Inside Kimmy's Mind

I’ve always had a love for writing and reading, I don’t think I could be who I am if I didn’t. But it wasn’t until I reached the fourth grade that I discovered this fact about myself.

So yeah, I own a Nook Color. The weirdos gave it to me, I have been reading a book on it for pleasure and one for class. And let me just say how satisfying it was to push that confirm button and end up with a book before me…it was 2 in the morning. I should admit this now, but I am horribly addicted to online shopping. Thank goodness I don’t have any credit cards or I’d be in serious trouble. I enjoy ordering things online it’s the waiting process that I hate…anyway. So of course the ability to purchase a book in my pajamas and get it within minutes is pretty awesome. Also, I can watch Netflix…that has nothing to do with books or reading but is still is pretty awesome. Not to mention I can carry multiple books with me. This is great for school…minus the part where I can’t sell any books back. But let’s be honest, I’m lucky if I get five bucks back for the novels I buy for lit classes. Some teachers want me to get certain versions of the books so I won’t be able to use the Nook but for the ones I can it will be nice. This does not mean nor will it ever mean that I will stop buying hard copies of books. Nothing could ever stop me from that. Click the books or the, I pledge to read the printed word button on my sidebar. Speaking of books, I have tons of things to read at the moment but last week I picked up the book, The Underachiever’s Diary and I’m loving it so far. Bought it at Half Price for a dollar. Love Half Price. And it’s moments like these that I will always enjoy buying and reading the printed word.

Nook or Kindle? How do you feel about Ereaders, or books for that matter? Also, if you’re in Houston in the month of April then you must come to The Indie Book Fest. If you’re a bookstore owner, self published author or small press owner and are interested in getting a table I can also help you with getting you on the right list, let me know. Just shoot me an email at Kim at mind-speaks dot com.

Thanks for reading.

Kellie over at Give a Girl a Blog started a really cute Currently segment over at her blog. So naturally, I decided to take part in it as well. 😀 She is one of my favorite scrapbookers. I’m always in the mood to create after visiting her blog and her current post totally inspired me. So here I am reporting what I’m currently working on…or attempting to work on. >.< … continue reading this entry.

So I went a little crazy at Micheal’s the other day. I couldn’t help myself, I saw all these stamps for a 1.50 and just had to buy them. I mean look at that adorable typewriter stamp. I love typewriter stamps and this one just so happens to be a Valentine theme. I bought three Valentine stamps, so now I intend to make Valentine cards. Maybe add a cute lollipop or some type of candy to show the people I love how much I love them. Who knows? I also bought a button puncher. I love it! It makes a great embellishment for cards, scrapbooking, even gift wrapping. I’ve been wanting it and the cute tag puncher as well, but decided on this one. I feel very crafty right now.

… continue reading this entry.

My sleep schedule is screwed up, so hopefully after finally finishing up this entry, that I started back in October, I will go to sleep and wake up tomorrow at a reasonable time to finish up some Gulf Coast interview questions. Need at least two more.

So a few months ago I went to this adorable shop called Knitting in The Loop.  After going in I have decided that I want to live there. Not just because of all the pretty colors of yarn, the building itself is pretty amazing. Aside from Kaboom, a book store I wouldn’t mind living in, Knitting in the Loop is perfect. Either one or above Berripop in Rice Village. I would love living there I would also require access to all of the frozen yogurt but I’m sure that wouldn’t be a problem. I’m their number one customer. 😀

Anyway, going back to knitting this store was great. Pricey, but still pretty awesome. I wouldn’t mind working there, or even just dropping by to knit and ask for some tips. I’ve been wanting to learn how to crochet but I’ve yet to discover a tutorial online that will make this happen. I just can’t get the tension right.  But after my knitting date with my new friend Patrick, I’ve decided I need more crafty friends. So I’ve decided to create a knitting circle. I will start on campus first and then work from that. I’m sure other knitters know other knitters/crocheters. Right now it is still in the beginning stages of planning. So I’ll discuss it more once I’ve thought it out completely. But I’m actually really excited to start this and I’m hoping it is successful. I should be updating Mind-Speaks about my current projects, but that is actually in the middle of some changing plans as well. So for this entry I will share what I am knitting. For Christmas I made my sister Kat a basket weave scarf. I fell in love with the pattern and was excited to make myself one as well. For Kat’s I used two different colors and had to weave in the loose strands, my mistake was not weaving in as I went along. This time I weave in as I go, it makes the scarf easier to work with once it starts getting longer. I thought this pattern would be difficult to do, but it is actually pretty simple. If you know basic knitting skills, knit and purl, then you can knit this scarf. There are different patterns you can follow. I got my pattern on this site. I also made myself some matching hand warmers. The yarn I’m using now works much better. I don’t really put much thought into the yarn I use and I really should. Thanks to Patrick for pointing such obvious stuff out. I’m not a pro knitter, I still have a lot of things to learn, but this pattern makes me feel pretty fancy. :3

Here is another Shel Silverstein poem. The Silver Fish. I’m not sure why I chose this one to share, I just though it was funny. Tomorrow is New Years eve and I plan on posting another entry, but we shall see what happens. Good night. 🙂

Thanks for reading.

Another Christmas has come and gone and no matter how old I get, I still anticipate the opening of gifts. I see no point in waiting until midnight, seeing as no one in my family expects an actual visit from Santa.

 I can’t remember the exact age I stopped believing in Santa. It had to be around 4th or 5th grade, my younger sister and I would wait up until around 5 in the morning because that was the earliest my parents would allow us to open gifts. My older sister stayed up to assist with the wrapping and the consuming of Santa’s cookies. She was also there to make sure we were in our rooms and “sleeping”.  I always tried to actually sleep on Christmas eve so Christmas would hurry up and arrive. But try as I might, that never happened. Now we open presents pretty early, it took a bit of persuading but my mom finally caved. What? Just because I am 23 doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the holiday and act a bit childish. We waited until after dinner to open gifts on Monday. The Weirdos were in New Orleans for the holiday so they opened gifts on Friday and we got to open our gifts from them. Our parents were given a record player. We went to different record stores to find them both albums. My favorite record store in Houston is Allrecords the owner Fred is just wonderful. He knows practically everything about music so he is always helpful. His store is down the street from Mija’s office so Kat and I went to visit her and made a trip to his store last week. If you haven’t got the time be careful because Fred the music man will talk your ear off. Anyway, back to the gift opening. I have basically everything I could ever want/need. So when my mom asked me what I wanted this year I just said whatever is fine. I was totally surprised to receive the gifts I did. My parents bought both Kat and me a new laptop. Windows 8 is completely different from Windows 7 and Vista. It will take some getting used to but I love it.  Now if only they made cool cases for it like they did for macs. -.-  Along with the new pc, I got a few ds games, I already finished playing Resident Evil Revelations. The damn zombies would fall from the ceilings and scare the heck out of me. But still the game was pretty fun to play, of course I nick named a bunch of the zombies after genitalia. i.e. penis tongue and vagina cockroach. Lovely images no? XD

She & Him- Christmas Day- I don’t like too many holiday songs after being in choir for four years. So I thought I’d share one that isn’t a classic. [audio:http://numb.honey-vanity.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/SheHim-ChristmasDay.mp3]

It’s weird updating my blog on another laptop. I spent most of the day logging in to all of my social networks, and let me tell you remembering certain passwords was tricky. I usually add my age to the end of a special word and use that as a password. The dumb thing about this is the fact that I do age. So that number changes. -.- So I sat there typing that word and ages 18 to 23 hoping it was one of them. I’m an idiot. It was brilliant at the time, now I it just leaves me feeling frustrating. I managed to figure out all of my passwords minus my Skype one. So I had to update that one with a new password…I already can’t remember what I used. -.- So bad. The best thing about this new laptop is no more alien sounds! My past two laptops both made alien noises whenever I used Skype. So I’m excited to know that those sounds are gone. Now I may Skype in peace.  Christmas was fantastic, dinner was great and spending time with my family has been so much fun. I’ve done nothing but sleep late oh and read…for fun! I had to read so much over the semester that now I can actually read for fun and not worry about a quiz. So nice. Oh and I just found out my grades for the semester…not all good news. Two B’s and D…plus. :/ I knew passing that class would be impossible. Good thing is my GPA is still in good standing. I’m upset that I didn’t pass this stupid class. The most annoying part is, is that I just needed about 5 more points for a 73. That would mean passing. This Spring I need to really study more. There is always one class that I let fall on the back burner. I can’t allow that to happen anymore.

Classes for the Spring:

• Literary Studies- Mon. 4-5:30
• Cr. Writing…the one I somehow managed to skip-Tues and Thurs. 11:30-1:00
• Contemporary Novel – Tues and Thurs. 2:30-4:00
• Gulf Coast …not a class but I’m interning again, this time on Wed. 1:00-3:00

And that is my schedule, Monday’s I can sleep in and I don’t have a class on Wednesday’s aside from interning so that leaves plenty of room for reading/writing and studying. I need to hurry up and graduate already. :/ pffft Anyway, I hope your holiday was splendid and may your new year be just as awesome.

Thanks for reading.

Holy crap, it has been far too long since I last updated. Several blog worthy events have been piling up. But when I finally get a chance to update, I get like two lines in and then have to either finish reading a book for my lit classes or I am too tired and save it for tomorrow. But “tomorrow” never seems to come. I still have to finish writing about my sister’s wedding. :/

I spent this holiday at my parent’s house, I haven’t seen them since Mija’s wedding so we definitely needed the family time. I’ve been super lazy, I didn’t do any reading like I should have. I just watched movies and ate….a lot. But I have been knitting. I’m knitting a scarf for a friend as a Christmas gift. I’m trying out a new pattern and so far it looks really good. I am pretty proud of it. XD I’ll share pictures over at Mind-Speaks…after I give it to her of course. Thanksgiving dinner was amazing and I hope everyone else had a great holiday. Both my parents worked on Thursday so we had our dinner on Friday. But we also went to Walmart for Black Friday. And people are insane. They were similar to zombies feasting on a body. I was shocked. You should have seen how crazy they were over just pillows and towels. I think some people were just grabbing crap just so someone else wouldn’t get it. They took some satisfaction in seeing a person disappointed because they didn’t get what they were aiming for. How sick is that? Other times I saw people eyeing carts, as if they planned on grabbing things out of them. O.O Why are people crazy? There was even a bit of drama while we waited in line for a TV. It involved people who let family members cut and a woman who would leave her cart in line to save her spot. As long as my mom got her TV and we weren’t injured, I didn’t care what other people were doing. My siblings waited in line for movies and video games. They managed to grab two copies of Dishonored, two of Black and White Pokemon, Dance Central 3, Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption. And then several dvds, great loot all in all.

So now that my lazy holiday is over I now need to concentrate on finals and essays. My last final is on the 14th and then I’ll be done for the semester. I have two essays to write, due next week and two tests this week. Oh joy. I wish all my essay writing for the semester was done. I have no idea what to write. I need to start planning it out seeing as they are both due next week. Pffft great. This sucks.I can’t believe it has taken me this long to post another entry. I plan on making haul video soon. After I finish writing essays and whatnot, so look forward to that. I’ll try to update soon, I still have a lot of drafts to finish.

So, what did you look forward to eating this year at Thanksgiving? Mine was pumpkin pie and green bean casserole. :9 Thanks for reading, next entry I should have pictures and music to share.

Believe me when I say I enjoy living in the digital world. I do. I love that I can send someone a message via the internet, but that doesn’t mean I do not enjoy sending/receiving normal cards and letters.

I joined a few pen pal groups, hopefully these work out. The last time I joined a pen pal swap none of my assigned pals ever replied to my letters. I didn’t want my letters to make them feel obligated but I guess it was too much for them to keep up with. I mean I know sending things via mail can be hard to keep up with. I used to swap a notebook back and forth with my best friend but I haven’t sent it back to her in awhile. Now that I think of it it was sort of like a SMASH* book. We would write, doodle and smash stuff in it.  I’m planning on sending her more letters, I miss her.  Oh some exciting news, so there was this blog hop, with amazing prizes, and I won one of them. I will have my very own Amy Tangerine–The Little Things Day Book. I’m just so excited, I’ve never won anything before. So again a thank you to Kellie for hosting such an awesome blog hop. I love her blog.  Continuing on with mail, my swapbot deadline is coming up next week and I finally finished gathering my 5 items to send to my partner. Each item has to be something she can use when smashing so I’m hoping she likes the items I’ve chosen for her. The other is a card I made for a SMASH*aholics pen pal. I had a lot of fun making it. I got to use my new typewriter stamp. I love it!  I really love stamps and on my last visit to Hobby Lobby they had a bunch of new stamps. I’m hoping to send these out sometime this week. Speaking of this week it’s my last week off. Classes start next Monday, and I’m not exactly looking forward to getting back on schedule. -.- I’m already having problems with this semester and financial aid which I hope to clear up in the morning. Also Friday is the dreaded road test!!! I’m still as terrified as ever. I really wish I could have practiced parallel parking some more. Blasted  parallel parking! I’m trying to be calm about the whole thing, I mean I’ve talked about getting my license and always blamed my parents for not getting it sooner. I just have bad test anxiety and the fear of failing doesn’t help. The other day my 16 year old cousin got her license so that should motivate me to do my best on Friday. I can do this! I know I can, I’ve been driving for awhile now and I should hurry up and just make it legal now.  No more excuses.

Today’s song is Polaroid by Skyler Stonestreet

I love this song, I’ve been obsessed with taking pictures with my instax and then I found this song and I can’t stop listening to it. It features the newest Fuji digital Polaroid camera in the video. 

So have you’ve you ever had a pen pal before? If so, how long did you trade back letters? Do you prefer the convenience of email or text messaging? Let me know. :3

Look forward to a new haul video sometime this week. Thanks for reading. :3

So I’ve received  my first SMASH Book*. I was going to save it for my next haul video but I couldn’t wait to share. Doesn’t mean I can’t include it in a video next month or whenever I do a haul again. :3

So I have the Eco Green Book, Kat has the Pretty Pink Book and Mija has the Retro Blue Book. I’ve already started SMASHing my first pages. But I’m a little hesitant, I know there is no wrong or right way. But still it doesn’t stop me from over thinking things. I’ve only started to decorate the corners. I think I’ll get the hang of it eventually, I just need to stop being so timid. I mean the whole point is to be fearless and just go with it right? Right. It’s supposed to be fun and maybe I started it on a night when I didn’t have many things to SMASH. I am just getting started and I am already in love with it. Yes it is basically a scrapbook but something about this SMASH book just screams more fun. Or better than the regular fun scrapbooking brings. Does that make sense? Not that scrapbooking is below this or anything. I envy the scrapbookers who can take any book and transform it into something amazing. When it comes to this I need a helping hand and that is what the pages in these books give me. The pages are sort of decorated for you and you just embellish and add things to it. So I’m really happy these books exist. I first noticed them back when my sister Mija worked at the lovely store Paper Source. They were hot items and constantly being sold out. They first branched out to arts and craft stores and then recently I noticed them appearing in regular stores such as Randall’s, Walmart and Target. What luck! I’m thinking of making it for ideas and inspiration. I totally wish I had started this project in the beginning of the Summer that way I would have had more time with it. But summer class would have gotten in the way. I hope this fall semester allows me time to be creative. I’m not taking any creative writing classes this semester so I’m going to to through withdrawals if I don’t have something to entertain me.

Quick announcement: I Kim am finally taking the last step to getting my driver’s license. -.- Yup I’m 22 and still haven’t gotten my license. But hopefully that will all change this Friday. If I pass the road test. I’m nervous as hell. I don’t do well on tests. Horrible test anxiety. >.< Wish me luck.

Pet History

Oh I also wanted to mention that my parents somehow got another cat. We named him Willow and he is a whiny chi chi baby just like their old man cat Mr. We got our first cat Mr. back in 2000. I was 10? And he was a bitch. -.- I kid you not. He still sort of is, but now his bitchiness is due to jealousy. He doesn’t like sharing my parents with anyone cat or person. He’s had to get used to two cats since he’s been with us. Nao was our second cat. He was great the perfect lap/pillow. He disappeared one day and never found out what happened to him. I like to think someone picked him up and he’s living with a wonderful family right now. Our third cat is Kozi, he is strange. The only reason he works so well with Mister is because he stays away from him. Kozi always looks like he’s had a few too many shrooms or something. They both stay away from the new kitty. Mr. is the only one who starts shit but Willow is not completely innocent. He’s still recovering, I hope when he’s healthy again he doesn’t fight with our other cats because then we will probably have to find another home for him.

I’m sure I’ve asked the pet question before, but if you have more than one do they get along? And if you don’t have any pets, what kind of pet would you want? In a magical world I would want something that can fly so I wouldn’t have to drive.

Fruit by Brian Francis

I bought this book at Kaboom, one of the best used book stores in Houston. I fell in love with the place, and their prices are fantastic. I enjoy Half Price, but Kaboom has them beat. It’s own by the greatest couple too, they hold readings in the back of the store and it’s just a really nice place. I mentioned it in this post awhile back but deleted the pictures because I went with the ex. I just never got around to adding different pictures to that post so I’ll do that here as well. But first, back to the main reason of this entry. A book review. Now I’ve discussed books that I’ve read before but you can’t really call them reviews. You would think after 3 semesters of creative writing and I would be able to write an awesome book review. Well it’s my opinion about it so here it goes. I purchased a review copy, so I’m not sure how much of the story was changed in  the actual published version. But I absolutely loved this book. Both as a reader and as someone who enjoys writing. As I’ve developed my writing skills, I’ve discovered that I enjoy writing coming of age stories. So when I read a book that has taken something we have all gone through and made it relatable while at the same time different, I can’t help but swoon.And that is exactly what this book did for me.

Synopsis (found on the back of the book)

Thirteen-year-old Peter Paddington is overweight, the subject of his classmates’ ridicule, and the victim of too many bad movie-of-the-week storylines. When his nipples begin speaking to him one day and inform him of their diabolical plan to expose his secret desires, Peter finds himself cornered in a world that seems to have no tolerance for difference. Peter’s only solace is “The Bedtime Movies”- perfect-world fantasies that lull him to sleep every night. But when the lines between Peter’s fantasy world and his reality begin to blur, his hilarious adventures in overeating, family dysfunction, and the terrifying world of sexual awakening really begin. 

After reading that I just had to buy it. I love the style that Francis wrote this book in. It’s in first person from the POV of Peter. Although it is relatable, everyone experiences adolescence in their own way. This story was entertaining and it definitely made me think a lot about my own experiences, that awkward stage in life. While reading this book I laughed a lot…and out loud. I feel as though I should actually get my hands on a published copy so I can compare the two. Another thing I found interesting was the fact that it was about a boy and not a girl. As a female, the male mind is somewhat out of bounds so reading this from the perspective of a thirteen year old boy was another reason I enjoyed it. After reading this book, it made me want to start working on some short stories. I might share a few that were inspired by this book.

So if you are looking for a fun book to read I highly recommend Fruit. What style of books do you find yourself drawn to? And if you have book suggestions, let me know. 😀 Thanks for reading.

If you love to write then you should  totally sign up for this conference. There will be craft talks and workshops where you have a piece of your writing critique by fellow writers. Choose from poetry, fiction or non-fiction writing.

I plan on signing up as well, I’m so excited. It will be held on the UH campus and anyone 18 and older can join…unless you are currently in a grad program. :/ All the information can be found HERE. If you register before Sunday it only costs $75 after that it will be 100. That will only cover food and registration not room and board. They will have rooms available so if you are interested in staying on campus for the week that option is available.Now this is pretty cheap compared to some writing conferences so I can’t stress how amazing this opportunity is…especially if you live in Texas. If you do consider coming then leave me a comment so we can get acquainted I would love to meet you and read your writing.