I'm not sleepin', I'm just Sonoran.

Heroes, screencapalooza!

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 19:09:45 GMT

So, due to circumstances entirely beyond my control, I have become SERIOUSLY addicted to not just one TV show, but SEVERAL.

It's a good thing Project Runway ended just as Heroes began, otherwise there might have been trouble. And if 24 decides to show at the same time as Heroes -- well, I don't even want to think about it.

Things I love about Heroes:
*Plot-driven, but with well-rounded, interesting characters
*Just enough mysteries to keep us hooked while still giving us enough answers to keep us satisfied. (I'm talking to you, Lost!)
*So many hot actors I don't know what to do with myself. (Seriously. Is anyone on this show NOT hot?)
*Hiro Nakamura! Need I say more?
*Graphic novels after each episode
*Hiro's in-character blog
*AND SO MUCH MORE.

So, this addiction needs an outlet. And I need an excuse to delay doing homework. So. I am now going to recap Hiro's storyline from the last show, with screencaps to show just how adorable this guy is.

So, we start off the show with Hiro and Ando on the phone with Peter Petrelli. Peter tells Hiro that he received a message from Future Hiro, telling him to meet Past Hiro in New York, and to Save the Cheerleader.

He also says that Future Hiro had a sword, which Hiro thinks is just about the coolest thing EVER.

You can just feel the smugness coming off of him in waves. And he's right, Future Hiro with a sword IS extremely cool.

Ando has all kinds of questions about how this is supposed to work. How do we know which cheerleader to save? What if we get to New York and it blows up with us in it? Why didn't Future Hiro explain things better? Ando's a very sensible man.

Hiro doesn't care.

He's too busy making lightsaber noises and battling imaginary foes. I tried to get a non-blurry screencap of this, but it's impossible. The man is like a two-year old who's had too much sugar.

Hiro tries to explain once again to Ando the concept of heroic destiny, when suddenly they get cornered by Texas Hold'em and his crew. Poor Hiro! Letting Ando talk him into cheating at cards was a bad move! However, they're cornered and there's not much they can do -- Texas Hold'em recruits them to cheat yet another guy at cards in order to "pay back" their debt.

So Hiro has no choice but to go along, stopping time and rearranging the hands of cards as they're dealt. It's funny, but seeing that he can stop time, you'd think he'd find the time...

... to comb his hair at some point. But seriously, how cute is he? That's just precious.

I REALLY wish I'd gotten the screencap at some point here of when Hiro picked up these pink feathery things from the room. I had no idea WHAT they were or why he was playing with them, but it was funny. Anyway.

Hiro gave Ando a straight flush, not realizing what good cards they were. Ando bets a thousand to start off with, and Hiro just drops to the ground in surprise. "Beg pardon!" Ando ducks under the table to see what the H Hiro is doing, and then spots a revolver pointed at him from under the table. He immediately stands up and says he needs to go to the bathroom, THAT SECOND.

He grabs Hiro to go with him, to the amusement of everybody at the table. "You go together?" they ask. "Yes, that's how we roll," says Ando.

While they're in the bathroom, they hear the sound of a woman coming in the room, and then the sounds of GRISLY DEATH. It's Ikin, of course, but they don't know that. Hiro tries to stop time, but Ando distracts him before he manages it. He didn't manage to save them.

And he's heartbroken, poor thing! He's been trying so hard to be a hero, and he just can't manage it!

As they go back to the car, Hiro laments the current state of affairs to Ando. What if he's just ruined everything? What if he needed to save them in order to save New York? He COULDN'T save them, so how does he expect he'll ever be able to save a whole city?

Ando, actually being wise to the whole hero-thing for once, makes the point that a heroic journey is just that: A journey. You don't start at the end. Besides, with Hiro's powers, maybe he could go back for a do-over sometime! That seems to comfort Hiro, and they start riding off in their Nissan Versa (least subtle product placement EVER) to continue their journey!

Save the cheerleader. Save the world.

Daylight Savings Time: Pirate Hooker

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 14:28:10 GMT

OK, so I haven't updated forever and now I'm updating SOLELY to whine, but I feel I'm justified.

Sunday mornings I go to my grandpa's at 6:00 AM to help him get ready for church and make breakfast for him and so on.

Saturday nights my friends like to hang out and do friends-things, frequently until 1 in the morning.

So, typically on Sunday nights I get about 4-5 hours of sleep.

First of all, we saw The Prestige last night. AWESOME movie! Amazing actors! Thoughtful! Thrilling! But it is also apparently the type of movie that gives me nightmares, and that I cannot sleep for thinking about it and everything that happened. (I am a wuss, but we already knew that.)

So these dreams woke me up a couple of times during the night -- in one particular instance, I thought maybe I'd missed work (I just had that sick I-overslept feeling) and checked my cellphone, which now doubles as my clock. Nope, it was only 3:00.

At 3:15, just as I was starting to slip into another bad dream, I was awakened by all our fire alarms FREAKING OUT, giving me a heart attack. I lept from my bed and shuffled out into the hall. Immediately, the smoke detectors were silent again. I was the only one who had awoken. There was no smell of smoke, no sound, nothing suspicious, just me in the darkness of the hallway having a heart attack.

Getting to sleep after that was fun. Combatting the twin terrors of having been awoken by a fire alarm with thinking scary thoughts about the movie meant that my heart was throwing itself against the bars of my ribcage, trying to escape.

So, finally, at 5:30, I dragged myself reluctantly from bed, threw on my shoes, and went to work.

The nighttime caregiver was there, as usual, and she look at my blankly. "Didn't you change your clock?"

"It's six, isn't it? Am I late?"

"No, it's five. Daylight savings."

I felt so sad. Sad deep, deep inside. I went downstairs and just crashed on the bed there for an hour, but I'm still just seething about it. I hate daylight savings!

I wrote something!

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 15:00:59 GMT

It was at one in the morning, and I don't like the voice, and the ending is clunky, but hey! I blew the dust off my keyboard and wrote SOMETHING! To answer three challenges, no less. :)

So I'm going to start trying to answer the weekly challenges in a slightly more weekly fashion. Whee.

Gideon liked birds. He liked the farm animals, and the wild animals, and the creeping things of the ground, too, but he especially liked birds. They weren't as scared of him as most little animals were, and they didn't think he was food like the bigger ones were. They were happy and friendly and curious, in a kind of silly way. Most of them weren't very smart. But neither was Gideon, so he didn't mind.

Ducks came every spring to nest in the river bend near his family's homestead. Glossy, fat, sassy ducks that spent most of their time fighting with each other over the best bit of river grass and the warmest spot in the sun. Gideon came out often to see them. Sometimes he would bring them stale bread, and sometimes he would fight with them over the best spot in the sun.

He knew that at the end of the summer, they would leave", but he didn't really mind. Then he wouldn't have to hear them whine about the cold and hunger, like the rest of the animals did, and feel the pangs of their empty stomachs echo in his own.

After the first frost, the flock flew away, and Gideon didn't think about them for another two weeks. He was walking along the bank of the river when he heard a mournful honking and knew immediately what it meant.

"You broke your wing," he said aloud to the brown-speckled duck he found huddled in the browning grass.

The duck nudged at the wing with her beak.

"Of course they left you. The river is going to get icy, and the plants are going to die. They couldn't stay."

The duck got up and waddled to him, nibbling at his shoes.

"Fine," he said, and the duck followed him home. She stayed in the henhouse and pestered the chickens until Christmas came, and the peskiest chickens were killed.

Then in February, all but a few of the chickens were killed and eaten.

March was icy and bitterly cold, and spring seemed farther away than ever.

At the end of March, Joshua came to him with his serious grown-up expression on.

"Mom's crying," Joshua said.

"She does that sometimes," Gideon replied.

"She's crying because she doesn't know what to make for dinner."

"We've been having black bread and milk for two weeks, now." Gideon hardly ever understood what Joshua was getting at.

"We're all out of bread, and we can't have just milk," Joshua said.

"So we don't have any food for tonight?"

"We've already killed all the chickens we can afford to," Joshua said, nodding in that grown-up way of his.

"Okay."

"And there's that duck that follows you around and it--"

"Okay, Joshua," Gideon interrupted.

"Doesn't even lay eggs and --"

"Okay, Joshua," Gideon said, and walked out the door.

He opened the door of the henhouse and the duck rushed out to meet him, nibbling at his shoes and honking a raucous greeting.

"Hello to you, too," he said, and led the way into the shed. He sat down on the dirt floor and let her clamber into his lap.

"You're right, there isn't any food in here. You've already eaten today."

She honked and poked at his pockets.

He sighed. "I've got nothing for you, I promise."

She gave him an aggrieved look, if a duck could look aggrieved.

"I know. I'm sorry. This isn't what you expected."

He stroked her feathers, and then settled his hands around her neck. There was a quick snap, and then a flailing of wings and feet, and then stillness.

"It's just that everything dies someday," he said to the quietness.

When he went into the house to give the duck to his mother to clean and cook, Joshua stared at him with open-mouthed dismay.

"You killed it yourself?" he asked, disgusted.

"Yes," Gideon said slowly.

"You just snapped its neck?"

"Yes."

"You coulda gotten Pa to do it for you, you know."

"Why?"

Joshua rolled his eyes and walked away.

When dinnertime came, Gideon discovered that duck was delicious.

Augh.

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:19:30 GMT

I've just gotten really bad at updating! I think it's because every time I do I remember that I PROMISED Desert Dryad updates and I don't want to do them anymore. Well, I DO want to write one scene, the initial short story, and I'm still fascinated by the childhood of the terrible triplets. They may continue to exist in strictly childhood drabble form. :) I'm still going to write a Gideon short about his broken duck!

Life's been a little crazy on this end, but survivable. Apparently my university is actually going to let me graduate! This is lovely news.

Of course, after graduation, I have No Idea what's going on. I'm seriously just thinking about working for T-Mobile (A US cell phone company, for you furriners) as a sales rep. Not exactly something I got a college education for, and it's DEFINITELY not in my field, but it's a good company with good benefits and lots of possibility for advancing in your career. I think I'd kind of like to end up doing Human Resources kind of stuff in the end. I don't know! We'll see.

It's strange because my Number One career choice is almost entirely out of my hands. Either I start teaching part-time in January or ... I don't. So we'll see.

In other news, I totally sprained my toes today. I tripped over my laptop cord and sacrificed my feet instead of my lovely computer friend. It hurts like a MOTHER.

Still Alive

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 03:12:46 GMT

So, got my school all figured out and have been working a lot, but life has been pretty good with me. Except my laptop is on the fritz, so I will be purchasing a new one shortly. As soon as I decide which one to purchase.

I'm mostly just posting to rant, because I needed to.

My roommates are currently doing the uncoolest thing EVER. So, I was talking with roommate and best friend Kim about her schedule for this week, and she was all, "Well, I've saved Friday night for a date night with my boyfriend, but we'll hang out Saturday night." And so I figured she'd be up in Sandy (a town about 20 minutes away) with him. But I am a grown-up girl, and have handled Friday nights on my own before. That's fine.

So my roommate Laurel is also dating somebody pretty seriously. (Kim AND Laurel both got boyfriends basically RIGHT as I moved in. And Mejken, my third roommate, has had a boyfriend forever. THANKS, universe!) And she told me that she and HER boyfriend were going out tonight. Again, fine.

She also mentioned to me a week ago that her boyfriend has a roommate that she'd like to set me up with. And I said that I'd enjoy that, because I generally like dating. It is a thing I enjoy. And as she explained him to me, he seemed like a nice guy.

So right now, Kim, Laurel, their boyfriends, the Roommate I was supposed to be set up with, and Kim's little sister (who apparently Laurel decided to set him up with instead?) are downstairs and NOT in Sandy, making dinner for each other and then going to watch a movie.

I was invited to be a seventh-wheel tonight by Kacy, who came upstairs to say hello just as the event was starting. I drove Kim to school today, and I said, "Well, since you have school and then work and then date, I guess I'll see you tomorrow! Have a good day!" and she didn't contradict me. So when Kacy said, "Hey, me and two other couples are having a movie night tonight, want to come?" I said no thanks, thinking the event would be in Sandy and not thrilled about seventh-wheeling anyway.

I wasn't even aware Kim was home until I went downstairs to get something to eat. I was not aware they were cooking for each other. (And when I got down there, Laurel was just helping herself to the last of the chicken, but said I could have it if I really wanted. Gee, thanks, but no thanks, Laurel.)

So, I'm just pretty upset about that. It's just really high up there on the NOT COOL scale, and Kim is my BEST FRIEND. I'm pretty sure that she's not INTENDING to slight me like that, but that's pretty intense thoughtlessness. Makes me feel like a grade-A loser.

GRAH.

Anyway. I PROMISE I'm going to g e writing done, and just today I was struck by a Gideon story that answers THREE recent challenges. It will be called, "The Expectations of a Broken Duck."

Somehow writing that sentance down makes it seem SO MUCH less good than it sounded in my head. Well, we'll see. :)

Moving is possibly the most exhausting thing in the world.

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 18:05:49 GMT

It's true! It is so true, in fact, that now, after 2 days of working 10 hour shifts and then coming right home and moving/unpacking for eight hours each night, it is noon and I am still wearing my pajamas and I DON'T FEEL BAD.

That was the longest sentence ever.

In any case, the move was long and arduous, but I am not set up in my own new room! With my best friend in the room next to me! The biggest problem is that the room is blindingly (BLINDINGLY, I say) pink and girly. I had to go buy a pirate flag to toughen it up a little.

Of course, because I'm me, I bought the pirate flag that surrounded the skull and crossbones in a pink circle. It reads "The Pirate Republic: No Quarter Given" and there's a heart. It tickles me to no end. But there's still a skull and crossbones, so that's tough, right? Right?

I will post pictures later.

So, I'm all settled in and would very much like to go back to my habits of wasting time upon the interweb, when I discover that the wireless network here is out! I just CAME from an apartment with crappy wireless! I was excited that this place would have LESS crappy wireless! I am very annoyed. So I'm hoping that the girl in charge will be able to fix that soon, otherwise I may be a bit dead to the world for a while.

I'm also taking advantage of the fact that my favorite time waster (the internet) is out of commission to do a badly-needed fresh install on my laptop. It was behaving very badly and there was spyware that my spyware program couldn't get rid of, and it'd flip out and not work when I tried to use youTube or iTunes or anything like that. Not to mention trying to play games!

So, that's going on right now (I'm on a friend's computer) and hopefully that will all be fine. I get intensely nervous whenever I do anything to my computer. I fear that it will never work again. But hopefully it will and I'll be back and updating regularly in september. That's the plan, anyway.

Miss you all! Keep on truckin'!

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 03:53:02 GMT

So, finally, AGES after joining talechasing, I have finally answered a challenge!

I'm not particularly happy with it, but it's gotten me writing again, which seems to be the whole point. Yay for writing!

"I think God hates us," Bethany announced, coming in from the fields with mud staining her skirt past her knees. Small rivers branched from the landscape of her hair and face, disappearing into her clothing before resurfacing as waterfalls into a swiftly-growing lake on the floor.

Lydia turned and looked at her daughter, and then out the door behind her. The rain wove a steady, weary curtain through the air, erasing the view of hills, trees, and roads. Lately, Lydia thought that the rain was trying to wipe the land clean, scour it down to bare rock. The floodstream past their door carried leaves and crops and soil down to the river bottoms in evidence.

"Don't tell me," Lydia said at last with a weary sigh. "I don't want to start worrying about the winter already."

"We'll make it," said Bethany, confident and unconcerned as only a teenager could be.

"I'm sure we will." Lydia felt too damp and tired to try to shake Bethany's confidence. She stepped past her daughter to look at the door, squinting to see through the rain. "Is your father still...?"

"Yes, he's still trying to build a levee."

"Do you think it will help?"

"A little." Bethany shrugged.

Lydia frowned out the doorway. "Is Jericho with him?"

"No."

"How that boy always manages to avoid work is beyond me," said Lydia, shaking her head. "I'm going to go help your father, then, if he won't. Dinner's on the stove, mind it doesn't burn."

"Yes, Ma," said Bethany, obediently.

Lydia stepped through the door and shut it behind her. She was soaked through in seconds, chilled by the rain's enthusiastic embrace. For a moment, she tilted her face to the sky and wished it would send her downstream as well. Erase the dirt, the pain, the heartaches of facing each day coming mercilessly after the next, each meal cooked and consumed, each long winter following each meager harvest. Erase her life hovering over her too-gifted children who never really needed her at all.

She laughed wryly at her own despairing thoughts. "The rain will stop eventually," she reminded herself under her breath. She squared her shoulders and picked up her skirts, but she didn't go straight to the fields. She wanted to see her rosebushes first.

She'd dragged them as seedlings from New York. She'd covered them with blankets against the frost, watered them through droughts and exulted at last in their blushing glory that seemed to last all summer long. They were one of the few things she did only for herself, not out of duty or custom but just because she wanted to. She knew they wouldn't recover from this deluge any more than the wheat would, and she wanted to say goodbye.

She waded more than walked around to the back of their little log home, where she'd planted the bushes so they'd get just the right amount of sunlight. She plucked a petal from the stream and tucked it into her skirt pocket.

When Lydia turned the corner, she stopped dead in surprise. Jericho, covered nearly head to toe in muddy water and dirt, was putting the last touches on a makeshift shelter he'd built over the roses to protect them from the driving rain. He'd also made a sort of ditch downstream of the bushes, to help drain the waterlogged soil.

"Jericho, you should be out helping protect the crops," Lydia said, but her heart wasn't in the lecture. She covered her chin with a hand to try and keep it from trembling, fighting back tears. She wasn't going to cry now. Not over some silly flowers. She turned to go back to the fields.

Jericho's arms enfolded her from behind in a hug. When had he gotten so tall?

"You're welcome, Ma," he said, squeezing once and then letting her hurry off to tend to the wheat and corn.

It was only after the sun went down and she and Ben couldn't work on the levee any more that she realized that he'd never followed to come help. She couldn't find it in her heart to be angry with him, though.

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 04:16:37 GMT

Oh, also:

Your Bit Part in the \'Soulfire\' Series
LiveJournal Username
Who'd win a shouting contest - you, or Isaille?
How many of your beers has Nuan swiped so far?
You wish Alkior would stop talking about ...
When Lorannon tells a stupid joke, you ...
Schiri is ...
Whose side are you on, exactly?

You shall sally forth boldly, joined by the brave	extd_grb_injoke
to defeat the plot hatched by Kharais and	quirkybird
Unfortunately,	Nuan starts to belch your national anthem
and you suffer a horrid array of Paladin jokes ...	1,023
Although you are betrayed by	shanra
you survive long enough to	be beaten to death by Immovan for teaching Binni bad words.


This Fun Quiz created by Alyssa at BlogQuiz.Net

Leo Horoscope at DailyHoroscopes.Biz

Death by Immovan! So harsh!

I have to admit, though, it's funny when little children swear. I would LOVE to see Binni let loose with some cuss words. Teehee!

Mario DDR

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 04:15:48 GMT

OK, so the game Dance Dance Revolution? The one for the nintendo? Everybody know it, right?

I AM SO ADDICTED IT IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM.

My feet hurt. My calves ache. But dangit, I'm GOING to beat that game on Hard before my brother comes back! (he can do it on super hard, but I'm like 50 billion times less coordinated than he is.)

So, I'm staying at my Brother's/Grandpa's place to do the night monitoring for grandpa while my brother is on vacation, and covering some of his shifts. So I am pretty busy, and then when I am not busy there is his DDR game just staring at me. Daring me to get a new high score! It is deadly.

But I SWEAR upon everything that is holy that tomorrow I'm finally going to write one of the challenges for talechasing, as I have not contributed to that community since I joined it. I am a horrible person.

But I am a horrible person who can take on Bowser in a dance competition! Bwahahahahaha ... ahem.

My mom's in town!

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 18:45:59 GMT

And it's been fun. She would've made a good college roommate -- it was fun to have her in the bed across the room, chatting while we fell asleep. Fun to jockey for room at the mirror. It's cool to be in this grown-up place where I can hang out with my mom and be friends. She's staying for the weekend, in which I will get very little studying done for my geology final. Oh well. :) It should turn out OK regardless.

Also, I went to a Turbo Kickboxing class with my SIL this morning, and I am ALREADY sore. This is not a good sign. But it meant I didn't feel guilty about the Krispy Kreme donuts I had for breakfast. Because Krispy Kreme is some good stuff.

Also, Em! (and anybody else interested) The entire archives of Bite Me! are up for free at girlamatic.com! It is most awesome.

I'm sorry! I'm still alive!

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 17:16:17 GMT

I'm the biggest slacker EVER. And I swear I will repent!

Not much has been going on with me, really. Geology's been a super-fun class, wherein we have gone to glacial lakes, inside a cave built on a fault line, dinosaur museums, the largest open-pit mine in the world, and into mineral springs. It has been AWESOME.

Read The Mermaid Chair recently, by Sue Monk Kidd, who also wrote The Secret Life of Bees. Both are really excellent books, I recommend them to all.

Also been hanging out with Kim, Kacy, and Amanda lots. Went car shopping with Kim, managed to reluctantly talk her down from getting a minicooper. They're the CUTEST cars, but so expensive! I think she's going for the Mazda 3 or the Toyota Yaris. We also went to an amusement park this weekend -- it wasn't as good as the parks back east, but it was still pretty fun.

In any case, I am very sorry for my absence, and will get cracking on more desert dryad. Though I think it's getting an overhaul. We'll see. ;)

Sadness!

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 01:18:50 GMT

Well, it's been a loco two days around here, and yesterday involved so many embarrassing mishaps that I am not EVEN GOING TO POST THEM. But they were mishaps, and oh, they were embarrassing. And expensive. I believe that I am now poor, due to having to pay for embarrassing mishaps.

Today I managed to avoid such horrible mishaps, but the day was interesting in its own way. My grandpa kind of goes in phases with his Alzheimers, sometimes really good, sometimes really bad. Well, this last week has been rough for him -- he's been getting more withdrawn, more out of it, more cranky. Today he started grousing about how my Aunt Nancy borrows his car, and how she shouldn't do that.

And so I asked, "Well, who's gonna drive it, if she doesn't? She takes you to all your appointments and things."

And then he said. "Ida-Rose has a license, and she drives me places." And kinda kept ranting about how Nancy shouldn't use the car.

Ida-Rose is my grandma, his wife. She died almost a year and a half ago.

I just didn't know what to say. How could I remind him that his wife, his best friend and confidante for 60 years, had passed on? My heart sunk. I tried to change the topic, but I felt guilty for doing so. It's not like it wasn't going to dawn on him sooner or later.

Finally Nancy came over and explained things. It was just ... sad. Poignant, in a way, but sad. Life is short.

OMG!

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 22:25:00 GMT

I just found out that Eddie From Ohio, my current favorite band of awesomeness, is touring this fall! And they are going to Denver, which is not far at all from here. Well, OK, it's far, but my friend Amanda is from Denver and takes trips home all the time.

But the icing on the cake is that they are in Denver ON MY BIRTHDAY. So. She and I will have to find a way to make a trip down that weekend. And it will be awesome.

Besides, what is there not to love about a Band that sings about Tommy the Canexican, a vancouver-dwelling mexican who's living with his next-o-kin? (Selena is gone but Celine needs a stalker -- hahahahailovethisband)

Seriously. They are full of GENIUS, including a toe-tapping song about the theory of relativity (Albert Einstein was never good at math. But he found time down a curving path. The faster you go, the slower you grow, the less that you have to fall...) and a bittersweet but funny song about happy couples.

The universe loves me right now.

So memed!

Sat, 01 Jul 2006 14:50:30 GMT

LIVE TRUMPS 1.1

watch sahuarita fight

CREATE YOUR CARD

Y'know, you think I could've found two hours to do this, like, a month ago.

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 22:47:32 GMT

So, yeah, this was done in two hours (in honor of Emily, of course). It has had no editing done to it yet, but I like it TONS better than the previous talky and pointless version of chapter five. This isn't the chapter in entirety, of course, it's just the beginning, but I think it works better. We can see more the difference between Jericho and Bethany's viewpoints, and Jericho actually DOES something other than whine. Huzzah!

(Fish, I'm not sure you got chapter 4 before going all school-y on us. You can check my fictionpress site for that one.)

Jericho watched everything that happened from his spot, frozen in the courtyard, emotions flickering red and bright orange in his sight. Usually he could detatch himself from his gift, just watch and analyze the feelings and characteristics that shone for each individual. He often came across to others as cool, even uncaring, joking away the depth of any situation.

This was different. Bethany's vibrant fear, his mother's sickening pain, and his father's grief all combined to weigh upon him almost physically, pushing down his shoulders and pegging his feet to the ground.

Do something, he told himself, heart aching. Don't just stand there. But he couldn't step out of his gift-sight long enough to move, couldn't stop watching even though he didn't want to see what would happen. He felt blinded by all that was going on, overwhelmed beyond his ability to cope. He was shattered by guilt, by the knowledge that he and his foolish pride had allowed this to happen.

Jericho closed his eyes, blinking away the gift-sight, the vision he could no longer stand to see. He opened them again to the bright morning sun, squinting to make out the details of the physical world again. He breathed in a deep, ragged breath. His mind was still reeling from the intensity of what had gone on outside the courtyard walls. It felt strange to see the emptiness and calmness around him, knowing that just beyond his sight, Bethany was dying. He felt numb and choked, like he wanted to cry but couldn't summon the tears. He didn't even notice the dragons wheeling overhead, didn't notice the drifting whisps of conversation from outside. He was lost in his own self-loathing.

The side door of the courtyard opened, jarring him from his reverie with its sudden creak. Ace backed inside, cautiously, eyes locked on the sky. Jericho stared at him.

Ace shut the door carefully behind him, and then turned to make for the wagons. "What're you just standing there for?" he asked irritably when he noticed Jericho's blank gaze. "We've got to get moving."

It was as though those words unpegged Jericho from the ground, lifted the weights that had stilled his mind and body. He shouted and threw himself forward onto the outlaw, tackling him to the ground. He was never much of a fighter, but his charge was so sudden and unexpected that he was able to knock Ace to the ground and punch him soundly in the face before Ace even realized what was going on.

"Godammit, boy, what are you doing?" Ace said in a growl, reaching to his belt for his pistol. His eyes widened as his hand touched the empty holster, and he remembered how the dragon had taken his gun.

Jericho punched him again. His knuckles cracked painfully against Ace's jaw, but he hardly noticed the pain in his hand. "How could you?" he cried out. "I admired you!"

Ace's head turned to the side under Jericho's punch, but he didn't lose much time in violently pushing Jericho off and away from him. "Why?" he asked as he sat up, dust clinging to his hair and bright red cowboy shirt. "Are you stupid? Did you not notice the priests, kid?"

That question seemed to stop Jericho in his tracks, even as he was gathering himself up for another attack. "I don't know why," he said blankly. "I noticed the priests." He paused and backed up from Ace, massaging his knuckles as the pain finally hit him. "I guess I just saw that you believed in your cause so much that I wanted to believe it, too. Wanted believe that you could actually lead this country to become something good. I didn't care so much until now that you were a coward."

Ace drew himself to his feet and spat into the dust to get the taste of dirt out of his mouth. He paused, seeming to deliberate about what to say. Suddenly, and without warning, his fist flashed forward, knocking Jericho back into the arms of a prickly pear. "I do believe in my cause," he said. "But I'm no coward."

Jericho cried out reflexively as he tumbled back into the cactus, tensed against the pain of driving needles in his flesh. His first impulse was to cry, with pain, grief, and helplessness, but he pushed back the swelling tears. He deserved this. It was less than the pain his sister and mother felt. Knowing, however, that he could not hope to win in a fist fight against the hardened cowboy, Jericho braced himself and slipped back into his gift sight. He'd have to find a way to talk Ace down.

Ace's aura flared in the foreground of his sight, and Jericho was surprised to see how shaken the cool outlaw actually was. He was scared, off-balance, his pride deeply. Jericho's attack alone couldn't have caused that kind of emotional state. He widened his view to take in the whole area around, and sucked in his breath in surprise when he caught Bethany's familiar signature. She hadn't died, after all. He scanned yet wider and laughed in relief before slipping back out of his gift, the radiance fading from his eyes.

Just as Jericho's senses were sorting out the world again, his breath was cut off by a boot in his side. He blinked, and realized that Ace had continued to fight him as he was caught up in his gift. But now he knew how to respond. He smiled and looked calmly up at Ace as he wound back for another kick. "She's alive," he said. "The question is, are you mad because she got away or because you didn't want to kill her in the first place?"

That brought Ace up short, and he glared. "You're the one with the power of man, you tell me." Though he appeared uncaring, Jericho could hear the slightest catch in his voice.

Jericho pulled himself away from the bushy cactus, doing his best to ignore the inch-long spines driven deep into his flesh. "It's a little bit of both," he said, his voice softening to display some sympathy that he didn't feel. "You got put in a hard place there, Ace. You're a man who likes to be in power, be in control, but you've bitten off a little more than you can chew. There are forces here at work that are beyond you, problems that you can't solve with a six-shooter." His eyes flickered to Ace's empty holster.

"She'll die in the desert," Ace blustered. "I'm still in control."

"But if you'd really wanted to kill her, she'd be dead," said Jericho, still with the voice and attitude of a friend. "It wasn't you that wanted to in the first place, it was the Dryads. You can talk to them, but you don't understand them. You can't count on them to be predictable. And like you said earlier, you've been betting this whole revolution on them, and now you see that it wasn't a good idea. You can lead a few men, Ace, and do it well. These men that are with you are your friends. But you cannot get a whole army behind you, not one big enough to deal with the one the Spanish are sending right now." He was blustering as well, making things up, hazarding conjectures from what he knew about the situation and what he had seen of Ace's character. But it seemed to be working.

"I'll do just fine," said Ace, though his confidence failed a little. "The Spanish'll run when they see the dryads, anyway."

"They might," said Jericho, nodding. "They just might run away. And leave you with what? A nation that hates and fears you, one that'll overthrow you the first chance they get. You don't want that, Ace. You want to be hailed as a hero and live in ease the rest of your life."

"That's why you're here," Ace said with a shrug. "I don't want to rule this place anyway, it sounds like a lot of hard work. I'm just getting the messy business through with so you can step in and take over from there. The people will like you."

"That they will, Ace," said Jericho, stepping forward, standing and talking more authoritatively. "But as much as I like you, Ace, and as much as I believe in your cause, I'm not just going to follow you around until you're ready to turn things over. Your threats aren't going to work on me any longer, because you're not going to be able to kill me or any of my family anymore than you were able to kill Beth. I could just walk away right now and you and all your men wouldn't be able to stop me."

"But..."

"But I won't," continued Jericho, still both friendly and authoritative. "In fact, I'm going to make things easy for you. I'm just going to take over from here. You don't want to be in charge of all this, it's just too much. Now, you can be my right-hand man, and you'll still be in charge of the Dryad army, and if this all goes well I'll make sure you're given a hero's reward at the end of it. And if things go wrong, the blame all falls on me. I'm just looking out for you, Ace."

Ace huffed and glared, obviously warring within himself. "If you think this was too much for me to handle, it'll be way too much for you, kid. I've lived here for years, and you just got here."

"Well, that's why I'll have you to advise me," said Jericho calmly. "But even without you I'm confident I can handle it." He shifted into gift-vision, knowing that Ace found the glittering light that radiated from his eyes unsettling. "This desert is strange and magical and beyond man's understanding," he said, watching Ace's aura recoil with awe and a little fear. "And so am I. I have a feeling that I was born for this place, this time. And you can either stand in my way, Ace, or you can help me." The glittering faded away, but his features remained stern and powerful. "You're a smart and talented man, Ace, and we'd both be better off working together.

"Is that right?" Ace asked, sarcastic.

"It is," Jericho said with a smile. "And I know that you know it. So now I'm going to go see to my mother, and make sure she's alright. As soon as I'm satisfied that she's comfortable, we're gonna go to Tucson and straighten out this mess we've landed in." He started to walk away, but paused right as he passed by Ace, stepping into the outlaw's personal space. "And if you ever touch my family again, Ace, you will not live to regret it. Your men already like me just as well as they like you, and they will kill you when I tell them to." He clapped the cowboy on the shoulder. "Glad to see you understand."

Ace stared blankly as he watched Jericho walk away, head high and shoulders squared. You couldn't hardly tell that Jericho had cactus spines marching down his back and arms. "Well," he said to himself with a resigned sort of sigh. "I guess that works for me." He picked his hat out of the dirt and carefully dusted it off before replacing it on his head and following Jericho to the wagons.

Happy Birthday Em!

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:10:03 GMT

Happy Birthday to the unparalleled skycornerless! She is 20 today, and though she thinks that's old (speaking from the vantage point of being 23 and 3/4ths) she is still a very young thing who cannot leave her mother.

That's what my mom always says, anyway. (From the song "Billy Boy" in case I've confused anybody)

I am in the midst of a drawing, but it is taking forever and my summertime classes are taking up more time than I anticipated, so it will be at least a week until it's done. However, in honor of Emily, I am going to spend at least 2 hours today working on Desert Dryad (not that it's much of a present, as I need to do that anyway. But Chapter 5 will hereby be dedicated to her!)

So. Huzzah for Emily! And Happy Birthday!

Linkage

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 15:05:35 GMT

As I prepare to do this, I realize that it's actually really sad how much time I spend on the internet. But the time is not wasted! I feel edified, entertained, educated, and amused! These are great sites, and therefore I want to share them with the world. Or at least the world that decides to read my LJ.

A lot of what I list are my webcomics, so I apologize to Alyssa and any others with crappy dialup connections. My heart bleeds for you! But someday, you will have broadband, and I will be able to point you to this list.

Sites I check daily:

http://www.narbonic.com - Possibly the awesomest mad science comic EVER made. It's coming to an end this year, which makes me sad deep inside. For a while it was on moderntales.com, which is a pay-for-archives site, but now the archives are free (if a bit out-of-order, they're in the process of being fixed) on http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic so you can go there and figure out who the hamsters are and why Artie is in a floating think tank in the sky. I am HORRIBLY wary of what will happen when this comic ends. I have a bad notion that Helen's going to be a brain-in-a-tank, Mel's going to be President, and Artie's going to be dead. Aiee!

http://get-medieval.livejournal.com/ - conveniently in livejournal form, so you can just add to your friends list. Another webcomic (I'm a sucker for them, really) about aliens that land on earth in medieval times. Funny and clever and reliably entertaining.

http://shoeblogs.com/ - Manolo's Shoe Blog! I don't know how I got hooked on this, as I am not a high couture person. My shoes come from payless. But Manolo's freakin' hilarious, and he's certainly right about many things -- and everybody has the right to be superfantastic!

http://nationstates.net/ - Make your own nation and govern it! It's kinda fun. I have 2 nations -- Tohono, which is the one I govern by how I really think about the issues presented, has turned out to be an inoffensive centrist democracy, which is kinda what I was going for. I'm trying to turn my second nation, Baby Bandicoots, into a psychotic dictatorship, because let's face it, that'd be awesome. However, it's harder than you think! I think it's currently a compulsory consumerist state.

http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/ - Another one of those things that I don't understand why I'm so fascinated. The Sarorialist lives in New York (though he's currently in Milan, being employed by men.style.com to cover the fashion shows there) and he just wanders around the city and takes pictures of people that he sees. Sometimes it's because they just look great overall, sometimes it's because he likes their smile, their hair, or a particular piece of their clothing. They're fascinating, beautiful, regular people (for the most part -- New York is full of models) and I can't help but look.

http://www.lileks.com/bleats/index.html - The whole lileks.com site is fascinating -- James Lileks is a newspaper columnist with a bizarre urge to document strange details of the past, and frequently to make fun of them. Sometimes he veers into politics (and is a center/right leaning libertarian) just to warn folks who don't like that stuff, but he's always insightful and frequently funny. Go to the gallery of regrettable food or interior desecrations and prepare to giggle until your head hurts.

Sites I check on Mondays:

http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/ - Not very reliable about updating, so the story's a little slow-moving, but it's just fascinating.

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/ - OK, OK, I love comics! And Mad Science! And Blonde, Bespectacled Girl Geniuses! The coloring in the first part is poorly done, I think, and the art style takes some getting used to, but they switch colorists sometime in the later chapter, and the story is excellent.

http://www.seraph-inn.com/ - Sarah Ellerton is a fabulous Aussie (like so many others) who draws gorgeous Manga and is telling a beautiful story here in Inverloch. But mostly, I just go to ooh and aah at the art. It's awesome.

http://www.earthsongsaga.com/ - What's that? More Manga? Yes. Shut up. It's good. And this one's actually more manga-inspired than actually manga.

http://www.catandgirl.com/ - Bizarre political and social commentary. The source of my die delicious icon.

Sites I check on Tuesday:
None of my comics update on Tuesdays. Sadness!

Sites I check on Wednesday:
Girl Genius
Earth Song
http://www.girlamatic.com/series.php?name=mell&view=current - Little Mel and Sergio, written by Shaenon Garrity and drawn by rotating artists, is hilarious and cute. Unfortunately, girlamatic is a pay-for-the-archives site, but the current update is always free.

Sites I check on Thursday:
Inverloch (The Seraph-Inn site)
Cat and Girl

http://directionsofdestiny.com/ - Much more manga-ish than my other mangas, school uniforms, crazy hair, and all. But still cool! It's a big fascinating mystery.

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/smithson/series.php - Another one written by the esteemed Miss Garrity, Smithson is about a superhero with no super powers, a powerful conspiracy that runs as an all-female a capella group, a non-conformist chair movement, a child prodigy who lost his genius in a brain operation, and more! Absolutely fascinating.

Sites I check on Friday:
Girl Genius
Earth Song

Sites I check on Saturday:
Really, what I need to do is find a really good website that updates on Tuesdays and Saturday.

Sites I check on Sunday:

http://forthewicked.net - No rest for the wicked, a mixed-up-turned around fairy tale. And yes, if you check that site this week, the current update has Little Red Riding Hood beheading the witch who lives in the gingerbread house (from Hansel and Gretel) and the witch KEEPS TALKING. Seriously creepy. But awesome!

So. Now I have my links all in order, and I apologize if I super-spammed your friends list. Go forth and enjoy that intarweb, ducks!

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 12:55:44 GMT

Drabble for Alyssa. :) Her challenge was "Young Jericho and an awkward birthday moment," which is so full of good potential I had to pick between like, five scenarios. I have a feeling EVERY birthday was full of awkward moments. Some a lot more horribly awkward than this was, but I couldn't fit Jericho explaining to his siblings what sex was within 100 words. :)

Jericho sat on the floor, leaning against his mother and pushing the toy train across the floor. "My present is the best because you love me more," he announced, and then went back to making train noises.

Bethany threw her handmade rag doll down, which she hadn't liked anyway, and started bawling. Gideon's bag of colorful marbles lay untouched in a corner. He was out in the barn, as usual, playing with the new calf.

"Jericho, that's not nice," said Lydia in dismay.

"But it's true," he replied smugly. "Gideon likes cows and Bethany likes trees, but I like you."

I got a letter today...

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 01:54:20 GMT

It read like this:

Dear Sarah,

I hate you.

Most sincerely,

Your body.

Seriously. What compelled me to think that I could get 3 hours of sleep, wake up and inhale bleach fumes for four hours getting ready for cleaning checks, eat jell-o and graham crackers for breakfast (don't ask), skip lunch, and then go to a carnival during the hot middle of the day and ride THREE dizzy-making, death defying rides.

I think the "Zipper" is the most terrifying thing in the world.

Also, tilt-a-whirling at over 2g's? Not good when your stomach's already queasy.

Amanda told me that once she went on the really super-fast (I mean SUPER fast, this is not your lazy on the ground tilt-a-whirl. This is intense.) spinning ride 4 times in a row, until her friend who was with her puked. Ick! I went on it just once and didn't stop being dizzy for over 10 minutes. I'm still not sure WHEN I would have stopped, because I still wasn't done being dizzy when we got onto the upside-down dizzy thing. And then the zipper.

So my body sent this letter to me with such signals as intense nausea, dizziness, and bizarrely flickering vision. I was not really better until I took a nap.

Next time, I'm going on the easy rides, dangit!

Time for a change

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 16:23:40 GMT

Well, after three years of growing my hair out (it had just barely passed my shoulderblades) I was sick of it. It was shapeless, styleless, flat, and mundane. I felt like I had just this brown mop on top of my head.

So! I got a cut and highlights. I had a trusted friend from my ward do it, and she did a great job. I'm actually HAPPY with the highlights, which is unusual. Usually applying dye to my hair is a horrible mistake, as my hair has this tendancy to turn really orange whenever any chemical agent is applied.

These pictures are crappy, taken in the too-bright light of the bathroom mirror, with the wierd cell-phone-color-adjusting-ness going on. I'll take some better ones later.

Desert Dryad

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 08:43:10 GMT

Well, it's a short update, and a talky one, but it's an update! In my defense, it's carnival season. My friends and I have too much dang fun.

We're also trying to go through all the previous seasons of 24. I can understand why Liss got frustrated with the first season. We laugh quite a bit at it. And man, if Kim wasn't a stupid ho, it would've been over in like 3 hours, for sure.

And Jack just looks WEIRD as a blond. (And speaking of Liss, I miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiss her. When is stupid school over?)

Anyway. If any of my lovely readers would like to critique, I'd like you to focus on Jericho. Is he ringing true to character? Do his motivations make sense? Do you even CARE about reading about him, or should I just ditch his storyline in favor of following Bethany? I'd love some feedback.

Thanks in advance, ducks! You're lovely!

Still rooted to his position in the courtyard, Jericho sighed in relief as he watched Bethany move away, her emotions flickering with relief and hope. He couldn't help but feel the same. She was safe. She wasn't going to die because he refused to believe her and misjudged the situation. It was like a tangible weight was lifted from his shoulders, and he was at last able to move again.

He smiled as his senses slid back to him, the flares of humanity giving way to stark adobe walls and a dragon-pierced sky. "I should've guessed," he said to a dragon as it flew overhead. "Say hello to him for me. And thank you." Perhaps he was imagining it, but it seemed the dragon nodded at him and tipped its wing in greeting.

Just then, Ace backed slowly into the courtyard and shut the door slowly behind him. The outlaw glanced up, following the flight of the dragons as they moved away, following Bethany and the pursuing dryads. "Damn it all," he said under his breath.

"Take that as a lesson, Ace," said Jericho. "And don't try to hurt anybody in my family again."

"You weren't behind that, were you?" Ace's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Wish I was," said Jericho. "Ace, I'm not happy about what just happened."

"Wasn't expecting you to be," said Ace. "Hell, I wasn't happy about doing it. Hadn't expected the dryads to be so insistent. They're still after her."

"I know."

"Like I said, son, we need 'em. Haven't got a chance against the army without them."

"And you won't be able to govern with them. Did you notice how your men felt about that?" Jericho asked, a little smugly. "Oh, they followed you, they always do, but you lost a lot of support and respect. They wonder when you're going to hand them over to the dryads. Why do you think the people haven't been lining up to join you, Ace? Because they're terrified of your so-called army. They're aching to be free, Ace, but they can't trust you to give it to them, not when you're taking orders from those things."

"I'm not taking orders from them. We're working together."

"Really? Doesn't seem like that to me."

Ace's eyes narrowed. "It's a good thing I like you, kid, or you'd pay for that kind of lip."

"You don't just like me, you need me. I promise you, without me, you will fail," said Jericho. "Maybe you'll succeed for a little while, drive back the army that comes to crush the uprising, but you won't be able to hold on to power. You don't know the first thing about government. You don't know the first thing about people. You'll be rejected by the very people you're trying to free."

"I don't want to govern anyway," said Ace with an expressive shrug of his shoulders. "Politicians get an awful lot of work and almost no respect. I'll settle for being a beloved hero."

"Good luck with that," said Jericho, rolling his eyes and turning away. "I'm going to see to my mother. And watch out for the dragons, will you?"

He laughed when Ace automatically looked to the sky and ducked. His laughter faded away quickly, however, as he entered the wagon where his parents were. Ben had torn away the dress around where she'd been hit, laying bare the ragged flesh and splintered bone where the bullet had struck. Jericho noticed the green gingham of her dress dyed scarlet and was automatically reminded in some gruesome way of Christmas.

Ben didn't look up from cleaning the wound. "Jericho, bring your mother some water."

"Yes, sir," he said humbly. He filled the tin dipper and brought if over, kneeling by his mother's side.

Lydia looked up wanly. "Hi, spoiled."

He smiled at the pet name, and lifted the dipper to her lips. "I'm so sorry, this is all my fault."

"No, it isn't," said Ben, but there was a dead weight in his words. Jericho could tell he didn't believe it.

"It is. But it's going to be alright, I promise. Bethany's safe, and..."

Lydia was so startled she sat up, spilling the rest of the water in the dipper onto Jericho. "What? How can that be?" She blanched from the pain in her shoulder. Ben's eyes grew wide and he pushed her gently down again.

Jericho laughed, and did his best to brush the water off of him. "There were some dragons. I don't know how it happened, but they protected her somehow. She's fine, she's just going away -- well, she can't stay here, obviously, with Ace wanting her dead. I think Gilead might've sent them."

"What?" both parents asked in startled unison. Lydia nearly sat up again, but Ben's steady hand held her down.

"Look, I can't be sure," said Jericho, though a grin split his face at their reaction. "I read a signature in the distance to the southwest that might've been him. He's -- he's never really been far away since he left, you know." He looked down at his hands.

"Have you seen him?" Lydia asked, her voice sounding pained.

"Bethany did, a few times. I haven't, I just knew he was around. I don't know why he didn't just come back home, Gil's hard to understand." He sighed. "Look, Ma, don't think about it. I just wanted you to know that Bethany was alright so you could stop worrying about her. You need to take it easy. You've just been shot."

She laughed wryly. "I'll be fine. I carried and raised three children, this won't keep me down long."

"Ma, I don't know if you're taking this seriously enough. Have you looked at your shoulder?"

"Quiet, Jericho. If your mother says she'll be fine, she'll be fine," said Ben, carefully wrapping a bandage around the wound. "She hasn't lost too much blood, which is lucky. She'll make it to Tucson, and we'll find a doctor there."

"See? You both worry too much about me," said Lydia. She closed her eyes, and Jericho moved a hand to brush the dampness off her pale brow.

"Just rest, Ma. You'll be fine. I'll find a way to make everything right again. I promise."

She smiled, eyes still closed, drifting between wakefulness and sleep.

"That's a big thing you've just promised, Jericho," said Ben quietly as he tied off the bandage. "You sure you're up to it?"

"I don't know," said Jericho slowly. "I thought I could handle Ace and his friends, and obviously I overestimated myself. I got us in a little over our heads."

"Yes, you did," Ben agreed. "Now how are you going to follow up on your promise to make things right?"

"I haven't really thought about it yet..."

"Well, you'd better think about it. Can't do a thing unless you plan to do it first."

Jericho met his father's level gaze, and then looked away. "I know."

"Jericho, I'll be straight with you," said Ben. "You've never done a hard thing in your life. It's been easy for you -- you could always talk your way out of things, or get somebody else to do them for you. You're a good kid all the same, but I don't know if you have it in you to follow through on everything. The way I see it, you've got to either throw in with this rebellion and commit yourself to a whole life of helping this place become a decent country, or you've got to talk Ace into letting us all go settle down without interference. And we've already not been having too much success at the latter."

"I know, Pa. I know."

"And?" Ben tilted a bushy eyebrow in query.

"I'm not going to weasel out of this. I'll see you two settled safely somewhere in Tucson before anything else, of course. Then I'm going to turn this revolution into something I can be proud of, a real fight for an independent Sonora and not just some stupid outlaws trying to get power," said Jericho, cautiously. "I've never wanted to be a leader, Pa, and I've always hated that people expect me to be. All I want is to be surrounded by happy people, maybe do a little to make them happy myself. But when you're in charge, somebody always disagrees with what you're doing or doesn't like you. But somebody's got to take charge of this, and Ace isn't really fit for the job."

"None of you asked for your gifts, I know," said Ben. "And I've seen it's been a burden on you all. But it's worth the effort to do the right thing, son. If anybody can make something good come out of this whole mess, it's you. I think you need to try."

Jericho nodded. "Thanks, Pa. I'll do everything I can, I promise. And as soon as I can I'll find Bethany, too."

"If Gilead's with her, like you think, I won't worry," said Ben. "Your ma will, though. It's what she does best."

"What about me?" Lydia opened one eye, and then the other. "You men -- nothing but talk, talk, talk all the time. Are we on our way yet?"

"No," said Jericho, rising to his feet again. "I'll go see what's holding us up. We'll get on our way soon, I'm sure. You both just take it easy. Sleep until we get to Tucson, if you can. Hopefully we'll be there by sundown."

Scooting

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:48:19 GMT

Well, today my friend Kim dropped by and we went to a scooter dealership to test drive the scooters. Kim's buying a motorcycle soonish, and I mentioned to her that I could never have a motorcycle (I'm just not bad enough, my sister-in-law calls them "donor-cycles" and so on) but that I love scooters. They're just so cute! I could putter to church in one, while wearing a dress and everything! It is not practical for me to buy one right now, but I'm seriously thinking about it when I graduate. Especially if I end up being a seminary teacher. Because being a seminary teacher and owning a pink scooter would basically make me the coolest person in the WORLD.

Right now I'm considering this one...

You can click on the picture to go the company's website. Let me just say ... I am in love. I will have to see if my mom will kick back some of the cost to me for a graduation present.

And with gas prices the way they are, it is a good investment! Right? Right?

Scribite!

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 04:21:38 GMT

Well, the lovely and talented skycornerless presented me with a challenge to write SOMETHING creative every day. So, at her behest, the community scribite was created. By me. I am no latin buff (she is) but I am told it means, "Write, you!" or something like that. The plural imperitave of write. Or something.

Anyway, you ducks are all free to check it out and read it. If you wish to join in on the challenge to write daily (at the moment it's a closed community, because we're snobby elitists or something) just let me know and I'll invite you to join. It's nothing huge or fancy, what you write can be as long and short as you like.

So yeah. That's fun. It helps to get my juices flowing as I write low-pressure stuff. And I've been able to get out a few snippets about Maren and Eva, too.

But fear not! Desert Dryad updates are forthcoming, I SWEAR. Soon. By Saturday afternoon at the latest. I'm on mountain standard time, if any of you are just DYING. Because I know you are. Really. :)

But in the meantime, feast your eyes on Scribite and hassle Emily to write more. She is awesomeness personified.

Also, first person to correctly answer the question on the bottom of Eva's snippet will get not ONLY 10 points, but possibly also a drawing from me. If you want one. So there's some incentive to figure it out. :)

Hours

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 03:28:22 GMT

I really need to talk with somebody about switching the Sunday night shift with me. It's not that I mind being here on the sabbath -- it's hardly work, after all, it's just spending time with my Grandpa, which is an acceptable sabbath-day activity. Really, if I was completely righteous I would rather be here than anywhere else.

It's just that sunday nights I've always been used to spending with other young single adults, talking, eating together, flirting, visiting, etc. It's a hugely social time and the congregation always gets together for "ward prayer" at this time. So I'm missing out on that. And so I'm not getting to know the new people, which was one of my big goals for this semester.

Ah well. I should just stop whining. This is honestly the best job I could possibly have at this time in my life.

6:00 AM - 8:45 AM. Grandpa woke up at about 7:20, in a decently good mood. His blood sugar was good, so I gave him french toast for breakfast, which he seems to enjoy. I had to remind him a few times that it was Sunday -- he stared at the suit I had set out for him like I'd made some kind of mistake. :)

6:00 PM - 10:00 PM Grandpa got back from David's at a quarter to seven. He seemed to be in a pretty good mood, but not very talkative. He put his feet up for half an hour, and then we watched a TV show on the nature channel about Diamonds. It was really nice outside so we went on a walk around the MTC before his late-night snack. After the snack, he said he was going to go to bed early, but he LIED. He spent an hour in his study working on his toenails and fingernails.

Desert Dryad, teh Hotness, iTumes

Sun, 04 Jun 2006 05:17:40 GMT

Well, I owe folks a status report on Desert Dryad.

I have made a goal to at least OPEN the file every day. I'm afraid I only have a paragraph or two so far in Chapter Five. I think I made it much harder for myself when I outlined it -- I really committed the story to being outside the realm of a short story, which is how it was originally envisioned. And it scares me. I am not the sort of planful, dedicated person that is suited to long story-writing. But progress WILL continue.

I swear I just have ADD. I have a couple ideas for other stories rattling around in my head, one a sci-fi reimagining of a fairy tale, another a bitter superperson tale. (I'd say superhero, but she's not a hero. She's not a villain, either, she's just a person. Who has x-men style superpowers.) I can't decide whether I should just work on them for a change of pace, or whether I should make myself power through Desert Dryad first.

So that's that. It's interesting, writing is not a social activity, but I find I'm mostly likely to be in the mood for it after having pretty social days. It fuels my ideas, I guess. And I've been having fewer and fewer social days lately, what with working with a man who doesn't know who I am, and living alone.

I'm naturally pretty solitary. All my favorite activities are done alone ... reading, writing, and drawing. I thought it'd be really nice not to have roommates, but I HATE IT. People really aren't meant to be alone. It is not a natural condition. I'm really looking forward to the fall.

This weekend was actually very social, and yesterday was a BLAST. Rachel (my last comp. on my mission, girliest girl I know and generally awesome person, we worked together for 6 months) came up from Green River, and we wandered around for hours on Temple Square looking for one of her other comps. and just catching up and having fun. Then we met with Kim for dinner and went shopping, and then came back and watched a movie at Kim's. So I was with my favoritest friends (except Amanda -- she was roped into a birthday dinner for her doctor -- sadness!) all day long! And then I was wearing the brand-new hot outfit that I bought yesterday when I bumped into Keith today on campus. It's always nice to show a boy just what's he's missing. Teh HOTNESS. I don't usually wear jeans with heels and earrings and a little glam, but these new jeans I have demand them, and it makes me look v. tall and shapely.

In other news, I've been spending much of my money on iTunes, which is fun. :)

Got a whole album by Death Cab for Cutie. They're coming to Orem in August! I must needs get tickets. They're only like 30 dollars, which is super great. Some of their songs I don't enjoy at all, others I love to DEATH. It's a mixed bag. I particularly enjoy "What Sarah Said" and "Title and Registration". Title and Registration has the coolest, wierdest music video I've ever seen.

I enjoy so many different styles. I also am getting really into Maren Ord, who does pop. It's really good stuff. She manages a surprising range of emotion in a genre that is usually really one-dimensional.

I'm starting to pull together theme songs for my characters, just because.

Navoc (still might get renamed) gets Candido & America, by Eddie From Ohio. Today the sun will rise in the east, and I will raise my eyes to the canyon. As the campfire dies my daughter lies asleep, and dreaming of home. She is asleep and dreaming of home. But home is here in the canyon. It is red clay and dust and no rain, and when I have a son he will know where he's from. I'm a man and I have a name. I am a man, and I have a name. It's a song about a Mexican immigrant, so in that respect it doesn't really work. But the feeling of the song works. And I like how it evokes the southwest.

Gilead gets Falling, by Scott McLean (from the best two years soundtrack). Nobody outside of Utah has heard of this song. :) But it fits for him. When I question how this happened, when this happened, I start wondering why. Could one person make a difference, be the difference, if he chose to try? It's a good turning-things-around inspirational song.

Bethany gets I Am Weary, Let Me Rest from the O Brother soundtrack. It'll make sense later. Kiss me, mother, kiss your darling. Lay my head upon your breast. Throw your loving arms around me -- I am weary, let me rest... I am standing by the river, angels wait to take me home.

Lydia gets She by Cherie Call -- the perfect anthem to a mother. She is not the picture on the magazine. She's the woman just behind you in the checkout stand. She may appear to be common, but she mystifies in all the ways the wisest men and children understand. Because she has eyes that sparkle with her love, and she has a smile that's as gentle as a dove. No woman in a movie or an ad could ever hope to be as beautiful as she.

Maren (the bitter super-person) gets Perfect by Maren Ord. Don't close your eyes -- they may not open. What if they open? Would you be alive? Everyone falls, but not everone rises. Why don't you give in, and rise again for me? What if the world were a little more perfect? Would you stop crying? Would you take the lead? What if the world were a little more perfect? Would you open your eyes and blink again for me? What about friendship, yeah, what about friends? You said the whole world was against you and it all had to end. What about love? What about family? What about all that you had to live for? This is such a good song. It's from the Brigham City soundtrack, which is about a situation where somebody that everybody loves and trusts does some unthinkable things. Maren doesn't go to quite that level, but she still feels like she's fallen. And wishes the world were a little more perfect.

Eva (from the sci-fi fairy tale) gets Humble Me, by Norah Jones. Such a sweet melancholy. Truth-spoken whispers will tear you apart, no matter how hard you resist it. It never rains when you want it to -- you humble me, Lord.

I'm still searching for a good song for Jericho. But as an in-joke with myself, I have assigned him "Alcohol" by Brad Paisley. I can make anybody pretty. I can make you believe any lie. I can make you pick a fight with somebody twice your size... Because he's so manipulative. :) Doesn't help white people dance, though.

If anybody has suggestions for any of the crew, feel free to suggest.