| It's about Harry Potter, yes. There could be spoilers. |
[Jul. 23rd, 2007|05:54 pm] |
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Sometimes I read things I really want to respond to. But I don't want to smash anybody else's house and I don't want to pick on anybody. I just want to react. Here is where I'm going to do it. |
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| Potterdammerung-inspired. Spoiler-free. A musing about creative writing. |
[Jul. 23rd, 2007|05:10 pm] |
I am thinking about RULES of fiction. Or storytelling, if you want to think outside of the written word.
I think that for single-book stories, the RULES are initially set by the GENRE but eventually also by the author’s STYLE.
I think that in multi-episode stories, there are rules intrinsic to the story. They may not always be apparent by the end of the first episode.
When people break RULES it makes the story shocking and unpredictable. But sometimes when the RULES are broken, they still secretly follow RULES that have not yet been communicated.
Some people claim they like and prefer when RULES are broken. Perhaps they do. I do wonder if they are instead applying RULES that come from another source and if there IS a way to unpleasantly shock them. Without making them say ‘this makes no sense’ and stop reading. |
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| What the heck. |
[Jun. 8th, 2006|09:25 am] |
'cause I see there are 15 subscribers to my OLD off-lJ blog-feed and only /10/ subscribers to my NEWER off-LJ blog feed, I thought I'd repost the feed link right here for all of you. I try to be amusing and interesting over there, so come over and check me out!
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/attractmode_net/
My goodness, the LJ posting interface has changed. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 11th, 2005|05:41 pm] |
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Apparently the new RSS feed for my blog is attractmode_net. There is nothing obvious on this update page telling me how to make it do the neat autolink thing, my apologies. The old feed at attractmode doesn't pick anything up, anymore. I try to post semi-regular updates on my condition because my family reads it, and certainly anything really exciting goes there. |
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| A lost story |
[Apr. 21st, 2004|11:32 am] |
Once upon a time, I read a certain book.
In this book, there were a race of dwarves (?) that could not be knocked down as long as their feet were on the earth.
There was also a prince, who grew from a child to a man overnight when he was taken into a fairy/dwarven burrow. This was so he could rescue the kingdom or something.
Does anybody know what this book was?
Thanks! |
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| Many I Know, Few I See |
[Jan. 29th, 2004|11:15 am] |
I think my non-LJ livejournal is a livejournal RSS-feed, called 'attractmode'. I have no idea who, if anybody, reads it.
But all the same, there are a fair number of people I'd like to share my news with.
On Christmas morning, in Pasadena with his family, Kevin surprised me with an elaborately planned marriage proposal and a pink sapphire ring. I accepted. Details of the event itself are available in the late December portion of my blog at Attract Mode.
We're vaguely planning for a May 2005 wedding. It will be in Washington, either near Seattle or in the Olympic Peninsula. Neither of us are expecting a large family presence; we are hoping for a lot of friends, though. I don't expect to have an actual location until May '04 at the earliest; when I do, I'll come up with a guest list and send out save-the-date notices-- I think that's how this is supposed to go?
I've never gotten married before. I guess this is when all my obsession with doing something right the first time pays off.
Kevin is a beyatch, but I'm really happy that he wants to be around me for the rest of our lives. How somebody can be so charming and such a pain in the ass at the same time is a puzzle I get to spend a long time solving! |
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| Confession: |
[Oct. 8th, 2003|11:59 am] |
I'm horrified at how snarky my livejournal friends list is about Arnold as governor. I'm not sure I've seen that much bile and hatred spewed for Bush and God knows, everybody hates him. And I don't understand it. Maybe it's because I haven't been in California, but from the outside, it looks entirely like Arnold is being rejected simply because he's a big, strong actor who has played in action movies. Not on the basis of any of his platforms, not on the basis of being a Republican candidate, but because he's Arnold Schwartznegger. What the hell? I'd expect people to at least be willing to give him a chance.
I can understand people being against the recall in principle, and being dismayed that the recall went through and the precedent that will set. But why be so savage against Arnold? That seems amazingly narrowminded.
The only thing I can figure is that people are embarassed, that they're sensitive to all the jokes that can be built around Governor Arnold. Which I guess makes sense in a schoolroom, but I'd expect adults to be a bit less quick to judge. |
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| Look, a game. |
[Sep. 29th, 2003|11:24 am] |
Hi there.
The IF Competition has started. For those interested in it, check out http://www.ifcomp.org. If anybody's interested in my game, but not the whole comp, say something and I might be able to make a Windows executable version available. |
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| A blatant plug? Perhaps... |
[Aug. 15th, 2003|03:33 pm] |
I'm trying to come up with a clever idea for a prize to donate to this competition. I'll also be entering the competition... but it seems like in years past there have been 30 or more prizes awarded, and I'd like to join that fun too.
So if anybody has any ideas on prizes more entertaining than 'Another game from the MS company store' or 'an amazon gift certificate', please post 'em! |
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| for those who asked |
[Mar. 26th, 2003|01:15 pm] |
I have a new website. It has two relevant components:
http://notes.attractmode.net/
http://www.attractmode.net/
The first is my board, same as before, no change, I'm still asking for registration.
The second is the front page. It's a blog; it should have most of the general posts duplicated there and teasers for anything else I feel like. |
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| The Two Towers |
[Dec. 23rd, 2002|01:48 am] |
I just want to say, far and wide, that more and more, I think when Theoden says the lament of Eorl as he's being armed is the absolute best and most brilliant moment of both movies. See here for the text of the lament, along with context on its origin.
Watching it the second time, tears came many times where no tears had sprung the first time. Odd. |
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| Structures |
[Dec. 2nd, 2002|08:31 pm] |
After reading the discussion today at ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) zogathon's journal, I had some connected but not entirely on topic thoughts of my own.
Basically, they come down to this: I believe, in America, almost everybody is part of one, or usually more, cultures. In each culture, there are three kinds of people. There are celebrities, there are producers, and there are observers. I suppose by 'culture' I mean what most people mean by 'subculture'. And I think this applies to every such culture I can think of, from movie production to hairdressing to fashion to local town politics to net.geeks to gamers. Celebrities are the names everybody knows. Producers are those who are definitely a part of the culture, but unrecognized and unnotable. Observers are those outside the culture who nonetheless enjoy participating in it passively
Hmmm... |
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| Food |
[Nov. 12th, 2002|08:29 pm] |
I am looking for really luscious, extravagant foods you might have eaten or seen, for inspiration in writing a feast scene for my novel. I know some of you out there can identify complex spice mixtures by taste, and others of you cook interesting things, and most people out there like to eat. So... tell me what the most interesting, extravagant, luxurious foods you've ever eaten or heard of have been?
Thank you! |
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| Also, for your amusement: |
[Nov. 1st, 2002|01:09 pm] |
When I was a kid, I stopped wearing digital watches, because invariably, they would stop functioning within six months of donning one. First it would display weird characters for a while-- signals from another world? before dying utterly. Walkman batteries would also die quickly, although I understand this is common. I once kept a digital timepiece going for a year by keeping it in my coat pocket rather than on my person.
I joked, often, through college, that I drained batteries.
In the last three years, my desktop computer has gone through three power supplies. At one point I touched another household computer and the power supply immediately died. I also plugged in Kevin's computer after the cats unplugged it and somehow whacked the power supply.
My laptop computer has a battery problem. It is functional when there is no battery installed and when it is plugged in. If a battery is installed after it's plugged in, the battery can not charge. If there is a battery installed while it is turned off, it will not turn on at all.
See below for car electrical excitement. |
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| Thoughts on my broken car? |
[Nov. 1st, 2002|01:01 pm] |
You say "It's not consistent, either."
You say "For example, currently, the light for the radio turns on when I try
and start the car, and the heater runs. However, the clock does not display
and the radio only plays static. Also, the internal lights do not work but
the external lights do."
You say "This is identical to what happened when it died in the street that
night."
You say "However, after I picked it up, I stopped one day to get gas. The car
drove fine, except that the light for the clock did not function, and the
radio didn't play at all, not even static."
You say "That went away as soon as I parked; I tried the engine curiously and
everything came on fine."
You say "Previous to the stop in the street, nothing would turn on, although
the engine would continue to turn over. Eventually, left alone and dry for
a day or two or three, it would start again."
You say "Oh, and the power door locks don't work."
You say "There seems to be evidence that when it died in the street, it died
literally because it wasn't getting any gasoline, because the fuel pump
stopped working, due to lack of power." |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 24th, 2002|11:46 am] |
turnlane blockedlane open lane
t e b e o e
t e b e obigtrucke
t e b e obigtrucke
t e b e obigtrucke
t e b e obigtrucke
t e b e obigtrucke
t e b e obigtrucke
t e b e obigtrucke
t e b e obigtrucke
t e b e obigtrucke
t e b e obigtrucke
t e b e obigtrucke
t e b e o e
t e b e o car e
t e b e o car e
t i e o car e
t i i e
t i i e
t i i e
t i i e
t e b i e
t e b e o e
t e b e o e
t e b e o e
t e b e o e
Except oh, bigtruck wanted to make a LEFT turn.
Sane drivers go around the block.
Bigtruck decided to back up.
I didn't draw them in but there are many cars rushing up behind little car (me) as bigtruck backs up into me, forcing me to back up myself, into onrushing traffic.
When it hit me, it decided it had gone far enough, yanked the cab around and inched into the turn lane.
No, I didn't honk my horn soon enough. No, I don't have a license. No, I can't really remember where the truck was from, although I know it was't a full-sized semi but seemed larger than the big u-hauls. It was dirty white, or yellow, with lots of STUFF on it. It was much much bigger than me. |
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| My wedding toast for Neil and Stacy |
[Oct. 22nd, 2002|02:46 pm] |
Apparently it's traditional for the best man to insinuate a desire for free drinks into his introduction and poke fun at the groom for a few sentences before launching into the sweet stuff. Also, a few jokes are aparently in order-- the best of a bad bunch is about how wonderful the wedding was-- even the wedding cake was in tiers.
Well, I'm not very good at making jokes, and I'm not a traditional best man-- you'll have noticed the skirt, I'm sure. So I'm just going to go with what I'm comfortable with, just like I did in picking out clothes.
My name is Chrysoula, and I've known Neil for six years, and Stacy for almost that long. When Neil asked me to be his best man, I was speechless-- I'd walked back from lunch with him expecting a serious chat about some problems in a game we were running and instead he hit me with this. Honestly, standing by Neil's side as he married Stacy has been one of my daydreams since before they were engaged-- they're that good together-- but not a daydream I ever expected to become real. I'm not, as I said, a traditional best man. And of all our shared close friends, I had known Neil the least amount of time.
Six years-- but six years of laughter, of secrets, of hard times and good times. Six years of trust, six years of talking, six years of friendship even when friendship was hard. Additionally, six years of being bossy, demanding, and enthusiastic-- I suppose it's no big surprise, after all, that Neil wanted me in a position to organize his groomsmen and make sure he got to the wedding all right. I was, after all, the best man for the job.
So there you go. That's who I am and why I'm here, generally. Why I'm here right now, though, is to make sure everybody's aware of what a wonderful couple Neil and Stacy are. I've been in a position to watch their relationship when it was young, when they couldn't be parted from each other, and as it matured into something deeper, something lasting, something eternal. I remember when Neil was nervous of marriage, and I remember when he proposed to Stacy, and the casual way he revealed this to his friends. "What???" we all said (and then 'Congratulations'. And then 'finally!'),
But now here's Neil, all grown up. Mostly grown up. Married, anyhow. And married to Stacy! When I sat down to write this speech, I polled some friends informally-- it turns out that Stacy is wonderful, graceful, fierce, and lovely. I think the secret reason Neil picked me as a best woman is that anyone else might knock him out and try to take his place at the wedding. Luckily, I had his back.
Hmmm. I think now's the point where I instruct Neil and Stacy to hold hands on the big roller coaster of life and so forth. Not my words, I promise you. Neil, Stacy, keep on taking care of each other. You're both wonderful. Keep grooving together on the Dance Dance Revolution pad of life. Keep dancing, anyhow.
Now for my words. Neil and Stacy are both fond of stories, and so am I, so I thought I'd leave them with this one.
Once upon a time, there was a knight errant.
He'd wander the land, telling stories to townsfolk
and rescuing maidens from monsters
and teaching towns to defend themselves.
Once upon a time, there was a princess.
She'd wander the land, listening to stories
and rescuing towns from monsters
and sewing ballgowns for maidens.
The knight errant told the story one day
of the princess who rescued towns
when a voice in the audience said,
"That's not what happened. It's my story after all."
The princess stood up.
She had a sword. The knight errant was in love.
Just then, a monster attacked!
"I must save the town!" cried the princess heroically.
"I must save you!" cried the knight errant hopefully.
And the princess turned, and gave him such a look.
He quaked in his boots.
Maybe he should have stuck to telling stories.
And then she smiled and said, "Okay!"
The monster was vanquished!
And afterwards, the knight taught the town to defend itself
and the princess showed the maidens how to have gowns of their own.
and of course, they lived happily ever after.
If you'd all stand and lift your glasses with me now, I'd like to toast
Neil and Stacy.
In this case, a traditional toast seems most appropriate: To love, to laughter, and to happily ever after. To Neil and Stacy. Yay! |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 11th, 2002|10:05 am] |
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There are no instructions on a box of Cocoa Pebbles. |
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