Code Name: October

Discovered: New free wi-fi in the cafe downstairs at work! Internet on my lunch break, FTW!

And now, the reason for this post: GUSTAV, GO AWAY.

I hatehatehate hurricane season. This also fuxors my weekend plans, because no way am I going to leave town and suddenly not be able to get back to my cats. I know the track shows the stupid storm going up to Louisiana/Alabama, but once it hits the Gulf, that track could change completely.

It's going to hit somewhere, and it's going to be a strong storm after traveling all that way across the Gulf. But please, not New Orleans again. :(

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20089039&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=635049&rfi=6

That's the spirit - let's teach our kids to be losers instead of winners, mediocre instead of outstanding, and shame and punish any and all who excel.

Did anyone ever see that Twilight Zone episode where the boy goes in to take a test, and at the end they kill him because he's too intelligent and is deemed a threat to a mediocre society? Yeah.

David and I are going to start taking our writing out of the house a couple of evenings a week. Things tend to distract us when we're at home - the cats, the internet, the refrigerator - but we usually do work when we go somewhere. Starting tomorrow night, we're going to try a couple of different local places around town. If any of you Houston writer-folk would like to come out and join us for an informal write-in, please do! We're not sure where we're going to be tomorrow night - I'm thinking, maybe the Spring Branch library - but give me a call or send me an email if you want to meet up with us. :)

We're also probably going down to Corpus Christi for Labor Day weekend, although we won't be staying in the city itself. I know of a bed & breakfast in a little town near CC, a very quiet place that I love, and if I can ever get anyone on the reservation phone, that's where we're going. We've made a couple of writing goals for the weekend, so it's kind of a "working" trip, but mostly it's just a get-away to someplace calm and quiet.

I haven't been using my LJ an awful lot - haven't been writing in my "real blog" at all, either. I just haven't felt like talking about my life much, I guess. Nothing seems important enough. I'm working on an ARG for someone else, I'm working on developing my own ARG, I'm writing some stories, I'm hanging out a lot at TarValon.net, I'm going to the gym, and I'm generally keeping to myself these days.

Well, here's some news - I'm studying to take my GRE, FINALLY. I signed up for a test date in November, and I should have all my grad school apps in by the end of the year. My plan, if everything works out, is to enroll in grad school at UH for the Fall 2009 semester.

I'll be working on an MFA in Creative Writing. I know that sounds a bit weird for me, because I've never done well in creative writing classes. But there is a method to my madness. I plan to take some media classes as well, and to do as many "special problems" classes as I can in order to research, study and create material for interactive, multimedia, and cross-platform narratives (arrange terms as you like). I can't remember which speaker at ARGFest referred to creating ARGs and interactive narratives as "writing as a performance art", but that phrase really struck and stuck with me. I want to delve into that and other concepts more deeply, and I think I have a better chance of integrating my interests with the creative writing program than with the core literature graduate program.

I'll also be studying Chinese. UH has a foreign language requirement that students must meet in order to receive a graduate degree. I could do French, the easiest way of solving the requirement problem, but I'd rather challenge myself and learn Chinese. Since I'll have to take a number of Chinese classes to meet the requirement and become fluent, I figure I'll also commit to earning the Bachelor's in Chinese and Asian studies. It gives me a little extra skill, and fluency in Chinese is very quickly becoming a highly marketable skill.

So that's pretty much the extent of my planning and doing. I've been a little lonely, a little depressed, but I'm trying to ignore that as much as I can and just get on with life.

David and I are probably going to put off buying a house until the end of next year, so that we can adjust to living on one income without throwing in a second huge financial change. I hope I manage not to kill my neighbors, or the flock of leafblowers that show up under my window at 8 a.m. twice a week.

P.S. - I know that my latest LJ theme is full of CHEESE, but I love it anyway.

I'm going to be renaming my LJ soon to something with "October" in the name. I've been parting ways with "Moonsong" for a while now. My life and outlook are so different now from the time when I chose "Moonsong" as my online alias (long, long ago), and I'm now more comfortable with my identity of "October," the name I started using in the ARG world. I just wanted to give everyone a heads-up before they see the change on their friends' list. :)

Sometimes when I see Nighthawk's posts on the forums, I want to tell him to just SHUT UP, the whole world does not revolve around you and your game. I'm giving myself permission to hate him. He's one of the most annoying people on the internet.

I need more music! If you're in the mood to recommend some songs or artists that inspire you or make you cry or make you want to dance, I'd love to know about what you're listening to. Wax enthusiastic or poetic - I want to know what makes the song(s) or artist(s) special to you.

Well, her character, Dr. Cassandra Aklin, called me. Hee! She thanked me for helping her choose who had to be the next person to undergo the Experimental Vaccine (or something - I haven't had a chance to sort all that out yet) and Save America.

(http://www.projectabraham.com)

(I'm not crazy.)

I'm hoping to find time this weekend to go gather supplies for a small container garden. I've been reading up on what container vegetables one can plant in the fall - lots of stuff, actually! I'm looking forward to learning the ins-and-outs of gardening. Honestly, can't wait to get out of the townhome and into a house, but that may be awhile, so I'll start now, but small.

Stayed up playing video games last night and now am super tired. Nothing else to report.

The Dharma Initiative wants ME!!

http://www.dharmawantsyou.com/site/index.php

(weirdest test I ever took.)

Yes, I'm posty tonight. :P Tomorrow, I'm probably going to write a loooong post about ARGFest, too, so there!

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/sites/sfw19159.html

ARGN - The Alternate Reality Gaming Network - is SciFi.com's Site of the Week. Yay, ARGN!

Alien contact covered up, says Apollo veteran Edgar Mitchell

Yeah, so glad I don't work at Space Center Houston anymore. The crazies will be converging for weeks now that this is in the general news! We used to get very hostile people visiting the center, DEMANDING that we (tour guides) REVEAL THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ALIENS. STOP DECEIVING THE TAXPAYERS. I kid you not. The people who believe NASA is part of this big alien cover-up conspiracy are really aggressive and scary.

What's hilarious is the radio reporter's reaction to Mr. Mitchell's claims. That in itself makes the interview worth listening to.

About Dr. Mitchell... I remember him as a really cool guy. His picture is one of the few that I've ever had autographed, and he was super nice when I met him. I don't know where this alien thing is coming from, and I wonder if he's having a good ongoing joke at the reporters' (and conspiracy theorists') expense?

For the record, I don't believe we've been visited by aliens from outer space. :P

Edit: OMG, the NASA Phone Call clip is SO FUNNY. :D :D :D That poor PR guy. "Let me see if I can find someone who'll dispute what an astronaut says." I can think of a few people...

I just got David to listen to the Get A War Job Propaganda Message on my phone. He visibly perked up. I also showed him the website, and my especial favorite - the pamphlet on how to recognize a subversive (apparently, all atheists and intellectuals are subversives) while warning against the Alliance for American Autonomy. I convinced him to "Enlist for Military Service" like I already have done - he promises he will do so tomorrow.

And then I showed him Project Abraham, starring the lovely Katee Sackhoff. Apparently, we're supposed to be voting to help her character, Dr. Cassandra Aklin, choose which poor schmuck gets to be injected next with a vaccine gone wrong.

I'm drawn to the game not because I've ever played Resistance but because the influenza epidemic is a part of history that particularly interests me - that, and the epidemic of encephalitis lethargica that followed (I wonder if the game designers are going to work that into the story, too?) Katee Sackhoff is also a drawing point, obviously.

But I think David might be interested in playing this one with me. AS IF I have time to play an ARG right now - but it's reallyreally interesting. Have to look over all the files - I cast my vote in the morning.

Totally completely amazing, probably life-changing weekend. I may never get around to writing everything up, but I have got to say... Meeting everyone in the ARG community, listening to the panels, hearing Dave's speech (and CRYING), the Speech Blitz (SpaceBass serenaded us and made some of us cry; Jan Libby took us to ARGasm Island and made us laugh), the dinners, the FestQuest, seeing The Dark Knight premiere with everyone, Saturday night in the hotel bar, Sunday night in room 1011 (such an appropriate room # for ARGers), everything everything everything... I don't want to go back to real life.

Next year, in Portland, Oregon! :)

(Happiness somewhat dampened by the fact that my flight is leaving at 5:30 a.m., I have to go to work right after I land in Houston - and I am wide awake. No sleep for me, haha. Also, storms in the area - flight might be delayed, and work will be pissed off. Oh, well.)

I sprained or twisted my wrist somehow. I have no idea how this happened, but it HURTS. I can't put any kind of pressure on it. Bummer.

I have a spa appointment tomorrow, for nails, a haircut, and eyebrows. Yay!

I have a shitload of work to do tonight. Boo!

I'm getting on a plane Friday morning!!!!!! YAAAAYYYY!!!!!!

I'm going to a special showing of The Dark Knight on Friday evening with lots of ARG-ish people, courtesy of 42 Entertainment. Again with the YAAAAAAYYYYY!!!

I'm really excited about this weekend. I just wish I wasn't so tired. Also, at work today, I was listening to my "I Love Bees" radio drama. I just love all of the voices. I think I love Kamal's voice best, and Janissary's voice second (she really does sound like Kristen Bell, but not - or Kristen Bell sounds like her - or something.)

OK, I guess I'd better go get as much packed as I can. I'm going to buy some clothes tomorrow, so I can't close up the suitcase until that's done.

Everywhere I go on the internet tonight, I see another person I want to stab.

So, I'm sitting at home watching the special features on one of the Buffy:TVS Season 3 dvds. It's Marti Noxon and Jane Espenson talking about the villains in Buffy, and how, even though many of them are horrifically evil - like the Mayor, and Druisilla - they're still sympathetic characters, likable, even. Complex. They love. They are loved. We sympathize with them in some ways, and it complicates the way we feel about the story, how we receive the story. The school's victory over the Mayor had that bittersweet twang of what could have been, if the Mayor had really been Faith's father - if he hadn't been evil, what might he have done for her? Healed a broken girl? Set her on a better, less lonely road? And we all loved Spike because even in his evil, he didn't lose his capacity for love, or his deep understanding and acceptance of love. His speech to Buffy and Angel in the magic shop was one of the best I've ever heard.

And I'm listening to Jane and Marti talking, and I'm nodding, and then I had one of those wonder moments of inspiration. Do you know what I'm talking about? A moment when a story that you've been poking at, something that hasn't come quite right, or maybe even a story inside you that you didn't know you had, comes bursting out right in front of your eyes. You have that flash of glorious intuition, and then you KNOW, you know exactly how you can tell that story - how that story should be told.

I haven't had one of those moments in a long time, and it couldn't have come at a better moment than today. Just that - just that one flash of knowing, knowing at last, finally, how to tell the story that needs to be told - made this day the best ever.

I got up at 8 a.m. this morning, and I'm not tired. You have no idea how much this thrills me. I've been feeling dragged out and marginally ill for over a month now. No fever, no stomach ache, or anything like that; just feeling extremely tired and having a lot of trouble getting started when I wake up. This is the first morning that I've felt like I have actual energy, that I'm not forcing myself to move. This paragraph does not clearly express my desire to jump up and down in happiness. I'd forgotten what it feels like to be able to think and move at a speed greater than "ooze".

I'm dedicating this morning to writing things. Two quick articles about fun stuff, this LJ entry, a D&D character (because if I don't, the DM wrath of Mr. Wretched will be scary), and then some more fiction writing. After that, I have a lunch meeting at 2 p.m., and then shopping for new clothes for ARGFest, which is next weekend (WOOOO!!).

I need to go see about coffee, now. Not because I need it, but because this morning I can actually ENJOY IT.

Weird news of the day:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/norfolk/7496923.stm

Um...?

I have nothing else to post about. David is currently trying to figure out why his super-computer cannot run Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0. This is my life. I need to use that program, and it should run like a dream on his system, unlike on my laptop... and yet, it doesn't work on his computer at all. It just stalls out after loading a project. HATE.

I may have to go out and buy 4.0 - maybe I just got a bad copy of the software or something? But these computer issues are starting to get expensive. Maybe I should just gather up $8K and get an entire Macintosh system and a full copy of the Adobe Suite. Ha. I wish. (But if I get too frustrated, it might just happen. When I become frustrated, I get irresponsible with a serious case of I DON'T CARE.)

So tired. We got in from Tampa early this morning and went straight to work, after volunteering last night to be booted from our flight. We were well-compensated, and it suited us just fine to be given money for dinner and a hotel, a refund on our purchased tickets, plus lovely Southwest vouchers. I like Southwest, and their service, and it was convenient for us, so yay - free travel, times two!

But now I am soooo tired.

Tampa was lovely, and I enjoyed spending time with David's dad, stepmom Naresh, and sister Geeta. I wish we'd been able to spend more time with Marlene, his mom, but I hope we'll see her again soon. She'll come to us for Christmas for certain, though.

I have some stuff to get done tonight, boo, so I guess I'd better get cracking. I have to use David's computer, because my laptop does not play well with Premiere Elements.

I have a spandy new little video camera - so small, it's like a pet, David says - but it, with Premiere Elements, makes for a huge learning curve that's taking me forever to traverse. Here's hoping I can get done what I need tonight, and then I'll worry about the rest of the curve tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July! It is apparently legal in Tampa to light fireworks in the street, and everyone in David's folks' neighborhood was setting off jumbo fireworks. Chaos, and lots of fun. Except for the kid shooting bottle rockets at people.