h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi, just dropping in because I'm new here and I want to meet new people. How are you?

Bon apres-midi. (ha, betcha didn't expect that one, eh? ) Welcome to h2g2 from a non-ACE and just plain old member...

I'm pretty good at the moment. Life isn't quite as grand as it was last week, but that's really only because the temperature has dropped about twenty degrees in two days. I'm managing as well as one can with two friends practically at war with each other. (Ok, that's a little exaggerated). Anyway, I'm rambling...

Welcome again.

Thanks for the welcome, and bye, because I'm off to play Risk for 8 hours, (Me and my friends have a lot of time on our hands)

By the way, what do you mean about friends being at war? I'm just being nosy, so you don't have to elaborate,

Au Revoir, and Buenos Noches (Changing languages seamlessly there)

Yeesh, if I had that much time on my hands, I'd... do... some...thing...

Two of my friends basically had a big fight and are now not talking to each other. They were best friends, but now they kinda of almost hate each other. Now you know exactly as much as I do.

Anon, Ciao et au revoir... hehehehe.

Nasty - I hate it when friends have arguments. Two of my closest friends have been going out for a year and have just broken up, and I've been wanting to say to them for ages - "Just get over it - you're meant to be together!"

I won at Risk - quite quickly as it goes. We played from 10pm to 2am, so it was quite a short game...my strategic genius is unbeatable. (I'm also very humble )

I'm just about to go off to Whitstable (a little seaside town near my uni) because it's such a lovely day. How are you today? (Or tonight, or whenever you get this post)

Czen Dobre (Beat that!)

Actually, it's a beautiful, if chilly, afternoon here, and I'm feeling quite good. Except for that stupid health class assignment I need to do, but that's besides the point.

I see you're very humble (*voice dripping with friendly sarcasm*). Excuse me if I sound idiotic, but I've heard of Risk numerous times but never actually played it. Wouldja mind giving me a description?

*sigh* my friends... I told the girl that they ought to just lock themselves in a room for two days or so and just have it out, fight and fight and yell.. and, er, whatever else, and come out and be happy and glad to be alive. They broke up over petty things, and it truly annoys me because now I'm the middle man (er, middle woman, whatever). I don't want to take sides, but I know I will eventually.... *grumble*... It's truly frustrating.

Czen Dobre? Umm... translation, please. I only speak English (duh), French, very little Spanish, two or three words of Italian and Pennsylvania Dutch each, and a little Klingon. (yes, I am a Trekkie, I'm not gonna deny it). So, you win...

Qua'plah! (however, my Klingon spelling leaves a mite to be desired...)

Today it rained - that's because I live in Britain, but the rain was nice and misty and cool. As all good rain is.

Risk is a board game. Everyone tries to take over the world with thier armies, basically. It's quite sad, in a way (everyone becomes a power monger for a night) but really cool, because the games get really intense and thought provoking and sometimes last days, but no one ever argues about it. (And believe me, with some of my friends that is VERY unusual)

Czen Dobre is Polish and it means hello and goodbye, weirdly. I would love to hear your two or three words of Pennsylvania Dutch. I'm a language freak (as you may have guessed). I'm also a general all-round freak. (Or so most of my friends say) But I think that's a good thing - I don't like fitting in with a norm, unless the norm happens to be really cool...In which case I like fitting in with it. Did that make sense? *Think's about what's just been said* Nope, probably not. But we can't make sense all the time - that's be plain silly. What are your thoughts on this contraversial matter?

You may have guessed I'm in a strange mood tonight - I've just recovered from a migraine so I'm happy, hungry and hyper (and alliterative).

Star Trek is...okay *Trying hard not to be offensive and hoping that this is succesful* My mother always told me that if you can't say anything nice, then you shouldn't say anything...*Realising that probably was offensive - sorry*

The friend situation does sound frustrating *sympathy*. I'll put the kettle on *Starts brewing a cup of tea* Do Americans do that - drink tea when they're worried? It's a British tradition, and you'd be surprised how well it works - trust me, a good cup of tea always makes your problems seem less...well...worrying.

It's been yet another beautiful day here in the States... but a nice gentle rainshower would be quite nice. Even a thunderstorm. (I *love* thunderstorms!).

Risk sounds vaguely familiar, but I think there are probably many games that my bizarre, power-hungry and wold-domination-obsessed friends play that are similar. That don't mean it's bad... actually, I'd love to play it sometime if I ever get a chance.

I must confess that I've only taken about five years of French so far, and while I'd like to learn many languages, I have only so much time in my school schedule... otherwise I'd be taking Latin and German too. I think I mentioned I spoke about two or three words of Pa. Dutch... which is true, but I have no idea how they're spelled. I'll have to ask some of the Amish friends of mine who live up the road how to spell the words. (and no, contrary to popular belief, not everyone in the middle southern part of Lancaster is Amish, actually only a few people are).

Freaks are good. I'm a freak. Most of my best friends are freaks. Since I generally don't run with the norm anyway, freakdom is where I reside. But I like it and the people there are very nice. As far as the controversy... um, everyone's a freak in some way or another. Trying too hard to fit in is just a bit of denial of self, or not being comfortable with the way someone is naturally. But that's the psychologist me poking in where she doesn't belong...

Star Trek is good, okay, whatever. I've never been (and never will be) one of those people who absoloutely lives the show(s) and goes to every convention and wants to get their ears surgically altered so they look Vulcan (yes, I saw a documentary once about a guy who wanted to do that). I just like the shows, they're different and have a very optomistic look at the future of both humanity and the universe in general. (and it's a bit of a genetic thing.. my dad's a Trekkie, my mom is but won't admit it. I grew up with classic Trek and Star Wars on the TV all the time... I had no choice but to love it) But don't worry, I'm offended.

The whole situation with my friends is rather frustrating. But I talked to my mom about it for a while yesterday, getting out all my frustrations, and she told me what I'd been thinking all along. I'm just gonna have to stop being the middle person and tell them to just deal with it themselves. I can't do anything; it's their problem and they have to work it out. It's harsh, but it's truly the only thing I can do...

I've been known to drink tea at almost any time.. when I'm worried, or bored, or about to write (that's what I do for fun-write), or just about anything. I don't know where it came from for me, the rest of my family either despises tea or just drinks coffee (ah... caffeine!). So I guess most Americans don't drink tea... we do er... American stuff... like... *thinking* ...protecting countries that would be better off without our help or something.... I wouldn't know. Hmm.. tea, that sounds good... I have a sore throat, maybe that'll help.... *pushes post message button and goes off in search of some tea*...

Today was the most beautiful day this year - it was sunny and warm and everyone was outside enjoying it. There were people sitting on the grass all over uni and it was wonderful. I took my guitar outside and we had a good ol' fashioned sing song and after that we played cricket and football (soccer) and then went to CU (Christian Union) and hung around in a cafe drinking tea and coffee. It was the best day for a long time.
So I'm feeling happier than usual right now, even though I'm dog tired and there's no one around for me to talk to - except the lovely h2g2 people, of course *Flattery will get me nowhere, obviously*.
So, do you like living in Pennsylvania? (I'm assuming that you live there - stop me if I'm wrong) I've heard that Lancaster County is always crowded with tourists trying to see Amish people - maybe my sources are wrong.
Hey, I write for fun too - I wrote today in fact, for as long as I could stand being indoors. What sort of thing do you write, if that's not too personal or annoying a question?

Oh, and hey, I hope the throat is better - have a strepsil. (Do strepsils exist in the US?) They're throat sweets that don't actually work, and last time I had a sore throat I kind of overdosed on them and lost 2 hours of my life (I can't remember much of the whole evening - it was scary.)

It's a good idea to just let your friends get on with it. Although I'm probably the worst authority in the world on this subject...
Freakdom is the place to be. Even so, I'd rather be just me, without having to be labelled a freak. I mean, I'm not a bearded lady or anything. Although I am a little tired of being me - have you ever thought about that - you spend your whole life with yourself, you cant't escape from your own mind. I wonder if, by the time you're 80, you'll be really bored of just being you - same old personality, same old experiences. I'd quite like to be someone else for a day - just to find out what it's like. Not that I'd be anyone else for any permanent ammount of time. Apart from the fact that I think that being me is the best thing on the earth, what would people do with my vacant body?
*I'm drawing random smiley faces to destract you from the fact that I'm being boring*

Shoot, I realized I typed "Don't worry, I'm offended" in my last post... I meant to say "I'm NOT offended."... sorry if there was any confusion.

Anyhoo.

Today was also a goregous day here (did I say that already...? it takes too long for me to check), especially since it was cold and yucky-rainy all weekend. My friends were supposed to call me and tell me if we were doing anything today, but obviously, they didn't, so I can only hope they have a good reason for not calling me. *biting lip* ow. I did, however, finish this great book- "Bird By Bird" by Anne Lamott. It's about writing and life... it's absoloutely wonderful. I highly reccomend it.

Yes, I do live in Pennsylvania, and in Lancaster County. (but that's all the more you're getting, buddy. ) It's... er... okay, I guess. Not enough mountains for me. I was born in Virginia, so I'm a mountain kid born and bred. But, all over, it's pretty nice, especially if you know where to go-- ie, NOT the tourist traps. It's a lot nicer (and prettier) if you drive around on back roads for hours on end, and you can get away from the tourists that way (they're so funny!). Barring the fact that the whole area isn't quite isolated (no, I'm not a xenophobe, just I like getting away from it all as much as possible) enough for me, it's an all around nice place. But the roads are terrible.

I tried very hard to write today. Very very hard. I'm at a minor writer's block at the moment... just annoying enough to stop writing but not too much that I can't handle it. I honestly went through every single of my story files on my computer this afternoon trying to find something that I really wanted to work on. But tomorrow's another day.... I write just about everything, from essays to poetry to short stories to not-quite-finished novels. I'm also the asst. editor of the Echo (see my main page) and part of my school's literary/arts magazine, Soliloquy. It's fun stuff. And I might as well ask you the same question... what kind of things do you write?

I don't think we have strepsils... but there are a bunch of worthless candies here that claim to be throat drops, but don't work worth nothin'. *takes strepsil* ah. I'll be better for a little while, anyway. And that tea I had earlier helped a bit, too.

Freakdom is great. People who are they are, and that's the way it really should be. At least, I think so. But being someone else for a day.. that'd be rather interesting. Having to be totally subservient to another's personality... I dunno, I'm just sort of getting adjusted to mine. I think I'll stick to writing... that's the best way to get inside someone else's mind. (no, really, i had an argument with one of my characters the other day, if that doesn't sound too weird). Besides, I really can't see life without me in it... those poor people who don't know me- deprived... or is it lucky??

And no, you're not boring me. In fact, this is the kind of stuff I love talking about. Keep it up.

Well, I'll try to keep it up, but being interesting is a big effort for me

Well, what sort of stuff do I write? You may well ask, because I don't know myself. Or am I being too vague? Well, I used to try to write novels, but I realised that my attention span is far too short - I think that I'm a short story/poetry writer more than anything else. That's really what appeals to me in fiction - just a brief moment in time that changes a person's life, or that will create a whole new turn of events. What about you? What appeals to you most in a piece of fiction? Writer's block is a terrible thing. The best thing for me is to write complete gibberish and eventually something good comes out of it - as long as words are going onto the page then it helps. I keep all my gibberings in a file (imaginatively entitled "Gibberings") and it's really funny to read through them all. I did three poems out in the morning sun today - just jotted them down in a stream of consciousness sort of a way. I can't be bothered explaining what each one was about - ask me again sometime) They were mostly about nature, because of the day - nature was overwhelming - the sun, the bright green grass, birds and hares out on the fields.
I have to write a short story as uni work for the end of the week. I hate being forced to write - my heart really isn't in it.
You had an argument with one of your characters? What about? That's really quite strange, although I've never got to know any of mine - before I know it the story is over and I'm moving on to somebody else. I'd love to read some of your stuff - I'll post up some of mine if you post up some of yours. I always admire people who can write longer stuff like novels (even if they aren't quite finished) - me and a friend used to have our own writer's circle (consisting of me and him) and he used to churn out big long novelllas.
Mountains are great - Switzerland is one of my favourite places, but being British I guess I'm used to a more modest sort of countryside - you know the sort of thing - fields instead of plains, hills instead of mountains, woods instead of forests.
Getting away from people is difficult here, but that's a good thing sometimes. I've come to the conclusion recently that I think a great deal more than I should, and it just makes me go round in circles. So being with people all the time means I don't have to think too much. That's what I need right now. I've just come through a "crisis of faith" (I hate using cliches like that) so I'm still a little touchy about thinking about it.
I fancy a cup of tea, and some Chorley Cakes *Puts the kettle on and whips out the Chorley Cakes*
I dunno about the whole 'being another person' thing. Have you ever stopped when you're (say) telling someone about something that happened to you, and you've told the story before, and realised that you don't want to hear it? You're bored of telling the story, because you constantly have the momory on hand anyway. I always finish off what I'm saying, because I know that the person listening probably wants to hear the rest, but even so...

I just got an email from a friend who just bought an iguana. Strange - sorry, just thought you might be interested.

The thing that appeals most to me in a piece of fiction is probably the ability to get in depth into issues-- like if they get into something that's beyond the story. The book Contact by Carl Sagan does that, some of Michael Crichton's stuff, so do all of JD Salinger's books. There's the plot and the characters, but there's something else there that makes it interesting to read. Of course, I enjoy a good, mindless joy ride as much as the next person...

I write so much gibberish when I'm not in writer's block that I don't know that I'd be able to tell it apart from gibberish written when I was. -- this especially happened during some of my old, really really crappy poetry. I'm sort of getting around the block, I've actually spent the last two weeks getting to know my characters better, because as we both know, characters are what a book is truly about in the first place. My argument with my character- Ian- was about where "we" wanted the story to go next. I wanted to do something 'now' and he wanted to do it 'later'- he's a lazy bum sometimes. I won, of course, me being the one typing the story, but he's winning the next argument. I owe it to him, he's a nice little character. (wow, I sound insane...).

A bunch of my writing is posted on my actual homepage, the link to which is on my main h2g2 page. Feel free to drop in and give comments. I'd love to read some of your stuff, too. I'll have to post something on h2g2 just to whet some people's appitites... hmm... *ideas whirling*

Thinking too much... who'd a thunk it? Actually, I went through something like that last summer, when I had waaaaay too much time to myself and I just got to thinking about everything a bit too much, had a huge crisis of faith (which is healed, thankfully), and basically practically went insane. It's nice to realize that one can think too much. It gives one an excuse for thinking too little...

I don't think I've ever not wanted to hear a story about myself... but maybe that's because I only tell the ones I think are unusually funny or whatever. Other people, however, probably could care less if I told them about the "police night" more than once. I do, however, get very bored when some people tell me the same story more than once. (some people = my sister!). It gets rather repetitive, especially when they use the exact same wording, too....

Iguanas... stay away from the tails. I've heard that they can really leave quite a scar. Me, I'm more of a horse person, myself....

Tell me about the "police night". I'm off to bed because I'm so tired but I'll write an enthralling, edge-of-seat type message tomorrow,
Ciao

Actually, I've just realised that I left my key at a friend's place so I can't go to bed for another hour - argh. So I may aswell ramble on to you awhile

I've only ever read "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D.Salinger (who hasn't?) so I don't know what the rest of his stuff is like - is it good, bad or ugly? I guess I like Michael Crichton too...never read any Carl Sagan - what's his writing like?

I'll go check out your writing soon enough and then you may get a more interesting message off me. I'm really not in the frame of mind right now to do anything except sit here and type.............

Today was not fun in the slightest. I have a lot of work to do, which is a complete nightmare...probably why my writing juices have all dried up tonight.

Have I asked you the favourite author/favourite book question yet? *thinks* I don't think I have. So I'll as it now - Who is your favourite author and what is your favourite book?

I wish that I could have a good relationship with a character in one of my stories. I generally do such horrible stuff to them that I think they must hate me with a vengeance...They can't see that I'm making their lives better in the long term. I've just finished a story about a guy whose wife is going insane, and he decides one night to leave but gets about as far as the nearest shop before he feels guilty, remembers that he should help her through this, and goes back to her. That guy must hate my guts - making his wife mad like that. I couldn't help it - maybe there is some other author out there, writing about me writing about other stuff.

How was your day today? Sunny as usual? It was sunny here for about 3 seconds around lunch time before the clouds had to spoil things.

You ride horses? I've always wanted to do that - to be a cowboy. That's actually a blatant lie - I stopped wanting to be a cowboy when I was 8, but anyway...

I really do need to do something here - sitting at a desk is sending me to sleep. I'll go out in the freezing cold - that'll keep me awake awhile.

Speak to you soon

Well, to start off with, today was rainy and cold. Not good-- especially when one has a cold/sore throat like I happen to. I also sort of think I failed my Trig test today... darn clogged sinuses... stops everything from working properly. But, right now I'm downing some orange juice and looking at the (now) blue sky outside the window, so the day's getting better. I might go to a youth group thing for my church tonight... I dunno... rambling...

Anyway... JD Salinger... The Catcher In The Rye is probably the most "normal" of his four books that he's published. The other three are actually compilations of short stories about the same family, and they're much better than Catcher- or at least they are in my opinion. But some of them (ironically my favorite) have no plot whatsoever-- just random facts about characters in a very interesting way. Next-- Carl Sagan is (was, rather) an astronomer, and most of what he wrote were books about astronomy. Contact is, but is also a fiction book and in it there's a lot of stuff dealing with the tense relationship between science and religion. It's very intrieguing.

I'm not entirely sure what my *favorite* book is... I'm a big Anne McCaffrey fan (I like dragons ), and I love JD Salinger's stuff, and I like what I've read so far of Peter S. Beagle's things. They're a little bizarre in some places, and sometimes almost children's books, but they're extremely well written and the older one is the more one gets out of them.

The "argument" I had with Ian was a real turning point in my writing in the last couple of weeks. It kinda made me realize that the people I had created were real, and I had to listen to what they wanted to do. But, like what you were saying about your one character whose wife is going insane- that's actually real life. That happens, and yeah, people get mad at their Creator for that, but I truly believe in the long run they're better for it. Writing, I read somewhere, is supposed to represent real life dramatically. It works just the same as real life-- I mean, I killed off both of my main character's families, not because I'm evil (though my little sister might have you believe the opposite), but because that happens sometimes in the situation I placed them into. I like to think of it this way-- the writer has little control over what happens in their story-- they're just a typist. It's kinda fun like that.

Let's see.... *checking message...* ah, yes, the horses. I've ridden for about four years now, both western and English, but I had to stop because my parents couldn't afford it anymore. But I swear upon my life that at some point between now and forever I will own my own horse, and ride 24-7 if possible (well, that is, after the bills are payed, stalls mucked, animals fed, etc, etc, etc.....). This is yet another thing I blame my genetics on. My grandfather was a horseman, and it skips a generation, so I ended up with the horse-crazyness gene. (stop me if I'm boring you...)

Oh, yes, one other thing... the "police night", as my friends and I have dubbed it. *laughs* That was rather fun. See, a bunch of my friends and I tried to go out early last August to catch Blair Witch Project at the local theatre, and of course, they were sold out. So we drove across the city to another theatre, which didn't have anything starting until after curfew. Rather dejected, we headed over to a park and hung out there till about tenish at night. What we didn't realize was that this particular park closed at ten. So, here it is, four freaking minutes after ten, and there's cops all around us. We were also out after curfew, but luckily we only got parking tickets. Needless to say, the owners of the cars were rather annoyed. That's about it, but I don't think we'll be heading out to parks that late ever again. At least, I hope not...

Well, I'm outta stuff to say.. I shall talk to thee later...

I've only had 4 hours sleep because a couple of us went to the beach last night. We hung around at some old Roman ruins by the sea and imagined that it was a starry night We had to do that because there was complete cloud cover...but at least we were trying

I'm not on top form this morning, all the essay writing yesterday drained me. I have to write a science fiction story for one of my modules - I hate having to write stuff to deadlines, and although I like reading SF I can't stand writing it - it's not in my genes (I'll see if that excuse works on my seminar leader )

I've never read any Anne McCaffrey stuff - although I've always meant to. I've just never got round to it. I've never even heard of Peter S.Beagle...

My personal favourite author is Raymond Carver (Order your copies of everything he's ever written immediately!) Although there are so many others. You ever heard of Peter F. Hamilton? He writes incredibly complicated, brilliantly plotted, 3500 page epic things ("The Night's Dawn" Trilogy is the best) and I'm really jealous because, boy, does this man know how to plot a novel.

Horses would never bore me - although I don't like them as much as Possums, or Wild Boars. Horses don't seem to agree with me. I guess I don't have this genetic thingey you've been talking about.

Let's see...*checking entry*...

Trig test? Trig is maths, maths is bad, life's too short for it unless you're good at it. I'm only bothered about adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying. I mean, unless you want to be and Engineer or an Accountant, what's the point in learning anything else?

Killing off both your character's families...harsh. I've never done anything THAT bad. I'm not sure I like the idea of not controlling what happens in my stories. I mean, I guess it might be different in a novel, but in a short story the plot has to be planned out really tightly - there's no room for maneauver. (That was spelt wrong, but I'm an English student - I have license to spell badly).

I think that I might actually go and have a look at your stuff on your thing (I'm feeling very eloquent today - I mean the writing on your webpage) because I'm interested now.

Yasu

Roman ruins on the beach in the middle of the night...? *turning green* Sometimes, I swear, I wished I lived in Europe...

I don't think the excuse about sci-fi writing not being in your genes will work.. , but honestly, sci-fi is really not that hard. Just think of the most unlikely thing to happen, add in a few aliens and extraterrestrial technology, and bango! Instant sci-fi. (This is why so much of the genre, particularly some of the newer things in tv, are so crappy). I actually sort of like writing to deadlines like that, it makes me work on my stuff. Most of the time I just write whenever the spirit moves me- and I have beginnings of all sorts of stuff but practically nothing finished. Unfortunately, most of my teachers never give me enough free rein to do anything interesting.

Peter S. Beagle is probably most famous for his little book "The Last Unicorn," and that's how I know his stuff. That book was made into a movie when I was something like four or five (and consequently unicorn crazy), and I've watched it ever since. That's a long time considering I'm almost eighteen... I watch it now (or read it, now that I finally found the book) and there's so much more I pick up on, little allusions and such that a five year old- even me!- would never see. It's soooo cool.

I've actually never heard of Raymond Carter or Peter F. Hamilton. I'm assuming that they write fantasy/sci-fi (really now, how many mainstream novels have you heard of called "the Night's Dawn"?), but I really have never seen their names before. I'll have to check to see if the city library has any next time I go.

Ahh, good, someone who shares my philosophy about math. Problem is, they tell me I'm talented in that area (I've been trying to downplay it for years, and I've given up. I'm intelligent, everyone tells me that, and I've simply stopped denying it), but right now I think that's my lowest grade in all my classes this year. Well, maybe Chemistry is. I don't really enjoy that class either, but that's because the teacher doesn't actually *teach* us anything. He just gives up notes to copy from the overhead and expects us to get the rest from the book (haha, like we're actually gonna do that... ). At least in Trig I actually understand the material... I just get all messed up on tests. Alright, I'll stop complaining about that....

I don't think *I* actually killed the two character's parents off... I consider that done by my antagonists. But, it actually works better for the plot of the story (what I can see of the plot, rather) overall. If they hadn't been murdered, my two characters would just have gone their separate ways and that would have been the end of that rather anti-climatical story.

Tight short stories... hmmm... maybe that's why I have such problems writing them. Not that my stories are loose by any definition of the word, but they're a little more spaced out. Or something. I actually do attempt short stories quite often, but often I have either too much material I hope happens to my characters or simply not enough to get it going. It's rather frustrating. Yes, I do have three short stories on my page, but they were school assignments at some point or another, and I was more careful of how long the story went on, because, most of the time, I only have a day or two to write them. But I'm working on all of it... it's just getting the time to do so that's the problem.

Well, I'm gonna go for now. Lemme know what you think of the stuff on my thing (er, that is, the writing on my page)... (I LOVE general specific).

Ciao

Europe is a great place - I wouldn't live anywhere else...maybe Japan.

My SF story is going nowhere. It's already late. Today I'm staying up until 4am to get it done - I'm blitzing the thing.

Yeah, Peter F. Hamilton writes hard sci-fi/horror stuff. The Night's Dawn trilogy is really interesting because of the way it introduces a strong religious aspect to a "high technology" scenario.

Raymond Carver writes only short stories and poetry - but he's about as far from SF as you can get His writing is great - it's bared down to the bare essentials. There's virtually no description to speak of, and sometimes it seems like you're reading a play, but his stories are about ordinary people, leading ordinary lives, and yet he makes them so interesting. He was a great author.

I'm going now because I REALLY need to get this work done. This has been quite a lazy posting...sorry...I'll speak again later tonight

Hey there,

I've finally finished with that story...it is done. I'm kind of pleased with it, in a half-hearted sort of a way. I don't know about you, but are you ever happy with anything you write? I always think, no, it's awful, no one will ever want to read that. But I'm glad it's over.

I got reminded today of how much I love History, while we were on the subject of Maths and such like. I was writing an essay in the library, listening to great music, and I just couldn't help being happy, despite the fact that I was inside and it was so sunny out. I don't know what it is, but History just really is the best thing in the world. I love finding out about people in the past, how they lived, what they thought, what they did.

I went to your homepage tonight - but I only had time to start reading all your quotes...there was a lot of stuff there...but all of it was good. Especially C.S.Lewis. He's one of my favourite people in the world. A really sound guy.

I think short stories are better for me than longer things precisely because of the way I write. I was thinking about that today, when I realised that I hardly use any description when I write, and when I do I never use any symbolic language. I think it's because I'm not as eloquent as other people - subconsiously I hide it by using a stripped away, bare sort of style.

I'm going to log off in a minute. I'm knackered...and it's only 11:20. I think all this working has turned me into a sad old man...I was nodding off at the computer today at about 3pm, just like my dad would do...that's a scary thought Get to 18 and you turn into your dad...(or mum).

Speak to you soon.

Salut... sorry I didn't get a chance to write yesterday, I was a bit wiped. I'm exhausted from this whole school thing. Well, I'm wiped today too, but at least I have time. So. Onward!

I don't think I'm ever happy with anything when I'm done writing it-- in the sense that I have an annoying habit of wanting to tweak until I end up rewriting it. But happy that I think I'm done, yes. And happy that *that* particular struggle is over, yes. People have such misconceptions of writers.

History.. hmm. I think I've been soured to history in the way only American schools can do it... too much Civil War and Revoloutionary War. I do like finding out interesting things about other cultures-- ones a bit older than 500 years at least. Like, I read all of Marion Zimmer Bradley's "The Mists Of Avalon" (@800 pages) in a week and just decided I needed to learn about the whole Arthurian legend (which is part of my background, my last name is celtic). And I also want to learn a bit more about Rome and Greece in their glory days... I hate this egocentric history we've been doing for the last 13 years. So I'm taking "Western Lit. And Thought" next year... early european history/thoughts/ideas and such to the present. fun fun fun.

C.S. Lewis... love the guy's writing. I went out and bought the Screwtape Letters the other night... (I get most of the quotes from him off a page with a daily Lewis quote)... I have to start it as soon as possible.

I don't know why I tend to write novel length stuff. I think my one friend summed it up best in one of the emails she wrote me (though it was about nothing even vaguely related to this): "I just say too much." Luckily with me, it's all good.

See? Now you've frightened me of being 18... I turn 18 in July... the last person I want to turn into is my mother....

Bleck. It rained all day today, ucky, depressing rain. No thunder to get out the frustrations, even. *sigh* I must stop getting depressed so easily. It's not good for me.

Sleep now, talk later... (I must go to bed)