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Sunday, 08 November 2009

Saturday, 31 October 2009

Thursday, 29 October 2009

  • New Picture For Journal

     

    Hmm...yet again I must pontificate on a picture.  So, this is supposed to be the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  My idea for the picture was that everything would Black and White except the fruit, which would be a blend.  I think that came across pretty well.  I wanted the fruit to look glossy and unnatural, and I put a little hurricane inside each one.  There are four fruits because four is the Number of Earth and the World, which I totally looked up on the internet.  I decided that the tree would look pretty scraggly since the gardeners stayed away from it.  Several branches have broken off, and little shoots are growing from the ends.  Also, the branches aren't an optimum distance apart, leaf cover is erratic, and some branches are even touching!  (Shocking!)  The root system is a tap root with water storage capacity since it didn't rain in Eden.  For the foilage, I was slightly inspired by the Medieval tapestry Unicorn in Captivity.  The tree shape is vaguely modeled on a Baobab, while the fruits are somewhat similar to pomegranates.  The roots...well, I have far, far, far too much experience with root balls.  Far, far, far, far...

Friday, 16 October 2009

  • ANGER Caused by Undisclosed Book

    I just got a book from the library, and man, I was so excited about it because I have been waiting to read it all year, but I didn't have money to buy it.  So, I have been reading it from the instant I got home until now, when I finished it, and now I am SO ANGRY!  I was on the edge of my seat for the entire book, wondering what would happen, and the author did not know either.  The last page says, "I know what you're thinking...'It can't end like that!'  It doesn't have to.  There's a bonus chapter...but you have to decide what it says."  Then, there is a website where TWO alternate endings are featured.  You can read them, and pick between them or two other choices that boil down to "neither one happened."  Once voting is finished, the official ending will be released!

    ARGH!!!

    HOW FRUSTRATING!

    So, what do you think?  Is this a cop out?  (THE ANSWER IS YES!)

Sunday, 11 October 2009

  • Lucifer Thinks About His Next Move

    My first attempt at a drawing for the new literary journal...at some point I'm going to have to figure out its name.  So, the first article deals with Paradise Lost and the significance of "dust" in the poem.  I put "dust" in quotation marks because apparently, dust is a symbol for evil (according to the author of this paper).

    Here's the first drawing.  I don't really like it.  It was more awesome before my computer crashed, and I had to recreate it from memory after I was already tired of thinking about it.  Anyway, in the poem, Lucifer has a moment just after the fall where he doesn't know what to do next.  So, here it is.


Friday, 02 October 2009

  • Unmentionable Subjects! Avert Your Eyes!

    There is a place I go regularly where the [Indian] folks I see all believe me to be Indian, too.  (It's okay to call yourself an Indian when you are amongst your own kind.)  Am I an Indian?  Well, my great-grandfather was a Cherokee.  At the first available moment, he skipped the reservation, moved to Arkansas, and married a German.  I ask myself what I would have done in his situation, and I answer, "I would HATE living on a reservation; bring on the Germans."  My fellow Indians, meanwhile, had ancestors that decided not to leave, though they too married non-Indians at times.  I'm not sure why they are Indian, while I am not.

    When I was in college, I got a phone call from a researching student who wanted to interview me about tribal customs, and I had to stop myself from saying that I was actually white.  Also, I went to a storytelling festival.  There was a Cherokee woman there telling legend, and she closely resembled several of my aunts, who were "white."  I came away wondering if other people thought of my family as Indians because we clearly looked Cherokee, not white.

    But, hey, in my world no one cares about race, and we all just are people.  I think of myself as American, mostly.  If anyone is going to have culture clashes with me, American will be far more important than skin tone.  Apparently not everyone sees it that way, though.  First of all, my Indian friends have filled their building with certain cartoons.  There are some that are really popular, and several people have put them up.  One is of an Indian guy giving the Pilgrims immigration forms.  The one that kinda concerns me is of two children looking at a sort of family tree on a chalkboard.  The top of the family tree is a colored-in dot, and successive generations lose half of the colored-in area.  The chart is labeled "Blood Quantum," and one of the children is saying, "Wait a minute.  We're disappearing!"

    Blood Quantum is a sort of controversial test to discover race through genetics.  That's disturbing, but what is more disturbing is the fact that the kids in the cartoon are worried about this.  I mean, let's totally make marrying outside the tribe illegal to prevent this!  Might as well enforce complete segregation to be sure!

    Other pictures people have put up include bridges with anti-Indian graffiti and posters of solemn native teenagers with slogans like, "Values Traditions Education."

    Two of my Indian friends were talking about dieting the other day, which is usual.  Then this came up:
    A:  You know why so many Indians get diabetes?
    B:  Why?
    A:  It is scientifically proven that our bodies just aren't evolved enough to eat all those processed foods.
    B:  Well, sure.
    A:  Sugar and all that refined food, that's white man's food.  It's not for us!

    Oooookay.  Right.

    I tutor Indian children.  Before I started, I was beginning to worry.  I mean, I was getting all these facts given to me about Indian children.  They are kinesthetic learners.  They do not do well indoors.  Their parents do not care about school.  They all have posters of solemn dark-skinned teenagers who care about VALUES TRADITION EDUCATION.  I was beginning to think that maybe they were somehow uniform; what if I couldn't bridge the cultural gap to teach them?  But, yeah, it turns out that Indian kids are just kids.  And they are all very different from one another, and each is in a unique situation.  Kids I can handle; I can't handle Cultural Entities, though.

    I'm kinda uncomfortable with my Indian friends' racism; not because I feel demeaned but because I've never been around it before.  I'm not going to call them on it, and I'm certainly not going to explain that I'm white.  First of all, if skin color doesn't count, they probably aren't going to believe me anyway.  Secondly, racism is apparently a big part of who they are (there are no other kinds of decorations at work, for instance), and I am never going to get to know them if they can't express this around me.  So, right now, I'm going with the, "Why, this is all very quaint," attitude.

    What do you think?  Is the cultural boundary between me and my Indian kids just so big that I am not even seeing it?  Are my Indian friends crossing the line between racial and racist?  Should I say something about it to them?  Finally, do you consider yourself a [Nationality] first? a [Religion] first? a [Culture] first? a Human first?

Wednesday, 16 September 2009

  • Existential Puppet Show

    Pink Sock:  Am I undead or alive, now that I am no longer a ghost?  What do you think, Mr. Black Sock?

    Mr. Black Sock:  It is not clear, Pink Sock, but it is clear that you are neither un-annoying nor agreeable.

    Pink Sock:  Mr. Black Sock, why is it that these words are not so clearly defined?  One would think that being alive, not alive, or something in between were important concepts.

    Mr. Black Sock:  Well, Pink Sock, language is descriptive, and it is outside the experience of most beings to be forced to define their state of being since, in general, everyone they meet is in the same state.

    Pink Sock:  What a marvelous opportunity for us to create, Mr. Black Sock!  An experience outside the bounds of the common lot!  Help me describe it!

    Mr. Black Sock:  *sigh*  I think...no.  *sigh*

    Pick Sock:  But, Mr. Black Sock, what could have happened to draw forth such a lengthy sigh from your very soul?

    Mr. Black Sock:  It seems I wear my soul on my back today, Pink Sock, for I am besmote.

    Pink Sock:  So much outside the normal experience and condition that you must needs invent a word, or recall from obscurity one most archaic?!  Do tell, Mr. Black Sock!

    Mr. Black Sock:  Now, Pink Sock, you seem to be of a character such that you readily interact with all objects.

    Pink Sock:  Indeed, Mr. Black Sock, for it is integral to my weave that I collect and revel in experience!  You must share--

    Mr. Black Sock:  I, on the hand, do not.  Pink Sock, I fear my years of new experience are far behind me.  Now there is nothing left to me but reasonably comfortable monotony.  And yet...

    Pink Sock:  Yet!  And yet!  I hang, Mr. Black Sock.  I hang on every word!

    Mr. Black Sock:  And yet there is love.

    Pink Sock:  Love, Mr. Black Sock!  But...but...it violates our genre conventions to speak of it!

    Mr. Black Sock:  Why, Pink Sock!

    Pink Sock:  So sorry, Mr. Black Sock.  An aftereffect, I fear, from my ever-so-recent decease.

    Mr. Black Sock:  When someone close to one dies, Pink Sock, though he continue to plague you in ethereal and post-ethereal form, one begins to contemplate the nature of one's existence.  I am here, Pink Sock, and old.  The flower of my youth has faded.

    Pink Sock:  Why, Mr. Black Sock, you are ever so present yet and bear so signs of an expiration date.  Let not this dread flower trouble you!

    Mr. Black Sock:  Once, Pink Sock.  Once, I was dappled with a small and dainty print.  Did you know?

    Pink Sock:  I did not, Mr. Black Sock.  Or rather, you didn't tell me!  Or--

    Mr. Black Sock:  Alas, it is as I feared.  My colors are set, Pink Sock.  I am rigid and brittle with age.  Were I to brush against the burrs of new experience, I would tear.  Oh!

    Pink Sock:  Fear not, Mr. Black Sock.  Already you change.  Dare I mention it--you haven't once glanced at your Interferometrion!  Quick, before you are pulled back into its vortex, tell the object of your affection!

    Mr. Black Sock:  One author, Pink Sock.  One author, two hands.  We haven't room for the third character--

    Pink Sock:  Why, Black Sock!  You musn't.

    Mr. Black Sock:  It's catching, you vile former-ghost!  You have contaminated me with Meta.

    Pink Sock:  I apologize most abjectly, Mr. Black Sock!  Chew not longer on my head!

    Mr. Black Sock:  I am as ill-tempered as ever, Pink Sock.  In a trice I shall be back at my inventing, and you shall be treated to the sight of my smothering soul!  Drat it all, Pink Sock.  It is clear that being a curmudgeon is preferable to resembling you so closely.  You, and all your expressiveness.  Change, I turn from thee!

    Pink Sock:  Don't give up so easily, Mr. Black Sock!  I can help you change.  I still remember the switch that was flipped to cause my death, though I shall not mention the agent.  Voila, Mr. Black Sock!

    *Pink Sock flips the switch.*

    TO BE CONTINUED...

Sunday, 16 August 2009

  • That Which Kills the Soul

    Now the family is watching Time Changer.  In this movie, theologians are having a discussion about whether morality should be taught even in non-Christian contexts.  One dude says yes, of course they should.  Another dude disagrees, and fortunately, he has a time machine so that dude #1 can go to the future and see the results of his opinion and change his mind.

    Lord have mercy Christ have mercy.

    Dude #1 is from the "people from the past has higher voices" school (AKA the Keanu Reeves school) of historical acting.  He is the main character.  He mostly goes around the future being offended at PDA and cussing.  This is apparently what happens if you teach morality without religion.  Meanwhile, the Victorian era hasn't heard of sin.  (This movie is set in 1865 U.S. when a spate of rampant murder was just ending and being replaced by a spate of rampant exploitation.  You may have heard of it...)  There was also the oppression of colonized areas going on worldwide, child labor, greed, prostitution...  Not to mention A) that religious sentiment was considered distasteful or impolite or feminine by many and B) that there was a medium-strength disruption going on in the church due to Darwin's recent book.  Speaking of immorality, the main character is beamed back to the 1800s and takes this opportunity to scare some people who have been following into thinking they are missing the rapture.

    Historical inaccuracy + bad acting + mixed message=...

    I can't even talk about this any more.

Friday, 14 August 2009

  • My Dreams Don't Want Me to Win

    Let's say you have a large cardboard box full of evil ants who will eventually pupate and become...something else.  *Dum, dum, da*  (The something else will destroy the world.)  In the box, they are not much of a threat.  You can pick up the box, but if you seem to be attacking it, the ants will attack you, but if you run away afterwards, they will eventually go back in the box, resetting the conditions of the test.  What do you do?!

    My dream wouldn't let me win no matter what I tried, which was hardly fair.  What would you try?

    Things I Tried
    1.  Microwave  (They get out in time.)
    2.  Drowning in Water (Have to hold box under water; arms vulnerable.)
    3.  Suffocation with Plastic Bag  (They chewed through it.)

    I woke up after that.

Monday, 10 August 2009

  • Yang

    You know, some books by Christian publishers aren't bad.  They do have to make money occasionally, after all.  I present my Definitive* List of Tolerable Christian Literature below.  But first some hints.  When choosing Christian Literature, ignore Christie Awards, in part because the eligible books have to comply with such strict guidelines that they can barely contain any content at all, but mostly because When Crickets Cry won one year, and I can't even begin to tell you how bad that was (note previous post.  shudder.).  Also, the quality of the books may be unrelated to the quality of the paper they are printed on.  Chrisitan publishers, for whatever reason, generally print on practically-newsprint, but don't let that deter you. 

    My taste in books runs to mystery, speculative, and/or high-brow stuff.  I prefer character-driven novels, followed by plot-driven novels.  I do not care at all for romance, tearjerkers, or "literary fiction."

    The List

    1.  The Firebird Trilogy by Kathy Tyers.  Kathy Tyers is one of the writers for the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and these books are also Science Fiction.  In them, the main character, Mari Firebird, an extra heir to her planet's throne who will be killed off when the new queen takes the throne, embraces her fate willingly.  But, then stuff happens, and she is forced to remain alive and stuff, which proves difficult, and to her surprise, she actually fights to stay alive, sometimes with laser guns.  These books are awesome, but they contain too much mushy stuff (such as Brennan) for fans of Hard SF.  Also, it is arguable more Jewish than Christian.

    2.  Legends of the Guardian King Series by Karen Hancock.  This is fantasy, and I normally don't like fantasy, so perhaps it isn't very like the usual sort of fantasy.  But, anyway, it has people in robes and/or armor.  The main character is the fourth in the line to the throne, and practically everyone on the planet has some plan to manipulate him.  He has lots of adventures, and his life circumstances change dramatically several times.  I was caught off guard and really wondered what was going to happen to this dude.  Also, there are about four really creepy religions on his planet, and that's all he has to pick from.  Which one should he choose, and will the the creepy adherants to the other ones lynch him for it??  One caveat is that the last book in the series fizzled a bit, but that seems to be standard for the genre.  It's like, "Captain, the cargo hold!  The subplots are breeding done there!  There must be tens of thousands of them!"  And he says, "Open the bay doors, lieutenant, and blow them into space.  Give me manual control helm!  We're landing this baby come hell or high water."  And the other guy is like, "Captain, we're gonna crash!"  "That may be lieutenant, but we're going to crash as gently as possible."

    3.  Peace Like a River by Lief Enger.  Very good.  Kinda surrealist, but not as much as the author's second book.  (This is his first.)  A man's son murders another man, perhaps "just to watch him die," then he runs off.  The daughter and the father go off looking for him, and miraculous stuff happens.  This book is really cool, and the characters seem like actual people.  I was really impressed with this book.

    4.  Bug Man Series by Tim Downs.  These are forensic mystery books, and the main character is an eccentric entomologist.  Nick is very witty, and all his cases are very gory.  Love it!  My plot-loving friends tell me the plot of the second book is a little implausible, but I didn't care.  You may want to avoid these if you are disturbed by insects.

    5.  Any book by Donald Miller.  These are poetic essays instead of novels, but I am listing them anyway.  Blue Like Jazz contains the world's most depressing cartoon, and Searching For God Knows What is simply arresting.

    6.  The Bowers Files Series by Steven James.  I almost didn't list these because the series is not complete.  I do not know if they will take a turn for the worse, but the first three are very good.  These are mysteries featuring an FBI geographic profiler name of Bowers and his adopted goth daughter, Tessa AKA Raven.  (Adopted from his dead fiancee.)  They are generally in peril from some ridiculously crazy person who also manages to allude capture by everyone else in law enforcement, despite strewing the countryside with bodies.  It's pretty cool, and the author sometimes (usually?) works in classic literature as a major plot point.

    Okay, those are all I feel like thinking up for now.  Now, if we expanded the list to Christian authors who do not publish with Christian publishers, we might run out of internet before I finished.

    *not actually definitive