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Invader_Batty
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Name: Joanna
Birthday: 10/28/1988
Gender: Female
Interests: Art. Music. Movies. Romance. Going on crazy adventures with friends. Little Jimmy Urine. Jhonen Vasquez. Christain Bale. Pandas. Costumes and makeup. Dark humor. Supernatural Phenomena. Photographs. Anime. Videogames. Traditional Animation.
Expertise: Ripping checks from stubs. 10 key. Encoding. Drawing.
Occupation: Artist
Industry: Art
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
1/11/2005
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| ok so obviously i'm awful with keeping up with these.
sorry i missed class on tuesday! i had one of the worst nights of my life and probably would have fallen asleep at the wheel on the drive to class yesterday if i'd have tried to make it. i really didn't feel good at all...and i forgot to shoot you an email Joel so...just letting you know what was up.
i've been thinking of stories and such and i've been finding i've been having issues with making them any good. not that i don't have ideas that i like, but i'll have ideas that don't ever flesh out. i don't know how to end anything. and usually my rising action is...well...not really action, it's quite boring and lame. there is so much to think about when trying to write a story and i'm beginning to think that i'm just not good at it.
most of the time i can't get it to stick to any kind of structure. like i was thinking of using my animation for the story i was supposed to bring to class, but the story with that is for entertainment only. there is no purpose other than to make someone laugh. there is no moral. there is no point. there is no benefit. no one would get an answer if they asked WIIFM? it's a gag and that's it.
so i thought i'd bring in a different story i've already written, but that would be a flop too. it's from the perspective of one of my male characters, so that in itself is a little...strange maybe? (now that i think about that, a lot of books are from the perspective of a different character...so nevermind.) it starts off pretty well, i have some very different characters kind of thrown into this situation where they are forced to interact and live...but nothing really happens. and it doesn't really have a set track of where it's going. first it's a story about making friends, then it's a love story, then it's a story about finding yourself...and...i don't know. it's just a bunch of little scenarios that me being the demented writer would like to put them in, but no way to link them together to make one cohesive story. and even then, those mini episodes can't even stand on their own. i couldn't take on of those instances and try to make that into a story in itself because they are still not big enough to make a story with. i think it's a fairly entertaining story because i know how my characters act and some of it makes me laugh, but there really aren't any act breaks that would change the characters' lives too much...which is probably why it just drags on and on and doesn't really go anywhere. it's 15 or so pages...not exactly what i'd call concise. when i was writing it i felt like i didn't know how to end it, but i never knew why till this class. i'm still unsatisfied with half the story and the ending, but i don't know what i can do to make it better. (other than change the accents of the brother and sister characters because i wrote it with an Australian dialect and it's really annoying to read.)
plus, (this is probably a good thing actually,) you're kind of tough when it comes to the stories we've written for class, so i'm not sure how this one that i know is bad would go over with you and the class. and since there's not exactly a point or a great ending, i have no idea how i would even start to translate it in a quick after effects sequence.
so! that being said...i don't know what else to say. i suppose i could think of a way to make my animation more of a complete story or my other story more of a clear and concise story. i was hoping to get you and the class's help on that yesterday, BUT I WASN'T THERE! *sigh* and that sucks.
i'm sure i'll think of something.
-Joannasaurus | | |
| sorry i haven't been keeping up with these!
it was mentioned in class that we as individuals use different types of language depending on our surroundings, which i think is true, i just never really thought about it much. but now that i am aware of it, i kind of feel bad about it.
i get frustrated with my parents when they don't understand what i'm talking about or if they ask me too many questions, but if a friend were to not understand me in the same way or were to ask the same questions, i would be more willing to backtrack and explain what i mean or answer gladly. maybe it's because i have this ridiculous expectation that my parents should know everything...or at least know more than me, thus making them understand what i'm talking about the first time i say something. but the languages we use and understand are obviously not the same and for some reason, before i can even think about doing something different, i get exasperated and give up. and their my parents, y'know? now that i think about it i feel awful for treating them like that. they don't deserve that from their offspring so i should try harder.
on the same lines, my brother is even worse about it. but maybe not because my parents are probably so used to negative responses from him that it doesn't even hurt anymore. in that sense, i'm worse with the pain i cause them by raising my voice and lashing out when their questions are perfectly legitimate ones. it's not their fault for not understanding or questioning, it's mine for not explaining it clearly in a language they can understand the first time.
-joanna | | |
| the other day while watching tv i happened to see one of those ads for the ASPCA, and i gotta say, i am always compelled to watch the entire thing before changing the channel. since i know i have to write these things, i began to realize that what the commercial is about loosely follows the 3 act structure of a story like we've been discussing in class.
the hook is the images they show to some sad sounding instrumentals in the first part of the ad before they even start talking. the cats and dogs look so depressed behind their cages or in dangerous places they were found. dirty. sick. injured. neglected. immediately i am at full attention because i hate seeing bad things happen to animals.
the protagonists are the animals and the ASPCA. the antagonists are obviously the abusive previous owners of the pets. the goal is to rescue the pets, help them get back to being healthy and trusting of people, and get them adopted.
the rising pressure is the horrible life the pets have with the cruel owners, getting so bad that there's the first act break: animal cops come and rescue the animals and take them to the ASPCA shelter.
the next section of rising pressure is the rehabilitation process for the animals. and it's more so pressure on the vets to do everything they can so save them. which leads to the next act break: either being successful or having to humanely put them down because there was nothing more they could do.
in the next section, the vets and volunteers have to re-train the animals to trust humans again. some of the pets are so suspicious, they are unable to overcome their past experiences and are unable to become adopted. but some are, which is our third act break: the pets are adopted into loving caring families!
this helps them live the happy lives they never had before! happy story! the end!
this kind of fits as a story that can be sold because they have all kinds of shows on Animal Planet about this kind of thing. obviously they can sell it to people like me since i always watch that kind of stuff! :)
Joel, you can comment on or share this if you want.
-Joanna | | |
| yeah...so i kind of forgot about xanga for a good...many months.
i think i'm going to have to start using it again for my "writing for the media" class so...may as well get back into the swing of things.
here's my note from facebook that i thought would be neat-o to put up here too.
i'm tired.
25 random thingies.
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Once you've been tagged you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.
1) let's start with a silly but true one. i have no sense of smell. i let people know that i can't when they ask me to smell something, but the most common response is disbelief or asking me to smell something else. i pretty much hate it when this happens because if i said i didn't have a sense of smell the first time, what makes people think i can smell something else?
2) as a follow up to the first thing, yes, i can still taste. it is my firm belief that taste buds have nothing to do with nose hairs. that and they say when you lose a sense, a different one gets stronger. i feel for me it's taste because i'm very sensitive to tastes which is why i'm a pretty picky eater. if someone says something isn't very spicy, i tend not to eat it anyway because i know it'll be really spicy for me.
3) Rise Against is my all time favorite band, and the Offspring being a very close second. with Rise Against in particular, i connect most with the messages in the lyrics and i feel like the things that they stand for are very noble causes. i could go on forever about it, but this band makes me want to become a better person.
4) if i had a celebrity crush, it would be Christian Bale. Equilibrium is one of my all time favorite movies. not only do i think he's an awesome actor, but he's damn fine.
5) the Katamari games for PS2 are my favorite games ever (especially We <3 Katamari.) i don't care how retarded some people think that game is, i love it do death. and that one year that John dressed up as the King of the Cosmos for my birthday party pretty much made my day.
6) i like Dane Cook. a lot of people don't think he's funny, but i think he's a riot. there's been many a day when i used to work at the bank when his comedy cds were the only things keeping me sane. i've seen him live at the Sprint Center with Mitra, and the only reason i saw "Employee of the Month" was because he was in it. there's even a poster of him in my room.
7) the scariest book i've ever read was "House of Leaves." i can't even describe how fantastic this book is. seriously. go read it. it'll flip your shit.
8) i'm kind of obsessed with puppies. i love puppies. i take them out of their cages and play with them when i go to the petstore. i read all the cards at the grocery store with puppies on the front. and when i see a puppy, i start to talk weird...y'know...in that kyootsy-wootsy sorta way. and i like to be in smallish areas with a lot of puppies at once. i probably love puppies more than pandas and dinosaurs...but maybe that's only because i can't have a panda or a dinosaur as a pet.
9) i used to have a ridiculous phobia of babies. i'd be afraid of people dropping babies, babies being killed or stolen, babies running their soft heads into sharp corners and exploding, babies dying by choking or suffocating. i can't stand the thought of bad things happening to babies, and i was always afraid i'd witness one of these things, so i never liked to be around them. i am still uncomfortable around babies, but i'm getting better.
10) i still have a ridiculous phobia of tornados and storms that look like they will produce tornados. and seeing since last time Liberty had a tornado the sirens didn't turn on and it was literally 8 houses away from hitting mine, i'd say i have a good reason to be afraid. a shingle hit my house at like 3am and if it'd been a foot or so the the right or left, it would have come flying through my or my brother's window. often when i hear the sirens (when they DO go off) i take flashlights, blankets and pillows into the basement and i build a fort near the washing machine and sit there with my dog till the storm passes while the rest of my family is standing outside watching the damn thing.
11) i have peed outside in the woods in broad daylight with a friend. true story.
12) i'm actually very self conscious of a lot of things about myself which is probably why i've stuck to trying to make people laugh. i kind of have this notion that if i distract people by things i've said or done, they won't be focused or notice so much my flaws or low self image.
13) having friends means the world to me. and i mean real ones. close ones. ones that aren't afraid to come talk to me if they have a problem because when i become friends with someone, i'm in it for the long haul and i don't think enough people know that about me. i will always have an ear to listen. a shoulder to cry on. even if you just need a hug. i would love to be the person you can go to for that. i'm a very compassionate person and i don't think people see that. for as many people who aren't there for me, i will always be there for you.
14) striking up conversation is something that is very difficult for me. i guess it's because generally (around new people or people i don't know very well) i'm a fairly shy person and i'm not quite sure what to say. and that's really the only way i can think to explain it right now.
15) ha, okay. i used to do a really good voice impersonation of Vegeta, when i was in middle school especially. it was the Vegeta voiced by Christopher Sabat, which was not the original voice actor at the start of Dragon Ball Z if i'm not mistaken. my brother Victor could do the older version of Vegeta better than anyone i'd heard though. haha...damn i'm a nerd.
16) i like swimming pools and the ocean, but i can't swim very well. fun fact.
17) speaking of the ocean, i was stung by a jellyfish the very first time i ever visited Florida. it got me in 3 places: back of my left thigh, left butt cheek, and inner right thigh. fun times when you're a little kid. it hurt like hell. i had to be carried back to the hotel and have some kind of ointment rubbed on me for like 3 hours before the pain stopped. so that sucked.
18) i would love to touch a moose nose one day. the way they are all fuzzy and droop off their faces like that, how could you resist?
19) i hate losing people that were once close to me. i find it very painful to not be around someone i used to be around all the time. (of course, there are exceptions to this.)
20) in like 2nd or 3rd grade, a Ukrainian man came to our school to teach us about his culture. he brought an accordion and showed us how to play it. he asked for a volunteer, picked me, and i got to play an authentic Ukrainian accordion. perhaps i didn't know it at the time, but this is probably why i like Gogol Bordello so much.
21) i love dressing up. whether it be in costumes or in dresses, i think it's a lot of fun. i don't think many people know that since i pretty much wear a t-shirt and jeans year round.
22) i love watching baby videos of myself and my brother. i think they're hilarious. and we used to be so cute...what happened?
23) three moar!? aw gawd! uhm let's see...oh. Jhonen Vasquez really influenced me there for a good while. i thought of him as my hero. i used to be quite obsessed, but at least i knew what i was talking about. pet peeve: pretending to be a fan of something when you really don't know anything about it. i'm not obsessed now, but i still have 3 Johnny the Homicidal Maniac posters, a SQUEE poster, and an Invader Zim poster on the walls of my room. i'm still a fan.
24) pet peeve: DO NOT TALK DURING THE MOVIE IN THE MOVIE THEATRE. it's all good if you're at home, but i don't want to hear your commentary when i'm trying to watch it for the first time. texting in the movie theatre bugs me too. freaking cell phone screens are just way too bright for that to not be distracting.
25) last one! sometimes my pupils are different sizes at the same time, even if they are in the same kind of light. CRAZEH!
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TEH MOAR JOO KNO!
<3 Joannamari | | |
| i'm going camping this week. i've never been before. dunno what to expect. i guess i can expect to be hot and uncomfortable. woo woo. yesterday i had a pretty shitty day. one thing after another kept going wrong. good grief. it was freakin hot yesterday. i met Jake's cousin, so that was kind of uncomfortable. i got sick in the car after eating Perkins. i was too tired to go shopping for stuff at Sam's, but i went anyway. did i mention it was freakin hot yesterday? hurt myself and my mood pretty bad. stayed pretty depressed about that almost the rest of the day. made taquitos that weren't supposed to be spicy. i was so excited about my taquitos and they ended up being too spicy so i couldn't eat them. went to taco bell to get replacement taquitos...and i dripped grease on my nice t-shirt. grease usually doesn't come out of clothes. so had to wash that right away, something i didn't wanna do. then i got a nose bleed and have had a stuffy nose since. fun times. then my mom called and said that my adobe purchase of Production Premium CS3 was freakin rejected because her credit card was denied. (and this was the second time i've tried to order this freakin package because the first one had to be returned because it was for windows and not mac.) so i had to deal with that this morning twice because the first time i called i was hung up on or disconnected or something. i LOVE being put on hold. then i had to drive home at almost midnight in the rain, which i never like doing. great freakin day. hopefully today (with the exception of dealing with adobe customer service) is better. on a different note: the 21st is orientation. oh man. i'm excited. i can't wait to to actually be going to school at the art istitute! haha, oh man, dream come true for me! (finally.) school starts on august 25th. woo! :::joanna::: | | |
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