Does the Internet Do More Harm Than Good?

Last year, I went to a class composed of several homeschool kids where we learned public speaking and debate.  We started every class with a prompt question and each student would do a one minute speech giving the answer.  The questions were usually nothing that would cause a hot debate, "What did you do this summer?" and the like.  However, one class, we were asked the question, "Does the internet do more bad than good?"  Being homeschool kids, many of the kids in the class gave the expected answers.  "Yes and no." , "I don't know." , and "My mom doesn't let me use the computer."  The kids came to the conclusion that the internet doesn't do much good besides providing information.  Many people have this opinion that the internet does more bad than good.  While there are plenty of bad things on the net, like anything else, it can't all be bad.  But what good does the internet do besides providing information?  For one thing, it allows talented people a unique and new creative outlet.  Tumblr, Blogger, Twitter, Youtube, and many more websites give talent somewhere to live and be displayed to a great, worldwide audience.  I mean without Youtube, we would never have known about Justin Bieber, amirite?  The internet gives us a new way to keep in touch with people through social media. (Which can be good and bad, but that's a whole nother story)  Not even going to mention the amazing amount of Gravity Falls gifs that you can find at the blink of an eye.  At some point in this debate, people will probably say "Yeah, the internet does this, but what does it do to physically help people?"  1. Thank you, Mr. Hypothetical guy from the cultural vacuum.  and
2. You probably have never heard of the Project for Awesome.

The P4A is something that happens every year on the internet and has happened since 2007.  If you've never heard of it, you probably live under a rock and/or are homeschooled.  If you do live under a rock, I'll give you a quick P4A crash course.  Hank Green and John Green are brothers.  Hank Green is a guy that has a really great idea every 3.5 seconds and almost always pulls these ideas off.  You may recognize Hank's name from being the executive producer and creator of the Emmy winning web series "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries"  He is an internet entrepreneur and is great at what he does.  John Green is an incredibly successful author and the host of the educational web series Crashcourse: world history and classic literature.  The brothers share the highly popular Youtube channel, Vlogbrothers, each posting a video almost every week since 2007.  As the Vlogbrothers gained popularity, many fans of the youtube channel began making videos of their own.   This kickstarted a large movement in the Youtube community.  Vlogbrothers fans became known as Nerdfighters.  December 17th, 2007 Nerdfighters took part in an event called Project for Awesome that started with the Green brothers.  P4A was all about giving Youtube creators a chance to lend their talents to a favorite charity.  John and Hank hosted a livestream and Nerdfighters posted and spammed videos to raise awareness for multiple charities and got people to donate to the most popular charities.  The P4A has happened every year since then.  This year, P4A raised more than 800,000 dollars for charity.  They are still taking donations and voting on which charities will receive a fraction of the donations if you want to contribute, you can go to http://www.projectforawesome.com/ and click the DONATE button.  If you don't want to donate, take some time to watch some of the videos and comment.  For every comment, a penny will be donated to the cause as well.

Love,

   Lucy

GG, NaNoWriMo.

It's November 30, 2013.  Time to talk about what we've learned this year, about writing, about ourselves, and about how short a month is.  I've learned that 1,667 words a day is a completely attainable goal for me.  I've learned that trying and failing feels a heck of a lot better than cowering in your boots on Nov. 1st and running for the hills.  I have written 18,000 short of 50k but I'm happy.  I tried and I learned what I need to know to win next year.  I even plan on attempting camp NaNo in the summer and trying some NaNo rewrites on my own during the rest of the year.  I'm happy with what I did.  It's 32,000 words I would have never written otherwise.

Best Wishes, 

              Lucy Lane

20,000 Words and Thoughts on Google+ Fiasco

I hit 20,000 in the car last night on the way to Ft. Worth and yes, I am behind.  I have all week on vacation to catch up and finish, however, so let me have this.

In other news, Google launched a new program that forces Youtube users to connect to Google+ accounts.  If you'll notice, I've already merged my blogger.  It sounds like a small change that can't really affect anything, right?  Wrong.  It has had a large effect in many areas all over the YouTube community.  It has mussed / will muss several brand names, i.e. Meekakitty, Nerimon, Vlogbrothers, Itswaypastmybedtime, Nanalew, Danisnotonfire, Katytastic, Italktosnakes, and many others.  Google+ requires a first and last name to connect and will no longer allow brand usernames like those listed above.  It also has had an effect on the strength and speed of servers.  The plus side?  (Bah dum tsss) It allows a greater connectivity to everything on Google.  Gmail, Google Drive, Calendars, Planners, Maps, and many tools Google has to offer.  It's a good way to have everything in one place and it's a lot cleaner and easy to deal with than Yahoo.  (I may be biased, I recently had to shut down a Yahoo account because it was hacked and there is no way to get back into my account other than answering a question I answered sarcastically when I was twelve and forgot the answer to.  Still kind of mad at Yahoo.)  So what do you think about Google's marketing?

 #randomrants

Lucy

My Story Accidentally Reflecting Real Life and The Grand 10,000!

Before I update you on how it's going, I want to share a funny story about something that happened in my novel.  Instead of taking a long time to think of names for less important characters, I just put dow the first name that comes to mind, sometimes those are names of people I know in real life.  I named a beach bum poser / henchman 'Joshua'  Then I named a small ginger boy 'Jordan'.  In real life, I know a Josh and a Jordan who are brothers.  In a random plot twist, I made Josh a good guy and made him Jordan's older brother before I even thought about it.  (Side note:  The real Josh and Jordan are not Beach Bum posers or Gingers.)  Anyways, I'm just about to hit 10,000 words!

Best Wishes,

Lucy

Knee Deep in NaNoWriMo Nonsense

November 9th also means day nine of NaNoWriMo.  No, NaNo isn't a code name for some kind of drug or questionable pastime.  NaNoWriMo is a yearly endeavor taken on by brave writers all over the world, to write a 50,000 word novel in a month.  I am determined to finish this year, and that's all I have to say on my word count, which you can track with the link somewhere at the bottom of the post. Also, if you follow my Twitter, you'll probably hear a lot about it as well.

Random NaNoInfo:

My book is about a small Route 66 town that is taken over by an evil Magician/Mayor, a girl that the Mayor takes hostage, and a band of boys that try to stop all of this from happening.

The story has several unintentional parallels to Peter Pan, and I'm okay with this.

I have referenced the Goofy Movie twice

Used the phrase Nonsensical Banter once

Used the word shenanigans twice

Referenced Greek Mythology once

Named a sub-chapter "Sleeping bag of Destiny"

My word count is currently 6,192 as I write this, subject to change as soon as this is published.  I update my count HERE

Until next time,

Lucy Lane

True Love: Godly View Vs. What Culture Teaches Us

      Love, true love, is not the way that you love your lunch.  Not the true love in Cinderella.

Not the way you like that guy and not even the way you love your mom.

True love is unconditional, true love is real.  God loves you with a real love 

While you were yet a sinner.  He loves us more than we can understand, we don't have to earn it, we have to accept it and try, in our futile ways, to love him back by serving him to tell others about his great, real, love.

      Even in the fairy tales, when we often hear about true love, it is never REALLY true.  In Cinderella, The Prince falls in love with a size two ball gown, they hardly talk, and the next day, he can't remember anything about her except how flawless she seems on the outside.  In The original telling of The Little Mermaid, Ariel rescues the prince, gives up her immortality and family name to a man who only likes her for looks and later leaves her for another woman. Furthermore, Snow White AND Aurora are both asleep/dead when the Prince just happens by and then it's like, "Hey, I'm awake, let's get married #TrueLove!" 

      Our view of love has become insanely distorted due to the influence of culture.  We have taken on a worldly view of love and this change has had a large impact on the way we see God.  From the time we first learn of God and every Sunday thereafter, we hear "God loves you." and "He loves you so much." So on and so forth.  But we don't even know what love IS!  Lois Lowry's book "The Giver" states that in the future, love will become so distorted that it will be totally removed from our basic vocabulary.  So what is love?  True love is the willingness to sacrifice for another.  To love someone is to be willing to do whatever you need to do for them.  God's definition of TRUE love is this: to be willing to LAY DOWN ONE'S LIFE for the one you love.  God's love goes BEYOND even that!  By the world's standards, we have to earn love.  God died for us WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS. 

      Before, I mentioned that we must try to love Him back, DO NOT confuse this with trying to earn His love.  Any logical person would agree that it is only natural that when someone loves you to that extent, you love them back.  Not only that, but we are to love others, because God first loved us.