Well, this sure went tl;dr awfully fast...
Jan. 2nd, 2007 12:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rallamajoopSince 2006 is now properly over…
2006 was a year that started pretty bad but got better. It was my first year out of uni after graduation - which put it off to a bad start straight away because 2005 was a hell of a tough act to follow. I really loved doing my university degree, and I went through my last couple of years with an awesome bunch of people, far too many of whom have since left the state to find (probably disgustingly high-paying) work. I found a job without any trouble, and I have a lot of reasons to be glad I’ve got the one I have – not least of which the fact they’re not too bothered by my habit of disappearing for a few days here and there (since I’ve been doing some part time work for my university supervisors as well, which is a little messy to organise, but I like having some variety in my week). The sad part is that apart from that, it’s pretty much just a salary job to me – there isn’t much about it I enjoy. The other people who work there are decent enough to deal with, provided I don’t try to talk to them about religion, politics, women’s rights, gay rights, a couple of major environmental issues, anything that might lead to debate over the origin of the universe or anything I’d consider enjoyable fiction. And of course, the other problem with nine-to-five jobs is that they don’t leave a lot of time for you to hang out with anyone you don’t see at work. I didn’t do a particularly stellar job of finding time to catch up with people outside those hours in those first months either.
I’m guessing this is all pretty standard stuff for anyone adapting to Life Beyond School, and I usually try to avoid whinging too much up here in any case. But suffice to say – the first few months of this year aren’t any I’m going to look back on too fondly.
Fortunately, from here on out it gets better.
There was a bunch of stuff that helped turn the year around. The trip to Japan we took earlier this year was, of course, fantastic – the kind of holiday where you come home thinking ‘how soon can we go back?’ Even our annual skating nationals trip to Sydney was unusually enjoyable (even the couple of days I spent sitting around the house feeling sick and making a serious dent in the remaining space in my writing notebook) – I got to go to my first ever con outside Perth, tour the Chinese Gardens with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zhalaya and Tini. And so what if I didn’t actually bring home a lot of medals, that was still easily the most fun in a skating comp I’d ever had.
On the local front, Lisa and I have both been going to PenCafe meetings for the last few months, Officially, it's a place for everyone to get some serious drawing or writing done, however, the biggest attraction is just having our first regular social Saturday-night activity since JAFWA started losing interest for us. From a random collection of Perth would-be-artists, they’ve managed to build up a group of some amazingly fantastic people to spend your evenings with - most of whom I don’t think we’d have ever had the chance to meet otherwise. I have this theory now that both the president and vice-president are themselves actually poorly-disguised anime characters - specifically, the variety who, just when you’ve gotten used to the idea of them being the wonderfully insane, porn/yaoi-obsessed loonies they are, turn around and turn out to also be the sort of people to whom organising things actually comes naturally. Alright, so maybe it's not always 100% perfectly successful organisation, but they’ve still managed to put together one hell of a great club for the rest of us. And somehow, we even get work done there sometimes. How weird is that?
Of course the other big group of generally awesome people we’ve gotten to know so much better this year would have to be everyone from cosplay circles. While I’ve said it before, I remain in awe of the talent there is in this pokey little city (and maybe even more in awe that Lisa and I somehow got to the point of being considered part of it). It may not sound like a big thing, but getting together withcescat and nekomiao for weekly costuming days is definitely another one of those things that helped turn this into a good year. And to everyone in CosArt, I’m only sorry we didn’t get to see you guys more often, because I can’t think of one time when we met up where we didn’t have a great time. I trust you can all see where I’m going with this where plans for next year are concerned. ^_^
There are still one or two last things to relate in the Stuff Which Made This A Good Year category, the big one being that – somehow - writing suddenly isn’t so hard anymore these days. There’s still work required, of course, and I’m feeling a little superstitious about making too much fuss about it at all in case it goes away again as mysteriously as it showed up but it must be said: hitting the point where I seem to be able to turn out a couple of finished stories in an average week? That is a Big Deal. I’m so very not kidding. Even if I am just turning out fanfic at the moment, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The last of those last little things is a fandom thing. See, I’ve been in and out of various CLAMP fandoms in a casual sort of way for years, but I’ve never really gotten very involved online until my last Tsubasa/xxxHOLiC binge, so it was a really wonderful how great so many of the people in it have turned out to be. Apart from anything else, this is by far the most generous fandom I’ve ever been in when it comes to getting a feedback on fic, and while that’s not the only reason I’m turning out fic at such a crazy rate lately, I’m sure it can’t have hurt.
So, that’s been my year. If you want a little summarising thing at the end, run a quick word count on the uses of the words ‘great’, ‘awesome’, ‘wonderful’ and ‘fantastic’ in this post. Naturally, there are always going to be ups and downs, but I think that’s about the best summary of the last few months of my life as I can give.
2006 was a year that started pretty bad but got better. It was my first year out of uni after graduation - which put it off to a bad start straight away because 2005 was a hell of a tough act to follow. I really loved doing my university degree, and I went through my last couple of years with an awesome bunch of people, far too many of whom have since left the state to find (probably disgustingly high-paying) work. I found a job without any trouble, and I have a lot of reasons to be glad I’ve got the one I have – not least of which the fact they’re not too bothered by my habit of disappearing for a few days here and there (since I’ve been doing some part time work for my university supervisors as well, which is a little messy to organise, but I like having some variety in my week). The sad part is that apart from that, it’s pretty much just a salary job to me – there isn’t much about it I enjoy. The other people who work there are decent enough to deal with, provided I don’t try to talk to them about religion, politics, women’s rights, gay rights, a couple of major environmental issues, anything that might lead to debate over the origin of the universe or anything I’d consider enjoyable fiction. And of course, the other problem with nine-to-five jobs is that they don’t leave a lot of time for you to hang out with anyone you don’t see at work. I didn’t do a particularly stellar job of finding time to catch up with people outside those hours in those first months either.
I’m guessing this is all pretty standard stuff for anyone adapting to Life Beyond School, and I usually try to avoid whinging too much up here in any case. But suffice to say – the first few months of this year aren’t any I’m going to look back on too fondly.
Fortunately, from here on out it gets better.
There was a bunch of stuff that helped turn the year around. The trip to Japan we took earlier this year was, of course, fantastic – the kind of holiday where you come home thinking ‘how soon can we go back?’ Even our annual skating nationals trip to Sydney was unusually enjoyable (even the couple of days I spent sitting around the house feeling sick and making a serious dent in the remaining space in my writing notebook) – I got to go to my first ever con outside Perth, tour the Chinese Gardens with
zhalaya and Tini. And so what if I didn’t actually bring home a lot of medals, that was still easily the most fun in a skating comp I’d ever had.On the local front, Lisa and I have both been going to PenCafe meetings for the last few months, Officially, it's a place for everyone to get some serious drawing or writing done, however, the biggest attraction is just having our first regular social Saturday-night activity since JAFWA started losing interest for us. From a random collection of Perth would-be-artists, they’ve managed to build up a group of some amazingly fantastic people to spend your evenings with - most of whom I don’t think we’d have ever had the chance to meet otherwise. I have this theory now that both the president and vice-president are themselves actually poorly-disguised anime characters - specifically, the variety who, just when you’ve gotten used to the idea of them being the wonderfully insane, porn/yaoi-obsessed loonies they are, turn around and turn out to also be the sort of people to whom organising things actually comes naturally. Alright, so maybe it's not always 100% perfectly successful organisation, but they’ve still managed to put together one hell of a great club for the rest of us. And somehow, we even get work done there sometimes. How weird is that?
Of course the other big group of generally awesome people we’ve gotten to know so much better this year would have to be everyone from cosplay circles. While I’ve said it before, I remain in awe of the talent there is in this pokey little city (and maybe even more in awe that Lisa and I somehow got to the point of being considered part of it). It may not sound like a big thing, but getting together with
cescat and nekomiao for weekly costuming days is definitely another one of those things that helped turn this into a good year. And to everyone in CosArt, I’m only sorry we didn’t get to see you guys more often, because I can’t think of one time when we met up where we didn’t have a great time. I trust you can all see where I’m going with this where plans for next year are concerned. ^_^There are still one or two last things to relate in the Stuff Which Made This A Good Year category, the big one being that – somehow - writing suddenly isn’t so hard anymore these days. There’s still work required, of course, and I’m feeling a little superstitious about making too much fuss about it at all in case it goes away again as mysteriously as it showed up but it must be said: hitting the point where I seem to be able to turn out a couple of finished stories in an average week? That is a Big Deal. I’m so very not kidding. Even if I am just turning out fanfic at the moment, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The last of those last little things is a fandom thing. See, I’ve been in and out of various CLAMP fandoms in a casual sort of way for years, but I’ve never really gotten very involved online until my last Tsubasa/xxxHOLiC binge, so it was a really wonderful how great so many of the people in it have turned out to be. Apart from anything else, this is by far the most generous fandom I’ve ever been in when it comes to getting a feedback on fic, and while that’s not the only reason I’m turning out fic at such a crazy rate lately, I’m sure it can’t have hurt.
So, that’s been my year. If you want a little summarising thing at the end, run a quick word count on the uses of the words ‘great’, ‘awesome’, ‘wonderful’ and ‘fantastic’ in this post. Naturally, there are always going to be ups and downs, but I think that’s about the best summary of the last few months of my life as I can give.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 04:59 pm (UTC)I FIND YOUR IDEAS INTRUIGUING AND WOULD LIKE YO SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR NEWSLETTER ♥♥♥♥♥
no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 04:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 11:04 am (UTC)I'm thinking of going back to university again to do a second degree (part time)... there were some things in my life that really undermined my enjoyment of the first one, and, well, I'm a hopeless academic who really likes the idea of hanging around a bunch of people learning stuff again.
I haven't been on LJ much at all during 2006, I mostly came to check your journal today (and Lisa's Deviant art account!) as I've almost finished watching through the entirety of Dragonball Z now (~8 eps to go!) due to a housemate's fannishness. It made me think of you guys and drag myself briefly back to LJ land to see how you were ^_^
no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 12:38 pm (UTC)...er, I think I still know where it is. Probably? >.>
I really like the sound of PenCafe. Is it the kind of thing anyone can show up to?
Officially, they're a anime-style artist group, but they're reasonably keen on the idea of getting some writers in to help people out scripting stories for original manga projects and stuff, which has been my excuse for hanging around so far. The president lives in constant fear that we're going to get a sudden influx of new people who no-one's ever seen before and run out of space, but even if that's not just paranoia, it hasn't happened yet, and I don't think we're in any real danger. Basically, they're more comfortable if new people are someone an existing member can introduce, and you do need to be willing to contribute something productive eventually if you're going to stick around. But, if you feel like checking it out, just say the word and we'll send you some directions. ^_^ Naturally, we'd both love to
try out our new secret counter attack techniqueer, see you again as well.I'm thinking of going back to university again to do a second degree (part time)... there were some things in my life that really undermined my enjoyment of the first one, and, well, I'm a hopeless academic who really likes the idea of hanging around a bunch of people learning stuff again.
I sure hear you there. Of course, as I said in the post, I got plenty of fun out of my degree while I was doing it, but that only makes me miss uni all the more. (Any guesses on how long it took my uni supervisors to talk me into taking that part time job after I finished? ^^;)
...I've almost finished watching through the entirety of Dragonball Z now
While I hate to admit this as an old Dragonball-addict, that puts you ahead of me. Sure, we have every volume of the manga, but I've only seen about half the anime. After the way we were introduced to the series, it's just not the same anymore if we can't get on forth-generation tapes in raw Japanese with unhelpful Chinese subtitles obscuring the bottom half of the screen. Decent quality video just takes all the fun away, y'know?
no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 01:45 pm (UTC)It would be cool if it were still in Japan, for then I would be required to go on an epic quest to retrieve it, though I'd probably get distracted ten seconds after walking out of my door by something fluffy. But the thought would be there!
Officially, they're a anime-style artist group, but they're reasonably keen on the idea of getting some writers in to help people out scripting stories for original manga projects and stuff, which has been my excuse for hanging around so far.
That would be what I had to contribute, as you've guessed ^^; I doodle, but I'm no artist, unless people consider stick figures art these days. I could call it functional abstract manga-style... style.
and you do need to be willing to contribute something productive eventually if you're going to stick around.
Definitely! I really like the idea of hanging around people actually working through creative ideas of their own and potentially being involved in them. I don't often lack for initial inspiration, but it's actually sticking with something to the finish I have problems with ^.^; It's easier for me to work on something if I think other people are going to enjoy it with me ^_^
I can understand the desire for the club not to overflow into obesity of membership! I can make myself really tiny though!
But, if you feel like checking it out, just say the word and we'll send you some directions. ^_^
That would be so nifty I'd upgrade it to super-nifty, without even pausing for consideration or getting the super-nifty approval forms or anything!
Naturally, we'd both love to try out our new secret counter attack technique er, see you again as well.
And of course I would easily out-outmaneuver your puny attempt to return my - uhm, I mean, yay! ^_^ ^_^ ^_^
(Any guesses on how long it took my uni supervisors to talk me into taking that part time job after I finished? ^^;)
Maybe that's how I'll end up resolving this, by getting employed to be there *grins* Though I'm really excited about trying out a new degree at the same time as working and paying rent! It shall be a balancing act of doom, busy doom.
While I hate to admit this as an old Dragonball-addict, that puts you ahead of me.
Kiiiiind of... ^^; The ones my housemate has are all dubbed and incredibly bad TV rips that make the audio really difficult to follow at times, though from the sound of it that's still much easier to follow than what you're describing! My housemate (Scott, because there's only so many times I can type "my housemate" before my keyboard laughs at me) is intending to download some higher-quality versions eventually though...
I come to most fandoms decades after they took roots in reality. Except for video games, which seemed to have had their plots hard-wired into my genes from birth so that I have no choice but to continue playing... *still needs to buy a copy of KH:CoM* I know you guys mentioned that I might be able to play yours ages and ages ago, but I want to own my own and I don't think you guys had a free save slot anyway ^.^;
Speaking of KH, I am reading your multi-chapter fic at the moment and it is awesome, I have taken a break from it to reply to this comment ^^
no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 01:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-10 01:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 10:42 pm (UTC)Just so we're not building up any false expectations, I should probably clarify that 'working through creative ideas' might occasionally mean "everyone starts drawing demented chibis/love hearts/moustaches/things not appropriate to be shown to minors/etc all ever each others' Very Serious Pictures and our concentration goes to hell", for example. But I maintain this is all part of the awesome.
I don't often lack for initial inspiration, but it's actually sticking with something to the finish I have problems with ^.^; It's easier for me to work on something if I think other people are going to enjoy it with me ^_^
Oh, absolutely - I know exactly what you mean there. And it would definitely be neat to have some other writers to hang out with at meetings. ^_^
I can understand the desire for the club not to overflow into obesity of membership! I can make myself really tiny though!
Hey, it's cool, if we run out of space, we can always make the president stand outside.
*still needs to buy a copy of KH:CoM*
You may have to look into ordering that in - we couldn't find anywhere in Perth that was selling it. This city is weird like that sometimes. Trust me though, it's well worth the effort of tracking down.
Speaking of KH, I am reading your multi-chapter fic at the moment, and it is awesome
Yay! And wherever you're actually up to, I hope the awesome will continue for you over the remainder. ^_^