Concerning Hobbits

Unethical Advertising

2011-02-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

#1)

I saw one on the drive back to Utah after Christmas break. I remember it because I was rather disgusted by it. It was just a picture of 3 round fruits that increased in size. I remember that the largest one was a watermelon. So, it would have gone something like: apple, cantaloupe, watermelon. And then it just listed the name of a place to get plastic surgery. It took a couple of seconds for the meaning to dawn on me, but when it did, I just felt kind of disgusted at the fact that this company was comparing the size of fruit to breast implants. Here I was, thinking that this sign had something to do with fruit when it was really telling women that they need to get some implants or be a sad little apple forever. And then I thought, a watermelon? Really? Now that’s getting a little ridiculous. Anyway, that ad left me feeling angry at people for objectifying women and angry that I was unable to do anything about it at the moment. Even thinking about it now makes me want to

#2)

My roommates were all sitting in the living room, so instead of bothering them with the tv, I just went into my room and started watching commercials on youtube. I watched one that was funny, but kind of offensive at the same time. It starts out with a young boy who joins what looks like a Buddhist or Tibetan colony. He trains with them until he can do all kinds of fancy tricks, but he’s not initiated into the clan until he smashes his head on a pepsi can, thus imprinting his forehead with their symbol—an open pepsi can.

Here’s the link: pepsi commerical

I found it kind of funny, but at the same time I think it could be offensive, especially to someone of that culture. Everything was fine until the very end when the guy smashes his head on the pepsi can. That’s where I thought it went too far.

#3)

There's something else that I wanted to show on here. It wasn’t an ad, but it was kind of the results of a study by USA Today. Since the term “unethical” can include the incorrect, I thought this video worked. This video is all about how much money Americans feel that they have to make to be comfortable. What it fails to do is to qualify for differences in situation. For instance, they said that the majority of Americans thought that a salary of $50,000 or more would let them live comfortably. However, I realized at the end of the video that it said nothing about the size of the families being supported by these incomes or the places where they would be living. In some states, it’s easier to live on less. In other states, especially in the East, the cost of living is just going to be higher. Also, a family of eight is much more expensive than a family of four or two. So, I feel like their statement is skewed, and it makes me skeptical of any other information that they put up on their website.

USA Today

Journal # 6

2011-01-28T12:41:00.012-07:00

This flyer is a demonstration of landscape orientation (#4), single column grid (#5), and Poor ordering of information (# 14).
All of the information is just kind of stuck in the middle; it could be much more organized.

This next image is a good example of a triple column grid (#6), numbers used for a list (# 10), and good ordering of information (#13). So, I realized after I had uploaded this image that the words were just there are as a template, hence they don't really make sense, but the order is still clear because of the large numbers and because of the way the information is separated.

This next picture is a snapshot of my newsletter that I did for class. It's a good example of poor use of white space (#1--I could have separated things much more, like the different headings and different articles.), Portrait orientation (#3), mixed column grid (# 7), Drop cap (#12--If you notice, I've done a drop cap on the beginning of the two articles.), and a watermark (#19). I love putting watermarks on my indesign stuff. I think this one can also work for #17, tabs or dividers because I have that solid divider in the middle of the page separating it into two halves.

This one is also an example of a landscape orientation, but I put it on here mainly for its good use of white space (#2--at least I think it's good.)

This page shows a header and a footer (#18) as well as a marginal header (# 9). Even though I've already put one example up of a triple column layout, this one does a good job of that too.

This image is a good example of using bullets to give information (# 11) and it is contained within a solid frame (#20)

This is a snapshot of an assignment I did a while ago. It shows the MLA format (#15), and it also shows a flush left heading, which is what #8 is asking for, I think

Yup, so there's my journal. I think I'm doing it right, but let me know if I'm totally off!

Visual Rhetoric Journal # 2

2011-01-10T16:15:00.023-07:00

20. Grouping by shape

19. Figure-ground contrast

18. Pathos: I thought this man looked so sad. Either that or he's tired, but my first thought was sad.

17. Logos: I know this doesn't present a logical argument, but when I saw it, I immediately thought of logos. When I think of logos, I think of order and symmetry. That is this picture exactly.

16. Ethos: The suit combined with the handshake makes me think of trust.

15. Tone: I wasn't quite sure what tone meant in terms of photos, but I kind of took it as feeling plus vibrancy. The colors in here are awesome, with the reds, oranges, and yellows. It also gives a feeling of excitement plus nostalgia.

14. Conciseness: I thought this one was pretty concise in that I could tell what it was right away.

13. Emphasis: I think the angle really emphasizes the height.

12. Unity: I think the lines and the bags, as well as the hoods they're wearing, really unify this picture.

11. Proportion: I love the difference in size here. Either those tires are really small or that one is just huge! But it's weird, I can't exactly tell if they're at different distances or not.

10. Point of view: This is a clock, but I think the picture's taken at a cool angle. Besides, you can see all the gears, which you normally can't see.

9. Pattern

8. Narration: This picture seems to tell the life of the tree, but it's bent and somewhat uprooted in such a grotesque way that it makes me think of pain. Interesting.

7. Details: I thought this one worked well because there is so much going on; it would be hard to describe it all.

6. Comparison and contrast. I really wanted to see a juxtaposition of height.

5. Classification or grouping into categories. I love how these look, separated into their different colors.

4. Balance: I really like the spires of this building, and even though the building is not symmetrical, the spires give it a balanced feel.

3. Adapted to a specific audience, purpose, and context. This one is supposed to be about stopping hunger.

2. Visual without text

1. Text without visual component

Sometimes you have to make change happen

2010-11-03T22:41:00.004-06:00

I can't make my mind think about school right now, so I've been taking a break today. It's a strange feeling though, and I can't quite put my finger on it. It's like I'm ready for something, and whatever it is that should be here is late. I suppose you could say it's a kind of senior-itis. I've only got six more classes to take, really, until I'm ready to graduate. I've been thinking about adding on another minor, but that's beside the point.

Another word might be restless. Don't get me wrong, I love college. But it's different now. Have you ever been going on with your life and then a bunch of things change all at once? Not in a bad way, but people just move on and they go their different ways? And you feel a little like the tortoise, but then you wonder if you're actually the hare and it's you leaving all of them behind, making all of this change. Today's blog is going to be a random mish-mash of whatever's in my head because I can never make sense of anything until I write it all down.

So, let's start from the beginning of my thoughts. I usually feel pretty content with my state of life. It doesn't take too much to make me happy. As long as I can eat a sandwich sometime during the day, have clothes to wear (that are comfortable), and a bed to sleep in with some fuzzy blankets, I'm pretty happy. Oh, I like having my guitar there too. There's something different about this year though, and it just feels like I'm almost on the verge of something. Maybe it's that I went to Wales and England and really, really want to go back. Maybe it's because some of my best friends are now gone on missions for a year and a half. Maybe it's because I'm about to graduate and don't know what I'm quite going to do with my life. Maybe it's something else entirely, and maybe it's all of those combined.

I'm moving into a new apartment this next semester, or at least I will be as long as I can sell my contract. I've been living in the same apartment for over a year now, and now it's filled with different people. Don't get me wrong. I like these people, and I would love to be their roommate for another semester, but it's just weird being in the same apartment with different people. While I was in the UK, I lived on Penny Lane (it was actually Pen-Y-Lan, but we called it Penny Lane) in a very interesting building. But I had my own room, my own writing desk, and my very own view. I'm going to see if maybe I just need more space than I have now. It is three to a room where I live, but the rent is so cheap!

Also, I've been pretty content with my English major. In fact, I don't think there is another major that would have made me any happier. That's good. It means I did, in fact, choose the right major. But I think I've been planning my life too much. I tell myself, okay I'll either go to graduate school, get a job as an editor somewhere, or have a job on the side and try to write. But I don't know if I'd really be satisfied with those. And I thought back on the college that I've done and wondered, is there anything that I will regret not doing while I'm here?

I'm a little afraid of my answer because there is something. I always feel a little sheepish telling people what I want to do and dream of doing because I always think it sounds silly. But whatever. But when I was little I desperately wanted to be an actress. I remember daydreaming about that so many times in school. I was in a couple of plays growing up, and in my senior year of high school I was one of the Emcees for our Variety show. I did a semester of drama in high school, but I thought the class and the teacher were kind of weird, so I got out and did choir. I'm very glad that I did choir though. I think that really was where I learned to let my voice grow. one of my favorite things is playing the guitar and singing a song, so I'm glad I can do it to my own satisfaction. But I haven't done anything much with theater since I graduated high school. I mean, I've always enjoyed doing impersonations of people, my friends can tell you that, but nothing really on a stage. I'm pretty sure that I would regret it if I didn't at least explore some options in theater. Acting is fun, but I also want to experiment with screenwriting and play writing.

I guess I just don't want to tie myself down to something that I'm not sure will make me happy all the way. I don't know that I want to have my life planned out. I mean, how exciting would it be to just go somewhere and see what happens? I could go to England, or I could just go somewhere new and see where my feet take me, see what opportunities come. I kind of want to do something unexpected. And I really want to see other places. I've traveled a lot within the U.S., but there's a whole world out there. The only thing is that you have to have money to travel. Meh, I'll worry about that later. Right now, I want to think that I can go anywhere and do something exciting that I hadn't thought of before.

For instance, I speak Italian! Surprise! Well, most of you probably knew that. But what if I found some way to work in Italy and learn my Italian really well? I've been forgetting it, and it's kind of sad. I don't know, but I think I feel a little less restless now. It's time to think about things I haven't thought of before :)

It's definitely Fall

2010-10-09T10:39:00.003-06:00

Sooo...I guess it's been a long time since I've posted on here. Life's been busy--nice but busy. This summer, I went on a study abroad to Wales. It was pretty sweet, and you can check out my other blog documenting my experiences over there. I only put up a grand total of two blogs on there, but that's better than none, eh?

School's great this semester. I'm taking three classes for my editing minor, and they all kind of overlap, which is nice. What I learn in one helps with the other two, so it's awesome. I'm also taking a Romantic poetry class. We spent the first couple of weeks on William Blake, and now we're onto Wordsworth. And then I've got one religion class that focuses on marriage and family relations, and it's actually very interesting. I think this is the first semester that I haven't felt too busy. My classes keep me occupied, but they don't overwhelm me. I have plenty of time to go to Leading Edge every week.

Oh, I did apply for an internship with the Church Office Building. I'm hoping to work with one of the Church Magazines, but we'll see what happens. I sent in the online application first, and they asked if they could see a portfolio. After many, many hours of copying, hole-punching, and inserting, I had my portfolio of about 170 pages. I know! I'm not sure if that's a typical size for a portfolio, but it felt rather large to me. The main reason for its size is that most of my editing experience has come from Leading Edge, and that means short stories. In most portfolios, they want a "before" and an "after" of the piece that was edited. I think I had one story that was about 25 pages, so that meant that it was 50 pages in my portfolio for that one story. But anyway, It would be cool if I got the internship. I wouldn't be crushed if I didn't get it because I'll have more opportunities to apply in the future, but I would definitely jump at the opportunity if it came my way.

All right, I think I'm going to go and read some slush!

Spring Makes Everything Nicer

2010-04-13T12:35:00.002-06:00

We're onto the last day of school. I actually had my last day yesterday since I don't have any classes on Tuesdays. That just leaves reading days and finals, woot!

I didn't write my 2,000 words for last week in my novel, but I did write an extremely awesome paper. That last sentence, as some of my roommates would say, is verifiable proof that I have no life. Whatever, it's a freakin' awesome paper. 10 pages comparing Martin Dressler: the Tale of an American Dreamer with motifs and archetypes from myths, legends, and folktales. And that's why I'm going to get a degree in folklore: I get super excited and nerdy about it.

I realized that just about every research paper I write ends up going back to the Trickster archetype. Last semester, my research paper for my Shakespeare class was all about Iago in Othello and the role of the Trickster. I ended up talking for a page or two about Tricksters in Martin Dressler. If anyone's just dying to know what I'm talking about when I say "the Trickster archetype," look up anything by Carl Jung. He wrote some amazing stuff on the collective unconscious; a lot of psychoanalytical stuff. Anyway, I love reading just about anything that he's written. Tricksters represent, a lot of the time, brain over brawn. They're all over in fairy tales and are rather popular in modern times as well: The Joker, Bugs Bunny, Bart Simpson, Robin Hood, etc.

Like I said, the paper is awesome.

Also, have any of you seen the movie The Illusionist? That movie was based on a book written by Steven Millhauser, the same guy who wrote Martin Dressler. If anyone's looking for an interesting read, I would definitely recommend it. Millhauser's books seem to have a theme of taking things to an obsession. In The Illusionist, a magician wants to literally disappear. In Martin Dressler, a businessman wants to create a new way of life. It's a classic American novel with striking comments on what it means to have a dream, especially in America. All of the books we read in my American Novel class were incredibly insightful, and I'd recommend them to anybody.

Here's the list:
Martin Dressler:the Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
My Antonia by Willa Cather
The Sun also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
City of Glass by Paul Auster
The Things They Carried by Tim O'brien

Read 'em!

And I'm taking a Romantic literature class in the spring (romantic in the literary sense, so it's not a class about romance novels or anything). We're going to read Frankenstein (which I'm super excited about) as well as Emma and some other stuff.

Anyway, I'd better get writing my 2,000 words for this week. Ciao!

Updatage!

2010-03-24T15:16:00.003-06:00

I'm getting ready to head up to my Welsh Study Abroad Prep class, but I was feeling like it would be fun to put a little update on here. The Welsh prep is going well. Last class period we learned all about the Anglo-Saxons, and this class period ought to be on the Early Middle Ages. We usually get to watch a cool, historical movie in each class period.

As far as my story goes, it's coming along. I now have about 20,000-22,000 words, so I'm about as far as I got on Shards of Night. Still no name for this one though. It's cool to think that I've written as many words in three months or so as I did in the past 6-8 months-ish before that. I don't remember exactly when I started working on Shards of Night, but it's been a while. Now that I've gotten into the habit of writing at least 2,000 words a week, I would love to double that or something. I may have to wait until my schedule clears up a bit in the spring to do that, but it would be totally awesome.

And I probably won't finish my story before June or July or whenever it was that I wanted to have it done by. In another three months, if my pace is the same, I'll have about 40,000 words total. That's a good chunk, but not enough to have it finished. And then I'll have to do rewrites. I'm not sure how many words this thing is going to be, but 40,000 is too low. I think 90,000-ish would be a good number to shoot for, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. It may only be 70,000 or so.

Oh, I turned 21, thank you very much. I now need a new driver's license, and it won't say "under 21" in huge, red letters anymore. Did I go out and get wasted? Well, the short answer is no, and the long answer is, really, no. The closest thing I've ever come to drunkenness is the drunk goggles they let you wear in ninth grade or so. You put them on and they're supposed to make everything disoriented, like you're drunk and then you walk through a little obstacle course. Anyway, I go to BYU, basically the #1 stone cold sober university, and I like it that way. Well, I'd better look over my reading for class. Peace out--

Great semester so far

2010-02-27T18:16:00.007-07:00

I thought a little update here would be good since it's been a while. I've been pretty busy with school and with writing. My workload is much lighter than it was last semester, though, and I am so glad for it. I'm auditing Brandon Sanderson's creative writing class at BYU, and it's got to be the best class ever. The atmosphere is very chill and relaxed, not to mention that I get to hear advice and writing tips from Brandon Sanderson. Even though I'm not getting a grade for this class, it's the one for which I consistently get all of my work done. This means writing 2,000 words each week and posting them on livejournal.com. I'm in a writing group of auditors, there are five of us in the group, but only three or four submit. It's really great though. We meet every Thursday after class and give feedback on the week's submissions. I can't focus very well on my homework right now, so I think I might go on and write my 2,000 words to post on Monday pretty soon. This means that I'll have over 16,000 words after I write the latest 2,000.

My story is a completely new idea, and I have to say that I really like it. Yeah, I haven't worked very much at all on my book that I started last year. The progress bar, as you may have noticed, has been in the same spot for a very long time. But I feel that my current project is coming along much better than Shards of Night. I'm learning much more about my own writing style and how I write best. So, after I finish this one up, I'll definitely return to Shards of Night to try to fix it up and finish it.

I really want to see if I can finish my current project before the semester ends. That would be pretty sweet. I want to try sending it out to an agent or editor as soon as I can. Of course, I want to have a rewrite or two done on it before it goes out there. I went to Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers last Spring at BYU, and the editors there said that if we sent them submissions, they would be moved to the top of the slush pile, or something like that. Basically, I'd get a response sooner than I would otherwise. The thing is, the deadline for this was a year after the conference, which would be sometime in June. This is one reason why I'm wanting to finish the book, edit it, and send it in before then. Chances are that it will only yield a rejection letter, but whatev.

If anyone is interested in looking at what I've got, feel free to ask about my livejournal account. Of course, this blog is mostly just me rambling and few (if any) people reading it, but you never know. My current project doesn't have a name yet. I have to name it something cool, and I don't want the name to change my story. I'll probably name it after I finish it, or when I get a good idea. It's a fairy tale spin-off. I was tired of hearing this fairy tale told the same way over and over, just with different people and whatnot. So, I have done my best (or worst. hehe) to change the story drastically. I can't wait to see how it all works out.

I really like how I'm writing this story as well, meaning how I plan and stuff. So, I have a general plot floating around. I know basically how it will end and how it begins. I'm just getting into the juicy mystery stuff that I've got planned and am super excited. But anyway, I haven't done any extensive outlining. I just have some basic points outlined. And then, for each scene, I think for a couple of minutes before I write. I come up with at least two things that need to happen in this scene, and then I leave it up to my brain to fill in the rest. It's a nice mix between outlining and discovery writing for me, and I like it a lot. My writing group helps a lot too. Man, writing is just awesome.

Oh, good news, I am actually going to Wales this summer! Yay! This means that I will actually get to see different castles and whatnot. This is great because I definitely need to see one if I'm going to write about one. One thing that my writing group has said is that I have great pacing, but then I'm definitely lacking in detail. I think I focus so much on the interactions between people that it's weird for me to include too much description of the physical surroundings. Anyway, I'm super-duper stoked about Wales.

And now I have to do something. Why must we have midterms? Hehe, Brandon Sanderson's class doesn't have midterms, which does contribute to my happiness. I can't say the same for my other classes.

Time for one more

2009-12-31T16:15:00.003-07:00

Yeah, it's been a couple of months, but I figured I might as well squeeze in one last post for the year 2009.

I'm getting close to the end of my Christmas break. BYU gives us about two weeks, which seems short, but we finish the semester in the middle of April, so I don't complain. I have managed to read almost six books in my days of relaxation at home. They are: I Am Not a Serial Killer, In the Company of Angels, The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Dragons of the Hourglass Mage. All of them are really great. I can't get over the Hunger Games! And I can't believe that I'm going to have to wait until this coming summer to read the last book of the series! At least school will keep me busy until then.

So, let's get into the groove of the New Year. Anybody up for some New Year's Resolutions? I think I forget them by the end of the year, but whatever.
First of all, I'm going to finish writing that stinking book. If I hadn't been such a genius and forgotten my power cord for my computer, I would have probably done less reading and more writing. It was probably a good thing for me to spend less time on my computer. But yes, I'm definitely going to finish the book even if it's terrible. And I want to be done with it by May at the latest.
That's really the only thing that I'm itching to get done. Oh, I also want to start entering some writing contests. We'll see how that goes.

Happy New Year!

Random Bits

2009-10-21T22:44:00.002-06:00

I'm so proud of myself, I went to all my classes today! I know, it's really not that hard to go to all of your classes, but I just think about how it would be so much easier if I skipped one and took a nap. I love naps! So, it was a great accomplishment to not give in to my desire for sleep.

I think I'm going to Wales next summer. I went to an information meeting last night which was so cool. It did mean that I had to miss Leading Edge, but I'll go to Leading Edge a ton before I ever go to Wales. And P.S. I love You is currently one of my favorite movies. I love the part when they get to Ireland. Basically, I watch it for that, but the other stuff's good too.

Also, I bought my first bit of eggnog a few days ago. That stuff only comes around from now until Christmas time, so I have to take advantage while I can. It's pretty good. And that's about all of my news at this moment.

Rain, Rain, Please Stay

2009-10-14T14:01:00.003-06:00

Okay, something major happened today: I started enjoying my Shakespeare class. It's not that I didn't enjoy it before, it was just challenging. But now we're brainstorming about research topics, and I'm having a really great time. So, my Shakespeare class is no longer the bane of my fall semester. I suppose I'll have to think of something else to substitute for it.

I tried looking for something to do with Shakespeare and soccer. There are some articles that I found that I want to look at. Tonight, I'm going to look at Shakespeare and science fiction or fantasy, something Lord of the Rings-esque. I can write my research paper on whatever I can find that works, so who knows.

And I love rain. I heard some people complaining about the rain, but really it's not that bad. I could see myself living somewhere where it's rainy. It's just so cozy. I don't know. Maybe it's because I grew up in mostly dry areas. I was born in Colorado, but I don't remember too much about it. Then we lived in El Paso, Texas, which is probably one of the hottest places ever. Our grass never grew, and our front yard was lava rocks. Now my family lives in Boise, which is still classified as a desert because it gets less than 10 inches of rain a year. I think it's still a pretty place though. Maybe I'll see how I like a year in a rainy place. Of course, first I must finish up my time here in college in Provo. It's a nice place, although I worry about the safety of pedestrians. I suppose it's about the same for most college towns.

Snowman

2009-10-07T19:18:00.002-06:00

I wrote another song last night. First I wrote a ten page paper though, which was actually one of the funnest papers I've ever written. It was for my Myth, Legend, and Folktales class. Man, I love that class! I had to write a book article outlining some of the major plot points that corresponded with the Hero's Cycle in any book of my choice. I chose Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn: The Final Empire. I think the Mistborn trilogy, even though I'm still trying to finish up the last book, has actually helped me understand another level of folklore. It's one thing to read about folklore and recognize it in your everyday life, but it's something special to watch the process unfold as it does in the Mistborn books.

So, I got to write ten pages on that. It didn't take me very long. As nerdy as it sounds, writing about Brandon Sanderson's book made me really excited to go home and do something. There's something about myth, legend, folktales, and fantasy in general that just gets me so excited. I definitely chose the right major.

Anyway, I was pretty hyper when I got home at 11 last night, but I wanted to write a song. So I did. It's about a snowman. I like it a lot. I think it might be my favorite of all the songs I've written so far. And now, I'm still feeling that jittery excitement, so I think I'l use it to get some writing done.

Per-maybe-haps...

2009-10-03T13:42:00.002-06:00

I set a goal for how many words I wanted to write per day this week. Yeah, it totally did not happen. I had the bar set at 1500, but maybe since it's midterm time, I'll take it down a notch. I think today's the first day this week that I really have some time to myself. Crazy.

I don't know if this a good thing or a bad thing for my writing, but I've been writing some songs. My friends want me to put them up on youtube, and I might. I don't think I'd ever do anything professionally with music unless some opportunity arose, but I have a lot of fun. I actually wrote a song about one of my characters, except it's been like 2 months and I haven't finished it. Part of that is that I haven't finished the book, and I don't quite know how this guy's story turns out. But hopefully I'll be able to write at least some words this week, if only like ten, and then before you know it, I'll figure out how to end the song.

Oh wait, I lied. I did write a little bit. There's a flash fiction contest by the word of mouth podcast. It has to be under 100 words (including the title) and include character, conflict, and resolution. I wrote out some funny ones, and I think I might send one in. You never know. I believe the deadline for those is October 11th. I've got to go for now, but I'll come back and add in the link in case anyone is interested.

At Long Last

2009-09-30T20:20:00.002-06:00

I have some great news! One of my poems, called "Broken Glass," has been accepted by Leading Edge, a science fiction and fantasy magazine run by BYU students and editors. It was kind of a sudden thing. At the beginning of September, I became the Poetry Director at Leading Edge. The previous Poetry Director has been promoted. So, I went through the poetry binder and did a lot of sorting and mailing and stuff. Our next issue is set to be out sometime soon, and I soon discovered that we were lacking in the poetry area. So, I decided to write a poem of my own just to see how it would do. I don't write much poetry now. I know at the beginning of my blog I have some poems that I wrote just when I was bored or for a class. But I concentrate most of my writing time on stories.

I had some cool ideas running around in my head that night, which was lucky, and then I took my poem to Leading Edge to see what the reaction would be. I got one of everything, a pass, a reject, and a rewrite. So, I rewrote it and brought it back. No, I didn't accept it because I wrote it. I accepted it because other editors read over my poem and said that it was good. It wouldn't have been fair if I had done things that way.

But as it is, my poem is going to come out in this next issue of Leading Edge! If you would like to purchase a copy of Leading Edge or submit a story or poem, please go to the website and follow the instructions.

It's a little weird thinking that I wrote something that's going to be published. I mean, it is just a little poem that I wrote, but everyone has to start somewhere right? Hopefully this is just the first step. Good luck to all of you writers out there! And feel free to submit your works to Leading Edge as long as they follow the guidelines. We always enjoy reading a good story or poem.

Movies and Belly Flops

2009-09-27T12:01:00.003-06:00

Pan's Labyrinth is an amazing movie! I saw it at BYU's International Cinema. The movies that they show are free and usually quite neat. Foreign movies are just cool. I was so excited that they showed Pan's Labyrinth though because it's normally rated R. With International Cinema, they edit out the super graphic or sexual scenes, and there were a few scenes that you could tell they'd skipped over something. But that movie is amazing!

I'm thinking about being the creepy guy with his eyes in his hands for Halloween. Well, actually I'm just imagining it. I probably won't do it, but it's fun to imagine. Sometimes, I walk around my apartment like him, with my hands on my forehead like I'm after my roommates. Most of them have never seen it, so they just give me funny looks. I have a good time though.

Yesterday, I went to this cool place out in the middle of nowhere. I don't even know how my friends discovered it. There's this little lake out somewhere south of Provo with a bunch of rope swings. Man, that water was cold! But swinging off the swings was fun. I had to work on my technique. The littlest one was fine, but there was this bigger one I went off of and I kept belly flopping. It was from a pretty good distance too, so needless to say, my legs and stomach were rather red. But I realized after the second flop how to stop myself from flopping. It was really simple actually. I was just letting go with one hand first and then the other. What I needed to do was let go with both at the same time. And that was the end of the belly flopping. Still, I now have a glorious bruise on the inside of one of my thighs. It more like a series of bruises that come together to form one nice big one. It's maybe a little bigger than the length of my hand. Yup. But if I hadn't gotten those bruises, I wouldn't have had any fun. and my friends got a video of me belly flopping. I think you can check it out on facebook if you want.

Because I did all of this cool stuff in the past two days (Pan's Labyrinth, Belly Flopping, and I also went to my brother's concert with my dad) that means I have done none of my homework. We'll see how this bodes for my Astronomy test that I have to take this next week. And I need to do 20 pages of Astronomy homework! It's times like these that I wonder why I put myself through this misery that we call school. It's usually not a misery for me, but sometimes I just stop and go, "Why did I do this, willingly?" But I only have two years to go (including this one) max. If I decide not to do an editing minor, I can graduate after next fall. I wonder how much I'll have written on stories by then. I hope to finish my novel by the end of this year. Actually, it'd be sweet if I could finish it in one month or two. I think I'll do the editing minor since that, combined with my Leading Edge experience, could perhaps help me get some kind of job in that area after college. But my main focus is writing.

Anyway, I'm feeling hungry, and my feet are cold. I think I will put on some socks and eat some food!!

And so it begins...

2009-09-07T11:51:00.003-06:00

Well, the new semester is definitely under way, at least for most people. I'm actually pretty excited. It ought to be a fun semester. And I realized that I enjoy being busy and having stuff to do, so I like having assignments to do and books to read.

Now, I know my progress bar for my book hasn't moved up much in a while, but I have my reasons. I'm not sure if it's due to lack of sufficient outlining or if it's just because stories seem to take you in different directions than you might have expected, but I have been trying to do a bunch of rewriting. I know, people say that you shouldn't rewrite when you are still writing the book. This isn't that kind of rewriting though. This is the type where something was missing, so I put it in there. Only now I have to rewrite the beginning so that it fits. That's basically where I am. I'm making the story much cooler and more interesting. I want to finish it sometime soon so that I can fix it up a bit and then send it in.

Yup, that's about all I have to report. Good luck with whatever you all have going on.

Readings

2009-08-08T22:35:00.002-06:00

For my reading this week, I checked out http://blog.art21.org/ to see what I could find. They had a link to something about film, so I checked it out.

So, it turns out that the blog wasn't exactly about film, but it was related to film. The blog was mostly about power, but the people who made the little film about it wrote a little about their own experiences making their first film of interviews. They mentioned how some things seemed awkward and it took a lot of patience from the interviewers and the interviewees to get the movie done and in good quality. Isn't it interesting how we think something will be a piece of cake, and then we actually do it and discover that it takes a lot more than work than we thought? I know that's happened to me before. But I think they did a great job making the little clip about power.

I thought the content of the clip was interesting. It was about a teacher who was having his students draw pictures about power, leading up to a painting at the end. People have such different views of power. The students made drawings about parents, guns, lightning, wisdom, etc. It was neat to see these pictures develop into ideas for paintings. A lot of the paintings looked really good; I was surprised. I'm not a very good painter, so I that's probably why I was surprised. A lot of them did really interesting things with lines and colors to add different effects to their perceptions of power.

I think the point behind it all was to show the students what kind of power they can have with their artwork. A lot of them really got to explore their minds in search of what they think of as powerful and how to portray that power. But a lot of them were surprised at how well their own paintings turned out. It makes sense though, that they would look better than perhaps something just painted without any forethought. Once again, I'll bring in a comparison with writing. If you make a couple of drafts of a paper, I think you can surprise yourself with how well it actually turns out. Each draft gets better and more definitive. The same happened with these students and their artwork. I think the teacher was showing them just how well they can do, what kind of power they can wield, when it comes to their own art.

Boots to the Moon

2009-08-08T21:47:00.003-06:00

My last cultural event was a musical event. I tried to go to something of a more classical nature, but was unable to do so. But I think that the show I did see had some really interesting aspects to it that I wouldn't have seen at a different type of concert. I saw the band Boots to the Moon on Friday night. Normally, I would have said that going to a concert at The Velour would probably not be appropriate for the type of musical analysis that we need to do for Humanities 101, but this one was a bit different.

As I was trying to figure out what performance I could go and see this week, I came across this article in the Daily Herald about Boots to the Moon. I've actually seen this artist perform before, and I have to say that it was one of my favorite local performances that I've been to. Also, Jack Purcells is a really nice guy. When I heard him perform before, I had to buy his CD. I only had $9 instead of the $10 that I needed to buy a CD. He was so nice and friendly; he let me buy his CD with just the $9.

In the article, they mention something about his performances that I find very intriguing. He wears a mask at each performance. I'm not sure how many masks he has, but I'm pretty sure he has a lot of them. I think this is an interesting twist on performing worth discussing later on.

So, feeling justified, I went to the concert on Friday. Two other guys played before him, and they were both really good as well. But I was really excited to watch Boots to the Moon. He started off with a new song that they talk about in the article in the Daily Herald. They say that it's eleven minutes long, but I'm wondering if it's longer than that. It was an amazing song though! One of the things that I remember about his performance that I saw before this one was that the music was loud, but not abrasive and rough like heavy metal. It's hard to describe, but it's a very smooth sound.

Sure enough, in this performance, he did the same thing. I really really like how it sounds. I think part of why I like it so much is because (we talked about this in class) the sound just surrounds you and envelops your brain. I can't remember much of the specifics of the brain and music, but I think it has a lot to do with why I like his music.

This eleven minute song was great! He had another guy playing guitar and keyboard with him. They have this special effect that they do with the sound. They make it echo-like, so that it's always echoing back whatever he sings into it. This is going to sound a little weird, maybe, but this is honestly what I was thinking about while Boots to the Moon was playing that first song. It reminded me of the universe. Just the volume and timbre combined with the echo effect made me feel like I was in some huge, vast area, like somewhere out in space. Even the lighting made me think of the universe. I think it might be because of the disco globe combined with how dark it was on stage. For the most part of the song, just two red lights were shining from behind the performers. It was like watching the stars, really. I know it might sound a little strange, but if any of you were to go to a live performance of his, I think it might make more sense.

And now, onto the mask. I had a little trouble figuring out what his mask was last night. At first I though it was a dark, phantom-of-the-opera type mask. Then I thought maybe it was an animal of some kind. I came to the conclusion that it was just a dark, kind of creepy face mask. The light stayed fairly low on stage, so it was difficult to see what the mask was.

But I was wondering about the nature of wearing a mask on stage in a concert. What is the purpose of doing it? I don't think he's trying to hide, or else he wouldn't be performing. What are the purposes of masks? Well, besides hiding, there's changing, covering, deceiving, showing emotion, hiding emotion...can anyone think of any others?

I really like that Boots to the Moon wears a mask when he performs. It's like watching more than just a concert.

Class

2009-08-08T21:23:00.003-06:00

I have been a long-time film lover, so I was very excited when we started learning about film. I knew that different shots were made for different reasons, but I'm sure I couldn't have told you what all of those reasons were. Now, however, I know a bit more about because of the stuff we talked about in class.

It's interesting how the different angles of a camera or different focuses can change the tone of the scene or the entire film. I hope I don't have to experience passing out (I haven't passed out yet) but I know now what it might feel like and look like by the skewed angle of the camera that we saw in the film A Beautiful Mind. Also, it was interesting to realize that certain shots can give the audience clues about what will happen or what the characters are really like. For instance, in the clip from The Omen that we saw, we may not have seen the nurse's actual power, but we know that it's there. If I had just heard the dialogue, I would have assumed that it was the mother who had the upper-hand in things. However, since we watched the scene, we know from the tilt of the camera, that the nurse will have a larger part to play than just being a meek nurse. I got the impression that another conflict would arise between the mother and the nurse over the child, and next time the nurse would not shy back.

Now I kind of want to go back through the movies that I own and look for any clues that I can pick up in the cinematography that I never noticed before. This is really exciting because I love when I pick up on some hidden clue that has an important meaning. Also, I know more about books than I do about movies. I get really excited when I start noticing patterns in a novel or when the author makes a casual reference to something that seems unconnected with the surrounding action. The alarm goes off in my brain, and I think, "Aha! That's important later on!"
I want to look through my movies and see if I can find any of those little tidbits that I may have missed. My family is really into murder mysteries. Maybe that's why I love little clues so much.

One thing that I never really noticed before is the difference between a medium shot and a shot where we see the entire bodies of the actors. I knew, obviously, that one shot is farther away than the other one, but I didn't know about the differences in purpose. The same goes for the close-up shot. Now I know that movies with a lot of close-ups have a lot to do with the emotional reactions of each character.

Also, it is interesting to realize the differences in movies like Pride and Prejudice vs The Bourne Identity. The duration of a scene varies depending on mood. I like watching Pride and Prejudice when I just want a relaxing movie that lets my mind think about what's going on. It's a nice one to watch late at night and maybe even fall asleep to. I also like action movies, but I'll watch them when I'm in the mood for some good action. The scenes go faster it seems, or they move at a faster pace with quick cuts here and there.

You know what's cool? The same pattern is evident in books. It only makes sense, I suppose. I learned in one of my creative writing classes that once the climax of the book is approaching, you want to make the reader feel like they are turning the pages more quickly. Just like in a movie, where the scenes might become shorter, the chapters might become shorter or the author might use up less space with narration and more space with dialogue. It's interesting to figure out what kinds of tricks films and books use to captivate their audiences.

Cinderella

2009-08-08T20:58:00.002-06:00

I went to the Valley Center Theater in Lindon, UT on Monday to watch a production of the play Cinderella. The first thing that I noticed when I walked in (before the play started) was the general layout of the theater. It's in the arena-type layout, with the stage surrounded on its four sides by seats. I'd never been to a play in this kind of layout, so I was interested to see how that would affect the play. Also, we were really close to the actors, and I mean really close. It's not that big of a theater, and basically where the seats begin is where the stage ends.

I must say that the lady who played Cinderella had a really great voice. She even looked like I would imagine Cinderella to look. The play turned out to be a musical, and most of the songs were sung by Cinderella. It was a very quaint little play, very family friendly. In fact, a lot of families were there. With the stage so close, the actors actually interacted with some of the audience members, which was fun. In the beginning, when Cinderella was walking around with a basket of flowers, she gave one to each of the young girls on the front rows. And later on, when they were trying to find Cinderella by having everyone try on the slipper, they went out into the crowd and had some of the girls try it on. I wasn't sure exactly how a play should be performed with the audience on all sides, but they used it to their advantage. With people on all sides, they could move all around the stage so that everyone could see. Also, involving the audience is a great idea. I think that for a lot of things, like books, movies, plays, etc., in order to like them enough to watch them or read them again, we have to make a connection with them. Involving the audience really builds that connection. Some of those little girls looked like they were having so much fun watching Cinderella, especially the ones who received flowers.

It was really cute, one little girl in the front row in front of me kept waving at Cinderella during the play. And during some of the scenes, since the actors are basically standing right in front of you, this little girl was standing at her chair as well. She looked like she really wanted to be a part of the play. I can guarantee that some of those girls will want to come back sometime for another play because they had so much fun.

I also liked the lighting. It was interesting to watch scene changes because they had to turn out all of the lights on the stage, so you could see dark outlines of people and things moving around, and then when the scene began, they turned on the lights again. The lighting was nice and mellow, which as nice since they had to turn it on and off during scene changes. It didn't hurt my eyes or anything, like other lights sometimes do after I've been in the dark for a few minutes.

Altogether, it was a nice little play. It was entertaining and easy to follow, even for children. It's definitely a family-friendly theater, and I wouldn't mind going there again.

Folk Dance

2009-08-01T20:51:00.003-06:00

This week, I went to the Springville Folk dancing Festival. I really enjoyed it. I have always loved watching Mexican dances, and that was one of the first dances performed. I used to live in El Paso, Texas. It's right on the border between the USA and Mexico. I was rather young when we lived there, but one of the things I remember about living there was the dances. I loved going to see the traditional dances performed. I love the colors of the dresses that the ladies wear. They are all so colorful, and then they grab the ends of their skirts (which are very long) and kind of flap them in the air. It looks really cool.

I also enjoyed the Asian dances. I've never seen a Korean or Chinese dance before. It was interesting to hear the differences in the music and to see the differences with their movements. I noticed that with the Chinese dancers, it was all about little, precise movements. They grouped together and, depending on the little movements they did, it changed the whole layout of the group.

I also remember the Hungarian dance very well. I really liked how the guys all wore these huge black boots. They would stomp all the time and slap their boots. I ran into one of my friends who happens to be a dance major at BYU. She was there as an interpreter for the Polish dancers because she's from Poland. But she was telling me that the Hungarian dance was basically all improvisation. They just took turns doing their own improvisational things, which I think is really cool.

The clogging was fun. All of the cloggers were really good. And then, it was so cute, near the end of the performance, two little kids came out on stage to clog. My friend (the dance major; her name is Aleks) told me that two of the dancers were married to each other, and these were two of their kids. There was a little boy and a little girl. They were absolutely adorable, and they were also quite good at clogging.

One of my favorite dances was the Polynesian one. Their movements are so relaxed and elegant. A lot of it reminded me of the ocean, which makes sense since they probably live by the ocean. But there was one part where they made all of us ladies stand up and dance along with a Polynesian girl. It was really fun, and yes, I did dance. I think that if I could learn any dance, it would be a Polynesia one. Their attitude seems so laid-back and carefree.

And of course I have to mention the Polish dances because Aleks was with me, and she knows all about Polish dance. One thing that I thought was interesting that she told me is that singing and dancing, for the Polish people, are inseparable. She said this because they started singing America the Beautiful at the very end. Since we were outside, the microphones couldn't pick up all of the sound, so we didn't hear the full effect of their voices. But Aleks told me that in a closed venue, their voices are very powerful.

I think it's so interesting to see the ways different cultures dance. It varies with music, attitude, movement, costume, and much more. I think one of the reasons that I like going to these types of shows is that it takes me somewhere else. After a whole summer spent in Provo, Utah, you get a little bit of the cabin fever. Going to that performance was great. When each group was performing, a little part of me felt like I was in Mexico or at the beach. It was a very nice reprieve from my daily routine.

Theatre of the Absurd

2009-08-01T20:16:00.003-06:00

We read a play in my English class during my senior year of high school. It was a modern play, and I loved it! So, I wanted to look up what category that play fell under, and I came up with Absurdism. The play is called Waiting for Godot.

Before I go into any details of the play, I'll give a brief history of Absurdism. Basically, absurdism was a response to WWII. It combined philosophy and dramatic elements that presented a world that didn't make sense and was absurd. Waiting for Godot is perhaps one of the most well-known of the Absurd plays. It was written by Samuel Beckett. If you click on the link above, it'll take you to a page where you can see some biographical information about Beckett. Apparently, he started writing when he met James Joyce, who was an amazing writer by the way. According to this website, many of the conversations between the two were conducted in silence.

Waiting for Godot follows the cyclical pattern that seems to be evident in most Absurd plays. The characters end up right where they started, showing a lack of human progression. It's about these two characters who are waiting for Godot, and that's really all they do.Also, much of the dialogue doesn't make sense. Here's an example or two:

VLADIMIR I thought it was he.
ESTRAGON Who?...
VLADIMIR Godot.
ESTRAGON Pah! The wind in the reeds.
VLADIMIR I could have sworn I heard shouts.
ESTRAGON And why would he shout?
VLADIMIR At his horse. Silence.
ESTRAGON (violently) I'm hungry!
VLADIMIR Do you want a carrot? (1.245-53)

ESTRAGON Why doesn't he put down his bags?
POZZO ... I too would be happy to meet him. The more people I meet the happier I become. From the meanest creature one departs wiser, richer, more conscious of one's blessings. Even you . . . (he looks at them ostentatiously in turn to make it clear they are both meant) . . . even you, who knows, will have added to my store.
ESTRAGON Why doesn't he put down his bags?
POZZO But that would surprise me.
VLADIMIR You're being asked a question.
POZZO (delighted) A question! […]
VLADIMIR You can ask him now. He's on the alert.
ESTRAGON Ask him what? (1.407-414)

You can plainly see where the absurdity comes in. They switch often from topic to topic. It usually moves from something philosophical to something absurd, like carrots. I found the whole thing hilarious, but I just enjoy absurd comments. I'm sure if you were to look up this play, you could find tons of analytical papers written about it because there are so many levels that you can go to with this kind of play. I would have to say that this is one of my favorite plays of all time.

What's funny is that this play was one of the most controversial plays of the 1950's. One of the actors, Peter Bull, who played Pozzo on the first night it played in London said this:

“Waves of hostility came whirling over the footlights, and the mass exodus, which was to form such a feature of the run of the piece, started quite soon after the curtain had risen. The audible groans were also fairly disconcerting … The curtain fell to mild applause, we took a scant three calls and a depression and a sense of anti-climax descended on us all.”

It took people a while to get used to Absurdism because it didn't (and still doesn't) make sense. It makes sense I suppose, if you think about how abrupt this type of play must have been for those who weren't used to seeing stuff like it. A lot of people in my English class didn't like it because it didn't make sense. If you're up for a challenge and you like the absurd, I would give Waiting for Godot a chance.

Discussion

2009-08-01T19:56:00.002-06:00

Man, I love music! There are so many different varieties of it, and they're so cool. I mean, there are some types of music which I don't like, but if I was around those types of music a lot in the next five years or something, I think they would probably grow on me. I will have to work on Opera just a bit.

I remember going to Le Nozze di Figaro about a year and a half ago. It was great at first, and then it was like my ears were getting a little tired of all of the sound. I started wondering when it was going to end, and I realized that a lot of what they were singing was just repetition. They do that a lot, repeat a phrase over and over. So, I had a bit of a headache when it did finally end, but it was still a fun experience. It was my first live opera, and there were like 5 or 6 people from my Italian 101 class in it. I guess they had to take Italian 101 to learn how to properly pronounce the words.

But I'm sure that if I researched a little about an opera before going to watch it, I would probably have a better time. So, that's something to remember for next time. Also, I think I would have more fun now because I can understand a lot more Italian now than I could a year and a half ago.

I used to not like jazz. When I was little and heard my older siblings listening to jazz cd's, I remember thinking, "Ugh, I'll never listen to that kind of music." I'm pretty sure that the reason I didn't like jazz then was because I didn't understand it. To me, Jazz is like tomatoes. I don't like tomatoes, but the more I have them on my sandwiches (just little slices though), the more I get used to them. And one day, I might even like them. Although, I'm already to the liking part of jazz. What happened was that I joined choir. The teacher at my school was really amazing. The Orchestra and Band teachers were jealous because he was so good that he would draw away their students. But anyway, the more I sang, the more I came to love music. Then I tried out for the jazz choir and got to sing lots of jazz for the whole year. It was great!

Jazz is my thinking music. Rock music is for when I don't want to think, and classical music is for when I just want something in the background. I love the complexities of jazz. I listen to it when I'm tired of homework and want a break. Maybe it makes my brain work a different way because I know it makes me think about the music and the chords more than in rock music. But I find it very relaxing. I think I've found the method that works for me when I want to like something. It takes exposure, time, and effort. Although I don't know if that will ever work with peanut butter. That's probably the food I like least, which shocks all of my friends. But I'm okay with not liking peanut butter; it saves more for those who do.

Discussion

2009-07-25T21:28:00.004-06:00

Wednesdays' class period was right up my alley. I hope you guys didn't mind that I kept shooting out answers. When I get onto the topics that I really like, such as story arcs (exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, etc.) I get really excited. I guess that means I'm in the right major.

It's funny, but I think I'm much better at writing than I am with talking. When I get all excited like that, it's like a thousand things I want to say come to me all at once, and then I may or may not make any sense when I speak. I really have to concentrate. But when I write things out, like this, it's like it concentrates it for me, so I still get really excited, but it's all channeled into writing.

When I think about the last class period, my mind goes back to the story arc and catharsis. I suppose that's mostly because those are the things I know the most about when it comes to writing. It makes sense, since I'm trying to write a story. I find that the two are very connected. With a good story progression, you will most likely have an effective moment or moments of catharsis.
Catharsis can seem like a vague term, at least it did to me until a while ago. When I think of catharsis, I think of how I feel after I finish a book. Have any of you ever started reading a book and then can't put it down until you finish it? And then, once you finish it, you set it down and have to take a big couple of breaths? This happens to me all the time. It's why I try to keep my reading of outside materials to a minimum when school is in session because I'll want to stay up late into the night reading. But anyway, that feeling that you get once the book is done, and it's like you can breathe again, is what I think of when I hear "catharsis." Of course, that's just one kind of catharsis. If you cry at the end of a book or movie or laugh, that is also catharsis. Basically, if you have a satisfactory emotional response, that it catharsis.

Reading a book or watching a movie or a play can be an emotional exercise if the writers/actors/film makers, etc., have done their jobs right. I mean, it makes sense. If you look at the books that have had major success in the past few years, it's because not only is the story arch good, but the characters are captivating and the dialogue is great. All of the elements of the story combine to create that cathartic experience for the reader. Look at Harry Potter and Twilight. I'm not much of a fan of Twilight, but I like Harry Potter. When I read it, I can feel the emotional exercise, and I like it.

Catharsis really is a purging of emotions. It's why we like action, adventure, horror, comedy, and tragedy. It's a way to experience these emotions in a safe environment and purge them from our systems. I, for one, love Lord of the Rings. If I were really in a situation like the people are in the books or the movies, it would probably be rather frightening. But since I'm safe inside on my couch, I can experience the adventure without the danger.

Readings

2009-07-25T20:46:00.002-06:00

For my readings this week, I looked at http://www.juxtapoz.com/Current/10-amazing-hotels. If you click on the link, you'll get to look at some amazing hotels. Seriously! If I had a lot of money, I would go to these places.

Now, I'm not an architectural guru, so we'll see just how much I actually have to say about these hotels. They really look amazing though. The first one that you get a peek at is the Barcelo Raval Hotel in Barcelona, Spain. It looks like this one has little noodles (like the ones you use in a pool) hanging down from the ceiling. It's definitely flashy. And yet, it's so different from the hotel rooms that I'm so used to seeing that I think it would be really neat to spend a night here.

This next one is really cool. It's an ice hotel, and it's actually called Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden. Yup, it's made of ice. Brrr! It looks like the temperature stays at about 23 degrees Fahrenheit. The guests wear thermal underwear and sleep in a sleeping bag on top of blocks of ice, a thick mattress, and deer skins. I guess it kind of reminds me of the organic style that is kind of a modern thing in architecture. I'm not sure if the surrounding area in Sweden is ice, but if the place stays that cold all year, then I'm guessing that there's ice around. It sounds exciting, but I'd have to really prepare for this one if I stayed here. I have to be comfortably warm when I sleep or else I don't sleep. I'd have to load up on the layers.

The hotel, Burj Al Arab, in Dubai also really looks cool. There's only a picture of the outside of the hotel, but I had to do a double take on the picture for a moment. It looks like a sailboat, and at first I thought that was what it was. But no, it's a hotel! It's right on the edge of the ocean too.

The one that caught my attention the most, however, is the Poseidon Undersea Resort in Fiji. Oh yes, it is under the sea. Hehe, I just thought of the Little Mermaid. Anyway, this hotel is actually underwater! I don't think it's too far down because in the picture, there's still some light coming through the water and the glass into the room. If I could go to any hotel in the world and didn't have to worry about the money, I would go here. This is what the site says about it: Located in a Fijian lagoon only accessible by elevator are suites submerged a full 40 feet underwater. Opening in early 2010, you’d better start saving now a weeklong stay will put you back $15,000 per head.
That is so cool! It's also really expensive, so my chances of ever going are very slim. But still, this seems like something you'd see in a science fiction movie. I have no idea of what it takes to build something underwater. I would imagine that it would take some pretty advanced engineering because you've got the pressure from the water, not to mention just the fact that it would be surrounded by water (meaning no leaks!), among other things.
I keep wondering why I think some of these hotels are so cool because each time I look at the pictures, that's what I think. I have come to the conclusion that I like them because they are so unique and so different. And they are all so different from each other. The outside designs are all different, the layout of the rooms are all different. They are all very original. I mean, who wants to sleep in a house made of ice? But when you make a hotel out of it and have it be the only one of its kind, it becomes a very attractive place. I love art that has a bit of original flavor to it, original meaning unique.

If anyone is interested in that underwater hotel, I'd start saving now.

Caravaggio

2009-07-18T20:49:00.003-06:00

I decided to look up some other paintings done by Caravaggio because he's Italian and I really love the oil paintings. I love the detail that they can get into the painting, especially when it comes to people. Most of the ones I found were religious. But I stumbled upon something else that I didn't know before.

There's a book written about the miraculous finding of one of Caravaggio's paintings called The Taking of Christ
Apparently, this painting had been presumed lost for over 200 years when an art student picked up a clue about its whereabouts in 1992. This book, The Lost Painting, goes over the details of how it was found. Since I haven't actually read the book, I can't give much more information than that, but it sounded very interesting. I may read it.

I went to google for more information, and stumbled upon something else that captured my interest even more. I was reading the tiny snippets under each result on google, and I saw one little bit that said that Caravaggio spent much of his life running from the law. "Wait a minute," I thought, "most of the paintings that I saw of his were religious. Why would a religious man run from the law?"

Of course, I had to investigate further because that's such a loaded question, and I'm a very curious person. Here's what I discovered: Caravaggio was orphaned at a young age and apprenticed to a painter. He kind of travelled around to work for different painters for a while until he decided to try to sell his own paintings. Cardinal Francesco Del Monte, who was apparently a hot shot at the court, became interested in Caravaggio's paintings. He painted over 40 paintings for this guy, and then he started painting in churches. Aha, so there's the religious aspect. And since his paintings in the church made him very well-known, it only makes sense that they would still be the most well-known paintings of his.

While being admired by many, some of his paintings were highly controversial. Some of them were just plain rejected, and yet he remained popular because of his skill. As his popularity grew, it seems that his trouble with the law did as well. I'm not sure how much of it was because of his own violent acts or because of the jealousy of others. From what the article that I read said, he did have some violent tendencies. The culminating crime was when he began fighting with a man over a tennis score and killed him. He kept running from the law, painting all the while.

Isn't it so interesting how people are so complex? From his paintings, I would have thought that he was different than the way that he really was. But the more I think about him and his paintings, I see the similarities. For instance, Caravaggio's use of light and dark was fantastic as we can see in the painting above. I believe the term for that is chiaroscuro. Well, from what I have discovered, his life kind of defines chiaroscuro. True, he had his darker moments, but he has also provided us with some very fine paintings. These different sides of him make him a very interesting person. I suppose you could say that in each of us there are levels of light and dark as well. Interesting.

Art and (Past) Current Events

2009-07-18T17:33:00.004-06:00

The other day in class, as we were looking at all of the various paintings and whatnot, I realized once again just how much of an impact the Humanities can have on people. For instance, that painting with the three brothers and the three swords (I know, you'd think I could remember the name at least) where they are making a vow to kill their enemies must have been so influential on the people.

I learned a lot about the writing of this time period in one of my British Literary History classes. Man, those guys sure had some fiery debates over the war. But if the French hadn't done it, The American Revolution might not have happened. The French Revolution and all that it stood for were the backbone of the American Revolution.

Also, I wanted to share a painting with you that we looked at in that same Literary History class, but I couldn't find it online. I'm not sure what it's called, but it shows two ships. And it seems to be painted in a very impressionistic way, just so you know. One of these ships looks glorious and magnificent with whites and golds and huge sails. It rests in the bright light of the setting sun, while the other ship, a steamer, plows on through the water. around the steamer, the colors are darker, and the steamer itself is a dull brownish-black that puffs out clouds of black smoke. Yet, it is the boat that is moving forward.

Now, we talked about this in correlation with the Industrial age. This painting helps explain why those in the romantic age and a little beyond were darker perhaps more gloomy. With the coming of advancements in technology, they were leaving behind the glorious things of the past.
Aha, nostalgic is the word I was looking for. They glorify the days when sailing out on the ocean was for daring men with great skill and cunning, like Odysseus. It was adventurous. And this new technology made it possible for everyone to travel the seas. It lost its excitement and sense of adventure.

I have another example. Many people actually lamented the arrival of trains. Sure, people could travel all over the place. Trains created the weekend vacation. You'd think that people would love them. Well, I'm sure some of them did, but some were really melancholy about the whole thing. They lamented the loss of the communion with nature. Even riding a horse is better than sitting in a moving box like a package to be shipped. You are secluded from nature, from its sights and smells. And you can never enjoy anything because as soon as you see something out your window, it has passed you by.

They were a rather melancholy lot. It's funny, I had to take my test (for my literature class) over the Romantic Period on Valentine's Day. People asked me, "Oh, what did you do on Valentine's Day?" And I would reply, "I took a test on Romanticism." Then, my friends mostly looked at me suspiciously, as if I were reading romance novels for class. I then had to tell them that Romanticism isn't romantic as we think of it. Sure, Romantic literature (from the Romantic period) sounds nice and beautiful, but it's really rather dark and depressing. So, if you're ever lacking a special someone on this next Valentine's Day, and feeling bitter about it, just grab some Romantic literature.

Drag Me To Hell

2009-07-18T14:58:00.002-06:00

I saw Drag Me to Hell on Wednesday night at the dollar theater in Taylorsville. My friend told me that Taylorsville sounds like a good name for a town in a horror movie, so it was fitting that I went there to see just such a movie. Although, they really need to put down the correct address for that theater online. The address it had was a bit off, and I had to go into a gas station to ask for directions. The guy at the counter kept calling me "sweetie," so I left as soon as possible.

After finding the theater, my friend and I settled in our seats and waited to be freaked out. It's funny, I'm usually a pansy when it comes to scary movies. I'll watch one every once in a while, but then I have to wait a month or so before watching another one. I have a vivid imagination. I watched and waited for the freaky moment that would make me jump or want to dive under my seat, but it never really came, at least for me. In fact, I really didn't find the movie all that scary. Maybe I'm just not experienced enough in the ways of horror, but it didn't do too much for me. I think it was because I could see everything coming. I like a lot of surprise in horror movies and movies in general. If I know what's going to happen, I get bored and make fun of stuff. I know, that's really mature of me, but I take my entertainment quite seriously. And how many strange bodily fluids can one person have? I know a lot of it was in the girl's imagination, but still, you think there'd be a limit.
I suppose I'm more of a thriller/action movie type person. One movie that scared me and that still gives me the creeps when I think about it is What Lies Beneath. But everyone has their own stuff that they like in movies. I looked at some of the reviews for Drag Me to Hell, and there were a lot of people who really liked it. So, if you're really into horror movies, I would say to give it a try.

Now on to the more particulars of the assignment. What was cultural about this experience? Even though theater and opera have perhaps become less popular than they were, they were once what movies are now. In the days before television, which really weren't too long ago considering the extent of time that humans have been on the Earth, what were the sources of entertainment? Plays, music, and other theatrical performances were what people enjoyed. We still enjoy them today, but the rise of technology has brought with it a new medium; that of film. Going to the dollar theater to watch a movie may not be unlike ground seating at a Shakespeare play during Shakespearean times.

A lot of film is pop culture, but there are movies that are highly symbolic. Film is a very interesting thing that I wish I knew more about. This particular film probably fits in the category of pop culture, but that's what people like. So, when we go and watch a movie at a theater, we are not only better acquainting ourselves with what is cool and fun in the current world, but can also see how it affects a community (or the people who are there in the theater with you).
There's something about a huge movie screen and surround sound that makes a movie watching experience into something amazing. We can get facial expressions and special effects that would never be possible on a stage. The way I see it, the film makers are trying their best to make it seem as real to us as possible. They are trying to get us in the mindset of the movie and become totally immersed. Have you ever found yourself holding your breath, hanging on the edge of your seat, crying, screaming, laughing, etc. in a movie theater during a movie? Movies are made to cause something within us to react in some way. It's a medium that has a lot of tools at its disposal, and it is probably one of the most popular things around.

Do you think film will ever be replaced by some other medium; perhaps something even more technologically advanced?

Terra Nova

2009-07-11T18:28:00.011-06:00

For my cultural event this week, I decided to go to an art gallery to see some local art. I was looking around online for some local art exhibits, and I came across the Terra Nova gallery. It's almost right across the street from Smith's on 300 W. Their website said that the exhibit that was currently showing was paper cutting. I had never seen "paper cutting" art before, except for making snowflakes, but I figured this would be a little different.

So I drove down there. I live pretty close to Smith's, so it was only a minute or two of driving. And there it was, a little art gallery on the side of the road. I made sure my camera had fresh batteries and went in to check out the paper cutting.

The owner, or the man who greeted me (I'm not sure if he's the owner or not), was very nice. I asked him if he minded me just walking around and looking at the art work on the walls. He said that was fine, and he'd be in the back if I had any questions.

The Terra Nova gallery is a bit smaller than I thought it would be, but it makes sense. It's not a museum after all. It's basically two rooms with various art pieces hanging from the wall. Then there are a few rooms in the back, but I didn't go back there. I did peek in them though, and it looked like where they store a lot of stuff and take pictures. And now, on to the art.

This piece was the first one that I saw. Sorry about the glare. I didn't notice it when I was taking the picture. It's by Cynthia Ferguson, and it's called Mother Said This Would Come to No Good. It looks like the scene from Peter Pan when Wendy is about to go off the plank. I really like the detail, though. I didn't think it was possible to get much detail out of cutting paper, but that's because I usually cut paper with the same scissors that I used in second grade. I'm sure the artists use little knives or something.

It looks really neat. Imagine cutting that paper as thin as those cloud lines are. What's really cool about these is that you can play around with colors. You can cut out whatever it is that you want in one color and then paste it onto another for an effect. I really like the contrast in this one of the dark with the light. It doesn't seem despairing or dreary which is, I think, in part due to the white background. There's a lot more white than there is black or brown.

I really like this one. It's called He wasn't very coordinated, but she liked his eyes, and it's also by Cynthia Ferguson. I love all of the movement going on in this picture. The angles of the various bodies suggests movement, and I think it's great! I feel like I'm watching a show or like I'm watching shadows behind a curtain. You know what's funny? The background on this one looks like it's in the foreground. It really does look like a creamy curtain is in between them and me. And then there's something else. I don't know how well you can see it in this picture I took, but some of the people and objects have a bit of space between them and the background. It gives the picture some shadows, which is really neat and makes it look very life-like. Who would have thought you could do so much with paper?

I took a few more pictures as well. I think it's really neat how you can play with colors, shadows, and paper in this form of artwork. It's amazing how life-like you can make something look with something that is definitely not alive. If any of you get the chance to look at this art work, I would suggest looking at Terra Nova. All of the pieces that they have there are for sale, although the two that I show on here, before this, are sold. It's really neat!

This one was also very interesting. It's called The Hid Folk, by Rick James Marzullo. Apparently, it's an Icelandic Folk Tale about Adam and Eve and the origins of Elves. Eve hadn't finished washing her children before God came to visit. She hid the unwashed children in shame. God asked her if she had any more children, and she said, "None."

Of course, God knew that she did have more, and said, "What man hides from God, God will hide from man." So the unwashed children became invisible and lived in hills and rock. The elves are descended from them. Interesting, isn't it?

These are great pieces. I would recommend seeing them.

Readings

2009-07-11T17:47:00.003-06:00

For this weeks readings blog, I decided to look at http://accidentalmysteries.blogspot.com/. My eye caught on the post from yesterday. There were a series of paintings that gave new meaning to the phrase, "beauty is only skin deep."

All of these paintings, created by Fernando Viciente, depict a person, usually a female, in various poses. On each person, a section of skin looks like it has peeled away, and we get to see what is past the skin. It definitely has a different effect on you than it would have if you didn't see past the skin.

For instance, the first one shows the head and upper torso of a girl, but the main focus of the painting is at her jaw. Part of it looks like it's been blown away since we can see the various muscles and bones inside the jaw. This made me think of these paintings as more scientific. They almost look like the type of thing you would see in a science class. But you could think about these paintings in a different way. I was thinking that it is the artist who has done this to the painting, who has stripped away her skin so that we can see what lies underneath. However, you could think of this as how the model actually looks in the artists eye. Perhaps she really is missing half of her jaw. After all, accidents and abuse do happen to people. Somewhere out there, there may be someone who looks just like this painting, but in real life.

I was looking at the other paintings and tried to figure out what I felt about them. At the same time, I felt drawn and repulsed, and it took me a moment to figure out why. After all, we all like to look at beautiful people. How many of us love a certain movie because it has an amazingly attractive actor in it? But these people in these painting, although I could tell they were pretty, they didn't seem pretty, or the outside of them didn't anyways.

After looking at them for a little longer, I discovered why I was repulsed. The background of most of these paintings is a blue-ish color. At first I saw it and thought, "blue, a good color," but something was off about this kind of blue. I realized the blue is tinged with green, and the effect is a slightly nauseating turquoise. There are also little splotches of a nasty yellow on the blue. Obviously, the artist was making this background the way it is to make me react the way I am. So, the background gives the painting a nauseating feel, but that still didn't explain why I didn't like the look of the people. Then I realized that their skin looked a little off, color-wise. There was a slight hint of the nasty blue mixed in with the skin tone. It made the people look unhealthy.

This gave me relief, actually, to realize this. I thought I must be a strange person to like looking at what the artist was showing of their muscles and bones. Also, as soon as I realized that their skin had a tiny bit of the nasty shade of blue, I also discovered that the colors of the insides were vibrant and full of life. The outsides of these people looked as dead as the background behind them. The muscles and bones are lively reds and pinks and whites that contrast with the dead-ish blue.

This is what I got out of these paintings after looking at them for a while. It's not necessarily that beauty is only skin deep, but it seems more like beauty begins underneath the skin. The more I saw of the muscles, tendons, and bones, the more I thought about how amazing our bodies are. I mean, a lot of us rarely see what is under our skin. Well, we wouldn't want to really see our own insides because that would mean that our skin is missing, and that wouldn't be a happy discovery. But it would be neat to take an anatomy class to see what all the muscles look like.
With these paintings, it's like beauty begins once you're past the skin. And really, if we're going by this criteria, those of us who take care of our bodies (meaning not partaking of harmful substances) are all very beautiful. It relates back to that discussion we had about beauty. Sometimes, it's really not what we think it is.

Utopia

2009-07-11T16:41:00.005-06:00

The concept of Utopia is one that seems to mystify and elude men (except perhaps for the city of Enoch). I found it so interesting that in From Bauhaus to Our House, it showed that the Utopian ideal for a while was to strip everything down and make it all bland but equal. Why is it that attempts for a Utopian society always seem to bounce back without success?

Here's a fun little historical fact about the origin of the word "Utopia." Sir Thomas Moore (or some spell his last name as More) coined the term when he wrote his famous book called Utopia. He lived from the late 14th century to the early 15th century. Around that time, famous writers and scholars absolutely loved puns and double meanings. This was around the time of the Cavaliers, one of the more promiscuous times of writing. Many of the poems that come out of this time period have double meanings, the less obvious one usually about unrequited love or something related to that. Anyway, Sir Thomas Moore was up to date with the writing of the times. If you wanted to be respected, you had to come up with clever plays on words and puns that only the scholarly would understand. Well, Moore did just that.

You see, the term "Utopia" doesn't mean exactly what we think it means. We use it as a name for the perfect society, a place of peace and prosperity for all mankind, right? A Utopian society would be the place where all men (and women) are equal and happy. However, let's break apart the word. There's the prefix "u" and then the rest of the word "topia."
We're going to go from backwards to forwards here for a second. The suffix "topia" means place. Well, this makes sense. After all, Utopia is a place, right? Here's where it gets really interesting. The prefix that Moore used, meaning the "u" at the beginning or utopia actually means "no."

What a clever guy! The prefix that he should have used, or that he would have used had he not been creating a very clever pun, is "eu." The prefix "eu" is a very happy prefix, being attached to words associated with abundance, prosperity, and ease. Think of the words euphoria, euphemism, and eucalyptus. So, we use the word "utopia" in the sense of "eutopia," meaning happy or abundant place. Still, I wouldn't recommend spelling it with an "eu" since you would probably get some very strange looks.

Okay, you might have done this already by now, but let's add the meanings of "u" and "topia" together. That's right, it literally means "no place." This adds a whole new level of meaning to his book. He wrote about a perfect society and called it Utopia. Now, you could argue about what that means. Does it mean that our search for a perfect society is hopeless because there is no such thing, or does it mean that perhaps it's just no place that we know about or that we can create on our own?

That was a long segue into what I wanted to discuss concerning the Utopian ideals of the architect. I read Utopia a couple semesters ago, but I probably should have read it a little closer. It's a bit fuzzy in my mind. But there are some interesting parallels to be drawn. In Utopia, the people all dress the same. It seems to represent equality. And, as far as I recall, they all wore white, most likely symbolizing purity. So, it is interesting to me that the architects made buildings with small white rooms that were all the same. And then, even more interesting is the fact that the workers didn't even want to live in them. They could not make it their own space. It had to stay white and bare. It's so ironic that they would work so hard, building up a Utopian ideal of a building, only to have it rejected by those for whom it was meant.

I am very glad that I know what Utopia is about because I absolutely love parallels. So, what I have concluded, from what I know about Utopia and about the attempt to start a perfect society by building a "Utopian" building is that these things point out that which we do not have. We do not have this perfect society that idealists dream about. The great thing, though, is what we can do with this knowledge. It's the same message that Moore tried to send to those who read Utopia. We are supposed to realize that it is something that we lack. And then, this knowledge gives us a drive to want to change the world. We are always attempting this, and seemingly never succeeding. But after each failed attempt, we know a little bit more. After realizing that nobody wanted to live in those building, we realize more of what we don't want. In this case, we discover that we don't want to become a nameless Joe Schmoe who is exactly like the man next door. We want to be ourselves. We want to be different.

Will we ever reach Utopia? Who can say? Maybe not in this lifetime, but I think it is definitely possible. There's still a long way to go before we get there.

Readings

2009-07-04T12:12:00.002-06:00

For my readings post this week, I'm going to talk about the latest post on http://www.woostercollective.com/.

There's a short intro on there to a sculptor whose name is AJ Fosik. He talks a bit about what he does and why he does it. He makes these really bright sculptures that have a lot of folk influence. what I think is really neat is that he makes these out of kind of everyday things. He said that he takes bits and pieces of stuff that might just be sitting in a garage and turns them into something amazing.

That's some of the most creative art, I think, is when someone takes something ordinary and makes it extraordinary. I actually have a brother who is very creative like this, and it just blows my mind sometimes with the things he can create out of seemingly nothing. For instance, he really enjoys making clothes, and he's actually been selling them at local stores. But he goes to thrift stores all the time and buys the most random things. Then he takes them apart and uses the pieces to make something neat. I think the last big adventure was making purses out of old pillows that he bought at some thrift stores, and they actually looked really cool.

I think it's really great to have that kind of vision, to be able to pick things apart with your eyes and put them back together in new ways. It's definitely difficult for me, which is partly why I think I like it so much. I guess it just goes to show that one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Vision is one of the things that I love about art. And I don't necessarily mean literal vision, I mean the artists inner eye that sees the potential of something to be something else, something better. It can be so different. For Fosik, his visions involve taking things apart with his hands and putting pieces together in new ways. For a painter, it's the ability to see the painting before its on the canvas. For a writer, it's piecing together all the elements of a story and creating an adventure for the reader. It's all so different, and yet it's all so similar.

I know I talk about literature in a lot of my blogs, but that's because it's something that I've been exposed to for a long time. Sculpting, however, is one of the kind of sub genres of art that I don't know very much about. I think it's very interesting though, these 3-d depictions of what is in the artist's mind. I mean, think of everything you cold convey with shape, materials, texture, color, etc. There's a lot to play around with. I think it's a lot of fun to play around with stuff like that, but for me, I have to know what the end project is going to be, or else it won't get anywhere. Maybe it's different for other people, but it goes back to vision. I'm sensing a theme in this blog.

I'll bring in my limited experience of writing. As you may have noticed, on the side of my blog I have a progress bar for my book that I'm working on. It's the first one I've ever gotten this far into, so I'm rather new at it. But it took me about a year to finally formulate everything in my head for it to be ready to even start writing. I have to know where I'm going to the story to go anywhere. What took me so long to figure out was the beginning and the ending, but there are a lot of details involved in those. When I finally figured it out, it was one of those "Aha!" moments, and I realized it was time to put it down on paper. What's interesting though, is to watch it change as I move it along. I only plan out major events in the middle, so how the character gets to the ending point is rather open. I wonder how different it is for a sculptor. I mean, it works out for me to let the story evolve on its own, but how does it work for a sculptor like Fosik? Art is so different in so many ways, and that's what makes it so cool. Each artist is different, and their methods differ as well. This makes for unique artwork throughout the ages. I suppose you could say that the art each artist produces is like a fingerprint. I don't think any two pieces of art are the same, unless maybe they're copies, but still, there are bound to be a few differences.

4th of July Parade

2009-07-04T11:45:00.002-06:00

I woke up this morning to the sound of loud music and someone speaking into a microphone. I was very confused at first, but then I slowly realized that today was the 4th of July. I think the run was about to start, either that or it was already going, but it must have gone by my apartment.

After I was fully awake, I made my way down to where the parade was going to start. It's funny, I have a roommate from Canada, and I asked her what she thought of all of the 4th of July celebrations. She said it was fun to see people camping out along the road, waiting for the parade. I have to agree. It's so cool to see all of the people all along the streets, sitting in chairs or hanging out in tents. One of my friends told me that a group of people even had a screen set up and were playing halo last night.

While the parade was going on, I walked around, up and down the street. It really is neat to see all of the people who show up to watch the parade and the people who drive the floats and whatnot. I decided that the floats in the parade were a mixture of historical ones and pop culture ones. You have the floats that are all patriotic with red, white, and blue streamers and patriotic songs playing in the background to the floats that have Disney princesses and Captain Jack Sparrow. It makes sense though. The patriotic ones help us remember how we obtained our freedom, and then the pop culture ones show us what types of things we like now. It tells us, this is how we got here, and here's what we are, for the most part. I mean, we're not just interested in pop culture, but it is an event intended for entertainment. Besides, it's a family event, meaning lots of kids come, and they would probably get bored if there weren't elements of pop culture in the parade.

I've always liked looking at how the people on the floats dress. The 4th of July is one of the few days, besides Halloween, that people can dress up in costumes and not get strange looks from everyone. I passed by this guy who was decked out in a very colonial costume, complete with a musket that was about as big as he was, and he was a tall guy. And you can't forget the bagpipes! I've joked with my dad for a long time, telling him that someday I'll get him a set of bagpipes. He'd play them I'm sure, but he knows it wouldn't sound very good. I think that in every parade, there's a group of bagpipe players. Why is that? Not that I mind. I think the bagpipes are fun to listen to. But do we have a lot of people with roots in Scotland? There's something to wonder about.

The 4th of July has been a day of family and patriotism. It's a day when people think more about the roots of this country and of their own roots as well as a family. I think the parade is an accurate representation of this. It's everything that's important to us as Americans. Our country and our families. It brings together all types of people in celebration of the past, present, and future. It's a great, unifying thing. It's a very defining day for Americans.

Criticism

2009-07-03T18:26:00.003-06:00

I wanted to talk a bit about criticism. So, what is the job of the critic? Why does criticism have more of a negative connotation?

It was kind of ironic, when I was walking to class on Monday, one of my friends was walking with me towards the Museum of Art. She had to look at a painting and then offer her criticism as an assignment for one of her classes. But she told me how much she wasn't looking forward to it because she was thinking of criticism as a negative thing. I think that in many of our minds, the word "criticism" is weighed down with negativity. Why is this?

I told my friend that when I think of criticism, I think of trying to figure out what the work of art is trying to say through various means and then explaining to others what my reaction was. At least, that's how I critique a lot of my friends' writing. I try to be as positive as possible because criticism can be hard to take. So, I say what I liked about what they wrote, what I was confused about, and what I feel could be improved upon. I was in a creative writing class last term, so the type of writing that I'm critiquing here is creative writing in progress. It calls for a bit of a different critique than say critiquing a book for your English class. I think the critic's job involves adapting their criticism to fit the situation. Criticism of a Shakespeare play will be different from criticism of works in progress.

I think a lot of us are afraid of criticism because we see people like Simon on American Idol. True, his comments are some of my favorites because they're funny a lot of times. His comments are usually valid, but his delivery is rather blunt, and it comes off as rude. Artists are usually sensitive people when it comes to their creations. I was listening to something Brandon Sanderson said the other day, he's an author who teaches here at BYU, and he was talking about criticism. He said that he doesn't even read his reviews now of his books. He used to, but he found that while there may be 99 people who give his book four or five star reviews on Amazon, there is going to be, without a doubt, someone who gives it one star and talks about how terrible it is. He said that he found himself not even hardly looking at the good reviews. He just wanted to try to explain everything to the person who didn't like it.
And then he said something that I thought was very important. He said that you can't argue with people when it comes to point of view because there is no right or wrong when it comes to each person's point of view. I can't tell you that you are wrong because I am right, that your point of view is less correct than mine, if you don't think so.

This leads me to another part of the job of the artist in relation to the critic. We learned in one of my English classes, that once a book is published, the author is dead. It is not the author's job to critique his or her own work. It goes back to the point of view thing. If everyone who reads the book comes away with something totally different from what the author had intended, the author can't tell them all that they are wrong. Once the book is published, it's up to the people who read it to decide what it means, not the writer.
This means that an artist, at least in my opinion, needs to build up a tough skin. There will be criticism, both positive and negative, and the artist needs to be prepared for both.

I learned about criticism in one of my British Literary History classes. It emerged as its own sort of genre, I'm not sure that I remember when. I want to say the 1600's and 1700's, but I could be off by a few years. I'll give a little background on why it became a genre. At this time, the printing press was in full swing, meaning more of the common masses of people were reading and writing instead of those with more education and more money. Those with higher educations felt like they needed to instruct the masses on what is good literature and what is popular literature. What's interesting is that a lot of these people had differing ideas about how to judge what is good and what is not. One of the methods that I remember is the touchstone method. You basically use some great piece of literature as your starting point, as your touchstone. Then, to find out if a modern piece is good or not, you compare it to the touchstone. the only problem with this method is, how do you get the first touchstone? How do you decide what this "touchstone" should be?

Some of these men thought that literature that was less obvious to common men was good literature. Others though that literature that was more in the common tongue was good literature. I'm really not sure how they ended up deciding what was good and what wasn't. Maybe they still haven't really decided.

Anyway, that's just a little taste of what it was like. Yes, it does seem a little snooty of those highly educated people to tell everyone what is good an what is not good, but they of all people would probably know best. We have to understand that these early critics of literature were probably doing us a big service. If they hadn't stepped in to protect what they love, would we know about the great works of literature that we know of now? Would we read praise the works of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and even Shakespeare? The same goes for all types of art. If critics, who are usually qualified critics, had not defined what is good and what is not good, things could be very different today.

I think a lot of critics see and have seen themselves as teachers and protectors of the great works of man. They are trying to keep the standard that they see reflected in the past continuing on into the future.

You want to know something that's kind of funny? Well, one of my teachers, who was a specialist in Romantic Literature (meaning the time period, not the romance genre), said that Charles Dickens was probably like a modern day JK Rowling. His stories were published in pamphlets, so people would get a few chapters at a time. I'm not sure if the pamphlets were monthly or weekly, but they were immensely popular. Apparently, people used to line up on the docks in America as the ships came in from England, waiting for either the pamphlets to arrive or for their friends to tell them what happened next. It's kind of like people calling friends in England when the 7th Harry Potter book came out to see if Harry dies or not. Don't worry, I won't give any spoilers.
Isn't it interesting how popular literature becomes classic? I think it'll be fun to see what happens in the future, what will be looked back on as memorable. A lot of it will depend on critics. They play a fairly important role in our lives that I certainly haven't given much thought to before. But each of us, as we continue in our learning, becomes a critic, someone to pass the torch onto the next generation. And it is very important that we do so, or else what will people forget? In order to keep up this conversation of life, and for it all to make sense, we need the understanding of the past that a lot of critics have. We owe it to the next generation to keep the tradition of criticism alive.

A busy couple of days

2009-07-03T14:32:00.002-06:00

It all started on Wednesday night after my last class of the day. I got home and started packing for my little trip up to Logan. I'm such an ADD packer. I get so distracted by everything that I have to pack that it takes me a while. I had everything together and in my car by about 7:40, so I guess it took me like an hour to get everything together.

I put my key in the ignition, gave it a twist, and (to my horror) nothing happened. Yup, dead battery. Luckily, my dad had his phone with him and knows how to instruct a jump start from a long distance. After my home teachers had helped me jumpstart my car, with my dad's instructions, I was on my way. It was maybe 7:55-ish. The actual drive went very well. It was a bit rainy and windy and dark, but I liked it. I got to see some pretty sweet lightning. I made it to my cousin's house at 10:30, and met my cousin's fiancee and some of his family.

I'm so glad that I went up there the night before. I hadn't hung out with this cousin for maybe a few years. It was great to catch up on stuff. We used to laugh all through the night and play card games like War. We were both so tired by the time all the family got in, we didn't stay up too much longer. She had to get up early to have her hair done. Still, we couldn't help laughing at random stuff just a bit. I think we went to bed at 1 am and then got up at 5. Her hair looked beautiful, by the way.

They got married at 9:15 in the Logan temple. They look so good together, it's cute. That temple is so pretty! And, it gave lots of shade for the pictures, which was very nice. Then there was a luncheon at noon. I took one of the best naps of my life after that. Then we got everything ready for the reception, which was going to be in the backyard. I say "was going to be" because it started raining and the wind started blowing, so we moved everything to the church really quick. We had everything ready by the time the reception was supposed to start.

Did you know that there is such a thing as blue ice cream? I had never seen such a thing before, but there was a bunch of ice cream at the reception, one of which was blue mint. It was so good! Hehe, while the happy couple was greeting everybody, I went out to her car with some other cousins, and we decorated the car. I worked on the windows, while they filled the car with balloons, army men, and other stuff. My favorite was the flour in the air vents. We turned the air on full so that when they turned on the car, flour would shoot out at them. It worked!

The cleanup didn't take too much time. Then my cousin and her husband opened all of their gifts. They got a lot of cool stuff. And I was so sleepy that, after that, I basically just crashed on the couch.

Yup, it's been a busy couple of days, but they've been really happy days too. Yup, that's my story. Oh, and I now have a large chunk of cake to eat because they forgot to serve the wedding cake after they cut it. I think I'm set for a while.

Tentative Plans

2009-06-30T12:51:00.006-06:00

I'm now attempting to plan out my cultural events for Hum 101. I think that first, I'm going to put up some possibilities of activities that I can do.

Theater:

Murder Mystery Dinner Theater
Sat.,July 11, 7 pm - Hilton Garden Inn
Starting at: $37.50
use hmutah as code for $5 off (I have no idea if this is actually true. That's what utah.com events told me)
At The Hilton Garden Inn in Salt Lake City. I'm not really sure if this will work for the theater one. It might be more under the music category, but it's an idea. http://www.huntmysteries.com/hmshop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=48_56&products_id=200
Here's a picture

Music:

Jon Schmidt
Date: Friday, July 10, 2009 Time: 8:00 pm
Tickets: $10, $7
http://www.sandyarts.com/
Utah Symphony
Date: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 Time: 8:00 pm
Free! Come early for a good seat!http://www.sandyarts.com/.
There's also the TwilightConcert Series every thursday from July 9th to August 27th.

Art Show/Exhibit:

Check out Terra Nova (a local gallery in Provo) for details http://www.terranovagallery.com/
Paper Cutting exhibit
3 - 31 July, 2009, Opening Reception & Downtown Provo Gallery Stroll on Friday July 3rd from 6-9pm

Film Screening:

Muse Music has a film screening every Monday, it looks like. "Waterboys" is playing there not this coming Monday, but the Monday after that. It's a Japanese movie. It looks pretty safe. So, that would be on July13, 2009.

Dance:

Ballet Under the Stars, July 10-July 11, 2009

And those are some of the possibilities that I've looked at so far. As I mentioned above, I'm not sure if the murder mystery theater would actually count for theater since it's not in an actual theater. Still, I just put it up in case any one's interested.

I'm not sure which ones of these I'm going to, since a lot of the ones I put up occur in the same week. I'll have to keep planning I suppose.

Change of Plans

2009-06-29T21:23:00.002-06:00

So, I was thinking about going to Aguirre, the Wrath of God, but I checked it out on imdb.com and it looks a little sketchy for my taste. Apparently, there's a lot of violence and half-naked woman. I much prefer people with clothes, so I think I will have to pass. Besides, the plot of the movie sounded kind of depressing, and I'm more in the mood for something happy. I suppose this means that I'll have to look around again for something else. Wish me luck!

Readings

2009-06-27T13:20:00.002-06:00

Aha, upon returning to blackboard, I realized that we must have separate blog posts for the readings and for the class discussions. I knew I was missing something. I had two posts, but couldn't quite remember what the third one was supposed to be about. And so, I have renamed my post from last night to Discussions since it deals mostly with what we talked about in class. This post is more centered in the readings.

I've already touched on some of what we read for class, so I thought I'd do something different and look at some of the art blogs that Jasie recommended. There's an interesting video on http://blog.art21.org/ about artwork, beauty and seduction. A lot of times, when we think of art, we think of beauty. But beauty is not all that we think it is. Can artwork be beautiful if it is ugly? Josiah McElheny thinks that yes, it can. I agree with him. Not all art is admired for its beauty or symmetry. Much of art can be disturbing, but this is where McElheny says that that in itself is its beauty.

I'm going to relate this to literature since I know more about it than other types of artwork. Much of the literature that we read, the classics, doesn't seem to be very happy. How many of us read The Lord of the Flies? I had to read it in 9th or 10th grade for school. It started out fine and then the sense of wrongness builds. At the end, I felt disgusted with the characters in the book. My friends and I sometimes joked that if we ever wanted to write a classic, we just had to have everything end horribly, and people would love it. This was how I felt as a 14 or 15 year old. I remember thinking, "Why would someone read this? Better yet, why would someone write this?" Then, my definition of a good story was that the ending was happy. I didn't realize then that stories that end in tragedy hold just as much merit. Sure, the ending is the exciting part where the conflict comes to the final showdown, but it is not necessarily what makes a book good. There are other factors. I actually haven't read Lord of the Flies in a long time, so I'm pulling things from my memory here, but I'm sure that if I read it again, I would appreciate it more. I would still be disgusted at parts, but the beauty of the story lies in the artistry of the writer. The way that the writer has manipulated the story to make the reader react a certain way is amazing. The same goes for other books like Heart of Darkness, or one that I read more recently: The Man Who Would be King.

I also like what McElheny said about questions of morality in his artwork. I thought that one piece of his looked really neat. There are all of these glass bottles lined up, and they're different sizes and shapes. He said that he was interested in how you seduce people to look at your work and how questions of morality come up.
For instance, he gave an example about all of the fancy things that you might see at some palace or fancy place like that. The beauty draws us in unless we realize where it came from and exactly what went into making whatever we're looking at. It could actually end up representing something totally evil. This is very interesting to think about. It forces us to redefine what beauty is and where it comes from.

Farmer's Market

2009-06-27T09:35:00.002-06:00

I just got back from the Farmer's Market. It was pretty cool. I didn't bring too much money with me, so I didn't stay too long. I think I'll keep going though and maybe bring some more money with me next time. One thing that I saw that I would love to do is take a book binding class. There was a lady there who was selling books that she made and bound herself. They looked really neat. I'm crazy about cool bookish things, especially journals. She's teaching a class on July 10, but it was a little too expensive for me. It's $50 for the class and then $25 for the materials. If anyone's interested her website is www.kendrasbookbinding.com

They had all kinds of things at the Farmer's Market. There's always lots of jewelry and produce. I saw this really neat stall that had a lot of stuff carved from wood. They had these mirrors that looked really nice. Of course, they were more expensive, but I think if I had a lot of money to spend, I'd buy one.

I tried some homemade honey butter. Now that stuff was good! A lot of places were giving out free samples. I'm a big fan of free samples. That's one reason I like Costco so much.
I did buy something, though. After looking at all of the produce, I found a place that was selling bags of peas for 50 cents. Yes, I bought a bag, and I'm very excited to eat them. I really wanted to buy some corn because it looked pretty good, and I miss the corn from Idaho. I'm from Boise, by the way, if anyone wanted to know. My parents always bought a bunch of corn from the farms that are just a few minutes drive out of Boise.

I'll definitely be going back to the Farmer's Market this summer. It's just way too interesting for me to stay away.

Discussion

2009-06-26T23:11:00.005-06:00

First of all, class discussions are my favorite. It's a big reason that I'm an English major. We read stuff and talk about it all day long, and it's great. I really liked the discussion from Wednesday's class period. As I recap what I particularly enjoyed about it and the readings, I'll most likely ramble. You have been warned.

Why are the Humanities important?
It's as we talked about in class, a study of humanities is a study of what makes us human, what makes us react and how it makes us react. I think of it as basically a study of human creativity because everything from dance to music, architecture, painting, literature, etc. is reflective of that desire within us to create.

I know I mentioned this in class, but I like to think of the Humanities as one big discussion. One of my English teachers brought this to my attention last year. He said that when people write, they are writing in response to someone else, whether they realize it or not. In fact, if you look at the history of literature, you can see the correlations between different writers like Wordsworth and Coleridge, Emerson and Hawthorne, and many more. This is the great conversation of the world.
What I didn't think of until a few days ago is that this conversation includes not just literature, but all of humanities. How many depictions of Heaven and Hell were portrayed after Dante wrote the Inferno? When the French Revolution was happening, it inspired a lot of change in writers and other various artists. Responses to history abound in the Humanities.

This brings me to the question: Why is it important to know what has been said before in this conversation?
It is especially important for artists to understand what has gone on before so that they do not produce a repeat of something that has already been. The purpose of this conversation is to move forward. I'm not sure what it's moving towards. Although, a lot of art is created to make a point, to draw attention to what the artist is trying to say. Sometimes it inspires change, like much of the writing about the French Revolution.

I learned something important today in my Modern American Usage class that I think relates to this topic. We were talking about prescriptivism and descriptivism in language. There's a debate that has been going on for hundreds, and probably even thousands of years about language. Basically, the prescriptivists see change in language as a decay. They want to protect the language as it is. Descriptivists are more content with the changes and view them as acceptable. It's because of prescriptivists that we have had to learn a lot of grammar and its because of descriptivists that we have slang in the dictionary. But in the end, we cannot stop language from changing. It changes because we change; it changes to better suit us. I may have a little biased opinion because I'm more of a descriptivist, but this change is the opposite of decay. It denotes life. Once a language stops changing, it is dead. That's why we call Latin a dead language. It's stuck the way it is as we know it forever; there are no native speakers of it.

And all of that was a kind of long explanation about the nature of life. It always changes. If it stops, it's dead. This great conversation of the Humanities is always changing onto something new. If it ever stops, if people ever stop using their artistic abilities, we'll be effectively dead. Or you could turn this into a science fiction type of thing and say that our humanity will be gone. We'd be nothing more than machines. It is important to know what has been done in the past to know how to carry on the conversation now, how to carry on being human.

I also really liked the overarching theme of that gospel article that we read that the best is yet to come. I've heard a lot of people say this in the past year. It's probably because I have dreams of an aspiring artist. I've attended a few writing conferences at BYU (there was one only a few weeks ago), and professional writers come and give advice to those trying to break into that field. If you ask a writer which work is his or her best, they will probably say, "the next one." For people like me, it definitely provides hope because it is hard to be a successful artist in our society. Sometimes the business side of things has to take precedence over the art because the artist must produce art in order to be successful.

Well, I did warn you that I would ramble, if you did indeed read all the way to the end of this. Congratulations! It's over! It's time for sleep!
Feel free to leave any comments :)

Plans so far...

2009-06-26T23:03:00.002-06:00

I haven't had much time to plan everything out for Hum 101, but I do know of a few things that I'm going to do. Tomorrow I'm going to the farmer's market in the morning. I love these types of local things. You can find the coolest stuff. And then on Monday night at 10 pm, there's a film screening at the Muse. The movie's called "Aguirre, the Wrath of God"

This is what Muse sent me in an email about the film:

Here's what wikipedia has to say about the film: "Aguirre, the Wrath of God is an independent 1972 German film written and directed by Werner Herzog. The story follows the travels of Spanish soldier Lope de Aguirre, who leads a group of conquistadors down the Amazon River in South America in search of the legendary city of gold, El Dorado. Aguirre opened to widespread critical acclaim, and quickly developed a large international cult film following. Several critics have declared the film a masterpiece, and it has appeared on Time Magazine's list of 'All Time 100 Best Films'. Aguirre’s visual style and narrative elements would have a strong influence on Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film Apocalypse Now." (To read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aguirre,_the_Wrath_of_God)

So, I think I'll go to that. That's as far as my planning has gotten, but I'll probably do some more soon.

A Little Introduction

2009-06-23T08:57:00.003-06:00

I'm going to be doing a lot of blogging for my Humanities 101 class, so I thought I'd introduce myself a little bit more. Yeah, we did introductions in class already, but I usually forget what people say, not on purpose though. Just in case any of you are like me, I'll do a re-introduction.

I'm Bethany Hanks. My major is English, and my minor is Editing (I haven't made it official yet, but I will soon). Some of the stuff that I like: Camping, hiking, running, soccer, sports in general, reading, writing, playing guitar and cello, sleeping, and a lot of other stuff. Right now I'm in the middle of reading The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson.

Oh, and I changed my mind on my favorite tv show. I forgot about Dollhouse. It's an amazing show made by Joss Whedon who made Firefly, basically the best tv show ever. He also made Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I never watched it. If you want to see something else that Joss Whedon made, you can check out Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's about an guy who wants to become a true villain.

I just finished up Italian 202, but I find that I'm already forgetting a lot of Italian. A fun fact about me is that I don't like peanut butter. Yeah, my roommates think it's really strange. Oh, I also edit for Leading Edge, a BYU magazine. I go through the slush pile, but it's pretty fun.

And that's about it for now. Oh, contrary to what my blog layout might make you think, I actually have never played the video game Assassin's Creed. I just thought the background looked cool.

Employee of the Month

2009-06-14T16:31:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, I decided to perform some serious surgery on my story . I need to have 25 good pages for my Writing for Children and Adolescents class, and I had too much going on in not enough pages. Besides, I had written about a part that needed some stuff to come before it. I knew I needed to fix something, so I took out anything related to this one section that I had added in that needed some more information. I ended up needing to take out about ten pages.

Even with those gone, I still had 25 pages for my class, but I wanted to catch up to where my word count was before. So, yesterday, I wrote ten pages, and I'm now writing the set up so that I can put all of that stuff that I cut back in the story.

Oh, and I was named employee of the month! Yay! I got a Symphony bar, a litte certificate that told me how cool I was, and then an invitation to this party thing for the other employees of the month.
And that's about it for now.

Character Archetypes

2009-06-13T13:29:00.003-06:00

All of this WIFYR stuff that I learned has been so helpful! It's amazing! Last night, I went through and kind of categorized my main characters. Maybe categorized isn't the right term. What I did was I use Tracy Hickman's chart of character archetypes and decided which of my main characters were what archetype. It actually helped a lot. I feel like my characters are so much more defined now.

I won't give Tracy's whole presentation because, frankly, it's his to give, not mine. If I wrote all of it on here, I would feel like a cheater who takes credit for other people's grand ideas. You can ask Tracy about the details. But what I will say is that he separated the "main cast" of the book into eight character archetypes. It really emphasizes what each character does, how they react, and who they are fighting against throughout the story. This presentation was fantastic, by the way. It's one of my favorites by far.

Anyway, that's what I did last night. I sorted my characters out, and now I know more about their thinking processes and how they will react to other characters' actions. My writing flowed a lot more after that.

Another bit of advice by James Dashner: Write every day. He said that he makes sure to write at least 2,000 words per day. I guess he has a lot of fun keeping track of the numbers and watching himself get nearer to a finished first draft. He was an accountant not so long ago.

I think that's a great idea. I mean, I try to write everyday, but some days I just think that I'll write a little extra tomorrow instead of writing today. There's just something that happens when you do something daily. You get better. It may not happen at first, or you may not notice it happening at first, but you'll notice eventually.

Also, I thought James's story about his goal to become a writer in five years. In 2003, he decided that he really didn't like accounting and made a goal to be a full-time writer in five years. Well, in 2008, when his new book The Maze Runner (coming soon) was bought by a publishing company, his goal was complete one month before the five years were up. He quit his job as an accountant and now writes for his career.

I think it's a great idea to make goals about your writing. It's one thing to dream, and dreaming is nice, but goals provide a lot of motivation. A lot of times, I think we're afraid to make goals because we're afraid we won't reach them. Reaching them isn't always the most important part. Just the fact that you tried, even if you fall short, means that you did something.

I am just like the rest of you, and I don't want to fail if I set a goal. But there's only one way to know if I'll reach the goal, and that is to set it. Okay, here I go. It's not going to be anything big, but I'm making a goal to publish a book in five years, or at least have the book sold to a publishing house in five years. Whew, that seemed like more work than it should have been. Maybe I'll set a countdown on here for five years and then everyone can keep an eye on me. If I don't make it in five years, it won't be because I haven't tried.

Okay, now for the interesting thought of the day. Imagine if nobody had elbows, what would be different? Hehe, how would we ever scratch an itch? Thank goodness I have elbows!

Last day of WIFYR

2009-06-12T19:29:00.003-06:00

I recently returned from the last day of Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers. James Dashner was a guest there today. He had a session about some of the things that he has learned since he began publishing.

One of the things he said was really good. Well, he didn't just say one good thing, he said many very good and hilarious things. But there was one of the things that he'd learned that I thought was very poignant. He said it's all about the story.

Some people give JK Rowling and Stephanie Meyer bad wraps because maybe they have some mistakes in the writing. I, for one, am a huge fan of the Harry Potter books. I think JK Rowling is a fantastic writer, and Harry Potter shows it.
Now, I talked a bit about Twilight in another post on here. I did find the first book to be a rather entertaining read. It moved fast and it wasn't difficult to follow. The other books really aren't my thing though. I'm not one for the whole romance scene. But we can't deny the fact that Twilight is one of the top-selling novels around.

I liked what James Dashner had to say about this. It's all about the story. Sometimes, people don't buy books to praise the great writing. Sometimes we buy books because we like the story. We just like stories in general, and when there's a good story to tell, people will buy it. He said that it's like an apple. If someone eats the apple and says, "Hey, that's a really great apple," then you can't tell that person, "No, actually. That apple really isn't good. Sorry." If people like the story, and they obviously do, then we can't try to tell them that it's not good. If it weren't good, they wouldn't like it.

I think that's a very good way to approach these topics. So many people complain about these books that do so well. If they think they can do better, they'd better do it and show everyone what they're missing. Seriously, just because someone is successful, it's not reason to try to drag them down. We only make ourselves look stupid if we do that.

It is not an easy thing, to write a book that makes millions or even billions. You might think it's easy, but you realize once you try that it really is tough. I'm no expert by any means. In fact, this WIFYR conference has helped me realize how much of a newb I am at this stuff. I have hope that in future years I might write something that does well, but it's going to take me a while, I'm sure. I say congratulations to those writers who never gave up and overcame the odds. Let's show a little decency.

Here's your word for the day. Newb. It's short for newbie. Or any variation of that word. Newbslice, newbasaurus rex, etc.

Author Signing

2009-06-12T08:52:00.003-06:00

Yes, I went to more WIFYR yesterday. There was an author signing later in the afternoon. I bought three of Tracy and Laura Hickman's books (I think I bought the Bronze Canticles trilogy). They were at Life, the Universe, and Everything, and that was the first time I'd heard of them. Let me tell you, they really know what they're talking about when it comes to storytelling and fantasy. So, I bought their books and got them signed. It was pretty cool.

Oh, I almost forgot to give you something to think about for today. How did the eggplant get its name?

WIFYR

2009-06-10T20:23:00.003-06:00

I've been attending this really great conference at BYU. It's called Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers. This conference is fantastic! You get to hear from authors, editors, and I believe there is one agent. Seriously, this conference, if it were anywhere else, would probably cost $1,000 or more. If you want to spend all day there and get some great critiquing on your own work, it costs $500. If you don't want to spend all day there or just don't have the money (I am totally there), you can attend just the afternoon sessions for $120. Or, if you happen to be very lucky and your teacher is in charge of the event, you might be able to get in for free.

I've only been to the afternoon sessions, but there's some great stuff! These people just know so much! It's great!

Of course, it does make me want to slack on all of my other homework. But that can't be helped I suppose.

Oh, and last night I bought Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson's newest book. He's a pretty cool dude, and his books are fantastic. I'm currently reading The Hero of Ages, which is a part of his Mistborn trilogy. Next up, I'll probably read Warbreaker. Oh, and if you don't have the money to buy Warbreaker, it's actually up on Brandon's website, so you can read it online.

Tomorrow I get to attend more WIFYR! Yay!

Man, do you ever wish you could just stop everything else and concentrate on one thing? This is happening to me more and more frequently. Of course I'm not going to stop going to college until I graduate. Of course, when I get there I probably won't want to leave college. But right now it seems like a bunch of hoops to jump through when I would much rather sit and write my guts out. I hear it sometimes takes writers a while to break into the market, so it's definitely good to have backup plans. Besides, a degree in present day society is a good thing to have. Still, I bet that if I was just writing, I would still have hundreds of other things demanding my time.

Oh well, here's something to ponder for the boring moments in your day. Is there a practical use for the mustache? If so, what?

Thanks to David Eddings

2009-06-06T13:07:00.005-06:00

I heard that David Eddings has passed away. His books had a pretty big impact on me and my love of fantasy literature. I particularly enjoyed the Belgariad. I must have read all of those books at least three or four times. I have a lot of good memories with them. So, thanks David Eddings, for all of the great books that I enjoyed reading so much.

And that's how I ended up naked in a field of wildflowers

2009-05-30T16:32:00.003-06:00

I just ran across one of the funniest things. Brandon Sanderson is writing a book called The Way of Kings. Apparently, news has been circulating for a while about this book, and Amazon even has a page for it on their website. You should read the customer reviews. They're enlightening beyond description.

That's about all I had to say.

And no, I'm not naked in a field of wildflowers at the moment. Sorry to disappoint everyone. But who knows what the future will bring.

Many, Many Things

2009-05-20T16:21:00.002-06:00

As all of you know (and when I say 'all of you,' I mean the one person who reads this blog--hi Cami--) I have decided that, above all things, I would rather be a writer. Well, I think I made the right choice. I have done so much writing this semester, and it only gets me excited to do more.

When I first started my writing for children and adolescents class, I wasn't sure how it would be. I've been mulling over this idea in my head for over a year, trying to figure out the way to write it. I wondered if I would be able to pull it together for this class or if I would fail miserably. I think it'd be pretty hard to fail this class miserably. You just have to read and write and actually try. But anyway, I was a tad nervous about taking this class. It turns out that my nervousness is really unnecessary. I know that what I'm writing now may not be perfect material, but it's so much fun!

At first, I had a hard time trying to figure out where to start the story off. I ended up just writing a bunch of random stuff with random scenes that first week. I'm glad I did though. It let me get to know my characters and the setting fairly well. Have you ever heard that the only way you can know where your story is going is to write? Or something along those lines. Stop worrying about it and write it? Something like that. Well, it is so true! And I thought before, "Well, I did try to write and nothing was working out to my satisfaction." No, I wasn't writing then like I am now. Yes, it was a little frustrating when I couldn't figure out exactly where to begin and where to go after that, but writing every day solved my problem. I don't know how exactly, but it did. Maybe I just figured out how to utilize the right side of my brain or ate lots of Wheaties that morning, but one day everything about my story just made sense. I had to hurry and type out a little summary so that I didn't forget anything. And then I started, and I have kept going. It's pretty neat. I'll soon have over twenty pages of pretty good work, and that's just the beginning. Every time I write, I come up with new ideas. I work on adding those in and they make the story even better!

Another thing that I'm doing more of is reading. I have to read at least twelve books from the genre that I write, which is YA fantasy. It's not that difficult of an assignment really. I'm in the middle of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Yeah, that's a bit younger than YA perhaps, but it's still really good.

Oh, and we get to have guest speakers come in and talk to us every once in a while. We've had three of them so far, all authors. I bought a book today that was written by one of these authors. It's called Mira, Mirror. It looked pretty interesting, so I picked it up. Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do when I have to move somewhere. How will I transport all of my books? here's a question for the ages. And now, it's time for me to get back to The Graveyard Book. I know it's going to be good!

Spring!

2009-05-01T23:59:00.002-06:00

Ah, the blessed days of Spring! I think I love everything about Spring. It refreshes everything.

Yes, March and April proved to be quite busy. Finals are now over! Yay! Only, I'm back in classes now. So, I will have more finals, but that's okay because I like my classes. I'm taking Persuasive Writing, Writing for Children and Adolescents, and a religion course. I now judge how hard a class is by using my very own touchstone. Who was it who talked about touchstones and high seriousness in finding truly great literature? It was only a couple of weeks ago that I finished my British Literary History class, and I've forgotten. I'll have to look it up. I'm just too lazy right now.

Well, my "touchstone" or item of comparison, is my CHUM class (Computers and Humanities). I always figured I knew what I was doing on a computer. I still think I mostly do. However, learning how to program was so frustrating in its tediousness. Learning how to program is definitely like learning another language. I spent hours and hours on the computer, and it always seemed like I hardly accomplished anything. That's not the case, however. I actually accomplished quite a lot. I'm just more used to understanding things and picking them up a lot faster than I did in that class. So, if I find a class easier and less time consuming than CHUM, then I know I can get through it without too much difficulty. I'm not saying that you shouldn't take a computer class if you get the opportunity. It was very interesting and even fun. I do understand a lot more about computers now.

I like both of my writing classes a lot. My favorite is Writing for children and adolescents. My homework is reading YA fantasy books, which I do anyways, and writing YA fantasy, which I do (or try to do) as well. My teacher cracks me up too. There's something in general about English teachers that seems more relaxed and easy-going. Ah, English is great. Well, I know it's a bit late, but I should actually do some writing for that class. Maybe next time I won't wait another month to post.

but only maybe.

One Fine Day

2009-03-24T21:34:00.002-06:00

I think March ends up being one of the busiest months of the winter semester for me. Maybe it's because I'm used to a spring break, but whatever.

I was so excited tonight after Leading Edge that I thought I would come and share some fantastic news with whoever would like to know. First off, I was able to read through a really decent 60 page story and write my review of it in just about an hour at Leading Edge. Sometimes the longer ones take a few days, so I was pleased that that this one read so smoothly. After that, I was given my first story to copy edit. So far, I've only done a substantive edit, so this is something new.
My next piece of news is the most exciting. I was the last one to leave the "slush room" tonight. I'm not sure if that's really what it's called, but it is the room where those honored to work as slush readers do the majority of their work. I went to where the other editors and directors were and told them that everyone, besides myself, was now gone. I now consider it a stroke of luck that I was the last one to leave tonight. They asked me if I would like to write a book review to be published in Leading Edge. For one who has been reading much slush in the past few months, this is quite a grand thing, or so it seems to me. Also, I haven't had anything officially pubished except for a few posts on a blog I worked for during the summer.

Wow, all things considered, I feel quite lucky indeed. If you haven't heard of Leading Edge before, it's a science fiction / fantasy magazine managed by student editors at Brigham Young University. We take submissions from all over as long as they fit the genre. If you would like any information on submission guidelines or obtaining a copy of Leading Edge, the website is www.leadingedgemagazine.com

Oh, by the way, my apartment recently acquired some turtles this past week. Their names are Pickle and Fluffy. Fluffy eats all the food, and Pickle swims around, looking cute.

I'm Cured!!

2009-03-09T17:26:00.002-06:00

Yup, that's right. I can do anything I please now that I'm better. Well, that's what I like to think anyways.

So, I just watched the fourth episode of Dollhouse. This one seemed like a teaser, really. Now I'm looking for some answers in the next one, especially about Alpha. My friend knows a lot more about the show than I do (Hi Cami!), so maybe I'll just see if she knows anything more about him.

And I'm done!

Yup

2009-03-02T14:58:00.004-07:00

So, I went to the health center, and it is not strep throat. I'm not really sure what it is, but whatever it is, I still have it. I'm staying home from school, again. Hopefully I'll be somewhat better tomorrow. If not, well, I'll go to the health center again.

Ah, I just watched Stardust. Now that's a good movie. I'll have to read the book. I usually read the book before I watch the movie, but I saw the movie before I knew it was a book.

I just heard about something that my roommate is doing. It's freerice.com. I guess you go there and answer vocabulary questions. For each correct answer, you donate so many grains of rice to the UN. I think I'll go and check it out.

Hmm...

2009-03-01T13:10:00.003-07:00

So, my sickness has kept on going far longer than I had hoped. My throat is now quite sore and feels rather thick. I have an increasing suspicion that it is strep throat. Maybe this means I won't go to work again tomorrow. I feel bad missing so much work, but if it's strep throat, I don't think they'd want me there anyways. Yup, so I'm just chillin' around the house for a while.

Now that everyone is updated on my current condition, whether you wanted to be or not, I'll ramble on about a few other things. I watched the third episode of Dollhouse yesterday. It just gets better and better! Joss Whedon really knows his stuff. I was a bit worried about the pilot episode. It didn't seem like anything spectacular, but each episode just gets better and better. I wish there were more that I could watch, especially since all that I can really do is watch movies and read books.

I saw Twilight yesterday for the first time. I decided to wait until I could see it for just a dollar, and I'm glad I did. I'm not very fond of the books. Yes, I have read them, but not because I have an obsession with vampires or Edward's "perfectness," because I really don't. I read them to see what Stephanie Meyer was doing right with her books. She obviously did something right since they've been so successful.
What I have decided is that, first of all, she created the perfect man (or vampire), Edward. He's extremely attractive, faster and stronger than any other human, suave, and very concerned for Bella. What girl out there isn't going to want to read about the perfect guy and picture herself in Bella's position? I don't buy it though. The perfect guy could be a very boring character.
Another thing is that they are very easy to read and follow. In other words, I found the story somewhat predictable. Still, the story fit well together. When you start reading Twilight, and you know exactly what you are getting into, you get just what you want out of it. Those of us who want to read about the perfect guy and wish we had the perfect guy will get satisfaction out of reading Twilight. There's also dark fantasy in there what with all of the wolves and vampires, and I will admit that I enjoy reading fantasy. However, those of us who want to see complexity and be taken by surprise at the outcome may be disappointed

I find it hard to connect with Bella, who constantly beats down on herself because she's "not good enough for Edward." Of course, every guy she runs into seems to want her, and I can't understand why. Some people, however, may relate very well with Bella. Maybe they see things that I don't.
Anyways, the movie was, in my opinion, worse than the book. That's generally the way things seem to go, except in the case of Lord of the Rings. The movies and the books are amazing!
The Twilight movie just seemed so long to me. Things took forever to get going and didn't pick up until the end, and then it was over! One of the reasons that I was at least able to read the books was because there were all of these cliffhangers, but I didn't feel that in the movie. Also, the parts that were supposed to be funny had the opposite effect on me. Well, not all of them, but most of them. When I'm watching a movie, I want to have something intense, but there has to be some humor or else I get bored of the drama.

I'm not sure if I will buy the movie or not when it comes out. I want to say no, but I enjoy fantasy. Meh, maybe I will if I can get it for a dollar.

As It Turns Out...

2009-02-27T11:37:00.002-07:00

So, I ended up actually not going to any classes yesterday. It was pretty nice. I called my teacher about my midterm, and he's going to let me take it another day. Since I had so much time on my hands, I did do what I said I wanted to do, and that was write. However, I didn't do that first. I kind of just wanted to relax for a while, so I finished reading Fablehaven. That was pretty nice. At the beginning of Fablehaven, I will admit that I was a bit bored. The end, however, I thought was very well done. Way to go, Brandon Mull.

After that, I realized that I could watch the first episodes of Dollhouse. For those of you who aren't familiar with Joss Whedon's work (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Serenity), you are seriously missing out. Firefly and Serenity are my favorites. Anyways, I got on hulu and watched the first two episodes. I really liked them. Joss Whedon is so good at what he does! Only two episodes are out right now. I think that they show them on Friday or Saturday nights, but I could be wrong. I'm very excited for the next episode.

And this was when I started writing. I didn't write as much as I'd hoped, but I got a few pages in before I had to go. I help edit for the Leading Edge magazine, and one of the nights they meet is Thursday.
And while we're on the subject of leaving, I have to go. I have class in 15 minutes.

Life, The Universe, and Everything

2009-02-26T10:09:00.007-07:00

I have recently become sick, recently meaning last night. What fun. It did allow me to skip work today for a legitimate reason, however I wish it would let me skip the midterm I have scheduled today. I figure, that's just not going to happen though. I'm well enough to walk to class and sit down for an hour and a half while holding a pencil or pen, so I ought to go and take the test anyway.

Usually when I'm sick, I stay home from school the whole day and sit around lazily, watching whatever I want, eating whatever makes me feel better, and reading. I had hoped that today could be one of those sick days. I have a lot of things I would like to do and none of them have anything to do with school.

Last weekend I attended a symposium on BYU campus. It was called Life, The Universe, and Everything. It was my first ever attendace at a convention of that sort. I had a great time though. Tracy Hickman and his wife Laura were the keynote speakers. Some of my favorite authors were there (David Farland & Brandon Sanderson) as well as the guys from Writing Excuses (Brandon Sanderson, Howard Taylor, and Dan Wells). There were all kinds of topics relevant to writing and editing on the panels. I sat in on a lot of these and learned a lot while drinking various types of hot chocolate. It helped get the creative juices flowing in my head which have been stagnant for a little while. If I could stay home all day today, I would write. I'm finally starting to get somewhere on my novel idea. Yes, it's still only an idea, but for months now I've been trying to mold this idea into something I can write. I think it's finally getting there. Yay! But today, instead of writing, I have to concentrate on memorizing what's on my study guide for my ELANG 223 midterm. I think I know most of the stuff, so it shouldn't be too bad, but as I said before, definitely not what I would rather be doing right now.

And now I probably ought to get back to studying. I'll let you know how my writing goes.

The Pantoum

2008-12-25T02:06:00.004-07:00

So, today I thought I would share my other poem that I turned in for my creative writing class. It's a verse form called a Pantoum, funny name, I know, but I like it. This was one of my more favorite poems to write because I had to work to fit the formula a bit. The formula of a Pantoum, in case anyone wants to know, has to do with repetition. The second line of each stanza is supposed to be repeated in the first line of the next stanza. There's another line you're supposed to repeat, but I forgot which one, and I didn't do it anyways in my poem. The point of this repetition is to try to change the meaning of the repeated sentence. You can even change the sentence very slightly if you must. I wanted to have a rhyme scheme in mine, so I kind of added one in, but it's not necessary. It is supposed to have a definite meter though. Anyways, here it is. Oh, and my inspiration was looking at the mountains in Provo on a rainy, cloudy day in November.
By the way, Merry Christmas!

A Cold Day in November

by Bethany Hanks

The rain and mist come tumbling down
And look so pretty in the sky.
They hang in air and never dry
Until the sun comes out to stay

And looks so pretty in the sky.
It’s beautiful when both are near,
Both sun and mist, both rain and drear.
Oh how the drops forever shine.

It’s beautiful when both are near,
Over mountains, on horizon.
What if neither one was there?
Oh, the sky would be so bare

Over mountains; on horizon.
No more lines within my view
Of painted clouds and grizzled dew.
It becomes a piece of paper

With no more lines within my view;
Nothing to recall the day
When not just sun came out to play.
This image I shall never subdue

Of when rain and mist came tumbling down.

Why hello there

2008-12-24T01:13:00.003-07:00

Man it has been a long time since I've been on here. I recently, as in like less than an hour ago, started writing on another blog. It's knockdownthewalls.blogspot.com. My closest friends from Campus Plaza blog on there. It's pretty rad.

So, I happen to have some more stuff to put on here that I wrote for a creative writing class. I've got some poems, a personal essay, and my short story project (which is actually some novel sections I'm trying to write). I'll probably post the poems and the personal essay, but I'm not sure about the novel sections. The more I write in them, the more they change, so maybe later.

Anyways, I'll put in one of my poems in here right now and put up the other one later. Let me know if you like it. It's free verse, by the way, and I wrote it while I was sitting on some damp grass.

Morning

by Bethany Hanks

The soft grass
Beneath me
Clings to the drops
Of the early morning dew,

Slowly seeping
Into my clothes
To cling to me.

I will walk
Taking the morning
Wherever I go.

Excitement....and then sleep

2008-08-09T01:24:00.003-06:00

I don't have too much to report on today. Oh, I did fill up water balloons for a few hours though. It was my little bro's birthday party. It took a while for my fingers to feel normal again. Now they're nice and dandy.

Right now, all I can think about is going back to school. I'm so excited! I know I'll be cursing those words in a few weeks when I have like three papers due and a test the next day or something, but for now I'm excited. It's like I spent so much time at BYU that it has felt a little weird being somewhere else for the summer. But this year's going to be sweet! I'm pretty sure I'll still have all of my party gear (meaning my cool strobe light, disco glowy-thingy, and awesome dance moves). Let the good times roll!

Continuation of Shoes???

2008-07-23T14:23:00.001-06:00

I saw another one!!! I went to take my little bro to the store, and another shoe was out there on the road.

Shoes????

2008-07-23T12:49:00.004-06:00

I have seen an alarming number of shoes on the road in the past few days. I saw two last week and one just this morning. All of them looked rather small, so I am assuming that some little children are behind it all. Perhaps there's a revolution going on in the younger generation. It's back to bare feet and fig leaves. Interesting. If anyone wants to join in, it seems that all you have to do is chuck one of your shoes out the window while you're driving. I have seen a sandal, a tennis shoe, and a dress shoe, so whichever shoe you want to use should be alright. Oh, this will also be good for anyone looking for a shoe. It could be the great shoe swap! Shoes+roads=endless possibilities.

The Life of an Empty House

2008-07-10T18:57:00.002-06:00

So, my family has been out of town for almost a week now, and I will tell you everything that I have done in that week. Nothing!!! Really and truly. I went to the library the day before the 4th of uly and borrowed a bunch of movies. I have since returned twice to the library to pick up yet more movies. I will now list all of the movies that I have watched and which ones I had never seen before this week.
The Fifth Element ( I watched this one twice)
Cool Runnings--watched for the first time
Casablanca--watched for the first time
Robin Hood ( the one with Kevin Costner)
First Knight--watched for the first time
The Aviator--watched for the first time
Breakfast at Tiffany's--watched for the first time
The Hunchback of Notre Dame--watched for the first time
An Ideal Husband
Elizabeth Town--watched for the first time
Dracula: Dead and Loving it--watched for the first time
You've Got Mail
That's all that I can remember that I watched. I also have Top Gun, and will probably watch it tomorrow. And now you know what I do when everybody's out of town.

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-04T20:59:00.001-06:00

I just thought that I'd wish everyone a happy 4th of July! Yay for fireworks!

The 3rd one is up

2008-06-18T22:56:00.002-06:00

The third article that I wrote is posted. To read it go to http://boise.onethousandthingstodo.com/2008/06/18/fun-at-boondocks-meridian-id/
Not much has happened this week. Oh, but I did go on the biggest bump in the world. If any of you read my personal narrative, you'll know what I mean. For those who didn't read it, there's this huge bump in this maze of parking lot somewhere in Boise. It's perfect for driving your car over really fast.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

2008-06-14T18:33:00.000-06:00

It is done! I have begun posting magnificent articles, which I know everyone is just dying to read. Two of them have already been posted, and I'm waiting on the third. If anyone reading this feels like looking at the articles, you can go to either http://boise.onethousandthingstodo.com/2008/06/14/thrifting-boise-id/ or http://boise.onethousandthingstodo.com/2008/06/14/garage-sales-galore-boise-id/
Those should take you directly to the two posted articles by yours truly.

As for other news, I saw The Hulk last night. It was for a birthday thing. I thought it was pretty good. I never saw that other Hulk movie, so I can't really compare the two. The action is pretty cool. I have to say, however, that there were a few cheesy parts in it that made me laugh quite loud. You'll probably know them when you see them. Still, I liked it and will probably watch it again at some future date.

2008-06-10T23:40:00.000-06:00

It looks like I may have the posts up before this weekend. I just need a few more pictures and then I'll send the stuff in tomorrow morning. I'm not sure how long it'll be after I send them in until they'll be posted, but at most I'd say a few days. There's not much else to say other than I had a scrumptious dinner of fajitas. I know you are all jealous.

2008-06-10T00:01:00.001-06:00

Okay, I think I ought to have some stuff posted on http://www.onethousandthingstodo.com/ by the end of this week. If you want to read them, they'll be in the Boise, ID section.

So, my little brother and I looked around at this one thrift store that's really close to us, and we found Roller Coaster Tycoon for a few bucks. We bought it, and I must admit that I have been quite addicted to it for the past week or so. I named one of the parks Bethany Land. It is a shame that Bethany Land doesn't really exist. I would certainly go there and party. Hehe, I should name all the people there after me. Oh the things we do with spare time!

I'm trying to think of more stuff to say because if I get off of here, I'll get bored, but if I stay on here and have nothing to say I will also get bored. Either that or I'll end up playing Roller Coaster Tycoon for like 3 hours. The only problem with that is that I just played it for I think about 3 hours. So, you see that I'm in a tight spot. My only hope is to find something talk about.

Oh, I know. So, do any of you guys listen to podcasts? Well, I certainly do. They keep me entertained while I'm sorting through files for hours. If you don't listen to podcasts, then you certainly should. One of my favorites is called Writing Excuses, and it's done by these three guys. One of them is Brandon Sanderson; the other two I only know as Dan and Howard. I subscribed to this podcast first of all because I saw Brandon Sanderson was involved in it. For those of you who haven't read his books, shame on you. He wrote Elantris, which is one of my favorites. He's also written a few others which are quite good as well. I believe that he also teaches a creative writing class at BYU. But anyways, I really like the advice that they give in Writing Excuses. They have some nice tips for writers. You should check them out, really.

There are some weird animals in my backyard. My mom sprayed some pesticide on this huge bunch of ants right outside our backdoor. There were a lot of them, and now they were all dead. So, I guess the squirrels and birds came up to our door and started eating the pesticide stuff. We have to scare them away from our porch every once in a while because they come back for more. They actually like the pesticide, and it hasn't killed them yet. I would assume that too much pesticide would eventually kill them, but maybe they've mutated or something. They'll get huge, have cool Italian names, and eat pizza all the time, and it'll all be because they ate too much pesticide on my back porch.

Oh, I just remembered, when my brother and I were at the thrift store, I searched through their cd's and found one that I think I will treasure for years. It's called "The Sound of Horror." There are some amazing horror sounds on that little guy. One of my favorites is the one called 'Mad Ape,' but 'Demonic Laughter' also ranks pretty high. Then there's 'More Demonic Laughter,' which has this crazy lady laughing. Needless to say, I was entertained for quite some time.

And now, I think I'm done. I'll just watch some Lost or something. I still haven't seen the finale for the 4th season.

Good News!

2008-06-06T12:05:00.000-06:00

I have an exciting announcement today. So far, my summer has been mostly unemployed. I work part time at a private medical practice doing basically anything that they need. What they need right now is to sort through old files and send them to another location. It is quite monotonous, but I usually just take my ipod and listen to whatever while sort through files. I've been looking for another job or two to add on to this one, but haven't succeeded. That is, I hadn't succeeded until today.
Last week, when I did my usual check up on craigslist to look for available jobs, I saw one post from a blog searching for writers. I told them I was interested in applying, and apparently a bunch of other people did too. They sent out an email to everyone who applied and said that they would need three articles from each of us, and after reading them, they would decide who they wanted to join the website. I was excited to try it out. They said that the type of writing they wanted to see was casual, just like a personal journal entry. I was told numerous time at BYU this last year that my writing was sometimes too casual, so I figured this might be the perfect writing opportunity for me.
I had the weekend to do some fun stuff and write about it. Cami actually came and visited Boise that weekend (Hi Cami!), and I decided to write about some of the things we did to entertain ourselves. Two days ago, I turned them in, and the day of decision was at hand. I was a bit nervous while waiting for a response. This morning I opened my email, and there it was, just staring at me. They'd chosen me! Woohoo!
I'm so excited! Now I can do something that I really enjoy doing and get paid for it. The blog that I will be writing for is at www.onethousandthingstodo.com. I'm not sure when the articles that I sent about my exciting adventures this past weekend will be published, but I'll let you all know when I find out.

Raspberry Casualties

2008-04-29T00:17:00.000-06:00

Once again, this poem is the result of a personal experience. Just read it.

Raspberry Casualties

The toaster was jealous of me.

We had a fight.

It knew my idea was brilliant.

But you know how those toasters are.

They can't let you succeed.

It laid a trap, very devious.

And I, of course, the unsuspecting cheese

Walked right into it.

I readied the pop tarts,

A delicious raspberry flavor,

And without a second though, I popped them in.

My enemy took hold.

Its jaws snapped shut.

Only one of the two came out alive.

One never leaves a man behind,

Even if it's really just a pop tart.

I couldn't reach in and grab him.

The poor fellow was smashed against the grill,

trapped on the bottom.

I did what I had to do.

First I tried the fork, jabbing and stabbing.

Keep him intact.

Shaking and breaking,

It's not working.

I called for reinforcements.

My friend shook, and I stabbed.

It shifted positions, and then I grabbed.

The pop tart was free of its foe,

But freedom comes at a price.

There's some raspberry stuff

At the edges of the toaster's mouth.

Pop tart blood.

Out of one trap, into another.

I had to put it out of it misery.

I changed/added a few things to this one, so it might be a bit different from the way you might remember it from this last poetry night. And so, with the final poem, I end my evening.

Bang!

2008-04-28T23:57:00.000-06:00

Most of you who know me also know that I write most of my poems from personal experiences. I ate some funky toast during one of Ethan's poetry nights, which inspired my first poem, although I really felt fine after eating it. During that same poetry night, I had a lot of fun swiveling around in a really comfortable chair, hence the second poem. Natural Causes is the only one that's not from personal experience, at least it hasn't happened yet. This poem was inspired by the birds that live around my house combined with our sun room that they were so fascinated with, and has been given a few modifications since its first reading.

Bang!

Bang!

What's that noise?

Again, bang!

Bang, bang. Two at once.

I wander around the house

wondering, searching.

There it is again. Another bang!

The noise leads me into the sun room.

Two fat robins fly right at me, but are stopped

By the glass between us.

Bang!

I only saw one pair of wings fly away.

My faced strained against the glass,

I can see the other one lying on the ground, motionless.

Dead, I thought.

I follow my feet to the bird's side.

Eyes flicker and move.

Just stunned. Death flew somewhere else

today. Or fell.

A foot twitches over

And over.

I turn around to give it some space.

Maybe it just doesn't want to be watched.

But I still want to watch.

I leave.

When I return, it's gone.

It'll be back tomorrow.

Natural Causes

2008-04-28T23:50:00.000-06:00

This poem was written during a bad poetry evening with one of my brothers and some of his friends. It fit pretty well with the occasion. Also, it was right around Valentine's Day, so this poem was also written for confessing your love to that special someone. It's sure to win over the heart of its audience.

Natural Causes

With my shoe,

I stepped in some poo,

And then I saw you!

You saw me too

step in the poo.

Pew!

It's true,

I love you!

Swiveling Chair

2008-04-28T23:45:00.000-06:00

Each of my poems deserves its own little post. They're just that cool.

Swiveling Chair

What wonderful joy

And absolute pride

I find when I can move

Side to side.

Back and forth,

Side to side.

Nothing will ever

Can never compare

With the happiness that comes

From this swiveling chair.

Toast

2008-04-28T23:35:00.000-06:00

I've finally decided to write something in here, and so it begins. It seems appropriate to start out with some of my poems, which are nothing short of amazing, of course. Actually, I really have no idea what's appropriate for blogs since this is my first. I just have nothing else to say at the moment. Here's the first.

Toast

I ate some toast a while ago.

At the time, I thought it was swell,

But now I'm feeling not so well.