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The Upstairs Archives

~ A random repository of how-to-write and geekery, with an occasional snippet of accidental wisdom.

The Upstairs Archives

Monthly Archives: March 2014

Thoughts for Lent #2: God thinks, therefore I am

30 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Tales of a Wandering Bard, Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

descartes, laetare sunday, lent, logic, poetry

Happy Laetare Sunday! Father wore pink today! X-D

One of our recent homilies was on the comment of a certain famous French philosopher,

I think, therefore I am.

Can anybody else see what exactly is wrong with this?

Apparently, if you can not think, then you are not! Does this mean we should euthanize all people who have less than a certain IQ? Should everyone who is declared “brain dead” (aka, no higher mental functions showing) should die? (Remember, some of these people still come back after years and years of life in a so-called “vegetative state”.) Does it mean that everyone who watches mindless TV after work rather than playing chess should be declared “not human”? Does it mean that since babies can’t think for themselves yet, they aren’t human either, justifying abortion?

In my opinion, no. In fact, my opinion is a very strong no, to each and every of these questions. (Bear in mind, this is just my opinion, and while I am baring my opinions to the world on this blog, I am merely airing them, not forcing you to believe them too.) Each of these things that logically follow from Rene Descartes’ famous quote are horrible to even imagine; they are the subject of many thriller, sci-fi, and dystopian novels.

Fellow Christians, look closer at this quote. Does it seem familiar? It might, and it should. It’s Enlightenment thinking. While there is nothing wrong with some Enlightenment thinking, it does offer knotty questions to all of us who believe that God is supreme. Man is supreme over the animals because, apparently, he can think. He has a soul. He has free will. But his free will is given to him so that he may do the right thing out of love. (Feminists, please don’t freak out. I’m just using good old-fashioned grammar shorthand and lowering the wordcount of a post that’s otherwise too long by using “man” to stand for “man and woman” and “he” for “he and she.” Thank you for your attention. 🙂 ) But that’s not really where Descartes is headed with this. He discards the idea of a soul and fixates on the thinking that differentiates man from animals. Thus, when a man can not think, he is no longer human, regardless if the soul is still bound to the body.

The other problem with this is the one I’ve been getting at all along. Since, obviously, man can think, man is the Master. Why, Descartes might have said instead,

I think, therefore I AM WHO I AM.

Which, my friends, I think we all recognize is blasphemy.

I propose a new quotation and a new meditation:

God thinks, therefore I am.

It is true, after all. If God ceased to think of us for a single breath, we would cease entirely to exist in that same moment, unique immortal soul and all! Scary thought, that, but it will never happen. Why?

Because

God so loved the world that He sent His only-begotten Son, that whomever should believe in Him should have immortal life.

John 3:16. (But you already knew that. :-P)

All right, now that I’ve taken apart some faulty reasoning (:-P), I have a poem that I wrote which you all might enjoy reading!

Oh wondrous wisdom, for forty days

Each hour given up to prayer

That each moment may purify our ways

And fit us for the Gospel to declare.

Oh, beautiful time, these forty days

That each day another day fulfill

Repentance in ashes, for life comes through pain

Emptiness that only self-denial can fill.

Purifying our hearts, we wipe away fear

By this holy season’s fast

Oh, wisdom of this tithe of the year!

But be warned, these precious hours do not last.

They fly away like leaves in a gale,

Into the immutability of the past,

Not until time is gone do we see and grow pale.

That these little gifts should not be the last,

By our souls’ trials are our souls made strong,

Preparation for the dawn of the Light,

For forty days was never too long,

Until the vigil of the New Fire at Easter’s midnight,

Shall we sing in hope our Lenten song.

(Yes, I know the rhyme scheme is off, and it’s a little old-fashioned, but I hope you like it. And it really is a tithe of the year–Lent is almost exactly one-tenth of the year! No, that’s not my idea. It was Pope Innocent’s, I think. I’m not sure. Thanks for reading, and God Bless!)

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28 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Artwork, Bound to the Flame, Uncategorized

≈ 34 Comments

Tags

artwork, bound to the flame, dragons, paint

There should be a not-very-good dragon drawing right here...

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Hello, everyone! While I was off my laptop, I did a lot of drawing, and now that I have the …

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Of Elves and Peredhel

26 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

j.r.r. tolkien, plot holes, science, story dynamics, the lord of the rings

Peredhel means half-Elven, in case you were wondering.

This post is dedicated to something that confused me in the Lord of the Rings movies. Try to keep up with me, please, if you will.

Elrond and his brother Elros were the sons of an elf and a human in the Elder Days. Due to the fact that they were half-and-half, each brother was given a choice between mortality and immortality; to walk the path of the Elves or the roads of men. Elros chose mortality, and is considered among the greatest kings of men. Elrond chose immortality, and is the greatest of lore-masters and the best healer in Middle-Earth by the end of the Third Age.

Arwen is the daughter of Elrond. As Elrond’s child, she was given the same choice as her father. She chose mortality, to be with Aragorn, the ranger. Their child could also be considered a half-elf.

We see the child in a few clips in the movie. The thing is that he and Elrond have nothing in common, in appearance at least.

I would assume that this is because of Arwen’s choice, but you’d expect all half-elves to have similar attributes, wouldn’t you?

I’m just a bit confused, is all…

Oh, and by the way. Uruk-hai are hybrids of orcs and men. Not orcs and goblins! Orcs and goblins are all the same species! Though, we do tend to think of Uruk-hai when we think of orcs, and the Misty Mountain/Moria breed when we say goblins. But they’re still the same species. So there.

On Writing Ageless Characters and Tolkien-esque Immortals

24 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Story Dynamics, Uncategorized

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

a wrinkle in time, ageless characters, angels, brian jaques, characters, characters with magical or supernatural powers, creative writing, elves, faeries, gods, immortals, j.r.r. tolkien, limits, madeliene l'engle, mary sues, redwall, star wars, story dynamics, the lord of the rings, writing

Recently, Liam, Head Phil (over at This Page Intentionally Left Blank) made a post entitled Ageless Characters. Now, this post was on writing believable children (as in, a twelve-year-old who seemed to be twelve and not sixteen or six), but the title got me thinking.

Occasionally, and especially if you’re writing science fiction or fantasy, you will come across characters who are ancient (like Yoda!), and it will be necessary for the other characters to interact with them as equals (as in Legolas and the way he relates to the rest of the Fellowship.) Yoda is not immortal; Legolas is. However, on both counts, they are far older than anyone else: Yoda is 875 odd years older than anyone in the central cast, except in the prequels, when he’s more like 850 years older. Still, what’s an odd two and a half decades?

Meanwhile, Legolas is probably at least a thousand years older than anyone else in the Fellowship, and most people wind up treating him like an equal. Whereas, everyone respects Yoda. Then, too, Yoda develops over time like anyone else, but he’s been around so long he doesn’t really seem much older. Legolas is the same, to an extent. Yoda seems older than Legolas, but then, elves do not age like mortals.

So, what’s the secret?

I guess it just depends on what you’re writing.

When you’re writing an immortal such as an elf, they will often treat mortal characters (such as humans) as equals. They do not look down on humans, and though they tend to be wise and have heightened senses, these attributes should never be overwhelming. They tend to be humble, and can be overwhelmed. They are also aware of this. Their powers (if any) can not be overwhelming.

Nobody likes a Mary Sue.

When you’re writing an immortal who happens to be a Greek-Pantheon-like god (or other fallible being with more overt power than a human,) it helps for them to be arrogant. And obviously, even painfully fallible. And obviously, and painfully unaware or ignoring of the fact. Perhaps there is room for a character arc here, even if the “god” is not your main character. (Personally, my favorite pastime is pounding sense into the head of some arrogant jackass who styles himself or herself a “god.” Nothing more fun than smacking them into the ground and informing them that power is granted, not earned or owned. Perhaps I sound cynical, but… well, this is the way I see the world. Arrogance is an enemy. There is only one God, and men can not style themselves as gods without retribution for the act.) Perhaps these characters are more powerful than ordinary men. But they must be fallible. If their powers seem infinite and are by nature hard to limit, character flaws are the way to go.

Angels and faeries are more similar to elves than to gods, but they tend to have more power showing than elves. However, unless we’re talking about villains (a corrupted angel is called a demon or devil, by the way,) they will also be humble, and very much aware (constantly!) of their subservience to a higher power.

This is the point where we’re caught between a rock and a hard place. Immortal characters are often difficult to write because they have superhuman–perhaps even supernatural–powers, but, by the Laws of Good Writing, they must not be infallible. No character is perfect. That’s the first rule of world-building and character arcs. Every character must have flaws, and all-powerful characters are no fun. Besides, everyone loves a humble person. (I dealt with this problem in my story Bound to the Flame, with Rowan. He is more powerful–being gifted with magic and having preternaturally honed senses–than any other character in the book, partly by necessity–though I haven’t exactly revealed the reason why yet…. In this view, his disability–his crippled leg–was a boon to me. Not only did it make him seem imperfect–I mean, how many authors nowadays are willing to write a cripple?! He can’t kick behinds in the normal sense!–but it gave me an edge on his character flaws as well. His temperament is quiet and disciplined, without being weak. He’s not a procrastinator. However, partly due to his disability, he can be impulsive, even reckless, and occasionally over-estimates his own strength and gets himself in over his head. He allows himself to be easily provoked in some circumstances, he’s emotionally insecure, and he even picks fights sometimes. And all because, due to his disability, he’s driven to succeed, to prove himself, to prove that he can be more than just a helpless, useless cripple. If he was not disabled, all the character flaws I listed above would be out of character, but due to that one tiny fly in his ointment, they fit perfectly. It adds another arc in besides the character one, too–Rowan learning to physically as well as emotionally live with his limits. The simple beauty and genius of this single plot point awes me. It’s so perfect, I can’t help but question if it’s even mine, poor scribbler of trite drivel that I am.)

Long-lived mortals are a different color of horse altogether. They tend to be rather comical, occasionally–think of older Rollo from Pearls of Lutra or Mrs. Whatsit from A Wrinkle in Time (I know Mrs. Whatsit is not, technically, a mortal, but she is very much like a mortal character with a very long lifespan.) They tend to think along different tracks from younger characters. Sometimes, they tend to sleep a lot. 😛

But they are also wise, and young people should look up to them for guidance. Do they? I don’t know. Perhaps you’re writing a novel about empty-headed young rebels who don’t think enough to know they should listen to their elders’ council.

But anyway, the youngsters who are wise themselves will look up to their elders. Since these elders are mortal, they tend to have an entirely different set of limitations (and don’t often have powers), and due to the fact that they are elders, it’s not as hard to make them less than perfect. Yoda was not infallible. (And he “talks backwards”, too. :-P) Now that would make an interesting story… a character with superhuman/supernatural powers guided by one who doesn’t have those same powers…

After all, as authors we push the borders quite a bit, don’t we?

Hello? Anyone out there?

21 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Story Dynamics, Tales of a Wandering Bard, Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

accidents happen, angels' reflections, camp nanowrimo april 2014, dystopian fiction, keyboard, laptop, laptop returned, nanowrimo, national novel writing month, original stories, story dynamics

Preparation for Nanowrimo Camp: FUN! 😀 Is anyone else super excited? I sure know I am!!!

Okay, so I’m working on the same project as I have been last year for the past two camps and hoping to complete it this time. As soon as I get my laptop back, I’ll start preliminary editing. This is why I love first drafts: you can mess with them as much as you like and see what works best. (I’m addicted to everything Microsoft Word. Did you notice? :-P)

Okay, that first bit was written before my laptop came back. I am currently writing this on my laptop! YAY! 😀

So, besides announcing camp… I have a laptop return to announce! Yay!

Well, recently I’ve been working on getting together the camp workshop, using these blog posts… I think that this blog is like journal keeping for me. I have an obligation to write, since I’m writing for people. Keeping a journal just for myself feels sort of counter-intuitive. Thus, I write my blog more than my diary. It’s almost like I’m keeping a record of all my most pertinent discoveries, and not just for myself, so it keeps me accountable.

I will be continuing my camp project of April and July 2014 that I failed to complete in November. In this chapter of the Angels’ Reflections saga, we meet a whole new group of characters, the Shape-Shifters of Kalya: Karyll, the Raven; Verun, the Wolf; Nadya, the Falcon; and Beckra, the Bear. These four are the only survivors of a genocide against the Shape-Shifters’ race, and play well into the dystopian theme of the previous stories, since they are different from the other people of the world, they want more than simply what they are given, they live under a brain-washing government that promises a utopia, but doesn’t properly deliver… I could take all day listing the reasons why they fit! 😉

Verun, especially, will share a special bond with the Binders, Jay and Aliana: All three of them possess powers that they don’t fully understand, all three of them have a special destiny to complete, and all three of them are questions that have never been posed before.

This is it. This is the final battle for both Elayatar and Kalya. There is nowhere to turn, nowhere to run. Sides must be taken. There is no going back from this moment.

All roads lead here.

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19 Wednesday Mar 2014

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baroness emma orczy, han solo, humor, star wars, the scarlet pimpernel

Just completely random stupidity. Sorry about the image quality.

Enjoy!1391748265-starwarsep-osir-percyhan what the

Posted by erinkenobi2893 | Filed under Uncategorized

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Sonnet to a Sandhill Crane

18 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Tales of a Wandering Bard, Uncategorized

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beaver chews, bird nests, birdwatching, nature, photography, sandhill crane migration, sandhill cranes, science, whooping cranes

My camera ran out of battery--gah!

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On Saturday, I was gone most of the day and never even got on the computer. (Gasp!) I apologize to …

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Wreck-It Ralph: A Review

17 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Story Dynamics, Uncategorized

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

bbc sherlock, cars, despicable me, disney, gaming, gru, moriarty, pac-man, pixar, reviews, video games, wreck-it ralph

Before we get started, I have just one thing to say: I am not a gamer, so I wouldn’t know much about any of the games they Easter-Egged in this movie. I had to have Pac-Man explained to me, for goodness’ sake!

I’ll try not to include spoilers in this post, but I make no promises, so… if you haven’t seen the movie, this might not be the best place to go if you want to decide whether to watch it or not, especially if you don’t like spoilers. Forewarned is forearmed. However, I will most definitely NOT mention The Really Big Spoiler of this movie.

All right, so… where to begin?

Well, first of all, Ralph is a good old-fashioned destroy-everything-in-his-path villain. But he’s not just a villain. He’s a really sweet guy, a bit like Gru, from Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2.

Unfortunately, due to the label of “bad guy”, no one really realizes this. The people in his game (he’s a video game character; you did watch the preview, did you not?) don’t like him because of this. At least, the minor characters. Felix, the player character, doesn’t really hate him, or at least, doesn’t show it. Ralph’s life can only be described as horrible; he lives in a stump in a dump full of old, broken bricks. (It’s a bit odd, though; the stereotype of “brick” is bigger than your hand. Ralph’s hands, to contrast, are much bigger than those bricks!) Naturally, Ralph wants a better life. But not just because he’s basically homeless–because he’s lonely. He wants to be loved.

On the night the story opens, the arcade closes and then, the games come alive. Traveling through the power cords, the characters can move from game to game (though, if they die outside their games, they can’t regenerate.) Ralph has gone to a quasi-counseling-session-slash-support group that looks like a mock-up of Alcoholics Anonymous–in fact, the banner in the background boldly proclaims the legend “Villains Anon”–in the Pac-Man game. Returning home to his own game, Fix-it Felix Junior, he finds out that all the other characters in the game are celebrating the game’s thirty-year anniversary–and they didn’t think to invite him. He goes to try and talk with the other characters, but only Felix is willing to talk, and even then, it’s awkward. Naturally, Felix, being the hero, invites him in (still awkwardly), but Ralph’s pre-programmed clumsiness and proclivity for… well, wrecking things, cause some problems, and the resident bigot does a Really Stupid Thing: He issues a challenge. Of course, Ralph takes it up. He begins jumping games in an attempt to win a medal, to prove he can be more than just a villain. That starts problems that accelerate from there, as in any movie. Ralph goes to a game called “Hero’s Duty”, a first-person shooter that to me was more than a bit disturbing (I have made a vow to myself to never, ever watch a R-rated movie), and kind of makes things go SNAFU (Situation Normal, All Fouled Up) on the game’s natives. Though things stayed pretty much normal for the “Hero’s Duty” people, a Cybug (the villains of the game; basically, just viruses that are only programmed to multiply, destroy, and return to a tower when the Beacon is activated. Who designed them, anyway? I guess that that game’s designers didn’t know that characters can move from game to game!) escaped the game, to wreak chaos everywhere else. A very driven military exterminator with an intense backstory and a still more powerful dedication to keeping the bugs from spreading named Calhoun follows the Cybug (and Ralph) to another game, “Sugar Rush”, which was basically ALL CANDY, teaming up with Felix, who has gone to find Ralph, without whom the game can not run, along the way. After all, according to Moriarty in BBC’s Sherlock,

Every fairytale needs a good old-fashioned villain. You need me.

Both of them are risking their lives–permanently–to find Ralph and protect each other, since if a character dies outside their game, they do not regenerate.

Meanwhile, Ralph has met a little girl whose name I was never able to determine (Penelope or Vanelope? I have no idea!) who starts by annoying him, then claims his medal, in order to get into a race that might change her life; she has a chance to become the game’s avatar thereby. Of course, Ralph wants it back. Eventually, though, they begin to identify with each other. Penelope (I’m just going to call her that for now) is a glitch, an unplugged line of coding. She has the tendency to dissolve momentarily into binary code and then re-constitute. As a glitch (a mere computer error!), she is ostracized, because the others in her game believe that if anyone sees her on-screen, it will lead to the players thinking the game is broken, and the game being unplugged; other than dying outside one’s own game, this is the worst possible fate that can befall a video-game character, since it leads to the characters becoming homeless in the most desperate way. And this would be worse for Penelope than for anyone else. As a glitch and not an actual character, per se, she does not have the ability to leave her game.

Then… things get worse.

It turns out the Cybug wasn’t dead, and like real viruses, computer viruses reproduce asexually–and in numbers upward of astronomical. This leads up to a sort of apocalypse and Armageddon, and a triumphant ending.

Now, on to the critique.

First of all, at first I did not understand why the Sugar Rush game was the one being overrun by Cybugs and being set up for the finale. It makes sense later on, though. But only once you see The Really Big Spoiler. ;-P

The one thing that really annoyed me about this movie were that there were a few much simpler solutions that I could see that no one else seemed to catch on to, and also a few things that I thought the characters would pick up on, which they didn’t.

First of all, I didn’t get why, if King Candy could pull a medal from lines of coding in some sort of under-world which diagrammed all the coding of the “Sugar Rush” game, he couldn’t simply plug Penelope back into the coding and de-glitch her. (This is where The Really Big Spoiler comes in. It’s also what made me despise King Candy as an idiot before I despised him otherwise.)

Second, I never understood why Ralph didn’t catch on to this. Why didn’t he notice? If Penelope had told him it had dissolved into code, then how did King Candy get it back in the game proper? Is it just that lots of Disney characters are terminally stupid?! Ralph certainly didn’t strike me that way. He’s a villain, for goodness sakes, not a moron!!! And then there are the deductions he might have made from that. If he had only made them, the movie might’ve been a lot shorter–though, I must admit, a lot less satisfying. I thought they were setting the game up for Ralph and Penelope to sneak into the palace, find the underworld, and plug her back into the game. Add a few fight scenes and bingo! Alternate ending #1.

Third, was the bit where Ralph found out that Penelope was intended to be a featured part of the game. Again, not necessary, due to the first alternate ending.

Fourth, there was also the fact of the beacon before the reset. I thought they would heroically fight their way through all the Cybugs to get Penelope over the finish line, resetting the game and destroying all the Cybugs (and possibly sacrificing themselves as well, for bonus points on the awesomeness meter.) But then, I noticed just how many Cybugs there were. Well above exponential in reproduction sequence, I think. So maybe the beacon was necessary… though definitely less high on the “wow!” factor scale. But still! Epic Fight Scene. Penelope Crosses Finish Line. Game Resets. All Cybugs Destroyed. Possible Sacrifice due to the game reset (rather than the Cybugs. After all, the blond soldier lady, Ralph, and Felix are just too good to go out that way.) Alternate ending #2.

Then there’s an oddment that just doesn’t fit anywhere else. Calhoun.

She is amazing. She’s a soldier. She’s hardcore.

Where to begin?

Well, to me she just looked like a sci-fi-game-esque rip-off of Bo-Katan Kryze, from Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season Five. Add blond hair, much less streamlined armor (Mandalorian beskar totally OWNS the junk she was wearing! No offense, but it’s not disrespect, it’s the truth. ;-P) and you have Calhoun. Also, the thing that REALLY annoyed me about her was not that she was female, or that she was blonde. It was that stupid wasp waist. People just don’t look like that in real life!

Now for the stuff that I liked about the movie.

We watched a few of the deleted scenes from the movie, and there are two things I am majorly glad didn’t make it in: The fifth game they were thinking of adding at one time (“Extreme E-Z Living 2”), and some of a few scenes with Felix.

The reason I’m glad “Extreme E-Z Living 2” didn’t make it in is partly because of its name, and partly because of its object. A game which is only about having “fun” in a purely material sense (as opposed to the ap Farm Frenzy, which is about defending your farm and building your asset base) and doesn’t have any conflict would not be much of a hit, certainly not one that would spawn a sequel or second generation version. There is no point and no end to the game, whereas another game would have a lot of levels, and then stop. (I do know that much!) Also, there’s no real reward to playing the game, and since it doesn’t end there is no reward for completing it, as in other games. Survival of the fittest (aka “Fix-it Felix Junior”): “Extreme E-Z Living 2” just doesn’t make the cut. And if it doesn’t fly in real life, it’s a surefire way to ruin a fictional movie.

The other bits I’m glad didn’t make it in was that in some deleted scenes, Felix just seemed… annoying. Oblivious to annoyance he was causing to others. And it just would not have been the same if Felix had been with Ralph the whole time, instead of with Calhoun. As it is, Felix obviously doesn’t know how to handle certain situations, but he’s resourceful and kind without being obnoxious (which is kind of rare in a Disney movie, especially in a side character… haven’t you noticed?!) He has a sense of honor. He is determined to help Calhoun and Ralph (and later Penelope) at the risk of his own life. He is funny, but not corny, and not entirely asinine. Did the writers find a real magic hammer that can fix anything?! ‘Cause that’s what it sure seems like…

So, for Felix, I say, hooray!

In my opinion, Ralph is the most loveable Disney character since The Incredibles. (No offense, but in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m just not an awful big fan of Disney princesses. I prefer Tolkien to that saccharine, sugar-free nonsense. And talk about feminist values–they’re supposed to be liberated and whatnot, but they’re still stereotyped! You can’t have it both ways, people. Sugary and sugar-free? *shudders* NO THANK YOU.) And no, I am not apologizing for saying that. Cars was good, but really? It had all been done before, probably. This is my favorite Disney movie in recent history. (I haven’t seen Frozen yet, but I don’t think I’m likely to love it so much as I will Ralph, and probably not so enduring, either.) A phenomenon I’m noticing with Disney is that all the “princessy” movies I like when I first watch them, but I don’t watch them again nearly as much in the long run. Not so with The Incredibles, and Wreck-it Ralph seems to be following the same trend.

I thought it was kind of funny that Ralph is not much good at creating stuff, since he was programmed to destroy it. Also, Felix trying to break things (and being more innovative than Calhoun) was pretty funny.

I think Ralph is part of a larger archetype; people who are more than just their coding. They are more than just programming or computer glitches. From what I understand of Divergent, its heroine is also one of these types of characters. She doesn’t fit into a faction. Unlike her, though, Ralph is not facing extinction because he won’t simply stick to the status quo. At least, not directly. His actions lead to him facing death, but it’s not exactly the same. They don’t want to kill him just because he wants more, you understand. Only if he tries to permanently leave his game. And even then, no one wants him to die. The real danger is dying outside his game.

More than that, though, I think that Ralph is an expression of humanity as a whole. We have our limitations, but we’re still more than what society and culture tell us we can be. We don’t have to be defined by the labels we’re forced to wear. I think that’s the real allure of dystopian fiction.

Other than that, there was really not that much that was offensive about the film. Even in “Hero’s Duty” there was no foul language that I could hear, and other than some lousy humor courtesy of Penelope (who is the most outrageous, disrespectful, irreverent, incorrigible rascal I have seen in a long time! Yes, I do love her, too. :-P), there was nothing offensive or suggestive. (In case you were wondering, potty jokes about the title of the last game Ralph visited. Which I personally find offensive. But that was it. Yay!)

But the really brilliant part of the ending was that everything changed, and at the same time, nothing changed. They broke the status quo and maintained it at the same time. There was no major upheaval, yet at the same time there was a happily-ever-after. How did they do this?

The secret? Attitude changes.

So, that’s my review of Wreck-it Ralph. I hope you enjoyed. 😉 I also hope it gave you some food for thought. Yes, this is my favorite Disney movie in a while. I give it four out of five stars. The only reason no five star rating: the plot errors. That’s all.

Thanks for reading, and God Bless!

Bound to the Flame, Chapter II, Part III

15 Saturday Mar 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Uncategorized

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Tags

bound to the flame, original work, stories in progress

We’re back to Rowan in this one. It might be just a tad disturbing, so proceed with caution.

Oh, and this is the first time we meet Rheadwyn, too! 😀

That much said, enjoy!

Bound to the Flame

Chapter II

Part III

                He was burning up with fever, sweating and shivering at the same time. He tried to move, in order to get into a more comfortable position, but as he did so a terrible pain shot through his leg and up his back. He screamed in agony. White-hot lances ran, tingling painfully, through the broken leg and around his spine. Strong hands pinned him down. Panicking, he struggled, regardless of the pain it caused. Where was he? What was happening? He fought the hands that held him down. Why… why was this happening?

                Shadows coalesced in the angle beyond his mind’s reach, pain splintered the visible spectrum into red and black. Horrible light, too bright and yet unilluminating, pierced his eyes. He cried out, twisting his head away, trying to keep the light from piercing his head. That sent the agonizing spikes up his back again, and he gasped. He was trapped in a long dark hall of jagged shards of red, black, and torment. Slowly, he wandered deep in the shadows, wondering if he could ever return. Dimly, he remembered other things, when pain was only a dark dream, a mere terror of the night to be dispelled in the light of morning. It was his only reality now.

                Could he ever come back?

 

                “Keep him still! Keep him still!” Rheadwyn, a knight and healer, shouted over the racket in the sickroom, as she wrung out a damp cloth that she was using in an attempt to clean the injury. Her assistants pinned down the writhing boy to the pallet as she dabbed at the multiple cuts on Rowan’s broken leg. Rowan was crying out in pain, shouting out things that made no sense in his delirium. His breath came in ragged, shallow, painful gasps; he seemed unable to claim enough oxygen.

                Melilana placed a hand on her son’s forehead, her lips moving in a prayer, then a spell. “Isn’t there something we can do about the pain?” she cried out over the cries of pain and shouts of the healers.

                “We’ve tried willow, motherwort, mint even,” Rheadwyn said. “It’s not working. There’s nothing more we dare do, or we risk poisoning him.” Melilana wiped Rowan’s forehead with a clean, damp cloth, in an attempt to bring down the fever. She dabbed at the cut in his cheek that looked like a cross between a T and a backwards J. The injured child gave a low moan of pain. Melilana had to struggle to keep the tears from spilling out of her eyes and rolling down her cheeks. It pained her to see her much-beloved, only son so broken, so weak and ill.

                Rowan’s tawny dark hazel eyes opened momentarily. They were distant, unfocused. Melilana reached out and found the long, slim, elegant hand, now flaccid and feeble, that was draped like a sad pennon over the side of the bed. Rowan’s large, dark, tawny eyes were limpid, deep, unfocused, undirected, chill pools that led to unknown depths. Rowan drew in a sharp breath and moved restlessly. “Hold him! Keep him still! Don’t let him injure himself further!” Rheadwyn shouted. Melilana gripped her son’s limp hand and gazed him in the eyes. She saw only fear, terror, confusion, pain. While Rowan’s broken body lay in one place, his mind was in another entirely, walking dark avenues where no one else could follow, distant, far away, alone, struggling to comprehend. Rowan gasped out several more prhases and words that didn’t make sense. He writhed in pain, shuddering as if he was enduring more torment than simply that of his injured leg and broken body. Melilana was suddenly, sharply and horribly reminded of the scare stories she had heard from time to time. Mind torture! But of course, that was impossible, beyond imagining. Mind torture came under the label of dark magic, the occult, no matter who exercised it, how, or for what reasons; no matter the circumstances, it was always morally wrong, and as such, it was banned. Melilana banished the unpleasant thought from her mind and returned her attention to her ailing son. She felt for a single, strange moment as if she was drowning in the boy’s eyes—eyes eerily like her own. Melilana pushed the feeling away and turned her full attention and focus toward helping Rowan.

                “My lady,” Rheadwyn murmured, sotto voce, edging a little closer to the queen, “may I have a word, please?”

                “Of course,” Melilana replied, her lips scarcely moving, sensing that Rheadwyn meant a word that was at least reasonably confidential.

                “Please, I want you to feel Rowan’s injury out. I’d rather not rely on simply my own judgment alone in in a matter as grave as this.” Melilana nodded. She lifted her hand above the boy’s ailing body and murmured a spell under her breath. She was hard put to effectively contain and hide both her shock and horror. “It feels as if there’s some sort of dark magic ‘shroud’ that’s repelling our best efforts at healing magic. It’s almost as if the injury itself is resisting our healing.”

                Rheadwyn nodded, grimly. “That’s the sense I was getting, too,” she said. “Now, if only we knew how or why… if this had been a wound I would have almost said he was attacked with a weapon that had had his name tied to it…” Melilana shuddered as she thought of the dark magic ritual, in which the evil magician would call on the name of the Evil One, cursing the weapon to be the bane of their worst enemy, and whispering the enemy’s name to the blade six times to bind the charm. “It seems too directed for a simple curse, generalized curse,” Rheadwyn mused, rubbing her chin. “And yet, from what Julian said, the injury was likely caused by a fall from his horse, and possibly the horse also falling and landing on him, or rolling onto him. I don’t know how a healing-resistant injury could be caused in that fashion.” She glanced down at Rowan. “He’s fortunate that it wasn’t his back that was broken, and it’s a mystery to me how he traveled anywhere on his own in that condition.”

                “Guardian angels,” Melilana said succinctly, eliciting a wan smile from her friend’s face. Even though she was a powerful enchantress, Rheadwyn often confined her active beliefs to what she could see and hear, and though she did believe in the supernatural she didn’t remind herself of the fact very often.

                “Indeed,” the healer, Ranger and knight murmured in reply.

Oops! I tripped up Facebook!

13 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Uncategorized

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

biking, guitar, hiking, hobbies, life, nanowrimo, normalcy, not perfect, writing

Here’s to being anonymous online!

I mean, seriously, this is the life. Who needs Twitter or Facebook? Just because everyone else has it doesn’t mean it has to own my life!

I’m not photo perfect, and only occasionally do I manage to take the perfect photo. Apparently this face is in style (I look like Katie McGrath and what’s-her-name who plays Irene Adler and have the same jawline as Angelina Jolie, for goodness’ sake!), but the fact that I detest lipstick and mascara is not. So why suffer? I like my natural complexion, thank you very much. I only go online to blog, to read the occasional e-book, to email, to say “hi” to my Nanowrimo buddies, and occasionally to attend the gatherings on the Lego Star Wars Creations Gallery (conveniently located at lego.com.) I can afford to ignore Martha Stewart (I love do-it-yourself and stuff that looks amazing, but seriously, who can live like that all the time? Certainly not your average middle-class American teenaged girl! She has college to work at!) In real life, I work and study. I have a job that I love, taking care of an adorable lass in second grade. The house isn’t always clean, but who cares? You don’t have to go to an amusement park to have fun. There’s always a good-old-fashioned pillow fight! I love camping out though I rarely get to go, but I get to hike and volunteer at the local nature association. I ride my bike (I want to go on a Bicycle Ride Across {Name Random State Here} someday!) I play guitar and ignore the perfect people living their perfect lives in their perfect multi-million dollar, more-than-a-thousand-square-foot homes.

I know I’m not perfect and I work on it, but I’m perfectly happy being not perfect, since God created me human and obviously He wants me to be human.

Life that’s less than perfect is awesome.

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