A Place to Shrug it Off

Short posts are okay.  I decided that everything I post here doesn't have to be some long immaculate, well written piece each time. As I've mentioned before, this was made to be an outlet for me. After I finally started, my brain starts thinking that I need to double check and read over everything multiple times to make sure it's perfect. Well now I'm putting it out there that it doesn't. Sure I can just tell myself that, but once I put it out there for all to see in the universe, it feels set in stone. Like, now that I've told someone else, there's no taksie backsies. Sure, I'll still try to write out well thought out things like my "Wrong Chicken Sandwich" post, but maybe some things can be just general thoughts. Maybe diary-esque. My partner suggested the other day I name my post, "Monday thoughts" and I like idea. The post name didn't work with what I was writing at the time, "What do I need to remember when writing?...

An aspect of good writing, is answering the questions being asked. Sounds easy, but then you have to remember that the writing is already done. Yes, you have to be able to answer the questions readers will be having as they're reading along, like predicting the future. The ability to bring something up in an earlier part of the story, and when a situation arises where an earlier part could be relevant, you have to explain why it is or isn't possible to use it. Yeah, sounds not as easy anymore, and once you pick up on it, the way you look at storytelling changes. When I'm consuming a piece of media, like reading a book/manga, listening to an album, or even looking at art, I try to find the story within it. Looking for what this piece of media is trying to tell me and seeing how we got there. Yes, the meaning behind the medium is important, but the journey to that meaning is just as important. It has to make sense, logically. Pretend you're a philosopher, ask questions. N...

Personally, I was not a fan of this. Avatar: The Last Airbender is an animated series I have watched multiple times. Netflix decided to bring the characters to life, human life, live-action. There were doubts, worry, hope, many feelings that I and others were feeling when the news came out. Waiting to see the final product. The original creators were working with Netflix, but then they vanished. It was now clear that this adaptation would be different. Not a direct retelling of the animated series that came before, but an inspired vision, like the movie. This was not the first time a live-action remake was happening; this was actually the second. They tried to retell a season of the show as a movie, which had its own vision of how the world worked. Now they were retelling a season, as another season, using similar rules, but a different telling of events. We will be seeing more of this world as it has been renewed for a second and third season, just like the original series. This show ...

Famous manga artist (manga-ka) Akira Toriyama recently passed away. All over Twitter (X) my page was filled with others talking about him. Nostalgia and reminiscing on the things he did and was still doing. A moment that many in the world shared. The world had shifted again. Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z (DBZ) is the first piece of media that comes to mind for me and many others when his name pops up. His specific art style was why I started playing Dragon Quest VIII (DQ8). A child with a PS2 seeing a character who looks like Goku in a video game that wasn't DBZ. It came with a demo for Finally Fantasy XII, another game series I've heard of but not played. I was dead set on getting it, with my father even asking if I was sure since it was number eight in the series. In retrospect, that did not matter as the stories were not connected; they just shared similar game designs, a detail neither of us knew. I did not care that this was number eight in a series; I had to play.   The cl...

After watching Dune: Part Two, I finally understand why people are so obsessed with Star Wars. I saw Dune: Part One when it first came out, and I was intrigued. I didn't fully understand everything that was going on, but the story gave you enough information to get through it. The night before watching Part Two, I watched a recap video that gave extra information from the book, and I was locked in. Part One is still a good movie, but after hearing all the extra details, it definitely enhanced the story. After watching Part Two, I had to sit and digest what I just saw; I had to know more about this world. Honestly, I'm not much of a sci-fi guy, so this story hitting for me really attributes to how good of a well written story this is. The visuals, everything they showed me felt believable in this world. The way characters interacted and the choices they made, I believed they were actions they would take. This is a movie that people think, "cinema." I tried years earlie...

You really do need an outlet to be creative in some way. It doesn't have to be super fancy and extravagant; it can be as simple as this. Just a random place to write out your random thoughts to help put things in perspective. Do I plan to be a self-published writer by doing this? No, but I enjoy writing, and this helps organize the ideas in my head. I'm running this D&D campaign, and I really thought that maybe I wanted to quit. Some of my players don't take it seriously, well, at least it feels that way to me. This campaign seems to be at the bottom of their lists, even when we have a scheduled date planned a week(s) in advance. After mulling it over and doing some writing, my perspective on the matter shifted. Before, I was trying to create a story with my players to give small ideas and have them lead the way for the story to be and support them. After our last actual session, that's not possible. I have come to the realization that I have to push and lead the st...