Thursday, August 30, 2001
I've found the perfect way to destroy all the drama in any sort of countdown! Skip 2 altogether!
Sorry I didn't make an entry yesterday. It slipped my mind entirely.
At the risk of bragging uncontrollably, the thing about End of the World that I'm especially proud of is the fact that the ratio of male/female attendees is always very close to 50/50 and often edges over in favor of the females. If my understanding is correct, that's not normally the case, especially with a club this large. I really need to update the schedule on the web page. We had some scheduling problems for this semester, and we're going to be in a different part of the building nearly every week.
Anyway, our plane leaves for Dallas tomorrow morning at 8:30. I just found out this afternoon that my boss forgot to mention my taking tomorrow off to the department head. I mentioned it to him and he wigged out in a big way. I hope I have a job when I get home. If not, I hope it's a really good con. ;)
The office move is done. I actually did get to keep my old computer which I am very grateful for. For a while it looked like I'd have to start over from scratch collecting cool manga art for wallpaper, finding graphics freeware programs, and loading all the other extras that I take for granted like wsftp and winzip and my favorite version of netscape that *only* has a browser and *nothing* else. Little homey details like this are important for fighting off the ennui. Too bad I won't have space for my Mononoke Hime theator poster.
More Tuesday!
7:27 PM
Tuesday, August 28, 2001
Count down to AnimeFEST ... You guessed it. 3 days. I really hope that I'll be able to find Volume 5 of DNAngel and maybe some pencil boards or toys there. Is it just me, or is this the coolest magical boy series ever? ;) When the main character isn't just as adorable as we can stand, he's totally totally hot! What more could an extatic fangirl want? Don't answer that.
I updated my webpage this afternoon. The broken links should be fixed now, and this blogger is now public.
Today I'm going to the Franklin Planner store with a friend. Of course, I can either spend money there, or I can spend it in Dallas on manga. Hmmmm... Oh well. I'll replace my sadly outdated planner pages next paycheck. A girl's gotta have priorities.
Tonight is also my wonderful Brother in Law's birthday party. Hi, Tama-chan!
Namaste!
3:07 PM
Monday, August 27, 2001
Count down to AnimeFEST 4 days, but too tired to care at the moment.
My head is absolutely killing me. I think it's spending too much time out in the heat. It was pretty bad today and came on top of the office moving thing. We're 70% done, though, and the rest'll be pretty easy. Provided I get a decent amount of sleep between now and then.
Tomorrow I've *got* to get chapter two of 'The Wasteland' out to the CLAMP list and do some updating on my web page. I meant to do it today, but I was just too busy. I mean, a college pays you to come to work every day, and then they expect to be able to dictate what you spend time doing? What's up with that? :)
Namaste!
8:10 PM
Sunday, August 26, 2001
Count down to AnimeFEST 5 days. There are four of us who are going up together and sharing a room. Krista and her brother Kurt and our friend Michael and me. As travel groups go, it could be a lot worse.
Here's the thing. We planned to go to only one con this season, and that was Sakura-con in Seattle. That one was a bit of a flop, though. No really outstanding panels, the fanfic panel was a *total* disaster, and when you go to a con and the highlight is seeing the sites in the city, that's usually a bad sign. It's unlikely that we'll be going to that one again. Since we had such a good time last AnimeFEST, it was easy for them to talk Krista into going again, and I feel like I really want at least one good con experience this year. Now, though, it looks like we'll be going to NanDesuKan in Denver in September as well. That's the nearest one to Salt Lake, but we've never been. I might be on the fanfic panel for that one as well along with Krista and lots of people I don't know anything about. I'll hopefully know for sure within the next week.
That's all. I'm going to bed now.
Namaste!
10:09 PM
Saturday, August 25, 2001
Count down to AnimeFEST 6 days. Airfare is way too expensive in this country. They're going there anyway. They should let me come along for free. I'd do the same for them. :P
I'm almost almost done with 'Dark Cloud' for the PS2. It's a very fun game, but your characters reach their limit in defense and hp and attack power a lot sooner than they should. I'm on level 96 of the bonus dungeon, it takes at least ten hits to kill any monster even though I have everyone's best weapon maxed out on all stats, and they only have to hit me twice to kill me in almost every case. I'm really enjoying it, though. I love RPGs. Action RPGs like Dark Cloud aren't my *favorite* type, but there have been some that I've enjoyed like 'Illusions of Gaia' for SNES and 'Magic Knight Rayearth' for Saturn.
I'm moving my office on Monday, school starts on Wednesday, my flight leaves Salt Lake International on Friday. It's gonna be a hectic week.
Namaste!
5:20 PM
Friday, August 24, 2001
Count down to AnimeFEST 7 days. Managed to get the time off of work. Am now in the middle of fansub tape exchange negotiations with one of the other authors. He's been very nice about the whole thing. Fortunately I have some things that he really wants. I'll be taping like a woman posessed for the next week, but it'll be fun. One of the other authors wants to devote a significant portion of the panel time to discussing original characters. Bllleeehhh! Kill them all!
May I just say that the moderator was *way* too amused by my reaction to the suggestion.
Today I bought notebooks. That was my major accomplishment. Mead 5 Star one subject college ruled notebooks. Fourteen of them. I've been buying them one at a time for the last year because 3.50 seems like *way* too much to pay for a single 100 page notebook, and that's about what they usually go for at office max, but yesterday my sister found them on sale for 1.20 and I decided to stock up. They're the only kind I use. When you hand write as much as I do just for the tactile experience of it all, you need pens and notebooks that you like.
It's not like I'm picky about anything else in my life. Pens, notebooks, men, in that order. Everything else, I'm very easy to please. Writing is important, though, and by extension, the tools are important. It helps me to stay focused on the creative process. When I have a decent idea at three in the morning or while eating in a cafe somewhere I can jot down notes on the back of my hand or on my napkin, but for smoothing things out and watching them really come together, you need a pen that feels right in your hand. You need paper that does what you want it to with the ink you give it.
While we were at Walmart, (my new Mecca or notebook freedom) my friend won five large stuffed animals in the UFO catcher there for ten dollars. It's a marvel to see her work. She tried to explain it to me once. Something about grabbing exactly where the center of gravity for the piece is so that it doesn't want to work its way free. I can never duplicate her results, though, so I merely watch in wonder and occasionally slip her a roll of quarters. She gave me the bear in the bumblebee suit. It's as adorable as can be and it's as long as my forarm.
I think she wanted to get something for her mother who had surgery this morning. She'll be in the hospital for about a week and I'm sure we'll be up to visit her a time or two.
Namaste!
9:03 PM
Thursday, August 23, 2001
Count down to AnimeFEST 8 days. Once it starts, I probably won't be updating this thing regularly, but I'll try to stay faithful until then. Two years ago, about half of the authors on the panel had heard of me, and I met one total stranger who had read my stories. It was a weird experience. I get nice email from time to time, but live people is different. Nice, but a little intimidating like, 'He's heard of it. I guess I better finish it now. I hope seeing what I really look like doesn't make him think my stories are stupid.' Silly, I know.
I wonder if there'll be more people who have seen some of my work this time. I know it's terribly terribly vain to think about things like that, but it's only half vanity and half anxiety. Most people won't be there for the fanfic authors anyway, but it'll be nice if there are other authors or readers that I could talk to. To the best of my knowledge, the Salt Lake fanfic community consists of two people who live in the same condo, so speaking to other authors live and in person two years ago was really fun for me. We'll see what happens this time.
In any case, I'm going to find the perfect key chain this year or die trying, or try dying, or do some tie dying. (Sorry. Random Animaniacs tribute. Had to be done.) I was incredibly troubled by my miserable failure last time. I will not be defeated again!
Namaste!
12:06 PM
Wednesday, August 22, 2001
I got a letter yesterday. It said "I'm a fan of your work, your webpage said your new story was posted but it's not. Where is it?" That was all. No 'I really liked how you did _' no 'I think you need to be more careful with _' no useful comments whatsoever on any of my work, no encouragement, nothing. I get a very respectable number of hits every day, I know people are visiting and re-visiting my pages, I know people read my stories, but I hardly ever get any mail about them. I don't think that's unusual. I know a lot of talented and popular authors that hardly get any C&C so I try to keep writing and not let it bug me. When I get a letter like this, though, it kinda discourages me. I don't mind getting letters telling me about problems or broken links, I just think that blatantly writing *only* when you think there's a problem or writing for the first time *just* because there's a problem and you have to have the next chapter *right* *now* is kinda rude. Am I totally out of line here? I don't mean to be unkind, but I was discouraged.
REALLY looking forward to AnimeFEST. It was such a blast last time. I can't wait to go again. I'm hoping to get at least one more chapter of 'Wasteland' posted before then.
Namaste!
12:04 PM
Tuesday, August 21, 2001
Yay! Finally! My Blogger is working!
Ahem.
Anyway, yes, I finally decided to give in and get m'self a blogger. After countless trials, it even appears to be working at last.
This blog is much more likely to be updated regularly than my homepage is, so if you absolutely *have* to *know* why Misha hasn't posted chapter 3 of 'Dead Bishop' or whatever yet, this page will probably let you know on a fairly regular basis.
I may spend some time trying to get this page spiffed up a little in the next week or so. We'll see.
Namaste!
12:35 PM
How about this one?
12:12 PM
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