A Christmas poem, in Spanglish

Well, so much for sticking to blogging every day. lol. I guess I shouldn't have expected so much from myself, especially since it's currently finals week. This here post is simply a short procrastination on important study time/ homework.

In other news, I have a cute poem I want to share. It's a version of 'Twas the Night before Christmas, but it's written in Spanglish - i.e. English and Spanish.


TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the casa,
Not a creature was stirring – ¡Caramba! ¿Que pasa?
Los niños were all tucked away in their camas,
Some in long underwear, some in pajamas.
While hanging the stockings with mucho cuidado
In hopes that old Santa would feel obligado
To bring all children, both buenos and malos,
A nice batch of dulces and other regalos.
Outside in the yard there arose such a grito
That I jumped to my feet like a frightened cabrito.
I ran to the window and looked out afuera,
And who in the world do you think that it era?
Saint Nick in a sleigh and a big red sombrero
Came dashing along like a crazy bombero.
And pulling his sleigh instead of venados
Were eight little burros approaching volados.
I watched as they came and this quaint little hombre
Was shouting and whistling and calling by nombre:
Ay Pancho, ay Pepe, ay Cuco, ay Beto,
Ay Chato, ay Chopo, Macuco, y Nieto!
Then standing erect with his hands on his pecho
He flew to the top of our very own techo.
With his round little belly like a bowl of jalea
He struggled to squeeze down our old chimenea.
He filled all the stockings with lovely regalos
For none of the niños had been very malos.
Then chuckling aloud, seeming very contento,
He turned like a flash and was gone like the viento.
And I heard him exclaim, and this is verdad,
Merry Christmas to all, and ¡Feliz Navidad!

 I found the poem on  ( http://rpodle6.wordpress.com/2007/12/24/a-christmas-poem-spanglish/ ), which was copied from The Cuernavaca Outlook, December 4, 1998.

Turning point?

Is this the dawn of a new age for literature? It's the holiday season, the time for giving and receiving gifts. On the front page of Amazon.com, the Kindle ebook reader has been discounted down to $139 and is advertised as the "#1 Bestselling, #1 Most-Wished-For, #1 Most Gifted Product on Amazon".

Prices are down, purchases are up. Even with the economy in a such a sad state, people want the newest, coolest electronic gadget for Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza/Festivus (for the rest of us). And I've talked to a few pro-print books people who are caving to the temptation and convenience of carrying around dozens, hundreds, over a thousand books on one compact screen.

*sigh* Times are changing fast indeed.

How much of a geek are you?

You know your a super geeky English major when.... you have a favorite literary critic. XD

That's pretty bad, no? But seriously, I think Jack Zipes is brilliant. I read some of his books for a research paper I wrote about the story of Rapunzel last year. Zipes has some wonderful feminist theory about fairy tales, and I agree with his assessment that fairy tales have a huge social impact (which I'd love to research further).

Although he's now retired, Dr. Zipes used to be a Professor of German (not surprising) and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota.

I was reminded of Jack Zipes because 1.) I watched Disney's Tangled  and 2.) I found an article written by him in a book about Utopian and Dystopian literature I was reading as research for my Margaret Atwood seminar class. So cool!

His books are on my Christmas list, such as this one here, humorously titled Don't Bet on the Prince. And Fairy Tale as Myth/ Myth as Fairy Tale. Most importantly, someday I want to buy The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm which has been translated anew by Zipes. <3

I actually never read any of the Brothers Grimm versions. I had a book by Hans Christian Anderson as a kid, which was really cool too.

If you weren't certain I am a super geek English major, you can be now. 

I literally squeed when I saw this photo. That's Jack Zipes on the left & Neil Gaiman on the right.

So, now that I've proven my geekiness, this post is done </bow out>.

Semester Ends

The end of semester is upon us. Hooray! Although my journalism class has finished and I'm no longer required to keep daily updates on this blog, I will still write in it. I have my other blog that I use to communicate with friends, so I don't know how much of this content will be transferred over to there. *shrug* For the time being though, I'll stick around here. =)

Who knows. Maybe someone will actually read this blog besides me. lol

Let down thy hair

I saw the new Disney princess movie, Tangled, this past weekend. It was really cute. I loved it almost as much as The Princess and the Frog. Since Tangled is the story of Rapunzel, I was curious about the non-Disney fairy tale behind it. It seems that the Brothers Grimm wrote down a version. I say wrote down instead of created, because they recorded a bunch of fairy tales and then picked and chose their ideas of the best combinations of similar versions to publish.
(Eek! Bad tanget. Back to the doghouse with you.)

Ahem. Anyway, in the Disney version, Rapunzel's hair has magical healing powers, provoked by a song/incantation. In the Brothers Grimm version, the hair wasn't anything special besides that it was long. And in  fact, the ending was very different (I won't give away the Disney one because I hate spoilers).

Here's how Wikipedia explains it:

        Together they [Rapunzel & the prince] planned a means of escape, wherein he would come each night (thus avoiding the enchantress who visited her by day), and bring her silk, which Rapunzel would gradually weave into a ladder. Before the plan came to fruition, however, Rapunzel foolishly gave the prince away. In the first edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales, Rapunzel innocently says that her dress is getting tight around her belly; in subsequent editions, she asks the witch (in a moment of forgetfulness) why it was easier for her to draw him up than her. In anger, Dame Gothel cut short Rapunzel's braided hair and cast her out into the wilderness to fend for herself. When the prince called that night, the enchantress let the severed braids down to haul him up. To his horror, he found himself staring at the witch instead of Rapunzel, who was nowhere to be found. When she told him in anger that he would never see Rapunzel again, he leapt from the tower in despair and was blinded by the thorns below. In another version, the witch pushes him and he falls on the thorns, thus becoming blind.
         For months he wandered through the wastelands of the country. One day, while Rapunzel sang as she fetched water, the prince heard Rapunzel's voice again, and they were reunited. When they fell into each others' arms, her tears immediately restored his sight. In another variation, it is said that Rapunzel eventually gave birth to two boys (in some variations, a girl and a boy). The prince leads her to his kingdom, where they lived happily ever after. In another version of the story, the ending reveals that the witch untied Rapunzel's braid after the prince leapt from the tower, but it slipped from her hands and landed below the tower. This left the witch trapped in the tower.

The original story came from the story of Rudaba in an ancient Iranian book called Shahnameh, written by Ferdowsi around 1000 AD. Some elements of the fairy tale might also have originally been based upon the legends about Saint Barbara, who was said to have been locked in a tower by her father.

I would like to read the actual Brothers Grimm version and the story or Rudaba sometime. =D

Dream writer

Some people find their muse while sitting on the john. I generally have a good time brainstorming while showering or right when I wake up. Sometimes, I even get story ideas from dreams. This is not uncommon. In fact, I'd say that most writers of fiction (perhaps even poetry or creative non-fiction) are hit with inspiration from dreams. The other day, I had a good story idea and mentioned it to one of my roommates--coincidentally, it was the roommate that isn't a writer. She thought the idea was cool, but teased me about it coming from a dream, saying that I was like Stephanie Meyer. Ugh.

I suppose many writers would take that as a major insult. I can't deny it didn't ruffle my feathers a little.

Of course, I quickly rectified her thinking in explaining how frequently dreams inspire writers. And then she explained her reaction because when she was interested in the Twilight series and watched interviews of Stephanie Meyer online, she said that all the interviewers mentioned how Meyer saw the entire series as a dream(s). Honestly, I think it was stupid that so many people were astounded by that. But there it is. Big deal.

Marginality II

Going off yesterday's post, in my Margaret Atwood class on Tuesday there was one student's used textbook that had a lot of writing in the margins. Lots and lots. It was the stupidest marginality I've ever seen. Hilarious. The previous owner of the book wrote multiple times that she thought the author (Atwood) was crazy (hehehe) and she (feminine handwriting) also did not get any of Atwood's humor (sad indeed). AND she did not understand that the chapter headings on each page was not part of the text itself... even multiple pages later she kept pointing out and questioning the title of the chapter on each page not fitting into the text below.
lol! supreme stupidity.

Which led me to an interesting story idea I'd like to experiment with sometime.
The concept of the invisible pen-pal has already been explored, but this would have a twist.
    I would write about a book (either completely made up or some classical fiction book) that has a lot of writing in the margins and lots of room to look for marginality in the text. This book would be found by someone who would write back to the comments written in the margins... mostly arguing with the marginal writing, me thinks.

Then, I could relate the goings on in the book and with the arguing margin-writers with the person's life. Better yet, wouldn't it be so interesting if the first writer did not like the book (or certain passages) so much that they crossed out/ marked out with marker/ covered to make room for their own writing of the book? That would be so neat!

I'll have to save that idea to work on another day. I think that would be an interesting novel to write. =D

Marginality

Lately, one of my English professors has been talking about marginality pertaining to what's in the margins of the book, i.e. what's insinuated or alludes to something else that is not expressly mentioned in the text... Or what we write in the margins of the book.

It might surprise some people that even though I'm an English major, I hate writing in books. Or at least I did... I still prefer not to if I can help it. Strange, I know.
"Hi. My name is Lindy. And I have a problem."
Audience: "Hi, Lindy."

I've always been one of the OCD book people where I want to keep the book in the best, most pristine condition possible. No dog ears. No underlining, God forbid highlighting, circling or words written in my book. Most especially, no bent covers and Never break the spin ("or I break you neck" I'd joke with friends who borrow my books).

Unfortunately I've learned that I pretty much have to write in book for school. For a few years I tried not to, but it's too inconvenient. How am I supposed to take a timed exam of 3 short essays and 2 long essays without points marked in the book to help me find quotes?! Let me tell you, it was very difficult.

There is another, non-book-punishing way to go about this, but.... that's a lot of sticky notes. A lot. And, if they fall out of my books in my backpack or wherever - screwed. So, there you have it. I'm getting better at it each semester, making myself underline quotes and key points to help me study. It's handy, but I think it will still be a long, long while before I'd ever mark up one of my personal, leisure reading books. One, they are awesome overall. Two, do not want my pages marked up. Three, there are so many cool parts that I'd run out of pens.


P.S. Dog-eared pages = the devil. Why would you do that? Why?!?! ok, I'm done.

Disney Dystopia?

So, I haven't read many dystopias before, but I'm researching them for my paper. They are different than I thought. I thought that they would be the opposite of utopias. In many ways, they are, but they can easily cross over. Look at it this way, one man's paradise can be another's prison. Utopia, the perfect/ideal world, cannot be perfect for everyone. I also thought it interesting how one author wrote about Disneyworld as a high point of technology, the utopian ideology, the American dream, and simultaneously be the ideal carcereal society of consumer capitalism. Pretty freaky, if you think about it.

 Today is the last day of NaNoWriMo. I'm sure all the participants are busily tap-tap-tapping away at their keyboards to make the 50,000 word mark. My roommate has already finished off at about 51,000. Yay! Now comes the editing. Although, I don't know how much she'll edit/doctor this novel she's written, since she doesn't intend to publish it. *shrug*

Me, I'm busy typing away as well, working to finish a 15 page paper. Ugh. As Snowman/Jimmy from Oryx and Crake said, "God of Bullshit, fail me not."

HP update

Back to the Harry Potter conversation of last week, I forgot to mention some news. I've heard through the geek grapevine that Mrs. J.K. Rowling has enough material to write another 3 Harry Potter novels. I think that would be fabulous. My only concern then would be if she's planning to write about Harry, Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Malfoy, etc or if she would write about the next generation - their children that were shown in the (sadly poorly written) epilogue of the Deathly Hallows. Obviously, I would prefer the first option. <3
*yells* You got that, J.K. Rowling?! ..... K Thanx Bai.


P.S. If you have not yet seen the HP Deathly Hallows literal trailer, I highly suggest viewing it... right now.
Click here now because Blogger is stupid and will not allow me to embed videos that I do not have on my computer already!

Thanksgiving Poem

This is an old poem that I like to share around Thanksgiving.

The Turkey Shot Out of the OvenJack Prelutsky

The turkey shot out of the oven
and rocketed into the air,
it knocked every plate off the table
and partly demolished a chair.

It ricocheted into a corner
and burst with deafening boom,
then splattered all over the kitchen,
completely obscuring the room.

It stuck to the walls and the windows,
it totally coated the floor,
there was turkey attached to the ceiling,
where there'd never been turkey before.

It blanketed every appliance,
it smeared every saucer and bowl,
there wasn't a way I could stop it,
that turkey was out of control.

I scraped and I scrubbed with displeasure,
and thought with chagrin as I mopped,
that I'd never again stuff a turkey
with popcorn that hadn't been popped.

book chat

Last night after the excellent Words Against Hunger event, I got talking with some friends about the recent Harry Potter film that I saw yesterday. (btw, it was great) And then, somehow, we got onto the topic of Mr. Darcy in and the different film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice. Then we got back into the Harry Potter conversation and discussed whether or not Snape is really a bad guy/villain/evil person. I'm sure that will come up in the Harry Potter class I'm taking next semester. >=)  And then, we diverted again... to the Twilight series. XD I love how we (i.e. college students) are able to talk about both popular and cannon literature animatedly as truly intelligent critical conversation. <3!

Words Against Hunger

This Sunday on campus at the Moose Cafe, there will be an event held by the LIT Club, the Social Action Committee, and CAVA called "Words Against Hunger". It will be a fun event because it is a food drive as well as a concert (a local bluegrass band will be playing - The Woodtones) with readings in between songs. I hope a lot of people come to this event. *hint hint*

I'm supposed to either write something to read at the event or simply find something someone else wrote to read. The subject can be about hunger/starvation, homelessness, or any other social justice issue. It would be easiest to look up something someone else has written on the subject. I would. I need to keep telling myself that.

I've been contemplating writing on the subject of homelessness for the past few months, but it' hard to tackle the subject when it's a very possible future for me and my family. Everyone is in financial trouble with the economy, but one of my worries really is that my parents will loose the house. It's possible, probable, and scary. Even if I do finish some short essay or other on that, I don't think I'd be able to read it without crying in front of the entire audience. And that would be way too embarassing.

So, I need to find something someone else wrote. Fast.

What if

What will the world be like in the future?
Will actual books become obsolete?
Will books become only accessibly in the virtual world?
Will we browse bookstores with shelves full of ebooks?
Will the ebooks be purchased on CDs or immediately downloadable to ebook readers?
Or will bookstores too become obsolete - much like what online music stores have done to music?

But what if we become too reliant on this technology?
What if there is a huge power outage?
Society would be completely crippled.
And what of books then?

HP7 (pt. 1)

I am very excited to report that I have successfully enrolled to take a literature class on Harry Potter next semester. It will be awesome! I wonder if we can have group work and separate the class into the 4 houses. That would be so cool!

I'm such a geek. ^^;

But at least I know a lot of other geeks so I do not feel singled out. Hehe. I figure we'll read all the HP books, perhaps with some other texts of literary criticism. I'm very interested in popular literature, as you can probably tell from my previous posts.

In other news, the next Harry Potter film will be coming out tomorrow at midnight, i.e. Friday morning at 12a.m. I know several people who are going to the midnight showing. I went to the midnight release of the last HP film. It was fun but I generally do not like to go to the first showing because of how rowdy the crowds can get. However, I would like to still see this new one sometime this weekend. I'll also wear my Griffindor tie to school on Friday.

On a random side note, I watched the first HP movie this weekend... in Spanish. =3 Because I'm a dork like that. And it was very cute in Spanish as well.

Stories: the thirst for knowledge

When I was reading Oryx and Crake, one of the most horrifying aspects of that futuristic world was the lack of books/literature. I think that literature, whether written or orally passed on, stories in general, are intrinsically important to culture. Ironically, after the bioterrorist haulocaust dropped upon humanity, the only "people" left were Crake's creations, the Crakers, who were illiterate. And though illiterate, the thing that they craved more than anything were stories - the oral tradition.

Shattered Glass

For our journalism class, we've been watching the movie Shattered Glass. It's good so far and I'm looking forward to watching the end of it this afternoon. Our professor wanted each of us to comment on the movie and its moral implications.

Right now the main character, Stephen Glass, is in a bit of a crunch because the very popular article he published for this fictional big time newspaper - the New Republic - is not passing inspection. Many of the facts for this article can only be backed by his notes. And the website addresses and phone numbers don't seem to be legit either. Even though the character is distressed by this, I'm hard put to believe him because of his personality. He knows how to work the crowd and how to flatter people to get what he wants. He's a total brown-noser. Meanwhile, in the background he's maintaining friendships with people from competing newspapers and pretending like he is not or that it is not important.


Thus, it looks like Mr. Glass faked the entire article. Heck, he could have even faked his boss out when he called to check on a company and pretended to be the head of this company. He could be making it all up! It's very possible.

Writing

It's week 2 of NaNoWriMo. Not that I have time to participate in it, but one of my roommates is. She's doing well, writing diligently every day. The end goal is 50,000 words. She's currenty a little over 16,000.

I feel kinda bad, ignoring my muse and all. I love to write and could do it pretty much all the time. However, I always prioritize and school work comes first. I suppose I should make notes to myself in the meanwhile, not to forget to develop a thought or plot further. However, I often get sidetracked into writing or then I continue thinking about writing all day instead of being able to push it aside and concentrate on homework.

Not that I have that much concentration lately anyway.
Homework. --check!
Focus. -- _________

Knitting

Knitting? Yes, that it the topic of this post. It doesn't have anything at all to do with the major theme of this blog, but I feel like writing about it anyway.

I've been stressed out because of family stuff recently and thus been unable to concentrate on homework. Instead, I've been procrastinating via knitting. I only know the basics, but I'm learning more. I used to only be able to make scarves, but I recently have been making hats. My first one is big, lumpy, green, and currently sitting on my head to keep me toasty warm. It kinda looks like a mushroom. I've made 2 more hats, each a better quality and more stylized, but for whatever reason, I haven't been able to replicate this first one.

I want to make one like the first one (a slouchy hat), but I guess I've not made it wide enough, slouchy enough, with enough stitches in the width. I was trying not to make the hats as lumpy as this first ones. Instead, I end up with something close to a skull cap. -_- Not what I was looking for. Ah well. I'll keep at it.

CNF

Creative Non-Fiction. It's not really my thing. I don't read any unless it's required by a class (not often). Last year, I took a workshop on creative non-fiction. It was a good experience, but I found that writing non-fiction about myself is uncomfortable. It's too personal. It doesn't have to be really personal, but that's the kind of stuff that comes out when I write it. And I'm not really ready to share myself like that with an audience.

For those who can, more power to them. Today I went to a reading of other students currently taking the CNF class. They were all well-written and funny. As always, I'm impressed by people who can (seemingly) share very personal issues easily. I also liked how their stories were each able to deviate from the main topic into related stories of personal influence that brought the focus back to the main issue again.

It made me aware that I should focus on doing this more often in my writing, if I don't already. Most often, I simply write without any specific ideas about how to stylize the stories. Sometimes I round up the time and energy to edit. I do so love editing. On the downside, it almost never ends.

"A Conversation with Dan Gediman"

Last week I went to the much acclaimed event "A Conversation with Dan Gediman". Dan Gediman is the co-editor of the Aquinas College common reading experience book this year - This I Believe. The book is full of short (500 word) essays by all sorts of people. I've read one essay for an event, but I haven't read the book. The freshman class is supposed to read it, and I generally don't pay much attention to whatever the freshmen are up to.

5 AQ students read their "This I Believe" speeches before Dan Gediman got up to talk. Most of them were pretty good. A couple were about death, which made me teary-eyed. =( And there was one odd one about how much this guy love Wege food... which is just stupid. People go to Wege cafeteria to socialize, not for the food. I've gotten food poisoning from Wege at least once, and I know friends who've had it multiple times from Wege food over the years. They don't call it the Wege Shuffle for nothing, you know.

Ahem. On a different note, I at least got to visit the new athletic building. It was pretty spiffy. I'd like to go wander around and check out the facilities more. As for the speech, it was okay. I didn't feel like it was anything really spectacular - probably because I haven't read the books. There's This I Believe, This I Believe 2, and This I Believe: On Love. I might have bought the new one (On Love) if I had the money with, since AQ has the first, advanced copies. More importantly, I really wanted the ones that the bookstore had in Spanish. Unfortunately, those were $45. Yikes! How do they expect poor college students to pay for that?

Sci-fi vs Speculative Fiction

For my Margaret Atwood seminar class, I'm currently reading Oryx and Crake. So far it's interesting, in a creepy and disturbing way. I like it though.

It's a futuristic novel about a man's recollections of a futuristic world before it was essentially wiped out. In it, he seems to be the last (or one of the last) remaining humans around as humans have been altered and enhanced to live in the harsh climate of the ruined world. There's also lots of spliced animals running around, which is freaky. All I really know so far is that the man, called Snowman, used to be good friends with Crake, the evil genius that destroyed the world and created his own enhanced humans. And Oryx was Snowman's mysterious girl friend/lover. I think she had a hand in Crake's creations as well, but I haven't read far enough to know yet.

In class, we've been discussing how Margaret Atwood fights the genre title of Science Fiction put on this book (and the squeals). She calls this trilogy Speculative Fiction. The difference is that Speculative Fiction is more realistic. It's a believable future, a future that we can imagine happening in a logical progress from today by taking current events to extremes. So, for example, it would not include technologies that are so beyond our current abilities that they are only possible in our imaginations. Or alien creatures like talking squids, etc...

Makes sense. I just haven't heard of this as a genre ever before. There's always something new coming out. Of course, Margaret Atwood's writing could have a genre all it's own. I'd call it, Ambiguous.

Happy Guy Fawkes Day!

Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder and treason should ever be forgot.

It's November 5th, also known as Guy Fawkes Day. This holiday is not generally celebrated in the U.S.A., but I and my friends recognize it, if only because of the movie V for Vendetta. Great movie! I hear the graphic novel is superb as well, though I haven't gotten my paws on it yet.

In honor of this momentous day, I give you, V's epic speech from V for Vendetta.

Evey: Who are you?
V. : Who? Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is a man in a mask.
Evey: Well I can see that.
V. : Of course you can, I’m not questioning your powers of observation, I’m merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.
Evey: Oh, right.
V. : But on this most auspicious of nights, permit me then, in lieu of the more commonplace soubriquet, to suggest the character of this dramatis persona. Voila! In view humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the “vox populi” now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin, van guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.
The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.
Verily this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it’s my very good honour to meet you and you may call me V.
Evey: Are you like a crazy person?
V. : I’m quite sure they will say so.

Just a quick post to note that I really liked the movie we've been watching in my journalism class - Shattered Glass. I'm looking forward to watching the rest next Thursday. Meanwhile, life is mass chaos and soon I'll be freaking out about the 2 huge research papers I have due in less than a month.

The active reader

When I became an English major, one of my fears was that learning to super analyze a text would ruin my enjoyment of reading a book. It sounds stupid, but yes. I was worried about that all I'd be able to think about was how so-and-so can easily be interpreted as a feminist reading or what the author is saying in his/her social commentary.

Fortunately, I discovered that the opposite happened. The more I learn about a book, the more I like it. And in the meantime, I am still able to read a book and purely enjoy it on its own. =)

Where's the goods?

Over Fall Break, I got my reading on. Woohoo! Unfortunately, 2 out of the four books I read weren’t very good. T_T Ugh. What a waste. As I generally read a lot of romance novels, all four were romance novels. The good ones were by two of my favorite authors. I’ve been waiting since the beginning of school to get my hands on those and read them. They were awesome.

On the other hand, the other two were bad and really bad. Oh! I almost forgot, I read the first quarter of another book too—a print book—that my sister recommended to me. I only read part of it because the beginning was slow, the heroine was painfully obtuse, which main her seem dumb, the dialogue was fairly boring, and the plot was über transparent.

In general, its becoming increasingly easier for someone to get published. However, not everyone that gets published is an accomplished or talented writer. Sometimes, I’m surprised at what gets published.I seem to be coming across badly written fiction more frequently in both new romance authors and ebooks. In ebooks I understand the concept a bit more.

Ebooks are easier to publish than actual print books and therefore act as a short of stepping stone. I see this particularly in publishers who started as ebook publishers because they only print the books that sell the best and have the best feedback. For example, Ellora's Cave is mainly and e-publisher. On the website, people who've bought the book are allowed to rate the book and write comments. Only the really successful books are made into print because they are guaranteed to sell. Makes sense, no? However, it makes buying e-books a hit or miss experience.

Despite the bad ebooks I've read, it gives me hope. If the author who wrote the really bad ebook I read can get published (with 18 books under her belt, I might add), I sure as hell can. =) lol

NaNoWriMo!

It's November 1st! That means it's the start of NaNoWri Mo! That is, November is the National Novel Writing Month!

Sounds exciting, no? It's a personal challenge to write a novel, 50,000 words, in a months time. If you think your novel is worthwhile, you can even submit it to the NaNoWriMo website's competition. However, I think it's enough of a challenge to get that much writing out in a month, let alone to have it edited enough to submit to a contest. 0_o Ugh. Editing is to valuable to be ignored. In my opinion, editing is what truly makes a book. Not simply getting an amount of words out.

Still, I would love to take on this challenge. Too bad I never have enough time to participate in it. *sigh* Maybe someday, some year. I always say "next year" and it just doesn't happen. November is a busy month for college students. Perhaps I should try it during the summer months when I might be less busy.

Toxic Shame

Here's one of the poems I wrote for an exhibit at school during Domestic Abuse Awareness Week. It's about toxic shame.

Toxic shame is a specific kind of shame caused by abuse. It is "the feeling of being flawed and diministed and never measuring up. Toxic shame feels much worse than guilt. With guilt, you've done something wrong; but you can repair that - you can do something about it. With toxic shame there's something wrong with you and there's nothign you can do about it; you are inadequate and defective. Toxic shame is the core of the wounded child. This meditation sums up the ways that the wonderful child got wounded. The loss of your I AMness is spiritual bankruptcy. The wonder child is abandoned and all alone." ((Definition from the website with the poem linked below))

I would also highly recommend checking out this poem HERE about toxic shame. It is marvellously written.
Without further ado, my poem:

Toxic Shame

Caused by shortcomings
(Can’t you do anything right?)
Caused by impropriety
(You know you want it, slut.)

Leading to reproach
(You should know better.)
Leading to disgrace
(Not you. You’re pathetic.)

Begetting guilt
(I’m wrong. It’s my fault.)
Begetting humiliation
(I’m embarrassed and mortified.)

State misunderstood
Condition of self and society values violated
Purple-green straggle of emotions –
confusion, inadequacy, fear,
chagrin, inferiority

Toxic shame is a thief
of worth, self-respect,
honor, and confidence

Used as a weapon it intimidates,
it pollutes the self,
strips them of defense,
fills them with self-contempt,
condemns, subdues, diminishes,
restrains, controls

A geeky moment

You know you're an English geek/nerd when....
...I'm way too excited about next semester's classes, especially when they're likely to kick my butt.

I know I'll be uber busy next semester, but I'll be taking the coolest classes! I've been waiting for the History of the English Language to come back around for 4 years! And and and there's going to be a fiction workshop! I'm totally geeked about that. Finally I'll be able to really work on my forte - fiction. So long poetry! I won't miss you.

Also, I'll be taking the 20th C. Victorian British Literature class (intriguing) and possibly a Women's Studies course called Domesticity in U.S. Literature/Culture. I'll probably be taking the script writing course too, just to see what it's like. I'm not really interested in script writing (same as journalism), but I think I can learn from it and bring some of that extra knowledge into my fiction writing.

Alas, everything would be perfect if I could just add in that Latin class. Too bad it doesn't fit with the schedule.

Monologuing about the Romance Industry

You know that Katy Perry song that became so popular? I kissed a girl and I liked it, my boyfriend was not about it. I kissed a girl, just to try it.

Well, Starship Cobra did their own version: I kissed a boy, and they liked it. Got all the honeys in the club excited. I kissed a boy, just to start shit. That homeboy was not about it.

Not that these songs are subtle at all, but they are very obvious messages about our culture and the slowly growing acceptability of homosexuality or bisexuality. 

You may be asking yourself, ‘This is interesting, but what’s the point? How does this relate to this blog?’

Fear not, I do have a point.

The romance industry, which includes romantica fiction, obviously has little qualms about sexuality in the books, depending on the author and the publisher. Ellora’s Cave was one of the first Romantica/Erotic Romance e-publishers. As the first, they’ve stayed on top of their game with interest to what readers want in their market. The sub-genres on this website list include futuristic/sci-fi, marital heat, romantic suspense, western, older woman & younger men, BDSM, comedy, Christmas, Rubenesque, and Interracial to name a few. There are even books in Spanish!

What I’ve found increasingly interesting over the past few years has been the homosexual coupling novels. Not even simply the ménage a tois (or more), but strictly same-sex pairings. However, one sex has been receiving much more interest than others. That would be the male/male pairings. On the Ellora’s Cave website, there 12 ebooks about lesbian romantic relationships. However there are 284 books that include guys being romantically involved (and some of those include a women in the book as a third romantic partner involved).

So, there are two possible reasons why there is a demand for gay-relationship romance/erotic romance novels.

1.) There are a lot more gay or bisexual men (in or out of the closet) that read romance or romantica than previously thought. I mean, it makes sense. Both men and women crave meaningful, romantic relationships (+ copious hot sex doesn’t hurt either). So, maybe there’s been a rise in gay/bi guys reading romantic.

OR

2.) Women (because over 90% of romance book readers are female) must really like reading about 2 guys getting it on. Two men are better than one? It sounds strange and some women may object to that entirely, but think about it as the double standard. Most men like seeing two women reacting to each other in a sexual manner. Does it not make some sort of warped sense that women are just as susceptible to viewing two men reacting to each other in a sexual manner a turn on as well?

I thought it the amount was intriguing. ‘Just wanted to share it. I don’t really get it, but the demand speaks for itself.

.ascm

So in my last post, I wrote about the new ebook security measures through Adobe Digital Editions. The file extension for the key/password/ticket/whatever-you-want-to-call-it is .ascm. And like I said before, this is not the actual ebook file. It's not.

Funny how people don't understand that.

Out of curiosity to learn more about the program, I typed in .ascm in Google. Almost all the search engine results came up with people wanting to know how to convert .ascm to .txt or .pdf.
I found this hilarious as hell. XD

Honestly, I love loopholes. Some part of me even wants there to be a loophole to this program. But there's not. People are wasting their time trying to access some FILE.acsm that isn't even the real ebook.

Security of Literature in the Age of Internet

I've worried about the security of eBooks, not necessarily about copyright infringement issues, but in the accessibility of eBooks. It's has been as easy to download free (illegal copies of ) eBooks as it is to download free music!

Last Christmas one of my cousins gifted me with a CD full of music and lots of ebooks. I was exstatic to have so many free books (for I am a voracious reader--that is, when I have the free time to read). But soon after, when I went through the ebooks and found some by my favorite authors (of which I already had all in print) my happiness drained a bit. These authors are all well-known, best-sellers. And yet they are receiving no money for all the hard work they put into their writing because someone stole it and sold it... for free!

Pirated music is a big problem for the music industry and could quickly become as big of one one for the publishing industry and authors. Needless to say, since I'm an aspiring author, this is not very comforting. 

So how are people to protect their books in electronic format? Ebook police?

I've contemplated this issue at length for a while and came upon the solution by accident 2 weeks ago. A friend of mine told me that the Borders website was giving members 2 free downloads of romance novel ebooks. Awesomesauce. So, I go, I download my ebooks, and... where the heck is it? There's something new on my desktop called FILE.acsm that I cannot open with any program I already have like a pdf or word document. *flail* So I went back to the Borders website and read the fine print when I went to download it again. Apparently an .acsm is a file that does not contain the ebook but a type of key or password that allows me access to the ebook, which can only be read through a certain Adobe Acrobats program that Borders' has linked to download. It is called Adobe Digital Editions.

Amazing!
Ironically, I both like and dislike this new security measure. I like it because it's a good security precaution so files cannot be stolen (unless you are a very determined thief and decide to retype the entire ebook, because you cannot copy and paste in this format).

On the other hand, the innate moocher and poor college student that I am, I do enjoy free stuffs--music, books, food, etc... Thus, it's unfortunate that I cannot have multiple copies of ebooks (of which I download all legally!) to give to friends. However, I never really shared them in the first place... and the Adobe Digital Editions does allow the ebook to be shared on up to 6 computers/devices, including ebook readers.

Print vs. eBook

My personal dilemma for a couple years has been whether or not I'd like or want to buy an ebook reader. I've read reviews and watched youtube videos with commentary on which ones are best, but I still have reservations about buying one (besides the price).

Some of that dilemma is that I do enjoy having a book physically in my hands. I love flipping through a new book for that new-book smell or breathing in the scent of old-books when walking into used bookstores. It's great to be able to peruse bookshops, to pick up a book, leaf through it, see if it sounds interesting or if the writing style catches my attention, and then have the ability to purchase it or put it back.

That's part of the experience that cannot be replaced with ebooks. The best a person can get to looking into an ebook before purchasing it would be to read the summary or maybe a short excerpt. It's just not the same.

On the other hand, running out of space on my bookshelves is a reality, not a possibility. I spent much of this past summer building more bookcases and bookshelves. So having a small, light-weight machine that can fit tons of books would be nice.

A disadvantage to eBooks is that some people like to or need to write in books they read, underlining and/or circling passages and writing in the margins, which they cannot do in electronic format readers. In the future this will likely be added to the abilities of ebook readers, but for now, all one can do is highlight some pages.

I've read articles about a few universities that have tested the use of ebook readers for students. It didn't work out for several reasons. One was because there were complaints from students about not being able to mark-up the text. Another was that they were unable to quickly skim through the books to search for certain parts, which was especially troublesome when writing papers or taking tests where there are time limits. There was also some dissent about this because people who are blind or have severe visual handicaps cannot use ebooks. ='(

Then again, I suppose it would been more economical and Earth-friendly to read ebooks. It would reduce the impact of global warming (saving trees & forests = less carbon in the atmosphere). Of course, I have no idea what all goes into making the eBook readers, all that metal and computer chips and whatnot. Machines, especially computers, are widely used but infrequently mentioned when it comes to the negative impact on the Earth's resources that it takes to make them. Why is that? Because we love computers, have become dependent on them, and do not want excuses about how the manufacture of them might be adding to the world destruction. (lol. A bit dramatic, no?)

And because eBooks use less of our planet's resources to make them, they are sometimes less expensive than print versions of the same book. Or at least, they could be if publishers wanted to sell them for cheaper. I suppose the eBook market would skyrocket if prices went down, but that would be highly detrimental to publisher's print book sales. And people are too stingy for that in this economy, be that good or bad.

However I still would like to go into the publishing business, since I won't likely be able to become a published writer very quickly after college. Hence, I would be investing my job/career/income in the print book market. If I bought eBooks readers and endorsed them, that would be damaging to the industry I'm hoping to suceed in.

My grandpa once said that books are the only form of entertainment that are small enough to fit in your pocket that need no batteries to operate. I suppose some smartass could argue for a deck of cards, but you get the point. Even though ebook readers' batteries have a long life, they still need to be recharged every few days (or more often for the voracious reader). And many paperback books can still fit in a person's pocket, although I'm way too anal about keeping my books in pristine condition to do something like shoving them in my pocket. ^^;

The other issue is that I own a few dozen ebooks already. I read them on my laptop and have no problem staring at the screen for hours (I do so anyway nearly every day at work or at home doing homework). So, why would I want to buy an eBook reader?

Because it'd be more light-weight than my laptop.
But it's an extra expense I don't need.
I know. Which is partly why I haven't bought one.
The prices for ebook readers are decreasing every year.
Exactly.
What then?
The dilemma continues!

More about ebooks

I was just surfing the net and I found this really interesting article/webpage written by Stephen Cole, who is the founder and CEO of Ebooks Corporations, an Australian public company that operates two of the world's leading ebook businesses, eBooks.com and EBL: The Ebook Library.

Link!      I found this website because of the graph that shows statistically the use of eBooks worldwide, which is overwhelmingly in the U.S.

I've been working on another long-winded post for the past couple of days which I plan to put up tomorrow. =)

Musings

I was just contemplating the eBook & eBook readers. This new wave of technology makes reading books even more accessible. I wonder how this does/will affect the literacy rate in this country? Worldwide?

The last time there was a boom in the literacy rate was back in the day of dime novels because they were cheap, readily accessible, and the main form of entertainment at the time.

In comparison with that, I don't know how much of an influence these eBooks & eBook readers will have while there are video games, music to listen to, and the Internet to distract and abet procrastination.

Things you learn while procrastinating

While procrastinating this weekend, my roommate and I were sharing different folktales and myths. Both of us are huge geeks when it comes to mythology. I know a lot about Greek/Roman, Egyptian & Norse mythologies. Emily knows a lot about Greek/Roman, Celtic & Asian mythologies. This leads to many an awesome conversation. =)

So I just wanted to share one thing she told me that I hadn't known. Banshees (those mythic ghost-like women that scream so loud and high it hurts people's ears) actually have a reason for all their screaming. They have horrible visions and premonitions about people dying, often in very gruesome ways. The visions are so horrible that they scream. Besides the horrid screaming and screetching, people shunned banshees because they were haribringers of death and destruction.

You may not be as much of a geek as me, but I thought it was pretty cool. Yay for friends with random myth/legend/folklore information!

Can I get a W00T woot?

It's Columbus Day - the day to celebrate how Cristbol Colón came to the Americas with a band of pirates and decided to take over the land and indigenous peoples, bearing gifts of disease, slavery and religious persecution.

Ugh. Why do we still celebrate this day? By now, everyone should know that Columbus was NOT the first European to discover America. The Vikings were. Duh.

Lief Ericson never gets enough credit. Supposedly Oct. 9th was Lief Ericson day, but nobody knew about it. --_--

It may seem strange to some people because I am an English major and writing minor, but I don't like poetry. I don't. Although it can be beautiful sometimes, it's more often a pain in the ass, both to write and read.

I had to write a lot of poetry for my Creative Writing II class and Art & Poetry Collaboration class I took last year. Talk about a headache. Even after scribbling poem after poem, I don't feel like I've been able to improve much. Nor has my understanding of poetry grown. I mostly get lots at the leaping logic part, which I think is highly mislabeled. I am a very reasonable and logical person, but there is no logic in this leaping business my professors spoke of. It's nonsense.

At the same time, my inablitity to understand poetry half stems from the fact that I don't read poetry. How can anyone write well if they do not constantly look at good examples. I'm sure there are poets out there whose poetry I would like, but I'm not interested in it enough to get up and search out these illusive poets.

I don't read poetry because I have a hard time understanding it. I'm a blunt and often oblivious person who needs things spelled out for me. Hence, I'm not interested in reading a poem over and over again, trying to analyze and figure out what the hell the poet is trying to say. Sure it sounds pretty, but what does it mean?! It's so frustrating.

Thus I am stuck in a cycle. So why do I keep trying to write poetry every once in a while, for example, the Shattering the Silence Exhibit? Why do I torture myself?

Not another one....

Yup, it's one of those posts, where I give a short, random ramble because I forgot that I needed to post at the last moment. XD  Well, besides that, I've been doing a lot of writing, still trying to put out something decent for the "Shattering the Silence" exhibit about domestic abuse. So far, I brainstormed another 2 writing ideas and 3 photography projects. I started on one today, taking pictures around campus, but that's it so far. Anyway, not much else to report other than I'm currently reading Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood, which I like more than any of her other books I've read so far. And I should be studying for a literature exam I have to take tomorrow... but.... I've been horribly distracted and procrasting waaaay too much lately.

P.S.  Bad spelling and grammar makes me go on the rampage. RAWR!

Battle of the Bookstores

I love Borders.
Absolutely. They have a huge, diverse selection of books, comfy chairs to read and relax in, a fun section for kids to play and read, a cafe with food, drinks, and sometimes there's live music. And while you're relaxing with a hot beverage and waiting for others in your shopping party to decide what to buy, you can open your laptop and surf the web with Borders's free wi-fi connection. Borders stores also support local organizations with small fundraising events in stores. Plus my favorite authors often tour to the Chicagoland Borders, which makes me endlessly happy.

One of my favorite places in the world was a certain 4-story Borders in downtown Chicago. The basement level contained the children's section, Romance section, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror and Manga all in one level. It was heavenly. Sadly, that Chicago borders closed. *tear* BUT there are still 4 other Borders downtown, so I don't feel so bad. =D

Back in the day, I even followed Borders Inc. on the stock market for my economics class assignment. I learned quite a bit, including that the Borders Books Music & Cafe is reducing the Music-selling section because not many people go there to buy music anymore. It also doesn't help that the majority of people buy music online or simply pirate it instead of going out and purchasing CDs. On the other hand, I've noticed an increase in the number of books and the movies/tv show section has been growing over the past few years.

When I came back to Grand Rapids last year for college in the fall, I was super dissappointed to find out that the Walden Books (owned by Borders) at Woodland Mall closed and was replaced by a super big Barnes & Nobles. There went all my 40% off coupons. I was impressed by the amount of books in the new Barnes & Nobles, but not by the customer service. I've not had a problem at other B&Ns, but the people who work at that one are very rude.

I asked for help finding a display that was moved and the lady looked me in the face, said "I don't know where it was moved" stared at me a moment longer, turned around and left. No "I'll find out" or "you can ask so-and-so over there. He/she will be able to find out". Nope! Just the cold shoulder.
Another time I went back, my friends and I had recently seen Avatar in theaters (for the 3rd time) and walked into the Barned & Nobles to find a few displays with Avatar information books & figurines. Of course, we scuttled over there pretty fast and began going through it excitedly. Then this guy (an B&N employee) told us not to touch the display and mess it up. What the hell? We're obviously all over 21 and he treats us like a bunch of rabid 5-yr-olds! On top of that, it's illogical to tell us not to look at the books...at a bookstore... where the purpose is for people to browse books, chose one or more, and buy them. So stupid! That was the last time I went to a B&N.

Another complaint for B&Ns are the selection of books. The stores are much too picky about what types of books they have. For instance, my roommate wanted to buy and read a good romance novel because she had never specifically read one. She wanted it for entertainment purposes and as research for incorporating romantic relationships in a fiction story she'd been workin on. We get to the Romance aisle and what do I find? Tons of historicals! I do enjoy historical romance stories every once in a great while but really, they're not in vogue. As I've pointed out before, the paranormal/supernatural subgenres are highly popular, especially in romance.

My friend also likes paranormal-action novels so I thought I'd get her a romance novel that is in the paranormal-action subgeneres. You guessed it, I couldn't find much. There were too many historical and not enough paranormals (which is most of the romance market right now!). I eneded up getting her a romantica book, which had too much sex in it for her, which is fine. Not everyone likes to read 15 page long sex scense. My point is though, there wasn't much to chose from. B&N are prudes. They don't want certain romance books dirtying their store shelves. Ugh. So annoying. Borders has such better selections.

There is one thing I like about B&Ns and that is the stationary, journals, notebooks, umbrellas and such. They're pretty spiffy. Too bad for them I won't buy them because they're so damned expensive! Sometimes good deal are found at Barnes & Nobles. But there are always great prices at Borders.
Barnes & Nobles: pay for membership w/ sparse & crappy coupons.
Borders: free memebership w/ awesome coupons that are e-mailed out weekly.

I suppose that's enough to adequately explain my dislike for Barnes & Nobles. They just aren't as good, even if they might be a more profitable company. When I was much younger, my friend Sarah and I joked that we'd go into business and open a store that's half a bookstore and the other half an anime/manga store. I still think that's a cool idea, though I do not intend to follow through with it.

Distance and Perspective

I took a creative non-fiction workshop course last school year, which was a lot of fun. I liked the constructive criticism from my professor and peers which enabled me to further enhance my writing abilities. However, I soon discovered that creative non-fiction isn't for me. It's too personal.

I'm not a closed-off person, but I also am not comfortable being completely open. I don't think anyone is. Yet for whatever reason,when I went to write in that class, a lot of uncomfortable thought and memories surfaced that made it into my writing. It left me feeling exposed and exasperated because the issues I brought up don't have a neat and clear ending, like fiction. In real life, they just fade out, with or without closure and an exciting climax. I was exasperated not by the issues, but by my writing them. I thought (and still do) believe I am over those parts of my life. For the most part, they barely effect me. Yet when I brought them to be critiqued, my peers of course were curious to know the endings to these stories, to which I answered, there wasn't any clear ending. How bothersome.

Not that I blame them in the least, but this is one of the reasons I love fiction. I am able to pull myself away from the topic and be objective. For example, I'm still working on a few different pieces to turn in for the "Shattering the Silence" exhibit at school for Domestic Abuse Awareness Week. The subject of domestic abuse, violent or non-violent, is not easy for people to write about. Fortunately, I've experienced a minimum amount of abuse in my life. Perhaps this is why I find it easier to write about serious issues like emotional or verbal abuse, sexual abuse, etc. I realized that I have written a story and poem of that nature in the past.

I had not consciously decided for my writing to champion the cause of domestic abuse/violence awareness, however it seems to be happening on it's own in my writing anyway. I find this interesting and slightly disturbing. Still, someone's gotta do it. I suppose if I can, if I have words and the means to inform and explain this very grave problem to people, all the better.

Exercise: Dazzling Diphthongs

Recently, a friend set her facebook status to say "dazzle me with your diphthongs". I took that as a challenge and wrote a short story full of as many diphthongs as I could think of. It's a silly but fun writing exercise.

Outside the circus trailer:

The clown was cold to the touch. Crowds gathered around while lawmen ushered them back. From the masses, a detective with the face of a hound joined me. Eyes like a hawk, he stepped over the chalk drawing and prodded the body with the point of a pen.

I suggested he might’ve been  poisoned. The detective suspected the widow of wrongdoing and shouted for her to be questioned. She admitted to being disloyal but claimed no fault in clown’s downfall. The conclusion of death was asphyxiation because he choked on a crackerjack toy.

working on something new

For the past several weeks I've been working on the committee that's putting together AQ's Domestic Abuse Awareness Week. One of the new events we will have is an exhibit of artwork, poetry, and short stories about people's reactions to any form of domestic abuse. Although I had a large assignment due this morning, my mind was buzzing on this event, and I was inevitably sidetracked.

So today I started working on a short story that might be displayed in the exhibit. It's about the harmful cycle of verbal and emotional abuse, especially to children. In a way, I'll be re-writing the tale of Cinderella without the happily-ever-after. The hardest part of writing this is not the subject but how to go about making an strong but subtle impact throughout the story. That is, how to write about verbal and emotional abuse without specifically using crude and crass language dialogue. It's every writer's great challenge: show, don't tell. I'm generally not too bad at that, but subtly is not my strong point. I'm very much a blunt person and my writing generally reflects that. In this way, I think this short story is a good writing exercise for me. =)

Thinking about character development

Some writers are acutely aware of character archetypes and accordingly categorize or avoid creating characters that fit into those pigeon holes. In truth, it's much more accurate or realistic to make a character that is a mix of archetypes because human nature is complex and people are full of contradictions.

Lately, I read an article called "Spotty-Handed Villainnesses: Problems of Female Bad Behavior in the Creation of Literature" by Margaret Atwood for one of my classes. I really liked what Atwood had to say about characterization and making the characters interesting instead of catering to what might be nice, politically correct and ultimately boring. I was aware of much that she wrote about, but it's good to see someone else's take on the subject, pulling it all together much better than I would be able.

Anyway, I'm going to keep this short for today. Lots of homework, including an important forum post for my Margaret Atwood class concerning the book Cat's Eye and the article I mentioned above. Maybe I'll post it on Friday or Monday after I finish it. =)

If you're interested in perusing this article, you can find it online here.

story time w/ Uncle Paul

I'm a literature major and language minor, so my mandatory geography course has little interest to me. However, I am fortunate enough to have a professor who often goes off on (sometimes related) tangents and tells stories. Yesterday I heard one that I would like to share. It's about moonshine and driving - two subjects that should never be combined at the same time.

Moonshine is generally made of fermented corn where the alcohol is distilled from the water to produce a highly potent and illegal beverage. Because it is so strong, people have gone blind from drinking a lot of it. But that doesn't stop a lot of people. It's illegal and people want what they can't have, even if it doesn't taste good (not that I would know).

In order to distill the water and fermented corn, moonshiners heat it up using a still and light a fire underneath to boil it. The fire is made using wood, which of course causes smoke. That's why the majority of moonshine is made in around the Appalachian mountain range, where weather conditions are frequently foggy, thus easily hiding signs of smoke.

When moonshine is delivered and sold, it is often packaged in jars instead of barrels because they are less noticeable. Yet the weight of a lot of moonshine will make a car/truck sit lower. One solution to this is to put extra springs in the vehicle to level out the weight difference. On the other hand, the vehicles will be noticeably higher when there is not heavy cargo inside the vehicle. Either way, someone's is bound to get caught, and there are often people who try to flee in their vehicles, causing many a chase.

Strangely enough, people got a huge thrill from racing the police, driving crazy fast around winding mountain roads. Car racing became very popular as a sport in those areas as well. This lead to the creation of NASCAR racing. In fact, a large portion of the top NASCAR drivers are from the Appalachian regions known prominently for moonshine.
The end!

Storytelling

Storytelling fascinates me, both written and verbal. I don't clearly remember preschool, but my mom has told me that I used to love going because my preschool teacher was an excellent storyteller. Besides that being part of her job as a teacher of little ones, storytelling was a side-job of hers. She got paid to tell stories because she did so in a way that caught peoples attention and catered to their emotions. That takes talent and lots of practice, just like the perfected timing, emphasis and expression used by comedians or actors/actresses.

As a kid, I used to make up stories (not lies--make-believe stories) to keep myself and my sister entertained. I loved to make up stories, and it came easily as a child living in a world of imagination and exploration. In middle school, I wrote short, fan-fiction stories with my friends. It was fun and I didn't take any of that writing seriously at age 14. Strangely enough, I did not realize that wanted to continue and pursue that skill in my adult life as an author. In fact, it did not dawn on me that I could until my mom suggested the idea. Then it clicked and felt right. From my senior year of high school, I have never doubted my desire to be a published writer.

Not so coincidentally, I love to read. I love books. However, I could not really read until the end of the 4th grade. I was one of those kids that was taken out of class a hour a day to sit with a specialist who was supposed to help me learn to read better. When I finally did learn to read, it was done with little to no influence from the reading specialists. I discovered that liked to read stories that are interesting, not the inanely boring history or social studies books we'd been forced to read in class. The first real chapter book I read was an American Girl Doll book called Patsy: Diary of a Slave Girl. Ironically, the theme of this book was about a young slave girl (Patsy) who taught herself to read because she knew that if she were educated she would have a better life. This was so much different from my own reality where teachers were always trying to force me to read. Instead, it was illegal for someone to teach Patsy and so she learned in secret. I'm not quite sure how much of an impact that had on me at the time, but it was an entertaining story that catapulted me into being a voracious bookworm.

Now, I spend thousands of dollars a year to learn how to become a great storyteller, to captivate an audience and perhaps even someday write a book that catches a young, reluctant reader's attention enough to open the door of their imagination to the infinite possibilities of books. But for the time being, I'll keep studying.

Exercise: Character/Person Sketch - roommate

Tan skin with natural golden-yellow undertones. Dark brown eyes surrounded by slightly darkened circles under each eye. Her hari is dark brown, almost black, short to the nap of her neck and shaggybecause she's trying to grow it out. Right now it's held back by a crayola green, paislye bandana, leaving her face open and her ears sticking out. A few red acne bloches cover her forehead above two slightly arched eyebrows. She absently picks at a scab near her left ear but suddenly stops, concious of her action.

She's wearing a grey shirt with blue and red text that says "Wake Up AQ!" A thick metal, gold and black, torque circles her neck, separating an inch from the middle. At the ends of the necklace are 2 dragon heads, staring at each other. Her ensemble is finished by a pair of grey-green cargo pants with lots of pockets on the thighs, held up by a black leather belt. No socks or shoes. She's not wearing a watch but there's a wide, brown leather wrist cuff on the left wrist. An engagement ring sits on her left hand. It's an emerald surrounded by celtic knots and two small diamonds.

Exercise: Character/Person Sketch - Laura

This is a writing exercise I was introduced to in my high school creative writing class. The point is to practice writing descriptions and work on becoming more astute about surroundings and all details. The goal is to be able to get a clear mental picture of the person after reading the description.

This one in particular I jot down about my friend Laura. It's just a quick sketch. Nothing fancy or well-written. Just descriptions.

slouched over, eating a frost, meticulously scraping the bottom of the cup for the last chocolatey drop.
comfy black cotton pants and a plain black cotton t-shirt with a hint of the purple lace undershirt covering her cleavage. Sitting in a position of repose. rectangular black metal glasses sit on the slight ridge of her nose, small & straight. Pale peach skin blooms rosy on her cheeks. clear complexion. small mole on the lower left side of her jaw. full pink lips prone to a pouty moue.

when she smiles, dimples show on either side of her face. sparkly, red crescent hoop earrings. soft, square jawline tapering to a pointed chin. slightly curved dark orange eyebrows. vibrant orange-red hair that shines with health, hangs thick and straight to the shoulders with just a slight wave at the tips. Long bangs part at the crown over the right eyebrow. Hair tucked behind the ears.

brown socks with a hole where the right big toe sticks out. Black hair tie around the right wrist. No watch. Fairly large, capable hands without nail polish. Short nails with a little bit of dirt or paint underneath. A claddagh ring on her right hand with the heart pointing outward.

Exercise: Perder el Aliento

Por algun razon, yo quiero escribir en español hoy. Si usted no supo, soy latina y puedo hablar en español más o menos bien. No he practicado en pocos meces. Además, yo nunca he escribido nada en español, pues, nada de escritura creativa. Entonces, esto es mi intento.

El cielo me robó el aliento.
¿Has visto un cielo más expresivo?
Los días tienen el matiz azul
tan radiante que los nubes
no se atreve bloquearlo.
Las mañanas iluminan poco a poco
de anaranjado a azul brillante.
Al atardecer desteñe. Amarillo.
Verde claro. Cielo azul.
Cálido anaranjado. Rosado Atrevido.
Roja caliente. Morado. Azul oscuro. Negro.
A veces en el mismo tiempo, los colores apilan
uno arriba al otro, como telas raras y preciosas.
Demasiado rápido, la visión dispersada
como vientos de fantasmas por las palmas
y todo es calma.

A Twilight Rant

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 I give you the much anticipated rant about Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Series.

For better or worse, I admit that I liked reading the Twilight books. I still would read them, even though the crazy fans have killed off some of my enjoyment of the series. People take the series way too seriously.

Good parts about the series:

I like the concept of there being good and bad vampires (though it’s not original at all!) because it shows that there’s always more than one point of view. I liked the fight scenes and politics of the vampire world. Overall, I do like love stories so that was appealing to me. I liked the books better than the films because my view of the characters is not well reflected by the actors, and it’s easier to ignore the angst in the books than onscreen.

As for the rest of the series…

I’m not going to lie; it worries me how obsessed people can be about these books, especially adolescents since it is technically a young adult series. I worry because of the message the books send: If you’re lucky enough to find “true love” (with a perfect person), don’t let anything stand in your way—not death, not life, not friends or family.

I may be a hopeless romantic, I may even believe in the concept of soul mates, but I don’t think any one love is truer than the next. I think people can find different soul mates throughout their lives, people that really connect, be it for weeks, months or years. People continuously change and what someone needs in a perfect partner will change over time as well.

Going back to the message from the series, it’s obvious to see why I worry. The relationship between the 2 protagonists, Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, is an unhealthy relationship. Though it’s not necessarily Edward’s fault, Bella basically cut off all ties to friends and family when she became infatuated with him. She didn’t care about anything but him. That’s not love. That’s obsession. Clearly this was dangerous to her emotions because when Edward left, she went into (6?) months of serious depression! (Even scarier, her friends and father didn’t bother to take her to a shrink to get happy pills, therapy, anything.) That’s not normal or healthy.

Also, some romantic concepts are being mixed up here. For example: Napping with boyfriend and waking up to find him watching you – this can be either romantic or awkward and slightly creepy. Napping/sleeping and finding out that some guy (no matter how cute or sexy) has been watching you sleep from the window (or even inside the bedroom). That’s called trespassing (if not breaking and entering) and stalking. It’s creepy as all get out. Not romantic. Bella should have gotten a restraining order when she found out about that, not a melting feeling in her heart! (Not that a restraining order could do much against a vampire, but if Edward were a normal human, yes, a restraining order would be good. Hell, Bella’s father is police chief and would have happily reinforced it.)

I mean, sure it has some memorable quotes, but they’re not golden. And yet, why are there so many tattoos?

People obviously don't love this series for Meyer's extraordinary writing style. It's because young adults (and many others of all ages) find the premise of the high school love interests relate-able and appealing. It's because of the vampire-werewolf part. Anyone can tell that all paranormal creatures are hot right now (or would youngsters call it "hawt" now? stupid future of America can't learn to spell harumph harumph harumph). It's just another way to make the characters cooler, more dangerous, and more sexy--an instant recipe for popularity.

I find it incredible that people, i.e. crazy fans (Twihards?), came down on Stephen King’s head when he pointed out that the books is not a literary work of art… well, King being who he is (definitely not a lovable teddy bear), he worded it a bit differently: "[J.K.] Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good." ~quote from U.S. Weekly Interview

Ouch. That’s a bona fide dis. I can understand King’s sentiment on this point, mainly because of the poor characterizations in this series. I’m all for having high expectations for a boyfriend, but Edward is an unrealistically perfect character. And Bella, though not perfect, is too much of a 1 dimensional character; she doesn’t have a lot of substance, mostly because she lacks character flaws. And being clumsy is NOT a legit character flaw. That’s a rookie mistake that Meyer should have been well aware of, having graduated with a B.A. in English from Brigham Young University.

I can only imagine the flaming comments hurled at his head by the Twihards. Fortunately, Stephen King had a wonderful rebuttal, which I highly recommend watching. Stephen King's rant on Twilight

Overall, I believe that the biggest reason this series is popular is because of the love story. Many, possibly most, of the people who read this series had never read a romance novel before so this being their first connection with a strong romance story, they flipped the lid! They think it's the coolest thing since sliced bread! *facepalm* Ugh. That’s almost as bad as people who snub the romance genre as stupid yet love to read Nicholas Sparks. Well, at least the huge popularity of the Twilight series has gotten more people to read. I’m all for a boost the literacy rate.

Fun fact: Did you know that the current literacy rate is lower than it was in the late 19^th Century and early 20^th Century?

If you’re wondering why, that’s mostly because of the popularity of dime novels. Since TV shows, movies (let alone video games) weren’t around back then, people read for entertainment. Dime novels were tales of adventure with moderately simple structure and vocabulary that people of all ages read and shared.

Love at first bite?

Vampires are huge! ... Not like that, you pervert. Yeesh. They're dead, so technically they should be able get it "up" anyway. Rigor mortis doesn't work like that.

*crickets chirp*

Alright, let me back track here.

Vampires are hugely popular right now—a bit too popular for my liking. I almost feel like vampires have been overdone, which makes me sad. I hate when people (crazy fans) take over a fandom that I really like and overdo it to the point that it's intolerable.

On the other hand, a person could argue that vampires have not been overdone because they have been reinvented in so many ways. I can sort of see this and agree to some extent. I mean, three of my favorite books series have are centered on vampires, but they each have 3 very different concepts of vampires or vampire-like beings. So, I'll give the opposition some credit to that. I also see that it's necessary to reinvent the vampire to keep them fresh (as fresh as the undead can get) and for the sake of originality.

The clearest reinvention of vampires has been the romanticized versions, which has been all the rage as of lately (well, not exclusively recently: Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles). I have only seen a few recent films or books that portray vampires as real monsters. These romanticized, or over-romanticized vampires, have become the protagonists in stories and movies instead of the external danger. They are made into intelligent beings with likeable traits. They have redefined badass in terms of enormously strength/powers, and they can kick ass better and faster than a zombie kung-fu master on steroids. Vampires have become sexy (which is a bit ironic since culture in North America defines beauty as having a golden tan or ethnically light brown skin tone – not the translucent white of a corpse). I also see vampires as advertising for paranormal-themed entertainment: “Become a vampire! Be forever young, gorgeous, and super smart!”

(Why are the scholars get bitten? Don’t you think the book-smart people would have read up on this or and known the signs of a vampire sighting? Or are vampires now super intelligent because is there nothing better to do than study with those extra years of longevity?)

I’d be lying if I said I did not see the appeal of this portrayal. In fact, I like reading paranormal stories that include vampires, especially romantic paranormal novels (likely the most romanticized of all). But I can't stand paranormal romance novels that treat vampirism like a fad, something that is completely idealized with barely any negative side-effects. Oh, there are many I could mention (Twilight series included), but I’m trying to keep this post as short as I can.

 Personal pet peeve: I am adamantly not a fan of the new light paranormal romance novels, what are sometimes vaguely called "chick lit paranormals". This is possibly the best example of the over-romantification of vampires in literature. Vampires become nothing more than normal people with fangs. Picture a young old undead attractive, single-mother vampire who is hip with the times, love shoe shopping, and is on the look for the ideal Mr. Vampire to be her spouse and step-father to her (undead?) children.

What the hell is that?! Honestly? Most chick lit paranormals probably don’t go that far, but I would not want to read any book that’s anything like that. People have taken the monster out of the vampire! Not cool. Much as vampires have been overdone in general, they have been overly romanticized almost beyond the recognition of nosferatu or Dracula. Where's the gore?! The angst (but not too much)? The berserker craze of blood lust that can never be satisfied? The disregard for human life?

I’m not too big into these new-age vampires. The real old school vampires were killing machines, monsters, capital E-vil capital M-onsters. Think Dracula, Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot or Ann Rice's Vampire Chronicles series. Although Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show became romanticized to an extent (ex: Angel, Spike), the premise of the show is still to kill off vampires with the generalization that all vampire are monsters, i.e. Evil.

Nowadays, there are even people who wish they were vampires. There’s a whole vampire underground subculture (freaky) that began long before Stephanie Meyer began to dream up Twilight. Of course, these people wanted the bad and good of vampires, the monsters with power and intelligence. They do not intend to become a vampire and be a perfect being. They see vampires as scary.

One of the reasons I think much of our cultural fear of vampires has abated is because of how prevalent violence and blood is in present American culture. Back in the day, vampires were terrifying because of the huge AIDS scare. Think about the associations: vampires > blood > disease > death. In a way, HIV AIDS was/is a vampiric disease; it eats away at the immune system, the body, sucking up the victims' energy, life force. The point is, blood and disease was scary business which generated much more fear and panic than worry about today's advanced viruses and diseases.

Bringing this full circle, I will leave you all on my ever pondering question of cultural impact. What has this done to American culture? And what has shaped American culture to accept the monsters/villainous characters as more likable than the heroes & heroines?