Just got my first essay back for the semester, I have been having NIGHTMARES about this essay it was SO BAD. It was a complete MESS. The ideas were alright but I patched it all together like a plastic surgery failure. I thought I would get a B or something. Ugh. But, I got an A-! YAAAAY! Soooo relieved you have no idea! (NIGHTMARES! NO JOKE!) Which gives me hope that the NEXT essay, which is due in 2 weeks, if I don't turn into a massive spaz, might even get an A.

I'm not normally the type that worries at all about grades, when I was in first year I was just happy to PASS, however now that I'm doing post-grad your chances of getting scholarships really is hugely affected by your GPA and mine just... hasn't been the best. So the goal is to get first-class honors so that I can use THAT to get masters scholarships. As such I need to be getting a minimum of A-, but I'm aiming for A/A+ so that if I drop the ball here or there the average will still be alright.

Anyway, that's probably not very interesting to anyone but me but I'm SO RELIEVED I had to post. The postyness overcame me.

In other thesis news I've got to play all kinds of really weird and interesting games lately. Spacewar! is one of the first video games ever made. (it wasn't even on a PC, it was on some crazy computing machine that they had before then!) It's fun, go try it! Hunt the Wumpus was also a very early text-based game (that's a picture-based version, but you get the general idea) that came out way back when. It's really interesting looking at how games have evolved, and reading stuff about Japan as a fantasy-space for the West. I love my research so hard right now I'm gonna shut up. :D

In other news, I'm sick with a never-ending cold at the moment and if you haven't read it and are looking for a good fantasy book, The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson is definitely worth reading.

Oooo, oooo, just to make this post more media-filled, anyone who hasn't played Robot Unicorn Attack should go do it now, most entertaining thing to play when you've been trying to theorise for hours ever.

Hey all, more apologies for not being around. Massive apologies for still not updating BtS. On a positive note, I am currently in the process of shifting to my new flat, which will HOPEFULLY be completed without too many hitches by tomorrow evening. After that I've just got normal life of masses of homework and work and stuff to distract me from writing, so there's a good chance that I'll start getting back into things.

Another thing that is going to help the progress of burn to shine, (I hope) is that I am also currently in the process of returning to the fandom. I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but over the last 8 months (or so, I'm not actually sure of the dates) I have almost completely abandoned my OTP (H/D), and almost gone off Harry Potter fanfiction altogether. Yeah, I know, scary. I guess after reading probably at least a thousand, if not two, fics in the same genre, one gets a little stifled by it all. HOWEVER, (before people start panicking) over the last couple of months, very very slowly, I've been in the process of re-introducing myself to the fandom. I realised that, quite apart from how insane the last few months have been, a large part of why I wasn't writing BtS was I just didn't care as much about what was happening to my boys. I'd lost my empathy for them and their story. So yeah, quietly, I am trying to ease back into reading some H/D here and there. Wish me luck, okay?

Oh and, since I've been out of the loop for so bloody long, can anyone rec me some of the newer, (finished) really good quality H/D? (or Harry/Snape, Harry/Lucius or Harry/Tom(Voldemort) -those slashes are not indicative of position, btw-))

( Random aside about new fandoms I've been enjoying in my absence from Potter-fic )

Anyway, my connection and living status are rather vague at the moment, so I don't know how much I'm going to be around, but I just wanted to give everyone a big wave and say, "I'm not dead yet! (I feel happiiiii!)" and that I hope everyone else well.

Laters!

Edit, Tuesday night: Just doing a fly-by to say that I have moved and I have internet etc. Yay. I still don't have a desk so I'm operating from the floor, but still, at least the connection works. Can't do a proper update because although I'm mostly settled, I skipped class today to shift, and I have a LOT of work to do. So yeah, yayyay etc.

I am SO frustrated right now! Despite a grotesquely lazy day yesterday reading COUNTLESS fics, I am still experiencing really bad RSI in my right wrist and am almost completely incapable of typing. DMT chapter 4 is just sitting there, RIPE and I can't touch it! *grrs and args and feels like smashing things* I've also (pretty-much by accident,) read THREE main-character-death fics in the last 24 hours and this had made me exceedingly grumpy. My temper is further unraveled by my total inability to feel like I'm getting right the characterization for both Harry and Voldemort in DMT. *wails*

Anyway, I'm going to post the Mine drabble I wrote the other day to make myself feel better.

I managed to hold out a WHOLE DAY without posting! Aren't I just the bee's knees!

( leeeemons )