1. Pick one of your OCs.
2. Fill in the questions/statements as if you were your OC.
3. Tag at least four people to do this meme!
4. Tell people that they been tagged with a link from your journal

1. What is your name?
Evalynn Holmwood

2. Do you know why you were named that?
The first name has the meaning "life", the surname from various things around the room

3. Single or taken?
It's...complicated

4. Have any abilities or powers?
Studied mage with expertise in summoning circles and binding spells. Very good at chess. Also can play the violin extremely poorly.

5. Stop being a Mary Sue!
Make me

6. What's your eye color?
grey/blue

7. How about hair color?
Dark Brown/Black

8. Have you any family members?
None currently living

9. Oh? How about pets?
nope

10. That's cool, I guess. Now tell me something you don't like.
God of Death. Being lied to. Working for idiots.

11. Do you have any activities/hobbies that you like to do?
Reading, traveling, chess, studying more magic. Anything, there's a whole world and lifetimes to explore it.

12. Have you ever hurt anyone in any way before?
Bound the god of death with magic. Later allowed his release to end the plague brought on by a group of mages.

13. Ever… killed anyone before?
Pretty much

14. What kind of animal are you?
Human
If I were to be an animal I would probably be some sort of white leopard

15. Name your worst habits.
I'm too stubborn and want to take things into my own hands too often. Often leading to burn out or worse.

16. Do you look up to anyone at all?
Not really, I don't look up to gods, and I work to be equals with any other mortal.

17. Are you gay, straight, or bisexual?
Never really thought about it. Marriage is a contract, and I'm not interested in being the mother of some gentleman's children.

18. Do you go to school?
Could never keep a magic master, so self taught and I eventually came to work with the academy.

19. Ever want to marry and have kids one day?
I don't want to become property

20. Do you have fangirls/fanboys?
Not really, I try to keep a low profile.

21. What are you most afraid of?
Death and the afterlife, being stagnant. I want to see what the world has to offer.

22. What do you usually wear?
Robes, simple dresses

23. What's one food that tempts you?
I rather enjoy cheap brandy >.>

24. Am I annoying you?
These questions are rather redundant

25. Well, it's still not over!
That isn't a question

26. What class are you (low class, middle class, high class)?
Low/middle. It's better than where I was, I have a bed now.

27. How many friends do you have?
None really, I find it difficult to connect to others these days

28. What are your thoughts on pie?
a delicacy when one can afford it

30. Favorite drink?
Tea with brandy

31. What's your favorite place?
My armchair at home

32. Are you interested in anyone~?
No, not really...well...no

33. That was a stupid question.
This also is not a question, this survey lacks substantial rigor.

34. Would you rather swim in a lake or the ocean?
Ocean, I've never been to an ocean

35. What's your type?
Type...type of what? I don't really have types, I prefer to study everything. I suppose my favorite type of tea is black.

36. Any fetishes?
I am not sure why this is necessary to know.

37. Seme or uke?
I have no idea what these words mean.

38. Camping or indoors?
I much rather sleep indoors while I have the privilege of a sturdy roof.

39. Tag others

(So I decided to try this with a character I've been playing with lately. She's a mage that beat death at a game of chess. She's also from a much much earlier time period.

Been pondering on whether or not to write that story. )

Still working on this tarot deck idea project thing. Or card deck. whatever.

So the suits will probably be different species. vulpine, feline, canid, mustelid.
The major arcana are the choice of the commissioner, any species

The suits may pose an issue however. wants are just sticks and don't lend themselves to markings.
Therefor would it be preferable to have clubs, diamonds, hearts, clubs?


Which would you guys prefer? Playing card suits or Tarot suits?

Sorry for journal spam, here is a more solid journal for the intended project.

I want to make a species of tarot card animals similar to the card foxes that I have going on. This will be a flat rate buy in with 78 slots. The final product would be a designed character, flat colored and in a card motif.
I'm still deciding if I would like it to be a single species (all cats, or all dogs, or all foxes) or if I allow a few different species, or possibly even a species designed for this purpose.

So I need readers to answer the following questions

Would you be interested in a slot if I were to do this project?
How much would you pay for a flat color card character? (my intent was between 10-20)
How much would you pay for a soft shaded card character? (my intent for this was 25-40)
Would you pay more for a card representing the trump cards (major arcana)
Should multiple slot buys be allowed?

Would you want a single species? If so What?
Would you want multiple species? If so, which ones?
Would you want a new species? If so, what characteristics do you like?

Edit: it has been suggested that the 4 suits are different species (trump would then be the choice of the commissioner) does this appeal to you? If so what 4 suit species would you be interested in?

So I have my card foxes, not necessarily a closed species since I'm not the only one to have the idea, but certainly mine are closed to close friends.

I however have been pondering doing a different "deck species" as it were. Maybe Card cats, or more likely Rook Rooks (as in from the game of rook)

In all this pondering I began to think of making some Tarot au jouer animals. Basically based on the tarot deck in the way card foxes are based on playing cards. that means 78 possible cards/critters.

I'm thinking of making this a one off thing 15-20$ for an illustrated "card" of the character created. Would need some solid interest though.

Also pondering if I want it to be one species (like cats, dogs, ect, or a couple)

edit: made a better journal for it http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6163114/

I frikkin hate this ninja pen.

More info about Fay that only like 5 people care about, whoo.

Anyway I've been getting into comic books again and there's an office mate that also greatly enjoys comics, so inevitably the discussion of the greats come up, especially with movies like superman, dark knight, superman vs batman, etc in the theaters.

Finally after what feels like ages I've managed to put into words exactly why I don't think Superman comics have a good premise and exactly why I never ever get excited about anything superman. Particularly with Batman and Captain America to compare to.

First off this stuff all basically applies to the more modern age storylines. I appreciate the golden age and the classic stuff, but it's not my thing. Annnyway. The issue I have with Superman, short and simple, is that to make a good arc to me means it has to be a final arc. By comparison Batman has a better premise and a good story for batman can be anything but the end. Why?

Well first and foremost every story needs a conflict.

I'll diatribe a moment and specify to say when I say good story I mean good arc. I think there's a lot of hilarious mini filler pages for superman that are fine for filler. AKA characters just going about their normal lives in between the action.

Anyway stories, as in arcs, need conflict. Conflict in and of itself brings change (or it wasn't really a conflict. This is why "it was all a dream" ends are cop outs). The change can be external or internal.

Superman as a premise is the strongest man on earth (I know this is simplistic) in order for the conflict to be external you have to go beyond earth and get into huge gods and monsters. This isn't really easily viable for superman without either getting ridiculous or tiresome (see DBZ)

Basically this narrows the conflict to an internal one, dealing with superman's psyche and personality. The issue for supes is, deep down he is good. That's his thing, his conflict focuses on his battle to remain good in the face of being a superman and a man.

In terms of conflict and change, when one starts out as good the only conflict is them becoming bad or possibly becoming bad. That means a good storyline is one which does genuinely push superman to his limit. the problem is you can really only do that once. If you break the character, the character is broken and done. If you don't you took the character to the edge, and to do that twice is to weaken it. You can't have supes almost kill someone then almost kill someone again, the same edge over and over makes that point so weak.
So while it's not impossible to make a good supes arc (it's been done) it's rare, because the story must commit to an end.

By comparison Batman is the opposite. While deep down Supes is a good person, deep down Batman is not. He isn't and he knows he isn't, Batman is a primarily internal conflict and that conflict is about his battle against his own demons. He and Joker are two sides of the same coin, and there is no way for him to beat Joker, because when he does he has lost to that "badness".

What this means for Batman is his change can go in two ways either he succeeds and prevents being worse, or he fails and becomes more bad. Batman has a constant push to not slip, Supes doesn't really have that, he's already good.

This also is why there can not be a good Batman ending. Batman is that struggle between Justice and chaos, he is a symbol. If Bruce Wayne gets his shit together and defeats the darkness in himself (that sounds so corny) he'll no longer be batman (just some rich asshole living in Europe with catwoman.) Batman can die, but a balanced Batman can't live.

"Well Fay, clearly you just don't appreciate the inspirational stories, you like the darker stuff" says the random commenter that I'll name Sam.

Well Sam, you bring up a good point. Supes actualy does have inspirational stories where the end point isn't that he's still good but how good he actually is. To that I say,, pshaw!

See I don't like those inspirational stories, because for Supes it basically amounts to no change, no conflict. They can be good, but not great to me, because it's just showing that really there wasn't a danger of him coming to that breaking edge.

As a counterpoint I present Captain America. He is a super boy scout, he is sickeningly good and full of FREEDOM! but I like him, and I love the recent stuff with him, especially the portrayals in the movies. Both Capt. and Supes are stupidly good, they are the beacons of goodness for their respective group.

The thing that I like about Capt though is he is losing his humanity where as Supers never had that part to lose. Supes lost a home he never knew, that sucks but all supes has known is humanity and as he tries to enter it he's doing so as GD superman!

Capt is losing his life as he tries to balance being a hero. Capt had a life in his time and being frozen he's placed in an unfamiliar world where he must try to be a superhero while at the same time the world he knew is slowly drifting from his grasp more and more. The people he knew are dying and becoming forgotten, those links to his humanity are disappearing and any attempt to get it back is just pausing the clock, the people he could be close to he can't relate to and are likely to die before him.

Capt's conflicts are him balancing human and hero, and him having to keep his character while still fighting a much more cynical world where the bad guys aren't so clear. Any gain on one side brings about a loss on the other.

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Soooo yeah, that's my thoughts on why I really get bored with Superman hype. All that being said it's my opinion. If you're a fan of Supes enjoy it. I can still respect a foundation of comics and how others will be enjoyed.

what is the most noticeable thing of my art style?

Same deal as always, ask questions or give me a random subject and I'll tell you what I know about it.

I am not at the moment planning on making one, but I have heard things about it. I'm curious about people's opinions

How do you feel about Patreon? As an artist? as a user? as a commissioner?

If you like it, why?

if you don't like it, why?


*people can have different opinions, please respect people even if you don't agree with their ideas.

Once again I will start this by saying I like unions, I think unions are a good idea that need to exist. I think unions are a valuable resource in our country that have done countless good in protecting the rights of the employee.

I have a problem with the TA union at my school. I haven't exactly been quiet about it in the past and I finally articulated my position enough after the union reps came to visit the department.

My dislike comes in two parts. A principled dislike, as in I do not like it on principle, and a particular dislike for the actions of the union itself. For the latter I am often told to "be the change you want to see" but due to the former, the change I want to see is for it not to exist.

How can I like unions and hate the TA union on principle you might ask (made up discussion partner who I will name Fred), well Fred the issue is in the nature of higher education.

Higher Education, particularly university education came into existence in this country as a method in educating good citizens. It wasn't to train for a particular job but a step toward the development of an educated mind.

Now the modern university is different from those days, primarily we don't study the bible and we don't speak latin (except the latin department. way to go guys). We introduced things like Ag and Engineering schools. Which are also extremely beneficial to the country and the students. I don't particularly believe that higher education should only be for the development of the mind and not to help students go on to careers.

Here's the thing though, despite the expansion of academic attention one thing I feel remains core to universities, and that is university governance. Corporations have presidents, and boards, and it's a top down ladder of control. Universities have presidents and boards, but it is somewhat of a more shared governance. The faculty comes together to have a say in the school affairs.

This is why there's a myriad of developed concepts like academic freedom and tenure and so on. So what does that have to do with unions in higher education? Unions are meant to give more a voice in the governance, give the faculty (or in my case TAs) some say in the affairs of the running of the school.

Well there's a difference between shared governance and mitigation with governance. One is inclusionary and the nature of unions is to some extent is adversarial. It doesn't have to be nasty, it doesn't have to be extremely aggressive. Just simply the idea is the protect the rights of one group, which raises the question "protect from what?"

It creates an us vs. them system. In terms of businesses and the private sector I am okay with this. I do think there is an honest and distinct difference between corporate and employees. I think employees are people and corporations are not, or if they are a distinctly different sort of person, which naturally means that such employees do need to have some protection so long as the corporate ladder hierarchy is how things are run.

In higher education, the use of unions helps to enforce the us vs. them. Faculty vs. Administration, etc. attitude getting further and further away from the idea of shared governance.

"Wouldn't a union still do good? Can't it still protect you? Universities run more like a business now and we need some way to ensure the rights of the employees"
Yes in practice unions can do great work in universities. I dislike them in higher education as only part of an overall problem.

The bigger problem I despise is Universities being run like a business. At least to such a point where education is pushed aside, a focus is put on some things in the short term to gain money but it's harmful in the short term. It destroys the national respect for education turning universities away from making citizens to being half rate degree mills which grant little to the job market because we've devalued legitimate vocational schools and flooded the market with only partially educated students.

A union is in part a symptom of this system. It isn't the cause of the need for this us vs. them but in the process of mitigating such problems it does help to reinforce such a system. It's a difficult circle.

So long story short, on principal the change I want to see involves no union, especially with TAs, who arguably need the most protection, because a union for TAs goes further to place TAs away from staff and away from being legitimate members of the academic community and more towards commodities of the university for cheap labor in comparison to full tenure staff, which is leading to the collapse of grad school and the tenure positions (but this is another long complicated affair)

Point is, I want to see higher education get away from this pure business direction and back toward the education of the populace, as well as strengthen the vocational schools to better support those intent to get a degree to get a job.

All that being said, I still support the idea of the union enough not to immediately drop it. In my school the union automatically deducts dues if you are a member or not, and so I gave it a chance before joining and paying even more.

Had that not been the case I would have joined to support in some way.

The particular reason I hate my union is it doesn't incidentally do all the things I dislike, but does it outright. The emails to students are adversarial in their writing of issues, biasing toward the actions of the union. This of course is a method of getting more support, after all if the students feel attacked they'll want to respond, but as I said, in the long run it just makes us smaller as a group within the university.

The decisions being made are from a minor standpoint, the grand example spouted as a great victory of the union here is that they negotiated for TAs to get 3 extra credits covered in tuition.
We had 6 credits covered, most programs are designed so 6 is full time with a TAship. We now have 9, but the 9 has to come from somewhere, so programs in turn get less money (money that makes up stipends) in order to account for the extra credits which many aren't going to take advantage of anyway because 9 credits can be a lot.

If viewed narrowly, it's a great victory, the student gets more resources with less burden, but anyone with any attention to university budgetting can see that it was a bad idea in the long run outside of saying "we did a thing!" We're still the lowest paid in the state :\

I don't entirely blame them, as referenced in the last email, the governance of this goddamn school is outright fucked up. So the fact there is a union is due to that, but the union sure as hell doesn't help the administration and faculty come together...

Bleh.

cranky. (Maybe because I've found I get less money cause the 9 credit nonsense went into effect this sem, could be)

So my university recently went "tobacco free" which is all well and good. There are plenty of arguments one could make so ridding a campus of chew and cigarettes. I don't necessarily agree with some of these arguments but I respect that they can be made and I respect that this is a private(ish) institution.

Universities hold votes, the students and faculty make their choices and that's how things go. Except there was no vote, it was just an act of the board, no one got input really.

Oh and the kicker. It's any possible tobacco related product.

No smoking on campus, no chew. Want to use e-cigs to help you kick that habit? well fuck you cause those aren't allowed either. No vaping. No nicotine gum. The campus store sells patches and you can't use them on campus.

Wut?

I can't understand this decision beyond "nicotine is bad and a vice, so stoppit cause we said so" which is just fucking terrible as an attitude.

I'm not saying people should pick up such a habit. I'm not saying I deserve to smoke or vape or wherever the fuck I am.

But honestly, no vote, no forewarning. Even if one is trying to be responsible they can't use gum, or a patch, or an e-cig outside to curb the desires.

Fuck them for getting into it in the first place I suppose.

There's so much wrong with the governance of this damn university it's just shocking sometimes. They're more concerned with branding and looking good than education or even attempting to help support students.

I have been batting this around, now there's a lot of interest in my sketch pages.

I'll still respect the quotes I gave but I've been pondering increasing the cost. 30, 35, or 40. I'm not sure if that will kill the interest though.

four of my roommates also want to playtest and learn the game before committing to a big campaign, sorry to get any hopes up but this is easier than working out skype schedules and the like.

If I get enough solid interest I'll consider working on an online campaign, but I need people that will show up consistently and aren't just in it for passing interest.

Thank you those that gave advice. I appreciate it and the house has a new action plan

So I was reading through some Beowulf stuff looking for a particular passage in conjunction with the 2007 movie.

I stumble across some commentary on how beowulf movie has better characterzation and gender roles than beowulf the text.

Mostly they're talking about how wealhtheow in the text only has the purpose of sleeping with hrothgar and getting drinks.

In the movie it is claimed she is much stronger because she's brave enough to stand up the beowulf and blahblah blah. Go movie for not giving into the gender stereotypes of the past where women were property. NO!

Look I think feminism is important, I think gender roles can be harmful for both genders and I want to see a world where people don't feel like shit for fitting into a box, but I hate, hate hate hate people trying to discuss a "problem" without the faintest concept of what they are talking about.

Wealhtheow in Beowulf does look pretty and give out mead, but that's not because women were just mindless property to serve men.
The king and queen were not master/servant, the ideal of the society was the gold-giver/peace-weaver.
The king went to war, got treasure, passed that treasure out among the fighters.
The queen was like a yin to his yang, she helped with diplomacy, because the anglo saxons understood there is a balance. Where the men go off and fight the women stay and take care of the home and town.

More subtly Wealhtheow's passing the mead is a ceremony, the order the mead is given is important, it denotes honor, and surprise surprise it's a diplomatic action. That's why she gives it in a certain order and gives it to beowulf at a certain time. It's showing the king is the most important in the mead hall and beowulf is a damn important guest.

Her other action in the text is talking about her sons. she wants to ensure their place on the throne and is worried about beowulf taking the throne from them.
That might seem a little more petty but it's not just "I want my babies to succeed" it's politics. That shit was important because if something went wrong people didn't just die, the entire community died.

Note that at the end of Beowulf, after Beowulf is dead, the people grieve, and it's more than grief for a man, grief for a king, they are grieving for themselves because they are absolutely fucked. This was a time where kings weren't just butts in a seat they were out on the battlefield as well.
All the more reason the queen is such an important half, because you need someone to see a bigger picture and play politics because if the king bit the dust, there better be a plan B for a leader that can defend the community before another group came in.

All of this is contrasted with the movie version, where the queen makes comments about sleeping with beowulf, does put hrothgar to task for not doing shit about grendal (that's not so bad) but also derides him for sleeping with grendal's mother (spoiler, this movie was bad)

Sure she's stronger than this idea of a servant woman that's property, but she's hardly a truly strong character and she's a far cry from putting a rest to these "gender roles" that have been vilified.
"strong woman" in this context is just "aggressive bitch" which doesn't really help anyone in terms of gender roles, it just furthers the idea of power and aggression is to be valued.

The original anglo saxons did have gender roles, the genders were two sides of the same coin, two points of balance. Men had certain expectations and women had others and the point of this was not one is better than the other, but that one NEEDS the other or you are screwed.

Admittedly this is hard to pick up on if all you have for context is just the text where wealhtheow is present and no other understanding of the society at all, but that's a bit of the point.

Ultimately this idea has me so angry because not only is it doing an injustice to anglo saxon society and Beowulf text, it's a disservice to anyone that gives a damn about gender roles and society.

Trying to make a point of any social issue when you don't know what the context is is stupid and counter productive. You end up cursing something you don't understand and promoting something downright stupid (because it won't help us to dismantle gender roles if the method to do that is to say "if you're not aggressive or pushy, you're just weak")

just...ugh...

So 5e came out and you can get the basic players guide and dm guide free as PDFs. I want to start running campaigns but want to practice building, so is there anyone interested in doing a oneshot through skype?

So planning my new year of con going and of course planning to run a billion panels.
what kind of panels are you guys wanting to see me run if you were to go to one?

eventually life will go back to normal...

For now i'm seeing if I can get Sai to work on my old spare and then I'm going to try to save up for a new one I guess, I think this one is getting a bit old and tired.

this could have been a more pleasant summer

But god help me if it didn't try to murder me. since I got home from Montana I had one hell of a cold that developed into bronchitis. My laptop broke. The roommate that was supposed to schedule the carpet cleaners gave thewrong address so moving had to be pushed back a day leading to a panic about uhauls and where the hell I could stay for a night (as my lease ran out the next morning). Cat staying with a good friend that she loves apparently developed some sort of PTSD and was more aggressive and stressed than I've ever seen her. and it all culminated in my falling and stretching my ankle so badly I've been walking with a cane.

But I'm out!I got a bed, cat us settling, and best of all no more crazy bitch lady!

Now imma relax and try not to die.

I need a lunch break while finishing my move, and since i'm getting into writing again I felt I would write some basic tips.

*generally this is story advice. if you're looking for poetry or straight up pornography it won't work as well.

1. Write the story people need to hear:

Ask yourself why you are writing the story. Why would people want to read it? Is the world in danger to be saved? Is there some secret society in danger? Is there a character people must know?

Writing should always be fun, so write the story that pleases you, but if you're sharing with others remember that you'll need to make it appeal to them as well.

I have plenty of little stories about rp characters that make no sense nor interest to anyone not in the group. If you're writing your pet character or world and want to share just step back and ask "would i read this if I wasn't writing it?"

2. Get them with the hook:

Going off of 1, people reading need to be interested in what you are trying to say. You have roughly a half page to get someone's attention at first.

This doesn't mean you have to dive in with "it was a dark and stormy night, and the world is going to end". For example Hitchhiker's guide starts with a man waking up with a hangover and within one page we see his house is going to be torn down.
It starts of relatable (hangover) then goes into a conflict that the reader wants to see the end of (bulldozers v. house).

Once you have someone hooked you build up toward the larger plot. Generally for this after you hooked them on page one you have a couple pages to get them into the bigger conflict. Again with hitchhikers, that bulldozer bit leads directly to the destruction of earth and the plot carries one along smoothly.

Rather than one major bump, view the plot as a mosaic, pieces that come together to form one smooth rise and fall. Each piece is its own part, has its own hook to carry into the next piece.

2.2 Make sure the plot is interesting enough to be worth it:

A combination of 1 and 2 to get the point across.

To get people hooked it doesn't have to be huge, but it does need to be interesting. Ask yourself "why would the reader care? what is the motivation here?"

"The motivation is they want adventure" well that's just vague and basically telling the reader "I promise it will get better, trust me something interesting will happen" well no, I'll got invest in the story that gave me interesting things up front.

"They need money" well I need money too but no one is going to read about me doing paperwork and grading.

In general being too vague or general does not make a good hook. If your story is a young woman, you don't want her to be a prude requiring months worth of bland small talk dinners before she gives you a kiss at the door. You also don't want her to be so open that when she sees a guy on the street she shows him her dragon apocalypse, there's nowhere to go from there. I'm losing track of this metaphor, but the point is, let your story be that girl that invites you to dinner to get you interested, catch them with a kiss, and in time build up to the grand things.

3. Write what you know:

This doesn't mean "you literally had to be a viking to write about them" but good lord don't call a tiller a "turny stick"

Stories are about immersion and a lot is lost if you have no damn clue about what you're meant to be writing about. It's shallow, it's equivalent of a cardboard cut out. Do research, learn what you're talking about.

Tolkien is a golden god of writing for a reason. Not only did he make languages and a whole world with a history for his works to take place, but he was a master scholar in anglo saxon, celtic mythology, and other solid foundations of western literature.

"knowing" is more than facts. It's the way people act and speak. A haughty duke is not going to ask for a plain cigarette, vodka is not served in mugs (someone wrote this once, srsly). Don't say the character enjoys pipeweed, then have them talking about tobacco later. It's the same thing but you end up mixing tropes, accents, and dialects and the character is no longer real.

When you write ask yourself why you're using that word instead of a different one. If the answer is "I think it sounds neat" that's probably not a very good reason (unless its a character that uses whatever word they think is neat)

The reader shouldn't look over your work and think "yes I also played Elder Scrolls" or "I remember DnD as well"

Read. A lot. Live. A lot. Use all of this information to inform your writing.

4. The loaded gun must go off:

This is generally used to mean that, if you describe something it should probably hold some importance. If you take time to point out that there's a loaded gun, the gun should go off.

It's more than just physical objects that are important. For instance if you reference zombies rising, take time for the characters to investigate an ancient cemetery and find reference to the zombies, give a journal from a old priest going mad as he slowly delves into necromancy, and end with an implication that the priest is alive and hiding in an ancient crypt
DO NOT JUST LEAVE THERE!
This is the equivalent of literary blueballs. It's a magnificent waste of the build up!

This doesn't mean the characters have to be idiots and go "hey let's run towards the screams!" but you are the writer, you are the god of the world you are creating and you should adjust the plot so such a plotline is settled. Maybe they run away and run into the priest, lookit that, some sort of build up!

Point is if you bring topics up people want some sort of conclusion with it.
Now the more skilled writer can play with it, reference the gun and reference later that the trigger jammed, haha metajoke the loaded gun can't go off.

It's easy to tell when someone is aware that there is a plot hole and it's left there on purpose and when someone just leaves it hanging. This is why the ending of lost was utter bullshit. It is not good writing to open up so many plot lines and leave them to dangle like the body of the victims of the serial killer that's on the loose but I don't feel like investigating further.

5. Making up words does not make the mundane interesting, it makes it tedious:

http://xkcd.com/483/

Tolkien gets a pass because he's better than you, or me. (apologies if you are Shakespeare or Lewis carol reading this from the dead).

Point is, a lot of new fiction writers, particularly in fantasy settings, will substitute a mundane thing with some made up nonsense.

It's not interesting for the characters to just talk about some whoopaloo causing trouble, I dunno what the shit that is.
It works with Harry Potter because for 3 books it's "that's a grindeefuck" "What the hell is that?: *explanation*

This one has the most wiggle room, making up things is part of writing, but just remember using made up things, or obscure stuff that people don't know, is not a substitute for substance.
If it's between battling a dragon and a vamplefukyu which is like a dragon but it farts lighting and has a lion head, the dragon would make for a better enemy.

I'm overtired, sick, too behind on packing cause the second pointand I just found out I'm being charged $411 in enrollment fees! Basically charged that for signing up for six credits.
Mind you to be a TA and get funding I have to have 6 credits but my funding only covers tuition not fees...so I'm basically spending one of my summer paychecks on fees to qualify for my job.


I am so done with school. I just wanna job. I just want a simple schedule, to know where I'll be in a year and to know where my money will come from. Uuuugh

Sooooo long story short, finished my first run through of "Wolf Among Us" a pretty bitching videogame from the makers of the Walking Dead game based on the Fables comics.

The premise is: Fairy Tales are real, real people that really exist, but their homelands were invaded by a mysterious enemy and they fled to modern day New York where they hide in an area a couple blocks big called Fabletown

In the game you follow Bigby (the big bad wolf) who is the sheriff of Fabletown trying to solve a mysterious murder.

I played the game before I started reading the comic. It's one mostly made up of decisions and quick time events, so it's more an interactive story. It is fun as hell though. Normally I like action and activity in my games but I was eating this game up. The writing is good, the story is interesting.

The game mechanic remembers the decisions you make to change the story later on. In some cases it really doesn't matter. In others the sequence leads to lives being saved and such. You can never tell which it will be.
There's a lot of replay potential.


As for the Fables comics...holy shit they are amazing. I generally just like to get comics online and read through them, but now I've been buying up the volumes of it.

I'm considering having an open trade policy to do commissions for these books I love them that much.

Seriously though, the writing is fantastic, the pacing is lovely and they aren't just trite fairy tales that everyone knows, but some of the great obscure stuff with a dash of realism.

Be warned though. This is an american comic that deals with wars and original fairy tales (that would make the Grimm brothers gag) there's violence and a lot of gratuitous sex.

Same goes for the game really. There's some gorey bits, there's also a lot of titties (no outright sex though) so if that's not your deal then avoid.

otherwise this stuff is bitchin! The only other thing I would recommend so emphatically is Discworld or the hitchhiker's guide, it's that good.

---

Feel free to talk in comments but please leave spoiler tags, and I've only read through volume six so please don't ruin any story for me.

Taken from

Name: (Won't say, but it's 2 letters)
Nickname: Fay
Location: Michigan
Age: 25
Height: 5’4”
Zodiac sign: Taurus
Any pets: Black female cat named Nyx
Favorite thing about yourself: Writing
Worst habit: Lazy
Fun fact: I collect old looking clocks

Identity, Sexuality & Personality
Gender identity: Female.
Sexual preference: Straight
Romantic preference: monogamous
"Kinsey Scale" score: I dunno 2
Relationship status: taken
Myers/Briggs type: INTP
Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw

Routine
"Early Bird" or "Night Owl": Night Owl
Bath or shower: Shower, a super hot shower.
First thought in the morning: "Cat stop jumping on me"
Last thought before falling asleep at night: “Are sociopaths happy? What would happen if a werewolf bit a wolf? What happens if a werewolf bit a chair?"

School/Work
Do you work or are you a student: Both. I'm in a masters program and work part time as an instructor
What do you do well: Writing :3
Where do you see yourself in 5 years: Less poor I hope

Habits (Do you…?)
Drink: Socially, more around midterms and finals, a lot at cons
Smoke: Sometimes a tobacco pipe, sometimes cigars
Do Drugs: Not really. Weed once or twice in the past, not my thing.
Exercise: occasionally, need to more.
Have a go-to comfort food: Soda
Have a nervous habit: chew nails.

What is your favorite…?
Physical quality (in yourself): My eyes,
In Others: Smile, hair, facial hair
Mental/emotional quality (in yourself): clever sometimes.
Food: Cottage pie!
Drink: Coca Cola
Animal: Cats, Archeopteryxes (archeopteryxi?)
Artist/Band/Group: Lots, Amadan, Parov Stelar, the Frey, Frank Sinatra
Author/Poet: Douglas Adams, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Rudyard Kipling
TV Show: Orange is the new Black, Archer, Walking dead
Actor/Actress: NPH, David Tennant
Blogger: meh none really

Talk about nothing...


Okay for context, my friend and I are both moving. After a long day of packing I turned on Okami in order to decompress. He stayed on my couch cause his place is more packed than mine.

As I'm playing the game I sighed.
"what's up?"
"just thinking"
"about what?"
"nothing"
"no really"
"yeah really nothing, the concept nothing"
"you're not fucking with me?"
"no"

We then had a 2 hour conversation about nothing.

One highlight was a discussion on the use of nothing as in
"i'm thinking about nothing" can mean "thinking about the concept of total absense" or "totally absent of any thought" which he thought was a paradox, but it wasn't

Yeah.

Philosophers are really easily distracted.

Another Ask me anything journal. Passing the time as I pack.

Since alliteration is cool feel free to ask me weasyl related stuff too!

*moving packing, not airplane packing