Have you ever had so much going on in your life that it’s hard to focus? How about so little going on that its hard to stay busy? Sometimes my mind wonders from task to task, wondering what life would be like if the task were already done and getting praised from my peers. Other times I ignore the task completely in favor of something more entertaining. I hate the notion of having a lot of weight on my shoulders because I feel the more I have, the less focused I care to be because the odds are against me. Other times, I have only one task that seems so simple that I let other distractions take me over because I can get to that task later. I wish I had the drive and focus some others do. In my life, I’ve seen the motivational spark in others, but I am motivated towards my entertainment, not my future. This both is bothers me and depresses me merely because I feel the change that needs to happen is so overwhelming I can’t focus. I feel like someone going in circles or better yet, someone who isn’t moving at all. Let’s hope for a better change to set me on a more motivated path.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Seven Sins for Seven Dwarves Review
Earlier this year, one Hilary Goldstein (Editor and Chief at IGN) had a short story published in the May/June issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine. I had the opportunity to get a copy to review this story and it was a delightful read.
When I flipped through the pages of this issue and begin reading, I was brought into this world and instantly the mind churns and cranks out the vivid imagery described in the first few paragraphs. It does not take long before you cringe at the image of Snow slicing her own palm as she falls and wondering what will happen after the darkness falls upon her.
This story takes us to a world with Seven Dwarves and a girl named Snow, that we all might be familiar with, but don't read too far into that familiarity as it will be turned on its head soon enough. This story tells of how Snow was banished from her kingdom for her beauty and after falling to darkness awakens to find herself in a house with seven dwarves. After all that the story takes a unique twist in that we find out these dwarves are not what we remember. Our mental image of the Disney movie from long ago is pushed aside once Quinn opens his mouth and suggests Snow share his bed with him, "I will allow you to sleep on top of me." he suggests.
Not too far into the story we find that the dwarves are tasked with a important role as each one takes charge over a chest containing a demon that represents "it's own infectious brand of immoral indulgence." As the pages turn you start to see some mild characteristics of each sin in each dwarf. Quickly the story sees its twist now that Snow has showed up to muddle the routine of the dwarves.
This particular short story paints an interesting image in my head as I read it. Often times I feel its whimsical nature and other times I feel uncomfortable and unready for what the next page will have and I believe that Mr. Goldstein has done a great job giving a different take on a story we are familiar with.
The characters are all given unique personalities that, like I mentioned, have a bit of small characteristic or two of each demon they take charge over. Unus stands tall as being a leader, but we quickly see he is taking a lot of strong decisions into his own undeserving hands at times. September is the closest friend Snow has in the story and he plays along with our curiosity as we read through.
The only thing I wish from this story is more of it. I feel that it does a great job of giving us a different narrative on a story we know, but I feel it has the potential to be fleshed out into a full story. The sequences before Snow appears and even her stay with the dwarves feel like he could keep going and tell more if he wanted to. I also wanted more back story or just time in general with each dwarf and descriptions leading us to their sin that they protect. After reading it I feel we only get a lot of time with September and Unus, but as a reader I want more.
After all is said and done, I enjoyed this short story a lot. Its imagery paints a nice picture and the narrative and dialog keep the story at a solid pace. I recommend anyone that loves the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to read this short story and revel in someone else's shake-up of the story.
-Scott
When I flipped through the pages of this issue and begin reading, I was brought into this world and instantly the mind churns and cranks out the vivid imagery described in the first few paragraphs. It does not take long before you cringe at the image of Snow slicing her own palm as she falls and wondering what will happen after the darkness falls upon her.
This story takes us to a world with Seven Dwarves and a girl named Snow, that we all might be familiar with, but don't read too far into that familiarity as it will be turned on its head soon enough. This story tells of how Snow was banished from her kingdom for her beauty and after falling to darkness awakens to find herself in a house with seven dwarves. After all that the story takes a unique twist in that we find out these dwarves are not what we remember. Our mental image of the Disney movie from long ago is pushed aside once Quinn opens his mouth and suggests Snow share his bed with him, "I will allow you to sleep on top of me." he suggests.
Not too far into the story we find that the dwarves are tasked with a important role as each one takes charge over a chest containing a demon that represents "it's own infectious brand of immoral indulgence." As the pages turn you start to see some mild characteristics of each sin in each dwarf. Quickly the story sees its twist now that Snow has showed up to muddle the routine of the dwarves.
This particular short story paints an interesting image in my head as I read it. Often times I feel its whimsical nature and other times I feel uncomfortable and unready for what the next page will have and I believe that Mr. Goldstein has done a great job giving a different take on a story we are familiar with.
The characters are all given unique personalities that, like I mentioned, have a bit of small characteristic or two of each demon they take charge over. Unus stands tall as being a leader, but we quickly see he is taking a lot of strong decisions into his own undeserving hands at times. September is the closest friend Snow has in the story and he plays along with our curiosity as we read through.
The only thing I wish from this story is more of it. I feel that it does a great job of giving us a different narrative on a story we know, but I feel it has the potential to be fleshed out into a full story. The sequences before Snow appears and even her stay with the dwarves feel like he could keep going and tell more if he wanted to. I also wanted more back story or just time in general with each dwarf and descriptions leading us to their sin that they protect. After reading it I feel we only get a lot of time with September and Unus, but as a reader I want more.
After all is said and done, I enjoyed this short story a lot. Its imagery paints a nice picture and the narrative and dialog keep the story at a solid pace. I recommend anyone that loves the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to read this short story and revel in someone else's shake-up of the story.
-Scott
Thursday, July 1, 2010
So lets kick this off.
Hi my name is Scott. I am writing here because there is too much going on in my head to keep track, so I wanted to write it all down. Organization is both my gift and curse and I am always looking to organize my messy disorganized piles of stuff.
I am currently working two jobs, one at UPS. I deal with Hazardous Materials as we receive them and then send them to their destination. We are a routing facility. Never do I actually handle the Hazmat packages. I have been there for almost 4 years now and it is one of the better jobs I have ever had.
My second place of employment is Gamestop in the local mall. I should mention that I am an avid gamer, but I am sure I will get to that sooner or later. I have actually had a lot of fun at Gamestop, but it is both an interesting job and a very stressful one. If anyone has ever been to Gamestop they are all about their promotions, discount cards and pre-orders of games and in some way I have to be more of a salesmen then just a guy behind the cash register. I do my best there when I am super excited for a game or two, but other months I just go through the motions and try my best.
I am also a student at my local community college. Taking classes here and there to become a web designer. I am also a free lance web designer now. Taking small projects from around town. I also have my own website, http://remoria.net which is not up and running yet. There is a lot more to that coming up in the future.
Like I mentioned earlier, I am an avid gamer. I have been playing video games since I was three years old and and twenty years later little has changed. I am hoping to blog thoughts and impressions of games on here as time goes on.
Lastly I want to mention that I am very bad with blogs. I like them enough to create them over and over, there are as many blogs out there about me as there are Neo instances in the Matrix. So don't get too attached to this blog, but I hope to better with this one.
So thats me in a nutshell. My name is Scott. Who are you?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)