Randomness (3): Programming

I like programming since I could put my hands on a computer, which thankfully was at a young age (I was eleven when I made my first program in BASIC). Programming has accompanied me since, and even been an important feature, so to speak, that I've wanted in people close to me.

I've been fortunate in that regard. The closest people in my life not only know what a variable is, but they can teach me one or one hundred lessons about programming.


This Saturday I was celebrating with a friend that she finished and delivered an important order. How did we celebrate it? She taught me the basics to code in Lua and LÖVE, two languages I knew nothing about. The way to teach that to me was to dive into the creation of a really, really simple game. It was a fun time and now I can't help thinking about all the improvements to this really simple game that we made in LÖVE.

I guess this shows how's my relationship with programming, why I can't stop doing it even though at times I've sworn to never do it again, and what I understand by celebrating.

Posted by: Auryn Beorn on 09/04/2018 at 12:00:00 - 0 Comments

Randomness (2): Calligraphy

If you belong to the journal community, even as a read only member such as myself, sooner or later you will stumble upon the beautiful brush lettering that invades everything. I confess I watch their videos in YouTube when I'm in bed, because they're relaxing and put me to sleep (the phone ends in the strangest places in bed, once it fell down but didn't break; don't try this at home).

While I love to see their journals and all the pretty things they draw and write, I confess that it surprises me that they show something as private as a journal for the whole world to see. It makes me wonder if they would make them so pretty if they weren't for public exhibit, and how honest they are with their journaling, quotes and thoughts. It's my guess that one can't write something too private if the journal is going to be exposed to the world. You don't have to go far to find people flipping their journals to show: Instagram and YouTube are full of them. If you don't believe me, just search for "bullet journal" and prepare to enter a new world.

If you've started a bullet journal, like me (almost two years now), it's impossible not to see any kind of brush lettering in your searches for information. Of course, as soon as I saw that brush lettering, I wanted to do it. My wanting has been on hold for a while, but recently YouTube suggested me a video specifically about calligraphy, and that's how one comes across Spencerian script (or videos of spiders fighting insects; anything is possible in YouTube). That's how one ends up devoting the last hour of her day to learning calligraphy.


So far I've learned how to hold the fountain pen (achievement unlocked!), the three basic motions, the seven principles, and now I'm able to draw the letters i and u. It feels like going back to pre-school. (Oh yes, I've said fountain pen instead of simply pen. I love me some writing with a fountain pen).

One thing that I would have not expected is that by holding the fountain pen correctly, it's actually easier to write in cursive than if you try to do it the way my instinct was telling me. It shows once again that your instinct might not be the wiser source of knowledge to follow, no matter what inspirational messages tell you.

Now I can't wait to be done with my day and spend that last hour with practice sheets, the fountain pen, the theory book, and my inner child learning again to write.

Because this is random, I'll go back to something I've said at the beginning. "It makes me wonder [...] how honest they are with their journaling, quotes and thoughts. It's my guess that one can't write something too private if the journal is going to be exposed to the world."

I could ask that to myself. How honest am I in these pages? Maybe they're completely honest, and they simply want to share. Because they like it, because they're happy, because a myriad of reasons I can't know for I'm not in their heads. Maybe I shouldn't be looking for another point of view when there's none. Maybe I shouldn't distrust so much of people's intentions. Maybe I should simply enjoy and stop with my wanting to find hidden intentions in all.
Posted by: Auryn Beorn on 23/03/2018 at 12:00:00 - 0 Comments

Randomness (1): Words

No matter what I said yesterday, one thing is for sure: my mind is pretty busy with far too many topics. Perhaps the problem is that she can't decide what to focus on, as this post will prove with only a small portion of all the randomness I can talk about.

I've sort of reconnected with my RL friends through Facebook. That was a strange situation. Six years before I did, I vanished without a word after some events. I thought I would never be back, I would never know again from them. The good thing of not rage-quitting is that you're always allowed to come back without anyone throwing to your face "but you said". I was certain that I wouldn't be back, and six years later I realized I was wrong. Six years had given me some time to heal from part of what happened. (I'm slow at healing. It sucks).


Thanks to that, I've been aware of the news concerning my country (I live under a rock) and I've realized the seriousness of the problem that people like antivaxxers are posing to the whole of our world. Diseases that were a bad dream of the past are now back, "thanks" to the work of uninformed fearful parents that have a whole view of life where nuances are not allowed. Things are good or bad; they can't be good and bad (this is, having pros and cons). I used to fight this kind of nonsense in the past but nowadays both I believe that I was wrong in my approach and I don't have the strength to keep up with the fight. I'm glad that others do and haven't burnt out.

I've also read some books as a consequence of reconnecting with these people, and connecting with new ones. They're interesting books but only available in Spanish (to my knowledge), so I can't recommend them. Bummer. And I've met the core of the bane of our existence: post modernism. Its postulates are flattering to the mind. Everything seems to be a (social) construct and you can redefine it if you don't like it. The educated (and cryptic) version of "if this doesn't change to my liking, I'll hold my breath until it does".

If I had no scruples, I would hire some post modernist to work for me for free. When they asked for retribution, I would tell them that being paid is a construct and their mind has the power to redefine it. But I have those scruples, so I just tell the joke. (If someone believes that I have advocated for slavery they need help to understand what a joke is. Thanks to the current feeling offended by everything I have to make unnecessary clarifications like this one).

Post modernism impregnates everything we touch. "That's your opinion". "It's a matter of opinion". It seems that even gravity is subject to opinions. Post modernism has kicked facts in the nuts (excuse my French), dragged them to the mud and then beaten them with expertise. When you read that science is sexist (instead of some scientists are sexist), you know that we've lost North.

Sexist, like bully, is one of those words that is being thrown so happily against those we don't like, that is under the same danger as the word bully. If everyone is a bully, then no one is a bully; if everyone is sexist, then no one is sexist. The words are losing their meaning, and without that meaning we just have empty shells used to our own interest, nothing more.

If you don't know why I've brought the word bully to this arena, just go read some comment sections on the Internet, and realize how the word is thrown to those that dare to criticize us. How dare they. Meanwhile, the actual bullies continue bullying. That's the problem with throwing darts so happily. The real enemy is laughing and walking away without consequences.

Read me carefully here: I am not saying that sexist people don't exist. Sexist people do exist, and so many of them treat us as second class citizens. I am not saying that bullies don't exist. They do exist and they make hell of the lives of their victims. I'm simply advocating for a careful use of the words we throw, or they risk losing their meaning. Without meaning, we're fighting ghosts.
Posted by: Auryn Beorn on 22/03/2018 at 12:00:00 - 0 Comments

Habits

Once you lose an habit, it's so difficult to bring it back. I had the habit of writing in these pages once a week or twice a month, at times more, and since the previous blog was sort of locked (available but outside of the reach of the searches), I lost the habit of writing on it. Nowadays I come here and I feel lost, not knowing what to write or why would I bother.

It's sad that whatever the reasons that person had to have me locked, they affected me. I tried to have the new website as fast as I could, but nothing but problems were delaying me. In the end, those problems were a weight that felt heavy even when I finally completed the new website and I was free to write on it.

I don't know what to write here anymore. No, my brain hasn't suddenly emptied of all ideas, stories, opinions. It's only that I'm still in "why bother" state. I barely check with people on social media and that only makes my writing even more superficial. If I want to write for myself, I can just put pen on paper and write on it. Indeed, that's what I'm doing since the end of September. Most of what happens in my head is now scribbled in several notebooks, notebooks that won't be read but by me. And I'm okay with that.

That is a new habit I developed while I felt that I no longer had things to say here, in public. I write almost daily in those notebooks. I write ideas for short stories, ideas that never see the light. I'm trying to learn French. But all of this stays in the dark, no one knows, it's like if it didn't exist.


This is not a good bye, though. It's just a "I need to find my way back". Because writing is important to me, and saying things in the open is also important. In the times of social media, I've curled into my shell. Protecting myself of something? Meanwhile I write things that no one will ever know, I stamp pages for myself only, another lonely hobby. I hide from an unknown, or perhaps known, enemy. It's the enemy that tells me "your words don't matter, you're not saying anything new, the world doesn't need yet another iteration on this topic". I've believed it and now I live in the shadows, wanting to go to the light but not daring, the light can be blinding.

The purpose of this post was simply to say out loud what is trying to get out for months. It's a voice that doesn't want to hide, I've never hidden. But now, everything has changed, I'm more introvert, reserved than ever and something inside me is screaming "enough of this!"

That scream lasts one second, that's one second when I can rise over my defenses, escape from the water that drowns me. In a word, during that second, I can breathe. And when I breathe, I can write again.
Posted by: Auryn Beorn on 21/03/2018 at 12:00:00 - 1 Comments

Short Tales

I've created a new page within this blog. It's called Short Tales and it houses all of my old short tales published in the older blog, plus a new one, Kindness (originally written in Spanish and translated to English). Both pages, the main one (Home) and the tales (Short Tales) are accessible from the top menu. Technically, they're considered different blogs, so I'll make announces here if I don't forget.

Enjoy!
Posted by: Auryn Beorn on 02/02/2018 at 12:00:00 - 0 Comments