Good days and treefrog nights

This week was a good one, apart from getting sick with a nasty cold. On Tuesday I took both dogs for their bloodwork. Haku needs his kidney checked every few months because of the phenobarb / KBr and Sano needs his liver checked because the pred put him into chronic liver failure. Well, apart from a goddamn skin infection on Sano (maybe from having had no immune function for the better part of a year?) all the bloodwork came back peachy.

I found this out Wednesday when my Mom called me in school, shortly after I found out that I got a 95 on my clinic entrance exam. ^_^ 95, I was happy with that.

I'm always relieved when my pets are better (And 'Crezia the black/gold/blue molly is doing so much better since I spoke to a nice fish expert who gave me some advice,) and so here are some pics.

( Out playing in the yard after baths, Sano showboating a little. )

( After a bath, Haku looks like a tampon. )

( Do you notice a pattern here when it comes to the pets I have? )

What would Count D have to say about that? Heh.

( Spot the sneaky crow. )

( Haku has mastered the Does This Bug You Style. Sano usually indulges him. )

Good times at my house. Nice bloodwork results, good test results, fine weather. In fact, last week at school I heard the tree frogs for the first time this season. Tonight, I hear them out here. It's been rainy, but not overly cold. I always like to mark the first night I hear the treefrogs.

Also to the good, my old pal lisa_s has updated an old fave fic of mine, after, like, years. The wonderful Battleflag. I read it last night before bed and felt quite satisfied. Been a long time since I've enjoyed some good old Zelda fic, and this has always been one of my faves.

I also found a Kenshin fic that I quite enjoyed, A Meeting Of Minds.. It posited that Kenshin is in fact two separate people in his mind, Battousi and Rurouni; a true dissociative identity disorder. Without getting too much into the medical aspect of mental problems, this gal wrote a very amusing and entertaining story about how the two talk to each other, and act towards each other. Until one day when Rurouni Kenshin talks Battousai into spending the day with Kaoru. Well, apart from not being technically brilliant, and apart from sort of sexualizing RK's Battousai half (because in the book and in fact in the movie he was always kind of uptight and somewhat pure, even after getting married, I mean why do people think that violence naturally = sexytime, does it have something to do with testosterone or something, because seriously either way he's portrayed as feminine, but whatever,) ASIDE from that, it really entertained me.

And I started thinking, you know, as the crits roll in for my story and Snark Rule is telling me "These chapters are too slow; I got bored," what indeed do these amateur fics have that my wanna-be author-ass story lacks? What is it about some of these fanfics that's adhering me, and other readers, to the computer? And indeed what did the Hero Series, Seer and Raptor Crest have that my own novel lacks?

Solid and engaging characterization. Sometimes with fanfic, I personally don't even need a damn plot. I just want to read about my favorites doing things. One fic featured Kenshin tying up his hair before doing the laundry and I was all, WOW, BRILLIANT DETAIL. Well, not really. But when you enjoy a character, details like that bring him/her to life and you notice those things more.

And I fought for years over what separated fanfic from original stories, so often claiming that both were equally difficult, but in fact with fanfic you've already got an audience who cares about your characters. So you hit the ground running and you take them with you. The character-adoration is already there; a good fanfic writer knows the buttons to press to exploit the fanpoodling love. And that is a skill. So I stand by my assessment that writing fic takes skill; the skill of being a good technical writer first of all (but oddly not so much; the fic I linked up there is riddled with technical mistakes, and even to a point featured a Kenshin that I could not relate to, yet of course I could not put it down,) and of knowing how to press the reader's fan-buttons just so. Of course we've all got different buttons and...

So, yeah, I seriously signed on to talk about my dogs and fish and clinic entrance exam, school and treefrogs and here I am with the writing and the fandom and the thing and stuff.

Only three more weeks left of this semester, WTF. My first final is next week. Next week, man wth, I don't even. I just finished midterms.

Oh, and they email the exam score around to the staff and the Dean, and the program director handed my my paper and said, "Nice job!" and after I got my exam score, I happened to see the Dean in the clinic and he asked how I was doing. "I'm relieved," I told him. "I passed the clinic exam." He said, "Of course you did – did you think you wouldn't?" I admitted I had worried over it. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, "I wish all my students were like you." I thanked him and told him I wished all my teachers were like him. When in fact, I wish most teachers were like him, but not all. I've got some really good professors this semester. There are a handful that I really enjoy.

And then there's Dr. R, the neurologist. You know, there's one in every school, right? All of the students love him, people go out of their way to get into his classes, which are always the first to fill up. In high school we had two of them: Mr. J and Mr. K. This guy reminds me of both of them. He's insanely knowledgeable and uproariously funny. Yesterday we did a mock practical exam, and he gave a whole section of it as Christopher Walken. Good stuff.

I can't seem to even be coherent tonight; I mean less so than usual. Hope you guys are enjoying my word-salad.

Two nights ago I watched The Men Who Stare At Goats with my Mom and it was just as hilarious as I remembered. I can't even tell you how much I adore Ewan McGregor. We've been married for, what, fifteen years now? I just love his beautiful face, his mischief, and the convincing "Nice Boy" thing he's got going on. (God but I'd love to see him play an honest-to-god nasty as hell villain.) Anyway, in my review of this movie back in November I said of George Clooney, Weirdly enough, he could have been John Cleese in this film; he reminded me so much of him. Imagine my amazement when, in the DVD extras, Kevin Spacey said he felt that Clooney was completely channeling John Cleese! Why, I about peed the floor. It means Keven Spacey is, like, my soulmate. Naw but seriously, I love Spacey, love love.

(LOL you know what else I said in that entry, I spoke of my neuro teacher, said I was too tired to be making sense, and said "bishonen animal demi-god." God but I bore myself with my unchanging ways! ^_^ )

So good days and treefrog nights.

Good days and treefrog nights

This week was a good one, apart from getting sick with a nasty cold. On Tuesday I took both dogs for their bloodwork. Haku needs his kidney checked every few months because of the phenobarb / KBr and Sano needs his liver checked because the pred put him into chronic liver failure. Well, apart from a goddamn skin infection on Sano (maybe from having had no immune function for the better part of a year?) all the bloodwork came back peachy.

I found this out Wednesday when my Mom called me in school, shortly after I found out that I got a 95 on my clinic entrance exam. ^_^ 95, I was happy with that.

I'm always relieved when my pets are better (And 'Crezia the black/gold/blue molly is doing so much better since I spoke to a nice fish expert who gave me some advice,) and so here are some pics.

( Out playing in the yard after baths, Sano showboating a little. )

( After a bath, Haku looks like a tampon. )

( Do you notice a pattern here when it comes to the pets I have? )

What would Count D have to say about that? Heh.

( Spot the sneaky crow. )

( Haku has mastered the Does This Bug You Style. Sano usually indulges him. )

Good times at my house. Nice bloodwork results, good test results, fine weather. In fact, last week at school I heard the tree frogs for the first time this season. Tonight, I hear them out here. It's been rainy, but not overly cold. I always like to mark the first night I hear the treefrogs.

Also to the good, my old pal lisa_s has updated an old fave fic of mine, after, like, years. The wonderful Battleflag. I read it last night before bed and felt quite satisfied. Been a long time since I've enjoyed some good old Zelda fic, and this has always been one of my faves.

I also found a Kenshin fic that I quite enjoyed, A Meeting Of Minds.. It posited that Kenshin is in fact two separate people in his mind, Battousi and Rurouni; a true dissociative identity disorder. Without getting too much into the medical aspect of mental problems, this gal wrote a very amusing and entertaining story about how the two talk to each other, and act towards each other. Until one day when Rurouni Kenshin talks Battousai into spending the day with Kaoru. Well, apart from not being technically brilliant, and apart from sort of sexualizing RK's Battousai half (because in the book and in fact in the movie he was always kind of uptight and somewhat pure, even after getting married, I mean why do people think that violence naturally = sexytime, does it have something to do with testosterone or something, because seriously either way he's portrayed as feminine, but whatever,) ASIDE from that, it really entertained me.

And I started thinking, you know, as the crits roll in for my story and Snark Rule is telling me "These chapters are too slow; I got bored," what indeed do these amateur fics have that my wanna-be author-ass story lacks? What is it about some of these fanfics that's adhering me, and other readers, to the computer? And indeed what did the Hero Series, Seer and Raptor Crest have that my own novel lacks?

Solid and engaging characterization. Sometimes with fanfic, I personally don't even need a damn plot. I just want to read about my favorites doing things. One fic featured Kenshin tying up his hair before doing the laundry and I was all, WOW, BRILLIANT DETAIL. Well, not really. But when you enjoy a character, details like that bring him/her to life and you notice those things more.

And I fought for years over what separated fanfic from original stories, so often claiming that both were equally difficult, but in fact with fanfic you've already got an audience who cares about your characters. So you hit the ground running and you take them with you. The character-adoration is already there; a good fanfic writer knows the buttons to press to exploit the fanpoodling love. And that is a skill. So I stand by my assessment that writing fic takes skill; the skill of being a good technical writer first of all (but oddly not so much; the fic I linked up there is riddled with technical mistakes, and even to a point featured a Kenshin that I could not relate to, yet of course I could not put it down,) and of knowing how to press the reader's fan-buttons just so. Of course we've all got different buttons and...

So, yeah, I seriously signed on to talk about my dogs and fish and clinic entrance exam, school and treefrogs and here I am with the writing and the fandom and the thing and stuff.

Only three more weeks left of this semester, WTF. My first final is next week. Next week, man wth, I don't even. I just finished midterms.

Oh, and they email the exam score around to the staff and the Dean, and the program director handed my my paper and said, "Nice job!" and after I got my exam score, I happened to see the Dean in the clinic and he asked how I was doing. "I'm relieved," I told him. "I passed the clinic exam." He said, "Of course you did – did you think you wouldn't?" I admitted I had worried over it. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, "I wish all my students were like you." I thanked him and told him I wished all my teachers were like him. When in fact, I wish most teachers were like him, but not all. I've got some really good professors this semester. There are a handful that I really enjoy.

And then there's Dr. R, the neurologist. You know, there's one in every school, right? All of the students love him, people go out of their way to get into his classes, which are always the first to fill up. In high school we had two of them: Mr. J and Mr. K. This guy reminds me of both of them. He's insanely knowledgeable and uproariously funny. Yesterday we did a mock practical exam, and he gave a whole section of it as Christopher Walken. Good stuff.

I can't seem to even be coherent tonight; I mean less so than usual. Hope you guys are enjoying my word-salad.

Two nights ago I watched The Men Who Stare At Goats with my Mom and it was just as hilarious as I remembered. I can't even tell you how much I adore Ewan McGregor. We've been married for, what, fifteen years now? I just love his beautiful face, his mischief, and the convincing "Nice Boy" thing he's got going on. (God but I'd love to see him play an honest-to-god nasty as hell villain.) Anyway, in my review of this movie back in November I said of George Clooney, Weirdly enough, he could have been John Cleese in this film; he reminded me so much of him. Imagine my amazement when, in the DVD extras, Kevin Spacey said he felt that Clooney was completely channeling John Cleese! Why, I about peed the floor. It means Keven Spacey is, like, my soulmate. Naw but seriously, I love Spacey, love love.

(LOL you know what else I said in that entry, I spoke of my neuro teacher, said I was too tired to be making sense, and said "bishonen animal demi-god." God but I bore myself with my unchanging ways! ^_^ )

So good days and treefrog nights.