I can't believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone. Those four days just flew by. I guess it's true what someone once told me that time goes faster the older you get. Still, it was nice to have a few days to myself, mostly.
Thursday, I spent Thanksgiving with friends. There were 13 of us. We pigged out on good thanksgiving food, then topped the night off by hopping a few bars. I even managed to get home at a decent hour, which was nice because I'm STILL organizing my computer since getting an external hard drive. Now granted, I'm not working on it non-stop, which could be why I'm still working on it. :-P
On Friday, I stayed in for most of the day only venturing forth when I thought it was likely that the holiday shoppers had gotten their fill and left. No such luck, I tried to get into Old Navy only to learn that it had a LINE to get in. A Line! No thank you. So, I went to Westfield Mall instead. UGH! People! But, I ran into Borders, threw together a pile of new books, purchased them and ran out. Off to Castro for some comics, food (which was hard to find, actually), Radio Shack (was looking for some bargains, HA!, wound up getting a wireless mouse). Then it was off to Desmond's to work on my comic. It took about two hours for us to figure out what font worked best as well as where the speech bubbles should go on the page, and Desmond is my hero for figuring out what my internal front cover, internal back cover and back cover should look like. You rock, Desi! Now I just have to come up with three pages.
Saturday was a huge HUGE day of frustration for me. Started off with learning that my computer does not like the new Sims 3 game. At first the game wouldn't install properly. Then it would play for about 20 minutes before kicking me out. That progressed down to only about 5 minutes of game time. It's probably fixable if I get more memory because I think it's lack of memory that's the problem. The game specs called for 1.5 gigs of ram. I only have 1 gig. The problem is that I'm probably going to have to pay nearly 40 bucks to have someone take my laptop apart and stick my new memory in, and that's not including the $70 or so for the memory itself. I should probably get brave and try to figure out if I can install the memory myself. But, then again, I want my computer to keep working after this, so maybe I should just cough up the $40 to insure that it gets done properly. I'll swing by Staples tonight to get an estimate on how much it'll cost. To cap the night off, I waited for someone to get back to me about something for hours and was too late to go out with a friend. I didn't feel like going out anyway. I opted to order pizza since I was feeling lazy, but that's something I'll probably not do for awhile, especially not order from Irving Pizza. It took forever to get the pizza because the driver delivered it to someone else, then the pizza was just crap.
Sunday was better because I met my friend to go to "Sing-A-Long Sound of Music". That was fun and a nice way to cap off the four-day. Now, I'm back at work and trying not to wish I was back at home again.
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tyger_raven- November 30th, 13:12
- Tweets from Tyger Raven
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- tyger_raven
- November 10th, 13:02
- 11:43 Finished reading "Skin Deep" by Mark Del Franco. OMG! So good! #
- Tweets from Tyger Raven
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- tyger_raven
- October 23rd, 13:03
- 12:56 Now Playing on iPod: Heaven on Earth by Britney. #
- Tweets from Tyger Raven
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- tyger_raven
- October 17th, 13:01
- 14:15 Had a good salad for lunch. New number is 860 of 1500 #
- 17:40 And done for the day. 960 leaves me with 540. #
- 22:58 Having drinks with the geeks like @darkshifter and @gogoedward. #
- Tweets from Tyger Raven
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- tyger_raven
- October 16th, 13:01
- 12:35 Happy that it's Friday. Magic number is 390 out of 1500. #
- Tweets from Tyger Raven
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- tyger_raven
- October 9th, 13:03
- 12:35 I feel like I just got an extra week because my weekend plans are for next week. #
- Tweets from Tyger Raven
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- tyger_raven
- October 7th, 13:04
- 12:14 Will be scripting Night Patrol #1 tonight while I wait in line for Paranormal Activity. #
- TV Show Quickie: Flash Forward S01E01
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- tyger_raven
- October 1st, 13:00
What did I like about Flash Forward Episode One:
I like the mystery and intrigue around the premise of the show. I was worried that the flash forward parts would be handled cheesily, but they weren't. In fact, I like the way that they were shown or referred to. There were a couple of very interesting twists. I like twists. And that ending gave me a Twin Peaks creepy vibe. I kinda liked that.
What didn't I like?
It's not that I didn't like it, and more that I'm concerned. I wonder how this show can go beyond a season or two because if they drag time and slow it down too much, it'll just confuse me and make me lose interest. Also, I think it has the potential to be like Lost where you expect an answer only to discover that not only is there not an answer but there's just more questions. I don't mind them adding on questions, but I hope they answer things first.
Will I keep Watching?
Yes.
- On The Mend
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- tyger_raven
- September 28th, 14:13
Well, I woke up this morning feeling much better than I have the last few days. I feel like I'm on the downside of this icky thing I have. I'm still coughing, and I've got the sniffles, but I'm not as congested anymore. I'm hoping that my coughing tapers off soon because that's the part I hate the most especially when I have to be around other people. I know they're going to grow tired of hearing me cough, and I know that they probably don't believe me when I say that whatever I have is not contagious. Why does it seem that whenever you're having a coughing attack, people look at you with those judging eyes like it's your fault that you're coughing so much?
Anyway, the upside of being sick this weekend is that I caught up on a lot of television programs. I caught up on Supernatural, Survivor, Smallville, Dollhouse, Glee, Warehouse 13, CSI, Defying Gravity, Fringe, Heroes, Flash Forward and Melrose Place. Warehouse 13 is done for the season, and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to see the rest of Defying Gravity due to a rumor I've heard that it's been cancelled, but I plan on keeping up with Supernatural, Survivor, Fringe, Dollhouse, Flash Forward, Melrose Place, and Smallville. I'll give a review of some of the shows later, but for now, I like what's going on with Supernatural, Dollhouse, and Fringe; Flash Forward and Melrose Place entertained me enough to keep watching; and although I haven't liked Heroes and Smallville lately, the premieres were good enough that I want to see the next episode, though I barely made it through Heroes, the show that seems to just spin its wheels. I liked seeing Ray Parks (Yay, Darth Maul!), but do I need another season of Peter being at odds with everyone, Noah trying to avoid and failing at being a good guy, Claire having the world handed to her and still acting all emo, and Hiro doing dumb geeky things that only perpetuates the stereotype that a geek is someone who's socially retarded and completely out of sync with the world.
So, since I am feeling better, I'm back at work. So, I'll catch ya laters.
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- tyger_raven
- September 17th, 17:15
Short and sweet, that's the goal of this here post.
--My cousin's funeral was this past Sunday. I didn't get to go, and I just found out the other day that my mother didn't go either. I'm hoping that my aunt has someone to lean on when she has trouble dealing with things, but knowing how screwed up my family is, I'm fine with that person not being me. I moved away from the family (Far, FAR away) because they drove me nucking futs!
--Fairy Dust (Which should be renamed to That Book That Won't Leave Me Alone Even Though I Feel Completely Inadequate To Be Capable Of Writing It) is still driving me insane with all of its "Oooh, forget about doing it THAT way, this way will be sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much more interesting."
-- On the writing front, I'm tempted to participate in Nano again this year, but I don't know if I can do it without going beserk because the universe likes to throw me for loops whenever I say "Sure! I'll write a novel in 30 days, no problem!"
-- Got to run now. My work shift is almost done, and I'm meeting a friend for dinner.
- Hurt at First A Little Bit, But Now I'm So Over It
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- tyger_raven
- August 26th, 10:10
I had this whole thing I wanted to talk about, but you know what? It's going to have to wait because my there are so many thoughts I have on it that I want to write it all down then edit it to make it make sense. One thing that I'm learning about my writing is that I tend to say more words than I need to. Even now I'm trying to cut down on the words and just get to the main point. I write circles around my thought when I should really just get my thought out there and let it speak for itself.
It's been at least a week since my last post and a little over a week since I wrote that post about not doing this journal anymore. Even after I wrote it, I was having second thoughts because this journal, even if I don't write in it often, has been something that I've kept up with for almost six years now. For me to keep up with something for that long, that's a major deal. It's such a big part of my life that I can't just drop it. So, if you defriended me because I was inactive, then I'll have to hunt you down to try and get your friendship back. :-P
Tonight, my geek gang is going to see one of our own in his first professional acting gig. The play is called "Good Boys and True". It's about a scandal that erupts at a prestigious college-prep school. My friend, Sal, plays the best friend of the main character. I've seen it once already, so I know that it's a good play and Sal did a wonderful job, but I'm going again tonight because a lot of my friends are going as a group, and I want to show Sal as much support as I can. I've been looking forward to this all week. Yay! Then tomorrow night I'm going to see another play at the same theater company as my friend's play (they have about four theaters). I'm going alone to this one, but I don't mind. Then Saturday is an all day Dr. Who marathon at Emily's place, and again most of my friends will be there. The only one that I know won't be there is Craig because he's in L.A. this weekend.
In my spare time, I've been watching Babylon 5 from the beginning. A friend of mine has all the seasons and the movies as well as the spin-off show, which he loaned to me all at once. I'm currently on the fifth episode of the fourth season, so I'm almost done. I've watched Seasons 1-3 and the first two movies. I'm surprised that I missed this show when it first started. It's got all the things I look for in a television show, even if there's a few things that kinda bug me, like the strong emphasis on religion. That's just my thing, though, so I try to overlook it. The thing that impresses me the most is the dialogue. It's the strongest part of the show. I find myself grabbing a pen and paper, rewinding the show, just so I can try to write down the parts of the dialogue that impresses me the most. Then I realized that the scripts are probably available somewhere. :-P
I've been very lax in my reviewing lately. So, I hope to change that in the next couple of days. I normally just review comic books, but I'm going to start reviewing regular books as well because I want to spread the word on some books and writers that I feel deserve attention. Be on the lookout for them. Probably write the first one in just a few minutes.
- Just when I thought I was out, I pulled myself back in.
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- tyger_raven
- August 12th, 16:19
After a little thought and consideration, I decided that I'm keeping my LJ and will update it when I have the time, feel like it, and actually feel like I have something to say.
I don't like having days like Monday. I was very depressed and didn't feel like I was any good. I'm glad to have friends, like those here on LJ, who help me to see my own worth and help me to work through my issues. I'm feeling much, much better, and like I said, instead of getting rid of my LJ account and instead of not writing in it anymore, I've decided to not feel guilty if it takes me a while to journal again, and I'm going to treat this journal in the way I intended, which is to chronicle my life.
I've also been thinking about getting more focused with my journal, or I'm thinking of creating another journal specific to certain topics. I want to start discussing some of the current comic trends that I really don't get. I want to have a place to express my opnion, and I hope I'm not the only person to feel the same way, but if I am, well, that's the beauty of diversity. I NEVER want to be one of those people who will waste their lives away trying to change everyone so that they're just like them.
Which gives me an opportunity to go off on a tangent and discuss a topic that I'm pretty passionate about, and likely the topic that gets me in trouble the most. That being why organized religion doesn't work. So let's begin, and because I don't like to clutter up people's flist, I'll place it behind an LJ-Cut.
( The Problem with Organized Religion )
- Final Entry
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- tyger_raven
- August 10th, 12:37
Back in January 2004, I wrote my first journal post. Since then, I've been sporadic with my journaling. I've gained some friends, and probably lost some friends over that time. And, now, I'm saying goodbye. I'm tired of pretending that I can do this. I'm tired of making goals and then failing miserably at them in no time. Plus, it's not like I'm going to be missed by many people because it seems that pretty much everyone has either moved on or learned that I'm just a boring putz and have stopped reading my stupid ramblings.
Good luck to you all in your future endeavors.
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- tyger_raven
- July 30th, 12:10
So, the last entry, which I had started last night and edited today to make longer and make more sense, was getting too long and probably so boring that no one really wants to read it. I decided to end it where I did so that I could write an entry for today that will continue some of my thoughts.
I had struggled so much with what Fairy Dust was all about. I mean, I had the overall general idea, which I don't think has changed at all since the book was conceived years ago. I'm calling this latest draft version 7, though I'm likely on like version 509 by now. The only thing that has stayed relatively the same is the main character. The setting went from rural Kentucky to rural Mississippi, mostly because I know nothing about Kentucky, and I've learned to write what you know. I grew up in Mississippi, therefore, Fairy Dust takes place in MS. It's a fictional town because I still want my creative liberties. The school will also be fictional, although elements of my college might play a part from time to time. Ross has also gone through so many changes, not the least of which is her name. She went from being Ever to Ross. She's also changed ethnicities. That was mostly because I don't want to be one of those writers who avoid showing minorities in his writing because he's too afraid of getting them wrong. I have many friends that I feel will be honest with me if I start portraying Ross' racial background too stereotypical or wrong.
Another thing that has changed is some of the sub-plots. I decided that I had too much on my plate as a budding writer to deal with introducing the romantic interest as well as an ex-boyfriend who makes things difficult for Eden and the new boyfriend. I'm holding off on that for a later book. I'm still trying to figure out how much of the romantic interest to introduce in this book. One thought is just to introduce Chase and have Eden lust over him. Another thought is to have them meet, be interested in each other, and go on a date. Food for thought.
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- tyger_raven
- July 29th, 23:47
Okay, I'm totally re-writing this entry because it was too short and not even all that clear. Plus, I only wrote it to say that I journaled for the day. Blah!
Anyways, this week has gone by pretty fast, but I'm still not all that busy at work. I suppose I can chalk that up to me still being a temp, thus nobody's too sure how much work to put on my plate. I worry a little bit that they'll say I'm not working enough, but it's really not my fault. I was hired as a file clerk for this one department. Its one of those things where the work is too much for one person, but not quite enough work for two. I'd say a 1 1/2 person job. And while there are certainly other file clerks I could be helping out, not each department handles their filing the same. What I've learned for the group I'm in, I'd have to re-learn for another group, and I'm still in charge of doing my own file work. If I've been here a year or so and gotten used to all the little nuances of other departments, then I'd feel comfortable helping out another department. But, right now I just don't think it would work.
So, that leaves me with days like today where I've done almost all the filing that I can do. The only things to be filed on my desk are for cases that I can't find or that are currently being held by an attorney or secretary. Even if I found all the cases that I have filing for, I'd be completely done by the time I went to lunch. In a way, I don't mind so much because at my last job, we were always backlogged with our files. It was a big problem because the attorneys could never find what they were looking for because the files weren't up to date. Here, all my files are up-to-date, so if someone calls asking if I have something, I can say with certainty that I do not, unless it's one of those cases where I can't find the file.
Lately I've been back on the creative bandwagon. My artist from "Night Patrol" has cleared up his schedule enough that we can resume working on the first Night Patrol miniseries. We're meeting tonight to go over things. Hopefully I can write a script for the first issue by this weekend. Then there's a new series that I'm still developing that I'm really not ready to talk about much. Finally, on the creative front, I managed to come up with an opening to Fairy Dust that I actually like, which has kickstarted a whole different angle for the book. It both changes the book a lot, and yet, in my mind doesn't really change it all that much. It's still about fairies and werewolves. I just had to decide the approach I wanted to take with the Main Character. At first, I had her attending her first year of college completely unaware that she was a fairy until the opening scene with a werewolf. But, there were some things I just didn't want to do with a "MC thinks she knows all there is to know about her world until the day she discovers that she didn't know a thing" sort of story. After al, if I had Eden discover that she was a fairy after 19 years of thinking she's a normal girl, then there's a lot that I just wasn't interested in writing about.
Plus, I have this desire to have all my books take place in the same universe, and I'd pretty much established that Fairy Dust and Night Patrol are the same world. However, how could I have Eden in Fairy Dust unaware of the existence of fairies when in Night Patrol (Which is present day like Fairy Dust) the fairies have become public and have been for a few decades. The only thing that I need to still justify is why Sebastian and his group of "bouncers" for a lack of terms are going around policing the fairies in Fairy Dust while in Night Patrol the fairies have joined the local police force and are investigating fairy-related incidents in conjunction with human police. I suppose I could say that in Fairy Dust, the fairies are acting autonomously because Fairy Dust takes place in rural Mississippi while Night Patrol takes place in urban San Francisco.
I'm also doing some changes in terms of names. At first, I didn't know what I wanted to name some of the fairies in the book, so I named them Amy and the pixie is Mysti. I personally don't like either one, especially since Amy's purpose in the book is a little changed from the original, and to be honest, I'm not sure how much of a role I intend to give to the pixies in this book. So, now, instead of Amy acting as a best friend who just happens to also be a fairy, she is Naoma, a slightly older fairy who's been assigned the task of acting as Eden's advocate in her role as intermediary between the human and fairy worlds. Naoma will also be acting as a buffer between Sebastian and Eden. As for the pixies, since pixies are the only fairy creatures who can open portals between the two worlds without using a magical object, I needed to put at least one pixie in Sebastian's group, that gets pixies into the first book and also lets me play up the aloof nature of the pixies. The other question is what to name her (or him). If I go with a male pixie, then I've already got a name, Praxis. But, if I decide to keep the pixie as a female, I need a name. I think I want a name that starts with "Pr" to go along with Prianna and Praxis, the other two pixies that make up this pixie's family. I don't want to make Prianna a full-time part of the book because I'm using her over in Night Patrol. Or, maybe I'm trying too hard to make all these things inter-connected.
So, anyways, this is a longer discussion that I wanted to have last night but was too pooped to write.
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- tyger_raven
- July 22nd, 23:13
Quick update before going to bed. Not much really to report. Job's still the same, The rest of my life is still the same, so since I don't really have anything to report, I'll leave you with the first song in a musical I recently discovered and am in love with called "Bare: The Musical". Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G1lsRA5fX0&feature=PlayList&p=8F5CE36DB9557B8F&i ndex=0
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- tyger_raven
- July 19th, 23:26
This weekend was me being mostly lazy and not doing anything. And you know what? I'm completely happy with that. Sure, I could have done some of the things that I've been putting off, but I also needed some downtime in order to recharge. It was a fun weekend. I watched all five episodes of Torchwood: Children of Earth on Saturday, followed by the entire two seasons of "The Guild" which was fun. I also started watching Death Notes. I was so happy to find it on Hulu!
Today I had a get together with some friends, and like always we discussed so much stuff that it was ridiculous. I'm also quite proud of myself. I had dinner with friends, which as usual was followed by drinks at the bar, but instead, I brought myself home. That was a good thing because it got me home in time to get to bed at a decent hour and kept me from spending more money on drinks than I could afford. I'll likely stop by for a drink or two tomorrow night to make up for it though. :-P
Then I have a dinner date with a groovy lady on Tuesday night. Yay me.
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- tyger_raven
- July 18th, 21:44
I think my perfect job would be one that starts around noon and ends about 8. I hate getting up in the morning. HATE it. But, then again, I also hate that most of my friends have the same 9 to 5ish schedule, so if I didn't get off work until 8 and they wanted to get together at 6 for dinner, I'd hate having to miss out on dinner.
All of that was to say that I'm still adjusting (why it's taking so long I don't know) to having to be up at 6 every morning to get all the stuff I need done and out the door for work. It wouldn't be so bad except that I can't get to bed very early even though it means me not getting as much sleep as I need. Then when I push myself by doing tons of things over the weekend, it makes for a hellish work week where I'm sleepy and sluggish. Therefore, today was a do-nothing, go-nowhere, and talk to no-one day. And I both liked it and hated it. I hated it because I felt like the world was going on without me and I was missing out.
But on the plus side, I found a site that was showing Torchwood: Children of Earth, which I'd been wanting to see even though my torchwood buddies had worn me that I might hate the way things turn out. They were right. I know that Torchwood was a darker Doctor Who, but this latest five part story was deppressingly dark. It made me want to curl up in a ball and cry like my best friend had just died. I've heard that Joss Whedon is evil in that "I want to rip out the hearts of the viewers" sort of way, but after CoE, Joss Whedon could take some lessons from Russell T. Davies on making his viewers cry.
Won't say anything spoilery because I don't want to upset anyone wanting to see CoE when it comes to BBC America, so all I'll say is that while it was brilliantly written, it's dark as the blackest night ever.
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- tyger_raven
- July 16th, 21:25
I can't tell you how happy I am that tomorrow is Friday. I need a day or two to sleep in. As it is, I'm so sleepy right now that I might be going to bed shortly. That's rare for me that I would want to go to bed early.
Finally picked up a few of my comics. I got the important ones. :-P Blackest Night #1- very interesting and am definitely looking forward to seeing where it's going. The first part was a bit slow to me, but I can forgive that since it was slow for a reason, which was providing the information that the newbie reader needs. Tales of the Corps was so-so. I liked the Saint Walker story, was ambivalent with the Mongul story, though I so didn't like the art. And I was let down by the Indigo story. I get what he's going with, but I want to know what their deal is NOW! I wanted translation on what was being said. I'm a very impatient boy.
Also, for my regular reaing, I'm reading an anthology called "Wizards" with an awesome Neil Gaiman story. So far, I've read the first three and almost done with the fourth one. I loved the Gaiman story. I thought the Nix story was all right, but that story by Mary Rosenblum did not fit my tastes at all. It felt like she was writing to chilren, which I don't mind, but it was more like she was writing DOWN to children, which I have big issues with. If this story is any indication, I don't think I will be reading anything else that this writer has written. Plus, she left out a lot. She was explaining things and suddenly she jumped around and left out something important. I'd go into detail, but I'm so sleepy that I can't be bothered to try and explain it.
Okay, my eyes are drooping, I think it's time for bed.
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- tyger_raven
- July 15th, 22:27
There's been a lot going on. I've just been too lazy to actually post about it.
First off, I'm about 9 weeks into the new job. I'm still considered a temp. I'm hoping that I get hired on permanently by the middle of August. I miss the security of a regular job. So far, things look good. The file clerk that I work with is very happy to be working with me. We have similar organization traits, which make things so much better. The secretaries seem to like having me around and have said that they are impressed with how much an impact my work has made on their files. And, the agency that got me the job have said that they're hearing good things about me. I just won't know what the decision is until at least my 12 weeks with the agency is up. Fingers crossed, but also fingers crossed that the salary I'm offered is actually something I can live with.
I've been more social lately, which is a good thing. In fact, there was so much going on in June that I was looking forward to July being more low-key. It's not as busy as June, but it's still pretty busy. I don't mind it though.
The only thing that really sucks is that I've finally realized that there's more to life than my comics. I've had to make some hard decisions and drop some stuff. But, I'm so excited for Blackest Night. I haven't gotten my copy yet, but from what I'm hearing, it's a doozy. Can't wait to get to the store. Hopefully some time soon.
I spent the summer watching Harper's Island, and it was entertaining, though I was a bit let down by some of the ending. I guess I was hoping for more.
Oh, and before I forget. I guess I'm getting over my prejudice against Manga/Anime. I watched the first three episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender and quite enjoyed it. Then I went to Japantown and looked at some Manga. Found a first volume for a book that looked interesting called Tarot Cafe. I'm still intrigued, so next time I get the chance, I'll pick up volume 2.
