MILES to GO || before I sleep

Did you know that 30kisses has been around for over FIVE years? I'm so proud. Anniversaries for things like that are the sort of thing I don't remember, so I don't make a big fuss about it. :P

For those of you that don't know, 30kisses is the fanfiction & fanart challenge community that I run on LiveJournal. It's also got counterparts on Dreamwidth and AO3. People pick a fandom, a pairing (couple of characters), and a Theme Set List with 30 themes, and then try to write to each of those themes, along with a central "core" theme. For example, 30 "kisses," where a "kiss" has to appear in each story/piece of art, along with 30 individual themes. Submissions can use more than one theme at a time, or have one theme spanning multiple chapters, be Alternate Universe/Reality/Timeline/What-have-you, whatever! So it's a great challenge and it's been very popular over the years. I created it in response to the absolute SLOWNESS of the original 30_kisses community, and I haven't looked back since. Apparently, people like it enough, because FIVE YEARS...!

It's amazing! And we've had some fantastically supportive, active members, one of whom has been churning out great fics for all sorts of fandoms, using various Theme Set Lists, including the most difficult one we've got, List Zeta/memory. As a thank-you and reward, we've given her a 1-Year Paid LJ Account and for completing the list, a 140 userpic Add-On over at LJ. It's not much, considering the community itself isn't paid and doesn't have a fancy layout, but I really wanted to thank people that seriously stick with the community, contribute to fandom, and of course, make my life easier by following all the rules... :D

I'd really like to bring 30kisses over to Dreamwidth, and I've already got the community token used, but I'd rather not have to create a dummy mod account just for the sake of managing the community. If a community can ACT like a regular user, posting entries and whatnot, that would be great. Or maybe you can already do that, and I don't know about it? Can anyone with some DW community experience share?

I'm working on overhauling the Hall of Fame for 30kisses; it's pretty plain looking, but at least the coding is valid, and it's easy to find everyone's entries. Still, I think most people read directly on LJ, because you know what order to read in, exactly what themes go to what number, and so on. I'm not sure if there's an easy way to do that for a Hall of Fame (on LJ or off), considering the SIZE of the HoF. I don't like the idea of breaking it up onto multiple LJ pages. :(

I also want to change up the way the banners look. Five years is enough time using the same narrow, vaguely-cutesy banner with a "kiss/lipstick" logo, right? If you've seen any awesome banners used for awards and the like online, let me know--I need ideas!

I'm very happy about this--among other things--right now. It's a good day, and I've accomplished many things, with the support and belief of others. Thank you, everyone! :)

The day before yesterday I got about 3 hours of sleep. Dad called me shortly after I'd finally managed to fall asleep without the help of a sleeping pill. He was mad that I was letting the mugging get to me in this way, and told me to get my ass out of bed and start to DO things. Exhaust myself each day, give myself more tasks than I could possibly handle, and stop being afraid.

It worked. I spent a chunk of the day doing some computer stuff (catching up on 30kisses stuff, including Hall of Fame banners, which has been my real crime the past few months)-- sure, not wearing me out physically any, but I did do a bit of cleaning as well. Yesterday was the real accomplishment-- I woke up at 6:30am and decided "Hell, if I'm already awake, I might as well stay awake." It looks like it's a continuing thing, since I'm awake now, too. So I went downstairs and made myself a nice (albeit a bit greasy) breakfast of eggs and sweet bread, got the newspapers, and settled down to read. It was nice to have the table all to myself-- one of my issues with living with my grandparents is that sometimes they act like I'm not here at all, and it bothered me-- I didn't feel welcome at the kitchen table, where we usually eat, because the only place for me to sit was often occupied by Baba's foot, a pile of newspapers, or a bunch of dinner implements.

Grandpa was pretty surprised when he came down about an hour later; he thought I'd up and left for San Francisco. That kind of surprised me too, for him to think I would just leave my room a huge mess, the light and fan on (I only had the light on at 42%, and I always leave the fan on the lowest mode because my room's the hottest in the house, and we don't use AC) and not tell them in advance or even leave them a note. That and I told them several times that I wasn't leaving until the end of the month....

Anyway, so I decided my project of the day would be to take one of Baba's suggestions from a while ago and switch the position of my bed and my endtable. ( Getting busy with it )

Never a shortage of things to do. No sense putting off for tomorrow what I can do today. Never a dull moment. Why become a lay-about? Etc. etc.

Also, from Mac|Life magazine (which I'm contemplating not renewing my subscription for, considering it's $24.95/year for 12 issues, which is OUTRAGEOUS for a magazine with 16 pages of non-stop advertising between pages 48 and 49): why I'm a Mac user:



Apparently that brain-scarring video is an actual Microsoft ad.

I LOL'd.

( New desktop. Oh yeah. )

Man, I wish I were in S.F. right now. I read the Macworld Expo update, and... gawd, I am so stoked for 2008. Not like I'm going to dash out and buy an iPhone (not until it's no longer attached to AT&T without hacks involved) or a MacBook Air (...this laptop is new enough for me. Until it breaks, I'm using it. Plus, I happen to like having an optical drive and a huge hard drive...), but DAMN. Apple just... kicks ass. Have I mentioned lately? You really oughta switch.

I personally think if I could have gotten a single measly day there and been back here... it would have been worth it, just for Steve Jobs' keynote speech. Sure, he flubbed a few times, but it sounded SO fun. And a play-by-play just isn't quite the same as being there, in the flesh. (Yes, the play-by-play had to suffice; it made me jealous) So I have a goal for 2009 (besides graduating in the Spring, that is): Go to Macworld Expo 2009. Network, network! (Who knows, maybe I could impress someone important and get a job at Macworld? Tee-hee.)

What else I'm excited about: the Time Capsule, the companion hardware to Leopard's Time Machine. It basically acts as the AirPort Base Station I spent $179 on, but it comes with a hard drive, supports 802.11n Gigabit Ethernet. A 500 GB (the smallest version available) is $299. I think I paid $250 for my 120 GB MyBook Pro external hard drive, so in terms of pennies per GB, it's very much worth it, in my mind. For die-hard downloaders, there's a 1 TB (!!!!!) version for $200 more. It ships out in February... around the same time as the new student-licensed version of Office 2008:mac, which I've been wanting, because Office 2004 on the Mac is kind of a bitch. Plus, I want more templates than Pages can offer. I didn't realize until today, when I had to make a flyer, that Word is really better than Pages for that. I hate still being Microsoft's bitch in any respect... but with all the years gone by, they have made a powerhouse of a word processor.

What I'm dreaming of: it would kick ass if more companies (including the ones that make $9.99 cheap games for Best Buy, Target, and the like) got on board with Cider to make games Mac-compatible. With Cider, there's only one source tree to manage (from what I read), so it's not like there's a whole overhaul involved. Basically, you take your game and wrap it in something that's friendly to Macs. Nothing changes about the game, the interface, etc. Of course, Cider has its limitations, and since it's not for end-users, it's not like I can just download something and all of a sudden be playing Doom again (*sigh* I miss killing Imps! And NO, I don't want Doom 3! >_< I like my pixellated pigs, thank-you-very-much). But I'd love to be able to play Riddle of the Sphinx, Pharaoh/Cleopatra, and similar Egypt-puzzle games (my favorite) again without going into Parallels. In reality, Parallels has felt like a waste of money to me, because... well, what the hell was I using Windows for? I hardly ever go into it. Blah. I hope there's an update that gets my games working again (in the meantime).

What I should be doing: the 30kisses update. I've already got the T-Z stuff from a_white_rain, though I have to sort through it all to put it in the right order-- by fandom. Today's the first day when my sleep schedule's semi-normal (and my computer hasn't been overheated), so I'm going to get it done-- especially since I said I would do it by yesterday. I'll also have to combine that with Phase Five of the Claims List Purge-- but as for the actual completion of the Tags Removal and putting the dead claims into the Memories, I'll need help. Mod Squad, you still around?

What I'm testing the waters with: Scrivener, a... humungo writing program JUST FOR MACS (eat that, Windows biznatches!). dqbunny, you might like this one. If you try it too, we can compare notes. :D I'd also like to try MarsEdit2, a blog publisher. I use xJournal now, and have Phoenix as a backup, but frankly, one of them is always lacking SOMETHING. I wonder if MarsEdit would make a difference. I already know it's compatible with LJ; the question is if it supports all those tiny little features that aren't necessarily blog-platform-cross-compatible (e.g. stuff you'll only see on LJ and its off-shoots, not other blogging platforms like Blogger, etc.) For some reason, I'd get my panties in a wad if I couldn't change security settings or screen comments by default. I'm still kind of PO'd that xJournal doesn't support Location (okay, my location hasn't changed in the past two weeks, but still).

Anywho, to work, to work!

What Meredith Means

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated. You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want. You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way! You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row. You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace. People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life. You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home. You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble. You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person.

DILEMMA!
So, in overhauling 30kisses (and we're almost done! Hip-hip-hurrah!), I've come across a predicament. What to do about fandoms that are set in the same universe?

For example, Final Fantasy X and X-2. Same universe, many of the same characters. But there are characters in each game that DO NOT appear in FFX-2 (or they're only referenced, at best). I consider them a "grouped" fandom, meaning they'd appear together on the Claims List. Also, someone requesting Tidus x Yuna from FFX wouldn't have to worry about someone ELSE requesting Tidus x Yuna from FFX-2. They're the same characters, even if technically, they're from "different" fandoms. I consider them the same fandom if:
(a) they have shared characters
(b) they take place in the same location (in this case, Spira)

But then look at Star Ocean. It's not quite as huge as the Final Fantasy series (where it makes sense to split up each game, with the exception of FFX and FFX-2, and possibly those games in the FFVII series), but still, it spans HUNDREDS of years. Technically, the only character that's ever been in two games is Ronixis, and he wasn't even a playable character in Star Ocean 2.

Should I consider Star Ocean 1, 2 (but not Blue Sphere), and 3 as separate fandoms, even though they take place in the same "universe"? I really wouldn't consider someone doing an Ashton x Fayt fic a "Crossover," because it is the same universe.

What I might consider a crucial factor in determining if you separate the fandoms is if they have different characters in each --characters that DON'T appear in both shows. For example, "Angel the Series" had Doyle, Fred, Gunn, et. al.; "Buffy" had Glory, Riley, Dawn, etc. But the main cast of characters (Buffy, Angel, Willow, Xander, Cordelia, Spike, Oz, Faith, Giles) all knew each other, and many of them crossed shows. I'd consider them the same universe, even though you can't say that a Fred x Gunn pairing takes place in the Buffy universe; technically, it's the Angel universe. So do I group them or not?

And, like Star Ocean, there's massive universes that span lots of time, like Star Trek or Star Wars. It seems silly to split Star Wars up by episode (or by the "Expanded Universe" novels) when they're in THE SAME UNIVERSE. Same goes for Star Trek, though it seems a little unwieldy to have Spock x Kirk listed alongside Harry x Seven of Nine.

What to do? When is it reasonable to break up a fandom-- e.g. Yu-Gi-Oh! vs. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX? Is it a matter of a whole new cast of characters, with no one from the original series in a recurring (main or supporting) role?

HELP!!!

( Snagged from Kysra )

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...

So something possessed me to check out what fics of my 30kisses claim I had yet to do. Maybe this is me getting halfway distracted from finishing up WDKY25 like I should (gah, how pathetic to not be DONE with this damn fic by now!), but at least staying in-fandom and with the pairing.

Anyway, so I'm hunting down my list of completed fics, planned-out fics, and fics that have yet to be thought of. Some fics that I supposedly have planners for are not where they should be on my hard drive, and searches don't reveal much. I managed to dig through some of the anonymous gift-fic communities and find some-- I've added them to my Memories-- but there WAS still one that's supposedly completed for 30kisses that I cannot find. (ETA: Right as I was typing this I was struck with the inspiration to actually check the 30kisses archives. And there it was! I AM TEH SMARTZ!)

For the ones I couldn't find planner files or notes for, I just started writing a new planner file. What's weird is, past LJ entries indicate I started on the infamous "Kaiba the Virgin Sacrifice" fic, but if I did start it (or a planner file of it) anywhere, I can't find it. And afaik, there's no way to find JUST private LJ entries (I discovered a few fics and drafts lying around based on dates that way, but that was because I had a date IN MIND). If anyone knows how, please tell me, because that's the only other likely scenario I can think of, if it's not in Memories, tagged, etc.

But anyway, if you know of any of my other fics mysteriously hidden somewhere, please let me know; I'm always trying to figure out what I don't have an HTML copy of. I want to get everything up on FFnet and Dragonfayth, or Epiphany when I finally get off my busy bum and get it live. I think I have a lot more fanfiction hidden here on LJ, at any rate. I already found my 2005 submissions for yuugiouxmasfics (and I *SO* would do that again this year!), but you never know where there might be more!

And, for posterity:
PLANNED 30kisses THEMES
1 (look over here: Disunity), 5 (ano sa...: Shadow), 7, (superstar: Hypnotized), 11 (gardenia: Girls' Club), 13 (excessive chain: Sight Unseen), 15 (perfect blue: Perfect Blue), 18 (a~n: Voice), 19 (red: Kaiba the Virgin Sacrifice), 25 (fence: Just Missed The Train), 30 (kiss: Someone Else's Wife)

MAYBE THEMES
6 (the space between dreams and reality: The Stairway to Heaven), 22 (cradle: BEWJ), 27 (overflow: Tremors)

COMPLETED THEMES
2 (Letters), 4 (Lover Alone), 10 (Something Completely Different), 12 (I'm In A Good Mood), 14 (Cowboy), 16 (A Touch of Victory), 20 (I Walk Alone), 23 (Kaiba Baby), 24 (Good Night and then Goodbye), 26 (The Darkness Within), 29 (Neko no Guukan)

EVERYTHING ELSE IS NOT YET THOUGHT OF. And I'm always making sure that what's on 30kisses (Memories) matches up with what's here (Memories). I think it does...

I'm possibly biting off more than I can chew by claiming Seto x Anzu for 100_situations. But if I can, I'll see if I can cross some of these with my claim over on 30kisses, which is locked since I own the community. :D

Anywho, here's a snippet of what you have to look forward to, if you can envision the sorts of evil I can come up with:

001.	Disease	002.	Bathroom	003.	Delirious	004.	Autumn	005.	River
006.	Sunset	007.	Relief	008.	Silence	009.	Night	010.	Cry
011.	Fair	012.	Allergy	013.	Death	014.	Table	015.	Early
016.	Criminal	017.	Play	018.	Numbered	019.	Fun	020.	Full
021.	Pack	022.	Taste	023.	Bleach	024.	String	025.	Flu
026.	Court	027.	Dark	028.	Succeed	029.	Truth	030.	Lies
031.	Business	032.	Deception	033.	Enter	034.	Leave	035.	Sneer
036.	Gun	037.	Office	038.	Enemy	039.	Father	040.	Bastard
041.	Furious	042.	Accident	043.	Joke	044.	Benign	045.	Insult
046.	Call	047.	Bonus	048.	Inside	049.	Outside	050.	Traffic
051.	Hand	052.	Lock	053.	Trust	054.	Drugs	055.	Trip
056.	Smoke	057.	Test	058.	Survive	059.	Hang	060.	Commit
061.	Polish	062.	Brave	063.	Cheeky	064.	Rough	065.	Struggle
066.	Relocate	067.	Misguided	068.	Scatter	069.	Bitter	070.	Sweet
071.	Aim	072.	Lost	073.	Confront	074.	Forbid	075.	Disaster
076.	Creature	077.	Organize	078.	Elevate	079.	Safeguard	080.	Emerge
081.	Wild	082.	Fan	083.	Sushi	084.	Crash	085.	Myth
086.	Languid	087.	Nocturnal	088.	Blood	089.	Pitch	090.	Stash
091.	Burst	092.	Rush	093.	Limited	094.	Grim	095.	Beautiful
096.	Writer‘s Choice.	097.	Writer‘s Choice.	098.	Writer‘s Choice.	099.	Writer‘s Choice.	100.	Writer‘s Choice.

For 30kisses
Note that this table, like the 100_situations table above only includes the themes I've selected, and links to the finished fics for those themes NOT the title of the fic, rating, or anything like that. If you see a theme that interests you, click on it and be sure to read the introduction for all the basic info: title, rating, warnings, spoilers, all that good stuff. Thanks.

001.	Look Over Here	002.	News; Letter	003.	Jolt!	004.	Our Distance And That Person	005.	"Ano Sa..."
006.	The Space Between Dreams and Reality	007.	Superstar	008.	Our Own World	009.	Dash	010.	#10
011.	Gardenia	012.	In A Good Mood	013.	Excessive Chain	014.	Radio-Cassette Player	015.	Perfect Blue
016.	Invincible; Unrivaled	017.	Kilohertz	018.	"A~n"	019.	Red	020.	The Road Home
021.	Violence; Pillage/Plunder; Extortion	022.	Cradle	023.	Candy	024.	Good Night	025.	Fence
026.	If Only I Could Make You Mine	027.	Overflow	028.	Wada Calcium CD3	029.	The Sound of Waves	030.	Kiss

Happy Birthday ceruleansan, mischiefmagnet and missandrony!


Okay, so I did it. I'm being an unoriginal, damn-good looking wh0r and going as Songstress Yuna for Fanime. I have pre-regged. I have (almost) bought and paid for the cosplay... and I might get a microphone accessory from someone else. The boots won't match, but who cares? I can also make the hair accessory myself (Yay for FIMO!). I have no plane ticket, no hotel room and no money for food/dealer's room at the moment, but I will once my birthday paycheck comes through (it just happens to fall on or around that day, yey me), but I will deal with that ASAP. I've also just emailed my mom, so at least she can help me out with the hotel (I hope), and Baba and Grandpa might help me with the plane tickets and shuttle costs (the plane tickets I would pay them back for, duh).

Anyway, it'd be nice to offset my potential hotel room costs if someone wanted to room with me. $45/night for 3 nights isn't bad for a 4-star hotel right in the convention center. Anyone interested? (Note: I'm looking for ONE, *maybe* two people for a double-bed room. Completely non-smoking, and for the love of god, no whirling-dervishes for roommates. I like people who are neat and relatively decent guests.)

atlantian_magic, I owe you Kaiba the Virgin Sacrifice. I've actually been quite the busy bee, working on WDKY24 (which is late, I realize-- I apologize to my betas and my Wonderful Historical Consultant, guardian_kysra). It's being a stubborn brat. I've also been playing FFX-2 almost non-stop (bad Mer, bad!) in lieu of having a decent Karaoke Revolution (Party Mix SUCKS!) or The Sims (I refuse to buy the PC CD version. It's DVD Special Edition or BUST!). Now I'm leveling up in the underground Thunder Plains cave, by rubber banding my X button down with a quarter, and setting the Analog stick to constant roam. Bwahahaha... it's so slow leveling up. I thought I'd be tons of leveled up by now, since I went to Target with Karin and her boyfriend, the aptly-named Guy. But Grandpa wanted to "turn it off" and so he unplugged my Memory Card and controller. -_-; I told him never to do that again, and just turn off/change the channel if he didn't want to see Yuna ramming herself into a wall and battling Machina. So now he knows. :P

Back to KtVS: (Kaiba the Vampire Slayer!? WAAAH!?) so what would be a more effective perspective, I wonder, for this first foray of mind into probably-smut? Kaiba, our unwilling "hero," or Anzu, the mysterious seductress? I have two separate opening lines, and the opening line determines "whose story" it is. Note that this wouldn't be a first-person fic (eeeuch... for a smutfic?), but with Kaiba's perspective, you'd probably get more humor from his being stuck in such an awkward situation. From Anzu, you'd understand from the get-go everything about the plot, minus the ending. Anzu's story would also be darker, up until said ending.

I obviously haven't written any of it yet-- except for the planner, so don't shoot! I like asking people's opinions about everything.

I finished reading The Mediator: Darkest Hour and The Mediator: Haunted (yes, in less than a day. The series is that addicting). Now it's onto the last, dramatic, and hopefully ROMANTIC book in the series, The Mediator: Twilight. Now, am I the only one who read Book #5 and thought "If they made a Mediator movie, THIS WOULD BE IT!?" Too bad I'm not so good at adapting novels into screenplays. I could totally do it the other way around. (I would also be a much better Suze than Hilary Duff or somesuch. Not that I've ever wanted to break into Hollywood, but still. :P)

Anyway, ugh... stomachache from that mini Pizza Primo I got at Target's Pizza Hut Express. I knew it was a bad idea the moment I stuck it in my mouth, but alas... I didn't like the looks of the pizza Karin and Guy brought home with them from before, and I know there's little to nothing else to eat in the house except pancakes and cream of wheat... which I'm right sick of. Well, except for the pancakes. But what to do for a quick meal that you don't have to prepare carefully?

Gotta go! (P.S. What's up with this new "Current Location:" thing in LJ? I use Semagic, and the client hasn't updated for this field, and there's no news or FAQ announcements about it... help?)

So if it was "Miss Independent" running around in my head before (a total Mai x Jounouchi song if there ever was one), now it's "Just Missed the Train," which has inspired me for something for 30kisses, particularly theme #25: fence. It's annoying though, because like I mentioned before, I have all those other 30kisses submissions sitting on my computer at home, they're just unfinished because I can't think of how to end them... well, except for Kaiba the Virgin Sacrifice, but I have to be in the right frame of mind to sit down and write that without turning into some sort of tomato!

I'll get around to writing it later, maybe at work. I have my flash drive with me, so I can save it on there and not worry about it.

So, why are all the weird people on MySpace? I mean, there are non-weird people on there, but today I just got a message from someone who says he and his girlfriend are interested in trying out a threesome, and if I'm interested... My face goes: o_O; (okay, I'm totally NOT pulling an Usagi Kou here and taping an emoticon to my face. But you get the picture). Does anybody READ the profiles on MySpace? I'm "in a relationship" or whatever the hell you wanna call it, and even though I'm bi, I won't just hop into a bed with 2 people I don't know and trust because THEY need to add some spice in their love life!

o_o; Geez.

In other news, I'm going to San Diego this weekend. I know my last Amtrak adventure was harrowing (very late trains and the like), but I'm going to hope that it was just a one-shot thing... in any case, my train leaves Chatsworth around 8:40pm or so on Friday night, so I can either ask Zack to take me there straight after work, or I can go home with my grandparents and let them take me. Last time I liked having them there, because the train was very late, and it was extremely cold out. I liked being able to get in the car and warm up while I waited for the train. Chatsworth is an outdoors station, and it's the porn capital of the world, so creepy people are always lurking about...

I'm going because this weekend and next weekend are mine and Scott's only chances to see each other before he goes to Belize and I go to Hawaii. It feels like we've been seeing each other often, but realistically, it's only a few times each month. After living with him for so long, I never thought I'd be able to survive not seeing him for such a long stretch of time, but I'm managing. I have moments when I really wish he was with me, but for now, things are okay. I only hope that wherever life takes him, I can be with him sooner rather than later. :)

And now for more crazy stuff: I have to finish my Gilman application, the Bridging scholarship application, and now I have to send a Financial Aid Award letter (via fax) to the NSEP people in Washington. Which means I have to pressure mom a bit more (already talked to her last night) about the letter of Dependent Verification (which I sent out this morning) which she has to mail back to me with a copy of both mine and her tax returns (she'll do it electronically for me, and have the gov't deposit it automatically in my bank account. Sweet!). I won't be able to get that Award letter until I give all the stuff from mom to school... probably. I should check with them anyway. In any case, the stuff for school is due within 3 weeks, and the award letter I have to fax to NSEP is due by the 31st. YIPES!

What else? I worked a lot on WDKY24 last night; I kind of got inspired for this particular scene that is essentially dropping a big piece of sticky candy in the middle of an anthill. I'm eager to see if anyone will pick up on it (call it a "hidden" piece of candy). Still Anubis' backstory is a tough thing to tackle, but with Kysra's help and some good research, I think I can make this work relatively "realistically" (for the WDKYverse, anyway).

I also FINALLY managed to get the style I got from _premadelayouts to work for my Friends' page, but many things are still out of place, and I'm not sure how to rearrange them so they ARE in place. Is there a way I can make that style public so other people can go "oh, you have your %%blahblah%% variable in the wrong place, which is why your username is way off to the right, and your entries are all indented 20 pixels"? (Also, think anyone can help me with that?)

I got a $20 Amazon certificate from StartHereGoPlaces.com after a survey I took, which is nice. I thought I wouldn't get it, since I'm not a business major (and that was what the survey was about), but I still did, so I'm getting the last 3 books in the Mediator series by Meg Cabot, and a book in the Elements of Fiction Writing series (which I'm sorta re-reading at the moment) called Description. I was thinking about buying all the Princess Diaries books I'm missing (Volumes 4-7, including the 4.5 "Princess Project"), but I decided against it-- there's so many, and Amazon sure made it confusing by offering the British versions, too! @_@

AAAAAAAAAND I got Volume 2 of Yu-Gi-Oh! R in the mail from Sagusa Books. How come I've never heard of them before? They're great! :D I realize Jenniyah is already scanlating (crappily, but still scanlating) YGO!R, so souten_scans won't be taking that on in the forseeable future. But I'm still waiting on dm_san to get back to me with whether or not our groups will work together for the scanlations of the Gospel of Truth, since she already has very HQ scans that would save us a lot of time and unnecessary effort.

I'm getting my hair done tomorrow-- a partial weave of highlights (as suggested! ^_~), I still need a wireless card, to do some cleaning, and now catch up on reading for Women Writers of Asia, because if I post *something* on the short story we were supposed to have read by yesterday, it's better than nothing. I also have to revise my English essay and try and get it to my professor before 7pm tonight. So much to do, and yet... I'm not too stressed. Let's just see if I can remember it all!

Grr, argh. That's my common phrase for this mood, ne? So I decided to try and play some Katamari Damacy again, just because I've been working like crazy the past few weeks -school work and work-work- and I decided I needed a break. For once, I have no looming essays, applications, or anything to worry about (save my article due for Journalism, which I will get to work on tomorrow afternoon). Today, I was worried I wouldn't even finish my Japanese HW, but Takase-sensei was about 30 mins. late anyway, so I finished it up just in time as the TAs did this replacement for our response drills thing. We wrote all 16 answers down, instead of picking one out of the 16 (from either e, e/supplement, or f; we added g, so we don't have to do it on Monday). I think I did okay... I got some things wrong in my Situational Drills, I know that, but it's better than nothing at all. I have to get my Listening Comprehension done by Monday though, because now the website's back up. :P

Anywhoozle, so I'm trying to get the Camera in Make A Star 5. And after you get past the 45 cm hill, you hang a write, go around the corner for a bit, and head up this ramp-like green fencing. And then you go to the narrow part of the fence in the far right corner, and there's a crow hovering in the air, your Camera (Present) in its feet. All the guides I've read recommend you "dash" to get to it, but every time I do the Charge 'N Roll, NOTHING WORKS! Like, the ball will spin very fast for about 2 seconds, and then it's like slamming on the breaks. It stops right at the tip of the fence, and I can't "shoot out" to catch the present.

HELP!

I'm going to try and play again (between bites of the Chinese takeout I ordered... yum!) and see if being BIGGER helps at all. Maybe if I fall, but I'm at least 1 m, I can catch the present anyway. :P

In other news, looks like I'll be adding a Hall of Fame to 30kisses. What makes that job easy is that so few people have finished claims, so I'll be able to grab most of their finished claims pretty easily. One person already has a made banner; if the other person wants one, I can make it for them. And that'll be the Hall of Fame. :) Whenever more people get close to finishing, I'll probably need more help with the HoF, but that's not the case at the moment.

I've also been adding Memories to betasquad, even though it's not that active at the moment... but as I write more WDKY24 (still need to get some info from guardian_kysra before I'll feel comfortable with this one scene), more will go up. A new member has just joined from the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom, too, so yay to that!

I mention the communities I'm either in or that I own/co-moderate, but now it's time for some serious pimpage. Get ready.

4husorting
If you're a Harry Potter fan, you simply have to join. If you've ever wondered what "house" you belong in, but think you might have traits from more than one house, check us out! And it's not just simply a pretty community with a cool name (now that I think about it, we're "four house union" but we have six houses...) it's a place to interact with other people, get to know them... and in a sense, it's a personality-based rating community with an actual GOAL in mind, none of that superficial "rate me on my boob size!" crap. :P

We're just starting out, so the more the merrier! We're aiming to have contests, a quidditch pitch (think scavenger hunt and HP knowledge quizzes), and house competitions. How fun! If you decide to fill out an application, mention that you heard about it from me, the_sweet!

betasquad
A great community devoted to helping fanfiction writers improve their craft with people from the fandom of their choice-- be it anime, manga, or video game-based. Now we have a beautiful website, an active community, and a great forum! Come join us! (I'm posting all of my Yu-Gi-Oh stuff up there, so all my calls to betas should be directed there.)

ygo_offtopicon
Where the random resides! Do you ever tire of icontests that feature only one running theme-- like song lyrics, poetry verses, stills from the show, character-based themes... blah! How boring! Why not try something that's never the same, and always unpredictable! Learn to expect the unexpected with fun, frivolous, and stimulating themes ranging from Indiana Jones to Autumn!

30kisses
"Bigger, faster, and better than ever!" That's what separates us from the original 30_kisses, and from all the other spinoff communities. We also have alternative lists created by our members, a shorter claims list with quicker filling time, and an extended system of archiving everyone's submissions! So come join us and test your mettle with 30kisses-- and then some!

ygo_goodfic
We all see enough Yu-Gi-Oh badfic out there-- enough to spork our eyes out with from here to the eight-millionth millennium. But what about GOOD fics? What makes the good ones so good, and what have those authors got that other authors don't? Make recommendations, postulate theories, or just lavish praise over your favorite authors.

ygo_lyricwheel
A lyric wheel is a contest/challenge where people submit song lyrics to fit a particular theme. After everyone has submitted, the songs are randomized and re-distributed, and people write a fanfiction (of any length, style, or pairing) inspired by or using the lyrics from the song-- and the fic has to fit the original theme. It's quite a challenge: unpredictable and fun. You might just get a new favorite song, or be challenged to write for a musical genre that's not quite to your tastes! The second round will end on October 25th, with the third round starting shortly thereafter. Come join us!

And finally, a question... where does the "Shop Smart. Shop S-Mart" line come from (Evil Dead or something, right?) and why the heck do people always associate it with shooting people? I've seen icons using the line for Rufus Shinra (FFIV: AC) and Alice (I think... from Biohazard/Resident Evil). WTF?

Ugh, I hate all the political-based responses to the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. The representative for the White House keeps accusing this one MSNBC/Newsweek reporter that he was finger pointing and playing the blame game (his exact words, repeated to infinity). The guy was only asking a yes-or-no question. -_-; Then again, I'm biased because I'm a journalist-in-training, I guess. Mamono, what are your thoughts on recent coverage?

Well, if it seems/feels like (on my end, anyway) that I've been dead, it's because I've been trying to get my new Dell Inspiron 6000 to work... to no avail. I upgraded to Win XP Pro the night I got the laptop, but apparently something went wrong in the install, and since I didn't buy the Pro from Dell, I have to reformat and reinstall the Home OS, and then bug Microsoft for help regarding the XP Pro upgrade. I won't have to reinstall much:
* Firefox (bookmarks, extensions, themes)
* Thunderbird (old email -still on this comp- and account settings)
* LimeWire
* iTunes 5
* Winamp

Also, no one from betasquad has said yay or nay to my idea of having a website/forum (something I originally proposed to nekokilala), which kind of bums me out. I have tons of 30kisses claims to catch up on, and I'm wondering if there might be an easier way of letting svelterose update when I'm not available.

I want to post WDKY18 --tonight, if possible, now that it's pretty smoothed out. I'm spending so much time (or what FEELS like a lot of time) at school, studying, at work (ugh, especially tomorrow!) and trying to clean up my room (I got most of the closest sorted out; now I have to put my desk papers and such together). The comp is running strangely slow right now (great, just what I need), so I'm going to finish this entry, install the latest Java in the hopes that it'll fix my future Apple.com downloads, and restart. More later, perhaps.