Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Lunaludus Scribex's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, November 8th, 2009
4:16 am	... This amuses me, for some reason. Today's story: Exchange Student (Ah! My Goddess/Negima) Current Mood: silly (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
12:58 am	TWW update Eight scenes done. I split one scene and bumped up another from the next chapter to this one for pacing, though, so there are still four scenes to go, with 12 for the chapter as a whole. I was unusually productive today. I'll have to see if I can keep this up--if I can, it's not out of the realm of possibilities for this chapter to be in beta distribution next week. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
3:08 am	Animes of the moment I suppose I've finally recovered from my burnout of a couple years ago...at least, to a degree. I'm not back up to following a lot of series, but I am at least following a few. Two, at the moment: Beast Player Erin - Crunchyroll is streaming this one. It's an interesting fantasy series; I wouldn't classify it as "high" fantasy, necessarily, but the scope of it doesn't seem to admit much else, especially with the latest episodes. The heroine is a fantasy beast veterinarian, which I can't recall ever having seen before, and the attention to detail is impressive. It's somewhat slow to develop, and the pacing is erratic--forty episodes in, we've already had two three-year time skips--but it is, I think, very much worth a watch. Kiddy Girl-and - The series formerly known as Kiddy Grade 2. (Yes, it aired for real this time! :D ) It's early on, but the series is already showing signs of following in its predecessor's footsteps. That is to say: foreboding hints of something dark and impressive, almost completely buried in the early going by stupid, silly, and just plain bad throwaway episodes. :P It hasn't stooped to KG's low of formulaic undercover cosplay--but the main reason for that seems to be that the protagonists are not low-level agents, as in KG, but low-level trainees. Thus, KG-and has to find new and exciting ways to lower the bar...and with a cross-dressing supervisor, a bubblehead who could make Lynn Minmay look practical, well-oiled pervert sumo wrestlers (don't ask), and a high-stakes security raid for a midnight snack, among other things, they're really, really doing it. (And that's just in the first two episodes. :P) If this was any other series, I'd have bailed already. But this is the sequel to Kiddy Grade--and that's a pedigree that says that if you survive the pain, you will be abundantly rewarded later on. So I'll keep on plugging, and wait to see what lies beneath. Today's story: Whirlpool Country (Naruto) (Comment on this)
Friday, October 30th, 2009
11:26 pm	*whew* And I've now managed to log back into my FFN account. It appears that what happened is somehow, my browser decided to substitute an older account password for my most recent one. I'd forgotten what, precisely, the newer one was, but I managed to find it again and log back in. It's now been safely recorded, so hopefully this will never happen again. Now, with the urgent part out of the way, perhaps tech support and I will somehow manage to figure out why I couldn't get my password via the normal retrieval procedure--why, in fact, I haven't gotten an alert from FFN of any kind since April 2007. :P But with the big part settled, now I can return my full focus to my fics. Current Mood: relieved (3 Comments |Comment on this)
3:53 pm	IDIOTS. When I first wrote FFN's tech support about Password Retrieval not doing anything for me, I got a cut-and-paste response about adding "bot@fanfiction.com" to my list of approved Yahoo contacts, so that any alerts wouldn't go into my Spam folder. That wasn't the problem to begin with--I regularly check my Spam folder, as well as my Inbox--but I did it anyway, and as expected, it didn't fix the problem. So I wrote back and said so, and in response, they asked for a bunch of information. I provided everything they'd asked for, except for my (failed) FFN password (which they shouldn't need to ask for, and which has nothing to do with FFN's Password Retrieval at any rate). That was Tuesday. Since then, I haven't heard anything. So today, I wrote asking what was going on. I included in my e-mail the complete record of all my correspondence with FFN Support to date. And FFN Support quickly wrote back...with a cut-and-paste response about adding "bot@fanfiction.com" to my list of approved Yahoo contacts, so that any alerts wouldn't go into my Spam folder. AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!! Current Mood: pissed off (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
12:53 am	That's one down. My site is back up, and I'm able to log into 110mb again. I didn't hear anything from their support team, so I'm guessing it was an easy fix or that my account got caught in the middle of some other maintenance. That just leaves FFN. The problems with them and with my site have distracted me somewhat, but I still did some writing, and I'm now up to 6/10 scenes for the next TWW chapter. (I wonder if they'll have my account back to me before I'm ready to post next?) Anyway. In the meantime, just for fun, here's a blast from the past: (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
6:36 pm	...this is a joke, right? First it was my FFN account. Now, it's my new 110mb account, where I moved the Codex this past weekend. The index file is gone. Because of that, attempting to access anything on the site turns up a 403 error (so I can't confirm whether the other files are gone as well). In addition, my password no longer works. 110mb, like FFN, has an option for retrieving (or, in this case, resetting) my account's password. Unlike FFN, I actually received the new password from 110mb. For all the good it did. The new, reset password doesn't work, either. :P I've filed a support ticket with 110mb, and I've had a few communications with someone from Fanfiction.net Support, where I filed a support request last Friday. It'll be interesting to see which situation is resolved first. ...assuming either of them ever actually gets resolved. :P Current Mood: frustrated (1 Comment |Comment on this)
5:00 am	El Cazador de la Bruja I never did get around to finishing my fansubs of this. Maybe I should give it another shot, now that Funimation is running legal streams of the entire series. Today's story: Quantum Destinies (Ranma 1/2) (I found a copy! :D) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
8:54 pm	Codex Update Well, I have a host, and a site picked out. Nothing's there yet, but the new home of the Codex Scribanus will be: http://lunaludus.110mb.com. Now, I'm working on getting the HTML for my site's pages--and the HTML versions of my fics, as well--up to date. And, as someone who likes to type his stories in HTML first (I'm strange that way) let me just say, for the record: CLOSE-PARAGRAPH TAGS ARE AN UNMITIGATED PAIN IN THE ASS. Seriously--who came up with this bullshit? You don't need to close a line break, so why the hell do you need to close a paragraph?! ...anyway. I'll update this entry when everything's online, which will hopefully be later tonight. (UPDATE: The site is live! Everything's up and working fine. I haven't finished updating the HTML on my stories, but in the meantime, I put the existing ones up. They should do, for the time being.) Today's story: Alexander Harris and the Shadow Council (Buffy/Addams Family/Harry Potter) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
11:06 pm	FFN update Still can't get in. Still no sign of the password in my mailbox. I've sent an e-mail to FFN's support address describing my situation, but it's Friday night, so I probably won't get a response until after the weekend. Nothing to do on that front but wait. In the meantime, I have a site to move. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
12:32 am	Oh, for crying out-- Something's gone wrong with my Fanfiction.net account. I can't log in. Every time I try, I get a message saying the e-mail/password combo is invalid. I've tried multiple times to utilize the site's password recovery function; each time, I've gotten a message saying the account password was sent to my e-mail address. Unfortunately, this is FFN. Despite having multiple options selected, I haven't received a single e-mail alert from them in years...and that e-mail problem appears to extend to the password recovery, as well. :P I have two stories that I am finally making good progress on. I have a new job that I'm just starting to get the hang of. Geocities closes in three days. I still have to move my site. I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS CRAP. I swear, if the password is wrong because some jackass hacked my account... I'll give it a day. Then I'll give Xing holy hell. Current Mood: pissed off (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
12:51 am	#$%$#&@#$@$%&WQ#$!!!!!!!!!! You know--since Geocities is kind of shutting down and all--it would have been nice if they'd given their soon-to-be-orphaned users, who are moving to other webhosts, some way to download their files WITHOUT ALL THE FUCKING GEOCITIES ADS STILL EMBEDDED IN THE FILE CODE. That's what I get for being lazy and doing my site edits right in the GC file manager. :P I guess that in a way, I'm lucky I haven't written more--stripping the ads out of the files I do have is already enough of a pain. At any rate, barring a catastrophic computer failure, the move will take place tomorr...er, later today. Today's story: Reis Ayanami (Neon Genesis Evangelion) Current Mood: pissed off (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
9:32 pm	Progress report Here's where I'm at on everything: Chapter IV of The World Without is at 4/8 scenes...or possibly 4/9. There was one scene I'd pulled out, but I'm thinking I might need to put it back in for pacing. Either way, this chapter should be ready for my betas in another couple of weeks. Chapter IX of Leap of Faith is at roughly 3/5 scenes, and I really, really need to learn to work out my characters' back-stories before I need them in the story. :P No ETA on this one, but revisions on existing chapters will hopefully be ready to go in a month or two. Finally, my site. There are a couple of weeks left before Geocities shuts down, and I still have yet to decide on a new home. I'm leaning very heavily towards 110MB, but there are a couple of things that worry me...most notably, the inactivity limits. 110MB's is 150 days; that's better than many of the hosts I've looked at (most of which would delete after 30) but still a problem, given my writing pace. So I'm still looking at other hosts. Whichever way I go, I'll probably move the Codex this weekend. In other news from the Geocities exodus: Shack, one of my betas, has moved his fanfic link index. That was a pleasant surprise--it's been ages since there was an update, so I'd figured he'd just let the site die. (He did trash most of it in the move, so it looks like he's planning on rebuilding from scratch...again.) Anyway, the new address for Shack's Fanfic Clearinghouse is http://shackfic.webs.com. And with that, I'm out. Today's story: The Right to Live (Naruto) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, October 12th, 2009
11:17 pm	Fun with Love Hina Going back through some old e-mails, I recently came across a challenge I'd posed to one of my betas a while back. We were discussing the Love Hina manga versus the anime version, and...well...I got a little silly: > Very glad I watched the anime, then, since I did happen to like it (flying > hot springs turtles = genius!). I think the series had 26 episodes plus a few > movies, so about how long do you think they should have made it to include > all of the manga elements? Hmm...well, let's see--the anime left out, among other things... A complete and in-depth examination of Kanako (and no, the OVAs don't count)... Haruka and Seta finally getting together... The whole story behind Sara (very different in the manga from the anime)... Every single Hinata-sou tenant falling for Keitaro... Shinobu luring Keitaro to a love hotel... Motoko taking the Toudai entrance exam... Motoko *flunking* the Toudai entrance exam, and following Keitaro on the Path of the Ronin... Mutsumi hitting her head (again) and reverting mentally to the Age of the Promise... Naru student teaching--and Keitaro, impersonating a student, accidentally groping her in front of the whole class... Keitaro completing his evolution into Seta v.2... Motoko finding her true calling--as a romance novelist... Keitaro and Naru getting married--but not before EVERYONE else, led by Kitsune, gangs up to try to stop them... Of course, more fun with Nyamo... (For extra credit, guess how many of these plot points were actually in the manga. ;) ) How long do you think it should have been? :) Anyone up for some extra credit? :) (Aside from my beta, of course--she just might remember what the answer was before...) Today's story: Across Dimensions: Parting Reality's Veil (Naruto) Current Mood: silly (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
9:18 pm	Yep. And with that, the Milwaukee Brewers remain the only NL Central team to win a playoff game in the last three years. Not that I'm a sore loser or anything. :) Today's story: On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (Sailor Moon/Ranma) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 9th, 2009
5:25 am	This is a joke, right? The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize goes to BARACK OBAMA?! The man's been in office barely nine months. He hasn't accomplished anything as of yet. What the hell are they giving him the Peace Prize for? Scrapping the missile shield in East Europe? Today's story: Making Uzumaki (Naruto) Current Mood: disgusted (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, September 28th, 2009
3:42 am	Paging Strunk & White In honor of his new...er..."masterpiece"...the Telegraph offers its picks for celebrated hack author Dan Brown's 20 worst sentences. A few of my favorites: 17. Deception Point, chapter 8: Overhanging her precarious body was a jaundiced face whose skin resembled a sheet of parchment paper punctured by two emotionless eyes. (Telegraph comment: "It’s not clear what Brown thinks ‘precarious’ means here.") 16. The Da Vinci Code, Chapter 4: A voice spoke, chillingly close. "Do not move." On his hands and knees, the curator froze, turning his head slowly. Only fifteen feet away, outside the sealed gate, the mountainous silhouette of his attacker stared through the iron bars. He was broad and tall, with ghost-pale skin and thinning white hair. His irises were pink with dark red pupils. (Telegraph comment: "A silhouette with white hair and pink irises stood chillingly close but 15 feet away. What’s wrong with this picture?") 14. Angels and Demons, chapter 100: Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers glorified the four major rivers of the Old World - The Nile, Ganges, Danube, and Rio Plata. (Telegraph comment: "The Rio de la Plata. Between Argentina and Uruguay. One of the major rivers of the Old World. Apparently.") 9. The Da Vinci Code, chapter 32: The vehicle was easily the smallest car Langdon had ever seen. "SmartCar," she said. "A hundred kilometers to the liter." (Telegraph comment: "Pro tip: when fleeing from the police, take a moment to boast about your getaway vehicle’s fuel efficiency. And get it wrong by a factor of five. SmartCars do about 20km [12 miles] to the litre.") Today's story: Bound to Eternity (Naruto/Ranma/Sailor Moon) Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Sunday, September 27th, 2009
9:39 pm	Paging Oliver Stone The Daily Mail reports: Adolf Hitler may not have shot himself dead and perhaps did not even die in his bunker, it emerged yesterday. A skull fragment believed for decades to be the Nazi leader’s has turned out to be that of a woman under 40 after DNA analysis. Today's story: Mahoranma (Negima/Ranma) Current Mood: ... (Comment on this)
Monday, September 21st, 2009
11:16 pm	It's like shooting fish in a barrel Do I even need to mock this stuff anymore? Live-Action Bubblegum Crisis Hires via Reality TV Show Today's story: Atelier Uzumaki (Naruto/Atelier Iris) Current Mood: ... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
3:22 am	Three bad fantasies, three lessons learned It's an almost universal axiom among writers that you learn from what you read, and you usually learn more from bad stories than you do from good stories. (For one amusing example, see this passage from Stephen King's On Writing.) I'm no exception to this. I've long been a voracious reader, with a particular taste for fantasy (my field of choice, if/when I finally start turning out publishable work) and I've learned a great deal from what I've read, not just in terms of style, but in terms of plot, of setting, of complications, and so forth. Three fantasy novels, in particular, stick out in my mind (and quite vividly, considering how long ago it was that I read them). These were all reasonably well-written books; stylistically, there was little I could find to complain about, and in the case of two of the three I'd read and enjoyed other works by the same authors...which made it all the more jarring, the way each of them jerked me so completely out of the story and made me want to throw the book against the wall. I came away from each of these books seriously pissed at the author, for a very specific reason--and vowing to never make such a blunder in my own writing. ( WARNING: Enough hot air to send a balloon to the moon behind the cut ) Today's story: Blood & Spirit (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha) (4 Comments |Comment on this)