| Creeping Insanity |
[Nov. 24th, 2008|06:53 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
Signs you should just print the goddamn paper and call it finished
1) "There are a other reason people might have no choice but to migration"
...looks like a perfectly acceptable sentence, right? Nothing wrong with that, nope.
2) Campus security kicks you out of the computer lab because they're locking the building up.
...wait, when did it become seven? It was three o'clock a minute ago!
3) Dissertation outline is due on Wednesday
...and this isn't it.
4) lol i should blog this
...on a livejournal you haven't touched in years. |
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| FIC: Interstate |
[Jun. 13th, 2006|05:01 am] |
Figured, what the hell, after yesterday's post I might as well throw up this one. It's another CoH short story. Mind, it's not gonna make much sense if you're not familiar with City of Heroes. This one has a lot more references.
Because...this is a joke.
Apologies for the screwy format (present tense interior monologue, stream of consciousness, etc). It's...necessary.
( FIC: Interstate ) |
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| FIC: Fifty |
[Jun. 11th, 2006|09:01 am] |
More fiction. This one was written, again, in one massive burst beginning-to-end. It's not really that long, mind you, but it took me a while to hash out. It's more City of Heroes material, a complete story. It's technically an origin story, but set from the perspective of a character looking back on her career.
This is about Syndesis. She's Security Level 50, that's max for the game. And she has the Freedom Phalanx Reserve accolade. I've always thought there should be something special, storywise, about those two things. Even though, really, everyone and their freakin' dog with a high-level character's got Freedom Phalanx Reserve membership, if we go by just the game badge. Still!
The story's a little rough. I haven't had time to do a serious 'come back a week later and poke at it' edit, given I just finished this ten minutes ago. What the hell, tho, I want to share it now. Apologies if there's grammar weirdness.
( FIC: Fifty ) |
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| FIC: Choice (CoH Origin Story) |
[May. 31st, 2006|07:32 pm] |
Alright, short story. Ficlet, really. This one's complete. One-shot, though I might do some follow-up sometime.
See, I'm done with exams. And, uh, the first thing I did after my last paper was log on to City of Heroes, create a new character, and damn well blow the crap out of things. It's theraputic, you see. Which explains what I've got here. The whole thing pretty much leapt fully-formed into my brain. This is the origin story of Dusker.
It's not exactly literature, it's a freakin' superhero origin. But what the heck.
( FIC: Choice ) |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 13th, 2006|06:35 am] |
I'm just gonna copy-paste what ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) st_sakura said on MoTM:
Kobun | There are japanese lyrics to the imperial march that someone made up, apparently XDDD
Kobun | tei-ko-ku wa totemo tsuyoi (The Empire is very strong)
Kobun | se-n-kan wa totemo dekai (The battleships are very big)
Kobun | Daa-su Bei-daa wa kuroi (Darth Vader is black)
Kobun | toruu-paa wa shiroi (The troopers are white)
Kobun | De-su su-taa wa marui (The Death Star is round)
...that, like, totally rules. Totally. |
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| Lesser Nin (Redux) - Part 2 - Reflections: Kizai |
[Apr. 27th, 2006|12:41 am] |
Alright, another product of...well, the fact I should be studying, but my brain's making funny buzzing noises. Here's the second reworked part of Lesser Nin. The new rewritten chapters can be found here, while the old draft bits are here. The links are your friends.
These aren't really ground-up rewrites, just heavy edits...it doesn't actually take me a lot of time, thus, since the framework's there, I'm just refining it. Still fun and theraputic, though. Anyway, here:
( Lesser Nin - Part 2 - Reflections: Kizai ) |
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| Userpics |
[Apr. 21st, 2006|01:43 am] |
 
New icons, to go with my current dinkerings. The Hidden Waterfall crest and Shibuki, the village leader. The Shibuki image is from the opening frames of the OVA. There, now you know what Shibuki looks like. And I really ought to get back to studying... |
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| Lesser Nin (Redux) - Part 1 - The Interview |
[Apr. 19th, 2006|06:09 pm] |
Yeah, as I threatened in my last post, it looks like I'm revisiting this old fanfic project. I guess looking back on it after a few months gives me a better perspective. Which is kinda amusing since I've actually stopped watching the Naruto anime. Tho that's mainly 'cause the filler hurts my brain.
Anyway, yeah. Revised and edited material for the introduction of Lesser Nin, the exchange between Shibuki and Kizai. This version is somewhat longer than the old draft I posted some time ago, and there are...other changes. Details behind the cut, along with the story intro, of course.
( Lesser Nin - Part 1 - The Interview ) |
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| Lesser Nin Redux |
[Apr. 19th, 2006|01:03 pm] |
Old ideas never die.
Dunno if you remember Lesser Nin. It was a Naruto fanfic series I was toying with around July last year. It wasn't really great stuff - the narrative was very short and clipped, it was mostly done as an exercise in regular writing. I posted most of the first story arc on LJ, but stopped just short of the conclusion. Lost steam, really - the exercise failed, as it were.
I was glancing round my old stuff today, found it. Figured, eh, maybe I should just knuckle down and finish the last part. They were extremely short chapters, anyway, so wrapping up the point I'd reached shouldn't be too difficult. I'd planned to continue the story, taking the characters forward...but that never happened. I figured, though, at least I could give the characters a final send-off.
Well. That was the thought.
Right now I'm rewriting and greatly expanding the first opening bit of Lesser Nin, instead, and it's looking a damn sight better. I'm not sure where the hell this inspiration is coming from, but it's pretty cool. Looking over my old stuff, I can see all these points where I should edit or alter to better achieve my original intent. Like I said, the original narrative was very bare-bones, and there were a lot of elements I didn't really think through well enough. But looking back at it after, jeez, almost a year...I can see all these ways to make it better.
It looks like this project's back. At least the first story.
Huh.
(agermain, I'm gonna be disappointed if you don't have a snarky comment for me) |
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| An old story |
[Apr. 7th, 2006|12:23 am] |
You say, "Bureaucracy and paper does that."
You say, "For one whole year after I canceled my old dial-up account, the
company - which also does cable and so on...was sending me a bill for $0.00
each month."
You say, "They were very insistent, too."
Nova says, "Did you send them a check for $0.00?"
Jackal says, "Send them a check every month for $0.00."
You say, "No, that would have cost ME money."
You say, "Think about it. They were paying postage each month to demand $0.00
from me."
Jackal says, "Yeah, Prime..."
You say, "($0.00 after tax, by the way, it was quite specific on that)"
Jackal says, "But tell me it wouldn't have been hilarious to see the check
cashed."
Jackal says, "Come on now."
Jackal says, "Tell me that wouldn't have been worth it."
Jackal says, "Tell me it wouldn't have similarly been worth it to request a
copy of that check from your bank..."
You say, "...true."
Jackal says, "And then have it framed."
Jackal says, "With a little caption: "BUREAUCRACY - Holding the nation
together one strip of red tape at a time.'"
You say, "...score."
(For the record, the company was Cyberway...though the later bills were from Starhub, after they took over the accounts) |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 5th, 2006|09:00 pm] |
The human body has several biological needs, and it seems I'm developing odd attitudes toward most of them.
Take sleep, for example. I slept early last night, and I slept for most of today, as well. I'm not sure why. It's not like I was particularly sleep deprived in the days before. I suppose it all balances out, since I'll have to stay up late if I want to achieve anything constructive with my day (or night, rather)...but it's quite puzzling.
Then there's hunger. I'm hungry. That isn't surprising. But I don't feel like eating. I literally do not feel like consuming anything. I've got, like, bread and fruit and stuff sitting a couple feet away from me. And...I just don't want to. I really don't. Stomach's all 'FEED ME', giving these nasty physical sensations...and my brain's like 'ew, no, icky'.
Hn. |
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| OC App - Jaeger |
[Mar. 26th, 2006|06:28 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  satisfied | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 403 - Yorukumoryuu Yamikaze | ] |
So. The following is a character application I submitted for Robot Wars (mmbnworld.com:1987), an RP MUSH in the Megaman/Rockman tradition.
I'm...rather happy with this. Regardless of how the appreaders there react, this character...explores a lot of thematic ideas I've been toying with for a long time. Like the nature of morality, and the whole notion of evil.
If nothing else, the creative exercise was of value.
EDIT: Oh, yeah. RW staff rejected it, for theme violations. But I'm workin' out some compromises - it's mainly the combat gimmick that's the problem, and I'm not attached to that. The key element, of course, what I really wrote this for - was the character's personality.
( OC App - Jaeger ) |
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| FIC: Avatar - Intro |
[Mar. 12th, 2006|03:19 pm] |
Alrighty. Fiction!
This took...way longer than I expected to write. But I think it turned out pretty well. I've had the idea for this story in my head for at least three years now. But I never knew how or where to start it, how to get into the narrative. Now I do. Mind, what I've got here is just a draft. And it's just one single opening scene. I dunno if it's too burdened with introspection, or laden with too much subtext - I'm not sure whether I'm trying to force the text into accomplishing too much.
But...I think I like it.
This is the intro for 'Avatar'. Introduces our protagonist and a supporting character. Sets the stage. I'll...probably need to come up with a better, somewhat less cliched name for the story. But 'Avatar' is the working title. And it fits, given that I'm dealing with the age-old themes of Gods and Heroes...
( FIC: Avatar - Intro Scene ) |
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| Strathmore green |
[Mar. 6th, 2006|03:35 pm] |
The more I should be working on something, the more I want to do...something else. I suppose that's the very textbook definition of procrastination, there. But then, we all know I'm good at that.
I assume there's been extensive scientific studies of procrastination. God knows academics around the world have spent immense chunks of funds researching damn near everything else. I'd be terribly disappointed if there weren't papers on procrastination out there. It's such an essential part of the human experience, be it sociological, psychological, or, hum...theological.
The latter's probably the case for me. I procrastinate very well on weekends. I think there's some divine anointing there.
I should be working on essays now. I have two due by the end of term, next week. Actually three, but I've gotten the green light to submit my International Relations one...considerably later. Ironically, it's the only one of the three that I've actually done research for.
Go figure.
I should also be working on a club magazine I'm supposed to be editing. Hm.
So, yeah, I've got stuff to do.
And yet...
I've got this burning desire to kill a few hours writing fiction. Because there's a story in my head dying to get out. Clawing red-hot shrieking trails across my skull.
Well, okay, perhaps not. My muse isn't really that rabid...I actually managed to finish a class presentation last night and this morning, so evidently my work ethic isn't entirely in the toilet. I guess my muse...is more squirming and making snide sardonic comments, while being (barely) restrained by my sense of reason.
Reason should probably get a straightjacket or something. Not that any conventional straightjacket could hold Rhyme. It'd need to be a Kryptonite straightjacket or something. Or a +5 bathrobe of feline narcolepsy.
It's not a new story. Merely a new spin on an old, old one. One of those ideas that has never truly left my mind, in the years since it was conceived, merely...faded. It's gained new life, now. And, having related it to him...caitsith4 deemed it clever. Frankly, if no less a personage than the esteemed cait-four deems it intelligent, I know I've gotta be on to something.
Now, if I can just find time to begin writing it, without my brain being torn into bloody shreds in the process.
...
Tragically, I spent several minutes in the campus bookstore today, fighting the urge to buy a Kazuo Ishiguro book just so I could use it as reference. Man rights a mean first-person narrative.
Mind, that probably tells me I'm being a pretentious bastard here. Trying to be too clever.
Hm.
Perhaps the fact my sleep cycle's been irregular as a bagful of monkeys on nitrous oxide is having an adverse effect on my general judgement and coherence.
Scratch that...it almost certainly is.
Mind, it's actually quite a refreshing state of mind. |
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| Her cat is too goddamn cute |
[Mar. 1st, 2006|05:15 am] |
(Quoted with permission)
Hi ka ru says, "My kitten is snoring."
Hi ka ru says, "It's adorable."
Hi ka ru says, "She was so happy to see me, that she passed out next to me."
Hi ka ru says, "All that sleeping she did while waiting for me to get home wore her out." |
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| But who would pay the dowry? |
[Feb. 22nd, 2006|09:27 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  silly | ] |
Overheard at breakfast:-
"Everyone's talking about gay marriages. But if we have gay marriages...and arranged marrages, then couldn't we have arranged gay marriages?"
Really. Think about it.
It makes perfect sense. I can just picture this guy telling his parents he's gay. And then his parents, y'know, arranging to find this nice boy for him...
'course, that raises the question...who would pay the dowry?
But anyway, it's like that Goodness Gracious Me skit. Indian dude brings this white guy to meet his parents, and says, "Mom, Dad, I'm gay." His parents start crying, and he tries to comfort them...and they're like, "WHY COULDN'T YOU FIND A NICE INDIAN BOY?"
Logical, innit?
I can just imagine same-sex marriage being sideswiped by all the sundry issues that clutter heterosexual ones. Like mail-order husbands. Or mail-order lesbian brides, for that matter.
There's already gay marriages of convenience, after all. I remember reading about a couple of straight guys who decided to get married...for the tax breaks and stuff.
Makes sense to me. |
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| Identity |
[Feb. 1st, 2006|07:34 pm] |
See my earlier LJ post about the unintended consequences of wearing a Number 4 Army uniform top.
I got another thing to add to that list.
Brief Recap: it's cold, I haven't done laundry for two weeks. So I was wearing an old Army uniform shirt (unbuttoned over a t-shirt, with jeans and sneakers). Still, tho, ironic since I went and questioned a professor on his perspective about Singapore at a seminar - because someone recognised it was an actual uniform, and pointed it out. To say nothing about, y'know, the later event on Burma/Myanmar that I was taking photos for.
Bad enough. Or at least weird enough.
But the other consequence? Dinner in the hall cafeteria...I pretty much got dragged over by a bunch of other Singaporeans. Because, by gosh, I'm one of them, and they didn't know until they saw the damned uniform.
Why's that a bad thing? Well, I'm not just an antisocial bastard. I have reasons. You gotta understand context here. While I certainly don't mind being able to talk to folks in Singlish, discuss stuff about back home, I do not appreciate stuff like:
Other Singaporeans: "So what are you studying? Economics?"
Me: "Nah, International Relations."
OS: "...oh, so not pure Econs?"
M: "No...no Economics at all. Pure IR student. BA International Relations."
OS: "Wait, what? Why are you studying such a..."
M: "...weird subject? Useless subject?"
OS: "No, uh...bu ke yi juan chian de..." (thing you can't earn money with)
Me: *sigh*
Jeez, folks. And THIS after I've had to explain the hard-nosed Singaporean money-minded mentality three times today (to a professor, guest speaker, and a friend, three separate discussions about the $ingaporean psyche).
Just go and confirm all my cynicism, willya?
*mutter*
All this trouble over the fact I was fuggin' cold in the morning and it was the first clean thing on hand. =P |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 1st, 2006|02:01 pm] |
It being fugging cold when I left my room this morning, I grabbed another article of clothing from the closet along with my coat. So I'd have an extra layer besides the long-sleeved t-shirt I already had on.
Given that I wanted something reasonably warm...I took my Army uniform top (that's a Number Four, if you're familiar with the SAF's nomenclature - a jungle-camo coat if you're not). Threw it on, headed out.
It now occurs to me...that might have been a somewhat ironic choice for today.
Couple hours ago I was at a Grimshaw coffee hour seminar with one of the professors, on the future of the East Asian economic model. And I got the last question in, quizzing him on Singapore, on what he thought about the fact Singapore's...y'know, certainly not a neoliberalist economy, is nowhere near it, and is successful despite the extreme government intervention...and so on. 'course, I began by noting I was Singaporean...
...anyway, as the event was breaking up, the guy sitting behind me quipped, "I notice you're wearing a Singapore military uniform, too."
And I sorta look down and go, "...oh. Yeah. Heh."
Ironic.
Thing is, tho...
Later today, there's another Grimshaw Club event - which I gotta attend, 'cause I'll be taking photos and writing an article for the magazine.
About Burma, and one of the guests is the daughter of a rebel leader who fought against the military junta.
I imagine this uniform top is gonna be even more politically incorrect to wear.
'course, I mean, I'm just wearing the thing unbuttoned over a long-sleeved t-shirt, so no big, I can just take it off, but...snrk. If it hadn't been pointed out to me, I really wouldn't have thought about it.
(no, I'm not dressed as a paramilitary or anything, not with jeans and sneakers...and this uniform top doesn't even have any rank or in fact any insignia on it, making it just a camo-pattern shirt, but still...)
I'm amused, tho. |
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| Creativity and Thereafter |
[Jan. 31st, 2006|01:41 pm] |
Most of the creative stuff I do...never really sees the light of day.
I draw. But I doodle. On lecture notes, and things - sometimes even pretty good drawings, but I rarely actually do proper finished work. I'm capable of it, but I rarely sit down to do it.
I write. But most of it's MU roleplay. Back-and-forth paragraphs of character interaction banged out over the course of a couple hours and change with other peons. Well...granted, this does have a little more permanence, a fractionally greater amount of record. Since, y'know, there are logs of such things...and prose is prose. Some of it is pretty damn good prose. But even so...
Often I feel that I should be, y'know, actually trying to work on and do projects. Proper stories, for example, finished one. Real comics, artwork.
Oh, not for recognition...sure, it'd be nice if other people read it, but that's not the primary motivating factor, here.
Rather, it's the accomplishment. The sense of having done something in the creative realm, something I can look back on and smile about.
I wonder. How is it for you?
(No, seriously, I wanna know) |
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| Antisocial Bastard |
[Jan. 28th, 2006|07:24 pm] |
So...I've been accused of being an antisocial bastard.
This happens to be, in fact, entirely true.
Well, perhaps not the bastard part. I'm fairly sure my parents were married. But not entirely sure. As my mother insists on pointing out, I have no actual proof they are married, and my entire life could be an elaborate charade constructed simply for the sole purpose of messing with my mind.
But then, my mother does that. It's obvious I had to inherit my screwed up sense of humour from somewhere.
The antisocial bit is probably accurate, though.
It's Chinese New Year's Eve, as I type this. My first one away from home. That's like, y'know, same significance as Christmas or Thanksgiving, if you wanna make a cultural comparison.
And, of course, various student groups are doing things to mark the holiday...Singapore Society's flooded my inbox with e-mail on their party, so has the Malaysia-Singapore Society. A couple guys I know from Hong Kong literally ambushed me on the street the other day asking me about holiday plans...
I have none.
I was going to just slack off in my room.
But one of the guys living down the corridor cornered me in the frigging staircase, saying the Singaporeans in the building are having a frigging party in the downstairs function room. Now, I knew he was a Singaporean. But I wasn't aware -my- nationality had gotten out. SOMEONE's blown my cover.
So now I'm kinda half-obliged to turn up, I suppose. I probably will, soon as I throw on a better-looking shirt and finish posting 'ere.
'course, the fact I didn't know my countrymen living in this edifice of student lodging were organising something until half an hour before the event speaks volumes about my social radar...
...actually, hn, that's probably not true.
I just don't talk to other Singaporeans.
I'm not sure what that says about me, mind you.
But antisocial bastard is probably a good start. |
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