tarred and a long weekend ahead ~

[lookingland]

i'm off to kenosha to visit my sister tomorrow (looking forward to romping around chicago ~ going to the field museum on saturday, etc. ~ geeky yayness!)

i really very randomly want this from eBay. the price is awfully steep though. but it's not exactly something i could easily find somewhere else. (i know, i'm not supposed to be on eBay in the first place).

sigh.

i haven't done any writing these last couple of days. mostly just shuffling papers around and trying to reorganize ~ and fretting about the hantybooks, which don't look to be coming any time soon (and on which, i suddenly realize, much depends).

anybody on my flist live in pennsylvania?

wanna run an errand for me at gettysburg college? hahahaha ~

i was looking forward to the wednesday writers_five questions hoping they would kick some ideas loose, but i laughed this morning when i saw the first one: "does your character like the government?"

hmmm ~ which government? yes and no. when you're writing something about the government, trying to answer a question like that can get awfully complicated. so i just gave up.

question number two was about "first love", which is irrelevant to this story. question number three was about "something your character is scared to do". also seems immaterial given the forced nature of the circumstances. none of them want to be doing what they're doing, but they have to, so there you have it. dunno that any of them are actually fearful and i don't feel inclined to invent things they might be fearful of.

question number four (in two parts) was "what's the most hurtful thing the character has ever knowingly done to someone? and "do they regret it now?" i can answer that one for the Chammy because i actually have documentation on that matter. dunno about the rest of the cast.

finally: "what is your character's theme song?" ~ eh, no.

anyway, that's about all i have energy for tonight.

i'll try to check in over the long weekend, but i kinda doubt it.

'til tuesday!

: D

Comments

[geckobird.livejournal.com]

Theme song. That's something I did in middle school with my characters. And it basically consisted of me assigning my favorite songs to the characters I happened to enjoy writing. Bleh. xP I've never really understood that question either. Theme song? Heck, I don't even have a theme song, so why should my character? Maybe I could think about what their favorite song might be, but that's not really the question. Unless I'm thinking far too hard about this. Which wouldn't be the first time I've done that either. XD

You know what's funny? I've noticed this over the past month. Everytime I manage to write something (even if it is pretty much crud, it's at least words on a page). I'll come online and discover that you had wrote something the same day I did. But on days when I just give up in disgust and distract myself, I'll come online and discover an entry from you that describes that same distraction from writing that I just experienced.

So maybe we don't write about the same things - but for the past month, it seems our writing has a connection. Or I could be just crazy. Either way, it's always good to read your entries! (I really should comment more often so you know that I am reading and enjoying them!)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

no, you're just crazy ~

hahahahahahaha ~ kidding!

i'm glad we're sympatico on the writing front ~ it's also wonderful to know the struggle is a shared one ~ so yes, post more often! it's definitey heartening (and i will try to respond more to your stuff as well ~ so we can keep the energy going!

: D

[pithhelmet.livejournal.com]

i really very randomly want this from eBay

It has to be a fake. The seller alleges that the text includes the phrase:

...as long lasting as the dominion of the Anglo-Saxon race.

Sounds kind of racist doesn't it? And everyone knows that there were no racists in the North during the 19th century. Just ask any high school senior. ;)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

hahahahaha ~

there were especially no unionist democrat yale-educated german racists from pennsylvania who nonetheless happened to support abolition in the 19th century.

the complexity of prejudice seems so beyond the easy 21st century pc bandaid people slap on it.

: o p

[gwyn-hwyfar.livejournal.com]

Enjoy your trip and be safe! Oh yeah *am tempted to go to Gettysburg* What are you looking for?

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

thank you for the well wishes! nobody died, so all-in-all it should be considered that the trip was, indeed, safe.

: D

i need a roll of microfilm from gettysburg college, which i'm guessing innerliberry loan is having a hard time procuring (or maybe i am just phenomenally impatient. it's hard to tell).

go to gettysburg! would i be wrong to assume you have been there before?

[gwyn-hwyfar.livejournal.com]

I'I've been there many times, starting in grade school since I grew up only about an hour away :D My sister was even born there. It is one of my favorite places on the planet!
It's about a 2:15-hour drive or so now, but my husband has been approached about a job in Lancaster, so dare I say if we are very lucky I just might be living closer before the summer is over *knocks on wood so as not to JINX it*

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

oooo ~ yay for you! i will keep a happy thought for you and your husband!

: D

[amberdulen.livejournal.com]

I'm a Pennsylvanian, but Gettysburg is way way east of me. If I ever go back there (my dad plays in a Civil War band and they go there every year) I will let you know!

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

sweet!

thanks for the offer!

: D

[lolocat.livejournal.com]

I'd offer to run an errand for you but if you read my most recent and last few posts, you'll see why I can't. I don't even have time to do all the things I need to do. However, if my schedule eases up, I'll see what I can do. ;)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

awww, i know you are busier than a one-armed paper-hanger, so dunna worry about it! still, thank you for the very generous offer!

: D

[maggieolee.livejournal.com]

My characters were able to answer the government question fairly easily. I knew how they would respond to such a question. And theme song? Yeah, I thought that was juvenile, but I considered the song that the characters would want associated with themselves for whatever reason. It took me a little while to really consider it, given the exposure the characters would have had to the music at the time and what they might respond to, and then choosing from that based on where they were in their lives.

Considering that helps me expand my context of their worldviews and preferences. But music was a huge part of life in the Roaring 20's and while that will dim with the Great Depression, it still shaped these characters and their personalities.

Your focus is on a different time and one that I still know very little about. Did music have a place in the culture, in high society, in the lower class? What were the influences at the time?

I also find it easier to do the fives as the character in first person. I don't know why since my notes are written from my perspective. I feel a little silly doing it but that's also why I don't share my fives on the community and keep them as exercises on my journal, ya know?

Happy & Safe trip to you! Enjoy the Museum! I miss visiting Chicago. My reasons for going these past five years have spoilt the joy I had left for Chicago. I haven't been to Kenosha in ages, not since my mother would take me there to do her shopping at that gigantic outlet mall. That was before Gurnee Mills opened up in Gurnee, Illinois. Long before.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

good point about taking a different approach to the music question. me of the musically-disinclined would be hard pressed to figure out what would be appropriate choices, though. lots of religious hymns, i suspect, about which i know so so very little.

i know what you mean about feeling "silly", but sometimes the best way to understand a character is from the inside (sometimes the only way to understand a character is from the inside). nevertheless, i hope, wherever you are keeping your "fives", that they are doing well to help you build your world a little. that makes it worth all the silliness in the world.

thanks for the well-wishes! it was fun to go, but always good to be back.

: D

[utter-scoundrel.livejournal.com]

ummm...

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

ulp?

what'd i do now?

if it's that whole Chicago thing, i just dinna wanna put you in an awkward spot. that, and being consumed by the parentals on this recent jaunt. you know how it is (right?)

: o p