Maxine MagicFox's Ramblings

So, I've been thinking of just working on a bunch of site designs to... practice in a way. The only problem is, while the practice is good, the site designs are too, and :\ I feel kinda bad about leaving them to the side like I am (like this one: http://www.intothelabyrinth.net/mystuff/narcissu/index.html ). Most of them are really half-finished, though. Just me more or less testing different site elements to see what I can do and to expand my knowledge.

My latest work though is a Zelda site and this one isn't so simple. So far, it's looking great. This one is really testing out A) use in exotic colors and B)No lines. In most of my works you can clearly see that I like lines to section things off, especially the navigation from the content. It's the usual thing to do. But, I wanted to try something a little different. Mostly, learning to create and use borders on elements but also to break out of the mold of [links here] [content here]. I won't be able to break out of it entirely, but I wanna see how far I can get doing something a little less traditional.

If it comes out nicely, at least this time, I feel I'm going to have a place to take it and see if someone can use it. ^_^ Maybe Archaic... 'cause honestly, I think his currently layout sucks. XD I'm just speaking honestly, Archaic, forgive me. Opinions are subjective.

This is what I have SO FAR. http://www.intothelabyrinth.net/mystuff/preview.jpg Obviously, not much at all, but I think I'm hitting my A mark effectively. But, even this much I can't say will not be re-altered.

Either way, it's fun learning things that I can and can't do. Also learning my limitations on what I can do without being an actual graphics artist. -_-; I tried to create a swirly border and... well... there are some things that Maxine should stay away from.

It's kinda sad, really. I've been debating for the last two days on "remodeling" my Firefox Favorites bar. I'm almost reluctant to do so.

I really need to the space for things like my feeds and my current site projects. It's a mess right now. And the central reason is the fact that there's a collection of buttons that, no matter how I reword them and give them smaller word size to represent their names, it's just time to remove them.

#1 is my MCLoZ buttons, then of course there's my LJ buttons and a few other things that at one time were important to me but are now only nostalgia items. I haven't given up on MCLoZ. I'm sure once the next Zelda game comes out I'll be super-hyped and suddenly wonder why I EVER put MCLoZ down, but... right now, I've got http://intothelabyrinth.net that I'm working on and my newest http://atlusblog.com

These are my priorities and now that Atlus Blog is launched, I need to be able to easily jump between it and ItL to do work on them. That means I need some quick-launch buttons. But in order to get these up there, it's time to remodel the bar and say goodbye to these unneeded things.

I just can't believe how much my life has changed within the space of a year, probably more, though, to make these buttons that were once precious to me and the most-clicked to now be lucky to receive one click per month.

-_- Such is life.... Even my beloved Live Journal doesn't get the clicks that it use to. I update this thing so rarely, though I really do try to update it more often.

Really, though, the button on my toolbar is no longer as useful as it once was. I wonder how I'm going to redesign it. And I really just need to. It's time, Max. Time to let go.... -_-;

Meh, so I've been busy working on a project with Archaic Sage - yet again. He disappeared like a week ago, but mentioned some work problems, so I really have no doubts about his whereabouts and his schedule. ^_^ I kinda hope that he'll be a little impressed with how far along I got with it. I practically finished it and left only the stuff that HE can do now.

But I kinda feel down lately. I got into a writer's block like over a month ago if not more, and haven't been back to writing on TLQ since. I haven't even felt the urge to do so. It worries me. It's like, what's more important to me these days? Working on sites or my writing?!

*Sigh* I'm not even sure where I left my TLQ notebook. Maybe I should go find it, brush off the dust, and try to force myself to sit down and work on TLQ. It's always been my dream to write stories. I was even excited to take a break from college because I was so looking forward to the extra writing time I would have! But, it seems I've written more being in school than I have just slacking around playing games and working on sites. I'm really disappointed in myself.

Well, the summer is just getting started and I'm going to make sure that I bury myself so deep in my writing that I won't even remember that I was ever in a slump with it! I hope... I mean, game journalism is going to be nice, or even if it's just for a newspaper, or so is working for someone to creating sites. I have no preference, but my only passion in life has ever been just writing my fantasy novels. This is really the first time I've actually questioned which one do I love more: coding and design or writing?

Maybe it's because that designing has such a sense of immediate gratification. Hardly a month's worth of work and others are already viewing it and critiquing it. Perhaps that is it.

You know, I'm sure by the time I'm done with this, Archaic is going to be sick of me making posts again and again reporting everything - I can't help it. Whenever I get frustrated, I need to vent and unfortunately for Ian, he gets to hear it.

You know, I love coding. I really do. Sure, I have my fair share of problems with it, but it's still enjoyable. A year ago I would never have conceived of learning CSS. Now, I'm learning how to do table-less CSS. ... Bot have fuggin' kicked my ass several times, but I WILL PREVAIL I SWEAR IT!!

So, Archaic, while I realize that you've told me you can't view until Sat, that's fine. It really is. I really am interested in learning this and I learn by DOING while using supplemental material and examples. So, while these problems keep pissing me off and I do lots of venting - I'M GOING TO FIGURE IT OUT!! I've got until Saturday when you can then tell me the correct answer.

Until then, just put up with me.

I really hope, though, if nothing else - you will like my youtube idea.

I'm glad that I didn't know the anime was being released until eppy 2. 'Cause as great as eppy 1 was, I probably would have just smiled at eppy 2, put it on the backburner thinking "awww, it's just a soft side story of the afterwards."

XD Now it's like "OMG! What could have changed so dramatically in this world that the events didn't happen?!"

Well, let's first state the obvious (and spoilers abound people):

( Higurashi Rei )

BTW: LOVE LOVE the OP and ED.

Many thanks goes out to you, Archaic, from both me and Rissa.

We were depressed today after watching the 24th episode of Skip Beat and realizing suddenly that next week's episode (really this week's since CR keeps us a weak behind) will be the last for the season and no second season has been announced yet (NOOOOOOO!! >_< *curses out the producers* YOU BETTER DO A SECOND SEASON OF SKIP BEAT!!)

*cough* Anyways: we were depressed and then were thinking of a new series to pick up. This season SUCKS, though from what I've seen but I remembered reading somewhere (maybe an entry of yours?) that there was an second season of that Chi's Sweet Home - which then reminded of Chi's Sweet Home to begin with which you seem SO very fond of.

So, I was like... "There's this anime my buddy REALLY likes but the only thing that I know about it is that the episodes are SUPER short... wanna see?"

A quick Youtube search, and 3 minutes later - we are TOTALLY, MADDLY addicted. At first I gave it that "Azumanga Daioh" impression during the opening of "WTF am I about to watch... uhh... this seems like its going to be lame and stupid." I was wrong then and was wrong now.

^_^ CHI IS WAY WAY WAY TOO CUUUUUUTE! *huggles her own cats* XD
My face hurts from smiling and laughing so much and there's still a lot of "awwwwws" floating around in my room. I think I like the fact that very very little is something a cat wouldn't do. Like I don't believe the parts where Chi actually COMES when called but most other stuff is pretty cat-accurate. ^_^ The cat toys for example. Or hating the one who took her to the vet.

Directions:
Mark which things you have done, then calculate your score by counting the number of questions you marked. This test is out of 100 questions which means that the number you get as your score is also your percentage. Tag some of your friends, and re-post as "I do stupid things __% of the time."

1. [] Forgot to put the lid on the blender, turned it on, and had everything fly out
2. [x] Gotten your head stuck between the stair rails
3. [x] Broken a chair by leaning back in it
4. [x] Had gum fall out of your mouth while you were talking
5. [x] Choked on your own spit while you were talking
6. [x] Had people tell you that you are blonde when you're not, or had people tell you that your blonde highlights are going to your head
7. [] Been caught staring at your crush by your crush
8. [x] Have looked for something for at least 5 min then realized it was in your hand
9. [x] Tried to push open a door that said pull
10. [x] Tried to pull open a door that said push

Running total: 8

11. [] Have actually believed someone when they said that they knew how to make a love-potion
12. [x] Have hit yourself in the process of trying to hit something else
13. [x] Have tripped and fallen UP the stairs
14. [] Have actually exploded marshmallows in the microwave
15. [x] Have gotten gum stuck in your hair
16. [x] Had gum fall out of your mouth while trying to blow a bubble
17. [x] Have had the juice from a mini tomato squirt out and hit somebody else when you bit into it
18. [x] Have had your drink come out your nose because you were laughing so hard
19. [x] Have called one of your good friends by the wrong name
20. [] Have skinned your toe because you were playing soccer or kickball with flip flops on or you were barefoot

Running total: 15

21. [] Have put a sticker on your forehead, forgot it was there, and went out in public with it on
22. [] Have fallen out of a moving vehicle
23. [x] Have run into a closed door
25. [] Searched for your mobile phone while you were talking on it
26. [x] It has taken you longer than 5 min to get a joke
27. [] Have gotten your hair stuck in a blow dryer
28. [x] Have gotten your hair stuck in a fan
29. [x] Tripped on a crack in the sidewalk
30. [x] Said o'clock after saying how many min after the hour, example: 5:30 o'clock, or 6:15 o'clock

Running total: 20

31. [x] After someone told you that there was gum on the ground, you stepped in it
32. [x] Put on a white shirt even though you already knew it was raining outside
33. [x] Have ever walked up to a stranger because you thought they were someone else
34. [] Ever been kicked out of a grocery store/off their property
35. [x] Touched the stove, the curling iron, a hot pan, etc when its on, even though you knew it was hot
36. [x] Taken off your clothes to change into something else then accidentally put the old clothes back on
37. [x] Wondered why something wasn't working then realized it wasn't plugged in
38. [x] Put the cereal in the fridge, or put the milk in the cupboard
39. [x] Walked into a pole
40. [] Wore two different earrings or shoes by accident/stolen someones shoes by accident

Running total: 28

41. [x] Put your shirt on backwards/inside-out without realizing it then left your house
42. [] Tried to take a picture of someone's eye with the flash on
43. [x] Gotten a ring stuck on your finger because you put it on even though you knew it was too small
44. [x] Walked out of the bathroom with toilet paper stuck to your shoe without realizing it
45. [x] Went to go do something/go get something, then when you got there, you forgot what it is was that you were going to do
46. [x] Picked up someone else's drink and drank out of it by accident when your drink was right next to it
47. [x] Fallen out of your chair while trying to pick something up
48. [x] Have poked yourself in the eye
49. [] Have gotten in the shower with your socks still on
50. [] Melted your hairbrush while blow drying your hair

Running total: 35

51. [x] Have done enough stupid things to make a test
52. [x] Have accidentally stabbed yourself with a pencil
53. [x] Have sung the wrong verse to a song without realizing it
54. [x] Have given an odd answer to a question because you didn't hear the question in the first place and didn't feel like asking what it was
55. [x] Told someone you were the wrong age because you seriously forgot how old you were
56. [x] Looked into an overhead purposefully while it was on
57. [x] Got up early and got ready for school/work, then realized that you didn't have school/work that day
58. [x] Forgot your own phone number
59. [x] Have tripped on a cord after someone told you to watch out for it
60. [x] Have ever laughed at a joke that no one else thought was funny

Running total: 45

61. [] Done the Macarena to the electric slide or vice versa
62. [x] Said funner then had someone make fun of you for it
63. [x] Have repeated yourself at least twice in the same sentence
64. [x] Brought up an inside joke with the wrong person
65. [x] Didn't do the backside of an assignment because you thought that there wasn't one because you had already looked and forgot that there was another side
66. [x] Did more work than you had to on an assignment because you didn't read the directions
67. [x] Corrected someone's grammar/pronunciation then figured out that you were the one that was wrong
68. [x] Put something in a special place so that you would remember where it was, then forgot where you put it
69. [x] Put ice in your drink after the glass was full of liquid and had it splash out
70. [] Told a lie then forgot what it was that you had said and got caught

Running total: 53

71. [x] When wearing goggles, you pulled them away from your face and let go so that they would come back and snap you in the face
72. [x] Forgot to make sure that the lamp was off before you replaced the light bulb
73. [x] Ran into a door jam
74. [x] Told someone that you hardly ever do stupid things, then immediately did/said something stupid
75. [x] Told someone to watch out for something, then you were the one that ran into it
76. [] Have purposely licked playground sand(ew!!)
77. [x] Have purposely and repeatedly flicked yourself with a rubber band
78. [x] Gotten so hyper that someone actually thought you were drunk when you weren't
79. [x] Have been so hyper you actually scared people
80. [] Put duct tape on your body then pulled it off to see if it would hurt

Running total: 61

81. [] Put duct tape on your hair/someone else's hair then pulled it off
82. [] Put a clothes pin/hair clip on your lip, figured out that it hurt, then did it again
83. [] Sat and wondered why men's dress shirts have a loop on the back
84. [] Made up a code name for someone so that you could talk about them to someone else and no one else would know who you were talking about
85. [x] Have gotten a hairbrush stuck in your hair
86. [x] Used the straw to blow the straw wrapper at someone
87. [] Shaved your tongue because you thought your taste buds looked funny.
88. [] When at a restaurant, you used your spoon to fling stuff at people
89. [] Have flung forks at people in a restaurant
90. [] Tripped and made the waiter drop the food.

Running total: 63

91. [] As you are writing, you move your head back and forth with your pen/pencil
92. [] Have drawn finger puppets on your fingers then named them
93. [] Have wrapped someone in a roll of toilet paper
94. [x] Have used somebody else's toothbrush without even realizing it wasn't yours
95. [x] Have started telling a story and forget what you were talking about or what happened in the story
96. [] Read a whole book but during the whole book you weren’t even paying attention
97. [x] You have spelled your own name wrong before
98. [x] When lying in bed you look for pictures in the texture of the ceiling
99. [] Have used your calculator as a form of communication in a class
100. [x] Have popped a balloon in your mouth

Total: 68%

.... A part of me wants to be depressed by this but the other part of me kinda knew it all along.

Meh, you know, when I was younger, there was nothing that I loved more than debating with people about anything. I wasn't particularly good at it but I viewed it as a learning experience, always tried to make sure my facts were accurate and that my opinions were not purposely harmful to the other side, while understanding the same thing about the others' comments.

This is how I met my beloved Hanyou-ni, who I became so close I adopted him as my "little brother" (hence why I tack "-ni" on to his handle whenever I talk about him). He was very newbie at the time and a lot of people didn't really try to help him but... I'm always VERY nice to n00bs since I think that there's always a diamond in the rough.

We had MANY MANY good conversations together, and a part of me always thinks he would make a very good writer!

I met him back in, oh what was it? 2005? Maybe sooner, maybe later. Many years have passed between then and now. And now, unfortunately, I seem to have lost my interest/edge in a good debate. Which is sad because now I have Kino in my life - I would call her Kino-nesama but I think she would just look at me kinda funny if I adopted her as an older sister.

:( Kino and Hanyou-ni have started up a wonderful debate. And I want SO MUCH to try to get into it. I open it up and a few minutes later, I've moved on. >_> Kinda depressing. I'll keep at it, reading here and there. I use to be SO into it. I guess parts of me have just changed without fully realizing it.

Or maybe it's just a phase I'm going throug. Or maybe I'm just out of practice. Ugg. It just bothers me. The two most wonderful people in my life are having a fascinating conversation and I'm not able to tune into it.

((Pulled from a post I made on my ItL Forums))

Well, I was asked in an e-mail if I would advertise this event on my site. I figure I would get this thing more publicity by posting it on here. I will probably update MCLoZ this once just for this thing. I thought it was really a VERY sweet thing.

http://returnersgaming.blogspot.com/

This is the information they provided me in the e-mail:

We, The Returners, are a group of people that have gotten together for the purpose of raising money for various charities. We provide entertainment to viewers and donors through the medium of a video game marathon live streamed over the Internet. The information can be found at http://returnersgaming.blogspot.com. Closer to the date of the event (about a week before) we will be opening up donation so that people can go to the website to click either on a direct link to the charity or through the use of a ChipIn collection widget and directly donate to the charity in question without ever having to use us as a middle man for handling the money. This donation widow will be open through the event and a week after the event is over.

We are raising money for the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation in a 72 hour marathon from 5:00pm CST on March 20th to 5:00pm CST on March 23rd. In this marathon we will be attempting to beat all 13 Zelda games, and thus thought it would be of interest to you. During the marathon we will be interacting with viewers and answering questions as well as doing various skits live online while we take donations. Furthermore we will hopefully be giving out prizes to our top donors, though we are currently unsure if we will be able to do this.

Meh, I swear to God, I want the last two hours of my life back. PLEASE! So, I've had Red Shift visual novel (another one of insani's downloads) on my computer for a few months. EVERY TIME I've tried to play it, I would grow bored and close it out.

That's the first thing I have to say about this VN: BORING BORING BORING BORING BORING!!

The characters are underdeveloped. The story is slipshod and slapped together in a hurry. The writer tried to make things sound too mysterious but was extremely weak about it. Honestly, when Mikoto first came on screen my initial thought was "She's either A) Alien or B) Ghost."

And I'm SO fucking tired of hearing that one stupid bgm play over and over and over again. It's not even that good of a tune.

To make matters worse, 99% of the game is spent on the following: Mikoto vs Bench seat and the ability to cook. Two of the most POINTLESS conversations in the whole fucking world. Honestly! Even Fate/Stay Night has that pointless fascination with the characters and cooking. Honestly, I wish I would never have to see another anime, manga, vn, or video game reference a character giving a person a bag of burnt cookies.

The only good parts of the game came in the form of one single character and one single line of dialogue that she says, which, ironically, is the very last line of the game before credits roll, and happens to be the most EXPECTED thing in the world. Oh and what's worse - and probably the worst thing any writer/designer/script writer can do, is to cleverly attempt to "trick" your audience into thinking there's a game over and then suddenly at the end of the credits (when most people have turned off whatever it is they were playing/watching) "OH! THERE'S MORE!"

The game's a death trap. -_-;

And the few comical scenes that game has included feel so out of place compared to the rest of the serious drama.

I also have no problem with open-ended endings, but when they are done RIGHT and not when they are filled with mysterious messages, especially when the rest of your story is shit to begin with. "Ahahaha, I wasted two hours of your life on bench seat arguments and cooking skills, now I'm not even going to tell you if the character lived or died." (Though, if you consider the fact that this time when he was listening for the sound of a passing-bell, he didn't hear one, is a little fucking obvious what it meant). Not that there's really much POINT. I personally didn't give a shit about Mikoto by the end of the game. Aww, she's an albino. Doomed to die. Coma (Kanon anyway?). Oh and the MC had a Shirou-complex.

The art sucked, the music sucked, and the characters sucked. The only thing I know about the characters is that Kouya can cook, while Mikoto can't, and Kouya wants to be a vet, OH and he's the vice-president of a school but that fact is only important to explain the strange instances of him not getting to the park at a good hour. And what the hell was the deal of going to the complication of explaining that Kouya went to an all girl's school? I could understand it if there was even ONE scene that takes place at the school. It doesn't even mention if that really was the school Mikoto wanted to go to - not that the game had much to say about Mikoto anyway.

Seriously, that information was about as useful as if it had told me "Oh, btw, Kouya hates mustard on his hotdogs." .... "And what the fuck do I care?"

Tch, that's one game I will NOT be recommending to anyone any time soon and it's the last time I FORCE myself to get through a VN just because a translator I know translated the game. Honestly, I guess I thought since he translated Narcissu that he might have good taste in all VNs. Apparently our tastes differ greatly.

It was a fascinating idea for a story but HORRID execution of it.

Clarissa and I have both been enjoying Skip Beat since it started being released. I'm so totally in love with the anime. However, I always felt like the opening was never all that catchy, but whenever it came to the ending song, it always had a certain beat that appealed to me as did the lyrics. And as time progressed, I've found that I've absolutely fallen in love with the song. So, today I was bored and decided to hunt down the full version and download it as well as look up the lyrics and translation. I've found that I've fallen even more in love with the song.

Like my favorite Megumi Hayashibara songs for Slayers (Get Along, Give a Reason, and Don't be Discouraged) it has a theme that completely appeals to me. I snatched the lyrics from this journal here, but I wanted to post them here to make it easier for me to read them.

I even managed to find a youtube video of the song so others can listen to it and the video that goes with it is totally cute, too, and is one of those few and rare times that I actually agree that the video GOES with the song and manages to compliment it. So, enjoy. It's all under the cut.

My favorite parts have been bolded.

( Namida by 2Backka )

I have always wanted to come back at some point to do a formal and official review (ok, it's my blog, I never really 'review' as much as I just rant) on this wonderful visual novel called Narcissu.

I first downloaded this game sometime last year (or was it the year before) after I had completed Tsukihime. Tsukihime was my first visual novel ever and, to be blunt, I wanted more. A quick type for "free visual novel" gave me a shit load of useless links but somehow or another I wound up on the official Narcissu website.

I read through and got the general gist: it was a simple game, it was free, it was SAD, and the characters died, and it was a simple doujin game.

I downloaded it but felt "this isn't what I want". I played through like half of the prologue and closed it down. I wasn't in the mood to be "sad" and the game seemed as if it was going to move slowly. Plus, I had no idea what the game was going to be like, and I just wanted something as great as Tsukihime. After a quick talk with Moogy (the same person who introduced me to Tsukihime) he showed me Ever17. That game kept me preoccupied, so, in short, Narcissu was shoved to a small corner of my harddrive where I had forgotten about it... except that I still left the shortcut icon on my desktop. Call it laziness, I just never deleted it.

Fast forward to September of last year. I was on my way to school one morning, I hadn't played a visual novel after Ever17, and I was bored. I was also in an odd, emotional mood. So, just before I had to go to classes, I clicked on the icon that was on my desktop. It was just sitting there and I felt bored enough and felt like "what the fuck is this game anyway?" I got through the prologue and a few lines into Chapter 1 before I ran off to classes - but it was stuck in my mind. The idea of these two dieing people sitting in front of a TV with nothing better to do but having the weight of death on them.

I came home and instead of doing homework, I opened the game up and played it some more. I was hooked. I sat there and read the game through in that single sitting (thank god I didn't have work that day).

The depth of the rules that Setsumi felt it was her duty to dictate out to a newcomer that bluntly informed all newcomers what the reality of their situation now was. And the "mood" of both the characters. Both were eternally locked away and it just felt to me that despite how blunt Setsumi might have made the situation, they were both so disconnected that you could tell that they were both were truly not looking at their predicament at all. They were turning a blind eye to it. This contradiction fascinated me.

And then... the theft of the car that belonged to the protag's father. It was just such a truly ironic situation. When you don't want to be here or there, where else could you go? Sure, they stole the car, but now what? The idea of an eternal wandering, trying to escape their inescapable reality was brutally fascinating.

And the game kept this strong hold over the reader up until the very end. It didn't try to idealize their situations in any way. There was no great ultimate climax. The story simply was. A memorial to the harshness of mortality and reality.

I have read the game through four times now. It's not a perfect game, with all of its beauty. And I wish that, as much as I love Setsumi and realize the story was about her, that it had at least given the protag a name - though, I believe the stage-nana website has given the character a name on the character page (Yuu Atou?), but, I don't know Japanese and realize that the Google Translator is not a way to translate at all. In many ways, I really wonder what happened to him, too. I have no doubts about his ultimate fate, but, he obviously had to return to 7F (and got some pictures developed). I guess, though, it's ultimately not very important. Still, for a character that was as listless as he, I wonder what his own ultimate conclusion was. Which did he choose? Home, 7F, or did he, too, opt for the path of "other".

And now, I really look forward to reading the story of Narcissu 2 which is a prologue of Setsumi before her meeting [Yuu]. I look forward to it more than anything simply because I hear there are other characters presented in the story and wonder what sort of path they will venture down. I'm not so sure I like the idea of them messing with Setsumi's character and hope they make no huge alterations. For instance, it looks as if Setsumi visits a beach at some point, but, my idea of her, she never went to see the beach before - never got to pretend she was a bikini model. She never got a chance to go anywhere - which is why she locked herself within all of her useless trivia.

Aww, I can't wait until the game is released. I know it may sound silly to want to play a game that makes you cry and makes you want to tear out your heart, but, I love stories like that. It's beautiful in its own way. And you walk away with your own understanding of the events and your own personal ideas and feelings.

Oddly, in its own way, I have come to value this game more than I ever did Ever17. A part of me wishes that I had not allowed it to sit for so long on my computer without playing it through sooner. I really missed out on a treat.

And honestly, I would love more than anything for this game to be turned into a small anime series / movie. I would love to see what would be done with it.

So last week I totally didn't write anything on TLQ, which I'm disappointed in myself for, but I did have quite a lot going on. I was also very focused on the website and trying to get stuff up. I was hoping to try to start thinking of a design for the Atlus-blog/whatever but nothing came to mind. I'm going to go back to spending time with the story this week, though. I don't want to lose momentum. Also, a fight with mom last night didn't help. I guess a part of her really just still wants to see me be a doctor and she hasn't come to grips with the fact that I didn't want that for my life. Yes, I'm kinda lost and aimless now and my future's direction is a lot less certain, but I'll cope.

Thinking about picking up some short story magazines, maybe even Highlights, and to start trying to write some short stories to market to them to get a little cash flow going and to prove to her and myself mostly that this is going to work that writing is what I want to do more than anything in the world and it will be enough.

I'd also just like to try to finish up this novel so I can start sending it into publishers. That would take out a lot of uncertainty about my future.

(And of course, I'm going for my webdevelopement degree so I'll have websites to fall back on. ... Which maybe I should try to go ahead and make a site design and try to sell it and see how that goes, but I know nothing of that market! Plus I'm damn good at my images and my professors have said that if I wanted, they'd be happy to put in a good word for me at a growing advertising agency they know of.)

But, I'm rambling... I did manage to get the codes fixed for the current maps of 1-5 and I've finished map 6. On to map 7! Was hoping someone would have taken my post in the Feedback a little seriously and supplied me with the FOE data, but... -_-; of course not. Meh, if you want something done it usually is just better to do it yourself anyway!

Hehe, in RF2, I've beaten the second boss! Yay! ... But, I need Moonflowers to grow so I can get the final tablet from that area.... Grrr.... I planted a bunch of flowers at the start of the season but of COURSE I didn't plant Moonflowers! BAH!

There's this old forums that I use to visit and was very much in love with. We had a falling out ultimately, but it's still a dear place in my heart. Part of the forums was an Avatar and Signature Rating thread. :( I try to start such threads on my own forums, but, they never meet up with the same success as the one that I fondly remember.

What made it particularly special was that many of the forumers were BRUTAL with their critiques. I LOVE a brutal critique - and especially when they will keep rating a signature as many times as you editted it until you got to a point where it was a lot better or you were ok with it personally. And I loved that because it helped me hone my skill and learn what works, what doesn't, and what is just pure opinion sometimes.

I really wish I had that place now. I could use a DAMN good critique at the moment.



The avatar I, of course, never put much heart into. I always say that it's just there to compliment the signature.



My newest creation. If you have opinions, please provide them > and don't worry about stepping on my feelings. I take it all.

Spice and Wolf Second Season

FINALLY A DATE! XD I'm so excited! This summer is going to be AWESOME!!

Aww, my precious Horo-chan!









POST A COMMENT IF YOU ARE EXCITED, TOO!! XD

*Sigh* I need to stop buying into FF-hype. I always get excited but when I play I'm overly disappointed, but, the small amount of gameplay demonstrated in the trailer DID look very good.

And I won't lie that I LOVED the look of that city.

Meh, normally I don't follow FF-news but I was bored and saw the news release on Anime Nation.

(Private matter: LOL, is it bad that I was able to translate/understand some of the dialogue. I watch too much anime... why don't I just find something to teach me the damn language and get it over wtih?)


Archaic, please read my post below!!

*Snicker*



Snow day....

So, it's been quite some time since I've had a good work story to tell you guys. And this one is just too hilarious to pass up.

( My stories are always long )

*Sniffle* It is with a sad and painful heart that I bid farewell to my old TLQ binder. Alas, the years have treated it (not) so well. From the cat hair, to the torn cover, to the coffee stains, and basic wear and tear, it served me well throughout the years.

Okay, there's that and the fact that I just saw a REALLY nice binder at Staples while out shopping for Clarissa's birthday gift (oh, did I mention? her b-day was the 19th). It's blue, slightly bigger, turns pages a little bit easier, but the best feature is the location of the binders. Normally you see them placed on the spine of the binder. This one placed them on the back cover so that when you open it, it's not disturbing the pages as the binders slide. Well, it wasn't opening it that was giving me problems so much as closing it. A few pages in the back were starting to show some strain and I've damaged a few pages before by closing it too quickly. Here's to hopefully solving that problem. (Though, I'm sure this will have its own issues, too, of course.)

:3 Plus, it's blue! And not solid white.

AND! It's clean. ... with no signs of coffee stains....

Everything has been carefully moved, including the DNAngel cover. It looks even more sexy now than it did before. XD

So, today, since I don't know how I want the next scene to start, I decided to do some other work on my story that's just as important. It actually first started out with me re-reading notes and getting a feel for some of things that were coming up. Then I turned to the character section of my binder to read up on Steven who I'm going to be introducing in this chapter.

Now, in case you have forgotten. This is my binder and the inside of it. It's old. I actually started this binder September 11, 2002, because after I graduated I realized that most of my story was spread out between my math and english and other school study notebooks. So I gathered them together and began writing them down. So, this binder is old. And you guys should even remember about the coffee spill incident it has already been through.

The binder is also sectioned out into five different topics: Story, Sharanna, Characters, Items, Miscellaneous.

Story section is CONSTANTLY being updated. Sharanna section, too. The others... not so much. I had thought that my characters section was in decent order, but after reading my bio on Steven and the others, I realized how horrid the notes are. Lysia, you probably remember our talks about how I section each bio out between things like "Age, Gender, Hair Color, Family, Personality, etc." That's something that has evolved over time with this binder and while some characters have certain sections, the older ones don't. I also got miffed since I realized that I had stuffed all of the character bios on the same page so different things could not be easily added. This bothered me for the sole reason that I would like to write about "where they are going" in other stories and more of their roles in the current stories. Things that can be updated and extended overtime.

So, I broke out a new pack of paper and began going through re-writing each of the bios. Each character gets their own separate sheet of paper. The basic "quick info" is listed and down at the bottom of the page I can write about the character in a better fashion - and if necessary add a second sheet to the bio if necessary. I then also sectioned off each character by their "group". And while I haven't gotten around to it, bios will differ in each group if the character is in two different sections. So a character like Alain who is a villain in both the Lee and Maxine groups, she will have two different bios. The info on the pages will only apply to that particular group though the information can be referenced, of course. ... Though I think my pantheon of Elementals will get their own sections, or something. I haven't decided what I want to do with them just yet. 'Cause some of them take part in the stories and evolve and grow and have attitude adjustments (example: Remus, my Elemental of Time). But him, Drakkar, and a character named Shaikar (who isn't even an Elemental) have a history together that spans throughout the Maxine Chronicles. I'll figure them out. Even if I just make a Temp Section and stick them in it will be alright, I think.

-_- Anyways, it turned into a full day job and I'm still not done. I have THIRTEEN CHARACTERS already - I didn't realize I had THAT many. I haven't even started on the other books... well, Jack was thrown in. But, yeah... thirteen... just for one book.

But, the section looks SO much better! Coffee stains and page yellowing notwithstanding.

:( I also took out the edition of the story that I had kept at the beginning of the binder. Instead of opening the binder and seeing the second picture, it just turns to the first divider. That story is no longer up-to-date. I have placed it in amongst the other pages of the old TLQ script. My binder feels a little emptier now. *Sigh*

That's also another thing. I've noticed a crack starting down the side of my binder. Well... the thing IS six years old! Maybe I should think of a new binder and a new cover? I put this image on the cover 'cause it gave me the inspiration I needed for Amar, but it's not really cutting it anymore.

But, damn... :( it's six years old! And I hate changing something that's been in my life that long. ... Maybe I'll just get a new binder and move the stuff over... But even the binder... the stuff we've been through! ... *sigh* I guess I'll just wait until the thing falls apart, I suppose.