One of my classes, Writing for Publication, has caused me to become a lot more paranoid. We've read about all sorts of things that journalists have to avoid - invasion of privacy, revealing a source's name when we've promised not to, messing up certain details, lying. But the scariest thing was the most recent one I've learned about: copyright law.

These days, as soon as you create something, whether it be a photo or story or some revolutionary discovery, it's pretty much automatically copyrighted to you, the creator. And so that means just about everything out there belongs to someone. When I put up something that isn't mine (in my case, it would probably be pictures), even if I say it wasn't mine, I could still get in trouble if I was ever brought to court for it. My teacher puts it like this: "I could steal your jacket and write on the tag that this jacket belongs to you, not me, but it's still stealing."

At first, it occurred to me as very odd, because then wouldn't that mean that there are a ton of people out there breaking the copyright law? They talk quite casually about downloading stuff on the Internet that wasn't supposed to be distributed on the Internet. And I've never really seen someone get in much trouble for taking something that isn't his/hers. I figure it must be because of just how hard it is to crack down on these things what with the Internet... It'd be nearly impossible to catch and punish everyone, and I think it'd be unfair to target some individuals and let the rest of us get off free, except for in some rare instances where big trouble was caused. Though I do wonder if someday there'd actually be a huge police force just for the Internet.

Anyways, I'd just been wondering if I ought to keep doing as I've done for quite a while now. I used to make graphics that had part of images drawn by other artists in them, and although I hadn't claimed to have made the original image, I hadn't asked for permission either... (In some cases it wouldn't have been possible to ask permission since some artists might've only been reachable on Pixiv or only spoke Japanese or had no contact information at all or I might not have even known who'd illustrated a particular picture. But still, maybe I could've taken more care in some instances to get permission to use works.) At the same time, it is a huge hassle to have to ask EVERY SINGLE PERSON EVERY SINGLE TIME when you want to just share a nice image that you saw. (I've also been wondering, wouldn't it be a good strategy for people who want their works to be known if they let people spread it around - as long as it says who made the original work? If it's too much hassle to use something, people might just lose interest and you would actually lose the opportunity for profit or at least recognition. But I don't know, it's probably more complicated than I think it is.)

I do realize I am babbling on and on, and I'd better stop (and go to bed, for that matter, so that I can actually get a decent night's sleep). I'd just like to ask...If everyone is doing it, does it make it okay? Or is it simply too late to stop an evil from spreading?

Labels: artist, copyright, creation, credit, crime, fame, internet, japan, journalism, pixiv, question, stealing, strategy, violation, writing

Although there's a show by the same time, I haven't watched it. I'm simply borrowing the name, that's all. I've often wished I could slow down time, stop it, even rewind it. But there's always things that need to be done, things that are expected of me or that I expect of myself. And when all is said and done, it's the end of the day.

It's been a while since I've gotten to write, so I certainly don't update this blog much anymore. Maybe it's because I feel like I'm just shouting at a wall - seeing as there's no one left to read this except myself - but then again, perhaps the reason why I'm the only one here is because I hardly write anything, or at least nothing particularly of interest. I don't really have the urge to write anymore. It could be because I'm taking Writing for Publication and have written much more than usual this school year, so I've drained any creative energy I had.

Or maybe it's just gone to other pursuits, not necessarily useful ones, considering my capacity for wasting time without getting bored. Well, at least I'm writing for a change. Maybe it's a start.

I've just arrived home from a trip to China, visiting relatives, as is necessary every couple of years. For a long time I'd made up my mind to hate the country, or at least the city of Shanghai, which is mostly due to what memories I had of visiting it. What I remember is...

- Being forced to dine with relatives that I had nothing to say to and who smoked indoors, and gave me gifts that I didn't want, but could not refuse because that would be bad manners

- Not wanting to eat anything except for egg tarts, which were very unhealthy. I was not interested in Chinese food, and still am not, for the most part.

- Being given huge sums of money by relatives, which made me feel uncomfortable because I didn't deserve it, and my mom always tried to take the money from me (she insisted it was for safekeeping, but I was always suspicious)

- Rude people in general (being shoved aside without apology on the street, in the subway station, and such. And vendors yelling at me if I didn't buy anything.)

- Spitting on the ground (you would hear this gagging noise and some person would spit a blob of mucus on the ground. Yuck! At least my old history teacher had the sense to do it in the trash can)

- Being stared at (store workers that would just watch me as I browsed the merchandise. Not comfortable at all)

- Near-death situations (cars, bikes, and people ignoring the red traffic lights, cars insisting on cutting you off when you had the "right of the way". Pretty funny this time since an old man said a very rude word in Chinese to the drivers)

- A general feeling of uneasiness (because of how rushed the locals seemed to be, combined with cigarette smoke and an ugly grey sky)

All of these things were still there this time, but maybe I had a different outlook now. Or maybe I was just tired of hating it. I did get to go to Beijing this time, and Beijing was pretty nice since it had parks - and cats living in them! Beijing even had a blue sky, which astonished me. But it was way too cold, and unfamiliar, and taxi drivers tried to rip us off or would refuse to drive us because of the horrible Beijing traffic jams. I guess I'd become familiar with Shanghai...I'd been there enough times to recognize the sights and sounds, and I even found that I liked nighttime there (it reminded me of Las Vegas, with the lights XD). The place hasn't changed so much. It's me who has changed.

Labels: beijing, blog, change, china, comparison, consequences, energy, familiar, lazy, memories, night, perspective, rush, shanghai, time, writing

One day, at lunchtime, I noticed that a few of my friends seemed to be writing on something. It was a piece of binder paper, and a girl was writing on it in cursive. Upon listening and watching, I realized that she was practicing signatures over and over again.

She was not just practicing her own signature. She also imitated the signature of one of her friends, and I think she got pretty good at it, because the person whose signature she was practicing writing said, "Now you write my signature better than I do."

It kind of made me think of how risky it can be to let someone get a good look at your signature. With practice, a person could probably replicate your signature pretty well. You either have to have a really wacky one or you have to keep it hidden from other people in case they feel the urge to forge it. Imagine all the things they could sign without your permission! And even if the person was caught trying to use your signature, it'd still be a big hassle.

Speaking of other kinds of signatures, I recently started submitting some of mine to some groups on DeviantArt. They're all pretty old by now seeing as I don't make graphics that often anymore (and when I do I am reluctant to post them on DeviantArt, because something I read suggested that perhaps it could be interpreted as art thievery if the artists making images used in graphics did not wish to have their art used in graphics). Well, I know that I have a long way to go (I've seen some people who make amazing graphics, and I applaud them) but it does tick me off a bit to be given criticism about older graphics, but I suppose it is better that I just swallow my pride. After all, I am sure no one is purposely trying to bring down my self-confidence, they only am trying to offer tips, so I figure it's just another challenge that I have to overcome. I would like to get back to making graphics more actively. Perhaps I should take a look at some tutorials. (The only thing is, I feel bad if I rely on a tutorial heavily since I feel like I'm doing nothing more than imitating someone else's graphics. But then again, imitation is one way of learning...After all, once you've improved you can then focus on developing your own unique style.)

Well, I guess it all goes back to that whole "small fish in a big pond" kind of feeling. At times I can be quite overwhelmed by how many amazing people there are in the world - or, on the other side of the coin, how many really harsh people there are (and I'm not talking about what I mentioned in the previous paragraph in this case). But seeing a lot of talent can inspire me to try harder too, so it doesn't always have to be something harmful. And perhaps by having to deal with unpleasant people will help me to harden myself and get "thick skin". I only hope that things can turn out well in the end.

Labels: art, challenge, criticism, danger, deviantart, feelings, graphics, harsh, old, people, problem, pros and cons, safety, signature, style, thick skin, tutorial, unexpected, world, writing

For language arts class, I needed to pick a classic to read, so I went to the library in search of a book that could be considered a classic. It is too bad that I read Little Men last trimester, since that would count as a classic. Unfortunately, the library's teen section's books had been moved elsewhere. I was easily able to locate the fiction books, but I couldn't find the classics at first. Finally, after some wandering, I found the classics section and started browsing.

I eventually decided upon The Story of My Life, written by Helen Keller. I really didn't know much about Helen Keller before now, besides that she went blind and deaf from an illness and that she was taught by a woman named Anne Sullivan. Apparently the "breakthrough" for teaching Helen words was when she felt running water on her hand and Anne Sullivan spelled out water into her hand.

One of the things that I found interesting was that Helen Keller once got into trouble for plagiarism. She had written a story which she called "The Frost King". Her friend, Mr. Anagnos, liked the story very much. Apparently someone saw the story Helen had written and remarked that it was very similar to another story called "The Frost Fairies". Helen did not remember having read that story, but apparently she had, to have written something similar. Helen said that Mr. Anagnos then believed that Helen and Ms. Sullivan had deceived him and tried to earn his favor with "The Frost King", and so in the book Helen said she was saddened to have lost his friendship.

Being creative is a pretty difficult challenge in this world. Sometimes people become famous because they were simply lucky enough to be the first to come up with an idea that becomes popular. Skill is of course still a factor in being successful (but not necessarily the biggest part; I am sorry if you are a fan of the Twilight series, but I found it rather bland for the most part) but you may still be able to get readers even if your writing is not the most sophisticated.

Sometimes people will get the same idea as you, and you have to fight to be the first to get it out there. If you are second, you'll be accused of copying them, even if you hadn't meant to. And sometimes you might accidentally write something that has actually already been put out there. Or it could be like with Helen Keller, forgetting that you had actually seen something before, and confused it with your own imagination.

I heard something mentioned on the radio as well. You also have to be careful if you're a musician. Someone on the radio said, "It either has to be completely original, or really, really good." If you have a song with similarities to other songs, you'll get attacked by people. It's pretty challenging to be creative. Keep that in mind if you think, "Oh, this is so overused," or "There's just no creativity anymore." I fear that perhaps all the good ideas are getting used up, like our Earth's resources...That would be a real shame, so I hope it is not so. But who knows?

Labels: accident, books, classic, creativity, first, forget, helen keller, ideas, inspiration, language arts, library, little men, music, originality, plagiarize, race, song, the story of my life, writing

The mention of Saturday school would normally bring a different sort of image to my mind. Saturday school is sometimes given as a punishment to students. Some teacher will be supervising the students attending on a Saturday and you can do homework or read a book or something like that. I have no idea what it's really like, nor do I have much knowledge of detention, but although it doesn't sound too bad, I think it would be a pain to have to go to school on a weekend, and it'd also be a blemish on your record (supposing that you had committed a offense to have gotten into Saturday class, right?).

Well, this was sort of a voluntary Saturday school. It had been mentioned briefly on the school announcements that there were flyers in the office regarding a language arts workshop. At first I had not been particularly interested, because my language arts teacher attended a workshop for teachers, but the info taught didn't really apply to her teaching because it was a little too basic (better for elementary school than the upper grades, anyhow), and this gave me some distrust in the ability of a workshop to actually be a help to me. But at urging from my mother, I dropped by the school office to look for a flyer, and found that there were none.

My mother took it upon herself to look up the workshop, presumably on the Internet, and so she registered me for the workshop. As I have said, I was rather reluctant, but I think my mom has inherited my grandmother's stubbornness, and there is no point arguing with her. She insisted that it would be a good experience, and I had decided to try new things in my life (I am not much of a risk taker, but I thought I would miss a lot of good things out there if I didn't...) so I ended up being won over.

This morning I was still groggy. Waking up around seven or eight o'clock in the morning is not unusual for me, but since I was sleeping poorly lately (due to me being sick with a cold) I would wake up and then go back to sleep until about nine. I have never been one for sleeping in that much. My brain always seems to think it is a school day so I often wake up around eight or so, since my mind must be unconsciously saying, "AHHHHH!!! We're late for school!!!" and forcibly getting me up. And sometimes I have to use the bathroom in the morning. If it is late enough in the morning I will not be able to fall asleep again. (But I can't just not drink water. I get dehydrated easily and if I don't drink water I will wake up with bad breath and an icky feeling in my throat.) I can't wait until we go on vacation this summer. Once I get home I plan to not adjust back to Pacific Time so that I can do what I did last summer after my vacation. I would wake up in the afternoon, and go to bed at midnight or some other late time. In this way I got more sleep than I could ever have gotten if my body was following Pacific Time. I hope I can do this again this summer. I have a small chance of growing taller if I can get a ton of sleep.

For the workshop, you could choose two out of three classes offered in the morning, and everyone attended the same class in the afternoon. I picked blogging and oral storytelling for my morning classes. The afternoon class featured comedy. I suppose I should not reveal too much of what I had heard or else anyone reading this right now would not have much reason to attend such a workshop.

I will, however, say that the instructor of the blogging class, who is a professional blogger himself, says that it's easier to get the attention of people with a shorter post and having the text in the beginning be related to the title of the post, whereas having a longer post is to the benefit of people who are already readers of your blog.

He also said that there are different kinds of bloggers - people who write for the sake of writing (who just have to write, it is their passion) and people who write to get read (because, let's face it, it's kind of rough if you're writing and no one ever cares. It's like shouting at a wall or something.). But there are also a few who are a mixture of the two, who write both for writing's sake and for people to read it. I guess I would be the mixture type of blogger.

The instructor seemed to be much more supportive of Wordpress as a place to blog as compared to Blogger. He said that as Blogger is part of Google, even if you asked them a question you wouldn't get a response, but if you need to know something about blogging, you can just drive over to San Francisco and ask the Wordpress folks. Although I have thought about making a Wordpress blog, I am not sure if I want to switch over because I have kept this blog for such a long time...It would be such a pain to make a change.

Labels: blog, blogger, brain, classes, dehydration, help, insomnia, language arts, plan, punishment, saturday, school, sleep, summer, time zone, vacation, water, wordpress, workshop, writing

In science class the other day, my teacher was absent, so we had a substitute, and we watched a movie called Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon. (Actually, it was supposed to be an IMAX movie, but since we don't have an IMAX Dome theater at my school, we had to settle for just looking at the movie being projected) As the name implies, the movie was about going to the moon.

I thought that the movie was quite touching. I would like to be able to go to the Moon someday, to walk on the surface and look at the rocky surface going on into oblivion. And I'd like to peer into a crevasse that could rival the Grand Canyon of our Earth. But then again, it'd be a lonely place. No one has traveled to the Moon since the 1970s. In the movie, the narrator (Tom Hanks) said that the Moon confuses one's optics, because there are no trees or anything that you can use as a reference for size. But I would like to go the Moon and be able to see the Earth, so small and far away. I've only ever seen pictures of the Great Blue Marble.

I was inspired by it, particularly where a 7-year-old girl said she was going to be an astronaut someday, and in the end where Tom Hanks said something along the lines of the next person to go to the Moon being one of us viewers. But the other students, as always, seemed pretty emotionless. I really don't understand young people these days. You'd think they would be emotional, since teenagers are all moody and rebellious, but no, they don't react at all to the movie. (Not that this movie was one of the more inspiring ones. It's not like I cried or anything, which I would do over a Pokemon movie. XD Particularly that Lucario one.)

We have also been watching another movie about the Moon in class, Apollo 13, which features Tom Hanks yet again. (Except he plays a character instead of being a narrator.) Apollo 13 was the second Apollo mission to make it to the Moon, I believe. It's old enough to be on a video tape, but my dad says it's not THAT old. Whatever is that supposed to mean? My dad is several decades older than I am, after all.

Speaking of the ancient video tapes, my language arts teacher made a great show of them. We were going to watch the movie The Outsiders in class. She explained slowly and demonstrated how to stick a video tape into the slot where you put it. Now that I realize it, video tapes are long gone nowadays. I watched them when I was little, but then they were replaced by DVDs, just as music cassettes were replaced by CDs. I feel kind of sad thinking children nowadays wouldn't really know about video cassettes, which for some reason feel like much more of a novelty to me (even if rewinding them is annoying).

Well, anyways, regarding the topic of Outer Space, I actually came up with an idea for a story. It was sort of science viction, I suppose, which is unusual. I was always planning to write a story that took place in present times and without any fantasy stuff. But you know, beggars for inspiration can't be choosers. I wonder if I'll actually be able to write this story or not. I started a story a pretty long time ago but stopped because I really didn't know what kind of plot I was looking for. This is my biggest problem...I envision characters and a setting and a few dramatic scenes and detailed descriptions I want to put into a story, but then I have no ideas at all about what kind of conflict will be in the story... -_-;; How will I ever be a true writer if I can't even come up with one of the important parts of writing?

It was easier when I used to role-play. If you aren't familiar with the term... It's where multiple people (sometimes only two, sometimes a lot) join forces to write a story. But it's not like co-authoring a book. It's more like each person controls one character (or more) and they can only control that character. The characters will interact, and so the story does progress. (Though there are certainly role-plays without a specific plot. Some have very complicated plots that are multiple paragraphs long, just to explain it, and others just say "This is a boarding school," and that's it for the plot) I used to role-play when I was a member of the site called Nutrinopets. But that website is gone now, and so is my role-playing. I've looked at another site's role-playing but it's not like what I'm used to, so I probably am stuck without role-playing. I think I wrote better when I had the aid of role-playing as practice. I really miss it and get nostalgic for it occasionally. (I heard that several Nutrinopets users moved to a site called Misticpets, but I don't want to join. I'm afraid the same thing might happen eventually like what happened to Nutrionpets, and besides, I don't want to get addicted. XD That's also why I won't join Facebook despite the urging of various people)

Labels: apollo 13, astronaut, cassette, emotions, facebook, imax, lucario, magnificent desolation, misticpets, movie, nutrinopets, pokemon, roleplaying, tom hanks, video, walking on the moon, writing

Recently, the clouds have been moving back and forth, covering the sun in the morning and letting it shine through in the afternoon...And sometimes the sun is covered by fog, so the light from it is weak. Because of the lack of light, it sometimes appears that people and objects have no shadow, or a very faint one.

I remember once that I heard about someone who had no shadow...Was it a book? Or perhaps an anime? I cannot clearly remember. But that person stood out because they had no shadow.

Shadows are always there, yet people don't really pay much attention to them. One's shadow always follows you around, and imitates what you do, for it is a part of yourself and yet at the same time not a part of yourself. The shadow diminishes and grows depending on light, and although people are taller in the morning than the evening, living things do not wane and wax the way the shadows do.

I am not really sure why I felt like talking about shadows, but I suppose it was just to help me get the writing flow going, if you know what I mean.

For homework, I was supposed to look up George Washington's Farewell Address. (That was the speech he gave when he resigned from the presidency after two terms) It was really long...Well, maybe it just felt like that because I was reading it and not hearing it. Still, it was pretty lengthy, and pretty hard to understand, since it was around the late 1700s... In fact, there was quite a bit of stuff in the speech that didn't have much to do with the President resigned (besides that maybe he was giving the country and next President his advice about the evil of political parties, and staying out of Europe's messy relationships, and such?). I feel a bit of kinship to George Washington, though, because he wanted to stay retired, but had to stop being retired to become President. Also, I heard that the President liked interior design and collected art. (I've been to his house, Mount Vernon. I wasn't overly impressed but maybe I'm judging by the wrong standards. It was old-fashioned, after all, with beds that are really high and all)

I've been to quite a few old homes, like Hearst Castle and Versailles and Winchester House. Winchester House is the most interesting one, I think. It's not too far from where I live and I've been there twice (once on a field trip with a summer camp, and another time for a friend's birthday party) It's got all sorts of weird things like the staircase that goes into the ceiling and a place where Sarah Winchester could look down and spy on her servants (to see if they were gossiping about her or something along those lines? Then she could fire them if they were). Some parts of the house would make you uncomfortable if you're claustrophobic, though. The guides tell people not to wander off and open doors because you could get lost, and never be found...

Another cool place would be Mystery Spot, which I also visited as part of summer camp one year. (The same summer camp that allowed me to see Winchester House, in fact.) It's a place that is really...weird. I forget what caused it, I'm afraid. But sometimes things are sideways and gravity is really strange. That's why it's called the Mystery Spot, I suppose. It's very mysterious.

I had a question, and if you happen to have the answer right on the tip of your tongue (figuratively, of course; if you talked to me I wouldn't be able to hear you unless you're next to me), please enlighten me. I've been looking for a jacket for my coming trip to Yosemite, and I've been wondering what the difference is between "water resistant" and "waterproof". Personally, I think it's the same thing, but my mom thinks that water resistant isn't as good as waterproof. I have no idea. (Unless you don't know either, don't bother looking it up, this is just if you already know it...)

This is something kind of random, but my history teacher has all sorts of odd songs. There was one that seemed to talk about elements (the sort that you find on the Periodic Table), and there was one that was like the 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall song, and just today I heard some lyrics in a song that went like, "God is great, beer is good" or something. D:

Labels: beer, claustrophobia, elements, george washington, god, house, light, mount vernon, mystery spot, president, retirement, sarah, shadow, songs, speech, water resistant, waterproof, winchester, writing

When people say that, they usually mean that there are a variety of ideas and cultures and races in the United States of America. But in this case I am taking the phrase more literally. Right now, it is extremely hot outside. Sitting in the car makes you feel as if you're a cookie baking in an oven. It's a relief that we've gotten our Saturday schedule over with. (A typical Saturday for me is waking up, being lazy for a while, then we go to two libraries, maybe go shopping or eat at a restaurant) Now I'm just at home sitting in a rolling chair, with the ceiling fan on. (Because apparently the air conditioning uses more energy...So it's better to use the fan if you're just in one room)

Recently while I was at the San Jose Library - Calabazas Branch, I discovered another section of books that I never before tried to exploit. It's called the Young Adult section and it has some mangas, along with a bunch of novels. This section seems pretty popular even with children, mostly because of the manga, though there are some people perusing the books that aren't just mostly made up of pictures. I never cease to be astounded by how many books are about some cheesy high school romance or something like that. The adult section is not much better - mostly murder mysteries, or books about people falling in love in an unlikely way. Blah, blah, blah.

So far I have not gotten very far on the story/book I am writing (I am not sure how long it will be when I am finished). It's possible I could change the names or add more characters or remove characters or change the plot. Mostly I am wondering what in the world I should name the book. (A hint is that this is not a fantasy or sci-fi book, it is more like a modern day sort of "real life" fiction. The main character is currently supposed to be around 13 or 14 but I could change it) If you have a good suggestion, I'd really like to hear it, since I don't want to call it something really lame. My previous writings have rather odd titles, like The Factor of the Opera, Diary of a Dolphin, and The Timeline of the Ancient Immovables. (I may have incorrectly recalled the last name)

My mom seems to have a strange way of dealing with problems. Since she is a rather assertive and self-assured person, she sees nothing wrong with complaining about something she finds inconvenient or pulling on someone's hair. I am seriously considering cutting my hair so she has less of it to pull on. Since I usually have my hair in a ponytail, if she's mad, she'll yank on it, which I don't think is very nice. Other times she does what you'd call "boxing ears". I am concerned that this violent approach may get out of hand and she'll land herself in trouble with the authorities. (I notice that she rarely hits me or her husband in public)

Labels: adult, books, heat, library, manga, melt, mom, name, pulling hair, romance, saturday, story, violent, weather, writing, young adult

Top ↑