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The Random Text Says: "" Happy Leap Day February 29th, 2004 - 2:27 a.m. I'm Currently Avoiding: Phone CallsHappy Leap Year, I guess? *shrugs* I don't think I've had the opportunity to write a Leap Day Entry before. I'm kind of enjoying the novelty of it. And yet again I'm not updating very often. I guess I just can't be bothered to write a diary entry when my creative efforts are generally directed elsewhere. I haven't updated for something like three weeks, if not more. I think it's Great Fun. Or something. I don't really know... what do I have to say? Hmm. I've come to the conclusion that Family Circle is an evil, evil magazine. Mom gets it now for some reason I don't understand (I don't think she even reads the thing). So one day I picked it up and I was like, "Ooh, recipes!" This lead to looking through said recipes and a cooking frenzy earlier this week involving fairly exotic (for my family) Greek food and a raspberry pear buckle that turned out pretty well. The Mediterranean dish fared much less well. It got a reaction of "well, it sure is different", but my family absolutely refused to commit to whether this was a good thing or not. It was decidedly lackluster. I rather enjoyed it, personally, but I think it was just a little too odd for my family's culinary tastes. That's all right, however, because the dessert turned out well. Desserts almost always go over better in my family than new main dishes do, however, so I wasn't really surprised. Hmm... what else? I think I pissed off my weird great-aunt by refusing to pander to her paranoia, so hopefully she won't call me anymore to ask me to watch her house while she goes and does whatever. I guess the entire point of this entry is really to share my happy news. Because I seem to be telling everyone else and their dog today as it is. So I might as well post it in my diary for all (few who read this) to see. I'm not sure if I mentioned in my last diary entry... looking back, it appears as if I did mention that I'd finished a short story at least. Okay, so it looks like I'm going to have to go back a ways and explain this a little. I finally finished a short story in January, after months and months of writer's block that made me nuts. It was a very nice feeling, and I personally feel like it's a good story (it doesn't help that other people have told me the same thing, either). Anyway, I knew about this contest called the "DragonComet Contest". It's held in Utah every year for children, young adults, and adults. Each of these age groups are divided into poetry and short story sections. They have to be science fiction or fantasy oriented. They also can't contain graphic sex, violence, or language. My story pretty much accidentally fit the criteria, and so I sent it in to the contest pretty much at the last minute possible. Anyway, I went to bed a little after noon on Saturday, and then I woke up at 7 pm on the dot, which was pretty funny, considering that's what time I'd told the person I was talking to before I went to sleep that I'd probably be back. Since I don't recall being the possessor of an internal alarm clock, I thought that was pretty funny. I made my way downstairs and checked the dining room table for any new mail that might have appeared while I was sleeping on the way to the computer. I was rather surprised to find that my submission to the story contest was back already. Even though the deadline was the 15th of February and I think the convention was a few days after that, for some reason, I wasn't expecting to have it returned to me so soon. But there it was, on the table. So I picked it up and opened it, not really expecting anything other than my returned story and maybe some marked comments on the story, because I have no idea how they judge those things. I wanted to see if there were any comments, though, so I opened it eagerly. There was the expected story, and two other pieces of paper. The top sheet was interesting. It listed the winners of the contest. I kind of skimmed down to the section I cared about, the Adult Short Story section winners. And there, listed last, was my story and my name! I got an honorable mention in the convention. Now, I suppose there could only have been 7 entrants to that section, but I'm going to assume otherwise and bask in my award-esque kind of thing. The second sheet of paper turned out to be a certificate of acknowledgement kind of thing. It had my name, the title of the story, and Honorable Mention on a nice sheet of paper with a little dragon on it and it was signed by... some official person. All in all, I was rather pleased, since I wasn't expecting to win, and it's the first time I've ever even come close to winning an award for my writing, really. It was a very nice day. Of course, I haven't even been awake for 12 hours yet, I haven't gotten any writing done today, nor have I really done much of anything, actually, but I'm willing to declare it a good day anyway. On the writing front, I did write something like 3000 words in February, which is apparently almost a whole chapter. If I was less of a slacker, I could have probably finished the chapter I'm working on already, but I just haven't felt motivated to do so lately. Perhaps because it's kind of violent and rather depressing. Well, maybe I'll see if I can find some inspirational music to put on my new mini-disc player (another new thing you don't really need to hear about since this entry seems long enough to me as it is), stop playing these oddly attractive Gamesville games (a place I haven't visited in longer than I can remember until yesterday), and do some writing. In a non-diary fashion, that is. Happy Almost-March. It's not cold any more. Or not so much anyway. Rejoice! Feeling lucky? Choose an Entry At RANDOM! Yes. Random. Randomosity is cool...come on, you know you want to... Well, if you don't subscribe to peer pressure, then just go Back or Forward with the Dragons below:
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And I like it that way.
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