One Mouthy Broad

plutospawn linked me what has to be one of the funniest KOTOR fanfics ever. Of Balls and Reunions is the story of Revan returning from the outer regions after five years, matchmaking her entire crew and meeting up with her one true love Carth at a ball wherein she reveals their daughter to him.

It's cracktastic and awesome. And I have to believe that it's a troll, because anyone who has that excellent of a grasp of grammar, spelling, punctuation and general coherency has to know how awesomely bad this is.

I encourage you all to check it out if you need a good laugh. It totally made my day.

So I was over cruising through Smart Bitches (something I've gotten addicted to recently thanks to a link from athenaprime) and they had this Star Wars beauty pageant talent show vid posted and I just had to share it with you all.

Beware. This might make you blind with it's sheer awesome badness, but I think it's the kind of badness you'd all appreciate.



I have to say, this girl has some cojones to get up there and do that with a smile the entire time. I can't tell if she knows she sucks and it's some kind of brilliant satire on beauty pageant talent shows or she really does think she's awesome.

Either way it's full of win.

So today is the day that my son finally got to attend the preschool that is sucking our bank account dry. $6350.00 this year for three hours a day that's 11 installments of $635.00 a month. Next year when he goes until 2:45 I'll have the pleasure of paying $9090.00 for kindergarten (that's 909.00 a month folks.)

It occurs to me that I could buy a really kickass car for all this money. Luckly this is only for the next two years. I don't think I can face eating mac and cheese for the next 14 years of his life until he goes to college.

It's probably time for me to I find a job. Of course if I do go back to work, that's another $490.00 a month for him to have daycare until 6 at night.

Actually, I was really rather excited for him. Since kids tend to become asshats in gradeschool later, I figured preschool and kindergarden would be a pretty fun experience.

Other kids were freaking out as their parents left. Me? I had to tap him on the head to pull his attention away from the hamster cage to say goodbye. And when I came to pick him up, which kid had the freak out then because he wanted to stay longer? That's right. My kid.

Because that is the kind of awesome mother I am. :P

At least he liked it. I really hope it's worth it.

I've been quiet lately, and really it's because I've been spending my time writing some original fiction (to my shock, I actually have a rough draft of a first chapter to something that might actually turn into a full length story). I have to say that it's interesting having to come up with all characters that are entirely your own. One of the things that helps me shape my own characters is to think about my own favorite fictional characters and figure out why they entertain and appeal to me. I've decided to make a list as my own personal mental exercise and post it here.

I warn you, this is really, really long, and possibly of interest only to me, which is why it's under a cut. If you don't read it, I won't be offended. Honest.

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I'm also interested in the favorite characters of the people on this list, because it's always interesting to see what appeals to other people. So tell me a handful of your favorite fictional characters (be sure to include where they're from unless it's obvious - remember I'm an old lady here) and absolutely most importantly why you like them and they appeal to you.

So Bethesda bought the rights to the best computer rpg of all time, Fallout, and finally after years and years Fallout 3 is in development and slated for a fall 2008 release.

They even have a trailer! There's actually a FAQ about the game here. Apparently unlike the first two games, this one is supposed to take place on the eastern cost of the United States.

I'm so freaking geeked. If there was one game that I could have picked to have a sequel for, it's Fallout (yes, even over Knights of the Old Republic). This is probably my all time favorite computer game although it might tie with Day of the Tentacle.

It had probably the best and most original character creation system that I've ever seen in an rpg, an amazingly original plot (I'm a sucker for post apocalyptic stories) and some completely kick ass visuals (I can still see the opening sequence for Fallout 1 in my head). Fallout 1 also had the most entertaining instruction manual ever with the hilarious Pip Boy cartoons.

I just hope that 1) this actually does get released and 2) it lives up to the first two games.

I think I'm going to have to go dig up my copies of the old games and play them again.

Have you ever worked for days crafting a scene that just seemed off, polishing it up, trying to make it work and then realized:

a) It doesn't really add anything to the story
b) It's kinda boring and flat
c) The few necessary elements that are in that scene could be handled in a much more interesting way in about three chapters

I usually don't mind cutting out entire scenes of stuff because often I can find a way to rework it into an interesting stand alone or something, but this stuff just sucked and isn't really material I can rework into a oneshot. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big believer in the idea that if something doesn't add to the plot or characterization, to hack it out. I usually cut through stuff fairly happily, actually, even stuff that I like or am attached too. But I think the combination of how long I worked on it and how boring (and repetitive of past stuff) it ended up being was what truly annoys the snot out of me.

*facepalm*

That's a couple of weeks of writing down the drain.

I am constantly fascinated about what makes a story popular and how does and doesn't relate to the quality of the story in question. Sometimes the stars align and you end up with something amazing that is both popular and well written (Heroes is a good example of this). Unfortunately, it seems that far more often they don't and that something is either wildly popular and sucks ass or is freaking brilliant and criminally overlooked.

I don't really mind that the stuff that I find mediocre is popular. Although I am baffled by it, I tend to write it off as a subjective taste thing. And I also realize that not everyone is going to agree with me about what a quality piece of fiction is - and that's okay. If everyone had the same taste, that would be horrible really. And hey, as I've gotten older, my tastes have totally changed. When I was a teenager, I loved wanky romances and poorly written fantasy novels staring blatant mary sue characters, and I don't think there is anything wrong with that, but the older I got and the more that I read, the picker I've gotten. I think partially that's because the more you read, the more you realize how certain things are clichés or just ripped off of other writers who did it better in their story (yes Robert Jordan… I’m talking to you, you asshat.).

When it comes to my own personal taste - it seems like if I like whatever it is - it's doomed to early cancellation or obscurity (I like to call this the Prisoner24601 effect). I keep waiting for Battlestar Galactica to get canceled because I really love it (especially now that the wanky Starbuck/Apollo romance seems to be over).

I admit that I find it frustrating when I stumble across stuff that's so brilliant and no one is watching or reading. There are tons of examples of this in popular media and hell even in our own little tiny fandom. I mean, we live in a world where Firefly was canceled but a show like Everyone Loves Raymond (which I admit - I could never stand) was the number one show for years. In television and movies, it seems like the more bland the entertainment is, the more likely it's going to be popular.

There are some truly amazing pieces of fan fic in our community that that have been criminally overlooked (and I'm not talking about my own stuff - which I think gets a nice amount of feedback actually) or aren't even as remotely popular as they should be - and I just don't get it. It seems like if something isn't a romance, light side or fluffy, that people simply tune out. And I don't see anything wrong with people wanting those kinds of stories - it's just that I wish people would be more open to other kinds of stories too.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

The new DCC Challenge is open for voting. Thank you so much everyone who submitted or gave suggestions on how to spice up and improve the contest. I really appreciate everyone's comments, help and submissions.

I, however, am a loser and did not manage to make my own challenge deadline. *facepalm* I tried no less that four different story ideas, none of which ever got off the ground. I finally hit on a good solid idea that I thought I could follow through with far too late to make the deadline.

I hate it when that happens. I can't tell if it was the mood I was in, or if the story ideas needed some work. Does that ever happen to any of you - where you think you've got a solid idea and then a few paragraphs or pages into it, you realize that it's just not working?

So I've been rather bitter about the latest round of nerfs to the Druid class. After two years of playing the red-headed stepchild class of WoW, we finally got some serious love with the expansion pack - and finally we weren't the suckiest class in the game.

As I figured, this was too good to last. And now, due to a bunch of whiners, we've been hit with the nerf bat after only a month and a half of being fixed. Some had legitimate gripes (warriors did need a buff - but I fail to see why a Druid needs a nerf), but most are a bunch of 14 year old rogue noobs who figure if they can't wtfpwn another class in under five seconds - you must be overpowered.

I realize that nerfs come and go. Classes get new powers and nerfed all the time - but this time it truly blows. We were broken for two freaking years until they finally got around to making us useful and only a month and a half later we're back to our pre expansion uselessness for feral druids. I suspect that the resto and balance trees are next. I guess if they do that, I'm goint to throw in the towel and just level up my lock to 70 because I'm getting really tired of playing the most disrespected, fucked up and misunderstood class in the game.

Honestly, I think this whole thing is driven more by market economics rather than any desire to balance the game. Druids are by far the least played class in the game. Warriors and rogues are two of the most played (warriors alone outnumber us at least four to one). And let's face it, Blizzard is a company and the thing they are most concerned with is their bottom line.

But this video made by the dudes that did the illegal danish stuff, almost makes the nerf worth it.

The day I've been waiting for ever since the World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade hit the shelves has finally arrived.

( HAHAHAHAHAHAHA )