Kissed any one of your LiveJournal friends? — Nope
Been arrested? — Not yet ;)
Kissed someone you didn't like? — Yes...unfortunately
Slept in until 5 PM? — With regularity while I worked overnights
Fallen asleep at work/school? — Yes. More than once.
Held a snake? — All the time. Get your mind out of the gutter...I mean the reptilian kind.
Ran a red light? — Yes, rather frequently at that
Been suspended from school? — Mercifully enough, no
Experienced love at first sight? — Yes, and it felt like being walloped in the head with a frying pan
Totaled your car in an accident? — It wasn't totaled, but it wasn't pleasant either.
Been fired from a job? — Yes, sadly.
Fired somebody? — Nope.
Sung karaoke? — Yes! Love karaoke!
Pointed a gun at someone? — Nope
Did something you told yourself you wouldn't? — With depressing regularity...
Laughed until something you were drinking came out your eyes? — No and I would be worried if I did. Nose, sure, but eyes...ewww
Caught a snowflake on your tongue? — Yep!
Kissed in the rain? — Nope.
Had a close brush with death (your own)? — Yes and it was as terrifying as expected.
Saw someone die? — No, but I have seen someone dying
Played Spin-the-Bottle? — Nope
Smoked a cigar? — Yes and it's very gratifying
Sat on a rooftop? — Yep, not comfortable, but yep
Smuggled something into another country? — If not declaring booze is smuggling then yes
Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on? — All the clothes I was wearing at the time
Broken a bone? — Nope, but I did crack me skull
Skipped school? — Frequently
Eaten a bug? — By accident
Sleepwalked? — Sleeptalked...yes...sleepdanced....yes...sleepwalked...No
Walked on a moonlit beach? — Yep, but it wasn't romantic in the slightest
Ridden a motorcycle? — Posed on one, yes....ridden...(sigh) no
Dumped someone? — Yes and it's a really sucky feeling
Forgotten your anniversary? — Yes, sadly
Lied to avoid a ticket? — Not yet
Ridden in a helicopter? — Not yet
Shaved your head? — Had a buzzcut...but not yet shaved it
Blacked out from drinking? — Unfortunately there are many things I wish I'd blacked out
Played a prank on someone? — Yes and it rocks!
Hit a home run? — In kickball...
Felt like killing someone? — Yes, unfortunately
Cross-dressed? — Yes, but it's not as gratifying as I thought
Been falling-down drunk? — I'm naturally very accident prone, drink exacerbates the problem
Made your girlfriend/boyfriend cry? — Yes, but not on purpose
Eaten snake? — Not yet
Marched/Protested? — Yep and it rocked
Had Mexican jumping beans for pets? — Awwwww...nope
Puked on an amusement ride? — (giggle) nope, don't have motion sickness
Seriously & intentionally boycotted something? — I never do anything seriously, but I have boycotted things
Been in a band? - Yep, but we were highly disorganised
Knitted? — Not well
Been on TV? — As a studio audience
Shot a gun? — Nope
Skinny-dipped? — Not quite ;)
Given someone stitches? — Not that I know of...bruises maybe
Eaten a whole habanero pepper? — No, it'd kill me
Ridden a surfboard? — Nope
Drunk straight from a liquor bottle? — Yes, frequently
Had surgery? — Does stitches count?
Streaked? — Not yet
Been taken by ambulance to a hospital? — Yes, but I don't remember the ride
Tripped on mushrooms? — Nope
Passed out when NOT drinking? — Yes...stupid dehydration
Peed on a bush? — Yes. Don't ask.
Donated blood? — Not yet...I suspect I wouldn't be a good candidate
Grabbed an electric fence? - (snicker) no
Eaten alligator meat? - Aww....no
Eaten cheesecake? — Yes...frequently
Eaten your kids' Halloween candy? — I don't have kids...so I eat my own candy...habitually
Killed an animal when NOT hunting? — Nope...never deliberately
Peed your pants in public? — Ewwww! No
Snuck into a movie without paying? — Yep and it was worth
Written graffiti? — Yep...quite often
Still loved someone you shouldn't? — Boy did it hurt!!!
Thought about the future? — Yes, but not concretely
Been in handcuffs? — Gack! Never!
Believed in love? — still do!
Slept on a certain side of the bed? — Not as such

Because even if I game, I'm far too organic a thinker to play inside the rules. I've been taping the madness of one of my campaigns and boy-howdy are we nuts! And we're also useless, talking for hours about silly jokes and innuendoes but never actually doing anything. It's a little sad. I was in this game to get treasure and glory, but instead I'm having a mad tea party with a convention of hatters. *sigh*

I actually like the characters I've been playing with. I confess, after rediscovering Sailor Moon (and my love for Sailor Uranus, but not Neptune!!!) I've been doing more grrrl-power stories lately. And I'm lucky enough to get to play a girl in DnD (although anyone who asks me her charisma score will get punched). Hartley is most blatantly based on Sailor Starfighter (I swoon every time I hear the name "Seiya" now) with a liberal dash of Tanith Lee's heroines (Hesta and Skilt mainly).

That's one can of worms I don't want to open. I like Tanith Lee as a writer, and she always manages to touch on some deep women's issues, but Hesta is a problematic heroine. (And I've noticed this elsewhere). Lee's heroines, in order to be powerful and virtuous, are sexeless girl-virgins with bodies like Barbie and minds like razors. And the women with more feminine bodies (and arguably, minds) get slammed. Massively. So...er, what does that say about women?

I shouldn't gear up for a big feminist rant this early in the morning, not when I also have a rant on portrayals of rape in fiction, and the treatment of bad writers by the media in the wings.

Promises of more vitriol to come?

(Hartley may be skinny, but she ain't sexless!)

Hokay, so I have been struggling with a cold for about 4 days and it sucks! I've been too lazy to work on the book expect to peck at it from time to time (even though Maki's part is finished). It's not that I've lost interest, it's that I've become distracted by another creative project. It'll kick around some ideas and then drop that for my damn paramour, Magnasshole. I've started revision proper on Book One and it's not pretty. But soomeone has to hack away all the bits of fluff and fat (Magnus angsting when he should be doing things). One plus, I made an outline, at least to cover the last act of Book One, and all of Book Two.

curses and more curses.

Hokay, damn Magnus finally decided to get off his duff and do something about his situation (how he did that when I'm writing him I'll never know) but his version of choosing to act means slaughtering people with impunity until they relinquish Makarios. I somehow missed his little "memo to the writer" that when he does something, he does it big. Jackass totally hijacked my plot for his little war games. Grrrr.

In other news, living in the Great White North apparently means animals wander  freely through my city. There's a herd of blooming big deer living in the local park (which tells you the general size of the "local park") and I scarcely ever see them. (And when I do, I never have a camera) and they're somehow happy living in close proximity to, oh, major streets, schools, houses, a firehall... ya know, big noisy non-deer type things. At least there aren't any wolves. Yet.

Meme copied
The Top Ten Box Office Grossing Films Of All Time
Bold what you've seen
Underline what you own

I'm f-ing sad! Sheesh, Hollywood doesn't deserve this much of my money.


Titanic (1997)
The Dark Knight (2008)
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
Shrek 2 (2004)
E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Spider-Man (2002)
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
Jurassic Park (1993)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Finding Nemo (2003)
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Forrest Gump (1994)
The Lion King (1994)
Shrek the Third (2007)
Transformers (2007)
Iron Man (2008)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer Philosopher's Stone (2001)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
Independence Day (1996)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Home Alone (1990)
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Meet the Fockers (2004)
Shrek (2001)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
The Incredibles (2004)
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Jaws (1975)
I Am Legend (2007)
Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Batman (1989)
Night at the Museum (2006)
Men in Black (1997)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Toy Story 2 (1999)
Cars (2006)
Bruce Almighty (2003)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Twister (1996)
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
War of the Worlds (2005)
Cast Away (2000)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Signs (2002)
Hancock (2008)
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
Rush Hour 2 (2001)
WALL·E (2008)
National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
King Kong (2005)
Ghost (1990)
The Da Vinci Code (2006)
Aladdin (1992)
Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
Kung Fu Panda (2008)
X2: X-Men United (2003)
Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)
Back to the Future (1985)
300 (2006)
Wedding Crashers (2005)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Ratatouille (2007)
Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
Batman Begins (2005)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
The Exorcist (1973)
The Mummy Returns
Armageddon (1998)
Superman Returns (2006)
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Pearl Harbor (2001)
Happy Feet (2006)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)
Madagascar (2005)
Toy Story (1995)
Men in Black II (2002)
Gladiator (2000)
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)

You are The Empress
Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.
The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents, beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.
The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

After putting off the damn denouement for too damn long, it's finally f-ing finished. Now i have to start really editing the blooming thing, along with finishing Book One. My sister gave me a Makarios doll for Christmas. I expect I'll be throttling it a lot in the next few weeks.

Hookay, so now that NaNo is out of the way I've proved decisively that I can write a novel. Now I have to finish Book One. This should, in theory, be easy since I already finished the draft for Book Two. Not so! why? Because of Magnus, obviously! When has the man ever made my life easier? Never! Now he's taken it upon himself to be the drunkenest, bloodiest, meanest, most vicious little dictator the world can conceive, and he'll be spending most of the climax and all of the denoument in a state of advanced psychosis, owing to the fact that he thinks Makarios is dead. And also that he went on a blood bath and Exterminated a town. Nice fellow, not! and Makarios has just come to the very uncomfortable conclusion that the Magnus he loves is mostly illusionary, and the Real Magnus is actually an embittered old man with a chip on his shoulder at least the size of Russia. I wish I was a more romantic person, because their love would overcome everything. And then I'd have no novel. Wretched, wretched me. *sigh*
On the other hand, I really like Lilith. And her daughters. Hell, I even like *Spurius* and he's the *bad guy* at the moment, or at least the very charismatic antagonist. Lil' is my Heroine!

okay okay okay, so I've finally got two of the four players in place. I'm at the halfway point, and 30k in. I still have over 10 days left. WTF?! This puppy will not be wrapped up tidily in 50k. This is me, we're talking about, she of the Byzantine plots! It'll be a minor miracle if i wrap up in 80k. 100k. GRRR PLEASE!
on the up and up, Makarios is really funny when he's horny.

Stupid Me moment #1: what made me think that attempting to write an entire novel in Ist person was a good idea?  I'll honestly never know because it was a stupidism.  Luckily for me Makarios has decided to squat in my head like an extremely flamboyant hobo, making his narrative voice easy to get. Basically it's like turning on the Makarios-speakers, he can just get right in there and start talking.  Unfortunately he has a lot of "headspace chatter".  So much so that I'm having a hard time taking his diction without instinctively cutting it back to more acceptable narrative levels.  Which then forces me to go back a lot and have him re-quote me sections of the story. 

On the plus side, I'm chugging along at a good pace!  I think a little less than half-way done (which is good for the plot). Having him do direct narration gives me a linear plotline where I know roughly how much time (in both the story and in terms of writing) I have to achieve certain key points.  Also, I know that there are exactly two parts to the story arc, more or less.  And they make for the first and second half of the novel.  Yay.  On the down side (or is it a downside) Magnus will not be making any appearances in the narrative proper until the second half.  No brooding at mountains for me, or creeping insanity, or general curmudgeonliness to have to deal with.  Oh wait, I thought it was a bad thing...

Your result for Howard Gardner's Eight Types of Intelligence Test...

Intrapersonal

Take Howard Gardner's Eight Types of Intelligence Test at HelloQuizzy

Why i did it, i'm not sure. i don't usually have the stamina for this kind of thing (it took me way too long to finish a short story) but i think i need to do it. I'm excited, i even have a story in mind. it's steampunk, which is a first for me, but makes me want to relish the challenge. and i like the feel of the grit and mix of magic and Real World (like Metropolis). I'm nervous and excited.
more on this later

Klein Sexual Orientation Grid

I scored an average of 3.57

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Heterosexual

Bisexual

Homosexual

Meaning

This result can also be related to the Kinsey Scale:


0 = exclusively heterosexual
1 = predominantly heterosexual, incidentally homosexual
2 = predominantly heterosexual, but more
than incidentally homosexual
3 = equally heterosexual and homosexual
4 = predominantly homosexual, but more than incidentally
heterosexual
5 = predominantly homosexual, incidentally heterosexual
6 = exclusively homosexual

Summary

The idea of this excercise is to understand exactly how dynamic a person's sexual orientation can be, as well as how fluid it can be over a person's lifespan. While a person's number of actual homo/heterosexual encounters may be easy to categorize, their actual orientation may be completely different. Simple labels like "homosexual", "heterosexual", and "bisexual" need not be the only three options available to us.

Take the quiz

First, let me make myself clear, I fully intend to vent my spleen about this little dipstick and I mean to be as rude and nasty and biased as I can, why, because I hate little Vanyel and his wimpy skinny ass!


Sometimes I think all ukes are drawn from the same basic template. There have been attempts to break the mold, Hana-chan from Tokyo Godfather's and Maraich from Pataliro spring to mind, but over the whole 40+ years of making yaoi and slash mainstream these ukes follow the nasty and disturbing trend of being submissive, abused, cringing flowers of dainty virtue, even if they're also Yakuza henchmen, ninja assassins or alien overlords. Vanyel was supposed to be some big breakthrough character for Western fantasy; he was a gay teen written for other gay teens, and the hurt-comfort titillation of women. That can be the only explanation for why Vanyel is so thoroughly OBNOXIOUS!
I am a third of the way into Magic's Promise or whatever the hell the first book in the Last Herald-Mage trilogy is and i have wanted to slap this boy silly and drop-kick him off a cliff into a mangle. He's conceited, rude, unsympathetic, selfish, cowardly, vain, a poseur, a user and an idiot besides. He's supposed to be the protagonist, nay Hero, of the piece and since he does the bulk of the narrating I'm stuck listening to his whiny drivel about why his life sucks balls harder than a prostitute looking for a hit. We're supposed to sympathise with him (at least I assume so otherwise we wouldn't be in his empty head so often) especially if we're gay or female teens, perhaps most especially if we were gay teens in the nineties during the Aids crisis. I mean we're also tormented and persecuted for something we can't help, right? WRONG! Being a gay teen in the nineties is a mile and away from Vanyel's cushy little bumpkin existence, he keeps acting like he has no one to turn to, and in the same sentence also too good for these people and too wonderful, smart, handsome, etc and so on (retching noises in the background are me) until I want him to be kicked out of the manor, wake up a heroin addict in a pool of his own vomit with a dead baby in a crib so that at least he can say he truly suffered something horrific. As it stands all Vanyel's problems could be solved if he had any amount of a spine and some common sense and compassion. His father hates him? I'll bet that little shithead gave daddy good reason to think he's a pampered brat, especially since even though Vanyel's been the heir to his Holding for as long as he's been alive he still refuses to shoulder some responsibility and mature into his role. All pretty pretty Vanyel wants to do is play music and dress in nice clothes and make witty conversation with the handmaidens. If I was an aging duke with political rivals eyeing my estates I'd be pretty damn pissed with this arrogant little maggot too! His mommy treats him like her precious poodlekins? A boy as clever as Vanyel is should have learned enough social aplomb to pull some strings with mommy dearest, hell he's not adverse to manipulating people in general, he just chooses the wrong targets for his manipulations instead of the readily-available and easily managed. Not so clever. And his mother doesn't hurt or disrespect him but he still has deep, dark thoughts about her and resents her existence instead of viewing her as an ally. He treats all of his peers with contempt and then wonders why they can't stand him, he makes no effort to befriend anyone and yet expects them all to sympathise...GAH! he makes me so sick I won't be finishing the book.
As for Makarios, he makes Vanyel look even more pathetic when I think about what he achieved for himself when he was Vanyel's age. To wit, my Makarios was the only gay teen he knew so he made allies of his mother and father to protect him from the wider world. His brother bullies him, Makarios pushes right back and will readily defend himself. Makarios is also honestly liked among both his classmates and teachers, why, because he actively seeks their friendship and treats them with respect and kindness, in short he treats them like equals. And this means he has no shortage of support when he needs to achieve something difficult like become a skilled musician or attract a patron or win a scholarship. He's also sensitive, emotional, romantic, ditzy and sometimes a clotheshorse, he has flaws up the yazoo and makes plenty of mistakes. Is he wimpy and pathetic? no! does he have the drive and ambition and cleverness and patience to make something of himself? HELL yes! Does he try and try and try again? always! Vanyel is just a pushover brat compared to Makarios. stupid Vanyel, way too many other gay teens just automatically follow the trend of being powerless and helpless, cringing behind the skirts of their one true friend while the world beats them down. And guess what, as my gay friend pointed out its easy for the priviledged first world homosexuals
to whine, they aren't living in the truly intolerant and violent places. Afghanistan comes to mind (and if you want gay teens who did and suffered much, listen to soldiers talk about the rampant assault and rape going on in that country) and things have improved for many people, there are places where a gay teen living in the first world can go if he or she is desperate for shelter. I'm not saying our society is free-loving and wonderful, but for someone who wants freedom and respect you could do a lot worse. Again, Afghanistan comes to mind. So for all gay teens in fiction to be painted with the same mopey brush is unrealistic and fucking BORING! C'mon, in our world right now a person can find help and support and like-minded people if one looks. In a fantasy world the author has the power to make any number of cultural and social supports for the characters, and reasons for the characters to do some actual growing and changing rather than clinging to tepid existential angst because that makes them hawt. FIE is say unto Vanyel, FIE GET THEE HENCE TO A BLOOMING NUNNERY!