Done!

Today I finally did what I've been talking about doing for ages and ages. I self-published my novel on Amazon as an ebook. I wish I could say I'm excited. I wish I could say I feel like I accomplished something. Okay, maybe I'm a little excited, but mostly I'm nervous.

What if I missed some glaring typos? What if the fact that I put it under my own name causes an issue? What if I decide later that I want to change something that happens in the story? Ahh!

Okay, Joy, calm down. Of course it isn't perfect. It's a creative work, and no piece of art is "perfect" because art is subjective. Also, I can do better with the sequel. (Yep, the sequel is already in the planning stages.)

What did I learn from my first complete novel writing experience?

• Writing a rough draft is easy. It's the revision and editing that take the most time and cause the most anxiety. 
• Beta readers are a nice idea, but, well...all my friends have very busy lives. The feedback that I did get from them was valuable, though. 
• It helps to take notes. No matter how well I thought I knew my story, I would forget little details along the way. It helps to make a document map to easily reference what I've written before. 
• I'm not as horrible at writing as I thought I was. 
• I'm not as good at writing as I thought I was. 
• I have a thing with adverbs. I used WAY too many in the first drafts. Especially the words "just" and "really." Really, who needs all that nonsense cluttering up the prose? 
• I'm also in love with incomplete sentences. 

I also learned some things about myself. Writing is nice therapy. Sometimes I would find myself writing something and realize a connection with my real life that I never thought about before. I think everyone should write a novel. It's kind of an eye-opening experience. 

Overall, I guess I'm satisfied. I didn't write this novel because I wanted to make money or show off my mad writing skills. I wrote it because I love to write and don't want to be afraid to share my writing with others. (I used to harbor a unreasonable fear of people reading my work. I would only work late at night when there was no chance of someone looking over my shoulder.) 

Well...bust out the confetti, I guess. 

I'm excited to see what happens next. 

(By the way, the title is The Legend of Blaerick Blackheart. That is, if you're interested.) 

I Dub Thee...

Some of the world's most famous authors have written under a pseudonym, including JK Rowling, Stephen King, and Michael Crichton. Now, I don't plan on becoming a world-famous author, but I have been contemplating the benefits of publishing my work under another name.

All of my friends and I hold strong religious convictions, so we limit what we allow ourselves to enjoy as recreation. Of course, everyone's conscience is different. I really don't want to offend anyone. That's one of the major benefits of writing under an assumed name, I think. But am I worrying too much about that? My friends all understand that consciences vary. Besides that, while my book does have some less than pleasant things happen in it, I don't think it's particularly graphic. But that's just me. Hmm..

Another benefit of a pseudonym is the freedom to pick my own name. Haha. The possibilities are endless. I'm tempted to pick something really outrageous.

I found a fun pseudonym generator online (here is the link if you want to play with it). What do you think of the name Fey Jarret? Norby Gustafson? Chastity Von Hoffman? Then again, I am a writer. I should be able to come up with my own pen name, right?

Would you believe that wikihow has a guide on how to come up with a pseudonym? Apparently, for my genre, I should use initials. How does J.E. Nelson sound? Boring, I know. How about E.J. Nell? Too funny. How about H.L. Nelson? Happy because my first name is Joy, and Lizzy because my middle name is Elizabeth.

Or should I keep my own name? I mean, I've already told basically everyone I know that I plan on self-publishing my novel. Most of my friends aren't avid readers, anyway, so I should be too frantic about the effect the content might have. Plus, I rather like my name.

I have to decide soon. I have two and half more chapters to edit. Then I have my final read-through to weed out as many little typos as possible. And then...drumroll please...I am going to publish!

NaNoWriMo...Nah

November is National Novel Writing Month. It challenges aspiring novelists to complete a 50,000 word rough draft in 30 days. I discovered NaNoWriMo when I was in middle school and I was positively titillated by the prospect. I have never been a NaNoWriMo winner, and this is another year that it won't happen.

I have written 50,000 words in less than 30 days before, so I have no compunctions about my giveuppance in this instance. I don't need a t-shirt to prove that I'm a novelist, nor do I need to have my inbox flooded with pep-talks from other writer. I haven't read any of the pep talks, but I imagine that they focus on artsy-fartsy things like the beauty of writing and the satisfaction of finishing something, and the need to carry on even when inspiration is miles away. Who has time to read that stuff? No offense, NaNoWriMo.

Furthermore, I have other projects filling my November. I am starting a course in Chinese (super-duper excited for this). I am enduring hours of Christmas music at my retail job. Can that really be considered a project? I feel like it is. Aye, aye, aye. Oh, and I'm also still attempting to edit my novel.

On the last project, I admit that it has been the subject of my negligence lately. Sigh. However, my goal to have it completed by the end of 2013 stands. I invested too many hours in that bad boy to let it fall into the annals of the uncompleted now. You see, this is like my pep talk to myself, so if you don't read it, I understand. ; )

I'm on project and personal life overload, I feel, and NaNoWrimo don't got no place in there (I say as I bobble my head). NaNoWriMo is a great motivator for writers who have trouble spinning out a completed rough draft or those who hare looking for a writing launchpad. It's also a fun idea. The sense of community is nice. However, I am making November my novel editing/bunch of other stuff month.

I started on a novel for NaNoWriMo this year, and I'm almost halfway to the 50,000 word goal. I may or may not ever finish it. Oh well. I don't mind if that one falls into the annals of the uncompleted. It was fun while it lasted.

9 More Things You Didn't Know About the English Language

Gear up, nerds! English is a strange and unfathomable form of communication. Here are some more useless and fascinating facts about it.

• "uncopyrightable" is the longest word in common usage that contains no letter more than once. 
• A sentence that has all 26 letters of the alphabet in it is called a "pangram." Here's an example: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Why is there even a word for that, seriously? 
• We can find 10 words in the 7-letter word "therein" without rearranging any of its letters: the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.
• The longest word with only one vowel is "strengths."
• The longest one-syllable word is "screeched." 
• There are no real English words that rhyme with any of the following: month, silver, angel, orange, and bulb. Beware, couplet writers!
• It's generally agreed that "the sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is English's toughest tongue twister. Good thing I don't know many sick sheiks or sixth sheeps. 
• The words "silent" and "listen" contain all the same letters. 
• There used to be a word in the dictionary without a meaning. The word was "Dord" and it got there because of an error. I love it. That poor word. We should give it a meaning and get it back into the dictionary! 

Sources:

http://www.englishclub.com/interesting-facts/

http://voxy.com/blog/index.php/2013/02/10-interesting-facts-about-the-english-language/

http://www.makemegenius.com/cool_facts.php?mId=56

Old Words and Old Meanings

For someone who speaks so little, I sure like words. I like to learn about the history of words. Sometimes it adds to their richness. Other times its just amusing. I found a fun webpage that lists words that have changed meaning over time. Here are some common words along with their old meanings.

• Abandon--subdue or subjugate
• Accent--to sing
• Actual--pertaining to an action
• Afford--to go forward
• Amuse--to distract for the purpose of misleading
• Balderdash--a frothy liquid
• Basement--toilet
• Bellboy--the boy who rang a ship's bell. 
• Brave--described a showy or gaudy person
• Coil--a noisy disturbance
• Disclose--to open a hatch
• Emphasis--appearance
• Evil--uppity
• Forehead--An expression easily conveyed by the face
• Girl--a young person of either sex
• Harlot--a vagabond or beggar
• Heartburn--referred to someone full of hatred
• Hilarity--simple cheerfulness or calm joy. 
• Infant--not able to speak
• Keister--a suitcase or satchel
• Last--highest, utmost

Of course, most words probably have old meanings, and if someone used those words intending to communicate the old meaning, we would be utterly baffled. Well, English is baffling anyway. Almost as baffling as Chinese. But that's another story. 

Just a Few Thoughts

The revision and editing process for my novel is turning out to be more laborious than I bargained for. First I needed to fix the plot--streamline it, make sure all the conflicts came to a conclusion of sorts. It involved a lot of index cards (I summarized each scene on a card so I could get perspective on the overall story), a hand sore from writing, and quite a bit of glaring at my computer screen wishing the story would fix itself. Eventually, though, I got that done.

Now I'm on to more intricate work which, I must admit, tests my patience. I constantly have to look up words to make sure I used them correctly, switch words around, smooth out clunky sentences, fix the rhythm of individual scenes and paragraphs. I discovered that in the rough draft of my manuscript, the word "just" occurs nearly four hundred times. That's four hundred "just"s out of a total of roughly 98,000 words. I just justed myself crazy! I also used the word "obviously" 20 times, which I think is obviously just too much.

So I slog through my novel, one paragraph at a time, analyzing, comparing, rewriting, second guessing myself, wishing I had more patience, and trying to convince myself that it will never be perfect.

I've learned a lot about my writing habits and where I need to improve (I keep hearing the voice of my eighth grade English teacher in my head. She composed a dirge for "dead" verbs that she didn't want us to use in our writing.) I'm also losing patience because reading through my novel makes me itch to write the rest of the story. I'm planning a series of at least four books featuring the same main character. But it's going to be so much work! Whine. Whine. Whine.

While I muddle through the revision process, I eagerly await feedback from my beta readers, and I hope they don't point out anything super major that requires a total remodel of my manuscript. My goal was to get this beasty done by the end of October, but now I'm thinking I may have to push my deadline back a little. It'll definitely be done by the end of the year, even if it means I have to self-publish a wreck of a book.

Well, we'll see how things go.

That's it for today's ramble. I'm not sure if anything I just wrote has a point to it.

Name that Color!

The visible spectrum of light makes the world beautiful, and word-lovers work hard to give every shade a unique name. Every wander through the paint aisle just to giggle at the ridiculous names of colors? Me neither. But now that the thought occurs to me...haha. Okay, I don't have time for that, but I did have time to browse through my book,  The Bibliophile's Dictionary and discover some awesome color words. 

• argent--silver
• carmine--red, purplish-red, or crimson
• cerise--bright red, cherry red. French for cherry. (My car's name is currently Cherry. Do you think I should change it to Cerise?)
• glaucous--dull or pale, grayish-, bluish-, or yellowish-green.
• heliotrope--reddish purple
• madder--bright red, reddish-purple, crimson.
• roseate--rose-colored. Now you can tell people to take off their roseate glasses. 
• rufous--brownish-red, rust-colored
• subfusc--a somber, dark, or dusky color. 
• titian--reddish yellow or auburn
• verdure--the lush, vibrant green of flourishing vegetation 
• viridescent--green or slightly green.

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain...yeah, we're going to have to come up with a longer mnemonic. 

The Origins--Maybe--of 7 Common Phrases

Ever say a common phrase and then pause to wonder, "where did that come from, anyway?" Here are some interesting stories about things we might say every day.

"Rule of Thumb"
Legend has it that a bully of a judge back in the 17th century gave the go-ahead for husbands to beat their wives using a stick--as long as the stick was no wider than a thumb. Okay, so in truth, the phrase probably just came into being because carpenters and tailors measured things in thumb-lenghts. But that's not nearly as interesting as the first story.

"Basket Case"
Soldiers who lost all their limbs in a war would have to be carried around in a basket, right? Yeah, that's kind of gruesome, and there is no way of telling if that's where this phrase actually came from. Ugh.

"Bust Your Chops"
Mutton chops. Punched in the face. Chops busted, right? Uh...maybe. Whoever thought mutton chops looked cool, anyway?

"Butter You Up"
Apparently back in the way way back days of India, people threw balls of butter at statues of gods. They did this to seek favor. I can think of much better uses for butter.

"Humble Pie"
In the Middle Ages, when a lord held a feast, he of course got the best cut of meat. The not-so-privileged folks received a pie filled with the innards and entrails, or the "umbles." Yum...

"Saved by the Bell"
People used to be buried in coffins connected to a bell. Thus, if a not-dead person woke up underground, he could ring the bell and and call someone to the rescue.

"Go the Whole 9 Yards"
During World War II, a 9-yard chain of ammunition went to each fighter pilot. When a pilot used the entire chain, therefore, he went "the whole 9 yards."

Of course, it's not very likely that all these things are true--there are oodles of different theories on where the phrase "raining cats and dogs" came from. Still, next time you're saved by the bell or have to eat humble pie, you'll have something new to think about.



Sources:
http://www.cracked.com/article_16108_the-bizarre-history-10-common-sayings.html
http://list25.com/25-common-sayings-and-where-they-came-from/

Too Tall to Hide Behind My Mother

I've always been shy.

I was the kid who hid behind my mother when people tried to talk to me. Of course, that just made them want to talk to me more. Why does that happen?

In school, I hardly ever said a word. In kindergarten, I was so shy that I couldn't even ask to go to the bathroom (you know how that turned out). In first grade, they divided the class into three groups based on how well we could read. I received the honor being in the lowest level because I never volunteered to read anything out loud. Eventually the teacher figured it out and moved me to the highest level.

My shyness still gets me into trouble. For example, there was the charming but quiet young man who lamented that he wished I would talk to him more. Our conversations consisted of a lot of awkward silences and nervous smiles.

I find it difficult to make eye contact with people. I have nervous habits (I fiddle with my jewelry, my hair, anything within reach) and I never know what to say. Well, almost never. Once in a while there is a miracle and I have a conversation that is completely non-awkward.

Now I'm too tall to hide behind my mother, and I demand restroom breaks when necessary. Progress, right?

Here are a few things that have helped me along the way:

• Good friends. When I was really young, I think I only had friends because I never said anything. They could talk all they wanted and I wouldn't interrupt. Later I met awesome people who took the time to get to know me, as much as I resisted. I love outgoing people who boss me around and try to shove me out of my shell. 
• Having something to say. Okay, this doesn't always happen. Sometimes even when I think in advance about what I can talk about, the conversation totally falls flat. That is, unless I'm out in the ministry (and speaking English)--then things go more smoothly.
• Growing up. It happens to everyone. Bummer. 
• Taking care of myself. I admit, I haven't been doing a great job of this lately, but when I eat healthy foods, exercise regularly, and have fun picking out my outfits, I feel a lot more inclined to talk to people. 
• Cultivating a positive outlook. I don't like to admit it when I'm feeling sad or annoyed or frustrated,  so I just don't say much of anything. Keeping Joy joyful is something I really need to work at. 
• Focusing on other people. 

I'm rather tired of being shy. I don't mind spending time alone, but sometimes I think I'm alone too much. Everything becomes me, me, me until I get out and get in touch with people. It's an awful feeling. I get tired of me. 

I guess I'll just keep working, then...

14 Great Places to be From

I love where I live now. It's quiet, safe-ish, relatively clean, and I always have a spot to park my car. When I lived in Hoquiam, WA, I wasn't so happy. My friends there are fabulous, but the town itself screams blah. The weather is usually gray, a lot of the neighborhoods are falling apart, and Wal-Mart is the social hub. Yes, Hoquiam is a great place to be from. 

Image via Flickr by davsutmul

Here are some other great places to be from, but for different reasons. I just find the names amusing.

• Boring, Oregon
• Fart, Virginia
• Poopoo, Hawaii
• Hello, Michigan
• Embarrass, Minnesota
• Normal, Illinois
• No Name, Colorado
• Hot Coffee, Mississippi
• Accident, Maryland
• Truth or Consequences,  New Mexico
• Looneyville, Texas
• Why, Arizona
• Dismal, Tennessee
• Boogertown, North Carolina.  

Admit it. You'd love to meet new people and tell them you're from Boogertown or No Name. There are plenty of other strange town names out there. A few of them make me blush to even think about. 

What are some other great places to be from? 

Sources:

http://voices.yahoo.com/top-50-cities-funny-names-all-around-the-2931257.html?cat=16

http://www.aarp.org/travel/destinations/info-06-2012/us-cities-funny-names.html

Really? A Beta Reader?

I've been working somewhat obsessively on revising my novel. The story is an idea that's been stuck in my head for years, and I've written at least half a dozen rough drafts of this thing, starting when I was about fifteen years old. I've decided that it's finally time to let my story poke its head out into the light, regardless of how scared I am.

Most of the advice I read about revising a novel suggests recruiting a few beta readers to nit pick over things like plot and character development, grammar and syntax, and all the other elements that come together to make a novel. I probably won't be ready for beta readers for at least another few weeks, but I've been thinking about the traits of a good beta reader.

Here are some of the things that I would like to have in a beta reader:

• Someone who seriously wants to help improve my story. Not someone who wants to make my story into their story. 
• An eye for details is a must. I think a few of my characters might undergo some startling changes that I failed to notice, like a change in eye color or height. They also need to be quick to recognize holes in the plot.
• Someone who notices if all my sentences start the same way, or if I use the same phrase so many times that it loses its impact. 
• Time. A beta reader should have time or make time to read my story before I succumb to old age. 
• I want my beta readers to feel free to express themselves on anything they feel takes away from the story, but they also need to say what their favorite elements of the story were. 
• Make a big deal out of cliches--nothing makes a writer seem so boring. 

The bottom line is that a beta reader needs to be honest, detail-oriented, and excited about the task put to him or her. Otherwise, the writer ends up with a mediocre story.

The thing that terrifies me about asking someone I know to help me revise my novel is that they might make assumptions about me. That's horrifying.  

Oh well. What's the worst that could happen? *Shudder* 

After I have a few beta readers look over my story I'll writer another blog post about how it went. To be continued...

Eight Fascinating Facts about Coffee

I do not give the sun permission to rise until I have had my coffee, and I know I'm far from alone when I express that sentiment. In honor of that precious liquid, I scoured the Internet and found some worthy facts about the best beverage in the world.

• The king of England banned coffee houses in 1675. They were just convenient meeting places for people to conspire against him. 
• Coffee beans are actually seeds that grow inside a lovely red berry. 

Image via Flickr by Scot Nelson

• After oil, coffee is the most commonly traded commodity on Earth. 
• One of the founding fathers of the United States invented instant coffee. Okay, not really, but his name was George Washington. I'm not sure if we should be grateful to him. 
• In WWII, American servicemen, GI Joes, earned a reputation as big coffee drinkers. Hence, we have the term "cup of joe."
• 100 cups of coffee in one day will kill you. Not a bad way to go, but still, keep an eye on how much you consume. 

Image via Flickr by Pete Simon

• "Cappuccinos" are called such because the drink resembles the clothing of Capuchin monks.  
• According to legend, the effects of coffee first got noticed when some goats ate the berries and started to go bonkers. Well, hyper, anyway, if not completely bonkers. 

Okay, now I want a big, delicious cup of coffee. 

Check out these links for more fascinating facts about coffee: 

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/coffee

http://coffeeloversunited.com/17-fun-facts-about-coffee-some-weird-interesting-untold-coffee-facts/ 

http://www.rd.com/slideshows/10-weird-facts-about-coffee/#slideshow=slide2

A Shout Out to Obscure Superheroes

A lot of the people I know are in an uproar because Ben Affleck is going to be the next silver screen Batman. I'm not overly appalled by the news, but some people might think that Mr. Affleck might be better suited to play the role of one of the following obscure superheroes.

• Matter-Eat Lad. He can eat anything. Yes, anything. He might come in handy if you ever attend a dinner party where all the food is burnt. 
• Arm Fall Off Boy. This super fella can detach his own limbs. Super useful if he ever gets worried about making his weight for the wrestling team. But honestly, you'd think DC could have come up with a name that we can say with a straight face. This makes me think of the Where the Wild Things Are, when one of the characters loses an arm and exclaims, "That was my favorite arm!" Hehe. 
• The Color Kid. Okay, I adore this one. He can change the color of things. He could save the world from rose-colored glasses because, well, he could make everything actually rose-colored. I want his power. 
• Normalman. Yep, he's normal all around. No superpowers. But he does live in a world where everyone else has superpowers. That makes him special, right? His buddy Captain Everything is less special--he does have superpowers. 
• Squirrel Girl. She can control squirrels. Okay, definitely not a role for Ben Affleck. 
• The Creeper. A heroic Joker with powers who is completely off his rocker. 
• Machine Man. A sentient robot whose human cover is as an insurance investigator. 

Do you have any favorite superheroes that no one has ever heard of--or superheroes that no one should ever hear of? Ooh, or great ideas for superpowers? 

Sources:

http://www.weirdworm.com/10-weird-superheroes-you-might-not-have-heard-about/

http://www.chacha.com/gallery/2119/what-are-some-obscure-superheroes/17004

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2013/01/top-10-obscure-superheroes-who-deserve-their-own-movies/

The First Draft of Anything is Poo

In kindergarten, I was beyond excited when I learned that we would get to write books! Imagine my disappointment when I learned that everyone in the class had to write the same book and draw the same pictures. Lame! I wanted to write my own story. Grr...I never quite got over that one. When it happened, though, I decided that one day I would become a bestselling author. It hasn't happened yet, but I'm still slightly obsessed with writing stories. 

My problem is that I write and write and write--and I don't like to revise or edit. And really, writing quality prose is mostly about rewriting. But I don't even like to read what I've written, let alone bother fixing it. I really should, though, because I invest countless hours laboring on these stories and I ought to make them good enough for other people to read. 

Right now I'm working on a series of novels, and I'm almost done with the rough draft of the first installment in the series (I already finished the rough draft of the fourth book in the series. I know, it wasn't the smartest thing to start near the end). I'm already dreading the revising and editing process. 

To give myself some motivation and remind myself that I really do want to finish my current project, I found some nifty go-getter quotes. 

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." Mark Twain

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader." Robert Frost

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." Anton Chekhov 

'The first draft of anything is poo.' Ernest Hemingway. Okay, that's not an exact quote, Guess which word I changed? See, I'm practicing editing already. 

"Always be a poet, even in prose." Charles Baudelaire 

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." Jack London

"Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open." Stephen King, On Writing. I think that means I should consider getting some beta readers. Eek! 

That's about all of my writerly brooding musings for today. I promise that not everything I post will be about writing or words or English. 

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/writing

9 Things You Didn't Know About the English Language

The English language is notorious for its convoluted nature and snooty attitude. Really, we don’t need all 600,000 words or all those silly rules that everyone ignores anyway. If I want to end a sentence with a preposition, I will end a sentence with.

Yes, English is silly, but I love it and all its endearing (and oftentimes annoying) quirks. Take a look at some of those quirks and get better acquainted with your mother tongue.

•   The ampersand was the 27^th letter of the alphabet. The symbol itself is more than a thousand years old, but it only received its modern name in the 1800s. When children recited the alphabet, they ended it with “and per say and,” which over time became “ampersand.”
• The word “checkmate” owes its existence to the Persian phrase “shah mat,” which means, “the king is helpless."
•   The fun little dot over “I” and “j” is called a “superscript dot” or a “tittle.”
•  “Bookkeeper” and “bookkeeping” are the only unhyphenated words in English with 3 consecutive sets of double letters.
• We pronounce “ough” in 9 different ways.
• Want a challenge? Write a lipogram, a piece of work that does not contain the letter “e.”
•   The longest word in which all the letters are in alphabetical order is “almost.”
• Estimates vary about just how many words dear old Bill Shakespeare invented (depending on how you define “a new word”), but it was bucketfuls. We owe words like “champion,” “courtship,” “assassination,” and “hint” to the Bard.
• “Enormity” and “ironic” are both commonly misused words. Enormity refers to something evil or outrageous. Ironic describes something that is the opposite of what was expected, not just a funny coincidence.

The above are just a sample of the fascinating truths about English. Can you think of other little things that make us love and hate our language?

Sources:

http://www.englishclub.com/interesting-facts/

http://hotword.dictionary.com/ampersand/

http://voxy.com/blog/index.php/2013/02/10-interesting-facts-about-the-english-language/

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html

http://www.ragan.com/Main/Articles/Infographic_10_most_commonly_misused_English_words_43074.aspx

An Introduction to Joy Joy's Jabber

How does one start a blog? I have no idea. Let's dive in!

First, about me. Here are the cliff notes:

• I am so shy it's almost become a talent. 
• I work as a freelance writer but my goal is to publish a novel. 
• I'm struggling to learn Mandarin Chinese. 
• I find it very difficult to establish healthy habits.  
• My religion is a big part of my life, and I spent quite a bit of time volunteering. 
• I'm still in love with the Backstreet Boys. Honestly, how could anyone not be? 

My aim is to use this blog as a tool to get my name out there as a writer--and to have a little fun in the process! Hence, I'll endeavor to provide quality content that doesn't put anyone to sleep (no worries--I'll try to keep my BSB adoration fairly quiet). Well, I think that's sufficient for an introductory post. Brevity is a blessing when there really isn't much to say, right? 

Now the real fun can begin!