Hey look. A new chapter. Commit that to memory.

Because I only finished Agrabah and am now leveling up like burning.

Just this, though:

• Okay. The fire-breathing large bodies? Not fun. Falling into bottomless holes in the Cave of Wonders? Annoying.
• I must admit that I really like the wind gust reaction in the Treasure room, but only because it gets me away from this guy.
• I don't like Sora's little "suck Jafar into the lamp bit as much as I like his line in KHII. But hey, it's Disney canon.
• Perfect example of bros before hoes:

Aladdin: Oh, Damn, my chick's gone.

Genie: No worries, Al. Just wish for me to find her.

Aladdin: ... I wish... for your freedom, Genie.

Sora: (thinking) Dude. I wish Riku was here.

THIS IS SO FUNNY.

It's hard, today, to remember how depressed I was just a few short months ago.

There are 3 things that I am immensely looking forward to in the coming weeks:

• STANISLAUS, BABY. THAT'S RIGHT. I'M A WARRIOR. New Student Orientation is on Friday and I simply cannot wait to register for my new classes, check out my new campus, and deck myself out in red and white. I'm going all by myself! Initially Mami was going to come with me, but then I thought about it and pointed to the little line "We cannot accommodate for children or additional guests" on my letter. And really, I'm an adult who would like to do this on her own.
• New EPIC episode of iCarly this Saturday. I guess "making purple" is gonna be code for something among Seddites, from the manips and screencaps I've seen floating around. Fun times.
• HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE. FINALLY. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW PEEVED I WAS WHEN TWILIGHT SNATCHED THE WEEKEND UP. (It was just as well, though... I was broke.) I'M TAKING MY SISTERS AND WE'RE GONNA GO SEE IT IN IMAX AND THEN JOHNNY ROCKET AFTERWARD, MATES. IT'S GONNA BE WICKED AWESOME FUN, YO.

Uh... so how y'all doin'?

Okay, so remember at the beginning of my Kingdom Hearts replay log I mentioned that I saw this really old picture of a guy in a Mickey costume holding what could have been the first keyblade? Yeah. Today I felt like I was on good enough terms with the teacher to ask if I could borrow the picture to scan it, and here it is:


From "Walt Disney: Master of Make-Believe" by Elizabeth Rider Montgomery. Copyright 1971 by Elizabeth Rider Montgomery. Additional Copyright: 1996 SRA/McGraw-Hill.

Is anyone on my Flist better at drawing than I am??

I recently wrote a fanfic as a possible contest entry for an akuroku community. Regardless of how that goes, I have made a very small FST to accompany it, and I was hoping that someone would be kind enough to render me a small fst art image for it?

I, The Writer, hereby announce a contest!!

WHAT COULD I WIN?

You could win this book



full of fanfiction snippets in my handwriting! (Original scenes from How I Paid for College, 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, Oh, Brother!, and unpublished sections of a Naruto story I stopped writing, some RikuSora, some Ouran written under a different penname, and more!)

HOW CAN I WIN?

It's very simple. Be the 127th reviewer on any of my fics that have fewer reviews than that. Post your usual comment and add your email address. Please note that you don't have to be registered on FFnet to enter, as you can post reviews anonymously.

I will randomly select from whatever number of fics reach 127 + reviews in the following weeks.

In the event that the winner cannot provide a U.S. address, I will randomly select from the other entries.

WHEN DOES THE CONTEST END?

The contest will end on August 13 8pm Pacific Time. Open to all U.S. residents.

So, now that I have a Warp-G I can be lazy about the actual Gummi ship navigation, at least until I get to the second ring of worlds.

• First things first: Pinnochio is sitting under the counter in the Accessory Shop, foreshadowing to Monstro. His little "If you want something, why not just take it?" line jarred me. I'd forgotten that's what he'd said.
• Don't listen to Maleficent, Riku! I'd never replace you! (And thus begins Riku's descent into darkness in order to gain power in order to win his best friend back. And bang him.)
• There's a Tournament being held at the Colosseum. I hear there's a great prize in store for the winner.
• THE PRIZE IS THE GRAVITY MAGIC SPELL. (Is it correct to call it "the power of the stars?" Also note that even though Sora calls out "Thunder!" he's actually bringing down lightning.) Also, a bit of Writer Trivia for you: if there is alcohol in the fic, it's either called Firga or Gravira.
• Hercules: It would be great to face you. Me: Uh... Herc? I'm not even at your eye level, how could you possibly face me??
• INTO ZE WARP HOLE!!!!!
• Hmm... okay. No Monstro yet. I forget... do you get swallowed before or after Agrabah?
• My favorite part about Agrabah? All the pots and barrels lying around. Lift one, turn around to face Goofy, and chuck it hard. Mwahahaha.
• Please note that the Shadows are now worth 2pts!!
• Okay. Aladdin's sinking in the sand, so how come when I go down there he's disappeared?

About a month ago, I was wandering around Barnes and Noble looking for a good read. I wanted something deep and compelling and without a downer ending. I came upon a short novel called His Illegal Self by Peter Carey, and was instantly in love after the first short chapter.

The story is about a boy named Che who is seven years old in the 60's. His parents are 'radical student activists' and so he lives with his grandmother in New York. He hopes that one day his parents will actually come for him, but what happens instead is he is kidnapped by a friend of his mother's. They travel around a lot dodging police and end up in Australia, where most of the book takes place.

What makes this such a satisfying read is the style it's written in. The short chapters skip sporadically between Che (sometimes called Jay) and Dial in a sort of third person omniscient. The sentence structure flows so cleanly and yet you sometimes have to reread something over to fully understand. Like a vague enigma, I guess. There's a soft dreamlike quality to it, like the filters used in indie films.
From chapter 17: He was happy as he could ever remember, to have her to himself finally, at last, and the prospect of this father, that electric cloud of surprise hanging over him like vapor from an open bathroom door.

Che's main struggle is with his identity in relation to his parents. He knows all about them from secretly watching the news, but he's never seen them. My favorite chapter in the book - my favorite chapter in any book, ever, actually - is chapter 25 when we visit through a flashback a time when his bike was stolen from him and he beat up the kid who did it. They other boy's parents rush to their son's rescue, and Che watches them walk away with an emptiness that no boy that age should ever know. It could have stood alone, that chapter. In fact, many of he chapters can stand alone. That in itself is appealing, their poignant and true nature.

The best thing about this book, though, is that the ending does not disappoint. Despite the situation Dial and Che are put in throughout the story, they become a mother and son to each other. And even though there is no perfect solution to their problems and no way to stop the forces that want to separate them, when you come to the last page you can rest assured that they will be alright.

I highly recommend this book if you like plot driven real adventures and characters that are deep and very very human.