Mad Hatter Day // a Mad Tea Party link up

What am I supposed to say by way of introduction? Oh, yes. 

How d'ye do? *shakes hands*

Strangely, I tend to find things out via Instagram. Even when global disasters happen, Instagram is like my evening news? [Sorta] So yesterday I found out from Cait @ Paper Fury's insta post [follow her insta; she's frabjous!] that there's a MAD HATTER DAY?! Why was I not informed of this sooner? Why is this not a national holiday or something? 

 

HATS! 

MADNESS! 

Oh, in case you wondered, such a day happens to be today. The 6th of October [apparently Britain celebrates their madness on a different day]. You can read more about it here. 

So I found some quizzes for you. Much fun. There's a which AiW character are you quiz. Most of the test-your-knowledge quizzes were very easy, but this one was excellent and I actually learned something.

To celebrate, I have a last minute link-up for you. Tag style. So let me throw some riddles at you, and I'll leave it open until the 19th of October. [Some of the references might be more obscure because. . . I've read the book too many times.]

1. How many hats do you have?

2. If you saw a white rabbit would you

a. ask him the time of day

b. follow him down his hole

c. fetch his gloves for him

d. paint the roses red

3. Who are you?

4. At parties, your preferred choice of entertainment is

a. a recitation of You Are Old, Father William

b. croquet, of course! You always win

c. dancing the Lobster Quadrille

d. tea, a tea party with you, yourself, and the dormouse

5. Why is a raven like a writing desk?

6. Your thoughts on talking?

a. You can talk, when there's somebody worth talking to

b. It isn't manners for you to begin the conversation

c. The flowers talk too

d. You prefer talking to yourself

 

7. Define or describe a jabberwocky.

8. Your thoughts on words?

a. You should say what you mean

b. Words have a temper. . . particularly verbs, they're the proudest

c. When you make a word do a lot of work, you always pay it extra

d. 'Glory' means 'a nice knock-down argument'

 

9. Have you spoken with Time recently? Are you on good terms with him?

10. At school, you learned

a. French, music, and washing

b. the different branches of Arithmetic -- Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision

c. Mystery, ancient and modern

d. Laughing and Grief

11. Who stole the cherry tarts?


 

12. Your favorite poem in AiW is

a. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat

b. The Jabberwocky

c The Walrus and the Carpenter

d. none, you'd rather repeat a piece written entirely for our amusement

 

13. Choose a come-back.

a. Your hair wants cutting

b. I shouldn't know you if we did meet again; you're so exactly like other people

c. Who's making personal remarks now?

d. Off with your head!

14. The best advice you'd ever given/heard

a. you've a right to think

b. you're sure to get somewhere if you only walk long enough

c. everything's got a moral if you can just find it

d. speak in French when you can't think of the English for a thing, turn out your toes when you walk, and remember who you are!

 

15. What best describes you?

a. you don't know; you've changed several times since this morning

b. you breathe when you sleep and you sleep when you breathe

c. you're murdering time

d. you wouldn't be here if you weren't mad

16. Do you know the conversation between the Unicorn and Alice?

*whispers* If you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you. Is it a bargain then?

Life Update because I know you care // Starting Sparks

SURPRISE! #notdead

Yeah, so. I'll make this quick because people are nagging me to do things. Actually, technically all of society, culture, whatever entity name you want to give "them" is screaming at me to be some kind of productive citizen in life by their own standards. And I'd just rather not.

Mostly because I'm "supposed to." If it weren't for that, then I'd probably be a productive citizen if there wasn't such an. . . unspoken outcry for it.

Am I even making sense? 

Aw, well. So my life has mostly been consumed by work and college. Weekends are dedicated to study. I pretend like I try to have some sort of social life? Or like I want a social life? I don't know. I do sort of need friends because I want to do things, but I'm scared to do things by myself. Even though I did actually go to some swing dancing thing the other night. I came close to chickening out to an estimated 9.3 million times, but I don't know anyone who would go with me. So I took the beginner lesson and sat and watched people dance for the remainder of the evening. And I felt mildly guilty because I should've been studying. But I was also angstily rejoicing because I didn't want to study at all. 

 

I love learning, but I can't stand school this semester. There are too many people. *shivers* And I don't have time to do the things I want to do. Like blog. Read. Write. Talk with you wonderful people. Practice guitar. Watch movies. Stay home and do WHATEVER I WANT!

*cough* You get the point. 

I'm also working in the writing lab at the college now. So I second guess everything that I read and write [excluding this post, because I am not going to let myself]. I end up over-analyzing even the things that I know are right, so I then get things wrong.

I have to study.

So it's a new month! Starting Sparks is here. So have the button.

The prompt for October. We need more dragons in life.

 

Have a great week, month, LIFE! And write like a fiend!

 How are you? Are you and life on speaking terms or at odds?

Starting Sparks: September // Survey Results // Music Monday

Hello, everyone! August bordered on insanity. . . so September is insanity. I know this is supposed to be the introduction, but I stink at introductions. 

You remember that survey I made for you? Well, I thought you might enjoy seeing the results! I guess most bloggers do pie charts. I hate graphs in any form. Apparently, pie charts are fun? So I'll allow you at least one.

 

 You're welcome.

Also, I'm linking up with Lauren @ Always Me for Music Monday. One of my Switchfoot albums cracked, so in memory of my Learning to Breathe, here's the title track.

Thank you for actually doing the survey! The six of you. You're awesome.

Only two of admitted to being a strawberry croissant. *high fives* You're cool with me.

Surprisingly, 4:6 [or two-thirds] of you like reviews. I don't even post reviews often. So maybe I ought to do more?

How many of you like blue for the blog color? It was a 2:2:2 split [sssh, you can split a pie thirds].

A third of you are suspicious Erudites.
[These are the cool kids.] 

A third of you think blue is a sad color.
[ O.o How did you wind up here?] 

A third of you think blue is sad for deep people; therefore, blue is ideal.
[You-- I like you.]

Someone thinks I should get a schedule for my posts and be normal. Normal?! No way. Have you seen normal people these days?  

Or should we consider if normal even exists?

I'll share a few of the books you recommended so that everyone can check them out.

The Blackthorn by Kevin Sands

Howl's Moving Castle

Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness

The Unwind series by Neal Shusterman

The Lies of Lamora 

Jackaby

The Goldfinch

Harry Potter

The Great Gatsby

How Green was My Valley

Skulduggery Pleasant

I'm excited to look into some of these! 

By of way, we're all dragons here, excluding the normal person. [Don't worry, we love you too.]

 [I'm about to share the whole album with you.]

Things You Associate with [insert title here]

blue and Sherlock gifs

Thank you. *bows*

happiness, Sherlock, and friendship

Aw! Thank you! *hugs*

books, Beautiful People posts, and your comments everywhere

I'm not sure what the comment about my comments mean? But thanks!

Starting Sparks and Oddball

AH! You actually remember Oddball and Co.! You rock. :)

[I'll have to summarize this one. . .]

absolute hilarity, comments make my day, I love Oddball, Calvin and Hobbes/Sherlock gif usage good 

Thank you so much! Everything, even the other things too. :D *hugs*

You all are the best! We're like a really small gang. . . OF ASGARDIAN WARRIORS!

Most all of you understand that reference. But only one of you shared your favorite fandoms? I would love to hear what you have to say about the things you enjoy. Tell me in the comments!

So under the advice/suggestions section someone mentioned changing the blog background from blue to white. I've been mulling over exactly that since January. I like my blog blue because, well, I like blue. Also I follow a lot of people who have white backgrounds, and I love their blogs, including the blog design. But sometimes I want a change; I need something different. For me, the white is really bright. Maybe I'm just weird. So I decided to have a blue blog so I could be the something different that I wanted. Buuut, as the Mystery Woman mentioned, white is cleaner and more professional. So I compromised. Light blue is still blue, but almost white, right? 

Someone else said YOU ROCK! I'm not sure if that's advice [unless you want me to keep rocking]? But who cares? YOU ROCK TOO!

Thank you again for taking the survey! You all rock.

Also, Emily @ Ink, Inc. and I have a new Starting Sparks prompt for you! Sorry I'm slacking on the prompt side of things.

Here's your button:

And here's the prompt for September!

 

Write like a fiend!