Nanowrimo

Lauren here. Back with a vengeance. This month, my main focus is on nanowrimo. It stands for national novel writing month. I've been meaning to do this for the past few years. It's where you can write just to write. Just to get the juices flowing enough so when November is over, you have time to edit and proofread. The toughest thing for most people is just to sit down and write without having to worry about adjusting anything. Nanowrimo focuses in quantity-50,000 words.

Sounds tough? Yeah, it is. And for me, someone who is more of a script writer who spent most of their youth writing fanfiction, this is a good exercise for me. Mainly to see if I can describe without giving too much away. Hence why I love scripts. You focus on dialog and characters and the setting is behind them making its own point without needing to be described.

I'm currently on 276 words after Thursday. I signed up then. If you are interested in signing up, Google Nanowrimo bc I can't remember the site off hand. I believe its Nanowrimo.org.

Good luck to everyone!

Love and Rockets
Lauren of the Linecutters
Listen every Wednesday at 7 on non-production.com

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Fan Fiction

I don't know who has ever wrote or read fan fiction, but I imagine everyone has done it at least once.  If you say you haven't, then you are lying.  You may not be familiar enough to talk the slang--slash, mary sues, UC, shippers, POV...so many terms enveloped my life pre-college...ok, I have written one or two in college, but it's good practice to take someone elses world and bend it to your will.

I mention fan fiction because I started the long and dangerous process of cleaning my room.  Over the years, I have accumulated and stored fan fiction in folders.  Not in any kind of order, but most of the stories are together.  I happened to find my very first fan fiction.

I remember when I wrote it.  If was the day the Charmed episode where Prue was a hit woman aired.  The one with Antonio Sabato Jr. (So pretty)  I didn't do something and was grounded.  My punishment--I had to miss my shows that night.  I did get to tape them, but I was so crazy about TV then that missing a show threw me off and I had to wait until tomorrow to see it and couldn't talk about it with my friends the next day.  Any way, I created a character and decided to write a script about how once a millenium, there has to be another Melinda Warren to start the Charmed ones line over again.  For those who haven't watched Charmed, Melinda is their ancestor who possessed all the powers and over the years, future generations inherited these powers.  Well, I thought, "It could happen again, right?  Yeah...sure." 

So, I created a character--some readers frowned on that, but 13 year old me thought that this script was gold and she wanted to send it to California.  It has never been published on fanfiction.net, my go-to site.  Thankfully, this script has only been read by me. I say thankfully because it is just awful.  Thirteen year old me was the princess of deas ex machina.  I told everything and didn't wait for the plot to unfold.  I was an impacient little so and so. 

It also seemed that I had a warped sense of relationships--very Romeo and Juliet-esque.  The whole script (with only part one finished--part two was never and will never be finished) was about ten pages.  By page 2, the newly created character is introduced.  Page 4-her love interest is introduced.  Page 6ish-they become boyfriend/girlfriend. Page 8--they have sex.  If that's not a warped sense of relationships, I don't know what is. 

I'm glad I grew as a writer since then.  My stories and scripts are now cohesive.  I need to work on my stories not devolving into fan fiction, but thats easier said then done.  When you grow up writing nothing, but fan fiction--even a musical combining X-Men and Rocky Horror (Oh yes--I did it and it's awesome), its hard to stop.

If you do ever challege me to fan fic--I will write it

Love and Rockets
Lauren of the Linecutters (listen on wednesdays @ 7pm on non-productive.com)

Reliving Youth through TV: Boy Meets World

I've been a little busy lately so I apologize for not writing sooner.  I haven't really been playing many games.  Chrono Trigger has been put on hold.  I have been table top RPGing, but that's about it.

The other day I found Boy Meets World on the oh so wonderful youtube.  I've been watching episodes for the past few days.  It still holds up.  It's still cute and funny and heartfelt.  I watched some of the old ones and some of the new.  The show grew up as the audience and characters did.  It did have some pop culture references, but not too many.  Not enough for it to be dated. 

Corey and Topanga--the only coupling that lasted throughout the show.  She was this weird little girl and he was this dorky, meek brilo haired boy and they found love in each other.  Adorable, puppy love.

Those three seats will always be taken.  Topanga in the front--Corey in the middle--and Shawn bringing up the rear. 

Halo Unleashed

Personally, I do not know that much about Halo.  I've only played it once--mainly because my first time playing it was on the original XBox with the giant controller.  My hands were way too small so I never really gave it another chance.  With the recent release of the game, I saw the magic and joy light up in my friends' eyes. 

Al, one of the Linecutters, brought his recently brought Halo:Unleashed to the show last Wednesday.  It came in a really cool box and came with a journal, figurines, and a bunch of other neat extras.  They all lit up like it was Christmas.  I think I need to give the game another shot.  Especially since now the controllers are smaller and I can actually hold them.  I won't need hold the controller sideways.

Halo is added to my "To Play" list.

Love and Rockets
Lauren of the LineCutters (Listen to us on Wednesdays @ 7pm on non-productive.com...bitches)

Chrono Trigger

Tuesday, I started playing, what I was told, was one of the best RPGs.  It was the unofficial Final Fantasy V.  Yep, Squaresoft (now Square Enix...or is it vice versa?) made this game back in the days of Super Nintendo.  It was re-released with a Final Fantasy collection for the Playstation (That's what we called the PS1 back in the day--ya hear me you youngin's).  From what I heard, it's a lot of fun.  The problem with the PS1 version was that it had a lot of lag. 

Recently, within the past year or so, Chrono Trigger was re-released on the Nintendo Gamboy DS.  Great idea.  Lag time--gone!  Hooray for cartridges--especially cartridges that are the size of an SD card and that you never need to blow into them. 

From what I was told, there are so many ways that this game can go.  Every little action, every decision, can change parts of your story.  I'm intrigued yet it's still sometimes difficult to understand the concept of a non-linear video game.   

I am excited to see what happens.  I know very little of the game and most of my friends are surprised when I tell them I only heard of Chrono Trigger within the past couple of years since the game came out in the early 90s.  So like Final Fantasy VII was new for me (that's a story for another day), Chrono Trigger is going to be very new. 

Until tomorrow
Love and Rockets
Lauren
Of the Linecutters (Wednesdays @7pm only on non-productive.com)

True Blood--Season 3 Finale

I talked a bit about gaming--now here is some geek for the guide gumbo.  I am a truebie.  It's an awesome show.  I've read the books and I can't stop watching the show.  This past Sunday was the finale.  I know that finales are supposed to tie up some loose ends and open up some new conflicts.  This is the same with every show.  It seemed that every character had something going on with them.

First off, season 3 is the lovechild of book 3 and book 6 gutted, sprinkled with a few details of book 4 and given new organs by Alan Ball.  Next year I am not re-reading the book that I assume will be the basis of that season.  As a whole, the season was good.  Not as good as the other seasons, but that might be because I was mostly prepared for this one. 

There were many details changed.  Jessica was created and I was hoping the whole season that she and Hoyt would get back together.  Sam meets his real family.  Franklin and Tara are not at Club Dead aka Josephine's to meet up with Sookie, but then again, Josephine's became Lou Pine's.  There were no vamps there other than Russell.

In the finale, they tied up their created story line about Russell killing Eric's family.  Jessica and Hoyt got their own place and he wants to marry her.  Meanwhile, his mom, Maxine, is seen buying a rifle.  Sookie finds out about Bill being sent by Sophie-Ann to find out about her faerie-ness.  She rescends Bill's invitation with gusto.  At the very end, she leaves with Claudine.  Why?  I don't know.  Maybe she was sick of all the shit that was going on.  Understandable when your boyfriend betrays you and decides to kill everyone that had your blood since Faerie blood is vampire crack.  I was really pissed that he pushed Eric into the cement.  I'm glad it wasn't the same cement block as Russell, but that asshole is finally gone.  He was a good antagonist.  I can't stay that he wasn't.  He filled his evil quota.  That's how you knew he was going to die.  And when Sookie threw the remains of Talbot into the garbage desposal, I had to laugh. 

They completely messed with the Jason/Crystal storyline.  Granted, I hate Crystal, but where they left Jason wasn't even close to what happened in the book.  And Calvin should not have been a drug-making asshole.

It was nice to see Allan Hyde come back as Godric, being the voice of reason and representing the small amount of consicence that Eric still has.  He didn't kill Russell out of vengence like he orginally wanted to do.  But he also didn't forgive like Godric wanted him to.  Eric threw Russell in a pit and filled it in with cement.  Is being driven insane by loneliness and hunger worse that being killed?  Probably.  Maybe in a viking's mind it is true torture to not die in battle.  Perhaps that was his rationale. 

I'll watch the episode again soon and fill in any random detail I might have forgotten.

Love and Rockets
Lauren
of the Linecutters

Try something shiny and new!

I am currently playing three table top RPGs, 2-3 video game RPGs, and I've been meaning to return to a LARP for the past year and a half.  For those that don't know, and don't worry if you don't, RPG stands for Role-Playing Game and LARP stands for Live Action Role Playing.  LARPing is pretty much improving one part for a couple of days. 

The two I'm going to touch upon are games that you haven't heard of--The Dresden Files RPG and JACKS:

The Dreseden Files RPG is based on the book series of the same name.  If you like mysteries, I would check it out.  Very enjoyable.  (Shameless plug)  My group and I are in the midst of solving a mystery.  I really like the fact that this game is set in modern day New York.  I like knowing where I am.  There's a comfort in that since I have a terrible sense of direction.  I play a NYPD detective that found out during our first game and introduction into the magic world that we didn't know existed that she is a shifter--primarily a tiger.  It really doesn't make too much sense why I picked tiger in game, but, out of game, I was feeling tiger. 

I am also involved in a game called JACKS that was created by a friend and my radio station manager.  Picture steam punk/firefly.  There are space ships and interplanetary travel, but we still use guns.  There is some magic--mainly from those that are "infused".  They can manipulate different things around them: life, energy, space, time, technology...I think that's them all.  The book should be out soon about how to play.  Maybe you might want to try to run a game for you and your friends.

Tonight I'm playing Dresden.  I'll talk about our latest adventure tomorrow.

Love and Rockets (If you recognize where this is from, don't make fun of me)
Lauren
of the Linecutters (only on non-productive.com--Wednesdays @7pm)

Welcome

And now, I shall tell you all the purpose of this blog. 

I have been gaming for most of my life, but I did not know I was gaming.  I associated myself with theater, but thought nothing of the time and effort I put into beating Crash Bandicoot, playing Yoshi's Cookie, Mario, DuckHunt--I didn't understand gaming until I went to college.  I was introduced to RPG's, MMOs, DnD and games I didn't even know existed.  I'm still learning and I want to tell of my efforts.  I want to teach others.

So prepare to learn bitches.
More later bc I'm currently at work.