Goodpiefulness (how full you are of good pie)

Hello!

I have received the task of writing about numbers and ranking people and all that jazz. 

I was actually going to do this on Friday even though I didn't even know it was an assignment, but then I ended up spending the whole day in bed with a fever or tumbling around the house with my head spinning and feeling like it was splitting open and not hearing anything because my ears were blocked. 

We were supposed to rate ourselves on Brother Juniper's scale. The scale basically rates a person on their goodness, piety, and usefulness, out of 30 (so 10 for each). 

I gave myself a 5 for goodness, 3 for piety, and 5 for usefulness, making a total of 13 out of 30.

It was rather hard to give myself a score.... because the scale wasn't all that specific. How good was I out of 10? Good according to what? Piety was kind of easier because although I have no idea which religion I believe in I have an idea of what I believe in (which I might make a separate post about later, because it's not necessarily God or a god...). But usefulness? Some might say I'm a 10/10. Some might say I'm a -10. 

So I scored myself on what I believed I was, but this was only one opinion out of all the people who know me. Not that accurate. 

I gave myself a 5 for goodness because I am good to those who I think deserve it, and to those I love. And I'm not bad or menacing to those I don't like, but I'm not always the nicest person, so I thought a 5 was a valid score. 

I'm not religious, I identify myself as agnostic because I've never really given enough thought to religion so I don't want to say I'm an atheist. Because I don't know if I am. So I chose a 3, because I do believe in some sort of hidden presence. 

I was most confused about usefulness because I really don't know what I'm supposed to base this on.

In class when the vagueness of this scale was mentioned, I was interested. 

I think it's okay to rate people on a number scale as long as this scale and the reason behind each number is well explained to avoid any confusion. And I don't think these ratings can always be taken as fact. They should be considered, but not shared with everyone as information. 

I remember making little ID cards for my characters back in 3rd or 4th grade, and I used to rate them on their strength, magic, and etc. This helped classify them and use them in situations where they would be most fitting. I guess people want to rate others so they can know when they'd be suitable. Because everybody just wants to control what goes on around them, so it's natural that they'd pick people for task that benefit them.

Just some ideas... 

Update on comic:

I finished most of the pencils of one page!!! I just have background details left :) 

Yay!! 

Ramblings about Cartoons

I don't really know why I'm writing this entry. I just felt like talking about this topic to someone... and that someone happened to be blogger.

Lately I've been listening to soundtracks from anime I've watched, and this got me thinking about my connection to anime and cartoons.
Here are a few links to ones I like...
L's Theme B (from Death Note)
Light's Theme (also from Death Note)


The first anime I watched and have a clear memory of is Shaman King. It was about this kid called Yoh (his name means leaf) who happens to be a shaman and has to fight his way through the Shaman King Tournament along with his buddy spirit Amidamaru (I think that's how you spell his name) and the many friends he makes along the way.

I'd forgotten about it and never really thought about anime, until someone told me my art style really looked like it was out of a manga. This really frustrated me, because I was being told I was not original. I'd developed that drawing style over many years. I'd been working on it since 5th grade, and being told that it was cliche really hurt me. So I grew to have a negative prejudice against all manga and anime.
But my good friend Levent forced me into reading the manga Fullmetal Alchemist. It was one of the greatest comic series I'd ever read. I also ended up watching both versions of the anime... and they had quite a lot of episodes!! This one was about two brothers, alchemists, who had made a great sacrifice trying to revive their mother, and how they had to fight 'homunculi' who were all named after a deadly sin to recover what they lost.

The latest anime I watched was just amazing. It's called Death Note. I'd watched the first episode last year out of curiosity, but it had really unnerved me. So I hadn't continued the series. But I had the chance to meet a half Japanese anime fan at Pratt, who told me I should keep watching it. So I did. And I stayed up till 2 am watching the anime for 3 days straight. Basically it tells the story of a high school kid named Light who finds a notebook named the "Death Note" which has the power to kill anyone whose name is written in it. Followed by the god of death that owns it, Light wants to create a better world for people to live in by killing criminals whose names are broadcasted on the news. Light is quickly noticed by the famous and anonymous detective L, and the anime is about their race on finding out who the other really is, so they can take them out for good. It has the best plot twists I have experienced so far.

I watch a lot of cartoons too... I spent a year watching Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans, Young Justice, and my absolute favorite: Legion of Superheroes.
Now what's so different about anime and American cartoons?

Maybe this is because anime always have very dramatic backstories for every single character, but I find it so much easier to love and relate to a character in an anime or manga.
I remember after finishing Shaman King I couldn't stop thinking about the characters and trying to imagine what would happen to them next (though it was a rather long anime with about 65-70 episodes I think... so that's no surprise).
I also shed a tear when a character died in Fullmetal Alchemist.
And I remember running into my suitemates' room after I finished watching Death Note and yelling for 5 minutes straight before running back to my room and throwing myself on the bed in frustration.

Superhero comics don't seem to evoke that much emotion in me... (though my reaction to Superboy's death was extreme because it seriously was so sad... ugggh)
So I have gotten over my silly prejudice, improved my drawing style to be completely original, and now I recommend most people to stop judging people for watching anime or being 'fangirls' and start enjoying these wonders themselves!!

Spreading Religion, Destroying Empires

The Inca Empire was a giant empire. The Incas worshipped many gods of nature. They were ruled by a formidable emperor who was a descendent of the sun god. The people were always well fed, and lived in rather good conditions. They were conquered by the Spanish, and the empire fell in the 1500s.

Franciscans were followers/disciples of St. Francis. They were Christians, mostly Catholics. Saint Francis was a man who decided to live in poverty, away from all materialistic desires.

The Franciscans travelled to the newly discovered continent along with the rest of Europe. The general purposes of these travels were to colonize America, and spread the European cultures and religions. The Franciscans wanted to spread Christianity, and then the teachings of St. Francis. The Franciscans not only affected the religion of the Americans, but also the language they spoke and allowed them to experience the Spanish culture.

The Franciscans were a mechanism for building a connection, a bridge, between the European and Incan cultures.

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This blog post has been open the whole day because I couldn't pick photos! But here are some I took in Greece! I quite like these:

This was a boat designed to look like a pirate ship! Pretty cool!

Sting! I was extremely tempted to buy this but I prefer using my imagination with my wooden sword at home, and I already have the Ring, so I didn't really need it. 

Farewell. 

IB? Where did that come from?

Being reminded of the existence of this blog, I spent this night reading some older posts. I find them highly...amusing? I suppose?
I'll have less tirades and complaints on this blog and hopefully more content about class this year.
The reason I was so whiny was because I was rather angry at the world and had issues with many things but I've spent quite a while alone figuring things out, and now I'm at peace with myself and most other things. I'm "chill", if you will. I feel like I have a wider view of everything. Being closed up and introverted also allowed me to observe and understand many things I would not have before, and I grew to have an acceptance of things around me. Honestly, I feel a lot wiser.

Anyways, for the summer I was at Pratt for a month and got to draw a lot of comics. One of our tasks was to design the cover of a comic... and my drawing was actually picked by my teacher and used as the cover of a collection of drawings from the class! I was extremely excited about that and had a lot of fun there.
Creating comics there really motivated and inspired me. Realizing my writing wasn't as good as I thought it was before, I decided I'd just turn my still 55 page novel into a graphic novel. So lately I've been working on story boards and designing pages.
I was thinking of making it a webcomic... but it'd be hard to get readers and actually make it interesting to people, so that's still a thought.
But I'm seriously serious (ha ha) about it. So I'll write updates on that at the end of my blog posts, in case anyone is interested.
I also have scans of my comics but I don't really want to upload them on my blog sooooo...

I was not ready for school at all. I still don't believe it's real. I still think it's all a terrible nightmare. I'll return to reality on the last day of school.

I also got really interested in poetry! So I might make posts about my poems later on.
Though right now I'm going back to doodling!
Farewell!