please delete

[Ruth <3]

When I was younger I had a hard child hood, my mom abused me verbally and physically . When I was eight years old, child
protective services had tooken me out of my mothers care and had sent me too a foster home to live at. Life at a foster home was hard, although it was better then living with my mother it still challenged me in life. My foster parents liked me, they did not love me. My mother had tooken a part of me. She had took my child hood away from me. Slowly, as I had grown older I had realized what I wanted to do in life. I realized that I didn't want anyone to suffer through what I had gone through. So I decided that every year I would volunteer at local food shelf's and help out families in need. When I help the familes, the part of me that my mother had tooken almost feel like it was never took.

Anyways, Thank you for reading!

Entering for:

1. Patchwork <3333
2. Sun back
3. Clydesdale

[SteampunkAngel]

Hello dear, please understand I'm an English student at university, so this may not seem to make sense (I keep asking my friends to spell check my essays and they don't even understand them but I'll try to keep it easier to read).

I've loved English Literature from a very young age, wanting to write myself one day, however the older I get the more I believe that this is not something that will suit me. So for now I'm living life to the best of my ability while I am free of the pressures of home. I will need to write 7,000 words on a topic I choose for my dissertation next year, but have yet to choose it. The subject I'd like to speak about is something that I cannot choose to write about during my dissertation, due to already having done a presentation about it in my first year.

My biggest interest is Gothic literature (even before the term Gothic was invented), however during my course we began a unit called 'Intertextuality and Adaptation'. Intertextuality can be simply explained as the way texts relate to one another, however this is usually on purpose, for example Shelley's Frankenstein has many links to a poem by Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Many links and comparisons can be drawn from the texts, including the clear references to the poem that Shelley leaves throughout the novel: 'but I shall kill no albatross; therefore do not be alarmed for my safety.' There are even intertextualities between adaptations, such as the character of Igor, who appears in a lot of Gothic fiction and film, however is never in the original text. He has simply been picked up by viewers of other adaptations.

This is fascinating when you consider that even now we recognise these characters who were never in the original stories. If you ask a child to draw Frankenstein, they will more often than not give you the image of Boris Karloff's movie version of the monster, rather than recognise that Frankenstein was the man who created the monster in Shelley's novel.

The morals of Coleridge's poem and Shelley's novel are pretty similar: that those who try to play God by creating life, or destroying it, have to face the consequences, because men are not God. Although not religious myself, both texts were written in a time where this would be a very natural message. Frankenstein creates life and the mariner kills the albatross, a bird with many religious connotations and both must suffer through the death of their loved ones, to both end up trapped on a ship on the ice. Very gloomy, though interesting to me all the same.

I am applying for:
1. Orange Cerb
2. UR Malk
3. UR Bengal

(it sounds so high up though, maybe a WL VR?) Thanks dear x

[Mossclaw3706]

An all-seeing eye, large and unblinking, at once omnipresent and limited by a narrow frame. It has the ability to replicate and also to physically capture traces of what it sees. Its power is at once monumentally explosive, earth-shattering and yet its only song is a moth-wing feather beat pumping celluloid blood through its veins. To be directed, to be cut up, and to be collaborated on by a group of elite specialists gives it meaning and purpose. This, is film: my greatest love and my biggest fear.

I could plot a graph for you where history and time run forever forward along the X axis, movements in film and artistic style soar from the Y axis, and theory enriches the depths of Z. I could gesticulate wildly, trying to describe the mise-en-scène and the stimmung combine to create a gaudily brilliant masterpiece. I could rant for hours about how Spike Lee is so much better than Quentin Tarantino as a person and as a filmmaker. What I’m saying is that basically I’m the best and the worst host of movie nights. I will pull from my database of recommendations: anything from French New Wave to Thai surrealism to hilarious Antarctic documentary is fair game. And, sure, we can watch Air Bud but you better be ready for a stream of “what a sophisticated use of Shot Reverse Shot” and “they need to let the film breathe” and “I wonder if Air Bud has won the Palm Dog? Wait, how many Buds are there?” in your ear.

Film is so expressive, creative, and full of an intangible atmosphere that engulfs its spectators for a few hours. Yet so often is film used to objectify women, invade privacy, and shame. We can get brilliant masterpieces like Black Girl, a 1966 film by Senegalese Ousmane Sembène, where the ghost of recently decolonized Africa haunts its European oppressors. At the same time we, in the year of our lord 2017, get Ghost in the Shell where Scarlett Johannsen (a white woman) plays a Japanese girl. Because of its unique power to visually impact, film can be used for so much good and yet inflict so much harm. Representation matters, cries the age-old axiom, but film must tactfully represent identities and cultures without fetishizing or further marginalizing them. This is precisely why I want to continue to study film and leave my impact on the world—to ensure that young kids who are scared and alone can look up at the screen, see themselves, and find comfort.

I actually very recently discovered film. Before, I had pitted media against each other. “Oh, movies? Books are way better!” I had grown up devouring books, voracious and unstoppable in my hunger for knowledge and perspective and other worlds. Truthfully, I had never considered films remotely academic, much less a unique medium in and of themselves. That is, until I took a class on film two semesters ago in college. The liberal arts requirements of my university liberated me—in order to get that Visual and Performing Arts credit, I took a movie class on a whim. Well, more on a mission. My literature teacher from high school had just passed away and I loved her very dearly. She treated me like a treasure and a friend. The only bad grade I ever got in her class was on a film review of Forrest Gump and I wanted to challenge myself in college to understand an art form that I may have misunderstood or overlooked.

Since that introductory film class, I’ve taken three more and declared my minor as Global Cinema. This summer I’m going to take filmmaking classes and work for my professor on a documentary of his. I plan to earn my honors thesis on making a documentary film / personal visual essay in China. I’m starting to make decisions based on this newfound love of mine and it’s beautiful and wonderful and wholly terrifying but I absolutely adore film and can’t imagine my life without it.

Thank you so so much for reading this and hosting this contest! <3
1. Bengal
2. | Store Pets |
3. grey mini husky!
edit because the link to the bengal was to the picture and not the pet! <3

[felix.]

bump

[SimplySinister]

Bump ^^

[._.savvy._.]

bump

[fika.]

'lil bump for me to follow the thread and remember!

[K0Z1]

Mark

[samminac]

Okay then, I guess I'll take a shot at this, hopefully my writing isn't too bad.

1st choice: Jeweled Liontail (List)
2nd choice: | Elements | (Group)
3rd choice: Trade: Rare/VR (Group)

The Arts

xxxxWhat am I passionate about? The arts. Not just visual art where you can draw and paint. But THE arts; drama/performing arts, poetry, literature, and music. "In its most basic abstract definition, art is a documented expression of a sentient being through or on an accessible medium so that anyone can view, hear or experience it". And I could choose to write about one form of the arts, but they are so connected to me that they all just come together as one. The arts have always been a prominent part of my life. And I love and enjoy most of the them because I am able to express myself and my thoughts, my feelings, through them (Except dance, I'm not a very good dancer). Ever since I could remember, I've loved reading and literature the most. I do enjoy writing most of the time, and have found myself really enjoying poetry. As for reading, some of my favourite books would probably currently be any of Rick Riordan's mythology books, The Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard, The Maze Runner series, by James Dashner, and The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S Lewis. Whenever I read, I can always find myself in another world, and enjoy finding out more and more about it. Then there is music. Music has slowly been becoming a big part of my life as well. For about 6 years, I have been in private singing lessons, and have been in a few competitions for 2. And at my high school, I have joined in on the concert choir. I also hope to be a part of my school's musical theatre production next year. And then there is performing arts and drama. Right now, I am in a drama class at my school, and a drama club! I also really enjoy participating in productions most of the time. Once you get over the stage fright, I find it really exciting and fun to be able to act out a story, and tell it to others that will watch. Then finally, last but not least, there is visual arts. Drawing, painting, and whatever you can use for visual arts, I probably enjoy doing it. Although I am not confident in my art most of the time, I am always trying to improve it. Over the years, I have probably filled countless sketchbooks full of meaningful and pointless drawings and sketches. One day, I hope to maybe sell commission's or maybe even go to an art school. Overall, all of these things are equally important to me, and I've been lucky to have so many people in my life support me and my hopes for these things, especially my parents. I don't think I would be able to imagine what I would do with myself is I couldn't read, write, sing, draw, or perform. They seem to be so deeply ingrained in me that the subjects are a part of who I am. Art is important to me, no matter the form, because art is the one thing that can be used by humans to show and express feelings, stories, anything that you can imagine, without even saying them sometimes. I find it fascinating as well seeing other people express themselves in different, even more creative ways all the time. And even if I'm not the best at any of them, I like to think that I am and practice even more at any of the arts. One day, I hope to have a future career in any of these, an hopefully, make some sort of impact with it.

Thank you for giving me a chance to win some cool pets, and I hoped you enjoyed reading my essay as much as I enjoyed writing it!

[Mavryk Company]

The World of Azeroth:

The world of, well, World of Warcraft, honestly. Although it's a game, a PC game to be exact, the vast amount of Lore, the dynamics of the characters, and the fantasy aspect sucked me in years ago, and I haven't stopped playing since. Though the entirety of the game spans over three planets, the main world, "Azeroth" boasting five continents, is where the adventure begins. I began playing the MMORPG back in late 2008, then picked it up early 2009 as a new hobby. And I can say I haven't regretted it! Through the years, I've experienced the story behind the game, behind the world, and why my characters, and everyone else's, are fighting the wars they are.

There are thirteen playable races, and twelve classes, with two Factions having the option to choose between seven of the races. The factions have so much history with warring against each other, but are able to unite to defeat enemies strong enough to destroy a single faction standing alone. This conflict and unity has spanned several years, both inside and outside of the game, and is a crucial part in the final battles to protect Azeroth. The aspects of each faction, and the races within them, are intriguing because they all have their own history. Their own morals, social standards, and customs. Though it's a game, the world building is just as important as the playstyle and gameplay. For me, it's what made the game so appealing!

The fact that you are your own character, your own custom made, heroic character, really shines when you first load into the starting zone. You can see your progression, from when you hit level 10, to when you max out at level 110. You can go from riding a horse, to swooping into battle on the back of a phoenix. From wearing a plain tunic to being covered head to toe in dragon scale armor. Using a simple dagger to a staff twisted by nature itself. And sometimes when you're leveling up your character, you gain just as much experience as they do. You learn more about the community, or the zone you're traveling in. You could open up to other people more, learn to have more fun. And it's amazing to me. I personally have been overcoming my fear of butterflies because of WoW. Using the mindset, "If my character isn't afraid of a butterfly 20x larger than her, I shouldn't be scared of one smaller than my hand." And it's been working.

I could ramble on about the lore, the motives, and the gameplay forever, and I recommend it to all of my friends. There just isn't anything like taking your first step into Azeroth, then leaving for another world to fight for your faction.


Applying for:
1. Orange Cerb
2. BEG
3. Cinnabun

Thanks so much for the chance! c: