half-real worlds of paper and ink

Life, or something like it.

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 12:28:47 GMT

There's a scrawl in my notebook, in my hand, written when I was only half-awake: It's not writer's block, it's just laziness.

--

My problem these days is this strange, overwhelming feeling of disconnect I have with everything. I find it increasingly harder to care about things, even those things I used to love. Perhaps especially the things I used to love. This makes me sad.

I can't write, reading has been something of a chore, and I just don't seem to have the energy to do the things I used to enjoy. I keep blaming work, but, despite it being more stressful than before, I actually have more time to myself these days. (Except when we get stuck in traffic jams. God, traffic jams. Why do they even exist. Where are the time machines? The teleportation devices? The Floo Network?)

I've not been very happy lately (but I've never been a particularly happy person) but I don't think I'm terribly unhappy either. I feel mostly apathetic about everything. A general lack of purpose? I don't know. Maybe.

So. Uh. This is me trying to be better.

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Concerning Hobbits. And also sung-through musicals.

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 08:50:25 GMT

So, within the last week I went to see both The Hobbit and Les Misérables with my sister. The verdict is The Hobbit could've been shorter, and Les Mis could've used a bit less of Russell Crowe. Er.

I liked both a lot, actually; The Hobbit a bit more than Les Misérables.

--

I think what hit home upon seeing The Hobbit was how much I missed Middle-Earth.

( Behold! [insert place name here]! )

So. Yes. I'm looking forward to the next one.

--

Upon collecting the tickets she booked online at the counter, my sister whispered, "They know how to pronounce 'Les Misérables'!"

( somewhere beyond the barricade )

--

Upon seeing the trailer, we have also decided to watch Jurassic Park. In 3D. Whenever it is it's coming out. Reaction upon seeing the trailer: WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S BEEN TWENTY YEARS.

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on the bright side, the world didn't end

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:21:14 GMT

2012 felt like the year I trudged along, not really doing anything. It seems like I spent the whole year feeling off and gloomy and moping, even though I didn't have any particular reason to mope.

There were highlights, sure. I went to Edinburgh and London and Paris and it was lovely. I went in September. Mementos and photos from the trip are still unsorted and will probably remain forever unsorted (oh god the photos -- the evils of digital cameras, you can never stop taking pictures).

Other than that. Well. Due to crappy documentation (uh. new year's resolution: post here more?) I can't really remember what else happened this year? Work has been frustrating; I'm not sure whether it was work that made me mopey or that work got frustrating because of my mopeyness.

Randomly, other stuff:
• best movie I watched at the cinema was Life of Pi (I barely went to the cinema this year (what is this nonsense, did I turn into a hermit and not notice it?) -- I haven't seen both The Hobbit and Les Misérables), though I enjoyed The Avengers a lot.
• but oh, oh, Matilda the Musical is probably the best thing I watched this whole year -- I watched it at Cambridge Theatre while we were in London and it was awesome.
• best new-to-me tv series I started watching was Person of Interest; it's clever enough, and the over-the-top, rather cartoonish violence leaves me laughing. Come on, Reese throwing people out of windows despite the horrible odds against him will never stop being funny.
• Doctor Who is probably still my favourite thing on tv, despite, you know, Ponds leaving and . . . stuff.
• best book I read this year is a tie between When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead and The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.

You can still see the "Books read in 2012" list on the first page of my recent entry page. I post a reading list yearly at the start of the year; the 2012 list hasn't even moved down that page much. The list has eighteen books, which is something I find slightly alarming. I'm pretty sure I've never read less than twenty books a year before. Too busy moping, I suppose. Or too busy reading fanfic, I'm not really sure. (I got sucked into Stargate Atlantis, of all things. Yeah, yeah, I know. Very late to the party, as usual.)

It hasn't been a great year for writing, either. I barely posted here, I didn't write any fic, not even drafts. I didn't even sign-up for FFEX. It's mind-boggling.

Here's to better year ahead.

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words words words

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 13:54:58 GMT

Someone asked whether I'll be doing Nanowrimo this year. I said, "It's only in November."
The reply: "Yes, that's two weeks away!"
Me: ". . . Oh."

OctoberNovemberDecember has somehow melded into one long stretch in my mind these last few years. Too busy, no time for myself. Too much work. Too unhappy, perhaps.

Nanowrimo has never been one of those things that I get into, thinking, "oh, I'll definitely hit the target this year!" I'm not really sure why I seem to think it's insurmountable. Fifty thousand words, you hack at it bit by bit, you'll get there eventually, right? Though perhaps that's the problem. I'm too stuck on the idea of 1,700 words a day to see the bigger picture.

I should give it a real go, one of these years. Maybe next year is the year. Or perhaps it was last year.

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one second at a time

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 09:21:50 GMT

The Oxford English Dictionary Word of the Day is time traveller!

Here, have some links to some Pond fic, Amy/Rory (Doctor Who, doesn't include the current season yet but best to assume that there are spoilers). I think most of those are happy fic, though I can't guarantee it -- some of those links are pretty old.

--

So I went to Edinburgh and London and Paris and came back, and it was all good fun and adventures and I keep meaning to write and post photos but at the rate that I’m going it’s going to take me two years to get everything sorted. The evils of digital cameras -- you just snap snap snap photos and suddenly discover that you have eight hundred of them.

I’ve been posting bits of photos at Tumblr under the "summer 2012" tag, but so far only photos of the first day is up. It’ll be completed. Eventually.

Speaking of Tumblr, I'm currently using yatii for things I post and yatiii (there's an extra 'i') for fandom/reblogs/other stuff. Mostly because of reasons.

Tumblr makes me feel old. I’m 32.

--

Other things!

I'm slowly moving my bookmarks from private to public on Pinboard. It's something I've been meaning to do since I migrated my bookmarks from my Delicious account but I kept putting it off. It's mostly fic, though the occasional article or review or recipe or sewing pattern appears now and then. There's no meticulous organisation to my bookmarks, though I tag consistently enough that I can (almost) always drill down and find what it is I had saved earlier.

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London! Paris! (You'd expect the next one to be New York!)

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 16:03:24 GMT

So! There have been things happening, and I keep meaning to post stuff but I never do. I feel like I'm composing entries in my head all the time. They just never make it to the keyboard.

But the most exciting thing is that the trip in September is confirmed! Actually it was confirmed ages ago; I can never remember who I've told about it. Now the itinerary is Edinburgh-London-Paris, though we're actually kinda stumped about Paris. I think we had the vague idea about going up the Eiffel Tower and going to a museum or two and then sitting on a terrace outside a café while drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes, though only two of us drink coffee and I don't think anyone actually smokes. (There are only three of us. We'll be there for four days.)

London's mostly sorted, I think. Edinburgh is some vague plans that involve looking at castles and possibly hills (and I fear there may be reenactments of scenes of Jon Snow's angst on the Wall) and even more vague plans of visiting Lymond-related sites (yeah, yeah, I know). Suggestions of places to visit are most welcomed!

--

Where I disappear to when I am not here: work, mostly. I still can't quite tell whether I'm extraordinarily busy or I just like complaining more than other people. Maybe they're just as busy but not saying anything? But yeah, lots of work.

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how does your garden grow

Sun, 06 May 2012 14:39:52 GMT

I originally was going to write about how the garden is a mess, and how it's the first thing that gets abandoned when I'm tired or have too much work or (oh just admit it) when I'm too depressed to do anything but flop on the couch. I've been tempted to just pave the whole area so we'd have more parking space but I didn't really like the idea of not having space to plant things (even if all the plants do is die).

It was really horrible this time (the garden, not the other things. Though those were no fun either); it was looking like tropical rainforest outside instead of a garden. Weeds everywhere, the heliconias springing out of their beds, plants dead from not enough watering. So I spent most of this weekend pruning and weeding and hacking and repotting stuff and now the garden looks a bit more like a garden.

I was watering the plants and clearing up the garden tools when there's suddenly this lady at my gate, smiling at me. I almost dropped the hose in surprise -- there are always kids passing by and making noise and parents pushing strollers and this old makcik on a bicycle, but no one ever really stops. Sometimes I talk to the people next door, but I've never been a particularly friendly neighbour.

So I went over to the gate and this lady asked, "I've been wondering if it's ok -- I've been looking at those orange flowers outside and if it would be all right if I took a few bulbs?" I might have gaped at her for a moment and told her she was very much welcomed to them; I started planting them outside because we had too many of those. (I didn't even care much for the flowers, to be honest, but I had felt like I couldn't just dispose of the extra bulbs.) She said the red heliconias that I have were very nice too and I had to bite down a laugh because I was just cursing those hours before, and I offered her a whole pot of those. She was delighted.

Her husband came by and told me that I had a nice garden and I must love plants very much -- I managed a thank you without bursting into laughter -- and I told them to come over again if they wanted more. (They lived a few streets away, which probably explains why they didn't look familiar.) "She's been eyeing those orange ones for ages," the husband said wryly.

So now I have some new acquaintances called Maggie and Albert who think my garden is nice. Maybe working on that garden isn't such a bad thing after all.

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this time, we actually have plans

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:28:23 GMT

The London trip is now a bit more real -- I have finally renewed my passport! It expired in 2001. 2001. This trip has morphed, somewhere along the way, into the UK trip, and in the last few hours Paris and Rome sneaked into the picture. More like Paris or Rome, not both cities; I still can't choose.

I was reading Connie Willis's All Clear in the bus this morning (time travelling historians trapped in London during the blitz) and realised with a start that I could be seeing the places in this book soon and I was so filled with glee that I couldn't concentrate on the book very well. (I'm glad the book is here, though. I was fretting for the characters at the end of Blackout.)

Also a short trip to Langkawi is also confirmed at the end of March, because arianur is a superhero and could juggle 2,231,594 things at once while I struggle to get one thing done. We have flight tickets and accommodation and a few days by the beach (and maybe shopping).

This weekend will be spent with arianur, perhaps by buying buttons and watching tv and eating sotong goreng tepung even though I am somewhat allergic to squid.

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because the Dreamwidth circle obviously knows all:

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:47:11 GMT

If I were to go to London in September or October (or perhaps later, though probably not in winter) what should I do? Where should I go? The plan is to stay for about two weeks, and right now it's only two of us, so other places we can get to by bus or . . . or whatever else it is people use to get around is ok, too! (You can see I haven't done my research. This was pretty much sprung on me and my response was "why the hell not".)

I've never been to London before. I haven't been outside Malaysia in ages; last time was probably ten years ago? So yeah. Everything will be wonderful and new. So. Suggestions?

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Hello 2012! You have eleven more months to get your act together!

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:41:00 GMT

So. So, so, so. If there's anything I can say about the first month of this year, it would be about how I barely managed to keep any promises I made to myself. (There was something about writing more often -- that was pretty failtastic.)

One of the resolutions is to stop letting work bug me all the time, but that hasn't been going all that well. I find myself thinking about work even when I'm not at work, and that kinda sucks. I'm beginning to resent this job, and that's not a good thing. I'm very good at what I do, but lately that they've been demanding impossible things from us and I think I'm getting exhausted from listening to people complaining (all valid complaints, and I join in most of the time, too) than the actual problems.

But never mind work. At the end of last year bought myself a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus (what is with these devices and horribly long names?) and I think it's awesome. One of the reasons for getting it was so I could use it to read on the bus, but I've been using it to stalk people on Twitter and reading fanfic instead. Best laid plans, etc. I did finish Northanger Abbey amidst all the stalking and fic reading, though, so I guess that worked out well enough! I don't get as much reading done in the bus as I used to. Partly it's because of work -- at one point I kept going home when it was too dark to read, and I spent the journey worrying about things in my head and thinking about the posts I could've written had I been better at using a touchscreen. Isn't it strange how all those things you compose in your head just disappear when you seat yourself in front of the keyboard?

So. No posts from me. Have some links instead. Here is a YouTube playlist featuring the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre, who are hilarious. This one about period dramas left me snorting with laughter.

And this here is a post by Ana and Jodie in ladybusiness which discusses the first episode of the second season of Sherlock, "A Scandal in Belgravia", and I agree with a lot of it, and it's still open in that tab group of stuff that I've labelled in my head as "things I should respond to with an intelligent comment but I'm still flailing around being incoherent about the whole series". I will probably never be coherent enough to discuss the series. I like it a lot. I have issues with it, but I like it a lot.

Speaking of Sherlock, I found that a friend at the office is also in the same fandoms as I am (and quite possibly reading this post, and I find that mildly terrifying for reasons I can't quite articulate). There was a slightly strange conversation about fanfic during lunch once (it was, unfortunately, about Downton Abbey (or is it fortunately? since I didn't know much about it then I couldn't stick my foot in my mouth) and yes, yes, I'll get to finishing the whole thing eventually) and another one in the car about horrible things you wrote when you were seventeen. I can't even remember what horrible things I wrote when I was seventeen, but I'm confident that they were horrible. And me stammering out some sort of explanation about the OTW and AO3; I can't remember what it was I said.

(The answer to "Do you write fanfiction?" was me looking studiously at the side mirror, trying to determine whether it was safe to change lanes. I determined that it was probably safe to answer "yes", so I did. It isn't that there isn't anyone else who knows me in real life who read this journal and my fanfic; it was more of suddenly finding someone who is actually interested in fandom, and . . . I'm still not sure what I think. A real-life fandom person!)

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this post will be interrupted by another disappearing act

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 07:43:47 GMT

Happy new year!

Yeah, yeah. I never call, I never write. I might as well have disappeared into a black hole for all the response I've been giving to things going on around here. (Though I am on Twitter enough (yatii) for you to ascertain I'm still alive if you are so inclined!)

There will a post. Someday.

(Hello, people from LJ!)

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not a good week for social media

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:19:34 GMT

Ok. So. I now have an account at Pinboard (username: yati), though I imported my bookmarks from Delicious as private so there's nothing to see there. I'll probably make them public one of these days. And while I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that Delicious will (eventually) get all its old functionality back up, I think I'll be using Pinboard as my primary bookmarking site for now. I do like Pinboard a lot, mostly because it lets you save your bookmarks as private by default. I had to use Greasemonkey to modify the CSS, though -- the link colours and the line-spacing made me twitch.

I also deleted my Google+ account as well as my Google profile, mostly because I couldn't agree with its real names policy. None of its services that I currently use needs a user profile, so I'm content with that.

---

Where I am when I disappear: mostly at work. I was hoping that things were going to settle down, but now it's beginning to look that this running about in a panic is going to be the norm.

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it feels like I took a wrong turning somewhere

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:50:39 GMT

A woman across the street is chasing after a bus. It doesn't look like she will make it. I start narrating her chase, and halfway through I notice that the colleague who's waiting for the bus with me (the bus is late again; it always is) is looking at me with a smile.

"You should try writing," she says, and I suddenly don't know whether to laugh or to cry.

What do I say? I used to try once, but I've given up now?

The woman manages to board the bus. She lives happily ever after.

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That NPR book meme

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:12:28 GMT

From here and there in my circle and my network, from the NPR list here. Bold if you've read, italicize ones you fully intend to read, underline if it's a book/series you've read part but not all of.

( Top 100? Really? )

It's a pretty odd list.

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all typos in this post came from the cat pretending he can type, I swear

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 16:07:33 GMT

Things I have meant to do for the last three months:

• post something.

Yeaaaaaah, I kind of failed at that. I kept thinking, "oh, I should post about that!" and never got to it. It's been a mixture of things, but it's been mostly apathy and lack of time. And procrastination. Let's not forget procrastination. In the past, even if I didn't post, I tend to note things down, but this time there's nothing.

So. Let's see what we missed:

• I had a birthday. It was a nice birthday, all things considered. arianur made me a cake. There should be pictures of the cake, but now it feels like it was too long ago to post it! (But it was a marvellous cake, nonetheless.) I also have an Amazon gift voucher thanks to my sister. I still have it, despite my birthday being in May, because I still can't figure out what I want to buy with it. As far as I can tell there's no expiry date but I seriously should start thinking about what I want to buy with it.

• I also have a cat now. A CAT. He's called Charley -- that's what his previous owners called him -- and quite possibly the most antisocial cat in the universe. He only likes me, as far as I can tell. He actually hides and refuses to come out when I have guests, which frustrates me (and my guests) because I can't show him off.

• I'm now also on tumblr, partly because of Charley. I just wanted somewhere to post photos of him. I'm yatii on tumblr, and this tag is all about Charley.

• I have a Google+ account as well, which I am still eyeing warily. I'm not certain what I'm going to do with it. It's connected to my real name (which technically is not my legal name) though some fandom people are on it.

• Work has been . . . work. I accepted a new post, which is a combination of things I used to do and some extra responsibilities. It's not really a promotion, but there's a raise, and four years doing the same thing warranted a change, and well. Why not have a go. Currently it involves being busy and not panicking, because having to listen to other people panicking is enough to send me into a temper.

• I have hit a reading slump! (Again.) Which sort of explains the unused Amazon voucher -- I can't figure out what I want to read next.

• I seem to be compensating the not reading bit with watching old television series. Right now it's Stargate SG-1. I'm somewhere around ten episodes into season one. /o\ I know, I am like totally behind. I used to watch it, here and there, but not religiously. Most of what I know of the series came from osmosis -- fandom is quite an awesome place.

So. Hello again! I am (probably) back, and will try not to be too horrible with replying to comments, etc. (Please excuse the replies to things months old -- I swear I read stuff, I just am terrible at being timely in replying to things.)

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21 Days of Dreamwidth, all rolled into one

Sun, 15 May 2011 03:14:57 GMT

I meant to do this each week, in groups of sevens, but I . . . just kept getting too mired in other things? So here it is, at the end of the Three Weeks celebration -- I think it's a good introductory thing especially with all the folks from the subscription memes around. Hello!

1. Why did you sign up for Dreamwidth?
Mostly I've been disillusioned by LiveJournal by the time, and afuna had talked a bit about Dreamwidth in her journal. I was curious, so I came along to see what it was like, and enjoyed being here, so I decided to stay. :D It's also thanks to afuna that I got an invite before open beta started. I converted my account to a paid account almost immediately after payment options were available, and I'm happy to report I love it here still.

2. Why did you choose your journal name?
It's my name. :) A diminutive of my legal name, and it's what people in real life actually call me. It's a pretty common Malay girl's name; there was always another Yati in my year when I was at school.

( another 19 questions under the cut )

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Doink! Final Fantasy Exchange

Sat, 14 May 2011 16:57:41 GMT

The Doink! Final Fantasy Exchange Collection 2011 and the Moogle Fluff Collection 2011 are open! \o/

I received three gifts! Three! One is a gorgeous piece of art by cumuluscastle: Mods de Chocobo, FFVIII. It's of Selphie and Irvine riding a chocobo and is very, very lovely; you should take a look even if you don't know the fandom.

The other two are fic:

The first one is by Icicle_streams, This is our world now, FFX/X-2, about Yuna after the Eternal Calm, and how the changes are wonderful but not quite enough for her. I liked the wistful tone of the whole piece.

The second is by lescafenix, All Work and No Play Makes Life a Beach, a delightful piece about Gippal sneakily tricking Baralai to a beach vacation in Besaid. I had fun reading this one!

I wrote one fic, for darthneko: More Than Enough, FFVIII, Squall/Laguna slice-of-life . . . thingy.

And there are lots more of fic and art posted in both collections! \o/

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and I was this close to the tonberry. this close.

Sun, 08 May 2011 06:54:39 GMT

I posted my ff_exchange fic with four hours to spare! >.>

To clarify, that is actually Not a Good Thing, mostly because of my perfectionist tendencies. I usually reread fics multiple times before posting, often after setting it aside for a couple of days, and this one didn't get the same treatment. I finished writing it around seven hours before the deadline, and spent the rest of the time polishing it and going /o\ at how I keep thinking it's perfectly adequate, but not great. The last month has been somewhat stressful and I've had too many things on my mind (god it's been so, so hard to concentrate on anything) and I've been writing the fic in a rather distracted fashion, not quite knowing what I really wanted to do with it.

Also this is the first fic I've written since last year's exchange (yes, this very same Doink! Final Fantasy Exchange) and I am so out of practice. It's alarming that it's becoming a pattern -- the last three things I wrote were all for Doink! and the only reason I finished those fics is because I committed myself when I signed up and I dislike the thought of defaulting. Perhaps the solution to this is to go join more challenges, but I'm afraid the persistent anxiety of wanting to please the recipient will kill me. I've always been more worried whether or not someone will like what I wrote for them more than anything else when it comes to fic exchanges. Deadlines and word counts don't particularly scare me, even though I've been known to use the latter as an excuse.

But it's done now, and posted, and I'm crossing my fingers hoping that the recipient will like it! Reveals are in less than a week.

Also: Moogle Fluff is open and you can participate even if you didn't sign up for the exchange!

---

Anyway. Between posting and riffling through folders with names that were mostly incomprehensible, I found a number of WIPs and ficlets and lines of dialogue from goodness knows when from a few different fandoms. I'm slowly sorting through these and trying to figure out what's worth continuing and finishing, and what should be considered as lost causes. There's one longish FFVIII fic -- more like a collection of scenes, rather -- that's been around for ages; it seems like the problem with it is I don't know whether or not I should break Squall and Rinoa up. (I think it was originally written for a challenge to "subvert your OTP" or some such thing; the notes to it are too vague for me to figure it out now.)

There's a Danny Phantom fic that's too angsty and has no resolution. There's a FFX/FFVIII crossover that's messy and convoluted, but I like the ideas in it even though I don't know which direction it's supposed to go now.

. . . I was quite surprised by some of these. A sort of bemused "I wrote that?" more than anything, especially when I realised that I had laughed while I was reading some of these things, and I wrote those and I have always been so critical of my own writing. I'm not even sure I can write like that any more.

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a number of things, again

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 08:01:51 GMT

Things accomplished:

• Income tax -- filed! LHDN owes me a few bucks. One day, probably in the far and distant future, I'll start doing it before the last week of April. Obviously this year is not the year.

• That application thing at the office that has been niggling me for the whole week -- sent and done with. They can do whatever they want with it now; I shall stop hurting my head thinking about it.

Things not done:

• My Doink! Final Fantasy Exchange fic! It only has an outline and I have about a week to get it done. asddl;kdgf. A good thing this is a long weekend -- we get Monday off because 1 May is Labour Day -- and I think I'll just spend the weekend curled up in bed, trying to write. Of course it has to be sunny and hot today -- why isn't it raining like the rest of the week? >.>

Or maybe I should go out and get ice cream first before writing. Ice cream, hmmm. And grocery shopping. And dinner, too. (I'll never get this fic done.)

Things I am considering:

• I'm thinking of getting myself an iPad! It would be awesome, don't you think, an iPad? It's my birthday in less than two weeks (I can't believe it's my birthday in less than two weeks) and it's a nice present for myself, yes? Though I'm sort of waiting on how that thing at work is going to work out first, because if it does work out, then I certainly deserve a nice present. (The word "work": the current bane of my existence.)

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Three weeks for Dreamwidth!

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:43:59 GMT

So. Three weeks for Dreamwidth is back! Lots of activities going on at three_weeks_for_dw. There seems to be memes of Frequently (or Not So Frequently) Asked Questions About [Stuff], with [Stuff] being anything from fandom to science to Wales, and it looks pretty interesting!

Other things of interest:
-- Small Fandoms Subscription Meme -- the entry for The Lymond Chronicles is here (shut up, you knew that was coming)
-- a Feedback Fest -- a comment rec fest, reccing anything from fic to art to crafts hosted on Dreamwidth.

Also a number of fandom-specific meme/activities going on. Excellent opportunity to meet new people, but new fandoms are scary. XD

Last year I said I was going to try to post more often. It didn't work out at all. I'm horrible at posting; if anything I'm getting worse. I think, somewhere in the last two years, I grew somewhat paranoid and somehow ended up convinced that things that I post must be interesting or intelligent that I ended up not posting at all. Ha ha. Who was I kidding. I should stop keeping my drafts in Google Docs and just edit them and post them here.

But anyway. 3W4DW. I'm not sure I can commit extensively to anything this time, my brain is a bit frozen with too many things being filed in, but if there's anything you'd like me to ramble about, just ask! Fandom, books, video games, television series that I am horribly behind, lopsided attempts at crafting, whatever comes to mind. I shall do my best.

Now I think I shall go around and subscribe to more people. Hello!

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a number of things

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:19:59 GMT

A few things, in no actual order of importance:

• There is a style class being conducted over at style_system; the first session starts here, and the syllabus is here. If you want to learn how to modify or make a layout, that is the place to go. It starts from the very basics, so even without any knowledge of CSS or S2, you'd be able to follow.

I guess I actually already know most of the things listed in the syllabus, but it'd be great to actually properly learn S2 this time around. XD

• There's an April Showers Challenge over at Archive of Our Own, where the challenge is to upload your fanworks. Which reminds me, I still have a few fics I had meant to upload but kept . . . putting off. (I'm not even entirely sure I want my name attached to some of those any more, ahaha. We'll see.) If you don't have an AO3 account, I have an extra invite. PM me your email address and I'll send it your way. :)

• I've been taking the bus to work lately so it's been giving me something like an extra 1.5 hours a day to read. (For some reason I can't seem to fall asleep on the bus despite knowing that it's quite impossible for me to miss my stop.) So I've been reading instead. I'm awfully flighty about reviewing stuff, but my Goodreads profile is here if you're interested. I also try to keep an updated list here in this journal.

What I'm still grappling with right now: Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver and I curse the thickness of the book every time I try to stuff it into my bag. Woe. I've been reading it for almost a month (a month!) on and off, and I'm only around two-thirds done with it asfdfljg;flg. A good thing it's interesting. If nothing else it gets an A+ for diagrams annotated in Latin.

• What I should be doing: writing fic for Doink! Final Fantasy Exchange. I haven't started yet! It is far too early to panic, but I am terrified of the tonberry.

Apparently there are only four things! I'm getting worse and worse at this updating thing.

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Redang Island, Terengganu (or how I spent my holidays)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 08:43:05 GMT

I spent three days and two nights on Redang Island with my sister, a sort of a treat to myself. As far as vacations go, it wasn't much of one -- it rained a bit too much.

( cut for blather and photos )

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Also I am watching the new Doctor Who trailer for series 6 and I am ridiculously excited about it. It's a strange feeling -- I've never been particularly excited about television before; I'm mostly blasé about the whole thing and will only get to watching stuff ages after everyone else.

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books!

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 04:40:09 GMT

The books I'm reading: I just finished Sarah Waters's The Little Stranger at around midnight, and that book seriously gave me the creeps. I ended up sleeping in the living room with the TV on because going up to my messy bedroom felt too spooky for me.

I have Robert Charles Wilson's Julian Commstock somewhere midway through, and for some reason I've been stuck there since the end of last year.

I haven't picked up the next book to read yet, though I've been eyeing AS Byatt's The Children's Book and the latest two books of The Wheel of Time series (my brother actually has them in hardback!).

The books I'm writing: Uh. No writing going on for now, books or otherwise.

The book I love the most: Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, quite possibly. It's hard to choose favourite books. Dorothy Dunnett's The Game of Kings is another one I love.

The last book I received as a gift: Probably Diana Wynne Jones's House of Many Ways, given by arianur years ago. I picked the book myself at the bookstore, and I'm pretty sure that's the only reason she actually dared to buy me that book. People generally don't gift me books unless I ask for a specific title, probably because they can't be sure whether I've read the book and have no idea whether I'd like it.

The last book I gave as a gift: Matilda by Roald Dahl, given ages ago, incidentally, to arianur. Though if you count "books I bought for my siblings but not actually calling them gifts" it would be Conn Iggulden's Wolf of the Plains, simply because my brother couldn't seem to find a copy of it on his own.

The nearest book: I'm sitting in the living room facing whole shelves of books, but there's one on the floor there, probably my brother couldn't be bothered to put it back on the shelf, silly boy. It's Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, which is one absurdly long book about Thomas Cromwell.

The last book I bought myself: Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. I wanted a copy for myself.

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haih

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:12:06 GMT

I am mostly just flailing around, trying to figure out how is it that everything seems to be spinning out of control.

I feel like throwing things and slamming doors. I'm not. Instead I'm cleaning up the house and wondering whether I should mop the floor. I don't even know what it is I am angry about. The car, yes, sure; I'd definitely feel better if it gets fixed faster and I have an actual mode of transport instead of looking pathetic and asking people to pick me up and drop me off. (That's part of the problem, see -- I've never liked asking for help, even when I know I need to, even when I know it would be better if I did.)

There's work tomorrow. I'll get there fine. There are cabs, buses, trains, little sisters. (None of them particularly accessible, but hey, a girl has to make do.) There are friends who are unspeakably awesome who don't mind having me underfoot for a week (and apparently for a couple more days. arianur is a superhero). This is not a ridiculous place to live -- it's the office that's a ridiculous place to work. It's in the middle of nowhere and I live way too far from it.

Just thinking about work is making me go :|. Maybe it's the long break. Going back to checking pages and scrutinising sentences doesn't appeal much after staying home for a while and reading fic and watching unhealthy amounts of television.

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my poor car :(

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 03:41:27 GMT

What I have right now is a headache.

Soooo. I have a car in the workshop and it will be stuck there for two weeks. I feel like banging my head against the desk.

Had dinner with my sister yesterday, since it was her birthday. It was a rather nice dinner, too. Unfortunately it was a rainy day and the road was slippery and the guy behind us was a bit too close and hit the brakes a bit too late, so he hit my car with a bang. Not hard enough to cause the airbags to deploy, but loud enough to make me think the whole car had fallen apart. It hadn't -- the left rear lights and bumper and things within that vicinity got sheared off and crumpled and broken pretty bad, but the car was still able to move. Now I get to deal with things like repairs and insurance and quite possibly negotiating public transport.

So there was a visit to the police station, and I must say I do not know how a place that empty can have service that slow. It seemed like we had to wait forever for a constable behind a computer to pass me a printout of my report. She didn't even have to type it out -- I had typed it out myself when I filed it; they have an online system. Which looked like it was designed in the 1990s.

I have no idea how I'm going to get to work the next two weeks. Two weeks! The repairs are taking that long (or maybe longer) because the workshop is closed most of this week for Chinese New Year. I took today off to deal with . . . things. Thursday and Friday are public holidays, so that's another two days I don't have to worry about. Tuesday and Wednesday . . . I wonder if I can get them to let me work from home, it's not like I have anything urgent that I need to finish from the office anyway.

I also have a headache from not enough sleep -- everything got settled around 1 am last night and then I was too agitated to fall asleep.

Arrrgh. The universe is conspiring against me.

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