Taking a break from writing a shit-ton of words for the novel.
Novel: [IN FLUX] / 28,000 words.
A lot of writing has been gotten done. (Been... gotten... Wow, that's awkward phrasing.) I'm not caught up, though. I'm actually not sure that I've progressed too far beyond the "50% of where I'm supposed to be" mark. Gah. February's over, and I've taken two months to tackle a month's worth of work.
I need to say "no" to more projects. Really. Gotta do it. It's not just been the SCP Foundation that's been taking up my extra time... But, uh. It's been a large part of it.
Working Out: 4/4 times. (+4 from earlier weeks, ideal total 8)
I'm going to stop treading water here eventually. Really. Eventually.
Blogging: 3/3 posts. (+1 from earlier weeks, ideal total 4)
Should have blogged more. Still owe an extra post for this week. Was supposed to be the Part 2 of the Resident Evil post, but... Didn't quite get there.
Maybe I'll do that today. But first... More work on the novel.
The SCP Foundation: 9/2 articles.
Yup. I went and wrote another one, this time for the sister site, the Wanderers' Library. I wrote it in a creative fury in between novel chapters to get myself unstuck. I don't feel bad about that, because that didn't get in the way of my novel. (What did get in the way was drama. Delicious drama. Sigh)
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
More Contest Stuff
...Speaking of contest stuff.
I designed a hub page for the new canon produced by my team for this contest:
http://www.scp-wiki.wikidot.com/competitive-eschatology-hub
Mine isn't the absolute best there is, but I like it well enough. I do have to wonder if it could use more streamlining. I spent a few hours editing it down into a manageable size; story of my life. But that doesn't mean it couldn't use more editing.
(Also, my team didn't take top spot. The team who did... Well, you know what? I'm just gonna link their hub page here, because it's pretty damn excellent: http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/unfounded-hub If you want to read the stories, I particularly recommend "All Things Considered" and "Da Capo al Fine".)
So many plans for more entries. So little time. So much "real life" (novel) writing to be done. We'll see what I ultimately get done.
I designed a hub page for the new canon produced by my team for this contest:
http://www.scp-wiki.wikidot.com/competitive-eschatology-hub
Mine isn't the absolute best there is, but I like it well enough. I do have to wonder if it could use more streamlining. I spent a few hours editing it down into a manageable size; story of my life. But that doesn't mean it couldn't use more editing.
(Also, my team didn't take top spot. The team who did... Well, you know what? I'm just gonna link their hub page here, because it's pretty damn excellent: http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/unfounded-hub If you want to read the stories, I particularly recommend "All Things Considered" and "Da Capo al Fine".)
So many plans for more entries. So little time. So much "real life" (novel) writing to be done. We'll see what I ultimately get done.
To My New Visitor[s]
So a couple people from the SCP Foundation now know about this blog! So that's ... different.
I wonder what they (you) think (thought) about my posts about the contest, including the one where I went through all the entries in my canon and subjected them to the Bechdel test (and other relatively mild forms of social analysis). The idea makes me chuckle. I certainly didn't tell anyone I was doing that, though I didn't, like, withhold it, on purpose.
I notice I compartmentalize a lot. I don't actually intentionally hide parts of my thought process. It just... happens. I've been noticing it recently. Trying to actually be open about everything - not necessarily on this blog, but in real life. As for the internet... maybe I can stand to be pretty open, though where the line is there, I do not know.
Also, yes, I know I'm kind of a terrible blog post writer. But hey, that's the point of writing all this crap this year - to get better at that! So... Deal with it. ;)
I wonder what they (you) think (thought) about my posts about the contest, including the one where I went through all the entries in my canon and subjected them to the Bechdel test (and other relatively mild forms of social analysis). The idea makes me chuckle. I certainly didn't tell anyone I was doing that, though I didn't, like, withhold it, on purpose.
I notice I compartmentalize a lot. I don't actually intentionally hide parts of my thought process. It just... happens. I've been noticing it recently. Trying to actually be open about everything - not necessarily on this blog, but in real life. As for the internet... maybe I can stand to be pretty open, though where the line is there, I do not know.
Also, yes, I know I'm kind of a terrible blog post writer. But hey, that's the point of writing all this crap this year - to get better at that! So... Deal with it. ;)
2013 Goals: Week 7 Postmortem
This post isn't late. Which is a good thing, because I'm a little behind on other stuff.
Novel: [IN FLUX] / 24,500 words.
I think I jinxed my streak a little. Though only a little. I wrote a decent amount, then had to throw it away. Plus Chapter 2 got a critique, and some valid issues were brought up, that I need to fix quick & keep going.
And... I lost at least a day to internet drama. Exciting! I backed off of it before the whole week went to waste, though.
Working Out: 4/4 times. (+4 from earlier weeks, ideal total 8)
Yet another "treading water" week.
Blogging: 2/3 posts.
WELP.
Now I owe four posts instead of three for this week. Oops.
That's about it for this postmortem. Time to sleep - clock just turned midnight.
Novel: [IN FLUX] / 24,500 words.
I think I jinxed my streak a little. Though only a little. I wrote a decent amount, then had to throw it away. Plus Chapter 2 got a critique, and some valid issues were brought up, that I need to fix quick & keep going.
And... I lost at least a day to internet drama. Exciting! I backed off of it before the whole week went to waste, though.
Working Out: 4/4 times. (+4 from earlier weeks, ideal total 8)
Yet another "treading water" week.
Blogging: 2/3 posts.
WELP.
Now I owe four posts instead of three for this week. Oops.
That's about it for this postmortem. Time to sleep - clock just turned midnight.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
2013 Goals: Week 6 Postmortem
An overdue post.
Novel: 11,025 / 21,000 words.
I am barely over halfway to where I need to be to be on schedule. Oh yes, I am gonna need to work fast. Luckily I'm back into the novel and am currently on a little bit of a streak... which I hopefully did not just jinx.
Working Out: 4/4 times. (+4 from earlier weeks, ideal total 8)
Another "treading water" week. Again, as long as I'm not getting further behind...
Blogging: 5/3 posts. (+1 from earlier weeks, ideal total 4)
...Ha. For once I'm ahead of schedule, meaning I owe one less post this week. Sweet. Gonna need to catch up on the novel, after all...
Regarding the SCP Foundation article goal, I'm gonna take oedalis' advice and skip this month if I need to catch up. I may write an article anyway if I need a temporary break from the novel to recharge. (I do have a bajillion article ideas.) We'll see.
Novel: 11,025 / 21,000 words.
I am barely over halfway to where I need to be to be on schedule. Oh yes, I am gonna need to work fast. Luckily I'm back into the novel and am currently on a little bit of a streak... which I hopefully did not just jinx.
Working Out: 4/4 times. (+4 from earlier weeks, ideal total 8)
Another "treading water" week. Again, as long as I'm not getting further behind...
Blogging: 5/3 posts. (+1 from earlier weeks, ideal total 4)
...Ha. For once I'm ahead of schedule, meaning I owe one less post this week. Sweet. Gonna need to catch up on the novel, after all...
Regarding the SCP Foundation article goal, I'm gonna take oedalis' advice and skip this month if I need to catch up. I may write an article anyway if I need a temporary break from the novel to recharge. (I do have a bajillion article ideas.) We'll see.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Another Reply To The Germarican
Replying to: this post!
QUICK SUMMARY: Jess and I are blogging back and forth at each other, as an experiment in progress. She thought she'd be the first to delay a blog post for forever. Instead, it was me. It's been a couple days shy of a full month since she replied.
And now... THE REPLY.
Hey Jess...
This is still terribly hilarious.
I also approve of the Tim Drake picspam. Though I just don't care for that outfit on him. As silly as the new outfit looks, I prefer it quite a lot. (Like I've said before, it also looks kind of cool, not just silly. But still silly.)
PIC SPAM INCOMING.
Oh comics. You're so... so... Yeah.
And now... the elephant in the room. Namely, that I'm posting incredibly late. There was a reason - the website contest - but there are always reasons, aren't there? (Well, I guess 'I was just lazy' could be a reason.)
Should we have a specific schedule - like, once a week, posting on alternating weeks? Should we do punishments? (I know oedalis is excited about that idea.) If we do punishments, what kinds? We can't really duplicate Brotherhood 2.0 style punishments, in part because I think we'd find different things amusing and in part because we didn't grow up together, so we can't be quite as (hilariously) vindictive. And we can't really go to the 'videotape yourself doing embarrassing things well because, well, we're not doing a vlog.
I guess that goes back to the whole thing about taking inspiration from a vlog but not being a vlog. Anyways. What are your thoughts?
Vlog Brothers Meter: August 30, 2007
That's 872 videos to go as of today. I've watched ... almost (but not quite) 200, out of over a thousand total. Actually, before this blog post I'd lost my place, but I found it again! So that's a plus.
(Deadjournal challenge next time. I've already put this blog off enough. :P)
QUICK SUMMARY: Jess and I are blogging back and forth at each other, as an experiment in progress. She thought she'd be the first to delay a blog post for forever. Instead, it was me. It's been a couple days shy of a full month since she replied.
And now... THE REPLY.
Hey Jess...
The problem with taking inspiration from a vblog and trying to translate it in to a a blog blog is that a lot of things like intros and so forth don't work as well if they're just written. This make me wonder how much of an 'introduction' each of our posts actually need. I guess what it comes down to is am I writing this blog just for you - Jake aka one of my bff's - or for some poor soul that might stumble across this blogging experiment and wonder what it's all about. I guess we can create a post where we explain in detail what this is all about and then link to it every time, but honestly, I'm writing this for us so there's that.Yeah, that's an issue, isn't it? I guess we can... quote extensively? Like I just did? I did a Quick Summary at the top of this post but... I dunno if that will work every time. I'm not even sure it does work at all.
I gotta say, it feels weird starting another blog considering that I now have a facebook, twitter, tumblr, livejournal, myspace, pinterest AND Blogspot that I'm planning on updating. Well, I don't update myspace anymore but I will never delete it because Darren Hayes commented on one of my pictures.First off, that is a perfectly excellent reason to never delete that myspace. Second off... Oh man. Yeah, me too. Besides this Blogspost, I have a Facebook and a Twitter, an old LiveJournal, and I'm considering creating a new LiveJournal after discovering that one of my internet author heroes has a livejournal. Though she actually isn't currently updating it. So... there's that. I'm also considering starting a tumblr. Gah. Though I haven't totally grokked how tumblr works yet.
It went so well that she lives down the street from me now. Mwahahaha!
This is still terribly hilarious.
I also approve of the Tim Drake picspam. Though I just don't care for that outfit on him. As silly as the new outfit looks, I prefer it quite a lot. (Like I've said before, it also looks kind of cool, not just silly. But still silly.)
PIC SPAM INCOMING.
They really want you to think these guys are SUPER HARDCORE, don't they?
Somehow I don't think the art matches the internal monologue.
Online comments for this image describe Robin's outfit as "something a Vegas showgirl would wear."
Oh comics. You're so... so... Yeah.
And now... the elephant in the room. Namely, that I'm posting incredibly late. There was a reason - the website contest - but there are always reasons, aren't there? (Well, I guess 'I was just lazy' could be a reason.)
Should we have a specific schedule - like, once a week, posting on alternating weeks? Should we do punishments? (I know oedalis is excited about that idea.) If we do punishments, what kinds? We can't really duplicate Brotherhood 2.0 style punishments, in part because I think we'd find different things amusing and in part because we didn't grow up together, so we can't be quite as (hilariously) vindictive. And we can't really go to the 'videotape yourself doing embarrassing things well because, well, we're not doing a vlog.
I guess that goes back to the whole thing about taking inspiration from a vlog but not being a vlog. Anyways. What are your thoughts?
Vlog Brothers Meter: August 30, 2007
That's 872 videos to go as of today. I've watched ... almost (but not quite) 200, out of over a thousand total. Actually, before this blog post I'd lost my place, but I found it again! So that's a plus.
(Deadjournal challenge next time. I've already put this blog off enough. :P)
Resident Evil 5 & 6 Review, Part 1
I've been playing a lot of Resident Evil 6 lately.
Why Resident Evil 6, you may ask? It's not that Resident Evil 6 is a great game. I don't have a ton of time for gaming these days; why pick that particular game?
Well, for the same reason why I've played about a jillion hours of Resident Evil 5: because of its co-op. If you're on the PS3, and you're not playing Borderlands, and if you don't like side-scrollers, then Resident Evil 5 & 6 are simply the best cooperative games there are.
(There's a certain level of irony to this, because classic Resident Evil fans tend to hate the coop, because having a partner inherently strips some of the survival horror out. But frankly I wouldn't be playing the series if it weren't for coop because there are so few coop games out there. Jesus.)
And I am pretty much primarily playing coop games these days. I have a personal rule that I won't be playing single-player games until I get to a certain point of my novel - possibly not until I finish it, unless I get ahead of schedule 3/4 of the way into this draft and need a break.
RE5 & 6 are full of flaws, even when you're just picking on gameplay. RE5 is the worst offender: Not being able to move and shoot at the same time during gameplay is just the start, along with a clunky inventory system, awful melee and a ridiculous love of shitty Quicktime events.
RE6 takes a couple steps backward: inventory can only be modified in-game, which is annoying - it would be more immersive but let's not kid ourselves about Resident Evil's immersion here. But thankfully it takes even more steps forward - you can move and shoot at the same fucking time! Melee is actually a ton of fun! Inventory is less clunky! There's a setting you can turn on to get around of most Quicktime events! It's all around more entertaining to play.
The story of both games is appalling. RE6 is slightly better than RE5, but not by much. When it's not bad, it's confusing, and when it's not confusing, it's bad, and usually it's both. But I'm not playing for the story anyway; admittedly the attempt at a story is an improvement over Borderlands' fetch-quest-slash-grind method, but that doesn't make it not appalling.
The terrible story gets a little more fun (okay, a lot more fun) in RE5 when you unlock ridiculous fetish-y outfits for both characters to wear through all those awful cutscenes. Sadly, so far that's not the case for RE6.
Both games feel like you just wouldn't want to finish them if you were only playing solo play.
Resident Evil 5's gameplay is simply too aggravating until you get used to it; it's a ton of fun now, but required a lot of investment to get there that only seemed worth it in cooperative play.
Resident Evil 6 fares a bit better, with the first two-thirds of the first campaign being pretty awesome. (There are four campaigns, by the way. This is a long fucking game. Each single campaign is ... around half to two-thirds as long as the entire campaign of Resident Evil 5.)
Unfortunately... the second campaign of RE6 gets pretty shitty if you haven't unlocked a bunch of skills to make killing things easier. And if you're not willing to point farm, well, fat chance there. And the characters in the second campaign are the least likeable or interesting. We actually took a several-month break from the game in aggravation after getting through the second campaign, before coming back, point farming, and actually having fun (gasp!) with the third campaign. (We're about to start the fourth, which I hear is supposed to be actually pretty good.)
So again... if it wasn't coop, I wouldn't have returned to the game.
But the coop is just marvelous. It's hard to emphasize how much fun it is, especially in RE6. Both games seriously suck you in by actually stacking up rewards for completing campaigns or accomplishing certain goals. Primarily, in both games you can buy skills or abilities or costumes with points earned by playing the campaign/s. And you can play the campaign/s over and over with all those purchased points. It's hard to overestimate how much replay value this adds to the game, especially - again - if you're playing coop. And the games get more fun as you earn more abilities and ratchet up the difficulty.
Both games also have a non-story mode called "Mercenaries", which is 'just alright' in RE5, but more fun in RE6, mostly because the gameplay is much (much) better and partly also because you can purchase abilities specific to Mercenaries in RE6. In both games, playing Mercenaries earns goodies for the main game too. My partner and I are playing a lot of this right now.
Heh. This was going to be an analysis of the problematic aspects of Resident Evil's character portrayals... yet I've segued into a goddamn game review, and I'm mostly out of time. Time to change the post title to "Part 1" and move on to "Part 2" next week. In Part 2, I'll address the character stuff, and I'll also note anything I missed in Part 1.
Why Resident Evil 6, you may ask? It's not that Resident Evil 6 is a great game. I don't have a ton of time for gaming these days; why pick that particular game?
Well, for the same reason why I've played about a jillion hours of Resident Evil 5: because of its co-op. If you're on the PS3, and you're not playing Borderlands, and if you don't like side-scrollers, then Resident Evil 5 & 6 are simply the best cooperative games there are.
(There's a certain level of irony to this, because classic Resident Evil fans tend to hate the coop, because having a partner inherently strips some of the survival horror out. But frankly I wouldn't be playing the series if it weren't for coop because there are so few coop games out there. Jesus.)
And I am pretty much primarily playing coop games these days. I have a personal rule that I won't be playing single-player games until I get to a certain point of my novel - possibly not until I finish it, unless I get ahead of schedule 3/4 of the way into this draft and need a break.
RE5 & 6 are full of flaws, even when you're just picking on gameplay. RE5 is the worst offender: Not being able to move and shoot at the same time during gameplay is just the start, along with a clunky inventory system, awful melee and a ridiculous love of shitty Quicktime events.
RE6 takes a couple steps backward: inventory can only be modified in-game, which is annoying - it would be more immersive but let's not kid ourselves about Resident Evil's immersion here. But thankfully it takes even more steps forward - you can move and shoot at the same fucking time! Melee is actually a ton of fun! Inventory is less clunky! There's a setting you can turn on to get around of most Quicktime events! It's all around more entertaining to play.
The story of both games is appalling. RE6 is slightly better than RE5, but not by much. When it's not bad, it's confusing, and when it's not confusing, it's bad, and usually it's both. But I'm not playing for the story anyway; admittedly the attempt at a story is an improvement over Borderlands' fetch-quest-slash-grind method, but that doesn't make it not appalling.
The terrible story gets a little more fun (okay, a lot more fun) in RE5 when you unlock ridiculous fetish-y outfits for both characters to wear through all those awful cutscenes. Sadly, so far that's not the case for RE6.
Both games feel like you just wouldn't want to finish them if you were only playing solo play.
Resident Evil 5's gameplay is simply too aggravating until you get used to it; it's a ton of fun now, but required a lot of investment to get there that only seemed worth it in cooperative play.
Resident Evil 6 fares a bit better, with the first two-thirds of the first campaign being pretty awesome. (There are four campaigns, by the way. This is a long fucking game. Each single campaign is ... around half to two-thirds as long as the entire campaign of Resident Evil 5.)
Unfortunately... the second campaign of RE6 gets pretty shitty if you haven't unlocked a bunch of skills to make killing things easier. And if you're not willing to point farm, well, fat chance there. And the characters in the second campaign are the least likeable or interesting. We actually took a several-month break from the game in aggravation after getting through the second campaign, before coming back, point farming, and actually having fun (gasp!) with the third campaign. (We're about to start the fourth, which I hear is supposed to be actually pretty good.)
So again... if it wasn't coop, I wouldn't have returned to the game.
But the coop is just marvelous. It's hard to emphasize how much fun it is, especially in RE6. Both games seriously suck you in by actually stacking up rewards for completing campaigns or accomplishing certain goals. Primarily, in both games you can buy skills or abilities or costumes with points earned by playing the campaign/s. And you can play the campaign/s over and over with all those purchased points. It's hard to overestimate how much replay value this adds to the game, especially - again - if you're playing coop. And the games get more fun as you earn more abilities and ratchet up the difficulty.
Both games also have a non-story mode called "Mercenaries", which is 'just alright' in RE5, but more fun in RE6, mostly because the gameplay is much (much) better and partly also because you can purchase abilities specific to Mercenaries in RE6. In both games, playing Mercenaries earns goodies for the main game too. My partner and I are playing a lot of this right now.
Heh. This was going to be an analysis of the problematic aspects of Resident Evil's character portrayals... yet I've segued into a goddamn game review, and I'm mostly out of time. Time to change the post title to "Part 1" and move on to "Part 2" next week. In Part 2, I'll address the character stuff, and I'll also note anything I missed in Part 1.
Friday, February 8, 2013
2013 Goals: Week 5 Postmortem
Novel: [NOT ENOUGH]/ 17,500 words.
I'm struggling to get back into this, now that the contest is over. Sigh.
Working Out: 4/4 times. (+4 from earlier weeks)
Same as last week. At least I'm not getting further behind.
Blogging: 3/3 posts. (+1 from earlier weeks)
Yup. Still need to get in that reply to Jess. Will do over the next couple days... I'm already working on it, but it's not done.
SCP Foundation: 8/1 articles.
That isn't a typo, of course. I was required to do one for last month, but I did eight.
Technically that means I'm covered for the next seven months. Not sure how I'll decide to handle that; it seems almost against the spirit of the resolutions. But then, I did get pretty behind on my novel to get the time to write those eight articles, and I'm gonna need extra time to catch up. Any thoughts?
I'm struggling to get back into this, now that the contest is over. Sigh.
Working Out: 4/4 times. (+4 from earlier weeks)
Same as last week. At least I'm not getting further behind.
Blogging: 3/3 posts. (+1 from earlier weeks)
Yup. Still need to get in that reply to Jess. Will do over the next couple days... I'm already working on it, but it's not done.
SCP Foundation: 8/1 articles.
That isn't a typo, of course. I was required to do one for last month, but I did eight.
Technically that means I'm covered for the next seven months. Not sure how I'll decide to handle that; it seems almost against the spirit of the resolutions. But then, I did get pretty behind on my novel to get the time to write those eight articles, and I'm gonna need extra time to catch up. Any thoughts?
More Contest Post-Mortem
I went and did this for my own amusement / educational value. Food for thought...
01. Apakht: Female:male ratio 1:1 / Bechdel test: Fails (I wrote this)
02. The Gate Opens: Female:male ratio 0:5 / Bechdel test: Fails (I wrote this)
03. Revelation: Female:male ratio 2:1 / Bechdel test: Fails (I wrote this)
04. Stormfront: Female:male ratio 4:4 / Bechdel test: Passes (Female author)
05. Awakenings: Female:male ratio 2:1 / Bechdel test: Fails (I wrote this)
06. White Horse: Female:male ratio 1:1 / Bechdel test: Fails (I wrote this)
07. Red Horse: Female:male ratio 0:3 / Bechdel test: Fails
08. Interlude Notes: Female:male ratio 0:0 / N/A
09. Black Horse: Female:male ratio 2:4 / Bechdel test: Passes (Female author)
10. Interlude Svalbard: 2:2 / Bechdel test: Passes (Female author)
11. Pale Horse: Female:male ratio 1:2 / Bechdel test: Fails
12. Bloody Autumn: Female:male ratio 0:2 / Bechdel test: Fails
13. Stirrings: Female:male ratio 0:1 / Bechdel test: Fails (Female author)
14. Ganymede: Female:male ratio 5:2 / Bechdel test: Passes (I wrote this)
So... only one of my stories passed the Bechdel test. The others that passed were all written by a female author.
Reminder: To pass the Bechdel test, one must have two or more female characters, who talk to each other, about something besides a man. (It's incredibly easy to find stories with two or more male characters, who talk to each other, about something besides a woman. That's the vast majority of all modern stories.)
There's also a dearth of female characters in the tale series, which didn't surprise me going in, since while the site has a significant minority of female members, it's still male-dominated.
Note that there are also multiple "it" characters, who are genderless/genderfluid/etc, but I didn't take them into account because they're all supernatural entities. (I //did// take into account gendered supernatural entities.) There were no 'basically human' characters who weren't cisgender.
There are only two obvious POC (people of color, for y'all who don't know acronyms) characters. "Obvious" meaning the story lets you know they're people of color.
There are a few queer characters in the stories, but they're not obvious. Only two (past) relationships are shown, and they're both straight relationships.
(This is in part because only my original characters are queer, and the relationships both involved characters who weren't mine and are probably straight, though ironically several of the straight characters involved or mentioned were //written// by queer authors. I can't specify further, because as far as I know they're not 'out' to the site at large.)
The flip sides to all this is that several of (actually, most of) the female characters are significant and in positions of power. Only one is relevant at all for being a love interest, and that doesn't even get revealed until the end story (and she's a major character). And of the obvious POC, both are major players.
By the way, just in case I get comments here from people who don't know me: I'm not saying that this decreases the quality of my stories here or my teammates' stories, thanks. It's still worthwhile food for thought.
01. Apakht: Female:male ratio 1:1 / Bechdel test: Fails (I wrote this)
02. The Gate Opens: Female:male ratio 0:5 / Bechdel test: Fails (I wrote this)
03. Revelation: Female:male ratio 2:1 / Bechdel test: Fails (I wrote this)
04. Stormfront: Female:male ratio 4:4 / Bechdel test: Passes (Female author)
05. Awakenings: Female:male ratio 2:1 / Bechdel test: Fails (I wrote this)
06. White Horse: Female:male ratio 1:1 / Bechdel test: Fails (I wrote this)
07. Red Horse: Female:male ratio 0:3 / Bechdel test: Fails
08. Interlude Notes: Female:male ratio 0:0 / N/A
09. Black Horse: Female:male ratio 2:4 / Bechdel test: Passes (Female author)
10. Interlude Svalbard: 2:2 / Bechdel test: Passes (Female author)
11. Pale Horse: Female:male ratio 1:2 / Bechdel test: Fails
12. Bloody Autumn: Female:male ratio 0:2 / Bechdel test: Fails
13. Stirrings: Female:male ratio 0:1 / Bechdel test: Fails (Female author)
14. Ganymede: Female:male ratio 5:2 / Bechdel test: Passes (I wrote this)
So... only one of my stories passed the Bechdel test. The others that passed were all written by a female author.
Reminder: To pass the Bechdel test, one must have two or more female characters, who talk to each other, about something besides a man. (It's incredibly easy to find stories with two or more male characters, who talk to each other, about something besides a woman. That's the vast majority of all modern stories.)
There's also a dearth of female characters in the tale series, which didn't surprise me going in, since while the site has a significant minority of female members, it's still male-dominated.
Note that there are also multiple "it" characters, who are genderless/genderfluid/etc, but I didn't take them into account because they're all supernatural entities. (I //did// take into account gendered supernatural entities.) There were no 'basically human' characters who weren't cisgender.
There are only two obvious POC (people of color, for y'all who don't know acronyms) characters. "Obvious" meaning the story lets you know they're people of color.
There are a few queer characters in the stories, but they're not obvious. Only two (past) relationships are shown, and they're both straight relationships.
(This is in part because only my original characters are queer, and the relationships both involved characters who weren't mine and are probably straight, though ironically several of the straight characters involved or mentioned were //written// by queer authors. I can't specify further, because as far as I know they're not 'out' to the site at large.)
The flip sides to all this is that several of (actually, most of) the female characters are significant and in positions of power. Only one is relevant at all for being a love interest, and that doesn't even get revealed until the end story (and she's a major character). And of the obvious POC, both are major players.
By the way, just in case I get comments here from people who don't know me: I'm not saying that this decreases the quality of my stories here or my teammates' stories, thanks. It's still worthwhile food for thought.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
...Done!
Yes! The contest is over.
We went down to the wire, but we got absolutely everything in that we wanted to get in. Fourteen stories, or twelve if you only count full stories (two of 'em were one-scene interludes).
My team really came through. I didn't think we'd get everything in, or that it would all be good, but... we did, and it is. It was a ton of effort, between planning things & managing everyone, but it was all worth it.
I am so goddamn happy.
Reminder: You can find the stories here: http://www.scp-wiki.net/new-years-contest if you scroll down to "Eschatology". (Warning: Not all of it will make sense if you're not a Foundation member and haven't read all the referenced stuff... but it's designed to hopefully be entertaining even if you have no clue what's going.)
Now it's time to work on some other projects... most importantly, back to my novel, and second most importantly, catching up with blog posts. Not super behind, but I do have a one-post deficit, and that post is one Jess has been waiting for for quite a while.
(Last week's postmortem tonight or tomorrow.)
We went down to the wire, but we got absolutely everything in that we wanted to get in. Fourteen stories, or twelve if you only count full stories (two of 'em were one-scene interludes).
My team really came through. I didn't think we'd get everything in, or that it would all be good, but... we did, and it is. It was a ton of effort, between planning things & managing everyone, but it was all worth it.
I am so goddamn happy.
Reminder: You can find the stories here: http://www.scp-wiki.net/new-years-contest if you scroll down to "Eschatology". (Warning: Not all of it will make sense if you're not a Foundation member and haven't read all the referenced stuff... but it's designed to hopefully be entertaining even if you have no clue what's going.)
Now it's time to work on some other projects... most importantly, back to my novel, and second most importantly, catching up with blog posts. Not super behind, but I do have a one-post deficit, and that post is one Jess has been waiting for for quite a while.
(Last week's postmortem tonight or tomorrow.)
Monday, February 4, 2013
That Damned Contest...
...ends tomorrow. Which means I'm gonna be spending most of my time tonight working on my final entries. Because Tuesday night? I'll be in class. Yeah.
Here's the hub: http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/new-years-contest
My entries so far can be found under: "Competitive Eschatology" - under "thedeadlymoose". More are coming later, either tonight or tomorrow.
And if you're really bored, here is the sandbox page with a ton of planning and some current drafts in it: http://scpsandbox2.wikidot.com/eschatology-project-hub
I actually haven't got enough done today. Need to get the hell on that. But first, gotta walk to the bank to get laundry money.
Also... I still need to write that reply to Jess before tomorrow. Hopefully I can get that done too!
Here's the hub: http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/new-years-contest
My entries so far can be found under: "Competitive Eschatology" - under "thedeadlymoose". More are coming later, either tonight or tomorrow.
And if you're really bored, here is the sandbox page with a ton of planning and some current drafts in it: http://scpsandbox2.wikidot.com/eschatology-project-hub
I actually haven't got enough done today. Need to get the hell on that. But first, gotta walk to the bank to get laundry money.
Also... I still need to write that reply to Jess before tomorrow. Hopefully I can get that done too!
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Kitteh.
Oh my gawd.
He's just so goddamn adorable.
And yes, this is a cat picture post. What about it?
He's just so goddamn adorable.
And yes, this is a cat picture post. What about it?
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