It is a despairing thought that I cannot be by my readers' sides on this glorious day. Today is the day of joy and laughter. Today is the day where you see if you have any morons in your group of friends. Today is the day where you can get away with just about any lie or prank.
Why?
Because it's April's Fools Day! That means you get to pull stupid pranks off and no one will stay mad at you for it. Unless you do something really mean, like eat the last cookie.
But here is an obstacle to that day of awesome joy: it's Sunday, meaning there's no school to go to and pull pranks at.
I have decided to compensate by sending pictures of a fish to my close friends. They are to print it, cut it out, and stick it on their backs in my stead. That way no one feels left out. They can even add a message of their choosing to it, like 'Kick me!' or 'I suck!'.
I've done my civic duty for the day.
That said, I think it's time I gave a writing update. I'm writing, right now! Not a lot, considering that I anticipate the hell-week ahead and it's making me nervous. I have six projects to give in, all worth between 5% and 30% of my session. Mostly 15% and 20%, and my teammates are not helping me in the least.
Sometimes I wish I had six hands, so that I could do the work by myself. I'd look like a hindu goddess. It'd be great.
Anyway. I'm writing. I've been rewriting the same story from five different points of view without ever finding something I can easily work with, and I think I only just found the best version. There's no certainty that it'll stay that way, but so far, the AU is seen in Link and Dark's points of view, alternatively. I'm trying to break away from traditional character types too, so it ought to be interesting.
I won't say more, in case you get your hopes up. Let's just say that before I produce anything worth publishing, it might be a long while. Like, a month or two. In the meantime, find something/someone else to read, because I won't be able to focus with rabid stalkers following my every move. It'll make me anxious and twitchy (how appropriate), and I'll be spending too much time cackling nervously to produce anything.
Why don't you re-read Only in Hyrule... veeeerrryy slowly? Just kidding. I'm sure you'll find something to do.
Of course, I'll keep updating as often as I can, just to tell you that I'm alive, and I'll tell you how the work's coming along, so if you keep an eye here, you might get a glimpse of what I'm doing.
That said, happy April's Fools, and don't forget to print out your very own fish on my behalf!
Love,
CM
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Not retarded.
I've always considered myself a late bloomer. 'Late', not because I don't observe basic rules of punctuality, but because I'm, on average, behind everyone on the scale of life. I'm among the eldest of my group of friends, but everyone seems to get ahead of me in every field (including financial, social and romantic).
As such, I'm often considered, in some cases, a little childish or retarded. I don't have my driver's license yet, I don't drink, I don't like clubbing, and let's not get into the matter of my emotional life or any of its facets. Until recently, fashion hardly interested me, I don't aspire to superstardom (especially not in the music industry, in spite of the fact that I'm a fair singer) and I was considered like what people call a garçon-manqué (failed boy). It didn't bother me. Being stereotypically feminine or highly average are concepts that have always repulsed me.
What kind of bothers me is how, once I do catch up with others, all I get as a response is an underhanded comment that translates to, "Huh, it took you THAT long?"
I don't let things get to me. I can easily let things slip. But I'll admit this irks me a little. Couldn't they insinuate something nicer, like, "Well, okay, welcome to the club?"
Just because I show sudden taste in the matter of clothing (and good taste, too, backed-up by the best sources out there) doesn't mean I have to be discarded as an unreliable source because of my previous lack of interest. Especially not when I AM CLEARLY CORRECT.
See, this is what upsets me. I'm a late bloomer. Yes, I'm 'late', in just about every field of my life. I can freely attest to that, heck, even gain pride from it.
But there's another part of that term.
'Bloomer'. Not the undergarment side of it.
I'm late, but I bloom.
Jazz, my cousin, once swore to me that she had never met a child like me. So silent and closed-off, I used to be. She said that when I first walked, I did it without help, on my birthday, even though no one knew when or where I'd learned to do it, like I'd practiced in secret. When I first spoke, I did it in such an erudite and articulated way that my parents wondered where I'd had time to train myself.
When my mother found out I understood and spoke English fluently, it came as a shock to her: she found out one afternoon, when she came to fetch me at school earlier than usual, and I was conversing with a playmate in the schoolyard in perfect English, when the only language they used at home was French.
After that, I slowed down. I stopped moving as quickly as everyone else, going at my own pace in everything. That's why, when I reached my early teens, everyone was already into the blushing and boyfriend-snatching fits, whereas I just wanted to talk about Mario with the guys.
Does that mean I'm retarded? Puh-lease.
Of course not. I'm a late-bloomer. I take my time, learn stuff properly, in secret, and then I start using my sourced, tried-and-true knowledge, out of the blue, once I've gotten it all down pat.
This either upsets people or disconcerts them, often because I suddenly outdo them, when they weren't expecting me to.
Guess they'll have to get around to it.
I'm a late-bloomer: I might be late, but I will always bloom.
Love,
CM
As such, I'm often considered, in some cases, a little childish or retarded. I don't have my driver's license yet, I don't drink, I don't like clubbing, and let's not get into the matter of my emotional life or any of its facets. Until recently, fashion hardly interested me, I don't aspire to superstardom (especially not in the music industry, in spite of the fact that I'm a fair singer) and I was considered like what people call a garçon-manqué (failed boy). It didn't bother me. Being stereotypically feminine or highly average are concepts that have always repulsed me.
What kind of bothers me is how, once I do catch up with others, all I get as a response is an underhanded comment that translates to, "Huh, it took you THAT long?"
I don't let things get to me. I can easily let things slip. But I'll admit this irks me a little. Couldn't they insinuate something nicer, like, "Well, okay, welcome to the club?"
Just because I show sudden taste in the matter of clothing (and good taste, too, backed-up by the best sources out there) doesn't mean I have to be discarded as an unreliable source because of my previous lack of interest. Especially not when I AM CLEARLY CORRECT.
See, this is what upsets me. I'm a late bloomer. Yes, I'm 'late', in just about every field of my life. I can freely attest to that, heck, even gain pride from it.
But there's another part of that term.
'Bloomer'. Not the undergarment side of it.
I'm late, but I bloom.
Jazz, my cousin, once swore to me that she had never met a child like me. So silent and closed-off, I used to be. She said that when I first walked, I did it without help, on my birthday, even though no one knew when or where I'd learned to do it, like I'd practiced in secret. When I first spoke, I did it in such an erudite and articulated way that my parents wondered where I'd had time to train myself.
When my mother found out I understood and spoke English fluently, it came as a shock to her: she found out one afternoon, when she came to fetch me at school earlier than usual, and I was conversing with a playmate in the schoolyard in perfect English, when the only language they used at home was French.
After that, I slowed down. I stopped moving as quickly as everyone else, going at my own pace in everything. That's why, when I reached my early teens, everyone was already into the blushing and boyfriend-snatching fits, whereas I just wanted to talk about Mario with the guys.
Does that mean I'm retarded? Puh-lease.
Of course not. I'm a late-bloomer. I take my time, learn stuff properly, in secret, and then I start using my sourced, tried-and-true knowledge, out of the blue, once I've gotten it all down pat.
This either upsets people or disconcerts them, often because I suddenly outdo them, when they weren't expecting me to.
Guess they'll have to get around to it.
I'm a late-bloomer: I might be late, but I will always bloom.
Love,
CM
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Strange days.
The guy from the bus stop was there today too. It's upsetting, because I left a whole hour after my usual departure time. I was walking fast, because I didn't want to miss my bus, and I arrive at the deserted bus stop, as usual, and turn around to check up the street for my bus, and LO AND BEHOLD, he's RIGHT THERE, smirking.
How he followed me so closely without my noticing is alarming. Then again, I suppose I can blame the hindi music that was loudly playing in my ears. (Mum got me into hindi music against my will. But don't tell her. She'd never stop gloating.)
Bless my earphones, I just nodded and looked beyond him and pretended to be too preoccupied with my agenda (I took it out precisely for this reason) to have any chat of any kind. Not too dim: he didn't try to strike up any conversation.
That was like the exclamation point to one of the strangest days in a while.
My school days are usually light-hearted and uneventful, filled with mindless and quite pointless chatter about nothing in particular with just about anybody who isn't too tired to handle a stupid conversation.
I guess fate doesn't like routine, or something, because it chose to have someone from my high school commit suicide yesterday, kill Gabie's grandma this morning, and have Alex and Kitty break up (this was last Wednesday, but I heard about it around noon, when I gave Kitty her birthday present).
That's a lot of info to handle. Not to mention I'd only gotten a minimal five hours of sleep last night, meaning I was in a zombie-like state.
It's kind of funny what lack of sleep does to me. I become like Mother Theresa or something. I can handle anyone and anything with a smile and I actually enjoy giving money and presents and a lot of my time. It's downright ridiculous.
Josie was hungry―I gave her two bucks for her to buy much-coveted grilled cheese at the cafeteria.
Eva wanted compliments for a play she participated in and which I saw Tuesday night―I gave her my honest and enthusiastic answer.
Kitty greeted me with a tired, puffy-eyed, sort of sniffly smile and told me Alex had broken up with her―I gave her a funny birthday card and a present that cheered her up, along with understanding and patient advice.
Alex was in a dump because everyone was suspicious of his break-up motives―I greeted him as usual and made reproachless small talk before Rick dragged him away for a man-to-man talk in the gym.
Gabie's grandma died this morning―I offered my silent support when I heard. PB made sure to gather Gabie's stuff because she had to leave in a hurry.
My brother told me about one of his childhood acquaintances having committed suicide yesterday―I discussed it 'round the table with a few friends and Slim, clearing it up. We had a peaceful talk about death, deciding that suicide was far from the best way to die.
I had a project meeting at the end of the day―only one member actually showed up, so we did the work, just the two of us. It was better and more efficient that way, though. While we waited (uselessly, we soon learned), Slim came up to ask what we were waiting for to leave. Rick joined us later, and I inquired about Alex's mental health.
I don't know how I could just breeze through today. It seemed to be quite rough for quite a few people. Tough matters were brought up, and yet I just stayed calm and stayed optimistic. It was a surreal experience.
I don't know if you ever had one of those days where you just watched people agonizing without once losing your head over it and just offering patient and wise advice. I felt so old. It was like watching myself be smart and in control when I know very well that I'm not nearly that wise when it comes to my own problems.
Anyway. I hope not to live an out-of-body experience like that in another while. Being smart is cool, but it's kind of creepy too. Not to mention, I'm not nearly as knowledgeable as I make people think. I just manage to fake it extremely well. ;þ
Though I'll admit being nice without expecting anything in return kind of makes me feel fuzzy inside.
You won't catch me saying that out loud, though!
By the way, keep those story ideas coming. I'm currently considering the modern Robing Hood spin-off (multi-chaptered), as well as a series of camping-focused vignettes.
You read that right. I was thinking I could retell a few true camping stories but twist them into romantic oneshots―one for each LoZ pairing I like. Fear not. I have enough camping tales to last me a lifetime. Not to mention some of them are stranger than fiction. It's like they're begging to be immortalized.
Anyway. As I said, keep those ideas coming, in case you strike a new, until-then-unknown chord with me.
Love,
CM
How he followed me so closely without my noticing is alarming. Then again, I suppose I can blame the hindi music that was loudly playing in my ears. (Mum got me into hindi music against my will. But don't tell her. She'd never stop gloating.)
Bless my earphones, I just nodded and looked beyond him and pretended to be too preoccupied with my agenda (I took it out precisely for this reason) to have any chat of any kind. Not too dim: he didn't try to strike up any conversation.
That was like the exclamation point to one of the strangest days in a while.
My school days are usually light-hearted and uneventful, filled with mindless and quite pointless chatter about nothing in particular with just about anybody who isn't too tired to handle a stupid conversation.
I guess fate doesn't like routine, or something, because it chose to have someone from my high school commit suicide yesterday, kill Gabie's grandma this morning, and have Alex and Kitty break up (this was last Wednesday, but I heard about it around noon, when I gave Kitty her birthday present).
That's a lot of info to handle. Not to mention I'd only gotten a minimal five hours of sleep last night, meaning I was in a zombie-like state.
It's kind of funny what lack of sleep does to me. I become like Mother Theresa or something. I can handle anyone and anything with a smile and I actually enjoy giving money and presents and a lot of my time. It's downright ridiculous.
Josie was hungry―I gave her two bucks for her to buy much-coveted grilled cheese at the cafeteria.
Eva wanted compliments for a play she participated in and which I saw Tuesday night―I gave her my honest and enthusiastic answer.
Kitty greeted me with a tired, puffy-eyed, sort of sniffly smile and told me Alex had broken up with her―I gave her a funny birthday card and a present that cheered her up, along with understanding and patient advice.
Alex was in a dump because everyone was suspicious of his break-up motives―I greeted him as usual and made reproachless small talk before Rick dragged him away for a man-to-man talk in the gym.
Gabie's grandma died this morning―I offered my silent support when I heard. PB made sure to gather Gabie's stuff because she had to leave in a hurry.
My brother told me about one of his childhood acquaintances having committed suicide yesterday―I discussed it 'round the table with a few friends and Slim, clearing it up. We had a peaceful talk about death, deciding that suicide was far from the best way to die.
I had a project meeting at the end of the day―only one member actually showed up, so we did the work, just the two of us. It was better and more efficient that way, though. While we waited (uselessly, we soon learned), Slim came up to ask what we were waiting for to leave. Rick joined us later, and I inquired about Alex's mental health.
I don't know how I could just breeze through today. It seemed to be quite rough for quite a few people. Tough matters were brought up, and yet I just stayed calm and stayed optimistic. It was a surreal experience.
I don't know if you ever had one of those days where you just watched people agonizing without once losing your head over it and just offering patient and wise advice. I felt so old. It was like watching myself be smart and in control when I know very well that I'm not nearly that wise when it comes to my own problems.
Anyway. I hope not to live an out-of-body experience like that in another while. Being smart is cool, but it's kind of creepy too. Not to mention, I'm not nearly as knowledgeable as I make people think. I just manage to fake it extremely well. ;þ
Though I'll admit being nice without expecting anything in return kind of makes me feel fuzzy inside.
You won't catch me saying that out loud, though!
By the way, keep those story ideas coming. I'm currently considering the modern Robing Hood spin-off (multi-chaptered), as well as a series of camping-focused vignettes.
You read that right. I was thinking I could retell a few true camping stories but twist them into romantic oneshots―one for each LoZ pairing I like. Fear not. I have enough camping tales to last me a lifetime. Not to mention some of them are stranger than fiction. It's like they're begging to be immortalized.
Anyway. As I said, keep those ideas coming, in case you strike a new, until-then-unknown chord with me.
Love,
CM
Monday, March 19, 2007
Precisions about Hyrule Net
Because apparently it upset a couple of people:
1. I know hara-kiri and seppuku are synonymous. But so are felo-de-se and suicide. If Nabooru is using many synonyms for the same reality, it's as a joke. I wanted to allude to legal documents where they tend to define a term multiple times to make sure there aren't any loopholes. It's a joke. I know hara-kiri and seppuku are the same; so does Nabooru.
2. If I didn't line up the many annoying "Re: Re: Re: Re:..." thing, it's because they annoy me, and because some online mail services don't use them. And if it's written "RE:" instead of "Subject" it's because "re" means "regarding".
Not "reply" as many people seem to believe.
I already corrected the time stamps (that's something else―why do people care about time stamps so much? Am I the only one who doesn't read them?? 0o) and I don't typically like returning to a document five times a day to correct everything or make extra notes. So here are those extra notes.
Am I in a bad mood? Not really. Just kind of stunned that so many people care about minute details.
And since it seemed to interest a few other people, here are the explanations for a few email addresses I chose for the characters (some are obvious, so I'll skip those).
blackguard.zant (Zant Black): a blackguard is someone who is morally reprehensible. It seemed appropriate.
popstar.lu.2 (Lulu Singer): the "2" stands for how many times you have to repeat "lu".
451degrees.zelda (Zelda Harkinian): 451 degrees is the temperature at which paper burns, which you know if you read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Why would Zelda allude to burning paper? Probably because she's the holder of wisdom and books are a source of wisdom... and alluding to "hot" and "books" would probably work in an interesting way for her.
meadow.tainted.saint (Mido Green): because Mido needed an emo address.
I also have to say that there was a point where Ruto's address was i.luv.sin.ruto, except FF.Net apparently didn't want to accept that one, no matter how many variations of it I tried. It kept reducing it to stuff like i.luv or just i. So I chose to change it to i.luv.watters and then for some reason the site accepted it. Stuck up prick.
Also, though they weren't included, Child Link's address (in my AU world his name is Kidd Forester) is eternal.kid and Oni Link/Fierce Deity Link/Demon Link's (whose name in my AU world is Damon Fierce or Damon Forester, depending on his relation to Link) address is demon.swordmaster, though I chose not to include them in the story itself. I could have, but I didn't.
Probably because I swore to myself I'd use Link's various incarnations all together in another story at some point, the same way I used Zelda, Sheik and Tetra at once in Only in Hyrule.
How are my writing sprees going, you might ask?
Dandy, if you consider that writing fifteen things at once equals to being productive. I personally think it leads nowhere, because it's not with multiple fragments of incompatible stories that you're going to get anything done.
But hey, maybe one of them will lead to something. I doubt it, but I prefer to keep my hopes up. At some point I'm going to get struck by some other genius idea and then it'll be all over: no more social life for CM.
... Now that I think of it, are there any fic ideas that you would like me to write about? I don't know why I'm asking out of the blue, but it seems like an interesting way to maybe get my imagination working. Ideally, it'd be an AU sort of thing, obviously, and nothing that has to do with space odysseys (I have an absoute fear of space, but that's for another entry―remind me to tell you about my mild agoraphobia―because everyone needs to be cracked somewhere).
Seriously, though. Have there ever been ideas you never dared write about? I obviously can't promise to write exactly what you ask for, and don't go thinking I'm going to do requests, but I'm in kind of a drought right now, so maybe other ideas will get my brain going. I keep getting this feeling like I exploited most of the AU settings I could think of.
If you have any ideas, share them. It might be interesting.
Love,
CM
1. I know hara-kiri and seppuku are synonymous. But so are felo-de-se and suicide. If Nabooru is using many synonyms for the same reality, it's as a joke. I wanted to allude to legal documents where they tend to define a term multiple times to make sure there aren't any loopholes. It's a joke. I know hara-kiri and seppuku are the same; so does Nabooru.
2. If I didn't line up the many annoying "Re: Re: Re: Re:..." thing, it's because they annoy me, and because some online mail services don't use them. And if it's written "RE:" instead of "Subject" it's because "re" means "regarding".
Not "reply" as many people seem to believe.
I already corrected the time stamps (that's something else―why do people care about time stamps so much? Am I the only one who doesn't read them?? 0o) and I don't typically like returning to a document five times a day to correct everything or make extra notes. So here are those extra notes.
Am I in a bad mood? Not really. Just kind of stunned that so many people care about minute details.
And since it seemed to interest a few other people, here are the explanations for a few email addresses I chose for the characters (some are obvious, so I'll skip those).
blackguard.zant (Zant Black): a blackguard is someone who is morally reprehensible. It seemed appropriate.
popstar.lu.2 (Lulu Singer): the "2" stands for how many times you have to repeat "lu".
451degrees.zelda (Zelda Harkinian): 451 degrees is the temperature at which paper burns, which you know if you read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Why would Zelda allude to burning paper? Probably because she's the holder of wisdom and books are a source of wisdom... and alluding to "hot" and "books" would probably work in an interesting way for her.
meadow.tainted.saint (Mido Green): because Mido needed an emo address.
I also have to say that there was a point where Ruto's address was i.luv.sin.ruto, except FF.Net apparently didn't want to accept that one, no matter how many variations of it I tried. It kept reducing it to stuff like i.luv or just i. So I chose to change it to i.luv.watters and then for some reason the site accepted it. Stuck up prick.
Also, though they weren't included, Child Link's address (in my AU world his name is Kidd Forester) is eternal.kid and Oni Link/Fierce Deity Link/Demon Link's (whose name in my AU world is Damon Fierce or Damon Forester, depending on his relation to Link) address is demon.swordmaster, though I chose not to include them in the story itself. I could have, but I didn't.
Probably because I swore to myself I'd use Link's various incarnations all together in another story at some point, the same way I used Zelda, Sheik and Tetra at once in Only in Hyrule.
How are my writing sprees going, you might ask?
Dandy, if you consider that writing fifteen things at once equals to being productive. I personally think it leads nowhere, because it's not with multiple fragments of incompatible stories that you're going to get anything done.
But hey, maybe one of them will lead to something. I doubt it, but I prefer to keep my hopes up. At some point I'm going to get struck by some other genius idea and then it'll be all over: no more social life for CM.
... Now that I think of it, are there any fic ideas that you would like me to write about? I don't know why I'm asking out of the blue, but it seems like an interesting way to maybe get my imagination working. Ideally, it'd be an AU sort of thing, obviously, and nothing that has to do with space odysseys (I have an absoute fear of space, but that's for another entry―remind me to tell you about my mild agoraphobia―because everyone needs to be cracked somewhere).
Seriously, though. Have there ever been ideas you never dared write about? I obviously can't promise to write exactly what you ask for, and don't go thinking I'm going to do requests, but I'm in kind of a drought right now, so maybe other ideas will get my brain going. I keep getting this feeling like I exploited most of the AU settings I could think of.
If you have any ideas, share them. It might be interesting.
Love,
CM
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