I know I've mentioned this before at least once. Maybe twice (or more).
I'm working on a part of Evva's story that came to me in a spark of inspiration during the first draft. It fits so perfectly. But it seems like it might come off as super tacky. It's one of those things that could be super cool, or super dumb depending on who's reading it. It would make such an awesome picture though XD
Huuurgh, I have no idea if I should take it out. But I don't want to. TT^TT

I'm always afraid it will have to get chopped out in the future. It won't be hard to do (except emotionally XD ).

Newsletter

Oooh, the zoo used one of my photos in today's newsletter!

(This one of our handsome lion)

Why do People Have to Outgrow Adventures?

Merry Christmas Everyone!
I'm just getting over a cold. I feel a lot better, but my voice has almost stopped working entirely. It's eerie to say something and have no noise come out. Or to try to make an announcement at work and have your voice cracking all over the place.
I did have work today, so all that talking certainly didn't help.

I'm in the middle of My Neighbor Totoro.
It's not the first time I've thought this, but it's the first time I thought about writing it down. You see it in movies sometimes - including some movies that I dearly love like Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service.
In Totoro, people can only see Totoro and the cat bus and everything when they're children. None of the adults see the cat bus dashing past.

And in Kiki's Delivery Service, Kiki can no longer speak to Jiji once she grows up (although they changed this in the English version of the movie).

(Also in Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, only children can see the Picori)

Only children have access to these magical things. When they grow up, they outgrow them.

That always seemed unfair to me. Sure, plenty of adults abandon their child-like innocence and that love of adventure and fantasy. But not everyone. Why can't adults see cool creatures or talk to cats?

In one book I read, all children are born knowing how to talk to animals. But as they grow up, all the adults say that it's impossible to talk to animals. They insist that the kids are making it up. Eventually children start to believe it and they lose that ability. Very few people retain it as an adult.
I like to believe that's what's going on here XD.

I addressed something similar in Evva's story.
In some old mythology, unicorns were said to only come to virgins. That seemed unfair in the same way (though people back then had some pretty messed up views on the value of women). I took it as a metaphorical thing, that unicorns come to the pure of heart, or the innocent.
So in my world, unicorns only come to the innocent, aka the pure of heart.
Innocence doesn't necessarily mean that you have no idea what evil is. An even stronger form of innocence is knowing evil, but not letting it in. So it's easier for children to be innocent, but it's quite possible for adults too.

The unicorn in my story, Frostfall, is happy to hang out with the married couple, as well as the young girl.
It was after I wrote this that I read a short story by Peter S. Beagle: author of The Last Unicorn. In that story, the woman thought she would never be able to see a unicorn again because she was no longer a virgin. But the unicorn came back to her anyway, and the myth proved to be true. And I went, "Yesss, thank you."
I like his wording for it. In The Last Unicorn, he says that unicorns are "visible only to those who seek and trust."

It doesn't matter what age you are. You can always seek and trust, if you let yourself.

Heck, I'd be just as happy to go on a magical journey now as I was when I was in elementary school.

Whenever I'm editing a story, there's always an entire chapter that I end up adding later in the process.

In Katani's story, that happened after multiple rewrites. It was something I'd been wanting to add for ages, but could never find a good spot for it. They visit the land where Katani's dad came from, so Katani gets to see a bit of his own history. And we get a better sense of Melly as well.

(I don't know if I ever actually posted this, but it's a drawing of Melly)


In my graduate story, the chapter I added was basically a false lead in the search for the missing girl. It might seem like a waste of time, but without it, the search felt far too easy. It let us see more of the world too. And as I was writing it, one character came out so strongly that he ended up being my favorite character in the story.

Now in Evva's story I'm starting to think about a chapter that I need to add in. I've had it in my head for a while, but only vaguely. Then it started to get a solid shape just a couple weeks ago. I think it will give me more of a chance to try to solidify my cruddy romantic writing. And it will also give the ecological theme a much stronger standing.
It will involve some research though.

Differnet Speeches, Different Thoughts

I finished the book called Braiding Sweetgrass. It was beautiful.

There was a lot of fascinating stuff. But I think the most relevant topic to this blog is about language. The author was learning to speak Potawatomi.

It's amazing how the structure of a language reflects how cultures think. For example there is no word in Potawotami for "thank you." Sounds rude, right? Exactly the opposite. The thanks is implied. It is expected that you are grateful for everything you receive.
There are also very few nouns in Potawatomi. Things we usually consider as nouns are structured like verbs. For example a bay, along an ocean or lake. A bay is not a thing. It is "the process of being a bay." This is because the bay is never the same. Water is always moving through it. Tides change, plants and animals come and go. It is not static and dead. It is a fluid thing that changes with time.
American Indians had such a deep understanding and respect for the land. They relied on the land after all. If they abused it, they would run out of resources and die.
Compare that to the people that took over the country. They destroyed most of the native people (especially their cultures), wiped out the forests and animals, and now we're destroying the climate along with so many other natural systems.
Anyway, I'll try not to go down that path.
What do we do? Respect the world! If you need to buy something, find out where it comes from. Respect the source. Do what you can to make your actions as Earth-friendly as possible.
In the meantime. I'm going to try to find myself some sweetgrass to plant this spring.

New Nostalgia

Is it possible to feel nostalgic about something that's only a year old?
I watched part of Coco yesterday and it felt like I'd known it all my life.


I wonder how much I would have apperciated Coco if I saw it as a kid. I'm sure I would have liked it.
I probably would have gone into the movie with far fewer doubts about the quality of a Pixar film XD. But I wouldn't have understood the deeper levels of the movie as far as character and plot development go. I don't think I would have loved Hector as much as I do after learning so much about character development.
Yeah, creating stories can either make or break your appreciation of someone else's story. @_@

Filling the Gaps

I keep wondering what new story I'll start next.
As always, all of my ideas are full of gaps. I usually can't figure out how to fill those gaps until I start writing. Unless of course the idea is still too vague.
I try to go with the most fully formed story. But that doesn't usually happen. Usually it's the story I'm most excited about. Even if it's riddled with holes.
For a while I thought I knew what the next story would be. We'll call it Arrin's story, since that's the protagonist's name (for now). But a couple days ago, I read about a bit of mythology that would make for an awesome end to a different story, which I'll call the Mist story.
So now I'm thinking about starting the Mist story instead. The problem is I don't really have any idea how to start that idea. But I already have the first chapter of Arrin's story written. I wrote it a couple years ago, so it will probably need lots of editing, but it is a solid start.
So we'll see. First I have to finish the last part of an edit where I kill off one of my favorite characters. TT^TT


Also, bluebirds! There were bluebirds at the zoo last week1 It's the first time I've ever seen wild bluebirds.
I was going up to my bosses going, "oh my gosh I saw bluebirds! There were four bluebirds right here!" As if I need to look crazy in front of my bosses @_@

Joyful for Others

Okay, I'm going to do a word of the day because WHY DOESN'T ANYONE KNOW THIS WORD?
The blog doesn't even recognize it as a real word. Nor does the dictionary on my computer.


Compersion: feeling joy because someone else is joyful.


We know what jealousy is - to want someone else's good fortune for ourselves (more or less). But we don't know how to be happy for someone else's fortune? (Not entirely, but we sure don't know the word for it @_@ )

(Thanks to Patrick Rothfuss for bringing this word to my knowledge).

Project for Awesome 2018: Giraffe Conservation Foundation

For the first time in forever, I made a video for the Project for Awesome!
It was fun and a lot easier than I expected. I had a proper video program this time @_@



Since I get to work with giraffes, I chose the Giraffe Conservation Foundation as my charity.

Here's where you can vote on mine, but go ahead and check out all the videos and pick your favorite charity to vote for!
Donate as well to help decrease world suck~


(Just like a cow, giraffes chew cud. Their cheeks get really chubby when they do)

Over the Garden Wall

Well, I feel like reviewing something.
I recently saw Over the Garden Wall. I thought it would be a long, but I watched the whole thing in one work night. It's a mini-series! And appropriately enough, I watched it the week before Halloween (not knowing that's when it took place).

I thought it came out just a year or two ago, but it was four years @_@

It's the kind of show that I appreciate a lot more after I've seen it twice. The first time you see it, it's hard to tell what's going on. But that's the point. You're supposed to feel lost along with Wirt and Greg. When you see the last couple episodes, you go, "Ohhhh, that's what that was all about."
The second time you see it, you can fit everything in place.
There are a lot of little details packed into it.

They wear their costumes the whole series. If one of their hats falls off, they snatch it and put it right back on. Normally it would be odd to be so set on wearing costumes for days on end, but I guess it has to do with them being caught between worlds.
When they're on the frog ferry, Beatrice thinks Wirt will be so bad at bassoon that they'll be kicked off the boat. Poor Wirt.
(Also, I have scissors just like the ones Beatrice needs. I laughed when I saw them in the cartoon because I bought a pair in Italy.)

My main complaint was the pacing. They spent a lot of time on silly random stuff, and very little time explaining important things. Like how the beast operates. It was said a couple passing times that if you lose hope, he'll get you. But it only mentioned very briefly that if you fall ill, he can also take you. Which is what happened to Greg.

Did Greg challenge the beast to a duel? Or did he trade himself for Wirt? That's never explained, though they wasted plenty of time in that episode.
And the character animation is a bit odd.

Moving on.
The stuff I found fascinating: character motivations and choices.
After thinking about it, I like Greg and Wirt for very different reasons. The more they unfold during the series, the better you understand them.
Wirt's confidence is so bad at first. He thinks he's a freak because he has a crush on a girl and plays clarinet. He feels so inferior to Jason Funderberker that he has no idea Sara actually likes him.
And most of his other classmates seem to like him pretty well too.

Beatrice doesn't realize how bad of a person Adelaide was, but she obviously has some idea. She says she though Adelaide only wanted them for yard work, but she must know that's not true.


And while Wirt has awful confidence, Greg is sure that everything will be fine. It makes him amazingly strong. Pretty much nothing ever gets him down. Even when someone is telling him something awful, he doesn't realize it, or he says he'll fix it.
And he is amazingly self-sacrificing, in big ant little ways. Like when he wants to hunt for frogs (and has wanted to for a while) but sees Wirt freaking out and they help him instead
And of course he tries to save Wirt from the beast.
Even when he's coughing up leaves, he doesn't think it's because he's in trouble.

Heck, when Wirt finds Greg wrapped up in the tree, and there's that song playing in the background, it's so powerful.
And the final encounter with the beast.
It's interesting how the final choice about the lantern goes to the Woodsman.

I found out form the internet that the Unknown, where the boys are trapped, is basically a bridge to the afterlife. They're on the verge of choosing life or death.

There are hints dropped through the series. Like some of the graves in the cemetery are named after characters in the Unknown (I think the rich tea-growing guy is there).
And the black train song, when they jump off the train tracks (you only hear the full thing on the soundtrack).
I didn't understand the title "Over the Garden Wall" until I saw the name of the cemetery is "The Eternal Garden." So, "over the garden wall" is basically "over the cemetery wall."
But also it seems to have actually happened, since the bell is still inside the frog at the end.