Cats!

[Kyalia 0]

To start this off...

 

1) This will be updated sporadically, if I don't forget it and if I show up here.

2) Comments are highly welcome.

3) I like cats.

 

OK, on to the log.

 

I've been running on very little sleep, as I usually do when I'm not sick. A little less that usual; enough so that I actually felt groggy when I woke up. I've been playing the same playlist over and over again for the past week:

 

"Jeremy" Pearl Jam

"Orange Crush" REM

"Animal" REM

"All the Way to Reno" REM

"Green Light" (is that the title? Anyone know the song? 'Got a green light, got a green light...') Filter

"Bouncing around the Room" Phish

 

I just broke up with my boyfriend over the distance between our houses. My birthday's tomorrow and I don't think anyone's noticed.

 

I'm in a very good mood.

 

Why? Because I'm finally, seriously, working on my next novel. I'm past the false-starts-&-bad-prologues stage and I'm now getting the story pounded out. I've gotten past the outlines, finally got enough of the language invented, finally got enough of that culture I whomped up and have been wanting to use... I'm about thirty pages into it, all typed up in about four hours last night-last morning.

 

And, of course, it's summer break and I have time to be back here.

 

The birthday? Eh, overrated. My family's idea of celebrating Christmas is making macaroni & cheese and hanging an ornament on the ficus tree, anyways. And my friends have been too quiet; I suspect a 'surprise' party. Won't tell them, of course, that'll ruin it. I'm a fairly good actress, anyways.

 

Quote of the update (I'm not going to say day, because it probably won't be that regular):

"I heard upon his dry dung heap,

That man cry out who cannot sleep

If God is God he is not good...

If God is good he is not God...

Take the even, take the odd.

I would not sleep here if I could

Except for the little green leaves in the wood

And the wind on the water."

~Nickles, J.B. by Archibald MacLeish.

 

Link of the update:

The World Factbook, at http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html . One of the most useful reference publications ever for History/Geography reports and so on. And for Flags, if you can't identify a member's.

[removed 0]

Happy Birthday tomorrow!

 

And I've been low on sleep too. The only reason I'm not asleep right now is because I had a cappucino at lunch.

 

(Sorry to hear about you and boyfriend )

[Kyalia 0]

Yay! Someone noticed! *ducks flying tomatoes*

 

It's alright about the bf... we've agreed to stay friends. With benefits, I'm hoping.

[Odo 0]

Happy b-day

Fellow cat lover

[Kyalia 0]

First of all... this has made my day a lot better. Thanks, everyone!!!

 

Alright, today.

 

Was pretty dull. I got to go to a birthday lunch which was really an excuse for my mother to get together with her old girlfriends and chat. I didn’t know about half of them, and didn’t like another quarter. Most of the time was spent in a corner, staring at the wall.

 

And then there was the bird… I’ll talk about that sometime later.

 

Anyways, the link of the update is Anne McCaffery’s fansite and absolutely great bulletin board, probably the place where I’m most active on the web. To be found at www.forum.annemccaffrey.org .

 

The word of the update is: popemobile.

 

The quote of the update:

“Again the guns disturbed the hour,

Roaring their readiness to avenge

As far inland as Stourton Tower,

And Camelot, and starlit Stonehenge.”

~ “Channel Firing,” Thomas Hardy.

[Kyalia 0]

Argh!!!

Alright. The Regan casket-viewing. I stayed up all night and really wanted to see it. I left the house around 3AM.

 

But it didn’t happen. At least not for me.

 

What did happen: I got there, waited in line for awhile, and then they told us the line was being closed off and anyone who wasn’t through security by 5AM wasn’t getting in. I was in the back of the line, and it wasn’t moving fast--there was no way I was getting in.

 

So I’ve just spent a night staying up, an hour in line… for nothing.

 

Would go on, but this is a G-rated forum.

 

Needless to say, I am *not* happy.

 

Did anyone here (Washington-area people, tourists, whatever) make it? I was interested in going because 1) next time someone dies, chances are I won’t be home and 2) he did a decent job leading the country, even if I’m not in agreement with several of his policies.

[Kyalia 0]

WARNING: Possibly disturbing to animal lovers and people who don't like gory scenes.

 

As promised, the story of the bird.

 

I usually take the bus through the city; I was doing that a few days ago. At the bus stop, I saw a woman walk past, carrying a mourning dove in her hands. I'm a decent birder; I followed her about half a block until she reached a vacant lot and set the bird down. It was obvious that something was wrong when it didn't get up.

 

So I asked her what was wrong with it, did she know?

 

She said she had found it a few blocks away and didn't know what had happened. It was obviously alive, but it wasn't moving well...

 

I suggested we call Fish & Game.

 

No time, she said. She didn’t know what was wrong.

 

And then the bird moved its neck and we saw it had broken its back.

 

Well, the only humane thing to do... we quickly debated that. Long and short, I held it while she took a stick and bashed it in the head. It was fairly bloody. I gave her a tissue to wipe the blood off her hands, and tried to get it off of mine as well.

 

And then it moved. Again. I panicked for a moment before realizing it was dead--had to be, its skull was smashed in. Nerve action, maybe.

 

We split up--I got on the next bus, she walked the other way.

 

The link of the update: www.mythology.forumer.com . It’s the fairly small myth-&-RP site where I’m sys. admin. Another member here, BakulaBabe, has posted some.

 

The word of the update is spork. All hail the most useful and most annoying utensil ever created.

 

The quote of the update:

“The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.”

~ “Dover Beach,” Matthew Arnold.

[Kyalia 0]

Not much to comment on. But I still like cats.

 

(Have I scared everyone off?)

 

Quote of the update:

“I like cats.”

~ Me

 

Link of the update: www.dogpile.com . My favorite search engine.

[RikerChick 5]

Didn't scare me off, it was just hard to read. I'm a major animal lover. I almost cried a few weeks ago when Izzy brought home a dead bird. She was such a proud kitty bringing dinner home for the family.

[Kyalia 0]

Yeah, my cat does that too... we have to make a big fuss over her and then throw it out. I didn't cry, I rarely do... but I didn't feel good about it, either.

[BakulaBabe 2]

The link of the update: www.mythology.forumer.com . It’s the fairly small myth-&-RP site where I’m sys. admin. Another member here, BakulaBabe, has posted some.

 

AHA! THAT'S where it is! I clicked on the link, but wasn't sure where to go from there. "I'll be back."

 

Your bird story reminds me of something that happened at work recently. I was cashiering at the "front lines", when there was a loud BANG! when something hit the store's plate glass window.A large crow flew into the window, bounced off, and landed on the sidewalk with what looked like a broken neck. It was still alive, and clearly in misery. As I went to the service desk to see if we could call Animal Control, a man kneeled beside the bird, petted it, then carefully picked it up and walked towards some bushes at the edge of the parking lot. I'm not sure what he did, but I'm sure the bird didn't suffer for long.

(Sorry to take up so much space.)

[Kyalia 0]

Space? No problem. BTW, until I figured out the username change, I was kinda under the impression you'd vanished as well. Good to see you'll be back!!!

 

I won't be online tomorrow, due to a party I'm supposed to attend.

 

Today's theme song: "Smoke," Ben Folds Five

 

Alright, no good news today. Spent most of the day walking around the city (was hot and humid, very) and doing absolutely nothing. Came home to find mother somewhat upset, due to the fact that I won't let her or any of my family or close non-writer friends read what I write.

 

I'm not entirely sure what touched her off--she had to have known my English teacher had read a few pieces (maybe 1% of my total work, if that, before). But she was angry, and informed me she wouldn't be 'paying for my arrogance' anymore.

I believe this means my extracurricular activites & classes. One of these is a writing class.

 

She's carried through on some very severe threats before. She doesn't know what writing means to me, and would be frankly disgusted if I told her. (My family doesn't believe in emotion. Period.) She doesn't understand that it's been my only way of escaping from a sometimes nasty life for years. She doesn't know that for the past decade or so, telling anyone I write SFF was an open invitation for ostracism or abuse. She only found out I write at all a year ago--one year out of nine.

 

And now she wants to read what I've written. All of it.

 

I can't show her. It's pretty dark. The protagonist of the current piece, for instance, is turning to drugs to escape the realities of life on the streets. If I were to show her, she would send me to counseling, at best.

 

I don't like supervision, especially when the person supervising is someone who has never tried and knows nothing about what I'm doing. She doesn't know where I get my ideas--a likely reaction would be having me drug tested, for instance. (I'm clean.) Another might be seeing if I've been hanging out with druggies, and so forth. (You can tell I'm brainstorming as I type.)

 

I've been writing for nine years, and I've made a lot of progress. I think the better parts of my stuff are on a par with some of the worse published authors--and I'm still making skill jumps fairly often. I don't want to write for a career, but it seems to be a nice way of making an extra buck or two, besides the fact that I love it, of course. I've written about seven novels, three novellas and twenty-something novelettes, along with a short story or two. I'm working on another novel right now--and I think I'm getting it right at last. It's not easy to write, but it might be some of the best writing I've ever done.

 

But, long and short, the only solution I see at the moment is to promise to show her everything I write from here on out. And then simply not write.

 

If anyone here writes, you know how hard that will be.

 

Word of the update: Iter facit. Make a journey, in Latin. It sounds better that way.

 

Link of the update:

www.robseals.com . Not my cup of tea musically, but this guy is 1) a great guy and 2) encouraged me with writing at a time I really needed it, so I figure I owe him the link.

 

Quote of the update:

 

"... I had hardly begun to read

I asked how can you ever be sure

that what you write is really

any good at all and he said you can't

 

you can't you can never be sure

you die without knowing

whether anything you wrote was any good

if you have to be sure don't write"

~"Berryman" by W.S. Merwin (recommended by the guy above)