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...well I forgot I had this. No idea if anyone ever has or still does view it, not that there is a reason to anyway if there is no new content ever. Worst to worst, i'm just talking to myself, and when has getting a professional opinion on something been a bad thing?
BUT... I'd hate to have brought such a beautifully named mind-pool into this retched world and see it fester and dissolve into nothingness like so many other things, and so with that I pose the ill-conceived and highly untrustworthy announcement that new things might appear some time soon. Better yet, because let's not sugarcoat the truth here, maybe i'll resurrect this in the actually lively Tumblrverse so that people could actually stumble upon it and see my works, because no one ever says "Oh, did you see that Blogger post?" and attention is a good motivator and I have none here.

So yeah. I might make a Tumblr and post ramblings there, and more likely post pictures because I should really be doing that if I have any real goals of doing anything in life with that.
So uhh... yeah.
Tumblr
Me
At some point
Maybe.

...okay cool.

~"Cornelius"
Your friendly neighborhood Wanderlust

Mission #1 - Deserts and Insects And Hobbits, Oh My!

Ok, SO...
After going to apparently the wrong library first, because of something with my library card being expired which I didn't even know was possible, and then the correct library and also a little old library next to the wrong one that sells books for dirt cheap, I have 4 books from the list:
~ The Kite Runner (already had at my house, actually) by Khaleed Hossini
~ A Thousand Splendid Suns by the same guy
~ The Silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkien
~ Metamorphosis (and other stories) by Franz Kafka

I'm planning on starting (and finishing most likely) Metamorphosis at work tonight because it seemed like it was pretty short when it was on its own, having strange dreams tonight because of it, and then probably moving on to Kite Runner, followed by A Thousand Splendid Suns, and then Silmarillion as time goes on. Those three alone should last me a while, and i'll probably end up reading some of Kafka's other stories because I have the book anyway.

So let the first documented mission of Operation Bookstorm begin.

The List

So
As a writer and someone generally interested in all things written and story-related, it has often been said to me that the best way to get better at writing and to appreciate written word more is to read. And you know what? I'm good with that.
Books are awesome. If you can get yourself into them, they bring you into new worlds and give you new experiences; let you escape reality for a while, become someone or something else. They open the mind and let it run free for an afternoon, creating a world akin to the one your eyes are interpreting from the page.
Reading is fantastic, and I see no reason why anyone should stop, even if society collapses into Fahrenheit 451-type dystopia and we start burning books. If that day comes, i'm clipping on my "I Read Books" pin, grabbing the novel i'm working on, and sitting on a bench somewhere in plain sight not giving a damn, because reading is my drug.
...a drug that I keep a poor schedule with and am still a little unfamiliar with.

And so I have semi-recently elected the help of a few friends, especially one in particular who poured his childhood book list out to me one night and still occasionally drops me a new title (and who also is why this blog is named what it is. Thank you, Chrome. I told you i'd give you credit one day :p)

The result of this pouring out along with some others of my own personal interest is a gigantic list of novels, books series, probably a couple non-fiction works, I don't even know what really. It is large, the books are long, and I want to read them ALL... or... most of them at least.
So what else is a blog good for if I don't make some goal for it, right? That's what this will be: tracking my journey through the Book List Of Doom, providing commentary during or after each book or something, to keep me on track in some regard.

So without further time-wasting, here is the list, in no special order:

The Procrastination Equation

The Singularity Is Near

The Art of War

Dune

House of Leaves

The Casual Vacancy

basically anything by Vonnegut (but already did "Breakfast of Champions")

The Perfect Victim

---------

LotR

Chronicles of Narnia

The Dark Tower

Insomnia

Harry Potter

Foundation

I Robot

Diskworld

The Giver

Kite Runner

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A song of ice and fire

1984

Brave New World

Metamorphisis

The Arsonist

The Mist

Jurassic Park

Andromeda Strain

The Shining

The Green Mile

Shawshank Redemption

The Silmarillion

American Gods.

Metro 2033.

Salvation War

The Time Machine.

"Damn near anything written by Lovecraft"

Nueromancer.

2001

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Catch 22

Robot Visions.

The End of Eternity.

Firestarter.

Red Dragon.

Silence of the Lambs.

The Road

So yeah... wish me luck
As I complete books, they will get crossed out. Unsure if by just editing this post, or making a new one each time... still not sure how to work this, which I will work on working on.

Sincerely yours,

Cornelius

P.S- The list goes on. I don't care if I never reach the end because it keeps expanding, that's awesome, I can never have enough books to read. So suggest away! Clearly there is a theme of dystopia and such going on, but if it was a good book and you recommend it even if it's not with this theme, give me the name and i'll add it on.

Advenæ (“New Arrivals”)

[Pronounced "add-ven-eye"]

They came like foxes

In pack upon pack,

Engulfing every inch of land

In a growling, glaring mass.

They attacked like lions:

Quick, precise, deadly;

Taking out the poor and the weak first,

Then circling the rest on all four sides

No escape,

No hopes

Then they moved in and finished the job.

They disappeared like birds

Slinking back to whence they came

With news of their triumph,

The only trace of their presence

Being the desecration and carnage

They left behind.

(If you take the first line of each stanza, you get the quote this was inspired by.... if I remembered it correctly. Was just a pretty awesome quote I thought, so I figured, why not make a poem out of it?)

((In other news, I am attempting to start to update this on at least a weekly basis for a while, then it should clear up and get more involved after next week, because then I should be done with tests, and that means lots of free time to write and read and whatever. So soon as well I should be traversing the dreaded, near-50 item book and book series list, with which I shall document my reactions to the books or what they spark in that brain of mine or whatever. So yeah, it'll get fun in here soon enough, I promise))

Canticum Antecessorum (“The Song of the Ancestors”)

She stands atop the grassy hill

Her black hair flowing in the evening wind,

Gazing off into the blazing orange of the setting sun.

Taking a deep breath, she lifts her bow and violin to her chin,

Closes her eyes,

And begins to play for the setting sun and the world around her.

She plays not of love,

Not of loss,

But of beauty and nature

Letting her fingers dance along the strings like a performer on a stage

Jumping from end to end, note to note

Piecing them all together in a quilt stitched for the ears of the few

The free

The fantastical.

On the land bellow,

A small group of woodland creatures amasses

To listen to her tune,

Ears twitching in time with her strokes,

Birds joining in to provide some light vocals,

Creating a soundtrack Mother Nature herself would weep to hear.

As the sun sinks deeper bellow the horizon to make room for the moon,

She slows

Lifts the bow

And opens her eyes to meet those of her crowd.

She smiles as they stare with ears bent back and heads cocked to the side,

The birds floating in the air, as if they were notes left unplayed on a page

Looking, listening, waiting for the song to go on.

The violinist just smiles down at them.

“Maybe I’ll play you some more tomorrow,” she giggles to the excitement of the creatures,

Then gives them a wink

Turns

And walks off into the moonlight

In search of somewhere

only she knows.

6400mg of Insanity

Redbull, Monster, Redbull, Monster

Redbull, Monster, Redbull, Monster

Red Red red red redbull monster

Monster monster monster red

Red red red red red red-bull

Mons mons mons mons mons mon-ster

Energy energy energy drink

Energy energy is what I need

Hyper active is what I get

Crazy crazy is what I seem

Fun fun fun is what I’ll have

Run run run is what you’ll do,

Or else I’ll make you a poem TOO!

(Written one day under the influence of an energy drink, so please excuse the oddness. It will serve as an okay coming-back post I think though)

Technical Derpiculties

Ugh.
I really need to sit down for a few hours or so and figure this thing out.
~The background isn't looking right
~The text colors look kind of out-of-place
~I don't know how to even change some of the texts
~I want to add things here and there
~My slogan-thing is kind of dumb at the moment
~Stuff
~Things

So still, bear with the horrid mismanagement until I actually take a day to make this look nice. I mean, it's alright right now, but it could be better.


Oh, and if you're curious, this is what the background is:

Ramblings: Science

Let's try to be more real today, shall we? (even though reality is boring most of the time)

Today's topic:

SCIENCE

Credit to XKCD for being awesome

Boy, what a beautiful subject science is, especially biology. Something about hearing how all these tiny processes are occurring inside every living thing at every moment of it's life is fascinating. DNA, ribosomes, Killer T cells, nerves, frontal lobe.... the language of science is quite the thing.
I love it so much, that i've decided I will dedicate at least another 4 years of my life to learning how everything biological works in college, and hopefully get out of that and right into some sort of a laboratory job. I've always wanted to work in a lab, ever since I was young, but only when I took Living Environment 4 years ago did I realize biology and life science was my area of interest. Who can resist the allure of punnet squares, enzymes, phagocytosis... just, just... EVERYTHING is amazing. What has come to be even more of an amazement to me is that maybe I can work on fighting viruses and improving the body internally, sure, but what about externally? What if I could apply biology to improve arm and leg function, or heighten hearing, or maybe even create a camera that is literally in your eye? Wouldn't that be awesome? Just imagine that: Pictures taken perfectly from how you see it, your point of view. The possibilities are endless, and it would be infinitely lighter and easier the way I see it, no more heavy equipment to lug around and set up, you just look, think, and *click*, there is a picture!
Maybe I could make plant-people, virtually eliminating the need for food as we could just be solar powered. That'd be pretty nice, saves time.

"Cornelius!" you must be saying, "That's immoral! Why would you do that? HOW would you do that?"
To such outbursts, I say: Relax. Science is good, and I only intend to use it for such. Only when one becomes too involved in a study do the ideas of world domination and human enslavement come to sound reasonable, and I do not intend to ever reach that point.
No, I intend to make life better, more awesome, through science. Maybe cure or reduce a disease or two, hopefully at the least make strides toward real, very cool augmentations like that eye one I mentioned. I'm a logical human being, I can keep ethics in mind, even if I want to go all-out mad and just start experimenting left and right one day, it just holds too many poor consequences. Don't want to hid out in a Forest experimenting on trees and critters until I inevitably literally work myself to death, now do I?

Still.... I need to actually see where the opportunities for such work are. What exactly would I need to do to learn such skills to make an in-eye camera? Who would support such an endeavor? Where?
There are still many kinks to work out in this plan, but I think the college years will help iron out many of them as the true reality sets in and I see if such feats are really possible today.
I have high hopes though for the future of biotechnologies though, so be on the lookout for one Cornelius' name plastered on the limbs of the disabled and in-need in the future.

Anti-Reality

OH GOD IT'S A GOOSE GET IN THE BUS

Games to Play In Forrests

I made a meme, LOL

It was dark.

The night was reaching its apex, the only source of light coming from the bright and full moon.

There were trees everywhere, since it was a forrest and they usually contain trees and such.You spot a cabin off in the distance, with a faint yellow light glowing outside it.
You decide to approach it, since, well, you have nowhere else to go considering you're in a FORREST at NIGHT. Idiot.
As you get closer, you realize that the light was a little flame in a lantern hanging outside the cabin door. You take the lantern and look around the outside front of the cabin a bit, looking for a sign of life, the only one of which is a mosquito buzzing in your ear and trying to get to the flame. You swat it and it leaves you alone, like nature intended.
It's pretty darn cold out, and there is nothing else to do, so you decide to enter the cabin. You approach the door and open it slowly, uttering a shy "...hello?" as you do so. No response emits from the dark insides of the cabin. You open the door fully and step inside, swinging the lantern to the left side to look for a light switch. You find one and flick it on, filling the small cabin with light. But, you soon realize as you turn to fce forward again, there is nothing in the cabin but another door in the center of it's one, rectangular room. You close the door you came in from, and it locks behind you and the lights all shut off, except for one over the door directly. Perplexed and now trapped, you hear your mother's advice echo in your head "Forrest? What's there in the forrest? Nothing but bears and ax murderers, I tell ya! Just like your father!"
The illuminated door bekons to you to open it, and you swear it wispers exactly that to you.....in a seductive voice..... like the one of that one girl you met in---
The cold. It is getting to you, clearly. See what happens when you make rash decions? You are totally going to be stuck here. Foreeeeeeverrrrrr......
"SHUT UP!" you yell to absoultely nothing, except maybe the door, which you think looks sad now. I'm just a narrator, I don't exist, so stop trying to yell at me, lest you want to end up in the basement you can't see that is directly bellow you and filled with things you don't know the half about. I can do that you know.
"Fine." you harumph to nothing yet again, and approach this new door. You open it slowly again, and as soon as you do, you realize you are in yet another room with just a door in it. You go through that one too, and the same thing happens.
Same with the next one
and the next one
and the next one
and the next one
and the next one
and the next one
and the next one
and even the next one after that.
You try to go backwards, but all the doors lock right as you enter, so you can't. You are trapped in limbo, sprinting through doors forever like some obsessed mouse in a linear maze.
Just running through door, after door, after door, after door.

Should have listened to your mother: nothing good ever comes from forrests.


(Sporadic story I thought of. Don't know what to say other than that. Is it badly written? yes. Is it still kinda entertaining anyway? Yes. So there, my job is done.)
((Boy, that would suck though, to be trapped in limbo like that. Door after door after door leading to more doors. That'd drive anyone insane. Maybe you'd even try to befriend the door, get it to let you out. But of course, it is a door, it cannot do anything but open and close to a room.))

And now.... Poetry!

Brains
Brains
Gotta love those brains
Process information at the speed of bullet trains
Remember all your pains
Don't fit well through drains
Yes, there's a million things to say about your brains!

Nerves
Nerves
They tell you when to swerve
Point you in the right direction
When life throws you a curve.
Reactions and contractions, they all come down to nerves!

Feet
Feet
Golly, are they neat!
Leave little tracks on the grass and on the street.
Made of squishy meat
Keep you upright in your seat
You would be nowhere, if you didn't have no feet!

Hands
Hands
Fun to wrap in rubber bands
It would be a problem,
If they turned into strands
Used to grab onto cans
Perhaps do some handstands
Oh man, the wonders and joys of having hands!

Bones
Bones
Made up of white tones
Hold you all together
So don't become a stone.
The marrow is a treat
Just don't get it from your feet
You'd be a puddle, if you did not have bones!

Organs
Organs
Not the kind you play
The kind that mushes your food
Or helps you say "Hey, dude!"
Plentiful and great
(And sometimes worth their weight!)
So keep them clean and neat!

Reality Is Boring

Here, have some double-exposure pictures I've taken in the past.

Because they're cool.

Both were taken in NYC. It was a very nice day, and I love these pictures.

Building "growing" out of a crosswalk signal

Wall Street Bull. Where is the double exposure? I don't know, but the smokey black lines were a total accident when I was sizing the image to be put on the paper. Pretty awesome mistake, eh?

The Trouble With Bushes: Prologe

There was a hop,
a skip,
and then finally,
a jump.
Finally! Freedom from that dark, dingey hole I called "home". I stopped on top of a hill to admire the views, the expansive meadow glowing with the sunrise reflecting off the early morning dew, and streched my legs. Today was going to be a good day, I could feel it.
Maybe i'd find a new place to call home, perhaps somewhere not constantly damp and prone to cave-ins.
Maybe i'd stumble upon some cool treasures, like a hidden waterfall or some buried gems.
OOOH! OOOH! Maybe i'd find a new freind! Yeah! That would be cool, I could use a freind to go through the day with.

With my mission clear, I turned my nose to the air and sniffed for a sign of life.
Wet....wet...grass....berry....we--
Wait.... BERRY?? Oh wow, it's been a long time since i've smelled that sweet aroma. Not since.... the fire. Poor Hilbert didn't stand a chance, his Mulberries just adding fuel to the flames engulfing his branches. It was a dark day for all of us, a day i will never forget....
But these berries smelled different, They didn't have that Hilbert-musk to them, they smelled more... sweet, perhaps even sugary. They smelled like freindship and fun, two things I sorely needed. I sniffed the air again and spotted the bushes a short hop down the hill and charged head-on toward them.
"BERRIES!!!" I squealed as I jumped between two of the bushes and grabbed a couple berries in each paw, staining them a slight redish color. I savored their scent for a short while, but couldn't contain my antisipation for long, and plunged them into my mouth with a gasp. "Mmmmmmmm....." I moaned, "Delicious. I shall call you Peter, and we will be the best of-- URK!" Something wasn't right: where there was once sweet goodness, there now only sat the painful burn of poison. I tried to spit out what was left, but it was already too late, the berry bombs were already on their way through my body, sending horrible cramps and pains throughout.
"I....I trusted you, Peter!" I shouted, "You were the chosen one! We were going to be best friends! And within a minute of meeting you, you already tried to kill me." A tear formed at the corner of my eye at such betrayal, it was just so unexpected. "You're not going to get away with this...." I yelled, but Peter just stared at me and watched me writh in agony as his evil fruits worked havoc on my stomach.

I started crawling for him to attempt retrubution, but passed out before I could, feeling him laugh at having won the battle.
But the war, my freind, had just begun.


(Can't spell check, so sorry. Darn you, Internet Explorer!!!)

Declaration of Intent

I, "Cornelius", do hereby agree to utilize this blog and it's associated gadgets, gizmos, widgets, and doo-hickies for the expressed purposes of:
~Displaying photographs
~Informing the reluctant masses of what strange holidays may be being observed each day, and what they may do to please the holiday gods
~Giving a view into the strange land that is my mind, though the ancient art of sporadic storytelling and random ramblings
~Giving myself yet another place to procrastinate and get lost amongst the endless hordes of websites
~Staying sane (I mean, if you could call it that)

During the duration of my quest, I solemnly swear to keep up the illusion of class and interestingness by never revealing my true form or the forms of my colleagues, and keeping the nature of this blog clean and humorous for all to enjoy.
If I deviate from this rules or forget my task at any time, I hereby agree to accept all repercussions, real and imagined, for my lack of control and utter disregard for the safety and well-being of all who may look upon the contents of this page.

X__"CORNELIUS"___


In addition, by reading this declaration and the ensuing content of this blog, you, the reader, agree to take everything I, "Cornelius", say with a grain of salt and never take it too seriously unless I declare you must otherwise. You agree that if the situation arises that you feel your thoughts about my mission must be heard, you will undertake the same rules for maintaining class and good will that I must, for my sake and the sake of the blog. If you, the Reader, fail to follow these simple guidelines until I declare you are allowed to do so, you agree to accept that I, "Cornelius", will forever and always glare at and think angry thoughts whenever I see your name or likeness in the presence of this establishment, and you will seek no revenge for such (but you may gladly attempt to right your wrongs. I am a forgiving soul after all.)

Thank you for reading and agreeing to this declaration, and have a pleasant day.

...and into the world he went

Alright.

WELL
I'm gonna have to spend time today perfecting this...... thing, considering dropbox is being unhelpful and I don't know what i'm doing.
Please bear with the mess while we clean up and get to know the stakes. Shouldn't take long, I have time to kill these days.

In the meantime, look at this goat:

LOOK AT IT

Testing
Testing
1 2 3
Springtime comes with Cherry Jubillie.