not_alone has posted the next section of her wondrous pictorial series, "A Journey with Frodo".

Part 30: The SAG Awards of March 2002
http://not-alone.livejournal.com/101405.html

And I have a question. Just what did Galadriel mean when she told Frodo she would diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel. Diminish to what?

ETA: I just saw a TV ad for a "Double Latte Peppermint" body lotion. Goodness, how do pets keep from being confused when their humans change their scents so often, especially if they mimic food-scents?

Good morning runners! Happy weekend! Here's the daily training thread!

I had a GREAT workout on the track last night (in significantly less than ideal conditions) as sort of a tune-up for tomorrow's 5k. It was the first time I wore my Brooks T6 racers and HOLY CRAP(!) I'm in love. Today I'll just do an easy/recovery paced 4-5 mile shakeout and maybe some strides at the end.

So what is everyone else up to today, training and otherwise?

Question! I'm in charge of Thanksgiving dinner this year. So I need recipes and cooking suggestions! Anything from the starters to the dessert is welcome and appreciated!

Also, I'd like to send out a BIG GOOD LUCK to kara_called, kelj99, tia1982, erismichelle, hbfs, and any other runners who are racing this weekend or otherwise going for some manner of PR!

If you figure out the relevance here, you're quite a wit. Enjoy:


Discuss... and HAPPY RUNNING!

I love that name.

Apparently he isn't as bad about signing autographs as I thought he was. He was ranked #2 in the Toronto Film Festival's autograph signing rank. He just refuses to sign with a blue pen since autograph sellers have them XD Hmm. Must remember this next time I see him (there will be a next time *nod*)

So, anyways, two crappy pictures that show that I need to stop toting around my huge camera when it's going to be dark because I can't take pictures without a sweet flash to save my life. Time to invest in a cheap, fits-in-your-purse-takes-pictures-in-the-dark camera.





He does not look like he's 50. At all.

And I still will not forget the little head nod and thank you he gave me (I said he was an artistic inspiration, which he is, doing all that arts and going on with his bad self)... such a nice guy! I would love to go to one of his gallery showings. I'll have to keep an eye on when they're around, now that I have the ability to actually drive down to LA whenever I want...

Well, this is sizing up to be interesting. I took a pic of my room, it is very narrow and very long.

The con had nothing set up for program participants, no packet, no name-tag or name plate, no itinerary, etc. I even had to re-fill out a registration form and make a badge by hand (all participants had to do that). I was given no info from the con about parking, checking in, etc. There is no green room or con suite, the hotel allows NO parties. By about midnight everything is dead. and the hotel has NO parking! I got a $25 dollar parking ticket while I found that out. I am parked 3 blocks away at a parking garage, and I had to make 2 trips to bring all my stuff back to the hotel from my car.

On the good side, I like the general vibe of the con, it reminds me of a the feel of cons when i was younger. Met a few new people too. Tomorrow will really determine how much i like this con. It is going to have to be alot for me to come back though.

A couple of weeks ago I was up to running over 3 miles (my longest run being 4 miles). It was difficult, but I could do it (I have a 5K coming up on December 5th). However, the last two times I've been out running I've barely made it half that distance before hitting the wall and having to walk. Its not like I've taken any time off or anything and I can't understand how I've regressed so fast. Tonight, I just got back home after running a measely 1.5 miles.

It has gotten colder here in Boston, but I don't think that is to blame. Is this normal? Do you have to take a couple of steps back to get ahead again?

Here I thought I've made it so far only to realize that I have a very long way still to go.

A couple of weeks ago I posted that I thought my Cheddar might be pregnant and wanted to know if you guys thought the same. Well, so far we haven't been blessed and I thought it would have happened by now. The thing is, I went back and counted 10 weeks from the day I brought her home to find out my guess was off. Ten weeks from September 16th is November 25th so I have a little wait yet before I can say positively one way or the other.

However, I'm becoming more and more sure that she is pregnant. Plus, I think I've started to feel some movement recently. She is visibly bigger since the last photos were taken. She's starting to make pudgy little Icicle look twiggy. I'm really going to try to find a scale this weekend so I can monitor her weight. I keep trying to remind myself to get one, but every time I come home from a store that sells them I've forgotten to pick on up. I really need to keep an eye on this though. If she isn't pregnant than she's gaining weight way too fast to be healthy.

( New pictures and side-by-side comparison shots )

I dunno. If she isn't pregnant then I'm going to have to think of a way to keep her weight under control. She's really a lot wider than the other girls.

Title: Hallelujah
Fandom: Death Note
Characters: Matt, Mello
Genre: Angst, Romance, Drama
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Language, mentions of sex, first person POV, religion
Word Count: 2644
Series: 365 Kisses
Summary: Matt doesn't understand the concept of a god who won't even save his best friend and the boy he's in love with.
Disclaimer: I don't own it. DAMN.
A/N: So much angst with this one and it's even written in the first person, which is one of my major pet peeves. But, oh well. XD And just so's you know, no I'm not a God religion, in fact I'm Catholic and merely used him in the context of how I think Matt would consider him. So yeah. Please, please, don't take offense or call up the priest to come and exorcise me or anything.

(I want to touch those hips and make them mine)

hi!

I've been running a steady 27-28min 5k now for about two months (prior to that I did the c25k program). So running for about 4 months total at this point. I'm in a position where I am running 5k comfortably but not mega fast, so I'm wondering if I should start to focus on running it faster, or if I should think about adding mileage to my daily runs? At what point did you start to run beyond 5k? Should I be running it in 25 minutes and then try to add miles? As a novice runner, I'm not really sure where to go from here!

Thanks so much for your insight.

xoxo
Melissaaaaa

Let's engage in a little thought experiment.

What if Gollum, in a fit of repentant shame, had not shut Sam up when he was yelling to Frodo "Look out! The spider's back!"

Assuming that Frodo and Sam manage to make their way out of there alive, then what?

Sam gets his hands on Gollum at Mount Doom and kills him, because he hasn't had the Ring and thus cannot pity him. Then he sees Frodo, who's claimed the Ring himself, and Wow, it'd sure be great to have someone here who could maybe see invisible!Frodo and bite his finger off, thus destroying the Ring, saving the world, and saving Frodo, wouldn't it?

Suddenly, the whole "Shelob's Lair/Frodo is dead oh noes/Not really, let's go bust him out in a supreme display of Awesome" sequence makes a whole lot more sense. No, folks, Tolkien wasn't just throwing more plot points at you just for the heck of it; this sequence was necessary so that Sam's character could develop far enough to spare Gollum.

This is why I appreciate Tolkien so much on the plot level. Nothing is superfluous (not even Bombadil and the Barrow-downs, since both sequences do some very impressive character elucidation before Frodo gets incapacitated by a Morgul blade). And the easiest way to make sure that your plot is just as meticulous is to narrow the path that your characters must tread in order to reach your desired objective. Make it razor-thin, if possible.

If you need more good examples, take a look at any Shakespeare tragedy, and be on the lookout for points where if a character had done this or that differently, it would have had a happy ending (if only Romeo had monologued for five minutes longer...).

In fact, the setup works best when you have huge stakes at hand, when either outcome will be so powerful it will make you cry. Then you can have, without even trying, the overtones of Fate and Providence, guiding the tale to its end. But it can also work for smaller things, like the fate of a friendship or a romance. Making the path thin stresses that all of our actions have consequences, even the ones that we don't think matter.

There are other advantages to making the line between dyscatastrophe and eucatastrophe so thin. If your plot could cross from one to the other at any given moment, people reading it are going to be a lot more clued in. Try watching the romantic comedy Serendipity sometime. Even though we all know how it's going to end (because it's a romantic comedy) it is stressful just watching the darn thing because the characters keep on getting so ridiculously close to running into each other, but never quite do. But it's also very engaging.

If you don't have a longer work that you can try this with, try applying it to characters and their past and their personalities. Are your OCs polar opposites, or are they mostly the same except for one difference? If a couple of key conversations had gone properly, would Bilbo Baggins have married and settled down, and thus been unavailable for an expedition of burglary? Show me where it would have gone right--and then how it actually did go wrong.

Be aware of all the possibilities and AUs for your stories, even if you never write them out. Doing so will show you exactly what to do to make sure that what the story needs to happen happens.

~Sagitta

I watched "Toy Soldiers" last night, and I must say it was very different than I imagined. In the six years between "The Goonies" and this one, Sean Astin went from adorable to very handsome. And you can really see the evolution of his acting between this movie and "Rudy" a few years later. It was great to see Wil Wheaton in a strong role. There was a lot more violence than I anticipated, and there was one part (involving Wil Wheaton's character) when I had to look away from the screen. I had two problems with the movie, and one was the casting of Louis Gossett, Jr. For me, his portrayal seemed rather blah and one-note; not a strong enough persona for the dean of a 'wayward boys' school. My other beef was the end, which wrapped everything up too fast. Where was the grief and the exhaustion? Louis Gossett, Jr. was shot in the chest, and just needed a bandage and was pretty much fine? I would have liked to see a reunion between the boys and their friend who was spirited away at the beginning, and all the mixed emotions that would bring.

I couldn't remember where I saw Keith Coogan before, until I remembered that he was in one of my favorite movies, "Adventures in Babysitting".

But I did enjoy it; Sean did a good job. And it's always nice to sit back and enjoy a bare chest and towel scene and all that luxuriant hair. :)

Hi everybody, I am hoping to get some tips from you expert runners, I am a newbie so please be gentle. :)

Basically I really admire people who can run, and to me its like exercise with a purpose (other than losing weight that is), I love the idea of running 5ks, espeically ones for causes like here for example we have runs for Breast Cancer and stuff like that.

Anyways, so I am really new to running, meaning I've barely done it yet. I really want to sign up for a 5k that takes place here in April. Problem is, in addition to being a new runner, I am completely out of shape, so I get tired really easily.

My questions are:

1. Whats the best way to ease into a new running routine? How many days a week should I run? How long? My schedule is kinda all over the place, I have school/work and my work schedule is random, so I never really have specific days I am free, more like random alloted times. Should I just try to work around my schedule or is it better to try and have specific days/times you run?

2. Is April a realistic goal for someone new to running/out of shape to run a 5k or should I pick an event later on next year.

3. Any general tips to someone new to running?

My cousin ran the San Fransisco marathon this summer and it really inspiried me. So I definitly wanna give running a shot.

Sorry if something like this has been posted a lot, I know you can find tips online but I like hearing things from people.

Thanks!

Soon leaving for New England Fan Experience. http://www.nefanx.com/

I am not sure if I will have internet access but I will have my cell phone on me.

This con is really kinda weird. Last year they begged me so much to be a guest and they wanted to pay for my room, etc. I sadly had to turn them down because Philcon booked me 1st for that weekend. This year there was no conflict, but NEFE didn't seem very excited to have me. They aren't paying for my room (but I figured I should go anyway because I had to turn them down last year), and then they didn't have panels for me! They made me create panels myself, THEN I find out they aren't even panels, its me giving them as talks! (If I knew that before hand, I would have made the topics different) AND I wanted to be on the REPO! panel (and a few others in pop culture), the pop culture coordinator was in on all the e-mails between the NEFE people and myself, but he never said a word about any panels I wanted to be on. I am actually going to have to sneak onto the REPO! panel.

I have never had an experience like this before as a guest at a con. If things don't go very well, I probably won't come again. Also, not being able to go with anyone makes the cost pretty high for me.

Anyway, these are my panels:

Staying Healthy at Conventions
Host: Dr. James Prego, ND
Time: Friday 9pm Wilbur Colonial
Ok, you know the 5/3/1 rule, but what else is there? In this panel we discuss avoiding getting sick both at the con and directly after. We will also talk about how to navigate a convention without gaining 10 pounds over the weekend.

Ask the Doctor (aka Ask a Geek): Biology/Chemistry/Medicine
Host: Dr. James Prego, ND
Time: Saturday 11am Wilbur Colonial
If you have questions in any of these areas of science, or don't understand something you have been curious about, come to the panel and ask our experts to give you the answers you have been seeking. Please no requests to make a diagnosis ;)

Biology and Medicine in TV and Movies
Host: Dr. James Prego, ND
Time: Saturday 6pm Boardroom
What They Got Right and What They Got Wrong – Our panel discusses their favorite shows and movies (or the shows they love to hate), how they got the science right, how they got it wrong, and what could have been done better.

So last time I went running I had some interesting encounters. It made the run a lot more enjoyable in the ever freezing weather here in New Jersey.

For my usually run around the area, there is a part where I need to run in a wooded area for a bit. I tell you man, I had never heard so much random animals noises and scurrying in my life. I kept expecting something to just pop up cause it was just that loud.

So I finally get out of it, glad to have not been attacked by some random little critter. Good enough. So I keep on running and then I see a black squirrel! This is the first time I'd ever seen one before so I take it they are pretty random in New Jersey. Amused at this point I keep on running.


I continue running, nothing too exciting at this point. I look to the left of me, and I see a chicken.

Yeah a chicken. A pretty odd site in the suburban town I'm currently in but lo and behold I see a chicken just chilling there. At this point I'm like this run can't be getting any wilder.

As I am close to finishing, I'm feeling great. Almost there! Suddenly this huge bird comes flying out of nowhere. I easily get startled and almost afraid for a minute thinking this bird might go at me. It was this huge falcon just chilling there! I got pretty close to it to. I never realized they got that big. I can only imagine how big a bald eagle must be.

Finally I made it home, glad to have not been attacked. Although a run in the summer put me uncomfortably close to a black bear once. I think I've seen it all New Jersey has to offer.

So question for you guys, what are some weird/cool things you hAve seen while running?

So everyone knows what to do (or at least where to look) for couch to 5k advice, but that's not what I'm doing.

My last 4 races were either half or full marathons, I run 10ish miles 6ish days a week, but I'm evidently doing a 5k turkey trot in 2 weeks. I'd like to do as well as I can, but I have no idea how fast I should run at that distance, nor how to train for it.

The McMillan calculator says that I should aim for a 24:14 (a 7:48 pace)(I told it I ran a 3:56 marathon, since I could have done that if not for the Nor'Easter (I ended up with 4:01:11)).

That's only 2 minutes faster than the only 5k I ever raced, 3.5 years ago, when I was running about 1/4 as much as I am now.

I feel like I should be able to knock rather more than that off of my time from back then. Am I nuts? My 10 mile easy pace is 10:15-10:30, 10 mile tempo (I'm not sure I'm using that term correctly. A 10 mile run that is quick, but by no means all out) is about 8:20-8:15, my marathon race pace is about 9 even.

Any and all ideas about what I should aim for, and how best to achieve it (do you taper for a 5k?), would be welcome.

Thank you very much.

Good rainy Friday morning!

What's everyone up to this weekend, training-wise and otherwise?

For me, it's finally here: NCAA Division III Mideast Regionals. I've been thinking about this race for months, and now it's tomorrow. The weather isn't exactly what I'd have dreamed up (hurricane-y?), but in every other area, this season has exceeded my expectations. I'm fitter, stronger, and stronger than I've ever been in my career, and I'm ready to race well and run a good time tomorrow, even if the conditions are a total mess. And I can't wait. The taper seems to be working. Yesterday, we only ran for 20 minutes, and we have another 20 on tap today. I'm antsy and want to run lots RIGHT NOW, which seems right :)
So obviously me weekend plans are to race on Saturday, then a celebratory Italian dinner (with jakshadows, perfectstormpsu, and supermanz), and then an early night because supermanz is running a 5k on Sunday morning. Sunday night is our end-of-season party, which means that sometime on Sunday I will have a nervous breakdown over gift cards or dessert selection - but whatever, it always works out in the end :)

A big "Good Luck!" to everyone racing this weekend - kick some serious butt! And everyone who is training hard, you guys rock, too.

Have a great weekend, runners! :)

Edit: I can't embed this, but it's awesome - The Gloomers cause Friday the 13th

I ran again today. 3.75 uninterrupted miles in the pouring rain – get in! I felt a bit stiff and had a few niggles, but my foot felt fine and I think it's just because I've been sat on my ass for 4 weeks. I felt like I was going really slowly but when I got back calculated my pace I really wasn't. So yay to that!

This is only my second pain-free run since the Amsterdam marathon on 18th October, so it'd probably be really stupid to run a half marathon on Sunday, right? My boyfriend is running and I have to drive him but I really don't feel like tagging along as a groupie – it would be torture! He's going to try to smash his PB so I wouldn't even try to run with him, but I could take a relaxing jog round at the back and have a jolly good time, right?

On a scale of 1 to window licking(10), how insane would it be?

I have a dental appointment at noon today (that just sucks - can't each lunch before, so I will be hungry most of the day)
Need to pick up a card to give my honey tonight at dinner - its our 10 year anniversary today
Meet Phil for dinner at Table 31 in Center City
Write an exam for my paralegal class
sort through the stacks of papers in boxes or otherwise strewn throughout the house (okay, I'm a pack rat) that I will need later this month.

Hope everyone has a wonderful, dry weekend.

P.S. Two new fun words:
paraskavedekatriaphobia - fear that something tragic or ominous would happen on Friday 13th.
hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia - the fear of long words

Just out of interest, shit Lily needs to do over the next week:

-Translate at least the intro/chapter titles of the other four and a half Japanese language books I've borrowed (topic: representation of women esp. through gendered language); translate at least the abstract of four of the Japanese-language articles I've downloaded, hoping at least that many of them will be relevant; write a 100-character paragraph for one of the books I've already translated, plus all eight of the books/articles I haven't; work out what the fuck my actual question is and write an 800-character proposal about it.
Deadline: Sunday, 5pmish. Or maybe midnight! Or, who knows, considering I don't actually know where the hell we're supposed to submit it!

-Write a couple shortish letters to the editor (I'm thinking 300-400 characters) plus one-two longer world news articles of maybe two or three times that length. Must be funny!
Deadline: technically, Friday before the Japanese exam, but I suspect the rest of my group will be pissed if I leave it that long.

-Go over readings, listen to lecture recordings and possibly do background readings for two-three topics for my Modern Japanese Society exam (ENGLISH THANK GOD)
Deadline: Tuesday morning.

-Chase up the fucking pathology centre in fucking Dickson to get them to send me my fucking tuberculosis test results so I can send the fucking overdue forms to fucking North Carolina (seriously, I wasted not only an hour of my time this morning trying to get this done, but also incidentally caused a doctor here to have to try and chase this up herself for me, except she FAILED, and also I filled up an emergency appointment slot with this shit which I really shouldn't have done.
Deadline: Technically, three days ago! :D :D :D

-Do readings/listen to lecture recordings/do background reading on four topics for my Chinese history exam.
Deadline: Wednesday

-Sign, like, seven different forms about my exchange (including one that needs to be signed by the Asian Studies sub-dean, except he won't do that until he's seen prospective course outlines for what I might do next year, except most of the US people haven't replied to my email asking for them yet!)
Deadline: 1st of December, in theory, except they have to be handed in in person to the exchange office, and that's only open Tues-Thurs. And I leave on Saturday!

-Go over the last two topics we did in Japanese in detail, plus revise my notes on the first one, plus revise some fucking kanji because it's a no-dictionary exam and apparently I have lost the ability to remember how to actually write the things!
Deadline: Friday afternoon.

-Pack up all my shit and clean my room ready to move out.
Deadline: Saturday morning.

*SCREAMING*

dear pissy girl in the computer labs:

guess what? there are FIVE HUNDRED PEOPLE in b&g! and only about twenty-five computers in the labs! also, only about five or so of those are macs, and all the pcs are so old and shit that they don't even run flash player/freeze up all the time when lily is trying to look shit up in japanese.

that means that if you leave the computer labs for half an hour at the prime studying time in the middle of exams, while still logged into a mac, leaving your shit all over the desk... you're going to piss people off!

so don't get grumpy at ME when you come back in and find that a) someone has logged you out of the mac so they can use it (not me, in this case, though i did take advantage when i looked over and saw that they'd logged out and gone) and b) someone (me!) has pushed all your stuff to the back of the desk. IT WAS ALL THERE, i did not steal your thumbdrive or your bag or your earphones or anything, and hey, the person who logged you out didn't (as far as i know) steal any of your print quota either! there is no need to be so pissed off about it.

SERIOUSLY, who leaves all their stuff lying around in the computer labs for that? (wait, i know: fucking EVERYONE. ARGH.) it's so dumb though. like, going to the bathroom or to the kitchens for five-ten minutes to grab a drink or some food or something, i can understand, but i was in here for at least half an hour before she came back, trying to get a fucking shitty old pc to work.

hi im lukas and im dumb....and i smell also im rly fat

Meeting called to order at 8:33 PM

President’s Report: I’ve got some good news and I’ve got some bad news. The bad news is, I have no good news.

Vice President’s Report: CLEAN~ They deleted our mailbox, which is kind of weird… but we’re getting a new one.

Treasurer’s Report: DONATE~

Secretary’s Report: Why don’t more people like Stargate: Atlantis?!

Librarian’s Report: I’ve been putting some boxes on the shelves. I realise that it’s very easy to be distracted in the Forum, especially now that we have a television and a couch, but it’s November now and we really need to get this finished. If you even put half a box away whenever you come down, I bet we could be done by December. Go for later letters in the alphabet (e.g. L and onward) or you could shift shelves from the beginning to make shelving easier for us in the long run. So, in short: SHELVE.

Ian: An alumni of the university, Richard Reichner, was down inquiring whether or not we had gotten his friend’s sci-fi book collection (of approximately 1000 books), which he had donated shortly before he died. We don’t think he was a Forumite, but even if he donated it to campus/library, we probably would have ended up with the books. The friend’s family has been enquiring as to what happened to the collection. This is just kind of a random good deed that we’re looking into. Forumites of 1999 – 2000, do you remember a 1000 book donation? If you know anything, just post about it and we’ll get into contact with Richard.

AC Report: We got some of the DVDs we ordered in – but we’re still waiting for on some others (like the Complete Hercules and Brisco County Jr). We have a price range for one of the limited allocations we made last week. Unfortunately, we can’t get the Doctor Who version of Scene It?, because even if we wanted to deal with the DVD not being Region 1, it doesn’t matter anyway because it isn’t being sold on Amazon. But we’re getting Harry Potter Scene It? and Star Trek Scene It?. The allocation is now exactly $60.55. I’ll be making a reallocation for Festivus later. It would be great to know how many people are planning on coming to Festivus as there hasn’t been much talk about it on the boards. We’re hoping to see more alumni this year.

I have given Holly permission to run a cleaning event. She’ll be bringing in a vacuum and so help me Forumites, you will show up!

Adib: The good news is we have a room to do bi-weekly movie nights. The bad news is, all we have is an projector. We have no speakers, no DVD player, and no screen. So “Candy from Strangers” night had to be postponed. I have already picked out a theme for the next movie night: “Therapy is Useless When You’re Mindfucked.”

Sub AC for Life (Everyone): Get well soon! We miss you, Drow!

Historian’s Report: Alternate Universe #617 – “The Rule of Ian the Terrible”

Committees
PR: We have a website. Come to our club, please. We like you.

Fundraising: The Peter’s Hat Committee is great success!

Old Business
Ian: I would like to make a reallocation for food for Festivus from Quiznos for $164.98 – it’s $14.98 more than we allocated for last time. Seconded. Acclimated.

Lukas: Clean. Shelve. Cleave.

New Business
None!

Announcements
Phil: Doctor Who: Waters of Mars. This Sunday.

Meeting closed at 8:57 PM

CONSTITUTION CHANGE VOTE
Jackie: In order to have a budget, we need to change our constitution to say that “members” of our club are people who are members of the undergraduate student government (which includes all people who undergraduate student activity fees). I know some of you were asking if you can pay the student activity fee and then vote… and we’re looking into it, HOWEVER you could spend your money in better ways – donate to us!

Ian: These definitions are for the sake of USG only. This only applies to voting for budgetary matters and possibly for voting for signatory officers (we’re looking into that).

Jackie: We love you! You can take out our books, you can attend our events and eat our food. We just don’t want USG to cut our budget… again.

10 in favour
0 opposed
2 abstentions

Motion passes.

If you have ever taken any sort of class or attended any sort of seminar on fantasy theory, you know that YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE LITERARY BLACK HOLE THAT IS JOSEPH CAMPBELL.

Seriously.

Most. Overused. Scholar. Ever.

With the possible exception of Freud.

But. There are some points to what he and other archetypalists say. We expect the stories we read to go a certain way, and we expect a certain familiarity in the narratives and characters we experience. Every story out there can be boiled down to one of a distinct number of plots.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, though--although if you want to go ahead and bust some stereotypes you're more than welcome to (it's fun!). The variety in stories comes in how we combine these various elements, sketch some areas more fully than others, give people who start out as stock characters a life. But the fact of the matter is that we continually draw on a number of the universal elements available to us as storytellers.

Today's tip once more requires some small analysis, preferably in a longer work. Who in your stories is a mentor figure? Who is an underdog? Does your story cross any thresholds into a different world? Sometimes recognizing the hints of universality in our stories can help us define things a little better in our own minds. I was pleasantly surprised the other day when I realized that a tentative plot choice of mine felt right because it followed (in a very subtle fashion) a universal trope. I was also able to justify it on reasons of character development, but realizing that this is something that's done all the time gave me the confidence to figure out a way to incorporate it.

Alternately, you can go pull a middle-school book report and sketch out the way the plot is supposed to work. Where's the first complication in your story? What gets the action started? Where's the turning point? At what point is the conclusion of the story inevitable?

Structure can be a very good thing in a longer fic, because all too often stories can turn into "the one that got away." Find out whether your stories are following any universal archetypes or structures, and that can help you make sure you better adhere to--or explode--them.

~Celeritas

Stress fracture in my shins. really upset. 5k planned on thanksgiving day.
any similar experiences/tips?

So, this may become a regular feature: crazy courses. Courses that you look at and think -- da hell?

Today's candidate: (link to PDF of course).

This gives me a headache trying to follow it. I think I have it figured out, though. You start on the track, and then do two loops outside (with only one of the loops having all sorts of side-jaunts) before returning to the track.

My question is: are they going to have people keeping track of each runner, and whether the runner's on the first or second loop (and thus, whether the runner needs to do the sidejaunts)? I'm pretty sure that this race will have a wide enough range of runners that the faster runners will lap the slower.

Is it just me, or is this a royal mess in the making?

[heh. Was considering doing this as a "tempo run", simply because it's on my high school's campus. I never ran in school, so it'd be a neat experience to return there now, nearly 20 years later, and race. But between a nagging cough/sinus ache, and this mess of a course, I'm leaning towards skipping.]

Good morning, runners! Looks like I need to step in again, so I will.

What's everyone up to today? Running-wise, I've got a very light workout. This taper business is getting out of hand. Yesterday we had to keep it under 40 minutes. Today's workout will probably be the same distance with a few pick-ups toward the end.
Non-running related, I just got back from the first of three REALLY COOL lectures we're having in one of my classes. We have Dr. Peter Dodson from the University of Pennsylvania in to talk about cladistics and dinosaurs and stuff. He's outstanding and looks a bit like Teddy Roosevelt and BROUGHT TONS OF BONES. It was super cool. I'm really looking forward to the next two lectures with him.
Finally, after practice I have to drag myself down to the Verizon store either my cell phone or my cell phone charger is broken. :(((

Anyway, have a great day and happy running!

Happy Birthday, kookaburra1701! Party on!

I'm going to be visiting my parents in New York from this Saturday through December 7. I had to choose between seeing them for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and since we've got some people visiting around Christmastime I figured I'd be able to stay longer if I came for Thanksgiving instead.

I'm anxious about leaving my pets (my fiance will be here to take care of them) so I've been giving Toffee and Tribble a lot of cuddles and making sure they're in good health before I leave. The only thing I've noticed is that Toffee is chattering her teeth A LOT. I can hear her doing it right now. I looked at guinealynx and she doesn't seem to have malocclusion because she's eating normally and isn't losing weight or drooling. I heard this chattering a lot for the past few days. I just tried to open her mouth to see inside and she DID NOT like it. She's the submissive of the two and very skittish and I don't want to stress her out. How do I open her mouth to look at it? And is this tooth chattering normal? Could she maybe be in heat?

Gah, the last thing I need is to worry about any of my pets before I leave them for 3 weeks. Dealing with my mother will be stressful in itself. :P

Hey :D Just a quick one.. kinda race report, kinda not.

Tonight I did the 5.2km Cool Night Classic (In Brisbane, Aus) I NEVER Run at night, I'm a morning runner, so my main goal was 'run without dying' rather than any PBs (while completely confused as to the extra 200m...) Not that I'm a fast plodder anyway.

I was feeling a bit intimidated to begin with, I'm a mum-on-mat-leave, and this was a 'corporate teams and individuals' event, lots of people had team shirts and what not.. but no matter. I had a friend with me and we run at around the same plodding pace, so it's all good. :)
( Bit rambly-long )
Organisers - IT IS IMPERATIVE TO USE DISTANCE MARKERS I had NO idea how long I had to go or how far I'd been, I was really feeling defeated for the first k or two because I was running and running and feeling like I hadn't even done one k as there were no markers. Annoying! I ended asking officials as I passed them.. I just like to know.

I'm quite proud of myself that I did it all :) Even if I am buggered now :) Hopefully the baby will sleep tonight so I can too. :p

So that house with the 80x100 lot turned out to be not so great. It's okay. Out of the three houses I looked at, I did find one that looked really nice. The brick house that I'd noticed earlier looked pretty good. I was looking during my lunch break -- I had forgotten the whole holiday thing and tried to go to the Hempstead's Town Hall during my lunch break, but luckily I knew about some houses in the area that were on the market.

The one I like is a brick house from 1950 with 7 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a full basement, a two car garage and a 70x100 lot. A cursory examination showed me that it has a dormer in the back, looks to be in decent shape and is located very close to the Hempstead train station, which is very good for visitors but possibly bad for noise (though maybe not, as this station is the end of the line) and possibly bad for crime and property values. Area looks safe, though. The house is $160k, which is about ten thousand dollars over my target price. I might be able to argue them down a bit, though, and depending on the results of a closer look, this might be a pretty ideal house.

My parents have been looking, too. Here's what they came up with

( more boring house descriptions )

So there's a bunch of interesting stuff to look at. Later today, I'll be contacting my real estate guy to ask if I can set up some time to look inside some of these houses (maybe not the el-cheapo one or the expensive one that lacks a basement and garage). And I'll make a renewed visit to the Town Hall to look some of them up. My goal this time around is to close before January 10th.

Dear Runners,

I suck. My lazy ass has barely made it out the door at all this week, except to take out the trash and go buy more Diet Coke (and go to class and work and the library and a whole host of other errands, but we're going for melodrama, so this can all be ignored). Even the thought of a Thanksgiving race has not spurred me on to great athletic feats--bravely toughing out my ten mile runs--or even small whimpering protests of athletic potential, such as taking the stairs to my fourth floor math class. Nope, I suck.

Naturally, all of this non-activity has stirred up some dark thoughts: will all of my marathon fitness go away? Will my zest for all things running ever come back? Why is my ass expanding at such an unprecedented rate? (That one wasn't too hard to figure out--eating like a marathoner without actually running will do that to a girl) I wistfully thought of mile 13 of my marathon 3 weeks ago (take a picture kids, you'll never see me longing for mile 13 of anything. Ever. Again.) where I realized that I was only a few minutes shy of my half marathon PR and was feeling Particularly Fabulous. That was a good feeling--knowing that I was so awesome, that I could have smoked my PR if I wanted to. Which I think is just the feeling I need to recapture my near-maniacal enthusiasm for tripping over roots and practically bathing in GU.

So in March, I'm going back to DC, to the site of my half marathon PR. I'm writing this entry because I want to be held accountable, and because I want you guys to know first:

I'm running the SunTrust National Half on 20 March 2010, and I'm going sub-2 hours. Suck it, laziness!

searching for japanese-language books for a critical bibliography (which is ten sources not six oh god oh god oh god; i have to write 100 ji on each plus 800 ji of the essay proposal i would write if i was actually going to do a proper japanese-language research essay on this topic, AUGH) and UGH ALL TITLES ARE ROMANISED WHYYYYY.

also the topic i was originally gonna do was representation of working women in tv dramas, except obvs there are like no relevant books. so now i'm doing... something about survival of regional dialects? IDK. UGH.

also i am STARVING. except the printer's broken, so i can't even print this shit out, head to the kitchens and eat while i translate. MY LIFE, SO HARD, ETC ETC.

seriously, i need to make posts in here occasionally that aren't just bitching about uni. (hey guys, guess who has to be out of b&g by 10am next saturday morning? and who has an exam friday afternoon? NO OF COURSE I DON'T NEED TIME TO PACK UP ALL MY SHIT, DON'T BE SILLY!)

oh yeah, and my GRANDPA friended me on facebook the other day. LOL and all of that, yes, but... what do i DO?

so one of the requirements for going to north carolina is a tuberculosis test taken within twelve months of your arrival. okay! so i went to dickson on monday, because apparently that is one of the only places in canberra that actually does the mantoux test i need, and i got stabbed in the arm with a needle and told to come back in three days to get the results, and to not worry about making an appointment or anything, they'd just slot me in.

fine, i thought! so this morning i got up early (for me, shut up), got a transfer bus ticket (two-way, but the second trip has to be started within ninety minutes of the first) and went into the pathology centre to wait.

i got in there aroung ten am; it was pretty full, but not too bad. they took my details and told me to wait.

and so i waited. and waited. and waited.

at eleven forty-five, i finally got called in to talk to the pathologist.

the best part? she looked at the injection spot on my arm for all of ten fucking seconds, and told me i was done.

that's right. i waited an hour and forty five minutes for someone to look at my arm for ten whole seconds. seriously, I was in her office for less than a minute in total.

of course the transfer ticket had run out by then.

*SCREAMS*

I went to a free physical therapy clinic hosted by Probility Physical Therapy and Running Fit after work today. My knee is still swollen after 3 days of icing it and staying off of it. As I was considering making a doctors appointment, and cancelling it if it got better before then, I remembered about these clinics and it just so happened that today is the 2nd Wednesday of the month when they do it! Yeah!!

He couldn't be completely sure what is wrong with it but he looked it over and bent, twisted, and stretched things in every which-way. It is definitely swollen around the whole kneecap and he thought I may have done something not-too-serious to the miniscus like bruised it, and also that the fat pad is swollen. He didn't think it was serious and that it can probably be self-corrected, which is good.

Anyway he told me to stretch and ice massage it, stick to cross-training for a few days, and then try running. Start with 2 miles... once I have a successful 2 miles... get another successful 2 miles before increasing to 2.5 or 3. Sigh. Guess I will have to ditch my 5K training program until this gets better and just hope it is sooner rather than longer.


It also has me rethinking my plan of running a marathon in the spring. I am THIRSTING to run another marathon. But it would probably be good for me to run a couple of halves first. I could start training for a half after my 5K on Dec. 5th, and just train distance. Then train for another one, having the distance base, and work on speed, and THEN do my next marathon. I was really excited for the next full distance though, ya know? But it may be time to look at some revised plans.

And then I guess my next thing would be asking for suggestions of training plans for a half that do not involve speedwork but are not purely for a first-time runner? I have run 2 half marathons and a full. I'd like the plan to have 5 days of running but little to no speedwork. Suggestions?

Anyone say, screw it, just run a full? :) (Patience is a virtue... which I use frequently in teaching and lack in the rest of my life...)

We were given a room and an LCD projector. No dvd player, speakers or screen. As such, movie night is postponed until these details have been ironed out. I was thinking we can try and reserve a portable screen and perhaps speakers. I can use my PS2 to play the movies.
Any ideas?

Ok, the 2nd episode was better than the 1st one. I won't go into details but if they can keep improving it as they are doing, its going to be a decent show.

Title: His Favorite Color Was Blue
Author: Astizya
Category: Post-Series, General-ish, Angst, Unrequited Romance
Pairings/Characters: Mello/Near, Halle
Rating: PG
Summary: Near receives the gift of heartache.
Disclaimers: Death Note does not belong to me. No money is being made from this.
Word Count: 823

This pain was not so much about death.

Having fun and taking on a relaxed attitude was the name of the game for my Indianapolis Monumental Marathon weekend. After all, I already earned my Boston Qualifying time four weekends ago, so what else did I have to prove? ( Read more )

artist: thepinkrabbit
media: wacom tablet and PS7
fandom: Death Note, FFVII: Advent Children, Gravitation, Kuroshitsuji, Samurai Champloo and Bleach
characters / pairing: Beyond Birthday, Near, Matt, Yazoo, Reno, Shindou Shuichi, Grell Sutcliffe, Mugen and Ayasegawa Yumichika
rating: innocent
warnings: cuteness!!!
notes: all drawn for my beloved nishi_shinji's birthday ♥♥♥
disclaimer: anything Death Note, FFVII: Advent Children, Gravitation, Kuroshitsuji, Samurai Champloo and Bleach is not mine. don't sue, plz.

click to view...

We like focusing so much on good writing that sometimes we forget that bad writing can teach us things, too.  Sometimes it's more of a personal preference thing than anything else, but if you haven't read something that's rubbed you the wrong way... well, you're a much more fortunate individual than I.

Looking at good writing tells us how to write well.  Looking at bad writing tells us how not to write poorly.  So, for example, if I have a male character who is trying not to show that he's attracted to a female character, at no point will I use the word "frustrated" to describe him, unless he geniunely is frustrated about something entirely different (thank you, Stephanie Meyer!).  The Dragonlance books taught me never to luxuriate in something I think is "deep."  I also learned not to overdescribe characters' physical appearances from a surfeit of fan fiction, although as I mentioned that's a bit more of a personal preference.

The trick is not to read something that's terrible, but something that's almost or mostly well done.  Those are usually the pieces that will give you more concrete ways to improve your writing, since you'd be looking at smaller issues than "spell!"  Then, be as evil as you want while you're reading it (just for now; it's a good way to get the evil out of your system).  Take notes on what you think doesn't work.  Try to figure out if there's a way that it could be made to work, or if it's too woven into the story that it can't be taken out (if it can't, then the question is, "Is the annoying thing worth the rest of the story?  If it is, then you've actually found an okay book).

If you really want a challenge, try specifically to write poorly, including the same errors that you just found.  The plan here is not to write a "troll" but rather to write something so on the line between success and failure that people can't tell if it's satire or not.

One final note: especially if you decide to look at someone whose writing is unpublished, whom you analyze should be your own private personal business, because whoever this writer is, that person was trying (we hope) to write well.  Let that person improve, or not, on his own time.  In the meantime, learn from his mistakes.

~Sagitta

P.S.  To give people something to start on, let's look at the Worst Poet of the English Language, who gave us such gems as: 

( THE TAY BRIDGE DISASTER! )

Anyone else starting LA Marathon training soon? I'm excited about the new City-to-the-Sea course! The new course ends right near my house, so I had even more reason not to turn it down. :) I just set up my skeleton outline of my training plan for the race.

Good Luck, Angelenos.

I've been MIA since I ran the Chicago Marathon (most amazing and painful expereince ever) because that same night I was diagnosed with a stress fracture in my tibia--really high up, practically by the knee, and have been pretty down in the dumps about it. I finished the marathon--barely, but after training so hard I couldn't give up. I've been on crutches and finally got the ok a couple weeks ago to bike if it didn't cause pain. Well, that caused pain and just this week I've noticed that I can put some weight on it and not have it hurt. So I'm planning on trying the bike thing tomorrow. It's crazy how much muscle I've lost in my leg though. It's significantly thinner and less defined which is pretty sad. I have another doctors appointment this coming Tuesday and am hoping to get rid of these wretched crutches at the time. Any suggestions for how to ease back into running? I'm sure he'll give me some tips but is it going to be mainly walking for the first few months or can I expect any running mixed in? I guess the majority of my cardio will be on a bike? I'm not a big gym person so I have no idea what to do. Any suggestions or personal anecdotes would be helpful. I hope you all have been enjoying some beautiful fall weather. St. Louis has been gorgeous this November and I'm dying to get back outside to at least walk around.

Hello everyone!

It has been a very long time since I've posted here. I hope you and your piggies are doing well.

My Nuki has been to the vet many times over his 5-year life. He's had mites, a URI, a mammary tumor, and he just developed a cyst on his back.

The most recent visit was because of blood in his urine. Diagnosed with a UTI, Nuki was taken home and given more than 2 1/2 weeks worth of Baytril. While he was on the Baytril, his bleeding got better and then stopped, but once he was taken off, he began bleeding again.

When I took Nuki to the vet for a follow-up appointment, x-rays were taken of his bladder to reveal one stone. The vet gave me only one solution: surgery to remove the stone.

I do not want to do surgery for many reasons, so I have been searching online for alternatives. I read that a mixture of 75% cranberry juice and 25% water given orally can possibly break down stones. Is there anyone here who has had experience with this method? Is there anything else I can do to help break down or pass the stone naturally?

Thank you in advance for your input.

Okay runners, please help me! I have been dealing with knee and IT band related issues since the summer. What first began as "Runner's Knee" morphed into "ITBS" after four weeks of PT and a follow-up visit to an Ortho. I had an MRI - no tears or anything anywhere in my knee.

I haven't run in months. For that matter, I haven't done much of anything lower-body related in just about as long. I feel better with rest, and then as soon as I try to do anything (leg presses, squats, eliptical, etc.) the pain comes back.

I am out of PT visits through my insurance company and I am desperate for things I can do at home. I have a foam roller, but I can't even lean against it - the pain is so bad. I've been stretching, trying to massage out any kinks, and icing. Aside from this, have any of you found any other helpful remedies for dealing with ITBS? I was thinking about buying a Patt Strap, but that's entirely on my own accord.

Needless to say I'm quite frustrated and would appreciate any firsthand experiences or words of advice you have. Thank you!

my piggy vibrates when i pat her, usually when i go from the back of her head down to the butt. does she hate it? does she like it?

also, she hates it when we touch her stomach. sometimes when we brush past her stomach, she gets anooyed and turns round to nibble. there have also been some fierce bites. is it normal? like, is she just ticklish or is there something wrong with her?


sleeping on my lap.


cant really see much, but i love her nose!

I am disappointed that movie studios have been incapable of coming up with new ideas for movies so they recycle old movies.  The latest I heard of is Clash of the Titans.

The updated version, which I suspect is not going to have a robotic owl comes out in March 2010. I am going to see it, though I may wait for the DVD.  Here is link to the info page which includes a trailer: movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810081563/info

Also, please let us try to remember all the people currently serving in the military and those veterans of war and those veterans of peace. While you may not agree with the reasons why this country is still in various 3rd world countries, please respect the work that the men and women in out military are doing.

Good morning, runners! It's Wednesday, so we're halfway there.

What's everyone up to today? I did a workout yesterday (3x800 at goal 6k race pace with 200 jog, 10 minutes tempo, and 4x200 with 200 jog) on the grass that left me feeling very good about my fitness and my big race on Saturday. Today will be a recovery day.

Yesterday I had you all write down two truths and a lie. Today, explain 'em.... and happy running!
( (Here's mine...) )