The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss

It was... interesting. Especially as I insisted on driving, having had the most experience with windy roads in Ireland/Scotland. I had no problem going as slow as I needed to. Luckily there is NO traffic on that island, so no one had to be behind me. But let me tell you - as soon as we pulled into Tarbert (the end of that road), I found a pub and had a pint! Then someone else took the driving. It's about a 35 mile road from Luskentyre, around the south of the island and back up to Tarbert. It took us about 3 hours to go that 35 miles. (We did stop a few times to take photos, stretch our legs, or explore the beach at Luskentyre)

I am ridiculously tickled about these.

Aggy, sticking them in the wash as we speak

I love NYC. Cantina, I am finally free today, off work and have had a wonderful first day in the city with my friend. Culminated in seeing Anastasia on Broadway. Much internal squeeing to be had. And now I am unwinding in "the library bar" . Mmm secret wine not on the menu but bartender has it handy if you ask...

Tomorrow is more adventure, ending on Broadway again. The Comet of 1812. So excited!!

~Winks, who doesn't care that it's hotter than Hades because New York.

I watched Little Nicky the other day, having finished Voyager. Quite a funny movie, I think. Surprised I've only seen it once before now, and still remembered so much of it. Watched Rush Hour 2 after that (saw #1 months ago, before starting in on Voyager), and that was a little underwhelming. Like, sexist and racist humour, to some extent. Anyway, the reason I'm mentioning this is because I've now cleansed my palette a bit, and will soon start in on Star Trek original series! Never seen more than a few snippets of episodes before, but I'm expecting something with such poor special effects and, apparently, bad acting, that I expect I'll absolutely love it, if only for the cheese factor.

I've also been playing guitar today, and absolutely knocked it out of the park for most of the practice session. Hooray! Last time I played guitar, I stank up the joint. It seems to go in thirds: 1/3 of my practice sessions, I suck. The other 2/3, I get into the zone quite easily and have a blast, with my skills developing naturally over time. So, like, my "in the zone" performing *now* is light years beyond what my "in the zone" performing was years ago. But yeah - I'm still stuck in a 2/3 situation... *sigh* Well, okay, so being fair, back in the early years, it was more like a 1/20 ratio, where I was only playing adequately once in every 20 or so practice sessions. So I've come a long way since then, certainly, but it is still frustrating that 1 in every 3 times I pick up an instrument, I'm destined to play so poorly that it sends me into a depression spiral.

tiddlywinks said:

I love NYC. Cantina, I am finally free today, off work and have had a wonderful first day in the city with my friend. Culminated in seeing Anastasia on Broadway.

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How is the Broadway version compared to the movie? I only have vague memories of the movie from when I saw it as a little kid. I think I remember liking it but also thinking some parts were really weird. (Wasn't there a bad guy whose body kept falling apart and a bat henchmen or something?) Anyway, I guess I'm partially wondering if any of the weird stuff is in the Broadway version or if they've done something different with it.



Good Morning, Cantina. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and have been a little cranky. I think part of it is that I was having trouble getting to sleep last night due to restless feelings and some of that carried over to today. Yesterday, I wrote over 600 pretty good words...but, they were on "In Dreams They Came" rather than the Snow White Retelling. I had told myself I was going to focus exclusively on the retelling for Camp. After Camp, I intend to focus *mainly* on the retelling, but will allow visits to IDTC if the characters are shouting about something.

The issue I'm having with focusing exclusively on the retelling is that I've known the world, characters, and story for IDTC for so much longer, a lot of the time when my mind is wandering, it's giving me ideas for that instead of the SW retelling, which can cause conflicted feelings because I love both stories and want to make progress on both, so the progress I made on IDTC yesterday wasn't a *bad* thing. Thing is, I've accepted the fact that IDTC and the other two books that it wants to spawn are probably going to take several years for me to write. I'm okay with that, I'm committed to that, and I really look forward to the challenge and seeing what the overarching story ultimately becomes. But I also need to keep my spirits up in the meanwhile, and for me, that means sometimes taking a break from the Cerberus to write something I can complete a little faster, you know what I mean? I also feel it's good for me to sometimes practice having a deadline to meet. Sysyfus 2016 did that for me. The little short story I wrote last month did that for me. I'll also add that when I finished those and came back to IDTC, it felt fresher and didn't get frustrated as easily because I had taken a little brain break. Now I'm doing that with the SW retelling, which I aim to finish at least a first draft for by the end of the year. I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to write a draft for an idea this length in the time frame I've set. I guess, me having my occasional bouts of self-confidence issues (as it seems I currently am) just...*sigh*This is all a really long way to say that I'm currently struggling with a fear that I *can't* meet my goal and I'm struggling with the desire to procrastinate because of it. But procrastination only make it harder to reach my goal. So I need to defeat the procrastination monster. Right now. *logs off to write*



*logs back on briefly* Oh, in addition to writing today, my mom and I are going to have to wash the car because a dang cardinal has discovered its reflection in the rear-view mirror, has been fighting with it, and in the meanwhile, pooping all over the side of the car. Darn bird. We're probably going to have to find a way to cover the mirrors now.

Slept in to perculate frangments of my dystopian dream into a workable plot. Got up and wrote five pages of an outline, only to sputter on the ending specifics (then the bad guys try to stop them, but the MC wins and they live happy ever after). Ugh, endings. But yay inspiration! Now I only need to finish this current WIP.

Good morning! Or not so good. Dog had bowel problems last night. No more watermelon for her.

Speaking of Star Trek, a local theater group does a re-enactment of a certain original Trek episode each summer in a Seattle park. They have a band playing the theme music, Trek costumes, props, and everything. The park serves as scenery. All the parts originally played by men are played by women, and vice-versa. From what I heard, the actors play it completely straight. Tomorrow I am going! It's totally free. The episode will be "Day of the Dove" the one where an evil alien sets up the Enterprise crew and Klingons to fight each other and lives off their hatred.

Cobalt Jade said:

The episode will be "Day of the Dove" the one where an evil alien sets up the Enterprise crew and Klingons to fight each other and lives off their hatred.

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I remember that episode. Should be extra interesting with everyone gender-swapped.


Also speaking of Star Trek, I'm starting to think I liked Voyager better than DS9...or at least, I'm getting tired of DS9 faster than I did Voyager. My mom calls DS9 "Star Trek with angst". I didn't necessarily feel that so much with the first season or two, but the further it goes the more the angst is happening come up. That may be okay for some people, but I'm finding that I'm more and more okay with just tuning it out while my mom watches it and writing, or doing pretty much anything else instead. It also seems like there are a lot more of those confusing, time-warp-y/reality is not reality/wait-we're-crossing-dimensions-again episodes in DS9 than the other Star Treks I've watched and...I'm just getting a little tired of it. My mom is determined to power through the rest of the series, and there are still *some* episode I'm enjoying, but like I said, I'm finding more and more that I'm okay with tuning it out and doing something else. Current episode that's playing included.

Cliff Face said:

I watched Little Nicky the other day, having finished Voyager. Quite a funny movie, I think. Surprised I've only seen it once before now, and still remembered so much of it. Watched Rush Hour 2 after that (saw #1 months ago, before starting in on Voyager), and that was a little underwhelming. Like, sexist and racist humour, to some extent. Anyway, the reason I'm mentioning this is because I've now cleansed my palette a bit, and will soon start in on Star Trek original series! Never seen more than a few snippets of episodes before, but I'm expecting something with such poor special effects and, apparently, bad acting, that I expect I'll absolutely love it, if only for the cheese factor.

I've also been playing guitar today, and absolutely knocked it out of the park for most of the practice session. Hooray! Last time I played guitar, I stank up the joint. It seems to go in thirds: 1/3 of my practice sessions, I suck. The other 2/3, I get into the zone quite easily and have a blast, with my skills developing naturally over time. So, like, my "in the zone" performing *now* is light years beyond what my "in the zone" performing was years ago. But yeah - I'm still stuck in a 2/3 situation... *sigh* Well, okay, so being fair, back in the early years, it was more like a 1/20 ratio, where I was only playing adequately once in every 20 or so practice sessions. So I've come a long way since then, certainly, but it is still frustrating that 1 in every 3 times I pick up an instrument, I'm destined to play so poorly that it sends me into a depression spiral.

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There is definitely a high cheese factor in The Original Series! Bad acting - almost to the point of caricature - from Shatner especially. Still, it's fantastic. And look at all it spawned! It had many firsts, including the first black woman NOT playing a servant on TV, and the first interracial kiss.

I got things done today. Cleaned the rest of my art show tent canopy, rearranged the storage shed, started laundry. Husband made a New England Clam Bake for dinner last night - lobster, clams, mussels, corn, potatoes, seaweed. Tonight is tongue pho.

Last night I finished a necklace I was working on.

Now I'm off to bead.

So yeah, at the San Diego Comic Con they released a teaser for the upcoming Ready Player One movie. I cannot keep up with all the references. This is going to be screen shot analysis fodder for weeks.

About 15 minutes into the first episode of original series Star Trek, and yeah... It's a lot harder to pay attention to it than Voyager. I'm trying to enjoy it, and presumably the good reputation it has comes from more than just the first episode, but it hasn't grabbed me just yet. And last night I worked out that it'd probably take me 'til the end of the year to actually finish this series (animated series and movies included). Because I'm presently incapable of watching for more than 10 minutes or so at a time. (Little Nicky was an exception there - breezed through that entire movie in 1 day.)

Cliff Face said:

About 15 minutes into the first episode of original series Star Trek, and yeah... It's a lot harder to pay attention to it than Voyager. I'm trying to enjoy it, and presumably the good reputation it has comes from more than just the first episode, but it hasn't grabbed me just yet.

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I mean, it's the 60s. Different standards, different politics and ideologies and then there's Shatner's acting, so... yeah. I grew up with original Trek perpetually on the TV in the background, so I've seen all the episodes in one way or another over the years. I don't know whether I'd ever sit down and deliberately rewatch all the seasons again. They're a great piece of television and SF history, and the contribution of the original series can't be overstated to the SF genre and helping it to find a bigger audience, even inspire people to pursue science as a career. But then you watch an episode like one involving space hippies and... maybe it's time to put in an episode of new Battlestar Galactica or Babylon 5 on...

I'm now several episodes into Enterprise, which I have never seen before. The show's got some problems, but I'm starting to warm up to some of the characters.

Yeah. I mean, if the cheese factor doesn't warm me enough, there's a good chance I'm simply not going to like the original series. But I'm a bit OCD about franchises, and like to do complete watches. So, like, that's why I stuck with the 2 seasons of Stargate Universe, even though I found it incredibly boring after the first couple of episodes. It's because I'd watched the entire rest of the Stargate franchise already.

So methinks that my OCD will bite me in the arse this time. On the one hand, I've got to watch this series at least once. On the other hand, I'm probably going to be pulling my hair out wanting to watch something else before long. Not something long, though... It'd have to be just movies, or incredibly short series, or else I'd *never* manage to finish original Trek.

E.F.B. said:

This is all a really long way to say that I'm currently struggling with a fear that I *can't* meet my goal and I'm struggling with the desire to procrastinate because of it. But procrastination only make it harder to reach my goal. So I need to defeat the procrastination monster. Right now. *logs off to write*

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*zen moment of great happiness* I love that solution, so simple and elegant and effective.

As I said, the cheese factor is high. It's one of the first real scifi shows on TV. The budget is low, but the sights were high.

If you do need something to 'cleanse your palate', do go see the new BSG or Babylon 5

But if you're committing to either of those, do the whole damn story arc in sequence, or you will miss important things.

Got 2/3 of a short story hammered out last night. It's a far-future riff on 'The Emperor's Nightingale'. But now I have to look at modern contract law artist/promoter disputes to set up the central courtroom drama. Yay research.

Filigree said:

But if you're committing to either of those, do the whole damn story arc in sequence, or you will miss important things.

Got 2/3 of a short story hammered out last night. It's a far-future riff on 'The Emperor's Nightingale'. But now I have to look at modern contract law artist/promoter disputes to set up the central courtroom drama. Yay research.

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I wasn't familiar with "The Emperor's Nightingale" and had to look it up. Now after your tease about contract law, I am very curious. Also slightly envious of your productivity, I haven't been cranking out much lately.

*haz afternoon tireds* Mainly hoping to do words once I get home.and do them in a focused manner. They were going fairly well yesterday, so fingers crossed it continues.

Btw I find it interesting Camp Nono is now allowing us to edit our goals through the entire month. Just mentioning it because I had expected it to lock in on the 20th but then noticed one of the daily messages mentioned that they changed that this time around.

Shoeless said:

I wasn't familiar with "The Emperor's Nightingale" and had to look it up. Now after your tease about contract law, I am very curious. Also slightly envious of your productivity, I haven't been cranking out much lately.

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No great productivity: I suck at short stories. This is the first original fiction story I've managed in over a decade. I have ulterior political motives to make this one shine.

Watching "Wait Until Dark" with Audrey Hepburn for the first time. Even having a general knowledge of what happens, it's rather anxiety-inducing. Good grief, talk about a horrible monster of a villain who deserved what he got....

E.F.B. said:

How is the Broadway version compared to the movie? I only have vague memories of the movie from when I saw it as a little kid. I think I remember liking it but also thinking some parts were really weird. (Wasn't there a bad guy whose body kept falling apart and a bat henchmen or something?) Anyway, I guess I'm partially wondering if any of the weird stuff is in the Broadway version or if they've done something different with it.

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That was Rasputin and his bat sidekick. They ditched that, in favor of Anya being threatened by the new regime and the son of the soldier who killed her family. No supernatural involved .

All the music from the movie plus more. And the actress playing Anya was amaaaaaazing. Gorgeous costumes and backdrops. Side characters who shined with grace and humor. I had very high expectations for this and it exceeded all of them. Loved!

greendragon said:

As I said, the cheese factor is high. It's one of the first real scifi shows on TV. The budget is low, but the sights were high.

If you do need something to 'cleanse your palate', do go see the new BSG or Babylon 5

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Filigree said:

But if you're committing to either of those, do the whole damn story arc in sequence, or you will miss important things.

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Yep, Fil, you're spot on there. This is why I'm so OCD about spoilers, and trying to watch entire franchises in release order - because that way you get the most out of the experience. And while I am interested in Babylon 5 (not so much BSG), I'm not going to start an entire TV series as a palette cleanser... It'd take way too long to get through it, for me. I will, however, be watching movies here-and-there whenever I get sick of original Star Trek. In related news, I'm now over halfway through the first episode, and I'm starting to warm up to it. That is, I became interested in the plot, whereas the first 15 minutes yesterday made me go, "Meh."

So yeah... I'll stick with original Star Trek for as long as I can, and then throw in some random movies where necessary. Babylon 5 is definitely on my list of "watch this someday". Not sure when that will be, mind you.

In other news, I'm pleased to say that, despite my usual "1 in every 3 times I play an instrument I suck" phenomenon, I've now played bass once, organ once, and guitar 3 times, and only sucked for the first 1/4 or 1/3 of the final guitar play session. So the fractions are edging towards a better figure. Hooray!

Probably should've added: Those 5 practice sessions on 3 instruments occurred over 3 days. So yes - not yet at that point where playing is all I want to do, all day, every day. But progress is progress.

Well it's been a few days... Morning(ish) all! I absolutely hammered out most of a new short story before scrapping it when I realised it was almost exactly the same as Gaiman short. Shame, coz I really liked it. But if it ain't yours, it ain't yours.

Re-read Slaughterhouse Five to remind myself of the ultimate futility of it all.

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So it goes.