Spooky Scary Skeletons (10/28/15)

I thought it being October and the day after this assignment is due being Halloween, I thought that I would do a Halloween themed blog entry. That means talking briefly about the kinds of things I've done for Halloween. It is one of my favorite holidays and I think there has been only one year where I didn't have outstanding plans and didn't dress up (as an adult). Normally I think ahead and do something crafty involving a costume. I've been, The Mad Hatter (Alice in Wonderland), A faerie (which I'm being again this year), and a whole bunch of other things. One year I was Woodstock, the little yellow bird from Peanuts that goes around with Snoopy. That was a fun year, (I'm not going to post the picture of that one though because that's embarrassing)

two years ago I did Steam-punk: A lot of the main pieces I already had, like the shirt, and the waist shirt, the pants, I bought the gloves and I had the pocket watch. But I made the goggles out of welding goggles from Amazon just painted them brass colored. I also made the holster on my leg and I decorated a Nerf gun to look like it was made of brass etc. I crocheted the scarf that is around my neck too, its' one of my favorites because it's multi colored in fall colors. It was a fun Costume to wear and a lot of work to do.

This was my pumpkin last year: Maleficent's dragon head from "Sleeping Beauty. I don't carve pumpkins every year, because they were very time consuming and take a lot of work. But last year I wanted to do one so I carved that one. I'm not talented enough to win any ribbons or anything, but when it comes to pumpkin carving I like to challenge myself or what is the point? Anyone can do the three triangle jack-o-lantern face. I want to do something cool if I am going to carve a pumpkin.
 

Last year, I decided to go a little out of the box and be a humanoid dragon for Halloween. I painted scales on my skin and I made horns out of Styrofoam, craft foam, lots of freaken glue, and paint. The horns were mounted into a head band so I didn't have to figure out how to fix them onto my head. Some of the things I wish I could have done differently though were to have those cool effects contacts. However since I am basically certifiably blind without glasses or contacts, I can't wear the cool effects ones, not unless I want to wear them under my regular glasses, which I thing would ruin the effect. I should have also done fangs. But everything else had already cost so much  that I didn't want to shell out prices for the fangs. Over all I was very happy with how it had turned out. 

I should have done this entry sooner because if you are going to be crafty for a costume, it's a little late in the game. 

Plan ahead for next year and be creative with your costume. Maybe I'll do a mini entry before the next assignment and show you all how my costume turned out this year. 

Snitches get Stitches (10/21/15)

This is not a hobby that I do a whole lot right now because it is time consuming and with school and homework I just don't have time. But that hobby is sewing. Above are three examples of the kinds of things I have made with that skill. A crochet yarn beanie, one finished and unfinished cross-stitch project, and a cloak I made years ago. The inner lining of the cloak was all hand stitched because we didn't have a sewing machine at the time. and then the outer lining was added later when I did have a sewing machine, its thick and made of corduroy.

I like sewing as a craft and a hobby. It takes a lot of work. Other kinds of things that I have made are baby blankets for nieces and nephews when they were born, hats, costume shirts, scarves, etc.

It's become a handy skill to have pertaining to my nieces and nephews who come to me when their stuffed animals have tears in them, asking me to play doctor and I sew them up.

I learned to sew from my mom. I used to watch her crochet and embroider and it made me want to do it to. I was pleased that I picked it up quickly but it also is a good practice in patience and determination. There have been plenty of times where I messed up and I had to sit there for hours and undo stitches that I got wrong. Just like with writing or any craft, you have to step back, take a breath, and come back at it again later.

Not so Fantastic 4 (10/14/15)

(WARNING SPOILERS)

I would like to take a moment from our regular scheduled talks about creative ambitions to take the time to have a brief story analysis of the movie above. Fantastic 4, that came out in earlier this year by Twentieth Century Fox.

As I have worked on my writing craft, one of the things in the three classes I am taking for creative writing the semester have touched on the same subject at one point or another. That is seeing holes in story structure, plot etc. By learning how to spot these flaws in story structure, I not only learn to see it in my own work, but also in the work of other story structures such as in books and movies.

A friend and I went to the dollar theater on Tuesday because it was a two dollar ticket night at the cheap seats. both of us went to a movie, got a medium popcorn and a large drink to share for under $13 dollars. Considering the price of tickets in regular theaters, that's not bad for two people. Because it is the cheap theaters however, movie choices are limited. We had both heard that 'Fantastic 4' was a horrible movie, but we figured we were only paying two dollars to go see it so why not? We were already going with Low expectations. However, we were surprised that the movie managed to surpass even our prior low expectations by being even worse than we could ever imagined.

'Fantastic 4' is nearly two hours of bland, unimaginative, poorly structured story if you can even call it that. The first 3/4 of the movie are slow paced 'origin' story of how the characters know each other and how they got their powers with literal cut scenes of seven years later and one year later. After they get their powers they completely glaze over the main four learning to use and adjust to their powers. Then the last quarter of the movie is a quick jerk turn of events as we are dropped into the second 'plot' of Doctor Doom coming back from a different dimension with the desire to destroy the planet and the know-hows to do so with little effort.

The story is fragmented so drastically in this fashion that everything about the characters is glossed over with no real character development or purpose, they are just there. Doctor Doom, one of my favorite villains from the Marvel universe, is passed over completely and has no character development at all. The character is a bitter loner, pinning after the girl he loves, Susan Storm, jealous of the new boy genius, Reid Richards, and "dies" in the other dimension. A year later, he comes back with a new set of scientists sent over to the dimension, having survived a year on an alien world, altered like the others with the purpose to destroy the planet to save his dimension which has now become his home. But they explain nothing of why he went to this sudden extreme. (And where the hell did he get his cloak from?)

This movie was poorly written, and I believe simply made so that the company could hold onto the copy right for a little bit longer. My advice, give the copy-right back to Disney/Marvel and they'll actually do a good job.

The More That You Read (10/8/15)

 

An English teacher once told my class that in order to be a good writer, you also have to be a good reader. You cannot be one without being the other. Not only does it allow you as a writer to see what works in a novel, etc, but reading opens your mind to now experiences, points of views and knowledge. If it wasn't for my family encouraging me to read when I was growing up I wouldn't have found my passion for stories and writing. Therefore eventually leading to my pursuit into creative writing in college. 

I love to read, and one of my goals is to write stories that people love to read. Not only because of sales. But genuinely stories that people want to read and want to share with other people. My family used to shove books at me to read growing up, my dad told us bedtime stories that he would make up every night with words that we gave him like our own version of bedtime mad-libs.  

I have been writing little stories since I was a little kid. I have folders, note-books, binders and drawers full of loose and bound papers full of unfinished dabbles. Looking through them now, the writing is so terrible, spelling, grammar, content, it hurts my head just reading through them. But I do not have the heart to throw any of them away. I have copies of every English paper I wrote in High-school, every snippit of short story with the idea that one day I could look through them and use something. One day something might spark something in my mind and who knows what might become of it?

Although movies are vision-ally stunning, how many times have we heard over and over again, when referencing the book compared to the movie, "The book was better."?

So, if you want to write, Read.