Space Marine and Dragonwrangler Bar & Grill

[aliwood]

Morning

I'm watching Luge from somewhere even colder than everywhere else.



My bugs are back, but only slightly and I think they'll be disappearing again later. I hope so.

I have to try and finish my book for the blog review today I think I'd better give myself something to look forward to after that. Must remember to get out Monsters Inc.

 

[10trackers]

I just need a good night's sleep, sigh. Haven't had more than a couple of hours per night for over a month. And my mom wonders why I sleep in

 

[TNK]

Hello, Cantina! It's been awhile since I stopped by.

It's currently 3:40 am here and I'm actually being productive. I'm getting ready to edit chapter fifteen.

It's way way cold, here.

Like, way cold.

You have my deepest sympathies. It's 11*F where I am.

 

[aliwood]

TNK

10s

 

[BigWords]

I am strongly considering not going back next semester.

This would make the Kraken sad. Whatever you turn your hand to, throughout the course of your life, you will hit walls and find unexpected problems to solve. These are not to be used as an excuse to retreat, but to strive harder, to fight against your impulses to shrink back. Take a moment to gather yourself, and when you hopefully walk back in there next semester you will do so head held high and determined to do your best. I'm rooting for you.

With your mouth.



Wait, that didn't come out right.


Wait, that's still what she said.

Or you get the stuff which was correctly edited out because they got the movie right the first time.

If you want to name editors who are absolute geniuses and able to save even the worst of the rubbish which passes before them, then Paul Hirsch deserves a lot more respect than he gets. It is really hard to give any sort of kudos to Talahalahalay's films when the clever editing saved the best of them, the others... well, they were unsalvageable, really. Even going back to the stuff she did on Touching Evil and whatever, the tight editing removed the worst of her excesses.

stuff is probably licking your insides.....

I see you have been hanging around with the Hounds...

 

[TNK]

Aliwood.



Chapter fifteen is done. Now on to sixteen.

 

[aliwood]

 

[Fenika]

Up before dawn again. I dreamt I had to water plants, study chemistry, and do a bunch of chores. I really didnt want to study chem. So I woke up.

Also, Fen, I'm in for the WWWSSSSSSFAFWFFSFAFS* swap.


*slight possibility I got the acronym wrong here.

Okay, but now you have to tell me what that stands for.

It's way way cold, here.

Like, way cold.

So thats what? Low 60s and breezy?

 

[lilyWhite]

Morning, all!

I just awarded myself 200 EXP for deciding which story idea I should stick to. And I genuinely feel that 200 EXP is warranted for me accomplishing that.

...I'm guessing there's no way to take back experience once I fail miserably at that... XD

 

[_Sian_]

The last day of finals for me was the 13th. However, I had a terrible semester, so I was way behind in all of my classes. I managed to catch up somewhat in three of them, but I had to get special permission to turn in work even after finals in the other two.

I was unfortunately unable to complete my history paper by the deadline. This will likely drop me from an A to a C in the class. I have yet to hear back about my computer science work, but even if he finds it acceptable, the best I can hope for in the web programming class is a low, low D.

I am strongly considering not going back next semester.

BigWords and Hils have both said good things, but my opinion? Figure out whether you're not enjoying yourself because of circumstances, or because of what you're studying. I've been in a similar place, when I was doing med, and there's no point doing something that you're not actually enjoying. It's just a waste of debt money.

But Hils is right in that it would be sensible to know what you want to do otherwise. If you don't, and it's financially viable, I would suggest taking time off (ie, keeping your place as a back up plan), and doing some sort of volunteering, to try things out and figure out what you actually want to do.

I changed my course because I wasn't enjoying medicine. It was quite a big decision because, well, it was medicine, and it's so hard to get in to in the first place. But I'm happier now, and I've done much better doing something I actually enjoy.

So weight it up. And good luck with whatever you decide

This Except there's wine in my coffee cup.

 

[eyeblink]

If you want to name editors who are absolute geniuses and able to save even the worst of the rubbish which passes before them, then Paul Hirsch deserves a lot more respect than he gets. It is really hard to give any sort of kudos to Talahalahalay's films when the clever editing saved the best of them, the others... well, they were unsalvageable, really. Even going back to the stuff she did on Touching Evil and whatever, the tight editing removed the worst of her excesses.

Word obviously gets round though. Neither Rachel Talalay or Marco Brambilla (the credited director of Demolition Man) have made a cinema feature since the mid 90s.

Meanwhile, Stuart Baird is working as an editor to this day, and has had the occasional directing gig sent his way (including one of the Star Trek films) as a thank-you for his editing salvage jobs. Paul Hirsch, as you mention him, hasn't directed but I suspect he could have done if he had wanted to.

 

[Kricket]

I could be sleeping in right now, but when Baby K woke up at four I felt wide awake. Usually Mr. K takes the early morning kid shift on the weekends, but I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, so I sent him back to bed.

Now that I'm up and I've gotten Baby back to sleep, I think I'll do something I haven't done in a long time and write. Well, I won't be working on the manuscript per say, I got a lot of character building to do.

I realized I was stalling out before because my characters were all pretty flat. This happens to me a lot. I get a new story idea and I'm all excited and I'll get the first few exciting chapters written and then I begin to suffer from lack of planning and developing and have to go back to do it.

Anyway, hope y'all have a relaxing Sunday.

 

[aliwood]

I realized I was stalling out before because my characters were all pretty flat. This happens to me a lot. I get a new story idea and I'm all excited and I'll get the first few exciting chapters written and then I begin to suffer from lack of planning and developing and have to go back to do it.

I think I have this problem too.

 

[BigWords]

I just awarded myself 200 EXP for deciding which story idea I should stick to.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I am not succumbing to the site. Really, I can't even begin to imagine what would count as worth ten, or twenty, or fifty XP. If anything, I would prefer preset values assigned to each activity, that way any gaming of the system is managed. How much is uploading another five pages to the website worth? Or writing ten thousand words? Or... dealing with the rampant idiocy I am subjected to in RL? The arbitrary nature of the "rewards" seems to turn me off.

Meanwhile, Stuart Baird is working as an editor to this day, and has had the occasional directing gig sent his way (including one of the Star Trek films) as a thank-you for his editing salvage jobs. Paul Hirsch, as you mention him, hasn't directed but I suspect he could have done if he had wanted to.

Y'know, this is probably one of those thoughts which could keep the peeps in the TV & Film section of the board arguing for weeks, but I really don't see editing as a stepping stone. An editor's career is not somehow magically validated by stepping into the role of director. There are people who oversaw (literally) thousands of films in the forties and fifties, and I hold them in very high regard, irrespective of them moving on to other roles.

Baird is one of those people who make me think of the golden age people. He's got a steady hand, a very good eye, and is able to find things inside an image which others would miss. Ironically, some editors who step into directing have been lumbered with some entirely unimaginative and pedestrian editors for their own films. YMMV on the auteur theory, but I do believe that everyone brings something to a film (or, for that matter, television show) even if it is a small contribution.

 

[aliwood]

The arbitrary nature of the "rewards" seems to turn me off.

Actually it requires to determine whether the task is easy, normal, difficult etc. etc. and then it determines points based on the level that you're on.

Does that help your braincell?


I include the following conversation transcript just for BW and Eye, I know you'll love it.

I am looking at a picture of a couple that advertises 'Holiday Affair' on the film section of the BBC iplayer.

Me: Is that Dean Martin?
Himself: No idea.

*I click for more info*

Me: Oh no, it's Robert Mitchum, I should have guessed. So who do you think the woman is?
Himself: Don't know.
Me: Janet Leigh
Himself: Who?

No, really, he said 'who?'

I guess this shows my age - mind you I'm five years younger than him. Hitchcock, who's that? He must have completely passed him by

 

[aliwood]

ladies and gentlemen

We're what now?

 

[_Sian_]

Dog wants to say hi

ETA : Thank Derek of the chatroom fame for the smaller pic

 

[BigWords]

Actually it requires to determine whether the task is easy, normal, difficult etc. etc. and then it determines points based on the level that you're on.

Does that help your braincell?

Not really.

Sorry.

Me: Oh no, it's Robert Mitchum, I should have guessed. So who do you think the woman is?
Himself: Don't know.
Me: Janet Leigh
Himself: Who?

No, really, he said 'who?'

You're trying to make me speechless, aren't you?

We're what now?

I should have gone with "wretched hive of scum and villainy", shouldn't I?

Dog wants to say hi

Now I really want a dog. Someone *cough* has been talking about dog shelters...

 

[aliwood]

*Waves at dog* Hello dog.

ION, I have ditched tomorrow's review book. If you're planning to read 'More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon - don't bother unless you're an insomniac, it's so deathly boring, it's hit a whole new level.

I am now on to Harlan Ellison and have started reading the introduction by mistake in which he makes the following point:

I do a considerable number of college lectures every year. It helps pay the freight so I don’t have to write television ever again. From my lips to the ear of god...or whoever’s in charge. And frequently I will say something about the human condition that seems perfectly rational and proper to me, because I know we all share the same thoughts. Invariably, some feep in the audience will attempt to pillory me with the stunning accusation, “You only said that to shock!”

My response is always the same:

“You bet your ass, slushface. Of course I said it to shock you (or wrote it to shock you). I don’t know how you perceive my mission as a writer, but for me it is not a responsibility to reaffirm your concretized myths and provincial prejudices. It is not my job to lull you with a false sense of the rightness of the universe. This wonderful and terrible occupation of recreating the world in a different way, each time fresh and strange, is an act of revolutionary guerrilla warfare. I stir up the soup. I inconvenience you. I make your nose run and your eyes water. I spend my life and miles of visceral material in a glorious and painful series of midnight raids against complacency. It is my lot to wake with anger every morning, to lie down at night even angrier. All in pursuit of one truth that lies at the core of every jot of fiction ever written: we are all in the same skin...but for the time it takes to read these stories I merely have the mouth. You see before you a child who never grew up, who does not know it’s socially unacceptable to ask, ‘Who farted?’"

I like Harlan Ellison already.

 

[aliwood]

I should have gone with "wretched hive of scum and villainy", shouldn't I?

Oh! Yes, this is us exactly.

Can I be villainy today?

 

[aliwood]

Oh! Yes, this is us exactly.

What kind of awful punctuation is that?

The awful kind

I need lessons.

It should be: Oh yes! This is us exactly.

Honestly, what kind of writer am I?

The kind that cannot punctuate?

 

[BigWords]

I like Harlan Ellison already.

You will grow to love him. Really, I can't overstate how cool the man is.

Oh! Yes, this is us exactly.

Can I be villainy today?

Just today?

What kind of awful punctuation is that?

The awful kind

I need lessons.

Can't remember offhand where I saw it, but there is a thread somewhere which has something like "noticing basic grammar mistakes in your own work", and it is not as weird pointing to your own writing as you may think. I have really had to stop myself going back and editing posts I wrote in a hurry, to fix all the things which look... off. I know that people are probably reading my old posts thinking "dude, what the hell? That comma doesn't go there", but it feels more honest to leave my insane ramblings as they are than to pretend I am competent when I haven't had sleep and and typing furiously at the keyboard.

 

[CobraMisfit]

That's it. I am doing this challenge thing. *does it*

*"it" says "Thank You"*

Artillary Jacques

Of course you are.

Okay, but now you have to tell me what that stands for.

WWWSSSSSSFAFWFFSFAFS* swap: Wild Weird and Wooly Super Sekrit Somewhat Sexy Stories of Science Fiction And Fantasy Where the Fearless Few Silently Focus All Fantastical Storytelling swap.

Dog wants to say hi

<snips super cute pic>

Cute!


Morning gang.

Whut up?

 

[aliwood]

Just today?

Sure, I'm happy to make it a job-sharing opportunity. there's plenty of room for all, and we can all lend our own personal take on the job from evil and cruel to vindictive and mean.

Villainy should have shades. And I don't mean the type you stick in front of your eyes.

 

[Fenika]

@Sian- you two look adorable together.

CM-

I have figured out how to move flash files from temp to desktop. Yay for internet free access.