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NaNoWriMo: What is it?

Put the ice queens, princesses, witches, monsters, pirates, Doctors, and whatever other costume the kids wore away.  Halloween is almost ove...

Friday, July 31, 2015

Writing Analysis

Alright, so what may have been the start of the LANZ campaign didn't actually start and until we do, I won't have an update.

For all who participated in Camp NaNoWriMo July 2015: Congrats on at least participating!  If you met you're goal, like I did...Double CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!  In my case, my goal was only 15K, and I only barely managed to hit the goal early on the final morning(like 1:30 a. m., talk about worrying!  I managed over 5K in those final 2 days as I worked on a fanfiction that seemed to grip me at the moment.)

Now, today on Facebook in a friend's news feed she got a link to something called Personality Insights.  She happened to share it with me and I decided to test it.  First I used the latest chapter that I managed to type up for Camp NaNo.  Then I tried a part from a different fanfiction that is sitting on my computer waiting for me to return to it.  They both received the same analysis:

You are boisterous and social.
You are unconcerned with art: you are less concerned with artistic or creative activities than most people who participated in our surveys. You are assertive: you tend to speak up and take charge of situations, and you are comfortable leading groups. And you are laid-back: you appreciate a relaxed pace in life.
Your choices are driven by a desire for well-being.
You consider helping others to guide a large part of what you do: you think it is important to take care of the people around you. You are relatively unconcerned with taking pleasure in life: you prefer activities with a purpose greater than just personal enjoyment.



Now, this is the funny thing.  The closest thing to artistic that I have is my writing.  Other folks find other ways to vent when they get mad, but I tend to bottle it up because my brain runs rampant with ideas.  I love all forms of art but feel that I'm not able to put what my brain presents into any artistic form.  I have to find others who have managed to portray exactly what my imagination managed to create.  Most times, when I find them, it's close enough that my brain accepts it as what my imagination was aiming for.

While I can and have been in charge of varying groups and used to not have any qualms about trying to take over, there was a memorable moment when I was child that I am still bitter over.  We were put into groups that had to research the environments.  I had grabbed my notebook, even back in grade school, I felt a need to take notes and have paper and pencil in hand at all times.  No one else in the group had grabbed theirs and one of the others in our group wanting to take control over my notebook and pencil.  I refused, obviously.  We didn't do too well on the project because they couldn't put the essay/speaking portion into a feasible format of sentences.  The first sentence I read was actually a run-on that was followed by a fragment.  The entirety of the paragraph was about one individual fact, as well.

I felt the entirety of the project and what had occurred at the time was unfair.  I resented my classmate trying to take my supplies and then not being able to actually put together a decent project.  I resolved even then that my projects would be done to a level of competence that sat well with me, even if they were never appreciated.

I do try to be rather laid-back.  Rushing all the time and not taking the time to enjoy life is annoying.  In fact, that's part of what's been bothering me lately.  I've got way to many things going on to just take a walk and relax while watching the clouds.

I do like helping others, though.  I like to cook for large groups and if it were easier for me to help others, I would easily be volunteering.  I will freely admit to advocating both recycling and conservation efforts before I turned five.  I tried to help others, but when your voice gets overlooked and you can't seem to find support, you give up, or at least I did.

As for the last sentence...I gave up doing anything for myself a long time ago.  Kind of hard to be able to freely enjoy life when you have four siblings that are more boisterous than you.

I will admit that while I like a bit of socializing, I'm just as happy disappearing for years at a time.

Next I used a portion of an original fiction piece that I had started working on way back in high school.  It's analysis went as follows:

You are social, boisterous and can be perceived as shortsighted.
You are assertive: you tend to speak up and take charge of situations, and you are comfortable leading groups. You are unconcerned with art: you are less concerned with artistic or creative activities than most people who participated in our surveys. And you are confident: you are hard to embarrass and are self-confident most of the time.
Your choices are driven by a desire for well-being.
You are relatively unconcerned with both independence and taking pleasure in life. You welcome when others direct your activities for you. And you prefer activities with a purpose greater than just personal enjoyment.



The only difference was the being hard to embarrass and the self-confidence.  It's not that I'm hard to embarrass or mostly self-confident.  It's more that I read so much that in the realm of words, things were completely different than real-life.  I was able to convince myself that what claimed I was and wanted was truly me and my likes and dislikes.  It no longer is true.  I am hard to embarrass because most people try to with sexual innuendos which I freely bandied with my friends and even now banter with my husband.  I am now self-confident in the fact that if someone doesn't like who I am, they can disappear from my life or learn to deal with it.  It's not on me that you can't interact with me in a way that makes you happy.

After that I decided to analyze my first blog post from Jun 1, 2014:

You are a bit compulsive and sentimental.
You are unconcerned with art: you are less concerned with artistic or creative activities than most people who participated in our surveys. You are content: you are content with your level of accomplishment and do not feel the need to set ambitious goals. And you are empathetic: you feel what others feel and are compassionate towards them.
Your choices are driven by a desire for well-being.
You consider helping others to guide a large part of what you do: you think it is important to take care of the people around you. You are relatively unconcerned with independence: you welcome when others direct your activities for you.



Compulsive?  Yes, I am.   Sentimental?  Most definitely have those moments even if I'm only 28.  Content with where I am?  Yes, and wish others would realize that as well.  Empathetic?  I don't know.  Unconcerned with independence?  I like having choices.  Yes, I'd rather be as one of my neighbors put it a "domestic engineer" or rather a housewife, but the world isn't giving me that option at the moment.  Do I want to be told what to do?  No.  Do I like knowing what the expectations for me by others are?  Perhaps in certain areas of my life, but unconcerned with independence?  Not bloody likely(great, been reading too many Harry Potter fanfics again!)

I also had the blog post for the LANZ campaign analyzed as it was the last post before this one:

You are inner-directed and skeptical.
You are unconcerned with art: you are less concerned with artistic or creative activities than most people who participated in our surveys. You are deliberate: you carefully think through decisions before making them. And you are proud: you hold yourself in high regard, satisfied with who you are.
Experiences that give a sense of connectedness hold some appeal to you.
You are relatively unconcerned with taking pleasure in life: you prefer activities with a purpose greater than just personal enjoyment. You consider helping others to guide a large part of what you do: you think it is important to take care of the people around you.



Yes, I am completely satisfied with who I am, even if I still couldn't explain it to others.  I only think through some of my decisions before making them.  Most of the time I think it through after I've already made it.  What does a "sense of connectedness" even mean?  I can't comment for or against something I just don't understand.

Finally, I decided to analyze this post:

You are sentimental.
You are empathetic: you feel what others feel and are compassionate towards them. You are assertive: you tend to speak up and take charge of situations, and you are comfortable leading groups. And you are intermittent: you have a hard time sticking with difficult tasks for a long period of time.
Your choices are driven by a desire for well-being.
You are relatively unconcerned with tradition: you care more about making your own path than following what others have done. You consider helping others to guide a large part of what you do: you think it is important to take care of the people around you.

Definitely, have a hard time sticking with difficult tasks for long periods of time.  It's why I have a hard time at winning NaNoWriMo and so few of my stories are actually completed!

When it comes to traditions it's more I lack the memory and experience with them.  While some of them, yes, I don't really see a point, others I just don't want to worry.  There were so few traditions when I was growing up, that the few I wish to have I have to do myself.  My husband is just as unconcerned with traditions as I am.  We have traditions, but we leave leeway for our own changes to said traditions as well.  Why shouldn't we wish to blaze our own trail in the traditions department?

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

New Campaign: LANZ Session 0

Getting ready to start a new D&D campaign on Saturdays with a group of friends who live nearby.  Before anyone asks, we play 3.0/3.5e.  I tend to call it 3.25, because there are some things we like to keep from 3.0, but then the bulk of it is 3.5(such as the boots of striding and springing that double base land speed(BLS) and add 10 to jump checks, whereas in 3.5 they only add 10 to BLS and increase jump checks by 5, but the cost is higher.  We've made them greater and lesser boots of striding and springing.)  We'll be playing this campaign approximately every other week so I'm hoping to type a blog for the sessions, that is if anyone's interested, though I may do so even if no one is interested.

I'm creating a duskblade fey'ri with a major titan bloodline trait and two levels of fighter.  Haven't decided much else yet about the character, but the DM(Dungeon Master) is allowing Level Adjustment (LA) buyback from Unearthed Arcana.  The same is true with the bloodline traits.  If we want character flaws or traits, those are being allowed as well, but, mostly, not for me on those.  I'll take the loss of a few(max 3) HD, skill points and save bonus increases in exchange for a boost every so many levels to every level.

I've decided to go with the fire resist and plus two to saves against poison and electricity, but yet to choose the fourth demonic ability.  I thought about the damage reduction.  Being a duskblade, I decided to make her more of a tank, but I don't want to up the LA to 3 instead of 2.  Not sure if it's worth the headache...

Anyway, one of the others in the group is going to be a monk/divine caster(he has yet to make up his mind on which divine caster...last time he was debating between cleric or druid to qualify for the sacred fist prestige class.)  The second one is playing the arcane artificer(last campaign he played the psionic version.)  The final current known PC(player character) is still trying to decide what he wants to play because mostly everything is covered.  There are gaps, but most of them will easily be covered by other abilities the characters will have based on the builds.  I'm not certain on any of the other races, but that's part of the fun.

This campaign will definitely be dealing with multiple planes and planar travel and creatures are going to be commonplace.  We'll be working on characters again this Saturday, but there's a possibility that we may actually start play since once we know what we're playing the rest is pretty easy.

Any suggestions from other D&Ders as to what I should have for my fourth demonic ability?  Leave it in a comment, but my fey'ri is based off the ones from Races of Faerun.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Quick Catch-Up

First things first: I'm sorry to have been silent for so long.  After the death of our friend, things got quite busy.  There were numerous times I wanted to type up a post, but either had to force myself to sleep or wait until I got home.  Then I would be sitting at my computer trying to figure out what the hell I was going to type for the post.  I know I planned to get better and April I almost managed to post only to have RL(real life) work get in the way.  I did try to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo with a goal of only 15,000 words, but only succeeded on hitting 9,000, I think.  I really don't feel like looking it up.  The point is I didn't even hit 10,000 words that month.  I managed to hit 10,000 words last July, so maybe I'll hit 15,000, though I can't promise any updates like I plan for November.

Besides work, we lost another friend.  This time, it was thanks to a drunk driver instead of a heart attack, and recently another friend lost his unborn niece.  It would have been his first which is what makes it so heartbreaking.

Second, it's been a year since I started this blog!  I know, that's nothing compared to some well-known and loved bloggers and vloggers, but I've always been a little technology-challenged and/or impaired.  It's not as though I didn't think about way back then.  I remember setting up a yahoo account in middle school.  In high school, it had somehow managed to disappear from existence.  I don't know how nor did I use the same user name, but I did create a new account.  I've had accounts on some sites for a long time, however not all, in fact most, aren't used.  

I admit it.  I'd much rather read a good story and live within the realm of my imagined world of recreation than keep up with deadlines and the like.  Speaking of which, I should admit that I've almost reached the 1000 word mark for Camp NaNoWriMo, which is great news because it means I've actually had time to sit and type which I plan on doing later today as well.

I thought I'd better give at least a minor update on some of my thoughts, though with everything going on, I have plenty of thoughts.  The question I keep asking myself is...Do I wish to exacerbate a situation I'm not truly knowledgeable on?  So I put forth a question to you.  Just because we read one story and hear folks talking about and making assumptions based off the one story, does that give us the right to tell those within the story that they are wrong or that people need to take a stand?