Starlit · Wanderings

Yeah, I actually logged in to LJ. Holy wow.

So, today I went to a larp. Yes, I am that much of a nerd! It was so much fun, even though I really kind of...underplayed my character. I mean, that was more or less in character, but I spoke up a little too rarely...but that's in part because my character didn't really know any information relevant to the trial that was going on and was just determined to make up her own mind about it...and boy that plot was complicated! I think it was significantly less complicated than the average larp though. Because geeks are insane. And most of them are much, much smarter than me.

So...for those who don't know. Larp=live action role-play, which depending on who you ask is either a bunch of geeks bashing each other with enchanted weapons (made of foam) until everyone's dead, like WoW in real life, or it's more or less an improvised play, which is what this was. You're given the background info that your character knows and a set of objectives to achieve (or attempt to achieve, of course often one character's objectives will be at odds with another's so they can't all come out in the end). You can do or say basically anything as long as it's in character, but depending on the larp there might be certain plot points that have to occur for it to end or certain mechanics used to decide the outcome of battles, etc. This one was much more open-ended in that regard, which...basically simplified it a lot, too, I think, so it was a really good larp for a first timer just getting her feet wet.

Aaaaanyway, this was a Middle-earth setting but not the most typical one, set in the small town of Fennas Drúnin after the initial uprising of the Witch King made the kingdom of Rhudaur go away, so it's kinda this tiny little island of civilization on the border of empty wilderness, though not far from Cardolan which...still half exists at this point--but didn't come into play whatsoever in the game (Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur were the three kingdoms into which Arnor was broken due to civil war, if there are any fellow Tolkien nerds who still aren't following that). This town is run by a Council (led by a Mayor) that manages taxes and maintaining the walls and such, and also has the ability to try and sentence criminals...I was one of the Council members. The new one, trying to establish myself but afraid of alienating the others and losing my position entirely. Dunlendings are not meant to be on the Council, according to most, much less Dunlending women. Jim was also a Council member, and Mike was the bargeman that had all the stories and rumors to tell that he never really knew the truth of for himself. XD It was a fun role.

On a random note, you'd be surprised how many different ways there are to butcher the seemingly innocuous word "Dunlending." Maybe I should have been offended. XP

So, the concept of this larp was very interesting. While as I said there were no gameplay mechanics, no battle, and while there were definite elements of the mystery story there wasn't exactly a definitive way to unravel everything in the game...it was just a game of debate and even politics, and deciding who you trust more.

And somehow by the end Jim ended up being the Mayor, which was amusing in the way he was clearly NOT expecting it at all. XDDD Also, there were many extremely amusing semi-ooc comments made during this play, and most amusingly the writer of the game filled in for the other gm/referee/npc when there was one point he couldn't remember or find in his character sheet. Someone asked if he was related to that other guy we were just talking to. XDDD

Anyway, there were headaches involved, literal and figurative, but on the whole I had a blast, and I'd love to do more of this. I'd still better stick to minor roles, considering how much I had to push myself to do even as much as I did (I swear, as it turns out I had like one piece of relevant information to disclose through this whole game and doing so made me shake like a leaf even though I didn't feel emotional or nervous, or much of anything at all; this was some much deeper gut reaction, and I guess I just must be much shyer than I even knew I was!), and how confused I got especially earlier on...but seriously, this was ridiculous loads of fun and incredibly nerdy, and these people were all wonderful and had great senses of humor, and the whole concept is just so darned intriguing...I can hardly wait for the next one!

There once was a shoe that lived in a tree. It ate all the clouds and the honey and the dew. Then it fell out of the withershins and through the plains of neverwhere, and all the anteaters cried and threw their microscopes into the air.

The end.

[/random]

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-425

This...is...ridiculous.

Just go there and read the thing. The actual text of this bill, not some biased article about it or anything. I got several paragraphs in and just couldn't take it anymore.

This bill abolishes all small and/or organic farms. In the name of "food safety." Could it be more ironic?

So. The government gets to decide that ridiculous million dollar equipment is mandatory for farms. You have to keep track of every grain of wheat or you're going to be in huge trouble, because it's both illegal and punishable by a $500,000 fine to have false information in the detailed records of your food which the feds might come and examine at any time, and also to alter those records. Catch 22 much?

The government decides when and with what farms should be fertilized, what drugs animals should be given, just frigging EVERYTHING.

Obama claims he's going to support small farmers and then the first thing he does is try to rush this through with the typical lack of anyone getting to know anything about it. God, help me, I can't take it anymore.

My friendses, and any passersby that happen to care, there is a petition, and I'd ask that you sign it, because if all we're left with is the huge corporate farms that have a vague prayer of compliance with this then food prices are going to skyrocket and it's just one more brick in the wall of the downfall of our country and constitution. Not the end of the world, but it's at least that. I on the other hand have a pretty high personal stake in this. I know and admire some people involved in small farming and would hate to see them lose their chance at the life they love, and I'll be in huge trouble with my health because I have a strong tendency to be allergic to or otherwise have bad reactions to pesticides, antibiotics, etc.
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26714

Sign it. Please!

I started one of those dragcave thingies, and I really, really want my eggs to hatch and more importantly NOT DIE. Please click on them? I'm http://dragcave.net/user/calaloke or you could click on the images below to help the little saurians along or set yourself up with your own.

Come on, It'll only take a few seconds and they're frigging gorgeous once they're grown up. And I've seen full grown dragons with as few as 10 clicks, though it's also based on unique views and I don't know those stats for that dragon, but still. I would think if all my buddies from here click on them they ought to hatch and maybe even grow up just fine right quick.

How can this be? Well, I always knew it. Even with nerdishness I don't really fit, and I only wish I was as nerdy and intelligent as the real deal. Computers wouldn't hate me the way they do if I was a true nerd. *sighs* Sometimes life would be easier if I had this convenient label. It's definitely the one to which I am the closest.

Ah well, most times I prefer being a freak and misfit. ;)

Well then...

Yeah, this is an old one, I meant to post this when I first saw it but that kinda didn't happen, because the DSL has not cured my laziness and short (more like variable? ADD-ish?) attention span.

So, late, yet not unwelcome I trust, I present my own list of Truly Ridiculous Mondegreens, in which I humiliate myself Most Terribly for the Benefit and Amusement of my Dear Friends.

Mondegreens is the the non-technical technical terms for misheard lyrics or phrases, from a columnist who first wrote about them I believe in the fifties, recounting how when she was a girl she loved a Scottish ballad that went "And they have slain the Duke of Murray and the Lady Mondegreen," which she thought was so noble and tragic, the Lady dying for her lord, but as it turned out actually they slew the Duke of Murray and "they laid him on the green." Ooooops. XDDDDDDDDDDD

I have several doozies to my record. The worst to come to mind off-hand is "Nine days we braved her might" from the Odyssey by Symphony X, best band ever btw, even officially inching out the Chieftains imho after a couple years angsting over that one. I knew it couldn't be right, but one of the first times I listened to the song trying to figure out the lyrics I heard "Nine days we wait in line" and I just couldn't get it out of my head no matter how hard I tried, I just heard that every single time. These things can just get deep into your brain sometimes...a lot of these are like that, I would like to stress, I didn't actually think what I heard was what was sung (even I'm not quite that crazy), I just couldn't convince my brain not to anticipate what it strangely thought should go there. Or else I already knew what it was and it just randomly sounded like something else one day when I was tired or not paying enough attention or for no real reason at all. Excepting when that happens I'm actually fairly good at picking out lyrics when I try.

Second place goes to Irresistible by The Corrs.
Real lyrics: If you'll just let me show you, I'll be your summer rain
My brain: I'll be your celery

I spent countless minutes laughing at myself trying to figure it out before I finally caved and looked it up online when it started bugging me. Good times.

Now I'll just throw them out as they come to me, and probably edit more in later (and possibly organize this a little better while I'm at it). I've quite the collection. And btw, for those so inclined, amiright.com is a good site for mondegreens (or used to be, now that I actually went there the layout gives me a headache and I want the old one back but I assume all the good stuff is still there if you figure out how to find it), and there are a lot of hilarious misheard Nightwish misheard videos on youtube, though they've become such a fad there are many cruddy ones also.

( Cut for those not interested and because this is a tall post, even if there aren't that many words in it...compared to my usual anyway. )

Yeah, been a while. I didn't even do a good job of checking the friends page the last week or two, shame. And I have no excuse! Well, I have a weird lame one for not posting, lol. It just feels weird and awkward to me to go on to other things in my journal before I figure out what to call this icontest I want to start and actually do something about that. There's some things about this that I need to have a talk with the OCD-Imp about, because it doesn't do any good to abandon a site entirely for such a long while--it certainly doesn't help me be more creative in regards to it. I almost missed the voting on an utterly adorable bunny themed icontest on account of this, too.

Also I imagine I wanted to delay posting that baby Lillian did pass on very shortly after I originally posted about her. It's all so sad. SIDS is about the cruelest thing in the universe. So sad thinking about all the things she never got to do...but I guess she's got the chance in heaven now, so that's kind of all right if you think about it. Requiescat in pace, you dear little girl.

Well, anywho.

I've been doing various things. I really do need to start making posts about all the stupid cartoons that I love because that saga has become more important to me than it rightly should be. *sigh* So few of them left. If I didn't like writing novels so much more I'd think of trying to write cartoons/kids shows because there's absolutely no quality left in the market.

So, I have discovered that now DVDs at my library are one week checkout and we get one renewal on them, instead of three days and no renewals, and we can have ten on our cards at once (up from five). SO MUCH WIN!!!! Though the section for the new/popular DVDs is still the old system. Makes sense. So. This has allowed me to finish watching seasons 1 and 2 of the original British Whose Line is it Anyway? and season one of Freakazoid. Yeah, I'm a dork. Any show that's just completely random and insane I can't get enough of. Nowadays even more so if it spoofs superhero cartoons when I've been watching so many of the real thing recently-ish. And along those lines I have Superman: The Animated Series season one to watch, which is great because the library didn't have a copy of that for a while and I assumed they weren't getting another one but obviously they did! Yay!

I've been spending truly atrocious amounts of time on Neopets lately. And I've created my max number of side accounts now, too, and they will undoubtedly all be full in time...or nearly so. I don't think I want all the different kinds of pets I thought I did when I looked more closely at the redraws, so unless I get lucky enough to find someone willing to trade their UC pet to me (fat chance, and it's so much more important to me to make absotively sure a pet was going to a caring, responsible, long-term owner than to get a nice pet in return)...yeah, I don't want a Hissi, Koi, Cybunny, Xweetok, or Lutari, not that I could've had one of those anyway.

Well, that's some of the boring fun stuff I've been doing. ( And here's some random quizzes )

Reading my friends page now I learned of a three month old little girl named Lillian who suddenly stopped breathing Monday and now is in the hospital and not expected to live.

I don't know the family, indeed I don't even know the man who posted about this originally (George R. R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire which I enjoy immensely--he asked his readers for prayers), but you can't help being affected by these kinds of things. So, I'm asking my friends to join me in prayer. And I feel like there's something else I should say here but I don't know what it is...and again with the tired...I'm always tired these days...so I guess that's all for now...

Since searchingstars and my brother have signed on with the icontest idea I think I'm just going to go ahead with it and hope for the best. If I don't I'll probably never do it, you know? And it's not going to work if I don't get serious and start promoting/affiliating some, you know. And of course it's good to just create the community asap so I can get a good name for it. Problem being that I have no idea what I should call it.

Help please? Anyone have an idea of a good name for a general icontest?

There are other things to be decided of course, but let's just talk about those later after this most vital point is decided on. It seems very strange and silly that I'm not creative enough to come up with something.

EDIT: I do rather like the idea of something with the word challenge, but beyond that I can't really think of anything. Of course the real obvious ones like iconchallenge are long since taken.

With what LJ just did, and I'm sure I don't have to explain it to anyone, I'm always the last to know, this seems like the silliest possible time to be thinking of this, but seeing as it's ever sillier to assume the site is going to imploding for no reason in a few days I figure I'll go through with it just to prove the point...and because I've already wasted enough time on this post to stubbornly worry at it like a demented terrier until I GET something out of it!

Some of you know I used to have quite a lot of fun over at the icontest comm 100x100beauty and will no doubt be doing so again now that it has reemerged from its slumber with pieds_joyeux at the helm. I have also joined themed_icons which looks to be fairly similar and a nice active place.

I know that should be more than enough to keep me busy, and yet I am considering making my own icontest comm now more than ever. Crazy, huh? But it's been going around my brain on and off for a while now, and my love for those places is at the moment only making my desire to do so even stronger.

I'm sure I could find a few more places that have rules that I find followable if I look hard enough. That's not really the issue, though it is true that 100x100 going away for a while scared me on that point. The issue is, I think it would be fun, and I'd learn even more, and that even 100x100 is getting to be a bit too structured for someone like the girl I was when I first joined it to consider doing so now.

I'd like to make a community that would still have enough interest and challenge for the kind of great, experienced icon-makers I admire but still be really laid back about certain things, without a whole lot of complicated rules and polls and things (of course there'd have to be some for it work at all, I'm not that stupid, but I just mean keeping them to the amount you'd need for it to function and explaining things up-front), and maybe with like a sister community where we could post tutorials and brushes and other stuff to help out the beginning types. Maybe even let said beginners pose questions there. It'd be a perfect playground for me, and I think it might have an audience that would find it very helpful...if my own experience is anything to go by (but really who knows if it is?).

So far I've been jonesing for more icon-making challenges, too. There hasn't been enough posting in those comms with the holidays and all.

Anyway, I can only imagine it as being a rather general icontest as opposed to one with an ongoing theme, probably I'd do the same thing as themed_icons and just have people write a suggestion for themes and we use the winner's suggestion for the next challenge...or, I could do that and alternate whatever I feel like challenges so that I can force all these hypothetical wonderful people to make icons about subjects I like! IF THEY FEEL LIKE IT! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, 'cause I'm like, evil like that, and stuff, and junk, and whatnot. I think generally an upper limit of five icons per person is good, that really seemed perfect to me in the old days of 100x100, enough that I mostly didn't have to abandon ideas that I really loved but also few enough that I really had to come down to it and make some tough decisions and trim the fat. At the moment I'm leaning toward a two week time limit, with the whole being laid back idea, but that might change upon further reflection or if I get some helpful feedback explaining why it's stupid. Of course, doing that makes me want to make another contest be going on at the same time, a new one starting every week but the first not finishing until the week after, but that kind of kills that whole simplicity idea. So yeah, that's not gonna happen.

So...basically I'm posting here to see if anyone would be even vaguely interested in helping me out with this. Some of my friends are really good icon-makers, but I have no idea if they'd want to help out. kirin76 for instance is a great icon-maker but hardly has time to post on LJ anymore and has quite enough icontests on her plate that adding one just because it's her friend's baby might not be such a great idea...besides that I know aracelebearwen and searchingstars are good, but no clue if they'd care about this. I have a few ideas of people I don't know all that well but whose work I really admire that I'd like to invite if I saw a spark of hope for this thing. I'd need at least a couple people to start this thing off...hopefully I could draft my brother to help out with modding if not to enter the contests much.

Then there's the whole problem of banners for the winners. Sure, I could make them if I had to, but they wouldn't likely turn out to be the kind of thing anyone would want to display. So really if I can't figure out someone to handle that this is probably not going to work, unless I really surprise myself. I've never tried to make anything other than avatars before, and it's kinda a whole different world with that stuff. Not entirely of course, but close enough for me when I'm so mediocre at all of this in the first place, and severely limited in what I can do by only having Photoshop Elements, and still learning most of everything there is to learn about that program.

I'm so tired now. I should really, really be in bed now. I hope I was sort of coherent and I didn't revert to old versions of ideas in my semi-wakefulness. At this point I'm so sick of waiting I'm going to push post and hope for the best and leave the rest up to editing later.

I seem to be singing that song an awful lot these days. Many people have been dying the past several years that were on my list of people who were not allowed to do so. Right now the lady in question is Eartha Kitt. I was just thinking a couple months ago how her voice alone is the thing that makes it worth watching The Emperor's New School every now and then when I'm bored. She was just so hilarious as Yzma, and I've always been fascinated by sound and language and the human voice, and hers was so utterly unique. What a terrible loss. I probably wouldn't have heard for a long time without having the internets back and at high speed, it's kind of a double edged sword that way but my not knowing wouldn't make it any less true. I always prefer to know. To at least be aware of where I stand.

Catwoman was always one of the characters that seemed most herself to me on that crazy old TV series. I do love that show and hate it. It's funny because it's bad on purpose, but I can only take so much of it at a time! Seriously...Waynebow. *facepalm* That poor horsie. lol. She and the Joker and the Penguin must be my faves from that. I dare say Eartha's Catwoman is the only one that's a legitimate rival in my heart for the best portrayal of the role with the Batman: The Animated Series people. She was so beautiful and saucy and perfect. I almost want to cry.

You get back down here this instant, my dear lady. I told you you weren't allowed...

Just wanted to let everyone know that Whiplash Radio is now no more. Hasn't been for a while now...at least a few months, I really haven't been paying attention. I meant to at least drop by and post about that as soon as it happened, but...*sigh*

Yeah, it's been that long since I posted anything here beyond hi and bye or NaNo stuff, lol.

ANYWAY, point being that the DJs have moved to a new home, Ocean Front Jams, and Mike's show is still the same slot as before, Sundays 4:00 to 6:00 PM central.

...

No, I have no idea why they called it that. It doesn't make any sense with them playing mostly rock music...I mean, I'd figure that'd be a station that plays stuff like steel drum bands, lol. Never even mind about the site design...But that's the name, and even if it's weird what really matters is there's still great content to be found there.

And now for yet more important news, you're not going to believe it...no, wait for it! I'm not gonna tell you if you spoil the moment for me! WE'RE GETTING DSL! IT IS ACTUALLY ALL FINALIZED AND WE'RE JUST WAITING FOR THE MODEM AND STUFF TO GET HERE!!!!!!!! I AM SO FRIGGING EXCITED!! Yes, you may expect to see a great deal more of me around. Which is why I have got back on Writer's Resource Center and am trying to stir things up again. I think I'm gonna e-mail all the people I know that used to be around there and see if I can convince them to come back...I might not have current addresses from all of them, but I'm sure gonna try. Any of my writer type friends those that HAVEN'T been on there before should totally give it a try because it's the nicest little place and the people are uber-smart and uber-helpful; I mean you pretty much CAN'T ask something so obscure that someone doesn't have a pretty good idea how to start researching, if not a direct and definitive answer, and they're beautifully random and pleasantly insane, too. And there's lots of random fun things to waste time on too, of course. *grins* I'm hoping I get some entries in the caption contest...the last couple there's only been one or two because the place has been nearly dead for so many months. *sigh* I'm as much to blame as anyone.

However, more related to the overall theme of this post, my dearest aniki Jim (kagejim) is going to be getting a show on Ocean Front Jams as well now that we're finally getting reliable high speed internet, so you all are invited to be tortured by listen to that too! lol

No, seriously, it's going to rock. And so far the plan is it's going to be Thursdays from 10:00 to midnight central. I'll try to post again if and when I have any more info, especially once I know when the first show will actually be. It might be the Thursday after this one.

So, that's what's going on now.

Oh, and there's the fact that I did somehow manage to win NaNoWriMo. I had to write like 15,000 words on the last day, and I had absolutely no idea I could do that, and I am so happy about it. Seriously, I have such a high going these days from that. I'm going to have to push myself a lot more with my writing in general now that I know what I'm capable of! Just not quite that much...I would post one of the winner graphics here but I don't feel like bother with uploading them to my scrapbook, so...later.

Yoinked from aracelebearwen. There are few enough of this kind of meme that I really care for, but GOOD LORD this is funny! =^.^=

>

What Is Your Battle Cry?

Running on the icy wasteland, brandishing a jeweled meat hammer, cometh Rosie! And she gives a booming howl: "Hail the blood-letting! I sow darkness and discord like a mad dog who can only get madder!!!"

Find out! Enter username: Are you a girl, or a guy ?

created by beatings : powered by monkeys

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lab.drwicked.com

O_O

I never knew I could do that...seriously, I started out with fairly moderate goals that I completed more easily than I would have believed, getting 500 words in 30 mins when I allowed myself a full hour for that at first...and I've just kept improving from there.

Write or Die is seriously awesome. Exactly what I needed this year. Just being able to see my wordcount go up as I type is such a huge motivation. Having a real idea of how much progress I'm making instead of hoping for more than I get when I intermittently do a wordcount...yeah, pretty mind blowing. And seeing that clock ticking down is also very helpful, 'cause I can do quick, automatic calculations about how far behind or ahead I've gotten with my goal, which one way or the other always pushes me on...as in either "OMG I HAVE TO HURRY UP LIKE RIGHT THE EXPLETIVE NOW!" or "Wow, this is going better than I hoped. This stuff is easy! I'll be done in no time!"

And then when the screen starts changing color it makes the OCD-Imp go *twitch* You're not supposed to do that...so help me I'm gonna put you back in your place you saucy little machine!

And well, if I can get him on my side, I can pretty much do anything. So. It's all good. And it's not like the writing is taking a huge nose-dive in the quality department either. It's not good, but with few exceptions it's not worse than what I'd be doing anyway. There's just a few more sentences I know I'll need to overhaul and a few more minor characters whose names remain question marks for a while longer. *nods* It's just as fixable as my messes generally are. XD

So yeah, that's why I'm on-line now, I'm not wasting time that should be spent writing, I'm using an on-line tool to help with writing. And as long as I occasionally need a break anyway, I figured I'd stop by LJ again because I miss it so...

Really, my friends, if we ever do get DSL I'll be around a lot more again, and I can't wait to get back in touch with all of you. 'Cause you seriously rock my world. You're awesome peoples and just by being yourselves you challenge me to be a better person and think in totally different ways. And I've discovered that friendships have no expiration date...it's awesome the way everyone's so glad to see me when I do show up even if it's been forever and they ought by rights to be thinking I'd forgotten about them. *huge hugs all around*

Yeah, my friends ROCK!!!! \m/

And right about now special thanks are due to Sarah and Ian, who were actually kind enough to indulge my ridiculous request for attention of last night. XD Love you guys!

Lol, I'm sorry, I can't help trolling for attention right now. I just had a 4,000 plus word day, and I don't even think I'm quite done yet. And I am stoked. And proud. And flat out vain.

I think actually someone should slap me...or brick me...or something...just make me shut up.

So, overall progress report...23,158 words so far. Which yes, is behind even for the 50k, never mind the 100 I was allegedly trying for. But I have hit my stride in a big way over the past few days and I think I'm gonna finish strong. If I keep getting days like this I'll at least get 70 or 80 thousand, which is still quite respectable, especially considering my persnickety writing habits that I have to overcome...though not so much when considering my nearly limitless free time. >_< Yeah, I fail as a writer. But that's okay, 'cause it's lotsa fun andyways.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled friends page...

NaNoWriMo's coming peoples! *hops around* I'm very excited! I'm gonna be starting at midnight, I'm sure.

Last year before NaNaWriMo Jim and I discovered the Miyazaki movie Whisper of the Heart, which is VERY apropos. We were thinking it might be a tradition to watch it before NaNo every year, but we haven't this year. I highly recommend it to other wrimos. It's very inspiring, if also very strange and a little too happy and romantic (which is pretty much the same as saying it's Miyazaki). Actually, it was directed by Yoshifumi Kondo, but the screenplay was Miyazaki. Thank you, imdb. lol

So, this makes me wish to make a list of other good things for NaNoWriMo. Good music is vital, naturally. Of course I think sym metal is great for writing to, but it's not ideal for everything (certain scenes demand a different feel) or everyone. Classic video game music is very good, Castlevania and Final Fantasy and so on. Keiko Matsui is a very good Japanese jazz pianist, I like her stuff. Kow Otani, who composed the music for the anime Haibane-Renmei and the PS2 game Shadow of the Colossus, both excellent soundtracks for writing and excellent stories in themselves. Lord of the Rings music, hell yes. Also, my aniki's musicses are good. Jim's soundclick page. Check that out. I don't have any of his music on Mr. Lippertopper, and it makes me very sad. I need to bother him about that sometime, at least before the next NaNoWriMo! His music is good because it all falls into categories that are good for writing but there's a pretty broad range of stuff. Some ambient, some classical, some oriental sounding stuff, some video-games type music, and a lot of baroque--not literally baroque of course, actual baroque music is nearly impossible to write, but very much in that vein. So yeah, he covers most of the stuff I think is good to writing to. The symphonic metal is Mike's job though, hehe.

Sarah-chan! *points at the linky* Listen to the pretties! Jim loves cellos too! If you do not fall in love with either Fantasia for Cello Ensemble, Opus for Violincello, Homage to Bach, or Shogun's March I will have to disown you be very sad.

10 more minutes! Ack! It's coming! I'm 'unna go boot up my laptop and start starting to get started! *bouncebouncebounce* >.> <.< What? I'm not hyper.

I'm going to do this again this year, and it's loads of fun. http://www.nanowrimo.org/ if you want to check it out, and really please do. So this is something of a hello and goodbye, since that'll be keeping me busy before too long. But for those who are also participants maybe we'll do some word wars or something if I do get on-line, and if we do actually get DSL (it'd be a miracle) that's a lot more likely.

And actually, besides the woes and worries of T the horsie, now mostly resolved, I've been (by and large) having a great time the past few months.

I think it was the first or second week in July when my cousin got married, and it was a really nice ceremony, absolutely beautiful music (mostly Irish tunes, of course, hehe). I think I'll give that its own post later, there are many things to mention in connection with that.

One thing somewhat connected with that is the visit from another (out of state) cousin, in his teens, who is going to be very good at something some day, as Evan said. He's so curious, he was talking about anything and everything with Evan, particularly things connected with astronomy and atmospheric sciences, since my brudder is quite knowledgeable in those areas. But things went much further afield than that, and other conversations revealed his interest and fairly decent working knowledge of dozens of other subjects. He's a real smart, observant kid, and quick to pick things up. It's been prob'ly a couple years since I last saw him, and I sure do like what I see in him now. =^.^=

Anyway, that was a really hectic week, and I was pushed just about to my limit. To the point that historically I would have crashed and gotten sick. But a funny thing happened. That's right, I didn't. I remained healthy. Shortly thereafter I went riding twice within the same week, and it was wonderful. T was very good for me, especially the first time. And then a couple days later the idjit went and hurt himself (seems to be recovering all right now, but sure had me worried for a while. You know with me and riding it's gotta be something...)

I've had more than the usual amount of astronomy related activities, which have been really great. Mostly. There has also been an increasing amount of hanging out with Mike, which has been ridiculously awesome. Also, ever since NaNoWriMo some of the local participants have continued meeting monthly at a local borders. One of them is going to move out of state now, and she is going to be sorely missed. Anyway, it has been crazy amounts of fun. I need to scan my notebook which has now gained the official title "Place For More or Less Random Creativity" because there is some highly amusing stuff in there, mostly stuff Mike doodled when he got bored enough. The crazy writing prompts people would get just from remembering a name or my pointing out that a "crystal geyser" (they sell that brand of water at this Borders) is an impossible and very dangerous thing, and even just totally randomly and feeding off each other with group efforts and just all that good spontaneous stuff...'tis wonderful. Of course, there is serious writing too, peoples bring their laptops and work on various thingses and whatnot. I bring my notebook, as in paper, not computer, since Mr. Lippertopper is not so much portable, given his mostly obscured cracked screen and battery issues. He is my non-desktop desktop.

I really am so grateful to my Chinese herbalist person-face-thing (<--weird thing I do when I'm too tired to come up with whatever I really should call someone or it seems too boring, I shall explain more fully if I ever get around to posting a guide to my Felisisms). Every time I start to feel like I'm getting sick I've called him to go over my case and gotten some herbs that have pulled me back from the brink and allowed me to sustain levels of energy I haven't had for years. Starting to catch up with me again now, but I think with a few days on my new supplements and resting as much as I can I should be fine.

So, that's a brief overview of like the last four months. Some items I shall speak on at length if I get the chance and keep up with other things...toodles for now my loves!

(Yeah, I know, terrible bubble-gum-pop-pseudo-trance song, right? Why do I love it so? hehe Oh yeah, 'cause it's perfect for what it is.)

My brain's a bubbling pile of goo!

In actual news though...

I shall be attending an Anime convention soon, and after having a blast last year have decided to at least try to cos-play this time. I'm going as Jun Kazama, even though Tekken isn't really anime (it is at least Japanese and there was an anime made based on the games; they're very casual with that kind of thing, there were lots of super-heroes and Storm Troopers and all sorts of nonsense from other geekdoms wandering around last year). I made this choice for the very simple reason that she's always been my favorite character from the games (though when Xiaoyu burst on the scene they kinda had to duke it out for a while, and she remains a close second) and one of the few characters anywhere that much reminds me of myself (one of those indefinable things--hard to really say why, I'm hardly the type to get involved with someone like Kazuya, ya know, "possessed" isn't on my list of things I look for in a man, hehehe--though technically of course the whole devil thing is supposed to be a genetic mutation, but regardless, evil kind of dude...but honestly you really do want to save him, and wish he was other than he is, so I can almost half understand that in a non-serious way, the whole being drawn to him and repulsed by him at the same time...but yeah, she's so maternal and being an animal lover and all that, and I guess she's just kind of pretty in a my style understated non-hollywood-ish way, or...something) and most importantly, her clothing (at least with the kick outfit) is perfectly reasonable and realistic and easy to imitate (except the shirt, which is white, sleeveless, and has four buttons on the front rather reminiscent of a suit. That'd be hard to find.). I already have everything I really need, though a shirt that actually looks something like hers instead of being good enough for government work would be nice, and I'm really hoping to pick up some fingerless white gloves.

That of course is not what I need help with! (Or that with which I need help, if I was feeling that OCD-ish) What I need to know about is hair dye. Specifically, hair dye of an organic nature. My hair is some form of non-descript medium sandyish brown...or something. Jun Kazama's is black. If anyone knows anything on the subject please let me know. I would really prefer to use some form of temporary dye rather than getting a wig, but I'll do that rather than use something that might set me off. I've done a little bit of research with Google, and it looks as though a few organic temporary hair dyes do exist (THANK GOD) but I don't know whether I'll be able to find them. I'm gonna go to the local Whole Foods Market the next chance I get and ask around there. 'Cause I have so many allergies to chemicals it's not funny; I try to be out of the house when cleaning products are being used (if we're talking Chlorox I will NOT be able to breathe properly); I need to be careful handling stain remover while doing the laundry and still will likely sneeze my head off for the following couple of hours, and so on, and so on, and so on. Anywho, point being I'm not about to take any chances on hair dyes. Anyone with experience in this matter or random ideas/links or anything...your help shall be greatly appreciated.

Happy Easter everyone. Late am I, yes. But like hell am I gonna let that stop me.

Easter was good for me. After the usual absurdly long Mass in the morning it was spent at Grandpa's. The big dark spot on the day is that I've been starting to get pretty sick over the past several days, and had to worry and wonder a lot about whether I should go to church or Grandpa's and risk giving anyone else whatever this is. 'Snot just a cold, I'm quite experienced enough in these matters to know that. *sigh* It's something a little worse that's still in its early stages where there's the chance that I could not let it be much worse. I still wonder if I did the right thing. I was feeling kind of better this morning, but well...I think I'll skip going through that discussion with myself again. You can prob'ly guess about how it goes.

We have a lot of fun, our family, with such little provocation. 'Cause we rock like that.

There was a lot of fuss over trying to set up Grandpa's TV with a digital converter, which ended up not happening after all the work everyone put into it including, um, what's the phrase, I can't think of it 'cause I shouldn't be up yet, it's 3:30 and I just had a pretty big day but my body chose not to notice that...you know, when you strip wires and kinda re-wrap 'em together (cause they were kinda bad with connectivity)....dang. I have even less brain than usual tonight. Go me. -_-

Anyway, there was connectivity issues somewhere else later after everything seemed to have been fine for a while, so it was decided to unhook the stupid mess until a gold-plated version of that part could be procured. I really hate the FCC right now, yes I do. Making everyone have to switch to a new technology all at once is just dumb, in large part because any new technology is bound to be buggy as heck for at least a year or two, but also just because some people might like the old way better and/or not have the means to switch. 'Round here at least you can get some kind of discount coupon which I assume comes from some government peeps, so if you get the el-cheapo converter like the one they got for Grandpa you're only out like $20, but then you have these sorts of problems. -_- Any way you look at it a great many people are losing out and going through a lot of unnecessary hassle.

But besides that and the Sox losing, it was a good day. Nothing else really worth mentioning, though. *shrug* Lots of general good times and kidding around and, "Well, you'd just have to be there," kind of moments.

The End.

Is that the only thing I can post anymore? Like every month or two I get on and say I miss everyone and need to post/comment more?

Oh well. Let's see if I can't drag some point into this besides the fact that I got even lonelier than usual for y'all because of some random comment Jim made about one of our mutual friends. There are still people I have not been up to date with since APRIL (almost a year for crying out loud?), and that's just not right.

And now for something completely different.

( OMZ TEH PONIES! )

Don't click on that, as you value your sanity. The cuteness will eat away your brain, so help me. I have rediscovered the My Little Pony fangirl in me, and you all must fear my wrath (or cuddliness, whichever).

Mostly I messed with the types of ponies I haven't seen before (though I think I remember the DragonPonies from somewhere). I don't know if these are actually now in the product line or are just extrapolations by Pony Island or some fan of the ponies...

Then I made one rainbow-haired white unicorn, just because I missed the more classic types by then. I need to watch that show again...I can scarcely remember it anymore, and it used to be my favorite cartoon (well, it was always kinda tied with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and then Real Ghostbusters kinda supplanted both of them for a while, but let's just not get into all that. It gets complicated.). The library does have some of the DVDs...volumes one, two and four of the first season, to be exact. I shan't like missing those episodes in the middle if I actually watch all of them, but oh well. I'd like it that much better if they had the movie...NOTHING CAN STOP THE SMOOZE!!! *rofl*

Uh, yes, having made a post of randomness and do I even dare say spam I think I can't think anymore. My brain isn't what it used to be. 'm sorry. I'm unna try to get on here more often, since I'm too inexplicably exhausted/terrified to do school most times anyway so...yeah, may as well at least bask in the awesomeness of my friends and keep alive what little social life I can handle with my crazy introverted-ness and all. Live long and prosper, my dears.

62 words

Touchtyping

On my second try I got 68...

( A bunch of quizzes because I'm remembering how far behind I am. A theme of colors... )

I have made a deal with myself. After completing a certain amount of time doing school-work, which I am for the moment leaving pathetically low just to make sure it's really doable even with headaches and whatnot occasionally cropping up (at least I have a decent chance of graduating high school before I die this way--it'll only be three or four decades, I'd think), I have decided that I will either take a long weekend to recuperate OR more often (hopefully) have a NaNoWriWeek, in which I shall try to get 13,000 words in my various novels in one week. That's +500 to 1/4 of 50k, because I know I can get more than the 1,667 if I just keep at it. I'll have to decide if I'm gonna try to come up with a way to count how far I've made it in different novels at once or if I'm going to just choose one on which to focus (not at all natural for me, with much emphasis and possibly an exclamation mark) which would simplify the counting business quite a lot.

I don't intend to ramble about school anymore at this point. The old days of my journal where that was one of the only things I'd talk about scare me too much. If there is significant writing progress I may get jazzed about that, but...

Anywho.

Christmas was great. Cousin-person's boyfriend is now her fiancé which totally rocks, 'cause he's a great guy and he and his mom and sister (all present) already feel like part of the family. I got some moneys and a subscription to a horse magazine and some nice CDs I wanted from me dad. Actually, not those specific CDs, it was "anything by Natalie MacMaster" and ditto Máire/Moya Brennan, though I would have liked Perfect Time best. Paddy's on the Square (one of those adorable little shops in Long Grove (pretty much that entire town is adorable little old fashioned shops and weekend festivals on the little green), sell pretty much exclusively Irish/Celtic CDs with a few other neat Irish trinkets and tin whistles and whatnot) didn't have that though, and if they don't it's a sure shot nowhere else will. They don't have anything of the sort at Best Buy, only two or three of the most generic compilation albums. Actual record stores are a little better, but not much. Celtic stuff is too out of the way, still, even though it's such a popularized mess and a real hot commodity now. It are confusing.

So then. We talked quite a lot. Jim played Sarah a little bit, but it only ended up being background music. We did not have any great live performing like at Easter, which was sad, but the other stuff going on pretty much made up for it. Oh, and one thing I should have mentioned about that time at Easter, when Jim was getting confused because he'd tabbed one of the songs he'd written poorly fiance-person shouted, "Play from your heart!" and Jim responded, "That'll work well," all sarcastic like. XDDDD We all laughed mightily. This time instead of that there was mostly Christmas music being played on the CD player. Half of it was actually good, though. And a Wake the Dead album with which uncle-person was gifted. They mix traditional Irish music with Grateful Dead songs. He said this album was one of those with good and bad songs (with which I pretty much agreed though I was paying too much attention) but the first one was really solid. I must see if I can get my greedy little handses on it.

Anyway, after a while we opened presents, yada yada, cousin-person wore the pretty ribbon, we discover that fiancé-person's mom is the only person in the world that uses more tape on her gifts than cousin-person, which actually defeated Grandpa's excessive care in opening gifts. Seriously, even if it's a teeny tiny scrap of paper that's been used five hundred times, out comes the pocket knife and he takes several minutes carefully slicing off the tape and slides the contents out without hurting it. This time there was a nice big box with some really gorgeous new paper on it, and he had to say uncle and just rip it all up. We've never seen the like before, and it was a real treat. Yes, I'm weird.

After that we went for a walk to the lake that was all pretty and frozen, though the ice wasn't quite thick enough to walk on, sadly. We bounced around on the suspension bridge, which was muchly fun.

When we got back we had dinner which was really yummy, and then we played Cranium, which was hilarious. Oh, heavens I should detail some of that, but I don't feel like it now, and maybe we can keep this entry a half reasonable length if I don't...

On the whole, it was a very, very good day. And on that note, I shall leave you to your regularly scheduled friends list...

...you know I haven't been posting enough when I feel this much like an invader, hehehe.

Oh yeah.

Thanks so much to everyone for all the encouragement and whatnot. You rock, my friends, you truly do.

So, here's a run down of some of the things I learned while writing my novel, which was supposed to be hilariously bad and instead came out plain bad, much to my chagrin. I have a decent idea of how I'd like to edit what I have and there are at least a couple paragraphs I really like--basically those few places where my natural hyper-detailed long-winded style actually happened to fit what was happening.

That I guess is the first thing. Now, please note this is a list about me and my own experiences and what works for me, not really as advice, though if any of it sounds like it might be useful to you, dear reader, by all means try it.

1. Write what comes to mind, worry about it later. Write it in whatever way seems natural. Even if it sounds dumb, as long as I know what it means and it factually says what I want it to, that's okay. It's better to at least get the rough framework out there as quickly as possible so I can see what's going to work and what isn't. I can clean up the wording to the OCD-Imp's pathetic little heart's content later.

2. Eliminate distractions. For me this does not mean unplug the TV and the internet, though I certainly spent a lot less time on that in November than other months. It means don't worry about something unless it deserves a little worry or it just gets to be too much of a distraction, and if that proves the case then act on it right away so it won't be an inconvenience later and I can get my mind back where it should be as soon as possible. That's why I got a big pile of CDs and my flash drive early in the month when I realized I was going to need music, and so on (there's a lot of so on).

3. Don't be afraid to take a break if I really need it. At a certain point productivity will drop so much due to tiredness or just not feeling the novel anymore or forcing it for too long that the difference of a day off (or an hour, or in short however much is called for) will be more than made up for afterward. HOWEVER, one must be careful not to abuse this way of thought. There are so many times when I think I need a break but in reality only want one. It may be painful to keep going, but it is possible if I can get settled in and stop obsessing about how I'd rather be doing something else.

4. Keep on keeping on. In spite of number 3, it is desperately important to keep going most of the time no matter what. If one day turns into two instead of merely being refreshed I'm also going to be pretty well out of the whole writing zone and getting back into it when I want to get the thing done is annoying and time consuming. Also, some of the better bits were written when I was half asleep and not expecting to be able to write much, but just tried anyway. Methinks the Muse can speak more clearly when I'm not getting in my own way.

There are a few others, complicated little things not worth explaining.

So yeah. NaNo was a heck of a lot of fun. And very, very difficult in spite of the fact that I wasn't writing anything that was meant to be good or serious and I had all that free time, like I mentioned...next year I am getting on that word wars team, 'cause if you drag regional pride into it it is so much more motivation. I barely decided not to this time just because I'd never done it before and I was rather busy with the writing the last day or two I could've signed up. But yeah, I actually finished, and there were a few people with only a few thousand at the end of the month, if I'd been on there it woulda done a lot of good. I'm gonna shoot for mebbe 75,000 next year, unless I actually have a job or something else productive to be doing by then, which would be preferable...

I guess that's it for now. Ta, my lovelies. The whole school idea went well enough, then terribly, then pretty good, and anyway...uh, yes, it does seem to be possible although I am taking it slow as the headaches are improved, not vanished. So I may not be around as much. We shall see.

Well, just over that if you believe Open Office, a couple hundred under if you'd rather trust Microsh-- "works", which I wouldn't, but I think in fairness I ought to have 50k or more in whichever gives me a lower number, especially since I'm certain they count some things that aren't words, like the asterisks I put to break up certain sections and whatnot...

National Novel Writing Month has been one wild ride. I have learned so much about myself as a writer, what works for me and how to get the words out even when they just don't want to come. I've even learned that when I just keep at it long enough and I don't think it's going well I can come to loathe writing with my whole heart and soul, which came as a huge surprise. I mean, my attempted novels had always been a bit like babies to me, and I loved them no matter how deformed they became, just because they were mine. Sometimes in years past I just wasn't capable of changing something I kind of knew I should just because I'd become fond of them as they were (now that kind of thing happens pretty much only when I really don't know what else I could do with a part that feels a little off). The fact that I could hate one and hate creating it--just boggled my mind. I've been desperately afraid of writing in the past, but never dead and bitter and full of loathing to it, and that was not fun. But thankfully I love it enough to keep on through that stuff and it didn't last more than a couple days, so YAYS! I'm starting to grow into a real writer now. Even though the thing I'm writing is nothing like a real novel, I'm at least practicing in a very real fashion now.

I wanted to tell you all a bit more about my experiences, but I think I need to get back to my laptop and focus on this thing again, my need for a break/change of scenery is winding down and I feel the need to get back to my baby again. Can't seem to get in the zone on the new unnamed compy right now (I do now have a flash drive so I could in theory work on it here). I'm going to finish this today! I already did about 2,000 words (I don't think I've written that much in three hours before in my life) and I'm gonna get that other three somehow. You just watch! I may be behind but the difference is far from insurmountable! I kinda had to take a break yesterday, only got like 1,000 all day, it was just growing so stale and I couldn't think straight, uh, AT ALL. Thankfully there was a free concert of purty classical music Jim had found out about, and I went to that and felt so much better afterward (someday I'll try to post more details 'cause 'twas cool), and this morning I was ALL CHARGED UP! WOOHOO!

I'm gonna make it. And after I do maybe I'll get back to catching up on LJ. But maybe not too much. I think I am going to try to spend more time doing schoolwork, now that I've got some herbs that help some with those headaches and a few other coping mechanisms...I think the problem is largely one of circulation (though I suspect there are other contributing factors and I can't even figure out what all of them are--stress, I'm looking in your direction, though, lol), which shouldn't surprise me since there are all sorts of signs that that's bad in me. I really should have thought of that before. When I went to see the TCM person a few days ago he was saying I should take formulas that'd increase circulation to my neck and head, and that got me thinking, and that does seem to be a big part of it. Once I noticed it, it's weird to find that if it's only just starting to get bad it sometimes can be more or less dissipated if I just lean back in my chair and tilt my head way back for a couple minutes. So yeah. Gonna try to get back into the stuff that teh ebil headaches stole from me again. I'm nervous but also excited in a good way. But yes. All that comes later. Right now, back to writing!

Please, my good friends, cheer me on through the final stretch! I've come too far to fall here!

Hmm, have you ever noticed that I tend to listen to really creepy/depressed music like Within Temptation and Lullacry and Evanescence when I'm feeling good? Weird...but it always has made me feel better, actually, if I'm depressed, it gets it out of my system. I don't know why it also seems like something to celebrate to, but oh well. I've always liked being weird, so it's not like I care, hehe.