Archive for the ‘Living and Life’ Category

Doing A Little Work With John Milton

Posted: November 28, 2012 in Living and Life, Poetry, Reflections
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This picture look familiar?

I’m a huge fan of Paradise Lost, ever since we read some of it for class last spring. I enjoyed it so much, I asked my mom to buy me my own personal copy for my birthday, and she did, one with essays and critiques on Paradise Lost and its author John Milton. And this semseter, my documentary teacher gave us two assignments: the first assignment being we had to do a Powerpoint slideshow based on research we did concerning a particular work of literary fiction, and then afterwards create our own book based on pages taken from the book we used for our Powerpoint project (yeah, wierd for a doucmentary course, I know). Since the book we used had to be something that’s a great piece of literature, something that has been looked over by many scholars over the years, I ended up doing PL just because I wanted to break it out again (though thankfully the second assignment hasn’t involved me ripping out pages from my personal copy of PL).

And now I have some free time on my hands, so I’m going to do some editing, and then if there’s time after that before my next class, I’ll work a little bit on Snake just to relax. And guess what? I got Paradise Lost on audiobook, so I’ll be able to test whether audiobooks make great background noise for writing like political debates, hypnosis tracks, and spirituality lectures do. Here’s hoping it works, and that I don’t absorb some of the poetry subconsciously when I thought I hadn’t been paying attention and start to act too proud and pompous.

Football Season 2012: Ohio State Is Undefeated!!!

Posted: November 24, 2012 in Living and Life
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Aha, this is my school! All the Bucks are awesome and cool! Few times we run the ball, and we didn’t lose at all, ’cause we ain’t no 3rd string team! We ain’t no 3rd string team.

Oh come let’s sing Ohio’s praise
And songs to Alma Mater raise
While our hearts rebounding thrill
With joy which death alone can still
Summer’s heat or winter’s cold
The seasons pass the years will roll
Time and change will surely show
How firm thy friendship … OHIO!

Oh, I just love Carmen Ohio, don’t you! Today Ohio State beat University of Michigan 26-21 in the fourth quarter, officially ending football season for Ohio State and securing us a 12-0 season. Honestly, when the game was over I wanted to rush over to Ohio Stadium and just give Urban Meyer, our head coach just coming off his first season, a big old hug! Thanks Coach Meyer!

Now I will admit, there were several plays, both this game and other games, that Ohio State made some really stupid mistakes that almost cost us the game. However, Coach Meyer really trained us hard, and we came back from a previous season that no one wants to remember to becoming an awesome team. If this year we were undefeated with a bunch of mistakes, how will we do next year?

And even if we don’t get to play in a Bowl Game because we’re still on probation, it’s still quite the season to remember don’t you think? So O-H, go Bucks, and I can’t wait for next year!

Oh, and if you’re wondering why I’m talking like I’m on the football team even though I’m not, let’s just say it’s an Ohio State thing where everyone acts like they’re a part of the game, a part of the team, a part of Ohio State. It’s strange I know, but it’s a thing we do, and I’m guessing it arose out of that famous Midwestern America hospitality.

Or it could be I’m completely wrong. I have no idea.

We All Can Take Different Levels of Disturbing

Posted: November 22, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections, Scary Stuff
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“Where is the one who killed me? I want my revenge!”

This evening after Thanksgiving dinner, some of my family and I settled down to watch The Hunger Games movie (which is kind of ironic, and not just because there’s a big metal structure in the arena called “the cornucopia”). All those in the room under the age of twenty had already seen the movie, while the adults–my dad and his wife, my uncle Tom and my aunt Tiina (and the “uncle” and “aunt” part is lowercase because I don’t call them “Aunt” or “Uncle” and they’re fine with that, for those of you wondering. And no, that’s not their real names)–had never seen this movie or read the books (except  my dad’s wife Michelle, but she hasn’t read the second book yet). The younger generation loved the movie of course, and most of them screamed during the scary parts, even if they’d already seen the movie. The older generation though…they didn’t get the film. Tina and Tom asked several times, “What’s the point of this movie? Why do teens find it so appealing?”

Well, if you don’t get dystopia’s appeal to teens and young adults, then there’s just no reason to explain it to you. But I’m digressing from what I really wanted to talk about in this post, and that’s indicated by the title of it.

During the course of the movie, some people like myself could handle the blood, gore and violence, while others who will go nameless were screaming or covering their eyes everytime someone died. What does this say? Obviously, that some people are okay with the macabre and terrifying, while others do fine without it. And it’s important to know that sometimes, but not because you should tailor your writing to suit their tastes. Heavens no!

What it teaches us is that, with those close to us, we should know whether or not they like something or not before we recommend it to them. I know some people, people close to you, will buy or read your work because they love you and they want to make you happy, but if you know someone’s not a fan of this or that and you put it in your work, you should give them fair warning before they read it. Safe to say, I think when Reborn City comes out, I’ll recommend it to everyone above the age of 15 who reads fantastic fiction, while I’ll tell everyone to be prepared for nightmares and terror when Snake comes out. Only fair, right?

Speacking of which, how do you guys deal with fear and terror? Do you really go for it, or not so much?

Graduate School? I’m Not Sure

Posted: November 19, 2012 in Living and Life
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This evening at my dorm we had a discussion from some grad students–one of whom I’m actually friends with–about going to grad school and what it could potentially mean for us. We had there a student from the engineering department, a higher education and ecology studies major (my friend Renata) and an artist who also teaches art classes in the undergraduate school. All were current grad students, and all gave us a candid and honest look at grad school without trying to gloss over the bad parts or say we had to go to grad school.

All in all, it was very informative.

However, it left me a question: should I go to grad school? I’m still a sophomore, and I’ll stay that way for a little while longer, so I don’t exactly have to worry about it any time soon, let alone paying for it or what I’ll do once I get there. But what if I did? I’d probably pursue a Masters in Fine Arts because, for the same reasons I’m majoring in English and in History, I want to improve my writing and storytelling skills. I might already have a novel or two out at that point, so that might help me a little bit.

But is it right for me? Can it make me a better writer or at least give me more job security? I have no idea. At the very least, when graduation is a little closer, I’d definitely have to look a little closer at the possibility of going to grad school. And luckily, my school has a course on publishing that’s taken by both graduate and undergraduate students, so that’d be a good preview of what I might be doing in grad school if I were to go (I’ll have to talk to my advisor about that one when I meet with her in spring to arrange my fall semester classes).

So now I turn it over to you. Have you ever been to or are you in grad school?

What school?

What was your experience?

Did you find it beneficial in the end?

Please let me know. I’m curious, and as much weight as the opinion of three grad students carries, I’d like to hear from more people with experience in this.

NaNoWriMo Is For Those Who Can Devote Time To It

Posted: November 18, 2012 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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And unfortunately, I can’t devote my time to it. I’d like to though; I’d like to be able to spend hours each and every day just typing away on my computer, pushing out word after word to create an awesome story that people will want to read. The only time I would stop writing is if I was hungry and wanted to make something to eat; or if I had to run an errand; or if I wanted to work out; or if it was just too late in the day, so let’s forget work and just play.

Sadly, I cannot live that sort of lifestyle right now. Instead, I spend more than ten hours a week in classes, and close to that amount at a part-time job. In addition to that, I spend several hours over the week working on homework, reading books and writing papers and doing projects, and that’s especially so in the last 3-4 weeks of class before finals. Add into that meals, sleep (essential, even in college), errands, and just finding time to relax, there’s only so much time to write.

So I’m going to have to drop out of the National Novel Writing Month challenge. It’s just too much at the moment to try and get out fifty-thousand words in thirty days with the workload I have. I’ll still work on writing Snake and editing Reborn City, but I won’t do it with the focus of just getting 50K words written.  Instead, I’ll work on them with the hope that eventually I’ll get them done and share them with everyone.

Am I sad that I can’t finish the challenge? Yes I am; I was getting so much done at the beginning of the month, I thought that if I couldn’t get 50K words, I’d get very close to 30K. Not so at this point. But hey, look on the bright side: I managed to write twelve chapters of Snake and type out 12,329 words. Not bad for my first time, right? That’s more than your average short story.

Maybe next year, if I don’t have that much of a workload, I’ll try again at NaNoWriMo. In the meantime, I’m off to work on chapter forty-seven of Snake. Wish me luck.

Write And Don’t Be Ashamed

Posted: November 17, 2012 in Living and Life, short story, Writing
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A classmate of mine in my creative writing class sent me (and the rest of the class) an email today. In the email, she said her mother and her aunt had wanted to see the short story she’d written, but the problem was her story dealt with subjects like drinking and random hook-ups. Guess what? Her mom and aunt don’t approve of those sorts of activities.

So my classmate–whom I’ll refer to as “Freya”, because that’s as far from her real name as you can get–whipped up a little short story that doesn’t involve any of that, and asks all her classmates to take a look and edit it if we can spare the time.

Naturally, my instinct as a writer is not to encourage this, so I write back to Freya and tell her that her mom and aunt should be proud that she’s grown into a strong, independent woman with her own thoughts and feelings, and they should be proud that she wrote a story with her own original ideas in them. If she has to be ashamed of her own work–which for romantic fiction set against the background of a wild college party, is actually a quality story–what’s the point of even writing the story in the first place? If Freya’s family doesn’t like the topics voiced in the story, then she should just tell them so, and leave it at that. If they still want to see it, then show it to them. These women might actually like it, and might also be fans of Fifty Shades of Grey, but are too proud to admit it.

I hope Freya get’s my message and doesn’t feel she needs to hide, because honestly, if a writer can’t be proud of their work, or at least admit they wrote such subjects, what’s there for the future of writing and fiction? Be proud of your work writers; it’s your brainchild, after all. You shouldn’t be ashamed of it, no matter what objectionable material within. Instead, shout it to the world, “I wrote a story and it has stuff people don’t like in it but I don’t care.”

If I didn’t do that, why would I bother writing a novel with a serial killer in it?

My Own Beliefs

Posted: November 16, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections, Scary Stuff, Writing
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I write scary stories. As such, I sometimes have to use the supernatural in my work, something I enjoy doing. But at some point, if you start to write stories about demons and spirits and murderous beings from other dimensions, people are going to ask you, what’s your own beliefs? Do you believe in any of the things you write about? Do you believe in aliens that appear over Boston, like in Ripple (if you want to read that short story, click here: http://www.nthzine.com/fiction_online.php?archiveDisplay=20121105), or do you believe in succubi like that one short story you wrote that you hope to publish?

Well, I thought I’d clear a few things up before I get asked that question. I’ll include about five major things that people will probably ask me about, and unless people want to know more, I’ll leave it at that. Hope you find it informative:

1. God and Satan: I definitely believe in an all-powerful, all-encompassing authority that created our universe and is very active in the day-to-day lives of human beings as well as the changing of the seasons and the orbiting of the planets. I also believe that this Being is called by many names, answers to several of them, and as long as you live a good life and do not do horrible things in your life, eventually He will reward you for your good behavior (when though, I can’t say).

As for Satan…well, I believe there is a being called Satan, but my belief in him is more in line with the traditional views of Judaism, which say he’s more a servant of God with a bad job of tempting good people in order to test their devotion. The view that Satan is the antithesis of God only came later, around the time of Jesus, and it’s more Christian than Jewish belief, so I really don’t follow it, or follow the belief that there’s one being who embodies all evil and is set against the being that stands for all good. Doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a story involving that bad boy Lucifer, though.

2. Ghosts/Demons/Spirits/Angels: I do believe that there are beings I can’t see, but do have ways to interact and even interfere with the material world. I’ve actually had encounters with ghosts/spirits, leading to some very interesting stories (ask about the time a spirit was pushing against my teeth while I slept). I also believe in demons and angels: there are times when I’ve believed there is something near me that wishes to do me harm, like when I wrote that succubus story and I swear something was summoned because I couldn’t stop thinking about and researching succubi. At the same time, I believe that there are benevolent beings that if you can call them by name will come to your side to protect you. There’s even a prayer in Judaism that calls the four archangels to protect you in time of trouble, and the couple times I’ve used it, I’ve felt like there was something around me protecting me from harm. It’s pretty neat.

Now, if I believe in demons, how can I not believe in one that’s leading a war against Heaven? Well, if humans and demons all have one creator, why does there have to be a king of demons when there isn’t a king of evil humans? Just doesn’t make sense to me.

3. UFOs/Extraterrestrials: I’m a bit of a skeptic on this one. There was actually a class here at OSU I took that explored the subject, and the conclusion was that if there is life out there, it probably is either very basic, like single-cell organisms, or if it’s like humans, it’s probably at the same level of intelligence and technology as humans, so we probably don’t get a lot of visitors from the deep, dark space. I know there are a lot of people who say they’ve been abducted, but then again there are a lot of people who say they speak to Jesus and that they are being investigated by the CIA (who aren’t allowed to do domestic investigations, by the way) because they know how their chocolate fudge recipe relates to the attacks of 9/11, and they all sound alike to me.

No offense meant to those who believe in aliens, though; I just need more substantial proof before I start believing in visitors in ships coming to observe and abduct creatures that, for all our intelligence, still don’t know how to live together without getting into a huge fight.

4. Magic: I believe there are forces that human beings can summon and control with rituals or spells. Such rituals and spells can be found in nearly any group, including Judaism (*cough* mezuzah *cough*), and that each group’s rituals/spells are unique and can do wonderful things when done right. 

I also believe that this can be rather dangerous, especially if you are summoning a spirit or a being with great power, for example, so only take part if you are aware of the risks, you accept them, and you don’t think your particular God will mind if you take part in such a ritual.

5. The Afterlife: Now, here’s where my beliefs aren’t traditional in any sense of the word: I believe that this life is sort of a preparation room, one where, through the choices we make and the actions we take and the people we meet, we’re groomed for a journey we take in the next life (assuming we don’t get stuck in this world as ghosts). What this journey entails or whom we take it with, I can’t say. All I can say is that this journey is specially prepared for us after our deaths, and that at the end of this journey…perhaps then it’s the final destination.

If you’re wondering what Jewish traditions might say about my beliefs, I’ll tell you that the only mention in the Torah of the afterlife is “Sheol”, which is either some sort of pit, or it’s a plain of existence where the dead go. Truth be told, nobody’s really sure what it is, Jewish scholars are well-known to have many different opinions on any number of issues (in fact, the joke goes you get two rabbis together, you’re going to get three different opinions). There’s also something in the Kabbalah that could be seen as reincarnation, but I’m not familiar with it, so who’s to say my beliefs on life after death are out of line with my religion?

Well, that’s all I’m going to say for now. If you want to know my beliefs on the Loch Ness monster or Bigfoot or something along those lines, let me know.

But what I really want to know is:

What are your beliefs? Do they agree or disagree with mine? And what gives you faith in your own beliefs?

I’ve Got A Superhero Identity

Posted: November 13, 2012 in Living and Life
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I’ve got a secret I want to tell you: I’ve joined an online group of superheroes. We create our own missions and go fight villainy and corruption in (insert city here). So if you are reading my comments and see someone calling me Judgement, you know why.

So I’m going to take this oppurtunity to tell you about my superhero identity (feel free to click away if you feel this post is too geeky for you): I’m called Judgement, and I’m an antihero of sorts. I’m also what’s called an N-Feed, meaning I absorb emotional energy from myself and from others in order to fuel very amazing abilities. In my case, I absorb negative energy–anger, fear, despair–in order to fuel powerful telekinesis and energy blast abilities. In addition, my form changes a little like the Hulk when I really make use of my abilities, except I turn black with gold designs imprinted on my skin, my hair grows out and becomes pale white, my teeth become fangs, and my eyes become yellow (drawing to be scanned in and uploaded later).

I just used my powers to help me get through life (a little like Peter Parker), but I fell in love with a girl…who’s father was an investigative journalist who got a little to close to something big and as a result was killed and his daughter crippled. Between taking care of my girl and taking classes/using my writing to pay the bills, I go out as Judgement to find what my girl’s dad found–and bust a few heads while I’m at it.

My catchphrase is “Feel my wrath”, and as a side effect of my powers, I become a little sadistic when I’m fighting my enemies. However, I have help in fighting crime and keeping my darker side from getting the better of me: in addition to my friends in the league, the Revengers, there’s an underground community of N-feeds who look out for each other, even the darker ones who sometimes put the safety of N-Feeds everywhere in jeopardy.

So, feeling like you don’t want to read my blog anymore? Your loss. I’m still having fun. In the meantime, I’ve got a mission at the DA’s office to carry out. Feel my wrath!

Workshopping “Doll’s Game”

Posted: November 9, 2012 in Living and Life, short story, Writing
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Some of you know that I wrote a short story for my creative-writing course, Doll’s Game, and that I turned it in last week. You may also remember that I thought it was the worst piece of fiction I’d ever written in my college career, and I made a point of telling my classmates that it would be the worst story they read this semester.

Well, I stood corrected on that last point: mine’s the second-worst. The grand prize goes to the guy who’s story, although interesting in terms of plot, had so many point-of-view switches that it left me dizzy. Not too mention the guy couldn’t properly signify dialogue to save his life. It just took down the quality of the story so much.

But today I’m getting my story reviewed. And I am not looking forward to it one bit. I mean come on, my strength is in scary stories, not literary ones, and my plot goes all over the place. I sent everyone the link to my recently-published alien invasion short story Ripple just to make up for the quality of Doll’s Game.

Well, maybe they’ll give me an idea to improve the story. Who knows? I’ll let you guys know how it goes after class and we’ll see. Wish me luck.

Update on the Self-Publishing Front–Part 2

Posted: November 8, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report
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Okay, remember my last post, where I said I’d probably set up my press as a sole proprietorship? Well, I got an email from an uncle of mine who has to deal with lawyers from time to time (including his brother-in-law), and he said I’d do better with an LLC. I believe him, but I also plan to talk to my other uncle on that side of the family, who, although not in business, is a lawyer, jsut to check one or two things about the differences and the benefits and disadvantages of LLCs and sole proprietorships.

So, just wanted to let you know about that. I’ll hopefully figure this out quickly and won’t have any problems setting things up. Wish me luck.

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