30 August 2007 - A new story, Infusion, has been added to the list; chapter one is posted.
22 August 2007 - There may be a slight outage in the next few days due to a very close shave with paying the domain registration on the actual date. I dunno. If it happens, well, it'll be back.
In other news, if you want other news, read my LiveJournal, because I'm only putting site news here these days (in case nobody had noticed).
30 May 2007 - A new oneshot has been added to the collection. (Third, but showing in at #05.)
28 May 2007 - Fractured Fairytales has gained another oneshot.
11 May 2007 - Apologies, but oneshots 03 and 04 have been moved (a redirect is in place, so no worries) to their own section, called Fractured Fairytales. (Mainly because I expect at least one more, and I think they deserve to be in their own group.)
09 May 2007 - A new oneshot has been added to the collection.
07 May 2007 - All links to responses pages have been removed from individual pages of chaptered fics. The link to each story's response page is now found in each listbox.
02 May 2007 - A new oneshot has been added to the collection.
30 April 2007 - I dunno, but it's really been bothering me having all those Responses links in the menu off to the left, so I've removed them. I may just shove them into the listboxes.
Not sure because it's rare at this point I actually PUT a response onto one of those pages, what with the Reply function at FFN, and email, and livejournal.
Anyway, you'll also note that I shoved the snapshot links over into that available space, which tightens things up a skosh and makes me happier.
26 April 2007 - Breakpoint has gained its own snapshots section.
25 January 2007 - Added chapter one of a new story, Kaleidoscope, featuring Seymour/Tidus in a slashy redux of FF X.
23 January 2007 - Added chapter one of a new story, Spiral, crossover between Harry Potter and Final Fantasy X & X-2, with Harry/Severus as the HP pairing.
Given that it's set in Spira, it's found under the FF stuff.
18 December 2006 - Did several more updates to the site, mainly dealing with the fact I changed the way certain pages can be accessed. In theory, nobody should notice a thing unless they're using certain older links from outside, but that's what a custom 404 is for, huh?
If anyone notices any broken graphics, please let me know? I think I got everything, but... things tend to sneak by.
16 December 2006 - Hey, um, we're back.
If anyone notices something horribly wrong here, email me please. I've just uploaded the entire site to the new host, and I may have missed out the odd thing or two.
20 October 2006 - I suppose I really should have read the fine print on that time share contract. As it is, my muse is still off somewhere in Albuquerque, New Mexico encouraging a thirteen year old girl in her dreams to become even more skanky than Paris Hilton.
Translation: I still haven't had a shred of inspiration hit me for anything when it comes to writing.
In the meantime, I will continue to search out fics to, er, review... and play Sims 2. [Comment]
14 September 2006 - Chapter 2 of CI:A is posted.
14 September 2006 - Do you know what sucks about HBP? [Read more]
14 September 2006 - General musing.... [Read more]
13 September 2006 - Nimby Says.... [Read more]
13 September 2006 - Nimby Says.... [Read more]
12 September 2006 - In a strange and bizarre twist of fate, The Nightmare Before Bedtime seems to now be complete.
11 September 2006 - In Other News.... [Read more]
9 September 2006 - For what it's worth (or not), chapter 1 of Control Issues: Aftermath has been posted.
9 September 2006 - Nothing special going on aside from still being sick (see my LJ for details on that), no decisions made on SafeSurf yet, and I still don't have Xenosaga III in my hands.
27 August 2006 - Chapter 3 of Nightmare is available.
15-22 August 2006 - Tons more episodes of Nimby Says, random babbling, and whatnot over at You-Know-Where.
I still haven't made a decision on SafeSurf.
15 August 2006 - I am considering adding SafeSurf to my collection of meta tags. However, I find their method of determining how naughty your site is to be a bit confusing to say the least.
I shall have to think on this further.
12 August 2006 - After stumbling over a fellow fansite and realizing that ICRA has updated how they do things, I decided to re-generate my "label" for this site and update all the pages. And naturally, I basically checked off every bad thing possible, just to cover my bases (though lord knows, I don't expect to be writing about breasts anytime soon...)
Aside from the fact that I've added a disclaimer of sorts down there on the left, no one should notice any actual changes in how Grazhir looks, assuming you can see it at all. Obviously, if you're reading this, you're perfectly good to go, eh?
And, as usual, of late, all routine babbling is going on over at my LJ account.
24-27 July 2006 - Just go look at my LJ page.
24 July 2006 - Thanks to someone who would not politely desist in asking when I would update Friendship's Price on my request, I have deleted the stupid story from FFN. I may even delete it from Grazhir at this rate.
Yes, they did decrease in frequency, which is grand, but... I don't fucking know when I'll update it again, if ever. As I've said in the past, HBP really put a damper on things as far as that story is concerned.
23 July 2006 - So, I had this idea several weeks back while I was trying to dredge up ideas for another Harry/Voldemort story. I can't see myself actually using it, though, so I thought I'd share. Chances are, people will think it's as insane as I did in the end. [Read more]
22 July 2006 - So, I've just finished what's there of a WIP Draco-as-Veela fic and have finally figured out what used to squick me so bad about the idea of MPREG. That, of course, is the concept of a male forming milk-bearing breasts for their young. [Read more]
15 July 2006 - I'm not dead, but I haven't been writing, either. I've been reading rather a lot (even Harry/Draco, which only proves I've succumbed to insanity) and simply haven't felt the urge to put pen to paper (so to speak). [Read more]
1-8 July 2006 - Suikoden babblings here, here, here, and here.
22 June 2006 - I changed my penname at FFN from ShivaniBlue to plain old Shivani.
21 June 2006 - So, I'm sitting there, thinking (a dangerous occupation, I know) about a comment I made in an email discussion I'm having.... [Read more]
21 June 2006 - I blame this on flosspyromaniac .... [Read more]
21 June 2006 - I present the final chapter of Control Issues, chapter 21, Loose Ends. <points over there to the left>
19 June 2006 - Instinct is no substitute for feeling. [Read more]
18 June 2006 - I really, truly enjoyed The Way of the World by McKay. (No, it doesn't bloody hurt that the Sims was involved in this gem of a Remus/Severus.)
17 June 2006 - *happily works on yet another new fic called Infusion (working title for now, at least)* .... [Read more]
16 June 2006 - I can't help but think that the idea I've had in mind for ages as.... [Read more]
16 June 2006 - I am greatly enjoying.... [Read more]
12 June 2006 - My dad IM'd me a minute ago with.... [Read more]
10 June 2006 - Snapshot 11 of Control Issues, Insidious, is now available.
10 June 2006 - Chapter 20 of Control Issues is now available for your amusement.
9 June 2006 - I'm going to do something absolutely crazy and share a rather large cookie with those who are interested. [Read more]
6 June 2006 - Chapter 2 of Providential is available for those of you who enjoy FF fics.
6 June 2006 - I was forced, entirely against my will, to pick up an actual book today when FPL came out and decided to cut off our power for no discernable reason. [Read more]
5 June 2006 - Chapter 19 of Control Issues is available for your viewing pleasure.
5 June 2006 - It's all filodea's fault that I've hared off to go take personality tests and what not. [Read more]
4 June 2006 - And now, because I'm feeling quite peculiar, here's an excerpt from the original outline I did for OWA (naturally, I deviated from it almost immediately and all over the place, but parts of it continue to amuse me).... [Read more]
4 June 2006 - Well, I think I might have gotten over my little problem here with procrastination... at least to some extent. There was something seriously bothering me about CI and I couldn't get anywhere until I resolved it in my head. I think I've done that now, so I'm moving ahead with chapter 19.... [Read more]
30 May 2006 - Happy Birthday to me.
27 May 2006 - Today's babbling.
20 May 2006 - Well shucks, I finally figured out how to make a "mailing list" in Outlook Express (rather, a "group"). And it only took me how many years? <snort>
Why the hell can't "create new group" be on the menu for the Contact List? I never open the Address Book, for pity's sake.
19 May 2006 - In addition to converting Crumbling Pedestal over, I also added in the FAQ/Post Mortem I wrote to go with it (incomplete). That can normally be accessed off the story detail page, but I have linked it here now as well.
I've been feeling pretty antsy of late, so you can expect to see the other pages being converted as well, very possibly quickly.
16 May 2006 - I've been having trouble with the network card on the laptop again, so you might notice I'm frequently nowhere to be found on AIM.
12 May 2006 - Yes, I've done something really silly and picked up a LiveJournal account, so people can leave comments there now as well.
12 May 2006 - The Epic Battle.
10 May 2006 - Right, I've been really nice and shoved all those OWA snaps into place over here. (And then I went back and fixed where all the em-dashes spit up on me.)
10 May 2006 - CONTROL ISSUES
Just a note, folks, a warning... I've converted all the CI pages to a php-ish version so the extensions have all changed.
Also, given that I finally got around to testing said php-ish thingie, I'll probably be converting the existing stories to not only use the new template, but also go that route, so any place any of this has been rec'd will start spitting up a 404 on those links.
And, because I had enough Snaps for CI to do my little test (i.e. got off my lazy ass and tried it), I've now also put a Snapshots link over there with 4 offerings, one of which was first seen at the end of CI's chapter 10.
07 May 2006 - I've got to say, there were several things about AC that really got me going. I simply adored how troubled Cloud could appear at times with those gorgeous big blue eyes and the mako stigmata.
And I experienced a certain naughty thrill when Kadaj went down on one knee in front of the WCM at Healin Lodge. It was such a wickedly sarcastic display of obeisance. And then, when he was rallying forth at the Forgotten City, one hand whirling in the air. The way he strode forward was just toooo sexy. I wish I could move like that.
I also adored Yazoo with his creepy soft, dead voice and air of not quite being all there in the head.
And of course, the texturing was divine, but I sort of expect that from Square. After all, Spirits Within might have been a total commercial flop, but there were any number of times when I had to remind myself that Cid was an animated character. The texturing they did for his face was brilliant.
Anyway, here's chapter 8 for CI, in case anyone is still listening, wherein Tonksy darling finds herself in a rather nasty situation.
04 May 2006 - OMG, that was fucking brilliant. I kept yelling at the screen, "Cloud, baby! Oooooo! Show them what you're made of, darling! That's right, make him suffer!"
I nearly died laughing at Loz's ringtone, and quite nearly had an orgasm when I heard Sephiroth speak. And yes, Vincent is to die for, though I was a bit thrown off by Cait Sith. His accent seemed to come out of nowhere.
I'm also glad I resisted most temptation insofar as spoilers went, so I didn't actually know who Mr Wheelchair was until it was revealed in the movie, though I was, sadly, aware of the peculiar nature of the silver trio. And on that note, I think Yazoo was the best looking of the bunch.
Rude and Reno were brilliant, and about what I'd have expected from having played FF7. I thought they were fantastic.
Unfortunately, I'm not so sure I'll ever be able to read another slash fic where Cid is one of the stars... that depiction was not exactly the sort of thing to get my naughty bits in an uproar.
Still, I was quite happy at the end, and definitely a bit choked up and teary. I wub my Mark, thank you! (And maybe he'll get around to playing the actual game now he's watched the damn movie sequel.)
04 May 2006 - Oh, Mark is such a love!!! (Even if he still won't read my fics.) I've just received an early birthday present from him of the Advent Children DVD and just popped it into my PS2 to watch! <bounces off happily>
03 May 2006 - Please remember, my friends, that I do not have any kind of mailing list thingy or related software, etc. so asking me to email you when a chapter is added for a story strictly posted here at Grazhir is an extremely hit or miss proposition.
I have a very bad memory, and I've never been able to get OE to do a mailing list, though their help seems to think it's possible.
Anyway, I'm really wicked pleased to toss up chapter 5 for CI, wherein one will find the delights of a little gathering of the erstwhile Golden Trio.
01 May 2006 - After an orgy of writing (several WIPs actually) I have decided to post the first two chapters of a new story I've been amusing myself with. I won't put it at FFN because I haven't the faintest intention of editing the snot out of it to fit an R rating.
Now, Control Issues is a slightly twisted offering, rife with abuse, rape, torture, sadism, and even naughty words. In a nutshell, it's a betrayal/revenge fic with a pairing of Harry/Voldemort.
I'm also not going to bother linking the chapter indicator until I have 03 ready to go. Any comments/reviews will need to be emailed to me, unfortunately, but my address is in my profile here.
And yes, once again, you can lay partial blame on Bats for encouraging me so enthusiastically after I showed the story to her. :) But we adore her, so that's okay, right?
16 April 2006 - So, I've not felt like writing anything. What have I been up to?
Well, I did a run through of Suikoden IV (and this time remembered to load the clear data and save the new game at the first opportunity so the green lettering would clue me in for next time).
In Xenosaga II I'm sitting in the encephalon, Old Miltia (14 Years Ago), ready to do some skill upgrade farming on Grips Sister. Once I'm ready to slit my own throat after doing that for a while, I'll toddle off to the final dungeon, Omega System. (I probably should have farmed Rob Blondell, but I wasn't in the mood.)
I don't think I'll bother with the stuff after the clear data... I've done that once already. If anything, it would make more sense to occasionally load up the save point where Shion is exp/skill pt. farming on the Dammerung and see how much past 50 I can get her before I run screaming for a change of pace.
I sort of wonder... how long would it take to get her to 99 in there?
In any case, I was a very good girl this time and farmed Orgulla for both Awakenings and Skill Upgrade Es (Manes form as well), and walked out of that battle (2.5 hrs) with 21 Awakening (good-bye Captain's debt!) and 40 Skill Upgrade Es. Whoo! Dogged persistence pays off. (Besides, who the hell wants to fight the Patriarch 21 times?)
Next, I dunno. I've been considering Suikoden III, or possibly Star Ocean 3... maybe even Xenosaga I. If I'm feeling particularly masochistic, I might even chuck Xenogears in (assuming I can find my PS memory cards). Ah, Redrum... Babel Tower...
Of course, if I had a power supply, it would be easier to just watch my collection of movie files (from those nice folks over at Onegai Studios) and skip all the leveling/fighting bits.
I heard tell that Xenosaga III would be available in the US this fall. Rather shocking, I'd say. Has it been that long already? I can only hope rumors of it being twice the length of the others are true... or better than true (especially since this is it and they've pulled the plug on completing the damn series).
Face it, both games so far have been shockingly short. Put the two together and it would have made a decent length game...
I'm still sick. I still feel like I've a case of strep. I think I'll have to resort to antibiotics shortly as I'm getting ever so slightly annoyed by the incredibly painful sensation of swallowing.
I have milk, but no Quik. <cries>
08 April 2006 - I'm ever so slightly ticked off now. Since when does slash equate to romance/relationship-centered? (Or frequent sex, for nymphs.)
There is no milk in the house, so I've been starving for over a day.
As of the moment, the next WIP up will either be Harry/Lucius (and that doesn't even have a plot, so I'd have to label it a PWP for now) or Harry/Severus (just had a brilliant idea pop into my head last night and it would work in that story).
At present I have 12 stories I could consider posting (not counting ones for Final Fantasy). Er, make that 13—one is actually complete, but it's so bloody awful I doubt I'll ever post it.
Eh, sorry, make that seriously pissed off now. Screw the idea of posting anything right now. There's been one too many shoes dropped today and I'm having fantasies about getting the guns out and destroying some breakables.
07 April 2006 - The final chapter of Forsaken. I promised myself I wouldn't drag things out and bore everyone to death, so...
Gods, how scary. The only known WIP I have left is FP, and I still can't get anywhere with that. Well, I'll simply have to start posting a new story, maybe two, and see where they go.
Well, and snapshots as they occur to me, right?
06 April 2006 - It's amazing what you find when you bother to be nosy. I've been dithering around over at the boards for Restricted Section.org and noticed that someone plugged me for OWA in a thread about best lines ever. Praise be to Allah! (Did I spell that right?)
03 April 2006 - By the way, as of yesterday, the lizard death count is now at 1.
02 April 2006 - And so we have the travesty of chapter 28. And hey, it's not April Fool's any longer, so it's not a joke.
28 March 2006 - Someone please explain to me the idiocy of writing Parseltongue such as... "Masssster, sssshould we be sssensssing..."
I'm sorry, but that's really difficult to read, and I think it's a bit stupid to assume that just because it's a sibilant language that it would automatically do that. It's like saying that Grindelwald ought to be spelled GrindelVald because of how certain countries pronounce the letter W.
Can't we all just assume it's sibilant, and dispense with the pointless additions? I don't even want to think about how it must upset spellcheck.
I know, pointless rant, I'm sure. It really does frost my cookies, though. Sort of like my views on wankers who can't just do Al Bhed in italics.
25 March 2006 - Someone is trying to torture me, I think. I occasionally glance at my stats page, and have noticed the "favs" count bouncing back and forth from 299 to 300 for OWA.
And again, for those who do actually read here, talk to me. I would really like to hear some opinions before I go any further with the travesty I call chapter 28 of Forsaken.
24 March 2006 - Talk to me.
24 March 2006 - I may, possibly, maybe... be coming down with a cold that's been on a rampage down here. My throat feels swollen.
I need to find a decent extension cord so I can plug in the PS2. What I'd play, I'm not sure. Probably either Xenosaga II or Suikoden IV... it really frosts my cookies I can't have Suikoden V just yet. <sobs and wails>
Yes, last night I uploaded new copies of every bleedin' chapter of OWA to FFN. And at that, I'll not be surprised if I still find more typos, errors, etc. as I read the story. Still, this is the first time I've been motivated enough to do a wholescale replacement so that people who don't visit Grazhir can still get the things I've changed, expanded, etc.
I really miss my forums, and it's not like anyone has decided to comment in what is available. Then again, over there <rolls eyes> you can't really speak freely, now can you? Still, it would be nice if... well, whatever.
23 March 2006 - God (assuming there is one) obviously hates me. I washed my hair, and what happens? It rains. Yes, thank you, I really did want to extend my drying time from six hours to ten or twenty. Danke!
23 March 2006 - Mind you, my husband has pointed out that while one of those overbed tables would be handy, we DO have a waterbed, so it would be a bit difficult to use one since it can't roll under properly...
<sigh>
23 March 2006 - <snort> FFN seems to have forgotten what a hit counter is for. Oh well. And I'm on like... round 3 or 4 of edits for OWA. Been reading it again today and keep finding yet more mistakes. It's horribly frustrating.
I am seriously considering finding a new home for my lamp and setting my desktop up on my bedside table. Not the best place for it, but... until we get a little more space in here, there's really no place else to put it.
What I really want (and have for some time) is one of those overbed tables like you see in hospitals or nursing homes. It doesn't have to be fancy (and at that, the cheapest I saw at one site I visited was just under $100). I'd just like to be able to make the best use of my available space, so I can sit in bed (as I do now with the laptop) and be able to see my monitor straight on...
I could just swing it out of the way when necessary, as it would only have to hold the monitor, keyboard, mouse...
Of course, considering I don't have a chair at the moment, the bed is the best bet. My chair is still back in Maine in my dad's shed.
Either way, having OFB sitting there giving me soulful looks isn't helping the situation any, and I hear that Cyan has actually released an update for Uru Live (D'mala Shard, at least) which fixes a few things (such as the Teledahn buckets), allowed access to the museum, and provided some new clothing for explorers. The marker missions can be massively annoying at times, but at least now you should be able to get the previously unfinishable one and complete them all. I wonder if that means calibration of the Great Zero is back on again?
Yes, I did some work on Forsaken, but I'm not very happy with any of it. Yes, there are things I want to happen or be said, but I think I'm doing a not so good job of late with that story. It's only about 400 lines at this point and I'm massively tempted to just post it as is since it's been forever since I updated that story. (Hermione needs to be spanked, I tell you.)
Maybe I will, and maybe I'll just have to ask a few questions for readers at the end of the chapter. I wish they could be answering here at Grazhir, but... maybe the FFN forums?
Is it just me, or do those not have a view count?
I've been reading a really complimentary review for Suikoden V, so that's a good thing. I'm really looking forward to when I can have it. The bad points mentioned don't seem to be too off-putting right now, but I guess I'll have to make up my mind then, right?
I probably won't bother with facial templates before installing OFB. I can just stick to my present custom neighborhood to check out all the new stuff. I'm lazy, we all know that by now. I wish I could just package up the sims I want to use as templates and send them off to a friend who would do the work for me. <snicker>
22 March 2006 - Expect minor changes. And remember, folks, that cute little scarab up there always brings you back home.
19 March 2006 - The final chapter of One Winged Angel.
19 March 2006 - So, I finally have a copy of Open for Business, but don't presently have a place to set up my computer. <slumps> I suppose when I can, I'll disappear again for a while so I too can learn about the joys of frustration.
Funny, though. Someone came up with a fairly good Voldemort sim (based on the GoF movie) and snapped a picture to share of him running a beauty salon. The picture itself depicted him holding a mirror in front of a newly made-over customer with a weird smile on his face. I found it hilarious.
I still need to make my replacement facial templates. I plan to delete my custom neighborhoods, again, and if I've those replacements in, I can be assured (mostly) that townies and NPCs will be generated with decent looks, not those monkey-faced whackos we see normally. Some of them look like they had quite the accident while getting collagen injections for their lips, plus hit the pavement face first one time too many if their flat noses are anything to go by.
Well, all right. Many of them have horribly hooked noses, or really long, or ski-jumps... It's quite frightening.
It's not that I mind ugly sims, but when 80 percent of all templates are ugly, that makes for a scary population! They can't all be Don Lothario, after all.
19 March 2006 - There is a god—all review responses are current.
17 March 2006 - I actually managed a bit of work on Forsaken, though not a huge amount.
15 March 2006 - For some reason, I've spent a good part of yesterday and today going over OWA (I think this might be the second time) and making small edits, not to mention fixing a few errors.
Now if only I could persuade myself to fix stories like Induction and CP?
At any rate, I've been considering, once the story is complete, archiving a third copy over at Fiction Alley. I dunno.
And maybe once I've completed it, I can re-upload all chapters at FFN to reflect the changes I've made. Though, I'm still incredibly annoyed at losing block quote, indents, most special characters, blah blah blah.
07 March 2006 - Interesting. The server re-appeared suddenly.
06 March 2006 - All right. I've finally learned to really like listening to Stamina Rose from Ghost in the Shell: SAC, and Rise from SAC2. I have to wonder at times if eventually I'll appreciate everything off the OSTs I have, or if that day will never come.
Meanwhile, I've also added Ready Steady Go from Full Metal Alchemist and Ride On Shooting Star from FLCL.
Maybe by the time I'm able to re-host this site I'll have made a bunch of corrections. Such as, updated coding for the listboxes (and such that I can include them on every chapter page), and things like buttons to go back to the top or home at the ends of pages. Why I never put those there to begin with is beyond me.
Yeah, right at the moment, I'm talking strictly to myself. Until I can move the site to a server that isn't AWOL, it's not like I can upload anything for people to read.
Then again, I'm so friggin' lazy of late, I can't be sure I'll get around to it, no matter how much I'd like to fix things to make it easier.
Oooookay. I don't think GET9 is going to be staying in my playlist. I feel like I just fell into a time warp just listening to it.
In any case, Origa has an exceptional voice in my opinion. Almost makes me want to learn Russian.
31 January 2006 - Why, why, why do people continue to assume that Lily Potter is Lillian or Lilith or some derivative? Why can't her name simply be a flower like her sister's?
Why do people make Harry out to be Harold, Harrison, Heron, or something similar? (Mind you, I love the name Heron.) Sure, I can't personally stand the name Harold (and certainly not as heard from the mouth of one Miss Hermione Granger), but that's not why it bugs me when people do that. He was called up to the sorting hat as Harry, which strongly implies that IS his actual name and not a nickname.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I could have sworn I've seen proof that they are LILY and HARRY either at JKR's website or via interviews with her.
Of course, odds are that Severus's middle name is Tobias, which no one would know/guess prior to HBP (no, I haven't checked yet and even if it is I don't plan on fixing CP or OWA, though I might).
Yeah, I've done some more on various stories. There's a chapter of OWA that's almost long enough, and I've been sorely tempted to just post the damn thing despite it not being of a length I consider adequate, but I'm still holding off for the moment (that assumes anyone is even paying attention).
I think I've realized that it's fairly close to the end for both OWA and Forsaken. There really isn't a whole lot more I can say for either of them without drawing things out meaninglessly. Perhaps that explains my present state of mind and general lack of motivation when it comes to writing.
I don't particularly want them to end, but they must at some point.
To pass the time (between searching for things to read) I've been working on other stories. One is something I'll probably never post since it's a back in time dealie (you've seen plenty of them) where Harry has the chance to go back and do things over since the outcome was a tragic win. Another is an AU starting just after 2nd year and involves another popular cliché of an unknown school. I probably won't ever post that either.
Another is a much older idea that I've merged with a separate story idea which might eventally see the light of day. And another involves a crossover with a game which may or may not see the light of day.
Every time I think of HBP I get depressed. I loathe Harry/Ginny so much, and I still think that pairing came out looking like JKR was writing seriously crappy fanfiction in its execution. It makes me dread what will actually come to pass in the final book. I almost hope Harry ends up dead if that shit keeps on.
Meanwhile, I've been having serious cravings for fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy. And I don't mean those sissy potatoes that have been ruined with a mixer so they've been puréed. What a waste.
Hail Bisto!
Down with pop-unders!
If I'm lucky I'll get to have dinner at the Roadhouse Grill again soon. If I'm really lucky someone will buy me that Advent Children DVD soon. It's out now, isn't it? I don't have a PSP nor do I plan on getting one, so. . . .
22 January 2006 - It helps when you occasionally clear your fanfiction.net cookies, eh?
I now have a cable running to the bedroom, which means I can go back to working/reading from bed (blessed be!).
Earlier I stepped into the bathroom and immediately shrieked on seeing a wolf spider gracing the side of the tub. Naturally, I called for my brave and daring husband to come vanquish the bastard (or would that be bitch?) so that I could once again enter in safety. (We shall not talk much about the palmetto bug which tried to enter our computer space, but he was also vanquished.)
I may have figured out a prank for OWA, though it's not exactly of the same caliber as the first two—I've gone over prank ideas from the "muggle" world a dozen times and come up blank, so this will probably have to do.
Bless mp3 players for serving double duty. I used mine earlier to transfer a file from my desktop to my husband's.
20 January 2006 - It's really quite pathetic that I can't seem to get any further with a chapter for OWA simply because I can't think of a third prank to pull.
I got the shock of my life earlier while in the bathroom...having looked up to see a huge frickin' palmetto bug crawling on one of the walls. Sheesh. Damn things are alarming. Naturally, I tried to squish it to death as it was crawling in the door frame, but that didn't work and it escaped. Alas.
Meanwhile, I'm writing a chapter for a totally new story since I can't seem to get anywhere with the other three, and that's on top of two chapters for yet another story, and I'm still writing down ideas for more AUs, many of which employ popular cliché.
On a different note, I've decided I dislike Harry as the "Lord of Light" since too many of those seem to haul the Devil into things. Mind you, I also find it quite strange that even an insane Voldemort would want to give over his body to Lucifer. It wouldn't be HIS power any longer—he'd be subsumed.
07 January 2006 - It's funny. In some stories I see authors ranting quite loudly (so to speak) about all those perverts out there who write slash, yet often enough I stumble over people who's fondest activity is pairing Harry off with 2, 3, or even 4 female partners.
I see others who rant about age differences (often encountered with Harry/Severus or Remus or Sirius) while seeing some pair Harry off with Bellatrix.
It's sort of interesting that certain perversions seem to be more acceptible than others, don't you think? Strangely enough, most Harry/multiple!females stories squick me almost as badly as Harry/Ginny and Harry/Cho.
Well, whatever.
I still cannot login to ff.net, though I did do some work on OWA earlier.
04 January 2006 - In case anyone is interested, no I am not dead. However, I have just recently been involved in a cross-country move.
On a side note, as of the past few days, I have been unable to login at ff.net. I have no idea if my laptop has suddenly decided to go wonky on me, or if my accounts have been suspended for some unknown reason (I tried with both, though you lot would only recognize one of them).
I have not received a notice of any kind from that site either, so I have no idea what's actually going on at this point. All I do know is that I was able to login several days ago.
Obviously, if I even had a chapter for anything ready to go, I couldn't upload it anyway under these circumstances. That being said, I do not have one ready, though if I did, I would have posted it here at Grazhir for those of you who do check in.
All of this upheaval lately has been a serious detriment to my creativity.
If I'm lucky, and I can get my hands on a super-long cat5 cable, I'll be moving my setup into the room my cats are presently living in, and perhaps then I can begin to consider the idea of working, rather than reading and making notes for story ideas which have nothing whatsoever to do with present WIPs.
On that note, I shall go back to my sweating (no AC, Florida) and reading.
09 December 2005 - So, it snowed today. There's at least 6 inches out there, and more like 9, possibly a foot. (I'm not too keen on whipping out a tape measure and checking it exactly.) Naturally, my car was already under at least 4 inches when I woke up.
Given that it showed no signs of letting up, I grudingly pulled on a set of my mother's boots, a coat and gloves, and bravely marched outside to brush all the snow off my car in advance of parking it in the garage.
Naturally, the mechanism on the right-side door didn't seem to want to function for me (I have no idea why, honest), so I had to manually open and close it. And, of course, my car did not want to go in, deciding instead to let me know the built up snow was slippery.
Still, my car is now snug. I'll probably get yelled at for the door mysteriously breaking, though. Either way, since one of the neighbors just whipped through with his plow truck, it's a good thing I moved the car out of the way.
Needless to say, I did not go fetch the mail from the post office at the other end of our road. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow. If not, I'll just have a huge handful to bring back on Monday. (Wouldn't be surprised if the post-mistress cringes every time she realizes I'm housesitting, since I don't go every day.)
08 December 2005 - Ah, winter! The chill air, the 42 layers of clothing, the biting wind, the dry, flaky skin, the constant nosebleeds...
07 December 2005 - I hate that people writing FF X (X-2) fanfics seem to always write Al Bhed in the actual, rather than just making it italicized English. Lord knows, I love those two games, but I get seriously annoyed at having to scroll down to the end of the chapter to see what they said, or load up that translator in another window.
I went looking for Jack/Daniel SG-1 stories and was overrun with a plethora of drabbles and teensy oneshots. How boring!!!!!!! And depressing.
Meanwhile, Policy of Truth is playing in trusty old Winamp.
06 December 2005 - And another thing, what is with people who think 500-1,000 words is a decent chapter length, and who apologize if they're longer than that, or even if there's more than 10 chapters total?
Are these people insane?
Does today's youth quail at the thought of reading something that actually requires a vocabulary? That takes more than five minutes to read?
Am I feeling maudlin because Zanarkand Ruins is currently up in my Winamp playlist? (Maybe...that's always a tear-jerker in my opinion.)
I'm beginning to think I'm too damn smart for my own good.
I'm also currently seeing one hella big black flan wobbling around in my imagination, backed by the pyreflies and the magnificence of the ruins.
06 December 2005 - I am getting seriously fucking annoyed at the number of fanfics which seem to think anyone over 30 is "old." Considering that I'm pushing 40 myself, I'm feeling more than a little vicariously insulted here.
28 November 2005 - The death toll is now 3 mousies.
27 November 2005 - The death count is now up to 2 mousies.
27 November 2005 - As it turns out, I am not crazy, and the noises I was hearing emanating from the bathroom were not a type of hallucination, nor the sound of the heat/cold cycles contracting and expanding building materials.
I got very freaked out early this morning by these noises, as I was prepping that chapter for posting. Sometime today dad put a mouse trap in the cupboard under the sink, and sure enough, a quick check just a minute ago revealed a very dead mousie.
Naturally, the trap has been reset and put back in case another mousie should decide to risk his life.
27 November 2005 - Oddly enough, this latest chapter of Forsaken has turned out to be longer than I realized. I really wish UE would figure out the line number thing for longer files.
Well, whatever. Hopefully nobody out there will throw rotten fruit once they've read it.
24 November 2005 - And on this day, wherein we hosted Thanksgiving dinner unexpectedly, my brother and his dog Hailey came (though, technically, the night before). And on this day, after dinner was done with, we have seen with our very own eyes, Hailey tossing her cookies in no less than three separate locations.
It seems that Mr Dreadlock Mouse has died, and Hailey was unable to digest the fluffy filling (no doubt, it didn't taste all that good either). Mr Mouse has been consigned to the bin, of course, and Hailey has been booted out to contemplate her sins.
23 November 2005 - And in today's breaking news, mum was briefly held hostage by a shopping cart in the parking lot of Hanaford's. The cart in question, a wide version, latched onto one of the cords hanging from her coat (you know, those thingies you use to tighten 'em up?) and refused to let go until otherwise persuaded by the efforts of both of us. The cart was then banished to the cart rack in disgrace.
23 November 2005 - It's still snowing, and the FedEx guy was awfully cute, though probably too young, alas.
Of course, I prefer to believe that a volcano mysteriously appeared and erupted somewhere nearby, which would explain this odd white stuff which continues to fall from the grey sky.
I was right, by the way. Mr Squeaky Man III is being held in reserve.
23 November 2005 - My mother has just tried to tell me (5.48 am) that it's snowing outside. Naturally, I told her she's delusional. After all, it's not supposed to snow until after Thanksgiving, so she must she seeing things.
In other news, Mr Rabbit is still in one piece, and there's a new Mr Squeaky Man hanging on a hook on the pantry door (he's being held in reserve, I think).
I'm nearly through with a new chapter of Forsaken, though OWA's chapter is only about 1/3 done.
18 November 2005 - So, all right, I've just got back from seeing Goblet of Fire in the theatre. I'm actually fairly happy. It's a far cry better than PoA was, that's for sure. Even so, I think that Dumbledore is out of character in this film.
And my, doesn't our darling Lord Voldemort have long toenails?
On a related note, I'm even more enamored of Neville's actor, and the twins. They're getting even more dishy as time goes by, while poor Dan Radcliffe, unfortunately, seems to be getting even uglier. Alas.
Edit: I have sewed Mr Rabbit back up, but as my brother's dog Hailey is visiting, I put him back on the shelf in the bedroom until he comes to collect her (tomorrow?). Even so, I don't expect Mr Rabbit to live a very long life, even after his surgery.
10 November 2005 - I watched Tim Burton's Charlie & the Chocolate Factory last night. I think I enjoyed it a lot more than the original film. I was certainly entertained during the entire length, and could appreciate the present day jokes that were included (such as Oprah being seen in the TV room sequence, not to mention use of the 2001 Space Oddessy inclusions).
In other news, Mr Brown Rabbit (dad informs me he was originally orange in colour) has suffered an injury today. A random glance up from what I was reading revealed quite a bit of white fluff on the carpet and the muttered comment, "Bugger all."
Mr Brown Rabbit is currently propped on a shelf in my bedroom drying out. I shall have to get out the needle and thread later on and sew up a couple of tears in his skin. Hopefully he will last longer than Mr Squeaky Man did after surgery.
Oddly enough, the dogs don't seem all that fond of Mr Dreadlock Mouse. Though, closer inspection of him shows that I might be mistaken in having named him. It's possible that Mr Mouse is in fact a lion, which would explain the dreads. Mum says he's a bear, so I shall simply continue to blindly assume he's a mouse.
06 November 2005 - Mr Squeaky Man is dead. All bow your heads for a moment of silence.
Mind you, the first Mr Squeaky Man was ravaged unto death by my brother's dog, Hailey, while she was visiting. He was replaced with a new one a bit later on.
Today, however, I noticed Jezebel noshing on an odd greenish fluff, and immediately rescued the poor bastard, only to find that his leg had been ripped open. (Mr Squeaky Man is a little toy with a squeaker inside that resembles a gingerbread man in shape, with what mimics a sheep's coat on the exterior.)
So I retrieved the fluff and stuffed it back in, all the while cringing and squirming because Mr Squeaky Man was rather wet... and then performed surgery and sewed his leg back up. Of course, we later realized that a great deal of his filling was on my parents' bed, but that had to be discarded.
Unfortunately, after a marathon of tug-o-war between Jezebel (dachshund) and Tank (yellow lab), it was revealed that Mr Squeaky Man had suffered a mortal blow, his groin area being ripped open in an appalling display of doggy violence.
He was resigned to the kitchen trash bin under the sink, at the age of approximately one week.
Currently under the gun is Mr Dreadlock Mouse, who hopefully will last a bit longer than his predecessor (a non-dreadlock mouse) who was consigned to the bin several days ago after having been vivisected and his squeaker removed.
Edit: On a related note, mum pulled Mr Brown Rabbit from the basket of toys with the idea that the dogs might like to play with him as well. She squeaked him a few times to catch their attention, then tossed him through the air for them to chase.
Unfortunately, he landed in the water dish where he promptly began to drown, and had to be rescued. He is currently relaxing on the carpet and being ignored by the dogs, as is Mr Dreadlock Mouse.
05 November 2005 - Okay, a new chapter of Forsaken for you all.
05 November 2005 - (five minutes later) Well, all right, it is something freakish going on. Having just checked, I not only realized that the stats have been reset, but that there are four other reviews I wasn't aware of for that snapshot. No email. Hmm. <stares suspiciously at ff.net>
Oh, and in response to one of those reviews, I linked the most recent snapshot for each here on the main page.
I'll give it another day or so before I have to email myself a copy of those reviews. I don't know whether or not things will catch up on their own.
05 November 2005 - It seems ff.net has been having more trouble lately. What a surprise. A new chapter of OWA is posted for your reading displeasure. Another chapter of Forsaken shouldn't be too far along behind, but no promises. Both these stories are being rather difficult at the moment.
I did spend some time today on how exactly I'm going to pull off getting Harry out of Privet Drive for OWA, and have several variations on a theme jockeying for position at the moment.
Speaking of problems, did ff.net do a complete hiccup or something. Yes, I'm already annoyed at the single review for that snapshot (so far), and I'm starting to wonder if it's just ff.net being asinine again. There was that horrible issue with a chapter of Induction being completely ignored until I expressed my feelings on it.
Then again, you may all hate it, and are being kind by saying nothing.
03 November 2005 - Okay, I know that people have been reading the new snapshot, but not one freakin' review so far? We're coming up on 200 hits at ff.net, and not a word from anyone. (I don't count you, Bats, by the way.)
Either people are being uncharacteristically quiet today, or you all hate it and just can't bear to say so.
03 November 2005 - We had three children appear for Halloween. Thankfully, the candy supply has since been replenished, meaning I can continue to indulge my cravings for mini Butterfinger Crisp bars.
Of course, my mother did buy me six cannoli the other day, so that's good too. I do think the bakery should take lessons from Publix, though, in how to make them better. The ratio of shell to cheese is a bit off, and the cheese has a rather odd consistency, rather like very warm icing (even though refrigerated), and almost gluey. I have to use a fork to eat one of the suckers. Ah, well. They still taste quite nice, so I shan't complain about the good fortune of having got my hands on some.
The husband has arrived safely in Florida, and it appears that the cats have not suffered major trauma, though neither are they exactly happy about the present living arrangements.
I watched Batman Begins this evening—I'm not entirely certain if I enjoyed it or not, though.
Oh, of course, a new snapshot has been added for Forsaken.
30 October 2005 - So, I'm at my parents' house. My husband is even now somewhere in New York, presumably not getting lost. As it was, transporting the cats this far last night resulted in a drive punctuated by quite piteous mewing from Storm. I felt sorta bad, really. The cats have only been in a car a couple of times. I think Shadow was just plain traumatized. He never made a sound, not even after they got here and were tucked into the laundry room and the cages opened. He wouldn't come out.
I don't even want to think about how the cats react to being in a new home temporarily...a home that contains about 4 cats already. Though, I do know that Storm will spend quite a bit of time hissing her head off.
Mark admits to not having read Induction. I think we should form a lynch mob and teach that boy a lesson. <nod>
My desktop has been set back up so I can play Sims2 as the urge hits. The biggest adjustment being here for a while is having to deal with the television being on constantly. I would go relax on the bed with the laptop, but smoking is forbidden in bedrooms, so I can't do that. I could go into the computer room, but then I can't put my legs up. Ah, well. I shall survive.
26 October 2005 - Josh assures me that I am not crazy, and that Induction is indeed funny. He says he chortled through the whole story. Therefore, I shall continue to be amused by it in the future and not feel like I ought to be keeping an eye out for the men in white coats.
Mark, on the other hand, told me I was whacko. But, then, he's never actually read any of my fanfiction, so I had to take that with a grain of salt. At least, I don't think he has—well, definitely not this story. I may have asked before, but it's not like I can remember things. . . . (btw, adventure?)
On a vaguely related note, some editing work has been done (at the moment of this comment) on chapters one through seven for Forsaken to correct some pesky little errors, and in the odd case or three, fix dialogue that has annoyed me greatly for some time, but never felt frisky enough to correct.
Then again, perhaps frisky isn't quite the right term. More like massively irritated of late. I also continue to feel like crap, which explains how much tea I've been drinking. No doubt, the persistent rain has at least a little to do with my mood.
And now, I shall go back to re-reading Forsaken.
Edit: I take that back. I've now edited all 25 chapters of Forsaken and uploaded them here. Most of it is just minor, fiddly stuff, but there are occasions of definite changes. Realistically speaking, though, the only major change was to chapter 4, because of Severus being horrifically OOC during his little chat with Brand that first time around.
I'm not saying I got all the errors. Heaven knows, I often edit a chapter and think I have, then read it again a day later and see all sorts of other shit I managed to miss. Now if I could just work up the enthusiasm to do all 30+ chapters of OWA, and 40+ of CP. As it is, I've been awake about, oh, 27 hours now, and am feeling slightly tired. Perhaps I shall just go to bed?
Mind you, since I expect that my husband set the alarm to go off in two hours, I have to wonder if I will just sleep through it like the dead, or wake up in an extremely pissy mood and start kicking violently when he attempts to do things like hit the snooze button. (It's currently 9.45am EST.)
24 October 2005 - I've come to the realization that I must, in fact, be completely off my rocker. You see, I've been up since 5pm yesterday—naturally, I did attempt to sleep this morning, but a sour stomach has prevented that quite handily—so I've been reading Induction to pass the time and drinking tea.
The thing is, I've been giggling through the entire thing (when I haven't been going, "Ooooo, naughty," that is) over the interactions between Albus and Severus, and even Albus and Harry. And on occasion, over the whole deal where Albus is apparently daft, but in reality very much isn't, Harry is just plain confused half the time, and Severus is quite sure he's got one over on just about everyone, but is horribly wrong (not to mention how he's wallowing in denial).
I wasn't aware that I'd written a comedy. Either that, or I really am whacko.
19 October 2005 - And there's the final "chapter" of Masks for you.
17 October 2005 - And, another chapter of OWA. I'm almost halfway through for Forsaken. Nothing as of yet for FP. I did, however, spend some time on a different story, but since I have yet to decide how I want to resolve the story, I doubt I'll post any of it any time soon. It would be unfair to start posting another new story when I'm not even sure I can finish it.
I also finished another chapter for my FF8/FF7 crossover, but again, until I know I can figure out some sort of ending, there's no point in posting it. Of course, most people who read these notes probably aren't all that keen on those anyway (if my hit count for Choices is anything to go by, at least).
17 October 2005 - I've caught up on my responses. :)
16 October 2005 - A new story has been added. It's in three parts, so expect to see the other two shortly.
12 October 2005 - Good or bad, there's another chapter of FP. Still, considering how very unpopular the story is, I have to wonder why I bother with it. <shrug>
11 October 2005 - Contrary to popular belief, I am not dead. I have been, however, somewhat distracted and out of sorts, though I was considerably perked up and amused the other day when I installed Crammyboy's little mod and got to see my male sims as being anatomically correct . . . with options for colour and, er, other stuff!
Of course, now that I have Nightlife, I am even more considering the idea of doing a Simified version of ISG. After all, I can build Grey's nightclub, Haven, now. Booths! I can make booths! And a dance floor! (I think I need to go download some plastic flowers, though, since I can't put the real onces on the roof I don't think.)
I'm also behind on my responses again.
02 September 2005 - Okay, okay, I did my review responses! Someone spank me for being a bad, bad, lazy girl!
02 September 2005 - There is something just totally kinky about having a household of nearly all Romance Sims, and watching the husband of the youngest heir spin up wants to flirt with his grandfather-in-law.
01 September 2005 - And yes, I will do responses soon. I've been such a bad girl lately (like this is new?).
29 August 2005 - Oh my god, this is so friggin cute! Go here and read Rusty's story (assuming you've never seen it before).
29 August 2005 - If I were more of a masochist, I would go to the trouble of attempting to properly filter out which reviews for Crumbling Pedestal actually were directed at the alternates only and move those to a new response page.
But I'm not.
However, I have made a slight change or two given that I decided to post a snapshot file for Forsaken. You'll notice that if you glance over to the left at the WIP list and check the links.
Anyway, there ought to be a new chapter of Forsaken soon, as well as the second oneshot for the snapshots file. The third is being a bit more difficult.
Oh, and let me just say that I hadn't realized what a pain in the ass ff.net is about titles. Sheesh.
27 August 2005 - You know, it really helps when I remember to update that link over there to the left. <snort>
On another unrelated note, I've also come to really enjoy listening to JENOVA Absolute from the FF7 OST.
27 August 2005 - I admit, I have of late felt very little inclination toward anything remotely resembling the effort of thought. As such, I have indulged myself in reading, watching movies I've already seen, and playing Sims 2.
My not-quite-Legacy family is doing splendidly, by the way. Caedryn is just about done with university, and will shortly be returning to the Slytherin household in order to convince Remus to marry him and have at least one baby. Of course, Remus has already been invited to visit Caedryn's dorm and been seduced into a whoohoo session in the hot tub (the cutscene for that is just delicious, I think).
Oddly enough, the first two generations produced twins, which I found suspicious, but the third got just Caedryn, so I expect it was simply peculiar odds. I admit, it is nice having the revised version (by TwoJeffs) of LaserArc's pregnancy-for-all mod in place. It was very annoying to constantly have to use the InSIMenator to manage same sex pregnancies. This mod allows them to try for baby regardless, and I get the suprise of not knowing if twins will be produced rather than consciously choosing them.
I actually got all upset when the first generation, Heru and Pavonis, died of old age. It really distressed me to see the family members remaining bawl their eyes out when that happened. I even called my husband at work to tell him, at which point he laughed at me (not unexpected, I must say). Anselm (the first son) has already passed on, and I expect his mate Shinji to go at any moment, and Brand and his mate (the name escapes me at the moment) are to turn Elder in just a couple of sim days.
I've taken to making the heir aspirations Romance, simply because I love seeing them do their little strut on their way to do a flirt or a kiss.
I am presently angsting over a section of the current chapter of Forsaken, which strikes me as being a very boring intro to something else. Much like Hermione in earlier chapters, this has me wanting to beat my head against my desk in frustration.
And, a very persistent idea has been butting heads with me, to the point where I've partly completed a oneshot set in the Forsaken universe. I expect if I can successfully complete it, I shall create a new "story" for that (rather than including it in the main file).
It's what I really ought to have done with the alternates for Crumbling Pedestal, but didn't. As it is, I cannot do so now, as I would lose two chapters' worth of reviews on that story, and I suspect that someone would report me for replacing them with placeholder text and get the story yanked, or my account whacked.
I also spent some time on a story I've had in mind for quite some time, though I admit I did not get even so far as to complete a chapter of it. The idea itself has the potential to be funny, but I have my doubts as to whether or not I can pull it off properly. I think, and perhaps I'm simply deluding myself, that I do far better with sarcasm than outright humor.
On another note, you can look here to see a very sketchy idea. Please note that the right-side images do change on reload. I honestly don't know if I should keep fiddling with it or not, or simply keep what I have but change the header a bit. If you feel like sending me email on it, that'd be fine, though checking just now, I can say that the old-server forums appear to still be working. (I really do need to motivate the SO into getting the new database ready so I can install over here and finish moving finally.)
On a completely unrelated note, I've given Living Inside the Shell, from (I think) the 2nd Ghost in the Shell: SAC OST, a second chance, and have come to enjoy listening to it quite a bit.
15 August 2005 - I have to say that I am more than a little annoyed. I honestly understand, and sympathize, over the issue of ff.net NOT liking authors including review responses (though honestly, I'd have to re-read the rules on that), but let us be honest here—pretty much anyone can get a LiveJournal or some sort of blog, or a free account at one of those places like Angelfire, etc. to post review responses.
After all, part of my own decision to change Grazhir from a fansite for a game I played to my fanfiction home was based on that very issue (naturally, smut was a larger factor). Of course, I pay for the server I use, and I pay for this domain name. But that's my choice.
HOWEVER, I am very, very annoyed that I have received not only an email (with a faked originator, no less) in my inbox, but also had Forsaken and OWA spammed with the exact same text as anonymous reviews, more than once in one case. Naturally, I deleted them.
If someout out there wants to put together a petition, so be it. Set it up at one of the sites DESIGNED for such things and have the address as a "signature" in emails or an honest review.
Don't spam me, please. I even went to the trouble to export every chapter at ff.net that still contained review responses from pre-Grazhir, edited them, and stuck them back in so that they couldn't call me on it. (Granted, once I finish editing everything for real, I'll have to replace the chapters anyway...)
Anyway, do NOT spam my stories with this. If I'm on the front pages because of an update, don't take that as an excuse to thrust another petition notice in. Don't use my stories as a way to further your own goals simply by virtue of the fact that some readers actually do see how others respond to a chapter.
12 August 2005 - Well, that was a nice surprise. When I visited old.grazhir.com/forums/ I auto-logged in to the forums and was able to backup the database! Whoo!
I suppose that means that people could technically still post there?
12 August 2005 - How odd, certain pages don't seem to want to display any longer. I guess I'll have to figure out what went wrong during the move. In any case, I think I may have found a design idea that appeals to me, so I think I'll spend some time scrounging up a few images I'll need and get to work on creating a new layout.
Of course, that will mean I'll have to upload the entire site again, but that's not really a big deal, I suppose.
9 August 2005 - Huh, and there goes another chapter. No idea how that happened, honest. Maybe we'll see OWA shortly as well.
9 August 2005 - I'm about 1/3 of the way through a chapter for Forsaken at this moment, though a chapter is finished for OWA (I'm letting it sit for a bit so I can go back and decide if it's complete trash or not).
I have to wonder, though, if when I can put the forums back up if I should simply get the most current version of phpbb. I don't know if it will import the backup, though (but I admit I haven't bothered to go look, either).
I still have the urge to redesign the site, but no matter what I come up with it all seems like more of the usual trash. Oh well.
8 August 2005 - Oops. So, Grazhir has been moved over to the new server, which means the forums are inaccessible except for reading (meaning, you can't log into them), which makes it a little difficult for me to back it up one last time.
So, okay. That means is I lost a review, so I'll just have to copy that to pop in later on, I guess.
4 August 2005 - So, it seems that we're having some issues with Apache 2.0 on the new server, so I have no idea now how long before the move. It could be a month, or it could be next week. But, given that I don't expect an interruption of any kind in service for a bit, I felt safe enough in updating.
I am told, however, that it might be longer for the forums once things are set up, so even though I do back up the database when something changes, I have no idea how long after the move before that's actually active again. If the forum link fails, you'll know why.
Mail is working, though. I switched the server over already and have been having no problems (well, unless someone manages to crash the sucker). All that means is I shouldn't have to reroute anything through gmail (thank goodness).
I've made it to disc 3 for FF 7, which is good, but I still need to work on Cid and Vincent's limit breaks (though, the dark dragons in the north crater can be manipulated, so it should be easy once I have all the x/1 limits learned). I also still have Ruby and Emerald weapon to defeat, and some master materia sets to complete.
Speaking of which, I went out and purchased a new controller from Madcatz which supposedly has Turbo, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out. No such button, I'm afraid, and they haven't answered my email yet, the wankers. It almost makes me want to go back to using the gamesharked save file so I already have certain things, but I honestly don't know if my Dex Drive will work properly on an XP machine. Never got around to testing that.
Oh, yeah—Jack Thompson is a weenie.
27 July 2005 - Now I remember why FF 7 used to give me so many headaches. Like other games of that era, you cannot use the stick to move. I can live with the swap on X and O, but lack of the stick is a real pain in the tuckas. (For some reason, even though I can get used to the X/O swap in Xenosaga, I can't stand it here and reconfigure the controller unless, for some reason, I must switch it back briefly.)
I wandered onto disc 4 of FF 9 (re-writing an FAQ as I went along) before I decided to take a break on that. I haven't decided if I really want to fight Ozma or Hades yet.
A chapter of OWA is going to go up shortly (though Forsaken is giving me more trouble). I admit, I've given serious consideration as to how Remus will react when Harry talks to him. I have deliberated the matter of whether he would accept things or not. I suppose I've decided how I want it to go, mainly (note: this is not part of the chapter to be posted, it's the next one).
If you want to comment on that, feel free to start a thread in Musings at the forums. I continue to back up the database when I notice a change because of the upcoming server move (which, by the way, is still being prepped from what my husband says, though he also tells me he should be able to transfer the entire site over easily enough—hopefully this also means no loss of email while in transition and not having to switch ff.net to gmail for a bit).
I'm not going to bother to fix the forum "skin" until after the move.
I finally completed my Escaflowne collection, so we'll have to be sitting down soon to have a marathon.
21 July 2005 - It's come to my attention that we may be moving to a new physical server. For the moment I've backed up the entire site (including the forums), but I'm not sure how much of a pain this will be.
It may also mean that I'll need to change my email address at ff.net temporarily to my gmail account (blech), then back, so I don't miss anything.
When I'm sure/have more information, I'll let y'all know.
19 July 2005 - Okay, another chapter of Forsaken for you. Early.
19 July 2005 - First let me say that I have no idea why the forums have suddenly reverted to the original style. I'll have to pop into the admin section and see if what I set up went missing. Gonna be pissed if it did.
Apparently, the Grazhir template fried itself somehow. I get the feeling I never bothered to export it. I guess I'll have to recreate the sucker?
Anyhoo, I should mention that I've already been asked by one person if I plan on giving up on notsonice!Dumbledore fics. My answer was and is no. That is the beauty of AU in my opinion.
However, I may borrow certain portions of HBP for my WIP fics (specifically thinking of OWA at the moment).
17 July 2005 - The spoiler version of my HBP thoughts so far.
16 July 2005 - I'm quite curious now—what was Regulus Black's middle name, hm?
16 July 2005 - Holy freakin' shit. US edition, chapter 23, page 497. Am I good, or what!? GO ME!!!
15 July 2005 - Gosh, a chapter of Forsaken the same day.
15 July 2005 - Finally, the day (almost) we've all been waiting for! So, I finished FF8 (I got bored of stat maxing activities and headed off to kill the bitch) and switched over to FF9 instead. Dagger just "went home" and Zidane & Co. are off to Cleyra (though not without a pause to learn currently unlearned abilities and for Quina to grab a Blue Magic over at the beach before heading in). There are definitely days I wish I had a turbo controller, I must say.
My husband really can't understand why I have so much patience for games like I play when I've little patience for anything else. I suppose he has a point, though, considering that I was contemplating another round of FF8 from a low-level/no-level viewpoint so that once I had Cactuar or the other GFs with stat bonuses I could really beef people up.
I did manage to do that with Quistis since I neglected to use her whenever possible, but I had to use Devour for Zell and Squall, and sources I could refine.
Anyway, I figure I'll move right into FF7 once I'm done with 9, even if it does mean having to suffer through that horrible Lifestream sequence.
I've been catching up on my reading today (I was happy to see some chapter notices from several interesting stories in my email). Unfortunately, I don't feel all that well. Might have something to do with the Pepsi in the fridge, but I was craving it so bad, even though I know it's bad for me.
07 July 2005 - Sorry folks. Having serious trouble with the "meeting" in Forsaken as well as most of the next chapter of OWA. Frankly, I'm not sure if that one is just a load of boring dross or not.
In any case, since I've been feeling pretty idea-less, I decided to spend time playing FF VIII instead (ah, the joys of Triple Triad!) for a few days or whatever. If it comes to it, OWA will see a new chapter that may be viewed as filler, but hey, they can't all be gems.
On a side note, I was very much not pleased to see a particular review for OWA. It was short and to the point, but lacked . . . hmm. A "please" would have been nice. But, whatever. When I do update the responses page, it should be obvious what I'm babbling about.
The 4th went well. The food was good, etc. The only bad parts were where the new addition to the family (1 month old Jezebel, miniature dachshund—Jasper died, so mum and dad got a new puppy) tried to piddle on the living room carpet (I rushed her outside) and where the yellow lab stole a raw hamburger, ate it, then tossed it back up, at which point the baby found it and thought it looked appetizing.
Thank goodness for a hose nearby.
30 June 2005 - Gosh, another chapter. And the new book is soon to be out. I admit I'm a bit scared. I really don't think I'm ready to hear anything about Harry's love life, you know? Well, okay, I think I could handle it if it were Luna. Maybe.
Still frothing over the idea of the Advent Children dvd coming out—mid-September, I think.
Heard about Arc the Lad: End of Darkness, but the comments I've seen so far haven't been very complimentary. I dunno. Not sure I want to spend the money on it. Of course, Sims 2: Nightlife should be up soon, and I'll have to get that, even though I haven't played in ages.
Today has been OK, but not perfect. I still have hope. I made french bread yesterday (and christ, isn't that a hella long process) but was very upset to realize that I just used the last of the butter. Now, some of you might be satisfied with spread, but when it comes to fresh baked bread (and baked potatoes, or steak for that matter), I want the genuine article, darn it.
29 June 2005 - Well, we had a bit of an upset Monday morning. Came very close to paying homage again, but disaster was averted with much close-eyed chanting to the powers that be. I'm still feeling pretty uncertain about things, unfortunately, but we'll see.
Maybe it's the heat? It's been awfully damn hot lately, and that always tends to make me a bit ill, though not usually this bad (I think the only reason I survived for so long in Florida was central air). Frankly, I'm disgusted. I recall, back when I was very much unaware of the hideous toll that soda was taking on my system, it was very much a normal day for me to be knocking back Pepto pills or Maalox or whatever in a desperate attempt to settle things, and I often ended up going home from work early because I could not bear it, or because I ended up tossing my cookies.
Thankfully, that pretty much stopped once I dropped soda and started drinking chocolate milk instead. Heck, I even gained back some weight finally (enough that my parents stopped thinking I was anorexic—I mean really, I did manage to eat all those years, but I lost weight and couldn't get much above 110 lbs. Now I'm at 115-ish and they seem happy enough, go figure). At least it wasn't celiac disease as suspected. That would have really sucked seeing how much I looooove bread. Anyway, being more or less chronically nauseous again is really a downer, and taking a toll on my mood, and I'm massively insomniac again, which also sucks.
Some work has been done on the next chapter of Forsaken and another chapter is almost ready for OWA.
25 June 2005 - So let's see. The current tally is at 2 for Friday and 5 for Saturday. What do those numbers mean? Why, me paying homage to the porcelain throne. WHY I have no idea, but I can assure you it wasn't pleasant.
I did manage most of a cup of tea earlier, so I may be able to hope this is over. Then again, I guess morning will tell, huh? The most I've been able to do is doze today—a half hour here, there, sometimes a little longer. And by heck, I can't type for the life of me. I feel like I just started using a keyboard.
11 June 2005 - You know, my latest thing is reading independant!Harry fics, but what is this obsession with pairing him off with Bellatrix in them?? I suppose that Earl of the North is fairly okay, but it still gives me the heebies.
Apparently, I'll just have to write my own.
I shall also reiterate my wish for ff.net to have checkboxes for search—perhaps an advanced form of search?—so you can check off "Slash" or "Independant" or whatever, or at least a set of keywords you can search on that are separate from the summary of the story.
Of course, this is useless bitching, since they've never responded to my emails, so I won't bother sending this request.
For that matter, I wish one could check a box on ANY story to make it stop appearing in searches. That way, I wouldn't keep browsing into the same stories I've already looked and discarded (remember now, I have a lousy memory) forty-two times. You know, like an Ignore?
And, does anyone else think they went a little overboard on their reorganization of the user area?
03 June 2005 - Yes, I finally got off my lazy tush and wrote up my review responses to bring them up to date.
In sadder news, my dog Jasper did not wake up from his nap two days ago and has since been buried under a tree on my parents' property. He lived a long life (especially for a dachshund), and a happy life. And yes, I cried when I got the news.
30 May 2005 - And for today's humor (courtesy of Aethen), check this out. Also, the strip itself.
30 May 2005 - I am very annoyed by these unexplained outages of late from ff.net. That's one heck of a lot of server overloads. Of course, I'm annoyed more because I can't add stories to my alert list, nor can I upload chapter 22 of OWA. Obviously, with only 20 users at the forums, the people (at ff.net) who have alerts set for me are not getting a watch email from here, ya?
I'll just have to keep trying.
30 May 2005 - Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me... Naturally, I've been 29 for years now, but I've been told by several people that I look to be in my early to mid-twenties.
23 May 2005 - I strongly recommend the following two WIP stories by Marietsy: Lack of Faith and Flames of Betrayal.
Lack of Faith should have no pairing for Harry, which is just spiffy. Not so sure about the other one, but we'll see. Either way, I had a hell of a good time reading those two stories, and laughed, snorted, and chortled my way through a great deal of what I was reading. I can't wait to see how they progress.
It's reading stuff like that which makes me wonder why anyone bothers with me! Go check them out.
Edit: I take that back. I happen to adore these two stories, but I also see a lot I disagree with as time goes by. However, I'm not sure if I'll be moved to write up a post on that subject.
13 May 2005 - Well, obviously someone at our host realized that something was wrong before we had a chance to mention it. Some work has been done on the next chapter of OWA and also Forsaken.
I still haven't got anywhere with Friendship's Price at this time and am seriously considering just placing it on hiatus, or yanking it entirely until such time as I can find that muse again. I'd lose the reviews (well, at ff anyway), but it's rather unfair to just leave it there unfinished.
I dunno.
05 May 2005 - Oh, this was delightful! The Curse of Love by Vasaris, the Fuzzy Dragon.
05 May 2005 - I am utterly stunned that I've got two reviews for Choices recently. It's like winning the lottery.
05 May 2005 - Joy! Finally got my greedy paws on some of the music from Ghost in the Shell. I'm quite happily listening to stuff like Lithium Flower, Inner Universe, and The Doll House. However, I still haven't figured out which track is playing as background music a lot (from SAC, not the movies). Personally, I think The Doll House is frickin' creepy, but in a very good way.
02 May 2005 - I'm in a very, very bad mood. Is it because I'm turning 37 this month? I don't think so. Apparently, some of my more sadistic tendencies are surfacing and it's annoying people, which in turn annoys me. Such is life. It does not help that I've learned I get to work two nights this week, Friday & Saturday. I think Saturday is one of those stupid Triple Crown days, which is bad, but I think I don't go in until it's over, or close to. I can be grateful for that much—or, I would be if I wasn't in such a pissy mood.
My fingers ache, also. We've come upon a time when I have actually managed to refrain from gnawing my fingernails to the quick on a regular basis, and thus, I have actual nails that extend past the tips of my fingers, which also means I have to type somewhat differently. Using the shift key on the laptop is getting very vexing.
At least it's sunny today.
28 April 2005 - After watching the first four episodes of Escaflowne, I've come to the conclusion that I'd like to see more. Of course, that might have something to do with wanting to swoon over Alan...
24 April 2005 - If you feel like it, check out this poll regarding a question I had for readers on OWA.
20 April 2005 - Hermione is still being obstinate.
17 April 2005 - Sorry, but Hermione is being a bitch at the moment, so another attempt at the next chapter of Forsaken was cut short in order to amuse myself with hentai.
12 April 2005 - 10.50am - Holy mother of destruction. I do not fucking believe this. It's snowing! Why? Why!?
12 April 2005 - Sheesh. Just about had a heart attack a minute ago when my AV program stuck a pop-up in front of my face with it's happy little verbal warning about a naughty email. Naturally, I had it delete the sucker. Nice to know the program works, though, right?
It's just as startling when a pop-up appears with the spoken message, "The virus database has been updated!"
10 April 2005 - So I watched the revised ending. I still feel like I need Cliff Notes so I can understand exactly what happened, though I'm not surprised by what I saw. I do understand why people keep insisting on comparing Xenogears to NGE though, and I have to say I don't much agree with the compulsion.
Let's face it—you could actually understand the story for Xenogears, and it was much richer and more in depth. AND it came with a guide (though most of us needed a translator) if you wanted to spend the extra cash to explain the more esoteric bits, or just the nitty gritty details about the composition of Deus, etc.
In the end, I'm disappointed with NGE. It pains me to say that, but that's how I feel. I'm also disappointed in the final two discs. Death & Rebirth is like . . . over half of it is a melange of the first 24 episodes, which was a waste of my time, and the second part of it is duplicated on the final disc, The End of Evangelion.
Given that the end to the series was disappointing in the extreme, I would have been happier being confused if I could have seen Kaworu make the moves on Shinji. He struck me as a damn cool character for the whole five or ten minutes we got to really see him. Ah well.
That being said, I'm off to go watch Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 1 & 2.
09 April 2005 - I've come to the conclusion that the later episodes of NGE are a total mind fuck. Is it bad to want to bitch slap the main character into next week for being such a weenie? I mean, geez. Right, anyway, off to view the two-part re-ending. <sigh>
09 April 2005 - I finally completed my Neon Genesis: Evangelion collection and have been perched in front of my computer all day watching from the beginning. I think I got the first few discs over two years ago, and only just now got collection discs 5-8? Sheesh. Now on 7, so those three episodes, plus disc 8, and the two final movies to go!
I gotta say, though, some of these episodes are just fucking whacked.
09 April 2005 - So, I'm browsing the listings at ff.net for FF8 and such, thinking to myself, can't you people be bothered to put in the summary if it's slash, and better yet, the pairing? It's not like we can frickin' search by selecting a pairing. Why so many damn oneshots?
It's getting quite tempting to start posting my own ideas for stories to see if anyone is willing to take up the challenge of writing them. Lord knows, I'd love to see something new for stuff like FF8, 7, 10, 10-2 and even Xeno games.
It's a good thing I'm highly resistent to barfing over seeing yet another horribly sappy or angsty Squinoa. Gah. That girl needs to be kicked right back into that sealing device and launched into space. I absolutely loathe Rinoa.
Strangely, I find that I don't mind the idea of a Shion/Wilhelm, or even Shion/chaos, though the idea of chaos/KOS-MOS makes my stomach turn.
I'm heartbroken that no one has yet done a hair mesh for Jin or Wilhelm, though one nice person did post a rather good skin for Shion. I'm not so sure about the face, but the clothing was definitely acceptable.
In progress on a new chapter of Angel, and one pending for Forsaken, with a second in progress. Another FF8 fic was started, though heaven only knows if I'll ever finish it.
As you might have guessed, my muse dropped by for a visit.
07 April 2005 - I am such a masochist, playing through most of chapter 1 in FF X-2, then stopping in to watch the movie spheres in Luca. <sniffle> Even though I always play for the best ending, still . . . it's emotionally painful to walk through those places again.
07 April 2005 - It's gonna be longer. My muse has been on vacation for a while now. It's not a lack of outlines, 'cos I got 'em. However, I did get some work done today on the current chapter of Forsaken.
20 March 2005 - You know, I just realized I haven't played with the cow plant yet. I really need to get one of those suckers on a lot and see which annoying townies I can feed to it.
20 March 2005 - What is with my sims? My current couple has had three girls, one boy. Sheesh! At least all of them are fairly attractive children. Maybe I can get a male out of a different couple. Then I can send a batch of five kids to university together.
I admit, I cheated outrageously when it came to one fellow's lifetime aspiration of whoohooing 20 different sims. Sure, he managed it . . . with the help of the relations adjuster portion of the InSIMinator, a hot tub, and in a couple of cases, a fitting booth.
Watching his expression in the hot tub every time—heh, I was ready to fall for him myself, and he's just pixels!
On the other hand, so many of the game-generated townies and students are uglier than sin. Gets quite tempting to use a cloning technique on the suckers to make them more attractive.
14 March 2005 - So all right, I got the University expansion for Sims 2 last night at around midnight. Now, like a good girl I backed up my entire ... (I won't bore you with the details.)
And voila! I didn't go to bed until noon today, having been intent on getting Caedryn through college. I'm only halfway through his junior year I think, but he's engaged to a rather sloppy young man named Ashley who's a semester behind. It, well, never mind. If you want to read about all that, go here.
12 March 2005 - Yes, it's snowing. Again. The picnic table out back is buried. We might find it again in a few weeks. On a side note, here's some cute little thumbnails of my Sims2 versions of Cloud and Sephiroth.
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11 March 2005 - Now I know I'm crazy. I just had an image pop into my head of Dumbledore as a counterpart to Wilhelm from Xenosaga, complete with a wizarding version of the Compass of Order. Gah!
10 March 2005 - I am seriously fucking annoyed with ff.net. Every time I turn around something else goes wonky. I am so tempted to upload a test page just to see what kind of separators they will allow at this point seeing as how everything else seems to disappear into ether the second you upload the chapter, then deleting the "story" afterward.
I do not like using horizontal rules for that purpose. Not one bit!
(Side note: the instrumental La Mer from Suikoden IV just grows on you, damn it. Like a fungus! And I didn't know you could get such . . . sound from a damn accordian!)
So, I completed the epilogue portion of Xenosaga II, minus the extra NA bosses. Gee, now all I have to do is play through the last dungeon another, uh, nineteen times? Why Captain Matthew's debt has to be so astronomical . . . sheesh. Sadists!
(Side note: those numbers next to some of the listings under Potentials denotes how many chapters I have sitting around for them so far. Though, I have to wonder how many hits I'd get for the FF one, Tempest.)
10 March 2005 - You know, every time the Dammerung comes to the rescue and I hear that music playing (Omega), I feel like cheering and screaming, "The cavalry! We're saved!" (Yes, this is a reference to Xenosaga.)
Yasunori Mitsuda is a musical god. Of course, Nobuo Uematsu is right up there too in the genius category.
03 March 2005 - Wow, it's March already. I can look forward to Spring now! Hit a major block with Friendship's Price so that'll probably take a while for the next chapter. Oh well. I'll have to give a great deal of thought.
28 February 2005 - Chapter 4 of FoM is done, but that's just a tease. I do think I'm going to have to name the journal entry pages something bizarrely random so that people can't just figure out how to read the next ahead of time.
24 February 2005 - I just edited chapter 1 of Fragments of Memories and found myself laughing quite a bit. Jeez, I hope my sense of humor isn't too alien for others. I know I'm cracked, trust me.
24 February 2005 - I'm trying something different. I'm not so much worried any more about word count or number of lines. I'm beginning to base length for a chapter on how many inches it appears as in Dreamweaver (Grazhir templates, that is). If it hits at least a certain length and I feel it's complete enough, I'll post it.
24 February 2005 - I take that back. I actually finished chapter 7 of Tempest, and I'm most of the way through chapter 16 of Friendship's Price.
24 February 2005 - Yahoo! We are now logging back into the domain, and since we were swift enough to export our Dreamweaver site settings prior to that, we were able to be back up and running with little fuss! Whoo! Go me!
Presently working on chapters for Forsaken, Friendship's Price, and One Winged Angel, along with Tempest (the FF XO I mentioned earlier).
I have completed Xenosaga II (and that was a blast), and am currently in the process of doing the epilogue stuff, though apparently my PS2 is about to shit the bed. I keep getting the infamous Disc Read Error. Cause for depression, but I suppose if it comes to it, I could borrow my dad's if I batted my lashes enough.
17 February 2005 - Well, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that Xenosaga II is currently in my greedy little hands, AND the bonus DVD of movies from Ep. I. Ha! Pre-ordering DOES occasionally make sense! (Of course, I already downloaded every single cutscene from over at Onegai Studios—took me a week.)
On a happier note—I've giggled my way through several hours of the game, which is rather nice. Someone obviously had a sense of humour. Of course, I think my husband might have become annoyed at me constantly squealing, "Go, Jin! Scar the bastard! Whoo!" (KOS-MOS looks very interesting in a swimsuit, by the way.)
I've dashed off some for Friendship's Price, and also Forsaken, and even some for One Winged Angel, so they are being worked on. I'm beginning to think that finishing up Crumbling Pedestal made my brain go pffft!
Of course, I've also written over a chapter for a Final Fantasy crossover (inclusive) that I won't bother to post anywhere until the silly thing is actually complete. My friend says he giggled his way through the six chapters I showed him, though he thinks it's not nearly as deep as what I've managed for Harry Potter.
15 February 2005 - Okay, so I went to look just now at the copy of Forsaken's chapter 13 at ff.net because one of y'all mentioned the punctuation. Sure enough, there's a ton of question marks missing and shit. Very strange, considering they appear on the copy here at Grazhir. I suppose I'll have to upload the chapter again and see if it corrects itself.
12 February 2005 - Blessed be. I finally completed a new chapter! Rejoice! (Hopefully it doesn't suck.)
11 February 2005 - It has snowed all yesterday, and even still snows! They predicted perhaps 6-10 inches. <glances out window and snorts loudly> Mmm. I am not pleased.
08 February 2005 - The current chapter of Forsaken is 2/3 complete, by the way.
03 February 2005 - I keep getting this wierd urge to change my penname to SlytherinSolution. Meh. Oh well.
03 February 2005 - For what it's worth, new chapters of both Forsaken and Friendship's Price are approximately 1/3 done each. I still haven't come up with a good Harry/Lucius idea, but I do have one for Harry/Salazar in mind, bizarre as it may be. I guess I'll just keeping adding them to my list and hope I get around to writing them at some point.
I'm beginning to think it would be better in the long run to not have WIP stories. You know, make sure I have the story(ies) complete before I start uploading chapters to any archives. Of course, that might mean huge delays in anything new, but I suppose that doesn't matter in the long run. I dunno. Merlin knows that some of the things on my Potentials list are half written, but foundering as I sit there and ponder where to actually take them.
I find it funny, though. I was checking some of the threads over at Fiction Alley, looking at the Help...Where can I find? and some others, and noticed that while certain people were very happy to mention stuff like Biology, Crumbling Pedestal, and Forsaken, I never seemed to notice anyone mentioning Induction when it came to HP/SS or Sev Slash (his POV). It makes me wonder if a lot of people out there are too disturbed by the story? Maybe it's just not to the tastes of people who frequent FA.
Oh well, I thought it was very nice that people do mention the others, even on livejournal fic recs lists and such. One person pointed out Biology and said that at first glance it looked like a ton of cliches, but that it turned out to be a good read regardless. Very nice.
I'm really frickin' annoyed, though, that FF.net has removed the option to export/archive one's reviews. It's all very well to be able to offload chapters posted, or shove them back for editing with QuickEdit, but man, I really liked being able to yank down the reviews so I could read one long page when I was feeling blue and not have to keep clicking next page or whatever.
31 January 2005 - Huh. So here I've been, while editing and whatnot, and trying to complete new chapters for my two WIPs, and I start thinking of writing a crossover with a game for poor Harry. It is such a trial at times to have Gemini traits, no? My mind is scattered all over the place. On a vaguely humorous note, a lady at work who constantly props herself up against the common cold has finally gone down with one this year and had to call out sick. Poor thing. Hopefully she will not be in as much misery as I have been over the past month.
On another note, everything seems to be coming out in either a French or Italian accent lately, and I have no idea why. Every time I read Crumbling Pedestal, Heru is definitely not speaking with a British accent, which comes across as quite strange when he says things like, "Bloody hell." I can feel my sanity slipping away (not that there was much there to begin with).
I also managed to come up $40 short this evening while counting my drawer, only to find out when it was verified by the night manager that I had counted my twenties as tens. Four of them does not make $40, it makes $80. I told her I must have left my brain at home. Still, better to come across as a complete airhead than to have to make up the shortage, right?
26 January 2005 - The Village was an all right movie, but Alien vs. Predator was a blast!
25 January 2005 - Well, it's been a blast being sick as a dog for the past three-four weeks with the flu and a nasty, lingering cold.
27 December 2004 - It may be a few days—I was lucky enough to get four games for Christmas, and I've been playing Sims 2. . . . Mmm, got me two hunky fellas married off.
20 December 2004 - It's bad enough it snowed overnight and into the morning. The plows merrily chugged along, pushing snow hither and yon, and the sun decided to appear. Now it's snowing again. Eeeeeee!
20 December 2004 - It's snowing again. <snarl>
19 December 2004 - I simply don't have any interest in working on Forsaken at the moment, so it's going to be a while before you see more chapters for it. Sorry. I can only say that part of the problem is the pairing (I'm just not a huge fan of Draco) and also that I've already revealed how I intend for Brand to get Dumbledore. <shrug>
17 December 2004 - Did my Christmas shopping today. Glad that's out of the way! Also put down deposits on both Xenosaga II and Suikoden IV. I guess Wild Arms: Alter Code F won't be coming out 'til near the end of February, I guess, which sucks.
14 December 2004 - Do you want to know why I write? Because I can't find enough good fanfiction out there to satisfy my voracious appetite for reading.
14 December 2004 - I know, a bunch of you out there are cursing my name right now for introducing another story so quickly. Just wait, another one is almost ready for chapter 1 to be uploaded! (But I'm sure you figured that out due to the notice above, huh?) On a side note, I realized earlier today that I missed the annual Christmas party at my uncle's.
13 December 2004 - Alternates will show up in the listbox for Crumbling Pedestal, by the way, here at Grazhir.
10 December 2004 - Okay, who said it was kosher to change the release date of Suikoden IV? Huh!? Those bastards!
07 December 2004 - So, I got to leave work early, which is nice, but since there's snow/ice/rain out there, that's not so nice. Drove home at 20mph. Meh.
07 December 2004 - I really, really, really hate when people post stories and do not put the summary at the top of the first chapter. I tend to open several stories at a time (if they look interesting) so by the time I go back to actually read them, I have no idea what they're about.
04 December 2004 - It's snowing again. How very rude. Tips sucked, and I got called "kiddo" by one of the guys betting.
04 December 2004 - Have I already said this? girl!Harry squicks me out so bad I can't even begin to describe it. I notice them occasionally at ff.net and literally shudder at the idea.
03 December 2004 - And it's still snowing!!!!
03 December 2004 - I don't know if I should laugh or cry. I got up to make a cup of tea and realized it's snowing out.
01 December 2004 - I still haven't come up with a decent idea for Harry/Lucius. I still haven't watched my dvd copy of PoA either.
29 November 2004 - I despair of ever coming up with a good, plausible Harry/Lucius idea.
29 November 2004 - Today's rant.
29 November 2004 - So here I am, 1/3 of the way through chapter 38 of Crumbling Pedestal, and what am I doing? Re-reading reviews for my stories to boost my mood. I think I'm depressed—it really looks like CP won't be all that much longer, I hate to say. If it makes it to 40, I'll be gratified, but a little shocked.
On the other hand, it will end up meaning that I can try and finish the WIP chapters for Forsaken and Friendship's Price, and I know some of you will be happy about that.
Sitting in my local copy of Grazhir are chapters for two new stories, but I got a bit whacked over one of them, thinking that I should change directions almost at once. I dunno. We'll see, I guess. I spent some of my time at work last night making notes for various stories I'd like to write, and wracking my brains for more "Slytherin Solutions."
28 November 2004 - A massive heart attack in the making reared its ugly head when my husband updated the firmware for our router and it flat out stopped working. Sure, it made a nice hub, but no internet connection? I daresay I was slightly put out. But all was saved, thankfully (no thanks to the manufacturers who suggested stupid things like visiting their website, or had support hours only during the week from 9-5).
27 November 2004 - I'm beginning to think I should try re-ripping all the songs off my playlist to standardize the volume.
27 November 2004 - I've come to the realization that when it comes to defeating Voldemort I prefer a Slytherin solution over a Gryffindor one.
25 November 2004 - Thanksgiving went pretty well. It was even better to find out that my mother picked up six cannoli for me!
24 November 2004 - So much for sleep. I think I managed a whole four hours before I woke up with a very sour stomach. And, horror of horrors, I got a copy of PoA today for my DVD collection. Maybe this time I shall be able to watch it without screaming, "Who the fuck decided Hermione was the star of the god damn movie!?!?!?"
24 November 2004 - This is almost depressing. Looking over my outline for Crumbling Pedestal has me thinking I may only get a couple more chapters out of it.
And why the hell can't fanfiction.net have a SLASH category we can search on? I'm so sick to death of scrolling pages looking for something interesting to read and finding a nauseating plethora of Harry/Ginny, Harry/Hermione or (god help us), Harry/Cho. I swear. . . . For that matter, why can't we have a really nifty little search dealie that allows you to check off slash, betrayal, and any other number of interesting little options?
22 November 2004 - I think I may have finally figured out why this site looked like shit in IE, and I think I've fixed it.
22 November 2004 - I've been experimenting with something, and in consequence, have downloaded several handwritten-type fonts for a project, a particular story that I wanted to do something a little different with. So, if people are paying attention, they're going to want to wander on over to here and download a font called Another. At some point, this will come in handy.
22 November 2004 - In an unpredented move, I began work on a new WIP fic, but until I have a hefty number of chapters ready to be posted, I won't bother mentioning which one from the list it is. (This is in part a response to my brain having congealed when it comes to other currently WIP stories, though I am somewhere in the middle of chapter 36 for Crumbling Pedestal.) It's actually been difficult to get used to be able to sit at my computer (as opposed to the laptop) and write, so I think I'm better off spending some of my time on things that are newer and fresher, which should help to get my brain moving again.
20 November 2004 - I updated the music page of my profile the other day to reflect my actual play list. A minor thing, but possibly of interest to some people.
19 November 2004 - I have discovered a new perversion in my cat, Shadow. I already knew he liked to lick plastic, but apparently he likes to lick tissue paper as well—you know, the kind you use for gift wrapping? Sheesh.
17 November 2004 - There is a disgusting lack of quality slash out there for Xenogears and Xenosaga, and what's available for Final Fantasy VII, VIII, X and X-2 isn't much better. <sigh> How depressing. Every time I go look I end up disappointed.
17 November 2004 - Wow, I actually made more than 50¢ today in tips!
16 November 2004 - I was pleased to note that several days ago the official website for Xenosaga II was announced. Now if they'd just release the damn game!
14 November 2004 - I find myself missing the rather sweet and uncomplicated methods I used in stories like Choices and ISG. Those two aren't horribly deep or dramatic, but they do hold a certain elusive quality that I think my more ambitious stories lack. I wrote them a year ago, and I still like to read them every so often to remind myself that complicated plots aren't necessary for a good time. I don't know . . . it makes me want to try something in first person again.
14 November 2004 - I'm getting rather antsy today. I'm not getting anywhere at all with my current crop of WIP fics and keep drifting over to my outline for Fragments instead. Folks would probably shoot me if I added another fic to the WIP list though.
I feel pretty darn slow today, in any case, and I'm struggling to re-complete chapter 30 of Crumbling Pedestal so that I can move on to finishing chapter 31 and think about 32.
There are two chapters of Friendship's Price in beta, but I have no idea when those will be coming back. There's a third chapter in progress, but my mind kept wandering at that point, so I chucked it back in its folder and shoved it out of sight.
Forsaken is barely into the next chapter, though I have a fairly good idea of what I'll be covering. It struck me recently that I still have the majority of August to play with if I want.
14 November 2004 - I can say I'm feeling happier—I have my template files back in my grasping little hands.
13 November 2004 - Well, one can always hope. I won't say what we're hoping about, but. . . .
05 November 2004 - Induction is now complete.
27 October 2004 - Crumbling Pedestal, Forsaken, Induction and Friendship's Price should be up to date here at Grazhir now. Mind you, I am using my husband's machine, and did it all in more or less on shot, so I might have made mistakes.
25 October 2004 - No, I don't have a working computer of my own yet. My poor, long-suffering husband has more or less been kicked off his for the time being. For today, I'm updating the Review Reponses pages. Later I'll get around to updating each fic with the chapters I've already posted to ff.net. And, if I managed to leave anyone out, I'm sorry, but having lost my inbox several times now...I've printed every review out that I've received since the last time it happened so I could deal with them later (now).
05 October 2004 - Shocking how many chapters can be written when one is in the mood. For those anxiously awaiting chapters for Induction, here's No. 12. I've got several questions to answer for myself before I'm entirely sure of the direction of the next few chapters, so I'm not sure how long 13 will take.
And I've stopped shuffling the order of the Updates box. Too much trouble. So it'll just list the most current chapter for a particular fic.
27 September 2004 - Huh. Star Ocean 3 isn't such a bad game, though the major plot twist is twisted for sure. Biology was accepted at Fiction Alley's Schnoogle. And I'm finally catching up on my review responses. Oh, and a new chapter is up.
02 September 2004 - Where does the time go?
25 August 2004 - I'm becoming increasingly pissed off at fanfiction.net and their changes. I don't think any more needs to be said on that subject.
A slightly modified version of Infinite Shades of Grey was accepted at the Astronomy Tower section at Fiction Alley, which is kind of nice. They're pretty picky about what goes up there, after all. I'm waiting to see if the first chapter of Biology is accepted for Schnoogle.
14 August 2004 - Heh, okay. The motherboard is dead, and the memory sticks are dead. We tried swapping my memory to the other machine and it would no longer boot (same beep code as mine), so we tried the other machine's memory in mine and it still threw off the same error.
That says to me that both are dead in the water. Shit the bed, bought the farm, however you want to phrase it. So, now I'm looking at new everythings, basically. If anyone feels like donating to the cause, I won't say no. Paypal is always good - let me know (not that I really expect anyone reads this stuff).
13 August 2004 - Well, my motherboard died, which means updating just got more difficult. Perhaps I wouldn't mind so much, except that it means all my templates are sitting on a hard drive I can't get to without opening the case, again, and yanking the drive, then opening another case, and hooking it up as a slave, blah blah blah.
Anyway, it'll just make things a bit more difficult. Especially since most of my original files (i.e. planned chapters) are on that same drive. Well, I'll do the best I can.
07 August 2004 — I've become seriously annoyed now. Fanfiction.net no longer allows the use of BlockQuote apparently, never mind non-breaking spaces. It was bad enough when things like ~ started getting stripped (and I see a lot of people now using stuff like qpqpqpqpqp as separators now), but this is getting downright silly.
The next thing I expect to happen is that use of bold and italic is disallowed. The changes they're making are supposed to be good? The last email I sent to ff.net was ignored, and it wasn't even a complaint - it was a question. I won't even bother to send a complaint, as I'm sure that will be ignored as well. I must say though, they're being downright obtuse of late.
04 August 2004 — I'm rather annoyed. I got as far as being promoted twice playing the little "Let's make a disgusting creature" game over at RE: A in the lab, and having found two of the specials that can appear on a critter, when my machine rebooted itself for no good reason.
Now I'll have to do it all over again, probably on a different machine. Thank goodness I kept notes. Spreadsheets are awful handy at times.
Either way, the preview for Resident Evil: Apocalypse looks massively awesome. I loved the first movie, and this looks even better. I think I'll actually pay to see it in the theatre rather than waiting for it to come out on dvd.
01 August 2004 — Well, as you can see, the site's been updated again. I never was much of a beige person, but it worked at the time. But now, instead, being the masochist that I am, I went ahead and redid the whole friggin thing. Besides, it looked like utter crap in IE for some reason. Funny how it was never a problem in the past.
Anyway, there's two new links up yonder—Forums and Archives. Forums is just that, mainly for the purpose of providing an alternate way for people who aren't registered at fanfiction.net to get email alerts for updates (assuming they register here and "watch" the appropriate topics), and also for reviewing (if people don't want to do it at ff.net for some reason, or want to get very explicit, which you can't do there).
Archives is just a boring old list of everything I've said here before.
If you see something totally whacky on the site (like...I totally fucked up with one of the template updates and some pages still display the old scheme even after a hard refresh) then hop on over to the forums and drop me a PM or email me, whatever. I suppose you could IM me, but I'm not always on. I had to refresh a number of pages (presumably my cache is being a pest).
22 July 2004 — Holy snikes! Right - I've rebuilt my machine 3-4 times in almost as many days, so I'm really behind on everything lately. Hopefully it'll be more stable from now on (though I shan't hold my breath), not to mention the power supply for the laptop finally arrived today, so I once again have a backup machine to use.
19 July 2004 —To whom it may concern, sorry for delays on new chapters. I finally hit a point in time where there wasn't any flow, so I've been playing games instead, and jotting thin