Siren Tides

Ah yes, I’ve been gone for quite a while. At least, from posting here. Things are just hectic and exhausting and…. it goes on. And my blog is now two years old! Fancy that. I don’t know where to start on where I’ve been or what’s been happening…

How about we try for a list of somewhat major goings on?

• I turned nineteen waaay back in January. I’m half way through the year now, though, so I’m almost twenty. Good lord.
• One of my cats had to be put down because she was having seizures.
• I have an iPod Touch, which while not especially news, is awesome! (even if apple are market controlling idiots.)
• The Government is actually giving me a semi-decent paycheck every fortnight for looking after Mum, the house, and Lily. (Mum had two minor strokes, for those out of the loop. So she needs help, I’m her carer. The government gives (somewhat crappy) pay to those who fulfill these roles.
• We have a new dog. Her name is Galinda. Yes. Like from Wicked/The Wizard of Oz. And she came named that way. A lot of animals around here are getting named after witches, recently.
• I hate American companies who won’t sell me the things I want. DO YOU HEAR ME, SONY? BARNES AND NOBLE I’M TALKING TO YOU TOO. Or that will sell to me, but charge way more than the exchange rate difference.
• My computer died, taking with it virtually two-three years of art, writing and photography. A week or so before I was getting a new back up drive (the old one went a bit dodgy). Fuck you too, fate. (side note – anyone who has any of my writing/photos/whatever. Sendies, please? I’d love you forever. :D)
• I started a new RPG, on my new domain name. The game is floundering a little, especially since the great computer crash of 2010, but I’m going to try to put more effort into it (and things like blogging, since I forget to tweet. Whoops.) It’s called Unearthly Tales and is a freeform (i.e. everyone can make up storylines, not just the staff), Multi-Genre, Multi-Game forum based rpg. If that sounds complicated, it’s really not. The basic gist is that you can have “small” (i.e. not needing a lot of players) or even private (games for only a few members/a game that is invite only to new members) games, within the most appropriate genre board, or you can play in a “large” game that has a main board as well as various sub-boards, sub-sub boards and etc. These games can even have their own theme set, as the software I use allows me to set a theme for any select board that’s different to the main theme. And it has the benefit of being part of a (hopefully someday) larger community.
• I really, really, really want an eInk Reader device. It’s like star trek in real life. So AWESOME. And yes, I did like ST way, way, WAY before the reboot. So ner. :pissed:  Silly youngin’s. I wanted a Nook, and while I could give one of my American friends the money to get me one and send it on… I think I’ll get something that’s more customizable and directly available to me to purchase myself. Even if not now (I need a few thousand for a new laptop. Sigh.) A.S.A.P. I’d really love a pocketbook 360, though. MobileRead is feeding my obsession.

..Uh there was probably more, but that’s the best I can think of for the moment. Anyone have any good cheap/free ebooks suggestions, by the way? And I’ll try to be around more!

Oh also, on Siren Tides the comments are disabled for the moment as I am getting spammed an absurd amount, and for some reason akismet isn’t just kicking them to the spam file but I promise I’m trying to work it out, and for those few who care, they will be back A.S.A.P.

Nevermind, apparently it got disabled somehow O_o

Oh and… anyone happen to have any good ideas on how to raise money for a new laptop? I know, saving, but at the rate food costs that’s going to be a century or two before I have my own laptop again (the old one really tanked) and thus can actually do things. I’m borrowing a computer for the moment, but obviously that can only go on for so long.

To spare you guys some of the “HEE! DECORATIONS. TINSEL!” rambling, I’m going to give you some excerpts from ongoing fics/my random prose file (a file that only Jacky has seen, to date.)

Some of them are old, and most unedited. So forgive me? The worlds of the fanfis don’t belong to me, obviously. But the original stuff is mine, and either way don’t steal.

(more…)

As much as I love NaNoWriMo, in theory, I just. No.

It’s not that the story isn’t there to be written, it is. NaNoWriMo just ends up making me feel crap because I fall behind, inevitably, often because I have things to do. A mother and sister to look after. Christmas things to make, and honestly I’d like to go to bed this Christmas Eve rather than stay up till four am stabbing my fingers to finish gifts. It’s not as though I don’t write all year, because I do. I write fics and stories and poems and ridiculous little drabbles.

I just… ugh.

Stress = Steffi getting her second grey hair before she’s 19.

It’s a good day when one goes swimming for an hour or a two. My new swimmers are wonderful, though if I stand near the vents in the pool my top sort of blows up to make my boobs look bigger. Not sure if this is a good thing or not. I clearly didn’t manage to drown or swallow so much pool water as to get chlorine poisoning, though.

On the slightly less physically exhausting front, the vampire I’ve been playing with (Katie Dee) becomes clearer and clearer to me the more I play her, though she is confused just a little at her reactions to some of the humans that I have been exposing to her (via the lovely The Dressing Room) and despite some mild concerns about her going hungry, I don’t think that’s going to become an issue, as she has found a willing victim (normally she wouldn’t care about someone’s willingness, but tdr is special and most people never get hurt there, which is what blood loss would be considered) in Fred. A slightly warped version of Fred Weasley.

I sort of feel bad for letting her bite him. The poor doll. But he likes it, so. Er. I’m excused?

She rather likes him, actually, which surprised me as Katie isn’t big on the interpersonal relationships that are  bigger in scale than acquaintances. She keeps to herself most of the time, even though she can appear to be quite sociable it’s only to give people a false sense of security or to keep them from bugging her too much. Figures she’d pick  someone submissive to like, though. If she can’t have someone who’ll keep her safe, she can know at least that while she plays with him she’s more than safe.

In continuing of my ability to fail NaNoWriMo, after shopping in Parkes with Mum and my Aunt today I feel so tired I could die a little and only wrote about 100 or so words but I have an except from Chapter One for you guys to enjoy (please bear in mind it hasn’t been edited/revised):

Their moment of distraction, of care cost them though and Uthers large, calloused hands closed around the pale flesh of Morgana’s throat. She clawed at his hands in surprise, forgetting to use her magic. He had been speaking to them and they had been deaf to his words. He growled an inch away from his step-daughters face. ‘If I did not love your mother I would have exterminated you years ago before you grew up to rival the whore of Babylon herself, the Priests are right, you are nothing but power hungry, devil worshipping scum that…’

‘Me, Uther? Me? what evil deeds have I done? Helped the sick, healed the injured, helped with the other Priestesses to raise the crops when the Gods you swore to honour and betrayed instead thought your Kingdom should suffer for your folly, I have given you every chance possible to redeem yourself, to help your Kingdom. But you do not listen to me because you hate me like you hated my Father for having something you wanted but didn’t have. Except you will not gain anything if you kill me, just a flock of happy Christian Priests who know no better than to hate me and those like me. Who will surely urge you to do it again and again and in turn betray what it is their God supposedly stands for. Because I have power that you will never, ever be allowed to hold in any true way. What do you have? Merlin? Me? There is so much more. I have never been your enemy, even though I have hated you! I am not Mercia and I am not the Saxons, both pose more threat to the Kingdom than any of my kind, including me!’ her angry words chocked out around his grip on her throat sparked and urged on his urge for physical violence, to hurt her in some way and without thinking it through  he shoved her back against the wall in as Nicca watched horrified and too stunned to do anything, as Uther undoubtedly saw the magic swirling in her eyes – a danger he could not divert from himself if he let her get far enough to use it.

I’m going to keep trying with NaNoWriMo, but it’s about time I start making Christmas Gifts, too. Which is slightly more important to my sanity.