BRILLIANT!

I love creativity. LOVE. When something is unique and different I generally tend to connect with it. Now, that's not to say that I like difference for difference's sake. I like it when it is out of the box, and it has a point to make. It has to make me think. for example:

-I hate most pop music. But when someone writes something with a unique choir progression and a phrase that is more than just the same four measures over and over, I love it.

-I really like a good movie. but it has to keep me guessing, and it has to have a good message attached. I recently watched a movie with some friends and didn't like it. Yes, the ending was a surprise, but that's not enough. Every other scene I announced an event that would happen soon, and five or ten minutes later it happened. My friend's dad kept asking if I had seen the movie. Nope. It was just so guessable! Be original people!

-People might not know this about me, but I love reading. I'm not the best writer, but I love a good story. And I have such a respect for people who can come up with their own story and make it work. Didn't much like the Eragon series, cause I just thought there were too many similarities to other fiction writers. I actually only read the first book and half of the second. I just couldn't stomach it anymore. But when someone makes a world that is just impossible for me to forget or hard to doubt, I love it.

So, here I want to pay homage to something I consider brilliant. Someone took something well known and transformed it into something else, while also at the same time sticking it to the man (I am secretly very rebellious). My friend Sam Benson showed it to me, as it was his cousin who wrote it. SO worth the read. Enjoy!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Effective Writing: The New Spanish 1

So... I dropped Spanish 1 at the semester... I couldn't take it any more. But never fear-- the public education system has set me up with another ridiculous class. My effective writing class is taught by an old man who used to teach German 1&2, Mr. Brown (he prefers to be called Herr Brown). My latest work of art really captivated him. He was so moved, in fact, that he had to read it to the class. Here it is:

Journey

A small-town girl, living in a lonely world, was waiting outside the train station late at night. She wanted to get away from her confined community; she took the midnight train going anywhere. A city boy, born and raised in South Detroit, was waiting outside another train station. Like the girl, he needed to get away from the hurried city life that he has been accustomed to his whole life. He took a train departing at midnight to anywhere.
After they both had endured long train rides, they arrived at the same destination. not knowing where they were, they tried to find a place to go. Strangers, waiting, they walked separately up and down the boulevard, their shadows searching desperately for someplace to go in the night. The streetlights above them lit the pair, who were living just to find emotion hiding somewhere in the night. The girl, desperately trying to find a place to sit in anguish, stumbled into a nearby lounge. The boy, having the same urge as the girl, followed close after her.
At a first glance, the lounge was nothing to speak highly of. The boy and the girl, being outsides, seemed a little out of place from the shabby room they had just entered. There was a singer sitting on a stage in the dimly-lit and smoky room. The room, smelling of wine and cheap perfume, had a few people entranced by the singer. Perhaps for a smile, the singer would humor them and share the night with one of the enchanted men.
Another set of businessmen, behind the eager watchers, sat gambling with one another.The boy and girl could tell by the look of the businessmen's suits and loosened ties that they had worked hard to get their fill. The pair could assume that the businessmen had mundane jobs. Not getting any sort of excitement, they just wanted a thrill, paying anything to roll the dice just one more time. Of course with gambling, some will win, and some will lose. However, with some of those businessmen it seemed like winning was not the objective. Not caring if they were the winners, they were born to sing the blues. The misfit small-town and big-city couple felt as if they had just stepped into a movie-- not just any movie, but a small clip on a reel going on and on.
"Don't stop believing," the girl on stage sang wispily,"Hold on to that feeling." Although this was the message that the pair of outsiders needed to hear, it would fall on deaf ears. Wallowing in their own self-pity, they may never go back to the lives they once had had. They were trapped in their own minds, searching for something that could not be found.


If you don't get it:

File: Edit

Editing is such a convenient thing. If I didn't have an edit option, this whole blog would be MESSED UP. I'm always typing something crazy. And sometimes it takes me a while to see some of the mistakes and I fix them a few days after I post them. So yeah. I like the idea of editing things.

Well recently I have started a major editing project. ME. Its not too bad, just some things I want to do better with, and its been pretty fun! I've started getting up early to go play racquetball, as I mentioned in my last post, and just being more physically involved in general. I've been eating healthier as well (and not as late) and have lost 10 lbs. I cleaned out my car. My room is next. I am volunteering at SVU every day from 12:00-4:00. I'm saving up money. And that just feels good. It was just time for some changes and I'm glad to be doing them, you know?

I'm also doing a few changes to the blog. Ive decided to put up a poll that will change every week. Hopefully this will encourage me to get on here more. I'll create a page to show the results of all the past polls.

So, do something new. Get out of a rut. Don't work on breaking an old habit. Rather, just start a good one. The bad ones tend to fade away when you have something better to replace it with. Go change! And have fun!

Osama bin Laden's Death

So I got up early (like, 6 in the morning) to go play racquetball with my friends Jon and Kevin. I was VERY tired. They asked why, and I told them it was because I was up late trying to find any video I could referring to Osama bin Laden's death.

It was a shock to be honest. I thought that he would never be found (if he was even still alive). But lo and behold President Obama makes an announcement telling us that a team found and killed him.

I first found the news out from Facebook. All sorts of posts were up. Most of them had lots and lots of exclamation points after them. There were some Wahoos! and Git er done!!!'s and lots of All right!!!!!!!!!!!'s and so on. More and more of them were happening. People were getting on just to comment on the news or post a patriotic video or something of the sort. I would guess that at LEAST one half of the stories on my news feed were about his death. Some people even texted me. I had one friend who simply asked if I had heard about it, the rest were straight up celebrating and spreading the joyous news. AND IT MADE ME ANGRY.

Why? Well, this first. Some may have thought that it was indeed joyous news that needed to be spread, but he wasn't the Wicked Witch of the West people. He was a real person. He helped orchestrate a terrible attack on the U.S. that killed many, and he led a group of people bent on inciting fear in multiple countries. That was horrible. He was clearly an angry, hateful, and even a very fearful man. But I do NOT think that these facts make it ok for American's to cheer and dance at the news of his death (which, I might point out, was not unlike the celebration that members of Al Qaeda partook in just after the 9/11 attacks).

I just don't think people see that they are celebrating, even REJOICING in his death. I just cant help but feel a little uncomfortable with that. True, I am not sad he is dead. Its does seem just. Hopefully his death will weaken the resolve of the splinter terrorist groups who have carried things on. But celebrating at his death will only breed anger and contempt. No matter how terrible, a life has been lost. And I feel pity for him. He has a lot to answer for.