I had to think about posting. I had to cancel a scheduled post because it felt too negative for many reasons, and the negative is watering down the real purpose of the original entry. Honestly, I feel the words were true, but at the same time, some people could misunderstand the words I said. I will try to summarize a little bit of it, and, as always, my comments are always open to your opinions.
The point of the canceled post was to criticize (or viscerally attack) the misuse of the “think positive” phrase. Many people truly believe having a positive attitude will solve all problems or make things better. Others use it for the sole purpose of not using “I don’t care about your problems,” similar to the Social Justice Warriors on the internet, fighting for equality… as long as equality does not include white people or even straight men.
I am a person that suffered a certain amount of racism in the United States but at the same time received a lot of love from Americans. That said, let’s get back to the point of the exaggerated positivism that exists out there. I stand up for real equality; that is all we should aim for.
We only need to look at the smart asses taking advantage of someone else’s situation. With their lessons where they teach you how to change your mentality and reach your true potential; convincing yourself you can reach the sky, without any proper guide in how to do it, “be positive,” making you repeat that until you get old and die convinced it was worth it. Is it, though?
Other cases are literature. Pollution in the literature exists, and no, I don’t think young adult novels are bad as some people for some reason believe they are. The worst that has happened in the literary world are the books telling you how to live and how to decorate your house to attract good vibes. The thing with vibes is already beyond… sigh I am looking at you, The Secret. Of course, I cannot forget the dishonorable mention to Paulo Coelho.
Friday is here. Another Friday that makes zero difference among other days. Do you remember when everyone felt excited for the weekends? I am not sure if I do, if I have to be honest. The current events keep making changes to our daily lives.
We need to adapt to the new rules to see if things could get back to “normal” as soon as possible. Yeah, some people seem to lack a bit of gray matter and decide to ignore the warnings or just do whatever they want. And I just want to be positive.
I, after my last post, feel the need to listen to more music. I don’t know why, maybe it was something I had to take out of my chest. It worked. The feeling I get whenever I write about anything is very pleasant. Not sure if it’s a good comparison or not, but the feeling is similar to the one a person gets when talking to a friend or a brother. This is the place where I do post my blogging, reviews, and stories. Or just talk about anything. It feels great.
There’s a desk in front of me. I want to do everything in my power to make worth the time while my hands write on the laptop’s keyboard. Is there a way to fall in love with your ow characters? If there is, would that be normal? Most authors put a lot of themselves into their characters, that is why each book has a notorious difference among each other, even when they use the same trope of a genre. Maybe there’s something I love about myself after all.
In other news
The reason I am sharing a song like “Friday, I am In Love” on a post with a title that wants tell the opposite, well, is because the title was just a parody. I am not in love, but I feel comfortable with a character I introduced on the third chapter of my upcoming novel. I like her, and I feel the interactions with the protagonist are actually giving a light of hope in a world surrounded by darkness.
I’ll probably copy/paste the paragraph for my next project report.
Have you ever felt like writing something random? I don’t know, the times where many words that may not make any sense want to be printed on paper or a Word document. This is one of those times for me. I just feel the need to share words without much context. Just a form of expression that needed to be done.
The quarantine is playing with our heads. I just want it gone already!
Here. I come here to write again. It is a good day, it’s been a good week. One of the most beautiful things about these last few days is the inspiration that is coming. The muse has returned and I don’t plan to let it go. Sure, my brain plays tricks on me whenever it feels like it, and I’m vulnerable.
There’s something I want to tell you, though, and it is about my short stories. Yeah, I said I’d be focusing more on my novel, and I didn’t lie. Though I don’t expect many results at the moment, I plan to write short stories; specially when I have finished my novel. I am going to take a break from it before moving on to the next, so I’ll use that time to blogging and share some stories with you all to know what’s up.
These short stories, of course, will be available here on my blog on the Stories section on this humble website, blog, or whatever you want to call this place. All for FREE!!!
One thing, though, that might scare you all away, but I believe it’ll be the most honest way to show you my writing work before even think about selling my novel, is the fact that I’ll be working alone on each short story that is destined to be posted here. That means I am going to write, beta read, and edit each one before posting. The purest form of the author.
Unlike my novel, of course; that’ll get all the work that is necessary to make a quality book with my personal, self-publishing, and professional resources. I am not just going to increase my numbers here to sell any garbage. I have options available for me whenever I feel the novel is ready.
At the top of this website you’ll see the sections. I am going to do my very best to bring up a lot of writing. Blogs and stories. I’m leaving out the reviews for now until I take that break before moving on to the next fantasy project.
I am still not sure what to expect from all of this. But I am finally happy to find a good place and good hours to keep my novel moving forward. My eyes feel heavy; all the time I’ve spent in front of the monitor is going to leave invisible scars, and I don’t mind any of them as long as the novels advance to their destinations.
I can’t wait to write the next Black Fields report. I promise a new entry’s coming up next week.
Clues
Clues, I have none. The short stories that are coming won’t be directly related to any of the books I plan to release. There’s one directly connected to the project For Her Moon, and the story is called A Sight of the Moon if you want to check it out. Black Fields, though, I don’t see how to make short stories that’d be linked. I am keeping the mystery until the end of the last novel. Yup, Black Fields is going to have a sequel. More on my next Project Journal entry.
Relax
Taking my time. Yes, I am doing that. There’s a good song that comes into my head while I write. The opening song of the anime Boogiepop and Others is more than perfect. I won’t say Black Fields took any inspiration from the series, because it did not, but every time I write more on these characters, I can’t help it, that opening is just too good to ignore.
Honestly, though, this might fit a lot better with the For Her Moon original idea. I cannot explain why it emphasizes more with Black Fields that has, by FAR, a whole different atmosphere. Maybe it is a sign that something must be done with the story, Maybe I am pushing it towards the right direction, or the wrong one. Who knows?
I want to believe the direction I’m taking with Black Fields is the right one. I am putting my heart on it, but I can actually see people getting kinda bored at the beginning. There’s “nothing to see” there; you’ll know what that means when the time comes. I hope it’s going to be soon.
The more I think about it the harder it gets. I question myself all the time. There’s no way for me to tell how good or bad are the things I am writing. That will make the trip more interesting, in my opinion. Maybe a giveaway or something of the sort to make some honest reviews available for future readers. I don’t know!
The only offering I have available at the moment is this humble website and my future posts.
Notice with this blog entry that I don’t feel very confident with my creations. I want to joke about it. I try to laugh about it. I succeed and I fail at the same time. Perhaps this is the way it should be. The more I write, the better I get. I hope that also translates into my new stories and novels.
A good weekend. I guess that’s a good way to summarize my weekend. I wrote, I watched a few anime episodes, and I watched the Ju-On: Origins‘ six episodes. I’ll probably write a review about it. It’s not even new anymore, so I don’t mind taking my sweet little time.
I must tell you that this post was originally meant to be the second entry of my Project Journal about Black Fields but I discarded the idea to make it a random blog entry. The reason is that I did not see a point to make an entry when the new chapter has more spoiler material. I need to figure out how to write about it or just wait until the “waters are still” to talk without revealing too much.
I won’t complain. I know a lot of people feels kinda claustrophobic unable to meet in parties (assuming there’s an actual brain), or at least to gather at their favorite restaurants. I know there are more opportunities to go out and do more stuff in comparison to previous months as long as you take precautions and wash the very last corner of your being.
Introvert teenagers and adults like me and many others are in the paradise. It’d be a lie, though, if I deny that being a full-introvert is unhealthy, but it is what it is. There’ll be the opportunity to greet more humans when it becomes necessary. Until then, introverts can enjoy themselves and make the best out of it. The extroverts are having more trouble to cope; just hang in there, follow the rules, and I know this will be over, or at least controlled to the point where we’ll be able to go out without the paranoia of being infected with bat-illness.
I remember a man on Twitter that asked what would be like to live in a world without vaccines today. I cannot imagine it myself, but just take a look at it; a world without ONE SINGLE vaccine. Everything is going crazy. I am not sure if crazy is a good term to use here, but some chaos has been around while a virus is taking over some lives and control over the situation we’re living. I am not expert, or knowledgeable on medicine, and my bet is that everything is going to be like this for two years at least.
Let’s not get too deep into an area far from my knowledge, I hope I am wrong and tomorrow an expert goes to a big TV/internet channel and tells the world the vaccine is there and that everything is going back to normal for Christmas (dreaming is free, right?)
Entertaining myself, entertaining yourself
This is easy. I’ve talked about it several times on previous posts. If you’re “lucky” enough to work from home, and you don’t know what to do with your time, it is the perfect chance to try something new. A movie or a show on Netflix, a book of the genre that grabbed your attention, an anime, or videogames. Sure, it is cool to go back to the things you love, though the most interesting perspective to take is to try something new. Who knows, maybe you’re going to find a new favorite movie, song, book, or game! Whenever I try a show or anime, I watch two-to-three episodes (no more), and if I don’t like it, I just move on to a different show.
Never listen to anybody telling stupid things like “Hang on, the show starts to get good after the 500th episode.” I mean, this is most common in anime, and we know most of the shonen fans have no criteria; just put fights and lights and they’re going to be happy.
One Piece is great, though! It has everything! And Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is genius in so many senses! I heard a lot of good things about Hunter x Hunter as well, but I haven’t seen the series, so I won’t put my hands on fire for it.
Words, words, and more words
I feel so satisfied with the books I’ve read (so far) in 2020. Finally introducing myself into The Wheel of Time series, and everything after it feels strange. I don’t know, it’s like something within me is forcing me to go back and read the whole series before anything else. I would not mind, though I have said before that I usually take breaks between the books in a series and the next; even I did that with the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, I read Mistborn, then two different books, and then Well of Ascension, and so on. But The Wheel of Time series, my friends, is something I just cannot pass by. I am trying to read Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, but Robert Jordan is calling me, pointing at his series. I cannot resist temptation anymore. I am going to finish Six of Crows first, but after that I am going for The Great Hunt (book two of The Wheel of Time series) and probably for the next after it.
The music I listen
I don’t listen to music as often as I used to. I do listen, though, to my favorite (instrumental) music while I write, and I listen to my favorite songs with lyrics when I feel bored or before sleeping. I haven’t discovered many new-old bands or songs, but I feel satisfied with the few things I found. I guess I need to share a music video here, just for the old times and love for this form of artistic expression.
This song is not very new and not too old either, and I feel very surprised this thing didn’t turn into a meme. Perhaps is my lack of interest on memes that I haven’t found any. Anyway, Alestorm is a Pirate Metal band (yeah, that’s what the genre is called) from the United Kingdom, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. They have several songs that are very interesting, and most of them, if not all, really feel that they were written by a bunch of lost pirates that got lost in time and found electric basses and guitars. I appreciate they do it. Though I heard of the genre in the past, this is the first time that I actually got into it, and I love it.
By the way, go to the comment section of the video. The comments are hilarious!
Gaming
Nothing to talk here. Nothing to comment. I’ve been focusing a lot on my novel and I don’t want to interrupt my rhythm with gaming. I beat a couple of levels in Warframe and a few Call of Duty: World War II multiplayer matches, but if I need to make an hour count from the beginning of the month, I doubt I’ve played six hours in total. Both games have short levels that you could just play in very short sessions.
So yes. I recommend you to play Warframe if you’re looking for a good sci-fi/action game that is available for FREE on PlayStation 4.
It is Monday already, let’s see what happens. New week, new opportunities to be positive, or negative. Both options are valid.
Videogames have evolved. Decades ago, gaming was so different than nowadays; they were meant to give you some entertainment. As a novelty, though, they had caused addiction, even when you look at their simplicity—just a plumber that runs from left to right, with the goal (or excuse) of rescuing a princess.
Photo by Anurag Sharma on Pexels.com
These games are meant to play, yes, but as time goes forward, technology does too, and with that, everything about videogames.
It’s 2020, and people, especially old (boomers?), see all games as things for kids. We all know it’s too far from the truth now, with jewels rated for adults like Grand Theft Auto, Mass Effect, The Last of Us, The Witcher, Persona, among a list that is so huge for me to remember.
Not only that, the budget used for the AAA games is greater than Hollywood movies. Check Grand Theft Auto V as an example, ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ has made more money than any movie ever, and there are many others. The thing is that the production put on videogames nowadays is big. It is now a multidisciplinary art!
Art?
Yes, I called it an art, and we should agree on that; there’s no question about it. Think about it: most of them have music, design (both industrial and artistic), stories (and some better than any movie has nonetheless), and programming. Engineering and arts working together to bring one of the best things that have happened to the entertainment industry! Also, we must not forget that these games were made by companies that have everything, including accounting and human resources.
Isn’t beautiful to see them all working together? A true multidisciplinary field.
When we were kids, us Millennial at least, we had to use our imagination to get into a story. Not to mention, I grew up in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico; all the games were released in English. Imagine a kid like me in the late 90’s or early 2000’s trying to play a JRPG like Earthbound (Mother 2)—the only choice I had is to create make up my own stories based on the things I saw on the screen. It was fun, I’m not going to lie. The genre is called Japanese Role-Playing Game, so I was doing my role-play, except for the Japanese part. I loved the art style, and it invited me to be creative with my own childhood. I still enjoy Earthbound on my New 3DS, but I never let nostalgia cloud my judgement; after the Super Famicom and the first PlayStation era, many other titles came to my knowledge, and they got a place in my heart immediately. Also, by the PlayStation 2 era I was able to understand this language better, so it helped me understand what was happening while I played.
One of my favorite things for me is to listen every week to the 3 Gordos Bastardos (3 Chubby Bastards), a Mexican Youtube channel that speaks about videogames. A few weeks ago they talked about CRPGs (Computer Role-Playing Games). Of course, look for them only if you speak Spanish. Personally, I had never experienced a CRPG before until a sale on the PSN Store of the first Divinity Original Sin. Although I haven’t played the game as much as I want, I can see why the genre is loved; sadly it isn’t popular. These games will remind you of tabletop games like the well-known Dungeons & Dragons.
Life, however
It’s going to make you think about priorities, or put you in situations that’ll make you change your hobbies; less time to enjoy what you love, or give you enough pressure to think about everything but joy. Life is not fair, unfortunately. Whatever happens in your personal existence might affect your appreciation for everything. Perhaps the things that had made you happy just a week ago has changed now, and today it makes you feel completely the opposite; think of a song you liked and dedicated to a girl you love, you broke up and now it’s hard to listen to it.
Same thing could happen with your videogames. The reason depends on the person and experiences, of course; just looking at your responsibilities, priorities, and time makes hard for you just the mere action of looking at your old console.
I think that if you take a break from that favorite thing of yours can help you to go back to it. Who knows?
Time always go on. Time doesn’t see the difference between people and objects. Time just go on.
Time is not waiting for you or me. Time is always heading towards future without looking back.
We’re not important in its eyes. Time just go through an infinite path forward. It doesn’t care if the world ends, the time will still flow through the Universe, ignoring its beauty.
Not even Death can stop it.
Sometimes we go telling excuses when we don’t want to do something. It’d be nice if we could just tell the truth, it isn’t hard and it’s way healthier than lie and make that lie bigger. It is understandable that we want to manage our time according to our situation, we need time for ourselves, time to entertain ourselves, time to be alone, time to hang our with our friends and our families. Balance! You work hard, you study hard, or do your best to do both. You deserve that time to do whatever you please.
The problem began when you want to start a project. We’ve seen successful people on the internet, and we only see the superficial part of it; them living a good life with free time 24/7, while most of us need to work full-time, sometimes working overtime, and not even close getting enough payment to have a good life for us and our loved ones. We get frustrated, and believe they shouldn’t earn that much when they don’t work all day all night, and I wonder: is that the truth? Projects are difficult to achieve, and some don’t know how to even start doing something having someone (an employer, a boss) telling them what to do, directly or indirectly, and a contract in the middle of it.
I remember wanting to start a podcast with some friends. We’d never intended to make sound too “professional”, we just wanted to talk about random things and hobbies—have fun, and that’s it. The thing is, that each of us had different jobs and different schedules, so we decided to divide the audio editing, topics to talk about, and equipment. Well, even though we made a fun project, we abandoned it right away. We recorded the audio, but “we” didn’t make enough time to edit, and the division of each function didn’t start. Once we’d headed to our homes, the podcast was left forgotten, and we only talked about it when we reunited.
Dreams don’t matter until you make time to pursue them. And pursuing them don’t matter either if you stop. Time is always there, reminding you of the things you’ve done… or haven’t done.
We say successful people don’t deserve what they have, but we don’t know their sacrifice to get there. Maybe some didn’t do much, but THEY DID.
I’ve been playing Steins;Gate Elite on PS4 in my free times lately, and I made it to the point where they mention that “time flows like a river…” and showed the illustration above. The river flowing to the future, and a leaf representing the present; a leaf is the present, and all of us traveling on it, non-stop until we fall off (die). However, when we die the leaf still goes on, and we see how insignificant we are for the Universe, and how insignificant is the Universe to time.
The second illustration reminds me of the time a person asked if a tree falls would it make noise if no one is there to hear it. To me, this represents us how much we believe we are somehow superior to nature, and that is wrong. Sure, I understand that if no one is around, any sound would be lost in the distance, there would be no receptor of the sound that has occurred in a forest, or an abandoned town, but that doesn’t mean nothing’s happening. Our planet is moving non-stop in the Galaxy, whether we perceive its movement or not (day, night, seasons).
The time and the Universe won’t wait for us.
How do you perceive time? Do you have enough time to do exactly what you want? Or at least what is the most important to you?
Tell me your thoughts.
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As the title says, reading is a hobby. Good. Now, time to explain myself. Why did I come up with this now? It is unfortunate that in my country, Mexico—and some other Latin American countries, I think—, the people never read, we are really famous for that, and I think is kind of a shame. However, you’ve been given the opportunity to meet people and you start to know why. You realize that half of the blame falls on these pseudo intellectuals that roam around believing they’re smarter than anyone else because they read. Wrong. If anyone reads, it is because this person likes it; that must be the only reason. Reading is a hobby.
Indeed, there are so many genres and types of books. From college books, which are there to show you some references about a certain class, call ir physics, government, history, philosophy, you name it. There are also fantasy and fiction books that aren’t meant to give you life lessons—though some actually manage to give greater messages than these so-called “self-improvement” books, but that goes for another post in the future. Just like television and games, fiction/fantasy books are there to entertain you, nothing else. One of the reasons a lot of people are reluctant when it comes to reading is because—and thanks to the mentioned pseudo intellectuals—it appears to be more of a task than anything. It is still common to see someone with interest in literature changing mind the moment some others say that you must read [insert a classic here], and if you don’t, then you are a fool. NO! Please, do not listen to them. There are a lot of books out there for everyone. There are so many things out there for you to sit and enjoy, get lost in the thousand worlds that are being created. It shouldn’t be taken as a task.
This should only apply at school, don’t be like Snape if you’re not a teacher
Can you imagine? At the end of your shift, you’re tired after your 5-10 hour routine (doesn’t matter if you work part-time or full-time), you bought a few bargain books because you want to start a new hobby, sit on your sofa, and then you remember that guy at your school or job calling you [insert your favorite insult based on self-ignorance] because you’re not starting with one of the classics. I don’t know, but I would do something else instead; something that doesn’t feel like something with rules that must be followed in order to understand what’s going on.
The only question you must ask yourself is: What am I looking for? Maybe you’re looking for fantasy—you might want to start with Harry Potter, or the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. Maybe you’re looking for science fiction—you might want to start with Isaac Asimov that, even though he’s one of the classic authors of the genre, his stories are easy to follow and very enjoyable. Of course, these are only my personal recommendations, and the library for each genre is huge. There’s something there for you; something that’s going to become part of your life or the most beautiful of your literary memories.
Remember, reading is a hobby. It is a hobby that’ll make you PLAY with your imagination, even let you be the protagonist. You might end up liberating a Kingdom, or saving the world. Who knows!
I found the photo at the top of this post from Google Images
It’s been a while since I this website. I haven’t done any official plans yet. As you know, a blog/website could be something like a stress reliever; I have my own paperback journal, and I love it so much, but of course there’s a limit on how much you can write on it, and the limits are called pages. Here, one can do almost anything when it comes to writing, it is basically your personal space, without being too personal—I wouldn’t recommend making this a literal personal space. Though I recommend you come here and show your work to everyone. Yes, go ahead and tell us all whenever there’s something bothering you about society or your hobbies, every person has an interesting word to say, I am sure of it. Share the photos you take when you travel, like the one I’m posting here, even though is from 2017 when I went to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico; tell us about it, recommend restaurants, or do whatever you feel like doing at the moment of writing your post.
I want to make sure I am doing the right thing, though. I am finally able to keep something like this flowing; you’ll have at least one post every two weeks, and I am really happy doing it because I can talk to you about whatever I feel like. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but everything I plan to do is by heart. Spread my words around and finally show you my short stories before my novel. Yes, the short stories are going to be free for this website/blog. No cost at all!
I’d feel like a greedy individual if I ask you to share anything, any support comes by your own will. But, of course, my short stories (still working on them) are very important to me, and I’d love if anyone spread the word about those once they had been published. But, as I’ve mentioned, by your own will… AND if you like them! It wouldn’t be fair if you share my work if you’re not liking it, unless you want to make fun of my stories with your friends (I guess that’s acceptable, too).
Oh well, I feel so nervous but I need to share my short stories with you eventually.
