Thursday, April 27, 2006

Making Headway


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I've gotten about half the animation done for the 4th chapter, I might still need to flesh out more of the character for the monk they meet at the Norse Temple though. I can name him Zakita then have him explain more buddhist philosophy and kundalini yoga to Minerva in order for her to focus her aura and energy more efficiently than praying to contact Odin.



Every Breath You Take

I was reading this article talking about how you can tell things about a person by the way they breathe. Breath awareness is one way to train attention, and by paying close attention to others, just as they are, without an agenda, we forge, nurture, and better understand all relationships. I was thinking how that relates to the Kundalini Yoga that Minerva and Chris are doing to contact Odin, that could go a ways to create a connection and a bond between them since there are exercises like that in Tantric Yoga also. She also uses the example of a rowing team sychronizing their breathing with the strokes that connects the members of the team.

In every buddy movie there are experiences the protagonists share that bring them together in their struggle toward the same goal. I should come up with a few more after they speak with Odin and figure out exactly what Odin is going to tell her since I'm at that point in the animation.

I still need to come up with some good decision points also, I've heard that it helps to base them on the characters personality and what they would do next. I was going to be developing more of Minerva's personality in this chapter through experiences to help her grow. Gaining more self reliance and independence by having to do stuff without her wings and halo is a big part, but I still need some good examples to show it. Showing her inate innocence, empathy and compassion would be a good thing too.

After the meeting with Odin, Chris can try to cheer Minerva up by taking her to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. That will give them more opportunities to bond, to show some examples of her innocence and that her angelic influence is still working. I have a lot of great memories of the concerts at the beach, and the Giant Dipper Rollercoaster that I'm sure that I can come up with something good for them to do. Chris can probably mention that they filmed a lot of movies there like "Sudden Impact" and the "Lost Boys" then Minerva can look blank and ask what that means.


Beach Boardwalk

Monday, April 17, 2006

Monty Hall's Let's Make a Deal Of Fate


My wife brought up an interesting point about the free will of choices and fate. As a hypothetical situation she asked if she would trade our time together and all we had shared for the nebulous promise of something better and more fulfilling. It struck me at the time she said it like the old TV show called "Let's Make a Deal" with Monty Hall asking "Now would you trade your marriage, and everything you have for what's behind door #2?" How would you know what you would get is genuine? A good lesson on that show was that a lot of people were overtaken by greed and traded away something great for something worthless, like a donkey or the lifetime supply of Rice-a-Roni the San Francisco Treat.

That got me to thinking, I might be able to use that situation in "An Angel's Destiny" when Minerva tries to organize the houri into striking for better working conditions that Odin offer her something like the choice between giving up her cause, getting back with Chris, or some other heroes to please her. Might be a good idea to reveal how Odin sent Belle to tempt Chris and how he chose to help her make up her mind also.

She was asking about soulmates and if you could have more than one. I thought about it and figured it was a lot like when Chris put in the frequency and amplitude pattern of the chakras that brought Minerva through the particle beam. Soulmates have matching resonant frequencies in their auras that complement each other. Like the Star Trek TNG episode where Worf goes to different worldlines and quantum realities, one of which he's married to Deanna Troi. To find out which one he origionally came from Data matched his quantum signature to the correct worldline. I figure, soulmates also have a pattern in their chakras that has a similar signature. Like in my story "The Writer's Grand Tour" Peter Jameson's soulmate is Cyan but facet he meets from Steve Nelson's worldline isn't Cyan, he finally finds Harmony to be a match for him.

I was looking for examples of how Minerva would be clueless about the modern world that Chris lives in. Maybe cars would be a good one, when they get into his corvette Minerva could think it was a magical beast and ask what it ate and stuff. Chris would probably have to explain science to her and maybe go into Clarke's Law "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" by those that don't know it's principles. Explaining California culture would probably be a lot harder since even other parts of the country don't get it. When I lived in Santa Cruz it was even different than the Bay Area. As they say "California is like Granola, it's full of fruits, nuts and flakes" San Francisco has the higher concentration of fruits, Santa Cruz has a higher concentration of Nuts and Los Angeles has the higher concentration of flakes.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Soulmates


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I was thinking that when Minerva was devasted about losing her wings and halo, as part of the explaination of why Chris brought her there he could talk about his need for a soulmate and how he happened to get the exact frequency and vibration rate in her chakras. That could give her a better idea about the kind of resonance and harmony the list of assignments meant.

Chris could admit his mistake about thinking he was creating something and apologize for hijacking her then they could start cooperating to contact Odin.


Soulmate - Wikipedia

Minerva has to fight to get Chris admitted to be her partner as a Gaudian Angel so she gets leverage on the admin by organizing the houri to strike for better working conditions, they agree to her demands and everyone grows as a result. Circe could tell them about: Aristophanes' anti-war comedy Lysistrata, written in 411 BC, has female characters, led by the eponymous Lysistrata, barricading the public funds building and withholding consensual sex from their husbands to secure peace and end the Peloponnesian War. In doing so, Lysistrata engages the support of women from Sparta, Boeotia, and Corinth. All of them are at first aghast at the suggestion of withholding sex, but they finally agree and swear an oath to support each other. The woman from Sparta, Lampito, returns home to spread the word there.


Lysistrata