Blog Challenge Outro

Well, this month has been difficult and wonderful and horrible and fun all at once.

There's no way, really, to describe the dread I felt some nights at 11:00pm when I realized that I still had to write and post something within the next hour. There’s also no way to describe how much I surprised myself at what I could squeeze out of my busy schedule, day after day, when I probably could have been sleeping. I have written some pretty lame poems, but I’ve also written some that I actually really love, and I’m ecstatic that I managed to write on “Rainstorms” exactly as much as I wrote on “Cry of the Stars.”

I’m so grateful to Stevie for holding these Blog Challenges, because they’re a big spark in my world that sets the fire of inspiration burning for a long time, and this month was no different from the past challenges in that aspect. I had been feeling creatively kind of dead before February, but I’ve become mostly alive again—phrases and snippets of poems and stories are constantly floating around in my head again, and I couldn’t be happier to have them back.

Hopefully it lasts! Hopefully you will hear more about the wacky stuff that happens to me at college, and find out what happens to Lill’th (our poor reluctant protagonist) and her friends, and read more fairytale poetry if I can think of any more fairytales to retell. The prompt vault I constructed for this challenge is still about half-full of unused prompts, so stay tuned for Scripture reflections, magical pets, “Ode to Squirrels,” musings on life and living, and a possible story about the sun and the moon as children.

I suppose this is me promising to keep writing, no matter how awful it feels sometimes to keep doing it, but definitely more if you people are actually reading it all.
Keep reading, readers. I’ll keep writing.

eep

I've neglected this poor little blog for more than a month. I feel terrible.
However, the neglect is about to end! A new Blog Challenge is starting up in September, so Rainstorms is probably going to get some posting nuggets of joy soon.
I say 'probably' because I've decided to challenge myself further and try to accomplish The Challenge primarily on my other blog, but I may still post on Rainstorms from time to time (especially because I foresee myself running out of inspiration for poetry at some point or another).

And now, I have chores to do, so farewell, my dear followers and blog-stalker! I shall return, I promise.

hi guys sorry kind of okay bye

Those of you dedicated enough to continue stalking reading my blog may have noticed that I've missed like three weeks of DFESA, and I'm here to inform you that I will very likely miss a fourth and a fifth. It is full-blown AP test season, and I have not had time to write up any sort of blog post for a while now.
In the best-case scenario, I'll get right back to posting after my last exam on the 18th of this month. In the worst-case scenario (which is unfortunately more likely), I won't really catch up on blogging until the school year is completely over.
Either way, please excuse poor Rainstorms' lack of new activity for a while.

i do not only listen to asian music

Here is a snippet from a chat that took place a while ago:

Stevie: you officially need to
listen to more English music.
lol

...

LOL INDEED BECAUSE I LISTEN TO A LOT OF ENGLISH MUSIC.

Just in case you don't believe me, I'm henceforth beginning a series of blog posts called Davina's Favorite English-Speaking Artists (DFESA). If all goes well, I'll post every week--maybe every Thursday--highlighting one of my favorite English-speaking artists, and you will see* that I do not, in fact, only listen to Asian music.

*or hear

Blah.

The temptation not to post at all on this blog anymore is so pressing. I feel like its existence is easily slipping away into the recesses of my mind.

I need to find a costume for the play quick.
I also need to draw a large portrait that looks recognizably like Nate + giant bunny. >.o

I am tired. I should sleep.

Last Day of Blog Challenge, Squirrels, and Other Miscellaneous Stuff

Today is the last day of the Blog Challenge! I think I've succeeded.
It's sad that January has come to an end already. I can't believe that we're a month into the new year so quickly.
I wish I had something extremely insightful to say on this auspicious day, but I don't.

Our AP Biology midterm is tomorrow. Wah.

I don't want to quit piano lessons, but I'm seriously doubting their worth when I don't get to practice enough during the week. The piece I'm working on now is really hard, and I feel guilty that I can't give it the time it needs to be good. I don't think I'll be ready for a recital in May.

Apt Visual Depiction of High-School Students at USP:

they say you're really not somebody
until somebody else loves you
well i am waiting to make somebody somebody
soon.
~ Are We There Yet - Ingrid Michaelson
(Emmie showed me this today and I love it :D)


Look outside. Stick your head out the front door. It's a beautiful day today.

"trickies"

That's a folder in my bookmarks. It contains all the sites I find useful in a slightly sneaky sort of way.

So in case you were all wondering.

Convert Files - This nifty little tool lets you upload, convert, and download files (though not always in the best quality). It also lets you download videos from quite a few video-hosting sites, like YouTube. Which is how I watched YouTube videos back in the days of Jorund, my old computer. It takes a while, but is mostly reliable, so I still like this 'un a lot.

YouTube to MP3 - This essentially performs what its name says, converting YouTube videos to mp3 files that you can download. It's useful, but I liked it a lot better before it got all fancy and advertisement-happy. Convert Files (above) also has a convert-to-mp3 option for videos, so I tend to just use that.

Video Toolbox - A pretty nice video-processing website with a lot of cool functions like adding watermarks, embedding subtitles, trimming the video, etc. It works but not all the time, at least not for my computer. Sometimes I try to upload a video and it never uploads.

Site2Pic - I actually haven't used this, but it gives you a screenshot of a site from a URL, plus a link to that image. I used to use Aviary's Firefox extension for that function, but it doesn't work anymore, so I might use this sometime soon.

sleepyti.me bedtime calculator - I LOVE THIS ONE. It calculates sleep cycles and tells you when you should try to fall asleep in order to wake up feeling refreshed at the time you need to, because it'll be at the end of a sleep cycle as opposed to the middle, which makes you feel groggy.

media.io - Another conversion site, but this one just for audio. I like it because it has a neat, compact interface, and also because it works really quickly.

Dropbox - Basically allows you to access the files you upload into Dropbox from anywhere. You can work on the files on multiple computers, and it'll sync the updated versions to all connected computers after you're done.

LOL

Thanks to Emmie showing me this, you are now all obliged to browse my blog with a hamster.
You're welcome.


Also, make sure to feed the fish.