It just feels a little too surreal at the moment...but it's real, and it's happening.

I'm graduating today.

And commissioning as an officer.

Wow...just wow. I can't believe it's been four years since I started college, and now I'm done with my Bachelor's Degree and will get my commission. It feels so weird thinking that I don't have to do any college work anymore (or at least, for a while until I decide if I wanna go get my Masters Degree). And the oddest feeling yet?

I can actually read books...that I WANT to read rather than what I'm told to read. .A. WHAT MADNESS IS THIS FOR AN ENGLISH MAJOR?!?!?! *FLAILS*

Anyway, I can't wait to be done and just hold that diploma. ;A; If I start crying I'm gonna need tissues...and makeup remover. XD

Okay, really I've had two good days in the same week, one of which was a Monday (shocker!) and then today. owo

On Monday in my first class, I found out from my professor that a mid-term essay we had submitted the Friday previously on the website we go to was acting up so badly he had to delete EVERYTHING that everyone submitted essay-wise--and as a result of that error happening, he gave us that day to go home and repost it and we wouldn't have to worry about any lateness points being taken off or anything. Next class I got another essay/test I had written back from my other teacher, and I got a really high grade on that (with very few red ink marks from his pen too XD). Then I go and check to see how much money I still owed the school and to see if my Tuition Assistance had gone through and paid for my classes, and I only have less than $600 to pay off! 8D Commuting back and forth from home and school was SO WORTH IT. =w= And then, I got $100 bucks from my parents for an errand I had run for them to pick up a few things the week prior or so.

AWESOME FOR A MONDAY!!!

And today...omg, I swear I may lose my voice tomorrow from all the screaming I did today. XD My friend had invited me to join her and another of her friends (who has now become my new friend too~! X3) to go to the state fair that was going on, and so I decided to go since it had been a few years since I had gone to any sort of fair/carnival. XD We rode some of the rides (had to stop after the first two fast/spinning rides because one of my friends got sick in her tummy, but we think she just needed something salty to eat to help in the end since water only did so much. :c Probably a bad onion from something she ate from what her husband had cooked yesterday too >.>), and then we just wandered about. We played a dart game and won some prizes, but because we spent so much on it we didn't bother trying to play any of the other games, even when some of them had more tempting prizes or were the shooting games. XD I managed to get four soft little plushies in exchange for the big (and uncomfortably styrofoam-like) lion I had wanted, two of which I am gonna give to my friends. X3

Then, after we had gotten something to munch on there had been an acrobatics act going on that was pirate themed...on a tightrope. Now, originally we thought it wasn't going to be much and were only going to watch for a few minutes before moving on. We ended up watching almost the ENTIRE show because OMG it was friggin amazing! With the way these guys were performing you would seriously wonder what the hell they were doing at a state fair rather than some big-shot place! After that we went to go find a camel that they had out for people to ride and I got to try it. Definitely not the same as riding a horse!!! XDDDD Felt like I was on a rocking chair at first, but it was okay. c: I just would NOT wanna ride one of those things for long distances. .n.

Later when we're waiting to go on one of the rides, I happened to look over at this haunted house cart ride that was next to it and saw a guy dressed up as Freddy Kruger, mask and claws included. You bet your sweet bippy I wasn't about to pass up a photo with him! XD What's funny was that, after we got on the ride we were waiting for, me and my friend that invited me decided to just go on that cart ride for giggles. Apparently, after one of the carts came out (I didn't see it but my friend did XD), one of the girls that was in it bolted out and literally jumped over the railing to get away from the ride. XD My friend and I were riding through it and were pretty much unimpressed...like seriously, I would have fallen asleep if it hadn't been such a short ride it was that stupid. Then the Freddy guy came out from behind a curtain and tried to scare us, but when we didn't react--even when he put his "claws" against my friend's neck--he just went "Eh" and moved on.

Five seconds later we hear the cart behind us shriek so loudly, people could hear it outside! XDDDDDDD My friend and I just lost it and cracked up so badly it was hilarious, and the guy running the carts was even shaking his head and laughing. XP The cart came out after we got off and I could see one of the passengers have such a look of horror on her face I'm shocked she didn't bolt even while Freddy was sitting on the back of the cart in triumph of a successful scare. XD The thankful thing was that we didn't see anything Twilight related in there, despite the fact that Edward Cullins was painted on the sign on the far corner...with fangs badly painted on it to signify that he was a vampire. =.= Seriously, that's not a vampire, that's a...whatever the hell that thing should be! :U

So yeah, if I lose my voice, I'll know why. XD It was a great week though and I thoroughly enjoyed myself today. =w= Right now it's 1:00 in the morning because I got in REALLY late, so needs sleeeeeeeep. =3=

“These are the few ways we can practice humility:

To speak as little as possible of one's self.

To mind one's own business.

Not to want to manage other people's affairs.

To avoid curiosity.

To accept contradictions and correction cheerfully.

To pass over the mistakes of others.

To accept insults and injuries.

To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked.

To be kind and gentle even under provocation.

Never to stand on one's dignity.

To choose always the hardest.”

― Mother Teresa, The Joy in Loving: A Guide to Daily Living

Oh my gosh, I am FINALLY DONE WITH MY SPRING SEMESTER!!!! *faints*

Granted, I still have one thing left to submit, but it's already done and I'm going to look it over tomorrow to make sure it looks okay, BUT STILL!! @ A @

I'm so happy that I'm done, and even though I may get busy with a summer job, I'll still be able to have a chance to be able to draw and color more stuff as well as write. Next semester I'll hopefully have less credits I have to worry about, and to save a couple thousand bucks, I'll be travelling between home and school (which is not too bad, because it's only a half-hour drive away. XD) since I have one thing that I don't have to worry about. XP

Anyway, how is everyone doing? 0w0

To me, whenever I see a character, their entire appearance is only a fraction of what I actually look at. It doesn't matter who beautiful or how ugly a character looks, because it's only a small part of that character.

What REALLY matters to me is how the character is developed.

Because I'm an English major, most of my attention is on the characters that are in the stories that I read rather than on the sole adventure that the characters are questing on. To me, it doesn't matter if the quest they're on has been beaten to death or is something new and unique, if the characters are not well rounded or don't develop over the story, then what's the point of it all if it doesn't keep my attention?

When I see a character, I look at their strengths and their weaknesses, not their appearance alone. Characters are supposed to be able to develop and grow as time passes, and if they don't learn anything, they might as well be considered nothing more than a flat character that won't ever change.

Take Beowulf for example (and I'm not just referring to the movie they made). He was considered a great warrior and king because he was able to fight and kill all sorts of monsters by himself--even in the buff. Well good for him! But what about his men? They grew to rely on him so much to defeat the monsters, that when he was an old man in his seventies and having a dragon attack his kingdom, his men that were supposed to have his back and fight for their king were hesitant to take up their swords while an outsider that just arrived in their midst was the only one that stepped up to the plate. Beowulf is a flat character that didn't learn a single thing even as he lay dying. He didn't learn that he was the one that was making his men weak, as a true leader would have given his men a chance to prove their mettle and show that they can fight monsters too even if they die trying. Because he constantly wanted to kill these monsters and end these conflicts himself, he never truly learned how to be modest or humble enough to say that he himself is just another man--not an immortal god.

Another thing that I find that I pay attention to when it comes to characters and their appearance is their abilities and what they do. If a character is a boxer or a soldier that has seen combat, yet they do not have any scarring or look weary from seeing death, then what sense does that make? Sure, each person is different when it comes to how they respond to different situations, but at the same time, you have to do research on these things in order to make sure that the character is more round--or "realistic" if you haven't figured it out by now. If you're making a soldier who has seen combat, perhaps they developed PTSD, which affects their daily lives as they react to simple everyday sounds as though they were back on the fields of combat. Or perhaps they may have developed a taste for blood and enjoyed combat a little too much. Or maybe they lost a limb in an accident and had to get a prosthetic replacement in order to compensate and somehow they never fully recovered from the fact they lost that arm or leg.

You see? There are endless things that you can do simply by either asking from a direct source or doing good--and reliable--research.

My honest opinion on one thing? I do not like characters that are given the title of "god/goddess". It is HIGHLY rare for me to find a character that's given such a title that actually wasn't bad, and even then that is incredibly rare because it is so easy for a character to be considered a Mary Sue or Gary Stu that way. It is extremely difficult to come up with a god/goddess character without making it to where they have absolutely no weaknesses to name and therefore making them flat characters--unrealistic characters.

This does not just affect characters for stories such as Harry Potter or Twilight (which I abhor). This also affects OCs that I've come across from fellow artists, along with myself. When I create my characters, I always try to ensure that they have a good balance of strengths and weaknesses. If they have powers like say control over fire, then I try and make sure to compensate for that strength by giving them weaknesses. Like perhaps their temper gets out of hand and their power over fire can get out of control, or they can't use it if they're in a cold environment.

There HAS to be a weakness, or the character just won't be interesting. I know I've stated that multiple times, but I'm afraid that it's the sad truth. Looks on a character do not matter if their bio and what their abilities and such does not match their appearance. If a character was formerly ugly and made beautiful, the way it happened would have to sound logical. A simple and relatively small thing such as doing a good deed does not sound logical at all, as it would mean that anyone would be able to do that by doing the exact same thing! That's not very unique at all, it sounds bland. HOWEVER. The good deed could result in the character getting a hint to something that would allow them to become beautiful and end up learning that true beauty lies within. Now THAT sounds like something interesting I would want to read about, and I'm not always interested in things such as that!

I could go on and on about this sort of topic, but I think I may have touched up on a good bit of what usually bugs me. There is much, much more that continue to bug the hell out of me, but this should suffice for now.

What do you guys think? What are your thoughts on what a character should actually mean and how they should be done? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. c: