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mandolinOkay, let's try this again. Tried to post this last night, but LJ told me it was in read-only mode, I lost the post, got disgusted and went to bed.
First up, the recent encounter with silly drivers and a petty triumph:
Picture this. There are 2 left-turn lanes at the intersection by a grocery store near me. If you're going to the store, you get into the right-most turn lane, because as soon as you turn, you immediately have to turn right into the parking lot a mere twenty feet past the intersection. The green arrow at this light is noticeably longer than most of the left-turn lights in the area, and usually long enough to let both filled-up lanes proceed. Got that?
Now if, say, there's 8 cars in the right-most lane, pulling into the empty left-turn lane for the express purpose of making it through the light makes sense to me. If I'm at the head of an obscenely long left-turn line and someone uses the other lane to get through the light and get around me... well... if they've gauged it correctly, I don't take issue with that. The left-turn lights in my area are usually too short for the number of cars that turn. But in cases when there isn't a line at all... well, pulling that is just silly.
I pulled up to the red light first, and got in the rightmost turn lane, intending to turn into the grocery store. The very next car, a minivan, pulled up in the leftmost turn lane. (Keep in mind that at that point, there were NO OTHER CARS in the turn lanes.) After a minute or two, the light turned green, and I moved promptly. The minivan FLOORED it, nearly skidding, and swerved in front of me, inches in front of my bumper and nearly cutting me off - only to slam on its brakes to turn into the grocery store parking lot. The hell? Yes, let's nearly cause an accident just to get one freaking car ahead in the parking lot! The very first right turn!
The minivan turned at the first aisle, and I, wanting to avoid them, turned into the second aisle and promptly found a space near the front. As I was pulling in, who should I see coming around the bend but that same minivan - the driver couldn't find a close space. When I was getting out of my car, the driver was pulling out of a space she thought was closer, but had turned out to be reserved for expectant mothers. I couldn't help but grin.
Petty? Oh, yes. But so satisfying.
For those who ask "When's your fanfic gonna be done?" ...
As some people know, I am generally terrible at fight scenes. I struggle at writing fight scenes. (But I can write chase scenes. Go figure.) So I try to avoid them when I can. This strategy cannot be adopted for "The Key and the Sword," however.
Now the dreaded Part 5 fight scene, which I must rewrite, cannot be avoided because it's sort of pivotal to establishing who's on whick side. Fine. I accept that.
The other thing I need to change is the manner in which Dawn finds out Adam's big secret. The "seeing things" bit is way too contrived, even for a fic this silly. It'd be more satisfying if she either figured it out for herself or caught Adam in the act. And she has to find out fairly early, because otherwise I basically have to start over from scratch. But to do that properly, I have to have He-Man appear at least twice before Dawn figures it out.
Which basically means that I have to scrap ONE fight scene and replace it with TWO.
ARGH!
Okay, need to make some calls now.
First up, the recent encounter with silly drivers and a petty triumph:
Picture this. There are 2 left-turn lanes at the intersection by a grocery store near me. If you're going to the store, you get into the right-most turn lane, because as soon as you turn, you immediately have to turn right into the parking lot a mere twenty feet past the intersection. The green arrow at this light is noticeably longer than most of the left-turn lights in the area, and usually long enough to let both filled-up lanes proceed. Got that?
Now if, say, there's 8 cars in the right-most lane, pulling into the empty left-turn lane for the express purpose of making it through the light makes sense to me. If I'm at the head of an obscenely long left-turn line and someone uses the other lane to get through the light and get around me... well... if they've gauged it correctly, I don't take issue with that. The left-turn lights in my area are usually too short for the number of cars that turn. But in cases when there isn't a line at all... well, pulling that is just silly.
I pulled up to the red light first, and got in the rightmost turn lane, intending to turn into the grocery store. The very next car, a minivan, pulled up in the leftmost turn lane. (Keep in mind that at that point, there were NO OTHER CARS in the turn lanes.) After a minute or two, the light turned green, and I moved promptly. The minivan FLOORED it, nearly skidding, and swerved in front of me, inches in front of my bumper and nearly cutting me off - only to slam on its brakes to turn into the grocery store parking lot. The hell? Yes, let's nearly cause an accident just to get one freaking car ahead in the parking lot! The very first right turn!
The minivan turned at the first aisle, and I, wanting to avoid them, turned into the second aisle and promptly found a space near the front. As I was pulling in, who should I see coming around the bend but that same minivan - the driver couldn't find a close space. When I was getting out of my car, the driver was pulling out of a space she thought was closer, but had turned out to be reserved for expectant mothers. I couldn't help but grin.
Petty? Oh, yes. But so satisfying.
For those who ask "When's your fanfic gonna be done?" ...
As some people know, I am generally terrible at fight scenes. I struggle at writing fight scenes. (But I can write chase scenes. Go figure.) So I try to avoid them when I can. This strategy cannot be adopted for "The Key and the Sword," however.
Now the dreaded Part 5 fight scene, which I must rewrite, cannot be avoided because it's sort of pivotal to establishing who's on whick side. Fine. I accept that.
The other thing I need to change is the manner in which Dawn finds out Adam's big secret. The "seeing things" bit is way too contrived, even for a fic this silly. It'd be more satisfying if she either figured it out for herself or caught Adam in the act. And she has to find out fairly early, because otherwise I basically have to start over from scratch. But to do that properly, I have to have He-Man appear at least twice before Dawn figures it out.
Which basically means that I have to scrap ONE fight scene and replace it with TWO.
ARGH!
Okay, need to make some calls now.
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Date: 2003-10-01 11:58 am (UTC)Victoria and most of the routes I ever drive are so rural that I have never had any incidents behind the wheel. When I drive in Vancouver city I cringe and blood pressure heightens out of sheer fear (seriously).
But anyway, I think I would have had the same petty satisfaction. LOL.