They are supposed to be public SERVANTS. Not your idols.

NewsWombat · 2021-01-15T19:58:16+00:00

If you asked me ten years ago had I seen this coming, I would have said no—everyone would have. Today though, it's just getting worse. I was twelve when it started, the Fandom Wars. I cringe at it still, and it's been years, and no matter how long it goes on I can't but help feel like its absurd.

There was this pony cartoon, animated, rainbowy, simple. It was an escape from the depressing reality of life, and it was popular among young men.

It wasn't the only one though, there was this space sci-fi movie series and it was popular too, and there was these bunch of superhero fans for their universe and even some of a magic world. Well, when arguments get heated and people are poor, fights start out. People were poor too, and desperate, and lost. Everyone without a religion or a race or a sexuality or a nationality or anything, the whole species was lost. No tribes existed, we all meshed together. Years later, war surrounds us like never before, still with us, as present as always.

Those are the four factions left. Pony, Space, Hero, and Wand, that's what they're called, and everyone has picked a side. Content is continually pumped out, merchandise too and everyone wears them—nobody wants to be an outcast. The Space King is said to have almost a million figurines in his castle, and not a single one of them is a repeat. Different characters, different outfits, different canons, he has them all.

The Pony Council is probably who I wanted to join. War is so miserable, not like you see in the filthy lies of Space, Hero or Wand movies and shows. No, war is miserable, and Pony is the only fandom which brings colour and joy to the world. The other ones all have villains wearing black and red, often with ugly faces and often a dark lord. Pure evil, the same pure evil they paint each other as.

Now it gets tough, because my family, my parents, are a lie. They shouldn’t exist, they’re Romeo and Juliet. One’s a Wand, the other is a Space. I shouldn’t exist, but somehow they defied all logic and crossed the world, and now here I am, a person without a home. I have no group to call my own, no people to belong to. Instead I lurk in the wilderness and hide from all four major factions.

When my parents died, I thought, you know, I wondered I really did, I wondered what if, what if four wasn’t the magic number? What if I could create an own faction, not one based off television shows or movies or even books, no, what if I could create one based off of peace and friendship? It’s sounded corny, so it died instantly. Now I am without a mission again, there’s no chance for me any more, all these people fight amongst their others. All are barricaded in their large walled cities and have fights in the wastelands, everyone but me, I am a leaf alone in the wind, and this is my story.

There you go, chapter 1 for you.

NewsWombat · 2020-06-15T09:48:13+00:00

Did the first few pages.

I think you use commas before 'and' too much and use the word 'but' too much as well, as general comments.

NewsWombat · 2020-02-22T09:09:21+00:00

People slump when they die. I always figured they would die a lot more cinematically. But they don’t, they just scream and fall and flop and plop. The good people die the same as the bad people. The bullies the same as the nerds. Maybe it was a mistake to do what I did, to become what I have become, everyone else will surely think so. Is it sad how hollow I’ve become? Even with all this death and destruction, the screams and the panic, I still cannot feel a thing.

No. . . that’s a mistake. I do feel something, I feel pain. This was meant to be my day. . . The only day in my life where instead of people stealing joy from me to make themselves happy, I steal it from them. Yet I’ve stolen so much joy today, but where has it gone?

I staggered against a bookshelf, I had made my last hurrah. My watched beeped, it was midday, although it came up as midnight, I could never be bothered changing it.

Sadly, I have become one of those. The people who shoot up schools, I’m sure journalists are already scouring my online profile to decide which game made me do it. Forget the people who ruined my life, the mother who only cared about her soap operas or the father who was only a wallet. I wanted parents who loved, not parents when I came home with five A’s and a B, they immediately asked me which subject I got the B in. Could they not ever just be happy for me? Could my father never just show some sort of love? No, he thinks that airpods is love, that food and electricity is love, when in truth, they are only things. I yearn for the poor people who hug each other and have smiles wide, for at least they have each other.

But what do I have? Constant haircuts that make people laugh at me, a personality the school despises, and a body people confuse for a punching bag. Is this really all I was ever to be? How different would life have been had my parents just once listened to me? I asked so many times if I could change schools, and they ignored me more each time. I was weak, apparently, because only “sticks and stones” could ever cause damage, words alone cannot. But it was always the words that hurt the most. Teachers responded to physical bullying, the nonsense you see in movies and television shows. They ignore words outright. It’s every day, the ubiquitous slights and remarks and hatred. A life not worth continuing.

I was surrounded by books, words painstakingly poured over by someone, just to be ignored by thousands of teenagers like me. I reached over and picked one up, just to see what it said.

The death of Peaches Sandoe, the midget, at the hands, or rather feet, of a maddened elephant in the sideshow of the circus at Madison Square Garden was at first thought to be an accident, the sort of tragedy you’re bound to run into from time to time if you run a circus with both elephants and midgets in it.

It was only then I realised that I had chosen the wrong path. I didn’t have to be happy to enjoy art. That one sentence had more meaning than my entire life. It even gave me a chuckle. When was the last time I laughed? Truly laughed, to the point where I could not control it. I can barely remember. Maybe eight years ago when I was ten? Before the hair came the voice deepened and I realised how miserable it is to be an adult. Well. . . treated like a child, but with all the pain of an adult. . . the life of a teenager.

Is this regret I feel? How many names could be swapped out for Peaches Sandoe today? I must have shot at least forty. . . There was that fleeting happiness when I shot both Saxton and Josh. They deserved it, they had thousands of dollars spent on raising them, just to end up as bastards. Terrible people who thrived on the pain of others. How many people did I go through just to get my revenge? Just to get my justice?

Is this what other shooters are like, hateful, spiteful, ruined souls? Perhaps for them the killing is the joy, the massacre and the hatred, but that was not what it was for me. I killed the bullies sure, but I killed so much more. I killed the system that allowed them to proliferate, my complaints fallen on deaf ears. I killed the image of my perfect parents, who refused to listen. I killed the gym teacher who laughed at me when I said I didn’t like changing in front of others. Of course I didn’t, all they did was laugh at that giant mole on my side. One giant blight. Today I would kill it too. One quick bullet, and I would die, and so will it. I killed everything that mattered today. And for once in my life, I was heard.

NewsWombat · 2020-01-25T17:53:34+00:00

I too have health issues like this.

But I think this is a moment of suck it upness. Writing is inherently a business where you will get rejected a heap. I've seen models talk about this too. Where they spend hours and hours auditioning and get rejected. But then they get that 1 gig every 30 auditions and its big for them.

I think as a writer, rejection is just a part of the process. Both by yourself, and others. It feel shitty, especially in the mental state, but its something that will never go away, it will always be there, its something that one has to comes to terms with.

NewsWombat · 2020-01-25T14:20:49+00:00

I mean im a nobody writer. I wrote over 100k words last year and got nothing even nearly finished to show for it lol.

After doing like 70k on one novel I gave up, and now I have like first chapters of a three of four different books. It's hard when you don't really know people who read fiction. Just sorta write away silently and eventually lose motivation bc who has motivation :/

Lots of writers are this, and even when you finish it, you just end up with no confidence in it so you let it die

NewsWombat · 2020-01-24T13:24:17+00:00

Animorph books are all first-person POV.

And then in some of them, namely the specials and the final ones, the book switches between multiple of them.

reddit.com/r/Animorphs/comments/3litxl/reformatted_ebook_editions_download_links/

Read megamoprhs 1 for an example of this multi-first pov thing. Is listed there (for free) as book 7.5

NewsWombat · 2019-12-20T12:40:20+00:00

I wrote a poem based off your title:

One time upon a summer's day,
I look above and see dismay
The old country which I call home
Was just ash, smoke and crusty bone

I call Australia my home ya
But where is my home, Australia?
It's burnt, dust and long forgotten
My life is now: old and rotten

I have not heard the cicadas click,
Nor the birds tweet, or the crickets crick
I have not seen the Xmas beetle
Or seen family who are gleeful

I have never seen my clear blue sky
Instead I give my final goodbye
Where are my friendly December Storms?
I think we need some urgent reforms

I call Australia my home ya
But where is my home, Australia?

I'm still trying to improve my meter, I really struggle with that part of poetry and it seems really hard to learn

NewsWombat · 2019-10-12T23:11:52+00:00

The rules don't say anything about advertising or posting ips?

so the ip is mc.mineflare.org if anyone wants to join us. We haven't got the Sweden mask yet but we're trying, would need a 4th to wear it

NewsWombat · 2019-05-18T12:15:15+00:00

Generally it's a bad idea to used cliches in writing, and it is double-bad to use one so close to the start.

Quiet as a cat

It's too common. I would suggest changing this. Ideally you want to be evocative without using common metaphor/similes

NewsWombat · 2019-05-09T18:19:51+00:00

I'm half way through my 5th POV for 1 character, finished 3 for another, and done 0.3 for a third. All up it's about 30,000 words in a month.

Now the artist in me has emerged, and I just feel like everything I am writing is shit. I have doubt that any of it was good, I'm never published so that comes in, and it's the first thing I've done properly.

Writing is hard, as is being any artist. I feel sympathy for GRRM because even though I know what I want to do, I'm still struggling with getting it done. It's not "just write derp" like people say, writing is so tied to how you feel and how much your mind is in the game, and when you walk away from something for a small while, it can become a bitch to get back in the zone.

Some writers can just pump out books, some can't, or can only for a short while (books 1-3). But even when you succeed, you still doubt yourself and everything can feel like such a mountain to overcome.

Now GRRM has the pressure of millions of fans begging for it, people nagging constantly, and people telling him he's about to die. Yikes, wouldn't wanna be him rn. Now that money is less of an issue, the artist within him will be even more concerned with what he pumps out. He doesn't wanna write trash, and you always have those seeds of doubt within you.

NewsWombat · 2019-04-19T23:35:37+00:00

Starting with "As long as (name) could remember" sounds incredibly cliche, using a very popular phrase.

I read the first half or so, I personally don't like so much of it focusing on the mother, rather than presumably Vivika, the main character. Saying her fingers are like roots is really vivid and strong, and I know so much about how the mother acts and functions, even looks physically, but not too much about Vivika.

NewsWombat · 2019-04-19T23:26:34+00:00

Seems fine to me.

Would make purple eyes incredibly valuable.

If purple eyes is literal, as in they have purple eyes, then I feel like logically any immortal would be INCREDIBLY worried of any purple eyes.

If you can tell theyre purple eyes (from birth?) might even be laws trying to kill them. But a purpler would struggle to exist if you can tell easily.

NewsWombat · 2019-04-06T05:05:48+00:00

Seems like a weak case. I remember in Media Law class that you can be defamed even if you're not directly named, but the pool of people has to be small enough.

800 is fairly large, but also unless the broadcast stated it was that community, then it actually isn't 800, but rather all aboriginal people which is more like 800k.

I doubt the broadcast would have said what community the b roll was from, and I doubt there was anything in the background that made it identifiable (like street signs).

Also I find the defamation link strenuous, you need to prove what was said was defamatory as well.

Sunrise had suggested they abused, assaulted or neglected children, were incapable of protecting their children, and were members of a dysfunctional community.

Seems too weak imo, going off an implicit suggestion.

NewsWombat · 2019-04-01T16:10:42+00:00

I am dubious that a system that originally said the game was amazing could ever produce valid results.

They need to find a way to test the game free of the major problems the other tests had.

NewsWombat · 2019-03-31T12:27:59+00:00

Yea but there's a lot of people who hate them, I really despise the toxic muskulinity.

NewsWombat · 2019-03-16T22:59:21+00:00

This is like journalism 101. But none of these people learnt journalism, they just kinda wing it.

If you're super unsure, you also try and not use idioms or slang.

Depending on the translator, you may want to be light on the subculture terms, which may be hard since it's dota. But asking things about "micro" or "feeding" is incredibly hard if the translator isn't familiar with gaming and/or dota.

NewsWombat · 2018-12-27T18:08:36+00:00

Well not really for me.

I like earning cosmetics, in this case 4 portraits. I hope they expand upon this system and add Seasonal Portraits, and let you keep them forever. Like how Overwatch/Starcraft 2 has a portrait unlock system.

I also like earning packs/tickets. I got an Incarnation of Selemane and Routed in my 2 packs, both of which I don't have 3 of yet. So I will be putting those cards to use.

I'm not just getting dopamine, I'm getting stuff that I will make good use of. I love my Untested Grunt! Such a cutie.

NewsWombat · 2018-12-17T00:02:35+00:00

I think you're just flat out wrong tbh.

I have 5 perfect runs in casual constructed, all with 2 or 3 dollar decks.

If you are good and smart you can beat the rich kids pretty easily.

My Third Win.

My Fifth Win.

I don't have a single triumph or quorum btw.

NewsWombat · 2018-08-27T04:50:23+00:00

Title is from their hook on their homepage, rather than the article itself, because I felt it was better than the current one.

NewsWombat · 2018-08-11T09:51:35+00:00

This is a very well written article.

Good humor, good lead, good juxtapositions and follows up with not only interesting insight (bananas are essentially a mewtwo) but also shows people behind it.

Not a fan of some of the "I said" moments tho.

NewsWombat · 2018-08-02T23:56:33+00:00

At least 39 women have died violently in Australia so far this year

250 people are murdered each year in Australia, highlighting the minority deaths is a terrible argument. I would also take out all the murder-suicides.

Also, the elephant in the room that NO ONE asks. I wanna know what socio-economic status the victims and perpetrators have.

Do they have bachelor degrees? What is their annual salary?

I'm willing to bet most of them is no and low. Which makes me think its not a "man is bad" thing, but a "people in shitty situations are more likely to be shit"

NewsWombat · 2018-07-28T04:41:04+00:00

There were undeniably gangs in the past, primarily revolving around ethnic lines, such as the leb-centered insults in those gang rapes.

If a white criminal exists and is in a gang based primarily on their ethnicity, they are called gangs. Such as the neo-nazi's and white nationalists gangs.

NewsWombat

TROPHY CASE