Schooool

First day of grad school today.
I kinda only had one class though, since one didn't meet today and one I'm deciding whether or not to add.

I've been thinking how to start my story for the grad program. And I need a break from Katani.
So I'm writing another chapter of my fanfic. I've been kind of neglecting it recently. I hoped this would be a nice change from what I've been working on recently, story-wise. And it is, except I'm trying to add in a chapter that I don't really have any ideas for. Which figures, because I have Most of the rest of the story thought out. --_--
Looks like all of my current writing is a bit tough to get through.
I think my fanfic account is glitched. I haven't gotten the last 2 "chapter update" notices, and I don't think my readers have either. I'll have to see if they can fix it.

I Predict...

I was thinking recently about how predictable stories tend to be. Usually I just take it as it comes. I was reading a book called Angelology. And as I reached the last pages, I figured that it would be a typical happy reunion ending.
Except it wasn't.
And I realized that I was really relieved. I wasn't able to predict the ending, and it was refreshing.
I mean, I do like happy endings. And I get really mad if the ending feels like a rip-off (I got soooo mad the first time I watched Wolf's Rain). But not everything needs to be perfect at the end of a story (As long as the main bad guy isn't still running around, destroying worlds and stuff).

For example, during Frozen, I kept whispering predictions to Dad, and most of them were right. I still enjoyed the movie a lot, but if I can tell 90% of what's going to happen, it takes out some suspense and excitement.

I watched the end of season 3 of Once Upon a Time. And it really felt like they were wrapping everything up and getting ready to end the series. And I was sad that Emma and Henry wouldn't go with the others (or remember). But I was also glad that it was different than I expected. It may not have been the happiest of all possible endings, but it worked and I was satisfied that everyone would go on and everything would be okay.
After all, the original curse was to remove all happy endings, so that ties in nicely.
And then during the final freaking minute of the episode, they dropped this huge "ooh, look, we tricked you! We're gonna do another season after all!" And I got really mad. Everything was so nicely wrapped up, and they're going to drag it out for another season.
@#$$
I like endings, see. Good endings, at least. Endings are what you're left with, and some leave me with the most amazing feelings.
But mostly I like endings because they save a story from being dragged out too much. Which isn't a problem if it continues to be good. Hopefully I'll continue to enjoy Once Upon a Time.
I realize that they probably got permission to continue the series at the last minute and had to quickly film that teaster, but still. Soooo annoying. >:/
(I'll still watch it though).

And here's a differnt level of knowing what's going to happen. Last night, we watched the last episode of season 2 of Sherlock.
(Spoilers)
I've read the books. So I don't know how predictable it is for someone who hasn't read the books. I know that when Sherlock falls, he'd find a way to survive.
Apparently the author killed Sherlock, but the fan reaction was so extreme that he had to bring him back. XD
I knew Sherlock couldn't be dead. So I thought I wouldn't get pulled into the emotion of it as much. Until John goes up to the grave and goes "Please don't be dead."
TTATT
I can't wait to see how they explain Sherlock's escape. And how John will react. He passed out in the book. I'd kinda like to see that happen. Heheh.
Yeah, the two of them are really great.

Even if you know what's going to happen, there's still plenty of ways to keep a reader/viewer on the edge of their seat.
But if you can do something unexpected that makes sense, GO FOR IT!!~


PS Starting my grad program tomorrow. O__O

Flying over the City

On Thursday, Dad and I went to the wildlife center where I volunteer, and picked up a red tail hawk. We drove him to the city and let him fly free.
He landed on top of a lamp post and sat there, completely bewildered. He was still there when we left.
And this morning, Dad and I picked up another hawk to release. We took him to a park in the city, and I tossed him up into the air. He circled up and landed in the tree directly above us.
It's funny, I don't think anyone even noticed.
He seemed less stressed than the first guy. After a couple minutes, he started preening, and then flew over to another tree.
I hope they both do great!

I've released opossums, raccoons, and squirrels before, but never a raptor. Dad had been bugging me about doing a raptor release for ages, and now we did two in a week. I don't think that's enough for him. He wants to do all of them now. XP
Since it's winter, we have very few animals. But we do have a lot of hawks. I think there's still five of them. I'm not sure why we have so many.

Loose Ends

So, on Monday I begin my grad program.
I'll miss the freedom of no classes. TT^TT
It's not like I have any right to complain though. ^-^'
The main thing that bugs me about starting school again is the commute.
(And the money)

So I've been using the last of my freedom to tie up a bunch of loose ends. As you saw, I finished my quilt. I also finished a couple other craft projects, like a model that had been sitting in my closet for many months.
And I used the canvas Grandma gave me last year (to paint Fern).
I just finished drawing Garrett and Nase today, so I'll scan them and put them on DA. Which means that I'll start Tuan and Tivoli next.
I've been working on a wolf pattern too, since I haven't gotten a pony order recently. It's nice to make something that isn't a pony. @_@ I've been thinking of which wolf character to make next. There's a couple dozen I can choose from...
I've been reading a bunch of stuff too.

I've gotten comments on Red Seeker (from a few people at least. Four, out of everyone I sent it to. >-< Thank you, to those who responded). Although at this point, I don't want anyone else to read it because there's a lot more I need to fix since I sent out the last draft.
Crystal gave me some ideas on how to fix character stuff. So I'll have to get to work on that.
But I think I want to take a bit of a break from the first chapters of Red Seeker. I need a bit more distance from them so I can look at it with fresher eyes. But the list of stuff to fix is increasing. @_@
I feel much better about the prologue though. When I painted with Nicole, I tied her down and made her read that first chapter. She said she really liked it. No one had ever said that so emphatically before, which made me feel a lot happier than I thought it would. TT^TT

Quilt

I finally finished my quilt. This thing took months. Maybe half a year.



People that make quilts are crazy. It takes sooooo loooooooooooong.
Ellen reminded me that I am now among the crazy people that make quilts.
I have no plans to make another one. O_O

But now I can snuggle on my Heyoa quilt. ^-^

Like Stars on Earth

I recently rewatched a movie called "Like Stars on Earth." It was made in India, about a boy who's dyslexic. And at first, no one knows what's "wrong with him." They think he's disobedient, or just stupid. Finally someone discovers the cause of his troubles, and is able to help him read and everything.
The movie's even better the second time, since I understand what's going on.
I like the bum bum bole song. ^-^
And the painting contest is a lot of fun. Like when the tough teachers try to paint and fail miserably. Heheh.
It made me want to paint more too.
There's a lot of good moments, especially with Ram, the art teacher.

There's a lot of great stuff about children. Every kid is different. They have their own skills and their own way of learning. Not everyone learns the same. Just because someone doesn't learn the "normal way" does not mean that they're stupid.

Crepes

I've been wanting to try to make crepes for a while, since they're expensive to buy. I asked around for some hints, and looked them up in my cookbook. We just made apple pie, so I was planning to wait until we ate that before I made crepes. But I decided that I couldn't wait.
It was a lot easier than I expected. And they were tasty!
Especially with blueberries, almond, and melted chocolate inside. (I added vanilla ice cream to one. XD )
Yaaay~
I still have enough batter to make a couple more. Maybe that will be my breakfast.

Heheh. The only things I can cook are junk food.
I need to try making egg flower soup again. I think I know how to give it more flavor now.

I can't enroll in the creative writing class this semester, because of my grad program schedule. But I'll drop in to visit sometimes.
I went down last night. And doodled during class. Heheh. I drew an entire comic. In one night.
That's unheard of.
I've never ever drawn a comic that fast.
Seriously. (Old stick figure comics don't count. I should try to redo some of those, assuming I ever finish all the comics I have planned now).
Remember my last comic? That thing was in-process for bout half a year. Though I had to draw 4 people in each panel of that one. Which was torturous.
I'm finally getting faster at sketching people out!
Yaaay! All my class doodling is finally paying off!
Although I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who finds my comics amusing, besides Dad.
This one is just Fern ambushing Ben. Poor Ben. Fern must be an annoying friend.

And I finished my painting a couple days ago. It's like a portrait of Fern, I guess. I was planning to put it on Deviantart, considering how long I spent on the thing. And it is without a doubt the best face I've ever done.
But then I was talking to Nicole about painting, and asking her to put some of her paintings on DA so I could see them. And she said they were too personal to share with the internet.
Which got me thinking. I may not put my Fern portrait online...
I'll just keep it confined to friends and family.
Heh. It figures. I never paint. And I've been trying to get better at digital painting. And my painting is much better than anything digital I've done, despite total lack of practice on one end, and a lot of practice on the other.
I guess it has to do with the fact that paint naturally adds texture to the canvas. Adding texture to a computer image is harder (at least for me).
Or maybe there's so many artists in my family that it just oozes into me.

I'm also fixing up my picture of Shanka. I'll scan her and color her so people can see what she looks like now that she's no longer a guy.

So Sweet~

Okay, so I've talked a lot recently about how romances in stories annoy me. That's because romances are shoved everywhere, whether or not it fits.
So, to balance all of my complaining, I'll talk about romances that I like.


There's a manga called 14 Sai no Koi, which I've been slowly reading as the chapters are slowly updated. So it's very slooow going, for reasons beyond my control. ^-^' But it's really sweet. In most of the chapters, Kazuki and Kanata make me go "Aaaaaaaawwwwwww!" The chapters I read today were like that too. This might be the sweetest relationship I can think of. Maybe because they keep messing stuff up. Like when one of them leaves their umbrella at home, so they can share umbrellas with the other. But it turns out they both left their umbrella at home for the same reason, so they're stranded in the rain together.

In Whisper of the Heart, Shizuku and Seiji are a sweet couple. I love Seiji's method of trying to catch Shizuku's attention, with the library books.

And then in Treasure Planet, Delbert and Captain Amelia are great.
"Doctor, you have lovely eyes."
"She's lost her mind!"

Zuko and Mai are funny. "I don't hate you." "I don't hate you either." I guess that's as close as either of them will ever come to saying "I love you." XD Do we ever know if the two of them stay together?

Han and Leiya are pretty fun, from Star Wars.

And in Willow, I like Madmartigan and Sorsha. Maybe because of the accidental love potion, of which Madmartigan doesn't even remember. Whoops!

Hiccup and Astrid from How to Train your Dragon go well together.
And in the Sorcerer's Apprentice, I like Dave and Becky too. (Same actor as the one above. Heheh. I'm still amused by the similarities of these two movies.)

There's some really sweet stuff in Kate and Leopold. Like the part where Leopold makes Charlie call the girl he likes. And Charlie's going "I can't say this! It's too sappy!" And Leopold just goes, "You gotta say it, man. She'll love it."

In the Last Unicorn, I like Lir and Amalthea. Would that count as a tragic romance, I wonder? I guess it kind of would. It makes you go TT^TT

Kovu and Kiara are sweet, in Lion King 2.

Tuck Everlasting has some wonderful stuff too.

In Warehouse 13, there's an episode where we meet Steve's previous boyfriend. And that episode had me laughing the entire time. It was so sweet and funny.

In the book Les Miserables, there's some scenes with Marius and Cosette that had me laughing at how sweet and silly they were together. And in the film, In My Life is such a beautiful song. It feels like flying, somehow.

The music in Moulin Rouge is great also. "Your Song" and "Come What May" are beautiful. And then at the very beginning, there's that line, "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." After I started listening to some of these songs, it put me in the funkiest mood for a very long time (on and off). It only went away recently (at least I think it's gone). To be clear, I don't really like the movie as a whole, but the way they used the music got me good.

The beginning of Up is great!

In the Wolf Children movie, I like the parents. I don't think the wolf guy ever gets a name though. TT^TT

I like Emmet and Clara from Back to the Future.

And Clarice and Joe in Princess Diaries.

There's an older movie called The Gods Must be Crazy. And the main guy, Andrew is really awkward around women. Every time he's in the vicinity of Kate, he screws up every conceivable thing.
This poor guy. He never even gets credit for the stuff he does right. XD

I'm not sure if this technically counts as a romance, but I really like Ronin and Queen Tara from Epic. Their interactions are great. I wish there was more.

I have very little romance in my own stories. I have some vague ideas for future stories. Pretty much everything I have isn't full-out romance, but sort of hints at it, or builds up to it.
I did a blog post a while ago about my star spirit boy. There is kind of a romance thing in that story. Or at least half of a romance. It's going to be my stab at a tragic romance. XD
Red Seeker has some of that "build-up to romance." I got really attached to Kazuhi and Lieutenant Fei Yen. There's very little of them in the story, but I somehow love the two of them together.
Don't let me fangirl over my own characters. It's just pathetic.

Heheh. I feel all warm and fuzzy now.
Yaay for blog-writing side-effects ^-^



I think I'll update here with some newer romances that I like.


After re-reading the ending of Ouran High School Host Club, Tamaki and Haruhi are really cute, mostly because they're both so awkward.

Steven Universe - Steven and Connie have some great moments. My favorites are the moments when we see how much Steven cares about Connie. "When Connie becomes president, what will that make me? First boy?"
And does Garnet count as a romance? Because she is freaking awesome.

Though it took a while to get into it, I now really like the one in Strange Magic. Because I freaking love the Bog King. It might have to do with his wings and scales. And it's hilarious how he's so tough and scary at first, and then he'll get super awkward.

I love Hector and Imelda. We don't get to see too much of them together, but I love every moment of it. God knows they've earned it.

PT and Charity Barnum, from The Greatest Showman. Especially at the beginning of the movie. 

The Elemental movie is really sweet! I love Wade. And they do such a nice job of showing what the characters like about each other. 

2024: I read the book Carry On. I didn't expect it to be a vampire romance. But it was. And I was shocked that I enjoyed it...

Art books and TV

With Christmas gift cards, I ordered the art book for Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
It's funny reading through Miyazaki's comments on his artwork. They vary from "I really didn't want to draw this, but they made me," "Nausicaa would never pose like this," "This picture is bad," and "I don't remember drawing this."
Heheh.
I love these kinds of books (or interviews). I find them fascinating and inspiring for my own creative processes. Now I have a pretty substantial collection of Ghibli art books.


Mom and I finished watching Fringe last night. I don't know anyone else who's watched it, so I'll just blab about it here.
Mom's like a little kid, going "I wanna watch an episoooode! Come on, let's watch another!"
There was some really interesting stuff in the series. But it can get really gruesome. And if you don't like needles, don't watch this. O__O
The plot was very cool, with the 2 universes colliding.
The characters are all good. Even with the duplicates. You'll never be bored with Walter in the vicinity.
I wonder how many different ways Walter manages to mess up Astrid's name. We've had astro, asterisk, afro, asteroid, astral, aspirin, ostrich, and acid.
Poor Astrid.
I actually liked September a lot. Heheh. He got hair.

They did do some frustrating stuff (spoiler alerts) like when they deleted Peter and then brought him back. And now the timeline's totally different, so what exactly is the same and what isn't? And now different people remember different timelines...
And curses to their cliff-hanging season finales.

For a while, I wondered what happened to September at the very end, after the final time reset. I thought (very optimistically) that maybe he'd be allowed to live in the present time. Or at least he'd be able to go home. It wasn't until later that I remembered... he's from the future. When they reset time, he disappears. TT^TT They said he was going to be okay, so I forgot about it. Even when he died, I thought everything would be fine with the timeline was reset. So I forgot to be sad when he died. TT^TT

Now that Fringe is over, I'll rent the next season of Sherlock to watch with my parents (because Dad doesn't want to watch Fringe with us, understandably). (I keep forgetting to watch the season finale of Once Upon a Time!)

I've been watching the Twilight Zone too. Though I'm going to stop after this season.
Some of the episodes are pretty cool. Some are bad. Most are just average. You never know what you'll get.

Titles?...!

I have about 5 blog posts waiting to be written, but I'm ignoring all of them.
I had a couple ideas for starting my story - the one I want to write for my grad program thesis.
So I opened up a brand new fresh blank document to play with the first lines. And wondered what to call this story. Usually with a new story, I just refer to it by the main character's name.
For example, until a little while ago, Red Seeker was known only by "Katani's Story."
I figured I'd call this one "Ashlyn's Story" until I found a good title. And decent titles sometimes come far after the story is actually finished.
Except a title popped into my head after less than a minute of thinking.
@_@
I think it might actually work.
I think it's happened maybe one other time where I thought of a title immediately. And that story is about half obsolete (along with the title I found for it, probably).

By the way, I'm not abandoning Katani. I definitely want to smooth out more stuff. I can keep reading through everything again, but I probably need more feedback to get it more in shape.
I also want a break from reading stuff over and over. I want to write something new.

Also, I'm thinking about starting another story too. Because the one for school is, well, for school. Which means I might be happy to have a second story to work on which isn't like homework.
I have an idea for one I can start. The main character in this other story is a girl called Ayrin (I think. It feels a bit off now. I miss her first name, but it can't be used).
I did actually play with the beginning of her story already. It doesn't have a title yet though. XP
I'll go through my story notes and make sure that this really is the story I want to start with (Usually I go with the one I feel most enthusiastic about at the moment. When I started Red Seeker, I barely had any development for it, but I was excited about it so I started writing. And now it's kinda done!). I know there's still a ton of gaps in Ayrin's story, but the only way I'll ever fill them is to start writing.

I think I'll write the first few lines of my school story before I go to sleep. Just so I can say I started it.
I mean I did write a couple pilot chapters, but those are a bit further on.
This story is going to be very hard. I can't let the environmental messages and stuff completely overpower everything. I need to make the characters and their story amazing and vivid enough so I don't sound like I'm preaching about stupid humans.
I rather nervous about it.

Acedia

Okay, I believe it was last year when I said I was going to write a post about procrastination.
Except it's not actually about procrastination.
It's about acedia. And not the kind of acedia that you'd find in a normal dictionary.
Acedia often isn't reconized, although it's very common for any type of artist.
If you're painting, writing, or sculpting soemething and you take a break during of within a project, it can be hard to get started again. The day you plan to start working gets pushed farther and farther back.
To the artist, this can feel like procratsination. And this can feel pretty awful if that project is important.
Here's the thing though. It's not necessarily procrastination. It may very well be acedia.
Acedia is a natural part of creation. It's the period before a project where you build up (maybe suconsciously) ideas and inspiration.
Though it doesn't help if you never get back to work. XD So find some way to trick yourself back into business.
When you get started working again, hopefully it will build up momentum better, and flow smoother.

I did start working again a couple days ago, after my two days of doing nothing.
I really want to try to do something with the first few chapters of my story, but only two people have given me any feedback yet. TT^TT
I guess I'll continue reading through the next chapters, trying to smooth things out.

I wonder if I should work on something else for a while... There's a couple things I could start with.
Maybe I should just try my experiment with the first chapter... That's the one I've read over the most.
Yeah, I'll do that. I think I need a break from reading through Katani anyway.
On to research~
Wish me luck!

Lazy New Year

I never did wish a happy new year on the blog.
Although I've spent almost no time on the internet since the new year started.
And I haven't really gotten anything done either.
Mom's gone this weekend so I have the living room to myself and can watch movies without getting kicked out. As always, she did leave a list of chorse for me, but I'll probably wait until Sunday. That's when I do most of my chores anyway.
I finally finished watching the anime of Tegami Bachi. I'm not really sure why I watched it all the way through, though 90% of it was on while I was doing other stuff. Then again, almost everything I watch is in the background while I draw, sew, train Pokémon, or something.
And I watch anime realllly slowly. I don't even remember when I started watching Tegami Bachi. It had one of those bandaid endings, where the anime overtook the manga and so they just ended it however they felt like. And there were a bunch of filler episodes too.
I started watching One Piece today. I read a lot of it, and I wanted to watch some of the anime. I'm not sure how much I'll watch yet.
I don't know the last time I watched 6 anime episodes in one day. Heheh. Usually it's 1 or zero.
And I've been reading a book a friend gave me, but no matter how much I read, I never seem to get any closer to the ending...
I have 100 books I need to read. It was 99 when I counted last, and I read several of them since then. But then I got more books for CHristmas... so the number hasn't changed at all. TT^TT Where did they all come from? They're secretly multiplying in my closet. I guess I'll have to start checking out more books on tape to try and get rid of some of the biggest, longest ones.

On a totally random note, I found an couple online tests that says which Hogwarts house you'll be in. Both of them said I'd be in Hufflepuff. Heh. I'm not going to try to analyze that on the blog.
Long test
Short test
Tell me what houses you'd be in~