Art

The De Young Museum. An art museum near my house with a fine collection of art.
Some of its pieces include ancient egyptian art:


Vincent Van Gogh:


Monet:


Ancient mural fragments:


And Andy Goldsworthy designed the entrance to the museum. He's an awesome artist and I'll probably end up putting some pictures of his art on my blog. These picture doesn't really show you what he did, and me trying to describe it probably won't do it justice. But he does everything my hand and with natural sources and it takes him a very long time. He made a crack run through the cobble stones on the floor and all the bigger stones in it. Again, it doesn't sound impressive, but the amount of work he put into this must have been amazing.
Here's some pictures:




And though the entire building looks like a block of rust, the view from the tower is fantastic:


Now through the whole museum's art collection, there's some pretty spectacular stuff. And yet this is the mascot they chose:

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A giant safety pin. Is that supposed to be impressive? Why, out of all their collection, do they pick this STUPID thing to put in their garden and on the front of their pamphlet? It's a giant safety pin. It's not art. Anyone could think of that, even if not everyone would think that it was worth building. WHY DID THEY CHOSE THAT AS THEIR MASCOT???????????
Honestly, I'll never understand modern art.

PS, These pictures don't belong to me. I got most of them from the De Young website, but others I stole from the net. Sorry if they belong to you! I keep forgetting to show where they came from. I'll probably get arrested some day for stealing pictures from the internet.

Anjel

So, time for the second installment of the Magic Folk. I guess the mages don't really count. They're not Magic Folk, they're just humans with magic powers. The Magic Folk are very similar to humans, but they're not really humans.
So, now for Anjels. It's supposed to be like Angel, but I decided to spell it differently to be original. You can pronounce it Angel or Awnjel. I haven't decided which pronunciation I like better yet. Usually I have a very specific pronunciation in mind, but not this time. For some reason, most of the Magic Folk species start with A. I don't know why that happened, but oh well.
So, First of all, This is Leya. She's from Hawaii. Yes, it's an odd angle. And I screwed up her feet, ex. But here she is.

Now, Anjel's have wind magic. And they have wings, obviously. They can control the wind and call storms, but they're not limited to that. They can do tricky stuff with the wind, like make it stiff enough to stand on, or they can cast a spell on the air around them so they're cloaked from view. Pretty much like being invisible, I suppose. They can talk to wind spirits, and the wind also carries gossip, so the Anjels always know what's going on from the wind gossip line.
They can do more, but that's the basics.

Costumes

I'm bored. These are pretty cool designs! Since I stink at costumes, I need all the ideas I can get.
http://www.freewebs.com/pokemonfansite1/pokepeople.htm

Max?

Yeah, I saw that at Barnes and Noble! I looked at it, but I think the books seem better.
Haha! I love that kind of stuff! Those sorts of coincidences are really cool! Here's one that happened to me. I got a used book at a bookstore and a few weeks later, I opened up. There was a name written on the inside of the cover. And it was my grandma's book. She even told us that it used to belong to her!

Amusment

So, I've finally read the first 3 books of Maximum Ride and then I went to the book store this evening, and what do I see? A manga(comic) of the first book. The art was okay and it's not as amusing as the books since you're not in their heads all the time, but dang, Max's clothing is cool~

Oh, and another funny thing Tara, I found the invitation to your birthday party last year in a book that I had read, returned, and recently checked out again with the paper still in it. :D It was great. It was in a book called Deerskin by Robin McKinley by the way. A strange but interesting book. The main character is female and has a greyhound companion too.

Willow

I felt like raving about another movie: Willow. I just watched it, so I'm in a good raving mood. And it's a good movie! Thought up by George Lucas, the Star Wars master.
So, for the summary.
What WIllow Ufgood wants most is to become a sorcerer. But though that's his greatest ambition, he just can't seem to make it. He's an outcast from the Nelwin society, a race of dwarf like people that live in this world. But his life changes when his two children find a baby by the river. A Daikini (human) baby. Her name is Elora Danan, and she is destined to destroy the evil queen Bavmorda that is terrorizing the land. But the queen knows of Elora's existence and is determined to kill the baby before she can fulfill her destiny.
Willow has to take Elora Danan to the sorceress Fin Raziel where she will be safe. And on the way, he meets up with an obnoxious Daikini swordsman named Madmartigan who eventually proves that he isn't the jerk you thought at the beginning.
But when Willow finds Raziel, he finds that Bavmorda got to her first. Because Raziel isn't a human anymore, but a lemur-like animal (who at least can still talk). Willow, Madmartigan, Raziel, and two Brownies (elf-like creatures) team up with a rebelling army to protect Elora from the evil queen.

Elora is SO adorable!!! And she has the greatest facial expressions even though she's just a baby. It's a slightly older movie, so the effects aren't spectacular, but it's great nonetheless. Even if my summary sucks, this is a great movie and you should definitely watch it!


Willow and Elora

Girls are Apples?

Haha! This is something cute I found on the net. To whoever wrote it (I don't know who) thanks!

Girl s
are like
 apples on trees.
 The best ones are
 at the top of the tree. The
 boys don't want to reach 
for the good ones because they
 are afraid of falling and getting hurt.
 Instead, they just get the rotten apples 
from the ground that aren't as good,
 but easy. So the apples at the top think
 something is wrong with them, when in
reality, they're amazing. They just
 have to wait for the right boy to
 come along, the one who's
 brave enough to
 climb all
 the way 
to the top
 of the tree.

Fares and Master Veyrn

No, Master Veyrn isn't as old as he looks. Yeah, he's not young, but all mages have white hair. Like Briena. And somehow he looks really strange in this picture.
So, Fares is a dragon eagle. In Magic-Earth, they have really big eagles, like the dragon eagles. And Fares (pronounced like Ferris wheel with a z sound) is Master Veyrn's animal partner.
Master Veyrn is the master mage-one of the best in the country.

Briena and Ranen

So, here's Briena and her animal partner, Ranen. Yes, I screwed up Briena's face. Sorry Bree! Ranen looks better in this picture than the last one though because I didn't screw up his legs.
So, I'm going to start putting up pictures of the Magic Folk in the story I'm writing (where everyone gets sucked to Earth. So, It's going to start with Briena. She's a mage, as I probably mentioned already. So, mages can be called magicians, sorcerers, wizards, witches, druids, magi, ex. They're all pretty much the same. But most mages don't have total magic. Briena can do pretty much everything with magic (she's been a mage during many lifetimes, so she has an automatic knowledge of magic). But magic varies a lot from person to person. For example, her friend Kimira has music magic. Her magic usually comes out as she sings, but it goes a lot further than that. Too hard to explain right now. Too lazy.
But some people have elemental magic, some people are good at transforming stuff, yeah. There's a lot of different kinds of magic.
Mages are pretty much humans with magic power. The other Magic Folk are sort of off-human, I guess.
Briena isn't an old woman. She's just a girl, but good mages have white hair. It starts to turn white as they start to practice their magic.

Valentines!

Happy Valentines Day! Here's my little Shifter Alien romance to honor the occasion. Reein and his girlfriend.

Shadowswift and Master Jaiyer

So, in "Of Spirits and Demons," Briena's favorite teacher is Master Darian Jaiyer (more on this story once I finally get around to typing it-I have to restart because I screwed up the beginning in my written draft so I need to make a new one. It's a hassle). Master Jaiyer has a horse named Shadowswift.
Now, quick Magic-Earth lesson (I'll write most of this later once I start putting up the pictures-you'll see). Shaydens are sort of dark-Mages. I've probably said this already, but Shaydens aren't evil, just dark and different than normal mages. They have very mysterious magic. Usually it centers around elements and shape-shifting and stuff, but it varies a bit from person to person. No one really knows the full extent of Shayden magic since they keep to themselves (which is a fancy way of saying that I don't know all their powers myself, and it means I can pretty much make the Shaydens do whatever I want). So, getting on. The Shaydens have very special horses called Nazuth. These first showed up in that "Dragons of Element" book that I told you was garbage. So, I'm dissecting all the good ideas from that story, and the Shaydens and Nazuth are some fo them. There are different kinds of Nazuth. I'll just give a few examples (the only ones I have so far). They're all incredibly fast. One type can turn invisible, along with its rider. Another can turn itself and its rider to a skeleton, making them temporarily invulnerable. One it spiderish-it can spit webs and has fangs and sort of claws instead of hooves so it can climb stuff (Like Spiderman!). And another has bat wings that it can retract at will.
So, Master Jaiyer helped the Shaydens out of a sticky situation, so they thanked him by giving him a horse that was half Nazuth (the Nazuth are very sacred to the Shaydens, so even a half-Nazuth is a very special gift). So, this horse, Shadowswift, can turn himself and his rider invisible, except for their shadows. And the thing on the back of the horse is Carla, Master Jaiyer's animal partner, which is a red panda. Magic-Earth's version of a red panda is slightly smaller that ours, FYI. Red pandas are very cute. It's called a red panda, but it's not really a panda It's more like a raccoon or weasel. I think in my book, they call them red raccoons. I'll have to check.


So, yeah. Carla, Shadowswift, and Master Jaiyer.

Swords!

Wah! I want them! That's so cool!


PS, I like your song, Ellen. Did you want me to put that video on the blog?

Blue Bird

Hey all! Havent posted in a while and Tara wanted me too so here you go! I translated this song so it's singable and it rhymes. I dont really know how to upload videos so I used the enclosure link. And if that doesnt work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTv88aGv2CM
there it is again.

And here's my version in singable rhyming english!!! Woo!!!

Blue Bird

You say, “If I could fly,
I would never turn back”
You lived on for that prize
That far blue, that far blue
That far blue sky.

Sadness is still just
An idea to you
This extreme pain is just
The beginning for you
Even these feelings for you will rust
Over time
The heart’s thoughts turned into senseless rhyme.

As you awake from your fantasy
To find the true reality
Don’t lose faith, just spread your wings
And fly away

You say, “If I could fly
I would never turn back”
You lived on for that prize
Of the white, of the white
The pure white clouds

Keep on trying to
Break through to that blue sky
It’ll welcome you
That far blue, that far blue
That far blue sky

That far blue, that far blue
That far blue sky

That bright blue, that bright blue
That bright blue sky

With a crash like a scream
Of civility’s leave
The rusty window breaks
Into shards, unbereaved

You’re so sick of that cage
You can throw it away
Without ever looking
Back to that day

The beating of your excited heart
That just takes all your breath away
So kick that window down
And fly away.

You say, “If I could run
Then I~ could finally reach it”
The voice calls for one
The far away, far away
Voice calls for you

That far too dazzling sky
It’ll keep you reaching for it
Until you can fly
Towards that blue, towards that blue
That bright blue sky

Even if you fall
It’s understandable
But don’t you dare
Give up the light
That you’ve chased for all of your life

You say, “If I could fly
I would never turn back”
You searched on for that prize
Of the white, of the white
The pure white clouds

If you make it through
You’ll find what you’re searching for
So get the freedom to
Finally reach, finally reach
That bright blue sky

Finally reach, finally reach
That bright blue sky

Fly into, fly into
That bright blue sky

Pikachu!

Ah! It's too cute!

The Neverending Story

So, I just finished watching the Neverending Story a few minutes ago and thought I"d post about it. It is a good movie! There are a lot of good movies out there, and I will probably end up talking about a lot of them whenever I feel like it. Probably right after I finish watching it, as in this case.
So yeah. A good movie for kids, but I'm not a kid anymore (well, not legally but I often feel like one) but I still like it, so it's great for all ages! Whoo!
Quick summary. A boy named Bastian "borrows" a book and starts reading it. It is an adventure about a magical land, Fantasia, that is slowly being torn apart by a mysterious "nothing." Only one person can stop it-a boy named Atreyu. He searches all over Fantasia, and on the way teams up with Falkor, a luck dragon. It takes until the end of the book for Bastian to realize that this isn't just a normal book and that his part in this story is much greater than simply reading the text.


Haha! Falkor is so cool!

English?

I wanted to write "parle vu francois" or "spreken du dutsch" as the title, but as you can probably tell, I can't spell them.
So yeah. This post is about languages.
So, the people on Magic-Earth and Soreina speak english. They have interesting accents, admittedly, but they speak english. But they're on different planets you say. They've evolved differently from us, you say. How could they know english? BECAUSE IT'S EASIER.
Notice Star Wars. It's a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, and yet they speak english (along with a bunch of other cool languages-but primarily english).
So, Magic-Earth and Soreina each speak the same language across the planet. They weren't isolated as we were on our planet, so each of them adopted a planetary language. I could have chosen not to specify what this language is, but they meet people from our planet and they can understand each other. Which proves that they all speak the same language. In this case, english.
And no, I didn't write the books in a different language. That would require too much research for me and my readers.
But we really need a planetary language that isn't as freaky as english. English is just weird. We don't have enough vowels. the letter c serves pretty much no purpose, as does x. And there are a few consonants that we should use letters for like ch and sh and the ge sound in "mirage," ex. I started designing an alphabet for a new language, but that's as far as I've gotten so far. Maybe I should post it?

Fast or Slow?

As a general rule, I'll read anything as long as:
A. It's written well
B. It has a good plot.
It can be sci-fi, fantasy, nonfiction, ex.
I don't care how well it's written if the plot sucks. This was the problem with all my hight school books (almost all of them anyway). And a really good plot can be completely destroyed by a bad author. Usually the book's better, but there have been a few cases where I LOVE the movie and HATED the book.
But more recently, books (and movies too) have been getting more fast paced. You'll hear this comment from older people. Old books don't have a lot happening plot wise, but they can be written really well. New books have so much stuff happening that some people claim you can't tell how good the author (or director) really is. Now, I happen to love exciting books. And I like detail. But I don't like TOO MUCH detail. I've said this already. Some of the older books (maybe some new ones too. I don't know) spend an entire chapter describing one little thing. I want to picture what the author has in mind, but I don't want them to go to far. At some point you start thinking "okay, we get the picture. Can we get back to the story please?"
So what's better? Slow or fast books? Well, that definitely depends on opinion. Slow books can be good, but they can be boring too. Fast books are usually more fun, but not always as "deep." I think I prefer fast. I'm reading a slow book right now and an incredibly small amount has happened and I'm already over half way through it. It spends a bit too much time describing certain things and makes it not quite as exciting as it could be.
Yeah. Just thought I'd bring that up.

Togetic

Haha! You never know what you'll find on the internet!

Bottomless Pit

Okay, here's something I've seen in several movies that really bugs me. Let's start with Jurassic Park. All right. I'm not saying that a dinosaur wouldn't try to eat a tasty human (the big jerks taste the best-too bad they didn't get that weird chaos theory guy Malcolm I think his name is). But there's one part of a movie, I think the third movie, where the T-rex (or maybe it was the spinosaurus? Don't remember) has a kill and then it looks up and sees the humans. And it starts chasing after the humans. COME ON. The t-rex already has a huge dead dinosaur to eat. It's not going to go chasing some shrimpy little humans. Animals don't kill for fun.
And Tremors. The graboids, ex, keep killing and eating more people. They NEVER get full. After swallowing one human, they'd be plenty full for a while and they'd want to go digest somewhere. They wouldn't go on trying to eat the whole town all at once. Like snakes. Snakes (little ones) eat about once a week. And the big ones eat even less. I heard about one big snake in a zoo or something that only ate once in a YEAR. Of course some of those big snakes can even eat a deer. But I digress. Either way, graboids wouldn't go on eating all the humans until they burst. That's just weird.
Oh, and in the new King Kong movie (I don't recommend this movie quite as highly as I recommend the two proceeding movies but there are some cool parts) does something else. There's a T-rex on that bizarro island where the big gorilla guy lives. And it seems like that T-rex will stop at NOTHING to eat the poor girl what's-her-name. Even when they're dangling from vines and hanging over a huge crevasse, that T-Rex is still trying to chomp the girl. If the T-rex is hanging over the edge of a cliff and tangled in vines, he'd have more important things on his mind than eating a tiny little thing like a human girl.
COME ON PEOPLE! Stop doing this to your stupid dinosaurs and monsters. They aren't bottomless pits, they don't kill for fun, and when they are about to fall over a cliff, they won't still be trying to eat.
HISSSSSSS!!!!!!!!

Phantom Hourglass

OK... so I put that hourglass up thinking it would do something... And it's not doing anything...

Syrinx, Arith, Shalia

So, a picture I drew a while ago. Syrinx is the hippogriff. You can probably tell that the boy's Arith. And the dragon is baby Shalia. Well, a little older than a baby. But she's too young to be ridden, obviously.