Reshaping Reality

July 6, 2021

My Open Letter to City Designers

I originally wrote this email for the Des Moines City Council. For the past year, I’ve adjusted the verbiage to reflect what I’ve heard in their City Council Meetings with the Public. I also adjust the bullet points and actions I (and others) wish to see them take. Otherwise, most of the letters are verbatim Continue reading

activism, Author, disability, Race, transgender

ableism, access, accessibility, Accessible Cities, disability, disability justice, Disability Pride, Fight Ableism, Homelessness, No More Ableism
November 20, 2013

Seattle: Downtown

Aside from the constant cloud cover, Seattle holds an atmosphere of constant movement; the rumble of cars in the distance and pedestrians walking, each eager to reach their destinations, perpetuates in all directions. Buses are a constant and often necessary form of travel in the city, with many a biker taking advantage of the bike Continue reading

Author, Writing

exploring, Seattle, traveling
November 15, 2013

Travel and Thoughts about Computers

Writing while traveling is a challenge; writing by hand requires bringing notebooks and other materials. Typing instead requires me to bring a computer of sorts, which of course means my laptop. However, this has lead me on a random side tangent. What are the main differences between the two computers? Here they are: Continue reading

Author

laptop, travel
November 9, 2013

Snow White and Cinderella

One of the reasons I found myself diving into the reinvention of fairy tales is simply because the modern takes on them are too stale. They don’t dig into a lot of the more disturbing thematic elements of the original fairy tales. Now, my purpose isn’t to dig into the more violent aspects that riddle Continue reading

Characters, Elivera, Writing

analysis, Characters, cinderella, fairy tales, plot, snow white, thematic elements
November 6, 2013

Our Stories Matter

I wrote this poem a few weeks back and put it up in the poetry forum of Legendfire for some critiques. It helped me polish it up a bit and trim some unneeded lines and stanzas. I wrote it because of a day, where a former friend left me feeling like I didn’t matter. That Continue reading

Author, Poetry, Writing

LGBT, poetry, rape victim advocacy, speak up, survivors
November 6, 2013

Before I die, I want to…..

In June, my town held an Art Festival, where artists from all over the Midwest came to show their wares. A friend of mine convinced me to join her and a mutual friend for a walk around the festival to see all the various mediums of art. Over by the food vendors, and slightly offset Continue reading

Art, Writing

art, before I die I want to, Just keep swimming, NaNoWriMo, TED Talks, writing
October 31, 2013

National Novel Writing Month: Begins Tomorrow at Midnight

Pens ready to go fellow writers? One would hope for tomorrow at midnight, NaNoWriMo begins. I’ll be attending the regional kick-off to see if that helps inspire me to tackle as many words as possible for the first few hours of November. I tend to write in sprints rather than daily word counts, but to Continue reading

Writing

Characters, maps, NaNoWriMo, plotting, writing
October 26, 2013

NaNoWriMo Notes: Characters

Characters are the core of the story. Without them, you really don’t have much of a story or really anything to write. It’s why I take a lot of care in my character building. I want to understand the character the best I can before I start the story itself. Once I know my characters, Continue reading

Author, Characters, Writing

character building, character development, Characters, motivations, NaNoWriMo
October 23, 2013

A Quest

Planning a quest for me. It starts here, at this desk, where my fingers tap keys. A quest unlike most games, where you seek a person, an item, a theme. No, my quest is myself. First, I’ll dismantle me. Rearrange and step back, to see it all — good or bad, murky or clear. Those Continue reading

Author

poetry
October 23, 2013

Paper Mache Project Completed

Here is the final pictures of the paper mache project: I apologize for the fuzzy aspect to the pictures. They were taken with my phone camera. Also, I tilted the globe so you can see the north and south poles more clearly: I am looking down at the globe toward the northern hemisphere and Continue reading

Art, Elivera, Science, World Building

art, globe, map-making, paper mache, planet, three dimensional art, world-building
October 21, 2013

“Weep not for Roads Untraveled”

I haven’t posted here recently due to some heavy and painful moments that happened in the past month. One thing I’ve noticed in regards to myself is that writing and music helps me pass through the pain and emerge stronger on the other side. It’s a bit like being reforged into someone new, but first Continue reading

Author

life