-Please note that I started writing this blog before the New Years, and before I had my blog page prepared. Since then I have redesigned this "project", and will be starting it in earnest on January 10th, 2011-
She wasn’t startled, wasn’t afraid, and he was fairly certain she didn’t even notice him at all. She wasn’t surrounded by treasures, hadn’t kidnapped any damsels or torn apart any armored knights in defense of her home, and as far as he knew she behaved just like any other creature he had ever seen.
However, she was feeding her seven hatchlings large pieces of raw bear meat after chewing and roasting it with her own fiery breath, but by the pound, that was the only thing that made it quite so obvious what he had.
It was a dragon. A gigantic lizard, its body matched the size of a whale yet had all the svelt shape of a serpent, save the two magnificent wings that curled around its body. He had seen it in flight, and followed it in his car, barely able to keep up with the magnificent creature as it swooped down into a canyon and through a massive hole into a natural cavern. And now, peeking out from behind a cropping of stones, he was the first person in years, centuries, in fact, to see a mother dragon feeding her young.
He held his camera up to take a picture, turning the flash off first to avoid startling her, and began snapping one after another. The dragon didn’t seem to notice, or if she did she didn’t care. It occurred to him that he could easily be torn apart by those massive talons at any moment, burnt alive by a spout of hot breath, which as it turned out ignited half a second after being exhaled at high velocity. Yet this dragon did nothing of the sort, curling around the tiny hatchlings like a cat keeping her kittens warm.
The hatchlings were remarkably small, barely the size of a fully-grown cat, and oddly enough made mewing sounds just like them. They squirmed about on the large dirt mound like serpents, clawing at the meat their mother had brought while tearing at the softened flesh with young teeth. For such tiny creatures, they ate tremendously, and their mother hardly ate any of her catch.
Then, quite suddenly, the massive beast reared itself up. He threw himself to the ground in fear as it passed by him, slipping out of the cave in a single fluid motion. When she was gone, he peered over his hiding spot, catching sight of the seven hatchlings.
He could take one…there were plenty of them, and a single one would be a monumental scientific breakthrough…
They all looked at him, as he looked over the cropping, tails twitching, heads tilting…
Yes, just one would be a wonderful find, as he crept his way towards them to select the healthiest-looking one…
Suddenly, all seven of them leapt at him, digging their sharp claws into his skin, biting at his arms and legs. He was down on the ground in seconds flat, flailing as the hatchlings bit and clawed at him. A single claw penetrating his throat silenced him for good, as the hungry hatchlings dragged him back to their nest to tear his flesh apart.
Later that day, his car would be towed away for being parked in a national wildlife reserve.
Friday, January 7, 2011
New Year Part 2 (From the Past)
-Please note that I started writing this blog before the New Years, and before I had my blog page prepared. Since then I have redesigned this "project", and will be starting it in earnest on January 10th, 2011-
It’s the start of a New Year now, and it doesn’t feel particularly special so far. I mean, I don’t feel any difference from last year at all. That makes sense though. After all, time is just our own invention designed to measure the passing of things. The changing of the days makes no difference to the revolutions of the Earth.
Thinking about that makes me doubt this project – to write something every day in order to improve my writing. Will it really make me a better writer? True practice makes perfect, but at the same time there’s a certain level of knowledge one has to have in the field they’re trying to improve upon before they can start to say “yes, I think I can write a little each day and have this be interesting for everyone”. What this may wind up being is an exercise in frustration.
Not to mention that my college project is going to take up a lot of my time anyway – the 50 page thesis I have to write, send in, get reviewed, get back, edit, send back in and hopefully complete by mid-May. And the wedding I have to attend in May for my girlfriend’s sister, and the wedding in June, and getting my driver’s license. Already I’m feeling overwhelmed, and I’m wondering if I should be putting all of these things on myself, or if I’m over-worrying myself to psyche myself out of doing it.
Well, this is the first “post” of the New Year…though I think the last one might’ve been written for today. I’ll have to start dating these so that I don’t lose track of whether or not I’ve posted for a day yet.
I think the problem is that I lack direction. I’m getting a Masters Degree, but to what end I cannot say. I’m going to this wedding, but where is my relationship going? I’m getting my driver’s license, but to go where?
Writing something every day might help me realize how to direct myself. I’ll have to make sure I do it every single day, and schedule my time carefully so that I don’t miss any of the updates. I guess what I’m hoping for is not something spectacular to come out of this, but for my own self to be improved simply by trying to do something.
I wonder if that kind of goal is as productive as I’d like it to be?
Bah, I’m far too tired for my own good right now. I blame allergies mostly, but also the fact that it is still January 1st. I was already awake much earlier than I thought I was going to be on December 31st, so the New Years celebration has thrown me off even more.
I think that’s about a full page. I really need to fix my Word Processor to show indentation properly. I messed it up somehow, and now I can’t get it back to the way it was.
It’s the start of a New Year now, and it doesn’t feel particularly special so far. I mean, I don’t feel any difference from last year at all. That makes sense though. After all, time is just our own invention designed to measure the passing of things. The changing of the days makes no difference to the revolutions of the Earth.
Thinking about that makes me doubt this project – to write something every day in order to improve my writing. Will it really make me a better writer? True practice makes perfect, but at the same time there’s a certain level of knowledge one has to have in the field they’re trying to improve upon before they can start to say “yes, I think I can write a little each day and have this be interesting for everyone”. What this may wind up being is an exercise in frustration.
Not to mention that my college project is going to take up a lot of my time anyway – the 50 page thesis I have to write, send in, get reviewed, get back, edit, send back in and hopefully complete by mid-May. And the wedding I have to attend in May for my girlfriend’s sister, and the wedding in June, and getting my driver’s license. Already I’m feeling overwhelmed, and I’m wondering if I should be putting all of these things on myself, or if I’m over-worrying myself to psyche myself out of doing it.
Well, this is the first “post” of the New Year…though I think the last one might’ve been written for today. I’ll have to start dating these so that I don’t lose track of whether or not I’ve posted for a day yet.
I think the problem is that I lack direction. I’m getting a Masters Degree, but to what end I cannot say. I’m going to this wedding, but where is my relationship going? I’m getting my driver’s license, but to go where?
Writing something every day might help me realize how to direct myself. I’ll have to make sure I do it every single day, and schedule my time carefully so that I don’t miss any of the updates. I guess what I’m hoping for is not something spectacular to come out of this, but for my own self to be improved simply by trying to do something.
I wonder if that kind of goal is as productive as I’d like it to be?
Bah, I’m far too tired for my own good right now. I blame allergies mostly, but also the fact that it is still January 1st. I was already awake much earlier than I thought I was going to be on December 31st, so the New Years celebration has thrown me off even more.
I think that’s about a full page. I really need to fix my Word Processor to show indentation properly. I messed it up somehow, and now I can’t get it back to the way it was.
New Years (From the Past)
-Please note that I started writing this blog before the New Years, and before I had my blog page prepared. Since then I have redesigned this "project", and will be starting it in earnest on January 10th, 2011-
It’s the dawn of a new year, and I have no idea what to write about, so I guess I’ll just quickly write about what happened today. This IS the start of my challenge, so I should at least get this page done.
At about 4:30 AM, my brother, my parents and I all gathered into a car and took my bro to the airport, so that he could head back to California. He’s back there by now, but the strange thing is that in the house, occasionally, I still feel like I can hear him saying things. But that’s probably just the similarities between his voice and my dad’s voice.
The three of us that took Tom to the airport then had an early morning breakfast at Denny’s. It was actually pretty good and reasonable, with french toast, eggs, bacon and an English muffin, along with a cup of coffee or two. Though I’d come to regret that coffee later, as the “low” that came later when I was tired and cranky made me feel rather irritable.
Back at the ranch house, I tooled around for a bit playing Team Fortress 2, for lack of a better thing to do. Found out I make a decent spy, though it might have just been circumstantial, as most of the teams I faced never expected a Medic to be a spy.
Though it did turn out that there WAS something I should’ve been doing. My cousin was right next door! That’s Brendon, his brother Eric, Brendon’s friend Omar, my aunts Mary, Barbera, and Kathy, and my Uncles Dave and Ray. Brendon, Omar and I played my new game together. Somehow I managed to win four times in a row, before Brendon started on an equally unlikely winning streak. I guess this game is just prone to one person winning repeatedly? Well, it’s still fun though. Short fun, that’s hard to learn, but based on enough skill that you can really feel like you’ve worked hard if you win, while in the end you don’t feel so bad if you lose.
Between that, sleeping to catch up on my lost rest, and eating dinner, I also had some heart-to-heart with Laura. I find that I felt just a little awkward today because I didn’t really have anything to talk about, which happens much too frequently. Maybe when I start writing and doing things, it’ll be better.
Wish I had remembered to give a proper New Years greeting to Zack before heading next door. He didn’t reply on AIM, which means he’s probably busy with something on the base, so it’s not that bad, but I’d have liked to at least. Though I DID get to talk to Laura no less than a few minutes after New Years struck, so that was awesome.
The Champagne is starting to get to my head, but I think that’s about a page, so I can stop here for now.
It’s the dawn of a new year, and I have no idea what to write about, so I guess I’ll just quickly write about what happened today. This IS the start of my challenge, so I should at least get this page done.
At about 4:30 AM, my brother, my parents and I all gathered into a car and took my bro to the airport, so that he could head back to California. He’s back there by now, but the strange thing is that in the house, occasionally, I still feel like I can hear him saying things. But that’s probably just the similarities between his voice and my dad’s voice.
The three of us that took Tom to the airport then had an early morning breakfast at Denny’s. It was actually pretty good and reasonable, with french toast, eggs, bacon and an English muffin, along with a cup of coffee or two. Though I’d come to regret that coffee later, as the “low” that came later when I was tired and cranky made me feel rather irritable.
Back at the ranch house, I tooled around for a bit playing Team Fortress 2, for lack of a better thing to do. Found out I make a decent spy, though it might have just been circumstantial, as most of the teams I faced never expected a Medic to be a spy.
Though it did turn out that there WAS something I should’ve been doing. My cousin was right next door! That’s Brendon, his brother Eric, Brendon’s friend Omar, my aunts Mary, Barbera, and Kathy, and my Uncles Dave and Ray. Brendon, Omar and I played my new game together. Somehow I managed to win four times in a row, before Brendon started on an equally unlikely winning streak. I guess this game is just prone to one person winning repeatedly? Well, it’s still fun though. Short fun, that’s hard to learn, but based on enough skill that you can really feel like you’ve worked hard if you win, while in the end you don’t feel so bad if you lose.
Between that, sleeping to catch up on my lost rest, and eating dinner, I also had some heart-to-heart with Laura. I find that I felt just a little awkward today because I didn’t really have anything to talk about, which happens much too frequently. Maybe when I start writing and doing things, it’ll be better.
Wish I had remembered to give a proper New Years greeting to Zack before heading next door. He didn’t reply on AIM, which means he’s probably busy with something on the base, so it’s not that bad, but I’d have liked to at least. Though I DID get to talk to Laura no less than a few minutes after New Years struck, so that was awesome.
The Champagne is starting to get to my head, but I think that’s about a page, so I can stop here for now.
Third Blog Post - Growth (From the Past)
-Please note that I started writing this blog before the New Years, and before I had my blog page prepared. Since then I have redesigned this "project", and will be starting it in earnest on January 10th, 2011-
Light…
The first thing I can remember is light, a faint grey forming out of darkness. It cracked through the surface and made textures there I had never known. It brought warmth down into my little hole, and it felt so good, so right, that I stretched my arms out as high as I could to catch all of it, pushing aside the texture to feel the warmth against my skin.
Water trickled at my feet, soaking them and softening my hard skin, and I reached my toes out as far as they could go to let the wetness flow around. It felt wonderful, almost as wonderful as the warmth above.
I stood up and stretched as far as I could, and further and further still. It felt wonderful, so wonderful, that I grew more arms – four, eight, twelve, sixteen – to catch as much light as I could. I grew tall, taller than people, taller than all the animals, taller than all the buildings and taller than anything around me, as high as I could to catch all the warmth, soaking my feet to keep cool while warming my whole body with the radiant sun.
And I grew. I grew as tall and as high as I could until the warmth could barely reach my feet. By then, I had grown so tall that I had forgotten my feet, the splendor of my arms far more important to catching the warmth…yet with my arms stretched so wide and my body so tall, it was difficult to stay balanced. Harsh winds blew across my body, stealing my warmth and threatening to knock me off my feet. But my feet were dug firmly into the ground, and my skin was strong, so as to keep my warmth, so even as I chilled in the winter and suffered harsh storms, I was always strong.
Small creatures fed upon my feet. Bit by bit they tore away at my flesh, and I barely noticed for my love for the sun was so great. Yet as they tore it away, my hold upon the earth weakened, and my body grew frail. The winds grew strong as I grew weak, and before long, one strong wind pulled at my body hard enough to tear my feet apart. With my strength sapped, it took only one more wind to rend my body in two, and kill me in an instant.
My arms now rest in the ground; and from them spreads the warmth that I have gathered. The small animals take my warmth and soil. From that warmth, new life will grow.
I was a tall and mighty tree. From my growth, a thousand lives become possible.
Light…
The first thing I can remember is light, a faint grey forming out of darkness. It cracked through the surface and made textures there I had never known. It brought warmth down into my little hole, and it felt so good, so right, that I stretched my arms out as high as I could to catch all of it, pushing aside the texture to feel the warmth against my skin.
Water trickled at my feet, soaking them and softening my hard skin, and I reached my toes out as far as they could go to let the wetness flow around. It felt wonderful, almost as wonderful as the warmth above.
I stood up and stretched as far as I could, and further and further still. It felt wonderful, so wonderful, that I grew more arms – four, eight, twelve, sixteen – to catch as much light as I could. I grew tall, taller than people, taller than all the animals, taller than all the buildings and taller than anything around me, as high as I could to catch all the warmth, soaking my feet to keep cool while warming my whole body with the radiant sun.
And I grew. I grew as tall and as high as I could until the warmth could barely reach my feet. By then, I had grown so tall that I had forgotten my feet, the splendor of my arms far more important to catching the warmth…yet with my arms stretched so wide and my body so tall, it was difficult to stay balanced. Harsh winds blew across my body, stealing my warmth and threatening to knock me off my feet. But my feet were dug firmly into the ground, and my skin was strong, so as to keep my warmth, so even as I chilled in the winter and suffered harsh storms, I was always strong.
Small creatures fed upon my feet. Bit by bit they tore away at my flesh, and I barely noticed for my love for the sun was so great. Yet as they tore it away, my hold upon the earth weakened, and my body grew frail. The winds grew strong as I grew weak, and before long, one strong wind pulled at my body hard enough to tear my feet apart. With my strength sapped, it took only one more wind to rend my body in two, and kill me in an instant.
My arms now rest in the ground; and from them spreads the warmth that I have gathered. The small animals take my warmth and soil. From that warmth, new life will grow.
I was a tall and mighty tree. From my growth, a thousand lives become possible.
Second Blog Post - Time with the Family (From the Past)
-Please note that I started writing this blog before the New Years, and before I had my blog page prepared. Since then I have redesigned this "project", and will be starting it in earnest on January 10th, 2011-
Today was mostly spent with the Davidsons, which is to say about half the day was spent with them, and the other half was spent agonizing over headaches. Headaches that at first I thought were a result of my dehydration, but increasingly became obvious to be a result of allergies, as the presence of a fluffy cat proved. I really should not love cats this much, but god help me, I cannot resist petting a fluffy cat.
It was an interesting trip up there, involving several embarrassing details revolving around my brother that I shall not go into to save his dignity. I have to say that I have a lot of mixed feelings for my family, and it comes up a little more when I start hearing about what they do. My uncle, for example, lives in my grandma’s house but is doing what he loves (recording and writing music) and seems entirely happy with his way of life. I don’t think I’m as happy with the way I’m living, so I guess I envy him a little, but I also worry that I’m never going to get out of this house.
He has two children with his ex-wife, who was there as well. That…is something I’m never sure how to handle. The two kids seem to be very happy and always in good spirits, and are both phenomenally clever and energetic, so it’s not as if there’s anything “wrong”, it’s just awkward, and I suppose I just have to try to not let it feel awkward…harder than it sounds.
My little cousin Annie took me “ghost hunting” up in the attic. I have to say I was pretty skeptical, not because I think ghosts don’t exist, but because I doubt that if they did that you could detect them with a fairly generic-looking cell phone app. Seems like something you’d need professional equipment for, rather than a screen with green lines that occasionally shows a colored area based probably on random satellite frequencies and not ethereal presences.
I’m finding myself trying food I didn’t used to enjoy. Pasta in sauce and lasagna, which I don’t usually like, is the only thing that anyone ever seems to make at large gatherings like this, so I guess it’s more out of “I have to eat something” than anything else. I think I used to avoid it just because it always made me feel awful after eating it, rather than the taste. So maybe I’m just getting a little wiser?
Anyway, that’s enough for today.
Today was mostly spent with the Davidsons, which is to say about half the day was spent with them, and the other half was spent agonizing over headaches. Headaches that at first I thought were a result of my dehydration, but increasingly became obvious to be a result of allergies, as the presence of a fluffy cat proved. I really should not love cats this much, but god help me, I cannot resist petting a fluffy cat.
It was an interesting trip up there, involving several embarrassing details revolving around my brother that I shall not go into to save his dignity. I have to say that I have a lot of mixed feelings for my family, and it comes up a little more when I start hearing about what they do. My uncle, for example, lives in my grandma’s house but is doing what he loves (recording and writing music) and seems entirely happy with his way of life. I don’t think I’m as happy with the way I’m living, so I guess I envy him a little, but I also worry that I’m never going to get out of this house.
He has two children with his ex-wife, who was there as well. That…is something I’m never sure how to handle. The two kids seem to be very happy and always in good spirits, and are both phenomenally clever and energetic, so it’s not as if there’s anything “wrong”, it’s just awkward, and I suppose I just have to try to not let it feel awkward…harder than it sounds.
My little cousin Annie took me “ghost hunting” up in the attic. I have to say I was pretty skeptical, not because I think ghosts don’t exist, but because I doubt that if they did that you could detect them with a fairly generic-looking cell phone app. Seems like something you’d need professional equipment for, rather than a screen with green lines that occasionally shows a colored area based probably on random satellite frequencies and not ethereal presences.
I’m finding myself trying food I didn’t used to enjoy. Pasta in sauce and lasagna, which I don’t usually like, is the only thing that anyone ever seems to make at large gatherings like this, so I guess it’s more out of “I have to eat something” than anything else. I think I used to avoid it just because it always made me feel awful after eating it, rather than the taste. So maybe I’m just getting a little wiser?
Anyway, that’s enough for today.
First Blog Post - To Write! (From the Past)
-Please note that I started writing this blog before the New Years, and before I had my blog page prepared. Since then I have redesigned this "project", and will be starting it in earnest on January 10th, 2011-
This is a “writing blog”. That means that the principle purpose of this blog is for me to write. I like to write, or at least I consider myself someone who is fairly good at writing who can, in a good mood, really enjoy putting ideas on paper. So I would like to write.
The problem is, I rarely make time for myself to do any actual writing. And since most of my final semester in college is going to be nothing but writing, I feel as if I ought to set some time aside to write for leisure, or at least to practice my writing so it doesn’t become incredibly dull through the process of highly regulated writing.
So, for my new years resolution, here is what I am proposing to myself. Every day of the year for 2011, I will write a full page and post it on a blog. I will figure out some way to make people be able to read this blog. I might post it on Facebook, I will probably post it on at least one message board, and I will tell my friends that I chat with on AIM about it as often as I can.
The requirement for each blog post is that it must be at least one full page on Microsoft Word, and that it must be at least 300 words long, so as not to abuse a heavy use of spacing and headers to pad out a full page. A full page is required to ensure that I don’t abuse very small words.
This first page is not going to fall under these requirements, nor will any other page I post until New Years Day, when I WILL be posting at least once. If, for any reason, I miss a day, then as soon as I can start posting again, I will post twice per day until I have made up my missing days, but this will only occur when I have absolutely no method of accessing the internet, such as during power outages or during a lack of computer, and during those times I will at least try to write my posts out in advance on loose leaf and transcribe them, to preserve “the experience.”
I’ll be doing this until I’m finished with my thesis, which should be in late May. If I enjoy it, I might set myself a second deadline for later in the year.
This is a “writing blog”. That means that the principle purpose of this blog is for me to write. I like to write, or at least I consider myself someone who is fairly good at writing who can, in a good mood, really enjoy putting ideas on paper. So I would like to write.
The problem is, I rarely make time for myself to do any actual writing. And since most of my final semester in college is going to be nothing but writing, I feel as if I ought to set some time aside to write for leisure, or at least to practice my writing so it doesn’t become incredibly dull through the process of highly regulated writing.
So, for my new years resolution, here is what I am proposing to myself. Every day of the year for 2011, I will write a full page and post it on a blog. I will figure out some way to make people be able to read this blog. I might post it on Facebook, I will probably post it on at least one message board, and I will tell my friends that I chat with on AIM about it as often as I can.
The requirement for each blog post is that it must be at least one full page on Microsoft Word, and that it must be at least 300 words long, so as not to abuse a heavy use of spacing and headers to pad out a full page. A full page is required to ensure that I don’t abuse very small words.
This first page is not going to fall under these requirements, nor will any other page I post until New Years Day, when I WILL be posting at least once. If, for any reason, I miss a day, then as soon as I can start posting again, I will post twice per day until I have made up my missing days, but this will only occur when I have absolutely no method of accessing the internet, such as during power outages or during a lack of computer, and during those times I will at least try to write my posts out in advance on loose leaf and transcribe them, to preserve “the experience.”
I’ll be doing this until I’m finished with my thesis, which should be in late May. If I enjoy it, I might set myself a second deadline for later in the year.
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