Couldn't think of an ending to a poem/song that was to be a sort of inspiration for something or another. Lost junk. I'll leave it here. If you can think of a better ending, feel free to take it... Bloodstained Angel (part 1) Endless dreams that go seeping, Screaming, Down her sides leaving her there weeping, Seething in curtains of all her life’s burdens, Needing, Now she’s reaping her curses And oh... There was the brightest light In her soul... Torn apart by the blood angel…
This is a link to a map I made for my story 'The Bear of Nor'. To view the map better, click on the picture then press the buttons CTRL then + on your keyboard to zoom in.
Apply Pressure No matter how difficult a task or situation, consistent attention and forward momentum will eventually break through. As pressure may wane you over time, so you will to that which you apply pressure to. If you want to progress beyond an obstacle, apply pressure.
No big surprise that there is an increasing presence of actual science in today's fiction. By fiction, I mean those outside of science fiction, also. In fact, science and information are becoming more in demand mainly because asking "why" does not really signify an elevated intelligence in people as a group, but a modern fad. Because of shows like Theater 3000 and various internet and media clowns poking fun at illogical plots and things, directors have no choice if they want to remain credible. Neither do writers. But you won't find total science because that would be boring. Pseudo-science seems to be a key thing in the later forms of fiction I see. It seems to engage a persons imagination by conjuring up a pseudo-reality. Things like Pokemon. Ridiculous as it sounds, there was a psuedo-science to that show. It focused around the inherent polarity between certain elements, the rather chess-like dissemination of each piece and their inherent abilities clashing with another. World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons is also a big one. Because of the fledgling science in the beginning, it spawned an empire. Boys and girls partial to that type of fun can literally spend hours working over the various ways hit-points interact with bonus stats and how bonuses are gained and lost and effective ways to counter and disable opponents with status buffs and debuffs. There's a chemistry that just engages the imagination with fictional structure. Any video game relies on this as well. The video game gets you to believe in it's variable systems. First is orientation with them, then familiarization, and than comes innovation. People become so observant of these rules that they begin to find loopholes and formula's where the designers did not anticipate, leading to hacks and the like. You see tidbits of it in other places. They shallow into other sciences like psychology, astronomy, and the like to give a particular...thing...a sense of depth. They also create their own like Naruto's Summoning jutsu or Sage Arts. Superman and the X-men employ common pseudo-sciences. Guess what science was premier in their times? Got it? Nuclear power, or radiation. Superman and the X-men and various other superheroes get their power from nuclear forces. You might say that fiction and science have always followed one another. Even the Bible transforms over time to accommodate basic scientific reality. The proverbial willow, a fiction that taks itself too seriously cannot be seen as too over-the-top or the willow snaps. Instead, it yields. It may even draw on the power of science to strengthen its own fictions. I have seen various "scientific" explanations of the bible's rather questionable events. I expected preachers to unanimously point to that fire-tornado in Australia as proof that God made such things in the past. I love the science in fiction, even if it is pseudo-science. It just lets you have fun with the impossible and then build upon it. Robert Jordan's magic system gives you the basic rules of the Power and aside from his own narration, you can begin to imagine just what other things could be done based on those rules and the combination of natural Power with the magical objects that amplify it in that story. How the cycle of souls in reincarnation plays into the whole Wheel of Time thing and wondering if the ability of the Power moves with the soul or with the body itself. Science observes the set laws of a thing or process. Science is the study of nature. A person who lies pseudo-science could very well like practical, real-life science and, like Guitar Hero, I wonder what would such people become if they used the energy and mental dedication they give towards immersive games like WoW, DaD, Oblivion, etc...and poured them into physics, aviation, astronomy, and biology? I suppose one is a lot less stressful than the other. But I found it odd how, in order to create a great fiction, you would likel still have to rely on adhering to basic structures...basic rules of its nature.
Life is a series of experiences. Within them, there are obstacles and achievements. While different people may have varying amounts of one or the other, the other really does not effect how you deal with your own. The other may be the cause of more opposition or more achievements, but it is telling of the character that begins to complain more about the inequality between themselves and another rather than finding a way to break the obstacle themselves. In life, obstacles come in many forms. They are tests of your personal spirit and motivation. In such time I find it better to approach them with the spirit of an Olympian athlete. With stamina, energy, strength, clarity, confidence, and determination. The Olympian represents the epitome of human triumph over adversity. The physical manifestations of victory. While all problems in life are not physical in nature, it represents a basic ideal that one should meet, head-on, ones problems. It is how you build yourself. I remember reading of Ganesha, the Hindu God of Wisdom and Trials. I remember thinking how appropriate it was for such a God to exist because surely his Force represents a considerable portion of human life. Not that life is center around trial and adversity, but it is definitely a part of it. Physical, mental, emotional, spiritual... the victors of life learn to destroy crippling and debilitating realizations or visions of themselves and the world and strike for the piece that matters to them most. Your goal may be worthless to another. It's not about comparison, really. Your life may not simply revolve around one-upping someone else's. It's about having the confident, piercing endurance and dedication to reach your dream despite any forces set against you. The Olympian, to me, represents victory, resilience, mastery. Moans, groans, and complaints cannot stand in the same light. How can you complain to a person who has faced challenge from the world greatest...and come out on top brimming with confidence? You don't have to be superman...or wonderwoman. But you can be yourself, know yourself, and never accept defeat.
S omething very odd and absolutely mind-expanding happened to me today...and you'll likely laugh at me for it. I opened an engineering book. View attachment 4305 A Modern Day Tome of Knowledge It was a book almost as wide as my hand and inside the writing is cram-font. That is to say, your eyesight was less important than getting all the information they could on every page. But just browsing through this book, The Civil Engineering Handbook, which is a paraphrasing of one facet of engineering as a whole, was almost like a little odyssey. Just looking over the vast details, planning, the understanding of the materials, the principles behind the nature, operation, and cooperation of these materials, the understanding of the land and the environment down to quantifiable constants and precision calculations...it's breath-taking. It makes you really consider just how flubbing (and I use that word only to emphasize my point) awesome the human mind is. How awesome an achievement everything around you is. And it's something we take for granted. Ever since the Hubble Deep Field Photo, we have a sort of quasi-religion out there who are insistent on saying that human beings just aren't important or not that important in regards to everything else. Truth is...we are flubbing awesome. Well...the engineers are. The people who say things like that are usually uploading or typing it into their computers to be sent over the internet to be received by the world at leisure and hoping for feedback to help them with their existence problems. These same people might not have or might not appreciate the concept of just how much work, innovation, and planning went into that computer, the internet, the lights that allow them to see, the building around them, and society itself. And then you'll go around crying about how unappreciated you are. This is how must people see the world around them. View attachment 4306 Lame!!! A kid born into Bill Gates house may think super-villain wealth and extravagance was normal. People always bow when you walk down the halls, and having ex-marine specialists drive you to your school is mundane to the point of apathy. They're probably writing depression poems about just how boring life is. They might not really have a concept of just how hard it was to build that existence around them. The work, ingenuity, effort, and determination, or the sheer scale of the mechanisms that had to have happened in order to allow that existence to be. It is the same with everyone. You look around you at a computer and it's just too ordinary. This is because you've been in a car driving at 200mph so long that 205mph or 195mph isn't anything to cry over. This is good in a way as it allows one to keep pushing to the next level with insistent impatience, but also bad in a way. Because imagine starting back at 1mph. Imagine not knowing or being able to draw from the vast knowledge of the people who have spent their lives and dedicated their lives to it's accumulation, communication, and recording. Sitting in the absolute darkness of primitive night when the sun sank without any understanding of fire or the thunder that shook your bones and the ground beneath you. Imagine living in a world where the wheel wasn't invented. Even the dude in hell that has to roll a boulder up a hill forever is at least happy that the flubber is round. View attachment 4307 "Flub you." - Sissyphus Imagine this. That this incredible, unbelievably complex technological wonderland around you that permeates almost everything that you do in regards to electronics, electrical systems, and controls all built upon a very, very, very simplistic principle of calculating ones and zeroes. That's it. Now imagine from that very simple thing getting a computer to d everything that it can do today- both the laptop kind and the International Space Station kind. This ties in with mechanical, chemical, structural, social, and other types of engineering to help create existence as you know it. The human body...biological engineering that is really just an amalgam of the more basic forms just discussed. It doesn't matter who made it. Man...nature. The authors employ remarkable wisdom, understanding, and physical muscle and know how in order to make it happen. You might picture an engineer to be a gangly nerd in over-sized glasses, but they are more like that mixed with your burly maintenance man. Because maintenance men only maintain what engineers construct, maintain, and repair beyond the average maintenance man's know-how. They are God, the Doctor, and Mr T all in one. The only reason why engineers don't rule the world is because they aren't generally interested in monetizing their work, or using their work to take over the world. Natural engineers like fucking with shit. They strike me more as playful monkeys who can either make or break your day with their antics but don't really mean anything personal by it. View attachment 4308 "My bad." The complexity of engineering comes from a lack of understanding the basics. Genius comes from the ability to understand the basics. Everything around you is layers upon layers of basic principles piled up and arranged around one another, but just like when you see atoms and molecules up close, you realize that these complex structures are really just simplistic ones arranged in varying, but orderly patterns. A puzzle may be a simple word, picture, or sequence of events scattered in a seemingly random way, but still connected by principles of logic and the laws of nature when effort and determination are applied. Like a car, you have the basic structure and a series of add-on's which improve the structure relative to a purpose or series of purposes. There is structure in all things. Chaos is a term that signifies one's lack of understanding of those things. One other thing is that you are also a product of engineering. Biological engineering. Thousands of years of steady recordings, observations, averaging, and improvements that have steadily improved you from a point of origin to present day. Did you ever stop and think that human beings and other forms of life may be the artificially intelligent constructs of the simpler organs inside them? That you are a machine that has gained a level of self-awareness sufficient enough to cause it to look into it's own making and make conscious changes to it and to the things that made it? If you were an iPhone, you would be iPOD 28,330.268. That's totally a made-up number but depending on how many generations there are between you and your earliest ancestors (which may not resemble humans even in the sense of being humanoid) and the variations that occur along each member of a particular generation, that number might not be far off. In fact, that number might be quite... View attachment 4309 Lame!!! I think over-appreciation tends to stifle innovation, also. After all, religion is all about over-appreciation. It wants you to bask in the glory of what is without really understanding anything about it or imagining how to improve it. There's actually nothing wrong with either way of thinking. It's not like humanity has to improve to exist. We don't need to go to the moon or the fifth planet from it. We don't need computers, nuclear power, robots, and all that. Some human beings are curious and progressive, but most human beings are powered by only three things; urgency, vice/comfort, and security. Notice that curiosity is not here. That's because not everyone is that curious. I'm not talking eating-poison-mushrooms curious. I'm talking discovering how mushrooms are made...5,000 years ago curious. Only a very small percentage of humans ever progress the human race through innovation. Those who have curiosity as a driving impulse tend to become engineers. (a musician is also a musical engineer, but I wouldn't put that on your resume) So, technically, saying humanity is awesome is a bit inaccurate. Logic Example: False: Human beings are awesome, intelligent beings. True: There are awesome, intelligent human beings. Aside form the moralistic side of the progression of technology, the very concept is amazing. The degree of sophistication, planning, and responsibility in this multi-faceted mechanism is humbling and inspiring. I got more of an inspiring feeling holding that book than I ever did in any class I have ever been to. Something is missing from schools. So much sociality, so much work, but no inspiration. No concept of just vast, open-ended Knowledge But then again, that is a flawed view. Schools aren't there to provide inspiration. Inspiration is something you have to find yourself.
Over the past couple of months you could say I have sought of changed. Both my writing and my views were confined to certain genre's and subjects. Overtime, you could say I have been opened up to the full spectrum of life- light, dark, and spectral as a prism. The problem is...how do I say it, write it, or show it? The mystery and the allure of life lies in the inadequate but reaching comprehensions of the mysteries of all these things. Between the past, the present, and the future...between the body, the mind, and the soul. Between matter and energy...infinity and the finite...everyday living...everyday life. Joys, pains, triumphs, shames... I could almost say I feel like I have explored so much and have been able to let go of the smaller things in order to reach for the larger. I almost let this site go as well. But I really like reading peoples work. I think the best ideas come from new, unaccomplished writers. The hardest part is to gain this perspective and still want something in particular- knowing that such a thing is ultimately useless and futile. A preoccupation of sorts. No, I'm not New Age or any kind of weird religious anything. It just happens to be the case that when you look beyond yourself, you lose perspective of whats right beneath you. Perhaps even of yourself. And yet after this it felt like I lost that perspective as soon as I started writing again. It felt like I had to make a choice of simply floating in that exploration or grounding myself and forever looking at it through hindsight. Always wondering, but never able to know. In order to fly, you really do have to drop the weight. I've discovered that fear, deep insecurity, and the concept of loss of things known, owned, or something of the like are what prevents most people from reaching...into that wilderness of the unknown, the mysterious, and- deep down- the infinitely more exciting part of life; Chance, unplanned adventure, and spontaneous discovery. Weirdly enough, my writing seems more like a weight preventing me from experiencing and exploring life. I'm fine reading peoples writings from time to time but I feel much better when I am something to write about rather than writing. It's a weird predicament in a way. I think I may start up writing again when I am older. I really do have a story I want to tell but it seems less and less important. I may do some poetry from time to time, but outside of that, unless I find something I can't write about, perhaps I am not so much the writer I thought I was. Merely curious or a shallow practitioner. Either way, I can say that there have been writings on this site and people from this site that have been a part of my collection of good experiences and I'm always willing to add to them. Many thanks, WF, many times.
"If you have a golf ball sized consciousness, you have a gulf ball sized understanding." Loved this quote and so true. One of the things I love most is being able to read, see, and experience things that expand my awareness of things previously unknown to me. Things that open you up to the true breadth of life and make the world seem vast and a startling mystery once again capable of rich discoveries and outstanding journeys. There's nothing so dull as to live within the confines of the ordinary and the mundane. Walk on the wild side. I guarantee you'll like it. Read, write, journey, and explore people...that's what I wanted to do. One day I want to travel to Iraq, to Israel, and to those places in the Middle East. I may not like what I see there but I will see it for my own eyes. I never buy into the media's depiction on things and I caution anyone from simply believing whatever is presented. A writer is an adventurer at heart. We live to tell the tale, but first we must live or the tale will be dull. I want to see all sides. I want to talk to people and learn the language, the customs, and the traditions. I want to commune with someone on the other side of the world not through emails but in real life. I wish the days of apprentices and journeymen were back were a student had to travel and expand his knowledge of the trade and the world before he attains mastery. Because both things are vital to development. No one holds all the pieces.
As a sailor in life you begin in wonder and excitement followed by the rigors of learning, trial, and adversity. Along the way you learn more about yourself, the people around you, the ways of the environment, all kinds of things... You may become so strong and spirited that you set out on your own, looking for a place no others know of but yourself; a place marked in the depths of your soul. Life's treasure- so distinct it is quite unique from another- brings you through all types of waters fair and foul. You learn to appreciate the good days, prepare for the bad ones; you value friendship and company; you appreciate good aid and advice; you give and you receive and you grow as you achieve- the little boat is know a seaworthy vessel. At the twilight of this voyage you are a master of your trade; years of experience are etched into your mind, long days at sea have written volumes in your heart, and the pain and pleasure of memories treasures fill your waking moments as much as the present. Now your sail rocks into the sunset, you are old but firm, you are not quite done yet; because in time you realize that life is the treasure, that prize that you seek, and that the beauty of life may be in chasing an eternity radiant in the visage of your dreams eternally yours and ever evolving.
I'm not sure how authentic that saying (the title of this blog) is, but I have definitely found it expanding to momentarily stop writing and pursue other things. Currently I am reading a lot of physics, astrophysics and astronomy, and had started watching a series I downloaded called "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan (who, by the way, is an amazing orator and guide into his subject) I'm also reading a lot about the present day economy, present day struggles and conflicts like the all of those things we seem to know but not really regard like the Middle East and North African campaigns of America/Israel. This led me to re-look the history of the crusades and the things that came out of it. You would be surprised to know just how much history you have not learned about, but should have... But the most surprising asset to my current writing was studying electricity and electrical circuits. By studying real, physical laws, it has helped me immensely in the crafting of psuedosciences and metaphysics. By studying these things you learn enough to create a world of substance while leaving enough room for wonder. Right now I'm going to continue watching "Cosmos". This guy really is an amazing orator. I'd recommend the show to any kid. It should be used in classrooms. Seriously.
My little brother is the artist...I like to write. I once asked him to draw some characters for me. He said he would but never got around to it so I decided to draw my own myself. At first they were ridiculous looking, but as I kept drawing and drawing them they began to look better and better. I realized I could actually draw pretty well with practice. Now I drew some of the characters for my story. It's one thing to imagine them but it's quite another to see them before you. Sometimes I came up with totally new characters trying to draw others that never came out right. As of now I only really draw the faces. I noticed I'm exceptional with eyes. I want to get good enough to draw really detailed faces but I think I heard that a good writer leaves a little wiggle room by not over-detailing so I'll lay off that. Long story short, I can draw now. I won't be making any anime's anytime soon, but just being able to see my characters was kind of a cool gift. I've hung them up on my walls.
There's a deeper meaning to understanding...beyond caring...beyond empathy. Understanding means a community. A community connected mutually. Individuals existing in unity. We are different eyes from which we all can see the tapestry of humanity. You want to be free than lose enmity; war, hate, and hostility. Love, give hospitality. And what is given from thee shall be given of me. I give it to thee...freely We are lovers, see spiritually eternally inseparably.
"The beauty of the world lies in it's creation. The beauty of creation lies in it's mystery." And so I have finished creating a world that has taken two decades to create. Updated innumerable times, revised and altered chronically. After thinking of land, races, histories, when you mature as a writer you realize the power of letting go of the handle and letting the ride go wild. Resist the temptation to control the story and let there by mystery, chaos, and suspense. But I am proud. I have nothing but a skeleton, ideas, and images in my head. Pieces of prose, but nothing to connect. I am still horrible at writing. My stories have so many mistakes - punctuation, grammar, chronology, lol. But I do have my ideas. And I know I can't quit. It seems like because I can't do anything but write on, I have fun doing so. But the map. There's just something about looking at the map that makes the whole story start to form- like a shape forming from a vapor. And the past, the present, and the future collide at once. Those in betweens that are so hard to write seem to mend themselves together organically and it's one of the best feelings I have when- in those times, absent of crippling doubt or pedantic research and editing- I can see my whole story from start to finish. In truth...I might not get to write m story out for a very long time. But in a way, I feel it's already written. I just need to write it in a language other people will understand.
In conspiracy theories, one of the major reoccurring themes is an attempt to bring all things under a singular rulership- or the rulership of a single class of people. But this isn't really conspiracy it is history. All the great rulers and conquerors are consolidators. They gathered up numerous peoples and forced them into a singular unit under their control- give or take some liberties. even now, it is clear that consolidation is a clear pattern from the beginning of recorded history. As the means with which we are connected advanced, so everything will be drawn together and through cultural diffusion and the intermingling or material or metaphysical ideas, thoughts, emotions, dreams, and all that, everything is headed towards a more general consolidation. But that brought to me one seen I remember clearly. I am not usually backing the bible but I remember the Babylonian story well. It showed how God saw the consolidation of the races of the world into building a single monument in a single city as somehow evil and threatening and he destroyed it and scattered them. I thought this was undeniable proof of a wicked god against humanity. but the more I think about it I was wondering...what if the story isn't telling it how it was. Was that social system a euphoric one or were most of the people slaves building a grand monument for the glory of a few rulers at the top who ruled over all with absolute power...and perhaps cruelty? If that is the case, then the usurpers were not the people but the rulers who attempted world control and were erecting a temple, as it seems, to themselves as though they were gods. And God, seeing that, destroyed this wickedness and scattered the people into many peoples. The moral seems to be that there is a merit in variety. It prevents the atrocity of the dangers of a single state being controlled by a single authority. With all the world at your command...how is that not corrupting down the line? But this is all specualtion and just another one of my thoughts. Wht do you think?
Yeah, one day I was trying to figure this out. It's a love, hate relationship. I love playing them but I hate how much time I end up spending on them. I try to stop after I end one but I always find myself looking for the next awesome game. That usually implies addiction, no matter how silly it might sound and I was wondering...why the hell am I addicted to these things? Storyline Nah. There's only three games whose story line ever interested me to a great degree. Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy 7 (awesome in it's day!!!), and the old Legend of Zelda. Beyond that, others have been interesting, fun, but no where near as emotionally engaging or compelling. Graphics Nah. The graphics are cool and it's awesome to watch you virtually kick someone's ass in perfect detail but it's not enough to have me feening for more. Gameplay Not exactly. There are a few types of RPG gameplay's that all RPG's follow. After playing them for a while- beyond some bells and whistles you are basically playng the same way. (Though Vagrant Story remains one of the best kinds of RPG I've ever played and one of the more innovative) Getting Everything Bingo. I love watching my guy level up and become stronger and stronger. I like going from challenging to boring- starting off weak and then dominating everything in the end. I want to go from nearly being killed to slapping giants off the map. (though you will never love the game the way you loved it when it was a challenge) A close second to that is finding all the secrets, doing all the missions, getting everything done and being able to show that I- indeed- got everything. That used to mean something but not really anymore. Where once it might have required dogged skill and dedication it is nothing more than a youtube look u these days. And spening hours and hours trying to level up your character when another can mod his character to 100 times more powerful than you character could ever be at it's max stats when playing the game naturally tends to wane on your persistence. But hell, it's all good, because at some point even Modding Is a bit of a rush in itself. Sometimes you just want to walk about having fun, one -hit killing bosses and making a spell with a damage level and radius that incinerates everything in a whole town square- sending bodies flying through the air. But in the end, ultimately, I think it's about chasing the high. My high was FFVII, and I've never appreciated a game like that again beyond FF Tactics. Vagrant Story comes close but the storyline was a bit to colorless in a way, though still entertaining. Every other game I want to have an experience like that and it never really happens. My current faves were Oblivion and Skyrim because they just offer sooooo much to do and you never get tired. It's not a game that ends as soon as you get tough but persists and stays relatively as tough as you are so that there is always a challenge. The newest one is awesome. I recommend you play normally and go for the challenge. You will never appreciate the win you didn't have to struggle for and it's that art which makes the hardest games you've ever played some of the most rewarding.