I knew I’d run out of writing ideas early on

BlogHer‘s prompt list for November’s NaBloPoMo has the following prompt listed for today: Who is your favorite character of all time?  Which is a lovely open-ended question and will do nicely as inspiration for todays post.

Since it does not specify character of what, I have decided to go with what I kind of know best (books) and attempt to pick a favorite (impossible). At first I considered going with my favorite classical character (Jane Eyre), and then I thought… nah. I love her, but I don’t relate to her personality as much as others. Honestly, I think my favorite character of all time (or at least, one of my favorite) has to be Hermione Granger from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

I feel that Hermione is vastly under-appreciated throughout the series. She’s so headstrong, and intelligent, and despite her feminist and liberal views she still manages to love with an incredible capacity. She cares for Harry and Ron so much, and it doesn’t seem to be reciprocated. They pretty much use her for homework and whatnot, and often brush aside her views and arguments on everything. She’s more often than not, the right one, yet her two best friends never seem to apologize or feel too bad about it afterward.

When the war was about to start she erased herself from her parents’ memories and sent them off to Australia…a fact that was breezed over and brushed away. Then there’s the whole Ron-relationship thing. Ron is a great character, but come on, he would so not end up with ‘mione in real life. He’d need a dictionary to understand what she tells him half the time. Hermione deserved so much better. I understand the kiss and stuff right before the final battle (impending doom does loads of things to you), but to end up married with kids to Ron of all people? Serious injustice Queen Rowling, serious injustice.

I love Hermione because she’s completely brilliant and yet she never loses her humanity. I find that very intelligent people usually find it hard to connect with others on an emotional level. She finds it in her to look for the good in everyone (even Draco Malfoy, who she refused to believe was a death eater until the astronomy tower incident). I also love how she couldn’t be bothered to place much emphasis on her looks regularly, yet she knows how to clean up amazingly when need be (ex. the Yule Ball). She also shares my love for books, and learning, and the itching need to have a perfect grade in classes (I’ve cried over lost A’s more times than I’d like to admit).

Hermione Granger deserved much more than she was given, being as amazing as she is. But seeing as the series IS kind of called Harry Potter, Harry’s story was what mattered and I can understand why my girl was neglected. Still though, Queen Rowling…you could have done her just a LITTLE more justice don’t ya think?

—

In other news, my sister is playing Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (awesome game) and she goes “omg I think I just killed someone”

…

Bro. It’s Assassin’s Creed. What did you think you’d be doing? Baking pastries?

*sigh

Day 3

In the fourth grade, our teacher let us watch “Maid in Manhattan” in class. I have no idea why, I just remember her putting the movie onto one of the schools rolling TV stands and everyone cheering (except me of course, because I had never heard of it before). 

I remember being distinctly uncomfortable, because clearly, it wasn’t meant to be a children’s movie. I felt as though I was doing something terribly wrong, because I knew my parents would never let me watch a movie like that (I was 8, and still blissfully naive about well…pretty much everything). My teacher laughingly went and stood in front of the TV partially when the brief scene of a butt-naked man came up. I remember turning my face away for the few kisses and very short bit with the two in bed together (if I remember shit correctly, I’ve only ever watched that movie once since). 

I’m not sure why I randomly remembered that today. I wonder if it’s allowed for elementary school teachers to show that kind of stuff in class, as mild as it seems now that I look back on it.  Probably not. Ah innocence. Blissful childish innocence. God, what I’d give for that back. Not knowing anything, at all. I wonder if there are still children who grow up not knowing. It sucks that that’s probably not the case. In our society, kids learn what sex is before they learn long division. 

Speaking of which, we’re totally using long division in my college algebra class. I genuinely laughed when the lesson came up. Who would have thought we’d be actually using that whole DadMumSisterBrother (division, multiplication, subtraction, and bringing the number down… respectively) crap we learned in the third grade ever again. 

Now, if you’ll excuse the complete randomness, I think I’ll go finish my competency evaluation for my forensic psychology class now. 

-NaBloPoMo Day 3

Being Young is a Funny Thing

You know how sometimes the craziest things strike your mind just as you’re about to fall asleep? Last night, the last thing I remember musing over before blissful sleep overtook me was the fleetingness of youth. 

I think it came from a train of thought involving the fact that yesterday was the first day of November, and I thought “holy shit, it’s pretty much the end of the year”. I always get nervous towards the end of a year, because my birthday is on the last day of January. I start thinking about all the things I haven’t accomplished over the year that I’d sworn I would, and about the fact that I’m one year closer to the end of my life (yea yea, pessimism or realism… whatever, shut up).

I’m going to be 20 next year. Most people would be all psyched, because hell, 20 is that much closer to the “magical” age of 21. My issue isn’t with that, it’s with the whole fact that 20 years is pretty much a quarter of your life (let’s all pretend that 80 is our average age span). Being young is so beautiful. I absolutely love myself right now. I’m in college, juggling some family responsibilities and school work, and more or less cruising down the streets of Miami at my leisure. My whole life is ahead of me. I haven’t done anything I regret. I have the liberty to smile at random people and children and not be considered creepy. 

There is a poignant beauty in that moment of anticipation before something. Much like the engagement period in a relationship is always ten times better than the marriage (this fact deserves a post all its own so let’s leave it as that for now). I have so much hope and goals and dreams for my life. Nothing crazy even, just little things that I plan to do. I have no idea of course if I’ll accomplish even half of it, but that’s just it. I don’t know, but it’s beautiful to be able to have that crazy anticipation for my life. Once you hit 30, you can’t really say you’re young anymore. You can pretend all you want, but there’s the truth. 

My train of thought for this post is totally gone now, as mi madre put on Father of the Bride and I think I’d like to watch this with my full attention (dad is cracking up and nodding in agreement with Steve Martin’s silliness). Also, it’s 11:30 and there’s half an hour before this post is officially late. 

Until tomorrow then. 

-NaBloPoMo day 2

Ay… dios mio

Let it be known for the record, that Alex Mica is hot. I haven’t thought that way of a singer for quite a while, probably since I was 13 and in complete love with Lomaticc from Culture Shock. I usually roll my eyes at the male singers and their ridiculous lyrics and general stupidity. Alex Mica isn’t exempt from the ridiculous lyrics (they’re hilarious actually) & I’m not sure about his level of intelligence, but I can’t seem to bring myself to care. 

Just… look at the amazingness. I must have watched that video 20 times in the past two days. His face though…

Really, I’m acting like some kind of hormonal, stupid teenager. I should probably stop. I’m annoying myself. 

This post is (hopefully) the first of 30 consecutive daily posts, for NaBloPoMo, which I’m attempting for the first time. I don’t actually have time to write anything of substance today, so hopefully the good stuff will flow later on. I have a crapload of coursework to do this weekend. Most of it is not necessarily due this weekend, but I’ve been seriously trying not to procrastinate this semester and thus far, it’s been going fairly well. 

I have a feeling this post is incredibly grammatically incorrect, but I couldn’t be bothered to proofread anything right now. Until tomorrow then.

The hardest part of Ramadan…

not drinking coffee. Seriously. Cafe con leche, I’ll miss you mi amor. 😥

Photo credit to thecubanhistory.com. 

It is lovely to know

that I am the only one reading any of this. 

Incredibly refreshing really. 

One day, perhaps sooner than later, I shall give out the link to people to start following. But I refuse to do that until there is sufficient substance on here. 

I tend to write ridiculous things at the beginning of every year

For example, this is the first page out of the journal I bought for the new year:

Here’s to a fresh start. Here’s to thinking, writing, existing, living outside the box. Here’s to balance. Here’s to living for this world as though I’ll live forever, and living for the akhirah as though I’ll die tomorrow. Here’s to appreciating family, friends, health, and happiness. Here’s to being patient and strong through the inevitable misery. Here’s to success. To smiles. To learning from, and growing with, all of those around you. Here’s to less planning, less talking, and more doing. More writing. Here’s to asking Allah’s mercy, blessings, and guidance in everything you do. Here’s to buying less pretty journals and to writing more in the ones that you’ve already been blessed with. 🙂 Here’s to finding new quirks, new friends, and creating new traditions. Here’s to individuality, to interdependence, and to freedom. Here’s to less “religion” and to more lifestyle changes and spirituality. Here’s to calling upon Allah more often. Here’s to love, life, and laughter. Here’s to less cliches and more filling up blank pages with fresh ideas. 

Jan 8, 2013

—

Needless to say, I might have written two more pages after this and the book was tossed atop my desk to be abandoned until very recently. I kind of like the way the words flow, now that I look at it. I tend to write on like, scraps of paper, admire it, and toss it out quite often. So it’s a fairly rare thing to look back at something I wrote more than a few weeks ago (with the exception of whatever I get around to writing on here). 

Ramadan is right around the corner (it is currently Saturday, and Ramadan is expected to start on coming Tuesday or Wednesday), and I desperately want to like, blog daily or something. I’m debating whether to start a “Ramadan” blog or if to just go with this one and place the posts in their own category. Either way, I plan to do it.

In the words of Sid… “Discipline. If I don’t do it, then I’ve failed. I can’t afford to fail. I’m the only person in the world capable, and it’s almost hopeful knowing that amongst all this it can all be done.”

I love Sid. ❤

In the case of …

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many you could get through, but rather how many can get through you-how many you can make your own.

A few friends are better than a thousand acquaintances.”

-Mortimer J. Adler

Campus is creepy during the summer time

I have classes Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays starting at 8 freaking o’clock in the morning and ending at 12:40 pm (10:15 on Fridays). The campus looks like a ghost town, and it’s deeply unsettling to walk past the coffee shop and find no groups of loud Hispanic guys sitting at the tables in front of it. 

I don’t actually mind the classes. The professors seem okay enough, if a bit boring. Although, that could be because my ex history teacher professor Martins (most amazing teacher ever) spoiled me and now I hold everyone to that standard. My biggest issue is not the math homework, or the immense workload in English, or whatever…it’s keeping my eyes open that early in the morning. 

Cuban coffee will be put to its test from now until June 21, when inshaAllah I will throw my papers in the air, call it a year, and hit the beach.

Or you know… I’ll put everything away quietly, make a cuppa, and curl up on my couch.

*nods

Today I had a bit of a chat with a girl that I’ve known for ages, and rarely talk to. I felt horribly bad about never putting aside time for her, and that was my incentive for sitting with her after my second class finished. Honestly, I don’t think pity is a good basis for a relationship, but oh well. Hilariously though, I think she pities me more than I pity her.

I’m not entirely sure what it is about her that throws me. It could be because her favorite time for classes is 7 am (my brain doesn’t function at 7 am) or because she texts the same way she talks, with extra letters on every word and multiple exclamation points at the end of every sentence. Or it could be because she complains about her classes all the time and then misses it when she has a vacation. I don’t really know. She also kind of makes really loud noises with her shoes when she walks, and talks really loudly and squeakily. She asks questions in a demanding way, and my natural “stay away from bullies” reaction kicks in and I end up sounding super defensive when I answer. 

I’m not backbiting because I haven’t mentioned any personal details about this girl, but now I’m feeling guilty any way. I just really don’t want to become close friends to her. It grates my nerves. And I don’t know what to do except for continue making lame excuses for the rest of my life. 

Ha. Me not knowing how to tell someone something. The world must be ending. 

The thing with writing is

Your essays/stories/etc. never turn out the way you want them. Ever.

I’m pretty sure J.K. Rowling finished the Harry Potter series and was just like, well shucks.