I know that I have not posted a blog in a while. That is mostly because I wanted this blog to be purely about my art and funny observation of things that I see in every day life, like this:

But for the last couple of months I have been so wrapped up in political debate on facebook. Those political discussion turn me into someone that I'm not. Well, maybe I am, but I like to repress that side of me, but facebook won't let me. The most recent being the second amendment, Boston as a "Police State," what's wrong with the Republicans, West, Texas, CISPA, and other malduggery. Is that the word I'm trying to say? It just ruins me for artistic inspiration but I wrote nearly a novel's worth of comments and status updates voicing my opinion (facts :)).

In the mean time I HAVE been doing some creative things for school. Well, life goes on. I haven't written about them, but I still have assignments to do. I am working on an animation for my team production class. I have been entrusted with the last 4 seconds of the animation that my class is working on as a group. My professor pissed me off today because the 3 little drawings that he drew that I am supposed to go by do not give me any kind of detail as far as what the character is doing or which way she is facing. So basically I am just guessing at what he wants her to do. He wasn't happy. That's all I want to talk about on that subject. I am just so angry right now.

On a happier note, I am working on an animatic for a story that I have been working on for years. Well, I gave it a break and haven't really touched in a while. But I started it in 2003. I turned it into a 10 page script. After a couple of years I realized that not only was it too short for a script, the way it ended didn't make any sense. I kept the whole story but expanded it to something like an 86 pages along script with a full blown Conlang to go with it. All of that was completed in something like 2009. I haven't touched it since. Matter of fact, my full typed out script is on an external hard drive that crashed and I was quoted something like $1200 to retrieve my files. I will one day. But in the mean time, I still have the hand written story that I used to write the script. Currently, I am in my first portfolio class. In this class I am preparing to create an animation for my portfolio. This will be done over the course of 3 school quarters. 3 classes. This class, I am working on story development, storyboards and animatics, character design and modeling. I have taken characters and some of the storyline from my script and turned it into a approximately 3 minute short. And, while he had a few suggestions to make my story better, my animatic was well received by the aforementioned professor. 

Although he did not feel that I should be working on an "old" character/story. It's not like I have been obsessing over this constantly for years. I haven't touched this story since 2009. Unlike someone's story that I can't animate the way he wants me to that HE has been working on since like FOREVER!

I've also been reading a lot of stupid blog lists. Like 5 Horrifying Details Hidden in Classic Cartoons and 5 Recurring Movie Extras You Won't Believe You Never Noticed. Stupid but fun to waste your life reading. A nice reprieve, though, from the aweful, angry rants of people who think that the gubment is trying to take away their guns when really they are trying to take away their right to privacy (CISPA). It's so funny. 

Since we last spoke, I also added my twitter account to my website and I created another twitter account and added that, too. The second account is strictly for the funny stuff that I see and photograph. Well, that's what I use it for, mostly. And, while my first twitter account is for random stuff like my run tracker and getting birthday retweets from my favorite stars 

....my second...my God, it took me so long to log into this twitter account, zoom in on this tweet, print the screen, copy and paste it into paint, save it as a jpg and post it here, that I forgot what it was that I was going to say in this statement about my twitter accounts. So I said all of that because it was probably more fun and interesting then what I was going to say. Whatever it was. Oh, and then I followed myself. Is that pathetic? I don't know. But it can't be as pathetic as taking a Justin Tiberlake quiz because whoever posted it will follow you if you get 100% and then cheating on it! SMDH.

Too Short

The script that I am working on has been in the works in at least 4 years. I recently found my original story written on two sides of three legal length pieces of paper. When I consider how much the story has grown in both length and content it’s amazing to me how bare bones the original is. Further, it makes me understand why the first script, based on that original story, is only 14 pages long! But since I’ve started on the new and improved longer script, it makes me question my writing skill in the pass.
I took Scriptwriting in college, I believe in 1997. It was a lot of fun and I developed a script that I was very proud of. That short script inspired a story that I wrote years later. I didn’t finish that new story because Hollywood released a movie that was too much like my story and it just made me angry and discouraged. I think that enough time has passed, so I will try to finish that one up as soon as I finish my courant project.
I was talking to my younger sister yesterday. She is in community college right now. She lives at home with our mom and working part time as a CNA. My mom wanted me to talk to her about what is expected from her as opposed to what is expected from you in high school. I went on and on about improving your writing skills. Reading more to not only improve your writing, but also to improve your knowledge of your subject. As I was telling her this I considered that first script that I ever wrote and how terribly under developed it was. It was only 21 pages long. The requirement was 30 pages, but I got an “A” on it anyway. Granted, I did a lot research to develop the characters the way that I would like and to improve elements of the story. But there was so much that was left out. So much that I could have expanded on to make it a better, longer script.
I just completed the back story of my current script. I’ve even completed the script version of the story. But since I’ve started working on the back story, I’ve read Oscar winning/nominated scripts. This has caused me to write a better developed story and an increase in details that I have left out in previous stories and scripts.
So now as I rewrite the original story to fit the new back story I realize that in the ten or so years of writing and reading since I took that first script writing class my writing had not really improved! Just a little, but I’m not nearly where I wanted to be. My general writing was fine, but my scripts were still skeletal. When I compare my back story script, which I wrote in March, with my original story script which I wrote in 2004 I see that I had a long way to go when I thought that I was a guru! I am glad that instead of trying to produce that short 14 page script as I had planned, I am developing it into something bigger and better that has the potential to be something great.

Welcome To Myself and To My One Day Readers

This is my first post to my blog. I have no more time so I will have to make this short. I will write more tomorrow.

This is actually the second blog that I have ever created. I used to blog in myspace. I liked that because people would generally read it because I convinced the friends that I already had there to subscribe. I would then write pieces that involved them or were about them. For example, for Christmas, 2006 I gave a digital gift in the form of a picture or something written to everyone who subscribed to my blog. It was always an attempt at something humorous that would be a private joke between the two of us. Or it would be a very public and/or obvious joke that anyone would get. But in the long run, they were hand picked gifts specifically for the receiver.

This blog, however will be dedicated to my writing. I am currently writing a script that I have been working on since at least 2004. It was originally only 14 pages and I was planning on producing it myself. But upon further consideration, I realized that much of it did not make sense. For one thing, there was scifi in the end that was never justified in the rest of the story. So it took me several years to write a back story that was satisfactory to me. I completed the back story on March 17th. It was my 3rd attempt. I completed the script for the back story just 3 days ago. Now I am working on rewriting the original script to fit in with the new back story and to make it feature length. The goal is 90 pages.

I also have at least 3 other stories that I have been working on over the years that I have never completed. I will most likely use them as short fiction rather than screenplays. I would like to complete this first screenplay, get it over with and then work on the other stories. I mean, it's been forever!

Lastly, I would like to explain the name of my blog. Down Off the Dragon. It starts with a joke:

When I was in high school I was a Future Farmer of America. Vocational Agriculture. Every year we had Vo Ag day where we would set up all of our animals and tractors and plants, whatever. We'd put it all on display and kids from schools all over the county, and of course our own school to look at our displays.
Well, inevitably, we'd get the kids that were 4H kids. And for some reason, the 4H kids thought that they were better than us. I think that it was because a lot of FFA kids were just there for the extra science credits or because they wanted to go to my school instead of the local public school where ever they lived. While the 4H kids were genuinely interested in farming and had been since they were 2.
So, this one 4H girl comes up to me, and honestly, I don't remember what she was saying. But it occurred to me that she thought that she knew much more about animal husbandry, or whatever, than I did. And she probably did. But I did not let that stop me.
I say to her "You know a lot about horses, don't you?"
"Well, of course I do. I've been riding horses since I was four!" Or something like that. Very snooty.
So I respond "So...I guess you know how to get down off a horse, then, don't you?"
This must have pissed her off because then she got really huffy. "Of course I do. That's stupid."
I looked at her here, very seriously. And said "But you don't get down off a horse, you get down off a duck."
And of course being the better farmer than I was, she understood that perfectly and stomped off for being made a fool of.

The down off the duck joke has always been one of my favorites, especially since this day. So when I started "Producing" images and writing, I started calling my company DOTD or Down Off the Duck. But I've recently changed it to Dragon because of the dark fantasy theme of most of my writing. Also, I've called myself a dragon forever. First of all, my high school mascot was a blue dragon and because my Chinese horoscope says that I was born the year of the dragon. So it is a combo of both.

Ok, I said that this would be short. So i will end it here. Hopefully I will see(?) you later. Come back soon.