SilvorMoon

Status Update

silvormoon — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:09:28 GMT

Have returned safely from Ohio.

Had a good time at the wedding. Ran around for much of it with the bride's garter tucked down my cleavage. Also on this trip: saw the treasures of Egypt, acquired an aardvark and an unreasonable quantity of tea, befriended an awesome Amazon (and was subsequently the butt of many short-jokes), was disguised as Shirley Temple, and spent an inordinate amount of time talking about surprise roadsex and Willy Wonka's Gluten Waffles.

Very tired now. Off to hunt down some quick and easy food, and then curl up somewhere with tea and a book. Goodnight!

Help Japan

silvormoon — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 23:32:17 GMT

This is just a note to announce that I am participating in the Help Japan fandom auction. If you're not familiar how the system works, basically what happens is that someone offers something (in this case, a fanfic written to the bidder's specifications) and other people bid on it, and the winner donates the money to the cause. So if you want a fanfic written for you and want to help Japan, please bid on me or one of the many other kind people offering their talents!

Link to my offer: http://community.livejournal.com/help_japan/2978.html?thread=408738#t408738

YGO 5Ds Condensed

silvormoon — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 01:59:55 GMT

Ladies and gentlemen, for your entertainment...

[YUSEI lives in SATELLITE and it is a SLUM]

Various people: Yusei, we have issues. Will you help us?

Yusei: ....

Various people: Thank you, Yusei! Our problems are solved. We now trust you implicitly.

Jack: I used to be the King. Now I'm not.

Carly: Jack, I wanted to use you for my own personal gain, but now I realize that would be wrong.

Jack: Carly, your kindness has taught me a valuable lesson about myself. Now I'm in love with you, but I won't say anything about it until it's too late.

Goodwin: I want to save Satellite. No, wait, I don't. I want to help the Signers save the world. No, I want to be a Dark Signer and destroy the world. No, I want to destroy the world and then put it back together again right! No, actually, I don't want that either.

Yusei: ...

Goodwin: Thank you, Yusei. You've made me understand what I really want. [dies]

Business ethics. Uh-huh.

silvormoon — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:21:01 GMT

This is more of a head-scratcher than an "AARGH! RAGE!" sort of situation, but it's a fine example of the things people will do and try to get away with.

So. I work in publishing, and one of the things we do is provide subscriptions to online journals. A while back, a guy got himself the deluxe print-and-online subscription to a business ethics journal. Now, this particular journal sells at three different rates, depending on who you are. The rate for a single subscriber for the package he ordered is about $100. (If you don't know what scholarly journals go for, that's actually fairly cheap, especially considering that an online subscription gets you access to the entire run of the journal and not just the current issue, and free tech support to boot.) There is also a discounted rate of $40, meant for students and retirees who are assumed not to have full-time jobs and would therefore have trouble affording the full price, and an institutional rate of about $400, which is for libraries and suchlike and meant to be used by multiple people. An individual subscription is meant for only the person who subscribes to it, and when you sign up you have to agree not to hand out your password to all and sundry so everyone can read for free.

So, we get a call from someone wanting to renew the guy's subscription. Not from the guy himself, but from a library. It turns out that he signed up for a personal account which he turned over to the library to share with anyone who walks through the door. Now his subscription is running out so they want to renew it. Only they asked us that since they're representing a school, they would like to have it for the $40 student rate this year.

That's right. They've been bilking us out of $300, but that wasn't quite enough for them, and they want an extra $60 discount on top of that.

Maybe we should give it to them. Seems they could really stand to learn something about ethics.

My thoughts this morning

silvormoon — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:48:05 GMT

Right now, I'm reading 179 Ways to Save a Novel by Peter Selgin. On the one hand, it's been an enlightening experience - I've learned a lot from it, particularly in matters of style and perspective. On the other hand, it's kind of information overload for me. And on another hand, it's making me look back at what I thought was good work and made me think, "Ya know, I could have done that better... I really could stand to improve," which is not always a fun feeling. And again, on a different hand, I find myself eager to write some more so I can start trying stuff out. Then I sit back and wonder when I got four hands.

The story I am working on presently is now up to 171,242 words and counting. I never realized when I started just how long this sucker was going to be. If I had known, I might not have tried. But it's been a good experience for me, something to make me stretch my boundaries a bit, so I'm glad I tried it. I'm putting the completion date tentatively at the end of September or possibly (more likely) early October. There will still be some editing to do - a lot of scenes I want to add or subtract or modify or replace - but I'll at least post the prologue once the bulk of the work is done. The early chapters need the least amount of work, so that'll be a nice buffer for me to get the revisions done without holding up the works even longer. I'm looking forward to having this done so I can work on some other (hopefully shorter!) projects. For one thing, there's NaNoWriMo to consider. I already know what I want to do for that. I have an original story in mind I want to give an attempt. Ideally I'd like to complete an original work long enough that I could actually look into getting it published. That would be nice.

I am looking forward to my vacation. I am looking forward to that very much. Oddly enough, a large part of my anticipation comes from the fact that I'm going to a knitting store, where I promised to pick up some yarn for my friends made of possum fur from New Zealand. (According to LJ's spell checker, "New Zealand" is not a real place.) Of course, having a chance to see my friends face to face and hash out plots together is also a very big draw. Definitely bringing a notebook and my laptop on this trip, for the facilitation of ideas. ;-)

Road trip

silvormoon — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 01:01:28 GMT

Riding with my aunt is an adventure...

Us: Turn right.
Aunt: *starts to turn left*
Us: Turn right!
Aunt: *stops dead, looks all around*
Us: Turn right!
Aunt: Can I turn right here?

Sign: Take exit 221 to Charlottesville.
Aunt: *drives*
Other Sign: Exit 221 right here!
Aunt: *drives*
Me: We just passed our exit...
Aunt: There weren't any signs!

Later...

Sign: This is exit 221 to Charlottesville!
Aunt: Can we get to Charlottesville from here?

My dad offered to drive. She wouldn't let him. She says it's too scary when he drives.

Drabbles, take 2

silvormoon — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:16:59 GMT

I think I've done this before and never actually finished, but hey, rules are rules.

The first TEN people to comment in this post get to request a drabble of any pairing/character of their choosing from me. In return, they have to post this in their journal, regardless of their ability level.

Fandoms I'm willing to write for:

Digimon Adventure
Digimon 02
Digimon Tamers
Digimon Frontier
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds
...Or basically any fandom you know I'm familiar with. Though I haven't even thought about Power Rangers for eons, so don't expect miracles from me there.

Drabbles may not be limited to 100 words.

Perhaps Rudger doesn't like me...

silvormoon — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 17:17:26 GMT

Do you know what I don't like?

I don't like it when I've been spending a happily productive day at the mall (seriously, a top that plays up my bust and puts some curve in my waistline is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Also: jeans that fit are nice.) and now I'm cruising along down the highway, minding my own business, when OMG SPIDER ON MY FACE GET IT OFF!!!

And that's why I missed my turn. >_

And even more snow

silvormoon — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:46:22 GMT

Well, there's a 30% chance of snow coming down hard and fast outside my window and I can already see some accumulation happening, and it's only supposed to get worse from here on in. I do not think I will be going to work today. I think they're predicting up to 28 inches in my area. Still, I've laid in a supply of goodies to nibble on (ranging from fresh fruits and veggies to Japanese ramen crackers and chocolate-covered Turkish delight) so I won't starve. I've got a flashlight, a candle, and matches set out where I can easily find them if the power goes out. And I stopped by B&N and got three new books (one of which is Connie Willis's new doorstopper) so I won't be bored. On with the blizzard!

The north wind doth blow, and we shall have snow

silvormoon — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:16:53 GMT

My weather report is still stubbornly telling me that I should expect an accumulation of 1-3 inches of snow, beginning with a light dusting earlier this morning and heavier accumulation later tonight. When I got up this morning, there was already snow piled about five inches deep and it was still coming down last I looked. Methinks Mr. Weatherman should look outside more often.

As for me, I would love to be able to go out, but since I'm not crazy enough to try to drive in all that, I guess I'm staying in for the weekend. For a city that ought to know something about snow, being up in the mountains as we are, our snow plow team doesn't do a very good job.

Help Haiti, get fanfic

silvormoon — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:19:12 GMT

So everyone who hasn't been living under a rock knows by now about the earthquake in Haiti (shoot, I live under a rock and I still know). And I'm pretty sure some of you would like to help. I'd like to help, too. So to sweeten the deal, a bunch of people are auctioning off stuff for the earthquake relief fund. Here's how it works: you bid on something you want, and if you win the bid, you donate that much money, and you get whatever you bid on.

I am currently auctioning off a Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic, written to the winner's specifications. (And hey, if you want something from some other fandom and know for a fact that I'm familiar with it, bid anyway and we'll work out the details.) The starting bid is only $5, and I'm pretty sure most of you have $5 stashed away somewhere, so why not?

Please bid here or read more here. Check the threads for other things you might like to bid on, too!

Dear people in the parking lot at Barracks Road

silvormoon — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:17:32 GMT

Do you know what you shouldn't do in a busy and perpetually overcrowded parking lot, on a weekend, in the middle of the daily after-church lunch rush?

You should not park your truck in the middle of one of the lanes people are trying to drive through, open your door wide to block the other lane, and stand there having a full-on, open-mouthed, tongue-down-the-throat, petting, groping, CLOTHES-REMOVING (seriously, put your shirt back on!) makeout session, that's what!

Seriously, get a room or something, geez.

Signed,

Someone who just wants to buy her groceries

Asking silly questions

silvormoon — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:50:17 GMT

For the last several days, I have been getting e-mails at work from someone who wants an entry in our directory. Which is what is supposed to happen, since I'm the one who puts the entries in the directory. Apparently, the most difficult part about writing an entry to put in the directory is the bit that goes "Please select three specialties from the list." I don't know why it's so hard for people with degrees out the wazoo to pick their three favorite items off a list, but for some reason, it is. They always want more than three, or they want things that aren't on the list and expect me to put them on there for them. This is a problem because this is all done with computerized databases. I have a page that has three little dropdown menus and I pick one specialty in each menu. I can't enter more than three and the computer won't accept any entry that isn't something from the list, so it is impossible for me to concede to anyone's demands to do things differently, unless I can talk someone into reprogramming the system for me. There is a master list of specialties that could be altered if it were absolutely necessary, but it's not, because the lists get used for comparison purposes, so if you want to find, say, everyone in Oklahoma who teaches ethics, we can do that for you. That's part of what the directory is for. That's why we stick to broad umbrella topics that cover a lot of ground instead of listing everyone by the most specific interest possible. It would be utterly impractical if all 15,000+ people in the directory had interests unique to them - we'd never be able to find anything.

Anyway, this dude. He writes and asks if I can add four more specialties to the list so he can have them listed in his entry. I tell him no, we can't do that, sorry. He writes back and sends me a document containing two words and their definitions, and asking me to please list just those two. I say no again and explain what I just explained above about why we can't do that. I hear back from him today saying, okay, can I just add one word, then? Cue headdesking. Look, dude - when I said "no", I didn't mean "haggle with me". I meant NO. Why is this so hard to understand?

Inspire me.

silvormoon — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:02:41 GMT

The "You Should Write..." Meme!
my thread here

I has a meme~

silvormoon — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:18:21 GMT

► Pick up to 15 OTPs.
► Describe them in less than (or equal to) 15 words.
► Have your flist guess the OTP.
► ????
► PROFIT.

1. She never even saw his face.
2. She learned nothing from him.
3. Upsetting her brother was the least of his worries.
4. She died thousands of years ago, but she's still looking after him.
5. Someone else won the battle, but he received her kiss.
6. She only knows him in an official capacity.
7. After she lost everything, he kept what was broken.
8. One is seen; the other sees.
9. She calms the storm.
10. Beauty and the beetle.
11. He changed the world because he lost her.
12. She thwarted his mind by stealing his heart.
13. Their promise was an umbrella.
14. They weren't just made for each other; they were made with each other.
15. Their relationship was entirely professional - as long as they were at work.

Pairings come from various incarnations of Power Rangers, Digimon, and all three incarnations of Yu-Gi-Oh. Some characters may be used more than once.

Caramelldansen!

silvormoon — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:05:40 GMT

Since singing along with this is difficult, I made lyrics. Try it. ^_^

Knee umlaut abbey leave over follow me
I'm on a hoof. Whose can he foresee?
Calm me down, yeah, so mugs can follow me (follow me)
Two whippoorwill a filter, uuaaa
A weekend and a half too, la la la
Yours for me
Tea tether melody!
Whoa~

Girls on me horse
Clap, I eat a ham there
Yours, I'll be yours
I'm always Tingle dance step
List now lie, Lisa into crowns, in!
New area mitt
Caramel dancin'!

Uu uu uu uuaaa...

Tobira saxophone devil laughers toss
Duster comber girl (lass) slipper loss
Call me Al!
It's hard, this diggin'
Omi, L (Uuaaa...)

Two whippoorwill a filter, uuaaa
A weekend and a half too, la la la
Yours for me
Tea tether melody!
So come on!

Girls on me horse
Clap, I eat a ham there
Yours, I'll be yours
I'm always Tingle dance step
List now lie
Lisa into crowns, in!
New area mitt
Caramel dancin'!

Girls on me horse
Clap, I eat a ham there
Yours, I'll be yours
I'm always tingle dance step
You smell nice
Lisa into crayons, in!
Gnu Ariel meat
Caramel dancin'!

Uu uu uuaaa...

So come on!

Girls on me horse
Clap, I eat a ham there
Yours, I'll be yours
I'm always Tingle dance step
List now lie, Lisa into crowns, in!
New area mitt
Caramel dancin'!

Girls on me horse
Clap, I eat a ham there
Yours, I'll be yours
I'm always Tingle dance step
List now lie, Lisa into crowns, in!
New area mitt
Caramel dancin'!

Snowed in?

silvormoon — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:48:34 GMT

It's all ice outside today. I can't go to work. Forget that - I can't even get out of the house, because the only way out is up a flight of cement steps, which are now slicked over with a nice layer of ice. If I can't even get out of the house without busting my butt, I'm not going to work.

In other news, congrats to Neil Gaiman for winning the Newberry Medal for The Graveyard Book. Bravo!

Writer's Block: On the Bus

silvormoon — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:51:45 GMT

During Spring Break, a friend invited me to travel with her to Miami via Greyhound bus, because she lived in Miami and the bus line was doing one of those bring-a-friend-free deals. So we went. That was fun. At one of the bus stops, I was approached by a very obviously stoned fellow who attempted to sell me a gold chain. At least, I think that was what he was doing. Actually he was just sort of proffering it at me while mumbling incoherently. I eventually managed to persuade him that I wasn't interested, so he ambled around the corner and stood facing the wall. A few seconds later, I saw a puddle spreading away beneath his feet. Shortly after that, the nice security men came and escorted him elsewhere.

Also on that same trip, I got to overhear a man lecturing his friend on why masturbation is essential to maintaining a proper Christian spirit.

Chocolate

silvormoon — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:03:45 GMT

I bought a hot chocolate maker. It was $18.99 before tax, not counting the money I spent on ingredients. However.

HOLY CREPES IN A CRAB SHACK, THAT'S GOOD HOT CHOCOLATE.

Happy New Year

silvormoon — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:12:58 GMT

Nayh, nyah~ I'm playing hooky from work today! >:-}

Baby dragons~

silvormoon — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:59:08 GMT

I produced my first clutch of baby dragon eggs today. Here's the one I kept:

Baby Autumn is coming along nicely:

And Lacey's split dragons produced this egg that I adopted:

silvormoon — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:05:45 GMT

I caught a little Autumn egg! Yay. ^_^

In which I pimp out online games.

silvormoon — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 03:50:44 GMT

Here's what you need to know...

David Green is not having a good day. His wife Becca just left him, and he has no idea if she's coming back. This morning, he woke up in an unfamiliar room, in a strange house where all the doors are locked. Objects and people seem to disappear and reappear, or move around while he's not looking. Time shifts around crazily, and sometimes even the rooms aren't where you left them a minute ago. Yes, David's not having a good day, but he's not having nearly as bad a day as the man lying next to him with his throat cut.

He was dead, you moron. You killed him. But it was too late...

Eighteen years ago, someone murdered Becca's father. Someone tried to kill Becca. If David is going to find his way out of this crazy place, he's going to have to piece together the events of that night. If he's very lucky and very clever, he might even figure out a way to undo them.

On Oct. 19, 1989, someone made a deadly mistake. This is your chance to make it right.

Trapped, Part 1: The White Rabbit
Trapped, Part 2: The Dark
Trapped, Part 3: The Labyrinth

Bonus: Hidden in each of the three games is a secret token. If you can find all three of them, it will unlock the final chapter of the game, where you'll learn what really happened that night. Keep your eyes peeled for anything that looks out of place, don't be afraid to engage in a little wanton destruction, and be careful what you wish for.

Oh, Wal-Mart...

silvormoon — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:18:50 GMT

So while I was visiting home, my dad thought it would be a good idea for me to take my car to the Wal-Mart tire-and-lube center to get the oil changed. Wal-Mart has a policy that if they find anything wrong with your car, they won't work on it until you've fixed it, so you can't come back later and say "You people worked on my car and now this is broken - it's your fault!" Fair enough. So I took my car to them and came back and they said, "Your car has a broken oil pan gasket." Okay, says my dad, that sounds like something easy to fix. We'll fix it tomorrow and bring it back. So they took it out to the shed and they opened it up and they had a look...

Turns out the model of car I drive hasn't got an oil pan gasket.

Almost done...

silvormoon — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:14:26 GMT

So for a long time I've been saying I'm going to finish a long, chaptered, Edo-and-Saioh centric genfic. It is now within less than a scene of being complete, so I'll probably be ready to post the first chapter or possibly Tuesday, depending on how long the editing takes. That will be a relief, I don't mind saying! Until then, here's a little teaser-snippet.

It began to rain.

Ed began to walk again, sniffling and feeling hot tears run down his cold face, mixing
with the rainwater. He was getting hungry again, but there was nothing left to eat. He was tired
and limping and cold, but there was no shelter, nowhere to rest. It was looking less and less like
anyone was going to rescue him, and more and more like he was just going to wander up and
down these strange dark streets forever.

"Nobody wants me," he said, and his voice was swallowed up by the rushing of the
driving rain. "Nobody wants me. Nobody wants me..."

At last, he stumbled into an alley that was more or less sheltered by the overhanging roof
of one of the buildings. It was not warm or dry there, but it was less cold and wet than any other
place, and there Ed gave up and sat down to cry until he couldn't cry anymore. When he was
done, he wiped his face on the hem of his soggy shirt, lay his backpack down for a pillow, and he
slept.

He was awakened sometime later by a light shining on his face. He opened his eyes
slowly, uncertain why exactly why he felt so cold and wet, and why his bed was so hard. Then he
woke up the rest of the way and remembered where he was, and opened his eyes to see what was
going on. It was still raining, still night, but now someone was holding an umbrella over him and
shining a flashlight. Ed sat up and realized that the someone was not his father, or even an adult,
but a child like himself. Not quite, though. This one was older than Ed, and had long dark hair
and long-lashed eyes that made it difficult to tell at first glance if the person was male or female.
A further look revealed that the newcomer's eyes were violet, a brilliant hue that Ed had never
seen in any other person's eyes before, and they were glowing slightly.

"Don't be afraid," the stranger said, and the voice made Ed decide it was male. "You're
all right now. I'm here to help you."

Ed's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Are you an angel?" If it was, he wanted no part of it.
Angels in movies tended to be cloyingly nice, and the last thing Ed wanted was to be patronized
by some pretty otherworldly thing that had no problems of its own to deal with.

The stranger looked wryly amused.

"I'm a boy with a flashlight and an umbrella," he answered simply. Now that he was
getting used to the voice, Ed could distinguish and accent to it, very faint but noticeable. "You
may call me Saioh."

"Oh," said Ed. "I'm Edward Phoenix. Ed."

"Edo?"

"Ed."

"That's what I said," the other boy replied.

Ed decided not to press the issue. He supposed he could handle being Edo if it would get
him out of this situation.

"What are you doing out here in the rain?" Saioh continued.

"I ran away," said Ed - or Edo, as the case may have been. "My father doesn't want me
anymore."

"Ah. We have something in common, then," said Saioh. He sat down next to Edo. "My
father doesn't want me either. What about your mother?"

"Haven't got one," said Edo. "She died when I was little."

"I see. And no grandparents or aunts or uncles?"

Edo shook his head. "Nuh-uh. Just my dad, and now he's..." Edo trailed off, sniffled, and
rubbed furiously at his eyes. "I'm not crying."

Saioh nodded, and did not say anything annoying like "Of course you aren't," in that
sweet tone that was meant to be comforting but really made Edo want to hit people. Edo was
beginning to like Saioh. In a world that had stopped making sense, it was wonderful to find
someone sane.

"Don't worry. You have me now," said Saioh. "From now on, I will be your shelter, and
your light in dark places. As long as you need me, I am here."

He got up again and offered Edo his hand.

"Come. Let's find a place where we can be warm and dry. Are you hungry?"

Edo thought about it and realized he was desperately hungry. He took Saioh's hand and
let him help him to his feet.

"I don't suppose you have any money," said Saioh as they began to walk.

Edo shook his head.

"Ah, well. We'll ask someone," Saioh said. "What would you like to eat?"

"A bacon cheeseburger," said Edo promptly, "with extra pickles. And a chocolate shake."

"Then let us go find someone to buy us one."

"I don't think it works that way," said Edo.

Saioh smiled. His eyes glittered in the dark. "It does for me."

Also, I have new dragons. I didn't mean to click on the blue one but I did by accident, and now I have two. Be nice to them, please?