Empenadas

Well I have to sneak a non-English related post in here some where, so here it is!

Life is a bit tiring at the moment, I have had work one or two days every weekend for the past couple months. That’s really great and I am very great full, just get a little worn out on the commute. Usually days when I work (like today) end up being almost two days in one! Very long. I am having a bit of trouble getting to sleep so I actually didn’t hear my alarm this morning and had to go 80mph the whole time i was on the freeway to get to work on time, which is no bueno for gas mileage.

I did get to eat some bomb empanadas today though. My girlfriend’s family had their annual St. Joseph celebration, which is basically a couple hours of praying and then TONS of food, today. I came once I got off work so I was very happy that my wonderful girlfriend saved me some empanadas, if you didn’t hear: they’re bomb. Not as awesome as the girlfriend that saved them for me though. Love that girl.

Schools been pretty much same as usual, I’m keeping up with stuff for the most part. Jumping back to the subject of jobs, I had an interview for the City of Palmdale Public Library last Tuesday (March 9th) so I’m just waiting to hear back whether or not I got the job!

Things with DragonCow and Rebel Filmmakers have been sorta slow, but we’re picking up steam again:
1. found someone that’s interested in filming/editing.
2. found someone to do website design and production photography
3. found someone interested in doing hair and makeup
4. found a few more people interested in Acting

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN ACTING CONTACT OUR CASTING DIRECTOR JESSICA HASSAN! jessica@dragoncowproductions.com

5. Working on finding a good place to hold auditions
6. On tv again: Time Warner Cable Channel 3 at Mondays: at 6:30pm, Fridays at 11:30pm and Saturday 4:30pm

That’s about all for now. Wish me luck!

Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine

Diction is everything. The words we choose make our writing unique. Cliches can make our writing dull. Metaphors make our writing poetic. Big words can make our writing difficult or pompous. The language we choose forms the audiences opinion of the message.
    Language is the vessel for our message. If we use words that are difficult to understand, the message will be difficult to understand. Our language has to be conducive to the message that we tell and the audience we hope to reach.
If I want to tell you a positive message I will have to use positive words. The writer’s children’s books employ children’s language. Without the appropriate words the message simply will not reach the audience.
Sometimes our word choices affect our readers without our knowledge. How does it happen? People react to different words in different ways because of their personal experiences. Words mean different things in the context of their lives. This is unintentional on the part of the writer and reader.
The most important influence our words have is the power of unlocking our imagination. If writing is going to be able to have an effect on us it has to create an environment inside of our mind first.
Consider a novel. To share a message, a novel must first tell a story. Before that it must construct a world in our imagination where that story can enfold. The details given will shape the world. Without enough details the world will be confusing to the mind. A world without details is formless, shapeless and empty. With too many details the message becomes to hard to pinpoint because the mind has exhausted itself trying to comprehend and visualize all of the details. If you describe every object in every room that a character enters your reader will lose sight of the plot.
The most powerful way that words can effect an audience is through the use of figurative language. Metaphors and similes are the most memorable uses of language because they convey not just a literal meaning but an emotional one. Metaphors are much more resonant than literal descriptions. In Fahrenheit 451 ray Bradbury describes a scene in which the main character Guy Montag steals a book that he is supposed to destroy, he first describes the book and its effect on Montag; “A book lit, almost obediently, like a white pigeon in his hands, wings fluttering. In the dim wavering light, a page hung open and it was like a snowy feather, the words delicately painted thereon. In all the rush fever, Montag had only an instant to read a line, but it blazed in his mind for the next minute as if stamped there with fiery steel.’Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine’ He dropped the book.”(Bradbury 37). This use of metaphor, simile and personification creates a much more memorable image of a moment and helps the reader to understand the theme. We can affect our readers in the same way and make our message memorable.

The Quest for various things in my life… Ch. 2

Well, you better make fiends with me now, before I get too famous. Today has been a good day. I was interviewed for a Time Warner television show called Reel Chasers. Our video “Landing” was on the October episode of the show, and this next episode will be an exclusive DragonCow Productions themed episode. You can catch the show on Time Warner Cable channel 3 Mondays at 6:30, Fridays at 10:30 or Saturdays at 4:30. I also decided to try connecting my old “broken” external hard drive to my new macbook, and lo and behold it worked! Thank the Lord! So I am currently copying all the files off of it onto my new hard drive, which means I should be able to access all my original full quality videos as well as several projects that I thought were lost forever including: Elmo Vs. Death 2, Fatninjas: The Movie, and the Hit 2. Very exciting.

This week is turing out to be a very busy week. I am working down at the Pasadena Convention Center on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, which is a blessing to have that boost in income. This morning I finally recycled my old iMac G5, farewell and rest in Peace! Yesterday the Masters Chorale from the Master’s College came and performed at Wayside Chapel in Rosamond, it was a great concert. This Sunday is Dedication Sunday and we’re dedicating the new building to the Lord and having our first meal together as a church in it after the service. I am singing in the choir sunday and am a little nervous because the song we’re working on is something the choir snag last year, so we just starting working on it last week, and its partially in Spanish. Thats all for this chapter, I’ll hopefully make it through the week and onto the next chapter, as always: wish me luck!

The Quest for various things in my life… Ch. 1

Ah, that’s a title that I can go for. The search for admission continues. I am beginning to find my way through the tangled web of transferring colleges. All the courses I need to take at AVC are available in the Intercession and Spring Semester, Hooray! I also found out that the Pasadena City College has the pre-requisite course I need to take (again hooray, because there were complications to taking the class at College of the Canyons). However oddly enough, I managed to misspell my own last name on my application to CSUN, Benjamin Aandrews! So I need to call and get that straightened out, magically enough the automated system at CSUN does not respond to me pressing numbers on my cellphone, so I need to call from my home phone hopefully tomorrow morning. Enough of that school stuff though, onto business:

Exciting things are happening with DragonCowProductions. I edited a video for a friend from church’s Air Force Retirement, $20. Picked up a bunch of used dvd covers from a friend, used one for the Retirement video and made a very professional cover, on Photoshop. I am currently (and nearly finished) editing a video made by Dean’s band mates, it’s about a killer teddy bear, pretty funny so look forward to that. In October my sci-fi video “Landing” was featured on TIme Warner’s Reel Chasers and the producer of the show wants to do an episode about DragonCow Productions for November, hooray television exposure! Matt Baldwin (from Landing) has also agreed to be in the upcoming web-series “Rebel Filmmakers” which I am writing a pilot episode for. And last but not least filming for Ghetto Movie is nearly done, there is also a new Preview for it online now at http://dragoncowproductions.com/ghettomovie

In other news Alta Dena has egg-nog on sale. I love egg-nog. Happiness tenfold! Thank you for reading, have a great day, and as always wish me luck!