One year ago on this very day, May 29th 2012, I started my blog.
WOW.
I have 11 pages of posts.
WOW.
And, actually, my website was started May 25th 2012, my blog (here) was one year ago today.
WOW.

I am HYPERVENTILATING!!!!!!!!!
(blink blink)
WOW.
I have so many memories - memories of typing up my first post - memories of first starting my blog - memories of clambering ideas to form my first blog post.
Granted, most of my older posts hardly made sense.  But still, they count for something, no?

I was sitting on an old tracker, mowing around a spot of garden in my backyard, the sun was fading behind the trees, the creek was just to my left, followed by the church...
Memories bring back a lot of emotions.  Some are good, some are bad.  I always feel nostalgia, though.  It's kinda funny.

And, as celebration of one year, I'm having another contest.  This one, however, will have a reward.  Tomorrow morning... I shall be announcing something awesome.  You can count on it.

~The WordWeaver
 
Jacob glared at his grandfather, hardly able to control his ranging anger.  His dark hair hung loosely around his clenched and hardened face, dancing in his eyesight.  His lip curled in anger, his grandfather Martin was radically strict.

      “Why?” Jacob asked between clenched teeth, his voice wavering on the brink of an outburst.

      Martin replied coolly, “I now what you did last time you went down to the village.  I won’t have you drunk again.  You’re just a boy, and yet shot one of the villager’s horses.”

      Jacob’s face crunched up.  “Don’t call me a boy.  I am eighteen, old enough to leave this wretched place.  Besides, it wasn’t just me.”

      His grandfather remained his set tone of voice.  “You are still young and have much to learn before you do anything on your own.  I am responsible for you since your parents died, and I will not let you go because of your foolish thoughts.  You were with the boys who shot the horse-”

      “Don’t say anything about them!”  Interrupted Jacob flooding his anger.  “This isn’t about them, it wasn’t me who shot the horse!”

      “Aye, but you gave my gun to them, to have a little sport.”  Countered Martin.

      Jacob stomped his boot against the oak floor, flinging himself out of the seat and crashing out the back door to chop wood.  Martin, his grandfather, sighed despairingly, shaking and rubbing his head.  His old, yet strong frame bent over the fireplace heavier.  It was always cold in the Alps, and the winter of 1777 was no exception.

      When night drifted closer, the meal was warmed physically yet remained icy; the tension rising between Jacob and his grandfather.  They said nothing and gulped down the soup as silent as dead men.  Even as Jacob lay in his bed he reviewed the heated argument with his grandfather, he remembered it as if it was happening as he thought.  What’s the problem with going down to the village, being with friends and having a little fun?  I paid the villager back for his horse.  He paused in his thoughts.  “I’m an adult,” he said in a whisper to himself, “I shouldn’t be bullied like a child by an old man who’s loosing his mind!”

      He ground his teeth.  But slowly he loosened them as his mind wandered to other things.  He slowly sat up in his bed and grabbed his boots.  Taking tentative barefooted steps, Jacob crept out his tiny quarters into the main room of the cabin.  He passed the smoldering fire, where three chairs sat, and slipped on his coat and slid open the door.  A gust of wind blew in carrying snowflakes with it.  He dashed out, quietly slipping his boots on, quickly plodding forward into the deep drifts of snow.

      A sliver of the European moon shined dimly, high up in the inky star filled sky.  Wind tore at Jacob and snow caked his body like the rainy season’s mud, yet also numbing his exposed hands and face.  He tugged his coat closer, but it did little to no good and the freezing cold air swept in.  Thirty minutes passed as Jacob tramped on through the tall pine trees.  But Jacob became uneasy as a thick blizzard settled on the peaks of the mountain.  The wet, dreary feeling he should have reached the village settled on him like an army besieging a castle.

      His heart quickened, he spun in circles, looking back to where he had come from.  The tracks led back a several yards, he quickly began to struggle for them, slipping and landing in the knee deep snow.  His face seemingly burnt in the burial of the white powder.  He staggered up, sinking in the snow ever more.  At last, he stood, but the tracks, put down only moments before, we hidden in the blinding white sea.

       Jacob turned to his left in panic to a low wall of rocks dimly seeable through the weather.  However, in the blinding flurry of snow he could not climb pile of rocks, therefore he stumbled away, defeated and worried, down another possible path.

      Within moments, Jacob could no longer see the hand in front of him, the darkness combined with the blizzard made him unsure of anything, and making matters worse, the moon slipped behind a cloud, and what little reflection that came from the glistening snow was shot dead.

      He gasped, sliding deep into the mounting three foot snow covering.  Jacob lifted himself up feebly and began trudging in any direction he could find passable.  His boot caught on an object, beckoning him to cease his point less staggering.  The lad of eighteen heeded the call and sat down, feeling the tear running down his numb cheek turn to ice.  “What have I done!”  Another burst of tears followed and he fell limp to the ground.

Martin sat up in his bed.  He heard the door open, with a gust of wind and snow, then finally close.  Sudden realization struck him.  “Jacob,”  he muttered.  Dashing around the house Martin got ready to go out, but it was ten minutes later before he set foot outside his door and into the windy Alps.  Snow beat upon him as he tried desperately to find Jacob’s trail.  He would sacrifice his own life if he could find Jacob, they were family, but that was the least he could say.  Jacob couldn’t care less for him, however Martin couldn’t care more for Jacob.

      The weather began to become more severe as Martin searched.  “Jacob . . . Jacob . . . Where are you!?”  shouted Martin.  The only response was a howl.

A young wolf skittered across a cliff ridge lined with pines.  Behind and in front of him were four or five of the other gray furred animals.  Their fur protected them from the harsh bite of the cold.  The bouncing of their gray manes increased as the scent became stronger.  One or two wolves howled as they ran, the echo ricocheting around the valley.

      The young wolf was hungry for easy prey.  The whole pack had been hard pressed for food in the recent months, these were also the very coldest months of the year.  At last the young wolf smelled the scent of a man.  As they came closer they could tell that he was near death.

      The pack of wolves reached a twenty foot drop into a bunch of trees.  They all leaped down and scrounged around until they found the dying man.  But as they padded towards the man a shout came from behind and an old gray bearded man leaped out from behind a pine with a walking stick.  The wolves turned towards him and several pounced.

      Or at least they thought they did.  The old man had dodged far quicker than they had expected.  The pack leader, the largest of the wolves and with a huge gray and black mane, leaped at the old man.  The old man ducked and swung his stick upwards, crashing it against the wolfs chest.

      The wolf yelped and sprung back.  The old man threatened to attack another wolf and it began to withdraw.  Seeing that his tactics were working, the old man made threatening moves toward each of the wolves.  They all began to withdraw without a fight.  But then the young wolf leaped from behind the old man.  It had crept around him when he was not watching.

      The claws of the wolf dug into the old mans back and the bite of the wolfs teeth sunk into his right shoulder.  The old man fell on his back, with the wolf underneath him.  With his left hand the man grasped his stick that had left his hand as the wolf bit into his shoulder.  Then he swung the stick around and it came crashing down on the wolf’s head.

      The young wolf yelped and let go, its snout bleeding profusely, and staining the white glistening snow red.  The trounced young wolf struggled back into the dark woods to follow its pack away from the old fighter.

      As soon as the danger of wolves was gone the old man hustled over to the limp body in the snow.  He lifted the body and slowly trudged back toward where he had come.  Tracing his foot prints that were already being covered up by snow.

Jacob slowly opened his eyes.  He heard the crackling of the fire outside the small room e was in and the footsteps outside his door.  An old man was revealed to Jacob as the door swung open.  Jacob found that a slight smile appeared on his face.  Martin was standing there.  “You saved me didn’t you?”  asked Jacob.

      Martin nodded.

      “How?” asked Jacob.

      “I saw a pack of wolves, I suspected they were following your trail.  Recently they seem to have been going after even live humans.  And I was right that they were following you.  It has saved your life.”

      Jacob smiled.  “I know,”  Jacob paused and sighed.  “Please forgive me, I now see that you have always been trying to care for me.”

 
I am planning on having a contest on my blog again - but this is not it.  Instead, I entered a contest.

By Midnight, June 1 6 (yes, 2013), I have to write an audio drama script less than 30 minutes long.  The first place winner will have his/her script made into an audio drama by the directors of Jonathan Park.  That would be amazing - if I could win first place.

Still, this isn't just about winning the contest.  I have recently been interested in script writing (audio drama script writing, in particular), so this was a good opportunity.

I have the first act of my script planned out - from there, though, I still need to do major work.  I've been researching the web a LOT, but I haven't found any physical evidence that God created the world in 6 24 hour spans (the seventh, of course, being God resting).  If you know of any good facts, I would greatly appreciate a comment.

This contest, hosted by CreationWorks,  has only 25 slots, so if you want to compete head on over there immediately!  As a note, it's only open to homeschoolers between the ages 12 to 18.  Pretty limited audience, but one I fit into perfectly.


While I'm on the topic of audio dramas, I've been listening to a great many of them.  Adventures in Odyssey, Down Gilead Lane, and on.  A new radio drama series that just came out (and is excellent quality for a starting series), is the Brinkman Adventures.  Based on true events, and a Christian message in each episode, it's hardly someting you can turn down.  The website is brinkmanadventures.com.


~The WordWeaver
 
*Alert, Spoilers Following*

I watched The Hobbit quite a while ago now, and I've only just realized... I didn't review it.  Fatal mistake.  But oh well.

The Hobbit:  And Unexpected Journey could have been a lot better.
And it could have been a lot worse.  It wasn't a perfect movie, it wasn't a bad one though.  Here's how I came up with that surprising (and unexpected, wot?) revelation.

First, Character Development.


For a movie, The Hobbit:  And Unexpected Journey had amazing Characterization.  Maybe a little rough, but still, very good.  Delving into the dwarves' characters was always something I had wanted from the book, and I was pleased to see that it showed through into the movie, at least.  I'm not meaning Thorin, though, he had good character development.  I'm talking about Ori, Bombur, you know, the dwarves you only get the sight of the camera when they're pulling off witty jokes that can often get lost between stage and living room TV.  Those are the characters I was glad to see more about.

It might be to early to say, but I think they were representing Thorin well.  His rash, vengeful behavior was shown it several places with him either insulting Bilbo and going after Azog as the tree that they all hang from burned...

I will have to say, though, that Bilbo wasn't nearly as well done.  His slowly changing was there, and it looked good, but the reasons for him changing weren't.  I couldn't really understand why he ran off after the dwarves in the movie, while in the book I could.

And mainly, I couldn't understand why he leaped out to save Thorin as they battled Azog.  That was my main difficulty with Bilbo.   Still, I liked how he handled some of the things, particularly in Gollum's cave.  It was a lot like how I imagined it.  (Which thus immediately gives it an extra star...)

Second, Plot.

While Peter Jackson embellished on the book some, using quite a few things from the Lord of the Rings appendixes and other Middle-Earth histories, he stuck fairly close to the plot.  A 3 hour movie based on a couple hundred page book obviously needs some fluffing up (heh, let alone a 9 hour trilogy...), and thus the movie (and the plot) seemed a bit drawn out.  Including Radagast the Brown was a great excitement for me - and currently, Radagast is my favorite character from the movie.

So a bit fluffed up-ness and drawn out-ness didn't hurt the movie to bad, and Peter Jackson's editions are still to be seen in full.  There was little from the book that was actually cut, which I think is preferable.  And lastly, the plot moves in a way that you can continue with it, and yet also look back to the years past.  After the intro clip you are followed up with other little snippets of the past.  For instance, I LOVED the part that flashed back to Thorin winning his surname, Oakenshield (but why'd they have him pick up the exact same branch when he was fighting Azog the second time???)
Also, the foreshadowing was a good thing to see.  Makes me want to watch the Lord of the Rings again to see what happens...


Third, From Book To Movie

The Hobbit always had a fairy-tale, child-friendly feel to it.  And that's how it was supposed to be.  Tolkien himself said it was written at first to entertain his children.  But on The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey, that fairy-tale feel is completely thrown away and a new epic fantasy one is replaced in its gap.  I didn't mind that too much, I enjoyed seeing it in a grander scale.

See Bilbo on the cover of the Hobbit?  Quite grim.  Eh... that's not how I imagined Hobbits who are late for dinner (though they might get that way if you make them REALLY late for dinner...).Bilbo's determined-ness to help the dwarves seemed a little out of place near the end, but it can be understood.

There was also quite a bit of fighting, that, while most of it happened in the book, wasn't as major as it was made to be in the movie.
And the dwarves seemed invincible (that was a big downer) (just thought I'd throw that in).

As for the rest of the movie, I think changing it from fairy-tale to epic fantasy was a hard task, but well done in the end.  At first, I was reluctant, but I came around.

Fourth, The Characters (Yes, this is different from Character Development)

The characters were very memorable.  I could ring their names off in a list pretty fast (though that might not be due to the movie...).  Nonetheless, I was speaking of the movie when I said they were memorable.  Ori, Bombur, and the occasional dwarf took the main role of comedians and did it well.  A couple what might you call 'unmannerly' jokes passed about, particularly near the beginning, but they weren't all the bad.

Thorin and Balin, perhaps the two most developed dwarves, were particularly memorable.
I still can tell you the difference between Kili and Fili (though I liked them from the book, so it was definite I would pick out the difference between them in the movie).
Dwalin and Balin's unforgettable meeting had me rolling with laughter for a while.

~

In the end, I'll give The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey a 7.1 out of 10 (I believe that's what I gave Toy Story 3.  I know, I know, I'm a bad person for rating them the same. :P)

~The WordWeaver
"I am going to seek the only sensible person's council in this group!"
"And who would that be?"
"Myself!"
 
Writing the beginning of a chapter or page is fairly hard, I'm sure you can all agree.  But writing beyond that gets easier.

Or, at least, until about 15,000 words into a novel.  It almost always starts there for me.  And continues up until about the ending 10,000 or so words.  Be assured that when I tell you those couple thousand words stuck there and aren't moving, it isn't fun.

Specifically, I'm talking about a novel here.  But it happens in short stories.  About a third of the way through I get killed - impaled by the unneeded disasters that plague me.

Midst all the arduous, long-suffering times that you shall pass though, there's a hope.  A lot of hope.  It's a bit like a key.

The number one key is most certainly persistence.

Persistence might not make life easier that very moment, but it will assure you're going to have a finished novel.

Let me delve a little deeper into the simple word of Persistence.

Persistence isn't getting up and writing a few soggy words.

Persistence is enjoying writing - about your characters.

At least, that's the only kind of persistence that will work.  If you write to write, it's not going to get you anywhere.  If you write because you need to write, you'll get somewhere (though it might not be as fast as modern-day life forms want...).

"I want persistence - and I want it now."
I want patience - and I want it now."

Just like patience, persistence won't be delivered to your door within 24 hours after you order it off of Amazon.

Persistence is something you have to be persistent about.... *duh* (now I'm going in circles, right?)

Back to the 'needing to write' thing.  If you don't have a 'burning in your heart' to write, you might not get very far, but it doesn't mean you're sealed off from being a successful writer at all.  Persistence is the key.

Persistence.  Perseverance, determination, diligence, pushiness, resolution - the opposite of feebleness.

You can't be weak-hearted.  Sure, there's going to be a lot of troubles along the way, it won't be easy.

But if you want to write that much - there's nothing that can stop you.  Believe in yourself, because it all comes down to you.

Do you really want to write something that can be published?  Believing in yourself sounds easy.  It's not.  But it will give you persistence, and it will give your very own work of writing.

~The WordWeaver
 
Pixar and Dreamworks are two amazing animation film makers.  I, recently, have been watching quite a few of Pixar's movies.  I watched Toy Story 3 (and posted about it) several months ago now, and I can truthfully say that I'm still a little awed at how well Pixar pulled it off.  The characters were so memorable - SO memorable.  For me, that was my favorite Pixar movie.

Also, just a couple months before Toy Story 3, (making it probably about 6 months ago) I watched one of Dreamwork's finest.  Actually, I think it was Dreamwork's best.  How To Train Your Dragon.  That was one awesome movie.  A bit of crude humor, but still, awesome.  It was quite entertaining and mildly bittersweet at the end.  Very memorable characters as well.

But which was better?  Well, I can't say whether Pixar or Dreamworks is 'better' (in truth, I don't think very many could actually come up with which is better, it's all a matter of opinion, really), but I can say which I like better.

Oh, wait, I can't even say that.  You see, How To Train Your Dragon and Shrek 1 & 2 were the only movies I saw by Dreamworks, and I've seen a lot more Pixars so that wouldn't work.

Shrek 1 and 2, while humorous at times, and entertaining as well kind of just went flat.  All they did was entertain - they didn't do anything else - meaning, while it was interesting to watch, I soon forgot about it.  How To Train Your Dragon, on the other hand... wow, that left a deep impression for a while.

And Toy Story 3 did as well.  Of all the other Pixar movies I've watched (Toy Story 1, 2, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Cars 1, the Incredibles, Wall E, Ratatouille,) Toy Story 3 exceeded them all.  Cars 1... I didn't like that very much at all - and I was the age they were targeting... to me specifically, that was  a fail on Pixar's part, but lots of other kids liked it.  However, Cars 2 went down the drain.  The other two Toy Stories just weren't quite the same (though I admit, it's been a few years since I saw them).  And Wall E, which I just viewed this very night again wasn't up to Pixar's standards.  Well, maybe it was - quality wise, sure.  But it had no where's near the impact as Toy Story 3.

When it comes to it, all shall be revealed and I shall be forced to spill my own blood...
(Dramatic effect?  Sound Guys?  Special Effect Animators?  Where are you?  You just spoiled my line!)

Anyway, what I mean by that is that I regretfully come to the conclusion that Toy Story 3 was a little better than How To Train Your Dragon, but not by much.

Moving on.  You knew this post wasn't just about Pixar and Dreamworks, right?  We're talking about every movie ever made!  Just kidding.  How about Star Wars next?

The original trilogy was alright, but seeing as I'm only just fringing into my teen years, I'm expecting blurring fast lightsabers, stunning effects, flashing lights... not slow combat and 1800's movie-quality.

Hm... maybe I put that WAY to drastically.  I sort of liked the original trilogy, though not at the first times I'd watched it.  Science Fiction didn't appeal to me at that time.

When I watched the Prequel trilogy, though, I liked that.  Still, I didn't care for Sci-Fi a whole lot, and its awesomeness only sank in until years later.

Now that the Star Wars:  The Clone Wars TV series has stopped, I'm starting to watch some of the episodes (yeah, that's how things work most of the time...).  I like it quite a bit, TV series's are good (I don't know how else to put it so I'll just leave it there).

And now, we come to the Sequel Trilogy of Star Wars - made by Disney.  And instead of George Lucas directing Episode VII, it will be... J.J. Abrams, director of Star Trek.

*Sigh* I always liked Star Wars better than Star Trek.  Star Trek "weirded me out" as you might say.  It was just rather creepy, at least, of the Star Trek movies I've watched.

But I'll be waiting expectantly for the next three Star Wars movies.  They will be following the events of the Return of the Jedi, which I've been reading a good deal about recently.

And the last movie I'm going to ramble about is... The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey!

I can't believe I didn't post about this when I first watched it.  Bad self *wags finger*.

Anyway.  I liked The Hobbit a lot, Peter Jackson did a great job in directing.  I have a couple complaints though.  Azog?  Really!?  WHY'D YOU HAVE TO BRING HIM BACK!?!?  Bolg, Azog's son actually does appear in the Hobbit.  It would make more sense if 'the pale orc' had been Bolg instead of Azog anyway.  Just because.  I like middle-earth and it's angering to see people messing with Tolkien's work.

Still, I have some things I want to point out specifically that I really enjoyed.  Radagast was AWESOME!  I know he wasn't in the book, only mentioned, but he was still my favorite character from the movie.  The Rabbits of Radagast were totally awesome, and that poor little mole he saved...

I don't know how much Peter Jackson will expand, because with Desolation of Smaug's sneak peak it looks as if there will be a lot, but I'm content for now.  Just so long as he doesn't go overboard like some people have.  (Think Narnia.  Prince Caspian was an absolute disaster, though, honestly, I still liked it.)

Random Fact:  Star backwards spells Rats.  Star reminds me of Star Wars and Rats remind me of Ratatouille.  Can you tell I'm in a movie-mood today?

~The WordWeaver
 
I was tagged again by Leilani Sunblade!  This is the tag to post 10 things about myself (no, I don't mind doing it again).  So here goes.

1.  At the moment I am writing a pirate story.  It's totally AWESOME.  But... I haven't figured out a whole lot of the plot.  WHY DOES THAT ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME!?!?!?  I say I outline my things before writing them... and I try to... but I don't.  For some reason.
2.  I write children's stories.
3.  I write teen's stories.
4.  I think children's stories are really interesting.  Why?  Because the good ones have meaning in the simplest of ways.  Which is very, very good.  (To put it extremely bluntly).
5.  I've read The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Inheritance Cycle, Beowulf (well, not in the original language, but it still counts, right?), The Chronicles of Narnia, The Red Keep (pretty good book there! :), Barry the Bravest Saint Bernard (little kid's book, I know, but it was one of the books that got me to start writing.  Heroism, yes, that was one of the books that introduced me to TRUE heroism.  The books fore mentioned, except Narnia and The Hobbit, were over my head in complexity at the time I first read them.), Robinson Crusoe, Redwall, The Bellmaker, The Children of Hurin, The Curse of the Spider King, Venom and Song, The Door Within Trilogy (speaking of the trilogy, I have an exciting post about that to be up tomorrow, so check back! :D), et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
6.  My favorite book is probably The Hobbit.
7.  The Inheritance Cycle 'weirded me out' at times.
8.  "Do Cats Have Nightmares?"  Is a story I'm writing for some reason... I had inspiration last night and decided to start writing it.  Don't ask me why.
9.  My name starts with an R, ends with a T and my first and last name initials are R and T.
10.  I think fireworks are cool... but way overpriced.