Traditional/Non-Traditional- Media

I believe traditional and non-traditional media are both needed. The counter balance each other and make sure every point of view is out there. It will let us decide for ourselves what's right and what's wrong and with both around you'll be informed when something you see is a lie.

I suppose I, myself, rely on traditional journalism simply because i'm rarely on social media so I don't get a lot of access to citizen journalism. Citizen journalism pushes serious conversations to the forefront. For example- the amazon fire.

Social Media

The three social media site I use, if rarely, of my own volition are YouTube, DeviantArt, and Tumblr.

YouTube is great for mindless entertainment, tutorial videos, and music even if the adpocalypse is once more upon us. Its a really nice site for animators and creators in general to get themselves out there with.

DeviantArt is an amazing place to keep track of and find greats artists and it has brilliant comics if you know where to look.

Tumblr is... strange. It's a wonderful place to find people with similar interests, even if the fandom-side is viewed as terrifying. Personally, I love it.

My Social Media Consumption...

... is nearly nonexistent. The only time i use social media is when my friends bug me into doing it. That's it. That's the only time.

Mass Media

Mass Media is all around us all the time. It's extraordinarily hard to live in the modern world without coming into contact with some sort of media; books, movies, newspapers, TV news, and more.

A salary in media career can range from $33k to $131k with most people getting pair around $59k. If I were to go into a career in media I would become an author. To go into any media career, you would probably need an education in Media Studies, English, and/or Business. I would prefer not to spend my life in media and would rather do something based less on lies and pretty words and more on things I personally enjoy.

Without Feathers

Personally, my favorite story in Woody Allen's Without Feathers was "If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists". It's a simple enough book, but it's pretty funny. It's written like letters from Vincent Van Gogh to his brother, Theo. It describes what Vincent's doing, what he's gotten in trouble for recently, and the way he yearns to assimilate art into his dentistry. I quite like the relationship Vincent supposedly has with another Impressionist-turned-Dentist, Gauguin. It's really funny because of the way all of Vincent's exploits are told as if they're entirely normal, despite the oddity of their nature.

My First Injury

A kid distracted me and I ran into a wall. It was painful and embarrassing. Also, I couldn't breathe for about 20 seconds. Second injury, I from a low to the round branch and the branch fell on me. I was very winded and my chest was bruised.

Edit: Wait actually, my first injury was when I was two. I was an idiot, walked into the way of a flying hay bale, got slammed into a two-by-four and lost a tooth. (The removal of my tooth may have been the thing to start my terror of needles...)

Misery

Misery was filled with masterfully-used suspense. It's one of those horror films/books that actually has you rooting for the protagonist because the protag didn't get into his trouble due to a stupid mistake or choice. Paul Sheldon has no control over the situation at all. Stephen King used suspense by giving us little clues that our antagonist, Annie Wilkes, isn't as sweet and harmless as she seems to be in the beginning. We start to see more and more of this unstable side of Annie Wilkes as the movie/book goes on. When Paul finally escapes from his room, King puts an emphasis on how he knocks over the little glass penguin and puts it back up facing the wrong direction and we take extra notice of the knives in the kitchen. Then there's the fight scene where Annie has an obvious advantage over Paul and yet Paul still manages to pull through. But not really. He doesn't really escape Anni Wilkes. He's traumatized, he almost certainly has physical scars from the encounter, he sees Annie almost everywhere, and his publisher and others are pushing for a non-fiction description of his encounter, which would certainly reopen the mental scars.

Colours out of Space

I really, really liked Colours out of Space. It was interesting and strange but not in a scary way, despite the fact that it's a horror story. From this, I learned that you don't need overly descriptive to have an interesting story. You can let the reader's imagination create parts of the story. It was really fun to read and I would definitely recommend it.

My First Natural Disaster (and also my second)

My first natural disaster when I was two or three and still lived in Wisconsin (at least, the first natural disaster I remember). We were in the car with a very angry tornado behind us. We kept on straight, it turned into the parking lot of what I think was a Walmart or something similar. The second tornado was closer and we stopped at a nearby store (an ice cream shop) and all four of us plus the employee and our dog crammed into the freezer. I really wanted some ice cream. I didn't get ice cream. I was angry. I also wasn't at all worried about the tornado that might kill us all, despite my parents' very worrisome behavior. I just want some dam ice cream. I don't think I ever got that ice cream, even after the tornado left.

My Sister

My sister was a bully when she was younger, apparently. I mean, she's always mean to me but that's just because she's my older sister and we have to deal with each other all the time. Since we don't see each other as much anymore, we fight less but every once in a while we still get pissy at each other. My sister is six years older than me so we don't have many likes in common and we're very different personality wise so there's not much we can do that we can both enjoy. And... that's all, I guess.

My Earliest Memory

The earliest thing I remember (I think- a lot of my early memories are jumbled up) is what I fondly call the Y Road. When my family lived in Wisconsin, I was only one or two but I have a few vague memories of the place. My mom would bike with me in Wisconsin dow, you guessed it, the Y Road. I... don't remember much about this. On another note, our Wisconsin house was definitely haunted because there was a ghost lady that lived on the stair landing and an evil something-or-other in the playroom.

My Favorite TV Show Growing Up

Mr. should've known better than to give me this option. My favorite TV show has been, for the last three years, Supernatural. For those of you that don't know, Supernatural is about a pair of brothers (Sam and Dean Winchester) fighting monsters and saving the world. They even stopped the Apocalypse! Of course, they're also technically the reason the apocalypse started in the first place... Anywaaaaaayyyyy, Dean Winchester is pretty much in a relationship with the angel Castiel (as one of the characters said once "you can't spell 'subtext' without 'butt sex'"). Besides Supernatural, I also love NCIS, Criminal Minds, Person of Interest, and White Collar. Person of Interest is new to the list but it pretty much matches the base idea of the other three, so I don't find it very surprising that I like it. I tell you, I know so many ways to kill people at this point.

My First Book

I don't remember a lot of my earlier books -- many about dragons or my dog, Lilly -- and I have faint memories of writing a huge encyclopedia of animals that existed many years ago (including dragons, of course) but the first book I remember writing that I truly consider being a story is A Blind Journey. It's about a young cat by the name of Smoak (pronounced Smoke) and her wolf friend Darla. Smoak was blinded as a young kit by human waste thrown into a river near her home. The waste nearly killed her but she escaped with her life, minus her vision. Later, when she felt suffocated by her family and friends, she escaped into the forest and met Darla, a young pup that moved into her homeland with a fairly large pack by the name of the Blood Moon Wolves. However, the Blood Moon Wolves weren't the only pack to move into the area, the other being a dark pack led by the infamous wolf Nefar. Nefar and his pack have been at war with the Blood Moon Wolves for ages.  The story is then about Smoak gaining the trust of Darla's pack and the pair of them standing against Nefer and all his darkness. I'm very fond of this story but it needs a lot of editing to be readable.

My Goals for Writing

What did you want to come to the School of the Arts and major in creative writing to learn?
I became a creative writing major so that I could become a better writer, hopefully, good enough that I could publish a book that people actually enjoy.

Sherlock Holmes

I absolutely love Sherlock Holmes, both the TV show and the collection of shorts by Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock is an intriguing character no matter how he's portrayed. In the original, by Doyle, he's quite charismatic and he's active. He's a genius, as we all know, and we adore him even now, decades after he was first created. I think this is because he's got something we all wish we had; genius and an interesting life to boot. His feats amaze us and we strive to match his intelligence. This draws us in and is why we continue to love Holmes and Watson years longer than many other pieces of literature. They're (Sherlock and John) relationship is amusing on the worst of days and an absolute emotional rollercoaster on the best of days, which attaches us to the characters even more. I have to say, though, Moriarty is my favorite. He's just so fun to read about or to watch. That's going to be all for now, here are some pictures for your troubles:

If I had to choose a Writing Career

I think, if I couldn't simply be an author, I would be an English teacher. I have had many good English teachers in my life but many more bad ones so I want to try and even the odds a tiny bit.

A. What is the job?
Typical responsibilities of the job include planning, preparing and delivering lessons, preparing teaching materials, helping pupils improve their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills via individual and group sessions, checking and assessing pupils' work, organizing and running specialist courses, and attending social events.

B. What is the median (average) salary for the job?
$44,898

C. What education and/or requirements are needed to get the job?
Every state requires that public school teachers be licensed by completing education requirements and passing examinations. A bachelor's degree is the minimum requirement for licensure. Elementary teachers hold bachelor's degrees in education, while high school teachers have degrees in a subject area.

Hemingway

I liked Hemingway's writing style and I like the two stories "A Day's Wait" and "A Clean, Well-lighted Place". I like "A Day's Wait" because it's entertaining and the twist at the end is rather humorous. It was about a young boy who thought he was going to die because of a misunderstanding with Celsius and Fahrenheit. A like "A Clean, Well-lighted Place" because it was dark and gloomy, exactly my style. It was pretty much about drinking away your regrets.

I didn't like "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" because it was boring and lacked any real conflict or mystery. Or maybe I just don't remember well but then again, that means I find it forgettable. I seem to remember it was about a guy dying on a mountain talking with his wife.

I don't really know what else to put in here about Hemingway so I'm gonna just leave it here. See ya.

Procrastination

What is keeping you from focusing on your work? 
Keeping up with webcomic or fanfictions or trying to finish tv series, most notably Merlin, NCIS, Supernatural, and Stargate: Sg-1.

How might you overcome procrastination issues?
Give myself concrete, unflexible (non-flexible?) deadlines. Plan ahead of time, lay out what I'm going to write, keep my resolution in sight. I have a problem with letting my stories grow out of my control, which eventually leads to me dropping them. If I keep my story resolutions firm and in sight, hopefully that will stop them from getting out of control.

How might you manage your time better?
I could give myself a schedule to work on and stop myself from wasting full days binge-watching shows (I'm looking at you, Merlin). Keeping myself to that schedule, however, may be difficult.

Passion

So I'm supposed to write about something I'm passionate but that's rather difficult for me. I don't like people reading what I've written unless I'm %150 sure there's nothing personal in it. I suppose I'm passionate about the things I watch and read. I'm a big fan of Supernatural, Sherlock, Spirit, Boku no Hero Academia, Warriors, A Matter of Life and Death, and Pirates of the Caribbean. And Harry Potter.

... Have you ever noticed that Harry is never anyone's favorite character? Personally, my favorite is Tom m Riddle. Not Voldemort, Tom. Fuck Voldemort. He looks like a snake pedophile. I also like Draco, Sirius, Remus, Hagrid, Newt, and Grindelwald.

AlSO SUPERNATURAL'S COMING TO AN END SOON AND ThAtS JusT So sAD. And Gabriel's still dead... supernatural cannot end until Gabriel takes his rightful throne as ruler of the Multiverse. So you all know, I am a proud shipper of Destiel and Sabriel and a few other ships and no one will ever change that. If there're any Supernatural fans that find this, tell me what you think about the newest season and your favorite ship or character.

I'm gonna skip the others and just finish this off with A Matter of Life and Death. It's a beautiful webcomic made by the equally beautiful and talented Snip-sama, aka The Snipster.

A Matter of Life and Death

This is Me

Hello everyone and anyone! My name's River_of_Light, call me River, and I hope you have a good time here on my story. I'm a student at SOTA, take a Creative Writing course. This is a blog for said course, though I have a feeling this is going to grow beyond what the teacher assigns. Uhhh... I have no idea what else to write, so I guess this'll be all for my Introductory blog. Have a good stay, don't get too depressed while you're here, and feel free to comment and ask me shit.