102nd Street. Back On the Job!

Folks,

After almost two months of burdening w'Note with the tedious job of coloring, Page 102 marks my return and the resuming of my responsibility of coloring SKOOKUM! It feels good to be back, just that it took a while for me to get used to the WACOM again. In a way I miss it... I think it has a lot to do with me not touching for two months. But once again, thanks to w'Note for taking on the coloring during the time when I buried up to my neck with papers and examinations. Thanks man!

The school semester have officially ended for now, and I must say I have known quite a lot of interesting people both in class. Being in a graduating class somehow has a whole new meaning altogether. People don't usually know each another well during college, unless of course, if they had went to the same High School or they knew each other before they entered collegue. Generally, it is HARD to make good friends in a college; there are so many different classes going on, people having totally different schedule from on another and so on. It is only when one reaches the graduating class that one finally well, start to form strong friendships. There are 49 students in this year's graduating class, and we see each another practically everyday for the same lessons.

Somehow, you recognize who are the people who belong to your academic circle, and that is a start, really. In a way, it is also frustrating, since come next semester, most of us will be working on our respective Honors Theses, which means we'll probably have less time to see each other, and to have lunches and so on.

There is a regular pattern in this that I find so frustrating- just when you are really starting to make good friends, it is time to say goodbye, and move on. Of course, truly strong friendships last no matter which circle you move on to, yet, there is still a need to feel the tension of departure and the unpleasant process of saying goodbye. Thinking back, I wonder how many goodbyes I have said....

The temporality of experience, it perhaps what makes it a human experience. Eternity is not meant for mankind. It is through transcience that we learn our place, and learnt to appreciate life for all its temporal, but always so magnificent gifts...

Have a good one guys!

101st Street. The Problem with Poetry

Why doesn’t one read a poem? Because
there are words I cannot understand.
Why doesn’t one read a poem? Because
it takes too long to reach the end.
Well, this is a poem, and it’s done.

As a student of English Literature, I see the importance of poetry and the status of it as being quintessential literature. The common misconception people have with Literature students is that they then to spend hours after hours reading poetry, and therefore, every student of literature is able to understand every single useless unintelligible poem out there in bookstores. Well, there are some amongst us who are really good with poetry; they are like structure detectives, able to pick out the imagery, the iambic beat and all the conventions guarding poetry as a discipline. Not me. I am able to appreciate poetry, but I am just not very good at handling the crazy array of imageries or structures.

It is without a doubt that poetry is falling out of favor with the reading public; not only do most people not read poems anymore, but poetry as a genre, does not sell. The novel as an art form takes over poetry as being the more accessible genre for most of the reading public. None of you should feel bad about this, for even for students of literature, we tend to want to read novels more than poems, other than a very, very few selected ones among us who has a fetish for poetry. One of the main difficulties when it comes to the genre of poetry is that it is an art form that is highly individualized. The poet writes about what he feels, what he sees, and what he thinks. The fact that very individual sees a certain thing differently it is especially hard to understand what the poet is EXACTLY seeing (or feeling) at the exact time of the writing of the poem.

At the same time, poems remain as one of the most succinct forms of writing today; no form is able to convey so much information in a very little amount of words. All it needs is really careful and slow reading of each poem to see the images the poet offers in his poem. That’s what poetry demands of you: very slow reading of each line, let each line sink into your consciousness. Given the fast paced mode of life we have today, can we really afford the time?

I would not say that this is the end of poems, I would say that poetry as a discipline is reincarnated into the modern forms of song lyrics. Yes, lyrics owe its form to poetry; each line of a lyric to a song has in itself its own rhythm that matches the musical tune of the composer. And rappers are the only singers these days who sings in rhyming couplets. See? All these are structures of poetry in a new, acceptable modernized form! Now, how about giving poetry its proper due?

Boondocks

Watch this. On Adult Swim. Period.

The Lion King.... In Kingdom Hearts II

I practically suck at every game EXCEPT Squaresoft/Disney's Kingdom Hearts, which I tend to excel in. Why? I don't know. I was rather unhappy, for one thing, that Simba, my favorite character from my favorite Disney animated moive was featured only as a Summon. I mean for probably the BEST animation Disney ever made, to have a its main character to be nothing more than a subject one calls out by whim, isn't the flattering. Squaresoft later reveal that it had wanted to feature the Pride Lands as one of the worlds Sora and his gang travels to, but Disney was a little anal about Squaresoft's proposal.

In Kingdom Hearts II however, our wishes are fulfilled - yes, Pride Lands is one of the featured worlds Sora will travel to along with Mulan's world and the world of Pirates of the Carribean. This is wild. Attached are the forms Sora, Donald and Goofy will take so as not to upset the "world order" in which they are determined to maintain. Sora takes the form of a juvenile lion, very much like how he took the form of a Merman in Alantica in KH1. I find him really adorable! And funny at the same time! Simba looks gorgeous in the game, and he takes on a majestic form he truly deserves!

There is just so much to look forward for when the game releases on the PS2 platform in December 22nd, 2005. All you gamers out there prepare to blow it big on this game! I know I am.

100th Street. The Hundredth Page!!!

It’s a tradition; a very informal one if I may add, for webcomics to celebrate their One Hundredth Page. Comics don’t do that and certainly not mangas (for each volume has nearly 230 pages or more). Why then is the hundredth page so important? To understand its importance one will first need to understand the nature of webcomics and Internet content as a whole. Time carries a whole different meaning in the Internet world; people hate spending too much time on one particular site, unless of course the content is entertaining enough for them to forget the time spent on viewing the site.

People generally has very little patience when it comes to Internet content. Four seconds is the limit one gives to convince oneself if the site is worth reading or viewing. Four seconds is also the same amount of time people take to read ONE page of a webcomic. Time becomes a extremely precious commodity in the virtual world precisely because there is so much to look or explore. In preference for other sites, people often completely ignore sites that don’t interest them enough. As a result, the creator eventually loses interest in maintaining the site, especially when no one’s looking anyway, and the site disappears, without a trace.

When books get thrown, scattered pages remain, when toys get thrown, plastic part get left behind. What does a webcomic leave behind? Nothing but free bytes for the web-host. You see, where do webcomics go when they die? As a virtual product, they leave nothing behind, except traces of memory for those who have seen it. The perishable quality of a site necessarily points at its own unworthiness, but it also points at the “unreal-ness” of it. It exists like it was never here. Hence the quest of each site, is not only to leave a notable impression on people, but also really to last as long as possible in the virtual world; a world that has no tangible importance.

For a webcomic, to reach 100 pages, is itself a kind of achievement; moving from 2-digits to 3-digits. Numbers attest to the longevity of the work, and demonstrates not only the will of creator, but ALSO the readers who made this progression possible. Everything in the Internet world is based on the concept of interactivity – both the creator and the reader share a mutually important relationship in keeping the site alive and running.

It is not easy for SKOOKUM! to reach its 100th page, and I know it got there through the efforts of not only the support from readers but more importantly and primarily, the support I got from my pal w’Note. I would NEVER be able to reach the 100th page this soon without his help, support and sacrifice he gave through the run of SKOOKUM! Yes, in fact he is the one who colored the page, and it gives me honor to dedicate the page to him. Thanks a million!

Merci beaucoup pour ton aimable aide, je l'apprecie reellement