Perhaps a misnomer of a title, as this isn’t going to be a majorly long post, but rather a few dot points of interest, some laggard promises, and a test for a new overall blogging platform client. It’s called ecto, and I think I like it. We’ll see :)

Ironically enough, as I mentioned in my last post, paranoia and terror in regards to my final exam turned out to be fairly prophetic - in that I ended up not passing (sounds nicer than failing, doesn’t it?) at least one of the three papers, and thus couldn’t progress to the next phase. That said, I’ve ended up repeating the past twelve months, which has its ups and downs… I’m actually redoing one of my better-performing segments at the moment, so I’ve been putting into place better study strategies and using most of the classtime as revision, which is good. I’ve been rather irritated at myself, but oh well.

Otherwise, there aren’t any major stories to report at the moment. I will endeavour to keep this more up to date in the near future - which I admit to having said before - but I may as well post a few other minor things now:

Bones (the short film) is still in production, but has been placed on hold since late May/early June, due to availability of cast and crew to shoot footage. We’ll probably segue back into it as the days grow longer again, when we can manage a few good afternoons. We’ve probably shot in excess of 50% of the footage we require, but there are a few things I want to shoot again (if I can convince the cast to do some of them!) and there’re a few important bits that need to be both redone or initially done.

Notre Esmé Artur, my new D&D-style adventure, has begun, and has so far been going well. I’m enjoying playing with Miles in the group again, and I’m amused to find that I can still predict his actions and characterisations enough to manipulate them. I should state here that I am a horrible DM to play with at times. I don’t railroad people, although I have a fairly definite plan of what I’d like to get done. Instead of making the only option my option, I tend to craft my actual scenarios around the development of my player characters and how they act. It’s more fun to make them realise that they’re doing it to themselves! ;)

I’ve re-begun work on the Curse of Blood, which is a (shame…) ‘fanfiction’ set in the universe of our dear lady Rowling. Specifically, it’s like a historical fiction based in the general world of her novels, but over a thousand years beforehand. I like some of the concepts she writes about in her books - egalitarianism, racism, the notion of nobility and power etc, and often thought that there’s a golden opportunity to explore those conflicts within her world, and with some of her rules, but with my own characters (well, mostly mine ;) ) and ideas coming through. At any rate, the first chapter or two for this fic were written back in 2004/2005, and then I dropped them with the intent of returning. Which I now have. The story itself will be separated into three parts, each one dealing with a primary theme, and with a slightly adjust time period - time zero, five years later, ten years later, along those lines. The three parts are tentatively titled:rn1. A Dying Sparkrn2. With Vengeful Flamesrn3. The Candle in the Wind

The last of which is a nod to T.H. White, not to our gayest British musician friend.

That’s probably about all for the moment - more as the story progresses. Back now to your regular internet programming.

Alcata’riel.

rn -Andiyar