I just wrote a story. It’s 100 words long and about a vampire. This is actually my second, and the second I’ve posted, but, as Oseike has pointed out, I wasn’t very clear last time.

These stories are basically ideas that are so small that I can’t write a poem about them, but I still want to do something, so it becomes one of these little blurbs. And it helps to have a prompt that doesn’t come from myself.

The two stories I have written are posted under “One Hundred Years” on the sidebar. But, seeing as this new one is so short, they are all so short, I will post the whole thing right now. If you want to see the first one, though, you have to check.

PROMPT: dodging sunlight

Early rising vampires burn fast. But I’m still here. Each evening, I track the sun inching down the sky.

When the mob came, I was waiting, but not for them. I heard them, pitchforks shaking, but also heard the sun calling for my blood.

They broke the barn door, drenched the floor with light. I dodged, crawled silently to the ceiling. Then they took ropes and began dragging the barn wall down. Eyes closed, I waited for sunlight’s scouring, touch. It crept toward me like a burning tide.  

But then the sun set, and left me dead and always alone.

—–

There is backstory and stuff in the sidebar, but now I’m tired and going to bed. Sorry this is so short, hope you enjoy, happy weekend before Thanksgiving! (if I die before the holiday, don’t be surprised, probably from overworking).

So, I was beginning to feel stressed today, because this Thursday we’re going to cover my latest short story in Workshop class, and it’s about zombies.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m really excited about the story, it’s a romp, it only mildly diluted craziness (it’s really sloppy, both in my grammar check and in the rush job I did with the plot because it was getting too fricken long, but we’ll talk about that another time), and that’s what I want to write (sometimes). But now I’m getting twitchy, because there’s a huge prejudice in the “literary” world against “genre” fiction, and I don’t want people to dis my story because it has zombies used as a ridiculous plot device, a crazy main character, and the Westminster Polka Band plays a cameo appearance and saves the day. I want them to talk about the plot holes, the rush job, the issues with characterization and that the fact that a “spine” and a “spin” are definitely different words, and one should read one’s piece enough to catch their misuse. But I know people won’t get it, and just thinking about them trying to blame me and the story for that makes me angry.

It shouldn’t, it hasn’t happened yet, maybe it won’t happen, this has been a really good writing experience for me all semester, but it does anyway.

So, I was getting stressed, but then I had a talking to myself, and I managed to calm down before going to Nerd Wars. Nerd Wars is the Honors Program philanthropy at my school, it’s basically teams of students in a trivia contest, who knows the most random crap. I’ve been a distant alternate for a team for weeks, but today I found out they needed me, so I participated, and my team got to the third round. It was really fun, and I learned random things (like, the first animal ever ejected out of a high speed airplane was a bear. It parachuted. Who would have ever guessed? Certainly not the teams that were up.)

I was worried because I have two small papers due tomorrow, for 17th century, and I was only about half way done with the writing process. But look at me, I’ve already emailed the finished versions to myself for future printing, and it’s not even 2 a.m. yet!

I also got linked to a little writing competition by my cousin, and while I doubt I’ll win anything it made me write a tiny story, just 100 words, that I really like. And things as small as that are really what I like because I can focus, control, and tweak everything. It’s a writing stress relief, because it will never be completely perfect, but it’s easy to get a scope on. So I have that in the side bar under “One Hundred Words.” I’m hoping that I will write more little things like that because it was just so fun. 

Also sent off my JET application off today, so I don’t have to worry about the freaking thing for several months. I actually enjoyed ( a LOT) the poems we read for 20th century tomorrow, and I made cream of mushroom curry/cumen chicken tonight for dinner, and got free chips and soda at Nerd Wars (and a cool new shirt). I feel pretty chill, and I’m actually going to get 8 hours. Good times.

It’s that time again, when I put up Christmas lists and hope for things from people.  Placed up here for my mom, since she asked:

Books

Vol 8 and 11 of Nabari no Ou (manga – Japanese version)
link to vol 8: http://www.yesasia.com/us/nabari-no-ou-8/1010689112-0-0-0-en/info.html
link to vol 11: http://www.yesasia.com/us/nabari-no-ou-11/1020425237-0-0-0-en/info.html

Dr. Hatsumi Masaaki (or Masaaki Hatsumi – Hatsumi is the surname) – any of his books other than Unarmed Fighting Techniques of the Samurai

TV SHOWS

Season 3 of NCIS

Baccano! (the complete series) (anime)

Gurren Lagann (complete series) (anime)

Code Geas (complete series) (anime) (might not be out yet? – 2 seasons)

Video Games

Little Big Planet(PS3)

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (PS3)

Final Fantasy XIII Japanese version (PS3) – available for pre-order here! http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-bp-49-en-70-3k25.html
I really want the pre-ordered Japanese of this…because the English version is looking worse and worse as time goes on.  It is more expensive…but it will be a lot better, too.  D= Whyy??  Anyway, pre-order ability ends December 12.

Tales of the Abyss (PS2) – I have a copy, but it’s defected and doesn’t like to load.  It’s my favorite game of all time!  So it’s definitely one I will get someday, but it’s expensive because it’s kind of rare.  You have to get it on Ebay (usually), so if you do, be sure it says “new” or “unopened” or something like that, so we know we’re not getting something that’s missing something or is damaged. HOLD ON THIS A SECOND, THERE’S A CHANCE I MAY GET IT BY THE END OF THIS BREAK!

Tales of Destiny I and II (PS1) – wow, expensive!  Since it’s old, and hence “rare,” it can get hard to buy.  Just be a smart ebay shopper!  It’d be best if it has the booklet and everything…

Er, that’s all I can think of?  I might update, I suppose.

THE BOOKS ARE HIGH ON MY LIST!!!  =D

::: EDIT!  Putting up a page on the side just for Drawr stuff! :::

So the other day, I was introduced to a Japanese art gallery the other day called pixiv (http://pixiv.net) that is really great for me, personally, because 1: it’s easy to browse, and 2: it’s easy to find really good art that’s in a style interesting to me, since it’s all usually anime or manga-based (or based on it, even if it’s not stylized).

Now, affiliated with pixiv is another site called Drawr that I have hence become addicted to.  Drawr is an online oekaki site that functions much like pixiv itself does, with a main page for artist’s works, the ability to friend users, and the ability to watch or favorite other users.  You can also comment on others’ works…by drawing a picture to reply to their picture.

As an oekaki, it actually isn’t as easy to use as others that I’ve worked with (like pchat), but it makes up for it just because the site itself is really good.  And somehow, the people on it are…amazing.  I’ve seen pictures in there that look like they are photorealistic, yet the colors automatically available in it are very specific.  In order to create new ones, you literally have to paint it on the page, on opacity, mix it with another color, and then select that color – and yet, I’ve seen pictures that are practically gradients with the level of smoothing the artist has created.

I’m blown away.

Anyway, that aside, I’m having lots of fun messing around with it.  I’ve literally just joined as of the 4th, so I don’t have a lot of practice yet, but hey, I’ll upload them here, too.  That way I’ll have a nice triangle of places you can see them (drawr, DA, here).

Also, HVZ.  I got tagged at the end of the night tonight, during the mission.  I had a hurt foot anyway, so I decided to break one of the rules of Zombiland: don’t be a hero.

I was the bait to draw the zombies towards us instead of the rest of the group – me and one other dude named Patrick Something-With-a-C. Cassidy?  Maybe.  We both got zombified.

…Should never have switched to a nerf gun.  I think socks would be easier.  =\

Last count I checked: 486 versus 707, zombies in the lead.  After tonight?  Probably a lot larger of a gap.

So this morning, when my CD player radio alarm began making confused buzzing sounds at me (I still haven’t programmed it to a station, so when I forget to set it to CD mode it just gives me static) I got pulled out of the strangest dream and I was grateful for it. I don’t have any idea what I was dreaming about, but just as I had to wake up my main character chick shouted, in delight, “I’m a hippy baby girl! That’s perfect, put it on my tombstone!”

So weird. Glad to be done with the dream. Though “I’m a hippy baby girl” kept going through my head for a good ten minutes after. Do I have any idea what it means? None.

In other news, for those fans of the Westminster polka band, they are appearing in my Zombies and Stalkers story (cameo appearance). I may or may not post that story, seeing as it’s going to be submitted for a grade. And, turns out that polka music involving banjos actually does exist on the internet, which was very cool. The music itself isn’t that bad, either, as long as you mind neither polka nor banjos.

Last might within four hours (after dawdling for at least six) I wrote a sketchy version of Love and Zombies, a sketchy outline of my massive paper due next week, and tweaked my other story set in the Warped Christmas world (like Savior, my older story). I’ve decided to more closely follow my basic source.

This is a good day, with lots of sunshine, and I watched lots of TV last night and do not have too much homework to do. I don’t know if some weeks are just easier than others, or if it’s all in attitude and mood and spiritual energy. Speaking of spiritual energy, I’ve been trying to daily read the Magnificat, which is a publication my Gramma Lois got me that has all the readings and prayers of the day in it. I don’t know if I’m giving it as much attention as it’s worth, but sometimes little moments and prayers stick out at me and then I know that the extra time spent to do a little reading with God is worth it.

I went looking for banana puns today. I’m just fruity that way. Google disappointed me. I wanted to not have to grow them myself, splitting my attention between work and the internet can always trip one up. It’s always a tree-t to find someone else doing what I love to do (yesterday I found a book with an entire section devoted to viola jokes. The section was titles “Second String Humor”).

But now I have to go back and try to find my own puns. *sigh* And I’m just not feeling it today.

I really am on a food bent lately, aren’t I?

Anyway, finished my picture of Hamel (haha, guess where in the story this is?), so here he is in all his glory~~~  (full size looks muchas better, I promise)

Also, made an apple pie today.  Burned it a bit on the edges and top, but after cutting those parts off, it tasted pretty darn good!

So, last week, I was sad and stressed and burning out emotionally. But then I just sat in the sunshine on Sunday and stared at cars (at an intersection) for, I kid you not, better than an hour, and life is looking up. My birthday was on Tuesday and Mom and Dad got me Season 3 NCIS, which made me absolutely ecstatic for quite a while, my roommates baked me a cake and decorated my door with very bright streamers, and I’m getting a massage (another fantastic birthday present) tomorrow and there will be ANOTHER party on Saturday. So there are good times.

Coupled with my change in mood is a great change in optimism and ambition. I can look at the future now and think “Yeah, I could try that, and if it doesn’t work, ah well.” In that vein I have submitted a play I wrote last semester (and not looked at since *wince*) to a One Act competition and an abstract of my yet-to-be-written Honors Project to a research funding program (they could give me money to go to a conference). The worst thing that anyone can do is say “No thank you” or “You are not qualified to do this” or not get back to me at all. And considering I haven’t edited that particular version of the play EVER and I wrote the abstract the half hour before it was due, Im not resting my hopes on anything, but it’s just nice to be entering things and entertaining the possibility of great success.Good times.

I have mentioned this several times before, I know.  But I love food!

Seriously, ever get into a funk, just vaguely depressed and don’t know why?  Or get irritated with a teacher but be unable to sway their point of view?  Or mess up big time, forget something that was important?

Not that this is daily occurrence for me, but I’m no stranger to any of those.  “Life” is what they call that, I believe.  (“They” being defined as those vague shady characters that hang around your house at night but you never see. O_o)  The daily heartbreak and comfort that occurs over and over again in the cycle we call humanity is what really keeps us all going, though.

But sometimes it kinda sucks, you know?

Before I keep going, I’m NOT in a funk right now.  PROMISE.  I’m just being philosophical.

Anyway, so every now and then, things just kinda suck.

So what do I usually do?  What I think is a very natural reaction: I cook.

I don’t necessarily have to eat it right away (though the act of eating something I created is also part of it).  You see, for me it isn’t comfort food, per se.  It’s not the sinful pleasure of eating something I “shouldn’t” that makes me want to cook.  If I wanted that, I’d go buy myself a thing of ice cream or a couple candy bars.  No, the reason I cook is a great deal deeper than that.

There’s a connection between the act of doing something physically and the result that comes from it.  Because of that, when I’m cooking, I’m not just throwing things in a pan and watching them turn into something edible.  I’m engaging in an act that is probably closer to sketching a picture or attempting to compose a piece of music.  I usually don’t try to make a symphony out of it, but something good, a kind of little ditty that will pop up in your head again later – that’s the kind of food I try to make.   The kind of food that, even after you’ve eaten it, a couple hours later your mouth remembers that taste and says “hey, I’d like that again.”

That’s part of my definition of a good meal.  And that’s also part of my definition of “comfort food.”  You see, the act of turning base ingredients, which are bland and undesirable by themselves, into that kind of taste is what makes me want to continue to cook things.  There is a transformation there, you see?  Undesirable to desirable, bland to extraordinary, tasteless to delicious.  And when I’m in a funk, I can’t help but believe that I like to cook merely because I want to remind myself of that change.  To watch myself, through my own act of cooking, turn from bland into something imminently more important, more desirable.  “I have worth.”  That would be my message to myself, sent via fumes and chemicals in the biological act of cooking, smelling, tasting, and eating.

So, of course, eating my product is part of it, the final confirmation of my own self-worth, the boost in morale.

…Doesn’t work so hot when I burn it, though.

Well, that’s part of me.  So when I say that I like to feed people, I’d say it’s probably a reflection of that, searching for an outer confirmation that my efforts aren’t a waste.  It’s not a sad thing, don’t get me wrong – I think this is what makes us human, in a sense.  I mean, aren’t we all searching for that connection that ties us all together?  I just choose food as my media, instead of going to a party or drinking or watching videos or playing games together.

So very passive of me, I know.

Well, that’s who I am, and I know this already.  So basically, what are your connections?  Where do you find your little bits of confirmation?  I wonder.

Ah, so if I ever feed you, be honest with the food, eh?  Because I’ve already tasted it anyway, so I’ll know if you lie.  <3  Food doesn’t lie.  And don’t give me a bland response like “It’s good.”  Not unless you let me know for certain if you mean it, via expression or something. Otherwise, such a weak response just doesn’t give me anything to work with at all.  >=(

A boy lived in a desert.  For as long as he could remember, he was alone, surrounded by sand, sky, stones, and the few plants that could eke out a living in the harsh world.  However, he was not forsaken – whenever he needed something, a butterfly, pure and beautiful violet in color, would appear.  By following this butterfly, he would always, no matter how long it took, come upon what he needed most.  When he was hungry, he would find food.  When he was thirsty, it would lead him to water.  When he needed shelter, it would hover above a cave of rocks.

Then one day, he wondered: “What are they?  How can I repay the butterflies who are always helping me?”

With that, a butterfly appeared, and he followed it.  He followed for days, watching as it was joined by more, and more, and finally led him to a crevice in the desert.  From within glowed a malevolent power, angry and filled with the souls of the vengeful dead.  They reached with their feeble hands and took hold of the butterflies, forcing themselves into the beautiful creatures, corrupting their pure beauty, and then they flew upwards into the sky, towards the city of humanity, a huge machine that never touched the earth.

From that city giant machines descended, piloted by the humans that were so afraid of the souls of the dead they had wrongly killed, and in their fear destroyed the butterflies even as the they, controlled by the dead, destroyed the human’s vessels around them.  The boy could hear the butterflies scream in sadness, and realized: he must somehow stop this cycle.

More to come, as the story unfolds!  I intend to draw out the scenes, but not as a comic – merely as a picture now and then.  I’ll explain the scenes as I draw them.  =3

The second picture is of BRose’s story “Unnecessary Medication,” which she has yet to upload and may not do for a while, which is sad, because it has some realy super-fun imagery.  I’m not all that proud of that picture, other than the concept – I have a fun visual, but what came out was not what was in my head, so I’ll have to continue puttering with it to see if I can get closer to my intended goal with it.  Unti then, here it is, though…!

Oh, yeah, and also:

…As of Monday.