Jump to content

Janus

Premier Retired Staff
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,016

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Janus

  1. Janus

    Waves

    By Janus,

    Ever had one of those days wherein everything seems akin to waves rolling on the ocean? a constant ebb and flow of happiness, sorrow, and general indifference?
     
    Often my emotions stay rather stationary. If I had a bad day it can turn good, likewise if I've had a good day, it can very easily turn bad--however never before have I experienced such a myriad of--moodswings I suppose one could call it.
     
    I awoke this morning, early, and saddened--what I was saddened by I really can't say. My mind simply couldn't hold on to whatever it was. Mercifully I was spared waking and was able to slip back into the realm of sleep. Unfortunately, of course I again awoke, this time the pervasive sadness remained and my body was sore and stiff beyond all belief.
     
    Shrugging off my usual morning workout, I instead took a bath--a bath which I managed to sleep through entirely, waking only when the water was lukewarm and generally unpleasant to be in. Note to self: Stop bringing books or work with you to the bath. You never do anything but sleep.
     
    After that I popped in my contacts and managed to set off the fire alarm once more. I swear that thing goes off at the slightest inclination--thankfully this means I won't be burned to death horribly. At least I think it does.
     
    Shortly after that it was onto work. Being unable to access my favourite webcomics I was left with a graphic designing project that took up roughly an hour. Almost sad, really, considering what a relatively simply concept the project was.
     
    After that it was breakfast--then dinner. And I literally do mean "then dinner" my breakfast was eaten at roughly 12:48 PM GST and then my dinner was begun at 1:15 PM GST. Such is my schedule.
     
    After breakfast, it was time to E-mail those files to my work, and get changed and ready to teach classes. While still feeling sick and sore that all managed to dissapear as soon as my Basics class arrived, I love those kids. Even though they're just Orange Belts and Yellow Belts they've still got the best attitude ever. I worked them hard in hot weather and they never complained once, they enjoyed it just as much as me. Then I took our two Black Belt Training members and we worked out on weapons and sparring, they're totally new to sparring and so it was fun taking them through the basics. Next was Protech which was basically the exact same people, plus one more. Self defense and weapons and then I had a one person class.
     
    By that time the heat was nearly unbearable, so we basically sat around and talked as much as we could. Of course we still worked on forms and the basics, then we had some fun playing around with the staffs. My dad, and my boss, basically left me alone for the whole day, he had other work to do so I got to teach almost all of the classes, the only person who got taught by him was one of our Red/Black Belts, who will be testing for her Black Belt in August, I wish her all the luck in the world. Aside from that my last class consisted soley of my wonderful White Belts, including a brand new addition, oh it was fun to work with them--even though the heat was still pretty intense.
     
    Due to our other instructor not showing up, we got to end a bit early, that meant I got to go home and chat with my friends--not that it really involved much.
     
    But something happened, I'm really not sure what, or how, or even why, but after this incredible upswing from awful to wonderful something happened to place it in the middle. A deep melancholy settled over me. In fact it's only because I'm writing again that I'm managing to shake it off--in fact I think I may just open one of my more recent projects and begin writing again. "Metal Man" here I come.
     
    Oh, and if you're in the White Rock area and have thought about Martial Arts, feel free to give us a try, we love having new people come in.
     
    Aside from that I think that I've basically rambled my thoughts out. In fact I don't anticipate any reaction to this as so much of it is personal, but heck, I've been surprised by you guys before. Who knows?
     
    -Robert
  2. Janus

    Well, Folks.

    By Janus,

    Well folks, I've been quite....untruthful, huh?
     
    I haven't been doing my writing for quite some time...however I've found that's mostly because I just haven't been inspired by the concept of writing, and so until the point that the inspiration returns, FOR SCIENCE will change.
     
    I will no longer do 2,000 words minimum.
     
    I'll do however many I want, be it 10, 15, or 3,000. I'll do it until the story is complete, or until I have a satisfactory chapter break.
     
    I'll be starting this new copy of FOR SCIENCE! on Monday.
     
    See you then!
     
    Sincerely,
     
    -Janus
  3. Janus

    White

    By Janus,

    13
     
    You have no idea how long I have been trying to upload this blasted story.
     
    I finished it at...oh, about 12:04 AM this morning, and found that BZP's server was dead. So instead of waiting and struggling for an hour (Oh wait, I did do that) I went to bed. I awoke and tried to post it again and found that while the FORUMS were operational, all BLOGS were dead. Oh, unending fury.
     
    SO at last I managed to get this story uploaded and I am happy.
     
    It's a thought I've had multiple times while flying, by the way. Inordinately creepy, but a common thought of mine nonetheless.
     
    Word count: 1,491
     
    Enjoy!
     

     

    White 
    People milled all around me, eyes averted and eyes focused down the end of the cavernous passage; beneath me the ‘fast track’ path ground slowly toward my eventual destination. I was in no hurry, instead I allowed myself to relax languidly against the moving track and simply let it take me to where I wanted to go.
     
    Every once in a while people would pass me, their expressions varying from irritation to exhaustion—everyone in this place was in such a hurry it seemed. Pilots and stewardesses bustled in and out of crowds, security agents clothed in crisp white silently watched from their posts—or walked briskly to their destinations. And then of course there were the passengers: Throngs of people all desperate to get to their own destination and all more than willing to do whatever it took to get there. I gazed around at the sea of faces around me, noting the heavy looking carry-on bags that some people carried I rolled my eyes, clearly that’s why they looked so tired.
     
    Now me? I wouldn’t ever be that silly. No, instead I always arrived with more than enough time to spare, I didn’t want to rush or bustle. I didn’t want to panic or exhaust myself searching around the labyrinthine airport.
     
    I smiled as I arrived at the end of the moving track, hoisting my light bag over my shoulder and setting off at an easy pace. I kept my eyes up and focused, ignoring the thousands of people on either side of me—just as they ignored me. It was a mutual ignoring. However the important thing was that I kept my eyes open and I remained aware of where I was at all times, carefully studying the clean white signs placed around the bustling airport. Within a short matter of minutes I had arrived at my destination.
     
    I entered the roughly circular room, taking note of all the various different exit gates in rapid succession. Then, as soon as I had ascertained the location of my gate, I allowed my gaze to drift higher and take in the gorgeous view afforded to me and my fellow passengers by the nearly 360 degree ceiling high glass walls.
     
    It was truly a magnificent day outside—a perfect day for flying. The few clouds in the sky were white and fluffy, drifting leisurely through the sky. The sun was out in full force, its rays shining down on the tarmac and the aircraft assembled there, so bright was it that the luminous glare simply became a white blur in my eyes. It was almost painful to look at.
     
    Blinking and shaking my head to clear the remainder of the brilliance from them, I carefully found myself a seat and sat down to wait. Then, almost as soon as I was seated, I removed a small book from my bag, a fiction I’d been attempting to finish for the past few weeks. I flipped through the pages until I found my landmark, but found that the glare from the sun was brighter than I expected. Even my book’s pages seemed much more brilliant than before, approaching a nearly white sheen.
     
    I groaned internally and rubbed my eyes. Clearly I wasn’t going to be able to read any time soon. Instead I replaced the book in my bag and settled off to a light nap, leaning back in the seat and allowing the comfortable blackness of sleep to take me.
     
    I awoke to the slightly reverberating twang of an airline employee on the intercom. I glanced tiredly at my watch, and then at the main desk for my gate.
    “We will now begin general boarding for slight UA7643.” The young man said, indicating where exactly we should form our boarding line. I felt the slightest twinge of panic rise within me...I had completely slept through the pre-boarding! I could have missed my flight!
     
    I felt the prickles of fear threatening to rise and overwhelm my sense and forced them back, lifting myself from the seat as I did so. Then, while I appealed to my logical side to drown out the irrational fear, I slowly slid into line, my face emotionless.
     
    To say that the line went quickly would be somewhat of an overstatement. It didn’t exactly fly, nor did it crawl. It must moved along at its own leisurely pace—allowing me plenty of time to learn how best to avoid the bright beams of sunlight that threatened to turn my vision into nothing but a brilliant white expanse. In fact doing this helped to keep myself calm…to soothe the savage beast so-to-speak.
     
    When at last it was my turn to hand in my passport and deal with the smiling young man I found that my fear had completely evaporated—in part due to my own management, and in part due to the fact that I was clearly going to be onboard the flight. I returned his smile and retrieved my passport, setting off down the boarding hallway.
     
    Upon boarding the aircraft and double checking my boarding pass, I found myself fortunate enough to receive a window seat. A small smile briefly graced my face, and then I had seated myself and safely stowed my luggage. Shortly after I watched vacantly as the stewardesses went through the usual show and dance about aircraft safety—however it was at this time that I realized what good fortune I really had. Not only was I lucky enough to receive a window seat—but a window seat with nobody else in the adjoining seats! I was all by myself in an entire row of seats. How wonderful.
     
    The flight passed without even the slightest bit of interference—not even a pocket of turbulence disturbed the aircraft as it made its way through the skies. In fact the flight was as close to perfect as it could have ever been, from my comfortable row I saw mountains and rivers, lakes and cities, great plains of green and jagged peaks of ice. I saw gorgeous scenes stretch below me and I drank in every minute of it.
     
    However as is the way of the world, all good things must come to an end. The announcement came on the loudspeakers that we would be landing shortly and the craft began its gradual decline. I turned away from the window and leaned my head on the hard plastic that made up its surroundings. I had just begun to relax when I heard something strange. Sort of a “zzzt!” sound, like what we all imagine an electric shock sounds like. Opening my eyes slowly I looked around the craft and found that everything had gone dark, the lights, the TV screens—everything. All that was lighting the claustrophobic craft was the brilliant white light shining in through the windows. I paused with a frown. White light? Surely the sun couldn’t be that bright?
     
    Glancing out the window I found that we were submerging through the cloud cover, meaning that the only light that entered the airplane was nearly white. I made a face and turned back to glance around the cabin just in time to see the entire thing blink rapidly, flipping from total darkness to everything lit up and active multiple times.
     
    Getting a headache I averted my gaze again, choosing to look out through the window. This time I could almost see the distant outline of the landscape through the clouds, almost like it was a drawing in sand—the details being washed away by the wind. It stayed there for but the briefest instant before a large cloud mass eclipsed it from view—and at the same time everything in the aircraft blinked off for the final time.
     
    I paused in my chair, feeling that familiar panic welling up again. Then I felt it, the plane’s engines were thrumming just as mightily as ever but the plane wasn’t moving. Some how, in some way, the plane had simply frozen in the sky.
     
    With a sick feeling of dread I again turned to my window and glanced outside. That cloud mass hadn’t passed—if anything its seemed stronger, brighter. There was nothing I could see outside the crowded cabin of the airplane, nothing but those clouds.
     
    I felt my heart leap into my throat. Other passengers were beginning to feel the same feelings of dread that I had, but they hadn’t realized it entirely yet. There were rumblings moving throughout the people on the craft—talking about the strong cloud cover, and of course about the mysterious darkness that had invaded the vessel.
     
    But nobody turned to their windows and really looked. Had they, they would have seen what I did.
     
    They would have seen the infinte timeless expanse, they would have felt the sickening feeling of being trapped—as though in an enormous block of ice.
     
    They would have seen what I saw: Nothing but endless white.
  4. Janus

    Why My Room Is A Nightmare

    By Janus,

    And hark I hear the angels sing!
     
    Yes, up until now my computer has been sporadic and a general nightmare, interrupting my schedule and my planned updates (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, by the way)
     
    BUT, now that I have a UPS (Universal Power Supply) for my computer I. AM. BACK. And it feels so good!
     
    So without anything futher, I bring to you to the main purpose of this deranged entry.


    WHY MY ROOM IS A NIGHTMARE 
    My room is rather small.
     
    Not super small, not by any great stretch, but it's a fairly small place...It's also missing a wall, but that's another subject altogether.
     
    No, my room is a nightmare because it's so small, and because I have so much bloody stuff...Or rather, because I can't organize it properly.
     
    Envision this if you will, My room is likely about 12 ft 10 ft. Not the smallest by any convential means, but certainly a rather small location.
     
    Now fill it with a computer desk, a night table, a small rolling cabinet, two large clothes dressers, one large armchair, and a large set of shelves.
     
    Then add in the MASSIVE amount of LEGO from Age 5 onwards, add in the rather impressive (If I do say so myself) book collection, add in the assorted odds and ends, add in the swords, add in the gargantuan amount of CD's and DVD's, add in the Comic books, add in the manuals, the models, the writing supplies scattered all across my room, and of course all of the assorted tech pieces that hang around.
     
    Now take every last one of these and scatter them all across my room. Especially the floor.
     
    That's why my room is a nightmare, because I've been cleaning it for the past three weeks.
     
    BUT, I gotta say, it's also a dream. It's so much fun going through everything in my room, and reorganizing it. I still feel twinges of both pride and nostalgia when I crack open a plastic container and find a toy that I bought when I was maybe four or five. I still have little bits and pieces that I love to death, and don't plan to get rid of.
     
    But I also feel I'm doing a good thing, not only am I making my room cleaner and more organized, I'm also helping others. I have two boxes full of stuff I'm giving away, and am already halfway through another bag. I'm also just plain getting rid of recycle and garbage that's sat around for forever.
     
    So I suppose my room's a nightmare simply because it's not finished yet.
     
    Coming Soon: On the current state of BIONICLE
    Ruby Gloom
    Judgement: BIONICLE reborn
  5. Janus
    Rob: I'ma boot up Mass Effect for the first time ever, but all I'ma do is make a character.
    *Boots up Mass Effect and starts creating Commander Joan Shepard*
    AN HOUR LATER.
    Rob: I am satisfied with this thing I do.
    *Clicks on accept*
    Rob: WHOA GAME STARTS RIGHT AWAY? Kind of a boring cutscene, though.
    *First dialogue option comes up*
    Rob: WHOA THAT WASN'T A CUTSCENE WOW.
    *Answers first two dialogue options, begins walking down the hall of the Normandy*
    Rob: OMG BEST GAME EVAR.
  6. Janus
    A young boy once asked a willow
    “Why is that you weep?”

    The willow replied with a heavy sigh
    “I weep for those who sleep.”

    “I weep for those asleep in the ground,
    For they buried and forgot
    I weep for those once fought bravely
    But are now just left to rot”

    “I weep for these gardens of stone,
    A decayed and tragic lot.
    And I weep at the thought that you,
    Dear boy, may one day fill a plot”

    “I weep for the foreign soldier,
    so far from his home dear
    I weep for his mother and brother,
    For whom death must seem so near”

    “For those who lay ‘neath bloody skies
    For those who show no fear
    For those with fire burning in their eyes
    It is for them I shed a tear”

    The boy was silent, too stunned to reply,
    But he mustered his courage and asked
    “Why is it so many must die?”

    “For oil, for food, for pride
    For land, and water, and to bridge a great divide.
    For lies and deceit and treachery in all they do,
    But also for hope,
    and truth, and freedom strong and true”

    “For orders given and orders received,
    For angels and for dens of thieves
    For weapons and cannons and endless gun rounds
    This is why the death knoll so often sounds”

    The boy fell silent and tears sprang to his eyes,
    It felt like it was hopeless
    As though he was trapped by the prince of flies

    The old willow watched this and felt its boughs bend deep,
    Then it held the boy in its many arms and asked
    “Boy, why is that you weep?”

    The boy looked up, his tears fell to the ground below
    but in his eyes was a strength even he did not know
    “I weep for the atrocities, the tragedies, the inhumanity of it all!
    I weep for my mother, and my brother, and whoever else may fall!”

    “I weep for the waste of creativity,
    the tragic loss of life
    I weep for my future enemy,
    and she who may one day be his wife”

    “I weep for ignorance, for lies like a spider’s web
    for sadness itself and for the water’s flow and ebb
    For life, and death, and for every question “why?”
    these are some of the reasons for which I now cry”

    The boy and the willow stood there,
    in a silence profound and deep
    “And for you too willow,
    for you I also weep”

    “The sins of this world are ours,
    The burden’s ours to bear
    That you must feel our mistakes
    Simply feels unfair,
    though I know that in a world like this
    That fairness doesn’t exist
    It is still something
    that I must insist”

    “And so tonight, in bed, before I go to sleep
    I will tell god above, myself
    Willows shouldn’t have to weep”


    -Robert
  7. Janus

    Zero Hour

    By Janus,

    FOR SCIENCE! 2.0 (3) 
    I was going to write a part two to Days of Future past (You better believe I have ideas for the Phantoka and Mistika), but was unable to because of time constraints. Maybe tomorrow, we'll have to see.
     
    In the mean time, I enjoyed this, it was a nice little distraction from everything else.
     
    Wordcount: 652
     
    Enjoy!
     

     

    Zero Hour 
    “Ten”
     
    The countdown started. In my head I went over the past 24 hours rapidly, remembering all I had managed to accomplish in those last short hours.
     
    “Nine”
     
    Those now time-lost hours were quite possibly the last time I would spend on earth. Selected as I had been for the top-secret colonization project I had been training and preparing for over ten years—and it was all culminating on this night. I had naturally celebrated like a king.
     
    “Eight”
     
    I had wined and dined the finest of women, spent money like it was going out of style (And while it wasn’t, I very much doubted that dollars would be in plentiful supply on the moon. We’d need to find some other sort of money-substitute), and had more than enough to drink. Luckily I was in a project that really was the heart of everything scientific. A glass of water and a hangover pill and I was good as new.
     
    “Seven”
     
    I double checked the consoles all around me, barely paying attention to the readouts. I knew the computer would handle most of the difficult stuff, I was really just along for the ride until we made it into orbit. Only then would I actually get to do something worthwhile.
     
    “Six”
     
    I allowed my thoughts to drift to the hazy memories of last night. There had been women, that much I remembered. Some sort of expensive food…lobster maybe? Normally I wouldn’t have been so blasé about blowing such a huge chunk of change, but frankly it was on the government’s dime. And they owed me.
     
    “Five”
     
    I felt a shiver of excitement run up my spine. Partially out for the fact that soon the rocket engines would kick in and I’d be forced into my chair as an immense weight settled upon me—and then I’d be in the stars. Partially because I was remember some of what went on, and some of it wasn’t as hazy. A smile crept to my lips.
     
    “Four”
     
    All things considered, I felt I spent my last few hours on earth quite well, after all, as my friends used to say “Any night you can’t remember is a night worth living.” Of course I always thought it was rather silly if you couldn’t remember anything. I made sure to maintain some memory of what went on—otherwise what was the point?
     
    “Three”
     
    I gave the readouts another cursory glance as thoughts floated tepidly through my mind. Something was nagging me, but it didn’t hold much force. At least not as much force as the joke that had been bandied about by us ‘colonizers.’ That we’d have a nightclub and bar up and running within a week.
     
    “Two”
     
    With that grin-worthy thought out of the quagmire of my mind I was able to think slightly more clearly. Of course all that really did was give added urgency to the stray thought that I was unable to remember. I wracked my brain, mentally reading through everything I had done and was supposed to do. What was that thought that was dancing out of reach?
     
    “One”
     
    I closed my eyes, forcing myself to think. Inside my head I saw images of the past week I’d spent on earth. Women, elaborate clubs, gorgeous swimming pools, intense sports, and of course large bills…all of these things and more flashed before my eyes. Still that thought remained infuriatingly indistinct, like a word on the tip of my tongue. So close yet not there.
     
    “Zero”
     
    I felt the rocket boosters ignite, felt the intense pressure force me into my comfortable seat. I even vaguely noticed the ships’ computer taking over and controlling the various readouts. Finally the thought clicked smoothly into place, as thought the force of impact had knocked it loose.
     
    As I sped away from earth and to my destination amongst the stars I remembered.
     
    I had a casserole in the oven.
     
×
×
  • Create New...