Okay, I am using rat's machine to quickly check things. I typed this up in wordpad prior to posting.
Health Update
I am much better now. The pain in my gut is still there but much improved, to the point I can sit up like a normal person and the bathroom runs are far less frequent. I still feel best being in bed, of course, but I ate roasted chicken and mashed potatos with gravy last night and everything was happy. I feel twinges in my gut occasionally but those are taken in stride.
No, I did not make the chicken, sillies. I gave rat some cash and he went over to the Golden Chicken around the block. Me cook? Watch me fall over laughing. I CAN cook, I just DON'T cook. What I like to eat when I cook and what rat will eat are two separate beasts which will never meet. After he rejected some gourmet meals I had slaved over for hours I just gave up. Yes, ladies, rat DOES have some bad faults I have to live with. Just because he accepts, watches and enjoys yaoi/shounen-ai does not make him a complete prince.
Computer Update
I think I have everything moved over, but I am going to double-check it before we gut my machine. The largest hd I will be able to use will be a 120 gig, which is really small for my tastes but it's the most our machines will able to address. We run win98 exclusively at home because Xtra Problems is such a pile of crap. We know we will have to switch over eventually because support will be going away (but not until 2006-microsoft has moved the date!) and we are already having problems with some of the video components because the codex seem to be specific player-friendly and those players will only run in XP. I figure we will just purchase new PCs and leave our reliable win98 machines intact. At that time we will have to really do some space management. rat has two towers he works with already - one a P1/133 for older games, the other a somewhat flaky P2/550, which I am using now. I will soon be hooked with with two PCUs as well, one for just video and the other my usually reliable P2/400. Yep, my home pc is old and considered slow, but when it's not dying it is a robust machine.
Other news:
Ooh, a pressie!
A box arrived and it was filled with goodies! Inside was:
Mangas 1,2,3 of Demon Diary, which is a absolute hoot and a howl from what I have read so far! I keep seeing Shiyuuichi in the 'role' of the young demon lord-in-training and I fall over laughing. And the yaoi undertones are ALL over it! Pretty, pretty boys!
Manga 1 of Petshop of Horrors. Initially the artwork threw me, since Count D is not really drawn to the artistic standards I have when I pick up and purchase manga, but I quickly got over it when I noticed how detailed the clothes and costumes were on the pets. A manga-ka after my own costume guild heart! And the storylines were interesting. I kept expecting Mr. Roarke from Fantasy Island to walk in for something. And I mean the Mr. Roarke Malcolm McDowell played, the not-so-nice chara from the latest version of Fantasy Island, not the fluffy Roarke from the old series. The homage to Gremlins at the very beginning was quite clever as well. So yes, after initially being disappointed in the artwork I got into the storyline and found it wonderful. And the yaoi hints between D and the cop are leaking through already. Wonder if D likes using sweets during sex....
A hardcover book, Across the Nightingale Floor. When I looked at the title I got a niggling in my memory. When I read the dust cover I realized why. I had recently read a glowing review of the book in Analog and I had been mildly interested in the storyline. And now I have the book in hand, cool!
A Hello Kitty credit card/pic holder. I cannot get the real name of the item since the paper tag is packed with Kanji so that's what I am calling it. Cute!!!
A bookmark with a black dragon on it. Hmmm..... I wonder who could have picked THAT out?
A lovely thank you note, explaining the gifts are for both rat and I, and yes, we both WILL enjoy them!
THANK YOU THANK YOU, DASIA! This was a wonderful surprise and something that really really helped my day and my recent apathy!
Fic Grows
Since I have been laid up in bed I pulled out some of the hardcopies of the various manuscripts I have been working on. One of the things I do is print up a story and read it off the computer. I find I can see some mistakes and grammar issues more easily with the hardcopy. Digging through various stuff I found two separate working drafts of 'IWUS' (the fic that will not end) and decided to get the new material into the craptop.
1700+ words later....
It was interesting running into these again. I had memories of working up certain sections and the visuals I was trying to convey but they were not in the electronic manuscript proper and I did not know why. So now everything from the drafts are 'loaded'. Some of the bits are just notes. Others are outlines while others are somewhat developed sections.
I have also had to make some notes to the continuity police to make sure situation A happens before situation B or visuals of body movements and positions remain consistent. This can be hard when integrating new material in after writing in parts that were not in place prior to that particular draft. I really have to go through and check things. Example, a person cannot walk up and hug someone in this paragraph when in a prior section they are already standing in each other's personal space. I find this sometimes in some fanfics and it bothers me. The one that stands out the most is when person A completely removes person B's shirt, throws it on the floor and begins kissing person B's naked chest in one paragraph and three paragraphs later person A is reaching under that same shirt to play with person B's nipples. Oops!
Oh, and Joules, I promise, when the initial beta is finally ready to begin I will only send you sections of this fic, not the whole shebang. I AM writing this in sections, my first 'chaptered' fic, so you will not be overwhelmed with the now 24,000+ word monster. I really do not have any particular section completely ready to be betaed yet. What I have found to be true more time than I can count - when I think a section is actually set I find, as I work on another section, I need to add a hint or a reference of the working section to the section I thought completed to keep the flow of the story moving in the right direction.
I am also finding the advantage to writing this one in sections is I can move entire sections up or down, depending on where they would work best. They are really not chapters as much as sections of thoughts and events.
And another little zinger to the mix. The first half of the story cannot in any way reveal the person speaking. So not only can I not move certain sections into the first half of the fic I have to be very careful how I phrase things in the first half- reactions, dialogue, observations, private thoughts - to keep the reader wondering.
I have noticed in the latest editions to the manuscript I have some places where I feel some OOC remarks and actions are glaringly apparent. I have to go back in and get those ironed out now. I now know more about the charas than I did when I wrote those words (probably back in August) so I need to get them back on track.
What else? Well, I haven't had the chance to catch up on anyone's LJ/blog so I cannot respond to anything. Sorry about that. I am going to post this, turn off the flaky computer and go back to bed. Have to rest up for tonight. We are doing the family birthday thing tonight at Dead Lobster. Today is actually rat's birthday, and his present is on backorder so he will not get it tonight. My mother's was yesterday (16) and mine, well, the whole world missed it and that is normal for me. Don't you dare send me belated birthday wishes, folks! I am serious about this! It WILL make me angry! It was not a good day and I just want to forget about it. The were-dragon should not be disturbed at any cost.
When this birthday crap is done I think I will finally be able to pull out from my funk.
Thanks: --> to Lia, my sensei, who has inspired me to draw again. I
wouldn't be doing this without your support, Domo Arigato!
--> to Talon, for sending me her fabulous fics, inspiring me with her writing to draw my first
illustration for a story and actually liking what I drew.
--> to Dasia, for her words of encouragement when drawing her original chara.
--> to Joules, a wonderful epic fic writer, for liking my art enough to want to post them with Talon's
and her own stories.
--> to Lutra, the other half of the epic team, for being so supportive.
--> to Jacque' & Becca Raddittzu, we met on eBay as bidder and sellers and now we are face-to-face
friends. You showed us the real DBZ with your fansubs. It's all your fault the house is full of
doujinshi! *LOL*
:: welcome to bakayaro onna's mindless ramblings, rants & raves :: 
