 |
| Hacker Girl Facebook sticker by Birdman, Inc |
In fact, as I'm working on this blog, I STILL don't have the Meet My OCs post done, and will need to work on that next. Along with working on my dishes... and folding my laundry... and vacuuming... you get the idea.
Let's back up and go day by day, because that seems to be the most coherent way to explain what I've been up to when I've had weeks like this.
Tuesday
I finished up my blog post on time, but between picking Hubby up from work, running errands, and eating meals, I didn't get to promoting my blog post until late afternoon/early evening. In fact, I don't think I managed to get my promotion for the post up on Tumblr until around 9pm, when all was said and done. Mainly because my afternoon mostly consisted of dropping my car off at the collision center around 3pm so Rozsavaria could pick me up and bring me back home, and then I kidnapped her to play Diablo III with Hubby and I until 5ish. Then she went home to finish up some school work before she had another friend meet-up, meanwhile, I scrambled to try to get more blog promotions done and dinner eaten before my Writers Group meeting.
At the meeting, I read my penultimate chapter of Prescription for Love. Omnibladestrike had also attended again, making it a bit of a habit for him, which is fantastic. Everyone seems to be really enjoying his story, and I think he really needed to hear that from someone other than a friend. Post-meeting, I hung out for a couple minutes with Omni and Skarabrae-stone. We chatted about Ska's character for X-Future, role playing in general, and interesting quirks we each have that seems to be fairly unique within our social circles. I ended up getting home closer to 8:30, and pretty much crashed; only taking enough time to finish my blog post promotions.
Wednesday
During my little bursts of free time at work - 15min here, 40min there - I cracked "Graceling" by Kristin Cashore open again to try to get some more reading in. I was far from where I should have been, reading wise, in order to finish the book before it was due back at the library, so I had to start tearing through it. After work, I quickly got ready for Zumba, and then I scooped up Roz for her second attempt at the class. I think I killed her a touch less this go. We then did my normal cool-down walk, but it was drizzling, so we only walked one block before I escorted her home. Then, because it's how we always are, I said goodbye, only to stick around and chat for another 30min.... It went from "Oh hey, it really opened up, maybe you should stick around for a bit" to "Yay, you talked long enough that the rain stopped" to "Oh, whoops, we talked too long and it's pouring again." It was beautifully warm rain, I needed to hop into the shower when I got home anyway, and it wasn't that far to go with stuff that could get wet, so I said my goodbyes and legit left.
I made it home, a bit drenched, a little after 8:30. I then scrubbed down the tub, because I had forgotten to do so Tuesday, and hopped into the shower. By the time I was done with the bathroom scrub down and my own shower, it was a little after 9pm. One late dinner and quality time with Hubby later, and it was bed time.
Thursday
I spent HOURS at work - it was DEAD - reading more of "Graceling" in order to catch up. Last week, when I first started reading "Graceling," I had enjoyed the story well enough. However, now that I was getting further into the plot, the story was really hooking me; begging me to keep going. Still wasn't feeling any "Legend of Zelda" vibes, though. When I got home, Hubby and Omni were already hanging out. We enjoyed our weekly anime-watching hang, and I "forced" Omni to finally get into the Fruits Basket 2019 reboot; he had it in his queue but hadn't started it. Omni stuck around until about midnight, so I just did a brief wind-down after he left before I went to bed.
Friday
I got another hour or so of reading in, and now I was getting to the point where I was thinking about the characters and what could potentially happen next. It was harder to stop reading. After work I ran around doing errands; mostly doing laundry. While waiting for my clothes to be dry, I decided to do my new Friday routine: dinner while watching the latest Fruits Basket episode. Except there was a broadcast delay in Japan, I guess, so the latest episode wasn't up yet. I COULD have just watched something on my laptop, like more Steven Universe, or just have the TV on Cartoon Network or something. Instead, I shrugged and started up Ouran High School Host Club again. Got three episodes in before I had to go collect my clothes from the laundromat.
When I got home I figured I'd start work on my latest Meet My OCs post for Tumblr. I was FINALLY done introducing the broad, IRL inspiration for the builds of my worlds and characters. It was time to ACTUALLY introduce my characters. I was starting with Willow, and it turns out this was a TERRIBLE idea. I should have started with the characters I don't really know instead of the other way around, that way I could figure out what I was getting myself into. I'll talk a bit more about this later. Point is, while working on Willow's intro, I thought about her wrestling intro in Hubby's WWE13 game. I wondered if I could somehow record it to post with Willow's intro, and so I spent the next 40min or so trying to find the dang game. I found the case exactly where it was supposed to be, but the game itself wasn't in it. I looked on things, under things, and behind things. I went through all of our other game cases, and a great deal of DVD cases to make sure it wasn't accidentally tucked in any of those. I then checked my box of "sort and put away later" that I have tucked in my library. Nowhere. I can't find this game, but it kept me far too long to give up on trying to find it.
While I was in the library searching, though, I decided to grab the last of the Fruits Basket mangas. I had read the earlier mangas enough times, and I've watched the original anime a couple of times, and so the first... fifth?... of the Fruits Basket storyline is fairly well defined in my memory. The last bits of the story, though? The actual reason Akito allowed Tohru to stay with the Sohmas, Shigure's plot from the moment he met Tohru, the true story behind The Baseball Cap, how Kyo knew Tohru's mom, Kyo's guilt, and a bunch of love confessions.... I vaguely remembered them all, but I needed refreshers. I especially wanted to know how the arcs all ended and tied up so I could properly appreciate the foreshadowing the new anime has been sprinkling in already. For instance, I'm already seeing hints at Kyo's greatest regret and the burden of his guilt, and I just needed a refresher on the exact event he felt guilty for. Anyway, after grabbing the last four mangas of the series, I started skimming them to refresh my memory.
Quick side anecdote: I started buying the Fruits Basket manga back around 2006 or something. I stopped reading the series right after the major reveal of Kyo's guilt. It was a MAJOR cliff hanger, and I didn't intend to stop reading with that dangling in my mind, but I just COULD. NOT. FIND. the next manga. I managed to find and buy mangas 22 and 23 to end the series, but for the life of me, manga volume 21 just wasn't in ANY of the bookstores I searched, and it was always out of stock, even online. Fast forward about TEN YEARS, and, while hanging out with Roz, I saw a Fruits Basket manga, all by its little lonesome, chilling on her bookshelf. It was a later volume, and it was the only one she had; it used to be her late sister's. Roz never bothered trying to track down the other volumes, and wasn't even sure why her sister would have only one so late in the series. But, lo and behold, it was the elusive 21st volume! Roz gave it to me to complete my collection, and I was FINALLY able to finish the series about 4 years ago. As I re-read the final mangas - volumes 20 through 23 - on Friday, I remembered the nearly decade-long cliff hanger I had to suffer though, and I mini-raged at the ridiculousness of it all. Thank God for Roz and her random manga collection.
Anyway, I got so engrossed in my manga re-read that I actually stopped skimming the contents fairly quickly, instead fully reading without realizing I transitioned. Since Hubby was at a Midnight Release game for Magic: The Gathering, I lost track of time. I ended up reading manga until 1am. I guess that was one way to make up for not getting a new episode this week.... When I went to bed I still wasn't quite tired, though, so I cracked open "Graceling" and read one more chapter before passing out.
Saturday
I was finally getting into the real meat of "Graceling", the Act II midpoint had already come and gone, there were slightly new goals for the characters, and the romance subplot was chugging along - something I want to talk about, but this blog is long enough as it is; I'll have to discuss it next week. My point is, I read whenever I could. Getting to the end of Part 2 of the book - basically the end of Act II - felt like a good stopping point for me. Taking a breather from reading, I tried to switch gears and work more on my intro to Willow. I worked on my writing, but not nearly long enough. I had about 12pages, and knew I needed to split up the post so it wouldn't be overwhelmingly long, but Hubby really wanted to get back into our watch of Lucifer on Netflix.
We had heard of the show, and we've caught an episode here and there while it was on. However, we never fully got into it, mostly because it was on at the same time as a show we were already fans of, and so the other show won out the time-slot. We are really enjoying this show - in particular, I'm really enjoying the soundtrack for the show - and we have been majorly binging. In fact, tearing through the seasons of Lucifer is one of the main reasons I didn't get much else accomplished this past week.
Anyway, most of Saturday evening was Hubby and I watching Lucifer together, especially since we didn't get to watch any on Thursday or Friday, so Hubby was itching for more episodes.
Sunday
I tried. I really did. We had two customers the whole day. It was DEAD while people enjoyed the nice weather we were FINALLY having this weekend. We accomplished our paperwork and other such busywork fairly early into the shift, so I worked as diligently as I could to crank out the rest of Willow's intro, that way I could post it when I got home. I had split up the original post into two. Part one was Willow's generic info, pre-X-Future background, and overview of her powers. Part two was a breakdown of her main relationships, both good and bad. Part one ended up being about 6pgs long, and part two was about 8pgs. I STILL wasn't done, though. Part of knowing who Willow is includes knowing what she went through during X-Future, and how that helped her mature into a better person.
Side note: Wolfhearted was right. Once I actually wrote out Willow's personality and her relationships with others in an objective summary, she kinda WAS a bully, a manipulator, and an overall bitch. Without her charisma to carry her and hide her, I can see why Wolfhearted hates her. Whoops. Never realized how bad she truly was. I'll have to rework her character and overall character arc when officially writing Glitches. Thankfully, I've grown to become a much more empathetic person, so hopefully I can see my character's pitfalls a bit easier and can curb them slightly. Either that, or lean hard into them if I want the character to lose sympathy....
Anyway, after writing nearly 20pgs already, I STILL had to do an X-Future recap. I enjoyed the sunshine a bit by trying to work on that third part to Willow's intro on the front porch. Sadly, my laptop's battery doesn't seem to hold much of a charge anymore - probably because I keep it on charge more often than not; I heard that actually ruins batteries - so I only managed about an hour or so before I had to go inside to charge.
Around 7pm, Wolfhearted came over to hang out and watch the English dubbing of the latest Miraculous Ladybug episode; the original French dub having come out nearly a month ago, so this watch with Wolf was long awaited. Hubby, Wolf, and I chatted a bit about the validity of the time travel showcased in the episode. Then Hubby started up Lucifer again. Wolf had watched the series when it first aired, so he was already caught up on where we were. Sadly, where we were was the third season, which Wolf wasn't a fan of. I have to admit, once he pointed it out, I had to agree that, while still entertaining, the writing did do a slight downward slide. Wolf also grumbled about how the season ended, and, having finished season 3 last night, I have to agree with him. I'll get to that, though.
After Wolfhearted left, Hubby and I kept pushing through season 3. I kept trying to work on my post in order to publish it on Sunday. Problem is, I was so engrossed in the show's story that I never got around to asking Hubby if he could stop the show for the night; which would have allowed me to re-focus on my writing. Instead, I waved the white flag, put my laptop away, and just enjoyed the episodes with Hubby. About 12:30am or so, we finally caved, and went to bed.
Monday
Another slow day at work, so I spent nearly half of my work day just writing up more of Willow's post. I figured, "Meh, I had posted on Monday instead of Sunday before, and this post is MASSIVE, so I'm sure no one will care about it being a day late." However, I was still determined to have it be A DAY late. No more. Sadly, that didn't work out. I got home from work with Willow's story arc post nearing 6pgs long, and every time I thought I was done, I remembered another key event that I needed to work in. I also had to go back to the previous two post drafts, and edit a few things, shift a few things, it was getting a bit overwhelming.
Once again nearly done, I paused to have dinner with Hubby, and he turned on Lucifer as we ate. Bad idea. Yet again, I became too entranced by the show's story to gather up the will to ask Hubby to turn it off so I could finish my post. I kept trying to look away from the show. I figured I could listen to it more than watch it; that way I could work on my post. I couldn't split focus, though. I rarely can split focus. For me, my focus tends to be more all-or-nothing. Is there an opposite to ADHD? If so, I think that's me.
I mean, I get so hyperfocused on a task that hours EASILY fall away without me realizing it. Look at this recap of my week: hours of Lucifer watching, hours reading mangas or "Graceling," hours working on "simple" Tumblr posts, the need for me to have an hourly planner in order to keep TIME AUDITS, the fact that when I would character-build in video games I would need anywhere between 1 and 3 hours to do so, the fact that I would spend about 5hrs playing The Sims and I was only building the house, I would irritate my mother when I used to edit AMVs at home because I would spend HOURS working on it, and even 15 solid minutes trying to perfect the timing of the same 4sec of video. I.... might have a problem....
Anyway, we watched the last of season 3, and Wolfhearted was right. The character motivations seemed to meander, which was bad enough. But the true crime was that it had what would have been the PERFECT season finale episode, only to have two more episodes left in the official season. I mean, the 24th episode - in a 26 episode season - had multiple character arc loose ends tied up. There was a nice conclusion to Amenadiel's main arc, a nice redemption arc for Charlotte, a conclusion for the Villain of the Season arc, Linda and Maze's relationship arc comes to a good conclusion, and the long-awaited curveball to the Chloe/Lucifer ship was FINALLY thrown. You just finish the episode going "Whoo, now THAT is a nice cliffhanger." And, honestly, I was a bit disappointed to find out it WASN'T the season finale. I mean, I was binge watching anyway, I didn't have to wait five months for the cliffhanger to be resolved. I'm sure if I was watching it live I would have been happy to learn I still had a new episode the following week. Maybe the cliffhanger could be resolved then.
Except... nope. I enjoyed the next episode, I did, but it felt like filler. It felt like it was supposed to be mid-season or even a left-over from season 2. After watching how screwy the Miraculous Ladybug episode order becomes on Netflix, I wondered if maybe we HAD watched the season finale of Lucifer, and that episode 25 was actually out of order somehow. Except, right at the very end of the episode, Chloe sort of just sneaks in a vague reference to the curveball thrown in the previous episode. That was it. The cliffhanger wasn't resolved. Chloe and Lucifer didn't even really interact much that episode, instead making it a plucky Chloe and Ella buddy-cop sort of episode. There's the GIANT elephant in the room, but the episode refused to address it at all.
The ACTUAL season finale for the show might have been even worse. It, again, was a fun episode, and I greatly enjoyed it. They even had English author, and creator of the stories Lucifer was based on, Neil Gaiman voice God in this episode. It was such a brilliant move. The problem, though? Well, it's sort of two-fold. First, and most importantly, it's an Alternate Universe episode. God, trying to prove a point to the audience even though we never argued against it, decides to alter just ONE simple thing to Butterfly Affect the Lucifer universe in an experiment to see if the characters will still be, at their core, who they are in the main universe. Will they still gravitate to each other? Will Lucifer and Chloe still fall in love, or did God truly manipulate their feelings in the main universe.
The big problem there is that the main element of the "should have been the season finale" episode was the focus on how involved God truly is. Actually, this is a focus on both episode 24 AND episode 23; two episodes so closely tied that episode 24 takes place within minutes of episode 23 concluding. Further proof that this two-parter should have ended the season instead of the actual final two episodes. Anyway, getting back on topic, episodes 23 and 24 focused on God's Master Plan. How much of His Plan does God truly act upon? How much of the Master Plan is actually Free Will, but misinterpreted as God's Will; puppeteered by The Big Guy? The audience is seemingly given the answer to those questions in episode 24. So, after the ultimate question and series theme of "how involved truly is God" is already fairly resolved, the fact that we are given a whole episode again showcasing how involved God truly is seems redundant.
Again, it's a fun episode, and I'd gladly take it, just... not as a season finale. It's lame to end a season on a filler episode, especially when a perfectly good finale was TWO. EPISODES. BACK. Like... why didn't the AU episode air back when Lucifer was questioning his and Chloe's feelings? I mean, I get it, there's a gut-punch bit of this AU episode that wouldn't be as impactful if it had aired before that "should be the finale" episode, but... gah, it's still annoying.
The other main reason I'm a bit rage-y about this finale, is that, aside from two people - maybe three - it seems the cast of characters would have had much happier endings if God truly did alter the timeline the way showcased in episode 26. Sure, Chloe and Lucifer would have met a touch later in life, and Trixie wouldn't have been born, but it looked like Chloe and Lucifer got close a lot faster in this AU than they did in the main universe. In fact, they may actually have a healthier relationship in this AU. Maze wouldn't have learned to love humanity if the AU were the main timeline. However, her views on humanity changed in the main timeline largely due to Lucifer's own perspective changing thanks to Chloe. It's possible that AU Maze would likewise evolve with Chloe's influence on Lucifer. Same goes for Amenadiel. Linda could re-find her way, as could Ella, especially after meeting Chloe. Dan would FINALLY get something that resembled a happy ending. The poor guy truly is the writers' punching bag. He's a bit brutish, sure, but he's not nearly as much of a jerk as he's painted out to be.
The episode was fun, but it was a bit annoying that this was possibly the "better" timeline, and God clearly knew this, but still didn't officially change things. Oh well, at least the AU gives fodder for fanfic writers I guess....
My point being, I was so engrossed in the ending of the Lucifer season that I didn't finish my posts. I hated admitting defeat and putting my laptop away last night. I felt a bit of a failure for doubly missing my self-appointed deadline.
 |
| Generated by Bitmoji |
- Rule #1: Hubby can't just auto-turn-on shows we're jointly watching, like he did this week. If I was home, he had the show on. He knows he can't do that anymore. We have to verbally agree that we want to watch TV together. That way if I have other things I need or want to do, I can do them. This also prevents us from being bums who watch 6hrs straight of TV - between my arrival at home at 6pm until we're about to pass out at midnight.
- Rule #2: No more than 3 episodes in a row. Netflix has its "Are you still watching" prompt after 3 hrs, and from now on, if we haven't stopped at just one or two episodes, we are using that prompt as our reminder to stop. If we're not watching Netflix, I'll put on a timer to remind us to turn off the TV. Three hours is the length of a movie; longer than most movies, actually. It is more than enough TV per sitting. Now, if we're both home all day, and we wish to watch three episodes earlier in the day, then spend the day doing other things, and circle back to bookend our day with more episodes; fine. But no more major-binges. It's unhealthy. It's pathetic. And I accomplish nothing else with my life.
- Rule #3: When my "Go Write" alarm on my phone goes off every night at 8pm, I. NEED. TO. GO. WRITE! I keep hitting ignore, and it's not helpful in the slightest. I need to get back on track with my priorities. I picked up far too many poor habits over the winter and gloomy spring. I need to start anew and really get my life back in order.
Another thing that I really need is Willow not having so much happen to her over on X-Future... As I mentioned above, I had to keep going back to add in events I kept forgetting about. I'm STILL trying to get everything. I had originally forgotten about her first interaction with the villain Agony, I had to go back to put in the mission she went on with Chayse to find Nix, I even forgot the time-traveling visit from her future son Sebastian!
Also, if Willow's story alone wasn't enough, in order for the audience to truly understand the impact of certain events, such as Devon's leaving the X-Men and subsequent return, I had to also explain DEVON'S main events: the Danger Room run that convinced him to leave, as well as him running into Lia on his mission to rescue Trish from S.H.I.E.L.D.
So Willow's X-Future story arc is becoming MASSIVE! I'm ALMOST done - I think? - and I'm at 6pgs again. I also still need to explain the key differences between what happened on X-Future vs what I want to happen in Glitches. In the end, this post will probably be the longest yet at nearly 9pgs. I hope I still stay within the word-cap of Tumblr posts.... Because these posts are going to be insane when I finally publish them. Which... will be later today. They will. Definitely. My goal today is to POST. WILLOW'S. INTRO.
And then get started on the next character. I'm debating between introducing all of the Glitches characters first, meaning the next character intro should be either Lia or Trish, or should I go in order of whom I know the most about, in which case the next character intro would be either Amara or Jolene.
One of those four girls: Lia, Trish, Amara, or Jolene. Either way, I now know that I need to get right on to writing those introductions. I'm not going to have Thursday, since that's when Omni will be over, and I probably won't have much of tonight and/or tomorrow as I finish Willow's intro and complete my read of "Graceling." So my hope is slow points at work and my day off on Friday to get the main chunks of the next intro done.
Why do my projects ALWAYS become more epic than I first expect them to be?
As for "Graceling"? Well... I'm about 330pgs into a 470pg story. I have to really crank out those last 100-some pages before the book is due on Thursday. I have the third part of the book to go; basically the final act of the story. My thoughts thus far, though?
It's good. As I mentioned above, I'm enjoying it. It captures me, makes me think about what could happen next, and calls for me to keep reading. I had a hard time stopping as I raced through pages 200 through 300; roughly.
Still not feeling "Legend of Zelda" though. It makes me wonder if the person who suggested that connection ever played a LoZ game, or read the book, or both. Sure, it's high fantasy/low magic, but there are tons of other video games within that genre. If one wanted to stick with Nintendo games, Fire Emblem could have worked better. At least in those games there are warring countries, espionage, special abilities, adventuring parties, and overt romance. Zelda has a solo protagonist for most of the games, any romance is highly interpreted by the players as opposed to being overtly expressed within the game itself, usually Hyrule is the only country mentioned, there are multiple different humanoid races/species, there are puzzles to solve and temples/dungeons to conquer, and the only "special powers" include Zelda using some sort of light magic via her Triforce of Wisdom.
It just... it doesn't fit. Granted, the suggestion was accurate. I have played Legend of Zelda, and I am indeed enjoying "Graceling" but I don't know how closely those two things actually relate. Makes me wonder even more about the other two books on my list.
Well... four books now, because "Graceling" also has a companion story called "Fire" as well as a sequel called "Bitterblue." Which reminds me, WHAT IS UP WITH THE NAMES THIS AUTHOR COMES UP WITH!? Yes, Bitterblue is a character name, and I HATE that she doesn't have a nickname. At least Greening Grandemalion gets the nickname Po, because I'm sure Greening would be just as exhausting to write/read all the time as Bitterblue. Also, at least everyone in the book admits that Greening Grandemalion is a terrible name, which is why Po prefers the nickname. Now, Po's other family members have much improved names, ones such as Ror, Silvern, Skye, and Ashen. Then, you get kooky again with Tealiff...
You also have the main character Katsa, her mentor Oll, her main adventuring companion Giddon - whose name I keep reading as Gideon - Katsa's cousin Raffin, and her uncle Randa.
I mean, I shouldn't critique since I loudly proclaim frequently my inability to come up with names, but... where did any of THOSE names even come from?
Also, the next time I complain about how "on the nose" Gyateara is for the name of a planet, I really need to remember the names of other fantasy locations:
- Middle Earth - Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit
- Westeros (for a western continent) - A Song of Ice and Fire series
- Essos (for an eastern continent) - A Song of Ice and Fire series
- Nander (a northern country) - Graceling
- Wester (a western country) - Graceling
- Sunder (a southern country) - Graceling
- Estill (an eastern country) - Graceling
- Middluns (the country Katsa is native to; nestled in the middle of the above 4 countries) - Graceling
These are not new monarchies. So, does that mean THIS is why it's like Legend of Zelda? The heir to the thrown has to bear the current king's given name? Considering Leck was adopted into his royal family when he was about 13, I'm thinking no... Also, Raffin is the crowned prince, and his father's name is Randa. So, what? The capital cities are renamed whenever a new king takes the thrown? Middluns' capital will be named Raffin City once Randa dies or is dethrowned?
Perhaps this is why I haven't gotten very far with my Gyateara build. I think so much about stuff like this that I never get past the planning portion of my world....
Anyway, names aside, I am enjoying the book, but this post is so long already, and I yet again posted late, so I'll discuss my views of the story itself next week. Until then, I'm hiding away so I can get my reading and writing done.
 |
| Generated by Bitmoji |
No comments:
Post a Comment