Inexplicable Blahness

Ever have a day where, for no reason that you can put your finger on, you're blah as heck? That's me today.

I shouldn't be. I got started on Ep4 (Mike's on writing detail for #3) and fleshed out an idea that solidifies the theme (a theme which I only just figured out yesterday despite having had the idea for this episode for months, and that usually never fails to give me a multi-day happy)

I got all my work for something like the next week and a half done in one of my classes, and I do love being ahead.

They finally fixed the problem that was keeping me from seeing all my grades from last term, and I aced everything.

All the due bills are paid.

Oz is crooning in my ear (that's the iPod, by the way).

It occurred to me today that I can pointedly vote for anyone but Bush.

We ordered pizza for dinner last night and I had left overs for lunch today.

Jett has been uncharacteristically peaceful today (for her).

So what's wrong? Damned if I know. <grumblesigh>

Disappointed, but in a generic way.

Mm, you know you get your money's worth out of a dollar box of generic Frosted Flakes when you find a big ol' clump o' sugar loosely affixed to one lone flake. Oh yeah, breakfast is back, baby.

Next week, on an all new Buffy ...

The site is up, prepped and ready for episody goodness. Are you excited?

Workworkwork

Episode 2 scripting complete! Yay! Still have to prose! Boo! Sleep beckons! Zzz!

50 Extra Pounds of Crap

I got home from meeting Mike for lunch a little bit ago, and it occurred to me just how much junk I carry around witih me when I just go down the road to Taco Bell.

Jacket, sunglasses, watch, keys, wallet, iPod, cell phone. All I need to do is pack up my laptop in its case and bring my backpack, and I think I'll be ready to tackle the summit of Mt. Everest.

Honestly, how much stuff does one need? <looking around> Apparently a lot.

New! Section! Goodness!

Because I apparently didn't have enough to do, I allowed myself to be talked into resuming the long forgotten "Seemingly Random Sailor Moon Clip o' the Week", only Buffied. You can find it over at Mostly Filler under "Clips" or the more interestingly named Bored Now....

Ahh, that served as a nice writing break. Back to the grind.

<glancing at clock>

Er, back to bed, then TOMORROW back to the grind. Yeah.

The stumbling block.

My otherwise near-flawless writing streak hit a bump in the road today as I encountered an extremely irritating snag. A conversation just did not want to happen. Irked, I decided to return to a wallpaper that I started several weeks ago when I came to the decision that Lil' Bit had been wearing the same thing for long enough. Interestingly, I hit a snag on that at the time, which is why I stopped it, but I guess the creative energies were flowing in opposite directions today and I just finished it. The subject should surprise none, but perhaps you'll be pleasantly impressed with how it looks, because I was.

For the rest of my night, I'm undecided on going back and tackling this convo again, finishing typing up the detailed outline for Ep13, or just surfing until I'm about ready for bed. Before any of that, though, I believe I have virtual plants in need of virtual watering by my virtual cat-girl person on FFXI.

Listening To:Vermillion Borders - Virgil

Looking Forward To:Ep 2 completion.

Excitement ... overflowing ...

Episode one is completely complete. Very excited, sense of accomplishment building. Refusing to think about the fact that I need to almost immediately move to #2 to meet my pre-new-term goal. Dwelling instead in the completedness that is episode one. Mmm. Feels nice. And kinda dirty. In a good way.

Comfort Food (for the brain)

In an effort to make myself feel better about the horrible Austen news, I've decided to plug Season 8 a bit more by making available for download our very own set of credits. I created these back in the beginning of December, and all told, I'm really pleased with them. I don't have quite the font manipulation ability that the pros do (hence, my credits don't have that nifty little blurred out effect that the real ones do), but I don't think they particularly suffer from that.

Download here. Get hyped. Ease my suffering about Rogue's fate.

Listening To:All I Really Want - Alanis Morissette

Looking Forward To:Finishing up.

O_O

I think my worst nightmare has come true. In the wake of the upcoming X-Men Reloaded event ... it looks like Austen has Rogue. Gods, no. <sobbing>

Huh.

Well, that was kinda anti-climactic. I was fully prepared to spend the next 36 hours or so with my nose buried in my final VB.NET project, only to have it completely finished within about a fourth of that time. I'd be disappointed if it didn't mean that I now had an extra day of freedom I hadn't accounted for. I'd rather the extra day and less work.

So, that's that for another term. The new one starts in 10 days. My primary goal: Have episodes 1 through 4 completely written. I should finish #1 before the weekend is out and I'm hitting a pretty good stride now, which tickles me.

And in gadgety news, may I say that I'm lovin' the heck out of my iPod? Mm, almost three days worth of music all cued up at my fingertips. It is good.

Listening To:When Doves Cry - Prince (I have an 80s playlist!)

Looking Forward To:Writing without guilt.

It's so shiny!

It is here now. There is much rejoicing.

I'm off to load up my glut of MP3s. As an aside, I was highly amused by the little sticker on the front that said something like "Don't steal music." Yeah. I'm deterred now that my MP3 player has made it clear that it doesn't condone the traditional way to get MP3s. That's so cute.

Me: Oooo.
Mike: And how do we know it's mystical?
Me: Well it's so shiny!

Random babbling. No, really random. Seriously.

iPod-y goodness is currently winging its way to me. I should have it tomorrow. Excited, am I. Talking like Yoda, am I. Knowing why, am I not. <shaking head violently> Okay, done.

Mike's off for the next four days on a little break. He's very much enjoying the time off with pay thing that comes from actually being a company employee. We had a brief fleeting thought of doing something, then laughed and realized that actually doing something would break our current streak of NOT doing something, and we simply can't have that. Ah, I'm being unfair, actually, it's all me. Much to do, and I put myself in a place where I feel all antsy if I don't do it. Bad week for him to have time off. Next week will be better, I hope. Of course, then I think the new term starts the one after, but hey. Details. Can't be bothered with 'em currently.

Today shall be devoted to continuing to work on Episode 1 (and doing my VB project). I'm about to (after my shower) script out the final act of the episode. Getting this ep done is a HUGE thing for me. Major sense of accomplishment. Big, big achievement. The little guys in my head are preparing a massive party in its honour. I'm not invited, though, which I think is kind of mean since it's MY head and all. And I'm being strange today. I think it's the weather.

Shower. Writing. Obessively tracking FedEx package with iPod. These are a few of my favourite things.

Listening To:The buzzing of too many ideas in my head. Or maybe that's the Head Elves testing their sound system.

Looking Forward To:So! Much! Stuff!

Mm, nummy treat.

We did the taxes this weekend, and I'm pleased to announce that where last year had me pulling my hair out and cursing the government, this year ... well, I'm doing the same thing, but on principles this time instead of wallet-raping. We'll be getting back almost $2000 in fed and state, and may I take a moment to say how much more in support I am for giving me money than taking it.

We'll be putting $1000 in the bank and splitting the rest, which gives us each about $500 to play with. For my part, I've decided to get an iPod. Because Mike's is just so damned cool, y'know? I placed my order this morning, about an hour ago, and have since obsessively checked on its progess three times. If all goes well, I should have it by this time next week, possibly sooner if the Gods of Mail Delivery are very, very kind.

Hooray for shiny gadgety goodness!

And now, back to Ep 1, Act 2. It's almost done! I am nearly wetting my pants in joy! Okay, not really. But I thought about it.

So what's that about?

Where've I been? Still the same thing, mostly - end of the term and all that. Got a final on Wednesday, my last VB.NET project due Saturday, and tiny bit more in the Business course to work through. But it's not just that.

As those who visit regularly have noticed, for a good while now I've had "Big 'Fic with Mike" as a project. "What is that?" you've all been asking yourselves. (Or not, but work with me here.)

This is what it is:

Click for a bigger picture.

4Paws Studios is branching out and creating ourselves a whole new Buffy season. A little late, yeah, maybe, but cut me some slack, I only got around to finishing up S7 a relatively short time ago.

Mike and I sat down one day and decided, "Y'know what? The story's not done yet." Realizing that not only did we want to keep it going but also sort of help to sort of ease the sting of a relatively disappointing final season, this project was born. I've since discovered that we're not alone in creating a virtual Buffy Season 8, but this is the only one with the Official Jet Wolf Seal of Involvement, so you know it's gotta be the best. <cough>

Yeah, so anyway, 22 full-length "episodes", cheerfully presented in prose format because reading fanfic in script format gives me a headache, coming soon to a computer near you. ("Soon" meaning an expected "air date" of Tuesday, 6 April 2004.) If the gods are extremely kind, there will be one episode per week after that, which will put us at ending in August, and give us a month to get ready to air a Season 9 (if we survive that far) in a time frame much more in sync with actual television shows.

I'm really looking forward to getting this out, though. We've thrown ourselves pretty heavily into this project. Seriously, these 60 pages of outline for 12 episodes ain't playin'. And have a slew of ideas that I think will make your inner troll god crave many succulent babies.

Or something equally good and slightly less disturbing.

Absolut.

I keep forgetting to post this. Someone sent it to me a while ago and I found it to be extremely cute. I may be alone in that, but this is my Blog, so no one else's opinion really matters much.

Listening To:
Voices in my head.

Looking Forward To:Prosing the rest of Act 1 today.

Still alive, believe it or not.

Sorry, I know I've been all quiet and stuff of late. 'Tis a bit of a busy time in Casa de Jet Wolf. The Winter term is winding to a close, so there's that, and that big fic project is dominating much of my time. Mike is pretty big on FFXI at the moment but won't level without me, so we spend a bit of our "us" time playing that. And let's not forget all the extremely important wasting of the rest of the day that I find myself wrapped up in so often.

Really, though, it's just a lot of stuff going on with not as much time devoted to everything as I might otherwise like. I apologize for the silence, and yes, I know that Flatscan still needs an update. I can say with absolute certainty that one will not be coming until the term is over, however. That said, getting some reviews done over the next break (probably of Uncanny, since it seems my disdain for Austen is one of the things people miss the most) will be at the top of my "To Do" list which will, as per tradition, be posted to Daily so that everyone can see exactly what I plan to not do before time is up.

Come to think of it, that probably wasn't the most comforting thing I could have said, but hey, at least I'm honest.

And now, back to Part 1 of the 'fic. I'm almost through the first fourth! I'm so excited, you have no idea.

Listening To:Play it by Ear - Summercamp

Looking Forward To:Ep 1 done. Soon, please.

Time to be concerned?

Is it a bad sign when you sit down to your laptop and, just prior to opening up the file containing the story that you desperately need to finish, you say, "Alright you bitch, you will be written and you will like it." Because I just did that and I think I scared myself. A lot.