the Dalaverse

So my car ran this morning! Yay! 'Course that's not a guarantee that it's alright, but it's good enough for me. I celebrated by getting breakfast at McDonalds. I missed the right turn back onto Shangri La again. That's getting to be a bad habit.

I'm so glad it's cold again!

Oh, and when I was walking back from Guam, I saw a woman with a baby stroller next to her van and I thought it was a saddle stand ::shakes head:: I have such problems.

I think I will make a mix for each semester of college. Or at least this one. So far, I would use these songs:

Bif Naked, "October Song"
Garbage, "Cherry Lips"
Heather Nova, "Sweet November"
Hootie and the Blowfish, "I'll Be There"
Fountains of Wayne, "Stacy's Mom"
Indigo Girls, "Power of Two" and "Fare Thee Well"
Texas, "Inner Smile"
Curtis Mayfield, "Move On Up"
Kim Richey, "Let the Sun Fall Down"
Tara McLean, "If I Fall"
Cheap Trick, "I Want You to Want Me"
Joseph Arthur, "Honey and the Moon"
Mandy Moore, "Have a Little Faith in Me" (DO NOT LAUGH AT ME)
Edwin Collins, "Never Met a Girl Like You"
Sneaker Pimps, "Underground"
Roy Orbison, "Anything You Want"

Those are the MP3s that've appeared on my various playlists the most this year. Pretty sweet mix, if I do say so myself.

Ahhhh, I forgot to change the clock and backdate! I'll do it RIGHT now.

All entries fixed! Yay. Go me. I deserve some Milk Duds.

Just came back from "Legally Blonde 2." Man, what a cute movie. Loved the Dupont Circle joke, and all the pretty shots of my city. The first one was better, but this was certainly worth the time.

So I've been feeling a real urge to get back to my old novel-in-progress. It's been years since I've touched it, and I had to read it twice over before I felt comfortable making any changes (though lord knows many, many changes need to be made). Still, I do feel that it has potential, if I can buckle down and work really hard on it. I can write without a muse, dammit -- I've done it before, I can do it again. I can work around the lightning strikes -- without them if need be. There's a real sense of guilt that I haven't done right by the story -- these characters are more real to me than anything I've ever written, and I would honestly feel that I wasn't doing right by them if I didn't complete the journey. All I want is a skeleton, sketching over the vaguer scenes so that I can finish it and then edit exhaustively. It's not bad, I can say that objectively. Well, some of it isn't bad. Some of it is quite horrible. Some weekend when I'm home I'm going to try and fish out all that's left on the old computer and never get printed for some reason -- the dragon scene and the dream scene is all I can remember specifically. I don't think I'll actually use either, but I want them with me as alternate takes, and to shed light on the characters.

I kinda wish it were possible for me to change names -- virtually all of then except one. But I can't: this name is now so intrinsically that character that it would be like if Megan suddenly up and decided she wanted to be called Ermengarde. Many of the names are uncreative and clichéd in fantasy, but...I can't change them! At least not now. Maybe someday, after a long, long editorial process. Although I can only see those names becoming more attached to the characters as they carry them throughout the entire thing...

Bah. Screw it. I can call my characters whatever I wish to call them.

Oh my god the little determined fox is so freaking cute. ::pets::

Which reminds me, while I was in the kitchen the peacock was poking around outside, and I opened the window to get a better look at him. He came right over, head bobbing, and hopped all the way up onto the picnic table next to the window. I closed it, because it doesn't have a screen and I swear he looked like he was gonna hop right in. Beautiful animal, though.

Wow, I feel super-accomplished. I got some actual, new work done, rather than just editing. It was kinda exhilerating. Yay me!