Plots for the Planet

I've been thinking about this for a while.
Some people have a lot of good story ideas. Characters, finales, scenes. But not necessarily plots. And finding an interesting plot that hasn't been done to death can be hard.
And as I'm sure you know, I'm into protecting the environment.
Combining the two is an excellent idea. Why not make your plot environmental?
There's a lot of great environmental movies/stories out there. The Lorax, Princess Mononoke, Fern Gully, Avatar, Nausicaa, and so on.
But what do all of these have in common?
They all focus on the same problem.
Cutting down trees.
Which is a problem. And one that most people agree is bad.
And while plenty of amazing things have come from this plot, it's one of the most simple topics. There are so many more you could use. And in the right hands, you could do fascinating stuff with these too.
the thing about them is they are often very controversial. Which is a great thing for stories. You can have people on both sides, with valid arguments and motivations to throw at each other.
Blending it with sci-fi and fantasy aspects can make it even more awesome.
What I'll be doing for a while is going through a list I've made of the big environmental problems we face. I'll write a post about each one, why it's a problem, what you can possibly do with it, where it may have been used before, and possibly some sources where you can learn about it. And I'll link to each of those posts here so they're all easily accessible.

Deforestation
Energy - Oil
Energy - Coal
Energy Plot 3 - Natural Gas and Nuclear
Energy Plot 4 - Solar and Wind
Energy Plot 5 - Hydro, Biofuel, Hydrogen, and Geothermal
Energy Plot 6: Bringing it all Together
Waste
Habitat Destruction
Water Pollution and Scarcity
Extinction
Air Pollution
Agriculture
Climate Change
Over-Harvesting
Environmental Thought
Odds and Ends

Animal Rights?

So, I went to the Rodeo with Dad yesterday.
It's always a fun thing to go to.
Today I rode the mechanical bull. I haven't done that in years.
I asked the lady at the controls. She said that the hardness of the ride went up to level 10. And I rode all the way up to 7! Whoo! I felt much prouder of myself that was really necessary. Considering a bunch of people in the building were about to jump on the backs of real bulls (and I think only two guys ended up staying on the 8 seconds?).
But bull riding wasn't the only event.
Now, anyone who knows me knows that I love animals, and am completely for animal rights.
I don't think rodeos are bad for the animals. For the bucking animals (horses and bulls) they get treated great most of their lives. When their careers are over, they're put to pasture and get to have a lot of babies. All they gotta do is get an annoying belt tied around them so they can thrash around for about 10 seconds.
For the bull-dogging and calf-roping, it may seem tough on the animals, but they're not getting hurt.
It's really only the people that get hurt. There's a reason that bull riding is considered one of the most dangerous sports. And there were some close calls. Like one guy, who got kicked in the head by the bull.

So, yes. I'm all for animal rights.
But PETA is just plain freaky sometimes.
Like when they said that we should make ice cream out of human milk.
And then Dad showed me this newspaper article from a couple days ago. About how PETA thinks that Pokémon teaches kids to abuse animals, because you make Pokémon fight each other.
Freaking seriously?
Anyone who's had even a couple minutes experience with Pokémon already knows that that's garbage. Pokémon is all about living together and cooperating with Pokémon. And you don't battle Pokémon unless they want and like to battle.
PETA used the release of Black and White 2 as an opportunity to release some stupid game of their own where you beat up Pokémon trainers.
Now, again, I love animals. My animals are practically like my siblings. I spend hours every week feeding baby animals and cleaning up after animals at the wildlife center.
But PETA goes too far. If you look at the extreme of any side, you're unlikely to like what you find. If anything, they're turning people off, and just hurting the goal they say they're aiming for. This is just a desperate bid for attention.

Change Part 2

So, finishing off the talk about that "neuroscience of Change" program.
I finished it, so I'll talk about the last 2 disks.

Think about the deeper motivations of your goal (Going back to the previous example). Do you want to lose weight so you look better?
A bit deeper than that. To improve your health, maybe.
And even deeper. better health will make you feel better and more secure throughout your life.

If there's something you want to avoid thinking about (like a big box of truffles in your cabinet), if you try to shove that idea out of your mind, it will actually become more firmly rooted. The best thing to do is acknowledge whatever it is you want to avoid thinking about. And once you've experienced that desire or thought, remind yourself that you're not supposed to eat candy today. This is a much more successful way to avoid something.

If you want to change a habit, the thing that is most proven to help is to make a schedule for yourself. The more detailed, the better. Don't just say "I'm going to eat less and exercise more." Plan out when you'll exercise, and what you'll do. Plan out the healthy foods that you're going to eat, and for which meals.
When you have a schedule, it means that you've already made the decision to change, instead of having to make that decision when lunch time rolls around. And when you're stressed (and more likely to revert to old habits) a schedule will keep you on track, since the decision to follow your goal has already been made.

Dominic and Nam

And here's the 4th installment for the Red Team. Now I just need to do Saris and Samara.

Dominic is a Singer, and he taught Nam (a Dawn dragon) to sing. That's what they're doing here: Singing. And Dominic is sitting on Nam's arm, in case that's not clear.
Nam is pretty young here. She'll grow to be at least twice this size.
I didn't have a very strong idea of what Nam looked like. Same is true for Samara and the Green Team dragons (I'm gonna draw them after Saris and Samara. The Emperor and Chao too). Drawing Nam was very helpful.

Tri and Selven

Continuing on drawing the people and dragons in Katani's Team.
Here's Tri and Selven. Selven is a Serpent dragon.
Thanks to Crystal for coming up with Tri's design. Though his hair dislikes me. Or at least dislikes my attempts to draw it.

I started drawing Selven, and then realized that I should be drawing Tri too. But by the time I realized that, there wasn't enough room on the page to do anything normal. So Tri's just floating over there, wondering where the gravity went.
Selven is very fain about his mane. He's always asking Tri to brush it for him. And Tri is a long dragon, so that's a big undertaking. Fortunately Melly doesn't mind helping out sometimes. Even though Mekki has a lot more fur than Selven does. You'd think brushing Mekki would make her sick of fur.

Changing

My mom got this program (I thought it was a book on tape, but apparently it's just an audio program) called "The Neuroscience of Change," by Kelly McGonigal. It's not as daunting as the title makes it sound
I'm most of the way through it, and it's pretty fascinating so far.
What the program is about is how the brain reacts to and accepts changes. It talks about why it's so hard to make changes in your life (for example, eating less or quitting smoking). Even when you're fully committed to changing said behavior, it's so easy to forget, or to get distracted. She explains why this is and how to get around it. This is backed up by scientific studies about brain activity as well as things that some people would call "spiritual," such as meditation.
I thought I'd talk about some of the points that I found interesting (and that I think I can sufficiently explain). It's pretty fascinating, and I recommend listening to it. Especially if you have something you want to change in your life (like procrastination, keeping your temper, ex). There's no way I can explain everything here.

Say you're sitting in a room, and no one is around and you have nothing to do. Your mind will start exploring the past and the future, roaming all over the place. This is so even when you're trying to relax. This is the default state of our mind.
If you ever try to meditate (and you're not experienced with it already) this mental activity can be a big distraction. And you can learn to slow your mind down and experience the moment. That's what meditation does. And it can help our mind in a lot of ways. Including changing your behavior.

For the next point, I'll use an example she uses in the program because a lot of people can identify with it (or at least a lot of Americans can, since a huge percentage of Americans are overweight). If this isn't a problem for you, then substitute some sort of behavior you want to change.
You want to eat less so that you can lose some weight. And one evening you get really driven about this and think "OKAY! I will eat less and exercise more, and soon enough I will look fabulous!"
And then before you know it, you just ate a really big meal, or a bunch of junk food and you haven't taken more than 20 steps all day.
In response to this, people will often mentally beat themselves up and criticize themselves. But self criticism will actually only lock us further in our habits. She compares this to prison. How successful is the punishment of prison in stopping criminals from misbehaving? Often not very.
What will actually help us is to be self-compassionate. This does not mean that we say "oh, it wasn't my fault that I ate all that food," or "I blame him! He's the one that made me eat all that!" That won't get you anywhere either. But you need to be understanding with yourself, as you might be with a friend who came to you with a problem. The thing is, it's pretty easy for us to be compassionate with a friend who has a problem. But many people have a real problem with being compassionate with themselves. What she suggests is to pretend like you're talking to yourself as a separate person.

Now on to habits. Our brain forms habits so that it doesn't have to use as much energy in making decisions. And for the most part, habits can be very helpful (like when you're driving home and you don't really need to think about the route you're taking). But, of course, there are some habits that we want to get rid of. Unfortunately, the brain doesn't really get rid of habits. But that doesn't mean that you can't keep them stored away without using them.
To the food example. You've decided you want to lose weight. You're at home, doing homework or working on a project, or watching TV. Then somehow you're standing in the kitchen, pulling food out of the fridge. How the heck did you get there? You didn't intend to get food. It just happened. This is a habit. You don't think about it. You just do it.
The first thing to do is to catch yourself in the process of this habit. At first, just pay attention as you go into the kitchen. Pay attention to what is going on with you as you follow this habit. And from there, you can take further steps to stop the action when you feel it coming.
When you're stressed, you're much more likely to fall back on your unwanted habits. Even if you thought you were rid of them.

Okay. I'll report in again once I've listened to the rest of the program.

Dragons: Riders of Berk

I finally caught up with all the episodes!
I've been watching the series based off How to Train Your Dragon. I didn't realize it was out until the first five or so episodes had already been released. But now I'm all caught up. Problem is, the time it plays on TV is when I'm at band. --_--
When I heard they were making a TV series based off HTTYD, I was pretty dubious. Usually when they make a series based off of something like this, it's nowhere near as good as the original movie. I had the same thoughts about the two sequels that are planned.
One of the reasons I was worried was because a while ago, I watched the HTTYD short about the Bonenapper. At the beginning, they kind of hinted that everything was perfect between humans and dragons, which felt too convenient.
Then last week I was stalling from doing my homework. I decided to finally watch the other two shorts.
I liked Gift of a Night Fury. Heheh. When I first saw the little ones, I blurted out, "They're so ugly!" And then about 30 seconds later, I blurted out "they're so cute!" Which one is true?
...
Both, kinda. They're ugly and kinda cute. (As Ellen reminded me, like baby pigeons. They're really ugly, but they behave adorably, so you must love them).
Then I watched the short about the dragon book. I liked that one because stuff about fake species fascinates me (I have a book on the creatures from Star Wars, and another for Avatar. And don't get me started on the dragon books I have).
And once I watched those two shorts, I decided to find the first episode of the series.
And before I knew it, it was past midnight. The only thing that stopped me was that I couldn't find episode seven.
And then tonight I found episodes 7 and 8. So now I'm caught up!
It's pretty darn good! And I can't always predict the endings of them either, which is always a good thing.
And they showed that things are definitely not perfect between the humans and the dragons.
Like how some of the vikings, who have been fighting dragons all their lives, are not happy about having dragons living in the village.
Or that dragons are wild animals, not tame house pets.
Or that animals will be terrified when dragons are swooping around them. When chickens stop laying and cows go dry, that's bad news for a village in the far north.
Sure, the art's not quite as beautiful as the movie, but it's pretty good (then again, I've been watching it on a little box on my computer, so I can't really tell anyway).
But I recommend! If you liked the movie, give the series a try!

Fact of the Day:
The Triple Crown, the most prestigious title in horse racing, requires that the horse win three races: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. It's common for a horse to win the first two races. But the third race is what really breaks them. The track for the Belmont Stakes is much longer than the others, so horses that were able to win the first two races will often not have the stamina to win the Belmont Stakes.
Only 11 horses have ever won this prestigious title, and no horse has done so since 1978.
Secretariat won the Triple Crown in 1973 by a staggering margin of 31 lengths (a single length is about 8 feet).

Japanese Gift Giving

To start I'm going to talk about something my coworker told me about living in Japan.

Everything in Japan is muzukashii (difficult) or mendokusai (a pain in the butt)

When he first said this, I laughed so hard, because it's so true.

It's easily the simplest way to describe Japanese culture, and possible to a similar extent, Asian culture.

Time for some anecdotes.

Normally when you get a present for your birthday, graduation, or whatever else, you send a thank you card.  Simple enough.  In Japan there's a whole process.

Let's say you want to give someone a present.  You don't just hand it to them and say "congratulations, here ya go".  No.  You have to say, "Oh it's not much, but here's something for you." or "It probably won't be to your liking, but please accept this." or "My stupid daughter made this cake, it's probably not very good, but please try it."

Yes, they will actually call their children stupid, dumb, idiotic, slow, bad, horrible, etc.  They don't necessarily mean it.  It's a way of being polite by lowering themselves/their present.

So you've given them a gift yay!  Let's talk about getting a gift.

When you receive a gift, you must send a thank you gift.
Ok fine.
Your thank you gift must be at least 1/2 of the value of the gift you've received.  So you got $100 worth of a present, send back $50 worth of a present
Sure, not a problem.
But when you've received a thank you gift, you're supposed to send a "thank you for the thank you gift" gift.  Again, half the value of the present you've received.  So 100->50->25
So when you're gotten a "thank you for the thank-you gift" gift, you've got to send another "thank you for the thank you gift for the thank you gift" gift.  Again half the price of the most recent gift you've received.  12.50
And then you slowly keep sending and receiving presents until you've whittled the expense to almost nothing.  By that point it is acceptable to stop sending thank you gifts.

Also if you go on a trip, even to a town a few hours away, you must, I repeat, MUST, bring back a souvenir (omiyage).  Not only to your friends, but to your coworkers, or to anyone else who you've told that you're going, or who will find out you're going.  Because they'll talk.  I swear they have nothing better to do than talk about the people they know.  It's like having to deal with a bunch of high schoolers.  You do something, anything, and everybody EVERYBODY will know about it.  And if you don't bring back an omiyage (souvenir) you will essentially be telling them, "you're not important enough for an omiyage" and that is a can of worms you do not want to open up.

Passive-aggressiveness.  I think the Japanese might have invented that too...

The passive-aggressive wrath of japanese people is something to be feared.

So sound medokusai (troublesome) enough for you?

Well it is to me.

There are so many obligatory occasions for gift-giving too.  It's ridiculous.  I just sent my family my "first paycheck gift".  (I got my first paycheck, although it's technically a start up stipend.)  The thing I was supposed to buy was 6000 yen.  I bought something for 4600 yen.  Shipping was supposed to be 6000 yen.  I shipped it for 5000 yen.

Roughly I should have spent $120.00.  I spent around $100.00
My net profit from my stipend? about -$20.00
Yes, I lost money this month after working.   And that is my example of why gift-giving in Japan is medokusai (a pain in the butt)

Not to say that it isn't nice sometimes, constantly giving and receiving presents.  It is nice, and a nice gesture as well.  It's just that it's so muzukashii (complicated) that makes it so medokusai.  I wouldn't mind if people just gave gifts because they wanted to, rather than because of some societal call for politeness and self-preservation.

Muzukashii and mendokusai.

First Commission!!!

Whooo! Soo excited! I just got my first real commission!
A couple days ago, I went back to my rather neglected Etsy account. I discovered that I could add an option to make an item custom. Becaue unless I make an item with someone else in mind, I'm unlikely to want to sell anything I make. This is because I will make something that I want to keep instead of something I want to sell. The only time this doesn't happen is when I improve sufficiently that I no longer like some of my older plushies. Of course, those plushies aren't really good enough to sell anyway.
So I put up three custom listings, for the three different horse/pony patterns I've been working on. Maybe I should put up one for baby Mewtwo. Someone asked me about buying one. But I haven't heard back from him...

This is the first pattern I figured out:

The original came online, but I've tweaked it significantly.

Then the bigger, huggable version that lies down:

I made this one entirely myself.

And then my newest, sitting pony:

I got the idea from the Eevee evolutions I made earlier. But this one is very different from the original I've found. I've mainly just kept the little slit that makes the character sit.

I figured I'd start them on the cheaper side. I might raise prices a bit whenever I get an order. Since considering the time involved in these, this doesn't give me the best deal.

And then about half an hour ago, someone noted me, asking if I could make a standing pony for them!
Whooo! Sooo excited!
My first commission!!
Gotta go and get some of the right color fabric for the body. But I can start on the hair at least. Though I have classes all day tomorrow. Sigh.
So, while I should be doing homework, instead I'm designing the eyes for this guy. He's not a character from the show. He's some character turned into pony-form. Not sure who he is though. His name is Zero, and he's from something called Borderlands.
Maybe I should try to give him a face more like the guy ponies. I'll see if that works.

Sitting in a Sauna

OK, been busy, so I'll finally explain what the second day of being a stand-in was like.
The actress's name is Elizabeth Rohm. I don't think I've seen anything that she's in though.
Significantly less interesting than the first day. This scene was inside, and I was part of a small audience for a choir concert. No more volleyball. TT^TT
It was still really hot.
And this time there were a bunch of us packed into a small room filled with bright, hot filming lamps.
Which doubly sucks, because I know that that room usually has great air conditioning. None today though.
When Mom and I got there, they put us to the side of the front row. Then they moved us, and I moved to the second row. Then they realized that someone was already sitting there. So I was set aside. Then they found a spot for me on the other end of the second row, with Mom.
It's rather confusing being shunted around, since we need to remember our seat.
The first shoot only had two rows of the audience, and they filmed us from behind as the choir sang.
Then everyone went outside so they could reorganize the room.
When we came back, there were about four or five rows. My chair was gone, so I got moved back to row four. This time they filmed from the front, still the choir singing.
Then we all left again.
Came back and found the room filled with chairs. Maybe 10 rows, or something. And I got moved back up to the second row, next to Mom again.
>-<
Confusing!
This time they were filming people talking. One of the Ananda women spoke to the actress, thanking her, and telling her that she had a big responsibility. Then the actress came up and gave a thank you speech, about how the people made her feel so welcome and that she felt changed.
I'm pretty sure this is the very end of the movie. Hence all the emotional "you changed my life!" stuff.
During the first take, she was actually all choked up. But she wasn't like that on any of the other takes. I suppose... it was acting?
We got there at about 8:30 for breakfast. And we didn't finish until dinner. Maan, long day. A lot of it spent sitting and waiting. At least that was in the air conditioned dining hall. The rest of the sitting was in the hot room, listening to people sing and talk.
And we had to smile during the filming too. It was pretty interesting, in a strange way. So I don't think my smiles got forced or anything.
My Mom does this funny thing sometimes when she's standing, not being actively involved in anything, where she gets this sorta freaky half-smile. She doesn't know she's doing it. She's probably under the impression that she's smiling. I didn't notice if she was doing it, but I caught her doing it before the filming, so I made a face at her to let her know (which is our way of communicating when I catch her doing that). It's actually kinda funny. Though I think if you didn't know her, she might look a bit scary. And someone sitting in an audience making that face would be... weird.
Can't wait to see the movie though! Whoo!
I think it'll be out next year. No idea what it will be called.
After the shoot, I said high to Elizabeth Rohm. To which she responded, "Good night."