National Short Story Month

Happy wedding day! May is National Short Story Month! Or maybe April is. It's a bit complicated - let me explain.

November is [Inter]National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short). It has been so for years (since 1999, to be exact) and was started up by a guy named Chris Baty who wanted to write a novel in a month just to see if he could do it. It's centered around the non-profit website (though they do have a shop and accept donations, etc.) which encourages people to, in the month of November, write a 50k word novel (approx. 1667 words a day). It's meant to get people to start writing, so at the end of the month they can start editing a work they may otherwise have never written.

Since NaNoWriMo got started, several spin-off 'Writing Month's have popped up, including Script Frenzy, Blogging Month, July Novel Writing Month, February Album Writing Month, Poetry Writing Month, and others. One of these spin-offs was National Short Story Month, or NaShoStoMo, a lesser known-about idea that someone, somewhere, started.

It originally was held in May, among the maybe-100 people who knew about it. The idea was to write one short story a day, of at least 200 words (which, if you didn't know, is about two good paragraphs). By the end of the month, participants would have 31 new short stories ready to edit, adjust, and send off to magazines or contests or whatever.

It wasn't well known, so it didn't really catch on with anyone, until this last March a popular blogger found out and posted an article urging his readers to participate. Since he posted it in late March, however, everyone got the idea (himself included, I believe) that NaShoStoMo would be in April. He had maybe 100 good followers, who decided to join him in the Short Story-Writing mission, which about double the amount of NaShoStoMo participants. They used Twitter to communicate and report their successes (#NaShoStoMo).

That's where I came in. Though I don't have a Twitter account, one of my brothers does, and he called me earlier this month asking if I'd ever heard of this. I hadn't, and I did some research to see what was going on. The idea seemed wonderful to me, especially since I really enjoy writing short stories, and haven't written enough. I was confused, however, with the conflicting dates in the past, and eventually found out the reason.

It turns out, April is also Script Frenzy (100-page script in a month) and National Poetry Month (poem-a-day). If NaShoStoMo catches on as an April activity, that'll make three semi-major writing challenges in one month, a little more than a single month can handle, in my opinion. So, in an effort to [hopefully] increase its popularity and push it back into May, I've decided to join in. Of course I'm also joining to increase my skill, but I'll be blogging about it regularly and trying to get the word out.

As far as I can see, the only other writing challenges in May are an alternate NaNoWriMo and National Crime Writing Month (NaCriWriMo?), neither of which should conflict with NaShoStoMo since alternate 'NaNoWriMo's can be done any month, and Crime writers might not be interested in short stories anyways.

So wish me luck in May! I've got a few ideas already, plus a 'writing kit' from Writer's Digest I was given months ago to give me inspiration. I don't plan on posting my short stories online, since I'll want to get them entered in contests or published, but I will let you know how I'm doing, and ask for encouragement. I'll see you in May!

Mental Health Vacation

I'm taking a Mental Health Vacation today. I'm not stressed or anything, I just want to take a break for a moment so I'll be ready for another month of thrice-a-week blogging. I know what I what I want to post Friday, but I'm a bit stuck for ideas today (My mini idea-book has enough to keep me going for a month, but most of them require some planning and research that I just don't feel up to today).

I do have two parts of a three-parter blog that I need to finish, for anyone keeping track, so I'll try to get them up by the end of the week. I'll be doing a lot of writing next month (more about that Friday), so I want to make sure I can focus on that.

In school, whenever we ditched because we just didn't want to go (we're a good family, so that only happened about once a year), we called it our Mental Health Vacation, to rejuvenate ourselves. So this is my Mental Health Vacation from blogging. Hope I'm not disappointing anyone, but if you were really looking forward to a blog, I'm sure I've got some old articles that, while not as well written, you may still find interesting.

Broadcasted Visual Images

About two years ago, I wrote and published a blog post about my television, and the fact that we owned rabbit ears in an age where everyone else seemed to be buying high definition TVs with 500 gazillion channels. I stressed that I found nothing wrong with this - I don't watch TV, not generally, and I don't see any point in spending every hour of my life doing so (which is the only way I would get anything out of all those channels). However, at that time, broadcasting companies had just switched over to digital signals, and we had to buy a digital converter box for our rabbit ears to work.

The actual Rabbit Ears we used to use.

I was amazed, because, as I explained in that blog, we used to get horrible white-noise under all our TV programs, and with the converter box, live TV sounded just as good as shows on Hulu.

A couple months back, Mom signed our house up for FiOS TV. I'm not quite sure why she did it. We now have about 100 channels, (before, we had three or four), and we don't use 95% of them. Along with our weekly TV shows, my mom occasionally watches stuff on the Home and Garden channel, and my dad listens to people shouting at each other on some political channel, and if anything, we've cut down on movie-watching, so the TV's on just as often as it usually was.

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. We can now set our TV to record shows if we're going to miss them, and watch them later without having to set the low-quality laptop up to the TV and such. I've been setting our DVR to record movies on various channels if I know Netflix doesn't have them on Instant, and it's been nice. Also, the thing automatically resets the time for Daylight Savings, so we can change all the rest of the clocks to match it. That's always handy.

We still don't have an HD TV, which I still see nothing wrong with - the picture on our screen looks just fine, especially when compared with the picture I grew up with. It's cool to see that, even in the time of High Definition Everything, my friends and I can sit down to an older movie and not be bothered by the boxy, pixelated images. The difference between HD picture and normal modern TV picture is slight enough for me not to notice unless I had the two side-by-side (which is, of course, how the electronic stores get you to pay all that money).

I'm sure one day in the future, I'll own an HD TV, and I'll be blogging about how silly everyone is for needing a 3D TV (or whatever else is popular at that time) to get by. That's the way technology goes, and I don't really see any problem in it, as long as we don't get too dependent on our shiny screens.

(Now I'm afraid of sounding like one of those old persons, warning you that TV's going to melt your brain. Don't worry, it wont - unless you watch TV in the car. I know "everyone" does it nowadays, but it drives me crazy. How are kids supposed to get any downtime if they're constantly stimulated everywhere they go?)

Not 'That' Kind of Doctor

Tomorrow, as I'm writing this, is the day Season 6 of the revived Doctor Who series begins! It'll be the first season I watch as it airs (as it were), and I'm so excited! (And yes - I insist on using American Television terminology, even though in Britain they refer to the series as a 'programme' and a season as a 'series'.)

Logo from 2005 to 2008

I've known about Doctor Who for a long time - I'm pretty sure it's such a large cultural icon that everyone's at least heard of it. I had a vague understanding of the show concept, and I remember it being in the news when Matt Smith was cast to play the 'new Doctor', though I didn't really know what that meant. Since I had a lot of free time this last summer, I finally decided that I would watch the show... somehow (I'll admit to considering less-than-legal means).

I ended up not watching Doctor Who all summer. There was probably plenty of time, but I couldn't find anyone who could lend me the DVDs and I prefer not to download illegally. About mid-August, however, I managed to talk my parents into signing up for Netflix (Previous to this summer, I had been against the idea of Netflix, but our Blockbuster closed down, so...). With all the newer seasons available easily, and legally, through Netflix, I was able to get through the past five seasons in about a month.

Doctor Who originally started in 1963, and ran until 1989. In that time, they went through seven actors to play the lead role, The Doctor, a time-traveling alien who regenerates with a new body (and a slightly new personality) when he dies. I'm not sure if the producers had originally intended for the Doctor character to be able to change actors so easily, but it was a genius move - essentially, the show can run indefinitely, since they can switch out as each actor gets older, moves on, or dies unexpectedly.

The first Doctor, 1963, played by William Hartnell.

I decided to start with the revived seasons, which started up in 2005, instead of the original seasons, because I wanted to be able to catch up by the time this new season began. The plot's changed slightly from the original run, since so much time has passed, but it's clear enough to be followed by anyone who watched the original show as a kid or, like me, didn't know too much about it. And it's extremely fun, hilarious, and silly, while occasionally being deep, heartwarming, and ingenious.

The show kind of drastically changed at the start of season 5. Along with a new lead actor, they changed Director, who changed the logo, the 'time vortex' (seen during the intro sequence) and the theme music. As a newbie fan of the show, my opinion doesn't count for much, but I really like the new theme and time vortex - the music's a lot like the music from the original seasons, and the time vortex seems more of a throwback as well. The logo's a bit odd, but I see where they're going with it, and I don't mind.

New Doctor Who logo

So I'm really excited for the show to start tomorrow. One of my favorite side characters from the last season got pulled in as a main character this season, and the writers, who have been great so far, promise to be amazing this season. And once this season's over, I wont been so 'behind the times' anymore.

Fuzzy Beginnings

Under our very noses, for centuries unnoticed by human-kind, a war has been brewing between two horrific groups of people. Of course, I'm referring to the epic battle between Werewolves (Lycanthropes) and Vampires.

Something like this, right?

Most pieces of modern fiction that depict this war ask the audience to chose one side or another, either by present one as the 'heroes' and the other as the antagonist, or by giving a player the option to choose a side (as in games). After much research and deliberation, I decided of the two groups, I much more of a werewolf fan than a vampire fan, for reasons I'll explain below, but first I must address one important question; why is there even a war to begin with?

Isn't it Ironic?

A couple years back, a friend of mine and I created an Altered Book for an art project, the assigned theme being 'something unexpected.' We chose to focus on the many uses of the word 'Irony'. Irony is a bit of a problem because the majority of people seem to misuse it nowadays, so our project highlighted correct examples of irony. The word 'ironic' usually refers to events in which there is a stark contrast between what is expected, and what actually occurs.

This, therefore, is the opposite of Irony - a 'dead end' sign in a graveyard might not be expected, but the two objects do not contradict in any matter at all, and in fact support each other, if in an unorthodox manner.

Everyone blames Alanis Morriset and her song 'Ironic' for everyone's misunderstanding of the adjective. That's not entirely fair - irony is a confusing conception anyways, especially when we try to use it to describe situations. In fact, all of the situations in the song fit under one category of irony or another, most under 'Cosmic Irony', which describes any situation in which the cosmos or fate is stopping us from doing what we intend. For example, one line states 'traffic jam when you're already late'. While this is technically Cosmic Irony, it's a bit of a stretch, and would be more accurately described as an unfortunate coincidence. No other form of irony would cover such plain situations, as a traffic jam isn't exactly unexpected. Read on.

Blogging Dragon Age Part 1: Origin Stories

(This blog series will be kind of long, so I'm splitting it into 3 parts. When they're all published, they'll be linked to here. Expect the next part tomorrow.)

Title Screen logo

I started playing Dragon Age: Origins on February 16th, after Felicia Day announced she was partnering with Bioware to make a web series based around the best-selling video game series. I love Felicia Day's work, and figured that if I was going to watch her new webseries this summer, I better have some context. Having not played a video game in a couple months, I thought this was an excellent excuse to retune that center of my brain, and also something worth blogging about. If you've played the game before, or are a gamer that hasn't had the chance to pick this up, then this is my take on Dragon Age: Origins, drawing from my previous RPG experiences. If you're not a gamer, then consider this a chance to peek into the gaming lifestyle.

After borrowing the CD and downloading the game, the first order of business was to create my character. I'm a big fan of Bethesda's Elder Scrolls: Oblivion game, which gives you eight different races to choose from, so being stuck between the common 'Human, Elf, Dwarf' options when starting Dragon Age was a bit awkward (in case you want to know, I chose to be a Khajit [see below] in every Elder Scrolls game I've ever started).

Shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.

At first, I thought I'd prefer to be a dwarf; I'm a human in real life, so it's no fun playing as one in a video game if there are other options, and elves are a bit too common among fantasy fans. Dwarves, which I've never been a huge fan of, are at least different and interesting. When I talked myself into the idea, however, I realized that dwarf characters can't use magic. Since I had no experience with the game, I didn't know exactly what that would prevent me from being able to do (besides being a magic-based character, or a Mage), and I wanted to keep as many options open for me as possible in my context-building run-through.

My final character design.

So I chose to be a Human female, with the Human Noble origin story (each different origin story, which range from Human Noble and City Elf to Dwarf Commoner and Human/Elf Mage, puts the character in a different context within the story, making it slightly different with each run-through). The origin story ran through basic control commands, and introduced me to my character's family and the base story of the game.

From right to left - Kyoko's Father, mother, and brother, his wife, and son.

 The Kingdom, Fereldon, is at war with some demon things called Darkspawn, and we have an elite group of fighters specially trained to fight Darkspawn called Grey Wardens. My character's brother leaves during the origin story to join the front line, and after playing around a bit, the family's estate is attacked by another nobleman who wants our title. In the fight, my character's father is mortally wounded, and a Grey Warden who had been visiting with us offers to escape with me while my character's mother stays to protect (and die with) my father.

My dog, Kilobyte, and Kyoko with Grey Warden, Duncan, and mother and father.

Writing this, I'm running into the first problem of RPG review - the difference between me and my character. In game, of course, the emphasis is on the fact that my character and I are the same person, but in reality that's not true. My character's family isn't my family, but because of how Dragon Age presents the story, it's really easy to get caught up in the role play and act the part completely. From here on, I'll refer to my character as 'Kyoko' (the name I always give my female RPG characters), though I may occasionally refer to her things as mine (Especially my in-game dog, Kilobyte, who I named after my real-life cat Megabyte).

Duncan introducing Kyoko to King Cailan.

Duncan takes Kyoko to the front line, where both King Cailan and her brother are, in Ostagar (We actually never see her brother here - more on that later). This is the point where the origin stories converge, and all the slight differences starting to pop up after this (For example, throughout the game Kyoko or other characters will mention Arl Howe, the nobleman who had Kyoko's family killed, and she'll vow to get revenge on him). In Ostagar, we prepare to join the ranks of the Grey Wardens, which includes collecting some Darkspawn blood for some secret ritual, and meet Alistair, the first of ten total companions that can join us for the rest of the game (Technically, my dog was the first, but every other origin story gets the dog later). Out of all the companions I ended up getting (eight - more on that later), Alistair's my favorite personality-wise, lending a lot of comic dialogue and interaction to the game.

Meeting Alistair, another Grey Warden and first companion.

The next paragraph is a spoiler, so you can skip it if you want to. I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but since it's so early in the game I don't know if it matters much.

It turns out, the Grey Wardens are so powerful against the Darkspawn because they've drunk the Darkspawn blood (a feat which would kill most people, as their blood is poisonous). This gives Grey Wardens the ability to sense Darkspawn and their weaknesses. Of the three recruits to join the Grey Wardens' ranks, my character is the only one to survive.

War plans with King Cailan and Teyrn Loghain.

With some major battle about to start, the King sends Alistair and Kyoko to prepare to light a beacon on a nearby tower, which will alert Teyrn Loghain, an army general, to join the battle in a surprise attack from the side. When the battle starts (in an awesome and slightly haunting cutscene), we rush off, joined by some random mage who eventually dies, and thus isn't really remembered, to climb the tower and alert Loghain.

Of course, the tower has been unsuspectingly overrun by Darkspawn who climbed up through the lower catacombs. It would've been too easy otherwise.

A somewhat long battle sequence commences, made longer because my computer isn't well trained at loading complicated game instructions. We fight our way up the tower, to the very last room, and one of my favorite non-story moments in the game. Just before we're going to light the beacon, an enormous ogre appears, a boss-level enemy to us this early in the game. My processor running just a tad faster now that there aren't as many enemies, the four of us (Kyoko, Kilobyte, Alistair, and Unnamed Temporary Companion #1) get down to the dirty business of bringing this beast down.

Oh joy.

And by the time half of its life is depleted, three of us have passed out. I admit, I'm not the strongest person when it comes to battle strategy. I tend to do a straight-up forceful attack, a move in gaming called "Tanking." This doesn't exactly work for me because I don't heal up enough, and I'm rarely strong enough to pull off a good tank. I'm pleased to say that, through the course of the game, my battle strategy skills improved (Because that'll help me in real life), but at this point in the game, I was left with three unconscious humans and one Mabari Warhound against a huge, boss-level Ogre.

Aw, you're so cute, Kilobyte! Who's a cute doggy? *Bark!*

You heard me right - my dog, versus this monster. I couldn't wake up anyone else on my team, so instead I had Kilobyte run around in circles while his health slowly regenerated, and the Ogre's slow attacks all failed to hit. Eventually, the Ogre would ram into a wall, stunning himself for a moment, and when that happened, I'd have Kilobyte rush in and inflict as much damage as he could before the Ogre could counter attack. Lather, rinse, repeat (adding in a few health potions when I could).

It took about twenty minutes, but my dog finally took down the beast. SINGLE-HANDEDLY.

*Bark?*

I almost couldn't even continue at this point, because my fiero level was so high (Fiero - An emotion termed by Paul Ekman as the feeling of triumph over adversity, and probably a mix of norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine). My dog just killed this thing for us. For the rest of the game, Kilobyte became my favorite companion character, even though I wasn't able to use him as often as I would like. I knew that, if necessary, he could take down every single monster in the game, even the end boss, through sheer force of will.

When I finally got around to lighting the beacon, I was treated to another important cutscene. This final scene finishes up the beginning of the game and sets the stage for the rest of the story, which means it's also a major spoiler if you've never played the game.

Loghain and his right hand, with an important decision to make.

When the beacon is lit, the cutscene jumps down to Loghain and his army, standing by as the King as his men fight, and seeing the beacon lit far in the distance. Seeing this, Loghain turns to his second-in-command - and tells her to retreat. Loghain's entire army turns away, back to the capitol city, and leaving the King and the Grey Wardens to their fate. The cutscene jumps to King Cailan, who, overcome by the Darkspawn and another large Ogre, is killed. After avenging Cailan, the Grey Warden Duncan is also killed, and everyone else on the field dies.

King Cailan versus the Ogre.

In the tower, our team watches the battle unfold, unable to do anything. Another group of Darkspawn appears behind us, kill Unnamed Temporary Companion #1, and suddenly a bright light overcomes us, and the scene disappears.

I made an effort, when I started this game, to emotionally attach to the story. I feel this makes games more fun, especially since it's easier to be empathetic with a story when you're a part of it. That's why this scene was so jarring. I figured someone would die - it is war, after all - and I was only half surprised by Loghain's betrayal (I was a bit suspicious after Arl Howe). However, I didn't expect it would be the king who died, and the combination of Loghain flat out refusing to aid the king, King Cailan's somewhat grotesque death, and Duncan's powerful sacrifice, left me a bit emotionally drawn.

Of all the characters to get less than two hours of screen time, Cailan was my favorite.

I'd grown to like the King; he was kinda silly, had this grandiose vision of the Grey Wardens as invulnerable in the war against the Darkspawn, and really didn't deserve to die. Duncan's death was a shock; he'd saved Kyoko from Howe, introduced her to the Grey Wardens, and had now left me (the player) on my own, with no hint of what I should do next.

When Kyoko finally came too, we were in a hut in the woods. Apparently, Kyoko and Alistair (and presumably Kilobyte) had been rescued by a woodland witch (who we'd actually met earlier), and we were the only surviving Grey Wardens of the battle. She explained to us what had happened, as she had seen from the forest - Loghain's betrayal, Duncan and King Cailan's deaths, and Ostagar overrun by Darkspawn.

The witch, Flemeth, and her daughter Morrigan, an unexpected rescue.

Alistair was visibly more distraught by Duncan's death than Kyoko was, as Duncan had been a sort of surrogate father to Alistair. Together, we decided it was our job to join forces with the various groups around Fereldon who'd signed treaties with the Grey Wardens: the Dalish, or woodland elves, the Dwarves of Orzammar, the mages, and the Noblemen. As we set out, Flemeth told us to take her daughter, Morrigan, another wildling witch, with us. They didn't really explain why, but we weren't exactly going to turn down an offer of help to take down Loghain, who was no doubt usurping Cailan's throne, and defeat the Darkspawn.

Thus ends the beginning story of Dragon Age: Origins, and starts our main quest for the rest of the game. We have four treaties to fulfill (all of which, no doubt, would require us to solve somebody else's problem before they can help us), a traitor to enact revenge on (two, actually), a Darkspawn horde to fight, several more companions to meet, and no dwarves or elves so far (besides the few elf servants, of course)!

Human Noble's elf servants, the "best treated" in Fereldon.

More on that later. The first part of the game ends here, with us finishing the 'introductory' section of the plot, and now left with an army of allies to recruit during the main portion of the game. The next blog will be posted tomorrow, with the final part coming Saturday.

The Art of Gaming

Posting a Shadow of the Colossus screenshot now, so I'm not tempted to write five paragraphs about it later.

In another bout of pro-video game blogging, I find myself drawn to one of the more obvious feats of skill required to make a good game: the artwork. I'm a big supporter of the idea that the art doesn't make the game great, the story does, but the artwork definitely can have an impact on our opinions and expectations of a game. If we see more, we expect more, and if we see less, we expect less.

What makes video game artwork so exceptional, in my opinion, is the fact that it has to be fluid (like the music). A movie or TV show may have amazing special effects, and look better than any game can, but whoever put those effects together knew exactly what they were animating, how all the scenes would line up, and how it would appear. Video game programmers have to predict the player's possible movements, and animate every possible step your character could make. And any game programmer worth his mettle should be able to make it look good, too.

Screenshot from Capcom's Okami - not an artist's rendition of the game, but an actual moment as the player pauses to take in the scenery.

Reality is Broken (Jane McGonigal)

Mom and I picked up this book by Jane McGonigal a couple months back, somewhat on a whim and when we were really only intending to pick up A Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin). The title and front cover drew our attention, and a quick look inside the front flap convinced me to convince mom to buy it:

More than 174 million Americans are gamers, and the average young person in the United States will spend ten thousand hours gaming by the age of twenty-one. According to world-renowned game designer Jane McGonigal, the reason for this mass exodus to virtual worlds is that video games are increasingly fulfilling genuine human needs. In this groundbreaking exploration of the power and future of gaming, McGonigal reveals how we can use the lessons of game design to fix what is wrong with the real world.

Fluently Improper

(This post'll be short, as I'm having a Firefly marathon with a friend today and don't have much time to write.)

Like most people who speak more than one language, I sometimes tend to slip between the two. There's a lot of Spanish spoken in the desert where I live, and some people may start a conversation in English and end it in their home tongue. I don't know Spanish, and while I've been taking French long enough to break into it when writing notes to myself, the language I find myself slipping into in common writing and speaking is a fairly new one: Lolspeak.

 

Twenty Twelve

Many of us have just gotten the hang of writing '2011' on our school papers and checks, and in just over a year and a half, a dusty old calendar mapped by an ancient culture neck deep in polytheism and human sacrifice predicts we will all die horrible, tragic, unavoidable deaths.

Literally

You know I'm a literature major when the incorrect use of common words bugs the heck out of me. I wont mention the word 'Ironic' - that's for another blog - but instead I'll focus on a poor, unfortunate word that's been unnecessarily turned into a hyperbole.

Literally, obviously, comes from the root word 'literal', which comes from the Latin word 'literalis' which means "of or pertaining to letters." The idea, as the word was formed, was that when a text was copied literally, it was copied letter by letter, to be as correct as possible. It's a bit ironic surprising, then, that the definition becomes figurative, having jumped from talking about letters to talking about whole ideas and abstract nouns, when the actual definition of the word is the opposite of figurative.

When something is literal, it is exactly as stated. We don't tend to use the term 'literal' a lot, because generally when we say something, it's assumed to be exactly as we stated it, unless we're being sarcastic or figurative or using some sort of idiom, which is the also implied by common knowledge (such as when I tell people, "Well, that sounds fun") or intonation (Depending on how you say it, "Thanks a lot" can mean two different things). The word 'literal' then generally only comes into play when we're referring to something or someone else, as "they were being too literal" or "I thought it was meant in a literal sense."

We never use the term "literal" to mean "figurative." It wouldn't make any sense. So then why do so many people use the term "literally" to mean "figuratively?" "She literally devours every piece of music I give her," or "cars were literally flying down the road."

It's true!

In most cases, I wouldn't advocate the idea of using the term "figuratively" instead of "literally," (such as "cars were figuratively flying down the road") because that just sounds weird, and is unnecessary. The term in these cases is an intensifier; by saying 'I literally', people actually mean "Listen close because this was intense [or shocking, or awe-inspiring, or any other intense emotion] and get goosebumps just thinking about it," or something like that.

The word 'really' is an intensifier. "He was really fast" means the same thing, literally, as "he was fast," but adding the word 'really' in there makes the sentence more intense. 'Really' has been used too much, however, so people are turning to the word 'literally' to make their sentences even more intense (similar to how the intensifying terms "awesome" or "epic win" have become overused lately). Saying 'cars were flying down the road' just doesn't give you the same hurried feeling as they "were literally flying down the road."

However, the word 'literally' should not be used as an intensifier, even though scores of people want to make it such. Why?

• "He literally has the heart of a lion." ("No, really, he collects really weird animal organs")
• "We were literally jumping for joy!" ("Seriously, actually jumping up and down, we couldn't help ourselves!")
• "I was literally rolling in money" ("I actually withdrew half a million in ones just so I could roll around in it and see how it felt.")
• "My mother was literally heartbroken." ("I'm serious. That's why she had surgery last year. Don't worry, though, she's fine now.")

When we use 'literally' as an intensifier, we can't use it the way it's supposed to be used, and a clarifier. We have to explain that no, we actually did bite our tongue, and now it's bleeding, or no, we didn't get married, we've just been learning how to tie complex knots.

Literally is supposed to take a sentence that has multiple meanings, generally metaphoric, and clarify that the intended meaning is the literal one. If 'literally' was only ever used to clarify our meaning, we wouldn't have this confusion with the figurative, and our language would be that much easier.

Commenting Changes

I was told last night that someone wanted to comment on a blog post, and was unable to do so. I can't figure out what the problem might be, so until then I'm changing the way comments function.

Previously my comments had been embedded below each post, so that when you clicked to view and post a comment, the website would take you to bottom of the post's individual page. I liked this because it makes comments more fluid and easy to access, in my mind, but apparently other bloggers have been having trouble with this working for everyone.

I've changed comments so they now appear in a pop-up window. I'm generally not a fan of pop-up windows, because a lot of people (myself included) have pop-up blockers that may not allow it to appear easily, and some browsers display pop-up windows behind the window currently in use. However, from what I read from other bloggers, the pop-up window comments allow all readers to comment without trouble. I've also removed the word verification feature for unregistered commenters, as I'm typically not a fan of those either, and I think I can moderate my own blog without the computer's help.

So, while a bit more awkward, comments should be accessible by everyone now. If you have the time, please try leaving a comment on this or any other post, to test out the pop-up system and make sure you have access to the comments. If there's any problem, please email me at Kengirl01@yahoo.com, with the subject line "Blog Comments," explain what happens when you try to post (and if you're getting any error message), and leave your browser and version number (Example, I'm using Firefox 3.6.16). I'll use this information to try to figure out what the problem is and fix it.

Thanks for your time!

April Fools!

If you're not on the internet, you probably think April Fools is a lame, or even annoying, pseudo-holiday. There are pranks, teasing, and bad jokes everywhere, and it's all made worse by the fact that all of it is completely expected. Jim's pranks on The Office are funny because they're creative and unexpected, but trying to pull similar stunts on April Fools' Day is unsatisfactory to both those pulling the pranks and those on the receiving end, because everyone suspects it.

In the twenty-first century, however, April Fools' Day is one of the best holidays of the year, for a simple reason: the Internet.

Websites of all sorts have become the playing field for good April Fools jokes. There are a lot of false, humorous news reports that pop up on April 1st, and there are several well known web companies (Such as Google, YouTube, and Hulu) who have been joining in the fun now for years, changing parts of their websites in a pretend effort to expand their horizons. A number of people may become confused, believing all the web sponsored pranks, but for the most part everyone's in on the joke.

Because everyone understands what's going on, April Fools' Day on the internet has become a sort of comic-relief holiday. It's tons of fun, going around to all the popular tech sites or smaller communities you're a member of and trying to find their April Fools' secrets. And it's great to see that such a humorous tradition continues no matter what else may be going on in the world.

I'd love to make a list of my favorite April Fools' Day 'pranks', but instead I'll just link you to the April Fools List from TechCrunch. I suggest you go check it out and join the fun! Happy holiday!