nor so wide as a church door

Through a combination of growing disdain for my own fail and the need to track words obsessively for inkingitout, I sat down on Monday and wrote several thousand words. \o/ Apparently word tracking makes me competitive against ... my own laziness? IDEK. But progress occurred, is the point!

The other significant event of 2012 for me is that I hurt myself. It is extremely cold here, and earlier this week the road was covered in ice, so of course I fell down, though thankfully the car that precipitated my loss of balance did not hit me. My knee is turning gorgeous colors, and you never realize how much you use the muscles in your armpit until you strain them and suddenly a million actions hurt. AWESOME START.

But! There have been Netflixen, and also a trip to the movies.

( On the Other Hand, Death. Spoilers! ) I added another to my queue, though I forget which, and hope to work my way through them all.

( Inkheart, because my queue is all 2008 all the time. Also spoilery. ) Not bad, precisely, but it didn't quite seem finished. Maybe the script needed to go through a couple more drafts or something.

And then also idriya and I went to see Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows. Which had ( some things in it that I quite enjoyed ... )

( ... and some things that I did not. )

Quite a text wall there, but: ALL THE FEELINGS. Honestly, it's a good thing I had the chance to get my thoughts in order the other day, or everything behind that cut would probably just have said AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH.

15,610 / 50,000 words. 31.2% done!

Honestly? I'm a little weirded out by how well this NaNo is going. Maybe it's because I slept for shit all weekend (parents gone to Maine = I was the one stuck getting up to let the cat in at two in the morning) and I shouldn't be reading ANYTHING right now, but so far I am keeping up on the wordcount and I don't hate it? I don't even know how that's possible. o_O I think I did myself a favor not outlining all that strictly, because it means I don't have to revise the outline much when I change something, or write something I wasn't expecting to write. But, seriously. This is weird.

Anyway! I caught up yesterday on ( Once Upon a Time. Spoilers. ) Still recording this one.

Also, over the weekend I had a little spare time and watched ( Dragon Hunters (2008). Also some spoilers. ) I went to the AO3 right after I finished it, of course, and I was sort of surprised that I couldn't find anything - I was expecting it to have at least a Yuletide story or two.

Uggggggggh I am such a failboat - it's like I have some kind of quota for fannish activity. I haven't been posting consistently AT ALL, but I've finished(ish) both of my big bangs, I'm working furiously on my two remaining genretwisting bingo squares (YAY EXTENSION YAY), and I have three wallpapers to finish. D: This is almost the most pathetic my posting frequency has ever gotten, and yet I don't think I've ever interacted with so many fannish people at once, independent of replying to comments on fic. It's kind of blowing my mind.

God I hope these wallpapers turn out okay.

But! We still haven't quite run out of our movie channel free trial time, and I happened across I Am Number Four the other day, and I don't even know but I sort of loved it? ( I have no idea whether anyone even cares about spoilers for this, but just in case. ) I do not even a little bit need any more fics to write right now, but I am SO GLAD I taped this movie. (Why is my taste in movies so irrational? /o\)

Judging by reaction posts I've spoiled myself with, I should be glad I've drifted away from 5-0, or at least its source material - fandom usually makes me happier than canon anyway, but sometimes the difference can be very dramatic SG:A I AM LOOKING AT YOU.

And to end on a very mundane note: I successfully went to the dentist! By myself! And after calling them on the phone to check the time of my appointment! (I realize this sounds ridiculous, but: anxiety. It was in the midafternoon, so I was about an inch from hurling for a lot of yesterday.)

You can tell when I'm feeling guilty about not having written enough, because I stop posting completely. :P Although, to be fair to me, I was marathoning Harry Potter the weekend before last, so I wouldn't have had time then anyway. :D

But! TV. ( The Closer, R&I, Burn Notice. )

Also, I have discovered the beauty and wonder of having a DVR, and I am steadily filling it with movies, partly to remind myself which ones I still need to get from Netflix. I've watched Salt like five times, and The Losers like three times, and by the time our preview month of movie channels is over I'll probably have at least a few dozen more.

My ladiesbigbang is going beautifully, and as long as I can stick to my outline I'm only a few scenes from being done; I'm nearly finished with my first genretwisting bingo story; and I just made myself rewatch a chunk of Avatar this morning and take notes, so I can start working on filling in the gaps of my fic for thelittlebang. \o/ Now if only I didn't have to actually get some work done. :P

Whoo, I've got some catching up to do.

( Last last weekend: colonial gardens, swimming, failures to communicate. )

Last weekend, by contrast, was much less exciting; with the weight of my guilt lifted, I could go kayaking with my mother with a totally clear conscience. Technically, we also went last last weekend, but we picked a rather boring lake, with nothing to recommend it but two unexpected loons going fishing. Last weekend was way better - little peninsulas with nooks and crannies, fish and frogs and a great blue heron, and some really lovely water lilies.

But! I have also been watching TV.

( The Closer, spoilery. )

( Rizzoli & Isles. Also spoilery, and not especially pleased. )

I have not seen HPDH.2, because I am still pretty sure I'm going to cry like a baby; but I may have to do it just for Neville and Luna. (No epic HP fic until ItOverse is finished, self!) Also, The Daily Show: I had no idea Daniel Radcliffe was so awesome. I cannot get used to his face with no Harry!glasses, though.

Ugh, it has been ages, I am so fail - busy weekend was busy, because J, K, Ka, M, and Q are all home from school. We saw Source Code on ... Saturday? Must have been Saturday. ( Cut for boring thoughts. ) I mean, probably I shouldn't let the ending color the entire movie for me, but seriously. Whose idea was that?

BUT. Far more importantly, I am writing this post from a lovely bed-and-breakfast in NYC, where I am spending two vacation days because this evening we were part of the studio audience for the Daily Show. I do not think every single thing Jon Stewart says is necessarily right, but HE IS AWESOME AND IT WAS AWESOME AND OMG. ( Cut for excessive detail! ) I sort of want to watch it later, to see whether I can spot myself in the first pan-around-the-audience thing - probably it'll be too fast, but I can't help it! I am self-centered. /o\ I can't decide whether it was awesome or stupid to wear my Spock t-shirt.

And then we had dinner and it was pretty much the best pasta alfredo I have EVER EATEN. Not that you should believe me, because my taste in food isn't really to be trusted, but. We are going to Uncle Mario's every time we're in New York ever from now on, if I have anything to do with it. :DDDDDDDDDDD Also, the waitress was totally awesome. ♥♥♥♥♥

So, um, in conclusion, the next chapter of Book Two might be a week or two late. /o\ I worked on it a fair bit on the bus, and will again tomorrow on the way back, but in case I can't write several thousand more coherent words by Sunday: it's totally Jon Stewart's fault. :D

This weekend felt weird and short and was totally unrestful for no good reason. I need to go to bed earlier or something; it is never a good sign when I start out right away in the morning with the feeling of obscure head pressure that means I need to sleep. :/

But! I saw Thor yet again, and, more importantly, my Netflix movie last week was Willow. ( Cut mostly for my boring ~thoughts, because this movie is pretty much the same age I am. ) In conclusion: there should be more fic. I'll have to keep an eye out at Yuletide, I guess.

Outlining continues apace. I have gotten the rest of Book Two pretty well hashed out, which is a big relief given that I'm in the middle of writing it; and I have started poking Book Three. (Book Four is still a nebulous blob.) I think I have some old outlines from around this time last year sitting around someplace, but they'll probably be useless now, given how much things have changed since then. Kudzu plot strikes again. **hands** I seriously need to take a weekend sometime and bag-and-tag my subplots, because this is getting a little ridiculous. I WILL HAVE ORDER.

Long week is being very long. :P On the upside, Chapter Three was grinding along at a snail's pace until yesterday, when I had some kind of mental breakthrough and wrote like three thousand words. \o/

Sunday, I was in Montpelier, stiltwalking in a march over the health care legislation we're trying to pass. It was pretty awesome, but my thighs were killing me on Monday and Tuesday. Clearly I need to stiltwalk more often. Also, we brought my lovely new camera, so I took quite a few pictures.

( Some stiltwalker's-eye-view photos. )

And a record was set: only one person asked me how the weather was up there! \o/ (I try to answer with good humor, but I am inevitably thinking, "Yeah, ha ha. I'm three feet taller than you; it's exactly the same, dammit.")

My mother, idriya, and I went to see the new Jane Eyre - my mother absolutely adores the book and pretty much all variations on it, and idriya hates it. A lot. I don't hate it with quite the same fervor, but idriya and I are equal in our inability to see the appeal of Mr. Rochester. :/ (As a character in general, I mean; the actor was perfectly good.) But I did like Mia Wasikowska, and I do think the flashback format worked nicely. Seeing Esca be a stodgy missionary was pretty darn weird, though. o.O

Friday started out perfectly average and became a long slow spiral of despair. idriya informed me, early and rightly, that part of the arc of Chapter 1 was just not working and needed an overhaul, and I could totally have gotten the revisions done in time if my afternoon had not then been taken up with photos for an update of the website half of the school store, the complete dissolution of the day's newsletter, and my car needing a tow AGAIN. WHYYYYYYYY.

Ahem.

( Cut for more griping, aka details. )

To make a long tl;dr short, I took the pictures, I got my car unstuck from the mud, and by the time I got what I needed from the person, it was already 8:00 pm and I had unilaterally decided not to send the newsletter out with only one thing in it. And I only cried a little. :P

But! I had a lovely weekend, I did my taxes and watched RED a second time and made a round of restructuring/rewriting edits that met idriya's approval, hence the posting yesterday. And today's going rather nicely so far, too.

Which, ( RED. )

And as long as I'm here, ( totally uninteresting blather about my hair. )

Also, it is April, which means Script Frenzy! Surprise, I am rewriting something: TLA, to be specific, because ow, and also, yay, an excuse to mentally recast it! Good times. :D And I have already started Chapter 2 - I have learned my lesson, I make no promises as to when it will be done, but at least I'm past that initial lump of beginning.

/o\ So ... close ... and then my weekend got devoured by a surprise trip to Boston to see M/daemonelix, J, and Q. UGH I AM A FAILBOAT. Hopefully the chapter will be better for the extra time; I could have finished it Sunday if I had not been in Massachusetts with no computer, but it would have been a hot mess. D:

Boston was nice, though. I am such a rubbernecker, I never go to cities and so when I do I am that awkward person walking down the street sideways with my head twisted around going, "So ... tall ..." And Boston isn't even super skyscrapery; I am just a country bug. It was fun to hang out with J and M and Q, and I am glad I did it. Although next time, it would be great if the total hours I spent on the bus weren't a bigger number than the total hours we got to spend together. That was a tiny bummer. (Tiny, because after years of Greyhound, the Dartmouth Coach buses are BEAUTIFUL.)

Two media things. ( The bus movie on the way back up was Life As We Know It. )

( And more griping about The Event, because, let's face it, part of me loves to hate things. )

I am hoping to finish the first chapter of Book Two in the next day or so, and if I get it done and edited, I will put it up no matter what day of the week it is, because I have been so fail. /o\