Post-It Quote: Invader blood marches through my veins, like a pair of giant rubber radioactive pants! The pants command me! -Invader Zim
Today's entry has three parts. The most important one being: ::deep breath::
I BEAT KINGDOM HEARTS!
Even better than that, I beat it with all dalmations found, all keyholes sealed, and the Hades Cup beaten. That means that I got to see the preview for Kingdom Hearts 2. Two words: Riku. Older.
OH. MY. GOD.
He redefines the very definition of pretty. So of course, I had to go download the trailer right away. ^_^ Now I can watch it again and again.
The second news would be that I had my first practice driving lesson today. I know, I got my permit, like, how long ago? But the weather has been bad, and I chickened out more than once. But I started today, and I now have the confidence to start operating a large piece of metal capable of killing not only me, but many others. I was also reminded yet again of how incredibly small I am. -_-;
The third thing is the watching of a taped episode of Bravo's new series that goes behind the scenes of the Cirque du Soleil. Remember the pair of dancers? Turns out they're not lovers, but are in fact identical twins. It makes sense when you think about it. That's really the only other bond that seems close enough for that kind of intensity.
Anyhoo. ::wanders off to watch her Kingdom Hearts 2 trailer again::
Post-It Quote: Sand pirates and pepsi stairways forever!
A HUGE thank you to Tamazel for her tip-off on the web hosting. I will commence moving my site ASAP. You know what that means guys, no updates for a while. ^_^;; Sorry. But don't worry, this will mean that I have more space.
Post-It Quote: Spicy Marmalade, how'd you get so marmaly?
Just a quick note: If anyone knows a place where I can get a large amount of free web space, please please PLEASE e-mail me. I'm currently on Freeservers and running out of space quickly. My e-mail is kaged_tiger@hotmail.com
So, it's been Christmas! Yay! I got much cool loot, but contenders for the top three most awesome are definately: A Gameboy Advance, Kingdom Hearts for PS2, and Final Fantasy X for PS2. ^_^ Happy happy happy. ::bounces off to play her games::
Post-It Quote: Come buy a co-coconut, what's the matter with you? -The Coconut Song, DDR
So I'm finally out for Christmas. Now all I need to do is finish my assignment, finish my Christmas shopping, and write a Gravitation fanfic. ...I might do that last one first. ::sigh:: So much to do, so little time.
I wonder what the attraction of blogs is. Having complete strangers reading what you're saying? Hm. I think it makes one feel like a celebrity. If you're putting it out there, you feel almost like people care enough to read it. Food for thought.
Yes! I did it, I did it, I did it. ::does a happy dance::
What is it I did? I'll tell you: I GOT 100% ON MY PERMIT TEST!
That's right folks. I am officially able to drive, as long as there's a licensed adult in the car. ^_______^ Look out world!
Now that that's out of the way. This next message is for those of you who read my Dungeon Secrets fic.
(For those of you who don't, I highly recommend it:(http://dragonnest.freeservers.com/fics/dungeonviews01.html) (This message brought to you by the Shameless Plug Association (SPA) Kagedtiger's Fics Chapter (SPAKFC))).
Anyhoo, You'll be pleased to know that I have written all remaining chapters. The only thing I have to do now is send them to be beta-read one by one and then post them. Beware, the end is near!
So I wrote a poem today. Which is exceedingly odd, considering I generally don't write poetry and tend to look down on amature poetry in general. Still, this came to me, and it seemed like a bad idea to brush it off, so here it is:
Instrinsic
Within, without, witholding all,
A place to flee, the space to fall.
Rebirth, regrowth, regaining all,
To find the strength and heed the call.
The black, the dark unending space,
All will vanish, leave no trace.
The warmth, the light to fill the place,
To catch your dreams just for the chase.
To trap the moments, keep them near,
The bad or good, just hold them dear.
The cunning mind will notice here,
That life's a gift too short for fear.
~End~
Yeah. So, I know it's not much good, but I have to put it *somewhere*, and this is as good a place as any. I promise to inflict you with as little poetry as possible in the future. ...Original poetry, anyway.
So I'm back from said trip, and should really start working on that fic. But first I have to do that book report. Damn my lack of cool graphics...
The show, on the whole, wasn't bad. Not good enough to do it again next year, mind, but at least it paid for itself. It's a real tragedy when it doesn't even do that.
I don't really have much to say (which, if you'll notice, hasn't stopped me from saying anything anyway). I spent a lot of my spare time plotting that fic, so once I get on it I should be able to write a good deal. Plus the next chapter of my Road to El Dorado fic is percolating nicely, in the process indicating that that particular fic might be a lot shorter than I expected it would.
Stopped at Barnes and Nobles on the way home. Picked up The Legend of Nightfall. It looks good.
Post-It Quote: "I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is about the world that makes living worthwhile?"
Death thought about it.
"CATS," he said eventually. "CATS ARE NICE."
-Sourcery, Terry Pratchett
I thought I ought to do two seperate posts, in order to distinguish one topic from another, and so I could put up two links.
Thanksgiving. So this year we went to visit my aunt, uncle, and two little cousins in New York City. We watched them fill up the balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and had a whole lot of food. It was most enjoyable.
The downside of that, however, is that I couldn't get any web page-type stuff done. And I won't be able to for the rest of the weekend either, because I'm leaving today for a craft show in Lancaster, and when I get back I have to film a book report (don't ask). So I'm sorry for the lack of updating, but I *am* working on Dungeon Secrets, and a "Thirteenth Year" fic seems to be creeping up on me. So we'll see.
Post-It Quote: Innocence and time, once lost, can never be regained.
So last... Tuesday, I guess, Smallville was on. There was a really neato awesome girl who could turn herself into a white wolf. Her name was Kyla.
The other day a picture ended up on our hard drive (someone sent it to my sister) of an anime-ish cat-girl hugging a small dragon. It was entitled "kyla_hug". I checked out the site of the artist, and it turns out that Kyla is the name of a character in her manga that is creepily similar to a slightly younger me. (The manga is in the link above.)
...So what is up with everyone using my name all of a sudden? I think I have a hypothesis. *I* think that it's all related to my recent streak of writer's block. I think my muses somehow left my head and went off to other people's, carrying my persona with them. -_- I think they're back now (most of them, anyway), because I just got the best idea for a "Thirteenth Year" fanfic.
Post-It Quote: I'm going to teach myself how to belly dance... right now! -My little sister's Best Friend
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
It was my birthday on the twelfth! ^_^ I opened my presents yesterday and uncovered, to my great excitement, that my parents had gotten me a Playstation 2, along with DDRMax! ^_^ So since I had today off (parent-teacher conferences), I spent the entire day dancing and setting the records to beat. ^_^ ::wanders off in a euphoria::
Post-It Quote: I plan to live forever. So far so good.
Happy Halloween everyone! Boy, it's amazing how out of the loop I feel. I don't dress up, I barely ended up carving my pumpkin in time, and I didn't even go to the storytelling at the Library like I usually do.
And yet I get onto the internet to find almost half of my AOL buddy list active. So maybe I'm not so out of the loop after all. ^_^
Quote of the Day: Only when the questions become more important than the answers will the solutions emerge.
In Lynn Flewelling's book Traitor's Moon, she describes a series of dances done for the guests by a tribe of... well, sort of elven people. Here are some quotes to let you sort of know what it is about:
"We are dancers, the best in all Aurenen," the khirinari was telling Klia. "For in dance we celebrate the circles of unity that make our world... You might feel the magic of it, but do not be alarmed. It is only the sharing of khi that unites the dancers with those who watch them."
...Working in pairs, they slowly lifted and balanced each other with sinuous grace. Without the least hint of strain or tremor, their bodies twined into configurations at once disciplined and erotic, arching, folding, curving as they rose and fell.
Rapt, Alec felt the flow of khi the khirinari had spoken of; differing energies of each successive dance enfolded him, drawing him in although he never stirred from where he sat.
Some dances featured a single gender or male and female couples, but most involved varying groups at once. One of the most moving was a performance by pairs of children.
...One pair of men held Alec's attention for dance after dance. It was not simply their skill that moved him but the way they seemed to hold each other with their gaze, trusting, anticipating, working in perfect unison. His throat tightened as he watched them during one particularly sensual dance; he knew without being told that they were talimenios and that they had lived this dance, this mingling of souls, together most of their lives.
Yesterday I witnessed these dances for myself, right here on good old Earth. In Philadelphia, no less.
I went to see the Cirque du Soleil. A show called Verakai.
It was really indescribable, but it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The segment of Lynn Flewelling's book comes close though, down to that pair of dancers.
They were half-dressed in tight blue costumes, and of course in perfect shape. I would say that they did a trapeze act, except there were no trapeze, simply loops at the end of ropes that were suspended from the ceiling. The dance though... God, I think that had to be the second most erotic dance there after the one with the bride and groom.
To anyone reading this: If you EVER get a chance to go see Cirque du Soleil, do it. Period. Snap up the chance as quickly as possible. You won't regret it.
So this weekend I went to a craft show in Easton Maryland. Whew. I never knew Pennsylvania was such a long state. It's a six hour drive... for most people. When you're driving late at night in the pouring rain to someplace you've never been to before while simultaneously trying to avoid larger highways and big cities because of traffic, then it's a ten hour drive. We got majorly lost three times on the way there, and didn't arrive until one in the morning. We were supposed to be there at nine.
The Easton show is unique in the incredible hopsitality afforded the craftspeople. Not only do they continually feed you, but they provide lodging with a host family for the duration of the show. That's where Peter comes in. Peter is the wonderfully odd man who we stayed with. Let me give you the whole picture:
It's one-o'-clock in the morning. Mom and I are driving up a gravel driveway which has been continuing for about two miles. The entire way is through woods and along the occasional field, all of which is on the 300 acres of his property. The surroundings are like something from a movie. Right before we get there, we see a pure black horse grazing on the side of the road.
Grazing.
In driving rain.
At one-o'-clock in the morning.
The house bears mentioning. It's a huge mantion, built in the later 1700's. Peter upkeeps it. And I use the term "upkeep" loosely. While he honestly does try, the house is not one of his priorities. The entire thing is like an castle fallen into disrepair. There are huge wings, and something like 32 rooms. Our bathroom had an old-fashioned powder room with stairs leading to a bath and sink area. And yet... the paint is peeling from the walls, and the drain clogs sometimes. There was a piece of the ceiling missing in our room. For all its seeming neglect though, the house is very welcoming. Peter has filled it with knicknacks of all sorts, some his, some inherited. There's a bird decoy collection worth thousands, and a china set worth the same. There's a huge bushel of peacock feathers on a windowsill, and an egg collection near the door to the kitchen. The place is like a puzzle assembled from pieces that belong to other pictures.
We entered the house and met Peter. He's an aging gentleman, with whitish hair, kind features, and a perpetual hidden smile. He greeted us calmly, saying that he had almost given up hope and gone to bed without waiting. We apologized profusely for keeping him up, but he assured us that that was perfectly okay.
Upon talking to him later, we learned that Peter is a man of many talents. He's a retired professor, formerly teaching geology and paleontology. He keeps animals, among which are sheep, cows, horses, donkeys, peacocks, and bees from which he collects honey. He also sails avidly, and sometimes restores old boats. He showed us two blue ribbons that he had won recently in a race. There's a small logging mill on the property where he cuts apart the huge trees on his property that fall through storms or die through drout. In addition to taking care of the huge house, he also has three others in various locations. I don't know when he visits those. Needless to say, Peter is a very interesting person.
The show itself was quite nice. We sold enough to justify returning next year, which is good, because the experience was worth it.
The only problem now is making up two day's worth of homework. >_<
Ugh. So today involved peagantry. Ye Gods, the horror.
It was some horrible "interpretation" of world history. There were good aspects, of course. The music was appropriate and very nice, and I actually enjoyed the symbol of ground zero. On the whole though, it was trite garbage that was some impressionistic (sp?) painter's view of a representation of the history of the world. That's what it was called. "A Short History of the World." Complete with "A peace vigil in the park at four o' clock. We ask everyone to please attend."
At least the weather was good. It would have been truly horrible if it rained. It was performed outside our local library as part of their "Pumpkinfest". ::sighs and shakes head:: There are times when it really sucks to be a country bumpkin.
On top of that I had to help Mom with her mask-making course. That in itself is not a bad thing, but for the fact that we got kids that were WAY too young for the course. But again, it was not as bad as it could have been. At least their parents stayed, and there wasn't as many of them as I thought there would be.
Thank you WB for another screamingly tortuous ending. ::sighs::
Anyhoo... man, THAT was an episode of Smallville. Ye Gods, the subtext. *Especially* between Clark and Lex, though there was no small wonder between Lana and Chloe as well. Man... I regret not taping that where I could keep it. There was so much in the conversations between Clark and Lex. "Passion for life, business, and your friends is okay, as long as you keep it in check." Lex...
If I know anything about the ff.net Smallville regulars, this ep. is gonna spark several dozen fanfics, at least.
And next week looks good too. Damn I wish it was Lex, but I think it's gonna be Pete who finds out. Oh well. At least the poor guy gets a bigger part.
Now I know what you're thinking. What? She's almost 16 and this is the first time she's ever shaved her legs? Well, yes. But I never really needed it urgently until recently.
Of course, I cut the hell out of myself. >_< Ow ow ow ow ow. I have... lets see, at least... 4 seperate cuts. Including a deep gash in my right knee. I hate blood.
Gah. >_< I'm getting sick. And I think it's giving me writer's block. I have no idea how long it's been since my last update, but it's way too long. I just have nothing to put up. I guess I'll just wait for the next Mystery Fic, since I already have that written.
So I saw the movie Queen of the Damned yesterday. That was a mistake.
As a movie it was positively mediocre, but as an interpretation of the book it was right down there with the animated version of The Hobbit. Yes, it was THAT bad.
I mean honestly, they cut out Maharet's twin (who saves everyone in the end) and Louis! You can't cut out Louis! What where they thinking?!
Not only that, but they also took out the point of the movie, which is to say the story of the Twins and Akasha's real evil plot.
The kicker though was that they put Lestat with Jesse! JESSE! You might as well pair him with Maharet for all the sense that makes. Yeesh. Just because he's with Louis in the book, the have to make him as straight as possible in the movie. So they latch him onto the nearest available female. Going so far as to cut Louis entirely out of the movie! Have I mentioned how much this bothers me? The didn't seem to have a problem with gay vamps in Interview with the Vampire, but then, Anne Rice got to write her own screenplay for that one.
I could go into all the minor discrepencies as well, such as how Lestat is a blonde, not a brunette, or the fact that Marius sure as Hell didn't make him. Or that even some of the slightly more minor characters such as Daniel weren't even THERE.
In fact, the only thing that I really approve of about this movie (other than a few of the special effects) was how well Armand fit his description from the book. (And it was Armand, NOT Lestat that Marius drew, Dammit!) And if it weren't for the DVD, I wouldn't even have known it was him.
You see, they cut out the scene where all the Ancients were introduced in an attempt to "downplay the roles of the Ancients and make them more of a bunch of background characters." THEY'RE THE WHOLE POINT OF THE FREAKIN' BOOK YOU STUPID MORONS!! ::vents::
-_-; Sorry, just had to get that out of my system. I'm okay now. A word to those who would see this movie: Do yourselves a favor and read the book first, even if it means reading the other two first. Interview with the Vampire was an astonishingly good rendition of a book in movie format, but don't count on that for this one. Read the book before you watch the movie, or just don't watch the movie at all.
Poor Louis... It's him who flies with Lestat and visits David in the end, NOT Jesse! Damn you all! Why can't you let the vampires be gay?!
Hm. Well... I don't really have much to say, but I thought I should post anyway. I mean sure, I could mention my Jesus Christ Superstar obsession and comment on the fact that I just got a CD copy of the original record, or I could talk about the fact that school is hard, or that homework is my Mortal Enemy. I could also mention the fact that inspiration is just not coming to me for some reason. I want to write, I'm in a writing mood, but there just don't seem to be any plot ideas.
I could talk about all this, but I really don't have the energy, so you'll just have to wait for another time!
Ah, so once again it is the eleventh of September. It's odd. If there weren't so many reminders everywhere, I don't know if I would be depressed. Yes, of course I mourn the passage of so many lives, but still. Maybe it would be different if it affected me more personally, but I really don't know. It almost seems to me like everyone wants to be sad, like they're forcing themselves because they think that that's how they're supposed to feel. I have no doubt that some people are genuinely distressed, but for the most part... I don't know. I'm probably making an unfair generalization. But that's what these things are for: voicing your thoughts.
Nevertheless, I do have a lot of sympathy for those who were deeply affected by this. I know that my mother had nightmares for a while after it happened. I... well, I personally have a very strange system of emotions, so I don't count. Still, please remember that there are other people out there who care, so don't give up. ::nodnod::
Vulpes: Sorry, she can't speak at the moment. Wondering what she's babbling about? Well... sore wa himitsu desu!
Dracona: ::appears and swats Vulpes on the head:: Baka. Anyway, Our esteemed mistress over there just discovered DDR, and she's been downloading all the songs she liked. ::rolls eyes:: Frankly, she's addicted.
So, I finally finished putting all the stuff up and fixing all the links. Plus the color scheme is all new, and I think it's a lot nicer and more fitting besides. Hopefully I'll be putting up more links as time goes on, but enjoy these for now. (I added an e-mail link too, so you can e-mail me!)
So, today I finished my second day of school as a High School sophomore. And, surprise surprise, I was loaded down with homework. -_- It's not all bad news though! Some of the classes look like they're going to be a lot of fun.
My good friend Hannah (known on the internet as Fioerenox) lent me the Inuyasha manga today! ^_^ Hooray! I lent her the two volumes of Ranma 1/2 that I own in return. Except of course that she gave me 4 volumes, and there are more besides. Oh well, I'm sure it's worth it to her so that she can gush about it to me later. ^^;
Black theatre has got to be one of the neatest theatre styles in the world. My mother traveled with a black theatre when she was young, and as it's quite well-known in Prague, we try to go to one or two while we're here.
For those of you not priveleged enough to have been able to see a black theatre performance, let me explain. It goes like this:
People dress in costumes of garishly fluerescent colors, and play with props of the same. The entire thing is in front of a black background, and people covered in black costumes move the props so that they appear to be floating, or the people so they can fly, jump higher, stand on air, etc. To top it off, the entire thing is lit with a blacklight, so the props and costumes glow, and the black-cloaked people disappear. The whole thing is set to music and done in a very whimsical and dance-like fashion. It's a little eery, but quite fantastic to watch.
We went to one today called "Miss Sony" that was done in a very humorous way. I'm not sure of the name of the theatre, but it was good. One of the best and most famous black light theatres in Prague is the Image Theatre (or so I've come to understand). They tend to have mime segments in between their blacklight segments that are hysterical. So far I have seen there: "Fiction" and "The Best of Image". Both were wonderful.
If you ever get the opportunity to see this type of theatre, I would highly recommend checking it out.
There is one real problem with writing fanfiction for a fandom that no one knows about. And that problem is that no one knows about it because it has no fans. -_-
For instance, I had a brief desire yesterday to write a fanfic for The Kingdom of Flowers (Kralovstvý Květin). As you may guess, this is not exactly an American film. As a matter of fact, it is a Czech film. And a very old, very obscure one at that. The only reason I know about it is because my grandfather helped work on it. I think he was the head art director or some such. And today I had the urge to write a fanfic for "The World is Full of Angels" (Don't know the Czech title...) which is an equally (if not more) obscure Czech play.
The problem is that very VERY few people have ever heard of this, and generally the point of fanfiction is that you are not burdened by having to inform people of the plot, setting, and characters. But it's not *original* fiction, since I'm still taking it off something, so I can't write it like I would original fiction.
I think the only real solution is to sit down and wait for the fanfic urge to pass. Unless it's *really* strong, it usually does. I think maybe I just get too caught up in the story to actually realize that it's not worth a fanfic. Especially in the case of the play, which was badly written and confusing, apparently even if you understood the language. Oh well. ::rolls eyes:: I enjoyed it anyway. There was a cute male angel who moved in a way that suggested that he was probably gay. ...Not that I don't think that about almost any cute guy I see anyway. ^^;
You know your slash obsession is getting to the point of pathetic when you watch a movie from when you were, like, five, and notice how easy it would be to slash the little magical trolls. >_< Ye Gods, I have sunk so low. Crysi, this is all your fault!
Yes, this actually happened. My sister and I were watching "The Magic Trolls and the Troll Warriors". We found it in my grandpa's videos (apparently we left it here a long time ago) and decided to watch it for kicks. It did seem familiar in a few parts, in that sort of vague oh-I-remember-I-used-to-like-this sort of way. But kid's movies shouldn't be slashed. Really. And it didn't help that one of their names was Loki, just like the slashable angel in Dogma. I <3 Bartleby/Loki slash. But that's something else again.
I think I may have actually pulled together enough inspiration to write yet another chapter of Dungeon Secrets. ...I am going to put Ramasha through such Hell. ^_^ ::sigh:: It's the characters we love that we torture.
So things are finally getting set up. There are a few things that need tweaking that I won't be able to do until I get home. For instance:
Getting the images up. I need to upload the images onto my topcities account (hoping to God that topcities allows remote linking) and this browser is weird, so that will happen when I get home.
Getting the links to start at the top of the page instead of centering themselves. I know that's in my HTML book, but that's at home too, so that will have to wait until after the 25th.
Finding the names of the other people's blogs and the addresses that go into most of the links. That will have to wait until I have access to my home computer and my favorites list. That's the only place I have all those addresses stored.
Dealing with the background. I want to do something with the background, maybe an image, or another color. Something. At least move the link around. Unfortunately, I have limited internet access here, so I can't very well go surfing around looking for a good image. So there's another home thing.
So where am I if not at home you ask? Well, that's easy to answer! I'm in Prague, visiting my grandparents. It's nice here, but there's been some major flooding (like, 200-year floods) so that put a bit of a damper on our vacation. Luckily my grandparents live on a hill, so there was no chance of the water reaching us. Whew. -_-
Okay, time to eat lunch and go to the castle. Shakespeare tonight. W00t.
So this is the first entry. I may or may not leave it up, basically it's just here to help me tweak my HTML a bit. In case I do though, welcome to my new pita!
In case you don't know, I'm Kagedtiger. I'm primarily a fanfic author, but I do other things too, including drawings and adoption. I'm adaptable. ^_^
This pita will be mostly for the purpose of my ranting, and maybe for jotting down story ideas now and then. Who knows. If you're lucky I may even preview fanfics up here. At any rate, I hope you'll enjoy reading this. I'm not going to make an effort to update as often as possible, but I usually do anyway, so you're in luck. Anyhoo, that should be enough for a test run anyway.
