MILES to GO || before I sleep

Ow. Okay, so I had my first lesson in bike riding today. What, you didn't know Mer the Inept is not only Terrified of Driving (I'm sure there's a phobia name for that) but that she has also never successfully ridden a bike (since age 10 or so, and I hate to tell you, but you CAN forget if the incident is traumatic enough). But to get around here in Japan, it's either dish out a bunch of money for bus tickets, set aside a good few hours to walk, or... bike. Everyone else bikes, so why not me? I paid 500 yen for a bike registration, and today Kevin, Daisuke, and Todd teamed up to give me lessons.

And I think I improved a bit, even if I can't "ride" quite yet. Balance first! But because the bike is a small one rescued from the trash, it's not exactly in top quality. The handlebars are way too hard (I keep death-gripping them and giving myself bruises) and the seat... well, just read the subject line. MY ASS HURTS. But I'm glad I'm not a guy. :P Well, for just that one thing.



I want to meet these 5 other women. :D

This seems to be the season for Seto/Anzu fics! Yay! If I beat bribe my muse to get into high gear, I might even have the next chapter of WDKY in time for Kaiba's birthday. That'd be a dream come true, really-- because I keep thinking about is Ch26 and beyond. 25 is like a big hulking road block. But it's always good to get inspired by others- namely geniusgirl and the ever-eloquent atlantian_magic (expect a letter + omiyage from me soon! I haven't had time to get to the post office...).

Finally, FRUSTRATION! This whole Pages-is-like-Office-but-without-some-functionality pisses me off. I just want to print some freakin' labels! Pages doesn't do that, but Address Book does-- except they don't have the right label size (I'm trying to specify my own size, but it only asks for margins and gutters, rather than the damn label size! WTF!?). The FileMakerPro 8 trial is listed on my label's packaging, but I can't, for the life of me, figure out how to even get started. There's not a thing in the program labeled "Labels," and the Help file might as well be Greek. (One more reason to end up spending the $150 on Office for Mac. Yes, Scott tried to give it to me, but it didn't work. It might have been because I didn't know what I was doing -installing by just dragging and dropping!?-, but it also could have been that he didn't copy the CD properly.)

I want to add Turkmenistan to the list of countries in the Change Address Format submenu in Address Book, but there seems to be no documentation on that, either. So I've asked at the Apple forums to see if maybe there's some sort of plist fix I can do in OmniOutliner or somesuch. It's either that or... again, invest in MS Office. This is how they maintain the monopoly, I imagine -they stuff their suite so full of features that you don't realize how much you need it until it's gone, not in the "comparable" suite for Mac, or the program that can supposedly do it can't do it EXACTLY the right way you need-- when MS Office *CAN*.

I wanted to upload images from iPhoto to my Scrapbook, like I've been saying I'll do, but short of browsing EACH and every damn folder to find the right image, there's no way to export them directly. I got two programs that can supposedly do it -one standalone and one plugin- and so far, neither of them have worked. One couldn't even find iPhoto's albums, and the other is apparently not compatible with the latest iPhoto, version 6. There ARE no other options, because the Perl script has modules unavailable on OSX, and the other option is that rotten Windows XP Explorer add-in. I used jix.jar back on XP, and while rudimentary, it worked.

I also liked IrfanView, because I could batch rename and resize things. There is a Batch Change option in iPhoto, but only for Title, Date, and Keywords. And when I go into Constrain in the Edit function, it only lets me customize by inches-- and I can't find a way to change it to say, pixels, or even millimeters. What if I have a photo I want to upload to the web? Can't I resize it according to a maximum KB size?

Gah, this is annoying.

Saw "Snakes on a Plane" with Erin on Friday evening... even if I dropped out of the cult-following a few months ago, it was still fabulous fun, and I loved it. It was very much deserving of the R-rating, especially at the beginning of the movie, but it managed to be both suspenseful and unpredictable-- great, considering how many people judge the movie by its title (or its poster). And the band that won the fan contest to have their music video in the end credits-- that song was DAMN good! It's actually sort of stuck in my head! Erin said the band reminded her of the Black Eyed Peas.

What was fabulous was when EVERYONE in the theatre (and this was a big theatre, but not sold out by any means) -except Erin, who had no freaking clue what was going on- said The Line in unison "I've had it with these motherfuckin' snakes on this motherfuckin' plane!" Yes, even me. It was fab. Absolutely fab. And of course everyone started cheering afterward.

( Spoilers, of course )

And now for something completely different...

I really would have thought that the damn "pink is for girls" concept would have DIED by now. First off, I, a self-respecting woman, HATE PINK. Especially cotton candy pink, Chibiusa pink, hot pink, or any derivative thereof. The closest I can come is maybe a deep rose color that I wear for blush or lip gloss. But then you have the freakin' PINK Razr. -_-; But hey, guys are wearing pink now... it looks weird to me, especially seeing ripped black guys wearing those AE pink polos, but whatever. Personally, I just don't like the color. But, to each their own.

Last night I got to cleaning my room, and of course I found tons of notes for fanfics, including WDKY. I had to go back and check to make sure that I'd made the changes I indicated on paper; I also had to add some "references" to the WDKY References page. Unfortunately I haven't been keeping up with the Changelog (the thing that I use to track all the updates I make to chapters, and what specific changes I make), but I can pretty much guess based on what I've added to the Reference log. I have random references in a lot of places, but at least I'm not Cassie Claire in this respect; I keep track of everything, and invent my own convoluted plot twists and references. I just wish there was a way to get Snakes on a Plane in there somehow. *snicker joke* Well anyway, I uploaded the new version of the References page to the old Darkness Rising (at some point, it will be under the new masthead of Epiphany, running eFiction 3.0), and later on tonight, I'll be updating Chapters 11 and 14 for some minor tweaks on all sites.

More fanfic-wise, I actually got inspired for a Sailor Moon fic. This kind of makes me feel better, considering how unsure I've been re: Only 16. Having a good idea (and getting started on it) would mean I have something to replace Only 16 in terms of Sailor Moon fics under my name; this would also be something dramatic and long, so it wouldn't feel like I'm shafting Only 16 into the oblivion (even though that's where it belongs). Actually, I thought of a way to combine this Very Good Idea with one that I wanted to do for sm_monthly (I never got past Chapter 1 of it, unfortunately, because WDKY has been keeping me on my toes; I don't want to get too distracted. I've already stopped reading the 200 days of Sailormoon posts at AFSM, and I'm backlogged by about 310 posts!). But I don't think I will, just because it would complicate things too much.

Finally, it looks like the next 2 people up for the Astrology, Blood Types, and Yu-Gi-Oh! feature on playthedamncard are...
* Ryou Bakura
* Katsuya Jounouchi
I'll try and get started on some of that now. Yesterday I bought myself the 2nd edition (2001) edition of Parker's Astrology, one of my favorite books on astrology. I've also been using Astrology Source to calculate things like midhavens/medium coeli, imum coeli, decantes, desendants, and other fun things. Takes all the hard calculating out of the game, so I can do more "character exploration." I have the book with me today at work (actually spent the first few hours of work reading it, because my phone was broken and I was on "standby"), and since all the old sites I used are on the previous posts, I shouldn't have any problem constructing Ryou's profile. I'll have to add things (like his Mystical Card number) later on, and I can always include new things each time-- numerology, tarot... ^_^ It's all related! Go ahead and read the last 2 posts on Yuugi Mutou and Seto Kaiba, and tell me what you think!

1) Reply to this if you want me to tell you how cool you are!

2) Watch my journal for a few days for a post just about you and why you rock my socks.

3) Post these instructions in your journal and give your friends a much needed dose of love and adoration!

Don't all overwhelm me at once, now.

Did you know I have a few fics that are still LJ-only? One I posted... I think last Christmas (or maybe the Christmas before that?) for yuugiouxmasfic never made it to FFnet. *impish smile* But it is under "Azurite's Fanfiction" in my memories. And I still REALLY want to finish my claim for 30kisses, because I have so many "large" fragments of them (i.e. for "Girls' Club" and "Kaiba the Virgin Sacrifice", but gosh darn it, WDKY is priority! ;_; Won't anyone help me beta? Do I have to start calling in favors?)

Also found two new, rather interesting fics for Azureshippers by way of FFnet C2: silentshadow1's "Second Side," and Shinja-chan's "I am Kaiba Anzu." Like many other fics I've found via FFnet in some size, shape, or form, I'll be adding them to the BEA database eventually. I think I'm going to change the colors of the layout for Autumn, though. :}

Exhibit A: Kitty Wish, by MSparrow, first published 10/19/04, completed 9/29/05. 11 chapters.

Exhibit B: T·L·C, by Azurite, first published 3/25/04, incomplete.

I found the former story in a C2 archive for Seto x Anzu that was recently nominated for inclusion at BEA. The summary sounded horribly familiar to me, especially with how Anzu got
a) a necklace
b) from Yuugi
c) and she wished to see Kaiba be nice
d) so she turned into a cute cat that vexed Kaiba and learned his deepest secrets
Now, I understand that the stories are different -it's not like I've been plagiarized word-for-word, and I know you can't really "own" a rudimentary fanfic idea, such as "Anzu turns into a cat and sees Kaiba in a new light." But... I did it first, and this looks like a complete rip-off of my idea! >_> Maybe I'm jumping the gun. Am I jumping the gun?

...This idea isn't original. It's MY idea, this person just mooched it off me.

AND DAMMIT, HER NAME IS Téa, not Tea, you lazy asswipes! Use the accent or use her Japanese name! She's not a caffeinated beverage!

...I'll eventually update about this past week, I swear. Ugh, I'm so busy already...

Modern, Cool Nerd 65 % Nerd, 52% Geek, 43% Dork

For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd. Nerds didn't use to be cool, but in the 90's that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn't quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and "geek is chic." The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)! Congratulations! Also, you might want to check out some of my other tests if you're interested in any of the following: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Professional Wrestling Love & Sexuality America/Politics Thanks Again! -- THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on nerdiness You scored higher than 99% on geekosity You scored higher than 99% on dork points

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on OkCupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

So after watching episodes 35-39 of Sailor Moon yesterday, I am in need of some good "Redemption" fics. That is, Usagi x Dark Endymion. Any fics that take place in the latter part of Sailor Moon Season 1 (aka Sailor Moon Classic), where a heartbroken Usagi is trying to discover herself, her feelings toward Mamoru/Endymion, and her role as Princess. I'd like to see a Dark Endymion pull off suave but still evil, but be fascinated in Usagi enough to warrant saving her repeatedly, and nearly getting healed. Any recs?

So between finishing reading Hearts of Ice (Ranma 1/2) and watching Sailor Moon classic for the 200 Days of Sailor Moon project (complete with dub comparisons courtesy of YouTube) AND my pre-existing plotbunny for Seiya x Usagi for sm_monthly, I have been STRUCK! yet again!

I've always been a fan of first season romances, but when I write, I just have more fun with SMR, because the break-up (obviously I'm talking anime-verse here, not manga or PGSM) and the time travel elements always appeal to me. So why not mix up a little bit of both? So here's the general gist:

For reasons as-yet-unknown, Usagi (from SMR at least, or Stars at most) goes back in time. How far back? Is it enough to prevent the other Senshi (save Venus) from being awakened? What about her knowledge that Mamoru will either break-up with her/blame their entire relationship on "destiny" rather than true love, or the fact that he will die for her? Usagi knows the truth: about Beryl, the Dark Kingdom, the Nijizuishou and the Ginzuishou... but will knowing save her? Usagi seems a different person, and the way she is determined to protect those she loves may cause an adverse ripple effect that no one is able to predict...

This sounds like something that has to have been done before though, so before I get giddy and try to write it, would someone be so kind as to point me in the direction of a fic that features Usagi time traveling to "fix" things? I don't know why I like this idea so much-- it's something that comes up in "Circle of Seven," definitely in "Time Sphere," that tentative FFX/2 fic I never wrote, and of course, in "Death and Absolution." I love time travel!

I tried to hold a contest in weekly_ygo for both the community's layout and WikiFic, but no one seemed interested... alas! Hopefully this contest, co-hosted with Apollymi and Katsuko of DarkMagic.Net and ygo_novella

Presenting the First Annual Yu-Gi-Oh Novella Contest!
It is almost exactly what it sounds like: a novella contest geared toward Yu-Gi-Oh fanfics, AUs included. You can check here for the shonen-ai/yaoi challenge, and here for the gen/het challenge.

All fics submitted must fit into one of two categories:
15,000 words minimum (short novella)
25,000 words minimum (long novella)

along with the "main" category of shonen-ai/yaoi or gen/het. (Technically, those are 4 categories, but because of the split between the judges, we're considering them two. You should still indicate WHICH of them your fic is... if your fic has smexy boy on boy action, it's yaoi. If it's simple fluff, it's shonen-ai. If there's no romance whatsoever, it's gen. And if it's between a boy and a girl, it's het. The het category is open to all ratings, G-NC17 or equivalent. There is no yuri/shoujo-ai category at this time.)

Apollymi and Katsuko will be judging the shonen-ai and yaoi categories, while Katsuko and I will judge the gen and the het. Readers/other participants will also have the chance to judge fics, as comments from reviewers ARE taken into account for the final judging process!

Please email either me or Apollymi if you intend on entering the contest!
All the rules, details, and specs are at the site(s), but the general info to include in your email is this:

¤ Author Pseudonym
¤ Author Email Address
¤ Author Webpage (if applicable)
¤ Story Title
¤ Category (shounen-ai/yaoi or gen/het)
¤ Pairings
¤ Word Count
¤ Summary
¤ Author's Notes (if applicable)

You may also comment here ON THIS ENTRY ONLY if you intend on entering in the gen/het category! You have until December 15th to get writing and submit it to either myself or Apollymi!

Please let me know if you intend on entering BEFORE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 2006!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Shadowesque13!

Ugh, you know, I decided to randomly try my hand at some Gunslinger duels tonight in the YGO Online World lobby, and I figured with my new powerful deck (Warrior-Spellcaster, with a few bitchy effect monsters thrown in), I might even stand a chance. True, I did last longer in my duels, but one duel ended for no reason (as in, opponent DID NOT surrender, time DID NOT run out, etc. etc.) and the other duel, my opponent of unknown nationality (I thought Japanese, but maybe not. Could have been Chinese or Korean, because the other languages use the English alphabet set, and this guy's text kept coming up as ????) was SO FREAKIN' IMPATIENT! I mean, he was winning already, I don't see what the rush is. Really pissed me off.

Anyway, I need "Widespread Ruin" and/or "Nightmare Wheel," both traps. These cards got used against me (the former in repeated duels), and I must say, they are a bitch for getting your opponent's LP down. And since Warrior decks seem to be pretty cookie-cutter, maybe I ought to try for a Spirit deck, like I told Malakite while we were mining. I played against a guy with a Gravekeeper deck, and I must say, that's one kick-ass deck theme. I find that playing YGO!O inspires me for the upcoming duel scenes in WDKY, so at least I won't be pulling combos and decks out of my ass... these will be decks that have pwned me IRL. :D

I just finished adding a bunch of pages to WikiFic, all in the Pairings section. I'm far from done, and plenty of people gave me links for Threesomes and other-somes that I haven't made a template for yet. There's also the matter of 'ships that aren't official yet, or 'ships whose history is unknown. And I also need art! And then there's the REST of the encyclopedia... this is such a big project, but I've been working on it diligently, getting help here and there from new users, and so far it's turning out pretty good. I'm somewhat afraid to get a Spell Checker for the Wiki, since I have so many Japanese words, but we'll see. Better safe than sorry, eh?

Also, surprisingly good Pegasus-centric fic by SilvorMoon. It came as a rec for the Pegasus/Cyndia pairing for WikiFic, and it really is quite good. It'll definitely make you rethink Duelist Kingdom! :D I also re-read some of Quickening's Spiritshipping (or Revolutionshipping, but Yugi's such an imp in her fics that I figure it's more of a 3-way) and I remember why I first fell in love with Yu-Gi-Oh as a fandom, and Anzu as a female protagonist. Yes, back in the day, I was a Revolutionshipper! :O

And then I read geniusgirl's stuff and the rest is history. :P

In a few hours... the dream will end! Yu-Gi-Oh's final dub episode "Ceremonial Battle" conclusion airs on Kids WB at 11:30am!
5 years
7 incredible story arcs
8 amazing duelists and friends
7 memorable villains
But the time has come
For for this story
To end
June 10, 2006
Yu-Gi-Oh!

Watch It. Live It. Duel It.

Or something equally dorky. ("This isn't the end of my story. My story... is just beginning.") Even though I've seen it in the Japanese, I'm giddy with anticip.....ation!~

I think I'll catch up on Sailor Moon tomorrow, and do Episodes 13 and 14 in one shot. Now that I've fixed VLC player's settings for snapshots, if I do another flood, it won't take so long and need a recompiler. :)

Ah, should I say yesterday was successful and happy or not? How about you help me decide (I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not sure...)
(1) Hot as hell. No wind, fans don't seem to do much. Yuck.

(2) Wasn't tempted to buy anything at Best Buy! Yay! (I'm broke anyway, not-so-yay)

(3) Called my cousin Jill and talked to her for awhile- we're supposed to get together later today. Yay!

(4) Watched Yu-Gi-Oh GX (Can totally see Anzu kicking Dmitri's ass for trying to "be" Yugi) and had a good laugh

(5) Missed Fullmetal Alchemist (even though it's supposed to suck compared to the manga!)

(6) Suddenly remembered this morning that there's a scrapbooking event I RSVPd for at school. I didn't pay for it, but it's at 4pm or so, and I'll probably be with Jill all day. Foo!

(7) Got to mine-duel and trade cards (more like get cards as a fabulous gift) from an edo_lister, Malakite. Not only got tons of good cards through several hours of mine sessions, but I laughed too. We both have a sense of humor regarding the censors on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Online chat rooms. (Seriously, "goo" is a bad word!?)

(8) During said mine duels, I barely remembered which cards I got from my packs. I remembered some, but I hated how I kept forgetting the third one in the pack. Malakite told me this is because the third card almost always sucks, and he's right, but I hate not remembering stuff that I've seen TWO SECONDS BEFORE!

(9) Just remembered (right after I remembered the Scrapbooking thing) that I didn't critique anyone's papers for WWA. The week of finals, I was so stressed, depressed, and sick that I didn't remember one bit. I wonder if that'll lower my grade by much... *worry* HAH HAH, still got an A! (That's 3 As and 3 Bs. Or 2As and 3Bs, since the 102/C is technically one course, but they grade separately for the 102 class and the C(onversation) part of the class. That's a 3.4 GPA... not sure if that's perfectly accurate, and while it means no Dean's List this semester, it does mean YAY FOR MER! :D :D I MADE IT I MADE IT hard semester's over~ la la la la la la!

(10) Successfully canceled my Ancestry.com account. It was fun while it lasted, but it's way too freakin' expensive!

(11) Tweaked a bit of WDKY24 last night. It's annoying, but I've found that re-reading the whole chapter helps me focus on the scenes I have yet to write, and how I can better convey what I already have down.

(12) Haven't updated my YGO TCG sell list in 2 days. BAD MER!

Hm, good day or bad day?

All I know is, I want to go swimming.

You Are Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

You are kind, popular, and generous. You tend to be successful at anything you try. A social butterfly, you are great at entertaining a crowd. You are most compatible with strawberry ice cream.

I'm a social butterfly? FTW? Well, at least it's not out-and-out chocolate ice cream, because THAT: I hate. Okay, I dislike it. :P Chocolate is only good when it's in hot cocoa, milk chocolate candy bars, or rich fudge brownies.

Speaking of cold treats, I had one of those tasty Whole Fruit strawberry popsicle treats today. It was only 99 cents, and it had chunks of whole strawberry in it! Pretty tasty. Now I'm trying to wolf down a lunch special of my favorite Chinese food: Sweet and Sour Chicken with steamed rice, mandarin orange slices, and a can of Coke. :D Ah, this is nice.

You Belong in San Francisco

You crave an eclectic, urban environment. You're half California, half NYC. You're open minded, tolerant, and secretly think you're the best. People may dismiss you as a hippie, but you're also progressive, interesting, and rich!

HAHAHAHAHA. This is funny. (If you need to ask why, you don't know me well enough.)

You Are Cyclops

Dedicated and responsible, you will always remain loyal to your cause. You are a commanding leader - after all, you can kill someone just by looking at them. Power: force beams from your eyes

Great. So this means I won't even never mind, I don't want to spoil you!!!!

You Are 28% Cynical

Generally you give people the benefit of the doubt. But there are exceptions. You buy into many of the things that mainstream society believes, but you're not anybody's fool.

Yeah, I suppose this is about right.

Anyway, moving away from the memes and such, I re-read "Something to Somebody" (what can I say, I'm a masochist), and I've decided that while I love the plot, I hate how I wrote it. It's dumb. And I'm so freakin' uninspired for WDKY24 (other chapters, sure. CO7 or ED? FINE! But I can't write the last 3 critical scenes of WDKY24! Darn it, I need to have a brainstorm session with a beta or something. Where has everyone gone? ;_; I wanna chat, guys!) that I may just do what I did when I *started* those other fics -work on other things until I get inspired. It's sad that WDKY24 is already 5+ months in the making and I haven't finished it, but... alas, such is the way of epic WIPs.

Back from Fanime!

Swag
* Ayashi no Ceres DVDs, episodes 7-19
* Kindaichi Case Files manga, #12: Tarot Lodge
* Purple dice earrings
* Aquamarine Mandarin short-sleeved shirt (zip-back)
* Shoujo Beat (June 2006)

I loved the Marriott. The hotel staff was insanely nice, the beds were super-comfy (zOMG king-sized MARSHMALLOW!), and the food was pretty damn good-- even if the portions, like the bedrooms, were huge. My Yuna cosplay was pretty successful, and I had no real qualms about my Anzu cosplay other than that there weren't that many other YGO cosplayers. BUT! I did meet chibipriestess, who cosplayed Malik, and her friend, who cosplayed bondage!Yuugi (I would say Yami no Yuugi, except she lacked the Millennium Puzzle, so we can just say that the puzzle got sucked into the 'Shadow Realm' or some such). There was one guy wandering around with a trenchcoat and a Duel Disk, but he was no more of a YGO cosplayer than I am a real pop superstar. :P

I got to meet many of my friends and hang out, so that was cool-- I even got to see some cool things, like "The Myth" and the live-action "Sekachu." I didn't find Gokusen on the schedule though, and I really wanted to see that, especially after mklutz said it was good. Plus, MatsuJun! I mean, that's just an Auto-WIN! I have 37 pics to upload, so you'll see them soon on my Scrapbook! :)

I went to the Fanfic panel on Saturday ... and I actually ended up running it for a while. It was kind of creepy, because I practically worship Joseph Palmer (which I'm sure he found somewhat creepy), but he is like, the ORIGINAL BNF in the Ranma fanfiction, and STILL ACTIVE! which makes him something of a miracle in the fandom. I liked Krista Perry and many others well enough, but Real Life just ate them all up. Even though the panel was smaller than past years, it still inspired a butt load of conversation, and I think there's so much to cover on Fanfiction, even if not every otaku even knows what it is, let alone does it. I met dawnsama there, and we went to the AMVs together, but other than that, it was a short, simple panel.

I hope AX will be more exciting.

Oh! I got some of my grades so far... okay, two of them:
Geography - B (to be expected. I bombed my midterm, so only a miracle could have landed me an A)
Japanese - A (YESSSSSSSS! We didn't have grade sheets this year, so I really didn't know how well I was doing. I had a general idea, but YAY!)

To do:
* Finish WDKY24
* Sell Yu-Gi-Oh cards on eBay
* ( WDKY Calendar )

Er yup. I think that's it. A new weekly_ygo should be coming out tomorrow.

This is a sequel to Counting. This is in answer to the 15-people meme, where atlantian_magic requested a Sousuke x Kaname piece with a KISS. But, since this is a sequel to counting, a story universe which I've semi-planned out in my head, this won't be a drabble. It'll be more of a free-flow ficlet-- a second chapter to "Counting," if you will, and I say it's finished when I say it's finished. :P

Title: Moment
Genres: Drama/Romance/Action
Pairing(s): Sousuke Sagara x Kaname Chidori
Rating: PG13-R for this one
Spoilers: For episode of 5+ of "Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid" and books in the "Owaru: Day by Day" series. If you've read "Counting," that's about all you'll need to know.
Notes: mklutz, not sure if you liked/enjoyed "Counting" enough to get a sequel, but since I owed you "double," here's part two. I hope you like. :)

I do not own the universe nor the characters represented herein. This is a work for fun, not for profit.

( A moment like this... )

ceruleansan, I hope you know this is ALL YOUR FAULT. YOU STARTED IT!
And if I get plotbunnied and start writing Fullmetal Alchemist fanfiction, I KNOW WHO I'M COMING AFTER TO BETA MY FICS! *angry stare*

Yeah, so I've kind of gotten, er... well, let's use a light form of "obsessed," shall we? Interested in the FMA series. CeruleanSan had me downloading scanlations from StopTazmo, and I've managed to get up to Chapter 20 or thereabouts. She wanted a new convert to the whole Ed x Winry pairing, and I'm so far inclined to agree with her-- a bit. There really isn't a whole ton of romance or innuendo, or backstory beyond how Ed and Al got to where they are.

I admit- parts of the manga are extremely funny, but I don't think ANY manga has ever had me crying so much within a few chapters. Yu-Gi-Oh only brought me to tears when I realized IT WAS OVER, not at any point during the first arc. Even Sailormoon, with the DEATH! and the TRAGIC!OMG etc... even in the live-action, it was always toward the END that I was sobbing like a baby. And okay, FMA didn't have me sobbing like a baby, but the sad parts (people getting murdered, kittens being dead, etc.) had me sniffling and wishing I could click away-- but I couldn't. :P

So I download about 3 chapters at a time while doing something else online. I read them all once they've finished downloading, and once I get 700 MB worth (which may take awhile; I've got something like 97 MB now, and that's *20* chapters!), I'll burn it to CD.

Sucky thing is that the quality really went down around Ch. 18. I don't mean the manga or even the scans- just the translating. All of a sudden, words were horribly misspelled, apostrophes and commas were left out, and chapter titles weren't translated at all anymore. Some omake bits and cover scans were left out altogether! It was kinda sad. If anyone knows where the HQ scans are, I'll wait longer-- just so I can read scanlations in REAL English, not that kindergarten crap that passes for English these days. (I like "Engrish," but there's no humor in stuff that's halfway between Engrish and English. It's called LAZINESS.)

UGH! One more week until I get paid, two more weeks until "finals" (I actually don't have finals for all of my classes. I do have tons of WORK to get done, especially by the end of this week, so I better get cracking.), and three weeks until FANIME! I still haven't reserved a shuttle to the airport and back again though, and Mom hasn't paid me or covered any portion of the hotel room yet. I should call her about that (well, she DID offer! It'll shave some off the money she still owes me, at any rate). At least I'll have April's paycheck (or will it be May's?) to cover Fanime and the like, and I'll be making MORE money in the summer, assuming I get more hours (which I hope I do).

Ooh, and for Mother's Day weekend, I'm going to San Diego on the choo-choo! :D I'm going to make Scott's mom a card, because even if I don't see her, she's been way nice to me. I know I'm going to see Scott at least on Friday night/Saturday morning, so he can pass the card on. I think I'll be at Joyce's for Sunday, but I don't know what exactly we're doing. (I hope Joyce wins her court case today against the insurance guys, because it'd be sucky for her and Baba to try and celebrate Mother's Day if she DIDN'T win.)

( More FFX-2 and Da Vinci Code Quest schtuff )

( Meme ga aru! )

Ugh, still need a new LJ layout (got sick of the Lisa Frank kitties). DAMN YOU MUSE! Where ARE you!?

For all the greatness I've got in getting into Tokiwa, I think I'm lacking in the creativity and/or motivational departments at the moment. I seriously need a new layout for my LiveJournal. I hate using some rehashed one ganked from some site- every time I've found one that I liked (rare) and managed to get it up, something's gone wrong. Too wide, too narrow, this not showing up, that not showing up...

...I wonder if I could commission someone? Maybe for about $10? (I'm flexible, but I'm thinking base price, here. If I come up with colors and graphics...) Any takers? (Mer <-- LAZY!?)

GRR! I like the Smooth Sailing Layout and want to customize it to my liking. I've been rummaging through the few tutorials on s2smoothsailing and found myself at the_lj_reboot, but even with resources, there's not much help there for me to "reboot" my LJ into anything spectacular. I don't even have any ideas as to colors, artwork, fonts, etc. for the journal... I've tried about four or five things now, and nothing "hits" me. I've even gone through premade layouts on my comp and thought about adapting them.... but nothing.

Same goes for my websites, which an unusual amount of people have been asking about. I pay $6/mo for the service, I damn well better upgrade everything and make it functional and look good. I should add a counter to all the pages, too. I just wish I could buy bottled inspiration or something.

Well, so Passover wasn't too much of a bomb. Dad and I sorta got along by the end of the week; no more explosive and/or embarrassing fights, but there's still a lot I can't agree with him on, and think he's utterly immature for. Scott really was my godsend; he even helped paint the rec room bathroom when the fumes got to be too much for me. There's still more fixing-up to do-- the air filter in the main hall needs to be replaced, and the mirrors and paintings in the rec room bathroom need to be hung up again. We also need new socket and switch plates, and I need new luggage (Target EMBARK series in Lilac, only $30!) Plus the kitchen's a right mess, and I'd like to move the computer upstairs to my room-- just to test it out. I need to put clothes away, organize my desk, blah blah...

I think I said 3 weeks ago that I'd be done with WDKY24, and it's not there yet. I feel rotten about it, too, but I'm still lacking in inspiration, even if I seriously want to get to the parts BEYOND 24 (AUGH, THE BEST PARTS!) and have the "outline" written for 99.9% of the chapter... of course it's the toughest parts that I keep skipping and not writing. But writers never make promises! :P (Except for implicit ones)

Ah, as for Tokiwa, I'm supposed to go from Mid-September to late-January. Missing Hanukkah/Christmas would be a big bummer to me, but since tuition/air fare/etc. is free, I might be able to swing a plane ride home and back... if I get financial aid. Why would they award me financial aid if a) I won't be at CSUN, and b) Tokiwa's tuition for me is free? Same goes for the Presidential Scholarship... what is the point of having the priority registration, the Matador Bookstore discount, etc. if I go to a school with FREE tuition? That's not to say I won't work on my project for the Scholarship-- better to try and do it IN JAPAN like I originally hoped; maybe some of my professors there can help me better understand female writers of their country. But financial aid is how I survive... even if I would get a stipend IN Japan for teaching conversational English, how would that measly amount help me for nearly 6 whole months? ;_;

Dad never got me a birthday present. :P So I treated myself at Border's, using 2 coupons: I got 15% off Carmen Electra's Vols 4 & 5 of her Aerobic Striptease (Lapdance and Hip Hop. Teh yey!) and 25% off the Back to the Future trilogy. I wanted to get Indiana Jones, but they didn't have it-- not in Action/Adventure, and not in the Boxed Sets area, even though the computer said they had it in stock, and I had the guy (who was a jerk) check the back room. :P

And now... it's Back to Back to the Future. I'm too bored to just keep sitting here. Maybe I'll eat some pie now.

So yesterday I had major bank problems, but I solved them with a phone call and a transfer. Today (masochist that I am) I check my bank account, and I'm in the red again. Why? Because the overdraft fee hit today- $25, not $10. And since it overdrafted by taking money out for the overdraft fee. And it might do it again. It's a lot less than it was yesterday, but I don't have enough in my savings to cover it, and I have no money of my own to cover it. Ugh. Payday isn't for another 10 days, and I HATE borrowing money from my grandparents (esp. if it's not for my trip). But I hate relying on the fact that Mom will pay for everything in Hawaii up until I get paid. But my grandparents already BOUGHT me a present.

AUGH! That's my word of the week, totally.

I paid for my Yuna costume though, and I told mom about my need of a hotel room for Fanime. So hopefully she'll help me out, but she's got to revise her taxes (and possibly mine), send me copies of both plus a Dependent Verification Form and THEN I can know whether I get X amount for financial aid next semester. I need to get it done soon; it may have already been 3 weeks... >_>

But at least I'm going to Hawaii soon (broke or not) and having my big 2-1. And I talked to Sung today too (today's his birthday; he was bowling). :D And I think I may just work on WDKY24. TEH YAY.

I do not like Jim Cramer. I just felt like saying "Boo-yah" because there are only 18 days left till my 21st birthday! WHOO! And I'll be in Hawaii sipping Mai Tais~

At the behest of many people, I shall also be starting on "Kaiba the Virgin Sacrifice" soon. It'll start out kind of dark (because it has to), but trust me, it'll get steamy/sexy/sensual enough to "keep your attention." I hope. *impish smile* As I said in my last post, I did work on WDKY24. Alas, it's coming along slower than I intended, if only because I keep thinking I'm writing very dryly, "telling" and not "showing." There are parts when I honestly think it needs to be more emotionally-driven, perhaps with dialogue, and yet I can't think of the right words to say. This is a long chapter already, too: I haven't finished it, and it's already 114KB! Mostly, I have left to write the final duel scene, the conclusion of the chapter (with teasers for the Next Big Arc, coming in Ch. 26), and some bits of Anubis' past, which I hope won't be too confusing/historically inaccurate.

Last night I got up to Cloister 30 in Via Infinitio, and all the Elder Drakes ramming themselves into the walls (migraine, much?) keep scaring me off. I just run past them, avoiding the fight... even though I need to fight one of them to get them into Shinra's Bestiary, and even if it means "fighting" them and running away X amount of times until they oversoul, I still have to face them. ;_; But they SCARE me! Isn't that stupid? I have a bunch of monsters I have yet to oversoul, and the sucky part is, I can't do it without getting all the way through Via Infinitio. That's the only way to get 100% in the game: beat Trema and Paragon. But the reward for doing so is The End garment grid, which lets you Break Damage Limit... which I totally need. Obviously, the problem is, I'd like to Break Damage Limit BEFORE I have to face those guys... otherwise it'll just be me going back and forth, saving and praying I don't get pwned by a Mega Tonberry or whatnot. I need to know what GGs and DSes to equip (plus accessories) so I can level up faster (they're all at 58-60 now) and be confident enough to take some more fiends on. It's been a while since I've played though, but being so close to the ending, I really want to beat the game at 100%! I hate how all the guides make it seem so easy to beat Via Infinitio, though! :P

Weekend Birthdays That I Would Miss If I Didn't Post This:
Happy Birthday Katia and Will!


;_; I may have done badly on my Geography midterm. I had another Attack of the Killer Headache and was basically sleeping for 14+ hours. I don't know how I manage it and still wake up "normal" (ish). I should have studied during that time, but with the half-hour or so that I stayed awake long enough to study, plus the half-hour from this morning, it wasn't nearly enough. ;_; Remembering all this stuff about landforms and weather patterns is hard! I hope I at least get a B. ^^;

It's all been done before... - An excellent (if amusing and occasionally graphic) list of all the tropes, kinks, and clichés found in fanfiction. Just when you think it HASN'T been done before... oh, it has. And to great effect. So sorry. Pick another letter of the alphabet, please.

( Ones that rang true for Yu-Gi-Oh as I skimmed the list )

^^ I want an LJ-hoodie for my birthday. :P

( Icon meme ganked from Stef )

Happy Birthday Mklutz!

( MK-mama, click here for your crack!wallpaper of conceptual loverliness )

While I'm addressing SMRFFers, kitesareevil (or anyone else for that matter), do you remember what Stormlight's alias for her non-SM works was? I want to say it's got 'Quill' or something in it,  but I can't be sure. HEEEEEEEEELP!

dqbunny, how's it going? ^_^ I just wanted to see if you were busy or whatnot, since there are some Memories that didn't make it in the system yet (some new ones, and some REALLY old ones). >_> I would do it myself, but I'm afraid of screwing up, since there are so many categories, and I wouldn't know what to do (100%) for sure. Help?

janimelee, winterwing3000, and any other interested parties... WDKY24 should be ready for beta'ing in about a week or so. guardian_kysra gave me the historical info I needed tonight, so hopefully I'll have time this weekend to work on the story. Give me about a week to polish everything up and run some things by Kysra (by email, if need be), and then I can have people beta'ing it before it goes live... sometime hopefully before I go on Spring Break, as I will be away from my computer THE ENTIRE TIME I'm in Hawaii. Now how's that for dedication to a cause?

In any case, WDKY24 signifies the end of the Anubis/Pyramid of Light/movie arc, and sets the stage for my FAVORITE upcoming act, plus lots more tension, drama, and of course, STEAM! I'll be dropping bombshells here and there, you just need to know where to look!

I had better go... I need to shower in the morning, deposit my paycheck (apparently Direct Deposit can take more than 2 mos. to process... -_-;) and finish reading "The Binding Vine" by noon. :P But other than that, nothing to do... life is good. :)

As of this posting, WDKY23 is up at Fanfiction.Net and MediaMiner.org. It'll go up at Dragonfayth along with many other chapters soon!

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.

( This time, things are going to be different. )

And now for a 2-question meme whose results are amazingly true:
( I do know how to LJ-CUT, I do, I do! )

I finally managed to clean some junk off the computer; I need to somehow scan my Waseda application to be able to type in it, but short of scanning it to Adobe Acrobat, I don't know what to do. What about Word? I could do it in Photoshop too, but I'd rather not, because it'd take up so much space. Does anyone else have any ideas on what to do when you have a paper copy of something that needs to be typewritten? I can't get a digital copy (as far as I know)...

I tried to scan it before, but I think my Scanner software is being all stupid on me, so I might need to uninstall and reinstall it, along with a security update. But to do that, I had to delete some things-- I think Meteor Garden episode 3 was part of that. So I burned Episodes 1 & 2, but 3's missing, and I have 4-27 now. I also have to burn the HYD J-drama, some leftover Red vs. Blue episodes, Yu-Gi-Oh! (though I might keep Capsule Monsters eps 3 & 4 on my HD so I can upload them to seventh-star.net for anyone that wants them), and... blah, other stuff. I burned some good AMVs-- "The Light You Bring" (Eizou, to the song by Fuel) for Yu-Gi-Oh, "Listen to your Heart" (unknown creator, to the song by DHT) for FFX-2, and Studebunker Studio's "1985" (to the fabulous song by I-can't-remember-who) to Azumanga Daioh. There's a bunch of others. Me loves AMVs. :)

It seems I can't get anything done unless these other things get done first. I have to get Meteor Garden 3 again... though finding the torrent (as I usually don't save them) will be a pain in the neck. ;_; Anyone that has that one episode subbed, I would be much obliged. Then I can download the scant few episodes of Star Ocean EX that I'm missing, because the DVD package is incomplete and ridiculously overpriced, and Soldats did a better job anyway...

I've got so many damn ideas for 30kisses that I started to post one, trashed it (sort of), and saved it as a Private entry so I can edit it later on without ya'll seeing it in its horrific-ness. But on the bright side, if I don't make these all horrendously long, I should actually be able to get most of them done... soonish? I still have to worry about all these scholarships and applications, plus letters of recommendation, work, school work (including getting interviews done for my first news-feature in a week), and everything else.

Just when I thought the stress was over...! This is what I get for having a relaxing weekend. Damn it, I hope I sleep well tonight.

Whee! That pesky mySQL (my Sequel? That's how the guys at ITR say it. I've always called it "my Es-Cue-El.") error that was essentially ruining Blue Eyes and Apricots has been solved. ;_; It was all my fault too, for trying to include the config.php unnecessarily. I also didn't check where the paths led, so I fixed them so they led to the right place in the Enthusiast admin panel. Hopefully everything will work smoothly from here on out. I removed the flags modification, too. :P

I've still got to figure out how the affiliates images directory works, but in the meantime, the BEA affiliates still show up on the side bar, which I can edit at any time, should someone/someplace else wish to affiliate.

And I was ( thinking about WDKY24+ )

I was feeling a bit generous earlier, and I think I might do something nice for some people, so long as they notice this... hopefully not JUST for this, but you know. I'll make a complete moodset with up to 5 extra "moods" (for the ones LJ doesn't have, like "evil" and such) for the first person who requests it, with a specific theme to it-- that is, Yuugi Mutou from Yu-Gi-Oh, or eLouai-style Ryou Bakura. Also helpful would be size specification, preference as to file type (can do JPG, GIF for animations, or PNG), and whether or not you want text on the moodset. Especially helpful is if you have preference toward anime or manga, mixed bag, etc. If you have a SOURCE of images you'd like to use, or particular images per theme, please include them.

Note: I would publicly share this moodset, but it would essentially be made per-request. You need to have a Paid or Permanent (or Early Adopter, but I don't think anyone who's an EA is on my FL!) account to use a custom mood theme. You can read the LJ FAQ to find out how to install it.

I will NOT:
-do an entirely animated set
-do moods that are over 100x100 in size
-do moods that contain graphic or explicit content (because anyone can see the moods, even if YOUR journal is FO)

I have already made one mood theme, the one in use by rhapsody_dragon, of Seto Kaiba. In turn, she made me my mood theme, of Anzu Mazaki. :)

First come, first serve. I'll do no more than 3 mood sets, assuming I can handle that much within the next week. But the first one will be the one I start and complete before I start the 2nd or 3rd ones.

Weirdness of the day
Today was a great day, in terms of work. I got to work for 2.5 hours at the online pickup room (which we're now calling the "peacock room" because of how one of the onliners pronounces "pick-up"; it's very cute) which I enjoy very much, because I'm alone, I can eat, drink, and surf LJ. :D I rarely have any problems whatsoever.

I also deposited both my paycheck AND my financial aid check (which I got today!) in my checking account, so that should hit tomorrow. And for once, I don't have some insane urge to go out and buy something. I had enough money to buy a new Duel Pass since several days ago, but MEH! Why should I? I didn't feel like it. I won't go and buy a new PS2 and a mod chip with installation service; I'll wait until the PS3 comes out, and I'll buy THAT! (I wonder if the controllers are cross-compatible? I don't like the shape of the new controllers. Too N64-y.) I will be buying my textbooks, of course, but that's usual of me-- and I'll get a 10% discount! :D I should also buy Grandpa a CSUN hat and myself a nice kelly green CSUN tee (or hoodie? Which to pick!?) while I'm at it.

I do want some DVDs, though-- the Back to the Future trilogy, the Phantom of the Opera movie (2004)...

The weirdness started (of course) when I got online earlier tonight; cs_kasumi was reporting that slytherinjolie was plagiarizing slyfatale (not sure if that's an LJ name). And then, not hours later, cs_kasumi revealed that she WAS slytherinjolie! What the hell?! I don't get it. I really don't.

Oh, this isn't weird, but I have to share: The Greatest Story You've Never Read. I kid you not. It is for story writers and readers everywhere. ^^ Just go and read it.

Psueside? If it made it to fandom_wank (NEVAH FORGET!), it's genuine wank-gold! Apparently limeybean faked her own LJ death. This is what freaked me out about missandrony's post earlier; I wasn't sure whether it was real or not. I have a lousy sense of humor, see. I knew the whole cappuccino-machine-implant was ridiculous, but cute and funny... but I was never one to take jokes about death lightly. And I'm not even from one of those mass fandoms where I'm some sort of BNF and everyone knows my name! (Some people. Maybe. ^_~)

Anyway, I don't see the point. Pathetic cries for attention are just that-- pathetic. If you can't get attention where you want, seek it somewhere else where you're more likely to be received. Either that or get a personality makeover, because some things don't carry well no matter where you are. Sometimes it really "is not you, it's me" and by "me" I mean the speaker, which is you. (Did that make sense? In other words, don't be afraid of changing yourself. There are sometimes when you shouldn't have to, by any means, but honestly? No one can get along with everyone, so everyone has to adapt at some point.)

Apparently this is a pretty wide-spread thing, because there exists fake_lj_deaths. o_o You have to join to really get the funny going, but still!

I wonder what would be considered a more embarrassing incident-- getting railed and humiliated on fandom_wank (if you know, you'll go) or on LJDrama.org?

Change of topic...
Ugh, this is what I get for not paying attention to f_w for a while. Where did 'O RLY?' come from? (and the requisite children, 'YA RLY!' and 'CHO RLY?') And why does it always have to do with Hedwig (or grotesque versions of Hedwig with MULTIPLE SETS OF TEETH)!?

Oh, and Baba and Grandpa bought me "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Season 2" at Wal-Mart last week; I've been watching it on and off ever since. Now that I've been paid, I shall pay them back as promised. :D But teh yay for Lois x Clark! Makes me want to read nFic. Mmm, nFic.

Everyone is coming over tomorrow or Saturday (my dad being on Saturday) because of Baba's big birthday shebang-bang. Hopefully it'll be fun, without the usual drama-rama that family brings. The house has been totally cleaned up, minus the cleaning lady who was SUPPOSED to come to day, but she pulled a Houdini ('cept without the scantily clad assistant, the newspaper coverage, and such). I'm going to work from 12:00-6:30 tomorrow, my first "full" shift deserving of a lunch break tomorrow. Methinks I'll walk the block and a half to Papa John's and get myself Pizza, because I'm getting damned sick of pre-packaged tuna salad sandwiches and iced tea. :P

Okay, so I managed to kinda-sorta-not-really figure out what's going on with the images for Azurelist, my very boring (as of this moment)-looking collective. Eventually I'll get a spiffy layout up, and it'll essentially link to all my sites, all the fanlistings I own (all of ONE at the moment), all the affiliates I have for all my sites (can be broken down if they're affiliates of an FL of mine) and fanlistings I've joined. I'll have to go to all those FLs and notify them of the change of URL...

But the stupid thing is, even if I've got the images showing up in Azurelist, they're not showing up in e3, the admin panel for the whole Enthusiast 3 script. I cannot figure out why. If I change one root path to work one place, it doesn't work someplace else. Why can't the damn install file be a bit more explicit about what path goes where, and what the format should be? When should it be /home/username/public_html/... and when should it be http://www.something.net?

Here's the confusing bit:
(1) You can go to Settings in the admin panel and change the path for the installation path, the root path (Web), the root path (Absolute), the Affiliates Images Directory (collective), the Joined images directory, and the Owned images directory. I changed the latter 3 to just plain affiliates/, joined/, and owned/, but while they show up in Azurelist, they don't show up in the Management section of the install (e3).

(2) For individual fanlistings, you can go to Owned, Edit, Database, and head to the Affiliates section, and select the Move Directory radio button. It says this: Please don't forget the trailing slash; this folder (absolute path, i.e., /home/user/public_html/images/) must have proper permissions set (i.e., must be CHMODed to 777). Well, like I mentioned before, there are two places where there is the affiliates folder. In the individual fanlisting folder (bea/affiliates) and in the collective folder. But it's having the same problem as above. o_o I don't know what to change it to! It keeps on trying to pull the images from http://www.seventh-star.net/e3/owned/2_ceruleansan_88x31a.gif when the image is really at http://www.seventh-star.net/azurelist/owned/2_ceruleansan_88x31a.gif. But I don't know where that e3 root path is coming from, except for the 'Installation path' which is SUPPOSED to be at e3... I think. AUGH!

Does anyone know what I could do? (Aside from copy/pasting the folders... a temporary, and annoying solution)

Tagged by seeshellirun( Memes to distract me from what I should be doing )

TAG!
atlantian_magic
guardian_kysra
rhapsody_dragon
schmollieollie

I'm looking forward to working more on WDKY, but I realize I should probably try and find some episodes online. I don't care if their dub or if some amazing person actually had the mojo and time to sub the original Japanese episodes... but I can't handle raws. Anyone know where I can go? GetItFido takes forever to load (if it loads at all).

I'm still confused about this whole metric system thing. I must have asked this a bazillion times, and I know I never would have left the chapter completely unconverted. I shouldn't be so much of a nitpicker, but I am. After all the conversions this silly sugar cookie recipe has been through, I doubt it could make a tasty batch after all. But that's what suspension of belief is for, right?

In any case, here's my main question:
What is used for DRY measure in the metric system? I've heard grams, I've heard mL and Liters, and I've heard metric tablespoons. Supposedly there's even a metric cup! I'm finding all this conflicting information though, so I would just like to know what metric folks have in their kitchens.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but grams is for weight, right? Ergo, if I had X amount of flour measured in grams, it would NOT be the same amount of brown sugar, right (in grams), because flour is lighter than brown sugar, yes? An equivalent WEIGHT of brown sugar would likely mean a SMALLER amount... if I've got this right.

So here's the recipe (sugar cookies):
1 1/2 cups sugar <--> 287.5 mL (should this be in grams?)
2/3 cup shortening or butter <--> 153 grams
2 eggs <--> SAME
2 tablespoons milk <--> about 30 mL
1 teaspoon vanilla extract <--> about 5 mL
3 1/4 cups flour <--> about 323 mL (should this be in grams?)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder <--> 11.5 grams
1/2 teaspoon salt <--> 2.47 mL or 3.04 grams (which should this be?)

Now, do my conversions (done at http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cookingconversions.asp, thanks guardian_kysra!) make sense? Would someone in a "metric kitchen" have the spoons, dry measure cups/spoons, and liquid measure cups/spoons to measure things like this?

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.

( Chapter 21 Review Replies )

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.

I will be posting Chapter 20 and 21 Review Replies shortly after this entry; Chapter 22 was just posted on FFnet earlier today. Thanks so much for your continued support, and feel free to comment on this entry to respond to any review or one of my review replies!

( Chapter 19 Review Replies )

Okay, I'm not sure who to blame for this one-- Vince for bringing me to Bob's party, Marc for playing against me first, Jimbo, or Christal. Regardless, I bought Katamari Damacy the day before I left for San Diego-- with my GameStop bucks, it was just a little over $12-- quite a sweet deal, if you ask me! But of course, I'm addicted.

And I'm still stuck on Make A Star 4, which is the same level I played to and got stuck on before. I've ranged from the low 50s to 99.8cm-- so blasted close! But alas, I just can't make it up to that 1m mark! ;_; How irritating! I did manage to work up a sort of stratagem: get the caramels, dice, and pins first, then the mah-johng tiles. Follow up with the batteries and then the erasers, and roll off the table to get the parsley, Lego blocks, round batteries, and mice. Get big enough to pick up Mandarin peels, shogi tiles, and the mini-Pylons. When all the small stuff from the living area is stuck, grab the books separating the main room from the porch, and grab the watermelons, the soda cans, and the flowers. Head around the side of the house underground; grab a few spiders, some rats and mice, and the little Jumbomen. Head up into the kitchen/bathroom area, and try to roll up to the counter to get the present. Move onto the boy's room and grab some toys, and then drop out the balcony to the garden. Grab the microphones and fireworks, and see if you can grab some potted plants and buckets. Try and roll up to street-level, and start grabbing balls, cats, briefcases... and then I always run out of time. Sometimes if I can manage, I wander around in the garden to grab cucumbers, rulers, birds, and more cats...

My policy at the moment is to spend 10 minutes (the time you're given to make the 1m Katamari) reviewing fourhouseunion applications, WDKY22, and then go back to Katamari. o_o

Beat it! And I made Cygnus too, although I had too many ducks.

( Something that's been on my mind about Scott. )

It has occurred to me that anyone that could possibly tell Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa about their mother (Padmé Amidala) is dead. The list:
* The Jedi (massacred by the clones & Anakin)
* Obi-Wan ("died" at Darth Vader's hand)
* Yoda (died before he really told anything to Luke outside of his Jedi training)
* Bail Organa (died in the explosion of Alderaan)
* Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (duh.)
* The Emperor/Chancellor Palpatine (duh 2.0)

Who else was there that DIDN'T get killed in RotS? I would cite Jar-Jar, but who the heck knows where in the galaxy he might be? And even if there was someone else --such as the new Queen, or another Senator from Naboo-- how would said person know/seek out Luke and Leia, and why would the two of them believe whatever s/he/it had to say? How would the connection to Naboo even be made?

Fact is, I just started thinking of this out of the blue, because I think a "Luke and Leia find out about their mother" fic would be rockin'. But I'm terrified of looking into the Star Wars fandom for a fic that fits this profile, and I sure as hell won't start another fic. But hey, if there are fans out there, I'm open to recs.

Oh, and Blue Eyes and Apricots is up. I mentioned that in my mailing list, but I thought I'd give it a shout out here, too. All new content, new layout, new affiliates, and more. I'm still waiting on Garfour's response for the art, TAFL's response for the fanlisting's "official" status, and any new affiliates.

Finally, KYSRA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The scanner shipped today. :)