Dear Santa, I have done my best to be very good this year. Despite constantly wishing for the power to decide who lives and who dies while at work, I haven't actually committed any acts of murder nor even serious bodily harm. I also always try to let people into my lane while driving provided that I can see their turn signals.

( My requests, and a bit about them. )

Overall I tend to like everything, I'M SORRY I CAN'T BE MORE HELPFUL. I love to laugh, but I also really like bittersweet endings too... I think some of my favorite types of fic are the 'missing scene' ones that take place in a time where the characters were 'off camera', or a 'what happened after' kind of thing if the source material is very complete... I also have a great love for AU's.

Basically what I DON'T like is feeling like there is angst for angst's sake - I'm okay with tragedy, as long as you're going somewhere with it and the characters aren't left helpless and hopeless at the end. I also have a huge embarrassment squick. Little stuff is fine, but stretch it out for too long and I find myself hitting the 'page down' until it's over. I love gen, I love romance, I love subtle unrequited love, I love porn - I'm easy to please. I want to read a story you enjoyed writing. I have never once been disappointed by Yuletide.

Also as a heads-up in advance, Santa, I might be out of town over the tail end of the year. Believe me I will be contributing to server overload if I can help it when the Archive goes live, but in case I don't comment right away it's likely because I couldn't get to any internet. I look forward to your story, and thank you. ♥

So in an attempt to clear my mood lately one of the things I have been doing, apparently, is steeping myself in nostalgia. I found old game logs on my harddrive from October 2002. BTW, slyfoxesq, look out if I ever need to blackmail you in a mutually assured destruction scenario, I'm sure you can guess who they're of. Also found some from my old first online game... I cringe at how bad my writing was back then, but I was on par for course with everyone else, so I guess it's alright. Still makes me want to remake those characters just to prove I CAN write, now.

Also, I've been looking for my In Nomine books. I have found every. single. book. except Night Music, which is the one I NEED.

...speaking of...

If anyone would be willing to copy over Thomas's stats from that book for me, I would be eternally grateful. I have seriously found all of my books but that one and Revelations III. I own every book printed (aside from more than one edition of the core rules), but I just- I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE IT IS.

I'm allowed to ask twice, shut up.

In case you missed it, I'm making holiday cards this year. I promise they are worksafe and not embarrassing, unless your work has something against rocket-ships and reindeer. If you would drop me a line here with an address you can receive mail at and whatever name you want on the envelope, I will put you on the list. Comments are of course screened.

apologies to anyone I owe communication to that I haven't responded yet.

my stress, which I was trying very hard to deal with quietly, has just gotten worse.

No it isn't work.

I've noticed a distinct correlation between my bad days at work and my worry that I may be developing an alcohol problem.

I really want to try doing some this year. SO, ANYONE AT ALL WHO CAN SEE THIS? WOULD YOU LIKE A CARD? Comment with an address that you can receive mail at and please include the name you would prefer me to address it to. Otherwise by default I will use whatever your LJ username is.

Comments are screened, natch. ♥

My LJ paid time ran out. :( Until I can get the money to renew it, you will be seeing a lot of this icon. I say that like I wouldn't be using it nonstop anyway.

While it occurs to me that I did squee about Yuletide, I did not post a link! LET ME FIX THIS.

YULETIDE TREASURE
Rare fandoms holiday fic exchange

You know you want to~

It hailed hellah this morning. Like, seriously, amazingly hailing. I'm actually up this early because 1) I want to get stuff done before work and 2) I want to get into work early if I can as both our morning office peeps are absent today. Thankfully Fridays are usually slower as people realize 'Monday' is the most likely possibility for anything they want.

Our benefits period opened up again at work - I'm not sure if it works this way in other companies, but after your initial sign-up period (60-90 days after hire, or somethin) you have the option to switch around or otherwise change which benefits you want for like two or three weeks out of the year during open enrollment. Every plan has different color levels with Blue being the second highest and Purple being the highest. I initially had the Purple plan for my healthcare (better safe than sorry), then downgraded to Blue when I realized I wasn't using it that much, then this period re-upgraded to the Purple because even though it'll hurt a bit to take that much out of my paychecks, I'd much rather be completely covered just in case. Also because I'm going to look into the company's coverage of seeing psychological doctors. Unhealthiness there runs in women in my family primarily under the umbrella of depression (As my mom put it - "I have it but I'm bipolar and I like my ups and my downs are infrequent, so I deal with it. Your aunt has it and she sometimes takes medication like a sane person. Your grandmother has it and pretends she doesn't."). Sometimes I have... moods, you know? I can at least get checked out to see if there's anything that can be done with it, or if my occasional misanthropy is still under the levels of 'healthy'. I think we get five free visits through the company plan or something like that. I figure I'll look into it then wait until I feel like I need it.

I finished The Naked Sun again yesterday. I've been re-reading the robot novels series, I think I may pick up another copy of Swordspoint today and read that next. It is my very most favorite book ever, as anyone who has gotten an e-mail from me can tell since it's in my signature. My copy is still in fairly good condition considering what I've put it through, but it has great sentimental value to me so I don't want it to get to the 'falling apart' point. I'd much rather just buy another copy I can beat up and save mine nice and pretty on my bookshelf next to my UK editions of the Harry Potter books.

Speaking of, now that I have a passport, I totally need to arrange a day-trip up to Vancouver sometime because I need to buy the last one :|

Did I mention I ship the hell out of Elijah/Daneel in the robot novels? Because I do. Needless to say, in my "Con Set" of buttons I'm designing, I have one I made most specially for myself. "I am why fandom can't have nice things."

I noticed one of the available fandoms for Yuletide is Never Gonna Give You Up (music video)

...

...Guys, did we just get rickrolled?

AAAAH YULETIDE SIGNUPS ARE OPEN.

Okay I'm not gonna do mine until like Friday so I have time to think on it and let the servers rest. But oh my gosh Yuletide Yuletide Yuletide~

I need a Yuletide icon. OMFG.

...Even with such low standards, it feels like I'm really behind. To be fair, my last picture was epic and is finally finished. I got a little lazy, but I can't bring myself to care right now.

Also, on that note, I want to address a little issue that is close to my heart. The accusations that I've heard on the internet that the characters in 358/2 Days are - *gasp!* - out of character.

I swear if I hear one more person try to argue this I will scream.

Go back and replay Kingdom Hearts 2. Bring a STOPWATCH with you while you're at it. Each of the Organization has less than roughly ten minutes of screen-time - EACH. Most have less than that. The only ones that really get significant development are Axel and Xenmas. Xenmas in /Days? Still Xenmas. Axel is spot-on as well - if anything, /Days helps bridge the gap between Chain of Memories Axel and Kingdom Hearts 2 Axel. You get to see the character evolution instead of just inferring it.

And I think that's where the problem lies.

Look, if you have your own fanon which got Jossed by 358/2 Days? I can understand that frustration, especially if you're attached to your fanon. But you gotta understand that's just what it is. Fanon. You run the risk of getting Jossed every time you make it up for a series that isn't complete. Whining that they're out of character instead of just not matching your extrapolated fandom is part of what gives fandom a bad name. That is, the inability to tell the difference between reality and fantasy. Tip: Source material is 'reality' in this case, and your headcanon is 'fantasy'. I've seen this at least briefly in Hitman Reborn as well.

There's nothing wrong with fanon, as long as you stop mistaking it for canon and claiming that you write the characters better than their creator. Stop making the rest of us look bad.

Okay which one of you has the freaking cat sound on AIM? Because this is driving me crazy. YOU ARE ON KATE'S F-LIST AS WELL.

ANSWERS, PEOPLE.

Also, have an image preview.

Kingdom Hearts fanart - Xion Bookmark for Con.

This is what I did today. I'm proud. :x

I am trying to post more often in an effort for people to know I'm alive. This means a lot of random shit.

Okay so I was driving home from work today when, while I was thinking (I do most of my thinking while driving) I realized I had faith in something.

Previously I have identified as a Skeptic in every sense - I doubt everything, at least a little bit. The existence of a higher power. The lack of existence in a higher power. I mean, you just don't know, okay? There will always, always, be a little part of me going "...Really? Like, really?"

Except one thing.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, I believe that we are not the only sentient life in the universe. I have faith in the existence of intelligent life outside of earth.

I don't really have anything important to say here, or right now in general. Except that I really have the best friends and roommates in the whole world. I do not think there is a single other person that is as lucky as I am to have the friends that I do. I don't tell any of you this enough, and I can't apologize enough for that.

You're all awesome. You mean the world to me.

Successful mission!

BRB, getting a kate.

Kingdom Hearts days comes out tomorrow! I've pre-ordered my copy from the gamestop in the mall. I'm wondering how early they open since I need to get my oil changed and shit in my car (yes, still)... I could just go pick the game up and play it while I wait for the car stuff to get done.

This is my plan. This means I have to go to bed asap when I get home. We'll see how that goes.

All of Elfquest is online. Damn it, I'm getting re-obsessed. And modding it into the In Nomine dice system, because after my fourth attempt at it I have come to a distinct conclusion: The official EQ RPG really blows.

ok so I told you already but whatevs.

♥ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, katenator!! ♥