Submitted!

I finally got my grad story sent out to my advisers. @_@
It's such a relief to get it out there.
I hope they like reading it.

Of course, I made a few changes immediately after I sent it out. Ah well. It will have many more before I get their comments, probably.

Paper Recycling

When I go to anime conventions, I inevitably end up bring home a couple dozen business cards of artists that I want to look up.
And some of them have really amazing business cards. To the point where I actually made a collage with a collection of them.
I don't want to dump them in recycling. But I don't want to have a giant wad of random business cards floating around.

I did end up recycling most of them a few times.
And then this last year, after Fanime, I had an idea.
I could cut out the pictures and patterns that I liked and paste them onto cards and gifts. I currently have a pen pal in the Czech Republic, so her cards are decorated with bits of cut-up business cards.
And when it was my cousin's birthday, I thought, "Ah! I can send him a card to use the skull and robot designs!"
I've been having too much fun with it, I think. Especially on ones for my parents.
I have some old printouts I made of pictures from the internet, so I can use those too. Also old cards, and cool pictures I saved from the newspaper a long time ago.
My aunt often uses pictures from calendars to wrap gifts. Her gift wrapping is like an art form itself.

So, if ever you have random scraps of paper floating about that are pretty but not-needed, try to think of some creative way to send them along.

Reading the Past

I've been working on a little project, because I want to record some of the times that I went to Virginaia City with my dad, to look for mustangs.
It's not as little as I thought though.
I've been going through all of my old journals, trying to find the days that these trips happened, and then trying to link the photographs to the proper days. @_@
I'm almost done though.

Usually I skim though a journal until I notice that I'm in Reno.
But sometimes I stop and read something that I remember, or something I forgot.
It's so bizarre re-reading my old thoughts and re-living old experiences. Some things I remember so vividly. And others I have mostly forgotten. I'm still completely baffled about one exchange I recorded.
And sometimes I think, "Wow, I was so picky in high school." There are several times where I said "It was good, but..." I sounds like I wasn't satisfied with stuff, and wanted to find something wrong with it. Or maybe I just wanted to find details to write about?
I don't remember!
But because of my journals, a lot of memories are preserved that I would have lost otherwise. There's complaining, but there are some things that surprised all over again.
And sometimes I felt like I was re-living that time.
Very nostalgic.

So, I definitely recommend keeping some type of journal. This is the first time I've gone back through them, since some time in middle school. But it's amazing and will let you relive your life.
Or maybe some day your kids will be able to see what your past was like.
My Dad has journals going back for decades. He writes something every day, even if he didn't really do anything.
I only write about significant days.
I'm a couple days behind, actually...

Coming Back to Life

I was thinking about something recently and thought it would be worth mentioning.
When you're reading or watching something, the death of a character can come as a real shock.
Or course, this can vary depending on the skill of the writer.
The ultimate goal is for readers to be sobbing when the character dies. I'm sure you guys have been heartbroken at the death of awesome characters that you've gotten really attached to.
It's definitely happened to me.

Except something may change that feeling.
Because when you go back to read or watch the story again, the character is alive once more, in all his/her awesomeness.
And then of course you have to watch them die again.
But sometimes when I think back on a character that died, it doesn't feel to me like thyey died.
I think it has to do with when and how the character was killed, the story they go through, and their role in it.

I'm not sure why this example stood out to me, but spoilers.
In the movie Van Helsing, Anna is the heroine, and is not one to be messed with.
Until the very end, when she's killed very suddenly.
Whenever I think of Anna, I don't think of her as being dead, because she's there so strongly for almost all of the movie, until the very end.
Plus I have seen the movie more than once, so her "revival" has come many times.
I don't really picture her as being dead.

And then we have the game Final Fantasy: Crisis Core. I have only played that once. So when Zack died, it felt very final. Like Anna, his death was at the very end, but the story continued on in other games. So his death had many other impacts in the future.
And it's so freaking sad...
Unlike Anna, Zack does feel like "someone who died."

I'll mention Les Miserables too. That's an unusual case, because almost everyone dies. So there are characters that fall on either side of this line. I don't think Jean Valjean will ever feel dead to me.
While many of the other characters feel very dead.

Now I'm curious what other authors think as they're wriging one of their characters die. Do they ever make themselves cry?

Sitting Straight

So, whether you write or draw or work on the computer or go to school, the way you sit at your desk makes a lot of difference.
People are starting to say how sitting can be really bad for you. You need to get up and move around sometimes.
Which is definitely true.
But sitting wouldn't be nearly as bad if you sat well.
So many people hunch. They let their chest and shoulders collapse in and their neck drop down. Peopel on their smartphones do this a lot.
I used to be like that all the time. Probably because of how I worked at school desks as a kid.
And I've spent a couple years fixing it.
Now I'm a helluvalot better.
My neck still sinks forward sometimes. And sometimes I start to hunch when I'm drawing, or something. But my chest and shoulders are a lot better.

I tried to fix it for a long time, by adjusting my posture randomly during the day. But in less than a minute, I'd be back to the way I was used to standing.
What finally helped me fix a lot of it is this. Every night before bed, I'd sit and just try to relax and focus on my posture. I'd hold it for as long as I could remember. Then I'd fix it and go back to try again.
I'm still workign on my neck. I now know just how to hold it. I just need to focus on keeping it there.
(It helped me get to sleep easier too).

You should definitely try to fix your posture. It'll make you a lot happier in the long run.
It takes a long time. You ahve years of habit to fight, and muscles to change.
But I'm so happy abotu the progress I've made.

A few pointers.
Scoot your tailbone back
Roll your shoulders back
Feel for the bottom center of the front of your rib cage. Relax it down, so you're not arching your back.
Your neck should line up with your spine (that took the longest for me, since my neck always hung forward so much).

Draft 2

I just finished the first full rewrite of my Ashes story.
@-@
And now I must sleep.
Feeling happy~

Back to Work

My grad classes start tomorrow.
Sigh.
I really need to finish editing my grad story. Actually, I've only got about two chapters left to rewrite. But then I want to go over the whole thing once more, just to smooth some stuff out.
I wanted to finish the first rewrite tonight, but I think it might happen tomorrow.
And I'd better read through it again within the week.
I don't want my advisers to have any excuse to not finish reading it in time for me to fix it up and graduate.
Wish me luck~

Pictures of Beijing

For a while now, I've been afraid that I lost the photos that I took while I was in Beijing. It seemed like they, and many other older photos, had gotten lost during a switch to a new computer, many years ago.
So I was very disappointed, obviously. I still had some of them saved, but a very small portion of them.

But I found them!
In a very strange location, and not in the normal photo format.
I haven't looked at them all yet, but I looked at a bunch of them. It'll be fun to go through the rest.
So yaaay!
And this will be so helpful as references for Katani's story. @_@ I realized they were lost as I was trying to find them as references.



You know what's funny? (Or lame). I forgot to tip this one guy, and I've felt awful about it ever since...
So don't ever forget to tip you rickshaw driver. You will regret it forever. @_@

Len Acrostic

I'll share one of the character acrostic poems I wrote.
I've done several already. I think I'll do at least one more (since I already wrote the name on a piece of paper, I'm obligated to do it. That's how I trick myself into finishing some things).
Here's one of Len, from Katani's story.
I seem to write them about the main problem the character is dealign with. I guess it's fun to write them when tehy're a bit dramatic.



Learning all my books have to offer, everything I can find.
Each day, something new to file away,
Nearing my goal to become an expert in my field.

Studying justice, the laws of our land, is always fascinating, though I
Admit, things seem different now. It
Seems so empty, with my sister gone, my other half, and my friends too,
All off having adventures across the country. I
Know we’re all doing our jobs, but it’s a strange feeling.
I wonder if this is what lonely feels like.



(I haven't drawn Len yet... curses. Maybe I'll draw Katani and his friends together as kids. I've been wanting to draw the beach scene.)

Favorites of Mine

As I've been writing my Ashes story, I recently realized something.
My favorite character popped out at me, about a week ago.
Lukas is one of the few characters I've had planned since the beginning of the story. He was one of the four characters that provided the original foundation for the story. The other three are Ashlyn (the protagonist), Chloe (a girl who she meets and teams up with) and Riley (the little girl who gets kidnappd, triggering Ashlyn's search).

So, it turns out Lukas is my favorite character from this story.
I'm not really sure why. Although I think I know why I just discovered that fact.
The new chapters I added let me spend more time on Lukas.
He doesn't actually show up until about half way through the story. He's the last of the three core characters, and in my first draft he got very little time. Since Chloe and Lukas show up so late, these new chapters gave me a lot more time to expand on those characters. Mostly on Lukas. Ashlyn had time to get to know Chloe, but that didn't happen at all with Lukas.
So as more of Lukas unfolded, I suddenly discovered that I really like writing him.
I don't think he was the character I would have expected to be my favorite. He's not really like the other favorite characters I have.

For example, in Katani's story, my favorite characters are Kazuhi and Fei Yen (The King and the Lieutenant). Especially writing about them together.

I was telling my Grandma about this story, and she said that there should be some kind of romance with Lukas and Ashlyn.
To wich I immediately went "noooo." I can't picture them as a romantic couple. Partially because that idea is so far from them during this story. Especially Ahslyn, who probably wouldn't think about another person in that way. At least not for a whil - not the way she has to live.
I doubt it, but for that to be considered even a bit, it would have to be in a few years when Ashlyn can pick up something like a normal life. Her "job" is sort of an anti-social way to live. Plus, she would see Lukas almost never for a few years.
Still, that all-present need for romance that people seem to expect in books. @_@
I like Ashlyn ans Lukas as friends. I can't picture them together, even a few years down the line.

I've drawn Ashlyn, but I don't really have a picture of Chloe. And I have no idea what Lukas looks like. I'd better draw them. Probably Riley too.
I started drawing Ashlyn's dogs. I've already done her main dog, Rogue (Did I post that picture?). So I need to do the others. I'm going to try to draw them in the style of the Okami warrior dogs.

Nearing the End

I'm almost done re-writing my grad story.
I just finished adding in the new section, which was a few chapters long.
So now I'm nearing the final stretch.
Which is good, because I want to finish it before classes start in a couple weeks. That way I can send it to my advisers right when classes start.
I've been trying most of the summer to get all of my advisers coordinated, so hopefully I'm almost done. @_@