School Begins

Today was the first day of class. Though only my creative writing class met.
I've got 2 creative writing classes this semester. Though the one at the community college isn't much work.
I only have 2 classes this semester (besides the 2 at the community college. I guess I have 3, but one of them is just units for forking on my project.
So I must work a lot on it. O__O
Get to work.
Faster.

What's Shakin?

It's bad to go to an anime convention when you've been trying to suppress a spending urge for a couple weeks...

Anyway, I woke up at 3:20 AM last night to a rattling sound.
I don't really remember my initial thoughts, but I quickly realized that it was probably an earthquake. A couple moments later, I was holding Leaf, who had been sleeping at the foot of my bed. I must have grabbed her, wanting to keep her safe.
The rattling continued for several seconds, and then quieted down.

Dad felt it too, though I heard it more than felt it.
I seem to have a very strange thought process around 3:00 AM. Because when I failed to fall easily back to sleep, I thought "Oh! I just moved my statues of Barron and Louise. What if an aftershock comes, and they fall off?"

So I got up and laid them on their sides, so they couldn't tip off of the dresser.
It took a while to fall asleep again.

I'd felt a couple little earthquakes before. The first one I felt was a long time ago. It was so mild that I just thought Midnight had jumped on my bed. Except it went on too long for that.
They were always a bit exciting to me.
This one made me uneasy though.
And for good reason, since this turned out to be the edge of a very large earthquake. Napa really got trashed.
I wish I could go up there to see what I could do. Sigh.

Killing solar

So, Hawaii seems like a good place for solar power, right?
A lot of peopel think so. So much so that the fossil fuel companies are losing a lot of money.
So what do they do? They're making excuses to prevent peopel from installing solar panels. Families will take out loans and start to pay for solar panels, only to be told that they have to wait while "certain possibilities" are examined. As if too much solar energy will blow up the house, or the power plant. And the peopel that have already spent a lot of money are stuck for who known how long.
I don't understand how society has gotten to this point...

Reading Ashes

This evening was the first day of my creative writing class.
I offered to read today, and I ended up being the only one. Heh.
It's kind of sad though, because most of the regulars of the class aren't here anymore... There's only about 5 of us left.
Probably thanks to that stupid rule where you can't repeat classes anymore...
Anyway I read the first chapter of my grad program story. I rewrote it all before I turned it in.
It's kind of funny, because there are people who are a bit new at writing. Since it's the first day of class they were kind of impressed, I guess? It seems the people that are impressed with my stuff have little experience. Little kids like watching me draw, and people that don't write much like what I write...

Merlin

I finished watching the Merlin series.
I ran onto it by accident in high school, I think. I watched the first season. Then a few years later, I discovered that there were more seasons. Heh.
It was fun. A bit predictable maybe, but fun. They probably could have cut out one of the seasons to slim out extra episodes, but I guess that's often the case.
I like the characters.
Except old Merlin freaks me out... Probably because he tried to be freaky as an old person?

I'm a bit torn by the ending.
After the finale, there wasn't much resolution. We didn't figure out what happened to Merlin, or the dragons.
But Arthur... TT^TT They changed so much of the original Artur legend, couldn't they have changed that too?
TT^TT

Comic Author

So, I went to an author event today.
It was a talk by a guy named Gene Luen Yang. He's written some comics, one of which won an award. That's actually the only one of his I read, called American Born Chinese. It was a good book. Funny, but a bit sad too. And now I want to read his other stuff. ^-^
I checked out a couple of his other books already.
He actually helps on some of the Avatar LAst Airbender comics! Like The Search and The Promise. Which are a lot of fun too~ I wonder if the next book is out yet on the newest series...
He said how awesome it was that he could call the creaters of Airbender, and they actually answer his call.

It was a fun event. There were a bunch of parents with kids. Not a ton of people, but that meant that everyone could interact more.
He talked about some of the history of comics, and how Chinese culture was included in them. And at the end, he did an activity (probably mainly for the kids) about making characters. It was fun though, since some of the elements o the characters were random.
I got a copy of the American born Chinese, and he signed it for me~ He talked to everony in the signing line, encouraging the kids, and drawing little sketches in the books.
Now I have about four signed books. ^-^

Paul McCartney!!!!

We just got back from the Paul McCartney Candlestick Park concert!
It was freaking amazing!
I'm still totally wired up even though it's almost 1:00 AM. I guess I should probably try to get to sleep though. I'll report more once I have photos up. ^-^/

Working with Kids

While I was volunteering at the ranch this summer, I started thinking about something.
I am the oldest volunteer there. Most of the others are between 12 and 15 years old. And I generally get along with everyone, both kid and helper (it helps that they think I'm only about 17). But not all the helpers are as popular with the kids, or with each other.
For example, there was one kid there, who was 12 and a helper for the first time (he was the shortest, and I was worried that I'd get him mixed up with the kids). And he was one of the kids that others tend to pick on. It was just a little bit, but I could tell. I've gotten very good at spotting them. Because I seem to attract them a lot. Probably because I'm nice to them all the time (I have some friends in this category too XD ). I was like that for a bit , in elementary and middle school, so I feel the need to be nice to them since they might not get it from as many other people. And I know what it feels like. Anyway, this boy hung out around me a lot as the camp wore on.

But it got me thinking. Kids like me. And the helpers like me too. So I started wondering why that was for me and not as much for others.
And I thought of three big reasons.

When kids are talking, do your best to listen to them. And since a lot of them try to talk at the same time, it can be impossible to hear all of them. Some kids will get drowned out more than others. So they will kind of drift off and be quiet, and feel ignored. So, if that happens, ask them to repeat themselves. Be interested in what they have to say, and respond with enthusiasm.
Don't be superior to the kids. Yeah, you may need to give them instructions, or correct them if they do something wrong. You may even need to scold them. But that does not mean that you act like you are superior to them. Treat them as a friend, not as someone who's smaller than you and doesn't know as much. They probably get that enough from most other people... Kids can be really sharp.
And third, the most important reason. Like everyone. Some people might prefer to pretend to like everyone. Which I suppose is better than openly not liking them. But then you have to pretend, and it's not really honest. So it's better to just like everyone. Admittedly, some kids can be trouble. But even so, there's usually something that you can find to appreciate about them. Or something that you can get them interested in. (For example, I brought a sketchbook, and drew Pokémon during free time. A bunch of the kids crowded around to watch, and some of these were the rowdy boys that might otherwise be mischief-making. Instead they started gaming conversations and watched me draw. I've noticed that kids really like watching me draw. I may not be great, but at least I'm good. And they think I'm a master, so it's funny and cute). I have yet to find a kid with no interesting qualities. But it's those kids that really need the most positive attention. Because if they are trouble, then it must have a source.

Mr. Banks

We saw Saving Mr. Banks.
It was a good movie. And a fun perspective too.
I can completely understand how the author of Mary Poppins must have felt. It must be so hard to give up your characters and story for someone else to interpret in their own way. And their interpretation may go against your views. It seems like it would be such a gamble. Movies based off of books can be so amazing. Or they can also turn a good book into a complete piece of garbage as a film.
I can see her reluctance with Disney.
As I've said before, I generally love Disney. But they do twist a lot of stuff around to fit their ideas and their model of a story. For example, Frozen has almost no similarities to the original fairy tale, besides an ice queen and a frozen heart.
Up to the point Mary Poppins was made, I liked most of those Disney cartoons (and a lot of the film movies were good too, though I haven't seen all of them). But nowadays Disney makes so much stuff that a lot of it just isn't good. And a lot of it I'd never even heard of, though it still looks kinda weird.
It makes me wonder though. Under what circumstances would I turn my characters and stories over to another?

A Wonderful Bunny

So, on Wednesday, we had to put Alaska to sleep.
She's been with me for 12 years - half of my life.
It's strange to realize how much I think about her in a day, now that she's gone.
I bring her into my room every morning. And every time I walk into my room, I say hello to her. I wonder when I'll stop thinking that when I walk into my room.
I remember when I lost Midnight, for months I'd see Mom's black purse from the corner of my eye, or something black sitting around and think that it was Midnight.
Animals have such short lives, but they bring so much happiness.

Alaska was the best rabbit I could have hoped for. My family and a bunch of my friends loved to visit and pet her, and she was always happy to get attention. She'd give kisses, and back when she could walk properly, she would come when I called. She's also come and sit under m computer chair so I'd pick her up and snuggle with her. She was more a lap pet than either of my cats.
She took a lot of maintenance as she got older. First her ears got something of a permanent infection, and I had to keep them clean, which felt awful to her. Then her arm started not working properly. Eventually it sort of hung useless beside her. Then about a year ago she got an abscess tooth, which I had to clean for a long time until it finally stopped being nasty. Though there was still a permanent lump on her jaw.
Then Tuesday night, I found something really awful, and brought her to the vet the next morning. And there was nothing they could do. The treatment that would have been required was risky for a 2-year-old rabbit, let along a 12-year-old rabbit.
And so we had to say goodbye to my sweet bunny.
This must have been the last picture I took of her. Or at least the last one that's in focus.

My parents and I had a funeral for her in the back yard, and I spent the rest of the day taking everything off of every surface in my room and cleaning it. There was a lot of dust and rabbit fur. And a few years ago, I suddenly became allergic to Alaska, and my entire room. Despite all my attempts to keep my room clean. So now that everything is clean and the floor is mopped, I might be able to breathe properly for the first time in a few years (except when I got to Japan or Portland...) Even last night I could start to breathe again.
I guess my room is cleaner than it's been in 12 years. But I'll still always picture my bunny sitting in the corner by my bookshelf.

Bunny

I'm really worried about Alaska...

Fern-Floating on Clouds

Here's that Fern painting I mentioned earlier.