friending

Making a Friend

        I made a friend at state speech today. It was really a great feeling. For time purposes, I shall now give you the tale in brief. Basically, I was waiting to go in to do my storytelling, and another girl was too, and she asked what my story was, and I told her it was from the Lord of the Rings and it was about Elves and she just looked at me in awe, which made me feel really good. Her storytelling was right before mine and she watched mine though I really couldn't watch hers, unfortunately. But after she watched mine, she came out in the hall and actually hugged me and told me she was sure I'd go to all state (as it turned out I got two II's and a I, which, to get to all state, you basically have to not only get all I's but also have the special reccomendation of the judges) but anyways she was really nice and supportive. We hung out and chatted a little more later. She was a lot of fun and she was really big on hugs, which was nice. It also reminded and re-motivated me to make a facebook so I can friend her. I shall do that at some point. 

     Beyond the violet mist today, we cherished the happy presence of a new friend. :)

Returning

        On the bus ride home from speech, I have been writing about my day in my notebook. It's not a journal, per say, but more just an attempt to remember things from the day that I found worth note. It has been a good day and I want to capture some of these feelings, in graphite strewn across paper, to look back on some nostalgic day, and even to concrete them in my head. Despite the best efforts of "daylight saving's time", the light has been steadily dimming and at some point, ten minutes ago or so, I decided the blue evening light was becoming deep enough to make writing challenging, and so I pulled my surprisingly utile miniature flashlight from my purse, and I hold the little pink metal tube in my left hand now, its soft, somewhat weak golden glow smoothly laid upon my paper, where I continue to scratch down memories. Someone mentions that we're almost to school, and looking up I see it is true, so I cut off mid-story, scrawling "bus draws nigh school must pack" in the middle of my sentence before snapping off my little golden light, folding closed my black and white patterned notebook with blue and purple flowers swirled about its design, and guiding my various scattered things into my bulging bag, which I have fondly referred to as my 'bindle' since we read Of Mice and Of Men in American Literature class some time back. (I learned that a bindle is like a pack a traveller makes of a blanket and sometimes a pillow rolled up with things stuffed in it. Though I only roll my pillow inside my blanket and stuff it along with my other things into a bag, I still like the term. It was about the only good thing to come out of that depressing book.) As the bus pulls to a stop in front of the mostly darkened school, I pull on my overcoat and shrug my bindle up, first onto my shoulder and then resigning myself to the fact that my bindle wants to sit down on my elbow instead and will not be reasoned with. I double-check behind myself that I have not left anything on my seat as I will probably never be on this bus again, and then I join the end of the line filing off of the bus. I murmur something to the lines of "thanks" to the bus driver and then stand on the sidewalk in the unfortunately wintery air which dances with a cold evening breeze and look around the parking lot for my mom. She has not arrived yet and so I proceed towards the deserted school with not quite half of the group that rode the bus back.
        There is a little general conversation with the other kids waiting about things like how they did and how tired we are. Once they leave I converse with my teacher and speech coach, who stays to wait until I go. The school's dark, eerie emptiness prompts me to mention sensational rumors of hauntings in a school nearby the one I attended before we moved. My teacher mentions her hopes for what dinner her husband will be making. Just as I am calling my mom's cell phone, she pulls up, and I tell her I summoned her by calling. My teacher laughs and comments on the perfect timing. My mom apologizes for being late, and we all wish one another good nights. I toss my rather large bindle in the back seat of the car and hop in the front. I talk about many things, not least of which is my great fatigue, and Mom talks about things she watched at speech that I didn't and things she did later with Grandma. We discuss dinner; Mom suggests the small pizza place in the downtown. Oddly, I note, I'm not exceedngly hungry, despite the fact that it is after 7:30 (as supporters of daylight's savings time would have us believe, that is) and I had a relitively early lunch. I suppose it is because of the snacks I enjoyed that afternoon.
        As we pull up to the main stretch of downtown, we notice it is already blocked off for the St. Patrick's day partying. We pull down a sidestreet and park there and begin walking towards the little pizza place. I decided to leave my heavy overcoat in the car because I was hot and I thought surely the fleece sweater, leather jacket, and shawl I am wearing under it will be plenty, but as we walk the breeze is colder than I had anticipated and I wish I hadn't left it in the car. There are already people bedecked in various green apparel ambling about the streets, most of whom appear to be in some varying degree of drunkenness. We go into the small pizza place, which never seems to be busy. I decide to get pasta, despite the fact that it is a pizza place. Typically, I would also get a soda, but as I've been consuming a great variety of mostly sugary things all day, I don't. My pasta is fairly good. I tell Mom among other things about a beautiful, poignant musical theatre I saw, which started out seeming like this sweet, lighthearted song about a girl meeting a guy and falling in love and then getting married, and then gave little glimpses of their lives together, but suddenly and abruptly turned to be about 9/11 and her husband dying in a flash, and I think nearly everyone, audience and singer alike, was wiping their eyes by the end of it. I also talk about how tired I am. As we leave the pizza place, I am cold again in the breeze, though while in the restaurant I had gotten warm enough to remove all three of my coat-type coverings (though really my shawl hardly counts as one). We see a lovely patch of vomit on the sidewalk near a bar. "You know it's St. Patrick's day weekend when..." I comment. We avoid it and head back to the car.
        On the drive home, I nap. It feels wonderful and I wish I could just continue 'til morning, but suddenly I am awakened as we are home. I lumber into the house. I would very much like to just get ready for and go to bed, but I still have blog posts to do. I do change into my pajamas first, though. It feels good to take off my traveling clothes, which is what I have been mentally referring to my abnormally abundant layers of coats as, and yet I am filled with the satisfaction of a good, full day. It was truly a full day, and a very good one, too. I saw many good performances, had the opportunity to perform, didn't have any bad incidents, and even made a friend, as described in the post after this one. I love the full days of speech and the beautiful... speech-ness with which they are filled. There is such a joy to them, and a warm, community feeling at the contest. The many pieces one may watch are diverse and wonderful, especially at state. It is a fulfilling and colorful day, and it is made even better when one gets to perform, to luxuriously express those stories on which one has been working for so long and which one knows inside out, to savor each beautiful word as it is precisely formed by one's lips. And so as I put away my coats I feel they have been used for an adventure and travelled a great distance as they are meant to, and at the same time it is a beautifully relaxing feeling to don my comfy pajamas, picking up my laptop and diving beneath my soft blankets to write my blogs with as much speed as I can manage so that I can, after brushing my teeth and whatall, I suppose, return here to finally slip into the sweet sleep that has been calling me, in all honesty for most of the day.
        We beyond the violet mist offer you all this tale of our return from another glorious day of the display of the art of the carefully crafted spoken word.

Insane Music

Insanity
and awesome songs about it :)

    We were on the subject of music in Creative Writing today, and as I thought about what song I would like to be singing in that moment, I realized that many (though not all, I should note) of my favorite songs, especially those I like to sing aloud, seemed to center on a common theme: insanity. Then, when I started thinking about songs about insanity, I thought of even more good songs. And then I thought, hey, this could be a blog post. And so, this is a blog post about songs about insanity, some of which I thought of singing in class today in CW while everyone else was singing with the happy atmosphere of a Friday afternoon, despite the fact that they were mostly singing atrocious country songs. Sorry, I can't help it, I just despise the majority of the country songs people are into these days. I don't like most of the songs in the first place, and then they play them over and over again, and they play them on the bus and in art class and everywhere and it's just like grrrr.... and they just get stuck in your head all the time! So annoying. So, no country songs on this list. Just epicness and insanity :)All of these are songs that I love and can play over and over, and that I'm actually happy to have stuck in my head. 

from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77n1mDf6Iqo 
I decided to kick things off with this one, mostly because I actually did sing it in school. You see, for drama class last semester, we used to have these assignments called, "Don't be boring"s. The basic premise was that one had to get up in front of the class and do something, anything, that was not boring. For my first one, I choreographed and performed a short solo lyrical style dance to "Superman" by Five for Fighting, which we had heard the other day in our literature class because our teacher was cleverly relating the song to the tale of Icarus and Daedalus, as she was talking about the many interpretations of literature. I heard it and immediately thought it was beautiful and perfect to dance to, and so when I heard about the DBB's (short for don't be boring's), I quickly resolved to do a dance to it. In hindsight, I think I might rather have danced to "I'll follow you" by Shinedown, a song I have liked for longer and have long thought of choreographing a dance to, but dancing to Superman was nice too. 
Then, for the second DBB, I sang this song. It was pretty epic, singing this song in front of my class. I really did get into it, swinging my hair around and dancing a little (or more than a little) and singing with my whole heart even though I couldn't shove a pitch into a bucket and carry it from a foreign dimension to myself (an attempted quirky slant on the phrase "I can't carry a tune in a bucket"). I even did the insane laugh that first occurs at 1:50. It was pretty epic. By the way, if you think this version of the song cuts off abruptly, that's because "Brain Damage" is almost always played with "Eclipse" immediately after it, and they're designed to flow into one another, though they are two distinct songs. I chose not to do Eclipse in my DBB mostly because I don't really know the lyrics to that one like I know the lyrics to Brain Damage. Brain Damage really does have very clever lyrics, like the part about the paper holding the lunatics' folded faces to the floor, and it takes you a moment to realize that he's talking about news stories, or at least it did me. I don't find this song to be a story, truly, so much as a series of images pertaining to the theme of insanity. It's also got a beautiful, quirky, wonderfully insane sound to it--it's hard to pin down how and why, but it just sounds crazy, just with the way it is. And I mean, the crazy laugh is simply superb, not just at being crazy, but at adding to the whole wonderful crazy feel of the song. It's a pretty thorough analysis of insanity. I'll see you on the dark side of the moon, my friends.

from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX4yks_R_FU
One thing I really love about this song is how, from the very first notes, it has such a great energy to it. You will probably have to adjust your volume between these two songs, or at least I did, since "Brain Damage" is significantly quieter than it, but both are extremely good songs. It's a very peppy song, and very fun for we crazy people ;) It's also got this pride to it, almost like "Yeah, that's right, I am crazy. Jealous?". "I like crossing the line, and slowly losing my mind. Are you okay? 'Cause I feel fine! Maybe it's me, I'm just crazy." And maybe I like that. The song just says, I'm crazy and I love to be. It's got this real happiness  and it's so enthusiastic about being crazy. It's easy to get swept up in this song and it's very singable and fun. I actually just found it not all that long ago on youtube, where I was listening to other Shinedown songs I already knew, and I happened across this song, and it pretty quickly became one of my top insanity songs. It's a more modern song than a lot of the songs on my list, but I really like it. It just says "proud to be crazy" all over it :)
Then, there's also "the Sound of Madness" by Shinedown, which I really thought about putting on this list, but ironically, to me, that one is less about being crazy, though the title seems to indicate otherwise. It's a good song, too, though.

from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqUa_G1h3pw
In this song, madness is kind of more like a tangent than the main theme, but I mean, it is titled "Lunatic Fringe", after all. I also thought it proper to include it being as it was actually the first song that came to my mind in class on Friday, partly since I'd already been listening to it earlier that day. It even sounds kind of crazy, especially the opening part and then how it transitions into the main part. And the main part as a whole sounds awesome and crazy. It's kind of a paranoid sounding song, a little, and you can imagine it being the ramblings of a mad man, though I don't know what the actual meaning of the song is. But it says lunatic over and over, so it must be about insanity, am I right? And you've got to love that "Uh-oh-oh-uh-oh" part, and how you just have to head bang to it, at least a little. It's just got such a power behind it. I almost feel like it's also about a spy organization or something, in a way, but at the same time they're all crazy. I almost feel like the lunatic fringe is the name of a place. I would like to go explore that place very much. It might remind me of the violet mist.

from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoyAg75PsTA
This is somewhat of a different style of music than I typically listen to, actually, but I heard it one day when I was listening to an older, non-classic rock, music station on the radio and it was just really catchy. I like the lyrics and their connection with madness, too--"You may be right, I may be crazy, but it just may be a lunatic you're looking for...'cause you might enjoy some madness for a while...and you wouldn't want me any other way." ;) Crazy people pride! Like the Shinedown song, it really has this "Yeah, I'm crazy" feel to it. It's also got a rather playful tone to it, and it's kind of humorous and very bouncy. It's really having fun with being crazy. It's like he's constantly trying to make someone chuckle at his insanity and to get them to just have fun being crazy with him, or like he's just trying to make someone smile. It's like, c'mon, just be crazy with me for a little while, it'll be fun! I just might be the lunatic you've been looking for ;)

from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe500eIK1oA

The alblum picture of this song has got to be the best visual image of insanity of any of these songs' covers. I love how, instead of a head, it's just all these amazing colors and butterflies and swirls coming out. I think it's a wonderful, beautiful metaphor, and it really fits. This song perhaps stands out a little in this list as being one of the more modern, and it's also more mainstream/pop kind of music than, say, the Shinedown song on this list. It is like the other songs, however, in its bouncy, joyous, "Yeah, I'm crazy!"-ness. It continues this multi-point analysis of crazy with the other songs; really, each of these songs kind of looks at insanity from a different angle. It has a very good sound to it, and such a cool flow to it, and a rhythm that makes it really fun when you're singing it. I also like how it has this storyline to it--while, again, I don't know the official meaning behind really any of these songs, my friend and I always used to say this was a song some guy sang when the folks showed up to take him to a mental asylum.  You can just imagine him answering the door and going, "Hello, I remember when I lost my mind," and then he tells the asylum people, "you really think you're in control?" just like he's messing with them. It's really this spirit of a crazy person explaining how they're crazy. It also has a laugh, though not quite as good as the Pink Floyd one. I mean, the song is entitled, "Crazy", for goodness's sake! It's just fun :)

from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbgtVFlyCQ
Back to my standard classic rock, we have a great one from Pearl Jam. The influence of insanity is somewhat arguable in this one. It's at very least a tangent in the song, but I think it's a little more than that. Insanity is probably most apparent in the line, "dark grin, he can't help when he's happy he looks insane", but really, the part about chasing thoughts like butterflies makes sense as being about insanity also. The one with whispering winds lead him away also seems insane, like he's in his own little dream world and following winds around. This one's less about crazy pride, though, but it's still a very strong song. I think there's much more story to this song than I really understand, but I still like it. It just sounds like it's talking about a crazy person, really. And I'm pretty sure it is. It fits.

from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWdLt3Afjrg

Insanity is more of a tangent than a theme in this song, which is really about pressure and love, but I would venture that insanity is still important in this classic song (which was also on the list of songs I was thinking about doing for my second DBB). In a way, it's kind of saying how societal pressures can drive you insane. Insanity is most visible in the line shown in the screenshot above, but then there's also little references, like the one slightly odd line about kicking one's own brains around the floor, and also the part about screaming, "let me out!" These sound very much to be about being driven insane by societal pressure. I also really like the powerful message about love in this song. It's another strong song, and while insanity is kind of vague in it, I'd say that it's definitely there. It's just that love is more important in this song than insanity is. 

Overall, this is actually a pretty good cross-section of the music to which I listen. It shows songs from most of the genres and the vintages to which I listen. I suppose I always connect with songs about insanity and find them really fun, so perhaps that's why I have such a stash of them. I could probably even come up with more, but this is really a pretty good list. I almost want to quote the beyond-the-violet-mist sign-off I used on a post way back when this was my digital camera blog here, but I think I should really make a new sign off, so perhaps here I'll just refer you to October 2011 under my archives, the post entitled, "I'll see you on the dark side of the moon". I also feel tempted to quote the, "We're all mad here" line from the newer Alice in Wonderland movie here, but if I stuck that in front of a beyond the violet mist, it'd probably violate some copywright. Hmm...

     Insanity is a highly valued personality trait in our flourishing society beyond the violet mist. ;)

griping

Griping:

meddling with time is a foolish thing

        I actually don't feel like griping right now, immediately after my joyous Once anticipation post, but I've been planning to do this post for most of this week, and so I figure I ought to do it. Plus, I'm running short on time. I'll outline the gist of this rant here and now: I hate and despise the illogical and flat-out foolhardy concept that is daylight savings time. I'll hate it more tomorrow morning than I do presently, but I always hate it. It's just... why? What cruel, sick person decided that we needed to suddenly get up an hour earlier at certain times of the year? It's simply ridiculous. I know, I know, everybody says Ben Franklin so cleverly conceptualized it to save on street lamp oil and whatall. But for one thing, may I point out that we don't have street lamps that burn oil anymore? And even if it weren't outdated, it's not like Ben Franklin never had lapses in logic. I mean, that whole, "sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me" thing sounded brave at the time, but really, wise people know never to underestimate the power of words. As a writer, I know that words are among the most powerful things in all existence. And with the street lamp oil thing, I mean, I know we still use electricity and ought to conserve that, and so that's the modern interpretation of the concept, but I think most people nowadays get up before the sun rises anymore to go to work and school and whatall, and so we need light in the mornings more than we need it in the evenings. The week before daylight's savings time starts is always so lovely, because it is so sunny when I'm waking up for school and there's just more light than there normally is, and it's almost as if I can imagine that school starts at a reasonable time. Not that it does or ever has. But that's a rant for another time. There is just no logical reason for daylight's savings times. It is a cruel, evil, manipulative plot to rob people of their precious sleep and precious morning light and precious time.
        In a philosophical gesture of protest, I have not changed the clocks in my bedroom in accordance with daylight's savings time in years. Therefore, for the majority of the year, my bedroom clocks are among the only clocks in America that are actually correct. I am simply forced to get up an hour earlier for everything and it's mean and illogical and I need to post this so I can get one less hour of sleep than normal before church tomorrow almost-morning. (The next day) And so I got up an hour earlier, and really, it wasn't that bad, but the awful thing was that I still had to get ready so quickly. I feel like I could be alright getting up an hour earlier for everything if only the world would acknowledge that I am getting up an hour earlier for everything. I feel like if I'm getting up an hour earlier, it should mean that I have an hour longer to get ready, and that I shouldn't have to rush as much. Why don't we just acknowledge that we're all getting up an hour earlier? It is simply unfair for the world to pilfer away an hour of my life without my consent. Even if they do give it back later, there's simply no good reason to take it away in the first place.

        Beyond the violet mist, we realize that it is a dangerous and foolish thing to meddle with the workings of time, and are aware of the cruel conspiracy of the sleep-theives. 

Faeren Tales

Exclusive: Excerpt from Novel-in-Progress

Tales from a Faeren Lande: The Reine of Valila

        In the ever-present blogging spirit of "o gosh, it's 11:30 on Saturday and I still have two posts to do", I have decided to post for you all (my partially imaginary blog readership) an exclusive excerpt from my novel-in-progress, Tales from a Faeren Lande: the Reine of Valila. I would normally have a lengthy introduction to my excerpt explaining the full history and concept of my story idea here, but I have a whole rant to write in the tab to the left of this one and so I shall be brief. Tales from a Faeren Lande, or Valila for short, is the first of my stories to ever originate from a drawing I did. Some time later I may post a picture of this drawing, as I'm very proud of it. Long story short, I drew a faerie I really liked and I named her Valila and I conceived a story for her, and it became about much more than Valila, but the excerpt I'm posting here is all about Valila. Valila is also the novel I did for NaNoWriMo, a writing competition which I explained briefly in my very first creative writing blog post. I should also note that this is my own original portrayal of faeries (I also portray fairies, but they are different creatures in my world) and in fact I wrote this long before I started watching Once. Remember, all this is copywrighted to me, I intend to publish this as part of a novel series some day, and if you in any way shape or form attempt to take it I will hunt you down and sic my buddy Rumpel on you, toss you into the violet mist, and also attempt to somehow legally prosecute you or something. I don't know. I'm an author and don't steal my stuff. Alors, voici mon excerpt. This is the very opening of my novel as it is currently ordered. 

"        Valila was a truly great Faen in those days, ruler of what was quite possibly the most beautiful domain in all of the Faeren Domains of the Isle-Lande. The Great Willow, the Centre of Valila’s domain, was the largest willow in all the East, and its thousands of arching limbs danced and sung in the sweet summer breezes. Its ancient bark and thick, knotted trunk provided many a hiding place for the joyous and carefree faeries who were members of Valila’s Faendom, and her family and closest friends and advisors, who made up her Faecourt, all made their dens in the Willow’s trunk below Valila’s Great Den. The Pond over which the Willow’s branches hung was vast and sparkled dazzlingly as though filled with sapphires in the brilliant summer sunlight, surrounded by a kind family of lesser willows, and the area of the water in the soft shade of the Great Willow was a favorite spot of the faeries for swimming, especially in that hottest Sommer, before the strange things began. It was a lovely, secluded, tranquil spot in the heart of a great forest that ran all the way to Feraerca's domain in the south.
       Valila, as if to match her domain, was one of the most beautiful faeries who ever lived, as well as a gentle and kind ruler, and wise for the most part. Her hair was like the golden summer sunlight and the silver winter moonlight stirred together in a shimmering waterfall of silk. It was longer even than her splendid wings, and she fashioned a section along the left side of her face into a magnificent braid into which she wove the brightest and most colorful flowers from her garden. She wore her tiara only for formal occasions, but it was lovely, of the finest gold and silver intertwining in a way that echoed and complimented her hair without blending in, bedecked with luminescent gems representing all tones of the rainbow in alternating, delicate shapes of hearts and stars. It was the tiara worn by all Faens of this central eastern Domain since its establishment in days scarcely within the memory even of the historic texts, yet it showed no age. Her wings had a soft feathery pattern on top, purple and blue and green blending gently into one another, reminiscent of a peacock, and her lower wings bore purple and gold spirals. Her gown was of the flowing sort, long--a faeren foot past her toes but not longer than her hair--with draping sleeves and florally-patterned embroidery along the veed-neck and at the ends of the sleeves, and a diagonal woven belt at her waist. Like most faeries, she changed the gown’s color daily, but it was most often a color taken from her wings, probably predominantly a blue like the rich depths of the sky or a purple like the delicate petals of the violets in her garden. Her face was soft and pale, and her eyes were like the richly colored depths of the Pond. But of all Valila’s features, it was her smile that blew the stars out of the very sky. She smiled with all the joy and serenity of believing that everything in one’s life is just as it should be, a smile that assured her people this was so.
        All the Faeries in Valila’s Faendom admired her, and it was a time of great happiness, peace, and prosperity in all the Faendoms of the Lande. Indeed, everything seemed as if it were perfect in those days of the Faeren Renaessance.
        It was almost perfect. No one but Valila herself knew what was brewing, and even she underestimated it, hiding the truth from the Faeries of her domain until it was almost too late.       "

Our closest allies and friends are the faeries from the Isle-Lande of the Faeren Domains, here in the Lande Beyond the Violet Mist. 

Returns

The Return of Once!!!

Once Upon a Time is coming back this Sunday!!

Update: That’s tomorrow now!

HUZZAH!!

        As you might possibly have gathered from many of my previous blog posts and the past two monthly 'something awesome's, I've become rather fond of Once. Meaning to say slightly obsessed. I can hardly believe it's been months already since my drama class introduced me to Once Upon a Time! It's become pretty much my official favorite television show of ever. We (my mom and I) have officially watched the entire series through twice as of today, and some episodes more than that. Skin Deep, for example, or the episode that establishes Rumbelle, I have literally watched five (or was it six?) times. It was the first episode I rewatched, actually. In the course of rewatching, I’ve even gotten behind on White Collar, which I formerly would have probably called my favorite show. It’s funny how Once is so very good it makes other shows seem somewhat less good by comparison. Not to say I don’t like White Collar anymore, because I do still like it very much, it’s just not my number one anymore, and re-watching Once became higher on my to-do list than watching new episodes of White Collar. I guess I’ve just always been a fan of fantasy, but as a genre it seems to be more widely available in books and movies than it is in T.V. series, and at any rate most of the T.V. series I’ve watched probably fall under the category of mystery, such as White Collar, which, mystery is like my second favorite genre. Once is probably the first real fantasy T.V. series I’ve found and watched, and it’s truly just about the best T.V. series I can imagine, what with the way it so beautifully explores fairytales and goes so far beyond them to make such a compelling fantasy series with so many intriguing plot lines and such incredible character development and so many other amazing things. And so I’m quite excited for it’s return Sunday (or now tomorrow)!!! Plus, like most everyone who has been watching the series, I desperately need to find out what happens next!
        This brings me to the real point of this blog post: my hopes for the return of the show. First and most obviously, I do not believe for a second Rumpel is actually dead. There is not an inkling of a way that the show could get rid of him and still be at all a decent show. As I said in my monthly ‘something awesome’ this month (at left), and as I’ve said elsewhere, though I can’t recall where (later I looked back and realized it was in my blog post on fantasy worlds) if the show tried to get rid of Rumpel, “hordes of angry fans, including me, would storm their metaphorical castle in which they write Once and force them to bring him back. He’s too quintessential to the show, and he’s just too awesome of a character!” and they must bring him back, “else mobs of fans storm the castle-esque dwelling or wherever of the writers of Once inhabit and force them to bring him back. We need Rumpel <3 :).” (the first quote is the one from my post on fantasy worlds, and the second one is my re-iteration of it in my monthly ‘something awesome’. Is it really necessary to quote both of these and re-iterate it here again? Yes, yes it is absolutely necessary.) I mean, we didn’t even actually see him die. A good quote from my... “research” on Once last night I found was by someone named Kate on http://tvline.com/2013/12/15/once-upon-a-time-storybrooke-vanishes-wicked-witch-of-west-season-3-recap/, and there she cleverly observed, “We only assume that Rumple died because he thought he had to, and then he disappeared.” It’s very true. It’s a conclusion we’re supposed to reach, but it’s not in any way proven that Rumpel’s dead. So clearly, he’s not.
        I mean, almost no one on Once is ever actually dead (and as I said in “fantasy worlds”, that’s part of why I love it so dearly). The show did fool me with Jimny in the Cricket Games, and I believed for a while he was dead, but then when he came back, I learned to never fall for someone actually being dead in Once again. I didn’t even believe the blue fairy was dead, because I’ve learned better. Also, when Belle lost her memories (which was almost like sort of killing her character), my mom thought she’d never get them back, but I knew she would eventually, though it took longer than I first thought. Really, this show is all about hope, which fits me well, because I’ve always been an optimist. It really does kind of bug me when I say I’m sure things will be alright in a show and people are like, “I wouldn’t be so sure. Just don’t get your hopes up.” I guess I understand that some people like to believe the worst so that they can be surprised when things turn out better than they expected and so that if they don’t they aren’t utterly destroyed, but I personally must always believe the best. I live with my hopes up. It's like that song, don't bring me down. And like I said, this show is all about the hope of a happy ending, and I don’t doubt that there shall be many happy endings. Regardless, I have no doubt that Rumpel’s not dead.
        Where he is, though, I am not sure. He and his despicable, evil, cruel, unloving, worst-villain-on-the-show-so-far papa disapparated in Storybrooke, but then a little while later, Storybrooke itself disapparated. So I’m not sure whether Rumpel was transported back to the Enchanted Forest with the counter curse, or whether he’ll suddenly re-apparate in the forest that once was Storybrooke, or whether he’s been transported somewhere else entirely. I find myself hoping that he’ll actually be back in the Enchanted Forest and back in his old form. I like him in his human/Mr. Gold form alright, but I want to see him in his giddy imp form again. I miss him running around almost skipping and giggling constantly and grinning all the time and just generally being the awesome Rumpelstiltskin we all know and love. I know it’s a form more associated with his being evil, but I think he could be in that form and non-evil and be happy. Of course, when he and Belle get back together (again, I say ‘when’ and not ‘if’ with utmost confidence. THERE SHALL BE RUMBELLE!!!!!!) I suppose he’ll turn back human and all, but maybe they can find a way for him not to. Even if they don’t find a way, I’d be happy with Rumpel just being back to a jubilant imp-creature for an episode or two and then finding Belle again and turning back human. He can still have his magic and kiss her, right? I mean, it worked in storybrooke. Even if he stops being the Dark One because of the true love’s kiss, he can at least still have some magic, like Regina and Cora, neither of whom was born magical and who learned magic by studying it and not by stabbing anyone and stealing their powers. Even if for some odd, illogical reason, the writer-people decided he couldn’t be magical and have Belle, Belle is more important than his magic, and he knows that now, and so I guess it’d be okay if he lost his magic. Though, man, that would be really weird, having a non-magical Rumpelstiltskin.
        So they will get together again, and at some point there will be a wedding. I mean, he almost proposed to her in the scene where they’ve all just come back on the boat from Neverland and he said that of all the paths his life could take, the only one he’s interested in is the one with her. I was very much wishing that he would propose in that moment, but even without a proposal, it was still a beautiful moment. I’ll be so happy when they do get married, though. Oh, that’ll be such a beautiful wedding! I found this picture on the internet last night (Friday) when I was starting to write this post but I was still mostly doing “research” aka perusing the internet and its Once-related contents. It could totally be a picture of Rumbelle dancing together at their wedding:

from http://rumbelleforever.blogspot.com/2012_09_01_archive.html found via google images, as usual. 

I don’t know who made this picture, but I love them and think they’re awesome and amazing and wonderful. Not only is it a beautiful picture of Rumbelle happy together, but it’s also a great reminder of the fairytale from which Rumbelle originates. It is, of course, clearly based upon the Disney version, not the version I mentioned in my previous blog post about my childhood storybook, but I guess the Disney versions of things have become widely accepted as the base of these tales, and it is very much a part of my understanding of the basic tale as well. It certainly is a reminder for me, to see this picture of where Rumbelle is coming from. While I do remember that Rumpel is the beast, at the same time I can sort of forget, and this picture clearly shows him in that role. It reminds me of the original story I loved and how the new story I love is that story, only deeper and more intricate. Plus, I think Belle could totally have a yellow wedding dress. It fits her. White is traditional and all, but I think it's cool to have a colored wedding dress. Some day I plan to have a purple wedding dress. I think this could absolutely be a scene from their beautiful and utterly fairytale-happy-ending wedding (though in the true spirit of Once, it wouldn't be the ending).
        So, yes, eventually I do hope things get figured out again enough for Rumpel and Belle to get married, and then possibly have a child. Oo, and while we were re-watching that somewhat horrid (after all, it does kind of manage to ruin everything everyone’s been working for for so long) but still enthralling mid-season finale on hulu today, there was a cat food commercial that featured this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25LjyojeyrI which made me think of Rumbelle (yes, I know I’m obsessed) and so I could see them dancing to this song at their wedding, and/or in the pictures below. But I mean, really, this song fits Rumbelle better than cat food. Just saying. It also reminds me of these other beautiful pictures of Rumbelle:

from http://www.pinterest.com/pin/259308891016234750/

This seems like what Rumbelle would've been like at their prom, if they ever had a prom. 

coincidentally the same picture on a different background, from http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/once-upon-a-time/images/31892322/title/rumbelle-fanart

As prom night continued, they apparently moved to somewhere that looks an awful lot like one of the historical sites we visited on one of our field trips in Virginia. Is that Monticello, perhaps?

from http://crystallizedheart.blogspot.com/2012/03/rumbelle-wallpaper.html, the same picture as the very first thrown in with some other pictures, entitled, "the iconic ballroom dance"

They just need to dance already! And have a wedding, and a child. Probably in that order, though the dance may be included in the wedding.

        So, other than Rumbelle, do I have any hopes for this coming half-season? Well, I guess just generally that those crazy, plotting people who write this show fix everything they managed to mess up, which is everything. Obviously, Emma and Henry will have to somehow get their memories back. Then I suppose they’ll have to go to the Enchanted Forest and have adventures there and deal with whatever tragedy it is that has apparently befallen Snow and Charming. I do hope Emma and Henry get to see Rumpel in his giddy imp form, because neither of them has ever met him in what is really his coolest form. I think that’d be neat, for Henry to get to see the fun, crazy version of his grandpa he’s never seen. I think Emma will be quite put off to find that the calm, practically demure Mr. Gold is really Rumpelstiltskin, how he is. I mean, she knows he’s Rumpelstiltskin, but she doesn’t hardly know who Rumpelstiltskin is, at least not how her parents know him. I think Emma will be a little perturbed to see him like that, but I think Henry will find his grandpa pretty cool. At least I would. But I’d be Belle, so anyways. Then, they’ll all go off on adventures, and then Emma will get back with Neal. I know a lot of people seem to want Emma with Hook, but I don’t. It’s not at all that I don’t like Hook, because I really do, although he did get off on the wrong foot with me by going against Rumpel, who is still my favorite guy on the show. I’ve always kind of liked pirates, and I think Hook is cool and nice and fun and dashing and all that, but I simply don’t want him with Emma. Emma and Neal just belong together. I could go into a lengthy argument about the many reasons why, but that’d be a blog post of it’s own, and so here I’ll simply say the hugest reason I want them together: not only are they lovely and sweet together, they’re Henry’s parents. They’ve had a child together. Everyone seems to overlook that as a reason, but it’s huge. They had a child together, and intentional or not, in doing so they made a commitment to one another to be together. It is a fundamental belief of mine that the parents of a child belong together and ought to stay together. Enough said.
        That’s the bulk of what I want in the coming half of a season of Once Upon a Time. I want Rumpel alive, back in his jubilant imp form, at least for a while, I want Rumbelle to get married and possibly have a child, I want Emma and Henry to recover their memories, travel to the Enchanted Forest, meet Rumpel in his old, not-exactly-human form, have adventures together, Emma to reunite with Neal and maybe have a fairytale wedding in the Enchanted Forest, then, hey, maybe Henry could even get a new sibling! Then they could go on pirate adventures together on their dad’s friend Killian’s ship, and Killian/Hook could be together with someone else, because I do definitely want Hook to be happy with someone (just not Emma). Sometimes I almost think he and Regina would do well together.
       I mean, I know they’re trying to set up Regina and Robin Hood, and... maybe it could work. It just feels a little too... predestined to me. I don’t like the sense that she’s being told who to love. It’s not a natural love, where they casually meet and fall in love of their own accord. Plus, I think Robin Hood and Mulan would be better together. I mean, they’re both the same sort of person, and I think they could be epic warriors for good together and in the course of doing so fall in love, and Mulan does need somebody now that Phillip has committed to being with Aurora. I felt so bad for Mulan when that happened, though I wish Aurora and Phillip all the best. I know that feeling, of having a crush on a guy and then finding out he’s already with someone, and it sucks. I know that feeling several times over. So I definitely feel for Mulan and I deeply hope she can find happiness with someone else. Someone who’s a warrior like she is, who believes in and fights for good. Someone like Robin Hood. It would really, really suck for Mulan if they started setting her up with Robin and then Regina came in and ruined it. I want Regina to be romantically happy with someone, too, like how you feel so bad for her in that scene back in Neverland where Rumpel and she are instructing Ariel and Rumpel sees that she’s jealous of having someone like he has Belle. Regina truly only has Henry, and now he’s been so cruelly ripped away from her, though they must bring them back together. But you know, I think she could do well with Hook, I really do.
        Oo, and on romances I want together, I also want Grumpy/Dreamy and Nova to finally get together! I’ve been waiting so long for them to come back to that. I think they had such a beautiful romance and that Dreamy should’ve let Nova give up her wings if that’s what she really wanted to do. I mean, it’s really her choice, and I think she should be able to choose not to be a fairy if she wants to. The writing people just started that romance and they haven’t gotten back to it, and I hope they do. I want Grumpy to be able to be Dreamy again. Maybe Rumpel can help set him up with Nova as a way of thanks for Grumpy helping give Belle her memories back again. There could be a really weird, cool friendship between them. I ship Dreamy and Nova almost as much as I ship Emma and Neal who I ship almost as much as I ship Rumbelle, they just aren’t in the show as much and I wish they would be more. Then they can sail off and have adventures together and see the world! Rather like Ariel and what's-his-name-oh-yeah Eric.
       You know, three paragraphs ago I was trying to start my conclusion. But I’m glad I remembered to go through all these other things. This post turned out to be mostly about ships, didn’t it? I guess a lot of this show is about romance, but there are lots of other wonderful things in it, too. It’s just that it seems the ships are the topics of the hottest debates. Speaking of ships, I really want to ride an epic ship like Hook’s through a magic bean portal like this one:

from http://royalhelpers.tumblr.com/post/71413585426/faceless-once-upon-a-time-gif-hunt-under, a site which has many cool Once gifs, or moving picture things, as I am in the habit of referring to them. It does take forever to load, but I think it's worth it.

        But I mean, seriously, does that not strike you as the most fun thing ever to do, to ride an epic, olde fashioned pirate ship through a swirling vortex into another Lande? It's like a roller coaster but 10,000 times cooler. I’m just random, aren’t I? :) hehehehe. But if I had an endless supply of magic beans and a pirate ship, I could really make a hobby of just going through portals and back again on my ship. That would be an awesome hobby.
        So, I think that pretty much covers my hopes and dreams for the coming season. This is one of those rare blog posts that actually gets to be fully as long as I want it to be and where I get to cover everything I was planning to. And I’m looking forward to Once coming back TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!! I’M READY FOR THE EPICNESSSSS!!!!!! Are you?
       We beyond the violet mist are braced and ready to embark upon an epic adventure.

Scholarshipping

Scholarshipping

        Tonight, my posts are coming a little later even than their normal lateness, because, like many other students at my school, and probably across the country, I have been finishing my dollars for scholars stuffs (on top of having speech contests today!). Ah, scholarships; yet another layer of stuff they throw at us among the many, many tasks we must do as seniors. I once said to my friend in an e-mail, “I think Senior year is simply designed to drive people insane before they are allowed to become adults. Maybe we can test out of this since clearly we're already acing the whole insane thing.” And, I mean, doesn’t it seem like this is what’s really going on? Maybe senior year is just a huge conspiracy designed to make every future adult lose their mind o.O But anyways, thinking about scholarships and all the different things they have them for made me start thinking, and I have thought a little about this in the past as well, about, when I’m rich and famous, what scholarships I might establish with my vast and undoubtedly realistically guaranteed wealth. I’ve been working on this list of scholarships I think ought to exist and that I might establish, were I rolling in dough and running around giving it to children like myself.

Here is the working list of scholarships I could make:

The Scholarship for Procrastinators and for the Absentminded:
        Write an essay explaining how procrastination and/or absentmindedness plays a role in your life, and yet how you are still able to succeed and flourish in spite of or even because of these factors. Or, write about how your procrastination and/or absentmindedness has been detrimental to your life and how you have no reasonable clue as to how you can ever, ever begin to overcome them! The essay may be as long as your absentminded ramblings lead you to write, or it may be as short as your procrastinative tendencies leave you the scarce time to write. This scholarship is in two parts. For the first part, the Procrastination scholarship and the Absentmindedness scholarship are taken separately; an applicant may apply to one or both of them. In the Procrastination scholarship, preference will be given to applicants who apply as close to the deadline as possible without missing it. Applications will still be considered for four months after the deadline, but it’s best if you can get your application in, say, at midnight on the deadline. The deadline will be announced when we get around to it. Then there’s the absentminded scholarship and there are details on that... By the way, did you know Once Upon a Time is coming back in a couple of weeks? I’m so excited for that! Gosh, it’ll be hard to watch it one episode a week after devouring season one by, like, at least two episodes daily... and, yes, so, scholarship for the absentminded. And there was something about a second round where the two categories will be combined and judged against each other due to their innate similarities and occasional interdependency, but we can get to that later.

The Scholarship for the Indecisive about Life:
         Explain the many divergent paths your life has the potential to take. List and explain the advantages and disadvantages of every possible decision you could make. There is no need to make any actual choices. The only decision you need to make is to apply. This scholarship is due the day before classes at whatever college you decide to attend begin, so as to give you plenty of time to decide whether to apply. Fortunately, we actually managed to find people who are good at making decisions for our judging committee, and so funds will be awarded within two weeks of application. All applicants get a free guide to making vastly weighty life decisions in five seconds!* I don't know, I'm not sure I'll establish this scholarship after all.
*results not guaranteed. May actually lead to increased stress and possible explosions of brains.

Scholarship for the Skilled Utilization of Somewhat Pompously Eloquent Locution:
Write an essay using fancy talk.

“But I Digress” Scholarship:
Write a lengthy essay in which you digress as much as you possibly can into as many random subjects as you can possibly think of. Some sort of logical thought progression should be evident and there should be flow and seamless transitions, but there is no need to have a plan or direction in your writing; write as your mind flows. Introductions and conclusions are completely optional. Blather on without cease. Well, the page limit is twenty pages single spaced, and this should be at least one page, though greater length is preferable. You know, this reminds me of that time when I ate chocolate while sitting in a lovely willow tree alongside a river. Did you know there are only two rivers which flow uphill in all the world, and I used to live near one of these? “These” is an intriguing word if you really start looking hard at it. It also resembles “thesis”. Oh, I need to write my thesis statement for my paper on the French Revolution for tomorrow! France is known for its production of fine chocolates.

Scholarship for the Unfinished:
And more!

Beyond the violet mist, we made ourselves chuckle heartily at our own wittiness. ;D

le Français

Le Français

    J'aime le Français, et aujourd'hui j'ai choisit d'écrire mon poste finale pour le semaine en français. (Ou peut-être je peut finir ce poste avant que mon autre poste qui est dans l'autre [tab].) Je vais [to edit] plus tard, mais pour maintenant, je vais juste écrire des choses [random]s en français, et je vais en mettre les mots que je ne connais pas dans les [brackets] parce-que ça travaille. Oú, je veut dire, ça marche. Alors, de qu'est-ce que veut-je parle ici? Je ne sais pas. Combien loin est-ce que un [blog] poste dois être? Je ne sais pas. Vous savez ce que je vraiment sais? C'est très cool et très, très importante. C'est un chose immense et si grande que quatre langue ne peut pas en comprendre suffice. C'est un chose si grande qu'un grand bête ne peut pas en manger. C'est un secret presque le même grand que le [mist] violet. Êtes vous très, très, très prêt pour ça?
    C'est le [fact] que
                         J'
                            aime
                                 du
                                    chocolat.

Ça regards de cool. Je sais, ma grammaire maintenant est horrible. [Atrocious], probablement. Mais je juste écrit des choses pour un poste. Je crois que ce vais être un très cool poste parce-que c'est en français et tous les choses français sont super-cools et le langue étrange fait des choses être mysterieux, et ça vas bien avec le nature du miste violet. 
    Probablement c'est un bon chose si tu ne peut pas lire le français, parce-que si tu peut, tu sais que ce poste n'est pas bien de tout. Mais je croix que c'est cool encore, sans les problems de grammaire et d'épelier et de le grandure du topique. Maintenant je juste invent les mot. Je dois en poster et je dois finir mon autre poste. 
    Parfoit un parle un peut de français ici, dans le lande traverse le miste violet. 

Fantasy Worlds

Fantasy Worlds

doing my first actual creative writing prompt

"You find yourself in front of seven identical doors. 

A voice from above tells you:

'These seven doors lead to seven places:

Narnia, Neverland, Wonderland, Hogwarts, 

Camelot, Middle Earth, and Westeros.'

Which door do you go through? Why that door? What happens?" 

        I have decided today to do something I have not yet done in creative writing: I am actually doing the prompt. It's not actually a prompt for our creative writing group, but there are prompts in class every day for the creative writing 1 people to do. I normally have enough of my own to blather on about, but today I really liked the prompt and so I decided to transcribe it above and to write on it. Actually, I hadn’t finished writing it all down when it went away, so I googled what I had of it, and I managed to find the original image with the prompt on it:

I like the look of it as well. It fits the mysterious fantasticalness. It could be a little more ornate and fanciful, perhaps, but it’s rather mysterious.

         Although I must admit, I can't help myself but edit it a little. I do have the artistic freedom as a writer; I even have an official, legally valid creative license I made in art class the other year. (Well, it's legally valid in Violetia, at least, but I think my rights as queen and founder of Violetia extend in some sense at least to this world). I also have the magic of wordadry on my side :) (that one’s already in my blog post idea list to explain, don’t worry; I’ll probably get to it eventually. If not, it may become a novel some day, possibly, or some form of medium or short story).
        So anyways, I think first I’ll change out Westeros, simply because I don’t know anything about it. I learned in creative writing it’s apparently the world in some show called, “game of thrones”, but I’ve never seen that and I don’t know much of anything about it, except apparently many people die, as was said in class, and our teacher was apparently warned in a previous class by one of the students that she probably wouldn’t survive there. An unknown fantasy world could be interesting and adventurous, but I’m more inclined to start with the worlds I know and love already, because I’ve wanted to go to most of them for quite some time already, and so I wouldn’t give up the chance to go to a world I already care for in favor of a world I know almost nothing about, which, further, is apparently quite dangerous. Although I have read on the internet that apparently Once Upon a Time even contains allusions to Game of Thrones, namely in the name of Belle’s dad’s flower shop in storybrooke, which is the Game of Thorns. So, I suppose that if Once alludes to it, that makes me think it’s more likely to be a worthwhile show, since Once is so amazingly wonderful and I trust their taste, but if lots of characters die, then I would hesitate to watch it. That is one of the reasons I like Once so very much; almost no one is ever actually dead. Thus I am almost certain Rumpel’s not dead, because they simply can’t kill him off; if they did, hordes of angry fans, including me, would storm their metaphorical castle in which they write Once and force them to bring him back. He’s too quintessential to the show, and he’s just too awesome of a character! But I do digress. (How surprising! Me, digressing? Never...)
        The basic point of the paragraph prior is that I’m changing out the kingdom of Westeros. Instead, I’ll put in... well, what I had said when I first looked at the prompt was that I’d make that door go the the Land of Elyon instead, but now my mind’s on Once again, and so I’m tempted to have the Enchanted Forest from Once behind that door. You know what, I have creative license and wordriad magic, so I’ll just add another door. I’m gradually turning this thing into a list of my favorite fantasy worlds, aren’t I? I think that’s almost unavoidable, though, by the premise of this prompt. I find myself looking at both Neverland and Wonderland differently now, though, having watched Once, but we decided that these are the original realms from their own stories, not the realms as they are portrayed in Once. I do love Once, very much, and their portrayals of these worlds do fit to serve their purposes in the plot of Once, but I must say that if I were to visit them, I would rather go to the original portrayals of both worlds.
         I would definitively and absolutley keep Middle Earth, Hogwarts, and Narnia on there, of a surety and without a shadow of a smidge of a grain of an inkling of doubt. These are, to me, the three most quintessential of all fantasy worlds, and I listed them in their order of quintessential fantasticalhood. The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are the two most classic fantasy series of all time to me, but I list Middle Earth before Hogwarts simply because it’s a far more expansive world. Well, at least it’s more separate. I get the feeling based on the context that Hogwarts is being here used as a blanket term for all of the magical parts of the Harry Potter world, including the magical places beyond the school itself such as Diagon Alley and the Ministry of Magic, as well as, probably, the other schools, such as those we see involved in the Triwizard Tournament, so in short, the entirety of the Wizarding World. If they don’t mean Hogwarts to refer to the Wizarding World, then one could still easily access the rest of the magical world from Hogwart, unless there was some sort of magical border put in place by the rules of the portal door to prevent one from leaving the Hogwarts grounds, but I could break this down with my wordriad magic. Still, I think Middle Earth is larger, better mapped, and more separate from the “real” world, because there is no version of our modern earth connected to Middle Earth, except perhaps if one was to make the argument that Middle Earth is possibly meant to be our earth in its distant path, which I think is a valid point, and the Wizarding World is more like a hidden part of our world, or, as I described it in one paper I wrote, a “backstage” area of our world, and as far as I’ve seen, J.K. Rowling has never drawn maps of it, though please, correct me if I’m wrong, because I love studying maps of fantasy worlds (one of my presents this Christmas was actually a lovely illustrated book called The Maps of Tolkien’s Middle Earth by Brian Sibley, which has beautiful and detailed copies of Tolkien’s maps plus many lovely illustrations and intriguing text. Some day, when I have my own library, (see dream outlined in “My Little Library”) I plan to have the map posters included in the book hanging on the walls alongside my shelves). I don’t mean this in any way to be evaluating the coolness of either of the worlds or the stories therein, because both are amazing and epic and classic, and as you may have noticed from my brief mention earlier, I have written multiple papers on each, including a comparison-contrast essay on the two of them together, because I particularly enjoy analyzing stories I love, hence all the Once Upon a Time stuff on this blog (Once could be called my latest obsession of many). But it also seems somehow more likely that one could access the world in which Hogwarts is found with more ease than one could access Middle Earth, and so Middle Earth seems more likely to require a magical door. I’m not saying I wouldn’t give it a magic door, because such a door would make the Wizarding World much easier to locate and to access, but I am saying that I think I have more of a chance of finding it without a door than I do of Middle Earth.         I think Narnia is a wonderful and splendid land and it would be a lovely place to visit, but the Chronicles of Narnia have always been a little less familiar to me than the two aforementioned tales, and thus it took the third slot. I’ve actually never read all of the Narnia series; I began reading the first book years ago but never finished, which is exceedingly abnormal for me nowadays but wasn’t as much back then. 
         It’s that time again! I always come to this moment (except upon rare occasions) when I am running short of time and my blog post suddenly begins moving much faster. Basically, I was going to continue summing up and discussing my favorite fantasy worlds and stating which ones were behind doors before proudly proclaiming in my because-I-have-magic-and-creative-license line of reasoning that I intended to go through each door in turn and explore each world over the course of weeks, months, or even years. But really, nothing in the prompt says you can’t go through more than one door. It’s simply not stated. So, therefore, I can go through as many doors as I’d like, because nothing in the rules says I can’t. Even if it did, I could still use my artistic freedom/wordriad magic to go through multiple doors. So, I’ll probably go through the door to Middle Earth first, if only because it’s the most ancient sort of world (which, I know, it’s arguable, but that’s my perception of it), and to fully ensure I can find my way back, I’ll tie some of my magical hair-woven cord to the inside of the doorknob and I’ll thread it through behind me as I cross between worlds so I can find the door again, just to be doubly sure. Then I’ll set off on epic quests and journeys and explore and meet characters and go places and do things and see people/elves/hobbits/fawns/goblins/pixies/pheonixes/magical-winged-cats/et-tous-les-autres in each of the worlds. I think really the point of this prompt was supposed to be telling the story of what happened once I made my decision and went through a door, but I’m a notorious decision-avoider and I’ve gotten so wrapped up in explanations on this blog I sometimes lose the stories. 
         I have been realizing that many of my blog posts on this blog take on more of an explanatory tone than one of storytelling. I suppose this is because I feel the need to explain things more when I am on the internet, and because I feel in some ways my blog posts are simply more explanatory by their nature. When I’m writing my blog posts, I almost feel like I’m speaking to some unknown person, because literally anyone on the internet could be reading this, though in all honesty it’s most likely someone from my school or one of my family members. But I have to be prepared if it’s not, and even if it is I’d probably still write these like I’m talking to someone and trying to explain all my thoughts. But while oftentimes I like to write in an explanatory, conversational way on my blog, as I am doing presently, I think I should try to put more pieces written in more of a storytelling manner on here. Looking back, I think the only things I really have in a tone of storytelling are my post on the secrets of the Lande beyond the violet mist and my excerpt of my work-in-progress short story, and the latter is even surrounded by explanatory notes. So perhaps it shall be my goal in the coming week to write a few more blog posts of a storytelling nature.

        Beyond the violet mist, we discovered another fine medium of interdomainal (in the Violetian sense, not Faeren) transport in a hidden and secret chamber of a potentially varied number of mysterious doors in a transdimensional space.