External Communication (A School Project)

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#here, again, is, on, probably, project, school, sorry, that, this, won't happen

(This is a class project that I am doing. The purpose of the assignment is to show that the students in the class know how to communicate via modern technology. We had a choice between making a Youtube Video or a Blog Post. I chose the latter. This post focuses on the concept of external communication which is shown in a scene of my friend and I talking about our different levels of interest in a girl. While there are other concepts here such as internal or non-verbal communication, it’s the external concept that I was wanting to focus on because it is, by far, the one that is implemented the most. Here we go.)

“Dude! You see her?” Joe pointed her out to me, a girl walking down one of the paths leading between campus buildings. I nodded, eyeing her dark hair and thin frame. Definitely beautiful, but not someone I was really interested in. Girls were not something that I wanted to deal with right now.

Joe glanced at me with a thoughtful eye, a slight smirk on his fair face, “You wanna talk to her?”

“No, not really.” I shook my head, sighing sharply, feeling slightly apprehensive. I had always hated being pushed to do something, always wanting to do it in my own time. Joe never seemed to have understood that, even after knowing me for about 3 years.

“Dude, come on, really?” He put a firm hand on my shoulder and faced me, “She’s gorgeous! Look, she’s getting away!” He flipped a palm in her direction.

I watched as she disappeared into a building, dark hair rippling in the air like ribbons caught in a breeze.

“It doesn’t matter Joe, it wouldn’t have worked out anyway.”

“Who said anything about anything working out? I was just saying that you should get to know her!” He paused, “Do you think I should talk to her if we see her again?”

“Sure, I don’t care.” I shrugged and smiled lightly, “You can have any girl you want right now. I’m not really looking.”

“Is this about that last girl, dude?” He still faced me and looked me deeply in the eye, trying to see if he can catch me in a lie.

I told the truth, “No, Joe. It’s not her. Don’t worry about it. That girl just didn’t look my type.”

“Whatever, man. Your loss.” He finally turns away and looks back to the door where the girl walked through.

I sit next to him awkwardly, finally asking, “So, you wanna get some lunch?”

“Yeah, man, thought you wouldn’t ask.” He smiles and claps me on the back with a warm hand, “We’ll find you someone.”

“Sure, dude. We’ll see.” I punch him in the arm, and we walk.

(While a short exchange, I think that it conveys a lot of meaning about us. It’s us exchanging messages between each other, and we get to share some of what we are thinking. I wasn’t really keen on approaching the girl, and I let him know it. At the same time, he lets me know that he is really attracted to the girl and wants me to share that sentiment. Most of these messages are shared verbally.)

The Absurdity of the Younger Generation

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answers, any, don't, have, just, opinion, random, society, some, that I, thinking, to

This post is little more than a rant, but I feel that it is something that has to be said. I, as part of generation Y and very much like my peers, am very opinionated and full of myself. I realize this, and while I think that it is something that is very integral to being a younger human being on this world, I believe that there is something else to it. While I do have a very high opinion of myself sometimes, I do find that I sometimes harbor a certain contempt for myself. And I think this has something to do with my expectations and attitude regarding a few things: How I should be treated, how I think of other people, and what I think of the world and how unfair it is.

Now, I know none of this is new to many people. Most people on this website have a fair number of years on me, being 19, and I doubt that anyone would be surprised to find that I am no different than the average teen. However, I think that I do carry a certain attitude with me regarding how I should be treated. Every human should be treated a certain way, but sometimes I find myself thinking that I should be treated with more respect because of the fact that I am young. Or, sometimes simply because I feel like I know more than others around me. I find this kind of attitude abhorrent in other people, and I think of how entitled they seem to think they are. Still, I find that this attitude is within myself as well. It’s appalling when I think back in retrospect, yet I still adopt that entitled attitude.

Maybe it’s part of being younger, of living in a world where people cater to the younger generation and say that we should have more of a chance than our elders all in the name of us being young. Sometimes I appreciate the boost in confidence, but there is still the danger, and ever present reality of egos being shot through the roof. Often, this ego leads me to looking down on others. This “fair chance” that I am being given seems to give me the mentality that I am entitled to everything that I have. And when someone treads upon that entitlement, my pride is hurt in more ways than one.

And because of this hurt pride, I find that my mind shifts to how unfair the world and everyone in it is. The reality is the exact opposite even though the feelings are still there. I sometimes find that my ego has become so large that I have lost sense of reality in a way. This leads to contempt from elders, because I then treat them with a certain kind of contempt. It’s a vicious circle. That’s why I title this post the way that I did. I find that this mentality is not just with me, but also many, many other people my age. I see it, and also hear it from my seniors when they talk of the younger generation. Why are we so contemptuous and believe that we know better, when we know that our elders have the upper hand on us as far as experience goes? Is it something that has been there all along? It is a question that many of us beg the answer to, elders especially. What can we do to change that kind of mentality in the younger generation? I know that I am working on my own attitude, though the answer still sometimes hangs just out of reach.

I Love New Books!

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#new, books, love, the hobbit, the lord of the rings, them

I don’t know how many of you know, but I do love me some Lord of the Rings. Over the course of the summer, during work, and with The Hobbit coming out soon, I found that my workplace carried these:

They are the Lord of the Rings: 50th Edition and The Hobbit: Special Addition. Altogether, the books cost me $109, even with my discount. (Don’t tell my parents.)

Now, when I purchased these things, I felt an oddly profound sense of guilt.

That was SMASHED under a feeling of pure excitement!

I got home and opened them up, being incredibly careful with the spines, flipped through their pages, and was at a loss for words by how beautiful the books were. The Lord of the Rings book has gilded pages with a red ribbon book mark. Inside both covers are some incredibly detailed maps that cover the whole of middle earth, all done in the style that J.R.R Tolkien had originally wanted. The Appendixes are beautifully written (of course) and explain everything you could ever want to know about Middle Earth. The cover itself? Well, you can see that the front has a very pretty decor of Sauron’s eye, surrounded by rings of power. It has a leathery feel to it, and on the back cover bears Tolkien’s signature in the same style as the eye and rings. The box that is behind the book is simply that: A box. Though it does have a very nice picture of a tower I forget the name of

The Hobbit, I think, has a much prettier cover. It has a nicer textured feel to it and feels a lot thicker. As you can see, it has some very incredible design on the front. The red and gold together look insanely beautiful together. The pages are also thicker than the Lord of the Rings, but that is because it is a smaller book. They are not gilded, but have this odd spattering of green dots on them. Dunno if I like that all that much. Inside is the traditional tale of The Hobbit, but there are also far more illustrations inside than in The Lord of the Rings. They are all the older illustrations, so it gives the book a feeling of age and worth. The box that is behind it is simpler than its sibling’s, though it does have a small picture on the front of some woods.

So, anyway, I thought that I would share them. Here are some more pictures.

 

 

November! What Happens?

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#new, book, characters, going, NaNoWriMo, national novel writing month, on, story, things, update, Writing

Yeah, I know that I promised a “real” post, ooooh, a little more than a week ago. But you know college. It’s always demanding more of my time the more I spend precious hours there. I had a speech and a Rhetorical Analysis to write, so I have an excuse!

Anyway, I want to talk about next month, November. I am sure that most of you have been seeing some posts about a certain event, challenge, torture, or what-have-you that happens during that month. Namely: NaNoWriMo. A month where writers go to lose sleep, create stress, and generally become more antisocial than they are. Or rather, traveling to a world of their own imagining, living the adventures there through the phantoms of their characters. It is glorious! Or horrible if you don’t particularly like writing. Which I would not know why you would be doing this if you didn’t…some people like stress I guess…

50,000 words, about 178 pages, in one month is the requirement to “win” the challenge. You don’t win anything beyond a nice little sticker on your blog or sometimes, if you’re lucky, a coupon to some writing resources. Scrivener, an amazing word processor made specifically for writers was something that I was able to buy last year, because I made the 50k word count and was given a half off coupon for the program. It was way worth it.

Anyway, I’m rambling.

What I want to say, is that I am going to try and do NaNoWriMo this year to finish re-writing my book. However, I already know that I am not going to be able to make the 50k word count, so what I’m doing this time around is just using the month as a source of motivation. I will update people on what I’m doing, and post how many new words I have come up with. This will be the story that I won with last year, so nothing new other than a re-write. I think that I’ll even post a bit of what I wrote, just so that people can see how I am doing.

The challenge, however, is not going to be in the word count. It’s going to be in the amount of time that I have to work with. Working 20 hours a week and going to school full-time is not going to leave a whole lot of time for me to be able to work on my story. The only redeeming thing that I have going for me, is that I have been outlining my story for the past year, and have also been building a past for my characters. Something that I didn’t do last year.

For the rest of this month, however, I am going to start preparing for the upcoming word-flood. Anyone else out there doing NaNoWriMo? If so, follow me on the website under the name soolkiki. Yeah, it’s weird, but whatever! I’ll follow you all right back!

😦 I’m missing a good picture. Just use your imagination.

I Am Very Happy

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ahead, are, days, good, happy, have, just, keep, photography, picture, random thinking, swimming, to, you

It’s a kind of feeling that I can’t really seem to explain. Old cliches come to mind, but they don’t do what I am feeling justice. I am so blessed with a wonderful family, solid friends, and an education that just keeps growing. I have my Religion which has been making me happier and happier every single day, and my love for it keeps growing. I am lacking nothing as I have a job, money, food, and everything else that I could ever need. Sometimes, I feel like I don’t deserve it all. There is a nagging that says in my ear, “you shouldn’t have this”. And sometimes I feel like that nagging is right. But I know that, ultimately, it isn’t right. I know that I am where I am, because I have been blessed with so much. Then, when I am ready, I will help others more than I have been already with the resources that I have been given.

I know that I have been posting a lot of this stuff lately, but it’s all true, and I can’t help but continue in my expression of it. I hope that some people will realize that things aren’t all that bad. I mean, things are bad, but times will get better like they always do. Keep on swimming, as Dory says. Better days are ahead. How much further are they? We can never know, but we can know that they are there.

I think that I’ll make a real post tomorrow. It’s been long over-due.

The light is always ahead.