Anything Goes

Gone with the Wind

2011-06-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

No. Im not going to do a movie review because I had high hoped for this classic film witch in my mind was a flop. IT was a FLOP! Why? because I felt that the ending was incomplete. THREE hours of a movie all about tragedy and hardship and hope, and in the end it turns out to be incomplete. What a let down.

Anyway.

I've finally been enrolling in an art class. It is nice to be painting in a room full of other people talking, with music in the background. It's kind of like an interactive radio right there in the room. The class itself is not really a class. The Professor Earl Staley does his own stuff while we paint, with the occasional instruction. Everyone learns something new everyday that enhances his or her style. Its kind of liberating, much different from working in my four by four makeshift studio at home.

I just saw this quote on facebook:
Not everyone is meant to stay in your life forever... Sometimes they are only there long enough to teach you the lesson that you needed to learn.

How true is that? All the people that were once in my life and have since gone, i learned some kind of lesson from. Ultimately though, I learned how to be a better friend, and friendship is one of the most important things in my material and somewhat spiritual life.

Arabic Soap Operas

2010-01-14T12:09:00.000-08:00

they are my latest thing. they have to be comedy of course, i cant stand boo hoo stuff, it makes me feel uncomfortable and stuff, especially if there are other people watching with me. so far i have watched a Man and Six Woman, and Abouda is a registered trademark. along with some other minor ones. now, Turkish Soap Operas = retarted overdone plots and love stories with LOTS of boo hoo.

Man and Six Woman is about a man named Adel who lives with his wife, daughter, Mother, sister, mother in law, and sister in law. and owns a shop of Egyptian souvenirs with his helper being his younger, naive cousin, Ramzy (played by my favorite Egyptian actor, Sameh Hussein). it is a sitcom with each episode he has to face a new problem, or a new opportunity and has to put up with every one around him. starring Ashraf abdul- Baqi. now the most famous comedian in Egypt. (so i heard)

Abouda is a bout an irresponsible boy who has trouble keeping a job and lives with his mother and three sisters. he witnesses a crime and finds a suitcase of millions of bucks. the story then, is what happens.

Genre: Mystery

2009-12-07T18:23:00.000-08:00

I would never admit to myself before because i thought it was nerdy, but I LOVE MYSTERY STORIES!!! okay so it started off with my Jackie Chan Martial arts obsession. usually he plays as police officer or a detective or something trying to solve the mystery of some crime or something. then... waaaay later my friend launched a webcomic which included a private investigator. that got me reading other mystery/crime stories like True Blue and 9 Dragons. but waaaay before all of that i read the Hardy boys mysteries. theyre not too much fun to rread but the mysteries are always exciting and action packed. the only things is that you cant tell the difference between Frank and Joe, except that Frank is eighteen and dark haired while Joe is seventeen is blonde, and a bit more impulsive that Frank. but thats it. I found out that there is a television series of them and Nancy Drew back in the late seventies starring Chaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson as Frank and Joe. i watched it. AND LOVED IT!!! especially since the characters have more...well, character, and for you romancers out there there is mention of an attraction between Nancy nad Frank. there is also two series of books where they all solve crimes together, i havent read those yet. (in fact, i havent read the Nancy Drew series yet, i never liked her untill i watched that show.)

so, where does this all lead?
i've got an idea for a new novel. a mystery novel and so far its going to be called "The Journal of Alex Howl." i'm not good with coming up with good mysteries but.... wish me luck!!!

Some Weird Email i Once Got

2009-12-03T18:43:00.001-08:00

Dear friend,
Please accept my apologies for not contacting you before now due to my tight schedule. I am very happy to inform you of my success in the funds transfer project with the collaboration of a new partner from Paraguay. Presently I'm in London with the partner for discussions on joint business investments.

Before I travelled to London however I discussed with my priest in Lagos and he accepted to help me transfer an international cashier check to you for the sum of US$500,000.00, as a token of my appreciation for your previous effort at assisting me with the project. As at the time I was leaving Nigeria he was the only one I could trust with that kind of money because he is the priest at my local church and he is a straightforward and understanding person. I really appreciate your efforts at that time so please feel free to get in touch with him. His name is Rev. Fr. Tom Chukwu and his e-mail address is

You need to send him details of where the check will be posted/delivered.

Below is the required details you need to re-confirm to him:
(1) your full names
(2) your contact address
(3) your telephone and fax numbers.

Once again feel free to get in touch with him to ensure the check reaches you in good time.
With regards,
Mr Leonard Clement.

A Letter to My Proffessor

2009-12-03T18:35:00.001-08:00

Dear Ms. Love,

Firstly, Attached is my Fourth Homework, i sincerely hope you accept it.

Secondly, i truly appreciate your teaching me, and i found that your lectures were very interesting and engaging and has resulted in a better understanding of this country's history and its people, both good and bad.

Thirdly, i wanted to comment on the end of the lecture you gave us today. i appreciated it very much and frankly, i was moved to tears. you said that we have to love our country and all its history, good or bad, and i am glad that you said that because throughout the summer and this year I have been debating my identity as an American. Over the summer i went to my parents home town in Syria for vacation, and this time i was old enough to notice how poor those people truly were, and how much they were missing out on all of the Wonders America has to offer. Over there i felt suffocated by so many things (not just the polluted air), but i realized that those people were not really free. i mean technically they were, they weren't slaves, but there was no real sense of FREEDOM of EVERYTHING like we have in America That we take advantage of. when i realized how lucky we are as Americans and how Lucky America is as a nation, compared to those third world countries, i really began to appreciate America so much more, and i began to love my identity as a born American. we just have so many OPPORTUNITIES that over there they cant even DREAM about! my cousin told me that the difference between a first world country like America and a third world country Like Syria is that in a first world country people are looking for ways to make surviving easier, and in third world countries, they are looking for ways to simply SURVIVE. The trueness of this shocked me.
i came back here loving America more than i ever did and then i enrolled in your class. having a fresh look at the revolutionary war really deepened my feelings and i often found myself in tears reading about the men and women who strove to make such a country. THOSE were amazing Americans and i can only wish that people would appreciate them more and take the time to learn about all of them and look up to them as role models, as star citizens (instead of those worthless pop stars who contribute nothing but...well, not good messages usually) i think if more people tried to be more like the founding fathers who held tightly to the true principals on which this nation was founded on, that someday, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but SOMEDAY, America will be a nation that people will look up to for its morals and not just its bussiness, or politics, or hypocrisy. (not that people look up to its hypocrisy, but by holding those morals, perhaps that hypocrisy might be erased, and people can no longer wag their fingers at America for it) i know i speak as an amateur in all those things, but i truly believe it. the hatred other nations feel for America is because of lack of morals. but i digress. the short of it is, i am glad you said that about loving this country today because i just wish people would appreciate America for all the good that it stands for.

Fourthly, i am looking forward to continuing class with you next semester!

Sincerely your Student,

Mariam.

Mondays and high school

2009-11-16T08:43:00.000-08:00

who invented Mondays? school (college) is about to start in a few hours so i wanted to do one more post about how i miss high school

senior year was just like every other year, except that it was the last. i did not participate in any events (i never went to a sports game in my life, or a play, or any thing else..) i did not go to prom, or graduation, i left school early for summer vacation. i was in art club, reading club, and technology club. things weren't going so good, and i just left it all behind, it felt good when i did that. but now, looking back, things were different, i was still a kid, and i miss that. i'm a kid at heart, but with responsibilities and stuff it fades away.. whats that flower of disappointment? ah, carnations. i appoint everyone a beautiful carnation today, for the ultimate disappointment in my life.

Stranger Legends

2009-11-14T18:24:00.000-08:00

So, then, I launched my comic, the prequel to River Saga, its called Stranger Legends, remember that Stranger Legends is the prequel to the actual story, River Saga. Stranger Legends is about a boy who killed someone and is training before he meets the person who wants revenge, and a girl who is looking for her father and brother. together they encounter many strange legends and some they prove false, while others, they just dont want to know... meanwhile a crazy killer is on the loose and a freelance reporter is on his trail, while a new detective is on his first case - without a partner (everyone else is on the crazy prisoner escapee case)- to find the missing girl whose brother is looking for her.

yup. thats it. you can find the comic at http://strangerlegends.smackjeeves.com/archive/

Old Watercolors

2009-11-10T09:37:00.001-08:00

I was looking at some old watercolors of mine after somebody asked me to use one of them for something. I was rethinking their value.

here is the first one. a bird, i beleive it is an Oriole. i was atracted to the orange and black colors of his feathers.

here is the second one. i liked the flowers on the plant and the direction the bird is looking.

the third one. It is called Ikebana. Japanese flower arranging. the colors also attracted me to the picture and prompted me to paint it.

Here is a lady dancing. It was a photo from a book on old Japanese costume. i liked her posture and the colors, so i painted it. (i should note that all these watercolors were based off of photos from other places. i was still getting used to watercolors and trying to hone my skills.

here is the one that somebody asked me to use. personally, i didn't see much in this one except the story. the story is that one day a wealthy man was out hunting and he needed some sort of supply, i forgot what. so he goes to the house of some farmers. the girl in the picture presents him with the globeflower and a poem, the globeflower a symbol of her poverty, but her willingness to help. i drew the picture because of their posture, as well as the nice story.

9 Dragons and Characterization

2009-11-09T20:35:00.001-08:00

well, i took a short weekend break in writing that novel, and i read a book called "9 Dragons" by Michael Connelly (not sure if thats how you spell it.) well, the book disappointed me. i did learn something from it though, something about characterization. the main character in the book, Named Harry, is a mean detective, by mean i mean bossy. he likes embarrassing people and catching them off guard and he doesn't see any thing wrong with that. i didn't have too much sympathy for the character and i know that sympathy is what makes readers keep reading, they want to know what happens. the only thing to have sympathy for at that point was the family of the murdered man, the case that Harry is solving. well, i didn't pity him until his daughter got kidnapped and he went insane. poor guy. thats when the sympathy started kicking in, even though the guy was acting WORSE than he was! he was KILLING people! bad guys sure, but no excuse... i thought that it was a very interesting character that Connelly had, and it inspired me to rethink writing that prequel...

a friend of mine who does a webcomic told me that simple characters are best, with specific defining traits. The Character Harry matched that, being a detective, bossy, and..thats pretty much it. no big background story. the story is as it is. but i like elaborate plots with lots of background stories, thats just me. i'm used to those old French classics. my character in River Saga are simple, but they each have a complex life story that somehow contributes to the plot. but we'll talk about that another time....

some Classics that influence my writing

2009-11-08T11:09:00.000-08:00

Alexandre Dumas and his "Le Compte de Monte Cristo" or the count of monte cristo. the adventure is what caught my attention, and the main character's suffering in the jail cell and the way he became afterwards. the story is completely unpredictable (and long, but totally worth reading..) another one of Alexandre Dumas' works that got me was "The Three Musketeers" the friendship in the story was so amazing, and the way he portrays each character's personality. the adventure is also amazing, the style of adventure in this particular book is what influenced many chapters in my novel.

Victor Hugo, he wrote "Les Miserables" or "The Miserables". this story was what got me thinking that the background story, or history of a character can truly add to the overall story and give it more depth (and make it much longer too, this book was probably the thickest book I've ever read. I recommend this book if you are looking for a read that will take you a long time. Victor Hugo also wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but i haven't gotten to that yet.

so you can see the most influential novelists for me were French. i don't know why, because before, i didn't particularly like the French, but since reading these, I've changed my mind.. the books are amazing!

The Ninja (Kurama and Masao)

2009-11-06T21:09:00.000-08:00

This post is about two characters in my novel River Saga, Sensei Masao, and Kurama

Wikipedia says this about Ninja's:
A ninja or shinobi (忍者?) was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations.[1] The underhanded tactics of the ninja were contrasted with the samurai, who were careful not to tarnish their reputable image. [2]
In his Buke Myōmokushō, military historian Hanawa Hokinoichi writes of the ninja:
“ They travelled in disguise to other territories to judge the situation of the enemy, they would inveigle their way into the midst of the enemy to discover gaps, and enter enemy castles to set them on fire, and carried out assassinations, arriving in secret.[3]

before the story takes place, a man was killed, Sensei Masao, for espionage. he was a ninja. he was in the village Daia no Hana spying on the enemy and pretending to be friendly. his story is only one of many. he was working with Sakura's (the main character's) father in order to prepare for an attack on the village. His death takes place before the story begins, but it is what gets the story going. A young man who had been very attached to the teacher Masao kills the man who murdered the Sensei. The dead man's brother, and mother, now want revenge.

on a side note, there is a character that emerges mostly in the end. Kurama, a cousin and teacher of the main character. he is a master of disguises and often disguises himself as a woman. this is not something new at all. since the history of the shinobi (ninja) they have been using this tactic. a famous legend of a prince called Shotaku tells that he dressed himself up as a beautiful maiden and killed the enemy by going into his tent. Kurama is a selfish man and does not give a care about other people's troubles. If faced with the choice to save a man falling from a cliff or walking away. he would walk away. he is the epitome of coldheartedness, which makes him a good antagonist i think, much better than the main antagonist Kichiro, who is coldhearted, but probably would save that guy from falling down the cliff....

The Symbolism of flowers in River Saga

2009-11-06T19:45:00.000-08:00

in my story, River Saga, flowers are important symbols, predominantly, the Iris and the Cherry blossom.
in Japan, the iris is a symbol of friendship, heroism, faith, valor, wisdom, strength... those types of things, the things the main character is trying to achieve. upon receiving a drawing of an iris from her friend as he dies, she reflects upon those meanings and what she has done in her life to achieve those things. she is bold, but cowardly, helpful, but no hero, kind, but no friend... when she receives the iris drawing, things start to change for her.

The Cherry Blossom is the second symbol, but the more dominant one, as it is the main character's name. Sakura. i know it is an overused name in manga and anime, but at the time i created the character, it was not, anyway, in Japan, the flower Sakura symbolizes beauty, kindness, spring, and when they fall, a warrior killed. throughout the story characters tell Sakura that her name does not match her personality and she tells them that its the only thing her parents gave her that she still uses, so why would she change it. towards the end though, they realize the name suites her better than any other name. in my story, the flower symbolizes some other things besides the traditional... a happy ending, despite all odds.

Before leaving China, Sakura and her friend receive a scroll from their kung fu master. the scroll bore a drawing of a fir tree, because in China, the fir tree is a symbol of a safe farewell to departing friends. (something like that.)

Chrysanthemums are said to be a symbol of joy and lightheartedness, even friendship. Sakura, feeling down after the death of her friend, and annoyed at the happiness of everyone during a festival, she buys a chrysanthemum plant to cheer her self up, and places it near the iris drawing on her desk.

other flowers as well, but i figured these are the most important. for the story, visit my other blog, River Saga.

test blog

2009-11-06T19:14:00.000-08:00

so this is the first post. as the title says, anything goes. i'll be talking about anything, but mostly martial arts and different martial arts techniques and famous martial artists.. hopefully....