Musings of the Lorekeeper

Got a random invite to go sing karaoke on Saturday night this past weekend. Derek came through with a ride and dragged me off to a little bar called Sam's. Derek and I met up with a few people I'd never met before. A gal named Trina was drinking a beverage that seriously looked like Windex. Haha.

The place was tiny and so was the population. Which meant not much of an audience but also nearly zero wait on singing! Cool. I sang my usual warm-up Alanis song, and everyone was surprised that I actually sang the F-word. Huh? The song contains the F-word. So I sang the F-word. That's what you do.

I performed a song from Rocky Horror (and then so did Trina), and we enticed another girl from our group whose name was something that sounded like Christie (who knows how it's spelled, though) to sing "Baby Got Back." (Hahaha. She commented "Baby got FRONT right now," because she was pregnant.) Derek performed "Freak on a Leash" by Korn, which was impressive. He likes those screamy songs. Later he did "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath. Wow!

There was a guy at another table who went by the name Spanky, and he was a really good singer. You could tell he was kind of in another class--not just a karaoke singer, y'know? His Billy Joel performance was incredible. A guy named Chris did some rap songs, which was entertaining. And the lady who was tending the bar, Marie I think her name was, kept coming up and subjecting us to her excellent Joplin-esque voice. Plus the guy running the karaoke thing kept getting up to sing too.

I got to sing two more songs--I did "Don't Speak" by No Doubt and also "Out Tonight" from Rent. And then "the fishbowl" started.

I didn't want to play fishbowl, but everyone else did. They all submitted songs to a pool, and the host guy pulled out a name and a song and no matter what it was they had to sing it. I'm too much of a pop culture moron to feel comfortable participating in such a thing. I ended up only knowing maybe ten percent of the songs that came up, so I'm glad I sat out. They're the "songs everyone knows," but in general in a situation like that I somehow am not part of "everyone."

But then the host became evil and started calling people up and making them all do show tunes. That amused the crap out of me. Especially when the Spanky fella was called up and they gave him "Take Me Or Leave Me" from Rent. Which is not only a female song, but a duet.

I went over to the host and I was like "What's with all the show tunes?" and he's like "Oh I'm just fooling around," and I was like "I love this song." He gave me another microphone and told me I should go join Spanky because he was without a partner for his duet. Hahaha. And oh yes, I did it.

Which was amusing. Because first off it is a song designed for two girls to sing, and he was doing a heroic job imitating Maureen. Since he'd already started, I didn't have much choice but to do the Joanne part. Which is lower. Ever heard anything funnier than me singing the low part in a duet with a guy?

But see, I'd heard Spanky singing several times during the evening and I strongly suspected he'd be fine with holding onto his part, so when the part of the song came where we were both singing at the same time instead of taking turns, I went ahead and did the Joanne line even though it is not melody, and YAY, it worked, because Spanky knew what he was doing. (Heh. I love when we music people can recognize our own.) And after it was done he was like "AGH THANK YOU FOR STEPPING IN AND SAVING ME!" Whee! That was awesome. Maybe I will see him again.

Oh yeah. And I didn't mention that a guy named Chuck joined us kind of later in the game. He participated in the fishbowl game, and announced early on that he absolutely didn't care what they made him sing. "I have no shame," he admitted with a grin. He lost whatever shame he had last time they made him sing "Like a Virgin." Ohhhkay.

So watching Chuck sing was entertaining. He also deliberately put incredibly embarrassing and/or hard songs into the pool, and other people kept drawing his songs and having to do them. Also, weirdly, Derek put in the song "Justified and Ancient," and the bartender lady got it. She had NO idea about the song but put in a good effort to perform it, and then just kept giving Derek crap all night, "YOU MADE ME SING ABOUT A MU MU LAND? WHAT THE HELL IS A MU MU LAND???" LOL. (I think Derek and I were the only ones who knew the song.)

Also got to hear the karaoke host sing "Ironic." Christie was upset that I wasn't doing it because she wanted to hear my Alanis impression again.

It was pretty fun. I'll probably go again next time I have a chance.

Hi everyone. I'm still alive. Not much of interest going on these days. I mean really. I thought grad school would be good to come back to after JET because at least it would give me something to do and some kind of purpose -- and this is true, it does -- but it's still really boring by comparison.

I am still struggling a bit to keep my spirits up and find interesting things to do. I don't say finding intersting people is hard, because I have found those, but I think grad school life is making dull people out of all of us, in the sense of "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." We get together and talk about...how much we hate our aff*n*ty diagrams. (Don't ask what that is. It's a profane word in my book right now. I also am not writing much in here because it is painful to displace entries about exciting stuff I did in the past with stuff like this, and I just couldn't bear to have anything from the class we here know as 501 displacing my Tokyo adventure. I mean, there was a roller coaster there.) It's really sad, because I have found people here I do like very much. But it's like all this studying and all these af****** notes are draining the interestingness right out of us.

I don't laugh. I don't tell vibrant stories. I don't hear other people's vibrant stories. We just...write papers and make post-it notes. WE ARE SI ZOMBIES. RUN AWAY BEFORE I EAT YOUR BRAAAIIIINNNN~~~!

My superpowers gone, gone and replaced with zombiehood! Sob!



But I did something that at first felt like a temporary retreat, but actually turned out to be proactive this weekend. I didn't think I could handle another weekend of trying to get other people together (which I have been making an effort to do of late and it usually works out pretty well -- we did do karaoke last week and it was super-fun! -- but believe it or not, I'm actually a big introvert and it's draining to always be trying to make plans). Soooo...I decided to be a big lame-o and go hang out with my mommy and daddy.

Except that's not actually lame because actually my mom and dad are fantastic. I always love talking to them, and they like to hear my stories and we discuss the world and also they say lots of funny things. Like the following quotes from my mom:

Funny:
"I've always been interested in the pancreas."

Funny in its truth:
"Society is experiencing a collective nervous breakdown."

The latter because I can't keep a thought in my head and forget what I'm saying in the midst of a sentence. My brain feels shredded these days. Too much trying to do nine million boring things at once and remember them all, and not enough laughter.

That's right -- LAUGHTER.

Laughter really is the best medicine -- no, it's more than that! It's a major mental food group! It's amazing how much it lifts your spirits!

We were laughing about some pretty stupid stuff when we went out for ice cream last night, so much so that the hostess at the restaurant overheard us and said a certain comment was the high point of her night, and I almost snorted milkshake out my nose. I got so cheered up yesterday and today because I got to have more vibrant conversations and laughed about stuff more than I have since coming to grad school. This not only allowed me to be in a good mood for a while, but also helped me pinpoint precisely what is lacking in my life these days that is making me feel so dull in mood.

That's right, Jessie: you just need to laugh more! Talk about something that isn't 501, or SI at all! Where's a punster when I need him? So my mission from now on is to somehow convey this to my SI friends: Send me stupid jokes! Pass on crazy stories! Tell me about the crazy antics of someone you know! Share with me what makes YOU excited, and tell it in an exciting way, and I'll share your excitement!

Just PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF BOB DON'T LET IT BE ABOUT A**INITY NOTES OR SI 500 ASSIGNMENTS. JUST SAY NO TO SCHOOL-INDUCED ZOMBIEHOOD!

It will be hard to find people who I can share stories with to this extent (somehow it was easy on JET...life there was just different, I guess) and you can't just make people be funny and laugh, of course. But I feel like knowing just what I'm looking for from people will help me find it. Maybe I can even do something to draw it out of people. So this is encouraging.

And in the meantime, I'm really happy that my parents are such fun people and gave me a chance to stir up my brain with happiness and silliness and liveliness. Thanks Mom and Dad!



You know what else I did this weekend? I decided on a whim to get an 8x10 print made of my favorite non-human-subject photo from my travels, the one that's on my skyscraper page that I took in the Gold Coast, in Australia. Now I have it framed on my wall.

The view of the South Pacific helps this room out quite a bit. :)




Oh! And how lovely! I just got a voice mail from Megan, a.k.a. Samwise the Brave! She called while I was at work apparently. That is very cheering indeed. She was even talking about meeting up over Thanksgiving when she's in MI. Unfortunately I will be in a different M-state. (I seem to travel primarily to other states that start with M. Heh. It's like we're a consortium or something. M is a nice sky blue color, so that's okay with me. Haha, synesthesia!) Last Sunday I heard from two of my favorite JET friends, one just about this same time of day, and those made me smile too. Dear all my far off friends: thanks for the team effort to keep me cheery while I struggle with the inevitable transition shock! :) (I didn't know you all knew each other but you guys planned this pretty well. Go Team My Friends!)

Re: transition shock, at least I know I always go through this, ever since I was sent to a new school in the third grade and hated it and cried every day on the playground. I didn't want anyone to know that I was crying, so I made myself suck it up -- but the one thing I couldn't control was the tears welling up in my eyes. So, with a voice under total control, I shrugged it off and told the other kids I was allergic to the woodchips and that's why my eyes were watering. They did this every day at recess reliably but I never sniffled or sobbed, so the other kids all totally bought it.

After a couple weeks of this, my mom took me out of the dumb regular school and back to Montessori for one more year. Too bad this time I can't run back for one more year on JET!

But at least the past 19 years have taught me that I always go through this after a transition and it always gets better! Just gotta wait it out and keep on ganbaruing.

And because otherwise this post still wouldn't be worthy of bumping Japan adventures to another page, let me end with something that makes it all worthwhile:

Thanks to our interlibrary loan serivce, I have discovered that the Library of Congress has a subject heading that reads Kennedy, Robert F., 1925-1968 -- Fiction (...!!), and I will soon have in my hands a novel about Bobby Kennedy being reincarnated as a telekinetic moving man.

Possibly the most ridiculously awesome premise EVER. (I may have lost my superpowers, so I'll settle for reading about him gaining some ;)

With that image I shall bid you good night. :-p

I'm sick. It's the first time I've been really full-on sick in awhile and I forgot how much it sucked. I got home from work yesterday, went to bed at 7, woke up at 10 to have dinner and was asleep again by 11, woke up at 6 AM to get a drink, fell back asleep until 10:30, napped from 2:30 until 6. And I usually love sleeping! But this isn't restful and I can't breathe through my nose at all so my lips are all chapped. I've been taking sudaphed but can't find any ibuprofin and I have a killer headache and also my back is sore from, you know, lying in bed for 24 hours.

Typing this is using all the energy I have. I can't even read, because I can't concentrate on the text. Which means I also can't write or edit, even though I really want to.

BOO.

What I'm saying, in short, is that you should all write me happy, fluffy drabbles because I am grumpy and sad and can't breathe. I will happily reciprocate at some point when my brain is no longer crowded out of my skull by snot.

If only it were safe to spank her. My flying baby is sort of a brat in this issue. And she's getting very independent. Which is neat.


#0235: ivy #31: far away
Negative One main comic page

Also? I spilled water on my comic today before I scanned it. Hopefully you can't tell.

You should have heard the cursing. It was quite creative. I think I used the phrase "rat dick."

I mentioned in my last post that I was cooking again. What this generally means in practice is that I look up a dinner recipe, a side item recipe, and a desert recipe, and I make them. Of course, since I live alone, and I don't eat all that much, these three recipes usually feed me around a day or two past the point when I'm tired of eating the same thing over and over again. Even really yummy stuff, I generally am more than ready not to eat any more when I finish. However, I've found an exception: a recipe for Chocolate Parfaits, also now known as "the parfaits of super deliciousness." These are so yummy that I've bought enough ingredients to make them again.

( Recipe )

I'm on my way to bed, but here: a meme, from, like, half of my flist:

Name a fandom and I'll tell you 3 pairings I love, 2 pairings I consider shipping, and 1 pairing I hate.

I thought I'd share a few interesting quotes from good ol' Dwight D. Eisenhower.

I'm intrigued that someone who did his service both in the armed forces AND the presidency really does seem to understand that the reason we fight in wars is not because we want to bully everyone around or "be the best" or get everyone afraid of us or something. He understands that war is for peace--the option that we take when NOT having peace is balanced against the price.

"History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid."

"How far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?"

"Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends."

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."

"I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it."

"In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

"Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace."

"We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it."

These are from three weeks ago... just thought I'd share. I was pretty much the slowest in the field that night. Ran four passes. I was running pretty much right at 16 seconds. Everyone else was at 15 seconds or faster.

I'm in the right lane all four times. I'm treating the 17.3 as an outlier. I probably freaked myself out as I red-lighted and for whatever reason I was also up against a 10 second truck (see left lane)

Things I should be doing right now:
-mopping the floor
-starting my homework
-working on Nano
-that drawing project that I am supposed to be doing for someone else and that I have been ignoring for so long it's embarrassing
-organizing cupboards and counters in the kitchen
-finding a freakin' job, already

Things I have been doing today instead of any of the above things:
-sleeping in
-eating candy
-making nun icons

Um. Yeah.

Just in case you wondered. . . .



::sigh::

Okay. Saturday has arrived, and I'm gonna see if I can clear out my e-mail.

Unfortunately, it's a little tougher now because I no longer have only the 25 e-mails I whittled it down to on Thursday.



Just to be clear, no, none of them are spam or useless crap to read and delete. I have to answer most or all of these. Joy.

I'm not posting any pictures on this one because, well, I don't feel like it. Though that's a shame because I'm pretty freakin' cute today.

Some guy selling Verizon packages knocked on my door and I lied and said I don't use the Internet except at work (OMG, the idea of that, HAHA), because I didn't feel like having him try to sell me a package, but for some reason right after that he was like "Is that your REAL hair?" (I was wearing a bandanna so I guess it could have been fake. . . . ) I told him it was and he just kept looking at me and asked me where I was from. I was like uh, that's a little complicated, and he clarified that he wanted to know what my ancestry was. Maybe he wanted the swankivy recipe so he could make one of his own?

He got to appreciate my cuteness. But you people don't get to. Sorry.

( E-mail answering extravaganza under the cut. . . . )

Somehow, it's gone from being right after the closing to being a week in to November. I'm not quite sure how that happened; I do know that I felt like I lived about a month's worth in the last week of October. Either way, I'm finally getting around to the update I've been telling myself I'll write every day for the past week+.

( End of the Midwest Trip )
( Closing )
( Halloween! )
( November So Far )
Well, I think that's more than enough for now, given that my wrist got stiff doing all this typing. :) Until next time...

- I always forget how much more I like HSM fanon than the actual canon, at least with the third movie. I love the dance sequences, and a handful of other scenes, but aaaaugh, the plot (well, "plot") still infuriates me, horrible new kids infuriate me, and nothing makes any freaking sense. I mean, I know that, but I always forget just how terrible it all actually is until I'm actively watching it, and afterwards I feel like, "Nah, couldn't have been that bad..."

- I never noticed this particular exchange before:
Gabi: "Hey, Tay."
Tay: "Hey, Sunshine." (smiles and giggles)
Huh. And usually I think it's Kelsi whose most in love with Gabriella...

- I will say this for the movie; it's the only one of the three where the actual canon makes me ship Chad/Taylor. (I mean, he's in love with Troy and sometimes Ryan; she's too busy for his nonsense and also apparently has a crush on Gabi, but every interaction between Chad and Taylor is adorable, even when they don't make any sense.)

- ETA: Zeke an Jason are totally right behind Troy and Chad when they grab Horrible New Kids' clothes, and walk off in the other direction, already in the crowd dancing with Ryan when he's doing his Fosse Yoga Thing before they run in. Okiedokie. (Also, I kind of love Chad and Troy being total dicks right there. Actually having personalities ftw!)

- AHAHAHAHA, RAINING CGI BASKETBALLS IS STILL THE FUNNIEST THING EVER EVER EVER. You know what, "Scream" is too magical not to share. Whether you've seen any of HSM or not, you really should watch this. No, seriously. WATCH IT.



- AND THEN CHAD TRIES TO COMFORT TROY. By kneeling in front of his bed. And trying to convince him to break up with his girlfriend. BE GAYER, CHAD. WAIT, YOU CAN'T.

- AUGH HORRIBLE NEW KID, DIE IN A FIRE

ETA 2: I'm SURE Disney did something like this, but did we ever discuss their yearbook superlatives? These seem obvious to me:
- Best Hair: Chad
- Most Likely to Succeed: Taylor
- Most Musical: Kelsi
- Most Dramatic: Ryan and Sharpay
- Cutest Couple: Troy and Gabi

But there is room for debate. And what about Zeke, Martha, and Jason? Thoughts? Opinions? Anyone?

(For the record, I was Most Likly To Succeed in 12th grade, because our editors forgot to spellcheck.)

This comic is about feet!

Not really.

It's about steps.

Not really.

It's about destinations.

Maybe.


#0234: adele #58: trusting my feet
Negative One main comic page

Bet you guys are surprised to see her again so soon. Even though "so soon" is after a waiting period of around two months. Aww.

But the psychic lady from another dimension wandering around in the woods doesn't make for very good storytelling, so I really have to try to touch on her just often enough that you remember what she's doing . . . until her storyline can catch up somewhat with the timeframe I've got going on in the other storylines.

But it's Adele!!!

In her pretty woven-looking shirt!

These are my self-published book series that are, or will be in the near future, available for purchase at my Lulu.com store.

I have many other projects including non-fiction, fiction, a screenplay and fan fiction novels, but these are the two series I elected to self-publish. My other works are going out to traditional publishers or are unpublishable fan fiction works.

SANDY COVE SERIES

1. Sandy Cove Book 1 - (ISBN: 978-0-9809-6280-2) Sandy Cove was a series story I began to write in 1998, posting up stories about once a month until 2004, when it finished. It was aimed at kids and teens and followed three families that shared a gated property in an affluent area of Vancouver. This first novel introduces you to each group of characters, including twins separated at birth that are reunited, talented gymnasts adjusting to a big move and sisters who turn their boarding school upside down in search of fun.
Characters - Kali Macnaghten, Lauren Hunter, Jessy Carpenter, Jordan Hayes, Abigail Macnaghten, Stephen Fuller, Niki Hunter, Erica Hunter, Andrea Hunter, Sunny Hunter, Shauna Hunter, Maddy Holland, April Holland, Patrick Holland, Ben Lindsay, Matt Lindsay and other minor characters.

2. Sandy Cove Book 2 - (ISBN: 978-0-9809-6281-9) Book 2 continues from where 1 left off, dealing with the aftermath of the accident, seeing Maddy and April begin college, while Niki does the same - albeit with her sisters still hampering her attempts at having a life. Kali has to deal with the circumstances of her birth when she and Jordan take a trip to Boston, and the entire house has to pull together to ensure they'll have a future.
Characters - See above

3. Sandy Cove Book 3 - (ISBN: 978-0-9809-6282-6) Book 3 sees Kali and Lauren beginning their third year of medical school and the patients that come with it, while an injury threatens to destroy someone's dreams, and the Hunter twins are on their own at university. By the end of 1993, everyone has surprises in store for everyone else when it comes to their future.
Characters - See above

BROOKLINE UNIVERSITY SERIES

4. Brookline University: Freshman Year - (ISBN: 978-0-9809-6283-3) Another series story I began writing in 1998 and finished in 2005. It was aimed at an older crowd than SC and focused on three best friends who grew up in foster care as they begin university. Freshman Year follows the girls as they adjust to university life, rush the sororities at their school, deal with personal tragedy and spend the summer working in Florida.
Characters - Joy Morrison, Libby Morrison, Angel Sheridan, Ryan Eckert, Jamie Rayburn and other minor characters. This book is available on Amazon.com for the same cost as it is available on Lulu.com

5. Brookline University: Sophomore Year - Sophomore Year finds the girls on the other side of sorority rush. In addition to school and fun, they have to deal with relationships and their fall out before going back home during the summer to find all hasn't changed in Seattle.
Characters - See above, but also including Johnny Price, Cal Gordon, Wes Leyland, Rod Leyland, Fletcher Haines and more

6. Brookline University: Junior Year - The girls are rush counselors and getting little sisters, dealing with secret relationships and campus scares, and examining their past on a Spring Break trip that hits close to home. With everyone changing majors and keeping secrets, Junior Year comes to a screeching halt when the summer brings surprises, good and bad.
Characters - See above

7. Brookline University: Senior Year - Their last year at Brookline U sees Joy, Libby and Angel planning their futures, while still dealing with school, friends and relationships. By the end of the school year, everyone's lives are ready to change forever.
Characters - See above

I got the day off! Sounds like a good excuse for . . . an e-mail post!

(I know how much you love these, lilrongal.)


I got cherry soda. I got Halloween candy. I got comfortable sleep pants.


And I got 77 e-mails.

It's noon. Let's see how much damage I can do to this here inbox.

( The saga begins. . . .  )

I'm taking tomorrow off and giving myself a 3-day weekend. Again. (I was sick last Friday.) This time will be awesomer, though! I am going to see the Yankees' parade! I mean, I assume "see" is an exaggeration, as I am very short and they're expecting hundreds of thousands of people. And also I hate crowds, so... we'll see how that goes.

WHATEVER, point is I am going to celebrate and also take a day off just for fun! I never do that! :DDDD

And now a meme. Variation on one I've done before. Whatever. Still fun.

Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500 words) from any fanfic I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.

And now I should eat dinner, it being 10 at night and all.

GODZILLA STOMPS ON PHILADELPHIA; YANKEES WIN THE WORLD SERIES

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Well, they just finished the Tokyo Motor Show for 2009, and one of the most fascinating cars they showed was a concept car from Honda, the Honda Skydeck.

 

I think the Lambo doors on a MINIVAN are a liiiitle bit out there, but I got a kick out it. :)

Silly soccer moms...

There is going to be a Hot Import Nights show here in December. I need to go secure a ticket. I'm pretty sure they WON'T have a Honda Skydeck, but there should be some cool modded cars there.

Deb is still significantly ahead of me: about 1,400 of these words are mine and the rest are hers. That said, we are kind of having a ball. We still haven't sat down with a calendar and worked out a real timeline for our sketched-out plot and although I keep intending to make a spreadsheet to keep track of small details, that also isn't done yet... so we keep contradicting each other, and today I sent her an email that said "repetition is good in a novel, right??" - but I think we have enough material roughly planned out to cover the 50,000 words, I love our characters, and I think that behind all the repeated information and awkward jumps in logic, there might actually be a decent story in there. Or, well, maybe not. But it's a good time anyway. :)

5469 / 50000 words. 11% done!