So, how about that World o' Warcraft?
No, Ames, it didn't eat me... it just chewed on me quite a lot.
^_^

Seriously, though, having tons of fun with it.

Also, at the same time, I'm struggling with a hellishly persistant cough/sinus thing that's held on for weeks and weeks now. This past weekend was utterly miserable, and I'm not feeling much better even now. I've just about talked myself into going to the doctor, though I hate doing that.
Can allergies cause endless bouts of hacking coughing? Because if this is actually the flu or whatever, it's a Stephen King-ish sort of SuperFlu that might just wipe out civilization as we know it.

::CoughSniffleCoughWheezeCough::

Ack.

Anyways, just a drive-by posting to prove that I'm still (semi) alive.
More later, hopefully.
If you don't hear from me, head for Colorado.
(and watch out for that guy in the cowboy boots).

As in, 'World of Warcraft'.

Last night I decided to give the free trial a go, and it's fairly neat.
I certainly can see how this would eat up lots of spare time.

So far I'm just roaming around by myself, since I'm
A) Shy
and
B) Too low level to really do much yet.

Still, if anybody's around on the Duskwood server, let me know and maybe we can go obliterate some monsters together.

Also, if someone could explain these professions, I'd appreciate it, since that seems like the only way to earn any real coinage.

Well, today would have been a great day to get a large chunk of chapter done...
Only I didn't.

Sure, I've had a headache for the last 36 hours, and that annoying side-effect of my meds where my ears are ringing like crazy (Sounds like 'EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!', only in several high-pitched notes blended together) is certainly not making me feel all chipper and eager. Still....
Sigh.

I did manage to finish playing through Halo 2 (Wooooooo), and actually managed to beat the final boss without it taking fifty tries (and without it resulting in me bashing my head against the wall for an hour or so). Enjoyed both Terminator and Dollhouse tonight, changed the theme on my LJ, played with the cats... and that's about it.

Oh, and I found some new Enchantress pics online, which makes me happy AND makes me want to work on the Harmony story. So--maybe in the morning.
I hope.
In anticipation of that, I'll take some Tylenol and grab a few hours' sleep.

Gee, wonder if anybody even remembers this one.

http://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-15916/DreamSmith+A+Day+a+Knight+and+another+Day.htm

::Deep Inhale, and--::

Chapter ten of "Faith and Buffy's Super-Happy-Ending Bedtime Story" Book Three: "A day, a Knight, and another day" is now posted on TtH.

::Whew; you need decent breath control to do that all at once::

I might even try to post it on the DreamForge, if I can remember how those frames work.

Well, coming a little late to this, and hopefully it won't irrevocably offend any of you christians out there, but I just saw this.
And, as a writer who spends a LOT of time thinking about such things, I have to say I completely and totally agree:

"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."
--Richard Dawkins

OMG.
(I just like saying/typing that; it's a phase I'm going through, so bear with me)

Anyway, I just found 135 GIGS of MST3K episodes available to download.
(Completely and totally legally, I assure you. Ahem.)

So, guess this is going to fill up the rest of my external hard drive.
(And 500 gigs seemed so big just a few months ago....)

"We have movie sign!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Stand by for random Eliza fannage:





Guh.
I mean... Guh.

All right, I hereby request... actually I demand that any and all Eliza characters, regardless of personality or situation, Must carry a knife at all times.
Because this minor accessory makes her the very definition of 'Wicked Hot'.
Also, there must be leather pants. Because, you know, it's Eliza; leather pants are key.




GUH!
O_O
Okay, I take it back; adding leather pants to that image would make it lethally sexy.
My brain would kersplode.

Have I mentioned that I am slightly overjoyed that Eliza is back on television?
(and in a show that's somewhat less cheesy that 'Tru Calling'?)
Well, I am.

(Guh)

I haz discovered Macross Frontier.
First impression: Sheryl Nome is frikkin' hot.
THIS is someone I'd go see in concert. (Minmei, not so much)
And unlike Sharon Apple, Sheryl seems unlikely to subject her fans to mind control.
(Although it's still early days; I'll get back to you on that after I've watched some more)

S.M. Stirling has seven chapters of the next 'Emberverse' novel up on his site!
Whoooot!

Also: Hey, after episode three I feel like I'm actually getting into 'Dollhouse'. It feels like they're rushing things with Echo's "Specialness" showing, and the status quo already falling apart, but I guess that's how television works. Very much looking forward to next week.

Another chapter of "Heroes and Villains", the X-Fuffy story is up at TtH.
I really am working at shifting over to one of the other stories; so far this one is dragging me along behind it like Aragorn going over the cliff with that Worg.
(^_^)

And in my off time I'm happily playing through some games I found in the used game bin of the local game/comic/book store: Kameo, Halo 2, and Second Sight.

Another chapter of 'Heroes and Villains' is done... at least so far as a first draft.
I'm glad that I seem to be rolling along pretty well, without (thus far) falling into those pits of depression that ambush me far too often.
So... feel pretty good about that.
And now that I've gotten several chapters of this one done, I'll try to jump across to another story and see if I can turn that momentum into a fresh chapter there. If I can manage that, at something like a (short) chapter a week, then I'll really feel like I'm doing well.

I just woke up from one of my epic and cinematic dreams.
This time around? I was part of the resistance, fighting against an occupying force of Terminators.
Seriously.
O_o

In this version, the 'bots weren't out to exterminate mankind. Instead, they were working with some human guys (Cyberdyne execs?) to ruthlessly rule over the helpless masses. I (or my character, since it wasn't actually me) lived in a town very much like my own (big surprise), but I was part of a larger family. I was a younger brother, who quite naturally caused some tension for the movie audience by foolishly trying to impress a cute neighborhood girl. Us resistance guys had access to caches of supplies which we were not supposed to have, and of course I had to share some of this with her, which nearly led to us being discovered.
My little sister (age 4) did the usual little-kid stuff, and nearly got us all killed with her innocent babbling. We had a deactivated T888 in the house (why, I have no idea), she found it, and the next time some of the Human overlords came by for a visit/inspection, she kept babbling about the frankenstein monster we had hidden. Luckily the evil guys paid her no attention.
There was a fairly awesome CGI sequence where these hover-capable versions of the liquid metal T-1000 were pursuing several of us through a huge underground bunker/cavern (the things could morph into godsdamned cruise missiles!), and for the finale... we had a barbeque.
(O_o)
No, really. It was like one of those things were the captive population holds a party and basically says "Praise to the evil overlords! You spit on us and kick us in the face with your boots, yay. Please sirs, may we have another?" There was cake, and steak (actually just one steak, which was given to the single evil overlord who was suspicious of our intentions), and... (and I hate to admit this), a brief... musical number.
::Cringes in embarassment::
Really, it was more like a very brief little song, thanking the evils for not killing us, and for letting us keep a few scraps of what we produced for them...that kind of thing.
Of course the whole purpose of this was to lull them into a careless mood, so that an armed group of resistance fighters could crash the party and... do something. I'm not clear on whether or not the intent was to capture or kill them.
And unfortunately, I woke up just as the strike teams were moving in, so I'll never know how things worked out.
Hopefully the good guys prevailed, in whatever alternate universe I was peeking into. Or maybe it was the brain of some hollywood hack of a screenwriter that I was peeking into.... In which case I would say to him--dude, this is crap. Write something better.

Well, chapters four and five of 'Heroes and Villains' are now up on TtH.
Not sure if I want to switch gears (and stories) now or keep going with this.
I'm enjoying the Fuffy+Xmen deal, but it's not getting much love from the audience. So I'm torn. Should I switch over to one of the more popular stories (which feels like running away, tail between legs) or keep going in the hopes that 'Heroes' will find its audience? Switching seems like the smart move, but the idea galls me.
Hmph.
Still don't know.

I'm going to take tonight off from writing altogether, and just veg out with the Xbox. 'Republic Commandos' should be mindlessly entertaining. Tomorrow is soon enough to start on the next chapter of... something.

On a much cheerier note, chapter three of "Heroes and Villains" is posted at TtH (and FF.net).
It continues to be more popular with the FF.net crowd than the peoples at Twisting.
Huh.

Oh, and I really, really, REALLY am going to try shorter chapters for a while; 11,000 words at a time is....
Well, it's great in that I can express an entire thought/mini-arc, but it's daunting to face working on it just from the sheer scale.

Okay, the gods must really hate trees.
A few months ago, Louisville (and lots of other places, sure) experienced a massive wind storm that toppled many, many trees, and did a lot of damage.
Early this morning, we experienced a massive ICE storm that toppled many, many trees, and did a lot of damage.
o_o
At this rate, the next weather apocalypse to smite us won't have much to work with... so I guess there's an upside?
::Sigh::

Anyways, I grabbed my vid camera as soon as I got home this morning, and did a little walkaround of my yard to document the damage.
Here it is if you wanna see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A4wJtkypT0

(Mom, don't try to view this; it will totally choke your dial-up. You can see for yourself next time you're here).

So hey, I just reached 100 Recommendations for my stories on TtH!
(which just means that my stuff has been marked as 'good' or 'cool' or whatever 100 times by the readers.)

'Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!'
^_^!

Granted, it's not a huge deal in the greater scheme of things, it's just that I like actual quantifiable measurements of things, even so subjective a thing as people's opinions on fiction, and this is probably as accurate a shot at that as anything else.

So there you go. I was just pleased about it, is all.

Chapter two of 'Heroes and Villains' is posted on TtH.
7,000 words, written yesterday and today; not too bad. I'm liking the looser, less angsty Buffy in this one (and the mutant powers thing is interesting to write also).

Also, I've now got a couple of things up on Fanfiction.net.
(o_O)
Not a... 'huge' response, I guess I could say.
Well, actually, there's more reviews for the first chapter of 'Heroes' than it got on TtH, even though there were far fewer actual hits. For the other two stories, though, especially Harmony's story, I was amazed (or dismayed) by how small a splash they made. I thought that since a million-kerBILLION people go to that site every day, I'd get a lot of hits, if not a huge number of reviews.
Turns out... not so much.
I suppose the place is so ginormous that actual traffic to any one specific catagory is actually not overwhelming?
Or maybe they just hate my stuff; that's equally likely. It's just a surprising difference between one site and the other. Maybe I'm more well-known/better regarded on TtH than I thought, to have decent numbers there. Nobody on FF.net knows me from a piece of lint, so they're not bothering to check out the thousandth story posted today.
::Shrug::
Anyways, like I said, new chapter posted, so 'Yay me'.
Better energy and enthusiasm, the last couple of weeks (although 'better' isn't much of a trick when the previous level was basically zero).

So. I'll just be sitting here for a while, watching the hit counts on the two sites and hoping for an 'attaboy' or two in the form of feedback/reviewage.

::Props chin in hand and stares at monitor::

Hey, I actually made my deadline on finishing/posting chapter two of 'Faerie Dust' over the weekend!
Yay me!

And it's getting a fairly good response, too, which is of course very gratifying.
I have to admit, I'm still sort of amazed that I haven't received even one negative email or comment, given the Buffy/Dawn pairing in that one.
Guess that's semi-tame compared to what some people are writing.
(O_O)

Going back to the Xmen-themed Buffy/Faith thing now.

So, this week has been pretty good on the writing front.
I'm halfway through the long-awaited (O_o) second chapter of 'Faerie Dust', and it's just motorvating right along. I'm optimistic that I'll finish it tomorrow and post it on Sunday.
(But don't hold me to that: deadlines are not my friend.)

In related news, my stories 'Harmony: An average, everyday... Supergoddess?' and 'Virtue of a Warrior' have both been nominated (again) for the annual COA awards on Twisting the Hellmouth. Which is pretty cool even if I'm not going to win. But maybe, if I post a little more often, I can win next year.

Wow, here are some candid photos of Eliza that are frikkin' Gorgeous!

*_*