%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
Day-to-day musings and wonderings of an infected mind. |
|
Zombeeluv's Mission Statement  I promise to be mildly coherent. I promise to post something when I have the time. I promise to tell bad jokes, share the word of the day/week, give antidotes of things that have happened in my life and poke fun at as many things as possible.It is my goal to not only be informative but also entertaining and somewhat annoying in my insistent use of bad zombie jokes, art and literature. Please NOTE: I wish I were better at blogging, communicating or multi-tasking, but I am not. I apologize for my absence, but not for doing what I need to. Peace, 
|
| So, we have decided to postpone our wedding. Oddly I am not sad about it. I am not a huge one for weddings and I am not super excited to get married again. It isn’t the right time. When it is I will be flushed with excitement and in a hurry, not wondering how we will figure it all out and desperate to win the lottery because there is no other way to pay for it all. There is no real reason for Zombie and I to get married…it isn’t like one of us is pregnant or in need of the other’s health care. But this brings me to other subjects. Lately, I feel numb, not excited or anxious or bad, just numb. And I wonder why. I know I am going through menopause, is that part of it… I don’t know. I need to feel something -- passion, anger, fear, desire, need. I’m a writer, how is a writer supposed to convey emotions in their stories when they aren’t feeling anything themselves. You can always tell when a writers emotions are faked. What do you do? How to you become feeling again? Is there a way to fix it? I have been thinking about doing something truly altruistic. Volunteering or collecting coupons and using them for food banks. Anything to make me feel less Dorian Gray and more in touch with the world around me. Maybe I just need to exercise, get a therapist and seek acupuncture. In the meantime…Summer is coming. I have two family reunions, my son’s graduation for college with honors, my nephews graduation from high school, five birthdays, two or three pride festivals I’m committed to, Bumbershoot, and…sigh, how many weekends are there in summer? I think they are already filled. Zombie always wonders why I don’t want to go out with her and her Mom on there Saturday jaunts…well here is why. I have one season where every weekend is smashed full of events. And this is after we cancelled our wedding which was supposed to happen in the middle of all of this. Maybe we should have a winter wedding…she is an Aries and I am a Sagittarius…a nice December wedding might be just the thing. We could have small pine trees covered in lights and xmas decorations everywhere, it could be quite charming…hum…the more I think about it…the more I think that next December might be the perfect time…then we could say…”Winter is Coming” on our invites…LMAO. Zombie Tip of the Day Zombies freeze…lock them in a cooler every chance you get. |
| Have you ever noticed that there is a huge difference in how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you? Today, I was showing my mother pictures of where Zombie and I are getting married. I mentioned that although Zombie thought the food tables should go in one place, I felt they should go in another. She jumped on me (figuratively not literally) and told me that I should be careful and not try to take over the planning. I told her I wasn’t, she said…”yes you are, you are pushy.” *sigh* Once upon a time I was married and my ex had a lot of opinions about who I was. I noticed that because he reacted to things that happened in a certain way, it validated his perception of why I was responding the way I was. I will give you an example. He decided I didn’t like other women. He had seven affairs and frequently would go off with female co-workers leaving me home with the kids. I would get upset. Back to the wedding…. The area Zombie selected to have the food wouldn’t have any outlet for electrical and we would have to run really long extension cords to heat anything that needed it. Now we might not need electrical cords so it might be a moot point and the wedding isn’t until August. Zombie and I will work it out, we are excellent at negotiating with each other. But my mother… I love her, please don’t think I don’t. But it is hard to express yourself to someone who has misconceptions of who you are and how you deal with things. Zombie Survival Tip of the Day Graveyards are not good places for a picnic. |
| EMOTIONS So right now I am sick...I am getting over pneumonia. And today my electricity almost got turned off...yesterday it was water which did get turned off but was turned back on quickly and right now, I just want to curl into a ball and cry. Why? because we are emotional creatures and when stress pulls us down tears allow us to release emotions that threaten to overwhelm us. My daughter-in-law expressed one time that she felt tears were weakness...thus said the 21 year old who has never been desperate, hungry or frustrated beyond words. I try not be over-critical. It is hard though. Youth has a very different view on life, their emotions are more raw and they feel things differently. As I've aged I've become more stoic, more life will go on and nothing is so impossible. But I still get emotional. Have you ever read a story where the emotions that the characters were expressing were unrealistic? Why did they come off that way? I once commented to an author that the emotions his characters were showing didn't seem authentic. He came back with the characters were dragons and that their emotions weren't what human emotions would be. It was a valid response, but was it really? I watch a lot of animal planet. Baboons, monkeys, big cats, and elephants all express loss. They all show emotions when they have lost a baby. They show frustration, pain, playfulness and affection. They are not humans and don't show them they same way, but they are recognizable. When my cat lost her litter of kittens...she cried for days, trying to find them and mourning their absence. And when my dog does something he shouldn't...he definitely expresses shame. If animals express familiar emotions then why wouldn't whatever creature you are building in your story? In my opinion, emotions lend validity to your story. I don't think Avatar would have been as successful if we hadn't been able to relate. Can you have different societal norms? Absolutely, but emotions are primal, they come from that caveman place in our brain that tells us smile means happy, frown means sad. There is a challenge here...show that your character is expressing emotion with out saying..."He was sad." Body language, facial expression, actions and speech can all give us the clues we need to let us know that someone is happy, sad or angry. No one really looks at someone else and says...I am happy. People just look, understand and interpret that someone is feeling that way. So how do you show, not tell emotion in a story? Zombie Survival Tip of the Day: Don't die...the consequences aren't pretty. |
| Have you ever been fine at the start of the day and horrid sick by evening? OMG, so yesterday everything was fine in the morning and then by the time it was time to go home from work I was running a temperature, dizzy and just miserable. Today isn't much better. So there is some irony to all of this... I have a new addiction. It is a game on my phone called Plague. Your goal is to infect and kill off humankind. And last night as I was sporting a 100-degree plus temperature, unable to get comfortable, dizzy, nauseous and sweating, I was wondering why I like the game as much as I do. Zombie survival tip of the day: Run.  |
| **yes before anyone yells, the title is an homage Phillip K. Dicks story – “Do Cyborgs Dream of Electric Sheep” Hi…sorry I haven’t been around for a bit, things have been a bit crazy in the ZombeeLuv domicile. Some good, some bad…all crazy!!! Last weekend, Zombee and I went up to Seattle for some much needed date, adult, away from everything time. I took this picture while we were headed back home.  So I mentioned on my Newsfeed that I am reading a book called Wonderbook. It is really amazing if you haven’t heard of it. A lot of what it talks about is creativity and perspective. Perspective is that thing that can make two people go through the exact same experience, but experience it differently. Roller-coasters, tennis matches, scary movies, philatelic conventions, zombies…these things aren't everyone’s cup of tea – and would result in varying responses from any random group of twenty people who were made to attend them. Creativity is that little niggle inside of us that allows us to create art, see the world differently and wonder when we are made to attend philatelic conventions what it would be like for a zombie tennis match to invade the space using a roller coaster – just saying. There are so many things around us that if we shift our perspective on them just a bit, they can give us inspiration for creativity. Wonderbook suggests walking around with a way to record these “ah-ha” moments so that when you are ready to comment pen to paper you have sources to pull from. The book also mentions that creativity must be fed and nurtured so that it can be allowed to expand, grow and reach its full potential. I am not at the point where I am keeping a dream journal by the side of my bed…mostly because Zombee likes to give me math problems right as I am trying to fall asleep…she thinks it is funny that I will answer her correctly or correct myself while the sandman is beating me upside my head trying to get my attention. But I am starting to take pictures and write down a lot more things that seem or feel inspirational. Here is just one from my trip last Saturday:  So what makes you inspired? How does your perspective work with your creativity? And if nothing else…how did you like my pictures? I took them with my phone, I think they came out pretty darn good!! **BTW before anyone tries to defend my girlfriend by saying it is rude that I call her a Zombee...she is the one who says she loves me for my brains, therefore she insists that she is the Zombee I love.  Zombie Survival Tip of the Day: Zombies are not your friends...if they aren't eating you its either because you don't have a brain or they are full. |
| So I was getting caught up on the new show iZOMBIE last night, which I thought was a play on the ‘White Trash Zombie’ series by Diana Rowland, but come to find out is actually off of a comic book series by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, published by DC Comic’s Vertigo in 2010 and it reminded me that I hadn’t updated my blog in a week. “ARGHHH!!!!” *cough* So here I am. But since the inspiration came from where it did, let’s run with it! Yes? Inspiration vs. Plagiarism I used to write for a different site for a while and while there I was accused of plagiarism. The basis for this accusation was that we were both writing stories that had black dragons in them. For me it was a “Wait, did I?” moment. It was very confusing because there were linguistic barriers involved and the author accusing me had removed his story six months before the accusation was made, so no one could compare if the stories were similar or not. Once the site moderator got copies of both the stories, it only took a day to say, look this is not what plagiarism is. Later that year, I had stories that were actually stolen and republished by someone else on another site. It hurt and it made me feel violated. (You can check this to see if this has happened to you by copying a sentence out of your story and seeing what comes up in Google.) I quit writing for a while. Since then, I am a little gun shy and I cringe a bit anytime I see stories where descriptions might resemble a story I am working on. Especially since most of what I write is in the Urban Fantasy/Science Fiction genre. I mean how many times can you have a witch/zombie/vampire detective with a fairy/werewolf/necromancer sidekick who ends up falling for the succubus/demon/mermaid villain who ends up not being the real villain because the real villain is the self-righteous boss who is a wannabe dragon/minion/troll? I mean really!!!! When is it inspiration and when is it plagiarism? Let’s get technical. Plagiarism as defined on Dictionary.com: 1. an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author 2. a piece of writing or other work reflecting such unauthorized use or imitation. So basically you can’t copy someone style and you can’t copy someone’s ideas. So since Diana already wrote about a zombie who became a coroner does that mean that Chris and Michael plagiarized her? No. Although both iZOMBIE and the White Trash Zombie series have zombies and coronary science in common, that is where the similarity ends. They did not imitate her. I have no idea if they have ever read or seen her stories, but regardless of whether or not they had, inspiration is not the same as imitation. And thank goodness for that!! Can you imagine if Bram Stoker’s Dracula was the only vampire book you would ever get to read? *shudder* or if Night of the Living Dead was our only reference for zombies? *gasp* THE HORROR!!!! Instead we live in a world where good little nerd boys and girls can watch Star Trek Next Generation and think…what if the generation after this is from an alternate reality where elves and dragons go into space and boom -- Farscape is born. (Disclaimer….i have no idea how Farscape was born, but the show rocks. I highly recommend watching it.) It’s impossible to copyright a concept or idea, but once we get words on paper they became tangible pieces of art. They can inspire others, but they belong to us. Let us celebrate our inspirations, cherish them and revel in their muse-like abilities, but once we are sufficiently motivated, set them aside so that our work is truly our own. Zombie Survival Tip of the Day: Just because the Zombie is small and cute, don’t think it won’t eat your brains. References: iZOMBIE - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IZOMBIE White Trash Zomie - http://dianarowland.com/zombies.html J K Rowling – plagiarism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_disputes_over_the_Harry_Potter_series Farscape - http://www.henson.com/fantasy_scifi.php?content=farscape |
| So I was watching the Science Channel yesterday (odd where you will find inspiration) and they were talking about logic. Logic is the tool the brain uses to work through a problem. Fun Problem: Without using a word that contains the letter ‘A’, list 50 words in 30 seconds. As a writer, it is important that we employ logic to get our characters through the story. Have you ever been engrossed in a book only to find that the ending made no sense? (Cough – Tommyknockers by Stephen King.) It is super important that there not be that “hand of god” moment, unless of course you are talking about god – the story of Noah’s Ark really doesn’t work unless God wiped out all the life on earth, right? As writers, we should always decorate our stories with clues and hints. But..logic doesn’t always appear to be logical. Example: A farmer went to the store and bought a fox, a chicken and some chicken food. He has to cross a river to get home but he only has room for one of the three things in his boat. How many trips back and forth does he need to make to get all three items across the river? Keep in mind, he can’t leave the fox with the chicken or the chicken with the chicken food. Now, forgiving the fact that a farmer wouldn’t buy a fox… how does this work.  Trip one…the chicken goes across Trip two…the farmer goes back alone Trip three…he grabs the fox (without getting bit we hope…and why isn’t this fox in a carrier…and the chicken for that matter…I think this farmer doesn’t know what he’s doing) Trip four…the farmer brings the chicken back across so it isn’t left alone with the fox Trip five…he takes the feed over Trip six…he goes back across leaving the fox with the feed Trip seven…he takes the chicken and now all three items are on the home side of the riverAs I have pointed out…this example really doesn’t play well in real life, but it is a good example of how you have to point out solutions as a writer. The trips are what we are explaining to our readers. There are many different ways to write but I have found one of the most successful for me it to know where I want the story to end up, then by writing the trips and putting them into the proper order and adding details to make sure there are no ‘hand of god’ moments, I can successfully put together the puzzle. So back to our fun problem…how did you do? Well if you were having problems, don’t worry, it can be tricky…but just remember no numbers contain the letter ‘A’ until you get to one-thousand, so how fast can you count? Zombie survival tip of the day: If you’ve run out of bullets, you can always use your rifle as a bat. |
So for my first blog entry I am participating in the activity on the "Invalid Item"  by A Guest Visitor .The question: How did you find WDC and how do you like it here? How Did you find PDG and how do you like it so far? I found WDC by accident. I have always known that I wanted to be a writer and I was looking online for resources to help me get to the point where I felt like I would be able to work through a concept to the end. I can’t even remember what search criteria I put in Google, but WDC was at the top of the list. It was extremely serendipitous, and the resources and people here at WDC are by far some of the most creative and helpful anywhere. Found? …so I have seen PDG on some peoples' signatures, so I knew it was a group that was out there, but I didn’t know how to join. My mentor, 🌑 Darleen - QoD  , asked me if I would be interested after I had reviewed a story of hers and commented on the quality of her portfolio (I highly recommend checking it out, it is really well done). And -- I am enjoying PDG a lot. They have introduced me to a new friend, DollarDays is painting  , and I am working through some items and tasks that I wouldn’t have done without the activities on the PDG Playground – which would be a shame because then I wouldn’t be collecting all of these awesome zombie jokes!!! Zombie Survival Tip of the Day: You don't have to run the fastest, just faster than the person behind you. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
