I’m not sure if any of my followers or readers follow me for personal stuff, but it’s occurred to me that I haven’t done so in a while, so just in case… here you go!
Firstly, I would like to thank all my friends and followers for offering me support through these past few difficult years. I don’t think I need to sum up (again) what’s been going on, but suffice to say that it’s been a lot of pretty serious stuff. Fortunately, things finally seem to be on the upswing. For starters, I moved back to my hometown in Montana. Washington just wasn’t working out for me very well, and while it had some gorgeous scenery and I loved my drive to work, I just wasn’t happy. Moving back home has done wonders for my overall mood and really cemented the fact that, given the choice, I never want to leave again.
I’ve snagged myself a new job which, while it isn’t exactly what I wanted, is (barely) paying the bills for the first time in a couple of years, and I’m willing to stick this one out until I find a better one (or until we go out of business, whichever comes first, I guess.)
Also, I’ve finally gone to see help for my anxiety, and between some medication and some therapy, I think I’m doing a lot better. It’s still a daily struggle, though, but hopefully it’s an upward one. (If any of you guys out there are interested in that whole thing, lemme know, I’m willing to blog more about it in specific.)
Pony image to break up the text.
Lastly, there is the boyfriend situation! My dear Mister Adequate: my coblogger over at The Android’s Closet, my comrade in arms, my partner in crime, my best friend for the last seven years. We finally realized we had a thing for each other earlier this year, and to everyone’s cries of “WELL IT’S ABOUT TIME”, we got together in April. Happily Ever After, right? Well, not quite yet. See, there’s a little wrench here. I’m in Montana in the United States. And he’s in England. Yeah.
Other people have made cross-country relationships work, though, and we are determined to follow in their footsteps. We’re both saving up money for visits and hope to sort that out very soon, and the long-term plan is for him to move over here, something which he has wanted to do for quite some time (since long before he met me.) There will be a lot of red tape involved and this might take a good few years, but we both feel optimistic about it. We’re happy together, and that’s worth all the work. /schmaltz
So that’s sort of where I’m at. I’m still writing, and I love and appreciate all the feedback on my first book. If you liked it, please leave reviews and ratings on Amazon and GoodReads! That would mean the world to me. <3
Okay, that's about it. And now back to my other blog for video game posts for the next six months!
You know, when I was in film school, it was all about being super deep. Everyone worshipped “Memento” and “Fight Club”. David Lynch was viewed as some sort of deity.
But you know what, there’s a reason why “Avatar” is the highest-grossing movie of all time. And it’s not just because of 3D or because James Cameron has more money than God.
No, it’s because he took a bunch of familiar character tropes, mixed them up in a blender with “Dances With Wolves”, made a very tantalizing dish out of it and served it to an audience hungry for exactly that sort of thing.
…why is that bad?
Hint: it’s not.
We live in a world where there is much emphasis on absolute originality in creative pursuits. If you make a story and some character or plotline has already been done, everyone sees it as some sort of grave unfortunate error. But the truth is that that’s how stories work.
As a storyteller my job is first to entertain you and secondly to hopefully teach you something. Both of these things are best done by allegories, fables, and parables. By the familiar hero that is almost like us, if maybe we were just a little more brave. By the familiar character arc that is almost like our own, if we had been born a little different. In that world that is almost like our own, if you hold a funhouse mirror up to it. That’s where you make emotional connections and that’s where you tell the best stories.
Yesterday I watched “Elf“. It was completely unoriginal. But it was thoroughly entertaining, it made me laugh, the ending made me go “awww”, and I loved every minute of it. That’s what movies and stories are supposed to do.
Guys, if you’re a writer or a dreamer or an artist or what-have-you, and your goal isn’t to make the next “Ulysses” but to make the next “Warcraft: The Last Guardian”, then stand up and be proud. Who cares if you’re not super hardcore or deep? Who cares that students won’t have to BS their way through long papers about your work sometime in the far future? You made someone’s day a little better.
I would rather make the next “Elf” than the next “Apocalypse Now”. And I’m not afraid to admit it.
See the windy road through the trees and the bridge? That’s the road I take whenever I go to work. And whenever I come back.
When going over the bridge, my mind inevitably does something like this:
“Must keep my eyes on the road.
Must keep my eyes on the road.
Must keep my eyes on the road.
Must keep…”
*glances out window*
“DANG IT”
(Note: This place is called Deception Pass. I figured with a name like that, there’s got to be some crazy stories behind it, and it turns out there are. Also apparently parts of “The Ring” were filmed here, which means NIGHTMARES INC because I’m a wuss and that movie scared the pants off of me.)
Hating on steampunk seems to be the cool thing to do lately. It seems like I can’t turn around without my invisible fluffy bunny tail brushing up against some author or blogger somewhere who found a cogwheel in his or her soup and isn’t happy with the waiter, and wants the entire Interwebs to know about it.
Art by http://thatoddowl.deviantart.com/
So obviously I’m going to step in here and address a few of the issues that seem to be cropping up the most. As a disclaimer before I begin: I obviously do not speak for all steampunks, just the clockwork rabbit variety.
1.) Steampunk is Overdone
I’ll actually concede the point on this one although I also don’t think it’s the end of the world. Steampunk is getting a lot of press and attention right now and I think it’s primarily because of a few reasons: One, it’s attractive to a lot of different pre-existing groups and subcultures (goths, punks, geeks, makers, etc.), two, it’s so different than traditional fantasy or sci-fi, and three, it just plain looks cool if you need a spiffy wedding or Halloween party in a pinch.
There seems to be a concern that a lot of people are jumping onto the steampunk bandwagon, and a lot of non-steampunks are ranting about it. Guess what, though, a lot of bona fide steampunks are ranting about it as well. (Trust me, “Steampunk is going mainstream, everyone run for cover” is basically the most repeated thread subject on the steampunk forums I frequent.)
My overall opinion is that the exposure is good because yeah, you’re going to get the bandwagoners, but you’re also going to get the people who finally realize “This is it! This is the term for what I have loved all this time!” and in the end the wheat will separate itself from the chaff and it’s not a huge deal. I’ve seen it happen in other fandoms and it’ll happen again here.
2.) Steampunk is just a bunch of plastic gears glued onto nerf guns and top hats.
This stereotype is perpetuated by what you see so often on Regretsy and truthfully some steampunks themselves. To which, in response, I invite you to really dig into the culture and spend some time on the “maker” sections of steampunk websites. Not only will you figure out within five minutes that “glued-on gears” is largely (though not universally) frowned upon within the culture itself, but the steampunk subculture has an inordinately high percentage of members with backgrounds in engineering, mechanics, and other related fields. These are people who value items with function. Things that are beautiful and that work. “Post pictures of your workshop” threads are pages and pages long. These aren’t just people who are sticking old clock pieces on random items and calling it steampunk, these are people with garages filled with lathes and power tools.
You know, like this thing.
3.) Steampunk is silly and is about stuff that doesn’t work in the real world.
This is a criticism that is frequently leveled against steampunk literature by the serious hard sci-fi folks. While there is some truth in this generalization, that’s frequently the nature of the genre. It’s fun! That’s why we’re here.
That said, do refer to my previous answer. Most steampunks are well aware of the fact that their imaginary tech bends the rules of physics. Several of us, myself included, work hard to make sure that said fantastical objects are at least almost real. I have seen several multi-page forum threads that delve into the detailed minutiae of mechanics problems presented by various sorts of imaginary airships or automatons and said threads always impress me with the vast amount of knowledge in this area that many involved in steampunk possess.
4.) Steampunk fans want to bask in the glory days of upper-class Anglo-Saxon masculinity as embodied by the Victorian Era, or some such.
No, seriously, I see this a lot, and it always cracks me up. These people apparently don’t know that the possibilities offered by non-European steampunk are a frequent topic of discussion, enough that there are entire blogs and websites dedicated solely to said concept, oh, and that most steampunk is less about the upper-class and more about the middle and (especially) lower classes. That’s where the “punk” comes in to play. Sure, there are the dandies among us, and items such as top hats and monocles are fun to play with, but it’s not like we’re part of some vast steampunk conspiracy (although I like the sound of that) to return the world to 19th century imperialism. We are all aware of the fact that the 19th century had major problems. We think the 21st century has some pretty big problems, too, and that’s the connection and that’s the point.
Once we invent our time machine the Global Steampunk Conspiracy will travel to the Cretaceous period in the name of science.
5.) It’s not a “real” subculture/genre/etc., it’s just a fad, et al.
I’ll be the first to admit that the definition of steampunk as both a “subculture” and a “genre” still seems to be rather tenuous. Most steampunks, being a largely intelligent lot, will admit the same. “What is steampunk?” discussions inevitably derail into long, complicated, rambling essays and no one ever comes to a conclusion. Perhaps the one conclusion that most people make is that right now it’s a bit of a jumble. Art and literature that defines itself as steampunk or steampunk-inspired runs the gamut from retro-styled science fiction to relatively accurate historical fiction to pulpy action novels to fantasy/alternate universe stuff to post-apocalyptic stories, and that’s just the surface.
Likewise, if you identify as a steampunk, you could be one of many people that fall under that umbrella: literature fans, art fans, writers, artists, musicians, people who dress up, people who don’t dress up, makers, people who view it as nothing more than a fashion style, and people who take it very seriously as a sort of political/social statement. When you throw all of those people into a room and they all choose to identify as one label, things get a little muddled, and you know what? That’s completely understandable.
Ultimately, I see the steampunk movement as one that is about camaraderie, imagination, beauty, science, and above all, optimism all mixed up in a blender and topped with a shiny pair of goggles that you modded yourself. It’s about figuring out why something works the way it does, making it better, and making it stylish while you’re at it. Some of us think we could to do that to society. Nothing wrong with that, right?
Plus, did I mention the airships? Because the airships are awesome.
Admit it: you wouldn't complain if this was the preferred transportation method of the future.
List of horses that I have jinxed by getting all attached and watching their races:
Cigar (and his win streak)
Silver Charm
Real Quiet
Charismatic
War Emblem
Funny Cide
Smarty Jones
…after Smarty I fell out of racing for a while because my heart was shattered into billions of tiny pieces because I was tired of the racing gods toying with me.
Then along comes Zenyatta. Holy crap, 19 for 19? Undefeated? Always comes from behind to win in the last second? SIGN ME UP.
…and of course, in the biggest race of her life, going for 20 out of 20…
…she runs harder than she has ever run, she comes from dead last and some 20 lengths off the lead, she weaves her way through terrible heavy traffic, she disproves everyone who said she couldn’t run on dirt…
…and she loses by a head.*
I AM NOT ALLOWED TO WATCH MY FAVORITE RACEHORSES ANYMORE.
Though on the plus side, I guess we can use me as a reliable indicator for who to bet on to place. Eh?
Disclaimer: You may or may not want to listen to me since I may or may not actually know what I’m talking about.
WRITE/DRAW/WHATEVER YOUR THING IS EVERY SINGLE DAY
Guys lemme tell you a story. Once upon I time I was about… 15 years old? And I decided I wanted to be an animator, for Disney. Now you have to understand something very important, and that very important thing is as follows: I COULDN’T DRAW. I wish I knew where my old stuff was so I could scan it in and show it to you to prove it. But I don’t know where it is so I can’t. Regardless, the point remains: I couldn’t draw. Once I decided I wanted to go into animation, I pulled out a sketchbook and tried to draw something. It was **awful**.
So you know what I did?
I started to draw
every
single
day
for months and months that eventually melted into years. I filled up sketchbooks every few months. I spent hours and hours a day drawing.
Slowly, I started to improve. It was a step by step process. I remember learning how to use basic shapes and things like circles to “build” characters from and I remember how much better everything got after that. Even then I still had a long way to go. But I was getting better and better and pretty soon my work was very much improved from how it had been that fateful day when I decided to “learn to draw”.
So by that time (I was about 17 or 18) I figured, what do artists do? They do art school stuff! So I took AP Art in high school. Looking back on it I was woefully unprepared, I’d only been really drawing for a couple of years after all, but I was game and took it anyway. At the end of the year I rounded up what I thought was my best stuff and sent it off to the AP scoring people.
A few months later I got my score: a 1. The lowest score possible.
I was insulted, and bitter.
I mean, really bitter.
So I quit drawing.
…
Yep, that’s right. Cause I got offended rather than choose to improve.
I didn’t start “really drawing” again for a good few years after that. In that short time since then I’ve seen how much I’ve improved and I wonder how much I would’ve improved if I hadn’t quit the first time.
DON’T FREAKING QUIT
I hate to break it to you but you aren’t going to become a crazy-awesome artist or the next bestselling author or the next chart-topping musician in two years. Probably not even five years. I know we all have fantasies of that sort of thing, heck, I have those fantasies all the time, but it’s just not feasible.
THIS DOESN’T EXCUSE YOU FROM TRYING EVERY DAY AND/OR MAKING A PLAN BECAUSE “OH IT’S JUST GOING TO TAKE TEN YEARS ANYWAY”
It’s really easy to procrastinate this stuff. Guess what: if you keep procrastinating you are never going to get to where you want to be.
If you are a creative person, I mean really truly one of those people who feels like they are going to die if they don’t do that thing they do (you will know what I’m talking about if you are)– well, chances are very good you’re prone to procrastination and/or getting discouraged early, since that seems to walk hand-in-hand with creativity, but you have to realize that this whole thing is just 95% perseverance. 95% realizing that yes, you’re going to have that crappy job for the next ten years but it only has to be ten years if you’re willing to put in the extra-curricular work on plying your craft.
Do I sound like a bad motivational poster yet?
No?
How about now?
Okay, terrible jokes aside, I’ve had tons and tons of creative friends lately who are getting discouraged. I’m not going to tell you “don’t get discouraged” because everyone gets discouraged. I get discouraged. It’s a part of the process.
I am going to say: be careful. Don’t let “being discouraged” turn into “never getting anything done”.
If you believe you have something special to show the world, then you do.
A wise man once said that 80% of people in the creative world quit before “making it”.
To which I have two things to say:
One: Don’t be one of those 80%,
and
Two: Man, imagine all the cool stuff we’d have right now if they didn’t quit.
So earlier this week I was thinking, man, I am a Writing-Idea Machine. I have so much to write about. So many ideas. I came up with this crazy plot to participate in NaNoWriMo every year for the rest of my life, because I obviously have 65 books inside of me just waiting to get out. No problem. Right?
So then of course I spend all morning trying to figure out what to blog about.
Face, meet palm.
Anyways, then I thought, I should tell you about some of the crazy crap I used to write about when I was a kid. Cause I wrote a lot back then, too.
1.) Cute Cartoon Bunnies Get Stabbed. I have no idea where this one came from. I made little picture books in spiral bound notebooks, and I had these two recurring rabbit characters named Billy and Mookie. They actually lived in a pretty clever little house filled with cute monsters that provided most of their “technology”. For example, they had a little monster that sat on their windowsill and held up a screen to block out the sun, and when they wanted to open the window they’d pull on his tail and he’d set the screen down.
So obviously one of the picture books involved one bunny coming home to find the other bunny laying on the floor with a dagger in his heart.
Yeah I dunno where I was going with that one.
2.) Cute Cartoon Bunnies Go to Jail: Another time they went to jail. They were innocent, but I guess the justice system in their world isn’t exactly all its cracked up to be.
3.) “The Friendly Candidates”: Back in the days of Clinton/Bush/Perot the TV was nothing but an endless stream of smear tactics. Leave it to me to write a book where U.S. presidential candidates actually liked each other and gave each other encouragement. Ahh, cute lil’ optimistic me.
4.) “Gerbil Adventures”: Gerbils go on crazy adventures throughout the house. These stories actually weren’t too bad.
5.) “My Life”: When I was about eight or ten years old I wrote a fictional autobiography for school. Apparently when I was 8 I thought I was going to grow up to be a vet and also have like, 10 kids. (Mostly because I had fun giving them all interesting names.)
6.) Thomas the Tank Engine Fan Fiction: Yup.
7.) Anthropomorphic Toys: Guys, you have no idea how much I wrote about my toys. See, I managed to convince myself that my toys would come to life when I left the room, Toy Story style (although this was years before Toy Story… I blame the Muppets’ “The Christmas Toy”.) So I gave them all sorts of adventures. First in short stories, and later in two full length novels. Did I mention that I was like… 18 by that point? Who me, Peter Pan?
(If you are, for some bizarre reason, interested in hearing more about said novels, I once rambled about them rather in depth over at my LJ.)
8.) The Tortoise Wins the Race, the Hare Sues Because of Emotional Damage: When I was a freshman in high school one of our assignments was to re-write a fable or fairy tail in a satirical way. I redid the Tortoise and the Hare in a way that I still think was pretty clever, but NO ONE in my class “got it”. Stupid muggles.
9.) Ender’s Game Excerpts Rewritten With the Characters As Furries: I want to say Ender was a squirrel but I can’t remember. P.S. I’m in ur library, ruining ur sci-fi
10.) Yoshi’s Island Novelization: The best part was the super long prologue that went into hilarious unnecessary detail regarding Yoshi culture. (Was possibly influenced by the official “Gremlins” novelization, which went into hilarious unnecessary detail regarding Mogwai culture.)
…ya know, on second thought, maybe we should keep me far away from writing.
Recently, the esteemed Bell wrote about things she sees on the street that make her rageface. Well, I have a confession:
I’m an angry driver too.
No, I’m not gonna use the horn or even the finger, but my tendency to sputter assorted epithets into the aether while driving is Very High. Here, then, in no particular order, are a list of triggers for me:
Tailgating. I really can’t think of anything more passive-aggressive. Yes, I see what you are trying to tell me, Mr. Two Inches Away From My Rear Bumper. You know what, I’m probably going over the speed limit, and it won’t kill you if you add an extra ten seconds to your travel time. Deal with it. Thanks.
(P.S. I am always super tempted to slam on my brakes here and use “I was trying to avoid hitting a squirrel” as my defense. Truth.)
People Who Won’t Slow Down Even Though the Traffic Light Has Been Yellow For Like 15 Seconds Already. I have no problem with speeding through the yellow light if it just turned yellow and you’re well on your way into the intersection. But if it’s going to have been red for quite some time by the time you get there… really? Really?
Related:
People Who Run Through Red Lights: This is particularly bad in this town, in fact I once heard a local joke go something like this: “What does a red light in Bozeman mean? … … … only three more cars to go! *ba dum psh*”
It’s so true, too.
Seriously, people. Slow down.
That said:
Lights That Are Red For No Reason: You know when there’s nobody at the intersection but the light turns red anyway? What’s up with that?
People Who Cut You Off And/Or Go at the Four-Way When It’s Not Their Turn. Self-explanatory.
Cop Hot Spots: You know what I’m talking about, right? There’s always that one intersection or that one road where cops just love to find some obscure spot to hide out in. Like good lab rats getting shocked, the entire world quickly figures out where these hot spots are and adjusts their behavior accordingly, so pretty soon you’ve got random stretches of road where everyone is going like 5-10mph under the speed limit. You know, just to be sure.
This:
People Who Drive the Heck Out of Their Cars. My car and I have a special relationship. I take good care of him… er, it (of course my car isn’t secretly a Transformer or anything… I mean, that would just be silly *shifty eyes* *cough*) and it takes care of me. I accelerate at a nice, steady pace and I don’t overdo it.
It really drives me up the wall when people try to push their car for more than it can handle. You can tell because it makes a horrible noise, and because I have mental issues and anthropomorphize everything I always picture the poor car just straining with its eyes shut, about to give out.
Like I said. Treat your car well and it will treat you well in return.
*pats her car, which is most certainly not secretly a Transformer or anything. Nope. Not at all.*
I don’t know if I have ever mentioned this anywhere but I have this massive infatuation with most types of modern transportation. And I’m not even sure why.
FLYING! I love flying. Airplanes are like the greatest thing. I’m that person who insists on the window seat, uses up every exposure on her camera within ten minutes of takeoff, and generally geeks out over the entire process. Last time I flew it was probably comical; twentysomething me bouncing around in the seat, in stark contrast to the six year old kid next to me who spent the entire flight quietly reading a novel. I dunno, maybe it’d be different if I had to fly everywhere as part of business trips all the time and I was jaded, but I don’t actually fly very often so I get to geek out over it, thank you very much.
CARS. I love cars. And not so much in the whole sup dawg, pimp-my-ride kind of way either. No, my love of cars is more abstract. I love cars because I love driving and I love driving because unless I win the lottery, it’s the closest I’ll ever get to flying my own plane.
AC on, music cranked to 11, cruisin’ down the freeway. One With My Machine. I don’t care, I’m still free, you can’t take my road from me. That’s what I’m talking about.
Now this little love affair of mine tends to put me at odds with the increasingly common zeitgeist that I should be carpooling or biking or something. Putting aside the fact that I hate bikes for various reasons (Hyperbole and a Half is pretty spot on here), or that carpooling is out because I get nervous when other people are in My Car (perhaps because then I can’t get away with squeakily belting out Poker Face)… I understand the sentiment behind said zeitgeist. But it’s hard for me to get into it when I am so very in love with my 2002 Toyota Corolla which allows me to be blissfully free for ten minutes a day.
See, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m fine with tree-hugging, so long as I can do it in a specially constructed tree-hugging robot suit with all the extra bells and whistles and lasers and jetpacks.
Basically my idea of the future is nature and fuzzy animals living in harmony with robot suits and lots and lots of mechanical bunnies.
I like my idea of the future.
Also, lemme know if you find any tree-hugging robot suits laying around that are in need of a good home.
I went to the fair yesterday and went on a few rides. Here is my objective analysis:
Exhibit A: Tilt-a-Whirl Concept: You spin around in a circle basically at random (seriously, read the bit on chaos theory) while spinning around in an even bigger circle. Meanwhile gravity plasters you to the wall. It’s loads more fun than it sounds. Verdict: This is my all time favorite ride. I go on it every year and it never gets old. So obviously it was my first stop this time around, before it was on to bigger and better things! Grade: A+ !
Exhibit B: Star Trooper Concept: You fly around in the air, first forward, and then backward. Or the other way around, depending on which side of the seat you’re sitting on. You also go up and down and stuff. Verdict: Going forward is tons more fun than going backward. The Going Backward experience on this ride basically just consists of not being able to move, breathe, or talk, because you’re stuck to the seat. It was an okay ride I guess. Grade: B
Exhibit C: Pharaoh’s Fury Concept: Giant swinging ship that sticks you at a 90 degree angle at its zenith. Verdict: I had a bad feeling about this one and initially I refused to try it, but then I was talked into it with various arguments like “It doesn’t look that bad”.
Big mistake.
Now, before I start on this one, I need to clarify that I am not afraid of heights. I’m that person in most other rides who twists around in the seat to stare at the ground, usually much to the chagrin of my ride partner when this causes us to bounce all over the place. But this is different. This ride is gravity hating you. Do you know what it feels like when gravity hates you? It’s an interesting feeling that can best be described as feeling like you are about two seconds away from floating out of your chair and over the safety bar and plummeting to your death below, but the boat thing swings the other way riiiiight before you do. If you want to experience this feeling for yourself, my advice to you is: DON’T. I spent the bulk of this ride with my eyes shut, praying to every potential deity I could think of for the whole thing to end.
I should note, though, that the guy behind me was completely smashed and sounded like he was having the best minute and a half of his entire life, so Beer Goggles may make this ride slightly more bearable. Your mileage may vary.
Grade: F for FREAKING TERRIFYING AND I AM NEVER RIDING THIS THING AGAIN.
Exhibit D: Spider Concept: Tilt-a-Whirl, except in the air, basically. Verdict: This ride works by lulling you into a false sense of security and then pouncing upon the unsuspecting victim that you become. It starts out tame enough, it’s a nice spinning ride and you think “Oh this is actually kind of relaxing”… and then you hear It. “It” is a comforting noise that sounds something like creeeeeeeeeak CACHUNK CACHUNK CACHUNK creeeeeeeek, and by comforting I mean terrifying. This noise is accompanied by whiplash inducing spins and both of these things combined quickly send you into WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE territory. Then, just as quick as it arrived, it’s over, and you’re back to thinking this is a nice relaxing ride.
Just beware the CACHUNK CACHUNK CACHUNK.
Grade: Pretty good overall, even if the ride itself is in dire need of some WD-40. B+
I also went on the Ferris Wheel and the Carousel. The Ferris Wheel involves standing in line for 45 minutes to get to a ride that lasts about 5 (4 of which are spent loading and unloading the cars), and the Carousel involves me complaining that the stirrups are set to a rather inconvenient length, because I’m a nerd like that.
Sadly that was all I had time to experience. People were trying to talk me into the Zipper, but, um, no.
I would not ride this for any less than $10,000. Just so we’re all clear.
