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wJan 14, 2009 | |
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Serious Discussions FTW This post refers to so many LJ people that you must read it at the LJ! Labels: anti-racism, cultural appropriation, racism, writing scribbled mystickeeper at 8:42 PM 
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wOct 31, 2008 | |
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This time, my story will have no signs "glittering ominously." Haul from Public Library Book Sale: O Pioneers! by Willa Cather The Keys to the Kingdom by Garth Nix (first in the Mister Monday series) Herland - Charlotte Perkins Gilman (to feminist utopia people on my FL: is this good?) Andersen's Fairy Tales - Complete with nice/adorable illustrations by Janusz Grabianski The Stand - Stephen King (I have a small paperback version, but this is a huge hardcover, with a nifty illustration. I know that a lot of people give Stephen King crap, but this and The Dark Tower series are just awesome. I like some of his other stuff, too.) The Creation of Feminist Consciousness - Gerda Lerner Temeraire: In the Service of the King by Naomi Novik [UK title of His Majesty's Dragon] A PAINTING for $2.50. "The Letter" by Jean Honore Fragonard I've been making my way through season three of Veronica Mars. Spoilers. After watching episode 7, "Of Vice and Men," I felt unsettled but wasn't able to put my finger on it. As always, reading critical posts written when the episodes came out are helpful! Here is coffeeandink: Wow, I am SO GLAD that Veronica has learned to TRUST her boyfriend, because it's not like he has a history of interpersonal violence, drug use, cheating, and just generally terrible decisions that might make her wonder whether he's faithful and/or why he won't tell her what he and Mercer were doing that was so terrible Mercer'd rather be up for serial rape. I know that would blow right past my bullshit detection radar. Clearly, Veronica's suspicious nature is the big issue in this relationship. Also read the comments! Lots of bitter people, but they point out the more heinous bits of the show. It sounds like a lot of people gave up on the show at this point during the third season, but I still like the show enough to keep watching. I'm a completist, and it's not horrible. I will agree that the writing quality has fallen a bit, and it seems like the same thing is happening that happened in latter seasons of The West Wing, in that characters are acting in ways I never thought they would (see: The Great Temptation of Keith Mars). I still love Logan, but Piz is also adorable. I want Mac to come back because I love her. And yes, Internet, I still love Logan Echolls EVEN THOUGH he left a motel ON FIRE WITHOUT SEEING IF ANYBODY WAS OKAY. (9 out of 10 guys would have done the same thing? Bullshit.) This might have made my love for him increase. He's pretty boring while dating Veronica, though. His over-protectiveness is scary even though it makes sense given his history. I'm glad Veronica is creeped out. Also, oh my GOD, the look on Logan's face when he tries calling Veronica while they're both in the cafeteria. Their break-up will be so epic! Apparently, my love for fictional characters is vastly different than my respect/love for real people. It's been a crazy couple of weeks! Two weekends ago, Jennifer came to visit, and it was pretty awesome. There was a lot of food eaten, walking done, and people seen. I'm excited to go home for Thanksgiving and see everybody. Last night was a 1950s Halloween party, and it was also marvelous. Today is November 1, and I'm supposed to start writing today. I've been scribbling down notes in my graphpaper and organizing stuff, but have yet to actually....write things. Hopefully that'll come soon. 1,667 words per day, that's what must be done. Labels: books, tv: veronica mars, writing scribbled mystickeeper at 7:14 PM
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wOct 27, 2008 | |
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NanoWrimo?! EVERY YEAR, I get the same itch to write around October. It's because the first time I tried NanoWrimo, I started a story called "Ghost Hunters," centering on high school kids at a boarding school in the middle of nowhere going ghost hunting. The writing quality was pretty poor, but it's ghost-hunting and yay!fun. Should I rewrite Ghost Hunters and work to actually complete it? Or should I start something new? One of my LJ friends is making an effort to blog every day, which sounds cool too (I would be more serious in my blogging, going for essays and whatever). ANYWAY, this is the first year that I'm not in school during the month of November, and I'm wondering if I should try it again? Everyone and their mom is doing NanoWrimo, it seems, and it would be nice to rewrite all of the sucky parts. Also, I could not post things in a public blog as soon as I write them, and save myself some embarassment. What say you, Internet?! Is this a worthy endeavor? Are you betting I'll only last 3 days like I do every year? Maybe everyone who's doing it could make our own support community on LiveJournal? That way we won't spam everyone else in our personal journals? Labels: ghost hunters, writing scribbled mystickeeper at 12:56 PM
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wApr 29, 2008 | |
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The common thread is books Natalie Portman is going to play Catherine Earnshaw in a new movie version of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. While I'm glad that there won't be 8,000,000 more remakes of Jane Austen novels in the near future and people have realized that other women were writing great stuff in the 19th century, I'm not sure how much I'll like Portman as Cathy. I've liked her in everything I've seen her in thus far, though, so I guess I'll give it a try when it comes out. There is an awesome article in the New York Times about depressed writers. With all our scans and neurotransmitters, we are not much closer to figuring out that relationship than was Lord Byron, who announced that poets are “all crazy” and left it at that. But effective drugs make the question more urgent now: would Virginia Woolf, medicated, have survived to write her final masterpiece, or would she have spent her extra years happily shopping? I find this interesting. For me, when I'm feeling down, everything else gets stripped away except for words, which I am more likely to write down then than when I am happy and preoccupied. Tomorrow morning, I have a Ballroom Dance practical exam, which I'm a bit afraid of, as I missed the day of practice on Monday. I opted to miss that over 3 power lectures, though, so hopefully it'll work out okay. As for the paper due Friday, I haven't written much yet, but there is more to my presentation notes than I thought there was. The nice part about this paper (sort of?) is that the professor has really given absolutely no direction, and it seems like it's supposed to mostly be personal reflection (seeing as most of the class is reflecting on their study abroad experience). I think that that will make things much easier. Still attempting to read like mad so that I can include info on as much manga as possible. I need to figure out how to get a hold of the last volume of Vaughan's Y: The Last Man. Labels: college, literature, movies, writing scribbled mystickeeper at 11:38 PM
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wFeb 26, 2008 | |
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When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary.... It's weird, but I think that I open my post-writing window in LiveJournal or Blogger depending on my mood. Maybe I should keep track of which interface equates with which moods. Moods. I feel a mix of many things tonight. I'm going home this weekend, to visit my family. I think it's been nearly two months since I've been home, which is kind of a lot for me. I have a paper that I should have worked on tonight, but didn't. Now I will have both a paper and a take-home midterm to be worrying about at the same time, until the paper is handed in Thursday and I am left with just the take-home midterm. Job-searching is progressing. I'll be doing a phone interview sometime this week. Am still looking for places to submit applications, though. Actually, since it's halfway through Lent now, maybe I should see how well I'm doing at my Lenten goals*: 1) Make my bed every morning. I know this sounds like a stupid goal, but I wanted at least one achievable one. It's been going well, :) 2) Clean my room every week. It took a while - the first two weeks, I'd put some things away, like clean/dirty laundry, and put books in piles. But it wasn't until yesterday that I actually put everything away and swiffered, dusted, and vacuumed. Hopefully now, I will stay on track. 3) Write sometimes. I haven't really done much with this at all. I did download a text editor that I played around with, organizing some Ghost Hunters notes and scenes. Still, I wish there was something like Scrivener for PC. So basically, this goal has not been "going" at all. :( 4) Do at least one thing every day to further your job search. I had been beginning to drag my feet, so I wanted to make this a priority, and it's going well. My resumes are finished, I've met with career advisers, and attended the Career Expo. I've applied to two jobs. I will do more! 5) Make an effort to only spend time on the Internet if you have an actual purpose. You spend too much time online. Use the extra time for homework, job-searching, reading, socializing, etc. Ummm....I would say I've been better than I was before, but not by much. This area also needs work. * For those who aren't Catholic, Lenten "fasting" doesn't necessarily have to mean, "I'm giving up soda for Lent this year." The goal is to pay attention to an area in your life that needs work, and with improvement will bring you closer to God. Making better choices about eating habits tends to be a popular Lenten promise, which is cool. I don't find anything particularly wrong about my eating habits, and I don't drink coffee or much soda, so there isn't really an easy thing to pick out. Thus, I tend to go for goals instead. I'm feeling restless and angsty tonight, so I probably shouldn't say much else. Will read something comforting before bed, after typing a bit about Angel. Spoilers through most of disc 2 of Angel, season 3 And, randomly....OMG! Wiscon panel descriptions are posted. Have you guys signed up for Wiscon yet? DO IT. BEST DECISION I EVER MADE. Current Music: You Raise Me Up - Lena Park - Inori (Romeo x Juliet OP) Labels: college, faith, graduation, wiscon, writing scribbled mystickeeper at 12:36 AM
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wNov 3, 2007 | |
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and i reckon there is nothing more to say So, I am at my parents' house now. Today was kind of ho-hum, aside from waking up at an ungodly hour (5:45am) and going to a church liturgy meeting, and then work, and then driving home. My sister's family came to my parents' house for dinner. My sister and I gave my dad 20 John Wayne movies and 20 other western movies for his birthday, much to his glee and my mother's vast disapproval (he will presumably watch them all the time, to her annoyance). After dinner, I went to my sister's house to watch Avatar with Dylan, and then my cousin Molly came over and we watched an episode of House. I came home and then worked on my NanoWrimo story. I've written a bit over 1,200 words now, which is better than nothing! Ghost Hunters is still updating in the same place. As a total, from beginning to where I am now, the story has almost 30,000 words, which I guess is pretty damn awesome. Hehe, even if I only make it to 10,000 or so words each time....if I do it enough times, eventually the story will be done! Who else is doing Nano this year? The people I know of for sure are myself, my cousin Molly, and Kristen. I have a profile on the NanoWrimo website. There's a link to it on the Ghost Hunters page, otherwise I'm under "Timria." Anyway, I've been awake for a really long time, and now I shall sleep.scribbled mystickeeper at 12:37 AM
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wNov 1, 2007 | |
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sonofamother And I will start off NanoWrimo in typical me-fashion, with having had no time to write today, at all. I feel so angry and blah right now. I need to figure out how to park my car downtown tomorrow, for this liturgy meeting at 7 tomorrow (wtf, I need to lobby to change the freaking time) and then work, and then leaving for home. Also, in the morning, I should pack the car. Why is everything such an ordeal? Useless. I'd better feel better tomorrow, even though I won't be getting much sleep tonight to help myself along. Damn it. Labels: writing scribbled mystickeeper at 10:47 PM
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wOct 30, 2007 | |
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Determine my life! Vote! I never know if I should do NanoWrimo or not. I've never finished it, I've only participated while in college, and every time I did, it was to work on Ghost Hunters, a story about a group of high school students at a boarding school for the gifted out in the middle of nowhere, and their English teacher/adviser. They hunt ghosts! They also all speak in the same voice (mine!), and randomly angst out when I decide to hit word-count. Everything I've written for it (well, except for copious notes and sketches) is on that blogspot page. Usually, during the middle of NanoWrimo, I end up dropping out because I get woefully behind due to university-related demands like homework, papers, and midterms. If I did do it, I would continue to work on Ghost Hunters, as bad as it is. I have nothing else worked out in terms of a plot, or even an idea, and I still have lots of stuff I wanted to do with Ghost Hunters. Writing is just....weird. I want to do it, and I want to get better at it, but even when I start out these NanoWrimos the last couple of years, or when I used to try short stories or emo high school poetry, I still always hated doing it, because with each word I wrote, I was fully aware of how much I suck. This is what happens when you have been an avid reader since the age of 6, and are extremely critical of the style of everything you read. Anyway. Should I try and do it? In terms of lol, my friend Jaci is writing a biography of my friend Gretchen, and I think I'm going to be in the story! I need to figure out what my biggest strength and weakness are. Labels: ghost hunters, nanowrimo, writing scribbled mystickeeper at 11:01 PM
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wOct 21, 2007 | |
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It is warm in my room again. Which means it'll be warm out tomorrow. It has been a good weekend. Kristy, my friend and Chad (roommate/friend)'s fiance, is here visiting, as she is on fall break. We went out for lunch yesterday, and then after Anime Club we all went out for a drink, and it was a good time. Steph has also given me a henna tattoo which encompasses the entire back of my right hand. Only a day later did I remember that I'm not allowed to have exposed tattoos at work....hopefully no one will notice! Writing this Women's Studies paper has been so much more involved than it should have been. I think it's probably the weirdest assignment I've had here. The subject is on female sexuality, which makes sense because it's a Biology and Disease class. We had to interview three people, and have to incorporate their thoughts into the paper. Okay. Their thoughts on seven different topics. Oh, and integrate four specific articles and the information contained within them - but you are not allowed to quote them. Also, I've never used APA style before, and the page in my copy of the book containing three of the articles is used, and the copyright page was ripped out, so I don't know what year it was published in. Anyway, it's done now, for better or worse. That's how I've felt about everything I've had to do for school so far this semester. I can't bring myself to care. At all. I'm lucky that I enjoy reading for my classes, or I might not be able to bring myself to do even that. I'm still fixated on figuring out what I want to do after graduation. In elementary school through high school, I always swore to myself and to others that I would never care how much money I made, so long as I loved my job. In a way, this is still true, but somewhere along the line, probably when teachers and adults started telling me that I was "smart," I began to fill steadily with ambition. Even now, with an incredibly average GPA, that ambition is still there. The jobs that seem easily within reach for my first year out of school are "not good enough" in my mind. I still don't care how much money I make, but I long for a job that will make people say or think, "Wow," when I tell them what I do. Sometimes, people do this now when I tell them that I work at the Capitol, and usually I do not have the heart to tell them that I earn what people make at Wal-Mart, and that I sit in the basement most of the time. When did I become so self-involved and narcissistic? It's disgusting. But it's still something that I need to work through. I know that my life-long dream was to be a famous novelist, but once I realized that I would first need a day-job, I focused on college and picking majors, and stopped writing. And every time, like now, when I think, "Well, maybe I should just DO it," I am exhausted and ready to go to sleep. I did manage to fit in an episode of Buffy this weekend, so I'm now halfway through season 4. Why do they always put featurettes that contain spoilers for the rest of the season on the mid-way disc?? It's mean! But watching Giles sing in those clips was absolutely amazing. I know that Buffy has a musical episode, but I'm so excited to hear Giles, 'cause he's actually good. "Hush" was amazing - almost all of the episode was done without the spoken word, and I loved it. The villains were also incredibly creepy. Riley is interesting. In the latest episode I watched, in which Riley attempted to define his relationship with another character (I'm purposely being vague to prevent spoilers....so beware of the comments!), the way he was speaking suddenly felt incredibly strongly of Mal, from Firefly. In fact, he kind of even looks like Mal. Does anyone else make this connection? Favorite Characters Right Now: Buffy, SPIKE, Riley Spike: Come on, vampires, rrrr, nasty! Let's annihilate them. For justice, and for... the safety of puppies and Christmas, right? Indeed, life is bearable because I am so easily diverted. Labels: college, friends, goals, tv: buffy, writing scribbled mystickeeper at 9:57 PM
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wAug 27, 2007 | |
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Everything and its mom Today has been one of the coolest days I can remember in a long time, and I think that it's because I had no specific place to be all day long, be it a social obligation or work or whatever. It was amazing. Reunion! But other things happened before today. On Saturday, there was a Family Reunion for my dad's side of the family. My parents live in town with almost all of my maternal cousins, so I get to see them a lot. The only person from my dad's side who I get to see regularly is his sister (my grandparents have all died - most of them before I was born). So, it was nice to see so many people, including those I've never met before. I think there were about 100 people at this reunion, and my dad had a good time. There's a definite difference between my mom and dad's relatives - whereas my mom's family would be making sarcastic jokes and not talk too seriously unless there's good gossip, my dad's family will smile shyly at one another and leave huge gaps in conversation, and will converse on anything from farming to politics to family lore. I took a lot of pictures, which will eventually find their way to Facebook, and possibly this blog. My navigation skills are awesome! I made it there and back all by myself! Sunday Tomorrow, Antoine and I will have reached our one-year anniversary of dating (WTF, I know). Since he has a real job, we really only have time to have a good dinner tomorrow, so on Sunday we went out for brunch at Mickie's Dairy Bar (holy crap, so good!!) and then went to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens, which were beautiful. There is a royal Thai pavilion, and it was gorgeous. But, I got to go on a date with Antoine, and he is cute and I like him. :) Also, neither of us had ever been to the Dairy Bar or the Gardens, so it was nice. Today I accomplished much today, especially considering how much I sat around and enjoyed the non-structure. I obtained a street parking pass and a new bus pass. I purchased folders and notebooks for the upcoming semester, and bought one needed book at Half-Price Books, and 8 more online at abebooks.com (A nice site, and sometimes cheaper than Amazon!). Oooh! At Half-Price Books, I also bought a computer game of Avatar: The Last Airbender for $3.98. Bwaha! I also actually got to make three full meals, PLUS I successfully made egg drop soup for the first time! One of my resolutions for the New Year was to learn how to cook more things, so that's a plus. Also, it actually looks and tastes like egg drop soup! Woot! I've been able to read manga and watch a little anime, too. I'm working on reading Naruto and Nausicaa, and catching up on Romeo x Juliet and NANA. My favorites of these four are far and away Nausicaa and NANA. I feel like RxJ has been lame lately, which sucks because it had so much potential! I hate when anime ends up laming out. I'll stick with it, buuut....man. Oh yeah! One of the coolest parts today was going through this thick manga catalog that I had purchased in Mitsuwa a few weeks ago because of a nice Final Fantasy Tactics illustration on the back cover that I wanted to put on my wall. The catalog only cost $1, so it was worth it to me. Little did I know how much awesomeness was inside! There is a page of Pirates of the Caribbean dojinshi!! Also, there was a neato poster and a few pages of manga about some random characters I don't recognize that look neat and might inspire writing. Best of all, one manga had a number of pictures of a character who looks exactly how I imagine Gali, a character in my Ghost Hunters story. You know, if she was an anime character. Now I need to figure out where to put all these pictures.....maybe I can make the creepy little nook in my room into a collage of pictures to inspire writing, and I can go and sit in there and write things. Feeling relaxed and creative are two things I haven't felt in a while. I am not exhausted! Taking this week off was a good idea. I hope this semester doesn't suck too much, and I can't hang on to this. It's sad, because this summer while I worked 40 hours a week, I always felt too exhausted to write. But during the school year, especially fall, I always get the itch to write. But if this is my last year of school, does that mean I'll lose it forever? I already barely write as it is. I hope I don't! That would be sad. Current Music: idea - eunfonius Labels: antoine, family, writing scribbled mystickeeper at 11:46 PM
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wJun 13, 2007 | |
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The first three paragraphs are for reals. So, I've only had time to watch the first episode of Buffy, season 2 so far, but I must say that it was like, "Hey, let's make our characters 3-D!" They fleshed out like bam, and the dialog and general TV-ness just flowed so much better. I keep waking up at 5am and not being able to fall asleep again (my alarm goes off at 6). It's exceedingly annoying, and I'm so exhausted I feel like I could die. I feel like maybe my fans are too loud, and are keeping me awake? But it's so hot up here, that if I turned them off, I might die. I'll move stuff around tonight and see if I can fix it. You know, if I'm still alive. Today was a Clean Air Action Day in Madison, which means that there was high-level concentrations of ground-level ozone. Buses were free, you weren't supposed to mow the lawn, etc. But apparently, some people didn't listen to this, and chose to fill up their gas tanks because prices have been taking a nose-dive. I don't know what exactly it was in the air, but the combination of Clean Air Action Day and the close proximity of my house to Resurrection Cemetery meant that today was the day for the Zombie Uprising. It sounds so silly to write it, and Antoine and I always laughed every time we drove past Resurrection Cemetery, because seriously, who names a cemetery that? Steph and I used to laugh at the Facebook group "Zombie-Defense Initiative," which regularly sends its members emails advising them how to prepare in the event of an actual zombie attack. Well, it's really freaking funny now, isn't it? I don't even know how many people are dead (undead, I guess) because the local TV stations were one of the first things to go. One of my only sources of comfort is the Madison LiveJournal group. People are posting advice on how to protect themselves, figuring out who is nearby one another, and trying to glean what's going on, and who has been taken. I've brought up all of the non-perishable food I own to my floor here, at the top of the house. I also filled a few buckets of water, and am hoping that my fondue pot will boil water and I have enough to survive. It's better not to think about what I'm doing to relieve myself. I've barricaded the stairs with Chad's furniture, which was left here during the summer while he's back home, working for the Packers. I wonder how far this thing has spread. I wonder if my friends outside Madison are still alive. I wonder if my family is. I know that Antoine is okay - we have been communicating online, but he's been MIA for about an hour or so. I'm pretty worried about that, but I'm not about to try and walk the ten blocks from my place to his. If he's already gone, then there's nothing I can do about it, and if I try to get there, then I would just cause him to lose me. The obvious answer is to use my cell phone and see what's going on, but the towers have been taken down. Apparently, zombies are a little smarter than they are in the movies, and can remember what things are necessary for a civilization to stay in contact with one another. For the first time in my life, I wish I owned a gun. I always thought that pepper spray would be enough, but against a zombie, I know it's going to do jack-shit. Blog posts will continue so long as I'm alive. But you didn't really have any doubts about that, did you? Current Music: It's the End of the World (As We Know It) - R.E.M. Blog like it's the end of the world.scribbled mystickeeper at 9:40 PM
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wJun 6, 2007 | |
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"It'll be all right," huh? I still feel weird and angsty like I did last night. I don't know why. Maybe most of this is angst because I don't know what I'm doing after college yet (wtf, can anyone ever ask me a different question than this if they haven't seen me in a while? I promise not to fall into a gutter and die immediately after graduation. Even if I have to work 3 jobs that are McDonald's-level, I'll still be the same person and you can be proud to know me. I promise.). Mostly, I feel like if I could start writing again (fiction, not blogs/journals), it would help. I don't know if I can start, though. Starting is the worst, really. Except for the part when you reread and realize how shitty it is. Current Music: Revolutionary Girl Utena, episode 29 Labels: writing scribbled mystickeeper at 9:33 PM
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wMay 28, 2007 | |
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Wiscon 31 Panel Report: "Three Comrades Go on a Quest..." I sort of apologize for posting so much today/this past weekend. Even I don't normally blog this much. Still, I know that if I don't do these panel reports soon (and I *do* want to post them because I think they're interesting), I just won't do it for months on end, and it will keep bothering me. Three Comrades Go On A Quest.... Politics, Race, Class, and Religion•Senate B• Saturday, 1:00-2:15 p.m. So many of the traditional fantasy tropes rely upon distinctions either of class (princes/princesses, lost heirs to thrones, etc.) or that map quickly to class (the aristocracy of those who can use magic, say, lording it over those who can't.) How do we fix this? Who's already done the work that we can look to for examples, and what are the traps we want to avoid? M: Janine Ellen Young, Leah Bobet, Laurie J. Marks, Meghan McCarron, Hilary Moon Murphy ---------------- I'll be up-front in that I didn't really like this panel all that much. I'm not sure why that is, otherwise I'd explain why. I think I thought the panel would focus more on alternative ways to tell the story, while instead it focused on trying to explain who had already written it differently, and also why someone might have written their story that way in the first place. ---------------- The premise is that many fantasy novels revolve around quests, usually ones in which members of three different socioeconomic classes unite and save the day. One of these people is usually an anointed Chosen One. At the end of the story, the three classes split again and go their separate ways. Thus, the fantasy epic reinforces the status quo. It seemed to me like most of the panel was spent trying to think of books that broke this mold in one way or another. The Lord of the Rings was brought up first - clearly, the different classes unite in this story, and Aragorn is the Christ Figure. Still, at the end of the books, things do not fall neatly back into place. Frodo can't readjust to his old life, and Sam's socioeconomic status improves from gardener to mayor - he is changed by his journey. How do you subvert this tradition? There was a lot of disagreement as to whether or not writers such as Terry Pratchett "count," as he writes farce that mocks these tropes. Books written and marketed toward Young Adults seem to be the most experimental in terms of trying to break tropes such as this one. It seemed odd to those in the room, as 12-year-olds haven't had as much time to experience tropes. Why do they get the new things while the adult market is stuck? It was noted that 70% of young adult hardcover books are put in libraries. Thus, awards aren't the only thing that matters in selling young adult books as they are in the adult market. A young adult book that wins awards can still tank, and those that don't can still sell well. Additionally, there is the common mentality among adults that it doesn't matter what children are reading - any reading is good. Harry Potter proved to book publishers, etc. that there is money in fantasy for young adults. Thus, lots of young adult fiction gets the cool stuff. (I would argue that young adult fiction has been fairly experimental for the last 20 years or so, but whatever.) Lastly, it was noted that while the science fiction genre generally explores the future and new ideas, fantasy is heavily in the past, and often based on social structures of Western Europe, etc. The past cannot be changed, but writers still draw on it. Books Recommended that break the trope, or just recommended period: Diana Wynne Jones's Tough Guide to Fantasy The Dispossessed, Ursula K. LeGuin Watership Down, Richard Adams Princess Academy, Shannon Hale Mister Monday, Garth Nix Goblin Quest and Goblin Hero, Jim Hines Stuff by Elizabeth Moon Stuff by Terry Pratchett (depending on whether or not you think that farce "counts")scribbled mystickeeper at 10:56 PM
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Wiscon 31 Panel Report: "Please Explain Slash to Me" Please Explain Slash To Me Reading, Viewing, and Critiquing SF&F•Capitol B• Saturday, 10:00-11:15 a.m. Slash fans and authors explain the appeal of their chosen pastime. Why are women in particular so drawn to this form of expression, as readers and writers? What's so special about mucking around in someone else's fictional world? Sharyn November, Yoon Ha Lee, Rebecca Marjesdatter, Lyda Morehouse, JJ Pionke ----------- I went to this panel because the questions in its description are questions that I have asked. I am a member of lots of fandom-related communities on LiveJournal - for anime, for TV shows, etc. Thus, I see lots of links posted to people's slash fanfiction. Even before that, my first online fandom was Final Fantasy VII, and to this day, it remains really the only fandom for which I've ever taken a stab at writing fanfiction, and the only fandom for which I ever made a concerted effort to seek out well-written fanfiction, and read it. I think I still have Frank Vederosa's "Shards," a FF7 fanfic about my favorite character Tifa Lockheart, printed out and inside of a binder in my room at my parents' house. Despite being aware of slash fiction, I've never written it, have rarely read it, and never really understood the appeal of it. Thus, I went to this panel. ----------- The panel opened with a definition of slash. Slash is romantic or erotic fanfiction which focuses on unresolved sexual tension between two characters from a book, TV show, movie, etc. The sexual tension is unresolved because it focuses on two (or more) characters who would never get together in the actual show/book/whatever. There is slash for everything, not just Harry Potter or anime. There is slash fiction for the TV show JAG (and lots for The West Wing! I've seen it!). There is slash fiction for Winnie the Pooh. No, I am not kidding. Most often, the tension is unresolved because the characters are heterosexual, but both of the same sex. Slash fiction will often taken canonically heterosexual characters and make them homo- or bisexual for the purpose of the fanfiction. Here are the rest of my notes. Special Quotes "Harry is like rice, which goes with everything, but the question is: which one goes on top?" A lot of people in the audience seemed to read, or had written, Harry Potter fanfiction, so this caused much uproarious laughter. Labels: fandom, wiscon, writing scribbled mystickeeper at 1:05 PM
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wJan 19, 2007 | |
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what do you do with the left over you? Yesterday, I did things! I went to campus and got my bus pass and bought lots of books for school. I also did some more grocery shopping. It was pretty awesome. And today was the first day my stomach didn't feel horrible, so that was also good. I bought things like black socks for when I start my internship next week (OMG). THEN, Steph, Gordon, and Antoine came over and, along with Paul, we watched The Office (Cell phone! So funny! I <3 Jim!), Grey's Anatomy, The Daily Show, and BILL O'REILLY on The Colbert Report! It wasn't as heinous as I thought it would be. Does anyone know where to find the segment of Stephen Colbert on the O'Reilly Factor? I've tried looking and have come up with nothing. :/ I feel really tired right now, so perhaps it would be best to stop writing now. I don't know. I have mixed feelings about this semester starting, in just about every aspect possible. Most of all, when it's over I'll be another step closer to graduating from college, and I still don't know what I would like to do once it's over. I think part of what's bothering me so much lately is that I really feel like I've given up on writing. I've gotten better - I think we're all aware of that, even if only based on how the Internet has documented the transition from emo poetry and fanfiction to Ghost Hunters - my own characters and plot, but still as poorly-written as hell. It's just weird for me to not identify as a writer any more. When I was a little girl, the first books I remember reading by myself aside from Dr. Suess were by Laura Ingalls Wilder. And I knew all along that I wanted to be a writer like her. Whenever anything happens in my life, I think about how I would tell it in a narrative. Somehow, in grade school and high school, people at school kind of knew me as someone who liked to write. I don't know how it started - probably because I made up stories and would tell people about them. Or because every time we had to tell the class what we wanted to be when we grew up, I would say a writer. Around the time when we got into high school, I realized that I could not count on being a writer full-time after school. I knew it wasn't practical and I knew that a very small number of applicants actually get published. So I floundered, trying to decide what else I could do, what else I could be good at. And here I am today, still stuck in the same boat, only I have lost the label of "writer." I am not known among friends or classmates for writing, for wanting to write, or for being good at it. Nothing defines who I am any more, and I think it's a huge part of why I feel so lost all of the time. I'm not particularly good at anything, and I don't want to do anything. I've been trying to fix it for a while now, and I can't. I keep trying to think of a good way to wrap up this post, but there really isn't one. Sorry. Current Music: Where Does the Good Go - Tegan and Sara Labels: college, friends, tv: battlestar galactica, writing scribbled mystickeeper at 1:37 AM
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wJan 6, 2007 | |
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Things I Must Say Glee First of all....I have finally posted my huge post containing all of my Harry Potter notes for books 5 and 6! I put it at LiveJournal because 1) it contains MASSIVE spoilers for both books, so don't read it unless you've already read them! and 2) it's hella long. Because that's how Also, I have updated Ghost Hunters again. I've been waiting to get to this part for a while, so I decided to just do it, so that I'd be excited about writing again. This part didn't turn out as cool as I wanted it to, but I guess that's what the revision process is for. Anyway, for now, there is action! Even a gun! :O I saw the Casino Royale movie tonight with Dave, Jennifer, and Ryan. It was badass. Eva Green and Daniel Craig were both awesome, which makes me excited for the theatrical release of The Golden Compass, because they're both going to be in it. Feminism Next, a discussion of the image on a shirt that a customer recently came through my line at work and purchased. For reference, here is my own rendition of the image on the shirt-front:  So, let's review here. First off, the girl is easily distinguishable both by the bow in her hair and her skirt. Also, the "problem" that is the subject of the t-shirt is her act of voicing thoughts, an act associated with intelligence. The female is expressing herself. And how is this "problem" "solved?" Ah! Pushing the offending expressive female off a cliff into oblivion. A violent end to a most offensive act. Worst of all? The customer was a middle-aged woman paying for clothing for her son. SERIOUSLY?! I was disgusted. What the hell is the matter with society? Anyway, I need to get to sleep. Tomorrow, I drive to Madison, and I'm SO excited to see Antoine. :) Okay, sleep now. Current Music: Labels: feminism, harry potter, writing scribbled mystickeeper at 12:07 AM
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wJan 5, 2007 | |
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Annnnnnd done. Ghost Hunters Ghost Hunters has been updated. Even though I'm not going for a specific daily word count (my New Year's Resolution was to write 3 times per week, no specific word count), the writing is still going to be mostly bad, in my opinion. Still, though, I'm about to write what I consider to be a pretty dramatic scene, and it will drive the plot for at least a couple of weeks' worth of writing. Does anyone still keep up with this story? I don't know. I've also noticed that most of the scenes take place at night. Although, I guess this makes sense, as they're ghost hunting. Also, I really need to find a way to use a scanner. I am constantly drawing these characters in the margins of my notebooks during class. Even though I'm a crappy artist, I think it would be cool to post them so that everyone could see how I see them. Political Commentary I found yesterday's editorial in the Washington Post by George W. Bush sickeningly amusing. He requests line-item veto power so that he can reign in Democratic spending. (Amusement derived from almost $400 billion spent on a very poorly-planned war in Iraq) Also sadly funny: the guy who was all for the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy for gays in the military has "changed his mind after meeting with gay servicemen." "These conversations showed me just how much the military has changed, and that gays and lesbians can be accepted by their peers," Shalikashvili wrote in an opinion piece in Tuesday's New York Times. It's like, once he's aware that they're actually people, and not strange spawns of Satan who hate God, it's a huge revelation, and now it's okay to accept people for who they are, instead of ignoring part of what makes them who they are. Other I was going to write up all kinds of squee because I watched the Revolutionary Girl Utena movie (LOVE) this afternoon, but I think that will wait until I'm in a better mood to make it all coherent. I'm going to go to Madison this weekend. I'll be going down some time on Saturday, and returning on Sunday. I have already checked out the audio books containing radio broadcasts of Star Wars: A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back (with Mark Hamill and authentic Star Wars sound effects!) for my journey. I also intend to stop at every bookstore I see. Why am I going to Madison for the weekend? Oh, I don't know....(Antoine gets back on Saturday, :D) Next week, I think that I work a grand total of 7 hours, and only on Monday. (I could write a book on how absurd my work schedule is, but whatever. It's better than nothing, yes, but is it, really? I'll probably stay in town anyway, though. My mom is having a retirement party on the 11th, and if I stick around, there's a higher probability that she might buy me things, like clothing. Also, I can use the public library much more often. Seriously, I'm typing up a list of everything I watched/read over vacation, so that you, the blog-readers, can behold it in awe. Right now, I'm loving the Fushigi Yugi manga series. I can't find volumes 4 and 5, though! I'm checking another branch of the library tomorrow....*prepares to intimidate the bookshelves* Current Music: None. I never listen to music at home. I don't know why.scribbled mystickeeper at 12:33 AM
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wNov 12, 2006 | |
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Sundays suck less when Saturdays are also spent in an intense-homework mode. This weekend has been alright....I spent most of yesterday grappling with thesis ideas for my American Lit paper that's due tomorrow. Luckily, sending an email to my cousin Molly helped a lot. Ten minutes ago, Kristen and I chatted over AIM and each helped each other generate theses for our respective papers. Now I just have to write it! And now that I know what I'm doing, I can totally do it. I have to dig down deep and recall the Badass Paper-Writer that lives inside of me. If anyone wants to look over a paper for me between some time tonight, and send it back by 1:30 pm tomorrow, let me know! :) I skipped Anime Club yesterday because I felt so overwhelmed by school work, and I'm glad that I did. I was able to focus on this American Lit business. Steph and Gordon came over around 8:30, too, and after watching some Victorian Romance Emma, we watched "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" with Chad (and were later joined by Paul). That movie is pretty badass. And now it's Sunday. I really, really want to hang out with Antoine because we didn't get to do anything yesterday, but I have to lector at mass at 9:00, and need to have a paper written before then. I think I can do it; I only need 3-5 pages! I know that I haven't updated Ghost Hunters in a while - I simply don't have the time right now to devote to word count. I know now that I'll never be able to catch up and get to the 50,000 I need for NanoWrimo. Still, though, I really really like writing this way. And once Friday is over and I have time again, I want to keep writing. And even after November, I'd like to keep working on this story until I feel like it's finished. Will it be salvageable once I'm done throwing ideas down? With enough editing and overhauling and deleting, maybe. It just makes me feel extremely productive to generate stuff like that, and I'd like to hold on to that happiness if I can. Current Music: Silence - for once I obtain a cold beverage, it will be time to bitch-slap this paper into existence. (Fun Fact: Now that the Firefox web browser has a spell-check-as-you-type feature, I know things like the fact that "bitch-slap" is actually hyphenated. It tells me "badass" should also be hyphenated, but I don't believe it.) Labels: college, friends, writing scribbled mystickeeper at 12:10 PM
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wNov 9, 2006 | |
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Retrospective. I think I've read at least 10 journal entries today, between blog posts and Livejournal posts, of people spewing their upset-ness over the election results regarding the Wisconsin referenda. I mean, it's fine to be upset. I'm upset - I'm also sad that Mark Green didn't win. I know most of my blog readers don't like his politics, so I've tried to just not say anything, but whatever. It was a weird feeling watching his concession speech - I want to know what's going to happen to everybody who worked in his office with me. I'm sure they're all feeling really bad about it, but I feel like it'd be weird to send an "I'm sorry!" email. :/ But yeah - the accusations that everybody in Wisconsin is an idiot or a big fat jerk are getting a little old, and it's only been a day. I feel passionately about the issue, and so do a lot of people, but guess what - most of politics is like that, and sometimes people disagree. They're still people. They still had reasons for voting the way they did, however much you may disagree with them. It's clearly a case of the majority of people being uninformed about what the referendum meant. Look at this map. Obviously, Wisconsin wasn't ready for this. 70% of people under 30 voted "no." 70% of people over the age of like, 70 or something voted "yes." Our generation will be the voice of change. We just have to be patient, and wait until people like my father, who after 3 conversations still didn't understand that gay marriage was already illegal in Wisconsin and would remain that way no matter what, can no longer vote. It'll be okay. Democrats took both the House and the Senate, which pleases me. I think they also took the Wisconsin state senate, which also pleases me. Maybe now they'll stop doing stupid shit, like forcing 7-year-olds to ride in car seats while allow 8-year-olds to use shotguns. Or gay marriage bans. Or reinstating the death penalty. Or maybe that would have died down anyway, since John Gard isn't there any more. The election's over, and it's time to move on. Or, if you're in my Political Science class, it's time to freak out and write a 10-page paper on something relating to polling data from these elections....you don't even know what yet, but you probably won't be able to worry about it because you're too busy deciding what to write the American Lit paper that's due on Monday. Oh, school. Ghost Hunters is updated. I'm now caught up through...Saturday. Shits. Labels: college, politics, writing scribbled mystickeeper at 1:27 AM
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wNov 6, 2006 | |
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Woot and Woe YES. Today, my Shakespeare professor moved next week's Monday-exam to Wednesday. Now everything is spaced out! American Lit paper due on Monday, Shakespeare exam on Wednesday, Political Science paper due Friday. (Hopefully I won't burn out before the Poli Sci paper - I think that's going to be the most intense!) Problem # 1367 about Ghost Hunters: All of my characters talk like I do! Current Music: SILENCE because I'm going to STUDYscribbled mystickeeper at 2:34 PM
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