crazy times again

Its now Aug. 11, and school starts in something like two weeks. I'll be moving on aug. 18 into my new apartment in San Marcos, which I'm excited about for the most part. I'm going to like having an actual apartment, but I'm not excited at all about having to share it with 3 other guys. I didn't exactly like having a roommate in the dorm, and now I'm going to times that by 3. Don't get me wrong though, Dusty's a cool guy and everything, and its not like it was hell or anything, but we where two different people with different habits and sometimes those habits came into conflict with each other. He was particularly clean and I was messy, he liked to listen to his music while I prefer my music, little things that make people unique and different, but also make people unique and different. So now I'm worried about a worst case scenario where I'm roomed with say 3 neo conservative republicans who only talk about politics and think the arts are for pussyfaggots. I know thats not going to be the case, I mean if anything thats just not statistically likely. I suppose a more realistic worry of mine would be just three other people who all have conflicting schedules and practices then everyone else which will occasionally come to conflict between one another.

Anyway, no time to worry about that though, theres still the matter of moving out and going to see April for a few days before coming back here and then actually moving. I spent bits and pieces of yesterday getting my stuff together and ready to move, which was actually pretty easy all things considered. Most of my big things are still in Austin where I left them and everything else was in my car so all I had to do was clear out a few dresser drawers and boom bam I was done. After some general cleaning after I wake up today everything will be ready for my parents to move whatever they want to move around and by the time I get back I wont live here anymore. This is going to be a weird move for me. Last year I moved out and into a dorm, and it was the first time I really lived "on my own" in my life, but I still had a room here which was mainly considered "my room" and it was always in what I would consider "my house" (I LOVE QUOTATION MARKS). This is going to be different though, because I'll be moving out of this room into my room in the apartment, but then after my 12 month lease with this apartment is done, I'll either get another 12 monther or move from one apartment in San Marcos to another apartment in San Marcos. Basically this is the big move where I don't really come back except to visit. This is going to be the move where I've officially moved out of my parents house and am on my own. I'm excited, a little sad and a little scared I have to admit because I don't really know what to expect I guess. Oh well, I'm sure it'll all turn out well.

In other news I've been continuing to read Fables and I'm still loving the hell out of it. Little Boy Blue is a complete badass and its cool to see the story diving more into the question of who/what the adversary is and what type of plans are being considered to retake the homelands. They've revealed who the adversary actually is and his motives for doing what he did, which I liked. His reasons for building his empire seemed cool and his way of doing it was even cooler. I like where its going with the introduction of the Arabian fables like Sinbad. This was something I was thinking about during the Wooden Soldier attack when in the infermery I noticed someone who looked like a Samurai and though to myself "wait, what about non western fables? Have their lands been conquered as well?" and apparently they haven't which would be a neat area to explore. So now they have an alliance with the Arabian fables, so if they can get one with the Asian and African fables as well, then they certainly stand a chance to defeat the adversary and retake the homelands.

This does beg several questions which I've been wondering about and lead to a bigger question for me. The Arabian fables have possession of at least one Dinjin (genie) which they went to great lengths to emphasize the great magical power these Dinjin posses. With that in mind, why didn't the Arabian fables simply wish the Adversary's armies be defeated at the first sign of trouble? The only explanation that I could think of is that the combined might of all of the Empire's warlocks might be enough to capture a Dinjin? If thats true I don't remember them mentioning that in the comic. Because right now between the power of the Dinjin and the Northern wind, who has apparently done battle with and killed other Dinjin, they could have this war won by this time next year. So now, if they have the power to win the war, we have to ask why don't they use it? The answer for this is obviously to keep the story alive and keep it dramatic and keep it interesting, but this all is somewhat sullied by the fact that it isn't realistic.

This brings me to my writing topic of discussion. When should drama bow down to realism? In an online comic I read called "Goblins: life through their eyes" one of the main characters has just fought and lost to one of the main villains who is several times more powerful then the main character.

to make this a little easier I'll go into some back story: some goblins in the D&D world where attacked by adventurers who slaughtered their entire warcamp save for the lucky few who escaped. Those few then got the crazy idea to become player characters so they could level up and better defend their village next time some adventurers come around looking for easy EXP. Fast forward to now and the paladin of the group, Big Ears, just left the party to go on a suicide mission to distract Saral cain (a really powerful bad guy) away from the other goblins. Saral cain then proceeded to beat the living snot out of Big ears and end the battle with Saral's ax sticking out of the majority of Big Ear's body.

Now the main question amung the fans is this: there is no apparent wound made by the ax itself and thus Big Ears may still be alive, while the ax simply did some other form of damadge to him that is not entirely physical.

Now the question of realism Vs. dramatic effect comes into play. Saral cain is several levels higher then Big Ears, and as can be seen in the fight is a much better combatant as well. Saral cain should of won this fight and he did, this makes sense and is realistic. However, if for some reason Big Ears lives through this then that takes away all suspense because we know that he'll never really die then due to him being a main character. I've heard one person argue that its ok for him to love now because its not about the realism its about the drama and moving the story along, so having a character live through vary unlikely stuff only to die in an unlikely way later on is ok because so long as it moves the story along, thats what it should always do.

I disagree with that sentiment because of how the reader is going to interpret that. If you have a character survive some crazy mess, thats going to become aparent to the reader that they have main character immunity. I will never actually be afraid of Batman dieing because he's Batman. So you can pit him against anyone you want, be it the joker, superman of friggin' Galactus and I know Batman is going to come out on top because he's Batman. Keeping Batman alive through all of these scinarios keeps the story going and keeps it dramatic and adventurous and everything but lets face it, keeps it far from realistic which is also a necessary element in any good piece of fiction. The way they keep it dramatic and realistic though is by not placing the element of danger so much on Batman, but on those around him. I'm not afraid of Batman dieing, but I am afraid that he won't make it to the hostages in time.

So lets look at it in the other way, lets kill off Batman, and in a completely unrealistic way, but one thats completely dramatic. What if while in the Batcave, a mind controlled Robin comes up to him and slits his throat? Its dramatic because Batman was betrayed by the one person he trusts most, and Robin has to deal with the guild of killing Batman while he himself takes up the mantel and becomes the next Batman. This is unrealistic though because its friggin' Batman, he would've seen the knife coming a mile away and easily taken out Robin before he could of killed him. Thus in the end, we're left with what is ultimately a lame death of Batman despite its dramatic effect.

its 130 now and I've gotta get up hella early so I'm going to go to bed. Toodles. More on this later hopefully.

Happy birthday to me

So it happened, after years of planning, preparation and speculation, I turned 21. All in all it was a good birthday. I guess I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to see all my friends, but I'll see the rest of them soon so its no big deal.

I woke up early and just kinda chilled which was nice, because I really haven't been able to do that in a while, what with me either having to go somewhere or something happening. After that I went to the bank, target and two comic shops which was nice because I got myself a few things and April a few presents as well.

For myself I picked up:
Die hard 1-3 in a nice small boxed set for only 20 bucks, so that rocks it hardcore.
Fables Vol. 4, which I'm really enjoying.
Some misc. comics that I've been meaning to get for a while now. I just realized today that I'm like 6 months behind on all my comic books, which sucks, but it shouldn't be too hard to recover from.

After that Mom and I went to get some dinner at Atlanta bread company, and lets face it, potato soup in a sour dough bread bowl is always a good idea. Its an anytime food.

we came home, where I proceeded to read half of m fables volume which is so far blowing me away and also kind of depressing to see these guys get slaughtered by the nemesis.

I really like comics, and I really wish I read more. Its weird though, I love super heroes and super hero comics, but I don't actually read any. Theres so much continuity in them that it feels wierd for me to just try and jump into the series and try to figure out who everyone is. Plus there are always so many tie ins between all the major heroes in both DC and Marvel that it feels like you have to buy just about everything out at the time to get the whole story. Take Civil War for example, this was an event that involved every super hero in the marvel universe more or less, so to get the full story you would of had to buy Iron man, Fantastic four, spiderman, Avengers, Punisher, etc. I mean I would love to jump in and start reading all this world war Hulk going on, but I'd probably have to get about a years worth of hulk back issues to get the context of it all. I think thats why I like the independent works so much, you don't need to read anything but Fables to enjoy Fables, and you don't need to read other Kirkman works to enjoy Invincible.

Speaking of Fables, i've been reading through the volumes of it and I'm really liking it so far. I like how the characters are portrayed and how they all act, but there are a few things that I'm not digging about it. The main problem that I have with it is that the Fables supposedly came to the mundane world centuries ago, like 1500s or something is when the first ones showed up. So they've been here for a long time and now currently most of them reside in New York city in what they call Fabletown, which is actually just a few buildings in NYC. The way they act though it really seems more like they all just recently got there, like 10 years max. Lots of the fables are still struggling to make a living in the mundane world, but I don't see how that would really be if they've been here for so long. Like I don't see how Beauty from Beauty and the Beast could work in a book store, if she's been here for centuries, just because all she'd have to do is save a little each year and be a millionaire by now.

Also there is the issue of magic. Now in the comic, magic is very rare and expensive, as there are only a handful of wizards and witches that made it out of the fable world. This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me though as I would think that in such a crisis situation, the wizards would just give out more or less any enchantment and spell that anyone needs. For example, there is "the farm" which is a place where all of the non-human looking fables live (the three bears and the three little pigs for example) and Bigsby (the big bad wolf) is not allowed to live there because of his past attempts to eat most of the fables there, but because he was reformed and allowed to live in the mundane world, they put an enchantment on him to allow him to shapeshift into a human and back into his wolf form at will. If they could do it for him, why not all the other ones who don't want to live on the farm? Its jut one of those things that I keep thinking about.

anyway, i'm pretty tiered right now, so thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. I'll see you guys tomarrow and I'll try to finish pictures for the rest of ya