be careful what you wish for

ask me about the story i just wrote for my fiction studio class! i'm really proud of the climax (heheheh...) i would post it here, but it's always a risk to post original work on the web, you know?

artemis, artemis, artemis...

eoin colfer has done it again! i just finished reading the latest artemis fowl novel that just came out... last week? and just when i thought there were no more adventures to be had! in this one, artemis fowl; the lost colony artemis almost meets his match, yet at the same time in a different perspective, i'd say she really is quite the match for him. he still outsmarts her though. i'm all for girl geniuses, but you just can't beat artemis fowl. the ending is rather sad though... as sad as a happy ending could be i suppose. artemis and holly get stuck in a time warp whilest saving the fairy world (again) and aren't able to return exactly the same year they departed. so basically, looking at artemis's parents point of view, artemis just vanished off the face of the earth for three years, only to reappear completely unchanged (with the exception that he and holly swapped an eye on the journey home... long story) and unaged. the thought was just heart-wrenching :( on the plus side, now his new girly-friend is about the same age as he. (she waited for him and everything, even though they had only met in person once, and only for a few minutes.) *sigh* i haven't had that good of a read since i discovered howl's moving castle.

a peek into the future

yes, yes, i was bored and let my mind wander to interesting and strange places this afternoon and here are the fruits of my labor:

it's just a little something i'd like to call "what if anne got married and had kids" or "why anne would make a horrible stay-at-home mom"



frightening thought, isn't it? there was another panel, but it didn't turn out well (i took a picture of the drawing with my camera, since i haven't got a scanner).

to know

i was pondering whilest on lunch break on monday. i was thinking about people's awareness of truth or lack thereof. i was watching an episode of charmed the other day that dealt with this issue. a powerful group of beings (that leo is a part of apparently) called the avatars was turning the world into a utopia free of evil and demons (thus making the charmed ones' lives much easier). however it all came at a price. all sources of conflict or mailiciousness were removed. not killed, not destroyed, just... removed. nobody knows where they went, but here's the kick: the avatars were controlling people's minds so that they didn't know these people had been erased from existence. these people would vanish in front of their eyes and then they would shake their heads, regain composure, and say "i'm sorry about (name)" "it's ok, he/she's in a better place" then return to whatever they were doing. it reminded me alot of the giver, where one member of the utopian society was charged with harboring all the memories of all things that weren't part of their mundane everyday lives. those included war, death, and pain, which you'd think would be a good thing, but the list goes on. these memories also included color, music, and joy.

so which is better? ignorant "bliss"? or knowing the truth? according to mythology, in the beginning people lived without all horrible things, then something happened and all the pain in the world was brought forward, like in pandora's box and the story of adam and eve. it's perplexing, really; a world without pain and suffering would be wonderful, but being so ignorant is horrifying.

it's all very similar to my theory that you can't truly know happiness without knowing sorrow. there's some mathematics rule that talks about a value equaling something that isn't something else...? (can't remember it) but i DO remember how to phrase it in terms of my theory:

what is the definition of happiness? ecstacy? joy? pleasure beyond compare? you could go through thesaurus after thesaurus listing synonym after synonym for "happiness" but essentially you haven't found out anything! the best definition i could come up with for "happiness" is "being without sorrow". so what is "sorrow"? "being without happiness". in order to understand one you must understand the other. fundamentally it all adds up with perfect logic. now just apply it to real life and there's my theory. the happiest person in the world can't ever know just how happy they are without knowing of the sorrow they are without.

and all within a mere hour lunch break...