Final Fantasy Fun

Tumblr format drives me mad, and yet I find myself participating in discussions there instead of fomenting them here, because that's where fandom is. I do love the images, but I wish meta and fanfic would stay here.

It's a viscous cycle, pun intended.

I can't believe I posted a ficbit there this weekend. Granted, it was not very GOOD, and will never be finished since I abandoned it years ago after it trailed away into mush and poorly-justified erotica. (Giftfic ships should never be forced. Luckily, it was going to be a surprise giftfic, so no one but me is disappointed. Well, almost no one. *apologetic smile at MintyWolf*)

i've been feeling abysmally low lately, due to the usual convergence of too many inconvenient health issues plus pain plus worries about elder statescat who is... once again reminding me to treasure her for the time we've got left together.

Dear friends of an online friend...

When I see variations of "feel better soon!" on the journal of someone who's just won the Arthritis Prize, I feel sad.

Okay, no, I feel irritation.

( ranty rant rant )

For someone with chronic illness, feel better is only, ever, a relative term.

And I feel sad seeing someone else discovering it.

And mad at myself for not knowing what words can comfort or help or cheer up somebody going through a bad spell.

From the unsung hero of the space program, the International Space Station, which deserves a helluva lot more press than it gets...

(be sure to click HD, and possibly fullscreen, if you have the bandwidth)

There's this old Japanese (?) brazier that's been kicking around in my family forever.
I assumed it was the four seasons kanji, but now that I look more closely, it isn't. Translation? ("Made in Japan for tourists, contains lead, do not use" was my mother's theory).



Oops. Upside-down, isn't it?

Is it just me, or is LJ refusing to take any input or edits? It's been glitching for me since Friday, but I haven't been able to edit or update (apart from one cross-post squirting through from DW) for a couple days now.

For the record, my last post should say "Final Fantasy Review Project" not "FFX Review project" -- mugs' initiative is for ALL Final Fantasy fandom. My bad.

I wish I were comfortable on DW. Its rich text editor does odd things, I'm missing icons, and, most importantly, I've been laaaaazy on learning how to skin / theme to my satisfaction. It's silly, but my writing and comfort zone are strongly tied to the visual interface (not only because my vision is 20-60, uncorrectable, and these teeny little letters in Dreamwidth's input box are a NIGHTMARE.) An interface I don't love nags at me like a mosquito bite. [ETA: Okay, there. I have changed the theme and dinked with the CSS. Much better.]

Nevertheless, I'm glad it exists, since I don't trust LJ.

Q: is there some way to force DW not to notify you every time a cross-post is successfully posted? I don't really need the notifications to start with, and with my bad habit of editing/tweaking posts after publication, I get yet another PM for every edit. I've got 80 on the first page of my inbox right now with no human contact mixed in.

As a result, I keep ignoring my inbox.

I just wanted cumuluscastle to see where her painting is now. It's under UV-shielded glass, just to make sure, although the room only gets indirect and tree-filtered sunlight.  

There is a distinct lack of cat on the perch, simply because I broke out the camera. Imagine a cat.
Aha. Behold a cat. Within scritch range when mousing. (If image is broken, it's here. What gives,DW?)




P.S. Why is FFXIII so painfully flawed yet excellent in parts? It reminds me of X-2; a curate's egg. Which is unsurprising, as they came up with XIII while working on X-2. 

I finally finished. Without spoilers, I will say that (a) Fang/Vanille pretty much makes up for any of the game's shortcomings for me (CANON! PLOT-ESSENTIAL F/F CANON!), and (b) it's a shame Vanille's voice was the one "miss" on the English dub. Her seiyu is better. But Fang's ...wow. 

Note: Please no late-FFXIII spoilers in replies; at least one person reading this hasn't finished.

So, mad Russians finally drive me to Dreamwidth. I've always felt favorably about it, since most of the FF gang has migrated. I'm just bummed because I had my LJ set up exactly the way I like it, and it's a permanent account, so, all the icons forever. But usericons are minor.

I shall of course cross-post, and keep checking LJ -- in fact I'm still checking LJ first, before DW, because my brain is hard-wired to think of LJ as "home base." But I don't trust its stability. From now on I shall treat DW as the primary account and LJ as the mirror.

So there's that.

Second thing is that I'm playing my way through FFXIII, finally. I meant to keep a game journal, but, well, I didn't. It is such a curate's egg of a game, but for the most part I'm enjoying it. I want to tell heavenscalyx to play it, except portions of it would make her and Rose scream. But there is a canon lesbian relationship in the party, at least as canon as Sailor Moon (original, not English dub). It's a pity one of the pair is a bit of a sap, but I am happily focusing on their ship and not the parts of the game that work less well for me. I am relieved that several of the characters have turned out to be less annoying than they were for the first hour of playing time.

And, oh, Fang. Square finally gave me the female character I have been waiting for. Except I wish she had magic, too, but I guess that would be too much Mary Sue in one package.

Also, is it my imagination, or was someone dressing Lightning in Utena clothes? Plus roses and rose petals.

I'm up to, uh, the Palamecia, Luck Be a Lady bit. Trying to figure out which combinations of characters are useful and failing miserably...I keep running around in the first spot where you're allowed to mix and match teams, and dying because I've screwed up. I did too much level-grinding with Lightning + Fang + Hope and learned every way to use them, and now it seems like trying any other party, I'm missing all my favorite tools.

LHAD is jammed like 20 keys of a typewriter smacked there by an exuberant 6-year-old. I'm half regretting posting the last chapter: I loved the first half of it, with the gang gathered on the bridge of the airship decompressing, and that was fresh, new, scene so easy to write. The second half was difficult because I'd written Lulu Post-Sin 4 years ago, almost the first thing I ever wrote, and I've had years and years to build up various alternate versions of that moment, each of which had some emotional punch, but trying to pick and choose and stitch together all of them, I feel like I lost something. I'm almost tempted to retcon and post the original version of that scene, if it would let me move forward. So frustrating. I fear it may be that way all the way to the end. I wrote early drafts of the concluding chapters first, and I find the part of a story i've written and visualized and imagined the longest is the hardest to write when I get to it, because I wind up trying to connect all the patchwork pieces, favorite moments and cool lines of dialog like a quilt, instead of blazing a path forward.

I didn't realize how deaf I was.

I just picked up a set of $30 headphones that have a bit more oomph to them, popped in a video from my "Adrenaline" playlist that I use to get myself prepped before writing a fight sequence, and...

EARS FLAT AGAINST SKULL.

My eyeballs are rolling around a bit, I think. Is this what the world sounds like to most of you?!!!

Good grief.

I now have to play all my games again with these headphones. I do have stereo speakers, but by the time the sound reaches my ears, it's a bit muddy. I have to use subtitles when watching most movies to understand the more softspoken lines.

And augh, it is hell. And I must make it work. I MUST.

I just rewrote an entire outline for all the parts that were jammed, and realized I had to throw out most of what I've written. Topic. Too broad. Too brilliant. Too all-expansive. Start over with something small and simple and obvious. FINISH, and humble thy pride. Even though it should be done by now, starting over may be the best option. Glugh.


But in brighter news, LHAD finally unstuck. I'd written a big chunk of the next chapter 3 months ago, but it was flaccid. So I set it aside.

Only now I have chapter 41 at 4,000 words, and it doesn't really have a great stopping place. and chapter 42 at 2300 words, and it's a PERFECT stopping place. Oh, there. Yes, rub that a little harder, angst cliffhanger CLIMAX. And chapter 43 started, and I know just where it's going, although I've said that before.

And oh yeah.

Best two quotes from today's (noticeable, but not damaging) earthquake:

(Paraphrasing some news article which sadly I forgot to save I'm too lazy to hunt up again):
"Petco park [San Diego's baseball stadium] swayed noticeably for several seconds. The public address announcer asked everyone to remain calm. The fans cheered."

and on Twitter,
"The worst part about a 5.7 earthquake? I'm afraid to go to bed without jammies on."

*says, sans jammies*

Video of the earthquake we had about 2 hours ago. This is slightly stronger than what rocked my house, but only slightly. I'm guessing it was filmed in San Diego.



Everything's fine -- Mexico took some damage, and there's local kerfluffle like Disneyland shutting down the rides to check them over, but California's fine. I'm just worried about the folks down in Baja. I have a hunch the building codes may not be as strict down there.

Best comment so far on Twitter:

"RT @wilw: Apparently the #earthquake was upgraded to a 7.2, but I'm still seeing a 6.9 from the Russian judge. (kids, ask your parents.)"

Also, the comments on this picture are illuminating:


(Thumbnail is link to full photo. This house is in Mexicali, Baja)

I found it via Twitter. Two of the four comments are news reporters (CNN, AP) asking for permission to use the picture.

In other words, for breaking news, one often gets photos/videos on Twitter first; and the news stations scramble to catch up.