Return of the Revenge of the Son of Saying Hi to Josiah!

[Josiah]

Hi! I don't think Borders problem was ebooks, so much as that they were trying to go toe to toe with Barnes & Noble (which seems to be doing just fine) and failed. Not entirely sure why, but they couldn't compete with B&N when it came to regular stores and they couldn't compete with Amazon online. And, in the end, we didn't need quite so many bookstores around.

[Blivsey]

Hi!

I made Iowa All-State Chorus yesterday! I'm really not too good at expressing my emotions through paragraphs, so I'll just shout hooray!

[Josiah]

Hi! Congrats, Blivsey!

[Pikachu127]

'Ello, chum (and congrats, Blivsey!).

Today was headache-inducing... Dear God, it's throbbing... On the other side of the coin, I have completed a county assessment for Biology... Too simple. Much too simple.

In other news, I am currently revising my drawing style. Drawing stick figures isn't satisfying (though xkcd applies the art in a beautiful way), and Kirby is both demeaning and... too hard to work with. I tried going for a psuedo-chibi style, which worked out... for about two weeks. Then I decided to go for... realism. *shiver* Actually, my current drawing style is a sort of blend between anime/manga and my previous drawing styles, along with some hint of realism. It's working out fine, and I'm determined to catch up with my friends.

No self-glorification/putdown intended,
Pikachu127 (who is now raging at the semi-inadequacy of dragoart/other sites)

[Saber Knight]

Hey.

Well, not sure if I mentioned this, but the other day our drill instructor's father passed away. Most of the band was able to make it to the wake today, which made me exceedingly proud. When our drill instructor saw all of us, he almost started crying... Then, after getting home (after getting profoundly lost), I check facebook to see that a kid in the neighboring town comitted suicide due to bullying. I didn't know him, or anything, but it both angers me and saddens me to no end that something like that would happen, especially so close to home. Ugh.

Edit: And now I just learned that a kid from a school in NH that my friend goes to also committed suicide because of bullying today....

[Puyon]

Hello, friends!

Good job, Blisvey! That's just amazing~!

And, oh god, that's a moving story, Saber. I wish that everybody could emotionally support each other like how your band just did so that incidents such as "bullycide" wouldn't occur...

Oh boy, irrelevance time! Haha, now that I think about it, I've only posted one picture on here for everyone to see, huh? That was like a year ago, and just looking at pictures from back then is just.... painful. *shudder* Well, I'm certain I have something in these 200 pages worth of sketches-- Ah. *Nothing but Disgaea and MLP fanart, along with "original" things* Perhaps I should draw a larger variety of things. Oh boy! I guess I gave myself something to do! *runs off about to draw* ... *no ideas*
Agh, people in school complement me on my sketches, sure, it's good to know that I have positive feedback. But people have admitted that they're scared to criticize me. And I also don't want them looking over my shoulder when drawing anyways. *just draws in anime-like style while also observing from life*

Oh yeah, I just realized that I have plenty of things to be confident about, so I guess I'm no longer sulking around. ...Yaaay.

[Blivsey]

Hey guys, my throat was so excited to succeed that it decided to celebrate by coating itself in mucus!

[Metalheadz]

Hi!

I'm sorry for your drill instructor, Saber. It was really cool for all you of the band to be there for him, though. I'm sure both his father and the other kid are somewhere better now.

Hope that cold gets better, Blivsey.

I really don't want to sound like a cold-hearted selfish devil by saying this, so please don't accuse me, but I wanted to get it off my shoulders badly. A girl at some of my friends' school has cancer, and over the past month she's been receiving large amounts of cash from fundraiser and stuff. She's being supported from here in Virginia to all sorts of places in the US as far as San Diego, California. When I say funds, she's receiving thousands of dollars a week. There is even a weekly day at both our schools to wear purple in order to honor her. Concerts, parades, festivals, restaurant fundraisers, basket donations, you name it. This is only one 15-year old girl with cancer, amongst the several hundred in our city with cancer right now. The people from her school even say she's getting too much attention. There have even been Billboards and stuff dedicated to her.

What angers me more, my friend had a life-or-death surgery today for kidney transplant recently. She's not going to be at school for maybe a year or a couple of years because of that surgery. However, what makes my friend and this girl from the other school different is that the girl with cancer is really popular. I usually don't label people as such, but she's popular in our entire county of schools. My friend, on the other hand, has a lot of friends but I wouldn't call her "popular." But the question is, guess who received more attention?

It upsets me that my friend who could've died received little to no attention, while this other girl who has thousands of supporters gets the fame and loads of money. While I don't want her to suffer, either, even the people from her school think she's receiving too much attention. There are millions out there with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Heck, my aunt died of cancer. I ask myself, "What makes this person so special aside from her popularity she's receiving all this support?"

Well, despite what I say. I'd be more upset if she died... Tbqh, I was once a huge supporter for her, but after several weeks of the same news, it just got old and annoying. I don't think many on here will understand, but I just had to say so.

Peace out!

[Silver]

Nah, I kinda know what you mean, WS. Mostly I just think it's not fair to give so much support to one person when there are so many other people struggling... There are people that need cancer treatment and can't afford it, while one person is getting thousands in donations? How about donating that to a charity organization instead of her pocket, yeah? Plus I kind of had something similar happen... a friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer, was out of school for almost a full year. For the first few days she was gone, there was a whole big show of "We love you! We miss you! Come back soon!" from all the preppy popular kids. Then when she came back to school it was like they had completely forgotten she had left and went right back to being ignorant bullies like they always are. You know, they didn't actually care at all, they just wanted to make themselves look good. People like that suck.

[PoisonWing14]

Moi,

I see where you're coming from Metal. I don't think it's that, as you say "cold-hearted", for you to think the way you do. I can't quite find the words to explain what I want to say right now, but I understand what you're saying, none-the-less.

@Puyon: Gosh, I've has the worst art-block for the past few months, and I'm just starting to get out of it.
Also, I've noticed that whenever I show people in my classes or my teachers my drawings, they give me so much positive feedback, I'm almost certain that most of them are just trying to get out of criticizing ing my work. The only people that I can get actual criticism from is my 9th grade art teacher and...two of my friends.
And, gosh. I can never draw if people are constantly watching me.

Anyways, not much to talk about today. Just doing school stuff and getting my Halloween costume ready.

Wait, did I talk about my costume on here? *Checks through some pages* Hmm, I guess I haven't. Well, I guess now is fine time to talk about it.
This year, I have decided to dress up as one of my favorite Batman villain: The Riddler! A few things though...a few parts of the costume, I am making myself. Namely, his jacket and tie. Also, a few parts I will need to find or borrow from friends. I've already gotten permission to borrow a bowler hat from one of my friends, and I'll be looking around some shops for a purple domino mask and similar-colored gloves. These tasks should keep me quite occupied this week.

So, yeah....I think I need a better way to end these other then just awkwardly ending like I always do...umm...Look! A distraction! *Jumps behind shrubbery*

[Josiah]

Hi! I agree that some people get way too much attention. Unfortunately, it's the same with just about everything. The news, for example, tends to play up even the most minor human rights violations in some countries while completely ignoring mass genocides in others. It's hard to pin down a specific reason for things like that or the situation with the girl Metal mentioned. Luck plays a part in it but also marketing, popularity, biases, etc, etc, etc. And, of course, you can't complain about it too much because everyone will think you're a horrible person who doesn't care about the person/issue/etc receiving all that attention.

Anyway, I hope your friend is doing well, Metal.

@Puyon and Poison... These days quite a lot of people seem to fall into one of two camps. Those who ruthlessly criticize everything whether it deserves it or not (a behavior that's far more common on the internet than in real life) and those who won't critize anything whatsoever because they're worried about offending someone, or hurting their feelings, or, worst of all, see everything as a lovely form of artistic expression so no real skill is needed so long as the creator is expressing their feelings (such as the people who pay thousands of dollars for a paint splatter). The first group creates a lot of hurt feelings and leads to people ignoring all criticism since so much of it is meaningless. The second group creates a bunch of people with a superiority complex who can't take constructive criticism or advice because all their work is absolutely "perfect".

In the end, if you're serious about something (art, writing, etc), it's a good idea to find a few people (friends, family members, teachers, or whoever) who will give you honest critiques on your work and tell you straight up what needs improvement. Without that kind of feedback, it can be difficult to improve.

Ugh, I seem to be stuck in lecture mode today... Side effect of teaching college classes, perhaps?

[Pikachu127]

I am so angry at myself right now. Not only because of how I'm still up doing a DRAFT of an INTRODUCTION of a paper right now. It's infuriating. But what's more infuriating is the fact that I treated one of my friends in a TOTALLY unforgivable manner.

Actually, the incident is actually too painful to recall.

Good night, everybody. The intro is done. I expect scathing remarks.

[Metalheadz]

Hi!

Agreed and thanks, Josiah. And thanks to everyone for understanding.

Got my report card back! Finished with 5 A's and 2 B's. I'm happy, though I really need to stop making a few careless mistakes in my quiz/test-taking.

Peace out!

[Saber Knight]

Hey.

So, yesterday I went to a Diwali party (PS I just realized I never wished everyone a happy Diwali... well, happy Diwali, everyone!) and it was SUPER FUN! When I walked in the door, my friend's mom forced me into a lehenga (essentialy a skirt... not sure how she managed that one) and a thing-I-can't-remember-the-name-of-but-it-was-essentialy-a-really-wide-scarf. You wear them in about 1001 ways, though her mom quickly decided how I was going to wear it, and wrapped me up :P I felt a bit silly, but it was fun. Lots of Indian food (yum!) and then we got to the Diwali celebrations of sparklers and firecrackers (illegal in MA.... but, whatever).

Oh yeah, did I mention it was SNOWING?! Like... hard. It's absurd outside.... so many branches are down because they haven't lost their leaves yet, and several inches of snow knocked them down. Anywho, me and the others ran around in the snow with sparklers, and then we lit some fun little firecrackery things (there was one that would spin around in the snow, emitting sparks, until it suddenly banged and little golden sparks flew out). When we went back inside for dinner, we lost power, but we still got to eat nommy desserts. I hung out for another hour or so, then I got to drive home in WONDERFUL conditions (/sarcasm) because I had to ref hockey in the morning... turns out, the rink doesn't have power, so I'm off the hook. Wonder if I get paid...

ANYWHO long story short is that Diwali parties are mucho fun, even if you're one of three white kids there and it is severly impossible to remember everyone else's name! Oh, and that it seems like my whole town doesn't have power.... mwahaha, the power is mine, all mine!

[Josiah]

Hi! I'm thinking I'll go see Puss in Boots today. That means putting off my grocery shopping a bit since I don't really want to drive all the way to Gainesville and back twice in one day and I want to buy some stuff that needs refridgeration, but I won't have time to go next weekend so I might as well.