Holy fucking prompts Batman!

[henrikse]

Because lately if I'm not distracted I'm just grumpy, depressed, both or a weird medium in between and I don't want to a)heap it all onto you guys or b) dwell on things that I've already laid out entirely-- PROMPTS! Specifically, a bunch of "challenges" that I probably won't do daily but will still keep track of which day in the challenge I'm on. Or I'll try. We'll see.
Challenges I'm starting:

• 30 Day Photography Challenge
• 30 Day Video Game Challenge
• 30 Day Quote Challenge
• 30 Day Book & Literature Challenge
• 30 Day College/University Challenge

Challenges to look forward to:

• 30 Day Creative Writing Challenge (too much effort for grumpy me)
• 8 Day Closet Challenge (my closet here is full of boxes)
• Dress-Up Photo Challenge (Because the majority of my clothes are already on the island)

30 Day Photography Challenge -- Day One: Anything Goes


The girls waiting at the door.
30 Day Video Game Challenge -- Day One: The first game that got you hooked on gaming 

• When I was probably 8 or 9 years old, during a particularly long visit to a friend of my mom's house I got to play Pokemon Yellow on the computer. I was nearly through the Viridian Forest when my mom said we had to go home, and when I protested she mentioned I had been playing for hours, which I had not noticed at all.

30 Day Quote Challenge -- Day One: favourite quote

• This is a hard one. Do I go philosophical and deep? Do I go with something I often say? Shit. This is probably going to be the hardest challenge. But I think I'm going to go with this:

"Do you know what tuna is?"
"Fish?"
"IT'S FISH! If I gave Punch tuna, I'D BE AN ABOMINATION!"
 30 Day Book and Literature Challenge -- Day One: Your 10 favourite books of all time.

1. Ptolemy's Gate (The Bartimaeus Trilogy Book Three) by Jonathan Stroud
2. World War Z by Max Brooks
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
4. The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy Book One) by Jonathan Stroud
5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
6. The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Trilogy Book Two) by Jonathan Stroud
7. The Scent of Magic by Cliff McNish
8. Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!)
9. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
10. Lord Brocktree by Brian Jacques

• I haven't really read many books since high school, but I don't really care -- I still love these books. Having just read through The Bartimaeus Trilogy recently, kind of pushed the books up higher since while I remember the basic stories of  each Harry Potter book I more remember the less than amazing movies. But I'm pretty sure my favourite scene ever (which was also sorely lacking in the movie) was when the Weasley Twins ransacked Hogwarts and left to start their company (making it all the sadder for me that SPOILER one of them dies in the last book).

30 Day College/University Challenge -- Day One: Which college was your number one choice Are you going to that school? If not, how did you handle the rejection If so, is it everything you always thought it would be?

• I can't say that I really ever ranked Universities all that much. I barely knew what I wanted to do when I got university, so where I went to do what I didn't know what I was going to do was kind of down the list. I also lived 40 minutes away from the closest university so I think it was always just a given that was where I would go. While I wasn't planning on doing writing back when I left high school, I doubt I would have expected it to be such a hassle-- but this is one of the few schools in Canada that offer a Creative Writing degree.

Challenges aside, we're worried that something happened to the dropped-off-cat-turned-farm-cat we named Harvey. I haven't seen him in a couple of days, John said he saw him the other morning. Is sad, because we let ourselves get attached to him. I've still got a little hope that he might turn up in the next day or so... but rural roads don't care about cats, nor does the main highway that runs right by us, or the coyotes we occasionally hear at night, or the countless other things out there.
I also realized that leaving for over a year means not seeing the girls at all (my mom and/or John might be able to come out for a short visit, but Chris and I, and my grandparents all live in apartments so the dogs aren't going to be able to come out. And at this point, I'm going to miss them more. I know I'll eventually miss my mom, but at first-- it's going to be the dogs that I miss.
These things combined and how sad they make me remind me that I pretty much vowed not to have pets again after we had to put down the cat I had known all my life when I was 17. Part of me does still want to get a pet later in life, but when I'm this sad just leaving three dogs I've lived with for a few months-- what do I do when a dog I've had from a puppy dies and I have to like, put on a strong front for my kids and try and teach them about death and junk? Eugh. I dunno. I'm gonna go see if one of the dogs will come sleep in my room and make me feel better about the whole thing.

The game.