Once again, I am left with no choice but to combine a whole bunch of stuff into one post. Because I seem to be too lazy to write up stuff as it happens these days.

So firstly, the fanfic comp is now over and finished rather smoothly. In the end we only had three ties, and none were for first place. Not bad at all. Everyone also seemed really pleased with how quickly the results were posted, so yay there as well. I was also pretty pleased with the results- a lot of my favorites won without me even having to vote for them. ^_^

Putting the hosting duties to the side, I myself was also on the ballot and was surprised to find myself watching the votes come in for me. 'Twas for the same story in two different categories- I got second place for Best Short Work and first for Best Villain.

That's... surprisingly good. The stories I was up against in both categories were like, really, really good. I went and reread mine to compare. I honestly can't see how they placed as high as they did. I mean, I don't think I sucked, but in comparison I find several fics to have been more deserving.

Seesaw was written on the spur of the moment, in the attempt to just write something and have it up in time for a goodfic flood. I like it, but I don't think it's anything special.

Not that I'm ungrateful! Because it's seriously nice to see people thought highly enough of it to vote for it. It just baffles me, I guess.

Nevertheless, yay! I wrote barely nothing and I still get recognized. I has not been forgotten. :3

Next matter of business- I watched Bolt online a couple of hours ago. OMG- I liked that movie a lot more than I thought I would. It had it's moments of total cuteness, but it also had some really developed characters. I loved all three of the animals (Bolt is the dog, obviously, and then there's Mittens the cat and Rhino the hamster). They just had so much personality. Oh, and the pigeons. Freaking hilarious. The Nemo jab was awesome. XD Really- it was totally great to watch. I may even buy it.

And because I can't talk about movies without at least one quote...

Bolt: There's a guard.
Rhino: I'll snap his neck.

And finally for something a little more serious.

Long rambling entry once again. Probably made no sense, but at least it's an entry.

The weekends are over too quickly. I so don't want to go back to work tomorrow. I want to burrow under the covers and go "F U, stoopid work" and then wake up around six in the afternoon. Because that would be awesome.

...I still want the money, though. I can keep that, right?

(SIGH)

Anyways. Opened up the voting booth for the Fanfic Comp. Holy crap! What a response! Thus far, I've gotten twelve ballots. That's a lot for the opening day. It makes me doubly grateful, though, for the new system we have that tallies it all for us. Without that, I'd likely still be hand tallying right now.

Unfortunately, as happens with a lot of early voters, I'm getting bad vibes for the outlook of the eventual end. It is both exhilirating and horribly painful at times to watch it all unfold. However, I had this same outlook last year, and eventually that turned out all right. I'm sure this year will be the same. ^_^

All right, so now for another association meme thingy!

From mister_moshi:

1. TMNT Fanfic Comp

Hee! Okay. So of the four years I've been in the fandom, I've also had the opportunity to be on the Comp staff for three of these. My first year I wasn't able to do much, due to lack of Internetz and school. But I still helped out some. The second year, I think I was a lot more influential. A lot of that had to do with most of the other staff members having technical difficulties at the time, though. Nevertheless, I helped a lot more and has more say in official comp matters. Was sweet.

I've always enjoyed the kind of organization that comes with competition. It's exciting to me, even if it's just as frustrating at the same time. So after everything that went down last year, it seemed I was nearly the only previous staff member still interested in staffing again. In all technicality, Reinbeauchaser (host for the last three years) said I could take over for this year. However, I think the job just kinda fell into my lap as I was the first one to bring it up. 'Twas cool with me, though.

So I put together an awesome staff. Then we discussed lots of issues from last year and made a bunch of changes for this one. A lot of people's suggestions last year seemed pretty drastic to me, so I think I was pretty lucky to have a staff that seemed to agree with my ideas, helping to avoid taking those measures. With the changes we made though, everyone seems happy! At least I've gotten no complaints, anyways.

Also, this year is so much easier. For everyone, really. The limited number of fics allowed onto the ballot has made everyone's time of reading easier, from what I hear. But with the new voting system, my staff and I no longer have to spend hours hand tallying everyone's votes! It's a dream come true!

...Have I mentioned how much I love this site? Seriously, fren. I HEART YOU. :3

2. Pessimism

All right, all right! So I tend to see the glass as half empty! XD

Thing is, as I was growing up, I was taught that most of my optimistic thoughts were too optimistic, and that I was mistaking hopefulness for delusions of grandeur. The other half got crushed by the harsh foot of reality not too long after. My mission became not to keep dreaming, but to accept the truth that life sucks and to mess with as many of its loopholes I could find.

3. Age 18

Not for much longer! :D

But yeah. The eighteenth year's been a roller coaster. Am looking forward to it's departure.

4. Overworked 'n' Underpaid

I am. ;_;

Seriously? ICS is just a fancy term for *Wal-Mart's oxen*. Our job is the most physically demanding of any in the store, requiring us to handle thousands of pieces of merchandise, many of which is heavy, on a daily basis- then proceed to drag it all out on pallets later. In addition to that, we also have to unload the Grocery and Frozen Food trucks (pre-palletized, thank God) and drag them to their departments as well. Some of those pallets get really heavy. The worst is the frozen juice pallets, which can way up to 3500 pounds. By the end of the weekend, every part of my body is sore.

This isn't even including all of the other various tasks given to us. ICS usually ends up doing everything eventually. Despite this, with the exception of Cart Pushers and the People Greeters, no ones get as little pay as us. Seriously sucks. Overnight stockers make nearly a dollar more than me despite how little freight they have to handle. Electronics associates make nearly TWO more. >.< So unfair...

5. Suicide! XD

UGH. I am assuming we are talking about my fic here.

Okay. So I started Suicide when I was fifteen. And it was awful. It was basically just an excuse to torture Leo, and I came in with no real plot in mind whatsoever. It had repressed memories, catatonia, and an OC. Yeah, made of fail. Emo!Leo, too.

The only reason why I haven't taken it down is because it remains to be one of my most popular fics. And I personally hate it when my favorite stories get taken down, so I've left it up. (shrugs) But really. It was awful.

So it was the Ethernet cable. That's one dastardly villain indeed.

Happily, though, I bought myself a new one yesterday at work and thus solved my Internet troubles. Well, for the most part.

So far, since opening up the staff seats for the Fanfic Comp this year, I've only had one bite. Sunny is willing to help out again, and I'm glad for the assistance, but I was hoping for a little more hands by this time. I remember when Rein used to ask and it was like, filled within hours.

One person has PM'ed me for further details about staff duties. She sounds like someone who could be of a lot of help, so I hope she's still interested now that she has the scoop on what we do.

Even so... (pokes request in hopes of stirring life) I'd like to have a few more people than that. I'll give the thread until Tuesday- that's when we really should be starting on discussing all the comp related details that have to be organized.

(crosses fingers)

My home is no longer sitting at fifty-seven degrees. Hyess... XD

The heat kinda lingers more around the living room, but I figure it'll get to the bedroom soon enough. I mean, it is warmer in here too, but not as warm as it is just one room over. I figure by the weekend, things will be better.

And how did my problem with my heater become resolved? Simple, my dear readers! I am made of awesomesauce.

XD Okay, so that only played a small role. What happened is I'd gone into the laundry room to look for something and while I was in there, I noticed the brake box. After climbing up onto the washing machine, I was able to reach it and when I opened it up, the problem became obvious. The switch for the heat was turned to off instead of on. Flipped that over and now I has heat! Yayz! :D

It is a rather noisy heater, though. That's not as cool. But I'll take it if it means I don't freeze to death.

Hmm... besides that, I did the dishes and watched some television shows I'd taped while I was at work. Read some TT!RP and then worked on the Fanfiction certificates. They're all done now! Finally! I'm going to start sending them to people now. If I know you, you'll likely get them from AIM or I'll contact you for a preferred sending method. Everyone else I plan to look up email addresses for, and those whom I can't find I'll try to contact. If I still have no luck, I'll leave a message up at SS or FF.net telling them to PM me or something if they'd like their awards.

So yes! Victory! Huzzah!

Little Voice in Pi's Head: You know... in the hours you took doing that, you likely could've finished setting up everything in your house.

.... (ignores voice)

Gah. Probably should've gone to bed sooner too. Gotta get up early and pick up my check and do some grocery shopping. It's so weird- I feel like all I'm doing anymore is sleeping and working. The days are going by so much quicker now. My stepdad used to talk about this all the time and now I kinda understand what he means.

(sigh) I wish I didn't have to work so much. It'd be nice to have a part-time job, but I realized I'd have to make like nine dollars an hour to match my current pay rate that way. And besides not really hiring, I don't think anyone offers that much to someone like me. I've heard about a part-time position at the Library (for less than what I make now), and one at a Daycare (that matches my pay but with much fewer hours). Be nice to consider them, but I don't think I could pay all of the bills on that. I mean, besides what I put in the bank, I went broke on Monday. It's a good thing the next two days I had off otherwise I wouldn't have even been able to feed myself at work.

I'll keep looking, but I don't think I'll find anyone who can match or beat my pay as it is now. And as that's a necessity to just keeping me alive, it's kind of an important detail in a new search.

Well, things kinda got hectic. I'm currently at my grandmother's place again. My stepdad had a lot of work today, so he had to drop me off. Grandma took me to my drug test, and we're going to meet him tomorrow, at which point he'll take me to my doctor appointment.

Rargh. Craziness. XD

For starters with the drug test... well, it could've gone better, I think. I uh... >.> Wasn't aware I needed to go to the bathroom until it came time to provide the sample. >.< So embarrassing! Glad it's done with.

And while I have never taken drugs, I still worry about it. Like- will prescriptions I had a few weeks ago show up? What about certain foods? Could any of that prevent me from getting hired? Ack- I'm just so worried! I have to get this job. I'll never get out on my own without it.

I'm still waiting for my grandma to come in here and start up with the 'rules' for my staying with them. Has to be discussed at some point, so I'm surprised we haven't already. :/

Anyways, later we actually went back to that Wal*Mart to get a few things. And while I was there... well, I decided what the hell. I treated myself. Or rather, my laptop. XD I bought a cooling pad for it, as well as some compressed air. Also got a USB cord for my printer. (pets technology) I spoil it. Ya know- in hopes it'll behave.

All righty then. I think I actually need to go fill out those forms for my doctor visit tomorrow. Bit important. Maybe when I get home tomorrow I'll work some more on the Fanfic Certificates. R.R. Ten'ou at Stealthy Stories got the design to me, and I have four categories done. Those I IM on a regular basis will get theirs via AIM. If I know you on LJ, you'll probably get a heads up from me when yours is done. If I can find your email, I'll email them to you. If not, I can PM you on some forum or another. I should be able to find everyone, I think. ...I hope. O.o

After months of hard work and numerous obstacles, I can finally say that the 2007 Fanfiction Competition is done! :D

It was tons of hard work yesterday figuring out who won what. And then we had to wait for the last staff member to come to the same conclusion today. But we all agreed in the end and were able to post the results, nice and speedy like!

And now I can talk about them. ^_^ 

I think I was more excited about some of my friends' wins than I was mine. Maybe because I feel like I didn't really deserve all of them. With way, it was great to see them so happy!

And now for mine, in case you're interested. Like I said- I don't think I deserve all of them. This list is in order of those awards which I find the most prestigious.

Best Round Robin- Shadows of the End (Two-way tie- First Place)
Best Round Robin- Movie Based Round Robin (Third Place)
Best Poetry- Death of a Candle (Two-way tie- Third Place)
Best Chibi- Moonlight and Sonshine (Second Place)
Best Sad Ending- The Doorknob (Second Place)
Best Death Scene- Eight Seconds (First Place)
Best Romance- What Never Happened (Two-way tie- Second Place)
Best Horror- Cork (Three-way tie- Second Place)
Best Action/Adventure- Infection (Two-way tie- Second Place)
Best Villain- Infection (Two-way tie- Third Place)
Best Original Character- Agent Aaron Scott from Cork (Third Place)
Best Leonardo Scene- The Doorknob (Second Place)
Best Ongoing Story- Edge of Calamity (Second Place)
Best New Story- Cork (Two-way tie- Third Place)
Best Story Overall- Cork (Three-way tie- Second Place)
Best Author Overall- (Second Place)

All in all, that's two First Places, nine Seconds, and five thirds. I have more awards this year, though last year I ranked higher. I don't mind really, though- I was up against some really good stories this year. I'm happy to lose to them. 

I wish my family would be a little more proud of me, though. My sister makes a drawing and she gets all the praise the world has to offer. I do something like this, a feat that I find shocking considering my age and who I was up against, and no one in my family seems to be happy about it but me. 

It's like this every year. I'm excited, and would hope that someone might share my enthusiasm, if only in the slightest. And all I get is a 'that's good'. Hell, mom didn't even look at me when I said it. 

Well, I better go to bed now. I have to wake up in three hours. XD

Neko, if you're reading this, I wanted to congrat you on all of your wins. ^_^

And away I go!

My aching head! Dear God, make the pain stop! (looks for hand drill)

Okay, so I won't go to THAT extreme. But I am seriously considering introducing my head to something blunt if only it's knock me out for a bit. Of course that would only make the problem worse, but what do I care? LOL

Oh, and in case you're wondering- no I haven't taken any pills. I actually can't- I happen to be allergic to Tylenol, so that just would make my problems worse. We happen to be fresh out of Ibuprofen.

Anyways, I was up a good chunk of the night. Let's see... how many last minute voters? (takes count) About fourteen. Whoot! Thanks to everyone who voted, by the way!

I was up for four straight hours logging votes. Then quite a bit longer sorting them, etc. And now we have some problems due to confusion over when the voting period actually closes- so there's more for my headache. Though it looksl ike we're finally getting around to a final decision.

In lighter news, silent_myriad made me an icon! It's really great! Now I have to decide which one of my userpics to get rid of- any suggestions? 

Oh, and stay tuned! I plan to continue that Movie Quote game, with a few hints to the movies no one's guessed yet.

All right. So it's about two in the morning my time. Nothing strange- for months now, I've been staying up as late as  four or five; every once in a while just skipping the whole sleep thing and just take a nap instead. I've given up on having a normal sleep/wake schedule. For that matter, a healthy eating schedule too- I pretty much just snack now.

Anyways, it's early in the morning and I'm freaking bored. I should use this time to write, I know, but my muse has left me again. I'm in a bit of a funk- I kinda had to go back on my meds and now I'm messed up. I honestly think all they do is put me in a pissy and/or crummy mood. I can't sit down and write when I'm like this, and sadly the moment I come out of it, I'm thrown back in again. Which sucks because I so want to write again. I think that I've improved and now that I'm a decent enough writer, I want to be steady like I used to.

And of course I can't be. (sigh)

Still bored. Typically, I'd be spending this time RP'ing with my friend Sandy at Stealthy Stories. Our RPG is nothing compared to this oresome one I read, but I have a lot of fun doing it. So much fun, it's what you'd usually find me doing at this hour. My RP partner happens to live in Finland- eight hours into my future. Even so, we're on at practically the same times all the time in two different slots. The other day, I RP'ed for eight hours straight, took a nap, and then came back for another four.

I'll admit, that day was unusually long. Usually we only do four hours in each slot. Even so, her dad's getting mad at her for all the time she's spending online, so she can't really come on at this time anymore. To which I weep. Because now I have like nothing to do.

Well, nothing but look at the final results for the Fanfiction Competition. Have I mentioned what a headache it's been giving me? Everyone has their own rights to choose what fics they like, I know- it's one of the things I love about the comp. Only thing is, it frustrates me when I see a totally awesome fic losing to something craptastic. I keep on waiting for more good ballots to come in, but time is running out.

Hey! Any of you reading this who hasn't voted yet, what are you waiting for? :D You only have until Sunday, you know!

Oh alas... what else to talk about. I don't know. I wish I could come up with something interesting.

Well, I'm off to further destroy me health. I want a Zinger, dammit, and I don't care what time it is!