Essays.

I love writing. I really do.

But something about essays makes me want to curl up into a ball and die.

Rarely am I told to write about something I want to write about, but rather I’m given a limited spectrum of choice and have to write something that I don’t really feel passionate about.

I feel like I want to paint a portrait of a person, yet the assignment is to paint fruit, y’know?

As usual, I finished my rough draft at the last minute, finally settling on a topic that I could write a couple of pages on without constantly scrambling for more filler. I’m not particularly happy with my work, but rough drafts are made to be revised.

What I really want is a freewrite assignment. Ten pages on whatever you want to write about. A story, a memoir, a long poem, whatever it is that tickles ze fancy. I’d really like the inspiration that a deadline provides – so many of my writing has gone unfinished simply because I had no reason to finish it. Que tragedy, yes?

Though I doubt I will ever receive that assignment, one can only hope and dream. For now I’ll write the introduction to a thousand and one stories and hope I’ll somehow be able to see them through to the end. 😛

Press Week -__-“

If by any chance you happen to be part of a Newpaper or other printed publication, you probably understand this. Well, it’s probably limited to monthly and quarterlies, like my school paper, but still, it’s a known concept.

Essentially, during pressweek all the pages get done. Until that point, stories are still being written, photos taken, and ads sold. However, during the last week before the pages get sent to press (the printer) all the page editors are scrambling to put everything together in a cohesive and enticing design.

Press week for me, as the sports page editor of my school paper, means that I have to stay after school until around 9 o’clock p.m. every day that week, until my page goes through initial edits, secondary opinions, staff critiques, body-text editing, photo checks, infographic redesigns, and finally: Final Edits.

These steps are crucial for any page editor to go through, as any good editor knows that the first design is never good enough, and never stays the same. From the Friday before press week to the time the pages are exported as PDFs, they have undergone almost total overhaul.

It’s during these weeks that I always wish to go back to being a reporter, so I can spend the hectic days of press week as the majority of them do, chatting at the tables and doing relatively nothing. Instead, I’m painstakingly editing photos to press quality and arranging and rearranging stories so they fit on my page with all the other aspects I’m supposed to cover.

Thankfully, the week is over and I can get back to not pulling my hair out. Hallelujah.

Ranting, Raving, Crazy Craving t(-_-“t)

Oh. My. GAWD.
A teenage girl is whining about something? Say it isn’t so! Is this real life?

Yep, I’m about to start complaining about the cruel injustices of my privileged American life. Buckle up. 😛

***

MANGA.

I read it constantly, as I’ve said before in multiple posts. Most of what I read is Shounen(Shonen), as in, made for boys around the age of 12.  They’re just more worthwhile in my opinion, as the girl counterpart, Shoujo(Shojo), is filled with too much gush and not enough kicking.

But what bugs me about Shounen is how the girls are portrayed. More often than not, the relationships in these particular mangas are not blatant. Let’s face it, little boys don’t really start wanted to read about romance. No biggie, my writermind will serve up some fanfiction that can most definitely fill the void.

But the girls in Shounen are especially…well… annoying. They whine and complain almost constantly, usually serving to make stupid comments and act as damsels in distress. Even when they are given the ability to defend themselves, they nearly always need to be rescued by a male heroine. In shounen, the girls always care too much about romance and too much about their appearance. Honestly, if you’re about to fight some guy, the way your hair is styled shouldn’t be your first concern.

To make things even more frustrating, they are drawn completely unrealistically. Most mangakas (manga artist) even include the measurements of the main female characters, penning them as 37-21-33″ (Nami – One Piece) 37-23-36″ (Lucy, Fairy Tale) 38E-24-34″ (Orihime, Bleach).

Honestly, I don’t even think it’s possible to have that small of a waist yet gigantic boobs. I don’t think the mangakas realize how painful that would be – seriously, plenty of my friends have C’s or D’s and complain about back pain and how it hurts to run.

S0, just to sum up this rant: Shonen manga makes most females moronic, helpless, tiny and huge-breasted. I assume that’s because that would be the “ideal” female.

Well guys, (you too mangaka’s) good luck finding someone that fits that profile without having implants, back problems, and waaay out of your league(: