moâ

With the kind of boredom that comes with having plenty of things to do but not being in the mood for anything.

On the plus side, I've reviewed all the artses on the SSHG exchange. Next step, all the one-shots. I'm not holding my breath for the multi-chaptered, though.

In an hour I'll be going to buy new glasses, woohoo! I have my heart set on a (don't laugh) purple frame. Dark purple. Almost black!

In the meantime, *yawn*. Time to open a word file to stare at unblinkingly for a while I should think.

So I went to lie down at 7pm, just for a few winks, you understand. Woke up briefly around 3 am for a glass of water, and again when the alarm clock I'd had the foresight to put on at 3 am rang, at the usual time.

*yawn*

Looks like a bit more than 12 hours of sleep. Round the clock! I can't remember when I did that last.

Dix fois youpi! le moniteur d'auto-école m'a dit qu'il ne me pensait pas un danger, donc que d'après lui je pouvais prendre le volant. Il faut dire que je me suis sentie beaucoup plus à l'aise cette fois-ci, j'ai conduit à gauche tout du long sans rechute. Je vais quand même prendre une dernière lesson pour faire un peu d'autoroute, là on est resté tout le temps en ville.

Rien de bien passionant à signaler... il va falloir que j'y aille si je ne veux pas être en retard pour le boulot.

Mais c'est qu'y sous-entendraient presque qu'elle est pas baisable, not' miniss! Goujats!

http://bravepatrie.com/Assemblee-Nationale-Accoyer-depose,1224

I bought a suit at M&S - so far so good, tried it on and everything as they don't have regular sizes here (when there's something that it is possible to do differently - driving on the wrong side of the road, bizarre mains plugs, weird idiom, strange currency, you name it, they'll do it, wetting themselves of glee at the very idea of being all speshul because they live on an island and everything). Having ascertained what size I am, I naively bought two shirts that size and blang, they're too small (and not even because I'm fat, round-the-shoulders too small). Lost the receipt of course. Fuck!

*shakes fist at the world*

I'm torn between going there all posh like and flat-out demand they change my shirts or doing the confused foreigner act "whut whut what do you mean I need a receipt to change them, what's a receipt?" and "sorry I don't understand you when you say no" (with baaaad French accent).

ETA: they changed them even without a receipt, yippeee!

http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/2009/01/15/01002-20090115ARTFIG00465-mini-remaniement-au-sein-du-gouvernement-.php

Je m'attendais - naïvement, certes - à ce que Fillon saute. Et Dati. Et Lagarde. Et Yade - mais ça c'est comme si c'était fait, faut dire.

Ce n'est peut-être que reculer pour mieux sauter. Apparemment le nabot craint une année chaude, ce n'est sans doute pas étonnant qu'il garde un peu de lest pour plus tard. Comme ça, quand la crise commencera vraiment à faire mal, il aura les moyens de se payer un grande geste ou trois.

Sinon j'ai regardé les niouzes à la téloche, et c'est en effet bien pro-israélien. Temps de parole légèrement déséquilibré en faveur d'Israël (où tous les porte-paroles interrogés parlent un américain parfait et sans accent); le commentateur (voix off) donne bien les faits, nombre de morts de chaque côté etc, mais s'empresse d'ajouter son analyse: le Hamas est une organisation terroriste, les Palestiniens sont pour la jihad, leur objectif est de détruire Israël, etc. Le contraste entre l'énoncé des faits et les images (notamment un gros plan sur un tout petit cadavre en suaire vert - je regarde trop rarement la télé pour devenir blasée devant ce genre de choses) et le commentaire qui en est fait (l'intervention israélienne est nécessaire, la foule - qui entourait ledit cadavre en criant, on se demande pourquoi! - est dangereuse, etc.)

Pas un mot sur l'attitude de l'Egypte par contre, ce que je trouve un peu chelou mais bon.

Moi je dis, si le Hamas veut vraiment la sympathie de l'Occident, ce qu'il leur faut c'est une porte-parole jeune, jolie, voilée, qui parle anglais sans accent. Aussi simple que ça. On sait bien que les hommes bruns et barbus sont tous de dangereux terroristes peut-être polygames et sans doute pédophiles, donc aggresseurs, mais une femme, tout le monde sait que c'est faible, sans défense, une victime. Les moches, on s'en fout, mais si elle est mignonne ça rend sympathique; voilée, pour marquer son identité, et anglais sans accent, parce que nos charmants cousins d'au-delà des mers ne sont pas encore très familiers avec le concept de différence (autrement que pour dire que c'est très bien, mais ils ne le disent qu'en anglais)

C'est dommage qu'ils aient toutes ces écoles, ces hôpitaux et ces cimetières à reconstruire, s'ils avaient les moyens se payer une consultante ès relations publiques j'enverrais bien un CV.

Cela dit, ça ne m'étonnerait pas qu'ils cultivent sciemment l'image anti-Occidentale - ça doit rapporter ferme côté Iran / Syrie, plus en tous cas que de gagner la sympathie de braves connards qui n'ont rien mieux à faire que de bloguer.

Gravely injured myself (on the workplace!) with a faulty paper clip. It's almost bleeding! Send help! I may need an amputation! (can I declare it as a work accident?)

On more serious news, there are no serious news.

Still not caught up on the exchange.

Am re-reading PilOfCrap though, and it is indeed a pile of crap. At least I choose appropriate titles.

How are you all, dear friends?

ETA: if you want to take a break from the Snermione, here's a very short one-shot (rec'ced by GM_Weasley, she of the increasingly dubious reputation). Pure crack! With gratuitous spanking! (Hogwarts/Giant Squid)

Les Sims, version écolo.

Why do the fecking layers not show up in the order I entered them?

No robots for tonight I'm afraid, Gimp can go fuck itself, me = going to bed.

G'night.

I can share my top-secret investigative results with you at long last! With the help of a super-powerful telescope, I stalked spied on managed to get a glimpse of a normal day in Apisa_b's life, and I bring photographic evidence.

( Here she's riding Amadeus )

Coming soon: beware, there are robots among us!

You, my dear friends, are allowed heavy sighs of rejoicement - this is my last NaNo post (for this year).

60,019 / 50,000 (120.0%)

1/4 of the storyline yet to be written if I go by the original plan, but I may take a few short-cuts, and several scenes yet to be fleshed out upstream. I'll try to keep a 1500 w/day rhythm.

I highly recommend this to help concentrating (the screen turns red as soon as you stop writing):
http://lab.drwicked.com/writeordie.html

My poorly fleshed-out thoughts on the whole things:

- huge boost in self-confidence. Am able to write, loads. Might be able to call myself a writer someday if I keep it up. Can built fantasy world, can develop characters over length of narrative, can write long novella without plotting everything beforehand, am that good.
- have re-read bits of it and, though it does need tweaking, it doesn't stink as much as I thought it would. Still very far from publishable, but halfway readable. Also, have good sense of style that doesn't go into coma when inner editor is left gagged in the basement. I don't know why I had this huge gordian-knot block about writing in French, but now it's suddenly gone, the dam has broken, and it's so wonderfully liberating not to be constrained by my limited English. It's just good, good, good. I don't know whether I'll even be able to got back to English now (early days, this might be the momentary euphoria speaking).
- good for self-discipline. Got up more than 2 hours before work most of this month, just to get a few hundred words down first thing. Iz good thing.
- not so good on the long run - very sleep-deprived, have felt the strain of taking no "days off" writing - days like yesterday were a bit hard to get through.

Am struggling to find more deep, meaningful thoughts, but can't find any. Suspect am too tired, and haven't fully realised it's over yet.

I seem to be enjoying a fit of organisation so let's milk this while it lasts - am starting Xmas cards early this year (hopefully won't get run over when I go post them, this time). If you were on the list last year, you probably are this year too - otherwise feel free to pipe up. My email is this username at gmail dot com for the contact details if need be.

34,000 / 50,000 (68.0%)

Three days late so far, and won't be able to write Thursday. Which means I need 2500 words/day until the 30th to make it - a bit hazardous, considering that 1700 is already perilously close to the maximum I can write on a consistent, daily basis. Or have a word marathon next WE - also dangerous as I have a couple of things planned for then and this should not interfere with the few vague strands of a social life I seem to be enjoying these days.

I'll be entering the whole thing in the final wordcount, not just what I wrote in November, to boost my region's wordcount. I'm toying with the idea of aiming for a total of 50k, not 50k + what I already had in the beginning. Which is bad, and cheating, and won't help me finish the thing, buuuuuut. You know. Temptation.

*sighs, goes back to keyboard until bedtime*

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=NuWGVmlkLKo&feature=related

24,000 / 50,000 (48.0%)

I'm almost two days late - I should be around 27k today :( And it doesn't look like I'll get a chance to get it back anytime soon either.

I can sense a marathon coming up for the last NaNo WE.

PileOfCrap isn't even progressing all that much. I'm taking their little pep talk advice seriously and skipping scenes to get to the ending faster, but I'm at 33k and only about halfway through (I did stop at a major turning point today though- that was v. satisfying). I have a feeling it might end like a bodice ripper - lots of action packed into the last ten pages because it had to fit in somewhere and that was the only place left. Not altogether a nice prospect.

13,360 / 50,000 (26.7%)

Back on track and on time, wheee!

*tired*

12,500 / 50,000 (25.0%)

Am behind of the word count, but I may still be able to catch up tomorrow.

I had already begun before NaNo (that's not cheating as long as you don't count the existing words, right?) so that brings ThePileOfCrap (working title) to 22k aka the longest I've ever written. I know half of you are laughting at me because it's ridiculously little and the other half are going wtf I don't care, but it should feel like a big deal to me, only it doesn't, it just looks as pitiful as the stuff I've produced before. Am 1/4 through the plot, so chances are I won't even have finished it by the end of November, which is depressing. The output so far is also a pile of steaming shit I'm ashamed of having produced, but I understnad this is common for a first nano so I won't bore you with the angst.

Also, I need names - for characters and places. Exotic / African sounding, and THAT DON'T END IN -A. They're not coming to me. I'm putting provisional names (all in -a, argh) and tell myself I'll go over it in December and put everything right then, which really is true of the whole sodding thing of doom. I don't hate it as of yet, but I have a feeling it's a matter of days before I start.

/ranty guilt-driven angst

(also, I have a few choice words to say to gm-weasley that include ROBOT! but that'll wait a bit. Not to worry, when I do there will be PICTURES! of robots!)

Déjà le soleil pointait au compteur de l'horizon quand nostre héraut au sourire si doux saisit entre ses lèvres puissantes la trompette de la renommée et communiqua à la foule en délire les instructions du Roy (Merlin) :

« Ô nobles damoiseaux et gentes demoiselles, manants, lescaut, des sources. En ce jour d'huy se tiendra un grand tournoy à Londres, où jousteront Pulfric et le terrible Dragon Washington Machin.

L'enjeu n'est rien moins que la blanche main de Cunégonde, fille Mordicus d'Athènes et d'Yseult la blonde. De ce combat ne sortira qu'il seul survivant ! »

Ainsi parla le héraut avant de remboucher sa trompette et de sonner, sonner toujours quoique sans penser.

Les murailles ne tombèrent point, mais à la troisième heure du jour chacun, du plus noble au plus humble, s'amassa devant l'esplanade. Pulfric, tout de noir vêtu,

(et ça s'arrête là).

Je terminerais bien, mais il semblerait que je sois à court de moquette!

Including going through old Gmail drafts (aka my brain's garbage bin)

Snucius personal canon


Lucius

1. Abraxas' paternal grandmother was a Muggle. Lucius is the third generation of Malfoys to ignore the fact that they are neither entirely Pureblood nor even quite legitimate as she and old Claudius never were married.

2. The family wealth and the turning of the ancestral half-ruin into the present Malfoy Manor were both the doing of Claudius junior. Abraxas' meddling in Muggle speculation right before the 1929 didn't hurt either. It is a well-know and much sneered at fact in the wizarding higher circles, but one the Blacks chose not to take into account when Lucius propositioned their youngest daughter - it was tacitly understood that he would restore their own finances in the process, and so he did. Introducing him to the Death Eaters in return was a favour Bellatrix was all too eager to give.

3. Both Lucius and Narcissa were certain they had married for love. Realising that it had only been infatuation didn't change much - they were still fond of each other, they both benefited from the bargain, and Draco has always been their pride and joy.

4. Lucius tried all his life to make society's standards bow down for him and his family. He thought he had succeeded when he was elected to the Board of Governors, shortly before Draco entered Hogwarts.

5. That illusion was shattered when he was incarcerated in Azkaban.

6. That moment would also be the time he decided that the Dark Lord, and all those who threatened Draco now or in the future, would end in a pile of smoldering ashes, with streaks of green light an option.

7. Being reformed means that the Order is to be manipulated into helping him do just that.

8. Deep down, he knows he owes his survival and acceptance in the Order only to Severus' intervention. He is grateful, but he's never quite learned how to show it.

9. He does know that Severus is lonely, so he visits. Often.

10. Sharing Severus' bed seemed only normal after the divorce. Severus is more than willing and it feels good. If asked, Lucius would say he's happier now than he's ever been before, bar the day Draco was born.


Severus

1. Severus had two great revelations as a child: that he was a wizard and that his father wasn't.

2. The blessing was also the curse - the former made him able to escape home to go to Hogwarts, where no one would let him forget the latter.

3. There are two kinds of people in the world, bullies and victims. In all those 7 years at school, Severus never understood how not to be a victim. That did not change when he took the mark - he soon realised that bullying on the Dark Lord's behalf only made him even more of a victim.

4. The one reliable source of power is knowledge. Knowledge gave him enough prestige in Slytherin house to be noticed, and protected, by Lucius Malfoy.

5. But it is a double-edged sword. Neither Voldemort nor Dumbledore would have put such pressure on him were he less smart.

6. Severus was not 25 when he came to the realisation that he was not suited for the world. He wasn't able to retire to a quiet hermit's life until he was 45, though.

7. He is content with this life, he keeps reminding himself. That Lucius' visits should be such highlights is a mere coincidence, and he will not dwell on it.

8. Lucius is definitely not a victim, but he has never bullied Severus either; he doesn't care about Potions and knows enough about the Dark Arts himself not to need his expertise. Severus could never quite understand why Lucius should seek his company. He is always prepared for those visits to end.

9. And when the visits take a deeper meaning, he expects that to end soon too.

10. But it doesn't. He doesn't care about being a pariah himself, but he knows Lucius isn't cut out to be one, and he'll do anything to make it easier on the blond wizard.

Snucius

1. Lucius likes to fuck best of all. He is fascinated by cocks, both his own and Severus', and can play with either, or both, for hours. Severus prefers to be kissed and is not above holding Lucius down until he gets what he wants. (It usually leads to Lucius getting what he wants too).

2. Lucius is the only person in the world whose mere presence doesn't wake Severus up. Lucius still isn't used to his partner's insomnia, though, and he has taken to using silencing spells around himself every night.

3. Narcissa was secretly relieved when she learned who Lucius' lover was. She doesn't like Severus, but she trusts him, and that's more than she can say for just about everyone else.

4. Draco hates Severus. It doesn't take much to guess that he hasn't been far from falling in love with Severus. Lucius knows, and will never say a word.

5. tbc

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.


Tomorrow, if you're good little girls, the beginning of a fic even I deemed too crackastic to finish!