Research

For someone who is writing a fanfic just for my own personal enjoyment, I sure am doing an awful lot of research.  I guess I'm just a wee bit OCD when it comes to getting details correct.  That's probably not such a bad thing.  At least my story will seem realistic.

I was writing some dialogue for two characters and I had one character sarcastically tell another character that they should try reading the book 'How to Win Friends and Influence People.'  Then I realized that I have never read that book myself so maybe I should read it so that I could better understand what that character was talking about.

Well, thanks to the internet and the fact that that book is pretty old, I found it in a PDF format and promptly saved a copy.  Fortunately for me, the book is only a couple hundred pages and it didn't take me very long to get through it.  As I was reading though, I came to the realization that most of the techniques that are suggested in the book are things that I have adopted over the last several years.  How cool is that?  I have definitely become way less assholish.  I shudder to think how I used to be in my late teens through late twenties.  Unfortunately for me, I don't get out much or have much interaction with many people any more.  Basically, the book can be summed up in the Golden Rule:  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

The other thing that I was researching was classical guitar music, especially the flamenco genre.  And not that I didn't already know it, but Charo is a kick-ass classical guitar player.  I'm going to have to buy one of her CDs.  She's just that good.  I'm very particular about the style in which the musician plays.  I don't care for heavy plucking and a herky-jerky style.  I like a smooth and precise style.  Another guitarist who I think is totally brilliant and very under-rated in my opinion is Robby Krieger of The Doors.  I absolutely love the way he plays the Asturias and Malaguena inspired pieces in the song Spanish Caravan.  It is beautiful.  I could listen to him play classical and flamenco all day long.

And one odd thing.  There is a new member at a certain fan site who posted the other day something that if I didn't know better, I'd think that this person lifted a scene from my fanfic.  This person came to the realization that one character had been completely played by another character.  My scene was that it was the realization of a character that another character had been completely played by a third character.  Only in my estimation, I took it a bit farther in that, yes, character one had indeed been played by character two, but with the collaboration of a third character.  Character three did this to gain a certain thing, but was ultimately played by character two, who then had character one all to his/herself to really manipulated the hell out of. A very sick and diabolical thing it was, too.  Sorry, I can't spell it out any more than that or else it will be spoilers galore.  I think that I will be proven correct by the end of Season 2.  I'm hoping that the two characters who were played come to the realization themselves and enact their revenge.  That would be totally sweet.

More OUAT Posters/Motivators

Since it has been so awful not having new episodes of my favorite show, I've been busying myself by making a couple more posters/motivators.  The first one is of poor Graham(RIP). He's not really my type but he is easy on the eyes.  And I must say, he does improve his looks when shirtless.

I went ahead and went with that caption since it was a little less controversial than "Can you blame the Queen for wanting to lady-rape me?"  That would definitely be provocative to some.  (And is a whole argument for another time.) However, I *am* She Who Dares and I just might make that poster anyway.

The second one is my masterpiece, although I do admit that I stole got the idea from one in which it was a pic of Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones with the same caption.  And since Rumpel has been referred to as an imp in OUAT and also handed out some pimp-style beat-downs, I thought that it would be most appropriate and an excellent poster.  Unfortunately, the website with the generator to make his image requires one to register to be able to share the image and for some reason my registry wouldn't go through(although I'm now glad it didn't), I am not called the Great Xul for nothing, and I have my ways of retrieving things.  It's a little blurry, but awesome nonetheless.  So thieve away, bitches!  You know where you got it from!

For the birthday boy...

A very happy birthday to my favorite Arekino!!!  And many, many, more!!!  (Yes, I know I'm a day early.  I'm impatient like that!  ;P)

We have always been at war with the Dust Goblins!

I had another skirmish today in the long war of attrition with the Dust Goblins.  For as long as I can remember, they have had the Land of Xul under siege.  Now that I have achieved the title of The Great Xul, it is my responsibility to wage war against them.  They are sneaky, insidious little bastards.  They breech my Kasteel and put their dust everywhere. They even mock me by putting dust on the vacuum.

Today I found a band of Dust Goblins holed up inside my computer hutch, hiding behind my old computer tower.  Filthy beasts.  I promptly dispatched them with the previously mocked vacuum.  Damn Dust Goblins!  They even leave rappelling line hanging from the ceiling!

Anyway, that was what I was up to today.  And I confirmed ONE tidbit of information regarding my fanfic.  I'll probably be waiting at least three weeks until I find out the other pertinent detail which will determine how my little story will go.  I'm still imagining interesting scenes and scenarios.  There will definitely be ice skating involved.

If...

...I had magic, a certain someone would have been on the receiving end of a hadoken today. Damn that woman can get right up my nose without climbing gear with her never-ending bitching and criticizing. And it's always the same thing: a build-up of many small annoying things culminating in one last insult which leads to me erupting in anger. Then she gets to tell me how I have "personal issues" or how I'm "internalizing" something. Or maybe it's that I live with a rude, inconsiderate, self-centered, critical bitch and I'm just reacting normally. Couldn't that be a possibility?

Today she really crossed the line. She just had to let me know that my hair is getting *really grey* and that I need to color it. (All in the guise of being helpful.) She really gets off on sly little criticisms like that and then tries to act like she's just being helpful and if she had something wrong with her appearance then she would expect me to say something to her. Well, it was hardly a news flash as I had just mentioned the subject of my hair just a couple days ago and how I was waiting until just before a certain event so that my hair would be freshly done and not have the roots grown out by a few weeks. I mean, come on! You wouldn't say that to a stranger but it's okay to say it to me?

Last week, the thing to get me to flip out was after I had been outside for hours and hours mowing the lawn and all the other things that go along with it, she wanted me to come in and start moving some furniture around. Well, I came in and went directly to the shower. Then afterward, she acted all put out because I had a shower first and didn't make her nonsense my priority. I then reminded her that I had just come in from working hard outside and my back was hurting. She immediately has to bring it back to her by saying that her back hurts everyday. I don't remember what my reply was but then she had the audacity to say that I, *I* always have to have "tit for tat" and an argument. "Excuse me?" I said to her, "I just said my back hurts, then you immediately say that yours hurts everyday, but I'm the one who has to have 'tit for tat'?" To which she had no reply. Methinks someone doth project too much!

Damn NPDs!

Confessions of a Grammar Nazi

***Disclaimer*** I was a bit hesitant to call myself a grammar Nazi, since I am in no way affiliated with actual Nazis or the National Socialist party. But since the term has taken on a different connotation to mean someone who is stern, harsh, or rigid in their dealings(due to the Soup Nazi character from Seinfeld), I'll go ahead and use the term.
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Many years ago, when Xul was a young lass, she wasn't always so good in the subject of English. Not to say she was bad at it, as she managed to get B's and some A's, just not so good as to get straight A's. Then one year, she got an English teacher named Mrs. P who was a bit of an Anglophile. Now, Mrs. P was hardly Xul's favorite teacher, but she did have a special knack for teaching the subject, so young Xul finally started to not completely suck at it. Either that or Xul finally reached the developmental stage to finally understand just to what in the hell all these grammar terminologies were referring. (See, I didn't dangle any participles there! :P)

So now, because of Mrs. P's teaching skills and Xul's now fully functioning brain, all these grammatical rules were implanted deep within Xul's memory repository. Now Xul cannot read fan fictions without going into grammar Nazi mode!

Yes, that is the real confession! I got sucked into reading a fan fiction thanks to Lady Moiraine(an Evil Regal) over on the OUAT fan site. The writer of this particular one tells a good story except for the infernal grammatical errors. Now that sends me into full-on grammar Nazi mode.

For example: one of the things that really gets me going is when someone says "could of" or "should of." In what universe does that even make sense? Seriously? Pairing an auxiliary verb with a preposition? What you are looking for is "could've" (sounds similar) and is the contraction of "could" and "have." The other one that gets me going is misusing "your" and "you're." "Your" is a possessive pronoun and "you're" is the contraction of "you" and "are." Then, of course, there is "there, their, and they're."

Now as far as my own fan fiction is coming, I'm still waiting for this Sunday's new episode to see if I have to make any revisions. I also had the thought of "the silver skates" pop into my mind for some reason. I was thinking of a scene where a character was ice skating and that term popped into my head from somewhere deep within the memory repository. I was sure it was some sort of fairy tale but I couldn't find it in any of my fairy tale books.  I ended up Googling it and lo and behold! There was a Disney movie based on the novel Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates.

I just so happen to have that particular novel in my vast book collection. It turns out that it's 300 pages long, so I'm in for a bit of reading. Ah well, anything to make my story good! I think it'll make a nice little detail for this particular character. I'm doing some of those special little nods like the OUAT writers are doing. Just as long as I don't bog myself down with too many details and just stick with telling a good story everything should turn out fine.

Random thoughts on OUAT

Sometimes I think I just *might* have too much free time on my hands.  LOL

The OUAT fan site forums crack me up. Some of those peeps are hilarious! And I'm finding that I agree more with the opinions of the non-Americans.

It's amazing how much peeps in the rest of the world know about US law because of our TV shows.  It's just like that sarcastic Rammstein song's chorus: We all live in America!

"Her head is a bag of cats."  Best and funniest metaphor for crazy that I've ever seen.  I've been chuckling about that one for days. (Thanks to Sandy from the Caymans)  I'm sooooo stealing that!

My mother is JUST like Regina's mom Cora, except without the magic.  Unfortunately, several other peeps on that forum claim that, too.

I am pleased to find out that the COMPLETE first season DVD of OUAT is at Target for just a bit under $40.  Soon.

My bedroom looks like a cross between Regina's office, EQ's castle,  and Mr. Gold's shop.   LOL

I wonder if there's any connection between having certain tastes in things and being raised by someone who is likely NPD?

One has to be very vigilant so that one doesn't inadvertently become one's mother.  O.o

OUAT Fan-fic

This is my own personal little fan fiction based on Once Upon A Time.  This particular "story/episode" would take place after the next episode(number 11) of the second season.  I'll leave it at that so I don't spoil anything for anyone.  If I was a writer on the series, this is the direction I'd like to see Regina's character go.  (And maybe a love interest.  :P )  Here's the first few scenes:
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Regina drives out of Storybrooke to an undisclosed destination.

She arrives at another town(or larger city) and goes to a tea/herbals shop.

Once inside, she looks around a bit and asks the female shopkeeper for a certain item.

From behind one of the cases, on the other side of the shop, a man spots Regina and has the looks of stunned surprise as if he recognizes her.

He then comes over to where Regina and the other employee are and asks Regina if he could help her find anything.  She tells him what she is looking for.  He replies that that is a very rare item and that he would have to check to see if they had any in the back. "You're going to have to wait a bit while I look," says the man. "Would you like to come in the back and have some tea while you wait?" Regina hesitates a moment, and then agrees to have tea.

The man takes Regina to a small break room/kitchenette area in the back. "What do you need that item for?" he asks. "I don't get many requests for that." "Oh, an old family recipe," say Regina. The man in the meantime is preparing some loose-leaf tea in a pot. He brings it over to the little table where Regina is sitting and pours a cup-full for her. "Here, I hope you enjoy this. It's my own special blend.  Now, I'll go see if we have any of what you are looking for." Regina takes a sip. "It's delicious," she replies. The man smiles at her and then leaves and goes to the store room.

Regina continues sitting and drinking her tea. Suddenly, she feels lightheaded and realizes that the man has drugged her, but it's too late...
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***Cut to the next scene***
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The scene opens and we see Regina asleep in a strange ornately carved poster bed in a darkened room. She then starts to awaken and realizes that she's in a strange bed in an unfamiliar place. As she starts to get up, we see that she is still in her clothes. As she groggily looks around the room, she sees her trench coat and jacket hanging off the back of a chair, her purse in the seat, and her shoes positioned neatly under the chair.

She looks around the room. It seems to be furnished very nicely. Regina gets out of the bed and stands up, then goes over to the window and pulls back the curtain. She sees that she is on the second floor of a building. She looks around the room a little more now that there is some light to see by. There is a painting of a man on the wall. There are ships in the background of the painting. The man in the painting looks like a captain. Suddenly, the door opens and the man from the tea shop comes in.

"You! You drugged me!" shouts Regina. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"I didn't do anything inappropriate," says the man.

"Nothing inappropriate?!" says Regina in disbelief, then suddenly realizes the irony of it all.

"Your Majesty, I'm not trying to harm you in any way."

Regina is stunned. "How...how do you know me? Who are you?"

Queens and Other Wild Things

I am well on my way to beating that damn ape and becoming the Queen of Kong.

***UPDATE***

I got to the 22nd level and there is no kill screen on this version.  So I could just go on ad infinitum ad nauseum or just go ahead and crown myself the Queen of Kong.  Any guesses as to what I will do?

Hell yeah, that's what I did.  It's good to be the Queen!

Speaking of queens, just a couple thoughts I had about two of them from OUAT:  First of all, one of the upcoming episodes is going to feature Cora's back-story as the miller's daughter.  I am wondering if she was married off to King George.  He seems the right age and he seems to lust after gold and a son.  I am wondering if the firstborn that the miller's daughter had to give to Rumple in the deal turned out to be Regina.

IIRC, Rumple told Regina that he held her as a baby and that because she was so sweet and without malice as a girl he wondered if she was even in the same family(as her mother, and maybe her father?).  King George is just as mean and nasty as Cora so maybe it'll turn out that he is Regina's real father?  I just wanted to be the first to say it, since I hadn't seen that theory on any of the Once forums.

Then that would make James and David Charming the adoptive brothers of Regina, thereby making Henry Jr's family tree that much more complicated! :D  LOL

Donkey Bollix

Do you like to be frustrated?  Do you like to torture yourself?  Are you a masochist?  Do you like to be driven completely mental?  If you answered yes to any or all of these questions then maybe you should try playing Donkey Kong!  Yes, this classic arcade game will drive you completely mental.  It's so simple, yet so infuriatingly difficult to win at.

I have made the mistake of thinking that I wanted to play some Donkey Kong.  Ever since I saw the K of K at the freakin' Sam's Club I've had Donkey Kong rattling around down in the memory hole.  So, stupidly, I looked up the free version online and found a site that has more than just the first level.

Well, I'm still as crappy a player as I was back in the 80's.  I can only manage to get to the third level before I start spazzing out.  And if that isn't bad enough, I've been playing Frogger, too.  Same story with that one.  I can only manage to get to the third level.  Granted, Frogger doesn't infuriate me as much as Donkey Kong.  Some of the DK online versions have wonky directional buttons that don't want to respond immediately just like the original arcade version.  It's soooo frustrating because it's not my reflexes making me lose but the stupid game itself.  I have no idea how any of the so-called classic arcade champions manage to get so damn far in any of those old games.  They seem to be programmed to make you lose.  They aren't just games of skill.  I got so frustrated with Donkey Kong that I was like Aaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiyyyaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  and pounding my fist on the bed.

I was totally like:  

Damn 80's arcade games!   :::shakes fist:::