Writing Romantic Scenes at 2AM

Listening to: Kiss Me Kiss Me – 5 Seconds of Summer

Not a sexy scene, but a romantic one. Gideon is supposed to be thinking about what he likes about Itamar at this point. I tried listing his good points: he’s good-looking, funny, protective (good and bad thing all at once) and they have stuff in common. Itamar reads and he’s nice, even if he is a bit worryingly devious.

Anyway, it’s 2 in the morning and I couldn’t think of anything to write. But stubbornly would not go to bed before Hubby. So I thought, oh just ask him to describe what he likes about me and I could sort of take off from that until I figured out what to write.

I forgot that Hubby uses ALL OF THE WORDS. So he started off on this speech that I’m just too tired to listen to. Probably there was something nice and sweet in there about us having the same values, but then the subject of my possible death came up and he just started ranting about hating stupid people, so I had to interrupt him.

Me: So basically, you love me because I agree with you and I’m not a shithead.

I can’t stop laughing.

My new favourite thing!

Confession: I love bagpipes. I used to help my dad do the data entry portion of genealogy work. On his side, it’s basically all English, Scottish, and Danish.

_{So much Danish.}

Bravery vs Moving On

It is difficult to ask for something that you want.

Especially when you have to ask a person who has a history of saying no to you. It’s even worse if you think about it and realise that they don’t just say no, they also flake off after not saying no, and wincingly weasel away to the effect of a no without having to actually say that excruciatingly hard to blurt out two-letter word.

Not to digress completely, but I have a very hard time with people not directly saying an actual bloody No. There has to be a reasonable balance between Joss Whedon axing his own show thanks to impatience and giving people enough rope to hang you.

The point is, we all have things that we’ve wanted for a long time or used to have but don’t have now. Someone looking for a new D&D group. Anyone trying to find a boyfriend or girlfriend. Following up on a query letter.

Mine is email roleplay. I haven’t done it in forever, but it used to be the most fun thing I did. It was like writing and playing video games and reading a comic book at the same time. I also did all three of those things, so it was awesome. I’ve tried off on and for literal years to get Hubby interested. Some cases are rather stunning failures. I don’t know if it’s better or worse that one of my favourite characters came out of one of them.

We’ve all been playing D&D for a few years, and I’ve actually got (kind of) two different groups right now. So it’s not like I don’t get to roleplay, but it’s different. It is fun–right now I have a lot of characters, and two of them have amusing romances with NPCs. At its most awesome, the roleplaying at the table is like watching a movie and playing a video game. Not… not like writing at all. And not just because I’m not physically writing.

At this point, I don’t know if I should just let go of the idea of ever RPing through a writing medium (email or chat client) again. It always feels like a question of bravery when I want to ask someone about it. Because… not a solitary activity. Honestly, the loss of RP in my life is why I despise MMOs. Solitary things mean I can do them by myself, which means I can do them. Also, the answer is so rarely yes. Being brave enough to ask would be fine if it ever paid off, and it just hasn’t. In years.

Is it time to move on? On the plus side, I could stop having anxiety about being told no or being avoided like we’re smegging teenagers. But then there’s the fact that I would be consigning myself to The Rest of My Life not having something I want. Which is a bit shite.

Zombies!

Okay, this is the best zombie music video since Walk Like a Zombie. They’re just there!

Dialogue Fun Times

Fisher: The hell?! Get out of my car, man!

Jake: Can’t! Drive!

Fisher: You wha–

Jake: reaches over to stomp gas pedal

Fisher: grabs wheel, knuckles white

Fisher: Are you insane?

Jake: leans out open window Not today, cupcake.

Fisher: …cupcake?

Jake: relaxes back in seat Hey, guy. Thanks for aiding my escape back there.

Fisher: sarcastic Oh sure, no problem. Mind telling me what you’re escaping?

Jake: You wouldn’t believe me.

Fisher: You’re probably right.

Jake: beamish smile, looks around self

Jake: Nice car.

Fisher: blink  Er… Thanks?

awkward silence

Jake: So where’re we going?
Fisher: Dude, I don’t even know. You just hijacked my car and now I’m going north.
Jake: North.
Fisher: Yeah.
Jake: That’s all y’all got for me.
Fisher: Now you’re gonna start making demands?!
Jake: Nah, I’m not the demanding type.
Fisher: Aside from shrieking “DRIVE” at a total stranger.
Jake: Special circumst–whoa hey hey! I do not shriek.
Fisher: inclines head Yeeeah your voice got a bit high back there.
Jake: Did not.
Fisher: Oh, it absolutely did.
Jake: I have a high voice, okay? I’m a tenor.
Fisher: Is that a musical term for, “I shriek when I get tense?”
Jake: frosty tone No.
Fisher: Relax. I’m sure you have a very good reason for… anything you do.
Fisher: …reasonably sure.
Jake: You got a name, guy?
Fisher: It’s Fisher.
Jake: First or last?
Fisher: What?
Jake: Never mind. My name is Jake. Last, but my first name is basically awful so I won’t tell you what it is.
Fisher: Wait, your last name is Jake?
Jake: You dwell on very minor details, Fish.
Jake: It’s not healthy.
Fisher: My name is Fisher.
Jake: It’s called a nickname, Fish.

Can’t sleep and feeling silly

Dear Australia,

You are exactly who I want to be when I grow up. You are easily distinguished on a map, which is wonderful, because it guarantees that everyone can laugh when a bad movie inexplicably uses a map of you when it means a completely other country.

Your authors have a grand history of literature that extends longer than people might know. I haven’t read all of it, but I can say that I have yet to read an Australian author whom I did not like. That is special. I’m a horrible nit-picky brat. In particular, Jaclyn Moriarty is amazing.

All one has to do to invoke an image of bad-assery is to say your name.

Australia.

There. Now everyone is thinking about explosions and surviving a battle to the death with a thousand t-rexes. Australia is unquestionably badass. We respond on a primal level.

You have the best beaches in the world. There is even a tax for them, but luckily it only affects people who want to buy video games.

Good night, Australia. Keep up the awesomeness levels. Nobody can touch you.

Wish you were here.

 

Big Hero 6 is Not a Team Movie

I’ve read a couple of reviews, and now I’ve seen the movie twice. One thing I couldn’t help but notice about the reviews is that the people who felt dissatisfied with the movie had the same kinds of reasons. They all said that they thought the other teammates were under-developed or under-utilised. They also admitted that the story/development between Hiro and Baymax was great.

Looking at those two statements together makes it pretty clear what happened. They went in expecting an ensemble, only to find a single protagonist narrative. The thing is, that is NOT the movie’s fault. It’s a good single protagonist narrative. A bit easy to call the plot progression, but still good.

What I think happened is that the Avengers made a huge impact, which continues to affect people’s expectations of Marvel movies. Big Hero 6 is the team name, like Avengers, so the title implies that this is about the team. But if you go in without expectations, like I did, the movie lets you know exactly what it is.

I didn’t even see the trailer until today. There are apparently two, one from about six months before release, the second about two months before release.

See? Does not look like a team movie. The team doesn’t even show up in the trailer until well over a minute in. The focus is on the main character and the deuteragonist. The second trailer also focuses on them, but then it throws a confusing bone to the team. Marketing often does not know what to do. There was more to that sentence, and yet the full stop just demanded to be where it is.

This is one of those things that I wish I could explain to lots of people and actually have them listen.

December Blues

Maybe it’s just the season, but I feel like I’m not getting anything done. My list of books to read before January only seems to grow (and somehow I’m never reading the books that I actually manage to list as Currently Reading) and while our present shopping is done, I haven’t wrapped a thing. Also have not unpacked much since the mass exodus of clothes that magically fit me again.

So that was pretty awesome. Somehow, no one has really noticed that I’ve lost that much weight. Or maybe the weather is a more pressing topic–we do live in Utah, after all.

This morning, we had a nice heavy rain. I had to drive in it, because some jerk who doesn’t know what sidewalks are for decided that he needed to walk in the right turn lane. For some reason, I couldn’t get back on the right path after that one missed turn, and I ended up so lost that my phone’s GPS literally could not find my location. I just used it for a minor thing last night, and then when I really needed it, it crashed every single time I opened the app. Every. Single. Time.

Oh, books. So many of the ones that I innocently put on my Avalanche List turned out to be the third or fourth in a series, or to be the start of a series that I expected to DNF and then devoured the first two books in a matter of hours. Right now I am supposed to be reading Joust, but that’s another series beginning, so maybe I should just put it back on the shelf and get to it later.

AWESOME THINGS

• I took Hubby to see Big Hero 6 and he took me out to dinner after
• Loved both of them (I do not remember if I saw any other movies this year)
• (oh wait, I got to see Winter Soldier in OR)
• GONNA GET A 3DS (XL!)
• And if no one gives me Professor Layton v Phoenix Wright, I will buy it myself post flipping haste

While I was trying to decide whether or not to just buy myself a 3DS XL, I found a tonne of games that I really want to see. Pokemon and Harvest Moon I would buy, and not mind if I don’t like them much. But I may look into getting Gamefly again. Maybe.

Speaking of subscription services, I just found Graze, thanks to SBTB. It’s pretty awesome. I’d go on about it, but I think Owen just woke up.

Ah, Holidays

I don’t think I have ever had much call to avail myself of one-day shipping, other than for my medication. And I don’t pay for that. But when I ordered some replacement round looms and knitting needles, I wanted to have them right away. I had actually intended to find a brick-and-mortar and buy them that day. I haven’t tried knitting in years, so I don’t think I’ll gain enough skill to make any gifts there, but the round looms were another story. I couldn’t even size Ollie’s and Abbie’s hats with what I had.

Or should I say, with what I have. Because one-night shipping be damned. I was supposed to get my items yesterday. Instead, we got some other order (gifts) that was coming on Prime free 2-day shipping. It came on time. The stuff I paid to have quickly did not.

Maybe my annoyance is not reasonable or even understandable, but I am still annoyed. However, it got a little funny this morning.

It’s my understanding that refunding the shipping charges should be automatic, but I don’t trust anything Amazon does automatically without there being an email or five hundred. I can’t return a library loan ebook without getting an email that my loan ended. So I checked the order to see what was going on there… and found a tracking update on the package saying that it had arrived in its destination country.

Followed by BOTANY, AU.

I almost wish I still worked at the post office so I could brag about this evidence of UPS not being good enough. I should have laughed my head off. What I did was panic and rush to contact a service rep. Because I wasn’t even sure I’d get a S&H refund without doing so. What about having to get my order replaced because a derp sent it off to some suburb in New South Wales that’s the size of Bee Cave.

The rep I got was oddly chatty and apologised so much I wanted to flick his nose. Which is hard to do over the internet. I got a refund, but now I don’t even have a good idea of when I’ll get my package, other than being asked to give it ’til the end of the 20th.

Just goes to show. Practise patience, or you’ll find yourself becoming intimately familiar with Botany Bay. Or something.

This is not how I spent the day

But somewhere, in a fairy land called Oz, I am totally a Mark Gatiss clone smoking in the rain.

_{…Now if only I could find a gif or video clip of Goldie Hawn saying, “Everyone wants to be me.”}