Talking Soup

I don't know how bad it is, but they wouldn't tell me anyway, so there's no point in asking. I'll just assume that it ain't good and act accordingly.

/cryptic


My Methods class is officially back in CNS now that the ceilings are repaired (I didn't see any damage). It's kind of a shame, even though Smiddy is grungy and far away. I no longer get to walk past Steve Zissou's head on my way to class (people have been doing those spray paint stencil faces all over campus. There's a Mr. Rogers near Park).

Also, I know I haven't mentioned this before, but Julie, Amanda and I are going with Tammy et. al. to Boskone, which'll go from Friday to Monday...ish. In any case, I'll be off campus for those four days. I'm quite excited because, well, it's a con, and Amanda is pretty much flipping out that she gets to travel with Tamora Pierce. Unfortunately I think this means that we'll end up missing ASIC this Thursday, since we'll have left by then. Guess I'll just have to download, muah-ha.

Oh, Boston.

I was up till 6 AM Saturday night and then about 4 AM last night writing for Motley Crew and XOMFG I think I'm ACTUALLY GOING TO FINISH IT. And, like, soon. Dear god, what am I going to do then?

My plan for now is to shift my focus back to the Pentagram rewrite since it's the one I want to step into the world of professional writing with. But I think I'm also going to start work on North, as well as the next installment of Motley Crew, since it's the only thing right now that I have solid ideas for.

The Mot I have right now was originally supposed to be only one book--the first in a trilogy--but you've heard me bitch and moan these past months about how massive the whole thing has become. Pretty much now we're looking at an EPIC serial. This book is probably going to be divided into two, if not three. I'm going to try and show restraint for the "next two books," though I'll probably fail as epiclly as I have this time around in that regard. In reality there isn't as much planned for the next two. The trilogy (remember it's now a series) was supposed to go kind of like this--book one presents a problem, book two elaborates on it, and book three resolves it. Kind of like a really, really, really big story arc.

The elaboration and resolution shouldn't take as much time (or space) simply because it pretty much consists of "everyone goes off and gets shit done, then there's a huge fucking fight scene."

Every epic should end (or almost end) with a huge fucking fight scene, methinks.

Well, we'll see how it goes. Much as I love my boys and girls of Mot, North and her buds have been calling out to me for the past year, and after taking that year to polish the world and certain parts of the plot to sparkling, I think it's high time I started work on it. But editing of Pentagram comes first. I don't intend to even start edits for Mot until this summer. My general policy after finishing something is to give it a thorough once-over and pick at it a little, but that will be it.

In other news, Julie and I are going to look at off-campus apartments today like REAL ADULTS. Oh god. The plan is to stay in Ithaca over the summer and find a place in town to live. I've got my sights set on a job on the Commons. Living off campus is apparently cheaper than living here, and also we get to have kitties.

After twenty-one years of wanting a cat, I can finally have one. No way I'm letting this opportunity pass by.

I've kind of sucked lately at doing reviews, so I figured it was high time to get back in the habit. Especially since this weekend you can expect a very detailed account of The Golden Compass. Very. Detailed.

SPOILER WARNING on all of these.

First and foremost, Avatar had it's kinda-sorta mid-season finale on Friday. The date of its return is still up in the air, though the episodes are written, so they're unaffected by the writer's strike. We're thinking sometime in January. We had Amanda, Michelle, a guy friend of theirs, and Sophia over to watch it, and even Molly, who doesn't usually watch Avatar, joined in.

( Momo singlehandedly takes down the Fire Nation )

Last weekend was the first ASIC marathon of the year. Twelve hours. We watched Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is probably one of the most famous animes ever, though I had never seen it. To finish it off, we watched the infamous Eva movie, appropriately titled "The End of Evangelion."

( Psychological Trauma, or, Pay No Attention To the Thing Living Inside My Hand )

And last but not least, the Heroes kinds-sorta-maybe season finale.

( With MIND BULLETS! )

Long entry.

In the meantime, I'm thinking of writing a letter of recommendation for my professor's tenure portfolio. Just need to figure out how exactly I go about doing that. And I'm pretty sure that I'm going to exchange my Soc major for a minor. Not entirely because of what's been going on with Margo, though it was a catalyst--but frankly, if I switch to a minor, it frees me up to take classes I actually want to take. There are so many awesome-looking classes, but I wouldn't be able to take any of them because I still need a shitload of credits for my major. I would already have had to take a summer class. I think Ithaca College has sucked enough money from my poor parents.

And in other news, Motley Crew is on a downhill slope toward the end. FINALLY.

So I'm in Ithaca, obviously, in my fantastic apartment that I'm sharing with the other three. Two floors! Kitchen! Spiral staircase! It is wonderful. We get to cook our own food! I am pleased.

My schedule this semester is a bitch. 18 credits. I've done it before, but my classes are looking tough:

MWF

Intro to Social Institutions and Organizations
9:00-9:50
Social Change
10:00-10:50
Grants and Proposal Writing
11:00-11:50

TR

Fiction II
9:25-10:40
World Civilizations
2:35-3:50
Global Conflict and Terrorism
5:25-6:40

Grants writing will be hard since we have to actually write a REAL grant proposal for a REAL organization in Ithaca. I've heard war stories about that class, but I think it'll be good experience and that I'll get a lot out of it.

Fiction II is being taught by Godfrey, like Intro to Creative Writing freshman year and...the woman's a bit odd. We'll have to see how it goes, but if she hands out the same kinds of stories that she handed out in Creative, it's going to be a looooong semester.

World Civ looks fascinating.

Terrorism is going to be a fucking intense class, since already in the course of one class I had my opinions changed about both the Iraq war and the Revolutionary War. *sigh* But it's an interesting topic, and a class I'd really like to take. So.

Meanwhile, ASIC is back and running, woot! We watched Paprika which is beautiful and stunning and completely insane, much the same as Paranoia Agent, really. Don't have time for a review now, but expect a post with lots of reviews soon, since I still haven't reviewed those other ones. We're gonna be watching Death Note and the second part of Jubei-chan for the rest of the quarter, or so.

I did get a lot of ideas from Paprika since it deals with dreams, and this newest dream-based idea has been simmering nicely.

As for writing, I worked everything out with Motley Crew and we're on speaking terms again, though we've yet to go on a real date yet. And North hasn't really been returning my calls, though Kaiyss keeps jamming up my phone line.

Spent a few days in Minnesota with Julie, in transit between Cali and Ithaca. I met her awesome dad and her awesome sisters (Darcy is so cute). Also saw The Invasion while I was there, and we all went to the Minnesota State Fair, which is legendary and deserving of the stories. Cheese curds roxors my boxors.

I've also gotten Julie deeply, deeply into Kingdom Hearts, and she's almost finished with the first one. Woo! I also finally buckled down and finished up Okami, for the second time. My homework schedule is light since it's the first week.

Julie and I will be meeting with two others from ASIC, Amanda and Sharona, to watch Excel Saga tomorrow. My brain will probably be melted when I come back.

Also, I made hash browns and funnel cakes the other day and got grease burns on my hand, but at least they were tasty.

And BB hasn't sent me all my paychecks yet. *grumbles*