blah blah Tuesday blah blah blah...

[mandolin]

So I'm combining entry types, it's late and I feel crappy.

Where I've Been: Got a sore throat on Saturday, which has progressed into a full-blown ear infection. This in turn has shot any and all New Year's plans to hell since I am now a leper in the eyes of my friends. (This is actually very wise behavior on their part. I'm allowed to be pissed off at my own immune system.) I can't remember the last time I had an ear infection, but I'm still stuck with it. Bleah.

As a result, will be out of work sick most of week, and while have enough energy to watch Firefly DVDs (Plague, if you don't have them, I'll loan 'em to you already. Just for the opening and closing scenes of "Trash," which I'm sure you'll enjoy.) and rewatch "Finding Nemo" and Stargate episodes, website updates and beta work have fallen by the wayside. (I didn't get online til 6 pm today. Which had a lot to do with the fact that I was stuck in the waiting room for three solid hours today.)

Will probably be spending New Year's Eve at parents' on account of fact that if I'm going to spend it in bed sick by myself, I'd like to do it where I have relatives less than 20 miles away.

Oh, and snurched from everyone by now:


Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about the same?

2003: Least. Productive. Year. Ever.

After the Great Creative Burnout of December '02, I managed one more part of "The Key and the Sword" before it died, my TGS assignment nearly crashed and burned totally, and I only completed TWO SHORT FICS: "In the Waiting" and "Fool's Wager."

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2003?

Spider-Girl. To be honest, I've been a fan of the series since '99, but never got the urge to write fic for it until I read the last few pages of issue #59 - and what might have been interpreted by some fans as a cheap fake-out (Peter looking up in tears, but oh yeah, baby and mother are OK) took on new meaning for me. Couple this with the way Amazing Spider-Man has been handing Aunt May discovering Peter's double life, and, well... it just clicked.

Pairing fics? Nothing finished that's going up. Although I have this odd Benadryl-induced itch to write some Wash/Zoe now.

What's your favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest.

Fool's Wager. Yeah, not a lot of competition, but it was good to write and finish a Now and Again fanfic again, and I was really pleased with how I managed to spread out that bet for four days straight. Four years since the series first ran, and I can still catch the characters' voices somewhat - that's saying something. Oh, and celli recommended it and made my day. :)

Did you take any writing risks this year? (See above for unexpected pairings, etc.) What did you learn from them?

Risks? I had trouble writing this year. Don't talk to me about risks.

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?

Do something about my WIPs. "Key and the Sword" needs to be chucked or revised, and I need to hack out more of "Sharp Edges." I may pull, edit and repost that because it's been so long since new parts of it went up. In short, get things finished!

On the profic front, I would like to dust off the story I wrote a few years back in my senior year of college, revise it, make it less Buffy-ish near the end and see if I couldn't submit it somewhere.

Ooh, the Benadryl is kicking in. Bedtime...

Comments

[weirdweb.livejournal.com]

If you turn on the commentaries or watch the "Making of" featurette, they get into that quite a bit - Joss liked the idea that in the end, the only two superpowers on Earth that made it were the U.S. and China - and as a result, even the poorest person can speak Chinese.

It also gave them an excuse to use words the censors would have gone nuts about if they'd been in English. :)

[kevenn.livejournal.com]

Kewl! Do they tell you what the words are, or you just have to be lucky enough to know Chinese? Thanx!

[weirdweb.livejournal.com]

You just have to be lucky enough to know Chinese... but they tried to use it in situations where the viewers would have an idea of what they were saying (or cursing) anyway. (Sort of like the obvious "Oh, shit" reaction.) But it was as accurate as they could get - apparently, they drove their translator up the wall with figuring out how to say certain phrases. :)