Personal Addition #30

Do not look for a sanctuary in anyone except yourself.

— Siddhārtha Gautama

I enjoy this quote because I see this side of it that's true in my life. It's something I believe in. I think it's far more important to learn about yourself and know yourself than to venture off into finding out about others' lives. I at least think that you should find yourself before trying to know others very deeply or creating a solid relationship with someone. Also, the quote says sanctuary meaning safety or happiness. I think that it is very important to only find safety truly within yourself because you never know what other people's thoughts or plans for the future are and something could not line up properly if you put your safety within someone else. Especially with happiness, you should always be able to find that within yourself.

Personal Addition #29

Good Night
W. S. Merwin
Sleep softly my old love
my beauty in the dark
night is a dream we have
as you know as you know
night is a dream you know
an old love in the dark
around you as you go
without end as you know
in the night where you go
sleep softly my old love
without end in the dark
in the love that you know

I really like this poem because of the repetition. It holds my attention and makes the poem flow really nicely.

Personal Addition #27

Right now, I'm reading the book The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen. It's very different and the things that happen in it are not realistic at all, but they could happen. I like that better than fiction because I like to know that there's a chance of it happening. Vampires and werewolves aren't proven, but having someone appear in your closet could potentially happen. I'm almost finished this crazy, magical book.

Personal Addition #28

This always happens with me. I like to create debate and challenge the other person, even if I believe in what their opinions are.

Reading & Writing Reflection #10

I think overall my Twitter Fiction went fairly well including some successes and some frustrations.    I think I succeeded at writing simple, descriptive single tweets. I think some of my tweets are for an older audience, some for a younger audience which is good that I can target different ages. I think most of my tweets carried out an emotional aspect and they make the reader feel what the character would be feeling at the time. I had a bit of trouble with vocabulary in my opinion. There is lots of imagery but maybe not super unique, over the top, awesome descriptions. Some of my tweets had a boring story line such as love or relationships, but different people like different topics and I learned that the topic of relationships and family is my strong topic for writing. I learned that I still need improvement. I'm sure even the best writers can improve, but I realized what audience my writing would attract and I don't feel like it's strong enough to reach all audiences yet, especially adults. I felt pretty good about publishing myself on Twitter, however, it is nerve wracking at times. I want people to like what I write and feel like the pressure is on. 

I read a few Twitter Fiction stories. One was by Jack Smack @microdito. One of their tweets read, "Holding her head high, she gathered her scattered belongings from the front yard. A heavy glance back at his once sheltering arms." This person's twitter fiction caught my attention because I wrote a lot of relationship and emotional type of tweets and so did they. I like the tweet above because it could be part of a longer story or it could be a vss which is kind of cool. You can also feel the character's pain because of words such as heavy, scattered, and once sheltering arms which all create visual imagery. 
Another Twitter Fiction author that I explored was Karthik M @mysmallstories. An example of her tweets is, "A tiny tale for his little one. Every night is was so much fun. Then she grew big and tall. Now it's the Facebook wall." I think this tweet is so interesting because it's talking about a recent trouble. It creates a big topic of discussion of how kids are growing up these days and what they're being exposed to. They start with bed time stories and suddenly they're reading the drama on their Facebook wall. I also like how it rhymes at times because that keeps my attention and flows nicely. This author also writes, "Calm night. Tired body. Restless mind. Sleepless soul. Moist eyes. Broken heart." I usually like flowing, rhyming, big long sentences, but this tweet has something to it that attracts me. 
I really like these two authors because their writing is what I was trying to go for, so they're like inspiration. It was alright to spend Thursday's class reading Twitter, but I prefer books over short tweets. I was surprised that tweets can bring out certain emotions or memories in just 140 characters or less. I was also surprised that Twitter had this educational/professional writing side to it. I never would have guessed.
Also, I like when authors make characters and their characters have Twitter so you can go into theirs and read their thoughts. It makes the story have different perspectives and you get to know all the information. 

This assignment did sort of change my perspective of Twitter. It showed me people use it for other things besides posting drama and lyrics and their day to day thoughts. It showed a professional side to Twitter that I like, but I'm not sure I'd use. I'm not sure what other ways we could use Twitter inside the class. I'm sure if we all thought hard enough, there could be some super creative ideas. Overall, great project idea!

Personal Addition #26

Here's some interesting words that I've learned recently:

Vernorexia - a romantic mood inspired by spring

Pinguescence - the process of becoming fat and obese

Bailiwick - one's particular area of activity, interest or authority

Personal Addition #25

If you didn't grow up like I did then you don’t know and if you don’t know it’s probably better you don’t judge.
— Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

I like this quote & agree with it. I wanted it on my blog as a reminder to everyone on why judging people doesn't really make sense. We do it so easily, but really it's pointless because we never know what people have gone through, what they're going through or what has made them who they are.