I got a good chunk of fiction written today. And by "good chunk" I mean about a page-and-a-half of a short story that's been brewing for a while anyway. But I'm pleased so far, and I've been moderately good about turning off my internal editor, so I call it progress.

Poll #1428988 Help Create Writing Prompts for Twitchy!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

So I'm trying to write more, and I'd like y'all to help me come up with writing prompts that I can put in a jar (or whatever) and use as inspiration. 'Kay?

The one-sentence summary of a story.

Three objects that must appear in the same story.

Three defining features for a main character (can by physical traits, adjectives, psychological contitions, etc.)

Votes for genre?

What combination/sub-genre/something I forgot would that be?

Thanks for playing!

Okay, fine. If I were to name a character after you, what name shoild I give him/her/it?

So two or three nights ago I was lying awake in the middle of the night trying to fall asleep and a single thought popped into my head:

I don't want to go back to SF State.

And normally I would think this was just some strange moodiness and shrug it off, but I don't know that it was. It was a very calm, peaceful thought, and it was not accompanied by a crying fit or an angry conversation or anything like those thoughts are usually accompanied by.

So now I am stuck with a dilemma: should I ignore this thought, plan my schedule, and go finish my two degrees at SF State and just get it over with? Should I try to get my tuition refunded, pull out for a semester, and transfer somewhere else in the Spring? Should I go back to LasPo and get another AA in something more useful that Theater, like English or Criminal Justice?

I imagine much of this is because my summer so far has been completely unproductive, on top of the fact that I can't find a job and I haven't gotten my driver's license and SF State keeps cutting classes, making it dificult to plan my semester. But I also feel very disconnected at SF State - it's like when I first started at LasPo and I was sixteen and didn't know how to be in the "real world", except that now I'm almost twenty-one and I should know how to be in the real world because I have been in it.

And this all comes back around to my primary issue. I'm incredibly "book smart" but have no useable skill set for anything outside of academia. This makes even the simplest of things like getting a job, picking a major, and being productive very difficult. I could be improving skills like sewing, karate, webbuilding, etc., but instead I've been sitting and reading all summer. I haven't even been writing, which is killing me, because I want to, but I can't seem to find a starting place and I can't self-motivate to find the discipline to do it.

And now we bring this back around to another one of those nagging college questions, namely, if I want to "be a writer" when I grow up, should I be pursuing a creative writing degree? Would that jump-start me to getting some of this stuff out of my head and onto paper, or would it just kill everything?

More questions than answers, and unfortunately whining in my journal is not resolving anything.

Well, that sucked. My sibs got back from camp last Saturday, and brought with them some sort of plague that infected the entire family. So, we all spent the last week quarantined in the house with a variety of symptoms which were different for every person. Now we're down to a few residual coughs (and the Ague for me, because it couldn't be easy). Bleh.

And now, I'm going to watch something and maybe try making some jewelry. Or something.

Since I haven't been around much that last six months (at least), this seemed like a good one to do...

The problem with LiveJournal is that we think we're close, but really, we know nothing about each other.

So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me, something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about, or something you've always been curious about but have never asked, or something completely silly that you'd like me to answer for kicks. No limits on the range of questions, either: ask me anything you want to know about, whether it's a fannish opinion or a question about a fic of mine or trivia about my real life or my thoughts on events in the offline world.

As as many questions as you like, of whatever nature.

(And before anyone is a smart-aleck, I'm wearing pink underwear, kthx.)

Went up to Napa (well, technically St. Helena) with Tom and Vanitha today so I could be introduced to Pat at V. Sattui and we could talk about the stuff were helping with in trade for getting to shoot at the winery for free. It went well, she liked our ideas, and we left feeling really good about the whole thing. We made arrangements to go back up the week after we shoot to help make a digital archive of all these historical photos and newspaper articles and such that the winery's owner has. (There were Italian newspapers from 1907 with the family's name in the articles! 1907!)

Then we stopped by Erik and Heather's for a second to introduce Vanitha, pickup/drop off some stuff, and see that Emma has developed to normal baby size since last time I saw her. She's two months old now, and I think I last saw her at...maybe ten days old? She's still adorable.

And then we got lunch and came home, and Mom and I ran to the chiropractor since, as anticipated, my back was out. We ran through the mall, determined that all the dresses at JC Penny's suck (at least, for my body type), and got a present for my brother for his birthday. We followed that up with a long trip to Safeway, where I got a copy of the Anthony Andrews Ivanhoe because it was too random to pass up.

I found a dress online which might work for me, I have work this weekend which may not be great but will provide a paycheck, I am enjoying my book(s), and my mood is much better than it has been in quite a long time.

Despite the fact that this probably seems atrociously boring to anyone who is just reading it, today was a really good day. Hopefully tomorrow is as good.

Was supposed to go in to work with my dad this morning, but overslept. This turned out not to be a bad thing, since I would have had to come home earliy even had I gone in with him, thanks to the ague coming on with a vengeance even without the help of caffine. *sigh* Some of the stuff I can do from home through, and then I'll go in on Thursday, and I work at LVPAC on Friday and Sunday. It's not as good as finding a real job yet, but it's something.

I need a new layout and an icon revamp. I may end up just going back to the Burn Notice one for a while. It's nice and summery, and the new season starts this week anyway.

Also, I have watched way to much Law & Order (SVU and CI, mostly) and NCIS lately. I need to start doing productive things.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII have to get up at ridiculous o'clock am tomorrow to get to bloody Oakland to report for jury duty. Because of course, I would be in the first group called. This is karmic retribution for deferring my first summons ever last year, isn't it? (It was the first day of school! I couldn't report!)

But! I did go over to the library finally and got my card renewed. And then I walk arounf for half-an-hour discovering that apparently either someone else in the city is reading the first book of almost every series I wanted to start checking out, or else the library refuses to let people actually start at the beginnings of series. *sigh* But I found one of the several I was looking for, so it's okay. And I'll have something to take to bloody Oakland with me.

I made my appointment with the DMV to renew my permit yet again (fourth time's the charm?) and this time get a CA State ID so that the not having a driver's licence won't be such an issue. It's not 'til the 19th, which is much later than I wanted, but I didn't feel like hunting for an office farther away with an earlier date available. Besides, it should be a quick appointment.

And now, to bed. Or at least to turn-all-electronics-off-and-read-if-you-are-going-to-stay-awake-any-longer. Because yeah, ridiculous o'clock am, multiple times this week.

I have a character burning a hole in my brain, but his story just won't get onto the paper. Curses!

((This entry brought to you by the disconnect between my brain and my hand.))

Watermark script is done, yay! Now I can go back to not having to think about that particular element of the project for a minute.

This is how lame my life is right now: the most immediate things I need to do are finish up some cross-stich patterns and mend a bunch of my summer clothes. Pathetic, right?

However, I did learn that the Bao dim sum that Costco sells are excellent and can become a regular fixture of out fridge. Which probably means that Costco will stop stocking them, because every time we find something we really like, they stop carrying it. Except my bottled Starbucks Mocha thingies, because the corporate demons keep them on the shelves.

Okay, going to do mending now.

This morning I turned in my last essay and took my last final, so I am now finally finished for the semester. Yay! I am completely exhausted and will probably spend tomorrow sleeping and watching way to much TV in celebration of my not having to get up at 6am every single day anymore. At least, for a while.

We're continuing to move ahead with the Watermark trailer project. The script is almost finished, and on Saturday we're taking a mini road-trip to scout locations at the castle. Yes, that's right, we're filming at a castle. This project is way intense.

I am job hunting, and I have come to realize that I have absolutely no marketable skill set nor any useful experience for the real-world job market. That, and when you're job hunting in a recession, even restocking positions need three plus years experience to qualify. I'm looking around at a lot of possibilities of tutoring jobs, because at least that seems like something in demand that I would be able to actually do.

Oh, I did not get called back for Twelfth Night next fall at SFSU, but I did get into Metamorphoses (the Zimmerman version) this summer at LPC! That's going to be fun, and it's been a year since I've been on stage (except for Brown Bag, but that was barely two weeks and I played a tree XD).

And that was my really boring update to kick-start me back into updating. I need to start just posting every day, even if it's boring, just to get in the habit.