I'm really tired right now, but I can't rest cause I have to work on a project for saturday. It's not fair, having to finish a project by saturday. Saturday is not a day to turn in work.
OK. But I must be cheerful! We have more posts this month than in any other month on the blog so far! Woohoo!
~*~
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
X3
Yay more CW exercises! i'll have to post the ones I did for you class...god I'm such a nerd :D yay nerdfighters. I'm really excited cause I'm starting a new story...yes I have too many unfinished ones floating around, but I'll get it done...eventually! Oh I gotta say, love the Link plushie! And Ponyo came out well too! Too bad you couldn't find the right hair color though...but it looks good!
Ok so here's the CW exercises I did. Read Tara's posts if you want the prompts, just search 'CW' that's what I did.
10-13 syllable sensory details
A field of gold stained silver by the moonlight.
A swift flash of steel. A clang. Then silence.
The soft fragrant smell of camellias fills the air.
The patter of rain as it falls from the heavens.
Punctuation/Sentences?
I feel like I am floating or perhaps I am falling or perhaps I do not even exist in this place of fear of the imminent death that awaits everything and cannot be avoided no matter how we struggle and plot all things fade with time and nothing is immortal save for the one single truth that all living things must die to be condemned to perish and return to where I am now.
Floating.
Or perhaps I am falling.
I feel like I am floating. Or perhaps I am falling. Or perhaps…I do not even exist.
In this place of fear. Of the imminent death that awaits everything. And cannot be avoided. No matter how we struggle and plot. All things fade with time. And nothing is immortal. Save for the one single truth. That all living things must die. To be condemned to perish. And return to where I am now.
Floating.
Or perhaps I am falling.
At first it is quiet save for the sound of the soft breeze that wafts through the canyon when an explosion of sound billows forth from the trumpet with its bright clear song that calls forth the morning light and as the solitary melody echoes off the canyon walls long after the trumpeter has finished his song the landscape simply refuses to relinquish the beautiful sound and replays it softly over and over in an attempt to recreate the first moment the trumpeter raised his instrument.
At first it is quiet. Save for the soft breeze through the canyon. An explosion of sound billows forth. A trumpet calls forth the morning light. The melody echoes as he finishes. The landscape refuses to let the song stop. It replays it softly, over and over. Recreating the moment the trumpeter began to play.
I'll post about my new story idea later. I wanna work on it right now! X3
Ok so here's the CW exercises I did. Read Tara's posts if you want the prompts, just search 'CW' that's what I did.
10-13 syllable sensory details
A field of gold stained silver by the moonlight.
A swift flash of steel. A clang. Then silence.
The soft fragrant smell of camellias fills the air.
The patter of rain as it falls from the heavens.
Punctuation/Sentences?
I feel like I am floating or perhaps I am falling or perhaps I do not even exist in this place of fear of the imminent death that awaits everything and cannot be avoided no matter how we struggle and plot all things fade with time and nothing is immortal save for the one single truth that all living things must die to be condemned to perish and return to where I am now.
Floating.
Or perhaps I am falling.
I feel like I am floating. Or perhaps I am falling. Or perhaps…I do not even exist.
In this place of fear. Of the imminent death that awaits everything. And cannot be avoided. No matter how we struggle and plot. All things fade with time. And nothing is immortal. Save for the one single truth. That all living things must die. To be condemned to perish. And return to where I am now.
Floating.
Or perhaps I am falling.
At first it is quiet save for the sound of the soft breeze that wafts through the canyon when an explosion of sound billows forth from the trumpet with its bright clear song that calls forth the morning light and as the solitary melody echoes off the canyon walls long after the trumpeter has finished his song the landscape simply refuses to relinquish the beautiful sound and replays it softly over and over in an attempt to recreate the first moment the trumpeter raised his instrument.
At first it is quiet. Save for the soft breeze through the canyon. An explosion of sound billows forth. A trumpet calls forth the morning light. The melody echoes as he finishes. The landscape refuses to let the song stop. It replays it softly, over and over. Recreating the moment the trumpeter began to play.
I'll post about my new story idea later. I wanna work on it right now! X3
Monday, September 27, 2010
Ponyo and Link
One more post today. I finished Ponyo last week. I finished Link this weekend. Ponyo is the first one I finished without any help from Ellen! And her dress and underwear were really tricky to figure out. I should have done her hair better too.
CW-I Wish
This assignment was simple. You write something that begins with
"Sometimes I wish..."
This was one of the free-writes in class. Some of the other things I mentioned were free writes too (Like the dialogue) so we only got a few minutes to work on them.
"Sometimes I wish..."
This was one of the free-writes in class. Some of the other things I mentioned were free writes too (Like the dialogue) so we only got a few minutes to work on them.
CW-Memoir
So, we took a bunch of the stuff we've done already and turned it into a "memoir." An event that had a significant effect on our life. Let me unearth the guidelines.
4-10 pages (double spaced as always).
(For the assignment, we had to site 2 sources, but that's only because it was a requirement for the class).
It's in first person-your true story.
Remember to use everything about dialogue, setting, and everything to make this as vivid and touching as possible.
I'll post mine later, when I get back the final edited version. Tomorrow in class, we're all going to do a workshop to help each other develop our stories.
4-10 pages (double spaced as always).
(For the assignment, we had to site 2 sources, but that's only because it was a requirement for the class).
It's in first person-your true story.
Remember to use everything about dialogue, setting, and everything to make this as vivid and touching as possible.
I'll post mine later, when I get back the final edited version. Tomorrow in class, we're all going to do a workshop to help each other develop our stories.
CW-Dialogue
So, everyone in class was assigned to write a dialogue that began with "Oh my god! Everyone's looking at me!"
I guess i'll put mine up. Character 1 is a boy, character 2 is a girl.
"Oh my god! Everyone's looking at me!"
"Don't think about it. You need to concentrate on what you're doing. Forget about what anyone else thinks."
"Yeah, because that's easy to do! You don't have to walk out in front of all those people and - ouch! Stop hitting me!"
"You're acting like a bib baby! What's more important? Your tender pride, or what everyone needs to hear from you. YOU. Not me."
"Nnnnn..."
"Come on. I know you can do it. How does public speaking compare to what you've done already? You'll be fine. Take a deep breath. Do it again. Pretend to be confident and you will be."
"Whoooo. Sure. I guess."
The point is, you should be able to get several things from the dialogue alone.
Emotion,
Situation,
What the characters are like,
The relationship between the characters.
Everyone who read there's out loud seemed to take the most obvious route. Some girl complaining about how everyone was staring at her because she was acting weird or wearing weird clothes.
I almost did that, but I decided not to.
I'm kinda curious. Anyone who reads this, what kind of stuff did you get from my dialogue? What did you figure out about the 4 points mentioned above? Character, situation, ex.
(I will tell you this. They're not saying all of this directly in front of the crowd. Everyone's kinda waiting for the boy, and they're off to the side, not yet on the "podium," or its equivalent).
I guess i'll put mine up. Character 1 is a boy, character 2 is a girl.
"Oh my god! Everyone's looking at me!"
"Don't think about it. You need to concentrate on what you're doing. Forget about what anyone else thinks."
"Yeah, because that's easy to do! You don't have to walk out in front of all those people and - ouch! Stop hitting me!"
"You're acting like a bib baby! What's more important? Your tender pride, or what everyone needs to hear from you. YOU. Not me."
"Nnnnn..."
"Come on. I know you can do it. How does public speaking compare to what you've done already? You'll be fine. Take a deep breath. Do it again. Pretend to be confident and you will be."
"Whoooo. Sure. I guess."
The point is, you should be able to get several things from the dialogue alone.
Emotion,
Situation,
What the characters are like,
The relationship between the characters.
Everyone who read there's out loud seemed to take the most obvious route. Some girl complaining about how everyone was staring at her because she was acting weird or wearing weird clothes.
I almost did that, but I decided not to.
I'm kinda curious. Anyone who reads this, what kind of stuff did you get from my dialogue? What did you figure out about the 4 points mentioned above? Character, situation, ex.
(I will tell you this. They're not saying all of this directly in front of the crowd. Everyone's kinda waiting for the boy, and they're off to the side, not yet on the "podium," or its equivalent).
CW-Eavesdropping
I should have actually posted this last tuesday. My posts about my class always kinda of get bunched together.
So, at the beginning of the class, we were assigned to write 5 sensory observations a week. Remember?
On tuesday, that changed. We now have an assignment to listen in to other people's conversations, and write down 5 things a week (this assignment is not limited by syllables). This is in the hope that you will hear something very interesting by listening to other people. And you know what? I did. You can hear lots of interesting things by sitting by the walkways at school and listening to people that walk by. Or even better, if you can find a group of people who aren't moving.
Let me share some of the better ones with you.
This one was actually during my band rehearsal.
"I've never seen anyone dampen a base drum that way before - with their face."
This was from a girl who was talking to her friends on campus.
"I thought when I was little that I was a mermaid. My dad had a skin condition on his legs that looks like scales. I didn't think I could go in the pool or my tail would pop out."
And then a little girl at the humane society.
"That was the name of my invisible friend."
But the very best on actually happened the week before this was assigned, two thursdays ago. I was walking back to my car after class and I heard some girls behind me talking.
"It's the second week of class and we still haven't done any yoga yet." (I immediately start to listen because my dad teaches yoga there, and there's a very good chance that they're talking about him) "His name's Laurence Caughlan" (Except they pronounced it Koff-lan instead of Cog-lan) "but on his yoga book, he's called Lar. No one's called Lar. It's always Larry."
I was fighting so hard not to burst out laughing. I really wanted to turn around and say something. But seriously, what are the odds of that? You're talking to your friends about your new yoga teacher, and that yoga teacher's daughter happens to be standing in front of you, listening to everything you say!
So, at the beginning of the class, we were assigned to write 5 sensory observations a week. Remember?
On tuesday, that changed. We now have an assignment to listen in to other people's conversations, and write down 5 things a week (this assignment is not limited by syllables). This is in the hope that you will hear something very interesting by listening to other people. And you know what? I did. You can hear lots of interesting things by sitting by the walkways at school and listening to people that walk by. Or even better, if you can find a group of people who aren't moving.
Let me share some of the better ones with you.
This one was actually during my band rehearsal.
"I've never seen anyone dampen a base drum that way before - with their face."
This was from a girl who was talking to her friends on campus.
"I thought when I was little that I was a mermaid. My dad had a skin condition on his legs that looks like scales. I didn't think I could go in the pool or my tail would pop out."
And then a little girl at the humane society.
"That was the name of my invisible friend."
But the very best on actually happened the week before this was assigned, two thursdays ago. I was walking back to my car after class and I heard some girls behind me talking.
"It's the second week of class and we still haven't done any yoga yet." (I immediately start to listen because my dad teaches yoga there, and there's a very good chance that they're talking about him) "His name's Laurence Caughlan" (Except they pronounced it Koff-lan instead of Cog-lan) "but on his yoga book, he's called Lar. No one's called Lar. It's always Larry."
I was fighting so hard not to burst out laughing. I really wanted to turn around and say something. But seriously, what are the odds of that? You're talking to your friends about your new yoga teacher, and that yoga teacher's daughter happens to be standing in front of you, listening to everything you say!
Mornings
Hey, this is interesting. This hasn't happened in a long time, but today, someone asked to borrow a cell phone. I went O-O I was just preaching about tha in my blog! So, I pull out my cell phone and let him use it.
Anyway. I wanted to go back to the fieldtrip I mentioned yesterday. Now, I had to meet my carpool at school by 7:00. That by itself is early. Except for one thing. I live very not-close to campus. Just thinking about waking up early enough to get to school by 7:00 makes me grumpy.
So, I was going to get up at 5:45, but Dad wakes me up at 5:30 and then makes enough noise that I can't fall asleep again. And yes, that early in the morning, I am extremely possessive of those 15 extra minutes of sleep I could be getting.
So, I leave the house very early, feeling extremely grumpy about everything. I climb into my car. It's cold and pretty much completely dark. I put on some nice, pretty music and start to drive.
The streets and highway are completely desert and there's only a couple other cars on the freeway. I start to see a faint coloring on the horizon.
It's so empty and dark, with that bright streak in the sky. It's surprisingly peaceful. The few other cars are in no rush, and I start to calm down too. I go a little slower than usual with no one else rushing past me that early sunday morning.
When I arrive at campus, it's almost completely deserted too. The sun is almost up. The squirrels are out, and the birds are singing. THere's a student-shaped figure sleeping on one of the benches, and a strange old man throws peanuts to teh squirrels.
Everything's so peaceful and quiet the whole time that I'd lost my grumpiness and sleepiness long ago.
I dunno. I just wanted to share the melting grumpiness of an early morning.
Once I get home (I'm in my dad's office at school) I'll catch up on my cw assignments.
Anyway. I wanted to go back to the fieldtrip I mentioned yesterday. Now, I had to meet my carpool at school by 7:00. That by itself is early. Except for one thing. I live very not-close to campus. Just thinking about waking up early enough to get to school by 7:00 makes me grumpy.
So, I was going to get up at 5:45, but Dad wakes me up at 5:30 and then makes enough noise that I can't fall asleep again. And yes, that early in the morning, I am extremely possessive of those 15 extra minutes of sleep I could be getting.
So, I leave the house very early, feeling extremely grumpy about everything. I climb into my car. It's cold and pretty much completely dark. I put on some nice, pretty music and start to drive.
The streets and highway are completely desert and there's only a couple other cars on the freeway. I start to see a faint coloring on the horizon.
It's so empty and dark, with that bright streak in the sky. It's surprisingly peaceful. The few other cars are in no rush, and I start to calm down too. I go a little slower than usual with no one else rushing past me that early sunday morning.
When I arrive at campus, it's almost completely deserted too. The sun is almost up. The squirrels are out, and the birds are singing. THere's a student-shaped figure sleeping on one of the benches, and a strange old man throws peanuts to teh squirrels.
Everything's so peaceful and quiet the whole time that I'd lost my grumpiness and sleepiness long ago.
I dunno. I just wanted to share the melting grumpiness of an early morning.
Once I get home (I'm in my dad's office at school) I'll catch up on my cw assignments.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Helping People
Anyone who knows FMA is probably going O-O right now.
That's so cool!
That was a great part of the series. See, I bought that book (Where Izumi dumps Ed and Al on the island) when I was up in Reno, so I read it a couple times and thought about it a lot during my vacation.
The All is One, One is All kinda fits in to what I wanted to post about, actually.
OK. So, Everyone is connected in some way. Even the briefest meeting creates a connection. You can make that connection larger in many ways (I know I read something like this in a manga. I'm trying to remember which one it was...).
People don't make enough connections. If you meet a stranger, usually you just pass them by. If someone asks to borrow your cell phone, you make an excuse and hurry away. Not that there aren't reasons for it. People in our society are really paranoid that they're going to be attacked by strangers. But that's not always the reason. Sometimes it's just too weird to continue a conversation that someone else starts.
So, last wednesday, I took the train home. I took out my phone to call Dad and tell him when to pick me up. Except when I dialed, it said that my account was out of money and I couldn't make a call. That was definitely not true though because I'd just bought a years worth of service about a month before.
So, I'm stuck on this train with no way to tell Dad that I'm getting off at a different station cause this train doesn't stop at the usual one. This is one of the many reasons I hate cell phones. Not only will the LIE to you and strand you on a train, but they also mean that there are no pay phones left. Practically anywhere. Which is REALLY BAD for some people, like my dad, who doesn't own a cell phone.
So, I went to the conductor, and he told me that conductors are forbidden from carrying cell phones.
Ok. This is getting bad.
So, feeling pretty weird, I finally get the courage to go to the only other person in my car. I ask him if I can use his cell phone. It's one of those iphone things (I can't tell the difference) and he was using it to connect to the internet, but he got off the internet and let me call my dad to tell him where I was.
THAAAANNNNKKK YOOUUUUUU.
My point is, be nice to people. You might get some desperate person like me who's going to be stranded at a train station for who knows how long.
And not only that. Today we had a "field trip" for one of my classes. As we were carpooling home, we come across an accident that had happened obviously only seconds before. This woman was facing the wrong way on the highway, and the entire front bumper of her car was on the road. Her air bag was out, and smoking (apparently air bags smoke).
Our carpool driver pulled over and we helped her out of the car. She was OK, but shaking badly, and had a very small cut on her arm. One of the guys I was with called 911 and we and another lady waited with her. The police didn't take too long to show up. They said "thanks for waiting, but you should go now."
So, yeah. But seriously. If you got in an accident on the freeway, wouldn't you be freaked out? I know I'd be TERRIFIED. And I'd probably appreciate the company of others who wanted to help, even if it was only supplying a few napkins for her cut arm and calling 911.
That's so cool!
That was a great part of the series. See, I bought that book (Where Izumi dumps Ed and Al on the island) when I was up in Reno, so I read it a couple times and thought about it a lot during my vacation.
The All is One, One is All kinda fits in to what I wanted to post about, actually.
OK. So, Everyone is connected in some way. Even the briefest meeting creates a connection. You can make that connection larger in many ways (I know I read something like this in a manga. I'm trying to remember which one it was...).
People don't make enough connections. If you meet a stranger, usually you just pass them by. If someone asks to borrow your cell phone, you make an excuse and hurry away. Not that there aren't reasons for it. People in our society are really paranoid that they're going to be attacked by strangers. But that's not always the reason. Sometimes it's just too weird to continue a conversation that someone else starts.
So, last wednesday, I took the train home. I took out my phone to call Dad and tell him when to pick me up. Except when I dialed, it said that my account was out of money and I couldn't make a call. That was definitely not true though because I'd just bought a years worth of service about a month before.
So, I'm stuck on this train with no way to tell Dad that I'm getting off at a different station cause this train doesn't stop at the usual one. This is one of the many reasons I hate cell phones. Not only will the LIE to you and strand you on a train, but they also mean that there are no pay phones left. Practically anywhere. Which is REALLY BAD for some people, like my dad, who doesn't own a cell phone.
So, I went to the conductor, and he told me that conductors are forbidden from carrying cell phones.
Ok. This is getting bad.
So, feeling pretty weird, I finally get the courage to go to the only other person in my car. I ask him if I can use his cell phone. It's one of those iphone things (I can't tell the difference) and he was using it to connect to the internet, but he got off the internet and let me call my dad to tell him where I was.
THAAAANNNNKKK YOOUUUUUU.
My point is, be nice to people. You might get some desperate person like me who's going to be stranded at a train station for who knows how long.
And not only that. Today we had a "field trip" for one of my classes. As we were carpooling home, we come across an accident that had happened obviously only seconds before. This woman was facing the wrong way on the highway, and the entire front bumper of her car was on the road. Her air bag was out, and smoking (apparently air bags smoke).
Our carpool driver pulled over and we helped her out of the car. She was OK, but shaking badly, and had a very small cut on her arm. One of the guys I was with called 911 and we and another lady waited with her. The police didn't take too long to show up. They said "thanks for waiting, but you should go now."
So, yeah. But seriously. If you got in an accident on the freeway, wouldn't you be freaked out? I know I'd be TERRIFIED. And I'd probably appreciate the company of others who wanted to help, even if it was only supplying a few napkins for her cut arm and calling 911.
Poem: FMA Tribute
All is one, one is all.
Everything is connected.
Everything is me.
I am everything,
And I am me.
Without one, all cannot exist.
Without all, one cannot exist.
Equivalent exchange
Without the world, I cannot exist.
Without the individual, the world cannot exist.
And you are you.
You are everything,
Everything is you.
Everything is connected.
All is one, one is all.
So I was trying to re-write/edit my Why I Write thing after reading a bunch of other author's short things on why they write. And I assembled it into a bunch of short phrases, which I then turned into some kind of weird FMA tribute or something. I suck at writing poetry, but putting it into a paragraph just seemed wrong. I guess I cant really turn this in, seeing as how most of it is quotation from FMA, but I hope at least you guys can read it an let me know what you think...
Everything is connected.
Everything is me.
I am everything,
And I am me.
Without one, all cannot exist.
Without all, one cannot exist.
Equivalent exchange
Without the world, I cannot exist.
Without the individual, the world cannot exist.
And you are you.
You are everything,
Everything is you.
Everything is connected.
All is one, one is all.
So I was trying to re-write/edit my Why I Write thing after reading a bunch of other author's short things on why they write. And I assembled it into a bunch of short phrases, which I then turned into some kind of weird FMA tribute or something. I suck at writing poetry, but putting it into a paragraph just seemed wrong. I guess I cant really turn this in, seeing as how most of it is quotation from FMA, but I hope at least you guys can read it an let me know what you think...
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Vlogbrothers
Heheh. I'm not quite sure how to respond to that.
I'll repeat that I never said they were badly written. They definitely have a lot of depth, and they're obviously really powerful since they made me react so strongly against them when I read them.
The only thing I'm currently claiming is that they were pretty depressing. You can't read about little kids attacking each other without being depressed.
I also met someone who COULDN'T read those books in high school because I think she might have been a little unstable back then, and they just touched something off in her. She seems pretty normal now though.
You probably haven't gotten this far in the Vlogbrothers yet, but they do a fast-paced analysis of Catcher in the Rye. That was Mr.Daniel's favorite book. He wanted to name his son Holden, but his wife wouldn't let him.
I had very cool english teachers.
I still think I should wait a little longer to read them though. I need my brain to change a little more before I can appreciate them any more than I did in high school.
One of my teachers in humanities was talking about "To the Lighthouse." She said it wasn't necessarily something that you would enjoy reading in a pretty or attractive way, but that it really got you thinking, and it was different and unusual.
Sigh. I dunno.
So, lightning change in topics.
I wanna post some more Vlogbrothers videos. I"ll probably put up some more as I finish catching up on their videos.
There's John and Hank. John is the author. Hank is the one that writes songs and works on a website called Eco Geek.
Again, John is the author. I love the lady lady song. Watch at about 2:55
So, for the first year of their videos, they were forbidden from textual communication. I found this video absolutely hilarious.
This is one of the videos that Nicole showed us in an attempt to get Ellen and I hooked on them. I guess it worked.
This is one of Hanks's songs. The awesomest part is at about 2:00
Here's a pretty new one that I found interesting.
This is a really new one that I liked.
There are others I'd like to show too, but they wouldn't make too much sense unless you actually follow these guys.
I think they'd be so fun to meet!
I'll repeat that I never said they were badly written. They definitely have a lot of depth, and they're obviously really powerful since they made me react so strongly against them when I read them.
The only thing I'm currently claiming is that they were pretty depressing. You can't read about little kids attacking each other without being depressed.
I also met someone who COULDN'T read those books in high school because I think she might have been a little unstable back then, and they just touched something off in her. She seems pretty normal now though.
You probably haven't gotten this far in the Vlogbrothers yet, but they do a fast-paced analysis of Catcher in the Rye. That was Mr.Daniel's favorite book. He wanted to name his son Holden, but his wife wouldn't let him.
I had very cool english teachers.
I still think I should wait a little longer to read them though. I need my brain to change a little more before I can appreciate them any more than I did in high school.
One of my teachers in humanities was talking about "To the Lighthouse." She said it wasn't necessarily something that you would enjoy reading in a pretty or attractive way, but that it really got you thinking, and it was different and unusual.
Sigh. I dunno.
So, lightning change in topics.
I wanna post some more Vlogbrothers videos. I"ll probably put up some more as I finish catching up on their videos.
There's John and Hank. John is the author. Hank is the one that writes songs and works on a website called Eco Geek.
Again, John is the author. I love the lady lady song. Watch at about 2:55
So, for the first year of their videos, they were forbidden from textual communication. I found this video absolutely hilarious.
This is one of the videos that Nicole showed us in an attempt to get Ellen and I hooked on them. I guess it worked.
This is one of Hanks's songs. The awesomest part is at about 2:00
Here's a pretty new one that I found interesting.
This is a really new one that I liked.
There are others I'd like to show too, but they wouldn't make too much sense unless you actually follow these guys.
I think they'd be so fun to meet!
Optimistic Pessimist
After reading your last post, Tara, I got to thinking about all of those books they made us read in high school.
As I Lay Dying
Catch 22
The Stranger
Lord of The Flies
and whatever. I started thinking about the plot (specifically of Lord of the Flies because I know how much you hated it) and then this quote from Death Note hit me. But first a little background on Death Note.
Death Note is a manga/anime about a kid who obtains a Death Note which is a notebook that was dropped by a death god. Now this notebook gives the owner the power to kill any human. All they have to do is write their name in the book and think of the person's face. The death can be unspecified and result in a heart attack, or can be specified to control the time of death, the cause of death, and even a person's actions before death (all within reason of course).
Anyway the kid who picks up the Death Note is a freaking genius kid who starts killing criminals to rid the world of evil. Eventually the police start investigating into the matter, and the kid with the Death Note becomes more and more villainous. Making the reader start to wonder who's right? Who is justice?
So the quote I want to get at is when Ryuk (the previous owner/death god of the notebook) turns to Light (new owner/kid out to kill criminals) after Light has revealed that he wants to kill all the evil people in the world to make a perfect world full of only people that he deems are good. Ryuk then turns to him and says "You know something, I think you may be a real optimist, Light"
Ok so it's not the exact quote word for word, but it's along those lines. But that's the thing I wanted to get at!
I know you hated the Lord of The Flies book because you dont think that humans are inherently evil and that it's a horrible thing to think that a bunch of kids can go completely bestial and start killing each other, when left on a deserted island. But I took a very different message from that.
My message was this. Even when faced with great adversity, Ralph (main char.) was able to maintain the virtues that we thought were 'good' and 'true' seeing as he didnt go about smashing other children in the head with rocks. So that even though all of the other boys went completely crazy in an unstructured life with the fear of death on their minds. This one little boy was able to stop and look at the bigger picture. That he could say 'no this is wrong we need to stop this' and to actually take measures to do so. I mean given that those other boys never got into that situation, I dont think that they'd ever do something like that in a regular 'society'/'civilization'. If they had grown up to live normal lives they probably would have been perfectly fine.
My point is, that while you can take the message away from this book of.
Humans are horrible on the inside and will stop at nothing to ensure their survival, even if it means killing another human.
Or you cans see.
Even when driven to fear and madness, not all hope is lost.
And what's more, you could even argue that the other boys who go kind of nuts, were always thinking in the terms of self-preservation. It's a completely reasonable way to live. There's nothing wrong with killing so you arent killed. I mean there's claiming self-defense in the event you've killed someone. And I do feel that those boys could claim that.
Yes, I am aware that there was no actual threat on their lives, but the fear that death could be looming over your shoulder kinda drives most adults insane. So I dont think that children should be exempt from that, in fact, I think that because they were children who were scared and frightened that it couldnt be avoided. What they did was wrong. Yes it was wrong. But wouldnt you kill a rampaging dragon if it was trying to eat you? If you could kill it anyway. And if you found out later that it was in fact not a rampaging dragon but your friend who happened to be wearing a rather ill-fitting dragon costume, well then...what do you do? What do you say? You've just killed someone. It was in self-defense, sure they were technically harmless, but you didnt know that!
I dunno. I didnt mean to really make this into some kind of literature class of analyzing Lord of the Flies...it just turned out that way. But yeah, I think maybe you should try re-reading some of those old high school books. Maybe you'll see them in a different light. If it gets you thinking, I think the author has done their job. You dont have to like it, or love it or whatever, but I dont think you should call them bad outright. Just my opinion, you dont have to agree with it, it's just a little something to get you thinking.
As I Lay Dying
Catch 22
The Stranger
Lord of The Flies
and whatever. I started thinking about the plot (specifically of Lord of the Flies because I know how much you hated it) and then this quote from Death Note hit me. But first a little background on Death Note.
Death Note is a manga/anime about a kid who obtains a Death Note which is a notebook that was dropped by a death god. Now this notebook gives the owner the power to kill any human. All they have to do is write their name in the book and think of the person's face. The death can be unspecified and result in a heart attack, or can be specified to control the time of death, the cause of death, and even a person's actions before death (all within reason of course).
Anyway the kid who picks up the Death Note is a freaking genius kid who starts killing criminals to rid the world of evil. Eventually the police start investigating into the matter, and the kid with the Death Note becomes more and more villainous. Making the reader start to wonder who's right? Who is justice?
So the quote I want to get at is when Ryuk (the previous owner/death god of the notebook) turns to Light (new owner/kid out to kill criminals) after Light has revealed that he wants to kill all the evil people in the world to make a perfect world full of only people that he deems are good. Ryuk then turns to him and says "You know something, I think you may be a real optimist, Light"
Ok so it's not the exact quote word for word, but it's along those lines. But that's the thing I wanted to get at!
I know you hated the Lord of The Flies book because you dont think that humans are inherently evil and that it's a horrible thing to think that a bunch of kids can go completely bestial and start killing each other, when left on a deserted island. But I took a very different message from that.
My message was this. Even when faced with great adversity, Ralph (main char.) was able to maintain the virtues that we thought were 'good' and 'true' seeing as he didnt go about smashing other children in the head with rocks. So that even though all of the other boys went completely crazy in an unstructured life with the fear of death on their minds. This one little boy was able to stop and look at the bigger picture. That he could say 'no this is wrong we need to stop this' and to actually take measures to do so. I mean given that those other boys never got into that situation, I dont think that they'd ever do something like that in a regular 'society'/'civilization'. If they had grown up to live normal lives they probably would have been perfectly fine.
My point is, that while you can take the message away from this book of.
Humans are horrible on the inside and will stop at nothing to ensure their survival, even if it means killing another human.
Or you cans see.
Even when driven to fear and madness, not all hope is lost.
And what's more, you could even argue that the other boys who go kind of nuts, were always thinking in the terms of self-preservation. It's a completely reasonable way to live. There's nothing wrong with killing so you arent killed. I mean there's claiming self-defense in the event you've killed someone. And I do feel that those boys could claim that.
Yes, I am aware that there was no actual threat on their lives, but the fear that death could be looming over your shoulder kinda drives most adults insane. So I dont think that children should be exempt from that, in fact, I think that because they were children who were scared and frightened that it couldnt be avoided. What they did was wrong. Yes it was wrong. But wouldnt you kill a rampaging dragon if it was trying to eat you? If you could kill it anyway. And if you found out later that it was in fact not a rampaging dragon but your friend who happened to be wearing a rather ill-fitting dragon costume, well then...what do you do? What do you say? You've just killed someone. It was in self-defense, sure they were technically harmless, but you didnt know that!
I dunno. I didnt mean to really make this into some kind of literature class of analyzing Lord of the Flies...it just turned out that way. But yeah, I think maybe you should try re-reading some of those old high school books. Maybe you'll see them in a different light. If it gets you thinking, I think the author has done their job. You dont have to like it, or love it or whatever, but I dont think you should call them bad outright. Just my opinion, you dont have to agree with it, it's just a little something to get you thinking.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Secret Signing
O-O
Ellen, that was really cool!
You know, some of our puzzle pieces already fit together. We've had a lot of overlapping ideas!
OK, so I was just watching some more vlogbrothers. John is the brother who's an author - he wrote Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and I think one other (Ellen, Kelly and I all read Paper Towns) went to a bookstore and secretly signed a copy of his book. So whoever buys his book will have an autographed copy! That's so cool! Duuuuude, if I ever get a book published, I really want to do that.
And then, since he videotaped it, a very passionate nerdfighter fled to that store and bought the copy of the book that he signed. I'd want mine to be really secret though. So someone would actually buy a copy and see "It was signed by the author! Oh my God!"
Oh yeah. I've been meaning to post this too. I should post some of my favorite videos of theirs. I mean, there's an author and an environmentalist! YESS!
OK, here we go.
The part I want you to watch starts at about 2:06.
^-^'
I still remember that one post I made near the beginning of the blog saying how much I hated analysis. Granted, the amount and degree to which we were forced to take it in high school was pretty ridiculous. If it hadn't been shoved down my throat for 3 years straight, I probably would have never risen to that level of hate for it.
Like writing an entire essay on one poem wasn't very fun. And it did bug me that so much of the stuff we were just making up and probably wasn't intended by the author. For the amount you had to write, you NEEDED to make up as much weird, random stuff as you could think of.
Not only that, but a lot of the classic books we had to analyze I didn't like. Not because they weren't written well, but because they were either mean, dirty, disturbing, or depressing. And I still kinda hate all those books. I don't know if I'll ever change my mind about that. Can't they have classic books that are kind of nice to read?
Ellen, that was really cool!
You know, some of our puzzle pieces already fit together. We've had a lot of overlapping ideas!
OK, so I was just watching some more vlogbrothers. John is the brother who's an author - he wrote Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and I think one other (Ellen, Kelly and I all read Paper Towns) went to a bookstore and secretly signed a copy of his book. So whoever buys his book will have an autographed copy! That's so cool! Duuuuude, if I ever get a book published, I really want to do that.
And then, since he videotaped it, a very passionate nerdfighter fled to that store and bought the copy of the book that he signed. I'd want mine to be really secret though. So someone would actually buy a copy and see "It was signed by the author! Oh my God!"
Oh yeah. I've been meaning to post this too. I should post some of my favorite videos of theirs. I mean, there's an author and an environmentalist! YESS!
OK, here we go.
The part I want you to watch starts at about 2:06.
^-^'
I still remember that one post I made near the beginning of the blog saying how much I hated analysis. Granted, the amount and degree to which we were forced to take it in high school was pretty ridiculous. If it hadn't been shoved down my throat for 3 years straight, I probably would have never risen to that level of hate for it.
Like writing an entire essay on one poem wasn't very fun. And it did bug me that so much of the stuff we were just making up and probably wasn't intended by the author. For the amount you had to write, you NEEDED to make up as much weird, random stuff as you could think of.
Not only that, but a lot of the classic books we had to analyze I didn't like. Not because they weren't written well, but because they were either mean, dirty, disturbing, or depressing. And I still kinda hate all those books. I don't know if I'll ever change my mind about that. Can't they have classic books that are kind of nice to read?
LTCW-Why I Write
So Tara asked me to post whatever exercises we had in my Creative Writing Class, and here's the first one.
Why do you write? What do you derive your inspiration from?
Ok so I made up the second question, but that's pretty much it. Why do you write?
Here's my first draft, mind it's only word vomit so it's not all that great and it's not complete.
In my mind everything is connected.
All ideas relate to each other in some weird ambiguous way. The only problem is that there are so many ideas, facts, theories, and questions floating around, I can’t make heads or tails about how it’s all linked together.
The moment I try to untangle the threads that connect every, even more questions arise, creating more ideas. Ideas that connect with everything else, but I don’t know how.
Trying to discover what is the invisible string is hard for me to do, even more so when the ideas are impermanent, and always changing.
What is the truth?
And how do they fit together in this gigantic jigsaw puzzle that is my mind?
And once I have a piece of my own puzzle complete, will the edge pieces of my puzzle mind connect to someone else’s?
Or maybe, just maybe, they’re already connected.
A recursive puzzle.
Recursion by a loose definition is something that uses itself as a building block for itself. Mathematically it is a function in which the function being defined is applied within its own definition.
So what better way to solve an abstraction of infinite recursive cycles than writing, which is in itself an abstraction of infinite interpretations that create the building blocks for all of the ideas in my mind that’s already connected to everything?
But it’s not that simple. Ideas aren’t like puzzle pieces. They don’t have only four sides to connect to. It’s more like the nerves in our brain with millions of tendrils to send synapses. So one idea could be both the cause and effect of the very things that created it.
In my mind everything is connected.
Why do you write? What do you derive your inspiration from?
Ok so I made up the second question, but that's pretty much it. Why do you write?
Here's my first draft, mind it's only word vomit so it's not all that great and it's not complete.
In my mind everything is connected.
All ideas relate to each other in some weird ambiguous way. The only problem is that there are so many ideas, facts, theories, and questions floating around, I can’t make heads or tails about how it’s all linked together.
The moment I try to untangle the threads that connect every, even more questions arise, creating more ideas. Ideas that connect with everything else, but I don’t know how.
Trying to discover what is the invisible string is hard for me to do, even more so when the ideas are impermanent, and always changing.
What is the truth?
And how do they fit together in this gigantic jigsaw puzzle that is my mind?
And once I have a piece of my own puzzle complete, will the edge pieces of my puzzle mind connect to someone else’s?
Or maybe, just maybe, they’re already connected.
A recursive puzzle.
Recursion by a loose definition is something that uses itself as a building block for itself. Mathematically it is a function in which the function being defined is applied within its own definition.
So what better way to solve an abstraction of infinite recursive cycles than writing, which is in itself an abstraction of infinite interpretations that create the building blocks for all of the ideas in my mind that’s already connected to everything?
But it’s not that simple. Ideas aren’t like puzzle pieces. They don’t have only four sides to connect to. It’s more like the nerves in our brain with millions of tendrils to send synapses. So one idea could be both the cause and effect of the very things that created it.
In my mind everything is connected.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
FMA: Brotherhood
Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!!! FMA:B was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo amazing! It was just awesome! It took me three maybe four days to watch it all, but I did it! And now I need to sleep but it was just too amazing I had to post about it!
Watch it!
Well developed, great characters with a lot of personality and depth. Satisfying ending. Epic battle. And things make sense.
not to say the other anime was bad, it was good too, but this one was better :D XD
SQUEEEE!!!
Watch it!
Well developed, great characters with a lot of personality and depth. Satisfying ending. Epic battle. And things make sense.
not to say the other anime was bad, it was good too, but this one was better :D XD
SQUEEEE!!!
Grown-ups
Steph, you haven't posted in the longest time! It's good to have you back!
Heheh. I remember the name Mesmeroc. It's an awesome name!
(Ever since watching the Vlogbrothers, I find the word "awesome" popping up in my vocab a lot more. Ellen and I have been getting quite hooked on them.)
So, yet again, I've been falling behind. There's several things I want to post about.
In case you can't tell, for my creative writing stuff, I'm trying to give each topic its own post. So there's at least three more I need to write.
Ellen, if you get any cool new exercises in your creative writing class, post them on the blog! And post some of the stuff you write too!
And I promised I'd keep you updated as I try to write my Katani story (before I think of a story title, I usually just call it by the names of the characters, and Katani is the main character this time).
So, I started the new story about 3 days ago, you may recall. I haven't worked on it since. I mentioned that day my heavy work load? Well, The day after I started, I had to do something I'd never done before. I guess because of summer vacation, I'm not back in the groove yet. And my 7-page research paper on salt marshes was put off almost entirely until the last day (I should have been researching when I was writing the first chapter for Katani even though Katani hasn't even been introduced yet.) Never in my life has my procrastination been so bad that I had to stay up until 2:00 AM to finish a paper. And the very next day I had to finish a creative writing assignment (which I will post about) and an article review. But the CW was fun, so that's OK.
And I finally have time to get to work on my story again. Though I need to put up a fanfic chapter too...
So, I've come up with some new ideas for Katani's story.
I read quite recently how it can be really cool in a story to have friendships and partnerships between kids and adults. I haven't given it too much thought. But it really can be cool! I've done it a little bit without thinking about it much, like with Master Jaiyer.
In a lot of stories, you get only adults doing the action. Or in kid/young adult books, it's usually kids and teenagers that save the world. But when kids and adults WORK TOGETHER, it achieves a whole new level of awesomeness (see, awesome is taking over my brain). And there are some great examples now that I think about it. Like Fullmetal Alchemist. I just got a phone call from Ellen a few minutes ago because she'd just finished watching FMA Brotherhood and she was really hyper. She finished in in, like 4 days!
OK. Back on topic.
So, again, before I thought about it, I was already kinda planning on that sort of age alliance thing. Cause we got the Beta Gang, who are adults (at least in their 20's, I haven't decided yet). But after thinking about it some more, I wanted to do more of that. I think it was just earlier today that I thought of this. The days are turning to mush.
So, at the "school" where Katani is, Katani and his friends signed up for the younger division (they only recently lowered the age limit to allow younger people to take part cause they're desperate to fix the statues). But there have to be older members working on this project too. Veterans who've been working at it for a while. Until today, I didn't have many plans for them. But now I think I really need to include them. There's a whole new area for making up new cool characters! So, maybe some of them help mentor the younger recruits. And then I started designing Katani's mentor in my brain. He's gonna be fun to write for!
Oh yeah! I came up with some back story for Kon too. I thought about it today as I was reading a book for my Resource Analysis class. I know the teacher. He's cool. Anyway, the book was called Totem Salmon. It's about what's happening to the salmon in today's world. It's not good.
But since this story isn't environment-based, I need to include some sort of environmental theme. I must!
So, it was an answer to a question I had already. The question was: what do Kon and the Betas do when they're not ganging around? They're old enough to need a job. And I could imagine Kon doing some heavy work. And then it kinda clocked that maybe he works on a big fishing boat! He can haul the nets! And then I could include stuff about sustainable fishing and everything!
I'm having so much fun developing the characters for this story! Especially since there's lots of them! This is good though because in "Of Spirits and Demons," I don't think I spent enough time on character development. I'm gonna have to go back and fix that eventually. So, I'm realizing how amazingly fun it is to make in-depth characters. I'm pretty sure that anime and manga are what helped me learn about diverse characters.
Heheh. I remember the name Mesmeroc. It's an awesome name!
(Ever since watching the Vlogbrothers, I find the word "awesome" popping up in my vocab a lot more. Ellen and I have been getting quite hooked on them.)
So, yet again, I've been falling behind. There's several things I want to post about.
In case you can't tell, for my creative writing stuff, I'm trying to give each topic its own post. So there's at least three more I need to write.
Ellen, if you get any cool new exercises in your creative writing class, post them on the blog! And post some of the stuff you write too!
And I promised I'd keep you updated as I try to write my Katani story (before I think of a story title, I usually just call it by the names of the characters, and Katani is the main character this time).
So, I started the new story about 3 days ago, you may recall. I haven't worked on it since. I mentioned that day my heavy work load? Well, The day after I started, I had to do something I'd never done before. I guess because of summer vacation, I'm not back in the groove yet. And my 7-page research paper on salt marshes was put off almost entirely until the last day (I should have been researching when I was writing the first chapter for Katani even though Katani hasn't even been introduced yet.) Never in my life has my procrastination been so bad that I had to stay up until 2:00 AM to finish a paper. And the very next day I had to finish a creative writing assignment (which I will post about) and an article review. But the CW was fun, so that's OK.
And I finally have time to get to work on my story again. Though I need to put up a fanfic chapter too...
So, I've come up with some new ideas for Katani's story.
I read quite recently how it can be really cool in a story to have friendships and partnerships between kids and adults. I haven't given it too much thought. But it really can be cool! I've done it a little bit without thinking about it much, like with Master Jaiyer.
In a lot of stories, you get only adults doing the action. Or in kid/young adult books, it's usually kids and teenagers that save the world. But when kids and adults WORK TOGETHER, it achieves a whole new level of awesomeness (see, awesome is taking over my brain). And there are some great examples now that I think about it. Like Fullmetal Alchemist. I just got a phone call from Ellen a few minutes ago because she'd just finished watching FMA Brotherhood and she was really hyper. She finished in in, like 4 days!
OK. Back on topic.
So, again, before I thought about it, I was already kinda planning on that sort of age alliance thing. Cause we got the Beta Gang, who are adults (at least in their 20's, I haven't decided yet). But after thinking about it some more, I wanted to do more of that. I think it was just earlier today that I thought of this. The days are turning to mush.
So, at the "school" where Katani is, Katani and his friends signed up for the younger division (they only recently lowered the age limit to allow younger people to take part cause they're desperate to fix the statues). But there have to be older members working on this project too. Veterans who've been working at it for a while. Until today, I didn't have many plans for them. But now I think I really need to include them. There's a whole new area for making up new cool characters! So, maybe some of them help mentor the younger recruits. And then I started designing Katani's mentor in my brain. He's gonna be fun to write for!
Oh yeah! I came up with some back story for Kon too. I thought about it today as I was reading a book for my Resource Analysis class. I know the teacher. He's cool. Anyway, the book was called Totem Salmon. It's about what's happening to the salmon in today's world. It's not good.
But since this story isn't environment-based, I need to include some sort of environmental theme. I must!
So, it was an answer to a question I had already. The question was: what do Kon and the Betas do when they're not ganging around? They're old enough to need a job. And I could imagine Kon doing some heavy work. And then it kinda clocked that maybe he works on a big fishing boat! He can haul the nets! And then I could include stuff about sustainable fishing and everything!
I'm having so much fun developing the characters for this story! Especially since there's lots of them! This is good though because in "Of Spirits and Demons," I don't think I spent enough time on character development. I'm gonna have to go back and fix that eventually. So, I'm realizing how amazingly fun it is to make in-depth characters. I'm pretty sure that anime and manga are what helped me learn about diverse characters.
School
Ha ha ha I just realized that the guy in front of me is watching NCIS on his laptop...I love that show ><
Anyway, school has officially started, and they decided to start it on my busiest class crammed day! But it's been fun.
I had my first creative writing class and I'm super excited X3 waaaah! We already have a little thing due on Tuesday and homework and everything! But still I'm happy :D Oh! So yeah mesmeroc (I must utilize the shiny new name) if you wanna have a class to be motivated for and to get some of your side projects done take a creative writing class, or an art class or something. Dont let school get in the way of life XD
Mmmm yeah I'm just killing time for the next...oh two hours cause I'm too lazy to go back down to my place then come back up. Hopefully I'll have plenty of time to do all the things I want to and still keep in touch with you guys. So...yeah!
Have a good year ^_^
Anyway, school has officially started, and they decided to start it on my busiest class crammed day! But it's been fun.
I had my first creative writing class and I'm super excited X3 waaaah! We already have a little thing due on Tuesday and homework and everything! But still I'm happy :D Oh! So yeah mesmeroc (I must utilize the shiny new name) if you wanna have a class to be motivated for and to get some of your side projects done take a creative writing class, or an art class or something. Dont let school get in the way of life XD
Mmmm yeah I'm just killing time for the next...oh two hours cause I'm too lazy to go back down to my place then come back up. Hopefully I'll have plenty of time to do all the things I want to and still keep in touch with you guys. So...yeah!
Have a good year ^_^
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
mesmeroc = shiny new name!
Hello everyone! This is Steph/Shay; I've switched which account I use of ease of use. I've been consolidating things on the web lately. I want to actually be able to remember all the websites I sign up for & keep things organized. My new username is mesmeroc and I've been using that on my other sites as well, like fanfic, deviantart, & livejournal for one. I haven't gotten to the stage where I actually use those sites frequently though. I'm still working on that. >_<;;
OH, and I caught up on reading the blog! I forgot to keep checking it for a month or two. >_>; But it was nice to just go through a big chunk & read it all. Everyone is doing a good job of contributing lately. I should just put myself on a schedule so I post every week or something.
I've been feeling better about myself since I've started working, but I still have some issues with getting motivated to do personal projects. It's weird, since I'm more motivated/pressured to do school work and yet neglect my creative self. I'm working to improve that, but there are only so many hours in a day & I love mah sleep. MKAY, TIME TO GO MANAGE STUFF & DO SOMETHINGIDON'TKNOWWHATYET.
mesmeroc out.
OH, and I caught up on reading the blog! I forgot to keep checking it for a month or two. >_>; But it was nice to just go through a big chunk & read it all. Everyone is doing a good job of contributing lately. I should just put myself on a schedule so I post every week or something.
I've been feeling better about myself since I've started working, but I still have some issues with getting motivated to do personal projects. It's weird, since I'm more motivated/pressured to do school work and yet neglect my creative self. I'm working to improve that, but there are only so many hours in a day & I love mah sleep. MKAY, TIME TO GO MANAGE STUFF & DO SOMETHINGIDON'TKNOWWHATYET.
mesmeroc out.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Evil Homework, Bad Me
This seems like it's gonna be a tough semester. I'm regretting that I didn't do more of my report yesterday, since I started my story. But I really want to write more of my story even though I can't unless I want no sleep tonight. Maybe I'll do a couple paragraphs before band practice... if I can after dinner.
I think my procrastination levels have reached an all-time high over the summer. I never used to be this bad. ^-^'
I hopefully shouldn't be up too late finishing though.
Ah, I really gotta re-draw the picture at the top of my blog. It's lameness has been bugging me for a while.
We'll see if I can ever get to it. Sigh.
I think my procrastination levels have reached an all-time high over the summer. I never used to be this bad. ^-^'
I hopefully shouldn't be up too late finishing though.
Ah, I really gotta re-draw the picture at the top of my blog. It's lameness has been bugging me for a while.
We'll see if I can ever get to it. Sigh.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Katani!!!!
OK, it's late and I really gotta do the homework that I gotta do. But I threw caution t the wind and finally started my new story.
Waaah! Ok. I's excited.
^-^
I started it maybe an hour ago? I forget. A little longer, probably. 2 hours?
Anyway, I kinda want to post the first part. But I'll have to do that later. Like I said, it's late, I gotta get up for school tomorrow, and I have to finish the homework that I have not yet done (especially since I got a BIG paper due day after tomorrow and it's gonna be hard to work on tomorrow...)
Waaah! Ok. I's excited.
^-^
I started it maybe an hour ago? I forget. A little longer, probably. 2 hours?
Anyway, I kinda want to post the first part. But I'll have to do that later. Like I said, it's late, I gotta get up for school tomorrow, and I have to finish the homework that I have not yet done (especially since I got a BIG paper due day after tomorrow and it's gonna be hard to work on tomorrow...)
Epiphany!!!!
Ok so I already tried calling you a while ago, like a few hours ago. And I left you a few reviews for your fanfic and I did a whole bunch of research, because I had an epiphany of galactic proportions! (I feel like I've started to talk like the vlogbrothers because to me my writing sounds very different...)
In other news, or I guess it's the same news. I've figured out some ideas for what you can use in your LoZ fanfic! And here they are:
1. Ocarina of Time hyrule has had no screen time. And personally I'd really like to see that hyrule cause it's the one i know so well, and it's kind of one of the really popular ones too.
2. If Shadow Link has been desperately seeking the Master Sword, why cant he just go get the sages to make another one? Or at least get some help or powers or whatever.
Shadow Link: I don't need help! I can do this on my own!
Me: No, no you cant! I know you think you can, but you cant. I'm sorry, but it's a fact of life.
3. Oh and majora's mask has had no face time (ha ha ha 'face' time XD) In case you havent noticed I am extremely bored have run out of things to do and am very hyper and directing all of this excess energy to this post! Actually that's a lie I do have other things to do, it's just that I dont feel like doing them.
4. The Minish and the Minish Cap. Personally I would love to see Midna, Ezlo, and Shadow Link duke it out in a battle of wits. They can even use Shakespeare! (Ok I promise I'll stop using any more vlogbrothers references)
5. Ocarina of Time Master Quest! No idea how you would put this in there, but it'd make for a cool extra chapter that doesnt really have anything to do with the story. Where everything is all upside-down and backwards, with cows coming out of the walls.
6. Phantom Hourglass. Ok so I know you've told me or I read that you didnt know what to do in the Phantom Hourglass if you sent them there. But I think that if you give Shadow Link the phantom hourglass he should be effected by Twilight. Huh? Huh? :D So if they actually go to Twilight (and they should) the gang wouldn't keel over and die or whatever happens when you get sucked into the darkness.
7. Oh and what about all the other evil people? Vaati, Malladus, Bellum, Majora's Mask, Zant, Veran, Thunderbird, Agahnim, Nightmare, General Onox. (I told you I did my research, dont ask me who they all are or what game, cause I'm too lazy to check) But that doesnt even get me started on the sub-bosses. Yes you have Volvagia and Twinrova, but there's other people too like Saria and the other sages from OoT (who are allegedly dead), or Prince Ralis's parents.
And now we've talked on the phone and I've...kinda run out of steam. So...I'm gonna end this one now...and post it I guess...
In other news, or I guess it's the same news. I've figured out some ideas for what you can use in your LoZ fanfic! And here they are:
1. Ocarina of Time hyrule has had no screen time. And personally I'd really like to see that hyrule cause it's the one i know so well, and it's kind of one of the really popular ones too.
2. If Shadow Link has been desperately seeking the Master Sword, why cant he just go get the sages to make another one? Or at least get some help or powers or whatever.
Shadow Link: I don't need help! I can do this on my own!
Me: No, no you cant! I know you think you can, but you cant. I'm sorry, but it's a fact of life.
3. Oh and majora's mask has had no face time (ha ha ha 'face' time XD) In case you havent noticed I am extremely bored have run out of things to do and am very hyper and directing all of this excess energy to this post! Actually that's a lie I do have other things to do, it's just that I dont feel like doing them.
4. The Minish and the Minish Cap. Personally I would love to see Midna, Ezlo, and Shadow Link duke it out in a battle of wits. They can even use Shakespeare! (Ok I promise I'll stop using any more vlogbrothers references)
5. Ocarina of Time Master Quest! No idea how you would put this in there, but it'd make for a cool extra chapter that doesnt really have anything to do with the story. Where everything is all upside-down and backwards, with cows coming out of the walls.
6. Phantom Hourglass. Ok so I know you've told me or I read that you didnt know what to do in the Phantom Hourglass if you sent them there. But I think that if you give Shadow Link the phantom hourglass he should be effected by Twilight. Huh? Huh? :D So if they actually go to Twilight (and they should) the gang wouldn't keel over and die or whatever happens when you get sucked into the darkness.
7. Oh and what about all the other evil people? Vaati, Malladus, Bellum, Majora's Mask, Zant, Veran, Thunderbird, Agahnim, Nightmare, General Onox. (I told you I did my research, dont ask me who they all are or what game, cause I'm too lazy to check) But that doesnt even get me started on the sub-bosses. Yes you have Volvagia and Twinrova, but there's other people too like Saria and the other sages from OoT (who are allegedly dead), or Prince Ralis's parents.
And now we've talked on the phone and I've...kinda run out of steam. So...I'm gonna end this one now...and post it I guess...
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Beta Gang
Aww, the cat guys are so cute! Awwww!
I actually got a comment from Ellen on my Zelda story too!!! Yaay! Finally! Except her username's different so at first I was just "Whaaat?"
I praise Ellen on her homework abilities. ^-^
Ooh! Our Arith and Saleera story has been updated about as much as we can think of so far. Except I actually gotta elaborate on Ginger's anti-socialness cause I never actually fixed that...
I'm gonna try to keep the blog updated about my progress on the story I want to write.
On Thurdsay, I had an idea explosion during class and on the way home.
Cause needed lots of names.
The first part of it was assisted by Jenny. I don't know if I've ever mentioned her on the blog. In case I didn't, she's my only college friend who I know from High School. I met her back in 5th grade when she moved here from China. And then we ran into each other again in High School, which is awesome how that works out! Waah! Awesome re-meetings!
So, I asked Jenny to help me think of a name for the King's Chinese Dragon. (She told me that "dragon" in Chinese is technically spelled Long, but I'll probably still stick with Loong).
So, she asked for a word, but I couldn't think of a word, so I just kind of blurted out "tide, or wave." So she said "Chao."
And then she told me that dragons are always addressed with "Long." And then if he's a king dragon, you can add "Wong" on the end.
So, the dragon's name is Chao Long Wong.
(Or Chao Loong Wong).
So, the King calls him Chao cause they're really close. And other important people call him "Chao Loong," and then normal people could call him "Chao Loong Wong."
Whoo. That's a lot.
Thanks for your help, Jenny!
Then in the class I had right after talking to Jenny, I started designing the gang I want in my story. And I started getting really excited about them.
I found the leader's name first. Then I found names for all the members. they have names like Spike and Singe and stuff. And I found a name for the gang. They're the Betas, because Beta is another name for Siamese fighting fish. And since most of the gang is part of a race that lives near the sea, they're like fighting fish. The leader of the Betas is this cool guy named Kon. Except the rest of the gang calls him Alpha (get it? Greek letter Alpha and Beta, and an Alpha is like the leader of a pack of wolves?)
And then as I was thinking of names, the name Rosey popped into my mind for no reason whatsoever. And I went "why would a gang have someone names Rosey? And then I thought, well, they SHOULD have a girl in the gang. That would be cool. And maybe her name COULD be Rosey, but she doesn't like being called that cause it's too girly? So, maybe she's really tough, and if someone calls her Rosey, she gets up in your face and pokes them in the chest and says "Don't call my Rosey. It's Thorn." (Thorn is her nickname in the Betas. She's beautiful like a rose, but covered in sharp thorns).
And Kon calls her Rose, even though it kinda bugs her.
So, most (not all) of the gang is the one race that's prejudiced against, that comes near the ocean. I STILL needed a name for the race.
That came to me on the way home. I finally decided to call them Srykans. They're from a region of the country called Syrna.
OK! I've been wanting to get those names out of the way for a while.
But wait! I still need names for the king and his advisor!
Ellen helped me with that. (She and Nicole were over for one last visit on friday). We looked up some names on a baby name website. Since the country Reyu is kind of a Chinese/Japanese/ex dragon country, it would make sense for it to be at least slightly Asian in its culture. So, I decided on a Japanese name for the King (since Chao is a Chinese name) and I think we gave the advisor a Korean name. Or was it Vietnamese? Anyway, I wrote some good possibilities for their names. I just have to choose the ones I like most.
Oh, about that. Some of the countries on Taysia (Taysia is the main continent on Soreina) are vaguely based off kinda places.
Like Reyu is Chinese-Dragon shaped. And Leyng is like the South-American winged serpent dragon. So, yeah, they may be a little like those places.
But when the planet was formed during the Second Great Shift, humans were kinda dumped all over the continent, and it was mostly random. So things are really mixed up, at least in our eyes. Try not to equate any region on Soreina with an EXACT region here on Earth.
I actually got a comment from Ellen on my Zelda story too!!! Yaay! Finally! Except her username's different so at first I was just "Whaaat?"
I praise Ellen on her homework abilities. ^-^
Ooh! Our Arith and Saleera story has been updated about as much as we can think of so far. Except I actually gotta elaborate on Ginger's anti-socialness cause I never actually fixed that...
I'm gonna try to keep the blog updated about my progress on the story I want to write.
On Thurdsay, I had an idea explosion during class and on the way home.
Cause needed lots of names.
The first part of it was assisted by Jenny. I don't know if I've ever mentioned her on the blog. In case I didn't, she's my only college friend who I know from High School. I met her back in 5th grade when she moved here from China. And then we ran into each other again in High School, which is awesome how that works out! Waah! Awesome re-meetings!
So, I asked Jenny to help me think of a name for the King's Chinese Dragon. (She told me that "dragon" in Chinese is technically spelled Long, but I'll probably still stick with Loong).
So, she asked for a word, but I couldn't think of a word, so I just kind of blurted out "tide, or wave." So she said "Chao."
And then she told me that dragons are always addressed with "Long." And then if he's a king dragon, you can add "Wong" on the end.
So, the dragon's name is Chao Long Wong.
(Or Chao Loong Wong).
So, the King calls him Chao cause they're really close. And other important people call him "Chao Loong," and then normal people could call him "Chao Loong Wong."
Whoo. That's a lot.
Thanks for your help, Jenny!
Then in the class I had right after talking to Jenny, I started designing the gang I want in my story. And I started getting really excited about them.
I found the leader's name first. Then I found names for all the members. they have names like Spike and Singe and stuff. And I found a name for the gang. They're the Betas, because Beta is another name for Siamese fighting fish. And since most of the gang is part of a race that lives near the sea, they're like fighting fish. The leader of the Betas is this cool guy named Kon. Except the rest of the gang calls him Alpha (get it? Greek letter Alpha and Beta, and an Alpha is like the leader of a pack of wolves?)
And then as I was thinking of names, the name Rosey popped into my mind for no reason whatsoever. And I went "why would a gang have someone names Rosey? And then I thought, well, they SHOULD have a girl in the gang. That would be cool. And maybe her name COULD be Rosey, but she doesn't like being called that cause it's too girly? So, maybe she's really tough, and if someone calls her Rosey, she gets up in your face and pokes them in the chest and says "Don't call my Rosey. It's Thorn." (Thorn is her nickname in the Betas. She's beautiful like a rose, but covered in sharp thorns).
And Kon calls her Rose, even though it kinda bugs her.
So, most (not all) of the gang is the one race that's prejudiced against, that comes near the ocean. I STILL needed a name for the race.
That came to me on the way home. I finally decided to call them Srykans. They're from a region of the country called Syrna.
OK! I've been wanting to get those names out of the way for a while.
But wait! I still need names for the king and his advisor!
Ellen helped me with that. (She and Nicole were over for one last visit on friday). We looked up some names on a baby name website. Since the country Reyu is kind of a Chinese/Japanese/ex dragon country, it would make sense for it to be at least slightly Asian in its culture. So, I decided on a Japanese name for the King (since Chao is a Chinese name) and I think we gave the advisor a Korean name. Or was it Vietnamese? Anyway, I wrote some good possibilities for their names. I just have to choose the ones I like most.
Oh, about that. Some of the countries on Taysia (Taysia is the main continent on Soreina) are vaguely based off kinda places.
Like Reyu is Chinese-Dragon shaped. And Leyng is like the South-American winged serpent dragon. So, yeah, they may be a little like those places.
But when the planet was formed during the Second Great Shift, humans were kinda dumped all over the continent, and it was mostly random. So things are really mixed up, at least in our eyes. Try not to equate any region on Soreina with an EXACT region here on Earth.
Dude...
That was a lot of posts! And all in one day! Thanks for all the suggestions on what to do, I finally settled for doodling the differences between cats and people for that animal clan story.
I'll just go down that list you made me till I complete it! Yeah! But I dont have any of my plushie making stuff and there's no joann's or michaels where I can get to via bus. Or at least none that I know of, and not being a ridiculously long four hour ride there. -___- yeah buses are nice that they minimize exhaust and carpooling and that, but gaaaaah!!!!
I'm trying to draw everyday so I'll try to remember to post some stuff...actually I think I'll post some now.
Here's the cat/people differences picture I was talking about earlier. The writing on the side is how cat's express emotions, but because my sketchbook is so huge it doesnt fit in the scanner. Oh and I'll be coloring more with colored pencil and crayon and other traditional media cause I definitely need the practice. :D
Ok so there it is, I dont know if you can make out my chicken scratch writing, that and it's kind of small. But there's just some notes on what makes the people different than the cat person. I dont know if that will be my final design for the cat people, but it's something along those lines. Actually I should definitely alter it cause it's heavily ok entirely based off a character from a japanese anime movie called Juuni kouki (12 kingdoms). It's a good movie. Watch it! >:D
Anyway I think I'll upload this pic to deviantart too since I have it in my computer now.
I'll just go down that list you made me till I complete it! Yeah! But I dont have any of my plushie making stuff and there's no joann's or michaels where I can get to via bus. Or at least none that I know of, and not being a ridiculously long four hour ride there. -___- yeah buses are nice that they minimize exhaust and carpooling and that, but gaaaaah!!!!
I'm trying to draw everyday so I'll try to remember to post some stuff...actually I think I'll post some now.
Here's the cat/people differences picture I was talking about earlier. The writing on the side is how cat's express emotions, but because my sketchbook is so huge it doesnt fit in the scanner. Oh and I'll be coloring more with colored pencil and crayon and other traditional media cause I definitely need the practice. :D
Ok so there it is, I dont know if you can make out my chicken scratch writing, that and it's kind of small. But there's just some notes on what makes the people different than the cat person. I dont know if that will be my final design for the cat people, but it's something along those lines. Actually I should definitely alter it cause it's heavily ok entirely based off a character from a japanese anime movie called Juuni kouki (12 kingdoms). It's a good movie. Watch it! >:D
Anyway I think I'll upload this pic to deviantart too since I have it in my computer now.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
CW-Setting
See, I told you I had a lot of catch-up to do about my class! That's like, five posts in one day. Phew.
Out last assignment involved describing a setting.
We read several examples about that included very vivid settings. It's probably something I should spend more time on.
So, you obviously want lots of details. But a lot of them need to say something more other than just set the scene.
One example from one of our readings was that a little girl pinched her sister's dirty ankle. That's pretty significant, cause it shows that the girls are dirty and not well cared for.
Little details that reveal a lot without outright saying it.
It's first person. It's not an event. Just a place where an event happens.
I guess I could post my example. It's not professional. Heheh.
Sure. Why not.
We had a limit of 2 pages. And I'd used up almost all of it before I even went inside...
It's easy to get carried away if you're not careful.
^-^'
We follow the coiling road as it treks up the mountain and slides over the peak. Douglas fir and madrone drape their branches over the road, and dust-caked ferns and foxgloves reach out to stroke the car’s side-windows. We turn a corner past monstrous huckleberry bushes draped with jewel-like blue berries and tiny spiders.
The road levels out and I’m next to a handcrafted wooden house nestled in the woods. Grandma and Grandpa emerge from the side door, descending the worn wooden steps to greet us with hugs. Often there’s other cars parked here. Aunts, uncles and cousins, ready to hike out to the lightning-stuck Owl Tree standing alone in the center of the meadow, one branch clinging to life. Ready to walk past grandma’s art studio, past the garage, to where the faded hammock rests between two trees and where the tire swing sways beneath a Douglas fir.
I ascend the short flight of steps to their deck, worn smooth by years of feet. The tiny cracks have been filled with pine needles that have turned to earth. The shined heads of the nails gleam in the sunlight. I step over the potted plants and aunt Jill’s mosaic heron to lean over the rough balcony railing. Directly beneath me is their small vegetable garden. Sweet peas grow in a tangled rush up the latticework. Stubby onion leaves poke out of the dirt, watched over by a single gopher plant. A few bashful strawberries hide behind their protective netting. Green tomatoes push at the wire of the garden fence, trying to escape. Next to one of the garden gate is a bush with flowers that I used to think looked like mouse heads. If you pull a flower off of its green petiole, you can squeeze its base to produce a single drop of nectar. And then the garden gates. Oddly enough, there are two latches on each of the doors. I smile. When I was little, Grandpa would bring me down to the garden, but I couldn’t reach the latch to open the door. So, Grandpa added a second latch just for me. My own latch, to help open the wire door.
I turn my gaze upward. To either side, other mountains come down, nestling the house in a forested cradle. But directly below the house, the land slopes downward, covered in patches of manzanita and Douglas fir. If I look far enough, I can see the ocean, seemingly hanging from the base of the blue sky.
When you finally step into the house, it lets out a creak of greeting, and the familiar smell meets you. A smell of childhoods spent in the house in the woods.
The sliding door is set into a series of picture windows that line the back wall. The dining table sits against the window wall, and across the room are two couches set in an L shape in front of the seldom-used TV. Continuing clockwise, you pass the bedroom door, the neglected computer, the Native American carvings on the walls, the front door, and the potted fern. Finally you reach the little reading nook with the couch and the basket of stuffed animals and children’s books. Past the reading corner is the hallway covered in Grandma’s paintings and pictures of family – a time machine of me, my cousins, my mom, and her four siblings. One photo especially stands out, of Mom, Jim, Scot, Dave , and Jill as children, with each of them looking exactly as they do today, especially the expression on Mom’s face.
Finally you loop around through the kitchen, where there’s a set of cobalt blue jars and vases catching the sunlight in yet another window. Mr. Guy, the solid black cat that mysteriously appeared on their doorstep at the dead of night, brushes against my heels, purring.
Out last assignment involved describing a setting.
We read several examples about that included very vivid settings. It's probably something I should spend more time on.
So, you obviously want lots of details. But a lot of them need to say something more other than just set the scene.
One example from one of our readings was that a little girl pinched her sister's dirty ankle. That's pretty significant, cause it shows that the girls are dirty and not well cared for.
Little details that reveal a lot without outright saying it.
It's first person. It's not an event. Just a place where an event happens.
I guess I could post my example. It's not professional. Heheh.
Sure. Why not.
We had a limit of 2 pages. And I'd used up almost all of it before I even went inside...
It's easy to get carried away if you're not careful.
^-^'
We follow the coiling road as it treks up the mountain and slides over the peak. Douglas fir and madrone drape their branches over the road, and dust-caked ferns and foxgloves reach out to stroke the car’s side-windows. We turn a corner past monstrous huckleberry bushes draped with jewel-like blue berries and tiny spiders.
The road levels out and I’m next to a handcrafted wooden house nestled in the woods. Grandma and Grandpa emerge from the side door, descending the worn wooden steps to greet us with hugs. Often there’s other cars parked here. Aunts, uncles and cousins, ready to hike out to the lightning-stuck Owl Tree standing alone in the center of the meadow, one branch clinging to life. Ready to walk past grandma’s art studio, past the garage, to where the faded hammock rests between two trees and where the tire swing sways beneath a Douglas fir.
I ascend the short flight of steps to their deck, worn smooth by years of feet. The tiny cracks have been filled with pine needles that have turned to earth. The shined heads of the nails gleam in the sunlight. I step over the potted plants and aunt Jill’s mosaic heron to lean over the rough balcony railing. Directly beneath me is their small vegetable garden. Sweet peas grow in a tangled rush up the latticework. Stubby onion leaves poke out of the dirt, watched over by a single gopher plant. A few bashful strawberries hide behind their protective netting. Green tomatoes push at the wire of the garden fence, trying to escape. Next to one of the garden gate is a bush with flowers that I used to think looked like mouse heads. If you pull a flower off of its green petiole, you can squeeze its base to produce a single drop of nectar. And then the garden gates. Oddly enough, there are two latches on each of the doors. I smile. When I was little, Grandpa would bring me down to the garden, but I couldn’t reach the latch to open the door. So, Grandpa added a second latch just for me. My own latch, to help open the wire door.
I turn my gaze upward. To either side, other mountains come down, nestling the house in a forested cradle. But directly below the house, the land slopes downward, covered in patches of manzanita and Douglas fir. If I look far enough, I can see the ocean, seemingly hanging from the base of the blue sky.
When you finally step into the house, it lets out a creak of greeting, and the familiar smell meets you. A smell of childhoods spent in the house in the woods.
The sliding door is set into a series of picture windows that line the back wall. The dining table sits against the window wall, and across the room are two couches set in an L shape in front of the seldom-used TV. Continuing clockwise, you pass the bedroom door, the neglected computer, the Native American carvings on the walls, the front door, and the potted fern. Finally you reach the little reading nook with the couch and the basket of stuffed animals and children’s books. Past the reading corner is the hallway covered in Grandma’s paintings and pictures of family – a time machine of me, my cousins, my mom, and her four siblings. One photo especially stands out, of Mom, Jim, Scot, Dave , and Jill as children, with each of them looking exactly as they do today, especially the expression on Mom’s face.
Finally you loop around through the kitchen, where there’s a set of cobalt blue jars and vases catching the sunlight in yet another window. Mr. Guy, the solid black cat that mysteriously appeared on their doorstep at the dead of night, brushes against my heels, purring.
CW-Old Memories
So, one of our recent assignments was to draw a map of the first house we can remember. This was a little odd for me considering I've been in the same house my whole life.
So, you draw a floor plan of your first remembered house. As detailed as you can make it. Then you write down everything you can remember about it.
The goal of this is to draw out memories from when you were a kid, in the hopes that they'll be useful in something you write.
So, you draw a floor plan of your first remembered house. As detailed as you can make it. Then you write down everything you can remember about it.
The goal of this is to draw out memories from when you were a kid, in the hopes that they'll be useful in something you write.
CW-Long Sentences/Short sentences.
So, a while ago, there was an assignment to write a short thing that had no punctuation whatsoever. This is different. You just write a very long sentence. So, only one period, but other stuff in the middle like commas and semicolons. Semicolons are often neglected. Go learn what they do and use them. I gotta use them more too.
So, we had to assignments. Write something in one long sentence, and then write the same thing in several sentences, each less than 7 words long. The former kind of slows you down while the latter picks up the pace of whatever you're writing.
It's a good exercise. Usually in a real story you want to vary your sentence lengths, unless you're like Dickens or something. You know they do a good job if you don't even REALIZE that a sentence is a whole page long.
So, we had to assignments. Write something in one long sentence, and then write the same thing in several sentences, each less than 7 words long. The former kind of slows you down while the latter picks up the pace of whatever you're writing.
It's a good exercise. Usually in a real story you want to vary your sentence lengths, unless you're like Dickens or something. You know they do a good job if you don't even REALIZE that a sentence is a whole page long.
CW-Writing Groups
OK, I've been neglecting posts about my creative writing class. So here's one.
We've formed groups of five people. So when we bring in an assignment, we read it to our group and they give us suggestions. We did it with the Short Shorts that I posted earlier (And I edited the one I put up as to the suggestions of my reviewers).
Small groups are helpful. It's better than one other person, and better than 1 million people shouting different things at you. If you can, find small groups of people to read your stuff and comment on it.
We've formed groups of five people. So when we bring in an assignment, we read it to our group and they give us suggestions. We did it with the Short Shorts that I posted earlier (And I edited the one I put up as to the suggestions of my reviewers).
Small groups are helpful. It's better than one other person, and better than 1 million people shouting different things at you. If you can, find small groups of people to read your stuff and comment on it.
Pinyon
Yes, Ellen, draw! Draw more! You must draw more! And show me!
And also read my fanfic! Please! I need help with Shadow Link!
Finish your random interlude that star Saleera and Nex! I wanna read it, even if it isn't part of the official story. It can be an extra!
Or you could watch FMA brotherhood.
Or I could send you another of my stories to read! Hahah!
Or you could finish the Nex or Kyrus stories! Or that Victorian thing, or the cereal bowl story, or the one that involves the animal tribes that you tole me about!!!
Look at all the stuff you could do! It all involves computers.
Or you could make plushies! Post pictures of them! I wanna see them! Oh! That's right! Here's the plushie I just finished. Last weekend, actually. I posted a picture of him a long time ago. Pinyon. He's one of 7 animal people, except there was sort of a mistake making him. There's obviously the wing thing. But birds also have vastly different skeletal and respiratory systems, so he kind of has bone and breathing problems. But he's really sweet and he's everyone's favorite little brother who gives the best hugs.
I started a couple more plushies too. So I have 3 parts of unfinished plushies because 1 of them doesn't have the right color, and the other I started making, but I forgot one very important thing about him, so I turned it into a different plushie and only his boots are here, except now I realized that his boots don't look like the ones I made... So we'll see what I finish next.
And also read my fanfic! Please! I need help with Shadow Link!
Finish your random interlude that star Saleera and Nex! I wanna read it, even if it isn't part of the official story. It can be an extra!
Or you could watch FMA brotherhood.
Or I could send you another of my stories to read! Hahah!
Or you could finish the Nex or Kyrus stories! Or that Victorian thing, or the cereal bowl story, or the one that involves the animal tribes that you tole me about!!!
Look at all the stuff you could do! It all involves computers.
Or you could make plushies! Post pictures of them! I wanna see them! Oh! That's right! Here's the plushie I just finished. Last weekend, actually. I posted a picture of him a long time ago. Pinyon. He's one of 7 animal people, except there was sort of a mistake making him. There's obviously the wing thing. But birds also have vastly different skeletal and respiratory systems, so he kind of has bone and breathing problems. But he's really sweet and he's everyone's favorite little brother who gives the best hugs.
I started a couple more plushies too. So I have 3 parts of unfinished plushies because 1 of them doesn't have the right color, and the other I started making, but I forgot one very important thing about him, so I turned it into a different plushie and only his boots are here, except now I realized that his boots don't look like the ones I made... So we'll see what I finish next.
So...
Yello! I'm at school now, and in an effort to stay in touch i'm posting. Met my roommate, she's nice. So I think we'll get along ok. I have no idea what to do!!! I keep thinking, "What did I do during the first week last year?" Cause I dont have school for about a week and I have absolutely no idea what to do!
Helped a friend move in, talked with roommate, checked the wi-fi connection (it works great, I can play games that usually lag my computer :D) I could go call up more people and see what they're up to, but most of them have transferred out of here. Ok not most of them but at least three. And another one is in DC with the UCDC thingy. I'm not even sure who's here. Meh I might just curl up in bed, have some cinnamon sugar pita chips and work on a story.
Although I should probably draw...I havent really drawn anything recently save for Ling and Link which I doodled really quickly at Tara's house. Ha ha ha I just realized that they both have really similar names, save for one letter, and the fact that Ling's real name is actually Ling Yao, but whatever. So if any of you reading this can think of something interesting to do, let me know. I'm running out of options >_<
And...that's it. Yeah Imma go draw now.
Helped a friend move in, talked with roommate, checked the wi-fi connection (it works great, I can play games that usually lag my computer :D) I could go call up more people and see what they're up to, but most of them have transferred out of here. Ok not most of them but at least three. And another one is in DC with the UCDC thingy. I'm not even sure who's here. Meh I might just curl up in bed, have some cinnamon sugar pita chips and work on a story.
Although I should probably draw...I havent really drawn anything recently save for Ling and Link which I doodled really quickly at Tara's house. Ha ha ha I just realized that they both have really similar names, save for one letter, and the fact that Ling's real name is actually Ling Yao, but whatever. So if any of you reading this can think of something interesting to do, let me know. I'm running out of options >_<
And...that's it. Yeah Imma go draw now.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Worlds
It is an actual theory. I read about it somewhere. That there are infinite universes out there. From ones with completely different organisms in them, to ones that vary in such simple things as I had cereal for breakfast instead of pancakes. I forget what the theory's called though.
And it's funny. Several years ago, I came up with a very similar idea. I have a story planned out about it. My idea didn't involve an organization, but it did involve the theory that every time a person creates a story, there's a real world somewhere that follows it. Whether that world is created from the person's story, or if the person just saw into that world and recorded it, I haven't decided yet.
Great minds think alike, I guess.
And Fern does fit that really well in that idea! Cause so far, Fern doesn't have a story of her own. I use Fern to interfere in other people's stories. More on that later. So, it is like she's going to different worlds as part of this organization, to help people out.
And I think the idea of sticking her in random stories is AWESOME! Perhaps she'll have her own story some day, but until that time, she can visit many other places to help things along. My current task is to find a place for her to fit into Ellen and my story about Arith and Saleera. I kinda want her to show up before they break into the palace. Now I just have to figure out what she'll do to help them. It's gotta be real subtle. Like if she's handing out samples of something, and that sample ends up being useful during the break-in. Or an example we came up with is if she sort of randomly appears and moves something a few inches to the side, and no one knows what the heck she's doing that for, but it ends up being very important.
It would be so fun to have this random nameless girl pop up in all my stories, and people could try to find her!
And it's funny. Several years ago, I came up with a very similar idea. I have a story planned out about it. My idea didn't involve an organization, but it did involve the theory that every time a person creates a story, there's a real world somewhere that follows it. Whether that world is created from the person's story, or if the person just saw into that world and recorded it, I haven't decided yet.
Great minds think alike, I guess.
And Fern does fit that really well in that idea! Cause so far, Fern doesn't have a story of her own. I use Fern to interfere in other people's stories. More on that later. So, it is like she's going to different worlds as part of this organization, to help people out.
And I think the idea of sticking her in random stories is AWESOME! Perhaps she'll have her own story some day, but until that time, she can visit many other places to help things along. My current task is to find a place for her to fit into Ellen and my story about Arith and Saleera. I kinda want her to show up before they break into the palace. Now I just have to figure out what she'll do to help them. It's gotta be real subtle. Like if she's handing out samples of something, and that sample ends up being useful during the break-in. Or an example we came up with is if she sort of randomly appears and moves something a few inches to the side, and no one knows what the heck she's doing that for, but it ends up being very important.
It would be so fun to have this random nameless girl pop up in all my stories, and people could try to find her!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Cereal bowl theory
Another request from Tara to post on the blog. So let me explain the cereal bowl theory that I've been pondering for the last...ten years or so. Dude, I feel really old. Anyway it's called the cereal bowl theory for no particular reason, but the idea is that every universe/dimension in existence is all interconnected.
Pretty basic stuff right? But it gets better.
So all of these different dimensions are connected via stories. So someone who writes or dreams or thinks of an idea is actually a witness of that event actually happening. So whatever they've seen is something that has actually happened in one of the alternate universes.
Inversely, it could be that when someone thinks of an idea, say J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, once she has had the idea, that particular world comes into existence and gains a life of its own, and can be altered by the creator at their will.
Now it stands to reason that if there are these alternate universes that include every idea anyone's ever had or will have, that based on the above that those universes will either A) already exist or B) will exist. So there's an infinite amount of universes out there.
To add to the ridiculous amount of alternate dimensions, I also propose that within those worlds are another set of infinite dimensions of things that happened differently. For example, say a hero has ten near death experiences in which he has managed to survive. But then there has to be another dimension where he doesnt survive and subsequently even more where his downfall is inevitable. A little sad to think about but that also means that there exists both an imperfect world and a perfect one.
I'm not going to go on about recursive methods and the Taylor series crud cause I can hardly remember the series equations. But yeah to sum it up there's different dimensions, a lot of them.
Then I got to thinking that someone has to be regulating some of the different dimensions, to make sure that everything in that particular timeline goes as planned. Like say the hero that is caught in a terrible explosion has a 90% chance of dying. But in this particular dimension he absolutely needs to survive so that the dimension's timeline is uninterrupted or whatever.
That's where this organization group agency thing comes in. They travel between the different dimensions and make sure that what's supposed to happen or not happen, does or doesnt happen.
So I was telling Tara about my cereal bowl theory because I realized that one of her alter egos, Fern, basically works and functions like one of the organization that monitors and assists in the balance and maintenance of the infinite dimensions. Then we started talking about how we should incorporate Fern into our collaborative story. And I told Tara that she should put Fern into her other stories as well. Not as a main character or a secondary character mind you, but a background character who doesnt even have a name but helps the story along.
It's kind of hard to go back to stories and add a person in there that helps the main characters along after you've written the entire story and you're happy with it. But it makes for an interesting idea, especially if you have a whole bunch of stories and then make on on the character that goes around helping everyone. And when you realize that the random person who shouts "Over there" or "Look out" or something is there with a reason it's pretty cool.
Yeah, I'm not doing the idea much justice, and it sounds way better if I explain it to you in person, but Tara really liked the idea of Fern being a part of the organization that goes around altering timelines of dimensions and helping the story progress. I just need to find a way to incorporate the organization into a story and actually having stories in which to send the agency to. :D
So that's my really long rant and theory of cereal bowls, yeah.
Pretty basic stuff right? But it gets better.
So all of these different dimensions are connected via stories. So someone who writes or dreams or thinks of an idea is actually a witness of that event actually happening. So whatever they've seen is something that has actually happened in one of the alternate universes.
Inversely, it could be that when someone thinks of an idea, say J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, once she has had the idea, that particular world comes into existence and gains a life of its own, and can be altered by the creator at their will.
Now it stands to reason that if there are these alternate universes that include every idea anyone's ever had or will have, that based on the above that those universes will either A) already exist or B) will exist. So there's an infinite amount of universes out there.
To add to the ridiculous amount of alternate dimensions, I also propose that within those worlds are another set of infinite dimensions of things that happened differently. For example, say a hero has ten near death experiences in which he has managed to survive. But then there has to be another dimension where he doesnt survive and subsequently even more where his downfall is inevitable. A little sad to think about but that also means that there exists both an imperfect world and a perfect one.
I'm not going to go on about recursive methods and the Taylor series crud cause I can hardly remember the series equations. But yeah to sum it up there's different dimensions, a lot of them.
Then I got to thinking that someone has to be regulating some of the different dimensions, to make sure that everything in that particular timeline goes as planned. Like say the hero that is caught in a terrible explosion has a 90% chance of dying. But in this particular dimension he absolutely needs to survive so that the dimension's timeline is uninterrupted or whatever.
That's where this organization group agency thing comes in. They travel between the different dimensions and make sure that what's supposed to happen or not happen, does or doesnt happen.
So I was telling Tara about my cereal bowl theory because I realized that one of her alter egos, Fern, basically works and functions like one of the organization that monitors and assists in the balance and maintenance of the infinite dimensions. Then we started talking about how we should incorporate Fern into our collaborative story. And I told Tara that she should put Fern into her other stories as well. Not as a main character or a secondary character mind you, but a background character who doesnt even have a name but helps the story along.
It's kind of hard to go back to stories and add a person in there that helps the main characters along after you've written the entire story and you're happy with it. But it makes for an interesting idea, especially if you have a whole bunch of stories and then make on on the character that goes around helping everyone. And when you realize that the random person who shouts "Over there" or "Look out" or something is there with a reason it's pretty cool.
Yeah, I'm not doing the idea much justice, and it sounds way better if I explain it to you in person, but Tara really liked the idea of Fern being a part of the organization that goes around altering timelines of dimensions and helping the story progress. I just need to find a way to incorporate the organization into a story and actually having stories in which to send the agency to. :D
So that's my really long rant and theory of cereal bowls, yeah.
Japanese sound effects
So Tara wanted me to post on Japanese sound effects, like the one's you see in manga. They replace the American 'biff' 'pow' and 'bam' kind of things you see in comics.
Basically Japanese sound effects are all onomatopoeia. Anyway, Tara wanted me to translate some of the sound effects from the song 'Ponyo' from the Japanese movie "Gake no ue no ponyo" AKA "Ponyo".
My pronunciations are not exactly accurate because I've known of these onomatopoeia for a while and how to pronounce things in japanese, so normally I'd just say pronounce it like it's spelled, but that doesnt really work for people who dont know japanese... ^__^ so bear with my pronunciation guide thingy.
The first sound effects that show up in the lyrics of the song are "Peta, peta, pyon, pyon"
'peta' (pronounced peh-tah) is the sound of slapping feet on the ground. Kind of like a pitter-pattering noise.
'pyon' (pronounced pi-yo-n) is the sound of jumping or bouncing, like a rabbit.
Then there comes "nigii nigii, buun buun"
'nigii' (pronounced knee-ghee)is a grabbing sound, usually attributed to babies who are test driving their ability to grab onto something.
'buun' (pronounced boo-n) just the sound little kids make when they're pretending to be an airplane.
'paku' (pronounced like it's spelled) is the sound of a mouth opening or closing, like that of a fish or someone who's too stunned and cant think of anything to say, but keeps opening and closing their mouth.
'chugyuu' (pronounced choo-gi-you) is the sound of squeezing something cute, or giving someone a hug. Connoted with a 'warm' or 'fuzzy' feeling. Like hugging a puppy.
'fuku' (pronounced foo-coo) is the sound of sniffing or smelling something.
'waku' (pronounced wa-coo) is the sound for excitement or anxiousness, but with a positive connotation of looking forward to something. kind of like how you can feel little kids buzzing with excitement on christmas...it's kinda hard to explain...
and woot! That's it! :D So I'm including a website with a few other japanese onomatopoeia. You can just google that if you want to find out more, there's sure to be tons.
http://www.coolslang.com/in/Japan/PeraPera.php
Basically Japanese sound effects are all onomatopoeia. Anyway, Tara wanted me to translate some of the sound effects from the song 'Ponyo' from the Japanese movie "Gake no ue no ponyo" AKA "Ponyo".
My pronunciations are not exactly accurate because I've known of these onomatopoeia for a while and how to pronounce things in japanese, so normally I'd just say pronounce it like it's spelled, but that doesnt really work for people who dont know japanese... ^__^ so bear with my pronunciation guide thingy.
The first sound effects that show up in the lyrics of the song are "Peta, peta, pyon, pyon"
'peta' (pronounced peh-tah) is the sound of slapping feet on the ground. Kind of like a pitter-pattering noise.
'pyon' (pronounced pi-yo-n) is the sound of jumping or bouncing, like a rabbit.
Then there comes "nigii nigii, buun buun"
'nigii' (pronounced knee-ghee)is a grabbing sound, usually attributed to babies who are test driving their ability to grab onto something.
'buun' (pronounced boo-n) just the sound little kids make when they're pretending to be an airplane.
'paku' (pronounced like it's spelled) is the sound of a mouth opening or closing, like that of a fish or someone who's too stunned and cant think of anything to say, but keeps opening and closing their mouth.
'chugyuu' (pronounced choo-gi-you) is the sound of squeezing something cute, or giving someone a hug. Connoted with a 'warm' or 'fuzzy' feeling. Like hugging a puppy.
'fuku' (pronounced foo-coo) is the sound of sniffing or smelling something.
'waku' (pronounced wa-coo) is the sound for excitement or anxiousness, but with a positive connotation of looking forward to something. kind of like how you can feel little kids buzzing with excitement on christmas...it's kinda hard to explain...
and woot! That's it! :D So I'm including a website with a few other japanese onomatopoeia. You can just google that if you want to find out more, there's sure to be tons.
http://www.coolslang.com/in/Japan/PeraPera.php
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Katani
So, I really want to start a new story even though I said I'd start the wyvern prequel.
I came up with the idea this summer at fanime, actually. One of the skits I saw there sparked the idea. An idea about a school divided into two parts. And since then I've incorporated some older ideas too. Like the stuff about the fake prophecy and the king's reaction to it.
Since then, I've been building on the idea. A lot of it has gone to the characters. The main boy is Katani. And he has three friends, two of which sign up for this school with him. Actually, it's not a school, but I"m calling it that for simplicity sake.
Everyone sort of thinks that the one half of the school it much worse than the other, and the three of them expect to get into the good half.
I've been trying to figure out how they choose people for each half. It's not random selection. It's sort of who you ARE that decides where you go. I'm not sure how they decide that though. Anyway, Katani gets a big surprise when the selecting happens.
And then Katani meets four new people at the school.
And then there was everything about what this school was for. That took a while to figure out.
So what I settled on is that there are these two dragon statues, and all of the scales from the statues have been (somehow) scattered all over the country.
(This takes place in the southern country of Taysia -Reyu)
But these two dragon statues are supposed to be guardians of the country.
So, each half of this school is devoted to searching out the scales from one of the dragons. One half finds red scales, the other half finds green scales. Everyone has their own compass-like thing that points to a specific scale.
So, some of these scales are hidden in difficult places. So the people who are tracking them down need special training. And not only that, but as incentive to sign up for this, each recruit gets a dragon egg.
So, as their dragon grows to riding-size, the humans undergo defensive training and such.
Katani gets a storm dragon.
And though Katani's year starts out pretty dreadful, he starts realizing that the "bad half" of the school (in charge of the red dragon) isn't as awful as many people think it is.
Another question. Why do people think this half is so bad? What I decided is that the one half is made up mostly of a race of people that's heavily discriminated against.
That's where I fit in the idea of the prophecy.
The king hears a prophecy that one of the people from this race (I don't know what to call them yet, but they have yellow eyes, silvery hair, and sort of caramel-colored skin, I guess) is supposed to kill him.
The king doesn't want this prophecy to get out because he knows that it would be horrible for the kingdom and he doesn't want this one race to be persecuted. Yet his adviser (who is racist) "accidentally" lets this fact slip, and very soon most of the kingdom has heard that a person from this race is going to kill their beloved king.
This happens a year or two before the story takes place. And during that time, tensions build to dangerous levels between the one race and everyone else. So, they started recruiting people for this school to try to fix the guardian dragons as son as possible so that the dragons can bring peace.
By the time Katani and his friends join, the dragons are nearing completion.
And then at school a couple days ago, I started thinking how I might start the story. I wanted to start it just before the prophecy. There's already some tension between the one race (they really need a name) and everyone else. And a small riot starts. The king flies in on his dragon to break it up.
And then I though, "who's starting the riot? "
So, a couple days ago, I came up with this idea of a gang led by this cool guy (nameless so far) that's made up mostly of this race. And they're sort of trouble makers. I think Katani and co will probably end up meeting them.
After the riot ends, that's when the kind hears about the prophecy from his adviser.
Then we skip forwards two or so years to Katani and his friends getting ready to sign up for the school.
Yeah.
So, some big gaps. But I'm really excited about this one. Even more than some of the others I really want to write. I just need to fill some of the gaps.
I came up with the idea this summer at fanime, actually. One of the skits I saw there sparked the idea. An idea about a school divided into two parts. And since then I've incorporated some older ideas too. Like the stuff about the fake prophecy and the king's reaction to it.
Since then, I've been building on the idea. A lot of it has gone to the characters. The main boy is Katani. And he has three friends, two of which sign up for this school with him. Actually, it's not a school, but I"m calling it that for simplicity sake.
Everyone sort of thinks that the one half of the school it much worse than the other, and the three of them expect to get into the good half.
I've been trying to figure out how they choose people for each half. It's not random selection. It's sort of who you ARE that decides where you go. I'm not sure how they decide that though. Anyway, Katani gets a big surprise when the selecting happens.
And then Katani meets four new people at the school.
And then there was everything about what this school was for. That took a while to figure out.
So what I settled on is that there are these two dragon statues, and all of the scales from the statues have been (somehow) scattered all over the country.
(This takes place in the southern country of Taysia -Reyu)
But these two dragon statues are supposed to be guardians of the country.
So, each half of this school is devoted to searching out the scales from one of the dragons. One half finds red scales, the other half finds green scales. Everyone has their own compass-like thing that points to a specific scale.
So, some of these scales are hidden in difficult places. So the people who are tracking them down need special training. And not only that, but as incentive to sign up for this, each recruit gets a dragon egg.
So, as their dragon grows to riding-size, the humans undergo defensive training and such.
Katani gets a storm dragon.
And though Katani's year starts out pretty dreadful, he starts realizing that the "bad half" of the school (in charge of the red dragon) isn't as awful as many people think it is.
Another question. Why do people think this half is so bad? What I decided is that the one half is made up mostly of a race of people that's heavily discriminated against.
That's where I fit in the idea of the prophecy.
The king hears a prophecy that one of the people from this race (I don't know what to call them yet, but they have yellow eyes, silvery hair, and sort of caramel-colored skin, I guess) is supposed to kill him.
The king doesn't want this prophecy to get out because he knows that it would be horrible for the kingdom and he doesn't want this one race to be persecuted. Yet his adviser (who is racist) "accidentally" lets this fact slip, and very soon most of the kingdom has heard that a person from this race is going to kill their beloved king.
This happens a year or two before the story takes place. And during that time, tensions build to dangerous levels between the one race and everyone else. So, they started recruiting people for this school to try to fix the guardian dragons as son as possible so that the dragons can bring peace.
By the time Katani and his friends join, the dragons are nearing completion.
And then at school a couple days ago, I started thinking how I might start the story. I wanted to start it just before the prophecy. There's already some tension between the one race (they really need a name) and everyone else. And a small riot starts. The king flies in on his dragon to break it up.
And then I though, "who's starting the riot? "
So, a couple days ago, I came up with this idea of a gang led by this cool guy (nameless so far) that's made up mostly of this race. And they're sort of trouble makers. I think Katani and co will probably end up meeting them.
After the riot ends, that's when the kind hears about the prophecy from his adviser.
Then we skip forwards two or so years to Katani and his friends getting ready to sign up for the school.
Yeah.
So, some big gaps. But I'm really excited about this one. Even more than some of the others I really want to write. I just need to fill some of the gaps.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Yellow Plushie
So, last week we made plushies again. This tie we each made our own from scratch. So we didn't entirely finish.
It was hard for me to decide who to make. I eventually settled on Yellow.
And I finished today.
It was hard for me to decide who to make. I eventually settled on Yellow.
And I finished today.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Magic-Earth Conflicts
OK, so I'm gonna take a break from my writing class. Though I'm gonna try to keep ya updated through the semester.
Onto something of my own!
Ellen and Nicole slept over over the weekend, and we discussed Magic-Earth.
They brought up a few things.
Actually, I think I should mention this first. On both Magic-Earth and Soreina, most of the people can talk to animals (and sometimes plants and spirits). In this way, they're connected to the deep levels of nature that most people on our planet have lost. So in some respects, the people on those planets will behave differently that we do.
First of all, religion on Magic-Earth. They do have it. I'm still developing stuff about it. I do have some points down though.
Yeah, they do have religion. Probably most of them believe in a God, but they also have demi-gods that most people believe in too. Again, I'm working on it, but the main one I've designed so far is the Goddess of Mercy. Did I put her picture up already? I think I did. I'll go back and check. Yeah. Here she is at the bottom of the page.
I don't know what the others are yet.
And yeah, there are some religious conflicts, but not nearly as bad as ours.
This has to do with that deep connection to nature. There's less conflict over such stuff.
Another thing they brought up was the order of the Mages. Not everyone on Magic-Earth has magic. Most people don't. The mages sort of run things, because they can break up problems easier than most people, and they can easier deal with the magical disasters that happen on their planet.
But what Ellen and Nicole said was that the non-Magic people would feel suppressed by the minority of mages that sort of ran things.
Let's see... the mages don't actually run things, but I can see what they mean.
The mages are kind of like peace keepers.
You could say they're kind of like the Jedi.
Ah, so my excuse is that deep nature connection thing. Not to say that there aren't conflicts about that. There are. But there's not as many as there might be here.
And the mage system has been going on for so long, and it's been pretty effective, so most people feel secure with how things run. And besides, plenty of normal people are really important too. Just as many, if not more, than the mages. And most mages don't have big important jobs. A lot of them just deal in whatever their magic specializes in. But even in those fields, there's few enough mages in them that it's mostly normal people who are involved in it. And the Magic-Folk too.
Then they started telling me that I should have a main character who's really evil. Maybe I will. Who knows. It might be interesting (I did something like that once - a while ago).
I try to give my villains some more depth than just being purely evil and wanting to kill everything. It's more realistic that bad guys have motives for such things.
But not only that. Truly evil people have been done a lot. Most of the Disney cartoons, Star Wars, Willow, all have plain evil people a villains. It gets done a lot. Don't get me wring! There are tons of awesome movies with evil people. It's just more interesting and less repetitive to do something different with antagonists.
Though I'll probably have at least some evil people. Heheh.
Onto something of my own!
Ellen and Nicole slept over over the weekend, and we discussed Magic-Earth.
They brought up a few things.
Actually, I think I should mention this first. On both Magic-Earth and Soreina, most of the people can talk to animals (and sometimes plants and spirits). In this way, they're connected to the deep levels of nature that most people on our planet have lost. So in some respects, the people on those planets will behave differently that we do.
First of all, religion on Magic-Earth. They do have it. I'm still developing stuff about it. I do have some points down though.
Yeah, they do have religion. Probably most of them believe in a God, but they also have demi-gods that most people believe in too. Again, I'm working on it, but the main one I've designed so far is the Goddess of Mercy. Did I put her picture up already? I think I did. I'll go back and check. Yeah. Here she is at the bottom of the page.
I don't know what the others are yet.
And yeah, there are some religious conflicts, but not nearly as bad as ours.
This has to do with that deep connection to nature. There's less conflict over such stuff.
Another thing they brought up was the order of the Mages. Not everyone on Magic-Earth has magic. Most people don't. The mages sort of run things, because they can break up problems easier than most people, and they can easier deal with the magical disasters that happen on their planet.
But what Ellen and Nicole said was that the non-Magic people would feel suppressed by the minority of mages that sort of ran things.
Let's see... the mages don't actually run things, but I can see what they mean.
The mages are kind of like peace keepers.
You could say they're kind of like the Jedi.
Ah, so my excuse is that deep nature connection thing. Not to say that there aren't conflicts about that. There are. But there's not as many as there might be here.
And the mage system has been going on for so long, and it's been pretty effective, so most people feel secure with how things run. And besides, plenty of normal people are really important too. Just as many, if not more, than the mages. And most mages don't have big important jobs. A lot of them just deal in whatever their magic specializes in. But even in those fields, there's few enough mages in them that it's mostly normal people who are involved in it. And the Magic-Folk too.
Then they started telling me that I should have a main character who's really evil. Maybe I will. Who knows. It might be interesting (I did something like that once - a while ago).
I try to give my villains some more depth than just being purely evil and wanting to kill everything. It's more realistic that bad guys have motives for such things.
But not only that. Truly evil people have been done a lot. Most of the Disney cartoons, Star Wars, Willow, all have plain evil people a villains. It gets done a lot. Don't get me wring! There are tons of awesome movies with evil people. It's just more interesting and less repetitive to do something different with antagonists.
Though I'll probably have at least some evil people. Heheh.
CW-Short Shorts
So, the last thing we worked on in creative writing was short stories. Really short ones. Less than 500 words.
The project started out even shorter than that - 7 sentences following these guidelines from the forking paths book.
1. A sentence that starts right in the middle of the action-what just happened.
2. 2 sentences describing the setting.
3. a sentence where you (the narrator) reacts to the event.
4. A sentence where an antagonist reacts t the event in an opposite manner.
5. You reply to the other person.
6. There's a change from the first sentence.
That's what we started with.
Then for our assignment, we lengthened it, though not more than 500 words.
There were 2 things I wanted to write about. One took place at the camp I volunteered at this summer. We went swimming in this beautiful river, and there's this water grass patch that's full of big round tadpoles. Except there's no antagonist in that story.
So I settled on this one. I have no idea what made me remember this...
Heheh. Ellen's an antagonist.
We rose higher and higher, all of us captive to the harnesses that gripped us. The landscape stretched out beneath us, a patchwork of roads, houses, scattered trees, and rollercoasters. Actually, I didn’t have a problem with rollercoasters. They were fine. And they were fun. But this, this was different. This wasn’t a rollercoaster. This thing lifted you two miles into the air, and then sent you plummeting earthward again. Out of all the rides at Great America, the Drop Zone was the only one that scared me. I’d been on it many times before, and I knew it scared me stiff. Literally. Yet here I was again, strapped in by the straightjacket harness. By now, I was resigned to my fate. I grit my teeth waiting for the moment.
Actually, the view was beautiful. I just couldn’t appreciate it because you never knew when the bottom would drop out from under you.
Beside me, my friend Ellen was completely relaxed, looking forwards to the impending plunge. In fact, she was listening with rapt attention. She wanted to listen to me as we fell. I’d told her only a minute before, when we were on secure ground, that I was incapable of screaming as I fell. She wanted to hear it.
Suddenly, the hook detached and our group dropped out of the sky, plunging earthward. My stomach remained stuck up in the clouds. The people around me shrieked in delight. I opened my mouth and attempted to let out a yell, but it choked out in my throat and turned into a little squeak, which quickly blew away.
Ellen laughed loudly, and continued to do so even as the ride skidded to a halt.
The project started out even shorter than that - 7 sentences following these guidelines from the forking paths book.
1. A sentence that starts right in the middle of the action-what just happened.
2. 2 sentences describing the setting.
3. a sentence where you (the narrator) reacts to the event.
4. A sentence where an antagonist reacts t the event in an opposite manner.
5. You reply to the other person.
6. There's a change from the first sentence.
That's what we started with.
Then for our assignment, we lengthened it, though not more than 500 words.
There were 2 things I wanted to write about. One took place at the camp I volunteered at this summer. We went swimming in this beautiful river, and there's this water grass patch that's full of big round tadpoles. Except there's no antagonist in that story.
So I settled on this one. I have no idea what made me remember this...
Heheh. Ellen's an antagonist.
We rose higher and higher, all of us captive to the harnesses that gripped us. The landscape stretched out beneath us, a patchwork of roads, houses, scattered trees, and rollercoasters. Actually, I didn’t have a problem with rollercoasters. They were fine. And they were fun. But this, this was different. This wasn’t a rollercoaster. This thing lifted you two miles into the air, and then sent you plummeting earthward again. Out of all the rides at Great America, the Drop Zone was the only one that scared me. I’d been on it many times before, and I knew it scared me stiff. Literally. Yet here I was again, strapped in by the straightjacket harness. By now, I was resigned to my fate. I grit my teeth waiting for the moment.
Actually, the view was beautiful. I just couldn’t appreciate it because you never knew when the bottom would drop out from under you.
Beside me, my friend Ellen was completely relaxed, looking forwards to the impending plunge. In fact, she was listening with rapt attention. She wanted to listen to me as we fell. I’d told her only a minute before, when we were on secure ground, that I was incapable of screaming as I fell. She wanted to hear it.
Suddenly, the hook detached and our group dropped out of the sky, plunging earthward. My stomach remained stuck up in the clouds. The people around me shrieked in delight. I opened my mouth and attempted to let out a yell, but it choked out in my throat and turned into a little squeak, which quickly blew away.
Ellen laughed loudly, and continued to do so even as the ride skidded to a halt.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
CW-Punctuation
So, the last section we read in the LeGuin book was about punctuation.
Really, if you want to write, you gotta do punctuation right. Though semi-colons always run away from me.
But the exercise was to write a passage with no punctuation at all. They suggested something hectic.
So, my mind latched onto that one time last year at the humane society. It was summer - the busy season. And none of the other volunteers were there. So, I was jumping back and forth trying to keep up with the baby bird feeds and everything else that had to be done.
So, here's what I wrote.
It's summer baby bird season at the humane society and everyone's busy but today the other volunteers are gone and it's only me and the employees there's a lot to do dishes laundry and cleaning between feeds and then the timer starts its high pitched beeping I have to stop it before I go crazy I start feeding baby birds the cute sweet little guys flutter their wings cheep and open their big mouthes wide there's robins jays mockingbirds finches sparrows and usually others but when I'm done I have to mix up raccoon food and bring in dishes of leftover brown sludge when it's late it's time to close up animals are put to bed garbage and recycling are taken out dish water is dumped and finally I can sign out and go home to a hot shower.
(Helps to read it out loud to understand it)
Here's what it should really be.
It's summer-baby bird season at the humane society, and everyone's busy. But today the other volunteers are gone, and it's only me and the employees. There's a lot to do: dishes, laundry, and cleaning between feeds, and then the timer starts its high pitched beeping. I have to stop it before I go crazy. I start feeding baby birds. The cute, sweet little guys flutter their wings, cheep, and open their big mouthes wide. There's robins, jays, mockingbirds, finches sparrows, and usually others. But when I'm done, I have to mix up raccoon food and bring in dishes of leftover brown sludge. When it's late, it's time to close up. Animals are put to bed, garbage and recycling are taken out, dish water is dumped, and finally I can sign out and go home to a hot shower.
When I went back just now to put in the punctuation, I realized that I'd unconsciously added a lot more "ands" to compensate for run-on sentence, but I took the ones out that made no sense when it was broken into sentences. So you will never see them! Wahahahah!
Really, if you want to write, you gotta do punctuation right. Though semi-colons always run away from me.
But the exercise was to write a passage with no punctuation at all. They suggested something hectic.
So, my mind latched onto that one time last year at the humane society. It was summer - the busy season. And none of the other volunteers were there. So, I was jumping back and forth trying to keep up with the baby bird feeds and everything else that had to be done.
So, here's what I wrote.
It's summer baby bird season at the humane society and everyone's busy but today the other volunteers are gone and it's only me and the employees there's a lot to do dishes laundry and cleaning between feeds and then the timer starts its high pitched beeping I have to stop it before I go crazy I start feeding baby birds the cute sweet little guys flutter their wings cheep and open their big mouthes wide there's robins jays mockingbirds finches sparrows and usually others but when I'm done I have to mix up raccoon food and bring in dishes of leftover brown sludge when it's late it's time to close up animals are put to bed garbage and recycling are taken out dish water is dumped and finally I can sign out and go home to a hot shower.
(Helps to read it out loud to understand it)
Here's what it should really be.
It's summer-baby bird season at the humane society, and everyone's busy. But today the other volunteers are gone, and it's only me and the employees. There's a lot to do: dishes, laundry, and cleaning between feeds, and then the timer starts its high pitched beeping. I have to stop it before I go crazy. I start feeding baby birds. The cute, sweet little guys flutter their wings, cheep, and open their big mouthes wide. There's robins, jays, mockingbirds, finches sparrows, and usually others. But when I'm done, I have to mix up raccoon food and bring in dishes of leftover brown sludge. When it's late, it's time to close up. Animals are put to bed, garbage and recycling are taken out, dish water is dumped, and finally I can sign out and go home to a hot shower.
When I went back just now to put in the punctuation, I realized that I'd unconsciously added a lot more "ands" to compensate for run-on sentence, but I took the ones out that made no sense when it was broken into sentences. So you will never see them! Wahahahah!
Creative Writing(CW)-Senses
So, I said I'd post some actual examples of those 10-13 syllable sensory details.
They're the ones I wrote myself, so they're not professional examples or anything. I kind of tried to include a little bit of "background" to what I was writing so you could kind of get an idea what was going on. I'm not sure if she wanted that, or if it's supposed to be all descriptive. But here are some of mine.
Alone at night, a choir of crickets thrums sweetly
(I'm taking band at a different college this semester -one closer to my house since I couldn't fit band in my schedule at my main school. Besides I know the conductor at this place too. But band ends really late so I have to walk back to my car in the dark. But I get to hear the crickets.)
Trees reflection, like an impressionist painting.
(The window of the train had a strange texture, kind of making it look like it had raindrops sliding down it. When we stopped, I noticed a tree, and the window made it look like it was painted by Monet or someone.)
In a city, the sharp, fresh redwood scent startles me.
(Walking to class, I passed under 2 big redwoods. The scent hit me, making me stop and just inhale the nice smell that I didn't expect in a city.)
A breeze wafts the sweet aroma of roses to me.
(Again, at school, there's a rose bed with benches nearby. You can smell them when the wind is just right. And last year, there was this one small spot on campus that didn't have any flowers near it, but every time I walked by it, I got the scent of rose.)
They're the ones I wrote myself, so they're not professional examples or anything. I kind of tried to include a little bit of "background" to what I was writing so you could kind of get an idea what was going on. I'm not sure if she wanted that, or if it's supposed to be all descriptive. But here are some of mine.
Alone at night, a choir of crickets thrums sweetly
(I'm taking band at a different college this semester -one closer to my house since I couldn't fit band in my schedule at my main school. Besides I know the conductor at this place too. But band ends really late so I have to walk back to my car in the dark. But I get to hear the crickets.)
Trees reflection, like an impressionist painting.
(The window of the train had a strange texture, kind of making it look like it had raindrops sliding down it. When we stopped, I noticed a tree, and the window made it look like it was painted by Monet or someone.)
In a city, the sharp, fresh redwood scent startles me.
(Walking to class, I passed under 2 big redwoods. The scent hit me, making me stop and just inhale the nice smell that I didn't expect in a city.)
A breeze wafts the sweet aroma of roses to me.
(Again, at school, there's a rose bed with benches nearby. You can smell them when the wind is just right. And last year, there was this one small spot on campus that didn't have any flowers near it, but every time I walked by it, I got the scent of rose.)
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Temple Grandin
So, two nights ago (I delayed in writing his again) me and my parents watched a movie called Temple Grandin.
It's a true story about an autistic woman who had amazing visual memory. I mean, she could look at a page of text and she KNEW it. And she can visualize things - like a plan to build something, and she can put it on paper perfectly.
What she did was study cows. She wanted to make their lives better. So, she kind of put her self in their position to find out what spooked them,, and she watched them to find out what made them comfortable, and she designed a whole system for those big cattle "factories" to make life so much better and less frantic for all the cows that will one day be our hamburgers. I love you too, cows, and I want you to be happy as long as possible!
It's a true story about an autistic woman who had amazing visual memory. I mean, she could look at a page of text and she KNEW it. And she can visualize things - like a plan to build something, and she can put it on paper perfectly.
What she did was study cows. She wanted to make their lives better. So, she kind of put her self in their position to find out what spooked them,, and she watched them to find out what made them comfortable, and she designed a whole system for those big cattle "factories" to make life so much better and less frantic for all the cows that will one day be our hamburgers. I love you too, cows, and I want you to be happy as long as possible!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Yellow
So, Over the summer, I made Yellow's shirt.
This pic obviously doesn't have the full costume, but it does have the shirt.
I might do her next fanime, unless we do a group cosplay of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Ellen wants to do Toph AND Azula. You may have gathered that Azula is her favorite.
This pic obviously doesn't have the full costume, but it does have the shirt.
I might do her next fanime, unless we do a group cosplay of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Ellen wants to do Toph AND Azula. You may have gathered that Azula is her favorite.
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