Another Message from Your GM

EWHey guys, after working with my WordPress blog and comparing things, I've decided to move completely over to WordPress. I'll keep this one here until fall semester starts but it won't be updated. This one doesn't even have my most recent post which is why I'm posting this message so you know where to go. Wow, I'm the last of my friends to move sites. Anyway, goodbye Blogger and hello WordPress. I'll post the link to my WordPress site below. See you on the other side, Sanders Out.

https://justmesanders.wordpress.com/

The Magnificent Man

I started writing this a while back. I'm probably going to add to it, but for now it's a good stopping point. Let me know what you think.

“The stage is set. The curtain rises. The story has ended.”

“What,” I said bewildered, “That doesn’t make any sense.”

That magnificent man spun around to face me. “Precisely,” he said pointing the top of his cane towards me, “It doesn’t make any sense, to you.” He spun his cane around and pointed to himself, “But it does to me.” He turned around, his cape billowed out behind him as he strode to his bookshelf. His hand flourished as he explained, “The stage is set, that’s obvious. The curtain rises, so the audience can see the stage. But the story has ended, yes, it's possible. Now, I’ll add another detail. The actors take their bow.”

The Writer's Room

*Looking at heading* Not so much a room, more like my head... Anyway, hey guys! I'm doing some writing at the moment and a touch (read: a lot) of character development (Bryan Caplan is being annoying again so we are taking him to back to the drawing board; acronym obsession will be staying though, just turned down a few notches). I'm working on this little short piece that I might post here eventually as well as looking at ways to flesh out my characters. I feel like I've hit a slight wall with them and while I do have them all in my head and they do say things lately they have been mostly silent with the odd "I own the CIA! I own the FBI! I am Bryan Caplan!" (Bryan this is why we are taking you back to the drawing board). It concerns me when they haven't said anything to me in a while, then again I've been too busy to check on them (fandom characters on the other hand, they are popping their heads out and saying random crap). So, I'm taking a quick break from my short piece and went poking around the interwebs for some character development things and I found some stuff. I decided to post a few links to the sites I found in case anyone else might be looking for some character development things. Creating characters is one of my favorite things to do, but sometimes I start feeling like I'm creating the same person over and over again but only changing a few things. I figured I might try answering the questions on some of these and see what happens. Maybe then Bryan will say something other than another acronym. ("What you need is a nice drink. On the house, now tell your bar tender what's up." Go away, Russell, I have my Gatorade.) Anyway, before they all decide to start saying random crap, here are some links...

http://theathleticnerd.com/screenwriting/getting-to-know-your-characters (multiple links to other places)

http://thesebeautifulscars.tripod.com/interview.html (link that is one of the links on the first link, but I liked it so there)

http://thewritepractice.com/proust-questionnaire/

http://www.springhole.net/writing/index.html (neat little site that I'll probably spend a nice chunk of time on)

http://www.errantdreams.com/files/365charques.pdf

Anyway, that's all for now. I've got characters to rework and a short piece to work. So for now, Sanders out.

Tag: R.I.P It or Ship It: Anime

R.I.P It or Ship It is back! This time I'm using characters from anime shows. I tried to have a nice mix of people and not only guys this time (used some pretty awesome female characters). Like last time, I used a random group creator.

The rules are pretty simple:
1. Write down the names of characters from different books on scraps of paper.
2. Put them in a container of your choosing.
3. Pull out two names at the time and show them to your audience in whatever way you like.
4. Decision time! Do you ship them or do you want their relationship to die a peaceful/painful death? Tell the world!

No questions? Splendid! Let’s get this party started!

Characters Used:

Arthur Kirkland (Otherwise known as England; Hetalia)
Alfred Jones (Otherwise known as America; Hetalia)
Kyoya Otori (Ouran High School Host Club)
Tomoe (Kamisama Kiss)
Rei Ogami (Code;Breaker)
Lelouch Vi Britannia (Code Geass)
Rintaru Okabe (Steins;Gate)
Silvia De Alisia (Aquarion)
Shrade Elan (Aquarion EVOL)
Mix (Aquarion EVOL)
Haruka Nanase (Free!)
Rin Matsuoka (Free!)

I think the guys out number the girls this time... Yeah, have fun with that. Now here are the ships!

Alfred Jones and Mix

Okay, first of all, I'm not sure why I stuck Mix in here because she's so anti-male. Either way, I don't think this would work at all. Alfred is a bit... Eccentric and excited just about all the time. He's the embodiment of America for heaven's sake! Alfred would drive Mix up the wall! So I'm going to... R.I.P it.

Arthur Kirkland and Shrade Elan

Oh my gosh, the ship you never thought of, but now that it's in front of you, yes! Arthur is a British gentleman with a few little quirks. Shrade is cool, calm, and collected with a tendency to tease. I think he'll be able to quickly calm Arthur with a few notes on the piano. I see them as a peaceful couple in a nice flat in London. So yeah, I'm going to... Ship it!

Rintaru Okabe and Kyoya Otori

Oh my Tatum... This is what happens when I stick more than one character that J Michael Tatum has voiced (the other one on here is Tomoe). Dear god, and the think is their voices are so similar and so distinctly Tatum. Personalities aside, it would be, "Okabe, we're out of coffee." "Kyoya, you do realize we sound so much alike, right? The organization must be behind it. Come on Kyoya, we'll get your voice back, OW! A newspaper really?! Of all things you swat me with a newspaper? Where's your creativity, OW! Again?!" "You idiot." Okabe and Kyoya though, I see it working. Okabe is similar to Tamaki but not as idiotic. He's just a guy with so much in his head and Kyoya would act as an anchor and voice of reason to help him navigate through life. So I'm going to... Ship it.

Lelouch Vi Britannia and Rei Ogami

Oh boy. Revenge driven Lelouch and Code Breaker Ogami... This could be interesting. On one hand they both have a front they put up while at school and a separate personality for when they are doing whatever it is they do. I think they would work out alright. Both sharing details of their day and what they were doing on their free time. Sharing a smirk and a nod... Yes! Ship it!

Silvia De Alisia and Tomoe

Silvia and Tomoe... The royal and the fox demon. Silvia is head strong and sure of herself. Tomoe is a bit snarky and of course lazy, but I think Silvia would put him in his place. However, I don't really see them working as couple, close friends yes but not together. So... R.I.P it.

Rin Matsuoka and Haruka Nanase

HAHAHA!!! Gold! That's gold! HAHA!!! I already ship them. Rin and Haru are from the same show. I've already seen them interact and know how well they mesh. Both swimmers and childhood friends, Haru is reserved, a bit weird, and loves water. Rin just wants to be an Olympic swimmer but loses sight of what's really important after facing reality in Australia. Haru is one of the greatest swimmers and is truly beautiful in the water, but he just want's to be normal (something that grates Rin's nerves). Over time they both come to realize things and everything works out in the end. Anyway, their dynamic is great and anyone who watches Free! generally ends up shipping them together. That or Haru and Makoto. Even though I've said it already... Ship it!

That's it for this R.I.P It or Ship It. I might do one that is just Hetalia (sooo many ships) or maybe I'll go back to TV shows and movies. Maybe I'll do a book edition. Who knows. All I know is that I really like doing these and I hope you enjoy reading them, even if you don't know the shows and characters. So for now, Sanders out.

A Message from Your GM

*Looking at title and pondering* Not sure why I'm calling myself your GM, might be because I'm on a Sword Art Online kick. Great show by the way. No, don't tell me it sucks. I like it a lot so let me think that it's awesome. Thank you. Anyway, on to buisness. I reopened a Wordpress blog. I had one and then I got rid of it but I could only use that URL once so I had to adjust it so I could have the URL I wanted. But I'm finally ready to post what my URL is over at Wordpress. I'm still going to be here but I might post different things depending on my mood. I might one day switch to only using my word press but for now I'm going to post and update both. Right now there are a few posts that are here but not on Wordpress, and one that's over on Wordpress but not here. I moved most of my old posts over to Wordpress but there are only a few new ones and I need to check the format on the old ones. 

Here's my WordPress URL, https://justmesanders.wordpress.com/

That's my message, until next time, Sanders out.

The Ship

You've probably heard these phrases before...

"Ship it."

"Ship it like Fedex"

"If it fits it ships."

If you haven't, you are one of the lucky few who haven't been thrust into this crazy world (or you have and you just don't know the terms yet). Today is about shipping and my obsession with it (yes, I'm obsessed. No, I don't have a problem, I just ship anything and everything). BTW, Pinterest is a lovely little thing where you can find old Tumblr posts that are just brilliant.



Let's start with the basics...

What is shipping?

Shipping [Verb] : support or have a particular interest in a romantic pairing between two characters in a fictional series, often when this relationship is one portrayed by fans rather than depicted in the series itself.

I have many ships. I used to have one or two then they evolved into a small pier and then a nice fleet and now it's just an armada.

Now that you know what a ship is, or at least have a basic definition, let's get to the fun part.

The Beginning

Picture this. You're watching something, reading something, doing whatever and you see two characters interact for a while and think, "They should be together." You might not realize it but you've just shipped something. You start rooting for them and either a) get excited when it becomes canon (apart of the story) or b) wonder why they ended up not together or with other people (sorry, but that ship has been sunk by the writers). But worry not, in your own head and probably a lot of other people, you can deny the actual reality and ship it anyway (Sherlock... Johnlock, ship it.) But this is only one thing. If you're anything like me you start seeing pairings and ships in other things you are a fan of.

From Ship to Armada

This is where things vary from person to person. I have an armada of ships. So many that I forget that I ship something and don't remember until I circle back to that fandom. I've tried to keep a list but I forget to update it. Shipping can take over your life if you aren't careful. My friends can vouch for me, I have been known to look up from the book we are reading in AP Lit and say, " (name of character) and (name of other character), ship it." and go back to reading. (BTW, Newt and that other Irish guy, ship it.) But what turns a few ships into an armada, to me it takes a mix of things. My armada involves multiple ships within a fandom, ships from various fandoms, crossover ships, submarines, and ships from my everyday life (that bagger and the check out person at Publix, ship it.) Ships come in all shapes and sizes...

The arrow is as straight as my otp.

Submarines... This is a concept that I'm trying to help take off, so I'm including it.

Now comes the fun part before the final crazy part...

The OTP

OTP stands for One True Pairing. This is the ship that you ship the most. The ship you think of when anyone says ship, pairing, or otp. This is the ship to end all ships for you. This is the ship you hold on to till the end of time. The OTP is yours, love it forever. But you can have other otps. The difference is, at least to me, that an otp and the OTP is that an otp is a main pairing you support in a fandom while the OTP is the pairing that you will stand by for forever and a day. 

My OTP is Janto, the one otp of mine that became canon and was taken from me all to quickly... Damn you Davies!!! *Takes a moment because it's all so painful*

Love your OTP and love your otps. Treasure the ones that make it to canon and hold the ones that have been sunk close to you. 

Now for the final part(s) that is a bit [read: a lot] nuts...

Shipping IRL

I do ship in real life. I ship real people. I don't usually advertise my ships. But I do. I've been known to ship random people at Publix. Random things in my front yard... TOPBOGIMFL Fandom!!!



Yeah, fangirls, fanboys (though I haven't met many), and shippers are nuts.

My shipping motto: If it fits, it ships. (Take that however you like). {Side note: Thank you USPS flat rate shipping, you just handed me my shipping motto}

What this means is whatever you want it to mean, lol. Seriously, so many ways you can take that. The general answer as to what it means is that if I feel that it would work and produce shenanigans and something amazing and adorable and "OMG, I can't live without this ship" feelings, then I ship it.

Sometimes it takes me a while to ship something (Hamlet and Horatio, two reads and five years) and sometime it takes me a second to ship something (Johnlock and Janto). Ship it, ship everything, ship all the pairings. It's okay to have multiple pairings for one character (Stony, Frostiron, Hawkiron, once Fury/Tony... yeah that was weird but it worked for that one moment). As long as it makes you happy, go for it. Ship what you want (McNozzo, Percy/Oliver, Hotch/Reid, Google/Yahoo, Tumblr itself). Now for some tumblr things to make sense of those last two ships...

Personally, I ship Link/Quote, Chat/Video, and Text/Photo with Audio being the guiding force that gets everyone together!

BTW.... Sorry this next one is looooong... http://pin.it/weObDS3



And then after all that THIS still happens...



And this...



So anyway, that's shipping and a few of my many ships. I ship anything and everything, nothing is safe. Until next time, Sanders out.

Tech Support

Ok, so you have a tech issue and for the life of you, you can't figure out what's wrong or how to fix it. Who do you call? Tech support. You wait three to six hours on the phone to get patched to a human and then you hear the phone click as the annoying music stops playing and suddenly you remember that the company you're calling outsources and you think, "I hate this. Why did I call these people." 

Tech support has a bad rep. Customer service in general has a bad rep. But the one customer service "desk" that doesn't have a bad rep in my book is Electronic Arts support. I love EA's support team. They are awesome and if you take the time to be nice and not call them while your plumbob is red (lol, Sims reference), they'll help you. I've heard of people not liking EA's support but the majority of people that I've read comments from in forums, YouTube comments and tweets, like EA's support. I've had to contact them at least three times and each time I came out victorious with my problem solved. From what I can tell, EA doesn't outsource, or if they do they managed to get the good people. However, EA's support (and the company in general) hasn't always been sunshine and daisies. Three years ago, EA was named the worst company in America (apparently they got that infamous title two years in a row). After a turnover in CEOs and maybe a few executives, the company has been working hard to redeem itself. Looking into it, it's actually a great story to read about how it went from loved to hated to regaining the trust of the gamer community. Here's a CNet article from 2015: How Electronic Arts Stopped Being the Worst Company in America

Anyway, I love EA games. I love how the company is working to make the customers happy and can't wait to see what happens with the company in the future. Now I have sims to mess with, so for now, Sanders out.