Saturday Fun!

Going to Live 105's BFD at Shoreline Amphitheater in the Bay Area.

Bands I'm looking forward to?  The Offspring, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cage the Elephant, Crystal Castles, and Metric.  Apparently Does It Offend You, Yeah? isn't going to be participating, though they were initially included in the lineup.  Plus, I'm not sure, but I guess Designer Drugs aren't playing live, which seems weird to me that they would even list them if that's the case.

Still, Saturday looks like it'll be a great day!

...And in case you were wondering, Eikasia Chapter 8.1 is at 960 words right now.  I'll definitely have an update Friday!

Digging Up Turnips

Sxip Shirey's website, for curious birdies.  The above song can be downloaded for free there.

Hey there folks.  Just pipping in to let you know I'm still at it.  I'm hoping some of you have read my post on shapechanging which I posted only a few days ago.  I'm also here to bring you a chapter preview, as I doubt my ability to finish by tonight.  Today was a busy day for me--in a nice way mind you, but still busy.  I won't bother with much excuses for being unable to update early Friday.  My addiction to Team Fortress 2 seems to have come back full swing, and I still have yet to even touch some of the other new computer games I recently bought so...well, I'm just a geeky mess.  Ha, ha.

Anyhoo, here's your chapter preview.  If you're wondering about the above song's purpose, know that I've imagined the next installment's events, scene by scene, insync with that song.  ...I have an overactive imagination.

Elmiryn worked the Earth with blistered hands--like she was certain her ancestors did before they took to tools of a different kind. She knew the sun. She felt it like wings seared onto her back. Nevermind that she worked in the nude. The breeze felt nice on her flushed skin. A cool comfort in her tiring search...

...For turnips.

A curious impetus, but a dire one nevertheless. Dire why? Elmiryn couldn't remember. Maybe because they were the ones who first put the word 'impetus' into her brain. She had to ask them what it meant.

Her rake was fashioned from iron and oak wood. Splinters. Biting, aggravating. They bothered her. She paused her activitiy to try and fish one out from the fleshy bend of her left thumb. "Stings like a mother," she grumbled as she squinted at the tiny dark shaft she could see just beneath the layer of her skin. It scratched at her nerves. "Curs-ed lil' shit."

As usual, the above is subject to succumb to my editorial whims.  Till next time, folks.

Jes' checking in.

I'm working on a few sidebars for Eikasia that I think some might find interesting. I don't know when I'll post them, but hopefully I'll be done with them soon enough.

I plan on doing some heavy editing for Eikasia. Chapters 1.1 and 1.2 are all ready in their second drafts, but I'm still going to be doing another pass to try and eliminate the crappiness. Chapter 5.1 is probably the one I'm most eager to get to, because I feel the overall quality of it is low and I probably could've described the scenes in a better and more plausible way. But despite my eagerness to re-work it, I'm going to hold off until I can revise the earlier chapters--after all, I need a good base before I can hope to work at the top.

I did a review last week on Chris Tejeda's "Lifting of the Veil", which is a very interesting science fiction web serial that I think you folks should check out.

I've also started doing the next installment for Eikasia. However, if I'm actually productive this week, it may be tossed out in favor of something better.

Recently watched "The Mindscape of Alan Moore"...which really told me a lot about the man, and tore down my earlier belief that he was just an egotistical creep. In fact, a lot of the things I've thought about when writing, or dreaming, or while staring blithely at my ceiling at 2 in the morning, he echoed, in a fascinating and evocative narrative detailing his career and his beliefs on politics, science, sex, and religion. It was eerie. I won't say that everything that came out of his mouth was gold--but I was surprised at how much I did agree with him on things. I recommend it to anyone who has read any of his work, or who appreciates an alternative view on things, or who simply reads comic books. It really is worth a look.

Gonna sign off here...Some part of me wants to vent recent personal frustrations in this entry--they are "personal" but they've affected my work on Eikasia, so I guess it's partly relevant. But I'm not sure what good it will do but make me seem attention-seeking and like any other silly bitch under the esteemed banner of "Generation Y".

Ah well. This really isn't a personal blog anyways. Who the heck reads my non-personal stuff to begin with? (oh whoops, I'm fulfilling the stereotype again, ha ha)

Out of the box, and over the top.

Hello folks. Did an early update this week. I felt that the writing I had done was enough to stand on its own, and would make the next installment longer if I didn't separate it. I still plan on doing an update this Friday, but its Thanksgiving week here in the US, and I don't know how much time I'll have to do writing. I'll figure something out, though.

Good news! I figured out how to get rid of those stupid green borders on Chapter 4.2. So now the chapter reads as I originally intended it. Turns out the issue wasn't with the coding in the post, but the actual site template I was using. I guess the CSS was overriding everything else. I'm not too familiar with CSS but it was simple enough to figure out how to change the one part I needed to.

Today I was watching yet another Italian directed horror movie. "Cannibal Apocalypse."

What was going on with Italian directors and music? So far each of the ones I've seen use it in weird ways. I guess maybe I'm just not used to seeing music used in such a forthcoming manner, where its as much a part of the scene as the acting is. Nowadays it seems the only time music plays a huge role in a movie is if its a musical or has a montage. But the problem is that the music used in these films don't always pose a good presence in the scene its used with. In Cannibal Apocalypse for instance, Antonio Margheriti saw fit to have the opening sequence--a violent scene from the Vietnam war--accompanied by groovy funk. What the heck!?

The same happened in Dario Argento's "Opera". After a terrifying encounter with a crazed murderer, the lead woman decides to go running out into the streets (for whatever reason--god forbid we actually have the sense to call the cops and report a murder) and this death metal music comes on...while she's just walking down the street. The music is used for nothing else but THAT. ONE. PART. It was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever seen. I mean...I get why Dario Argento is considered so influential in horror, but I personally don't think its because of his scripts or even the cinematography of his films. It's just that he's RIDICULOUS. Experimental. Wasn't afraid of campiness or over-the-top, not-quite-plausible gore. I don't know if the 80's was the height of Italian horror, but I'd really like to know if there are any Italian directors out there still doing what they want, reality and common sense be damned.

...And I still have to watch David Cronenberg's remake of "The Fly". It's just been sitting on my desk since I've got it on Netflix.

...this is what you get

Did this today.  Started another digital drawing as well, with both Nyx and Elmiryn.  Hopefully I can manage something full scale like this.

Well today was...uncomfortable. It started at 2 AM when I woke up and found my tonsils were so swollen I could feel my breath whistling past them. They were so damn big, I kept swallowing reflexively, and every time it hurt worse than if a cheetah were to use them for speed bag practice. Somehow I got to sleep and woke up the same way later. Couldn't eat any more than yogurt for breakfast. Thankfully the swelling went down after I took some antibiotics and drank lots of water, but its evening and it is still difficult to talk.

It was REALLY odd then, feeling this way, and watching Apocalypse Now: Redux. I also managed to see Hardware (finally!) and I really enjoyed it. The last movie I saw on my list of surrealistic, dark films was Videodrome. I drove 40 minutes to get these (including Blackula, and Eddie Murphy's elusive 'Delirious' special). Hollywood Video and Blockbuster both bite sagging nuts because they don't carry a wide enough selection of movies. Netflix--though they offer more--still didn't seem to have either Apocalypse Now or Hardware for some reason. I enjoy these wacked out, stylistic forays into the human imagination. The bonus was that it's given me a few ideas for Chapter 4.2...which will be interesting.

Prepare for heavy linkage!

Apocalypse Now: Redux, originally premiered in 2001, was just an extended version of the original film, which came out in 1979. Though I've never seen the original, I really enjoyed this version a lot. There were a lot of powerful images, and I felt the acting was pretty spot on. The only part about it I'd have to say I didn't like was the plantation scene, which dragged on and on--I literally fast-forwarded through it. Aside from that, it was all just great. Marlin Brando does an amazing job as the disturbed Kurt, and seeing the final scene with him and Martin Sheen was pretty excellent. I'm not a history buff, but the Vietnam War has always fascinated me. Seeing this movie made me want to watch Full Metal Jacket again...then maybe Rescue Dawn. (and just because the last film would have Bale in it, I'd probably run to find American Psycho...which is such a deliciously demented movie)

After that I watched Hardware, which I mentioned on the blog a little while ago. It seemed to parade around its soundtrack a little bit here and there, but for the most part I understand that it was a film mired in alternative culture, and I think the music really lended to the post-apocalyptic setting. I somehow missed ever hearing about Iggy Pop doing a voice cameo, so it was a surprise to see his name come up in the credits. Given the film's budget, Richard Stanley and Steven Chivers did an EXCELLENT job with direction and cinematography. You can see the financial restraints whenever the killer robot, M.A.R.K. 13 is onscreen, but the sonuvabitch is actually pretty creepy in my opinion. The use of color and lighting sucked me in pretty well, so this easily joins my list of cult favorites (right next to Repo Man and The Warriors.)

The last movie I watched today was Videodrome, from good ol' David Cronenberg. It's your basic "body horror"--a kind of niche genre of story and film that deals with severe abnormalities with the body (mutation, parasitism, general gore.) I was glad to see it wasn't as contrived as Scanners, another one of Cronenberg's films, but the man does seem to have a penchant for stories with opposing forces...not so much one character versus another, but one faction versus another. Like in politics, religion...or comic books. Even in his recent film, Eastern Promises, that still seemed quite apparent...but I can't really hate the guy for it. It's pretty common in stories.

Anyways...the film I felt was pretty disturbing in places (which not many horror movies manage to achieve) but around the end it started to lose the creepy feel and gained more of a forced 'epic' feel. The whole 'snuff video making people go insane' was pretty good (just seeing little clips of it made me nervous), but they lost me at the sudden conspiracy theory BS. The special effects, again, were VERY good, making me miss the days when movies didn't leave it all up to computers to make things look cool. I think my favorite scene was when the main character tries to stick his head into his television set...

So hopefully I can come up with some interesting stuff to write for this coming chapter, considering the bizarre things I've seen today. Tack on the fact that I've been feeling exactly as Nyx and Elmiryn have in the story, and the only way I could fail to do a satisfactory update is to put my pants on my head and light it on fire...

...While falling off a building into chopper blades.

...*snicker*

"According to my calculations..."

I started a bit behind on the whole NaNoWriMo thing, but I think I can catch up. I've done the math, and if I do 3000 words a day from now until the 30th, I should meet my goal. And that's not even counting in the fact that I'll likely write a little more on some days, just for the heck of it.

The story I'm doing is called "Lost Keys", and right now it's shite, but with any luck I'll have it polished and smellin' like a rose next month.

Today will prove a busy one as I juggle school, work, and a social life. I might be able to work on Eikasia a little more tonight, and hopefully, will have a nice little preview to offer you folks afterwards.

Well...I didn't die!!

	3007
88
lab.drwicked.com

I set a goal for 3000 words under 2 hours. I met it! Granted, maybe something more restrictive would have been more impressive. At any rate, my NaNo has progressed! Huzzah!

And don't worry, I've been working on Chapter 4.1 for Eikasia gradually. It's currently at 912 words.

New possibilities, same obstacles.

Being an American citizen feels good now.  In fact it feels amazing.  My international readers will have to forgive me--sometimes I forget that anyone outside of my bubble of a universe bothers with anything I do.  I've been feeling incredibly motivated lately--but not really for writing.  The effort of creativity comes easier in spurts.  I should probably ease off with the roleplaying on forums.  It doesn't help that I signed up for NaNoWriMo too (hoo boy.)  So as of this moment?  There isn't much of the new chapter.  I'm thinking lots of coffee and loud music for tonight.

The odd thing is that I actually DO wish to write.  I KNOW what I want to write.  But I just...can't.  When I get going I either get tired, distracted, or find myself stunted by the need to fact check.  I love writing I do.  I just hate having to fact check.

I will write this next part, damn it.  I can't promise it'll be by tomorrow morning, though.  I'm hesitant to say I'll even have something by tomorrow.

When you stare into the abyss...

Did a new sketch for Elmiryn. She's looking a little short, her face is a bit too broad, and to be honest her boobs aren't as (ahem) generous as I envisioned them, but so far this seems to be the best sketch I've done of her. And this time, I did a bustier instead of a silly corset. I SUCK AT MEDIEVAL FASHION. Sue me.



Went to some haunted corn maze on Friday. This year the production at Scream Works was the best I've seen, even though there were a lot of squeaky voiced kids volunteering. Despite my feigned bravery, I managed to squeal and scream more than once. One of my friends managed to push me into one of the actors. Fortunately the guy knew it wasn't my fault so they didn't put a halt to things to report my ass. I socked my friend in the arm. Numerous times. After that we went to his house and I spent the night. Stayed up til 5 AM watching cheesy Italian horror movies. Zombi 2 (which I DID spell right) and Suspiria. We also saw this really ridiculous film called Hatchet. After that, I think we watched the first episode of True Blood, which makes me wish I had HBO so I could continue watching it.



I'm still on a quest to find a DVD copy of Hardware. I hear it is insane. The story (and I guess the acting) is apparently lacking but the cinematography, ideas, and overall atmosphere have kinda made it a cult favorite. Silent Hill was one of those movies that, despite a stupid story, still managed to actually scare and disturb me. They did a super job on the monsters. I had nightmares after I watched it last Wednesday.

I'm getting into all these creepy things because, well heck, it's October. I've been listening to bands like Slipknot, Disturbed, System of a Down, Bauhas, Horror Pops, Sisters of mercy, Koffin Kats, and Siouxsie and the Banshees like nobody's business. I'm in the mood for scary things and dystopian settings. I've downloaded a ROM of Shadowrun and have been considering running a game of Werewolf the Forsaken with my friends.

So if you see my writing at some point in time take on a dark or sinister tone, then you know why. @_@

The things that keep me up at night...

I did indeed start writing the next installment. Here's a quick preview of it. Remember, it may be liable to some changes later:

"Nyx." She shook the girl's shoulder lightly. "Nyx. Wake up."

A groan. Nyx shifted so that her face turned into the pillow, away from Elmiryn. "Mmmrph."

Elmiryn rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "How is it that I'm awake before you are?"

"You're right." Nyx mumbled, turning her head enough to offer a sleepy glare. "You should correct this grievous mistake and get back into bed. You ought to be hung over worse than a opossum."

"What does a opossum have to do with it?"

"Go back to sleep and I'll tell you."

"You can't tell me if I go back to sleep."

"That's the idea."

Elmiryn's shoulders shook with laughter as she tried to keep quiet. The battling suns had barely colored the sky with their blood. The streets were still delicate in quiet. There was not a person stirring in the inn. Elmiryn shook Nyx's shoulder again. "Hey, c'mon. Get up. Seriously. I'm not beyond dragging you out of here."

Nyx whined and hid her head under the blanket. "You always come with the same threat."

"I didn't know I was being judged on creativity."

I might've even finished the chapter last night if I hadn't gotten distracted doing this video:




I've become some sort of Xena Warrior Princess geek. When the hell did THAT happen?

Oh, and just to let you all know, I also did some editing to recent chapters. Again, like the first chapter, I was just trying to make it more streamlined. Less "telling" more "showing"...yadda, yadda, yadda. Before anyone points it out, I'd just like to say that I realize there's been a mistake in the recent chapter. I think I mentioned Nyx and Elmiryn's room only having one bed, but when they finally go there I suddenly say there are two. I'll be correcting this, don't worry.