Metaphor

Alright, so this is mine:

Parents are like blankets, they scratch you when you move against them.


So, what do you think?? You like it??

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

So, just feel like writing about the presentation I have to do tommorrow for history, it involves choosing an art movement and then talking about the historical events and people that influenced them. My group did Expressionism, which is characterized by bright colours and shows the artist's view of something and their inner feelings rather than an exact copy of it. It's pretty interesting, I started researching Edvard Munch, who I'm sure everyone knows since he was the painter of "The Scream" which they enjoy spoofing. I think they did on the Simpsons.

Anyways, Munch (pronounced: munk) was kind of crazy, thanks to his childhood experiences. His mom and elder sister both died from consumption at a young age, and his father was a religious fanatic. So, Munch grew up with a very twisted view on the world and he chose to depict scenes of alienation, rejection and anxiety in his paintings. However, he was very grateful to his experiences, and even his anxiety attacks because he felt that without those harsh emotions his art would be empty and wouldn't be as good.

And I just wanted to put down two of his more "obscure" paintings and ask your opinions on them. Do you like them? What do you notice? How does it make you feel? Could you care less?

Bloggers: Send me a comment on what you think, and maybe we can get some discussion going.

Kung Fu Panda (And The Devil Incarnate)

I bought Kung Fu Panda last weekend, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was really funny, but I think I liked Horton Hears a Who! much better. I definitely liked the storyline, and all the animal characters named after kung fu moves (like Crane, Monkey and Mantis) plus the master is a turtle and that's just cool. Despite that, it's nice to see Disney becoming more cultura, and I kind of like the underdogs in stories, except for Paris but he's more of a twit, or a noob than an underdog. Okay, so that's isn't correct literary terms but he's entirely too pretentious and stupid for me to even fully appreciate his character.

So, Jack Black voices the main character, a panda named Po. And Angelina Jolie voices Tigress, Lucy Liu does Viper and Micheal Clarke Duncan voices the Rhino guard. And Angelina Jolie was a major reason why I didn't see this movie in the theatres, even though I wanted to because, well, I just can't stand her. I think she's fake, and the devil incarnate (hence, the title of this blog) and sure, some of my animosity for her could be from my mother (who really hates the woman's guts.) But still, she's not a saint, I don't care if she's an ambassador to the UN or how many kids she's adopted, the lady's a nut job and she's a really good actress (if she can make people believe that she's a good person.)

And that's my blog, oh, and supernatural's on tonight, though I think I may watch it from the sidelines while being on the computer, I can't take it after the travesty of last week.

TTFN.

It Gets a Little Harder Every Day

So, today, boys and girls, I will treat you to a poem inspired by the tragic tale of two famous lovers, Helen of Troy and Prince Paris.

Walking past the bedroom we had once shared,
knowing that he is in the other,
hearing him creep past my door,
it gets a little harder every day.

Seeing your father, so withered and worn,
your mother, stooped and low,
your siblings, so many empty places,
it gets a little harder every day.

Seeing the towers,
taking in the grey and empty streets,
moving past the white stone walls that once housed you,
it gets a little harder every day.

Knowing that I have nothing left of you,
no helmet, nor an image of your face,
your image fading from my mind,
it gets a little harder every day.

Knowing that you went before me,
knowing that I can't be with you,
no longer am I able to embrace you,
it gets a little harder every day.

The pain will never fade,
your brother's wife is proof of that,
it will never lessen,
until I behold you again.

Waiting for me on the shores,
hair still golden, smile still bright,
untouched in your youth,
be patient, love, it will be just a little longer.

Be patient, love, I am coming.

Archetype Assignment (Teachers are Getting Pretty Creative)

So, as you can tell from my blog title, we got a new assignment today in literature class. Basically, what you do is select a character from television or movies, and then you write a critique on it and make a poster using symbols that resemble that character's and archetypes traits. I was going to pick Sam Winchester from Supernatural, but Amie (my best friend) stole it from right under my nose, so I chose instead Dr. Walter Bishop from Fringe.

I have never seen Fringe but I have heard of it, and now I have an excuse to watch it! Which is the most amazing piece of homework I've ever gotten, so now I can watch Fringe on the computer and take notes and spend all my time on the internet reading character bios for him and it's considered 'working diligently.'

So, that's it.

Oh! If you would like to know what archetype Dr. Bishop is (played by John Noble. Other credits include 24, and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (DENETHOR!)) he is the mad scientist archetype. In fact, before the show, he was in a insane asylum for seventeen years, and was involved in many unethical experiments.

So, he's like Dr. Frankenstein or Dr. Evil, or Dr. Hamsterveil (from Lilo and Stitch: The Animated Series) Pretty cool, huh?

Hey, anyone notive how all these guys are doctors? Guess, Ms. C was right, doctors are evil.

Ja Ne!~

Back Story

Albert Edison Austin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba but his family moved to Toronto when he was four. He was the eldest of two children and named for his father, Albert William Austin. His mother's name was Adele M. Austin and she used to be a theatre actress in Toronto where she met her husband. They then moved to Winnipeg to take care of his ailing father. Albert spent his early years in Winnipeg with his paternal grandparents. But the family moved back to Toronto shortly after the birth of their second son, William Roger Austin, and the death of Albert William Austin's father.

Albert Edison was born into a wealthy family, his father became the president of Dominion Bank when he was five. He lived in a illustrious manor nearby Casa Loma and his father was friends with the lord of the manor, Sir Henry Pelatt and his wife. Albert Edison watched with wonder as the castle-like manor was brought to life, much like the castles in his storybooks. Albert Edison was expected to follow his father and eventually run the Dominion Bank of Canada. However, it was one snowy day on his way home from school that he happened upon a street painter and that's where he fell in love with art.

Of course, his father thought that his newfound hobby was ridiculous and did not condone his son's choices. Albert Edison was a mediocre student in his high school career but continued his education at the University of Toronto. There he joined a fraternity and met his lifetime best friend, James Masters, who would later be known as 'Maniac Masters' a mulit-murderer who wa s executed thirty years later. Albert Edison enjoyed four years at university, away from his father's disaproving gaze and his family's expectations. He graduated from the Faculty of Arts and found himself unemployed.

Albert Edison enjoyed two comfortable years at home where he would paint and try to get others to critique and buy his paintings, trying to prove to his parents that he could make a sustainable income as a painter. However, he would be dissapointed with the reviews of his landscapes of Toronto. It was during one of his random hecklings of an art critic where Albert Edison quite literally, bumped into his future wife and love, Danielle Martel.

They married a year later in a rushed ceremony because Danielle was expecting the couple's child at Trinity Church. This proved to be last straw for Albert Edison's father, he officially cut his son off from the family money, leaving the new couple penniless. This put quite the strain on the marriage. Albert Edison was still painting and the family's savings were dwindling. Their son, William, died from the Spanish Influenza. It was around this time that Danielle began an affair with Albert Edison's neighbour and gangster, Salvatore Marielli. Danielle left Albert Edison and he sunk into depression, choosing to drown his sorrows in a whiskey bottle. After a failed suicide attempt, in which Albert Edison tried to jump off the Danforth Bridge but landed instead in the newly completed train tunnel; Albert Edison died three years later at the age of twenty-six of alcohol poisoning. However, Albert Edison finally got his wish, his work is out for display, as a warning to all potential artists of what not to do.

A Haiku About Writing a Haiku

Inspiration fails
me, obscuring my thought process,
ah, enlightenment.

So, here's a haiku about writing a haiku, or at least my experience today in class. It was frustrating, I wanted to say something but I didn't want to plainly state it, and then the words just sounded wrong. I mean, it should not be that hard to write a haiku about family, or in this case brothers. But I just couldn't explain the love and bond that they have. That silent way of communicating that only someone who knows you as well as you know yourself could ever understand.

Hmm, inspiration has struck. Let's see now...

Green eyes stare at brown
Silent communication
I know you too well.

Eh, I don't know if I like it. Anybody out there in cyberland want to help me?

*OLD* Trilogies

Can you put an entire story in one book? Would Harry Potter have been better if it was just one very large (and very heavy) book?

Doubtful, is my answer. I don't believe that the content of other books in a series can be summed up in one book. And yes, I suppose the writers can sometimes do it just so they can expand the series and make more money. But it's their living, this is how they support themselves and if you really don't like it then don't buy the other books. I mean, every book is -on its own- a story, with a climax, a beginning and an end. Then together the trilogy makes up one large book; a larger story with many stories in between.

In the first book of a trilogy you are introduced to the characters, their lifestyles, family, friends and the beginnings of their defining traits. Towards the end of the first book you start to see the growth of the character, their bravery and their ideals tested in a conflict. By the second book you're hooked, wanting to see more of the characters, how they react in conflicted situations and the climax of the trilogy, or the beginnings of it. The very last book picks up where the second one left off, usually in a giant war. This is generally the part where the character becomes very dark; they need to make hard decisions and those repercussions could cause even more turmoil. However by the end, our hero is usually a lot more mature, self-aware and understands the hardships; usually there is a death of a beloved character that resonates within the audience's being. By the end, everything is better-not the same as before- but the conflicts are resolved and the characters can move on.

However all this is just based on my previous experience in reading trilogies and does not pertain to all of them. Anything that deviates from this formula is definitely worth a read.

I blame my English Lit. teacher for this post. She started with her insistence that stories can be told in one book and I just had to prove her wrong. It's in my nature I guess.

Anyways, hey class, don't let my rant scare you too much.

*OLD* Dr.Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog and Other Related Things

Hello bloggers!

Since this is a writing class and an important part of writing is reading... (wait, what?)

Anyways, I decided to talk about the newest book I'm reading. It's called "Soon I Will Be Invincible" by: Austin Grossman. It's his debut novel and it really is something you should consider picking up. It was recommended to me by my best friend and I have yet to be disappointed.

The book is about a super-villain called Dr. Impossible and a newly formed hero named Fatale. Dr. Impossible's a genius in every sense of the word-he builds robots, wears a funny cape. He's been captured 12 times and escaped 12 times from a maximum security prison. Besides being a diabolical mastermind he's also got enhanced strength, senses and speed. He's only been in prison for two years when he escapes to bring about his newest world-domination plan.

Fatale on the other hand was just an ordinary girl in Brazil when she gets hit by a semi-truck (or something equally large) and her body is crushed. While in the hospital a goverment organization approaches her saying they can rebuild her body and give her enhancements. She agrees and they turn her into a cyborg. Fatale works for them for a bit when she gets invited to join The Champions (think the Justice League) as their newest member and that sort of starts her career as a superhero.

I'm still only on part one but I am falling in love with this book. It has everything I like, strong characters who are three-dimensional, superheros and dark storylines. It gives an insight into the villains, how they keep going despite being overthrown by the heroes and never winning. I like the way they show the super villains (defeated at times, solitary and not as 'bad' as we are lead to believe in most stories.) The heroes are actually shown pretty badly, not so you hate them but so they seem more human. Plus the character themselves can be seen in other superhero comics. There's a Batman-esque character called Blackwolf who had a thing with the team leader Damsel (she is anything but.) It really is like reading a comic book, only with a lot more prose.

This is a lot an Internet musical called 'Dr.Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog' which can find on YouTube and stars Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, an evil genius who strives to get into the Evil League of Evil. He's also Billy, in love with this girl named Penny, who he meets at the laundromat. It's a musical and the songs are so catchy, you'll be singing them for days. Anyways, Penny instead starts dating Dr. Horrible's nemesis, Captain Hammer, who is a superhero but he's really kind of a jerk.

There's also another book I'll recommend called 'Hero' by: Perry Moore. It follows Thom, who's dad used to be a hero and then he gets invited to join his father's old team. There he meets some new friends and makes enemies. It's really good and has many, many superhero references. So, if you like superheroes and comic books check all these things out and then tell me what you think about them.

*OLD* Sick in Bed

Urgh, I haven't felt this awful in a long time.

I didn't know what to talk about it on my blog and yesterday I couldn't even function properly, so I decided to start with that. Yes, I'm sick, I've got the mother of all head-colds (which is pretty much like the flu to me) My throat kills, I'm dizzy, I can't eat and I've got a slight fever, which means that I'm hot and cold at the same time. Woot, yay me.

I hate being sick, I hate missing school. I hate missing class and coming back the next day and feel totally lost as you rush to catch up. That's why if I'm sick for more than a day, I always get someone to get my homework. I know, everyone's staring at me like I'm insane. Why would you want to do homework when you're sick? The truth is, I hate feeling like I'm behind everyone else. I really value school and grades and when I miss a day, or two it makes me so frustrated that I'm in tears. I know, kind of pathetic.

When I'm sick it feels like the world is ending and all I want is to get better. Luckily, thanks to the laptop I can still do some of my work, and contact people so I can find out what I missed. Still, I really want to get better. Like now, please.

*OLD* The Case of the Haunted DVD Player (Who is in Leagues with the TV)

So, I swear my dvd player is haunted. It will just turn on randomly during the night (sometimes I fall asleep with it on, but sometimes I swear I turned it off.) And sometimes it doesn't turn off at all, it will just stay no matter how many times I press the off button. Sometimes it will also stay on even after I pull the plug out. It's seriously freaking me out. It's like someone's holding down the power button so that I can't turn it off. My TV will even do it, or there will be a DVD in and it'll just show this grey screen.

I cleaned my tv and dvd but it hasn't helped at all. Maybe I need to call in the Winchesters, I wonder if they do housecalls to Canada?


P.S. We're getting a new van soon, with a dvd player and Mp3 outlet. I'm very excited. Anyways, see y'all later.

*OLD* A New Faith

So, it's kind of insane but lately I've noticed a growing trend in tv shows, they seem to have religious themes or imagery. Like in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the first episode of the season was called 'Samson and Delilah' which is a story in the bible about this powerful warrior who had really long hair, but then his hair got cut and he lost his power. Besides that, most of the episode was set in a Catholic church.

Then in Supernatural, Dean gets brought back from the dead (and Hell) by an angel. An honest to God angel, the kind with wings, y'know God's messengers. So then the Angel (whose name is Castiel, and who burnt out a psychic's eyes but that's a story for another time) puts his hand on Dean's shoulder and says, "we have work for you to do." Umm, what? Since when does God come into play in a show about the supernatural? Okay, so that does actually kind of make sense, 'specially 'cause God himself can be considered supernatural, still it made me kind of take a step back. On the other hand, the angel was really cool and he kind of looked like the Tenth Doctor from Dr. Who.

However this is the icing on the cake, in the newest Heroes episode (which played yesterday at eight and nine; there were TWO episodes) Nathan says that he was saved by God. Well, he did come back from the dead after being shot three rimes in the chest. Still, to top it off Nathan went to the hospital's chapel and talked to a woman in Spanish and said that he had seen God.

This isn't a complaint, far from it, I like the idea of God introduced in all these supernatural shows but I'm just wondering what is going on? And because of this fascination, I kind of craving writing my own stories about angels. I think I have an idea like that someone in here *ruffles through brain* Oh well, I'll look for it later. Ja ne!

*OLD* Nothing to Talk About

There's really nothing to talk about. I just got through a whole bunch of assignments and I finally have some time to relax but it will short-lived. It's my prediction. It just amazes me how all everyone ever talks about is how hard university is. How it's hard to get in, how much homework you get, how you need to talk notes from the teacher's lecture, etc. It just gets ridiculous. Sometimes I think that they are over-exaggerating just to scare us into doing our homework and really trying. Plus, if university's impossible, how come high school is so easy compared to it? How do you make the transition between high school and university? How do people survive university and still manage to have a good time?

It's really getting to the point where I feel like giving up. I mean what's the point, my grades won't change from grade eleven. So even if I do really well in grade twelve, one class you get an okay mark in and that's it you're pretty much screwed. It's just too much.


Oh, please forgive my emotional whining. I was having a bad day.

*OLD* Buffy Musical and Joss Whedon

Now I'm not sure how many people know this but my favourite director is Joss Whedon. Generally noticed for his long-running series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. What most people don't know is that he had a short-lived sci-fi show,Firefly, while he was writing, directing and producing Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, which is a spin-off of Buffy. I couldn't believe it. He had all those ideas and they were really original; you never saw the same idea used on Angel, or Firefly as you did on Buffy. The characterization is excellent and the metamorphasis of the characters makes them feel so life-like, like they could really be out there. He's actually what started getting me into science-fiction shows and his writing gave me a deeper understanding in my characters and my own writing. If I could be as great as him one day, my life would be complete.

Anyways, besides this being an 'I love Joss Whedon' post, it's also a Buffy post. Joss Whedon had a dream, he always wanted to write a musical and so he turned an episode of Buffy into a musical. It was phenomenal; I was so enchanted by it that I bought the cd and listen to it all the time. It has something for everyone, from the campy-nonsensical stuff from past musicals, to the heavy guitar rifts of rock. The actors did an amazing job and the best part is the lyrics, they can be so profound and make you really feel for the characters and then be completely ridiculous, where he breaks down the third wall. He has amazing musicality, composing parts of the songs himself.

He also wrote an internet musical with his brothers starring Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day and Nathan Fillion. It's really great, check out my previous posts to find out more information. If you want to check it out, even if it's just a little clip go to YouTube and type in Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog. My favourite songs are "A Man's Gotta Do", "Freeze Ray" and "So They Say."

Rocky Horror Picture Show

So, last night on Halloween, my friends and I decided to go see Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Osbourne Theatre downtown. If you don't what Rocky Horror is I can't explain it, it's kinda stupid and makes no sense but it has become a cult classic. So, go look it up on google, or something.

Anyways, it's something I always wanted to do, mainly, because my dad's been telling me about my entire life. So, we went and it was really funny. You watch the movie where you can scream obscenities at the screen, and there's stuff you say and do in response to what goes on on the screen. For instance, the main characters go out into the rain, and they hold newspapers over their heads to protect them. So, the audience gets sprayed by water and everyone pulls out their newspapers. It's really funny!

And there's this other part, where this character on the screen says "great scott!" and everyone starts throwing toilet paper around the theatre. It's so ridiculous, and there's a live cast who will follow and improve on what happens on the screen.

So, that's what I did for Halloween. So, tell me, bloggers, what did you do?