Pellistair

I'm going to be posting parts of stories I've written. All of these stories take place on Pellistair, which is a planet I came up with last summer. This is an introduction to Pellistair, which was written by my brother, Moose.

"In a galaxy far, far away (no, not that one. A different one), there is a planet called Pellistair. It's a small and obscure planet, a peaceful little place most people in the galaxy haven't heard of. A quiet, unassuming planet. However, Pellistair's inhabitants - and any visitors that stay for long - know that it is different from any other planet in the galaxy. Pellistair... changes people.

All different kinds of people visit Pellistair. It's a small planet, but the galaxy is a large one. Humans visit, drawn by the quiet peace and beauty of the small world, and so do many other kinds of creatures. Those that only stay for a day or two don't notice the changes. Anyone who stays longer, though, can't help but notice.

For instance, say a human or other creature visited Pellistair. It would seem normal enough at first, a peaceful place inhabited by a wide variety of different species. Over time, though, the visitor would start to change. If they headed in a reptilian direction, scales and a tail might grow, if the alien didn't have them already. Warm sunlight would seem much more comfortable than before.

The changes vary from person to person. Some visitors would start spending more time in the water, perhaps become better at holding their breaths. Others would grow furrier and start resembling cats, dogs, armadillos, et cetera. Some grow wings and become more like birds or bats, though that takes longer than more minor changes. People can end up resembling any animal in existence - or out of it.

The speed of the changes also varies depending on the person. Some people take years to develop claws or proper fur. Others only stay a few days before they're flying through the trees or learning how to use extra limbs. No one can tell until the changes start.

No one on Pellistair ever completely changes. There are no birds or fish that used to be human. The inhabitants generally look like humanoid animals who can fly, or swim, or breathe underwater. They live fairly normal lives otherwise. The world is a happy, peaceful one. That's what all the inhabitants say, at least. Any visitors to Pellistair will be assured by everyone they ask that it is a peaceful world, that all the people on it love each other equally, regardless of species. Nevertheless, there are subtle tensions here and there. Dog-like and cat-like inhabitants of Pellistair are polite to each other, but rarely do much together.

The deer can never completely relax around the pumas. Some of the horses might - very discreetly - look down their long noses at the donkeys. The tensions between species are never mentioned, never acknowledged, but they exist deep under the surface. The inhabitants all agree on one thing, though - no outsiders are EVER going to find anything but peace and happiness on Pellistair.

There is also another tension, this one much less subtle. Every so often, two people of different species will marry each other. ("Species" is a looser term on Pellistair than it is on Earth, so that's possible here.) Their children are almost always unusual, more so if the parents are dramatically different from each other. A mouse and an alligator are bound to have interesting children. These hybrids are not treated with the same equality as everyone else. To the inhabitants of Pellistair, there is just... something WRONG with a creature that can't seem to decide what species it is. The hybrids are outcasts from the rest of society.

If discovered, they are almost always insulted, beaten up, arrested, banished, or worse. This is the one part of Pellistair's society that is NOT so peaceful. Because of this, the hybrids often try to hide the fact that they are hybrids, keeping their scales or gills or long ears carefully covered.

Not many people leave Pellistair, as it is (for the most part) so peaceful and happy. Those who do, though, change in the other direction. They lose their scales, or fur, or tails, reverting to the forms they - or their ancestors - had before they arrived.

The animal traits only stay if they seem to be needed. For instance, dedicated swimmers might manage to keep their gills - but only if they spent a lot of time underwater every day. It's possible to keep the changes Pellistair gives them, but it's hard work."

VisualDNA

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Stranger Spirits

Last fall, my brother and a friend went to a fundraiser for a local movie making company. They had a good time there. Brother bought a pretty blue scarf, had some good food, and listened to a local band called Stranger Spirits. He bought their CD, Empty City, and brough it home, before heading out to some other activity.

I had recently been getting more into rock and independent music, and I was curious about this new group. So were my father and younger brother, and we popped it into the CD player while making dinner. I had expected unusual music that I probably wouldn't like all that much. I was wrong.

By Track number 7, "In October", I was fully hooked. The songs had catchy and unusual tunes and harmonies, interesting and thoughtful lyrics, and great guitar work. There were pensive songs, like "City Lights on Low Clouds", and, "Mysterious", and energetic songs, like "Friday Night", and "In October", which was the song that convinced my brother to buy the CD.

They have a website, Strangerspirits.com, and it says on there that they've done opening acts for the Connells and John Mayer. I hope that they're becoming well known and popular. They deserve it more than most of the current popular bands that play on the radio.

Axel Doll

My younger brother has been reading lots of comic books latel. One of the ones he got out of the library, and read over and over again, was Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. I had heard of the story before, and I knew there were Kingdom Hearts video games, but I didn't know that there were manga books about it.
My brother kept mentioning this character called Axel, and I thought, "I want to see this character!", because one of my favorite Bionicle characters is named Axxon. And when I saw a picture of Axel, I liked him even more, because he looks like I picture Durza from the Inheritance books, except I picture Durza with shorter red spiky hair, and without the little eye markings. And then I read the book, and I really liked him, because he's mysterious, funny, and handsome. And then I had to doll him.



Base

The one on the right is my avatar at Fairytopia at the moment, which means that everytime I post something, I get to see an Axel doll. This makes me very happy.
His hair was easier to doll that I had thought it would be. I thought that the hair would be the hard part, but the silver details were actually harder to doll and make look right. It was also difficult to make his eye marking look right, and not as though he had a big ugly black bug on his face.
While I was making this doll, I kept saying to my brother, Moose, "Axel is so cute!". Moose would just look at me weirdly, because Axel is not normally cute. This doll of him is, though.
The other nice thing about making this doll was that I had an excuse to stare at lots of pictures of Axel for a long time to get all the details right.

The Rasmus - Guilty

You should go listen to this song. You don't have to watch the video, but you should listen to it while you're looking at other things. It's a very good song by The Rasmus, who are a Finnish group. They're sort of a gothic punk rock group, with very gothic videos.

Eragon

Yup, the best selling , instant hit, fantasy book with a major movie made from it. Here I will discuss the pros and cons of the book, but mainly the cons, because they're more interesting.
If you haven't read the books, don't read this. There will be an abundance of spoilers.

Pros
The dragons. The dragons are wonderfully written, and very interesting. I think Saphira is one of my favorite dragons from any book.
Durza. I loooove Durza. He's so nicely evil. He also seems a bit more thought out than some of the characters.
Murtagh is also a great character. He's nicely mysterious at first, and he's very three dimensional.
Brom is also a wonderfully written character. I was very sad when he died.
The female characters, especially in the second book, are very strong, and well written. And there's a decent amount of them, too.


Cons
The plot seems to drag in some places, as they wonder over the countryside for forever (but then again, I think The Fellowship of the Ring does the same thing).
The world seems a lot like Middle Earth in some ways. There are the Urgals, which resemble Orcs (although they get a lot more three dimensional in the second book, so that's okay), and the elves, who are aloof and almost perfect, and the dwarfs, who mine and aren't very sociable. It gets a bit predictable at times, since some of the races are so close to the ones in Middle Earth.
The plot resembles Star Wars a bit much for me. Brom is basicly Obi Wan (he even dies in the first book, like Obi Wan dies in the fourth movie), and Eragon resembles Luke in many ways (including the fact that he goes stupid in the second book), and he's the son of King Galbatorixes evil right hand man (no, Luke, I am your father!). This gets better in the second book, which is much better written (even if Eragon is a bit of a jerk), and has a better plots ( there are at least three major plots in the second book). He also fleshes out all of the characters more.

Although the cons seem to outweight the pros, I actually enjoyed both books a lot, and am eagerly awaiting the third. The amazing thing to me is, that while there are flaws in the books,, they are still very enjoyable to read, and he started the first one when he was 15, and he managed to finish that whole huge book.
Overall, I think that the Inheritance trilogy is a good fantasy series, and I hope Christopher Poalini keeps writing even after he finishes the third book.

Meme (Ain't that a cute word?)

Action – Favorite action movie?
Zorro 1 and 2

Beautiful – Most beautiful performer?
Audrey Hepburn

Comedy – Favorite comedy (TV or movie)?
Dharma and Greg,

Drama – Favorite drama (TV or movie)?
Deep Space Nine

Event – Historic event that kept you riveted to the TV?
Umm... The last few Olympics.

Favorite – If you could only own and watch one DVD the rest of your life, what would it be?
Totoro!

G – Favorite G rated movie?
Totoro! (I think Totoro is going to be the answer to most of these questions)

Head over heels – Which star were you in love with when you were younger?
Jason Isaacs (big surprise). He's so handsome and suave.

Ice – Did you see the “Miracle on Ice” live (tape delayed) in 1980?
What's that?

Justice – Did you watch any of the famous O.J. Simpson chase down the freeway?
Who? What? *feels very clueless*

King of the Thriller – Favorite Hitchcock movie?
North By Northwest

Laettner – Did you see Duke’s Christian Laettner make the winning shot against Kentucky?
Huh?

MP3 Player – Do you own one?
Nope. I've got a boombox and an old portable tapeplayer, that's all I need.

Never get enough – Which movie have you watched the most times and how many times have you seen it?
Totoro! Who'd've guessed that? I don't know how many times I've seen it. Lots.

Opie – Opie or the Beaver?
What are those?

Pride and Prejudice – Do you prefer A&E or 2005 release?
I haven't seen either, but I want to see the A&E version, because it has Colin Firth, who's a good actor, in it, and the 2005 one was not reveiwed well by readers of the book.

Quality – Best TV show of all time?
Deep Space Nine! I loooooooove Deep Space Nine!

Remote control – Who is in charge in your house?
Me and my mother, because the guys are clueless, although my younger brother is getting good at using it.

Super Bowl – Game or commercials?
Commercials.

Television – How many in your house?
One, which we've had all my life.

Ultimate – Who is your favorite movie star?
Ummm........ This question's too hard! Of the newer actors, I'd say Hugh Jackman, Catherine Zeta Jones, Alan Rickman Jason Isaacs (surprise!), and Rupert Grint. Of older actors, I'd say James Stewart, Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, and Audrey Hepburn.

Victory – The best sporting event/game you’ve watched live on TV?
The olympics. They've all been good.

Walkman – Did you ever own a Sony Walkman?
Nope.

X – Movie you wish you had never watched?
Planet of the Apes, the older version. I couldn't get to sleep for a loooong time after that one.

Yesterday – How many hours of media did you consume?
Three. We watched Oklahoma! with Hugh Jackman in it. It was really, really good.

ZZZ’s – Best music to fall asleep to?
WCPE, the classical music radio station.

That was fun! I must find more Memes *goes off meme hunting*.