Monday, December 26, 2011

...And there they were...

Growing up with a set of twins as siblings is a singularly unique experience.   The default mode for most people is to treat them as one entity, and as someone who has observed them for most of their life, I can see how this grated on my sisters.  We, their immediate family, were not wholly innocent of such things as well, and for the most of my childhood, I treated my sisters, who are identical twins, as one annoying, troublesome entity.  As a young kid, I did not like, what was in my mind, the lavish attention heaped upon my sisters, instead of it being heaped upon me.  I cursed my fates, as young as six years old, that I had been saddled with not one attention grabbing sibling, but TWO! At the same time!  Oh how people 'ooh' and 'ahh'd over them, and gone where the days that people did that to me. I had been the star of my own puppetry theatre to the delight of many.  My creative outburst tickled adults, family and strangers alike.  And then the twins were born, and all that was cast to the side.  To this day, I can remember as a five year old sitting in the waiting room at the hospital with my Grandmother as my sister were being born, and I remember trying to shake the foreboding feeling that my life as I knew it was over.  I was right about that, too, because the life I knew as an only child was over.  My sisters' births heralded many changes of varying degrees of tumultuous and intense natures, and while most of them were not their faults, I heaped the blame at their tiny baby feet all the same.  This colored my behavior towards them for a long time.

I was an asshole to my sisters for way too many years.  At the same time, I was a friend to them.  There was a strange duality that existed between me and my sisters for most of our childhood.  From the moment they achieved self consciousness, we would play together. Legos were the toy of the ages back then, and we created worlds that would have made Jules Verne proud.  We played outside, we watched tv together, we played video games together, and yet, all throughout that, I was still an asshole to my sisters. The tiniest thing would set me off in anger towards them- the best and clearest example of this is when my sister Wasabi (Rachel) was playing my Super Nintendo, and I wanted to play it.  I asked her to let me play, she refused, I appealed to a higher authority (our father), he ruled in Rachel's favor.  I was incensed.  This was my Super Nintendo, and I could not play it?  I let all my sudden rage and frustration out in one swift kick to her stomach as she lay stretched out on the floor in front of the TV.  Looking back at it now, I'm appalled at my actions, but back then, as a kid, I just did not care that I could have caused serious harm to her.  I just did not think of things like that, and I was angry, and justifiably so in my child's mind.

But things have changed.  The corner turn happened in High School, probably my senior year, when I really started to enjoy life for what it was, instead of trying to find something it wasn't.  I like to think that I became a cool brother to them at that point, but I know for sure I was a cool brother to them after joining the Army.  I let them use my brand new Honda Civic while I was deployed, and if that did not put me into the 'cool brother' category, then I was certainly doomed to never be.   I have come to see and realize how awesome my sisters are, not as a pair, but as individuals, and in reflection, it is amazing to think back to how they diverged and became their own individuals after so many years of being treated as 'one'.  Its as if their psyches repelled each other after being forced together for so long, and their personalities grew towards the opposite ends of various spectrum.  Yes, they share some good qualities, but in many things, they are opposites, and it is amusing to have seen that happen.

I'm not sure where my sisters will end up in life, but I am sure they will be more successful than me in all areas, save one.  There is one thing they will never be able to beat me in, and that's my Wife.  Noir (Jessie) was their high school friend- they were inseparable, and a highly creative force of nature when together, and I stole Noir away from them [insert evil laughter here].  Now she is with me and they will never know the supreme bliss of spending the rest of their lives with her [insert more evil laughter and some lightning].

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Here's what I think we are doing...

Ha Ha.  Alec says writing blogs are easy?  That anyone can do it?  Well, that is true, I suppose, but what I’m striving for isn’t easy.  I want our little collective to be writing a good blog.  No, it need not be incredible or awe inspiring.  I see so many blogs that are just a bunch of images people find that other people took, or stories of a mundane life.  The thing is, these things wouldn’t be so bad if people could write really well or at least pull out something witty, dark, or cheerful about the mundanity of life but generally I think people just want to put information about themselves, or what they like into the world and that’s cool.  All I’m saying is our blog damn well better be something better than that (tah-dah, my clever title reference).

Alec was right when he said I found a drive.  I did.  And I like sharing drive.  And the secret truth is I absolutely LOVE bossing people around, doling out deadlines, and whipping people into working shape and I really don’t do it ever.  So I am totally reveling in this opportunity to be task master.  People like my siblings (including Jessie, a.k.a. Noir and my sister-in-law) who have insane talent and ability but lack the motivation or inspiration to keep putting it all out there, need a task master.  So that’s my job, and the job of this blog; to force them to do work, even small silly work.  My thought is this: if they are writing small things, drawing small things, getting any kind of creative movement in their heads and hands, then it will lead to bigger and better things.  Eventually the multitude of story ideas we wrote, developed, did character sketches for, but never finished will actually come to be, because creating is like an itch you just can’t scratch.

I should say that I am not immune to the disease of laziness and lack of motivation that my sister and brother suffer from.  Actually, none of us are lazy-we work really hard but we are unfortunately none of us working really hard on all of the things we should be, like writing, drawing, and creating (ok, I actually am pursuing art but not in ALL the ways I should be).  What I mean to say is this; I need a task master too and this blog is that for me.  By committing to it I have a reason to give myself deadlines.  If I expect my sister and brother to complete entries and assignments then I better do them too.  Plus, I have the added benefit of Jessie to keep me motivated, as she has no lack of it but instead seems to refuse to acknowledge her own skills.  I’m working on that.

In any case, welcome to our little pool of motivation and creation.  Or hopefully that is what it will be.
Best,
Soy (Jessica)

Monday, December 19, 2011

Why Blogs are Fun (..and totally NOT hard work)

Everyone has a blog.  Well maybe not everyone, but everyone has the ability to make a blog.  Even those without a computer can go into their local library, use the public computer, and make time to post once a week.  And there are blogs about EVERYTHING.

So my sisters and I decided to give it a go.  We had no concrete ideas on what to do with it.  We just saw many of the offerings in the 'blogoshpere' and knew we could make something better than that (yay clever title reference).  My sisters and I have for many years bandied about the idea of being a creative collective working towards some end- a book, a manga, an animated series, etc etc.  Mostly, our lack of focus and distance from each other gets in the way of that idea, but now, Jessica (one of the two sisters I mentioned) has found a drive to make something happen, and I'm going to do my best to accommodate.

So here it is, our collective blog, featuring works and contributions from all three of us, Jessica, Rachel, and myself, Alec.   We're not sure exactly what the focus will be, but, hopefully, after some time it will gel into a cohesive and regular part of the week for our readers.  Here's to the future!