I didn't participate in Nano this year, because I'm a wimp and was worried about my course load, and because it's been years since I wrote original stuff and even though people write fic for Nano I still somehow feel like that's a cop-out.

But I tallied my stuff anyway, because it makes me feel productive and worthwhile (although clearly not as worthwhile as the_wykydtron, good lord.)

( POWs, seamen teaching magic, and a vicious sugar-eating vigilante turned into a cat. )

And, for something not completely self-centred, the answers to the music meme.

2. Tarzan wasn't a ladies man - Superman Song, Crash Test Dummies (I really thought this would be the first thing people got. Huh.)
6. 守りたいものがあるこの場所で強くなるから - Compass, One Piece Movie 8
13. Strange brew, kill what's inside of you - Strange Brew, Eric Clapton
14. I asked her to stay, she wouldn't listen - Won't Go Home Without You, Maroon 5
16. You say you're not from Texas - That's Right, You're Not From Texas, Lyle Lovett
17. At night they would go walking - Cemeteries of London, Cold Play
19. 背中に耳をピットつけて、抱きしめた - 1/2, Rurouni Kenshin
22. Show me how to lie - You're Gonna Go Far Kid, The Offspring
24. I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees - Crossroads, Eric Clapton
25. From underneath the trees, we watched the sky - If Everyone Cared, Nickelback
29.　もしもこの先君と一緒に歩いていけなら - Mitsumeteitai, Saiyuuki Reload Gunlock

GOOD LUCK, SASKATCHEWAN! I BELIEVE IN YOU!

I have to say, I find it a bit bizarre that all the news articles on the Grey Cup are only focusing on Saskatchewan fans, and I'm pretty sure that it is not because we are amazingly more hardcore than Montreal's. Perhaps there is more Montreal-focused stuff in the French papers, but really it is a bit unbalanced. Of course, I suppose Quebec/Montreal also has more sports teams to cheer for whereas in Saskatchewan the Roughriders are pretty much it.

In other news, finally posting some of that HH insanity I've been working on. Oddly enough this isn't even the Epic!Fic I started on but something else I just picked up as a fun side project. And then it became really dark and depressing and morally suspect and frickin' long. GOOD TIMES. CHAPTER 1 SUCKS, I AM SORRY. IT IS HOGAN'S FAULT. More seriously, I actually did have a hard time writing some of it, and I feel unsure about this fic since the scenarios it touches on are historical truths rather than convenient fictional contrivances. People actually were tortured and killed by the Gestapo, and writing about it even in passing makes me uncomfortable and feel like that this is not really material I should be touching. So, yeah. I guess if it squicks you in a "wow, that wasn't tasteful" kind of way, let me know?

AAAAAAAAAAAARG FF.NET ATE ALL MY PUNCTUATION WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. THIS IS WHY YOU CANNOT HAVE NICE THINGS.

... it turned my breaks into HRs. WHAT.

EDIT: SHIT.

Ganked a meme while waiting for dinner time to roll around!

( I saw a bluejay for the first time the other day. It was pretty cool. )

EDIT: Just watched an episode of the X-Files which used the same orchard as SPN's Scarecrow. What, there's only one creepy orchard in the Vancouver region?

So copperbadge recently expounded a theory suggesting that in times of economic downturn, shows kill off characters. And I was all, "Well, I'm safe, there's no one SPN can kill off this early in the season."

( 5.10 Abandon All Hope )

I COULDN'T STOP MYSEEEEEEEEEEEELF. So here, for you, is chapter 2 of Bush the Hogwards Divination Professor. And it's trying to develope plot, whyyyyyy

Sequel to this insanity

( Bush continues to be unorthodox; nearly everyone approves. )

So I was going to stay up late tonight and fic and work on a new crazy music video, and generally enjoy one of the few nights a week I can actually stay up late. But then my friend's laptop fried itself and she has an essay due Monday, so it's the pen and paper for me.

I had also planned not to post tonight, because wow have I been spamming LJ recently, but the_wykydtron requested this, so here it is. Probably it could have been better thought out.

( Your father called the future the undiscovered country. )

I feel like I should give you guys something, but nothing that you're interested in is really going anywhere at the moment since HH basically ate my face. So here, have a music meme instead, because they are pretty much my favourite thing ever.

Put your media player on shuffle and give me the first line of 30 songs!

(Like I have this many songs with lyrics...)

Feel free to ID, we can have a party! I even edited out (most of) the really impossible ones, or there'd have been a lot more JPop on there. ^^

1. The Mississippi delta was shining like a national guitar (what does this line even meaaaaaan?) Graceland, Paul Simon seiberwing
2. Tarzan wasn't a ladies man
3. It's getting near dawnSunshine of Your Love, Cream and Eric Claptonprospectkiss
4. Tired of being what you want me to be Numb, Linkin Park seiberwing
5. What a thrill Snake Eater, MGS3 _dahne_
6. 守りたいものがあるこの場所で強くなるから
7. Hey there Delilah what's it like in New York city(talk about shooting yourself in the foot) Hey There Delilah, Plain White Ts frauleinfrog
The Best is Yet to Come was in here, but I'm not even going to try.
8. 君の後ろすがたを　 Tooi Nioi, YO-KING ningen_demonai
9. Mister Raindrop, falling away from me now (...)Mr. Raindrop, Amplified frauleinfrog
10. 白い雪景色幸せを数える　(good luck.) Winter Bells, DetCon ningen_demonai
11. What'll you do when you get lonely? (I totally heard this as "Why don't you do when you can call me" and had to look it up. Shut up.)Layla, Cream and Eric Clapton the_wykydtron
12. 明日今日よりも好きになれる　（My computer has 京 before 今日, wtf? ) Kiseki, Greeeen frauleinfrog
13. Strange brew, kill what's inside of you (Eric, stop dominating the list.)
14. I asked her to stay, she wouldn't listen
15. So, you think you can tell Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd lucia_tanaka
16. You say you're not from Texas
17. At night they would go walking
18. Many nights we prayed When You Believe, Prince of Egypt _dahne
19. 背中に耳をピットつけて、抱きしめた
20. I can't believe I've fallen down to my knees Broken Hearted Soul, Ra ningen_demonai
21. 恋は THRILL, SHOCK, SUSPENSE (GIMME) Koi wa THRILL, SHOCK, SUSPENSE, DetCon ningen_demonai
22. Show me how to lie
23. 100 days've made me older Here Without You, 3 Doors Down arisha
24. I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees (If this is how you behave, see if I rip anymore of your CDs)
25. From underneath the trees, we watched the sky
26. Beauty queen of only 18 She Will Be Loved, Maroon 5 ningen_demonai
27. What have you done? (x.x)What Have You Done? Within Temptation the_wykydtron
28. Oh momma, I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the law Renegade, Styx vhasbls
29.　もしもこの先君と一緒に歩いていけなら (Apropos of nothing, I understood the first lines of this song for the first time the other day. I've only loved it for what, 3 years? XD)
30. I can feel it coming in the air tonight In The Air Tonight, Phil Collins lucia_tanaka

I think all this switching from English to Japanese has alienated my computer's never very constant love. It also occurs to me this list would be better if I had plugged in all the music I have on it, rather than just the stuff currently in my media player rotation. Or if, you know, I had started to listen to new stuff since the last time I did this meme. OH WELL.

I was wandering around today with my head in the air as always, and it occured to me: wait a minute, how are Carter and Kinch sergeants in the Air Force but were drafted?

Then I realised I didn't actually know much about any of these topics. So I went off to find out.

( Conscription and rank in HH )

Next time on useless and uninteresting fake-essays: Why Khan represents ToS and the Enterprise represents The Future.

WHY AM I EVEN TRYING TO PRETEND THIS FIC IS NOT ONE LONG MESS OF CARTER H/C /COMPETENCE? It's only made worse by the need for an external view. HEY MAYBE I COULD USE NEWKIRK INSTEAD OF HOGAN? Because man, Hogan, you are just CRASHING this fic. Thanks.

In other news, I slept really poorly last night because my brain kept making me WAKE UP AND WRITE FANFIC. For fandoms I'M NOT EVEN IN. XXXHolic, anyone? WTF, brain? And then a huge long PoH sequel to the ones I've already got (okay, admittedly I am in this fandom, but not at the moment) full of ridiculousness and yakuza and smexing. SERIOUSLY, SELF. I spend months languishing with nothing to write and no interest to write it, and then suddenly I have 5 projects in 5 different fandoms. I even started writing another DetCon insanity on the train to Ottawa. CALM YOURSELF, ATHENA. On the bright side, school is winding down a bit so at least I have time to work on some of these ideas. I've only one paper left, and that's a partner project so it's basically like half a paper, and some homework that shouldn't be too bad. So 2 full weeks without too much work. Of course, my program keeps trying to change final exam dates to the day I am flying home because it seems to have taken upon itself to screw me over in every possible way, but I'm learning to accept that. (Honestly, though, 2 classes decided to have early exams, so I booked the flight, and then they BOTH spontaneously decided, "nah, let's have it be the day Athena's flying out instead.")

Made a couple new icons; maybe I'll churn enough out later to put up a batch. Because you're all so interested in Carter icons.

(Can I just say "One Army at a Time"? By far and away my favourite episode.)

Thank you to everyone who gave their thoughts on the previous entry. There's obviously no easy solution, but I'm not going to give up. I'll give it more thought, and if anyone has further suggestions or ideas feel free to send them on to me.

In completely unrelated news: Self, I think you have perhaps misunderstood the purpose of editing to remove gratuitous h/c. Why is it that a character who walked away from a Dramatic Event prior to the edit is now being carried away unconscious?

Also, season 6 of Hogan's Heroes. Kind of like season 3 of ToS. I definitly know why they cancelled it. The plots are boring and/or reused, the characters have lost their spontaneity, people's reactions have lost their subtlety, Hogan's romances are carried on to the detriment of missions Carter's jacket was replaced... Amusingly, though, I saw mum this weekend and talked a bit about HH which she was a fan of when she was young (shut up, I have some original tastes, I swear).

Mum: So who do you like?
Me: ... Carter.
Mum: Oh, he was cute. I always liked Shultz.
Me: Yeah. He was such a good actor. Most people online are big Newkirk fans.
Mum:... which one was Newkirk?

FAMILY > INTERNET FOREVER.

sorry guys

Guys, I don't often post about serious topics, and I don't often request feedback. I'm doing both now. If you are reading this, please consider replying with your thoughts.

The internet is a big place, and most of us go nameless and faceless. We know our friends by their screenames, their avatars, their personalities. We don't know their real names, their cities, sometimes even their countries.

I follow my share of people on the 'net; we all do. We're all familliar with the following scenario: Person A posts something, promising an update next week. Next week comes around, no update. We're disappointed, but we wait. The week passes and another begins. And another. We're no longer disappointed, we're worried. But we don't know A's email, we don't know A's name or face, we don't know how to contact him/her.

We've all been in that scenario. I can think of several people who just dropped off the 'net without a word, some of whom "faded out," but some of whom disappeared abruptly in the matter described above. I have no idea if they just got tired of fandom, or if they need help, or if God forbid they are dead. Last month I considered making this post, but decided against it feeling it was just a concern of mine alone. Tonight another friend of mine told me that someone she follows online has suddenly disappeared, and she's worried. So what the hell am I waiting for?

PROPOSAL: A community which would record people who have suddenly disappeared from the 'net. Although it would be LJ it could also apply to ff.net, any of the other blog sites, or just the net in general.

PURPOSE: The internet is in one sense huge. In another it's tiny; 5 degrees of separation and all that. If the community became well enough known, eventually we would reach a point of critical mass and hopefully at least start getting a few answers from people who know the MIAs in real life. If it only found answers for %5 or even 1% of queries, it would still be serving a purpose.

QUESTION: First, does such a community exist? Second: if it does not, does this seem like something which you would find potentially useful? If you know of no such community, please consider asking your own f-lists, or even just linking here.

I have no experience running a comm, and frankly a bigger name than mine would do better for the purposes of this, but I would gladly set one up and flog it and manage it as best I could until someone better qualified came along.


EDIT: I'm on the way out the door, so this could be better, BUT:

You guys have definitely raised a big issue, and I had considered it but probably not in that much detail, and one of the main reasons that it occured to me people do drop off the face of the net is because they're frustrated/anxious/tired of fandom and just don't want the criticism that will come if they publicly announce that.

My thought had been something a lot simpler (and the critique about reaching a large enough base is totally valid; I doubt if I ran it myself it could). You would just post "Person A (LJ name: X FF.net name: Y Personal Site name: Z) has been silent for X weeks/months/years." The names could be tagged alphabetically and maybe added to a more handy list once a month or something. If anyone knew, they would just post "Person A is okay but off the net/off that account OR hopefully not but A is missing/deceased," and then A would be struck off the "missing from the 'net" list with that information next to their name. It would not be a means to track people down, just to know mainly that they were ALIVE (and the mod could take it on themselves to delete comments heckling for further information). Because honestly, I worry about that. The only reason right now I can think of to make a will is to put in a clause saying, "please update these sites for me saying I'm not around anymore."

But if everyone here thinks this is unfeasible/untenable/not worth it, I won't pursue it.

THIS WASN'T WHAT I PLANNED TO POST. But then I had to write it. I don't even know why (or why I'm posting it, since none of you are interested. TOO BAD XD)

Title: Lower, Faster, Deeper
Fandom: Hogan's Heroes
Rating: G

( It started as a plan to fix the tunnel system, and run a book on the side. )

In other news, things have improved. The BoE apparently retracted it's decision and will send me my letter. And now that schoolwork has finally calmed down a little, I'm going to see mum tomorrow!

I MISS LIVING WITH MY FRIENDS, BECAUSE I CAN NO LONGER RUN DOWN THE HALL, MAKE A FACE, AND SAY "GUYS, WHAT IS THIS EXPRESSION CALLED?"

Internet, I am making a face, but YOU CANNOT DESCRIBE IT TO ME. Clearly we were just not meant to be.

PS: SPN, just when I was thinking I might come back, there was this episode. I didn't watch it, nor am I likely to.

What I do think is hilarious is that there's a large section of people who seem surprised that they have so little story left that they're filling their eps with this kind of thing. Um, hello? They left themselves an entire season to do the apocalypse. (Well, okay, they didn't, they planned to end it in 4 which was pretty apparent, and then received enough ratings to be renewed and clearly went OH SHIT TIME TO STRETCH PLOT LIKE GUM). BUT STILL.

I also think it's amusing that people are railing against 08 for no plot. I mean, yeah, it was a gag episode, but I'm pretty sure it had a larger plot point than most of, I don't know, the first season?

Also, apparently Ackles is engaged (I can hear the fans screaming) to someone named Danneel? I... just ...Danneel?

PPS: THIS HAS BEEN A SUCKY WEEK OF DISAPPOINTMENTS, AND IT CONTINUED JUST NOW WITH MY BOE TELLING ME THEY DON'T WANT TO WRITE ME A REFERENCE LETTER AFTER THEY SAID THEY WOULD. I hope next week pulls up its socks. But maybe some fic tomorrow, or this weekend, since apparently I wrote a 15,000 worder in the past two days. WTF self?

AND NOW, BED.

I AM PISSED OFF WITH MY PROGRAM.

Don't get me wrong. I think it's a great program. The fall semester courses have been good, it's got a great reputation, I feel like I could someday potentially learn stuff that would be helpful in a job, and I feel like I'm holding my own (except in math).

But I just discovered today that the "summer" semester (May-June) consists of TWO WEEKS of harcore classes at the end of May, and then TWO DAYS of classes AT THE END OF JUNE. What the hell am I supposed to do for those three weeks? "Go home," was the program secretary's answer. Oh, okay. I'll just FLY BACK ACROSS THE COUNTRY, THEN BACK AGAIN FOR 2 DAYS, AND THEN BACK AGAIN. I totally have the funds and patience for that. Or I could just stay here. In the middle of nowhere. With nothing to do. Paying high rent and food for no reason.

THEN I found out that convocation is at the end of October. Personally, I don't mind this; not going would not be the end of the world for me. But my dad, who can't fly for health reasons, was really looking forward to driving out to see me graduate. It would be the first time he's come this far east since the mid 90s, and I think he was actually very excited for the trip, and see his old alma mater (and possibly to see me graduate). He hasn't done a lot of exciting things since retirement, and I was happy that he seemed to excited for this. But he wanted to do it as a summer trip, and if I have a job who knows where, I doubt I'd even be able to make it back for convocation, and that just ruins his whole trip right there.

SO THANKS PROGRAM, FOR SCREWING THAT UP.

Also, your winter course selections are terrible.

/rage.

PS: Supernatural sucked me back in. It was the Japanese game show that did it. oh noooooooooo (although I was really expecting Dean to just answer with the one word of Japanese everyone knows, "hai," which would have solved the problem more believably than his more complicated answer...)

Prince Charles' visit to Canada has led me to notice something I never considered before. Since it's early November, he is of course wearing the poppy. But the pictures of him show his poppy looking like it's made out of paper or very flat plastic. I was mystified as to whether he had made his own or what, before today when looking at pictures of Remembrance Day around the globe I noticed that (shockingly) different countries have different poppies. Obviously plenty of them don't use poppies at all, and France has something going on with a blue cornflower-like flower, but it would seem that England's poppy is basically flat and smooth, unlike the Canadian version which is raised and velvet. It would be interesting to see a display on different poppies from around the globe and their evolution, although I suspect it would be a pretty short display since only Canada, Britain and France seem to use them - the one picture they had of an Aussie wasn't wearing one.

Apart from that, I didn't attend the ceremony this year since the only one on campus seemed pretty religious and the local Fort didn't hold one. But apart from that one horrible one at UBC, the last ceremony I attended was in highschool, so it's not as though I'm breaking a habit.

After last year, though, it's just nice to be home for November 11th.

Dear Queen's,

Your library catalogue? Is A DISGRACE. It is LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE to find books which are IN THE LIBRARY by SEARCHING FOR THEM. How do I know? Because I spent 4 HOURS today looking for the Canadian budget estimates. You know, that financial document which every Canadian university is GUARANTEED TO HAVE for good reason? Would you like to know what a search for Canadian budget estimates or any combination of two or three of those words turns up? Let's see... Dietary patterns and risk of diabetes. Uh huh... Investigation of maximum mud pressure within sand and clay... Oh, and my personal favourite: Tectonometamorphic evolution of the Greater Himalayas. In fact, the only way to find any evidence of budget information is to find the "budget" category (the Canadian subset of which, btw, contains 251 entries) and read the entire list. You will then find that the library has 15 years of the budget ON MICROFICHE. You will then read those and make yourself exceedingly seasick, only to crawl back to the help desk some hours later and demand to know if really, REALLY, they do not have printed copies of the CANADIAN BLOODY ESTIMATES. Turns out that you do. You have MORE THAN 100 YEARS WORTH OF THEM. This takes up approximately AN ENTIRE WALL OF SHELVES. But guess what? That information IS NOT IN THE GODDAMN CATALOGUE.

Please consider a)buying a new catalogue which works, or b)re-cataloguing things under more helpful groupings because let me tell you, a grouping with 1,500 entries? NOT HELPFUL.

Much hate,

Athena

PS: Harper, I see what you did there with hiding your spending on the PMO. Please cease and desist, because I do not have time to work out where you are hiding the money.

PPS: Huh. Maybe if I had quadrupled spending to it, I'd try to hide it too. (I know, you guys are all so interested in the machinations of the Canadian government)

Two assignments down, which leaves the weekend clear to write my Governing Institutions essay. Yay... I'd be more excited if I had a) interest in the topic b) resources. I seriously can find nothing on this that was written after 1985 (still preoccupied ^^;;).

In other news, I'm going to have to re-write more than half of that HH fic, having discovered that direct blood transfusions are a lot more dangerous and difficult than I thought they were. Kodocha, how you have misled me! I'm still having problems with Hogan's POV though, so maybe I'll just re-write all of it from Carter's or something. I didn't want to, but Hogan's worse than Snake to write; intellectually I know that he doesn't have to make a joke every second line, but I'm having a hard time breaking out of it all the same.

OR MAYBE I'LL JUST GO WORK ON THAT WATCHMEN FIC. I need to stop diversifying, it just ends in a snowfall of half-finished stuff.

Not surprisingly, the students in my program are very left-leaning. I'm pretty central, but in a Canadian University that puts me (in the words of Le Carre) somewhere to the right of Ghengis Khan. Yesterday in a discussion about the powers of the courts, I suggested that I was a bit sceptical of their powers over legislation; powers the Charter, by its nature and existence, endowed them with. I also pointed out that the problem people have with them is that the Charter gave them this power and therefore when arguing against the power of the courts really people are arguing against having a Charter. On the one hand, the smirks that immediately lit up half the class were no surprise, but on the other it was kind of painful that people honestly can't see this opinion. I don't regret saying it, but I really regret that I wasn't eloquent about it; if I had been I'd have said: look, do you really think there are no problems with allowing a non-representative body power to interprete and alter our laws on the strength of "well, they've always made good decisions in the past"? But then hindsight's 20/20, and we always think of the smart answer hours after the opportunity passed by. Unfortunately now my credibility in class is completely shot. Oh the pains of being in the centre.

(In other news I just discovered my paper due Thursday requires an annotated bibliography. What crap is this, I lived through 4 years in a Humanity program without ever having to do one.)

EDIT: SQUIRRELS: PLS TO BE STOPPING YOUR INSANE ATTEMPTS AT LURING A MATE RIGHT OUTSIDE MY WINDOW IT IS DRIVING ME CRAZY. NO THX, ATHENA.

You know that point in essay-writing, where you feel like if you have to cram one more fact about the topic into your brain, it will explode? I AM THERE.

Also: Word, please stop word-counting my footnotes, that is where I need to lever in all the extra explanations I don't have room for in the essay body itself. Thx.

Guys, I'm having a ridiculous amount of fun writing a HH fic. It's sent me back to the good days of history and research and linguistics and stuff, even though as always none of it will really show through in the end, and it's like wow, I am learning and it's fun (you can see how much school has been entertaining me). But I'm having that problem I have writing for shows with characters with strong voices: it ends up being 90% dialogue. I guess it comes from being so used to hearing the characters, but it becomes really difficult for me to write description. I can do a page of dialogue no problem, but then I discover I hardly even know how to put in "he said, she said" stuff without it sounding clunky to me, never mind the usual description. This is why I could never write for Due South (even if I'd had any interest in it) and why that SPN/Due South thing never really got off the ground even though, unusually for me, I had a pretty good idea where it was going. I guess I just have to try to tweak my mindset, or something.

Also it would be good if the Heroes stopped fooling around. Remember that earlier post about how it would be stupidly hard to write a serious fic? I was right.

EDIT: OH MAN THIS FIC IS JUST WRITING ITSELF like that vampire one IT IS AWESOME. But wait a minute why is Carter in the infirmary again? x.x

EDIT II: I'M GOING TO HAVE TO GO THROUGH AND EDIT OUT THE H/C, AREN'T I? Sigh.