Apollymi

How much longer

So the real question is, giving what's going on over on news...

How much longer will GreatestJournal be up?

When it goes down, I'm also over on Insane Journal, Journal Fen, and for the time being, LiveJournal.

Costume refs

With plans to try to hit three cons next year, it seemed like a good idea to start gathering images of character/costumes I'll be doing. This is mostly for my (and Kattan's) reference than anything else.

Definites
Random: (Music video based, new costume)
Simone Simons in Epica's "Solitary Ground"

Mara Jade: Star Wars Expanded Universe (Redo/upgrade)
1 2 3 4 5 6

Maeve: The Adventures of Sinbad (New costume, joint cosplay?)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Possibilities
Leeloo: The Fifth Element (New costume, dependant on figuring out the straps)
1 2 3 4

Ace: Classic Doctor Who (New costume, dependant on finding patches)
1 2 3 4
Gallery

x-posted to LJ and JF

Finally got my icons pared down

So I finally got my icons pared down, from 336 to 87. A word of advice: never trust the count GJ gives - it told me I had 96 icons but refreshing told me I was down to 84, so I probably didn't need to get rid of that last set. ~.~

Still... I dread when I do this on LJ. Narrowing 113 down to 6 will be HARD. At least I have till January to do that. Hopefully, I won't be squeeing over Torchwood and trying to add new icons at the time.

And for the record, my abs hurt.

I'm a dork

I'm a dork. More specifically, I'm a shopping dork. I don't need to be eyeing kilt fabrics. Especially not when it's £33.70 a metre, with a minimum of 5 metres. In other words, £168.50 ($358.31) before tax and shipping.

Furthermore, I don't need to be eyeing anything but stuff for Dragon*Con or towards my trip next year or the year after (except for Christmas)... and stuff for my last Dollfie. Other than that, nothing.

Bad Li. No shopping.

Minor victories

So, to my eternal joy, I finished A New Age Dawns. All fifteen sections (prologue, 13 chapters/episodes, epilogue) are all posted on kolasis. Hurray!

After work, Kattan and I are going to Joann's for more thread (green and black... possibly 2 spools of each) so we can get the skirt hemmed up (the green) and... well, a bit on the jumpsuit (the black). Piping needs to be put in, the neck needs to be attached, and the vinyl needs to be ironed on then it will be done. After that, we'll need to start on the cloak, which won't be too hard: a rough hem at the bottom to keep it from fraying and a clasp at the neck. Still have difficulties with the belts. Danny suggested cardboard or poster paper with leather wrapped around it, fastened with a clasp. At that point, might I not as well just use leather itself?

Yeah, okay, no more costume babble.

Who's a big fandork?

Okay, one section of A New Age Dawns left to go... and I discovered the hard way, I can't really work on it at work. Only today and tomorrow to go, so it needs to get done ASAP.

However, to write this last section, I need the speeches and news reports from The Sound of Drums. I could load it on my flash drive and review the necessary parts at work... but I can't cut my speakers on loud enough to hear it clearly and headphones are a big no-no. So...

...I transcribed the scenes I need as completely as I could. There is a small margin of error in a few places (the "Public Enemies Numbers One, Two, and Three news report, for everything between "the Doctor" and "the Captain" but if it's not perfect, it's a reasonable facsimile... and in the "Meeting the Toclafane/End of the World Speech", most of Winters' speech whilst the Doctor is talking, since he's too loud to hear anyone else over), but overall I think I did pretty damn good. Wish I had those bits, especially the latter one, but oh well...

Yeah, I'm a dork.

Levels of ideas

This isn't a story. This is something I joked about with my beta-reader, katsuko_chan, but felt just had to be passed on to other people... Such that other people read here...

There are four levels of story ideas. They are based on the levels to which they get in an author's head and demand to be written. From least to greatest, they are:

Plot bunnies
Plot kitties
Plot zombies
Plot zombie kitties

Yes, fear the Plot Zombie Kitties.

For example, A New Age Dawns was a plot kitty because it viciously inspired me to write a 50,000 word story in 31 days. Its sequel, What Rough Beast is still just a plot bunny; I don't have a lot of energy for it yet. The "Fred fic", discussed only between Katsuko and myself reading a strange dream I had on holiday that can become a fic, is somewhere between a plot kitty and a plot zombie; it demands to be written.

I've only had one story become a Plot Zombie Kitty, and that was Gods and Other Creatures, though Endless Loop has come close a few times.

Xposted to apollymi

Iconings

I wish I could claim to have made some of these, but I didn't... I just love them, so I'm making people look at them. Well, not all of them, just my favourites! ^_^

Because the Saxons are made of love...

And I'm so damn exhausted.

Fangirl

I just have the quick urge to say a very random thing...

I am a Master fangirl.

I guess that was obvious since I switched out to a Master mood theme and have so many icons...

But... yeah...

Still going to the Special Hell that is reserved for people who fancy Master/Lucy/Jack and Master/Jack fics, though. Just because I like the Master, doesn't mean Jack's not still my favourite character. 'Cause he is.

Here's a dork

I changed out my mood icon theme, from the Ninth Doctor to the Master (John Simm version). Because... the Sixth Master is love. ♥

(So I have ♥__♥ for the Ninth Doctor and the Sixth Master... Now that's a pairing made in fandom hell. No, worse, Third Doctor and Fifth Master... *shot*)

A New Age Dawns is kicking my arse. I'm at 34,660 words, leaving me with 15,340 and 9 days to do it in. That means I have to do a minimum of 1705 words a day every day from here on out. It also means I'll need to take my laptop with me when I go to Mum's.

And now back to ANAD & work stuff, after some lovely fucked-up lyrics.

It's not easy having yourself a good time
Greasing up those bets and betters
Watching out they don't four-letter
Fuck and kiss you both at the same time
Smells-like something I've forgotten
Curled up died and now it's rotten

I'm not a gangster tonight
Don't want to be a bad guy
I'm just a loner baby
And now you're gotten in my way

I can't decide
Whether you should live or die
Oh, you'll probably go to heaven
Please don't hang your head and cry
No wonder why
My heart feels dead inside
It's cold and hard and petrified
Lock the doors and close the blinds
We're going for a ride

It's a bitch convincing people to like you
If I stop now call me a quitter
If lies were cats you'd be a litter
Pleasing everyone isn't like you
Dancing jigs until I'm crippled
Slug ten drinks I won't get pickled

I've got to hand it to you
You've played by all the same rules
It takes the truth to fool me
And now you've made me angry

I can't decide
Whether you should live or die
Oh, you'll probably go to heaven
Please don't hang your head and cry
No wonder why
My heart feels dead inside
It's cold and hard and petrified
Lock the doors and close the blinds
We're going for a ride

Oh I could throw you in the lake
Or feed you poisoned birthday cake
I wont deny I'm gonna miss you when you're gone
Oh I could bury you alive
But you might crawl out with a knife
And kill me when I'm sleeping
That's why

I can't decide
Whether you should live or die
Oh, you'll probably go to heaven
Please don't hang your head and cry
No wonder why
My heart feels dead inside
It's cold and hard and petrified
Lock the doors and close the blinds
We're going for a ride

A little note of happy

I'm utterly exhausted, I'm so far behind on writing that I need to do an entire chapter today, my head hurts, my jaw hurts, noise pisses me off, quiet pisses me off...

But I have icons of The Master -- and I have the entire CD of "Here Come the Drums" by Rogue Traders.

Yeah, eat your hearts out.

Word of the day

I have a word of the day for today:

"Schadenfreud"

schadenfreud: (n) Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.

So, in light of my word of the day for today, I give you... an icon of the Master (not by me)!

Dragon*Con

Please note that this is still a bit in the tentative stage, but Dragon*Con costumes...

Friday: Corset & long green skirt
Saturday: Corset & multi-coloured skirt, wings (this is the tentative one, might drop to concentrate on final costume)
Sunday, Monday: Mara Jade, Star Wars: Expanded Universe

For the first costume, I have my corset and my skirt already purchased. I also have knee-high black combat boots to go with the outfit (same seller & everything I purchased from). Need to purchase: necklace/choker. Estimated total price: $125. Donations (necklace, earrings) accepted.

For the second costume, all I have is the corset and boots. It would require shopping for a pattern, at least 3 different colour fabrics, and buying wings of some sort. The fabrics I have in mind for the skirt are between $8 and $12 a yard, with 1 5/8 yards needed of each. The pattern is $15.99.

For the final costume, I'm planning on wearing the same boots, but with shin and knee guards on as well. Need to purchase/make: black pleather for body suit (2 yards), black gloves, purple lightsaber, goggles, belts, straps, cape with clasp, shin guards, and knee guards. Estimated price = $150. Donations (gloves, purple lightsaber, aviator-style black goggles, shin guards, knee guards, assistance with belts/shoulder straps/cape & clasp, or cash to help towards all this) accepted.

Dragon*Con plans: Thurs,drive to Albany, say hi to & maybe have lunch with Mum, drive up to desolate03's mum's, settle in. Friday, con early till late, back to hotel/Desolate's mum's. Saturday, con early till late, back to hotel/Desolate's mum's. Sunday, con early till late, back to hotel/Desolate's mum's. Monday, con early till noon, drive to Albany, say hi to Mum, drive home, collapse. Tuesday, sleep.

Time off: already requested.
Note: may have to be re-requested once new supervisor is appointed.

Possibilities: Professionally redye hair to shade of dark red.

Well.... shit

So much for my plan to get a bit ahead on writing. I only got 1063 words written last night. I think tonight I'm going to see if Heero's battery is recharged and I'll bring my iPod upstairs and we'll make a writing party of it so that there are no distractions... if I don't get caught up at work today. 1667 (today) + 314 (2 days ago) + 604 (yesterday) = 2585 minimum today. This will mean making some major progress at work... so that maybe I can do movies tonight after work. I've been waiting to watch The Terminator since we got it back out of the box.

Dirj, I sent you copies of all the icons in replies on LJ. They're also on ApollyMix. If I get caught up (or stuck) writing today, I'll try to work on more. I found a few more good Aliens ones... including the Dwayne/Ellen scene. *squee* I'm making those 2585 words my top priority though. Got a lot to make up and get done before I'm gone for 3 days at the end of the month. (I thought it was only going to be 2, but apparently it will be 3 full days and part of 2 others. Before then, I'll need to make sure I take Heero with me and have the entire story in a Word file.)

Most days it never really hits me that I'm encroaching on thirty; I try to live like I'm a lot younger (playing around, not worrying over things as much as I can, laughing and having a good time); but sometimes it does hit. Yesterday morning it hit when I was on the phone with Mum discussing our trip at the end of the month. My cousin is pregnant with her and her husband's first kid; like my sister who's already two kids in, my cousin is also 22. Mum mentioned to me once that she worried she ruined me for marriage with her and my father's divorce then her marriage with my first step-father (my sister's father) and now Charlie (I adore my new step-father). That was just a random bit, but occasionally I still get a "when are you getting married" or "when are you giving me great-grandchildren" from my father's mother (Obaabaa); she doesn't take kindly to be told she has two other grandchildren who are already married that she can bug for great-grandchildren.

Okay, that was just a rant/ramble, when I should be catching up on writing.

A message directly to daimeryan_rei

Dirj-sweets,

I am working on Terminator, Terminator II: Judgement Day, and Aliens icons for the sharing.

I will post them here when they're ready.

In the meanwhile, here are two previews:

~Li

New Dollfie incoming

I have to say, I'm extremely proud of this... proud enough that I'm waiting to work on the Doctor doll I was planning till this is finished: I'm working on a Captain Jack Harkness. His body is on the way, and I have some clothes chosen for him, along with his head, hair, and eyes. I have entire worlds of excitement going on this.

What I still need: a belt, a gun holster, (possibly a small gun for it, maybe like this - Jack with gun), braces/suspenders, and the coat.

When I get him finished, he will be two centimetres taller than the Doctor (and Claudia)... and the only one of my Dollfies to have... bits. Kattan has already said she will not paint his bits for me. ¬.¬

For the Doctor, I still need the coat and to try to turn up a miniature sonic screwdriver. For Claudia for Dragon*Con, I still need to make her a skirt to match mine.

Fanfiction thoughts

I was going to note this on LJ, but I decided, meh, it's more a GJ thing... seeing as how it's less a babble and more me thinking somewhat seriously about my writing.

I said this to Kattan in the car yesterday, but apparently there are two genres where people enjoy my writing: Sailormoon crossovers and Torchwood (and MAYBE seriously AU Yu-Gi-Oh, so AU you don't even need to know the series, just the characters). Seriously, ANAD has been up only about 5 or 6 days and it has 414 hits, as of this exact moment. The only other things I've ever had to get hits were Endless Loop (just the first two stories, mind you, not anything after) and Gods and Other Creatures.

I don't know... maybe I'm just being silly. We'll see though, how it keeps going.

To daimeryan_rei

Dirj-sweets,

I'm going to put your package back in the mail to you on Saturday. I'll be adding the remaining episodes of Series 3 of Doctor Who, as well as the entire run of the Seventh Doctor and Life on Mars Series 1. I'll try to toss some other fun things in to make up for the wait.

Would you prefer Priority or Express? Priority is supposed to be 5-11 days, and Express estimates 3-5 days.

The real review on "Last of the Time Lords": "It's always the girls"

Russell T. Davies, what did you eat the night before you came up with these three stories? Seriously, they remind me of the dreams I have when I have ice cream before bed or what my mum dreams when she has pickles before bed. Hence forth, I shall refer to these three episodes as the Pickle Dream Trilogy.

As Kattan put it, one can drive a large boat, like the Titanic for instance, through the plot holes RTD left, once the episodes were all said and done. I say, one can fit the Earth and whatever rocks are left of Gallifrey in the plot holes.

Okay, yes, I thought the stuff with Martha was brilliant. Kinda been getting the feeling for a while that Freema was leaving, but it was rather nice for Martha to go out on a high note. That was a good thing; the bit with the gun and the four vials was particularly keen. But why bring John Barrowman back for three episodes for almost nothing? Okay, we got the confrontation in the radiation room in "Utopia", which was nice, and they couldn't have gotten back to present time without Jack's "spacehopper", but otherwise, there was really nothing of any importance was done with his character.

Things I hated with the episode:

The Master's dance routine (again). We wasted five minutes of screen time on seeing John Simm boogie all over the screen. I don't mind seeing John Simm boogie, but there's a time and place.
I don't recall there being such a thing as choosing not to regenerate, and the Master has always been more interested in surviving; why not regenerate and escape the TARDIS later? To explain this plot hole, I'm going to say healing coma, fool the Doctor, regenerate after the ~~Star Wars~~ funeral, and have ~~evil Rose~~ Lucy handy to pick up the new him.
WTF? The Doctor made a big deal about how to fix the Paradox Machine the last episode, but Jack just shoots it and it's all better. Yes, even the Paradox Machine is in awe of Jack.
Deus ex machina all over the damned place. Martha's meme gets everyone thinking about the Doctor and he becomes Bad Wolf II. No. Just no. Yes, Gallifreyans and especially Time Lords are telepathic beings, but not even all the remaining people of Earth thinking his name all at once will make him into a god. Turn him back to normal, sure, maybe, but a god? I doubt it.
Speaking of back to normal, what was with turning the Doctor into Gollum? I kept expecting him to start horking like a cat with a hairball and repeating his name a lot. And maybe calling the Sonic Screwdriver the "precious".
None of the characters changed in the least. A whole year roaming a semi-post-apocalyptic world (which didn't really feel even semi-post-apocalyptic in the least), and Martha's her same old plucky self; her nails are even still perfect (yeah, I looked). Jack's been chained up for a year, making the occasional escape attempts to make it look good for the Doctor's "big plan" I'm sure, dying and coming back over and over, and he hasn't change in the least; he even looks good in his designer grime, but I was expecting a least a bit of insanity from dying that many times, however many times that might be.
JACK IS NOT THE FACE OF BOE.
Jack's little speech at the end of the episode is too throwaway to be real. It didn't feel like he meant any of it, like he was saying all that to misdirect the Doctor and Martha from something. Even the little connecting "clues" between Jack and the Face of Boe ("the Face of Boe wishes to announce its pregnancy") don't make sense. Using that "clue" alone, the Face of Boe is supposed to be "later Jack", but Torchwood Jack made that throwaway line about not getting pregnant again in "Everything Changes"; even Jack isn't good enough to get pregnant later in life and make a throwaway comment about it well before it. It's the wrong order. I wonder if Jack met the Face of Boe, maybe as a Time Agent, and was told to lead the Doctor and Martha off the scent for some purpose? It'd make sense, and we wouldn't be done with Boe then.
The Ninth Doctor said he was on a boat that people said were unsinkable and ended up clinging to an iceberg, i.e. the Titanic. Book canon has the Seventh Doctor on the Titanic as well. But RTD has said no past Doctors will return (which I don't really care for, but meh, it's Rusty's fault if he doesn't want to keep some of the better camp elements), so he's just sent the Titanic through his own plot hole.
Whatever happened to the TARDIS being dimensionally transcendental? Assorted hordes of Genghis Khan and all that? Oh well, I guess all the plot holes weakened her integrity?
JACK IS NOT THE FACE OF BOE.

Things I liked:

~~Evil Rose~~ Lucy. I bet the Master and she worked out well in advance what to do if someone captured him. I also bet he took her to the End of the Universe enough to have her there to rescue him after the ~~Star Wars~~ bonfire, just in case.
Good to see Martha going out on a high note. It was also nice seeing her tell the Doctor WHY she was leaving.
Jack in chains. A little bondage is always fun.

Seriously, out of 10, I'm giving this a 4. And that's being generous. It's tempting to drop the series now and just follow Torchwood.

Other people's reviews I've loved:
Dark Aegis
NNWest
Seti DRD

And I like this review so much that I'm cross-posting it over to ApollyMix.

Kattan and I are ODD

Li: ... 'course it's also the same episode that we get a nonworking TARDIS
Kattan: hehehe
Li: I dun know... I always enjoy his reactions to that, any Doctor
Kattan: he's always kinda "bwa? +emo+" over it
Li: kinda yeah
Li: I mean, Ten goes all "must dig to bottom of TARDIS and see if there's *any* bit of her still alive"...
Kattan: Yeah
Kattan: I'm sure more than a few have looked like someone killed his puppy.
Li: oh I'm sure... not just killed his puppy, ran over it with a Mac Truck and backed up
Kattan: yeah
Kattan: backed up then ran over it AGAIN
Li: and maybe tossed his kitten under there as well
Kattan: YES
Kattan: poor kittens
Li: +nod nod nod+
Kattan: poor Time Lords
Li: yep yep
Li: poor poor Time Lords
Kattan: Ten went looking to save the kittens tho, ne?
Li: ... that's what REALLY set the Master over the edge
Li: Someone ran over his kitten!!
Kattan: "TARDIS must live! KITTENS!"
Kattan: ahahaha!
Kattan: So... all the Doctor needs to do is get the Master a new kitten?
Li: Poor poor Gallifreyan kittens
Li: a cute cuddly fluffy kitten with a little bow
Kattan: yes
Li: and for the Master, it'd have to be a solid black kitten
Li: with a big red bow
Li: (for the record, I'm having such a hard time not laughing that I can't breathe)
Kattan: hahahaha
Li: cute little black fluffy cuddly kitten with a big red bow
Li: what should the kitten's name be?
Kattan: Jack: What can we do to stop him?
Martha: Wait, I have a plan!
*twenty minutes later*
Doctor: Wow. That's all it took to stop him and rescue me, huh?
Master: +playing with fluffy black kitten named Timiniskylopsitopsical, or Tiny for short+
Li: XD!!!!!
Kattan: THAT'S how "Last of the Time Lords" should end

So... behold one of my Timiniskylopsitopsical (aka Tiny) icons. Also... behold my new mood theme: The Ninth Doctor!

An idea

Okay, this is almost as random as my last post, but a thought did occur to me. (Shock. I know.) And it is this:

The month of November is probably the worst time of year for me (short of December) for a writing challenge. So instead of doing a NaNoWriMo in the right month (and doing an original), I think I'm going to make A New Age Dawns be my little 50,000 or more word challenge for the month of July. It works out perfectly, especially with the last episode of the series of Doctor Who coming on the last day of June, and that should contain hints of what I can do with Team Torchwood Three, how long Jack's been gone, etc. In other words, important things towards the story, ya know.

But that's just an idea. We'll see what happens in practice.

Utterly not my fault

Jack
LOVES
The Doctor

02010
2211
432
75

Love Level: 75%

Loves-O-Meter
From Go-Quiz.com

The Doctor
LOVES
Captain Jack Harkness

02022
2224
446
810
91

Love Level: 91%

Loves-O-Meter
From Go-Quiz.com

Captain Jack Harkness
LOVES
Rose Tyler

11033
2136
349
713
84

Love Level: 84%

Loves-O-Meter
From Go-Quiz.com

And in other news, I'm out of my mind!

Of all the...

Okay, new icons added. I'm up to 255 here. And this is the only place I still have many YGO icons. ^^;; But it's mostly Doctor Who and Torchwood over here.

Started plotting a bit on an actual fan novel. The working title is A New Age Dawns. It looks like it's going to end up being SEVERAL chapters long... and I'm hoping for some actual length to it. So far I know there will be a prologue and I have the opening sentence to Chapter One.

But now I must find something to distract myself from a growling belly. Lunch in another 50.

Things for today

So today is Saturday. That means two very important things:

Doctor Who: "The Sound of Drums", and finding out how Team!TARDIS is going to get out of THIS jam...
and
Ocean's 13, with Kattan and Jorge (and maybe Kirsten)...

And one not-so-important-and-definitely-not-as-fun thing:

Unboxing all this stuff we have around the house. If we're signing a new lease for this place for another year, there's no point in us continuing to live out of boxes. So completely unboxing, moving all the empty boxes into the storage closet, and maybe buying a couple of small bookshelves from Big Lots to put all this remaining crap on... what doesn't get thrown away.

And I've decided that my next electronics purchase will be a region-free DVD player. That way I can get more of my DVDs that I enjoy without having to wait for them to become Region 1 or Region 0. Bloody annoying, that is.

Though I'm not sure if I'm going to get that before or after I get the Dollfie body for the Doctor. (Still wishing I could do a Nine, but Ten is easier, even if it's not MY Doctor. Oooh, Jack would be fun, though, but we'd have to make most of his clothes. Even the braces. Not the trousers, button-down shirt, boots, and t-shirt... but definitely the great coat, his second jacket, the braces... Maybe even a wee gun holster... and crap, the Time Vortex Manipulator/wrist comp. Oh gods, I could have fun making a Jack Dollfie.)

It's probably bad, but I've got my first fic nibble in a while... and yet again, it's Torchwood, but in the gap between Series 1 and Series 2, before Jack comes back. Yes, I am contemplating a story without my favourite character. Shock and gasp. It also lets me play with another idea I had: nothing specific, just the urge to write a horror story, vaguely of the Lovecraftian variety (utter unknowns, slow dawning "how do we deal" terror, easier to do without Jack).

And why am I on eBay looking at black short wigs? I am NOT making a Jack Dollfie. I am not. Okay, maybe I am. Crap. Maybe the lack of suitable short black wigs will help talk me out of it? Maybe?

And that's it for me. Ciao, bellas.

Broken down morality

Random things that want to come out:

It's a long way from hell to Florida... but it's just as hot.
Getting overseas employment is also hell.
FSU has a London branch, but I can't find how to get in.
Not optimistic about the new duplex, but not going to dismiss it entirely.
I love my new skirt, but it's gotten me some funky looks.
I wish my "new" vintage dress had fit nearly as well.
Moe's gave me a stomach-ache. Not cool.
Giving new student worker the tour today. Lots of walking. Tired Li.
Sang along with Janis Joplin and The Doors at Moe's. Pleased to say I got dirty looks.
Might buy a new dress to replace the one that didn't fit. Maybe. Not a lot of chest hemming for Kattan to take out.

And that's it.