Dare to Fly

A mail made its way to my inbox, it's title? "Mirar al Cielo" (Look at the Sky).
-It feels I'm citing you a rather lot, sisvamp -
There, I was, prepaing myself to open one of those religious-ey/ mantra-ish/ spiritual mails filled with inspiring quotes and/or messages that are really deep but too adjective to put into actual practice in my everyday life.
Instead, it was an heads-up for a once-in-5-generations view of Mars from our blue (or grayish now, mebbe?) planet. Not that there's something wrong with that, I'm actually looking forward to it, but things aren't what you expect. Shut up, yes, I needed an e-mail to tell me that.

But really, I linked the title of the e-mail to this guy from Heroes (the series), West. He has the ability to fly - which one would ocnsider dangerous as there is no cover from eyesight except fluffy white things that get you wet and distance, which gets you cold enough y'know. . . die. But West said: "You'd be surprised at the number of people who don't know what's going on over their heads. It takes someone special to look up." I think it's true. I've started looking up like. . . once every three days, and it is uncommon for people to do so without any reason to. Take this one mall in front of my house, it has domes shaped like stars and white ceilings with details I'd never before noticed.
Maybe I'm trying to be special, one way or another. Trying to fly away from the flock.
Look up at the sky, I dare you.
There's something up, a big blue immensity. Simple? "Big blue immensity" I heard once that you can extend two sentences into two paragraphs if you have an avid eye for detail. Do so with your eyes, extend that blig blue immensity into a place to fly, a place like your home. A place only you can completely describe.
So, now that we've landed close to the topic, I was reviewing the scarce notes I took in my Literary Creation classes - which kinnda stunck, the professor was good and all, but perhaps a bit too erotic: I don't do erotism. I found this quote, which was both intimidating and inspiring at the same time.
"Todo ya está escrito, pero nada está escrito como tú"
"Everything's already written, but nothing's written like you"
Pardon if my translation was somewhat erratic. I've found that, although I am fluent in two tongues, translating is quite the hard task for me.
But that's it. I think that nothing is completely new and completely creative, as it is influenced by other sources, so to speak. But everyone puts their touch into their say. It might be the adjectives, the perspective, but it's a new way of putting it.
Also, if I want to be all IB-ish and scientific, people do actually rip off ideas without really meaning to, subconsciously. It's called Cryptomnesia, or sometimes subconscious plagiarism. You can get more and funnier information at: http://www.cracked.com/article_17103_p2.html
Be special, fly into the skies. Do what others do in a whole other way. Don't fly, glide. Don't look, observe. Don't consciously rip off someone else's ideas, be a cryptomnesiac. Dare to fly.

Without further ado

and not much to consciously do

The Taleteller

Pardon my rant. . .

So, apparently, blogging is not my thing. It's possible that the only real reason I'm writing this is because a very special certain someone asked me to. Well, actually that may or may not be the only reason.
So [a very overused paragraph opener, eh?] my life isn't exactly made of raisies and dainbows - I - I mean daisies and rainbows. It pretty much sucks without any real reason [again] to do so. Yet there's this little frustration building up here, and that little one over there, and a medium-sized behind and a family pack-sized frustration above, and a little more out there. . . It builds up to a huge pack of fruit frustration.
First and foremost is the fact that I am an aspiring writer. Sounds not very easy. Wanting to be an aspiring writer in your second language is harder. Wanting to beat a girl who published a book at age 19, while I'm 16, makes it even harder. Being lazy, per teenage rules, and having an over-active imagination makes it hardest.
Ever since 6th grade I've wanted to write a book, or a series. [Blacksmith's wife. . .]But ideas come and go too hastily and I grab one after I've started another and trash a third. I so want to put the batteries on myself and getta writing.
My current problem?
I'm working on a book and one long story, termed RSG. I got all my ideas for the characters and the main parts of the plotline with this one song. After another, I imagined a major scene that I'm gunna write in.
Song 1: "Savin' me" by Nikelback
Song 2: "Jai Ho" from the Slumdog Millionaire ST
So, I have the 6 main characters with names and drawn in photoshop and all. I got the ideas while still in school, I decided to wait for summer to get my book started. Indeed, I started writing it, but BAM. Out of nowhere (or possibly out of the continuous repetitions of Resident Evil movies in T.V.) I get the cravingto start a zombie survival story thingamajobber, a Zombie RSG. So now I've got two stories started, one which I want to launch professionally, another for my own pleasure.
BUT JEEZ. One would think that typing a book in Word is easy, but Word is in the computer, as is the internet. I'm ADDICTED to the internet. My focus changes from internet to Word every couple of SECONDS. I've tried to wake up at 7 in the morning, SEVEN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, to write in my book/RSG, I just can't do it, the waking up or the focusing, and I hate myself for it.
I think the book has so much potential, I don't want to have it rot there while I go around killing Chinese monsters in the MMORPG "Perfect World".

There's also the problem of inspiration/dedication. See something wrong with the past sentence? WELL I DO. It's the other way around, dedication OVER inspiration. Heed my words aspiring writers out there. Dedication is much more important than inspiration. Sure, I can relate, inspiration is an amazing thing that works wonders, without it we might not get the itch to write, but we have to be DEDICATED. WHile dedication may not give birth to the brightest paragraphs, something is actually put on paper/document, and if it's there it can be proofread and edited as much as needed. Whereas if we wait for inspiration to bloom we'll get nothing typed down between bursts of it.

See my life suckishness? This is only one problem out of those others in my head, and it took a seemingly long blog post.

Do pardon my rant readers of the blog. . . or reader. . . or no one. . .

Without further ado,

and not much to do

except write a book-oo

The Taleteller

Factoraíz

Miren esto, apenas es el segundo día en el que tengo este blog y estoy a punto de comenzar la segunda entrada. Probablemente es como los niños cuando un carrito nuevo les es dado: juegan bastante con él al inicio y dejan que acumule polvo meses - sino semanas - después.
Esta vez dejaré que el tema sea educativo y no rant-ish.

¿Quién ha oído hablar de Vladimir Propp?
Aunque no sea algo ideal, aquí esta algo que me pareció interesante:

Vladimir Propp era un folclorista ruso. Por esto, no resulta muy apantallante el hecho de que llevó a cabo estudios de gran relevancia en el arte de la narración de cuentos.
El ruso encontró que todos los cuentos en el libro de cuentos de hadas de Alexander N. Afanasev tenían las mismas constantes y puntos recurrentes en más o menos el mismo orden. Después, a Propp se le ocurrió que las partes más importantes de un cuento podían ser intercambiadas con otros cuentos y así concluyó que lo único que tenía uno que hacer era estudiar las partes más pequeñas de los cuentos. Consecuentemente, Propp propuso una nueva unidad para el cuento, a la que llamó función y así encontró 31 funciones.
Así, Propp se dedicó al análisis de los componentes que forman un cuento para descubrir sus estructuras básicas. Propp propuso que detrás de cada argumento hay siempre una serie de razones que son la base de la historia que se cuenta, que los temas variaban y diferenciaban unos de otros, pero que los motivos, las funciones, no, por eso ellos serían fundamentales, mientras que los temas solo serían secundarios.

Aquí presento las 31 funciones que propuso Vladimir Propp (valga la redundancia en la mayoría):
1. Alejamiento. Uno de los miembros de la familia se aleja.
2. Prohibición. Recae una prohibición sobre el héroe.
3. Transgresión. La prohibición es transgredida.
4. Conocimiento. El antagonista entra en contacto con el héroe.
5. Información. El antagonista recibe información sobre la víctima.
6. Engaño. El antagonista engaña al héroe para apoderarse de él o de sus bienes.
7. Complicidad. La víctima es engañada y ayuda así a su agresor a su pesar.
8. Fechoría. El antagonista causa algún perjuicio a uno de los miembros de la familia.
9. Mediación. La fechoría es hecha pública, se le formula al héroe una petición u orden, se le permite o se le obliga a marchar.
10. Aceptación. El héroe decide partir.
11. Partida. El héroe se marcha.
12. Prueba. El donante somete al héroe a una prueba que le prepara para la recepción de una ayuda mágica.
13. Reacción del héroe. El héroe supera o falla la prueba.
14. Regalo. El héroe recibe un objeto mágico.
15. Viaje. El héroe es conducido a otro reino, donde se halla el objeto de su búsqueda.
16. Lucha. El héroe y su antagonista se enfrentan en combate directo.
17. Marca. El héroe queda marcado.
18. Victoria. El héroe derrota al antagonista.
19. Enmienda. La fechoría inicial es reparada.
20. Regreso. El héroe vuelve a casa.
21. Persecución. El héroe es perseguido.
22. Socorro. El héroe es auxiliado.
23. Regreso de incógnito. El héroe regresa, a su casa o a otro reino, sin ser reconocido.
24. Fingimiento. Un falso héroe reivindica los logros que no le corresponden.
25. Tarea difícil. Se propone al héroe una difícil misión.
26. Cumplimiento. El héroe lleva a cabo la difícil misión.
27. Reconocimiento. El héroe es reconocido
28. Desenmascaramiento. El falso queda en evidencia.
29. Transfiguración. El héroe recibe una nueva apariencia.
30. Castigo. El antagonista es castigado.
31. Boda. El héroe se casa y asciende al trono.

Propp también propuso que los personajes que llevan a cabo las funciones se podían dividir en siete tipos:
1. El antagonista que combate contra el héroe
2. El donante prepara al héroe o le da algún objeto.
3. El auxiliar, mágico o no, ayuda al héroe en su travesía.
4. La princesa y/o el padre ayudan al héroe en tareas que él no puede hacer en su travesía.
5. El mandatario es quien manda al protagonista en su aventura.
6. El héroe es el protagonista, a quien rodean las acciones de los otros personajes.
7. El falso héroe (antihero) toma el crédito de las acciones del héroe

Estos roles pueden ser ocupados por varios personajes, no están limitados a una sola persona.

Espero que esta entrada no solo les haya sacado bostezos, sino que también les haya dado algo para entretener su mente.

Sin más que decir

Y nada por hacer

The Taleteller

Spinning Jennies

As I sit around thinking why the hell my TV screen was showing Dragon Ball and its steroid-abusing cast and ponder about what kind of compliment 'You're like a fortune cookie' is, my mind continues to protest and raise one question: "Why are you doing this?"
Indeed, why I am? What'll become of this blog? On one hand, I could take it seriously and do something of it; yet on the other, more probable one, is that I'll have it in a hidden corner of my mind, reminding me that it's there, that I need to write in it, that I cannot leave it as a half-done project. A failed sense of responsibility backed up by nothing but guilt.

But even if I muster enough inniciative to write frequently enough, I'd need what every blogger has: a topic. To choose a subject I'd have to decide whether or not I'll write actual, informative information in here; whether or not I'll write mundanities, thoughts and lesser details of the society we all live in.

I refuse to introduce myself. I come here with the assurance of anonymity, that no one will be sure who the person behinds these writs is. It's the appealing sense of being the shadow in the corner, the knight clad in black. Perhaps it'll slip my mind, hopefully not. However, I do need to inform you that I am bilingual and you can expect the following entries to be written, if any, will be either in English, Spanish or Spanglish.

Without further ado

...and not much to do

Have a good one.

The Taleteller