I love Fall.
Sep. 2nd, 2018 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
insaneladybugWe had some lovely cloudy days last week that made things feel very much like fall, and the shortening days in general are making it feel that way too. It's so exhilarating. There was already a Spirit Halloween store open a week and a half ago when I finally got to use my Build-a-Bear coupon before it expired. (I got Eevee, as the Ponies weren't available, oddly, and for once the coupon didn't exclude Pokemon, so I decided I should take full advantage of that since I wanted Eevee too.) I'm guessing more merchandise will come in as the weeks go on, but it was fun going in and looking around at what they currently had. And after Labor Day, most stores will start getting their Halloween sections going! I'm excited to see what they'll have. Smith's was getting ready for their section last week. They had tons of candy boxes ready to unpack on the seasonal aisle. And Dollar Tree already has Halloween cards and some decorations. I bet this week they'll have the full section up.
On the downside, you wouldn't think it would be impossible to find a plain blue button shirt, but it is. The only button shirts aside from dress shirts seem to be plaid, and the dress shirt I'd staked out at Walmart to buy in a pinch if all else failed is also gone. WTH. I find it ridiculously maddening that I started planning my Halloween costume in February and I still can't find something so simple to make it work! I'll look a little more, but by this point I'm tempted to use a light blue denim coat I have instead. Unless that has gone AWOL too.
As usual, I'm not sure what to ask for for my birthday. Naturally I would like things, but since I can't come up with anything it's often tempting not to ask for anything. But I know it means a lot to Mom to have something for me, so somehow I'll need to think of something. What I'd like most is more Kotobukiya YGO figures, but of course that's out of the question. So expensive. Maybe I should just go the practical route and ask for a small bookcase. I keep dawdling on getting one because I want one on wheels. But we can't find those anywhere anymore. I'm almost tempted to get a regular bookcase, then switch it with the one on wheels in the living room and bring the wheeled one into my room. But I'm not sure the one on wheels has enough space to fit everything I need to have go in it.
Of course, my go-to thing to ask for is mysteries by my favorite local author. He's probably written at least one more by now. But I have so many books stacked around now that need to be read that asking for more seems laughably ridiculous. Occasionally one goes out of print faster than others, though, so I do like to keep on top of the releases even if it takes me a while to get to all of them.
Another thought would be asking for more of the retro G1 My Little Ponies by The Bridge Direct. I definitely want more; I only have one, and they've done three waves by now! The Target near us always seems to be out of them, though. And it's not really that near to us; it takes about twenty minutes to get there, and Dad is obsessive about gas, so I wouldn't be surprised if we wouldn't even be in that area until my birthday. Heh. So that would be out. I wish Walmart would carry those Ponies too.
Target is also carrying some neat Mego-type figures of classic TV characters. They had one of Kelly Garrett from Charlie's Angels, but I wasn't sure how good the likeness was. I'd like one of Sabrina most, but I'm not sure they made her. They may have just done one character for each series, although I saw several Star Trek varieties. But that's Star Trek. A cheesy, cute little show like Charlie's Angels might not get dolls of everyone. I'll try to find out a little more about the Kelly figure, since she's my second favorite Angel, but I think if I have to question the likeness, it's probably not a very good one. But on the other hand, it could just be that it's been way too long since I've watched Charlie's Angels.
I have a chance to get some gift cards on a project I'm doing for work. I'm debating if I should use them to get another tablet, if there's enough of them. I'm thinking I really need a second recently-made tablet, because the old tablet is too old to handle much of the work I was doing on it and the gaming tablet has little space and I kind of feel protective of it like it's more fragile, especially since it's not one of the sturdier brands like Samsung. (It's a DigiLand.) I don't like installing too many things on it or doing too much on it other than Duel Links, but I've had to do a lot of my work on it lately. I'm thinking maybe I should get an Amazon Fire tablet, which I had considered in the first place. Only maybe I should try for the 16 GB model instead of the 8 GB model. I guess it depends on how many gift cards I end up with at the end of the project.
I've finished tinkering with two YGO oneshots I've had around for weeks, waiting for the right time to post them. I think it's the right time for at least one of them. And I'm tempted to try writing a Halloween mystery and try very hard to make it like the old mysteries, but I'm not fully sure I can. I mean, how are smugglers or thieves that daunting and dangerous after the gang has faced off against the personification of the darkness in human hearts? I may have to make it a supernatural mystery, but try to keep as much of the lightheartedness of the old mysteries as possible. Easier said than done! The old mysteries were humorous and often OOC for some characters. I could keep some humor, but the OOC stuff would have to go, of course, and probably also a lot of the hurt/comfort. I try to be more sparing and at least slightly more realistic with my hurt/comfort now, as compared to the old stories. (I.E., there would not be any strangeness like characters getting hanged without many serious aftereffects.) I would likely still have knockouts without many serious aftereffects, though, because that's one hurt/comfort thing I'm not willing to give up or write completely realistically.
In any case, I'm kind of worried that I'll start a mystery and then stall on it, especially if there aren't any serious stakes. I might end up feeling that I'm stumped and that it doesn't matter that much if I am, if the story doesn't really have overall importance to the timeline. And it also wouldn't matter if I got stumped if the person I'd be trying to please by writing it wouldn't like it anyway since it would be set in the new timeline. I've considered off and on trying to write a mystery just for myself, as I should, but I honestly do like to give readers as much of what they want as I can, and I thought of the Halloween mystery fic idea while trying to think of something that would make that person happy. But as long as it's part of the current timeline, she probably won't be, so I probably shouldn't even bother for that reason. I honestly thought the past two twenty-chapter adventures kept the basic feel of the old timeline, even though it's true that they weren't as funny. But she didn't think so, and I doubt I can really replicate the old stuff very well. I'm not the same person who wrote those old stories and I have some different story interests now. I don't want to revisit a timeline I don't care to write in anymore, and I don't know how to make the current timeline more like the old one. I'm really trying my best. I've even got this Seto to where he's loosened up enough to consider Yugi-tachi his friends now, so that will be somewhat similar to the old timeline. He had some important development in the shorter adventure I finished writing on Friday.
I don't know what to do. Maybe just start writing some stuff for a Halloween mystery and see if I like it enough to keep going, or if I think I'll just stall on it instead. I did have an amusing idea of Yami Bakura being amused by Halloween decorations and wanting to fix up the yard to be creepy, although he would probably say that none of the decorations seemed scary enough to him. LOL.
On the downside, you wouldn't think it would be impossible to find a plain blue button shirt, but it is. The only button shirts aside from dress shirts seem to be plaid, and the dress shirt I'd staked out at Walmart to buy in a pinch if all else failed is also gone. WTH. I find it ridiculously maddening that I started planning my Halloween costume in February and I still can't find something so simple to make it work! I'll look a little more, but by this point I'm tempted to use a light blue denim coat I have instead. Unless that has gone AWOL too.
As usual, I'm not sure what to ask for for my birthday. Naturally I would like things, but since I can't come up with anything it's often tempting not to ask for anything. But I know it means a lot to Mom to have something for me, so somehow I'll need to think of something. What I'd like most is more Kotobukiya YGO figures, but of course that's out of the question. So expensive. Maybe I should just go the practical route and ask for a small bookcase. I keep dawdling on getting one because I want one on wheels. But we can't find those anywhere anymore. I'm almost tempted to get a regular bookcase, then switch it with the one on wheels in the living room and bring the wheeled one into my room. But I'm not sure the one on wheels has enough space to fit everything I need to have go in it.
Of course, my go-to thing to ask for is mysteries by my favorite local author. He's probably written at least one more by now. But I have so many books stacked around now that need to be read that asking for more seems laughably ridiculous. Occasionally one goes out of print faster than others, though, so I do like to keep on top of the releases even if it takes me a while to get to all of them.
Another thought would be asking for more of the retro G1 My Little Ponies by The Bridge Direct. I definitely want more; I only have one, and they've done three waves by now! The Target near us always seems to be out of them, though. And it's not really that near to us; it takes about twenty minutes to get there, and Dad is obsessive about gas, so I wouldn't be surprised if we wouldn't even be in that area until my birthday. Heh. So that would be out. I wish Walmart would carry those Ponies too.
Target is also carrying some neat Mego-type figures of classic TV characters. They had one of Kelly Garrett from Charlie's Angels, but I wasn't sure how good the likeness was. I'd like one of Sabrina most, but I'm not sure they made her. They may have just done one character for each series, although I saw several Star Trek varieties. But that's Star Trek. A cheesy, cute little show like Charlie's Angels might not get dolls of everyone. I'll try to find out a little more about the Kelly figure, since she's my second favorite Angel, but I think if I have to question the likeness, it's probably not a very good one. But on the other hand, it could just be that it's been way too long since I've watched Charlie's Angels.
I have a chance to get some gift cards on a project I'm doing for work. I'm debating if I should use them to get another tablet, if there's enough of them. I'm thinking I really need a second recently-made tablet, because the old tablet is too old to handle much of the work I was doing on it and the gaming tablet has little space and I kind of feel protective of it like it's more fragile, especially since it's not one of the sturdier brands like Samsung. (It's a DigiLand.) I don't like installing too many things on it or doing too much on it other than Duel Links, but I've had to do a lot of my work on it lately. I'm thinking maybe I should get an Amazon Fire tablet, which I had considered in the first place. Only maybe I should try for the 16 GB model instead of the 8 GB model. I guess it depends on how many gift cards I end up with at the end of the project.
I've finished tinkering with two YGO oneshots I've had around for weeks, waiting for the right time to post them. I think it's the right time for at least one of them. And I'm tempted to try writing a Halloween mystery and try very hard to make it like the old mysteries, but I'm not fully sure I can. I mean, how are smugglers or thieves that daunting and dangerous after the gang has faced off against the personification of the darkness in human hearts? I may have to make it a supernatural mystery, but try to keep as much of the lightheartedness of the old mysteries as possible. Easier said than done! The old mysteries were humorous and often OOC for some characters. I could keep some humor, but the OOC stuff would have to go, of course, and probably also a lot of the hurt/comfort. I try to be more sparing and at least slightly more realistic with my hurt/comfort now, as compared to the old stories. (I.E., there would not be any strangeness like characters getting hanged without many serious aftereffects.) I would likely still have knockouts without many serious aftereffects, though, because that's one hurt/comfort thing I'm not willing to give up or write completely realistically.
In any case, I'm kind of worried that I'll start a mystery and then stall on it, especially if there aren't any serious stakes. I might end up feeling that I'm stumped and that it doesn't matter that much if I am, if the story doesn't really have overall importance to the timeline. And it also wouldn't matter if I got stumped if the person I'd be trying to please by writing it wouldn't like it anyway since it would be set in the new timeline. I've considered off and on trying to write a mystery just for myself, as I should, but I honestly do like to give readers as much of what they want as I can, and I thought of the Halloween mystery fic idea while trying to think of something that would make that person happy. But as long as it's part of the current timeline, she probably won't be, so I probably shouldn't even bother for that reason. I honestly thought the past two twenty-chapter adventures kept the basic feel of the old timeline, even though it's true that they weren't as funny. But she didn't think so, and I doubt I can really replicate the old stuff very well. I'm not the same person who wrote those old stories and I have some different story interests now. I don't want to revisit a timeline I don't care to write in anymore, and I don't know how to make the current timeline more like the old one. I'm really trying my best. I've even got this Seto to where he's loosened up enough to consider Yugi-tachi his friends now, so that will be somewhat similar to the old timeline. He had some important development in the shorter adventure I finished writing on Friday.
I don't know what to do. Maybe just start writing some stuff for a Halloween mystery and see if I like it enough to keep going, or if I think I'll just stall on it instead. I did have an amusing idea of Yami Bakura being amused by Halloween decorations and wanting to fix up the yard to be creepy, although he would probably say that none of the decorations seemed scary enough to him. LOL.
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