emo kids sux0rz

umm, yeah, sorry about all the l33t and shit, don't really wanna go there, but who gives a shit. Anyway, writing has been on hiatus for a long time even though its 1/2 through break. Oh well, working on FFX, almost done--could probly take on sin and win, but I wanna take another crack @ getting the last crest for tidus' ultimate weapon...not sure how long I wanna fucking RACE GIANT CHICKENS. we'll see. watching box lacrosse for now, though. mmm...lacrosse...in a box ^_^ (wow, sorry about that one too...ugh)

yeah, so been skiing my ass off for the last five days or something like that and we've still got another two days to go, race on the last one too so that's gonna be long as hell. ugh. can land a 180 on various jumps though, and jeff and i are bombing off of the "big" air jump. not as beastly as the one last year, but given that they're having a hard enough time just keeping fucking snow on the ground, having a jump of any reasonable size is an accomplishment. not to say that I can't get 5+ feet of air & ~8 ft of horizontal off of a jump thats literally less than a foot tall.

feeling slightly depressed about my absolutely pathetic-ness in the realm of chicks, but i guess brit lit has a way of fucking all of that up. no, not really, i'm just good at using brit lit as an excuse for covering up my own retardedness, socially speaking (got a 96 on the BL final, so hopefully I got an A in the class; only other thing to worry about is that I flunked two parts of the LG final, so I guess we'll see how bad that rapes my grade. Oh well). Yeah, so I guess I might get cracking on that. Then again, I also need to work on getting my fucking license (been driving a little, but I fucking hate it w/ mom hanging over my fucking shoulder all that time [no, i am in the fucking middle of the road, thank you very much, and yes, you actually can drive 5 over and not get ticketed]).

oh, guess i should yack a/b xmas a little bit, just on the off-chance that anyone actually cares. or is reading this. yeah, that might be a good place to start. readers. not like i really want anyone to read this shit, just more like a place to vent, you know? yeah, so i got the new castlevania game and its fun but hard, trauma center (also hard, but fun, & crazy as hell--silly japanese people), bully, umm, what else...oh, yeah, digital camera for italy trip (that's gonna be so sweet), the black parade (interesting...Dead!, House of Wolves, Teenagers, and Blood are all funny as fucking hell, good too, though, the rest of it is a little questionable, but not too bad, on the whole), oh, and a hell of a lot of cash.

been waffling on which console to get...i guess i have to get a PS3, just no choice on that one what with tekken 6, MGS4, oh, yeah, there's that whole final fantasy 13 thing, yeah...just a bit important, you know. thought about a 360 for a while, gears of war was looking fucking awesome, but then i just kinda sat there and went, you know, i really dont like shooters that much, and its not like resistence is a bad game or anything, certainly enough to keep me entertained for a while, probably better than gears. actually, i might get a wii, if the opportunity presents itself, and hold off on the ps3 until ff13 comes out, just so i dont get fucked, cause that really is the main reason, and the others are just supporting points. mmm...elebits looks crazy fun, but i guess i am also the person who went to best buy today with the express purpose of looking for animal crossing for DS (not true, actually, I was more worried a/b ff12). oh, on that note i would like to point out that whoever thinks that final fantasy is in trouble should get their heads out of their asses--if i cant get a copy of the new one a few months after release (in WISCONSIN), there is no problem (w/ sqaure--for me, yes, this is a problem, i need something to play, but clearly their sales are doing fine, and i would also like to note that releasing dragon quest 9 on DS is an awesome idea, and all those japanese douchebags who don't like it should get their heads out of their asses and start playing more interesting games, jesus H christ).

yeah, so im just rambling here...sorry a/b that, just kinda felt like blowing off some steam, primarily about chicks, though i guess i never really got around to that much. just feeling kinda moody about that right now which is weird cause i hardly ever get down about anything. well... i guess we'll just see how things go.

Archetype Does Not Mean Plagiarism, Chris

Yes, I realize that I've touched on this topic before, but it was rather light (I feel), and with the slew of advertisements for both the Eragon movie and video game, I feel it is my civic duty to take up the keyboard once more and launch a bloody assault on the Monster of Montana.

NB: I'm going to try and keep this as civil as possible, but if snide cracks at MM's being homeschooled, his rural, supposedly bucolic location(hick...cough...cough), please forgive me. On the other hand, his writing will be duly and effectively eviscerated. Oh, and something about the Soul Eater (oops, I mean PS3) might sneak in there too.

So, I've already hit on the fact that Eragon is the twisted bastard child of a threesome between StarWars, LoTR, and the MM. Granted, Eledest was a (slight) departure from the starwars theme...but only slightly. We have a recreation of training with Yoda (the only major difference being the presence of the Leia/Arwen hybrid and a strange instance of hot, steamy dragon love turned foul [not to imply that it was not foul to begin with, but you get my point] that was entirely not necesary). Murtagh being possessed or whatever the hell happened to him was slightly interesting, but too little to reverse the flaws in the rest of the story (especially given that his very name was lifted from a Raymond Feist story). Now, I will grant that since he set out to write an "archetypal hero story", there are certain conventions, especially in the realm of fantasy, that can be expected--major character development, outrageously disproportionate odds, some period of training/learning, and usually a love interest to satisfy all of those horny nerds. However, it is not necesary that the main character be a hick (OK, so he's like you, I don't care) on the edge of an all-powerful Empire (could you at least change the name? c'mon!) that has taken over after the fall of a great order of universal knights...Need I go further? I certainly can. Eragon--Aragorn; Arya--Arwen...This is fucking weak. The dwarves' land was kinda interesting, but only slightly, and still locked well within the confines of the expectations of fantasy readers.

Now, granted, I can understand tributes to this piece of writing or whatever, but the bottom line is that Chris did a bad job of concealing the little (and not so little) tidbits that he lifted. Of course, the greatest problem with his stories is that their plot is far to reminiscent of StarWars for my liking.

Perhaps the greatest flaw of the writing, though, is that it fails to escape the conventions established over all of these years since LoTR was written, and which have ossified to such an extent that would-be writers who are well-versed (if not downright drowning) in fantasy are entirely incapable of breaking free of these standards and expectations. It certainly seems to be a problem as the great masoleum of fantasy continues to grow. If only Final Fantasy were more accessible to people outside of the gaming community...I cannot doubt that it would help to shake things up, at least a little. Blending fantasy and scifi is certainly dangerous, but its better than taking the safe route and staying firmly within one realm or the other. So, I blaze forward into the dark with few companions, with no idea whether or not this latest iteration of HiTN/LiZ will actually work. Ah well, it's a hell of a lot more fun than writing pure fantasy, that's for sure.

In other news, the PS3 was released recently, and Resistence, though it looks quite entertaining, seems somewhat disappoiting insofar as there is little story to it. Frustrating, given all of the promise that it showed. I was hoping that we were actually, finally, going to get an intelligent shooter...but alas, it seems that we'll have to keep waiting. There's still Final Fantasy and Metal Gear (oh, did I say we still need a smart shooter? my bad). Despite PA's insistence that buying games that begin with Final and Metal is a bad basis for getting a PS3, as far as I'm concerned, it's a pretty good reason, and Resistence still looks fun. Besides, there's that whole free online play, as well. And in case you haven't figured it out yet, micropayments are not going to be a PS3 exlusive, NEVER NEVER NEVER--they will crop up on the 360 before long as well. The Wii looks like it might remain pure, and I don't think that this will become a widespread problem, either, not on this generation of platforms. But that's why I want the PS3 to be milked for all it's worth, it might just be the last console I buy (excluding handhelds, of course).

I don't really want to talk about MM any more, but I guess that I should just get it out of my system so that I don't have to rant about it again. His writing is basic, simplistic, and generally unamazing. Not that that is a problem, but it's certainly not a merit of the pieces. Beyond that, he comes off as being stuffy, academic, and generally a head-up-his-ass-and-doesn't-realize-it prick. Eh, whadya expect out of some homeschooled brat who's never gotten the shit beat out of him for being a fat-headed bitch.

Alright, there's the condensed version of my gripes about the MM and his twisted children. I could go on and on, but I played FFX for close to 4 hours (yes, it's growing on me) this morning, hockey is going to start soon, and I'm just generally tired.

in soviet russia, Progress progresses you!

LOLlerz, so, yeah, I just spent the last 30 minutes dicking around with photoshop, figuring out how to use layers and all that crap and I'm getting the hang of it, screwing with this picture of Co_Okie from sixkillerbunnies. Tons of fun.
But, yeah, tired as sin, and I've got that whole Brit Lit essay to finish up tomorrow, and I've hardly had a chance to do much writing, lately, so that's a bit of a bummer.

Gophers lost their opener against Maine, so that sucks, but they played rather well in the 2nd and 3rd, it was just those two fluky goals that mucked everything up. The Sabres are still unbeaten, though; they kinda scraped by the Canadiens, but whatever.

God, just uber tired, wanna play a bunch of games like Company of Heroes, Battlefield 2142 and Call of Duty 3 (when they come out), AOE 3 expansion soon, just a lot of stuff to look forward to, and I still haven't got a few platform yet. Keep tellin' myself to just go and get a 360, but maybe ps3 will rock...so I guess I'll get a Wii and wait on the others, get one of those. Can't believe I just said that, but the thing's so weird and...cool, I just figure I have to get one. Should pick up a DS at some point too. God, that's gonna take a lot of cash.

Brit Lit is a maneater, and that coupled with CC has ground me to a bloody pulp lately...I'm just trying to float right now, get through the next 2 weeks, and then it ought to be fine until ski team starts. THat's gonna be ugly on Monday and Wednesday, but otherwise everything should be pretty slick.

Homecoming w/ Caryn was tons of fun, so...yeah.

Oi, fucking tired. Maybe I'll check Clone Manga and Penny Arcade, but I really just need to go to sleep now.

Enough for today, maybe more when CC is over.

time to play catch-up

Oh, dear God, cross country practice starts tomorrow. Oh, shit, oh god, someone please help! Save me from the Don! Nah, it's gonna be okay, what I'm really worried about is the whole school-starts-in-one-week-and-i-still-havent-done-any-of-the-stuff-i-wanted-to-this-summer thing. So, yeah, I've got 8 days to: 1) learn to draw better 2) get better @ WC3 3)write more stuff 4)do...other stuff. Okay, yeah so maybe it's not that much stuff, but it takes time and I'm desperately running out of that. I guess I ended up doing more shit this summer than I thought I would, I guess chopping 3 weeks out for WCATY does some pretty serious structural damage. Yeah, so we'll see what gets done before school starts...

Went to Madison yeserday for various stuffs, namely shoes & spikes for CC, more pants & stuff (saw maas @ kohls & hung out for a while), and ah, oh yeah there was dress clothes and crap, and then I got my yearbook @ school, but there was no one else there so I didn't hang out there for very long. Oh, yeah and I went to Barnes & Noble for a while & grabbed a how-to-draw-manga book (it's kinda amazing how few books they have on the basics that teach how to draw manga and not some sort of retarded americanization of it that looks more like superman than kimiko) and the first to Megatokyo Chapters (I've read the 1st one & I forgot how fun that stuff is, the art isn't so good though)

Yeah, so I don't really know what to do with myself but I suppose I ought to get around to writing some stuff and maybe doing some character sketches (cause believe it or not, I have almost no idea what any of the dudes from HiTN 8 look like [exception being Oiua who's totally awesome] and most of the chicks are pretty hazy too) and of course I need to get around to WC3 as well. Big thing, though, is that I'm getting into a really tight spot with HiTN 8 b/c the clock that I've set myself in terms of how plot needs to go is running out really fast, and I still need to establish that Kami is a douchebag (I know how I'm gonna do it, I'm just afraid that I'm gonna fuck it up big time). Yeah, so we'll see how it goes, but hopefully everyone's gonna be moving to the next simulation pretty soon, so there's gonna be a change of scenery and that's gonna be refreshing. I'm thinking a lonely outpost on top of a mountain or something, lots of snow, sort of WWII/Band of Brothers-esque, but whether it's gonna be ultra-violent, I don't really know yet. Probly not, just cause I'm shying away from all that stuff after I realized how shitty that sort of stuff is in writing. Violence is definately something you need to see, not read about. Oh dear god, I'm writing something...peaceful? Are you joking?

In other news, I finished Waterland last night and that was probably the best book that I've been compelled to read for school in a very long time. I don't really know what it was about it that I liked so much, cause its really not the sort of thing that I'm interested, all that domesticated crap, but the writing was good, the presentation very...eratic, to say the least, and there were all of the little history lessons in it that I found delightful. Most interesting thing about it, though, is that I don't think that it would have worked with anything other than sort of a domestic story like that. If it were fantasy/sci-fi or something like that, I just don't think that it would have come off quite right.

Yeah, so that's about all that's new on the home front. Oh, and I beat Half-Life 2: Episode One, so that really is about all there is to say...

now, with Battle Royale and my World Cup ball, I am complete

Woo! Back from wcaty, finally. Actually, I've been back quite some time, but that is entirely irrelevant. The more important thing is that I read Battle Royale in 2.5 days, and it was deliciously excellent. True, it was rediuclously gorey and whatnot, but it was fun nonetheless and quite good besides, though I think that the translation was a bit shoddy in some places, otherwise the dude is moderately out of practice when it comes to writing, though that's just fine. It was good stuff. Alas, they'll never release the movie in America as it would bring back memories of Columbine and be blasted to pieces by pissy parents and security nuts. Never mind what would happen if there were a Columbine repeat within 5 years of the movie's release. People would be sued out of their asses. Anyway, I also got my [fake] World Cup ball, and it's quite finiky, though terribly entertaining naytheless. Lots of fun, oh yes. Also got new headphones, and Half-Life 2: Episode One, though it is my understanding that Episode 2 has also been released, I might need to acquire that as well. Lovely idea, though--releasing the thing in episodes. Fun, fun fun. Been running too, getting in decent shape. Oh, and HiTN 8 is coming along, though I need to figure some things out on it before I go blazing ahead at full bore. We'll be getting there, though, never fear. Anyway, I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do with myself now that I'm done with Battle Royale, as I spent the last 2.5 days literally doing nothing but reading it. Hmm, I guess I'll just have to find something else to read, the only question being: What? In the meantime, however, I shall be working on Half-Life 2: Episode One, as I just got it, and we're going to be going up to our cabin tomorrow/Saturday, and I will not have access to it. Oh, and registration was today. Saw Ty, that was fun, for the five seconds it lasted, and I have good teachers, and an easy schedule, especially at the end of the day: religion, and I only have it 4 out of 6 days per cycle: that's money! Got Totoritis (sp?) for history, which should be better than Husom, I hope. Lovely, lovely, and I Have Regina 4th Mod, which is probably the best I can hope for. Great fun, anyway, I'm almost done updating my drivers and stuff, so I must go. I bid you farewell for now.

parly voo fanzy?

Hoo ha! I'm back and I'm lookin for heads! Well, not really. France beat Spain in the WC and that was a pretty cool game, or the last 30 minutes of it was, in any case. Zadine had a pretty friggin sweet goal. We're done with poetry in writing now and we're almost done with the short story unit as well, mine is hovering at 22 pages, but it's not done yet. I would like to finish the thing tonight so I can get AM to take a look at the thing before tomorrow. I was worrying whether I would even finsh the bastard in time or what, but I think I might even be able to get some decent editing work in on it, though I don't really know. We'll see how it goes.

The story itself is rather mediocre, I must say, but that's fine, it works out kinda nicely. The whole idea is that these people stuck on a little outpost on the edge of the universe get attacked by the Flame (I've got a new name for them, but I don't remember what it's called). Not the most stunningly creative thing in the world, but I thought it was rather nice to jump ahaed to somwhere I've never been in terms of the overall story of Crion, so it's cool. He doesn't actually make any appearances, but the characters are just about to chat with him at the very end.

I have no idea what I'm going to do for the play, but we'll see about that when we get to it. I've still got all of tomorrow to work on things.

We royally pissed off Hannah & Emily & Kristina last night, and the RAs too, which was jsut fine. And we called Nate's GF and yelled all sorts of nasty shit at her about blowing Nate and stuff, which was quite entertaining, though rather nasty in hindsight.

So, in short, we're having a jolly good time.

I do wish I could work on HiTN 7.1, though.

yeehaw bitches

Poem #4 is muthafuckin done bitches! It actually turned out really well, if I do say so myself, and AM will agree with me too, which is pretty cool. Huzza! Oh, and it's almost the weekend. oops, not supposed on the internet see ya.

stuck in the mud

hoora, day...4, or 5, i dont know, and i dont know what that might happen to go along with, whether it be time @ wcaty or blogging, or what. who cares. i got my short-verse poem done, and it went well enough, but i have to say i didnt like it as much as the other ones, just bcause, idk, they just seemed to work, after a fashion, the 2nd one especialy. now its on to long free verse, that i thought would be pretty cool, but now i dont really know what i want to do with all of this stuff, so we'll just see where it goes. idk even really know what the difference between all of this and prose is supposed to be, really. we'll see where it goes, i suppose. good fucking god, i cant even type right today. fuck. wahtevr. i should get working again, id like ot get a first draft done before class is over in...1 hr. fuck, again, fuck!

oh, and the us lost to ghana quite embarassingly, so theres not going to be any more world cup worries for us little buggers over here in the states. whatever. im just glad that its over and we dont have to listen to people bitching about how the us blows & stuff, only thing is, i think this is just the start of everything. great...

oh, and we played hellz a lot of soccer @ AT today, which was pretty cool, especially scoring 2 or 3 goals, idk, i think it was just 2, but 3 might have been it too...

blech

i feel like major shit today b/c i've been drinking way too much orange pop and now it sucks and oh yeah, i kinda got up a about 8 so i didn't get a chance to eat breakfast, which also really sucked. and now im bored as all living fuck. got my 2nd poem done, though, and thats sort of cool, cause i think it turned out sort of nice. im getting better at soccer, which is pretty cool--if i keep this up i might actually be able to play next fall instead. working on poem #3 now--free, short verse, not too bad, i've got an idea. these dudes are on some sort of religious mission, looking for the Face of God, but of course everything gets all royally screwed and they float around and ponder their fate until they die--and touch the Face of God, or soemthing like that. i dont know, im not done with it yet, and I dont know what AM is gonna think of it. she'll probly like the idea, but make me rework the whole thing over and over again. gotta call M&D later tonite, i'll get around to it, i suppose, but later like 10 or something like that. we'll see.

2x in one day..shit

so, yeah, 2 blogs in one day, how about that? not that either one of them was all that long, or that good. oh well. class is almost over and im just burning time before we get out, though i suppose that i really could just leave right now and no one would notice. time to go play soccer in a little bit. i got my 2nd poem done; idk exactly whether its good or not, im sure there are plenty of little things that i need to work on in order to make it more complete and good and what not, so there's that. we've got tomorrow to work, though, so its all good. i called it "to grandma's" house, the characters being Q, X (both guys) and V (a girl) who have run away from some sort of horrible prison/concentration camp where there are these "myths" about a thing called Grandma's hosue that is this nice idealized place that they all want to go to. so these three escape, but it's winter and running away sorta sucks, as they find out, and then they realize that there is no grandma's house, and that they aer going to die, whether by being caught by the patrols, or because of the elements, but it sucks. the end.

cool, time to go play soccer, later bitches.

wow, this has to be a record or something

ya, so this is the 2nd day in a row i've blogged. that's friggin crazy, i dont think ive ever done that before, though i am too lazy to go and check. now i just have to keep up the streak and maybe even blog--gasp--more than once a day. not much has really happened. carolina won the cup, which doesnt really serve as much of a surprise as far as im concerned, the only issue being that it took them considerably longer to do it that i thought it would. whatever, its all good. yeah, so not much has really happened; i lost my lanyard for about 12 hrs which wouldve sucked a lot more if there had been any meals during that time, which there were not. i went running, too, which was surprsiingly not all that bad. i might actually have to do that with some frequency now, maybe. been playing a hellz a lot of soccer too, and thats pretty cool, i can actually, sorta juggle the ball now, kinda...anyway, i should maybe go get AM to check out the poem im supposed to be working on, just to be sage, you know...

this is...fun...?

Ya, so I'm @ camp or whatever you want to call it. Just the 1st day of actual classes, which would make it the 1st full day I'm here as well, whaddya know? So, um, yeah, it's, err...fun, kinda. There are some things that are pretty cool, actually finding some other people that like playing soccer is pretty nice, and the writing class is decent, though if I ever have to write something in iambic pentameter with a abab rhyme scheme again, I think I very well might kill someone. The teacher is pretty cool, though, and there's some cool people in the class, which is pretty nice.

The only thing that really blows is I don't know if I'm gonna be able to watch the Stanley Cup final tonite, cuz we're supposed to have activity time or something dumb like that, idk, I've got the Oilers' website up and have streaming scores and stuff, but I just wanna watch the game.

Other than that, and my lack of world cup action, things are pretty good. The food sorta sucks, and most of the people here are, well, pretty damn nerdy. I suppose that's to be expected when you go to nerd camp, but there are some people in my writing class that are pretty normal and that's good cause if another person busts out their calculator and starts playing metroid, I think I might have to shoot someone, not really, but you kinda get the point.

Oh, and I was stupid enough to save all of my story files in Works instead of Word, so now I can't work on any of that stuff in my free time, which really blows. However, I do have internet access, and there don't appear to be any filters, which is pretty cool, cause it means I get to stay all nice & caught up on my webcomics and such, it is good (to be the king).

Also, I've been--gasp--reading some poetry, and while I don't like all of it, ee cummings is pretty good. At least I have my iPod, that's all I can say.

Tah for now bitches.

on the eve of...what?

Oopa! Writing class tomorrow @ Green Bay o_O. Wow, how about that one! Gone for 3 friggin weeks. Now that's gonna be interesting. Sucks balls I can't bring my computer w/ me cause now I'm gonna have to tote everything around on my flash, including PXI, which I ought to read at some point tonite, maybe. Seth is gonna be there too. All the more interesting. I hear he hasn't changed that much (aside from the fact he's got a 'fro) since 5th grade, which is fine, I suppose. We'll just play that one by ear. Well, we're gonna play everything by ear, really. God, I must be making y'all think I'm a schizo (and, worse, a redneck! egad!). Now, all odd ranting and raving aside, it should be a good bit of fun.

In other, moderately less important news, the US soccer team is still alive (barely), though they ought to have won the game, but the ref was a friggin idiot and ought to be summarily beaten with rotten bananas.

I also finished reading all of my George R.R. (ha, he's a railroad!) Martin books, and having finished them (though the series itself is yet incomplete) I have to say that I am not really a fan. All due respect to ole Georgy, but it just seemed like a waste of time, really. Point in case, Brienne's story. She's a decent enough character, don't get me wrong, but dedicating a large portion of the latest book to her search for Arya and Sansa seems rather pointless given that she is eventually hanged, and by Lady Catelyn, no less. Granted, something else might rise from it, but I don't know. Nonetheless, it illustrates the point that the story really doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I understand there is some setup needed, but four lengthy books that are nothing but that? Come on, move along buddy!

HiTN 7.1 is progressing well, and at the same time I'm working on making the world of IoF and the other Broken Spheres (oddly enough, there might not be any more spheres in the story, maybe) stories more real and whatnot. I'm working on a very complex map, and coming up with little substories for every bloody town! Few of them, if any at all, will actually be making their way, even in small bits, into the main story line, but I think it helps to have a better, more fully realied understanding of my world. Besides, it's fun! HiTN 7.1 is hovering around 210 pages, and doing quite well. I don't know precisely whether I'm going to be writing all that much while at my class, but we'll see. I'm happy with the progress that I have made, and I'm still gonna have a large portion of the summer to work on it when I get back.

So tonite it's time to watch what might, potentially, be the last game of hockey of the season, work on a short story, maybe, and possibly give PXI a read-through. Loads of fun, buggers! Have fun while I'm gone fuckers.

huzzah!

Finally, I have escaped hell and am free once more to cause vast swathes of terrible destruction all about the earth! Yeah, alright not really, and yes I understand that was a tad overdone. Oh well, not like anyone knows OR cares. Very well.

Anyway, before I went moderately insane for a few moments, school is done, finally. Normally that would be cause for celebration, and while I certainly am happy with that, the prospect of starting to run for Cross Country next year is not something that I am looking forward to with any great excitement. I suppose I don't really need to start doing that until monday so I have a few days off, at least.

In other news, I am moderately pissed off at certain people. Honestly, I'm just sick of the whole situation, and have gone into something of a reboot mode. Next year should be interesting. So, the last I will say on that subject is that I'm sick to death of a few people being absolute shitheads, and manipulative twits, in some cases. That's all from the Pissed Off Corner, see ya next time folks.

HiTN 7.1 is coming along rather nicely, hovering somewhere around 130 pages presently, though you should expect that to climb as the day progresses. I'm working through the initial Laonian sequence, and I feel that Kami needs my attention at present, but I've been having a jolly time with Oiua & Ki'ara and the rest of the Maynoran crew. I really think it adds a certain something to have the group split on two sides of the same war, in the same sector of the city, sorta, though whether anyone reading it will actually find it moderately nerve-wracking remains to be seen. I haven't had them fight in the exact same battle yet, but I suppose I should get around to it. At present, however, there are going to be some peaceful chapters for a time, cause I need to give everyone time to catch their breath. Oh yes, and I decided that Kami is gonna have a friggin' awesome mace, though he won't get that for a little while. Probably near the end of Act One. And Crion has red hair, temporarily, or maybe permanently. I'm still mulling that one over, but I think it's kinda cool.

Yes, so I'm having fun and I still haven't changed out of my pajamas and it's 5 right now. So, summer is lovely. Have fun.

And please tell me you know what hopscotch really is.

--Captain Pacman

sick/lacrosse/dishwalla/other stuff

Yes, long time, no see, I know.

Well lacrosse started and its fun and stuff, beyond the whole getting nailed in the balls twice over the course of two practices thing, but I figure there is a price to be paid when God hates you. Ah well, I can actually throw now, though my catching could use some work. My mom is being really %#^%#$ about filling out all the paper work and stuff--it's the usual "you need to learn to do this on your own" trip, but the thing is most of the information that they need is stuff that I don't know.

In other news, I've been sick for the last two days so what was supposed to be an already short 4-day-week is now reduced to two, if that. I don't really know how I'm going to be feeling tomorrow; I'm a little better tonite than I have been up till now, but we'll have to see whether or not that holds up. Actually, I'm caught up on all of my work now, but that's b/c not much has happened yet, but I don't think that my luck is going to hold for tomorrow. And I do have two tests to make up and I'm not looking forward to that in the least bit.

Oh, and I'm going to break from the planned order or ranting business for a moment. Wayfarer layout stuff has been going on though I did miss tonights meeting, due to my inability to do much more than see how long it will take to fuse my ass to my couch. On the whole it hasn't really been all that much fun, especially cause Mertens has been really annoying. I did get to lay out my own story, though Lydia really did most of it while I was busy finding pictures, and then Cedric did the whole eye-in-the-trees thing, but that really did end up turning out rather well.

On to Dishwalla. I have been listening to little else lately. Especially AND YOU THINK YOU KNOW WHAT LIFE'S ABOUT, and even more specifically, "Upside Down". Good stuff, very good indeed. Perhaps its mirroring my agitation with the fact that what promised to be the beginning of spring gave way to more cold weather and even a little snow (though it didn't stick around for long). Well, we'll see how long it is before I feeling like dropping grunge/rock in favor of punk again.

I have actually been making some progress on IoF 2.3, I'm about sixty pages (I think) into it, which is pretty decent considering how many other things I've been preoccupied with. I would like to get back to HiTN eventually, but I'm still hashing some things out. It's actually coming along nicely, and I'm starting to get some great ideas on Cormeria and all of that--the whole idea came from just the opening frame for the "I write sins not tragedies" music video, and now I'm running with it into a strange world of strangely dressed men and women trapped into an eternal late evening ball. Lovely stuff. Oh, and a quick bit of footage from "Enemy at the Gates" has finally cemented me on a place for the Kami/war/thing--the frigid outskirts of a besieged city (New Arkunhael, maybe, idk), where the soldiers are drawn back into the city every now and then on leave, and then go back out to the trenches and ruined bits. Ki'ara is still mired in a dismal view of the future, and I'm going back to the whole idea of her and her pals fighting off gov forces in a mall, then getting airlifted out to a mining tower/corporate headquarters place. Don't ask who is going to be doing the airlifting or anything like that--I'm not there yet, okay?!?! Yes, so it's all coming along nicely--I might even get an explanation for why the evil corporation/government conspiracy is letting its prisoners run around in the virtual worlds, unrestrained. Yeah, actaully, by big thought of the day which I just received would lie along the lines of everything they programming needing some sort of physical representation in the virtual worlds--prisons, keys/passwords, doors/security checkpoints, etc.--cause that would make for easier user interaction with the controls--don't have to train your staff or nuthin. Well, okay so I've kinda used this idea before, just not for the idea of keeping prisoners locked up--pretty good though. Yes, follow me here, so another reason they would want this would be cause they're using a new sort of programming which is really powerful and descriptive and flexible and whatnot--i mean for chrissakes theyre creating friggin universes here!--but its one drawback that they cant get over is that everything needs a physical representation. And they don't really care either, cause they can throw in whatever road blocks they want. But they dont during the story, cause they're busy prepping for their global announcement that they've figured out how to isolate the male and female parts of the human brain--"cured the disease", if you will. No one's paying attention. Back to the code, though, it's this mystical stuff that some college dudes created--they understood it, but the gov found out, took it, and killed them, so now no one entirely understands how it works.

Ok, I'm in danger of divulging major storyline secrets and stuff so I'll stop for now.

a month named after doors?

all latin cracks aside, this has certianly been an... interesting month. lotsa stuff to catch up on, though i'm not gonna get into all of it, just cause if i ever change my mind and decide to become a politician, well, thats it really...

first off, latin convention rocked. completely. we did really well in certamen and i got 5th in vocab, so that was pretty cool. can't say too much more about that, just because, so there it is.
oh and our latin shirts got banned and confiscated so i hate admin

ski team has been going well. i havent been to an alpine valley practice/race in, oh... about three weeks, cause i was sick and @ high school practice and at convention. yeah, i've been doing pretty well on the high school team though and im probly gonna be on varsity if people keep screwing up, which is just fine with me. the only thing that sucks is that if we go to state, then we'll miss TWIRP, and that would really suck.

in even happier news, the gophers swept wisconsin in wisconsin and that was awesome cause i ran down the halls yelling "the badgers fuckin suck". i swear i almost got lynched, but it was so fun i couldnt resist. it got better when i wore my jersey to school on monday; even more bad looks and not-so-subtle threats. yeah, it was fun. i just wish i had had history that day. oh well.

in other news, HiTN 5 is coming along very well. i'm around page 220 or something like that. it would certainly be very nice to get it all done and taken care of by the end of the year (just the kami part, that is) but i'm not sure that'll happen. maybe once my weekends lighten up a little i'll be able to get soemtihng don. beyond that, i'm toying with a new map layout for IoF and the following, that mainly being a closeup of the big world map, everything focused around a river that runs from the Wall of the Gods up to the very southern edge of the Inner Sea. Very interesting, but i gotta play around with it a little more.

my shitty story got into wayfarer, which i guess i'm kinda happy about, though it really wasnt that goo.

read some of HiTN 3 and was rather surprised by just how good that actually was. certainly too messed up to ever merit working on further, but that summer produced some of my better work between that and misery rose.