A Walk in the Park

last night lordkilljoy reminded me of HDR images. After looking around a few galleries i remembered why i fell in love with HDR back in college, but back then i never did anything with it. Mostly due to a lack of accessible software. So last night i tried making one, using the HDR converter thing in photoshop cs2. my test worked out ok, so today i went down the powdermills to get some pretty shots. (at one stage i had to climb a 7 foot wall because the trail i was on ended in an impassable mess of bramble and trees.)

so, what i learned from my little experiment is that trees do not make good subjects for HDR - especially when there's a bit of a breeze. water makes an even worse subject - especially up close. but i did get a few good shots in sheltered areas.
the other thing i learned is that you have to be really careful not to shake your tripod even a tiny bit.

anyway - here's a pic of my favourite shot of the day.

the sun came out today

it was a lovely day in southern ireland today. warm and bright and i wore a skirt and string top. it was nice just lazing about in the sunshine and making faces out of the few clouds.

i took a break from my computer today - i didn't turn it on until about 9 tonight. go me. days away from my computer make me feel like i've actually achieved something, even if i've done nothing at all.

i don't have any news really - i ran around the place with mammy's camera taking random pictures, i don't really get any good ones.

sunday afternoons

I watched ocean's thirteen and blood and chocolate last night. good movies, ocean's thirteen was more of the same - still fun. blood and chocolate was a love story wrapped up as a werewolf story - nothing ground-breaking, but still fun to watch.

i'm off to taleweavers later this afternoon and then to dave's planescape game this evening. i'm looking forward to that - my character is quite cool. she's the portal expert of the group - i'm looking forward to doing funky things with portals.
and for taleweavers - we've all decided to take part in genre-challenge and do a piece of child fiction. mine involves alternate realities and wierdness. i'm not sure if it will actually tie together properly - right at the moment it feels totally disjointed. more like a collage of scenes than a coherent story. ah well. i still have a few weeks until the end of may.

not much else news - i think i've just about exhausted my stockpile of post-worthy stuff. 2 posts a day for the last few days was kind of phenomenal spurt of random chatter, though. i think i'm just happy to be home :)

new phones

both of my parents now have mobile phones. in the space of a few hours the number of mobiles in the house has doubled! cool. mammy's is a nice basic phone - does phoning and texting and not a whole lot else. daddy's is quite a cool sony ericsson, which he got second hand off a friend. it has all the fun features of a SE, even though it's a bit scratched on the outside. neither of them has had a phone before, so it's a bit funny watching them make their first calls and receive texts and stuff. it's nice knowing that i can send them texts - not that i really have any reason to, but it's fun.

i'm such a procrastinator - i've done most of a plot outline for my may genre challenge, and then i decided my livejournal needed updating. :roll eyes: oh well.

ok - i'm going back writing now.

party shuffle

today (20 days after i arrived home) i was reminded about the coolness of party shuffle, thanks to penelope_stone. i had completely forgotten about it, and i even have a playlist in itunes called "the empty playlist" and i remembered that i used to use it for something, but i couldn't remember what. but now i remember that i'd set party shuffle on the empty playlist and use it as a play area for making temporary playlists. ahhh, the joys of itunes. now i remember why i havn't switched to any other player.
oh, the forgetfulness of humans!

i went messing with my camera this morning and this was the result.
i tied up my hair in 2 pony tails today as well. it looks really cute - i took a pic of that too.


yea - kind of random morning.

the end of my phone problems

so now that my phone's all sorted out, i got to check my voicemail. and it was a message from meteor. so now i'm wondering if i've killed my chances with this 3d company. that would be so awful. this possible candidate ringing up because she things there's a slim chance someone may have called her. ah well. no job would mean i get to concentrate a lot more on my writing.

yea - as you may have guessed, i sorted out the €25 credit problem. They were fine with it. Excellent stuff. it's so nice having a working phone again. It's like when you have a cold and you can't smell anything and it's ok - you don't really realize what you're missing. It's just when the cold heals up and you can smell again that you realize how much you missed it.
i texted lordkilljoy to figure out which of the 2 numbers i had for him is his and i got a random reply from the wrong number saying "who r u?" it was a bit funny. so i deleted that number and kept the other one.
ok - that was a pretty random little story, but it's valid because it's the first text i sent since i got home. to a stranger - awh!

and since we're on random little stories - this morning i ate breakfast with a plastic spoon. one that i got in san francisco in a 7-eleven (like one that you get with take-away soup, a free one). but i was eating breakfast and it reminded me of eating breakfast in glacier national park, sitting on the bench, surrounded by snow and being freezing cold and eating cereal with warm milk to ease the cold passing into my stomach. ahh - good times.

movies and things

i've been spending my evenings watching movies (wow, this word isn't in firefox's dictionary) recently. i watched krull first, because i have loved that film since i was little and my parents introduced me to it. so when i came back from the world and saw that we had it on dvd i was excited. it's still a great movie. i was happy from the first note of the opening music until the last credit had rolled by. and firemares: nothing more need be said.
the second movie i watched was conan the barbarian. i don't think i've ever seen it before. it was quite good. arnold is good in it - a sword suits him. i can't believe he's the governor of california. crazy.
anyway - last night's film was the final cut of bladerunner (and now i own 2 copies of that film - the quality of the final cut is better, though). i love ridley scott. bladerunner and legend are 2 of my favourite movies (and gladiator).

i booked flights for glastonbury in june the other day too. o_O, did i forget to mention that penelope_stone and me are going to glastonbury festival this year? :) we are. it's going to be cool. so we're flying to bristol and getting a bus to the festival from there. and there's still tickets left, so if anyone wants to meet up in glastonbury that could be cool.

my phone's back working, but now they are telling me that i have no credit. lies - i should have €25. so i'm going to go sort that out and then all will be well (hopefully).

there was something else i wanted to say, but i can't remember. oh well.
oh, wait. i remember. last night, i was typing and i remembered that i had a wireless keyboard and that it fits comfortably on my lap. so now my keyboard's back to it's usual position and by back can stop straining over to the left ('cause computer desks just don't leave enough room for a mouse and keyboard to fit comfortably).

learning to type properly

god - i hate typing stuff up, because i can't type properly. if i type properly, my speed drops to 13wpm; which is horribly frustrating because i can type at about 45 when i don't type properly. where's the problem, you ask. The problem is that i look down at the keyboard an awful lot when typing fast, so when i'm typing something off a sheet i have to keep stopping to read the next sentence and as you may have noticed: when my typing slows down i get annoyed at myself.
so the point of all of this is that i've found a website that will teach me how to type properly quickly. yeay. i've added a link to my quicklinks in firefox that says - do every day. and i figure in a few months i should be able to type properly and then i can face the idea of typing up the end of my novel without cringing and pretending that said dilemma does not exist. it's awful to be so torn - wanting to type up my novel because i can start editing properly and not wanting to because typing causes me such heartache and pain (much like learning to drive did, but i know i don't have to go for a test at the end of it all).

and here i am, making use of the ultimate procrastination tool, updating my Lj (and not typing properly). you see, my creativity flows at a certain speed, which is about 50 wpm, so even at my fastest typing i can't keep up with it. if i type properly, i get absolutely nowhere and my ideas speed past me on the highway of thought and i look up from the dirt, going "wait, please slow down for me, i can't keep up like this - i'm walking (no - crawling) and you've got a honda roadster. hardly fair."
anyway - when i write by hand, everything's good and square and we all get on because every part of me loves to write with a pencil and paper. yeay.

i'm getting worse

yesterday all i ate was a half a bowl of cereal and 2 trail bars. i lay in bed last night starving and trying to force myself to sleep so that the hole-pain in my stomach would go away.
it's not that i'm trying to starve myself or anything. i just didn't have an appetite all day except for last night in bed. having a sore throat always kills my appetite.

we have a new addition to the household today. penelope_stone had a baby! no!!!! she got a laptop (might as well be a new baby, except that you can hit ctrl-alt-del when stuff goes wrong). why does nobody say del-alt-ctrl, does it have to be delete that gets hit last or something? yep - alt-ctrl-del works too. amazing.
:shake head: anyway.

not much to report here. i got a missed call on my phone yesterday and what with meteor being silly i can't check my voicemail, so i have no idea who called me. i'm so worried it's the company i applied to for a job. so i rang them earlier asking if someone from the company had tried calling me. the receptionist said she'd check and get back to me, but that was over an hour ago and no call, so now i'm worried if i've screwed up my chances.
i got a letter in the door from college, letting me know that there's a flash development position available in south dublin, but just reading over the specs made me realize how much i really don't want to do flash stuff for the rest of my life. 3d modelling seems so much more fun and creative.

my illness has improved vastly from the weekend - now i have a dry-sort-of-cough and a bit of a sniffle and that's it. yeay.

last night was more conventional

no coughing fits last night - wooo! i did have a kinda wierd dream that featured my red boots (the ones with the stars on them:
)
i was on an island (that islands 2 nights in a row) getting on a boat back to the mainland and i had to take my boots off. but i ended up leaving them on the boat and we were outside the terminal (there was some trouble getting out of the terminal - swirly roads and unhelpful-turning-helpful security guards) when i noticed them on the boat's deck. so i ran back and jumped onto the boat and rode back to the island happily with my boots. i woke up before we got there, but my intention wasn't to go back to the island, it was to go out and come back.

i started reading the legend of nightfall last night. it's a good book. i'd tried to buy lynn flewelling's nightrunner series off amazon, but they don't accept irish maestro cards. oh well. apparently play.com does. so i made a basket there with the lies of locke lamora in it. (yes - i am obsessed with books about thieves / assassins). i'm waiting for the price of the name of the wind to come down a bit, but once it does i'm totally buying it.

so yea. i havn't much other news - i think i'll start typing up my travel journal today - it may be a challenge; my typing is bad today - my fingers are a bit shaky. the reason: all i ate was a yoghurt and some toast yesterday. i've lost my appetite - it happens with a sore throat.

right then, bye.

liam's party and other fun things

the weekend was great. i did so much + should have been updating on a daily basis, but i didn't have the time. when i wasn't out i was sleeping and pretending that i'm not sick.
anyway - the weekend began on saturday night with lordkilljoy's birthday. 70s theme party featuring big hair, big glasses and big flares. it was a fabulous night of dancing and meeting people i'd not seen in years. it was so good to see lordkilljoy again. he's someone i definitely don't get to see enough of.
so then sunday was taleweavers meet and the start of dave's planescape game - nothing happened - we spent the evening making characters and watching spaced (the best geek-soap tv show ever).
monday was more gaming - only this time with barry, adrian and craig. we're trying to find the 13 lost shards of aphrodite and we got all the way to 12 on monday - so close to the end. we finished early (5ish) and that gave me a chance to go to gavindillon and jerry's barbeque. good food, a nice fire and mostly good company.

i did spend the whole weekend with a painful swollen throat and possibly a mild fever - last night was the worst. i was half asleep, having a bad coughing fit and in my delirium, i was cataloguing the time between coughs, the intensity of cough, the predicted length and intensity of the next one and it was all flashing in my brain as some kind of wierd dark skewed spreadsheet of doom. it was a bit scary, and it felt like i was coughing for about half an hour (but time is messed up during the night).

then i had this crazy dream about a construct-woman with special abilities who had been cast out of the corporation who made her. she was exiled to a deadly island and as she walked around she saw all sorts of evil looking humanoids who felt nothing but evil towards her. they didn't attack, though - just stared menacingly until it drove her insane. she got back to the town of the island and fell, begging, into the arms of her maker - crying and sobbing about the monsters. then all the monsters leapt to the attack and even though she was this wonder-woman fighting expert amazing construct, she was powerless. but then everything stopped and her maker eased her to the ground and she realized that she's been hallucinating.
it was a bit crazy.

my brain goes totally insane when i'm sick.

i went to a gig last night and it was brilliant

happy may - better yet, happy summer :)

charlie don't surf and ten past seven played in the quad last night and it was the best gig i've been to in ages. both bands were in a fabulous mood - just having fun and rocking out - they didn't seem worried about anything. the energy they put into their music was palpable - it filled the pub like a haze of excitement, like the potential of a lightening storm, and built until the last note was played.
unfortunately it will be the last gig they play for a while. colm (of charlie don't surf) is moving to italy in june and they probably won't be playing between now and then. i don't know what the deal with ten past seven is, but they said this was it for a while.

it's great being home - getting to see people i know again, going out to gigs and having a good time and stuff. but one of the best things is being at 52degrees north. the evenings are so long in this counrty. it was something i really missed travelling (christchurch is only at 43degrees). it's amazing to be able to look out my window at 9pm and still have so much light playing across the sky. yea - this country has a lot going for it.

ug, spam for my friends

ug - i just can't help myself. this is for anyone who wants to get to know me (superficially) better.




RULES (the rules don't matter to me, do this if you want, or not if you don't want)

1. Tag 10 ppl (not the one who sent it to you!) *please tag yourself*
2. Answer all truthfully
3. Take it in public!


[x] I am shorter than 5'4.
[ ] I think I'm ugly sometimes.
[x] I have many scars.
[x] I tan easily. =_=
[ ] I wish my hair was a different color.
[ ] I have friends who have never seen my natural hair color.
[ ] I have a tattoo.
[x] I am self-conscious about my appearance.
[x] I have/I've had braces.
[ ] I wear glasses.
[ ] I would get plastic surgery if it were 100% safe, free of cost, and scar-free.
[x] I've been told I'm attractive by a complete stranger.
[x] I have more than 2 piercing.
[ ] I have piercing in places besides my ears.
[x] I have freckles.
[ ] I hate my dad.
[ ] I hate my mom.
[ ] I have a brother.
[x] I have a sister.
[ ] I've sworn at my parents.
[ ] I've run away from home.
[ ] I've been kicked out of the house.
[x] My biological parents are together.
[ ] I have a sibling less than one year old.
[ ] I want to have kids someday
[ ] I've had children.
[ ] I've lost a child.
[ ] I'm in school.
[ ] I have a job.
[ ] I've fallen asleep at work/school.
[x] I almost always do my homework.
[x] I've missed a week or more of school.
[ ] I've been on the Honor Roll within the last 2 years.
[ ] I failed more than 1 class last year.
[x] I've stolen something from my job.
[ ] I've been fired.
[ ] I've slipped out an "lol" in a spoken conversation.
[x] Disney movies still make me cry.
[ ] I've peed from laughing.
[ ] I've snorted while laughing.
[x] I've laughed so hard I've cried.
[ ] I've had my pants rip in public.
[ ] I was born with a disease/impairment.
[x] I've gotten stitches/staples.
[ ] I've broken a bone.
[ ] I've had my tonsils removed.
[ ] I've sat in a doctor’s office/emergency room with a friend.
[ ] I've had my wisdom teeth removed.
[ ] I had a serious surgery.
[x] I've had chickenpox
[ ] I was born in a different country.
[x] I've driven over 200 miles in one day.
[x] I've been on a plane.
[x] I've been to Canada.
[ ] I've been to Mexico.
[x] I've been to Niagara Falls.
[x] I've been to Japan.
[ ] I've celebrated Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
[x] I've been to Europe.
[ ] I've been to Africa.
[ ] I've gotten lost in my city
[x] I've seen a shooting star.
[x] I've wished on a shooting star
[ ] I've seen a meteor shower.
[x] I've gone out in public in my pajamas.
[ ] I've pushed all the buttons on an elevator.
[ ] I've kicked a guy where it hurts
[ ] I've been to a casino *rolls dice*
[ ] I've been skydiving.
[ ] I've gone skinny dipping.
[ ] I've played spin the bottle
[ ] I've drank a whole gallon of milk in one day
[ ] I've crashed a car.
[ ] I've been Skiing.
[x] I've been in a play.
[ ] I've met someone in person from myspace.
[x] I've caught a snowflake on my tongue.
[ ] I've seen the Northern lights.
[x] I've sat on a roof top at night
[ ] I've played chicken.
[ ] I've played a prank on someone
[x] I've ridden in a taxi.
[x] I've seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
[x] I've eaten sushi.
[x] I've been snowboarding.
[x] I'm single.
[ ] I'm in a relationship.
[ ] I'm engaged.
[ ] I'm married.
[ ] I've gone on a blind date.
[ ] I've been the dumpee more than the dumper.
[ ] I miss someone right now.
[ ] I have a fear of abandonment.
[ ] I've gotten divorced.
[ ] I've had feelings for someone who didn't have them back.
[x] I've told someone I loved them when I didn't.
[ ] I've told someone I didn't love them when I did.
[x] I've kept something from a past relationship (such as gifts, love-letters, plushies, etc)
[ ] I've had a crush on someone of the same sex.
[?] I'm bi.
[ ] I'm gay.
[x] I've had sex.
[ ] I've had phone sex.
[ ] I've cybered.
[ ] I've had sex in public.
[ ] I've had a crush on a teacher.
[x] I am a cuddler.
[ ] I've been kissed in the rain <3
[ ] I've hugged a stranger.
[x] I have kissed a stranger
[ ] I've done something I promised someone else I wouldn't.
[x] I've done something I promised myself I wouldn't.
[ ] I've snuck out of my house.
[ ] I have lied to my parents about where I am.
[ ] I am keeping a secret from the world.
[x] I've cheated while playing a game.
[ ] I've cheated on a test.
[ ] I've run a red light.
[ ] I've been suspended from school.
[ ] I've witnessed a crime.
[ ] I've been in a fist fight.
[ ] I've been arrested.
[x] I've consumed alcohol.
[ ] I regularly drink.
[ ] I've passed out from drinking.
[ ] I have passed out drunk at least once in the past 6 months.
[x] I've done weed.
[ ] I've taken painkillers when I didn't need them.
[ ] I've eaten shrooms.
[ ] I've popped E.
[ ] I've inhaled Nitrous.
[ ] I've done hard drugs.
[ ] I have cough drops when I'm not sick
[x] I can't swallow pills.
[ ] I can swallow about 5 pills at a time no problem.
[ ] I have been diagnosed with clinical depression.
[ ] I have been diagnosed with one or more anxiety disorder.
[x] I shut others out when I'm depressed.
[ ] I take anti-depressants.
[ ] I'm anorexic or bulimic.
[ ] I've slept an entire day when I didn't need it
[x] I've hurt myself on purpose.
[x] I've woken up crying.
[x] I've woken up laughing.
[ ] I'm afraid of dying.
[x] I hate funerals.
[ ] I've seen someone dying.
[x] Someone close to me has attempted suicide.
[ ] Someone close to me has committed suicide.
[ ] I've planned my own suicide.
[ ] I've attempted suicide.
[ ] I've written a eulogy for myself.
[ ] I own over 5 rap CDs.
[ ] I own an iPod or MP3 player.
[ ] I have an unhealthy obsession with anime/manga.
[ ] I own a plushie of my fave character from anything.
[ ] I own a cosplay outfit
[x] I know what cosplay means.
[ ] I own multiple designer purses, costing over $100 a piece.
[ ] I own something from Hot Topic.
[ ] I own something from Pac Sun.
[x] I collect comic books.
[ ] I own something from The Gap.
[ ] I own something I got on e-bay.
[ ] I own something from Abercrombie.
[x] I can sing well
[ ] I've stolen a tray from a fast food restaurant.
[ ] I open up to others easily.
[ ] I watch the news.
[ ] I don't kill bugs. (i usedn't, but then i went to asia)
[ ] I hate hearing songs that sacrifice meaning for the sake of being able to rhyme
[ ] I curse regularly.
[x] I sing in the shower
[ ] I am a morning person.
[ ] I paid for my cell phone ring tone.
[x] I'm a snob about grammar.
[ ] I am a sports fanatic.
[ ] I twirl my hair.
[ ] I have "x"s in my screen name.
[ ] I love being neat.
[ ] I love Spam.
[ ] I've copied more than 30 CD's in a day.
[x] I bake well.
[ ] My favorite color is either white, yellow, pink, red or blue. (navy)
[ ] I've worn pajamas to school.
[ ] I like Martha Stewart.
[ ] I know how to shoot a gun.
[x] I am in love with love. (define love)
[ ] I am guilty of tYpInG lIkE tHiS.
[x] I laugh at my own jokes
[ ] I eat fast food weekly.
[ ] I believe in ghosts.
[ ] I am online 24/7, even as an away message.
[ ] I've not turned anything in and still got an A in a certain class *3*
[x] I can't sleep if there is a spider in the room.
[x] I am really ticklish.
[ ] I love white chocolate.
[ ] I bite my nails.
[x] I play video games.
[ ] I'm good at remembering faces.
[ ] I'm good at remembering names.
[x] I'm good at remembering dates
[ ] I have no idea what I want to do for the rest of my life.
[ ] I loath lables.
[x] I like action movies
[x] I like horror movies.
[ ] I like chick flicks.
[?] I know the most random facts about things people have never heard of before.
[x] I can't spell.
[ ] I treasure my friends.
[ ] I think of others before myself.
[x] All of those are answered honestly

whee - i'm excited

i just found out that there's a new prince of persia game coming out. oh wow. this is so cool. i totally can't wait for it (supposedly christmas this year). yeeeeee.
fangirl moment. wwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
now i'm really going to have to get a new PC. dammit. i can't afford one. i guess i have until christmas to save up. waa - it's so exciting. getting to be the prince again, scaling walls, running along ledges, doing backflips and somersaults and sneaking up on your enemies and stuff. yeay.

not much other news - i've been re-organizing my room for the last 2 days. i got new shelves (well - a shelf-kinda thing and a cupboard-kinda thing) and i've been finding homes for the clutter in my room in them. it's working out quite well, actually.

i'm building up a mild addiction to shivering isles too. i started playing last night at 10; at 12 i told myself to go to bed; i eventually got there at 1:30. terrible. i finished one quest and went to start another - but that one got really interesting so i finished it too. heh.

making changes

bear with me while i create a new style for my journal. this could take a while. i'm re-learning css and trying to figure out how Lj does it all at the same time.

people shouldn't be allowed to ring me (this post get's off this topic)

i just got a call from my bank asking me if i wanted to make any changes to my account details or take out a loan or something, but during the call i managed to drop my graphics tablet on the ground and get the wire for my mouse all caught up. and apart from that i'm totally shaking with the stress of having to talk to an unexpected person.
i'm such an unsocialized (aka shy) person - i just don't do normal human interactions very well.

ah well.

heh - oh yea - yesterday playing shivering isles, there was one part where i was in a kinda freaky area with bones scattered around a garden. i hear a noise like someone whispering or singing insanely or something. it's coming from behind me and is totally freaking me out - it sounds like who's evers making the noise would turn out to be something uberly freaky.
anyway - i turn around, nothing there. oh wait, goes my brain. it's actually coming from behind me in reality. duh - it's my phone ringing.
i had changed the ringtone to a song (helena by my chemical romance) and was totally not used to it. so yea - it was kinda funny. i'm kinda glad i didn't have to face the scary monster. that was one thing that used always get to me playing daggerfall - they'd put in all these crazy sounds and people laughing and stuff and it would freak me out wondering what sort of freaky creature that i can't find is making this pertifing noise. heh - yea. i guess that's why i don't play resident evil or silent hill or stuff - i'd cower in a corner, and when i did venture out i'd save every 3 seconds or something. i get like that playing oblivion sometimes. that's why i love new areas to explore, and why i always play sneaky characters - it's so much fun hanging out in the dark near a wall watching a monster come closer, and closer, and you can't run or he'll spot you, so you just crouch there, praying. and then he moves off and so do you. down the corridor - quick-saving at every corner and sometimes at every step.
yea - it's fun.

right before i got the call i was working on remembering how to draw - i'm cheating and doing a paint over (where you put a photo on a lower layer and basically copy it), but it's helping get me back into the swing of art-stuffs.

my post of firsts

since i got home the first things i've done have been:

1st dinner: roast chicken with mashed and roasted spuds and stuffing and carrots and gravy - yummy. (my second dinner was the leftovers, even yummier - all fried together, mmmmm.)

1st friend i met up with: claire of d+d / taleweavers

1st game i played: oblivion. (then i ran out and bought the game of the year edition for knights of the nine and shivering isles. i did it that way 'cause no where just sold the 2 expansions separately)

1st time i used my new laser (debit) card: to buy shivering isles (i went crazy with my debit card in new zealand (i think $4 was the average price i used it for) the first thing i bought with money was 2 pairs of socks in penneys (primark to those of you in the uk), wow).

1st song listened to: Cocteau Twins – Aloysius (i played my top rated songs on shuffle (info thanks to last.fm))

1st movie i watched: final fantasy advent children

1st book i read: a comic - outer orbit - which i bought in dreamhaven books in minneapolis

ok - i can't think of anything else - feel free to put in additional 1sts for me.

my novel

god - i've made 2 posts in 2008 (this will be my third) that's awful.

anyway. i have some serious work to do on my novel. i have about 10,000 words to type up and the whole thing to edit. i was just messing about with it, reading random sections and while there's a lot of good stuff there, a heap of it isn't organized properly or trails off randomly or reads like a robotic feed or a instruction manual or something.

and then there's the slight inconsistencies, the bits of the plot that just happen out of nothing and aren't really connected to the main plot but that have a nice message. then there's the anguish of my characters which builds well, but i just can't seem to pull off the dialogue endings.

:shrug: it's mostly good though. i can't wait 'til i have some sort of decent manuscript that i can use to get a publisher / editor.

it's not going to happen quickly, though. the entire start is atrocious - i shuddered at the bad writing and reams of info dumping. and i think the middle needs a lot of work too - especially azrynn's character.

the other problem i have is that about a hundred other books are titled "the fall" but i've grown quite attached to the name. oh well :)

i'm home

hello everyone

obvious statement #1: i'm home

it's strangely normal. it's like i havn't left. my room is the exact same, my computer dosn't have anything new on it. the view out my window is unchanged (except that the trees have grown a bit). the only differences are the new windows in the house and new paintings and the hallway got done up. and the fish has gotten bigger.
but it's nice to be home. to be able to play games and listen to music again, and update my journal and go online whenever i want.

obvious statement #2: the year was amazing

our last 4 weeks were spent in a rush trip across america (u.s.) and i totally fell in love with that country. everything from its cities to its national parks are amazing, even though we only got to see as small fraction.

yea... i can't think of anything to say. maybe i'll check back in later.

wow - my last post was in november

crazy, crazy! i've so much news, i'm not even going to try to post it all.

suffice to say NZ was brilliant, fiji will be wonderful (leaving for the pacific island in 3 days), and america will be rushed - from west to east in 4 weeks. it's a little crazy - we're going by train and one of the trips is 23 hours long (west glacier to minneapolis). that's insane. anyway. it should be fun.

i miss certain parts of my life from home, writing, my computer, my parents and friends, checking livejournal everyday (nah - i don't really miss that (surprisingly!)).

i really can't think of much else to say. see you all again in less than 2 months.