this machine will not communicate

In my last LJ post, I said I had started a new screenplay but it wouldn't be done in time for anything.  And that was true - I haven't written a single page since then, actually.  It's dead in the water at 30 or so pages; I'll have to sit down, actually write a fucking outline, and think about it.

But I did write a completely new, different screenplay!  I started like May 3, finished like May 30, just in time to submit to Austin Film Festival.  It was a comedy - I've never written a comedy before.  I didn't have an outline, a synopsis, even a log-line.  I just sat down one day and started writing.  On the whole, even if it's not the best thing I've ever written (and it's definitely not), it was just such a fun experience for a change, to have an idea and just go with it.  And it was heartening that I knew how to write a movie without having to actually write out all the technical framework first.  So quite fun.

Community was canceled.  I started watching in the beginning of S2, so I missed that first "will it be canceled or renewed?" crisis, but every season after that, I lived it.  S2, S3, S4, each time I was sure this was it, it was finished.  And then it would get renewed!  This year was the first time that I had been confident in renewal - the numbers were good, Sean Saves the World and The MJF Show tanked, #sixseasonsandamovie, etc.  I wasn't even worried!  And then.  And then...  So yeah, that was pretty devastating.  For the next two weeks, I would remember "Community got canceled" at the most random times and would literally get sad.

More work on the basement.  Closets framed in, sump pump framed in, a couple more walls.  We found a desk someone had put out for trash that just needs one drawer to be fixed up, new hardware, and a fresh coat of paint, so that's sitting in our basement waiting for my next big Project Day.

We also put in a garden!  It's doing really well so far, though I think we haven't harvested anything yet.  But having a yard feels more legit when there's a garden in it.

Community was renewed!  So I read the news, then I texted my friend, "YAHOO has picked up Community.  YAHOO.  Is this real?  It this a thing that is happening?  YAHOO."  Seriously, I had to read like three articles before I was convinced it was real and wasn't a prank or something.  I'm very excited, obviously, and glad to hear the budget will be the same; after my initial swoon of joy, I worried it would be all cheap and low-rent and such.  I know a lot of people have been disappointed with the show's last couple seasons (I mean, seriously, S4 was not good at all, really), but I wasn't ready for it to be over, and S5 was such a comeback, and like.  I'm happy.  :D

Worked a lot on The Orphan Queen.  I'm over 200,000 words now, and a lot of the random little details I stuck in here and there are finally paying off, which is so satisfying.  I guess you could say I do the George R.R. Martin style of writing when it comes to this novel, in that I plant a lot of things to sort of see what happens later on, knowing the rough end goal but not having a strict outline as such beyond that.  So when disparate threads come together, there's this wonderful click that just can't be recreated.  (Of course, that also means I sometimes go back and weed out things that didn't pan out, like some random love triangle-ish subplot runner that went nowhere.  But even that can be fun!)  It's turned into such a monstrously long novel, I just write and write and write and I make progress, of course, but the idea of ever finishing it seems very unattainable.

Someone plagiarized a wallpaper of mine.  That means I've made it in fandom, right?  They apologized and took their posts down, which is the best-case scenario, I guess, but it was still pretty frustrating, especially since I think they still don't quite understand why I was upset over the whole thing.  (Sadly, my overall reaction to the whole thing was being kind of sad that I don't really do graphics anymore.  I need to get back into that thing, even if it's just random icons here and there.)

I also had a falling out with some friends, but that kind of thing warrants a post of its own, I think, so suffice it to say I haven't been as social as usual.  I'm okay with how things have ultimately turned out, but that doesn't mean I'm sad when I think, "oh, normally I would ask so-and-so to come over, but that's not happening now, welp."  Such is life.

For some reason I got it into my head that I couldn't post until I had finished my edit of Part One, because to do otherwise would somehow admit defeat?  I didn't think of this literally or articulate it to myself, but every time I thought of a post, I would think, "no, I'll be done with the edit soon, I'll post then."

I am actually done with the edit now!  I ended up feeling that I needed an epilogue of sorts, instead wrote a full chapter, and had to go over that enough that I felt it was as polished as the rest of Part One.  But it is, in fact, done now.

(Of course, not posting has nothing to do with why I haven't been reading my flist.  I get the weirdest social media-related anxiety and issues sometimes, I don't even know.)

One of the major things that stalled my progress was the absolute glut of video games I either received or purchased for myself around Christmas.  I hadn't really been playing games much the last few years, and I'd forgotten what it was like to come home from work (or, in earlier years, school) and just sit down and play Civ for like five hours straight.  (What is it like?  It's great, except you start feeling like you haven't showered in a week, even if you did, in fact, just shower.)  I think I've gotten it out of my system, but for about three weeks there, I wasn't doing a whole lot else.  It was kind of sad.

Randomly this last week I have found myself actively missing fandom, specifically B5 fandom circa-2010, and landcomms, specifically scifiland, a whole lot.  I've been saying for over a year now that I was going to make a new fun B5 comm that was going to be like half-meta, half-landcomm, and I've never gotten around to it, so it's hard to whine about there not being anything going on when I'm not even attempting to be active myself.  But 2010-2011 was like a great period of time fandom-wise and I really miss it.  :(

And here is my favorite gif from the last month: