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Day 24 – Betaing – How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?

I don't have any ideal number, really. For most stories, I don't even use a beta since I can usually catch most of my grammar goofs by myself. I mostly just use betas for multi-parts, and that's only if somebody is actually interested in beta-ing. If not, no biggie. I can go it alone.

As for beta stories...hmm. Most of my experiences with betas have been pretty positive, but I remember way back when I was starting out, I asked somebody at ASMR to beta the first chapter of a Sailor Zodiacs story I had begun writing. By the time she finally got back to me, it was months later (like probably half a year later), and I had already decided to scrap that story, deciding to turn that first chapter into an AU Silver Millennium fic called The Legend, which I had already posted. What's more, if I remember correctly, I don't think she even gave me any corrections. She just told me the story was good. It took over six months to read over one (fairly long, but not monstrous) chapter and tell me it was good, and that's all!? Yeah, that was pretty ridiculous. 

Days To Come )
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Okay, first some good news: Starlight Pops is back! Yay! I guess there was just some problems with the site the day I tried to access it or something.

However, speaking of site problems, ASMR is still acting wonky, so I decided to just go ahead and look for alternate links for the stories I like. I actually managed to find quite a bit of them at FF.net and other fairly major SM archives, but there are still a handful of fics I'm looking for. I really would prefer links, as I want to post the links at my websites, but if you happen to have some saved on your harddrives and wouldn't mind sending a me a copy for my personal collection, that'll be great, too. (Even better if you happen to be the author -- yes, some of you are on here -- or know the author and can give/get me permission to host them.)

The List )


Thanks a lot, guys!
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Gaaaaah!

Man, what is wrong with Freewebs? I've been using them for about three years now to host my websites with little to no problems, but just trying to update Yume no Kagami this week was enough to drive me bonkers. I had to keep signing in every time I wanted to upload a picture, sometimes files would mysteriously come up "not found" when I wanted to update them, only to be fine the next time I opened it, and the worst thing of all was that one of the fanfic pages somehow got erased -- not once, but twice. The second time was no big deal, since I had the new page saved, but the first time it happened, I had to try to recreate it from a very old (2003) version I had saved, my new "Recommended Reading" page for the new website, and my FF.net favorites list. It so didn't help matters that ASMR is on the fritz again. (It better come back! I'm going to be so p.o.'d if it decided to disappear forever just when I was seriously considering saving some stories to my hard drive. Not to mention the links! Grr.) I think I managed to recreate most of it, but I know there are some stories at ASMR that I missed.

Well, anyway, I was planning to post my new sites tomorrow, but I think I should probably wait a few days and hope that Freewebs fixes the problems with their site.
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As some of you may or may not have noticed, for the past few days, I have been going through all my past entries in here and tagging them so this journal is a bit more organized. Well, as I was working, I came across this old meme about fanfiction that I thought would be interesting to post again, especially since I only got one reply last time.

[x]Tell me which fic of mine is your favorite and a lengthy explanation as to why.
[x]Tell me which new chapter you are most looking forward to and a lengthy explanation as to why.
[x]Tell me what you think my strengths as a writer are.



Wow, with all those challenge entries, it really makes it look like I've written a lot.

In other news, Ultramaniac is an adorable series. ^_^ It kind of got off to a slow start, but now things are really picking up. I think it has the potential to become one of my new favorites. (For those who don't know what it is about, it is about this teenage witch from the Magic Kingdom named Nina who is sent to the Human World to train her powers and find the five Holy Stones so that she can become princess of the kingdom.)

Also, Against the Rules just reached over one hundred reviews over at ff.net. Yay!
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As I mentioned in a previous entry, for the past few weeks, I've been rereading Sailor Moon 4200 in preparation for the posting of Ch. 13, which sounds like it might be up by next week, according to Angus' blog. (Yay!) Well, I finally finished reading Ch. 12 yesterday, and now I have a new theory as to who I think the new Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen are.

My original guess, which I posted on a thread at ASMR a long time ago, was Beth and Iku's friend Nanako was the new Sailor Moon, based on the fact that Beth and Iku are kind of outcasts, and I thought it was an Usagi thing to do for Nanako to befriend them. While I still think there's a slight possibility that it may be her, I'm almost certain that it is someone else. (Besides, I cannot imagine her boyfriend Eitoku as the new Tuxedo Kamen, and I've never really bought into the whole "Mark looks like a Claver Mamoru, so he might be his reincarnation" thing because it is just too obvious.)

So, who do I think are the new Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen?

Kin and Liam.

Here are the clues that make me think that:

- Miyo thinks that Mark looks like Mamoru. However, Liam is described several times as looking a lot like Mark, so if Mark looks like Mamoru and Liam looks like Mark, then Liam should look like Mamoru as well.

- Kin has golden blonde hair, just like Usagi.

- Ami and Makoto, the former Mercury and Jupiter, went to the same middle school as Usagi. Dhiti and Miyo, the new Mercury and Jupiter, go to the same high school as Kin. (Well, Miyo had to withdraw from the school in Ch. 12, but you get what I mean.)

- In one scene, it says that Artemis is sleeping somewhere close to the new Sailor Moon. At that time, he is sleeping at Dhiti's. Though it is never mentioned where Kin lives, I don't think it is that far off the mark to assume that her house is somewhere near Dhiti's, especially considering that they go to the same school.

- Kin's name means "gold," which I think might be meant to be ironic considering that Sailor Moon is always associated with silver. (Silver Crystal, Silver Millennium, etc.)

- And the number one reason I suspect them: Kin and Liam are dating, yet Kin keeps getting mad at Liam for something he does that he doesn't realize he's doing and the reader is not privy to. My guess is that he sometimes accidentally calls her "Usa-ko," which would certainly upset Kin.

I'm about 95% certain that Liam and Kin are the new Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor Moon, but I have to admit there are two things that make me hesitate to go to a hundred percent. The first thing is the fact that when Itsuko gets a vision of the new Sailor Moon, it seems as if she knows the girl, and Itsuko has never met Kin that we know of. Out of the three top candidates for the new Sailor Moon -- Kin, Nanako, and Ochiyo -- that does give more credence to the idea that Ochiyo is the new Sailor Moon, since she's the only one Itsuko knows, but eh... Ochiyo just never made much sense to me as the new Sailor Moon for some reason. And the second reason is that in the two scenes involving the new Sailor Moon, it really sounds to me as if she's the reincarnated Chibi-Usa, not Usagi. (I believe she calls herself the "heir to the throne of Crystal Tokyo.") So, if Kin is the reincarnated Chibi-Usa, and she's dating the reincarnated Mamoru, well... That would just be wrong. Then again, Chibi-Usa was the first to die, long before the others, so I don't think it is entirely likely that Neo-Queen Serenity was able to send her ahead.

In any case, I guess we'll see once the new chapter comes up. ^_^ Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!
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Okay, so I finished my ficlets for sm_monthly a couple of weeks ago and now want to start to posting them at the various archives. The problem? I can't decide how I want to do it at FF.net. I'm going to post them all separately over at .moon, since it has that nifty vignettes section, and I'm planning to post them all under one title (Dream Lovers) over at ASMR, but I just can't decide what to do at FF.net.

Here are the choices:

- Post them all as separate stories.

- Post them all together under the Dream Lovers title.

- Post them all together under the Dream Lovers title, but group them into chapters, based on what canon they're based on.

- Separate them by canon, but post them (the group) as separate stories.

- Post most of them separately, but post all the really short ones (basically, the ones which would be in the vignettes section at .moon) under one title. (I'd probably take the ones based on my AU Only Human canon and post them as a separate story as well, if I did this.)

Gah! I can't choose! If anybody has an opinion, I'd love to hear it. ^_^ Thanks!
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Well, it's been a while since I really talked about anything fanfic related in here, so here's what has been going on.

I finished my first Kaleido Star short called Birth of a Dream a couple of weeks ago, although I just got around to posting it today. It's posted up at FF.net and ASMR at the moment and will be up at .moon at the next update. I'm mostly happy with it, but the ending isn't that great. Then again, when am I ever happy with endings?

I also finally made the choice between my two crossover ideas. I ended up choosing the Kaleido Star fic, which I'm calling Fire and Ice at the moment, but I'll probably be changing it to a less cliche title later. I think I probably need to give Witch Hunter Robin at least one more viewing before I would really feel comfortable writing my SM/WHR crossover. The KS fic seems to be going well at the moment, though. I think I'm finished with the first chapter. Don't know when I'll start posting it, though. That reminds me, I know there aren't a lot of people out there who have watched Kaleido Star yet -- which I highly recommend -- but if anybody happens to be interested in editing the story, feel free to drop a line. As long as you don't mind spoilers, you don't really need to be that familiar with canon since it takes place many years after the series ends and focuses on a pseudo-OC. (Yume appears in canon, but only as a baby.)

Other than that, I've actually been tossing around an idea for an Angelic Layer fic. I don't know if anything will come of it, but we'll see. 

Lessee, what else has been going on? Oh, I finished watching the Azumanga Daioh anime yesterday. Very funny show. And...well, that's pretty much it, I guess.

I live a very boring life.

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...when you get an idea for a story your muses are begging you to write, yet because it is a post-canon story and you haven't finished watching/reading/playing/etc. the source material, you can't write anything?

This weekend, while I was watching one of the DVDs from my Kaleido Star boxset, I was suddenly struck by the inspiration to write a KS fic. The problem? It's going to take place about five years after the series ends and I haven't seen the entire series yet (or found many spoilers). :( The fifth disc of the second season will be coming out sometime later this month, I believe, but who knows when the last one will come out. Probably the beginning of next year, which doesn't help me now. I know I could just make it AR or try writing it now and waiting until the series is finished to correct any mistakes with canon I made, but... *sigh*




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The first season Kaleido Star boxset I ordered (instead of the manga I originally planned to buy with my gift card) came in today! Yay! Now I can watch my favorite anime any time I want.

In other news, I also finished with Fire Emblem 7, another game Samuraiter sent me. It was definitely more difficult than FE8, but still a lot of fun to play. ^_^ It's back to writing next week, though. I've taken a long enough break from that.

Speaking of fics, I've uploaded Ch. 4 of ATR over at ASMR, FF.net, and .moon, if anybody's interested.
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You know what I just realized? Yesterday was my fourth anniversary at ASMR.

Does anybody happen to know what's going on there? I haven't been able to get on all day. It keeps saying that it can't find the site. Man, that would suck if yesterday was the last day for ASMR, although also kinda cool in a way, since I would be one of the last of the members who could claim that they were there for four years.

Well, hopefully, whatever it is, it'll be fixed soon. I don't post there as much as I used to, but it would still be sad if it's gone forever. (Not to mention most of the links I have posted in the "Library" section of my website would be broken...)

And now...some random quizzes!

You Are Apple Red

You're never one to take life too seriously, and because of it, you're a ton of fun.
And although you have a great sense of humor, you are never superficial.
Deep and caring, you do like to get to the core of people - to understand them well.
However, any probing you do is light hearted and fun, sometimes causing people to misjudge you.


You Are Jan Brady

Brainy and a little introverted, you tend to think life is a lot worse than it actually is.
And while you may think you're a little goofy looking, most people consider you to be a major babe.


You Are Scooter

Brainy and knowledgable, you are the perfect sidekick.
You're always willing to lend a helping hand.
In any big event or party, you're the one who keeps things going.
"15 seconds to showtime!"
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I finally got the first chapter of Against the Rules submitted to the various archives where I post (ASMR, ff.net, .moon, and SMF). It would have been done earlier, but I had the worse time trying to come up with a summary. I'm still not that fond of the one I decided on, but I guess it will do. For those who have been looking forward to it, I hope you like it. ^_^

Nothing much else has been going on, writing-wise. I managed to write a Yui and Ami scene for Ch. 3 that isn't too bad, so yay me, I guess. Too bad the rest of the chapter still sucks.

Oscars are tonight! Here's a list of my picks that I posted over at .moon a couple of weeks ago. Even though I have seen Walk the Line and Corpse Bride since I first made the list, my original choices still stand.

Best Movie
Brokeback Mountain

Best Director
Ang Lee

Best Actor
Joaquin Phoenix

Best Actress
Felicity Huffman

Best Supporting Actor
Paul Giamatti

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams

Best Animated Film
Howl's Moving Castle

Best Animated Short
One Man Band

Best Live Action Short Film
Cashback

Best Original Screenplay
Good Night, and Good Luck

Best Adapted Screenplay
Brokeback Mountain

Best Score
Munich

Best Original Song
"In the Deep"

Best Art Direction
Memoirs of a Geisha

Best Cinematography
The New World

Best Costume Design
Pride and Prejudice

Best Documentary
March of the Penquins

Best Documentary Short Subject
The Mushroom Club

Best Editing
Crash

Best Foreign Language Film
Don't Tell

Best Make-up
Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith

Best Sound Editing
King Kong

Best Sound Mixing
War of the Worlds

Best Visual Effects
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
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...but I was actually able to keep my inspiration for the Fruits Basket fic alive through the weekend. I'm working on it right now. ^_^

Well, kind of. It's not the exact same idea I had Friday night. I originally wanted to do this whole multi-part story about Hatori and Mayu's romance, but fortunately, I came to my senses before I got started. I think it's pretty clear that with the trouble I've been having with Against the Rules and on-probably-permanent-hiatus Only Human that romance is definitely not my strong suit when it comes to writing. I didn't need to start yet another chaptered romance that I probably would never finish.

So, the solution? I'm writing a cute Mayu/Hatori ficlet about their first kiss. ^_^ (But no, they aren't going to be close enough for her to learn his secret. That I want to save in case I ever do decide to write that multi-part, since Mayu learning about the curse was going to be a big part of it.)

It's actually going really well so far. I'm having a lot of fun writing from Mayu's first-person point of view, which is rather suprising considering that we really don't have a lot in common.

I might even be able to finish it by midweek if my enthusiasm holds up, though I'm thinking I'll wait a little closer to Valentine's Day to post it.

Speaking of Valentine's Day, don't forget about the ASMR Valentine's/White Day challenge if you're planning to enter. Due date for entries is February 10th, so you don't have much longer.
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In all the talk about my holiday, I forgot to mention that I won the ASMR Holiday Challenge I started. (The entries were anonymous and the voting public, so it was fair.) I wasn't expecting that, but it wasn't as if the competition was really tough. If only Chaos had officially entered and Dejana and KihinRanno's muses had been cooperative, as well as some others... Now, that would have been a contest. ^_^ Still, it's a nice little ego boost for me, and now I'm thinking about starting a Valentine's Day/White Day challenge, but I probably won't announce that until after New Year's, at least.

I also posted a Someday's Dreamers ficlet over at FF.net (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2718614/1/) and at my website called The Most Important Lesson. (Yeah, I know I said I was going to try to think up a more interesting title than the original, but I ended up choosing an even more boring one that fit the story best.) It's just a short Oyamada introspective, but I like it, and the two people who've reviewed it so far seem to as well. ^_^ I also just submitted it to ASMR to the General Anime Fanfiction section, but I'm not expecting many people to read it. I need to find the thread where somebody mentioned they would be interested in reading my Someday's Dreamers fics and tell her I finally posted one. I'm thinking that was Syrinx.
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Just got finished reading (and singing) Lianne and Amethist's Psychotic Sailor Moon Christmas Carols as I do every year around this time, and I'm happy to report that they're just as hilarious as they've always been. ^_^

Poor Michiru... They've really got it in for her.

Anyway, what to talk about... Well, I got the third disc of Cowboy Bebop in yesterday from Netflix. Unfortunately, I found the episodes on it rather boring. This series seems to be really uneven to me when it comes to liking it. I didn't really care for the first disc, loved the second one, and now the third one is blah. Weird.

On the writing front, I'm still pretty blocked on ATR so I've been taking Samuraiter's advice and working on one of the other stories that I've put on the back burner. The story I chose to work on is actually the first Someday's Dreamers story I started, even before FF.net made a section for it. I set it aside at the time because I didn't really like what I had written, but after rereading it again after a few months, I realize it's really not that bad. It's not really that good either, but it's decent enough, I suppose. I've rewritten the first part, tweaked the second and third parts, and I'm just about done with the last part, so I'm almost positive I'll be finished with it by Christmas. Hey, I may even finish it up today, so yay me!

Speaking of Christmas and writing, the entries for the ASMR Holiday Challenge are due today, so if you're planning to enter, please send it in. I was really hoping for more entries than the six already posted... *sigh*
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Christmas shopping is officially done.

Our first stop was Best Buy, where Mom proceeded to go DVD-crazy. ^_^ Seriously, I think she bought like five or six DVDs, plus a cheap Dean Martin Christmas CD she wanted for one song. I also picked out the Pretear boxset for one of my gifts, which was amazingly cheap. Remember a vent I made at ASMR a couple of months ago talking about how it would be cheaper to go ahead and buy the boxset instead of buying the two more DVDs I need as singles (which go for about $27 each)? Well, the boxset I found at Best Buy ended up cheaper than one single DVD. Twenty-three dollars! Twenty-three dollars for thirteen episodes! How much of a deal is that? Over at B&N's website, the same boxset (or so I assume) is $35, and I thought that was a deal. I wonder why there's so much of a difference in prices...

Speaking of boxsets, Pretear wasn't the only good deal I found at Best Buy, although I only got the one set since Mom only had sixty dollars set aside to spend on my presents. :( The Angelic Layer and Neon Genesis Evangelion Platinum Collection boxsets were also way under their listed B&N prices. Over at the B&N website, they go for around $45 and $80 respectively. Their Best Buy prices? About thirty-eight dollars for Angelic Layer and fifty-eight dollars for Evangelion. O.o With those prices, I might go ahead and buy them myself (at least Evangelion; I really like Angelic Layer, but it's not one of my absolute favorites).

Remind me to always check Best Buy first before I order any more anime from B&N.

Our next stop was Deerbrook Mall, namely Barnes & Noble. Mom bought Laura a couple of sweaters and a Hershey's Kiss pillow from J.C. Penney, but I spent most of my time in the manga section of B&N. ^_^ Unfortunately, they only had the second and third volumes of RahXephon in stock, so I didn't get to buy anything for myself. I did, however, pick out the newest volumes of Ayashi no Ceres and Fushigi Yugi, as well of two volumes of Fruits Basket, for Christmas, so I'll be almost caught up on my series. ^_^ I just need to find Vol. 9 of Fruits Basket, but since I've read the scanlations, I'm not in that big of a rush.

After we finished up at the mall, we then went to Wal-mart for groceries and I got presents for Crystle and Hunter. (Family gifts were already taken care of.) I think they're really going to like them. For Crystle, I got her a matching scarf and hat set, along with a pair of really cute frog-covered (she likes frogs ^_^) toe socks that say "Kiss Me," and for Hunter, I bought a Mr. Potato Head and Spud Buds set. Every kid needs a Mr. Potato Head, right? (Funnily enough, I don't think I ever did. Maybe that's why the moment I saw it, I was like, "Okay, Hunter has to have this.") I just hope they get them in time for Christmas. Mom says she probably won't have time to go to the post office to send them until Thursday when she's off. *sigh* This is what I get for waiting too long to pick something out.

Oh, yeah, and Mom bought some more DVDs. ^_^

The sucky thing, though, is that I didn't know that Numb3rs was going to be a new episode tonight, so by the time we finally got home, it was almost over. I only caught the last fifteen minutes. *pouts* I was willing to miss Ghost Whisperer, but if I knew Numb3rs was going to be new and we weren't going to make it home in time, I wouldn't have gone. Oh, well, I guess I'll just have to hope to catch it in reruns.

Whee!

Dec. 2nd, 2005 09:51 am
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I finally finished the last of the episode summaries for my Someday's Dreamers site, as well as the mini episode summaries for my SuperS site. (I originally planned to do full summaries, but about half way through, I decided there were too many episodes to do full in-depth summaries for each one.) At least my writer's block was good for something. ^_^ Now, the basics of my websites are pretty much finished. I still plan to eventually write manga summaries for the SD manga when it comes out and I might do mini summaries for the SuperS specials and the Nehelenia arc of SailorStars as well, but at least I have the really major stuff done. I can't wait to finally work on some fun stuff, like making wallpapers/avatars and maybe writing some essays. I've been putting them off until I finished with the basics.

In other news, I still haven't gotten over my block with ATR, but I am almost finished with my entry for the holiday challenge I started. Heh, I think I must have been hormonal yesterday because I started crying while I was working on it, and it's not even a sad scene. A little touching, I suppose, but nothing to really start tearing up over. Or maybe it's writing Christmas stories in general that make me cry, because I remember I cried while working on The Star of Christmas as well. *shrugs* Then again, I wrote some Christmas scenes for ATR and...nothing. The world may never know.

Quizzes )
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Lord Chaos wrote me a Christmas story!

Actually, he wrote it for the ASMR Holiday Challenge I started, but since he didn't want it to be entered in the contest, he gave it to me and allowed me to post it on "Yume no Kagami". I have an exclusive Lord Chaos story -- how cool is that? ^_^

The story is sort of sequel to Earth*ling, and it's called Strangers in Bethlehem. If anybody would like to read it, it can only be found at "Yume no Kagami" (link found under "Info") on the "Specials" page.

BTW, I hope everybody who is reading this and still posts at ASMR will enter the contest. It's only two thousand words and you have until the 20th of next month. *puppy dog eyes* Please? Pretty please with a candy cane on top?

In other news, I watched the first disc of A Little Snow Fairy Sugar last night. Soooo cute!
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It turns out that blue has the complete Someday's Dreamers scanlations.

Gah, where was this information all those months ago when I was driving myself crazy trying to find the last couple of chapters? I knew I should have made a post about it over at ASMR, but since I didn't have any luck finding the scanlations myself and it's not exactly a well-known title, I didn't think anybody else would either.

Oh well. She offered to send me the chapters I'm missing, but since it'll be released officially in English in a few months, I declined. As long as I get some spoilers, which she promised to send me once she got a chance to reread it, I'll be happy. ^_^ Besides, I kinda like having a reason to buy it other than supporting the series. Gives me something to look forward to.
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No, I haven't broken through my writer's block yet, unfortunately. -_-;

But I have come up with an idea that I hope will perk up some of the writers over at ASMR.

What is it, you ask?

<.<

>.>

Not telling. :P

Y'all will find out what it is on Thanksgiving, or the day afterwards at the latest, so be on the look out for a post by me in "Writer's Headquarters."

I'm so cruel... Hehe.

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