SHORT STORY YAAAYYY!!

   Ok so I've had a lot on my mind the past couple months trying to come up with a really good short story that could be made into a movie fairly easily. I really want to get into short story writing anyway so this project would help to establish some credibility.
   I believe I have come up with a fairly interesting plot and storyline and I want YOU to let me know what you think about it. Read the outline below and leave comments, questions, suggestion, etc. I hope you like it!

•    Section-1: WWII, U.S., before the draft of 1940 , a man by the name of William Carter (having trouble with that name, main character) and his best friend, Henry Babbage, are graduating high school in the summer of '40. They talk about the draft. ~yadda yadda~. They're drafted in October that year and go to war.
•    Section-2: fast-forward to December 1944, Battle of St. Vith near the border of Germany. Will and Henry are part of the 106th infantry. They manage to push back the Germans beyond the city limits. One early morning the Germans make a counteroffensive and make a run at the city with tanks. Will and Henry are on the front line fighting. A panzer is heading down the road straight for them. It gets a shot off and blows right by them. They run for cover into the basement of a nearby building as the tank fires for them again, hitting the building and collapsing the entrance they just came through. Will stumbles to his feet and runs over to Henry who seems to be badly hurt. He hoists him on his shoulders and makes his way through the basement only to find that the stairs that lead up are caved in. Will looks around and finds a set of stairs that lead down, hoping that there might be another way out. The stairs go several stories down before they come to a large blast door. The power has been knocked out so the door is not operational. Will sets down Henry and looks for tools to open the door. He finds a  large metal bar and slowly pry's the door open. He again carry's Henry through the door and down a long tunnel in the dark. Part way down the tunnel lights start to turn on in his presence and the tunnel turns from brick to solid white, clean walls. At the end of this white tunnel there is another door that has a swastika on it and an advanced control panel next to it. An eye above the door scans them and turns green. The door unseals and opens for them. He enters into a dark room. When the door closes, bright lights slowly illuminate the room which is also completely white. The room in about 3 stories high and more long than wide. They are standing on a platform on the second story of the room looking down into the room. At the end of the room is a large white circle with stairs leading up to it. Several large control stations are on either side down the whole length of the room. Will can hear generators turn on and see lights start to blink on the control panels as the lights flicker on. He finds stairs and sets Henry down at the bottom of them. They have an "inspiring" conversation and Henry dies. There is a main console in the center of the room with the current date and time on it. He figures out that it's an experimental time machine that the German's were going to use to go back and stop Allied attacks that they already knew about, therefor giving them the advantage to win the war. Will then programs the machine it to go back before the attack on St. Vith (or before they were drafted perhaps, entirely new plot-line?)
  Will steps through the gate and is instantly transported back in time 2 or 3 days, into his own body (no back to the future nonsense here with 2 of the same people in one timeline, oy) with Henry standing next to him. He has a small emotional outburst, but calms down. Henry of course wondering what the heck is wrong with him.
  Will begins to talk crazily about the counterattack from the Germans and that the General should take extra precautions after taking the city. Will never mentions the time-machine for fear of being judged as a crazy person. The next night, the General has called in extra platoons to guard the city and as predicted by Will the Germans launch a counterstrike. The Germans are obviously overwhelmed and outnumbered and do not take back the city. Will and Henry never get shot at and never stumble upon the cellar with the time machine.
  Will NEVER mentions his experience to anyone.
•    Section-3: different part of the war, 194X, Will and Henry are in the trenches perhaps?
  Epic battle scenes and such. ~yadda yadda~ Henry ends up dieing AGAIN. Will is torn about the incident. He has pretty much convinced himself that the whole time machine thing was a complete dream or something. He decides to see if it really was or not. He journeys to St. Vith after the war is over, finds the same building that supposedly has the time machine in it. The cellar doors are locked. The building has been turned into something (into what?). He ends up settling down in the town temporarily, falls in love, EPIC romance occurs, ~yadda yadda~,(perhaps his new Love dies?) he ends up getting down into the cellar and find the stairs that go down. Once again breaks open the blast door, walks down the hallway that turns white, gets scanned by the advanced door and gains access to the large white room with the time machine in it. Will programs the machine to go back BEFORE the war even starts, when he and Henry were graduating high school. He convinces Henry to NOT join the military. Henry never dies in the war. (maybe Henry dies some years later from cancer or something? and Will learns that death can't be stopped?)
•    Section-4: fast-forward again to 199X, back to Will and Henry's hometown.
  Will is old (around 70?). He and his family; wife, 2 kids(son and daughter), 3 grandchildren are walking up a hill, visiting a cemetery (maybe coming from a funeral?). The family is talking amongst themselves when they notice that Will has wondered off. They spot him staring at a gravestone marked 'Henry Babbage, 1921-19XX (what should the ending date be?)'. The family goes silent, Will begins to tear up and falls to his knees. They give him his peace for a few minutes, then his wife steps forward and helps him up. He turns to leave, stops after a few steps, turns back to the grave, puffs up his chest, puts his legs together, and proceeds to give a stern salute, still teary-eyed. Will returns to his family and they continue walking. Family wonders why he gave salute since Will was never IN the military in this timeline. Epic Lulz. End story/movie.
  

Seriously, give me your criticisms about this, I want to know what you guys think. Is it good? Bad? What does and doesn't it need? Anything at all will help. This will be an ongoing project for me.

Always,
JW

All Things Considered

I haven't posted in a good while, but I'm back now with something terrifyingly immense. I've had my fill of shitty experiences for the last couple months and it's time to let it all burst out in my blog.
   I've entitled this entry "All Things Considered" because I have taken into consideration not just only my own life or even the lives around me, but the whole world, the whole universe in fact. This is it, this is the big one.

   I can't go through life anymore with the feeling that I'm the only one of my kind. The only one that at least semi-understands this world and the people that live on it in all it's complexity and spontaneity. I feel as if it's too much for one person to possibly comprehend or process on their own. It's something that we, the most intelligent of our kind; as a race, as a creed, need to piece together slowly over our remaining existence in this universe.
   This is no easy task, and I am by no means trying to figure it all out on my own. I am merely contributing my own small piece so that others ahead of us may put it all together someday.
 
   Let us start with what we know already:
We know as humans that we are VERY complex organisms that have evolved for millions of years from the very dawn of life on this planet. As far as we know by any real evidence that we are alone in this universe, and the universe itself being something that we perceive as being the immense and infinite formations of matter throughout space and time.
   But, everything that we base our theories, our thoughts, our actions, and our meaning to life on is the fact that we can only perceive and observe a very small fraction of the world around us. Our five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Those are all we have to build off of when we try to figure out how this universe moves and forms.
   Imagine for a second that in addition to your five senses, you had 3 more: the power to observe the entire electromagnetic spectrum in all it's glory, the ability to sense the atomic forces of matter, and the power to feel the flow of space-time. The universe would seem like an entirely different place to a person like you or I when all we have ever know is a place that seems completely devoid of 99% of what it actually consists of.
   We would have no need for the things that make us "human" anymore; religion, culture, philosophy, war, peace, thought and emotion, all things created in the minds of creatures in the limited physical form and that would seem meaningless when compared to being one with the universe. To have total and unquestionable understanding of the universe and it's workings. We would no longer take physical form, we would exist as an entity in the very foundation of energy itself.

   To know absolute truth, to see the answer to the question that we have been asking for thousands of years. If only the entirety of the human race had this understanding. We could focus on science and technology instead of the primitive conflicts that bind us to our animal ancestry, they limit our movement forward and delay the days that so many of us wish would come. The time of redemption, ubiquity, and acceptance into the heavens alongside the other great intelligences in the universe. The other races that so long ago realized how limited they were by their material bodies and finally extended themselves into a much higher plane of existence, one we cannot even begin to understand.

   We are perhaps thousands or even hundreds-of-thousands of years away from these happenings, but we have to start somewhere, right?
 

Shutup and find my eye!

We live in a world where our own sense of reality is governed by those who exist around us, if they DO actually exist that is... I mean if they don't exist, who's to say that you don't exist? Or that your life has any minuscule speck of meaning in such a large universe.For example: take the amount of knowledge that has been recorded and documented or created on the internet throughout history and multiply that by 10^100000000, that is how much actual data and knowledge our race has actually accumulated throughout all of time. Just because it was never written down or set in stone doesn't mean it was never thought of or created in the mind of one of billions of humans that has ever walked the earth.
Originality is dead.

Phase II:

My favorite things in life are those times when you can sit down outside, either watching the sun set or in the dead of night or even during a really snowy day when the wind isn't blowing and everything is perfectly still and silent, and you just recollect. You close your eyes and your whole life gets summed up in what seems like just a few minutes. You can leave your body and go somewhere else; any memory, any recollection that you can think of.
You can  peer deep within yourself and find things that you had thought to have been long lost or forgotten forever. It's weird how one certain memory or piece of information can pop up out of nowhere in your head isn't it? It's almost unnatural.

But, I've only had a few of those instances of harmony; where I can sit there for hours, being at total peace with myself. I get lost in my past, I get lost in my present, and somehow the two merge together until I slowly start to understand why I AM the person I AM today. All the instances where I grew wiser, where I learned a valuable lesson, when I changed for the better or the worse, all of my stages, all of my moods, all of my opinions, everything I ever was, everything I ever experienced, and everything I ever thought.
All of these things are like tiny puzzle pieces, to a puzzle much larger than you could imagine; but the picture to that puzzle changes sometimes, so you have to rearranged all the pieces to match the new picture. And sometimes I find a lost puzzle piece that had slipped under the fridge or behind that big pesky cabinet, and I put it in it's rightful place in the puzzle. The puzzle without edges.
This is how I slowly build who I am in my mind. But, the funny thing is that the puzzle never stops growing and the picture never stops changing; so to 'know who you are' can never be a totally correct statement of character because one can only be the person he/she is at that certain point in time until they experience something new that changes them slightly, making them a new, different person, a changed person. The picture to their puzzle has shitfted or they found a missing piece that had been sucked up in the sweeper for months.
But, here's the catch. YOU can be somebody's puzzle piece, YOU can be an experience in their life that adds to their personal puzzle, and in turn the experience will probably do the same to your own puzzle as well. YOU can help them make their puzzle, YOU can give parts of your own puzzle to help someone else with theirs. YOU can be their change in mind, in body, and in soul.
Share your life with the people around you; allow your puzzles to connect and grow. We will no longer be separate puzzles, but one big puzzle that is ever expanding.
Your edges will have been bonded, but your pictures and patterns will always remain unique to yourself and no other.

I guess you could say that the moral of this is to be open to the people around you, interact with your own species for Christ's sake, we are all of the same gene pool (well most of us are) so don't be afraid to let your inner self be exposed.


But, in reality, I have lost a piece to my penguin puzzle, has anyone seen it? My penguin looks like a pirate with one eye missing! haha

The World's A Stage

Music.
Nothing more than specific sound frequencies ranging from 20-20,000 Hz that are picked up by the ear drum, turned into electrical signals, and sent to the brain to be translated into auditory thoughts.
Different frequencies can have whole number multiples or divisions of wavelengths, where the crests of the waves meet every so often, creating what we call harmony.
A "clash" of notes is when the different frequencies have very obscure wavelengths that almost never overlap causing a very unpleasant sound.
From a scientific point of view it seems pretty easy to understand, and if you understand how to counterpoint using this information, then music is fairly easy to compose as well. In fact, I have several friends that compose songs digitally, using computer software, and create whole songs in just a few days, as if it were nothing.
Then you have me. Sometimes it takes me days just to create one melody. But, my problem is that I always strive to find a rhythm that is so unique and different from the rest of the crowd so it takes me much longer than most to compose an entire song.

Everyone can 'hear' music and enjoy it, they can even compose it, but, do you really 'listen' to it? Do you Feel it's movement? Do you Understand it's mood and intent?
Singing up on stage during a performance, I have always been able to pick out the person that is really 'listening' to the music being created. They sit motionless, eyes closed, mouth open. They get goosebumps when a really beautiful section is played.
I know this because I have been that person. If anything, I recognize myself as a real 'listener' of music. I take it all in, I break it down in my head, all the parts, the instruments, the voices, the movements. I close my eyes and I see them visually in my mind. I Feel it with my entire body.
Sometimes during a really beautiful piece, I can feel my heart sink into the pit of my stomach. It is the best feeling in the world.

Music is beyond a doubt the best form of art that God bestowed to man. Many people can paint or sculpt from an image in their head, but, to create an entire piece of music from hundreds of notes and chords out of thin air, is something else entirely.
Ludwig Van Beethoven, my favorite composer, once said "Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes."
This man. He could not get the sound out of his head until he wrote the music down on paper. This man created nine beautiful symphonies, seven concertos, an opera, two masses, thirty-two piano sonatas, ten violin sonatas, five cello sonatas, sixteen string quartets, five string quintets, seven for piano trio, five for string trio, and perhaps a hundred or so other short works. There is no better example of a musical madman.
He is my idol.
I believe the closest thing to hearing the voice of God is music. He speaks to us through the vibrations on the air. He gives the power to create this music to only a divine few on this entire planet, in order to speak to us.
The music speaks to us, it speaks to our soul, our being. It flows through us and within us.
Did you know that right now, your entire body as a whole, is producing it's own unique frequency? A frequency that is entirely and utterly unique to you.
Sometimes I think that's how we subconsciously pick and choose which people we like and dislike.
Remember how I described Harmony? When two or more frequencies have whole number multiples of each other in order to be harmonious? Why can't that be true with our own personal frequencies and the frequencies of others? Have you ever noticed how you can meet someone and even though you may like them and they don't necessarily have any negative characteristics about them, you still have an uneasy feeling when you're around them? Your frequencies may be 'clashing'.
This may be why a close family or a group of really good friends get along so well. Admit it, even your family and friends have at least a few negative characteristics that you hate about them. Why then do you get along with them so well?
Harmony.
How about Love? I mean spousal love of course. Why is it that it just 'clicks' with some people and others it doesn't?
You could meet the most beautiful, amazing person in the world; they have everything you ever wanted in a person to spend your life with, but you just don't feel the 'chemistry' with them. Why is that?
Harmony.

See, Music is more than just a collection of frequencies. Music is life, it's everywhere, and everything has its own pitch, its own aura, its own flow. The earth is one big symphony, never-ending; doomed to play for its audience forever. But with every new person created, a new instrument is added to the orchestra and thus the piece changes slightly, every movement is different from those of the past.

So find your harmony in the world. Be the next Movement.
Compose your own way through the time you have on this earth.
And seek out the person that completes your chord the best.

All the world's a stage, play on it.

Courage.

We need more of it. Period.
   It is a characteristic within people that has become withered as generations pass.
Where has the courage gone? Why are so many people of our day so apt to just sit back and take a beating from their opposition? Why do they not stand up for themselves or others? Their beliefs or religions? Their passions? Their character?
   Why is it that they allow themselves to be walked on, overpowered, and discriminated against?
It's hard to say, but, they are weak; and I cannot help but to have NO pity for these people. I know so many people with "Emo" personalities. They mope and complain about their problems but never do anything about them. Their problems just fester within their minds, bottled up. It only seems to worsen the situation.
It makes me sick to see people like this. If I ever became one of those mopey people, my mother would slap me upside the head (for those who know my mother, you know it's true). 
And I see that more and more people are becoming like this; at an early age too it seems.
Maybe it's the parents? I mean I can't help but notice the difference in parenting from the parents of my mother's age range to people just becoming parents. Sure, every set of parents have different parenting skills and techniques than others, but it seems that there is a sudden lack of discipline and values that the parents of earlier generations worked so hard to bestow in their children. And yes, every generation will have a certain percentage of alcoholic, drug-abusive parents, which is also growing in size. But I have seen people come from very abusive, broken homes and manage to become great, courageous people and live normal lives.
Yet, I see kids come from relatively normal homes and families and turn into the people I described before; I don't understand it.
"My parents don't listen to me","I hate my life","I never get what I want","My parents don't accept me"
Waa waa waa!!! Baby!! Grow some balls (figuratively of course, ladies) and stand up for yourself!!
Stop complaining about how much you hate your life and do something about it. It's YOUR life and YOUR opinions and don't let anyone tell you how to think different.
I will leave you with a quote:

"Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength." ~ August Wilson

Always remember to be thankful for what you have, stand up for it, and be proud to show it to the world.

This I Believe 1

I believe in Love.
   Whether that be the Love of one's family, one's friends, one's spouse, one's religion or beliefs, one's self, or one's country; I believe in it. I believe in that Love; in its creation, its drive, its passion, ambition, and complexity. I believe in all its forms, all its glories, yet all its pains. I believe in nothing greater than the absolute power of Love, for there is none. This is what I believe most in this world.

   Love, in all its occurrences, has confused, bewildered, yet intrigued me, starting from when I was very young. I could never quite get a grip of its meaning or importance in my life; one would expect a child to be misunderstanding to such a concept as Love. But, something happened in the latter of my childhood that opened my mind to new thoughts and provocations to the sense of Love:
   My father, being a man of great confusion to me ever since, died in a car accident late November of 2000.
   Death was and is probably the hardest concept to understand as a young child. To be quite honest, it's harder than hell to understand that the person you saw to be your father is gone, dead, and never coming back.
   So what? That's it? No second chances? We die and we're gone forever? WHAT'S THAT ALL ABOUT?!?
   It took some time and a few more deaths in the family for me to fully understand this part of Love, Death. There is a certain Love for the dead though; their memory, their legacy, lives on in our Love for them after their passing. As long as we remember them and feel their presence in our hearts, they are never gone from this world.
   I Love my father, even though I never really knew him completely as a person, I Love him, my mother Loves him, his family Loves him, and he will live on forever in our hearts and minds.

  
   Let's fast forward through a couple years and stop in the summer of 2008, my first Love.
   We went to high school together; she was a year younger than I, but that didn't matter to us. I had just broken off a relationship with a former crush that I had lost feelings for and she had done the same. We had always been friends, especially through the school's chorale group which we were both participants in, so being together was natural to us.
A few flirts here and there, our first kiss, a moment, that's all it took, we were together. In Love.
We were each others firsts for a lot of different things; nobody knew us like we knew us.
The next year and a half was the best time in my life. I Loved her, my better half. We were, for lack of a better word, inseparable. It seemed like we were meant to be, we had everything in common; we had the same tastes, same interests, same personalities, it was absolutely incredible to me. I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.
   Things change.

   What happened in the last part of our relationship, what I eventually found to take place in most relationships, is that one of the people changed, she did. I changed too, but she changed more, differently than I did.
We had grown apart, lost connections, lost common interests and goals; we grew up.
We were not special, we were not meant to be. Our dreams, our plans, would never happen; they died when we ended.
   It's a pain that most of us have to experience and eventually get over; I'm still in the process. But, we learn from it, we discover some things about ourselves, and grow.
How did I grow? I discovered Love; true, undeniable, Love. My first, my only, my last? Who knows. But I found it; and I know what it is and how it feels to have it. If that isn't an achievement, then I don't know what is. Sure it ended badly, we're not exactly acquaintances anymore; but hey, you know what?, I'd take the pain and sorrow any day, I'd give everything up, just to go back and do it all over again. I regret nothing and I wouldn't have it any other way.
 
   It's all because of Love, my Love; the Love I've received and the Love I have given. Love makes the world go 'round. Most of the time it's wonderful, but sometimes you have to take it with a grain of salt, grit your teeth, and power through.
   Love comes back to us, it always does. This I believe.