it's the latest forest fire

[lotus0kid]

(Ooh, the sky's doing that thing you only see in summer when everything gets tinged a really cool shade of pink/yellow/green. I love that.)

So, had a meeting with one of those temp agency guys today. We'll see if anything comes of that. I think it might, since I have a somewhat decent amount of experience now. The guy seemed fairly enthusiastic. Tomorrow I will definitely start looking at GRE study materials. I've been horrifically lazy to let it go this long. I will also go to the grocery store and buy actual ingredients for things. What things, I'm not sure, but I will.

Some feral anti-virus program has latched onto my computer. It keeps popping up with "ZOMFG YOU'VE BEEN INFECTED REGISTER NOW" messages that I'm really hoping will stop if I click "GO AWAY, FFS" enough. For now I've just got my Task Manager up to zap the messages that way.

I don't normally stay up for it- so much easier to dash over to the website to see the latest episode- but I do want to see if The Daily Show has anything cool to say about the awesome news on Prop 8.

Hm, I wanted to have more fun things to talk about, but.. yeah. Oh hey, Rifftrax is doing another live show on the nineteenth! Reefer Madness, the colorized version. So, yeah, that'll be cool. Also, completely at random today while I was working on cover art for a song mix I'm putting together, I found "Shalala" by Martin McFaul. It's a pretty darn cool song you can go here to download. If his whole album is like that, I might not be able to resist buying it.

*sigh* I shouldn't, since it will probably interfere with those grandiose GRE and grocery plans I have for tomorrow, but my fic-writing brain feels like it's been stagnating since finishing the bigboom fic, so...

Give me a prompt for a five-sentence fic.

Thanks kindly! Now I gotta run and see if the TV's free for Burn Notice.

1. Alt!Wendy from The Middleman. Duh, Alt!Wendy is the best! I would watch a show entirely about her.

2. The Devil from Reaper. This is my favorite interpretation of The Devil ever, Ray Wise did an amazing job.

3. Mister Teatime from Hogfather. Ooh, so creepy, so deeply, deeply disturbed. If Terry Pratchett didn't in turn make such awesome heroes, I'd be worried about him.

4. Richard III from Richard III. Yup, throwing a litle Shakespeare at you. Now, I've only seen the 1995 Ian McKellan version of this play, but I just loved how he imbued Richard with this impish glee at every awful act. There's this wonderful moment when he delivers some news to the king, and as he turns away he glances at the camera for the slightest of instants. His expression... makes it the perfect movie to root for the bad guy.

5. Major West from 28 Days Later. Oh, CE, why are you so good at being so bad? Or at least so frighteningly sane he's come out the other side to batshit nuts.

Runners-up: Badger from Firefly, The Editor from Doctor Who

Comments

[visiblemarket.livejournal.com]

Hee, see, not blue sky.

Argh, studying for standardized tests is not fun at all. I just finished up like two hours worth of it and I am drained.

Speaking of the bigboom fic, I will do my absolute best to get it back to you by the 7th; maybe around mid day on the 7th, but I will seriously do my best.

And...I have no idea what to prompt. Would you be open to something Inception-y? Arthur/Eames, "Pure Imagination".

If not I can come up with something else.

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

Oh pssh.

Seriously. I'm really hoping I'm not totally out of practice. I didn't even do spectacularly on the SAT... :(

Mmkay. It's fine if you can't, just let me know on the seventh.

Oh boy, my first Arthur/Eames! I think I'm gonna give it a shot in a separate comment, if you don't mind...

[visiblemarket.livejournal.com]

:D

Yeah...doing well on standardized tests was one of my few saving graces in high school, but the LSAT is significantly harder.

I've sent it along, and am kind of ashamed of myself for, um, how many parts I divided it into. I could totally look over it again to see if I could think of another way, but not until after the weekend (my mother is coming down on me for...I don't know, something.)

ETA: also, with your ETA, I knew both West and Alt!Wendy would be there before I even clicked.

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

Ugh, you lucky thing. I'm halfway through a PDF of the math review, and I kind of want to run screaming. Either that, or tattoo the rules of exponents on my inner forearm, maybe with that formula for solving quadratic equations (with a single variable) on the other one.

No worries, I've gone through it all and sent it in. Thanks one more time for beta-ing!

Alt!Wendy was a no-brainer. I'm afraid West was included possibly less on his own villainous merits than because I can't separate him from Alt!Wendy.

[visiblemarket.livejournal.com]

Hahah, math was the section I did worse on in the SATs, and there isn't any in the LSATs! A test designed entirely for me! It does torture me with logic games, though. I should go practice one right now, I have time. Heh, quadratic equations -b +/- the square root of b^2 - 4ac over....something. I think something that helps with math formulas is to understand them before trying to memorize them; that's based on the essential basic quadratic equation ax^2 + bx +c = 0, and then solving for x. Exponents are a little harder and do actually require memorization. (By rules you mean adding/subtracting/dividing/multipling things with exponents? Yeah, those suck).

Aww, I'm so happy for you! And so sorry I kind of lagged on getting it back to you.

*laughs* See I still contend that West isn't really evil (or even really a villain, although that's a lot closer) so much as he is desperate and bordering on amoral.

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

I'll definitely keep that tip in mind for the quadratic equation conundrum (totally my as-yet-unwritten Middleman script). And, yeah, I think I'll just have to stare at those stupid exponent rules until I memorize them. Tattoo them on my brain, if you will.

Eh, I could've easily sent it in as-was. Now I'm.. not really sure what to do with myself, because I consider it 100% done now.

He's definitely got a more Macbeth version of evil then, say, Don John. He found himself in a situation where he could have absolute power (even if it was just over a manor house and a troop of soldiers), and pretty much lost it. I could see him being a perfectly reasonable and upright guy when he has a superior to report to.

[visiblemarket.livejournal.com]

I'd say the best strategy for exponents is to do examples of them. Lots and lots of examples. Plus, pairings: adding/subtracting go together like multiplying/dividing and powering (to the 2nd, 3rd, etc)/rooting (square, cube, etc), and they have rules with similar logic. Also, sorry, I'm in test prep mode, coming up with special tips is kind of where my mind's at.

Awww. Deleted scenes. Honestly you could post it under the "private" filter right away and just be done with it.

*laughs* It may be my Spanish heritage but Don John makes me think of the famous lothario over the Shakespeare villain. And then I was imagining West as a Don Juan and, well, we don't need to go there. I will say that I don't even think West loses it loses it. He just kind of goes into a preservationist mindset that is arguably appropriate given the situation. The problem is that the rest of the movie is focused on characters who have gotten beyond just survival and back to humanity, with Selena especially. Danny Boyle pointed out that if she'd met West earlier, before meeting Hannah and her dad, they probably would've agreed with each other about a lot of things.

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

Hey, you won't find me complaining. I'm hoping if I get stuck I can kind of work backwards to remember what exponent rule I'm looking at.

Heh, deleted scenes, huh? Like maybe a certain fade-to-black moment? Posting under private might be a good idea.

Yeah, like I said, there's no way West is one of those "mwahaha" villains, but his mindset clashes way too much with that of the other characters.

[visiblemarket.livejournal.com]

Practice tests. Just take as many as you can. How long is the GRE?

I would never dream of dictating what you should or should not include. Posting under private is what I did for mine. In theory so I would stop going back and "fixing" things. It mostly worked.

It's such an odd role, honestly. If there's one flaw with the film is that once he shows up everything happens so quickly that we don't get much chance to really explore the situation there.

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

I have no idea how long it is, but a book I ordered for it just came in the mail, and has already given me help on solving those goddamn word problems.

Hm, I think that might actually make it harder for me. I'd be tempted to slip in and "Edit Entry."

Again, it's been too long since I saw the film to really make that call, but you're probably right. Also, I think there's an element of mystery and suspense where the audience isn't supposed to be able to tell if West is going to help or hurt the main characters. So that means you can't go into too much detail about him without answering that question.

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

It gets lonely, dreaming alone. That's what Arthur tells himself, when he's not telling himself it's just the drugs they use messing with his subconscious; he's been around the guy too often lately; dreams don't actually mean anything anyway.

That's why, out of the swirling random chaos of his natural dreams, a grinning face emerges, followed by a body too loose and casual in its movements to be anything but completely feral just underneath. Eames peers around his frenzied surroundings in distaste, saying, "I said bigger, my love, not... this."

He wraps a hand around Arthur's and takes him far, far away.

[visiblemarket.livejournal.com]

Aww. Appropriately dreamy ;)

[fadeintodawn.livejournal.com]

For the GRE, I used these:

http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-2011-Graduate-School-Preparation/dp/0375429786/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281060729&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Crash-Course-Graduate-School-Preparation/dp/0375765727/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281060747&sr=8-22

And they were good - helpful and straightfoward!

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'll definitely get a hold of these.

[gingerberrysnap.livejournal.com]

I do not miss standardized tests. Are you taking a GRE class or just studying on your own?

Prompt... hmm...

Plaude; countryside.

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

I'm going it alone. I'm not quite worried enough about it to pay for a class. Mistake? I guess we'll see. In any case...

They're city boys, the both of them. "Rural" just isn't written in their genes and they know it- and so does their new friend. Claude joked earlier, "Of course another speedo from the countryside- the better to get the hell out of there, yeah?"

Mocking laughter has given way to fierce repellance and little Cindy is all but hissing like a snake as Peter picks his way over the stony creek bed, keeping up a steady stream of comforting words and assurances as he does.

The girl turns and begins to blur with movement- but doesn't get more than two feet before slamming into an invisible Claude, barrelling them both over in a spray of water.

[gingerberrysnap.livejournal.com]

From what I've heard about the GRE it's basically a glorified SAT. So I guess it depends on how correct that is and how good you were about taking the SAT?

*snorts* Poor Claude, he's going to be picking nature off his clothes for days and complaining about it.

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

Heh, yeah, the SAT.. that went... great..?

XD Pretty much.

[c-quinn.livejournal.com]

I think it might, since I have a somewhat decent amount of experience now. The guy seemed fairly enthusiastic.

Hooray! :) I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Some feral anti-virus program has latched onto my computer.

Oh, well that's not good. You'd better watch that carefully.

Give me a prompt for a five-sentence fic.

Hmm... How about...

Arthur/Eames. Poker face.

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

(Ooh! Puh-retty Arthur/Eames icon you've got there.)

Thanks. I dunno, maybe I should just try to get a job in my dad's office, but something in me just really wants to find something on my own.

Ergh, I know. It's behaving itself right now, at least...

Poker face, huh? Hmmm.


At least Cobb waits until the rest of the team is elsewhere before putting a hand on Eames' shoulder and ducking their heads together, "You're the best forger I've ever worked with."

Eames allows the ghost of a smile.

"But Browning doesn't know Arthur from Adam, so we can't risk you breaking character, not even for a second." He steps away and sighs, "Trust me, I know how hard it can be, but you've gotta put all that away until the job's done, understand?"

Eames nods, and sets his face in a hard frown with eyes downcast.

[c-quinn.livejournal.com]

(Ooh! Puh-retty Arthur/Eames icon you've got there.)

Hee. Ain't it, though? Silly englishmuffin2 can't see the slash between them but-- It's there. Oh, it's there.

And thank you for the fill! Loved it!

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

SO there. Even without the throw-away "darling" line, their entire vibe is exes who can't stand each other these days.

Welcome!