Kwik! An ounce-ment.

I'm going to be doing some site maintenance.
I want the blog to look nice 'n purty, so I'm going to be working on backgrounds, pictures, and the general look of the blog.
If you happen to come back and it looks different, that's because...well...it is.

Please sit tight with me if you're a regular.
If you're not, first off, welcome. Sit tight.

Birthday.

Another year, another year.

My birthday is in a few days.

How did this get here??

This got me thinking about birthdays in media and their significance.

In writing, birthdays can mean that a character is growing up, like in Scott Pilgrim. Once Scott turns 24, he gets a job, which is also a symbol of growing up.

A birthday could mean two warring factions putting differences aside to celebrate the birth of a Promised (or Chosen) One.

A birthday could also just be another day of the year, like Christmas in Diehard.

Personally, my birthday is the last option. I don't like celebrating it. Everyone asks me why.
I simply don't enjoy celebrating something just for me. It makes me feel selfish.

Anyway, back to writing.
There are a lot of Coming-of-age stories; Harry Potter is one of them.

Basically starting out as a neglected orphan with no purpose, Harry becomes the most powerful wizard in all of Hyrule (or something. I never watched the movies) after learning spells, incantations, and how to play chess with magic to defeat some weird guy without a nose.

Artists interpretation of the final battle

Anything showing a younger person learning a lesson about growing up, being a person with a purpose...those are coming-of-age stories. These are not necessarily birthday stories.

Sometimes, birthdays are the whole plot.
Planning a party, keeping small secrets, stuff like that. I don't see this used a lot in written stories, but I do see it in TV shows as a one-off episode.
The one that comes to mind is in the Middle, when the mom, Frankie, is all excited for her birthday and the only thing she wants is a yellow foot bath.

Her family doesn't really listen. All they heard was "yellow"
So, they go shopping the day prior to her birthday, because everyone forgets. Mike, Frankie's husband, is basically panicking trying to remember what she wanted while Brick, their son, finds the thing she wants. Mike says "Naw, you're mom's not like that. She wouldn't want that"
They instead buy her yellow pants.

She is, needless to say, disappointed.

Many pieces that do this sort of "plot twist" lead the lesson of "It's the thought that counts"

Symbolically, birthdays are great to use to show a character moving from one stage to another. Almost as a "rebirth" of sorts.

It always ends up being happy, and mushy, and soft, like "here's a buncha stuff, glad to have you aroiund. Way to last another year without dying"

YOU DID IT, YOU WHITE PIECE OF  HOT GARBAGE

Death, however, is the fun one. But, we'll get to that another time.
I hope you all have happy birthdays. Here's to another year!!

Space, and it's general hugeness

Space
The final frontier

As I was watching the Perseid meteor shower this weekend, I realized something; Space is large.

I laid on my front walkway, looking at the stars, and realized that somewhere out there, was an alien doing the exact same thing as me, probably.
Or, there is some alien girl out there, pining for an alien guy like me.
(I had had a beer and was listening to classic rock all day...I was in a 'love' mood)

This brings me to say that space is such a good platform for writing. It's huge, and the possibilities are endless; since we haven't gone too deep into space, there could be another planet with intelligent life that have actually developed deep space travel.

Which means that, potentially, there is a race of alien that have developed the mental ability to control the world around them using focus, study and dedication, turned it into a religion, and now every kid on a planet far far away in a time not so long ago wants a light sword to battle their friends with.
Or, by some conglomeration of minds, developed a wholly remarkable book with large friendly letters on the cover reminding the reader Don't Panic, helping hitchhikers survive the unholy depths of space for years to come.
And to also get them drunk out of their minds.

So, yes, space is seemingly endless. A great place to put literally anything.
Space Pirates, Space Cowboys, Space Barmaids, Space TV Repairmen.
Any profession, just slap a Space in front of it and, boom, space story.

I never write these in just a day, so I'm sorry if this isn't as...readable as my other posts. I have more to come!!
enjoy this slowly spinning skeleton