Physical Brainstorming

So I don't know if I ever mentioned, but Corset likes to write and is in college to learn to write better. So we were talking in class and I turned out to be an anomaly because my brainstorming for a character wasn't a spider web with words it was a doodle. I refuse to believe I am the only person who doodles their characters to find out more about them. Want an example? Well I was trying to determine what was on my characters mind so this is what popped out:

It's poorly done, but then again it's not meant to have artistic merit it's meant to let me organize my thoughts on my characters. I have maybe a dozen of these featuring a character at different ages and some even scenes from the piece I am writing. I find it makes my life easier. Same thing, if I write a letter to a character. It makes me get in their head and ask, what have they been through lately? What type of person are they? How would they respond? Would they tell me about the crisis I'm writing or are they more secretive than that? I like fleshing out my characters so if I sound like I belong in a loony bin, you'll have to excuse me. I find once a character catches hold they irritate me until there story has been told, or the realization that there is no story to tell happens. 

;-) Going back to the padded walls,

Corset signing off.

Gotta Catch Them All

Pokemon applied to Husbands. 

Oh how much simpler the world would be if when you saw a man you wanted you just nailed him with a metal ball and got to keep him and they would automatically do what you said because you caught them. Hmmm.  Corset personally got her man the old fashion way. 

Corset enjoying her new tablet,

Signing off

Skyrim, an apology to the horse and other side notes

Ok so there's a remote possibility that someone may remember when I said the horses are awful don't use them unless you move slower than a dead horker. Well I also said there may or may not be one simple exception. Shadowmere. While the horse itself only seems to move a bit faster than the average horse, Shadowmere has one slight detail that is a blast to watch. This was the first time in a while I've seen a horse charge past me up a tower to kill the guy attacking me before I even found out where he was. Shadowmere is like a dog honing in on anything that might wish you harm and as long as you aren't riding him, he will chase it down and kill it for you, towers, mountains, houses, none of these things are large enough to stop the horse once it detects an enemy. I have found this a hysterical event, especially since my horse seems to be immortal. It's great to watch it try and take on a dragon. Even better when you realize, it might win given time.

Anywho, moving past the horse there is one slight reccomendation I would like to make about the game. Do the main mission sooner rather than later. I'll be honest here, I was putting it off to do random fun things around the universe for 120 hours. So you'll understand how disappointed I was when I killed the end boss in three strikes. I spent more time walking there then I did killing it making it feel like a mini mission rather than this thing I'd been waiting on. Same thing with the whole war issue, do that pretty early on or you'll just waltz through like you own the place.

In other news while we are speaking of things that start with sky lets talk about Skylanders. Skylanders is a childs game but if you have a sense of humor and someone to play with, it's not a bad use of a couple hours. In seriousness I'm talking about 4-5 hours MAYBE for an adult to play through. I wish we'd known that before we spent the $90 but hey, it's sunk money no need to dwell. However one thing to dwell on is the fact that you can buy certain mini's for the game that come with extra levels. Granted the levels are painfully short for an adult but they did try. Of course I'm still on the bandwagon that says I'd buy more of their stupid little mini's if they released free DLC levels for the game. A level is less than ten minutes long. It won't kill them to give someone hope that they didn't waste $90 for nothing. So my advice here is if you have an easily entertained kid, get if for them, they will have a blast and then one day when they are at school take a breather and just run through it real quick. It's got an adorable plot, some silly innuendos, and it will take less time than it probably takes to clean up after the kids you bought it for.

Anywho, Corset has papers to write and professors to email. Enjoy.
Signing off.

Health Insurance! My old friend!

You know what they say, you don't know what you got til it's gone. The more I think about it the more I think Health Insurance is the ultimate example of this. People who have it assume that they can just waltz into a long list of doctors offices pay a $20 co-pay and waltz out with their problem solved. It's a pretty nice idea. However one thing history has taught me is don't piss off the person who has you on their plan. It get's nasty when they give you an ultimatum. Do this or your health insurance will disappear. Most people shrug. When was the last time you got sick enough to see a doctor? Months ago? How many times do you go a year? Who cares right? Well who cares when you allergy medicine runs out, when your asthma medicine needs a refill but without insurance its over a $100 just for the one. I take four medicines on a regular basis to keep breathing in a steady manner and stop my skin from breaking out into hives. It's quite a nasty combination of allergies, asthma, and contact dermatitis. I assume that's why she thought I would chose the other option.

I didn't. Instead I chose to fight the medical industry once more. The age old fight of how far into debt are you willing to go to stay healthy, or in some peoples cases. Stay alive. I know I am the first to stand on my soap box and tell the world to suck it up, life isn't fair. But looking back on life, I can remember times when we owed more in medical bills than on our house. When were were debating to buy medicine for a family member in need or to buy food for the week and I can't help but wonder, how did it get this way? This isn't right. Children should never have to go hungry because they have a terminally ill loved one. No one should have to ever feel guilt that they asked for food one week which would take medicine away from a loved one.

I know there are some standing off to the side scoffing at me. There are options. True. There are a lot more options now than there were in the early - late  90's. But there are still not enough. In a world driven by profit there is little consideration left for those in need beyond the good will show of politicians. Who did the good deed of the day so they can get their brownie points with the population. So readers, let me ask you, do you think the medical industry is justified in its cost? What about the people who just can't afford? Suck it up? Maybe one of these days I'll hear from you.

If wishes were fishes I could fill a thousand seas.
Corset signing off.

Don't tell me what I can't do.

So recently I've had a string of people telling me I can't do this, I can't do that. Or my favorite comment, what did I know about hard, I'm white. So let's start from the beginning, Corset cares about a handful of people very deeply and these people are all on the skint side for Holiday season this year so Corset wanted to do something special and get everyone something nice. This started the first 'can't'. I told a co-worker what I had planned and they laughed at me, told me I couldn't afford to get them everything that I had laid out, not on what I make at my job. I said I would get another job. They told me I couldn't do it in time for presents. They told me I couldn't work that much and still pass all my finals. I said watch me. This was four weeks ago.

Last night my final grades for the semester were posted. I have a 4.0 for this semester. I also work three jobs all averaging twenty hours a week and this Friday I will get the last paycheck I need to buy the last of the presents for the people I care about. I did it because only I can dictate my life. Not my coworkers. Not my friends. Not my family. I chose. I have never made more than 22k in a year. Yet for the past four I have independently supported myself. Pulled myself out of a self abusive lifestyle and into a place where I am so close to finishing my degree I can already see graduation caps. It doesn't matter how poor you are. Where you came from. What you look like. It matters how much you are willing to give up to make something of yourself. What matters is how hard are you will to push and how many times you are willing to stand back up and say, I'm not ready to give up yet. It will be hard. There are times where you will cry. You will scream and swear and when those times are hard and you're not sure you can take any more that's when you have to lift your head high and say I'm better than this and I deserve better than this.

There will always be someone in the world that wants you to think that you have no worth. Someone who wants to tear you down to bring themselves up. Don't let that be. It's like they say, Stand up for what is right even if you are standing alone. You can't wait for someone else to make the first move and do the right thing for you.

Corset climbing back on the soap box,
Signing off.