Stop motion

Sorry I haven't been posting for the last few days. I have been working on another project.
A stop-motion movie.
I have come up with a lot f theories for how to make a good story. Here is my best one.
1. Come up with a basic idea (You can share dreams, the gods are alive in the united states, there is a pill that makes you smart, Wizards and witches live among us).
 2 Build on that idea until you have characters real enough to carry an ID.
3 Start with the ending and work backwards.
4 Find a means of distributing your story.
My mean of distributing it is, of course, a stop motion movie. I know most people do a claymation or something like that, but I am doing a bionicle moc (My own creation) stop motion. If you are not aware, bionicle is an extremely intricate lego design system, although the story is really confusing. Here are some pros of a bionicle stop motion.
1 They all look unique (With clay-mation they could start all looking the same after awhile)
2 No talking (They don't have moving jaws, so just take a picture of their face and put in the words)
3 No mess, unless you count a thousand little plastic peices everywhere.
Despite that, they do have cons. Thye don't look like real people and everytime you need an extra you have to craft an entire new one.
My story is called the apple of discord. Basically, there is an object that the brain always associates with desire, so when you see it you automatically see what you want most (A distant parent sees their kids happy, a man in debt sees all the money he could ever want, a widow or widower sees their spouse again). There is another thing. Your brain never gets tired of looking at it. You could stand in front of it as your body withers away feeling completely content.
Creepy, huh?

I can't do a serious post today becuase i had to go to church and do homework, and now ther is no time left

Look up.

Camp

I almost competed in a track meet today. Sadly, there was torrential rain. It kind of reminds me of when I went to Camp-Half Blood. There were extreme sports, but in the exact opposite conditions.
As most of you know, I live in Austin, Texas. Rick Riordan, the author of the Percy Jackson series, sponsors a camp based off his book series. There is a lot of sword fighting in the books.
There is a lot of sword fighting in the camp.
Seriously, every ten feet there are kids 9-13 with fake swords going at it. The camp is about 90 degrees minimum, but it is worth it.
I really like the camp and am going to it this year, which is why I will not to post for a 2-week period this summer. The camp is a day camp, so I can come home, but I will be so tired I'm not sure there is much anything I can do that requires brain power after a day at camp.

Title not shown

I couldn't really think of a good title for this post.
A few days ago I was looking through the yearbook for my school and I saw a picture. The person looked completely normal, and I didn't give the picture a second thought until I saw the caption.
That person is now hooked on pot. She is rumored to have gone to juvie and is now generally avoided by every students.
I fell really sorry for her, though. I won't go into the details but her family is going through a really tough time right now. I can kind of understand how you might want to get taken away from all the sadness of your life. Just get stoned and let go. That might get you somewhere short term (Help you through the stress) but marijuana is addictive. And while you might be felling relaxation, outside your own little bubble  you are getting farther and farther away from any chance of greatness. And it is a comparatively mild drug. Think of what meth or Cocaine could do to your life.    
All hope isn't lost, though. I know for a fact that she was a good student, and she can still get back there. I don't know what I could do to help. I should probably just let the teachers handle it. Really I just wanted to write this post for myself. My thoughts seem clearer when they are typed out.

miracles

Sorry for not posting yesterday, my family was at an easter service.

Anyways, today's post is about miracles. It all starts yesterday at an airsoft gun fight. There is this kid who was born really premature. He is a triplet. The other two are in wheelchairs. I felt really sorry for him, plus I didn't want him to get hurt, so I followed him around until it was over and made sure nothing bad happened. He doesn't walk well and can't run, so I had some concerns.

After it was over his brother (Not one of the triplets) and dad came over. Just by looking at them I could tell that it was hard taking care of him. The brother was acting old and responsible beyond his years, which is saying something because he is only eight. It was clear that the younger brother really took care of the older one, which seemed odd to me. I'm always relying on my older brother. Having him rely on me, I just can't picture it. 

The father obviously had a hard time too. In the five minutes that I saw him, he saved his son from a serious injury. This is not to say that the family members of people with disabilities should stop caring for them, nor that disabled people should not be accepted in society (I have begun to have a large anger at anyone who uses the term "Retard"). It is to say that people who keep help the disabled are preforming a miracle.

Not many people would believe that Jesus had risen and the stone was rolled away. That is the kind of miracle that you can see. The kind that people are amazed by. But this is a different kind of miracle. A miracle of effort. 

And I urge anyone who can to help disabled people. This summer I am looking for some kind of program to help disabled people that I could join. 

A good day on the internet

Today was a good day on the internet. Not only did I get my first ever follower on my blog, I also got my first follower on my youtube account!
I've been thinking, Bam Bam (My first follower on my blog) is a good friend of mine. I've known her for years (And no, she is not the same person from the evolution post) and my first follower on my youtube account is a complete stranger.
I think it's pretty amazing that on this thing called the internet someone from across the country can find your  work, but what I think is more amazing is that you can find people you already know.
I don't really have a point or any clear message with this, just thanks Bam Bam. Also I'm doing the filming I posted about tomorrow which gives me an interesting dilemma. At the end of the play everyone claps for the tech guy (Me) just like they do for the actors after they bow. My tech and video teacher told me specifically not to draw attention to myself, but it seems like I've already got a lot of attention on me.

So should I bow?
Please comment

Seder

I have just gotten back from a seder, in my opinion the best religious service ever. There are readings from the bible and hymns and stuff like that, but a lot of it is ceremonial, and the ceremony is fun. You get paid for finding hidden Matza bread and there is sword-fighting with vegetables. The one I went to was adapted to the christian tradition and involved "Checking for Jesus" outside the door. Sadly, Jesus was not there. Only heavy rain.
the only part I didn't like was the children asking questions. I assumed that that meant the children debating different philosophical issues. Instead it was me asking "Why do we normally sit up straight when tonight we recline".
I don't want to anger any people who hold this tradition dear, but I was kind of upset because I am really good at debating that stuff. All I got was scripted questions and answers. In a way it made no sense.
 And in a way it made all the sense in the world.
You can debate and debate and each time find an answer (Maybe). But this is supposed to be the same. It is supposed to be a tradition. If it were discussions, then year  after year you may start getting the same answer. But this is supposed to be something to remember year after year. It's supposed to be ceremonial, just like the vegetable sword fighting. It represents the curiosity of young minds and the wisdom of older ones. And the questions are already answered anyways, so what's the point of a debate?
And if you get invited to one, I strongly suggest you go.

Evolution

If you read my religion post, you know I am a christian. Unlike some christens, however, I believe in evolution.
I t makes a lot of sense if you think about it, especially in the mind. Different emotions or feelings are caused by basic needs. Hate is to keep the population in check. Curiosity is so we keep innovating. The idea of physical beauty is so we are attracted to mates with useful physical aspects.
 Evolutionary scientists have found that almost all attractive traits have some function in primitive life. For example, muscular males are thought to be more attractive than skinny ones (Such as myself) because their muscles would help them hunt for food. However, whoever devised this system (God) wanted to make sure that more than just physical traits were put into perspective. Let me give you an example.
There is a girl in my L.A. class (Enriched) wrote an amazing story and for months I had a crush on her purely because of that story. I thought that she looked good, but come to think of it, she doesn't look any better than the average teenage female. That's the system at work. My brain noted a good aspect about her (Writing) and memorized her appearance, then altered my idea of what physical beauty is to fit her description.
It works with other mental aspects too. I don't think that anyone can claim to be innocent of making an assumption about someone purely on their physical appearance. However when I note a good trait about that person, that assumption goes away. It works with both the opposite and same sex even if you are straight (By the way, I am not anti-gay, a note for future reference). It's like what Jacob Lawrence said, "Ugly is how someone acts, not how they look".
By the way, I will probably be posting a report on Jacob Lawrence for frequent readers who don't know who he is because I talk about him a lot.

The winners

I was watching a video in science the other day about the first submarine ever built. It was built during the civil war and sunk after it's first successful mission. It is an inspiring movie, but it brings up an interesting point.
At the  climax of the movie the submarine carrying explosives blows up the enemy ship. Because it is such a good movie, the students in my class felt obliged to stand and cheer. One shouted "Take that reb's!" (Reb's being short for rebels or confederates).
I for one had noticed the "Dixie land" song being sung and the gray uniforms (Not to mention the enormous confederate flag),  so I said "Those weren't confederates dying, those were union. You just cheered for the advocates of slavery". There was a long silence, and then people decided to go on watching. I guess I sounded a little mean, but I always hate it when the "Winners write the history books" spirit is taken seriously.
I was somewhat angry somewhat unjustly. No one can claim they haven't ever made that assumption before. Whether it is human nature or just culture, something seems to have taught us that the winners are the good guys.
But that doesn't make the submarine mens actions any less heroic. Even  though they fought under the flag of slavery, none of them actually owned or directly supported slavery. The ship they blew up was killing countless civilians. I don't say they deserved to die, but in the end the submarine men saved more lives than they took.
But none of this would have happened if the war had never happened in the first place.

I can probably put all I need to say in the title. I won't be able to post a lot becuase of all my homework

Look up.

There's such thing as a free lunch

I've heard a lot of people saying there's no such thing as a free lunch, which I find patently untrue and I have found countless exceptions of it. What about your body? You didn't pay for that, did you? Lately, though I've found another big exception.
I decided to film the spring play. Our school has this thing, the fall play is put together in about five minutes, they start preparing for the spring play 30 seconds after the spring play is done, so I have high hopes. The thing is, I like filming, I get extra credit, and I get in to a play for free that other people have to pay 15 bucks for. The only reason it isn't "Free" is because I'm providing the school with a service. Plus I get into the party afterwards with the hot actor girls.

Religon

My post is about religion, an more specifically Doubting Thomas and Peter.
They are my two favorite disciples because they are the most prominent characters in the bible that screw up.
I hate it how they got branded as the bad disciples. Thomas got "Doubting" put in his name, and I bet everyone who reads passages about Peter are secretly thinking about how bad he messed up, always saying the wrong thing. But would you do any better?
First, consider the fact that Jesus wasn't really his own religion back then. He was just a jew with very captivating ideas. I doubt that the disciples really believed in their hearts that he was really the son of god until he had risen from the dead. But before then you wouldn't act all righteous and good around him like most christians today would if they met him. You just act like your very imperfect self.
Lets look at Peter for a second. His biggest mistake was denying he knew Jesus three times to save his own life. If my life was at stake, I would, and so would most of the people I know, if not all of them.
And now with Thomas. He doubted Jesus's  self-resurrection, right? Well say you know someone you know has just been killed, you want to talk to him. You want to say good-bye to him. You want him to stay alive, if possible. But you can't believe it, because it is physically impossible for it to be true. So when your friend say they saw him, would you believe them? Would you dare to believe that he could be alive?
I like them because unlike other disciples, the are neither hidden from text nor seemingly perfect. They are human, and they make very human mistakes, but in the end they did the right thing, spreading the word of god. The only disciple I don't really like is Judas, but I don't think he deserves to go down in the ages as some character parallel to satan. He screwed up, and repented later. He made a very human mistake. And I don't recall anywhere in the text Jesus swearing vengeance at him, so I assume he was forgiven. plus, counting Jesus, he was the thirteenthj disciple, which is never good luck.

Fighting

I recently had a friend over and we had a Nerf war. I am a pacifist and don't like war of any kind, yet I didn't object to having one with fake guns.
Why not? I guess I just didn't see the harm in it if the darts are made of foam. I think that a lot of people share that opinion. They don't actually look like guns and unless you shoot someone in the eye it doesn't hurt. But then  again, does pretend to shoot someone make human life seem to decrease in worth?
In movies, I have observed that the more  people die, the less of a big deal it seems to be. In the Green Hornet, for example, tons of people die and by the end you kind of stop caring. On inception, however, the death of one person (Mrs. Cobb) causes much despair and almost costs multiple people their lives.
So, is Mrs. Cobb worth more than some nameless gangster?
It doesn't work like that in the real world, however. In the real world the number of deaths doesn't downplay their worth. But as long as you aren't vividly imagining killing your friend in a Nerf war, your pretty much okay.

Shirtless

I have been running track lately and have noticed something, even when its 50 degrees with a windchill of 30, the distance people run shirtless. Why? Is it because they want to show off their abs? Do they really get hot that quickly? Do they want to anger the ice-cream people who have a sign up for the ice cream vendors not to sell to shirtless people?
I have heard the girl track team making disgusted noises at them, so it probably not the girls. And given the fact they are hugging themselves for warmth, they aren't all that hot either, which only leaves the ice cream man solution.  

Intro

Hello. John here.
This is my first post, so I think I should outline what this blog is about.
Mostly rants, bad ideas, and observations of the human psyche.
I kind of like Micah Circuitry's idea of comparing you to a comic character, like Jason Fox. Mine is Larry the Crocodile from Pearls Before Swine, because I have a stream of nonstop terrible ideas going through my mind, however I rarely drink beer because I am thirteen years old.
I live in Austin, Texas. The upside is every time there is a new Rick Riordan book out there is a signing. The down side it is located in southern Texas, which is extraordinarily hot in the summers.
Also, I have 3 youtube accounts, a BZPower membership, and another blog, so I have a lot going on online, so I might not post every day. Look below for the Crocs from Pearls before Swine.