you live your life as if it's real

what more than love, sir?

2008-06-22T18:29:07Z

Why I don't mind talking to my 11-year-old cousin on msn, even though most of the time her emoticons and sparkly animations try and blind me:

Five minutes later, she sends me:

(Resized, because it was HUGE.) XDDDD

Too cute. (I wonder what she'd have done, though, if I'd said the first name that came to mind: Oscar Wilde.)

hope you catch me on a good day

2008-06-21T00:03:26Z

Miscellanea:

♦ Re-subbed "Paradise Is a World of Trees" today. Time to wait a month. Fingers crossed, but hopes not too high.
♦ New lj layout. I quite, quite like it.
♦ No dance class tomorrow. That feels so weird. I can sleep in on a Saturday? It sort of makes me sad, actually.
♦ I am really hungry and I hope our take-out pizza gets here soon.
♦ The NHL draft is really quite boring, when you aren't a super hockey fan. I just sit here and comment on random people ("yellow tie and blue shirt? ick") while my housemates comment on the actual events ("so either they get a second this year, and a late round next year, or..."). To each their own.

as a rapturous voice escapes i will tremble a prayer

2008-06-18T22:13:22Z

Meme! Stolen from this girl I went to school with like... 8-6 years ago. Good old facebook. But I am not posting the meme there, because my lj is cooler.

SCATTERGORIES- it's harder than it looks!
Use the first letter of your first name to answer each of the following.
They have to be real places, names, things - nothing made up. Try to use
different answers if the person in front of you had the same first initial
- which by the way is hard if you already have read their answers! You
cannot use your own name for the boy/girl names.

1. What is your name? Lillian

2. A 4 letter word: loop

3. A vehicle: lambourghini (did I spell that right? I think I did.)

4. A city: London

5. A boy's name: Leonard

6. A girl's name: Lesley!

7. Alcoholic drink: long island ice tea

8. An occupation: lifeguard

9. Something you wear: lipstick

10. A celebrity: Leonardo di Caprio

11. A food: lasagna

12. Something found in a bathroom: linoleum

13. Reason for being late: lost keys

14. Cartoon Character: Linus

15. Something you shout: look out!

16. An animal: leopard

17. A body part: lung

18. Word to describe yourself: lovely XD

Hurrah for wasting some time. Back to proofreading I go now, I guess.

but her eyes were still so clear

2008-06-17T18:49:12Z

Dear f-list,

I have a question.

Can anyone think of a third female mythological figure who was tempted by a fruit? I have Persephone with the pomegranate, and Eve with the apple, but I'd really like a third. Threes are just so nice and complete, plus I have a story brewing that wants three. But I can't think of a third woman.

It's bothering me, cause I feel really thick. Any help, f-list?

<3
Lillian

(Dear LJ, no love for eating my entry. You're lucky it was short and I remembered it all. Please don't do it again. Thanks.)

llwheeler @ 2008-06-15T18:22:00

2008-06-15T22:43:47Z

I submitted my poem, "Paradise is a World of Trees," to newWitch on the 13th. Got a rejection today. (First rejection ever, actually, since I still haven't heard back from my other submission). I'm not too down about it, and actually pretty happy that it was so fast. I like this poem a lot, so I'll send it out again. Haven't figured out where yet, but I'll find somewhere.

My apostrophe/quote key is sticking and it's really frustrating. Apparently my right pinky finger isn't very strong.

Today was the dance recital, and now I'm really tired. Dance recital and then grocery shopping = sore, sore feet. It was fun though... obviously about a thousand things went wrong, but overall I think everything came off pretty well. Our Clocks choreography was hilarious cause none of us knew what we were doing at all, but the one dance mom I talked to said it looked good. Then again, moms (even if it's not my Mom) are pretty much obliged to say that.

Most hilarious thing ever though... our choreography to Mairi's Wedding (except we changed songs a couple weeks ago, but never changed the title of the dance, and my teacher spelt it Marii instead) ended with a ten person reel. Basically we were just doing highland reel movements, weaving in and out to get off the stage. Anyways, for some reason we only had 9 dancers today, and so two of the girls mucked up the reel formation and totally smashed into each other hahahahhah. Seriously like full body collision. I managed to avoid also being hit, but it was almost a four person pile up. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard as soon as I got offstage.

Now no more dancing for me until the Cambridge Highland games. Oh that reminds me, bluebonnets, do you know if anyone from KR's is going to that? It should be a good time. I'm dancing in the ceildh July 18th, and volunteering for the competition on the 19th and 20th.

"NO! Dance woman!"

2008-06-13T03:07:18Z

OI. I totally forgot to flail about Made of Honor!

I saw it last Saturday with my darling titania_torres, and omg yay Scotland! Okay, so they were mostly making fun of Scottish traditions, lolololol haggis is made out of gross things, and so on.

But there was highland dancing! (Not especially impressive technically, and they just showed like two shedding movements, but whatever! Highland dancing! Done properly!* In a movie!) And there was caber tossing! And sporrans! And lots of kilts! And bagpipes! And when I left the theatre, I was singing the Laddie cause the main Scottish guy (the one the female lead is going to marry) plays it at one point. The other tunes they played on the bagpipes during the course of the movie were all really familiar ones too.

Seriously though. Awesome. I guess I should have expected it, since the trailers clearly say they all go to Scotland, but for some reason it never occured to me that Hollywood cramming every stereotype possible into the movie would include dancing. So I got really excited when all of a sudden the screen was full of ghillies, wool socks, and second position.

bluebonnets, someday we should totally get all the dancing-types together, rent this and pretend we're back in Scotland. There were no chocolate muffins though, which is how you know it's not realistic.

(Other than the highland dance nerd factor, it was a pretty good movie. A nice chick flick. Jokes, good looking man, happily ever after, you know.)

And xsilvan, where are youuuu? I just found out that I have to go to my family reunion, so I have a couple days less time in Ottawa =( Now I get in sometime the night of Thursday the 26th, then Saturday afternoon to Monday morning I'm in Brockville. So Friday, d'you want to do something?

*Anyone ever see Fred Astaire pretend to highland dance? I forget what movie it was in, but it was brutal and made me cry in my heart a little bit. Actually come to think of it, it might have been Gene Kelly. I've seen a lot of old dancing movies, okay, give me a break.

when our lips first met you didn't get the hang of it

2008-06-11T17:38:24Z

Hey, I just realized, I'm 19.

Okay, I've been 19 for a while now. I even usually remember that. But I had forgotten until just now what I was going to have done by this point in my life.

When I was, oh, I don't know, maybe 10 or 11, I heard or read somewhere that Gordan Korman was published at age 18. (I don't even know if that's true, but this is my memory). I decided that I wouldn't be able to beat him, but I would try and be really close. So I decided I would be an author by the time I was 19. I have this really distinct memory of sitting down and thinking everything out, very serious and very proud of myself for being so reasonable with my goals. (Not that I phrased it in quite those words as a kid, but that's the feeling I remember).

So yeah. I'm 19. Where's my book on the shelves at all the Chapters? =P

It's weird to look back though, and remember just how far away 19 seemed at the time. That was how old my dance and gymnastics teachers were, and they seemed so old. Now I am 19, and I just feel... really, really, really young.

I'm not going to try and make a new goal for myself to be published by. I'd almost forgotten about this one anyways. I'm just going to keep trying to write every day. Need to finish something before anything can be published.

it's not how long you live, but what your morals say

2008-05-29T02:02:05Z

A quick observation:

There is very little that feels better than coming home after a muscle strength and cardio class and curling up in the sunbeam on my bed to catnap and read Lord of the Rings.

Just saying.

llwheeler @ 2008-05-10T17:46:00

2008-05-10T22:09:44Z

"Summer of Storms"
Word count: 828 (Thurs) + 684 (Fri)
Total word count: 3,974
Finished! (Well, for some values of finished. Needs to go through the crit group, and I already can see some stuff that needs work. But the next revision will actually be just revision, not rewriting.)

Now I'm working on "Sparagmos." After that, not sure. Possibly "The Beginning of Change" which just needs a rewrite on the ending, or possibly revisions on two poems.

I figure I should put some time in now on my actual job. Since I'm being paid for it and all...

But before that, dance class today was so much fun. I love learning choreographies. And my teacher had the coolest new cd. She's going to burn it for me. Bagpipe versions of all sorts of songs... We Will Rock You, Eye of the Tiger, Clocks... and so many others that I can't remember. I only got to listen to a couple tracks, but it is sweeeeet.

Nothing else to report really. Everything is pretty much at the status quo.

llwheeler @ 2008-05-09T00:07:00

2008-05-09T04:11:21Z

In nerdy and belated news,

Saw Ironman on Monday, and OMG wow it is much love. The same sort of much love as Transformers.

-fangirls-

ALSO! The trailer for the new Batman movie played, and it looks AMAZING. Amazing.

-fangirls more-

so please forgive these few brief awkward lines

2008-05-02T13:55:26Z

I think I'm being given a hint here...

I have no bed at my parents' house, since my dad took mine. I've been sleeping on a futon in the basement this whole visit home.

Now, I have no key either. It's been taken away to be the key for the lock-box for the real estate agent.

I can take a hint, guys. No bed, no keys? I don't think I'm welcome here anymore :P

And they're selling the house, too, so soon I won't even have it to come home to. Sign goes up on the front lawn today!

Et avec ça, it's back to the salt-mines for me. I hate packing. I'm so so bad at it.

(Oh, and it looks like I'm heading back to Waterloo a day earlier than planned.)

but all her looks were too sad

2008-05-01T18:51:43Z

Because I don't know what else to do with this, have some melodramatic!poetry (also, by extension, shitty!poetry):

Quand T'es Parti

Je ne peut rien penser sauf
Tu me manques,
Je ne peut rien dire sauf
Je t'aime encore,
Je ne peut rien sentir
Quand t'es parti.

This got me thinking though -- someday, I'd love to start up a 'zine for bilingual English-French short fiction and poetry. It would be geared towards Canadians (could probably get an arts grant for it), and would have an equal number of English and French works published in it. Not only that, but it would also encourage works that combine both languages together within the same poem/story. As far as I know (and I don't know much, since I haven't gone searching), there's nothing like that out there currently. Who knows, there's probably something similar started up already, I hope there is. But if not, well, then maybe someday I will start it. Cause I think it's a damn good idea.

What do you guys think, crazy idea or workable idea? (Or "run a damned Google search already, Lillian, it's been done" ?)

ETA: Did a Google search -- found this site, which will be useful for market hunting, and specifically aea magazine, which does accept submissions in both English and French. From a quick scan, though, that seems to be the only one listed there.

but her eyes were still so clear

2008-04-29T18:40:43Z

Oh boy have I ever been scarce. Well, a lot of the reason I've been holding off posting is that I was waiting to hear back on the job I wanted this summer. Also, I've just been hella busy. But I have a lot of really exciting updates that I can finally post here.

First, about the job. I had my interview on Friday morning, and I was pretty confident it went well. Got an email this morning from the prof. in charge, and they're hiring me! So I am officially spending my summer buried neck deep in 800-year old Latin, hurray! I get to proofread the automatic text generated version of scanned images of the text. Mostly I'm sure it will be really tedious, but I get to work with one of my favourite profs (the other prof on the project I have never met before), I get to make some money, and most of all, I get experience that is right in the proper field that I want to go in. I am insanely excited =)

Second, about my teeth. Or lack of them... I had all four wisdom teeth pulled yesterday. It was a whole lot of not-fun, but at least it's done. And I guess I'm pretty lucky too. My dentist, as he was pulling them and telling me what he was doing, at one point goes "okay, so the top two are out. They're usually the easiest, so that's why I started with them, the bottom two are usually harder to get out." Pause while he takes out the two bottom ones, and then: "oh... your bottom two came out even easier than the top." He sounded a little bemused, haha. Anyways, my appointment was scheduled for an entire hour longer than I was sitting in the chair. And I had the nice hygenist. Actually, I think all hygenists are saints, must be a job requirement. But I had the extra nice one. All in all, it was pretty good I guess. It was the nausea and inability to keep anything down -- not even water -- later on in the day that was the worst. Today seems better though. Only a brief bit of nausea, and I've managed to eat soup, and my mouth isn't hurting too too bad.

Third, about my sister. She flipped over the handlebars of her bike last Sunday and the doctors were pretty sure she had a broken elbow. This was awful for her as she was all set to be the star quarterback of her school football team, and something else important (hey, I don't know anything about football) for her touch football team. Plus it would mean that she would have to switch which horse she competes on in the summer, and would probably have missed the first couple shows. BUT! It isn't broken! It was just a ligament injury, so now she just has to do some exercises to regain range of motion and strength. The doctor said max. 2 weeks until she can be doing all her sports again. So today has been just full of good news.

Fourth, about my family/family home. Getting the idea why the past week has been complete insanity yet? My parents are selling the house, a prospective buyer wants a closing date of July 1st, another wants to sneak in fast before we list with an agent, all of our stuff has to be cleaned and packed away into a storage unit, my mom has bought a new house, my dad doesn't even know which city he will be looking for a condo in... it just goes on and on. But I'm really, really excited about all the changes. And my mom has agreed to store my piano until I have a place of my own for it, and my sister loves my nice mirror too much to let it be sold/left behind, so my only two larger and more precious objects are going to be taken care of.

This is getting ridiculously long, so I'm going to stop here, and hang out with my ice packs and Lord of the Rings for a while. It's been so long since I read LotR, it's so much fun to re-read it. The Fellowship, minus Gandalf, has just managed to get out of Moria. And re-reading the book, I am annoyed all over again at Liv Tyler's Arwen for stealing Glorfindel's part, but that's a rant for a different day.

they were waiting for me when I thought that I just can't go on

2008-04-05T17:49:15Z

Ten good things:

i. Today is gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful. I walked to dance class today in just a sweater!
ii. Going bowling tonight, whee!
iii. My Chaucer essay is FINISHED! (emailed it to the prof -- hope he got it with no problems -- still have to print it off and drop off the hard copy, but still. FINISHED.)
iv. Didn't muck up the championship s.t. in dance class today, so I think that's what I'll dance at the talent show on tuesday -- I'm kinda nervous, but excited, for all the classics people to get a chance to see what I do. I love a chance to show off =)
v. Going to see 21 on Wednesday again with Steph, omg yay!
vi. My Greek prof changed our essay to essentially a personal response, which means I will be able to do it in time and won't need to ask for an extension.
vii. Went out for all-you-can-eat sushi last night, mmmm. And watched Cloverfield after, which I really enjoyed.
viii. Only 13 days left until I'm finished this term. Yes, I'm counting.
ix. The last half of April looks like it will be pretty relaxing... only a booksale, wisdom teeth removal, three dii crits, and Raphael world-building scheduled. And hanging out with the Ottawa-types, of course. bluebonnets, we'd better still be on for girly drinks and sushi!
x. Just the fact that I can come up with ten good things is a good thing!

Time to do laundry now. Then print off essay and walk over to see if STJ is open on Saturdays.

if there's something wrong, who would have guessed it?

2008-03-31T00:08:44Z

2008 is a quarter over already, how did that happen?

In my New Year's Day post, I said 2008 would be a good year. And you know, so far, I'm proving myself right. This feels like a good time to remind myself of that, because March has been sort of shit overall. (March has been sort of shit for just about everyone I know, to varying degrees.) But we're only three months into 2008, and already I've managed to do quite a bit. Submitting "A Thing of Many Facets" is way up there on that list, of course, but in general, I've been doing okay. At least I think so, and that's what matters.

Plus, this term I've really been putting myself into more social situations, and the result is that now I'm being invited to more things, and making a lot more friends. (A Big Deal for someone as shy as I am, or was). I've realized that whatever scares you, for no good reason? That's what you should do. Take the risk. It usually won't turn out to be as scary as you first thought.

So, how am I doing on all my goals and resolutions for 2008?

• write daily. Doesn't have to be a lot, doesn't have to be good. Just write.
→ not too bad on this score. I'm not managing quite every day, but I think I'm up to every other day or so. And I know this will get easier (for a while) once my last big essay is handed in.
• finish at least 5 short stories, including "Summer of Storms," "Sparagmos," and "The Beginning of Change"
→ 0/5 but "Summer of Storms" is getting really close.
• finish a novel draft
→ hahahhahaha. No progress here.
• exercise twice per week (Shiwon abs of steel would be nice, like Oriane said)
→ definitely, definitely not. Really have to get on the ball with this one.
• stretch thrice per week (I want to be able to do the splits more than I want Shiwon abs of steel)
→ I am actually managing this! Go me! Not doing as many stretches each time as I want to, and none of my "sessions" are very disciplined at all, but hey. This will get easier too next term when I have my beloved flex class back. Gods I miss that class.
• eat healthier (in terms of what I put into my mouth as well as how much, how often and when)
→ Was doing okay here for a while, not so anymore. I've lost a lot of weight, and it's all because of stress/not eating enough/muscle mass converting to fat. None of those three things are good. And as those of you who know me in person know... I don't have a whole lot of excess weight that I can afford to lose.
• do my homework (in order not to be killed by my scary new Latin prof)
→ you wouldn't know it from this past week, but in general, I am doing way, way better at this than I ever have been before in my life.
• keep my living space cleaner (in order to maintain the pretense of being human a little longer)
→ ehhh not so much. Have to improve here too.
• improve critiquing skills
→ I think I have made some progress here...
• use agenda in order to manage time better
→ yep. Well at least I'm using it, can't really tell how much it's helping me with time management.
• get enough sleep
→ usually manage to get 8 hours, hurray hurray.
• maintain 85% average
→ won't know this until marks come out at the end of April. Isn't looking so hot though.

I hope this optimistic outlook manages to hang on through this coming week... Chaucer essay, here I come.

llwheeler @ 2008-03-27T00:17:00

2008-03-27T04:28:10Z

Rank	Name
1	Han Kyung
2	Dong Hae
3	Sung Min
4	Eun Hyuk
5	Hee Chul
6	Lee Teuk
7	Shi Won
8	Ryeo Wook
9	Shin Dong
10	Kang In
11	Yeh Sung
12	Ki Bum
13	Kyu Hyun

No surprises there, and nothing I would change except maybe flip Shiwonnie and Eeteuk. Yayyy that was fun ^^

In non-fangirl related news, in no particular order, today I:
- found out the concert in NYC is cancelled.
- did not write one single word of my essay, even though it was due 21 minutes ago.
- signed a lease and paid a deposit for a place to live come September.
- did not study Herodotus, even though I have a test on it tomorrow.
- watched Buffy.
- went to class.
- posted a dii crit.

I am an unproductive idiot. Tomorrow has got to be better. But I guess having a place to live is pretty important...

we lost our dreams along the way

2008-03-19T18:39:34Z

The feast on Monday was delicious. Beef stew (tasted like beer), garlic and bacon mashed potatoes, corned beef with cabbage and carrots and potatoes... mmm. And apple pie and nanaimo bars for dessert. Not so sure how those got dubbed Irish, but I ate them anyways. (It was quite the hardship...)

Went home at like 9:30 though, to watch Buffy with my roommate. And then yesterday when I woke up, I could barely talk and I couldn't breathe, so I decided going to school was not the best idea... and everyone assumed I was hungover. =/ I'd even done my Herodotus translation too...

Today, though, I'm quite a bit better. Not completely better, my head still feels about twice as big as it should be and stuffed with cottonballs, but getting better. I feel like Bilbo in the Hobbit after his barrel ride: "Thag you very buch".

I'm getting a bit antsy about "A Thing of Many Facets". Tomorrow will make it 60 days since I submitted. Duotrope says the average response time is 56 days, and the max is 176. I potentially have a long time to wait still. I'm just wondering, at what point do I query? The submissions page at Fickle Muses doesn't give a response time, so I don't have anything to go off of there.

I know that what I have to focus on is writing more, so that I submit more. But it's hard not to think about it... I did write a couple hundred more words of "Summer of Storms" yesterday though, before Iuliana ambushed me and demanded that I pay attention to her. 1,200 words worth of attention, and it was the fastest I've written anything in a long time. It was such a good feeling... to just let the words spill, and know that they weren't really that great but who cares, just get her thoughts and feelings and actions out there.

I'm going to try and get back to "Summer of Storms" later tonight. I think I've found the feeling of the story again. If I were more talented, it wouldn't be a story at all, it would be an interpretive dance. It has... movement to it. A sort of tug and pull. I want to get it finished in time to post for the Post the Most contest over at DII. Hopefully "Sparagmos" too, but that story is missing something and I don't know what.

Time to go switch my laundry. See my thrilling life...

these endless days are finally ending in a blaze

2008-03-17T18:50:53Z

The good.
1. "You're my girl. I miss you."
2. Been invited to a lot of different events recently. Feel like a social butterfly. A loved butterfly. And the Arts Gala on Friday was a ton of fun.
3. Snow is slowly starting to melt (and then freeze again). Had one of the first Sightings of spring this morning on the way home from class: mud! And a tiny bit of really squished, really dead grass. Spring is on its way.
4. No latin on Friday means no Ovid to translate this week, means a lot less work this week.
5. Term is almost over, and I have a good three weeks off between the end of exams and the start of summer term.

The bad.
1. The new piercing got infected.
2. Essays, and essays taking up time I would rather be spending otherwise.
3. I am sick. Not sure whether I caught this from someone or whether it's from the infection. Trying to stay on top of it, but it's no fun at all.
4. Because of sick, have decided against going to the Irish feast I'm invited to tonight.
5. Just one of those times when I feel like no matter how hard I try, I'm falling behind, so what's the point? Not fun.

Oh, I forgot one other good thing. I have tomato soup. Actually, it's Super Creamy Spring Vegetable Extravaganza or something like that. But they basically mean tomato.

ETA: Okay, so I'm going to the feast after all. Can't turn down a ride if it's offered to me. I have the self-discipline of a... very un-self-disciplined thing. But hey, it's St. Patty's day. And meat and potatoes have got to be good for you when you're sick...

I remember when I was told a story of crushed velvet, candle wax, and dried up flowers

2008-03-06T03:24:27Z

Reason # 58672 why I love what I'm studying:

I get to read stuff like this:

"To leave no kind of plunder untried, he opened a brothel in his palace, setting apart a number of rooms and furnishing them to suit the grandeur of the place, where matrons and freeborn youths should stand exposed. Then he sent his pages about the fora and basilicas, to invite young men and old to enjoy themselves, lending money on interest to those who came and having clerks openly take down their names, as contributors to Caesar's revenues."
- Suetonius, Life of Caligula (Loeb translation)

Guess who just wrote an essay on Caligula? I am so writing a book on him one day. So, so awesome.

Goblin Quest & Goblin Hero

2008-03-03T21:59:38Z

A while back, as some of you may remember, I took a jaunt down to Toronto for the day, to meet some authors and buy an armload of books. Due to school, I've sadly only managed to read two of those books so far, but now seems like a really appropriate time to give them some airtime here. (And no, that's not just because I'm desperately trying to find ways to procrastinate writing my Homer commentary. Well, that helps. But anyways, I digress.)

jimhines was one of the authors I met that day, and it's his two books, Goblin Quest and Goblin Hero, that I've read. I've been meaning for a while now to write an entry about them, so carpe diem etc. etc. Plus, you know, the third book in the series, Goblin War, comes out tomorrow. (Hah. You thought that was going to be another Amazon link. But oh how wrong you were!)

Google is sadly not providing a similarly sized picture of Goblin War for my hotlinking pleasure. Boo. Oh well, those are the two I've read, anyways.

These books are awesome. Goblin Quest: The runt of an underdog race gets dragged off kicking and screaming (well, more like tied up and walking meekly so as not to get beaten, actually) to go on adventures, whether he likes it or not. He survives by sheer luck and a healthy dose of cowardice. This book has got everything your classic fairy tale fantasy has: a heroic prince, a dwarf bodyguard/mentor, a half-crazy ambitious mage, a sullen elven girl, a dragon, hordes of treasure, and the monster sidekick. Only Jig (that's the goblin) is our hero, so everything gets stood on its head. I still kinda liked the prince though, even though he was a pompous ass. He spoke so hilariously.

The ending though. Oy geez. Did not see that coming. Trout?? It kind of upset me, actually. But I'm over it now. I don't want to spoil it, so that's all I'll say here. Clearly I'm really bad at this recap of book thing, so just go out and buy it and read it for yourself, okay? I highly recommend it.

Goblin Hero: The bad guys are pixies. Nuff said. Two-foot tall glittery, colourful bad guys. So awesome. I was reading this one on the bus on the way home for reading week, and I kept laughing out loud and getting really weird looks from my neighbor. I think I like Goblin Hero better than Goblin Quest, actually. Any book where a hobgoblin gets to say "Graceful, as always," to a goblin has got to be wonderful.

So anyways, if you like fantasy, if you like laughing, and if you like brains triumphing over brawn, then I expect you'll love these books. I definitely did, and I'll be buying the third book just as soon as I can. I really hope Riana shows up again in Goblin War.

And I really want a pet fire-spider now. If that's impossible, though, I'll settle for a plushie Smudge.

ETA: and omg thank you, srness, for catching my stupid mistakes and saving me from making an ass of myself. <3

c'est ma faute si l'on est si loin l'un de l'autre

2008-02-14T04:06:11Z

February has been kicking my butt so far. Lack of posts is a good sign of that, I think.

So many things I meant to do, and haven't done. Meant to pimp out the commendable crit contest going on at OWW, didn't have time. Hell, I meant to join the contest, definitely didn't have time. And yeah, that did start half a month ago. Where has the time gone?

Also meant to pimp out Goblin Quest by jimhines, as soon as I finished reading it. Well, finished a while ago, and still no post. Good book, read it in about four big gulps. It all started one fateful night when I decided to read "just one chapter" and all of a sudden was going "huh wha? chapter seven? oh shit." Anyways, didn't mean to get into talking about it now, no time. I'll write a proper post about it and Goblin Hero once I've finished that. (Eight hour -- if I'm lucky -- bus ride on Friday, with only a Latin composition exercise, Roman History course readings, and Introduction to Criticism readings to compete? I'll be done by roughly six pm.)

And now I really need to stop wasting my time writing this, and get back to studying. Greek and Chaucer midterms tomorrow, Latin on Friday. Just wanted to prove I haven't wandered completely off the edge of the world.

Before I go, though, it seems like a good moment to point out that somewhere between last summer and now, I've managed to ingrain writing almost daily. Okay, so a lot of it still isn't fiction. But so far in February I've written three poem rough drafts, three roleplaying things, one crit, and one flash fiction piece, and I don't even know how many pages of random journaling. Oh, and some more work on Raphael's outline. And none of that was noteworthy enough to merit a post here. So... that feels pretty good. Don't worry though, if I get back on the horse with the novel, I'll be posting about it. I'm not that used to being productive yet.

Okay, now the verb paradigms are really demanding attention. See you in two days, all you lovely Ottawa-types!!

dear prudence, won't you come out to play?

2008-01-31T23:30:18Z

I've been quiet. Lots of work. Spreading myself too thin.

What else to say?

Acrostic poem (sort of) to sum up my week:

Extremely
Mixed-up.
O
That's
It.
O
N
S

something in the way you move attracts me like no other lover

2008-01-27T23:53:57Z

I got new ghillies yesterday!!

Yes, gasp, shock and awe... the pair that got thoroughly ruined dancing in the rain at Holyrood Palace two summers ago have finally been replaced! It's going to be weird to dance with ghillies again... I've been dancing either barefoot or in socks for years now.

But these ones are soft and new and lovely. And best of all, they don't have that annoying triangle flap of extra leather by my three last toes. And they're size five, so my left foot is a bit cramped now, but they'll definitely stretch.

So I had to take some pictures... took a bunch of really awful ones of myself. My point actually looks really good in these shoes, which is exciting, except I failed horrendously at capturing that. So instead:

Actually in 3rd flat there, not that you can really see. Anyways, new shoes! ... And my foot!

Lookit how beee-yooooo-ti-ful they are! ^_^

That's all I have to say. =)

llwheeler @ 2008-01-23T12:39:00

2008-01-23T17:54:29Z

i. Heath Ledger died.
ii. Despite ranting in the DII chat, to Steph, to Andrea, to my mother, and to SR, certain family issues are still really bothering me.
iii. The fire-alarm went off at 5:15am today.
iv. I have a criticism essay due in one week. I've only done one of the readings.
v. I'm now behind in Latin and Greek, though I've been trying not to sink.
vi. Three Days Grace was in Kitchener, all of a ten minute city bus ride away, for two nights in a row. Yesterday and the day before. I found out last night.
vii. I'm having trouble sleeping at night.
viii. Steph is getting sick.

I am more shocked than I can say at the news of Heath Ledger's death. I spent all intermediate and high school fangirling over him. He was incredibly talented and could have done such amazing things. It's really weird to feel this way. My mind just skips over thinking about it, but can't think about anything else for long. What happens when the shock wears off?

I feel so sorry for those who actually knew him.

let's shine like scorpio in the sky

2008-01-21T01:43:20Z

Milestone! I've been revising "A Thing of Many Facets" slowly over the past week. Didn't really make any major changes, mostly just cut a few unnecessary words and added a few for clarity here and there. The only major change I made was adding two sentences to the ending paragraph to give it a bit more weight and hopefully fix the (very valid) concerns that shade53had with it.

"A Thing of Many Facets"
Starting word count: 1,489
Ending word count: 1,530

I submitted it to Fickle Muses tonight. Not a paying market, but it was the one I could find whose guidelines seemed to match my story best. First ever submission! (Unless you count my high school magazine, in which case it's my fourth ever submission.)

So now I wait, almost certainly for a rejection. In the meantime, I'll create a spreadsheet for keeping track of submissions.

... Alright, that's done. Now what? Right. Wait.

Good thing I have Iliad and Aeneid translations to do.

(Oh yeah, and I've been on a big TRAX kick lately. Can you tell?)

Edit: I was tagged by bluebonnets!

The rules are easy, just post 10 things that recently made you happy! Then tag 10 people and force them to post this meme on their LJs. Because it is good. Everyone needs a little happiness once in a while.

i. whack and unwrap chocolate oranges!
ii. totally random msn messages from Andrea
iii. successfully writing, revising, and submitting a story =D
iv. CMS welcome back event at the Grad House, even including me turning bright red and being stared at by everyone...
v. PICTIONARY!
vi. laughing way too hard at Ratatouille, and laughing at geoaspartame laughing way too hard at Ratatouille XD
vii. playing Super Smash Bros. with Shanice and winning when the computer's set to the lowest level! And then getting annihilated when the computer is set to a harder level, ahaha.
viii. super scary moving fish flakes!!!
ix. wrote a poem I liked, and then managed to totally destroy it and write a really different version that I like better.
x. watching sg wannabe videos at Steph's party, followed closely by singing and dancing to Spice Girls!

Oh yeah, and I tag whoever wants to do this meme. =D