VS

Asha'man vs. Jedi...discuss

TWOINADAY

Been reading alot of Jack London lately. I read the first part of White Fang to my class and then proceeded to show them the film. I had to look on the box to make sure it was the right movie. The beginning of the book recounts a dangerous journey through the Yukon. Disney told me a story about a dog that loves his owner. DRIVLE, PREPOSTEROUS OFFAL. There, take that Disney, you book killer.

You might say, hey that was a really violent reaction to a Disney film...you might say that. But then I would say, not only did Disney totally remake the story, blending in elements of To Build A Fire and Call of the Wild (not the one in Gaylord, though that place is awesome!), but they defeated the purpose of Jack ever writing books.

In Call of the Wild you know who the winner is? The dog. Who dies all through the book? Humans. Does the dog care? Nope, he's a dog, he wants meat and to make puppies, that's all. He knows that a stick in a man's hand is bad and that wolves are his realtives. No over-personification needed. Tell it like it is Jack!

Disney took the entire tone of the book, sucked all the spine-tingling realism out and left me with a pile of a boy-loves-dog-coming-of-age-in-the-Canadian-wilderness-crap. (yeah I said it).

Some say Jack's books are a bit Darwinian, survival of the fittest and all that. I say, look, Nature is cursed and the Natural World will kill you if it can so don't go out in the snow in -85 degree weather and if you let your wolf-husky loose in the woods chances are it will run away and become wild.

So stay out of the Yukon!

Poor Impulse Control

I like that "adults" are just crafty 7th graders with houses and driver's licenses. Notice I said crafty, not necessarily intelligent. Seriously, the base emotions/lusts/ideas that drive 13 year olds are the same ones that drive "adults" the only difference is that "adults" skew things using such tools as self-promotion and (yes I'll use it again) skewed logic to justify themselves.

It took me until I was around 20 to finally realize that people, in general, have to be watched. I was raised to be respectful of my elders no matter what. "Adults" were to be treated as seniors and betters and I think I was rightly raised. Working at the Post Office HQ in Grand Rapids opened my eyes to the brutality of a sinful world. Sinful is the correct term, this world is cursed, we know it. We see it around us everyday. The results of the first failure of the human race is evident everywhere. How can I be surprised when terrible things happen to people. Watch the news, it takes about 10 seconds to learn about an atrocity. But that's what people do. People are not good. They're not, sorry, they barely ever were. Maybe that's cynicism, it's true though. I would be dead or worse without the Lord looking out for me. I honestly do not know how unsaved people make it through the day. That's why I'm not surprised at what I see on the news. People are miserable and they hate themselves and they hate others because they are so guilty.

People try to fill up their lives with action and possessions and fame and it's like putting a band-aid on cancer. It may look better, but you're still dying painfully.

Anyway, I could probably fill a moderately long pamphlet on the topic of...well human nature. Ha, like I understand human nature.

I read this book in college, Amusing Ourselves to Death, perhaps you've heard of it. I thought it was a bit preachy at the time, but the chapter on the News of the Day was right. How can you watch a story about the death of an infant in a fire and then a commercial for hair color in the same 60 seconds and not be detached and desensitized from your fellow man?

Ah, my students approach, I'm off to teach.

Friday

Ugh, I'm tired. We lost our first basketball game last night. A little overconfidence doomed us as we started some of our "less effective" players and the other team jumped out to a 12 point lead. It was all up-hill from there and after some uninspiring play from our starters a game we should have won ended up a 61-64 loss. Ah well, live and learn.

Today I am the cowboy in an FCAT village people skit, but instead of doing the hand-motions to YMCA of course we are doing F C A T...it's for the kids.

Tonight we're going out with friends and then to the mall probably. My wife has a fun weekend of painting and cleaning planned for us. That's fun, painting and cleaning.

If I had more energy I'd write more. I'm getting the urge again, to write that is, but I need to be focused and relaxed or it gets frustrating.

I love it when my computer here at work is running Symantec AntiVirus. It sounds like a 747 taking off...seriously it's loud.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I think I may start posting on silk, that's a good place to get the creative juices flowing again. Gotta think up a new character name though, mabe Clo'udstrife, a Wolf Brother and Male Aes Sedai from the Age of Legends that was woven back into the pattern. He posseses an an'greal that makes him invincible to everything but goats. Lews Therin gifted him a mighty blade known as the Bu'ster Sword after he made many dying peasants comfortable in the aftermath of a Trolloc raid. He tragically died in a goat stampede of legendary Ibex-like creatures (aka Shai'tans Nanny Goats). His last word were reported to be, "I've been butted...argh!"

Yeah that sounds like a good start to a GREAT bio (caps added to increase leetness factor).

Look out behind yourself!

Silk Lantern thread

http://www.silklantern.com/viewtopic.php?topic=21168&forum=13&2

This is the thread on silk that Phil has started. Check it out if you want to see what Silk is like.
Watch out for rabid fanboys (j/k).

Hmph

Teaching is depressing at times. For instance, this morning a few teachers and I were asked to have a meeting with a trouble student and his mother. Now, I've taught for a few years and though I am by no means a veteran teacher, it is where I've taught rather than how long I've taught that has wisend and shaped me. Here's how the meeting with the trouble student goes:

1-The teachers, one at a time explain the problems they are having with said child. They then proceed to dump the child's progress reports (which are horrendous of course) on the parent all the while continuing to explain the disrespect, and apathy toward learning and bettering himself the child has displayed. The administrator present also took part, actually taking the lead. Kudos.

2-The parent nods after hearing the teachers while throwing a few, "Are you listening to them's?" and "Sit up's" to the despondent and openly resentful, rebellious child.

3-The child becomes defiant (sometimes openly, sometimes in body language) and the parent says, "I don't know what to do with him. He hates school and doesn't want to come. I can't do anything with him." Which is obvious, and honestly if the child's mother tried to do anything to him/with him he would probably beat her up, he was perfectly capable and seemed willing.

4-This is when all the adults in the room look at each other in bewilderment/pity/disbelief/frustration. Let's be honest, at this point not much can be done with this child beyond corporal punishment/incarceration. Let's review quickly before we wrap this up.

A. The child runs things and is perfectly capable of physically subduing the parent.

B. Due to A. the child is horrible in class and admittedly hates school.

C. The teachers are unable (by law) of physically "communicating" with the child. The mother (dad is not in the picture) is physically (and possibly mentally) overmatched.

5-The final scene goes down like this. The child refuses to attend school that day in front of the teachers and the administrator. The meeting is adjurned and the admin. counsels the mother of the child not to let the child into her vehicle and give in to his desire to skip school that day. The mother, who was almost ready to give in, denies the child access to the vehicle with the help of the admin. The child then decides he would rather walk home than stay at school and is picked up by the truancy officer and incarcerated.

I have seen this scenario played out far to often. Now, a 13 year old child that should be learning how to read and write is locked up wasting the community's tax dollars.

Frustrating on so many levels.

Research

And so this elderly woman, very distinguished lady, at this writing seminar asks me what I write.

"Science Fiction and Fantasy," I say.

"Oh," she says, "you don't have to do research."

The idea that you do not have to do research to write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy is false, and a tad belittling to the writes of said generes. All good writing is real writing. All research is not sitting in a library or surfing the web for raw data.

Characters, creatures and creations must be real. You know how I do most of my research, by doing. You know how it feels to be in a snow-covered forest, been there. Sword fighting, yes. Ever seen a dragon? No? Ever seen how agile a large animal like a rhinoceras or elephant can be? Ever seen a crocodile's eye? Ever burned yourself?

Ever felt guilty? Hated? Ever hated someone or something? Have you seen the tragedy of death, or the worse tragedy of an unfulfilled life?

Ah, but now I sound cliche'd you say. Maybe, but LOST is on, and it is one of the few show I actually like.

Go live and so do research.

Sick and Tired

So, I got sick. I think it was from overexertion. Teaching all day, then soccer practice in the (yes) cold weather, then basketball for a couple of hours...yeah, it wiped me out. Anyway, tomorrow we have a league game at 6:05 and my soccer team is playing their first game. It will be tough to tell my co-coach that I won't be able to make it. I'd better get some sleep. Who knowas what kind of mess I'm going to walk into in my classroom tomorrow...hmph.

The term Viking comes from the Norse word wyk meaning inlet or river. The Wykings got their name because they sailed their longships up and down inlets when trading or raiding.

I hate tv in general. I hate the endless cliche's and pseudo-morality and tear-jearkng-melodramatic-stereotypes. I hope people don't really think tv has anything to teach us about realtionships and life...I just got the shivers thinking about that...and again.

I find it fascinating that actors and musicians rise to such heights in our culture. Try being an actor in the Middle Ages. I bet you wouldn't have a mansion...maybe a hovel though.

"I just wish people would see me as a girl. Nice, sometimes dorky..." ok that's a direct quote from what is on the tv right now. Who writes this crap? That's what really gets me. It's not the actors or the tv show per se, it's the writers. Whenever I watch a show I think about a room full of writers sitting around and thinking this offal up and spewing it onto a page and slapping together a script...got the shakes again. Oh, and we eat it up and ask for more.

My next post will be a positive post. I find myself getting far to cynical these days and that just isn't a good way to be.

Silk

Ah yes, silklantern.com, if you love fan fic and Robert Jordan you'll love silk. Actually a couple of friends of mine (and long time silk writers) are back on. I may post the bio of Telik Fal'shon, Shienaran killer of Aes Sedai...maybe. I mean, he does rock. I may even jump in. Only one thing holds me back. I haven't read the books in while, and the fanboys on there may tear me limb from limb about why a Shienaran uses a longbow when the longbow is almost exclusively a Two Rivers weapon. Ok that really happened. I forget how I changed it and staunched the literary bloodflow.

Oh, and stop making all your characters swordmasters and unstoppable Ash'aman silklantern folk, I mean how many wolflords are running aroun Tear anyway? Don't even get me started on Wolfsisters and the like. Oh, or Inuyasha-knock-off-Vampire Hunter D-anime-type-effiminate-warriors who can channel. Done with those as well.

I am faster than 80% of all snakes.


Here...

“He was quite mad you know,” Dobs had a knack for stating the obvious.

“Yes, I know,” Telik’s voice was hushed and thick with emotion.

“We’re going to die, you know that?” Dobs whispered in the cold darkness.

“Perhaps,” Telik shifted his weight as he stood in the shadow of a thick needled fir. He glanced down at the horsebow in his hand and gently caressed the gray feathered shaft knocked tightly to the taught bowstring. It was a marvelous weapon. Crafted from a single piece of ash the bow was short but powerful and deadly accurate. It had been his brother’s bow. Kyl had been a better shot than Telik but the younger Fal’shon never bragged. Kyl was a humble man, a man to be admired and respected, a natural leader. Telik loved him more than life and would have done anything for him. But Telik was not there when Kyl died. He was hundreds of miles from his family’s farm on the Arafel-Shienar border. Telik wept for days when he heard of his brother’s death, his brother’s murder. Something good had gone out of him then, something he could never recover, and from that day on Telik thought only of death. The only honor he had left was in death, either his own or the death of his enemies.

“Light, its cold,” Dobs cupped his hands over his mouth and blew sending a misty cloud into the clear night air. A full moon shone down through trees from a cloudless winter sky. Telik smiled grimly, it was a good night for revenge. Kyl had always been lucky. He had never broken a bone. He had never had an accident while tending their father’s cows. He had never even fallen sick as long as Telik could remember. He had been uncommonly lucky. Telik frowned. If only he had been there when they came for him. The tall hunter ground his teeth in the frozen darkness. He could have done nothing. Four Aes Sedai, red sisters, had come upon Kyl unawares as his father was tending the herd and murdered the young man. “A dangerous creature,” is how they described Kyl to Dobs when the big man came running at his younger cousin’s screams. Telik did not blame Dobs for not attacking the Aes Sedai then. Four sisters would have made short work of the dark haired giant, even if he had been armed.

Hoof beats sounded on the hard packed earth and Telik looked toward the narrow road that snaked its way through the towering fir trees. Two Aes Sedai appeared through a tangle of branches. Swathed in thick cloaks against the cold, they were talking in low tones as their horses meandered down the dirt trail at a walk. Dobs tensed visibly at the sight of the two sisters. Terrible memories flooded the bearish man’s mind as he readied his bow. Telik did not hesitate and drew the soft gray fletching to his sun-browned face. His breathing came slow and even as the first woman came to a opening in the branches. Telik knew he would only get one shot. The lead Aes Sedai’s mount stopped in the clearing and snorted softly at the sound of the creaking bowstring. Deep silence followed as the second sister came up along side the first.

“What is it Deidre?” Telik could see the Aes Sedai in the moonlight scanning the trees, had she seen him? Telik loosed. Crouching in the bright moonlight Telik smiled bitterly down at the cold, ageless face of the Aes Sedai. Dobs was busy dragging the body of the second sister into a still-green thicket of winterfern. Blood ran in thick rivulets down the sides of the woman’s mouth but even death could not erase the serenity on her face. “An Aes Sedai to the end,” Telik whispered in the darkness lifting the woman over his shoulder and trudging toward the winterfern thicket. By morning little would be left of the two sisters. Wolves were not gentle with their meat. Telik felt little relief as he and Dobs stalked through the tall trees to where their mounts were tethered. Two more Aes Sedai murderers still breathed. His work was only half done. He would be hunted, he knew. The White Tower had no mercy for those who killed Aes Sedai. But Telik had never hoped for mercy, only vengeance.

Video Games

Did you grow up playing video games? I did. NES was the first system we had at home. I remember the first time I saw Super Mario Bros. It was Christmas and my nephews had recieved one from their grandma. It was amazing. So much better than tv. You can't interact with your tv. But I could make Mario jump, run, turn around, throw fire, it was great.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo, this game brought the competition. Along with Mortal Kombat (not as good) and Killer Instinct (a great game in it's own right) SSIIturbo was one of the best fighting side-scrolling fighters ever made (Battle Arena To'shin'den was a really sweet game for it's time too but polygon 3d).

Console Fighters and side-scrollers are great and fun. Sports games are at their best on a console in my opinion. But, my true love has always been and continues to be RPG's. Yes, the time eater, the belly-fatner, the girlfriend-ender RPG.

I loved playing RPG's on paper with friends. Nothing can touch that party-gaming experience. When the technology arrived the granddaddy of all RPG genres was born...the MMORPG.

I bought Everquest and Ultima Online and played little. (Ultima's learning curve was rediculous, and my comp was to slow to run EQ when it came out.) By then, I had heard from a friend about a game called World of Warcraft based on the RTS world by Blizzard. I would regularly go to the website and read the Journal of Bran (Remember that one?) as he trekked across the land of Azeroth.

I was there when the game came out and I played, ALOT, for nearly two years. Blizzard had created the greatest MMO of all time, and probably the greatest RPG along with it, single or multiplayer. Then I felt the treadmill. The game had lost some of its magic. Many of my best friends decided to hang it up. I grew disallusioned. I quit.

I quit, and bought Neverwinter Nights II and started playing Oblivion. Both good games, very good games, but not the best game. And I wondered, "Why am I not playing the best game? Why am I playing these games, they're not as good?"

WoW playing friends and I got together, and I missed, I actually missed the good times we had. I missed playing with them. Odd, but I had few other outlets to interact with them but this game, that I no longer played. I felt I had made an error in quitting, a mistake that, due to circumstances, was unrectifiable.

I felt I had been foolish to let such an outlet slip away for good when all I really needed was a break. And so I began again, but with a new mindset. Games are not work, they are not a job, and when they start feeling like one, it is time to stop.

But I was wiser. Through my mistakes ( and there were MANY) I learned. My attitude changed. My priorities changed. And so I began anew, to enjoy WoW. But not place a high priority on it. To treat all games as games, and not a way of life, not something to be caught up in, but something to be enjoyed when it is appropriate to enjoy them.

The experience was painful at times and humbling. But lessons were learned, not just about games and priorities, but about life and balance.