Witches? WICKED AWESOME. :D

     Ezra, last week you remarked that I liked writing about Goths. This is true, and I just realized why. In the community of people I watch on YouTube (many of which watch each other), there has been a lot of talk recently about who you wanted to "be" when you were younger.
     For example, Alex Day (nerimon on YouTube) says he once wanted to be a (specific, I just don't remember who) member of Green Day. He played the songs from American Idiot over and over again. His friend Charlie (one of the most prominent UK YouTubers)'s mom made a video on the subject, and asked her viewers to tell her who they idolized.
     I was thinking about it, and discovered the answer to both questions. When I was younger, I wanted to be Thorn from the Hex Girls (that band on Scooby Doo, first featured in Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost and brought back later). She and her "sisters" are "eco-goths," and Thorn herself is a Wiccan who later defeats the Witch's Ghost. I thought she was the coolest person ever: a rockstar who can do magic on a show in which it is emphasized that magic is not real? YES.
     I didn't sing their songs over and over again (I'm not sure exactly what I did), but my dad remembers that I was "very into them," and I can't help but agree.
    D'you remember when I wrote my 4-year-old-friend sending the Evil Wizard into the black hole when I was six? I did "worse".
     A lot of litle kids are scared of witches. I never was. I always wanted to be the witch. That was my Halloween costume for years, under different names (two years it was just "witch," then "Harriet Potter," "Death," "Darkness," and this past year I was Hecate (the Greek goddess of magic and witches)). This flow was interrupted just once by being a pirate. My youngest sister used to have nightmares about being chased by the Wicked Witch of the West, while I had dreams about becoming her apprentice. I was always the Medicine Woman when we played Indians with my neighbors. You get the point.
     So there's your answer, Ms. Coollike (Charlie's username is charlieissocoollike, so his parents are Mr. and Ms. Coollike). There is also the reason I write about goths so much, and also probably why I wanted magic in The Clockwork Experiment (which I have now begun revising what I have written so far).  I guess I never really got over my fascination with Thorn and the Hex Girls, and I'm definitely not over witches.

A Class About Life

I probably shouldn't have posted last night after I got home. I should have gone to bed, seeing as how exams start tomorrow.
Speaking of exams, the one I have tomorrow is in World History. This afternoon, we had a "review session," which was really just a massive competition of Bozo Buckets (a review game in which one member from each team tries to answer a question before the other, and the winner throws a ball into a trashcan to win extra points)- 1st period (us) vs. 2nd period (them). Oh, the adrenaline. Oh, the awesome. Have you ever seen 20 people chanting "Sexy bacon" at the same time? I didn't think so. That was our battle cry, for some reason.
We ended up winning, after an extremely tense tie and much hilarity (Chaney: What is the name of the code knights lived by? Cameron: NI! Competitor: Chivalry! Us: WHOOOOO!).
During this last quarter, we've been having "Storytime With Olivia" on Fridays, in which I read something to the class. It started out being for assignments, with other people presenting before and after me, but it developed into a regular occurence in which I read other things as well (such as "Paper Trenches").
After we won, most of my class ran out into the hall to do "victory cartwheels." Chaney called them back in for a few words, telling us that we were his two favorite WH classes ever. Before he dismissed us for the afternoon (this was after school), I jokingly asked Chaney, paper in hand, if I could have "one last moment in the spotlight". He said yes, and my class, eagerly cheering and telling the other class overly-inflated praise of my work. I try to tell them their opinions of me are enormously inaccurate and overestimated, but they refuse to listen. Here is the poem I read. I will explain the stuff you probably don't understand at the end.

A Class About Life
On the first day of school

We were told to memorize

The names of all these strangers

And build some friendly ties



Now we're a family of Spartans

We've been through thick and thin

Although divided down the center

We're united in the end



Taking notes and making jokes

Learning all the while

About to play Trench Warfare

Under guise of leaked ceiling tiles



Although Anna took forever

We finally got some fish

Toga day, movie day

Feast on many a dish



Growing stronger together

While learning about the past

Infalliable team of Bozo Buckets Power

Awesome until the last



Skit battles and projects

Test with no multiple guess

Turns out war is much more than

A tactical game of chess



Dancing outside in hopes of snow

Caroling from door to door

Thanks, Chaney, and class as well

I couldn't have asked for more.


Explanation: Part of our first test in the class was to fill out a seating chart with everyone's names. Chaney told us that we were going to be doing lots of group work, and we were really going to be more of a family than a class. We "didn't have to be best buds," but he hoped we would get to the point where we'd all say hi to each other in the hallway and such.
Our class, upon reaching the unit on Greece, immediately adopted the name of Spartans for our own (this was mostly a bunch of war-happy guys on the other side of the room). That's what we've been ever since.
"Divided down the center" is in reference to the aisle providing a walking space as well as dictating the teams when we play intramural Bozo Buckets and other games.
If you heard "Paper Trenches," you will know what Trench Warfare is in reference to, but since Cindy wasn't there, I will explain it. We were learning about WWI. One morning, there was a sign on the door saying "Sorry guys, room is flooded. Please go to room 2330. Love, Chaney." The room was flooded last year, and we had stains on the ceiling from something, so we believed him. It turned out that he had built trenches out of desks inside the room and we had a massive battle later in the period. I'll post the story to the Google Group.
Kenzie offered to bring in fish to be a class pet, and Anna volunteered her fish bowl, but she kept forgetting.
At the end of the Greece/Rome unit, we had Toga Day (wearing a toga over our clothes was a grade),watched clips from movies (Gladiator, 300, Troy), and had a potluck.
"Infalliable Bozo Buckets power" was heavily dependent on us winning, so I was glad for that.
We often had to do skits on various topics (since most of us loved acting, and Chaney loved watching what we would come up with), and certain groups of the die-hard Spartans always managed to work in our plastic sword and violent battles.
Chaney never gave us multiple choice tests or quizzes. He firmly believed that those were too easy and didn't require any thinking. I happen to agree with him on this.
Toward the end of the year, culminating when we watched the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan (TANGENT: It's rated R, permission slips hadn't been sent home, so we technically weren't supposed to be watching it. We all got out paper and set up the Powerpoint on the wall, and Chaney sat by the door with the remote. If anyone were to enter the room, we would pretend to be taking notes.), he began to focus on showing us how horrible war really is, with emphasis on all of the social, economic, and political consequences, instead of just "and then they fought a huge battle" "AWESOME".
The day before Holiday Break started, we went outside and did a Snow Dance (like a Rain Dance, but for snow), and then went caroling from classroom to classroom.
There. The explanation is done. This was a much longer post than I intended it to be. Sorry about that. :)

Grapefruit Sky of Doom (that'll make you read the post, won't it?)

I've been requested to post more often, which is something I've been meaning to do anyway. Hopefully this will be the start of a trend.

I'd forgotten how much I love going to Writing Club. Now I remember. It made up for the boringness that is Biology class, and my day turned out to be pretty excellent overall. Thanks, Ezra (and Cindy), for all of the great feedback and ideas. I've needed someone to kick me back into gear on The Clockwork Experiment, and this evening definitely did the trick. Now I'm just conflicted whether or not to wish for the weekend (in order to get started revising and continuing) or want the rest of the week to multiply into several more days at least (since I love my 1st and 2nd periods and don't want them to end).

Comments on Imps From Heaven please?

I've finished the Lost Symbol. I was disappointed with the end, but I realize that Dan Brown's a writer, not a high-level Mason with enormous secrets( OR IS HE????), so what did I expect? I enjoyed the book, though, so don't let me discourage you from reading it.
Now I'm borrowing the 4th Diary of a Wimpy Kid from my almost-9-year-old cousin. Then I'll probably start in on the sci-fi book my dad bought tonight (it includes washing machines gossiping based on the data from the clothing analyzations). It sounds very funny.

On other news, I've finished the 4th part of Ascension, which I will probably be reading next meeting depending on whether or not Sam is there (since she seems to really like those). If I were to give it a humorous title, it would be something like "Grapefruit Sky of Doom." As for a serious title...maybe "Enlightenment"?

Trailer: Imps From Heaven

I came up with an idea for a story, but didn't want to write it. This was because it had no plot. This was last weekend. And it literally had NO plot whatsoever. It had a premise, and that was all. This being the case, I made a movie trailer for it instead, since I didn't actually need a plot to make a fairly good trailer (as homemade trailers go). I'm going to be posting this to the Google Group as well, for those of you (which is currently ALL of you) who are in that.

An Actual Post About Writing...With More Doctor Who Gushing

This blog is supposed to be about writing. It hasn't been. This post is to bring it back to center, at least a little bit.

I was going to start working on my NaNoWriMo (The Clockwork Experiment) again today. Really. I was. Something came up. Two things, actually.
The first was that my mom gave me some stuff I need to do today. Chores.
The second was the discovery that BBC America is playing Doctor Who ALL DAY up until around 10:00. This means that I will eat lunch, do the chores, and then be happily seated in front of the TV from at least 4:15 till the end of Part 2 of the End of Time. Unfortunately, this will probably not work out to ideal perfection. Dinner has to fit in somewhere, and my mom prefers us all to sit down and eat together at the table.
About this forthcoming epic finale: I will cry. I will most definitely cry, seeing as how immersed within any given episode I usually become. I cried when Rose got trapped in the parallel world. I almost cried when the Doctor was treated as the Master's dog. I teared up when he was painfully human in the Family of Blood (and whatever the first part of it was). I am not ashamed of this. It means that I enjoy the show. I'm bracing myself for whatever there is to come, and my fan gene is getting excited for the next season. I've dilligently stayed off of YouTube and away from spoilers. Tonight is going to be great.

But this is not supposed to be a post about me crying over the death of my doctor (yes, another is coming and he will probably be awesome, but too bad). This is supposed to be a post about writing. So here we go:

I've been rewriting the beginning of The Family Business (since all that there ever was of it was the beginning). It has gotten considerably longer, but still covers the same amount of plot and information. I read it to my sister (since I also read her the original). She was sad over the changing of a few minor details, but still liked it. More importantly, I am far more pleased with this new version than the old one. It reads better, has less tangents, more dialog, and is generally better. There's just one or two sentences I need to change before I bring it to writing club to read, since you can't turn on lights when there is no power.

On reading, I've started The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. It's fascinating, and I'm enjoying it immensely. I just have to wonder how much of the stuff is true (which is why I plan to read one of the books written precisely on that subject). Noetic Science is an extremely interesting topic.

Rise of the Cybermen

I know in reading that headline all of you either said "huh?" or put on your skeptic hat (or both). Bear with me.
For those of you who don't know what a cyberman is, a quick explanation:

A cyberman is a machine (usually robot) with a human brain and/or consciousness inside. I encountered the concept via a TV show known as Doctor Who. I've been watching it obsessively lately for two reasons:

1. David Tennant (the 10th regeneration of The Doctor)'s finale has come. Part 1 last Saturday, and Part 2 this coming Saturday. Naturally, I've rediscovered how freaking awesome it all is and am rewatching lots of old episodes. For instance, we watched the finale to Season 3 this morning. I've seen the End of Time Part 1 twice and listened to BBC's commentary podcast episode on it twice. Stop laughing at me.
2. My friends are visiting from Indiana, and they like Doctor Who but haven't seen all of the New Who episodes. We always watch at least a few whenever they come. 

Anyways, I was reading the latest issue of Popular Science earlier today, and was shocked to learn something:

The cybermen are coming.

The subtitle of the article reads "According to Ray Kurzweil, the Singularity is a point at which man will become one with machine and then live eternally- which makes Singularity University, a nine-week academic retreat named for the concept, sound a little cultish. Our writer traveled west to investigate and found 40 stunningly sane braniacs out to change the world."

The writer "expected to encounter a bunch of sci-fi nerds who couldn't wait to plug into the Matrix" but instead found a group of graduate students scientifically working with "far out" concepts to try to make the world a better place. The "university" isn't actually much of a school- it's an "intellectual retreat". There are no tests and no papers. Collaborative projects, thinking, and presentations dominate.
The University isn't even centered around achieving Singularity, although it is one of the things they play with. That's just the school's chancellor (Kurzweil). He estimates that by 2029 we will achieve AIs (Artificial Intelligences) equal to humans and by 2045, we "should be able to upload our consciousness into machines, providing eternal life."
Remind anyone of John Lumic?
Of course, what Kurzweil is talking about will (hopefully) be radically different from the episode. He's already on a "strict...health regimen designed to prolong life (minimal calories, healthy foods, no booze, many [over 150] supplements)", and has made arrangements to be cyrogenically frozen in the event that the technology is not ready within his lifetime (he's currently 61). He appears to have none of Lumic's qualms about becoming a  human mind in a metal body.
I'm writing about this not to say "WE MUST STOP THIS" and not to heavily endorse it. I think we definitely need to be careful in this field and that there are pros and cons to Singularity. I think people should be made aware that this concept is not as sci-fi as they think it is. I think we should all come to our own conclusions. I think we should be wary, but open-minded. It doesn't seem like the Doctor will be around to save us if we mess up (although that would be beyond awesome), so let's think it through, and be careful.
I know it sounds like I'm paranoid of being attacked by robots. I know it sounds like I'm against this technology. It scares me, yeah, but I'm open to the concept of using it. If I see people making the change and still retaining their humanity, and nothing weird or horrible happens (observation for a few years) then I'll be in the car on my way to the integration facility. I don't want to sound like I'm dissuading the project from continuing.
My point: Yes, sci-fi is fiction, but we can still learn from it. So let's be VERY CAREFUL. Who says these AIs won't try to take over the world and obliterate humanity from the face of the earth?

A question for Kurzweil: are you talking computers with consciousnesses floating around in cyberspace, cybernetic organisms like the Termiantor (minus the guns and stuff), or brains in metal suits?

Forgive my Doctor Who fanship and slight paranoia. Like in Galaxy Quest when Nesbit tells Branden "[everything on the show] is all real" and he exclaims "I KNEW IT", perhaps I never quite accepted that some stuff is entirely fake. Most children are like that, right?

Ignorance Is Bliss Part 2

Here is my classmate Lauren's response to my post on the quote "Ignorance is bliss".


I completely understand where you are coming from, but I have to disagree. The quote "Ignorance is bliss", in my opinion, is very true because in all three books-Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, and Harrison Bergeron, the characters hold to some degree of ignorance. You said that Montag was ignorant but unhappy, but really he was happy. Before he understood what was going on, Montag was happy with his life, until he met Clarisse and Faber, who you even said drew him towards realization and away from ignorance. Before anything had happened to him and before he met Clarisse, Montag led a content life, such as on pg. 10 " Are you happy?....Of course I'm happy. What does she think? I'm not?..."(I'm referring back to the discussions on whether or not Montag was really happy). Only after encountering Clarisse does Montag finally start to realize how unhappy he is, once he becomes less ignorant.


I'm not so sure she "completely understood" where I was coming from, but okay.

Ignorance is Bliss...Or Is It?

We had an assignment in English to go on Blackboard and respond to one of the quotes our teacher had posted. There were four. I chose "Ignorance is bliss" and the following is what I wrote.

  I suppose it depends on the level of ignorance in question when it comes to agreeing or disagreeing with this quote. If a person (or animal, in the case of Animal Farm) is completely ignorant through and through regarding their situation (such as how the animals had no idea what Napoleon and his cronies were up to) and they believe everything they are told, their ignorance truly will be bliss. The animals believed they were far better off under Napoleon’s rule than they had been under Jones, so they were happy. Boxer and the rest worked their tails off for the bare minimum and were still completely in love with the idea of their new lives.

            However, ignorance far easier to break than the possession of knowledge (unless one is in control of mind-wiping technology). Granger and his companions in Fahrenheit 451 have books in their minds and nothing can extract that knowledge from them. Montag, on the other hand, is floating just a few inches under the water, and it only takes a few thrown pebbles from Clarisse and Faber to break the surface tension and allow him to emerge into the sunlight. After that, he is still ignorant, but he is aware of the fact. This sort of ignorance is the complete opposite of bliss. It’s terribly aggravating and is sure to make a person feel completely helpless. He struggles to learn by reading his hidden books, yet remains utterly left in the dark.

            Ignorance is a fragile thing, and even the slightest bit of disturbance can disrupt the total immersion that is essential to maintain the state of bliss. There is a point where the victim begins to fight his or her savior in order to keep drowning, as is the case with Mildred.

            Today, we live in a state of perpetual fluctuating ignorance. We’re doing the breast-stroke: one moment our head is above the water, so we take a breath of air, and then we plunge ourselves back into the icy depths from which we emerged. Exposure to the truth of an issue (such as the brutality of war, the corruption of a person or organization, the obesity epidemic, or our own grotesque spending habits, etc.) only lasts for so long before our minds block it out again and we go back to our old ways with little thought to our brief respite from the conditioning we have undergone our entire lives. Whether this brainwashing of sorts is from our parents, our religion, our general society, or our own psychological refusal to see what is hidden in plain sight, it remains a problem. We are land animals, so let’s go walk around on the beach.

I'll post one of the responses I got later, possibly tomorrow. Then you'll get to see MY response to THAT. We had a bit of an argument. 

So: What do you think of the quote?

A Quick Update Of Little Significance

I've changed my display name, so don't worry: it's still me, the same person who has always been here. In a few months I might change it again. Eventually I'll find something that I won't want to change, but that time is not yet here.

A Catch Up: Writing Plus A Bit of Politics!

I hearby commit to never saying anything like "long time no blog" ever again. I have resigned to the fact that there will pretty much ALWAYS be a long time between posts. This makes such slogans pointless and repetitive.

During the last month, I participated in NaNoWriMo. My word count by the end of the month was around 57,000. Now I've got 6 months to finish the story and revise before I can get a free proof-copy of it from CreateSpace. So exciting!

As for what I've been working on in the time since then...I'm attempting to turn my poem "In The Maelstrom" into a song, but it's not going terribly well. I will try to persevere.

Two 1-2 page things have sprung up in the last week as a result of the thing known as Honors Biology. Both have the same sort of style as what I've taken to calling "Brownie Day" (although if I were to actually name it, that wouldn't be the title), which was also written during that class. Is this a trend due to the class itself, the fodder I've been drawing from, or just the mood I'm in? Probably a combination of all three, I'd wager. The last of those might be read at the writing club I belong to sooner or later. Possibly this week.

Now to a non-writing thing:

Apparently there's a conference going on in Europe right now between lots of world leaders of the issue known as Global Warming (gasp!). Although this definitely is a serious issue on our planet today, I have it on the authority of my World History teacher that 1500 limos have been rented for the occasion. Did you catch that? 1500. Well, technically it's only 1200, but there's another 300 in reserve. How many of those are hybrids? 5. Just five. I forget the number of personal luxury jets, but there's a bunch of those in use to.

All told, the total amount of carbon being generated as a result of this FOUR DAY conference is greater than ALL of the carbon burned in an entire YEAR in Morocco in 2006. Sad, isn't it? The hypocrites.

That is all for now, my trio of followers. I suspect I shall see some if not all of you on Wednesday.

Namariel.

-(if you know my name insert it here).   :D Incentive for you to find that out, isn't it?