Saturday, June 27, 2015

Backlash for Stephenie Meyer

 

Let me just take this moment to apologize. Yes, this is going to be one of those kind of posts. The kind where I voice my opinion on a controversial topic. I know I'm going to get some hate for this, but it's something I've been thinking about. Don't worry. Next time I'll be back to my procrastinating, story-posting, YouTubing, Pinteresting self.

The topic of the Twilight Saga arose in a discussion with my brother the other day. He is ardently against anything casting Twilight in a positive light. He wondered what the appeal to the books was. I said it was probably the prospect of eternal youth. He smirked and said eternal teenage angst was more likely. It's hard to carry on an argument with my brother because he is usually -and I say this with the utmost respect and delicacy- so convinced in his argument that it is almost impossible to make him see something in a different light. It didn't occur to him that he was at one point an angsty teenager as well. But his response made me ponder the many postings I've seen that have placed Twilight in a category of cheesy books with underwhelming, unrealistic characters.
It's true, Meyer is no Tolkien.
But guess what? She wrote four books. Four whole books. And a novella. All for a single series. That's more books than most people have written. Every writer, novice or seasoned, knows that writing itself is hard. Sitting yourself down and putting pen to paper or curser to screen and then staying there is one of the hardest things a writer must do. But Stephenie Meyer, like all the blessed authors we know and love, did this.
But just because someone wrote a book doesn't mean every element in that book is going to be pristine. I suppose that's one thing my brother and I can agree on in regards to the subject. Yes, now that I look on Twilight now, I can see flaws that I didn't notice before. But the same could be said about The Hunger Games, The Mortal Instruments, or Pretty Little Liars. I also see more backlash for Twilight than I do for Fifty Shades of Grey, which seems pretty messed up.
Stephenie Meyer found the will to sit down and write a bunch of books carrying on a universe that she enjoyed living in. She fleshed out characters, introduced us to new places, put a spin on mythology, and taught us some three-dollar vocabulary. You know James Patterson only writes a rough draft of his books? The co-author whose name is in the smaller-embossed font did most of the leg-work. Ever wonder why no one ever asks him for writing advice?
Stephenie Meyer did the work. She reaped some benefits. And some people don't like what she wrote. Get over it.

-Grace

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Blame Web Development

It feels like a vital piece of me has been missing. For over two weeks there's been this significantly empty space, something lacking.
I miss it.
My laptop.
Several months ago it started acting weird. I blame the Web Development course I was trying to take, which had me download certain software in order to check the pages I was making for any errors. I ended up withdrawing from the course because the professor was teaching about three other classes in addition to mine, and he didn't have time to answer my questions before the assignments were due. Which meant deleting the software so it wasn't taking up extra memory. Well I don't know what I did, but as soon as I pressed "Delete," tings started going wrong.
I started getting these annoying pop-ups that would say there was an error on the webpage (they usually came up when I was on YouTube or just a site with a lot of multimedia content on it).
I also noticed more frequent reports about viruses and nasty little web-bugs. Then I noticed the fan was really loud and laboring a lot more than it usually was. Cut to me taking about the bottom half of my laptop just to blow into the fan for ten minutes trying to dislodge some of the dirt caked onto the blades.
The final straw was when the audio on streamed videos just stopped working. No matter how I tried to adjust the settings, either with YouTube or my computer panel, nothing was working. Luckily my dad works with a guy who majored in this stuff in college. He's been in possession of my laptop for over two weeks now.
On the upside, it has forced me to focus on other things. Not that my writing has taken off or anything, but I'm spending a dash more time outside or with my sketchbook.
Thankfully there have been other computers to check my email and such, so I haven't been completely cut off. I'm discovering some new blogs and YouTubers, such as Byron Talbott, a chef, and Rachel Talbott, who vlogs about beauty products and health. And they're Christians! WIN!!!
And this is how I'm spending my summer.
Have any of you guys had computer problems like that? Any suggestions?
Who are some of your favorite bloggers/vloggers?

-Grace

PS: I've also gotten myself a little Inkitt page. Inkitt is a website for writers where they can post their stuff and all the copyrights remain with them. People can post reviews or enter to win contests... Pretty sweet stuff. I've posted two stories, different and much longer than the snippets I've posted here. If you want, check it out!
http://inkitt.com (my username is graceyee)

http://www.byrontalbott.com/
https://instagram.com/byrontalbott/
https://twitter.com/byrontalbott
https://www.youtube.com/user/ByronTalbott
http://racheltalbott.com/
https://instagram.com/racheltalbott/
https://twitter.com/racheltalbott
https://www.youtube.com/user/CheckInTheMirror