Kleptomaniac of Shiny Ideas

NaNoWriMo! And they're off!!

2009-11-01T16:58:03Z

Good luck to everyone among my Friends here who are doing the NaNoWriMo this year! I'm about to start mine. We'll see if I can make it this time, with everything else that's going on. Wheeee!

Fullmetal Voice Cast!

2009-10-12T22:04:47Z

I am so! excited! Now that the full voice cast for the English dubbing of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has been announced, I am thrilled that almost every previous actor is returning. I am most especially happy that the voice of Roy Mustang will again be done by Travis Willingham, and Maes Hughes will again be Sonny Strait. My two favourite characters just wouldn't have been the same with different actors.

It's going to be weird enough that Alphonse will have a different voice.

Meanwhile, in totally other news -- NaNoWriMo is coming again soon! 19 days! Eeeeek!

Can I add 1,667 words each day to the all-day-long writing I already do?

Lord. Who needs sleep??

If I do manage to get the NaNo done, as before, I will be posting it at my kashiwrites writing journal. We'll see how long I can keep up before collapsing and giving up.

kashicat @ 2009-09-16T18:29:00

2009-09-16T22:30:21Z

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SEVLOW!!!

Bollywood video with a twist

2009-09-13T14:44:36Z

Those who know I'm a big Bollywood fan will know why I love love love this amateur video from, of all places, Tajikistan:

New Fanfic!

2009-09-11T19:31:53Z

A week or so ago, mfelizandy and I were talking about her latest obsession with model trains. And, being the good little Fullmetal Alchemist fans that we are, not to mention Roy Mustang fans, naturally we started talking about model trains in connection with him. He doesn't, on the surface, seem like the type who would be interested in model trains. So making a connection between him and them would require other elements to be present. His own obsessiveness would be key there.

The result was that we challenged each other to write short fics on the subject. She's posted hers already (Satisfaction Guaranteed) and now I've put mine up (Control).

Dragon's eggs

2009-08-27T18:28:16Z

I must be insane, considering how rarely I've been on LJ lately, but here I go again. (I blame ishte!)

In light of my last post...

2009-08-26T23:47:42Z

Your challenge is to write crossover fanfiction combining Left Behind and Splinter Cell.
The story should use shopping for a Wii as a plot device!

Generated by the Terrible Crossover Fanfiction Idea Generator

Thank you to sevlow, in whose post yesterday I first saw this.
And this is doubly hilarious for me, because of my ancient past, when I would have taken the Left Behind series more as documentary than as fiction. Heehee!

A great article about fanfic

2009-08-26T23:16:41Z

This is a really superb article about the writing of fanfiction: When Harry Met Bella: Fanfiction is all the rage. But is it plagiarism? Or the perfect thing to encourage young writers?

It's a great summary, both explaining what fanfic is, and talking about where it should be posted, matters of copyright, and so on. Really excellent.

Happy birthday, MaiaC!!

2009-07-28T12:40:28Z

Happy birthday to maiac!!!

Not a birthday cake, but I don't think she'll mind:

Nice little happening

2009-05-22T21:27:13Z

You know, there are fun things about being a book blogger, completely apart from, you know, talking about books! (Which would be reward enough on its own.)

I did a post at my Bookishgal blog yesterday about Seth Harwood's book, Jack Wakes Up. And I tweeted it at Twitter, which I usually forget to do when I do a new post.

Well, this morning it turns out that Seth Harwood himself saw the tweet, and checked out the blog, and even left a comment. Then he retweeted my original link on Twitter. So I tweeted back, and he offered to send me a review copy.

Such a nice thing! And I didn't blog, at all, with the hope of ending up in contact, and definitely not with the idea of getting a free book. I just was interested in both the book and how he's promoting it. And then this happened.

I like that the world does these nice little things once in a while.

In other news, I scrambled like mad to get my two latest article topics finished today (I finished "Organic Gardening" earlier in the week, and "Embroidery" today). So I'm mentally exhausted, and still need to write up a couple of anime articles and do an editing test for a possible editing gig.

But I giggle at the fun combinations of topics I end up with. My next two topics are "Greece Vacation" and "Stuttering." Fun juxtaposition!

So, I understand my American friends have a long weekend. What's everybody planning to get up to this weekend?

kashicat @ 2009-05-14T16:05:00

2009-05-14T20:16:21Z

So, I've been bashing away at some new articles this week. Being out of the apartment all day on Monday (they turned the water off all day again), I got all 6 of my final "stroller" articles done.

It's amusing now. I pass a mother pushing a stroller on the sidewalk and right away, I want to peer at it to see if it's one of the types I wrote an article about. And for one stroller, I saw the logo and thought, "Hey that's a Baby Jogger City Elite stroller, woo!"

I, who know nothing about babies and strollers. *guffaw*

Anyway, Monday ended up being a good day because it ended with my being able to read the latest Fullmetal Alchemist manga issue, and all I can say is -- WOW. Just WOW. Loved it madly! Happiness ensues! Seriously -- Royai fans have got to be shrieking with wonderful glee. (And yes that includes me.) And! I've had two more fanfic story bunnies just from that manga issue alone.

'Cause I really need to add to all the stories I can't keep up with, dontchaknow.

Meanwhile, back in Mundania, after I'd uploaded those last 6 articles about baby strollers, I got to choose two more topics for 10 articles each. And lo and behold, what was available on that long list? 1) CAT CARE and 2) PET ADOPTION.

Two more perfect-for-me and beautiful topics you simply can't imagine. In the three days since then, I've done 16 articles, which is a blazing pace. But I hardly need to research these, I know the material so well. I should finish tomorrow and be able to pick two more topics.

We may pay the rent and other June 1st bills yet, chickies! Wheeee!

Ahem. But now I'm working on my own thingie, about why we need a third version of Fullmetal Alchemist, and how this puts it in the club with other major icons like Superman. Who knows when I'll get that done?? But I'm working on it.

Me Again ("Who is this strange woman??")

2009-05-08T23:30:07Z

This has got to be a record for 2009. Or something. (Yegods. I just looked at the calendar. Are we really 1/3 of the way through the new year already??)

So...

I got my new article topics, and thank goodness, managed to do four of my five "video camera review" articles today, despite a late start. If they go this quickly, I'm sorry there are only five, because I could finish my quota early, and cram more articles into the month, if they all went so fast. Ah well. After this -- ten baby stroller articles. God's way of punishing me for never having (or wanting) children.

Almost time to head offline and watch the hockey game -- go Pittsburgh!

But I just remembered that I haven't yet watched this week's episode of the new Fullmetal Alchemist. (I tried yesterday, but when I had long buffering delays three times just during the opening credits, I realized it was going to take two hours to watch -- again -- and I didn't want to. So I'll try again now.)

And I can't wait for the next FMA manga issue! Should be online this weekend, right? Or Monday? *jumping up and down*

And I'm starving.

Feeling very ADD-ish at the moment. It's Friday, yay!

Two days in a row! faints

2009-05-07T22:35:29Z

Yes, my lovelies, I am here again, a second day. I was going to be here anyway at some point today, but I finished my article topics earlier, and have been managing to catch up on some things. Just need to watch Episode 5 of the new FMA in a minute, and then go offline for supper.

As I mentioned, I did finish the payroll software articles. THANK GOODNESS. Ahem.

The new topics are...eh. Five articles on Sony video camera reviews (I have no Sony video camera), and ten on baby stroller reviews (I definitely have no baby stroller, nor ever will). Must spend time on Google tomorrow.

The discussion forum I nip into all through the day was down for most of the day, so it was interesting trying to keep my brain from exploding while writing. Since I have a form of ADD, I frequently need to divert my mind from what I'm writing, almost like a pressure relief valve. It's how I get things done. Twitter actually helped quite a bit. Plus I went to a different forum I haven't been to in quite a while, and caught up with some people there.

For a major introvert, I'm awfully social, huh??

Anyway, that's it for the day. Tomorrow on my Bookishgal blog, there will be a lovely photo of the darling departed Kashi (after whom I am named on many forums), for Friday Cat Blogging.

So, I'm really busy...

2009-05-06T22:39:43Z

Hey everyone! How are you all??

I am so unbelievably busy, writing all those articles for pennies. Well, $10 apiece, but I can usually only manage three per day, so I'm essentially working for $30 a day. Not good on the rent, I tell ya. But I'm scraping through so far. We'll see about June 1st.

I don't know if I've linked my book blog here before? It's one of the things I'm trying to keep up every day, since I do some book reviews, and the blog is all part of the general editing/writing business I'm trying to get going. Anyway, if you're interested in bookish stuff, I give you Bookishgal. Ta da! I love it with a mad love.

Meanwhile, I'm carrying on with stuff. For eranith and anyone else following my "They Grow Up So Fast" FMA story, I'm almost done the next chapter. I manage to work on it when I give myself a break from other writing during the weekdays, so it gets worked on on Sundays, while I'm watching the Bollywood movie, and I occasionally sneak in a bit during weekdays too when I can't stand writing articles any more.

This week's article topics were -- wait for it -- help desk software, and payroll software. Ten articles I had to come up with, on each. TEN. Gah.

My previous topics (e.g. telescopes, violins, comic books, even menopause) were far more interesting, sheesh!

One thing I do intend to write, soon, is an article of my own about the three different versions of Fullmetal Alchemist, and how this puts FMA in a similar club to cultural phenomena like Superman. :-) Plus I'm going to write my own impressions of the new series. (I love it, with some caveats.)

In other news, I've started watching some of the other series that Funimation is now running on its video streaming portal. I watched the first episode of a series called Mushi-Shi yesterday -- solely because Travis Willingham voices the main character. The episode itself was kind of ethereal and okay-but-not-spectacular, but I found myself thinking, "Yep, that's Roy Mustang, and he should not have white hair." Still, it was lovely to hear that delicious chocolate voice again. :-)

Anyway. How are you all?? I'm going to try to come back and post here much more often in the next while. I miss being here!!

Amazon Fail

2009-04-13T14:45:26Z

Amazon Rank.

For info on what's been going on, check out the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books website.

And voting on the definition of "Amazon Rank" at the Urban Dictionary.

Meanwhile...

2009-04-09T23:13:34Z

I've been crashingly busy the last few weeks. But I'd like to invite any bookish people out there to pop in and see my relocated book blog, Bookishgal.

Well? Whattaya think of the new FMA first episode??

2009-04-09T23:10:48Z

Has everyone seen it now? It's been on FUNimation's video portal, and on most of their video partners, all day now.

What do you think?? I want to hear!

I absolutely loved it myself. Wheeee!

Of course, it took two bloody HOURS to watch it, since I have an old computer, an it had to "buffer" for 5-20 seconds before every 5-7 second spurt I could watch. *sigh* But still -- I am SO! HAPPY!

I can see a whole new tsunami of fanfic coming out of this new series. Heehee!

No, I haven't expired! And I have interesting news.

2009-02-26T23:32:11Z

Hallo everyone! How are you all??

It's been a very...tense and interesting month, let's say. I may be a bit better now.

And can I say right now -- I've got some stunningly amazing internet friends. They've kept me alive more than once, in so many ways, and here they go and do it again. Pretty jaw-dropping.

Long story.

But what I wanted to mention to everyone was something that I found out about this morning, that will be of interest to book-lovers but also to fanfic writers! It's a new ebook service, being launched by Indigo Books and Music in Canada, called Shortcovers. The thing is that it's opened in the United States too, so go have a peek.

It's an ebook service that you can download to your computer, onto your iPhone, or iPod Touch. I think possibly another place or two as well. But that means it's much more versatile than the Kindle.

It will have a ton of books on it (growing all the time), but it will also have single chapters to read for free. AND self-published or unpublished authors can submit sample chapters as well, for free or for a fee of $0.99. I haven't looked the site over thoroughly yet, but I think there may be (or may eventually be) a way to submit your entire self-published novel too.

BUT. What really caught me off guard, as I looked the site over, was the fanfic section near the bottom. Seriously! It's got links to Fanfiction.net stories there! Not for sale, of course, but still!

I haven't yet looked closely enough to see how those got there, and how we might submit our own stuff, but -- wow!

I can think of one story of mine, for sure, that I want to put there ("Apotheosis"), depending on what the requirements are.

Another quickie - chapter 4 of fanfic!

2009-02-02T01:24:19Z

Woo! Hi guys! How is everyone?

Just a quickie at halftime during the Super Bowl (go Pittsburgh! only because Eli Manning isn't there *sob*).

I've just finished posting chapter 4 of "Heckuva Way to Start a New Year." Only a month late, ha! Enjoy.

Back soon!

And another...

2009-01-20T15:57:59Z

A reminder...

2009-01-20T15:42:00Z

New chapter

2009-01-12T00:22:36Z

'Allo 'allo! I'm finally making some progress on my fanfic, "Heckuva Way to Start a New Year."

Chapter Three is up, at kashiwrites. And it turns out there's going to be a fourth chapter after all. But that will be the last one.

I will get this story finished! And then get back to They Grow Up So Fast. And then I'll polish and rework my NaNo fanfic and start posting it too. I will! she said, stomping foot

I DON'T WANT TO LOSE TRACK OF YOU ALL!!

2009-01-06T20:07:22Z

First, have a look at this news article: The Russian Bear Slashes a Social Network

The bubble in social networking has burst, decisively. LiveJournal, the San Francisco-based arm of Sup, a Russian Internet startup, has cut 12 of 28 U.S. employees — and offered them no severance, we're told. ...

The company's product managers and engineers were laid off, leaving only a handful of finance and operations workers — which speaks to a website to be left on life support. Matt Berardo, a Yahoo executive hired on last summer, has also left.

Now. All my F-list, copy this email address down: publicreggie [at] yahoo [dot] ca.

Got it? That's where you can get in touch with me so I can tell you about a forum we can all go to, to try to decide where we might all go afterward, if LJ goes down unexpectedly. (By the way -- if it does come to that, put something clear in the subject line so I know I'm not just getting spam, but know what it's about, in case I don't recognize who the email is from.)

The place in question is a discussion forum which doesn't quite have all the bells & whistles of LJ, but where conversations can be posted until we know we have a more elaborate place to go. (Although from the sound of that article, there may not be too many of them pretty soon, on the scale of this place. There may be some forced paring-down coming up.)

So start gathering names and emails now, so we can prepare in advance. Or let me know if there are other options already being pursued. At the very least, the user-run discussion forum I'm talking about could be a temporary home for us. Stories can be posted there too, incidentally. They'd need some donations now and then from some of us to keep going, but nothing on the scale of the paid accounts at LJ. And it would be a refuge, till we could figure something out.

We don't want to lose each other now!

kashicat @ 2009-01-05T19:23:00

2009-01-06T00:29:18Z

Well! First day back in the saddle! Or rather -- since nothing in my immediate surroundings has changed -- back in "get something done" mode.

I did, I confess, do a few paragraphs on the third chapter of "Heckuva Way to Start a New Year," the fanfic. But I also applied for a small writing gig, and an editing gig. I emailed one of my editing clients, who was wondering where the heck I was, since I had turned my phone ringer down for the last week. I wrote an entry on my book blog.

Last week a friend gave me a free pass to a movie, and I think tomorrow I'll be checking out "Frost/Nixon," which I've been dying to see ever since I saw the first trailer. I may write a review on my cultural blog afterward.

And! My website is gradually being designed, and I'm very excited about that. It won't be up for a few days, but it's progressing. Maybe I'll be able to get more editing clients once it's up -- woo!

Thanks to the help of some friends, I should now be able to make it through February. Fifty four days to get things moving.

And with the "clean slate" feeling I always have at the beginning of January, I feel fairly energized to do it, too.

I like that fresh new year smell, don't you?

kashicat @ 2009-01-01T14:01:00

2009-01-01T19:06:16Z

Wheeeeee!

Chapter 2 of Heckuva Way to Start a New Year is up at kashiwrites. Yaaaay!

I actually didn't think I'd get the chapter done today. But that was before I split it into two chapters, suddenly recognizing how I could make the story flow better. So we've got Chapter 2, and I hope Chapter 3 can be done by the weekend.

And yes, I'm bouncy. And yes, I was up at midnight, but went to bed immediately afterward and hadn't had any wine (can't afford it just now) nor went to any parties -- so I'm fresh as a daisy today. Perhaps the only person on the planet who is. Heehee!

Okay, off to watch The Return of the King. I love the holidays!