"Don't be afraid of dying. Be afraid of the unlived life." From Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt.

That is one of my favorite quotes because it's true. Growing old and dying is scary to think of, but it's what happens. What is scarier is not living your life to the fullest. I think everyone just needs to live their life, don't be afraid to do something, go after your dreams no matter how unrealistic they may seem and don't take anything for granted.

We all have good and bad things happen through out our lives, all those bad things that happen teach or help us to learn from our mistakes. Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good, but don't let the bad stop you from living. So, don't be afraid of dying, don't be afraid of this or that, be afraid of not living your life. So, go out there; do what you want to do, live your life, go after your dreams, enjoy life.

Sorry if this post isn't so good, but I love that quote and it made me think and inspired me to write something like this.

"Candidates for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize include a Russian human rights group, a Chinese dissident and an inanimate object: the Internet, people who made the nominations said Tuesday.

As the submission deadline for the coveted award closed, the Nobel Committee maintained its tradition of giving no hints -- the contenders are kept secret for 50 years. But some nominations were announced by those who made them.

Those with nomination rights include former peace laureates, members of national governments and legislatures, selected university professors and others.

Erna Solberg, the head of Norway's Conservative Party, put forth Russian human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina and Memorial, a prominent rights group she works with.

Gannushkina heads the Civic Assistance Committee, which works under the auspices of Memorial primarily for the rights of migrant workers. Memorial, a frequent critic of the Kremlin, says the high-profile murder of Memorial rights activist Natalya Estemirova in July 2009 and the December 2008 raid of its St. Petersburg office by Russian authorities are among the many injustices it's faced because of its dogged activism.

"These are people who are at the forefront of human rights and are putting their lives at risk for their work," Solberg told The Associated Press.

Gannushkina told the AP in Moscow she felt "embarrassed" to be mentioned in the same breath as other great rights activists.

As for Memorial, "this is the acknowledgment of Russia's human rights workers, and this is well deserved," she said.

Kwame Anthony Appiah, president of the PEN American Center and a Princeton philosophy professor, said in a statement that he had nominated Liu Xiaobo, a recently jailed Chinese dissident, for his "distinguished and principled leadership in the area of human and political rights and freedom of expression." The Chinese government urged the jury to disregard the submission.

"It would be completely wrong for the Nobel Prize committee to award the prize to such a person," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said Tuesday when asked about Liu's nomination in Beijing.

Former Illinois Governor George Ryan -- now imprisoned after being convicted of federal corruption charges -- was nominated by Francis A. Boyle, a law professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, for his campaign to abolish the death penalty.

The Internet was proposed by the Italian version of Wired magazine, which cited its use as a tool to advance "dialogue, debate and consensus through communication" and to promote democracy. Organizers said signatories to its petition backing the nomination include 2003 peace laureate and exiled Iranian activist Shirin Ebadi -- which would make it a legitimate entry."

I wrote this in a pulse, but figured I would post the article I found on the message board. Sorry for not including the link, there was no link on the message board with this article, but I did check on google and there was quite a few news stories for this. I'm not sure what to say about this....I can say I wasn't expecting to see this though. I never thought I would see the internet would be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, but I guess stranger things have happened.

What do you think about this? Does the internet deserve to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize?

Last year I began writing a book. I've always had the desire to write books and become a published author. The author that really inspired me to write was S.E. Hinton and years ago I did start writing a few books. I never finished them though, I didn't feel they were good enough, but I did enjoy writing them. I really think that those books were just practice though and at the time I didn't think I would come back to writing. There were a few things that pushed me towards writing books again and one would have to be Xanga. I began writing on here and remembered how much I enjoy writing. I also started reading a lot of books again and it made me really think of the books I had started writing years ago. I started talking to my boyfriend about me writing a book and said I wasn't sure what kind of book I wanted to write. I was really clueless.

Then I discovered the author Diana Wynne Jones. She is an amazing fantasy author and the first book I read by her was Howl's Moving Castle. After that I really started thinking of writing a book because I knew what kind of book I wanted to write; a fantasy book. So I got a few cheap journals from Borders and began writing my book. The story just suddenly came to me and I knew I had to write it.

So I began my book last year. But, I'm going to write two more books afterwards. It's going to be a trilogy. I know the whole story in my head, all I need to do is write it all down and edit it all. It might take sometime, but I would like to have the books finished this year sometime. Like I said I'm writing the books in journals for right now. I have no editing programs on my laptop. I think it's good to be writing it down in the journals though. I know I have some things to change and editing to do, but at least I will have the story finished and just need to some changes and I can do that when I get an editing program for my laptop. I need to look into some good editing programs though.

Above is what I've been writing in. I've written over 100 pages so far and yes, that is a Pikachu pencil. Now I've started reading over chapters I've completed and making notes of what I think needs to be changed. I also know what I want the book cover for the 1st and 2nd book to look like, but I'm unsure of the 3rd. Awhile back I started to draw a picture of what I want the first cover to look like. I'm going to try and finish it soon and draw the how I want the second book cover to look. On my next book update I might take pictures of the pictures I'm going to draw and post them.

Everyone is probably wondering what the book is about. I'm going to wait to reveal what the story is until after I've written the whole book, edited it and everything else I need to do. I will say the book is about a 16 year old girl and she has powers of sorts, but there is a lot more to the book then that and it really is amazing. I love the story and the main character and I'm so pleased with what I've written so far. It's so hard to explain the feelings I get when writing this book. Excitement is one, for sure. I'm excited to write the first book and complete it. Writing this book has been an amazing experience for me. I really can't wait to finish it and get it published for others to read. When my books are published I want people from all around the world to read them and be so drawn into the story they can't put the book down.

Now onto other book related stuff. I've been reading about different publishing companies and I would really like to go with a well known publishing company. I know it might hard to do, because I've read enough people say the well known publishing companies never take unknown authors. But, I truly believe my books will be picked up by a well known publisher. I just know they will. Maybe some will say it won't happen, but what I've learned is that you must make failure not an option. And for me, failure is not an option.

I also need to begin looking for an editing program for my laptop so I can start editing right away. The making notes of what needs to be changed and edited is a start though, I think. My mom was looking at some editing programs and I think they cost quite a bit. I'm going to look at amazon because they usually have some stuff for cheaper. I would also really like to buy a laptop just for writing my books on. I was looking on amazon and found some really nice laptops, but it will probably take awhile to be able to buy one. I wish that I could get one now and start writing my books on it. Might have to start looking around at laptops and see what's the best price I can get.

Well, right now I'm still in the writing process of my book, the editing will come soon and then I should look into getting it copyrighted. Then I will need to start looking for an agent. I still have awhile to go yet before it can be published, but I know it will happen this year and I really can't wait. I'll make an update post on my book eventually. I'll make sure to keep everyone updated on what's going on.