The Blog

 Perhaps a more relevant post...

Friday night I finished a first (the numbering gets muddy, but let's stick with first as it's the first time the boss has seen it since 2004 when he declared it "good enough for an assignment, I guess") draft of the literature review chapter (aka the monster chapter of doom that will not die), which came in at 11,600 words (not including pictures, which count as 1,000 each, right?) and entirely too much trauma.

4.1 chapters left to draft and edit. I'll be done before you know it.

Labels: hating myself, thesis ftw, writing

 I can hit a target through a telescope...

Did I ever link you lot to the (Doctor Who) Handlebars vid? Because it's one of my favourite things in the universe, and I frequently leave it on loop for many repetitions at a time.

Speaking of, Eleven is lovely, Amy is fabulous and I want to give her many hugs (especially her young self who took to biting psychologists). Can't wait for the next episode, and have surprisingly high hopes for the Moff's reign. This could just be because Eleven reminds me of a baby Four, but it might be that we went a whole episode without actually killing anyone (correct me if I'm wrong). Also I'm looking forward to seeing River Song again.

Anyway, I'm going to bed, but I thought it might be prudent to check in and say I'm still here and I am not completely useless. I auditioned for a telly commercial last Tuesday before celebrating Gemma winning many ribbons at the easter show. Going to the post office tomorrow or the day after to send off the stack of things I've been failing to send for quite a while.

I'm hoping that as soon as I get over this stupid cold I might actually start catching up on life. It's unlikely, but the hope lives on. While I'm waiting, the giant chapter of doom hit 10,000 words this afternoon. No real end in sight, as I've lost the thread of the narrative, but I'm giving up on it this weekend. Oh, and the boss said the last chapter I gave him was "pretty awesome", which is high praise indeed.

Labels: crafty-Cat, crazy mexicans, cross stitch, doctor who, i can ride my bike with no handlebars, I made this, mail, thesis ftl, writing

 I am such a boring person at the moment...

So I sat down on Monday to do a quick edit / runthrough of the chapter I wrote last year that the boss hadn't gotten around to reading because he's lazy, since he actually wanted to get to reading some of my stuff at long last. Six days, six pages and 2,000 new words later, I'm done, save for one equation that needs checking against the one in my notebook, because I think I'm down a factor of B_φ,s. *yawns* Ah well, time to get on with the real work I was going to do this weekend.

Actually, first I'm going to go fetch my washing from the line, as it may be dry and I don't trust this weather. But then I'll get on with the other work. And after that I'll have some fun.

Labels: losing sleep, marking, phd, thesis ftw, writing

 *sighs*...

Today I wrote a page, but my overall wordcount went down by 400 as I nuked about two pages of crap that had previously been commented out. The chances of this chapter actually hitting 10,000 words are dropping about as rapidly as the wordcount.

Labels: 1000 words, thesis ftl, writing

 Well then...

In bullet points, because I'm too lazy for full paragraphs:

• The opening ceremony was fun, yes? I want to watch again tonight, if only for the fun bits with the First Nations dancers, the Bear and the hymn at the end. Also the USA beanies, which are great.
• I didn't get my dream job. Life goes on; I've got a few more to apply to before the weekend is out.
• I'm going to see Nation tomorrow. Looking forward to it muchly.
• I've got the first two sections of chapter one decently drafted so that they're no longer really embarrassing. I've only got one more big section to go, and then two smaller ones, and I think I'll be done. Not where I wanted to be by this weekend, but sometimes life is hard. Writing a page a day of the literature review is not that slack, but I miss the speed of the later chapters. The thesis currently has 80 numbered pages of "quality" content (including bibliography), with 4.5 chapters yet to go.
• I'll likely be switching to wordpress before the "end of March" deadline on blogger. Sorry to say that if they won't work within my blog/site structure I don't want them around anymore. It sucks, but then, so does google. Speaking of, if you don't want everyone to know who you're emailling and what you're emailling about, you might want to jump through many hoops to thoroughly opt out of Buzz.

Umm, I guess that's the important things. To distract, have a couple of fun links:

• Phil Plait - "Seven Ways a Black Hole Can Kill You": A fun lecture on black holes and why they are awesome. (Phil is the author of Bad Astronomy, if you're a n00b to these things)
• Dinosaur Comics on Lady Gaga's facade of bluffing

Now I'd better go write a couple of cover letters and get on with life. Hope you're having a good weekend.

Labels: blogger, jobs, linking all over the place, thesis ftl, web stuff, writing

 Eep, I'm so slack...

So, how about yuletide, eh? I think I wrote here that I was feeling way too swamped with finishing the PhD to sign up this time around, and it's still true that the thought of committing to something else with deadlines gives me more stress than the thought of submitting another job application (I'm working on another due on Friday, but I'm not that stressed, honest).

But that's not the point. The point is that I did end up writing a Monkey Island stocking stuffer for someone called Nic, entitled "The Elaine Song". It's very silly, but I'm told it made several people laugh, which is really all I ever wanted out of it. Poor old Guybrush, he's so silly.

That's not even the point. The real point is that I did participate in a satellite exchange, where the good people of yuletide sent each other boxes or packets of candy. I may not be able to commit to writing, but shopping for chocolate is one thing I can always find time for. And as for receiving chocolate....... YUM! Made my Christmas, it did.

So, here is a big thank you to bluebrocade, who sent me a lovely package of chocolate from Chocolate Heaven in San Francisco and a little hot chocolate mug as well. So delicious, and cute too!

Labels: apologies, christmas, dairy farmers, death by chocolate, it's about singing and dancing and making people happy, monkey island, writing, yuletide

 Submitted version...

My work has focussed primarily on star formation, looking at the problems of gravitational collapse, and on molecular clouds, simulating the emission of shocked hydroxyl molecules in clouds that are interacting with supernova remnants.

Screw the apologetic tone, I'm awesome and the world needs to know it without a broader opening sentence.

Labels: Catheirne can't do anything right, jobs, tired, writing

 The drafting process...

I was feel in love with astronomy as a teenager after a trip to a remote ghost town in central Australia where they’d never heard of light pollution. Late one night in an empty field I saw the Milky Way for the first time, and in the silence of the night I found myself wondering at how exactly all those stars worked and where they all came from.

Bleh, too girly.

I have wanted to be a theoretical astrophysicist ever since I first realised the power those two words have over mere mortals.

Too maniacal.

I dislike talking about myself and everything I have written within this document is complete bullshit.

Accurate, but you'll never get a job like that.

I’m just starting out on a career in astrophysics, so I haven’t developed a broad set of research interests yet. I have worked on star formation, looking at the problems of gravitational collapse and on molecular clouds, simulating the emission of shocked hydroxyl molecules in clouds that are interacting with supernova remnants.

Eh, it'll do until the boss tells you to write it more formally.

Labels: grumpyCat, jobs, Oh help I dont speak spanish or portuguese, writing

 Writing all night long...

Stuff I've been trying to articulate to Liz as she reads the books: what do you see in him again? - on Edward and Bella's relationship.

Today I got some more work done, finally finishing my rewrite / edit of section three of the paper and getting deeply into the fourth, which is much more scary. Hopefully it won't take as long to figure out, but it's not seeming likely at the moment, as I'm very confused about these things. Stuff is falling into the star rapidly, but it's all a bit confusing after that. Tomorrow I'll see the boss and we'll talk about that.

Labels: a godawful mess, thesis ftw, writing

 So tired...

All I wanted to do today was get that stupid 3rd section of the paper written. I've still got about three paragraphs to go, but at 5pm I realised there was a terrible mistake in my plots, so I had to re-derive the equations and then redraw those instead. But at least I'm still likely to get it done before my meeting with the boss on Wednesday.

But to show I care, here's the uni's Christmas message, complete with snow and talk of the recession.

Labels: club mac, linking all over the place, never going to graduate, thesis ftl, writing

 In Summary...

I haven't finished typing up everything I wrote yesterday (decided I needed sleep more than a real wordcount last night), but with half a page of equations to go I've hit the goal. Yay me! Now to do it again this month! .... *snores*

Pity about the paper. Best get on that now.

Oh and today's item for heaping scorn upon is my calendar: "Rose is a shop girl from the present day. From the moment they meet, the Doctor and Rose are soul mates. As they travel through history and across the universe, the Doctor shows Rose things beyond her imagination. She starts out as an innocent, fettered by earthly concerns. Now she is an adventurer will home ever be the same?" I should note once more that in this enemies and allies calendar, K9 and the TARDIS both get a month, as do the werewolves and those cat nurses from that one episode that time, but not Martha, Donna, Mickey or any other human who isn't St Rose of the Powell Estate.

Labels: 1000 words, InaDWriMo, thesis ftw, writing

 Time for a break...

Promised myself I wouldn't work on the paper today, as I'd had enough and could barely stand to read it. So instead I wrote three pages of thesis. Wow, that's just awesome and I should do that more often. I love derivations. They rock. A few more days like that and the first section of this chapter will be done.

Nothing fun to report today, as I'm on dial-up and essentially have no internet. Now to finish off a few presents for the Heidi and then sleep at last...

Labels: Heidi, InaDWriMo, knitting, latex ftw (but not the fun sort of latex), thesis ftw, writing

 For those keeping score...

Well, the boss asked me to redo a graph, derive and type up the equations and write "something intelligent" about the plots. I'll leave it to the reader to guess which one I haven't done today (and will have to do before tomorrow afternoon's meeting).

Labels: going to flip out and chop off someone's head, InaDWriMo, thesis ftl, writing

 Thundering Outside...

I hate writing up sections of equations. I'm no good at proofs, and even though the page count goes up as I write it, I know I'll have to rewrite later when I actually know what I want to say and how to say it. I suppose I ought to be glad that I've gotten this section half written up, but I think I'll go back to the paper tomorrow. It feels more productive to be working on the real physics than the maths, even though I know the maths is more important.

I just don't feel like I can see the end anymore. I've only gotten one whole chapter and two half chapters written out of seven, and every time I turn around someone is asking me when I'm going to complete. I don't even have all the results for the main results chapter yet. I want to go home.

Labels: a pity party for one, InaDWriMo, thesis ftl, writing

 They say a picture is worth a thousand words...

...but I decided this should only count for 500 as I'd have to explain what it means to anyone who wasn't me or Mark.

Been a bit rough today; every word's an effort and I just can't seem to do more than fill in minor gaps in the proofs. They all count, but I don't feel like I've achieved anything worthwhile, not even with two pages and the graphic added.

Labels: deadlines hurt my brain, InaDWriMo, strange days, thesis ftl, writing

  Worked up about the Festival of Gemma...

Had a lovely lunch at David's restaurant on Sunday (followed up by leftover pizza for dinner tonight *grins*), and watched tv with mum afterwards. Tonight we're curling up with our knitting and NCIS, so she can perve on Mark Harmon some more. Tomorrow's the big day, so I better remember to wrap her present.

I'm starting to wonder if I haven't set myself enough to do for the month, if I can write ~900 words a day on good days. We'll see what happens tomorrow when I have to spend some time working out the theory behind this stuff so I can explain it.

Labels: gemma, InaDWriMo, never going to graduate, thesis ftw, writing

 I can't see the screen anymore...

Well, it's Friday and so I'd better update on progress. I think the introduction of the paper is closer to being properly first-drafted now, though I haven't really gotten the overarching narrative together yet because I can't quite find the story I want to tell. But there are words talking about the book the story resides in which has to count for something. As you might be able to tell it's time to move away and let it percolate in my brain for a bit and figure out what needs to go in the other sections.

Labels: InaDWriMo, thesis ftw, uni, writing

 Joy... Rapture...

Spent much of today seeing dentists and x-ray peoples and all the rest. Haven't got the specialist's opinion yet, but it's very likely that I'm to have my wisdom teeth out as soon as I can get an appointment. Because they're so nestled, I'll need to get a general anaesthetic, which terrifies me to pieces. The only good thing is it can all be done in my Mum's building, so she'll be able to look after me when it's over. Naturally I'll try and see if I can keep them as a souvenir.

This will bring my total of professionally removed teeth to 20.

Labels: InaDWriMo, sickly-Cat, teeth, thesis ftl, writing

Okay then...

So, while most everyone I stalk online is either participating in NaNoWriMo (one of these years they're going to fix the name) or moping that they don't have time for it, I've realised that I need bullying and encouragement to make it even a little bit of the way through writing my thesis. After much procrastination I decided that I'll be unofficially participating in InaDWriMo instead, with a goal of 10,000 words of thesis and my paper written.

This does mean I'm going to be boring and not posting much aside from word counts for a month, but you can deal with that. You are all clever people, after all. And this will hopefully keep my mind of other crap in my life at present.

So, bring on the encouragement. Nag me if I'm slacking on posting (I'll try and do it every four days), and I'll admit my many flaws. I'll also try and figure out a good way to include equations in the count, since my thesis is full of them.

Labels: InaDWriMo, paperwork, thesis ftw, urge to kill rising, writing

More linkies...

I swear to God that the next time my father tells me one more time that working a 60 hour week isn't a real job because I don't earn a real salary I will slit my fucking wrists. Nothing is worth this shit.

In more positive news, I'm up to 'J' in my quest to get scores on every song in DDR 8th Mix with only a few skipped, in Light mode. I'm hoping I'll get a few more of them before bed tonight. ETA: 'K', with only two skipped and eight scored 'C' or lower to improve upon.

Since I finally made it through the rest of the draft posts waiting for me in blogger, have the last of the great stack of things I needed to blog about:

• The Hyped Panic Over 'War of the Worlds' - This is somewhat disappointing, but also fascinating. In short form: the panic we were all told about was faked up by the media.
• Dispatches from Planet Zog - A discussion on aliens in New Who and why RTD sucks as a writer.
• Why We Deserve Better Villains — And How To Get Them - All the flaws of modern villain writing, and how to make them bad guys again. Every writer needs to read this, or something like it (I don't even like io9, but occasionally something good is linked to me).
• ALW's pick for playing Phantom II. Actually, while I'm linking to Cleo, everyone should read the The Phantom of the Fiction Workshop, which makes me laugh out loud each time I read it.
• Pink go-go boots and matching rocket-launcher - I can't even remember the first time I read this, but it's been in my to-post list forever. I love everything2.
• Kermit Bale - A rather large collection of images of Christian Bale and Kermit the Frog, showing just how much they have in common
• Yet another story about John Titor - I always wanted to spend more time reading up on this plucky time traveller. One of these days I will.
• Fragmentary Knowledge - A fascinating article about the Antikythera Mechanism.
• 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do - yet another TED talk, but a short one by Gever Tulley, and I agree with most everything in it. Note the parental supervision part.
• This Johnny Wander comic makes me happy. I can relate.
• Park Hall Poesy - the story of a hand truck, lost in an English department, told through poetry.

Further Yuletide recommendations:

• Gunnerkrigg Court: Possession by Person - Zimmy is crazy for Gamma. But we love her anyway.
• M*A*S*H: Dear Trapper by Rinkle - both funny and poignant and horrible. I love this story.
• Wall.E: All There Is And More by silksieve - After the movie, the robots build a new life on earth.
• William Gibson - Neuromancer: Mercury Scatters by Northland - a lovely short piece about Molly.
• Winnie the Pooh / Discworld: In Which Worlds Collide and Eeyore Investigates a Terrible Crime by torch - A crossover of awesome. With footnotes. *swoons*

One last thing before I leave you, just because I love you.

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Not my idea or coding, sadly. And I know marquees are evil, but that's not the point.

Labels: dangerous things, DDR, doctor who, family, muppets, science fiction, the Phantom of the Opera, time and space, writing, yuletide

Owning Up...

So, I'm at home today, enjoying my last real day off uni and wondering where the hell everyone else has gone to. I'm still sickly, but am working on it by spending all day in my pyjamas and otherwise lazing around. I suppose I ought to update everyone at this point by linking to all the fanfiction I've written in the last month, just in case you want to keep up with that:

• Yuletide: Spilling Milk and Falling Stars (Tokyo Babylon) - written for Kenshinzen's request for a Supernatural crossover. I haven't seen more than a few episodes of SPN, so I couldn't write that as the primary story as requested, but I did my best at sneaking the boys into the background of the story for them. No word back from Kenshinzen, but I'm sure they'll eventually tell me they loved the gift I worked for so many days on. Anyway, this is a fairly basic Tokyo Babylon fic about Subaru, Hokuto and Seishirou as a family, going for lunch and fortune-telling.
• Yuletide treat: Roly-Poly Boxbot (Gunnerkrigg Court) - written for Iseult Variante's throwaway line about a Boxbot story in her request. It's terrible, but then so's Boxbot. I wrote this one while Tony was napping before James' mum's Christmas party, but it was just too much fun.
• PHYS2512: Suddenly Silenced (Star Wars) - written for Sarah, who didn't have particulars in her requests. I'm not sure why, out of a list of many fandoms and with all the freedom in the world, all I could finish was Alderaan blows up fanfic, but that's how it works sometimes. I really love this story, it's probably the best-written story I've done this month, and I wrote it all in longhand before typing it up.
• PHYS2512: The Early Flamingo Catches The—What Do Flamingoes Eat Anyway? (The West Wing) - CJ's morning routine, written for Kat. I couldn't quite decide on a particular period of the show to write in, other than pre-series 6, and my American politics is sketchy at the best of times, but I love CJ, and something about this voice appealed to me. I'm surprised at how well it all came together.
• PHYS2512 bonus: Hermione's Revolution (Harry Potter) - written for Sarah, since no one deserves nothing but a depressing story for Christmas, and I'd started this one first. For some reason I had trouble finding the rest of this story, basically everything after she gets into Dumbledore's office, but with a little bit of help from Rinkle I got it done only a little bit late. :)

Phew, that's a surprising number of words, all of them for fandoms I haven't really written before (I know I've done SW, but never the OT for some reason. I tend to write in the Old Republic, for better or worse). Now all I have to do is get myself back to writing in the past tense.

I found this snippet of what I had called Tachikoma Diaries when I was deleting the old draft blog posts. I ought to write more of this, as it's cute and I want a pet tachikoma. I think it was a vague idea for last year's yuletide fic.

"Monday: v. v. unhappy. Batou gave natural oil to noisiest of Tachikoma thinking it was me again. I know our memories are synchronised every night but how he can believe that thing when it says its his favourite is beyond me. Lonely and miserable and wishing noisiest of Tachikoma be blown up in next action."

I think I need to read Bridget Jones before going on with that though. *grins*

Labels: 1000 words, damn you CLAMP, fanfiction, Gunnerkrigg Court, Harry Potter, I am a fanfic whore, I don't want to live on the moon, star wars, tachikoma, the west wing, Tokyo Babylon, writing, yuletide

 Yay!...

All the stories for the mini fanfiction exchange I was running with the kids at uni are now online! It only took all day, oops. But still, fun stories, go read! There's something for everyone, provided you like the West Wing or fandoms that start with "S"... We're going to announce the writers on New Year's Day, or you can guess in the comments if you feel you know my style well enough to guess which I'm responsible for.

In other news, Merry Christmas! Hope you're all having a wonderful time, filled with nice people and wonderful gifts, and religion if that's your thing too!

ETA: Yuletide's up!!!!! I got a Battle Royale fic!!! It's called Plenty of Paper and anyone who has seen the movie or read the book should read it because it's awesome and sad and the characters are so real it hurts and I'm crying.

Labels: battle royale, christmas, fanfiction, hoofball, physics, writing, yuletide

So tired...

I have entirely too many stories to write before Christmas. Well, at least two, and maybe a few more if I can't sleep. They'll be up here come Christmas day, although they'll be anonymous until new years. Feel free to post guesses as to which are mine here.

Am currently housesitting for my Aunt, and am responsible for three squawking birds, two bloody snakes and a rottweiler in the back yard. It's kinda fun, but a little stressful. I don't like being responsible for quite so many other living things, I have enough trouble remembering to feed myself.

Went into the city at lunchtime for the first test of the emergency sirens they've put in there. Despite the complaining I heard on the news tonight, they really were quite loud, so much so that James and I had to duck out of a direct path to enjoy the clamour better. It was pretty exciting, actually. But if I'd known they were going to test them regularly I wouldn't have gone to so much trouble today. Ah well, he might blog more info since I think he's less exhausted than me.

So, before bed then, two links:

• A review of the DDR Musical - She didn't like it so much, which is sad.
• My Little Princess Leia - Yes, I'm a fan of custom MLPs. Some of them are awesome. Deal.

Labels: christmas, DDR, e-vac-u-ate, house-sitting, losing sleep, ponies, writing

Safari on Windows is Not Crap...

Made it! With 15 hours to go.

And today's random classic links:

• Man's £5 debt repaid 39 years on - This is why I have the "nice people are nice" tag. What a nice story. *grins*
• Flying Penguins! - Okay, I seem to be having a touchy feely day today, but really, a plane full of penguins!
• The Cepheid Galactic Internet - Variable stars as a way of communicating between solar systems. Very cool stuff (hardish science).
• Don't Call Me Dude - a fun thrash song from the very early 90s.

Labels: music, nice people are nice, science, science fiction, writing, yuletide

Fanfiction Update...

Since the reveal happened over at x2009, I can finally link to the story I wrote. I'm told that it's readable even if you don't know X (X/1999) since I was my usual vague self in not giving character names or really explaining what's going on.

Title: From Whence We Have Fallen
Rating: PG

Characters/Pairing: Subaru Sumeragi

Warnings: Descriptions of the nuclear blast at Hiroshima and recollections of canon violence.

Author's note: Thanks to Drew for betaing this.
Summary: The Japanese built to withstand earthquakes. Subaru reflects on those things that remain.

( And in Babylon was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth. )

Labels: damn you CLAMP, fanfiction, from whence we have fallen, japan, Tokyo, writing, X

Dear Santa...

Hey non-fandom peeps, skip this post, as it will just confuzzle you. This means you, mum.

So, my dear yuletide writer, you've been allocated me as your recipient. I'm so sorry. I know my choices of fandom are esoteric, and that you've likely just matched one of my fandoms. But you can rest assured that I will love whatever you write. Thank you for writing for me.

Actually, I'm kinda lazy, so I will simply point you to SophiaP's yuletide letter, since I agree with everything she says. I mean it, you know, I'm a fanfic whore and I don't care if you ignore the specifics of my requests (actually, I tried not to be too specific because I was terrified of getting a request I couldn't manage to write and I didn't want to inflict that on anyone else).

I really just want to see fic for these fandoms.

So, just quickly going over the fandoms again (new details in italics):

Stephen R Donaldson - Mordant's Need (Any)

This is probably my favourite pair of books. I love the characters, I love the world, I love the journey. I believe that Geraden and Terisa are made for each other, but I'm open to all pairings. And the more I think about this, the more any pairing sounds like it would be fun to explore (Terisa / Lebbick could be angsty fun). Or one could write a gen story. I'd particularly love to know more about what happened when Havelock infiltrated Vagel's coven all those years ago, or how the happily ever after worked out for all the characters. Do more women become Imagers now that the crusty old men realise that girls can be powerful too? Suffice to say I'm a fanfic whore and will love whatever you write. :)

One of the things I noticed while writing the requests is that I would love to see any of these ideas explored. Why isn't there a fandom for these books? Especially with all the potential pairings (Elega/Terisa, anyone?)

I read a rant a few days ago about the sexism in the books and how it makes them hard to read for the rantee, but I can't quite see it myself. Yes, Terisa starts out a passive character, and the Princesses don't truly participate until the second book (preferring to sit around and complain about being women in a world of men), but by the end of the story they're all strong characters who have taken control of their own destinies and while each of them has been paired off with a man (save Torrent), that feels more a gesture towards the "happily ever after means marriage" fairytale trope than any particular act of "keeping the womenfolk down". And I do believe that in general Mordant has become a better place to be a girl by the end of the books.

Isobelle Carmody - The Legendsong (Any)

I think I would like best a story with Ember meeting the Unykorn, drawing out the parallels with Shenavyre. But I'm very happy to receive any story, from something slashy with the Myrmidons/Soulweavers to a segue back on earth. Glynn and Chaos would go well together, or maybe something much more original talking about the visionweavers and whether their weavings have the ability to manipulate fate.

This was an unfilled request from last year, the only one I really wanted to keep. The few times I have ventured into the lands of Carmody-fanfiction I've been disappointed, and I'm not sure why. I suspect it may just be that she attracts many younger fans, but I love her more adult series, and hope some day that the fanfiction will be equal to the original.

Mina de Malfois (Any)

Mina! Arc! Joshen! Xena! Fandom! Hmm. that's not exactly a request, is it? I would love a story from the point of view of one of the other characters, about fandom drama, and Mina and how she gets out of a scrape. As slashy or not as you like it.

Suffice to say that I've read everything in the fandom, and want to see something new. If you've said you're going to write Mina you probably love all the same things about it as I do, because you're a fan, and you see aspects of yourself in all the characters... Now that I think about it, I'm surprised there isn't more self-insert Minafic. I suppose it would be sacrilegious.

Battle Royale (Any)

How the program changes us all into monsters. Hints of bittersweet longing for the past and friendships lost. Would slightly prefer something about one of the more minor characters than the leads, but am happy with whatever. Based on the book preferred, though the movie was a good adaption. I've only read volume one of the translated manga and hated the reality tv setting.

Oh my did I hate the reality tv setting. I seem to recall too that they had to do some rather horrible rewriting in the later volumes because whoever it was that had that bright idea had never even read the ending. So let's just agree that the manga should be avoided.

This one's my token movie request, because I wanted to be sure that there was something for you to fall back on if you were a book requestee and needed an emergency change of fandoms. And there's so much room for writing any genre of fanfic here. Violent deathfic, hatesex, quiet sadness before the dawn, sweet romance in the face of adversity, pretty much everything is up for grabs. And I will read it all.

I guess that's it (and it ended up much more longwinded than I was expecting (which I should have expected after last year's letter)). I just want to say "thank you" again for using some of your precious spare time to write for me. I'm looking forward to reading it. *grins*

Labels: fanfiction, I am a fanfic whore, writing, yuletide

  Dear Authors...

I present first this comic.

Then I point out that the fantasy novel I'm currently reading has 300 pages of young-adult prose, and 100 pages of glossary/encyclopaedia/appendices. Not even the vaguely dickensian setting is enough to fully redeem it.

ALSO: if your monsters are 'bogles', do not have your protagonist 'boggle' while talking about them.

***

In other news, I somehow got my story for x2009 done in the nick of time.

And the CLAMP in 3-D land series 7 figures arrived. Will photograph them at some point.

Labels: books, damn you CLAMP, fantasy, monster blood tattoo, steampunk, toys, writing

From my notepad...

She was all leg, save for the leather jacket, and blonde, and when she walked her hips moved in aggressive jerks as if to say, "look how more feminine than you I am."

Labels: losing sleep, writing

Labels: 1000 words, phd, thesis ftw, writing

Labels: 1000 words, deadlines hurt my brain, writing, yuletide

Labels: Domus Prime, fickle-Cat, the Harry Potter / Domus Prime crossover seems more likely every day, writing

Labels: crafty-Cat, Domus Prime, family, history, iCatherine, knitting, lego, longest blog ever, magic, never going to graduate, news, old photographs, phd, reality distortion field, web stuff, writing

Labels: Devron Zal, fanfiction, writing