Kaminari!

Holy crow there have been some inTENTS storms lately! :) And I love them! It's been awhile since I've seen/heard lighting/thunder and it was incredible last night! I counted seconds, and the lightning was about 5 miles away, but the thunder literally shook the house. WHOA. And the rain! WOO! In the middle of the storm that lasted all night, I had a craving for Oreos so I went out and ran over to the Sunkus convenient store. As soon as I went out there with the lightning all around and the rain pouring and my umbrella I felt extremely foolish and like I could get struck any moment. But it was exciting! haha... what an amazing storm!

But then later I had a panic attack because I ...thought.. about someone who I don't think is good for me to think about, and I sat out on my front step getting soaked and listening to the rain and the storm. It was calming. I wish it stormed like that more often.

And then I thought, "well, the thing that I always did to take my mind off things was play piano, soooo" and so, the only song I wanted to play was something that's not available to buy yet on sheet music. So, I picked it out. yup! Marie Digby's "Spell." It's not too hard. Someone posted just written chords to it, and so that helped out a bit. I am SO made of awesome~

I wore my hair with a middle part yesterday. Curly hair. And it looked good. ^^

I think that Korean lady I met is trying to set me up with her son. Heh... She's insisting I join them for dinner next week. Um..???

I made banana bread and peanut butter cookies for the church cooking activity tonight! Everyone loved them, and they were amazed at how easy they were. yay! WIN!

And the last festival of the season was today! And actually, a lady from church was taking me home and we saw kids dressed up in yukata, so we looked at where they were going, then got her kids, then went to the festival all random-like! It was great! And I even met my students there! Eiko-san and her kids. Awww~ And there was a great dance performance by some kids that I will upload and post later. yay!

Erica, I think i just bought your birthday present! Haha, I didn't really think it would become that, but... ^^ I'll give it to you when you come!

My students want me to come back and teach for another year! Awwwww~~~~ Everyone seems nervous about having another boy for a teacher. That makes two boy teachers, and no girls. hmm..

I bought my plane ticket home!!!!! It cost about $780 US dollars, so I hope nothing better comes along or that would be EPIC*LOSE.

Talk about epic. The following news from Stephenie Meyer is EPIC SAD:

As some of you may have heard, my partial draft of Midnight Sun was illegally posted on the Internet and has since been virally distributed without my knowledge or permission or the knowledge or permission of my publisher.

I have a good idea of how the leak happened as there were very few copies of Midnight Sun that left my possession and each was unique. Due to little changes I made to the manuscript at different times, I can tell when each left my possession and to whom it was given. The manuscript that was illegally distributed on the Internet was given to trusted individuals for a good purpose. I have no comment beyond that as I believe that there was no malicious intent with the initial distribution.

I did not want my readers to experience Midnight Sun before it was completed, edited and published. I think it is important for everybody to understand that what happened was a huge violation of my rights as an author, not to mention me as a human being. As the author of the Twilight Saga, I control the copyright and it is up to the owner of the copyright to decide when the books should be made public; this is the same for musicians and filmmakers. Just because someone buys a book or movie or song, or gets a download off the Internet, doesn't mean that they own the right to reproduce and distribute it. Unfortunately, with the Internet, it is easy for people to obtain and share items that do not legally belong to them. No matter how this is done, it is still dishonest. This has been a very upsetting experience for me, but I hope it will at least leave my fans with a better understanding of copyright and the importance of artistic control.

So where does this leave Midnight Sun? My first feeling was that there was no way to continue. Writing isn't like math; in math, two plus two always equals four no matter what your mood is like. With writing, the way you feel changes everything. If I tried to write Midnight Sun now, in my current frame of mind, James would probably win and all the Cullens would die, which wouldn't dovetail too well with the original story. In any case, I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on Midnight Sun, and so it is on hold indefinitely.

I'd rather my fans not read this version of Midnight Sun. It was only an incomplete draft; the writing is messy and flawed and full of mistakes. But how do I comment on this violation without driving more people to look for the illegal posting? It has taken me a while to decide how and if I could respond. But to end the confusion, I've decided to make the draft available here (at the end of this message on the Midnight Sun page). This way, my readers don't have to feel they have to make a sacrifice to stay honest. I hope this fragment gives you further insight into Edward's head and adds a new dimension to the Twilight story. That's what inspired me to write it in the first place.

I do want to take a moment and thank the wonderful fans who have been so supportive of me over the past three years. I cannot begin to tell you how much each of you means to me. I only hope this note will stop all the confusion and online speculation so that the Twilight universe can once again become the happy escape it used to be. After this incredibly busy year, I am now focusing on spending more time with my family and working on some other writing projects.

--Stephenie

So when I read this, I got really really really upset. Like, almost to tears, then scared because I want to be a writer and it just goes to show that anyone can get burned, and then ...I, I don't know. That probably also contributed to my lets-go-outside-during-the-lightning-storm-and-be-all-emo thing... I mean, Midnight Sun (Twilight from Edward's perspective), was her happyproject. And now she might not ever finish it. Having something taken away from my literary future like that really shook me, took me off guard. :( I mean, I really look up to her, and it makes me sad to see her give up on it. sadsadsad! And even though she posted the draft that got leaked on her site, I encourage everyone to NOT read it, because that's not how she wanted it to be experienced. I admit, I had started to, but now I don't think I can, knowing how she feels about it.

I want to write though. The ideas have been building up for far too long! :)