| The Age of Inertia: Chapter 2 |
[Jan. 4th, 2007|03:30 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Upward over the Mountain - Iron & Wine | ] |
So it took me over seven months, and even then I couldn't get my act together and post earlier than three in the morning--but Chapter 2 is finally up! Really, I'm disgustingly proud of myself. Disgustingly proud.
The Age of Inertia: Chapter 2
The Mail Clerk
Chapter Stats:
Words: 9,696
Lines: 578
Paragraphs: 216
Pages: 10
Music:
1. 1979 - Smashing Pumpkins
2. Upward over the Mountain - Iron & Wine
3. Reflections - Apocalyptica [album]
That's all for now. Hopefully it was worth the wait; as for me, I'm just glad my writer's block is over. :)
Cheers, everyone. Will be back soon! |
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| ...I'm back |
[Jan. 2nd, 2007|09:27 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | L'estro Armonico - Vivaldi | ] |
*Blows the dust off this journal*
Well. It's been a while. Hmm. I think I should explain that, seeing how I fell off the face of the earth for no less than...oh, four months. I'd be surprised if any of you actually read this post, to be honest, but here goes anyway. I feel like I owe it to everyone who still thinks of me as a writer and UR mod to explain my absences; you guys deserve it.
This semester has been a busy one, and there were even times when it was downright crazy. There are way too many details to talk about succinctly here, but here's the general gist of it:
I made the decision to pursue a degree in biological and biomedical engineering, which means that the next three and a half years of my life will be consumed with courses in calculus, computer programming, physics, biology, fluid kinetics, solid mechanics, organic and biochemistry, protein mechanics, microbiology, engineering seminars, etcetera. This past semester wasn't quite that focused in one direction for me, but my schedule--autotutorial biology, Asian history, meteorology, intro to mechanical engineering, and engineering calculus--made up in work and lab hours for what it lacked everywhere else (you know you've done one too many dissections when you can stick your nose in a bucket of preserved starfish without even blinking an eye). Truth be told, I probably spent more time in the library each day than I did in class, not that I'm complaining; we have fantastic libraries here.
Tae Kwon Do now consumes my evenings (and most of my life, it seems, but that's a different story). In addition to all-afternoon team training on weekends during the on-season, I have practices several nights a week. Tournaments take place pretty much everywhere in the Northeast, and the first time, we boarded the bus at 2 AM to drive out to Boston so we could compete at MIT. Both of this semester's tournaments lasted between 12 and 14 hours, not counting transportation, setups, and cleanups. In addition to that...well, the TKD team is a social world unto itself, and I have to say, my teammates have been keeping me occupied. To put it concisely, we spend a lot of time geeking around together, and as with any team, I guess, there's just a lot of drama and hilarity that goes along with it.
Hm, what else? Well, those are the two big things that've been keeping me away from UR. There've been all the usual goings-on of dorm living, ergo plenty of drunk people in the hall at three in the morning every weekend, Grey's Anatomy marathons on the floor of a designated person's room (sometimes mine), Nerf gun fights, homework parties in the lounges until four AM (or sometimes the middle of the hall, if the lounges were locked), late-night runs to the campus greasy spoon for a grilled cheese sandwich with my awesome roommate...generally speaking, college has been a load of fun so far, but I have to admit I'm still catching up on the past four months' worth of missed sleep.
So that's been my life up until winter break. Now for a little ditty concerning my, er, modliness (or lack thereof, recently): I've really dropped the ball on the Mentoring Program this fall and winter, and I'm sincerely sorry for that. I've also come back to a situation with way too many glitches for comfort, so I'm working now on some changes that I hope will make the program easier to run and keep watch on. The logistics of running the program so far have been something like this: Check email, write emails, and continue to hassle participants indefinitely with emails. It wasn't that big a problem when there were only a few mentors and apprentices, but now that the program has expanded so much, it's grown nearly impossible to keep it running in a timely, efficient manner. Not only that, but it's not a reliable system, and if I'm not there to keep a constant eye on the mentoring inboxes (which has been the case far more often than I'd hoped during these past few months), the whole thing falls apart at the seams. We need a drastic change, and we need it now. So keep your eyes peeled for news on the UR frontpage; I'll be back with more information later, once I've made a few setups and gotten in touch with some key people.
As for my writing, expect to see The Age of Inertia updated very, very soon (within 24 hours at the most). Lightning struck, and chapter 2 died, morphed, and was born again. :)
Happy 2007, everyone! |
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| College |
[Aug. 30th, 2006|10:24 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Way It Is - Bruce Hornsby | ] |
Oh man. It's been a while, hasn't it?
Right, so on the off-chance that anyone's wondering what happened to that crazy mod-girl who was on UR pretty much all summer...I'm in college. Classes began last week, and my schedule is completely screwed up, no thanks to the people who decided to modify it right after I'd straightened it out (yahoo for conflicts; I want a Time Turner. Bah). The campus is huge, and most of my courses are at the furthest possible point from my dorm, which means I have to leave about half an hour early if I expect to get to class on time (if I don't want to run, that is). As for my coursework, though--I'm currently taking one Asian Studies class, two classes in Engineering (Math 191 and Computing 165), one class in Atmospheric Science, and an autotutorial General Bio class. I'm also doing Tae Kwon Do as usual, and the training programs here are nothing if not rigorous (we run laps and stairs in the football stadium and train like maniacs on weekend mornings and weeday evenings, and I have a tournament at MIT on October 15). Needless to say, I have a relatively demanding workload, so what used to be late nights on the computer are now late nights in the library or study lounge.
I'm almost done with Chapter 2 of AoI. I wrote most of it over the summer, but I just haven't pulled together that one last scene. It's a little excruciating, really--I could have updated a month ago if I'd gotten those last 500 words in place before leaving the country for two weeks. (The chapter is something like 7000 words long). Still, things ought to settle down in a week or so...once I finally get all my books and return the ones I don't need, find out which sections my professors will let me take, and get into a routine (8 AM Calc lectures in the Engineering Quad--which is on the other side of campus--are complete and utter killers. Not even kidding). So, I don't know, maybe I'll get my ass in gear before Christmas. Okay, so I'm aiming for something more like this weekend or next, but if I'm gone for long periods of time, chances are I'm either a) asleep in my dorm room, or b) holed up in the library with a cappuccino doing my 200 pages of reading for the next day's history and biology classes.
But that's all the red tape of college life. So far I'm really loving it here.
Will check in again when I get the chance. Later, everyone! |
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| State of the Mod, Part II |
[Jul. 3rd, 2006|12:12 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  blank | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Gravel Road - Soundtrack from The Village | ] |
Right, so I've been rather absent recently--my cousins were in town this week, and between my two aunts, their kids, my uncle, and my own family, we had ten people in the house. Needless to say, I didn't really get much time to myself, so stuff that had already been piling up from UR piled up even higher, basically. :( But I'm back for now, sort of. One of my cousins brought a virulent stomach virus with her (she stayed in my room, no less), and I think my dad has it now--hopefully I won't be next, but if you don't see me checking up on UR at all for a while, well, you'll know what happened. Excepting the bug, though, everything was pleasant as pie.
I've been writing...slowly. I don't really know what it is; I just can't seem to stay focused on writing for long periods of time anymore. I'll update eventually, of course--it just might take a while. But then, I don't know. Maybe I'll surprise you, maybe I'll surprise myself. We'll see.
*Ruffles hair*
Guess I'll catch you all later. |
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| UR finances |
[Jun. 16th, 2006|02:37 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  working | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Harbor - Vienna Teng | ] |
Right, so.
Christy, Missy, and I have just set up the official donations page, which I'll now proceed to plug to all of you lovely people.
The deadline for our first payment to the server for Unknowableroom.org is coming up fast, and if we don't pay up by July 15, UR closes, and everything everyone's ever uploaded disappears into thin air without so much as a puff of smoke. A number of the mods have already contributed and several members have already bought paid accounts, but we still don't have enough to meet the expenses--we are, in fact, $150 short and are in need of help from our members. Any donations would be incredibly appreciated and will go directly to the upkeep of UR.org; if at all possible, please support our cause and make a contribution before July 15, 2006. See the front page of UR for details.
And, of course...
A huge thank-you goes out to my fellow mods, all of our current members, and everyone who's supported us in this venture. Truly, it's meant the world to us.
Will reply to comments later. For now, sweet dreams to everyone reading this. :) |
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| State of the Mod |
[Jun. 6th, 2006|09:42 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  complacent | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | December - Collective Soul | ] |
I hardly ever say anything on this journal anymore (okay...not that I ever have), and I sort of feel like I should. Seeing how I'm supposed to be, you know, a big responsible webmod and everything.
So, it's my last full week of school, and believe it or not, I'm still being assigned essays and lab reports (in greater numbers than I had earlier in the year, ironically enough). Tae Kwon Do is devouring my evenings as usual, and I'm usually attempting to lead a reasonably exciting life when I'm not practicing or in school (read: going to Borders and OMG buying some new books to tide me over until it's safe to go outside without having to marinate in SPF 45).
I've been disorganized lately. It's been a few weeks since my printer ran out of ink, and I still haven't bothered to replace the cartridge (it's easier to email myself copies and print in the school computer lab). Procrastination is, sadly, at an all-time high, and I can now boast of having waited until such ungodly hours as one o'clock on the morning of the duedates to actually begin writing essays. If anyone's been wondering where I am during the evenings and nights, I'm either going through some insane series of martial arts drills, or I'm up working with my Internet cable unplugged for fear that I'll get distracted and fail to finish what I'm doing before four or five in the morning.
Graduation, however, is the 22nd of this month. ;D |
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| ...Er. Right. *Facepalm* |
[May. 12th, 2006|09:15 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  ditzy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Wordplay - Jason Mraz | ] |
Oy. I'm an idiot.
This Sunday is Mother's Day.
Damn. I knew there was some reason why a UR chat session wouldn't be the greatest idea this May 14th. And to think I was about to put the notice up on the front page. It occurs to me that I should probably begin paying more attention to the calendar, particularly since these sorts of holidays have me spending the day actually separated from the computer and with other human beings (gasp!shock!novelty). Hmm.
On that note--Happy Mother's Day, guys. ♥ |
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| Hello? |
[May. 11th, 2006|04:36 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | okay | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Butterfly - The Verve | ] |
Well...I haven't updated in a while, and I feel like I ought to say something (though--actually--how many people even read this thing?).
So, the only thing I'm doing in school now is filling a seat and waiting for the year to end; now that the APs are winding down, most of our class time is spent watching movies, goofing off, or in the library. I still have work (mainly of the paper and project persuasion), but it's pretty humane this year. No French research papers due on the same day as what turned out to be a 65-page biology lab report, no SAT, no local finals of note. At this rate, the college workload is going to be quite a sharp change of pace.
To commemorate this, and to get ready for next year, my Tae Kwon Do regimen is now bordering on the terminally insane. My evenings are now almost completely consumed with training; Monday evenings, I practice from 7:30 - 8:45 after running a preliminary two or three miles; Tuesday evenings are 6:30 - 8:00; Wednesdays, 7:30 - 9:00, with the preliminary running; Thursdays, 5:30 - 8:30; Fridays are (sometimes) free, except for running; Saturday mornings are 9:45 - 11:00 plus running; Sundays, just the running. If anyone is actually wondering why I'm voluntarily doing this to myself...it's because the college I'm going to has a competitive Tae Kwon Do team (club sport organization, so no athletic scholarships or anything like that), and I want to be able to make a place for myself on the team this coming year. Yeah, trippy, I know.
--Just to let everyone know what I'm doing when I'm not writing, working (ha), or puttering about on UR.
I'll reply to comments when I get back from practice tonight. Apologies for not having done so earlier...I seem to be getting ruder as I age. |
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| Well, there go my good sleeping habits. |
[Apr. 22nd, 2006|03:11 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  awake | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Cinder and Smoke - Iron & Wine | ] |
Inspiration really does strike at the weirdest times.
Chapter 1 stats:
Word count: 6,983
Paragraphs: 172
Lines: 491
Pages: ~8, single-spaced 9pt Arial
Looks like a busy weekend ahead--between finishing this chapter (wait, wait, I take that back, it's bad form to keep jinxing it like this), studying for the APs, and spending Sunday with my grandparents, I think I'll be nicely booked for the next two days.
I should, er, probably consider going to sleep before dawn. Hmm.
ETA: I know I mentioned holding a UR session this week, but...a few things have popped up unexpectedly, and that's no longer a possibility. Sorry, guys. Real life strikes again. The bright side, though? I'm standing on the arse of the tail end of high school, and what could be better than that (besides actually graduating)? Ah, freedom. So close and yet so far. |
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| Back for the lull |
[Apr. 12th, 2006|09:35 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | awake | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | She Gathers Rain - Collective Soul | ] |
So the shit hit the fan on the academic front last week, but things are starting to clear up now. No more local finals! All I have left are the AP Exams, and then my school year is basically over. Hark, the herald angels sing!
Spring break after tomorrow--quite belated, IMHO, but if that's the way the district wants it...well, let them have their cake, the silly bureaucrats. Let the red tape eat itself. Bah. I plan on catching up on some writing and savoring the good weather while it lasts (the temperature's supposed to drop again this weekend...c'mon, guys, what's with that?).
ETA: Study break. Procrastinators be warned. ;) |
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| The spring rush |
[Apr. 7th, 2006|04:33 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | busy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Falls on Me - Fuel | ] |
Hey, guys. This is just to let everyone reading this know that I'm probably not going to be around much for the next week or so due to finals (my school insists on having AP local finals before the official AP Exams) and all the usual end-of-the-marking-period madness, but that I'll be back full-force for spring break. Another UR chat before the end of the next few weeks looks like a definite possibility. ;) Tentative topic of discussion: The functions of different characters and how to use them within the greater structure and context of your story.
Also, about The Age of Inertia--heh. It's been four months since I've updated, and I feel like I ought to say something besides, "Here, let me wave my half-written drafts in your faces, ha ha, isn't this rad?" The first chapter is almost done, I swear. It has a form and a title. The characters live and breathe. They walk, talk, and bicker like married couples (appropriately, since some of them actually are married). Overall, I'm pleased with the way the chapter is turning out, though I have had to pull a weird little chronology stunt to get it to make sense with the prologue. This weekend isn't going to afford me any time at all to work on it, but once finals are over, I should be able to sit down and finish it off. Not that this means anything coming from me, but heck, maybe I'll surprise you. Just don't, you know, hold your breaths or anything. :P
'Til later! |
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| Jinxed |
[Mar. 18th, 2006|11:19 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  feeling like complete crapola | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Jesus Loves You - Jewel | ] |
What is it about this year's flu season? I haven't gotten sick this often since I was thirteen. I mean, come on, I have to have a better immune system than this.
I was hoping to hold another UR chat this weekend, but it's been three days and my fever still hasn't broken. My apologies to anyone who thought there'd be one this Saturday or Sunday...I'd rather not impose on the other mentors to do this for me, and besides, I want to be there. : / Next weekend, hopefully?
Alas. I wish I had more to say. Bye, guys. |
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| Progress... |
[Mar. 5th, 2006|11:59 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | productive | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Fight Test - The Flaming Lips | ] |
Hm. I've just found out that my aunt and cousin are dropping in for a visit next weekend, so there goes the possibility of a UR mentoring chat...ah well, here's to the weekend after that!
On a different note...
2,529 words and counting added to Chapter 1 today.
AoI has an unusual format so far--two retrospective plotlines interwoven with journal entries, with the probable inclusion of short present-day interludes in future chapters. I had to massage it a little to make it possible to write it in past tense, seeing how present tense just insisted on being semantically wrong and repeatedly falling flat on its face. Bah.
( Chapter 1 Excerpt. Apologies in advance for the handwriting. )
And what the crap is with making lasagna without onions? I just saw a recipe for that. Onion-less lasagna. Hmp. Weirdos. |
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| Fanfiction |
[Mar. 4th, 2006|12:28 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  chipper | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Walk - Imogen Heap | ] |
So it's been two months since AoI was posted, and it still hasn't been updated (as per usual). Yes, I'm a lazy bum and haven't been writing much lately. :( I've been spending a rather inordinate amount of time (read: 4 or 5 week nights plus Saturday mornings) training for the Tae Kwon Do team, which has been cutting into my computer time considerably. Still, Chapter 1 is in progress--I couldn't seem to come up with a good first scene for a while, but my writer's block seems to be leaving me more or less in peace now. Heck, time and inspiration allowing, maybe it'll even be done in the near future, complete with an amazing flock of flying pigs!
That said, the mentoring chat last Sunday was a pretty mind-blowing success--I hadn't expected so many people to show up, much less participate. I think pretty much everyone--with an exception of maybe one or two people--spoke at some point during the discussion, and it was really great to see everyone's ideas flowing. For this reason, we can just eliminate the originally intended Q/A structure and open the sessions for general talk (questions allowed, of course) on a specific subject; all I ask is that everyone hold their thoughts until the person before them has finished speaking, since things did get a little chaotic towards the end. XD
Since characterization turned out to be such an integral part of the last discussion as a whole, I've decided to put it back on the agenda for the next one. This time, however, the primary focus won't be on Mary Sues, but on character relationships instead. Nailing down the various auras and interactions different groupings of characters have, how to present them within the context of a certain plot and setting, etcetera. Somehow I doubt this topic will run dry in three hours or less.
As of now, I don't have a specific date scheduled yet, but I think sometime next weekend or the weekend after that is within shooting range. I'll probably shake up the time a little and try to make it so that people in more distant timezones can attend more easily, so if you're reading this and couldn't come last time because of the time difference, let me know which zone you're in so I can try and take that into account.
Cheers, everyone! |
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| One-shot |
[Feb. 12th, 2006|07:54 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | satisfied | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | A Rush of Blood to the Head - Coldplay | ] |
Shock of shocks! I've posted another one-shot on UR.
http://unknowableroom.org/676/1
Title: Hanging the Puppet
Category: One-shot/Drama
Characters: Peter Pettigrew
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,223
Summary: He was missing a toe, that was true, but it was well worth the sacrifice.
A glimpse into Peter's twisted mind, written in a somewhat feverish haze this afternoon. My immune system appears to have seen better days, hence my writing fanfiction when I should really be writing a paper...but I'm nothing if not good at procrastinating. After all, who am I to resist the temptation of a nice, blank Word document?
Psh. Yeh, don't answer that. |
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| Posted at last! |
[Jan. 1st, 2006|06:41 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | pleased | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | We Will Become Silhouettes - The Shins | ] |
The prologue to The Age of Inertia can now be found here. It was written to the tunes of "The Way It Is" (Bruce Hornsby) and "Hard Times" (Eastmountainsouth). Thanks to Meg for turning me on to the latter--that CD almost never fails to get the words moving. ;)
And yes, this version is going to be different from the original.
The narrative has changed a bit: Lily is now nineteen/twenty years old and writing about her Hogwarts years. Many of the coming chapters will document the events of her schooling, and others will detail her present life as a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Lily has been driven to this degree of introspection by the sense of urgency she's gotten from realizing that she may not live to see another day. Rather than focusing on her development during her last year in school, the story will explore her entire past and juxtapose it with the events of the war against Voldemort.
Things I'm cutting out:
- The Ancient Rune subplot (no longer necessary now that the scope of the story has been expanded).
- The dreams from OE (sorry, I've grown up since then, and I can think of better things to write about).
- The murder of some member of James's family.
This pretty much sums it up. The rest should become history soon enough, I think.
Happy 2006! :) |
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| Yeah, I update this thing. Kind of. |
[Dec. 31st, 2005|09:12 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | productive | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Hard Times - Eastmountainsouth | ] |
No, AoI isn't dead. It's just thrashing like a fish out of water.
( Exerpts )
...Yeah, new prologue. What can I say? It's fun writing about six-year-olds. Don't shoot! I'm posting soon--perhaps not before 12 AM EST--but most definitely within the next twenty-four hours. AoI is coming back with an extra dimension. Happy New Year, everyone. :) |
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| Absence |
[Dec. 9th, 2005|12:25 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | ill | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | 'Hunter' - Dido | ] |
Hi, everyone. Just thought I'd check in and explain my recent AWOL-ness and why I haven't been getting anything done on UR lately. :s
As every senior knows, the duedates for college applications are crashing closer every day. And as for the world at large...yeah, this flu season is a wicked one. I've been sort of all over the place with the week's barrage of Calculus tests and paper deadlines, and I haven't really slept much over the past four or five days. Insomnia hits me pretty hard whenever I get sick (the bright side, though? I finally passed out for a while this afternoon).
Unless something else crops up, though, I ought to be able to get back on track this weekend. If I was the one who answered any of your comments, questions, or requests, I should be getting back to you with more information in a few days. Sorry for all the slowness, guys. : / |
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| Uh, fics? |
[Nov. 25th, 2005|02:39 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | 'Every Breath You Take' - The Police | ] |
Hi guys. I, um. Finally got my butt in gear and posted on UR.org.
http://unknowableroom.org/profile/Silverspinner/fics
The Gambler's on there, as well as a new Lily-centric one-shot. The Age of Inertia hasn't been posted yet, but is on the chopping block as always.
I've been writing a lot lately, as unusual as that is. One completely new novel-length fic is in the makings, and I'm working on the outline of another. Everything's sort of disjointed now, but it's beginning to slowly congeal.
Funny how I didn't even realize how much I missed writing... |
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