Ch-ch-ch check it out.

shanankan.com

Finally got my arse into gear, bought the domain and configured a site. I've decided that I'm gonna use that domain as my main portfolio for my writing aspirations. Well, technically it's not just writing, it's all forms of storytelling, living up to my self-professed raconteurism. I intend to keep a record of articles, essays, humour pieces, short stories, poetry, lyrics, plays, screenplays, games and whatever else I can create in that portfolio.

There's also gonna be a blog section, which will *not* be replacing this, as this and that will serve a very different person. This one is, more than anything, a playground for my thoughts, ideas, concepts, and writing styles/techniques. That one is the "professional" (yes, I know I've argued ad nauseum that professionalism doesn't exist) one where I keep people updated on actual projects. Most of the stuff there will be edited and well-thought out, not the higgledy-piggledy, stream of consciousness approach I take here.

If you go there right now you'll note it's pretty much just all fluff content right now. I've got the template and layout all figured out. I've yet to actually make some actual social media'esque things, like Tweet buttons and sharing widgets and Facebook things. That'll come in due time.

There's a few blog posts on here I want to use. And that's not that surprising, as there are 600+ of them :P They'll be edited down and made more coherent.

A limitation of NameCheap, the platform I'm using, is that I can't change the A Record *and* give a redirect for the same domain, chiefly the main one, @. I'm not sure if other providers use it, but frankly  I'm not too fussed about it. I've made it so www.shanankan.com takes you to a landing page where it'll be mostly attractive to potential employers and shanankan.com takes you directly to the blog. There's not much I could actually do about it :P Outside of building like 2 Tumblr accounts that look identical, I don't see it working.

*gets busy populating it with content*

I have no idea ...

I have no idea what is happening with this blog anymore. I tried my darndest to revitalise it after The Incident, but I swear that entire debacle just ruined it for me. I'm not ready to call it quits yet and quite frankly, the blog never enters into my mind anymore. As a consequence of this, the mindfulness that I had developed over the past few years and the vigilant theorising and contemplative outlook seems to have vanished.

I seem quite content to sit back and just watch the world go by, neither content nor bothered with  whether I throw a boulder into the stream or not. I suppose that's not that surprising, I seem to be right on schedule. I turn 21 in a bit over a month. In most parts of the world I'd be considered an adult.

Perhaps that Incident has pushed me out of being the beautiful thing that is a teenager into being a cynical, uninspired, boring and wholly predictable adult.

FML.



That said, I think I may have just discovered the best course in the entire world. Well AJ did and then he recommended it to me. And I took it. I've not even had my first class yet, but just based on the frenetic messages the course convener has been sending out as well as the absolutely brilliant course guide, I'm excited. I will have a judgement on Thursday. Perhaps I will tell you, but seriously in all likelihood I won't update this for another month.

Oh look, I truly have just become a cynic.

Quotes for y'all

Some quotes for you all since apparently I can't be arsed to write here anymore :( There are a few really good ones here. Sourced from here.

And this guy knew that he wasn't accepted by the staff, didn't even try. He didn't dress well. He didn't pretend to be one of them. People around that place didn't think he had anything they wanted, except when they needed him - because he was right, which meant that nothing else mattered. And they had to listen to him.

-- Greg House

Doubt, n. The philosophical device Descartes so cleverly used to prove everything he previously believed.

-- L. A. Rollins, Lucifer's Lexicon

Man, n. An irrational animal whose irrationality is best demonstrated by his irrational belief in his rationality.

-- L. A. Rollins, Lucifer's Lexicon

"I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do."

-- Robert A. Heinlein

Menahem sighed. 'How can one explain colours to a blind man?'

'One says', snapped Rek, 'that red is like silk, blue is like cool water, and yellow is like sunshine on the face.'

-- David Gemmell, "Legend"

I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn’t know.

-- Mark Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi"

"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."

--Friedrich Nietzsche

Nature draws no line between living and nonliving.

-- K. Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation

A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than yesterday.

-- Jonathan Swift (also attributed to Pope)

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

-- Abraham Lincoln

Hunches are not bad, they just need to be allowed to die a natural death when evidence proves them wrong.

-- Steve Moore, former FBI agent

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny..."

-- Isaac Asimov

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.

-- Plutarch

A superstition is a premature explanation that overstays its time.

-- George Iles

Human stupidity is formidable but not invincible.

-- Robert C. W. Ettinger, The Prospect of Immortality

Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain.

-- Friedrich Schiller

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.

-- Often attributed to Pablo Picasso

"Uproot your questions from their ground and the dangling roots will be seen. More questions!"

--'Mentat Zensufi admonition', Chapterhouse Dune; Frank Herbert

New Manga

Oh shit, I've just noticed that I talked about the short film thing with Gordon, which as of right now has received little progress from what I had discussed last week; and that I've not mentioned starting a manga with my friend Chris.

Well starting a manga is going a bit far, right now we're working on developing some ideas and character designs. It's the story I conceived for a novel series. My preference, even then, was to use the story in a way that wasn't novel-based, I just hadn't the people-talent to ring it to fruition. I've since then discovered Chris as a viable candidate.

I quickly sketched out my nine major characters with some descriptions to him and he's got back with one so far and that was freakin' brilliant. Brought the character alive for me. I've also, through discussion with him, changed the setting of my story from a traditional medieval RPG-type world to a post-apocalyptic cityscape. This changes the geography of my world a little bit, but I think it would do the story justice and plays rather nicely with some of the thematical issues I wish to tackle.

Right now we're just trying to put together a polished package, and hopefully we can try to market it to some proper manga publishing folk. There's a local Australian magazine, Kiseki, which might be interesting. I even bought their first issue today, just to see whether we'd be a good fit and just to get a general idea of pacing for a chapter.

And I'm kind of at a loss, in the same way I was with Liberi Ex Janus. For me, the chapters that are released every 2 months, i.e. 20-30 pages, it not long enough for any good self-contained idea to take place. At the same time, releasing a graphic novel at once can't happen because my first story arc isn't self-contained enough to warrant a novel. Maybe I'm just a very verbose writer (in that I use dialogue far too much), but 30 pages ... isn't a lot at all. Especially in this Kiseki magazine where each page contains 3 rows max, this limits how much can be said per page.

The problem, I find, with short sharp pages with crisp dialogue is that it just always seems to want to make everything fast-paced. I like to play with light and shade. Slow things down, take a breather and reflect upon things. I feel like when I'm reading one of these things that all the characters are hurtling towards some designed ending, and that's precisely what I want to avoid.

It also means that characterisation through dialogue becomes far more difficult. I suppose this explains the heavy reliance in anime and manga on character traits and catch phrases, to quickly build character. I suppose in some animes music also plays that role, but for the most part, that's it. And that annoys me. I want to write genuine and true dialogue and speaks true to the characters in my mind.

This isn't a problem I'm going to resolve in one blog post, especially when I'm tired after 3 hours of playing Team Fortress 2. Just thought I'd keep you guys updated.

Same collaborators, new project

I hate myself for not feeling the urge to update this anymore. 2 years later and perhaps I've burnt out? Even Gordon last night commented on how infrequently this baby is updated. That list of projects I compiled a while back ... this blog was one of 2 or 3 projects that I'd actually kept up with and now it seems like this too is slipping into the void of hiatus.

Well, not if I can do anything about it!

It occurred to me two nights ago that when Gordon and I first started considering creative collaborations together the first idea we jumped to was working on a manga, and not once did we even consider the remotest possibility that our skills could be put to other areas. And so I got to thinking, a manga is heaps and heaps of work and perhaps neither of us were really ready to take that on just yet ... but are there any other mediums? Then it hit me.

Animated shorts.

That is, short animated films, the kind of 2-3 minute videos that can be funny or dramatic or inspirational. In my mind I'm thinking "Kiwi" type videos, except not 3D, since neither of us are skilled enough in that field. I would write them and I guess direct them, and he could design and animate them. Neither of us are musically inclined, so I'd just have to find a musician to do the music, probably Ned or someone.

I decided that for the first few we wouldn't go lurching into the world of voices, since neither of us have the equipment to do it well. Perhaps one day I can enlist the help of Chris, who's big into the whole voice acting thing and even if he can't help he might be able to find the contacts who could. But first things first, let's see we can produce some quality content and build some kind of small audience at the very least.

With this in mind I went to be ... it must've been 2am at night and I was lying there, half asleep, desperately trying to come up with an idea. And an idea came. The more I thought about it the more of a plot came through, with specific storyboard-like key frames as well as the ending. I knew the metaphorical and allegorical meaning, and the message, if you want to be trite, of the short.

Last night, in a hotel bar no less, Gordon and I talked it through. It liked the idea of collaborating on shorts. We both realised that a manga, right now as a two man operation with no real prospects of it going anywhere, was too vast of an undertaking and commitment. Especially since we're both incredibly lazy people. As such animated shorts are a genius happy-medium. He's on a month long break right now and I will be soon too. What better time for two jobless teens to do this than now?

We're both in this. Right now I'm gonna finish off my exams and he's going to work on an artistic style that I'd be happy with. My goal is to make it look non-flashy and a polished looking product. I want it to look simple and not too laboured, I think the story needs a simple artistic style. Once he finds one that works I'll get to work storyboarding in stick figures, and then Gordon will re-storyboard in a better graphical style and also put his input into the idea. Then once he gets it, I can look for a composer.

And on music, Gordon and I both agreed that we don't just want the music to be a background soundtrack. It has to be an integral character and moving force of the story. It has to be memorable and something people can form an emotional attachment to such that each time they hear the music they relive those emotions. I listen to the Kiwi! music from time to time and I'm always just as inspired.

At the same time we wanted to avoid just making a music video. At least for this one. It does occur to me that making animated music videos could also be neat - anyone know what the rules on Youtube and stuff are about music videos? If all else fails I can look at some DFTBA artists, since I know that one can use their music in videos so long as it's credited to them as such. I need to double check that.

Either way, exciting times. I like being back in the saddle for creating things. It's been about 2 years since this blog started up. And even then I wanted to work on projects. 2 years ago I pictured that I'd've completed something by now :P

Here's hoping 2 years from now I'll have finished something. :)

So I've not been around, but here are some quotes

I imagine that if my friend finally came to the conclusion that he were a machine, he would be infinitely crestfallen. I think he would think: "My God! How Horrible! I am only a machine!" But if I should find out I were a machine, my attitude would be totally different. I would say: "How amazing! I never before realized that machines could be so marvelous!"

-- Raymond Smullyan

If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again. Then quit. There's no use in being a damn fool about it.

-- W. C. Fields

To a very great extent, the term science is reserved for fields that do progress in obvious ways. But does a field make progress because it is a science, or is it a science because it makes progress?

-- Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

I know that most men — not only those considered clever, but even those who are very clever and capable of understanding most difficult scientific, mathematical, or philosophic, problems — can seldom discern even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as obliges them to admit the falsity of conclusions they have formed, perhaps with much difficulty — conclusions of which they are proud, which they have taught to others, and on which they have built their lives.

-— Leo Tolstoy, 1896 (excerpt from "What Is Art?")

"Sanity is conforming your thoughts to reality. Conforming reality to your thoughts is creativity."

-- Unknown

Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.

-- Democritus

You wouldn't believe how much time people spend looking for evidence that something couldn't possibly work for them. If they spent one-tenth the time looking for something that DID work, they'd have their problem solved almost immediately.

-- Eric Pepke

Man's mind is a mirror of a universe that mirrors man's mind.

-- Joseph Chilton Pearce

Speak for yourself Sir, I intend to live forever

-- Jonathan Frakes, as William T Riker

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

-- Arthur Conan Doyle

The universe will expand, then it will collapse back on itself, then will expand again. It will repeat this process forever. What you don't you know is that when the universe expands again, everything will be as it is now. Whatever mistakes you make this time around, you will live through on your next pass. Every mistake you make, you will live through again, & again, forever. So my advice to you is to get it right this time around. Because this time is all you have.

-- KPAX