Kara's Blog

Billie Joe Armstrong is probably one of my favourite singers. He is known as the lead singer for the American rock band “Green Day” and has lots of fans.

 

One reason I’m a fan of him is probably because of the great music he puts out. He founded his band back in 1985 with his co-star Mike Dirnt, and they still make music together presently, along with their drummer, Tré Cool.

I feel Billie has really captivating vocals. The meanings behind his songs are always something different than writing something cool, along with the strange, yet original, sounds. His voice really ties it altogether.

In one of his songs, specifically, it’s written about his father’s passing. Billie Joe’s father died of esophageal cancer when Billie was ten, back in 1982 (https://www.popbuzz.com/music/artists/green-day/news/wake-me-up-when-september-ends-meme-meaning/). The song has a line that references this; “like my father’s come to pass, 20 years has gone so fast”. This song is called, “Wake me up when September ends”.

Over a decade after his father’s passing, Billie Joe married his current wife after years of previous girlfriends. Her name is Adrienne Nesser, and they had two kids together, one named “Joey” (nickname) and one named Jakob.

 

A few years after his sons were born, Billie Joe was arrested for drunk driving (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/green-day-frontman-arrested-180927/). This happened on January 5^th, 2003. He was bailed out and was reportedly very cooperative with authorities.

Billie Joe has had problems with drinking previously, and said in an interview that he has “been trying to get sober since 1997” (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/billie-joe-armstrong-the-rolling-stone-interview-94267/). He struggled with substance abuse, specifically prescription for anxiety and insomnia, along with alcohol. He stated 2011-2013 was rough and had to cancel tours to work on himself and focus on his personal problems.

 

Moving away from Billie’s struggles, he has also had experience in filmography. He has had a few cameos as himself and documentaries done, along with being featured on The Voice for five episodes as himself.

 

Getting into some more normal and standard things, Billie Joe Armstrong was born on February 17^th, 1972. He is 1.7m (5’57) and has a net worth of 75 million dollars.

Billie Joe has expressed that he is bisexual, and has a song released called “Coming Clean” on his album Dookie with Green Day, and has expressed this also in an LGBTQ+ magazine called “Advocate”.

I feel this is a really good thing because when people who may question themselves look up to someone who was also in that position. It can be a good feeling on comfort to know their idols went through the same thing, and can find a lot of good in the people who “create a path” for them.

 

Also, he is related to Neil Armstrong. Just thought I’d mention.

 

All citing’s throughout.

Lots of what I write about online is about drawing (at least on here), but I  do have other published pieces that aren’t about it, and lots of private journals full of all my ideas.

I’m the type of person that, when I’m planning something intricate, I detail everything, make it all clear to not only myself, but other people, and if I’m dealing with multiple things, I make sure I can differentiate them while still making them look the same.

I don’t like expressing a lot of my ideas, especially online where lots of people can see (along with people who steal art/literature/photography and show it as their own), though, I enjoy getting feedback that isn’t “This looks great! I wish I could do that, too”. I like a lot of rough criticism, feedback on what to do better, how to fix mistakes, etc., and it’s fun to get that from friends in person and from people online, but it’s hard to get attention online, nevermind the fact that most people seeing it don’t give feedback.

I like keeping my ideas to myself, and to solve the problem of thinking it’s too cliché, too simple, not enough detail, not original, too much detail, all of the above, I like to look at different things online, get some more ideas and twist them to work in what I imagine, while also making it completely separate and having the mindset to say “This is too much”, or “This is too little”.

When writing a story, it’s good to think about major characters, reoccurring characters, minor characters, scenes, appearances, if you’re writing it without illustrations, I find it good to draw out what I want, and write it out in detail so I get the image people should see. I work on reoccurring characters first, as they’re the ones that come up most. It’s important to have depth to a lot of major characters, with fleshed out, logical backstories, appearances, why they do what they do, etc.

When coming up with something evil, it’s good to come up with a reason as to why that person or thing wants to cause harm to others, or want’s to get what they want no matter what. If you’re fleshing out a design, I find it important to think about their motives, why they look that way, the practicality if they have to do a lot of things. When thinking of someone evil, it’s important that they have a correct motive that, to them, makes sense to hurt other people to get what they want. Shallow people exist, and it’s good to give them weaknesses, and to have no logic behind their thoughts.

For example: say a villain is hurting people to get what they want, and they realize that they are committing murder, yet they still do it because they have rose-tinted glasses on and don’t realize what they want causes other people harm, or they don’t realize they’ve made a mistake; that their goals are unattainable. They don’t have any logic to what they’re are doing because they can’t see their pain or what they’re causing. They have a mindset simply focused on attaining the unattainable, and they can’t get out of that mindset.

Or maybe they’re just pure evil, I dunno.

As for a hero, I find it good to have a big dynamic. Say it’s like the Avengers; they save millions of people from things that want to destroy everything, but they ruin cities and places in the making of that safety. It’s a character dynamic even though it applies to all of them.

In terms of a hero, it’s good to have irony. Like an egotistical person who cares a lot about their peers, or a mad character who just wants the best for everyone. Having irony in characters is a good thing because it makes them more human. Instead of everything being perfect, there are effects to actions. There are bad actions, not only good ones. There can be bad things that happen to those people. They can have revelations, they can think. They aren’t supposed to be one-dimensional.

Think of your favourite game/movie/book character. Were they static the entire thing, or did they change throughout and have different thoughts? They probably did. Having dynamic characters with actual thoughts, real emotions, expression, and different issues I feel is the best way to make a good characters that people can get attached to.

Minor characters can really bring a story together. It’s like the people you walk past on the street. They aren’t too noticeable, and you don’t remember everything about them, but they bring in atmosphere like NPC’s in game or something. Minor characters can also be people in movies who have only a few lines, or they can be reoccurring just to bring the story full circle. Having people appear more than once in a story is normal, just like seeing someone one day and then another.

As for settings, I may have to write another blog about that because that’s a whole other conversation.

For more info/inspiration, Click Here.

There were burning embers all around him, flying in crazy directions as flames from fire surrounded the area, lighting up Nibelheim in the worst way possible.

It was horrible; a man that Cloud thought he could trust, and how he got so excited when he mentioned his hometown, now burning it into a million ashes before his very eyes.

The buildings: houses, stores, monuments, everything, were all on fire, and Cloud could do nothing.

He looked up, though he couldn’t see much through the smoke, rising flames, and his shaggy, raggedy hair, and saw the person responsible for his recent “troubles”.

To his dismay, in front of him, stood the man that started this reckless fire.

A menace. He looked down at his companion and glared sharply, letting out a small, nearly silent hum of satisfaction as he could see his work in his peripherals. His intent on torturing the poor soul known as Cloud Strife was off to a good start.

His long hair blew in the wind that stimulated the fires even more, the extensive strands flying crazy as they were almost the length down to his feet, the silver hue and healthiness of his hair making it shine as the fire reflected off of it.

His piercing green eyes seemed to glow lowly as the flames illuminated them, his already thin pupils contracted into sharp lines as he squinted at the male below.

He gripped his katana harshly, keeping in mind the eight-foot-long blade near the ground as he shifted it a bit in his firmly grasped hand. The reflective metal shined brightly in the fire, revealing the detailing on the blade, and making the Masemune look brand new even though he had had it for years.

He wasn’t like Angeal; didn’t care about the wear, tear, and rust of things over time and with use.

His unnecessary tenfolds of belts had their buckles shining along with everything else, along with the many that accompanied it on his long overcoat. You wouldn’t even be able to tell they were all worn in and covered in grime from his several years as a proper member of SOLDIER.

He didn’t say anything and didn’t need to. He just stared, on and on, with his intimidating and frightful glare, smiling like a one-winged devil in the fire. It was an absolutely terrifying sight to see, especially since Cloud knew he could be slaughtered at any given moment.

He tried to stand up, managing barely, and couldn’t even grasp his heavy sword without the help of the ground stabilizing it. He knew there was no use trying to fight Sephiroth in the condition he was in.

He was tired, burnt, bloody, sad, mad; everything you can possibly imagine watching someone you trust burn your hometown down to the ground and having absolutely no clue how to help the people, along with dealing with a, now, sociopathic killer who has not one drop of pity left in his body.

Cloud stood, petrified as Sephiroth looked down at him. Even with the distance between the two, you can tell the silver-haired male towered over him.

Sephiroth smiled. He didn’t know exactly why, but this scene he started reminded him of the many times himself and Genesis would train.

It was always near the Mako reactors, it seemed. He thought perhaps Genesis liked having a session in a more dangerously located place, even if it was only all simulated to help on-coming First Class SOLDIERs.

Though he loved the thought of being a hero, Genesis always seemed to be getting injured more than better at fighting, especially when he went against the only person better than him; Sephiroth.

He would preach about the thought of being a savior, and recite lines from the LOVELESS acts continuously, as if he was fueled by them.

Those were the better times in Sephiroth’s life. He thought about how Genesis, nearly, insisted that they were monsters. The Jenova cells and countless experiments and how they made them “inhuman”.

It all made sense now, as Sephiroth brought himself back to the surface, looking on into the fire as if there was something past it besides burning buildings. The entire rant about them being monsters was right, and if this town was indeed burning, he had not one thing wrong in his analysis.

My blog, my rules. I’m going to talk more about drawing.

So, recently, I’ve been doing quite a few character sheets, and thinking about more fantasy elements in drawing backgrounds, creatures, people, etc. I really like how some artists illustrate different aspects to their own or other fantasy worlds, and I’ve kind of been creating my own with a story, thinking of how buildings and societies work, how the characters differ, etc. It’s really fun, and since it’s all in your imagination, putting pen to paper, I find, is easier instead of copying a character design that already exists and messing it up or wanting it to be perfect.

I find it quite relaxing to come up with a story even though mine already involves a lot of despair and agony and you can kind of just sit back, calm down, and create everything at your own pace, especially if it’s just for fun, like mine currently is.

I’ve always loved creating characters, though I was never really happy with the result. I feel like this time, since I’m more relaxed and mature of all things, I can take more time to flesh out all the story, the characters, the creatures, the atmosphere, everything about a story that makes it really diverse and really gets you on the ramp for it, for more of the story to unfold, and for more characters or seeing how characters grow, change, and differ between each other.

The story I currently have in my head is there’s this one guy, a prince, who has very drastic features. I’m currently working on designs for his eight brothers (I wanted a lot of them because 1. I feel it ties in with some more “royal-based” stories I like. In all of them, the princes have a lot of brothers. and 2. Because I want there to be a drastic character cast and more diversity in this little world I’m creating), and having a lot of fun with names, personalities, visual aspects to them (balancing cool and mandatory with characters designs like what they wear for show, and what they wear for practicality), how they would all act to things that the main character does/says, how they speak, and a lot more featuring a rabbit hole into all of the above stated.

This little “project” of mine is probably the biggest, most fleshed out thing I’ve really done. I have a lot of drama in the storyline and some more tame parts that, if I ever get to make this thing happen, either as a comic or something, the reader can just relax and enjoy, even though there’s a lot of conflict and odd parts. I don’t have 100% of the storyline, just the main things I want to convey to the reader. I have a problem with how I make stories; I come up with the ending first, and I have no proper story as to how I get there. It’s like a person who can’t draw trying to make something very intricate and uniquely realistic. Those goals feel almost unattainable unless you work a lot to get where you want, and I feel like I need to realize that before I think up another random idea to work on a lot before I fail so I can end up with something I enjoyed making and like in the end.

For Christmas, I don’t really know what I want currently. Though, I previously told my mom I wanted an iPad to draw on better than my phone, because it has a better screen, more space, etc. We talked about it some, and I didn’t expect to  get  it literally 2 days after that. I was on a call with one of my friends when I heard my mom come home, and she asked me when I wanted to get my Christmas present, and literally placed it in front of me. I’d say I’m pretty spoiled now, because I am, but I am really grateful that we’re able to afford things that will better my enjoyment.

As for what else I want, that’s kind of a difficult question. I kind of want some merch (T-shirts, sweater, etc.) of some of my favourite bands, but I’m worried about shipping and stuff. My aunt asked me if I wanted drawing supplies, and I told her that the ones I’d want are really expensive. She said that wasn’t a problem but I don’t really like asking for things that cost a lot. I’d rather just get the money than the item maybe to relieve my guilt even though it’s Christmas.

^If I were to ask for drawing supplies, I’d probably ask for alcohol markers. They’re really popular and work well with different mediums. I can’t really buy sets of them because 1. I don’t live in the city, and 2. They’re really expensive (at least Copics are). Also, I don’t like buying more expensive products even though it’s what I want. I kind of just like improving without a ton of different mediums thrown onto a page for final pieces because quality over quantity doesn’t really apply with drawing, so I don’t feel the need to spend $1000 dollars on supplies just to make finished illustrations over and over that take a lot of time, and have so little improvement.

I feel I’ve been on a bit of a “FFVII Rampage” currently, and over the past few months, that kind of came over my artwork, too. Most of my sketchbooks now are filled with characters from the storyline, and you can’t really blame me. The characters are very interesting to draw and get correct, along with different adaptations to certain styles, etc.

The person I probably draw the most from the franchise is Sephiroth, the villain. He has a very interesting design; the long coat, his hair, his general facial structure (because I basically see everything in planes and shapes), and all the accessories. Not only is his backstory cool, but honestly whoever made his general design, I will cherish until the day I die. It’s really fun to add to or adapt things to him to fit my style or make him look even more cool, so I think that’s why I really enjoy drawing him.

I still can’t draw girls, even though I’ve tried. I know there’s this whole thing with “learn the rules before you break them”, but come on. I’m not going to learn those rules with girls. I feel like the fact I can draw guys so well and can’t really draw more feminine attributes is kind of like a balancing act. Right now, my skill is very “heavy” and “lenient” on male characters, as that’s probably from muscles memory and general studies of more male attributes. I really want to work on drawing more girls, so I might have to catch up on that.

In case you’re wondering, I would say I am a really good drawer. I know anatomy and a lot to do with shading, textures, lighting, etc. But as there is always in art, I improve a lot over time. I don’t even realize it until I either redraw something or look back on something I drew that I thought was great and think about my current skills, and wonder how I could’ve applied them to it. I don’t follow a lot of traditional drawing “hacks” or “rules” or “tutorials”. I feel I improve by what I tell myself. Right now, I don’t really like what i am drawing, and I’m trying to draw more things to make myself comfortable with my styles, mediums, and generally what I want to draw overall. I feel when I have a vision for something I want to draw, I just fail. One thing I’m working on doing to prevent that demotivation is thumbnailing a lot.

If you don’t know what thumbnailing is, it’s where you make a small little image of what you desire to be the finished result. It’s usually very sketchy and not detailed too much, just a general, small composition.

Speaking of composition, that’s where my struggle comes in. I suck at doing backgrounds unless i spend an hour on it or know what I want. If I can pin-point what I want, and thumbnail it, I will be generally alright, but otherwise, you get a floating character in the abyss of canvas.

If you want some information on drawing and other details, this is a good website -> https://www.britannica.com/art/drawing-art

Over the summer, I was somehow dragged into the Final Fantasy VII (7) fandom by my friend. I don’t really know exactly how it happened, and of course, I started by watching where we should always start joining this fandom (don’t, it’s confusing); By watching Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete (See Here > https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII:_Advent_Children)

Basically, the entire movie is very non-logical with gravity (animations), the timing can get confusing as it jumps forward and back sometimes, and also, the story is very all-over-the-place when you start there. It’s like “okay, so this character, Aerith, is dead, who’s Zack, Cloud’s dying, Sephiroth is bad (no context) and dead, there are remnants of Sephiroth, Who’s Tifa, who’s Vincent, who’s Yuffie, etc.” and that’s basically all that I could comprehend watching it for the first time. I didn’t know anything about backstory, the characters, really, or why Sephiroth was bad, really (found that out now and it’s kind of a dumb reason, but blame Hojo, he sucks).

I’ve never played the game, but I have a general idea of what happens in it. There’s a remake with 2 parts being made (1st part out, 2nd being worked on), and the original just has 7.2 polygon character models which is actually kind of funny.

There are three main parts to the FFVII lore; Crisis Core, The Original (Remake), and Advent Children. I’m not explaining everything that happens, but basic things; main character is Cloud Strife, and the bad guy is a part of Shinra’s (another character, Rufus Shinra) SOLDIER group named Sephiroth (as mentioned).

I feel like I make fun of the original’s rendering and models too much (especially because it’s from 1997) so here’s just a picture of them. Hope you enjoy.

P.S. ^Only good looking ones are Sephiroth (silver haired) and Red XIII (Dog), but then again, I have favourites.

I don’t have a lot of plans for Halloween, but I will dress up (maybe not at school because my costume is kind of, actually, really “out there” on the side of “what the heck is that person wearing?”, so I may not want to). My family doesn’t put up a lot of decoration, mostly because we don’t live in town and don’t feel the need to, and for the past years we’ve just bought candy instead of actually going trick-o-treating.

I was thinking of a few costumes earlier this year, but of course, I am not going as any of them.

I am an extremely indecisive person, and I kept going back and forth on what I want to go as, either at school or to actually go trick-o-treating, and I still am, in fact. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I’ve basically gotten used to the fact I am either very picky or can never make up my mind about literally anything.

I’ve been watching a lot of the Tim Burton movies that they put on Netflix (though, I am really sad they got rid of Sweeney Todd for some reason), and recently, I’ve been replaying Dark Shadows because something about that movie is really good (as with… all movies I re-watch).

Now, you might be asking what I am dressing up as, and guess what? I’m not telling because of reasons :P.

https://www.purewow.com/family/halloween-activities-for-kids

My music taste has changed drastically over this summer, mainly, and also just in general.

There are a few blogs on here talking about my favourite artists and songs, but those have since changed so I decided to talk about it.

I used to be into a lot of 2016-17 songs that went viral (because, I admittedly thought it was cool to listen to that music, so I did it mostly for those reasons, but also because the songs are kind of enjoyable) and also a few soundtracks from superhero movies.

I think something that has always stuck with me is listening to soundtracks as long as I want to no end. Even now, writing this, I am listening to the FFVII OST (and now my teacher bullies me about liking the franchise haha), so even though the soundtracks have changed, the general likeness hasn’t (I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not).

Also, in my previous blog, I mentioned Green Day, so that obviously took over my playlists.

I used to listen to My Chemical Romance all the time, every day, and now it’s very rarely because I have felt a sudden Green Day obsession coming on. I still enjoy MCR’s music, it’s just quite limited now because I’m obviously occupied with other things.

On Spotify, right now, as I can track, I only listen to the FFVII OST and a few miscellaneous podcasts (I hate podcasts on Spotify because of the ads and sponsors, so it is also very limited). I could go on a whole rant about how bad Spotify is without premium, but I prefer not to (may be a future Writer’s Workshop, just saying).

As for right now, my favourite songs are probably Bang Bang (off of Revolution Radio by Green Day. Also, RR is great as a song), Homecoming (off American Idiot), and Safe and Sound (Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete (that’s a great non-logical movie, by the way)). I also enjoy the FFVII OST, if you couldn’t tell.

For summer, I didn’t really do anything interesting. I didn’t go out a lot and I stayed home most of the time, which isn’t generally unusual for me, but it was just a bunch of being bored and phone calls with my friends (one friend) until 5am because we could stay up late.

Some thing I did do that could be considered “interesting” are listening to a new musical group and now they’re really the only people I listen to, my friend hassling me to join the Final Fantasy VII Fandom (which wasn’t very pleasant), doing a lot of writing and drawing and not being able to drive a standard car.

First is listening to new music. Near the end of the school year, my teacher mentioned that since I enjoy listening to My Chemical Romance’s music, I would probably like Green Day, too, and recommended me the American Idiot album. Knowing myself, I got some money and bought the entire album, and now I know all the words to whatever Billy Joe Armstrong was singing on over half the songs on the deluxe version of the album and I am blaring it 24/7 on my headphones.

Next is Final Fantasy VII (7). At first, I kind of avoided getting to know absolutely everything about the fictional world, but when you have a close friend that’s completely obsessed with the game and general story, it’s hard not to build up the information unwillingly and  now I have a complete structure on how Sephiroth tries to constantly ruin Cloud Strife’s life. I’d say it’s a pretty dominant fandom of mine, and since I know all the main characters and story about the lore (Crisis Core, The Original, Advent Children), I’d probably consider myself a fan of Final Fantasy VII at this point.

For the most part, Ii kept up my hobbies of writing and drawing a lot, and I’d say I improved over the span of the 2 months I spent, in my room, doing anything desperately to cure my boredom. I filled an entire sketchbook and a notebook full on nonsense I wrote, and also published a few things on different sites for my “literature” (though, like anyone viewed it). I even got my friend in on it and I would entertain myself by writing his, more than average, pieces of work over and over and on our half-a-day long calls.

As for driving a car, you’d probably guess how that went. I couldn’t steer, I stalled the car, and I didn’t understand clutch at all.

That pretty much sums up my summer other than playing Mario Party 8 all day on my aunt’s Wii the one time I went to visit her, which was really fun.