Incathuga Daentsuro's Random Thoughts and Writings

That was entirely wrong, yesterday's title. It should have been "janvier trois".

Anyway, today was slightly more interesting than yesterday. Busier, at least; in English we did plenty looking at bibliographies (boring stuff, considering how many we've done), in Calculus we did some review over separation of variables, in Enviro we learned about community ecology, and in orchestra we played. Busy, at least. Tomorrow's probably going to be boring again, though. I fully expect another short class for genetics, nil in Euro (my teacher is absent this week and left busy work), very little for AT Enviro, and reviewing The Republic in History of Ideas. Methinks we'll play spades quite a bit.

I didn't get a chance to do too much today; I had youth orchestra after school, so once I made it home I had to get to writing quickly. I think I've managed to get my five hundred with this post, but even if I didn't it's not that big a deal. The main goal of that resolution was to at least write some, even if it's not a lot (and a few hundred isn't really that much, but it's something).

Okay, so I haven't messed up my resolutions yet, which is a good sign. But I slacked off way too much today anyway, which is a bad sign.

First off, I have a comment about my last post; flame bows (at the point of FF2 I'm at now) make everyone OP. Mythril ain't got nothin' on flame. And flame bows with berserk are obscene overkill, for serious. I went from doing like thirty or so damage to the tougher enemies to doing a hundred plus. Without levels to bows. That's how good they are. Seem to be a reasonable drop from the Captains in Fynn, too, so you could (in theory) get them even before mythril is available. Why you'd want to go through that much trouble, I don't know.

Anyway, with FF2 I really want to go to Mysidia before I'm meant to, do a ton of sequence breaking with some of the spells there and make Maria even more insane. Her with drain, osmose, and a flame bow should be a force to be reckoned with. I also need to level up Guy's spells.

Next, my resolution statuses; everything is good, but I only got in a couple scales of practice, and I'm hoping to fill out my word count with this post. It shouldn't be too hard, though--I only need 244 more words with this. Which I almost have right now, so I'm solid. And of course, I haven't purchased any games yet.

And finally, a blatant advertisement for what might be the greatest game in the universe: Minecraft is epic. I've been playing for a few months, and even in alpha it was amazing. Once everything's ironed out and complete the finished product will be well worth twenty euros (about $38 American). Go try it if you haven't already, or watch some videos of people playing it. Quite entertaining.

Well, that's all for today. I'll try to post again tomorrow, but I've got to catch some zeds for the start of school. Fun stuff, hopefully.

Yes, I'm updating twice in the same year. It's amazing.
So, my birthday was a week ago plus some. I've officially been 17 for nine days.
I've also gotten over the girl I asked out. It's very odd. I liked her for over three years and stopped liking her in under a week. Anyway, now there's someone else I have a crush on.
I figure I'll throw in something I wrote recently. This was just a bit of practice with scenery since I've never worked much on that.

Maria was sitting in a tree. She had no reason to be there, she just was. Had she climbed up there? Jumped down from above? No, neither of those. She just couldn’t remember.
She wasn’t far from the ground; a fall wouldn’t hurt too much. Still, she was careful climbing down. The branch she’d been sitting on was sturdy, but thin enough to grab with one hand.
Leaves covered the ground; it must be autumn. Hadn’t it been winter just yesterday? There had been snow in Maria’s yard. Not enough to cover the roads, just a thin layer over the grass. Now it was the middle of fall?
She looked around. The trees were still young in this part of the forest. Most were barely tall enough to climb. How long had it been since Maria climbed a tree, though? Three or four years, at least. Except that tree she was just in. Still, had she been climbing that one?
There was a small path a few feet away. It seemed to be used frequently; there weren’t many leaves over it, and most of the twigs had been moved off to the side. Maria stepped onto it and started walking.
After a few minutes the girl noticed a cave just off the path. A fire was burning inside, but nobody was near it. The walls had chalk on them. A few drawings of animals and people were near the floor. Higher up the wall, someone had been writing.
This is a dream.

Maria woke up in her bed and looked at the clock beside her. Barely past two. This would be a long night.

Well, my garden is officially planted. It's got tomatoes and bell peppers and carrots and marigolds and Swiss chard and radishes.

Also, new story in the works. And I have other stories if anyone wants to read them. They aren't done, but leave a comment if you want me to post part of it.

And now, without further stalling for time, here is the first chapter of Once in a Lullaby.



Marius looked up from his spot on the lone green hill near the city. Dorothy, one of his best friends from school, walked to him and sat down. “You’re deciding to skip too?” he asked after lying his head back down.
“It’s just English. They’re having us read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in depth.” She tossed one of the two copies she had to Marius. “It’s one of those old kid stories. You could finish it in a couple minutes if you wanted.”
“No thanks. I remember it all from kindergarten. Girl gets sucked up in a tornado, kills wicked witch, travels to wizard, meets scarecrow, tin man, and lion, and goes back home after kill the other witch. It’s simple.” He put the book under her head and used it as a pillow.
“I’ve never actually read it. I wish it was a harder read, though. This stuff is too simple.” Dorothy opened her copy and started reading. “You should probably go through it again, Marius. You’ll seem quite the scarecrow if you don’t know anything in class.”
“I’ll go through it later,” he replied. The sun shone against the mirrors of steel that were the city behind the pair. “Have you gotten to the Emerald City, Dorothy?”
“No. I’m still on the Yellow Brick Road.” She looked up to the cloud of smog pervading the air above the city. “It’s too bad the river is as bad as this air.”
“We could always go swimming if it weren’t so murky.” He tugged at his fishing pole. “I’m not getting any bites today. School might be more entertaining than this.”
Dorothy stood up and brushed the grass from her skirt. “I’m surprised nobody knows about this spot yet. You’d think the green would be obvious surrounded by so much brown.” She picked up a rock and skipped it across the river. It landed in the sand on the other side.
“It’s because nobody wants to see emeralds anymore. They’ve fallen for towers of steel and concrete. They have no need for gems when they can make their own.” Marius sighed and looked at his watch. “We are creatures ruled by time, Dorothy. English is about to end. Will you be heading to Government with me?”
“I suppose I should.” She smiled and pulled Marius up before walking back towards school.

Dorothy skipped into her music class. It was a free day, so the students could do as they wished. She was going to practice on the piano in the back of the room for most of the period.
Marius sat in the corner by Dorothy as she played. “Do you know Raindrops?” he asked after she had warmed up.
“Chopin? It’s been a while since I’ve played it.” She tapped a few keys before breaking into a sad melody. The other musicians looked up at the melody, distracted from their games. A few moved outside to avoid the music, but most stayed in and turned up their own music players.
“It’s good,” said Marius after Dorothy finished. “I wonder how long it’s been since we’ve had a good rain in this city.”
“I blame the pollution for this acid rain we get. But we can’t do much about it.” She continued to play, switching from Chopin to Beethoven, but staying with calm, slow songs. After most of the other teens had left the room she started some more lively music, switching between Bach and Chopin’s happier pieces.
The bell rang to end the school day, so Marius picked up his books. “Ready to go home?”
“I guess I can play at home. Just let me get my things.” She covered the piano and picked up her bag before following Marius out.
The two lived on the same street, so they walked home together most days. Since Marius skipped English and Biology consistently, the pair usually talked about whichever class he missed that day. Because Dorothy had skipped class with him, they decided to talk about The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Dorothy had been reading as she played, so she managed to get through most of the book.
“Do you believe in other worlds, Marius?”
“Look up in the middle of the night and you can see them,” he replied. “There are seven besides our own circling the sun, plus many million around other stars, not to mention the uncountable asteroids, comets, and other objects travelling in space that could be called worlds.”
Dorothy sighed. “Not quite what I meant. Do you believe in magical worlds?”
“There is no Oz, if that’s what you’re asking me. There are emerald cities and flying machines, and I suppose somewhere there could be creatures that can control their energy and seem to be witches, but I draw the line at animate scarecrows. Oz is fantasy, nothing more.” He turned and walked up the steps to his home. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Dorothy.”
“See you.”

A recent article about a cure for cancer has piqued my attention for two reasons. First, this treatment is just as harmful as chemo or surgery, if not more so, but doctors are hailing it as a miracle. Second, it makes tons of money for the hospital. The article gives seven cheaper, safer cancer treatments that actually work but have been ridiculed off the market.

A nurse I asked about this said that the goal of medicine, like all other professions, is to make money. I countered with the sixth line of the Hippocratic Oath, “Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice,” and the fourth line of the Nightingale Pledge, “With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician, in his work, and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.” She said that just maintaining the sick is to their benefit.

That last sentence is what’s wrong with medicine. The goal of modern medicine should be to cure. I can understand making some money, but just keeping patients alive so one can take all of their money when there is a real cure is wrong.

We see the same basic error in politics; politicians do what’s needed to stay in office instead of actually fixing what’s wrong with their city, state, or nation. Let’s just focus on America’s problems for now; the economy can be fixed by not adding pork into important bills; the war in Iraq could be won by letting our culture flow to theirs. Instead of doing this, we see Congressmen and Senators adding teapot museums to real bills and sending more troops to die in Iraq like we’re still working with a Cold War enemy, where only brute force can win the war.

I ask everyone who reads this to tell people of these errors. Nothing bad will happen if you don’t, nor does sending this give you luck for a year, but if enough people realize just how badly we’ve screwed up as a species many of the tragedies will stop happening.

Sources:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/05/10/the-kanzius-machine-a-cancer-cure.aspx?source=nl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightingale_Pledge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath