Hi all!

This is just a quick update because it's late and I have class in the morning, but I feel nothing has happened on this journal for long enough that people might be wondering if I was eaten by a taniwha, (if you don't know that that is, Wiki it, they are cool).

What's going on?
- I had a great christmas (well, post-christmas, I didn't leave till boxing day) with my family, mostly just sleeping lots and getting to know my brother's new girlfriend, and swimming, which was nice.

- I also had a great birthday, New Years Eve going on Random Adventures with some friends and then fireworks in the town-square at midnight which were FAB and then hugs and stuff. The actual day was marred by some less-cool stuff with my brother but then my flatmates were really nice and made me a cake so it was okay.

- Today I did some more work on Dry My Tears. ...I KNOW! INSANITY! Over the break at my parents' I started on a J2 short fic as well, but I'm not going to say how/if these will eventuate out because (next point)

- I am about to start my next summer paper - Creative Writing for Stage (today! In 9 hours! Must sleep first!). Which... well, I'm extremely excited/nervous about. I also have my manager going away on holiday in Feb, which is going to make the next two months IN-FUCKING-SANE. Then I have a (WHOLE, OMG!) week of break before semester proper starts again. This coming year is really important to me and is going to be real test of whether I can stick it out in academia, so I am making NO promises about fanfic. It's still a huge priority but it's just extremely hard for me to get my head into writing-mode when I'm obsessing about essays or whatever. On the plus side though, half my papers this year are ON creative writing, which maybe will stir me up more than the last few years. We'll see.

- Finally, 2008 was a real humdinger of a year. Full of massive ups and massive downs. Fail grades and A+es, depression and epiphanies. Friends, family, love and hurt. I don't think I could have squeezed more into the year if I'd tried. A big thank you to everyone who was good to me, a big >:[ to those who were shit to me, and also a big thank you to all the interesting people around at the moment who keep me clicking the refresh button on life, not just the internet.

Note for 2009: Climb more trees.

Random aside:

I was looking at one of the Spn fics which I'm not officially working on and to a certain extent it has turned into a marathon discussion about pie. I've always loved the way Americans talk about pie. Here you have 'a pie', or 'pies' in the US it's just, 'pie'. Probably because pies here are made in single-serve form whereas in the states you only have a piece of pie. But more than that, it's the reverence that the word is infused with. It makes me want pie. (For those who don't know, in NZ we don't have fruit-based pie, we have meat pies which are AWESOME, and a national favourite, but not... pie.)

Anyway, I think I may have name this fic 'Dean's Pie Baby' or something. Hrmn. Not that I'm actually working on it! No! Lies!

Right now:

Watching the NZ election. Surprisingly invested in this. If we end up with a National/Act government I am going to be pissed. I'm not really happy with Labour, but if there's no left-left influence like the greens or the Maori party, I think our country is going to dive economically. I don't think people realise how while Labour's conservative views have meant that while the dollar has devalued, and the housing market is a mess, we're a teeny tiny developed country which hasn't gone bankrupt in the face of economic collapse, and that's pretty bloody amazing. Open market politics is what screwed the US, and that's what the Nats and Act want for us. UM, GUYS?!?

( Something to record, trying really hard not to brag in any way )

In addendum:
I am so completely addicted to Supernatural. Season 4 is great. I am on a mission to make all my friends love it so that I have people here to squee with. I just happened to see the original video clip of 'Eye of the Tiger' and I've gotta say, Jensen Ackles does it better. \o/

I know, I know, you're all probably sick of it, but I don't care!

I'm planted in front of the T.V. watching the NZ coverage of the US election. Boring and super-exciting at the same time. At this point it's a guesstimate from CNN of Obama 81 to McCain 34. ABC is reporting that Obama has Pennsylvania. I've got my laptop out because I'm sure there are going to be long bouts of nothing happening and in theory I'm supposed to be using some of my holidays this week to write!

Oh, and I got all my essays in. Have to wait a few weeks for marks, but I'm about 90% sure I've passed both classes. Got my summer papers confirmed this morning. I'm trying to convince my work to give me minimal extra hours over the summer so I can make a serious hit at my WIPs. I also have some Spn/CWRPS fics I'm thinking about having a go at. Next year the original fics have got to become my top priority, so this summer I really desperately want to get Dry My Tears and Burn to Shine back into shape before I turn my attention elsewhere. Anyway, we'll see what happens.

Will check in later as the polls keep coming in! Woot woot! (If anyone's at all in question of where my loyalties lie, *snort* GO OBAMA, GO!)

Edit: 306 votes! WOOT!

Right now, I am standing in front of my computer desk, dancing to music while researching Native Title land claims in Australia. I am standing because I have been compulsively eating non-stop or the last few days, and all the sugar and other crap is tying my stomach into knots. I am dancing because of said sugar and also because I'm so, damn sick of sitting still. I'm researching Native Title because I have to write an essay about it before the morning. Woop woop.

( What was supposed to be a social comment, turned into a Declaration of Strength, Courage, and Awesome on the part of Peeji )

Also, my cat's feet are completely adorable. *kisses them*

Just in case anyone is desperately worried, wondering why I've fallen off the face of the earth, biting their nails with deep, heartfelt concern... I am not dead.

I just have one more week of class for this semester and four essays to write.

hah.

I will see you all once I've passed the make-or-break phase.


P.S. Barn raised chickens, not cool. But... free-range chickens aren't sold in this country, (as far as I know.) Dilemma! Is the threat of vegetarianism finally going to overcome my inner carnivore? And what does a hypoglycaemic eat if they don't react well to starches and don't eat meat? Dilemma!

p.p.s. enrolled in Creative Writing for stage for my january summer paper. Wooo!

P.P.P.S. Something in my room smells completely funky. :(

I am on a mission to type out chapter 7 of Dry My Tears. I thought I might have a good chance at getting it done tonight.

hahahahaa

I've been going for about an hour. Done 600 words, about 2 and a half pages? I was like, 'Hokay! Awesome! How many do I have left? Two or three pages, right?'

Guess how many pages I have to go? 5? 7?

oh no...

TWENTY FUCKING FOUR!

24!!!!

This is going to take me weeks! HOW THE HELL DID I WRITE A CHAPTER THIS LONG!?!? How did I forget I'd written a chapter this long????? It's going to be like, 7,000 words all up. *cries* I'm just going to have to allocate an hour a day to typing it up otherwise it's never going to get done. SIGH, I say, SIGH!

I'm going to have to post a drabble in the mean time. Even I can't deal with not posting for this long. Guh.

( In other news, uni rambles... )

Oh, and I got given a whole cake of chocolate today, and I've already eaten like, half of it. HAHAHA! erk. *puts away so she can pretend it doesn't exist* Right! Onward and upward!

heh, that sounds so seedy now that I'm all grown up and perverted.

Anyway! Essay is completed. I now have one day of free time this week (today) to do ALL the things I thought I'd have heaps of time to do this week. :( I have a list! Right now I am allowing myself 20 mins to do some DMTs_07 typing up. Then I'm going to spend 30 mins on beta work for mimei-senpai, then I have to go into work for a meeting with the new manager and 2IC. Then I'm going to a friend's place. I've already played World of Warcraft for a few hours with my brothers in celebration of my middle-brother's birthday, (took more time than I wanted because there were FUCKING HORDE everywhere who kept on killing me where I wanted to do my quests. But to be fair I later found an area where me and some horde managed to quest right next to each other without killing each other, so I can't bitch TOO much. *mutter mutter mutter*) I have also hung out in the sun with my cat. So, list has about 6 more things on it which just aren't going to get done, but oh well. ;_;

Must go! No time! *flails*

YYAAAAY ESSAY DONE! (Can't really get over it....)

p.s. Writing accents (without like, 'writing accents' which is SUCH a no-no, in my opinion,) is SO FUCKING HARD! I'm sitting here with Harry, who is contemporary england, Voldemort, who is 1940s england, then Xander - california, and Spike contemporary (london?) with a touch of 19th cen england and I have a NZ accent, which is sort of half-way between British and American (in terms of dialect, not accent), and it's all CRAZY. *gets all confused and twisted around*

p.p.s. I just got home (around midnight) and one of my old-man flatmates (two of my flatmates are around 50, weird but relatively house-trained, so that's okay) gave me this look that was a bit, 'And where have YOU been young lady?' HAH! I've been at a friend's place watching the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie (so very funny, so very bad, I imagined it was made by Andrew and some friends. It made me chuckle lots) eating ice cream and discussing knitting. XDDD but, you know, if that's all I might just go read some gay erotica before bed, cool? XDDDDDD

Oh gosh. I have an essay due which was supposed to be handed in on friday. I emailed my lecturer with a sob story and said it would be in no later than monday. I was hoping I'd get a response like, "Don't stress, just have it in no later than the end of the week," instead I got a "Thanks for letting me know," which means I really HAVE to get it done by tomorrow avo. I have work from 12-3:30 so I even have to have it done BEFORE I leave for work because the offices close at 5pm so I can't put it any later than that. ;_;

Right now it's 10pm. I have JUST got home. I had to leave the house at 8am this morning to get to work in time to open the shop. I worked for 6 hours, then went shopping for two hours for birthday presents, (man I hate September) and then went straight from the mall to my brother's place to give him, his girlfriend and our non-related brother who lives with them presents. They ALL have birthdays this week. Mum and I gave up on the idea of individual personal gifts and decided to just buy random goodies and present them to the household to fight over amongst themselves. In a feat of random amazingness, I was ACTUALLY able to get them a selection of things they actually LIKED. I have this epic history of choosing gifts for my brother and/or his girlfriend which go down like a lead balloon. And they're the kind of people that both point this out and then remind me often that they hated what I got them ;___________; fail. But yeah, I got them lollies and random cute things and salt and pepper shakers which look like ghosts (ADORABLE!) and there was much glee. Yey.

( Anyway, point being )

/brain melt.

[Edit:] I just updated to firefox 3.0 yesterday and it took away the skin I was using! This made me SAD especially since most of the skins done for 3.0 yet are kinda lame or not my style. As such, I am temporarily using one until something perfect like my old one can come out. The cuteness of my browser now is scary. Also, when pages load, the little fox RUNS. It's SCARY AND ADORABLE.

I feel crap.

crap crap crappity crap crap.

I have lots to do and no time. >:( I have big essay of DOOM. (which isn't actually a doom essay at all, it's a really interesting topic, but it's really important and I have not enough time left to do what I want to do with it).

I really, desperately want to write, but I have so many different projects going that my brain can't handle it and the one thing that I really really should be doing writing-wise is typing out DMT_07 but that's not writing in the creative sense so doesn't fulfil my demanding muse-like-scream in the back of my head and *cries*

I have lots of emails and comments and things I should be catching up on but I just can't make myself do anything much at the moment. I am shocky and strange and disconnected. I know when I get like this I really should write because that straightens me out but my mind is whirling too much.

Maybe I should just give up on doing other things tonight and just write some shorts. Start and finish something.

mmmm, bye sanity, see you in a while.


Edit: Started working on my Spike/Xander fic again. I don't know how, but every time I read the start of this fic I wrote a few months ago (which, upon checking my journal, I seem not to have mentioned before. BY THE WAY, guys, I'm about 2,200 words into a one-shot, longish (maybe around 10,000 words?) S/X fic.) I fall totally in love with it. By some strange flash of random awesome I seem to have got the voices reasonably close-to-canon (probably because I watch buffy waaaay too much) and the fic is hot and interesting. So. working some more on that coz it's the only thing not driving me more crazy at the moment. 600 words in tonight.

Edit edit: As of 1am, the point of, 'Oh gosh stop you have work in the morning!' 1,486 words! Fucking HAXX! That so justifies my writing-fuge. And kind of justifies my lack of essay writing. Kind of.

Right, I'm off to bed and then work for the next two days. Bluhg.

Well, I've been sick for eight days at this point and I am SO over it. In addition, the internet has shut down in my flat (temporarily due to some Issues, but it'll be back in a few days) which of course send me into spasms of OMGWTFBBQ and not being able to do anything. However, despite this I did manage to get my assignment in on time yesterday, if several hundred words below the word limit. >_>

What else is going on, well. Hmm. I am at the public library in town today. I WAS going to finish typing up chapter 7 of DMTs but I didn't bring the right writing book. >:| I looked at the start of chapter whatever of BtS but... gosh, I've got three different starts and they're all GOOD but at the same time none of them quite work. *gives up for now* As such, I'm really just sitting here waiting to be inspired.

BUT NOT ah fuck, now it's come back. I got this inspiration for a Supernatural story the other day. It's very... evil. The idea is for eggpreg!Dean (i.e. Dean is a man-shaped chicken... or maybe a penguin... ANYWAY) and he all doesn't realise it at first and starts nesting and rummaging through Walmart trying to find appropriate items and Sam's all, "Dude, what the hell are you doing?" ... @_@ I really want to write it, but it's EVIL and I don't really feel like I should randomly attack another fandom that I have so little experience with. (Having only watched four episodes of Spn, I kind of feel like it's not my place.) But at the same time, I don't want to annoy my favourite writers by just randomly emailing them with this basket of crack. SIGHZ! But... it just HAS to be written, by SOMEONE!?! RIGHT???

Peeji is sick. mleh. Not even a really good 'I can't feel guilty for doing nothing because I'm too sick,' sick, just a, 'I'm well enough to do stuff but doing stuff is twice as hard and more nausea-inducing than usual.' sick. :(

Also, it has reached the stage that reading is not fun. :( :( I really want to watch Lord of the Rings but my brother has my DVDs. I thin watching Die Hard 4 for the fifth time might be a liiiittle much, even for me. I kind of feel like working on my Jaemin fic, but I'm kinda stuck on it and I don't have the energy for fixing things right now. blaaaahhhh.

I called in sick for work today but I'm really going to have to go tomorrow because our flat is down a person and I think I'm going to end up having to help with extra rent next week. Which means money will be in high-demand. *sighs* Anyone know someone non-creepy looking for a flat in Christchurch, NZ? *sighz moar*

Yes, that is pretty much all I wanted to say. Oh, except, HELLO TO THE RUSSIANS! I've had like, four people whose journals are in (I think) Russian friend me in the last month or so, so I just felt the need to say, 'HI!' Anyone else who has friended me lately, you are not getting a hello because you're just not COOL enough - you're not bi-lingual! Step it UP, people! :PPP XD

But then, y'all already knew that.

Trying to get my head into this reading for class. It's semi-working... I'm up to page 6! The book is pretty boring so far... *sighs*

Meanwhile, last week I ordered a bed-base! I am very excited. It's supposed to be arriving sometime this coming week. *bounces impatiently* I has just had a mattress on the floor for over a year now, so it's a big deal for Peeji.

What else is going on? Well, the drafts of chapters 8 and 9 for DMTs are done, I wrote one sentence of chapter 10 tonight. Really not going to be a lot going on with that till after this assignment is in on the 1st. Then I have this NUTZO weekend of work, but I'm hoping around Monday/tuesday after I'll give this writing thing another whirl. If I don't hit my 20,000 goal (which isn't terribly likely at this point) by August 9th then I plan to put my idea on temporary hold, get chapter 7 all typed and edited (so the readers don't die of impatience... again.) and up, and then either keep going for another few weeks or shift to BtS. I've been really encouraged by how much work I've done for this over the last few weeks, so I'd like to try again when there isn't Unexpected Assignment Insanity.

Anyway, for people's reference:

5,997 / 20,000 (30.0%)

Hi, uh, so, BASICALLY.

I have a crazy lecturer who doesn't seem to understand that the first few weeks of class are light on workload because people are just getting their shit sorted and because we haven't been TAUGHT anything yet (!!!!) and who thinks that now would be a GREAT time to assign us to read an entire text book in one week.

Yeah, that's what I said. That was NOT hyperbole, exaggeration, or colourful addition. Every single member of my class has to read an entire published anthropological text by next Thursday.


If I try to express my seismic terror right now, I may explode. So instead can I just assure everyone that I am completely freaking out.

Oh, and as an added bonus, all the books are only available from the library on 3-hour loan, so I have to read it AT the library AND, because I have a $30 fine on my library card which I cannot afford to pay off right now, I can't start reading till next Monday when I get more money. Then have to write a book review by Thursday.

...... meanwhile, I haven't done much writing the last few weeks, but seriously, not really worried about that just at the moment. >_>;;;;;;

[Edit: It occurs to me that some of you may find this not really the end of the world to do, but to put in context, I am really, reallly reallllly slow at reading non-fiction. I had a 8-page reading to do for class today, and all up it probably took me about four hours to get through. And it was even really interesting. Now times that by an entire book - minimum maybe what, 150 pages - and now you can start to see the all-consuming terror which is slowly spreading through my entire being right now....]

Excited Edit in Bold: Hahahaha, I don't even really know what to think of this, but not only have I managed to find one book which is vaaaaaaaguely close to my academic interests which I had missed before, I stumbled across it on Google Books (never heard of THAT till tonight...) and am currently reading it ONLINE! @_@ *feelz all sneaky* I don't know how much of it I'll be allowed to access like this, but I reckon every little bit done is something! *dances with the half-hearted glee of many hours of reading to look forward to...*

Edited to add: AHAHAHA! THE NOVELTY. Ahahahahaaaa that was totally unintentional! (Yes, yes, I am one of those people who cracks up over stupid puns. Please blame my parents.)

But, I'm still keeping up okay! By week end I needed 4,522 minimum:

( Day Six – July 14th, 2008 [Words: 0 today / 3,672 total] )


( Day Seven – July 15th, 2008 [Words: 1,230 today / 4,905 total] )

Also caught up with my brothers today, which was nice, and the presents I got for my parents FINALLY got to them and Mum called to squee about going to the ballet with me. And she loved the card. Dad said, 'thanks for the bit of wood with a hole in it' which was okay, since that's what I gave him. (it was a stupid gift. A wine-bottle balancing holder thing. :/) So I'm feeling all family-ified and that is nice.

4,905 / 20,000 (24.5%)

Insanity check:
Day Two - [Words: 1,294 today / 2,157 total]

Earlier this afternoon:
I am officially having one of those days where your fingers refuse to type anything but nonsense. I have so far spelt ‘Voldemort’ as ‘Voldemrot’ every. single. time. -___-;;

BAHAAH! *jumps up and down in frustration*

( Random blather about the day's efforts )

ANYWAY! One thing I was wondering, is, are people going to get annoyed if I'm updating every day with my progress on this Peeji BigBang thing? I don't normally care about cluttering flists but every day is quite a lot since I don't do that normally. I could make a comm just for me me me just for the course of the adventure... or record the weeks-worth of entries and then just post them all in weekly doses? *iz unsure*

Hi!

I've decided, in my considerable frustration with all the different things I'm writing at the moment, and inspired by the spn_j2_bigbang, that I am going to do my own personal bigbang/nanowrimo here in my own back yard.

Why. Because I promised myself I'd have a original fic draft ready by age 24, I'm running out of time, and I need to get these major fanfics out of the way so I can focus on that.

What. Dry My Tears is flowing for me at the moment, so I think it would be best for me to focus on that. Once it is out of the way I can focus on Burn to Shine and then we'll be nearing the finish line. I just feel lately that splitting chapter for chapter between the two stories is slowing me down.

When. 9th of July till the 9th of August.

How. I have no fucking idea, through being focussed, and knowing that there is an end to the pressure?

Finish line/goal: The finish line is to hit 20,000 words by the end of the month. The optimum goal, however, is to completely finish the draft of Dry My Tears. (yeah, yeah, I said it out loud, please no one laugh in my face.) Before anyone asks, no, these goals are not synonymous. I would, at a conservative guess, estimate DMTs has another 40,000ish words to go. Yup. That's what I said. *cries*

If anyone could point me at where I would find one of those word-count monitor things everyone used for bigbang, I would be really grateful, I would benefit from being able to share my progress. :/

Alright! I'm going to re-read chapter 7 then get started! Blow the whistle!

Edit: Mwahahaha! Did a lot of re-reading and thinking, and still managed to slam out 863 words for DMT_08 (DON'T talk to me about chapter 7, I need to post it soon but FUCK it's a MESS of SHIT *cries*). I've got to do a minimum of 645 words per-day to hit the 20,000 mark, but 1,290 to get close to the vague line of finishing the story. I have pity on myself today because of all that reading I had to do and because I have no brain left at ALL to keep going now. (I've been staring at the same two lines for like, 20 minutes.) So! Day one! 863 words! Yay! *does a little dance*

I am lame lately! Going through one of those phases where I don't have energy for anything and turning off my brain by reading lots of fic so I don't think about anything. No real reason, just tired and busy with work and, as usual, a lame excuse for a human being.

I'm doing an entry tonight so that I can communicate with anyone/thing other than myself that I am WRITING TONIGHT! Yes! THAT. Because if I'm just left alone with the thought I won't do anything at all.

Because it's been so long since I've updated, I have a really out-of-date 'comments for the week' from like, two weeks ago, but I thought I'd post it anyway.

( Comments for the week: Semester over-ness, reading own writing, trip to see mimei, music, reading and readers, me being a dick, feminism, and pretty. )

Also, I want to put a big fat list of all the fic I've read in the last week or so because the big-bang is INSANE and has blown my mind. ( Recs! )