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various and sundry activity
Mar. 28th, 2018 04:33 pmSo it's been a few days. I've been writing. I finished a book. I caught up on Steven Universe. I rented and watched The Last Jedi twice. I watched some worlds figure skating with my mom. All in all it has been Very Nice for me.
So let's cover all that in more detail!
Writing: I have mostly been trying to plan my novel, which has mostly involved figuring out characters. I've definitely learned some new things about them in the process (or at least about my two leads), but I wish I could be figuring out what actually happens in the book itself. Right now I've got some conflict nuggets, and a few scenes I want to happen (that happened in the first NaNo drafts of this novel), but mostly nothing. I get that figuring out characters is basically the key to figuring out the plot, but I wish I could get to some plotting already.
Today I spent rewriting a scene from Chapter 10 of The Outpost, which I'm hoping to get edited/rewritten and posted by the end of the week/month. I think I managed to improve the scene a lot, so I'm quite proud of what I did. Hoping to get similar results from attacking the rest of the scenes (there are four total) tomorrow and Friday and Saturday. And then hopefully posting on Saturday as well.
Reading: The book I read was Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, the first of her Imperial Radch trilogy. One of the most striking things about the book is its use of gendered language--the language of the Radch, that the MC is used to speaking, has no gender. So everyone is referred to as "she", even if other indications are given as to their gender presentation. It was an intriguing way to view the book's world, and the gripping story made sure I didn't spend too much time fussing about it. And there is so much more to the book than just that narrative quirk. The main character is a person who used to be a ship, so to speak--she was one of a vast number of people networked into a ship's computer and controlled by it, until disaster struck and she was cut off from the rest of herself. The book finds her on a mission to bring down the person responsible for that disaster. I don't want to spoil too much, so I'll leave it at that, but it's a very gripping read and well worth checking out if you're into science fiction.
Steven Universe: So I watched all the episodes I'd missed, from "Dewey Wins" to "Jungle Moon", and then all the new ones that dropped on the CN site/app on Monday. I really enjoyed all of them! I'd forgotten how much I liked the show; I might have to do a rewatch soon, at least of some of my favorites. I think my favorite of the newest episodes is probably "Pool Hopping", for reasons I won't get into because spoilers. (Okay, one piece of info: KITTENS.)
The Last Jedi: Is still as good as I remember. I will have to sit down and watch it in a distraction free zone at some point. But I really enjoyed it still, and I also still can't believe that there are people who think it's the antithesis of what Star Wars is. It's different, yes, but it's a good kind of different, I think. And I know there are folks who think the casino sequence was unnecessary, but it's really absolutely vital to getting Finn's character to where he is at the end of the movie. And anyway the Canto Bight sequences are gorgeous af, so whatever.
I also watched the commentary today, with Rian Johnson. It was pretty good. You learn some fun facts about the movie, and get his perspective on the choices he made as a writer and director. So I'd recommend that if you get the BluRay.
Figure skating: So the figure skating world championships were last week. My mom managed to record most of the events, and we've been watching them off and on this week. It's been pretty good viewing, all things considered, EXCEPT. Yesterday we were watching the men's free skate. We skipped ahead to the last group, and Nathan Chen (an American who went on to win the title) was skating last. We finally get to his program, and he's doing amazing and THEN. THE RECORDING STOPS IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS PROGRAM. WHY. I tried looking it up online to no avail, but luckily we found out there's going to be a rerun of the free skate tomorrow night in the small hours, so we're taping that and since it's edited we will probably get Chen's whole program, which I want desperately to see because he landed SIX quad jumps. SIX OF THEM. And that's really amazing considering that every other skater in his group FELL multiple times for what seemed like no apparent reason. But yeah. This is a not-big-deal thing I'm making a surprisingly big deal of, OH WELL WHATEVER.
So that's all that's been going on with me of late. Hope you're all doing well! :)
So let's cover all that in more detail!
Writing: I have mostly been trying to plan my novel, which has mostly involved figuring out characters. I've definitely learned some new things about them in the process (or at least about my two leads), but I wish I could be figuring out what actually happens in the book itself. Right now I've got some conflict nuggets, and a few scenes I want to happen (that happened in the first NaNo drafts of this novel), but mostly nothing. I get that figuring out characters is basically the key to figuring out the plot, but I wish I could get to some plotting already.
Today I spent rewriting a scene from Chapter 10 of The Outpost, which I'm hoping to get edited/rewritten and posted by the end of the week/month. I think I managed to improve the scene a lot, so I'm quite proud of what I did. Hoping to get similar results from attacking the rest of the scenes (there are four total) tomorrow and Friday and Saturday. And then hopefully posting on Saturday as well.
Reading: The book I read was Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, the first of her Imperial Radch trilogy. One of the most striking things about the book is its use of gendered language--the language of the Radch, that the MC is used to speaking, has no gender. So everyone is referred to as "she", even if other indications are given as to their gender presentation. It was an intriguing way to view the book's world, and the gripping story made sure I didn't spend too much time fussing about it. And there is so much more to the book than just that narrative quirk. The main character is a person who used to be a ship, so to speak--she was one of a vast number of people networked into a ship's computer and controlled by it, until disaster struck and she was cut off from the rest of herself. The book finds her on a mission to bring down the person responsible for that disaster. I don't want to spoil too much, so I'll leave it at that, but it's a very gripping read and well worth checking out if you're into science fiction.
Steven Universe: So I watched all the episodes I'd missed, from "Dewey Wins" to "Jungle Moon", and then all the new ones that dropped on the CN site/app on Monday. I really enjoyed all of them! I'd forgotten how much I liked the show; I might have to do a rewatch soon, at least of some of my favorites. I think my favorite of the newest episodes is probably "Pool Hopping", for reasons I won't get into because spoilers. (Okay, one piece of info: KITTENS.)
The Last Jedi: Is still as good as I remember. I will have to sit down and watch it in a distraction free zone at some point. But I really enjoyed it still, and I also still can't believe that there are people who think it's the antithesis of what Star Wars is. It's different, yes, but it's a good kind of different, I think. And I know there are folks who think the casino sequence was unnecessary, but it's really absolutely vital to getting Finn's character to where he is at the end of the movie. And anyway the Canto Bight sequences are gorgeous af, so whatever.
I also watched the commentary today, with Rian Johnson. It was pretty good. You learn some fun facts about the movie, and get his perspective on the choices he made as a writer and director. So I'd recommend that if you get the BluRay.
Figure skating: So the figure skating world championships were last week. My mom managed to record most of the events, and we've been watching them off and on this week. It's been pretty good viewing, all things considered, EXCEPT. Yesterday we were watching the men's free skate. We skipped ahead to the last group, and Nathan Chen (an American who went on to win the title) was skating last. We finally get to his program, and he's doing amazing and THEN. THE RECORDING STOPS IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS PROGRAM. WHY. I tried looking it up online to no avail, but luckily we found out there's going to be a rerun of the free skate tomorrow night in the small hours, so we're taping that and since it's edited we will probably get Chen's whole program, which I want desperately to see because he landed SIX quad jumps. SIX OF THEM. And that's really amazing considering that every other skater in his group FELL multiple times for what seemed like no apparent reason. But yeah. This is a not-big-deal thing I'm making a surprisingly big deal of, OH WELL WHATEVER.
So that's all that's been going on with me of late. Hope you're all doing well! :)
