MILES to GO || before I sleep

Who wants fics for the holidays?

I DO, I DO!

So I'm starting a gift exchange! This is NOT limited to any one fandom, genre, pairing, etc. It's a free-for-all, and you get to pick the fandoms and the prompts and participate in ones YOU find interesting! It also does NOT have to be holiday-themed.

Here's how it works:

(1) Comment to this entry with anywhere between 1 - 3 fandoms starting with a particular letter of the alphabet. Include the subject line "FANDOM." Go with the most common name, the Japanese title, or the title you prefer. Only one fandom per letter! ANY FANDOM IS OKAY. Anime, manga, TV shows, movies, books, whatever!

So let's say you like the letter "F." How about "Final Fantasy VIII" then? So for the letter F, the fandom will be "Final Fantasy VIII." But that means no one can submit "Final Fantasy X," okay? Try and pick a fandom that multiple people might write for/enjoy.

(2) The fandom Master List will be posted here (see below). This is the list of participating fandoms. I think 26 is a pretty good variety, don't you?

(3) Post 3-10 prompts (don't make them fandom-specific) in the comments. A prompt can be a single word (like "Wreath") or a phrase ("12 Days of Christmas") or whatever you like (images, lyrics, etc.)! But again, don't be fandom-specific-- no pairings, characters, etc. in the prompts! Include the subject line "PROMPT."

(4) Respond to the other prompts in the comments (you can respond to your own prompts, but it's more fun if you challenge yourself!), either by including a ficlet (drabbles or longer) right there in the comment, or linking elsewhere (either on LJ or another site). The comment should include what fandom it's for, and any other relevant information.

If you'd like an extra challenge, try combining one or more of the prompts, or crossing over the fandoms! Just make sure when you comment with your fic/link, you comment to EACH prompt that you used, or you mention EACH fandom that you wrote for!

More people have added fandoms, so I added the last of my three. Feel free to submit more fandoms-- you can submit more than one, but remember-- only ONE fandom per letter! Check below for what letters are already snagged! (Also, if we don't get enough people submitting 3 fandoms each, those that have already submitted three might be able to submit more, probably up to 2 more. But hopefully you guys are spreading the word about this post so people do more than submit fandoms-- they also submit prompts and fic[let]s!)

A:
B: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon
C:
D: Doctor Who
E:
F: Final Fantasy VII
G: Ghost Hunt
H: Harry Potter
I: Immortal Rain
J:
K: Kingdom Hearts
L:
M:
N:
O:
P:
Q:
R: Rurouni Kenshin
S: Slayers
T: Teen Titans (cartoon)
U:
V: Vision of Escaflowne
W: Where in The World is Carmen Sandiego?
X:
Y: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Z:

 Silent Night by Sarah Brightman from A Winter Symphony

Spam-posting today, sorry. Trying to force myself to study, and it's not that easy to do.

Give a gift; tell a story. - vilify's got several prompts to choose from; all you have to do is comment (you can comment anonymously, and IP logging is off-- you don't even need to be a LiveJournal user to do this!). Write at least one paragraph of non-fiction text relating to the prompt. Share your story.

(This is kind of a meme, but kind of not. It's just something that encourages participation, so if you like memes, consider yourself tagged.)

guardian_kysra, I wonder if we could do something like this for a holiday fic exchange? Obviously, in our case, it would be fandom, not non-fiction, but we wouldn't specify anything but a word or a phrase, and let anyone pick/choose from them and respond to them. We could ask people who were going to participate to give us 3-5 prompts, so that everyone would stand a chance of getting at least one story for "their" prompt.

(Obviously, the problem with this concept is that without specifying a fandom, some prompts might inspire fics for a fandom that the prompt-creator has no part in. So maybe we could have a master list of "allowed" fandoms or something, fics that everyone might enjoy?)

You Look Like an Aries

It's likely that you have a lean and strong body. Your facial features are uniquely beautiful, and you may have a scar or beauty mark. You have good posture, and you carry yourself with an air of confidence. You have a strong, steady gaze. You eyes are often issuing a challenge. Like most Aries people, you probably very energetic and enjoy it when someone challenges you. You expect the best from people, and you believe in them. You are willing to take a risk on someone.

*sings* Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Okay, maybe it's a bit premature to be celebrating, but after turning in my 6-page paper on Gay Rights (which was supposed to have more of a focus on the California Supreme Court, but the group project upon which the paper was based had so many facets and sub-topics that I may have gone "off-tangent" by covering more ground), I feel liberated! Free! GLAD!

Maybe not completely stress-free, but close to it: I have no final exams, and all I have left are some quizzes for my science classes and some feedback discussion for my recreation class. Everything else is turned in. I have high hopes for most of my classes --As or Bs, I hope-- but maybe a C for the GWS 350 class (the one that I just turned the paper in for), because I didn't turn in two other papers-- an Autoethnography and a paper on race. I also missed some class chat and discussion times. -_- Needless to say, I want to make sure that if I ever have to sign up for classes at the last minute just to get units, I'd rather pick something dirt-simple and easy than something completely out of my range, potentially challenging (to the point of bringing stress where it shouldn't), and bizarre.

And then! And then! I really, desperately want to finish WDKY26. Madly.
And then there's the revamping of the BEA Media page, the idea for a few fanlistings I've mentioned, and various other personal projects, like the overhauling of the main Seventh-Star.Net page.

Since I do have a biology quiz tomorrow morning, I really ought to get studying for that, but at some point "tonight" (that is, this morning), I'm going to play me some SNES games and go to bed with a SMILE on my face (dagnabbit)!

Not that I will, but IF I DID, any "Twilight" series fics I write would have the following plots (or answer the following questions):

* Why Bella is in love with Edward

* Bella acts more like a normal teenager: when she decides she might like Edward (note: not "irrevocably in love with" yet), she opts to try some very teenage ways of "getting his attention" as well as testing his limits around her (once she discovers the truth about him, but maybe before she confronts him about it/he tells her), including trying to seduce him.
- Does Bella even know she's doing it? Ohhh yes, especially when (by accident -er, happy chance- or some actual THOUGHT), she discovers he's stalking her in her bedroom at night.
- She also teases, which may end up answering the question "How do vampires get hard-ons?" My ideas of tease are not like fandom's, I would think, but then again, venturing too far into that fandom is like walking into the Jaws of Death, so....

* Bella had dreams of a career once... and watching [cable] TV reminds her of them. What does Bella consider being -despite being a vampire, or before, or...? (This one would obviously depend on which book/movie it took place in or between.) Bella as a CSI? A chef? A therapist? (If Carlisle can be a doctor, why couldn't Bella feasibly find a job? Or would her youthful appearance be her downfall in getting one and keeping one -at least, a live, in-person job where she DIDN'T travel, MIGHT be out in daylight, etc.?)

Fic, in this case, is not to show what wasn't seen in canon, nor does it exist to take some fascinating characters and put them in another universe (whether that's another canon or another universe altogether). It's to answer questions or explore characters in ways that SHOULD have been done in canon.

( Twilight, thematic messages, and Meyer's injections of LDS lore into the books )

You know what would be awesome? If there was a site (or if FFnet did it) where people had their fics and you could add your real-time commentary as an overlay-- a'la Nico Nico video.

Because seriously, the commentary I'd be leaving on the FFnet section of "Twilight"? So much more worth my time than an actual well-thought out REVIEW in that fandom. I'd get lambasted if I even tried to give what I consider true concrit (which, in my mind, is not a synonym for "endless praise,") and I know it's not worth the effort. But quick-play commentary with full anonymity? I'd tap that. Somebody, make it happen!
Such an idea might come back to bite me in the ass, but I think overall it would help people improve and give those readers who never review a chance to say just WHY they don't usually bother, whether or not they've got more than the usual "LOL UPDATE PLZ" one-liners.

Okay, I want to take a ruler and thwap all the people that write HSM fics. I really do. I'm too old to be doing this. I'm too old to be in this fandom. I like it, but when I try to "get into it," the badfic just makes me gag. LITERALLY.

( HOW TO WRITE A HALFWAY DECENT HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL FIC (according to Azurite) )

Unofficially tagged by a_white_rain. Sounds like an interesting meme.

Sometimes it's okay to pimp yourself out. Post a list of your top five favorite fics that you've written, regardless of fandom or the reason you love them. This isn't about the BEST things you've written, but what you LOVE most. Then tag five other people to do the same.

Like AWR, I won't tag anyone in specific, but any fic writers on this list, I TAG YOU! Just do eet. (I'd love to see the fic writers on this FL do this. It might be fun to [re-]read fics that I wouldn't expect are the author's favorites.)

Oh, and these are not in top five order, or descending order or anything like that.

( Will you LOL? )

1 - "Eagle Eye" kicks "Body of Lies" ass. Also: Billy Bob Thornton should forever be an action hero. I like him much better that way.

2 - CSI: Season 1 for $20! Target rocks! Now all I need are 7 friends to get me seasons 2-8 on DVD for X-mas/Hanukkah presents (for hopefully that same price and not the rip-off price of $46.95 like they were over at Borders). Also lovely: CSI:NY. I loves me some Mac and Stella.

3 - Heh, my new Nancy Drew game takes place in San Francisco. Half the street names are wrong, but it's funny anyway.

4 - I suck at Diner Dash. Seriously, I can't make it past Level 6 on "Flo on the Go," or Level 5 in "Diner Dash 2."

5 - Thinking about leaving DeviantART. It's seriously starting to suck.

6 - Coming someday in the not-too-distant future: "Astrology, Blood Types, and Yu-Gi-Oh! - Ryuuji Otogi." I don't have my Mystical Cards or EZ-Astrology-Report book here in SF, but I can make do without it. :P

7 - Working on WikiFic and dealing with idiots (who also happen to be minor vandals.) Teh fun!

8 - In just two days of being on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Top 50, "Blue Eyes and Apricots" has soared from #299 on the ranks to #20! WOW! Now I seriously need to update it. I've actually thought of a way to replace the Fanart section, too. What I can't do is make up my mind about the style of the new layout-- dark and autumny, or light and... colorful?

9 - After playing Nancy Drew and reading Skip Beat! #14, I got to thinking that it'd be funny if Kyoko had to do some sleuthing at LME. Moko, of course, would get dragged into it, and there'd be humor (c/o Yashiro and Lory and Kyoko's own antics), potential angst and drama (because it ain't Skip Beat! without Ren and Sho), and maybe even some Vie Ghoul smashing!

10 - I reserved "Star Ocean: First Departure" for the PSP, but since I don't want to buy an Entertainment Pack with the new PSP-3000 and a stupid game I'll never play and a Memory Card I don't need, I think I'll end up waiting until November before buying a standalone PSP-3000. It's agonizing to wait that long when I'll finally have the game in my hands come the 21st, but if I've waited this long, I can wait another month or so.

( Filktastic )

I wonder... does everyone know someone, within six "degrees" or less (e.g. friend of a friend of a... etc.) who is, in some way, involved in every fandom someone could possibly be interested in? That doesn't mean the person needs to be a participant in fandom-- maybe just a lurker who knows of a good site. That's good enough.

Because here I am, and I'm into all these anime and manga fandoms. Most of them are shoujo, some are shonen. Some I've watched and enjoyed, but never contributed anything to fandom for. Some of them I'm a former participant in, others I'm an active participant in.

"Participant" can vary from fandom to fandom, too. For some fandoms, I write fanfiction and/or submit art. For others, I just comment on forums, read fanfics, and so on. For example, I'm highly active and participatory in the anime and manga fandoms, but more of a passive participant within my favorite TV show fandoms like Star Trek, Alias, and more recently, CSI. Sure, I'll read forum postings and check out wikis and the like, but I have yet to write a fic for any of them.

A while ago, I made up my mind not to try and find good fanfic on Fanfiction.net (or its ilk) anymore, except by the following methods:

a) updates from friends or favorite authors that I'd already established on my account as "Favorite Authors"

b) recommendations from those friends toward other writers, whether directly (e.g. Mamono recommended to me via email/PM/LJ comment/whatever that I check out Atlantis2's fics!) or indirectly (Atlantis2 is listed as a Favorite Author on Mamono's profile, or one of Atlantis2's stories is listed as a Favorite Story on Mamono's profile)

So far, that's worked out pretty well for me, except when I'm getting into a new fandom. Unless I'm lucky and I already know of a friend who's in that fandom (e.g. if I ever get into Slayers, I know I can turn to dqbunny, and if I ever watch Stargate: Atlantis, I know I can pester mklutz with questions), I have to hunt down "good" sites, communities, C2s, and the like just to find people that might make good friends and therefore good connections to OTHER good people-- good writers, active participants in fandom, whatever.

So, as of right now, my favorite CSIs are in this order:
* CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
* CSI: New York
* CSI: Miami

I've been reading more CSI: NY stuff than any of the others lately, mainly because I think the characters have gripped me more than the Miami cast and because the season premiere for CSI: NY (and Miami) have aired already, while the original CSI has yet to have its Season 9 premiere. You'd think CSI's fandom would be buzzing with activity and fics, but... it doesn't seem like it. I read the winners of the CSI Fic Awards, and that was it.

I think I complained that the CSI: NY wiki sucks, and I wonder if it's because I haven't found a better Wiki for it on Wikia or somewhere else (like the CBS website). It's one of those nagging, disgusted feelings with the State of the Web that would otherwise compel me to do it myself, EVEN THOUGH I'm a n00b to the fandom and other people, more dedicated fans, have been around longer and could almost definitely do it better. It just bugs me that it apparently hasn't been done (to my satisfaction; I guess I am a picky fan) YET.

Fanfiction isn't much better. Does anyone on this FL read CSI: NY fic? I'm in desperate need for some good stuff (esp. Mac x Stella, which I refuse to call SMacKED! because that's... just kind of dumb. I've never liked portmanteau 'ship names or variations thereof), now that I've exhausted the supply of fics by the late great Christina D-- can't spell her last name-- and Banana Tooth.

I wish I could make myself unpicky, but if I read a fic where the dialogue isn't punctuated properly, where words like "your" and "a lot" are misspelled, and where Inspector Gerrard slaps Mac Taylor OPENLY in front of the whole lab, I just... I die a little inside. I have to click back before my stomach stages a revolt and takes me trachea along with it. I can't read fics where some random OC *koff* Mary-Sue! *koff* is paired off with a main character (especially in the CSI 'verses; aren't their lives complicated enough? It's like, if you introduce an OC, make her either a victim or a criminal, not a love interest and/or long-lost relative!). ( And little things can really bug me, too.... )

And though this makes me a bit of a hypocrite, there'd have to be something REALLY compelling about some part of a story for me to hate it enough to not read it all the way through, not review, but still check out the author's profile in the hopes that they wrote a better story. (I say "hypocrite" because I feel if someone read "Only 16" and thought that fic was the best I could do, I would cry bloody foul. I don't take it offline BECAUSE I've come so much farther than I was when I wrote that, and because SOMEDAY I'd like to revise it and see if I *can* make it better!)

With so many things that knock me out of a fic within the first few paragraphs, I'm really relying on the recs of other great authors (or simply well-read fans within the same fandoms as I) to find some truly good stuff.

So, if you know someone who knows someone who knows someone who writes good CSI fic that's:
* CSI: NY - Mac x Stella or Danny x Lindsay
* CSI: Nick x Sara (Snickers; the closest 'ship name to a portmanteau that I'll tolerate because it's just so durn cute) OR Grissom x Sara (aka GSR)
* CSI: Miami
or is just generally well-written and preferably complete (and it can be gen, crime/drama, but preferably not tragedy or angst) regardless of which CSI it hails from
please let me know!

LET'S SOCIAL NETWORK YAY!

So, being that sleeping is elusive and I've read every book and manga in my room backwards and forwards, I decided to opt for reading Ceres: Celestial Legend *again*, since it's good and I've been on a Yuu Watase kick lately anyway AND because before all the "mayhem" went down, I was watching the anime series, which I'd finally completed my collection of on DVD (shoulda bought the collector's edition... D'oh! There's no lyrical subtitling for the songs, the audio track is sometimes off --like, I'll hear the English voice and not the Japanese one, even though I always set it to Japanese audio w/ English subs before selecting "Play"-- and sometimes the timing is off, too).

I finished the series last night. Bawled my eyes out. Watase never fails in that respect; I don't think she's done a single series that I've read/watched (this would include the J-Drama adaptation of "Absolute Boyfriend," even though the similarities to her manga were slim) that DIDN'T make me cry. It's a good thing, though. Her stuff's very thought-provoking.

( So, with the hesitation of someone about to step in potentially icy water, I tread into fandom. )

Inspiration is a funny thing. Some people claim to have muses, others don't. Some people "believe" in writer's (or artist's, or whatever) block, other people don't.

In trying to write WDKY26 over the past almost-year (11/7/07, according to the publication date on FFnet), I've tried a number of things to get my tail on the road and writing again. Certain things have worked, other things haven't. I'm sure it's different for everyone, whether they're writing fic, painting portraits, shooting photos, or something else. What works once may not work again, and what doesn't work the first time might work the 367th time, but none of the times in between.

I've actually been managing to write more of WDKY26 in the past few days, but I'm far from satisfied with it. I definitely want some betas to look it over and help me "trim the fat," so to speak. But fat (excess, weird writing) is better than nothing, or better than simple notes from my planner file. At least there's prose, even if it's pointless, non-descriptive prose! A step in the right direction, I think. And what's gotten me here? I wonder if I could make a ranking chart of what's worked well, what's worked only a little bit, and what hasn't worked at all.

I've tried it all:
* Listening to music - works some of the time. It depends on the music. See, I've got a playlist of music for WDKY. A good chunk of it is made up of songs that have directly appeared in the fic, e.g. "Why Can't I?" by Liz Phair, "All The Things She Said" by t.A.T.u, and so on. Those are all chapters in the past, and any music I have for other chapters tends to be UPCOMING chapters-- not the one I'm working on. It's a pain in the neck to be stuck working on one particular scene, but my choice of background music has me thinking of scenes in the not-too-distant-but-still-not-part-of-this-chapter's-future. Every now and again, if I pick a particular artist or just listen to my whole library on shuffle, I'll get lucky and come up with a scene or prose for my current scene that fits with the music. It doesn't always have to be something lyrical, which is why I might try listening to instrumental stuff or other BGMs, like, oh Yu-Gi-Oh!? I mean geez, what better to listen to, really.... But like I said, it only works some of the time.

* Working on some other fic project - Rarely works. If I'm working on another YGO fic, I'll see my own author's notes about how WDKY is my major project, how I want to finish that first, etc. I'll see all the fics I've started when WDKY got stuck, and how ALL OF THEM ARE STILL STUCK. It's the same even if it's a brand-new idea that's never made it to prose form, a challenge (see guardian_kysra's super-belated birthday fic which I can't seem to finagle ANY ideas for!!! ARGH!!), or something else. The guilt will creep up on me and then attack! To be honest, I haven't tried to do much in other fandoms, mainly because my mind just sort of stares at the idea(s) and goes "No comprende." I've been in the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom since 2003 and have found it very hard to get out of it completely. I don't think I WANT to get out of it completely until at least WDKY is done, let alone the other 2 stories in the saga which I have planners for, but nothing more.

However, it's possible that working on future chapters of the same story/saga might help. Sure, it doesn't get "what I need to get done" done, but it's something. It might help the muse (or whatever) just to get the prose out, even if I end up scrapping it all later (like I did when I was working on Prophecy Girl and TJOY, two other fics that came along the same time as WDKY). I may have mentioned in the past, I already wrote the final scene for WDKY in Ch. 36 AGES ago. Mainly because THAT ONE SCENE was stuck in my head and wouldn't get out until it's written. Lately, it hasn't been one scene, but more like "acts," or snippets of a single scene. Sometimes it's only a sentence to start off, and I have to try and go from there. I don't like writing out of order, because I feel I end up losing my focus, but maybe if I look at it like "organizing my mind," and sorting things away to where they're supposed to be, it can bring the ideas I truly want forward, so I can get working on them.

* Working on some other project - Kinda-sorta works. I recently switched a lot to working on my shrine for RPGClassics, on Star Ocean 3: Till The End of Time. I got a great high out of getting so much done for the thing, but then when I stopped (because it is tedious, is a different kind of work than web design, graphic design, and fic writing), I'd be like "Yeah, but it's still not finished, it's another huge project I've started, and I'm STILL no closer to getting any ideas for WDKY26!" So the feeling of accomplishment dwindled pretty quickly. Plus, actually playing the game might only serve to distract me temporarily, because I'd start getting ideas for that fandom, for more things to do for the shrine, etc. etc. And I'd get frustrated because I couldn't accomplish certain things in THAT game, either (e.g. getting all 100% on Sphere 211's maps, because I'm only 4% away but I can't find where else on the first 5 levels that I could have missed ARGH!!!)

* Looking at related fic ideas/planners, reading previously posted-chapters of the same fic - This seems to have worked the best. I would see something that reminded me of a fic or fic idea, and I'd want to see what I'd written for it. So I'd bring up the file, read the fic or the planner or whatever, and I'd start to think "Hey, this kind of writing style I had back then..." or something like that, and I could switch easily into WDKY26 and start working on it. I might not be satisfied with it, but it's something. But what helped best of all was reading previous chapters. For example, I needed Seto to recall something that had happened in the previous chapter. In order to do that, I needed to read the previous chapter and find an appropriate line. And THAT really helped, because I knew exactly where I was in the continuity of the story, everything that had brought the characters to the point(s) they were at, and what sort of "style" I'd been writing with in the past chapter. I might just re-read the whole fic to see where that gets me.

* Reading other fics in the same vein (e.g fandom, pairing, genre) - Works well, but not spectacularly. I re-read mmagnet_ff's "The Night Before," because apparently I missed an update to it late in August, and with a fic involving so many flashbacks, I didn't want to forget "when" I was in the story, so I re-read it from the start. It's still deliciously tantalizing, and, like any good fic, had me hypothesizing about what might happen next. Sure, my idea is crazy and bizarre, but it was fun. Dissecting my idea (whether in the context of the fic or not) was fun, and got me brainstorming about WDKY a bit. This was also true of rose_of_pollux's "Folgen Sie Ihrem Traum," one of the few mystery-genre Seto x Anzu fics in the fandom. I'm definitely coming up with hypotheses for that fic too, but because it's so different a genre and the characterization works differently than my own in WDKY, it doesn't really help me with WDKY so much to read it. But at least it keeps me "in the fandom, in the pairing," seeing how different authors interpret the same characters. It helps to be able to step back from a fic or a chapter after you've read it to "dissect it," so to speak, the way you might a piece of literature for class. I can ask myself "Why did the author choose to phrase it that way?" or "What impact has the chosen perspective and tense choice had on the story flow?" Thinking about a fic critically can help me analyze my own writing in that same manner. I tend to write as the ideas flow-- not write for my audience, not write so that people will "analyze" WDKY in a particular manner, but still-- I have a point, I have a purpose, I have a story to tell. So I tell it, as best I can, and if I re-read it (or other stories), and it leads me to think "Nah, it can be better," at least I have an idea of where to go next.

* Read other books, manga, etc. - Hardly works at all, but it's fun! I read all kinds of novels, from mystery and suspense-thriller to Victorian England romance novels straight from my Baba's "trashy" collection. *grin* Sometimes you can read a story and think "Oh, this would be perfect in a fic verse, starring Character A and Character B!" But I've learned to stop doing that, because it's rarely original. The temptation is there to more or less inject two characters from one fandom into another fandom-- you lose sight of characterization, which is the only thing that makes those characters who they are, recognizable, interesting, and fun! What's the point of putting Seto Kaiba into Anakin Skywalker's shoes and Anzu Mazaki's into Padme Amidala's when everyone KNOWS Anakin and Padme's story, and there's nothing particularly interesting about it that applies to or changes Seto and Anzu? So I wouldn't do it with the intent of getting inspired to work on WDKY or any other already-started fic. But it's a nice break from a fic that seems to bash the insides of my brain into jelly.

What do you do to try and "inspire" yourself? If you've ever been "blocked," how did you get out of it?

Okay, so to celebrate the upcoming release of the third "The Little Mermaid" movie on DVD August 26th, I'm re-watching some of my favorite Disney animated features, starting with "Beauty and the Beast." I'm going to issue a special "The Little Mermaid" challenge closer to the DVD release, but this one is a B&B challenge for any fellow Disney fans out there:

The Prince discovered too late that the old woman with the rose was in actuality a beautiful enchantress. Thanks to Belle, he was able to lift her curse and live again as a human... but what if the Prince and Belle met the Enchantress again?

Remember how, in B&B, the curse was lifted without the Enchantress actually being present? In the musical version of B&B (at least the shortened musical over at Disney's Hollywood Studios), the Enchantress re-appears to lift the curse. Since we don't see that in the movie, it's not technically canon, so... what if Belle (at the very least) met the Enchantress another way?

Rules:
* Set in the movie-verse, not the fairy tale, Broadway musical, Kingdom Hearts, etc. But for the first movie (feel free to disregard the direct-to-video 'midquels' if you don't plan on using them), the version you choose can either be the original theatrical release or the extended DVD version (which has a new scene, if you're talking about the first movie).
* At least Belle and/or the Beast/Prince has to meet the Enchantress. In other words, it doesn't count if just Lumiére or Cogsworth does.
* Can take place during the events of any of the currently-released B&B movies (the first theatrically-released one, the second direct-to-video, "Belle's Enchanted Christmas," or the third, also direct-to-video, "Belle's Magical World") or after-- but NOT before
* Should be at least 100 words (drabble-length) or longer
* If the Prince is to have a name, you can name The Prince whatever you want (but supposedly his official name is "Adam.")
* Can be any rating (using MPAA ratings, G through NC-17 is fine)

Comment to this post at any time with a link to your fic (on LJ or another site, so long as it's not password-protected, Friends-Locked, or requires registration, unless it's NC-17-rated) between now and August 26th!

For the ladies: Like guardian_kysra, my gift to you (albeit early) is something of your choice, be it fic or art. Just give me some sort of prompt or specifications and I'll try to get it to you, if not by the day of your birthday, then within a few days of it. Just remember to be as specific as possible, and to stick with fandoms (where applicable) that I know. :)

For the gent: Get yer butt down here (with enough advance notice, mind) and you'll get into Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure for free, that's my present! Oh, and I suppose I'll treat you to a Supreme Cupcake. It comes with a free plastic ring, for exspecial coolness. :D

( For everyone who isn't Guardian Kysra )

I haven't done review replies in a while, and you might think that because I have the ability to use FFnet's new Review Reply option, I would take advantage of it. However, the thing with the FFnet Review Reply is that they are private, not posted anywhere on the site. With these, not only can you see which reviews I took special notice of, but which ones asked pertinent enough questions for me to answer. As always, keep your eyes peeled for interesting information or secret spoilers!

Note: I do not post all reviews that I receive here; only the ones that I feel I should reply to. For all reviews, I do NOT edit them for content/spelling/etc. in any way.

For lengthier reviews, I will insert my commentary where appropriate. The actual review will resume in italicized text.

If more reviews come in for this (or any older) chapter(s), then I will respond to them at the BOTTOM of this page, and indicate a “last updated” section here at the TOP. If there is no LAST UPDATED area, that means this post has not changed since the original post date.

( Reviews! )

Today was a pretty good day at work, considering it was the 4th, and I expected it to be way busier. But maybe everyone was over at Disneyland, or out seeing violent action films. (BTW, I saw "Wall-E" and loved it; haven't seen "Hancock," but want to, and of course will be getting my advance tickets for the earliest possible showing of "The Dark Knight" over at Downtown Disney as soon as I can find the time to swing by there... maybe tomorrow afternoon, before I work my first shift Southside.) I got my special Cast Exclusive 4th of July 2008 pin, and quite honestly Pin Trading can be a very expensive, addicting habit. Just getting the free cast ones is tempting me to get a lanyard, maybe eventually get of the few pretty ones I like, such as the rare Mulan ones, some of the Hidden Mickey Tink ones, etc... but no! I'm broke and can't afford it! BAD! BAD!

What I can afford to do is set aside an hour of my time -maybe not every night, but perhaps every night, and at least once a week- for what I'll call the "Ficcing Hour." I'm sick of the fact that I have so many ideas and even though I spend a good amount of time on my computer, I don't feel that it's productive time, or time well-spent. Hell, I'm behind on my FL here on LJ, and why? It's not as if I've been swamped with my Disney classes (I haven't started the Harvard track of my choice yet). I'm actually going to start on the aforementioned class (I've selected the Harvard "Creativity" track) now, but of course, stupid Disney/Harvard (I'm assuming it's more Disney than Harvard... at least, I would hope so) only likes IE. Not Safari, not Firefox, JUST IE. -_- Words cannot convey the "headdesk" I am feeling right now. But I want to be ficcing.

More importantly, I want to be getting fics DONE. It's not enough to spend an hour perusing planner files, or waxing nostalgic about old fics (which should be rightly renovated), or even writing review replies. That's not fostering any creativity, and that's not getting any of my fics "done" or "out there." So, I hereby declare that I will spend a MINIMUM of one hour each week for the duration of this summer (as humanly possible) writing fanfiction.

This fanfiction may be:
* Chaptered fanfiction
* Oneshot fanfiction
* Previously-written/completed fanfiction that needs revision (e.g. Only 16)
* Previously-started fanfiction that was not completed (that includes chapters of a story, e.g. WDKY, TJOY, PG, etc. or a rough draft that never made it to "chapter" status)
* Brand-new fanfiction (e.g. from planner files that never made it to rough draft status, challenges, prompts, or similar "on the fly" writing)

This SHALL NOT INCLUDE:
* Creating "apocrypha" like soundtracks, fanart, icons, banners, etc. It has to be writing, it has to be prose (no poetry -as if I'd ever write any- and no screenplays/scripts -see previous statement)
* Writing new or adding to existing planner files
* Time spent researching and/or distracted by other things, e.g. iTunes songs, web pages, instant messages (in fact, during the "Ficcing Hour" I will either be off my instant messenger or have an away message indicating what I'm doing and why I won't respond. You can probably gauge when I'll be back based on the "Away Since:" time that everyone probably has access to)
* Reading emails, including reviews, beta feedback, etc.
* Writing emails or review replies, LiveJournal posts, or begging messages to various people to be my beta (again)

I hereby also declare that, if I begin my hour working on one thing, but find myself "stumped" or otherwise unable to complete the portion of a particular project that I have started on (e.g. the most recent scene I've written in WDKY26), I shall:
a) write a different scene in the same chapter, if it is a chaptered story
b) write a different chapter in the same story, even if that chapter is way far away
c) work on a prequel, sequel, or other prose story that is "related to" the current project, SO LONG AS IT IS FANFICTION, and not any of the aforementioned "apocrypha"
d) work on a brand-new fanfiction, whether it comes from a planner file, ideas list, prompt, challenge community, or elsewhere
e) work on some other fanfiction, including completed work that needs to be revised

Finally, I declare that this "writing" may be done either by hand (old-fashioned paper and pen/pencil) or on a computer, using any appropriate, accessible program (most likely Dreamweaver). It shall NOT be done via instant messenger, LJ, forum/bulletin board, or any other non-text-based "word processing" program, such as a browser, etc.

Signed this day of 5 July, 1:49 A.M.
--Azurite

Your Gemstone Says...

You are stable, strong, and full of life. You are an inspiring person. People turn to you first for leadership and advice. You are able to gently help people get to where they need to be. And while you aren't afraid to lead when necessary, you are never heartless or bossy.

So, turns out any Kingdom Hearts data I had on my PS2 memory cards must have been on the ones I lost on the way back from Japan. I restarted my game tonight, and with the help of Megan, one of my roommates, we got as far as the final boss in Wonderland. It's a pain in the butt boss though, what with those sticks it keeps setting on fire... I run out of magic so fast, and it never seems to douse them... I suppose I could train in the Rabbit Hole a bit more, though.

I posted the latest chapters of WDKY up at FanLib, finally; it's been a pain in the neck because FL strips horizontal rules out of HTML submissions, which means I have to re-insert graphical ones (hence my asking for dividers/separators/lines/bars/rules whatever they're called) wherever I remember the scene break should be. And I still haven't done it for ALL the chapters yet, but it's tiring work, so I'm leaving it as is-- for now.

I also finished my Fandom 411 for the No Hiatus FanLib blog, which Cyn told me will be up by next week-- yay! I rec'd fics by guardian_kysra, obabscribbler, and winterwing3000, the 3 people I know for sure are on FL and posted something. BTW, Scribbler, I've discovered you can easily go back and edit your stories in something akin to FFnet's Quick Edit manager over at FanLib-- just click "Edit" on your story's "box" when you're viewing your profile, and you can tinker with it there. I'm sure if you fix the formatting before next week, you'll have a lot more readers/reviewers for your fic that's there. :)

Re-reading WDKY while posting it up at FL has got me straining to finish chapter 26 soon. Volunteers for betas and pre-readers gladly welcomed.

By the way, the sole reason why I'm even up right now is "practice" for Saturday and Sunday, when I have training shifts from 4:00 and 3:30pm (respectively) until MIDNIGHT. I need to figure out how to stay bright-eyed and bushy-tailed till at least 1am if this ends up being something on a regular basis (which I doubt, what with the whole PARK CLOSING AT 8PM!)

Ganked from obabscribbler

Reply to this with the title of your favourite fanfic of mine. No need for an explanation or a reason for your choice unless you want to give one. Then post this in your LJ and find out for yourself which of your works makes others' hearts beat faster.

So, obabscribbler? I've decided to name Anzu x Zell "Scribbleshipping" in your honor.

...No, I'm not really going to try and submit a crossover pairing to the shippers_club, nor am I going to start using that anywhere and everywhere, but I just think it's so cute. In my head, that's the name.

That said, I ended up moving the idea for that fic you inspired me for (which, by the way, is tentatively titled "The Aftermath of Angels") into its own planner file. Note that I only do that when it gets LOOOOONG. I can't tell you how long the planner is so far in pages, but in terms of kilobytes, it's 54K at the moment. Of course, the planner isn't complex-- there are no pictures, no fancy calendars, just boring old CSS. And yet, with all that text, it's 54K. I'm not sure whether I should be :D or D:

(And I know you didn't specify Anzu & Zell romantically in your prompt from a while ago, but it halfway ended up there with what I wrote already, and I'll be honest: the fic planner is certainly looking more Scribbleshipping than Azureshipping ATM. SHOCK!!!)

I only wish there were a way to have an Anzu x Zell icon without it looking bizarre (this is what happens when you cross anime with video games).

In other news, today's ENGL 313 - Pop Culture final wasn't so bad. I think I did pretty well, all things considered, though I may have messed up the source of one of the reading passages-- I wrote it as being de Certeau when I think it was Fiske. Oh well. :P I also didn't get my Fandom Essay back yet, because he was grading it right as I walked up and turned my Blue Book in. So I'll have to get it from him on his office hours on Wednesday. But generally speaking, I think I'll do the best in that class.

The girls and I are going to get together on Sunday (ah, my last day here in Northridge-- until January 3rd, anyway) for Margeaux's belated birthday (she's one of the girls in my ENGL 313 class that I've been working with) and just a general "YAY WE DID IT!" celebration.

I tried to sell back my textbooks-- one of them I paid over $75, and the campus bookstore doesn't want more than $8 for any ONE of them. WHAT THE HELL!? So I immediately put them on Half.com. Let's hope they sell, and sell soon (so I don't have to bring them to Anaheim or ask Baba and Grandpa to mail them for me).

Work was crazy today-- I almost ran out of breath for all the calls I was taking. Thankfully tomorrow's no final, but that doesn't mean I don't have things to do-- I still have my radical revision to write by Wednesday evening, plus two essays by Thursday! YIKES!

But today I just took it easy when I got back from work-- I played some more FF8, got Doomtrain (DOOOOOOM TRAIN!), upgraded Irvine's weapon (FINALLY! Freakin' Steel Pipes are so hard to get...!), and played a BUNCH of Triple Triad. I finally got the Pandemona and Zell cards in Balamb; next is to play the Card Queen, but I don't like her Direct Rule of trading... very risky business! It's not as if she has really strong cards (from what I could tell), but still, I don't want to lose any of my GF cards... I'd rather WIN some from her! Ehehehe. Next up: playing her again (without losing any GF cards; good thing I saved before I played her), playing Piet to get Alexander, playing Caraway to get Rinoa and Martine to get Ifrit (back), and playing Laguna to get Squall. Triple Triad's a heck of a lot easier than Sphere Break or Blitz Ball, I'll tell ya that much!

Tiiiired.

obabscribbler, this is all your fault. That little ficlet you requested of Anzu and Zell (a Final Fantasy VIII and Yu-Gi-Oh! crossover) started out... somewhat simply enough. Zell reminded me of Jounouchi, so I wanted to channel that early scene from Vol. 1 of the manga, except Anzu's reasons for telling Zell (via ketchup on a hot dog, rather than a burger) to "TELL AND YOU DIE!!" would be vastly different than Jounouchi's.

And then an idea started to grow. ( I don't know, do you think he's her type? )

I'm not sure just why I decided to buy Final Fantasy VIII from Amazon.com just a few days before my birthday. Why THAT game, out of all the bazillions of other items at Amazon? I have no clue. I'm not sure what prompted my thinking of it, but now that I've got it and have been playing it (I've had it for about 10 days, and am already on Disc Three; I just got Rinoa back from the Sorceress Memorial), I'm addicted. I already know what's going to happen (of course), mainly because the story got so good that I looked up stuff on the Wikia, started to read fanfiction (Squinoa all the way!) and watched a few AMVs + the ending sequence.

But still, some elements confuse me. I'm not sure if they'll get explained away by the time I finish playing the game, because even the Wikia doesn't have a perfect explanation. For example, the whole Sorceress Power thing.

( In which I hypothesize )

So, besides obabscribbler who here has seen Monty Oum's "Dead Fantasy"? It's a FANTASTIC fan-made video of Yuna and Rikku from FFX-2, Tifa from FFVII: Advent Children, Rinoa from FFVIII (can you tell I already love her to bits?), and Kairi from Kingdom Hearts II taking on a number of girls from the Dead or Alive series (though one girl from Ninja Gaiden makes an appearance). It's an awesome, awesome fighting vid-- actually, there's two parts now, with more coming soon...



So anyway, I've watched this, oh, maybe five or six times now, and a few days ago, I get hit with a FIC INSPIRATION. I went hunting for FFVIII fic anyway, to bide the time when I'm not playing the game (though I have much better things to be doing with my time, FFVIII is so nice and shiny and distracting), but to be honest, there wasn't much that sounded good. I read a few (really long) really good stories, but they were WIPs, so that was that. I'm just waiting for more... oneshots are nice, too, but it'd be fabulous to find a really long fic that's COMPLETED! And good. I must have me some "good," which translates to "like the game." In other words, drama! Action! And for me almost most-importantly ROMANCE! Because heck, probably why I like the FFs that I do is because of the romance. FFVIII I'm liking more because it's promised to end HAPPILY, unlike some other FFs I know. FFX was a disappointment for me in that respect, even though I loved the other elements (3D! My god, I could NOT play FFVII because of how hideous the polygonal characters looked. Give me sprites or at least humanoid renderings-- not... whatever those creepy things in FFVII were! Redo the game, dammit!), the ending just made me cry. Hence, I loved FFX-2, because it gave Yuna a chance to shine, to find herself (even if she didn't end up with Tidus) and Tidus DID come back (which just made it super-special awesome). FFIX I liked (still haven't beaten it, though), but I couldn't get over how childish everyone looked. I know that was the point, but I couldn't reconcile their supposed true ages with how they looked. It didn't feel like a "love story" in that game to me because of how young everyone looked. It was like "playtime" but gone wrong-- kids saving the world and whatnot.

So anyway, the fic idea. ( How in the heck could you feasibly get Yuna, Rikku, Rinoa, Kairi, and Tifa fighting on the same side against the DoA girls in a world that vaguely resembles Mustafar from Star Wars? )

I need a Rinoa icon. :P

Excerpts from two reviews I received for WDKY recently (the same person, different chapter reviews):

Kaiba does seem a bit OOC (I can't see him falling for Tea so quickly...)
for chapter 4

Bakura?! OOC to the max... o0 I know you gave a reason, so it's not a problem t the story, but MAN. I was NOT expecting that... =D
for chapter 7

I suppose I could always do Review Replies (either reply to the author directly, since these were reviews from FFnet) or simply edit the Review Reply LJ entries I have for these chapters, but rather than just do that, I want to reply and ask a question of any readers of WDKY on this here FL:

I don't see Kaiba as being (that) OOC in any portion of WDKY. I admit, I'm not as good at characterizing him as the bastard he well can be, but part of "fleshing out a character" means giving them new dimensions and justifying that growth or change. It's not as if I've made Kaiba a wibbly little moppet who'll do anything for Téa. Conversely, I've tried to make this as "realistic" (in the horribly soap operatic, angst-filled way) as possible, and more often than not, Kaiba's a jerk. That's how I saw him in canon, but he wasn't some irredeemable jerk, which is why I fell for the pairing (Azureshipping) in the first place.

My justification here is the fact that this story was started when Battle City was still running on TV. And I mean the ORIGINAL tournament, not even the Duel Tower episodes-- that's why Noah showing up and being a ghost was out of left field, and I had to write a whole bunch of stuff to explain why they HADN'T run into Noah midway through the BC tournament, when pretty much everything else about the story used anime elements. That said, Kaiba's known Téa for more than a year prior to ANY of the events of WDKY. I'd say a year of not giving a shit about someone, eventually (and quite reluctantly) getting to know them, and then several months of awkward "Well, she's around and I sympathize with her plight but I'd never tell her to her face and her face is actually quite attractive now that I look at it..." before Kaiba even CONSIDERS he might be feeling something romantic (actually, he recognizes the sexual attraction first). Consider also his character in canon: it's bordering on asexual. Because the show is targeted toward younger boys and it's action-oriented, there's not much (if any) emphasis on romance or development in that respect at all. Kaiba could be a total playboy on the side or a complete prude, a virgin duelist!

I wouldn't call that him falling for her quick. The other thing is, this isn't Kaiba's story. It's Téa's, and I establish that from the get-go. We might get into Kaiba's head every now and again, but what it boils down to is, this is the story of Téa's growth more than anyone else's, the things she sees and does and feels-- even if there are other people there, seeing and doing and experiencing and feeling. If I did a version of WDKY, maybe I'd have much more dramatic thought-angst on Kaiba's part about how he's struggling to deal with the very real possibility of having a first "crush" or first "serious relationship," but again, that's not the point of WDKY.

Moving on, Bakura... Bakura's a hard one. See, by the end of Yu-Gi-Oh, we learn that the guy we all called Yami no Bakura (or Dark Bakura, or Bakura with the host of Ryou, or Bathead) was not actually the spirit of the Thief King Bakura the way Yami no Yuugi was the spirit of Pharaoh Atem. He was simply a "shard" of Zork Necrophades, darkness personified, essentially. Though it seemed like he was out for revenge, it never really crystallized, and most of the time, Bakura came across as a guy just out for his own benefit, his own amusement. You did get the feeling that he knew a lot more than he was letting on, though, and based on THAT impression from when I first started writing WDKY, that's how I've developed Bakura. It's been years now since the story started, and Yu-Gi-Oh the series (both the anime and the manga) have ended in both their Japanese and translated English/dub forms.

It's a bit like saying someone's Harry Potter is OOC when he doesn't yell in CAPSLOCK OF RAGE because a fanfic was written about him reacting to someone's death prior to Book Five. I mean, considering when I wrote it (and the fact that I developed a humongous plan from the very start), do you really expect my Bakura to be exactly like the guy in the show? He can't be, not anymore-- and I'm slowly but surely revealing the reasons why he does what he does. I guess him helping someone WOULD be OOC, but then again, remember: everything he does in WDKY has a dark side, for his own benefit. Hell, he even SAYS as much when he saves Téa, and the concept of Téa and Kaiba OWING him for that is a recurring theme!

So, my questions:
(1) Assuming you can have a something of a "character bell curve" where there are certain definable traits for any given character, at what point do you deviate TOO FAR from those points and become "OOC" no matter what "justification" is given? For example, if I turn Kaiba into a sobbing, crying mess, that's pretty far off his "characterization chart." I could, theoretically, justify it (thereby bringing his "characterization line" up to this far, deviant point on the map), but I'd have to do a damn good job at it-- make it believable. What would be UNBELIEVABLE for Kaiba or Bakura, no matter what?

(2) Considering the final arc of Yu-Gi-Oh revealed Yami no Bakura as not really his own personality (i.e., not the Thief King out for revenge because of what the Pharaoh Atem's father/former advisor did to his hometown, friends, and family in the Kul Elna massacre), what makes "Bakura" in-character or wildly OOC? How do you recognize a character who has the potential to change from one season/arc to the next? What are Bakura's underlying, never-change traits?

I just finished reading the FanLib.com: One Year Later post on fanthropology, and I gotta say... my initial reservations about why FanLib sucked so hard are gone. I re-read their entire FAQ, the About Us page, and the Terms of Service-- and I applaud them for the latter, because even though it uses that oh-so-annoying legal CAPSLOCK OF DOOM!, generally it's in plain English and makes sense.

I'm honestly thinking of signing up, and not just to prevent my name from being besmirched there by a plagiarist at some later date.

Anyone with compelling reasons NOT to, please step forward.

TokyoPop sponsors a fanfiction competition with cash as the prize!

Of course, the catch is that it must apply to a very specific one of their "manga," Queenie Chan's "The Dreaming." I'm assuming Queenie's a fanficcer herself and gave permission for this, and Tokyopop is interested in seeing how the non-artists of fandom will respond to the idea of a) getting published and b) getting "cold, hard CASH!!" for it. I also figure Queenie herself might be on the judging panel...

Very interesting. I've never read "The Dreaming," but I might just start with this competition as a possible foray into the world of "professional fanficcing." Sounds fun.

I should probably note, they're not CALLING it fanfiction on the site, but that's totally what it is.

...I don't know a thing about Gakuen Alice. o_o But I do know Tokyopop's quizzes don't embed properly. -_- Or maybe it's just my layout. In any case, what was the point of asking me for a post title when they're going to change it, anyway?

( What's your Alice? Quiz )

Also: my ENGL 313 (Pop Culture) teacher ROCKS. I thought this of my previous Pop Culture teacher, the class I had to drop last Spring, when I had the semester from hell (and flunked Japanese). This Prof, Hatfield by name, knows what fandom is. Okay, so he's a Pop Culture teacher, he should know about some things... I mean, I expect people to know what anime is these days. Knowing manga (and not calling them "graphic novels") is a bit of an accomplishment, as is knowing what "fanfiction" is. But Hatfield just took the cake when he remembered one single word... COSPLAY.

Not "dressing up as a Klingon or Obi-Wan" but the very WORD "Cosplay." He knew it! (Okay, so his son is apparently in the disaster called the CSUN Anime Club, so I can't blame him if he found out through there...) But that rocks my socks, because even the people that dress up like Spock or Worf or Obi-Wan or Anakin don't know that word. To them, dressing up as a character is "dressing up as a character." Cosplay is a Japanese portmanteau, a mashing of "costume" and "play." Though it could theoretically be guessed from context (though Baba thought the "Cos" was short for "Cosmic" when I mentioned it to her this afternoon), it might take some examples of what it is (visual examples, that is) to really get the brain juices flowing.

We're going to have to do a fandom-related project near the end of the semester. An option is to study a "fandom-based community," where you "immerse" yourself in it. *raises eyebrow* Something tells me I'd have a great time "studying" playthedamncard. Or smrff. Heh!

Oh, to other fellow California voting-age ppls: so, what do you think of the whole Props 94-97? Those are the Indian Gaming ones, if you don't remember. TV is just saturated with those ads lately, and to be honest, I'm torn. On the one hand, I'm not apt to believing that more slot machines at Indian Gaming Resorts will equal billions of dollars for California, especially not "immediately." And while I realize that the state is in a fiscal crisis, if the money we get isn't used properly, it doesn't seem to make sense. Any money we do get -whether we "deserve" it or not- should be put into proper use.

What bothers me is that there are people on both sides of the fence, and as none of them are my local representatives or people I know/recognize, I don't know who to trust. There are teachers on both sides, police officers and other law enforcement officers... people whose opinion I value, but I don't know who to believe.

So, what do you think? I'm skeptical of the ads from the "No" campaign, if only because it clearly says at the bottom that they're paid for by a Vegas casino and a Hollywood racetrack. However, I don't know whether the passing of the props would mean that it really WOULD be four rich gaming tribes versus the many other, non-gaming tribes left in the dust. My grandfather thinks that Vegas casino bigshots are controlling the Indian Gaming casinos and resorts anyway, from "Connecticut to California," and that the bulk of the money goes back to them, anyway.

I don't know what to think, so... help?

Oh, also: guardian_kysra, it's all your fault! Well, yours and Em's (sorry, I don't think I can spell her full LJ name... o_o but you know who I mean!), because I've been reading Em's "It Only Takes a Moment" for the past two nights (I'm slow), and checking out all your cute comic strips based on it... and other RobRae art (*wink wink*). You're making me wish I still watched TT! I'm actually glad I caught up on DeviantArt, at any rate. Lots of stuff to be had there. :) Got myself a new wallpaper, because, well, Ty was just making me blush inappropriately. So I switched it to NMSmith's lovely "Iris" wallpaper.

( Reminds me of Goo Goo Dolls )

I wanna know how to make jewels like the small ones on the side. :)

LJ Year In Review: Post the subject and/or first line of the first entry for each month of 2007.

01: Yay.
02: Sometimes We Fall Apart. (FL)
03: I'm Back, I'm Bold, Maybe Even Beautiful! (FL)
04: Dollies And Other Such Things. (FL)
05: What The Duck?
06: Well, Okay
07: [SM] [smrff] [Usa Week] Born to Be
08: So, Yeah... (FL)
09: Hmmgrr.
10: Blogger's Challenge, Day One
11: Sometimes I Want To Strangle Editors
12: One Thing I Want To Do With My Life

Okay, so I don't post friends-locked entries more often, on average. I also don't post creative works very often at all, on average. That's only if you're looking at the entries from the first of every month of 2007, though.

This meme got me to post "Born to Be" on FFnet, though it's unbeta'd. It didn't have any commentary on the LJ entry, and I'm not sure if I remember any feedback one way or the other from SMRFF, but hey, at least it's out there, now. And to my re-read, it was decent-- so, to Epiphany it goes! I don't know why it took FFnet 3 tries just to upload it. Why the heck does it consider HTML a "last resort" for formatting? Uh, HAY BRAINZ!? HTML is better by far than DOC format... :P Why, you ask? Well, uh, gee, because it's UNIVERSAL? And wtf about not preserving formatting? If you can make bold in HTML, it's preserved-- PERIOD. Ugh, FFnet, you are made of FAIL.

I wonder what other LJ-only fics have yet to make it to FFnet, for whatever reason?

I kinda want to watch Sailor Moon now...

( But wait, there's more memes! )

I would make like Happosai and go "what a haul! what a haul!" but my haul this year was meager but meaningful-- just the way I like it. From Gary, I got some gelt (and if you don't know what that means, go look it up in a Yiddish dictionary); from Mom I got a new black iHome iPod dock/radio with alarm, along with a $25 Macy*s gift card. Rochelle also gave me a $25 gift card; Eva got me "Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End" on the 2-disc DVD edition (YAYZ!). Though I don't think it counted as a Hanukkah present, Dad also gave me V for Vendetta, and I bought myself the Anastasia (remember that lovely animated film by Fox? Wow, John Cusak ~_~) Family Fun Edition.

Yesterday, azhp and I made my traditional Spritz cookies, so those of you in the Yay Area who want some, better call your dibs now! (This is being awfully egotistical, isn't it? But I'd like to think everyone's liked them over the years; I know I do.) Speaking of cookies, the Jays (the family that owns the flat Mom & Gary live in) gave us some delicious... well, they TASTE like cookies, but they look like brownies. And they're delicious! :D I'm eating a chocolate chip one, now.

I've still got gifts of my own to give out, but so far, it's been a nice holiday-- fun, productive, and not overly emotional. Heck, I even managed to get the Christmas tree up and decorated last night-- what a relief, considering this year, it seemed like it wouldn't happen (again), but this time due to laziness/too much furniture blocking the way/whatever, instead of Mom-is-a-Grinch. This year it only took her a day or so to get into the mood, and she hasn't been a Grinch since. Yay for that.

Also:
-Seems a lot of my cousins are going to be in Northridge when I go back on Thursday. And Scott's coming in the evening and staying the night so we can hang out Friday... o_o I'm hoping it doesn't somehow end up awkward in any way. (Knowing me, I've probably already jinxed it.)

-Dad made it to Northridge okay. Another day, another adventure. I wonder what we'll be doing for the time he stays?

-Managed to edit up an image for a Dragonfayth Xmas skin. Now I need to make something for New Year's. But the skins only display on the holidays, so anyone looking at Dragonfayth today, 12/25, tell me what you think! Sure, I can't claim credit for the Seto x Anzu art (that goes to lin_ko), nor the skin base design itself (that goes to Kali), but I mashed it altogether and made it work! Eh-eh-heh...

-In my old room here in S.F. (which is now called the Tovstin, a mix of Tovsen -Gary's name- and Westin, where Mom works), Gary has some tiny fish... one of them died last night. :( I didn't want to let it sit there (which is what I did several years ago in high school, resulting in a mass fish death that day), so I disposed of it... so sad that it had to die on Christmas. What made it especially suck was that he had another fish that I thought had died when I first arrived... but apparently it was pregnant and just floating around, trying to avoid swimming too much. Gary poked it and it turned out to be alive, so I was relieved. I was hoping the same thing had happened with this other one, but... no such luck. I poked and it just floated back up again. ;_;

-I didn't get the chance to work on (let alone finish) my Aria's Ink 2003 Xmas competition entry "Information, Please!" (title subject to change now), but I've got it pretty fleshed out in my head... I think it was 4-5 chapters, and I think I've decided not to make it an AU... the drama's always more fun that way. If I did get it done by New Year's, it be a nice "opening fic" for Epiphany when it goes live.

-Gotta work on the 30kisses purge!

-Wonder if I can get that purple double-breasted pea coat from H&M tomorrow...? I'll call the main store in the morning and see if they got a new shipment.

-Many, many books to read. Did I mention I'd gone on a bit of a spree at Borders the other night? Plus, I'm about halfway through the whole "His Dark Materials" trilogy; I'm several chapters into "The Subtle Knife."It's pretty comfy just lying in bed, watching movies and/or reading. I think I'll go back and do just that right now...