rodo's journal

Random #34

2012-02-06T14:32:50Z

☞ I went ice skating today. On my still brand new (15-year-old) skates. I lasted maybe ten minutes, fell on my knees once and I’ll probably have sore muscles later. I really am the least sporty person in the world, but maybe the weather lasts a few more days and I can try again.

☞ Rani is fine. Finally. She’s been spayed and her diarrhea is gone, hopefully for good. Since then, she’s been even more active and had a growth spurt during which her weight doubled. She likes to run around like crazy half the day and even toppled over my giant stack of books.

☞ I have an X-Box! And X-Box LIVE account (predictably called rodototal – in case someone knows how the friending thing works), that it took me three hours to set up because the help pages were singularly unhelpful. Yesterday, I tried a shooter for the first time (Crysis 2). I am still very bad at the shooting thing (why do the enemies have to move?), but at least I don’t die all the time in casual mode.

☞ If any of you have recs for Spanish language media or fic, now’s the time to tell me, since exposure has proven to be the most useful for me in learning and I am actually taking a course I don’t want to fail. I know someone on my dwircle recced a TV series with angels and demons a while back. I am also thinking about acquiring a book with poems, maybe Neruda, if the local shops have them. I am also open for comics and series/movies with subtitles (still a beginner, after all).

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Wisława Szymborska (1923 - 2012)

2012-02-02T13:17:49Z

It's not everyday that your favourite poet dies. Yesterday was that day. The cat toppled over my stack of books as well, so when I got up this morning, I dug my copy of one of her books out of the rubble.

Rest in peace, Wisława Szymborska, and may your poems be remembered forever.

Freude am Schreiben.
Möglichkeit des Erhaltens.
Vergeltung der sterblichen Hand.

As translated into German by Karl Dedecius.

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Mini Meta 2012

2012-01-25T05:22:17Z

I've been working on these longer than it seems, but here all three prompts are, all on one post:

( I. Usage of other languages in your English fic (foreign characters, emphasis) - getting it wrong/right )

( II. What makes THE movie fandom (big, e.g. XMFC, Inception, Avengers) )

( III. Do you ever come across statements in fic that seem wrong to you, but aren't easily verifiable? )

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Random #33

2011-12-19T19:04:15Z

☞ Due to RL troubles, I didn't get around to updating yet again. That's especially dumb of me because I have actually been writing fic. lian was kind enough to support me by betaing, so after years of not managing it, I wrote an advent calender (hopefully it's finished soon): Mass Effect Adventskalender 2011. As the name suggests, it's a series of ficlets, written in German, and the fandom is Mass Effect.

☞ While we're on the topic: I am hopelessly addicted to ME. Still. I can't wait for part three. I always thought shooters weren't for me, but I was obviously wrong. The more I play it, the more I think that Male!Shep is dreadfully boring too. Which is probably kind of odd, since Fem!Shep is more or less like Male!Shep, but she still rocks. Maybe it's because of the voice actress, or maybe because she does everything the male version does.

☞ I'm thinking of acquiring an X-Box 360 (mostly because it seems to have most of the games I'd like to play), but since the last gaming console I owned was... ehrm... a Sega Master System, if I'm not mistaken, I have no idea what is most useful or what type of equipment/TV I'd need. Any advice?

☞ I went to the Christmas market in Bremen today. Really late, but I still needed to buy food for the holidays (ramyeon), so of course I had to have fried mushrooms and garlic sauce (my favourite Christmas market food). Which meant I ended up buying manga as well, some paper, a ring that almost fits on my ring fingers and sweets. It's not as if I don't have enough Christmassy food, though. I made mincemeat pies for the first time yesterday, for example.

☞ If anyone has a recipe for marzipan, especially low sugar marzipan, please tell me. I tried to find marzipan for my mother, only to find out that the EU outlawed diet food. Which means my mother now has the choice between no sweets etc. ever or run of the mill sugary stuff she's not supposed to have. I'd rather try to make some on my own and substitute sugar with artificial sweetener or something. My mother loves her marzipan.

☞ Cat news: Rani still has a bit of diarrhea, but she didn't poop anywhere in the last week. She's got E. coli in her bowels (you know, the EHEC stuff), and if the current treatment doesn't help, she'll have to take anti-biotics. She's otherwise healthy, though.

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Cat News

2011-11-21T20:38:06Z

I think I mentioned that I now own a cat already? And at least some of you have already seen her. She's cute, black and called Rani. She's also very into human slaves and beds (meaning me, mostly) and that makes it sort of difficult to type a lot, work on stories or anything useful. I need two arms for that and one is occupied by a dozing cat about 50% of the day. Right now, Rani is dozing on my legs, so I can still not get up, but at least I can type. Oh, and she goes berserk when anyone tries to eat human food near her. I know, I tried. And ended up with a cat in my stew.

Unfortunately, she also has diarrhea. She has had it since I fetched her two weeks ago, and I think it might be getting worse. We went to the vet twice already, but he just gave her something against worms and said it would be fine. The next time, he took her temperature and looked at her teeth, and apparently didn't see anything wrong, so he gave her her shot (which she coped well with). I hope it's just something harmless like food intolerance, but it definitely doesn't help that my first pet, a guinea pig, died a week after we got her. From diarrhea.

So if any of you have any advice: I'm all ears.

( And to save your dwircle, a photo of Rani in her favourite sleeping place behind the cut )

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Me, Myself and the OTW

2011-11-15T19:43:20Z

Now I hope that the OTW archive will be a lot like Animexx (which is for fanart and dōjinshi as well, and which is the website of an association), but with less focus on anime fandoms and better rules. I have also been told by someone in the OTW that they want to make it more international than ff.net, which is what I volunteered for. My Thoughts on Yaoi/the OTW by rodo, 13th January 2008

First off, this is not an election post. It is an evaluation of sorts, and an explanation as to why I do not think I can justify working for the OTW for longer if there aren’t some drastic changes. This is not me being dramatic, in fact, I feel rather sober about it all. I did cry over my keyboard, but that’s not why I write it. I did have volunteer burnout, but that was years ago. I just came to realise that within the organisation, I am powerless to express my dissatisfaction on a wider scale, and that my hopes for the OTW will likely never be realised. I can not change that, which is partly due to the communication culture within the organisation, a culture that I am not equipped to deal with.

( 1. Forced Positivity – the OTW’s equivalent of Newspeak )

( 2. What I Came To Achieve and What I Didn’t )

After about four years, here I am, trying to figure out the chances of the OTW becoming what I dreamed of. And I think they are slim. I fought windmills for years and failed. So unless somebody can convince me that there absolutely will be radical changes soon, I don’t think I can justify my continued involvement. Because after four years of development, how can my priority not be an afterthought?

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To start this off...

2011-11-14T12:20:33Z

Okay, so I have been silent for ages again. I didn't exactly plan on it, but I kept putting everything off, and other stuff I'm not supposed to talk about, and... well, most of you probably know what it is like.

So, to ease myself back into posting, I'll post some pictures of my Shepard from Mass Effect 2 a great game that I've played way too often, although Rani isn't particularly fond of all the shooting. Rani would be my new miniature panther who is currently running around somewhere, probably trying to catch her persistent stalker (AKA her tail), or begging for human food (which she isn't allowed to eat). So far, she seems to be a powerful anti-depressant. Maybe I'll post a little video with her under flock.

Anyway, lian, I hope you are happy:

( Four Shepard pictures behind the cut. )

Maybe I'll elaborate on me quitting the OTW later, or rather most likely quitting, because I don't see the board doing what I need them to do to stay on. Well, we'll see next month.

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Dorama Recs The Second

2011-08-25T20:35:15Z

I still haven’t finished my current dorama binge (hey, I haven’t even worked my way up to the Chinese and Japanese doramas), so I decided to do a recs post every time I have five series to recommend. I have a type when it comes to series that I do watch, so some elements are bound to repeat themselves. So here are two historical dramas, one about conmen, one about revenge and one about an unlikely couple. Not in that order.

( City Hunter, Iljimae, Oh! My Lady, The Return of Iljimae, Tazza )

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Random #32

2011-08-17T15:29:47Z

☞ I'm sick. I'm a terrible sick person. I'm as whiny as a stereotypical man, only I get way more clingy. So I try to compensate by writing an entry.

☞ My entry for parallelsfic: The Taming of a Crazy Horse (2278 words, fandom: Sungkyunkwan Scandal, pairing: Yong Ha/Jae Shin. I'll repost it once I get around to sorting the epic amount of screencaps I took during the rewatch.

☞ Another series you should definitely be watching is Teen Wolf. You didn't see that one coming, I bet. But seriously, it's good entertainment. Not necessarily intelligent entertainment, but good anyway. It's also definitely a series for girls. There's just no other reason for featuring so many half-naked men. Apart from that: the series plays with your espectations (Lydia!), there's a star-crossed romance, the dumbest main character ever (which is awesome, I promise), a best friend with ADD (<3 Stiles) and decent horror and humour.

And now I'll crawl back into bed and curl up with Ghost Story. Or maybe I'll watch Personal Preference instead. Way too many choices.

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Random #31

2011-07-29T15:14:23Z

Okay, so I disappeared again. I swear I didn't mean to, it's just... well, you know. Shiny that distracts you, like City Hunter, the awesome Korean drama that ended yesterday, my meds and the weather, who I think might be responsible for me requiring 16 hours of sleep per day some weeks, the fic exchange that I sighned up for (more on that later) and me just generally being distracted, lazy and short-attention-spanned.

So what have I been doing? I finished the fic for the exchange, which is now in need of an English native speaker who could beta read it. Because it is due on August 1st and I my English has become worse lately. And possibly rather purple. So if any of you feel the strong need to procrastinate on something important by betaing fic, I'm the person to talk to. I also have two Highlander drafts in German (triple drabble and ~10k) to offer by the way.

Regarding the fandom of the exchange fic: I will reveal it next month, and I took a lot of screenshots while I did the review, so I might post a picspam too. Provided my laziness etc. doesn't get the better of me.

And now I have to go earn some money, since I'm all out of reasons not to. And drink some sparkling wine to fight the tiredness.

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Attention: This Is a Real Life Post

2011-05-20T12:59:41Z

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted a lot lately. One reason for that is, as I mentioned, my recent obsession with dramas. Another reason is far more difficult for me to write about, since I lack all the vocabulary. Which is odd, really. My English is very good by now, but in some areas, I just don’t know how to express myself. Two of them being cooking/baking and gardening.

So while I spent a lot of time outside, I thought about what kind of flowers I would pick as a child, how vicious some weeds are, when which herbs were to be planted, which flowers to pick and so on and so forth. Oddly enough, I found out I already know most of the words – I might even feel confident in using them in fiction or a poem – I just had no idea what the thing behind the word is supposed to look like. I knew that lady’s smock is a wildflower with small blossoms of a pale violet, but I didn’t know that I used to pick them and arrange them with buttercups (which I am not supposed to call that, since this particular flower is only called that in the southern parts of Germany, according to wiki). I knew parsley was a common kitchen herb, but I didn’t know it referred to Petersilie. In a way, I think my knowledge of these words was as theoretical as the knowledge a blind person has of some visual terms.

( So this post means I’m working on my vocabulary, mostly. )

My next project is going to be the old herb garden, which is … well, there is no ivy and an immense redcurrant bush (my fault, too) instead of holly, which means it should be easier, right?

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Dorama Recs – Because My Addiction to Other TV Series Is Evidently Not Enough

2011-04-23T17:03:33Z

So, I’ve been watching dorama again. This isn’t the first time, but this time I’ve actually managed to finish more than one series because I didn’t have to rely on my ex-flatmate to supply me with new material. She always gave up on everything after the first couple of episodes. Memory like a goldfish, attention span of a fly.

Anyway, after a few tries, I found out what I disliked about the dorama that I watched a few years ago. Many have love triangles or – if the authors feel like it – love dodecahedrons, and for some reason I almost always dislike the main guy that eventually ends up getting the girl. The second male lead is nice, far more attractive and really awesome, while the male main character is an asshole that treats the female main character like shit. Yeah, not so much my thing. Some series can make it work for me, but most can’t. I don’t think I’m the only one with this problem, so here are a few dorama recs from me:

( Coffee Prince, Hong Gil Dong, Powerful Opponents, Strongest Chil Woo, Sungkyunkwan Scandal )

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Random #30

2011-04-20T13:06:40Z

☞ Yes, still around, more or less. I'm still watching a lot of K-dramas, and there's the draft of a recs post on my hard drive somewhere. I'll put it up when I've finished another two or three dramas, which could take anywhere from five days to five weeks.

☞ The timeline is this vague because a lot depends upon the weather, which happens to be very much not April weather at the moment. And whenever it is a sunny day, I have to work in the garden. I'm not very useful there (allergies), so I get to weed (more like de-jungle) the flower beds and watch over the herbs and stuff. My mother doesn't like doing that, so she hasn't done it in years. My father had the bright idea of planting ivy too, which means that I now have to weed the garden using a saw, among other tools. I probably killed the crocusses too, which had been MIA for years because they were buried under dead grass, ivy, leaves and weeds, but miraculously still alive. If the weather remains good, I might be done in a month or so. With the one flower bed.

☞ My mother isn't that much of a help either. I had to drive her to get X-rays yesterday because she fell off a ladder and "I'm fine" isn't very convincing when she can barely move. She is fine, except for some bruises, and hasn't been whining as much since.

☞ I, on the other hand, have been feeling better healthwise, so maybe I will manage to do some research (I have to give the books back in two weeks ...) and work on my stories. I hope, at least. And wait anxiously for rain.

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Fic: Schminke

2011-04-18T16:28:28Z

Titel: Schminke
Fandom: Highlander
Autor: rodo
Länge: 100 Wörter
Rating: 6+
Charaktere: Methos, Silas
A/N: Diese Geschichte ist Teil meines Beitrags zum Projekts Twentyfive auf ff.de, bearbeitet wurde das Stichwort "Wer schön sein will muss leiden". Eine Übersicht gibt es unter Et in Arcadia ego.
Inhalt: Eine Szene aus dem Alltag der Reiter.

( „Muss das wirklich sein, Methos?“, maulte Silas. )

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Random #29

2011-03-04T13:25:05Z

... where did that month go again? I swear, it was around here somewhere. Anyway:

☞ I have been vaguely sick. Meaning that I am too tired to stay awake for an entire day for some reason. If I stay awake for too long, I get a headache that will only get worse until I get to sleep for an hour or two. No clue what exactly is wrong. Maybe it's just the time of the year.

☞ I completely forgot to mention that I participated in the Lunar New Year Exchange on white_lotus, didn't I? Well, I did! I got a lovely picture of Toph by zephre and I wrote Less Than a Day in Paradise, which follows Azula after the end of the series. I swear I will get around to replying to the comments some day.

☞ I caved and started playing Echo Bazaar, even though I said I would never do that.

☞ And finally: I rediscovered my love for dorama. I watched Sungkyunkwan Scandal and it is just adorable. Must rewatch Coffee Prince (with English subtitles this time), and if any of you have recs for me, please comment!

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Random #28

2011-02-11T19:12:28Z

☞ Interesting survey at http://survey.scimitarsmile.com/

☞ I finally read Side Stories, the Dresden Files short stories book. And I really, really wish Butcher would not write in the PoV of people other than Harry. ( Cut for spoilers. )

☞ Mostly over the shock I got last Sunday. Still haven't replied to the e-mail, but I will show up at the meeting tomorrow and talk with the others. Hopefully I will successfully attack Neil's behaviour with my passive-aggressive, defense-focussed style. If it doesn't work - well, no more meeting with other hobby writers in RL. Probably won't stay as long because I will need anti-anxiety meds that only last two hours too. I hate being afraid of people I like.

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Wake Up, Yestergeek: The Times They Are A-Changing

2011-02-05T19:58:40Z

A/N: I read seperis’ “well, yeah, if by geek culture you mean men” and had Opinions on “Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die” as well, and I also have to work on my inkitout word count a bit ...

( Read more... )

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Yuletide The Last

2011-01-04T13:04:01Z

Okay, so it took me a terribly long time to work through all the Yuletide fic, and I wanted to write only one rec post. In case you haven't figured it out: this is it. I'll start with my gift, which is a lovely fic about Main Hoon Na a movie that is the ultimate crack.

Over The Face Of the Water (1097 words) by thedeadparrot
Fandom: Main Hoon Na
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Ram Sharma, Lakshman Sharma
Summary:

Lucky lets go.

And under the cut you can find recs for: ( Caprica, Di Renjie|Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Downton Abbey, Dresden Files, FlashForward, Gargoyles, Hua Mulan, Lost Girl, Maurice, Neverwhere, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi|Spirited Away, Spooks|MI-5, Warehouse 13 )

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Fic: Der 50. Geburtstag oder Dinner for Five

2011-01-02T14:46:41Z

Title: Der 50. Geburtstag oder Dinner for Five
Fandom: Dinner for One
Length: 1793 words
Rating: 6+
Characters/Pairings: James, Sir Toby, Admiral von Schneider/Mr. Pommeroy, Mr. Winterbottom/Miss Sophie
Labels: humour, prequel
Beta: my family, sevilemar and cesy
A/N: Written for rebecca2525 and originally posted at the Yuletide 2010 collection.

( James went over everything again. The food was prepared, the dinner table was arranged perfectly … yes, everything was fine. )

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Fic: Beyond a Thousand Bars, No World

2011-01-01T12:09:53Z

Title: Beyond a Thousand Bars, No World
Fandom: Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken | Love in Thoughts
Length: 4359 words
Rating: 12+
Characters: Günther Scheller, Paul Krantz, Hilde Scheller, Hans Stephan
Labels: sadness, prequel, canon pairings, Günther/Paul
Beta: anotherslashfan and kristin.
A/N: Written for doveheart and originally posted in the Yuletide collection on the AO3

( The magnolias were in full bloom, shedding white petals over the ground below them. )

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Odysseen und Interna – Fanfiktion.de und die Frage nach Antworten

2010-12-15T01:43:23Z

Wie ich eingangs des letzten Posts ja erwähnt habe, wurde ich als Operator von Fanfiktion.de gefeuert. An sich macht mir das wenig aus, und immerhin hat es mir die Entscheidung erleichtert, ob ich überhaupt noch Operator sein möchte. Warum genau ich gefeuert wurde weiß ich nicht so ganz. Einerseits gab es eine Reihe von unglücklichen Zufällen, denke ich, und andererseits ... tja. Eine wirklich zufriedenstellende Begründung habe ich jedenfalls immer noch nicht bekommen. Es liegt aber auf jeden Fall an den folgenden Dingen:

( Der Tweet. )

( Der Chat )

( Gefeuert. )

( Die Gründe )

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Fanfiktion.de - Ein Einblick hinter die Kulissen

2010-12-11T15:47:54Z

(Geschrieben anlässlich der Tatsache, dass ich aus mir unbekanntem Grund aus dem OP-Team geflogen bin.)

Ich war insgesamt über ein Jahr Operator bei Fanfiktion.de. Freiwillig, denn hauptsächlich hatte ich Interesse daran, einfach mal zu schauen, was man als normaler Nutzer nicht zu sehen bekommt. Also habe ich zugesagt. Und das obwohl ich mit der Seite immer schon so meine Problemchen hatte. Nun, um ehrlich zu sein war mein Problem weniger die Seite an sich, und auch mit den Regeln konnte ich ganz gut umgehen. Mein größtes Manko, wie ich auch schon in einem anderen Post erörtert habe, ist Helge. Wer diesen Eindruck auch so schon hat, der wird ihn mit absoluter Sicherheit auch bestätigt bekommen.

Auf Fanfiktion.de gibt es einige Regeln, die ich nicht unbedingt optimal finde, die meisten davon lassen sich aber nicht umgehen, wenn man auf einer in Deutschland gehosteten Seite postet. Hier gibt es nun einmal strengere Regeln für den Umgang mit potentiell jugendgefährdendem Material. Und Sachen ab 18 dürfen einfach nicht offen zugänglich sein, zumindest sobald die Seite eine gewisse Größe erreicht und sich der Aufmerksamkeit von vielen Seiten nicht mehr entziehen kann. Einige Regelung, wie zum Beispiel das AVL-Rating, sind dämlich, aber an und für sich nicht schädlich. Gleiches gilt für das Slash-Rating und die Reviewauflistung auf der ersten Seite. Diese Meinung hatte ich auch durch meine ganze Zeit als Operator, auch wenn ich öffentlich die Entscheidungen verteidigen musste.

( Denn: )

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Random #27

2010-11-22T11:08:25Z

☞ Wrote 50.000 words. Finished 2010.11.19. Will post later to show off my badge.

☞ Volunteered to rake leaves. Don't know what overcame me. Probably didn't remember that it's hard work. And that we have a big garden. With a lot of trees, most of them of the leafy variety. Only managed to rake a fragment of our sphagnum lawn. It didn't help that my mother insisted on waiting until the ground was sodden and all the leaves had dropped.

☞ Went to yvi's on Saturday. Had lots of fun with her, zing_och and temve. And her cats. Even though they wouldn't cuddle (the cats, I'm sure the others would have been up to it). It's always good to meet other fans, and this is the first time I went to a meeting. It's definitely an experience worth repeating.

☞ Got assigned the fandom I least wanted to write about in Yuletide. I have to admit that I don't even like the canon and I only signed up for it because it really is super rare and I watched it ages ago. On the plus side, she wants angsty and character based (which I can probably do) and says she will be happy with any fic for the fandom. And research should be relatively easy, I just hope I won't lose myself in it, because the topic is interesting. Or that I won't project too many of my issues on the character. Dear dwircle, expect to be asked to beta.

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Random #26

2010-11-14T02:20:37Z

☞ I've got a cold. The first one in 1,5 years. It's okayish, as far as colds go (no fever, for one), except for the headache. I hope it goes away soon, because I'm not used to this much anti-pain meds (two paracetamol in a day, most people will laugh at me) and I don't know how it'll interact with my other meds (which are working surprisingly well, by the way), and because I've got stuff to do:

☞ Yuletide, for one. I signed up again, and I hope I'll manage to write something decent in a month, even though I might not get it betaed in time. That took up the most time last year. And if I don't get assigned the crackiest fandom on my list I might just write something extra for it if I find the time and the recipient. It's just so cracky. And I love it.

☞ NaNoWriMo is going well. It's also part of the reason why I was absent a lot this month and why I have the cold. I probably caught that one during the real life meeting in the city last weekend. Anyway, since I had something of a rough plot and actual planning, I might just rewrite this one (didn't I say that with the others as well?), despite the fact that it taught me something new about myself: I write very purple het porn. If I'm lucky and write a bit faster, I'll even be finished when the Yuletide assignments are sent out. With the 50k, not the story, mind you. That just started.

☞ OTW elections are ... next weekish? Anyway, I'll vote. For Hele, because she is awesome and dedicated and incredibly good at interpersonal stuff and being on time for things. Even though she'll deny it.

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Random #25

2010-10-23T13:43:00Z

☞ Yes, I’m still here. I just noticed that it has been almost two months. Wow. Well, a) I was rather busy and b) I had nothing to post. I have two and a half story drafts finished, but my beta is MIA and so I haven’t posted them yet.

☞ I also will be rather busy during the next few weeks, because I will participate in NaNoWriMo again (jaaaarne, I added you to my buddy list). I even have something of a plan. I have no finale for the story, but an idea where the story in headed and who the protagonists are.

☞ I have a new obsession: Avatar: The Last Airbender. The series is adorable beyond belief. And the fanfic is quite good too. Well, I don’t ship Zutara, so that narrows it down a bit. Curiously enough, most of the fanfic seems to be posted on ff.net, so I spend much more time there for a change.

☞ I will also participate in Yuletide this year. We’ll see how that works out. I nominated Heroic Legend of Arslan, Main Hoon Na, Raumpatrouille Orion, Rome, Anatolia Story and Survivors. If everything goes according to plan I’ll post an entry about the three soonish. If not, there’s always Wikipedia.

☞ Also, hopefully, OTW retrospective. I’m too busy this weekend.

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