I've got a new job working for ADG Architects and I'm living in OKC now. ADG is the firm that did the ballpark stadium in bricktown, so that's cool. I've been here in OKC for a month now, so here's the rundown:
Home: I'm still not done unpacking. *sigh* I have less free time in my day because of a longer drive (plus getting up earlier for the drive means going to bed a little earlier). And the first couple of weeks were so exhausting that now that things have slowed down a bit, I don't want to work on anything like unpacking or decorating. I just want to relax.
The apartment complex is pretty good. Aside from the occasional blaring car radio the place seems pretty quiet. (Why is it an unwritten law that loud radios have to have rap? Why can't somebody blare something cool, like 80's pop?) My street is full of retail stores and restaurants, which is nice. I feel like I can appreciate where I am more, both my part of town and the whole city, once I get a little more settled in and explore everything the place has to offer. I mean, I've lived here a full month and I haven't even been to a mall yet! What is wrong with me!
Oh, also, my grandparents live in one of the city's suburbs, which is nice. I've already gone to visit them. My grandma fed me enchiladas! Score!
Work: As soon as I started they threw me into overtime for the first two weeks. Which was very stressful. I was learning on the fly, working late every day, plus there are all those post-move chores, like changing addresses, talking to insurance agents, talking to your bank, etc. So the first few weeks I was running at 100 mph all day every day. Very glad things are slowing down now.
The place seems pretty good. There are 40-50 employees, but I work on a team of about six. I've heard Princess Bride quotes being thrown around by my coworkers. That's a good sign. Every Friday the place provides bagels and fruit for breakfast, and there's been occasional cookies just because. Another random pro/con is that I can't go home for lunch (too far away). The con is that I have to pack a lunch before work every morning. The pro is that I use my lunch break to read, which is something I haven't been doing much of lately, and I'm glad to be back in that habit.
I'm reading Anne of Green Gables, by the way. If you want something light hearted and cute, then do read it. It's adorable.
Creative Projects: I... don't know.
I hit a sudden Trigun burnout (Woah! Gasp!) so any writing/art/whatever on that front I dropped. As for the video game, I don't know what it's fate is. A big part of me still wants to do it, but I feel like our little group lost interest and I would be left on my own if I continued with it. That's a bit daunting. For the moment, I'm just letting the project sit in hiatus-land until I'm more settled into my new home and job and ready to turn my attention to projects again.
That's about it, I guess. I'm still sort of coming down off the stress of having moved and the overtime and such. I still feel like things haven't quite become normal yet. But I'm doing good.
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
Project Wrap-ups and Naka-kon
Okay, let me start by getting this picture out of the way.
Here's Vash with his gang of Pokemon. That makes all four of the main characters, and this little series is complete! Yay!
I've also finished my stun gun. Remember how I was putting paper mache on the whole thing? It took longer than I thought it would, because when I put the paper mache on, I had to leave some parts of it dry, so it could sit on that part while the rest was drying, so I had to break it up into parts and do a part a day. (And also because I procrastinated some. But you didn't hear me say that. Sh!)
When I hit crunch time, though, I couldn't afford to do it in parts, and ended up with wet areas all over the place. I got a little creative trying to figure out how to let it dry.
Then I painted it, which went much faster than I expected (and waaaay faster than painting styrofoam goes), and so, finally, I had this.
Which is pretty much how it looked before, just with a different surface texture. I took it to Naka-kon this weekend and I'm very pleased to announce that this is the first con which I didn't have to do any repair work afterward. It got a little bumped and scraped, but nothing is loose and no paint came off. Woohoo!
Naka-kon was a lot of fun. (Of course!) I think I had fallen into a rut before hand, in which nothing existed in the universe except for my job and the internet. It was nice to have a reminder that there's a whole world out there with fun stuff to do and awesome people, and that those things make me happier than the internet does.
I won't post pictures on here, since they're already on facebook, but I will share one since I likely won't post it anywhere else. I met one of Trigun's villains, Legato, and he suggested we take a picture of me shooting him. Except I tried to kind of scowl at him and just ended up laughing.
(This guy was one of the highlights of the con for me. Not only was I really excited to see someone cosplay Legato, but he was a super nice guy. He caught sight of me the day before and told me he would be Legato on the next day, so "you should come find me and shoot me." I told him his costume was fantastic and he said, "Thanks! It makes me feel pretty. I think it's the hair.")
Okay, that's everything! Peace out!
Here's Vash with his gang of Pokemon. That makes all four of the main characters, and this little series is complete! Yay!
I've also finished my stun gun. Remember how I was putting paper mache on the whole thing? It took longer than I thought it would, because when I put the paper mache on, I had to leave some parts of it dry, so it could sit on that part while the rest was drying, so I had to break it up into parts and do a part a day. (And also because I procrastinated some. But you didn't hear me say that. Sh!)
When I hit crunch time, though, I couldn't afford to do it in parts, and ended up with wet areas all over the place. I got a little creative trying to figure out how to let it dry.
Then I painted it, which went much faster than I expected (and waaaay faster than painting styrofoam goes), and so, finally, I had this.
Which is pretty much how it looked before, just with a different surface texture. I took it to Naka-kon this weekend and I'm very pleased to announce that this is the first con which I didn't have to do any repair work afterward. It got a little bumped and scraped, but nothing is loose and no paint came off. Woohoo!
Naka-kon was a lot of fun. (Of course!) I think I had fallen into a rut before hand, in which nothing existed in the universe except for my job and the internet. It was nice to have a reminder that there's a whole world out there with fun stuff to do and awesome people, and that those things make me happier than the internet does.
I won't post pictures on here, since they're already on facebook, but I will share one since I likely won't post it anywhere else. I met one of Trigun's villains, Legato, and he suggested we take a picture of me shooting him. Except I tried to kind of scowl at him and just ended up laughing.
(This guy was one of the highlights of the con for me. Not only was I really excited to see someone cosplay Legato, but he was a super nice guy. He caught sight of me the day before and told me he would be Legato on the next day, so "you should come find me and shoot me." I told him his costume was fantastic and he said, "Thanks! It makes me feel pretty. I think it's the hair.")
Okay, that's everything! Peace out!
Saturday, December 29, 2012
I'm still doing things... sort of...
So I haven't posted in almost two months. XP
I was going to post regularly during Nanowrimo, but I didn't. I think part of that was because every time I thought that I ought to write in my blog, I told myself it would be more constructive to write on my story/story ideas. Another reason was that I didn't do too hot during Nanowrimo and I think deep down I didn't want to broadcast my floundering efforts to the world. Floundering is a good word... Like a Magikarp... Sarah used Splash! Sarah wrote 200 words. Sarah fainted.
I meant to push on through December so that I could at least claim my word count goal as a prize, even if it was late. But then we had this project of doom at work and I had to work overtime for about three weeks, and that killed me. Those were dark days in which I was chained to my desk at work, a chain with links too thick to saw through with my nail-clipper file, while someone came by once a day with a shallow bowl full of slop so that I could keep up just enough strength to keep going. I tried to send help to the outside world, but all I could do was write notes on post-it notes, fold them into paper airplanes, and then aim for the open door whenever someone came in or out.
Okay, just kidding. There was no chain, the slop was actually Christmas cookies, and I complained a lot to several people, who listened and sympathized, so that was nice of them.
Soon after the project of doom was over, I had to get ready for Christmas, and Christmas break, and for the past week I've been doing some really awesome chillaxing.
I drew a for-real, honest-to-goodness pencil drawing, but I'm at my folks' right now and I don't have a scanner, so that will get plastered on three different websites once I get home, including this one. I've had artist's block for months, so drawing again felt REALLY good.
And then there's my fanfiction. I worked on it during nanowrimo and got up to the climax. At that point, I was able to look back very clearly on what I had written and realized I had accomplished the most boring fanfiction ever to be fanfictioned. The IDEA of the story I still like. But the plotline was terrible. I decided to set it aside for the time being and come back to it with fresh eyes. In fact, in the last few days, I've been musing on it, and I've already come up with some alterations that improve things greatly.
Things on the horizon:
So, yeah, that's what's up with me these days.
Peace out!
I was going to post regularly during Nanowrimo, but I didn't. I think part of that was because every time I thought that I ought to write in my blog, I told myself it would be more constructive to write on my story/story ideas. Another reason was that I didn't do too hot during Nanowrimo and I think deep down I didn't want to broadcast my floundering efforts to the world. Floundering is a good word... Like a Magikarp... Sarah used Splash! Sarah wrote 200 words. Sarah fainted.
I meant to push on through December so that I could at least claim my word count goal as a prize, even if it was late. But then we had this project of doom at work and I had to work overtime for about three weeks, and that killed me. Those were dark days in which I was chained to my desk at work, a chain with links too thick to saw through with my nail-clipper file, while someone came by once a day with a shallow bowl full of slop so that I could keep up just enough strength to keep going. I tried to send help to the outside world, but all I could do was write notes on post-it notes, fold them into paper airplanes, and then aim for the open door whenever someone came in or out.
Okay, just kidding. There was no chain, the slop was actually Christmas cookies, and I complained a lot to several people, who listened and sympathized, so that was nice of them.
Soon after the project of doom was over, I had to get ready for Christmas, and Christmas break, and for the past week I've been doing some really awesome chillaxing.
I drew a for-real, honest-to-goodness pencil drawing, but I'm at my folks' right now and I don't have a scanner, so that will get plastered on three different websites once I get home, including this one. I've had artist's block for months, so drawing again felt REALLY good.
And then there's my fanfiction. I worked on it during nanowrimo and got up to the climax. At that point, I was able to look back very clearly on what I had written and realized I had accomplished the most boring fanfiction ever to be fanfictioned. The IDEA of the story I still like. But the plotline was terrible. I decided to set it aside for the time being and come back to it with fresh eyes. In fact, in the last few days, I've been musing on it, and I've already come up with some alterations that improve things greatly.
Things on the horizon:
- More drawings, hopefully.
- Since I'm nearly starting from scratch on the fanfiction, it will be awhile before there's anything worth sharing.
- I plan on doing some cosplay/prop tweaking before Nakakon in March.
- All-in-all, though, it's a little hard to say. I feel like the new year is a chance to make some resolutions and take care of some flaws/bad habits, so it's possible that I may not get much creative work done while I focus on some self-improvement. Also, I got a nook for Christmas, so I may not get much creative work done because I'm reading.
So, yeah, that's what's up with me these days.
Peace out!
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Fanfiction and Heroes
So...
I'm supposed to be writing a mystery story, or drawing, or cross stitching, or something like that.
Instead, Trigun was like, "I OWN YOUR SOUL!"
I've been writing fanfiction.
Oh, and, I might, maybe, kind of, might have started a tumblr... for Trigun. Tumblr seems to be the only place that the fans are active at all (it is kind of an old show, after all), so I broke down and got an account in the name of fan interaction. I won't bore you with the details of either venture, as it would only make me sound like the ridiculous fangirl that I am.
Writing fanfiction is kind of interesting, though. For a long time, I always viewed it as cheating. The characters, or the setting, or both, are already provided, so fanfiction was the "easy" way out. I held nothing against those who wrote or read it, I just felt that if I was going to take the trouble to write something, I didn't want to "cheat." I would, occassionally, write a little fanfiction myself, but it was always boredom writing and nothing that I took seriously. Then I started coming up with fanfiction ideas that I thought were really pretty good. They were good enough that I wanted to write them and do a good job. I had to sit down and have a serious talk with myself about whether or not this was acceptable behavior. I decided it was okay to have ideas, as long as I didn't take the ideas seriously enough to actually write them down. Which is sort of like saying it's okay to keep a lit cigarette in your mouth as long as you don't inhale. It's a ridiculous thing to say. Last weekend I finally inhaled.
Geez, I feel like I'm confessing a terrible decline in morals! It's only fanfiction! It's not even the dirty kind! The romance is heterosexual and G-rated, okay!?
But it feels weird to be writing something and thinking, "Is it okay that he said that? Is that out of character?" and, "Wait, I think I need to double check that. Which volume of the manga was that in?"
Once it's finished, I may post it online somewhere. Don't know yet.
---
On a different note, I'm going to take a moment to write about something a bit cathartic. It's been on my mind.
I wish when I was a kid, someone had told me that it was okay to pick fictional characters as your hero.
I always dreaded having to write about my hero in elementary school. I didn't have one. There was no single person that I idolized in any way. I would make something up about my mom or dad being my hero. I do love both of them, but I didn't idolize them. I was jealous of the kids who could write things like, "I love basketball, so Micheal Jordan is my hero," or "My uncle is in the army, so he's my hero." Maybe I've just lived a life that's too boring and sheltered to be attached to anyone cool enough to be my hero. It didn't even occur to me that I was allowed to write "The Animorphs," or anything like that. Real people listed real people as their hero. Only the total dweebs ran around saying they wanted to be batman when they grew up.
Once I got into high school, though, I started doing this thing, occasionally, where I would try channeling a fictional character in order to get a confidence boost. I remember walking through the high school and thinking about Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. I would remember that he was called "Strider" because he was long-legged and took long steps. I would lengthen my stride just a little, walking down the halls of the high school. That was enough to give me a little boost. There was one day, while I was working summers during college, when I was having a bad day at work. I started pretending to myself that I was a Time Lord (um, Time Lady?) who was just pretending to be a normal human. Working at a retail store was just part of the guise. I didn't even bother explaining to myself why I needed to pretend to be a human. I was a Time Lord. That was all that mattered. And one of the reasons I'm so infatuated with Trigun is because some of the characters were the right thing at the right time for me. That's a really long story, but I've definitely channeled Trigun before.
I recently read about a study which had some surprising results on how fictional characters effect self esteem. You can read it here, but I'll summarize for you. Some people wanted to know if men's self esteem was hurt by seeing buff guys in pop culture, similar to the way women's self esteem can be hurt by seeing skinny women on TV. They showed pictures of comic book super heroes to college age men, and then asked them to rate their happiness, give their view of their body, and take a small strength test. Guys who had an emotional attachment to the characters they were shown, outranked the rest in all three categories. So, thinking about a fictional character that you love boosts your self confidence and can even make your physically stronger.
How awesome is that?
I admit, the results might be just the same if a person were shown a picture of a real life person that they looked up to, but that doesn't really matter. What matters is that the dweeby kid running around saying he wants to be Batman when he grows up is doing himself just as much good as someone with a real person that they look up to, and probably more good than I did for myself, resigning myself to a hero-less childhood.
So if I were asked as an adult to write about someone who was my hero, I would probably end up writing about someone like Doctor Who. And I would be totally okay with that.
Peace Out, gang!
I'm supposed to be writing a mystery story, or drawing, or cross stitching, or something like that.
Instead, Trigun was like, "I OWN YOUR SOUL!"
I've been writing fanfiction.
Oh, and, I might, maybe, kind of, might have started a tumblr... for Trigun. Tumblr seems to be the only place that the fans are active at all (it is kind of an old show, after all), so I broke down and got an account in the name of fan interaction. I won't bore you with the details of either venture, as it would only make me sound like the ridiculous fangirl that I am.
Writing fanfiction is kind of interesting, though. For a long time, I always viewed it as cheating. The characters, or the setting, or both, are already provided, so fanfiction was the "easy" way out. I held nothing against those who wrote or read it, I just felt that if I was going to take the trouble to write something, I didn't want to "cheat." I would, occassionally, write a little fanfiction myself, but it was always boredom writing and nothing that I took seriously. Then I started coming up with fanfiction ideas that I thought were really pretty good. They were good enough that I wanted to write them and do a good job. I had to sit down and have a serious talk with myself about whether or not this was acceptable behavior. I decided it was okay to have ideas, as long as I didn't take the ideas seriously enough to actually write them down. Which is sort of like saying it's okay to keep a lit cigarette in your mouth as long as you don't inhale. It's a ridiculous thing to say. Last weekend I finally inhaled.
Geez, I feel like I'm confessing a terrible decline in morals! It's only fanfiction! It's not even the dirty kind! The romance is heterosexual and G-rated, okay!?
But it feels weird to be writing something and thinking, "Is it okay that he said that? Is that out of character?" and, "Wait, I think I need to double check that. Which volume of the manga was that in?"
Once it's finished, I may post it online somewhere. Don't know yet.
---
On a different note, I'm going to take a moment to write about something a bit cathartic. It's been on my mind.
I wish when I was a kid, someone had told me that it was okay to pick fictional characters as your hero.
I always dreaded having to write about my hero in elementary school. I didn't have one. There was no single person that I idolized in any way. I would make something up about my mom or dad being my hero. I do love both of them, but I didn't idolize them. I was jealous of the kids who could write things like, "I love basketball, so Micheal Jordan is my hero," or "My uncle is in the army, so he's my hero." Maybe I've just lived a life that's too boring and sheltered to be attached to anyone cool enough to be my hero. It didn't even occur to me that I was allowed to write "The Animorphs," or anything like that. Real people listed real people as their hero. Only the total dweebs ran around saying they wanted to be batman when they grew up.
Once I got into high school, though, I started doing this thing, occasionally, where I would try channeling a fictional character in order to get a confidence boost. I remember walking through the high school and thinking about Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. I would remember that he was called "Strider" because he was long-legged and took long steps. I would lengthen my stride just a little, walking down the halls of the high school. That was enough to give me a little boost. There was one day, while I was working summers during college, when I was having a bad day at work. I started pretending to myself that I was a Time Lord (um, Time Lady?) who was just pretending to be a normal human. Working at a retail store was just part of the guise. I didn't even bother explaining to myself why I needed to pretend to be a human. I was a Time Lord. That was all that mattered. And one of the reasons I'm so infatuated with Trigun is because some of the characters were the right thing at the right time for me. That's a really long story, but I've definitely channeled Trigun before.
I recently read about a study which had some surprising results on how fictional characters effect self esteem. You can read it here, but I'll summarize for you. Some people wanted to know if men's self esteem was hurt by seeing buff guys in pop culture, similar to the way women's self esteem can be hurt by seeing skinny women on TV. They showed pictures of comic book super heroes to college age men, and then asked them to rate their happiness, give their view of their body, and take a small strength test. Guys who had an emotional attachment to the characters they were shown, outranked the rest in all three categories. So, thinking about a fictional character that you love boosts your self confidence and can even make your physically stronger.
How awesome is that?
I admit, the results might be just the same if a person were shown a picture of a real life person that they looked up to, but that doesn't really matter. What matters is that the dweeby kid running around saying he wants to be Batman when he grows up is doing himself just as much good as someone with a real person that they look up to, and probably more good than I did for myself, resigning myself to a hero-less childhood.
So if I were asked as an adult to write about someone who was my hero, I would probably end up writing about someone like Doctor Who. And I would be totally okay with that.
Peace Out, gang!
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Random Stuff
Okay, I'm gonna be honest right up front. I got nothing this week. So I'm going to just ramble about random stuff, and hopefully it will all be art/writing related. Maybe you'll find it interesting. Maybe.
That story I'm working on:
I thought it would be cool to write a mystery, because I've never done that before and I've always sort of wanted to. And then I thought it would be cool to set it in Victorian England, because everybody likes Victorian mysteries, right?
So I've been swinging wildly back and forth between, "This story is going to be cool! I'm gonna rock the mystery genre, baby!" and "WHY DID I THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA!?" I don't know much about the Victorian era, and I don't know how the British police force works. (Are all detectives plain-clothes detectives? What rank do you need to be to work on a murder mystery? Do detectives have secretaries? Did women even work as secretaries in the Victorian era?) I've bought a book on the Victorian Era, by the way, which is helpful, and, honestly, pretty interesting and I'm enjoying reading it. It seems like whenever I learn something new about that time period I experience a mix of pride on their behalf, and horror. That was the era pain killer started being widely used for surgeries and childbirth and stuff. Yay! That's so great! But they didn't seem to know what exactly made for good medicine, because you could buy over-the-counter opium... for children's ear aches.
And, getting back on the topic of writing, if you know the answer to the mystery, then all the clues seem obvious to you, so how do you know which of the clues you're writing into the story are obvious and which ones aren't?
I just need to keep reminding myself that few people will ever read this story. I mean, I don't intend to try and get it published. I'm just doing it for fun and for the challenge. So if I totally crash and burn, that's okay. Right? Right.
On the subject of favorite characters:
I'm just throwing this out here, because I think maybe I'm weird about this. It's really common for me to have two favorite characters in a story: one that I really enjoyed all through the story, usually someone funny or lovable; and one that elicited the greatest emotional response out of me. So when I try to figure out who my favorite character is, I can never make up my mind. Do I pick the one who made me smile all the way through, or do I pick the one who made me cry in the end? They're both my favorite. You can do that, right? Have two favorites?
For example, in "Avatar: The Last Airbender," Sokka... (do I really want to admit this?) Sokka and I have the same sense of humor. (And now that I've started in on Korra, he's the character I miss the most.) But Zuko, of course, was the one who pulled my heartstrings. And in "Trigun," Vash is awesome in a plethora of ways, but Wolfwood hasn't so much pulled my heartstrings as gotten all tangled up in them so that he almost can't move without getting an emotional response out of me.
So now you know. I frequently have two favorites per story.
On the subject of critiquing stories:
I'm not quite sure how it happened, but somewhere along the way, I've gotten into the habit of analyzing the stories that I read and watch. What did I like? Why did I feel like that part was well done? What didn't I like? Why was that part "wrong?" How could it have been done better? I'm sure this has something to do with me writing stories myself. Sometimes I think it's a good thing, because it will make me a better writer, but sometimes I think I'm being awfully arrogant, telling the professionals what they did wrong and how they should have done it.
It's kind of a two edged-sword, because some things, when you start analyzing and critiquing them, only come out more impressive. The more you pick them apart, the more you see how well written they are. (Avatar:TLA, I'm lookin' at you! You are a heck of a well written story! I applaud you!) On the other hand, if I find too many flaws, it'll kill the story. There's a sad sad tale in my life about how I found too many things I didn't like in the Trigun movie, and now I can't hardly think about it without thinking about all the ways I want to "fix" it.
Completely random:
On Sat. Sept. 15, there's going to be a real-life Pro Bending tournament at Lake Hefner. Anyone can enter, as a team of three or individually. Individuals will be divided into teams at the event. Fire is replaced with nerf balls, earth discs are replaced with frisbees, and water is coming in the form of water balloons. I'm already signed up to be an earth bender with my sister and a friend. If anyone's interested, you can find more info, or sign up here: https://www.facebook.com/events/304327766332887/ Or you can just show up. I'm sure they won't turn you away.
Okay, done rambling. Peace out!
That story I'm working on:
I thought it would be cool to write a mystery, because I've never done that before and I've always sort of wanted to. And then I thought it would be cool to set it in Victorian England, because everybody likes Victorian mysteries, right?
So I've been swinging wildly back and forth between, "This story is going to be cool! I'm gonna rock the mystery genre, baby!" and "WHY DID I THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA!?" I don't know much about the Victorian era, and I don't know how the British police force works. (Are all detectives plain-clothes detectives? What rank do you need to be to work on a murder mystery? Do detectives have secretaries? Did women even work as secretaries in the Victorian era?) I've bought a book on the Victorian Era, by the way, which is helpful, and, honestly, pretty interesting and I'm enjoying reading it. It seems like whenever I learn something new about that time period I experience a mix of pride on their behalf, and horror. That was the era pain killer started being widely used for surgeries and childbirth and stuff. Yay! That's so great! But they didn't seem to know what exactly made for good medicine, because you could buy over-the-counter opium... for children's ear aches.
And, getting back on the topic of writing, if you know the answer to the mystery, then all the clues seem obvious to you, so how do you know which of the clues you're writing into the story are obvious and which ones aren't?
I just need to keep reminding myself that few people will ever read this story. I mean, I don't intend to try and get it published. I'm just doing it for fun and for the challenge. So if I totally crash and burn, that's okay. Right? Right.
On the subject of favorite characters:
I'm just throwing this out here, because I think maybe I'm weird about this. It's really common for me to have two favorite characters in a story: one that I really enjoyed all through the story, usually someone funny or lovable; and one that elicited the greatest emotional response out of me. So when I try to figure out who my favorite character is, I can never make up my mind. Do I pick the one who made me smile all the way through, or do I pick the one who made me cry in the end? They're both my favorite. You can do that, right? Have two favorites?
For example, in "Avatar: The Last Airbender," Sokka... (do I really want to admit this?) Sokka and I have the same sense of humor. (And now that I've started in on Korra, he's the character I miss the most.) But Zuko, of course, was the one who pulled my heartstrings. And in "Trigun," Vash is awesome in a plethora of ways, but Wolfwood hasn't so much pulled my heartstrings as gotten all tangled up in them so that he almost can't move without getting an emotional response out of me.
So now you know. I frequently have two favorites per story.
On the subject of critiquing stories:
I'm not quite sure how it happened, but somewhere along the way, I've gotten into the habit of analyzing the stories that I read and watch. What did I like? Why did I feel like that part was well done? What didn't I like? Why was that part "wrong?" How could it have been done better? I'm sure this has something to do with me writing stories myself. Sometimes I think it's a good thing, because it will make me a better writer, but sometimes I think I'm being awfully arrogant, telling the professionals what they did wrong and how they should have done it.
It's kind of a two edged-sword, because some things, when you start analyzing and critiquing them, only come out more impressive. The more you pick them apart, the more you see how well written they are. (Avatar:TLA, I'm lookin' at you! You are a heck of a well written story! I applaud you!) On the other hand, if I find too many flaws, it'll kill the story. There's a sad sad tale in my life about how I found too many things I didn't like in the Trigun movie, and now I can't hardly think about it without thinking about all the ways I want to "fix" it.
Completely random:
On Sat. Sept. 15, there's going to be a real-life Pro Bending tournament at Lake Hefner. Anyone can enter, as a team of three or individually. Individuals will be divided into teams at the event. Fire is replaced with nerf balls, earth discs are replaced with frisbees, and water is coming in the form of water balloons. I'm already signed up to be an earth bender with my sister and a friend. If anyone's interested, you can find more info, or sign up here: https://www.facebook.com/events/304327766332887/ Or you can just show up. I'm sure they won't turn you away.
Okay, done rambling. Peace out!
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Redwall Happend This Weekend.
I've found myself doing something unexpected this weekend.
Once upon a time, a long time ago, (mostly in middle school), I was completely in love with a book series titled Redwall. It has a medieval setting, but the characters are all animals. Think Disney's "Robin Hood." During that time, I would get online and do RPG's, in which I would jump on a forum, make up a character, and write stories jointly with others in which each person was responsible for writing what happened to their own character.
One of my fellow RPGers was "Aquamarine," who somehow managed to track me down years later. We've been facebook friends for a while. This weekend she invited me to join a "Redwall Party" in which she and several friends were going to do an RPG for nostalgia's sake. My first reaction was something akin to panic. "Does she know how long it's been since I've read those!? I don't remember anything! Something about mice... and I think there were squirrels and otters there, too... and swords..."
But I accepted.
We're "partying" through Monday night, so I've been spending just about all my time hanging about on this forum. Somewhere in there, I jokingly said, "I have no idea what's going on here. I'm just posting when they tell me to." Only I wasn't entirely joking. I'm holding my own pretty well, though, I think. Every time I post, someone says, "Thanks, Sarah! That was great." So, either, I'm doing well, or they're just making sure to be really nice to me.
I'm writing an otter family, by the way. A father, a son, and a daughter. At the moment, the son has been captured by the bad guys while attempting to rescue his friend, also captured by bad guys. I'm very amused that, early on, we all heard that the bad guys were planning on making the good guys play a cruel version of tug-of-war in order to win back the prisoners, and everyone immediately starts making big, burly otter characters. (But my character came first! Hipster Otter was a big, burly otter before it was cool!)
It's all very nostalgic in a very weird way.
That's all for now. Peace out!
Once upon a time, a long time ago, (mostly in middle school), I was completely in love with a book series titled Redwall. It has a medieval setting, but the characters are all animals. Think Disney's "Robin Hood." During that time, I would get online and do RPG's, in which I would jump on a forum, make up a character, and write stories jointly with others in which each person was responsible for writing what happened to their own character.
One of my fellow RPGers was "Aquamarine," who somehow managed to track me down years later. We've been facebook friends for a while. This weekend she invited me to join a "Redwall Party" in which she and several friends were going to do an RPG for nostalgia's sake. My first reaction was something akin to panic. "Does she know how long it's been since I've read those!? I don't remember anything! Something about mice... and I think there were squirrels and otters there, too... and swords..."
But I accepted.
We're "partying" through Monday night, so I've been spending just about all my time hanging about on this forum. Somewhere in there, I jokingly said, "I have no idea what's going on here. I'm just posting when they tell me to." Only I wasn't entirely joking. I'm holding my own pretty well, though, I think. Every time I post, someone says, "Thanks, Sarah! That was great." So, either, I'm doing well, or they're just making sure to be really nice to me.
I'm writing an otter family, by the way. A father, a son, and a daughter. At the moment, the son has been captured by the bad guys while attempting to rescue his friend, also captured by bad guys. I'm very amused that, early on, we all heard that the bad guys were planning on making the good guys play a cruel version of tug-of-war in order to win back the prisoners, and everyone immediately starts making big, burly otter characters. (But my character came first! Hipster Otter was a big, burly otter before it was cool!)
It's all very nostalgic in a very weird way.
That's all for now. Peace out!
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Tokyo in Tulsa
I got back from my weekend at the anime convention Tokyo in Tulsa this afternoon. I always aim to post in my blog once a week, and I was going to skip this time around because of the convention. But while I was hanging around the place I thought, "How about why I go to these crazy things?"
So, for anyone who might be curious, here are:
3 Reasons I like anime
3 Reasons I attend anime conventions
and
3 Reasons I dress up for conventions
Anime:
1. Whatever it is you like, there's anapp for that anime for that. Anime is made for all ages: little kids, older kids, teens, and adults; and there seems to be a lot of it that isn't really very age specific. Kids and adults could both watch and appreciate. Anime also seems to come in every genre imaginable: fantasy, sci-fi, drama, comedy, historical, heck, even sports, and some shows that I don't even know how to categorize. I once watched an anime version of "The Count of Monte Cristo"... sci-fi edition.
2. Anime is a window into Japanese culture. And Japanese culture is a whole different world from American culture. You'll see things that are distinctly Japanese, and they can be as small as how one character addresses another, or as big as a fantasy creature that stems from Japanese mythology. The deeper you get into anime, the more you get to learn about Japan. And the more you learn about Japan, the more you'll appreciate the things you see in the anime. It's a spiral of awesome. And learning about other countries, other cultures, and other ways of thinking is always a good thing.
3. This is something that probably applies more to me personally than it does to other people, but I think one of the reasons I like anime is that I like animation. Maybe it's because I'm an artist and like drawing. I don't know. But to me, animation is just as legitimate a way of telling a story as live action, and I appreciate the chance to see a TV show with a serious and complex storyline presented in that medium. I also think there's some freedom to animation. The special effects can go as crazy as you like, while in live action, how much and how good the special effects are is linked directly to the budget.
Conventions:
1. It's an excuse to hang out with friends. We're all so busy with our own lives, sometimes it seems like we need a date set months ahead of time in order to actually get together. Conventions give us a time and a place, and it also gives us something really interesting to do once we're together.
2. It's an escape. For a few days, you get to leave behind the "real world" and live entirely in a world that revolves around something you love and that's populated by people who love it, too. A job? What's that? I'm sorry, I forgot anything else existed besides those "Doctor Who" dalek plushies.
3. It's the only place I can find myself in large crowds without feeling uncomfortable. I'm introverted, and I find crowds exceptionally awkward. At cons we're all geeks, and we all know we're all geeks, so we're all friends here. I suspect that as geeks we're all used to being judged, or worrying about being judged, and so when we go to conventions we look around at the crowds and think, "Yes! I'm surrounded by people who understand!" (Besides, when you're in a place where adults are dressing as pokemon, it's hard to feel self-conscious.)
Cosplaying:
1. Making costumes is fun. Planning out how the costume is going to go together, busting out the sewing machine, scouring the internet for the right accessories, building props, and, of course, putting the whole thing together in the end and thinking, "Hey... I did pretty good!" It's just fun. That's just all there is to it. It's fun.
2. It's a confidence booster. Cosplays take a lot of work to put together. Sometimes, they take a lot lot of work. Then you hear, "I like your cosplay! You look great!" "Can I have a picture of you?" "Wow, did you make that yourself? Awesome!"
3. It's a chance to express myself. I'm used to getting really into to things that everyone else either hasn't heard of, or doesn't get; and often the worry of one or the other keeps me from talking about it or doing things that openly show my love for it. Cosplaying is a way of openly showing my love for something. And on top of that, I get to connect with other people who like the same thing I do, even if it's just briefly enough to give me a compliment. When someone says, "I like your cosplay!" what I hear is, "You know that thing you're too afraid to talk about because people will think you're a dork, even though you really love it? I love it, too."
---
By the way, here's my friends and I in our My Little Pony costumes. This is the best picture I have showing the full costumes of all three of us, although I think the picture is pretty hilarious because Twilight (purple) looks like she's about to go postal on Pinkie Pie (pink).
Here's Twilight and Pinkie Pie for reference.
---
Okay, done rambling. Peace out!
So, for anyone who might be curious, here are:
3 Reasons I like anime
3 Reasons I attend anime conventions
and
3 Reasons I dress up for conventions
Anime:
1. Whatever it is you like, there's an
2. Anime is a window into Japanese culture. And Japanese culture is a whole different world from American culture. You'll see things that are distinctly Japanese, and they can be as small as how one character addresses another, or as big as a fantasy creature that stems from Japanese mythology. The deeper you get into anime, the more you get to learn about Japan. And the more you learn about Japan, the more you'll appreciate the things you see in the anime. It's a spiral of awesome. And learning about other countries, other cultures, and other ways of thinking is always a good thing.
3. This is something that probably applies more to me personally than it does to other people, but I think one of the reasons I like anime is that I like animation. Maybe it's because I'm an artist and like drawing. I don't know. But to me, animation is just as legitimate a way of telling a story as live action, and I appreciate the chance to see a TV show with a serious and complex storyline presented in that medium. I also think there's some freedom to animation. The special effects can go as crazy as you like, while in live action, how much and how good the special effects are is linked directly to the budget.
Conventions:
1. It's an excuse to hang out with friends. We're all so busy with our own lives, sometimes it seems like we need a date set months ahead of time in order to actually get together. Conventions give us a time and a place, and it also gives us something really interesting to do once we're together.
2. It's an escape. For a few days, you get to leave behind the "real world" and live entirely in a world that revolves around something you love and that's populated by people who love it, too. A job? What's that? I'm sorry, I forgot anything else existed besides those "Doctor Who" dalek plushies.
3. It's the only place I can find myself in large crowds without feeling uncomfortable. I'm introverted, and I find crowds exceptionally awkward. At cons we're all geeks, and we all know we're all geeks, so we're all friends here. I suspect that as geeks we're all used to being judged, or worrying about being judged, and so when we go to conventions we look around at the crowds and think, "Yes! I'm surrounded by people who understand!" (Besides, when you're in a place where adults are dressing as pokemon, it's hard to feel self-conscious.)
Cosplaying:
1. Making costumes is fun. Planning out how the costume is going to go together, busting out the sewing machine, scouring the internet for the right accessories, building props, and, of course, putting the whole thing together in the end and thinking, "Hey... I did pretty good!" It's just fun. That's just all there is to it. It's fun.
2. It's a confidence booster. Cosplays take a lot of work to put together. Sometimes, they take a lot lot of work. Then you hear, "I like your cosplay! You look great!" "Can I have a picture of you?" "Wow, did you make that yourself? Awesome!"
3. It's a chance to express myself. I'm used to getting really into to things that everyone else either hasn't heard of, or doesn't get; and often the worry of one or the other keeps me from talking about it or doing things that openly show my love for it. Cosplaying is a way of openly showing my love for something. And on top of that, I get to connect with other people who like the same thing I do, even if it's just briefly enough to give me a compliment. When someone says, "I like your cosplay!" what I hear is, "You know that thing you're too afraid to talk about because people will think you're a dork, even though you really love it? I love it, too."
---
By the way, here's my friends and I in our My Little Pony costumes. This is the best picture I have showing the full costumes of all three of us, although I think the picture is pretty hilarious because Twilight (purple) looks like she's about to go postal on Pinkie Pie (pink).
---
Okay, done rambling. Peace out!
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Friday, December 16, 2011
Presents for Architects
A coworker emailed a blog post to me this week that I'd like to share titled "How to buy a present for an architect." Despite being in architecture, I've never shared anything about it here on my blog. That's mostly because I tend to consider myself an artist who happens to be working in architecture. Being in the business has given me an appreciation for it, but my muse doesn't naturally lean toward buildings, interior design, and landscaping. It leans towards people, fantasy creatures, and settings of a more wild and fantastical nature.
However, artists and architects are close cousins, and so the stereotypes of all the creative professions tend to resemble each other. So, for the curious, here is a peak into the stereotypical mind of an architect.
However, artists and architects are close cousins, and so the stereotypes of all the creative professions tend to resemble each other. So, for the curious, here is a peak into the stereotypical mind of an architect.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Update on Life
I want to do a followup on that icky-yucky birth control situation I talked about a while back.
The gist of it is: everything is okay now. I'm not crying for no good reason anymore. Life has calmed down again. Yaaaaaay!
I definitely want to tell everyone "thank you" for all of the comments, suggestions, and sympathy I received during that. Depression is a lonely lonely place to be, and you have no idea how grateful I was to see people caring enough to listen to my misery and try to help, even if helping was a short reply saying, "I had a friend who had that happen." Even that much helped. Thank you. Seriously. Thank you.
If you want to hear me ramble about how things turned out, and possibly sound a bit silly, and that sort of thing, feel free to keep reading.
The gist of it is: everything is okay now. I'm not crying for no good reason anymore. Life has calmed down again. Yaaaaaay!
I definitely want to tell everyone "thank you" for all of the comments, suggestions, and sympathy I received during that. Depression is a lonely lonely place to be, and you have no idea how grateful I was to see people caring enough to listen to my misery and try to help, even if helping was a short reply saying, "I had a friend who had that happen." Even that much helped. Thank you. Seriously. Thank you.
If you want to hear me ramble about how things turned out, and possibly sound a bit silly, and that sort of thing, feel free to keep reading.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)