Here is a list of upcoming post series both for my reference and a heads up if any prove interesting to any of you who read this blog.
Author: sokorra
A thirty-something Graphic Designer and writer who likes to blog about books, movies and History.
Lady of Shadows: An Introduction
Many of those who know me know that for the last few years (probably longer then that, honestly) I’ve been working on an original novel that takes the myth of Persephone and turns it into something a bit more Scifi-ish.
I’ve written different drafts of it for Nano over the years, scrapping quite a few. The original novel was actually taking place in Ancient Greece. Then I made it have no connection at all. The current draft, which I wrote primarily for Nano 2014, is a midway tale. In it, the Mythological characters are in fact humans, just another ‘breed’ if you will. They live almost eternal lives and live in pocket spaces to co-exist among their less advanced and shorter lived counterparts. Cronus (sometimes known as Saturn) has been evicted from the pocket worlds for essentially being an evil scientist and using regular humans in experiments. The thought was that without his technology and laboratory, he wouldn’t be able to cause harm. But he persevered, and has power within the regular spaces of Earth. Since then his adoptive children and one biological child, Zeus, led a rebellion of sorts trying to keep him from taking over the Earth with his corporation, Titan, Inc.
The “Wikithrall” effect
Wiki-thrall is a term my sister and I came up with for those times when you go on wikipedia to look for one thing, and then an hour later you are still there, sometimes not even on a subject anywhere related to your original topic. Once such case, I was researching the bird “Wren” because I decided to call the species that were to be the big bads in my Stargate Atlantis fanfic that and wanted to see if there was anything of the actual animal that might be good to use. At least I started there. Somehow by the end of the day I landed on the history of Pepsi. Still not sure how I got there.
Sometimes its just by clicking links on the page. This happens alot when I’m looking up people. You see a highlighted association, so you check that person out. And suddenly you are reading about a Rock star who once wrote a song about a cousin of a friend of a cousin of the original person you were researching.
I love learning, so its not necessarily a bad thing. However I do think sometimes it hinders when you are actually doing research with a purpose, like when I was doing research for a paper on German artist Anselm Kiefer. I was doing topic research on Norse mythology, for which his painting was based, and ended up learning about Norse deities that were not even involved with the story at hand. Of course it probably didn’t help that Thor had just come out on DVD at the time so I was intrigued by the differences between the comics and the actual mythology.
Today I was trying to show my father an article on the actor Armie Hammer, who is in a movie I liked and made my father watch last night, The Man From Uncle. However I ended up on the page of his Great-Grandfather which lead to learning some interesting history.
Its not a good example of Wikithrall, but it reminded me of that, and I started wondering if other people had names for it, or what interesting paths led them to new information.
This Day in History
Today was my birthday, and I was interested in finding out what actually was happening in the world the day I was born. So a quick google brought me to the New York Times website which apparently has summery pages on various days of the past.
Things that happened the day I was born
- Reagan made Americans disappointed when he decided to bring sanctions against Libya. Needless to say, many of our Allies and Libya’s allies were not happy either.
- Reagan wanted to sell government loans to private collectors to make government smaller. To be honest I’m not sure how this works in making government smaller other then saving paper.
- An antiviral substance called Interferon seems to work against the Common cold. WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS?!? I looked it up and all I got was that later betaseron was developed from it and that is used to treat MS. Wait, a more specific google search turned up a 1985 paper detailing a study using the substance. Basically it can reduce the cold, but it causes more blood in your mucus and doesn’t seem to keep others from getting it from you.
- Gorbachev introduces a unemployment program because modernizing Russia’s economy means a temporary increase in unemployment.
- A group of Jewish slave laborers win a settlement against German munitions factories that used their labor.
- Unemployment was down to 6.8, the lowest in 5 years in the United States. (Current unemployment is 5.5, so we are doing much better now)
- Kodak stops selling their answer to Polaroid after loosing a case. Although I couldn’t find out if January 9th was the day they stopped producing it or the day they were taken to trial.
And I found a video with the top 40 songs for January 9th. Oddly enoguh I only knew about 3 of the songs. But at least I knew the #1 song the day I was born. Pet Shop Boys’ West End Girls.
Writing Habits
I think if you asked any writer they would have different advice about habits in writing. About what helps us write.
For example, I like to make character or mood playlists to listen to while I write. It helps me get into the zone of writing. It doesn’t always help, but it usually does. Other writers however like a quiet area to write. Right now I have no music on, as there is no specific mood I want to be in, and I’m not writing a story so there are no characters or relationships I want to focus on. Sometimes on days I have had too much noise stimulation (a trigger for my anxiety problems) I write without sound simply because I can’t stand more noise.
But most of the time I have music playing.
Another habit of mine is to write on my laptop. Some writers prefer a keyboard while others prefer pen, pencil and paper. The reason I prefer the keyboard (and a regular sized one, not one on a tablet or phone) is I can type as I think. I don’t write nearly as fast as its coming to my head. Not that typing doesn’t end up with a few mash up words too. I am always amazed by people who hand write their stories, because to me that takes a lot of time, dedication, and pain as writing for long stretches ends up making my hand cramp up. I do carry around a small memo pad in my bag to jot down any scene or idea that comes to me when I don’t have easy access to my laptop. And sometimes I write short stories in notebooks while on breaks between classes or work.
Every writer has habits they keep to help them write, or feel comfortable as they write. And each writer has different habits. The trick is to find out what your own are. Is it playing music while you write? Finding a nice empty silent corner and writing away in your notebook? It might be finding a really comfy chair or a cafe or library where the ambient noise is comfortable to you. Maybe its doing a daily sprint where you do nothing but write for a period of time.
There isn’t just one way to write, so while any writer could give advice on what to do to help you keep writing, it usually just comes down to finding out what helps you.
Mr. Washington, I presume.
So as I said in my last post, I’ve made an attempt to start reading books about Presidents so I can say I know something they did while President besides be President. I decided to start in order, because I might as well. (A legitimate “because of reasons” responce).
So we start with George Washington, our first president. Or rather our first president once we got the right constitution in order.
George Washington is a pretty well known President. Its hard to forget the name of the guy who basically had to set up the office himself. I found a book available through Kindle Unlimited and started to read, to see if I could learn anything different about our President.
It wasn’t exactly the most enlightening book I ever read as far as a bio went, but I got some new impressions. Basically George Washington’s reasons for joining in the revolution had some tints of ego (the British Military wouldn’t accept him as an officer because he was American born.) and really all he wanted to do was settle down on his farm and make money.
What was interesting was his involvement in Western Pennsylvania. He actually owned land in the Ohio River Valley, and wanted to build a canal into Virginia, this controlling the shipping of the area. Smart Idea that never went anywhere (sadly for Washington).
But basically he would go home, set it to rights again and be happily ordering people to farm for him when Congress would whine and bring him back in again.
All Washington wanted was a break. I think he probably hated congress as much as we do now.
Maybe I should have chosen a different book, and I’m sure that the following presidential summaries will be better if only because I’ll write them sooner after I read the book.
In summery
- Washington wanted to join the British Army but they wouldn’t let him be an officer because he was American Born.
- He basically designed the office of the Presidency because no one had been there before.
- He hated the ideas of political parties, but Jefferson and Hamilton couldn’t let us have nice things
- All he wanted to do was hang out with his wife and look after his properties in the quiet of Virginia.
Resolutions & Goals
Every New Years, a popular tradition is to make a set of resolutions for the coming year. And its almost a tradition to fail at keeping them too.
This year I’ve decided I’m not making resolutions. I’m making goals. While its not really all that different, when you say “Goal” that puts less stress on meeting it while still being a motivator. It also allows you to be more flexible. If a goal needs altered, it feels less like a failure.
My goals for 2016 are as follows.
- Write on this blog every day.
- Write on 750words every day. For those who don’t know, 750 words is a website that is dedicated to keeping people writing by setting a daily goal of 750 words. You go on there and you get points for keeping up with your writing. It also gives you statistics on the mood of what you wrote, how many pauses and breaks you took (basically any break in typing over 3 minutes) and various other data. Its a good tool if you have trouble getting yourself writing. Its also a good place for brainstorming because it saves all your entries for the month, so you can go back and see what you wrote when you just sat down and wrote for 30 minutes or so.
- Revitalize my graphic design portfolio. Revitalize my love for graphic design. Start an Etsy store and start earning income for what I went to college for.
- Get a new day job. My current job gives me too much stress for not enough money to pay all my bills.
- Read 52 books. My friends and I have a yearly project where we try to read at least 50 books in a year. I decided to make it 52 this year as there are 52 weeks in the year. As I have only once made it to 50, we shall see if this was a good idea or not. The basic premise is that I will read books available in (e)print (ie Fanfiction doesn’t really count, sadly) on their own (so book on short stories is one book, you can’t count it by story). Also it needs to be primarily reading, so math text books don’t count either.
It will effect this blog as I will do a review/end notes for each book I read this year. I will also keep a page listing all my books for the year along with links to their review/commentary post. This will be tagged/categorized as bookit (Does anyone else remember that program? I hope it still exists.)
- Read a book on each president so I know one thing about each of them other then they were President at some point. So far I’ve only done Washington, and of course I know all the presidents Post Reagan. I might make this a running post of mine. Perhaps that is tomorrow’s Post topic – What I learned about Washington.
- Draw each day.
- Finish an original novel. Also finish a couple of my fandom related projects. Get my WIP list down to under 10 (its at 30+ right now)
- Learn to drive.
I don’t know how many of these goals I will manage to achieve, but I felt that writing them all down on a post might give me more motivation to keep it. After all, I told everyone I would do it, didn’t I?
So here’s me keeping at least one of my goals for the day. Now to just do my 750 words writing and start reading Jane, Stewardess of the Air Lines by Ruth Wheeler which is an old novel. The copyright inside my copy reads 1934.
Ancestry & Tradition
As an American it is difficult to find oneself connected to any particular tradition. I know some of my friends who have parents or grandparents who are recent immigrants have a stronger connection to their past then I do. My family has been here for awhile. And there are so many groups of people mixed in there its hard to really connect to any of them.
My last name is German. However, the most recent member of my family to not live in the US was actually Greek, so does that make me more German or Greek? And do I actually have any traditions or family recipes that come from those links?
My family also contains people from Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England (yep, we have the UK down. Definitely Anglo), Poland, and apparently a French Jew although I never had that one particularly explained.
I suppose when I think about it, I identify as “American” first (for that is what I am) and if I have to go into something connecting my family history I go for German-Irish. There is alot of Irish in my family, but that is not unusual for someone living in the US. And like I said, my last name is German.
The tradition my family has of eating pork and sauerkraut for New Years is believed to be a German tradition, so I suppose there is that. Although apparently in the US it seems to be more of a Pennsylvanian tradition then one held country wide.
Sometimes I feel odd, not having that connection any tradition or what feels like culture. I know that there are probably many things I do that are uniquely American in nature, and someone from another country might observe that as my ‘culture’. But sometimes I just feel like I should be more knowledgeable about the places my family came from.
Although I once read on a website that my family comes from a part of Germany that keeps switching hands with the Danes so…maybe I’m Danish too.
Balalaika (1939)
Well, I missed one day out of the year already, but I’m going to just shrug that one up. Its the holiday weekend, I can give myself a break. Besides of all the things to worry about, posting on this blog is not going to be one of them. But enough about that, lets go on to today’s actual post subject.
For this post, I decided I wanted to talk about one of my favorite classic films. Balalaika is a 1939 musical based on stage musical produced a few years earlier. It stars Nelson Eddy and Ilona Massey. It also has some notable character actors in the background including Charles Ruggles (The Grandfather in Parent Trap) and Frank Morgan (better known as the Wizard from The Wizard of Oz).
The plot of the movie is an interesting alternative history of Russia. Instead of the Romanovs, the royal family of Russia is the Karagins, but that doesn’t mean the people of Russia are any less likely to try and rebel. Eddy plays the Prince, Peter Karagin who falls in love with a singer he hears at the Balalaika, a club in St. Petersburg. He disguises himself as a student to romance Lydia Marakova, who is secretly a revolutionary along with her father (a music professor) and brother (a pianist). They do the local work of the Party from their home where Professor Marakov also teaches music.
Peter manages to fool Lydia and her family into believing he’s just a music student by singing a great rendition of The Volga Boatman, a Russian folksong.
Suitably impressed, Lydia decides to give Peter “Teranda” a chance. He in turn decides to use his princely influence to get her a interview with the head of the Russian Opera. The two fall in love but things of course don’t go as planned.
Lydia’s brother turns out to be a hothead who is not willing to just wait for the right moment, and goes to hold a revolt in town. Unfortunately he is killed when the Cossack (led by Peter) come to break up the crowd. This leads her father to agree to be part of an assassination plot of General Kargin, Peter’s father. I’m guessing Peter is probably a son of a younger son, thus not actually high on the line of succession as they both make it out of this movie alive, and we all know what happened to the Romanovs
While Paval Marakov can’t do it in the end, a family friend does shoot the General. This of course ends Lydia & Peter’s relationship. For one, Lydia is arrested at her debut at the Opera for participation in the General’s not-so-fatal shooting. Also, Peter is off to war.
Things don’t go so well for our pair as the movie continues. There is a revoltion in Russia which makes Peter and many of his aristocratic friends (and fellow Cossacks) flee to Paris where they now live much less effluent lives. Lydia, freed from prison by Peter as one of his last acts before going off to war, finds herself struggling to keep a job.
The movie ends with them all joining together for a New Years day party years after the war. Peter’s former valet Nicki and his wife Marsha (who was Lydia’s maid when she sang at the original club) have opened a Russian themed club called the Balalaika and have decided to serve the Aristocracy of Russia one more time as many of them have become their close friends.
They both watch sorrowfully as Peter continues to be heartbroken, and they worry about Lydia who has disappeared for awhile. However they both end up at the Club that night, and through some careful scheming, Marsha and Nicki get the two lovebirds together while singing a New Years wish to a mirror, and thus reuniting them for a happy New Year.
Its a good movie, in my opinion and one of my favorites of Nelson Eddy. Its full of great songs. I wish I could find a video of Nelson Eddy singing Silent Night in German with the German troops as the two sides hold a truce for Christmas.
The only regret I have is since this was never a book (to my knowledge) we don’t really get to see what happened with Peter & Lydia during the years they were apart. It also doesn’t really give you a good idea of the passing of time. Just that you get the feeling years have passed.
If you are in the mood for a classic musical or for operettas, I suggest watching this movie. It has wonderful singing and a good love story.
Happy New Years
Hello Everyone, Its been a long time.
I have decided as part of my new Years goals (I’ve done away with Resolutions, because I never keep them) I’m going to start posting on this blog more often. I’ll be writing about various subjects, from writing, to reviews, to various subjects that have come across my screen. My only goal is to have a post a day. And hopefully not just to fill the space.
The last two years I’ve been using a blogging service called Bubblews, and it recently met its slow demise, but it had alot of my Star Trek rewatch that I last posted about. I have not yet decided if I am going to continue it, and if I do if I will begin anew or just start where I last was (Season 4 of Voyager).
I also (at the moment) don’t intend on deleting my earlier posts, which include various things, including fanfic and art. I may decide to delete some posts later after I go through them.
So I hope everyone is doing well, and that you will enjoy what is to come on my blog.
Sokorra Lewis 