Contemplating a Myriad of Oddities...

APs, more whinging about my upcoming schedule (feel free to ignore), and fanfic.
So AP tests are finally over!

*throws confetti*

I probably bombed Spanish; CalcBC, Euro, and APLAC were all right; a little iffy on Chemistry. Not too bad, overall.

Now, just a piano competition this weekend, NAQT nationals next weekend (from KM, if anyone wants to know...), and an SAT II in Chemistry the next weekend. :/

Ah well, it's not that much.

Did finally start writing for Ch. 25 of Wrath and Tears. I imagine most of the story's readers are quite irritated by the lack of updates--last one was late January. That's like a 4-month unofficial hiatus. *sigh* But for those who are curious: so far, 1000 words, Rufus Scrimgeour. Probably some Sirius, Harry, Percy, Tonks, etc. starring. Narcissa and Draco? May save that for the next chapter.

( excerpt: )

After school lets out, I have about a week or so of freedom before I'm off to gov school (international studies). I'm going to try and finish Falls The Shadow before the release of Book 7. The really irritating thing is that I've known all along what's going to happen, so why in the world have I not finished it? It was only supposed to be 4 chapters. I want it to be complete! *sulks* Then again, that's my own fault.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Serenata, Immediate Music

Ave atque vale.
For those who died in the Virginia Tech shootings. I first found out about it in meteorology class, when I walked into the classroom and saw the TV on, volume turned up, and all my classmates gathered around it. There were 22 people gone then. Now it seems there are 33.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18134671/

The worst mass shooting in U.S. history. I am frankly sickened by the gunman's actions; and at the same time I can't help but wonder why in the world he did that.

I sometimes hold it half a sin
To put in words the grief I feel;
For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within.

But, for the unquiet heart and brain,
A use in measured language lies;
The sad mechanic exercise,
Like dull narcotics, numbing pain.

In words, like weeds, I'll wrap me o'er,
Like coarsest clothes against the cold:
But that large grief which these enfold
Is given in outline and no more.

--from Tennyson's "In Memoriam"

Current Mood: melancholy

Potpourri of subjects.
1) Sorry about the terrible lack of updates for Wrath and Tears. I know I haven't updated since Jan. 31, but... Real Life strikes as usual. Hopefully I will update WT after the AP tests in early May; there is a slight chance it might be before, but don't count on it: I'm taking 5 AP tests--English Language, Calc BC, European History, Chemistry, and Spanish. After WT, I'd like to see if I can (finally!) finish Falls the Shadow before the 7th book comes out, and bring at least ONE of my stories to some sort of closure. :) Um, as for the next chapter of WT (prospective scenes): Scrimgeour, Narcissa Malfoy... maybe Snape? We'll see. :)

2) GOOD NEWS! I've been accepted into my state's governor's school for international studies, yay! Also, I've applied for another summer program, got into the finals, and am currently awaiting results that should come around May 1--for the Telluride Association Summer Program. From what I've heard of it, it's a wonderful program and hopefully I'll get in, although the program is very selective; every year, they only take around 90 students for the program, split up in 5 seminars at different university campuses. I applied for the seminar International Politics On Film. If I get into TASP, I will most likely go there instead of gov school. However, either way, my summer is rather set out for me. :)

3) Ugh, my Spanish speaking abilities are absolutely abysmal, and there's a nice big oral part on the AP Spanish test. Anyone have any ideas for improving my oral Spanish in... the approximately 2 and a half weeks before the AP test?

4) I don't normally watch TV shows (as one can see from my FFN profile, the news is more my thing), but recently I've discovered the TV show Heroes. And it is really quite brilliant; the storylines are so delightfully convoluted and complex. Also, a lot of my friends are shocked I haven't seen House. Anyone tell me about it, perhaps? ;)

5) :/ I'm going to speed-learn Frank Martin's Prelude No. 8 for a piano competition in mid-May. Oh, the joy.

Current Mood: busy

Arrrrrggggghhhh.
I really do abhor Real Life sometimes.

1) Piano competition last week. Over. Spring. Break. That meant piano practice. Which meant no time to relax. Argh.

2) Stupid standardized tests we have to take at the school. That are really rather idiotic. And worthless. And fit for kindergarteners. It says something about institutionalized testing to figure out our intelligence. I am half-tempted to sabotage my own test and laugh. (Well, not really. But I can dream.)

3) Playing with the orchestra. In less than 2 weeks. This is AFTER the piano competition, which means that I immediately jump from playing Liszt to playing Grieg, and all the while school is coming down on me.

4)AP tests. I know, they're in May. That doesn't prevent my mom from yammering away about them until MY HEAD IS GOING TO EXPLODE.

So... I will update. Sometime.

Current Mood: overwhelmed

One of the few dreams I ever remember, and guess what it's about. :/
As the title says: Last night, I dreamed that I was checking the College Board website for the January SAT scores, and when I clicked on the link that would show me my math 2 scores, it said 560 and dream-Talriga was horrified.

Does this say something about myself?...

Current Mood: awake

Ch. 24 up, finally.
So, as you can see, finally got Ch. 24 (Azkaban attack) posted at FFN... actually, I updated it earlier today, only it was at school and thus I couldn't access livejournal right away.

On another note: I’ve just recently found out Wrath and Tears was nominated in the 2006-2007 OWL awards, in the category “Realm of the Half-Blood Prince” (Snape-centric stories). Go to http://owl.tauri.org/awards.php, read, and vote if you like. :)

Current Mood: accomplished

Um.
I realize that I haven't updated in almost 2 months... may I plead real life? Since the last update, I've had 2 all-nighters, finals, a piano competition, SAT IIs, etc. However, I do hope to have it up by Jan. 31... maybe. Hopefully. *crosses fingers* That's the one-year-anniversary of WT... So. I will try. :D

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
Sentiments from above repeated. :)

But about WT... the next chapter may be a little late. School starts January 2 (WTF?), and I have loads of homework, not to mention piano and gov school applications. So, it may be a little later. Optimistically, before New Year's. Pessimistically, halfway through January, even. :(

Current Mood: busy

Book 7 title!
So what does everyone think of the just released Book 7 title, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? I've heard stuff about a spirit quest (which I'd be happy to see... I had it planned for FtS anyway *smug*), or more on the events of Halloween 1981 (Hollow, Hallow...), or just that it relates to communication with spirits. :)

Talriga

Current Mood: curious

Time-travel of the redo type--involving other characters besides Harry (masterlist of fics)
In June 2006, on FictionAlley’s “Help, I’m looking for…” forum, I started a thread asking for fics in which characters other than Harry time travel to change the past. Time travel is one of my favorite fanfic genres, and often in fics Harry is the time traveler, so that I wanted to find time travel fics featuring other characters. So I kept bumping every now and then. Then someone suggested that I make a masterlist of the fics recommended—and here they are.

The original request can be found here.

( Click. )

Current Mood: content

Miscellany of topics.
1) I'm very surprised. Astonishingly, I am doing well in chem. As of now, I have a 103% in the class. The chemical ID lab was 9/9, and the "Mostly Evil Test" was 35/30 (bonus points!). Much happiness.

Although I imagine the grade will definitely go down once the teacher grades the last chem lab, a 100-point behemoth. It was a formal lab report, and all together--including title page, works cited page, 3 IR graphs (infrared spectroscopy), and 1 TLC (thin layer chromatography)--my report ran to 28 pages. Turned it in Wednesday--it made me pull my first all-nighter. Which could be a reason why I bombed the calculus test that day.

I ended up doing a quick spoof of chemistry class and the teacher...

( Read more... )

... although I'm probably being a bit unkind towards my teacher. It's easier to survive the class when you can make fun of him. :P

2) Ch. 24 of Beyond This Place of Wrath and Tears is, so far, 1,546 words. The problem is that it's only the first scene and a little bit of the second (so I'll probably expand it), and I had planned out 6 scenes for Azkaban. So there's a ways to go before I finish it. Shall be out around Christmas time, though; I try. :) Some Tonks, some Bellatrix, some OCs (Henry Wyatt, Dagny Morgenstern, and maybe Francis de Rozier--not sure about the last one).

3) The PSAT scores came out this week. 233! Although it's a bit of a shame I didn't make it to 235... I missed one math question. ONE math question! And the score for math dropped from 80 to 76. :( Which disappointed me. CR was better--80. And writing was 77.

4) Just finished the marathon memorization of the Grieg piano concerto, Op. 16 in a minor. Yerk! And the competition's coming up in January...

And, oh god, let's not even talk about governor's school applications...

Current Mood: busy

Chemistry teachers and their sadistic ways.
Tomorrow will be hell... *sighs* My classmates and I have been assigned a 'lab' to do, in which there are 19 chemicals. Right at the start of the class, my chem teacher's going to pass us samples, and we have 5 minutes to identify it, before he gives us another one.

Yes, that's right. Five freaking minutes. WTF? Per sample. Considering the fifty-five minute class time, if all goes the way it should be, that means 11 chemicals.

But then again, I suppose I should've expected this of my chem teacher. This is the teacher who gave us review problems and tests titled "The Nearly Insane Review Problem" and "The Mostly Evil Test." Really. And "The Mostly Evil Test" was one problem, which might seem easy... except that this one problem covered 6 chapters of the textbook and took every one of us at least two periods (normal class time and lab period).

And one wonders why everyone in the class panics before tests/quizzes/labs... you should see us in the free period before class time, when we all gather together and cram furiously. This is one insane class, and I think my chem teacher enjoys torturing us.

Current Mood: anxious

For the College Board seems to have the strangest questions.
Officially, of course, I'm not supposed to talk about test questions. I took the SAT II U.S. History test today, early in the morning. When I got to the school (the test center), the school authorities were telling us all this: "If you think the lighting isn't adequate enough, or you think it's too cold, just tell us and we'll reschedule your test for January." I couldn't help but think that this was oddly accomodating of the school administration (which from experience I normally expect to make things all the more irritating)... but evidently, the night before had been particularly windy and stormy and knocked out the electricity, so the school was running on generators. Figures.

But, as I was saying, some of the questions were just strange. One was on Madison's "notes" and what the effect of [insert facts] would have on [insert answer choices] (done just in case, so the College Board doesn't nab me... I'm paranoid, so what? :P), and none of the answer choices really fit. I swear. Still, a 1-hour test is better than a 5-hour test. Some of my friends had to take the SAT I. One of them on Friday was frantically cramming vocabulary. The practice booklets always tell you to study ahead of time, but really, do they expect students to actually do that? Not the students who usually slack off anyway, but students who have calculus and English essays and science labs and more?

Current Mood: awake

FFN being irritating, as usual
Hmm. So I have Ch. 23 of 'Wrath and Tears' done with, and now I'm having trouble uploading. *mutters something impolite under breath* I like FFN because you don't have to go through a queue, but these problems with FFN...

And RL is terrible, as usual. I had a 5-day Thanksgiving break, and ended up writing all of Ch. 23 in those 5 days. Yes, it is true that I did not get around to writing a word of it before then. And this is what is looming in the near future for me:

1) Piano. I'm playing Grieg's piano concerto in a minor, Op. 16, 1st movt. and I'm way behind. And a competition's coming up in January... fun...
2) SAT II. To be more exact, U.S. History. I get to read through a big thick book and take practice tests--and cram that all in within a week.
3) School. Enough said.

*sigh*

Current Mood: frustrated

Fan obsessions... extremely creepy. *shivers*
There are fans who have a favorite character, and there are fans who have an obsession with an HP character. Look here. Honestly, making wedding vows to Snape?! All right, so Snape is my favorite character, but... *moves away cautiously* Scary. So... uh, this is what she said:

My Personal Unbreakable Vow to Severus...
My Unbreakable Vow to Severus Snape

I promise to be always faithful in body and mind, and never love another man.
I promise to love and cherish you all of my life.
I promise to respect and honour you all of my life.
I promise to dedicate all of my life to you.
I promise to stand by you in good times and bad times.
I promise to protect and guard you, and to prevent you from any harm.
I promise to provide anything you need for you.
I promise to take the best care of you.
I promise to use your name with the respect it deserves.
I promise to always wear the ring with your name in it, as a symbol of my love.
I promise to obey you, no matter what.
I promise to respect your wishes and not to be selfish.
I promise to look after you in sickness and in health.

I solemnly promise all of this to you, Severus Snape, my only love.
May these words create a strong loving bond, which can only be broken by death.
If I break the promises made, or treat you not in the manner I should be, I'll make sure I'll die.
May all the good forces and spirits bless our love eternally....
So it will be done...

Lady Darkness

Well, first of all, miss, Snape would AK (Avada Kedavra) you before you started talking about all this. Second, he would then bring you back to life in order to AK you again. Finally, he would bring you back to life again and take you to the Death Eaters to be tortured and killed. And not feel a single iota of guilt about it.

Honestly, wedding vows? That's overboard. You might be promising to love and cherish him, but Snape certainly doesn't love and cherish you. If one can imagine him declaring his love and cherishings in a dramatic voice, in a wedding. Ugh. How utterly OOC.

How do people think of these things? *sighs*

Talriga

Current Mood: infuriated

The worst fanfic in the world.
*looks absolutely traumatized*

Take a look at this story.

My Immortal, by xxxbloodyrists666xxx, here http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2828044/1/

*screams*

And now I shall go on a terrible rant.

( This is truly, like I said, the worst fanfic in the world. )

*

"If this story was supposed to be a parody, then you succeeded, AMAZINGLY!

If this story was supposed to be something other than that, you failed, MISERABLY!

Reading the reviews is more entertaining than reading the actual story..." (WolfStar)

I completely agree with WolfStar. Some of the reviews are absolutely hilarious. Pity the same can't be said for the story.

Only compliment I can give it: Maybe some hungry alley cat might like it, just as the cat might like rotten fish.

Current Mood: shocked

A quick update on life...
PSAT? Check, done. Think I did fine, although the clanking sound of the heater in the back of the classroom was a nuisance. At least it stopped after a while.

Piano competition? Check, done. (2nd place, for those who want to know.)

Looming pile of homework?

...

Argh.

Anyway, I haven't started yet on Ch. 23 of WT, although I suppose I ought to. I know whose POV I'm writing, and what's going to happen--me setting up things for Ch. 24, Azkaban--but I haven't started. Maybe I can get it out by Thanksgiving. Which means Ch. 24 will be out by Christmas, just when it takes place in the story. Interesting. And I really, really want to finish FtS. The story's been in my head for so long (if anyone's looked at my author's notes, since Oct. of 2005; that means over a year) that I'd like to actually finish the damn thing. *glares at 2nd part* You. Will. Cooperate.

Incidentally, if anyone wants to know the title of the 2nd chapter, it's "your shadow at evening rising to meet you," taken from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land (The Burial of the Dead).

*pause*

*now staring at calculus homework*

Optimization. Joy.

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Music: 'In the Hall of the Mountain King,' Peer Gynt (Grieg)

WT didn't win in the Sorting Hat awards, although it wasn't like I knew it would. Especially set up against fics like Cartographer's Craft and Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past. Still, I'm happy that it got nominated, anyway. :)

Anyway, I've got a bit of Ch. 22 of WT written, although I'm really focusing on Part 2 of FtS. I'd really like to get it finished--so far, 6348 words, and I haven't even got to the climax yet. So here's a bit from what I've written as of right now for Falls the Shadow:

( Read more... )

And also a short excerpt from Ch. 22 of WT:

( Read more... )

I'll try and get one or the other part finished, somehow. *crosses fingers*

On a completely line of thought--who in the world decided to torment us chemistry students with incredibly complicated lab reports?! *sulks* No, sir, of course we won't have any problem at all with writing the chemical reactions for the alcohols with observed positive results, and the structural formulas as well. And of course we don't mind going insane over it...

Argh.

And the PSAT's coming up on Oct. 21, and I have an essay due tomorrow, and another due Oct. 20. While a piano competition's coming up the first weekend of November...

*hides*

Talriga

Current Mood: busy

I haven't posted something here in forever. So what? :P

Beyond This Place of Wrath and Tears is up to Ch. 20 at ff.net. And it was nominated in the Sorting Hat HP thematic awards--time travel fic category. *looks overjoyed* Voting is from Sept. 18 to Oct. 2, at http://www.partial-eclipse.net/sortinghat/index.html

And I'm getting close to Christmas break, 6th year... I can't stop thinking about Ch. 24...

Talriga

P.S. Has anyone discovered the art of telling history without making it sound like a boring lecture? :P

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Peer Gynt Suite, by Edvard Grieg

So, ah, about Ch. 19.
Ch. 19 will be very, very late.

I am moving. My family has been busy packing for what seems like forever. Tomorrow, I will lose access to the computer. Then we will be driving to our new home, which is several thousand miles away (maybe I'm exaggerating, but it's still the other side of the country...).

So. Ch. 19 will be late. And it may also be short, unfortunately.

Advertisement