dotsandlines

Oops.

Fri, 07 Feb 2014 01:05:33 GMT

I didn't intend to disappear. That was a bit dramatic, wasn't it.

Hardly a week after I finished the beta version of the story, my computer went dead without warning. I got all of my data off the hard drive by other means, but I still went tablet-only for over a month. And I've been less inclined to post anything lately, be that DW, Facebook or Tumblr (which I only halfassedly use for following other people's stuff). Plus holidays. Meh.

Sooooo that happened.

I still feel too long-winded for Tumblr, so here I am once again.

Updates?

Three people out of seven billion have finished the story! \o/ A fourth started it. I appreciate every attempt. I've continued to rewrite/edit in the meantime, and outline the next story. Entertaining feedback: "I liked it, but I don't know why. Ever seen Fruits Basket? Nothing happens, but it's still great. Like that." (lightly paraphrased)

Haven't moved much fandomwise. Hubs and I are watching Angel on Netflix. It's solidly bonkers now, and not really in a way that I enjoy. But we've made it this far.

EDIT: Oh! And I started learning how to make amigurumi. I've made a couple of little ones from books so far: fortune cookies ( = circles), two penguins, and a spherical cat.

And that's what I have for now. G'night, internet.

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Augh, not more words!

Wed, 06 Nov 2013 23:55:23 GMT

I'm doing a fake-Nanowrimo thing, in which I attempt to write at a Nano pace (1667 words a day) on a pre-existing project. My new goal is to finish this story with which I've been playing for the last few years, so that I can, I dunno, edit it, write something else, move on with my life? Seems like a thing to do.

It's exhausting. Exhausting! I resorted to whiting out all of the text as soon as I finish a scene, so that I don't worry about it till this project is over. I suspect a lot of it sucks. Not going back, except to add paragraphs here and there. Still exhausting.

It's working OK - I'm still on pace, though I've been slowing down - but my brain is just bruised.

Social life is also exhausting, even though there isn't much of it. Sick of being a seat-warmer, someone that people hang around until someone more interesting shows up. Blech. May your seats be ever frosty. I want to tell myself that I deserve better than this.

Should stop reading the book I'm currently reading, because it is guess what?! Yep. It should be savored like a fine, nostalgia-laden, deeply awkward wine instead of feeding into my current anxiety. But it's adorable and sweet and sad and I recommend it anyway. (I'm only ~halfway through, but still.)

...oh, and 21st century farce: my dad joined Facebook, so I can't say much of anything there anymore. Ha.

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Ice cream truck full of spoiler

Sat, 21 Sep 2013 01:14:44 GMT

Finished FMA: Brotherhood.

BRB, gonna find as many eyecatches as possible to use as wallpaper. They were pretty basic, but I liked them, particularly the placement in some of the episodes (often right after a character had done something awesome). ...OK, all set.

( Spoilers just in case )

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Books. And reading them.

Sat, 31 Aug 2013 23:15:46 GMT

At Half Price Books, I bought a book about 1603 and one about the history of military medicine. In other words, I'm spending money on research for a book I don't intend to publish. Useless hobbies are fun. Woo. (My story isn't set in 1603, but that's about the latest era it could be analogous to right now.)

Also joined Goodreads, because I like rambling about books, and I like recommendations.

Edit: Oh, and I also bought another used copy of Erasure's best-of, since I loaned out my previous copy and never got it back (and pretty much all of my older Erasure CDs have worn out). So now I once again own a copy of "A Little Respect". Awesome. It's one of my favorite songs to sing, but I suck at it. I just can't handle the notes on "soul" and "calling" in the chorus. Oh, I can reach them, but by the time we've slid to the end of the word, I'm in some entirely incorrect key.

I might be the only dork who was squeeful over the copy of "A Little Respect" at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

This has been today's 1 a.m. geek-out. Tomorrow a new episode of Welcome to Night Vale comes out, so that'll be tomorrow's 1 a.m. geekout.

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Impatient stats

Wed, 28 Aug 2013 02:27:48 GMT

Last time was the 27th, so there.

( Yep )

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Wheeee (Starships vid, someone else's)

Mon, 26 Aug 2013 02:37:29 GMT

Squeeeeeee! (vid I wish I'd known about ages ago, missed it on io9 somehow, but it doesn't matter because now I have seen it!)
Squeeeee! (retrofuturistic remake!!)

aaaaaaaaaaadorable.

To be coherent about it, the first is a mixed-mostly-modern-sci-fi live-action(mostly) fanvid to "Starships" by Nicki Minaj; the second is the same, with all B&W footage from before 1969. I was first exposed to this song by Dance Central, but a mental image track very much like this is why I actually like the song.

EDIT: OH WAIT LOOK. Literal video of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" vs. Utena. OMG.

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Other things that are happening: Still working on personal sewing projects; my space quilt is 8/10 blocks finished. (Remaining: DS9 and Anime Crossover.) Started a pair of Night Vale bears because that's my thing at the moment. Can't sell them - the creators request no sale of fanart - but that means I get to keep them without guilt. :P

Also, researching therapists in the area. Record scratch, yeah, I know. My coping skills have been fine for day to day stresses, but crumple and blow away when I get onto tracks of thought about Big Issues In My Life. So it's time to go back in for some tune-up.

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...oh. Wait.

Fri, 16 Aug 2013 23:18:10 GMT

My genre angst screeched to a halt this morning when I realized that my most popular fanwork was a straight-up romance novel. I knew that at the time, but just didn't fully put it into words. Uh...duh.

Also in that genre: one of my three finished NaNoWriMo projects (a comedy, but still) and half of everything I wrote between ages 15-21. I am not heading toward dissolution; I'm already there.

I'm freeeee~!

I guess I worry because I don't read the genre, even though I've been writing it since adolescence. That makes me kind of a punk, and not in the cool musical sense - in the "you think you can stomp in and own everything, newcomer?" sense.

So I'll be careful of that. Otherwise, enough apologizing about genre.

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A secret military conspiracy of only 32 people, plus a puppy.

Wed, 14 Aug 2013 01:05:47 GMT

ON ANOTHER NOTE

We've been watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood on Netflix lately - nearing the end of season 2 now. It's reminding me why FMA was such a Thing a few years ago. Even though I am Just Not Into the ninjas. I'm sorry, if I wanted ninjas I'd watch any one of 800 other shows. I want post-steampunk magical bureaucracy and soul-destroying tragic WTFery at the moment, thank you.

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Fantasy-flavored chick lit, and who gets to tell stories

Wed, 14 Aug 2013 00:57:37 GMT

( What stories should be about )

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Scary awesome time

Mon, 12 Aug 2013 01:04:26 GMT

Calling for beta-readers. Post back here, due to its ever so slightly wider reach. But basically, if you're in the mood to read an ~80 page excerpt from an original story out of the goodness of your heart, let me know.

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Dangerous 2 a.m. thoughts

Sat, 10 Aug 2013 06:00:55 GMT

Juuuust realized that if I write one or two more (longish) scenes, Sequel 2 will have about eighty contiguous, theoretically readable pages without any "and stuff goes here" gaps, AND include the beginning of a couple of key conflicts. You know, like the beginning of a story. I've been passing through it to tweak a few things and make it more readable as a stand-alone. I think it can.

Hmmmm. Uggghhh. Hmmm. Thoughts. Decisions. Dangit.

I am not thinking about publishing; I am thinking about begging for feedback from anyone who would agree to read it. Why? I don't even know. Curiosity, mostly.

I'll see how that thought looks in the cold light of day. And then write those two more longish scenes.

---

I've already rambled/ranted on FB, so I'll just mention it once here: new fandom woo! I've been listening to this all week, and caught up with the first 28 episodes. It's so charmingly cracked.

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I'm pretty sure there are wolves out there.

Sat, 03 Aug 2013 15:18:07 GMT

I am perpetually on the edge of opening a Tumblr account. But a) I don't know whether the Yahoo buyout killed it, and I'm actually only seeing the ash-covered remains of its glory days; and b) I don't do graphics all that much.

I think some people use words on it, though. I've seen some words. There's this nesting comments thing that I don't quite understand, but I saw some words that were not contained in an animated GIF. A couple of times.

I've seen enough neat things to have a pool of people to follow, so that's a start.

I'd better not do it just now, because I have been in a not-particularly-great place, and I'm likely to get frustrated. Later, though, maybe.

I just finished a two-month-long class which was enjoyable, but which threw my exercise schedule completely off the rails. That, and a few other straws on the camel's back, led to one of those not-fatal but constantly-gray moods. I've acknowledged it and started to make course corrections - like getting the routine back in stone and making a point to do at least one thing a day that is satisfying and creative, rather than just reading the internet and playing Minecraft. Evasive action, captain.

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Gary Stu and the Quest for the Cardboard Arm Candy

Sat, 03 Aug 2013 01:28:18 GMT

Finished the book that I didn't like.

I know what I learned today! I learned that I could write a better romance novel than ONE person on earth, if I tried to!

Ye gods.

"Jade orbs", I think. I think he un-ironically used the phrase "jade orbs", or "emerald", or "sapphire", or somesuch. And "alabaster skin", multiple times.

But here's the crux of the problem, and the larger What I Learned Today.

( Learning from books that you don't like: Empathy. Have some. )

...

In other news, I think I hatched a NaNoWriMo-able idea on the way to work this morning. I'm thinking about jumping back in this year. I'm thinking about jumping back in as a way to force myself out of the house, contradictory as that sounds. Local meetups? Writing in a coffeehouse? Something. I love my husband dearly, but I am going stir-crazy not talking to anyone else outside of work.

People terrify me, and yet I feel like hell if I don't get at least some dose of them. Go figure, huh?

(I do go to a weekly crafting meetup, but there's not much "there" there. The other members have made it abundantly clear that I could never understand their complex psychology with my puny mainstream brain, so I'd better not even try to be their friends. OK then! Can I borrow your scissors? I guess that's that.)

In other other news, fun article despite the Buzzfeedy/Crackedy title:

7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding

#4 (not everyone agrees on everything) and #7 (think about how your non-realistic factors would affect everything) are my favorites. Fun times.

You know, I should remember that I like that kind of stuff, and try something short and speculative sometime.

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Aaaaargh scooped.

Tue, 30 Jul 2013 22:17:30 GMT

Oh, crap. The song we'd been sitting on for a Miyazaki AMV just popped up in the trailer for a movie version of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Now what.

...I would probably watch that movie, sorry to say. And I think the song is well-used in the trailer. I'd just hate to work on a video for months, only to get nothing back but "lol thats the song from that dumb ben stiller movie lol" (note: that movie would probably be 100% better with anyone else)

Then again, you can't control other people's reactions anyway, so whatever.

I'm sour today, excuse me. Facebook. You know how it goes.

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Stats. Yep.

Sat, 27 Jul 2013 13:25:26 GMT

Close enough to the end of the month. (Ulterior motive: Wrote a bit last night, so if this keeps up, it will boost next month's count. Heh.)

( Stats )

I'm reading an ebook right now - not gonna name it, don't want to be a jerk - and I don't like it too much. I feel like the author is one of those "Women are unknowable alien creatures" types, and yet one of his narrators is a woman. So he has no idea what to do with her. Her scenes are flat and weird, and suffer greatly from omniscient breasts syndrome - even though the narrator is just doing stuff and not admiring herself rapturously in a mirror, the narration goes to ridiculous lengths panting over her assets. From her POV. When she, the character, is not paying attention to her looks at all. It's fourth-wall-breaking and bizarre.

Anyway, this ebook is bugging the hell out of me, but I am giving it a chance to see how it plays out. Also, to identify what exactly annoys me about it, and learn from that.

a) Omniscient breasts syndrome
b) Uses "unphased" instead of "unfazed", so editor is incompetent

That linked essay, BTW, also brings up an intriguing anecdote about a reader being offended because the author was "trying to make him gay" - she wrote from a straight female character's POV, including the character being attracted to men. The reader was offended/uncomfortable because he had never encountered the concept of a narrator who was not exactly like him, a straight (probably white) man. So he had no concept of reading except as a self-insert, and didn't know how to see a story from a fundamentally different person's POV. Fascinating. I tend to take that sort of thing for granted.

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Today in So-Bad-They're-Awesome Video Ideas...

Sat, 27 Jul 2013 01:58:08 GMT

Nobody has done a "Toy Soldiers" Madoka video yet! Aww yeah.

...not saying I'll do it. Just that it would amuse me immensely. I'd just go completely deadpan, like my my Zuko video, and let the viewer decide whether they could take the song seriously or not.

It was the hubs' idea. The song came on the radio on our way back from a local toy fair. Nothing has yet convinced me that it wouldn't work.

EDIT: And the only other idea I've had is "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" by Florence + the Machine (who is the lamb and who is the knife? brr!), which has already been used for a very good Escaflowne AMV. So that one will stay in my head.

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Elder Scrolls garden brainstorming

Thu, 25 Jul 2013 02:53:28 GMT

Notes on a goofball idea I had a couple of weeks ago - a garden corner/pocket based on The Elder Scrolls. (I haven't done it yet; just sorting out which plants in-game have real-world counterparts.)

I should be doing this on Pinterest, but I don't have an account. ...yet?

( Snp. Snp. Snpsnpsnpsnpsnp )

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Paper cut? Contract!

Tue, 23 Jul 2013 00:52:44 GMT

We made it. adfklajsd;flkjsd.

( Spoilers! )

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New (to me) things!

Mon, 22 Jul 2013 00:19:43 GMT

Apparently, there is a streaming service called Crackle that runs on the Xbox 360. There's not a whole lot on it, but it's free-with-ads. And it has a slightly different cross-section of anime than Netflix does. Includiiiiiiing Madoka Magica. Woo! So far, this show has the "dark fairy tale" aspect of Princess Tutu with the "innocent characters who are unaware that they live in a horribly dark world until it's too late" factor of Higurashi. I'm enjoying it greatly, but I'm glad it's only 12 episodes long. I'm not sure how much of this I could take.

We have finished 8 episodes so far. I called the twist in that episode. CALLED IT! *does the I-called-the-disturbing-tragic-twist dance*

I'll write more when we've finished, probably in a couple more days of viewing. Jay and I have guessed some more things which may or may not pan out.

Crackle also has The Prisoner! Which I've already seen! But that's good, because I had to rent it on disc from Netflix, and the discs kept coming in scratched. I'd rewatch it sometime if it weren't for that hassle.

Also, Nodame Cantabile and DRRR. That's...about all that catches my interest.

I am not being paid by this random website; it just runs the same few ads four or five times each per episode. In our first set of viewings, a Geico commercial had us climbing the walls. Every break, sometimes more than once per break. Stop it. I don't even have a freaking car.

Today it was all public service announcement ads. Hey, kids, make a contract with Kyubey, and then don't drink and drive, and save the manatees! Sleep tight.

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Paraphrased for your convenience: a moment of awesome.

Sun, 14 Jul 2013 00:53:03 GMT

Post on the FB group for the local con, by an otherwise fairly cool poster:

So that swimming anime, is there any cheesecake in it? Cuz I don't like boys in swimsuits. Just so everybody knows.

Responses tended toward:
- God forbid there should be ONE series that doesn't cater to you personally. Get over yourself.
- You should try, you know, every other series out there.
- It's fanservice for straight girls (mostly). That's a thing, FYI.

And this is on a general-public anime convention board, not some niche site!! I'm so proud of my fandom right now! Squee.

Of course, that was followed up by some gross GIF meme about how crossplay is inherently hilarious and people who don't make the poster's pants happy aren't allowed to cosplay. Sigh. One step forward, one step back.

I called them out on it, or tried to. One step forward, one step back.

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Stop! Edithammer time.

Wed, 03 Jul 2013 02:07:48 GMT

Oh yeah, it's past the end of the month! Forgot about this.

Uh, I changed some things again.

( June stats )

EDIT: Also just finished one of my "anything interesting under $2.99" purchases, Dawn by Octavia E. Butler, a.k.a. Book 1 of Lilith's Brood / Xenogenesis. Deeply, deeply strange book. My brain hurts. That strange. I can finish the whole trilogy for $9.99, and I am tempted just to get some closure on this WTFery. Which is not to say that it's bad, in any sense. Just...deeply strange.

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Color coding? Semaphore?

Tue, 25 Jun 2013 00:46:06 GMT

Turns out that putting my notes on my Kindle and using it while I work on the computer doesn't work that well, because the note-taking app that I have on the Kindle is really awkward. I can peck in words with the touch keyboard, barely, but you can't copy/paste/move blocks of text around, nor can you erase blocks of text. You just have to sit there leaning on the "delete" button.

Soooo it was a good idea in theory, and if I had a flashier gadget, it would probably work a treat. (I don't want one at the moment - mine is fine - but that's the circumstance under which this idea would have worked.)

So I'm transferring my notes back to the computer. Next experiment: note cards! - Sometime. Not right now.

Stats next week. I realized this past month that over time, I've deep-sixed the entire first year of writing that I did on this project. It's for the best, but that's still an alarming thing to realize.

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I am in my basement, making outer space.

Sat, 22 Jun 2013 01:13:17 GMT

Heyyyyy, I've been talking about writing and depression too much. My life is not all made up of those things, I swear.

I'm excited about a sewing project for our own house, so let me rave about that for a bit.

( spaaaaaa~ you probably know the rest ~aaaaaaace )

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Finding weak spots

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 20:31:30 GMT

During an overnight trip, I spent a couple of hours copy-editing a story that my husband had written, then did a bunch of editing on the Kindle on my story. It's improving, I think.

We also talked a bit about the value of outside opinions / viewpoints, which made me a little sad that my stuff is still unreadable by humans. Yes, you need a strong idea of what you want and shouldn't be guided solely by others' opinions. But a second opinion can be very valuable. I started outlining the plot as it stands, and realized why I'm having issues: I'm accidentally writing the sequel first.

( Breakdown, i.e. stats from now on )

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I'll just quote this at intervals from now on.

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 03:07:06 GMT

Just a fun quote that seems apropos for my journal. I bought this book when it popped up in the daily Kindle sales. It was adorably batty. Scene: A father haphazardly trying to calm his inconsolable (young?) son.

---

But Ranulph’s sobs redoubled. “I want to get away! to get away!” he moaned.

“Away? Away from where?” and there was a touch of impatience in Master Nathaniel’s voice.

“From … from things happening,” sobbed Ranulph.

Master Nathaniel’s heart suddenly contracted; but he tried not to understand. “Things happening?” he said in a voice that he endeavored to make jocular. “I don’t think anything very much happens in Lud, does it?”

“All the things,” moaned Ranulph, “summer and winter, and days and nights. All the things!”

- from Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees

---

The book overall is a fantasy story about a town on the edge of Faerie which is Very Unimpressed By Such Outlandish Nonsense, and the interactions between the townspeople and the fantastic world right around the bend. It's quasi-Victorian? It was published in 1926, which I thought was kayfabe* at first because it seems strangely parodic and simultaneously un-stagey, in a weirdly modern way. But no, according to Wikipedia and Amazon, it actually was published in 1926. I still feel wary of being tricked.

Anyway, it's a keeper. Lately I have been checking the daily sales... well, daily, buying dang near anything that is under $2.99 and piques my interest. I have a sizeable backlog for the first time in a while.

Writing is going well. Cut about 10K retconned words, then wrote 6K more. By my estimates, there's about 29K more that needs to be either cut or heavily edited - most of the last quarter of the thing, as it stands now. But I believe in my edits! They are drastic, but the end result will be better. There are two more weeks till stats time, so I won't belabor that point too much.

* something which is fictional, but which you're supposed to pretend is real in real life in order to play along with fandom properly. Like pro wrestling, or those fans who insist(ed) that Sherlock Holmes is factual. To me it seemed like a book which was written more recently but pretended to be vintage.

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