Sunday, February 28, 2010

Bloggaday 14 The Sand Canyon Review Critique pt 2

Bloggaday 14 The Sand Canyon Review Critique pt 2

The following Bloggaday is part 2 of a 2-part critiques paper I wrote for my English Class. In this class, we actually create Crafton Hill’s College’s annual literary magazine. You can find The Sand Canyon Review here -> http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Sand-Canyon-Review/238231044021?ref=ts or the Press Enterprise article on it here -> http://www.pe.com/localnews/sbcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_N_nsand20.48cbd26.html As you can see, the deadline is March 15th, 2010. So you can submit poetry, essays, short fiction, and art to SCRsubmissions@gmail.com


Bloggaday 14 – The Sand Canyon Review Critique pt. 2


Aside from looking back to the previous issues, I have a couple of ideas to move the Sand Canyon Review into the future. My first problem is the limited availability of the issues. It is my understanding that we are currently limited to the thousand-run prints that we do the year of the publishing. Advertising and class work has had us go through several copies of the last two magazines. I do not know how many of the magazines we have left, but they are an exhaustible resource for our class. If we had readily available PDF and Word versions of the magazine, not only would it help us with assignments, but also people who want to read it would have easy access to it. This would allow people outside of Crafton’s immediate area to have instant access to a copy of every issue we put out.
Having electronic versions of the magazine online at sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Crafton Hills College’s official website would give submitters a chance to look at our production quality before deciding to submit. If it were on other sites, people who would never have heard of the magazine otherwise would be able to read it. An electronic format also allows students to email and share it with friends and families, furthering our expansion even more. At our fundraising event at Giovanni’s, we ran out of last year’s issue very quickly. If we had the digital versions of the magazine on cd’s, then we could have given those out to people interested in the magazine.
When we ran out of copies of last year’s copies, interested people were given the first issue, which had several errors in it. If we had the digital copies, these errors could be fixed for redistribution. This way, we seem more professional, giving out polished work to people new to the magazine.
To build even further on the electronic possibilities for the magazine, if the class started a podcast, this would have many possibilities. With podcatchers like iTunes gaining a more mainstream foothold in our culture, it is exposing people to new things. Not only could we put the PDF’s of our magazines into the feed to gain more exposure, we could actually start recording content for it. Each week, we could feature the journals of our groups. This would keep the students more honest about the journals as well as attract people to the unique view we are offering the world. It would also offer a platform for us to share the stories and artwork of the submissions we get, giving them more exposure, which could in return, get us more submissions and of a higher quality. We could also add a personal touch by having the authors themselves read their works. It would also allow us to interview willing submitters and have audio versions of them in the feed. This extends into the actually published interviews which we could record.
The benefits of a podcast wouldn’t require much more than the cheap or even free hosting for the content. Sites like podbean.com offer free basic hosting until it get’s popular or we have too much content. That particular site gives 100mb of storage and 5gigs of bandwidth for free. That’s enough to at least try it. Ourmedia.org also has free, and unlimited hosting but is a very difficult website to use, so I would not suggest it.
Our magazine gives hopeful authors and artists a chance to be published with notables in their field. Giving this opportunity to them endows us with a responsibility to put out the highest quality magazine we can. I have offered several suggestions in ways of improving the magazine’s next issue as well as the future of the magazine itself. These improvements came from critiquing last year’s issue, comparing the first two issues, and including some other ideas.




Saturday, February 27, 2010

Bloggaday 13 – The Sand Canyon Review Critique pt. 1

The following Bloggaday is part 1 of a 2-part critiques paper I wrote for my English Class. In this class, we actually create Crafton Hill’s College’s annual literary magazine. You can find The Sand Canyon Review here -> http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Sand-Canyon-Review/238231044021?ref=ts or the Press Enterprise article on it here -> http://www.pe.com/localnews/sbcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_N_nsand20.48cbd26.html As you can see, the deadline is March 15th, 2010. So you can submit poetry, essays, short fiction, and art to CRsubmissions@gmail.com


Bloggaday 13 – The Sand Canyon Review Critique pt. 1


With a crashing publishing industry, writers have struggled to find mediums to share their work. It is the duty of the publishers and creators of the medium to present a professional publication to showcase themselves and the works of writers and artists. The following is a compilation of improvements on the previous two issues of The Sand Canyon Review. I will start with a critique of the last issue, then I will compare some of the difference between the first two issues, and then I will add some additional ideas to improve future issues.
Starting with last year’s magazine, the first thing I would change is an anomaly in font. In the poetry section, the font changed to another style. I don’t mind creative aesthetics, such as line distribution in the other poems, but the font change was very jarring. Even if it was done at the author’s request, it doesn’t achieve a professional flow that the rest of the magazine deserves.
Switching from a particular incident, the influx of story content has presented a problem. Couple that with the fact that poetry submissions are lacking, it’ll make for a very uneven distribution of pages. Even trying to fluff the poetry section up, it will not be enough to achieve any semblance of equality. If we resign ourselves to this fact, we can try to cannibalize the poetry section for pages to devote to short fiction and essays by putting small poems together on one page. While it conveys a more professional feel to have separate pages for separate authors, if we go with a green theme with the magazine, combining poems rather than dedicating an entire page to a short poem could actually be a benefit. The school itself has been adding “green” into its image and seeing multiple pages with less than 50 words is not congruent with that. It also seems rather self-indulgent to see so little on a page with so much blank space.
The sections themselves could also use some changes. I’m not sure if the quote from Matt was the best opener for the art and interview section last year. It’s a good quote, but something blending the interviews and art pieces together would be the best signal for the section.
In addition to the quotes at the beginning of each section, a picture signaled each one from a three-piece artwork series. I thoroughly enjoyed this and would like to see a submission like that again to start the sections.
The next suggestion I would pose for the sections is actually switching their order. I imagine the art and interview section is in the middle to offer an intermission for the written sections, but the uninformed picker-upper flipping through the first few pages would be more inclined to finish it if something caught his eye at the beginning. The art section would offer this visual gratification. This could make a person decide to keep the magazine and read it.
As for the design of the magazine, on the top of the pages, a black line runs horizontally with some decorative leaves accenting it. I would prefer a different design this year, but my biggest problem with the design is how off-center it is. On pages where the name is too long, the decoration is simply reduced. This is the approach I would like to see taken on every page.
My last critique of last year’s magazine is on the last page. The Myspace address is given; I would add the Facebook address. Rather than making it subordinate to the Myspace address, I would push Facebook as the dominant hub for the magazine. If we can get a website up before the printing, I would like to see that added as well.
As for the first year’s issue, there are some things to mention. There were many improvements from the first issue to last year’s installment. The numbering on the latter issue is better as well as the reoccurrence of the cover art on the first page. The table of contents for both is good enough to be carried over. The first issue is more stylized and if my suggestion for multiple poems per page is used, this style would fit into this theme. Last year’s magazine has a more professional look, so it depends on the rest of the feel of the new issue as to which should be used. The names of the submitter and piece title should be placed towards the outside of the page like it is on the newer issue. I also definitely prefer the two-page intro of the sections in the second issue.



Friday, February 26, 2010

Bloggaday 12 – SitCom VideHos… or is it HoVids?

Bloggaday 12 – SitCom VideHos… or is it HoVids?

If I ever became a major screenwriter/series creator, one of the things I want to do is an idea based on family videos.
Now, I’m going to bore you all with how I cam up with this idea, afterall, I’ve been a bit shy of 500 words. A few days ago, I decided I was going to grill up a steak. My class was cancelled well in advance, so I figured I would do it then. Day comes, I buy steak, and unless a wanted side dishes of cats and dogs, it was going to be rather difficult to grill. Yes folks, it started to pour.
But wait, I know we have a little grill, so if it lets up a little, I can use that and it would all be dry. Then I imagined myself huddled out there in the dark, shivering from the cold.
From here, I start flashing back to TV shows like Home Improvement or even 2 and a half men where Charlie brought a personal TV to Chelsea’s house for his night over. Then I thought how great it is, that now adays, we have iPods (and I guess if you’re from a Geico commercial, a Zune) and we can just watch the stuff we have deemed great enough to be with us at all time.
So now the picture is me, huddled in a huge jacket and snow hat, big scarf and all toasty (interesting mental image that I get, since I have none of those things), sitting outside my garage, light peaking through the door, watching my iPod while my steak cooks.
Now the jumping point here is when I thought of Charlie in Chelsea’s bed, kickin it and watching mini TV, I amused myself, because I would have had him watching 2 and a half men, the sound barely audible enough to here Jake taking some fool’s poker money or the like.
Now combine this with the old episode of Home Improvement where Tim eats one too many Polish delicacies and is watching old Tool Time episodes. It’s really nothing more than a clip show, but then I thought it would be kind of neat to take this to a home video setting. I think my inspiration here is probably the episode of Scrubs (yes, I watch far too much TV) where JD sees the video of his kid and decides he doesn’t want to be a part-time dad.
Now my idea is really coming together. Tool time had the benefit of being a show within a show, and thus easy to be a clip show. The last bit of inspiration is the episode of 2 and a Half Men where it’s Jakes Birthday, and Allen comes late with Candy tagging along. Candy rings the doorbell and they walk in. In the awkwardness, he blurts out something along the lines of “I’m having sex with this gorgeous (Gorgeous will be a subject of an upcoming bloggaday. Yay for broken 4th wall foreshadowing) 22 year-old.” Charlie grabs a camcorder and tells him to go back out and do it again.
Now, I would actually write into my series, events where cameras would be in the scenes: handheld, mounted, cellphones, etc, and other true, home video moments. I would then later have an episode where all of this original footage would be aired under the guise of some storyline.
I don’t know if I really see it in my cards to be the next Chuck Lorre, so please, someone take this creative* idea and apply it creatively* to a series or movie or something. That way, when you do, I can show people this weblog and bitch about how you stole my idea. And really, isn’t THAT the American Dream.


*As Einstein said, “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Bloggaday 11 Information on AA’s, BA’s, MA’s, and Doctorates

Bloggaday 11 Information on AA’s, BA’s, MA’s, and Doctorates
70 units Community College semester units = 105 of CSU quarter units. Go in as a junior
Grad School
AA BA MA Ph.D
Or 2 years 2 years 3-4 years
AS BS MS Ed.D

BA
CSU will graduate you with a BA when you have enough units (182) rather you want to or not.
BS straight to Ed.D – 5 years
Masters to Ph.D 2 to 3 years


MA
Takes 2 years
Paid internship. Jobs on campus. W
Will take classes only in your subject
Masters in psych jobs in reseach or teaching w/ supervision. Help get grants
Courts - IO major Indrustrial organizational makes alot of money and no need of Ph.D
In therapy, you need license. MFT is bad, Social worker is better.
Experimental will help get into being a clinical

Ph.D
State schools – people want you from other states.
If you get into a state program, They will pay you to come. Pay for classes, and book. You’ll teach for rent and food an undergrad classes.
ABD issue, all but dissertation. State Doctorates. Will pay you to come. Fellowship pays tuition and books plus teaching lower classes for rent and stuff.

Advance to candidacy – must do to grad
In MA, advance to candidacy is a paper

In Ph.D it is a test.


GRE’s like SAT
3 letters of recommendation -> strong, positive recommendation. Ask for this! Send them the email link if its and email hookup. If it is a mail, give them a stamped, addressed, envelope with the copy if it is a hardcopy. Always waive right to open.
GPA (not the deciding factor)
Publications
If going into clinical, you must have 1 year of ongoing experience when you apply. Sex assault, battered women, suicide hotline.
Start studying now. Math, English, and subject. Hour a week.
To get into UCLA, you used to have to get 1400 out of 1600. Then 1100, now 1000. Anything less than that will be thrown away.

If going to CSU SB – S.A.I.L join it. Book vouchers and scholarships. Join other programs like this

Hard to get jobs in \/
Developmental
Social
Personality
Cognitive

Easier to get jobs in these \/
Opening up – forensic
Clinical always has jobs
I/O

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Bloggaday 10 – Yay, Not Screwed

Bloggaday 10 – Yay, not screwed

Go to the end for the tl:dr version
Boring personal stuff I promised you a couple of days ago is replacing this week’s edition of PWND. I know you don’t remember, but on Sunday I wrote “The last AvatarJourney this week. Saved the best for last. Week 2 will probably start off with how good and properly screwed I probably am. Something I just learned 20 minutes ago. Yay” Well, as it turns out, I’m not screwed, so yay.
Now to the even more boring details. This Spring semester marks my last semester at Crafton Hill’s Community College. Starting Fall, I head off to big boy college. I currently have submissions or applications or whatever you call them at 3 Cal State Universities: San Bernardino (I don’t know my status), Humboldt (I’ve already been tentatively accepted), and Sonoma (my fear of being screwed).
Now, it’s not that I thought Sonoma was screwing me; I was just in a rough situation with them that involved a rock and their chiseled abs.
Each school handles the situation of applications differently. I sent my transcripts to CSUSB like a month after I applied and I still haven’t heard anything from them. Humboldt has been a constant stream of email and snailmail. I sent transcripts to them in early February AFTER they already tentatively accepted me based on the information I provided. Both of these colleges sent me either an email or actual mail requesting my transcripts.
Sonoma gave me a password and username to log into their site for me check for future communications. I checked this site quite frequently, but nothing ever changed, so my visits became much more sporadic. I decided Sunday to check, and sure enough, transcripts were due the day before. Schizenhower. I had been working under the presumptions of my previous experience of mail-requested transcripts and/or tentative acceptance before transcripts were sent (since Sonoma is closer to the size of Humboldt than San Bernardino). Oops, my bad.
I sent the reviewer of my application an email in regards to my booboo on Sunday. I called her Monday at about 10:00 and got her voicemail that says she’s in the office today. After leaving her a message, I called back at 1 or 2. This time, I listen a bit more to her message and realize she’s not in the office, so I leave her another quick message. I proceed to call 3 of their other application reviewers and get voicemails on each of them. I call the manager of their applications office, yet another voicemail. I call their inquiry number. They send me to the admissions office. Admissions office transfers me to my reviewer (who is out). I hang up and go back through the channels and tell admissions office lady my reviewer is out. She said oops, she’s sick. Yadayadayada for Monday, but I do get a call from a reviewer who said it’ll probably be okay to send them in late, and I sent them in when I went to school. Tuesday I try my reviewer again, but she’s still out. I get an email from my reviewer today, and she tells me to get my transcripts in ASAP. So, again I offer you a hearty yay.

Too long, didn’t read version. I didn’t get my Sonoma State University transcripts in by the deadline, but my reviewer will still accept them.

P.S. Fullerton University has instituted a policy that if you are coming from outside their community college district, you need to meet the current impacted, elevated gpa of 3.8 as opposed to the in-district students who only need a 2.0. It also sounds like this going to be for all of the CSU’s, but Fullerton got 20,000 applications for only 3,500 seats. Not a big deal to me, because I have a gpa higher than that. I want to say something… It’s on the tip of my tongue. Palindromic in nature and has a “y” and an “a” in it.


Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Bloggaday 9 – A Grain of Salt

Bloggaday 9 – A Grain of Salt
It’s the damndest thing. My sociology class showed Michael Moore’s SiCKO. Now, I’m not what a person would call a Michael Moore fan. But afterwards, I was getting really bad heartburn. I couldn’t imagine that watching his movie could do that, so I just figured I added something new to my diet. I ate my standard, but sure enough, we watched the last half of the movie the following class, and I’m dying throughout the whole thing. I manage my way through it and pack my stuff up. I’m all but limping out of class. My palms are drenched. My breath was getting caught in my throat. As soon as I get out of the building, it hits me along with the coldness of the air. My arm goes numb. My eyes just blur, and I collapse. Apparently my head bounced off of the cement when I had a friggin heart attack.
As I was sitting in the hospital, wiring all over my body, beeping ticking along in my head, it struck me. My own little eureka as I sat there with a catheter way up there where it still haunts me. I didn’t account for the 2 straight hours of salt streaming in. Grain by grain along with every mother frikkin word spoken by that movie.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Bloggaday 8 – Vanity and Denim

Bloggaday 8 – Vanity and Denim
One thing I like to bust women on is the way pants are sized. For the non-American folks (who I have no clue how clothes are sized), if you buy clothes for men, they are labeled in inches. Women, on the other hand are sized in numbers much smaller than an inch.
But, guys are just as vain. At least companies try to make guys feel good. Clothes for men tend to read a couple inches smaller than they actually are. I would give you all examples from my own closet, but I’m lazy. Also, that vain thing. Hay! Sloth and Pride all in one post. I only got wrath in on the first PWND edition (http://thebloggaday.blogspot.com/2010/02/bloggaday-3-1st-pwnd-edition-ever.html) of this bliggity bloggaty. Instead of giving you spoiled random bastards another 350 words, I’ve got some videos streaming that I have to tend to. Ha, Lust. 3 for 1! That’s one of the videos by the way.



Sunday, February 21, 2010

Bloggaday 7 TheAvatarJourney – Sokka

The last AvatarJourney this week. Saved the best for last. Week 2 will probably start off with how good and properly screwed I probably am. Something I just learned 20 minutes ago. Yay

Bloggaday 7 TheAvatarJourney – Sokka

Sokka
Twitter
Is loving this earth kingdom bag


@ katara Do you know where I’m going?

@ katara Business, the island of nonya. Hahahaha


Earth rumble 6 !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great seats at ER6!!!!!111!!

Boulder, boulder, Boulder!

Boooo Fire Nation Booooooo

Give it too him Boulder!

@Aang Best. Moment. Ever.

Be vewy vewy quiet. We’re hunting flying boar

Great FOOD!

Look for The Boulder’s Signature on eBay.

@Toph Wow








Blog

We started the day off in the market where I found this great bag. Right away I knew I had to have and bought it. Geez, it’s great to be a guy. I was in and out. It probably would have taken Katara an hour to decide if she was going to buy it.
We just walked around the market for a while until I spotted a bending school for Aang. I swear, if it weren’t for me, Aang and Katara would just wander aimlessly for the rest of their days.
To Wong Foo was a great teacher, he even promised Aang that he would make him a higher belt just for signing on for classes. I just don’t know why Aang didn’t stay with him (I think it was because his students knocked him on his butt. Aang really is a prideful kid).
Once we left there, we heard about EARTH… RUMBLE… SIX… Then we went to EARTH… RUMBLE… SIX… Then we got good seats to EARTH… RUMBLE… SIX… Then we saw The Boulder at EARTH… RUMBLE… SIX… The Boulder was awesome, even if he did get beat by a buff girl. But guess who beat that girl? I won’t go into details, but let’s just say I walked out of the arena with the belt around my waist.
Despite my awesomeness, I can’t teach Aang earthbending, and he was certain that this girl would be his teacher. So we scoured the city looking for her before I got us a lead that she was the daughter of a wealthy family. Naturally, I formulated a plan to get on their premises, but Aang was too loud and got us kicked off. Luckily, my plan B was even better, how could they say no to accepting the Avatar?
We had the greatest meal ever, but afterwards, Aang went and got himself kidnapped along with the girl, did I mention that her name was Toph? Well, Sokka to the rescue. I put up the gold pieces and we went to rescue them. Those jerks would only let Toph go though, so I let her distract the earthbenders while I let Katara help me rescue Aang.
I’ve got to say, Toph has some game, it was just a shame that I had to take her belt from her (which I decided to give back to her later).
Well, as we were about to leave that little bending city behind, Toph decided to come along with us. Frankly, I think she has a crush on me. I just hope I don’t break the kid’s heart.




Saturday, February 20, 2010

Bloggaday 6 TheAvatarJourney – Aang

Other two AvatarJourney Bloggaday here -> Toph –
http://thebloggaday.blogspot.com/2010/02/bloggaday-5-theavatarjourney-preview.html
Katara –
http://thebloggaday.blogspot.com/2010/02/bloggaday-4-theavatarjourney-preview.html

Thhis is Aang from Avatar, the last Airbender. The Episode is the Blind Bandit, and I’ve included the first 2 drafts.

Bloggaday 6 TheAvatarJourney – Aang

Aang
Twitter

I got this coupon for an earthbending master

Ch, some master

Woah, the Hippo is huge!

Hey, I think I know the Blind Bandit.

We’er sneaking into the Bei Fong place

Wow, Toph is amazing

#Toph We’re being kidnapped!

Not doing much, just rescueing the Avatar.

@Toph Wow


wow, absolutely phenomenal Ty Lee



Blog


Well, after Sokka spent hours deciding over a bag, I got a coupon for an earthbending teacher, the best in town… supposedly… he wasn’t. But a couple of kids at his dojo told us about an earthbending championship. I wanted to find a teacher there, but I once we got there, Sokka was super happy, happier than me, and he doesn’t even want to know earthbending. He loved The Boulder, but I didn’t think he was… He just didn’t seem like what Boomie described. He beat up everybody, except for the champ. Guess what? The champ was a little blind girl. It was really funny. The Boulder was all like “I can’t beat up a little girl,” and she called him a pebble. Then she smacked him down. All boom bang boom. But the really amazing thing is, she actually listened to the earth. I think it may have been because she was blind. Also, she was from my vision! She was so good, the announcer guy offered a huge bag of gold to anyone who could beat her. I wanted to talk to her, so I accepted. She only wanted to fight though:( I kind of accidentally knocked her out of the ring, so I didn’t get a chance to talk to her. We found her at her home though, but we got kicked out, but then we got back in! After dinner, she was nice, so we went on a walk, but we got kidnapped by the benders from the tournament. They put us in these metal cases so Toph, that’s the blind girl’s name by the way, couldn’t bend. I guess the good thing though, Toph and I got a chance to talk a lot while we waited to get rescued. Sokka brought the gold I won from beating Toph, but they only let Toph go because the benders figured out I was the Avatar. I told them not to worry about me, so they all started to leave. All of a sudden, Toph came back and started fighting all of the benders while Sokka and Katara got me out of the cage. I didn’t get much of a chance to see her, but it sounded exciting. I wanted her come along with us, but her dad didn’t like having her daughter be a person. He seemed to want an extension of his own wealth and aesthetics, an object far too precious for the mundane world to soil. But just as we were about to leave, her dad changed her mind and let her come with us, YAY, just not before she hit me into a tree…




Well, after Sokka spent hours deciding over a bag, I got a coupon for an earthbending teacher, the best in town… supposedly… he wasn’t. But a couple of kids at his dojo told us about an earthbending championship. I figured we would be able to find a great bending teacher there for sure. When we got there, Sokka went crazy for this one bender, The Boulder, but I don’t know, he just didn’t seem that great to me, definitely not my teacher-to-be. Even though he dominated every other challenger, when he went up against the champion, a blind girl, he didn’t stand a chance. This girl really was amazing. I think because she was blind, she actually listened to the earth. The big thing, though, I think this is the girl from my vision! Anyways, when the guy running the championship offered to let anyone in the audience challenger her, I accepted the call. I just wanted to talk, but all she wanted to do was fight. I kind of accidentally knocked her out of the ring, and I didn’t get a chance to talk to her. We found her at her home though, but we got kicked out, but then we got back in! After dinner, she was nice, so we went on a walk, but we got kidnapped by the benders from the tournament. They put us in these metal cases so Toph, that’s the blind girl’s name by the way, couldn’t bend. I guess the good thing though, Toph and I got a chance to talk a lot while we waited to get rescued. Sokka brought the gold I won from beating Toph, but they only let Toph go because the benders figured out I was the Avatar. I told them not to worry about me, so they all started to leave. All of a sudden, Toph came back and started fighting all of the benders while Sokka and Katara got me out of the cage. I didn’t get much of a chance to see her, but it sounded exciting. I wanted her come along with us, but her dad didn’t like having her daughter be a person. He seemed to want an extension of his own wealth and aesthetics, an object far too precious for the mundane world to soil. But just as we were about to leave, her dad changed her mind and let her come with us, YAY, just not before she hit me into a tree…



Friday, February 19, 2010

Bloggaday 5 TheAvatarJourney Preview - Toph

The first one is here -> http://thebloggaday.blogspot.com/2010/02/bloggaday-4-theavatarjourney-preview.html

Toph


Twitter

Getting ready to defend my championship

You fools better be at Earth Rumble 6

Can you believe all these fluttering little fairies trying to get MY Championsship?

The Boulder? Could he be any older?

This couldn’t be any easier

Who is this pipsqueak? Challenging me?

I can’t believe this twinkletoes just knocked me out!

Back home from Earth Rumble 6 and now I’m just relaxing… Trying to relax, I should say

That boy that knocked me out of the ring is back.

Is just sitting here, bored. Stupid Master Yu

I just can’t get rid of this kid. Unbelievable

Time to make peace with twinkletoes

Stolen by a bunch of wimps with @Aangjouney

I’m tired of being blind and tiny and fragile, well I don’t mind being blind.

Time to kick some butt.

My parents are are are URgghghgghg

I’m going with the Avatar, and there’s nothing my father can do about it!









Blog

Today was Earth Rumble 6, and I had to defend my championship. As usual, the challengers were a bunch of chumps. But out of nowhere, some kid comes out of the audience and challenges me. I wasn’t sure how the twinkletoes beat me, but he knocked me out of the ring and then started hounding me. He was lucky that I didn’t just pumble him, but I am amazingly level-headed and I just left.
Next, as I was relaxing at my home, this idiot, and his bunch of just-as-stupid friends, break in and are meandering around the garden. I got them to run away, but then they came back! This time, he got invited to dinner by telling my parents that he was the Avatar. Can you believe his nerve! I don’t go around telling people I’m the Blind Bandit and get free meals.
In the middle of everybody eating, the brat does this huge sneeze that cover me and everybody else in food. Now, I may have been less then welcoming, but come on!
After dinner, I decided to go talk to him, after all, he had been jumping through hoop after hoop just to talk to me. We went for a walk in the garden, but the chumps from Earth Rumble 6 trapped us in these metal boxes. Sometimes I wish I could bend metal like I bend earth.
At first, it sounded like they thought I threw the fight against twinkletoes, but then they found out that he was the Avatar. After about an hour of hanging up there, tortured by the kid’s incessant rambling on and on, my parents and the kid’s friends finally showed up. His friends brought the gold that they won, but because featherfeet was the Avatar, they wouldn’t let him go.
When his friends asked for my help in rescuing him, my dad went on and on about how weak and fragile I was. I just couldn’t take it anymore! I single-handedly took out all of the earhbenders, including the tournament ringleader while the others rescued the Avatar.
Once everything got settled, and we were back at my home, I confessed my life to my father, but he just didn’t see it. He decided to cover me from the world even more. And they say I’m blind. But I didn’t care. I snuck out and joined the Avatar and his friends. Just don’t tell them, they think my dad changed his mind.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Bloggaday 4 TheAvatarJourney Preview - Katara

Bloggaday 4 TheAvatarJourney Preview
The next four days will be the four characters from Avatar The Last Airbender. I won’t usually do this, but this is from the episode The Blind Bandit halfway through the second season, so it will be a long time before this gets posted in the TheAvatarJourney. I’ll make a post for that later. Today’s Bloggaday is Katara and is the baseline of the episode. No real personality or slanted views in her blogs. It also includes her twitters/facebook updates.

Katara
Twitter

@ Sokka sigh. And they say women are bad when it comes to shopping

@ Sokka I don’t know, where are you going?

@Sokka That’s not even how the joke goes!

Somebody kidnapped Aang and Toph.

@Toph Wow


Blog

I was having another boring off day. My brother jut kept going back and forth on this stupid bag. He finally got the bag.
Some shady guy gave us a coupon for a master earthbender, but that turned out to be a dead end. Luckily, though, we overheard some boys talking about some earthbender championship. I had to teach them some manners, but they eventually told us where we could go to watch it. We all hoped Aang could find a master to learn from there.
The fight was just a bunch of immature guys throwing rocks at each other. I figured it was just going to be a big waste of time.
I really don’t know how anyone could like this stuff, but Sokka went crazy for some boulder guy. Aang didn’t think that he would be a good teacher though.
There was one amazing fighter there. She was the Blind Bandit, and she was amazing. After she beat Sokka’s guy, Aang went out to challenge her. She was still amazing, but I don’t think she expected Aang to be an airbender. When Aang knocked her out of the ring, she just stormed out. We tried finding her at the bending school from earlier, and we found out from the same boys that she may have been the daughter of a wealthy family in town, so we went to their property. She was less than thrilled to see us and made us leave… rather abruptly.
Luckily, Aang got us back in, and the Bei Fong family had us for dinner. She still wasn’t too warm to us though. After dinner she took Aang out for a walk, which was a good sign… until they didn’t come back. We all went searching in the courtyard, but all we found was a ransom note from the people of the Earth… Fighting… Championship… thingy. Luckily we still had the bag of gold that Aang won, so we all went back to the stadium. Those jerks only let Toph go for the gold. Toph was tired of being the pampered little girl and beat all of the earthbenders single-handed while Sokka and I rescued Aang.
When we got back to the Bei Fong place, Toph told her parents about her real life, but they just didn’t understand. They even kicked us out. Just as we were about to leave, though, he changed his mind and let Toph come with us. She will make a really good teacher for Aang.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Bloggaday 3 - 1st PWND edition Ever


Bloggaday 3 The PWND edition
I won’t get into the PWND label right now, but here is a little story content I wrote yesterday for you fine folks. The story goes through the 7 deadly sins. I’m going to leave out the intro that I wrote a few days ago


The man blinked into a blurry world. Through the haze, it mimicked the previous invader. Now, the brightness invaded his sleep. The blare also accompanied this brightness. It honed into beeps that sporadically tortured his consciousness.
His hand wandered from the constraints of his blankets and followed the trail of sound. It finally grasped beveled plastic and engulfed it. The sound fought the muffle for a beep before the hand took it from the wooden ledge it sat perched. The man whipped the alarm, but a crash and thud only offered relief for a moment before the blaring returned.
The man’s hand recoiled and joined its counterpart to cover his face. As the sound continued, they clawed at a pillow and tried to push it through his face. As he tried to smother his consciousness, a new pounding offered a syncopated pain to compliment the alarm’s monotonous drone.
The pillow offered a tighter seal, but lyrics came through, “Get your ass up, or turn the alarm off! If you make me, I’ll do both with escalating levels of violence.” The pillow finally loosened from his face with a sigh. It flew off with a flurry with the blanket and bounced free from the bed before settling to the floor.
In the commotion, the bed sheet managed to free itself from the mattress and continued to hook his foot. He sat up with an “Hmph!” and stared at the tangle. He kicked for freedom until it finally came loose. Now, he stared at his feet, one socked, the other, the newly freed one, sat there, exposed to the air. He slid the side of his cheek in-between his teeth and processed. “Screw it.” He bobbed out of bed and nearly launched himself into the door. With a few steps, he managed to silence the alarm clock



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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

BLoggaday 2

Alright, after watching the superbowl, I pondered on the fact that I didn’t see the Last Airbender commercial that I was promised. I’m not sure how I missed it, but I went online to find the latest video update on what I fear could be the next Dragonball Z.
Granted I didn’t see the live action adaptation to my first anime, Dragonball Z, but I just didn’t want to actually watch my childhood be diddled by a white guy in a modern, urban setting, without crazy animal people. And really, if I wanted to sit through an hour and a half of my childhood getting touched in all the wrong places, at least give me a Japanese guy and crazy animal people laughing and pointing while he goes to town. Other than that, it just looked so terribly bad. Maybe, someday, I’ll see it. Actually, I’m sure I’ll see it. The whole ordeal really was depressing. I had been half-following it since Goku was Hugh Jackman and Piccolo was some 6 foot 4 unknown black guy.
Back to the topic at hand. I’ve seen the teaser trailer for Avatar (The Last Airbender) a few times, and have been waiting for an actual trailer with some movie content. I wanted an HD version of the trailer, but alast, Apple, just had the old trailer, but I found the video on what is apparently the official website. I just have to say “Yay.”
Sure, casting choices appear to be atrocious, but I do believe I will enjoy the movie non-the-less. Now I will mention the particulars of the commercial, so if you want to see it before I go and describe it, I recommend that you go watch it then.
Just seeing the fire bender take the fire and throw it at the earthbender, who put a wall up was pretty frikkin frakkin awesome. Now it looks like the fight scenes with Aang might be a little bit awkward, but the bending should be good enough to see the movie despite any misgivings of just about any aspect of this film.
So, with a minute of the film out and about, I’m hopeful that it will be good, and really, it could be good. I just hope they work on the avatar state, though.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Bloggaday 1

Bloggaday 1
Oh, Bloggaday, you TWC. Every day. One year. 500 words. 17 poor bastards who will randomly stumble upon this. So I will be writing (shooting for) 500 (but will settle for no less 100) words of new content a day. I will be putting bits to pixels everyday, but I do have school all day a couple of days a week, so the basic model will be all content posted will have been written within a week. Since I started this a week after I wanted, the week deadline will get a fudged a tiny bit, but the principle is still there, new content everyday for one year. Common posts will probably include material from http://theavatarjourney.blogspot.com/ which I just need to get the finishing touches up on Facebook before I get going again. There will might be a few lab reports from my Physics class if I fall behind, but if I can get a new podcast I have in the works up, there will be a bit of content coming from that. Of course, I’ll get some fiction content churned out. Other than that, 365 days of blogging and bullshit coming through. 200.