Talk, Talking A Lot, But It's Still Talk

So I was catching up on the House 4 episodes I missed these past couple of weeks, and naturally started wondering what was going on in the fandom.  After scanning the first couple of pages of House fics, I really had to ask myself, "Do people not realize that there are new characters this season?"

Seriously.  Is it because the season's still in progress?  I'm a little taken aback here.  Maybe I need to dig a little deeper, but I've kind of lost the urge now.

*shrugs*  At least the episodes were good - the Thong Challenge in "You Don't Want To Know" was pretty entertaining.  Immature, but entertaining.  And does anyone else wonder what Thirteen's real name is? 

In other news, yesterday was kind of hectic.  Here's the list of events:

1) Woke up to screeching fire alarms at seven - the bastards were running a drill.  Was pissed off because Tuesday is the only day of classes that I get to sleep in, plus it was freezing outside.
2) Procrastinated until I had to go to my Stats section, then had a quiz sprung on me.  But it was open-notes, so no big deal there.
3) Was mildly baffled when my Mythology professor stood me up - we'd scheduled a meeting to talk about this essay she'd assigned, but I guess she forgot.  Or something.
4) Managed to score a last-minute appointment with my adviser so she could clear me to register for classes - that was lucky.
5) Discovered that Student Health was preventing me from registering for some reason.
6) Trekked across the river to tell them that yes, actually, you do have the forms you need, so please stop sabotaging my registration attempts.
7) Biology.  Ick.
8) Registered for classes - all the ones I wanted were open, so yay for that.  And next semester I never have to get up before 10 if I don't want to, so that rocks.
9) Developed a migraine around 7:30 that didn't ease up enough for me to get to sleep until about one in the morning.  So basically I was in bed for twelve hours but only got six hours of sleep.  That just seems stupid.

Now that I look back on it, that should have been a bad day.  But I was in a fairly good mood until the migraine came on, and even then I wasn't annoyed so much as in serious pain.

So...that's about it.  Still haven't posted about NaNoWriMo like I was planning to, but eh.  I need to go to Mythology soon anyway and possibly arrange another meeting, although now that I think of it I can probably work it out on my own.

This post is just too fascinating.  I'm going to have to cut it off before one of us goes into a coma. 

NaNoWriMo has been pretty interesting so far.  Initially I was working on an idea that's been floating around in my head for a while, but 2,000 words in I realized that I hated what I was doing to it, and that it really did need a lot more planning out before I attempted to write it.  That set me back quite a bit, because I spent another day wallowing in indecision about whether to continue with a different subject or just abandon the enterprise altogether.  I finally decided to start over, tackling a new, very vague idea in hopes that somewhere over the course of 50,000 words it might develop into something interesting.  So on Saturday I nearly strained something by writing over 5,100 words all in one sitting, catching myself up on the time I'd lost.  So now I'm a little over 8,500 words in and nothing too exciting has happened yet, but I'm kind of figuring it out as I go.  I don't know where some of these characters are coming from, but it's kind of cool to watch them and the beginnings of a plot emerge, like I'm driving a car and sitting in the passenger seat at the same time.

Of course I could never show this "novel" to anyone because it's utter crap.  Which is kind of the point, yes?  It feels good to force myself to write something, although now I probably won't update Accepting Irony until December unless I get some more free time.

I just want to finish that fic and be done with it, really, so I can start working on another WIP that's been nagging at me for a little while.  Well, actually there are two of them, one for Bartimaeus and one for the Twilight series.  I might write the Twilight one first for a change of pace, and although I'll probably break this resolution later, I thought I might try finishing it before posting.  Just to see what that's like.  (It is so not happening.  I can already tell.)

Kind of wondering when I'm ever going to get around to revising Terms of Endearment.  Maybe I should post the original somewhere just for politeness's sake, since I kind of whisked it away without warning?  I don't know.

I've heard that the second week of NaNoWriMo is the hardest.  I can believe it - although I've been doing pretty well so far, I just have this sense that pretty soon this project's going to knock me on my ass.  But I want to finish.  Like, really badly - I've never actually completed an original story idea before, how sad is that?  Time to break the trend.

Anyway, in other news, it is freezing in my dorm room.  I could've sworn they turned the heat on today - guess they were just messing with my mind.  Nice.

(Oh, and I downloaded this song randomly and now find myself slightly obsessed with it.  I don't even know why.  Seems I'm developing this appreciation for electronic music or something, what with my love of Imogen Heap's second album, D.H.T., and now this.)

I wrote exactly four paragraphs for Accepting Irony last night - it's the most productive I've been in a while as far as that story's concerned.  I'm getting tired of all the interference with my attempts to write the chapter - I thought once midterms were over I'd have more time to work on it, but I've still been insanely busy.  Curse you, college! *shakes fist*

Still.  I'm glad I managed to write a little, though.  I'm chipping away at this bit by bit - I think I just need to make the time and finish already.

Hmm, I'm kind of having a hard time typing this because of a minor accident involving a razor.  Apparently I shouldn't be allowed to handle objects with sharp edges, because I somehow managed to fumble my razor and take a chunk out of one of the nails on my left hand while shaving my legs.  As you might imagine, it hurt . A lot.  But I handled it with my usual mature grace, if dropping the razor and screeching, "Oh, holy FUCK!" qualifies as mature and graceful.  Anyway, the Band-Aid keeps getting in the way and hitting the capslock key, so every time I try to type something it comes out looking liKE THis.   Nice.

But that's hardly relevant. 

Oh, and my mom's coming up for Parents' Weekend or whatever, so that's exciting.  I'll be glad to see her even though she tried to thwart my attempt to lose weight.  How?  Well, I'll tell you.


So, I'm sure that was scintillating.

Most notable of all, though, is that at long last I've caught up with Season 4 of House, because I finally found a site where I can watch the episodes online (for some reason Fox's website wasn't working.)  I have to say that I'm enjoying this season much more than the third one, probably because of the fresh faces.  I was getting tired of Cameron, Foreman, and Chase - the new blood is refreshing.  Although I am glad that they aren't entirely out of the picture. I'll admit.  Can't figure out why Cameron's blonde all of a sudden, though - personally I think she looked better as a brunette. 

Wilson is as terrific as ever, thank heaven.  God, I love that guy.  It takes balls to steal House's guitar.  Balls of steel.

Anyway, out of the new candidates, who do you guys think the new team's going to be?  Let's discuss.

Changed my FF.Net penname back to Contrarian. I switched it to Kaybur for consistency's sake, but after being Contrarian for so long I kind of flinched every time I looked at my profile page.

Interestingly enough, I went to FF.Net with the intention of switching my name, but before I did I noticed that I had a review for my Stranger Than Fiction fic, which I thought I'd read first. Turns out the great majority of that review was devoted to complaining about the fact that I'd changed my penname and asking why I'd taken down some stories. It came across as kind of belligerent, to be honest, and I almost left my name the way it was in the interest of being contrary, but the very fact that I was tempted to do that cemented my decision to switch back to Contrarian. It's appropriate, see?

Yeah, this is all so typical of me. I'll just...go to Biology now. *slinks off in embarrassment*

Just updated Accepting Irony (and a day early, too - who would've thought?), and happened to take a look at the "Published" date. Could not believe that it's been over two years since I first posted that story.

The fact that it's only seven chapters long, and that three of those chapters were written and posted within a period of about two months, makes me want to cry. *shame*

I don't know. To be honest, I'm getting a little tired of that story, but I do want to finish it - it's one of the only involved things I've written. I hope my recent chapters don't seem unenthusiastic - I do enjoy writing it, it's just the idea that's gotten a bit old.

Then again, that's not that surprising considering it's been over two years.

I've started putting together an outline for Curb Your Enthusiasm, though, so that's keeping me entertained. Yay for distractions.

Completely unrelated: I ordered the movie poster for The Golden Compass (I love His Dark Materials oh so much), and it just arrived today! It's so spiffy and big - it pretty much dominates the wall I hung it on. Although I don't think the huge roaring bear is going to encourage people to stop by. Oh, well. I hope the movie doesn't suck, because then I'd have to take it down after shelling out way too much money for shipping.

I am now officially moved in! My mom and I got here around 1 p.m. yesterday, spent an hour dragging my stuff into my dorm room, and I was unpacking in a frenzy until about seven. Grabbed dinner, then went back to the hotel to shower, because I didn't feel up to braving the community bathroom at the time, and wound up just staying the night there because my dorm isn't air-conditioned and it was f/n hot. But now I have an extra fan that I can actually feel from my bed, so I'm set, I guess.

My room is huge. A girl from the front desk showed me where it is, and when she walked in she went, "Whoa! This is a big single!" It's easily twice as big as I imagined it was going to be - my closet's even a walk-in! Maybe it was a double in another life (although it would've been really cramped if that's the case.) Anyway, it looks amazing now that I've got all my stuff set up. But my door won't stay propped open...so I'm probably giving the impression that I'm some kind of recluse.

At least I'm being honest.

Anyway, I really need to finish Chapter 7 of Accepting Irony so I can post the sixth one. I've got about an hour to kill before my friend and I go to dinner, so I'll get on that. I can meet people later.

( In which I go on and on about Curb Your Enthusiasm )

Now I really should get to bed; I'll be packing all day tomorrow and will need my energy.

I unearthed an almost year-old Stranger Than Fiction oneshot today, which I liked and therefore had to polish and post right that second. I'm not sure why I hadn't put it up before now (although I'm glad I didn't; my old ending was way too abrupt and slightly daft.) I think it had something to do with watching the movie again - I just bought it to take to college with me, and I'd forgotten how much I liked it, Karen Eiffel's character in particular.

Not that it's relevant, but that's the first fic I've written for anything other than a book. I'd like to try a House fic one of these days, but I want to actually watch the third season first (which I now own! *completely disregards dignity and dances around*) Can't wait for Season 4 - I think it starts September 25th? Could be wrong.

On a different note, we're having my brother's birthday party today even though it's not actually until the 25th. I'll be away at school by then, though, so we moved the party, which my brother insists is actually the "Kate's leaving!" celebration (the jerk), up a few days. He got some amazing gifts - I guess it's supposed to make up for all the dorm stuff I got this summer.

Huh. Hard to believe I'll be moved in by Friday. Strange that I don't feel even the slightest twinge of anxiety at that thought; I'm probably suppressing it. I'm sure I'll be a right mess after I'm dropped off, provided I'm not distracted by shiny things and the other people on my floor.

I will never understand why I can't seem to focus on one project at a time. Almost as soon as I finished typing out random ideas for Curb Your Enthusiasm, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to write a Twilight fic.

It would be fine if these ideas were for one-shots. Those are manageable. But this Twilight plot bunny is a monster in the making.

And apparently I suddenly have this fascination with more peripheral characters, because who am I inspired to write about but Angela. Not just a quick reflection from her perspective, but a novel-length AU fic in which she is made into one of Victoria's newborn soldiers.

( An explanation and an excerpt )

I was rereading my old fic Terms of Endearment earlier today, just refreshing my memory before I prepared to rewrite it. And I realized that it really bothers me, worse than I remembered. I laughed at a few lines, but I spent the majority of the time wincing. What I had acknowledged but laughed off before was suddenly glaringly, glaringly obvious to me: the story is plotless, and its plotlessness in no way enhances the humor. It's just lazy.

So I sat discontentedly for a while, trying to think of a way that I could give the fic a point, but I failed. The problem is that I started it before Ptolemy's Gate was released, so now I can't logically have Nathaniel and Kitty running into each other the way they were, and I don't really feel like writing another AU fic.

But I really like the journal format, I argued with myself, and I don't want to just scrap the idea - that was a year of my life!

And for no real reason, I thought, "There are so many good Nat/Kitty stories already...I wonder if there are any Nathaniel/Piper stories out there."

After which I believe I thought something like, "OH."

Thus Curb Your Enthusiasm: A Reluctant Love Story was born.

( So now I'll talk about that for a while. )

Anyway. Shutting up now.

That crackling sound you hear? That would be Hell freezing over. I have actually updated a story.

I was a few chapters ahead of myself on Accepting Irony, so I went ahead and took it off hiatus. It's been so long since I posted anything that I forgot how to upload a new chapter. A bit embarrassing, but I felt productive all the same once I figured it out. And today in Best Buy, while helping my mom choose a birthday present for my brother, I got the greatest idea for that fic. It deviates a lot (well, entirely) from the plotline I'd originally worked out, but I have so little written that it doesn't matter - I won't even have to rewrite anything.

No one's going to review, but I can't say I care. I'm excited about the sixth chapter - it's my favorite in the story so far, probably because Bartimaeus is featured prominently.

I'd go on, but I have to feed the dog. Lucky you.

So my months-long unofficial break from fanfiction is pretty much over - I almost had to hack into my own account, but I finally outguessed myself and logged in the proper way (good thing; I wouldn't have the first idea how to hack into anything.)  I updated my contact info, changed my password to something I'll actually remember, and deleted four of my stories.  Two of them will not be coming back, the other two will, once I finish revising them.

I'll admit, I was a little sad to lose the reviews for 'Terms of Endearment'.  But the story really bothered me - I reread it and knew I could make it better.  And for all my rambling and the general plotlessness of my stories, I really am anal about my writing.  It would just be sitting there in my profile, mocking me.  I couldn't let that happen.  Could not.

Then I finally wrote the fifth chapter of Accepting Irony.  All that writer's block, and then in a day I forced myself to just write it anyway.  It was a revelation, I tell you.  I guess I'm too passive.  

It needs polishing, granted.  And I won't post it until I have another couple of chapters written, so there won't be another huge gap between updates.  But now that I remember where I was headed with it (I need to start backing up my story notes - I had the chapters but not my outline), that should be fairly simple.

Anyway, I need to shower so I can go out in public and get some food.  There is no food in my house.  None.

Later.