XChibi's Blog

Post Twenty

2006-04-20T19:44:00.000-04:00

White

Angel wings
A single floating feather
Glitter-glistening snow
Purity at its best
Waterlilies floating above the surface
Gloves of the music conductor
The cleanest paper to write on

Post Nineteen

2006-04-17T04:11:00.000-04:00

I've always wanted to make a series of poems, so I'm starting a color series so to speak. First color up is pink.

Pink

Joy and happiness
Innocence of a baby girl
Cherry blossoms in full bloom
Petals of the dianthus alpinus
Fresh piece of bubble gum
Tutus upon the graceful ballerinas
A new born kitten's wet nose

Post Eighteen

2006-04-12T08:55:00.000-04:00

Carrot & Whip

Looking up at the sky, I hear a small bird chirp
And something dropped down on me
You’re a selfish person of fate
Looking up at the sky,
I hear a chirp and
I shoot down the bird
And I start laughing my ass off

Like the nectar of the opening flower
I dream of whipping you
I start skipping and
my melody grows

~Nakashima Mika

First few lyrics to a song. I found it funny and thought I'd share.

Post Seventeen

2006-04-03T13:49:00.000-04:00

Hey all. New month = new layout. Actually, I've been thinking... it's more of a new skin than a new layout. Buuuut close enough. Is the font color too light?

Oh, and did you all hear the new song for Kingdom Hearts II on the commercial? Rumor has it Utada Hikaru originally made the song in English and then in Japanese. And that stuff she's saying in the background backwards is believed to be "I need more passion than you'll ever know" which makes sense since the song is called Passion.

For your entertainment, here's the Japanese music video to that song. I was so used to the Japanese version so when I heard it in English on TV it was soooo weird. I must say though, it sounds preeeetttty much identical in both languages.

I love when she's in the center singing with her arms spread out wide and the little anime-esque version of her is right near her face. Very neat! And no... I don't know what's up with the horses.

And that's my random ranting...
Later!

Post Sixteen

2006-03-26T15:23:00.000-05:00

Ok, I don't really know if I did this right. I was confused, but I took a stab in the dark and came up with this stuff. It's the assignment to mimic Margaret Atwood's "The Female Body."
Huzzah. Finally, it is done!
Hopefully it's not so wrong that I'll have to redo it cause this took me forever.

The Art of Drawing

1.
Everyone has taken part in it. Probably before they could even properly talk. They just don't remember. Do you? That time your mother went to give you baby food and instead of eating it you smeared it against the table with your fingers? Yeah, that time.

You started smearing Gerber, mixing the banana with sweet potato to make an interesting color. You didn't need paper, you had the table. You got older, found mixing food in your hands to be impolite, thus took charge of handling more advanced tools. Weird graphite tips atop a yellow number two and a pink rubber butt. It's an interesting combination.

2.
It doesn't stop at that. There's other tools: Paper, pens, chalk, charcoal, and paint to name a few. Then there's the extra tid bits: Easels, brushes, smudgers, smocks, and whatever else you want to work with. It's been done with hair, feet, hands, and paws. Oh, and creativity is a must.

3.
It's quite a simple recipe. Just take something from column A and column B, plus the creativity. Mix it all together. That's all it's made out of. You can throw in a part from one that was premade and another part from another. This will help jump start things. People have been doing it for years like that. Even DaVinci and Munich had help. Just know when to stop mixing. Too much can lead to an overspill disaster and too little can lead to an unfinished work.

4.
He said he prefers to focus on swords and guns.
She said she prefers to focus on flowers and hearts.
He said he'd give the flowers a try if she gave the guns a try.
She agreed.
He exchanged his finished flower with her finished gun.
She laughed in unison with him and went back to flowers.

They realized they could explore different boundaries in their works but weren't as comfortable drawing something so foreign to their liking. It seemed foolish to draw a gun that looked like a bird with a crooked wing and a stick figure with bushy hair. No, wait. It's a flower.

5.
Of course, drawing has many uses. It must be more versatile than vinegar.
You can use it to vent and express your anger, happiness, sadness, kindness, loneliness, etc...
It can be used to tell visitors to keep out of your room. Though it doesn't always work, but it's there.
It can be used to show how much you love someone with just two simple brush strokes, or to communicate with those who
don't read or write.
It can be used to keep yourself sane in class when you feel bored out of your mind. Fill your notebook with it, or crumple it into a ball and keep score of how many times you hit the head of the kid in front of you.
It can be used to decorate a cake, a wall, a face, a binder, notebook, desk, cell phone, you name it.
It can be used indoors or out; rain or shine.
When finished it can be given as a gift, traded for the same, sold to make some fast cash, and, if you hate it, it can be burned for a source of heat.

6.
Each finished work contains the creativity, time, effort, and imagination of a person. Looking in the drawing, one can see all the mentioned items clearly. It's more than a pretty picture. Often it portrays something. A meaning, emotion, a story... Something. If you don't see it, turn it upside-down, sideways, or phone a friend. Sometimes it'll take a while before you understand it. It can be very complex. Everyone probably thought the Mona Lisa was just a portrait of a lady. Well, it's a song, too. But the picture itself has a story more deep than that gaze it gives as you walk by it.
I question why people lock up their work in a dust-collected art book somewhere under the bed. So much put into it, but it never comes out. No one can look at it, learn from it, or understand it. I guess to each their own.

Maybe they hope in a few years their untouched art will be worth more, or at least standing idle and collecting dust in a glass frame in an art museum instead of under the bed.

Post Fifteen

2006-03-26T08:23:00.000-05:00

Insomnia

Tick tock
Water drops
My eyes are wide open and can't shut
Voices talking
Upstairs, walking
Click-Clicking from the unknown
Music blasting
Telephones ringing
Can't you people just turn it down?
Is there a test tomorrow?
Maybe... Oh! I don't know!
Trying not to think is harder than it sounds
Then comes the sunlight
God, it's too bright
And just when things were getting quiet
Be-Beep! Be-Beep!
Alarm, let me sleep
Just nine more minutes, I promise

Interesting discovery:
If you are using html to edit your posts, write the html in the compose, then when you are done hit the "edit html" tab, then click the compose tab again and it should format your code nicely and not give you a crap-load of trouble with the spacing. See if it works for you. It'll save you loads of anger.

Post Fourteen

2006-03-25T02:46:00.000-05:00

Sorry for not posting in a while. I had a tragedy. My external hard drive with all my web sites on it died. Luckily, it was just the case and the drive itself is fine. So, I'm out of mourning. I still don't know what to post about though. Uh... I played a game for the XBOX recently called PsychoNauts. It was a really funny game and the concept was pretty neat. You get to use mental abilities. I'm not usually one to play games and have an attention span for them for more than... oh... an hour, but this game was neat.
In other news... I wrote a poem I want to bring in for workshop so I'm looking forward to that.
That's all for now.

Post Thirteen

2006-03-06T11:59:00.000-05:00

Here is the 5-line poem we did in class.

How this worked:
We took a poem we liked and wrote down 5 subsequent lines with 2 spaces in between each of the lines. Then, in the first empty space after each one of the lines in the original poem, we wrote down another line from another book (like history, math, etc...). I believe we then free-wrote the second empty line. I chose a funny poem by Maurice Kilwein Guevara entitled "Doña Josefina Counsels Doña Concepción Before Entering Sears." It is found on pg 178 in The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry for those who want to read the whole thing. Which I recommend you all do!

Ok, so the poem itself has Spanish and English mixed in, so anything I added further I made some words Spanish to keep the poem kind of uniformed.

Rumor
So, she tell me he'll be home for the weekend
That hombre, ¿sabes Mr. Baldy?
You know! The one up on the hill.
Mira, Mr. Baldy I hear goes to this poor Italian woman one day.
I remember her de the College Board of 1996.
That would make her, ¿Que?
I guess she be like us?
Sixty o sixty five?
Ella is in the section with the computer engineers I hear.
Mhmm. They some creepy hombres they are.
Always talkin' bout the back support on brassiers.
Mr. Baldy, you know what I hear he do?
He make that woman marry him and put on a big bra
que cuesta $34,717 to $41,346!
¡No puedo creer eso!
Sos, anyway, his wife... ¿Estas escuchando?
He puts it over her head para que she can't see nothing
y he make her kneel en zappo detergent, which burn her ojos!
¡Pobre mujer!
Every noche, she mumbles in her sleep
like she talkin' to God to save her poor life!
To save herself de the overly priced alcohol he make her drink at night!
Oh! SHH! SHH! ¡Esta alli!

It came out funny. Or at least I think so.

Post Twelve

2006-03-03T14:59:00.000-05:00

And because I love keeping with the holidays...
It's green and has shamrocks... Please welcome: The St. Patrick's Day layout! *applauds myself*
Yeah... so anyway!
I didn't bother changing all my posts' font to green because I'm too lazy.
Enjoy!

PS: Oh! I forgot to mention... for all my friends and family keeping up with this I made it so anyone can comment even if you don't have a blogspot account.
Just thought I'd let you know. Hint hint.

PPS: If you don't see the new layout please press F5/refresh on your browser. Thanks!

Post Eleven

2006-03-01T16:06:00.000-05:00

Funny thing, I couldn't find my poetry book with all the poems I made in 11th grade. So, you can't see my emo-riffic oems. I'm kinda glad actually. There were a few poems in that book I made that were pretty fun, however. Anyway... Take this:

The Winter Generations

When you think back it is all white,
snow falling on previous snow, the fatherly angels
of cornice and split-rail generalized
by accumulation, as if the quiet you suspected
was always there and had grown
outward, and a pin dropped anywhere
would sink into its own impression
and snow quickly cover
that flaw with a thin white scar,
so the question of sound never arose.

When you think back your lips freeze
with icy snot and your hands
burn under mittens, which is nothing
compared to the pain when they come off
and blood screams at room
temperature, and the crust of weather melts
from cuffs and Father's navy cap
left steaming on the radiator,
and you swallow first agony of waiting
as the Hop-A-Long mug of cocoa cools.

When you think back, that man
throwing snow to either side of the walk,
that woman watching, shaping
the mammal plush of your hair with her
curved hand - they could be
your children now, they are so young,
the future has not mentioned
their names, and later when they embrace
in the kitchen you will squirm
between, one of the happy unknown.

When you think back too long
the present says feed me, I'm starving
and your own children tumble
from the bus and hardscrabble through the door,
the notebook leaps from your hand
and falls into that distant winter
where consciousness, lit like a pilot light,
first knew where it burned alone,
and your daughters must be driven, hurry,
to their soccer practice in the snow.

~ Jeffrey Skinner

Found on pg 330 in The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry.

Setting! Who said setting?
No one, but speaking of setting, this poem does a good job describing it.

First off, I pictured a snowflake falling down on already snowed-on land, then more and more snowflakes.

Then panning out, no one making a noise in this town where it is snowing, no one even outside walking in the town, just snow.

Then I pictured some guy looking at this scene from inside his house (like looking out the window) and picturing his childhood. How when he was small, it was just as cold outside and he would then come inside and watch snow melt over the radiator in his warm house.

Then, him thinking back to when he just got married (maybe) and he would be outside shoveling the snow while his wife (maybe) would be watching him.

Finally, his children running from the outside cold into the warm house and him watching them pass him by and driving them to their soccer practice in the cold snow once again.

Also, can someone please explain (or show me where the explanation is) what that "30 page" thing is that we have to compile in this class? Is it a compilation of 30 of our poems/stories/etc... ?

OMG I HATE THIS STUPID BLOGSPOT
It has a problem with accepting html codes for spaces GAWD
I tell it to do a BR tag and it does a freaken P tag or something ... and it's alignment... gawd don't get me started... *mumbles* stupid...crap...

Ok I'm done venting... Bye!

Post Ten

2006-02-17T12:35:00.000-05:00

First! For those of you who aren't in my class and didn't get a chance to read my poem (or, heck, even want to read it again), here it is:
\------------------------------------------------------

The Slave
I’m the type of female who gets what I want.
All I have to do is to look at you with my amber, almond-shaped eyes and you melt.
Men are so easy to make into slaves.
At first, you brought me home for that reason, didn’t you?
You wanted to use me…
So you have a companion,
So you have someone to snuggle against you on a lonely night,
So someone is around to lay on your lap.
Now it’s quite the opposite, isn’t it?
You beg me to pay attention to you.
You are honored when I do.
It’s all in the gaze…
Open the door for me!
Bring me my dinner!
Caress me!
Hold me!
There is no denying me.
On a rare occasion, I’ll let you touch me.
I’ll sit on your lap and let you know I want you to.
Thrilled at my allowance, your hands reach for me…
First my head,
Then my flowing soft hair,
Down my neck,
Descending on my back,
You know the limits.
Instantaneously, you bore me.
I’m done getting attention.
I leave your lap to find another form of entertainment.
Wondering why I left you so suddenly,
You look at me puzzled from a distance.
I see you getting up off the couch like I planned.
Wonder what intrigued me?
I’m sitting on your favorite chair…
The chair you banned me from,
That no one else but you could sit in,
Not a friend nor foe,
Not even your own mother is allowed.
I’m staring out the window,
Watching the free blue birds play outside in the snow.
Yes, they are more exciting than you.
You open your mouth, about to say something.
Surely, you don’t dare ask me to get off this chair?
You gaze back and forth between me and the window,
As if trying to see the reason,
The obvious reason,
As to why I sat on this claimed chair to stare outside.
You throw your hands in the air,
Giving a hopeless sigh as you walk back to the couch.
You know even if you asked me to get off this chair,
I would never…
I am the princess,
Nay, the queen,
The ruler of this household!
I hear you mutter something in the distance as you sit back down.
”That damn cat acts like she owns the place.”
I do.
------------------------------------------------------/

Now, about workshop today on my poem:

Before I get into details I have a question for Rick!
You said something along the lines of "my jaw was open, especially knowing who wrote this." I'm kind of curious about why me writing that surprised you. I'm not mad or anything just really curious so if you are reading this can you get back to me on it? Thanks! :D

And...Wow...

I had so much fun (which is a big deal for me cause I woke up cranky and tired... I was hoping school was gonna be closed but NOOOO).

Anway! A few things:

1) I'm really glad a lot of you said that the poem kept you hooked from beginning to end. I always had a hard time hooking the reader in my introductions.

2) I'm soooo happy the majority of you loved the title. I think that was the absolute hardest task for the poem. At first it was a toss up between "The Slave" and "The Master." I suggested both of these to my friend but she said don't go with either of them because they were too simple *cough* BL *cough*. In the end, I couldn't think of anything I felt suited the poem better so I was still deciding between those two. However, I felt "The Master" wouldn't throw the reader off as much, nor suit the poem as much as "The Slave." I'm glad I went with it!

3) Someone mentioned "how can a cat talk" It's more like communicate... and if you have a cat you know how they communicate. With their eyes mostly as well as other body language. That's why I specifically put "It's all in the gaze..." and "I'll sit on your lap and let you know I want you to." When a cat wants something, trust me you'll know... I forgot to address that when it was my turn to talk.

4) Finally: one of my BIGGEST concerns was that people would skim through the poem real quick and see "cat" and then the whole purpose of the poem would be ruined. I'm glad Rick asked if anyone knew it was a cat prior to finishing it. I was curious to this myself. Glad not many people (maybe 3 or 4) actually knew it was a cat. I gave my poem to 3 of my friends to read. The first person knows me very well so knew I was talking about a cat, the second person *COUGH* BL *COUGH* skimmed and saw "cat" before reading the entire poem and ruined it, and the last person thought there was some deep meaning in the poem and was disappointed when it turned out it was ''just a cat." So, I'm glad I fooled most of you :D.

Like Bridget said, it all depends if your a cat person or dog person on the way you look at this poem. She basically took the words out of my mouth on why someone would love the cat in this poem. They aren't a mindless animal who just "rolls over," "sits," or "plays dead" because some human snapped their fingers. Such individual, powerful, and darn cute animals! I mean, c'mon, listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/?v=wKOV1OjRJqU

On the other hand, I can understand if you are a dog person you are probably like "Stupid cats! So egotistical and think they are such a blessing to have!"
Hehe yeaaaah they are aren't they?

I realized I only got to show off one of my cats so far, Sir Chibi. Time for my other one! Her name is Xena. We found her in a terrible winter blizzard by a gas station and she just gave us these adorable "please help me I'll love you for life if you take me home" look. Well, it worked! (See? They get what they want, even a home, just by their eyes alone.) Since she survived all by herself for such a long time in the cold winter, we named her after Xena: Warrior Princess. In fact, that's her official name at the vet. Everyone at Flannery Animal Hospital loves her (and fears Sir Chibi... he has a "red flag" next to his name... aw isn't he cute? Terrorizing the whole vet clinic...that's my boy!). Anyway, Xena's is very affectionate. Just look at her in action:

Seriously though, thanks a lot for all the comments on the poem everyone. Enjoy your break!

Post Nine

2006-02-16T21:23:00.000-05:00

Hey,
Man I have the biggest headache right now and I'm totally looking forward to the break.

Just a heads up; after break I most likely will be posting some poems I made for 11th grade English back in High School. I left the booklette we made for that class at home, and with it, of course, all my poems. A bit of warning though; most of the poems are very emo cause I really couldn't, still can't, write poems too well unless I talked about stuff like that. However, this semester my goal is to write nothing emo-ish! All happy, cute, funny, etc...

Also, I want to thank everyone who complimented my blog's layout. Soooo... thank you!

Someone requested tips and I've been trying to think of some all day. Honestly, the only things I can recommend with any web site (or blog) is pick a nice color scheme, make your font readable (like... you know yellow and pink text on a white background doesn't go over too well), and put something for your viewers to enjoy (aka have SOME content).

You can look at some other people's sites to get inspiration and ideas from. I recommend http://www.daydreamgraphics.com. It's where I learned a lot of neat tricks like making transparent i-frames and such. Unfortunately, I feel a lot of the submissions to that site are looking so much alike that none of the layouts look very unique anymore, which, is a shame. So, there is nothing better than your own mind for coming out with new designs. If you already have an idea on how to make web sites, I suggest drawing a blue print of your design on paper, (you know during English class or something if you get bored ;) ) just a quick sketch of what you want it to look like so it's easier to make on the computer.

Also, updating it is nice... I haven't updated XChibi's Anime Zone in such a long time... I'm working on it though! So many broken links... sigh... Maybe you can get a few ideas from my site I just mentioned. If you need help or something though you can always leave a comment in my blog. I don't really like designing people's sites (I've tried that...) because only YOU know what YOU want (so please don't ask). But if you are having trouble setting something up or just need advice you can leave me a comment and I'll get back to you probably by posting a post in my blog... much like I'm doing now... or replying to your comment by posting another comment.

And now a poem I made up on the spot... because I don't want anyone to realize I'm not using my blog to post poetry!

Yuki
Pretty white shiney snow flakes,
Make water solid in lakes.
Yet, so soft to touch,
You don't do it much,
But snowmen are fun to make.

Yay for Haikus. The last line doesn't really rhyme too well, does it? Oh, well. Haiku's originated from Japan in the 19th century, and Yuki means 'snow' in Japanese. Hence, the title... Yuki... Snow... get it? Anyway! Yeah, so ... in
conclusion I guess snow is pretty and if you need help I'll try my best.

Catch ya later...

Post Eight

2006-02-14T14:02:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!
Happy St. Valentine's Day!

More importantly I'd like to wish a very Happy Birthday to Sir Chibi who turned 3 today.

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday Sir Chibi!
Happy Birthday to you!

I know that poem was SO original. ;)
Here's a picture of Sir Chibi on his first birthday.

Anyway! Don't forget to share love and friendship today... And birthday cake if applicable.
Have a great day!

Post Seven

2006-02-13T00:32:00.000-05:00

Hey again,
As an example of imagery discussed by Janet Burroway, I'd like to the first few lines of a poem entitled "The Latch" by D. Nurkse.

A dog
barked at me
from behind the dingy white fence.
I glimpsed its flashing teeth,
dull white like surf.
It threw its body against the slats
in play or rage. I rang again.
...
Sometimes a car passed
and the light enveloped my body
like a caress, knowing me,
gone, and I knelt
...

Just as image suggests, this poem, with simple wording, described a scene in such great detail to me that I could picture everything going on throughout the poem. The above is only two snippets from entire poem, which I believe does the best in describing a scene. I can see the noisy dark barking at what seems like nothing behind a fence, and the man, almost as waiting in rain, being seen only as a silhouette with the on coming traffic's headlights.

Just thought I'd share.

Post Six

2006-02-10T13:07:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

I just thought this may help a few people who have been looking to put videos/music on their blogs. This site is really good and has tons to choose from. It's very easy to work with. You pretty much just copy and paste code.
http://www.youtube.com
They also have anime episodes/clips for those interested, specifically ones like Detective Conan, Ebichu, Inu Yasha, etc... They also have parodies of shows made by people, which, some are hilarious. If you have ever watched/do watch Inu Yasha, I'm sure you'll get most the jokes in this parody: Survivor - Inu-Yasha. Funny stuff. In fact, even if you never watched the show, the actors make it great.
Anyway, I thought it would help. Especially the music which can help you get inspired to write.

Happy... uh... creativity hunting?

Post Five

2006-02-07T16:48:00.001-05:00

Yay! I'm finally done-done. I got the archives working and the previous posts thing.
I'd like to thank the academy (aka Dr. R. Strong) for noticing my site and giving it the 2nd blog award.
It meant a lot to me... especially cause I worked VERY hard on this layout.
Sooooo... Thank you!

And now let me actually post some poetry which is what this blog is supposed to be meant for.
This was a poem I wrote for senior year in high school for English class when we were doing our poetry month.

I have a little black cat,
Who likes to lay on the mat.
He sits there all day,
And then I can't play.
He can't get up cause he's fat.

This is specifically referring to my baby (my cat), Sir Chibi, and how every time I would play DDR on the mat he would come out of no where to plop on one of the arrows. Me and him made a great team. In fact, he was better than me...

Speaking of which, it's his birthday soon. February 14th to be exact. Anyone know any good cat-furniture shopping web sites?

And now like any "mother" I get to show off my baby to the world! (Yes when I grow up I'm going to be one of those crazy old ladies with 50 cats in her house and yells at kids to get off her lawn).

Isn't he the cats mee-ow? Such a spoiled baby... which is the way it should be, right?

Post Four

2006-02-06T13:26:00.000-05:00

Hey again!
This is a group poem made by about 24-25 students. In one of my schools we called this type of poem "Round Robin" but in this school the teacher called it "Exquisite Corpse." Let's blend those into something pretty like... "Exquisite Robin" since I don't wanna think about corpses at the moment. Onto the poem!

Cops, Lawyers
Snakes, Rainbows
Yesterday was a good day
No, No, No
Yes, Yes, Yes
No F*ing No
Yes, Yes, Yes
I don't think so
I wish it was time to go.
It is the beggining, not the end
We should have a coupe
la la la la.
That was funny
To listen to that joke
Makes me want to slap someone
When they call me a whore
I think Im pretty
She looks gross
Not even a few beers can make her pretty
However, some vodka can
I like the mad(?) with that
because it makes me wet
I was a fish in my previous life
With no way out of a bowl
He's fat though, he will eat the bowl
Na I think he will vomit it out
But wouldn't that be worse...

Well that's all for now!
Ja matta!

Post Three

2006-02-06T13:18:00.000-05:00

Hey!
I'm so happy I actually made my own template for my blog. It was so hard at first but then I realized BlogSpot just sucks for giving directions :D ! After looking at the coding closely I realized the css just wasn't necessary for most of the things and after I realized that it was much easier. I had a lot of fun making the layout because I got to play around with variables for the first time in my layouts.
Anyway I'll be posting something in about 3 minutes.
Bye!

Post Two

2006-02-02T14:35:00.000-05:00

My blog is under heavy construction. Hopefully I'll be done with the coding by next week.
It was fun making a Valentine's Day layout...yet this is very hard actually implementing it.
Wish me luck!

Post One

2006-01-30T00:07:00.000-05:00

Hello

This is a test