Alle Kunst ist der Freude gewidmet

( Myyyyyyyystic Quest Legeeeeeeeeeend )

Also, on another note; I'm curious. I'm wondering how are folks on my flist pronouncing loan words, especially German ones. Like "verboten" or so.

Oh gawd, galls, guess what my dad just found in the basement (the freaking cold basement >:( ). My old GameBoy Colour 8D Nostalgia~~~~

Oh, Nintendo, you have been in my life for so long XD /nerd

I sold my very first Game Boy on a flee market years ago (it was blue). Then I go my first neon green GBC, but it was stolen! In a hotel >:E Together with my Pokemon Blue edition. A sad holiday. Then I got the purple see-through GBC that my dad just found. And then my GBA, which is also still have. Then my DS, one from the first edition that was released almost ages ago now and is still very much alive and kicking. And finally my blue 3DS. I love you all <3

And don't get me started on my SNES that I inherited from my older brother, which still works and is also kicking ass, our N64, that we sold on a flee market as well, my Gamecube, and the Wii. <3

The oddball that is my PS2 was well received, though. My Nintendo consoles are all very nice~

Awww, my heart~

Unfortunately I only have two GBC games left; Zelda; Four Seasons and Pokemon Crystal. Okay, my dad also found a Moorhuhn game, which was his, I have to say!, but that game.... sucks. XD

PS: Am I the only one that thinks that the scratches on the GB screens are a sign of a long ~friendship~ They make me feel fuzzy. Especially the ones on my GBA. I had a strange love for that console

WHY IS LEGO PIRATEN SO AWESOME? ROGER, YOU'RE ADORBS IN A STRANGE, PIRATE-Y, OLD-MANNISH AND GOLD-GREEDY WAY. YOU REMIND ME OF SCROOGE MCDUCK. CAMILLA, YOU'RE AWESOME AND A LITTLE TROLL 8DDDD ALSO, I LOVE HOW EVERYONE IS A CRIMINAL AND CORRUPT AND NOT SO NICE. ESPECIALLY THE NAVY DUDES. YOU'RE ALL BAD GUYS. I LOVE IT:

AND POLLY, YOU SNARKY PARROT. YOU ARE AWESOME. YOU ARE SO AWESOME THAT I IMAGINE YOU WEARING AN EYEPATCH LIKE THE CAPTAIN. AWESOMESAUCE.

ALSO, THE INTRO MUSIC MAKES ME SO RIDICULOUSLY HAPPY AND GIDDY 8D I MADE IT MY RINGTONE. PURE HAPPINESS. I THINK I NEED TO UPLOAD THE 6 EPISODES ON YOUTUBE. THE AWESOMENESS NEEDS TO BE SPREAD.

Fucking Subway to Sally because they're awesome. >8D (Quality of the videos is varying, unfortunately. Eh, whatever.)

( So much music 8D )

So, I was looking up stuff in the library and after I finished that, I suddenly noticed a lovely book standing out. It's title was "Johannes Rothe; Ritterspiegel" and I KNEW I couldn't walk past it without devouring reading it 8D Oh, the fun I had. Anyway, most of the things I already knew but there were a few things about heraldry and signs of stand that were new and awesome.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. It would be smarter to start at the beginning. So:

Johannes Rothe lived in the 14th and 15th century (1360-1434) and was a cleric and teacher. Said "Ritterspiegel" is a didactic poem which should teach young nobles how a proper knight should live (there were also such texts for royals, which were called "Fürstenspiegel"). If they lived appropriately is another question, but the Ritterspiegel is a testimony about how the ideal looks like; and that this ideal was taught in this time period by this teacher to a certain audience in a specific region.

However, the ideals when it comes to behaviour are not what I am interested today (as already mentioned; I learnt nothing new here). However, heraldry. New and shiny. And yes, I really, really do want to incorporate that in fic someday XD
( Cut for a looooooong list 8D )

ALRIGHT, history hour is over 8D I'll stop pestering you now~

Self, stop it. You don't need even more historical figures to fangirl about. You already have Karl der Große, Friedrich Barbarossa, Friedrich II and Heinrich VII (or even all the Staufer). You do not also need to fangirl about Ludwig der Deutsche. XD So awesome~ Damn, I really do have to tell you the wacky and awesome anecdote about Ludwig der Deutsche I've heard in the lecture today. It's not as wacky as the one about Karl der Große and the monster nomming on his penis, but boy, it is funny as well. (I couldn't help but picture Ludwig as Hector. Fffffffffff, he would've reacted similar, I believe) But I have to look it up again since I didn't manage to write down everything.

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Also, I was hit by several relevations earlier. Please skip this if you're not interested in semi-coherent self-analyzing.

( Cut relevations )

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Okay, to make this post a bit more happy and lovely I'll ramble and squee about writing. Namely about writing styles since I've noticed lately that I've discovered a new "writing style" for me;

Playing around with tenses. By which I mean; I love combining present and past tense. Not just randomly, of course, but to write on different times levels. To show that something plays in the past in contrast to the "now" in the story, which would be present. To show that something is changing without being so obvious about it. Making flashbacks without having to indicate it in the text or without having to put everything in italics.

And the present tense is attractive because it gives (me at least) a feeling of immediacy and closeness. Past tense always feels a bit distant, as if I'm really just a viewer of the happenings from high above. In Present tense, however, I feel as if I'm really in the middle of the narrative. As if I'm experiencing everything at the same time as the character. And that is great. Not all stories are suited for such closeness, of course; I can't immediately tell why or which, but after writing a few sentences I know if I want the reader to be close or not.

Let me explain how that would look like with an example (the Lyon story for raphi): Lyon studies and the tense is past. It's the frame narrative. Then he falls asleep and the tense switches to present. Because the reader is with him in the dream. The reader can't see the dream from an outside position, they have to enter Lyon´s head to see the dream. And the logical conclusion is, well, that they are with him and experience it as Lyon does.
It's a matter of hovering over Lyon in the frame narrative and standing directly next to Lyon in the embedded narrative.

Of course, I don't know yet if everything works as I want it to work. I'll have to wait for reactions as soon as I'll be able to post it. (And the contest entry >8D It has tense switch as well. But there the switch is even less marked (the Lyon story still has "- -" to indicate the scene changes inside the dream) which is why I then need a guinea pig to test it 8D)

So, do you have any writing techniques you love to death? Or techniques you recently (or not so recently) discovered to be awesome and fun?