlating!"

 I get dead silence. Then I'm like, "COME ON THAT WAS GREAT!!"
Then I get, "dude, that was insulting." And I'm like, "NO WAY THAT WAS GENIUS!!"

My dad thought it was funny anyway. Or was it more of a pity laugh....Aw Man...

 Sorry for not posting in so long. I made a promise to myself to not turn on the computer until I finished all my writing books...Eh....Still not there. I broke my oath. What a terrible girl-scout I would make. Lol.

 But my real reason for writing, is that I found a picture on the internet that I thought was awesome and totally true. I could rant on about how I am a terrible artist and I have 3 blank canvases up in my room--Yeh...Let's get that picture, shall we?

Pic link because copying it didn't work.

That about summons it up I think. ^.^

 Well, to update a different post...We lost the Gingerbread contest. It was pathetic and whiny...Yeah...It was kinda depressing, but now that I look back at the thing...It wasn't very well executed....

 Ah. It socked.

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!! ♥

 -Updated a few minutes later-

I thought this was awesome for some reason...


OK. I am tired apparently. BUT I HAVE THE CAFFEINE PATCH! I HAVEN'T SLEPT IN EIGHT DAYS!  (To those who hear the words "Meet the Robinsons" and scream, "BAKE THOSE COOKIES LUCILLE!" For I am one of you. :) )

~Natsu~

I'll write anyway.

 So, I spent most of my afternoon talking a walk through a forest, digging through a pile of broken glass--and finding cool bottles that really were inspiring if you look at them through the eyes of a writer--then took some time to walk across the yard with my eyes closed. And it is true. You cannot walk in a straight line when you are blind-folded!

 At the moment now, however, I am trying to find ways to create creative Fantasy names for stories I am currently working on/starting. I saw a huge tree today and a whole bunch of ideas started streaming into my mind.

 Other than that,  it seems as though I am watching Christmas movies, and I will be making Spaghetti for dinner later in the hour.

 What I really wanted to post was this HERE. Pachelbel Bedtime I think it's called. I saw this a couple years ago and it was really cool. But I saw it again today and decided to blog about it. :)

 Well, I must go, my hands need lotion and a break from typing.

 See ya'll later in the new week.

~~Natsu~~

Mystery Machine Ya'll!

Ugh. I have the theme song to “Full House” stuck in my head. I don’t even really/ watch/like that show. But it seems they have started the season over on Nick and I am in an unfortunate position. That being I have no choice but to acknowledge that it’s on. The theme isn’t even fun! And now it bugs me that I don’t know the words! ~tear~

 So, the project this week has been tedious/fun/belly rotting deliciousness. My sister and I made a Gingerbread Mystery Machine for a Gingerbread contest at our Library. Fun right? Yeah, I thought that the idea was totally original until we looked it up on the computer. There are a few, yes, but ours is ours. It’s a good thing that the contest rules stated that professional entries would not be allowed… ^.^

 It started out with a sketch and a Gingerbread recipe from Foodnetwork.com. Very good recipe, the bread turned out deliciously spiced and it’s pretty sturdy! Then we used the Royal icing recipe that came with the Gingerbread House recipe and colored them with “groovy” colors. Hehe. We spent the evening—had to break the process down into three days because it was something we never did before—and frosted all the pieces. Using a little bag with scissor holes because a tip would have been too big (that or we really couldn’t find a frosting tip, whatever sounds better) we frosted Oreos as well. The Oreos were used as the wheels and the spare wheel on the front. 

THEN we assembled it.

It took a long, long time. Grunts, groans and eye rolling. But, a few hours, three batches of frosting, powdered sugar, two sick stomachs and THEN two more sugar comas later….IT WAS DONE. It turned out pretty cool I think ^.^ The judge who carried up to the display room said it was good anyway…Yay.

 

This is what it turned out like in the end.

 

I was told this morning the there were 6 days until Thanksgiving! I had forgotten...But the great part is, I may be able to Brine a turkey again. Last year I did one like that, using Alton Brown's Brine Recipe. I watched two weeks of Food Network Thanksgiving specials and had bad dreams about brine and such. Then finally, I DID IT! I wasn't aware however, that the turkey had to soak in the stuff for days. Ended up putting everything on the recipe in a pot, boiling it, and then letting the turkey sit in it overnight....

 

 Everyone said it was great. I thought it was really good even though I didn't do it just right. :) It was really tender and had just enough salt, it was awesome. 

 So hopefully I will be doing that again this year. 

I can't wait for Thanksgiving! I love the pies, the turkey, the cuts you get when trying to open the can of cranberry sauce with an old can-opener...Okay, maybe not that....And just the feeling of it. The best part would have to be the next morning when there is just so much pie left that you get to have some for breakfast. YUMMMMM.

 The "aw man" part of it though is that the next day is Friday so no turkey the next day...But mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce or really, anything else will work. Lol.

 ♫Natsuuuuuuu♪

Believe it!

  Not to go ranting about Naruto again...but really, that’s what’s been happening. Finally at Volume 29 of the Naruto manga, we (brother and sister and I) moved on to watching the Naruto anime. Me being a freak about scheduling and spoilers, we agreed to read all of the original manga, and when we got to—what is called Shippuden in the anime, technically Part 2—in the book, we would begin to watch Part 1 of Naruto. So I collected from the libraries, 20 hours and two seasons of Naruto. Part 1!

   To break that down, we do an hour a day, which would equal to two episodes every evening…after Jeopardy of course. Earlier last year, I was basically introduced to Naruto from one of my buddies. So I tried to get into it, ya know, to see what it was like. I hadn't however, been able to get it until earlier this summer.
 

   So I pretty much enjoy it. There are some things that ya maybe could do without…Like Jiriaya’s hobby—if you watch/read it, you know what I mean—and some jutsu that Naruto does sometimes. But other than that, I like the story, and more importantly, for me, the characters. I like it when you get a bunch of characters that are, “complex “is the word I use. Characters that have an important place in the story, a back-story, reasons for what they feel, etc…My list could go on and on. Anyway, back to the point -you’re not stuck with 5 main characters and then you’re done.

  For me, I spend more time watching the lighting change, or how certain things are shadowed, or how Masashi Kishimoto does bridges of noses and sides of faces. Because I can’t do that! That’s why it’s so fascinating to me! It is something that I have always wanted to do! So I spend more time looking and taking mental notes at how everything is drawn than actually watching the show. Of course then, I have to go back and look at what I missed while scribbling down notes.

While I was typing this, I realized that I did draw the side of Orochimaru’s face. Let me see. 

  Yeah, so I upped the contrast and took the brightness down a peg. It was too light to see in the picture. (I took it with the computer web-cam, so it wasn’t that great in the first place. But it does look dramatic now. Haha.) It is actually facing the other way in real life, but again, the camera angle. I can’t draw in the right direction anyway. I don’t know why though…only left…I thought it was pretty good though. LOL. But there is ALWAYS room for improvement. :)

  Well, I think I am pretty much done with my Naruto rant…Really, besides that; I have been working on my Dialogue in my writing. Turns out that Dialogue can be used for many things besides just having a conversation. Like, it can be used to describe things, the setting, it can be used to move the story along, and all kinds of things! Dialogue by Gloria Kempton, is the book I am reading.

  Am I the only one who has “Like a Surgeon” by Weird Al Yankovic stuck in my head? It only takes one word to trigger that song…SO thumbs up to the Weird Al fans. Hehe.

Until I can think of cool things to write about,

~~Natsu~~

PS: Naruto says “BELIEVE IT” at least 5 times in each episode. Figured it would make a good title ^.^

Pumpin' up the jams...

"Rapunzel: So mother, earlier I was saying tomorrow is a really big day, and you didn't really respond, so I'm just gonna tell you: IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! Tada!  

Mother Gothel: No no no, can't be. I distinctly remember, your birthday was last year.  

Rapunzel: That's the funny thing about birthdays, they're kind of an annual thing."

  I just finished a huge Ice Cream Sundae and now I am watching the CMA's. An awesome way to end a birthday day!! I am super excited for some reason though. (Could be the ice cream... ;) )  I don't even know if I can post anything intelligible at this point...

OMG!!! Right now at this point, as I am writing this...Hunter Hayes just won NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR AWARD!!!! Wow, now I am pumped. Except, I have to say, (he performed  Wanted earlier) and--like many others--didn't sound the same live. I think the best part of that performance was when he fist-bumped some random guy near the end. That was EPIC!

 Lolz. Goodnight Ya'll.

~~Natsu~~

Something for Halloween.

Now, I don't do much for Halloween. Sure, I love candy and costumes. Costumes especially for some reason unknown to me at the moment. When I think of this time of year, I think of the movies. Like all the Tim Burton movies that are on this time of year. My favorite being Corpse Bride. I absolutely love that movie! Probably the best Halloween movie for me.

 Then  I think of a scene from Tim Burton's Beetlejuice. Namely this SCENE. (I am pretty sure this is the whole song.) If you haven't seen this movie, then I guess you haven't seen it. But it is, in a lame way, EPIC.

 Danny Elfman was in charge of the music score on Beetlejuice. I have recently learned that he is also Jack Skellinton's singing voice. I knew that Jack had two voice-actors--one for singing and one for regular dialogue. And I was totally psyched when I found out that Danny was his singing voice! It's just the nerd in me I guess. ^^

OMG IT SPARKLES!!! ^.^

 So, Happy Halloween tomorrow then!

And I hope that all of ya'll that are living through Sandy are doing well. The yard here is swamped. May never dry out again...But at least its just rain and wind.

~~Natsu

(Still working on the blog! I think I may be digging this blue :) )

Instead of a Cheese Documentary.

 I have been working through walls (the walls that block my ideas that is.) It is getting a little simpler to write now that I have a couple things to get me to do it. Firstly, I usually wake up with a song in my head. So what I do it write down the song name and singer, and then I force myself to write a couple paragraphs about it. Whether it be an essay-like piece, or something I could eventually put into one of my stories. Secondly I found that having new music to listen to helps me as well. Like if I change the channel on the radio from country to pop or just buying a new cd from the store.

 This week I actually bought two albums. On Monday I went to Wal-mart for Taylor Swift’s Red and ended up finding Eric Church’s Chief album. (Which I had been looking for FOREVER…Sometimes the music is all mixed up, so it’s harder to find things.) In the end, Red was bought on Tuesday because it wasn't there Monday.

 Now I told myself that I would listen to the cd a couple times before I decided what I should write about it. First off: It is much different from her last 3 records. A few songs are completely “pop style.” It is a good blend with the couple slow, more country songs. There was not a song that I didn't like. My favorites would have to be—

1. Stay Stay Stay (Adorably cute song. Omg.)

2. Begin Again

3. The Last Time (With Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol)

4. Everything has Changed (Featuring Ed Sheeran)

5. (These are not in order, but The Last Time is basically on the top…)

 And basically, I really like each and every song. 22 is fun to dance to as is I Knew You Were Trouble. It is a fun album. And I really like it. I actually caught the Begin Again music video as I was typing this up…That was more of what I thought it would be--Really awesome. :)

 What I really wanted to blog about was Eric Church’s Creepin’ music video. I really like the theme of it…I thought it was amazing when I saw it. The song is totally awesome too. Springsteen is probably, for me, the best song that came out this year. But here is Creepin’ since I already blogged Springsteen ♥ 

 

 Anyway, other than that, my week has been pretty beige…I have been in extreme muscle pain for the last few days. Why? Because I thought that using a jump rope for exercising would be fun. Ya know, instead of the boring treadmill…But now I know the real truth…JUMP ROPES ARE EVIL.

I have to get up at the absurd hour of 6am tomorrow, so I guess I should go.

Have a great weekend!

 (PS. I am in the long process of updating the blog. SO if things start to look  a little different...Yeah....)
~~Natsu~~

Good Grief!

"In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back." 

-Charlie Brown.

 I am seriously in a sticky place. Cursed with…WRITERS BLOCK! And oh what a terrible thing it is too! So many ideas, nowhere to put them, and what’s worse, I haven’t even finished the grand plot of my story! I can’t even blog it’s so bad…There was absolutely nothing going on or anything interesting happening, so I will probably  write about my writers block, and, when I Google Search “how to get rid of writers-block” I will probably write about that too.

  This is what I found: http://write-easy.blogspot.com/2009/06/5-ways-to-get-rid-of-writers-block.html And I think it is a really good article...

5 ways to get rid of writer's block

It's inevitable - the block gets us one day. It is as if the words refuse to flow, thickened somewhere in the brain, not moving, getting hazy as moment passes...nothing to type. The familiar keyboard doesn't help. If you do use the keyboard, it is the backspace that gets the most hits! Does it ring a bell? Yes, we all go through this and you are not alone. We cannot avoid it - but we can definitely come out of it faster.

Here is how -
Write, write and write - The most easiest way to come out of writer's block is to write! Forcing yourself to write something no matter how ugly it is would help getting the juices flow. I feel that the block is nothing but the fear of writing something terrible, something you would hate to know are your words. The best way to shoo away that fear is to actually put in those words out in the open. Good thing is you need not have to show it to someone else. You can be the only reader! Once the worst is over, you can only get better!

Go back to your favourite author - One of our most common inspirations are our favourite authors. They have inspired, coaxed, demanded and threatened us to write and write better. Sometimes, writer's block is a plea for a break and it would be great idea to go back to our masters and get rejuvenated! We have discovered our talents in their words and I am in no doubt that when you have finished reading them, you would ache to come back to your desk and type away the rest!

"Word-a-day" - I remember inventing this game in my initial days as a writer. I would often be at a loss of what to write due to various reasons (that should come in a separate blog :)) and I would think of ways to make myself write. "Word-a-day" is simple and effective. I would look at my surroundings and pick up any object among them randomly and say, "Ok...this is my topic. I need to write 250 words about this". Lo! I would force the words to come and as days would pass, I would start deliberating picking some things over others because they would interest me! As I said, it is very simple game to play. All you need is a determination that you would write those 250 words without giving up! The rest is easy.

Turn in to a critic - If you cannot write than start reviewing your older work. Some find it very embarrassing to read their work later, but that's one of the highs I get in my life! Reading and commenting on my articles/writings makes me much more aware of what kind of writer I am. It simultaneously also infuses in me the excitement to write something better. When you are short of words and are reviewing your own work, don't forget to keep pen and paper handy. I bet there would be moments when you would feel, "ah...this line is what makes it attractive", "oh...this could be phrased better!"...and so on. The important thing is it is making you think about words and hence, your brain is trying to form sentences again!

Do not give up and go on a long break - Going on a long break is the greatest danger during these times. I did it once and I regret it till date. You need to realize that writer's block is temporary and is not a proof that you are a bad writer. This thought scares the writer away in to oblivion and all that is left is lost clients, projects. When you get the inspiration again to write, all you are left with is starting everything from scratch. No need to add, it is not a pretty picture! So, do whatever you can, but do not be away from your writing desk for a long time.

Finally, any career would have its ups and downs and freelance writing is no different. In fact, the decision to freelance in much braver than any secure company job and it demands much more patience and work from you. You have taken that decision which means you are brave. Do not let a tiny obstacle like writer's block stop you! All the best!

  I am pretty sure that my main problem is that I am a perfectionist. And I have so many ideas. It got me thinking. What does it take to make a good story? I came up with a couple things that I think make stories great.

1. Adventure
2. Mystery
3. Good Story Telling ability
4. Characters with good back-stories and such things that make them who they are.
5. Interesting places, people, things, basically cool nouns. Haha
6. Suspense!
7. Point of view. Whether it switched from different people or different “Camera Angles.”
8. Bad guy/group. (Obviously!)
9. Good ending. And by good ending, I don’t mean “everyone lives happily ever after.” It could be an ending where the whole world explodes; it just has to be done right.
10. And I am sure there are a WHOLE BUNCH of other things that I don’t have here. I forgot where I put my list, so this will have to work.

Since buying my laptop, I have neglected my huge stack of notebooks. It’s sad really, I sit down to write in them, and go completely blank. Mostly because I haven’t seen them in forever and probably because I am stretched the story plot to its breaking point...Maybe it’s time I move on and begin different stories. It seems as though I start at least two new stories a month…

 At this point I am not sure what to do. I take ideas from the real-life scenarios and mold them into my own twisted image! I am jesting! 

  It’s actually easier for me to write fantasy than it is writing fiction with real-life happenings. Like for instance, “A giant dragon flew through the window and grabbed Ferdinand with its huge greedy talons.” It didn't take much thought to write that…But anything else, ugh!!

 I am working on it though! Working on it!

 ~Natsu

Narnia and other Sunday Fancies. ^.^

 Today I am working on finding the voices of Naruto characters including Tsunade, Jiraiya's and whoever else I come across. Switching out between the first Narnia (which isn't technically true...Hmm...First Narnia Movie.) and the 4th Indiana Jones movie.

 More to come.

A Brave thought.

 This evening, I sat down at my desk, turned on my computer, and looked up at the huge BRAVE poster that loomed above on the wall. Then an idea came to me. I should try to sketch that! So I did!

 And this is what I came up with. It's not my greatest drawing, but there were a few reasons for that.

1. It was on my wall so I had to stand back, not the greatest view.
2. It's in 3D and I am not skilled with drawing 3D images.
3. I am not great with people.
4. And last but yeah, least, I was basically just for fun sketching.

But yeah, that's what I got. Now that I look at it, the bow is off...Well, live and learn I guess.

 ~Natsu.

Luke, ich bin dein Vater.

  I am not bored.  Quite the contrary, actually, I have much to do and no time to do it!  I have collected a reasonably good bunch of words to use as a blog post, but I can never find the right time to post such things. Today, however, is just a thought-filled post. Some things I have learned, done, and thought over through the week.

  As for the German, I read a book called “Waiting for Summer’s Return,” by Kim Vogel Sawyer.  Most of the town spoke High German. So I learned a couple German words in the course of reading that book. It was really interesting to me for some reason…Probably because I enjoy listening to foreign languages…And I am in the process of learning Latin, so different languages and where they originated is kind of cool to me right now. The classic phrase, “Luke, I am your Father,” was something my sister randomly typed into the Google Translate. It kind of stuck in my mind as a good title for a random blog post, such as this. :)

  Skipping through the pages of “The Art of Howl’s Moving Castle” (EPIC book if you love concept art ^^) I realized how much I LOVE concept art. Heh. ♥

 I read on of the more recent Penguins with Jet Packs posts, that she had done a cute little rainbow gif, I believe it is called. That got me thinking.  I have been trying to figure out the name/ how to make pictures such as this,

since I found this one a couple weeks back. (Because I think they are so cool!) And I am pretty sure that that is what they are now…A big thanks to Elizabeth! :) (If I am correct about the matter anyway... I misunderstand things sometimes...........)

 Another wonderful Bologna dish brought to you by my father. A Sunday afternoon dinner that consisted of:

• ·         Bologna
• ·         Lettuce
• ·         Tomato
• ·         American Cheese
• ·         AND MAYO!
•       And bread. Toasted bread ^^

All grilled up and toasty! :)

 I am a little bummed out today because (once again! \>:( ) I have misplaced my envelopes of pressed rose petals. I had waited for the rose petals to drop—and pulled a couple out a couple—earlier this year. Like, spring. They turned out really cool after weeks of sitting under  5 Encyclopedias…Now I can’t seem to find them.

 Today I happened to walk outside and found that the big pink petals had fallen! So I scooped them up, dried ‘em off, and stuck them into two different envelopes and stuck them under a box, THEN I put the stack of Wedding Dress folders on top of the box. The box is probably caved in right now, but I just put all the classic literature into the attic. You’ll see em probably when I pull them out in a month or so…

I have nothing cool to close this up with besides the fact that King Caspian is MUCH cooler than Prince Caspian...More to come...

 ~Natsu ♥

~No-face and other fancies~

This guy here, this guy is amazing.

  I can’t really put a finger on it, but for some reason, he is just so interesting to me.  I even thought about making a costume since Halloween is almost upon us. But I don’t really do Halloween. Candy is fun and all, don’t get me wrong. And I LOVE cosplay! Nevertheless…I don’t know if I will even have time to complete it. The mask would be fun to make though… ^^

  

Other fancies include,

Excitement about Hunter Hayes first #1 song!

 Wanted, I knew, would make it to the top. I think it’s because of his spectacular amount of fans. I don’t know anyone personally (Ya know, besides myself.) but I have seen him live on a television event once. True, I can’t be sure that they were all his fans, but the meet-and-greet sure had a lot of young girls. Lol.  In my opinion, I think it was a good call to make Wanted a single.

  I guess that’s really all. I still need to upload some pics and get them on here. I just need to send ‘em…But I am much too lazy.

Let’s hope the day goes well for me and my family, it’s been a disappointing morning. May the odds be in our favor…

 ~Natsu  O_O

National Sandwich Day: November 3rd 2012. Waiting. Oh yes, waiting. :)

I have noticed that I have published 123 posts...1-2-3....Yeah.... :P

Savvy?

Now, I wasn’t going to start a Talk like a Pirate day post with a title like, “Ahoy There!” Only because I thought it would be a little corny. And Savvy is about the only “pirate word” I used today. I like how Jack Sparrow says it.  It’s been pretty obvious to me how much my family has been waiting for this day. I guess “Scurvy Dog” has been a popular saying in the house…And a child had a Rubber Duck taped to his shoulder, saying that that was as close as he could get to a parrot.  Needless to say it was kind of funny. ^^

  I have a bunch of pictures to upload before I can post anything more, so…

HAPPY TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!

~Natsu “Arrrrg!” 

Ponyo, Ponyo, Ponyo...

Ponyo, Ponyo, Ponyo, fishy in the sea,

Tiny little fishy, who could you really be?

Ponyo, Ponyo, Ponyo, magic set you free,

Oh she's a little girl with a round tummy.

  I guess it's pretty obvious which song is stuck in my head at this point...^^ All because I went on a Google search for Ghibli films. I am looking for the next film that my "Ghibli group" will watch next. Requests include, "PONYO! PONYO! Pick Ponyo this time!" I pardoned the request because I decided that we will save the "Lovey-touchy-feel-y" movies for last. We have seen Ponyo before. After it was released on DVD, we got it on Netflix. It was really good, so don’t get me wrong.

(BTW, Fujimoto was total AWESOMESAUCE! Fun fact, the English voice of Fujimoto was Liam Neeson. He was Qui-Gon-Jinn in the new/first Star Wars. AND I JUST READ ON IMDB THAT HE WAS THE VOICE OF ASLAN ON NARNIA! Now I know why Fujimoto and Aslan and Qui-Gon are all amazing. Yes.)

 I had a discussion with one of the members. This is how it went:

Me: Hey, what film do you want to see next?

(Let’s assume her name is Hyuga. I call her that anyway 'cuz she likes Hinata Hyuga from Naruto.) I don't know, what's there?

Me: Well, I want to see Princess Mononoke...What do you think?

Hyuga: Is it nice, or EPIC?

Me: Well, it's rated PG-13...

Hyuga: ~Smiles~ Sure! ~Walks away~

 I am kinda in an Anime mood tonight. I watched bits and pieces of Naruto episodes 30, and 31.  Only because I wanted to know what Orochimaru's voice sounded like. He is a very...interesting?...character. Little did I know that I already knew what he sounded like. The guy who does his voice also does Amon's voice, from The Legend of Korra. (Steve Blum) Amazing how you figure out things in a crazed Anime mood. I think to finish that; I will do a Manga-marathon. I need to start Volume 10 of Naruto. A Splendid Ninja. Rock Lee VS Gaara. I know for a fact the Lee gets basically destroyed. Totally crushed when I figured that out...

  5 more things tonight:

The Cosby Show is on TVland now, I hadn't known that and now I am excited. ^^

My favorite song--at this point--by The Script is The End Where I Begin.

The Saga Begins is the greatest song ever. :D Almost as good as Weird Al's play on "My Sharona." MY BOLOGNA! Teehee.

PS: I am a pixie. And yes, they do express emotion. Despite what "some people I know" think. ♥

I am addicted to "Lights" by Ellie Goulding. Adele and Ellie are both British, I believe. Love. :)

  This day whopped my rear. Exhausted. 

~Natsu

Updated Sep/19/12

Cold on a Saturday Morning.

   This past week has been pretty much like every other week. I bought some K9 Advantage II for Ginger. It has only been 3 days, but I have not seen one flea on her. She seems less annoyed and she follows me around again! For a while she totally ignored me, I thought that it might have been the recent company that's been annoying her. (Mostly because she is a little spoiled brat and doesn't like it when my attention is divided between her and other people.) But now that I think of it, she may have been agitated for other reasons. 

  Now she is fine. She seems a whole lot happier and I believe that the Advantage stuff really works. I had heard things about it on commercials, but I spent some time reading reviews online as well. Some of them said that it was better than Frontline, and others said that it didn't work at all. Well, Ginger is an 11 pound Mini Long-haired Dachshund, and it works for her. So happy that it does! :)

 What I have thought about in the past couple days is that some bits and pieces of this blog are really high-strung sounding. I don't know if that's a bad thing, sometimes I just get really excited! I am working on it though. Lol.

 I have also learned that if you get 1 or 2 books from the library, thinking that the week will be busy, odds are that you will be finished with the books in 2 days. That’s how it is for me, anyway.  Whenever I get maybe 7 books, my weeks are so jammed with crud to do, that I never get to read! I have been pretty crammed trying to read the books I have now...Then again, I can always renew them. I wanted to take some time off today, however, because I just wanted to sit here and blog. 

  It's really cold here, which isn't surprising because it is almost fall. I really didn't feel like doing anything else. Yesterday I worked all day. Which was my fault, I guess. I didn't have to work that week, but I chose too...I think it was a better choice in the end. 

 Besides reading, working, school and other things, I have been trying to draw Anime. Mostly characters from Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden. So far I have done one of Naruto and Anko, two of Rock Lee (because for some reason I find him cool and awesome. Lol) I have done one of Orochimaru, and one of Sai. Sai was introduced into the series in the first episode I had ever watched. I guess at that point I was just looking for a character to be my favorite. And that was maybe a year, year and a half ago. I was pretty new to it. Still, today, even though there are a couple new characters added to that list, Sai is still one of my faves. Favorites besides Sai include, Hatake Kakashi, Rock Lee, and Gaara. That is basically it now. I am not that far along in the manga, and I have been trying to keep myself from watching the Anime because I wanted to finish the manga first. 

 Other things that happened...? Hmm... Me and my "Studio Ghibli group" (in other words, a group of my buddies who watch Ghibli films, and are reading/watching Naruto with me) watched Spirited Away this week.  It was AMAZING! Like, completely AMAZING! It was an AWESOME movie! I will try to get a real review out sometime soon. I am most likely to watch it again. So there should be a post about it some time. Hehe ^^

  Later days, 

Natsu

The Continued List.

 Hello, long time no see! I have been waiting for an opportunity to actually get on my laptop. Sure, I could do it anytime, but I was never motivated until today. I decided that I should finish the post that I started, and frankly, I missed blogging!

       So here is the list I was talking about.

•         NARUTO VOLUME 9
•         HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE
•         WAITING FOR SUMMER'S RETURN~KIM VOGEL SAWYER
•         THE INHERITANCE~TAMERA ALEXANDER
•         REMEMBERED~TAMERA ALEXANDER
•        MAID TO MATCH~DEEANNE GIST
•         STEVE JOBS~WALTER ISAACSON
•         Revealed by Tamera Alexander
•         Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (The original Novel)
•         Spirited Away, a Studio Ghibli film
•         Courting Trouble by Deeanne Gist
•         Deep in the Heart of Trouble by Deeanne Gist

These are the books/movies I have recently been working on. Naruto, Howl’s Moving Castle, Remembered, Maid to match, and Spirited Away, are finished. My plan was to write a brief review about each of them.  Here we go!

 Naruto Volume 9: Not much to say about it…Except it was awesome! It covered the third part of the Chûnin Exams. Fights including, Kiba VS Naruto, Hinata VS Neji, and the last part of the battle between Ino and Sakura. Then Rock Lee was chosen to fight Gaara. And then it was...TO BE CONTINUED! Now I have Volume 10 on hold. ^^ (Totally killed me, I wonder who will win. No internet spoilers for me this time!) Over all, it was really good. If you are into that kind of stuff.

Howl’s moving castle review, you can find that here: http://camobaginside.blogspot.com/2012/08/howls-moving-castle-my-new-obsession_2129.html

 Remembered.  If you have read Rekindled, and basically any other books by Tamera Alexander, this one will please you. When I picked up Revealed, I realized that the characters all showed up in each other’s lives’ in the books. Larson and Kat Jennings made a small appearance in Remembered. It took me a couple minutes—after I finished the book of course—to realize that they were in Rekindled. It was kind of epic. Remembered was a wonderful book. Period. Alexander hasn't failed me yet!

 Maid to Match, written by Deeanne Gist, was also wonderful. I honestly started around 3 on one afternoon. I finished the book around 10:30 that same evening. It was one of those books that I didn’t want to stop. Not even for things like eating or ya know, moving so your legs don’t fall asleep to the point where you can’t use them for an hour.  

If it isn’t quite obvious, I am into Historical Fiction…Hehe.

 Anyway, that about settles it. I have finished my list.

  So, how did your Labor Day weekend go? Mine included an all-day read-a-thon 

of Remembered, BBQ ribs with the family, and to finish it off, a new episode of Adventure Time! Which really wasn't a huge highlight of the evening…I was reading so I really didn't even pay attention. Lol.

 The summer is coming to a close, and now I have the school bus down the street to tell me what time it is in the morning. Not the greatest thing, but I won’t complain. I need to learn how to get up early anyway. ^^

  I should move on now, I still have one more thing to do before I leave the blogosphere for today.

~Natsu

Howl's Moving Castle. My new Obsession ^^

I know, I know, I haven't been here in a while. And I have neglected this post since Wednesday. It was just late that night when I finished the movie, and Paranormal Witness was on. That's my honest excuse.

 So, to get this started, here is my review for Howl's Moving Castle.

Okay, first things first. Howl's Moving Castle is a Studio Ghibli film directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The release date for the USA was in June, 2005. I believe that Disney had Pete Doctor, from Pixar, in charge of dubbing it into English. It was based on a novel by, Diana Wynne Jones.

All I have to say about Doctor's work, is this.HE COULD NOT HAVE CHOSEN A BETTER VOICE FOR HOWL IF HE TRIED. I am serious. That was the PERFECT voice for that character. And I am not just fangirl-ing out! It was that good! The voice of Howl is a man by the name of, Christian Bale.

   Some Cast members include, (in English)
Jean Simmons -Grandma Sophie,
Christian Bale-Howl,
Lauren Bacall-Witch of the Waste,
Blythe Danner -Madame Suliman,
Emily Mortimer -Young Sophie, 

and Billy Crystal, as Calcifer... That was basically epic. 'Cept now, whenever I hear Billy's voice, I only think Mike Wazowski. I don't know if that's a bad thing, or a good thing. Lol. 

 All in all, the story was good. I liked the smaller elements, *Spoiler Alert* like when Howl had his melt down, (which was kinda pathetic, but I liked it just the same. It was funny. ^^) And other things, like the funny things Calcifer said, and so on. I don't wanna spoil it, so I won't say anymore.

 But the basic plot of the story was great. I read that it was a little different from the novel...So the original book will be on my list of books to read. 

 Now, don't get my started with the animation. Because I love 2-D animation. I love how the Ghibli films are just that. I grew up with the older anime and such. Little did I know at the time, that they were Anime. I was a child, so things like that were just, cool shows. ^^

 Anyway, I kinda went off on some memory lane there...Back to my point. I liked it all. The character design, music, animation, colors, script, everything. I know it may sound like everything pleases me, but there are some movies where I will just sit there and complain. But this was awesome. The minute it started, I instantly liked it. So- I was glad that is was almost 2 hours long. 

 I know only a little bit of Ghibli's work, sadly. Ponyo, and Kiki's s Delivery Service, and this one, are honestly the only films I have seen. My anime/movie watching had a rough time actually happening, but now I plan to see every one of the movies. 

 That's it. If it makes any sense. Haha.

In the end,  it was awesome, and I totally recommend it if you haven't seen it. 

 I shall be back. My foot has fallen asleep and I must go walk it off. That and Surviorman is on...hehe. 

 Later Days! ^^

  ~Natsu 

The sweetest commercial ever.

 Every time I see this, I smile. It's really, really sweet. ^^

Goodnight, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

~Natsu

(Please note that this is not the continuing post to the other one. ^^)

I wish I may, I wish I might...Lists??

 So, this weekend was a great one. Spent Sunday in my sweatpants, on my couch, watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Pretty good, pretty good. That being my first time seeing it, I thought it was really good. Davy Jones's crew, however, were very creepy. But, there is nothing wrong with that.
 
  For breakfast, my sister made, okay, to explain this, I am going to need to break it down.

•  First she made French Toast. Ya know, dipping bread slices in a egg/milk/spice mixture and then cooking it.
• Then she put American cheese, and bologna between two slices of French Toast. Much like a sandwich. 
• After that, she put the sandwich on the griddle and let the cheese melt.
• Unsure how it would taste with syrup, we each cut a bit off and tested it.
• Finding that syrup was, absolutely amazing with it, we covered the whole thing in the maple-y, sweet stuff. 
• In the end, it was completely and extremely AWESOME!

To be continued...

Random knowledge, and other news.

 So, randomly, I Googled, Eric Church. Turns out, his full name is Kenneth Eric Church. I just thought it was interesting. Now I know something that I didn't know 12 hours ago! Tim McGraw's full name is Samuel Timothy McGraw...Just thought that deserved a place here as well.

  Today I saw the lyric video for Taylor Swift's new song, We will never ever get back together. From her new album, Red. The album is coming out October 22, 2012. I am really really excited. But I wonder if she is going more towards the pop route, and leaving Country...I don't know quite yet, but I think whichever path she does end up taking, the album will still be amazing. That's my opinion. I have heard every song from her 3 previous albums, and I believe that this one will be just as great, if not better. Does that make sense?

 While I am talking about music, Rolling in the Deep, by Adele is really really good. I can't express how amazing I think she is.

 Well, I am in the middle of a couple different things, so I will be back later. Maybe I will have something interesting to say.  :D

 Thanks guys ♥ Banana Pudding Ice Cream is the bomb!

Natsu

PS: I am closing the Gibbs poll. Three people voted, and it seems that mustache Gibbs is a no no. Lol. I agree. The mustache was a little much, and lets face it, not Gibbs. Alright now. ☺

Shark week, longest of times, and other fancies.

   I now realize that I am really terrified of sharks. Shark week is cool, but now I am scared. Good thing I am nowhere near an ocean...

  The reason I haven't been blogging is because of family visits and such. I have been meaning too, but I could never find the time. Between visiting, making ornaments, and reading, there is really not even time to sleep. But now the family has left and I can return to my previously scheduled life, and blogging! So, this was my week in a (rather large) nutshell.

 -I learned how to play Black Jack and Texas Hold 'Em. Pretty stupid at it, I need more practice. Although my poker face is pretty slick. LOL. Not really...I still need help with that as well.

-I decided that playing volleyball for a greater part of the day, in the rain, is one of the best things I have ever done. Besides the slipping as falling in the grass, it's all fun and games. (All worth it the first day. Next day, woke up in pain. No fun.)  Badminton is also fun when it is pouring. An even greater challenge for me because I had to take my glasses off. It was all blurry, wet, blobs of color. ☺

-I searched the Internet for Piano Guys, and got some really cool stuff. Observe:

What makes you Beautiful, originally done by One Direction. Pretty cool.

                                         

A Thousand Years, originally by Christina Perri. This was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It blew my mind. Seriously. 

And then a Star-Wars thing, which was really awesome.

Other great things to look up from these guys, are The Pirates of the Caribbean theme, and the Harry Potter theme. Both incredibly awesome. 

That's about it. 

Farewell. 

Natsu

Nothing to do.

  This day only gets longer and I have nothing to do. I cannot believe that it is not even 3pm. The night was long and sleepless. I don't have to work today, and I have done everything else I would usually do. So now I am blogging/playing an online RPG.

 Yesterday I cracked into A Bride in the Bargain by Deeanne Gist. The second book I have read by this author. A Bride most Begrudging was absolutely wonderful. I love how it was written. And she makes the characters seem so real. Amazing read. She is totally going on my list of favorite authors. ^^

 Bored out of her mind,

Natsu

Revenge, or a sweet crafting opportunity??

  Besides reading and maybe obsessing over Naruto...I have been on a crafting journey! A journey to PatCatans! I have been sucked into the world of MOD PODGE! It is the most wonderfully, sticky, thing in the world of glue!!

GLITTER!!!!!

I have been testing my way to make Christmas Ornaments. My hope is to be able to sell them at craft fairs.  I made two so far and they turned out really good. 

And your Kakashi of this blog post. :O)

♥♥♥

~Natsu

Tonight's image search subject~Facepalms :D

 I typed in "Naruto face Palm" in the Google Image box...

 Lookit what I got :)

Somehow it drifted away from Naruto...But the other are still funny. :0) I think that it goes, Itachi, Dawn, Goku (?) Homer Simpson and the Stooges...

And that concludes this weeks Image Search!

Goodnight Ya'll.

~~NATSU~~