It's been forever since I've been on here. I almost forgot my password.
Anywho, I just decided to warm up my writing juices for this upcoming April. April is Script Frenzy, a branch off of National Novel Writing Month. Except instead of writing a novel, you get to write a screen play. I think I'm going to write a movie about Northern State Hospital.
As you may know, I come from a nice little town north of Seattle. And right around that area is a closed up insane asylum called Northern State Hospital. Northern State has been shut down for quite a while now, but there are rumors that naturally surround such a place. Such as it being haunted. A few years back (it may have become a yearly thing, but I don't know because I moved), they even made it into a haunted house.
So last night, as my brother and I watched a show about Centralia (the place that inspired Silent Hill), I asked, "Why hasn't there been a movie about that old insane asylum?"
And then I remembered that I had joined Script Frenzy. It was perfect. Now I have an idea about what I'm going to write. A good old ghost and/or zombie movie about that place.
This will be fun.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Flash Games and Other Ways to Procrastinate Online
Flash games are fun. Some are addicting (albeit brain rotting). For instance, snake. Who hasn't enjoyed a good game of snake? For those of you unfamiliar with snake, it's basically a game where you start out as a dot, and you have to eat food (more dots). The more you eat, the longer you get. If you crash into yourself, or the walls, you die. There are a lot of versions floating around the internet right now.
Another one of my favorites is Jumper 3 (it's not about suicide, despite the name). Basically, you jump over this circle from plank to plank. The more you avoid jumping into the circle, the more points you get. If you go through the dot, you lose ten points. It's better than it sounds.
Also, there's Robot Unicorn Attack! It was created by the folks at Adult Swim. This is the cycle of addiction for this game: 1. You're wondering what drugs the creators were on. 2. Approximately two minutes after 1, you start to realize just how much fun it is. 3. Five minutes after one, you start singing along to the song.
The point of the game is that you're steering a, well, Robot Unicorn (you have to cap the first letters of robot and unicorn. It is a must) through a magical land. Z is to jump, X is for rainbow attack (to explode stars!) If you fall off a floating rock, or run into a star, you die in a fiery explosion. There's dolphins, a stupid pop song, rainbows, rainbow-fairies, and explosions. It's almost too much fun.
Now, for the grand finale, the most time-sucking way to procrastinate online... Tv Tropes. It's a wiki that has a whole bunch of "tropes" that show up in fiction. Tropes are, in essence, elements that appear in fiction works. You know the bad guy everyone loves because they don't know he's bad? Bam! That link is the trope. You know that one guy that has no emotions? Bam! Have you ever seen a hero do something so ridiculously stupid you want to smack them? Bam! How 'bout if you've seen a movie, or read a book, and want to see what tropes are in it? Just go to the top right of the page and type it in, and click on the main article. If you have a question about a work, feel free to add it to the work's Headscratcher's page. Never mind that it will suck up all your time like a black hole, it's just so much fun to read.
So if you have too much time on your hands, just google the games mentioned above. If you have a day to spare, click on any of those links above.
Another one of my favorites is Jumper 3 (it's not about suicide, despite the name). Basically, you jump over this circle from plank to plank. The more you avoid jumping into the circle, the more points you get. If you go through the dot, you lose ten points. It's better than it sounds.
Also, there's Robot Unicorn Attack! It was created by the folks at Adult Swim. This is the cycle of addiction for this game: 1. You're wondering what drugs the creators were on. 2. Approximately two minutes after 1, you start to realize just how much fun it is. 3. Five minutes after one, you start singing along to the song.
The point of the game is that you're steering a, well, Robot Unicorn (you have to cap the first letters of robot and unicorn. It is a must) through a magical land. Z is to jump, X is for rainbow attack (to explode stars!) If you fall off a floating rock, or run into a star, you die in a fiery explosion. There's dolphins, a stupid pop song, rainbows, rainbow-fairies, and explosions. It's almost too much fun.
Now, for the grand finale, the most time-sucking way to procrastinate online... Tv Tropes. It's a wiki that has a whole bunch of "tropes" that show up in fiction. Tropes are, in essence, elements that appear in fiction works. You know the bad guy everyone loves because they don't know he's bad? Bam! That link is the trope. You know that one guy that has no emotions? Bam! Have you ever seen a hero do something so ridiculously stupid you want to smack them? Bam! How 'bout if you've seen a movie, or read a book, and want to see what tropes are in it? Just go to the top right of the page and type it in, and click on the main article. If you have a question about a work, feel free to add it to the work's Headscratcher's page. Never mind that it will suck up all your time like a black hole, it's just so much fun to read.
So if you have too much time on your hands, just google the games mentioned above. If you have a day to spare, click on any of those links above.
Friday, July 1, 2011
How the Yeti Came to Be
In the forest, deep, deep in the forest, there is a creature scavenging. It leaves no trace because it's intelligent--nah, I'm just kidding. It leaves a barely receptable (no, that is not officially a word. But it should be) trail because it's just so tiny. And cute. The cuteness is like magic.
I'm talking about a squirrel.
So, there's a squirrel, stuffing it's cheeks full of nuts and acorns and whatever else squirrels eat. And it's scampering across the roots of trees and fallen leaves, running back to it's little nest-home-den thing. Whatever.
Anyways, it's going to wherever it lives, and it hears a noise. The small rodent stops. Looks around. Listens. Hears nothing, so it goes on with its day. It senses no predator, and I'm pretty sure its brain doesn't have a stop-and-investigate feature and if it does, the damn thing ignores it. The tiny critter heads on back.
And so does the thing that frightened it.
#
So, there's a woman and a dude going camping. They're having fun. Eating smores. Looking at wildlife. Star-gazing. Walking into poison oak. One day, while the lady is applying anti-itch cream to her sweetie's back where he supplied vital nutrients for a skeeter (read: mosquito), they hear a noise.
The broad, Amy, instantly thinks the worst. It's a serial killer. Or a bear. Peter the Skeeter-Feeder is sent out to look. He's tired, so he doesn't really look. It's probably just a branch. After a quick glance, he goes back in and the continue on with their night.
And so does the thing that frightened them.
#
If you haven't got it yet, the Thing is a Bigfoot. Sasquatch. Yes, I'm aware that's not a yeti. Yetis live up north, in the snow.
But down in the Pacific Northwest, there was a particular Sasquatch, whom we shall call "Fred." Fred had had a few encounters with our kind, humans. He was intrigued with them. The way they had no hair on their bodies, but walked like him; the food they ate was similar, but lacked pine cones. He wanted to know more.
Many of the other Sasquatches banished poor Fred on account that his hair was white. Not only did he venture out to see humanity, he also failed to blend in with his surroundings. They were sure he was going to let the Bigfoot out of the bag, so they shunned him. Poor Freddie lived alone now, with no friends. All he had were the humans, which seemed to be violent--they cut down his trees and killed the deer with long, loud machines that made a bang! when they went off.
Fred understood that this was how they survived. He couldn't get upset at a species for surviving, no matter how frightening their method was. It was for this reason he held no grudges against his species.
No, Fred saw his banishment as an opportunity. He had a plan.
#
The lady sitting on the log was inspecting her fingernails. She was quite bored, even with all the people to look at. They were all the same. A man with a suit. A man with a briefcase. A man with a fancy hat. A quiet woman holding the arm of her man, who had a briefcase and a fancy hat. They were all sheeple.
She had directions to wait for her father, who was a man with a suit. A very rich man with a suit. she looked around at the small town which was called "Seattle." (Seattle had not yet become a city: it was just a small logging town, surrounded by other, slightly bigger logging towns. In a few years it would become a giant.)
She glanced up at, for some reason, and saw somebody who was definitely not a sheeperson. It was a man--it must have been. Women surely couldn't get that tall. She had never seen someone so big. He must have been 7 and a half feet tall.
She giggled as she looked at him. She realized that he must be in stilts and was from the circus. Of course he was. Why else would he be wearing such a weird costume? It looked like he had white bear fur all over him.
He got onto a boat to Alaska getting only a few What-the-hell-are-you-doing? looks.
She was still laughing as her father came to find her.
#
Fred got off of the loud steamboat. He regretted having come to live with the humans. They were loud, and obnoxious. He liked his people better, even though they had shunned him. He was just as much a freak here as he was there. At least he knew how to survive back home, but not here.
When he got off of the boat he walked with the crowd to... somewhere, he supposed. It was cold like in the middle of winter, but it had been spring back there. There was the fluffy white stuff that he sank into.
After a few minutes of listening to the loud murmur of the crowd before he... snapped. Deciding that human life wasn't for him, he ran into the snow, getting lost more quickly than a puppy at a carnival.
#
I don't really know what happened to Fred after that. I think there were others like him out there in the middle of nowhere. Maybe he lives in Canada now. I dunno. Maybe he found another squirrel and became friends with it, and now they live in their nest-den-home thing together.
Whatever.
But down in the Pacific Northwest, there was a particular Sasquatch, whom we shall call "Fred." Fred had had a few encounters with our kind, humans. He was intrigued with them. The way they had no hair on their bodies, but walked like him; the food they ate was similar, but lacked pine cones. He wanted to know more.
Many of the other Sasquatches banished poor Fred on account that his hair was white. Not only did he venture out to see humanity, he also failed to blend in with his surroundings. They were sure he was going to let the Bigfoot out of the bag, so they shunned him. Poor Freddie lived alone now, with no friends. All he had were the humans, which seemed to be violent--they cut down his trees and killed the deer with long, loud machines that made a bang! when they went off.
Fred understood that this was how they survived. He couldn't get upset at a species for surviving, no matter how frightening their method was. It was for this reason he held no grudges against his species.
No, Fred saw his banishment as an opportunity. He had a plan.
#
The lady sitting on the log was inspecting her fingernails. She was quite bored, even with all the people to look at. They were all the same. A man with a suit. A man with a briefcase. A man with a fancy hat. A quiet woman holding the arm of her man, who had a briefcase and a fancy hat. They were all sheeple.
She had directions to wait for her father, who was a man with a suit. A very rich man with a suit. she looked around at the small town which was called "Seattle." (Seattle had not yet become a city: it was just a small logging town, surrounded by other, slightly bigger logging towns. In a few years it would become a giant.)
She glanced up at, for some reason, and saw somebody who was definitely not a sheeperson. It was a man--it must have been. Women surely couldn't get that tall. She had never seen someone so big. He must have been 7 and a half feet tall.
She giggled as she looked at him. She realized that he must be in stilts and was from the circus. Of course he was. Why else would he be wearing such a weird costume? It looked like he had white bear fur all over him.
He got onto a boat to Alaska getting only a few What-the-hell-are-you-doing? looks.
She was still laughing as her father came to find her.
#
Fred got off of the loud steamboat. He regretted having come to live with the humans. They were loud, and obnoxious. He liked his people better, even though they had shunned him. He was just as much a freak here as he was there. At least he knew how to survive back home, but not here.
When he got off of the boat he walked with the crowd to... somewhere, he supposed. It was cold like in the middle of winter, but it had been spring back there. There was the fluffy white stuff that he sank into.
After a few minutes of listening to the loud murmur of the crowd before he... snapped. Deciding that human life wasn't for him, he ran into the snow, getting lost more quickly than a puppy at a carnival.
#
I don't really know what happened to Fred after that. I think there were others like him out there in the middle of nowhere. Maybe he lives in Canada now. I dunno. Maybe he found another squirrel and became friends with it, and now they live in their nest-den-home thing together.
Whatever.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Going for a Roatrip (Part 3): Arizona, Las Vegas, and Roadkill, Oh My!
So, my brother and I started off on our (not so) exciting adventure. We started out at the middle of the night, or 8:00 PM. I'm not used to being in a car at night, so it might as well have been midnight.
The first few hours weren't interesting at all. I stared at blackness for hours and listened to the radio until we began to go over passes and the reception went. After that, I took an hour long nap and woke up at about 6 AM. I waited for hours until the sun finally came up at 7:30. We were in southern Idaho by then.
Basically, we drove for a day and a half until we came to Nevada. Nevada, and I'm not exaggerating by any means here, is mostly made up of dry dirt and sage bush. It was very lonely, and not cool Batman-lonely, but insane lonely, like Superman-lonely. You see a cow about every two hundred miles, and if you're really lucky you come across a town every four hours. Go pee when you see a convenience store, because your next best option for the next few hours will be behind a six inch tall bush. I'm not sure whether the pitch blackness or the state of Nevada was funner to look at.
We came to the Historic Nevada Hotel in a tiny god forsaken town. Bella said that Forks was small. Stefany Meier obviously never traveled through Nevada, or she wouldn't have stressed how tiny Forks was. Anyways, back to the hotel.
My brother abandoned me for this part. He went off and met up with some friends that he ran into. I have no clue how he met up with friends in the middle of nowhere. So, I'm sitting on a bed that I have never sat on before, in a place I've never been to before, thinking of bed bugs, totally alone besides the random thuds that I can hear in the walls and hallway that were being caused by zombies.
The next day, Sasquatchio (brother) took me to Las Vegas. It was hot down there in the Basin. And the people. There were so many people.
Heat and lots of people. Ew. I don't like that combination at all.
We stayed at a very fancy-schmancy hotel known as the Plazzo. We pretty much stayed there for two days. (Also, since I've used their Wi-fi, their ads pop up on my computer all the time.) We spent a lot of money on room service, and watched the movies Green Hornet, I Am Number Four (I made a voodoo bear by sticking a sewing needle through a gummy bear and then I named it after the beagle from the movie), and another one I don't remember.
Also while we were there I entered an online writing contest... and won! I'm getting two free books in the mail because of it.
After Sin City, we went to Arizona. We saw the Hoover Dam. It wasn't as big as Transformers made it out to be. It also didn't have the All-Spark buried inside it along with a tiny rogue robot.
Arizona was very pretty. The land formations were gorgeous and the dirt was red. The sky was blue, and there were joshua trees (they're actually cacti) that made up forests.
We saw the Grand Canyon. It was expensive and blocked off and not nearly as impressive as I thought it was going to be, but still beautiful.
After the Grand Canyon, we went to this little place called Marble Canyon. It was cute there. It was also pretty much the last of our adventures. We saw these weird rocks that erosion had pocked with holes and looked like they were going to fall over if the weren't perfectly balanced. There were some old Native American shelters built under them. I think it would have been absolutely insane to live under them.
Once that was over, we began to go back to where I live. On the road, we stopped and bought two books--City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare and Red Glove by Holly Black, both of which were great reads and I think everyone should read.
Eventually we came home, where I then procrastinated writing this post.
The first few hours weren't interesting at all. I stared at blackness for hours and listened to the radio until we began to go over passes and the reception went. After that, I took an hour long nap and woke up at about 6 AM. I waited for hours until the sun finally came up at 7:30. We were in southern Idaho by then.
Basically, we drove for a day and a half until we came to Nevada. Nevada, and I'm not exaggerating by any means here, is mostly made up of dry dirt and sage bush. It was very lonely, and not cool Batman-lonely, but insane lonely, like Superman-lonely. You see a cow about every two hundred miles, and if you're really lucky you come across a town every four hours. Go pee when you see a convenience store, because your next best option for the next few hours will be behind a six inch tall bush. I'm not sure whether the pitch blackness or the state of Nevada was funner to look at.
We came to the Historic Nevada Hotel in a tiny god forsaken town. Bella said that Forks was small. Stefany Meier obviously never traveled through Nevada, or she wouldn't have stressed how tiny Forks was. Anyways, back to the hotel.
My brother abandoned me for this part. He went off and met up with some friends that he ran into. I have no clue how he met up with friends in the middle of nowhere. So, I'm sitting on a bed that I have never sat on before, in a place I've never been to before, thinking of bed bugs, totally alone besides the random thuds that I can hear in the walls and hallway that were being caused by zombies.
The next day, Sasquatchio (brother) took me to Las Vegas. It was hot down there in the Basin. And the people. There were so many people.
Heat and lots of people. Ew. I don't like that combination at all.
We stayed at a very fancy-schmancy hotel known as the Plazzo. We pretty much stayed there for two days. (Also, since I've used their Wi-fi, their ads pop up on my computer all the time.) We spent a lot of money on room service, and watched the movies Green Hornet, I Am Number Four (I made a voodoo bear by sticking a sewing needle through a gummy bear and then I named it after the beagle from the movie), and another one I don't remember.
Also while we were there I entered an online writing contest... and won! I'm getting two free books in the mail because of it.
After Sin City, we went to Arizona. We saw the Hoover Dam. It wasn't as big as Transformers made it out to be. It also didn't have the All-Spark buried inside it along with a tiny rogue robot.
Arizona was very pretty. The land formations were gorgeous and the dirt was red. The sky was blue, and there were joshua trees (they're actually cacti) that made up forests.
We saw the Grand Canyon. It was expensive and blocked off and not nearly as impressive as I thought it was going to be, but still beautiful.
After the Grand Canyon, we went to this little place called Marble Canyon. It was cute there. It was also pretty much the last of our adventures. We saw these weird rocks that erosion had pocked with holes and looked like they were going to fall over if the weren't perfectly balanced. There were some old Native American shelters built under them. I think it would have been absolutely insane to live under them.
Once that was over, we began to go back to where I live. On the road, we stopped and bought two books--City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare and Red Glove by Holly Black, both of which were great reads and I think everyone should read.
Eventually we came home, where I then procrastinated writing this post.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Going For a Roadtrip (Part Two): Friends and Family
So, I'm really sorry for not writing this sooner. I have no idea why, because as far as I know I only have two readers. Anyways, onwards I go to the post...
The dog only puked three times while we drove. We are making progress with him! He used to puke every five minutes when he was still a puppy.
We made good time. My mom and I drove up to our friends' house where we stayed. It was up north of Seattle. We said hi, unpacked, all that good stuff.
I really, really, really wanted to see my best friend that I hadn't seen in nearly year. I lost her phone number so we just popped in. I was going to act all chill, but when I saw her, I pounced out of the car. I don't really remember going over to the garden where she was standing, but I do remember feeling my feet smacking the ground and nearly toppling over. I hadn't seen her in so long, that I thought that maybe I was running to a complete stranger for a few moments until she began to respond in much the same way.
We went to dinner and met up with my brother, whom I call Sasquatchio because, well, he's built like sasquatch. He's 6'8" or so and has banana hands. Also, he's about as smart as a monkey.
I ordered chicken strips, french fries, and pepsi (this is pretty much all I ate for the next two weeks), but I ate about two bites because I was too busy talking to everyone--Sasquatchio, Best Friend, Sasquatchio's girlfriend, everyone.
Eventually I talked my mom and Best Friend's dad into letting me spend the night at her house. We stayed up till 11, which is actually pretty early for me to go to bed, but for her it was really late. We planned on waking up at 2 AM so we could light up a lantern and walk around pretending we were in Hogwarts, but it didn't work out. Instead, we did that before we went to bed.
The next day I went and saw my dad. He took me to Seattle. We walked around and saw this cool mural. It looked like a bunch of multi-colored crystals of kryptonite on the side of this building. It stood out against the drab, chilly, gray sky that the Pacific Northwest is famous for. Right across the street from rainbow-kryptonite-mural was a low, flat building that had black spray paint across the windows. I'm pretty sure more than one rave took place there.
I had planned to see my friend (who we'll call Alien to avoid confusion) this day, but I was in Seattle for too long, so I didn't get to see Alien. Actually, life kept throwing in complications so I didn't get to see him at all.
After a few days of spending the night at Best Friend's house, she had school again so I spent the remainder of the week at my mom's friend's house. It was an old house that was next to a highway, so all night you heard traffic. I didn't really mind that. In fact, I liked the sound of the cars' tires speeding over the wet pavement. What really annoyed me was my mom's snoring.
My mom's friend had her birthday, so we gorged ourselves with about six types of cheesecake, two types of pizza, and cheesy bread. Oh, how I love cheesy bread...
That was pretty much my last night at her house. My mom stayed one more before she went back home (more on that in a minute). I didn't get to see the ocean, but it would have been pretty cold anyways. Besides, I'll go back in the summer and see the ocean (and Alien).
The day after that, Sasquatchio took me on another fieldtrip. He came over to the house we were staying in. He planned on going on an exciting adventure with me, and only me due to problems with his girlfriend who was sorta afraid of pretty much everything.
The Adventures of Sasquatchio and I will be another story to tell.....
The dog only puked three times while we drove. We are making progress with him! He used to puke every five minutes when he was still a puppy.
We made good time. My mom and I drove up to our friends' house where we stayed. It was up north of Seattle. We said hi, unpacked, all that good stuff.
I really, really, really wanted to see my best friend that I hadn't seen in nearly year. I lost her phone number so we just popped in. I was going to act all chill, but when I saw her, I pounced out of the car. I don't really remember going over to the garden where she was standing, but I do remember feeling my feet smacking the ground and nearly toppling over. I hadn't seen her in so long, that I thought that maybe I was running to a complete stranger for a few moments until she began to respond in much the same way.
We went to dinner and met up with my brother, whom I call Sasquatchio because, well, he's built like sasquatch. He's 6'8" or so and has banana hands. Also, he's about as smart as a monkey.
I ordered chicken strips, french fries, and pepsi (this is pretty much all I ate for the next two weeks), but I ate about two bites because I was too busy talking to everyone--Sasquatchio, Best Friend, Sasquatchio's girlfriend, everyone.
Eventually I talked my mom and Best Friend's dad into letting me spend the night at her house. We stayed up till 11, which is actually pretty early for me to go to bed, but for her it was really late. We planned on waking up at 2 AM so we could light up a lantern and walk around pretending we were in Hogwarts, but it didn't work out. Instead, we did that before we went to bed.
The next day I went and saw my dad. He took me to Seattle. We walked around and saw this cool mural. It looked like a bunch of multi-colored crystals of kryptonite on the side of this building. It stood out against the drab, chilly, gray sky that the Pacific Northwest is famous for. Right across the street from rainbow-kryptonite-mural was a low, flat building that had black spray paint across the windows. I'm pretty sure more than one rave took place there.
I had planned to see my friend (who we'll call Alien to avoid confusion) this day, but I was in Seattle for too long, so I didn't get to see Alien. Actually, life kept throwing in complications so I didn't get to see him at all.
After a few days of spending the night at Best Friend's house, she had school again so I spent the remainder of the week at my mom's friend's house. It was an old house that was next to a highway, so all night you heard traffic. I didn't really mind that. In fact, I liked the sound of the cars' tires speeding over the wet pavement. What really annoyed me was my mom's snoring.
My mom's friend had her birthday, so we gorged ourselves with about six types of cheesecake, two types of pizza, and cheesy bread. Oh, how I love cheesy bread...
That was pretty much my last night at her house. My mom stayed one more before she went back home (more on that in a minute). I didn't get to see the ocean, but it would have been pretty cold anyways. Besides, I'll go back in the summer and see the ocean (and Alien).
The day after that, Sasquatchio took me on another fieldtrip. He came over to the house we were staying in. He planned on going on an exciting adventure with me, and only me due to problems with his girlfriend who was sorta afraid of pretty much everything.
The Adventures of Sasquatchio and I will be another story to tell.....
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Going for a Roadtrip (Part One)
It's almost time for my mom and I to hop in the car, listen to CDs we've heard a thousand and one times, roll down the windows to feel the spring air fly through our hair, and try not to strangle each other after being in a confined space for six hours.
In other words, it's almost time for a roadtrip.
We're going to my hometown to visit friends and family, which will be thrilling (in a good way) when we're there and it will down right suck when we leave (I hate goodbyes).
The top five things I plan to do when we get there is... [drum roll!]
1. See people I haven't seen in way too long.
2. Bug people I haven't bothered in way too long.
3. Meet my brother's girlfriend's family.
4. See the ocean.
5. Find out what happened to that door my best friend and I opened up a year ago... (It's a long story, but if you must know, we were walking past this old train engine thing that must be a hundred years old. We had walked past it millions of times, but she wondered what was in it, and like the schmuck I am, I let her talk me into helping her open up the hatch inside it. There were coals and some trash, so we made a joke about a homeless person living it and tried to close it, only to find that it wouldn't close. Heh.)
And that's the plan! I'm going to try and write about the trip, which is why this post has (Post One) in it.
Bye now!
In other words, it's almost time for a roadtrip.
We're going to my hometown to visit friends and family, which will be thrilling (in a good way) when we're there and it will down right suck when we leave (I hate goodbyes).
The top five things I plan to do when we get there is... [drum roll!]
1. See people I haven't seen in way too long.
2. Bug people I haven't bothered in way too long.
3. Meet my brother's girlfriend's family.
4. See the ocean.
5. Find out what happened to that door my best friend and I opened up a year ago... (It's a long story, but if you must know, we were walking past this old train engine thing that must be a hundred years old. We had walked past it millions of times, but she wondered what was in it, and like the schmuck I am, I let her talk me into helping her open up the hatch inside it. There were coals and some trash, so we made a joke about a homeless person living it and tried to close it, only to find that it wouldn't close. Heh.)
And that's the plan! I'm going to try and write about the trip, which is why this post has (Post One) in it.
Bye now!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Knight in Shining Scales
Finishing a story is extremely difficult, mostly because you have to actually keep writing it, even when you start to realize that you hate the book. Which happens a lot. You look down at the notebook or computer screen and you see (I'll write a different post on that another day.)
But in Creative Writing we had to write a fractured fairytale (which is where you take a famous fairytale, like the Three Little Pigs, and change the ending or characters, like the Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig) picture book. On regular, college ruled paper it's 7.2 pages long. Once you separate the paragraphs up to where you plan to draw the pictures it's 33 pages long. I plan on sending it to my niece and nephew when I'm done because they love fairy tales. They even made up a Cinderella dance, which is just adorable.
Anyways, back on track. You know that story that all the hopeless romantics say, "Why can't I find a knight in shining armor to slay the dragon?" or, "Someday, my Prince Charming will find me." I took those two sentences and decided to make them a bit topsy turvy. I titled the short story The Knight in Shining Scales.
It had to be G rated, so if it seems silly or weird in some places, that's why. The title is a bit of a spoiler, but I don't care.
The driver let Princess Ebony out of the pale white carriage. Her high heels made soft click-clacks against the mansion's marble staircase. The doorman in a dark red suit asked her name and checked a list. Once he was satisfied, he swung open the magnificent oak door which easily stood at twenty five feet. The princess looked in at the room the door had just revealed.
Inside, there were swirling lights and people, tons of people. Some of them were dancing, some of them were socializing next to a seemingly endless buffet, and there were even people writing poetry on the walls. But not a single person looked sad or bored. Then that must mean it's a very good social gathering, Ebony thought.
She stepped all the way into the castle and the heavy oak doors slammed themselves close. She jumped in surprise from the resounding thud! When she turned around to the gathering, she saw a handsome boy in nice clothes watching her. She wondered who he was, so she asked a near-by girl if she knew him. The girl replied, "That's the Prince."
Ebony had heard about the Prince. He owned a castle which was more magnificent than any king's home. He owned only thoroughbred horses and his ponds were the clearest blue known. Or so said the rumors. The only thing she knew was that he was dressed in some of the finest clothes made for villages.
She also knew that he was waving her over.
Ebony walked over to him. He handed her a cup of cider and told her she looked very beautiful, especially compared to the other girls here. He told her many compliments like this, and made her blush to go along with her laughter. After a few hours, the Prince made a proposal: to go to his castle and drink some nice hot tea.
She accepted.
They took the Prince's carriage and indeed, his horses were of the fastest kind, but he instructed his driver to go slow so they could enjoy the scenery. The village was beautiful this time of year. The animals walked around and there were newborn buds on the plants.
But the scenery was nothing compared to the Prince's castle. All the rumors were true. The castle was made of stones imported from Egypt and the lawn was emerald green. Ebony had thought her castle was one of the finest, but compared to his, her manor looked homely.
They walked into the manor. The Prince's home smelled of cinnamon. She inhaled deeply and smiled.
"Your home smells... delightful!" she said.
"My mother loves to cook," the Prince informed her. "She makes a wonderful cup of green tea."
"She'll be making our tea?"
"Yes."
"Will she join us?"
"No. She enjoys knitting more than company."
Ebony understood. Sometimes it was difficult to be with strangers.
The Prince led her to a round table with cookies, cakes, and potato chips laid out. "Stay here," he ordered kindly. "I have to go check on my mother."
So Ebony stayed and munched on a potato chip while the Prince walked down a long, dark, ominous hallway to what she supposed was the kitchen.
For a few moments, which seemed like a very lonely eternity, she sat in a plush chair chair nervously nibbling on sweets and counting the seconds. There was something very creepy about sitting in an unfamiliar room by yourself.
When the Prince didn't come back, she wondered if they needed help.
Even though he had told her to stay, Ebony contemplated getting up and seeing where they had went. After a few minutes hesitation, she got up and went down the spooky hallway. Once she had spent a few seconds seconds in the dark hallway, her nerves caught up to her and she almost ran back to her seat with the yummy chips and sweets.
But she didn't because sitting alone at that big, unfamiliar table by herself seemed even scarier than walking down the dark passage.
Eventually she heard voices, one of which was most definitely the Prince. Delight spread through her. She really like him. He was kind and smart and witty and he would never hurt her, she was sure. She poked her head in, expecting to see a kind old woman making homemade tea with the Prince helping her but instead--
Instead the Prince stood next to an old, gray, wrinkled witch, Ebony was sure it was a witch from her ugly, tangled wings, who was tipping a vial into a cup of tea--Ebony's cup of tea.
Ebony's eyes widened and she gasped. The Prince looked up and saw her. She saw evil in his eyes and turned to run. She had to stop and yank off her shoes so she could run faster. Ebony could hear the Prince calmly catching up to her like one of the villains in a play she had been to. "Where are you going to go if you escape?" he asked. "The only thing out there is a dragon that will eat you up in a single bite!"
She came to the heavy door and used all her strength to shove it open. The cold air ushered her away from the grand manor. when she looked back, she saw the beauty of the manor slip away to be a small cottage with ugly brown grass and donkeys instead of horses.
Terrified, she sprinted as quickly as she could in the constricting dress into the forest.
The woods were dark, foggy, and frightening. She could hear the loud croaks of fat bullfrogs, the squeeee of ancient trees, and she kept hearing a loud noise which sounded of a very big, very hungry beast.
She tried to avoid where the sounds were coming from, but that was very difficult to do when she was so shaken up that she didn't know right from left. After she ran as far as she could, she sat down and began to cry." Somebody help me," she whimpered.
"Excuse me," said a loud, deep, hoarse mystery voice, "but do you need some help?"
Ebony looked up and saw--a green dragon. Her eyes grew wide and her knees began to shake against her will. "The Dragon? The Prince wasn't lying?"
"Oh, what did the 'Prince' tell you?" The monster somehow formed words with it's maw.
"That you would eat me!"
He laughed. "I'm not going to eat you. I don't imagine princess would taste very good. Why are you running?"
"The Prince tried to poison me and now he's chasing me."
The Dragon seemed to frown, which was odd-looking on a beast that resembled a large lizard. "I have a place you can stay," he told her. "It's my tower I protect."
"You want to lock me up in a tower?"
"Well, yes. But it's for your safety, just until somebody catches this 'Prince.'" Ebony looked at him and couldn't get over the fact that he was a dragon, a monster. "Well, are you coming or are you just going to sit there?"
She got up and followed him.
They came to a large, albeit plain, tower.
"Here's where you will be staying. It's not the Ritz, but it works." She walked into the tower and found that it was rather chilly. The Dragon, sensing her discomfort inhaled deeply and... fire out of his nostrils into the fireplace. At first it scared Ebony, but then she began to laugh, which made the Dragon chuckle.
"Dragon, why are you helping me? You're a..." she cut herself off.
"A monster? I wasn't always this way. Once I was a loyal knight who worked for a kind king. But then the king went crazy and had several knights protect this tower from some unknown force. All the knights but me left once they became fed up with his behavior. I felt bad for the king and stayed.
"One night, he sort of... snapped. He found out that he had an incurable illness, and he knew that once he died, I would leave and his tower would be left unprotected. So he had a witch place a spell on me to make me into what you see now."
"That's horrible!" she cried. "Why would the witch do something like that?"
"She didn't want to, but earlier in their lives, the king had done her a favor and she had promised him that she could do him a favor--anything he wanted. He called in that favor on me and she had to do it."
"It's still awful. Did the witch had ugly, tangled up wings?"
"Yes, how did you know?"
"She was the one who tried to poison me!"
The Dragon looked down at the princess. "I doubt she would have done it willingly. The Prince probably had her do it for him.
"Now, it's getting late, so go to sleep," he said and left her.
She slept very soundly until she heard a yelling. "Princess, oh, princess! It's me, here to slay the dragon and save you!"
Ebony ran to a window and looked down where the Prince stood. She gasped and ran downstairs to wake the Dragon.
When she got there, the Dragon was already awake. "Stay here!" he told her. She nodded and looked outside where the Prince was brandishing a set of cards. What is he going to do with that? she wondered.
"Dragon!" the Prince yelled. "Who ever wins a game of War gets the girl!" The Dragon slid down to the Prince. "All right," he agreed.
Ebony was frightened. Her life depended on a card game.
The cards were dealt. The Dragon used his claws to play, which seemed seemed quite difficult, but he did it with little difficulty. Ebony was too scared to watch, so she closed her eyes shut and backed herself against the wall of the tower and waited to see who won.
She heard the Prince yell triumphantly. Her breath caught in her lungs and her throat closed up. she had put all her hopes in the Dragon and he had let her down.
"Look again," said the Dragon.
She couldn't take it anymore. She ran outside to look at what had happened. The Prince stared down at the cards in disbelief.
"Did you win?" she asked the Dragon. He seemed to smile.
"Yes, I did."
Ebony laughed and ran to him. She threw her arms around his thick neck and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek.
Something happened. He seemed to shrink and change shape. When she pulled her lips away, there was no longer a green beast--there was a tall knight in rusted armor.
She turned to the Prince and saw that he was now a dragon, a pink one to add insult to injury.
"The tower is yours, beast," the Knight said. Ebony smiled and wrapped her arms around her knight.
They Lived Happily Ever After.
The End.
But in Creative Writing we had to write a fractured fairytale (which is where you take a famous fairytale, like the Three Little Pigs, and change the ending or characters, like the Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig) picture book. On regular, college ruled paper it's 7.2 pages long. Once you separate the paragraphs up to where you plan to draw the pictures it's 33 pages long. I plan on sending it to my niece and nephew when I'm done because they love fairy tales. They even made up a Cinderella dance, which is just adorable.
Anyways, back on track. You know that story that all the hopeless romantics say, "Why can't I find a knight in shining armor to slay the dragon?" or, "Someday, my Prince Charming will find me." I took those two sentences and decided to make them a bit topsy turvy. I titled the short story The Knight in Shining Scales.
It had to be G rated, so if it seems silly or weird in some places, that's why. The title is a bit of a spoiler, but I don't care.
The driver let Princess Ebony out of the pale white carriage. Her high heels made soft click-clacks against the mansion's marble staircase. The doorman in a dark red suit asked her name and checked a list. Once he was satisfied, he swung open the magnificent oak door which easily stood at twenty five feet. The princess looked in at the room the door had just revealed.
Inside, there were swirling lights and people, tons of people. Some of them were dancing, some of them were socializing next to a seemingly endless buffet, and there were even people writing poetry on the walls. But not a single person looked sad or bored. Then that must mean it's a very good social gathering, Ebony thought.
She stepped all the way into the castle and the heavy oak doors slammed themselves close. She jumped in surprise from the resounding thud! When she turned around to the gathering, she saw a handsome boy in nice clothes watching her. She wondered who he was, so she asked a near-by girl if she knew him. The girl replied, "That's the Prince."
Ebony had heard about the Prince. He owned a castle which was more magnificent than any king's home. He owned only thoroughbred horses and his ponds were the clearest blue known. Or so said the rumors. The only thing she knew was that he was dressed in some of the finest clothes made for villages.
She also knew that he was waving her over.
Ebony walked over to him. He handed her a cup of cider and told her she looked very beautiful, especially compared to the other girls here. He told her many compliments like this, and made her blush to go along with her laughter. After a few hours, the Prince made a proposal: to go to his castle and drink some nice hot tea.
She accepted.
They took the Prince's carriage and indeed, his horses were of the fastest kind, but he instructed his driver to go slow so they could enjoy the scenery. The village was beautiful this time of year. The animals walked around and there were newborn buds on the plants.
But the scenery was nothing compared to the Prince's castle. All the rumors were true. The castle was made of stones imported from Egypt and the lawn was emerald green. Ebony had thought her castle was one of the finest, but compared to his, her manor looked homely.
They walked into the manor. The Prince's home smelled of cinnamon. She inhaled deeply and smiled.
"Your home smells... delightful!" she said.
"My mother loves to cook," the Prince informed her. "She makes a wonderful cup of green tea."
"She'll be making our tea?"
"Yes."
"Will she join us?"
"No. She enjoys knitting more than company."
Ebony understood. Sometimes it was difficult to be with strangers.
The Prince led her to a round table with cookies, cakes, and potato chips laid out. "Stay here," he ordered kindly. "I have to go check on my mother."
So Ebony stayed and munched on a potato chip while the Prince walked down a long, dark, ominous hallway to what she supposed was the kitchen.
For a few moments, which seemed like a very lonely eternity, she sat in a plush chair chair nervously nibbling on sweets and counting the seconds. There was something very creepy about sitting in an unfamiliar room by yourself.
When the Prince didn't come back, she wondered if they needed help.
Even though he had told her to stay, Ebony contemplated getting up and seeing where they had went. After a few minutes hesitation, she got up and went down the spooky hallway. Once she had spent a few seconds seconds in the dark hallway, her nerves caught up to her and she almost ran back to her seat with the yummy chips and sweets.
But she didn't because sitting alone at that big, unfamiliar table by herself seemed even scarier than walking down the dark passage.
Eventually she heard voices, one of which was most definitely the Prince. Delight spread through her. She really like him. He was kind and smart and witty and he would never hurt her, she was sure. She poked her head in, expecting to see a kind old woman making homemade tea with the Prince helping her but instead--
Instead the Prince stood next to an old, gray, wrinkled witch, Ebony was sure it was a witch from her ugly, tangled wings, who was tipping a vial into a cup of tea--Ebony's cup of tea.
Ebony's eyes widened and she gasped. The Prince looked up and saw her. She saw evil in his eyes and turned to run. She had to stop and yank off her shoes so she could run faster. Ebony could hear the Prince calmly catching up to her like one of the villains in a play she had been to. "Where are you going to go if you escape?" he asked. "The only thing out there is a dragon that will eat you up in a single bite!"
She came to the heavy door and used all her strength to shove it open. The cold air ushered her away from the grand manor. when she looked back, she saw the beauty of the manor slip away to be a small cottage with ugly brown grass and donkeys instead of horses.
Terrified, she sprinted as quickly as she could in the constricting dress into the forest.
The woods were dark, foggy, and frightening. She could hear the loud croaks of fat bullfrogs, the squeeee of ancient trees, and she kept hearing a loud noise which sounded of a very big, very hungry beast.
She tried to avoid where the sounds were coming from, but that was very difficult to do when she was so shaken up that she didn't know right from left. After she ran as far as she could, she sat down and began to cry." Somebody help me," she whimpered.
"Excuse me," said a loud, deep, hoarse mystery voice, "but do you need some help?"
Ebony looked up and saw--a green dragon. Her eyes grew wide and her knees began to shake against her will. "The Dragon? The Prince wasn't lying?"
"Oh, what did the 'Prince' tell you?" The monster somehow formed words with it's maw.
"That you would eat me!"
He laughed. "I'm not going to eat you. I don't imagine princess would taste very good. Why are you running?"
"The Prince tried to poison me and now he's chasing me."
The Dragon seemed to frown, which was odd-looking on a beast that resembled a large lizard. "I have a place you can stay," he told her. "It's my tower I protect."
"You want to lock me up in a tower?"
"Well, yes. But it's for your safety, just until somebody catches this 'Prince.'" Ebony looked at him and couldn't get over the fact that he was a dragon, a monster. "Well, are you coming or are you just going to sit there?"
She got up and followed him.
They came to a large, albeit plain, tower.
"Here's where you will be staying. It's not the Ritz, but it works." She walked into the tower and found that it was rather chilly. The Dragon, sensing her discomfort inhaled deeply and... fire out of his nostrils into the fireplace. At first it scared Ebony, but then she began to laugh, which made the Dragon chuckle.
"Dragon, why are you helping me? You're a..." she cut herself off.
"A monster? I wasn't always this way. Once I was a loyal knight who worked for a kind king. But then the king went crazy and had several knights protect this tower from some unknown force. All the knights but me left once they became fed up with his behavior. I felt bad for the king and stayed.
"One night, he sort of... snapped. He found out that he had an incurable illness, and he knew that once he died, I would leave and his tower would be left unprotected. So he had a witch place a spell on me to make me into what you see now."
"That's horrible!" she cried. "Why would the witch do something like that?"
"She didn't want to, but earlier in their lives, the king had done her a favor and she had promised him that she could do him a favor--anything he wanted. He called in that favor on me and she had to do it."
"It's still awful. Did the witch had ugly, tangled up wings?"
"Yes, how did you know?"
"She was the one who tried to poison me!"
The Dragon looked down at the princess. "I doubt she would have done it willingly. The Prince probably had her do it for him.
"Now, it's getting late, so go to sleep," he said and left her.
She slept very soundly until she heard a yelling. "Princess, oh, princess! It's me, here to slay the dragon and save you!"
Ebony ran to a window and looked down where the Prince stood. She gasped and ran downstairs to wake the Dragon.
When she got there, the Dragon was already awake. "Stay here!" he told her. She nodded and looked outside where the Prince was brandishing a set of cards. What is he going to do with that? she wondered.
"Dragon!" the Prince yelled. "Who ever wins a game of War gets the girl!" The Dragon slid down to the Prince. "All right," he agreed.
Ebony was frightened. Her life depended on a card game.
The cards were dealt. The Dragon used his claws to play, which seemed seemed quite difficult, but he did it with little difficulty. Ebony was too scared to watch, so she closed her eyes shut and backed herself against the wall of the tower and waited to see who won.
She heard the Prince yell triumphantly. Her breath caught in her lungs and her throat closed up. she had put all her hopes in the Dragon and he had let her down.
"Look again," said the Dragon.
She couldn't take it anymore. She ran outside to look at what had happened. The Prince stared down at the cards in disbelief.
"Did you win?" she asked the Dragon. He seemed to smile.
"Yes, I did."
Ebony laughed and ran to him. She threw her arms around his thick neck and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek.
Something happened. He seemed to shrink and change shape. When she pulled her lips away, there was no longer a green beast--there was a tall knight in rusted armor.
She turned to the Prince and saw that he was now a dragon, a pink one to add insult to injury.
"The tower is yours, beast," the Knight said. Ebony smiled and wrapped her arms around her knight.
They Lived Happily Ever After.
The End.
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