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It’s come to my attention (albeit not recently) that the entertainment industry is dying. All I see is the same trash coming out, year after year. Movies, books, shows, I don’t care which. They all come from people who have no idea what they’re writing about.

Oh, you want an example, do you? Okay.

In Stephenie Meyer’s New Moon, the main character, Bella Swan, is suffering from ‘depression’ because her boyfriend, Edward Cullen, broke up with her (Woops, I should have said spoilers, shouldn’t I- FUCK YOU, THEY ALREADY RUINED IT IN THE TRAILER FOR THE MOVIE). Except… Meyer has absolutely no idea what depression really is, does she? Anyone reading this book (which I do not recommend, unless you want to see what NOT to do when it comes to writing) that’s suffered from depression could very well be insulted by how it’s presented – actually, no, how it’s glorified. Really, Bella tries to get an adrenaline high by putting herself in dangerous situations and even trying to commit suicide near the end of the novel! Why? Because she needs to hear her ex-boyfriend’s voice in her head.

Okay. I’m probably only using that as an example because I’ve been reading http://markreadstwilight.buzznet.com/user/journal/4924741/mark-reads-eclipse-preface-chapter/ this guy’s chapter-by-chapter review of the Twilight series. He’s hilarious, yes, but also brings up some good points about the series overall.

Anyways, I also went to the movies the other day, and what I saw there kind of pissed me off, too. No, it wasn’t Deathly Hallows I saw (I’m still waiting on the review to pop up, though blogger is still being a bitch about it), but the wonderful Crazy, Stupid, Love. While I liked the movie, I didn’t like the coming attractions. Wait. I MEAN ADS. FUCKING ADVERTISEMENTS EVERYWHERE.

They’re the same stuff I see every time I go to the movies, which isn’t a lot. Very rarely can I go since tickets are so expensive nowadays (but that’s another issue I won’t go into). But really, I don’t go to the movies to be fed bullshit while I want to watch a movie. There was seventeen minute’s worth of advertisements before the ACTUAL PREVIEWS APPEARED. REALLY? REALLY?

And then those same previews took another six minutes showing these SHITTY MOVIES THAT NO ONE GIVES A DAMN ABOUT. WHY ARE YOU SHOWING PREVIEWS FOR A KID’S MOVIE IN A PG-13 MOVIE?

Ahem. Sorry, my CAPS lock got stuck.

Okay, I am not going to bore you with meaningless drivel that, no doubt, other bloggers have ranted about. Instead, I’ll talk about my week! Yay, everyone wants to hear about my week! Heehee!

…

So, I’ve begun work on a short story about… well, I don’t think I’ll give it away right now, but it’s inspired by those Slender Man stories I found, so a few of you might like it. If you all want me to, I’ll put it up on here before I submit it to this writing magazine that’s holding this competition. I don’t know, it seemed interesting and I feel as if my writer’s block is being lifted a little. Maybe Charlie was write in that this blog is helping me (get it? LAME PUNS! HAHAHAHA!).

Okay. Now for some serious stuff!

Sarah’s dad is still in the hospital, but he should be allowed to leave in a few days. He hasn’t been able to talk about what happened to him because he doesn’t remember any of it, which is leading some people (me included) that he was drunk at the time the injuries occurred. Sarah told me before that he used to drink a lot… Though, you think that he would have remembered something, eh?

My imagination went to work when I heard first, though. My immediate thought was that Slender Man had attacked him! It all makes sense! Loss of memory, gone for a few weeks, and having injuries that he doesn’t know how he received! Haha… I amuse myself. If Slender Man was real, I doubt he’d be stalking Sarah’s dad.

You know, a thought just occurred to me. Slender Man reminds me of those dumb chainmail comments you find on YouTube or message boards. You know what I’m talking about, right? The “POST THIS COMMENT TO FIVE OTHER VIDEOS OR ELSE THE CRAPPER GHOST WILL HAUNT YOU!” stuff? Well, think about it. According to these stories, the people who find out about Slender Man are suddenly stalked by him, right? Think of how perfect that’d be for a chainmail comment, then? I mean, it wouldn’t really save you by posting the message on several other videos or threads, but it’d be a convenient way of spreading the knowledge of Slender Man by saying “SLENDY IS COMING FOR YOU!”

Just something to think about, I suppose.

My imagination has been doing more things than blaming Sarah’s dad’s injuries on Slender Man, though. Ever since I’ve watched those videos on YouTube, I’ve been creeped out. I just feel like if I look through a window at night, I’ll be seeing the Faceless Asshole staring (if he can stare? He doesn’t have any eyes…) back at me. I know, I know, I’m just being paranoid. But still, those videos are unnerving when you get right down to it. One of them even has the thing going through a doorway – but first it has to bend down just to get through it. I swear, if I woke up one night and saw something like that coming into my bedroom, I’d need a new change of sheets. I don’t know how this guy, Alex, isn’t shitting his pants every ten minutes.

Well, maybe he has, actually. We don’t see it appear on camera, and I daresay that Alex shitting his pants would be a rather horrible video. Blegh… BAD THOUGHTS.

Damn it. I keep going off-topic while talking about Slender Man. SEE? This is what this shit does to you! I don’t want to create a super-long post, so I guess I’ll just stop here. Sorry, people.

Until next time!

-          Arthur Pierce

P.S. Looks like I’ve gained some new followers. Hi! 

aksfbnafuckyoublogger

BLOODY HELL...

... I really should stop quoting Ron. I've done that ever since I saw the last Harry Potter movie.

But really, what the fuck is going on? I typed up my review of the movie and was going to put it on here, but now it's gone. It said it was put up, but it's not there. It might be blogger acting up, I guess. Still, it pisses me off. I'll keep trying to get it up, but no promises.

Sorry that I've been gone for the past few days, by the way. I've been hanging with Charlie, enjoying the rest of summer before school starts. Though, whenever I look away he's got his head buried in a book, which is weird because I've never known him to take up reading like that. Hell, it took him almost two months to read the first Eragon book. And the worst thing is? They're all non-fiction books!

When I asked him about it, he said that they were for 'research'. I can understand that, I suppose; I've done some myself, like getting a 'Famous Criminals' reference book from the school library. His were all on folklore, though, so... maybe he's going to make a fantasy film or something. I don't know. I recognized some of the books (and most looked pretty boring), except for one or two that looked beat to shit. There was one that was literally falling apart, and I have no idea why the Hell Charlie would buy it. It didn't even look that good, to be honest - 'The Walking Willow', it was called. But to each their own, I guess.

Anyways, time  for me to get off.

Until next time!

- Arthur Pierce

What the Hell?

Okay, this is going to be a shorter post than the others, but this is really important.

Charlie and I are planning on seeing The Deathly Hallows Part Two in an hour or so (yay for midnight showings, anyone?) and I jumped on to check if anyone had commented on my last post. Yeah, no one had - big surprise. And so Charlie wants to take a look at the blog since he hasn't followed it for about a week. He then proceeds to point out that the url for my blog is 'amiwhereallcry', which really freaks me out. The original url was blankspace32, not the name of some random guy trying to scare me.

I think Charlie did it, since he likes to try and freak me out. How he got into my blogger account, though, is a different matter. I mean, I guess it's possible for him to hack me. And I'd love to think that it's him rather than some troll...

I've changed all of my passwords just in case, though. If it isn't Charlie, I don't want this troll putting up posts on my blog, or sending out random e-mails to friends of mine.

Also, does anyone know how long the url has been 'amiwhereallcry'? If it has been there for a long time, I'm not sure I should change it.

Anyways, I'm off to see the wizard!

Hey, everyone. Sorry that I haven't updated in more than a week. I was actually planning on putting another writing example yesterday, but never got the chance because I was at the hospital. Don't worry, I'm fine. It's best to start at the beginning, though.

Thursday night, Sarah's dad came back after taking off a few weeks ago. You'd think that'd be a good thing, but he had been in an accident or something like that. He had bruises all over his body, most of which had already turned into yellow or purple splotches. He also had a really deep cut on the back of his leg, and Sarah told me that he probably won't be able to walk on it again.

Anyways, his family took him to the hospital around eleven and stayed there for quite a long time. Most of the day, actually, now that I think about it. Sarah called to let me know, and being the concerned, sympathetic guy, I brought lunch to her family. I think they were grateful, except for Sarah's little brother. Apparently, the little shit likes chicken nuggets instead of a hamburger.

Her dad hasn't said anything about what happened, and the doctors told us that he'll probably be there for another week. Strangely, Sarah's mom volunteered to stay behind to keep him company. Maybe she felt guilty about chasing him off or something, but because she was staying the kids also had to stay. I felt that was a little unfair for them, because really, who wants to be stuck in a hospital for the next few days? And since Sarah doesn't have her license yet, there was only one other person who could drive them home. Guess who that was? Yep, you guessed it. Me!

I took Sarah and her family out to eat before driving them home. Sarah was depressed the entire time, though... Maybe because she was right when she had felt something was wrong when her dad didn't come back after a few days. Now that I think about it, I probably should have stayed with her after I dropped them off...

Well, I hope her dad makes it out okay. Sarah would be crushed if she lost her dad.

Right, I know that's not why some of you are reading this. I did say I had some more writing stuff for you. This time it's a little different, though; I'm not examining character archetypes or looking writing parts. It's more like a theme, mixed in with my own feelings and opinions on the subject. Most of this has been brought out by reading some of these Slender Blogs, or watching this documentary about the thing on Youtube. Enjoy!

Darkness
It's a relatively common theme in the media, actually. Whether it's fantasy, horror, or action, you'll find this there. Almost every time you'll find that it's the old theme of the Light versus the Darkness, with the Light winning almost every time. I'm not a huge fan of cheery happy endings, because in the real world not everyone wins; sometimes the villain wins! I mean, just look at the Casey Anthony trial!

Now, while I'm okay with the heroes winning all the time (I don't like it; it's just okay), a place where the villain wins all the time would just be downright depressing. It's like there's no hope at all for you, no matter the effort you put into taking down the villain. It also adds a layer of predictability to it, too, because if you know the villain is going to end no matter what, then what's the point of reading it?

So, how can you make something where the villain always wins, and have it be interesting at the same time? The answer to that question is hope. If you place a thin veil of this between your heroes and the villain winning, then the heroes will have this false hope that they can defeat the villain and live a normal, happy life. As the reader, you're hoping for the heroes to find a way (unless you're a sadistic bastard) to kill the son of a bitch, and that thin veil blinds you, too. That takes away the predictability of the villain winning away. A good example of this would be George Orwell's 1984. If you've read it, you're hoping that the protagonist finds a way to beat this government that is pretty much brainwashing the entire world. There's even a part where it seems like our protagonist is about to join some sort of rebellion. And then near the end we find out that it was all just a lie, and that there had been no hope from the very beginning of the book. Talk about depressing, huh?

I think I've gotten a little off topic from my original subject of darkness, so it's time to come back to that. To me, darkness is probably the scariest thing in the world. Time seems to go so slowly when you're in it, and you always have this feeling that you're being watched. And the worst part is that something could be watching you in the darkness, and you'd never know. Something terrible could be hiding there, something so awful that if you were to see it you would be scarred for the rest of your life.

And that's what I've had to deal with the past few nights. Yes, I know I'm seventeen and that I shouldn't be scared of the dark or monsters under my bed, but I am. Well, not the monsters under my bed because I have so much shit under there the monster wouldn't fit. But something in the shadows - yes, that fucking terrifies me. It's almost like I want to look sometimes, yet I feel if I do it will get me. I remember when I was seven I had a nightmare where I felt like I was awake, and there was this presence behind me, almost wanting me to turn around and see it. That was the worst nightmare I've ever had, because even after I woke up I still felt like I had that presence coming to get me. That's normal for most nightmares, though, right?

I'm probably just paranoid because of all this Slender Man stuff, but hey, it brought back old memories. The creature itself is a symbol of horror, though, and I love that. You can't run from it, you can't hide from it, and you have no idea what it wants. That leaves enough for the imagination to fill in, and in my honest opinion, the imagination is the scariest thing of all.

I'm really tempted to start my own little tale in the Slenderverse, or whatever it's called. I think it'd be just the thing to help me think creatively. I'm betting Charlie would like it, too - more specifically, some of those videos on Youtube. And Charlie Al Wymer, I know you're reading, so you better go ahead and search the videos yourself, or else I'm going to annoy the hell out of you the next few days.

Oh, I almost forgot! Two more things before I go. One, an apology to my followers. I didn't mean to sound so asshole-ish in my last post, I was just having a rough day. Sorry!

And finally, does anyone know who the hell that amiwhereallcry guy is? He put this video up on Youtube which was a cheap trick in trying to scare me, but I'd like to make sure he isn't some troll who has been posting on other blogs. I only got this response after I mentioned Slender Man, so I think he has something to do with that.

Until next time!

- Arthur Pierce

redirtsraffoeraweb

Family Life and a Message to My Followers

Do you know how hard it is to find something good on television nowadays? I mean, take a moment and think long about when stuff on television was actually good. Done? Now what do you see? Because I see the same fucking crap I see everywhere else. There’s a multitude of these horseshit reality shows that you know aren’t real because of how fake the acting is. And then, we have shows like Jersey Shore that are just fucking stupid to begin with – and yet, we have teenagers idolizing these idiots. Great job, America!

And then there’s the third category that infests the media today – teenage drama. Wow. Don’t get me wrong, whoever came up with the concept is probably living in Beverly Hills in a threeway with two of the world’s top models because of all the cash they’re making. But, wow, this drama shit is so… ugh, no words can describe it. To put it mildly, it’s stupid. All of it. The teenage drama portrayed on these shows is nothing like in real life; all I see is some dumb blonde going “WHY DOESN’T HE LOVE ME?” or some macho idiot going “Ohhh, this guy is staring at me funny. I’m going to beat him up!” It’s like the same stereotypes in horror movies, except there’s no crazy guy in a mask that’s going to hack ‘em up (which left me a little depressed, I’ll admit).

If you’re asking yourself “Oh, why is Art watching these shitty shows?” well, it’s because my damn parents are fighting again and I don’t want to deal with their bullshit right now. Of course, it doesn’t help that they’re constantly interrupting me to try and get me on their side – oh, no, it doesn’t fucking help at all. From what I gather, mom thinks dad cheated on her, so that’s got her angry at him. She doesn’t have much evidence, though; the only suspicious thing she’s got is that dad was gone a weekend or so ago for a landscaping conference or something like that, but when she called his workplace he wasn’t there. My dad can’t seem to think of anything to prove he was anywhere else.

So, yeah. A whole lot of shit going on at my house.

Well, just so you don’t pity me so much, I didn’t spend all day watching teenage drama and reality shows. I was initially going to put up another post on here for some more of my infamous writing examples (harhar), but then I noticed I had gained a new follower. Oh, but get this: It’s another fucking Slender Man guy. Where the hell are these guys coming from?

Not only that, but this new guy – Iscariot Archangel or whatever – apparently worships the Slender Man, calling him ‘The Tall One’ and ‘He Who Is’. What the fuck, man? First off, Slender Man’s an Internet myth, meaning he’s not real, dumbass. Second, nice originality, buddy. You deserve a damn medal for those names. No, really.

…

Anyways, I made it though his first post before I clicked out of it. It was some really weird stuff… Mostly about serving his ‘Master’. At least the other guy’s blog was morbidly entertaining. Hm… Now that I think about it, maybe these kooks don’t think Slender Man is real at all. Heh, probably just some sort of writing game or something that they’re doing for a part of a forum community. I’ve seen it before, and even watched some great works of fiction come out of it. If they don’t think it’s real, well, then kudos to you two for writing some pretty weird horror stuff.

Iscariot was also following some other weird shit that has to do with Slender Man, so I’m thinking that this is just some big game for these people. Though, they didn’t even do their damn research. There was this one ‘detective’ called Strahm who was giving out details on a case (or that’s what I gather from his posts in his latest blog). Talk about unprofessional, huh?

Still, most of them are pretty interesting. I’m going to look into this more; maybe I’ll get some inspiration from them.

Until next time!

- Arthur Pierce

Paranoid Holidays, Badass Wimps, and He'll Be Back

Well, I can’t really say I’m surprised that no one commented on my last post. Hardly anyone seems to be reading it. Still, it’s a good place to take my mind off of all the things going on at home. My parents have started fighting about something. They won’t tell me, and when I try and listen in, their voices are so muffled it’s hard to tell what they’re saying. In a way, I can relate to Sarah now because of this crap. And you know what the worst thing is? My parents are taking out their frustration on me! Joy!

                Whatever. I’m not here to talk about them.

                Today, I’m going to talk about holidays and character archetypes.

                First off, holidays. I see this a lot in movies, books, shows, you name it. Usually, there’s some big event happening on a holiday, either for a specific reason or for no reason other than to draw in an audience around a certain time. A good example of a specific reason would be Die Hard; the terrorists know that there’s a party going on in this bank (or whatever it was – it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the movie) and take everyone except John as hostages. A good example of no reason at all would be John Carpenter’s Halloween: A psychopath breaks out of a mental institution and goes on a killing spree on Halloween. The only real reason they had him break out on Halloween was so that the characters could see him wearing a mask and not be frightened at all (or they’d at least think it was a joke). If it was any other time of the year, let’s face it – some masked guy watching you from a distance would creep you the fuck out.

                There are some times when a movie is set on a certain date, however, that becomes infamous. One that I can think of right off the top of my head is another slasher movie called Friday the 13^th. Everyone’s heard of it, and a lot of people even get superstitious when the date comes around. That right there is just awesome, in my opinion, when you can turn a date from a movie into a Paranoid Holiday. Kudos to the creators of Friday the 13^th.

                That’s all I’ve got to say about that, though.

                Character archetypes… There are too many to name, to be honest. I guess I’ll start off with some of the ones you see a lot.

                Badass Wimp – The title pretty much says it all. There will be stories where the guy who doesn’t fight, is too scared to confront bad guys, and who can’t even talk to a girl without stumbling over his own words will somehow defeat the villain with ingenious planning mixed with convenient circumstances and he’ll get the girl at the same time. An example of this is The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Okay, so this wimp turns out to be a wizard or something like that – in fact, he’s the one destined to defeat this bitch called Morgana.

                So, after blundering through training and hearing a lot of Nicholas Cage rants, the wimp loses his power to Morgana’s main servant and is left by his master. But wait, the wimp suddenly has an idea! He’ll defeat them all… with SCIENCE! GLaDOS would be so fucking proud of him.

                So, the wimp finds out that the stuff he was working on before he became a wizard can conveniently defeat other wizards. That figures, right? But wait – there’s more! Right when Morgana appears in a Last Battle-esque sequence, the wimp can suddenly use magic without the object that can normally control it. There’s no explanation at all as to how that happened except that he’s the ‘chosen one’ – yeah, fuck you, too, but I want to know how he’s the chosen one. What’s so special about him that he can use magic without that object? What makes him the chosen one?

                But the biggest ass-pull is how the wimp defeats Morgana. Okay, so there’s this incredibly powerful sorceress that has just arrived, and the wimp decides he can now stand up to the villain! He flings this plasma bolt at her, one of the strongest spells he can use – but she avoids it because she’s not in one piece! So, how is he supposed to defeat her, you ask? He starts controlling all of these electric cables that suddenly latch onto Morgana which somehow makes her into one piece (how the fuck did that happen, anyways?!) and the wimp flings plasma bolt after plasma bolt, killing her. Oh, and he gets the girl who is way out of his league in the end.

                Fuck you, Hollywood.

                He’ll Be Back – Okay, a lame name, but this refers to a villain who always returns for one last scare, or to pop up in another part of the series, or something else. Michael Myers is one of these, but that’s probably because he’s invincible, too. Going back to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, you can also say that Morgana’s servant is another one of these, because at the end of the film they can’t seem to find him! Dun, dun, duuuuun! Oh, and one final example of this that isn’t exactly the same is Jigsaw. Yeah, I love the Saw movies, but this guy always finds a way back to fuck with people – even after he’s dead. Of course, it turns out that his apprentices are carrying out his ‘final will’, but still…

                Eh, I think that’s enough for now. I don’t want a huge block of text here.

                Anyways, I just heard my parents fighting in the other room again. I might go to Charlie’s house if this keeps up, though I was invited by my cousins to come over to their house tonight. I might take them up on their offer…

                Until next time.

-          Arthur Pierce