Rogin

Really has.  Likely, only one guy will read this.  Hey, Sejuay!  And anybody else who happens by.

So, I just finished my own mini-NaNoWri-Mo, though it only totalled at 16500 words, and I wanted to ask a question.  How do you come back to something you've written?

I mean, here's the thing.  We all know by now that I consider anything I write to be utter crap.  Don't waste time denying it, that's just how I feel.  This thing is the best I've ever written, by far, but I still feel that it doesn't nearly live up to its potential.  For one thing, it could actually be a full-length novel instead of a mere 70 highly-formatted pages.  I'm thinking four or five times that length.

But now that it's written, history shows that I will never revisit it.  It's done, it's down, and I will likely never even consider editing it or expanding on it, even though I know that it would be possible, even easy now that the bulk is complete.

So how do you do it?  How do you take a rough draft into a full-length production?  How can I go back to this story that already tells more than I originally intended, to make it even more?  I just can't see it.

Anyway, work's actually a blast.  I love my job!  Not fond of a couple co-workers, but all-in-all, it's a great time, and I really enjoy myself.  If you're actually interested, we can talk about it in the comments, because I just don't feel like doing one of my old epic-long-Journals that nobody would ever waste time reading.

I have a job!  A job!  I have a freakin' JOB!

Catalyst IT Services, Inc, has brought me into their Java programmer training program, which after a couple more months will lead into a $15/hour job.  Given that I'm fresh out of community college, with no professional experience, that seems like an utterly fantastic minimum starting wage, but nobody else seems to agree with me.  In any case, I remember somebody telling me that if I didn't go back to Wal-Mart, I wouldn't be able to get a job at all.  To them I'd like to give the middle finger, laugh, then tell them to fix the virus that's sent me a couple of emails from them even though they're no longer on speaking terms with me.

Anyway, though, the clothes thing.  "Business casual," as interpreted by Baltimore, apparently means long-sleeved button-up shirts with collars, and dress pants.  Compared to what I'm used to, sweat pants and old short-sleeved tie-dye shirts, it's...it's pretty awful stuff.  At least the belt won't make my skin allergy to nickel act up this time, since I have to have my shirt tucked in and all.  As soon as I get home, first thing I do is change into better stuff while I wait for my computer to turn on.

So far, I'm actually liking it quite a bit!  I was actually excited on Thursday to get working on my first training project, and didn't even notice the day go by!  The only downside is that the whole thing takes place in Beaverton, about an hour and a half away.  Worth it, but I'm planning to move into the area after I've gotten a few paychecks under my belt.  You know, buy a new bed (my old one finally got too bad a few weeks ago, now I've cobbled something together), pay off my credit card, and save up the whole first/last month's rent thing.  At some point I'm going to try to work in learning to drive, but I've said that before.

Birthday.  Yay.  I don't want to be OLD.

Anyway, though, I feel like writing, but...the muse has left me for the time being.  Hopefully that'll fix itself soon...

But it's not all bad, I finally named one of my favorite characters.  Colonel Rith, the now-millenia-old omni-dragon, genetically engineered following the discovery of magic.  A military experiment, he was used in battle and ended up saving the lives of some influential people who saw to his entrance and advancement in the military.  While he can assume the form of a human, he despises doing so and only will if ordered to by a military superior, and he'll usually vent his anger by not altering his weight resulting in serious damage being done to the floor wherever he is required to walk. He is the third most dangerous living thing on the planet, present-time, just ahead of Vis.  With any luck, I'll write a full bio for him soon enough...

How about this.  You guys are writers, you have any tips for me?

Jeez.  Hated that game so much.  Just beat it today, after months of off-and-on playing.  Just...so terrible.  Random encounters have never drawn actual sighs from me before!  I could rant and rant about everything I didn't like about it, but, you know, there's just no reason to; suffice to say that I don't like it.  At all.

It actually got a lot better when I started to cheat, towards the end.  And I mean CHEAT, to a degree that I'm actually a little proud of!  Basically, limit break every turn for 4-20 hits of 5k+-damage each.  Makes things WAY nicer, as you might expect.

In non-game-related news (because I DO occasionally do things besides play video games, odd as that may seem), I have a job now!  $15/hour as a Java programmer for a company called Catalyst IT Services that's stationed in Baltimore, but has a Beaverton office.  I'll start training sometime next month, and start the actual job by the end of the year!  It's fantastic!

...On the other hand, I've already personally informed the two, three people who'd care about this news, or anything else I might say here, so I think I'll cut it short.

Later, DA.  'Til next time.

Oh, and once my anxiety nightmares go away, I'll consider writing some more.  For whatever that's worth.

Just beat it.  The game is still wonderful, and I can't really criticize anything about it.  If you have a 3DS, buy this game.  If you don't have a 3DS, buy one and this game.  If you don't have money, rob-I think I've gotten my point across nicely.  Seventeen hearts, over sixty gold skulltullas, and that's without seeking 'em.  Tomorrow I'm going to start going for internet-free completion, see how much I can get done without a guide.  Wish me luck!

Unlike the original, I was able to beat it without getting a single game over!  Several fairies were used, but that hardly counts.

IT HARDLY COUNTS.

Okay, okay, to be fair?  Two complaints.  Both very minor and non-deterring.  First, Master Quest is only unlocked once you've beaten it once, and I would have rather played through that instead, as now I don't feel like playing it again for a good long while.  Second, and I got this from a review I read (I think on Joystiq), with the graphical overhaul, it would have been nice if they'd redone the music as well.  The music is beautiful, don't get me wrong, but there's already a group that has released a fully orchestral version of the entire soundtrack, and things just sound better when they're orchestrated.

Also, I'm back from my vacation.  Wonderful time!  But now I have to start my job searching, since I'm not going back to school in the foreseeable future.  I was going to start today, but what with the holiday, my application system (provided by my college, sends out like twenty computer-related job listings every day) was inactive, so...tomorrow.  I also plan to introduce actual exercise into my schedule with something like a half-hour run around noon, which will be more viable for the other change I plan to make which is enforcing an actually "reasonable" sleep schedule despite having no real need to.  Mostly because in the past, people have called in response to an application at like 9am, and the current rule is that I'm either asleep or in class at that time without any real overlap.

And next Saturday is supposedly the M12 pre-release?  I'll go, if it is, but my usual sources are quiet (Jake hasn't been online, probably busy with his capstone, and the Loki's site says Yugioh, but I dunno about that).  Besides that, though, I have no draws on my time.

Maybe I should do some actual writing.