Issues w/ Blogger
I’ve noticed some problems with my posts of chapters on here. Originally it wouldn’t show the paragraph tabs at all, which I could never figure out how to fix without going by individual paragraph within blogger itself, and quite frankly that could take hours of time that I don’t have. Another problem now, is that it is taking out the spaces between sentences (which is pissing me off because it looks horrible), giving some paragraphs tabs, and others not, putting extra blank lines between paragraphs which it never did before, and all in all is ruining the look of each chapter. I’ve no idea how to fix this, and for that I’m sorry. If you have any info on that I would appreciate it!Anyway, Chapter Eight goes up on sunday, and don’t forget to read Chapter Seven!
Writing and Poetry
Alright, so this weekend turned out far different than I had intended and it totally screwed up my whole process.Originally I had planned to go on a trip with my friend for his geography class up into the mountains. So I purposefully planned the week so that I wouldn’t have to worry about having Chapter Four ready to post, since I wouldn’t even be home to write it and would have no access to a computer for typing (I rarely write freehand because it takes way too long for me to write and sometimes the stuff going through my head just goes by way too fast for my poor hands to scribble down…so computers are just better). Well, that trip got canceled because my friend decided he wasn’t going to go. I didn’t find this out until Wednesday, which was a concert day so I had no way to even sit down and try to cram out a significant chunk of Chapter Four anyway. I have class and work M-Th, so usually my writing gets done on Fridays and Saturdays and I do final edits on Sundays whenever it is post time. So, basically my whole plan was screwed because I usually have 4 days worth of actual writing and then an edit day, and that had suddenly become 2 days. Essentially, Chapter Four is going up next weekend as I had stated, but regardless, it has become a constant irritation to have plans made and then canceled knowing that I could have had other things planned instead.I do have good news though. Chapter Four is going to be really cool. I’m loving some of the things that I’ve done in it so much. Now on to poetry. I figure I might as well give you all something to view while you wait an additional week for the next installment. I’ve been doing a lot of poetry writing (I’ve always done it but there’s been a big spurt because my girlfriend broke up with me and it gave me something strong to write about).I’ve also grown quite fond of My Chemical Romance, a punk-pop band that is just really good. So, I’ve started writing songs, I guess that is what you would call them anyway. I’d love to start up a punk-pop band. I love the style, and MCR is just really entertaining and fun. So, I’ll post something I wrote today that I’ve not exactly finished. Hopefully you like it. I would appreciate any constructive criticism on it. I’m not a song writer by nature, so this is really my first attempt at it. Lay down little world,it’s time for bed.All those around you,are bleeding and dead.Come on little world,the night has come,and where you turn your back,descend into black,I follow you down..Lay down, lay down.I want to show you all the scars around,the trenches dug about,the battles screaming out,the dead rising from graves above the ground..Lay down,and ignore.The world you know is gone,blasted to the floor.Come on little world,wake up once again,rise up from the ashes my friend,and follow me down..Lay down, lay down.I want to show you all the scars around.the trenches dug about,the battles screaming out,the dead rising from graves above the ground.I said lay down,and accept your fate.It’s not too late, too late.The mother’s crying now,wondering why and how,the flags of our fathers draped over the gate..Lay down. Lay down.Lay down. Lay down… Alright, so that’s what I have for it. I am contemplating adding a bridge and one more run through the chorus, but maybe it is good just the way it is. I dunno. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated. Even guess what it’s about 😛
Writing, News, and Bunnies
Alright, so this weekend has been one of the most exciting of weekends ever *insert sarcasm here*First off is a bit of info on my writing. Next weekend would normally be when I put up the next chapter, in this case it would be chapter four. Unfortunately, however, I will not be in town to edit or do anything of that sort to the chapter, and as such, will have to post the chapter the following weekend. Sorry, but that’s just the way it has to be. I don’t have a laptop to take the writing with me, otherwise I would surely get a lot more writing done. I can type far better than I can write by hand.Also, as suggested by Mr. Bramage, I will be posting a hyperlink at the beginning of every chapter to the previous chapter so there is an easy way to reference back. Now for news…Well, to start the week off, I got sick on Monday with a cold. It got horribly worse Tuesday, then slightly better Wednesday. I had a concert on Wednesday as well which made things lovely cause I was sick. Thursday was much better and then Friday I was mostly okay with your usual leftovers of a cold, which I still have today.Friday, however, decided to be the day of reckoning or something of that nature.First, my girlfriend broke up with me, saying something about how she wasn’t ready for a serious relationship, which just didn’t seem quite right considering that was what she had said she wanted in the beginning and from where our relationship had been going it didn’t seem to make much sense. Then to top it off, when I went over to my friend Sarah’s house for my usual consoling time, we went out to dinner and then her car decided to rupture a hose and we had to get it towed back to her house. The following day was spent getting presents for my brother and then hanging out at my Mom’s house for his party, which was perfectly fine except for the part where my Mom had to bring up the whole “where’s your GF” thing. Uncomfortable? Yes, and irritating too. Luckily I had fun hanging out with my brother and his friends and was able to forget the events of Friday for at least a little while, or at least until I got home and was forced to remember after seeing the lovely pile of sheets I have yet to clean. So, essentially, my weekend was rather crappy. My best friend basically secured himself in the position of asshole by being completely negative and unsupportive, and luckily my other best friend Sarah was able to compensate for his lack of friend-ish-ness. But the good news is that I am still writing and things are still going well for this lovely story. So in two weeks I will have chapter four and all will be happy. Also, I am planning to go to an open house for the University of San Francisco, a private Jesuit Catholic college. If I like the campus and such I can hopefully get accepted there and maybe get help paying for it, since it is expensive. They have a great MFA in Creative Writing program with dual teaching, which would be great because I can see myself teaching. So, maybe something good will happen in the near future…
When is it okay to tell people to burn a book?
1. When it is packed full of lies.2. When it insults the people it is trying to convince.3. When it is complete and utter crap. When is it not okay? 1. When the book grabs the attention of a wide range of people and compells them to read. Harry Potter anyone? I seem to recall many religious nuts (no offense to anyone that is religious, this is not a rant against religious people, just extremists) who thought that HP was evil and should be burned. Interesting really considering for the first time in probably 20 years kids were actually enthusiastic to read again…2. When the book is actually good and presents information truthfully.3. When the book doesn’t insult people. Now, before I get into the book that has sparked this sort of rant I have to say a few things. I am a believer in Evolution and I understand that many out there are not, and that is fine. I’m not such a wacko that I want all of you to believe in Evolution (and I don’t mean Darwinism, which is so far different than what we call Evolution today). You believe what you want, that is your right, but I must rant about a book that a friend gave me and that I just picked up to peek at for the second time since it was given to me. I understand fully and completely that EVOLUTION IS A THEORY. You don’t have to repeat it to me and I in no way will ever tell you that the evolution of man or long term evolution is completely proven (though evolution in the short term is since we can observe the evolution of bacteria, but you could probably call that something other than evolution anyway). So the book is: The Evolution CruncherNow, I initially had no problem with this book when it was given to me. I’m open to new interpretations and new information. In fact, I’m so much open for it that I respect the scientific method and allow such ideas and concepts to help me devise new ways to look at evolution. This book is about as far from the truth as you can get. I have not finished this book, and I never will. Here is why.When I first picked this book up I flipped to a few interesting sections just to see what it had to say. One section was on stratigraphy (the study of rock layers). The author had no idea how stratigraphy worked, which immediately indicated to me that this supposed genius man who had dispelled the theory of Evolution in one massive book was nothing more than a ill-educated imbocile. He tried to claim something to the effect of there being no correlation between all the different steps in human evolution in the layers and that some things were above and some below certain time periods. But, what the author failed to even mention was that:a) Rock layers should never be your primary basis for scientific thought on evolution because of the fact that they are easily affected by weather and natural phenomenonb) Rock layers have a specific method for being interpreted which doesn’t involve just staring at it and going “well this one is higher than that one so it must be younger”Stratigraphy should and often is followed by Carbon Dating, which is pretty much as accurate as you can get these days and is constantly being improved upon. Things move in the soil, they don’t just sit there through thouands or millions of years of earthquakes, plate movement, erosion, etc.Now, what has caused me to talk about it today is this. I picked it up today and started to flip through, hoping that I might find something interesting in there that would spark my interest and cause me to do some additional research. Well, this book has secured itself on my shelf of crap. If you want someone to believe you and take in your new ideas and dispell something they have been taught and believe fully in, you don’t insult them. The author of this book did just that. Almost every other section has to flat out say “evolution is a load of bullcrap and is wrong and people are stupid for believing it”. That is unaceptable in my book. So, this supposed expert has landed himself in my pile for authors that should be burned at the stake. Not to mention he has a whole section on this book that I didn’t notice that dispells the Big Bang Theory, which any educated person knows has NOTHING TO DO WITH EVOLUTION. The Big Bang is so loosely a theory that it will never be proven just as there is no way to prove or disprove there is a God; you just have to believe. It is one of those scientific ideas that people just believe or don’t believe. But it has nothing to do with evolution. The evolution of man or any other species or thing is not in any way affected by the Big Bang except in that the Big Bang was supposed to be the starter of it all. But Big Bang doesn’t explain how we came from microscopic organisms. All it explains is how the planets, stars, and other space matter came to be. That’s it. Well, it’s a little more complicated than that, but you get the idea.So, if anyone happens to read this and has a book that follows my little rules at the top that discusses flaws in Evolutionary Theory I would really like to read it. I’m open to new ideas here. I’m not set in stone on what I believe, but I don’t want an author to shove his or her moral or personal agenda down my throat while trying to ‘educate’ me. Anywho, that’s my rant for the day. New chapter up Sunday. Look for it 🙂
Edits…
Well, for some that have been here you’ll notice that I’ve reverted to a typical blogger template. Why? Well apparently Firefox refuses to load the background image for the old version and until I can either rewrite that template, or create a new one, I have to put this up so that Firefox users can actually see the text. So, I will be doing some more editing and putting back up the ads later on. Also, just a reminder, chapter two of The World in the Satin Bag goes up this sunday. I’ve got some writing still left to do, but it will be up. It’s a lot longer than the first chapter, so expect a little bit more to read :). And, for the time being this will be the post for the beginning of the week. Expect few posts from now on since I’m writing and this is a blog for my blog novel :P.
Another Week…
Well I’ve successfully had two great weekends this year: one was FanimeCon 2006 in San Jose, and the other was the 9th Annual Upscale Reptiles Show & Sale (a.k.a the Sacramento Reptile Show). Now it’s basically a count down to whatever else is coming up next year. I am totally doing Fanime again and I don’t know if I will do the Sac show again. I love going, but it depends on what I am doing next year. I think I might go to the Annaheim show instead when I get my snake. Anyway, so I find that during the week things really really suck. I have no time to write because I work 10 hours, I go to class for 3 hours, and then I take care of my pretty little family of reptiles. After that I’m in bed at 11 and up at 5 again, if I’m lucky anyway. So I don’t get a chance to write until maybe Friday.However, that first chapter is going up this weekend period. No doubts. I’m going to edit and post. Plain and simple. My new crested gecko is so cool. He’s so scared though :(. It’s understandable. He spent hours in a plastic container before being put in a whole new home where he’s completely unfamiliar with everything, and then to top it off he’s got some crazy giant man poking at him. I love him though. I named him Tim! It’s a cute name :). Hopefully he will calm down and be handleable in the next few weeks or so. He feels so weird! Think something soft and smooth but with sticky hands! It’s so cool when he touches your skin with the sticky pads and walks on it. Cresties jump too and have prehensile tails that can hand off of stuff. They are bizarre creatures. Anywho, so writing is going well. I will at least try to start chapter two this weekend after I edit chapter one. This weekend is going to be a calm weekend. No big plans or anything. I’m tired and need my sleep :S. Plus my animals need complete and total devotion and Grandma needs some help. So I will keep things posted and maybe put some interesting material up :).