For those of you who are not aware, I have a metric flipton of old Pokemon cards. Right now, I'm taking commissions for and making wallets out of them - six cards per wallet.

( They look like this! )

( Information! )

The list of available cards is here.

NOTE: I will also create wallets with Yu-Gi-Oh, Doctor Who, and Magic cards. Lists for all three of these are pending.

Comment with which cards you want and I shall make you a wallet!

Eventually I'll actually post a sizable update here. I'll put up the snippets of fic I've been writing; I'll talk about the tiny family reunion and the past few cons I've been to and the movies I've seen recently; I might even give my thoughts on A Dance With Dragons, seeing as I've finally finished it.

Today - or at least the thirty minutes left of it - is not that day.

I finally bit the bullet and got a new laptop and then returned it and got another new laptop because the first one wasn't working right, and now that I have Word on it, I want to get started writing again. So!

Give me a fandom/character(s) and a genre (comedy, drama, fluff, etc) and I will write a one-sentence drabble...or possibly something longer, if the mood strikes me.

You've heard of Secret Santas? These are Secret Valentines, because receiving packages is all sorts of fun and I figured everyone could use flowers or chocolate or coffee or tea or something nice along those lines.

So! If you'd like to participate, comment here - comments are screened - leave your name, mailing address, and what you like (a certain type of tea or coffee or chocolate, for example - give me some idea) and on Monday or Tuesday I will tell everyone who their secret Valentine is and you can send them what they'd like.

Basically, gift giving in February! Because we can!

Those of you seeing this post on LJ, I have no idea if comments will be screened, so if you want to participate, trundle on over to DW and comment there with an open ID.

We're officially two days into the new year, and I'm finally getting around to updating. It's been a while, huh. There's been a good reason for that - I've been ill for almost the entire month of December, and it's still going on. All the ugly details are on my plurk, but it's basically been my stomach disagreeing with me on a good number of counts. It's kind of amazing how many episodes of Phineas and Ferb you can get through when you're taking it easy on the couch for days on end. As it is, there are good days and bad days, so here's hoping things are on the up-and-up.

I know this is the time when we're supposed to look back at the past year and Reflect On Things, but I've never been the biggest fan of that, partially because my memory is ridiculously short and terrible and partially because I have a habit of basking in the good things as they happen but remembering the negative things well afterwards. There's been a pretty negative spin on my December for multiple reasons, and I don't want to go back and reminisce about the year through that lens, because while 2011 wasn't the nicest year, it didn't unequivocally suck either, and I'd rather not remember the entire year as though it did.

There was an image on plurk asking if we wanted to see the new year as a baby - easily influenced, helpless, and bossed around - or as a young warrior, eager to go forth, kick ass, and have awesome adventures. 2012 is a warrior year, guys. Let's make it one.

I actually did make resolutions for this year, though! They are as follows:

1. Finish my NaNo story, even if that doesn't happen until NaNo this year;
2. Go to at least one out of state convention (so not in CA);
3. Be more fiscally responsible (I don't have issues or anything, but I could stand to keep track of things a bit better).

So, iki_teru, synchroshatter, I plan on running spell check and trying (and likely failing...) to do a once-over of my NaNo story soon. Are you still up for beta duties?

And finally, given recent happenings that have happened at LiveJournal, I am now officially posting from Dreamwidth. I'll still cross-post entries to my LJ and I will still check my LJ flist, but I've officially made the jump. Friend me over here if you'd like. :Db (Though I do need a new mood theme for DW - anybody have any good ones?)

A WINNER IS ME~

Mind you, this is after the validator added ~800 words to my count, but I still have 50k+ legitimate words to win that title. Winning.

So. Uh. Once I run spell check and try to catch any glaring continuity errors, who wants to beta? 8D

And this is only the first half of the story aaaaaaaa

NaNo, day 13: 30,122 words total, 3,835 of which were written today.

I have realized several things over the course of writing this fic:

- 3/5 of the way through and I'm not even a quarter of the way through my outline. This thing is going to be long, because it requires a lot of setup for a solid payout and that setup is complicated and taking forever.

- I've managed to go this entire time without referring to the princess by name. I'm waiting for people to start making all sorts of nonsensical guesses once I start posting this. (This has happened because the fic is in 3rd person limited from Terra's POV and he thinks of her as "the princess" or "Your Majesty." Every once in a while, I do something that actually makes sense in context.)

- My fellow WriMos are a special kind of crazy and I absolutely love them all. Also, evidently it only takes six people to eat the entire eight-scoop sundae at the soda fountain.

- Throwaway lines lead to outline jumping. 8D;;; Turns out that the consequences of one character who is terrible at lying trying to lie to a character who has been lied to for a long time, hates being lied to, and can tell when the first character is lying can really mess up your story. I wrote a whole lot of unplanned anger and angst tonight, and I have no idea how I'm going to get back on outline. I will need to rearrange.

Eventually, writeups on other stuff going on in my life - like the Muppets premiere, or general social stuff - will happen. For now, I'm going to bed.

Day 5 of NaNo: 11,336 words, which is only 330 words away from Monday's goal, and I'm pretty sure I would have eclipsed that by now if I'd done more than two word wars tonight. Still, I'm going to a write-in tomorrow in addition to doing my usual nightly session, so hopefully I can get a good chunk more done.

The best part is, I am really enjoying this - a lot more than I would be if I'd been doing it alone. The AIM chat, and actually doing this with people, is a fantastic motivator and just so much fun. I love you guys - you know that. ♥ As always, the chat name is oshinano and you're all welcome to join and chat and word war with people!

In other news, I'm no longer allowed to watch Air Force games, because recently, every time I watch a game, they do poorly, and every time I leave and check the score later, they win. Case in point: today's game against Army. I watched the first half, and we were down 14-0 (though the touchback at the end of the second quarter helped); I walked away at halftime, and we wound up winning 24-14. I don't get to watch anymore. XD

Also, evidently my roomies and I are now honorary KSU fans. Kristin was going to a show tonight, so we went to a sports bar nearby to have dinner. Turned out it was College Football Night and the place was absolutely packed - they were saying at least an hour's wait for a table. We headed upstairs, found a table that was being cleared off, and asked if we could sit there. The waitress asked if we were with Kansas State, then let us sit at the table anyway because Megan's coat was purple and that was good enough. (Purple's a KSU color.) We sat, we had great food, we pretended to be excited about the game, we socialized with other fans (or at least I did and completely bullshitted my way through the whole thing)...and then Phil, the party organizer, came up.

"Hi! I haven't seen you guys at our watching party before. Are you all KSU fans?"

For those of you who don't speak College Sports Football Fan, allow me to translate: "Prove your loyalty or get out of our booth."

I don't remember the last time we all BSed so hard, but eventually we placated Phil and he sat back down. We left the bar not long after that - it was time for Kristin's show, and none of us wanted to stick around when the KSU fans were all scoping out our table. I'm not sure we can ever go back, but we did have a really good time.

Favorite lines of the night:


She stopped, suddenly meeting his eyes, her gaze determined and questioning. “Tell me, do you think I’d make a good queen?”

That stopped Terra dead. There was a very clear right answer here, but something told him the princess didn’t want that answer – not if he didn’t mean it, at least – and he honestly wasn’t sure he did. It left him caught between a rock and a very hard place. “Uh,” he tried, eloquent as ever.

“Be honest with me,” she added, seeing his dilemma. “You won’t get in trouble for it, I promise.”

He sighed. There was still that pressure to say the right thing – he had a feeling that wouldn’t go away, no matter how much she reassured him – but it had lessened somewhat, and he was pretty sure she’d be able to tell if he wasn’t being completely honest with her. He’d been told in no uncertain terms that he Could Not Lie, and he wasn’t about to test the theory now. “I don’t know,” he finally admitted. “I don’t think I know you well enough to know what kind of ruler you’d be.”

She looked away, frowning sadly, and for an instant he was afraid he’d said the wrong thing, honesty be damned. “I was afraid you’d say something like that,” she said quietly, and he could hear the disheartenment in her voice. “I’m not sure anyone knows me very well anymore, and I’m not sure I know anyone either. I just-” she shook her head, that oft-worn frustration returning. “I get the feeling that everyone’s lying to me, and I don’t know how to get them to tell me the truth.”

(Yeah, it's a long section, but I'm finally getting into something resembling character development and I am just pleased as punch about that. Here's hoping it actually works out.)

NaNo, Day 3.

6699 words.

I'm past tomorrow's goal, I've worked past the gaps in my outline (I think), and my word count is an orgy.

I'm tired, but it's been a good day. |Db

Turns out that AIM chat I'm running works really well for word wars, and that's where most of my count the past two days has come from. Anyone who's NaNo-ing or paper-ing or spectating is welcome to join - the name's oshinano, and I tend to run it sometime after 8:30ish at night on weekdays. Weekends, well, who knows.

So how's NaNo and/or life in general treating everyone?

Favorite line(s) of the night:

“The Councilmen…are in charge of affairs in the kingdom, right?” Without waiting for an answer, Ven continued on. “Braig is foreign policy, Even is economy and trade, and Arlene is…something. I can never remember what she does, aside from make life miserable.”

Alternatively:

For everyone who had to put up with him – with any of them – life was a series of very creative dodges and ducks and rolls and excuses not to go up that flight of stairs or into that room because you were pretty sure you’d seen one of them in there five minutes ago and you had things to do that didn’t involve getting sidetracked by them. At all. Ever.

(Second person perspective and "really" are my crutches and I have got to stop using them. Once NaNo is over. Yes.)

Five days in Colorado was exactly the vacation I needed. I just need to remember next time that I need to drink a lot more - because dehydration headaches suck - and I can't drink pretty much anything - which sucks when Mom's buying and asking if I want a margarita because they're really great here and here, try hers and see if I like it. Honestly, I know my mom is happy to have me around whenever I come home, and I think she likes having someone who'll go out for fruity drinks and conversation. She likes having mother-daughter time.

In all honesty, it was really nice to have someone else make the decisions and the schedule and just follow along - a break from being a responsible adult, as it were. I put a ton of pressure on myself with to-do lists and self-imposed deadlines and all of that, and it was nice to get to just put all that on hold for an extended weekend and hang out with my parents. My younger brother is at college, my older brother came by for an afternoon, and I didn't get to see my sister-in-law or niece, but there's a flipton of drama surrounding that that I'd rather not get into right now. |D Either which way, I did love seeing my family. The football game was fun to go to even if it ended horribly (which is what happens when all of your starting defensive line is sidelined with injuries - the BSU game at the end of this week is going to be painful), shopping with mom was actually a lot more fun than most of my recent shopping trips have been, Sequence is a fun game if a bit slow with only two players, the new house is beautiful, and...yeah. Hell yes Colorado. :Db I do regret getting the donut burger, though. Remind me to post pictures of that.

The only thing I'm worried about is Finn. Since my parents moved into the new house, he's gone pretty much crazy: he's ripped up his kennel when they put him in it when they leave (whereas Mac just curls up in his and naps until they get home), he whines like mad, he's losing weight - he's skinny even for a greyhound, which is worrying - and he just generally Does Not Look Good. Mom's bringing him in to the vet's and, if that doesn't work, possibly a dog whisperer, because he never used to do any of this stuff, and if we give him up or, God forbid, put him down - which is a very sad option if he continues on being this destructively miserable and we can't find the reason and calm him down - then Mac will go ballistic without him around. The dog situation at home is not good, but I'm really hoping it'll turn out for the better.

A little closer to the west coast, my bosses are out of the office all week (Hawaiian vacation, lucky them), so I'm on my own and keeping busy with whatever project updates come up. This Friday, I head to Disneyland for the Halloween party with amorsinseramada, lynxgriffin, and universejuice, and sticking around on Saturday as well. Costumes aren't quite finished yet, but those are priorities for the next few nights. It's just a bit of cutting and hemming (and praying shoes come in on time), so it shouldn't be too bad. I hope.

On the fandom works front, secondcityrpg is almost over and Rarity has been accepted at itsjustagamerpg - I just need to join the comms and get going. Tron fic is on hold until I get to rewatch Legacy - maybe sometime next week - and while I haven't done much for my NaNo outline, I have been kicking around ideas for it, so hopefully that'll start coming together soon. Again, next week's priority.

Who all's doing NaNo this year, by the way? I'd love to know - something tells me I'll need people to lean on come November. |D