Blog Final Project

For my final class project I will be making a shadow puppet performance based off of my blog post "The Box Monster." I have written the script and have checked out several informative books on puppetry and found puppetry websites that have been very helpful to me. I will be making shadow puppets representing me and my roommate as well as monstrous shapes and inanimate objects like cars and of course, the box. I will film the performance and put it up on youtube.

Blog Awards!

Today's the day-Blog Award's for my English 455 Living Writers class are here! I have lovedlearning about and interacting with each other through our blogs. Here's my personal votes right now:

Best personal blog: Jack's Some trans lady   Jack shares with us his experience as a transgendered woman. This is the most honest and inspiring blog I think I have ever encountered. It is hard enough for a person to confess to one's wrongdoings in the first place, but Jack does it wholeheartedly with immense apology throughout his posts. She also shares her fears/struggles in the present and future. I also give Jack the most improved award for The The Bad Brew Review in which Jack gives us reviews of bad, cheap alcoholic drinks with humorous stories involving his experience drinking them. Jack's honesty and passion in his past blog comes through loud and clear.

Best design/visual: Charity's Six and a writer. This blog stuck out to me because it is different, visually, from all my other classmates' blogs.Charity's homepage strays from the typical  layout with a simple title at the top and one after another blog post down as you scroll down the page. Instead we see just a sample of the past three texts that Charity has posted including a picture, title, and a little excerpt into what we are about to read. No scrolling! All of her posts are very clean and crisp with wonderful vintage family photos.

Best hobby/specific blog: Kristina's Hyperderby. This blog manages to be extremely fun and exciting as well as informative and captivating at the same time. I knew pretty much nothing about roller derby except, of course from Ellen Page's movie "Whip It". I did love this movie, though so of course I knew I would enjoy learning about Kristina's experience with the sport. She includes informative pictures and videos about roller derby and tells her about her favorite players, teams, and aspects of the game itself.

Most Interactive Blog: Kacie's Kinship. I have been following Kacie's blog since the very beginning and always love reading her posts! Although I can't relate to her on a family/kinship level, I always feel fully engaged following her on her family missions to the supermarket, holiday excursions, and even just when she is at home caring for the young ones. She includes adorable photos of her nephews who are constantly causing trouble! Normally I'm not a huge fan of chaos causing kids but Kacie makes it hard for me to not be!

Most likely to succeed: Natalie's My Cat Thinks I'm Funny. This blog has been a class favorite throughout the entire quarter with good reason. Her posts never fail to crack me up. Her quirky and slightly snarky voice which she uses to comment on awkward and sometimes disturbing incidents makes for hilarious topic discussions. She talks about those things that all young adults thinks and wonders about but refuses to talk about. Probably not everyone can relate, but I guarantee everyone will love Natalie's blog.

Profession Update

This past weekend I went home to visit my family and more importantly get my sleeping pills back!  (My friend Carlena happened to be coming home from Idaho where I left the drugs so she transported them with her.)  These past two nights of sleep have been amazing-full of odd dreams that I only slightly remember. Last night my dream-self was in a tree house watching a Carebear performance staged by young children.

I arrived Saturday night. A dinner of Brazilian beef stew and rice and broccoli was all set for me, the parents, and older brother Alex. Every time I come home, my dad has a new brilliant career idea for me. Since I didn't choose a business degree like him, I must make him proud and be successful in another completely obscure way.

Last Summer, my dad suggested that I take flying lessons and become a pilot. A couple months ago he enthusiastically showed me a brochure for Mime School in France: "You'd be great at this, whaddaya say??" as he pointed to the chalked up 20-something-year-old dressed in black and red. I took drama in high school for two days and then dropped out because of a a mime exercise. We were supposed to act as angry mimes, trying to escape from an invisible box that we were trapped in. One student claimed to have escaped by using the ring of an invisible binder to carve her way out.

Last Saturday my dad left the dinner table shrieking and came back with a magazine. A black sharpie outlined an ad for Diamond school.  Whether it was for making jewels, studying their structure or just admiring their delicacy and beauty, I don't know. I asked him why he doesn't sign up himself and he told me he would if I would. I said I think I'll pass in this lifetime but I found the ad on my pillow that night.

Look out, this could be me in 10 years:

Mime/Pilot/Diamond Extraordinaire

Banana Man

Apologies for not posting for a while! It has been a very busy couple of weeks!  Last weekend I visited my two good friends Carlena and Hannah at their school in Idaho and upon returning I realized that I must have forgotten my sleeping pills at their place. And yes while this makes for funny stories, I have been quite out of it for the past week.

 I think i've gotten a total of 6-ish hours since Monday. My eyes are drooping and I find myself in a constant state of confusion. My friends look at me weird and ask me if I'm okay. I often start saying something and then stop half way through and can't finish. I try so hard to grab onto any words floating around me that will make some sense, but then I just start stuttering and sound like I have Tourette Syndrome. This happened in class the other day. I almost died it was so embarrassing.

Yesterday I wake up super late for class, rush to get ready, grab a bruised banana, and leave the house. I put the banana in the side mesh pocket of my backpack and plead to it not to fall out. I have two minutes to rush down the street to catch the bus. I'm not one of those people who worry about looking or smelling good/decent for class so I start sprinting  across the empty street and down the hill. I feel the banana fall out somewhere along the way, but I don't care. Never mind that I always wake up super overheated and break out in pouring sweat if I don't drink water as soon as I get up. I spot the line of people and look to the right-the bus is on it's way, I can do this!

I'm so focused at this point and I don't even flinch at the male shouts I hear from behind. But then slowly, a biker with a green alligator helmet slowly approaches on my right and I'm wondering who dares disturb my concentration when I see a yellow fruit dangling from his hand. He had my banana! This nice biker must have reached down out of his seat, picked up my dirty banana, and delivered it to me personally! I thanked him profusely as he rode off with a smile and thought to myself that that is the kind of guy that should rule the world.

Wherever you are, Bananaman, I honor you with my utmost gratitude and respect! I hope we meet again.

Blogging As Literature?

Question: Can online writing be considered literature?

Yes, I believe so. But in order to answer this question, it is important that we first define what literature is-and this is tricky. Well, it's the stuff in books, right? I am not a genius nor do i think there is one sole definition, so I will list several aspects that can be said about a piece literature:

1. It is regarded highly and shared for that reason.

2. It represents and often comments on society or a certain group as a whole.

3. It is artistic or creative.

4. It presents original style and craft.

5. It brings emotions that often resonate with the reader. 

Now, whose to say that online fails to produce any of these aspects? I say fig neuton fooey, I've read and viewed plenty of online works that manages to contain all of these elements! If we push online writing aside, never recognizing it for it's worth, then we are depriving ourselves of thousands of fascinating and original works. 

Blogs, especially, are a place where the most original words are said. Even if the writer does not speak in a very sophisticated manner and puts commas in unnecessary places, he or she has the ability to draw us to to his or her own world with words, videos, links, and so much more (I have found that some of my best writing comes when I am more relaxed and do not try to sound like a genius). I have laughed, cried, and fell off my chair from reading online content-how much more emotional can I get? 

I would like to share with you a couple of blogs that I can easily compare with a great piece of book literature. 

The first is the author of a blog called "Kacie's Kinship". Kacie shares with us her hectic, but wonderful life which includes taking care of her three crazy, young nieces. This blog may intrigue me more than some well recognized books of the past. Kacie speaks to her audience on a personal level, invited us to share her experiences along with her. She takes us along on her holidays, trips to the grocery store, family fiascos, and to play with her adorable puppy dog. She writes in a friendly and fun tone, with full paragraph structures and includes tons of pictures complete with side notes. At one point, she shares with us her hectic trip to the grocery store with the three boys, attempting to jump out of shopping carts. It's hilarious, definitely causing me laughing-I myself remember doing the same as a child! Although a personal blog, Kasie manages to make her blog in a creative way-it almost has the feel like she is constantly on a mission-which makes everyone want to be part of it! Who doesn't want to be a ninja assassin or turtle?? Without openly saying it, Kacie is commenting on the hectic life that we as large, crazy families often have, especially kinship families that hers.

The blog Bluebird Vintage has a similar quality in Kacie's in that it draws readers into her personal life. It follows the life of a fashionable mother of three adorable kids and husband.  She uses many professional looking photos, which she takes herself, to document her family. The pictures and her wording together make her life seem very neat, put together, and extremely fashionable. She has individual sections to click on at the top of her blog, making it easy for the reader to navigate. In one full section she shares photos of the lunches-bento box style-that she makes for her children. They always look so perfect! Another includes adorable photos of her wedding. There is no question that her work is creative and original (in her blog, photographs, clothing, lunch making, etc.) Although she appears perfect, she makes sure to share with us that her life is not all that put together as it seems. Every single one of her posts make me go, "awwww". This blog has a strong following with hundreds of followers who feel warm and hopeful after viewing her site. This blog shows us the positives of a loving, creative family like her own.

Both of these blogs have most if not all qualities I have listed above. They draw emotions, are widely shared,    are original and creative, and comment on their families and families as a whole. Literature, they are! In my personal blog I aim to share my comedic, insomniatic influenced occurrences and make you laugh. I just recently posted about the night when I put off taking my sleeping pill and ended up flailing about in a cardboard box screeching. I even included a drawing of mine made in paint of me in a box.  Like these past two blogs I hope that my readers feel emotion, see that I am commenting on those crazies like me with sleeping issues, share my blog with others, and see my creativity come through. (Just as any book would.)

The box monster

I thought I was getting better about deciphering the real world from the dream world recently, but some recent occurrences have led me to a realization: I will always be flailing between the two like a one eyed crow.

#1: This past Tuesday I was longing for something insomniatically weird to happen in my life. So I purposely did not start my homework until midnight to prolong the odd time of being tired but not being able to sleep. This time often leads me into the state of being over tired, also called the point of no return. At this time my vision gets blurry, things start dancing, I laugh at everything, and feel like my body is made out of pudding.

Example of what this looks like: 

Free Shipping!

That night my roommate awoke at the noise of what she described as "a rabid dog- on drugs". She came out of her room to find me outside of her room crouching in a cardboard box screeching. I only partially remember doing this.

The next morning was just as weird. At 10 am was driving to Starbucks to get my coffee fix and came to a red light. Swayed by the harmonious stylings of Michael Buble, I managed to completely zone out, staring at the dashboard. When I came to, I looked up and I swear to you the traffic light was completely gone! I was freaking out hard core because, HELLO, who's going to tell me when to go? I got that feeling like when someone scares you and your body gets all hot and your fingers instantly begin sweating. Would I be sitting there forever, until my flesh molded off and my bones began to smell of liver and onions?

Finally after several shakes of the head and five slaps to the face the stop light was back. Thank goddddddd. I would live.

I manged to get to my friend's house in one piece and we feasted. I began to regain my normality-the twitching subsided and things were dancing much less.

On the way home I was fist pumping to the radio and I smiled at a urinating dog on the side of the road. Reminding myself that I was driving, I turned my head back to the road. And NOW there's a frickin' brick wall ahead IN THE ROAD just kickin' it.

"Don't mind me, just kickin' it."

"I dam well will mind you, you evil brick wall of doom!" I told it, but it just kept sitting there, mocking me like a little circus monkey.

I decided to slow down and wait for another car to come. Let's see how they cope. But when a car did come, the dumb wall decided to take a hike! Well, fine. Your ugly and look like a dried up piece of children's play-dough anyway. Your outta here.

Baby Monkey

this is a MUST see!