Er, this is the obligatory* 10000 words into NaNoWriMo whine that I'm writing garbage.

I think the problem is that I am very well acquainted with the global plot of It's Still Desertion but have only the vaguest notion what the local plot is. I'd try to make an analogy with the definition of differentiable manifolds, but 1) it would be a bad analogy, the sort that get tangled somewhere in the middle and stop making any coherent sense, and 2) differentiable manifolds would probably just make some of you more confused even if the analogy itself didn't.

Suffice it to say that I know the big events, the transitions between sections of the story, but I have only a general outline of what happens between these things (Emeryis and his family travel around the Peninsula being a theater troupe, as per usual. Diolene is caught with suspicious people once or twice, and spends a lot of time at the post office. Eater attacks become more frequent. Diolene leaves.) Unfortunately, that's not a lot of information for several years of in-story time, and I haven't figured out my minor characters enough (at least the ones who are currently around) to let them carry the local plot.

So the current plan is to write a vague sketch of the local plot and focus on the bits I do know, which will hopefully make more sense than they did last year. And then sometime I'll get around to figuring out the details of the local plot. But probably not during Nano, because time for planning one's story is not in abundance.

At least I'm pretty sure I have enough story that I can get away with skipping the local plot and not run out of words.



*Where by obligatory I don't mean that one must always write such a whine at such a point in November, only that my current feelings towards my story suggested that such a whine was necessary. . . . Fine, mostly I just wanted to use the word obligatory.

Technology may have reached the point where TextEdit and TexShop fill all my word-processing* needs, since apparently TextEdit can open .doc files (so I can still work on stuff that was started on the other computer, which has Word) and it appears that I can copy-paste text from .pdf files in Preview (so I can write my nano in tex and still be able to use the official word-counter. This is totally an important consideration).

Of course, this doesn't mean that the new computer didn't come full of Software of Mysterious Purpose, just like the old one (I have had that one for five years, and I still don't know what some of the stuff on it does). I just don't have to add as much other stuff.

Also, new computer means that I can do things on the internet involving flash player again**!


*Yes, I'm pretty sure there's a significant difference between type-setting and word-processing, as such. But they both involve storing words in text format in the computer.

**Old computer is running Mac OS 10.3.9. Various features of the internet, especially anything involving watching video with flash, delight in telling me (since sometime last spring) that this is an unsupported operating system. I'm still pondering what I'm going to do about this, since I want to keep the computer to use in my office.

What three-day weekend? I taught a class this morning.

(Also, according to something-or-other my family read the original point of Labor Day was to celebrate work by working, or something--not to not work, in any case.)

But if I actually answer the question, the answer is usually "chilling at home". Three days isn't a very long time to go anywhere, especially when one includes travel time.

I have no idea why Shirly calls her mother "Ma". In case anyone was wondering.


( part eleven )

People who expressed interest in D&D should be aware that I made an LJ-group for the game and invited them to it. Apparently invitations don't show up in any terribly visible place (go to communities, manage your invites), which seems un-useful. But now you know anyway.

So, because I am experiencing unreasonable levels of frustration with the algebra review class during the week*, and because it occurred to me that it's been a long time since I've done any sort of gaming and I miss it, I'm reviving the Attempt to Play D&D over Skype plan.

The premise: We take turns running short-ish adventures, whether purchased, invented, or found on the internet**. No particular attempt need be made to explain how or why the characters move from one adventure to the next, although if someone comes up with a brilliant explanation and wants to start dropping hints while running the game go ahead.

The details: D&D 3.5, because I don't have time to learn another system well enough to run a game just now (and yes, I'm volunteering to go first). Important house-rule: Your first level should reflect your character's childhood background--multiclassing XP penalties, alignment restrictions, and restrictions on returning to a class are waived for this level***. Starting at level 2. Schedule to be determined based on availability of interested players, but almost certainly sometime on the weekend, perhaps approximately weekly, hopefully starting in or before early August.

So, anyone want to play?



*still delaying the rant.

**as time and brain-power of the current DM permit.

***Examples: Emeryis grew up in a troupe of traveling players, and then joined the Knights. So he would have one level of bard, despite being Lawful, and then paladin levels (you know, if we'd come up with this rule back when Emeryis was a D&D character). Cae was raised at a monastery, so her first level is monk. If she then proceeds to take her second level in rogue, but decides later she wishes to train as a monk, her first level and subsequent non-monk levels do not make her ineligible for the class.

Rather than subjecting you all to an incredibly long rant about the algebra review class, I'm going to post some character questions before doing homework. That's not to say the rant won't happen eventually. Just not tonight*, if I'm ever to get the homework done.

The characters:
Serge Aliri-Keran - totally not a shaman. Nope, he's not talking to animals, why would you say such a thing?
Orlando Neila - a trusted employee of Green Man Pharmaceuticals.
Emeryis - a traveling player and trainee paladin.
Harmonia - a telegraph operator with violent vigilante tendencies.
Lucian Thorne Dawson - He's a programmer, and he's afraid of germs.
Jeanne - She's best described as a muddy peasant. But she might want to be a paladin.
Brin Lankari - Light-side Jedi who flirts with anything that moves.
Hans - Rainer's bâtman/squire/minion.
Rainer - regent, heir, and commander of the armies for the four-year-old Duke of Valdorpf.
Steliana - another pretender to the duchy of Valdorpf.

( The questions: )

Apparently this was in the newspaper. Who knew that superpowered children were becoming so mainstream?

On the theory that maybe writing things down will make me more likely to do them:

This evening I plan to wash dishes, eat dinner, write and/or draw for a while, do nothing on the internet for a while (you can see I'm making good progress on this one already), possibly darn some socks, and spend about an hour more on the topology homework I've been doing all afternoon.

In other news, I am back at school, moved into my new apartment (although I still need to get a few storage-type objects and retrieve my plants from a friend's house), and finally in possession of a working internet connection (I may need to play with the settings on the modem/router, because I think it currently blocks iChat, but this should be fixable). And because I don't seem to be writing anything more in this entry I'm just going to go ahead and post it.

Evidently sudden absence of academic work makes me post on LJ.

( Part nine )

( More pictures under here, including one I'm drawing. )
Having written all that, I'm wondering whether I should have put the captions after the pictures which they describe, but I don't really want to change it now.

You all know whose characters are whose by now, right?

( What is this, part 8? )

As I was walking to school on Thursday, I noticed ( this spider. ) I could have dealt with continuing to be blissfully unaware that these critters live around here, I think.

An (admittedly not exhaustive) reread of various of Tamora Pierce's books not having come up with anyone in "contemporary" Tortall that I have both a vague physical resemblance to and any particular interest in dressing up as, my current plan is to come up with a Beka costume, and to see if I can reinvent* my Sandry costume from Hallowe'en . . . good grief, it must be something like six years ago.

(I've not read Bloodhound yet, fyi. So the following discussion is based on notes I took on Terrier a few months ago.) Beka's uniform doesn't sound too complicated: tunic, breeches, boots. For the tunic, I'm thinking something like this, sans pockets, in black, probably with white ribbon or something sewn around the hems for the trimming. I have black pants (I'd probably use Ace's, at this point, although I suppose it's conceivable I'll come up with better ones before ConBust next), and I have black boots (again, Ace's--well, they're my regular shoes. But still).

As far as accessories go, I've a bit more hunting to do. My notes don't indicate whether Beka's arm guards and gorget are leather or metal or a combination. Whichever way it is, I'm thinking something like this is probably the way to go to make such things (in addition to it being ENTIRELY AWESOME, in general). I do have a medieval-ish leather belt, but since it's brown rather than black I should probably try to get another one. And appropriate pockets and things to go on it.

My partial Sandry costume is circa the beginning of Magic Steps--I'm not even sure at this point whether that outfit has a better description than the others, or was just more like things I would wear. And I've (oddly) put a lot less thought into it than Beka's. However, things that I would need to make/find are blouse, sleeveless tunic, and veil. Also possibly gloves.

Additionally, it's probably the sort of outfit that would look far better with a corset underneath. So this is incentive to actually make a corset this summer (it's on my to-do list. Really).

*I think I can still use the pants. And the boots. But since I never actually managed to make the tunic, and the shirt I used is approaching the stage of falling apart . . .

I have been delaying, and delaying, and delaying continuing to work on this, because Emeryis' shirt is supposed to be sort of a dark red and the closest chalk pastel I had was sort of a pale brick color. OR SO I THOUGHT. I eventually made it to Michael's yesterday afternoon, and ended up buying a whole box of chalk pastels (the small box, not the large one, which still cost rather more than I wanted it to) since they didn't sell them individually.

I start coloring this evening, and it is apparent pretty quickly that the color I am using would probably be properly described as rose. A bit of looking in my old boxes of chalk pastels reveals that I actually had this color before going shopping. Um . . . oops?

Well, it's not like I don't use chalk pastels.

So here will begin Adventures in Color Blending. There may be occasional updates.

Hey, look, robots!

As I am drowning in midterms (again. There are only two-ish weeks left in the semester, by the way, which is a terrifying thought), I may have misrepresented the likelihood of an actual ConBust post containing actual content. But there are pictures here.

Does anyone know what that fabric that's different colors from different angles is called, and do they make it in things other than just solid colors?

I read Blindsight. And yes, it was hard sf with vampires, as advertised. I'm just . . . a little unsure why there were vampires. Did some Laurea-analogue rogue geneticist just decide "Hey, you know what I could do? I could clone some VAMPIRES!" and then do it, and then people realized they were useful and things escalated from there?

The book jacket description made it sound like just about the least enticing thing ever, but once I started reading the actual book I enjoyed it.

Also, is Technological Singularity the Next Big Idea? I'd never heard of it until I started reading Charles Stross about six months ago, and now it seems like everybody's using it without explanation. (In addition to the mention in Blindsight, it got mentioned with literally no explanation in Numb3rs on Friday.) Or is it just one of those things that you don't notice unless it means something to you?

I don't think I could handle going to outer space. Not for any reason that one might expect--simply that I seem to have major difficulties with recycled air.

Also, long train rides are long. And now I should be doing homework or something vaguely productive, since I'm not going to the grocery store (until tomorrow, I guess) because the buses aren't running (because it's technically still break) and I don't want to walk. Three topology problems for tomorrow isn't very much, but I don't yet have any brilliant ideas for the third one--so even if I don't write them up until tomorrow morning, I still need to have answers to write up. And there's definitely an argument to be made for starting the grading. But since it's still technically break, I will probably just do the minimum necessary (i.e. the topology) and put the rest off to tomorrow. Not that this makes things different from any other weekend, at all.

My sister had a snow day last Monday, and managed to convince some of her gaming buddies to brave the snow and come play a \geq one-shot (which she apparently works into their on-going campaign by describing it as strange dreams the characters have). I . . . introduced them to Cae (who exists as a D&D character as well as in that story). Her general modus operandi is to be obnoxious and rude to anyone who happens to be nearby. Which meant that a lot of conversations consisted of

NPC: [things you might want to know about the plot]
Cae: [rudeness]
Other players: [discussion of something I'd not really heard of before, out of character]
NPC: [expresses offense]
Cae: [makes no effort to appease him/her]
Other players: [continue irrelevant ooc conversation until my sister yells at them]

because my sister's friends are the most distractible bunch of gamers ever. Cae also decided she didn't trust one of the NPCs we were traveling with (just to be contrary, as opposed to showing great discernment), and I am reliably informed that he was actually a bad guy (we didn't get all the way through the adventure), so Cae can feel vindicated. Or something. (We'd been told that we needed to escort an Initiate and a relic to someplace or other, and we were met by a small child in robes and a scruffy guy, so Cae asked the scruffy guy whether he was the Initiate or the relic, and received no satisfactory answer. Things went downhill from there.)

I keep thinking it's a week later than it is. Somehow this doesn't strike me as a good idea.

So, Victoria basically tells Jamie to shut up when he suggests that she wear a mini-skirt. Of course, this is the episode after she wears . . . well, let's just say it's not a Victorian dress. And she's wearing knee-breeches during the conversation in question.

But the thing is, the next two outfits she wears involve increasingly short skirts. So I'm sitting here reading these photo-novels and coming up with (ridiculous) alternative suggestions for dialogue. Most of which involve the length of Victoria's skirts (Jamie: I convinced her to wear a short skirt. You wouldn't believe how much talking that took!).

Also, I didn't realize Brigadier Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart was in The Web of Fear until he showed up. And now I keep getting confused because they refer to him as 'Colonel'.

The internet seems to be grumpier than it was yesterday . . .

Victoria can pick locks with hairpins! (I'm not bothering to wonder why she has hairpins, since her hair seems to be in a ponytail . . .)

. . . I haven't done much of anything academically productive this weekend. I suppose that doesn't really make it any different from most other weekends, but . . . I guess I should get off the internet and sleep at some point, so I can do work in the morning.