Month: February 2008

Posted in Books

HOLY AMAZINGNESS!!!!

Posted on by Bri

For those of you who have not looked at the shoutbox, there is a message from Brian Mandabach, author of Or Not!!! He must have done a search for mentions of his name (look at the “books I’m reading” block on the bottom right of the page), and came to here!! Isn’t that awesome?? So I think this calls for a full-blown review of this incredible book.

 

Cassie is a fourteen year old non-conformist living in a non-tolerant world. She has an older brother whose girlfriend is her self-appointed older sister and parents who really care about and understand her. The story is about her coping with several different events in her life, and her take on the world around her.

When I was reading this, it was like talking to myself. I like to think I’m fairly non-conformist (but yes, I do shave my legs. I just like the feel of it), and her sarcastic, creative way of describing things reminds me a lot of myself and my friends. It’s written in first person, which I love, and in journal form, which is also cool, because you really get to understand the character. I tend to write and read first person character-based stories, as opposed to third person plot based ones, because reading about a person is like making a new friend. And Cassie seems to be someone who I would realy get along with.

There isn’t much to complain about in this book, it had the perfect mix of unhappiness, cynicism, sarcasm, good character traits, and bad character traits. There are a ton of things I disagree with Cassie about, but if Mr. Mandabach can write a character that I disagree with but still love and connect to, that truely marks him as an excellent writer. He captures perfectly the essence of being a teenager, and he really seems to understand how we think. Cassie may be a little advanced and strong minded for a 14-year-old, but I have to admit, I was a lot like her. Still am, as a matter of fact. But I’m not average, and neither is she. I know people are always complaining that books have too many heroes and not enough normal people, but why would you want to read a book about an average joe doing average things? We read books to get away from reality, but not so much that they’re completely ridiculous. Even fantasy and science fiction have ties with reality. Mr. Mandabach’s book, Or Not, is something I would reccomend to anyone.

Posted in Teenage Life

Is this even possible??

Posted on by Bri

Wow. So I was on this blog reading a post about left handed people, and I was appalled. The link is this <http://iandenny.blogspot.com/2008/02/best-bloggers-are-left-handed.html>

This guy talks about how left handed people are better bloggers. Well, it has been researched that the minority of lefties are generallt more creative, but this guy takes it a little too far. Instead of just relating facts, he goes on to say that lefties are SUPERIOR. I’m a righty, and I’d like to think that I’m pretty darn creative. I appreciate the effort, Ian Denny, but you’re starting to sound a little prejudiced. Just read a reply from him to a commenter that was angry about the post:

I really do feel sorry for right handed people. My left-handed ancestors were ridiculed and social outcasts.

I was hoping for more tolerance of our superior creativity. How can we still be hounded so in this day and age just because we’re paid 15% more and have to bear this cross of superiority?

Sound pompous and prejudiced yet? He also tells us that right-handers are “afflicted” and lefties are “gifted”. But of course, he’s not biased at all. He also says, quote, “And if you are left-handed, I look forward to the intelligence, wit and creativity that will flow through your prosaic words!” when referring to commenters and their blogs.

I left an angry comment. Hee.

Posted in Issues

Abortion: My final view

Posted on by Aardvarki

*This is just a copy of my original blog. I didn’t want to delete the other because it had comments attached to it. You can still view the comments on my original blog, but I just needed to get into the habit of the whole re-orginization thing. If you want to post comments non-related with the ones on the original, you can post them here.*

Okay, there are pobably many people who are going to be unhappy with me bringing up this subject again. “But I thought we were all done with this contraversial crap!” you’ll say. Sorry, but we’re not. At least not for now. And I’m not really saying that you have to leave comments, this is just my view, and if you see a flaw, please comment and I will answer you as best as I can. And, if I cannot prove my point, and you prove your’s instead, well, then you will know that you have changed my mind. But let me remind you: my mind is very hard to change; you will have to make some very good arguments for your cause. So, enough blabber-jabber, here it is: the final, unedited, unrated, unsomethinged view:

I think that abortion should be kept legalized because of several reasons. The most important of these is that when it is made illegal, abortions will not stop. Just like what was seen when cocaine was made illegal, and ecsacy, and LSD, an marajuana, abortion will not just dissapear, instead there will be a pluthera of illegal abortions. And illegal abortions will not be sanitary, they will not be performed correctly, and, just as in many third-world countries like Nepal, they will be fatal. And, just to clear something up, I am against abortion. I think that it is wrong to kill human beings, born or unborn. But I think that legal abortion is the lesser of two evils. And I believe in being pro-active rather than reactive. I also think that women have the right to choose what to do with an unwanted baby; it should not be just decided for them. Isn’t that the meaning of freedom, after all? To have the freedom to choose without fearing for our lives; isn’t that the priciple that this country was founded upon? I think that the best way to fight abortion is to be proactive; discouraging it, supplying a pluthera of choices, and, in the case of teenage pregancies, make sure that there is a nearby clinic that can offer counseling and set up a way to put the child up for adoption or put it into foster care. And, I guess if you wanted to be truly proactive, educate teenagers not to have sex. And you know that there are a lot of kids at your school that have sex; ther’s no turning a blank eye to it. The best way to make abortion obscure is not to have the baby in the first place, athough that probably will never happen. There is something about an hour of sexual pleasure that humans are so willing to risk the rest of their lives over. Bloody stupid, if you ask me.

Posted in Photoshop Junk

Break it down!

Posted on by Bri

Some people (ok, one person) have expressed an interest in how I do my drawings, so I decided to upload all the layers and show you. This is all done in Photoshop Elements 4.0

First I start with a basic skeleton sketch to get an idea of how the girl will be proportioned. This is my first layer.

Next I make a new layer and trace over the skeleton (the new layer is so if I mess up I don’t accidentally erase part of the skeleton) and make my outline. I add details like the hair outline and clothing.

Now I duplicate that layer so, again, if I mess up, the original isn’t damaged, and color it in, adding skin color, hair details, facial features, and patterns to the clothing. This step takes the longest, because I am constantly tweaking the body, shading, and re-drawing things.

This used to be where I stopped, but last night I decided that I wanted her to have a background, so first I just draw a bunch of grey rectangles and use some effects in photoshop to make them look less fake. But it’s still a drawing, so eh. This is also a new layer, so I can place my girl on top of it. Then I draw the sky, which is a new layer as well, this being so I can draw the stars in it without worrying about getting it all over the buildings.

And now we’re done! Click here for the link to the finished drawing.

Posted in Issues

The Pasta Theory

Posted on by Bri

Recently (ok, today), I’ve noticed something. Something strange. Something ground breaking. Something…. well, you get the picture. And here it is:

I have found a direct correlation between God vs No God arguments and pasta preference.

Yes folks, I sure have. I know you’re all probably shaking your heads right now, but hear me out, ok?

Here is our typical religious argument:

Random Arguer 1: “I believe that there is no God.”

Random Arguer 2: “You’re so wrong, there is too a God. How dare you insult my religion?”

Now, let’s replace the bold faced statements:

Random Arguer 1: “I believe that bowtie pasta is the best.”

Random Arguer 2: “You’re so wrong, linguine is the best. How dare you insult my taste in pasta?”

Uncanny, isn’t it? But keep listening. It all comes down to this: It is an OPINION. Here’s the truth; you cannot prove or disprove God, just like you cannot prove or disprove that linguine pasta is the best, because it’s a matter of opinion. Let’s look at another correlation:

You are Christian, and your friend is an Atheist. So you take your friend to church every Sunday, you read them passages from the Bible, and you attack them at every chance you can with religious quotes and wisdom. There are two outcomes to this: either your friend decides that he wants to convert to Christianity, or they decide to stay being an Atheist and get extremely annoyed.

Let’s change this to pasta again.

You love linguine, and your friend loves bowtie pasta. So every time you go out, you order them linguine, you talk about it all the time, and you list the ways linguine could enhance their lives. There are two outcomes to this: either your friend decides that they like linguine as well and agrees that is is the best pasta, or they decide that they still like bowtie pasta better and get extremely annoyed.

Here’s the moral of this story. Well, actually there are two.

MORAL 1: Atheists and Religious People: STOP ARGUING OVER THE EXISTENCE TO GOD. Neither one of you is going to come out on top, because it is a matter of opinion. I know you’re all going to be mad at me, but listen; an opinion is something that can not be proved and is a personal belief. A FACT is something that can be proved and verified. Both atheism and religion are OPINIONS. So again, stop arguing. It’s like arguing over what pasta is better.

MORAL 2: There are plenty of things theists and non-theists argue about; the validity and interpretation of the Bible, religious and non religious propaganda, and a variety of issues like gay marriage and abortion. But because the base of their arguments is their personal opinion, it all boils down to: Does God exist or not? And again, that can not be proved or disproved, therefore basing arguments off of it doesn’t make any sense. So stop using religion to back up an objective argument, and stop using the basis of non-religion to back up an objective argument. Just… stop….arguing. It’s going to get us no where.

*BONUS* MORAL 3: Bow Tie Pasta is totally better.