do_While(True)

So, I know some of you out there have done NaNoWriMo. I've meant to, but haven't, and it's coming up again. How did you do it? Did you have an idea of what you wanted to write, or who you wanted to write about, before you sat down on November 1st? What advice can you give me?

So I'm sitting here, at my desk, in the middle of a room which is becoming more and more packed with papers, clothes, and other random detritus of life. And I'm sitting here doing very little else than clicking through the tabs on my Firefox to see if I've gotten mail in the last 85 seconds. Or if someone posted in LiveJournal. or is something might've happened on MySpace, though I'm sure I wouldn't know what I'm expecting to happen.

Aren't I productive?

But that's OK, because I've been working pretty hardcore on this Compilers assignment for the last couple of days. It's due by Sunday at Midnight, and I have it almost done now, so I'm taking a break. It was quite a rush there for a while, crunching on code for hours, figuring out the logic. it was frustrating for a while when the code wouldn't link until I changed something incredibly stupid (I needed it to be a .c instead of a .cpp, which just means renaming the file >.< ). Last night and this morning was spent running some tests on it to make sure my logic was all right -- and save for one line it all was. I'm kind of proud of that. But I owe a lot to the guy here who wrote up the test files I'm using -- if not for him, I would have never found the one logic error I had. And I think it was a big enough error that it really could have effected my grade.

The last bit I have to do is make sure bad input generates the correct errors. That shouldn't be too difficult, and I'm as not concerned with that as I am that it runs correctly with proper input.

-smirk- I'm assuming most of you have a glazed look right now, so I'll try to spice up the post.

It seems like now is the time to find old friends. I recently found a couple girls I went to grade school with on Facebook, and another old friend found me *really* randomly on MySpace. I'm still not sure how she found my profile at all (maybe it showed up randomly on her welcome screen, I don't know), but she said she recognized me from my picture. -laughs- Andrew never changes.

I also got to talk with Becky, who I haven't talked to in a long while. In the intervening time she's transfered schools, but she's still getting a culinary arts-type degree, which is cool. I told her Josh just started College and she said, "I feel old." -laughs- I sent her an email the other day, and haven't heard back from her yet, and not-hearing-back from people always kinda depresses me. I really need to work on that; it was a long email (I seem incapable of being brief), and it's only been a day, maybe a little more, *and* it's the middle of the week and we're all busy. But I still get a little down when I don't hear back from people, and I've had enough times when I don't *ever* hear back from people that it's got some basis.

The Quarter is almost up; next week is the last week of classes, then a week of exams. Which isn't really a week of exams for me -- one course has no exam, two courses are having their exams next Thursday instead, and a fourth class is having a mail-in paper due Dec27th instead. Which leaves just one exam, on Wednesday morning, I think, all week. So maybe i'll clean my room, and actually be packed to leave on the 15th.

My two weeks at home are already being eaten up, and it's still two weeks away! -laughs- I get in the night of the 15th. I think I have a dentists' appointment on the 16th or so, and I'm planning to have dinner with my cousin Christina on the 17th (I think that's what we were planning...? Maybe it was the 16th...). Amber wants to have me over for a '24' marathon, complete with pizza and Chinese. I'm supposed to meet Claire for brunch on the 20th while on my way to visit Sara until the 22nd, and I may (*may*) try to swing by Virginia Beach on my way home to say Hi to a few people I can't see otherwise. The 23rd is the only day my family's all going to be able to get together for a Family Portrait (which I'm looking forward to getting, cause I love pictures). The 24th is Christmas Eve, then Christmas, then The Day After Christmas. I'm having a handful of friends over on the 27th for pizza and visiting and such. Then there's New Year's Eve and New Years Day on the 31st and 1st (respectively), and I fly back out here on the 3rd for classes to resume on the 4th. And I still want to see if I can get together with some of my other friends out there, like Jackie, and maybe take a trip to see people back at CUA.

Crazy stuff there.

What else? I finished 'Dune' last week. It was pretty good, but the sort of book I think I need to read another couple times to fully unpack. I thought it ended kind of abruptly. But it was a good book; I liked it. My friend Laurel here and I were talking about reading the Harry Potter books 'together' (ie, at the same time, and meeting to discuss it, or whatever), but I've been so occupied this week that I haven't started. I was thinking I might this evening. With tea, maybe. But I'm out of sugar. I tried using Chocolate Chips to sweeten it last night, but it didn't really have the desired result. I'm also trying to discipline myself to learn to type using the Dvorak key-mapping (which I've been meaning to have as the subject of a post for a while now, but haven't gotten to it), but I haven't been very good about it. Partly because I hunt-and-peck so well, and partly because my hand are really not used to *typing* at all; any real sort of typing, QWERTY or otherwise, exercises muscles I don't use. Which means it hurts. But I mean to do it.

And I've a couple ideas bubbling around my head for things I want to write -- the World of Darkness novella I've been toying with for the last year or so, but also a story about a certain Changeling character I'd developed quite a number of months ago, and another idea which struck me when my professor, comparing C++ to Ada, said something about "Power versus Safety" in languages...

I haven't heard this sing in a very long time... it's really pretty. Really sad. -smiles-

NaNoWriMo starts on Tuesday, yes? I think I want to participate in that, if not officially at least by trying to get some writing done. My trouble is, as ever, not having anything much to work with.

I'd had a few ideas. There is, of course, my "Real World" bit, which I'd like to get back to anyhow, if I can figure a way to work it. I need to sit down and really figure out what story it is i'm trying to tell with that one; I think I know, but only vaguely.

There's also the possibility of writing about the WoD game that I set up, but which hasn't even finished character creation because it seems my players have all lost interest. In a way, it's kind of a mutation of The Real World, and i'm kind of afraid that association could water both of them down, in a bad way.

I also thought I might write about my City of Heroes and/or City of Villains characters. I'm particularly fond of Bethan and Svelte and the possibilities they present, which only get betterif I add in other character for them to play with, like Sic Semper, Chubtoad, The Thirteenth Angel, and Claudia Zhavargo. But i'm also only vaguely sure of what sort of story I'd be writing there, too.

I think, really, what I need to do it just *write* something, which is most of the reason I want to do this Nanowrimo thing in the first place. The most disappointing thing, though, is that all three of those are more-or-less fanfics, which just feels... kinda cheap. Granted, the characters and stories are mine, which is more than any real fanfic can boast, but the setting is nigh-wholly borrowed; enough that I would expectcopyright issues if I ever tried to publish, which is bad enough for me.

There was the beginnings of something dealing with post-apocalyptic war dealing with artificial intelligence, computer vision, and themes of sentience -- and not in the Terminator "computers are out to get us" sort of way, but more of a Bladerunner sort of thing, minus the whole sad-computer bit they had (for the most part) and with more open war.

So maybe I could try running with that...

For those of you just joining us (Ben, Mere, Megan, and the like), I enjoy writing. Alas, I can never come up with much of a plot. So, I've contented myself with writing little snippets. My style attempts to mimic my friend Nifer's way of writing, as I quite enjoy her works. I like to imagine that my works can be profound and artistic, hopefully conveying more than the simple scene infront of you. I don't claim to be any great master, though, so these ideas may only be in my head. In the end, however, I enjoy writing them and I'm proud of how most of them came out. To that effect, I'm collecting a list of links here incase anyone would want to read them. Anyways... They're listed in the order they were 'printed.'

( Biblia )

You see, I think maybe this is why I never 'started' writing my story.

That is, I think I'm going to start over, and I'll explain why.

You see, with all the multitudes of characters that I come up with, from Rolias, to Serval, to Cedric, to Raymond, I have visions of Granduer. Powerful Mages, Ninja who melt into the shadows, warriors who live daring, adventurous lives.

Rolias, of course, is everything. A swordsman-wizard with a mysterious past, this one character has it all. Sadly, there's only so much you can do with an All-powerful character, and I have trouble making Rolias anything less.

Except...

Except when he's a child. And I think that's where I want to take this. I think I want to start him off in the mysterious past I imagine, and see how he grows into the Mage Master we all know he's destined to become.

This, of course, is likely why I'm so interested in Role Playing. And I've got this GREAT idea, if I could only find a GM to run it....

You know, it never fails.

Just when you think you have it all set - you're Ghost is Cloaked and merily strolling down the Complex hallway, Casister Rifle in hand, and you're THIS CLOSE to rescuing Zeratul and his fellow Dark Templar - that's when it happens. That's when a Raging Swarm of Zerglings comes charging by your happy-go-lucky Ghost and into the waiting Arms of Tassadar, lovingly biting his Protoss face off and proceeding to rip him into so many psi-imbued ribbons. After that, it's all over.

This never would have happened if it wasn't for Arcturus. He gave the Zerg exactly what they wanted - a Ghost to play with. that's what they were after, anyways, wasn't it. Look at the facts - why else would the Zerg be attracted to the psi-emiters? Because it radiated the brain-waves of a Ghost. They wanted a Psionic Human - that's why they came to the Terran Dominion in the first place - and Arcturus (the bastard) HANDED her to them.

He didn't need her down there. I'm sure it was just an insidious plot to get the upstart Kerrigan out of the way. It started when Arcturus used the Zerg as a weapon oin the Confederates, and Kerrigan didn't like it. Then it was used again, and she spoke against Arcturus. He quickly dropped her down to guard the beasts he'd unleshed on other humans, and when the Zerg over ran her, he LEFT her! She was calling for help, swarmed by the Borg-like Zerg, and he left. The bastard.

Of course they assimilated her. It's what the Zerg do. They're almost a noble race, really - created and 'programmed' to be perfect, their hive conciousness comanded by the god-like Overmind. Kerrigan would be his greatest creation. She mutated in her crysalis, and sometimes I wonder how much of her changed in there, and how much changed when Arcturus left her as dead. That would push anyone pretty far.

She called out, then, for vengence. Through the depths of space she called psionically to Jim Raynor, and Arcturus. I often wonder why she called Jim, and then let him go... In any case, the Protoss heard. And the Dark Templar came. They came and they attacked the Overmind's Cerebrated, with a force that destroyed them beyond reincarnation. That's why they were hunted. That's why Tassadar is searching for Zeratul in the complex on Char. All because Arcturus betrayed Kerrigan to the Zerg.

In the end though, Kerrigan is no one's tool, not even the Overmind's. He left her with her fiery will and determination, as an 'example to the swarm', but I am certain she orchestrated the Overmind's demise. Early on she named herself Queen of Blades, and it is, after all, she who called the Dark Templar to the Zerg in the first place. She plays all three sides against eachother, and it remains to be seen what she does as the new, immature Overmind grows. Only time will tell....