| Countdown! |
[May. 8th, 2008|12:00 am] |
My Turkish adventure is drawing closer...2.5 weeks to go before my May 24th departure! I'll be flying to NYC, and spending the night there, before continuing on to Turkey the following afternoon. So, I'll have time to do a bit of sightseeing, and maybe even meet up with some of my Invisible Friends from the Internet.
My travel paperwork (itinerary, tickets, and a photocopied set of scholarly articles) arrived last Friday, and I've started to gather stuff to bring along on the trip. I'm getting really excited.
We're allowed one suitcase and one carry-on for the 20-day trip, so I'll have to pack carefully. Hiking boots and cargo pants, for sure, because we'll be tromping around archaeological sites. One nice outfit, suitable for wearing to a classy restaurant in Istanbul. Blouses of the modest variety (it's a Muslim country). Headscarf for wearing on visits to mosques. Bathing suit for the days we'll be visiting archaeological sites along the coast, with breaks on the Mediterranean beaches.
On the non-clothing side, I finally broke down and bought an MP3 player. I've loaded it up with an unabridged recording of "The Iliad," (since we'll be visiting the ruins of Troy), Diana Gabaldon's Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager, and "Teach Yourself Turkish." I'm still bringing paper books along, but I'm looking forward to listening to the audiobooks on the long flights to and from Turkey.
Speaking of "Teach Yourself Turkish," the Turkish language is kicking my butt right now. I've been trying to learn the basics, but the words just slither right out of my brain as soon as I put away the language primer. I think I'll be speaking a lot of German on this trip, since I've heard that German is the unofficial second language of Turkey.
I'll also be bringing Purple Sonya, my ancient mini-VAIO laptop, on the trip, so I'll be posting travel journal entries whenever I find an Internet connection.
And I bought myself a nice digital camera with the Election Year Bribe (aka, the IRS stimulus refund payment), so I think I'm ready.
Work's been incredibly busy, as I am trying to wrap up most of a major project before I disappear for three weeks.
Oh, and I've been writing...up to 60,000 words on the FMA/Inuyasha crossover, and 30,000 words completed on the Wolf Prince novel. |
|
|
| Plotting, writing, rewriting |
[Mar. 7th, 2008|02:02 pm] |
I got stuck on the FMA/Inuyasha crossover story I've been writing as a gift-fic for my longtime friend Pam. It's my fault for plunging into it without an outline--I thought I'd give "seat of the pants" writing a go, but it didn't work for me. I got the setup written, and the main part of the story up to the first major turning point, then I got stuck. Really, really stuck.
So, I've just spent the last week dissecting what I have so far, figuring out what wasn't working, and creating a story map, with character arcs. Being the person I am, I used the method that worked well when Marian and I were plotting out the House of the Rose story arcs and over-arching series plot.
I created a flowchart in Microsoft Excel, with different colored boxes for each character/storyline, and a list of the major beats. Having it all laid out in Technicolor glory helped me see where I had huge gaps in the storyline, or where characters disappeared for long stretches.
I learned a lot from the exercise, the story seems to be flowing again, and I now have a pretty good idea of where I'm headed. The only major casualty was the Sesshoumaru storyline--his role in the plot was something that really should have been handled by one of the main characters, because having him suddenly appear felt like a deus ex machina to me.
Am looking forward to doing a bit of writing this weekend, in between my assorted birthday festivities. Weather permitting, there will be a hike along a shoreline bird refuge, lunch at the Singapore Old Town Cafe, a massage, and a sushi dinner in Palo Alto with Nick and Pirri. |
|
|
| the human pincushion and an anime review |
[Feb. 21st, 2008|06:21 pm] |
My archaeological tour of Turkey is slowly drawing closer. I booked my flights and paid for the trip this week, which pretty much wiped out my savings--thank goodness for my continuing contract at Big Oil Company!
(And if anyone's in the NYC area, I'll be arriving late in the afternoon on Saturday May 24th, and departing on the second leg of my journey the following afternoon. I'll be spending the night in a hotel in Manhattan, and hopefully have some time to visit the Met. Museum. I'd love to get together with some of my Invisible Friends for dinner or breakfast...)
And today, I had an appointment at the Kaiser Travel Clinic, to get vaccinated. The nurse was very pleasant, handed me a bunch of traveler's advisories, and we discussed what I'd be doing in Turkey and where I'd be going. I ended up getting several vaccinations--tentanus/whooping cough/diptheria, Hep-A, and typhoid (which is thankfully an oral vaccine)--and also a scrip for antibiotics in case of gastrointestinal infection. My left arm's a bit sore, but I'm glad to have done this. And Kaiser didn't even charge me a co-pay...I'll have to shell out a bit for the prescriptions, but nothing too horrendous.
Next up, is my return visit to the dentist--I have suddenly developed a bunch of small cavities, which is odd, since I haven't had any cavities since I was in high school, and I only rarely drink soda or other sugary drinks. Joy. But at least they're small cavities, so minimal discomfort.
( On to the review... ) |
|
|
| Valentine's Day and an anime review |
[Feb. 14th, 2008|09:38 pm] |
I usually don't celebrate V-Day, but something very sweet happened today. When I got into work at Big Oil Company, I found a single, long-stemmed red rose propped against my computer monitor, its base stuck in a styrofoam cup of water.
Lo and behold, every woman in the dept (about twelve of us) received a red rose. All the men staunchly denied having done it, and it remains a charming mystery.
On to the anime review, a short one.
After a couple of months of doing nothing but rewatching Fullmetal Alchemist and Inuyasha, as refreshers for the gift fic that I'm still working on, I finally started watching something new: Touka Gettan.
Three episodes in, and my reaction can be summed up as: Very Pretty WTF?
Seriously. I have no idea what's going on, and I'm usually pretty good at piecing together narratives from hints. The story is jumping back and forth in time and place, scenes are strung together without character introductions or any kind of transition or continuity with the previous scene, and so far none of the scenes seem particularly connected on one another. A character apparently commits suicide in one scene, only to reappear four scenes later, with no reference made to the mysterious not-suicide.
But it's really pretty. And I'm intrigued enough to keep watching, at least for another couple of episodes. But if some sort of coherent narrative doesn't start to emerge from the chaos by episode five, I'll probably give up on this one. |
|
|
| Tired Tuesday |
[Feb. 5th, 2008|11:12 pm] |
Bathroom is done, hurrah, and it looks fabulous. After waiting impatiently for grout, sealer and caulking to dry, I finally took my first shower in my new, tiled, enclosure last night. And it was worth every penny to have the contractor come in and do the plumbing, rip out the rotted sub-floor, and lay the tile.
Work is going well. After much sturm und drang, we got the South Africa website launched. Now, we have an interval of a week or two to make sure everything's running smoothly, and then it's on to setting up the New Zealand site. And after that, Thailand or Hong Kong. Fun times. Bodes well for my continued employment.
If my contract gets renewed, I'm planning to go to Japan with Nick and Pirri in the autumn. In the meanwhile, I'm starting to try to learn some basic Turkish for my archaeological tour in May/June, though I've been told by several people that I can get by with German, since so many Turks have lived in Germany and are fluent German speakers.
Tonight was voting, followed by housecleaning and grocery shopping. I'm hosting a "comfort food" dinner party on Thursday night--I'm in possession of 15 lbs of ripe Meyer lemons from a neighbor's tree, so I'm making lemon drop martinis, tunafish fondue (a tasty hot dip made with cream cheese, white wine, mayo, Dijon mustard, and canned tuna), scratch-made mac-n-cheese, and chicken baked in tomato soup. Vanilla bean ice cream and warm chocolate chip cookies for dessert.
Tired now. And, between my work deadlines and my renovations, I haven't gotten much done on the FMA/Inuyasha crossover for Pam... |
|
|
| Not at all like HGTV |
[Jan. 19th, 2008|09:34 pm] |
After a really hectic workweek at Big Oil Company, which culminating in a fairly frantic race to meet a deadline yesterday, I wanted to get away from my computer and unwind a bit.
( Misadventures in DIY Renovation ) |
|
|
| At my wit's end |
[Jan. 3rd, 2008|09:41 am] |
My laptop, Ereshkigal, went down in flames last Friday. Blue screen of death with error messages that indicated a fried registry.
( Computer problems and a mystery Xmas gift ) |
|
|
| Merry Christmas, everyone! |
[Dec. 24th, 2007|09:48 pm] |
Greetings and wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year to everyone on my Friends list. 2007 was a very good year for me, and I have a lot of blessings to be grateful for, but foremost, I appreciate my friends and family.
I've been having a really nice and laid-back Christmas weekend with my folks.
( Assorted rambling on food--way too much food--and blessings ) |
|
|
| What the heck? A minor rant about Avatar |
[Dec. 12th, 2007|03:05 pm] |
So, I finished watching Season Two of Avatar: the Last Airbender this week. It was brilliant…all the way up until the last episode of the season.
Then the writers broke my suspension of disbelief to force a plot point forward.
( Here's where I had my What the HELL? moment ) |
|
|
| Quick update |
[Dec. 6th, 2007|09:58 pm] |
I've been continuing to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender. First season was pretty good, but the second season so far has been wonderful in terms of characterization and escalating jeopardies.
And I love what they've done with Prince Zuko. I'm about halfway through Season Two, and loving the backstory progression that shows how a normal, loving little boy became a grim, stoic, damaged, single-minded young man...who is still nevertheless capable of occasional acts of decency and kindness.
So, thank you, everyone who recommended this series to me. I'm enjoying it tremendously.
I'm also making progress on my Christmas baking despite an unexpectedly heavy work schedule.
Panforte di Siena is done. (That's the most painstaking and time-consuming thing on my list to make, since it involves roasting and grinding three kinds of nuts, plus chopping dried figs, candied citron, orange peel, raisins, then cooking a syrup of honey and sugar, and folding in flour, cocoa, and spices into the whole mass and baking it. Thank goodness for food processors!) The results are wonderful, though--a chewy medieval European sweet, cut into cubes and rolled in cinnamon-spiced powdered sugar.
Tonight, I made a pan of German honeycake using the recipe in one of my German baking books. It's made with honey, spices, ground hazelnuts, and dried currants. It's a flat sheet-cake, almost like a pan-cookie, and I glazed it hot out of the oven with a mixture of fresh-squeezed lemon juice and sugar. It's cooling as I type, and smells wonderful. I can't wait to try it!
I still have to make cookies this weekend: hazelnut-poppyseed; coffee-pecan; Florentines; gingersnaps, and jam-filled Linzer sandwich cookies.
Oh, and I'm still plugging away on my NaNoWriMo story...nearly 22,000 words so far, and I'm still hoping to start posting it to my Fanfiction.net account on Christmas or shortly thereafter. We'll see... |
|
|
| quick update |
[Nov. 27th, 2007|09:45 pm] |
Had a great Thanksgiving week, visiting my sister and her family in Washington DC. The weather was oddly and unseasonably warm, and I took the opportunity to tour Monticello and Montpelier (home to President James Madison) while visiting my friend Patrick in Charlottesville.
There was also much good food, evenings spent drinking wine and playing poker, hanging out with my niece and nephew, and going ice-skating at an outdoor rink. All in all, a very good week.
NaNoWriMo update....I'm closing in on 20,000 words for my crossover. Yeah, I'm nowhere near making the 50k goal for the month; on the other hand, I'm a slow writer and 20k is a lot for me to produce in a single month, and I'm rather pleased with the way the story is turning out. I hope Pam (for whom the crossover is an Xmas gift) will enjoy it as well.
Anime reviews: I've been rewatching Fullmetal Alchemist and Inuyasha, mostly, to study the characterizations for my story, and they're both holding up well upon rewatch.
Other anime watched:
- Karin, the Chibi Vampire. I admit I downloaded this one a year or two ago, mostly because of the title (Karin is my real name, and is fairly popular for female anime characters), but it had been languishing in my to-be-viewed queue. With good cause, I'm afraid. I didn't make it past the first episode...I found the characters extremely unconvincing and the premise silly without being humorous.
- Avatar, the Last Airbender: Am watching this on the rave reviews of several folks whose taste I trust. So far, I'm only about three episodes in, but enjoying it quite a bit. Just on a side note...man, it's weird to be watching anime in English! *g*
|
|
|
| |
[Nov. 16th, 2007|02:33 pm] |
For Fenikkusuken...another bit of my crossover, because she asked so nicely...
|
|
|
| Quick update |
[Nov. 15th, 2007|10:53 pm] |
NaNoWriMo grand total thus far: 15,437 words
And I'm just a few paragraphs away from actually getting the crossover to, um, cross over.
It's been 90% Fullmetal Alchemist so far, but things are about to go very, very wrong for Ed and Alphonse (and they're going to drag Kagome and Inuyasha into the mess they've created).
But given how long this setup has taken, I fear that this is going to be a long novel, rather than the short one I was planning. Ah, well, I'll just keep writing the story until it's done, and then figure out where it needs to be edited.
On another note, Giovanna sent us the final sketch of our cover art for The Shattered Crown, and it's wonderful. A furious Cecilia with a raised sword, about to smite in a major way. I really like it--it's a very dynamic pose and the details are gorgeous.
And now, I must go crawl into bed. G'night, everyone! |
|
|
| NaNoWriMo, Day 4 progress |
[Nov. 5th, 2007|09:37 am] |
While I'm pleased with the progress of the FMA/Inuyasha crossover, I have come to the conclusion that I am naturally just a slow writer, whether I'm polishing-as-I-go or trying to pound out a "crap draft" as quickly as possible.
( Assorted ramblings on writing crossovers ) |
|
|
| NaNoWriMo, Day One |
[Nov. 1st, 2007|09:30 pm] |
Started writing as soon as I got home from work, and now, three hours later, I've finally finished the first scene of my Inuyasha/Full Metal Alchemist crossover, and I'm at 1100 words.
Whew.
|
|
|
| NaNoWriMo |
[Oct. 30th, 2007|12:31 pm] |
...so, I decided to sign up for NaNoWriMo.
I don't think I'll make the 50k word goal, because I'm a fairly slow writer and I'm also working full-time, but I'm also a deadline-driven writer, and without a deadline, I realize I haven't written anything other than a couple of anime reviews since turning in THE SHATTERED CROWN on October 5th.
So, I'm feeling cranky because I haven't written, but I haven't written because I have had no spur to plant butt in chair and fire up Microsoft Word instead of watching anime. (Also, I've had a bunch of family things happening this month, including a visit from my beloved sister and major surgery for Mom, so it was probably good to have some time off.)
Still not sure what I'll be writing. I have two candidates--a long-promised Inuyasha/Fullmetal Alchemist crossover story for my friend Pam, which is sort-of outlined but I still have to rewatch the FMA movie and do some research on the Kanto earthquake in 1920's Japan; and THE WOLF PRINCE, a solo fantasy novel for which I've written some fairly extensive world-building essays and for which I have a comprehensive outline.
Ah, decisions, decisions. |
|
|
| Anime reviews: Assorted 1-minute reviews |
[Oct. 24th, 2007|05:47 pm] |
While I was visiting with Pam, I brought a stack of anime downloads from my BitTorrented stash, and we watched a wide selection, mostly just the first 1-5 episodes, to get a feel of what was worth watching further.
Here's my 1-minute review of each:
|
|
|
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
sharibet's journal
tired
calm
exhausted
cranky