Archive for June, 2010

Operation 52 – Week 6

Jun 27th

Posted by Rico Penguin in General

  Well it is official. I have read the largest book thus far for the Operation 52 project of mine. At 1,074 pages it was a veritable tome of information. In the end I’m pleased with how it ended, I do again feel those pains in the back of my mind as that cast of characters flutters away. But I must admit that at least this time I did feel that I couldn’t have stuck with them for much longer. Barbara was certainly an interesting character, and some of the female cast around him were interesting, but overall I didn’t like any of the rest of the cast.

  Since I am going to do my best to never speak poorly of writers I read, as I would be hurt personally to be bashed, I will say this: The last 400 pages of the book are worth any amount of difficulty that comes from finishing the first 600 or so. They are not BAD, those original 600 are very much needed to lay the groundwork for who the characters are. But I do think most people will have difficulty making it through them.

  I have also begun redesigning my story, I’ve found that my original ending would have been pretty grand. Which meant that the book following it would likely feel less interesting, to put it in war terms, once you’ve seen a nuclear bomb every bomb after that feels a little less grand and awe inspiring. Because of this I’ve decided upon a new ending and am going to work in the same way that a person finds the median amidst a large swath of numbers. You line everything up, then start pecking away at the beginning and the end until you meet in the middle. I will write both events, the start of the book, and the very last events in the book, and decide what series of events would best tie the beginning to the end.

  I want it to be satisfying and to feel like a journey that wasn’t written on the fly, though those are indeed my favorite kind. Maybe if I get better at this I’ll do that more often. The information about my reading for this week are as follows :) .

Pages Read

Click on the image to see it much larger :) .

Pages Read

Click on the image to see it much larger :) .

  My next book will be much smaller, at the rate I tend to read it might be done in 3 days. That’s quite alright with me. I’ll probably start reading the next book after that. My goal is to make sure I read at LEAST one book a week, if I read more than that, all the better. I’ll need to get off my butt and grab the next 4 books and list them soon before I run out of information…though that WILL force me to do it :) .

Month 1:

  Week 1: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling (448 Pages / 64 Pages Nightly)
  Week 2: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling (752 Pages / 107 Pages Nightly)
  Week 3: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J.K. Rowling (870 Pages / 125 Pages Nightly)
  Week 4: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – J.K. Rowling (652 Pages / 93 Pages Nightly)

Month 2:

  Week 5: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling (784 Pages / 112 Pages Nightly)
  Week 6: Under the Dome: A Novel – Stephen King (1074 Pages / 153 Pages Nightly)
  Week 7: Foundation and Empire – Isaac Asimov (272 Pages / 38 Pages Nightly)
  Week 8: Second Foundation – Isaac Asimov (272 Pages / 38 Pages Nightly)

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Rico examines “The Journey”

Jun 21st

Posted by Rico Penguin in General

  So I’ve been plotting, in between the various books I’ve read over the last 5 weeks. Trying too see how to do it, how to develop characters that are full enough to complete my own insatiable needs. I am, first and foremost, an addict, though not in the conventional sense. I am an addict of stories, of themes, of ideas, of individual beings, I need these things to feel complete. The lesser laws of writing do not concern me as much, grammar being a crutch that I refuse to carry and a lesson I refuse to learn. It is an ignorance I think more existent because of fear than resources, I actually worry that being too methodical in my writing would take away from that emotion I need.

  Maybe I’m wrong? I would be shocked if I wasn’t actually. But my concern now is more of the journey, of where my characters will go and who they will be. What do I want them to become, why should they become what they become, and how should they become who they become? There is a level of love I must put into these characters, otherwise I would be committing an act no less grievous than murder. Which brings me back to my addiction, a most problematic existence I have when it comes to fictional universes. For me the longer they exist, the harder it is for me to lose them. I watch as in a single batch of words, that final sentence, murders the lives of each and every character that exists in that universe.

  You might say to yourself, they still exist in my mind, in my heart, or some other sweet words that would be in a movie carried on by a soft orchestral piece but this is impossible for me to comprehend. Would we, humans, have ever existed if all details of our existence were obliterated? If we never escape the Earth and our sun swallows us like a psychotic parent, will we have ever truly been? A trillion existences could come and go after we are gone, if nothing is left to show for us, we will never be on their minds. There will be no words of the great Human Wars, their inexplicable prejudices, or their capacity to survive. Our good and our bad will vanish the very second all proof of our existence vanishes. Even now, as you read this, you may think to yourself that we will live on in spirit. But that very thought is coming because you now exist, once you are gone everything exists only in memoriam. This, this is how I feel when every story I read ends.

  When characters have been made to be believable, loved, hated, misunderstood, or even uncomfortably hollow I find that their existence cannot have an end. Yet they do, those final words, that happy or sad ending, leaves me with a twitch in my mind and a cold feeling in my core. Everyone I had known for those days, or weeks, months, or years is now gone. As if a massive bomb had vanquished the life of tens, hundreds, thousands, or millions of my friends. I walk into every story like most people walk into a family pet, purchasing a future tragedy in hopes that the memories you will carry along the way will make up for it. But to me, they only compound the pain, make it greater than it could have been.

  An example of which is when a family member dies, if you never met them, never spoke, had no idea of their traits. You will find, at least most people do, that their death doesn’t really move you. It might hurt because it hurts those close to you, but a direct connection is not made. Because you never shared a part of your emotions with that character you do not suffer from their ceased existence. It is those happy moments that come before the tragedy that make it all the greater and all the more painful.

  I applaud bad writers for one thing, they never hurt me, I may lose some time in my life to their terrible writing. But I have never lose a piece of myself. They do not construct a planet in the universe of my mind only to drop it along the event horizon of a black hole, they merely give me a text to read. Like you read these ramblings, by the end you will not feel hollow, you will not have lost. It is merely facts, data, a series of points that do lead to an end but bring with them no true emotions. Perhaps some week, planned ones, but nothing you will remember in a years time.

  So I have decided that I will not do the same, in some manner or another, I shall give my characters a continued existence. At least for as long as I, myself, do exist. After that I can only hope we have erected a system of data storage that is replicating and nigh indestructible, though seeing as I’ll in theory be dead I suppose I won’t really care. Unless I’ve been very wrong about a few things, but that is a topic for another day.

  Back to work, this was an enjoyable ramble during my lunch break.

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Operation 52 – Week 4 and 5!

Jun 20th

Posted by Rico Penguin in General

  It has certainly been a while! I’ve finished two books since we last saw an update on this here website. I’m officially done with the tales of Harry Potter, I’m not sure it really ended on an ending but it wasn’t a bad story. It’s one of those tales that does somewhat seem like it would be better suited for a many seasons long television show or continuous story. The universe was uniquely presented without getting very in depth, leaving much to the imaginations of the reader. A neat trick and something I’ll need to keep in mind.

Pages Read

Finished the last book two days ahead of schedule.
Click on the image to see it much larger :) .

I kept above my goal for nearly the entire time on the last book, you’ll notice that I’ve made the older lines thinner to help make the latest progress obvious. If you click the image you can see it larger and it will be much easier to decipher. Below is the data of the Pages Per Minute, you can see that on day 3 I had an exquisitely slow reading speed but I still managed to get more reading done that day than any day but the first day (because of the time I spent reading).

Pages Read

Overall my reading speeds are starting to balance out nicely. Though my next book is going to be much more difficult to read in time and as efficiently.

  I’m currently diving into Stephen King’s “Under the Dome: A Novel” and I must say that it is a dramatically different writing style. The characters thus far are largely difficult to like and I’m not sure if the goal is for them to be as such. Though I am only about a hundred pages in, he has killed off more people than the last 5 books I’ve read did in their entirety. Lets hope the population of that small town can survive for the next 9/10th’s of the story.

  Once I make it over this mountain I’ll officially be moving onto smaller books for a bit. Give myself a rest :) .

Month 1:

  Week 1: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling (448 Pages / 64 Pages Nightly)
  Week 2: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling (752 Pages / 107 Pages Nightly)
  Week 3: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J.K. Rowling (870 Pages / 125 Pages Nightly)
  Week 4: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – J.K. Rowling (652 Pages / 93 Pages Nightly)

Month 2:

  Week 5: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling (784 Pages / 112 Pages Nightly)
  Week 6: Under the Dome: A Novel – Stephen King (1074 Pages / 153 Pages Nightly)
  Week 7: Foundation and Empire – Isaac Asimov (272 Pages / 38 Pages Nightly)
  Week 8: Second Foundation – Isaac Asimov (272 Pages / 38 Pages Nightly)

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Operation 52 – Week 3

Jun 6th

Posted by Rico Penguin in General

  Another week another novel down! I still haven’t gotten my Wisdom Tooth removed but we have a few names that I’ll be looking into this week. I’ll probably be dropping 500 dollars on the removal (if the internet isn’t lying about the cost) and that’ll leave me quite poor. But luckily I have already got the books in my planned reading in possession so that won’t hinder this.

   As for this book I found myself not really enjoying Harry, his teenage angst reminded me a bit too much of how silly high school was. However it was nice that the book addressed just how silly he was and how much kids that age act like it. Not being much older myself I remember that far too well.

  As for Data, we have the pages read per day below. You’ll notice, very likely, that I read nearly half the book on Saturday. I didn’t have much better to do and it was an interesting challenge, I ended up reading long into the morning passed 2am. I took a short break and then finished the book which was Day 7 (as it was now Sunday morning).

Pages Read

Saturdays are becoming my crunch days whenever I slack during the week. Click on the image to see it much larger :) .

  For those wanting an in-between-the-graphs pep talk I’d suggest this activity to anyone. You probably won’t want to go quite as deep into it as I have and start reading nearly thousand page books if you are working full time somewhere BUT if you do and you manage to make the journey, well it is satisfying.

  Once I make it passed the Stephen King Novel I think the next month will be smaller Asimov novels. I’ve been thinking I might be able to knock out multiple books a week which is perfectly acceptable for me. My only rule is that I keep track of what week they were scheduled for and that I do not take longer than a week to finish any one novel.

  After the foundation books I’m looking into some books on Astrophysics and perhaps a book or two from the old controversial world of Atheism. There are plenty of wonderful things to read…I’m also planning on purchasing and owning every single Magic: The Gathering book ever written, that is to say one copy of each mind you.

Pages Read

My overall reading time is sporadic, on Day 6 and 7 I was reading to 1-2 in the morning and from 2 that morning till about 3. So I’m not surprised the reading time was slow.

  When I play games too much I find that I dream about the games or plot over them at night, when I write too much I stare at the ceiling at night deciphering what I’ve written, and indeed it appears now that when I’ve read too much I will start thinking in storytelling mode. I was literally thinking this morning “Harry goes to brush his teeth.” as I got up to brush my teeth. The name of the character doing the things would change but…it was odd.

  Made me understand how people can get so headlong into faith and start killing one another. The words wash away the reasonable nature of your mind for a bit, if I were constantly indoctrinating myself in the same text over and over I’m sure I would certainly go mad. Humbling revelation for sure.

  Finally, just as a passing point. Have you ever had someone who you were avoiding because of an uncomfortable feeling they gave you? I’m quite lucky it is just someone on the internet, but still, you know that once you return to conversation they’ll likely be heated and that you waiting because of that just compounds the problem. Ah well. Such is life, once I get this tooth removed life will be much more pleasant.

Month 1:

  Week 1: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling (448 Pages / 64 Pages Nightly)
  Week 2: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling (752 Pages / 107 Pages Nightly)
  Week 3: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J.K. Rowling (870 Pages / 125 Pages Nightly)
  Week 4: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – J.K. Rowling (652 Pages / 93 Pages Nightly)

Month 2:

  Week 5: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling (784 Pages / 112 Pages Nightly)
  Week 6: Under the Dome: A Novel – Stephen King (1074 Pages / 153 Pages Nightly)
  Week 7: Foundation and Empire – Isaac Asimov (272 Pages / 38 Pages Nightly)
  Week 8: Second Foundation – Isaac Asimov (272 Pages / 38 Pages Nightly)

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