Blocked with Fear

Here's some more from The Artist's Way.

Having art block does not mean you are lazy. It is a complicated and deep thing. There can be any number of things causing it.

Having artist block is often a form of fear.
The fear of how people will react to your creations.
Fear of failure
Fear of success.
Fear of how people judge artists. Many people think that being an artist is a waste of your life. This is especially frightening when your family or friends think these things. And even more so if that person has a strong influence on your life (like some parents).

People in this position spend their energy on the wrong things: Regret, jealousy, self-loathing, and doubt.
So we have to try to turn that energy into something constructive, and not as anxiety-causing.

But also, when someone is blocked and fearful, it gets them sympathy. And that sympathy can make them feel good.
Don't get too attached to the sympathy. It's much better to make something for other people to see and love. That's a more positive energy to receive than sympathy.


In the end, remember what Elsa teaches us!
Love melts the fear~

Reverse planning

When I write a story, I write a first draft with a general, sometimes vague idea of where I'm going.
Then when I finish, I go back and tidy it up to make everything cohesive. Even if it means going over it 7+ times.

For my fanfictions, I work it a bit differently.
I publish each chapter as I finish, keeping in mind where I'm going. There have been a couple times where I went back and edited a chapter, just to add a detail that I thought might be helpful. I've even had to change something that ended up not working in the long run.

But manga writers can't go back and edit their chapters once they've been published.
I'd always been amazed at how manga writers can work with only one chapter at a time,. What if they ever need to go back and fix something to make it cohesive?

Bakuman answered the question. At least for certain stories/writers.
They work backwards from the way I'm used to. Instead of going back to fix things, they bring old details forward. They go back through their work and pick out little things, then expand on those details in later chapters.

It makes total sense.
And it's fascinating to me sine it's so different than how I work.
I don't think I could work like that, even in my fanfics (since even those are planned out more or less beginning to end).
I can't imagine working on a story, never knowing when it would end XD
Manga people are pretty amazing.

Show it Like you Want

Movies like to have at least one tough lady.
I'm guessing it's partly because they want to show diversity, and to have a bit of girl power.
But this comes with some annoying implications. Mostly it say that girls can indeed be tough, but it is unusual. It comes with the implication that most girls are not strong, even if a few of them are.
Half the superhero teams I can think of have 3 or 4 guys, and one girl. Possibly two. But it's almost inevitable that the guys outnumber the girls.
In the movie Dragonheart, Kara is very tough. No one ever really makes a fuss about her being a lady and a warrior until the very end when a bad guy laments that he was beaten by a girl. Of all things, a girl. It throws girls back down there, and portrays Kara more as an exception than as something normal.

Almost every movie I can think of that deals with feminism has with women fighting against a society that is holding them down. Which is understandable, since it's based off of real life. But that also means that all of the stories are still throwing around worlds in which women are not equal.

That's one thing that makes Steven Universe so fascinating. This show breaks a lot of norms for a kids cartoon. But the people in the world of the show don't look down on anyone from gender, race, or romantic preference (ignoring the obvious castes of the gems).
Ladies in the show are tough. That's just how it is in this world.
No one ever finds it weird or unusual that people of the same gender are in love. It's normal.
When Steven dresses up in a skirt and makeup and sings on stage, no one teases about "Haha! Steven's in a dress!" The only comment is "Ah! I knew It had to be Steven. Who else would think of being a mystery guest?"

In this world, people are accepting about stuff that is looked askance at by much of our world.
I think it is a fabulous example for people to follow.
Steven Universe gives us a world which is much more equal than ours.

I especially love this, because I'm trying to do something very similar. I want to build worlds that can act as examples for us, instead of just warnings.
I wish I had more examples other than Steven Universe to give.

Cold Cold Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

Heheh. I think our house has some weird demon in it right now.
First of all, over summer we had our carpets replaced. But we haven't refinished the floors yet, because we want to do it the same time we replace our kitchen floors and repaint the cabinets, which will probably be when the weather gets warmer.

That's not particularly weird.
But now it is weird.
I'll see if I can remember everything, but I bet I'll leave something out.
A few weeks ago, our water heater sprang a leak, so we had to get that replaced.
About a week ago, a guy had to come and replace a piece on the roof that was leaking during the rain. We still need to fix the ceiling where it made some weird marks.
Last week we got a new toaster oven because our old one wouldn't start half the time.
Last week, our internet was out. It took a week and three or four different people/companies to help figure out what was wrong.
On the way home from Christmas eve, Dad noticed that my car was getting really hot. So, it might be out of coolant, or it might be something more serious because my car is falling apart (I won't list the weird stuff about my car).

And finally, the night before Christmas eve, I noticed it was colder than usual in my room. Yesterday morning, I noticed that the heater was blowing cold air.
Our heater stopped working. And since it's Christmas, we can't get anyone in to fix it. Mom left a message with repair people, but we won't know until probably tomorrow when they can actually come.
Now it doesn't snow at our house, but these past couple days have been very cold. We had a fire going all day, but that doesn't help any of our bedrooms.

Aaaah, wow. When it comes, it's a flood, huh? It's kind of hilarious though. Hopefully this means our house will be perfect for a while now. Get all the repairs out of the way for a few years, huh?
It's been chilly, but luckily the cold never bothered me anyway.

It's been a lovely Christmas though!

Desensitized

It feels like I'm getting pickier about the stuff that I become a big fan of.
When I first started getting into manga/anime, it felt different and fresh, so I got into things very easily.
Now I've gotten very used to anime/manga. I have a larger repertoire, so I can recognize what's unique and what follows the same common patterns.

I have a scenario that I"m curious about (except it involves time travel, so I will probably never know the answer). If I had never watched one of the first anime that I saw and liked, and I instead watched it today, what would I think about it?
I suppose I would still like it. I don't think my taste has changed that much. Maybe I wouldn't like it as much.
I think what would happen is that I would be less interested in the more average manga.

Either way, I tend to be very loyal to books/movies/anime/manga/games that I like. Once I fall in love with them, I never stop liking them. I may stop obsessing over them as much, but I'm never sick of them.

Twisted Pacing

Whoo, and our internet is finally back! XD
It's been mostly broken for a week.

Now I an watch anime and read manga again. Heheh.
When I read manga online, I usually read them very slowly. I don't like reading stuff on screens. I rarely get through more than a chapter or two at once (though that's also because I want to have time for research reading, and for writing).

It took me ages to get caught up on Silver Spoon.
When Hachiken got into an argument with one of his friends, the bad feelings seemed to drag on for a while.
Then when I watched the anime, I realized that the fight was just a short time. Part of an afternoon, or something. Instead of the days that it felt like when I read the manga.

Which made me realize the really slow pace I read at really messes up the pacing in my head XP
Oops.
If I read it in one sitting, that wouldn't happen.
That's why I've started ordering any manga that I can from the library. Then I actually read them in a decent amount of time.

Seriously though. Never watch or read Silver Spoon late at night. They talk about so much food that it drives me crazy that I can't get any of it. It looks so delicious. TT^TT

The Shifting of Kenshin

As I've said before, Kenshin is my favorite character ever.
Or, he was. Now he's tied with Garnet.
I recently realized that both of them are rather similar. They're both wise, and they kick butt in a fight. But they also make me laugh a lot.

Does that mean I have a type? For my favorite character, at least.

The confusing thing about Kenshin though is that there are several versions of him.
I only really like the Kenshin from the Original manga, and from the first live action movies.


The Kenshin from the anime is both too smart about fights, and too dumb about people.


The Kenshin from the OVA episodes is moody and depressing. There's nothing fun about him.


And now there's a new Kenshin manga, Rurouni Kenshin Restoration, made by the original artist.


Now the artist created my favorite character. I want him to do well. But I haven't cared for anything he wrote after the original Rurouni Kenshin. All his other works felt very typical. And this new version of Kenshin is no exception It took away the funny parts of Kenshin that I loved. Like that "oro" face.
I'm sure Watsuki had his reasons for rewriting Kenshin. But it didn't add anything new for me.

I just finished reading it today (After finally discovering a way to order things from distant library systems. I could never find the last half of it until a few weeks ago).
In the manga, Watsuki about how he had changed the characters in this version.
And most of what he said disappointed me. The characters were already great. If they're not broke, why try to fix them? Although I say that because I didn't care for the changes.
He said he wanted to get more into Kenshin's thoughts. But there wasn't anything revealed here that we couldn't already pick up from the original manga.
And for Kaoru, he said that he made her talk less tough, and instead had her wave her arms and chase people around. Really? That's... strange.

I guess I just wanted to talk about this in terms of what makes up my favorite characters.

In other news, I saw Doctor Strange yesterday. Most of the superhero movies have felt the same to me recently, so I didn't think I'd care for this one much.
But I liked it quite a bit!
Usually I don't care about special effects to much. I'm more interested in characters, world, and story. But I was very impressed with the effects. I think Doctor Strange and Avatar are the only two movies I would recommend because of their effects. But also for other reasons.
It's funny hearing Sherlock without the British accent. It threw me off for a while.
There's one scene where Strange has his shirt off. The girl next to me went "Oooh" in response to that. For the next minute I was shaking with silent laughter, because of her reaction.

3 Novels

When you write a story, you will be excited about it. You put a lot of work into it, and you want people to see it.

You'll probably want to get it published to get it out to the world.

But a lot of people jump the gun. They're carried away with their success at finishing something after so much hard work.
They take their first story and try to find a publishing agent.
Well, that doesn't really work. Writing is like any other art form. It takes practice, honing your skill, research, and critiques.
Your first novel is important. Everything you write is important. It's the practice you need to become excellent.
But your first full-length work is almost definitely not good enough to be published.

An agent's blog recommended that you write at least 3 novels before you think about getting published.
Probably more.

I just checked my list of works. Holy heck, I've written a lot.
I mean, half of it is fanfic, but I'm well beyond three novels. Hopefully that's a good sign.

The Slow Regard of Silent Things

I was invited to a surprise craft fair on Saturday. A very small one, but still fun.
I was working on stuff for that. And now I finally feel like I can relax and work on some of my other projects now. I'm glad I earned some money for student loans @_@

Our concert is tomorrow. I have a small solo. My level of panic over solos is ridiculous. This one isn't as bad, since it is small. But still. How on earth do you fix something like that? Just make me play in front of an audience for a few hours. Maybe that would knock me out of it...

In other news, I read the novella that goes along with The Name of the Wind.
It's called The Slow Regard of Silent Things. It's about one of the side characters, and I don't think it would make any sense unless you read one or both of the Kvothe books.


It was amazing.
The book feels like poetry. I want to read it again, and again.

It's fascinating to follow Auri.
Auri has this way of trying to make things fit perfectly. To find the perfect place for everything, and to have everything moving and working in the proper order. It's fascinating to try to bring a little of that into real life. To pay a little more attention to what might go well with this, or if this is the best way to go about your task, or if that item is needed.

After the book, there was a note by the author about his concerns writing this book. That's it's not a proper book.
And people reading the book love it, but they don't think other people would like it since it's not a typical book.
Those comments really surprised me. I didn't think there was anything wrong with the unusual setup. It didn't even strike me as unusual. Thought I suppose that might say more about my odd tastes.
It was a lovely book.
You should read the Name of the Wind books. Heheh.

I hope the last one is as great as the others~ And I hope it comes out soon XD

Eavesdropping on Dreams

So, my craft fair went well.
As did my thesis defense!
Apparently I'm done with school stuff now.
It doesn't feel like I'm done. I guess it really won't feel like I'm done until I get my diploma.
I guess by that point, the feeling will have sunk in that I'm done with school.
And it's time to move on with my life.

In the meantime, I thought it would be interesting to share an idea that I had during my Spain/Italy trip.

I may have mentioned this, but my roommate during the Spain portion of the trip snored. Very loudly. And she also talked in her sleep. And occasionally shouted in her sleep.
Now, sleep was very important to me during that trip because of jet lag, and really long days filled with walking and learning. So I wore earplugs. Which means that I didn't really get any details of what she was saying.
Except one night.
Even with my earplugs in, she was talking so loudly and clearly that I could hear it for many minutes. Maybe 20 minutes, though it was the dead of night and I was trying to drop back into sleep, so I didn't really pay that much attention to details.

It occurred to me that I was eavesdropping on her dreams. I was listening as she narrated her dream world.


I'd heard that dreams occur very fast, but she was talking at a normal pace, so I'm not sure how that links in. Unless she only narrated a small portion of the dream? I should see how that works.

After narrating one dream for a while (I can still very clearly hear some of the lines from it XP I wasn't sure if I should wake her up because she sounded really upset, and people were dying. Wow, what an intense dream) she switched gears and started talking about how you shouldn't have a dog if you can't take care of it. You should take the dog to the humane society if you can't take care of it.
So the next morning, I told her about the dog, and she said "Oh, I remember that dream!" And then she told me about the rest of it, filling in the gaps around her sleeping narration.

If it I weren't trying to sleep, it would probably be fascinating to listen to people talk in their sleep. It's like surreal storytelling.
It is pretty surreal. And kinda funny too.
As long as it doesn't keep you up all night.

Craft Fair

Up until a week ago,. I thought the craft fair was after Thanksgiving.
Then I discovered that it is this Sunday.
So, Surprise!
Luckily I have plenty of stuff to bring, but I had time to make a few more smaller things, which will probably sell better anyway.
Oh, I did make a big thing, actually. I really need to post pictures of it. I love him!

A rather packed week, with my thesis defense on Wednesday and my craft fair tomorrow.

Tomorrow afternoon, I'll feel like I can breathe again.

My talk went well!
I'm really tired, and I can't think of anything to say about it. Heh.
Just thought I'd let you know~

My thesis defense is tomorrow (Not technically a thesis defense since I'm not doing a thesis, but I'll call it that anyway).

My talk will be between 30-40 minutes.
I wrote out the entire thing. And I keep trying to memorize all of it. Which won't happen, and it doesn't need to happen since I'll have notes.
But I'm obsessive enough to try to memorize the speech. I was mumbling my lines during half of brand practice tonight.
That will help, at least.

Giving a speech doesn't really bother me.
I'm sure the talk will be fine.
I've checked every single loose end I know about, and everything seems to be in order to let me graduate.
But I'm so paranoid now. I keep expecting something crazy to happen.
Keep it together. I'm almost done.

Keep Fighting

Whoo, I need to get this blog going in a more positive direction.
I'm going to take down a couple of the older posts pretty soon. They don't need to be there.

I'm holding onto the hope that something will change before we officially have a new president. Considering that he hasn't been sworn in yet, America is already in chaos because of him. And not just America.
I can't imagine a single scenario that would ever lead me to accept him as president.
I would love to be proven wrong, because I do not want to live in the world that could come about from this.

The time we are caught in now is a turning point. For the world, and for the future. It is more important than ever that all of us fight for the things that really matter.
Such as the safety of the planet.
And love.

Make every action count.
Talk to people to help them understand how important it is to act now.
Don't fight. That will not help anything. Talk with respect, but also know when to bow out, considering plenty of people are rooted in their beliefs, no matter what the world around them says.

Act with love. That's what we really need right now. To be kind to others, to counteract the hatred that is flying around. It's far too easy to get sucked into that hatred. It's taken rot in all sides.
We can't let that happen to us. If the government isn't going to take care of us, then we need to take it upon ourselves to spread love, and to protect the planet.

I gotta say, I've never been so disgusted with America.
Especially not present-day America.

I never thought this country would be so extremely idiotic to elect a hateful, lying five-year old.
No, that's not accurate. He may have the brains and self-control of a five-year-old, but he doesn't have an ounce of innocence.

Aren't there, I don't know, qualifications for being freaking PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?
He's going to destroy the goddamn planet.

Foretell...?

Hmm.
So, my Ashes story is what I'm using for my grad project. The disaster that takes place in the story initially starts when a human-caused earthquake (from wastewater injection related to mining) hits the oil storage facility in Cushing Oklahoma.

Today my teacher sent me an article of a human-caused earthquake (from wastewater injection related to mining) that hit near Cushing, Oklahoma, doing significant damage to the town of Cushing.

Man, I gotta be careful what I write, I guess?
If it starts to come true.

In my thesis defense in about a week, I'm going to mention the manga series Coppelion, which is about a Tokyo that has been abandoned doe to nuclear radiation contamination. That series came out a couple years before the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
I wonder if I should mention this to. They probably expect me to add it to my paper.

Best Halloween Decoration Ever

While we were driving the day after Halloween, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye, and immediately wanted to check it out.
As it was, I had to backtrack the next day on my bike.
And I'm glad I did.



Hell yes! They dressed up their Skeleton as Papyrus!

I went back the next day (yesterday). I couldn't resist. I had to stick this up next to the skeleton.


I wanted to see what they thought of it, but it would have been weird to lurk around outside their house.
Anyway, that was fun~



And I saw something really cool today!


I think it's a piebald squirrel!
So appropriate too. I was just looking at pictures of other piebald animals. They are really amazing. Especially the peacocks @_@

Scales!

Whoo! New background!
I've been wanting to do this for a while~
To continue the theme of the dragon mascot.

Enthusiasm

The Artist's Way again.

When you're working on a project, discipline is important. It keeps you focused on your work, and on track to get it done.
But discipline can only take you so far. It's still missing something.


Enthusiasm.


Enthusiasm isn't just emotion, although that can be an important part.
Enthusiasm is letting yourself get drawn into the creative process. It lets you appreciate the creativity that surrounds us.

Artists are not disciplined soldiers. Artists are releasing their inner child, and children aren't necessarily the best about discipline.
It's devotion that we really need.
For us, our work can be like our play, because we love it, and we get to unleash that inner child.

Oh Yeah

Hay, I forgot to mention.
Had my practice defense on Monday.
My advisers said I was really well prepared, especially compared to a lot of other students.

So, awesome.

I think I have a date set for my official defense too.

FMA Rules!

I've been steadily increasing the number of anime and manga in my repertoire.
I've gotten hooked on a number of them.
And yet my favorite series remains one of the very first I ever read: Fullmetal Alchemist. The manga, and the Brotherhood anime.
I've read it and seen it several times.
IT is also the only manga that I bought almost entirely new for the whole series. Usually I raid used book stores...

I've been thinking about what makes FMA so awesome. Besides the fact that it's one of the things that originally got me hooked on anime/manga (hey, there's plenty of sentimental value there. For me, that's hard to shake).

Checked around for some other opinions too, to see how ideas compared.

First of all, FMA has great characters. Which is always an extremely important thing.
Ling makes me laugh so much. And Ed and Al are also great.


The development of the world and the system of alchemy is fantastic too.

Also emotion. FMA is a series that can leave you laughing, crying, or gasping with horror within a couple chapters.
Phew. Awesome.


But one thing that, at least to me, makes it stick out from other anime/manga is the timeline.

I'm going to use some other popular series for comparison.
Inuyasha. I enjoyed the first part of this series. I don't know how many volumes there are in the series. It kept my interest up through volume 16. Everything after that was just limping along, dragging out as far as it could go.
This partly has to do with the way manga is serialized, I think. There doesn't seem much encouragement to make the story neat and enclosed, like a book or movie might be. It's more like a TV show, which can go on long after it has ceased to be interesting.
There's plenty of other anime/manga that follow this, but I use Inuyasha because I quite like the beginning. I'm not really into Bleach (though I gave it a really long try), and I haven't gotten into any of the other hyper-long series.

Fullmetal Alchemist does not drag on and on and on. It goes through the story, and it concludes when it is timely for it to conclude. It might be a bit longer than it could be, but whatever.

And another thing I love, everyone in FMA is important. Even the sleazy mine guy in one of the first chapters? Yep. In the end, he's important.
I really really love it when things tie together.

So, go read FMA! It's awesome~

Defense

Been working on my thesis defense (it's not technically a thesis defense, since I didn't do a thesis - I did a project, but I'll call it a thesis defense anyway).
Designing the outline of the slides was pretty fun, actually, because I got to put up lots of pictures from movies like Ponyo, Bambi, Princess Mononoke, and Tomorrowland.

The past couple nights have been dedicated to citing everything. Less exciting.
I'm going down on Monday to do a practice defense. MY real defense should be a couple weeks after that.

Atlantis

When Atlantis was in theaters, I saw it several times. More than I've ever seen a movie in theaters, I think.
I still have all of the toys I bought. And I probably still have all of the magazines and papers about the world, language, and characters.

When I watched it again last week. I had an epiphany about part of what makes it so great.
I always knew the characters were fantastic, or I wouldn't have gotten all those magazines with character bios and everything.
But for some reason, something clicked in me this time.
Atlantis is not a long movie. And it has a lot of characters.

Usually that gets confusing, with most of the characters being rather dull and undeveloped.
But that's not the case in Atlantis. The characters are all fun and fascinating.

Because every moment they are on screen makes them shine. Everything they say, every time they react reveals more about them.
I feel rather dramatic saying this, but it's freaking masterful character development.

And it's given me lots of ideas~

Jealousy

The next topic from The Artist's Way.
A quick thought about jealousy.

There are many types of jealousy, of course.
I'm not going to talk about all of them.

Jealousy can form around something that you really want to do. Something that you want to do, but are not brave enough to start. There could be any number of excuses. Maybe you're afraid will fail at it, or maybe you don't think you have time to devote to it.
Since you can't get started on what's important to you, you might get jealous of the people who really excel at it.

Jealousy can be a way to cover up fear.
Or it may be anger that someone is getting something that should belong to you. Even if you haven't even reached for that goal yet.


Jealousy obscures the bigger picture.

Freaking Spellcheck

I spent most of two nights trying to fix this cursed thing.
My document of Katani's story has been a bit messed up. For a long time.
Word informed me ages ago that there were too many spelling errors, and it would no longer mark them for me.
Which is inevitable, considering how many weird names and places there are in that story. It overloaded Word.
But Word's tolerance must be pretty freaking low...

Anyway, I figured I'd end up catching most of the typos, even without the red lines.
Wishful thinking.

I finally did something about it. I started copying the whole thing over to a new document, and adding in all of the strange names, like Katani and Youka and Shanka.
Seems simple, right?
I wish.
If I pasted more than two (or 2 1/2 if I was lucky) pages at a time, word would panic and tell me that there were too many errors.
I had to restart two or three times, because it got stuck on the "ABORT! TOO MANY ERRORS."


But finally, after pasting 2 pages or less and fixing most of the mis-spellings, I now have a document that shows me my freaking typos.

Since then I've been smart enough to ad in the weird names as I go, so Word doesn't panic as much.
I really suck and finding them when they're not marked, it turns out...

Leeching Ideas

I'm currently reading a book called Sabriel. It's a fantasy about a girl called Sabriel, who is something like a necromancer. It's her job to keep the dead under control.
I'm almost finished with the book, and it's pretty good. It's the first in a trilogy, so we'll see how it goes.



This book got me thinking though. How would necromancy work in my world? Would the spirits of evil dead things be able to return to life?
As I read Sabriel, I keep thinking that the way the dead work is definitely not how it would work in my world.
Which is wonderful. It shouldn't be the same.

Because I've already put so much work in the "mythology" of my worlds, it was really easy for me to fill in the area around dead spirits.
The people in Magic-Earth and Soreina are at very low risk from the dead, thanks to the gods. Especially compared to the world of Sabriel.
Anyway, I won't write it all out here, since it involves a lot of the information surrounding gods and spirits and demons.

It's exciting to fill in gaps like this.
Hey, that's part of what reading is for! To help you hone your own craft. Without outright stealing, of course. Although you can snag ideas here and there (yes, everyone does it. It's impossible not to, even by accident).

I'm still working on filling out the guides for my two worlds. The writing is slow going, but I keep stockpiling notes for different areas.
It's probably something that I will never finish, because I will always have new ideas. But each bit I write lets me get deeper into my world.
For now, I'll just aim to get caught up on all of my current notes.

Decorations

Heheh. Finally got the logo picture fixed.
And I added a little mascot character~



Icon from here <3
http://ferngirl.deviantart.com/art/LeopardBoop-631941742

Kid Power!

I rarely watch TV, but I happened to catch the end of Matilda today.
I've gotta say. I think this movie is one of the most empowering things I've seen for children.

Many movies argue with good cause that revenge is not the answer.
But in Matilda, revenge is oh so sweet.

Royal Crests of Taysia

On my dragon world, the main continent has five countries. And each country has a royal family.
I've known for a long time that I wanted each country to have a royal crest.

I originally got the idea during the Arith and Saleera story, because Jade wore the Draykia royal crest as a medallion around her neck.
Everyone in the direct royal line would have a solid gold medallion of their country's crest. Heheh. Royals have too much money.
And I knew that each crest would be a dragon with a sword.
I even plotted out which dragon species would be on each crest. And the type of sword would vary too, depending on the country.

I drew Draykia's royal crest a long time ago, and then I never did any of the others.
Until my Europe trip.
Heheh. I finally drew out all the rest of them.
So, I officially have all of the royal crests of Taysia.

One of my long-delayed projects has finally concluded!

Ugh

I'm so disgusted that Trump has gotten so far.
How can such a liar, who thinks only of hate and wealth, ever be backed up by the people of this country?
It's not like he's smart. And he cheats people. Plenty of his own party hate him.
Ugh. People really disgust me sometimes.

List Ten

Next topic from The Artist's Way.
This is one way to help break out of art block.

What is something you would love to do, but aren't able to do it?
You don't have time for it, or can't afford it, or someone is preventing you from doing it.

List out ten of these things you want to do.
For example, I would love to get back into regular horseback riding, but it's expensive. And school has eaten all of my money.

Are there video games you want to play?
Books you want to read?
Learn to dance? Or how to sword fight?

When you've listed out ten things you'd love to do, start picking some out. And do them. Go take dance lessons.

Get rid of the excuses, and make yourself do something you'd love to do.

What else would be better to give you energy and inspiration?

Magic Garden

For a few years now, I've been keeping a vegetable garden in the middle of the back lawn.
I love growing and picking food. There's something amazing about eating something you raised yourself.

Which reminds me, I think I need to spread some compost over it... We have two bins, where we put a bunch of food wast and yard sweepings. Worms and sow bugs love them. And there are these strange spiders that build bizarre-looking egg sacks under the lid. Heheh.

Anyway, I've tried different types of plants, with varying degrees of success. Tomatoes and beans work really well. Lettuce usually does good, though snails got all of it this year. Stupid slimes.
Melons and cucumbers have never grown here though.

Earlier this summer, I was startled to see two very large, oddly shaped things growing on what I thought was a squash vine. But they didn't look like squashes. The skin was different.
I asked my aunt, who knows plants very well. She didn't know, but Uncle Rob said they were alien pods.
Eventually I picked them, and cut one in half out of curiosity.
It was a melon!

They didn't really have much flavor.
But they were really good in smoothies!

And then I started keeping an eye on this guy, which I thought was a lemon cucumber.


Cucumbers have also never grown in this yard, so this was also exciting.
I cut it open and took a bite. And it was sweet! It was also a melon! An extremely tiny one.

I have no idea where they came from. I didn't plant them. And I've never seen any melons like this, so they couldn't have come from seeds that ended up in the compost bins.

Strange mystery melons. I wonder what they are. I saved a couple seeds, to see what happens next year.

Criticism

Here's another topic from the book The "Artist's Way."
It's a topic that can swing wildly in different directions.

Criticism.

Well placed criticism is essential for any artist to improve.
Good criticism makes you think, "Ah, that's what I was missing!"

Poor criticism can crush an artist.
It shames you. It criticizes you, instead of your artwork and makes it personal.
Bad criticisms is not clear. It is vague and doesn't really go anywhere.
And it may not even be true.
This often comes from the kind of people that think art is a waste of time, and you're wasting your life on it. Or they're jealous of your work, etc.

It takes a lot of courage for an artist to share their art with others. Art is a part of your soul. It is your baby that you spent a lot of time and love on. When someone is cruel, uncaring, or shaming when they see it, it can hurt. A lot.
Nasty criticism has ruined many an artist.

Be careful who you share with, if you have poisonous people around you.

But any artist who becomes well known is going to face negative criticism. No matter how amazing your work is, there will always be people who don't understand, or who hate it.
Every artist needs to grown a thick skin if they want their art widely shared.

And don't get mad if people criticize your work. It just means that they want to make it better.
If they don't want to make it better, then you shouldn't listen to them in the first place.

(Anne here rather lost her cool at Gilbert when he gave his honest opinion on her short story. When she cooled down and thought it over, it helped her turn over a new leaf in her writing).

It can be hard to keep your cool. For example, if you have worked hard on something, and think it's in good shape. And you share it with someone you care about, and they don't have any enthusiasm for it.
Or they don't seem to like it.
It can be hard.
So just keep working. Use it to push yourself.

But remember if you are critiquing art, that art is someone's baby. Be respectful, and do your best.


Sometimes good and bad criticism isn't so easy to tell apart. There's plenty that falls in the middle.
At these time, the artist needs to use their best judgement.
Some comments will not make the work better.
For example in Bakuman, Mashiro and Takagi decide to take suggestions from the fans, and end up creating a very dreadful chapter.
This is your art, and it is your job to make it shine. Not the job of the fans (though the work would not have much value without the love of fans). There's a reason not everyone is an artist.
People can give you suggestions, but not every suggestion is worth accepting.
Some people have odd tastes. Or they weren't paying close attention when they looked at your art. Or they just don't have the understanding to really see it for what it is.
But most suggestions should be listened to. Especially if multiple people say the same thing.
Maybe you aren't getting your point across. Or something is unpolished, or off.

If any criticism feels painful, think about how you would defend it. Compose a reply in your head. You may or may not want to deliver that reply to the criticizer, but it will help you to get through your feelings.
Also try to think if it could help in any way.


And always remember, bad art is important. You cannot improve without making bad art. It helps you learn and grow.

Garnet

Oh my gosh, I love Garnet so much.

Even when it's just an appearance of a couple seconds, it's always awesome.


Pretty much every appearance she has I love (At least I can't think of any that I don't love).

(I love Peridot too, even if the name of the stone isn't pronounced with a t on the end)

And she's so adorable when she has a fangirl moment.


I just realized recently that she might be one of my top favorite characters, right up near Kenshin.
Wow. No one's ever come close to Kenshin before.
Kenshin has been my favorite for so long that I don't even know how to compare the two, in terms of who I'd like more.
I probably won't make a final decision until Steven Universe is completely done playing.
So I guess for now Kenshin is still my favorite, but now there is actually competition.

Hmmm. This bears some thought.

Perfectionist

Here's another topic from The Artist's Way.
Today's discussion is about perfection!

First of all, always try your best. That's how you improve and become magnificent.


But perfectionism can be harmful.
If you're working on a project, and you're stuck trying to make one part of it perfect, then you're still stuck.
You'll remain at that same place, instead of moving forward. You won't finish anything, and you won't improve.
Perfectionism is a never-ending loop, where you focus on the details and don't think about the work as a whole.
And you're never satisfied with your work. It doesn't have to do with humility. It's the feeling that nothing you do will ever be good enough. And that is a very destructive feeling.

In writing, a perfectionist will rewrite one scene over and over and over, and never finish the whole story.
They want their first draft to be their final draft.
First drafts are supposed to be bad. Let them suck. It's a great way to see the bigger picture of what you're working on, without any grand expectations.
Your later drafts are where you start to iron out all the odd parts.
Let yourself come back to your work later, after you know what the whole might look like. After you have some distance from the problem, and some feedback from friends or artists.

By the way, being a perfectionist may not necessarily be about making your work perfect. It may be a way to keep yourself from moving forward, either consciously, of subconsciously. Hey, it can be scary to change sometimes, even if it's a positive change.

Remember, art is never really finished. It's just put down at some point, and sent on its way.

In

Aaaah, finally turned in the latest draft of my grad project. That should not have been as hard as it was. Nor should it have taken so long.
Yeesh.
I really hope that this is the last major edit I'll have to do. There have been too many so far.

People Suck

Some words from my cousin, who had a bad experience with grad school.

One very important thing that graduate school teaches you is that people suck.

The Art of Stalling

Considering I've spent the last few days mostly at my computer working on my project, I have accomplished surprisingly little.
It's amazing how many things you think of that you could be doing, instead of doing homework.


I suppose it's an opportunity to get a lot of little things done.
Assuming you run out eventually, so you have to get to work (I don't think anyone ever runs out of alternative stuff to do when they're procrastinating).
I have to hold myself back from obsessively checking DA, because I want to look at art.
And of course, there's so much I really really want to write on my stories. I'm trying to stop myself from doing that until I can get the next draft of my project turned in.
I guess I'm just very drained of all emotion regarding this right now. Although I'm finally making decent-ish progress.

Then I'll actually be able to relax for a little while until the next step (though I could start planning my speech too. That part might actually be fun to start.

Baby Dragons

This is a project I've been wanting to do for a long time.
I wasn't confident in my ability to create baby versions of all my 14 dragon species. I'd tried and failed plenty of times (mostly with Heyoa and Tyra), and the results were always disappointing.

Finally during my flight to Europe, I decided it was time. So I sketched out all 14 babies.
And then at my cousin's house in Italy I inked the lines. My cousins loved this, and both of them drew a ton of their own dragons during my stay.
Back at home I colored them in marker (Probably not the wisest choice, since I usually find some way to mess up marker).

baby dragons

So let me introduce them in order:
Heyoa (sun), Shalia (moon), Nam (dawn)
Nase (frilled), Tania (titan), Koba (lash)
Zane (phoenix), Samara (loong), Tyra (storm)
Menth (earth), Tivoli (wood), Arthem (frost
Mekki (lion), Selven (serpent)

Most of them are from Katani's story.
Heyoa is my dragon.
Shalia is Arith's dragon (Arith's story is getting a re-working)
Tania and Koba were originally in Arith's story. They may still live in that story. I'll see how it goes.

In Katani's story:
Nam - Dominic
Nase - Garrett
Zane - Youka (her main partner is a Sun dragon named Lilio. Zane is another dragon pal of Youka's. Since I drew Heyoa as the example of a baby sun dragon, I didn't draw Lilio here. Sorry Lilio! Maybe I'll draw baby Lilio anyway, so there's the full set. ).
Samara - Saris
Tyra - Katani
Menth - Rishi
Tivoli - Tuan
Arthem - Pavani
Mekki - Melly
Selven - Tri

Actually, for the baby storm dragons, their feather manes should be frizzier and more downy.

Art Don'ts

I love to commission art of my characters.
But while I have received some fantastic art, I've noticed some things pop up that I would rather not have.
So I thought I'd make up a list for reference.

No shipping, please. I know people love to do it, but it makes me rather uncomfortable. For myself, and for my characters. That being said, don't harass anyone that chooses to do so.
Please don't give the ladies overly big or obvious boobs. It just makes them seem objectified.
Nothing inappropriate, please. Nothing rude or suggestive, ex. 

No AI. It's not art, and it steals other peoples are without permission.

And for dragons, some artist include strange webbed gums in their mouths. These just weird me out.
None of this (even though the rest of the art is fantastic).



Think of my dragons having more dog-like mouths. Lips, teeth, tongue, ex.

#1

I've noticed a common theme in anime.
The characters always want to be #1.
I'll use Bakuman right now, since that's what I'm in the middle of reading.
Mashiro and Takagi want to get the top rating in Jump. That is their ultimate goal. To become #1 and get an anime.

Except they're so set on being #1 that they aren't at all satisfied when they do a fantastic job that's right near the top.
Even when they get 3rd place, they're not excited.

I can understand them wanting to improve, and to get known.
Pretty much everyone wants to get 1st place.
But they don't seem to understand that they can be happy even if they don't get 1st place.
This kind of thinking puts huge limits on happiness. It's like they're saying that they can never be happy unless they're #1. And being #1 happens very rarely for most people, and never for some people.
It's important to know how to be happy even if you're not #1. Because being 2nd place, or 5th place, can also be a fantastic thing.

I think it's pretty common though, for people to have trouble finding happiness among the ordinary.
Being #the best would be so exciting. But below that can be great too, as long as you learn and have a good time.

Do your best. Always strive to improve. But don't let that limit your happiness, and satisfaction at a job well done.

X-Men Apocalypse

I usually talk about the new X-Men movies. So while it's late, I'll talk about X-Men Apocalypse.
They've done this in other movies, but there were so many characters in the movie that we didn't get to really know any of them. I wish they'd focus on fewer characters.
Plot wise was average.

Heheh. I love that Wolverine is in every movie. Although the cameo in X-Men First Class was classic.
But oh my god. What did they do to him? TT^TT

I was disappointed in Storm. She really didn't do anything. Not until the very very end.

I loved little Nightcrawler. His design was great. I wish he was in more movies.

But the makeup for Beast and Mystique just seemed sloppy. And usually I love Mystique's makeup.
Somehow the blue didn't fit into their faces somehow? I'm not really sure. But it felt off to me.

The slow-mo scene in Days of Future Past was absolutely fantastic. But I think this one was even better. Oh man, I freaking love the slow-mop scenes.
Here is the scene~

Fern's Symbol

Realized a flaw in my post about mage symbols.
Fern never went to the mage temple to train, so she wouldn't have her own official mage medallion!
Hmm. Maybe she just liked the idea of the symbols and made up her own design (with help from her friends) to have stamped in her brooch. It wouldn't be a medallion, but it could still function as her own magical symbol.

Maybe other mages would do that, even if they're not certified master mages.

Passed

I passed my graduate exams.

Now I just need to get my project accepted.
And do my thesis defense.

Mage Symbols

I brought a little sketchbook with me to Europe. Most of it relates to stories, so I'll be sharing them in later posts.
Some of the drawings are a project that I have been wanting to do for a cery long time. But I haven't known how.
The trip gave me the inspiration I needed. Literally.

On Magic-Earth, I have spent a long time thinking about identification for mages.
Master mages wear a hooded cloak. Apprentice mages wear a half-cloak.
But other people would wear cloaks too. Mages needed something to prove that they are official mages. Like a police badge.

For a while I toyed with a medallion, with a gem pendant hanging from it.
The medallion would be stamped with the symbol of the temple the mage belongs to. The pendant would be a stone. The type of the stone would represent the base of their magic, and it would be carved with another symbol.
But that was too awkward. Plus no matter how many times I tried, I couldn't think of unique and simple symbols to represent elements (like the symbols for the nations in Avatar: Last Airbender), or types of magic.

In Salamanca, at the university gift shop, I saw something that gave me the idea I needed to finally start creating the mage symbols.


They're symbols for the different fields of study at the university.
When I saw them, I dropped the idea of simple symbols for fields of magic. Instead I decided to go with more complex designs, relating only to the individual.
The design would be stamped or carved into a medallion. Color is important to the symbol too. I'm not sure how to incorporate that yet. I don't think the medallion would be painted. Enamel would probably be too fragile. Maybe they have some way to magically dye metal. Or more likely the medallion is made out of some other material. Possibly some sort of material that acts like a mixture of plastic, ceramic, or glass.
All valid questions I must think on.

I made the symbol for Evva, though I may tweak that. I'm plased with the symbol for her master though.
I made Fern's design too! I like how it turned out.
And there's one extra. I'm not sure who would have it. I just had an idea for a design. Heheh. Maybe some day I'll have a mage who will get that symbol. Or it might float free forever.

Trip photos

I went back and put up a bunch of photos from my trip.
If you'd like, you can go back to the posts I made during my trip, to check them out.

Artist Date

Here's another topic from the book The Artist's Way. It's called the Artist Date.

For the artist date, set aside a couple hours a week. This is for you alone. Don't let anyone tag along, like family/friends. The date is for you and your inner artist only.
This time isn't for doing art. Instead it's about going out and experience things, or gathering stuff/ideas for your creative side.
Go for a hike in the woods or on the beach, visit an aquarium or thrift shop, ex.


In addition to the Artist Date, make sure to reserve some time to work on creative projects.
It's always so sad to see people completely abandon art or music. So many people stop playing music once they're not enrolled in school bands anymore. Or when they start a family, they give up some of their hobbies.
Don't forget, being creative is good for the soul! Don't let anyone keep you from it, even if you can only do a bit at a time.

Morning Pages

I've been lucky to have avoided artist block.
It partly has to do with me having so many hobbies that I can switch from one to another, if I get tired of one.
Plus when school and other stuff has kept me away from creative work, I'm desperate to get back to it.

But when someone gave me a box of books they were getting rid of, I found one about curing artist block.
I thought it would be good to read, so I can help people.

The book is called The Artist's Way, by Cameron. They have a lot of interesting topics, and exercises. So I'll post about some of them in the following weeks.

The first exercise is all about getting creative juices flowing. And it's especially about ignoring your inner critic. It's good to critique yourself, but when that critic gets too strong, it criticizes everything you do to the point where you're afraid to create anything.

The exercise is called Morning Pages.

Every morning when you get up, spend three pages writing.
Just write whatever comes into your head, and keep going. It's stream of consciousness.
If you start thinking it's stupid, ignore it. Your inner critic has no place here. Just keep swimming. It gets your juices flowing, and gets you thinking creatively.
The pages let you get stuff out of your system.
They let you get down to your core.

If you're blocked, write your morning pages every morning. Don't let excuses get to you. Wake up earlier, if that's what it takes to get them done. They're one of the central parts of recovering creativity. The book uses the word "nonnegotiable."
Some people do their pages every single morning, even if they're not blocked. They find them that helpful.
Even the most reluctant of morning-pagers will benefit from them.

Let your pages sit for a good long while before you come back and read them again. You don't need to let anyone else see them.
I did morning pages for a few days in Spain. I wanted to see what they were like. Unsurprisingly, I mostly ended up writing about my trip. I should go back and read them. I've forgotten a lot of what I wrote.

Too Much Work

I've been reading Bakuman. Which is a manga about the process of making manga.

And it's reminded me of some things I've heard of, and witnessed.

In Bakuman, the characters dreams are to become manga artists.
Except because of the way the system is set up, being a manga artist seems like a rather miserable way to live.
Manga artists have to spend so much time working on their story to meet deadlines that they don't get enough sleep, and can't do anything besides work on manga.
That is not how people are happy. That is how people get sick.
Although it has let people accomplish some amazing stuff (sometimes at the cost of a shorter life).
Spoilers.
Which is exactly what happens in Bakuman. The guy works so hard that he makes himself sick. And even in the hospital, he won't take off time to work on his manga.
By the way, his uncle died because he worked too hard on manga.
It's not manga that makes them sick, obviously. It's the system that gives such short deadlines. And it depends on the area too.

I haven't finished reading yet, so I'm not sure the full message they want to get across. The characters want to change the manga system, but they don't seem to mind the fact that they work themselves sick... even though that should not be a normal thing.

People are not built to spend their entire lives sleeping and working. They need to get out and do stuff.
And yet certain industries and places don't seem to care. They expect the people who work for them to be robots.

There was a documentary I watched about how people have happy lives. And a lot of it hadhto do with NOT working too hard. People need time to socialize. They need to keep ties with family. They have to hang out with friends. They need to go for walks, or do something fun, creative, and different.

I wonder if there's some way to make companies understand this...

Creativity

I can finally do creative stuff again. TT^TT
I'll finally be able to work on Evva's story some more. It's been ages...

Actually, I still need to work on my project too.
Now that I'm through the busy-ness of last week, I can get on that. Again.
Even though they were supposed to give me more information about what to work on next... I've got a while to wait before I know how my exams went too.
(Still on the endless process of sorting the 5,000+ photos from my trip, though I've accomplished a lot already).

Hopefully I'll be able to enjoy what's left of my summer vacation though, without too much more insanity from school.

Share the stickers~

I really hate wasting stuff. I hate throwing things away if they still work.
So, it's fun to see how things get passed along.
For example, at the humane society where I volunteer, there's a drawer full of stickers. People have random stickers sitting around that they don't want anymore. So they bring them in. And then us volunteers get to raid the stickers.
I found a sheet of Last Airbender stickers! Whoo!
Plus there are lots of cute animal stickers.

Also, if people have random snack items sitting around they they won't use, they bring them in and share them with everybody. Cookies, chocolate, ex.

So, find creative ways to pass along stuff you don't need anymore. Don't send it to the dump.
Especially considering all the research I had to do for my exams involved seeing how much resources go into creating all our crud.

All Done

Well, I got my exams turned in Sunday morning.
So I spent all of yesterday doing creative projects which I haven't been able to touch in a couple months.
And I can start writing again. TT^TT

I'm volunteering at the ranch camp this week. So that's fun, although I'm tired too. I'll have to go to sleep soon.

Although I'll have to start working on more grad edits soon.
I really hope they're satisfied with those exams. I worked my butt off on them, far more than I should have.

Final Day

Okay, it's the last day of exams.
Tomorrow morning, I will be free.
Ugggh, I'm so sick of this chair though. My butt hurts. TT^TT

Question 1 Done

Gonna post here, mostly for stress relief.
I finally finished question one. It took me day and a half.
For a single question.
There are six more questions.

So, I'm pretty positive (I'm pleading that it's so) that the other questions should be much much easier.
Because I am not working at a sustainable rate, if I want to finish these exams on time.

I Guess I'm Not Surprised

Almost through my first day of exams.
There are six questions. And I've spent all day on the first one. Although I think this should be the hardest. I hope...
Jeez, they didn't say they'd have a huge math equation I'd have to plot out. It's taken me all day to dig out all the bits of data I need.

Also, reading through the exam questions for the first time, I saw that they're messing with me again.
I had a very specific list of sources to use for the exams. But I definitely need more than the hundreds of pages I've been reviewing. So, I've gotta track down extra sources...

Stronger Than You

So, my exams are coming up tomorrow.
Or so I've been told.

I've been re-doing all the studying that I did before my trip.
And I thought I'd share some of the stuff that gets me pumped up during these endless study sessions.
A good distraction (as long as it doesn't steal your whole night) and a good way to get your excitement going, so you can get through that next batch of articles.

By the way, spoilers coming up. For both Undertale, and Steven Universe.

I'm getting quite an extensive playlist of Undertale songs and animations.
I listened to this one a few times, because the Lyrics were awesome, and it's about one of the most intense battles in gaming (Despite the fact that I'm voting for the player to lose every time. Go Sans!).



For some reason, I thought that these were just lyrics someone had put to one of the Undertale soundtrack songs.
Even though I have the soundtrack and have listened to it many times.

A couple weeks ago, I started watching Steven universe.
Yeah, I'm always super late to jump on band-wagons.
Two evenings ago, I was watching one of the episodes, where a bunch of the characters were prisoners on a spaceship. When one of the characters started singing, I thought it sounded like an Undertale song. But I figured it must be coincidence.
Until Garnet started singing.



Totally unprepared for such a freaking awesome battle montage, set to a song that was already super intense for me. It was like a punch to the chest.
Holy heck. It only took me a couple episodes to think that Garnet might be my favorite character (I never know for sure until I'm pretty much done watching something) but this fight scene seals the deal.
Garnet is freaking awesome!

Needless to say, I spent the rest of the evening watching the fight scene, and listening to Undertle versions of the song.
Over and over.

I also found these




So, yeah. It's good to get pumped up, but you may not want to spend the whole evening on it.
Oops.

Pokemon Go-ing

So, there's a big fuss all over about Pokémon Go.
I was excited about it too.



But I ended up being disappointed. And not just because of all the glitches and bugs that still need to be worked out.
And how there is no explanation of how to play.

The game is extremely limiting.
A lot of people live in areas that have few Pokémon and no Pokéspots, so they can't get items, or level up.
There aren't any Pokéspots near my house that I can walk to. There was one the first day, but it was gone when I biked past today? I have no idea why.

And the second reason it's limiting is because it's supposed to use huge amounts of data. So, a lot of people can't play until the next month comes, when their data for their phones will be renewed.
In my case, I don't even have a smart phone. I don't need one, can't afford one, and I don't even want one. So, I've been playing some on my Mom's iphone, which she doesn't use that much. Except her data plan is very small. And if I use up all of her data, she will probably kill me. So, I can't really play the game much.
Even though I've been a dedicated Pokémon fan forever.

Not to mention all the news stories about people putting themselves, and other people, in danger by not paying attention while they play.

So, yeah. I'm disappointed. This game seems to work really well for specific people.

I feel really behind in Pokémon Go. Sigh.

Being American

While in Italy, someone who lived there was talking with a couple people in our group (He was American, but had lived in Italy for many years).
He said that Italians really like Americans. Probably because of all the money tourists bring in. So, when there was the big financial crisis, the Italians were sad because there weren't as many American tourists. Heheh.
But they are also impressed by how generous Americans are. In Italy, people are more concerned about family, and not so much other people.

Actually, that's not what I wanted to write about.
It's something else he said.
When America elected Obama as President, some people in Italy cried. They said that only America could elect a colored president, after having such a history of racism.

So, that was one of those things that made my day a little brighter. I hadn't thought about what other countries would think of the election.

Upcoming

I've gotten most of my stuff sorted, from my month away.
I still have a lot of work to do with my photos. There are over 5,000 of them. I need to pick out all my best photos for my personal gallery. I need to pick out pictures to share with the tour group, to put on facebook, and to put onto my blog.
And I also want to label all of the pictures. Which will take the longest...

I need to organize my papers too. That's proven a lot more complicated than I thought it would be.

I've spent all my free time since I got home organizing stuff. Heheh. I really want to slack off. I want to color all the pictures I have sitting around. And I want to play videogames.
Once I get the papers organized, I'll probably take my time with my photos. Because otherwise I think it will overwhelm me. But at least I get to relive my trip when I look at them.

And I still have to plan those cursed exams.


(Actual graffiti from Italy. I know how they feel. Heheh)

Languages

When I started to learn Japanese, it replaced most of the Spanish I learned in high school.
It got to the point where when I tried to think of a Spanish phrase, I would mix in Japanese words.

I wanted to go over all of my Spanish notes before the trip. But thanks to wasting all my time on exams that didn't happen, I barely got to look at a couple pages of notes.
So in Spain, I was stuck with the words and phrases I could dig out of the back of my brain.
A lot came back to me, actually. And I learned more.



And a funny thing happened. During those two weeks of thinking in Spanish, I couldn't think of how to speak in Japanese!

Wow. I guess my brain must have specific modes with languages.

Although Japanese did try to pop out a couple times. I'm pretty sure I said "demo" instead of "pero." They mean the same thing ("however", or "but") but I doubt the person I was talking to knew what the heck I was talking about.
And I kept almost saying "hai" instead of "sí."

And despite my Spain trip being over, I really want to go over all of my Spanish notes, and try to remember how to speak it better.
I also want to learn Italian now too. Heheh. My brain is so ambitious.
I taught my cousins a couple words in Japanese. It took Luca all day to stop scrambling "onegaishimasu." Heheh. Poor guy. He got so frustrated. But I think by the end, he'd finally stopped saying "onogaishimasu."

Tiny Tyra

An experiment in sculpting.
I... learned quite a lot about what not to do. Poor Tyra.
Hopefully I'll know better next time. Heheh.
Which dragon should I try next? (Though that probably won't be for months. There are so many pictures I want to color).

Lucignano

Heheh. All my posts are super behind. I've actually been home since Wednesday.

Christy's place is amazing. It's out in the country. It's so pretty up here. The mix of orchards, forest, and great old buildings means that it's pretty everywhere you look. The house is lovely, as is the garden.
And there were three cats! I missed Leaf so much.
Christy and David have two kids - Luca and Elio. They were thrilled to have me around.
We visited a couple of the nearby towns.
David has a workshop where he makes amazing stuff out of wood.

And we searched around with David's metal detector. Among all the trash, there's shrapnel from WWII. And they even found a couple old artifacts.
I just found junk. Rusty metal, old wire, and a 2 euro piece.
I also found an adorable little gecko! It was on the handle of the pick axe I was digging with. I didn't notice until I touched him with my finger. Heheh. What a surprise.

I found more loquats. They're called nespole in Italian.

Biwa, nispero, and nespole.

I asked Luca and Elio if they wanted to say anything here.
Elio says "Hello world."
Luca says that it was all good fun.

We got to visit some horses that a friend of their family has. Which I was thrilled about. Luca was a bit nervous at first, to be around such huge animals. But by the end, both boys loved the horses.

Man, that flight home was grueling. It was at least 12 hours long. And the chairs were not comfortable.
I think my brain is starting to believe that airports and airplanes mean sleep deprivation.
Man, I'd forgotten what it was like to be home.
I've been spending all of my free time trying to organize and clean up everything from the trip, and stuff that built up during my absence. I've still got a ton to do. I haven't even touched my 5,000+ photos.
I'll have to go back and add some photos to my posts, once I've gone through them.
But it's so nice to be home again. With my cat.

Florence

From Rome to Florence, we took the bullet train. I haven't been on one since Japan. It wasn't as fast as the Shinkansen, but it did have some lovely scenery. And a lot of tunnels.

Florence is more modern than I thought it would be.
There are so many shops. Dozens, or hundreds of leather places. Lots of tourist shops. And a lot of really beauitful shops. Plenty that sell hand made stuff.
There are a lot of outdoor markets too, which are fun to walk around.

We stumbled across the boar statue, which I recognized it immediately because Dad has a little one in the living room. So, you're supposed to pet the boar's nose, and if you do then you will come back to Florence. I know because I asked my cousin about it just now.


Ooh, here's a strange story. In middle school, I had a pretty bookmark that I liked a lot. It said "here I fell asleep." I guess it must have been a gift from my uncle, or cousin. And then I lost it.
So as we were walking along the river in Florence, we spotted a nice paper shop called Il Papiro. While inside, I noticed a tray of bookmarks, and the shape of them seemed familiar. Then I gasped, because there in the tray was the same exact bookmark that I had in middle school! That company is the one that created the design, and they're the only ones that carry it.
The shopkeeper liked my story, so she gave me the bookmark. Now I have my middle school bookmark back.
I walk into a shop half way across the world, and find my old bookmark. Wow.

We also stumbled onto the tomb of Boticceli.

Took a day trip to the little nearby town of Fiesole.
And we went to the Uffizi museum, where there's a lot of famous art. Like the Birth of Venus painting.

And we went to the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, and oddly enough, Machiavelli.

Well, we went to a lot of museums, and saw a lot of famous statues. The Bargello has a lot of statues. And we saw some Michelangelo statues at a Medici building.
I climbed to the top of the Duomo. It's a freaking awesome view.
Ooh, and there's a museum of works of inlaid stone, which are incredible too.

There are a lot of statues of David. But the one that is all over Florence is Michelangelo's David. The whole city is enamored with it.

I've seen several of them. And we got to the biggest one, figuratively and literally, early before it was surrounded by packs of tourists.
I've seen a lot of naked statues on this trip. For some reason, most of them are guys. Eh. Weird. And a lot of the women statues look very guyish. And visa versa. It's hard to tell from behind a lot of the time.

Every day on Florence, Mom and I walked around in the morning, then came back in the afternoon to collapse in our hotel. Then a few hours later when I actually had some of my energy left, I would go out on my own to wander around. It's fun to wander around and explore on my own.
Man, my feet got so tired though. Phew.

Our last morning in Florence, we went across the river. My cousin's sister has a jewelry school, called Alchimia. So she showed us around. It's a great place.
And that afternoon, we met my cousin, Christy. And we went to her place.