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kabira · 3 years

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08 | distance

pairing — spider-man!vernon x ofc

featuring — joshua, yeji (itzy), felix (skz), yangyang (nct)

word count — 2.5k

genres — spider-man au, marvel au, fluff, action, angst, humor

warnings — minor violence

note — ok so this was kinda later than scheduled (three WEEKS) but the next update will hopefully be on time so i can keep up! by which i mean sunday 6 am (ist). also, for the love of god, tumblr make this show up in the tags. pretty, pretty please.

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“Okay, so here’s what I found out about your Rhino guy,” Yeji said, jumping over the side of the rooftop and landing on another, hitting the ground with a roll before coming up on her feet. They were currently involved in a high-speed chase, which meant she had to yell at the top of her voice for Vernon to hear her—not that it mattered a lot. Up here, no one could hear you scream. “He’s Russian. Name’s Alexei Sytsevich.”

“Russian, huh?” Vernon yelled back. He swung over a tall rooftop garden, taking care not to accidentally knock over something he wasn’t supposed to. “Anything that could tie him to Osborn?”

“Not really!” Yeji yelled. “His identity is public, so anyone could get to him, and he must have happened to have been around when he attacked you. But there’s nothing concrete we could go after.”

The two of them were chasing Batroc the Leaper across the top of the buildings, having caught up with him just moments after he robbed a store. A basic assignment, really, but it was still a challenge to apprehend him before he got too far from the crime scene. One of their more casual operations, much like a training session, except this was the real deal.

“Anything of interest?” Vernon asked. They were close to catching their quarry, very close. Batroc wasn’t really that notorious in the underworld, but he was still a menace and technically a criminal. A more notable point of interest were the mechanical leaping legs attached to both his feet which allowed him to jump several feet high in the air, making for a good old-fashioned superhuman chase scene.

“He was experimented on with this gamma radiation technique to give him superhuman strength and durability, but it ended in an accident,” Yeji answered. Her voice, apart from the strain due to the yelling, sounded strangely relaxed for someone who was chasing a guy across the tops of buildings. Even after having time to get used to it, Vernon was still surprised by her resilience. “The suit he was wearing that day—remember how it was made of some kind of self-regenerating polymer? It’s literally stuck to his skin. Can’t get it off him.”

“Must be constipated; it explains the anger issues.”

Just then, Yeji caught up to the Leaper. She sprung off a ledge and onto the top of a water tanker, from where she dived towards the unsuspecting criminal, flattening him to the ground. Vernon swung up to her, landing on the ground next to her. Batroc tried to wiggle away, but Vernon webbed his hands and feet to the rooftop, successfully trapping him. “So,” he said, turning his attention back to Yeji. “Any idea where they’re keeping him?”

“If you’re wondering if he’s being kept anywhere close to Osborn, don’t worry.” She placed her hands on her hips. It looked strangely satisfying, her claws aligned with the gray markings around the waist of her white suit. “Rhino’s placed in the Helicarrier for now, but in a special ward designed specifically for the big guys, though th They have specialists looking into his, er, sticky situation, but he’s on an entirely different level than Norman. And I mean that quite literally.”

He nodded. “Did the files mention which specialists are looking into it?”

“Eez it perhaps—” Batroc started.

Vernon webbed his mouth. “Zip it,” he said.

“No. The only files I could access didn’t have much on him,” Yeji said, sounding genuinely sorry. “There was other stuff, like his eye color and his blood type, but I don’t think you’d be very interested in all of that.”

“You think right.”

“There might be more details in the confidential reports coming in from the Helicarrier holder itself, but getting them would be a lot of trouble,” she said. “Although if you really want them—”

“No, it doesn’t matter,” Vernon said, shaking his head. “Thanks for digging up the rest, though. I owe you one.”

“Consider it early payback for when your Aunt May teaches me how to beat your ass at video games.” He couldn’t see her face, but he sensed that underneath the mask, she was smiling.

“Hey, that’s an Aunt May thing, not a me thing,” he said, then paused, hesitating. There was something else he had wanted to ask her, but he didn’t know if he really wanted to follow through with it. “Hey, Tiger…” he trailed off. “Actually, never mind.”

“No, go ahead,” she said. “Unless you’d rather not.”

He shook his head slightly. “It’s not like that,” he said. “This might sound kind of intrusive, but do you know the deal with Fe—Iceman?” he asked. “Don’t get me wrong, he’s great and everything, but with all the brooding and the secrecy, I’m just a little—” He scrunched up his nose. “That does sound intrusive.”

“It does,” she agreed, but it sounded amused. “Look, I’d tell you. I really would. But it’s something I feel he should tell you yourself, you know? If and when he’s comfortable talking to you about it.”

“Did he tell you?”

“No, I just kind of figured it out.” She sounded a little sheepish. “And maybe I got it out of one of the IT guys.”

He looked at her, amused. “They have IT guys at S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

“Well, I guess they’re not IT guys in the strictest sense,” she mused. “There’s a hierarchy of ranks even within the record regulators, so it’s a little hard to explain. Not that it really matters, anyway.”

“It would be kind of cool if S.H.I.E.L.D. needed IT guys,” Vernon said, looking down at Batroc, except he wasn’t really looking at him, but through him. “Unrealistic, though.”

Yeji shook her head slightly, like she was unable to believe they were having this conversation. Or maybe he was just projecting his own amused disbelief onto her. But he noticed the tenseness of her shoulders and she let her arms fall to her sides, as if she was holding in a laugh. It was one of those conversations that took a turn that didn’t even have to be funny to make you laugh.

“Good talk,” she said, and this time he could actually hear the smile in her voice. “Now let’s get this guy back to the carrier.”

Luce knew something was up.

She had known this for a while now—about a year, in fact. She had only just started to suspect it when Vernon had changed, and Joshua had gotten secretive, and Harry had first started floating away. It had come one after the other, like the three of them were carrying out parts in a play and she was in the audience, watching but unable to take part. Change, and secrecy, and distance.

She liked distance. Luce had always been distant, someone who stood in the crowd and yet apart from it, unwelcome and unsettling for most around her. Eccentric, some called her, or strange, or downright creepy. It never really mattered to her, because for her, it had always been just the four of them—Vernon, Joshua, Harry and her—and even after everything that had happened, they still felt like four. Three people with a ghost in between, still shaking his head at their dumb jokes and still taking the best seat in the Parker living room when they had movie night.

Looking back, she realized that the cracks in their relationship had first appeared a year ago. Often, after Harry died, she thought about how they had collectively ignored those fractures in their friendship, that had come in the form of change and secrets and distance.

The first to change had been Vernon, of course—trading his glasses for unexplained bruises, his mysterious disappearances poorly covered up and rarely questioned. Then Joshua—the two of them with their heads together in the hallways, shooting each other knowing looks that shut everyone out. It felt like it was just the two of them sometimes, Luce and Harry often forgotten during their closed conversations. That was probably what had pushed them together, but now that Harry was gone, she was left alone. Still on the outside, trying to look in, but in vain.

She knew she couldn’t blame Vernon and Joshua for it, she had started to blend into the background a little more with every passing day. Catching one without the other was hard, so at some point she stopped trying, letting them find her whenever they felt like it. Sometimes she felt like a ghost, too, lurking in a ruined castle, only seen when a wanderer needed shelter.

Now, it was all happening again. The arrival of the new kids had seemed like a minor disturbance at first, like a tiny cloud on the wide horizon, but Vernon had warmed up to them surprisingly quickly after his initial coldness. It wasn’t that Luce didn’t like them—after all, she had been the one to initiate first contact—but she had still been taken aback by how quickly they had become a part of their little group of three (and a dead boy, but he didn’t take up seats anymore).

Except they didn’t feel like it. Not to her, and probably not to Joshua either, whom she had seen watch the new trio with lingering looks when he thought she wasn’t looking.

She was a little surprised by her own reserve, because the arrival of more people should have been a good sign. More people, even numbers, pairs, so she wouldn’t be a third wheel anymore. But it hadn’t worked out that way—she was still stuck outside, but this time Joshua was stuck with her.

It was hard not to be even a little mournful.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” she called as Vernon walked past her in the school hallway after fifth period, looking distracted as he usually did these days. He turned, surprised, as if he hadn’t even noticed her there.

“Me?” he asked, looking confused, and she sighed internally. On the outside, she simply shook her head as if in amused exasperation, reaching into her bag and taking out a spiral notebook.

“Notes. From Physics.” She handed it to him, and he stared at the cover for a dazed little moment before looking back up at her. “You missed another class today.”

“Right,” he muttered, giving her a grateful smile. Fifteen seconds had passed already, about five seconds less than the longest conversation they had held in two weeks. He probably hadn’t even realized. “Thanks.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, meaning it. No point in moping after something that hadn’t been for months. She leaned against the locker door and folded her arms across her chest. The zips along the cuffs of her jacket pulled against the leather. “Going somewhere?”

“Not really.” He shrugged. The smile was still on his face, that stupidly delightful half-smile that still felt like it was behind a glass wall. “Are you?”

Am I ever? She shook her head. “Where did you go?” she asked instead of answering his question.

He frowned. “Where did I go…when?”

“During physics,” she clarified. “You’ve been disappearing a lot lately.”

“Oh, you know…” he started, trying hard to keep his voice casual. “Places.”

It was hard not to smile. “Like?”

“The principal’s office,” he said, sounding a little disappointed.

“The new guy?” Luce raised her eyebrows. “Did you do something to piss him off? Get a low grade?”

“Of course not,” Vernon said indignantly. “My scores are perfect.”

“I know. The rest of us on the curve are suffering because of it.”

“Sorry,” he said, not sounding sorry in the least. Instead, there was a small smile on his face that looked suspiciously like a smirk.

Almost a minute now. Luce let the back of her head hit the locker door, finally letting herself believe that he wasn’t going anywhere, not this time around. The feeling that came with it was so warm and delicious that it spread inside her chest like hot water, reaching her toes and fingers and the tip of her nose. “You’re not sorry,” she said with a smile, though she didn’t really mind. “Are we still on for Friday?”

Now Vernon’s smirk dropped, replaced by a split-second look of horror. “Friday?” he echoed. “This is going to sound bad, but I don’t—”

“Movie night,” she supplied. “And don’t worry, I didn’t expect you to remember. The last time we talked about that was a while ago, anyway.”

Movie night, or game night, was their irregular childhood tradition that had become increasingly infrequent over the past few years, but particularly so in the last year. Even then, they’d never gone this long without getting together at least once. The last time they’d done something like that together, it had been almost two months ago, when they had still been four.

When Luce finally mentioned it, she felt strange thinking about the prospect of movie night with only three people. It felt odd. Unnatural. Three felt like the wrong number, like fates and the prongs of a pitchfork. Too little.

“Tell you what,” she said, pulling herself out of her thoughts with difficulty. She did that too much, lose herself in her memories or some random vein of thought and manage to completely detach herself from the world around her. It got harder and harder every time, and sometimes she wondered if one day she was just going to be trapped in her own mind.

“What?” Vernon asked. He had that distracted look on his face again, his posture jumpy like there was extra energy wrapped into his body.

“Why don’t you bring Yeji and the others along this time?” she suggested. Six wasn’t that great of a number either, but it was definitely better than three. And maybe this way she’d be able to get to know the others a little better, pull herself back to reality. “I’m sure they’d like to. And that way, it’ll be an even team.”

“Not if May decides to join in again.”

She smiled. “Then maybe I’ll bring Hairball.”

He groaned. “Oh, no, not Hairball,” he said, eyes refocusing on her face. There was such a vibrant intensity in his gaze that it made her want to stand up straighter. Then he smiled, and she actually had to stand up straight. “You sure, though?”

Of course he would ask her. Vernon Parker, despite all his bodily changes, was still the same guy from fourth grade who always let her have the rest of his lunch—if he managed to keep it from Flash. Luce was almost tempted to reconsider, but she saw the earnest look on his face, the slight arch of his eyebrows, and swallowed the words that welled up in her throat.

“Of course,” she said. “Three’s already a crowd, so we might as well have a whole party.”

“A party, huh?” He winced. “That reminds me. Food.”

“We’ll order from Larry’s.”

“I’ll have to decide if they deserve it yet,” he joked. At least, she thought he was joking. “See you on Friday.”

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prettywordsyouleft · 4 years

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Bloodstone | Part 6

Summary: You knew all about the ring your grandmother had told you about and yet when the stone fell from it one fateful day, you weren’t truly prepared for its return, nor who it came back with.

Pairing: Kim Namjoon x reader

Genre: fantasy / romance

Warnings: none

Index: Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Your dreams were becoming too heated to remain within and you urged your dream version to remove yourself from within Namjoon’s arms, hoping the return to reality would cool you down.

Instead, when you opened your eyes, you slowly grew alert to the fact that you were still within Namjoon’s arms. Were you still within your dreams?

Looking around as best as you could, given the firm hold the divinity had over your body, you realised that you weren’t in the bed you had laid upon within your slumber. Now you were on the floor, where you had left Namjoon to sleep last night.

Why were you here?

Gently pushing on Namjoon’s shoulder, you stirred the man from his own dream state, his gaze widening as he took in your predicament also. “Oh no.”

“I don’t know how I got down here,” you mumbled as you both sat up, embarrassed energy filling the room.

“I might have pulled you to me if my dreams were anything to go by.”

You braved a look in his direction. “You were dreaming of me as well?”

“Explicitly.”

“Would you perhaps like a glass of water to cool down with?” you offered and Namjoon nodded, getting to his feet. He held out his hand to help you up and you took it, the sensation of the dreams rushing forward stunning you both to the spot. After the moment passed, you separated hastily, both marching down to the living room, away from any remaining desires that had enveloped your bedroom overnight. Still, even after gulping down your water, and Namjoon going back for a second glass, the awkwardness remained.

“It’s not as if either of us actually wanted that to happen,” you attempted and Namjoon nodded vigorously.

“Right, it’s just a dream.”

“Yep, just a dream.”

And yet it the heady thoughts remained above you both. Deciding a break from your apartment was needed sooner than you planned, you gestured for Namjoon to change so you could go grocery shopping. You figured you could have breakfast out as well, giving in to your need to escape further.

Once dressed, you met Namjoon in the small hallway by your front door. “Ready?”

“I’m not sure,” he admitted with a nervous smile and you instinctively reached out for his hand and gave it a squeeze. You both watched the action you had made, your cheeks colouring crimson at the fact that you didn’t want to let go.

Holding up your linked hands, Namjoon shrugged. “Maybe we just need to get used to this?”

“I guess so,” you murmured, reaching for your keys on the stand by the door before opening it. “Shall we go now?”

You hoped the flutters in your stomach would settle by the time you reached the ground floor. However, they followed you consistently. You ate at a nearby coffee house, the bustle and the smells delighting Namjoon to the point that you didn’t want him to stop smiling.

You were falling in deep already, much like his cheeks keep dipping further and creating his dimples.

By the time you got to the grocery store, you had almost forgotten that Namjoon had only been in your world for two days now.

Pulling out a trolley, you gestured for him to take it. “What is this?”

“Where we’re going to put our supplies.”

“And this is what you call a market?” he continued, looking around himself in wonderment. “Ours is nothing like this.”

“I’m sure the Farmer’s Market would resemble something more to your liking,” you suggested with a smile. “Maybe we can go this weekend.”

“I would love to.”

Smiling at one another momentarily, you then pulled out the list you had made over breakfast on your phone, heading over to the display of oranges and placing some into your reusable bag. Now reaching for some bananas, Namjoon stepped out from behind the trolley and pointed to the sign. “Is this displaying the currency?”

You nodded. “This is a good deal today. Do you like bananas?”

“I like most fruits,” he agreed, moving along to the row of apples and looking at the price tags. Namjoon pointed to a specific type. “These are the best value.”

“That didn’t take you long to figure out,” you answered, coming over to his side. “I’m impressed.”

“It’s not hard to compare the prices, Y/N.”

“I’m not very efficient when shopping. I just grab what I like.”

“What about conserving your funds for the future?”

“I guess I live more in the moment,” you admitted with flushed cheeks and Namjoon nodded.

“Perhaps I can help you with our purchases today,” he stated and you grinned.

“So long as you don’t try to stop me from buying cookies then I’m willing to try!”

You seemed to be having fun alongside Namjoon as you did the groceries. He bargained with you multiple times and you continued to point out all your favourite foods for him to try. He could tell when you struggled to fit all your groceries into the bags you had carried out of the house that you had purchased more than you usually did.

But your bright smile only made him giddy with happiness as he reached to take the box of what you had referred to as cereal from your bag and slipped it into his.

Your smile grew further and almost blinded him. “Thank you! Normally I don’t have so many sets of hands!”

“Nor as much food, I’m guessing.”

“There’s the two of us now and this will easily last us an entire week.”

Namjoon tried to settle the way his chest surged with the way you had accepted his presence in your world. It wasn’t the first time you had referred to you both as now a pair, and he chose not to be troubled by your wording right now. He was already over-stimulated by the sights and the people here, his mind working hard to understand and to try and control the urge to explore more and more of this metropolitan. He couldn’t also stop his heart hurtling along with new feelings despite the rational thoughts at the back of his mind right now.

He would deal with the consequences later.

However, later didn’t come. Several days went by and Namjoon was growing accustomed to your routine. You would wake precisely when the beeping noise that you called an alarm went off at seven, eat breakfast together and then you would sit in front of your computer and go to work. He still didn’t understand what your job entailed, but you tapped a lot at the keys and seemed productive enough that he left you to it. You would appear at multiple times during the day, for coffee – which he had decided after trying was definitely a human, not a divinity brew – or to stretch from sitting for so long.

And each time you would come over to where he was and mindlessly reach out for him. Namjoon was expectant of this now, and if you didn’t reach out for his hand, he’d make sure his found yours, the mutual smile shared warming both your souls.

At night, you spent it curled up on the couch together and since the first couple of times waking up within each other’s arms, he no longer took to the floor, slipping under the sheets beside you when the lights were turned out.

This routine suited Namjoon just fine.

He sighed contently when you rolled over and into his side, nuzzling him in your sleep. Unlike you, he was awake as the sun rose, a habit he had from since he was young. It was these times where he soaked in little details about you, finding himself pushing those niggling thoughts further into the back of his mind.

Later. He wanted to deal with them all later.

As he found himself gently stroking your hair back from your face, he held his breath at the desire mounting. The dreams didn’t end, if anything, they only intensified. He breathed you in during the day and you remained embedded throughout the night, constantly dizzying him. Perhaps that was why clarity had little place within the muddiness of his growing feelings. He didn’t know who liked you more, his own heart or the stone, and frankly, he had no drive to figure out either way.

Namjoon simply wanted later to never come.

Leaning in closer, he bit his bottom lip, trying to keep them to himself. He hadn’t yet kissed you outside of the world in his dreams but each day that went by was making it harder not to try. He wanted just a little taste, searching for confirmation that it was just as heavenly as it was projected each night.

He was close enough to do it now, too close. His breath fanning over your face in short releases, he wondered if you would even wake up if he were to simply brush his mouth against yours. The temptation steadily rose, bubbling to the surface with need.

And before he could kiss you, it was you who leaned in and closed the gap. The surprise he felt was washed away by overwhelming passion. The soft peck he had envisioned ended with you pushing into him with demand, a groan leaving him as his hands encircled your waist and drew you closer.

It was magnetic, as if your lips were only made for his and couldn’t tear away quickly enough. The kiss deepened, sending his vision behind his closed eyes into a bright white dimension with stars lighting up the new galaxy you shared. This was more than a taste. He was drowning within you. And he didn’t want it to stop.

You managed what he thought to be impossible and separated your mouth just far enough from his to let out a breathy chuckle. He grinned up at you, laughing at finding you on top of him, much as he often did within his dreams. You seemed to think the same, nodding a little as you caressed his chest through his shirt. “That was some wake-up call.”

“Your alarm hasn’t gone off yet.”

“Maybe I prefer this one.”

“I don’t beep like that does.”

You grinned wickedly. “No, you moan.”

“Should we start the day early?”

“I think I need to test that this alarm won’t malfunction with another kiss.”

Namjoon drew you in closer. “I think if we keep this up, there will be no turning back for either of us.”

“Was there ever going to be?”

As you kissed him again passionately, Namjoon thought back to the juvenile statement you both shared about not being in love on his first day here. He had been certain he wouldn’t fall for the charms of the stone.

Namjoon had fallen for yours instead.

_________________

Part 7

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giapism · 4 years

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January Reading Updates

Since we’ve just reached the end of the first month of 2020, I thought I’d take some time to share with you all what I’ve been reading and also write a short review about each book (else I’ll completely forget what I read by the end of the year...) The books are listed in the order that I completed them in.

(*): Read in Vietnamese

1. American Gods - Neil Gaiman

Neil is perhaps my favorite storyteller ever, and he particularly excels in building strange yet captivating worlds that do a great job of making humans seem more human than ever, despite the fact nothing remotely conforming to the human-norm happens (except marriage problems--I suppose even gods and demi-gods are dumb motherfuckers when it comes to love.)

American Gods follows Shadow, a widower freshly released from jail as he tags alongside a suspiciously rich “Mr. Wednesday” (later revealed to be an undercover God), on a quest to convince the old, forgotten Gods of America to rise up and fight the new Gods (Technology, Media etc.) The book pulls up many characters from Irish, Norse, Hindu, Slavic, African and Egyptian folklore and so on, and offers a very refreshing take on religion in modern society. Although Gaiman didn’t dive deep into any specific culture, it’s a helpful start to continue learning about religion and folklore all over the world. There is a lot of information and I can only imagine how painstaking the research process must have been.

Genre-wise, I don’t think this book fits into any at all. There’s history, fantasy, horror, maybe some thriller too. The idea of a giant war with hundreds of Gods is very ambitious, so the book does get a little messy and all-over-the-place at times. I’d call it “jigsaw-puzzling”, though, you’re given lots of information that doesn’t seem to make sense, but gradually everything comes together at the end and I absolutely love getting to the end and exclaiming “OH! So THAT’S what it was about” I find that the suspense-building in this book very well-done, too. The only criticism I have is that the ending felt a bit... lacking. You had all this build up, this gigantic feud, but everything’s resolved so simply you almost feel cheated. Or maybe I just have something against how Armageddon-type stories (where 2 sides fight to death) keep ending. Other than that, considering how hard this topic is to write about, I’m flabbergasted at how well Neil pulled it off.

Overall rating: 8/10

2. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck - Mark Manson

Everyone was raving about it so I had to give it a go. For those of you who don’t know, this is a self-help book aiming to show you how to re-purpose your life, communicate effectively and live productively. Surprisingly, it only took me 2 afternoons to finish (I always find self-help books are easier to read than fiction, don’t know why). It’s written very informally and feels more like a humorous conversation with a loving but foul-mouthed friend, which makes it easy to digest whether you’re a 10th grader being peer-pressured to apply to US Colleges or a 53-year old electrician just realising you actually wanted to be a novelist. The only requirement for the the advice to be useful is that you kind of need to mess up a lot.

However, I found that there weren’t that many new things in the book. Mostly, it just reminded us of the things we already knew but consciously (or subconsciously) decide to shove under the carpet, OR put into words things we kind of already think, but don’t know how to explain. There is, no doubt, lots of helpful advice but like all self-help books, I find it too much to remember (unless you’re going to re-read it 20 times), and when I finished, out of the dozens of pieces of advice I only remembered one, “People who make changes aren’t flashy and don’t about what they’re going to do a lot. They just do it.” And from then on I shut up about my plans and just worked on them. Everyone’s going to have their own takeaways relevant to their lives, and I’d encourage you to read it just to see if you can find anything interesting. If out of 20 things, you remember 2-3 things that work for you, that’s still a win.

What I enjoyed the most was actually reading the stories/examples of real people at the beginning of each chapter before getting into the “lecture” part.

Overall rating: 6.9/10

3. Dracula - Bram Stoker

A classic in gothic horror. I actually started reading this last year and the first third of the book telling Jonathan’s fearful stays at Count Dracula’s castle had me hooked - it’s written in beautiful, elegant language which we hardly ever hear anymore, and does such a wonderful job conveying the characters’ fears, thoughts and emotions. But the moment Jonathan leaves the castle and the book switches to other characters’ stories, it just got so long and boring that I stopped reading for 3 months altogether and forgot which character was which because there were so many men. The “dull chapters” stretch on for at least a quarter of the book, and things only get interesting again when Dracula returns to the story and certain characters start turning into vampires. The rest of the story follows the “heroes” as they try to defeat the Count and bring peace to his victims, and although many parts are suspenseful and very clever, the ending is also so easily achieved that it’s a bit of a downer.

The whole book is written in diary entrees, journal entrees and letters of different characters (I’ve only read single-person diaries before) which was surprisingly pleasant in that you feel like you know the characters and by the end, you grow quite fond of them. It even inspired me to start keeping a diary again. It also made me start speaking like an old Englishman for the few days after completion, because I hadn’t really shaken off the language yet. Everyone seemed to be much more caring towards each other in those days, and through the letters I picked up some romantic phrases of which my favorite has been “And so, as you love me, and he loves me, and I love you with all the moods and tenses of the verb, I send you simply his ‘love’ instead.” Lovely, isn’t it?

Overall rating: 7/10

4. Days at Morisaki Bookstore / Những Giấc Mơ Ở Hiệu Sách Morisaki - Satoshi Yagisawa*

I’m not sure of the popularity of this book, it seems quite lowkey but has a surprising amount of reviews on Good Reads and even has a film adaptation. I happened to find it on my bookshelf and finished it in one afternoon (it was only 150-ish pages.)

Genre-wise, I’d call it Slice of Life although I don’t know if books are even allowed to be called that, or just anime. There is generally no real plot, only character development as Takako (main character) gets dumped by her cheating boyfriend and moves into her uncle’s antique bookstore to re-charge, gradually finding herself learning to appreciate books and the people around her. It’s a very simple storyline, and there’s almost nothing very special about the main character, but maybe that’s what makes it a relaxing read - because in reality, most humans aren’t the special snowflakes and oddballs we think. Admittedly, I started off finding Takako very annoying, but as she grew through the story, I found myself empathizing with her. For me, the book is a reminder to take things slower in life, remember to recharge and learn to see the beauty in simple things around you. It had a happy ending, too. Good for lazy reads, you don’t really have to think much - just sit there with a nice cup of tea and go with the flow.

Overall rating: 7/10

5. The Oldest Parents With The Youngest Child / Những Tháng Năm Rực Rỡ - Ae-ran Kim*

I. Loved. This. Even now it’s left me with a tumble of emotions that I don’t even know how to describe, and I can say for sure that it’s made it to my list of favorite books of all time.

The story recounts the life of a 17-year-old boy with progeria (a disease that makes his body age 4x as fast as a regular person, meaning he has the body of an 80-year-old) and his parents, who had him when they were 17. It talks of the struggles of teen parents learning to cope with an unintended pregnancy, their financial and mental hardships raising a child whilst also battling his illness, and also of the main character’s steel-hard resilience and love for life despite his condition. It actually made me feel ashamed of myself for being perfectly healthy, but not being as curious and hungry to learn, and most of all, to have a perfectly functioning laptop and not be writing. Other than that, it also humanizes persons with disabilities, showing that they too can fall in love, get anxious when ghosted and want to sneakily drink alcohol despite being underaged - anything a typical 17 year old might do. After this book, for the first time in a long time I felt that every aspect of life was truly wonderful and that I was lucky to be here. I also made a list of 30 challenges to do these coming months, to understand and enjoy life more and will keep you updated on my progress.

Even though the book is written from the perspective of a boy with progeria, the author herself is a perfectly healthy woman in her 40s (who did a lot of research before writing, I’m sure). Yet somehow she’s able to tell the story so vividly, convincingly and emotionally that I feel like I’m in his body, living his life and feeling his disappointment and excitement. The tone is so natural, so nonchalant it just feels like a leaf smoothly riding the breeze down the the ground. Reading this book, I’m reminded again of how powerful a tool literature is in sharing ideas, bridging humans and building empathy. I’m in awe of not just the main character for pushing through his difficulties the way he did, but also of the author for writing something so powerful it changed the way I looked at life. It makes me want to write stories like this one day, too. I just don’t know what to say about this book other than I really loved it.

Overall rating: 9/10

And that’s it for this month! I’ve only just gotten back on track with reading and remembering how fun it is. Hopefully someone will find this helpful and maybe pick up one of these books. I’ll see you guys next month!

#book review #american gods #the subtle art of not giving a f*ck #dracula #my brilliant life #kim aeran #days at morisaki bookstore #reading list #eng #books

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stvlti · 6 years

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11 Questions

i was tagged by @privatekururugi, @espiadimonis, and @transguynoriaki a while ago. each gave me a set of 11 questions to answer, so i will answer these 33 questions. i’m not gonna tag anyone in particular, but if you see this do feel free to have a go at any or all of these sets of 11q’s.

from @privatekururugi:

1) Do you have any specific diet you go by? (Vegan, Gluten-Free, Paleo, etc.) i used to be pescetarian, but then the deficiencies it gave me caused some pretty bad dental / gum problems, so i started eating a bit of lean chicken and pork on the side again... (yeah i know supplements exist, but even my nutrition major of a friend thought a pescetarian diet won’t yield deficiencies, and also supplements are fairly expensive. get off my case)

2&3) Do you have any siblings? If so, how close are you? nope, i’m an only child

4&5) What’s your favourite book and why? (I might want to read it lol) hmm. i still really like 1984, it was the first dystopian classic i read and the concept of Newspeak, tampering with historical authenticity on such grand scales, etc. just blew my mind. so even though i still dislike its weakass character-writing (p much anyone besides Winston has no personality, no distinct personal motives, etc), it’s got a soft spot in my heart. next to that i also liked A Clockwork Orange for the philosophical discussion of the nature of right and wrong (although in hindsight the story is a bit didactic); To Live by Yu Hua (the ill-fated episodes and tragic ends are made all the more absurd by the subtle and simply narration style, but it really is a humbling and informative experience for us readers of a different era and socioeconomic background); and of course, my favourite fable, A Little Prince.

6) Would you describe your personality as dominate or submissive overall? what the fuck kind of question is this. well i’m opinionated as heck, so i’m not submissive “personality-wise”. and that’s all i’ll say on the matter because i’m p sex-indifferent lol, if that’s what this question was trying to get at.

7) What are your dreams usually like at night? oh man. i usually don’t dream normal dreams; as in, most dreams i have is either one big adventure / story, or some bizarre situation that would have been questionable at best, fucked up at worst, in real life context. when i start dreaming about mundane everyday life problems or situations, like failing a test or being stuck with a friend i’ve cut off from my life years ago, that’s usually when i’ve got some kind of stress going on in my life.

(i’ve been trying to restart my dream journal tag actually, but i got stuck on my second entry trying to recall the specifics lol. maybe i should release entry #3 from the drafts first.)

8) Is there anything you’re currently anxious about? well, yeah. my future. my job prospects. being homeless once my parents decide to sell their house off for retirement because the housing prices are through the roof here. pick one.

9&10) Are you looking forward to Thanksgiving? Will you be contributing anything? we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving!

11) Whose your favourite Death Note character (if you have one)? Light Yagami, even though he’s a slimy fox.

from @transguynoriaki:

1. What kind of music do you listen to?

hmm, i only listen to really slow music or something dark or rock-ish, nothing in between!! muahahaha!!

okay that’s generalising it; i do love The Honey Trees and The Novembers, which are on opposite ends of the “slow” spectrum (one’s dream pop, the other’s infused with shoegaze and other distortions + some screamy vocals and loud noises at times), with Lana Del Rey and her decadent sounds smack in the middle lol. but yeah i certainly have a taste for the more atmospheric stuff, so aside from the fuzzy feelings of The Novembers’ stuff and the grandness of Lana’s string instrumentals i also like the darker chill vibes you get from The Neighbourhood, some of The Weeknd’s older stuff, etc.

and I also really enjoy MCR, Muse and the like - i.e. dramatic sounds, that’s the good shit to me haha.

i also like more conventional pop acts like Lorde... and my fave local singer, Ivana Wong, of course!

2. Do you prefer to keep your living space neat and tidy or do you like a certain amount of mess?

i do prefer order and routine in my life, sadly if i can’t do that on a structural level you think i can do that with my desk?! lol. in an alternate universe, maybe.

3. What was the first ship you remember really shipping?

hmm probably TerraxBeast Boy from CN’s Teen Titans. i was lukewarm / indifferent to other canon pairings i’ve seen in media up until that point; but i guess i was more persuaded by the storyline than their characterisations as looking back there are glaring trust issues in their relationship (and that’s an understatement)

4. Do you have a certain show or book series that holds a lot of nostalgic value for you? If so, what was it?

hmm, i guess Courage the Cowardly Dog? (i was a weird kid but shush) and Teen Titans of course. as for books, hmm... ASoUE is definitely one of the ones that just takes me back to middle school. i even bought the Beatrice letters files thingy. tbf the whole Lemony Snicket universe did teach me a lot about cryptography, which i guess if me or a friend of mine were to do an L rp and solve cases it would help a lot (*cough* not saying that’s what’s happening right now because i’ve got other stuff i’m investing my time into. i guess my friend’s gonna make themselves scarce as well hahaha *cue Mariah Carey’s i can’t read gif except it’s L*)

5. What is your favorite type of food?

Italian and Japanese are my fave cuisines! i guess that means i love richly-flavoured foods and creamy stuff. ooh, love those sauces.

6. Was there ever a fad or activity from your childhood that you could never understand or get into?

i wasn’t a gamer at all. we didn’t own a single console and i wasn’t allowed to get a handheld. the most i had was a Tamagotchi. so i guess it’s not so much i never got that ‘fad’, just that i was never given the opportunity to discover the really good games. i’ve only ever played a bit of Mario Kart or Cooking Mama on my cousin’s NDS so yeah. didn’t see the appeal in the more light-hearted games like that.

(now that i’ve played Undertale i’m kinda wanting to explore more PC games though. i heard Papers Please is good, and PJ (@kickthepj)’s been recommending Hyper Light Drifter a lot, and the art looks amazing, so yeah... too broke to get them though... and even if i had the money and time to play them i’d be allocating it towards other stuff you know?)

7. What’s your favorite time of day?

well i got 2 fave time periods. the first one’s the witching hours between midnight and early morning, when the world is quiet and you could do anything and nobody would know. the other one is early morning, just after sunrise, and the air is clear and slightly chilly, and it’s also really quiet but you can just hear the birds tweeting somewhere.

i’m more likely to be awake for the first time period described here though... ._.

8. What’s your favorite type flower and why?

hmm i'm not really a flower person. i’m just gonna steal Luke’s answer and say cactus flowers haha (well i do like cacti, they’re some of my favourite plants; i even named my IG/Twitter and Pokemon Go usernames after the plant; also some of you might remember that i had a pet cactus for 8 months)

9. What’s your favorite cliché/trope in fiction?

lovers running out of time...

10. Did/do you do any extracurricular activities when you were in school and what were they?

(wow Luke that’s a lot on your resume!)

i did bits and bobs throughout school, but perhaps my longest commitment was my Clarinet lessons. started when i was in Year 2, carried on until i obtained a Pass in Grade 8 ABRSM certificate in Year 10. i had to quit and give up on a diploma there because i was starting the IB diploma programme in Year 11...

this commitment is only rivalled by the dance classes i took. i did ballet from a young age until i was about 12~13, quitting just before en pointe shoes were introduced; i had also been in Chinese dance lessons from Year 1, so after quitting ballet i just focused on that until Year 10 as well (again, quitting to focus on my full-time diploma).

i also did Taekwondo as a child and obtained a black belt qualification by age 12. i quit once i did though, because again i couldn’t afford to juggle so many commitments the older i got and the more demanding my studies became.

perhaps the proudest extracurricular i’ve done is in my senior years of high school: i started and chaired the student committee as the editor in-chief for the school’s first student-ran and seasonal (now monthly) publication. it’s not student-ran either anymore because i guess the kids that came after the classes of 2014, 2015, and 2016 just dgaf about slightly more demanding extracurriculars that require organisation as long as they can earn their credits elsewhere (yes i’m salty, i’m allowed to be okay, it was my brainchild but apparently kids these days don’t care about having their voices heard if it means having to negotiate diplomacy with the adults in charge. god, how do they expect to survive in uni or in a workplace?)

11. What’s your favorite piece of work that you’ve ever created and what about it do you love so much?

hmm. i think for sure the prose poem i wrote about Light’s death in the anime. idk, the flow and the imagery is just a good concentrated example of what i could be capable of given the right tone and context. (of course, i’ve been trying hard to branch out in genres and forms, so that sort of language isn’t always applicable. but yeah, it remains my fave as a showcase of my best writing abilities ^_^)

and from @espiadimonis:

1.If you could have one piece of death note merchandise of any kind, what would it be?

oh man! i’ve been pining after the Hot Topic official DN poker card deck for quite some time! i’ve checked Blue Banana while i was in the UK, but it’s not available there, and it’s not at Tokyo Toys either (they do sell a DN playing card deck, but it’s a lot cheaper in design :/)

2.What’s your favourite 3D animated movie?

does Lego Batman count? if not, then i guess Zootopia.

(there’s a reason these 2 are listed in my bio fandoms list like...)

3.What superpower would you like to have?

i used to always choose levitation / flying, but lately i’m not so sure. i’ve heard a lot of compelling arguments for other powers haha.

you know what, i’d trade for something as simple as better control of my own brain. i don’t care about mind control over others; i just want to be able to harness the best parts of my lightning fast thought processes and out-of-the-box thinking on my best days without being constantly tripped up by executive dysfunction like that on a metacognitive level.

4.Favourite piece of clothing?

my soft furry hoodie, which i’m wearing right now! <3

5.Who’s your favourite Sailor Scout?

i don’t have one, sorry! i was 4 when it aired on TV, so i don’t remember much from those years except the Sailor Moon t shirt i got courtesy of my aunt because it was all the rage back then... i’m sorry, but i have more vivid memories of Pretty Cure and Sugar Sugar Rune!

6.Do you prefer potato chips chocolate?

it is a good combo for sure! we are talking about Royce’s chocolate potato chips, right? (if you haven’t tried it get some next time you or a friend/family goes to Japan! we can buy it locally from like Citysuper or something, but i doubt they export it to any countries beyond East Asia haha)

7.What song makes you feel melancholic?

oh, Six Billion did last week. it left me feeling cold all over. an effect from the combination of the layered vocals and the instrumentals i guess. (is it in minor key? i’m sorry i can’t tell anymore, it’s been far too long since i’ve had any musical training. but if it’s in minor key it would explain why.)

there’s also some of the stuff off The Novembers’ catalogue... mostly 終わらない境界 from To (melt into), which was my daily commuting soundtrack at a time when i had brainfog on a regular basis, so yeah, anxiety and all that fun stuff :/

8.Which dn character would you invite to Spaceland(the amusement park)?

Sayu or Matsuda? they deserve a lot more than the hand canon dealt them. hmm maybe Rem too? but she wouldn’t be able to interact with a lot of the stuff there :/

9.What’s the funniest movie you ever watched?

i guess The Lego Batman Movie? i’m sorry i know i keep bringing this film up, but it’s comedic genius for a “kid’s movie”.

10.You can only choose one pokémon! Which one do you choose?

Blissey was gonna be my go to answer. she’s a tank, have you seen her? but is she really my fave mon? debatable. idk man. i really liked Vulpix/Ninetales as a kid... but dark and ghost types though!! okay i can’t choose, next question

11.What made you happy recently?

i went to another poetry event last night and i met up with a friend i haven’t seen since September :P

#tag meme #long post

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sapphireorison · 7 years

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Ten Writer Questions Tag PT.2

Tagged by @the-bookdevourer :)

Do you have anyone (authors, family, friends, etc.) that has inspired your writing? I write like I must breathe, and I get inspiration from everywhere. When I was wee, I devoured the teen section at my local library, so a lot of my early author-inspiration is from 80s and 90s scifi and fantasy authors, like Anne McCaffrey and Diane Duane and Jane Yolen and Patricia C. Wrede. And, admittedly, Piers Anthony and Lovecraft, though those latter two... :considers: You know how when you read a book and you go ‘wow this is terrible but I can’t put it down’? Best figure out why you can put it down. I also get a lot of inspiration from my friends in what they yearn to have written that’s not out there yet. It makes me want to write that, and in learning more about what they want that simply doesn’t exist yet, I become a better writer.

When did you first start writing? And what was it about? Very, very early. I wrote stuff for school, mostly, cute little stories about nonsense based on whatever book or series I was obsessed with at the time. Beyond that, I ‘wrote’ plays for me and my sister to perform for my family, and then in HS moved on to trying to figure out novels. I’ve always created stories in my head, and because I was primed by the types of books I loved (big, epic, glorious) that was always my goal. So I would fiddle around with the beginnings of them. It’s only been within the last ten years or so that I’ve started finishing them, and they’ve gotten closer to what I have in my head as the kind of books I need to write.

How long have you been working on your current project? It feels like ages, but I don’t think it’s been more than a year and a half at most, perhaps two. This one was percolating for a long time before I started writing because I had the concept first, then the characters, and then the world, and only after a while did I have any inkling of a plot and I know better than to start without a plot by now.

Of all your OCs, which do you relate to the most? Why? My earlier OCs were more ‘me’ than any of the ones I have now. But the one I relate to most was one from a very, very early attempt at a fantasy novel. She was a bookish protagonist with a demon stitched to her soul whose goal was to usher a younger demon-possessed girl to someone, somewhere, that could help her. :considers: Even that teeny explanation feels like a direct window into my head. My OCs now are very much not me. The only one even faintly close to me is the fellow who I’ve iterated through over the years. He’s the one I relate to the most because I’ve used him the most. He’s full of well over a decade of experiences in various media as I’ve tried to find a home for him.

Tropes are often looked down on, but which one(s) do you enjoy and use? Fake relationships, mutually requited slow-burn pining, and messy reunions after one of the people thinks they’ve lost the other forever. All of those are for romance. In general, though, I love the ‘weird uncle’ trope, where an antagonist gets beaten and then sort of gets absorbed into the protag’s family because they’re not bad they’re just, you know, themselves. I also fucking love the trope where touch is a huge indicator of trust, where names are important so that when someone start using a different name (for themselves or another) it means a major character change behind-the-scenes, and I really really love affectionate bickering. I don’t even know if that’s a trope, but it’s great.

Do you have a set schedule for when you write? No. Well, sort of. I prefer to write in the evenings, after about 5 or 6pm, and write for about four hours in a coffee shop or at the kitchen table. This is, mind, the /optimal/ writing situation. I don’t usually get a chance to write as long, or as often, as I know makes me happiest. This was the schedule I used to polish off two longfics I wrote and now that I don’t get to do this every/most nights, my monthly progress is much lower. I’m lucky if I do 10k a month.

When you’re writing, do you write in chronological order or wherever you feel? I gotta do chronological. But, like, chronological for the *book* not the story. My brain views things very much as cause-and-effect, specifically about what am I causing the reader to think at this point in time and how will that effect how they view this later scene. So even if things are out of place and there are flashbacks and so on, I have to write from the beginning of the book to the end otherwise I can’t develop the later parts properly because I’m missing pieces that need to be included.

What’s your favorite part about starting a new project? Worldbuilding! I’ll start 600-word prompts, build out a fucking massive world, and then tidy up the prompt and move on to something else. Unique worlds rev my engine, and whenever I feel bored or stale on a current project I’ll build out a world-prompt and it’ll refresh me to come back to my primary project.

What’s one thing about your current project that you’re excited about? It’s so much more action-y than I thought it would be. Stuff is happening! Things are gonna explode! There’s way more mystery involved than anticipated because there’s so much to explain I’ve had to pick and choose what to reveal. And, honestly, I’ve lived with the characters so long in my head that I’m just excited to find out how they feel about each other and what they want out of the world--the kind of stuff I can only find out by making them interact and seeing if I need to tweak.

Do you have any writing goals that you want to accomplish by the end of the year? Halfway through Current Project and hopefully finishing a fic that I, uh, abandoned during the last chapter. The rest is posted and I’ve let it sit for two years. T_T Conveniently, there are several months (including Nano) to work on Current Project, and ‘halfway’ is only another 20k for me. So I am fairly confident I can hit that one at least. :)

For the 10 new questions, here are the ones I liked from Bookie’s list along with a couple from mine and one or two of my own creation:

What’s your favorite thing about your writing?

What’s your favorite character you’ve written and why are they your fav?

What makes your writing unique?

Describe your antagonist’s ‘villain song’ as if they were a Disney Villain.

Which of your characters (OCs) is the one you most relate to? Why?

What are you favorite tropes?

What inspired your current project?

There are lots of different media types that you could write! What is your ‘primary’ type of media that you write? Short story? Novels? Novellas? Comics? Plays? Roleplays? Video game scripts? TV show or movie scripts? Where do most of your words go? And, to follow up, what type of writing is your current project? Which types have you done? Which do you like? Do you have a favorite?

What’s your favorite genre to read? To write? Why does it draw you?

Do you have any writing goals you’d like to accomplish by the end of the year?

I’m supposed to tag people, but I am shy and tagging is scary. If you follow me and you do the writing thing, I really wanna hear from you. :D I will even reply and it will be super exciting.

#meme #writing #writing meme #writeblr

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spencerpdlu996-blog · 4 years

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linksweb23-blog · 7 years

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10 The Definition Of A Blog And Blogging

The Definition Of A Blog And Blogging Okay so now we realize all you should know about content and keywords. Hah! But you did get the basics. It may be an excellent point to avoid and discuss Keywords, Tags, Categories and many types of that too. Logically, in progression this certainly will come much later, but because there seems such misunderstandings about Technorati, and other tagging systems, it can be an excellent spot to put this down. Websites are laboring to have good traffic and clicks for their site to get the top rankings. There are a few strategies to diverting website visitors to one's site but they're defeated whenever and lots of times the strategy used looked to be illegal or fraud. Writing good content as such does not guarantee an excellent site. One needs to get the knack of getting genuine visitors who contain the interest to engage themselves reading the contents staying for a time within your site. 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The more content that you have, the greater visitors you should have, because blog readers love content and are constantly trying to find new information and content. It's only if people can get regular posts that they can be compelled to get back to see what you've written next. (more info) 1) Keep a diary or perhaps a journal with you mostly. ideas is triggered by whatever you may hear, see, or smell. Your senses are your radar to get nice ideas. Write every one of them in a journal and make it together with you for future reference. you are going to additionally write down something that you have scan or heard, someone's ideas enable you to develop your individual ideas which will be not stealing. please remember concepts and creativity will return everywhere; it's the growth and development of the idea that induce it unique. Blogs are everywhere. 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The more the numbers of people buy the product via your posted link the greater money you get. However it is important that you post items that matched to your site. For example blogging about fat loss is great for hosting links of exercise equipments. (more info) Many bloggers new to the blogging world will likely wrestle using this type of decision over they are doing when buying medical insurance due to its importance and contribution with their websites. Having a well running and easy to access web site is intrinsic to its success and popularity, as well as lend itself on their credibility within their respective fields. As bloggers you should understand these facts rather than really go to town the traps and pitfalls that the under reputable webhost can present. There are many uses of blogging. In most cases, blogging can be used social means alone, however, you could also takes place blogs for advertising. If you own a small business, either online or off line, you may make use of blogs to market your service. The utilization of blogging running a business is gathering popularity as it can establish the credibility of a company and promote name recognition. Search engines love quality content, along with a website cannot contend with your site in relation to content. The search engines know this and for that reason blog are quickly contained in search results to be sure best quality inside search. The more content there is an better position your blog gets inside search engines. Once you know how to write article posts which use SEO, you will observe big most current listings for yourself. Posting being a guest writer on another person's blog is a good approach to drive targeted traffic to your site. You can leverage other sites' traffic by writing a guest post for them. To ensure that the readers are relevant for your site, make sure you only post on blogs in the same niche. You must captivate and maintain the interest from the reader. Make sure that your submissions are fresh and lively don't just toll out chunks of facts and be sure how the facts are correct and useful. Add in a person's touch a casual comment, a rare expression. Share your enthusiasm for that subject being discussed. (more info) Also sharing activities which can be fun including dance classes, water aerobics, and vacations for seniors, cruises for seniors, and group organizations can give seniors many ideas of latest things they're able to do in order to fill their time once they feel like they've not even attempt to do any longer. Creating a blog to help you promote health and recreation inside lives of senior citizens also provide you using a satisfaction and private reward. Blogging is big right now and growing each day. Along with social networking sites, it really is truely the building blocks with the internet. Blogs can range from a real diverse multitude of subjects there are really too many to even attempt to mention. It's also easy to take up a blog based on a topic appealing or expertise also to expound and share one's familiarity with an interest. If you don't feel that blogging can be a powerful method then take note of Perez Hilton who had previously been in a position to bag an agreement for his own show on E Network that lasted some time. Did you know that blogging is really a boon for online marketers too? Continue on to choose if blogging meets your needs plus your business. Whilst writing your site will be experiencing ever more popular, specially as increasing numbers of people are studying how you can earn more using their blog. What is a many more difficult is really picking out excellent articles yet again and also again. 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(more info) Also sharing activities that are fun including dance classes, water aerobics, and vacations for seniors, cruises for seniors, and group organizations can provide seniors many ideas of the latest things they could do to fill their time once they feel like they've got not even attempt to go longer. Creating a blog to assist promote health and recreation inside the lives of older folks can also provide you which has a satisfaction and reward. One of the more recent secrets people are using to get their websites online, the last year or so, is to use Blogs. Blogs are short for web logs and they are like daily dairies online. Blogs commenced as methods of Internet reality types to express their lives web-sites on the net, and never have to learn very complicated web page design applications like Dreamweaver or Microsoft FrontPage. Dreamweaver, the common professional web page design program takes a least half a year to perfect. While FrontPage however looks similar to Microsoft Word, and therefore can be used more quickly by people in the beginning stages. Blogs tend to be much easier to use than any web page design software. They can be used to change information from the browser, email, and also simple desk top software. Blogs are webpages made with automated software that date stamps all changes to content. One of the secrets the web marketers use to obtain their new websites into the major search engines like yahoo like (Google - Yahoo! and MSN) is known as blog and ping. So many Internet fortunes are increasingly being built for this simple you would like new site to be indexed (or included in the internet search engine database) you shouldn't submit it on the search engines like google -- instead you need to blog and ping. Setting up a account isn't rocket science, however; we'll walk you through the procedure and help save time. Why go solo once you may have this Cashmap as your wingman? You will have your money created in minutes, however; the harder part is deciding the title and address of the blog. You will learn the best way to personalize your, take advantage of your Dashboard, edit your profile, add photos, and adjust your money while using Personal Settings feature. However, regardless of spending months and years with your partners in most intimate ways, we don't understand how to sell them our applying for grants relaxing, shopping and even food. Am I right or am I right? I don't want to gloat as I am a fellow searcher. However, you need to the future prospect sufficiently to know what you can sell them prior to starting selling them. Visitor blogging are vast changing the best way Internet advertising is completed. Aside from report submission to write directories, visitor blogging is now the just one of the very effective techniques to enhance building links which can be also completely vital for your website's search engine marketing. So to come to be an efficient visitor blogger, you have to possess superior traits and skills to generate a successful guide. Below are many of the easy methods to grow to be an authority author for guest writing a blog. (more info) The company expects the clients to analyze the campaign at least one time in one day. This would enable them to in monitoring the performance making changes if any to further improve on the business. The company from the side sends a weekly report updating them for the outcome of the campaigns. The client contains the use of deciding when to start and prevent the campaigns.

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zachsmothership-blog · 7 years

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Filmmakers - Listen to your Elders

One of the biggest bummers about current Hollywood films for me is the lack of meaningful and interesting shot composition. It seems anymore that most films just resort to close up handheld shots and it's getting visually boring. This past semester for the first time I was subjected to studying the films of John Ford. A lot of people in todays time just write John Ford off because the Western by in large is a dated genre that doesn't appeal to them, but for us filmmakers it's important to note that John Ford is in many ways one of the, if not the greatest, American directors of all time. For that reason I've decided to upload the recent essay I wrote over him analyzing his style in depth so that todays filmmakers can be more aware of the creative ways they can compose shots.

John Ford: Scientist of the Wild West

John Ford makes films like he’s boiled filmmaking down to a science. That may not sound like an outlandish statement considering Ford directed over 100 films, but Ford’s scientifically precise filmmaking doesn’t just come from experience, it’s his style. For some reason Ford is often overlooked in modern conversations about auteurism even though he has so much to offer in the way of auteuristic style. It’s probably because most people think that his precisely executed character driven shot composition is just the “invisible style” common in the classic Hollywood film era, something that couldn’t be further from the truth. Film critic Tag Gallagher describes John Ford’s style saying “it’s more like the 18th century portrait in oil, a cameo, a vignette, overloaded with detail” (Gallagher). He even goes on to conclude that “Ford is the best director in the history of motion pictures because his placement of the camera always made even good dialogue unnecessary or secondary.” (Gallagher) Ford no doubt has an intricate style, and by expounding upon it through the analysis of some of his best films it will become clear how he uses shot composition to thoroughly support his character development.

When discussing John Ford’s style the word “precise” gets thrown around a lot, but what exactly is it about his style that expresses such precision? He has a natural, quick, and in depth way he portrays his characters. Ford floods the screen with so much information about his characters that he can develop them quickly and more in depth without ever confusing the audience (Gallagher). Part of that is simply his ability to stage and direct actors, but far more pertinent to the precision his films exhibit is the shot composition he uses to accentuate his character development. Take the beginning scene in Stagecoach when Lucy Mallory first arrives in Tonto, for instance. In this scene Lucy is on her way into a hotel to get something to drink when she’s intercepted by a couple of her friends.

Ford uses a wider shot and cleverly places Lucy here with her back to Hatfield so that he can characterize both of them at once. Then, as Gallagher describes, he uses just a mere series of glances exchanged to show the audience just exactly who these characters are (Gallagher). The silent contemplation Hatfield shows in this shot goes a long way to characterize him as a mysterious man, and that is only affirmed when Lucy finally turns around and he silently greets her as she walks by. By capturing that and Lucy’s pompous reaction to his otherwise friendly gesture in the same shot, Ford decidedly characterizes both of them in a very short amount of time. He then continues on that note as Lucy and her friends go inside to sit down and gossip about Hatfield.

Here he again develops Lucy through the dialogue she has with her friends, and adds another layer of mystery to Hatfield by having him stare longingly through the window. By composing shots with multiple characters in them Ford not only develops characters faster, but with the added screen time can explore them in more depth. Ford’s precise style stems primarily from this type of shot composition, but it’s not the only trick he has up his sleeve.

Ford does not just limit himself to using characters to develop each other within the same frame. Instead, as Gallagher suggests, Ford often uses character’s reactions to develop other characters before the audience even knows what they are reacting to (Gallagher). In its simplest form this can be seen in My Darling Clementine when Doc Holliday is first introduced.

At this point the audience already knows that the man to the left is some greedy upper class citizen, and that Wyatt Earp is, for the lack of a better term, a bad ass. So when the greedy townsman stops shoveling in his chips abruptly and Wyatt diverts his attention across the room, the audience knows what they’re staring at is cause for concern. When the next shot reveals that what caused these reactions was in fact Doc Holliday, Ford immediately establishes Doc as this strange, dangerous man. He informs the audience on how to feel about Doc before even showing him on screen by showing how other characters feel about him first. Ford uses this precise technique to cut a lot of fat out of his character development; however this method is comparatively shallow in relation to the other methods he is known to use.

Close-up shots have always been a way for filmmakers to command audience attention and focus it on elements of the film that they deem important. Today most modern Hollywood films are shot primarily with close-ups, which is something that almost completely devalues the original point of using close-up shots all together. This fact is something Ford is noticeably aware of, as the first real close-up in Stagecoach doesn’t even come up until the corrupt banker Gatewood is introduced around the six minute mark.

Ford starts the scene off with this three shot, which allows the audience to get somewhat of an idea about who Gatewood is through the way he interacts with these men. Gatewood seems poised and professional, assuring them that “what’s good for the banks is good for the country.” Although seconds later when the other men leave and Ford goes in for a close-up, the audience is finally allowed to see past Gatewood’s facade and get a true look at his character.

This one close-up stands out as an emphatic point of characterization, and focuses the audience in on the bad intentions written all over Gatewood’s face. Ford knows that by only using close-ups in choice times like this, the close-ups become a way for him to cue the audience in on more important character developing moments. John Ford uses close-up shots to develop his characters in deeper ways than just that though, something that again is clearly evident in My Darling Clementine when Doc Holliday is first introduced.

Doc is cold and emotionless in this scene, and at this point the audience hardly knows anything about him. He is one of Ford’s most cryptic characters, and part of the reason he feels so mystifying to the audience is because Ford chooses to introduce him here primarily with close-ups.

These close-ups draw increased attention to his character, but his cold demeanor doesn’t give the audience anything to grapple with. This subconsciously fosters feelings of unease for the audience and ultimately makes Doc seem that much more mysterious. Ford’s style seems so precise here because he does not just show audiences who his characters are, but makes them feel who they are, and in fact that’s a trend Ford follows with other aspects of shot composition as well.

If Ford uses close-ups sparingly then it’s safe to say he practically never moves the camera. He uses moving shots so infrequently that even one that was out of focus was powerful enough to launch John Wayne’s career (The Creation of John Wayne). Similar to his disciplined use of close-ups though, it is not just the frequency with which Ford implements moving shots that makes them so effective, but also how he utilizes them. Ford almost solely moves the camera only when the characters in the scene motivate him to do so.

Like this shot in Stagecoach when he tracks backwards with Dallas so he can follow her while the townspeople walk her out of town; or perhaps this scene from My Darling Clementine when he pans across the room so he can follow Chihuahua as she walks away from Doc Holliday.

Ford reserves the majority of the camera movement for moments like those, and in turn makes the few moments where there are not distinct reasons for camera movement much more impactful. This is evident in this scene in Stagecoach when Ringo and Dallas are at the dinner for instance.

Gallagher discusses the power of the camera movement in this shot explaining that “the way the camera moves in on Dallas makes us feel feelings even before we know their reason. In movies it’s feelings that produce ideas, and the camera movement makes us feel these feelings like a weight.” (Gallagher) Ford tracks in on Dallas here to make the audience feel the humiliation she feels in this moment, and with that simple movement emphasizes this key beat for her character. Similar to the way Alfred Hitchcock played inside his viewer’s subconscious to create suspense, Ford has mastered a way to do the same in relation to the development of his characters. So much of his style operates outside of the movie itself and that is ultimately what makes his style feel so precise.

When expounding upon John Ford’s style through Stagecoach and My Darling Clementine it is clear that Ford’s character development is seeded deep within his shot compositions. He uses techniques like composing shots with multiple characters, introducing characters with reactions, close-ups, and camera movement to focus audience attention on pertinent character moments and deepen the development of those characters. John Ford’s films feel so precise because unlike a majority of other films he specifically picks the simplest shot compositions that succinctly inform the audience on the characters he’s engaging with at any given time. Without a doubt this ability to compose interesting character focused shots makes Ford one of the most legendary directors of all time. Ford is a wild western scientist creating tight and thoughtfully composed cinema for the masses, and these are his formulas.

Works Cited

Gallagher, Tag. "Dreaming of Jeannie: Tag Gallagher on Stagecoach." Vimeo. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

Stagecoach. Dir. John Ford. Perf. John Wayne. Released by United Artists, 1939. DVD.

My Darling Clementine. Dir. John Ford. Perf. Henry Fonda. Twentieth Century-Fox, 1946. DVD.

The Creation of John Wayne. Dir. John Cork. Criterion Collection, 2008. DVD.

#filmmaking #film #john ford #analysis

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