I would go to the Wizard, shove between the orphan, lion, tin man, and scarecrow, fall to my knees and beg for a time machine.
I just wish I hadn't done that play; maybe then I wouldn't be so inclined to burn away my free hours with the most useless entertainment, scavenging for time to stare dead-eyed into space like it's water on Arrakis. I haven't done the bare minimum, and all I can do is make lame excuses. People have done marching band alongside multiple AP classes and still survived. I should have been able to breeze through the reading quota, but I didn't. Too late for that now.
I had to read 7/8 of Dune over a single weekend for an AP essay. Without thinking about it, I went into the walk-in closet in the spare room, pulled a few blankets and pillows into a nest, found some leftover Halloween candy, and finished a good half of the book in about 8 hours in the complete silence gotten from two layers of doors. I think I'll leave the closet that way.
The only reason I stayed with ItWNY was pure pride, but I was less inclined to continue reading things that should have caught my interest. But in either case, I never wanted to stop reading in the middle to check the Internet or anything similar. I hate being interrupted, even if I'm not doing anything particularly enjoyable.
Did I seriously use a reference to a sci-fi novel in an analogy? Kull wahad, I've become an official fangirl for a work of fiction.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Fourfield and Nav 101
I had intended to look for the book with my dad, but he beat me to it, wordlessly handing me the text. It had survived the "great flood of '06," when the sump pump stopped working and the basement was filled with about a foot of water, but not without a few... alterations. The sleeve, covered in wire-frame depictions of hypercubes, Penrose tessellations, and wormholes, was stained with the blue dye from the cover, which was warped and crooked, and the pages were yellowed and wrinkled and stuck together near the spine in some places, forcing me to pick my way through a few sections with the utmost care and concentration. I tried not to think too hard about some deep, symbolic meaning behind all this as I began to read Fourfield: Computers, Art, & the 4th Dimension by Tony Robbin.
I started reading it hoping for some help for my story, which involves beings who can move freely through time via the fourth dimension. While I did get a bit of help, this book has mostly opened my eyes to the unity of art, mathematics, and science, which in turn has further complicated my choices for a major and a college. I love science, but I also love art and writing, and I'd hate to have to choose between one or the other. That piece of crap Nav 101 isn't doing anything to help and, in fact, makes it infuriating to find colleges that fit one's interests. The last time I used it, I decided to look up colleges with good architecture departments and two of the colleges it suggested were Princeton and Harvard. No s---, Sherlock! But let me ask you, what random idiot's going to get into Princeton, especially one who doesn't throw down Nav 101 in a frustrated rage after it gives him some meaningless, condescending "good job!" for answering useless questions for the billionth time in a row? It just makes me sick. I wonder what their business model is if they have to pay schools to make them use it? My idea is that they're a secret front for otherworldly creatures who feed of the despair and exasperation of high schoolers. Yeah. That sounds about right.
I started reading it hoping for some help for my story, which involves beings who can move freely through time via the fourth dimension. While I did get a bit of help, this book has mostly opened my eyes to the unity of art, mathematics, and science, which in turn has further complicated my choices for a major and a college. I love science, but I also love art and writing, and I'd hate to have to choose between one or the other. That piece of crap Nav 101 isn't doing anything to help and, in fact, makes it infuriating to find colleges that fit one's interests. The last time I used it, I decided to look up colleges with good architecture departments and two of the colleges it suggested were Princeton and Harvard. No s---, Sherlock! But let me ask you, what random idiot's going to get into Princeton, especially one who doesn't throw down Nav 101 in a frustrated rage after it gives him some meaningless, condescending "good job!" for answering useless questions for the billionth time in a row? It just makes me sick. I wonder what their business model is if they have to pay schools to make them use it? My idea is that they're a secret front for otherworldly creatures who feed of the despair and exasperation of high schoolers. Yeah. That sounds about right.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Currently-- September 30, 2011
Reading--
Fourfield: Computers, Art, & the 4th Dimension-- Tony Robbin
Sentences of the week--
1. "This sphere has a quasicrystal interior of lightweight metal and is covered by stretched canvas. It can support a full-grown artist."
2. "Computers, housing-- such things were too important to be the exclusive province of 'Them.' Discover and employ the secrets of geometry for yourself, to empower the people."
3. "Magic is only a technology that we do not understand."
I've given up on Alchemist's Door. It's not bad, but it just hasn't caught my attention enough for me to keep picking it up again. I don't know why, but terrible books are easier for me to get through than mediocre ones.
All these are taken from Fourfield. It's a wonderful little book that attempts to provide a connection between math and art. The first quote is a caption for a picture that I'll have to scan and post here eventually. It shows the author sitting on the described sphere with this delightfully smug expression, as if he's saying, "Yeah, I'm sitting on quasicrystals. What are you going to do about it?" The second is describing the philosophy of Steve Baer, who dropped out of college when doing so was a statement of self-reliance. He built structures that used dodecahedral joints, which were astounding because it was different from not only what scientists at the time were doing, but nature as well. However, with the discovery of quasicrystals, we now know that such figures could possibly be found in nature. The third quote is something that, as a writer of fantasy and science fiction, I think about all too often. When designing stories that shouldn't have any science at all, I find myself trying to explain fantastical things that most writers simply brush off as "magic; don't ask." It just caught me off-guard and made me smile a bit when I found it elsewhere.
Pages this week: 111
Pages this semester: 407
Fourfield: Computers, Art, & the 4th Dimension-- Tony Robbin
Sentences of the week--
1. "This sphere has a quasicrystal interior of lightweight metal and is covered by stretched canvas. It can support a full-grown artist."
2. "Computers, housing-- such things were too important to be the exclusive province of 'Them.' Discover and employ the secrets of geometry for yourself, to empower the people."
3. "Magic is only a technology that we do not understand."
I've given up on Alchemist's Door. It's not bad, but it just hasn't caught my attention enough for me to keep picking it up again. I don't know why, but terrible books are easier for me to get through than mediocre ones.
All these are taken from Fourfield. It's a wonderful little book that attempts to provide a connection between math and art. The first quote is a caption for a picture that I'll have to scan and post here eventually. It shows the author sitting on the described sphere with this delightfully smug expression, as if he's saying, "Yeah, I'm sitting on quasicrystals. What are you going to do about it?" The second is describing the philosophy of Steve Baer, who dropped out of college when doing so was a statement of self-reliance. He built structures that used dodecahedral joints, which were astounding because it was different from not only what scientists at the time were doing, but nature as well. However, with the discovery of quasicrystals, we now know that such figures could possibly be found in nature. The third quote is something that, as a writer of fantasy and science fiction, I think about all too often. When designing stories that shouldn't have any science at all, I find myself trying to explain fantastical things that most writers simply brush off as "magic; don't ask." It just caught me off-guard and made me smile a bit when I found it elsewhere.
Pages this week: 111
Pages this semester: 407
Friday, September 23, 2011
Currently-- September 23, 2011
Sentences of the month--
"Xavier has more abs than you ever will, Edward Cullen!" -- Emily Spatt, over deviantART
I can't help it. Just because it's absolutely true.
"Save the children! Put the phone through the shredder." -- My dad
Trolldads are the best dads. He even wears a fedora.
"Vell, aren't you the paragon of comvort!" he growled. "Here I am, heartbroken and zlightly snockered, and some impudent little 13-year-old bursts in here and starts lekturing me about my personal business!" --Professor Lawrence from The Hollows by my good friend Chloe.
Because stories don't have to be professional to be awesome. I'll join the elite group of amateur authors, too... eventually.
"WIDOW: And so handsome, too!"
I'm staying in character a little better recently, but I'm also modifying the expression to make it even more hilarious. This should be interesting.
Pages this week: (I've been reading Gulliver's Travels on my Nook and I need to count the pages)
Pages this semester: 296 (Plus some)
"Xavier has more abs than you ever will, Edward Cullen!" -- Emily Spatt, over deviantART
I can't help it. Just because it's absolutely true.
"Save the children! Put the phone through the shredder." -- My dad
Trolldads are the best dads. He even wears a fedora.
"Vell, aren't you the paragon of comvort!" he growled. "Here I am, heartbroken and zlightly snockered, and some impudent little 13-year-old bursts in here and starts lekturing me about my personal business!" --Professor Lawrence from The Hollows by my good friend Chloe.
Because stories don't have to be professional to be awesome. I'll join the elite group of amateur authors, too... eventually.
"WIDOW: And so handsome, too!"
I'm staying in character a little better recently, but I'm also modifying the expression to make it even more hilarious. This should be interesting.
Pages this week: (I've been reading Gulliver's Travels on my Nook and I need to count the pages)
Pages this semester: 296 (Plus some)
Sentences
In this electrifying poster for the film 300, splashes of blood, open-mouthed screams of rage and anguish, and determined, hostile facial expressions deliver impressive feelings of wrath, exhilaration, and bloodshed that are sure to be felt in the heat of battle.
--InsideOut blog
Choice 1. I just thought that choosing 300 in the first place was incredibly awesome. Also, the description "in the dead of night" got that one song from Anastasia in my head. "In the dark of the night, evil will find you (ooh aah ooh!)"
In the song "Your Love Is A Song" by the band Switchfoot, the pensive, tenacious air of the lyrics, along with the mellow drum and guitar accompaniment and the powerful, husky, and dreamlike quality of the singer's vocals combine to evoke an overwhelming sense of breathlessness and euphoria surrounding the song's subject, a love so solemn and earnest it becomes the singer's reason for living.
--On Paper Wings blog
Choice 2. I really liked the expression in the second half of the sentence. "...[A]n overwhelming sense of breathlessness and euphoria" was particularly striking.
[In this scene from Vincent van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night , his colorful and exciting use of setting, busy but pleasant mood, and inviting cozy buildings]
portrays [a sense of playful benevolence and lighthearted liveliness.]
--phyllis blog
--InsideOut blog
Choice 1. I just thought that choosing 300 in the first place was incredibly awesome. Also, the description "in the dead of night" got that one song from Anastasia in my head. "In the dark of the night, evil will find you (ooh aah ooh!)"
In the song "Your Love Is A Song" by the band Switchfoot, the pensive, tenacious air of the lyrics, along with the mellow drum and guitar accompaniment and the powerful, husky, and dreamlike quality of the singer's vocals combine to evoke an overwhelming sense of breathlessness and euphoria surrounding the song's subject, a love so solemn and earnest it becomes the singer's reason for living.
--On Paper Wings blog
Choice 2. I really liked the expression in the second half of the sentence. "...[A]n overwhelming sense of breathlessness and euphoria" was particularly striking.
[In this scene from Vincent van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night , his colorful and exciting use of setting, busy but pleasant mood, and inviting cozy buildings]
portrays [a sense of playful benevolence and lighthearted liveliness.]
--phyllis blog
Currently- September 16, 2011
Reading-
The Alchemist's Door- Lisa Goldstein
Sentences of the week-
"SPRAGUE: Goodness throbbed in the hearts of them boys! There was a quality 'bout them..an essence that made folks aware of 'em..
(Flashback, a few lines later)
WILLIE: (To Huckleberry Finn) (Grimacing) Oh, they were sure right. You DO have a perfume all yer own!"
"POLLY: I ain't never lambasted you like I done Tom but there's a first time for everythin'!"
"WIDOW: And so handsome, too!"
All these quotes are from a stage adaption of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by the wonderful director and playwright Harvey Cocks for the Fort Wayne Youtheatre. Youtheatre is a wonderful project that allows young people to gain acting experience outside of school in an environment that is very similar to professional theater. Harvey is the best director such a program could have. He's kind and patient with young children and has an astoundingly diverse professional acting experience that he uses to teach the actors. I've been in a few plays with him before and they've all been great successes. This production of Tom Sawyer will be performed at the Civic Theater building on October 8 and 9 at 2:00. Youtheatre is in desperate need of funding, so please help keep this program alive by attending the play. It's bunches of fun and it adheres quite well to the book for those who are uptight about that sort of thing.
Quote 1: I just found the wording quite witty. It won't be so easy to catch just watching the play, I think, but when I read the script I thought that was really clever.
Quote 2: I play Aunt Polly and I just love saying "lambasted" with a Southern accent. It sounds like "layamb-bassted."
Quote 3: A few of us, when this line is said, have to stand up quickly and give the Widow a dirty look. I have this one angry-looking face I do that seems to make everyone laugh, so that face was my first idea for a "dirty look." A few of my friends who are offstage during this scene always barely control their laughter, and that always makes me break character and hide my big, stupid grin behind my hand.
Pages this week: 40
Pages this semester: 296
The Alchemist's Door- Lisa Goldstein
Sentences of the week-
"SPRAGUE: Goodness throbbed in the hearts of them boys! There was a quality 'bout them..an essence that made folks aware of 'em..
(Flashback, a few lines later)
WILLIE: (To Huckleberry Finn) (Grimacing) Oh, they were sure right. You DO have a perfume all yer own!"
"POLLY: I ain't never lambasted you like I done Tom but there's a first time for everythin'!"
"WIDOW: And so handsome, too!"
All these quotes are from a stage adaption of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by the wonderful director and playwright Harvey Cocks for the Fort Wayne Youtheatre. Youtheatre is a wonderful project that allows young people to gain acting experience outside of school in an environment that is very similar to professional theater. Harvey is the best director such a program could have. He's kind and patient with young children and has an astoundingly diverse professional acting experience that he uses to teach the actors. I've been in a few plays with him before and they've all been great successes. This production of Tom Sawyer will be performed at the Civic Theater building on October 8 and 9 at 2:00. Youtheatre is in desperate need of funding, so please help keep this program alive by attending the play. It's bunches of fun and it adheres quite well to the book for those who are uptight about that sort of thing.
Quote 1: I just found the wording quite witty. It won't be so easy to catch just watching the play, I think, but when I read the script I thought that was really clever.
Quote 2: I play Aunt Polly and I just love saying "lambasted" with a Southern accent. It sounds like "layamb-bassted."
Quote 3: A few of us, when this line is said, have to stand up quickly and give the Widow a dirty look. I have this one angry-looking face I do that seems to make everyone laugh, so that face was my first idea for a "dirty look." A few of my friends who are offstage during this scene always barely control their laughter, and that always makes me break character and hide my big, stupid grin behind my hand.
Pages this week: 40
Pages this semester: 296
Monday, September 19, 2011
Gratuitous Verbosity
Observations--
Presentation: Creative, widely-seen,
Execution: Collaborative, modern, rebellious, controlled
Message: Modest, self-reflexive, referential,
Purpose: Demonstrative, flattering, attention-seeking, nose-thumbing
Inferences-- Deriding, ominous, villainous, unconstrained, taunting
Sentence--
In the hacking of TIME Magazine's 2009 TIME 100 list, Anonymous perform rebellious yet modern and collaborative shenanigans in an effort to deride TIME, flatter the creator of their idol, and demonstrate their villainous capabilities by rigging the list to place moot at the top and make the first letters of the subsequent first names spell out a message both referential to Anonymous itself and taunting to those reading the message.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
I'm a lazy bum
Because all I'm doing is reading webcomics when I need to be reading an actual book-- oh, hello, blog post idea; I didn't see you there. I guess it's time for some webcomic reviews after the jump!
Friday, September 2, 2011
Currently-- September 2, 2011
Reading--
The Alchemist's Door-Lisa Goldstein
Sentences of the Week--
"Vell, aren't you the paragon of comvort!" he growled. "Here I am, heartbroken and zlightly snockered, and some impudent little 13-year-old bursts in here and starts lekturing me about my personal business!" --Professor Lawrence from The Hollows by my good friend Chloe.
Only one quote this time. I fully realize how lame an excuse this is, but Into the Wild Nerd Yonder just made me so adverse to reading that I could barely even bring myself to check Facebook. I'm just relieved that I'm through with it. And no, it did not get better. But I'll leave that for a later post.
The quote is posted here because "snockered" is a real word, no matter what the Firefox spellchecker says, which means "drunk." It is also the greatest word. Professor Lawrence has a German accent, by the way, so that's why the spelling is a bit off.
Pages this week: 62
Pages this semester: 256
The Alchemist's Door-Lisa Goldstein
Sentences of the Week--
"Vell, aren't you the paragon of comvort!" he growled. "Here I am, heartbroken and zlightly snockered, and some impudent little 13-year-old bursts in here and starts lekturing me about my personal business!" --Professor Lawrence from The Hollows by my good friend Chloe.
Only one quote this time. I fully realize how lame an excuse this is, but Into the Wild Nerd Yonder just made me so adverse to reading that I could barely even bring myself to check Facebook. I'm just relieved that I'm through with it. And no, it did not get better. But I'll leave that for a later post.
The quote is posted here because "snockered" is a real word, no matter what the Firefox spellchecker says, which means "drunk." It is also the greatest word. Professor Lawrence has a German accent, by the way, so that's why the spelling is a bit off.
Pages this week: 62
Pages this semester: 256
Friday
Let's not get down on Friday. I'm sort of tired. And it's the Friday after when I was supposed to post this anyway, so I should probably shut up now.
So according to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, I'm an INTP (Introverted Intuitive Thinking Perceiving) type, or as so frivolously put by Keirsey.com, an "Architect." For the most part, I agree with Keirsey's definition of my type, except that I'm completely useless in arguments. It may have to do with the fact that I never talk, or that I grew up in a household with one and a half English speakers, which I'm quite sure has permanently diminished both my ability to create coherent sentences at a reasonable pace and my confidence in doing such things, but either way I get utterly tongue-tied as soon as anyone throws me the tiniest curveball that I didn't have a precise plan for.
So according to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, I'm an INTP (Introverted Intuitive Thinking Perceiving) type, or as so frivolously put by Keirsey.com, an "Architect." For the most part, I agree with Keirsey's definition of my type, except that I'm completely useless in arguments. It may have to do with the fact that I never talk, or that I grew up in a household with one and a half English speakers, which I'm quite sure has permanently diminished both my ability to create coherent sentences at a reasonable pace and my confidence in doing such things, but either way I get utterly tongue-tied as soon as anyone throws me the tiniest curveball that I didn't have a precise plan for.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Currently- August 26, 2011
Reading--
Into the Wild Nerd Yonder-Julie Halpern (GOD I'm almost done OTL)
The Alchemist's Door-Lisa Goldstein
Sentences of the Week--
1. "Xavier has more abs than you ever will, Edward Cullen!" -- Emily Spats, over deviantART
2. "Save the children! Put the phone through the shredder." -- My dad
There is nothing quotable in ITWNY. Since it was the only thing I could get myself to read this whole week, the reason being that the book makes me want to never read again, I don't have anything to share this week that could inspire the world's enlightenment. There's quite a story behind the first quote. I won't explain Xavier, mostly to keep even more people from fleeing this blog, but he's one of my sci-fi characters who is-- put simply-- completely ripped. The best part is, he doesn't sparkle. Deal with it, fairy boy. The second quote can be found in my Tumblr: thereisall.tumblr.com. I never update that thing, but it's useful for sharing pictures without giving my dA to people I don't like.
Page count--
This week: 194
This semester: 194
Into the Wild Nerd Yonder-Julie Halpern (GOD I'm almost done OTL)
The Alchemist's Door-Lisa Goldstein
Sentences of the Week--
1. "Xavier has more abs than you ever will, Edward Cullen!" -- Emily Spats, over deviantART
2. "Save the children! Put the phone through the shredder." -- My dad
There is nothing quotable in ITWNY. Since it was the only thing I could get myself to read this whole week, the reason being that the book makes me want to never read again, I don't have anything to share this week that could inspire the world's enlightenment. There's quite a story behind the first quote. I won't explain Xavier, mostly to keep even more people from fleeing this blog, but he's one of my sci-fi characters who is-- put simply-- completely ripped. The best part is, he doesn't sparkle. Deal with it, fairy boy. The second quote can be found in my Tumblr: thereisall.tumblr.com. I never update that thing, but it's useful for sharing pictures without giving my dA to people I don't like.
Page count--
This week: 194
This semester: 194
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
I'm never looking at mockingbirds the same way again
I would put it in my poetry journal, but I think everything I associate with school in any way is supposed to be negative G rated.
It's from Ted. What more do I have to say?
Monday, August 22, 2011
Into the Bad Book Yonder
I had always compared the fiction section in the far corner of the school library to a set of gills, as the shelves, which at 5'7" plus a bit in my clunky shoes I can easily see just over, are crammed so tightly together that two people can only squeeze uncomfortably past one another, so my tiny, nagging seed of agoraphobia was urging me to get what I needed and get out before anyone wanted something from the same place I was. It was my little free time before school and I was hunched over like a vulture to peer at the names, specifically "Gaiman," when I happened to glance at a bit of fancy-looking gold letters crammed upright into the space the black spine allowed, reading "The Alchemist's Door."
I slid the book out of its place. A good portion of the blurb on the back cover was obscured by the library's bar code, but what little I could read, among which were demon, ancient, chaos, magic, and sixteenth century, said it was exactly what I was looking for, and I tucked it under my arm and was about to head off before I remembered what my Etymology teacher told us about our book choices for his class: anything outside our comfort zone. So I paused and once more hunched over, fingers twitching over the spines before they happened upon a purple-and-pink title in a staggered size: "Into the Wild Nerd..." Another library sticker covered the rest. I pulled the book out and examined the hot-pink cover decorated with repeated drawings of a 20-sided die scattered behind another drawing of a corseted dress. Into the Wild Nerd Yonder: My Life on the Dork Side, it said. I scanned the blurb and decided that my selection was sufficiently not what I was looking for, so I left the shelves and checked out my books, fully intent on reading the worse one first.
I slid the book out of its place. A good portion of the blurb on the back cover was obscured by the library's bar code, but what little I could read, among which were demon, ancient, chaos, magic, and sixteenth century, said it was exactly what I was looking for, and I tucked it under my arm and was about to head off before I remembered what my Etymology teacher told us about our book choices for his class: anything outside our comfort zone. So I paused and once more hunched over, fingers twitching over the spines before they happened upon a purple-and-pink title in a staggered size: "Into the Wild Nerd..." Another library sticker covered the rest. I pulled the book out and examined the hot-pink cover decorated with repeated drawings of a 20-sided die scattered behind another drawing of a corseted dress. Into the Wild Nerd Yonder: My Life on the Dork Side, it said. I scanned the blurb and decided that my selection was sufficiently not what I was looking for, so I left the shelves and checked out my books, fully intent on reading the worse one first.
So. I guess this is a blog.
Instead of diving headfirst into the book review I'm planning, I might as well not frighten off most of my potential readers after their first glance at this thing and introduce myself. On this wonderful Internet, I am Keotis, Chaos Rose/Rising, or Missing Velociraptor, depending largely on how old or unimaginative I was at the time of the account's creation. If you recognize any of those names, please feel free to send me angry letters and/or window-bricks, especially if I ditched a role play at the last minute.
My interests include procrastinating on writing short stories until the day of our Creative Writing Club meetings, promising my voice teacher to practice and never getting around to it, being angry at myself for not being able to draw better, thinking about getting around to writing that novel that I may or may not be planning, wishing that I had tried out for that play, feeling guilty about not finishing the craft that my friend asked for a year ago, and just generally being a lazy bum who pretends to be smart by raving about relativity theory like I know something.
I'm the person who sits in the corner and reads the coffee table books during parties. I'm the person who knows most of the answers but never raises her hand because she's not quite sure and knows better than to speak out of line. I'm the weirdo, the doodler, and the one who writes numbers on her hand so she can have lucid dreams. I am a mental astronaut. I am a general of pens. I am an architect of blanket forts. And here, I am Missing Velociraptor. Welcome to the fort.
My interests include procrastinating on writing short stories until the day of our Creative Writing Club meetings, promising my voice teacher to practice and never getting around to it, being angry at myself for not being able to draw better, thinking about getting around to writing that novel that I may or may not be planning, wishing that I had tried out for that play, feeling guilty about not finishing the craft that my friend asked for a year ago, and just generally being a lazy bum who pretends to be smart by raving about relativity theory like I know something.
I'm the person who sits in the corner and reads the coffee table books during parties. I'm the person who knows most of the answers but never raises her hand because she's not quite sure and knows better than to speak out of line. I'm the weirdo, the doodler, and the one who writes numbers on her hand so she can have lucid dreams. I am a mental astronaut. I am a general of pens. I am an architect of blanket forts. And here, I am Missing Velociraptor. Welcome to the fort.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)