Asrai Devin's Blog, page 2

Obsessions: stock photography

I’m trying to just stick with the free stock photography place stock xchng. Here’s my profile: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/asraidevin

Which you cant’ really see anything at since I don’t really have pictures worth sharing. Light boxes appear to be private.

Anyway, a group I belong to ended up discussing, among other things, being addicted to covers and /or stockphotography. Some people even said they would find pictures they loved and try to write a story for the cover.

Not sure I could do that. Though I did find this picture: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1094532 who made me think of Zack who may or may not be my new hero. I’m working out some kinks with Zack’s plot line. (Which reminds me, if you see me on Twitter ask me if I have been doing my morning pages).

Where was I? Got distracted by the pretty.

I just think up random words to search: passion, love, kiss, rain, hockey, paper. Whatever strikes my fancy. And then I save pictures to my lightbox and then later I look through them and wonder why I saved some of the things I did, then I delete them.

What pictures do you like? What words would you search?

ps. happy birthday to my high school crush. yes I remember things like that!

 

Tagged: Asrai Devin, romance covers, Second Chance Romance, Stock photography, Twitter

Christmas help?

Okay I need some help. I really don’t want more things for Christmas. So I’m thinking of asking my peeps to give to charity in my name.

Now Plan Canada has specific gifts you can buy. You can buy books for schools, newborn baby care, school supplies all the up to water for an entire village or a primary school. There’s tons of stuff. So I’m leaning toward this strongly. check the website, it’s totally cool. Wish with each gift you could see the family or school or village that received the item that was gifted. But, I know, it costs them money which could go to something else.

The other thing I’m consider is Kiva, or another form of microlending. If you google “problem with microloans” you can find out the downsides to microfunding and if it’s really making a difference.

In terms of making a difference on a large scale, I’m not sure.

What do you think is a better way to give your money away? A targeted donation like Plan Canada, a microloan like Kiva or something entirely different?

 

 

Tagged: charity, Christmas, Christmas presents, Education, gifts, giving, joy, Kiva, Primary school

Take a breath

Sit up straight, align your head with your body and take a few deep breaths. You probably need to, I know I do.

Roll your head around a few times (skip looking up to the ceiling if you are worried about that issue). If you can stand up and touch your goes, so a bit of movement and stretching.

Take a few minutes to wake up your body, stretching, get a drink of water. Look out a window, connect with someone. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Tagged: Asrai Devin, Breathing, Meditation, Second Chance Romance, Stretch

The way back machine: What is the internet for? NSFW

the internet is for porn.

Old but still FUNNY AS HELL. You were warned!

The only bad things is that that’s now in my youtube history where my son spends far too much time, so now I have to go spend some time watching safe videos so this doesn’t show up tomorrow.

Tagged: Asrai Devin, snark, The internet is for porn, WoW

Obsessions: Short people problems

If you fit in a group, there is a tumblr for you.

Mine is short people problems. I am 5 feet 2 and a half inches tall. That is 157 and a half centimetres tall.

When you are this tall, those half inches count A LOT.

Most of my shoes are size 5. Except my boots had to be a 7. Which was really funny because my son wears a 7 in shoes and I had to buy him a 5 in boots.

Anyway, I am small.

Working on this!

I learned to hem this week from Pinterest with the original hem. Search it!

I used to be an educational assistant in a grade 5/6 class. The girls were all hitting their growth spurts, and they all loved to come up to me and say “I’m taller than you Mrs. Devin.”

really? I hadn’t noticed. There were days I was afraid Administration would come into the room and wonder where the teacher was. *sigh*

What is your “problem”?

 

Tagged: Asrai Devin, Clothing, Pinterest, Second Chance Romance, Shopping, short people, short people problems, Specialty Sizes, tumblr

What if’s and writing

I was thinking about What Ifs and writing from last week.

Writing is about examining the what ifs. We see a situation and add a what if … spin and come up with an original idea.

Or we find a character we love and throw her into a situation and ask what does she need to grow and change, and what force would be the one to force her outside her comfort zone.

I read once that Tori Amos wrote “Jackie’s Strength” to examine her fears about getting married and what it would be like if she just disappeared.

It’s part of why I wrote Colors of the Rain. I once went to visit a boy who I thought was the love of my life.  He turned out to be terrified once he had gotten what he wanted, me to love him and sleep with him, and I spent two weeks in hell with him. I imagined while I was wandering around some town in South Dakota, can’t recall the name, anyway, I imagined just disappearing. What would it be like? And that question haunted me for years. Until I wrote that story, then it went away.

What ideas do you have that you’d like to explore? Would you, could you explore them through writing, through photography or another form of art?

Tagged: Asrai Devin, Jackie's Strength, Second Chance Romance, Silent All These Years, South Dakota, what if

When you live alone?

I haven’t lived alone in a long time. I wasn’t very good at it. I wasn’t like this however.

 

Things I dislike: names dropping in music

I noticed this phenomena the other day. Not name dropping other artissts, but name dropping the person singing. It’s mostly in duets, but the occasional artist will name themselves (or Jagger).

Examples:

Shakira and Beyonce in Beautiful Liar. (I like the song)

Justin Beiver and Nicki Minaj in Beauty and the Beat (also Nicki Minaj in Super Bass).

J-Lo ft. Pitbull in Get on The Floor.

I found a whole list of songs who reference OTHER bands/artists etal. You can read that list here: http://www.songfacts.com/category-songs_that_mention_other_musicians_in_the_lyrics.php

I think it’s just such a weird trend. Every time it happens I think “well no one is ever going to remake that song”. And then I realize that hopefully, none of these songs that I’m listening to are going to be considered decent listening in 10 years. I’m still coming to terms with 90′s music being called “classic”. I am not that old for my music to be CLASSIC Rock already. no no no.

Any music trends that bug you? Or that you like?

Tagged: Asrai Devin, Lyrics, Music, Nicki Minaj, Second Chance Romance, Super Bass

Obsession: Texts from my dog

Maybe this would be better titled: random shit that makes me laugh.

texts from my dog is one of those guilty pleasures, I don’t even feel that guilty about.

dog texts owner: Fun day. I ran around the house in a cape. I”M BATDOG.

owner: where did you get the cape?

dog: i think roleplaying alleviates my boredom.

owner: WHERE DID YOU GET THE CAPE?

dog: I ripped the curtains down. Why can’t you just be happy for me?

*snark*

http://textfromdog.tumblr.com/

Tagged: Asrai Devin, Dog, Humor, Second Chance Romance, text dog, texts from my dog

All the what ifs in the world

My WIP is a big What If … book. I have a thing for “soul mates” who have been separated by time and their own misconceptions (see: Second Chance Romance) who get back together later.

And then I was surfing Facebook and came across a friend from university (I only attended one year and then dropped out) who I had a huge crush on but he was dating someone else and I sorta dated his friend (this was part of why I dropped out). And I think, I think, he liked me as well, but y’know it was what it was, and we never got together.

My mind was wandering like, what if we had dated. Not in a, I wish it were so, kind of way, but in a, what might have happened differently.

Possibly the same things that actually did happen, because I had a lot of issues that I didn’t deal well with. We might have ended in just as a big a train wreck and I would have dropped out and moved home anyway.

Do you ever indulge in the “What if ….” thinking/daydreaming?

Related articles

Relationship Regret: The Case of the ‘What Ifs?’

 

Tagged: Asrai Devin, Dropping out, Facebook, life's questions, Romance, romance novels, Second Chance Romance, Social network, WIP (AM)