Had a fun weekend. Stayed a friend’s house, saw a terrible movie that did give me inspiration for a WIP (if you can even call it progress). Not my NaNo, unfortunately, (though I’m trying to power through, even after discovering that I had a premise hole. That’s new) but a story BA and I have been collaborating on for a while. Well, we collaborated for a long time in spring 2008, then it died. The plot and characters are pretty fleshed out, however, and if you’re reading this, BA, know that I want to discuss it next time we talk.

I love that I leave myself cryptic notes and then have no idea what they are. For instance, I found a note that said, “Every week brings us new suckers and more food!” It’s noted as ‘put in novel’ (because I was using my lovely KnockKnock stickies that I love) but I don’t know which, or for what reason. It’s a quote from Bolt. I have no idea what it’s for. Even worse was another that said, “Untouchable.” I don’t know if this is something for a fanfic, an original fic, a song, an episode of a show… I am far too mysterious for my own good sometimes.

Anyway. Just so’s you know I’m still alive down here. Also, I now officially have 100 comments! All but 17 are by BA, which pretty much proves her awesomeness. About five of the 17 are mine, but 12 that aren’t spam by totally random people? That’s pretty good.

~DreamingOfNothing

Have you ever had an entire conversation with someone, and then felt incredibly lonely for no apparent reason?

Well, it sucks.

~DreamingOfNothing

NaNo’s not going very well. Between the crazy party we just made (it’s like a wedding. Honest. Just as much work.), school, college/seminary apps, and SAT testing, I haven’t had time to breathe, let alone write or post.

I’m actually in a worse position than I was in 2007, my first time, when I found myself on the 13th with 12590 words. Now it’s the 17th and I only have 11022. It’ll take nearly 3K a day to pull out of this, and I have tests all week and Thanksgiving. I want to do it, though, because I’ve never given up on anything like this before. Never. Every molecule is telling me stop, idiot, stop, because you’re never going to make it and your life will tank more than it already has, but I can’t.

I’ve decided to do half, at least, but my eye is still on that final 50,000. 25K is a lot more reasonable for me right now, though, and it will be a stretch to even put out those 834 words per day. We’ll see. Root for me, y’all.

Must go. Studying and cleaning and writing to do.

~DreamingOf50K

Glee. Such a guilty pleasure.

They could send me Kurt for Christmas, except that he’d just criticize my closet, so I wouldn’t cry if they sent Artie instead. I’ll install a ramp. Or Puck, if they’re all out of Kurts and Arties, mowhawk and all.

I know how to pick them.

~DreamingOfNothing

I’ve found out why this year’s NaNo is so hard. Because I’ve only got one POV character.

I’m changing that right now. I suppose single-character POVs (or first, definitely) is not in my future. So Jenna will join the cast.

Thanks, darkness. You are wise.

~DreamingOfNothing

… so instead of spending hours a day watching Criminal Minds, Arrested Development, Numb3rs, Glee, or NCIS, I’m spending hours a day watching Liberty’s Kids. I’m not sure if I should feel happy (because it’s educational, even though I can’t really claim it’s for school because even the AP US History exam doesn’t go in this much detail about the American Revolution) or pathetic (because I previously watched it when I was eight and saw Henri as a compatriot in child-ness. Now I am hyper-aware of how cute and little he is. It makes me facepalm.)

Good news, though. Between dance and a new-found enthusiasm for French, I can now actually pronounce Comment allez-vous, instead of murmuring, “Comment allez-vu?” (all letters pronounced, except vous, which was the only one I knew how to say.) Now I can say it correctly, though I can’t really transliterate it. So. Now I’m working on French and Spanish, which is good (because I love languages and hey, French is cool) and bad (because they’re very similar and things like Bien [which is 'bien' in Spanish and - I can hardly pronouce it in French] really give me trouble.)

Yeah. As you all already know, when I commit, I commit good and hard. (Which means I’m about 5K behind for NaNo. But hey. This is school! For real!)

~RêverRien (DreamOfNothing. I think. According to Babel, anyway, so it probably means DrinkStone or something)

When I was a lot younger, I watched PBS. I remember adoring ZOOM, The Magic School Bus, and Zoboomafoo, but I only had three real addictions as a child.

The first was the animated Redwall series. They originally aired in 1999, but they must have rerun it because I didn’t have a television then. Anyway. I loved the series and ended up collecting almost the entire book series, though I only read the first and Mattimeo, anyway. The series was on Redwall, Mettimeo, and Martin the Warrior, and it was a darn good series, I’ll add. Loved it. Watched it every Sunday morning. I literally told kids I couldn’t play with them then because I had something to do. When I dedicate, I dedicate good.

A few years later I really got into Cyberchase, but that was a math-based show that aired after school. Came home every day to watch it. Eventually I outgrew the Cyberchase math, but I loved it at the time. I get connected to characters – I loved Matt, Jackie, Inez, and Digit, and I loved them fighting Hacker and trying to save Motherboard. It was cheesy but I was ten and darn you, that was my favorite series ever.

What inspired this post is a show that I watched from its premiere in September, 2002 to its finale in April, 2003. I watched any reruns I caught as well, and I’m remembering it because my mother recently purchased the entire series for my sibling’s homeschool. It’s called Liberty’s Kids.

It’s a cheesy name, I know, but it’s about three kids and the American Revolution. It basically taught you about the Revolution and the important people and events in it. We also pushed off anything else to watch it – My brother even dressed up as the Marquis de Lafayette for Purim one year. I remember being astounded that someone didn’t know who Nathan Hale was. I thought of Ticonderoga as the fort, not the pencil, and Ethan Allen as the leader of the Green Mountain Boys, not the furniture company. This stuff worked, though – I mean, I remember this stuff. All of it. (Well, most – that’s why I’m sitting in my younger sib’s viewings). It’s good stuff.

I loved the characters in this show as well. I understood Sarah, who was British and usually took the Loyalist side of the discussion, probably had a crush on James, who was a fierce patriot and was daring and couragous, respected Moses, who was basically everyone’s dad, and adored Henri, who was little and French and funny and lovable. I loved them and memorized the theme song and the works. (I basically ignored the part where no one aged between 1773 and 1782.) Still can’t hear the name Henri without thinking of them. I still love them, to be honest, in that way you adore your old teddy bear. Also, they’re still as wonderful as they were when I was younger.

They were great characters. And after having a heavily fanfictioned dream about these characters (it dealt with backstory. Backstory that they talk about briefly and my brain filled in. I can’t believe myself either), my brain thought, “Oh, god, you can’t write Liberty’s Kids fanfiction. It’s produced by PBS. You can’t do this.”

So since my brain is an IDIOT, it decided to go look it up on fanfiction.net, reasoning, “If no one else has done this, you shouldn’t either.”

Then *BRAINFIZZ* What the hell do you mean, 101 stories? Are you effing kidding me?

And a CROSSOVER? With Pirates of the Caribbean?

I think I need to lie down. Or at least turn the computer off before my fool brain makes me read one of these, which will probably ruin my clean visions of this show forever. I bet you money someone’s written a Sarah/James porn. Just writing that makes me feel sick. Bye. I’m going to bed so I can think in the SATs tomorrow.

~DreamingOfNothing

And I’m finally back into the NaNo feel. The words are flowing just the way they’re supposed to be. Yes yes yes yes.

*cheer*

~DreamingOfNothing

Means fear of buttons. And Neil Gaiman’s trying to give it to me.

That’s a movie I really, really want to see. Loved the book, though it did make me scared of closed doors for a good week. It’ll do that to a seven-year-old.

~DreamingOfNothing

Have I recommended this before? It’s Marauder-fic and it’s fabulous. Reminds me of Shoebox, actually, though it’s been ages since I’ve read Shoebox. And it’s James/Remus, which usually squicks me out, but I just love the fic such that it works, I suppose. And it’s not really porn or anything. Not really. Not comparatively, really. I am going to stick a Mature Sticker on it, though, so if you’re young and impressionable and innocent, now you know. The Mature’s mostly for language, but yanno. Still.

But it’s great. It has wonderfully realistic dialogue, and also has the lines:

“That’s a daisy with tentacles, Sirius.”

“Bloody pessimist.”

Which for some reason, I find the funniest thing ever. But yanno. S’good.

And that is today’s missive. And then we’re off. And in case you’re wondering? HTIWB,E,A has taken a very odd turn in a series of fever dreams and I don’t think aliens and serial killers are going to shoehorn well into the plot. I think I’ll stick with the RVs, though.

~DreamingOfNothing