THE OYAN MOVIE

Hai thare.

Pippin kindly called my attention to the fact that the movie we filmed at OYAN was finally up! So here 'tis. Enjoy.



I'm the one in the black cloak, in case that wasn't abundantly clear. I love the scary music they put in. Awesome.

'Kay, that's it. Bye now.

Commander Kip
"Hi! Sorry I'm so naked..."
Normal is overrated!

high adventure

Actually, no. My life is so boring right now. I have this huge backlog of sketches and pictures to post, and it's so frigging hot outside - like, surface-of-the-sun hot, no joke - that it's taking every bit of my energy just to get through my minimum requirements every day. And usually not even that. I  just sort of suck at life. Anyway, by popular demand, the treasure hunters!

"You'll know it when you see it. 'Bout this big and really, really shiny."

 And I nearly didn't post this one on account of Adrian looking nothing like himself, but I did like how Kizungu came out, so you get it anyway.

Now, back to drawring pichers. Bye.

Oh, and DAVID TENNANT. That is all.

Commander Kip

"It's me. I'm the TARDIS." "No, you're not, you're a bitey mad lady."

Normal is overrated!

More Birthrighty sketches

to prove that I am indeed capable of posting about something other than Doctor Who. (Although it was a struggle this time.)

New designs for Andra and Memoria. If they were in actual scale, Memoria would be taller. Like, a full head taller.

 More Memoria, and trying to figure out how all those wings are supposed to work.

 Now, this is old. It's actually the first page of my current sketchbook (which I just filled a few weeks ago; now sketchbookless) and I kinda gave up on it. It's Nath and Andra right after Memory's death. See, there's her half-drawn ghosty face on the ground. I was going to have her lying there bleeding excessively, but perspective is a boob, so no. Please ignore the awkwardly folded limbs and the fact that Andra looks about five years old. Please do notice, however, that I did draw Andra's brace in this picture, There was a period in which she had the brace but nothing else had changed. This picture and the next are products of that period.

 See, there's the brace again, along with the hood! I am so totally keeping the hood. But not the bicorns. Now we have regular horses. This was trying to be a picture of Amren (now Cittadiali) but failed. Although, since I worked on it in Italy, the Sanctum did evolve into the Sanctorium in this picture. Before it was always just a strangely high-tech-looking mirrored dome thing. Yeah.

Now, back to getting ready for graduation. My program is trying to eat my life. 

Okay, so I physically can't go an entire post without freaking out about Doctor Who after all. I did try, but no. Because the second series finally came in at the library and I'm so excited! Yay Tennant! Although Smith really did grow on me - I haven't seen Part 2 of Series 6 yet, so no spoilers please, but A Good Man Goes to War was just like "Aaaah, I knew it! Not the thing about Amy, but the thing about River, I totally knew it!" And I absolutely loved the double Doctors in The Almost People - hysterical. And also, Neil Gaiman, I heart you.

Commander Kip

"Won't it be damaged?" "Naw, she's a tough old thing. Tough old Sexy." "Tough, dependable Sexy."

Normal is overrated!

and the obsession continues

Doctor Who is one of those shows that sounds vaguely ridiculous when other people tell you about it, but then you watch an episode and you're like, "durrrr, that was freaking awesome."

I doodled this from a random picture on the Internet yesterday when I should have been doing other (productive) things. I'm starting to think they choose the next Doctor based on how odd/unusual their facial features are. And their hair. Matt Smith has flopsy hair, a high forehead, and basically no eyebrows. Bingo!

Yes, yes, Kippy, enough about Doctor Who, let's have that OYAN post! Well, too bad. It's my blog and I'll post what I like. (Plus, still haven't got pictures from Snuffles. *lazybum*)

Commander Kip

"If we're gonna die, let's die looking like a Peruvian folk band!"

Normal is overrated!

drawring

Haha, I bet you thought I didn't do that drawing thing anymore. But actually, I do.

I wanted a sketch of Memoria with her new scars. I like it. Unfortunately, she's about to do something horrible in this chapter. Stupid, stupid, Memoria. Don't do it, you bum! Ah, she's not listening to me. What else is new.

(As a point of interest, the phrase "Don't do it, you bum" is kind of a joke in my family because when my mom was watching Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and saw the part where Anakin and Padme get married at the end, she yelled at the screen, "Don't do it, you bums!" Basically, my mom is awesome.)

This was more or less my costume for the last day of the OYAN workshop. I dressed up as Andra in disguise as a masked reveler, and no, that's not confusing at all. Actually, she was disguised for the Festival delle Mascherare, which is a hardcore party I invented where everybody dances in the streets and wears masks and gets extremely drunk. Not these two, though. They're busy hunting wabbits. Or villains. Whichever. That spiky thing in the background is the dome and six spires of the Sanctorium. At least, it's supposed to be.

Oh, have an excerpt. That would probably be easiest.

     He cocked his head, still walking backwards through the throng. “But the Barone doesn’t hate you.”

     “Messina? He’s biased,” I said, and distangled my cloak from Nath’s brown hands. It was too hot for a cloak, but how else was I supposed to hide my brace? “He and my mother were lovers once. Before he wed the Baronessa, obviously.”

     “She doesn’t seem the type to tolerate an affair on her husband’s part.” Nath fell into step beside me. “Blesteme, he was almost your father.”

     “Which would have been preferable. At least Messina hasn’t killed anyone famous.”

     “Well,” said Nath, “you’d have come out different, I suspect. And I like you this way. Even with that hideous leg of yours. And you, ser, will be taking your hand out of my pocket.”

The cutpurse, wearing a comically grotesque pig mask, withdrew his hand. “You are very perceptive, mio signore. My apologies.”

     Nath snorted with derision. “I’m Rumeni, man. Check your mark’s skin before you strike. Off with you.”

     “Nath,” I hissed, watching the cutpurse slink back into the swirling crowd, “we do not endorse thieving.”

     He shrugged, and I caught the flash of his white teeth beneath his mask. “Just honest advice.”

     We resumed our slow progression towards the edge of the square. Dancers spun past us, mouths gaping in gleeful howls, masked faces thrown back with delight. I kept my gaze on my boots, avoiding eye contact whenever possible. “Is there even anything in your pockets?”

     “No. The poor fool would have discovered as much, had I let him root around in there a few moments more.”

     I squashed my laughter. “You’re a terribly nice person. I would have just broken his hand, I think.”
     “You wouldn’t have noticed,” he said with a smug grin. “Do you still have your charm?”

     I felt for the pouch under my loose man’s shirt. “Yes.”

     “Keep checking. The chain would fetch a pretty price.” Taking my hands, he twirled me past a clump of tittering maidens wearing gape-necked gowns and delicate masks of black lace that hid little more than their eye sockets. As I stepped out of the twirl, my cloak tangled around my leg brace, throwing me into a stumble. Nath caught my arm and maneuvered me upright. I felt like a clomping idiot.

That's Chapter Four, peeps. I am now in the thick of Chapter Five, and serious crap is about to go down. Fun fact: Andra and Nath are two of the very few characters that got to keep their names from the first draft. Mirano kept his as well. I think that's it. Everyone and everything else got renamed. Andra also lost her future-vision powers, along with her gypsy charm. Instead, she now has a little cloth pouch around her neck that contains a curl of her mother's hair. And instead of Fable calcifying the Leondreans, he experiments on them in a hidden lab-thing. I decided to go in the direction of less magicky, more sciency, plus the whole Italian influence and all that. Took out the dragons, which hurt me just a little, because Auburnium was an old buddy of mine. Ah well, he exists in my brain!

Which reminds me, I just watched Cold Blood, the ninth episode in the fifth series of Doctor Who, and the ending very nearly killed me. Yep, I've pretty much given up on going in order. Guess I'll do Eleven first, then Ten. In any case (SPOILER SIREN HONK HONK HONK):

I want Rory back.

(END SPOILER.)

There was wretched weeping, I assure you. But there has also been much hysterical laughter. See, this is why I love Doctor Who:

Amy: If they're fish people, it explains why they hate the sun-
Doctor: *covers Amy's mouth* Stop talking, brain thinking, hush.
Rory: It's the school thing I don't understand-
Doctor: *covers Rory's mouth* Stop talking, brain thinking, hush.
Guido: I say we take the fight to them-
Doctor: A-a-ah!
Guido: What?
Doctor: Ah! *nods at Rory*
Rory: ... *covers Guido's mouth*

Commander Kip
"Look at this. Got my spaceship, got my boys... my work here is done." *flounces into TARDIS* "Um, we are NOT 'her boys.'" "Yeah... we are." "Yeah, we are."
Normal is overrated!

I am a dork

so I'm answering my own questions. Because that's how much of a dork I am. Also, too lazy to make real blog posts.

(1. Ten or Eleven? (Or Nine, I suppose?)

TEN, because as I might have mentioned, I love his gawky face. Also, he can get really intense, whereas Eleven makes puppy eyes even when he's furious. (Just watched Victory of the Daleks. Yes, I did promise myself I wouldn't go out of order, but series 5 and 6 came in first at the library, and I just can't keep my grabby hands away...)

(2. What accent do you most frequently lapse into without realizing it?

Indubitably British. It's so hard not to. Although I attempt Scottish once in a while just 'cuz.

(3. Favorite steampunk accessory?

Why did I make this question so HARD? I dunno, prolly my shotgun. Although, not gonna lie, I'm equally fond of all my other guns as well. And, y'know, the monogoggle. Funny story about that later.

(4. Have you ever eaten lotus root?

Oh yes. I was curious if I'm the only one who's heard of it. Asian root vegetable, relatively tasteless and very crunchy, takes on the flavor of whatever sauce you douse it in. The perfect vegetable!

(5. Your character becomes best friends with another person's character. Who's the other person and who are the two characters? Why are they friends?

My young turnspit Luca (formerly Kaden) and Lady Arin's feisty faerie boy Terrin. I feel like Terrin would be a terrifically bad influence on Luca, who would love every minute of it.

(6. Avengers! Girls: Thor or Loki? Guys: Black Widow or that other chick, Fury's second-in-command?

Loki, because he's so very pretty all the time. Even when his face is all cut up. (Although his hair was way better in Thor than it was in Avengers. Just throwing that out there.)

(7. Which kind of villain do you prefer: the chaotic insane kind (like the Joker), the scheming/conniving kind (like Darth Sidious) or some combination of the two?

COMBO! Saint Dane from the Pendragon series is a prime example: he's carefully orchestrated the destruction of ten worlds, and yet he still has his terrifying fits of insanity. Basically, he scares the crap out of me.

(8. Best kind of wound?

Sucking chest wounds! Actually, anything in the midsection area that you could clutch while staggering about theatrically and groaning and gasping a lot. Because I'm mean. Although I truly love/hate hand wounds, being a pianist and all.

(9. If you were a character, who would be your author? (God doesn't count - pick a human being.)

Can't choose between Laini Taylor, Rick Riordan, Eoin Colfer, or Brandon Sanderson. I would love to live in any of Taylor's stories - so lush and gorgeous while still containing a healthy amount of peril. Riordan would be fun, because I'd get snappy dialogue and a low chance of getting randomly killed off (ignoring Bianca for the moment; she was sort of a fluke.) Colfer: just yes. I think this would be my actual answer, because Irish humor = like a sir. Living in a Sanderson novel would give me equally high chances of wielding some sort of awesome magic power or having a sucky life, so probably not worth the risk.

(10. Most spectacular death?

Swan-diving off a cliff all epic-like and hitting the water at juuuuust the wrong angle...

(11. If you could slap one person in the face with a herring, who would it be?

Nathan Fillion. You know it would be hilarious.

Crack on, then!

Commander Kip
"Is it a cry for help?" "What?" "The bow tie!"
Normal is overrated!

Liebster Blog Award

 I just got tagged by Sandy with something called the Liebster Blog Award, which I'm still not really sure what that is, but apparently it involves posting 11 facts about oneself, answering the tagger's 11 questions, and posting 11 of my own questions for other people. (If there are other instructions, I am conveniently ignoring them.) Here we go.

Facts:
(1. My ribcage hurts. Oh, did I mention that one already?
(2. We're cleaning out my room this month so that my brother can live in it when I go to college, and I am continually astounded by the SHEER COLOSSAL VOLUME of THINGS I have accumulated up here over the years. Half of this stuff, I'm like, why do I even have this?
(3. I strongly dislike asparagus. At least, the stemmy part. The top is okay, because it tends to hold more sauce and taste less like asparagus.
(4. I've been listening to this on endless repeat, because it sounds like something unbearably awesome is about to happen:


(5. I did not bring a sword to the OYAN workshop this year. Such a shame. Although I did bring my new dagger!
(6. I can get any amount of work done, provided it's not what I'm supposed to be doing at the moment.
(7. I just inherited my grandpa's old scanner because he couldn't get it to work. Huh. Works fine for me. Like a sir! (That's another version of "Like a boss!" I'm also partial to "Like a gent!"
(8. I HATE WASPS. I don't hate very many things in the world, but I do hate wasps. There was another wasp in my room the other day, but I killed it.
(9. PLATONIC. RELATIONSHIP. I haz it.
(10. My new favorite expression is "Crack on, then!"
(11. My pajamas are like one big nerdy joke; Batman shirt, moose pants. The moose are funny because of the moose shenanigans in the beginning credits of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Sandy's questions:

1. What was the last book you read?
Verge, by Brentalope-icus-worth. As previously stated, SO GOOD.

2. How many orange clothings do you have and what are they?
 I have like one piece of orange clothing - no, two now. The first is a shirt with Japanese maple leaves on it. The second is a heinous paisley thing I got at Goodwill when we were shopping for vests. Oh, how I adore my heinous paisley.

3. What's a hairstyle and color you'd like to have?
This one:

4. Do you like waffles?
Absolutely. Evil beware.

5. Do you believe in unicorns?
My dear girl, I am the unicorn master. Supreme Commander of the Gory of Unicorns, that's me. And this is our sigil (thank you for the lovely art, Kaylen):

6. Do you like America and why?
No. There are no dragons in it.

7. Teeth?
Wishes?

8. What's your journal look like and if you don't have one, what was the last notebook you used like?
I keep a notebook of heavily textured paper that has these gold threads embedded in it. On each page, I write one word or phrase representing something I think is cool and that I should totally remember to use in a story. Example: skeleton keys, wings, brightly painted wagons, waterfalls, claws, trapdoors...

9. Are you a creeper?
You betcha. 

10. Geometry or algebra?
Seppuku.

11. Myers-Briggs personality type? [MUAHAHAHAHAAAA >:D]
WOT. Am I supposed to know what this is?

My questions:

(1. Ten or Eleven? (Or Nine, I suppose?)
(2. What accent do you most frequently lapse into without realizing it?
(3. Favorite steampunk accessory?
(4. Have you ever eaten lotus root?
(5. Your character becomes best friends with another person's character. Who's the other person and who are the two characters? Why are they friends?
(6. Avengers! Girls: Thor or Loki? Guys: Black Widow or that other chick, Fury's second-in-command?
(7. Which kind of villain do you prefer: the chaotic insane kind (like the Joker), the scheming/conniving kind (like Darth Sidious) or some combination of the two?
(8. Best kind of wound?
(9. If you were a character, who would be your author? (God doesn't count - pick a human being.)
(10. Most spectacular death?
(11. If you could slap one person in the face with a herring, who would it be?

Huh, I like those questions. I kinda want to answer them myself. Oh well. If you choose to respond to these, leave a comment so I can come read your answers. Thanks.

Commander Kip
"Are you the Doctor?" "Doctor who?" "Innit though?"
Normal is overrated!

So, my ribcage hurts.

I just read two excellent books. They were excellent because they did what good books are supposed to do: create emotion in the reader. The first book is called The Girl Who Could Fly, by Victoria Forester.

It's sort of geared towards younger kids, like maybe grade school, but I read it anyway (in one day) and aaah, it was awesome. Like it says in the blurb, it's a mix of Little House on the Prairie and X-Men, but with kids. And boy, did it create a lot of emotion. It was about how being "normal" isn't necessarily better than being abnormal, and how kids shouldn't let anyone squash what's unique about them. It used children with superpowers to illustrate the point. Also, the Black Moment of this book had me sobbing aloud, which doesn't happen often for me. It was wrenchingly sad. But it ended happy, so it's all good. And there were so many cute parts in the betweentime! I love the main character, Piper McCloud. She reminds me of a child version of Kaylee from Firefly - adorable, optimistic, and not afraid to use the word "ain't." I love her so much.

The second book is called Verge, and sorry, no cover. It's not published yet, although it certainly should be. And Brenticus, I'll have you know that I cried fat, bitter tears all over the keyboard as I was reading it. My ribcage hurts. That's how hard I cried. Good work, sir.

Seriously, it was so sad. BUT SO GOOD. I basically can't tell you anything about it (for fear of spoiling the plot) except that it was awesome and you should all buy it when it comes out. I heard a bit that made me cry at the OYAN workshop, and when I came around to that bit the second time, I cried again, even though I knew it was coming. SOOOO GOOOOOOD. And when I wasn't crying, I was laughing because the main character is so cynically sarcastic and I love him so dearly and by the end I just wanted to give him a big tackle-hug. Actually, I loved all the characters, even the grumpy old man. And the villain. Dude, the villain is so cool. I wish I'd thought of him.

Still gathering up pictures from various other OYANers, so it might be awhile on the OYAN post. In the meantime, random tidbits! The most important being, I have all the David Tennant series of Doctor Who on hold at the library, and in the meantime, I've been watching every Youtube video with him in it that I can get ahold of, because he is brilliant in every way. You guys, I love his gawky face. It makes me so very happeh. I mean, watch this.



SINKHOLE! It's funnier if you know a few things about Doctor Who, but even if not, the accents are precious in their own right. I couldn't breathe the first time I watched this because I was too buys howling with laughter. Oh, and I really want a sonic screwdriver now, because a bunch of people had them at the workshop and I love the swishy whirling noise they make. Also, how handy would it be if I could turn my brother into an action figure of Billie Piper every time he annoyed me?

Commander Kip
"That's breaking and entering!" "What did I break? Sonicking and entering."
Normal is overrated!

Thing of the Day: hinged jar

  Since the photos from the workshop are not yet in order (Snuffles took pictures of the Firefly costumes, but somehow I didn't) I have here the most random Thing of the Day you are likely to ever see on this blog. Here we go. I was at Barnes & Noble on the way home from my NEW AND SHOINY JOB that I will tell you all about later, and I found this... thing... on the clearance trolley. What is is? I have no idea. The tag says "hinged jar" and it is the most adorably useless thing I have purchased in my entire life. You all know how deeply I abhor pink, but this hinged jar thing just makes me squee for some unknown reason. I mean, look at it - it's a hinged jar in the shape of an ice cream cone. How is that not awesome?

The other awesome thing I saw at the bookstore was actually in the parking lot: a real live Bumblebee. Lookit.

Bumblebee. For serious. It was like meeting a celebrity or something. Again, I don't even like Transformers but this was frickin' impressive. I sneakily took these pictures since the owner of the car appeared to be elsewhere. I tell you, when I grow up and purchase my own vehicle, it will either be a sleek black car and I will call it the Batmobile, or a boxy van with flower stickers and I will call it the Mystery Machine. (There was very little grammar in that sentence; good thing my mother doesn't read my blog.) One or the other, I'm not particular. But if I were super rich and didn't mind the color yellow, I would love to own this sucker. Isn't it glorious? You know it is.

Now, back to sorting pictures.

Oh, and about the job, I'm working in the office of a place that sells bathroom fixtures to dealers. Better than kitchen knives, I think. Though it is rather warm in the office, but maybe that's because my mommie made me wear long pants since it was my first day. Oh, mommie.

Commander Kip
*brushing ashes off self* "Christmas Eve on a rooftop. I saw the chimney and my whole brain just went, 'What the hell?'"
Normal is overrated!

The 10 Things I Forgot to Bring to the OYAN Workshop of 2012

Lists are cool. As are fezzes.

Literally: on the first night, I discovered I'd forgotten to pack a water bottle, and I was like, "hokay, I bet there's at least ten things I meant to bring and didn't remember. Wouldn't it be funny if there were EXACTLY TEN?"

And guess what? I'm back now, and I've counted 'em up, and there WERE.

(1. Water bottle, as previously mentioned. For quenching thirst when there's no drinking fountain handy.

(2. A hoodie. Because the Bell Center is a friggen ice box. And contrary to popular belief, a black cloak actually does not go with every outfit.

(3. A washcloth. For drying my hands and face on, because there are strangely no paper towels in the dorm bathrooms. Awkward. (And no mirrors in the dorm rooms. Awkwarder.)

(4. A working Sharpie. Seriously, I found myself in need of one like every five seconds.

(5. Safety pins. For costuming purposes.

(6. A binder/folder for my chapters. Loose papers in a cloth bag = utter chaos.

(7. My workshop t-shirt from last year. I wanted people to sign it, because it only has one signature on it, and that one belongs to Brenticus. But I forgot, so no.

(8. SOAP. For my BODY. I remembered shampoo and conditioner, but not soap. Stupid stupid.

(9. A stand-alone reading light. We definitely could have used more light in our room - the overhead light burned almost completely out on the first night, leaving us in a sort of dim, flickering, horror-movie murk.

(10. A kitchen timer.  Last year they were provided; this year, they were not. I was planning on bringing the one they gave me last year - the infamous "hobbit timer" - but forgot. So we used someone's phone. To quote Obi-Wan Kenobi: so uncivilized.

Those are the ten things I really wish I'd had. Some more than others. But whatever, it was still basically the fastest week of my life. I'm still trying to convince myself it actually happened. Maybe I dreamed it, and I haven't really gone yet. That would be cool.

Also, Doctor Who. DOCTOR WHO.

More later, when I have pictures for you.

Commander Kip
"You want a fez?"
Normal is overrated!

INFOBOMB

So I needed a break from Chapter 4, which means you all get random pointless information about my life! Yay!

Firstly, we got Brenticus a very respectable vest at Goodwill on Wednesday, although it was an extra-large and quite enormous on him. So today, I pinned it. I was going to sew it, but my mom said I took bad measurements and that if I sewed it and it didn't fit him, we'd be screwed. So she had me pin the seams instead. It will have to do. At least this way it's adjustable.

Also, I drew these people recently when I was bored with math. It's one of those mindless doodles that started spewing ridiculous amounts of backstory.

This is where my brain when with these two (yoinked straight out of the artist's description from when I posted this on DeviantART):

"The blond chick with the tribal markings was the infant daughter of a pair of missionaries. The parents were killed accidentally in the crossfire of a tribal dispute, leaving the victors to raise the orphaned child among their own. They called her Kizungu, which literally means "white girl" in Swahili, and brought her up according to their traditions and customs, although they taught her both English and their own language. When she was grown, she attended college, got her master's degree, and became a local translator, where her skills were in much demand. In the course of her work, she is hired for an expedition by a treasure hunter from Australia, a scruffy long-haired fellow with a charming and adventurous personality. Jack Adrian is hunting for a particular kind of treasure: ruins. He likes discovering things no one's ever seen before, and if he happens to find any valuable artifacts along the way, fabulous, it'll pay his expenses. Self-educated and savvy as he is, he's the first to admit that he knows very little about the jungle terrain and is more than happy to rely on the expertise of the natives. Hence the translator. As the journey progresses, he becomes more and more intrigued by Kizungu's unique history, and after she saves him from being strangled to death by a boa constrictor, his admiration for her turns into romantic interest. Unfortunately, the native guide (Kizungu's punk ex-boyfriend) turns on Adrian and leaves with most of the expedition crew, stranding Adrian and Kizungu in the thick jungle with almost no equipment or supplies. Of course, that's when the rival team of treasure hunters, who have been sneakily following them all this time, choose to attack...

Oh dear - you see how quickly this whole thing spiraled out of control?"

  Yeah. That. Basically, I just liked the doodle and decided to post it to Scraps on DA, and I made up all that stuff on the spot. This was when I should have been working on my novel, mind.

Which is what I should be doing right now as we speak.

Just saying, though, I found a way to work carnival masks into this chapter, and it makes me so happeeeeeeeee... Also, Nath is hot. Just saying.

Commander Kip
*riding a horse* "There's no steering wheel on mine!" *riding a horse backwards* "Lucky - mine doesn't even have a head!"
Normal is overrated!

a smattering

of unrelated things. First, my Venetian mask. Isn't it fantastic? Check out that nose!

I don't care if you like it or not. I adore it.

I will be appearing in it for the OYAN workshop, most decidedly. This is happening.

On that note, I'm beginning to seriously freak out about how far behind I am. I have to write two entire chapters this week AND edit AND format all before Saturday so my mom can print copies for me. Um, EGAD. *kicks things* And this is all on top of my other obligations, including science and math and piano and addressing my graduation invitations and reading lots of Shakespeare. You guys, this summer is going to kill me. There's no way I'll survive. Although my life is slightly happier now because I watched Batman Begins and Dark Knight with my brother this weekend, and you may or may not have noticed how much I love Batman.

None of that made sense On Purpose. I'm saving all my sense-making capacities for my novel at present. So nothing else I say is at all coherent. Sorry. Also, writing is prioritized far above showers this week. I only get to shower if I write a certain number of pages a day. I feel that being greasy is less important than getting the four chapters done.

In addition to AC1 & 2, the bro also got me an Angry Birds flash drive that totally makes my day. It's the little fat red one with the unibrow, and he is super gorgeous. OH, that reminds me, I should totally bring Magellan to the workshop! Yesss!! Brilliance!!!! *pressurized squee*

By ze vay, this is the new Kartik picture I gave Lady Arin. Milady, I am truly sorry he's wearing so many clothes. But in any case, I think it's safe to say that my drawing skills have evolved considerably since the last attempt.

There, I'll stop talking at you now.

Except to say that even though I have not yet played Portal, I discovered this song and am now mightily enamoured with it, because it's freaking hilarious.



And now, some How it Should Have Ended.






Now that you're laughing hysterically, let it be said that I need to buckle down and finish those four chapters AT ONCE. I really should quit distracting myself.

Commander Kip
TANK MISSILE!
Normal is overrated!

Thing of the Day: Assassin's Creed I

So I was doing great on my goal of writing several pages when I got up in the mornings... and then my stupid brother bought me Assassin's Creed I and II at MicroCenter for ten dollars. Terrible idea. I installed AC1 on my shiny!new!laptop and have subsequently not been writing. At all. For like an entire week. This is bad. So this morning, I closed down the game and opened Chapter 2 back up and wrote some actual pages and felt better about myself. But now it's lunchtime and the game is calling...

Whatever. Point being, it's a pretty cool game, although I made the mistake of watching my brother play AC2 while playing AC1 myself, and got a little disenchanted with poor disabled Altair who can't swim or assassinate from hiding spots. It's sort of depressing. That being said, HAYSTACKS. They are my newfound love. I adore how you can jump off a really high tower and land safely in a haystack with a little "flump" sound. It's hilarious when the guards are chasing you and you break their line of sight and then "flump" into a haystack and they're scratching their heads and trying to figure out where you went. I love haystacks SO MUCH. However, playing any sort of action game on a laptop is basically a heinous idea. Mousepads are not built for it. I need a real mouse for this, people. So bad. And a bigger screen wouldn't hurt either. But I would feel pretty beasty if I could say that I played through all of Assassin's Creed I on my laptop.

Have a crappy sketch of Altair. His name, by the way, should have an umlaut over the 'i' and is pronounced "All-tie-EER." Those hoods, man, they're freaking irresistible.

Hokay, back to work. Sorry I'm so very distractable.

Oh, and I forgot to mention - I applied for this job the other day, because the company sent me an extremely ambiguous letter in the mail, and I had to go to this tiny office in a sketchy part of town and do an interview with an overly-cheerful lady. I did get the job, which was selling kitchen knives, but both my mother and I had objections to me, a not unattractive nineteen-year-old girl, going into strange people's houses and selling them knives. It's just not a good equation, you know? So I turned that one down, even though I'm poor. And then, when my mom called the cheery lady to tell her our objections and decline the offer, the lady was all "well, in all my years of working here, we've never had an incident" and my mom was like "yeah, but it only takes one, and I'd rather my daughter not be your one and only incident, thanks." I'd prefer to live, personally. So I'm applying to Michael's now, where I'd be selling art supplies instead of kitchen knives. Thank you very much.

And by the way, I sold almost all my girl toys at that sale. All that's left is most of the Ello, because almost nobody bought it, having never seen it before. That's fine with me; I'll box it up for my kids. Or maybe just so I can play with it some more.

Commander Kip
*covers one eye* "How does Fury see these things?" "He turns."
Normal is overrated!

Firefly

Marathon was friggen awesome, no surprise there, and now I have the urge to do nothing but work on my River Tam costume for the workshop. The plan is to make boot covers. I suspect the plan is flawed, on account of a devastating lack of materials... but that is the plan nonetheless. Brenticus had never been to Olive Garden before, so we went there for dinner on Thursday and brought the little sibs. That day, we watched nine episodes. NINE. It was brilliant.

So that was fun. But now, I have got to dig into this second draft. I temporarily abandoned the last chapter of the first draft, just because it was being difficult and moving slower than I wanted, and I figure the second draft is more pressing at this point. I have Chapter One roughed out and about four and a half pages of Chapter Two. It is SO DIFFERENT this time around. I'm confusing myself. It's probably a terrible idea to start the actual writing without doing a crap-ton of outlining and research first, but whatever, I'm kind of doing that as I go, which is why it takes two hours to write four pages. Bad bad bad. Oh well, it's going slowly, but it's going.

Also, just saw Avengers again with a gal from school. Just as awesome the second time. Loki is prettier than Thor, the end. And then the other day, I finally sat down and watched Thor, discovering that while it is basically a crappy movie (much like Green Lantern), it has pretty people in it, and several of the characters from Thor played key parts in Avengers. In addition to Thor and Loki, Selvig, Coulson, Fury and Hawkeye all had pretty big roles in Avengers and I didn't know who they were - frustrating. I should have just made myself watch Thor a long time ago. My bad.

Also, Worlds of Fun. Basically, best day of my life. Got up and wrote four pages, trucked on down to WoF, there all day, had a blast (although Liese's boyfriend spilled my very expensive root beer and I got a fantastic sunburn on the backs of my legs, because seriously, who thinks of putting sunscreen back there?), got attacked on the way home by this huge hornet that flew in the window of Brenticus's mother's van, picked up more root beer, went to Liese's house and ate lettuce and Oreos, walked to the park and climbed a tree (among other things), went home and watched four episodes of Firefly and imbibed much root beer, and crashed hard. We may or may not have sung the theme song at the top of our lungs every time it came on. May or may not have, meaning, we definitely did. Definitely. Next day: nine episodes and Olive Garden, as well as a side trip to HyVee for more Oreos, heck yeah. Next day, the remaining two episodes and the movie, as well as the bloopers and deleted scenes. AND THERE WAS MUCH REJOICING.

Then I got to go see Lady Arin because she had her homeschool graduation and I gave her a very disjointed and messy present and randomly stayed the night and got eaten alive by mosquitoes, but all of that was worth it because I finally got those pictures we took back in December! And they are super awesome. 'Specially the ones of Milady wearing my period clothing, and filling it up far better than I ever could, lol. Downside: I still can't fit my swollen feet into shoes. Literally, there are so many bites that my feet and ankles are actually swollen. Getting better now, though. Except I just tore a muscle in my back yesterday when I jumped off a low wall at the park, trying to keep up with my brother, who was sort of doing parkour. Oops. I keep forgetting that I am no longer young, spry, and springy. Whatever, it's healing, and I know not to do it again.

Tomorrow there's this kid's toy sale nearby, and I'm going to try and get rid of most of my girly toys. I'm keeping a few Barbies and a few Groovy Girls for my own potential daughters, but almost everything else is bagged up and ready to go - all of the Ello (that was a chore), the rest of the Barbies (the ones that weren't missing heads, hands, or feet), all the Barbie furniture and accessories, the majority of the Groovy Girls, and all of the Clikits. There's already so much more room on my shelves! And I just dissembled and packed up the Playmobile castle that's been on my floor my entire life so my mom could store in it my grandma's basement. That kind of made me sad, but I couldn't get to the shelves behind it, so it had to go. However, I can play with it again when I have children, so that's okay.

Ooh, I just had a fabulous idea for a costume for the OYAN workshop involving a black cloak, a wide-brimmed hat, skeleton keys, a flintlock pistol, and my beaky carnival mask! *shifty glittering of eyes* Clearly, it's gonna be awesome.

Lessee, what else? Oh yeah - finished my physics book yesterday! Huzzah! Oh, and I also have a job interview set up for Sunday evening, which I'm passing nervous about. It's for a sales position, and although I've talked to the company like three times, I still have no idea what I"m supposed to be selling. You guys, I am poor. I need a job so bad. If anyone knows of a place I could apply, drop a comment and I will give you delicious cybercookies. Thanks!

I should go write some Chapter Two now. This post is getting squirrelly. Sorry for all the useless information.

Commander Kip
"That man is playing Galaga. He thought we wouldn't notice. But we did."
Normal is overrated!

NEARLY THERE...

I've promised myself that I WILL finish the first draft of Erimon Hill before the 18th of May, because that only gives me one month to write the ENTIRE second draft in time for the OYAN workshop, which starts on the 18th, I believe, of June. I suspect this is an unrealistic goal. Especially since the whole plot will probably change, and I'll have to outline all over again, and add stuff, and change stuff, and it's gonna be a mess, I can already tell. But THAT IS MY GOAL. Basically, nobody bother me until then. I will be attending a few (read: four on the same day) graduation parties between now and then, and Brenticus and I shall have our Firefly marathon, and I will be at Worlds of Fun, but other than that, I SHALL NOT BE DISTURBED. On pain of death, you understand.

And now, some pictures of Andra.

Andra making a displeased face. Perhaps because I decided that clothing is an unnecessary distraction from her lovely face. Or perhaps because that's just how her face looks all the time.

A fun little doodle. The word "formal," in this case, has nothing to do with anything. Ignore it.

 The hood! I've been meaning to draw her with the hood, and I continually forgot for some months, and then in English class one day, I remembered. Yay.

 And here I must mention that I don't remember exactly when in the story this happens, but at some point (or perhaps several points) Andra is indeed forced to her knees by some bad guy or other. Notice here how said anonymous bad guy is completely invisible except for his wonky arms. Because I'm awesome. Or lazy. Or both.

 Here I decided that Andra needed to grow a consistant face, so I proceeded to draw her like twenty times. It was an entertaining exercise, although I'm not sure it entirely served its purpose. Oddly, I think the one that looks the most like her is the one with her hair down and wearing a dress. Odd, because she almost never looks like that. I also have to point out that the thing on her leg in the top right corner of the page is her new and shiny leg brace, which I thought of a few months ago, which led to a complete reimagining of the story world. Thus complicating the second draft like no other. *raaage* Italy didn't help. Or maybe it did, depending on how you look at it. Certainly gave me ideas.

 Here's the brace for realz. It's a strip of metal strapped to the back of her leg and a stirrup-ish thing that corrects her turned-in ankle. I like it way better than the stupid modified boot. So there.

 Anybody remember her handmaiden, Hollie? This is her. I will probably be changing her name, but in any case, there she is.

And there she is again, being sad. And there's Andra, trying to make her feel better. Aww.

  And look, the new version of Fable! He looks sort of Italian now, I think. There's a reason for that. I'll explain shortly here. First, I would love for you to notice how very well all of those hands came out. *happysquee*

NOW, the Italian influence. Here's what I'm thinking. The generic backwards fantasy world which these characters have been inhabiting until recently is exceedingly backwards and generic. It's mightily embarassing. I know I can do better. After returning from Italy, I had the brilliant idea of bumping up the time period from medieval to Rennaisance and changing the base cultural/geographical model from England to Italy. So now it's a parallel Italian Rennaisance-type setting, and there are subsequently a whole bunch of lovely factoids I can apply, such as: the practice of building cities on top of hills, with a fortress or church in the middle and streets spiraling down from there, in order to be in a defensible position against the barbarian hordes; the strong presence of a central church/religion (it won't be Catholicism, I'mma make it up); a genius inventor person (not Da Vinci, but someone modelled on him) whose inventions were applicable enough to become the primary form of technology, like Italian clockpunk, I guess; a self-contained seat of political/religious leadership, separate from the rest of the country (like the Vatican, but actually Kyria); sacred symbolism, as in the case of the four winged creatures that represent the Evangelists existing as actual species (although I'd rather have six as a sacred number, so I'd have to think of two more types of winged creatures - I'll have to brainstorm some more); the presence of the Romani people so that I can still have my lovely gypsies; and several others that have temporarly slipped my mind. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's gonna be completely awesome.

On another subject, the bro and Brenticus and I went to see Avengers in 3D on Thursday. I was truly expecting it to suck, but actually, it was super beasty and hilarious, and now I really want to see it again because it made me laugh so hard. Also, I love Loki's pretty face. Not so much his duck hair, but what can you do. You guys, I have the hugest weak spot for pretty men and clever humor. Hence my ongoing infatuation with X-Men First Class, I suppose.

I'm out of school now, by the way, but no less busy for it. At least, it seems that way to me. But, DONE WITH HIGH SCHOOL YAAAY! *danceparty*

Commander Kip

"Wait, you need a plan of attack!" "I have a plan. Attack."

Normal is overrated!

Thing(s) of the Day: Pogo, pus recent news

I stumbled across these cool videos a week or two ago and decided they were too cool not to share. This guy, Pogo, takes sounds clips from movies and strings them together to make these whimsical melodies. Admittedly, not the kind of thing I habitually enjoy, but I especially like these two (he's done some nice Disney ones as well.)

Mostly I like this one because, you know, Lord of the Rings. It's awesome already. Plus, I find it vastly entertaining that Sam and Elrond scream on the exact same pitch. Anyone else amused by this?

And as for this one, it's got this darling intricate melody that is incredibly catchy, yet I can never seem to remember it later. And by the way, A Little Princess was one of my all-time favorite books when I was a wee lass just learning how to read. A Secret Garden as well. Ah, childhood. Strange to think back to a time when none of the books I read had crazy fight scenes or kissing or anything in them. And now they all do. Lol.


In other news (several things):

(1. I have recieved a very nice financial aid package from St. Olaf, including their highest piano scholarship and second-highest art scholarship, huzzah! *mops brow* Great heaping load of stress off right there, thank the Light. And as for the li'l bro, he got accepted for the Piano Academy there this summer even though he's technically a year too young. They really liked his audition tape. So yay.

(2. My mommie more or less required me to apply for the Great Conversations program at St. Olaf, which is basically a combination of core classes for your first and second year in which you read/analyze/discuss great works of art and literature, beginning with the Ancient Greeks and Romans and progressing as far into the present day as the professors feel like going. It's extremely comprehensive, as well as extremely hard to get into, because if I remember correctly, there's only forty spots. You write an essay, and that's all they have to go on to evaluate you. I wrote a crappy essay, my mom edited it, I wrote it again, she made more edits, and we worked it along until both of us were fairly happy with it. Apparently it was good enough, because I made it in. XD Thanks, Mommie.

(3. I just found out that an art piece of mine won some Grand Award thing in the Shawnee Mission district art show. Tomorrow I have to go to the awards ceremony, and it's gonna be on TV and stuff. I think that means I have to look pretty or something. Crap. *shambles into the corner, muttering to self*

(4. So my chamber choir always has their progressive dinner thingy the night before State every year, mostly to discourage kids from partying late, since we have to ride the bus at a ludicrous hour of the morning. We went to three different houses and ate them all out of house and home. I sat at a table full of boys at the second house and we had a heated discussion about whether the Avengers movie is going to suck or not. (I, personally, fear the suckage. I mean, the Iron Man movie was lame, Thor was reportedly lame, Hulk = whatever, Black Widow didn't even get her own movie, Captain America had a weird ending... basically, the precedents are not good. We shall see.) Anyway, after the dessert course, we did a scavenger hunt that led us on a merry chase all up and down my choir conductor's neighborhood. We had to cross a creek in formal wear. It was bloody brilliant, although I did accidentally dip the hem of my dress in the water when I was leaping from rock to rock in the pitch blackness, since I sort of forgot my flashlight. Whatever, I found out this morning that my team won. Peachwave gift cards. Heck yeah. Although I have massive cramps in both legs because we RAN THE ENTIRE TIME and I am woefully out of shape. Like woefully. As in, borderline extremely fat. At least, it feels that way to me.

(5. Got up at five a.m. this morning to get on a bus and go to Emporia with my chamber choir for State (our performance time was 8:40 a.m.) We did really well at District - got a I rating with like 74 points out of 80. Today at State, we got a I rating with 79 points out of 80. So that was cool. Although I'm totally dying right now. I'm so spoiled - I'm hardly ever out of bed before eight anymore. Yes, I know I'm spoiled! Quit smacking me! I WILL MAKE YOU BLEED!! Ahem.

(6. At the used book sale last week, or whenever it was, I was fortunate to encounter the entire Star Wars: Jedi Academy book trilogy, which I immediately snapped up, because they were like fifty cents apiece and I can never find all three of them in one place. Just finished the first one, Jedi Search, last night. Ah, more nostalgia. I love Han and Chewie. That is all. I remember when I watched the movies with my parents for the first time, and every time a new character came on the screen, I would be all like, "Is that a good guy or a bad guy? It's a good guy, right? What are those little hooded things? Are they nice? Why do people always fall down when that black-cape guy is around?" Imagine me saying all those things in my reedy small-child voice, and you can probably imagine my parents repeating over and over, "Just watch the movie and see!" Oh, right, book sale. In addition to the aforementioned Star Wars books, I also picked up a copy of Divergent, because I decided I liked it enough to own it; Delirium, which my book-buddy friend at school is currently raving about; I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You, which Lady Arin has been bugging me to read for ages, and I finally read it! There, happy? I'm sorry, but I think I missed my window. I probably would have enjoyed it far more if I'd read it when I was fourteen. Now I was like, Holy crap, this chick is such a fifteen-year-old girl. So. MUCH. I swear, she uses the word "totally" like twenty times a second. But granted, there were a few funny parts.

(7. Other book stuff. Recently finished both Hamlet and Lord of the Flies for English; enjoyed Hamlet quite a bit, but not so much the other. Lord of the Flies just reminds me of the mutated love child of Lost and Peter Pan. It's rather frightening. But mostly just gory. Gorier than I tend to like. Not a huge fan of skulls splitting open and brains spilling out, thanks very much. However, I am also simultaneously in the middle of Incarceron (borrowing from my school book-buddy) and A Game of Thrones, which I like so far. I've had a few spoilers on account of my brother having watched several episodes of the show at my grandparents' house, but it's still a rich read. Dawww, Bran! *huggles the little climber* Dude, I really want a direwolf as a pet. Especially one that would defend me from jerkwad snotty princes. That would be freaking awesome.

(8. I am amassing a list of things I need to read/watch/play/do before college this coming fall. It's gonna be a super busy summer if I even attempt to get through it all. The list currently includes: finish all three Tomb Raider games (probably too ambitious, but oh well); finish Twilight Princess; play through Portal; have Firefly marathon with Brenticus; watch every episode of Teen Titans ever created; watch Aladdin; play Assassin's Creed (probably just the first one - there's no way I'll have time for all of them); paint up the spare Nerf guys I have lying around in my room; oh yeah, clean out my room so the bro can live in it; SEE MILADY; play more Skyrim (although that's quickly losing its glamour - plenty of better things to do); take another crack at Myst V perhaps; write second draft of Erimon Hill (hopefully BEFORE workshop, but seriously, can I make that happen? Probably not); read moar Shakespeare (specifically Macbeth, The Tempest, and Romeo and Juliet... that's my own personal list); sell a bunch of my old crap; get a new computer; work at the Taekwondo studio and earn some actual monies; watch Scott Pilgrim vs. The World; go see shiny new movies coming out (Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit Part I, and others); catch up on movies I missed in the theater (John Carter, Sherlock Holmes 2, and whatever else); eat lots of Peachwave, cuz I doubt they have those in Minnesota; get my Ipod situation fixed (we don't have Itunes on any of our computers anymore); prepare for my graduation showcase/ceremony in early August; and basically hang out with my family and high school friends as frigging much as possible. *gulps down some air* Whew, I thought I was going to asphyxiate there for a second. See how much stuff that is? I could not sleep a single minute this entire summer and still not get around to it all. Ack, so much stuff!

But first, school. I am so done with it, guys. Please. Take it away.

Commander Kip
"Are you guys done yet?" "Shut it! This is going to take HOURS. HOURS... and HOURS."
Normal is overrated!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone sketches

Hokay, so, first off: remember when what I said about "so little homework lately"? Yeah, that's gone now. I don't know why teachers think it's a good idea to pile on the homework for fourth-quarter seniors. Surely that must know that no one's going to do it. So basically, real life is eating me right now and my posting schedule has been subsequently lame. I apologize. Here's a little thingy to keep you satiated in the meantime. Sketchies of Karou and Akiva!

 These three are my faves (the rest are more or less crap) - Karou with the paintbrush in her hair:

 Akiva, in all his kohl-ish glory:

And some kissing, because that one scene was super hot.

Awright, I dunno what they did to Blogger, but clearly they fixed something that wasn't broke because my formatting is all jakey now nothing is working the way it should and I want my mommy and what was wrong with the old version? It should not have taken fifteen minutes to make those pictures and text sit where I wanted them.

This is stupid. Maybe I should boycott. Just, you know, 'till they put it back the way it was.

Back to the ever-present schoolthings...

Commander Kip

"Hey, we were calling to wish Grandpa a happy birthday!" *long pause* "...Oh. *another pause* ... That's today?" "Yes, Mother, it's your husband's birthday. Can we talk to him?" "Oh, sure, here he is." "Hey, Grandpa, happy birthday!" "Oh, that's today?" "Um, yes." "Good thing you called - I forgot all about it!"

Normal is overrated!

You may have noticed that I tried something

and I'm not sure I like it. I *ghasp* changed my blog. The background, heading, color scheme, all of it. I was going for summery, but somehow ended up with Eastery. It would appear that I accidentally matched the color scheme to that heinous watercolor in the last post. Bad. Bad bad. So this look will quite possibly not stick.

Really, the reason I changed it was because I was tired of my old background, although I loved it, and also my dad taught me some cool things about Paint.NET that I wanted to test out. Hence my fancy new header. I'll stick it up here so there's some record of it when I inevitably change it again: Certainly more professional that the last, and far more legible-er. But not really the colors I want on my blog at present. Ah well. Try again.

(Eventually. I suddenly have many things to do, which is forcing me to ignore this debilitating case of senioritis and get actual things done. It hurts me. I just wanna lay around and watch Youtube, now, is that so much to ask? Apparently it is.)

See, even my blog posts are lame. I truly wish to be absolutely lazy these days. Fourth quarter sucks. 'Scuse me while I go cry into my Spanish homework.

Oh, but remind me, when I get a chance, to talk about A Game of Thrones, which I'm finally reading, and the massive-scale Erimon Hill rewrite, which will happen before the workshop IF IT KILLS ME, and some fun things I've found online recently, and also that artwork thing I sometimes do. I have a stack of doodles THIS BIG *holds up hands about a foot apart* to show you people.

I love how I always make lists of the posts I want to do, and then I only do like the first one or two on the list. I suspect this time will be no different. Well, too bad.

Commander Kip
Ooh, cop uniform? Yummey.
Normal is overrated!

HAPPY REBIRTHDAY

It's Easter, you gaiz! I heart Easter. Have a crappy watercolor! It's Stewey from the IUW. 'Member him? The angry rabbit? Well, now he's even angrier. Might have something to do with me dyeing him blue and tying a pink ribbon on his head. Hey, I never claimed I knew how to watercolor. Hence that heinous mess of colors up there.

Also, since it's Easter, have this video.


Usually I am not a huge fan of Christian music as a genre, because many of the songs are very basic in structure, but basically I just like Adam Young's voice. It's, I dunno, clear. And hopeful. It has a simplicity that I find lacking in most modern pop stars. Not a ton of vibrato. I like that. Yay Owl City.

Now, CHURCH! *dashes off to make self presentable*

Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it!

Commander Kip
I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.
Normal is overrated!

Thing of the Day: DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth

I wasn't planning on this particular Thing of the Day, but there's life for you. Always throwing wrenches and crow's feet and sticky grenades in your plans. Silly life. Annnyway.

My friend from school lent me this book, DIVERGENT, and I started it yesterday and finished it... yesterday. So I wanna talk about it for a sec. (By the way, it's set in dystopian Chicago, and I've been to Chicago, so nyeh. 'S cool to read about a city you've been to. Like when Percy Jackson accidentally blows a hole in the St. Louis Arch and stuff while fighting a chimaera. But that's sorta beside the point.) Point is, this particular dystopian society is separated into five factions, which people sort themselves into at the age of sixteen depending on their personality. However, the protagonist, Beatrice Prior, also/later known as Tris, doesn't fit nicely into any of the factions and is therefore considered Divergent, which is the same thing as "extremely dangerous to the government," because she can't be controlled. Apparently, Divergence is very rare in this society. Now, here's what's funny. My parents have raised me Divergent all my life. They sat me down and gave me a big serious talk about divergence right before I started public school. My whole family is majorly divergent. So reading about this chick who was raised in a theoretical box and whose life is constantly in danger because she's just discovered that she's Divergent is fascinating to me. It's like, whenever she thinks she should just fit in and do what her faction is doing, I'm going, Nooo, that's not the way to do it. Do your own thing, Tris! In fact, I believe that if everyone were more Divergent, the world might even be a better place for it. Instead of hordes of sheepul who do and think whatever theyr'e told, we might have a community of aware people who know what's going on in the world and aren't afraid to speak/act differently than perhaps the government wishes they would. In the book, the five factions are based on the qualities of selflessness, kindness, knowledge, truth, and courage. You have to pick one. You don't get to be all of them. But one of the characters, Four, says he wants to be all of them, and that everybody should be all of them. They can't work as well independently of one another. Here's me in total agreement, you guys.

And get this; just for kicks, I took the faction quiz in the back of the book, which is supposed to determine which faction you would be in, and my results were... inconclusive. I had answers in every category. I can't be classified. I'm Divergent. I KNEW IT! And the really funny part is, Divergent wasn't even a choice in the results. Just the five factions. They didn't actually build Divergence into the quiz. Isn't that interesting? And the even funnier part is, I took the quiz before I actually read the book, and I didn't know what it meant, at first, that none of my answers matched any one single faction. Then I read the book and I was like, oh, I get it now.

So basically, I'm so glad my parents didn't raise me in a way that lets other people put me in a box. I like being Divergent. Yay padres especiales! It's wasn't a particularly well-written book, slightly sub-par to Hunger Games, I would say; but it did make me think. Which is good.

Now I gotta go clean the house and vacuum up some wasp carcasses before the fam gets here for Easter tomorrow. Later, all!

Commander Kip
"What if they solve the case first?" *derpface* "Nah."
Normal is overrated!