List post, because eh:


# I didn't get the other job I interviewed for, and I'm honestly not surprised. I can't get there early enough in the morning on public transport if they want me working silly hours, and they probably would since it was a supermarket.

# Crushes are fucking weird, aren't they? I mean, aside from all the baggage I carry around about Stuff™, which I am not going into here because you don't want to know it. This is, I can safely say, the first time I've really felt like this in six years, and I didn't miss it while it wasn't happening.

# I've been watching some more sewing videos on youtube, partly because all the streamers I watch are playing Zelda (not interested), so now I am making a small scrap quilt, and it is fiddly a f, because the squares I'm working on are 9x9cm, and I didn't realise I could do bigger - although for some of these scraps, bigger than this would be impossible.

I was going to do it in all random colours, because I have a lot of random scraps, but because I am me, it ended up mostly blue. There is a bit of red and brown as well but yeah, majority blue. (Also, like, for someone whose favourite colour was allegedly red, I sure have a lot of blue coloured scraps and material from my mum).

I want to do the same thing with some collage, as well, as I've been making my own collage papers (also inspired by yt) with acrylic paint and plain white card, just so I can see how it turns out.

# AND I want to make some t-shirts that Say Stuff, but then last night when I couldn't sleep, I thought it might be better to customise the one denim jacket I have. Which is a thing I've considered before. Except I tried it on this morning and it feels really tight across my shoulders so perhaps I should donate it elsewhere and find a new one.

I do have a Levi denim jacket that I've had since the nineties, but that's staying as is. The only reason I thought about customising the other one at all was because I bought it for cheap from Primark over a decade ago and idk, it's something I would like to have a go at.

# I like feeling this creative, although it's annoying that I can't do everything at once!

# Talking of which, I have also been doing some writing again! Not a lot, but some is better than none!
Okay so it turns out that my current hyperfixation is the Manics. I mean, they are always a fixation, because they are one of my favourite bands, but they are definitely what's giving me the dopamine right now.

So last week, I listened to all the albums I own, which isn't difficult, because I only have the first four, as noted previously. And I skipped The Holy Bible because oooof*. (I did not skip the depressing tracks on Everything Must Go, though).

And then I was like, "I am old enough now that I should give the stuff I automatically dismissed as a youth a chance!" and I spent the remainder of my birthday money buying second-hand copies of every single album they've released since.

Dear friends, there are ten of them. TEN.

I knew all the titles but, somehow, had not added that up to ten in my brain.

Anyway, they're all on their way, except for The Ultra Vivid Lament, which was the only one I found new, but it was dirt cheap for some reason (it's only two years old!)

I am also not going to deny that I also did this in part because I want to hear the stuff that Nicky wrote about Richey. There's not a lot, but I want to hear it.

And then I have also been through some of the stuff I hoarded about them in said youth, and now I am rereading Everything (A Book About The Manic Street Preachers) by Simon Price, and finding it really easy going. Although. There's nothing in this book I don't know as I've already read it/I know the story anyway. So that's probably why I'm finding it so easy to get through. Also it's hitting the dopamine, because this is all I want at the moment.

Well, this and my comfort blanket story that I have been passionately writing since the approximate age of fourteen. The two things go hand in hand, because this story is some of the most self-indulgent id scratching stuff I ever wrote, and I'm not even going to pretend it's anything but that (and why should I).

I mean, like, if you looked at the entire thing, in all its versions, and you knew me really really well, you would immediately be able to see what I mean. And especially if you knew anything about the Manics at all because, ngl, took quite a bit of inspo from them, and I'm not even sorry about it.

So I've been thinking about it while I've had idle moments at work, because mostly I think about writing these days instead of actually doing it.

The story is about one person, but it's told from someone else's perspective, and that's how it's always been, ever since the early days. But. I was thinking about it and then I wondered why it couldn't actually be from the main character's perspective. There's absolutely nothing that says it can't, although I know to some degree why I never considered it before (found it too difficult; main character has some of my more unpleasant personality traits).

And I did some noodling about, and then yesterday I wrote three A4 sides from the main character's POV, and I think we're getting somewhere. (Well, his and his best friend's, because I considered that he also has an important role to play in the story). I'm also going to change the ending so it's more optimistic, and likely change the name of at least one of the characters because I'm not sure it works for her any more (I don't know that it ever did, tbh).

This is the first fiction I've written in five years.

Okay yeah, it isn't anything new, but that's not the point. The point is, I wrote something, I enjoyed it, and I'm probably going to do it again. I'm going to keep going till I get bored with it/distracted by something else.

I also thought about posting some snippets on here for y'all to see, though I am not writing with this intent. I mentioned just over a year ago, about just writing vignettes because that's how my brain works, and if I do any I like, I might share them here. Don't hold your breath, though, because I am making absolutely no promises.

~

*That said, I put it in the stereo in order to listen to This is Yesterday "properly" (i.e. not on my phone), and almost ended up listening to the first half of it just because I was trying to identify which guitar riff I'd had stuck in my head several days previously. But then I didn't because, well, it's The Holy Bible. It's not a good time.
# I bought myself a used copy of Dark Souls to see if it is, indeed, the Dark Souls of gaming. I do not like it. I also do not like that if you search for it not being fun on the internet, one result you will see is a forum thread full of people who do like the game going "BUT YOU JUST DON'T GET IT!!!1!!" and "YOU MUST SUCK AT PLAYING VIDYA!" Son, I've been playing games since before you were born, probably, so don't give me that crap.

(I mean yes, I am shit at vidya in general, but I'm not so shit I literally can't play games).

There is one reply that says playing it is the video game equivalent of being stuck in bad traffic, and it's stressful. They play games to unwind and not stress. Which, yes. Exactly. Though that was also met with derision so pfffft.

ALSO. I don't think even getting more than twenty minutes into game should rely on using one specific character build over the other options.

I may be being slightly unfair but fuck me I don't think I'm ever going to like that game.

(If you like the game, good for you. I can't say I'll ever understand why, but I also know we don't all like the same things).

# I have also downloaded Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. It seems like fun so far, though I don't think I'm very good at it.

# I'm thinking of rewriting my sci-fi story from a different point of view, which would WAY MORE sense, given a certain scene near the end. I'm going to keep the rewriting I did back in February, though. Just. Change the POV.

I sometimes think this story doesn't want me to finish it but, in some ways, I don't want to, because I'm very attached to a couple of the characters. So perhaps my inability to finish is just my subconscious telling me that. Who knows?

(no subject)

Aug. 2nd, 2017 08:43 pm
muladhara: (kiss)
So I tried to dye my hair turquoise! It was a resounding disaster in that it did not come out that way!

First of all I had to bleach it, because my hair is a very dark brown naturally. It was the best bleach job I'd ever done on my hair. Though it did feel horribly luminous and noticeable. Then I put the turquoise dye on a couple of days later and it did not take properly/there are entire swathes of hair I missed. Also, after it had set and been washed out it came out more green??? I mean, I know I'd been eyeing the emerald green dye, but it's not what I wanted. THAT SAID. It is kind of growing on me, and people seem to like it, and I do like the green that it is. Which is good, because it felt like a fucking disaster when I'd done it (though that was partially down the gross mood I was in at the time, no doubt).

I am going to get another box of the dye and redo it at some point in the near future (because it didn't take so well, it also looks quite faded, and has faded again after a wash this morning). Because I want to see what the actual turquoise looks like, damnit.

~

I have a start to another short(?) story that I think is set in the same world as the one I wrote a while back, in March. Which is good. I mentioned to an offline friend not long after I'd written the first one that I'd like to set more stories in that world. Maybe eventually I will have enough of these suckers for a collection!

(I keep meaning to edit the previous one and post it but right now editing is the last thing my brain wants to do).

~

I got nothing else, hope all of y'all are good :)
The other morning, I woke up with a burning urge to write. I felt really creative! I couldn't wait to get words on a page!

...And I ended up writing, like, half a page of the sad teenagers story. And that was all I did all day, and then I got mad at myself because I felt I'd been unproductive, and that I'd wasted my urge to write.

The next day I did nothing, not even half a page. I said to mum that I thought the problem was that I didn't want to work on any of the three stories I had on the go, as it were (sad teenagers, human abominations, and magical girls). Which is true, I didn't. So she said, "Do you have any others you can work on? Or could you think of a new idea?"

and I, in a horrified tone said, "NO! OF COURSE NOT! I SHOULD WORK ON THESE!"

Except that, of course, I see a lot of writing advice that says if you're getting nowhere with one thing, go and do another so you don't end up hating the original thing.

So I sat down and thought about something I have admittedly wanted to write for some years now. Which would be something based on Welsh myth. The only problem is that I am not so familiar with Welsh mythology as I want to be (I know way more about Irish but that's to do with contents of mythology books and stuff I read in my late teens). So I did some googling! And aside from anything else, it cleared up a mystery I've been puzzling over for years, which is the story about the lady from Llyn Y Fan Fach. I have half-remembered this story since I was a kid (but was aware I didn't make it up) but didn't really know what to look for, so I'm glad I found that.

And I read some other bits and pieces, and I knew what I wanted to name one of the characters, so I noodled around, and now I think I have a thing! I even sort of have an idea of what will happen in the story, but I am unsure about how to go about it. I need to think up some more characters to play about with, because currently I only have the main character, and the person telling the story, and that is not enough.

(I like making characters, as my book of RPG characters will tell you, so it's not like it's even a hardship. If I could concentrate on it for long enough, I would totally be one of those people with five billion OCs. But I can't. I don't know how other people do it).

Anyway, TL;DR version is I have another story even though it's the last thing I need.

~

Couple of links you may or may not find interesting?

Persistent Melancholy: An Examination of Unifying Musical Gestures in Nier - I need to go back and reread this, as it's got some really interesting stuff in it. HOWEVER BEWARE OF MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE GAME if you decide to read it and you haven't played it.

Hollywood in Translation: A Look at Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which is about the differences between the EN and JP scripts for said film, written by [personal profile] nintendoh
(I found this REALLY interesting!)

The Case For Character Creator: The Game - which is exactly what it sounds like and DUDE I WANT THIS THING THAT DOES NOT EXIST.

Why the Raven Cycle isn't getting any diversity cookies from me - which details the problems I had with the racism in TRC but couldn't articulate well enough at the time.

(no subject)

Apr. 1st, 2017 08:36 pm
muladhara: (writing)
I wrote ~8K in five days!

*flexes muscles*

ALSO.

This is the SECOND short story I have written and finished in the last eight months.

I'm so pleased with myself. Maybe I should stick to writing short stories in the future...

(now I just have to type it up oh god).

~

I've got one episode of Above Suspicion left!

I am absolutely convinced that I have seen series two and four really recently, because they seem really familiar. And given that they were on seven and five years ago respectively, I wouldn't think I would remember them so well? I can only think that me and mum saw them again back in 2014, when she was ill. I know she recorded a lot of stuff to watch back then (we got all the way through Bergerac and 1997 vintage Casualty, I remember, so it's not out of the realm of possibility).

I have been enjoying watching these, but some of the science/plot hooks/points are really hokey. But then again, I enjoy watching Silent Witness and, tbh, that's just as bad on occasion. (And really, sometimes I'm only watching that because of David Caves).

(Hahahaha, lawl, I just explained to mum that I'd been watching it, and she was all, "Yeah, it was a pretty good series, wasn't it?" and I sort of agreed. She also remembered that Ciarán Hinds had been in it, and I was quite surprised about that. Though I doubt she'll remember if we saw them again recently).

Anyway, they're good to watch if you don't want to think too hard about anything. The first two series have some pretty gruesome crime scenes (the very first one's deliberately so on purpose), but the other two don't (although the third series opens with scenes of surgery, which isn't pleasant). As I mentioned on twitter, there's some shipping going on, but the most overt it gets is hand-holding and a kiss. I mention this because IDK what the age gap is between the characters concerned, but between the actors in question, it's 24 years. (It's also bordering on abusive because Langton's a twat, let's be honest, and he treats Travis just as badly as everyone else). I'm also mentioning this stuff in case it's the sort of thing you do not want to see on your telly screen should you choose to watch it.
So! I am writing! And it is not entirely like pulling teeth! I have a story that is ~8k words long, and nearly done, if I can just the characters to fucking hold hands or something. That's it. That's where it needs to end, but they are currently still dancing round each other, and that's annoying.

I'd like someone to read it over for me, but it needs typing up, which I'm holding off doing till I've actually finished it.

I'm also rewatching Above Suspicion (which I saw when it originally aired), and obnoxiously livetweeting about it (on twitter: [twitter.com profile] gwyntgwyn). The first series was...odd in lots of terrible ways (awful acting, and terrible cameras) and I can't believe it got a second series off the back of that. But the second series is way better? Like the acting's better, the story is better (even the frigging camera work is better). There's certain bits as well that seem like deliberate rewrites of parts of the first one (either that or perhaps, IDK, you're not meant to mainline two series in two days*).

Anyway, I'm really enjoying it now. Series three tomorrow!

~

Oh and, talking of stuff I was livetweeting about, I've pretty much given up on Critical Role. I honestly find it way too exhausting to watch. It is fun, but I just don't have the mental resources to watch it. I'm just going to spoil myself for everything else that happens after the Whitestone arc, I think. And maybe write the cast a nice letter because dang they've kept me entertained on some very shitty days, and I said I would. I just need to sit my ass down and decide what I'm going to say.

~

*There's two eps in the first series and three in the second, so it's not like it was a massive amount to watch.
Still watching Lost. Up to episode six of season six.

Expandmumblings; potential spoilers )

Relatedly, we had to get a new DVD player because we'd had the old one for years. I think it's lasted well, considering it was a cheap make, and it was a freebie. So we got a Sony one and it's kind of amazing?? If you plug an HDMI cable (which I did, because we don't have the other kind of cable it can take), it will upscale your DVD to HD automatically. The sound quality is great. And it has a USB slot so you can plug in a memory stick and play music or watch videos!! (Though I can do that with the TV anyway, as it also has a USB slot). And it's so small! And light!

Anyway, I'm really impressed with it, because everyone in Lost looks even more awesome than usual. (And nobody sounds like they're mumbling any more, which is great!)

~

I have been writing a lot recently! I'm taking my third stab at attempting to get a finished version of the abominations story which, I suppose, makes it like the third draft or something. Except I've totally gutted everything and started from the ground up. Sort of. The details are the same, it just happens differently.

I'm writing it all out by hand, because the computer offers too many distractions. So I have no idea how many words that is. I'm not putting in too much detail (going to do that on the second pass on the computer) - I'm just trying to get the characters from A to B so that C can happen, and then D. And you know what? I think I actually have a three act story? I'm still in the first at the moment, but C definitely is in the second, and D is in the third.

*horrified gasp*

My characters are being recalcitrant, but that is really no different from the norm, tbh.

~

It's my birthday tomorrow. I'm going to be 36. My birthday really snuck up on me this year. But I kind of don't mind. I said to mum earlier that I'm kind of past the point of caring about them. I just kind of feel now like, "Oh, another year has passed", because I really don't feel any different than I did several years ago. In fact my brain keeps going, "We're thirty six? NO FREAKING WAY, MAN!" because I really don't feel it.

(no subject)

Feb. 5th, 2017 02:19 pm
muladhara: (neo)
Just two more episodes of season five of Lost left. And then season six, of course, and then the super special epilogue, and then I am done!

The existence of the epilogue frustrates me, to some degree. Like, it shouldn't be needed because the story should've been wrapped up by the last episode, but whatever. I'm done being mad with this show now.

I said on twitter, and I'm going to repeat it here, that I have no idea why I got so mad with the show in the first place. I can only conclude that it was a combination of the elitist fans (and holy shit there were some) and the showrunners being jerks (which they were. There's a good reason I dislike Damon Lindelhof). Also because it feels like it doesn't work being shown weekly/across years. I've enjoyed it a lot more over the last month or so on DVD.

(I mean yeah there's still hilariously bad stuff*, and some continuity errors/dead plot ends, but it still all kind of fits together in a larger way, and that's all right).

*e.g. Widmore's accent goes, chronologically, from southern British (i.e. "posh"(ish) ), to South African, to Australian. Which is because of the actors playing him.

~

I finally got around to switching browsers after about fifty billion years!

I'm now using Opera instead of Firefox and I like it? I think? It is certainly faster than Firefox, and doesn't choke when loading tumblr pages. I have a sidebar I can put Youtube in so I don't have to switch tabs to listen to music! (Apparently Firefox can also do that, but I didn't know that).

It feels like it's eating less memory, too. I could well be imagining that. (Not that Firefox ever hogged that much memory on this laptop - it's got 8Gb of RAM - I'd need to do a LOT to make it cry, I think. But it feels smoother? I feel like that is me talking out of my arse, but oh well).

The only thing I don't like so far is that all my tabs are crushed up, and don't scroll across like the ones in Firefox do. And also that when you load a tab, if you have the same site open in other tabs, it loads all of them all at once. There's probably a way to stop it doing that, but it's not immediately obvious in the preferences tab.

Also I accidentally loaded my bookmarks in twice, so now I have dupes of pretty much everything, and no way to get rid of them apart from manual point and click, or use some dodgy looking software or extensions.

~

I did a bit more world-building in the abominations story, and the more I tinker with the straight "this is what the world should be like", the less I want to write that, and the more I want to write an AU instead.

This could end up being a good thing, though. A lot of the main universe world building has stuff in it that I do not like in sci-fi. That I have no interest in. Where the AU has a lot more things I do like.

I guess I shall just tinker and see what happens, eh?
Two Some things that are vaguely related:

A. In the entry about my birthday memories, I completely forgot that I watched the Halo 5 cutscenes, and Cortana made me cry, damnit.

B. If you are wondering about influences for the abominations story (probably not, amirite?) - it started off with Pacific Rim, but from the perspective I'd thought the film was going to be from*. Which is why it's called the abominations story anyway. Then something made me check out the Halo story, and we took a violent swerve down from that (in that holy moly, I don't think I've ever been so influenced by something in my life? I wrote a heck of a lot of background detail over the course of about a week after reading up on games).

B2. I also think this story is going to end up somewhere different than I originally intended it. Although it's already done that once, so I guess I shouldn't be so surprised at this point in time?

C. Writing blogs are great and everything, but I now find that I more often than not get bogged down in having to plan everything out, and follow writing advice slavishly to the point that it paralyses me from writing.

D. I've planned out this whole sci-fi story now, and that's great, except that because I've world-built (which I don't normally do), I'm now bored, and that's stopping me from writing the story. Also what's stopping me is that it's going to rely on a lot of action, and I am rubbish at writing that and need to get better.

D2. I need to shut that little voice up in my head that tells me science doesn't work that way, because some of my favourite sci-fi stories are extremely unscientific and don't explain anything. And I like it that way.

D3. I might either try noodling with an AU of this universe (I have one I'm particularly struck by), or just writing some random shit set in this universe and seeing what happens. Because WHY NOT. I might not end up with the story I wanted, but at least I will have written something.

E. I really like the Deus Ex: Human Revolution soundtrack.

~

*i.e. that humans were invading an alien planet and the aliens were understandably pissed off about this. Because that's how the trailers I saw made it look.

(no subject)

Sep. 24th, 2016 09:08 pm
muladhara: (oh)
I am still flailing over Namesake. I think I may have to reread it, but I will have to half-inch mum's tablet to do that, since my computer has decided it likes crashing while I'm on the internet, too.

KERNEL UPDATE WHEN.

Also I have been ogling [tumblr.com profile] secondlina's art (as I said in the previous post), and she is really inspiring me to be a better artist right now. Well, and a combination of talking to Chris about drawing, and him telling me about doodling while he watches TV (and showing me some of said doodles). So I've been drawing all week, and I've done two pics I'm really pleased with. I scanned them and put some digital colour on them (I just finished the second one earlier this evening). I think I might put them as prints in my Redbubble shop. They're actually concept art for my webcomic idea, but they both wanted to be full-blown pictures, so I thought why the hell not?

It's a very long time since I've felt this happy and confident about my art, so I might as well go with the flow, right?

~

Cat update: I have to take her to the vet for another blood test very soon. Last time was not great, her thyroid levels had gone back up, although only very slightly (I honestly don't know why the vet was so...well, she wasn't weird about it, but I still think she thinks I'm having a harder time medicating Jinny than I actually am). Anyway, she suggested radiation treatment again, and I said no, and told her why not. I don't think she was impressed, but I don't care. I don't want an irradiated cat, thanks all the same.

(I am tempted to wonder if she gets commission on referring patients to the radiation place? Because that's sort of how it feels. Or possibly she thinks she can wear me down, but I am not going to be worn). (If she suggests it again, I'm going to throw something, I swear).
OH FRIDAY YOU SAUSAGE WAFFLE YOU.

Expandit was not a good day, mostly )

So that was Friday! (on the plus side I guess I walked 5K and did 8,000+ steps, so yay?)

~

I promised myself that I would write today, as I came up with an AU idea for my magical girl story, and I actually really like it. And then I was thinking about visual references for said story (as I'd still like to do this as a webcomic, and I have a clear-ish idea of how places look, but no references). I told myself that I did not need to go on Pinterest to make boards for this.

Except that I went on Pinterest at 10am and didn't manage to wrangle myself off till 4pm!

I like Pinterest, I really do. I think it works really well at collating Stuff. What I don't like, is when you pin something, and it has the pop up saying, "OH THIS WAS ALSO ON THIS INTERESTING BOARD YOU MIGHT LIKE TO LOOK AT!"

and I go, "yes, yes I might!" *right click > open in new tab*

and suddenly I have fifty tabs open and none of my boards are anything like I intended when I went on there, and I have five new ones for no apparent reason.

I do kind of wish it had a folder system, though, so I could have all my craft stuff in one folder, and my writing ideas in another, for example. And THEN have them divided by board. That would be nifty.

One thing the Pinterest binge did confirm for me is how disinterested I am in medieval-inspired fantasy worlds. It's one reason I tend to avoid WRPGs (and don't want to play D&D, for example**), and why I'll probably never actually read Icey Firey Songs properly. (Also yes, yes, I know I just played Skyrim, and I like Dragon Age, but I'm not head over heels about either of them, and part of that is the settings and their inspirations). I think a part of it is over-saturation to some degree.

At the time of writing/posting, I have done no fiction writing, other than copying traits out of an astrology book, for my characters, and gawping at how none of them are a "typical" anything (For example, Mara, my MC, is a Libran, but actually better fits the description for Aries. Cassie, one of her friends, is nothing like the descriptors for Aries, though I don't know what sign would better fit her. Maybe Pisces). That said, it did give me some ideas, though, so I suppose it wasn't time wasted.

Although apparently every single sign of the zodiac is manipulative as heck so that's nice. I don't know if the author of this book has a chip on their shoulder, but it certainly reads that way.

Anyway, I'm not changing my characters' randomly designated birth dates just because they don't agree with some stuff in a book. (I used a random number generator to determine their dates of birth, because otherwise I get biased about what dates I assign people's birthdays to). At least it gives me some kind of idea what sort of flaws to give them (I'm not great at assigning traits in general, even less so with flaws).

If you're interested, my boards are here, and the ones I added today were: concept art, mages, mage world inspiration, desert world inspiration, people in armour, interesting faces, and happy things. I didn't need most of those. I needed the mages, and the mage world inspiration, and that was supposed to be it.

~

*I know there's a word for this in The Meaning of Liff, and it's been driving me mad trying to remember what it is. I know it's not Bradford, because those are the leather patches on the elbows of jackets. BRAIN WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME.

**Apart from that one weirdy setting that is a desert planet, I think? Because that sounds cool as heck.

***ETA: Apparently one cubic centimetre of water weighs one gram, so I was carrying around four to five kilos on my back. That's a lot, right?
I have booked an engineer to come and look at the Sky box, because, this morning, it was still borked. Some time between that phone call and now, it fixed itself. It is now happily telly-ing, and we are watching Holby City.

However.

I am not going to cancel the engineer, because that would be tempting fate. Provided the box is still working on Friday (when he is booked to come), I'm going to ask him to check everything over to make sure it's all OK. Because then I won't feel like we're wasting his time, and if there is anything amiss, he'll find it. (And, of course, if it's borked again, then he can fix it for us!)

~

On the tenth of this month, I happened to mention to mum that people were still leaving flowers and tributes at the Aladdin Sane mural in Brixton. I said it had been two months since David Bowie had died, and I kind of couldn't believe people were still doing that (not because I thought they shouldn't, though. Because I am the last person who is going to tell anyone else how to grieve).

"Well," she said, "you're still listening to his music, aren't you?"

"Yes," I replied, "but I listen to his music anyway."

I know she's not interested in the majority of my tastes in music (though sometimes she surprises me - she likes some of the FFXII soundtrack, and likes Queen of the Rodeo from Silent Hill 3, for example), but honestly not sure how she missed this (she's even bought me some of his albums, for crying out loud!!)

(I suppose it goes back to people only being aware of what they want to be aware of, if you see what I mean?)

~

Still writing. I have a town that seems to be overrun by dads who make awful decisions about what they should name their businesses.
The Sky box is misbehaving again, and I want to break it into pieces (except that this will not fix the problem). It lost the satellite signal earlier on today, and I was heading out, so I said to mum that I'd sort it when I got back (because usually there's a quick fix that works OK). So I did, and it was fixed.

I put The Wolverine on to watch. The Sky box decided to lose its signal again during the time the DVD player was on.

WHAT IS THIS FUCKERY I DON'T EVEN.

Because none of the quicker fixes are working. So now the box is off overnight, and I'm going to look at it in the morning. I actually think some of the problem might be the viewing card, because it looks discoloured on the one side.

I mean, it could have been the weather but, despite heavy rain being predicted for all day, the weather's been pretty nice for most of the day. And anyway, the box has worked in really crappy weather conditions before.

I don't understand modern technology.

~

I came up with an idea for another story, and now I am tentatively mucking about with it. I have names for two of the main three characters, I just need a girl's name I like now (this is hard - I'm really picky about girls' names). I scribbled some of the story down while I was waiting for the bus to come home this afternoon.

(I should probably write this story because it will totally satisfy my id, I think).

ALSO.

The abominations story was two years old yesterday! *throws confetti*

I don't have an excerpt of it to post this year, though, because all the bits I want to share are spoilery :(

~

In other news: cetirizine knocks me on my arse* if I take it during the day, and seems to not help me sleep** if I take it at night. Also if I take it at night, it doesn't help so much with allergies during the day (so it seems). But I've only been taking it two days, so we'll see.

~

*By which I mean it makes me feel heavy and sluggish. I said to mum that I hadn't felt like since I was badly depressed, which brought on a whole bunch of concern (probably my mood yesterday didn't help, either, as I was quite weepy and sad). So I had to reassure mum that no, generally I was fine, just very sluggish.

**I think some stimulants and depressants have reverse effects on me - it's always been that if I drink a lot of alcohol, I then can't sleep because I'm all jittery, and caffeine makes me sleepy a lot of the time. So it's possible that any sedative effect the cetirizine may have may not work. Again, we'll see.

(no subject)

Mar. 12th, 2016 10:02 pm
muladhara: (mage boyfriend)
I've been up since 6:30 am because cat!

~

I have done a fair amount of writing over the last few days. This is good. I did eight times my daily word count the day before yesterday.

Which is to say that making the wiki did its job. I'd forgotten so many of the fine details that I had to go back and look at the entire thing. Which is good, because now I have a couple of plot devices that are not as awkward as the last one I came up with. In fact, one of them I'd thought of a year ago, but done nothing with because I wasn't sure how to integrate it. But now I am. This is good.

Also this story is rapidly turning into boyfriends in space but fuck it I don't care. I'm sick of trying to be subtle about it.

(Also also I'm thinking I'm going to cut seventy percent of the stuff I'm writing for them at the moment because it doesn't add to the story/plot, it's just me getting a handle on their relationship. But all writing is GOOD, so it's staying for now).

~

I've been playing DA:I again for the last two days. I tried to play on my birthday, but got really bored, really fast. And then left the xbox alone for three weeks, and now here we are!

I managed to save Ser Barris, which I didn't know was a thing you could do, until I accidentally killed him the last time I did the Templar route. I am pleased about that, because oooh Ser Barris. (This game wrecks my hormones, I swear to god).

And finally, I am flirting with Cullen, and it is grade A hilarious with how awkward his responses are to you (the latest one featured an awkward silence following a whole, "well I'm glad you're alive" after which Rhian was like, "right, I'm going now.") I suppose at least he realises he's being flirted with. Though it would be super hilarious if he didn't.

(And, of course, Dorian has turned up and not flirting with him is SO HARD, you guys, SO HARD. I know it won't go anywhere because obviously Rhian is a lady, but goddamn. SO HARD).

ALSO EXCITE ABOUT CALPERNIA BC I LOVE HER. (I wonder if I can get her to surrender without fighting again?)
I had all these plans for what I was going to do with my ~two weeks off work over Xmas and New Year. So many plans! Find books! Visit friends! Read books! (not necessarily the ones I'd found, either). Do writing! Draw a lot!

I woke up one morning with a sore throat, and it just went downhill from there. I'm getting better now, but I'm still not one hundred percent. I don't feel like I've the energy to shift books, and I still don't want to visit friends in case I'm still infectious. I've done a little bit of writing, but it feels like ages ago now. I've been drawing a little bit more in recent days, although I'm still in the frame of mind where, if I switch the computer on, it becomes an instant distraction, because I don't really have to think about the things I'm reading/looking at on there.

I also haven't finished The Last Remnant because my eyes have been super sore/trying to concentrate on anything's been horrendous. Also I'm annoyed that, at BR 71, ordinary monsters are so easy to knock out it's stupid, and yet the bunch of bosses I'm working through (I'm at The Seven) are at the far end of a difficulty spike (so it seems, anyway. I might do better once I'm not ill?)

~

Reading some of Maggie Stiefvater's old writing (because occasionally she posts some) got me thinking about my old writing. Although let's be fair, I've been thinking about teenage!me writing for a few months now because a) all these people whose stories are based on stuff they thought of as teens and b) Star Wars. I wrote THE lamest SW fanfic when I was sixteen. Parts of it were more or less a rip-off from the Thrawn Trilogy. Honestly. I'm fairly certain it ended its days in the bin because, even then, I could see what a steaming pile of tripe it was.

ExpandRead more... )

~

I got fed up with my hair - I'd been trying to grow it out - so I chopped most of it off. So now it's super short, which it hasn't been for years now, and it feels weird.

~

*I spent one summer reading the entirety of Malory Towers (not difficult, I know), but I loved them. Also this was WAY before Harry Potter, and Enid Blyton was all I had. I think I was about thirteen at the time. I could've been younger, I don't know now.

**The Phantom Menace obviously didn't come out till 1999, but for some reason there was a really long lead in re: hyping? And my boyfriend at the time was big into them, so no doubt that was a factor.
After reading through Maggie Stiefvater's tumblr, I am even more convinced that A Bad Thing is going to happen to Adam in The Raven King :(

(The way she says "it's ok I'm sure he's fine!" makes me veeeeeerrry suspicious).

I don't want anything awful to happen to any of them, but one of them - barring an asspull on Ms Stiefvater's part (or a really clever something or other) - is doomed by canon ANYWAY.

Also I want to reread the books when I have a stack of books out of the library to read anyway. (IDK about anyone else, but I always feel a weird sense of guilt when I get a book out of the library and then take it back without having read it).

~

Finally found a free test to work out my personality type and apparently I am an INFP-T. WHATEVER THAT MEANS. It does seem kind of accurate but certainly not the degree where I'm sitting here thinking "oh yeah, that's 100% me!" because it isn't. I am side-eyeing it hard.

~

Anyway, round up of the year, because it's that time of year, right?

# I nailed all my goals bar one. I didn't manage to play a Kirby (because crippling indecision about which to play, etc). But I did learn to make chutney (easy, but tedious), though I wouldn't say my pixelling is any better, and my music composition is laughable.

But the point is that I'm learning.

I don't know what I'd like to do next year, except maybe actually finish a story or something.

ExpandRead more... )

# tl;dr version: it's been an OK year for me. Not too bad, but it could've been better. On the other hand, it was a VAST improvement on the shit show that was 2014.
About a year ago, I wrote a version of the Pied Piper, and I found it again recently. Would you like to read it? Well, it's behind this cut, and it's very short, and it's totally up to you whether you do or not. It doesn't have a title, because I don't know what to call it.

Feedback welcome, but not required.

~

One day, when the parents awoke, all the children were gone.

ExpandRead more... )


~

Expandnotes )

(no subject)

Nov. 11th, 2015 06:35 pm
muladhara: (writing)
Feedback required:

If you are reading a book, and a character who is an alien is referred to only by a tag that makes it evident what animal it reminds the humans of, would you find that annoying?

(So what I'm saying is that the text would be "Blah blah blah," said the animal, for example. Or, The animal cautiously shifted the book in its arms). (It is an it because its race doesn't have genders, btw, not me being excessively lazy or whatever).

I know some people don't like this sort of thing. I don't mind it myself, but some of the Goodreads reviews of Alif The Unseen brought the one character up (I think she's called the convert?) as annoying because it was as though the author couldn't be arsed to give her a name. Anyway, that's what this was making me think of as I was writing it.

(I spent two hours writing on Monday evening! I wasn't even going to write at all! Especially not the abominations! It was amazing!)

~

I started transcribing some music, and it is slow going (aside from the fact that I rarely have occasions where the computer's on and it's quiet. Also my ear is...not good for this. I could do with my friend's brother who could play stuff by ear). I'm working from Cold Blue Light, although sometimes I listen to the other versions as well.

I keep getting frustrated, because it's a really simple tune, and it's less than two minutes long. I know it's just because I'm not better. I'll get there, eventually. (And then, like all things, I'll look back at this and wonder what I thought was so hard in the first place).
I need to make an icon that says READ ALL THE COMICS! because, well, READ ALL THE COMICS!

I should get to icon making, actually, because I want to make some more of Dorian because you will probably not be surprised, but I went looking up DA stuff the other day because I was sad, and mostly it just made me sadder. But alternate icons of mage boyfriends are never bad things, right?

(I have never been tempted to icon Anders, who is the other person that could describe. But I suppose that's because he makes me want to shake him by the shoulders a lot).

Anyway, whatever. Icons. I should make them.

#

I went for a walk in the woods again, yesterday. It's good, because I do find myself thinking about the webcomic idea, and I do think I've sorted some things out. Including how trees may or may not grow on a hillside.

Also I don't know, would you like to read some writing that I wrote for this idea? It has father-daughter interaction and I love it because it's kind of ridiculous, and I'd like some outside opinion of if it is too ridiculous? (it probably won't appear in the actual story, but right now I am very fond of it).

I might post it tomorrow anyway.

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