yes, in an amazing feat of mental prowess I have somehow managed to graduate from Kutztown. You heard right. I, Sean Ross, have once again graduated college (for the second time).

ok ok. I'm done tooting my own horn here. Basically I somehow managed to actually get my shit together and finished school. As of nine something tommorow morning my school will be announcing their fall 2009 graduating class. Many people in nice robes will be decked out in thermals underneath due to the impending snow storm. So where will I be in all this fun and excitement?

At work. Yep. I will be safely inside the Flourtown Acme pushing milk bread and eggs across a little red laser beam while my fellow graduates strut across a metal plank into adulthood. See it's supposed to blizzard tommorow and no amount of celebration will convince me to step out in zero degree weather like some kind of weirdo in a Harry Potter costume. So i'll be making money. YAY MONEY!

In related news this means I need to find other employment other than the ACME which, up until now, has safely paid my tuition and car bills. But I want to move on and leave the room on the second floor of my parents house sometime in the next year. I actually have no bloody clue what or where I'm going to find a job. But I will. and rest assured it will be awesome. In the meantime I will use my free time to work on the novel. I believe I've come to some very interesting conclusions on how to handle some situations within. On Tuesday I begin the process of writing it. I'm hoping that when I show some of you the work that you really like what I have done.


In other, totally unrelated news, I began playing my copy of Pokemon Platinum and am happy to report that I have sucessfully maxed out my Infernape to level 99.

go me.

*I posted this as a discussion topic on my Facebook page and got some cool results.*

This morning I read a review for the upcoming film 'The Lovely Bones' by Ed Gonzales of slantmagazine.com. In reflecting on the subject of the girl's time in Heaven he says:

"This is an exciting but compromised vision that becomes boring when one considers how the nightmares and dreamscapes of little girls (as in Pan's Labyrinth) are too often related on screen by male filmmakers as glossy fairy tales while the ecstasies and horrors experienced or hallucinated by young boys (as in The Devil's Backbone) are conveyed on much earthier—more true-to-life—terms. "

this got me me thinking about the fantasy stories that revolve around children and in the ways they are told. I feel that the author of this review does indeed have a good point. The two examples he uses are both masterpieces by Guilermo Del Toro (Better known as the director of the Hellboy franchise). In Pan's the young girl is in a war (Possibly WW2) and so she escapes into a fairy tale kingdom that begins to play out agaisnt the horrors of the war that is enveloping her life. In his Devil's Backbone, Del Toro takes similar themes of a young child trying to survive a war (Spanish Civil War), only this time it's a little boy in an orphanage. Like the girl in Pans, the boy is constantly tortured mentally by outside forces that makes him withdraw into himself. In his pain he begins hearing noises and, eventually, sees the ghost that haunts the grounds.

The same idea can be held in the use of literature as well. In JK Rowling's 'Harry Potter' the magic adventures are, for the most part, taking place in the same time and place as the mundane everyday world that we inhabit. If one looks at Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury the mystical circus exists in the real world and the magic bleeds out into the lives of Will and Jim.

If we look at Alice In Wonderland, Coraline, Wizard of Oz, all these girls must enter into an alternate phase of the world or another dimension in order to experience their adventures.

so what are your thoughts.

Well the last 8 or so years of my life are about to come to a close. If all goes well by the end of December I'll be finished college and on to the next stage. On Tuesday I'll be finished with my internship at MONTCO and by the end of the week I'll have the majority of my portfolios finished for final submissions. If those go well then I will a member of Kutztown University's graduating class of 2009. if I'm not then I'll figure something out. Keep watching this space to find out!

My Book:

As many of you know I've been slaving away at various novels of the course of the last few years. Well the good news on that front is that lately i've been making some decent head way with the series and hopefully soon I'll have the time to sit down and plug away at the actual writing of it. As it stands the first set of books I wish to write are based on a female character named Emma Docherty. Set sort of like the Harry Potter books the series will follow the lead character through her life up until about the age of 26 or so. unlike the Potter books it won't be one long magnum opus that tells one story as it goes along. My plan is that each book be basically a self contained adventure in this girl's life.

The books will also alternate between this world and the world of Daelin, a place of my own creation (in the vein of Narnia and such), sometimes being partly between both worlds as they go on. At this point I have plans for five books in the Emma Docherty series.

In those plans I have certain points with characters built in where I can spin-off adventures of other characters. Like the ending of the second book involves one of the lead characters basically sacrificing himself to bring Emma's adopted brother from the underworld. A future book will follow this character as he travels through a version of the underworld in a quasi retelling of Dante's Divine Comedy (My favorite thing I've written so far:
"To tell you the truth, Waters. You humans have so many personal demons that I could raise an army with them. Wouldn't even have to draft my bretherehn. The only problem is they have so much damn baggage." )

The version of the afterlife I'm using isn't exclusivley Christian or jewish or islam or anything like that. I've read over 30 or 40 books in the last year or so (been planning this story for a long time, longer than much of the Emma stuff) on the nature of afterlife belief in most religions and am currently choosing the aspects of each one that kind of overlap (much like I did with the folklore a while back). Much of what I will end up writing will also probably not be what I personally believe and I know will piss off different people (it already has with some). But I will say that it will be most telling of my views on religion on whole (I'm not the most favorable on religion).


Each of the the Emma books right now have about 40 or 50 pages of notes typed up. I have complete histories of both the fictional real world and the world of Daelin. extensive character bios. Thigns seem to be finally coming together for me right now. Let's hope this keep up, right?

so that's what is going on with me.

1) Name: Sean

2) Name Backwards: Naes

3) Were you named after anyone? nope. Named sean because there were too many johns in the family.

4) Does your name mean anything? it's Gaelic form of John. Apparenlty it means God's Gift

5) Nick Name(s): got a few but they're not really used except,like, three people.

6) Screen Name(s): Ghostmick3, Scross2118, (AIM). Gh0stM1ck (here, youtube, assorted other sites), Metal4666 (Xbox Live)

Apparently number 7 is MIA.

8) Place of Birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

9) Nationality: American.

10) Current Location: Flourtown, Pennsylvania.

11) Sign: Libra.

12) Religion: Catholic (technically)

13) Height: about 5'6" in reality, 5'7" on my liscence

14) Weight: 245 pounds

15) Shoe Size: 8 1/2 mens

16) Hair colour: strawberry blonde.

17) Eye colour: light blue tot he point they're almost grey.

18) What do you look like? myself

19) Innie or Outie? innie.

20) Righty, Lefty, both? Righty.

21) Gay, Straight, Bi, or Other? Straight

22) Best friends? Fred, Dave, RJ.

23) Best friend you trust the most: See the above.

24) Best friends: See 22

25) Best friends of the opposite sex: I really don't know. see, i come from a standpoint where i don't differentiate between genders when it comes to friends.

26) Best Bud(s): See question 22

27) Boyfriend / Girlfriend: currently i'm single.

28) Crush: a few of them.

29) Parent(s): Nelson and Jessie

31) Favorite on-line Guy(s): once again I don't differentiate. my friends are simply my friends. this oges for online as it is offline.

32) Favorite on-line Girl(s): once again I don't differentiate. my friends are simply my friends. this oges for online as it is offline.

33) Funniest friend: i find all these friend questions rather redundant.

34) Craziest friend:

35) Advice Friend:

36) Loudest Friend:

37) Person you cry with:

Do You Have...

38) Any sisters: nope.

39) Any brothers: Yes

40) Any pets: no

41) A Disease: yes

42) A Pager: nope

43) A Personal phone line: my cell

44) A Cell phone: Yes.

45) A Lava lamp: no

46) A Pool or hot tub: neither. i prefer a shower.

47) A Car: Chevy Cobalt

Describe Your...

48) Personality: eh, i guess i'm easy going. i like stuff.

49) Driving: erratic.

50) Car or one you want: Chevelle

51) Room: white. got my crap all over the place (in the process of goin through my shit and getting rid of old stuff)

52) What’s missing? dunno.

53) School: kutztown

54) Bed: Single.

55) Relationship with your parent(s): No complaints.

Do You

56) Believe in yourself: for the most part. i think.

57) Do you believe in love at first sight? love is somethign that needs to be worked at. I did the first sight thing and it never worked out.

58) Consider yourself a good listener: Yes

60) Get Along with your parents: Yes.

61) Save your e-mail conversations: depends ont he situation

62) Pray: when i remember.


63) Believe in reincarnation: i dont know. there's many beliefs in this world, whose to say that isn't the right thing.

64) Like to make fun of people: Sometimes .

65) Like to talk on the phone: not really. i type faster than i talk.

66) Like to eat? only because its a necesity for survival.

67) Like to drive: Yes, especially long distances on the open highway.

68) Get motion sickness: yes.

69) Eat the stems of broccoli: yes

70) Eat Chicken fingers with a fork: depends on my mood.

71) Dream in color: depends on the dream.

72) Type with your fingers on home row: not really. i just kinda let them flow and how they hit the keys is how they hit the keys. usually i know how to correlate them into words so home row- meh.

73) Sleep with a stuffed animal: not int the last 20 or so years.

74) Right next to you: remote control.

75) On the walls of your room: Army Of Darkness poster and some framed vinyl records: Metallica- Master of Puppets, Star Wars Soundstrack, Doors- 13, Norah Jones- Feels Like Home.

76) On your mouse pad: i have no mouse.

77) Your dream car: chevy chevelle

78) Your dream date: my business really, but for some reason it will involve watching the Star Wars Trilogy.

79) Your dream honeymoon spot: the moon ( you said dream)

80) Your dream husband/wife: honestly, i've learned not to get my hopes up on 'dreams' when it comes to women. I just want a decent woman who'se understanding to certain issues I have and supportive of my ridicoulis dreams of being a novelist.

81) Your bedtime: round about midnight.

82) Under your bed: a telescope. seriously, i found i telescope under there this morning.

83) The single most important question: Heyb baby, what's your sign?

84) Your bad time of the day: dont have one.

85) Your worst fear(s): covered in spiders.

86) The weather like: cloudy

87) The time?: 4:16 pm

88) The date?: November 2.

89) The best trick you ever played on someone: I suck at that.

90) The weirdest food or drink that you eat/drink: shark.

91) Theme Song: Uhntiss Uhntiss uhntiss by Bloodhound Gang.

92) The hardest thing about growing up: I honestly don't know. life itself is hard equally.

93) Your funniest experience: Too many to recollect

94) Your scariest moment: hmmm. uh, dying.

95) The silliest thing you've said: i don't know.

96) The funniest or most desperate thing you've done to get the attention of the opposite sex: yeah not that desperate.

97) The scariest thing that's ever happened while with your friend: asthma attack.
98) The worst feeling in the world: dying

99) The best feeling in the world: not dying.

To My Fellow Deviants:

I was on Metallica's website and they put out a bulletin on a woman who went missing during one of their shows last Monday night at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlettesville, Virginia. The missing woman is named Morgan Harrington, is 20 years old. She is 5'6" with long blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen in a black Pantera t-shirt, black skirt and black leggings. for more information please head tot he following link:

[link]

Please keep this young woman in your thoughts and maybe she'll make it home. thank you.

-Sean