The Beatles

In elementary school, me and my friends loved the Beatles.
I think the cartoon Yellow Submarine helped. We found it hilarious. But we also loved the music.

I thought Jeremy was cute with his little bunny tail. But as I'm sure you've gathered, animalish people are always a soft spot for me.

I have since seen Ringo Starr perform in Reno. And then Paul McCartney at Candlestick Park.

I currently have about eight days worth of music on my iTunes. I listen to all of it, though it takes a few months. But at the beginning of the year, I only had about five Beatles songs on my computer. I have a ton of their CDs, but they just never made it onto iTunes.
A couple months ago, I thought I'd go through those CDs and add my favorites. Maybe ten or twenty songs.
But now my iTunes Beatles playlist has 92 songs.
Oops.

Listening to this music dredges up all those old feelings from way back when.
I mentioned my Beatles project to one of my bosses, and he said that everyone's seeking nostalgia these days, which makes sense. We want to escape this insanity and go back to simpler times.
I rewatched the Beatles movies too. Or the three I like, anyway (I don't have Magical Mystery Tour - that one was too weird for me. I wonder if I should try watching it again).
The Yellow Submarine cartoon is oddly comforting. Probably seeing the power of music bring down enemy armies.

And while the Beatles' music defeats the armies, it's the lonely little Nowhere Man that defeats the enemy general. And then he's the first one to welcome him back as a friend.


Anyway, as I was working on this project, I started to think about what my favorite Beatles song is. And I found it a rather complicated question.
First I went through and read the lyrics of most of their songs. Sometimes it's hard to pick out all the words in music. I noticed some things I hadn't before. And of course, I noticed all the "adult stuff" that I knew nothing about as a kid (innocent little thing that I was, I thought they were very clean).

As a kid, I would have told you "Yellow Submarine" was my favorite because it was fun.
Then it might have been "Love me do," because I liked the harmonica part.
Then it hovered somewhere around "Let it be."

But now I think my favorite may be "Across the Universe."
Which was a surprise. I always like it, but it never used to pop out to me. At least not until I read the lyrics. There are some beautiful lines.
"Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box."
I guess it's no surprise that my taste has shifted to focus on the poetry of the song. Considering words are my ally in writing.

I won't mention all 92 of the songs on my Beatles playlist, but I'd like to call out a few more.
"Blackbird" and "Here Comes the Sun" are both very uplifting and pretty.

I love the concept of "The Fool on the Hill." Humans find it so easy to miss how special some people are. Just because someone is different, they think they're a fool. But you don't have to listen to those people. Just be yourself.

I like the concept of "Fixing a Hole" too. Making a place for yourself where you can let your mind wander.

"I'm Only Sleeping" I like because I'm not a morning person. "Please don't spoil my day, I'm miles away and after all I"m only sleeping."

In our High school yearbook, seniors were allowed to put a quote alongside their photo. I picked "I don't care too much for money because money can't by me love." A great line (the irony is not lost on me that they got tons of money).

"Paperback writer" isn't one of my top favorites, but I find it hilarious that this song is everything you should never do in a query letter. I imagine that it was intentionally written that way.

Anyway, if you're not acquainted with their music, check it out! They're classic.

Not Humble

As I watch documentaries or behind-the scenes-footage of movies and such, there's something that always makes me laugh. When they're just so pleased with themselves, and go on about how brilliant their creation is.

It may be true, but I still laugh when I hear the people involved in the company proclaiming how awesome they are.

For example,
The special features on A Hard Day's Night, talking about what a masterpiece it was.
A Beatles documentary talking about how the Yellow Submarine cartoon did things that no other cartoon had done before.
And a Marvel documentary (on Disney Plus) that talked about how awesome Marvel was.

A lot of these people weren't directly in charge of creating those "awesome projects." So it's not actually as if they're bragging about themselves. They're more bragging about their predecessors, or their higher-ups. But since they're gushing about something they're linked to, it still feels like bragging.

Which is an unfair thing for me to think. After all, I love bragging about my friends, family, and even the people (and animals) that I work with.
I try not to brag about myself, but of course I'm pleased if someone thinks I did a good job on something (then again, my dad loves to brag about himself, so that's why I try to never do so XD ).

Anyway, have some sleepy lions

Friends that Don't Know You

Whenever I think up stories with Fern, I feel like I know the characters she interacts with.
It sometimes spills over onto actors that play those characters. Especially when I've seen special features or interviews including those actors. It feels like I know them.
Even more so if the same actor ends up as multiple characters that I love. Although there are not very many actors who have made it into more than one Fern story. Oddly enough, several of the actors that do end up as multiple "Fern friends" are in the first three X-Men films. Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Magneto.


For example, Nightcrawler, played by Alan Cumming, is also the Bog Kong in "Strange Magic."

Fern didn't do much in Strange Magic. But sometimes I have fun making up interactions between her and some characters. More of a visit than actually taking part in any plot.
Sometimes I toy with Fern saying, "gee, your voice sounds really familiar." Or, "you look so much like a friend of mine!"

I recently listened to an audio book "Leviathan." I tried it because I really like another series by that author (called "Uglies").
And I was excited to find that the person reading the audio book was Alan Cumming.
Since I've seen him in so many things, and especially because he's played a couple characters that are "Fern friends," it felt like I was meeting with an old friend.
Which I immediately found hilarious, because of course that Actor doesn't have a clue who I am.

However the book was very good. I'm half way through the second book in the series. Alan Cumming does good voices. I'm endlessly entertained by his New York reporter, because I never really hear him with any kind of American accent (except in Spy Kids). But I also love the voice he does for the Count (probably my favorite). And for the lady scientist.
(I've actually heard another audio book by him, a long time ago. I think it was called the Conch Bearer)
Anyway, he has a good voice. Which I guess people have known since Black Beauty.

And I always count it as a major bonus when an actor is also a singer. Because I love to sing along!

White Hair

Back in middle school, I wrote the first story set in Magic-Earth. It was a short story that becomes an old legend in the world.

Starting from there, I built up the worlds. I haven't really thought about that story in years. Now that I am thinking about it again, most of it no longer seems relevant.
For example, that that became an old legend? The plot really doesn't make sense as fitting in that world. Even though a couple of the characters became very important.
I suppose I may revamp it at some point. I can find some way to rework it and make it fit with the more developed worlds.

Part of what I'm questioning now is the hair.
In that legend story, the main character had white hair. Wen someone develops strong magic, it turns their hair white.
But where did the white hair originally come from? Well, I wasn't very good at coming up with character designs back then. The first few stories I wrote, I just borrowed the appearances of characters from Pokemon games. First I used the main duo from Pokemon Colossuem. Them I used the boy from Gale of Darkness.
And for the legend story, I used the two avatar characters from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. The main boy happened to have white hair. So I used the white hair, and built a story around it.
But you know the funny thing? In the manga, they ended up saying that it wasn't hair. It was actually a hat. And in the remakes of those games, it is also a hat.

The white Pokémon hat is the reason I said that people with strong magic have white hair.

For several years now, I've never really built on that white hair. When I drew Evva, I even forgot to include a little streak of white in her hair to show her magic growing.
And I never really explained why it happened biologically. The body spent too much energy on magic, so if forgot to add pigment to hair? Yeah, that seems kind of irrelevant.
So I think I may just drop white hair for good.
Though for a while now, I have been toying with people using magic to dye their hair.


Magellenic penguins

Book Update

Here's my latest reading update!


Hell's Corner, by Baldacci
I think I've caught up with this series.
They're good, and tension-filled. A group of people with varying skills and backgrounds banding together to solve mysteries and crimes. I like how they collect new characters in each book, and they all come in to help in their certain areas of expertise.

Rascal, by North
This is a true story of a boy who raised a baby raccoon.
It was a good book.
But I can't help thinking of what it did in Japan. See, at the end of the book, he releases the raccoon into the woods. And apparently there's an anime of this book, which was really popular. It started a craze for pet raccoons. They are very bad pets, except when they're cute babies. So course everyone wanted to release them when they grew up, as happened in the book. So now American raccoons are wild and invasive in Japan.
Don't ever release pets. ESPECIALLY when they're not native to your area.
Sorry. Rant. Continuing on.


X-Men, by Claremont
I think I posted about a couple of these in my last book update. But I read the last one (at least the last one I have). The novelization of X-Men 3. My least favorite of the first three movies. But my favorite of the books. It was the best written. And while the movie tried to cram far too much into it, the book expanded on all those points and did the characters more justice.
They told you what Nightcrawler was up to.
Plus they mentioned Kitty's dragon Lockheed!


Rest In Pieces (and other Sneaky Pie books), by Brown
I've been listening to these audio book during my commute. They're fun! It's a mystery series, where the dog and cat help to solve the mysteries.
The biggest annoyance I have is this. They live in a small town. Small enough that everyone knows each other. And yet there's a different murder every few months. And everyone commiserates about how awful it is that this stuff is happening in their town. I live in a very populated area. I don't know anyone who's been murdered. Let alone someone every year (and it doesn't sound like she has the kind of community where murders would be common).
And there was one scene that drove my crazy. Harry, the main character, offered to help catch a potential murderer. And after antagonizing that person, Harry walks off on her own with no protection. And of course almost gets killed. Since she's friends with the police, they let her help investigate some things, but that was horrible of them to not keep her safe when they knew what she was doing. (And then a few books later, they try to talk her out of helping with investigations, and give no reason for it, when they had no problem letting her help before XD)
Okay, that's the end of my rant. I do enjoy the series. I plan to keep reading it.


Before Tomorrowland, Jensen, Case, Bird, Lindelof
I loved the concept of the movie. So I thought I'd try this book too. It was interesting to see some of the background to the world.


Total Control, Baldacci
This writer is good at suspense. But I'm stunned that the main lady didn't get into a lot more trouble at the end @_@

Searching for Bobby Fisher, Waitzkin
Wow, nothing at all like the movie. But the book is a true story about a little boy who's a genius at chess.
And a fascinating insight into Russia, which I did not expect when I picked up this book about chess. Yes, Russia is big on chess, but that's not was surprised me. When they went to play in Russia, it's like going to war. The government forces players to lose if they're not of the right race. They refuse to let good players leave the country. They're full of corrupt and frightening people and incidents. All about a freaking board game! I feel so bad for the people who are stuck in countries like that. Where you can fear for your welfare, and that of your family, because of a board game.

Still Foolin Em, Crystal
I stumbled across this by accident, so I decided to listen to the book on tape. It started off really weird, but it got a lot better after the beginning. I've only seen some of his movies, but it was fun to learn more about them.
No mention at all of Howl's Moving Castle though. TT^TT


Secretariat, Nack
It's written like a textbook, but the story of Secretariat is amazing for anyone who loves horses.

Spindle's End, McKinley
The best fantasy book I've read in a long time.
Though the author jumps back and forth with the timeline, which is confusing. And the "final battle" gets all vague and magical, so it's hard to really comprehend what's going on. I guess that was kind of the point, but it still left me feeling lost.


I Robot, Asimov
A collection of short stories from one of the classic sci-fi writers.
Many of them centered on these two poor guys whose job it is to go around and check on robots in different remote parts of the solar system. These guys can't get a break!

The Wright Brothers, McCullough
It was fascinating to learn about the Wright brothers. It was well-written and well researched.

The Perfect Horse, Letts
Another true story. This time of horses in World War II.
The Nazis wanted to start their own super-race of humans. And also of horses. So they stole some of the best horses in Europe - the amazing performing Lipizzaners and fine-bred Arabians. But when the Nazis were driven into the corner at the end of the war, all of these amazing horses were at risk of being killed. So this is the story of their capture and rescue.

Okay, I think I got the biggest of my computer problems ironed out yesterday. Let's see how it goes @_@

New Computer

I hate how computers are made intentionally to become obsolete. It's so disgustingly wasteful. The materials that go into these computers are not something humans can afford to waste. Many of them are mined in ways that are very destructive to the environment.
So I try to make my computers last as long as possible.
But my computer was starting to get left behind by the internet.
Again, intentional obsoletion.

So I got a newer computer.
I just picked it up today from getting all my data moved over.
I was kind of nervous turning it on for the first time.
And sure enough, something's wrong.
A ton of my applications aren't working at all. Word, Excel, Power Point, iphoto. And who knows what else.
And I know all of these things were working fine on the computer before it got transferred over to me.
So now I have to try to figure out how to get them all back.
I obviously can't write my freaking stories if I can't open Word.
The mac store screwed up my laptop last year, and they never did get Word back on that (or anything else they screwed up).
So I'm not having a lot of faith in them to fix the new problem they caused.

I just feel drained from thinking about it.

Also the zoo recently reopened.
Zoos are extremely expensive to run. Animals need food and medical care and enrichment even if there are no paying guests. So of course animal places are desperate to reopen to get money to take care of the animas (many of which are endangered or critically endangered).
But even with rules, limited entry, a million signs, and announcements, people still don't follow the safety rules. I'm one of the main enforcers, but all staff do what they can to make people keep their masks on and such.

Why are people so horrible at staying safe?
A couple days ago, I had to call security because a guy refused to wear his mask. He had his wife and daughter with him. But he wouldn't follow the rules, so we had to make them leave. He screwed up the day for his whole family. And he was endangering everyone in the zoo.

I will never understand humans.

Anyway, vent.
The computer problems pushed me over the edge. I got a new computer so that it would work better, not worse.

That scene I said I was adding? I expected it to be a couple paragraphs. It turned into a couple pages. Huh.
I may shorten it. Although I think it does help kind of set the scene for upcoming events.

Here's the baby mandrill with mom! When she was really little, she'd try to run off to play. And mom would pull her back, saying she's too little to play by herself.

Magic Hole

I'm trying to fill a little hole in Evva's story. Well, not so much a hole, but just a little bit of world development to fill in a blank bit of time. Evva's teacher has to help with magic problems during their travels. I'm just trying to think of a simple, interesting thing for them to do for a morning.
I've been going through my extensive story notes, to see if any ideas pop out at me. None really have so far.
I'll probably end up thinking of a problem I have to deal with at work.
Even though I spent so much time going through my notes XD


Last zoo photo dump, fora while at least!
Though I'll keep attaching some every now and then.


Death feigner beetle


Giant water beetle


Green and black dart frog


Smoky jungle frog


Hermit crab

What if Society Collapses

So, what's happening with the pandemic right now isn't what scares me the most. What really scares me is what might be coming.

Here's an example from the Tom Brown Jr. books. You can take it hypothetically - it's a relevant framework that I can use to put my thoughts into perspective.
Many decades ago, an Apache wise man said that the end of society would be signaled by three things.
The first sign was that there would be holes in the sky. And everyone was like, "that's ridiculous. How could there be holes in the sky?" But holes did appear in the sky - the holes in the ozone layer.
The second sign is that the stars will bleed. That doesn't even sound like a crazy suggestion. Because when we had those awful fires a year and a half ago, it cast weird orange glows on the sunlight. It makes sense that some kind of pollution in the air might make the stars look red.
If it happens that the stars bleed, then we have a year to get away from cities, and out into the wild.

Those bleeding stars may come in a couple years, according to Tom Brown Jr.
His books have affected me greatly. And I haven't even finished all of them yet. I've been wanting to to go one of his classes for years. I was suppose to go this summer, but the pandemic probably makes that impossible.
But this news almost makes me want to believe that he's crazy.
Of course I don't want to believe that society is ending. Although there are some parts of society that really need to be trashed. Like incompetent governments, screwy economics, prejudice, extremely wasteful consumption, etc. Our society is built on unsustainable platforms. And those have to change. If anything, I really hope that this pandemic makes society wake up to how screwed up it is. If we can come out better from all of this, that would be amazing. I keep trying to convince myself of that, so I don't fall apart. I don't know how likely it is, but if we don't learn from this, then we're probably screwed anyway.
Yeah, reforming society would be hard and painful. Big changes always are, even if they're necessary.
But if ALL of society is destroyed, we'd lose a lot more than that.
And the way things are now, it doesn't seem too outlandish that society could collapse.

So, what would I do if the stars bleed, and I have to flee to the wilderness?
Well, that's exactly the story I wrote for my grad program (without the bleeding stars). It's eerily relevant. But that story I wrote is extremely optimistic for a post-apocalyptic sort of thing. I knew that when I wrote it. That was the point. I want people to try to turn disaster into something better. But now that optimistic story of mine seems ridiculous compared to my present fears.

If I do like Ashlyn did and flee to the woods, I'm not too worried about staying alive. I think I could survive.
These are the things that I would be more worried about.

My friends and family.
Say the stars do bleed. We're all supposed to flee to the wilderness, right? What if society looks perfectly fine? How would I ever convince people to run away and live in the woods? It might work if things were already going to hell by the time the stars bleed. But also, say I took off, leaving everything behind. And then nothing bad actually happened. Would I give up an awesome job and everything? People would think I'd gone loco.
And even if I could bring my family and friends with me, could I take care of them? I think about the medications and such my dad has to take. How bad his teeth are. How could I take care of anything like that, with no doctors, dentists, medications?

I reread Fullmetal Alchemist when I was off work for quarantine. At the end of the series, they say they can't only save their friends and family. They have to save everyone.
Is there any way I could save more than just friends and family?

The next worry is animals. Could I take care of my cat and snake out in the wild? My cat can't hunt to save her life. I assume I could hunt to feed her. But what about my snake? He needs warmth and humidity and such to avoid getting sick.
And then beyond my two animals, what about the zoo animals? We have so many endangered and critically endangered species there. I would never want them to get abandoned. Plus I've gotten to know them all so well.
But it's ridiculous to think about taking them with me. The animals that know me the best - giraffes - that's just laughable. Imagine traveling across the state with five huge animals that bolt at anything? How long would they last without a warm barn to sleep in?
Even many of the smaller animals like the sifaka lemurs wouldn't make it. Sifakas have such specialized diets that I could never get the right foods to keep them alive.

And the last one is the most silly, but it's still something I think about.
I would be heartbroken to lose all of the silly useless, beautiful things. Essentially, art.
I've said it before, but there are two types of people that give me hope in the world. People that are out there doing amazing things, and artists.
Artists and art would be useless if society fell apart (for the most part, anyway).
And some art forms wouldn't even exist anymore. Movies and video games, for example.
I'd never get to watch Coco, or Princess Mononoke, or Star Wars.
I could never play Undertale or Legend of Zelda.
I could never listen to a full orchestra again. Never listen to soundtracks or Beatles songs or anything recorded.
I couldn't go out and get Japanese food or Italian food.

Tom Brown Jr. said that we should prepare for the worst, and count it as a blessing if this never happens.
So whether or not the bleeding stars ever happen, we still have so many things that we need to fix in our world. Everyone needs to take action.
At work, I talk to people about animals every day. At the very least, I can tell people amazing things about animals to help them fall in love. I also tell them about the threats the animals are facing.
But I keep feeling like I'm not doing enough. And since the zoo is pretty much closed to visitors, there's not even much I can talk to people about.

I'll keep writing.
But make plans in case things go to hell. And let's try to make things better.