So, earlier this week I was up until 3 in the morning finishing off a story called "Shadowmill", which had been inspired by a dream I'd had that morning.

I'm not going to bother posting it here, because it'd be about 12 installments long, and that's too much for people's interests here. But, it IS posted at the 7th Sanctum (and I'd like people to actually read it please, instead of saying they will and then not, it's not THAT long...) [url=[link] it is[/url] complete with warnings.

Now... The reason I complain about me and my muse here, is that the story took over 16 hours to write (well, it actually TOOK around 6 maybe, but I was actually, you know, alive and doing other things during that day too). It's done, at least as much as it's a start-middle-end kind of story. It needs editing, there are a couple passages I'd like to clear up and work on some of the wording here and there. But basically that's it in a nutshell. It does live in a universe that was also inspired by a prior dream, one in which Piers Hoarfrost (who is mentioned in this one) exists and therefore the world has more depth to me - and I can still continue to write in it.

That's not the issue.

The issue is me, going back to my "Stories" folder on my hard drive and looking for other things I ought to be working on.

And finding one. It's called "Royal Line". It's got a good batch of characters, well-done imho, future post-apoc by who knows how long, peasants versus royals with mutation and telepathy and who knows what else thrown in for good measure. I bring the main characters to the point where they're approaching the Royal City, and ... that's it. Meaning: I didn't finish it.

I re-read it, having EXACTLY NO recollection of having written it AT ALL the whole time. I mean nothing, NOTHING was ringing any bells. It was obviously in my style, obviously from my brain pan and had clear similarities to other stories that have yet to actually be written fully.

But the problem is: it's not an END. It's in the MIDDLE of this story. And I have NO FUCKING CLUE where the story was going to go. The first line, "I always felt both humbled and comforted by the Queen" gives me the knowledge that the main character was in fact part of the Royal family in the world. An orphan, "Blooded" and gifted with telepathic coersion powers.

I hint that the Queen whoever she is, only tells Soolie the main character what her real name is.

I gather that there will be complications due to the "hunting" that Royals do on occasion - hunting down and killing mutated, weak, mentally unstable or otherwise 'useless' people, and some of them apparently cannibalize too.

... And that's all I know. I have no idea what the Queen's name is, nor what her relationship to Soolie is. I have no clue if anyone is supposed to die on the way, or whether their 'revolution' succeeds or if Soolie, Royal that she is, turns on them and takes over her realm.

Seriously.

Not a freaking idea where I was going with it. It was written within the last 5 years, I know that, but... beside that I have no records of it existing beyond that one 22 page word document. My guess is that it could be around 60 finished.

And because I've done that before, started things and never completed them even though they were burning holes at the ends of my fingers when I first started writing... I have learned to obey the Muse. I must complete it if I know it's a 'short' story (that is to say, something less than the Nanowrimo length of 50k, which imho is a novella at best). If I don't complete it it will wind up festering on my hard drive with NO future whatsoever. I could TRY to pick up Royal Line. I could. I would fail - I have lost whatever spark that story had, probably no more than a day or two later, which is why I don't remember it AT ALL.

There are other stories I do need to finish, and I do know where they were leading. When I have an 'ending' in mind, I usually know how to get there but sometimes it takes... years. Years and years.

So if you catch me posting at 4 am or bleary-eyed at noon, that's probably why. I will have been obeying my Muse. The other time I did so, is here in DA, it's "Craft Me An Artificial Soul." And, come to think of it I believe "Suicide Muse" was also written in the course of only one day. Artificial Soul took until dawn - I remember writing, writing, writing, and then the sky was light outside.

Anyway. Please go read my story. I need to know if it's as good as I hope it to be, and I need to get it published, and paid for, and all that. Seriously, it only took me hours to write. It can't take days on end to read, can it?

And on the other hand there are plenty of better things today.

* I do not live in Beijing. Oh my GOD did you see the tv report about the athletes dropping out of THE OLYMPICS because of the horrifying pollution in China's host city!? You can't see *across the street* and it's the color of *rotten beer*. o.o I cannot even believe people still are *able* to live in those conditions. *gag!*

* Even though I had been having trouble playing COH the last couple weeks, due to the game crashing all the time, I've had some great help on how to update my drivers and get the computer as primed as it could be - now I only hope those things fix the issue. but lots of help from the techheads at the COH forum, and kudos to them.

* My cat *doesn't* have diabetes. He does apparenltly have some amount of arthrytis in his hips but honestly that's something much easier to deal with than the potential of having a diabetic cat... The cats are *finally* starting to eat their new food - though they don't seem to like it one bit, and I'll probably have to find something else after it's gone (stupid 20 lb bags, though, and only 1 cat *actually* likes it - the one who will eat *anything*...)



.... I get angry at things. But I try hard to make a difference. Why is it that no one else - people who SHOULD do so - don't want to? Or make excuses? I want this site to be run better. I want it to have the kind of prosperity that comes from a *good community* - not from one guy saying "this is how we should go". I don't feel connected to many parts of the community as I once did, and I can and will fairly place that blame on the admin. For *disconnecting* with the rest of us. Why won't anyone give straight answers? Either because they lack the desire, or because they lack the knowledge. It certainly wouldn't hurt the site to KNOW what's being planned - instead, we get forced into the new build or having added changes made, *without one whit* of comment from the staff about it.

There's this thing called "beta testing" - but there's another thing called "asking for opinions" and it should happen *before* beta. Before anything gets thrown in. Before any actions are taken.

Why were .gifs rendered useless in most galleries? Why were the bulk of the community *left out* of the decision to do this? Why was it that all of a sudden it's "more proper" to have people wait and reply instead of asking them up front what they think?

Why aren't we getting regular updates about the site?

Why aren't these questions *answered* by the people who run the site?

And why - oh why - are those people *allowed and encouraged* to make disparaging remarks when they themselves are the cause of the angry pitchfork-weilding commoners?

*sick of this still.*

I'm so fucking sick of the cliquey ass bullshit coming from every fucking corner of this website.

Yes, it is your goddamn job to fucking tell the other ignorant ass admin that they're fucking themselves by insulting their customers. Yes, it is your ficking job to do it because you *are one of them.*

Yes, it is your fucking job to *listen to me venting*. Why wouldn't it be?

You got the little mark saying so. I only have a lowly little ~.

I expect that to be changed to a ! pretty fucking quick. Should I post the letter? Should I? Will it become another cweeks incident if I do? "You're not allowed to ask someone else who's of the same rank as those who've insulted you, to perhaps stop insulting you and get on with answering questions." You're not allowed, because you're nothing to us, ha hah ha.

FUCK YOU admin, every goddamn fucking one of you can rot. YOU make this place SUCK ASS.

Evvyboddys' doin it, I'll do it too!


1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies. (or 10, or... however many!)
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.
5. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
6. Those who guess correctly have to do the Meme next! <-- unless you don't want to. So there.

I'm not surprised people haven't gotten one of these, but I am definitely surprised that no one's gotten the other. Here's a clue for both: they both have the same female actor in them; one is one of my *absolute* favorite movies. The third, let's just say "it never actually showed in theaters". (that I know of)
(wow two out of three scored just then!)

***edit***

Okay I didn't actually expect anyone to get number 10. It was from the not-quite-released but easily-found-everywhere (for a while) (and recently rereleased in a special dvd format) parody "Hardware Wars"! You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll kiss three bucks goodbye!" (and yes, movies used to be three bucks for those of you who weren't born more than 20 years ago lol)


Thanks everyone for participating! This was a fun meme


****

*ProfessorBlues - Tron 1) "Yes." "Yes." "No." "YESYESYESYES"


~Dursagon - Westworld 2) "Boy, have we got a vacation for you!"


*RODCOM1000 - Fifth Element 3) "Gimmie the cash!"


~Dursagon - Labyrinth 4) "Hey, lady! Where are you going with a head like that?"


*RODCOM1000 - Blade Runner 5) "I'm surprised you didn't come here sooner." "It's not an easy thing to meet your maker." "What could he do for you?" "Can the maker repair what he makes?"


~Dursagon - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 6) "You! You foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach!"


RODCOM1000's KID! - Animatrix 7) "Hand over your flesh, and a new world awaits you. We demand it."


=knight-owl - Memento 8) "I can't remember to forget you."


~ashigaru Lion King 9) "Oh, gee. I always thought they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away."


---- Hardware Wars! 10) "Okay, so what you want to do is this: You want to attack at the most vulnerable spot. Come at it from this angle and locate the automatic flip-flop override device here, which in turn will defuse the antigyroscopic preinterface thruster chamber, and the pneumatic centripetal antigravity shield deflectors, then you simply deactivate the axial gyro-presubinertia-photomegatronic oscillator that you see here."


~ashigaru Spirited Away 11) "You better get here before I forget what my parents look like. I hope Dad hasn't gotten too fat."


=knight-owl - Matrix Revolutions 12) "You wore it." "Are you kidding? I'll never take it off."


=Larissa-Rasputin - Hellboy 13) "He disclosed to me the child's true name. Would you like to know it?" "I already know what to call him. I call him "son"."


*RODCOM1000 RoboCop 14) "They'll fix you. They fix everything."


~ashigaru Spaceballs 15) "No, sir! I didn't see you playing with you dolls again."

If you didn't know, I have a stock photo account,
dtf-stock

I just uploaded like... 30 odd pictures to it, ranging from birds through elephants. I'm still working on cleaning up the rest of my photos for use there. So if you're in need of references - particularly if you're an Anthro or animal artist, I do have a very wide variety of stuff to check out!

Also, since I live in San Diego and we've got the Zoo and the Wild Animal Park, I have relatively easy access to a LOT of animals. If you know what you're looking for, drop me a line and I'll try and figure out whether there's an area I can take pictures of it, at the zoo or park.


*****

EFFIN AYE!!!!

I got a daily deviation on my Red River Hog picture! WEWT!!

HEEEEEE! *dies of the bliss*