Well, my English teacher cancelled class again today with a message saying "her previous issues seem to be back". I'm trying to remember what she said earlier in the year when she got sick... I think she said she would need surgery or something, although I thought she got that taken care of over winter break when she would have plenty of time to recover. Anyway, regardless of where she is, I didn't have class. I'm grateful for email and things so that she can let us know this before we walk all the way over to her building and up to the third floor to find her room. My mom, if her teachers ever cancelled class when she went here, was probably not so lucky.
It's always nice when a class is cancelled on Wednesday, as that is my busy day and gives me plenty of time to relax. I did have lab today, though, so I had to head up to the school around 11:00 instead of holding off until around 1:00, but I got to have a long morning and so that was nice.
I gathered as many academic and/or useful-looking articles that I could find for my English project this morning; I have about twelve (just academic ones) that seemed promising at a glance, though I haven't read fully through them yet.
As I prepared to head out, Jen started watching an online recording of a panel of some sort that Butch Hartman was sitting on, along with some other well-known animators (such as Rebecca Sugar who created "Steven Universe", and Alex Hirsch who created "Gravity Falls"). Anyway, apparently Butch used to animate some of the older "My Little Pony" shows, but they kicked him off for questioning things like why a winged pony needed someone to pull her up when she was in danger of falling off a cliff since... you know, she can fly and all. That's my guy!
He's been under fire by a lot of the "Danny Phantom" fans these last two weeks or so for sharing some of his worldbuilding details (much to my irritation, since even before this happened I'd found the interview from a decade ago where he stated these exact same worldbuilding facts and no one freaked out about it, and if that were me in his shoes then I would be extremely offended by all these people making fun of me in "fan"art that "I don't know even my own show" and commenting that they "die inside every time I open my mouth"). But according to Jen he seemed laughing and happy and making jokes, so I'm glad he's either not aware of all this chaos, or he's not letting it get to him. I've barely dipped my toe in the "phandom" through Linzie and Jen, and it's times like these that I'm glad to stay out of it. I like knowing vaguely what fans say about shows and books they like in case I'm on the other side someday, but sometimes you have to be careful.
Basically, fans and "fans" regularly like to target Butch for his religious beliefs, so I sometimes like to keep an eye on this kind of thing so that I know what to expect in the future if I become well known and people want to throw the same accusations at me. It's sad that in the world we live in now, it seems like people can't be allowed to hold to their religion and disagree on certain political issues without taking a lot of heat.
Other comments have sprung up (worldbuilding ones too, not just politics-related issues), but apparently one of the major topics of discussion among the "phandom" right now is this: Ten, almost eleven years ago, Butch was asked if he saw Danny as trans, and he said no. Now he said it again in this day and age, and people are all up and arms about it. I'm learning things from this, such as "Try to avoid hot topic issues when at all possible" and "Even if you are the creator, sometimes it may be best to hold your tongue and simply let the fans go on believing what they want, even if you DID previously state something and the interview where this evidence can be found is easily accessible where a very new fan who isn't even searching it out specifically can visit almost any page on your show's wiki and find it in under two minutes while apparently well-established fans never bothered to check their facts before getting upset".
Honestly. Sometimes people just... Tsk tsk. Please just. Let the man alone. He does so much. AU where Butch Hartman can do what he wants with his own creations, please. See, it's these kinds of things that make me cling to the safety of being an author, and remaining (for the purposes of this blog post) the only person who really contributes to the canon of my work. I don't think anyone's accused J.K. Rowling ten years down the road of "not knowing Harry Potter anymore", but of course when you're a cartoonist with four shows, one of which will have been on the air for sixteen years this month, you can't do everything yourself. Other people are going to take their turns and have their way. It broke my heart a few months back when I read a quote from Butch along the lines of, "These characters aren't really mine; I don't own them. Nickelodeon does. I'm just the one who came up with the idea and brought it to them first".
Giving up all that control over my characters and worlds would be very hard for me, even if I were faced with the prospect of a movie deal. I'm the kind of person who would be very hesitant to let go, and would need to know what other shows this company had done. If they were the people who brought The City of Ember to life on the screen, or the Percy Jackson books, then yeah... No.
Having a lot of money just isn't that important to me (Obviously- my life goal is to be an author, my ideal vacation is staying inside with my computer and all the milk and food I need, and I hate travelling, for crying out loud). To be completely honest, I've always thought that if I did make a lot of money off my books, I'd want to give most of it away to people who need it more than I do. I want to be the kind of person who funds wells and schools in third-world countries, or ensures that people here in the United States have clean water and things too- not the kind of person who builds a much bigger house than they possibly need and drives around in some flashy car when a simpler one would do just fine. If I get to stay home and write and I'm making the money needed for things like food, clothes, bills, and a simple house, then I'm already living the dream life I want. That's enough for me.
I don't even have a published project yet, but I still know it would take a lot of convincing for me to relinquish my rights to a big company. I would be so concerned over what they would do with my creations. I was thinking yesterday how amazing it must feel to be Daron Nefcy (creator of "Star vs. The Forces of Evil") who can watch TV with her relatives and say, "Yep, that's my show- Look at this beautiful, wonderful, amazing show that I've poured myself into, and these great characters that I helped bring to life- Did you hear I've only released two seasons so far, but I just got renewed for Season 4?"
But she's probably had to give up some of her control too, or soon will if she hasn't yet. In many ways, I think, even discounting all the animating and work, living the cartoonist life would be very difficult for me.
Anyway, I had my SPSS lab today, and then stayed in that building until my career class. We had a panel of graduate students (one of them was even my behavior analysis teacher from last semester!) come and answer questions about graduate school. As previously stated, I really don't want to go to graduate school. It in no way sounds like something I want to do. I came to college because that's what I was supposed to do, but I would prefer to graduate quickly and move on with this phase of my life. I'm eager to take all this time back for myself.
It's funny. People always say "Don't spend all your time wishing you could grow up, because you'll miss this time of your life later". Growing up has been great for me. All I've ever wanted is the freedom to do things I want according to my own schedule. I'm loving this time of my life. I've always wanted to have a place of my own, pay bills appropriate to the housing I've determined I want to live in and have budgeted for, live life the way I want to... I'm still waiting for the downside to kick in. Adulthood so far is everything I've always desired. Only school stands between me and the life I want to live now. And at least a simple job too, I suppose. In an ideal world, within the decade I'll be married and, sooner or later, have a husband who can provide for me. But we'll see what happens.
I had interior design class (we talked about architecture some more), and after that went to the Marketplace for dinner, and progressed from there to Institute. I don't love Institute, but at least this teacher is a little more bearable than my last one, even if I don't like all of his jokes (for example, joking that Moroni was in Jerusalem when Jesus was even though Moroni wasn't even born yet, the joke being that the Jews would question who he was and be told, "Oh, you'll need to wait and read The Book of Mormon for answers; it'll come out next year". Makes no sense).
He did have some amusing stories to share, though. Some years or perhaps a decade or two ago, when everyone was asked to raise their right hand, he noticed that the man in front of him raised his left. He leaned forward and whispered something like, "They said to use your right hand". The man whispered back, "I would, but I don't have one". We were talking about the Pharisees today, and how in this day and age we can still act like Pharisees at times by judging people who are doing the best that they can with what they have.
The second story was about Spencer W. Kimball visiting a stake to interview people to be the new patriarch. He had asked the bishop to provide him with a list of names. He did, and interviewed all the people, but none of them felt right. So he asked for more names. Interviewed them, but none of them felt right. So there they were up on the stands just before stake conference was about to start, searching the faces in the crowd and trying to figure out who the new patriarch was supposed to be.
Paraphrasing a little here, but President Kimball (who was probably just an apostle at that time), leaned over to the bishop and whispered something along the lines of, "What about that man in that row over there, the blue shirt? Tell me about him". The bishop said, "Oh, he's great, and I think he would make a great patriarch, but he lost both his hands in World War II". President Kimball's response was, "We have ten minutes before conference starts. I want to interview him". Or something like that.
Anyway, he talked to this man, who said, "I've never turned down a calling, but how will I do the laying on of hands?" President Kimball sat down in a chair and asked the man if he could reach far enough to place the stumps on his head. The man did. Then he said, "I'm about the shortest person in the church. If you can reach me, you'll never have to lean that far down again".
My teacher didn't give us the source of this story, but I thought it was interesting and wanted to share.
I waited for the evening bus for awhile (I really need to stop doing that and just walk home after Institute) and, after washing some dishes and feeding the frogs, did a bit of writing and got this blog post done. My stats teacher replied to my email about labs on campus that might work with undergraduates, too. She suggested some times we could meet since I can't make her office hours, and I wrote back to her. It will be interesting to see where all of this goes!
I gathered as many academic and/or useful-looking articles that I could find for my English project this morning; I have about twelve (just academic ones) that seemed promising at a glance, though I haven't read fully through them yet.
As I prepared to head out, Jen started watching an online recording of a panel of some sort that Butch Hartman was sitting on, along with some other well-known animators (such as Rebecca Sugar who created "Steven Universe", and Alex Hirsch who created "Gravity Falls"). Anyway, apparently Butch used to animate some of the older "My Little Pony" shows, but they kicked him off for questioning things like why a winged pony needed someone to pull her up when she was in danger of falling off a cliff since... you know, she can fly and all. That's my guy!
He's been under fire by a lot of the "Danny Phantom" fans these last two weeks or so for sharing some of his worldbuilding details (much to my irritation, since even before this happened I'd found the interview from a decade ago where he stated these exact same worldbuilding facts and no one freaked out about it, and if that were me in his shoes then I would be extremely offended by all these people making fun of me in "fan"art that "I don't know even my own show" and commenting that they "die inside every time I open my mouth"). But according to Jen he seemed laughing and happy and making jokes, so I'm glad he's either not aware of all this chaos, or he's not letting it get to him. I've barely dipped my toe in the "phandom" through Linzie and Jen, and it's times like these that I'm glad to stay out of it. I like knowing vaguely what fans say about shows and books they like in case I'm on the other side someday, but sometimes you have to be careful.
Basically, fans and "fans" regularly like to target Butch for his religious beliefs, so I sometimes like to keep an eye on this kind of thing so that I know what to expect in the future if I become well known and people want to throw the same accusations at me. It's sad that in the world we live in now, it seems like people can't be allowed to hold to their religion and disagree on certain political issues without taking a lot of heat.
Other comments have sprung up (worldbuilding ones too, not just politics-related issues), but apparently one of the major topics of discussion among the "phandom" right now is this: Ten, almost eleven years ago, Butch was asked if he saw Danny as trans, and he said no. Now he said it again in this day and age, and people are all up and arms about it. I'm learning things from this, such as "Try to avoid hot topic issues when at all possible" and "Even if you are the creator, sometimes it may be best to hold your tongue and simply let the fans go on believing what they want, even if you DID previously state something and the interview where this evidence can be found is easily accessible where a very new fan who isn't even searching it out specifically can visit almost any page on your show's wiki and find it in under two minutes while apparently well-established fans never bothered to check their facts before getting upset".
Honestly. Sometimes people just... Tsk tsk. Please just. Let the man alone. He does so much. AU where Butch Hartman can do what he wants with his own creations, please. See, it's these kinds of things that make me cling to the safety of being an author, and remaining (for the purposes of this blog post) the only person who really contributes to the canon of my work. I don't think anyone's accused J.K. Rowling ten years down the road of "not knowing Harry Potter anymore", but of course when you're a cartoonist with four shows, one of which will have been on the air for sixteen years this month, you can't do everything yourself. Other people are going to take their turns and have their way. It broke my heart a few months back when I read a quote from Butch along the lines of, "These characters aren't really mine; I don't own them. Nickelodeon does. I'm just the one who came up with the idea and brought it to them first".
Giving up all that control over my characters and worlds would be very hard for me, even if I were faced with the prospect of a movie deal. I'm the kind of person who would be very hesitant to let go, and would need to know what other shows this company had done. If they were the people who brought The City of Ember to life on the screen, or the Percy Jackson books, then yeah... No.
Having a lot of money just isn't that important to me (Obviously- my life goal is to be an author, my ideal vacation is staying inside with my computer and all the milk and food I need, and I hate travelling, for crying out loud). To be completely honest, I've always thought that if I did make a lot of money off my books, I'd want to give most of it away to people who need it more than I do. I want to be the kind of person who funds wells and schools in third-world countries, or ensures that people here in the United States have clean water and things too- not the kind of person who builds a much bigger house than they possibly need and drives around in some flashy car when a simpler one would do just fine. If I get to stay home and write and I'm making the money needed for things like food, clothes, bills, and a simple house, then I'm already living the dream life I want. That's enough for me.
I don't even have a published project yet, but I still know it would take a lot of convincing for me to relinquish my rights to a big company. I would be so concerned over what they would do with my creations. I was thinking yesterday how amazing it must feel to be Daron Nefcy (creator of "Star vs. The Forces of Evil") who can watch TV with her relatives and say, "Yep, that's my show- Look at this beautiful, wonderful, amazing show that I've poured myself into, and these great characters that I helped bring to life- Did you hear I've only released two seasons so far, but I just got renewed for Season 4?"
But she's probably had to give up some of her control too, or soon will if she hasn't yet. In many ways, I think, even discounting all the animating and work, living the cartoonist life would be very difficult for me.
Anyway, I had my SPSS lab today, and then stayed in that building until my career class. We had a panel of graduate students (one of them was even my behavior analysis teacher from last semester!) come and answer questions about graduate school. As previously stated, I really don't want to go to graduate school. It in no way sounds like something I want to do. I came to college because that's what I was supposed to do, but I would prefer to graduate quickly and move on with this phase of my life. I'm eager to take all this time back for myself.
It's funny. People always say "Don't spend all your time wishing you could grow up, because you'll miss this time of your life later". Growing up has been great for me. All I've ever wanted is the freedom to do things I want according to my own schedule. I'm loving this time of my life. I've always wanted to have a place of my own, pay bills appropriate to the housing I've determined I want to live in and have budgeted for, live life the way I want to... I'm still waiting for the downside to kick in. Adulthood so far is everything I've always desired. Only school stands between me and the life I want to live now. And at least a simple job too, I suppose. In an ideal world, within the decade I'll be married and, sooner or later, have a husband who can provide for me. But we'll see what happens.
I had interior design class (we talked about architecture some more), and after that went to the Marketplace for dinner, and progressed from there to Institute. I don't love Institute, but at least this teacher is a little more bearable than my last one, even if I don't like all of his jokes (for example, joking that Moroni was in Jerusalem when Jesus was even though Moroni wasn't even born yet, the joke being that the Jews would question who he was and be told, "Oh, you'll need to wait and read The Book of Mormon for answers; it'll come out next year". Makes no sense).
He did have some amusing stories to share, though. Some years or perhaps a decade or two ago, when everyone was asked to raise their right hand, he noticed that the man in front of him raised his left. He leaned forward and whispered something like, "They said to use your right hand". The man whispered back, "I would, but I don't have one". We were talking about the Pharisees today, and how in this day and age we can still act like Pharisees at times by judging people who are doing the best that they can with what they have.
The second story was about Spencer W. Kimball visiting a stake to interview people to be the new patriarch. He had asked the bishop to provide him with a list of names. He did, and interviewed all the people, but none of them felt right. So he asked for more names. Interviewed them, but none of them felt right. So there they were up on the stands just before stake conference was about to start, searching the faces in the crowd and trying to figure out who the new patriarch was supposed to be.
Paraphrasing a little here, but President Kimball (who was probably just an apostle at that time), leaned over to the bishop and whispered something along the lines of, "What about that man in that row over there, the blue shirt? Tell me about him". The bishop said, "Oh, he's great, and I think he would make a great patriarch, but he lost both his hands in World War II". President Kimball's response was, "We have ten minutes before conference starts. I want to interview him". Or something like that.
Anyway, he talked to this man, who said, "I've never turned down a calling, but how will I do the laying on of hands?" President Kimball sat down in a chair and asked the man if he could reach far enough to place the stumps on his head. The man did. Then he said, "I'm about the shortest person in the church. If you can reach me, you'll never have to lean that far down again".
My teacher didn't give us the source of this story, but I thought it was interesting and wanted to share.
I waited for the evening bus for awhile (I really need to stop doing that and just walk home after Institute) and, after washing some dishes and feeding the frogs, did a bit of writing and got this blog post done. My stats teacher replied to my email about labs on campus that might work with undergraduates, too. She suggested some times we could meet since I can't make her office hours, and I wrote back to her. It will be interesting to see where all of this goes!
