~*~

~*~

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Analysis! Blah!

I think I explained this pretty well in "The Light of the Sun." So, here's me complaining about analysis through Will.


Will groaned and sat back in his chair. He hated homework. Some of it just seemed so pointless! It was getting late, and he still hadn’t finished his English homework. He used to like English before they started analyzing literature. Analyzing was the most useless thing in the world! What did he care what the “deep underlying meanings” of a poem were? What was a poem about a pitchfork supposed to tell you about life? Why did he have to write an entire essay analyzing the hidden meanings in a pitchfork poem? And since there were no wrong answers as long as you provided evidence, that made the whole thing even more pointless. Why analyze things in a story that the author hadn’t intended? What if the author hadn’t wanted it analyzed at all? Will knew that if he ever wrote a story, he would never want kids to be forced to sit in a classroom all day, trying to figure out what “hidden meanings” he’d supposedly stuck in it. It was so easy to BS something that had no meaning whatsoever.
Will was about to graduate high school. He was tall with light brown hair and pale green eyes. Most people said he was very serious, and only his very close friends ever saw his more open side. He had learned to put up a sort of protective mask to shield himself from his family.
Will hissed in annoyance and shut off his computer. He had had enough of making up analysis for “The Pitchfork.” How did the teacher know that the author of the poem had any hidden meaning in the poem at all? What if the teacher was fooling the whole class into believing that authors stuck hidden information into their books? All the good books Will had read had seemed perfectly normal to him. As long as they were good stories that were written well, what did he care if they had “hidden meaning?
All the books they’d been forced to read in school were terrible. Well, Shakespeare had been at least tolerable. And Mark Twain was good. But what was with “Lord of the Flies”?! He absolutely loathed that book. And even though he had read it in freshmen year of high school-three years ago-he hated it as much now as he did then. Maybe more. Why would anyone want to read about a bunch of little boys getting stranded on an island and murdering each other? And why would anyone want to believe that humans were naturally evil? Humans were animals, and no animal is evil from birth. The only reason humans sometimes seem evil is because society has trained them to be selfish and greedy.
Will sat still for a minute, gazing longingly out of his bedroom window without seeing what the view held. He felt an incredible longing to get out of this crazy routine of life: wake up, go to school, learn things you’ll never need in real life, come home, work for hours on homework that is completely pointless, and then go to sleep. Why couldn’t he have some adventure! Would the rest of his life be so pointless? What would happen if he flew out of his window, away into the night?


So, this is pretty much me (except for the appearance and the stuff about his family, and the fact that I'm not a boy). Everything he says here I agree with. But the thing is, my english teachers are awesome! I have nothing against them. Just about analyzing. In fact, my english teacher in my sophomore year of high school, Mr. Daniel, has read a lot of my stories and given me good advice about them. (I'm basing a character off of him for the story about Briena. I do that with a lot of my characters) I sent him Shifter a little while ago, even though I don't go to high school anymore. I'm a college person now.... sigh. But I still go back to visit people. I know more people there (Like Stephanie and Kelly) than I do in college yet... Yeah. I like reading, and I like my english teachers. But I don't like analyzing. And I hated the books we had to read in high school. They were all really dirty or had characters that you ended up hating or both. For me to like a story, it has to be well-written AND a fun read. I don't care if it's written well if the plot is terrible. ANd even a great story can be ruined by a bad writer.
Oh jeez! Don't get me started on Lord of the Flies! I absolutely loathed that book! Who wants to read about a bunch of boys getting stuck on an island and murdering each other! I'm sorry if you liked this book, but I really hated it. And I HATED how they said that humans are naturally evil. That is so not true! Society is what makes humans jerks. And if you disagree, just contemplate this. As much as we'd like to think otherwise, humans are animals. And no animal is ever born evil. I had a nice long debate with George about this. And nothing anyone says will change my mind. No offense, but if you believe humans are evil, don't tell me about it. That always ruins my day when someone says something like that to me. Ok... I'm cool. I'm calm. Got it.
And I swear, we had to write an essay about a pitchfork. Ask Ellen. Or Nicole. Technically it was about an essay about a poem about a pitchfork, but still. THink about that. "An essay about a pitchfork." Not that I have anything against the poem, but I hate essays in general. Well, at least essays that involve analysis. And the teachers say that there's no wrong answer in an analysis as long as you can prove it, but not everyone's reading of a text is going to be the same, so they can't all be right! Grrr! I think they're hallucinating, or something. And how is learning to analyze going to help you in your life? That's what I want to know.
Hahahahah! I just realized how ironic this is! I'm sitting here, analyzing what I wrote as I explain it to you guys, and I'm also telling you that I hate analysis! But yeah. I promise, you don't have to analyze anything in my stories. Your teachers are fooling you if they tell you there's hidden stuff in my stories. They're just supposed to be fun to read. And If I have and "deep" stuff, I'll discuss it with you all on the blog. Or it will be really obvious.
And haven't you ever wanted to fly out our window and go on an adventure? I does! For that scene where Will's "gazing longingly" out of his window, I was trying to copy that image from Star Wars 4 where Luke is looking out over the double sunset, wishing he could get out his boring life as a farmer. I don't think mine is quite as poignant though. Sigh. Well, I'm done rambling for now.

On Your Mark

Thanks Ellen! I just wanted something to reference because I'm starting a sort of art project. I'm taking a theme song and adding my own pictures to it. And they're anime people. I don't have much experience in anime people... But it would be fun to make mine into a flip book or something! Haha! And set it to that song!
Ok. Now to get to the title of the post. There's a short Miyazaki music video set to the song "On Your Mark." At first I din't like it because there was a lot of shooting, but then it got a lot better. When the winged girl showed up! But I wanted to learn more about the characters! So, I'm writing On Your Mark out as a story, And I'll probably put it on fanfic. When I do, I'll post the link.

Stick people


Here you go Tara...although I think you could find better in a drawing book. Basically the first one is more realistic, it can range from 5-6 heads in height. The next is more manga-ish being 4 heads tall. the last is chibi which can be 2-3 heads tall. Of course head height is varying for each and they're not strict rules. The feet of the 5 head person got cut off, it pic stops at his ankles, but you should be able to get the general idea.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Muuuusic

So, I'm experimenting. Again. Because I can't find the soundtrack to this movie and I want it. I have several other Miyazaki soundtracks, and this is next on my list to find.

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA


Here's another cool song. From the Last Unicorn.

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

Saturday, September 20, 2008

:D

Those quote were awesome! I like how after awhile the letters kinda died.

Tara send me more of your stories! I'll work on my chapter...eventually!!! ^_^

Friday, September 19, 2008

Oh yeah...

Ellen! Good luck in college! And to Nicole too whenever she reads this.

Words are weird.

Haha! I like Mark Twain. He's his own sort of genius. And he was the only author in high school that I really liked. Well, Shakespeare was okay, if sometimes confusing. And while we're on the subject, Will in my story "The Light of the Sun" complains about the books we had to read in high school. Every single one (except ones mentioned above) was REALLY dark, and sometimes REALLY DIRTY (If you know what I mean). I absolutely HATED almost every single book! And I love reading too! Bla.
Well, here's the strange thing I found on the internet!


I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty
uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal
pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a
rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't
mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the
olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer
be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl
mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Amzanig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling
was ipmorantt! Tahts so cool!



And here's a quote of wisdom...

A good friend will come and bail you out of jail, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying 'Damn! That was fun!'

Mark Twain, a Mastermind

I found this quote from Mark Twain and Tara wanted me to post it, so read it! ;D Please?

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g
j" anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud
hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), "A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling"

College >.<

Well I've finally made it!! woo! Now I just have to survive! Good luck to Nicole and her moving in-ness. And Tara good luck with all of your reading >.< I hope I dont have that much.

Friday, September 12, 2008

wah! title!

HELP!  I am being held hostage at Tara's house (with Ellen's aid).  If you receive this message, please send help IMMEDIATELY!!!
Okay fine.  -They're poking me!- I have a story I wrote that Ellen is telling me to post because it's something to post, but most of you won't get it.  It's based on the videogame Kingdom Hearts and its characters, so yeah.  But I'll post it eventually because I like the writing since I tried out a few new writing styles.
K bye.
P.S.  I was serious about that help.

P.P.S. ellen says hi ^_^

PPPPPPPPPPPS. HI!  (It's Tara!)

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Kitty!

Aww! What a cute little kitten!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Tiger


Since Tara was bugging me to post on the blog, and I had nothing else to do on my "to do" list, here's a drawing I did.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The beginnings of "the Light of the Sun"

So, to start explaining some stuff about "The Light of the Sun." I'm going to have to do this one in stages. Or this post would be REALLY long and I'm too tired to do all of it right now.
So, part one. How this story started out. Like others, I had no idea what was going to happen. It started out as an idea for a small part of the story. In this case, the first chapter.
Here's the idea that sparked this story.
(This actually started out as my character Fern who was bluffing that she was a werewolf just to spook someone). There's a person (Laney for this story) who is a werewolf. Obviously. And, the moon is about to rise. There's some bad guys nearby. And just as it looks like they're in trouble, the full moon peeks out over a hill. Laney turns and looks at the moon. When she turns back, she's smiling, and her teeth are growing sharper, like fangs. (And there's the whole pulsing sound effect, like a heart beating. Just for effect! :D )
So, I liked that image, so I started typing and the rest of the story sort of unfolded as I went along. The first problem was obviously that I needed a plot. Those help a lot. (Before you ask, this does not link in with Magic-Earth or Soreina).

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Insanely Complex Designs


Who invented Midna? That's what I want to know. Her patterns are so complex! And this shirt took me forever to paint. I had to look at the Midna trophy on Super Smash Brothers Brawl to get it right. I made a few little mistakes (and since I'm a crazy perfectionist, those mistakes drive me crazy, but it still looks decent, I suppose.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Reviews

So, what I might start doing soon is reviewing things. Like movies, books, or music. I'll start out with unsung classics. Well, movies/books/songs that I love but aren't as popular as they should be. So, Whenever I feel about raving about one of the above, I'll do it here. Just to forewarn you!
Anyone else is welcome to review things too.