So life goes on...

Since I'm shifting my writing journal to this one, I thought I'd post a short, unfinished piece. As far as I can tell, it won't be part of any larger work and functions more as mini episode between the more expansive events and tales. I have no idea when I'll finish it. What do you think should happen, other than them getting eaten?

"Trail We Blaze"

Set up: Inspired essentially from The Road to El Dorado song of the same name. It may relate to an picture I did back a little less than a decade ago, not that that matters much to this, because trying to explain that would take up too much time. Simply, this occurs after my initial "an arabian night", currently title The Book of Coming Night,which I'm on the verge of completing by the end of this week (in honor of The Princess and the Frog). 'Itll probably serve as the first of three books about a revised "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp" from The 1001 Nights mixed with Howard Ashman's originl lyrics for the Disney film of the same name (Proud of Your Boy, Call Me A Princess, High Adventure) and, apparently unknown to me, a lot of the ideas, sentiments and characters from bunch of stuff I created when I was younger. When this even specifically occurs is uncertain, except it's after the initial story, but prior to the wedding (how is that going to work? revisions needed?), but after things have already started rolling in terms of "adventure".

It has not been proof-read. Grammatical errors may abound. Please feel free to alert me and any other thoughts. Thanks.

( Are you sure that's a good idea? )

Isn't this the most out of date thing? Ah~ me. For one, I'm considering if I even want to keep this. With the exception of the memories, it seems wasteful to have two journals - one for me and another for my writing. Since my writing (or rather my stories) is central to my me-ness it feels like a double effort to keep both up to date. That is, it seems as it would be easier to update my "writing" journal with notes, random information, daily thoughts, tidbits, than to have a division between the two. Especially with the advent of my more extensive material at Fanstory.com, it makes having a journal to host my stories a bit irrevelent.

But onto the actual point of this -- I'm taking Attic Greek. :D I'm not sure why it took me this long to try it, since I love languages with a completely different alphabet systems. It makes it more appealing to me, hence why most Romance languages are rather blah for me.

( Wherein I talk about my decision and list what I recall of the alphabet )

The best part of learning ancient Greek -- writing it. It's ever so much fun! :D

Well, I took a brief break from thinking and writing my various essay/projects for the end of this semester (early May) and due to time limits I watched "The Lion King II: Simba's Pride" (@ 75 mins).

All words in "" are either quotes from the film or titles of songs.
( Some thoughts )

I think that's all. There's lots of other flittering thoughts. Lines and actions and the awesomeness of Kovu, and Kiara, and their love, and Musfasa. That's about what I got out of this. And the complexity of family, identity, life, and inheirtance and how much who you are may be defined by how you are trained/raised or how you feel yourself to be. The rivers, ghosts, and webs of the past, how they reflect upon the present in negative and postive ways, and how new ways of seeing can change everything. No wonder I love this movie.

It's seems fitting than this month is, I think, "Women Appreciation" Month -- that kind of theme fits nicely into the mode my thoughts of have been going. I find it's hard to collect my thoughts into any kind of sense to describe anything, whether it's my very uneventful yet struggling to actualize life. I don't feel bad about my life; in fact, everything's going well, it would just be nice if I could feel that I'm outputting the same ratio as I'm inputting from reading, thinking, interacting, observing. I make it sound like a kind of computer; perhaps that's part of the problem. As I am typing this I am very conscious that I have used "kind of" three times already and that my sentence fluidity and word choices are far from what I would call creatively and artistically beautiful. Also I notice that I keep using "and" instead of picking one concise word.
But to elaborate on a few points:
( Stories )

( Living )

A LOT of this is simply me rambling about myself, my confusions, and seeds of negativity (hm), so it's not much of an update, but then I haven't had anything, in terms of life, to update on. So I suppose in some ways this was a little irrelevant but I wanted to at least get into the habit again.

Whatever you think of alternate couples, this one was amazing in terms of editing. Wow.

I am severely in need of an update of some sort, especially as I have about half an hour before my 11-o'clock cultural anthropology class. To conserve space, here is a run down of the last 2 months:

1. college begun; lots of philosophy reading and thinking which takes up time (American philosophy with Emerson, Peirce, and James so far; finishing James today --- Philosophy of Literature, which included reading Hard Times by Charles Dickens reaffirming my fondness for that man's writing (earliest story of his I read was Tale of Two Cities which I read in...1997?) --- Environmental Ethics which is really effecting how I view the world, the environment; it feels as though I'm inheriting the themes of my teacher's philosophical views since the books we read were written by him, though it helps that I find a resonative quality to the content). I am also taking a geography course (which cultivates lovely creative juices, particularly political geo, agricultural geo...) and a cultural anthropology. This may not be particularly important, but it has taken up loads of my time, so there it is. As for what I think of the courses, they are quite enlightening, interesting, sometimes exasperating, sometimes very...striking, otherworldly (that is, early on in American Philosophy, I would have the strangest moments of being incredibly aware of myself and my surroundings as I listened to the lecture), or self-affirming (as in Philosophy of Literature, where I am periodically re-reminded as to why I began writing/having an impluse/interest to write, as least partially).

2. I am currently living in the international wing of my dorm; one of my roommates is from Brest, France (Brittany) and the other is from Holland (Netherlands = name of country, Holland = 2 specific...districts or such...it was in her presentation). That unto itself has been interesting, though I feel I have not, thus far, ultilized the opportunity as far as I could (of course saying it like that makes me think of Utilitarianism which I have never been fond of...). Every Monday night a different exchange student(s) presents information on their country with native food at the end. Recently was Kuwait with dates (very fresh and natives ones -- I think his mother sent them over). They were really good. So far it's been England - France (Brest) - Japan - Netherlands - Kuwait (I believe).

3. I've begun writing a new story (the first chapter is still incomplete). Yes, this is important news for me, as I didn't expect to start another one until next summer. Abeit this one will very likely progress much slower than my summer-story but...that's all right, as this new story seems to have a very persistent demeanor. I'm considering using it in NaNoWriMo, though I don't expect to finish it, but it would give me incentive to write 100 words every day or at least 2,000 word per week (that's my goal anyway...which reminds me I need to write a bit to it today...). I've never done it before...does one sign up? Do I create a separate journal-thing? Hm, I'll research it, as I have Halloween free (I mean except for giving out candy -- I've never been big on trick-or-treating...meh).

4. I've become highly immersed again in Disney, specifically "old" Disney, whether Walt-living animated films ("Lady and the Tramp") or early 90s ("Aladdin"). It's feels...reflective of my childhood while at the same time, the sentiments from it (the harmony-song from "The Little Mermaid" Series with the Evil Manta) evoke emotions that seem to resonate, connect, reflect and glow in the spur for emotions, creativity, imagination and consciousness raising of awareness of others in a sympatheic/empathic way that I've gained from Philosophy of Literature (and hence, a re-affirmation of the "why" of writing for me, as I mentioned above) AND in the value-driven, aesthetic bodily environmental awareness and uniqueness-within-community gained from Environmental Ethics. I'm not sure that sentence made much sense but it's the closest to what I mean. Essentially, it feels like what my courses are spurring on in me is correlatively related to emotive sentiments from my childhood, related but not strictly so, to Disney; it feels as if there was this way I felt or "lessons" that infused with my ideological upbringing that are actually being affirmed as all right but college courses. Not in excess, but that there is value in the sentiments for themselves instead of immature, irrationality. That, and that love is a very good, powerful, opening emotion ("Secret of NIMH")

That is all, and now I have to get to class. (And of course there were four points...ah me)

From what I've watched of the Kingdom Hearts franchise on Youtube, coupled with the fact I've recently been immersing myself in the Aladdin franchise, the non-canon quality of Kingdom Hearts Agrabah makes me want to scream.

I have no idea which specific game it occurs it, but Sora, Donald and Goofy arrive in Agrabah and mistake Iago for one of the bad guys. All right, I can live with that, since I was expecting Al to jump out and say "He's one of us now..." since Al seemed to have the softest spot for Iago (until the Sultan incident but...). But nope, Jas sees Iago finally when the 3 (Sora, Donald and Goofy) go to the palace and gets mightily pissed to see him. What? Well, yes, all right...so Iago doesn't save Aladdin's life from Abis Mal's thugs in the market place?? *shrug* Okay...but did Jasmine have to thank the 3 for helping Al save Agrabah? Was that necessary? And since I'm discussing it, Linda Larkin's voice really dropped as Jasmine; it's the gentlest, quietest, sweetest I've ever heard it. Wow.

And then there's the matter of the peddler having Jafar's lamp...what? And then they don't even destroy the lamp--they put it into a crypt...no lava, no ground splitting, no Iago being fried and pushing the lamp into the lave (also no Al about to get his head cut off but well...) But if it disregards Disney canon, the fact that no one thinks to destroy Jafar's lamp more permanently is a irresponsible and thoughtless. What do they assume will happen to the lamp? That it will stay safely entombed?

On a side, I'm far from sure this is even what happens in the game, as I have never played it myself; it was merely surprising to see Iago win favor in a completely different way and to hear that Aladdin had help to defeat Jafar and to hear Jas talk like a dainty sweetheart.

On another side, when Aladdin, Abu and the 3 put Jafar's lamp into the crypt, I couldn't help thinking of Mozenrath's gauntlet in "Two to Tangle", where Mozenrath's essence is stuck in Aladdin's body. Only in the episode there was the added bonus of whistles, alarms, and guppies (doberman were out).

And that is all.

...but I have been plugging away on two various stories. One is a twist on the Grimm fairy tale "The Frog Prince" which can be read here (I assume it's readable to the general public). The other is a story that came from writing the following "drabble"; I'm planning on having the complete first draft done by the end of the summer or Aug 31. (I've got four-six more chapters so I'm doing pretty well considering.)

In other news...I'm a bit at a loss of where I'm spending my next school/college year. I originally was planning on sharing a suite with my roomate from last year and two friends of hers who I am vaugely aquainted with. But Michelle (my old roommate) didn't have enough money to pay for the room and other two girls dropped out. So I'm stuck with 3 strangers I don't know. While I'm sure that would be an interesting life experience, I never wanted a roommate in the first place. I only got one because I was kicked out of my original single room and didn't have a enough priority to pick a single in the dorm I wanted. It ended up turning out nicely considering how awful some roommates apparently could be, but I'm not keen on having to deal with three strangers at once...

I am still out of date in discussing the wonder that is WALL*E (I love that movie- I've already seen in twice and would definately see in again).

On a loosely related note, I've been trying to watch Disney's "Cinderella" and I find (after a talk with my sister about it), that Cinderella has, from a feminist perspective, almost less control of her situation than Snow White. That is, even though Snow White is sweet, domestic, and gentle, she gets people do what she whats; she beguiles them you might say and makes the situation fit what she expects by being nice about it. (It was a deleted scene that really made me notice it, but I do feel it's in the movie.)
As for Cinderella, so far she's shown an agressive malcontent (is that a word?) toward her situation, yet all she seems to do is tell everyone to get along, put up with it, and hopefully someday her dreams will come true. At least Snow White was willing to make her situation fit to some requirements she had (making the dwarves wash for one and cleaning up a filthy house she entered without permission).

Only other thing I can think of is I'm reading a newly purchased book call Eve: The History of an Idea and it's fascinating (for me), mostly from a feminine perspective. I've always been rather interested in that aspect of Genesis (one of the points of Pullman's His Dark Materials that appealed to me).

Another excellent book I read recently was The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down by Colin Woodard, which I believe I mentioned in my last entry. It discussed three main pirates and Woodes Rogers, who had a hand in waylaying the high piracy age. It was very engaging with many parts that made me think of "One Piece" (which also made me midly suspicious), though the author used very good sources from what I could tell. Now I need to start doing more extensive research into pirates of different periods (anicent Rome) and other geographical areas (China) and the opposite sex (Irish pirate). (It also made me realize that I like the 18th century, especially the beginning and the end.)

And that is all for now. 

Orginally put "Rogers" in the title; I was thinking of Wooden Rogers from The Republic of Pirates (don't quote me on the title there), which as I read more of I wonder if Eiichiro Oda knew anything about the content. Possibly.

Anyway...I'm on vacation, I have thoughts (lots of them) about the new Disney/Pixar movie WALL*E (yah!!), and a few other life thoughts on various points (pirate book for one), but I'd rather ramble about my feelings and interpretation of the recent One Piece chapter. Mmm...

( SPOILERS abound, seriously )

Read here

See others' comments here

( SPOILERS? )

Still completely worked up!! WOW!!

I really should do this... I keep telling myself to update this with my birthday experiences (dolphins and stingrays! Yay!) and the my "return" to Disney World after 6 years.
I use to go to WDW nearly every couple years but then I lost a lot of interest in Disney. Now with their new 2D animated movie coming out next year and as that movie is being directed by "Ron and John" (the directors of Aladdin, Hercules, and The Little Mermaid) I'm a mite excited about it. After that is Rapunzel (hopefully) which I'm really psyched about as Disney hasn't done a fairy tale since 1991 with Beauty and the Beast (which by the way, is an excellent fairy tale, though the elements I found most appealing were never in the Disney version.)

( wherein I ramble about a growing annoyance I see in The Little Mermaid and Ariel's presentation and goals in the film )

Although, I suppose the most important parts to comment on are the stingrays and dolphins. For my (our) birthday, we got passes to Discovery Cove, a part of Sea World and Busch Gardens; there were stingrays there, in this huge pond. I feed them a few times and they were very nice. Also the dolphin we met (it was more of a meeting them in the water than really swimming with them, except for one portion where you held onto the dolphin and she swam a short distance through the water) was named Kayley. I believe she was still a juvenile...it was quite an experience though I find have no way to explain it, except in hard, cold facts.

Also, Magic Kingdom was delightful and lent itself to some thoughts and revelations that are still stirring. Of course, visiting Disney again now stirred up interesting thoughts, revolving around dreams, the cast members who work there, what Walt even intended (thanks to a new biography I brought that finally supports my personal opinions), old rides/shows, and the children-aspect of the parks. Oh, and talking with Belle, but anyway...

For the moment that is all I believe, until I find better, fluid words to express my thoughts and feelings.

See how cute the cownose stingrays are? (the kind I feed at Discovery Cove)

This is probably not the most useful thing to be updating on, nor is it really revelant to many other things, but the story got me worked up enough to yell vocally in outrage and amusement so I think I'll throw out a few of my thoughts. (No pictures; I'm taking it simple.) (though that doesn't mean I won't throw in links!!)

( see below )

Surprisingly" these are nearly all One Piece related. Though it depends on how one counts them...if it is by the actual claims communities than OP hardly wins, but if it is by actual claims, then yes, OP does beat 12K by 2....mm, hm...(which reminds me--I should ramble about the new FUNImation release)



waiting to see when I get my new "boyfriend" from is_my_boyfriend; I got tired of Zoro...

I've claimed Iceburg, Shandia & Zoro's scar @ op_claims

I've claimed Kouya @ 12kingdomsclaim

This is why philosophy is one of the best loves of my life.

Some of the subject matter is a little...not really intense, but its a critical response to Epicurean thought in direct relation to death and the goal (so far as I've learned) about the development of Epicureanism. That is, it talks almost disinterestedly about death and/or dying, and some of the views purported in my writing are not exactly my own, but at the same time, it's a thinking-work in progress. In a way, you may say I am discovering my thoughts and trying to approach them from a clear perspective instead of being blind and making assumptions.

 

I retook this.
( and I did better... )

I was thinking it would be interesting to write an essay about the topic in the title, at least from the consideration of my Theory paper: women as the Other or non-being in a male-dominated society. Especially intriguing considering the comatose state of the women. In particular, Basile's version, Sun, Moon, and Talia seems to be most interesting for this kind of "study". It's just striking how much I could work with the theories I've been learning about.
By the way, the French translates into (which is also intriguing to me) something like "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood". Mmhm...It would also be interesting as a narrative story.

image link (usage?)

Did Life Evolve in Ice: fascinating article. Thrills my mind!!

'The Black Cauldron'...certainly not known in animated Disney movie lore as being the crowd pleaser and classic like 'The Little Mermaid' or 'Cinderella'. All the same, I have always had a fondness for it, mayhap because I read Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles where subject material of 'The Black Cauldron' film covers the first two novels, The Book of Three and The Black Cauldron. I absolutely loved the stories, the characters, and "themes" if you want to call it that, but most of all I still remember appreicating the characters. It instilled in me an undeveloped interest/love for Welsh myth. Also it was just a good story about growing up, self-realizations and just lots of good stuff like that.
ANYWAY. Surprise of complete surprises, the Disney version was on television today and I watched practically the whole thing. My thoughts/feelings, which contains spoilers for anyone who has not watched/read The Black Cauldron, can be divided among...
( the good )
and...
( the bad )
And that is all.

One more thing:
Happy birthday to llieno as I cannot for the life of me think of any kind of gift. You've always been a dear, even if I've been dead online and LJ...