ID

"Alright, John, it's time."
"Time? Time for what?"
"Time to start."
"You're not making any sen-"
"Today is theme and variation; start listing fairy tales."
"...like Little Red Riding Hood?"
"Overdone, keep going."
"uh, Goldilocks."
"..."
"Okay, Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty, the Sword and the Stone, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, "
"Stop!"
"Hansel and Gretel?"
"Yes, that'll work. Summarize please."
"Okkayyyy.... Um, a brother and sister get lost in a forest... or maybe they were abandoned by an evil step-parent of some sort. They find an old...witch? -who lives alone in a house made of sweets. She takes them in with the lure of food and imprisons them, feeding them more and more until they get fat to the point where she intends to eat one or the other. One of the children escapes and cooks the witch instead in a twist of dramatic irony, and well, I'm not sure what happens after that but there's a happily ever after not too far off.
"Good. List the themes"
"Well.... abandonment of course."
"Go on."
"Gluttony. Trust and the failure of trust. Family, independence, the inherit "evilness" of a step-parent to a child? Maybe gender roles? I'm not really sure who does what.
"That's sufficient. What about stylistic themes?"
"You mean like the gingerbread house?"
"Yes, go on."
"Well, there's the forest too and... breadcrumbs? I think this was the one with breadcrumbs."
"We'll come back to that later I suppose... no need to dwell on it too much just right now."
"Where exactly are you going with this?"
"Twist it."
"I'm sorry?"
"Twist it."
"Uh... Hansel and Gretel are good friends instead of brother and sister?"
"I said twist it."
"Hansel and Gretel are orphans in pre-Katrina New Orleans. They may be brother and sister, they may not be, it doesn't matter; they're family. Their breadcrumbs are false promises or school systems they keep transferring between. They get lost, forgotten by the government, inside the city. Gingerbread is dirty money, gluttonly is the lust for more. The witch is a white-gypsy and a cackling madman says history only knows so many stories."
"Good. I'll see you tomorrow."
"...what?"

Letters, letters... wait, we're still doing this rite?

Heh, failed attempts at glory... I seem to remember starting one myself now that I think about it. Should've disabled PMs on that site... you and Megan would've taken a little longer to figure it out. =P But, yeah, you have to take the successes with the failures. Never give up and all that janks. One of the reasons I'm excited about the Notemaker: there's no chance in hell you're letting that story fall by the wayside.

It's funny, I challenged you to a little war in the "epic blog back and forth" and here I am unable to deliver on time. I do have something based on a song title... it's just not finished yet. I'll get her up sometime in the near future (thinking Thursday). Physics, though fun, makes one's private life nonexistant Sunday through Thursday. Oh, speaking of school, how did finals go?

Apologies for the short letter, but I think I ran out of stuff to talk about.
- John

Letters?!

Matt,

I remember how I meet people. I met my first good friend on a school bus in Kindergarten. It was funny, we each thought the other was a grade up, and while it might not mean much now, it probably would've precluded any real friendship then. I met another friend in the little league baseball park at a game both our little brothers were in. We were both ignoring said game and playing pokemon. I met you here. I'm honestly not sure when we started communicating outside of the board... I believe it had something to do with a private separate board you were setting up. That's the thing... you always have had some sort of big project you've been working on. I find the quality enviable, honestly. I've had tons of ideas, but always put them on hold for some reason or another. This blog, however (which I owe the idea of to you), is one of the big things that did stick. Sweet!

Ours is an interesting, but more and more common friendship. I remember studying the concept of the 'inner circle' (I forget the actual term) in sociology. One of the criteria was laid out to me as consistent physical presense, and I laughed then and I laugh now at that idea. It should be obvious why.

I suppose I haven't answered any of your questions, generic though they may be =). Classes are, well, classes. You know how those go. Although there is the problem of having a curve in a class of second and third year physics majors. You've already weeded out the people who need it, so why bother failing 10ish percent of us consistently? "Sprink" break has been relaxing, but busy, which is a good way to be in my opinion. I like making bread, and while it always turns out looking great, it tastes incredibly bland. I'm thinking about adding more sugar or salt or oil or maybe letting it ferment longer... dunno. Point behind saying this is because it's what I've spent a decent amount of time on this past week. Oh, and I took some photographs today... I need to buy me a camera.

It's funny, I figured a blog war would be more... warlike? Therefore, (should you choose to accept) I challenge you to the first round of some literary (sans literal) fencing. Tell me something, taking a song title and the title alone as inspiration.

I await your reply,
- John