Katiefoolery

Join me at Katiefoolery.com!

2011-04-07T23:49:00Z

This journal has been re-located to its very own home at Katiefoolery.com!

Please come and visit me there.

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In which I blog

2010-05-24T23:08:35Z

If I have one major, over-riding problem that stands in the way of achieving anything, it's that I'm rubbish at starting things. Even if it's something I really want to do or something I've been looking forward to for ages, that hurdle known as "actually starting it" somehow seems insurmountable.

A while ago, I voiced a desire to start a blog where I was free to utter all sorts of nonsense regarding clothes, shoes, various other things that we wear and the process of acquiring said things that we wear. I really wanted to do it, so much so that I went and acquired a domain and set it up to link to a blogger address.

Back in February.

February.

It was at about that point that I encountered the "actually starting it" demon and shied away, despite the voices clamouring at the back of my head about how much fun this blog could be and how much I really wanted to start it. And yet, it has remained untouched since then.

Until I finally put a stop to all of this nonsense and wrote an intro post on Saturday. And you know what? It wasn't as difficult as the Actually Starting It demon would have me believe. The best bit is that, now I've started, it will be much easier to continue on. Finally, I can start having fun with a blog I set up months ago!

So, uh, this is the bit where I formally invite you all to come over and have a look at see if you like what's going on. And maybe you could click on the "follow" button so that it looks like I have some friends. (This means I will also follow you in return, because that's just the way I roll. Or something.) The picture to the right there is just to give you helpful directions to what the follow button looks like - clicking on that one won't actually achieve anything except frustration, I'm afraid.

At the moment, my intro post is sitting there on its lonesome but it will soon be joined by others. Many others. I have plenty of ideas for future posts - I have been gathering them since February, after all - but I would love to hear if you guys have any suggestions, too. Do you have any questions? Any suggestions for topics or themes? Please post them in the comments so I can offer them a nice comfy chair and a cuppa by the fireplace and generally make them feel more welcome than they could possibly imagine.

And now, to the point of this whole thing: a link to my brand new (well, newly-dusted) blog. Click on the image below and you will be taken there!

(Cross-posted from my LiveJournal.)

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Books & Videos

2009-07-24T02:13:53Z

Well, one video. But definitely more than one book.

This week's video is a bit of a catch-up on my week. Which is rather logical. Why not spare a couple of minutes and catch up on said weekness?

Unfortunately, I've finished reading House of Many Ways by now. I really didn't want to. I tried my hardest to avoid it, but it happened eventually. This book definitely felt like a return to Diana Wynne Jones's inventively magical best, especially after I failed to be blown away by The Pinhoe Egg. If you've read Howl's Moving Castle, then you need to read House of Many Ways. And if you haven't read Howl... why on earth not? It's all fairytales and sarcasm and vanity and confusion. And yes, it's much better than the movie version, although the adaptation certainly has its charms. I just prefer my Howl to be a jerk, not a misunderstood anti-hero.

One of the things I like about Diana Wynne Jones is the way her characters develop in a very understated way. I was just sitting here thinking that Charmain never really grew or changed throughout House... but she did, in much the same way Sophie does in Howl's Moving Castle.

So read it. And then you can read Company of Liars, for it is similarly addictive. It's set in the time of the plague in England, but it might as well be a fantasty realm. Superstitions are upheld and mythical creatures are believed in - even a man with a wing for an arm is accepted as something that just happens. It's fascinating and beautifully written and packed full of fascinating characters. And yes, it's another book that really shouldn't have to end, but inevitably does.

Since I seem to be developing a trend here, I'm going to ask you all to recommend me your latest book-you-can't-put-down. Please?

(Also, I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and now believe that Luna Lovegood is made of some sort of crazy awesome. She was seriously the best thing about that movie and she was only in about three scenes or something.)

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Inspiration on a broomstick

2009-07-21T02:01:46Z

My Week of Organisation has begun! Well, technically it began yesterday, but I'm hoping to continue the trend. Yesterday wasn't too bad, considering I actually remembered to post a prompt word at the ficlet comm for the first time in weeks. So if you have a spare fifteen minutes and you feel like writing a ficlet based on a random word, head over to 15_minute_fic and go nuts. :D

And now, to move on to the subject of today's post.

You know what I like? You'll never guess, so I'll take pity on you and tell you. I like watching TV shows from the sixties. This usually happens when I go for my run; generally, I'll have the news on, but if I'm running at a different time, for whatever reason, it'll be old TV shows instead. My favourites?

Bewitched,

Get Smart,

and I Dream of Jeannie.

There's a semi-interesting link between those TV shows, if you think about it: they all feature a female character with all of the power who is obliged to sublimate that power (or the appearance of it) due to societal constraints.

...and that's my pretentious literary posturing out of the way for the day.

There's something about them, though. Something about the way they're written. Something about the characters they created and the way the actors approached the roles... but mostly the way they're written. I don't want to dismiss today's TV shows, because a lot of good writing still goes on.

And a lot doesn't...

But there was a different attitude towards these shows. After all, they didn't have half a century of television and established traditions behind them. They only had new ground to break, instead of deeply ingrained standards to challenge. Also, they remind me of being little and spending evenings at my grandparents' place with cheese and biscuits, which is never a bad thing.

And like any not-bad thing, they lead to stories happening in my head. Take the other night, when I saw the first five minutes of a Bewitched episode in which Samantha comes out of the kitchen to discover that Darren's gone missing and her mother isn't to blame for once. Five minutes of a pretty standard episode, except now I have a story in my head in which husbands are replaced with clocks and there may or may not be a plague of some sort.

(The plague has nothing to do with Bewitched and everything to do with the incredibly addictive book I just finished reading. More on that at some later point.)

We could also take an episode of I Dream of Jeannie from the other night, which featured a music video (for some reason...) that made me want to call for child services. But we won't because it's not quite as interesting, story-wise.

I suppose it's possible to find inspiration anywhere, but it's always a plus if it comes with bonus nostalgia and memories of cheese and biscuits.

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In which I fail to build worlds at all, really

2009-06-26T01:35:51Z

It's writing week at fivedotnerds! Again! I have no idea how it manages to roll around so quickly. How can three weeks pass by without my noticing them? It doesn't seem right.

It is also:

The last day of term

Practically the first day of my holidays

A dress-up day at work, therefore I am dressed up

Only a week until I'm in Sydney with LOOOOOOOOONS!!

More on that later. For now, please accept this video with numerous, vaguely-entertaining background noises, as well as my thoughts on world-building:

When it comes to world-building, I suffer from a sense of mis-placed achievement. If I were to sit there and map out the world and write pieces about the history and the culture, then my brain would decide that this is it. Hooray! We have done the work and the work is good.

Pity it's not a story, but you can't have everything. Or so they say.

Damn them.

Tell me all about your world-building. Or when you think it goes over-board. Or doesn't go far enough. You can throw in your plans for world-domination, if you wish - provided it's your own world you plan to dominate and not this one.

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Shiny qua non

2009-06-22T02:15:22Z

The problem is that I'm completely distracted by shiny stuff. For instance (as you would otherwise be unaware of it), I am going to tell you that I just spent ten minutes between the previous sentence and this one reading over information about the new iPhone.

The shiny, I am powerless to resist it.

But it's the shiny's fault, really. It's always so tempting; so tantalising; so... emblematic of the sine qua non. Without my shiny, I am nothing.

Which isn't quite true.

At least, I hope not.

But there's always something, isn't there? Something you need to make you feel more complete or better-equipped or on the edge of breakthrough technology. Or something.

(Hmmm, too many somethings. Perhaps the shiny is short-circuiting my internal thesaurus...)

In my case, however, there's often a missing step. For instance: I want the published book to my name without the unfortunate necessity of having to write and edit it in the first place. Or I want the amazing new job without having to bother with applying and interviewing and impressing. No matter what I have, I always want something else, preferably right now.

From all of this, I can only conclude that I'm lazy and easily-distacted. I may need help.

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It could be good for the brain

2009-06-19T03:21:51Z

Or it could not. I would, of course, be referring to over-thinking. I do it all the time. No seriously, All. The. Time. To offer a case in point: the reason I haven't written in this journal for the last week and a bit is because I keep over-thinking the process. Where normal people would just sit down and blog about things, I have to turn them over and examine them from all angles and ask them questions.

By which point, it's about two days later and the news, she is old.

The reason for most of this thinking? Oh, that would be the new blog I'm putting together for my work. Not to mention browsing through other writers' blogs. It's making me want to work out what should go on here, or if I should get a domain again... I don't know. And I still want to incorporate more videos into this thing, as a sort of complementary thing.

But I know I'll just end up over-thinking it, by which time it'll be a decade later and the internet will be, like, sooooooo passé.

Anyway, in news that isn't old and hasn't been over-thought (but does most definitely involve brains), I should mention that the fivedotnerds channel is under seige... by the undead.

Any tips on what we should do to survive the onslaught? I'm not sure I prepared myself well enough, really...

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The Secret Beta Chronicles

2009-06-11T02:03:05Z

Ever wondered what a beta does? Ever wondered how a beta lives their life? Is it all parts of speech and punctuation, or do we actually have fun?

To the last question, I say: Parts of speech and punctuation are fun. Punctuation especially.

This week, I thought I'd allow you all a glimpse into the world of a beta. And here it is: the very first episode of the Secret Beta Chronicles.

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A Quick Ramble on Genre

2009-06-04T01:59:47Z

Yes, genre, despite the fact that I kept referring to this video as "my thoughts on grammar". I have no idea why. It's not as though I'm obsessively interested in grammar or anything.

It's writing week again! The fact that this has rolled around so quickly disturbs me somewhat, mostly because it seems like the previous writing week was just a couple of days ago. Which leads to the further conclusion that the year is passing far too quickly.

On the up side, this means Winter may not drag out for as long as I fear it will. However, I'm not entirely sure I want the year to pass quite this quickly.

But to return to writing week and genre-not-grammar. In this video, I talk about genre, tropes, the prejudices of my university lecturers and... well, what more could you want, actually?

I'd love to know about everyone's favourite or most influential genres, too. Are there genres you love to read but would never write, for example? Tell me all. :D

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A Case of the Sniffles

2009-05-28T04:19:08Z

So my cold has gone from "Oh, how inconvenient to have a sniffly sort of thing right now" to "GAH am going to curl up in a corner and hope for imminent death". Hooray. However, it's not all bad, as I won't actually be returning to work until Monday, a fact that has led me to develop a cunning plan whereby I get over this thing by Friday, just in time to enjoy a sickness-free weekend.

Bonus points if I get over it by tonight, thus giving myself a three-day weekend. :D

Unsurprisingly, my sickliness made its way into my video this week thusly:

I actually managed to sound vaguely healthy while I was recording that.

Please feel free to share your tips for making yourself feel better when you're sick. There must be better ideas out there than just sitting on the couch eating junk food...

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Spectacular

2009-05-25T23:38:41Z

Spectacular amounts of fail are occurring around me at present. Firstly, I burnt myself on my iron. I swear it was lurking about behind me, waiting for the chance to strike. And by "chance to strike" I mean "waiting for me to move my arm stupidly". Damned inanimate objects, taking advantage of my natural clumsiness.

Secondly, I have inherited the nasty cold/virus-type thing that was being passed around by the staff in the revue item. Huzzah! Now I know what my day has been missing: a throat full of razors and a general feeling of bleh, why am I at work?

Thirdly, our final night at said revue was a wonderful disaster. People forgot lines; other people couldn't turn up because they were too sick; we missed cues and got moves wrong... and we laughed all the way through it. And yet, it was still fun and we didn't really care at all.

Therefore, I declare it a success. In a faily kind of way.

Finally, I happen to be in need of luck and/or good wishes later this morning, so if you have any to spare, please send them my way.

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Things I've Done

2009-05-22T02:08:54Z

Oh, I did a very crazy thing. Very crazy indeed. It goes a little like this:

* The school at which I work puts on an annual revue-type thing.

* There's always a staff item in said revue-type thing.

* I am a member of staff.

And this year, for some insanity-driven reason, I decided that I should take those last two points and draw some sort of logical conclusion from them. Oh yes, the shy, self-conscious person decided it would be an idea of sorts to stand on a stage in front of actual people and perform a dance routine. Not on my own, admittedly; I haven't quite reached that level of crazy.

Opening night was last night. And you know what? Some sort of miracle occurred in which the only part of me that was nervous was my knees. It was quite annoying, really, considering I rather rely on them to stand up and move about and so on. But I went and had a firm chat with them and they got over it, which is convenient when you understand that I was put in the very front row and needed to look at least partially co-ordinated.

I still can't believe I wasn't nervous. Seriously, I used to have panic attacks before doing two minute oral presentations at school. But no - there I was, standing in the wings as we waited for our cue and I wasn't afflicted by nervousness at all. Not even in my knees.

Speaking of crazy things I've done recently, why not have a look at this video in which I confess to another?

I promise never to do that again. Ever.

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Good grammar and YOU

2009-05-20T02:10:47Z

I want to rant about this article. I want to rant about it so hard and I want to use bad grammar while I do so in the hopes that I'll make some sort of ironic point.

Because.

GAH.

So much wrong in so little time. So much that I was arguing with the screen as I read the article this morning. The author of the article states that she actually loves grammar; she's a fan of grammar; grammar makes her all kinds of happy. And yet, I'd happily stab her with an exclamation mark, should I ever happen across her in the street.

Let's start with this:

Most grammar rules don’t matter, though. That is, if you get them wrong, the reader still can find the meaning. For example, few people know when to use effect and when to use affect. But it doesn’t matter because the first is a noun and the second is a verb so the likelihood you'll mistake the meaning of a sentence because of a grammar error in this case is extremely low.

That's my bolding in there. Because I just love bold font. Or maybe to highlight a basic error before we go on to the substance of the paragraph. (Because you know you want to. You want to hear me ranting about grammar so damn bad, right? :P)

"...the first is a noun and the second is a verb" - actually, the first is a verb, too. Yes, most people confuse affect and effect. I used the wrong one by accident the other day. While messaging. And corrected myself a few lines down. But seriously, I was talking to my writer at the time and I didn't want to give the impression that their beta couldn't tell the different between effect and affect.

Let's see them in use:

He effected an air of jollity, although she wasn't deceived for a second. The effect reminded her somewhat of a puppy that was bravely attempting to pretend its favourite ball hadn't been stolen; it was impossible not to be affected by that.

Three different effect/affects, all used in different senses. Very easy to confuse. (So easy to confuse that I actually wrote "affect" instead of "effect" the first time around...) You could argue that it would still make sense if I'd used "affect" the whole way through. Then again, you could also argue that "ur" is a valid spelling of "your".

I WOULD NOT AGREE WITH YOU, should you try. Fair warning. We could still be friends, but your texts would probably make me wince whenever I read them.

If there's one thing I've learnt about bad grammar, it's this: You can read your own bad grammar, but you cannot read that of another. We're several centuries too young to remember when spelling and sentence structure was an optional, person-by-person concept... but it can't have been any fun at all. And it raises a question: why is it we're allowed to advance in technology, yet we're encouraged by some people to go backwards when it comes to communication?

Around half-way through, I experienced a small paroxysm as a result of the following statement:

We should judge people by their ideas, their creativity, their enthusiasm. None of this naturally comes at the heels of good grammar.

Oh. Oh. Oh.

This, my friends, is the one statement GUARANTEED TO DRIVE ME CRAZY. How, for the love of lamingtons, are people to express said ideas, creativity and enthusiasm if they don't have the tools that will allow them to do so? So you have ideas and creativity to hand... fantastic. What a shame you can't express them, due to your inability to spell or use words in a coherent, easily-understandable sense. Why are we constantly being told we don't have to use our brains? That we don't have to spell properly or understand how our own language works? I can only see one advantage to keeping the general populace in a state of ignorance, so let's just prepare ourselves for our new overlords right now, shall we?

And apparently, those overlords are going to be Google. Please see the following quote:

Anyway, if Google is deciding that these rules are no longer useful guidelines, then we can all follow suit.

Admittedly, at this point, I started wondering if the whole article had been an experiment in irony that had gone horribly wrong. Seriously. Who on earth is going to use Google as the standard by which all things are judged? Google.

I ask you.

We use this langauge of ours every day. Surely it's not asking too much to have a little care and love for it.

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And a thousand people followed her around

2009-05-18T01:53:56Z

It occurs to me that this journal is in serious danger of becoming a log of vlogs. Or several logs of vlogs, which could be stacked together to make a nice, toasty vlog fire. I really wouldn't mind one of those right now, given how it's all Winter-like and cold around here. Never mind the fact that I'm sitting here in short sleeves - you should be paying more attention to the warm coat draped over the back of my chair. It is COLD out there.

But considerably warmer inside.

Anyway, in order to avoid the log of vlogness, I shall break it up by talking about my dream of bizarreness. Because everyone loves to read about other people's dreams, right?

But seriously, this one was truly bizarre. And it kept company with other bizarre dreams, yet apparently out-bizarred them all, because it's the only one I remember. This is evidently what happens to my head when I a) work far too hard, b) don't get more than about six hours' sleep on weeknights, and, c) fall asleep out of desperation at ten o' clock on Friday night.

So.

I was an Assyrian living in India. I... don't even know why. Why an Assyrian? Why India? Is there some quasi-historical cultural commentary going on in my head that I don't know about? Anyway, things weren't exactly going swimmingly and my family was attempting to flee, via the intermediary of this guy who was providing us with false papers. We showed up all innocent-like, encountered this incredibly sleazy and untrustworthy-looking guy... who then SAVED OUR LIVES by lying about who we were in some script-based language I didn't understand.

Also, there was grain. Possibly in sacks.

And then my friend from China turned up. She was a princess or an empress-in-training or whatever and a thousand people followed her around. Literally. She turned up in this great procession of people in red and I could barely work out where she was amongst them all. And on top of this, her mother had died recently and her scarlet-draped coffin had become part of the procession, complete with mourners.

So, as if a thousand-strong cohort of Chinese processioners wasn't helpful enough to an Assyrian girl trying to lie low in India, I get told off by my friend as well. "Why are you running away?" was the gist of it.

Well, I can answer this question and I'll borrow that high-horse while I'm at it. "Because my friend and his family were killed last week," I explained, from said equine of great height. "And he was an Assyrian, too."

What.

I woke up from that at about 4am, wondering what on earth was going on with my brain.

Two questions immediately occur to me, though. Firstly, wtf? Secondly, if I have a friend who just happens to be a Chinese empress-in-training, why isn't she helping me and my family to escape?

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Like apples unto apples...

2009-05-15T01:56:00Z

Fanfiction: what is it good for?

Well, lots of things, really. It is all things to all people. And to some people, it's nothing at all. It's so odd to think there are people out there who have no idea fanfiction even exists... or that it can be fodder for the most cracktastic events and debates. Oh, fanfic, you're like a microcosm of crazy.

More coherent thoughts on fanfic and its value can be found in this week's video, seen here:

What does everyone else think? Do you read or write fanfic? Do you think it has merit? Would you allow it if you were a published author?

I think I can safely say I'd allow it. I'd encourage it. Voraciously.

Voraciously isn't quite the right word, but that's still how I'd do it.

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Nothing but popcorn

2009-05-09T07:14:46Z

We're all guilty of reading popcorn fiction. All of us. Yes, even you. And especially you. Sometimes you need a break; a little snack in between meals.

Strangely, this is the exact subject of my vlog this week! I'll bet you've never seen a smoother, more subtle segue in your life... And now, with all the gentleness and sophistication of a sledgehammer, let me point you in the direction of this week's vlog and all its vloggish goodness. Watch, as I reveal my popcorn fiction of the moment... then become distracted by the pretty sky:

I've told you mine; now it's your turn to tell me yours. What do you read when you need a break in your reading?

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Blurbing

2009-05-06T01:28:16Z

I read a blurb on the book the other day that caused me to laugh out loud. Which, believe me, doesn't usually go down too well in a library... but I couldn't help it. The worst bit is that the subject matter is intended to be rather serious and heart-wrenching, so I felt bad about laughing at it.

For a second or two.

Then I laughed some more.

The blurb starts thusly: Willow O'Keefe is born with osteogenesis imperfecta...

Which is a huge laugh, right? Small child, constantly in pain. I wasn't laughing at that bit, OK?

It continues:

...[a]s her family struggles to cover medial expenses, her mother Charlotte decides to file a wrongful birth lawsuit against her obstetrician for compensation that might ensure a lifetime of care for Willow.

But it means Charlotte has to say in a court of law that she would have terminated the pregnancy if she'd known about the disability in advance. And the obstetrician she's suing isn't just her physician - she's her best friend.

It shouldn't make me laugh, right?

And yet, I can't help it. It's just one tragedy after another until it reaches ridiculous proportions. There's no way I could take a book like that seriously. I mean, you might as well write a blurb that says:

Adorable, pig-tailed child gets a kitten, which dies. She gets a new kitten which digs up the old kitten AND EATS IT. Then dies.

Blurbs are such hit and miss things, though, aren't they? One of my favourite books as a teenager was Obernewtyn and I almost didn't read it because of the blurb, which read like some stock-standard, post-apocalyptic story of the far future.

It also makes me think that I could come up with a pretty amusingly tragic blurb for that doomed first draft of Black Fiddle. Behold:

Jeannie lives a happy, carefree life with her music-loving family until a deadly plague begins to eat away at the land. She and her sister are sent to fend for themselves in the city while the rest of her family falls victim to the plague, leaving them as orphans among strangers. They face prejudice and starvation, forcing Jeannie to sell the precious family heirloom entrusted to her by her grandmother: the Black Fiddle of Barnet.

In a cruel twist of fate, Jeannie's sister is stolen away by Sidhe trapped in the mortal realm seeking a way home... and the only thing that can bring her back is the fiddle Jeannie just sold.

And so on and woe and wailing and woe on woe-tarts with extra woe topping.

Sure, we're all searching for a twist or to submit our characters to the utmost levels of torment in some vain attempt at retribution for ruining our lives and our sleep and our sanity with their insistence on having their stories written. But there's a point where it just goes too far and you break through the walls of tragedy and tension, straight into the realms of ridiculousness.

So has anyone else read any laughably melodramatic blurbs lately? Or, better still: how would you write a blurb of your current WIP (novel, short story, ficlet - whatever it may be) to make it so ridiculously tragic that people are already reaching for the tissues before they even open the cover?

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In Which Google Documents Causes me to Write

2009-05-02T10:23:50Z

I've been doing something odd lately. Something I don't often do.

Something that involves quality time on my own.

Something that probably isn't that productive, really.

If you guessed extreme crocheting in a deep-sea submarine, then you're only slightly wrong. Although, honestly, sometimes I think it's more likely I'd be doing that than actually undertaking this activity.

It's writing. I've been writing. Actually writing. More than this, I've been wanting to write and that is honestly something that hasn't happened much since university SUCKED MY WILL TO WRITE.

Last month, mostly thanks to LorF, I more than doubled my GYWO word count. In fact, I think I might aim to do the same thing this month: double my word-count to date. And I might actually be able to achieve it.

There are several things fuelling this sudden, inexplicable desire to write:

LorF
The freezing cold weather of freezing coldness
Google Documents

Yes, Google Documents. For some reason. I turned to Google Docs in desperation when my work decided to ban the upload of attachments to Gmail, as it's apparently the equivalent of worshipping the devil or something. It kind of works, because it means I'm doing everything in Firefox. So while this makes it easier to be distacted by the net when I'm writing, it conversely makes it easier to be distracted by writing when I'm on the net.

The logic behind this may not be entirely perfect, but I'm not going to question it too closely in case it gets scared and stops working as well as it currently is.

At present, I am writing LorF and I shall hereby furnish you with the first paragraph. The episode has grown from a tiny seed of three words: Then Rowan sneezed. Which has since been converted into present tense because... well, just because.

Then Rowan sneezes and I'm torn between saying “Bless you” and “What in the name of bloody hell did you do that for, you bloody idiot?”. It’s a difficult choice and I hope never to be in a position where I have to make it ever again.

So I'm working on that. At the moment, I am quietly confident about this episode's ability to confuse the hell out of everyone. This makes me very happy indeed.

In other news, I have a couple of Dreamwidth invites which need to be distributed. Please comment with your email if you'd like one and I shall send them your way.

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Cupcake Wednesday!

2009-04-30T01:56:17Z

To state that I am insanely happy with this week's video would be a slight exaggeration. I am happy with the majority of it, but please, let me list the things that bug me about it.

1. I had to shoot it on one of the cruddiest days we've had so far this year. Actually, now that I think about it, the title of "Cruddiest Day" may actually go to any of those that fell during the heatwave and/or the horrendous bushfires... So let me revise that: I had to shoot it on the coldest, windiest, rainiest, darkest day of the year so far. So the quality's grainier than I'd like it to be (which is "not at all").

2. My camera was so obsessed with the sound of my central heating that it decided it should CONSTANTLY BE IN THE BACKGROUND.

3. So much footage had to be tossed so cruelly away, even when it begged to be included on bended knee and subsequently sent me chocolates and fruit hampers in the hopes of tempting me to give in.

But that aside, there are so many things that worked exactly as I wanted them to and I couldn't be happier. I mean, seriously, exactly as I wanted them to. It's not often that things come together like that and behave. There were points during the editing process where I was actually squeeing because it was working so well.

I had so much fun making it; I really hope you all have just as much fun watching it. Here, for your enjoyment, is Cupcake Wednesday:

And yes, I would like to know which style of cooking best equates to your writing style. I wouldn't recommend making a video to illustrate your answer, although I'd love to see one. The painful truth of the matter is that I had to winnow through thirty-six minutes of footage to bring you the four you see before you today.

Painful.

But ultimately rewarding.

So tell me: is your writing style a lovely pasta, or is it a delicious pie?

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An Assortment

2009-04-27T03:00:35Z

I have been making the most of my Monday morning... by making icons. But seriously, who doesn't need more icons featuring elements of punctuation? Or cake?

If you can't see the images, then I blame Dreamwidth* and/or my work, for not allowing me to upload to Photobucket.

This productivity has also extended itself to beta-ing (I'm doing some), writing (likewise doing of some) and this week's vlog. Which I have already filmed. You'd think this would be a good thing: fantastic, the thing is filmed and I have but to edit it before Wednesday.

And yet, you'd be horribly, horribly wrong, for I have at my disposal some thirty-six minutes of footage which must be turned into a mere four.

Somehow.

I HAVE NO IDEA HOW.

Also, the phrase of the day is "sartorial uncertainty" - for when you have no idea what the hell your clothes are doing.

* I can now reveal that my vilification of Dreamwidth was completely unjust and happily lay the blame directly on my work.

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At last, a use!

2009-04-24T02:09:15Z

A few things occurred to me earlier this morning.

1. LiveJournal is blocked at work.
2. Dreamwidth is not.
3. Dreamwidth allows you to cross-post to LJ.

And thus, a use for my DW account was born! Assuming this works and isn't thwarted in some way by my devious work deviously deviating my devious plan of deviousness.

Other things that likewise occurred to me this morning (listed in random order of importance): IT'S FRIDAY; I don't like it when people just sit there and watch me; semi-colons (when used well) are beautiful things; my hair looks kinda cute; a crumpet with peanut butter truly is the breakfast of champions... or at least, people with good taste and a toaster.

A final thing that occurred to me recently is that I'd like my journal to be neater or more consistent or cohesive or better co-ordinated with its curtains or something. A quick glance over my most recent entries reveals that they've been about vlogging, LorF, vlogging, a bit more LorF and then some extra vlogging added in at no extra cost. Which, I'll grant you, is consistent, if nothing else.

But I'd like to expand it into other concepts such as, oh, I don't know, writing?

(Speaking of which: I've actually been engaging in said activity of stringing words together into sentences! Amazing, but true. At this rate, I'll have achieved at least ten percent of my GYWO target by the end of the year...)

I'm due to write an essay on breaking the rules of grammar for getyourwordsout this month, which will inevitably spill over into this journal. So it's entirely possible my next few entries will actually be about this whole writing process.

And breaking the rules thereof.

Which will inevitably involve running with scissors at some point.

However. I'd like to know what my flist would like to see. Would you like a chance to discuss writing in my journal? Would you like me to write informative pieces about it? Would you like to read more rants wherein I am driven to such insanity by writing/writers block/characters misbehaving/things going spectacularly wrong/etc. that I end up typing my entry by bashing my head repeatedly against the keyboard?

And if you read writers' blogs on a regular basis, what are your favourite elements of them? What keeps you reading? (And are there any you'd recommend to me?)

Ah well, the bell has tolled: back to work for me.

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