Gingerbread Men, A Thousand Words, and Private Thoughts

Last night my sister and I were walking when we came upon this scene of holiday terror. Observe the gingerbread man face down in the grass. Observe how his side of the of the house has gone dark. And observe, the bright and jolly jubilance of his wife shining brightly over him.

Speaking of tragedies some of you may have noticed that I did not report how many words I wrote in November. I know you all wait in breathless anticipation of such reports, so I apologize profusely for my oversight. Partly it was due to not having time for anything, but partly it was so sad as to only increase my depression by reporting it. But as I'm feeling quite a bit better now after a hefty dose of blissful vacation nothingness, I will finally fess up to the hateful number: 1,158 words. That was my yield for all of November. I wrote more words than that yesterday in less than two hours. The frustrating thing is that I know there was time in November. There just wasn't the mental energy to use it properly. But a large part of me doesn't really accept that as an excuse and has concluded that I'm just lamentably weak. I worry that this will become my life--being too tired to write. But I try to remind myself that my sister now has much more time and energy ever since she graduated from grad school. I will just have to hope that grad school is the culprit and not work in general. In any event, I have gotten quite a lot written over break, though it cannot make up for what I could not write any other time, and while my yield for December will be a lot less depressing than October and November, it probably will not even surpass that of September which is when things all started going downhill in the first place.

Now that I do have a little extra time, though, I find that I am lacking something else. A diary. I did not so much forget to bring my diary as omit it from the packing list because I haven't written in it in quite some time. The whole point of starting this blog was because I'd mostly run out of the sort of private thoughts that I would not wish to share with everyone. But for the first time in a long time I wish I had my diary to confide in. Nothing wrong with all of you, but I suppose every human being gets a little bit of existential angst every few years that is best not shouted merrily across the void of cyberspace. They're the sort of thoughts that you may read over and still be moved by later, or could just as easily be glad that no one else knew they occurred to you at all. It may also simply be a case of missing what I don't have. True, I could write on anything, but there is quite a bit less security on writing one's innermost thoughts on spare bits of paper or even on a computer. I considered writing them in French since very few people I know could read it, and those who could aren't likely to see it if I keep it to myself. But that's slightly more effort than I'd like to put into random mental rambling. I could also buy another notebook but the economical side of me rebels against this since I've already got two unfinished diaries. Also the thought of writing in just any notebook doesn't really appeal to me. Oh well, perhaps I'm just spoiled. One way or another I'll either write them or I won't.

Anyway, I can't exactly make up for the recent lack of blog posts. But I hope this is something for those of you who've missed me. I miss all of you as well.

To all my dear Gilpatricians, it was wonderful to see you all again. It was good to see you too, Eric, if you're reading this. I am sorry to the rest of my Denison friends that I wasn't able to visit. Chalk it up to very limited time and poor planning on my part. But I hope I can come back again sometime. And to any of my friends that I wasn't able to see at all recently, I hope I can see you all again sometime. I hope you all are well and have all had a great holiday and will have a very good New Year.

Friends of the Week: Becky (I think the cat is cute too) and Anonymous (you guys really need to remember to put your names down)

Mom is Mom of the Week.

A Town Bereft...

...of magnetic poetry! I went to the Borders and five, that's right five other book stores and a novelty shop but one little box of magnetic words cannot be got in this town for love or money! There is much to be said for Ann Arbor, its lovely trees, its inspiring old edifices, its bubble tea, but this lack of magnetic poetry to me seems a great failing indeed.

More Frightening...

More frightening than any ghost, ghoul, or beastie stirred up at Halloween is my word count for the month. 2188. An all time low. I basically feel about it how this cat looks.

Friends of the Week: Mag, Ishani, and Tim ! :)

Mom is also Mom of the Week.

Happy Halloween!

You may think decoration, but the squirrel thinks "lunch."









Squirrel says "Whut?!"

My very own "unfinished" pumpkin art on display at the library. Exactly the right kind of pumpkin for a grad student. (That black thing is a plastic knife)

Reference Desk Super Powers

If you know me, then you know how much I like to talk about how awesome I am, but today I was particularly so. Today a mother hesitantly approached the desk. "This is a hard one..."

Being new I'm not particularly good at hard ones. But I listened attentively. "My son was here yesterday and saw a book about a crab."

"Does he remember the title?"

"No."

"Author?"

"No...he's three."

Hmm...we have a fabulous children's librarian but she wasn't there at the time. It was definitely a picture book, but there's no way to narrow the search that way on the library database. The other librarian on desk with me thought it might be an Eric Carle book about a Hermit Crab. I thought this seemed as good a guess as any. I checked the shelves and Eric Carle's Hermit Crab was not there but that didn't mean someone couldn't have checked it out. I went back and googled an image of the Eric Carle book to show to the 3 year old to see if he'd recognize it. But when I went over the child was entranced by a computer game and did not seem to like the idea of pausing when his mother suggested it. So I went back to the desk and got distracted by other things. Then finally the mother returned with her child and I showed him a picture of the Eric Carle book.

"Is that it?"

The kid looked at it. "No."

Then it got worse. I suppose he'd really been counting on this book. "Nooo!" he wailed more forcibly, his eyes welling up and his nose beginning to drip. "That's not right!"

I could see the crab situation had reached critical. Luckily, I'd also googled crab+picture book as a back-up and quickly showed him the cover of a different book (the one pictured above to be exact.)

A few sniffles and the kid seemed to calm down. Yes, that was the book. It was also still on the shelf! Hooray! I'd like to say it took more than that, but mostly my amazing find was a mixture of luck, Google, and a cool-head in the face of a drippy nose.

Still, I feel pretty good about it, and my colleague seemed pretty amazed with me for the rest of the day.

Friends of the Week:

Tim and Brian!

Looks Like I Can't Do it All...

My writing yield for the month is (drum-roll please) 7082 words.

Sigh...I know, compared to the other months that's pretty pathetic. As is painfully apparent by this number, I was not able to write 500 words every day while being a grad student and holding down a part-time job. My life is clearly busier, but this still makes me frustrated. I feel like if I was hard-core enough, I could do it.

But I suspect that somewhere at my core, in the place of an iron-will, I have a slightly melty cream filling.

Friend of the Week: Sarah! :)

Obituary: Dr. Desmond Hamlet

It is difficult to believe that a man with such energy and vibrance is now gone. His eyes truly shone when he taught. But a person like Dr. Hamlet does not simply disappear. His booming voice will echo forever in the minds of his students, whether it is to simply remember a terror for comma splices or the enthusiastic encouragement to truly express ourselves. I have posted two very similar messages in both guest books to the obituaries linked at the bottom of this post. But I shall reiterate my sentiments here:

I wish I had taken more time to express to Dr. Hamlet just how highly I thought of him. I still remember my class with him: Words and Ideas, a freshman course that I thought would be boring. However, upon entering, I was greeted by his energetic enthusiasm for the subject and booming voice, which is probably as close to the voice of God that I will ever hear. I still remember he took the time to talk to a harried-looking freshman with a suitcase full of books, and he told me that he had once been the same. He scared grammar into me, challenged my ideas, and encouraged me to write what I really thought, even if it was completely the opposite of what he thought. Often times it was. But Dr. Hamlet was one of those rare people that can look at something they do not agree with and still analyze it fairly and seemingly objectively. Many other professors had told me that I should write what I really thought, but Hamlet truly meant it with every fiber of his being. I remember he practically wrote another essay in the margins of my paper about why I thought James Joyce wrote poorly. But when I flipped to the end of my essay all in red, I was shocked to see an A and an excited note about how he didn’t agree with a word of it, but I had argued well. I already loved to write before his class, but I will always remember Hamlet and the difference he made in my writing and how I thought about writing. He made me really believe that my ideas were worthy. He was strict, but it was because he really believed in writing and expression. I will always be grateful for everything he taught me and that I had the privilege and honor of knowing such a great and brilliant man.

McPeek Obituary
Columbus Dispatch Obituary

RAM, SAM, and Gilpatrick

I was just reading an article for class (or rather I’m currently reading it and should be doing so now) but the fact that serial access memory is shortened to SAM made me pause and chuckle. In my mind I see a little Gilpatrick lounge inside every computer with Sam sitting down, his feet on the table, watching TV when some command tells him to go search the computer memory. The little computer Sam will probably grumble, set aside whatever food he’s eating, and go and get it.

Maybe this won't help me understand computers but it sure makes this article less boring. Gosh, I miss Gilpatrick.

Is She...Dead?

No. I'm still alive. I haven't felt like it at times, but I am. There have been a couple times through the week where I could have blogged but didn't. There are several reasons for this. One is that the blog may have consisted of something like: "Ogg...sleepy." The other is that there has not been much of note for me to share. I could probably still post a sentence everyday. But the utility of this is questionable. It seems most my readers appreciate my longer, thoughtful posts. The only things I've thought to remark on recently is that I discovered there are cinnamon bun Creme Savers (which are awesome), and that I really hate it when people knock on the doors of public restrooms that are locked. If it's locked, then there's someone inside, or it's locked for some other reason, likely by someone with the key. I know sometimes kids amuse themselves by crawling under the stalls and locking the doors, but I was in a single room restroom. What's someone going to do? Ooze under the door crack, lock it, and then ooze back? So yes, I'm in the restroom, but I'd rather not announce my presence or talk about my activities therein, thank you very much.

It's been a full week. I think most the exhaustion really comes from adjusting, though. Once, I've got certain things like food and transportation down pat, those will hopefully drain less of my energy. Plus, they really weren't kidding about needing at least 8 hours of sleep in grad school. I skipped two days of novel writing because I ran myself so haggard, but on Thursday the TA was kind enough to provide us with snacks at our last class, and it really perked me up more than I would have thought. So some of my exhaustion may be from low blood sugar. Mom was right, I should carry snacks with me. I'll try to remember to buy some when I go to the store tomorrow. But I'm proud to say I managed to write a little over 500 words both Thursday and Friday, and I hope I'll be able to make-up for the missed two days by writing at least 1000 Saturday and Sunday. We'll see. But if I can at least keep up the writing, that will be something.

Both an exciting and tiring thing I did this week was my work orientation and training. It's exciting because I learn many cool super librarian things so that I may soon be a little super librarian who shall hopefully be able to upgrade to big super librarian. But it's tiring because all the librarian super powers have to be taught to me very fast so I can throw on my spandex sweater set as soon as possible and fight with my amazing bookish powers!

Anyway, let me know if you would be interested in me blogging random short stuff everyday or if you'd prefer that I only write when I have something interesting to say.

Friends of the Week: Tim and Becky! Thanks for commenting!

Chrissy also commented a while back, and she's my sister of the week every week, but I thought she deserved a colorful name.

The Other Me....

They forced us to get accounts in Second Life for one of my foundation courses so we could have an educated opinion on whether or not the university should teach a class in Second Life. Yes, apparently many educational institutions seriously do this. Now, while I acknowledge its use as a tool in distance learning, the fact that people could feasibly come to class with rabbit ears (or as a rabbit), with green hair, or decked out in a leather catsuit troubles me. I dunno. Maybe I'm just old fashioned. I also had to take on an alias because I couldn't use my real name since last names are selected from a drop-down menu. I like my last name. And Cherie Lee is not the same as Cherie Eel (one of the options I did NOT select). I ended up with MeiLing Greenwood since the first is my Chinese name and the second just sounded nice. I was tempted by the name "Darcy" which was available, but I didn't like how it sounded with MeiLing as much as I liked Greenwood. There were no sensible Chinese surnames or I would have chosen one. My dear friend Punya would likely find this sacrilegious, but she's free to snap up the name Punya Darcy in Second Life. It's probably still available.

The average SL resident is too cool for me, though. So this is my avatar. I tried to keep her as toned down as possible, but I couldn't resist giving her radiant green eyes. This is not so much because I don't like having brown eyes, but more because the poor girl couldn't look as beautiful as me no matter what I tried, so she needed something to console her. I also kept on her lipstick because I couldn't make her lips naturally as dark as mine. You can adjust both shirt and pants, but this is as far as either would go to cover my avatar. I guess Second Life didn't get the memo that midriff shirts went out of fashion last season. At least she's wearing chain mail, though. That's cool, I guess. It was free, which is why she's wearing it.

The fact that I spent most the time designing the appearance of my own avatar, and that was mostly in an effort to make her look quasi-respectable since the default appears to be "preppy teenager", also makes me dubious of Second Life as a serious or professional environment.

So on a whole, I still have to agree with the First Life website.

All Bets Are Off

Grad School doesn't start until tomorrow and yet I'm already behind it would seem since I was not paying close enough attention to the hundreds of emails flooding my school inbox. So I already have a lot of work I need to do and thus will have to stop the deal I have had with my sister about blogging every day. This does not necessarily mean that I will not blog every day, so I would appreciate it if everyone still checked my blog from time to time. This is obviously something I enjoy doing, some nice me time, and I would like more than anything to keep it going. So I will blog whenever I can. I will even still try to blog every day. I just can't promise anything. I definitely cannot promise to read a fanfic if I miss a day unless that fanfic is assigned for one of my courses. So I'm sorry Chrissy.

I may be able to reinstate this deal, however, once I get used to grad school. Or I may drop off the face of the Earth for a while... But that doesn't mean I don't still want to hear from people. Knowing I still have friends may be the only thing keeping me going at times, so please still say hello from time to time if you can.

Also, one last random piece of fun news before I may not have time: They've actually based a TV show off of commercials.

Now don't get me wrong. I admit I did like those commercials. But I still think this says something about the state of modern TV, and it's probably a big part of the reason I don't regret no longer watching it.

Words, Words, Words

I wrote 20,130 words in the month of August. This is rather shocking since it's more than I expected and more than I wrote in either June or July. Especially amazing since I admittedly had to skip two days when my jet-lagged brain just couldn't do it. I did, however, write some by hand in my journal on the plane just so I wouldn't waste good thinking time (my laptop was, and still is, on the fritz). This proves my newfound dedication because I hate writing by hand. Not that I particularly like being a slave to this devil machine, but my handwriting is positively dreadful and rather depressing to look back at. I can read it, though, which is better than some people I guess. But I also prefer the computer for the ability to move text and go back and smoothly add things. Plus, if I write something by hand, I know I will have to type it later, and I hate typing possibly more than I hate writing by hand. I don't mind typing (or rather finger-pecking) what's in my head. But typing stuff already written is the most menial thing imaginable.

I know this fact is rather contradictory to the lovely picture I have here. By the way, I did NOT draw this picture. It's something I found on the internet a really long time ago and saved. Mad props to whoever did draw it, though. Obviously this is what I wish I looked like while writing. Writing by hand certainly looks more romantic than slouching over a computer. But I'll bet anything that serene fairy has programmed her quill to word-processor capacity.

I also added 1,330 words from my notes. Proving how I like to move things about. These are either from the previous draft or things I write on the fly and later edit into my story, so I don't recall when I write them (though maybe I should start keeping track.) I have, however, recorded when I add them. The reason I don't record their initial writing is because sometimes I never add them, so they can end up being more like mental exercises than strictly countable story progress. Not that thinking about my novel isn't progress. I just always fear becoming one of those people who thinks very hard about writing but never actually does it.

So right now my story is 90,766 words and a few paragraphs more than 139 word-processed pages. If I wrote normal sized novels, I'd be finished or less than a month from finishing. Unfortunately, I do not, and I couldn't tell you how much longer this will take. But if I can keep up the pace, there is a hope of me finishing before the year is out. I certainly do not plan on making this one into the monster the last draft was. But I don't want to impose a length on it either. Very difficult, really.

Brotherhood 2.0 Review

The following is the newest video in a long series of videos. I used this one because the still frame was pretty good, and it's a pretty funny video without too many in-jokes. If you want to watch this series from the beginning, though, this is their first video. And you can go here
for more of their earlier vids. They start at the bottom and go up.



I've been meaning to do this for a long time but haven't gotten around to it. The trouble is that it's gotten to the point where I'm not really sure what to say. I'm simply baffled that everybody doesn't already watch these guys. The majority of their videos are under four minutes, so it can't be short attention spans.

Anyway, I guess I'll just explain who they are and what they do. John and Hank Green are two brothers who have decided not to textually communicate for the full year of 2007. Instead they will only communicate through video blogs and the telephone. I thought the telephone kind of made the whole thing too easy, but they say they almost never use it. They do a video blog every weekday (they get weekends off), and if they miss a day, or are seen to textually communicate, they must be punished. Punishments are decided by the brother not doing the punishment, but they can vetoed by their wives.

John is an award-winning young adult writer and Hank is a notable ecologist and webpage designer (but not notable enough for Wikipedia.) They are also both absolutely hilarious. My kind of people--which means they're nerds and proud of it. Their videos are what reality TV should be, real people who are fun to listen to.

Because this has been going on since January, and they've developed a decent fanbase, there are some in-jokes you won't get if you don't watch it from the beginning. Nonetheless, I thought a good idea might be to dedicate a video to each person that has commented recently in my blog (meaning on this first page here). I'd like to do everyone who's ever commented, but there's no way I'd remember for certain even though it's not that many. However, if you'd like a video dedicated to you, just comment here, and you'll get one.


Becky and Brian: Yeah, you guys have to share one but it's a good one and the part about bears sort of reminded me of you both and what Becky mentioned about the exciting sights at your trip to Iowa. And a quick explanation of in-jokes: "Nerdfighters" is the name of their fanbase and, yes, John really did eat (and video blogged for our viewing pleasure) a blenderized Happy Meal as a punishment for textually communicating with Hank. Since he was going to have to be punished anyway, he asked their fans to donate money to his friend's political campaign to decide how bad his punishment would be. He also waxed a leg and licked a cat.



I should also note Becky is my friend of the week!


Heather: This is John being punished. These are the sorts of punishments Cherianity will be doling out to those who incite our wrath but don't quite merit burning to a crisp. Study it well. (Incidentally, it is also where John eats the blenderized Happy Meal that I mentioned earlier so either close your eyes or don't watch on a full stomach.)




Sarah: Licking a cat. I thought it was funny...




Tim: In which you see the awesome Neil Gaiman and Hank sings a song about Helena Montana. Dedicated to you since you once lived in Montana.




Chrissy hasn't commented in my blog recently, but I know she reads it everyday, so she can consider the video at the top dedicated to her since I thought it was funny and she might too. The trouble is I've shown her most the other ones I really like. Or she can have the Neil Gaiman one for a different reason than Tim does. Some of you may be saying, can you dedicate videos you didn't make? I say: absolutely.

My Paper Towels Tell Me What to Do...

...Or rather, they have trite inspirational phrases like "Reach for the Stars" and "Live Life to it's Fulllest." Perhaps I will. But for now I should really Do My Laundry and Clean My Apartment.

Heh, Cute.

Pimp My PowerPoint

Some of the PowerPoint presentations I've been seeing at my grad orientation have just been normal, but the others are friggin' awesome! One was actually at visiting days that almost made me interested in HCI (Human Computer Interaction), despite my terror of compsci. But the other was yesterday with hilarious pictures.

One was this picture....

















The other was not exactly this picture but one much like us to inform us that no food would be allowed in the computer lab.

Also, if Becky's reading this, there is an Imposter Becky at my SI orientation. She looks like Becky but, of course, she is not. She is also, undoubtedly, only a pale shadow of Becky's awesomeness. Though she may be a nice shadow so I should probably get over the weirdness of it and say hi.

Anyone who reads this post may notice I'm in a better mood than I was during the last one, but thank you to Tim for his concern about my pathetic loneliness and I also realized I forgot to dub Heather Friend of the Week! (It doesn't matter that she commented last Saturday, she's going to get a full week of friendness, which means her friend week will end next Wednesday.)

Neil Gaiman's Free Advertising Agency of One Returns

Big Empty Apartment

Makes Cherie sad. I'm pretty lonely and pathetic at the moment. Whenever I hear a weird sound I become scared someone's here who shouldn't be. I guess it's been way too long since I've actually been on my own.

Belle

Just so my sister won't think this is random, consider this a "What Cherie's Listening To" post.

I have a huge playlist on YouTube of music videos which I'm listening to right now, and I have the song "Belle" from Notre Dame de Paris both in its original French and in Russian because it sounds awesome in both languages and the Russian video is actualy quite cool to watch. It's more fun and more cinematic than the French, because the French one is just ripped from the musical, which might be fun if you're in the audience but less so if it's just a tiny vid on YouTube. However there is one part of the Russian one that cracks me up because I think it looks like Phoebus's pants are on fire. Of course, considering his personality in the musical, I would say this is an apt representation. It's actually just supposed to look like he's surrounded by fire. Probably suppsed to represent the fire of passion or whatever. If that's the case, though, one could make an argument that it's still coming from his pants.

Anyway, here are both vids for your viewing pleasure:
French
Russian

Jet-lagged

The jet-lag seems to have hit me harder today than it did yesterday. I feel like going to bed early rather than later, though, which seems weird, but it's probably for the best.

Just Can't Keep Away

I have my very dubious half-dead laptop jury rigged to work and kudos to Michigan for setting up a relatively decent internet network. If it'll work with this computer, which doesn't meet several of it's MINIMUM requirements, it's pretty good.

This also proves that Cherie finds one day without the internet intolerable and that desperation and being really lonely in a big empty apartment are powerful tools.

Now there's also something very cool on youtube I want you all to see. At least, I think it's cool. But I may be very biased. If you don't know who the vlogbrothers are, then you may want to fast forward to 00:43 seconds of the following video to see what I want you to see: http://youtube.com/watch?v=la2WVpjq5-U

However, I highly recommend watching their other videos. The previous one won't make any sense to people who don't already follow it, but these two should be hilarious to anyone with the ability to laugh:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xy1M5VHF3no
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QDEm5qPYTq4

The only background that might be slightly helpful for the first video is that the guy int the video, is award-winning young adult novelist, John Green. Most notably, he wrote Looking for Alaska and An Abundace of Katherines. This way you know why he's so awesome but also why he has author editions of those books.

I've really been meaning to give these guys a good review for months, but I'm a bit too tired today for a proper one. So, for now, here's the short version: they're awesome. Go back through the videos and watch them from the beginning.

Expulsion From Paradise

It's funny how appealing a floor full of legos, box forts, and demons (otherwise know as little brothers and their little friends) seems when you compare it to horrifying uncertainty for the next two years. I went out on the town in Oceanside today for what will be the last time in a long time, and when I was walking from the bus stop back to my dad's house, I was suddenly keenly aware just how beautiful California is all year round. It makes me really question just how attached I am to the Midwest: which is not very much now that all my family lives in California. But the fact that I was ever dubious about living in California instead of the Midwest, shows you just how important my family is to me (and maybe how opposed I am to change since none of them have lived in the Midwest for the past two years). Anyway, I hope to be close to them again once grad school is done.

Tear-jerking thoughts aside, I wanted to say that this is actually an old picture of my dad's front garden. I have not taken any pictures outside since I got here. Mostly because the few times I did go for walks, I'd forget my camera. Today I really regretted this when I saw a truly awesome tiny black and yellow bird flitting around the flowers by the sidewalk. I know Chrissy would have thought it was awesome too. But I did not have my camera. Sorry Chrissy.

Well, I don't know when I'll be able to blog again. I'll be traveling for basically a full two days. (Guess what novel recently made into a movie that I'll be reading on the plane...) After that I'll almost certainly have trouble setting up my internet. Then I'll probably be really busy with school. So it may be a while until I blog again, but I'll try to let all you loyal readers know when that is. It would also be really helpful if those loyal readers would leave comments here so I know exactly who they are. Otherwise, I'll just inform people who should be reading.

All that said, here's to the next two years.

Apologies to People on the Train to Oceanside

No, the train I traveled on was not nearly so quaint, but I would have preferred this one. Plus it probably would have been faster and less irritating than how I eventually got to Oceanside.

Obviously it's been a few weeks since I came to see my dad, but the following events have been bugging me since I first arrived, and as my next great traveling adventure nears, I feel I should get them off my chest. They are two totally unrelated stories.

The first is when I was waiting (an inordinately long time I might add) for the train to open its doors. It was sitting there long before the doors deemed to open. In this time a girl sat next to me and I saw she was holding the new Harry Potter book along with another book I didn't recognize. I felt compelled to say something though I can't recall what. But it got us talking about Harry Potter and some other things. She was quite friendly and I would have liked to have sat next to her and talked a bit more. Indeed, I think that's what she expected me to do. But we were sadly separated when I was reluctant to go to the second floor because of all my luggage.

I ended up having to struggle up those stairs anyway later in the trip because the first floor is reserved for the elderly and handicapped--not those merely crippled by luggage. Unfortunately my fellow Harry Potter fan was nowhere in sight.

Then there was another bus trip before I was finally on my way to Oceanside and as I was struggling to the back of the train where worthless dregs like me are kept, some boy asked if I was on my way to ComicCon. At least, I thought he asked me. Could have been someone else but I did have a Harry Potter backpack and they thought they were having a podcast there (except there was a miscommunication, I think)

Now, ComicCon is an enormous combination of all things awesome. I'm not much of a comic fan, but ComicCon has grown to encompass fantasy and scifi in general and is now just a huge convention for people with good taste. Plus, as I found out later, Neil Gaiman was a guest speaker, and they talked about Stardust and all manner of great things. Yes, I would have liked to have been going to ComicCon. But I was not.

Harassed, weary, and pushed by a flood of people, I gave this boy only one answer. "Me?"

I meant it as a sort of "If I were only so lucky" "Me?" but tired and in pain from pulling my bags it ended up sounding more like a "Ha! I am too cool for ComicCon you mere nerdy mortal."

So on the infinitesimal chance that boy is reading this, I'm sorry if that's what you thought I meant.

And ComicCon rocks.

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Yes! If you search Domain of the Jade Empress on google, my Stardust review is the FIRST thing to turn up. GOOoooo, incessant linking! I guess if you link to something enough, it'll pop up #1 on google and it doesn't matter if it's just another post in your own blog. This presents some very interesting possibilities...

Of course, I doubt anyone would search Domain of the Jade Empress if they didn't know about my blog, but considering I didn't used to be #1 even when I did do that, this is quite an achievement.

Happy Birthday Fangmei!



It's my step-mom's birthday today. I made her a card with a Chinese phoenix which was an inferior replica of the print which I did not draw above. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the card itself, and it'd be too awkward to ask for it back to do that now. Anyway she thought it was a peacock. Still, I don't believe in contradicting the birthday girl, and she's happy with it, which is all that really matters.

She puts up with a lot, my step-mom. Part of it coming from me sneaking around the house at night in search for snacks when she's already provided me with plenty of healthy meals. This might not be so bad if I weren't so bad at sneaking. But I'm horribly clumsy and generally end up making several loud sounds at like 1am. Yes. It is Cherie that goes bump in the night.

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What's this? Click it to find out! It may or may not be my Stardust review... Speaking of Stardust when I looked at Rotten Tomatoes recently (it's changed by now) the critic opinion had gone up 1% whereas the user opinion went down 1%. So critics got 1% smarter whereas people in general got 1% stupider. And the universe remains balanced.

But now that it's changed the user opinion is back at 88% and the universe has tipped slightly back in favor of people in general.

Quick Sketch I Did

See if you can guess what she's supposed to be.




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Stardust: Just see it.

Funny Deathly Hallows FanArt

The Deathstick-spoiler?- by ~TardleyTuna on deviantART


I think everyone who reads my blog has finished reading it by now but I hope no one thinks that spoiled it. I don't really consider that a spoiler though, just funnier if you've read the book. The following pic is a definite spoiler though, so if you happened to have wandered into this blog for the first time and you haven't read Deathly Hallows, then don't click the link below.

A certain character convincing Death that he's not dead...
(Click the picture if it's too small to read.)

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Also my sister finally saw Stardust and she loved it! She seemed to think I should have been more effusive in convincing her to see it. I told her I haven't been trying to single-handedly advertise the movie for nothing, but I'm glad she loved it too. :)

Happy Birthday Dennis!

It's my brother's birthday today. He's six years old and so cute. :) Normally I don't post pictures of my brothers but I figure not too many people read my blog. This one is an old one but oh so adorable...

The Romanovs are Officially Saints

They were sainted in 2000 according to the wikipedia article on Anastasia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Anastasia_Nikolaevna_of_Russia

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Speaking of Christianity, here's what a few religious reviewers had to say about Stardust according to Neil Gaiman: STARDUST was rated Very Offensive at the Christian Spotlight website, while the Catholic Bishops Conference seem to find it less so (while warning of both implied premarital sex and a character born out of wedlock as a result of said implied premarital sex).

Read my Stardust review here.

Too Cute to be Outlaws

I was looking up ferrets on YouTube and found this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9S7o9Bju4k

I'm not trying to make any political statements by posting this but I do have to say I'm against the banning of ferrets anywhere. I mean, look how cute...

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If the banning of ferrets has depressed you, maybe you can see the ferrets fight back in Stardust.

Polish People Have Movie Trailers for Books!

Which makes them the first people to go on my newly founded Wall of Awesome. Here's the book trailer to Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x7vuIiGPFU

*****

Yup, I'm still linking to my Stardust Review

Ouran High School Host Club Review

My complaint about one of the Eurasian characters aside, I love this anime series. I found it through a music video I saw about it on YouTube. Normally, I like the look of anime but hold no hope of ever understanding what’s going on. Still something about the scenes I saw in this caught my interest. I wanted to know their context and they seemed character based enough that I thought I might be able to wrap my mind around them. So I scoured YouTube but all the full episodes had been deleted. I then saw the first 13 on Veoh until they were deleted as well. So if my review sparks anyone’s interest, I can tell you where I finally found all the episodes. Just email me and ask.

I felt bit bad about downloading them because I would be willing to buy them, but I could not find a trustworthy website to buy them from. They were not available at amazon or any other name brand retailer I checked. If anyone does know a reliable place to buy these DVDs, let me know. I found a few sites but I don’t necessarily trust every site with a URL and a paypal. I like to know someone has bought from them before and not suffered for it.

In any event, on with the review:

This anime is only 26 episodes long which I think is a good length. It doesn’t get too weird or complicated that way. I read the manga which is slightly different and I didn’t like it as much because the anime, in my mind, already achieved perfection. Why is it so good? Character development. I know I say it a lot, but characters are easily the most important thing to me in a story. Still, there is more to this anime than that. At its core it addresses the difficult issue of gender identity while still staying upbeat and always managing to make me smile, laugh, and see the world as just a little sunnier.

At the same time it’s written as a clever satire of the feminine manga genre in Japan. But it doesn’t just make fun—it embraces what is good while laughing at the same time.

All the same, it is a good thing I became interested in the series before I heard the theme song which starts with the words “Kiss, kiss, fall in love.” Not the type of thing I would normally watch. It is also very...pink. But if you’re like me, please disregard this and skip the opening if you must because the story is worth it. Although, I must confess even the theme song grew on me after a while.

That embarrassing admission aside, I think I should explain the “Host Club.” When I first heard the word "Host" it inspired images of aliens and pod people. But maybe that’s just me. The Host Club is actually just like a group of male geisha. For anyone who does not know what a geisha is, they are NOT prostitutes. A proper geisha is a living work of art meant to please men and make them happy in various non-sexual ways. It is true that geishas hint at sex a lot. The kimono of a geisha shows off her neck more than a normal kimono which is a very risqué thing in Japan. But in the end, sex is not in any way the purpose of a geisha. She is like a hostess. There are actually professional “hostesses” in Japan as well, but they’re not geisha. Hopefully that’s not too confusing. The point is these are like male geisha: their only goal is to make the rich girls of their school happy. To do this they host what seems to be a perpetual tea party in the Third Music Room and they also plan parties, events, and costume extravaganzas. They also, of course, happen to all be good-looking. The truly ironic thing is that as much as some of the scenes would make certain puritanical Americans squirm, the only character to ever even kiss anyone is Haruhi. Tamaki talks a lot about kissing the girls he’s charming but the scene always cuts to flowers and all you here is a swoon. It’s actually tamer than the average American TV show.

With that explanation out of the way, I feel I should give a summary of each character since I praised the characterization so much. Just a little blurb on their personality and what makes it cool. Not enough to spoil anyone.

Haruhi: The main character and difficult to talk about without giving away a major story detail that you don’t find out until the end of the first episode, but I’ll do my best and resort to being brief. Haruhi breaks a vase valuing 8 million yen and is thus indebted to the Host Club. Unable to pay the debt, Haruhi becomes their “dog,” a servant who must do all the Club’s menial labor. But Tamaki is touched by the “commoner” background of this “special student” and Haruhi is a great and hilarious grounding character among this grotesquely rich crowd.

Tamaki: Founder of the club. Tamaki is probably the only one in the group who truly believes in its actual purpose. All the rest of the members he rounded up later joined the club for one personal reason or another. Still, they generally play along with Tamaki’s schemes either for amusement or because, secretly, they all love him as a true and honest friend. This does not, however, stop them from teasing him mercilessly for his unshakeable optimism and rage to help people.

Kyoya: Tamaki’s best friend and polar opposite. You’ll have to watch the series to really understand why they’re friends at all but this dark, cold, and calculating character is my favorite. He is referred to as the club’s “Shadow King” since he has invisible influence over Tamaki.

Hikaru and Kaoru: Twin brothers with a strange and even sexually ambiguous bond. Still, the series is artfully written where you can make a case that twincest is obvious or argue just as believably that they simply like messing with people. Their mischievous nature recalls the likes of Fred and George Weasley. But their past is revealed in beautiful and heartbreaking flashbacks which help you to understand how they grew up only relying on each other. You also slowly see that the two actually have distinct personalities and that Haruhi is the first person to ever tell them apart.

Honey: A high school senior and one of the oldest in the group but with his small stature you would never know it. He still acts like a child and delights in gorging on cake and carrying around a pink bunny doll. I might find this level of cuteness for an older person unbelievable if I didn’t know my sister... Still, the soft cuddly exterior hides a hidden edge. Also like my sister.

Mori Takashi: The only other senior in the club and the huge, hulking constant companion to Honey. He is quite stoic. If you put all his lines in the entire series together in 12 font and normal margins, they probably would not fill a word-processed page. He’s probably the least interesting character but he still reminds me a little of a character from my novel, so I don’t feel right signing him off completely.

As for the end of the series, while I might have enjoyed more episodes, I really like how this story ends. I won’t tell, of course, but it keeps with the feel of the series in my opinion, and I found it to be very fitting and fulfilling.

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Click here for my Stardust Review.

Post and Punishment

I have promised my sister that I will post everyday at least until the end of my vacation (I can’t promise anything once school starts). If I do not, I must read at least a chapter from a fanfiction she has been pestering me to read. You may all think this is pretty lame as a punishment, but I do not like fanfiction. I have read and even written fanfiction, but I eventually signed it off as a waste of time which I could better use to write in my novel. I will not say that those that write fanfiction are not talented. It actually bothers me more if they are. If someone is talented enough, I just think it’s a shame they’re not coming up with original novels. I wouldn’t even begrudge them the fanfiction if they were publishing novels as well. But I’ve never met one who does. A few novelists might have started out writing fanfiction, but I don’t know any still doing it. Why? Because real writing takes up too much time. My sister doesn’t see it this way, though, and I think this may be something we disagree on for a long, long time.

Still, to be fair, anything has got to be better than the book pictured in this post. *Shudders*

On a completely unrelated note, Sarah is once again friend of the week! You can now read her thoughts on my Order of the Phoenix film review.

Here's a link to just my Stardust Review.

Just in case you came to read that and can't find it. Or you could just scroll down. I'm going to feature this movie for a while either until a friend goes to see it because of me or until I lose all hope of the world being good and just.

Eurasians

Now, I'm usually kind of leery of frequent updates when I have a review I want people to read. But I really have been wanting to start updating every day, so I'm just going to advertise my Stardust Review again. Please scroll down a couple posts to read it if you haven't already. Sorry for the repetition, but I'm really appalled at how little promotion this movie has gotten from the media. I'm only one girl, but I'm going to try my hardest to support what I believe in. Neil Gaiman. Well...him and good fantasy.

Anyway, on with the show.

I wanted to do a review of my new favorite anime before this post, but that will have to wait until later. Mostly I'm too tired for gushing but not for complaining.

Here's the deal. I'm not Eurasian. I'm Amerasian. But I like the sound of Eurasian better, and they're pretty much the same genetically as me, so that's what really what matters. The point is that someone who is of half Asian and half European descent generally looks like this:



They do not look like this:



Or this:



Granted, they could if both their parents were also Eurasian, but I think having so many blond-haired, blue-eyed Eurasians popping up in fiction makes people ignorant of how genetics work. So here is a brief and simple lesson for everyone. Blond hair is a recessive gene. Blue eyes are also a recessive gene. That means, unless you're pretty darn mixed, you're not likely to get them if you're a Eurasian because BOTH parents have to have a recessive gene for it to take dominance. Now, my mother has recessive genes for both blond hair and blue eyes, though she does not have either herself. But my dad, Taiwanese through and through, most certainly does not have a gene for blond hair or blue eyes. That is why the vast majority of Eurasians should look like this:



Yay for gratuitous pictures of me! But seriously, I think I get annoyed seeing blond-haired, blue-eyed Eurasians because we look so darn good the way we are! (Once again, I'm referring to myself as Eurasian. I am where it counts anyway.) To portray us as looking completely unlike what we normally do is almost to imply that we're not hot the way we are. I disagree with this vehemently, so I just needed to get this post out there. GOOoooo mixed blood!

New Friend of the Week and a Few Forgotten...

This Week's friend is Sarah! Thank you for commenting Sarah! You can read her thoughts of my Deathly Hallows review in the comments.

Also, this reminded me that I forgot to acknowledge a few previous friends. They've all commented before, but I appreciate repeat commenters just as much as new ones so shout outs here to:

Becky and Brian: For their thoughtful comments on my Order of the Phoenix review and for wishing me a happy birthday!

I should also note here that Heather and Laura wished me a happy birthday as well. It just was by email instead. So thanks to them for that! :) But if they want colorful names they'll have to comment on something in my blog...

Tim: For telling me when he and Mag finished Deathly Hallows.

My sister Chrissy probably deserves a mention too because I twist her arm into reading most the stuff here and she's quite genial about that. Love you Chrissy!

A hearty thanks to all who read this as well, but remember, you cannot be honored unless I know you're reading!

Stardust Movie Review

No spoilers. No worries. Just opinions.

I was expecting to be supremely disappointed by this movie, but watching the interview with Neil Gaiman I talked about in my previous post coaxed me into seeing it. I'm glad I did. I loved this movie. This was one of the best fantasy movies I've seen in years. Period. I really shouldn't have doubted Neil. Of course, to be fair, it was actually Hollywood I was doubting which I think is entirely fair. The God of movies is often fickle and cruel, but every so often true gems fall to Earth from his devilish workshop and Stardust is one of those gems.

The first thing I was skeptical of was the title: Stardust. It sounds...sparkly, just the sort of thing Hollywood likes to turn into a movie filled with princesses on unicorns and...

Okay...yes...that is a girl on a unicorn. But she's not a princess and it's not as if we have some pretty boy Prince...

Ahem...well, yes, he is very pretty. So pretty... But that's not the point! The point is the movie is good in spite of these conventions. Recently I've felt that Hollywood has figured that if it puts enough magical elements into a movie, it'll attract all the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings addicts. Being one of these addicts this generally leaves me jaded. I love fantasy. That's why I hate seeing it abused by producers trying to make a quick buck. Many of these movies leave the plot behind in the process. What? It's got magic in. We even have good-looking actors! What more do you want? We don't have the budget left for a plot.

But I suppose it'd be a complete waste of money to give Neil Gaiman (as he calls it) "a wheelbarrow full of money" if you weren't going to use his ideas. Not that morons in Hollywood haven't done this to other authors, but luckily whoever bought the rights to Stardust knew better.

EDIT: Turns out Neil trusted the guy who wanted to do this movie so much that he gave him the rights for free. Always a good sign. If I was an author, I'd want money even if I did trust them. But maybe that's just me.

I hate comparing stories because it is my nightmare to see my book one day on a display reading "If you liked Harry Potter..." It's because this is a crass marketing tool that publishers use to cram all books of a certain genre together. But I say with the highest respect for both stories: Stardust is The Princess Bride of our generation.

EDIT: I've looked at Neil's blog and he doesn't seem to think it is like Princess Bride at all, but it seems many other reviews have said the exact same thing as me. Neil says:

"Which is nice. I've tried to explain to interviewers that, no, I don't think it has much in common with The Princess Bride, they're at present the only two things in that genre."

Well, yeah. The good non-franchised fantasy genre is rather small. So I'm sorry, Neil, but I'm gonna have to agree with the reviewers on this one. Ugh...I feel dirty just saying that...

But it's true. Stardust resembles Princess Bride in more than just genre and greatness. It's not quite as quirky or campy. However, its simple but brilliant hero's quest features high adventure and swashbuckling fun while still having dazzling character development. Sound familiar now? The romance in Stardust actually is a little more developed and interesting than in Princess Bride when you come right down to it. I was a bit skeptical of the lead male at first because he was so pretty. Too often they use that as an excuse not to develop a guy's character. But I had fallen in love with him by the end along with many of the other characters, and I was rooting for him even though I know, just like everyone else, how fairy tales normally turn out. The circumstances aren't new--murder, greed, true love. But the characters, and the heart that went into them, were what made it great.

Plus there's plenty of humor but it balances with the action. I have not read the book (possibly a good idea because, even though I liked the film, books are always better) but Neil's particular brand of dark humor (and light humor and all types of humor in between) was scrawled all over this movie. I laughed quite a lot.

Yes, those are goats steering her chariot. Now that's something you don't see in every fairy tale. Plus, while I was really skeptical of the flying pirates, they turned out to be some of my favorite characters. Yeah! Flying pirates! Take that in the eye Pirates of the Caribbean!

As for the special effects they are awesome and what give the film its visual adventure and scope. There's no lack for eye-candy and it's certainly worth seeing the airship on the big screen. I am sorry to make the comparison again, but this is less of a comparison and more of a highlighted improvement. This film is what Princess Bride would have been with about three times the budget and modern computer technology. Sometimes money and technology are a bad things, but I think this film had just enough and not too much. It does what it's supposed to do--enhances the story, not take it over.

In short, I highly recommend everyone go see this movie and fund good fantasy!

I don't want to twist anyone's arm or anything, but remember, the more people that go and see this film, the more likely more good films like it will be made (i.e. the more movie execs asking Neil Gaiman to write stuff.)

Number ranking: 9.8/10 (A couple decimal points shaved off only for predictability of certain events, but it is a fairy tale. Just a fairy tale written by a mad genius!)

Link to the trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/stardust/

Cherie Scheherazade

I was watching a marvelous interview with Neil Gaiman when he began to read some poems. Now, my reaction to poems seems to be what he got to these poems and he was so charming joking about it that I gave them a listen and they were actually pretty good. For poems. *Looks shifty having admitted that*

Anyway one was about Scheherazade, but it was really about writing. It touched me in a completely unintended way because as a child I always hated my name and a part of me, while reconciled with the cuteness, still feels it's not the name of a great author and that I'll have to resort to my initials or a pen name to be taken seriously. And I still may have to. But listening to Gaiman's poem made me realize that my name is the echo of one of the greatest storytellers of all time. Cherie. Short for Scheherazade.

So thanks Neil and thanks Mom. I have a new appreciation for my name.

Below is a link to the interview. It's slightly over an hour which is the longest thing I've ever seen on YouTube. I always assumed it wasn't possible to download something that long. But I guess it is. Anyway, the whole thing's worth watching if you have an hour to spare. He's such a hilarious and interesting guy.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7LmfCGy_ZLg&mode=related&search=

Just Keep Swimming

16,413 words written in my novel in July, not counting the many that were cut from the story. I've still written an average of 500 words every day. By this I mean I was forced to skip a few days in extenuating circumstances (Harry Potter release, etc), but I did make up for it by writing enough the following days.

In addition to that, I edited a 1,341 word section from my old draft into the new one, morphing it into a 1,640 word section. But this is where numbers don't matter as much as I'd like. Actual editing has never been a particularly rewarding process for me, because I have such a hard time gaging how much work I've actually done. For someone who hates math, I still seem to like quantitative qualifiers for my work. Still, adding words to a section doesn't always make it better. Most the words I added were only to change the context, as well. The words I cut were more important, because, for the most part, it was just a good scene that needed pruning. This is real work, once again, but sometimes it feels almost like cheating, like I've taken a finished painting and just added a few brush strokes here and there. Nevermind I made the first painting.

Anyway, my other problem was just that the ideas were not flowing as easily as they were in June, but as you can see, I'm trying to stay optimistic about it. I'm having a lot of trouble with my main character and usually end up rewriting her scenes several times. This leads me to avoid writing about her a lot more than I should considering she's the main character. But when I look back at the good stuff, it still captivates me in a way my own writing never has, and it deserves to be finished so that the truly great ideas might one day have a chance to be appreciated by more than me, my sister, and a select group of friends. So I will struggle onward.

You're probably wondering why I don't just cut out my main character. I've considered it, but the whole story folds in on itself each time I envision such a scenario because she either has to be replaced, which would defeat the point of removing her as any new character would likely have the same problem and end up being her anyway; Or I cut her out entirely and my evil characters can live happily ever after together committing evil deeds--quite a tempting thought when I'm scraping about four days of work in frustration. But for now I am still determined make Gloria (my wayward main character) work because it seems to be the only way my story works. Plus I need to work out my issue with main characters in general. I've mostly solved my issue with female characters. I now like all my female characters but Gloria. So there's still hope that I can come to the same revelation for the main character.

Currently (As of August 6th because I'm too lazy to go back and figure out what it was when I first wrote this) the whole story is about 113.5 pages and 69,837 words.