Saturday Epicness- Weekly Update

Well, I've been trying to post every weekend at the least, though it's hard to do more than that because of the massive amount of homework (on Wednesday I had to bring home 4 books with a packet in each subject!) and the simple fact that there isn't too much going on to promote every-other-day updates. The leaves are just coming out here, and I'm guessing everything will be green within 2-3 weeks. I'm also taking an interest in photography, and I'll try to post a lot of pictures once the leaves come out. Ascension is coming along well, and If I can figure out how to actually make a story out of the two dozen or so pages of notes I have, I'll start posting a few excerpts from it.

Monday through Friday were more or less uneventful. We had a tone of Homework Wenesday and Thursday, and I'm running somewhat daily, though I'm going to have to start drinking a can of red bull before each run so i don't run out of energy halfway through. It's been beautiful the last few days, and the teachers took pity on us and let us go outside for the last hour Thursday and Friday, which half of the guys (includng me) conveniently spent playing smear-the-queer (aka tackle tag) and tackle football for the entire time. We also played Baseball and Kickball in P.E the two days I had it, but seeing as I misrably fail at both sports, I tried to not get too involved with playing them.

On Saturday 2 of my friends and I went to an amusement park for some Youth Group thing that one of my friends has. It around a two-hour drive there, and we stopped at a restaurant on the way, resulting with us reaching the amusement park at around 2:00. The three of us, including 2 college seniors (who I think were engaged) acting as chaperons spent the day riding rollercoaster for the entire time. There's only one slight problem: I don't do so well on rollercoasters. As a matter of fact, I hate them with passion. The thing is, everyone else in our little group (we were joined by two other girls who were also on the trip by now) LOVED rollercoasters. So, naturally, I was forced through a line to ride 6 or so rides that made my heart stop every time we took a loop or went around a turn. These included Goldrusher, which has about as many corkscrews as an amusement park can have on a rollercoaster; Thunder Road, which is just one drop after another; Vortex, the fastest ride in the park; Nighthawk, where you are lying down the entire time; the Borg, which lets you dangle from a harness while going so fast that you can't hear yourself scream, and the Intimidator, which is the longest, fastest, and highest rollercoaster in the South east U.S. The second of which we did twice. As you can believe, I was about to puke by the end, and was ready to kill my friends for dragging me on them. We ate dinner at Olive Garden, then I spent the rest of the car ride back in silence, seeing as everyone was worn out. I got home at around 12:30, and woke up this morning at 11.

So, that was my week. Felt like I needed to update my blog, and despite the roallercoasters, It was one of the best Saturdays I've had since last Summer.

BTW, here's a little thing I found on Youtube: I trust that everyone has seen the Lord of the Rings movies, and this has the speech Sam gives to Frodo at the end of the second movie in relation to our world.

The Water Cycle

Huddled in a blanket of fog and ice, we wait,
Quivering in anticipation of the drop.
Steadily we grow, straining against the walls of our prison,
Until, with the sudden crack of the storm, we fall.

With the rush of the tempest surrounding us,
We dance in a scene of beauty and death.
Colliding, joining, than eventually separating once more,
We continue our plunge to the jagged peaks below.

Eventually, our rugged, icy shells, begin to degrade,
The heat gathered by the fall stripping us of our frigid cocoon layer by tiny layer.
Faster and faster we plummet,
Until we come to a sudden, violent crash against the treacherous land from which we first came.

Yet our journey has not yet come to a close,
And still we rush with the vigor of a thousand generations.
Flowing down the sides of the ravine in a rush of energy,
We find ourselves moving through the gentle plains that rest at the foot of the mountain.

For days, weeks, months, we continue our travel,
Our journey taking us through the streams, rivers, and lakes of the gentle plains.
Our progress may be deliberate, yet slowly, ever so slowly, we make our way
To our final and ultimate destination.

The crying of gulls fills us with joy:
The end of our travels has come at last!
Filled with renewed energy, we charge to the everlasting sea before us,
To be reunited with thousands, if not millions, of our fellow brethren.

With one last, final effort we push our way through the delta barring us from our final goal,
And find ourselves mingled with the flowing voices of a trillion individuals.
Finally, we allow ourselves a, brief, well-earned reprieve,
Before the light of the sun calls us once more to renew our travels.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a poem about the water cycle. I dunno, I was bored, and to tell you the truth that's not necessarily to best poem I've written, but I needed to do something productive for a change.. In reality, I'm chewing my fingernails in anticipation of both my Math Test grade (math is by far my worst subject) and my report cards, which are both coming in by Thursday. I'm hoping for the best and expecting the worse, but I guess that I'll find out soon.

Besides, I have at least something to look forward to this week: two of my friends as I are heading to Carowins with a bunch of 8th-10th grade girls (nothing intended by that last little part...*whistles*), so I just have to suffer through one last week of school before I get to do something actually fun for a change.

I'll see if I can update my blog more this week, depends on how much HW we get.

Spring is Summer too!

Another random post, but who gives? just giving a bit of info on whats what at the moment.

Well, for starters, the last few days have been warm, as in 70-80 degrees warm (was 80 today, had to wear shorts for the first time in a while)  This kind of weather is my favorite, the warm, sunny, 7:00 and still daylight weather.

For the last few days I've been running, a lot, and I just completed two 3-4 mile runs without stopping on an area we call "the maze' around Bass Lake. I'll see if I can bring a Camera the next time I got there...its stunning, makes me proud to live in the Mountains. I'm tired though...can't manage to stay up later than 10:00 with all the exercise. It's getting me in great shape though...going to try out for Cross Country for the High School in the fall, perhaps trying out for basketball too.

Speaking of High school, just found out what classes I'm taking next year. They are as follows:

105 English
Algebra Fundamentals/Algebra Completer (two summester class)
History (honors)
Science (honors)
Band (A/B year-round)
Health Class (A/B year round...ugh)
Communications

Was thinking of taking up Spanish, but I'm going to reserve that for Softmore Year. the best part is that we get a brand-new High School the year I go in, meaning that it has a cafeteria that functions like a food court, a massive gym, better Football and Soccer stadiums, is positioned right by our Greenway for Cross Country, and the best part is, seeing as we get orientation in the building before the school year, the freshman are going to know the most about how to get around...for a change.

Oh, and the entire High School gets (free!) laptops. awesome

April 17th is the Annual 8th grade dance, aka the annual sit-around-and-talk-with-music-blaring-and-bad-soda. Was going to (try) to score a date and go but I'm heading to a local amusement park, Carowins, with two of my friends that day. However, seeing as I can't stand to go on roller coasters, and that they love them, I don't know if its going to be super-fun or a nightmare...going to have to wait and see.

Also is Spring Fling coming up, the school's spring festival. Nothing much to talk about here...just a good time to get together with friends.

The School finally took pity on us, and though we still don't get a spring break, Easter Weekend is now a long weekend, with tomorrow being a half-day and Monday off. at least its something, I guess. Going to warm like today was, which is awesome.

And to sum up this post, here's a run down of my day:

School
Got home, took dog for 1 mile walk
Ran 3 miles on The Maze, in 80 degree weather, which was tough
Stopped by the Grocery Store
Took dog for another walk, this time with my sister
Read and did homework on the back porch, accompanied by a glass of lemonade and a bag of popcorn
Had dinner on the back porch, steak and sweet potatoes w/ salad, Hope did her begging eyes and gained another 5 pounds off table scraps (7:00 and still daylight by now)
Went on computer, checked on facebook, updated blog.

And...that's about it.

Spring and funky waether.

Well, for the past, oh, seven days, life has been in the usual dreary pattern. Same schedule: Get up, got to school, stare at the clock for 6 hours of classes, than go running (2 miles? 3?) and return home, watch T.V, eat dinner, and sleep. Day after day after day. I don't particularly mind patterns, but a bit more variety would be nice in the day.

Was has had a lot of variety is our weather. Don't know what's causing it, but we've had about four seasons within seven days.  A bit of a rundown below just because I'm bored:

Saturday, the first day of spring, was great. It hovered at around 70 degrees (F), and I spent the day with a friend and my sister (who's in sixth grade yet acts more mature than most 8th graders- go figure) playing soccer with my dog Hope chasing the ball, which soon turned into a free-for-all keep-away from the dog. Once hope crashed, about 30 minutes in, we heading onto the back portch and drank lemonade (thank you mother!) while taking about random stuff, with my sister rolling her eyes and leaving the scene once the conversation drifted to the topic of girls (nothing BAD, just, you know, talking...guys are allowed to do that, right?) The rest of the day was spent at my friend's house, which is around a 10-15 mile walk from mine, clearing branches from that ice storm around Christmas and burning them for a good 2 hours, at 10$ an hour, which was cool. I crashed at around 11:00...tiring day, but fun.

Sunday was less eventful. My dad came home from a business trip, and the day was plagued by rain...not the nice spring showers, but a foggy drizzle. ugh. nothing much to say about today, just that it was boring and stressful...and that my sister stole my Xbox from me and began to play my Mass Effect game, which made me kinda upset (seeing as she played better than me, kinda breaks down the soul of a guy to be beaten by a girl at video games)

Monday was, well, school, but around 3:00 it began to snow. Snow, only 3 days since our 70 degree weather! it kept snowing until around 10:00 at night, and we managed to get a two hour delay before going to school the next morning.

Tuesday started school 2 hours late, which isn't that strange seeing as my state has the worst plow service in the U.S, or so it seems. The only noticeable thing was that my friends and I got a little crazy and decided to play spin the bottle..which resulted in me having to devour an orange peel...and to be honest, those thing were not meant to be digested. at all.

And guess what we had today? 65 degree weather! Went running with my friend, something we do about 2-3 times a week (more or less), which was funny because we were running around with shorts and tee shirts around a local lake, which still had snow on the ground from Monday. Only in the Appalachian mountains can you find that kind of ridiculous weather, that's for sure. Spent the rest of the day reading on my porch and doing homework...nothing overly stressful.

Overall, its been a somewhat eventfull week, just wanted to put something out so everyone knows that I'm not dead or anything.

Heart of Courage

Well,I've been writing Ascension lately, and I have to say that its coming long nicely. I usually get my inspirations in the middle of the night (figures) and so I have half of what I've written in a journal beside my bed. I'll post what I've got once I find the time and motivation to put it on my blog...after I've edited it of course. Right now it's just a bunch of ideas stitched together with a few lines of dialog, if you known what I mean. So far, the main character, who I'm naming Archangel for the moment, has arrived on the planet's surface. There, a battle between the Intai and the Kantras (Kai versions of the Intai) are engaged in a battle taking place in the ruins of presumably one of the former civilizations since the collapse of Intai and Katras empires. What they are actually battling on is one of the ruins that houses the last 'anchor' keeping the barriers that repel the Void up, and in the conflict the essence that does so is disrupted. Only three survive: an Intai'sei by the name of Sora is one, who is shown in the prologue which has been posted earlier, though a good number of tweaks have been made to it, most notably the absence of humanity. Anyway, an unnamed Kantras also survives, along with Archangel. since Archangel manage to stumble into the battle right before the explosian, both natives believe him to be the source of both the explosion and the Void invasion that follows some time later. The writing I got ends right about the time Archangel is 'rescued' (and by rescued, i mean she decided not to rip his heart out....grudgingly) by Sora, so I don't have much beyond that. And I'm still kinda vague on how he actually arrives on the planet from way out yonder in space, but I can fix that later.

In the mean time, I found an epic instrumental/choir piece of music off Youtube that fits perfectly with the story,,sounds like it would be the background music for a movie trailer for something...But that's probably just me : )

The Planet of Fae and Kai

 

 Note: these are taken from another site that is working on some new Star Wars thing, and I'm only using them as reference points

The planet where both the Kai and Fae live on is a planet of two extremes. Though lush, it also supports a variety of environments, ranging from crumbling cities and arcane ruins from the ancient war between Fae and Kai to beautiful alpine vistas and cities built within the plains that circle the equator. To get a better grasp of the difference between Fae and Kai, pictures 1 and 2 would be mainly Fae environments, while 3 and 4 would be home to Kai creatures. 

Just wanted to post something on this planet before I put out any more writing, still looking fro a name for the planet itself too.

Ascension 1.5

First off, sorry for not posting lately. For the past week or so I've been traveling, most notably to Florida, and while I've been doing do I've been doing a bit, as in a good amount, of writing. Which for me involves writing 1-2 pages, looking over it, than starting over either because a new idea popped into my head or that the paper didn't quite show what I wanted it to. But, anyhow, I'm sticking to the original Ascension plan, the one with the Intai'sei and the Void, but I've added a few tweaks that you may want to know first. If you don't, just skip to the somewhat unfinished writing I have below it.

- The story takes place on the planet of (insert name here) that is the home of both the Intai and the Kantras. These two empires are polar opposites, for reason I'll explain later, and were among the first species ever to experience interstellar travel. However, at the peak of their empires they engaged in a brutal war, which resulted in a rip in space and time that brought along the emergance of the Void. The Void destroyed their entire empire and forced them back to their homeworld, which they surrounded with arcane barriers to keep the void out. However, the arcane barriers are slowly weakening, and the Void is steadily invading the last haven for sentient life.

- The ecosystem of this planet is rather cool, IMO, and the best part is that I made it up without outside influence. The planet is lush, ranging from forest supporting mile-high trees to treacherous marshlands to the snow-capped mountain ranges that exist at the poles. Every species on the planet is divided into two separate branches: that of the Fae and the Kai. Fae are generally more majestic and graceful and tend to have a more peaceful demeanor, even if they are predators. These creatures are generally given a more avian or feline look and feel. Kai, on the other hand, tend to be more vicious, ravenous, and tend to have a hostile feel to them, even if they are herbivores. They tend to be influenced by wolves or reptiles. Intai'sei are the Fae version of one species, while Kantras show the Kai branch of the same species.

Without further ado, here is a bit of unfinished writing.



Once, he was something. A hero, an icon, the very symbol of everything humanity stood for. It was the men and women like him that kept the empire strong, people like him who stood as paragons of virtue, maintaining stability, peace, and order even in the most tumulus times of the empire’s history. Yet none of that mattered now. His kind, vanguards of humanities’ progress through he stars, had failed, and with that failure had brought upon the utter destruction of the entire Human race.

Legion

For centuries, his mind had wandered in a trance-like bliss, a dream state that consisted of burst of colors, flashes of memory, and long, endlessly silently stretches of darkness. It was this blissful chaos that comforted him, wrapping him in a cloak of oblivion that served to ward his mind away from the outside worlds…and it was this wonderful chaos that caused him to push away that single word, the calling that would bring about the confusion and peril of waking life.

Legion

The word repeated itself, digging inside the deepest fragments of his mind, bringing upon memories of death and destruction, famine and peril, things that he had long pushed down to the darkest depths of his subconscious mind. The memories brought feelings of pain, guilt, regret. But along with the visions of war there were ones of love, too- the indescribable sensation of a first kiss, the feeling of the arms of a lover curled around him, the face of a smiling infant. Those memories were the ones he feared the most, for those visions were the ones that caused his mind to surface from the wonderful chaos of a millennia of slumber, and no matter how hard he fought, and inner instinct kept pulling him farther and farther away from the comfort of Cryo-sleep.
He began to remember thing- his long forgotten name, Deavon, his wife and child, Seera and Markos, and how he left that entire life behind to save what little there was left to love after his family’s death. That last memory brought upon even more visions: The pain and suffering it took to become immortal, one of the Legion, and the name he took upon that sacrifice that stood as everything he had lost, and everything he would avenge: Vaec. He remembered the last moments before he submerged into the unconsciousness of Cryo-sleep, how he and his fellow immortals had left their race to burn and die when all hope of survival had fled. The final memory brought along a feeling of guilt- but also one of duty, an intense, driving rage to avenge those that had fallen.
Awaken



Vaec’s eyes slowly came to focus, the inner workings of his mind still sluggish after a thousand years of dormancy within the stasis chamber. Slowly, he moved his head from side to side, automatically noting the sensation of zero gravity that he had so often experienced through his countless years of space travel during the Scourge. Scourge- the word had entered his mind almost subconsciously, yet he struggled to understand what it meant. A thousand years, perhaps more, in a dormant state of suspended animation had stripped his mind of all but the strongest of memories, memories that drifted through his mind as simple, single words or phrases, the meaning of which were unclear to him.
War
Death
Sacrifice
Corruption
Damnation
Void

Void. When humanity had first left their home system, the location of which had been lost long ago to the passage of time, they had been chasing after an alien transmission that had made its way to their home world centuries earlier but, until then, his species had lacked the means to reach it. When the time of interstellar travel did come around, however, a thousand volunteers had manned a cruiser by the name of Ascension in hopes of first contact with an alien race.
Instead, they had found the Void.
The Void was alien, unknowable, and existed in a realm far beyond that of which the human mind could comprehend. It existed as a single, ravenous entity from beyond the bounds of our plane of existence, having brought itself into our universe through a rift in space and time created by the recklessness of a former mortal species. This abomination seemed to exist only to feed off the life force of sentient life in order to fuel its own ravenous need for living energy. It spread like a plague, sweeping through entire systems and infecting the entire population within a matter of months, slowly feeding off the being’s life energy while simultaneously warping it into an abomination of death and pestilence, turning it into one of the Scourge.
Miraculously, humanity has managed to cling to survival for the first few centuries through the combined efforts of the few species of resistance still left to combat the Void and its Scourge. Within 300 years, these species, with the human race leading at the forefront, engaged in a desperate campaign to push the Void back into its demonic realm of existence through the rift in space that was once thought to be a supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy. For a thousand years they engaged in a long and bloody war, a war which would have been lost as soon as had begun if not for the Legion.
The Legion was a group men and women from every race and culture who chose to sacrifice everything that they once loved to become immortal vanguards, godlike warriors to stand at the frontlines of battle to ensure the survival of every sentient being in the galaxy, but at the cost of leaving behind everything that made them human or otherwise. But even the immortals, the Legion, began to fall to the might of the scourge. And when any hope of victory over the Void and its Scourge had forsaken the galaxy, the Legion had been put into a state of hibernation and stowed within small interstellar vessels, known as arks, and would be awakened upon the approach of a nearby world that had not yet succumbed to the Void, if only to warn the inhabitance of the terror that lay beyond the reaches of their system.


More to come