Global Changes

Hello Everyone,

     Now that the final day of the Hero to Zero Challenge has come, I am left thinking about all the improvements I have made over the past month. Now, some of you might be thinking that I write about this challenge as if it were a godsend, as if it were the best thing to happen to me in my entire life. No? Well, I’m thinking it. But I’m also thinking that that might not be too far from the truth. Sure, it might not have been a major godsend, but it was an interesting challenge nonetheless. Through it, I not only improved my blog but also improved myself as a blogger, and above all, as a writer. I learned how important it is to remain diligent to my blog, the importance of constant maintenance, and above all, the importance of interacting with my fellow bloggers.

     Sorry. I’ll move on before this becomes a “moral-of-the-story” post.

     As I was saying, now that the challenge has reached its end, I am left wondering of what new improvements to make, new gimmicks (for the lack of a better word) to implement, challenges to join (or even create!), etc., etc.. I’ve been thinking about this for days, and finally came to the conclusion that global changes throughout my blogs are still necessary. Therefore, over the next month, I will be editing, condensing, and introducing new material to my blogs. (Not just this one, but my snail mail and writing blog as well.) One major change I will tell you about now is that I plan to delete one of my blogs. (Don’t worry, not this one!) I am going to delete To Believe In Mermaids at the end of February, and combine it with Snailmail Is Still In Fashion so it becomes a snail mail and craft blog. This will lighten my workload because it’s easier to maintain three blogs instead of four, and this way I won’t leave one forgotten for a long period of time.

     This will also help me with Day 29’s challenge, where we’re supposed to come up with a serial post to maintain in our blogs. I’ve thought up of several, and by organizing my blogs, I will be able to organize my posts in a way that is easy for me, and spaced out enough so it doesn’t feel like homework. (Especially when combined with the homework load I have already!)

     Well, wish me luck. I wish youth same and thank you infinitely for sticking with me throughout the month.

     Have a wonderful weekend!

Elisse’s February Photo Challenge!

Hello All, 

So a while back I attempted to participate in one of Elisse’s photo challenges and, frankly, failed epically. However, this January I never thought that I would succeed so much in the Hero to Zero challenge, so this has inspired me to attempt a photo challenge again. Please join me and the others if you can, and check out Elisse’s blog for more information. Thanks! (And let me know if you do chose to participate so I can follow your progress!) 

When Inspiration Strikes, I Get What I Want

Good evening everyone!

Can you  believe we’re already at Day 27? Well, for today I chose to return to the tasks where we were asked to modify our blogs, play with our themes, and practically personalize them the best we could. At first glance, the biggest modification you see is that I finally changed my header. After looking at a few blogs, the stylistic element that I noticed the most were the personalized banners and headers of the blogs. I wanted my own, so I made it. Taking one of the pictures I’ve taken in the last week, I edited it on Fotor, and this is what was created:

What do you guys think? And what did you chose to do for today’s challenge?

My Inner Critic Has a Mean Kick

Day 23: Join a new challenge.

I have to admit, finding a new challenge to join was a lot harder than I thought. This also made me realize just how lazy I am. There was a challenge that required a poem a day. Nope, thanks. A daily phone photography challenge, nope again. But then my mental critic jumped in and roundhouse kicked me in the brain, screaming “stop being such a lazy ass” as it did. So I’m listening to it and joining Dancing with Fireflies’ weekly writing challenge and hoping for the best. What challenges did you guys decide to join?

What Is a Dreamer?

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
~Oscar Wilde~

     There are two reasons why I posted this quote by Wilde: 1) I love his fairy tales, and 2) this particular quote resonates with me.
Walking up to Mrs. Jaramillo one day in fourth grade (or was it fifth?), I stood before her desk and stared past her shoulder, out through the window beyond. In my hand is Victoria Henley’s The Seer and the Sword, my favorite novel at the time.
“Mary,” she says, staring up at me from a chair that occasionally liked to fall apart. (My fellow classmates may be to blame for this.) “You’re a dreamer.”
“Oh, ok.” I said, and returned to my seat. But why did she call me that, I thought. I wasn’t sure if I should feel insulted or proud. But, I never forgot.
I am a dreamer. It’s not because I can come up with stories, am a writer, or because I like to sleep a lot. It’s because I see possibility. I think ahead of myself, at what I can be, of what anything can become. I see the world outside my door and am amazed, terrified, excited, breathless, and hopeful.
But, even now, I am still working on my definition of “a dreamer.” I am not completely sure of my interpretation.
Now, why did I choose Oscar Wilde to quote as my post?
If I asked you, “what story do you remember most from when you were a kid?”, what would you say? What story comes to mind the moment you flash back to childhood?
For me, it is Wilde’s “The Selfish Giant.” It is about a giant who returns home after seven years, and finds that children have made his garden their playground. Angered, he builds a wall and puts up a sign for them not to trespass, which plummets his garden into a never ending winter. However, the children soon find a way back into the garden, and he sees that trees that were once frozen were starting to bloom, and realizes that these children are meant to be there. At that moment, he becomes friends with one child in particular, which he helps climb a tree,  but he never sees him again after that day. Years pass and he ages. One day, he finds the child in his garden, resting beneath a strange white tree. He sees that he is hurt, bearing injuries in his hands and feet, and becomes enraged. But the child calms him, and reminds him of the day he allowed him to play in his garden. The child then tells him that it is the giant’s turn to play in his garden, and takes him to Paradise. In the morning, the giant’s body is found under the tree, covered in flower blossoms.
On the few nights she didn’t work, my mother read this story to my sister and I from an old university textbook. We loved it when she read to us because it was “our time”, time when we had our mother to ourselves.
And now that I think about it, my mother came to America with many wishes for the future. She still carries them, and works hard to make them a reality. So, if she is a dreamer, of course I’d be one too.

Newest Addition: Glimpses

Hello Everyone,

Playing another round of catch-up here. However, I am finally proud to let you all know that my newest page is now up and ready for your perusal. It is called Glimpses, and dedicated to photographs I will be taking with my new handy dandy blogging gadget (find out more here in case you don’t know) over the year. I thought it would be nice to have a place where you can all take a look at them and not have to skim through paragraphs and paragraphs of text. So, enjoy!

Apologies to All My Readers

I’ve been a bit absent these last few days, I know. I’m sorry about that and I assure you all that my conscience is kicking me every moment, and that I hope to be back in my blogging uniform soon enough. (What exactly it looks like, well, that’s between me and the laptop.) These last two weeks have been exhausting, what with school starting and swamping me with a brand new workload. Work too has been pretty unstable, thanks to the series of audits we’ve been undergoing (thank you higher ups). We passed the latest one, thank God. Then there was the Spanish exam last week which was a complete bust. (Failed it, though I could argue with the professor about it since he unconsciously sabotaged me.) But you know what, I ain’t ganna worry about it, and will retake it next quarter. The most recent vision of hell, however, was having to co and plead “Not Guilty” at court, for a red-light violation. (I got caught in some asshole’s light, and thanks to his impatient ass I have to go to court and try to keep my tuition money.) I now have a trial date for March.

And now, I am going to go to bed so I can get up early and do the homework I wasn’t able to do all weekend. (Even a holiday wasn’t enough time.) Goodnight, I will do today’s challenge tomorrow when I am well (enough) rested.

Thanks everyone.

A dreamer is on…

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.

Oscar Wilde

Way Ahead of Day 18

A few trial shots with the Canon Powershot N’s “creative shot” feature:

You know, sometimes I’m real proud of myself for being ahead of the game. (Or super far back, depending on your stand point.) Today we were supposed to open a few social media accounts and link them to our blog, which (drumroll please) I HAVE ALREADY DONE!!! (Yes, I am this proud at getting out of doing blogging homework.) But yes, for a while now I have had my Tumblr Blog (The Dreamer) linked to this, or, more like I have a link to it on the left. Also, over the last couple weeks, I also added a feed to my Instagram account, created a Twitter account (which I am seriously trying to use more) and most recently a Goodreads account. Please check them out when you can and I will follow you back!

What social media are you using on your blog?

Keeping it Real

Do I have a reputation? Hmm, I sort of do in the professional(ish) sense. I’m known as a pretty decent writing tutor, and as a hardworking employee at work.

But this isn’t the kind of reputation I want to have. I  want to be known as a “real” girl.

(Smother the Pinocchio jokes before they leave your mouths.)

What I mean by this is that I dislike fake people, people who pretend to be something else in front of you for various reasons. (Of course I’m not saying that it’s bad to pretend to be something you are not, if it helps your self esteem and doesn’t hurt anyone in the process, then by all means, go ahead.) What I am writing about are the kind of people that present a certain image because they want to make themselves feel better than others, or because they want to be liked by others so they morph themselves into whole new people. But why do I find this wrong? To me, friendship (and any kind of positive relationship) is based on honesty. Also, if a person presents a brave front to everyone and then, when the shit hits the fan, freezes up, we’ve got a problem.

So, to keep this short, the kind of reputation I want to have is of being a real person. I also know that I am not perfect myself, and that I also put up a front around strangers. (And have a work persona that has been cultivated for years.) However, to the people that matter (all of you included), I have gradually started disclosing the real dour, sarcastic, darkly humored Mary. I understand too that some people might not like this, and that’s okay, because at least I am still being real.