The Price of Magic: Part II

I have a twin brother named Matthew. I am nineteen minutes older than my brother, and he is at least five inches taller than I am. In case you are wondering, we don't look very much alike (I do get asked this often). We do share the same pale, freckled complexion (although he still tans better than I do in the summer), and my father says we have the same smile.

Even though he went off to join the army, survived basic training and his technical training, and is now stationed in North Carolina (so I don't see him so often), I still remember him as the third to shortest kid who loved Star Wars. Still, my favorite memory of him arises from a time of large toys, crayons, and being the primary playmates for one another.

I remember playing in the backyard one day near the end of the day when it started to get dark out. The porch light came on a few moments later. After our mother yelled for us to come inside, we started to make our way to the porch before pausing in front of it.

The top of the porch was made of wood that had been painted blue, but the paint was chipping. I remember the stairs being made of concrete, but it's equally likely that they were made of wood. We paused, because between the top step and the porch, there was a hole, a pitch black hole with the exception of two eyes that glowed a menacing yellow.

After staring at the eyes for what seemed like hours and with my little heart racing, I looked at my brother. Neither of us had moved, and suddenly, the glowing disappeared. My brother grabbed my hand, and we raced inside without saying a word.

The next morning, we looked and peeked into the hole as best we could, but we didn't see anything. Since then, our relationship has stayed relatively the same. We may not always talk, but I know that when I need him, Matt will be there to grab my hand and drag me to safety.

The Price of Magic: Part I

Recently, I experienced a very interesting, taste-bud altering ordeal. Momo and I went out to Applebee's with a couple of friends (Max and Emma). We enjoyed a variety of appetizers, sharing boneless buffalo wings, mozzarella sticks, and mini cheeseburgers (sliders, I believe they're called).

It wasn't very busy, because it was about 10:30 in the evening. Most people had already eaten and gone to bed. However, we were hungry after a small, disappointing dinner in the cafeteria. Max also wanted to take us to eat, because it was one of his last nights in the states. Toward the end of the meal, Max pulled out a box that was mostly red and green with some Chinese characters. On the other side of the box were instructions in English. What was it a box of?

Miracle fruit. These little dark red tablets make bitter and sour foods taste sweet. We had all ordered water with lemon and had saved the lemons to test the tablets of miracle fruit. Max opened the box to a package, which he then opened to find a plastic and foil contraption that separated the tablets. He popped them open before handing one tablet to each of us.

We set them on our tongue to let them dissolve as the directions stated, and we waited. While they dissolved, an occasional sour taste flickered over my tongue, but it also tasted a bit like raisins. The four of sat in the booth, occasionally flashing each other tongues to see where the tablets were in the dissolving process.

My tablet was the first one that dissolved. After I dug my lemon wedge out of my water with a knife, I glanced at the others before taking a bite of it. Instead of the usual wince-inducing level of sour that I expected, it was sweet, sweet enough to make it feel like I was eating lemonade. The others soon tried their lemon wedges with similar results.

It was all worth it for the look that waitress gave us when we asked for more lemons and limes though.

Late October Dreaming

According to Stephen King, there are two activities that I could use more of in my life: being rude and writing. Of the two, the more important addition would the four to six hours devoted to writing ten pages double-spaced or about 2,000 words. Clearly, both choices would be the perfect additions to the life of a college student.

Outside of that, I find his methods to be very useful. Most of his writing techniques follow a pattern that is also used by a yearly event called National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo or NaNo for short). This event takes place in November and demands that participants churn out a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Likewise, King suggests that writers focus on one novel and work on it every day until they get it done (taking no longer than three months or so depending on the project).

King favors this method, because when he doesn't write every day, characters become less real to him (a problem that I can relate to after not working with some characters after awhile). On top of changing feelings, the excitement for the project begins to fade, making it harder and harder to write. Based on his success and what he says throughout his memoir, this technique is very effective for him.

The ultimate goal of King's method and of NaNo is to get the first draft of the story out. The only difference between the two is the amount of time it takes. With Nano, the goal is to write it in 30 days instead of the maximum 90 days. Some participants of NaNo plot meticulously over the the year, others play it by year (which is another piece of advice from King, although NaNo's founder wrote a book for NaNo called No Plot? No Problem!). Most of the time when November comes around, leaving yourself open to plot surprises end more successfully than the people who start plotting in January. The plotters lock themselves into a rigid plan, while the other participants gives themselves wiggle room to let their characters take control and keep the story going. It's a very successful technique for me anyway. It has been since I first participated in 2004. Since then, I have participated and won every year. The last two years, I was able to finish my first novel of the month within 9-15 days, and I started a second novel.

If you want to learn more about NaNoWriMo, you can check out the website here.