Fandom Impact: I'm falling off the grid, pretty much completely, through at least the end of this semester, if not next spring. However, I'm going to keep chugging away at my overdue/long-running fic projects. I'm shooting to tie off most of my major universes w/ next year's 14 Valentines, including my Torchwood Universe ("Bound"), at least one Stargate: Atlantis Universe ("Ripples"), my Were the World Mine Universe ("Semantics"), and at least two of the major "Bridges" Universe long-shots ("Safe Haven" and "Scenes from a Tokyo Romance", likely "Gone, But Not Forgotten" as well). I'm also hoping to close out my Smallville, Narnia, and SG-1 projects.

Everything else is probably on hold until late 2010, barring further notice.

Projected Return: Possibly not until next summer.

Explanation: So, as I'm sure you've all noticed, I vanished off the face of the planet somewhere in the last month and haven't really surfaced. This post should have gone up when I fell off the grid, so I apologize for the delay - I didn't realize I was going to fall so quiet so quickly. What happened, you may ask?

Despite the decision to defer my MA, I've ended up taking a full courseload at a local college this fall while waiting for my BA to be granted by VIU. I'm carrying a combination of Music & TV Production classes - i.e. all stuff in areas of personal interest. While it's fun, it's also time consuming. Add in volunteering at the local non-profit TV station for work experience, the fact that I've signed on for the Nike Human Race, and the fact that I'm volunteering w/ an NIH study for experimental HIV vaccines, you start to get the picture. In short, I'm sleeping little and running around at high speed like a mildly disturbed fowl quite a lot.

If given the choice, I'd love to put fandom closer to first, but it's just not practical. As always, My Life = Soap Opera. Cheers, eh?

Spring Awakening, the Tony winning musical about puberty and society's failure to handle it in anything resembling a healthy manner (based on a book written in, I believe, 19th C Germany, although I'd have to double-check) is currently touring.

While I missed the DC-area performances, they're going to be in Hershey (01/05/10-01/10/10) and Cincinnati (01/12/10-01/24/10), both of which I can drive to for an overnight excursion without having to call in "dead" to RL.

Is anyone interested in getting together to see one of the performances?? This is their 2007 Tony performance, if anyone's curious. They had to censor it a bit (the title of the third song in the medley is "Totally Fucked"), but the general meaning still comes through pretty clearly.

I'm also hoping to go to the showing of the Big Gay Musical @ Reel Affirmations on October 24. I think I've roped taffimai into joining me, but the more the merrier, so chime in if you're interested!

ION: Not dead. School's still kicking my ass, more from a logistical POV than anything else. 14 hour days just aren't fun, even when they've got awesome vocal training in the middle of them. Learning a lot, though, which is good. Currently off dairy entirely for vocal reasons, which may or may not end up a permanent situation. *LOVING* this season's Dollhouse (although I've handed off my massive DH plot b/c there's just no way I can do it in anything resembling a timely manner), still on the Glee!bandwagon, haven't been able to bring myself to watch the SG:U pilot, yet, although I've promised myself I would give it enough rope to hang itself. I'm also starting to sit down and organize my Valentines to make sure that at least *those* get done in a timely manner. If you want onto that beta filter again, give me a shout, I'll be making the 2010 14V Beta listing somewhere in the next few weeks.

Those of you waiting on Torchwood fic, I can tell you for sure the end of the "Bound" universe is going to be done and posted in the first half of the 14V.

Hypothetically, I should have been posting updates to "A Matter of Convenience" every Monday for the last 3 weeks. I also should have posted at least one other piece of fic (and I'm *still* sitting on the last 2 pieces of "Bits of Bliss" for a number of reasons, although at least those are just about ready to go up).

Unfortunately, my already mildly crazy life has taken a downturn for the truly soap operatic (this happens periodically, its just that this particular turn has been more impressive than most), so pretty much everything in Fandom has been shelved until April 2.

Between impending graduation (and the six 3000+ word papers required to get me there, all due within the next 3 weeks), the fact that my current residence is on the market and thus I'm stuck doing massive-overhaul-cleaning at the drop of a hat, and the fact that every RL group I'm involved with has activities scheduled somewhere in the next 3 weeks (I have to help sell tickets for the GBLT Club's Pride-Performance-Thing next week, I've got to work the entrance for the Home & Garden Show on Sunday, last night was a big thing with the English Club, I'm running an academic conference March 30-1, and there's some archives thing I have to do on April 3).

It's, um, going to be fun. But the point is, I'm going to be completely off-line when it comes to fandom until roughly April 3. I'm still doing my Big!Bangs (although I have to get a-hold of the mod for the TB one b/c my rough draft is running late), and I'm still aiming to get the same number of end-pieces done by the end of summer, but right now things are getting put on hold until the term ends.

For my final research paper of my undergraduate degree (latest due date), I will be writing on...

Slash Fanfiction written about the Bible.

Thus far, the most *ahem* interesting thing I've stumbled on is The Furry Bible - "It's the Holy Bible, but rewritten as self-insertion furry slash fiction!" (direct summary quote).

Special, Special Hell.

fortysixthhour, hllangel, wychwood...

For academic reasons, I'm logging off for the evening and won't catch you on g!talk.

wychwood - Happy Birthday! Your Valentine will be going up a day late, unfortunately, but it's still going up. Promise!!

hllangel - if you want to email me revisions/suggestions, that would be lovely. Otherwise, I'll catch you online tomorrow night.

fortysixthhour - thanks so much for your advice last night, on both fronts. Sorry to have to bail on tonight's planned rendezvous.

buzzylittleb - Yesterday's Valentine didn't get up b/c LJ was down for maintenance and I fell asleep waiting for it to come back up. Need to edit and polish, but it will be going up later in the week.

Going to fall off the grid for a few days.

( My 7-Day, at a glance: )

Suffice it to say, if you haven't heard from me by next Wednesday, be concerned. If I haven't posted a Valentine by next Wednesday, be even more concerned.

Been nice knowin' y'all!

ETA: WTF?? My article analysis for HIST 377 has to be 1000 WORDS LONG?? That's not an article analysis, that's a short paper. The articles themselves can't be much longer than 7,000 words. *MOMENTARY BURST OF PRIMAL RAGE* Reality accepted and dealt with.

*Forlorn* I am so screwed.

ETA2: Apparently, I'm just not sleeping tonight.

Also, am seriously, seriously contemplating canceling out on the Snowshoeing, even though I can't get my refund back. Sometimes, life just gets downright pissy.

Academia:
The paperwork from last term is done. It is/was in the appropriate mailboxes before the cutoff.

My honors thesis remains the only hold-over from last term, and I'm hoping to have that submitted by Feb 2.

Now, onto the work for this term...

Fandom:
14 Valentines start posting in just under 2 weeks. So totally not ready. Will be interesting.

Have also signed up for spn_j2_bigbang and trubld_bigbang (the latter is old news).

And the *

I possibly need a brain transplant...

*Have I mentioned that oparu is evil?

Due to administrative hijinks (I'm being charitable), I only received notice this morning that I have until 3:30 tomorrow afternoon to submit overdue work (medically excused or not) from last term if I don't want auto-Fs in the applicable classes (there are two).

Cue the great over-haul and binge-writing session of Early 2009. Yes, this is totally my own fault for not sitting down immediately and pounding this stuff out once I was cleared by a physician to type more than 2 paragraphs at a time. I admit that fully. However, it's still going to be an interesting 18 hours (I want it all done before I go to my 9AM class, so that I can log some hours at work tomorrow afternoon, and then come home and pass out. Have yet to decide if I'll stay up to watch BSG tomorrow night). There will be status updates, I'm sure.

Current Status:
15:30 - 5,000 Words-to-Go (2 Papers, 2 Discussion Points, 1 Annotated Biblio).

On the bright side, it'll mean that this stuff will finally be off my mind and I can relax into the new term w/ a clear conscience. I'm slating the wrap-off for the King Arthur paper for early next week, and then I'll begin binge-writing short papers since I need them done before I go out of town around Valentine's Day.

The last third of my dinner tonight (nachos) was eaten with a fork, and approximately 3/4 chunky salsa by volume. My eyes are now watering and my nose is running, but at least it was tasty. Also, now I have dispatched the aging onion and tomato that had been skulking around my vegetable crisper (never mind the 2 week old Taco meat that I'd been slowly clearing since New Year's Eve).

In other news, Yoga this morning was an unqualified success.

Also got confirmation that Friday my HIST prof is actually going to process my late term paper (finally), so I will have a grade by February.

In final other news, talked to the people in the international building and got told that they intend to screw me over tuition-wise if I go straight into a B.Ed, so apparently I'm going to Wales after all. Anyone know someone who might want to rent a mostly-furnished condo for cheap in the Nanaimo area next year??

I should have been in bed an hour and a half ago, but cupidsbow's link to rageprufrock's Merlin story intervened.

I haven't laughed that hard in a long time, and imagining Anthony Stewart Head's face in part 8 just made it all the better.

Other news, before I pass out for an all-too-brief night before I try my hand at yoga:

RE: Surfing - After much internal debate, and a revelation from a fellow SHAG member, I'm going to Tofino in mid/late March for a weekend of learning to surf. Go Me!! These things are always so much better when you know someone on the trip.

RE: V-Ball - the little finger on my left hand looks like someone attacked it with a number of highlighters in various shades of blue - it's kind of cool.

RE: Swimming - got back into the pool today, Go Me!!

RE: Watchmen - must have the book done by tomorrow for class. Off to read another chapter before bed. Rorschach? Really is just that batshit.

Oh, um, and if I don't catch an important post on someone's LJ in the next few months, I apologize in advance. I'm going to be drastically cutting down my LJ time in general, because trying to just read an F-List on the weekends (or at least *my* F-List) is an exercise in futility. I'll still be posting, more often about school/sports than not, but outside of my own journal I'm probably going to be rather silent.

Wishing everyone all the best until I manage to crawl back onto the fannish map in May!!

I'm now officially a week into term, which means a return to the dreaded academic schedule-of-doom.

I realized (at the last minute) the last week was IM & Outdoor Rec registration week, so I went in and signed in blood for a number of activities (and I'm still debating whether or not I should go back and sign up for the weekend of surfing in Tofino if it's not filled yet).

What's On the Agenda:
( Academics )

( Athletics )

General Notes:
While work on my Valentines lagging, I'm officially segregating my schedule for the term as of tonight (I know! I'm pre-judging my various appointments/obligations! I'm such a horrible person!!).

Sunday 6PM-Friday 5PM is Academics & Athletics.
Friday 5PM-Sunday 6PM is Fandom.

There will, of course, be some blurring of the lines.

From the fandom end of things, I'll be (hopefully) posting my Valentines daily during the first two weeks of February. If completed works aren't finished, I'll be doing 2-4,000 word teasers for longer pieces. If I get all of my academic/athletic To-Do's done early during the course of a week, I might also try to squeak in some V-Day work, but I'm not committing, both b/c there very well may not be any spare time in there, and b/c if I get things done early, there's so much else that needs to be done that I really should be moving onto the next academic obligation on the list.

From the Athletics/Academics end of things, there are a few events which cross the hypothetical date-line, most specifically the snowshoeing trip I've got slated for January 31. Nothing major, but still worth noting.

As always, I welcome any/all advice, most especially when it comes to the Athletic portion of my life.

I'm going to be shooting for a daily caloric intake of somewhere between 1400-1600, which is higher than I really want to go since I'm technically stepping down my activity from my fall routine, but this is a much more long-term lifestyle level as opposed to a shorter-term high-intensity training level. Not that I've thrown out my original swimming time/distance goals, but I'm trying to balance things a bit more and do a wider range of activities. If it takes me an extra 6 months to get to NCAA times, then it does. I'll have fun doing it ^_~

Today, in one of my literature classes, we dedicated a not-insignificant period of time to discussing the owl as fetish object.

This weekend is the first half of Island Rivalry, the big team spirit event for the Mariners.

Not only did I miss the deadline to sign up for the group-trek down to the Away games (V-Ball, of course, b/c B-Ball just isn't my thing), but I only just now realized that the Home games are the weekend I'm out of town - the 13th/14th of February (which is apparently the weekend/week that *everything* is going on, including the premier of Dollhouse). The plans for me to *be* out of town are over 6 months old, so unfortunately they're just non-negotiable.

Dude, I so totally lose at team spirit. If I end up in town next year, I really need to make more of an effort to make it to at least all of the home games. I belong to the Nation, for love of the gods.

Oh, and after some serious debate, I'm now taking a 3-hour history class on Friday mornings. Because I want my Wednesday nights free for War Canoe, and because I honestly wasn't sure I could take another 20th Century German History class.

ETA: Mostly unrelated bitching, but due to a clerical error, I've ended up owing close to $20 in overdue fees to the library. GRRR. At least all of the snow-related-kerfluffle-ness regarding my grades has settled. I've officially got a couple of "Incomplete" marks, until they get my various term papers processed. Really, as long as they don't drop me below the B range, I'll just call it done. I need the credits far more than I need the grades, at the moment.

So, due to unexpected weather (5-12" in various parts of town. And, honestly, who believes the predictions for snow these days? Especially when it stopped yesterday by noon. Of course, it re-started around 11PM, but still...), Repo! didn't happen. I may or may not make it over to the mainland while it's still playing. If I don't, life continues. Right now, it's looking like there will be a viewing party at my place when it comes out on DVD (b/c it's about 1/3 the cost to just buy the DVD instead of paying ferry fare, bus fare, parking, movie admission, and dinner). Reading Week FTW, right?

In other news, when I staggered into bed at 6:30AM after falling asleep on the couch at 2 when my guests left (End-of-Term Media Marathon: Prince Caspian, Torchwood - Everything Changes, Futurama - Bender's Game. Accompanied by: Baked Ziti, Baby Spinach w/ feta & dried cranberries with balsamic vinaigrette, freshly made garlic bread, homemade butter, Bailey's Mint Chocolate Fudge w/ Pecans, and homemade Almond Roca), I noticed that it was snowing kind of heavy (and accordingly turned off my alarm). Slept myself out, more or less, and ever since I finally made it into the living room I've been curled up under 2 blankets and a heating pad with a pile of Holiday Cards, more of the homemade bread, and tea.

Suffice it to say, I am feeling unusually Zen w/ the state of the world. I have 2 cards remaining to write, after which I will be completely done with my holiday obligations. The whole lot of them hit the post tomorrow on my way to campus. Once they're complete, I'll be pulling up my remaining academic work for the term and seeing if I can't get that more-or-less wrapped up tonight. The King Arthur paper is a bit of a loss - that's going to be another week in the writing, likely - but everything else goes in tomorrow, and then it's *done*.

I'm not allowing myself to write anything fannish until I've got these last couple of papers in tomorrow. This is because, given the way my brain has been chomping at the bit, once I start writing, I'm going to binge-write several of my Valentines in a couple of sittings. I'm pretty sure one of them will be the Massive!Narnia!Fic (brought back to the forefront of my brain by the possibly ill-advised acquisition of Prince Caspian). It's just so much fun to screw around with Narnian Movie!Canon, b/c there are so many areas in which to play and infer, and now I've got easy access to said movie!canon. *Happy sigh* Gods, that's going to be one cliched fic...

Oh, and fellow fan-types, I've decided that I want one of my Valentines to be Merlin fic. Thoughts, suggestions, prompts? It won't get posted until mid-February, so feel free to take some time to think about it, but help would be appreciated.

A little under 12 hours from now, I will be sitting in my last final of the term.

I FUBAR'd my sleep schedule last night with a nasty bout of insomnia, so my "night" was noon-6PM, and at this point I'm up until after my final.

For my own peace of mind, I need to have all of my term papers done when I get into that final. Which means between 16 and 18 pages to write between now and 7AM. <2 pages/hour.

Totally, totally doable.

Wish me luck!!

I have to write 3 papers today, blitzkrieg style. Meaning I have 4 hours/paper.

In no particular order...

• The Changing Perceptions of Imitation vs. Imagination in Poetry, as reflected in the writings of Pope, Vico, Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, and Nietzsche


• The Impact of the 1990 NHS Reforms


• The Role of the Not-Court in As You Like It, King Lear, and Henry IV Part One

And no, you're not mistaken, 2 of these papers were originally due Thursday. However, after learning the hard way that I couldn't type longer than 2 hours at a sitting, my profs were kind enough to grant me an extension to tomorrow. I'm not starting these papers from scratch - both of them have at least 2 pages already written, and all of the research complete.

In addition, I have *already* done my nasty deed for the day. I emptied out the half-gallon of chocolate milk that had been sitting in the fridge for over a month, and was visibly separated. Ew.

Was up at 6:30 yesterday morning.

Got 45 minutes of sleep last night, from 2:30-3:15.

I'm currently just a bit dizzy/loopy.

Might just fall into bed...

Before next Friday, I have to...

1. Write a 4,500 word paper on the 1990 reforms in the NHS, due tomorrow at 8:30


2. Write a 2,500 word paper on changing perceptions of the role of inspiration in poetry/literature, using 6 theorists, due tomorrow at 14:30


3. Write a 2,500 word paper on the locales of The Court and The Other in 3 Shakespearean plays, due Friday


4. Write/finish a 7,000 word draft of my King Arthur paper by Monday morning


5. Do my holiday shopping for my father and grandparents. Bug dad again to tell me what I'm supposed to be getting for them


6. Write a 2,500-3,000 word paper on some aspect of Renaissance Humanism, due next Friday


7. Write up 2 "discussion points" for my Renaissance Literature class, also due next Friday


8. Write up an annotated bibliography for my paper in Renaissance Literature


9. Buy groceries, once I get paid


10. Go into work and get trained on the new PDF conversion software


11. Sleep, at some point


12. Start swimming again, as well as dryland, and pray that my thumb's doing better


13. Prep for finals, which begin on Thursday

Um, help??

Having a broken thumb sucks.

The break is at the base of the left proximal phalange (i.e. the bottom of my thumb), and from most of the people I've talked to, I'm looking at a full 6 weeks before I'm back to regular activity. Given how much moving wood to the fireplace hurt tonight? I'm thinking that they're right. Which means I'm on the bench pretty much completely until sometime in December, and puts me somewhere around a month behind in my training schedule.

Lovely.

Papers start coming due in the next week, but at least they'll be done within the next 2 weeks. It'll be nice to have them over with. Looking forward to the end of this term much more than I have the last few - don't know what it is about this year, but gods, will I be glad to see 2008 finished. I have every intention of taking the break time as honest down-time this year, instead of scrambling around trying to get a bunch of extra RL things done. I'm hoping to work on my 14V, *actually* fix-up my site so that the fic listing is accurate and the newer stuff has been transferred over, and maybe get Bound actually finished (all that's missing is one segment, after all).

Oh, and sleep. Sleep would be good.

ETA: For a number of reasons, I essentially haven't been into my inbox since BASCon. As a result, when I logged in, the message number was at 995. I did a mercy kill, for the sake of my sanity. If you'd left me a comment which needed reply and I haven't yet, please either re-post it or ping me here. Many apologies for the entries on various people's journals which I have managed to completely miss - I haven't been around much, and probably will continue to be mostly AFK until after finals. It's just... Apparently, it's going to be a bad few weeks.

Day went fabulously. Had an 8AM meeting with the nutrition counselor at school, did my 4K in the pool, got my Ren Lit. paper done and submitted, went to the production of MacBeth with the rest of my Shakespeare class (and ate my dinner during intermission - Caesar Salad FTW!), even got into the gym and did some biking and weights before V-Ball.

Second game of V-Ball, 3 of us all dove for the ball. My thumb apparently lost. I didn't see what happened, but there was a sudden sharp pain, and I was officially off the court for the evening. Best case? It's just jammed (I'm really leaning toward this). Worst case, it's broken and/or sprained, which means longer recovery time.

Short-duration would be great for a number of reasons, starting with having V-Ball on Wednesday, and ending with the 14 hour drive to BASCon. Have been icing since it happened, and also taken Advil to keep potential inflammation down.

Oh, also, Obi-FList!! I need your help!! I leave for BASCon in 3 days, what am I supposed to be bringing with me? I don't want to forget anything.

ETA: There are 2 direct fall-outs from tonight's injury. One, my olympic_slash ficathon entry will be late, b/c typing is painful at best, and two, my NaNo count is going to be severely depressed for a few days.

ETA2: According to my online fitness tracker, I've burned 3100 calories more than I've eaten today. And that includes a handful of candy corn.