Blind Go et cetera
Sep. 22nd, 2007 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tarigwaemirHaste Street on the Feast of St. Thomas of Villanova
As most of you know,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
blind_go round 4 fics are up. I haven't read through all of them yet, but from what I've glimpsed of them while posting, there were a lot of really creative ideas in the mix. ^_^ I did notice though that a lot of the fics stopped abruptly or were incomplete--my own is one of them, as I'll freely admit--which makes me think that people really felt the deadline pressure this time. It makes me wonder if we ought to give more time for people to write, although if you think about it, the first and second rounds both only gave a month's time as well. Personally, I usually write down a few sentences then procrastinate until the very last week to finish off the fic (Reveille was mostly written in a night, even though it came out to 8000 words), so I've always thought that it was more a matter of inspiration rather than time. Maybe there's a problem with timing as well: August to September is the start of the school year, which is a busy time for most people. Then again...is there ever a good time for holding a challenge?
I'm really not happy with the fic I submitted because it's pretty much only the opening chapter of the story I wanted to tell, but I didn't have time to finish fleshing it out. >_> I kept wondering if I should have just refrained from submitting it, especially because I felt I hadn't really worked out all the details, but I also didn't want to default on my own challenge...Anyway, much to my relief, at least some people seem to like it, which makes me feel a little better about submitting it.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aishuu apparently has a bounty out for me, so technically I don't even need to bother offering drabbles to those who correctly guess my fic. But I will offer this much: be the first person to guess the fic I wrote correctly, and you may request for me to finish one of my works-in-progress.
- the sequel to Balance
- the rest of An Exorcism
- ...the rest of the fic I submitted toblind_go
- the Touya Kouyo/Sai fic
- the epistolary fic
- the hiatus fic
-52_flavours themes for Princess Mononoke
-20themes for Weiß Kreuz
- the Death Note bibliophila!AU
- the Gundam Wing college!AU
Thank you to everyone who wished me happy birthday yesterday! <3 I was pleasantly surprised to get phone calls fromangelyrique, tryogeru and ldmoonflower, not to mention e-cards from both my college roommates. I didn't really expect anyone I knew in Berkeley to take note of my birthday, but I did offhandedly mention it a week before to the lab tech, and not only did she remember the date, she actually organized a little party with cake and ice cream sandwiches. It was completely unexpected and so very nice; I think that small gesture alone made me feel that I'm not a tiny abandoned little plankton floating about unnoticed in a huge sea (forgive the florid metaphor) but that I was, bit by bit, putting down roots here at last (forgive the change in florid metaphor).
Actually, meeting up with LJ friends has made me feel much more at home as well. I met up withjaebi_lit in San Francisco last Sunday, and we climbed up Lombard Street, known as "the crookedest street in the world", and toured Japantown. We also had a delicious pasta dinner at her apartment--jaebi_lit is an amazing cook by the way--and I got to watch the first episode of House at last. (Now I can put faces to the names.) On Thursday, I had lunch with tokyofish at a great sushi place, and she also introduced me to yet another bookstore, where I bought a hardcover copy of Idoru for $3. Yes, $3, can you believe it? We met up again today to go with a friend of hers to the Moon Festival in Chinatown. I found a place selling dried persimmons (꽃감) rather cheaply (well, given the size, it was a pretty good deal, I think). I should go there again when I have the time and buy more so I can try making 수정과. (Although I'll need to get ginger and cinammon and pine nuts too. >_>)
Anyway, between getting to know the other people in lab and meeting up with friends, I think I've finally stopped feeling so lonely all the time. Also, I have to say that now that I've settled down into my rotation project, doing research has also really lifted my mood. It sounds terribly odd, doesn't it? But it's happened in undergrad as well: I would be terribly depressed or stressed out, but I'd step into lab and get engrossed in an experiment, and somehow it would become the best part of my day. There's a reason why I say that research was the best part of my undergraduate education. My experiments keep failing, and I'm pretty sure that the experiment I just tried on Friday has failed as well, but I'm running experiments again, and it makes me happy. Well, the experiment failures don't make me happy, obviously, but pipetting solutions, calculating concentrations, analyzing data, generating graphs--it's the act of research at its most immediate level that lifts my mood.
I have a couple of funny stories from lab and classes that I've been meaning to share, but I should probably go sleep now. ::yawns::
Yours &c.
Post-script: Oh yes, comments will be screened for guessing. Also, go check outsilvermuse89's idea of fic rec menus. (She's just made a Kakashi/Iruka one for me here.) Isn't it neat? Maybe it should be a meme or even a comm: ficgourmet perhaps? ^_^
As most of you know,
blind_go round 4 fics are up. I haven't read through all of them yet, but from what I've glimpsed of them while posting, there were a lot of really creative ideas in the mix. ^_^ I did notice though that a lot of the fics stopped abruptly or were incomplete--my own is one of them, as I'll freely admit--which makes me think that people really felt the deadline pressure this time. It makes me wonder if we ought to give more time for people to write, although if you think about it, the first and second rounds both only gave a month's time as well. Personally, I usually write down a few sentences then procrastinate until the very last week to finish off the fic (Reveille was mostly written in a night, even though it came out to 8000 words), so I've always thought that it was more a matter of inspiration rather than time. Maybe there's a problem with timing as well: August to September is the start of the school year, which is a busy time for most people. Then again...is there ever a good time for holding a challenge?I'm really not happy with the fic I submitted because it's pretty much only the opening chapter of the story I wanted to tell, but I didn't have time to finish fleshing it out. >_> I kept wondering if I should have just refrained from submitting it, especially because I felt I hadn't really worked out all the details, but I also didn't want to default on my own challenge...Anyway, much to my relief, at least some people seem to like it, which makes me feel a little better about submitting it.
aishuu apparently has a bounty out for me, so technically I don't even need to bother offering drabbles to those who correctly guess my fic. But I will offer this much: be the first person to guess the fic I wrote correctly, and you may request for me to finish one of my works-in-progress.- the sequel to Balance
- the rest of An Exorcism
- ...the rest of the fic I submitted to
blind_go- the Touya Kouyo/Sai fic
- the epistolary fic
- the hiatus fic
-
52_flavours themes for Princess Mononoke-
20themes for Weiß Kreuz- the Death Note bibliophila!AU
- the Gundam Wing college!AU
Thank you to everyone who wished me happy birthday yesterday! <3 I was pleasantly surprised to get phone calls from
angelyrique, tryogeru and ldmoonflower, not to mention e-cards from both my college roommates. I didn't really expect anyone I knew in Berkeley to take note of my birthday, but I did offhandedly mention it a week before to the lab tech, and not only did she remember the date, she actually organized a little party with cake and ice cream sandwiches. It was completely unexpected and so very nice; I think that small gesture alone made me feel that I'm not a tiny abandoned little plankton floating about unnoticed in a huge sea (forgive the florid metaphor) but that I was, bit by bit, putting down roots here at last (forgive the change in florid metaphor).Actually, meeting up with LJ friends has made me feel much more at home as well. I met up with
jaebi_lit in San Francisco last Sunday, and we climbed up Lombard Street, known as "the crookedest street in the world", and toured Japantown. We also had a delicious pasta dinner at her apartment--jaebi_lit is an amazing cook by the way--and I got to watch the first episode of House at last. (Now I can put faces to the names.) On Thursday, I had lunch with tokyofish at a great sushi place, and she also introduced me to yet another bookstore, where I bought a hardcover copy of Idoru for $3. Yes, $3, can you believe it? We met up again today to go with a friend of hers to the Moon Festival in Chinatown. I found a place selling dried persimmons (꽃감) rather cheaply (well, given the size, it was a pretty good deal, I think). I should go there again when I have the time and buy more so I can try making 수정과. (Although I'll need to get ginger and cinammon and pine nuts too. >_>)Anyway, between getting to know the other people in lab and meeting up with friends, I think I've finally stopped feeling so lonely all the time. Also, I have to say that now that I've settled down into my rotation project, doing research has also really lifted my mood. It sounds terribly odd, doesn't it? But it's happened in undergrad as well: I would be terribly depressed or stressed out, but I'd step into lab and get engrossed in an experiment, and somehow it would become the best part of my day. There's a reason why I say that research was the best part of my undergraduate education. My experiments keep failing, and I'm pretty sure that the experiment I just tried on Friday has failed as well, but I'm running experiments again, and it makes me happy. Well, the experiment failures don't make me happy, obviously, but pipetting solutions, calculating concentrations, analyzing data, generating graphs--it's the act of research at its most immediate level that lifts my mood.
I have a couple of funny stories from lab and classes that I've been meaning to share, but I should probably go sleep now. ::yawns::
Yours &c.
Post-script: Oh yes, comments will be screened for guessing. Also, go check out
silvermuse89's idea of fic rec menus. (She's just made a Kakashi/Iruka one for me here.) Isn't it neat? Maybe it should be a meme or even a comm: ficgourmet perhaps? ^_^
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-23 06:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-24 07:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-23 08:33 am (UTC)Hm, I think crossovers and AUs make for long stories...the universe has to be set up first for the most part. I'm thinking maybe a lot of people's stories turned out longer than they thought it would! Mine certainly did.
Happy belated birthday! :]
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-24 07:06 pm (UTC)And yes, I think you're right: AUs and crossovers take more planning so they're more difficult to write even if the output is shorter. I should have taken that into account but didn't really think about it since people have submitted AUs before in the same amount of time. But the constraint of having to write an AU or crossover probably puts a lot of additional pressure as well.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-23 11:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-24 07:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-23 01:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-24 07:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-23 04:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-24 07:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-23 10:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-24 07:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-24 12:03 am (UTC)HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
I like the plankton analogy.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-24 07:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-24 07:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-04 04:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-04 05:15 am (UTC)