NarniaWeb Community Forums

Hi, Cymru, stargazer, and Ryadian! Thanks for the greetings. Nice to "see" you guys too. Ah, good times.

Lady Arwen, I'm mad jealous of your adventures. ;-)

It's sad to see things so slow here, though of course that's the way things go. I can't help but miss the days when one could sit on the forum for hours, chatting away. I think, for me, it began to get unwieldy and hard to follow as it got bigger, which I think is partly why I wandered away. That and the fact that I started liking my Ditto Town character enough to want to save any further story for an actual novel. (I've still got that on my list, though I haven't written it yet.)

I've written a couple novels, though (not counting a significant amount of Harry Potter fanfic that I did for a while there). One that I finished a few years ago was a sweet story about a couple of dorky kids and young love. The other, which I've just finished a big revision on and am still editing--you will probably not be surprised to hear--contains vampires (though not the same sort that I created for the Ditto story). Have not published either (yet, at any rate).

Hey Shawna! I've been AWOL from the Ditto portion of the forum because my life went from college to student to insanely busy. The last 2.5 years I've gone from one job to a new one, started riding lessons, got my professional certification to teach therapeutic riding lessons, started teaching (non therapeutic riding lessons) under my trainer, and now I'm a math teacher for a homeschool student.

Yeah... Free time? What's that?

I've had a tentative story idea kicking around in my head for awhile. I haven't done anything with it, but it's one of those when the idea makes its round through my head, it gets a little more fleshed out each time. So maybe one day.

Wren, to be honest, I'm not sure what I'd do with a color scheme if it hit me in the face. The top of my priority list for the apartment is comfort, and anything else is kinda swimming at the bottom, and I have no time or energy to fish for ideas. I'd like to be more organised and deliberate about decorating, but I'd have to have time and energy, and not sure when I'll get enough of that (plus a higher tolerance for shopping, and a good vision of what I want). Also, my current MO is to do nothing, which has worked out enough so that I'm getting by; maybe I'll slowly get frustrated enough to be motivated to actually figure things out and buy stuff.
How did your film project go? And how's the murder mystery dinner prep going? That sounds like a lot of fun! And what did you decide about a show to pitch for the fall?

Hi, Shawna! Good to see you!

Hey, kat! You're keeping quite busy! I hope things are going well for you, though.

We're getting hit by the big winter storm system making its way across quite a bit of the country, I think. I'm really looking forward to it warming up again! It'll get quite hot here in the summer, but at least the roads won't be the same sort of hazardous...

Hi Starkat! Yeah, life has a way of getting busy. The Ditto story just exploded there at one point. I actually printed out the stories that someone had collected at one point. Stories 1-4 are, combined, shorter than story 5 by quite a bit. I almost wonder if it wouldn't work better to have people group into smaller, established groups in some way and only those people work on that particular story (and could have several going at once if there are enough people who want to participate in stories). That would keep things manageable and also maybe help with consulting each other when someone wants to use another person's character in a part they're writing.

Hi Archer!

Valia, I'm working on learning how to say no to things I may want to do, but would leave me so stretched thin that I wouldn't have anything left if anything else were to happen. I'm not burning out, but trying to keep from getting anywhere near that point. That and if anything family comes up oh say like graduation or family members having kids, I'd like to be able to enjoy those moments.

Yeah Shawna. I know what you mean. I think those stories are still up on my website. Which reminds me... I need to renew my domain registration and whatnot.

Actually when it comes to the ditto story, I'm thinking a return to the way the stories popped up originally may be in order. Someone writes a bit and the next person comes along and picks it up. That's where the Ditto vs. Original war came from in the first place.

Ryadian wrote:(Okay, to be fair, I've finished one story - a story which I have since decided to completely rework so it's not done anymore. ) Anyways, if any of these become available, you have to let us know. I'm really excited to see the kinds of things you've come up with since your Ditto Story days!

Yep, that's what happened to me with this book (which I've now finished editing, so I'm at the stage of writing a synopsis and then trying to query it). In August of 2013 I thought it was done. Then I spent several months trying to write a companion novel... only to realize that it wasn't really working out and what I should do is combine the two. So yeah, about a year and a half after I "finished" it, it's finished. I think.

I will definitely try to remember to come here and mention it when I get published. (Although my vampire story may be a bit too hard-edged for a lot of people here...)

So I'm JUST NOW getting around to coming in here and saying...

SHAWNA!!!!! Goodness it's been a long time. It's so good to "see" you.

Shawna wrote: Yeah, life has a way of getting busy.

Yeah, I've had two kids since we last talked. How are you doing anyways?

*waves hi to everybody else too and passes around some cupcakes, because cupcakes are the thing right now and I'm not complaining about that. *

* snags a cupcake with many thanks *

Well, at least you have the comfort angle down, Valia. That is the most important, I think, though I might be biased to cozy places. Has it warmed up any for you?

The filming went pretty well, and the projects are going swimmingly. I haven't picked a play to pitch quite yet, but I'm leaning toward either doing a version of P&P (most definitely NOT period setting, though!) or finding something suitably sinister and comedic for the hallowe'en season. Another part of me greatly wants to do The Third Policeman again, but it has such a limited cast that I think it isn't suitable to a university setting.

Oh! and the murder mystery went off well--much better than last year's was.

My mum's birthday is tomorrow, and while I've been planning her birthday since nearly the end of Epiphany, my dad might have done little to no planning, since right before I said goodnight he handed me a box and asked me to wrap it. I don't think I will be wrapping my box, as it is a decorative box, and I had wanted to put a silk lining into it, but I never got around to finding a matching silk. I guess tissue paper will have to do.

Oh, in other news, I finally got to go to a brick-and-mortar shooting range again. The one my family used to go to when I was a kid was shut down, and we didn't find a new one, so since then I've been shooting through simulation machines. I forgot how much larger caliber guns kick. Anyway, I'm quite proud of myself because, despite not really shooting for a while, my left hand cluster (I shoot ambidextrously) with a .40 Sig measured 5.5" and my right hand cluster measured 7.5". Hopefully this means I can practice a little more frequently....

Other than that...hmmm...despite having wonderful plans for all the gardening, sewing, and cleaning I was going to do during spring break, I mainly slept...Monday classes start up again (whee), and my fraternity is putting on a 24 Hour Show next weekend (meaning that we will conceptualize, create, write, and produce a performance that will start exactly 24 hours after we get our topic). I'm considering pretending to use my Twitter, but so far this pretense has not yet included me actually logging on...yup, I think that's about it.

Happy St. Patrick's Day Weekend, all!

Happy Pi Day everyone! (Even if it is almost over in this time zone). I saw several self-proclaimed 'nerd shirts' announcing today as the ultimate Pi Day since the year figures in as well (3.14.15).

(I saw them at a local high school band festival where a friend's child performed).

Spring is here with a vengeance, with highs between 60-70F (15-21C) this past week. Most of the snow is gone but the vegetation is still brown. We'll need some rain and warmth to green things up.

But this warmth means campfires! Had the first one of the season last night with some of Ryadian's family, and we capped off the night with an observation of Comet Lovejoy. Today I cooked some brats over the fire, then after the band concert we went to my friends' house for another fire. Ah, spring!

Glad to hear that, kat. How've you been doing?

Hi, Shawna! I don't think we've met before, but I'm Valia.

Rya! How're you doing?

Oooh, yum, thank you for the cupcakes, fk!

Well, the comfort angle is only sorta down, Wren. But it's still top priority. And it has warmed up here! We got some rain the other day too, which was lovely! (A non-frozen form of precipitation! )
I'm glad the filming went well, and your projects are going well too (and the murder mystery went well!). Oooh, what setting for P&P were you toying with? And what's The Third Policeman about?
Happy belated birthday to your mom! How'd your gift turn out?
Congrats on the nice clusters at the shooting range!
Wow! I hope the 24 Hour Show goes well! It sounds like quite a challenge. Is your fraternity connected at all to drama or performance art or anything, or do you all just do all these creative things for fun?

Hey, gazer! Your campfire sounds like a fun time.

Not much to report on my end. I'm enjoying the warmer weather and not having to bundle up again when I leave work at the end of the day.

I especially like Vermonter, Jo. I don't think I've ever heard that one before.

The 24 Hour Show went great. We actually turned out a really good script, one that I would like to go back through and clean up and make an official publication from our fraternity. The title that the student body voted for was The Freshman, The Fifth, and the Frathouse, so the setting was basically that a bunch of freshmen go to a frat party, take a shot, and then end up in an alternate dimension where they have to face their fears and an evil villain. When they wake up the next morning, they find out that, in reality, they had all locked themselves in the bathroom while trying to hide from a RA (residence monitor--don't ask what the A stands for...). anyway, it was well received, and it looks like it will become a yearly thing for us. Most of this week, then, has been spent recovering from the show.

The weather has changed for us, so, now that it is no longer winter, it is now summer (:P). The only problem with this is that we still have very little water, so we're looking at a third drought year in a row. :/ How is spring fairing for everyone else?

"RA" meant resident advisor back in the ancient days when I attended university...

Spring in Minnesota is always a bit random...it was 70F for those fires I mentioned above; a week later it was 16F with a bunch of new snow on the ground. Sometimes it jumps from winter directly to summer.

It was 16F Friday in Minnesota; later that day I got off a plane in Seattle to near 70-degree temps. Lots of flowers blooming here, and the grass and trees are all nice and green. No mosquitoes either.

We went up the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, where growers plant huge fields that attract lots of tourists when the tulips and daffodils bloom. We've had nice weather of late, though a little warm for me since I'm still used to winter.

Today marks the annual day of pranks on Narnia Web. Tis a day of foolish behavior. Are the mods up to something or are they not? Tis a day of silliness and I hope that all have a good day!

That's what "RA" means for me, too: Resident Advisor.

Sounds like you're having a great trip thus far, stargazer. Tulips, ahh, pretty! Stay, erm, cool in those warmer temperatures.

Crazy day, or what?! Teases within teases. Lotsa fun and silliness and ... .

Happy April Fool's Day, everyone!