Night Island

I've always wanted to do one of these! I got this from nay when I was trying to kill time before the Tonys started last night.

Rules: list the first lines of your last 10 published stories. See if there are any patterns yourself, or have other people say what they notice. (Tumblr
memes always include tagging, but here I'm setting it free for anyone else who wants to play!)

( Here's a reminder that I should try to write more than just drabbles for once )

These are all Night Vale and Harry Potter fics, which makes sense since those are fandoms I always returned to when I'm not really into any others. Reading over these first lines kinda makes me want to go back and tweak them. I feel like I use a lot of adjectives and adverbs, but I'm not sure if I totally enjoy the effect on second glance. Since most of these are drabbles, the opening lines all seem direct and to the point. I was surprised that I used dialogue on several occasions to open the stories, but again, it makes sense for drabbles. I actually like opening a story with dialogue and should try to do it more often. Some of these probably could have been expanded into longer stories, but I was sticking to drabbles at the time to get back into the habit of writing. Also, it is really obvious that I'm a Snape fangirl.

From now on, I will try to post on a more regular schedule at least once a month if I can help it. Without looking it up, I can't even remember when I posted last. *sighs* If I post more often, I won't feel like such a guilty teenager slinking in after curfew every time I post after months of journal neglect.

Well, that other entry, as so often happens, did not come to fruition. -_-; The title of this post is brought to you by the song of the same name by Joseph Fink, which was used as the weather in an episode of Welcome to Night Vale. The song sounds a little nicer than my actual morning, though. This is from one of the earlier episodes, but I've continued to listen to WTNV faithfully even after the fervor died down a few years ago. Mostly, it has been out of habit and love of the world, but some of the recent episodes have been surprisingly great. The second novel, It Devours, is one of my favorite things to come out in the last few years out of anything.

But that's enough about older fandoms that are past their expiration date. Back to reality, boo.

I have reached the halfway mark in my final semester as an undergraduate. Come December, I will be done with my undergraduate career forever. Graduate school will probably come next, but the point is that I'm done with this chapter of my life finally.

As for more immediate concerns, I should probably be doing other things right now. I have to write 600 words about the partition of India like I know what I'm talking about in my post-colonial lit class. I have to catch up on my responses to the short stories and poems from my creative writing classes. I've been trying to keep up, but I'm always so exhausted when I come home from school, and I can't seem to accomplish very much in the mornings before I leave. Finally, I have to pretend that I know what I'm talking about on my American poetry midterm this Wednesday. It'll probably be fine, but I feel pretty scattered and disorganized.

My poetry has been extremely well-received this semester. It has gone even better than I had hoped. I've only taken one poetry creative writing class before, but it feels like something in my mind has just clicked. I feel like I am flourishing creatively. Yet, none of this creative flourishing has found its way into my fannish life. I would really like to participate in Yuletide for once, but my time management skills say no. I hope I can try to squeeze in a treat or two, but again, my time management skills and finals may work against me.

I've been trying to have some fun this semester without overloading myself. It's so hard to strike a happy medium, though. On Friday, I went to Downtown Disney for a break. As it just so happens, I ate at the new Salt and Straw location on opening day, and I didn't even realize it until afterwards. The store was absolutely swamped, though, so that should have been a clue. I got one of their Halloween flavors called Creepy Crawly Critters, which actually contained real bugs unless my reading comprehension skills are totally worthless. When I was in the store, I thought that "real bugs" was just a joke, but based on their other flavors, it wasn't. So, I had real chocolate-covered crickets and mealworms in my matcha green tea ice cream. I also had a chicken tamale at Tortilla Jo's and a flor de Jamaica agua fresca, which I loved. *_* I'm currently
obsessed with that flavor and anything hibiscus. Downtown Disney isn't quite as fun now that it has all the security and increased prices for the parking lot, but I was happy to be there before the rain hit. I feel like I should be madder at the Walt Disney Company than I actually am.

Yesterday, I went to the grand opening of the Tokyo Central store in Yorba Linda. I've been meaning to go for aaages but never found the time. We ate from the buffet, and I had yakisoba for the first time. It's really good! ^_^

This morning, I woke up and turned my TV on to find a showing of Toy Story on Disney XD. I knew it was on yesterday, but I didn't realize that they'd be showing it again. This movie came out when I was in elementary school, so it is hugely nostalgic for me. I think that I love it even more as an adult, but that's Pixar for you. Toy Story 2 is on now, which I don't think I've ever watched in its entirety. I know I watched part of it on a bus ride during my school trip to Washington D.C., and I've caught bits and pieces when it has been on TV.

I'm behind on the new season of The Good Place, but I've watched the first episode of the 13th Doctor on Doctor Who. I really like her, and I'm happy to see the Doctor as a woman. I have a tendency to think of the Doctor as more male, but I really like the idea of Time Lords changing biological sex and/or gender. It jus makes sense. Watching Doctor Who again makes me want to catch up on the episodes with the Twelfth Doctor that I've missed because I really enjoyed Capaldi. I still have older seasons with David Tennant and Matt Smith to catch up on, though. It just reminded me of how much I love the show's mythos and concept.

Anyway, I was feeling a little depressed before I wrote this, but I guess I just wrote my way out. :3

I also just read Anne Rice's latest Vampire Chronicles book, Blood Communion, because hey, why not? It was short, but it felt like a return to form in many ways. Needless to say, I quite enjoyed it because it wasn't as out there as the one about Atlantis. There were some good parts, and the new characters didn't annoy me that much. However, ( A little bit spoilery ) I may have more to say later.

I had a hell of a time getting this entry to post correctly, so I'm just posting it now even though I wrote it this morning. I'm trying to clean up the typos right now because they make me self-conscious, but I will probably miss some.

My motivation has taken a nosedive and my sleep schedule has been all messed up ever since I finished finals' week. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to be out from under the demands of the semester, but it feels like a great driving force has been removed from my life. There's a million things that I either could do or should do, but I don't have any structure to it. I did graduate last week, so at least that's one thing I've done. I have that on Intern Maureen, and I didn't even have to lead any army or anything!

Speaking of which, I am very happy with the way that Night Vale is going. I think there might have been a dip in quality around the time the book was coming out, but events are working their way into something exciting. The format of the last episode where it's just Cecil calling a bunch of people really appeals to me to shake things up a bit. I am worried for Cecil and Carlos, though. I also desperately want to know what's going on with Chad and the evil puppy he's summoned. I am extremely proud of myself for being suspicious of the overly cute puppy in the first place. Likewise, I'm really enjoying where the new podcast, Alice Isn't Dead, is going.

Just writing these two paragraphs helped boost my mood. I'm still kind of bummed about not being able to finish my assignment for space_swap. I'm trying not to feel too horrible about it because I have two other assignments that I need to finish. The idea I was working on just got away from me, and I wasn't sure I could do it justice in the remaining time. I have almost a thousand words written now, so I intend to turn it into something eventually.

Day 4

In your own space, create a fanwork. Make a drabble, a ficlet, a podfic, or an icon, art or meta or a rec list. Arts and crafts. Draft a critical essay
about a particular media. Put together a picspam or a fanmix. Write a review of a Broadway show, a movie, a concert, a poetry reading, a museum trip, a
you-should-be-listening-to-this-band essay. Compose some limericks, haikus, free-form poetry, 5-word stories. Document a particular bit of real person
canon. Take some pictures. Draw a stick-figure comic. Create something. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if
you feel comfortable doing so.

I love this challenge so much because of the sheer variety of fanworks allowed. That being said, I have a regular old fanfic to share for this one. I wrote it last night with this challenge in mind, but I did not realize that this would be the challenge for day four. I'm so happy that I posted my first Night Vale fic even if it is short.

Waiting for the Bus in the Rain (344 words) by Komadori
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Welcome to Night Vale
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cecil/Carlos
Characters: Cecil Palmer, Carlos the Scientist
Additional Tags: AU, Ficlet, cecilos - Freeform, Rain, Caught in the Rain, First Meeting, beginning of a relationship, Oneshot, A Gentle Fall of Rain, Homesickness
Summary:

AU Cecil finds himself in a strange city when it starts to rain.

If I come up with anything else, I'll add it here. This challenge has me inspired!

well, damn... it's after 2 a.m., and I'm full of energy. Perfect timing, huh? Anyway, I thought I'd make my first post in the meantime. This isn't a real introductory post though. It's just what's going through my mind right now...

I have to get up tomorrow too enroll in my fall classes. *blinks* I should be up at 10 this morning. That is, if my registration date gets updated… Otherwise, I may have to go down there. I want to take that critical thinking requirement class, a Shakespeare class, a music appreciation class, and an introductory psychology class. Hope that all works out.

I've also been really getting into Welcome to Night Vale. I'm on episode 10 so far. And I've read two FICs! ♥ In fact, that's why I just signed up for AO3. I hope my invite comes soon... It looks a lot friendlier than Fanfiction.Net.

I've also been reading J. K. Rowling's new book. In fact, I need to finish it. More on that later.

I will post a proper introduction soon. Now, sleep!