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Mon, Dec. 21st, 2009, 12:28 pm
Apocalypse
It's late December and 55 degrees here in Denver. The U.S. Senate may be on its way to passing the healthcare reform bill.
And now this. RUN FOR THE HILLS, THE END IS NEAR.
Sat, Oct. 8th, 2005, 11:15 pm
*Sigh*
I updated the Q-FanFiction website after nearly a year of it collecting dust, revamping it slightly.
I'm offended by this lack of heel-kicking.
If anyone is interested in the second part of The Lowest Common Denominator, you can find it on ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) activecadre. That's where I'm posting all my writing from now on. I don't think I'll be using this journal anymore. Fri, Sep. 23rd, 2005, 08:10 pm
Slightly OT
I was wondering if anyone knew of a good livejournal community for posting/workshopping/betaing original science fiction works. Yes, I am writing one. :)
I'm actually considering posting a portion of Part II of LCD that I had been writing, but since it's in the Beta stage I'm very leery. Tue, Jun. 29th, 2004, 11:38 am
Plans
Thus far this summer has been spent with me watching too much anime. I became obsessed with the Berserk series, got depressed about the ending, and now I'm seeking a similar anime to fill the void. But anyway, between that, my online classes and life, I completely forgot about everything else. So my goal is to release a beta of Part II of LCD sometime in early fall. It's going to be rough, and I'll allow anyone interested who can post criticisms better than "this sucks!" to read it. Sun, Jun. 6th, 2004, 04:49 pm
Ahriman narrowed his eyes in absolute fury. "Thanks for nothing!" He shouted before flashing out of existence. "He's making a huge mistake!"
Picard thoughtfully regarded the empty space in silence for a long moment. "Possibly," he admitted to the absent entity before returning his attention back to his book. "But that is what makes him human."
This is taken from AD&D 2nd Edition, but I believe it still has relevance in many aspects outside role-playing. Everything in the brackets is my own addition...
"The character's alignment is a guide to his basic moral and ethical attitudes toward others, society, good, evil, and the forces of the universe in general. Use the chosen alignment as a guide to provide a clearer idea of how the character will handle moral dilemmas. Always consider alignment as a tool, not a straitjacket that restricts the character. Although alignment defines general attitudes, it certainly doesn't prevent a character from changing his beliefs, acting irrationally, or behaving out of character.
Alignment is divided into two sets of attitudes: order and chaos, and good and evil. By combining the different variations within the two sets, nine distinct alignments are created. These nine alignments serve well to define the attitudes of most of the people in the world [or galaxy].
( Read on )
So for the past month I've been 'prettying up' LCD into a nice .html file that I posted just now. I shoved both Part I and Part II into this big file, so don't get confused when you just find one document on the page. I also call this document "Part I," since I plan to write about two more parts after this...
All in all, "Part I" is finished. I changed the things that a few people took issue with to the best of my ability. If I've still majorly fucked up (which is more than likely), everyone's welcome to complain to me and I can see what I can do to remedy the situation.
I've also added several new scenes. "Part I" ends with Q and the Aldreenian smugglers escaping off Dessica II and Trent wrapping up all the loose ends by asking Shien some rather probing questions. I also included another new scene that you'll have to look for. All the details are on the website under 'updates'.
Anyway, who cares?
Note: This will probably be included in some form in the next posting. I still think it...lacks...something.
Trent bounded up the Anathema's ramp, filled with palpable jubilation. "Yes! Fuck, yes! This is *spectacular*!"
"Two hundred ninety bars of latinum!" Shien shrieked, his excitement matching that of the others. "This is a small fortune! I can't believe it."
"I've been waiting for this for ten goddamn years!" The doctor had converted his share of the profit into strips, and was tossing the many slips of latinum into the air and across the bridge like so much confetti. "Ah-ha-ha-ha!"
( More ) Mon, May. 3rd, 2004, 07:24 pm
I've developed an easy solution to this problem: I'm going to pull a George W. Bush. I'm going to be incredibly ambiguous.
I'm sitting here doing 'research' and I just discovered that, though it doesn't blatently state it on Startrek.com, Dessica II is in the Alpha Quadrant. I was witting it as if it were in the Beta Quadrant.
On one hand, I suppose it really doesn't matter: "Since when did the canon actually matter, right?" But this isn't the game I like to play. Either I have to (a) come up with a way to bend space and time, (b) say "screw it, only the hard core nerds will notice and they won't be reading this anyway!" and continue witting the way I already am, or (c) change the details so that it cooperates with the Star Trek 'reality'.
Tempting as (b) is, I have to go with (a) and (c).
The Gambit is episode 156. So that would put Dessica II in between Sector 21459 (TNG episode 146) and Sector 19658 (TNG episode 163) in the Alpha Quadrant. According to this website, it takes around four days to cross a sector at warp 9.6. Luckily, this doesn't mean that it would take a ship (I'll pull it out of my ass and suppose Dessica II is in sector 18823) 206 years to reach Sector 001 at warp 9.6, because apparently Trek writers pulled the sector numbers out of their own asses as well. What this does mean is that now I'm thoroughly confused.
And why do I care? Dessica II can't be in Federation space. All I do know is that Dessica II is definitely/most likely/probably in the Alpha Quadrant and it would take more than a month to get to Earth from there (wherever that may be). So.
*looks apologetically at Q* "Well, it looks like you're developing some transwarp technology a little ahead of schedule then. You see, I've written myself into a gigantic hole due to my own lack of planning..."
"What else is new? Just knock off about a thousand sectors...it's really just as easy as a snap of one's fingers, and voila...Dessica II happens to be in a suspiciously yet coincidentally close distance to Earth. Now isn't that nice?"
"Yes, but isn't that cheating? I mean, I can't just start making shit up like that, playing around with a universe that isn't even mine..."
"Hm. Afraid to play god, are we? Now, could you please tell me in what long-lost script it was that I engaged in steamy, vile sexual intercourse with Picard? I seem to have missed that episode, me being omnipotent and all..."
"Goddammit...you have a point."
"Of course I do."
So this is mid-term week. Whereby, I have little time to spare to sit in one spot, much less study, much less write anything.
But some novel ideas (again, at least for the simple-minded college student that I am) beat me upside the head today as I was reading my political ideologies text, including ideas I'm planning on integrating. This week's topic of discussion is the individual, and whether one can be seperated from society (as related to socialism). Also to be discussed is the notion of greed as a motivator. I have scenes swimming in my head already.
But I must be off to my cultural anthropology class. I earned a 100% on the midterm, which consisted of an essay whose ass I kicked. Anyway, I'll be back later to post something...
"They turn to chemical bullets, gobble tranquilizers and antidepressants, alcohol and cocaine. Embrace gurus and heaven-hucksters, any charismatic creep promising a quick fix of the pain."
'Gurus'? 'Heaven-hucksters'? Charismatic creeps, you say? This has, of course, inspired a new set of ideas.
While Q may have many of the symptoms of one diagnosed with a Borderline personality disorder, I have to question how susceptible he is to the promises of these so-called heaven-hucksters. For the most part, he is too mistrustful, skeptical and, well...intelligent...to be so easily duped into joining your average cult.
Then again, Q does carry a certain gullibility in his human state. That goes without saying (though I just did). That, and even the most 'intelligent' of us often make foolish choices in the absence of better judgment due to depression, stress, desperation, etc...
Anything "promising a quick fix of the pain." It's an idea I find interesting.
But I'm hardly an expert in the realm of cults and what causes people to allow themselves be drawn into them. Nevertheless, I want to incorporate some aspect of this concept (cults, fortune tellers, spirituality, perhaps even religion) into LCD because it is such an intriguing (though maybe just for me) subject that is very pertinent to the story's theme. But I also want to avoid triteness. I need ideas on how to make this work. I need a strong character who would be charismatic enough to seduce Q into depths he considers himself too intellectually superior to fall into, playing on the human's sense of helplessness and inherent gullibility.
This person doesn't even need to be a person, I'm thinking. It could be anything. Humanoid, non-humanoid...it just needs the characteristics to achieve the end.
I 'googled' the term 'cult leaders', and this chilling website popped up: Cult Leader Characteristics 101.
Also, on this website, Q nearly fits the profile of a cult leader himself:
1. Glibness/Superficial Charm
2. Manipulative and Conning
3. Grandiose Sense of Self
4. Pathological Lying
5. Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt
6. Shallow Emotions
7. Incapacity for Love
8. Need for Stimulation
9. Callousness/Lack of Empathy
10. Poor Behavioral Controls / Impulsive Nature
11. Early Behavior Problems / Juvinile Deliquency
12. Irresponsibility / Unreliability
13. Promiscuous Sexual Behavior / Infidelity
14. Lack of Realistic Life Plan / Parasitic Lifestyle
15. Criminal or Entrepreneurial Versatility
He's not a pathological liar, nor is he incapable of love or have shallow emotions, but many of these other qualities (I think) are almost right on the mark. One, I suppose, could argue this as a reason why he would be drawn to a cult...
I still maintain that Q is much too intelligent to be thoroughly brainwashed, but I still want to toy with the idea... Thu, Apr. 15th, 2004, 04:01 pm
Picard: You believe that felicium is a narcotic, Doctor?
Crusher: Yes! Everyone on Ornara is addicted to it!
Picard: I can't imagine what it must be like to depend on a chemical substance. Computer-- tea, Earl Grey, hot.
Picard: Lieutenant Worf, apprehend the intruder!
Worf: Anonymous Ensign, apprehend the intruder!
(The Borg drone clobbers the Ensign)
Q: Uniform colours may change, but some traditions never do...
Source: Five Minute Next Generation
...Presented me with a gift today. I am quite excited to watch it. Soon, my muse will be unleashed...I only hope it isn't a disappointment.
"The person diagnosed as a borderline personality has instability in relationships, mood and self-image. For example, attitudes and feelings toward other people may vary considerably and inexplicably over short periods of time. Emotions are erratic and can shift abruptly, particularly from passionate idealization to contemptuous anger. Patients with borderline personality disorder are argumentative, irritable, sarcastic, quick to take offense, and altogether hard to live with. Their unpredictable and impulsive behavior, which may include gambling, spending, sex and eating sprees, is potentially self-damaging. These individuals have not developed a clear and coherent sense of self and remain uncertain about their values, loyalties and career choices. They cannot bear to be alone, have fears of abandonment, and demand attention. They tend to have a series of intense one-on-one relationships that are usually stormy and transient, alternating between idealization and devaluation; one moment they lavish praise on someone, the next, they scornfully demean them. Subject to chronic feelings of depression and emptiness, they often attempt suicide and engage in self-mutilating behavior...paranoid ideation and disassociative symptoms may appear during periods of high stress. Of all these varied symptoms, unstable and intense interpersonal relationships appear as a critical feature."
"...They are the chronically depressed, the determinedly addictive, the compulsively divorced, living from one emotional disaster to the next...their egos are as fragile as spun sugar, their psyches irretrievably fragmented, like a jigsaw puzzle with crucial pieces missing. They play roles with alacrity, excel at being anyone but themselves, crave intimacy but repel it when they find it. Some of them gravitate toward the stage or screen; others do their acting in more subtle ways...borderlines go from therapist to therapist, hoping to find a magic bullet for the crushing feelings of emptiness. They turn to chemical bullets, gobble tranquilizers and antidepressants, alcohol and cocaine. Embrace gurus and heaven-hucksters, any charismatic creep promising a quick fix of the pain. And they end up taking temporary vacations in psychiatric wards and prison cells, emerge looking good, raising everyone's hopes. Until they next letdown, real or imagined. The next excursion into self-damage.
What they don't do is change." Source: Davison, Gerald C. and Neale, John M. Abnormal Psychology. Seventh Ed. 1998. (338-339)
Remind you of someone you know? Wed, Apr. 7th, 2004, 07:23 pm
Family
I won the e-bay bid, so I should be able to start writting again in the next week when the video comes in.
If you have ideas you might want me to incorporate, tell me now. Maybe I'll add something. ;) Mon, Apr. 5th, 2004, 09:42 pm
E-Bay
I'm bidding on the "TNG" episode Family on VHS. There are 22 hours left, and I'm the only bidder. I like the odds.
I also viewed Q-Less for the fist time on Spike-TV's "Deep Space Nine" marathon today. It has inspired a new wave of ideas, which I am, of course, keeping to myself. Mon, Apr. 5th, 2004, 09:17 am
*Scoffs*
*looks at queriana as if she were a fly on his arm* "It's about time, woman."
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