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I caught my own kiriban. xD

Check it out:



Click if you can't see the full picture, which you probably won't be able to. Dunno, haven't looked yet. P:

My Mom and Pants

She has this firm belief that me and her are the same size, except that I'm skinnier, despite the fact that she is several inches taller than me.

So basically, whenever she buys/receives a pair of jeans that are too skinny for her, or just up and buys pants meant for me, she makes me try them on, thinking that they'll be a perfect fit. I put them on to humor her, but they are always far too big. Not in the waist, but in then length. The legs drag past the arch of my foot- bad. The waist is too long and pretty-much reaches my ribcage. If I'm lucky, they only reach my belly button.

I can't stand jeans that reach above my hips. Midway up is the longest I can stand. Above them, and it just drives me crazy. I can't wear them. So I always give them back saying they're way too big. I suspect that makes her feel fat- something just a little too tight for her is voluminous on me?

So then she tells other people, not realizing that I'm within hearing distance, and they're all like, "Oh, when she puts on her Freshman 15 she'll fit."

No. The problem is not my weight. It's my height. I'm not as tall as you, Mom. I prefer shorter pants. Not low riders- I hate those too. But the mid-rise, that hit my hips without being too low or too high. You should know that. Every time we go shopping together, the only pants I come out of are mid-rise, even though you suggest all sorts of high-rise, way-too-long jeans.

I'm the shortest one in the family (discounting my younger siblings, but it's already obvious that they're going to grow taller), and everyone makes fun of me about that. Keep that in mind when you're getting pants. I'm shorter than you. We're not the same size, and won't be until you're 85 and start shrinking (at which point I'll probably be the heavier one so we still won't be xD).

That's not how you do it.

I really hate it when people say totally stupid things. Everyone is allowed his own opinion, but it is a true fact that some opinions are very well worth arguing.

Like this one that Zach posted on Facebook: "Everyone in Phantom of the Opera!!! AMAZING JOB!!! It was way better than the one in Las Vegas! Congratulations on an amazing show!!!"

First part is true. Second part is not.

The play was really good for its level. Incredible, really. It was better than some versions put on by hobby theatres, but those are honestly usually at about the same level as a high school past that you're more likely to get adults in it, so they can be judged together somewhat fairly. More fairly than high school and Broadway, at least.

However, Broadway is an entirely different level. It puts all other plays to shame if you compare them. Other than the dullness of our version's chandelier compared to the Broadway's version, I did my best not to judge the play against when I saw it in Las Vegas. If I had, I would have hated it. High school plays are not as good as Broadway. There is no changing that. Broadway has millions of dollars to put into their productions. They play for years, decades, straight. The actors are adults (unless there is a child character in the play, of course).

Broadway is a high, high level production. High school plays simply do not compare to them. I disliked our school's production of Les Mis because I made the mistake of comparing it to Broadway and the changes they made from that, the lower level of production... it was a disappointing play. (Plus the casting sucked anyway, even without Broadway making it seem worse.)

I have seen a lot of plays, high school, junior high, grade school, Broadway, playhouse, and college alike. I have seen incredible productions from the sixth grade at my old grade school. But I cannot compare them to Broadway. I have seen incredible productions on every level, but they are only incredible on their level. That's where they belong. You don't compare elephants to camels, and you don't compare high school to Broadway.

I've been in plays, I've done drama, I've discussed with cast and staff from Broadway productions. I'm well acquainted with a couple who are former Broadway actors. They have a lot of stories, a lot of knowledge, and a lot of experience. I know what goes on there. I'm well aware of the work on the various levels of productions. High school will never put in as much effort as Broadway. It doesn't have the funds, time, or maturity available.

You just don't compare those. They're not comparable, unless you want to either ruin one or sound like a complete idiot. He could say, "I enjoyed the play as much as Las Vegas (or more than)", but saying it was better is an incorrect statement. Is the Mona Lisa better than The Thinker? No, but I can enjoy it just as much (or more). They're two different things and it's unfair to compare them.

Can I Dislike comments on Facebook?

Bad news, you guys.

I'm giving a talk in church on Sunday. Just found out.

:C

Update: Actually it went quite well. I spoke on faith and character and people seemed to think the talk was a good one and had some good insights. Yay me~

Is humor art?

I believe it is. Humor is the basis of all sorts of art genres, such as satire, limericks, and comic strips. Would you call Charlie Brown art? How could you not? It's as much a classic as the Mona Lisa, albeit in a different way.

Are you guys familiar with Demotivational posters? They're spoofs of the Motivational posters, full of jokes rather than inspiration. There are certainly totally stupid ones out there, but most of them I love, even if I'm not familiar with the character or idea being joked about in them. They have a finesse that doesn't require previous knowledge, it's just a joke, plain and simple, and it's funny. It's fun to look at, I enjoy them, people don't usually draw them themselves but they come up with the joke and put it all together. It takes effort, if that is a criteria for art, which this girl I'm going to talk about believes.

Long story short, lately on dA there has been a sudden Anti-Demotivational poster movement. Some popular artist said he didn't like them and suddenly no one does and they're going around flaming all the DMPs on the site.

I was looking at one and chuckling over it, and I scrolled down to read the comments to see how many others were enjoying it. Plenty. But there was a also a girl that was in the movement and had posted this (curses edited :P):

"this is a website FOR ART , NOT MOTIVATIONAL POSTERS. *** people are annoying. all these do is clutter up deviantart. you see, ART is in deviantart so obviously this doesn't belong here. i really want to go into a fit of rage right now"

I was irratited, and hit on two things in my reply,
"Said the person who's using her sig to beg and can't capitalize the letter I.

Honestly, is there a serious definition for art? No. If writing half a sentence about how someone is depressed about her love life is art enough to make the front page, I believe that attaching a joke to a picture is art enough to be allowed on dA. Humor is allowed in art. Humor is an art. It requires taste, tact, and at last a little effort, depending on the wit of the maker. Demotivational posters clutter up dA no more than near traces people make of anime characters or Pokemon, but practically by default are far more clever than those, even though the traces are considered drawing, aka a form of art. The Walmart smiley is a form of commercial art.

This is prose with a picture attached. It's art too. Maybe not to your taste, but that doesn't give you any right to bash it."

Because three things are going on here. One, in her signature she was begging for gifts and money. I looked at her profile and in her journal she was begging for gifts and money. Second, obviously her grammar sucked. When you're out flamin', that's a bad thing to do. Every semi-intelligent person on the site will see you getting after someone not only over something totally stupid, but in a totally stupid way. You really want to take chances with that? And combine it with begging, which makes you look even worse? So she got a couple warnings for the future as well as a fairly valid argument.

She replied as follows:
"OH BOO HOO. Yeah, I can capitalize 'i' but maybe i didn't feel like it because I don't feel like wasting time making sure my grammar is absolutely perfect.
personally, i really don't care what your opinion is. i REALLY don't care if you don't care what mine is.
If the artist puts ABSOLUTELY ZERO EFFORT INTO IT then i do not consider it art. if she actually hand drew the picture or actually took it, i might change my opinion. you're just dragging this out."

Wow, that shows how worthy you are of being listened to. I care what her opinion is, obviously. I put the time in to argue it. I took it in and then stated my own opinion, with evidence to back it.

You all know that I'm argumentative to a fault, and my next reply was practically an essay so I'll summarize. Basically, along with pointing out that it you look a lot more intelligent when you capitalize I and that it shouldn't waste any time to push down the Shift key, I further explained that there is no definition for art and thus anything can be, and no one can honestly say that it isn't. There is no argument for what is not art, only for what any random person feels is. I pointed out that in history, humorous art has been viewed as low quality, and by some people it is still today, but it is still extremely popular today and only growing in popularity. Humor is an art. It requires thought and an understanding of language, which both take effort. Why should sticking a joke on a well known photo remove that?
Someone will always find something to be art, and by the definition of the word, anything and everything can be. I find DMPs to be art, just like a lot of other people.


A lot of people are on my side in the argument and are sympathizing with the artist too. There have only been two people that say the poster isn't art and shouldn't be on dA, the girl who did the original bashing and someone who got on and agreed with her and has been generally ignored since he never came back to say more.
Also... I'm just going to guess that the girl is going to say "im going to be the better person and stop arguing", which is really an extremely vain statement that I hate to hear from people, and it also means they can't think of a comeback so I think I'll probably win really soon. >.>
Edit: She said "tl;dr" aka giving up and slamming her fist on the keyboard. I win. :D

There are a lot of sides to art. I can pick up a rock and say, "This is art" and it won't be necessarily, but I can pick up the same rock and say, "This is a work of art that God put together for me to admire" and suddenly it is.

Taking a picture, which is art, and adding a joke to it, also art, does not remove the fact that one or the other is or is not art. A lot of people dislike DMPs because the pictures are "plagiarized", despite the fact that it is a free use picture with a source attached, which nulls that argument. Others think that it's because there's no effort put in, which is simply incorrect. The artist has to find the picture, put it on the template, come up with and write the joke, etc. That, I believe, is effort, even if in some cases it is minimal. Not that effort is a requirement for art in the first place. Others think they aren't art because they aren't funny... to them. To someone else it is, so the fact remains: art.

Humor has been a basis for art for a long time. It's the art of comedy.

What's your argument?

Me Push

Hey guys. I guess it's been a little bit since I've blogged and I don't have a whole lot to say (unless you want to hear about Dirt Cup) so I thought I'd push up a silly comic I've been doing lately.

I know most of my friends aren't really into Pokemon, but it's a Pokemon thing. Not just Pokemon, but the Nuzlocke challenge.

The rules for this challenge are as follows:
1. If your Pokemon faints, it is dead and you have to release it.
2. You can catch only the first Pokemon you encounter in each new area.

The catching thing severely limits you, since you can't look for Pokemon with personalities that will give them better stats and/or that have better abilities. Or just Pokemon you want more. I've run into a lot of useless Rattata.

Anyway, I'm updating this comic once a week (every Saturday). It's sketchy and low quality, but it's a work in keeping a steady art schedule, and maybe it will improve over time. I'm kind of planning on it doing so. We'll see.

Here's the first page, which links to all the rest if you want to keep reading:
Page 1

Page 1 is by far the worst, so don't just stop reading there because the comic format sucks (because it does xP).