(What Do You Do With) The Problem With Writing Original Fiction For The HSC

Or, And now David isn't the only one to have publicly updated within the last 8 months
In Which I Struggle Not To Dismiss Frankenstein As Badfic, I Read Too Many Yuletide Fanfics, & I Succeed In My "Acquire A 2012 Diary" Quest

The problem with writing an original short story for the summer English assignment is "what do you do when the plot bunny only ever visits with crossover fanfic ideas that sound like they were written on crack?" (For actual examples from this past year, see the next post, pretty much.) Anyone with ideas is welcome to chime in, in the comments.

As you may have noticed on Twitter, I have invested in a kikki.k diary for the coming year(it was on sale, and it was pretty, and I saw Yun or Gina with one last year, and it has a notebook and other things). I've already started using it, and hopefully this'll stick.

And good God, preserve me from the horrors of reading my diary from years gone by, I understand why no one wants to read the assorted dreck of teenage girls. It's horrible.

The rest has been moved to its own post for whining and condoning possible copyright infringements (i.e. talking about fan fiction in a non-negative light)

A Temporary Break In Hiatus (sorry about the RSS)

-STATIC-
-INTERMISSION-
 Does anyone have any science programs and access to a scanner? Much appreciated.
This is a crappy 100th post, innit? And not a .gif in sight. Then again, it's not exactly a "proper" 100th post...where/when is it, by the way?
I hate this. This hiatus isn't just because I don't have access to a proper desktop computer, or access to proper Blogger on the laptop. (If it was, I wouldn't be posting a link to Irregular Webcomic! above. It's hilarious for people who did IT and vaguely remembered Chapter 3 this year.) It's not just because I'm busy, though I like to tell myself so. (If it was, I wouldn't be reading DW fanfic/Irregular Webcomic!/Arthur, King of Time & Space/TVTropes. The second one is also the reason why I have so many tabs in a yellow colour at the moment on the lappy.) It's not because I was watching Sherlock, and it was, and is, EPIC WIN, even if Mum doesn't get the meaning of "cliffhanger". It's probably something to do with my memory, but that's not the only thing...dammit, I just hate this not posting thing, alright? I haven't even gotten to the point of posting a notice of hiatus and then I go breaking it and putting it back in in the middle of exam week. Bloody timing...
Although, I am very, very happy today. Not only do I have more Muse (new favourite band) and DW soundtrack to listen to, I can has AUDIOBOOKS! (Do you recall the post made last term about me wanting to have a DW audiobook to listen to while I was sick? Yeah. If you can't be bothered, here it is. And then most of the torrents were for a subscription-only site and I got pissed. You didn't see that bit.) *sigh* It's taking a long while, though. Did I mention that Opera is pretty cool? Yeah, it can handle torrents, too.
And anyway, if I don't already know this science, I'm kinda screwed for anything that requires a memory, because I first read this when I was in Year 5 or 6. No, scratch that, probably a year earlier, Year 3. (Skipped Year 4, remember?) If it hasn't sunk in over that time, then, well...
WE RETURN YOU TO THIS HIATUS NOW IN SESSION
-STATIC-

What Would You Do? (If You Were Bored To The Point Of Insanity & Still Had To Work?)

Bored, bored, bored BORED!
Well, not really any more, since I can just download a new ebook/audiobook/TV episode/movie/comic/music/hell, a soundtrack. This IS the Interwebs, after all. It's not just for pr0n. (I bet Tancred, when he reads this, will either be "I see what you did thar" or something like "OMGWTFBBQ". No, really. Memes all the way. Proper memes, too.)
And I have one, glorious (hopefully) spring holiday to read/watch/listen, before...before the stress.
And I came up with the title on Thursday, so don't blame me if you experience severe mood dissonance. Blame Thursday me, who was busy RAEGING at shit because of a slightly disconcerting phone call from Dad in the car trip between Chem (sorta) Olympiad and dinner (at granny's place, with a few aunts and associated families). And that was on Wednesday. Don't blame Saturday me, who is doing lots of shit that Saturday me usually does before realising on Sunday that I have to go back to school on Monday, except this week I DON'T HAVE TO! HOORAY!
I think I answered the question above, really. Although, you could expand the list with "reading TVTropes pages" and "making up fanfic". Speaking of the latter, I might just set up a new blog/LiveJournal/whatever just do I could post up random stories. I need to work on my characterisation and plot, anyway. And this is mainly non-fiction here. It would be completely ruining the point of this blog if I were to post actual stories, rather than just attempts at stream-of-consciousness writing. Which I think I fail at. And now I think I understand why fanfic writers love reviews/comments. (They don't want to be shouting into the darkness, either, I presume.) Still, I still think that some shyness lingers here still. (I don't like exclamation marks, for one. They don't convey different emotions well.)
I also think that this is the most coherent post I've made in months weeks. ("Months" is exaggerating.)

YAYY Procrastination. Not.

Or, I Am So Fucking Bored I Don't Give A Shit (Reprise)

Really, how else do you explain the sudden lack of work done? (Apart from TVTropes and fanfic, but we won't go there.) (Or the inexorable flood of assignments/exams/other shit, but we won't go there.)

I haven't done any proper work in about a week. And now, well, shit. If only weekends were longer, but that would be defeating the point of a week-end, which are like bookends to a week, and now I'm not making any sense so I'll stop now.

Really, I just feel like unleashing a ton of xkcd/TVTropes linkys here, so, just go here before I change my mind: http://xkcd.com/

Over and out.

P.S. If you want to fin out what I'm meant to be mentally unprepared for, just read the tags, it'll help some.
P.S.S. Nobody gives a shit about the election, but it still looks like a hung parliament for now.
P.S.S.S. Jim's changed his blog theme @ http://duvrangnir.blogspot.com/.
P.S.S.S.S. Someone tried to blow up Discovery Channel HQ in the US. He died. The lesson, kids, is to no blow up stuff, because you'll die, one way or another. I know people die, but really, I'd rather die when I'm good and ready.

Signing off.

Annoyed Citizens Anonymous, Or, On The Judicious Use Of Running Away

And you must laugh or I will snicker at you.
*snicker* *snicker*
[Han: *snack*]
Well, this is shaping up to be a very long post and I've just read an article on how to use the jump cut, so let's experiment.
Allons-y.

Well, what can I say? Firstly, I just did a French test earlier today. We'll attribute all outbreaks of French to that. Secondly, I like squeezing in references (that was planned), and I, well, still think "Geronimo!" sounds stupid, or at the very least, not brilliantly appropriate
Well, it's high time I started posting again. It's been a long time, friends, enemies & neutral parties. Let's work backwards.
So, I just finished the survey. Damn well annoying it is too. I don't like surveys. At the very bottom (no, above the comments, what few there are) are some of the more...vitriolic feedback. Did I ever tell you that I was bad at doing evaluations?
So then, in last double-period Maths, first Mr Woodhouse walked in and started talking about the rankings and 3-unit maths, blah-di-blah-blah. Basically, as Mrs Briggs boiled it down to, if you're on the bottom end of the class Year 10 equivalent of the bottom of 10E, if you don't shape up, your application for Extension 1 Maths may be knocked back. So then that sparked a discussion about scaling and stuff and when the subject selection form was due. So, the obvious happened when Ms Connors walked in to say that she wanted us students to attend the Parent Information Night next week - she was fired with questions. Oh, BTW, the subject selection form is due August 6th.
Not much happened in English. We kept on reading "The Importance of Being Earnest" and watching bits.
In Ag, the first of the presentations started. Hmm...might have trouble on the confidence front if, well, yeah.
In French, we had the Unité 5 test. I WAS NOT PREPARED FOR THIS.
In Science...more inactivites and tangential talking with Mr Kowalski, part 221?
In IPT...we've apparently started our Transaction Processing "option".

Yesterday...did anything happen yesterday? Oh, right, Parent/Teacher Interviews. For the sake of my life I ran away. That's why I wasn't there. Oh, and I managed to lose 4 seconds off my 1.6 time (now 12:24) and 1 kilo. Not much, but an improvement, all the same. (and I'd just eaten a pie.)

On Wednesday, we lost 2-1 to Baulkham Hills. Again. Hey, at least we scored a goal. Then we watched Oatlands get owned by play...erm, this random school from out Blacktown way. Kings-something.
In English, Ms St Louis decided that we were very rude to the sub on Tuesday and needed a good ol' talking-to. Turns out McFadyen gave us something we'd already done.
In Ag...we lopped cauliflowers and pulled out the rest. Then we drew names out of a hat box to decide the order of the talks.
In Maths...I staggered in 27 minutes late, well-winded, because I'd been late for the car (not my bloody problem I had a health problem) and ended up with a little booklet.


On Tuesday, it was the Brain Bee.The ultimate test of neuroscience. So, first I missed the bus by 15 minutes...yeah. Then I just caught it at Granville. Nearly got run over by a car. (I invoke Quantum Immortality here.) Then, I was at the back with Kerrie, Ben, Matthew and Victor, with occasional appearances from Jim. (Claudia arrived at UWS by herself, presumably.) Then I guess I did OK in the Individual quarter-finals. (Oh, look! Free t-shirts!) Then came the team semi-finals, to which Matthew played a little guessing-game with Johnny and I about the answers. Then we had recess, of fruit, fruit tarts (well, passionfruit), custard tarts and cake. Which was not a lie. (Although the promised lunch barbeque was. I DON'T LIKE tomato/egg/cucumber sandwiches!) And then we had lectures and the team finals. Which I promptly slept through. We came third. Behind Baulkham Hills & PLC. And then we had lunch. The sandwiches were horrible. Knew I shouldn't have eaten those apple pies at recess. The quiche and cake, to a lesser degree, was alright. Then we had the tour of the (computer) lab, where we got to shock each other. Only stood up to 3 mA, moi. I decided to go sit with the Newcastle Grammar people to mingle a bit, because everyone was sitting with their own school, isolationists, all of them; which meant I got paired (grouped?) up with two girls named Sarah and Sam. They were nice enough, I suppose. Don't think I could go up to 20 mA, though. Then it was time for the individual finals, where Beryl, Johnny, and surprisingly, Jim got called up as part of the final 12. Then they were all eliminated (Johnny by way of several silly mistakes, although I didn't know some of them myself), till Jim, a girl from PLC (named Mercy) and a chap from BHHS (can't spell his name, but he was the clear winner) were the only ones left. Roshan later said that Jim lost because of two silly mistakes. Then again, he managed to come third, behind BHHS chap and PLC girl (yes, I noticed), so he did alright. Silly certificates, though. (Cheap printer paper.) He'd won an iPod, from which he became inseparable (and with which he ran the 1.6).


Oh, and I just posted a lot of old drafts that I found cluttering up the top.
And Jim has a webcomic. Huh. Don't have a tag for him. WTF? There is one now, at least.

Anyway, here's a little rant from the survey (delivered on pg. 15), published for your edification:

Have you seen the way they use laptops? Word processing and workbooks! We could just as easily write it out by hand, though it's likely that most people would complain a bit. I ask you, is it any wonder that students are putting them to slightly better use by watching videos? There are plenty more programs on the laptops. Teachers: USE THEM. The most we got out of it was probably when they were new and teachers wanted to experiment with the programs. Now that it's all old news, nobody wants to try out the different programs and there aren't any incentives to do so! And also, the intranet is underdeveloped; many sections are basically "This is a new page, yet to be filled out by people who can be bothered". In short, the Education Revolution that Ms Gillard promised us back in '07 still hasn't arrived. We're basically still only using the laptops in place of desktop computers - to trawl Wikipedia and regurgitate said info onto assignments. The OneNote thing is an afterthought, used only in certain theory-based classes.

And on the next page:

Q. 3 - Were these questions tailored for the options picked on the first page? Because I still don't see my Year 11 subject selection form; I don't remember a Year 10 camp, Gloucester or Peer Support, etc.
Q. 6 - Yeah, pity we CAN'T ACCESS THEM ANYMORE. We students used to be able to view the Sentral calendar. It would help a lot if we were able to access this. Not everyone has full access to the grapevine of information that is the teacher confiding details about when the test has been fully written.

 Oh, dear...well, the events calendar is only for students, so we can't really look at when we can expect a reasonable cut-off date...anyway.

And for added Curriculum Review snark responses, see the link. Erm...here: http://sites.google.com/a/jamesruse.nsw.edu.au/central/misc/curriculum-review/files/stafff_mtg_160310.pdf?attredirects=0

Huh. The "blacking out names" policy is now dead, buried and cremated. In that order. Yes, Jim, that is the reason why we have a very burnt patch of ground out thataways.
Arrivederci, and à bientôt! *wave*

Last day of Exams YAYY

To be brutally honest, you're never going to hear about what happened in the week where I was wearing hats. All that I'm going to say is that on the first day, I wore a too-small red beret on Monday; my usual hat on Tuesday (yes, it was part of it; and I decided to tie my scarf around it to make it into an approximation of a C19 bonnet); a beanie (which translates into "bonnet" in French, WTF?) on Wednesday (because there WAS going to be sport, but IT FREAKING RAINED JUST BEFORE the buses came, and it was sunny the rest of the day); an old hat of mine which still sort of fit (which replaced Mum's white wedding pillbox hat which I WAS going to wear on Friday mufti, but nooo.) on Thursday; and a bucket hat that fitted so closely to my head that I added a hatband (made of ribbons, with bows made of ribbons) and voilà! Instant cloche hat.
And right now, I'm eating dried pineapple because I only have two lollipops left and eating Mamee noodles is anathema (I don't care if you call me hypocritical) and there's nothing else left to eat without preparation (and I can't cook).
So, how was my day, you ask. Well, there goes another lollipop.
Deux examens, aujourd'hui: Geo & PE.
Quotes of Epitomising the Day Period:
Roll call: Mr W__: "I'm not going to read out the announcements today, because NO-ONE CARES...but I will tell you that the Computer Skills competition is tomorrow, for all you SD and IT people."
Geo exam: Abbi: "Dude, question 2 was so dodgy!"
French: Monica: "I left my books at home because the exam timetable said Geo was for 3 periods." Same here, and with the other Helen, and partially with Beatrice. David just forgot to bring himself.
Science: Me: "So Ben, shooting zombies?" (I was studying for PE, believe me.)
PE exam: Me: "Is it just me, or was the last question basically one on spatial inequality?" (And Ms R______, I would really rather play badminton than go through exams; and I doubt you'll be done until Monday. So please, can we leave it off until Monday?)
IPT: "OMG so boring"
Science (again): Jim: "MORE inactivities with Mr K_________!" Cutscene: Helen T. times Mr K________'s speeches with David R. being a minor pest in the background, Han, Helen and Jim doodle graphs of interest in speech vs. time (that go into negative), with guest graph by David (given that he's the only David present, we'll drop the initial for now). K_________ gives out sheet, table of 3 (+1) speeds through while he's still talking.
And that is a brief summary of my day. And now I'm going to answer one last formspring. Night.
EDIT: In addition to that little cutscene above, there's a few things I've left out.
Science due next week; Geo, maybe; IPT end of term (OH SHI-)
Doctor Who: WOW. JUST WOW. (End scene, where the Doctor realises the significance of the day.)
Oh, and for Maths, I think I did better than last year.

Failure to have a very nice day

(draw a card)
Playing Mao online is almost pointless. The deck'd run out quicker than the game.
Speaking - draw a card.
Oh, shut up, we're not playing Mao.
And since when have I been plural?
As the joke goes, the only people sort-of allowed to use singular "we" are royalty, pregnant women and multiple personality disorder sufferers, so which am I? I should hope none of the above.
Hmm. You, dear reader, shall have to work hard to shift the debris of my mental processes aside to glean any useful information (or not) about what happened to-day.
And no, I am not high. I'm a rollercoaster with a high potential energy.
Hmm, I suddenly feel like downloading "Not Fair" by Lily Allen from bandit.fm because I have so much credit left from all the chip packets I ate. Which is like a bell curve in the middle of a flat line parallel to zero.
OK, I'm just high (or low) enough to attempt cheering myself up by aeroplaning up the stairs and, you know.
Looks like I'm in the usual all-time low mode tonight. At least the past few weeks have been a fun social experiment. Not that I was recording data. You know, being cheerful for a bit.
Science? Who said anything about K________ being bad? The stuff I've heard about T's teacher is even WORSE. Yes, really.
Also, I've kinda given up on trying to be weird. I'M JUST THE [CENSORED] AVERAGE HERE. I just wanted to be special. No, not in the B(oard)OS way.
Why are you crying? No, I don't know why I'm crying. Sometimes it happens.
Why is the Internet so slow? I dunno, is it copper cables we have out here?
And in Ag, people pulled Kenny's hair for no apparent reason. And Kenny and Shelley and Jim and I were playing 1 1/2 games of Big 2. Mhmm. *nods head emphatically*
And I got 21/30 and Han got 14/30, so we're all happy. Except for Jim, who was one mark shy of 25/30, and possibly Shelley, who lost half a mark on something about record keeping.
But still.
Maths? Nothing much, except Ashley probably didn't feel too comfortable under the microscope today. I dunno.
Sport, it was alright. Being mobbed isn't too pleasant, though. And getting a ball kicked RIGHT IN THE SHOULDER just before the final whistle isn't too pleasant, either. At least we didn't get pwnt epically, we lost 1-0.
What do I eat, what do I eat?
Oh, and if you were wondering, I ended up having those weird noodles that come all wound up. Bit hard to explain. And then more Neapolitan ice cream.
Phys Olympiad was almost OK, even though Mr K______ said that this was all easy.
Then again, this is exactly the sort of stuff covered in, ooh, what was it, Chapter 7 of Science Focus 4?
Well, that was good procrastination(!)