Tag: Inspiration

Time will heal all the hate, all in good time.

Sara Mazariegos

Birds don’t discriminate. As I was walking to my office, I watched the birds eating the seeds that some nice city worker throws out for them. I noticed that it’s not only pigeons and sparrows, but there are crows and even ducks joining in on the feast sometimes. And none of them try to pick a fight or keep the other kinds of birds from eating with them. There’s a metaphor in this somewhere.

There was also a robin on my way to the bus the other day, standing in the grass next to the sidewalk. Rather than running or flying away like they usually do, this little one just looked up at me with big eyes. It was incredibly cute. Sometimes, our local wildlife makes me feel like a Disney princess. Specifically Giselle I suppose, because the animals I get excited to see are pigeons and squirrels. Cute animal friends are cute regardless of what kind of animals they are!

The Devil Wears Prada 2. We saw the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada last weekend. I was wary at first, but I know it is a book series and I liked the first movie. I think it’s a good sequel; it feels like the first one but with new plot points and drama instead of being a rehash. I also think Miranda isn’t as mean in it. Maybe I’m just used to her meanness. I mostly felt sorry for her in this one.

I can’t remember if I posted about it (I probably did) but I tried reading the first novel and I couldn’t get through it, in either audiobook or book-book form. Andy is an annoying, whiny narrator in the book, but I like her in the movie. My favorite character is still Nigel (Stanley Tucci.) I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, so I won’t say anything else.

Immortality final thoughts. Luis and I finished playing Immortality last weekend as well. It was addictive so we played it for hours. I really like it! It’s so cool that they have actors performing all of these scenes within scenes, and then there’s scenes hidden within the scenes. I wish more games were this creative and adventurous with ideas. I do think we’re seeing more and more cool, innovative games like this lately, thanks to places like Steam making it easier for indie developers to get their games out there.

My favorite of the movies within the game is Minsky. This won’t make any sense unless you play the game, though. I definitely recommend it. It’s a showcase of the main actress Manon Gage’s talent as well, because she was fresh out of college when she acted in this game, and she gets to show off her range. I look forward to playing other games by the creator, Sam Barlow. We’ve already played Her Story.

New ideas are rejuvenating. I’m within the final 20K of my current novel draft, projected to be finished by the beginning of June. Ever since I decided this story won’t work as a published novel, I’ve been more laid back about writing it. It’s still going to be completed, even if I won’t pursue it with agents. It’s always a good goal to finish what you’ve started, if possible. I even have a few ideas of ways I can repurpose this story into a new idea I have swirling around in my brain. I don’t want to fully abandon it because I still see its value.

That being said, I’m looking forward to not thinking about it for a while.

I’m very excited to start writing my next novel. I have months to plan it, so hopefully it will just easily come out as the fully formed story from my head!

No? That’s now how writing works? I always forget.

You on point, Tip? All the time, Phife.

Sara Mazariegos

Still exploring in a more hostile world. Even though I work in D.C., it’s been a long time since Luis and I have visited the city for fun. Now that it’s spring, I’ve started to want to plan things out-of-doors or at least out-of-our-doors. There are still quite a few places in D.C. that we haven’t visited yet, so maybe this year will be the year! Just have to get our friends’ schedules to line up with ours. There are only so many weekends in a month.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how things have become more hostile in my town. There’s amped up “security” everywhere, people aren’t as friendly, we have National Guard people on our streets for no reason, etcetera. It makes the idea of coming to visit the city a not entirely fun one, and I think that’s part of why I long to spend time having fun there again. I miss the way things used to be. And who’s to say they can’t still be silly and educational and special even amidst all of the everything bad that’s going on? It’s not like I’m suggesting we go to the Kennedy Center or anything; it just might be fun to window shop in Georgetown or play hoity-toity minigolf again.

Living and working amongst newsworthy things. Last week, there were a lot of people and traffic and police around a few fiancial buildings near my office, because of a big event that was held there. It was even in the news. I found out it was in the news when I looked at the little local events screen in my office’s elevator. It both explained why things were so busy around my job and made me feel a little weird.

There was a big “cancel the debt” protest when I came into work on Friday. It’s a strange feeling to be around things that are being talked about on a global scale. I guess this is something that comes from working in D.C. And whenever people complain about the federal government, I have to stop myself from saying, “You think it’s bad? Try living around it all the time.” I really like living in the D.C. area, but it can be stressful and frustrating at times. I prefer when things aren’t so dire and argue-y. (That doesn’t mean I don’t agree with the protestors.)

Have things in the federal government always been dire and argue-y?

Immortality is such a cool game. Luis and I started playing this PC* mystery game called Immortality. It’s basically a bunch of footage from this actress’s movies or appearances or rehearsals, and you’re supposed to pause and click objects or fast forward/rewind to find hidden video features. It’s very cool, and very creepy. It’s also very ambitious, because the team really did film a bunch of footage and hire a crew of actors, costume designers, etc. We’ve semi-solved it already (it even ran credits) but we’re still playing it because we haven’t unlocked a lot of the stuff yet. I’m wondering if there’s an easy, “Good job, you solved it!” mode we reached and then there’s going to be a more advanced version as we keep going.

We’ve also made sure to actually watch each clip, to figure out what each movie is about. There are three movies the main character actress worked on. I highly recommend the game. I love mystery games, and ones with footage are even cooler, though this one involves one of my least favorite things with recordings: slowed down voices. And you have to rewind slowly sometimes, to find the important pieces of the puzzle. There aren’t really any jump-scares, but it is definitely creepy and surprising in places. Things appearing where they shouldn’t, that sort of thing. It’s ghostly without really being a ghost game.

Actually reading comps. One thing I do that most definitely slows me down is I completely read any novels I think could be good comps for my stories. I’ve read that all I really need to do is read a synopsis or whatever, but I prefer reading the full stories to truly get a sense of how they could fit with mine. This is largely because I enjoy reading new books. But I have stacks of books to read that could be considered comps for my stories, and I’ve still got to get to a bunch of them before they’re too old to work anymore.

I’ve also read that it’s a good idea to go for debut novels, because they’re not the big mega-hits that everyone’s already heard of yet. But it’s hard to stay ahead of that. It can be frustrating, thinking about the query letter because it’s so important for finding a literary agent, but sometimes agents don’t even value it as much as the first five pages. Every agent is different.

This is why I’m trying to just focus on writing for now, and finding good books that mesh well with my stories because they help get my creative juices flowing. And I’m sorry for saying “creative juices.”

Writing update. I’m enjoying writing my novel. It’s getting toward the final 20k words now, which feels crazy. Writing in the 500-word bursts has been the best way for me to get the story done, because it still feels fun and sometimes I even go a little longer because I want to, rather than like in the past where I was trying to cram too much into each writing session.

I’m looking forward to the finished draft, and then I can eventually edit it, which hopefully won’t be too much of a headache this time.

* PC as in personal computer.

It’s 8:15, and that’s the time that it’s always been.

Sara Mazariegos

Our personal Super Mario connection. Both Luis and I grew up with the Super Mario Bros. games. Him more than me, but I have early memories of playing Super Mario on the NES with my sister. She always made me play Mario so she could be Luigi, because she preferred green. This resulted in a lot of Mario falling off the very first ledge and then Luigi getting his turn. We also had and played Super Mario Bros. 3, a game that is still my favorite of the Mario games. Hey, I’m a sucker for nostalgia.

Anyway, it was this shared enjoyment of Mario and the various characters and themes within the games that inspired Luis’s and my wedding’s theme. It was a loose theme, because we didn’t want to give off kids’ birthday party vibes. Our decor was cute! Luis’s sister made paper lanterns with Boo’s face on them. We still have two of them, hanging in our living room.

All of this to say, heck yes we like the Mario movies! We saw Super Mario Bros. Galaxy last weekend, and as we were leaving we were already planning to see it again this weekend. Unfortunately, the cue I was given to go to the bathroom was at a pretty bad moment, actually, so we snuck into another showing afterwards in order for me to see the introduction of an important character! I’m very much looking forward to the next movie, too.

Watching The Studio is saddening. We started watching The Studio the other week, because of all the awards it won and everything. It’s very sad to watch now, though, because Catherine O’Hara’s role on it is so big and integral to the plot. It’s nice to see her, but I’m still so sad she’s no longer with us. It feels cruel. It is cruel. Seth Rogan clearly was so excited to be working with people he admired, and she’s one of the people he looked up to… So it’s quite sad to watch even though it is a very funny and well-made show. It’s beautifully shot, and I love the “oner” way of filming it. It reminds me of Birdman. It’s kind of stressful at times to watch a style like that, but so far I’m enjoying it. It’s hard for me to imagine how season 2 is going to be.

Taskmaster is back! My favorite grumpy/sunshine pairing came back last week. As usual, I love the group of comedians and actors that are “competing” on Taskmaster. My favorite is not Kumail Nanjiani, but of course I’m still excited to see him on it! He’s so far aligning with the trend of South Asian contestants performing badly. 😅 The worm task really wasn’t fair, though.

I don’t want to spoil it, so I won’t say any more. I highly recommend that show. It’s available wherever YouTube is sold!

Story ideas coming unbidden. As previously mentioned, I’ve started getting ideas for my next story while working on my current novel. This always happens, and usually when I’m midway through writing a story. This time it started with me thinking I could rework an outline and turn it into something different but still a similar concept, but now it’s gotten bigger and more detailed, so I’ve been writing down the ideas in the outline for now so I can work on it more once the story I’m currently writing has a complete draft.

I think it’s a good idea to let ideas simmer a bit, especially if I’m already working on something. The last thing I want to do is fall into the trap of pausing the story I was focusing on to write something new before the story is finished! It’s never a good idea to pause before ‘The End.’ Even if the draft needs a lot of revisions. Keep writing until ‘The End’ and then you can write something else. That’s the way my brain works anyway. I can’t write two stories at the same time. One of them always takes precedence or nothing gets finished.

Writing update. My novel rewrite is going well. I’m nearing 50,000 words which is just past the halfway point. Instead of being the ‘sagging middle’ that a lot of writers talk about, there’s a bunch of drama happening in my story, which is keeping things moving along nicely. It won’t be much longer until this revision is complete! And then I can take a break before writing something new.

I said what I said, brain!

There was a time, a storm that blew so pure.

Sara Mazariegos

Not all movies need critical analysis. I saw the Super Mario Galaxy movie got some pretty brutal reviews, and it’s made me wonder why we have reviewers for every movie. I appreciate that critics are writers and they need jobs. I get that. But I don’t think every movie must be held to the same standard that some of the critics expect. No one expects a Mario movie to be anything other than what it is: fan service for people who love the games and characters. It’s a little bit like the Five Nights At Freddy’s movies. They’re made for people who like the thing. Anyone interested should go see it and they’ll probably like it. Maybe there needs to be more segmentation with reviewers. What do fans of Super Mario think about this new movie?

I thought the first one was cute. It wasn’t amazing, but I’m glad I saw it and I’d watch it again. I don’t remember why Bowser is tiny. I’m excited to see the new one next weekend.

The allure of Robert Pattinson. Luis and I forwent Mario last weekend because we knew the theater would be teeming with kids for Easter weekend. Instead, we saw The Drama starring Robert Pattinson and Zendaya. That movie is definitely not for kids. I’ve got to say that Robert Pattinson has grown on me. I was never a fan of Twilight so I didn’t like him, but it’s not his fault. He didn’t write it or direct it, and he’s grown a lot since then. I really liked him in Mickey 17, and he was quite good in The Drama as well. He’s someone a lot of people find attractive, and I never have (no offense to him) but I can appreciate a good actor regardless of how they look. I also appreciate that he seems to be shying away from the handsome leading man roles in favor of more quirky, interesting scripts.

The Drama has a controversial subject matter, but I think it’s a subject worth thinking about. It’s not pleasant, but it’s important. I think it’s handled in a pretty realistic way, considering it’s in a dark comedy. I don’t quite understand the people who think it’s a topic than can never be explored like this. It’s not like the movie makes light of it or acts like there’s nothing wrong with it. (I’m not spoiling it; you should see it for yourself, if you’re interested.) It’s intense, but it’s good.

The Martian during real space times. On Easter, we watched The Martian as the next space movie on my list. It’s based on a novel written by the same author who wrote Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir. It’s got a very stacked cast, with all sorts of actors. We liked it, though we liked PHM more. The Martian is more stressful, and it also doesn’t have the cute element. I don’t want to spoil PHM, though I think the Internet is already spoiling it quite a bit. I also think that, while it’s better and makes sense not to have Matt Damon actually lose a bunch of weight, the CG looks a little weird. I suppose it’s always a risk. AI crap in things won’t age well either. It already looks bad.

Now we just have to see Arrival and Interstellar. Speaking of space movies, it felt pretty surreal to be watching The Martian while we have real astronauts in space at this very moment, exploring the darker regions of the moon. I hope they return safely to Earth on Friday and bring back a whole host of new images and stories. So far, it’s been pretty incredible to watch and learn about.

Aging out of things. Lately I’ve been feeling as if I’m aging away from a lot of the Nerdfighter stuff, not through lack of interest but because there’s so much to keep up with. When I first became a Nerdfighter, everything was pretty much online. I was on the old ning website and everything, and I never missed a video. I bought all of John’s books and inhaled them. Then, a little later, I found my local Facebook group and met a bunch of Nerdfighter friends in real life. You know how that turned out. ☺️

But now that I’m older and we’re all older, I’ve got a job and other commitments and I find it hard to keep up with everything going on. I do my best, of course, and I’m still there for a lot of it, but I wonder how much longer I’ll be able to show up. And it’s sort of bittersweet because, like I said, I still love John and Hank and the community, but keeping up with livestreams and events is becoming less tenable. I don’t know. I mostly just wanted to mope a little. I’m going to do my best to go to John’s latest book tour stop (if there is a book tour stop) but I fear something like NerdCon Nerdfighteria might be out of the question for me. We’ll have to see, and I do so hate having to see.

Evolving conflicts. While writing the other day, I realized my new story draft has a conflict that evolves as the characters and plot evolve. It starts out as one bit of drama and then it sort of snowballs as the story progresses. I’m proud of myself for coming up with a conflict like that, because I think it means it’s more realistic but also more impactful.

As soon as I finish writing this draft, I plan to wait a few weeks and then dive back in to read it and add a few details/subplots that I came up with while I was writing but didn’t want to stop and go back to add. I’m a little past the halfway point now with this draft, and I’m really enjoying writing it and playing around with things.

It’s definitely true that the best way to improve your writing is to keep writing.

I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive.

Sara Mazariegos

Figure Skating obsession. The Winter Olympics have ended. I always enjoy them every 4 years and wish I could watch more figure skating. When I was little (around 7 years old) I loved Oksana Baiul. I remember pretending to figure skate around the kitchen in my socks, which was actually quite dangerous and I’m glad I didn’t give myself further injury*. It’s one of few sports I actually feel excited about, the other being soccer.

When we first started watching this year, I was drawn to Alysa Liu because of her style and because she seems to genuinely have fun while she’s skating. She seems really cool. I hope we can maybe see her on a tour sometime. My family took me to see figure skaters on a tour when I was little.

For my birthday this year, we’re going ice skating with our friends. I took lessons a long time ago, with my sister. We learned how to twizzle and get up if we fall. I doubt I remember how to do either thing. But I’ll probably hold onto the wall a lot anyway. Becoming a figure skating pro will be something my Sim does, not me. Alas.

Haircut and enjoyable laidback weekends. I finally got a haircut last weekend, after about a year of long-hairedness. My hair style is usually a long bob with side bangs, so I went back to that. I saw my reflection and thought I looked normal again, which is always a good thing when it comes to haircuts. I enjoy wearing my hair up when it’s long, but it’s nicer to have it short and easier to manage.

Aside from going to the salon, we had a nice, laidback weekend without any big plans. It’s good to do that sometimes; it’s more relaxing. We watched some winter sports themed movies. I chose Ice Castles, starring Robbie Benson, for some more figure skating. Luis chose Sudden Death, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, which has some hockey in it but isn’t really a hockey movie. And then I got the silly song in my head.

Excitement about Disney/Universal trip. I’m so excited about our anniversary vacation to Disney World and Epic Universe, even though it’s still seven months away! Luis did all of the Disney planning already, for Christmas, so pretty much all I can do is wait. My cousin is going to help us get tickets to Universal, and we’re planning our first trip to their new park, but it’s too far away to really plan plan. I love looking forward to things, but waiting is also so frustrating.

We watched videos of the Jaws ride and the original King Kong ride the other night. Those rides were so cool! The King Kong animatronics were impressive and cute. The new version is quite sad in comparison. I wish they’d stop relying on screens. They’re cheap, sure, but they’re also dull.

I can’t wait to go see the new stuff at Epic Universe. I just wanna skip to October. Spoiled, first-world problems for sure. There’s just so much unpleasantness happening from all sides at all times, so it’s nice to have something to look forward to.

Farragut isn’t on a horse. The other day, I wrote about a statue close to my office and described the guy being on a horse, but then when I walked by after work I took the time to look at him and realized he’s not on a horse at all. And I realized that we’re all unreliable narrators, in a way. We don’t all remember things exactly as they happened.

I edited out the horse so my story is accurate. I want my narrators to be trust-worthy, even if they still don’t have all the correct information. They might have some fun misunderstandings along the way, but the least they can do is know what a statue they’re talking about looks like.

Observantly yours,

* When I was around 2 years old, I spun around while dancing to Star Search and hit my head against the family’s wooden TV stand. I have a lovely eyebrow scar to prove it.

There’s so little time for us to try to rhyme.

Sara Mazariegos

Making good use of time. I get an hour for lunch at my job, so I usually spend about half of it writing. It doesn’t take me a whole hour to eat a bowl of lo mien or a burrito. I’ve found I can write 500 words in about half an hour, if I focus, so it’s been working out well. Then I go home and write 500 more at some point in the evening. It’s harder to carve out the time in the evenings, because of wanting to spend time with Luis, having dinner, and doing chores. But I’ve been finding a balance so it works out.

I definitely don’t miss cramming 2,000 words into each day and making myself write on weekends. There’s no reason to overwork myself when I’m not under an actual deadline. I’m already pretty schedule-oriented, so there’s no danger of my not writing every day. (I fear it would be bad if I stopped writing every day. It’s easy to stop and so hard to get started up again. If you’ve ever opened up an old abandoned project with the intention of working on it again, you know what I mean.)

Magic Duel! We went to a magic show with Luis’s parents last weekend. The set-up is that it’s a host magician and a guest magician trying to win “Best Magician in the D.C. Area” and there’s a trophy with a fairy wand attached to it with, like, tape. It’s very silly, and they tell lots of cheesy dad jokes while doing magic tricks. His guest when we saw the show was a bubble magician. At first I thought, ehh, that’s not really magic, but it was cool and the regular magician guy was kind of annoying, so I voted for her to win. And she did.

They did a cool card trick together that involved two people from the audience. One guest picks a card and then sits on it and the other guest ‘reads his mind’ to guess the correct card. They used a plunger attached to rope on both their heads for added effect, and the plunger kept getting stuck to one of the guys’ heads, which made it extra funny and memorable. I don’t know how they did that trick so well, but Luis has a theory that they subtly nudge when asking confirmation on the color and number/suit so they guide the guesser to the right answer. Magic is nerdy cool.

Wonder Man and “superhero fatigue.” We finished watching Ironheart, which had its moments but was kind of ho-hum and overact-y, so I was hesitant to watch another Marvel series. A lot of people talk about the burnout that’s happening with so many superhero shows and movies. There’s too much and it’s hard to know where to start or what the timelines all are. Almost like bringing this massive genre of books to life in movies and TV shows is a daunting task. We’ve mostly kept up with it, but it certainly doesn’t mean we’ve liked or seen all of it. For example, we haven’t seen Aquaman or The Flash, and don’t plan on it. We’re mostly sucked into the Marvel blackhole, but some of it has still been kind of ehh.

I’m looking at you, Moon Knight and The Marvels.

However, we checked out Wonder Man because the concept of an actor vying to portray a superhero when he actually, unbeknownst to him, is a superhero is compelling stuff. Plus Sir Ben Kingsley’s on it as Trevor Slattery again. And you don’t have to know what other Marvel thing Trevor Slattery is from, though it helps. I really like it thus far. The cast is nice and small, too, which is a breath of fresh air. So many of these shows and movies have too many characters to keep track of, which I think can be another deterrent for people trying to check these things out.

Writing update. I sent Luis an excerpt of my novel the other day and he asked me which book it was from. That felt vindicating. 😊 I’ve been enjoying rewriting my story, and I remind myself, if I’m feeling stuck, that there are other drafts I can pull from. It’s not like the other drafts are badly-written, they just didn’t come together the way I wanted. They still have value.

Writing this story feels easier now, which makes sense but it’s still a relief. I’m better able to parse out the parts to keep in and let the other random stuff go. When I first wrote this novel, it didn’t really have any story structure. Things were happening, and they were cute and passionate, but there were no obstacles to keep readers wondering. I really have been chiseling the story out over these years. The plot’s become clearer and brighter ever since. And I’ve finally found a conflict that’s both relatable and strong instead of the wishy-washy ones I’ve tried in the past.

These characters are going to have to have moments where they’re not getting along or they’re avoiding each other. It’s not fun to think about, but it’s one of the rules of a romance novel.

I picked a genre with rules. That was my first mistake. 😝

Choose your last words, this is the last time.

Sara Mazariegos

Anniversary times. Luis and I had a great “staycation” trip for our 14th anniversary last weekend. We stayed in a lovely suite near the Metro station where we first met all those years ago. We explored the area and had a lot of nice food. We went to a romance bookstore called Friends to Lovers and he bought me a book. Our hotel also had a hot tub and a pool, so we spent some time there, which was a good way to get out of the cold and rain.

The places we went when we first met have changed, but we’ve also changed. It’s nice to go back and reminisce and also be reminded of how long we’ve been together.

Project For Awesome. I was fortunate enough to be able to watch the first hour of the livestream during my lunch break last Friday. I watched the first charity video (about APOPO, the bomb-sniffing rats who also help detect tuberculosis, which is a non-profit organization my company works with) and I got misty-eyed because I love rats. That was only the beginning.

During our nice anniversary weekend, Luis and I also spent some time in the livestream (mostly watching John and/or Hank, because we’re biased.) During the P4A, we all came together and raised over 4 million dollars for charities! ✨ I love Nerdfighteria and I love getting to still be a part of it. It is, after all, how Luis and I met, so it was a pretty perfect thing for us to do during our mini trip.

Wuthering Heights and longer travel times. The Metro getting work done and forcing us to use shuttle buses for two stops to and from our anniversary destination wasn’t that big of a deal. It just added to the adventure. I told Luis, and it’s true, that I wouldn’t have done it by myself, but with him it was kind of fun. It helps that the stop over to get a bus was at a mall, so we could go in and use the bathroom and have a snack. We’re pros at the whole travel thing at this point.

When we came back toward home on Monday, we got Indian food and saw Wuthering Heights. I have to make a confession here: although I was an English major and I greatly respect the Brontë sisters, I really do not like the novel of Wuthering Heights. I went into the movie with low expectations, kind of expecting not to like it, and I ended up enjoying it a lot. It’s an artistic interpretation based on how it made the director feel when she read it, which makes sense. I remembered the moments and I appreciated seeing them in the movie. I feel like it’s the story for people who don’t want to read it. Because all the stuff that matters in the story is there. The part later with the kids (not spoiling…) you don’t need it. It’s superfluous.

I made versions of the characters in The Sims 4 after watching the BBC version from the 60s that inspired Kate Bush to write her song. It’s not as if I hate the story. I just prefer it being told well in a movie or miniseries. Not all books are good as books. It’s surprising when it happens, but it does happen. We don’t know why Emily Brontë chose to have the narrator be some guy who heard the story from a lady who was there, but that was her choice as an author.

Writing update. Speaking of authors and their choices, I’ve started rewriting my Nerdfighters-inspired novel after taking time last week to read and edit the first two chapters from an earlier draft. The first two chapters work for me, it’s the rest I want to make better. I’m working on shaping it into more of a romance arc with foreshadowing and side characters that add to the plot instead of being scene dressing. So far, it’s going well. I’ve gotten better at getting to the point, which means there’s less time wasted on little scenes that don’t matter.

When Luis took me to Friends to Lovers last weekend, I felt at home because all of the books were romance. And I found a book to read soon that would be a good comp for mine. My story definitely has a place there on the romance shelves, I just need to tell it correctly.

The seasons changed, times are strange.

Sara Mazariegos

Bloody Weather. I know I’ve been complaining about this a lot, but the ice/snow is STILL HERE. Thankfully it’s melted a little, bit the massive piles at bus stops and around sidewalks are sticking around. I told Luis he will probably be waking up with me and helping me get onto the bus for at least the rest of this week. Hopefully by this coming weekend, the warmer temperatures will finish the job and things can go back to normal.

I do love having some extra time with him in the mornings, though. I will miss that. It’s my personal Extra Magic Hours*. My coworkers were singing his praises when I told them he’s been helping me. It’s always my goal to get people to join the Luis fan club, because he’s great.

Stuperbowl (I’m original.) You know what I don’t like? American football. Fortunately for me, Luis is not a fan either. He much prefers soccer/futball, and I’ve become a fan as well. So we didn’t watch any of the Superbowl last weekend, except for maybe ten minutes before the Bad Bunny Halftime Show.

The performance was so fun and I loved that it told a story about Puerto Rico and Latin American culture. He even threw in a mention of Canada! He included all of North America. It was pretty cool. I know at least one person who got teary-eyed watching the beautiful representation of Latin culture, especially in this crazy time we’re currently living in. Maybe, just maybe, this will get people talking about issues in a more nuanced way.

Podcasts but as videos. Like the general populous, I enjoy listening to podcasts. The trouble is, I have a difficult time paying full attention to them, because I am usually working or writing when I listen to them. So when a bunch of the popular ones (Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, Good Hang with Amy Poehler, etc.) started releasing video versions of them, I was ecstatic. I much prefer consuming YouTube videos. So I’ve been watching the podcast videos during my lunch breaks at work. One thing that’s nice about them is that, if I have to look away for any reason, it’s totally fine because they’re meant to be listed to! What a concept. They’re also long enough that I can watch one episode over the whole week’s worth of lunch breaks.

I’m truly an exciting person. Eh, I’ll go outside for my lunch breaks when it stops being arctic outside. Maybe. Didn’t do it last spring/summer, but maybe this year.

14th on the 14th! I’m so excited about our dating anniversary plans. Last week, I looked at the calendar to see the latest updates—Luis made dining reservations—and, in a combination of excitement and sleepiness, I forgot I’d looked ahead on the calendar and thought it was already next weekend. This made me briefly panic because the Project For Awesome starts on Friday, and I thought I’d missed it!

I highly doubt I’d be able to miss it. I follow too many helpful accounts, and I have it all on my calendar. Just have to remember what day it currently is. 😅

The Metro is getting work done this weekend, and traveling on the Metro is part of our celebration (we met at a stop, after all) so we’re going to brave the long travel in order to enjoy the experience as planned. Then we’re going to explore the place we met; we haven’t been there for longer than a few hours in at least a decade. I love the story of how we met. Which leads me to…

Writing update. I’m starting to feel the familiar feeling that I don’t need to rewrite my Nerdfighter story. Instead of starting completely over, I just need to tweak it. I’ve been working on a big rewrite, and it was a massive overhaul. The characters were different, much of the plot was different… and I started wondering if it’s really better or if the earlier version I had was totally fine, it just needed some big edits. What I’d been working on started to feel a lot more cynical than intended. I wish I could have an unbiased reader read the first chapter of each version and tell me which one’s better. I’m too biased. But I feel like, in this case, writing what I know helps the story and makes it more unique.

I can’t help it that our true love story is already pretty perfect. It doesn’t need revision. It just needs some higher stakes, and I’ve found them.

* This might be a sign I go to Disney too often… Nah.

Time to stand up and steal the show.

Sara Mazariegos

Days off. It’s funny how vacation is so needed and restful and fun, but then going back to work feels like this insurmountable burden. I guess “funny” isn’t the right word. But I’ve noticed every time there’s a holiday or a vacation from work, coming back feels like such a big deal. It doesn’t help that the system is currently down at my office and one of my monitors decided to die. That just adds to the feeling of needing a break from my break before I feel like I can work again. 😅

Elio and the loss of originality. During our long holiday weekend, Luis and I watched several movies. We watched Dreamworks’ Sinbad which was… all right. We also watched Get On Up starring Chadwick Boseman. That was quite good. And sad, since we lost him so young. He was really talented. But the main movie I wanted to write about here is Elio. I wanted to see Elio when it was in theaters, but our theater did not really give us a chance. It came out at a time when several other big movies came out, but still… Disney movies are usually out longer. I’m glad we finally saw it, and it got Luis and me thinking about how none of the action hero in space movies have been successful. Even Lightyear did poorly, and people love Buzz Lightyear.

For what it’s worth, I think Elio is very cute. The aliens are all designed uniquely, and it has little nods to other sci-fi movies like E.T. and Terminator 2. I don’t understand why people didn’t go see it, unless theaters everywhere didn’t show it for long enough. But it seems like original movies are falling by the wayside at Disney, and it’s so sad. I hope we can see Hoppers in theaters and it won’t suffer the same fate as Elio. Streaming is nice, but it’s not the same.

Limping to the end of Seeing Other People. This sounds more serious than it is. It’s taken me longer than anticipated but I’m slowly finishing up reading Seeing Other People by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I’m not really feeling this one. It’s got moments, but it’s been a slog. Do you ever read a book and the words start to just roll through your brain like you’re not actually retaining any of them? I feel like that’s been happening to me with this book. It’s not holding my attention, and the plot bums me out. In the relationship part, it seems like they suddenly liked each other and I missed something. I guess not every book is for me, unfortunately even the ghost ones with pun titles.

Feedback and getting back into the writing groove. I edited my It’s A Wonderful Life-inspired novel with my dad’s notes and I’m feeling pretty good about it. We had dinner with my parents on Saturday and Mom gave me some notes as well, so I’m going to be pondering some more. Nothing major though, which is awesome. Hopefully this can be the year I actually send out query letters for it, but we shall see.

I’m going to be starting up work on the major rewrite of my Nerdfighters-inspired novel soon. As it approaches, I’m getting nervous. I haven’t taken such a long break from writing in a while. I think it was a good refresh for my brain, but I hope I haven’t lost my groove. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, though, so it’s not as if I’ll be going in with no plan. Luis read my outline and said it was good, too, so I’m also not going into it with a lot of garbled ideas. (We’ve all done that before, right?)

And before you think, “But Sara, your stories are inspired by other stories. They don’t sound very original either,” I’ll remind you that they’re inspired by, they’re not the exact same stories of anything else. It’s not even the exact story of how Luis and I met anymore. That was at least six drafts ago. C’mon.

Until next time, stay safe out there.

Stop time. Stay just this way.

Sara Mazariegos

Thirties vs. Twenties. Amy Poehler briefly touched on this in a recent Good Hang episode—yay, Amy Poehler!—but I was already thinking about it. I’m coming to the end of my thirties, and realizing that my thirties were much easier than my twenties in a lot of ways. Sure, I’ve had a lot more responsibility and stress in my thirties, but in my twenties I was also very stressed because I was trying to get my first job and figure out who I was. I graduated college and lived with my sister, then lived with our parents. It’s a tale as old as time for people who graduated around 2008/2009/2010/2011. Recessions aren’t fun. I was twenty-four when I met Luis, and then we slowly started finding enough success to be able to get a place together. But we didn’t get married until I was thirty. My twenties were filled with a lot of uncertainty. Things are still often uncertain, of course, with the way things are in this country, but we also have more stability. So I hope people in their twenties realize that things aren’t always going to be as hard as they are for them at their age.

Globes that are golden. Speaking of Amy Poehler, I was so happy to see her win the Golden Globe for Best Podcast. I would’ve turned it off if she hadn’t won. I’m still annoyed about Ricky Gervais winning Best Stand-Up Special. It should have been Kumail Nanjiani. Luis and I saw many of the nominees, most of the winners. I really want to watch Adolescence. I like watching these award shows because they help me find new shows and movies to watch that I may otherwise not hear about. We got pizza for it, and I had a tasty at-home Redbull Sunrise (since the Buffalo Wild Wings near us closed, we’ve started just making them at home.)

It was jarring not to see an In Memoriam segment, especially with how dramatically sad some of the famous people’s deaths were last year. But it made the show shorter by not having it, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Divisiveness feels like gaslighting. If you’d told me when I was in high school that we’d be living in a time where our own government thinks it’s okay to shoot a woman three times in the head in broad daylight and then lie about it and try to vilify her, I would have told you that you were crazy because that’s Nazi behavior and America is not Fascist.

What’s been some of the most terrifying, crazy stuff to me is the fabrication of the truth. Nineteen-Eighty-Four is invoked all the time, but lately the quotes from it are so apt they’re painful. We were all supposed to learn from it how to be better, not how to copy Ingsoc.

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

– George Orwell, Nineteen-Eighty-Four

Struggling with books. Firstly, I’ve been struggling with my copy of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold because it was nearly pristine when I got it off a little free library shelf, but now that it’s been traveling in my purse every day, it’s slowly falling apart. I fear that, by the time I’m ready to put it back in the little free library, it will be a stack of paper barely held together by glue from the 90s. I don’t know how it’s happening but every time I put it out of my purse, another bit of the front or back cover has fallen off. I’m not violent with it; all I do is put it down into my purse between my cell phone and my wallet. It’s nothing crazy. It’s kind of funny, but I feel bad.

I’m enjoying reading it. It’s not my usual thing, but it’s good. My favorite character is Liz. I have a bad feeling she’s not going to make it.

The other book I’m reading, Seeing Other People, continues to make me feel disappointed in some ways. It’s well-written and sweet, a lot of the time, but the name is so punny and the cover looks more light-hearted and youthful than it feels to me. Something about the tone has been throwing me off the whole time. I’m reading an ARC copy, so I wonder how much it changed in the final version. I just thought it would be funnier than it is. It’s mostly sad. Beautifully written, but not easy to read at the end of a long day in our currently bleak world.

Literary update. I’ve been slowly working through the edits of my It’s A Wonderful Life-inspired novel, using the notes my dad gave me. I’ve been feeling less motivated to edit it, mainly because I’m excited to move on to writing the next story draft. But I’m doing it. I also sent the story to some friends to read, just as a little present. No feedback required.

I want readers. My main reason for wanting to be a published author is just that I want people to read my stories and enjoy them as much as I enjoy creating them.