*waves way over on the other page to Outcast* Good to see you in the ol' Town Square. So, you had a different username on the old forum?

Gen!, glad you came by too. You're still ballet-ing and school-ing? Ah, I just read your later post. How great about your on-campus job! How'd it go? I love the enthusiasm in your posts! And congratulations on getting your Associates! You take care of yourself.

Ryadian, your trip sounds lovely. Wow, you had 12 inches of your hair cut off? Impressive. How are you enjoying your shorter look? And how very, very special about your brother.

How's the re-roofing coming along, Wren? Are you lending a hand, or would you rather not. Did you get a job for the summer?

*waves to kat too*

Hope you had a great road-trip, Mel. And the spring choir sounds like so much fun! How many performances did you have?

Valia, it must be so, so nice to think of your mom and Summer and know they're home! When is your dad coming back?

Hi Frodo Lion. I knew your hubby from the forum, but not you, really, although I certainly recognize your username. It's so neat you two met through NarniaWeb! And, in looking at your Join Date, you're celebrating 10 years here on July 17th. So glad you came by after all this time. And happy 4th wedding anniversary too!

We're hoping progress on the Silver Chair movie may bring back some familiar faces and draw in some new ones as well.

Indeed! Btw, I like the term "old regular". I'm more like a medium-old regular, lol. Frodo Lion, I wasn't around the forum when it began, 'though I did check the newspage every single day and now wish I had joined/become active sooner. It's like a second family here.

Yikes, TGW. I hope the recital went well! ...and that you stop having so many injuries. I think that is just part of the dance territory, though.

Thanks, kat. I probably won't be doing much out of state traveling this summer, though; I'm starting to draw up some potential plans for next year.

Mel-y, that sounds cool Music on road trips is always the best.

Valia, I will always make a detour for you. I actually considered at one point mapping out all the moddies and seeing if I could make a trip just jumping from mod house to mod house...and then I thought how fun it would be to start accruing mods as I went, and finish everything up with a mod caravan.

How is everyone doing now that they're making their ways back to the states, Valia? All the preparations going smoothly?

Welcome back, Frodo Lion!

The roofing is almost done, Jo. They're just waiting for the new skylights to come in, and then they will be finished. And no, no helping on my part--it was a professional crew doing it, so I don't much think they would want me sticking my nose in. I did not find a job, but I've a little savings and this allows me some good chunks of time to work on writing and research proposals, so I'm ok with it.

Cool about the roofing, Wren.

So, it's, like, hot, hot, hot here today (40C/104F) to the point where I have to hibernate. It may sound crazy, but even with A/C, the humidity drains me. And talking and being with people is just not possible when it's this muggy. Counting the days until autumn!

In other news, we have had quite a pleasant summer thus far (this weekend is an exception for this year, although not for most Julys), with a good balance of rain and sun. The crops are growing beautifully and "the corn is [almost] as high as an elephant's eye". Does anyone else know that older, very cheery song "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning?" from the musical Oklahoma?

Wishing y'all a great mortereve!

Aww, thanks, Wren! I appreciate detours to say hello. And I like the idea of a mod caravan.
Everything seems to be going fairly smoothly with people getting stateside again. My mom and sister are still trying to settle back in, and my dad is coming next week, but hopefully things will get back to a good schedule soon. ...well, maybe after Winter's wedding at least...

Jo, my dad is supposed to be back a week from Tuesday, Lord willing. Then I get to come down and see him (and everyone) that weekend.
I'm glad to hear you've had a good summer so far! Ours started off rather wet (yay!) but is now rather hot and drying out.

The crops are growing beautifully and "the corn is [almost] as high as an elephant's eye". Does anyone else know that older, very cheery song "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning?" from the musical Oklahoma?

I do! It is a very fun song!

Icky about the hot, Jo. It gets hot here, too, but at least we have a very dry heat, so it is much more bearable than wet heats. As for that song, well...I have a few poor memories of waking up to my dad belting it out at the top of his lungs...and not in his good singing voice.

That's good, Valia, although I'm sure your assessment that things won't get fully settled until after the wedding will end up being true.

I've finished up my summer class, and will be picking up my final paper later this week. Which means I need to double down on my research proposals and get those squared away over the last month. I still need to get research advisers for my proposals (one in Canada, too, Jo ), but I'm hoping to pull together my preliminary stuff in the next two weeks or so.

And my family is getting ready to head down to Disney. They host a professional conference every fall that my dad does, and so as many as the others in the family that can try to go down too, so we can hang out. This year will probably be the longest we're down there, being there for almost a full week. O_O But it'll be nice to relax down there.

I know that song too, Jo. Not to mention the catchy tune "Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain..."

About your dad's not good singing voice, Wren. My dad liked to sing little snippets of songs and sometimes he'd come out with them at the most humorous times. And he had a repertoire of songs not only from long ago (he grew up in the Depression) but also 'novelty' songs like "May the Bird of Paradise Fly up Your Nose" or "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor (on the Bedpost Overnight)?"

Have a great time down at Disney!

The weather here varies between "air you can wear" (I heard a Weather Channel meteorologist use that phrase this morning) and fairly nice weather (for July). Usually there is torrential rain and spectacular lightning separating those two things. There have been some truly glorious lightning displays of late, and I like watching them as long as I'm indoors.

Attention to all whom this concerns;

As of tomorrow I officially belong to the United States Government and thus shall be departing for many weeks of training down south. As such I shall have both limited time and access to technological devices, therefore I regretfully find myself at crossroads in my life where I must officially separate myself from my internet persona, at least temporarily. I shall miss you all. Best of luck in all of your endeavors. Hoah and farewell.

- narnianerd, Jackalope Joe or Zak, depending on how you knew me.

(Seriously though, y'all rock hardcore. I'll miss you guys, a lot.)

Gazer, my dad used to sing all of those to me, too--May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose was a particular favorite of his, too. I honestly don't know the etymology of most of his songs. For the record, he does have a very nice singing voice when he wishes to sound nice...it's just most of the time he, well, doesn't. Mainly because he's singing novelty songs, as you so nicely termed them. Another one I remember him singing was Ugly Bug Ball, which is, I believe, from a Hayley Mills film.

Take care, Nerdling! Although, I know you're already at boot now, so I doubt you'll be seeing this for a few months. I've appreciated watching you grow up, and your Nweb Ma is proud to see you launch. Just...take care of yourself, ok? Hooah, kid.

Well, the wedding has successfully passed though we're still trying to get things to settle down.

How was Disney, Wren?

Is the weather starting to turn fall-like for you all, gazer? Or is it still pretty hot (like it is here)?

Ahh! Best wishes, nn! I guess you won't see this for a while but we'll miss having you about, and hope to see you around sometime still.

Not much to report here. We've had a few cooler days and some nice storms but this week is still 80's F, possibly even 90's which is a bit much for September even for us. Hopefully it'll actually turn to fall pretty soon. (Though, overall, this summer hasn't been near as bad as it can be/usually is, so I am thankful for that.)

Hi, y'all. So this is my thing, I guess. I spontaneously remember Narniaweb, check in, then forget about it for a bunch of months before I remember it again. I suppose it's since it's pretty slow. Not like the good old days, when we could spend pages and pages chatting in a single day. The good old days being when I was in college and had time for that sort of nonsense.

She's thinking of something to do with her old Ditto Story character Lianna. I told her I'd be interested to read it.

That's actually why I stopped writing on the Ditto story myself. I started developing my VF character more and liking what I came up with so much that I decided to save it for an original story. Haven't written it yet, but I do fully intend to one day write a MG/YA fantasy series where the first book will have the words "the Vampire Fancier" in the title. I've actually got a bunch of notes written out, but I'm in the midst of a different series for now.

Someone mentioned a Christian writers' conference. I went to one of those quite a while ago. It was somewhat interesting, though rather irritating when pretty much every conversation went like this:
"What are you writing?"
"Well, it's about a Christian vampire--"
*laughter*
"I'm serious."

Shawna! Great to see you again!

Count me in as one of those who'd read your Vampire Fancier book.

We're well into fall weather here, with changing colors, shorter days and cooler temperatures. I love it! The forecast is perfect for tomorrow night's total lunar eclipse.

Someone mentioned a Christian writers' conference. I went to one of those quite a while ago. It was somewhat interesting, though rather irritating when pretty much every conversation went like this:
"What are you writing?"
"Well, it's about a Christian vampire--"
*laughter*
"I'm serious."

Now see, I'm just curious about the rules of vampires in your world when I hear something like that. (I imagine it's still similar to the Ditto Story rules, but assuming I didn't know you and heard that...)

Hello, everyone! It's been a little while since I stopped in. QUITE a while! Since I last posted, I've gotten a new job, found out that I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNTIE AGAIN, and the best time of the year has begun again.

In that order: the really short version that my old job, which was a temp job, was really exhausting, especially with near-constant mandatory overtime and having to work almost literally every Saturday, so around the August I finally put in my two week's notice. Literally the day afterwards, I got a call from my temp agency asking me if I wanted to apply for a new opening, and I had the job by the end of the week. My new job is, the short and sweet version, that I work for a bank in the office reviewing loan applications (just making sure they comply with government/bank policies). The job is a 15-minute drive instead of a 45-minute drive, they would like you to work overtime and Saturdays but it's up to you if you do it, and it's a lot freer in terms of things like listening to music than any of my previous jobs. I've only been there a month, but I'm already very happy with it.

Secondly, MY SISTER'S HAVING ANOTHER BABY. Admittedly, this isn't fully real yet, but I have a feeling that's changing tomorrow, when we have the baby's gender reveal party. I've heard a popular way to do it is to have someone bake a cake with either a blue or pink filling inside, and you find out when you cut into it, but my family's too geeky for that. My younger brother bought a set of gaming dice, which is either blue or pink, and put it in a dice bag which my sister and brother-in-law will open tomorrow at the party. So yes, my brother is the only one who knows if the baby is a boy or a girl. It's a good thing the party is tomorrow; it's taking ALL the self-control not to ask about it.

EDIT: Now that it's Sunday - it's a girl! She's expected in mid-February.

Finally, it's fall - it's even October, which is just my favorite month of the year. As I've mentioned in the past, I love love LOVE fall - the colors, the cooler weather, the baked apple goodies, plus my favorite holiday (Thanksgiving) is coming up! Not to mention NaNo is next month, which I am doing this year for once - though it's probably going to be "Whatever I feel like writing when November starts" story. It's even nice and sunny today for us, which is nice because some friends of mine and I are planning to go to a park to see some of the fall colors.

(An added bonus for October this year is, as my avatar might suggest, the My Little Pony fandom has declared October Applejack Appreciation Month, and she's my favorite character from that show. )

Attention to all whom this concerns;

As of tomorrow I officially belong to the United States Government and thus shall be departing for many weeks of training down south. As such I shall have both limited time and access to technological devices, therefore I regretfully find myself at crossroads in my life where I must officially separate myself from my internet persona, at least temporarily. I shall miss you all. Best of luck in all of your endeavors. Hoah and farewell.

I know you can't see this for a while, but I'm so proud of you! My brother just got back from military training in May, and it made me realize just how much dedication joining the military, and making it through training, really takes. I hope to hear from you when your training is complete, but regardless, my thoughts and prayers are with you!

Well, I have to get some things done before I meet with my friends, so I will talk to you all later!

*Rya, the internet persona, takes a long stroll through Ditto Town's woods, enjoying all the fall colors as she goes*

Congrats to all of you, Rya, on the announcement of your sister's new daughter. That party was fun.

Finally, it's fall - it's even October, which is just my favorite month of the year. As I've mentioned in the past, I love love LOVE fall - the colors, the cooler weather, the baked apple goodies...

I'm with you there! And this fall has been a really good one, the warmer weather seemingly going on and on. So many fun things to do. I've made several fall color tours, sometimes including orchards or stargazing by a fire - or today's trip, just a short walk around a nearby state park to soak in the colors.

Some of the best colors this year were right out my window, where a big maple blazed orange and yellow, even lending a golden hue to the light in my room.

Not to mention NaNo is next month, which I am doing this year for once - though it's probably going to be "Whatever I feel like writing when November starts" story.

Sounds like fun! You may want to visit the NaNo thread over in the Spare Oom. Right now my NaNo just insists on being written. I hope that enthusiasm continues next month.

I just wanted to stop in and make sure everyone was aware that today, October 21 2015, is when Marty from Back to the Future came to the future. Starting tomorrow, the entirety of the BttF movies will take place in the past. Just... just getting that out there. I remember when 2015 used to seem so far away....

Just had to get that out there. In unrelated news, I gave blood for the first time today - they had a blood drive at my church, and since I actually knew it was going to be there, I found the time! It went better than I expected, though I hadn't realized just how uncomfortable that needle would be. I'm not deathly afraid of needles, but I'm not the biggest fan of them either! Plus I've never had one that they left in there for a while before. Yikes. But, apparently it went relatively fast for my first time - if you ever are going to give blood, drink lots of water; that's probably what did it for me. And... find something to do while you're waiting other than read, unless you have a book you can easily read one-handed.

Someone mentioned a Christian writers' conference. I went to one of those quite a while ago. It was somewhat interesting, though rather irritating when pretty much every conversation went like this:
"What are you writing?"
"Well, it's about a Christian vampire--"
*laughter*
"I'm serious."

Now see, I'm just curious about the rules of vampires in your world when I hear something like that. (I imagine it's still similar to the Ditto Story rules, but assuming I didn't know you and heard that...)

Actually, for this story, it's totally different. Every time I write vampires (when I'm making them up myself and not writing with established vampire rules), I reinvent them. The ones in this story ... well, there are 4 different kinds. There's one type that's basically an animal, and they're kind of like much scarier, more viscous versions of the Ditto Town vampires (kind of). The other three are all formerly humans.

Basically, I disregard all "supernatural" elements, all that "undead" or "demon" stuff in vampire lore. The vampires in my stories are just people who've undergone a physical transformation. They don't lose their souls when they become vampires. They're just people. Although, given various circumstances, most vampires are evil people. It's just that they don't have to be. More that vampirism draws a certain type of person to seek it out. So part of what I explore in the story is, "What if the urge to hurt other people was not just a desire but a biological imperative?" It's a lot harder to be a good vampire than a good human. Another way to look at it is that I use vampirism as a metaphor for human nature--in a sense, it's human nature cranked up a few notches.

I'm working on the second book now, in which a perfectly normal, modern, Christian young woman is becoming a vampire (she was changed against her will) and has to figure out how to survive as a vampire, basically, without sinning. (Meaning sinning any more than she did as a human.) (I don't put it in those terms, though, because it's meant to be mainstream, not Christian fiction.)