They look like an antelope, but they’re more closely related to cows. Well, I say look, but these critically endangered animals are incredibly rare. Scientists have only documented wild Saola 4 times and none are in captivity. This means we don’t know much about them including their population. Could be a few hundred or a few dozen, but we really have no idea.
They’re found in the Vietnam/Laos region and were discovered in 1992. They’re actually the first large mammal to be found in 50 years. Although, they didn’t find a live one. It was a strange skull in a hunter’s home. This skull had two parallel horns that grew about 20 inches and ended in points. It has been discovered that males and females both have these. They have glands around their muzzle for marking territory too.
That’s really it for the interesting stuff. Most information was gathered from the few Saola that were captured, but they died anywhere from weeks to months. I couldn’t find any information on why or how they were captured. All other information is from photographs with the most recent one being from 2013 when a Saola went by a motion sensor camera. Makes this animal a major mystery.
Not a mystery enough for hunting and illegal fur trade to happen. Those are the biggest threats to the Saola. Keep in mind that they live in a small region of Vietnam and Laos, so they can’t be a big population to begin with. Specifically, they are only found in the Annamite Range. Habitat loss is another problem. It doesn’t help that scientists and conservationists can’t find them alive in the wild. Seems the hunters have better luck because they set traps for other animals like wild boar and muntjac.
Survived another week, but that’s really the only victory I’m willing to claim.
This week was two days off and then three days of work. Yet, I could have sworn last weekend was a month ago. So much has happened and much of it revolves around unexpected chaos. At least I get to rest a bit today because of the weather. Not that I have much planned beyond video games with my son.
Well, I’m going to be entertaining my niece too. She’s been over since Thursday, which reminds everyone what it’s like to have a toddler running about. A little ball of giggling energy who might not nap. She’s with us until tomorrow too. Having her here meant not much writing because my son and I spent time with her. This meant later bedtime for my son, which equals less writing/blogging time for me. Well spent since kids grow up and won’t be toddlers forever. To be fair, I didn’t have any writing really planned this week thanks to the days off.
The only writing I did manage to pull off was nearly finishing the November posts. I thought I could get them all last night, but I did laundry instead. Maybe I’ll write up the last three tonight. Gives me less to worry about next week and I can hunker down to write the last two chapters of Darwin & the Avenging Elf. I only had last Sunday to write what was left of the previous chapter and I limped through that due to having a beer on Saturday. Even one throws my system out of whack. Next weekend is a 3-day, so I should be able to put this novel to bed. Maybe I’ll tackle the outline for Darwin & the Hellfire Elves. Still iffy on those two titles coming right after each other. Maybe Darwin & the Demon Game instead of ‘Hellfire Elves’?
Oh, work was crazy busy even though it was only three days. Had to adjust to a bunch of changes while handling the stuff at home. There’s not much else to talk about on this one since I made it through.
I will mention that my stress and anxiety messed up my sleeping. Not that I couldn’t sleep, but my dreams were vivid and weird. That doesn’t typically happen. I ended up waking up feeling like my body was being stretched or had locked up a few times. Don’t remember the dreams beyond them involving stuff like being chased, being alone, being lost, and vague tension. This resulted in me getting 6-7 hours of sleep, but feeling like I got 3-4. Hopefully, I can remedy that this weekend.
Keep thinking that there was something else I wanted to talk about. Rosh Hashanah was earlier this week, but my son and I simply relaxed. Reading and studying in the morning and video games in the afternoon. We’ll probably do something similar today since it’s hard to watch a movie with the little one about. Maybe we’ll watch one tomorrow if we feel like it. Unless there’s a movie out that we want to see or a local event we want to attend, we don’t do much. It’s raining a lot today too, so a good time to stay indoors.
This week is going to be a little different. Yom Kippur is Wednesday, which means I won’t be eating until sundown. It’ll be a day of video games until we have to go to where we’re breaking the fast. Work will be flanking that day. Nothing special beyond the start of October posts. Delved into a lot of monsters and I’m using Tuesdays to post PDFs of the ‘Raven Series’ I made a few years back. At least, I think they worked, but I can’t be sure into the posts go live. Guess it’s just a normal week with a single day of not eating slapped in the middle.
I have no idea what I should watch on television. Finished two anime and now I don’t really have a sense of what I want next. None of the popular stuff is catching my attention and I tend to want fantasy/action adventure in some form. I have this ‘Locke & Key’ series on my Netflix list, which might work. Part of me wants to watch ‘White Collar’ again since it’s been years. It might be something short until I get a big swath of time like next weekend, which is a 3-day weekend. I’ll have Darwin & the Avenging Elf done during that period even if I can’t touch it beforehand. Guess we’ll just have to see what happens and roll with the punches.
Goals of the week:
Relax a bit.
Fast for Yom Kippur
Help son with homework
Finish November blog posts
Start to finish Darwin & the Avenging Elf
Look over outline of Darwin & the Hellfire Elves/Demon Game/Chaoswind Quest . . . I really don’t know which sounds best.
Maybe pizza
Order the last two parts for my son’s costume if I can find them: orange feather boa and skeleton shirt.
Long ago, I started watching Dragon Ball Z. Early on, one of my favorite movies was Krillin’s Destructo Disc. It’s a large disc of energy that can cut through anything. At least, that’s how it was presented. This thing was a nasty one-hit kill maneuver that I couldn’t wait to see used to win a fight . . . I’m still waiting. The damn thing has been dodged or had no effect on a powerful enemy. Best he did was cut off Frieza’s tail if I remember that correctly. Highly disappointing.
Anime is full of moves that are hyped up to be deathblows and never do. Heck, this is basically a running gag in ‘Inuyasha’ where ever big move that would kill the main villain failed. I’ve read stories that do this as well with the intention of playing a ‘gotcha’ with the audience. I can kind of get behind this idea for comedies or if there’s some lesson about not depending on a single thing. Yet, it gets old and makes one suspicious of any stories where learning a deathblow is part of the story.
It makes sense since these are moves that would end the adventure if they ever hit the main villain. Still, you would think they’d get used on supporting villains at least to show what they’re fully capable of. That’s not the case all the time. You see it used against an inanimate object like a mountain then it never works on an enemy. I wonder if these are created with the intention of it being used, but the author changes their mind at the final moment. It’s kept in the story because it’s cool, but then it doesn’t really have an impact on the story.
This leads to another issue, which is that the character who possesses the deathblow loses importance. If it’s the main protagonist, they can pull out of it by using another move or finding a different way to reach their goal. Supporting characters, like Krillin, end up getting defined by this big move that never works. They won’t lose all their popularity, but it becomes a stain on what they bring to the story. Having it work even once at an essential moment would go a long way even if it turns out the move is useless against really strong threats. Otherwise, readers might wonder why not only the deathblow exists, but the character as well.
Personally, I think every move, weapon, and item needs to be used in some fashion. It’s not easy and you may have a few designed to fail. For those that won’t work, I try not to hype them up that much. Once I see that they’re going to flop in an actual battle, I try to give them some kind of use outside of action or making it clear that they are more of a gamble. People are better with a failed deathblow if it’s not a sure thing even if it manages to hit. Not the smoothest method since you still have a character walking around with a useless move, but it can be easier to swallow when it fizzles out.
So, what do you think of this rather obscure subject?
This is one of those topics that’s been on my mind, but I’m not really sure how to fully explain it. I don’t mean using the wrong words or typos here. I’m thinking more about how people will take one word and use it the ‘wrong’ way. Mostly to manipulate the emotions of others. Let me give an example:
A person begins standing up for themselves against a controlling family member. In response, the bossy family member takes on the role of the victim. They begin calling the person ‘rude’, ‘disrespectful’, ‘mean’, and other phrases designed to the shame. Pretty sure I’m talking about gaslighting here. Yet, it’s the intentional misuse of words in an exaggerated state that gets the job done.
It isn’t always gaslighting too. Sometimes a person will use certain words and phrases to gain attention and sympathy. I know a few people on social media who do this. Years ago, they were claiming to suffer from anxiety and depression when those were the big topics online. They were really nervous about a situation or simply sad if even that. Then, they started claiming to be introverts or ‘extroverted introverts’. One began claiming to be bipolar with it being clear they couldn’t explain the mental illness. As you can see, much of this comes from self-diagnosing, which is usually wrong. Yet, people will do it and use online sources to ‘prove’ what they have to get attention.
This is all in the misuse of words. You drop the right ones into what you’re saying and you can manipulate the emotions of others. It’s what author’s do, but this is coming from a different source. There’s no desire to entertain an audience for their own sake. It’s to be in the spotlight and garner sympathy that one sees other groups get. It’s to manipulate the mind of a person who might be trying to gain independence or become stronger. One could even say it’s author skills from the dark side.
Really is an iffy topic here. I can’t really connect it to writing because this was triggered by seeing it in action. This is about life and a method of manipulation that I’ve seen far too often. In fact, I’m pretty sure everyone has done it at some point. Not always to a truly abusive level, but we get riled and start flinging strong words to defend ourselves. We want to fight back and use the strongest words we know. Not that different than the example, is it? Maybe the difference is in what triggers us. An abusive person doing this to keep a person down is a negative while a person doing it against abuse is more of a positive. Guess that makes sense.
So, anybody have any thoughts on what I’m trying to say? Am I making absolutely no sense?
A favorite topic of mine. For those who have followed the blog since the Legends of Windemere era, you knew it would have to be in there. A reminder that this is only part of the entry. Enjoy.
Should I Include Destiny?
Very few tropes are as common in fantasy as the destined heroes. This motivation has existed since the days of mythology and continues to be used today. Authors find twists and variations on the concept of destiny and fate, but it tends to boil down to the same thing. The hero is on a path that was chosen for them by a greater power, which brings up the question of if they are in control of any of their actions. Needless to say, readers and authors have railed against the concept. Does that mean it should be shunned and ignored? I’d be a hypocrite if I said yes since the God of Destiny is a major player in my stories. In fact, Legends of Windemere is all about destined heroes . . . Of course, there’s more to it than that, which I will get into after we go over ‘Fate vs Free Will’.
This has been a debate for years if not decades. It shouldn’t be surprising since the concept of destiny has been overused to the point of ultra-cliché. Audiences see the use of destiny or fate or being chosen by a higher power as a cop out by the author. Why does the hero go on this dangerous adventure? Well, they don’t have a choice. More importantly, it goes against our desire for freedom, which is shown through free will. Readers want to connect to the characters and destiny can be a glaring obstacle.
After all, if destiny exists in our world, then it’s not something we’re aware of or fully grasp its influence. This is different than in fantasy where it’s stated as a known force on the characters and plot. Either the heroes are told directly or the audience knows they are reading a story about fate. Even revealing this in the middle or near the finale of a story can have negative effects. This is because we don’t live in the times of older stories where destiny was accepted. It comes with a lot of baggage now.
The biggest problem with using destiny is that it removes the sense of control a character has on their own life. Readers will question every decision and action the hero makes because they aren’t seen as having freedom.
This is extremely true when they are successful or a convenience happens. Every victory is seen with the lens of there never being any other option. Failures are considered to be destiny forcing the hero to go in the right direction instead of a legitimate mistake. Once this factor is introduced and shown to be the major motivation of a character, it leads to many inferences that revolve around there being no threat of defeat. How can a destined hero lose before the finale? It’s hard to believe even if they routinely make mistakes. In fact, I would say that makes it worse because it shows that the heroes can fail upwards. If a loss doesn’t cause them to fall off their path, even a little bit, then it’s not seen as true. Readers will see it as an empty ploy meant to make them believe that destiny isn’t at play here.
While failures in a destiny-driven story are viewed with suspicion, there is a plot event audience’s rarely see coming. That would be the death of a character, especially the one who has been chosen. Authors may do this to shake things up and shock the readers, but it isn’t an action that can be taken so casually. People will see the destined hero as untouchable from the beginning. Every dangerous situation lacks the proper tension because they won’t believe death can occur. So, you have that issue right out of the gate. This is what can drive an author to drop a flaming bowling ball into their own story by killing off the destined hero.
See? Fate can be fickle and isn’t always written in stone! Now, you have to accept that . . . I can kill . . . Uh, where did my plot go? Yup, an author can derail the entire story by killing off a chosen hero and having no explanation as to how the adventure continues.
Legends of Windemere 