Do you have any skills or talents that don't involve computers and video games?

Started by Samus Aran, August 10, 2008, 10:25:58 PM

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Selkie

I'm very creative when it comes to story/film/even drawing ideas.

The problem is I suck at writing, filming, and drawing  befuddlement

Classic

Quote from: Selkie224 on August 11, 2008, 09:44:59 AM
I'm very creative when it comes to story/film/even drawing ideas.

The problem is I suck at writing, filming, and drawing  befuddlement

Well, it seems you're a concept person. Nothing wrong with that. <3

lfctwentytwo


Samus Aran

Quote from: Purloiner of Hares on August 11, 2008, 10:45:11 AM
I would like everyone to submit a "good writing" sample


Fuck no. I'll never post any of my writing on Boyah because I know everyone would automatically hate it just because it's poetry.

Hensa

Quote from: Kazmuffin on August 11, 2008, 10:48:21 AM
Fuck no. I'll never post any of my writing on Boyah because I know everyone would automatically hate it just because it's poetry.
:( but but

Samus Aran

Quote from: Purloiner of Hares on August 11, 2008, 10:48:59 AM
well maybe it sucks  befuddlement


Some people seem to enjoy it. My writing professors wanted me in the school anthology so I guess they like it.

And I know Chelsea likes it. That's good enough for me and I really don't care what anyone on Boyah thinks.

Hensa

Quote from: Kazmuffin on August 11, 2008, 10:50:46 AM
Some people seem to enjoy it. My writing professors wanted me in the school anthology so I guess they like it.

And I know Chelsea likes it. That's good enough for me and I really don't care what anyone on Boyah thinks.
giggle;...wub;

Daddy

Quote from: Purloiner of Hares on August 11, 2008, 10:45:11 AM
I would like everyone to submit a "good writing" sample
QuoteJames Valente

English IV Honors

The Kite Runner: Essay Test

   Literature often uses a dominant theme to convey a message that is, usually, important to the author. A recurring motif in Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner involves the relationships of fathers and sons. There are many examples throughout the novel, but three stand out the most;  Amir and Baba's relationship, Hassan and  Ali's relationship, and Hassan and Baba's relationship are the best examples provided.

   Although there were times that Amir felt that his father, Baba, hated him, the fact that Amir loved Baba and Baba loved Amir remained true..   Amir was interested in reading and writing whereas, father, Baba, loved sports.  Amir wanted to believe in Allah, Baba was not religious.  These differences made it hard for Amir and Baba to get along.   They could not find much which they were both interested in.  Amir tried playing soccer but he didn't like it. He tried watching soccer, this too was something which he could care less about.  Amir struggled to gain his father's affection.   There was one thing that allowed this, kite flying. Amir was a great kite flier, Baba was proud of him for this.   When around family and friends Baba would brag about Amir winning the tournament.   That was the year he threw Amir his biggest birthday. When they moved to the United States Baba worked at a gas station, something he hated but continued doing to support Amir.  He worked hard and when Amir graduated from high school he bought him a car.  He helped Amir with college.  Baba even worked with Amir at flea markets.  Amir was getting the attention and love that he always wanted.   Baba's final act was arranging a marriage for Amir.  

   The relationship between Hassan and Ali was, in its part, a great relationship.  Hassan never felt  neglected by his father.  He always knew Ali loved him.  Hassan and Ali were poor but they did not let it bother them.  They happily served Amir and Baba.  After Hassan was raped by Assef Ali noticed a change in his behavior.   He was concerned and asked Amir about it, who angrily replied that  he did not know what was wrong.   Ali was quick to defend his son.  When Hassan admitted to taking Amir's money and watch Ali decided it was not wise, or safe for them to stay with Amir and Baba anymore, they had to leave.   Another example of Ali's love for Hassan is his financing of plastic surgery to fix Hassan's cleft lip.

   The relationship between Hassan and Baba is a particularly interesting one.  Baba was Hassan's real father, but Hassan did not know about  that.   In fact, this detail was not revealed until late in the book.    Baba was described as being torn between two sons, this is why he was so hard on Amir. Hassan and Baba had much more in common than Amir and Baba.  Both were interested in sports.  This allowed for a connection between Baba and Hassan that did not exist with Amir.  The guilt that Baba felt from hiding who Hassan's true father really was also played a role.   Baba would be sure to include Hassan in every activity that he did.  This succeeded in making Amir jealous, although it was not Baba's intent.  

    The above three relationships are all different in the aspect of how father and son interact.  Baba and Amir's relationship shows that although love may not always be evident it can still exist.  Ali and Hassan's relationship is an example of a relationship in which a father loves his son so much that he puts his son's needs before his own.  Indeed, the relationship between Baba and Hassan is a prime example of a love that must be suppressed to protect others.  Ali and Baba were best friends, in fact, they were practically brothers. If Ali found out his wife cheated on him with Baba there would have been major issues.  Baba decided it was best to keep this a secret from everyone, save for Rahim Khan, who reveals this to Amir years after both Hassan and Baba have died.  At first Amir is upset, but he comes to terms with the fact that Hassan was his half brother and he goes to make things right.  He adopts Hassan's son.   He raised Sohrab with the love that he desired to receive from Baba.  This is Hosseini's final example of a father son relationship.  He combines the three relationships into one.  Amir has the guilt,like Baba, about how he treated Hassan, he has Ali's selfless sacrifice to protect his child, and Baba's strict, yet caring fatherly love. Hosseini does a great job portraying the different types of father/son relationships.


i was drunk while i wrote it and i didn't actually read the book

Pele



Selkie

Kaz I'd actually be interested in reading something of yours, if you didn't mind

YPrrrr

Quote from: Purloiner of Hares on August 11, 2008, 10:45:11 AM
I would like everyone to submit a "good writing" sample
In Jean Paul Sartreâ,,, play, No Exit, the major themes of the works, such as hell being other people, cowardice, hypocrisy, and vanity, are explored through the three main characters of Garcin, Inez, and Estelle. When each of the characters first enters into the Second Empire drawing-room, which is soon revealed to be a portion of hell, they anticipate some sort of torture, whether from hot lead and pincers or from a person they wronged in life. Their early sentiments quickly inject Sartreâ,,,s existentialism into the work, with each character hiding the real reason why they are there in the first place (Weightman 470). As the characters attempt to pry this knowledge from one another, they themselves become the instruments of torture so noticeably lacking from this hell. Some of the worst qualities of humanity are revealed to be the themes of the work, as Sartre methodically rips the notion of there being good in everyone to shreds. Instead, his characters are focused upon destroying each other by using their cellmatesâ,,, decisions in life against them. The drama eventually boils down to that fact that people are defined by the decisions they have made in life, and once dead, there is no hope for change. Estelle, Garcin, and Inez, who damned themselves through their selfish mortal lives, essentially become the demons of hell as their human restraints fade with the passage of time and they can no longer restrain their brutish and savage inner thoughts about their roommates. The loss of societyâ,,,s restraints upon their thoughts unleashes the aforementioned characteristics of cowardice, hypocrisy, and vanity to create a hell that exists solely through the consent of its residents.
The first character to be introduced into No Exit, Garcin, is also the character who eventually climaxes the play when he realizes that â,"hell is other people.â, As the first person to be assigned to the room, Garcin is used by Sartre to describe the setting as well as to displace the common conceptions people have about hell. Garcin expects hell to be a place of torture and physical pain, but the Valet, who leads each of the characters into the room, points out that instead, hell decreases human dignity over time. Once Garcin is assured that there will be no physical pain, he instead complains of a lack of a toothbrush, much to the amusement of the Valet, who responds:
â,"[. . .] So you havenâ,,,t gotten over your â,“ what-do-you-call-it? â,“ sense of human dignity? Excuse me smiling [. . .] But all our guests ask the same questions [. . .] Whereâ,,,s the torture chamber? Thatâ,,,s the first thing they ask; all of them. They donâ,,,t bother their heads about the bathroom requisites, that I can assure you. But after a bit, when theyâ,,,ve gotten their nerve back, they start in about their toothbrushes and what-not. Good heavens, Mr. Garcin, canâ,,,t you use your brains? What, I ask you, would be the point of brushing your teeth?â, (Sartre 4)
This theme of the decline of human dignity continues on through the story, and is most obvious when each of the characters first meet. Despite knowing that hell is a place for wretched people, they still feel the need to save face and lie about why they are there, feigning ignorance to whatever landed them there. Garcin, for example, declares himself a hero for standing up for his principles by dodging the draft, when in reality he was a coward who also beat and cheated on his wife (Parsell 2926). After they discover these dark secrets about one another, they further their loss of humanity by exploiting these weaknesses in character to essentially torture the other characters in a most inhumane manner.
   Although the Valet claims that there are no instruments of torture in hell, these mind games the characters play with each other prove to be just as excruciating. Early on, Garcin recognizes that this senseless bickering and arguing will only lead to their ruin: â,"Weâ,,,re chasing each other, round and round in a vicious circle, like the horses on a roundabout [. . .]. Open your hands and let go of everything. Or else youâ,,,ll bring disaster on all three of usâ, (31). Much like physical torture, there is no reprieve, as the characters cannot even blink, let alone sleep. The weak point for Garcin is his cowardice, and the idea of being remembered as such a coward haunts him. He pleads with Estelle to let him know he is not a coward, but while she stalls, Inez continues to point out what a coward he truly is. Although initially he is more concerned with the thoughts of his peers back on earth, once they forget him, he feels he must rely on his two roommates to preserve his memory, as they are the only witnesses to his existence (Weightman 471). As they are the only keepers of his memory, it causes Garcin much grief to know that both think of him as a coward, so he feels compelled to convince them otherwise. This is why, when the door to the room finally opens to his shrieks of rage, he finds that he cannot leave, no matter how much he may like to. He tells Inez, â,"So itâ,,,s you whom I have to convince; you are of my kind. Did you suppose that I meant to go? No, I couldnâ,,,t leave you here, gloating over my defeat, with all those thoughts about me running in your head. (44)â, He remains unconvinced that he is at fault, and must persuade Inez that she is the one with the flawed conception of reality. Critic David Parsell effectively summarizes both this fault in Garcinâ,,,s character as well as Sartreâ,,,s vision of hell by saying:
Here, unbound by the constraints of established legend, Sartre exercised his own personal freedom to bring forth an utterly human impersonal hell for which physical death is no pre-requisite. Although supposedly dead and hence incapable of changing the sum of their lives, the womanizer, the lesbian, and the nymphomaniac who find themselves uneasily together in the eternal torture of inter-dependence merely replicate the suffering endured, through implied consent, by those who consistently refuse to alter or even question their daily approach to life (Parsell 2925).
This refusal of Garcin to just let it go and accept his fate to be a coward is the root of most of his problems in hell. If he simply admits defeat to Inez, there is no more leverage above him, and his soul is free of her influence. Yet since he continues to clash with her, he is playing the devilâ,,,s game, and allowing his own foolish pride to prevent him from resting in piece.
   Inez, the second character to come into hell, makes a rather ironic entrance by assuming Garcin to be her torturer, while in reality, the reverse is true. She foreshadows that she will indeed be his torturer soon after meeting Garcin:
GARCIN.         [â,¦] do you really think I look like a torturer? And
  by the way, how does one recognize torturers when one sees them? Evidently,
  youâ,,,ve got ideas on the subject.
INEZ.             They look frightened.
GARCIN.   Frightened! But how ridiculous! Of whom should they be frightened?
  Of their victims?
INEZ.   Laugh away, but I know what Iâ,,,m talking about. Iâ,,,ve often watched my
  face in the glass. (8-9)
Perhaps the reason for Inezâ,,, fear, as well as the fear she sees concealed in Garcinâ,,,s face is caused by the fact that the outer appearance of both is a lie. Their hypocritical lives have been built to hide their cowardice, which both hold as their greatest shame. Garcin notices this similarity towards the end of the drama, saying, â,"There were days when you peered into yourself, into the secret places of your heart, and what you saw there made you faint with horror. [â,¦] Yes, you know what evil costs. And when you say Iâ,,,m a coward, you know from experience what that means. (43)â, While Garcin merely feared dying, Inezâ,,, cowardice is more of a psychological matter. Being a lesbian, she would be thought of as a damned woman and a home wrecker while living. Inez despises these limitations and labels placed upon her by society, but ends up living down to their expectations (Parsell 2926-7). During her life, she breaks up Florenceâ,,,s marriage, which eventually results in the death of the husband, Florence, and Inez herself. Ironically, Inezâ,,, actions leave two women and one man dead, the same ratio of sexes contained within the drawing-room. This foreshadows Inezâ,,, torturous verbal attacks on her roommates, as her cruelty is what essentially causes the situation to become hell, just as her actions on earth destroyed the lives of herself and two others.
   Feeding into Sartreâ,,,s theory that hell is other people, Inez claims that she needs to cause pain in order to live. â,"When I say Iâ,,,m cruel, I mean I canâ,,,t get on without making people suffer. Like a live coal. A live coal in othersâ,,, hearts. When Iâ,,,m alone I flicker out. (27)â, When Garcin says he is cruel, presumably for the abuse he put his wife through, Inez denies it, saying he is not in comparison with herself (27). She goes on to demonstrate her point, driving Garcin to the brink of madness and causing Estelle to detest her. To torture Garcin is rather easy for Inez. Being a coward herself, she can easily pick at what will hurt his pride most (38). Inez does not wish to harm Estelle initially, but eventually does when Estelle rejects her advances. She is able to accomplish this by attacking Estelleâ,,,s innermost secret and insecurity, as Inez had done to Garcin, which is committing infanticide (29). Of the three characters, she is the most skilled at torturing the other two, which is probably because she is the most honest with herself. The others delude themselves into thinking they are good people, while Inez accepts her rottenness, and has no qualms with sharing her misery.
   The fact that Inez recognizes that whether dead or alive, she is the same, creates an important part of Sartreâ,,,s message (Parsell 2926). Hell is not only for the physically dead, but for the psychologically dead as well. Death to Sartre means an end to change. In his existentialist views, once a life is complete, that person is completely defined by what they were, and the possibility for a transformation is destroyed. Inez explains, â,"One always dies too soon - or too late. And yet oneâ,,,s whole life is complete at that moment, with a line drawn neatly under it, ready for the summing up. You are â,“ your life, and nothing else. (45)â, All three characters show this theory to be true, with Inez remaining a torturer, Garcin convinced he is not a coward, and Estelle continues to elude any responsibility for her actions. While some may see death as a reason to change before the inevitable end, all three characters are too set in their ways to care. This again plays right into Sartreâ,,,s existentialist roots, with the evil receiving their dues (Weightman 470).
   The final character introduced into the drama, is Estelle, a cold, vain, member of the bourgeois. Estelle is unique from the other two characters in that she does not, or pretends not to, know why she is in hell. â,"I havenâ,,,t a notion [why sheâ,,,s there], not the foggiest. In fact, Iâ,,,m wondering if there hasnâ,,,t been some ghastly mistake. (16)â, It quickly becomes apparent that this is most likely a ruse, as Estelle represents the fullest extent of human vanity. Born poor, she marries not for love but for money, and grows spoiled as a trophy wife. Knowing this is not a damnable offense, Inez and Garcin prod at Estelle to discover her true reason for being assigned to hell. After feigning ignorance twice more and hearing both Garcinâ,,,s and Inezâ,,, offenses, she is finally coerced into revealing her wretched secret (24). During her marriage, she fell in love with a poor man and ended up pregnant with his child. After the baby was born, Estelle killed it in cold blood without a care for the baby or her lover, who committed suicide afterwards (Parsell 2926-7). She performed this monstrous act just to preserve her reputation among her wealthy friends, as mothering the son of a poor man would disgrace her and ruin her marriage, leaving her poor once again (28). Obviously, Estelle is incredibly selfish and represents some of the worst human characteristics.
   This focus upon getting what she desires forms the relationships she has with Garcin and Inez. With Garcin being the only man available, she lustfully desires to be with him, especially after seeing a former love of hers dancing with her rival back on Earth (34). With the lack of mirrors in hell, she needs a man to confirm her beauty, and so she flirts with Garcin, although he is mostly unaffected by her except when using it against Inez (Brosman 76). This is the only real power either Garcin or Estelle hold over Inez, as Inez desires Estelle, and to see her with a man disgusts Inez (35). â,"Thatâ,,,s right, fawn on him, like the silly bitch you are. Grovel and cringe! And he hasnâ,,,t even good looks to commend him!â, says Inez partially out of envy, while realizing the absurdity of Estelleâ,,,s choice. Estelle seeks revenge upon Inez for forcing her to reveal her shameful secret, and this only further fuels her efforts to be with Garcin. Unfortunately for Estelle, he is more concerned with his affairs back on Earth and earning Inezâ,,, approval than a sexual fling.
   Finally, Estelle is not exempt from the theme of cowardice, despite her one-dimensional vanity. After telling of how she had killed her baby in such a ruthless manner, she bursts into tears, crying out that she is â,"a coward. A coward! (29)â, Furthermore, not only is she initially in denial about being assigned to hell, but is also adverse to the idea of being dead as well, preferring to be called an â,"absentee (12).â, It could be inferred that she is an opponent to Sartreâ,,,s existentialism, as she does not seem to be willing to accept responsibility for her actions or believe that her actions carry any responsibility to begin with. In the end, she finally sees the light, realizing at last what the consequences for her conduct are (Weightman 471). After attempting to kill Inez with the letter-opener, Estelle realizes and accepts they really are all dead as well as damned, and that there is no escape from their perpetual situation (47).
   In conclusion, the three characters manage to create a hell out of a typical, everyday setting through their loss of human dignity and restraint, which leads to the exposure of the uglier side of human emotion. Each character is revealed to be a coward, refusing to accept him or herself, and instead conforming to what society wants them to be. They are hypocritical in trying to show themselves as better than their fellow roommates, yet all being equally damned. Garcin and Estelleâ,,,s vanity leads them to think they are actually moral and decent citizens, when really they are both despicable and deserving of their fate. The fact that the only elements in the room are time and people has led Sartre to conclude that â,"hell is other people,â, and through his examples, it is not hard to agree with the sentiment. Without society to make sure they behave, the characters resort to almost childlike bickering over trivial details, when they should just take an existentialistâ,,,s view and accept the consequences for their actions. Their present is not a mistake as Estelle initially thought, but the perfect punishment for their conduct in life.

Kalahari Inkantation

Quote from: Purloiner of Hares on August 11, 2008, 10:45:11 AM
I would like everyone to submit a "good writing" sample
n befuddlement
i have one quirky poem but i don't like how the first few lines go but the teachers say it's amazing :(

YPrrrr


hotlikesauce.


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