Friday, June 30, 2006

Rum!

“Hmm... and that should go there, and I certainly can't leave without that. Oh, and that needs to come too. Goodness, I don't remember needing so much the last time I left town.”

Jacques looked up from his packing to the empty walls of his house. Dust blanketed every surface, with the occasional random sketching denting the brown powder. A single window cast its silhouetted light across the floor, which was covered in all manner of junk, from cast-off pen tips to ink spills to crumpled up maps that didn't work right, and of course the occasional insect corpse. In the corner rested a messy pile of twigs and map bits that might have been a nest of mice, or perhaps chipmunks, but Jacques didn't particularly care unless they started eating his maps.

The table was slightly better than the floor, in that it didn't have mice living on it. Most of the time, anyway. Scattered across the table lay pens of every shape and size. Some rolled across and off the table at the slightest bump, and others wouldn't move if the table had been attacked by a madman with an axe, thanks to the thick black ink that glued them there. The only thing that seemed remotely cared for were the maps, carefully rolled up in leather cases until he took them to a seller.

The only other pieces of furniture, besides the chair, he owned rested in a corner. A bed that he never bothered to make, and a tall wardrobe that he'd inherited from some relative or another. Normally, the latter was filled with his few clothes and a great deal of random souvenirs, but at the moment it's contents sprawled across the floor as he stuffed them into the far-too-small pack.

All in all, the room screamed but one word: bachelor.

Jacques took a swig from the bottle he'd borrowed, meaning stole, from Marie when he left to pack and stared down at the overfull canvas bag. His eyes wandered from one thing to the other, from the thirteen semi-usable pens that he'd managed to pry from his desk to a brick that he wasn't quite sure why he had in the first place. He thought for a moment. Ah yes, he'd gotten it from an irate bartender who'd thrown it at his head.

“That wasn't really fair of him,” Jacques mused. “His prices were outrageous. How was I to know that I couldn't pay?” He took another drink, then shook his head and smiled. “Ah, well. He missed anyway.” Momentarily, he wondered why he'd put it in his pack. “Self defense!” He smiled, took a long swig from the bottle, and stuffed in a drinking glass on top of the brick.

“Jacques? You ready to go?” Marie's voice sounded from outside the door, snapping him out of his rum-happy daze.

“Um... just a minute!” he said, stuffing most of the mess under the bed.

“Well, can I come in and help you pack?”

“Er, no. I'm...” He considered several things to say. He couldn't say he was naked, he had no reason to be naked, and he wasn't. He couldn't make the excuse of not being there either, she knew better then that. Finally, his semi-drunken brain kicked in and came up with what was quite possibly his worst excuse ever. “I'm on fire.”

“You're what?” The door started opening. He pushed it shut again and shoved the table against it. His brain started working overtime, but still wasn't working quite hard enough for common sense to start functioning.

“Yeah, I'm on fire. Burning. Little accident with a candle. It's very hot.” He gathered a good portion of the mess up and shoved it into the wardrobe, but the door wouldn't shut. He started slamming it while still talking. “It's not that pleasant, you know, being on fire. There's a few downsides, though you really wouldn't think it. Like... the smoke! The smoke smells really bad, and you tend to catch other things on fire while you're trying to put yourself out.” He stepped back from the wardrobe, and, satisfied that it would stay shut, started trying to close his pack. A crunch followed by a tinkling noise told him that perhaps the drinking glass was not the best thing to put next to the brick. “I mean, sure, you're warm and all, but...”

“Jacques, I'm coming in there, whether you like it or not.” The table started inching across the floor as the door opened. He glanced around, doing one final check to see if the room was clean enough. Something caught his eye. The rum! He couldn't let her catch him with the rum. Jacques scooped up the bottle off the floor and glanced around for somewhere to put it. Just as he spotted the perfect place, the door opened all the way, and Marie stepped into the room.

He stared at her blankly, holding the rum in one hand. He made a vague attempt to hide it behind his back. Behind him, the wardrobe opened and everything fell onto the floor with a resounding thump. Marie gave him a look.

Somewhere, in a very small part of his mind that he didn't usually listen to but usually turned out to be right, it registered that he was as good as dead.

“Well,” she said slowly, looking around the room judgmentally, “you don't look on fire to me.”

“Um...”

“No, no, don't bother explaining. I don't want to know.” Her eyes wandered to his hand. “Where'd you get that rum? It looks suspiciously like the bottle that went missing just after you left.”

“Um...” His brain churned furiously, trying to think of an excuse. “It was in a tree. The squirrels gave it to me as a thank you gift for... um... chasing away that dog that wanders around here sometimes.” He wasn't doing so well with excuses today. “They told me to keep it.”

“The squirrels talked to you?” Marie gave him another look, this time one that he fully believed could be used to start fires.

“Yep. They were talking squirrels, with a whole civilization in the big oak tree over by the tailor's shop. They have water that comes from inside their houses, and devices that make it daytime at night, and even something that lets them communicate with other squirrel civilizations all across the land without hardly lifting a finger! Maybe they were the ones that took the rum from the tavern. It wouldn't be too hard for them, you know.”

She put her head in one hand. “Jacques... You're either drunk or insane. Maybe both. I'll come back later.” She moved towards the door. A the last minute, she turned around, looked him straight in the eye, and said, “And you're still in trouble for taking that rum.”

Friday, June 16, 2006

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday Dana!

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Romance is HARD!

Even though I haven't posted any stories in a while, I am still writing them. In fact, I've got about seven stories ready to post, but I can't because I can't figure out how to get from here to there. So just be patient. I'll figure this out eventually.

One thing that I might not figure out anytime soon is this one romance scene. I've been banging my head on it for a little more than a week now, and I've learned a few things about my writing. Such as: I have a very hard time talking about how people feel. It works better for me to tell how they show how they feel, but for romance, that just doesn't work. It's all... emotion-y. That may not be so hard for some people, but for me, its like a brick wall with a moonlit glade painted on it and I keep trying to walk into the glade and it seems like it should be so simple, but I can't because it's really a wall.

Oh well. I wrote in some violence, so that should make up for the stupid romance scene. Maybe I should just kill them both now, Romeo and Juliet style. Except that whole stupid play was a romance scene... Nevermind.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Justice League returns in all it's unruined by horrible plot twists glory!

That's right, folks, Justice League, greatest tv show in the history of ever, is back, and they're showing the good episodes again! That's right, the good ones, with the theme song done on the violin instead of the electric guitar, the government not out to destroy them all (most of the time), and the original space station before it got exploded! And the giant robots actually have motivation, and it's not just a "who's in love with who" festival, and the dialouge actually works! Thank you Boomerang for showing actual good taste in what episodes to show! The 48 of Justice League are so much way better than the 52 of Justice League Unlikeable! (Ok, so it's really called Justice League Unlimited, but unlikeable is the best insult I can think of right now. I'm hyper.)
Anyway, not only is it airing on tv again, the first episode that they showed was In Darkest Night, which was the first episode of Justice League I ever saw! Major deja vu! The only thing missing they could have done cooler would have been if I'd seen it on May 12, my Justice-versery! (The day I first saw it. And first became obsessed.)
I'd forgotten a lot of the really really great stuff in the show, actually. that's what happens when you don't see it for over a year... Like the background music? Wow. I'd totally forgotten it. And the space shots? They actually look like space. Think that's amazing? Look at any other cartoon. I totally don't know how I've been watching other cartoons all this time... JUSTICE ROCKS!


Ok, I just realized that I sound kinda like Sarah when she's hyper.

Calming down now.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday Ivy!

Friday, June 02, 2006

Sunset (Poem)

The sun has set in clouds asunder

The moon regrets to rise from slumber

And the peak’s a shade of umber

I will never soon forget.

Golden eagles swoop and soar

High above the valley floor

Rising upwards more and more

Far beyond the treetop's net

Reds and yellows cross the skies

And seem to dance before my eyes

Above the birds with trilling cries

Who themselves these skies have met.

The final beams of brilliant light

That come before the starry night

Color clouds like children’s kites

And now at last the sun has set

The internet and you. And me. Me reeeeally bored.

So today the internet went down. This wouldn't have been a problem, except all of my stuff that I normally do when the internet's down was in my brother's car. So I got really bored. In fact, bored really didn't even cover it. It needed a new word all it's own to describe how bored I was. Now usually when I get bored, I do really stupid things, like light my hair on fire, or play with static. This time, I made a list of what I did. Here goes:

Things I did while waiting for the internet to go back up


  • Held a sing-your-own-disco dance-a-thon.

  • Checked to see if internet was up

  • Wrote poetry

  • Wrote blog post

  • Checked to see if internet was up

  • Washed my lava lamp

  • Did sit ups

  • Checked to see if internet was up

  • Ate dinner

  • Did dishes

  • Checked to see if internet was up

  • Organized desktop items

  • Decided I didn't like the new arrangement and changed it back

  • Read old word documents

  • Checked to see if internet was up

  • Practiced voice acting

  • Did voice acting into audacity

  • Listened to voice acting

  • Deleted voice acting

  • Checked to see if internet was up

  • Wondered if an empty tissue box could work as a hat

  • Hit computer monitor with an inflatable microphone

  • Hit self with inflatable microphone

  • Held drumming jam session with inflatable microphone

  • Checked to see if internet was up

  • Wrote this list

  • Checked to see if internet was up

THE INTERNET NEEDS TO WORK NOW!!!!! GAH!

So, I was kinda bored. But voice acting is fun. I'm just really bad at guys voices.

Finals!

Finally over! Yay! No more chronic algebra overdose! Summary of finals:
History: Pretty easy, but I still hate essays.
Speech: It went better than I expected, but it would've been nice if I'd been able to make my visual aid big enough to see.
Algebra: Non calculator portion: easy. Like pie, only easier, and less edible. Calculator portion: Beware the madness of the Bruce! Agh! My brain hurt SO BAD!
Band: What final?
Bible: Easy. I didn't even need my notes. That's good, because I lost my notes.
French: Easy, but the guy behind me wouldn't shut up! He was talking the whole time, reading the test aloud, making commentary, and generally being so annoying that I wanted to remove his vital organs with my fists. Unfortunatley, that probably would have made me fail (and go to prison), so he lived. I'm not sure if he passed, though.
Study Hall: Yay for no final!
and finally:
Biology: Yay for finals that aren't mindlessly easy! Still really easy, but I enjoyed it. I like knowing the big words. The majority of photosynthesis takes place in the palisade mesophyll!

Anyway, Finals are over, summer has begun, and I'm probably gonna get a job this year. I hope I do, anyway. You can never tell with jobs. But, I heard that the place I'm applying to is really shorthanded, so they'll probably accept me.
Oh, and yes, I am still writing, but continuity is temporarily lost. I'm working on the rest of the story, but the obvious follow up to the last continuity related story that I posted just isn't happening. How come it takes Anna thirty seconds to think of a message for Micheal, but it takes me like three months? Oh well.
Anyhoo, today I got into a conversation with some random person using a friends account. We're pretty sure it was a member of her family, but we don't know which one. It wasn't just me, there was a couple other friends in the chat too. Anyway, we scared them pretty bad. And then I sent a voice clip of me laughing, which made it worse. They were pretty fun to talk to though, I just wish I knew who it was.
Quote!
"A halo has but a foot to fall before it becomes a noose." - Someone