And now for something completely different.

Still writing! As of 1pm, I was at 37354 words, with a goal tonight 40k.

However, I plucked this meme from Antick Musings, just for fun since I'm the only one at work today and singing really loud while I putter through testing.

TO THE MEME, THEN!

All the animated movies in the world, sort of

- X what you saw
- O what you haven't finished/seen or saw sizable portions
- Bold what you loved
- Italicize what you disliked/hated
- Leave unchanged if neutral

CLASSIC DISNEY
-------------------------------
[X] 101 Dalmatians (1961)
[X] Alice in Wonderland (1951)
[X] Bambi (1942)
[X] Cinderella (1950)
[X] Dumbo (1941): I watched this over and over and over when I was a sprogling. I still remember snippets of dialog.
[X] Fantasia (1940)
[X] Lady and the Tramp (1955)
[X] Mary Poppins (1964): My adoration for Julie Andrews knows no bounds.
[X] Peter Pan (1953)
[X] Pinocchio (1940)
[X] Sleeping Beauty (1959)
[] Song of the South (1946): Never seen. o_O

DISNEY'S DARK AGE
-------------------------------
[X] The Aristocats (1970) : Because a cat's the only cat who knows where it's at.
[X] The Black Cauldron (1985): I only remember parts of this, though, but I'm pretty sure I got my hands on it since I devoured the books and went on an investigation into the sordid history of the film.
[X] The Fox and the Hound (1981): I don't remember WHY I don't like it, but I don't.
[X] The Great Mouse Detective (1986): This was one of me and my sister's favorites.
[X] The Jungle Book (1967)
[X] The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
[X] Oliver and Company (1986): I used to have a Christmas ornament that played one of the songs when you squeezed it.
[X] Pete's Dragon (1977): I've seen this, but I don't remember liking it very much at the time.
[X] The Rescuers (1977)
[X] Robin Hood (1973) : This one still pleases me to watch.
[X] The Sword In The Stone (1963): This is another one where I have whole long sections of dialog stored somewhere in my head that will pop out occasionally, complete with sound effects. I have no idea where they come from.

THE DISNEY RENAISSANCE
-------------------------------
[X] Aladdin (1992)
[X] Beauty and the Beast (1991): I honestly think the Beast is not very handsome in his human form. I have no idea what the animators were thinking.
[X] A Goofy Movie (1995): This one's just charming. A lot of good character interaction forming the basis of the emotional plot. The actual events of the movie were just, erm, vehicle.
[X] Hercules (1997)
[X] The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
[X] The Lion King (1994)
[X] The Little Mermaid (1989)
[X] Mulan (1998)
[X] Pocahontas (1995)
[X] The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
[X] Tarzan (1999)

Note: These were all when was the correct demographic for all of the 80s-90s movies, so that's pretty much why I've seen everything.


DISNEY'S MODERN AGE
-------------------------------
[] Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001): I'm not actually sure I haven't seen this one. Hrm.
[X] Bolt (2008)
[] Brother Bear (2003)
[] Chicken Little (2005)
[] Dinosaur (2000)
[X] The Emperor's New Groove (2000): The emperor's lost his grooooooooove.
[X] Fantasia 2000 (2000): Stunning, but not as memorable as the original Fantasia.
[] Home on the Range (2004)
[X] Lilo & Stitch (2002)
[X] Meet the Robinsons (2007): Big head! Tiny arms!
[ ] Treasure Planet (2002): I really want to see this.

Note: I missed a lot of these, probably because I was end-of-high-school-beginning-of-college.


PIXAR
-------------------------------
[X] A Bug's Life (1998):
[X] Cars (2006):
[X] Finding Nemo (2003):
[X] The Incredibles (2004)
[X] Monsters Inc. (2001): The fur looks SO SOFT and I love it. This movie cemented my adoration of 3d animation by Pixar.
[X] Ratatouille (2007)
[X] Toy Story (1995)
[X] Toy Story 2 (1999)
[X] Toy Story 3 (2010)
[X] Wall-E (2008)
[X] Up (2009)


DON BLUTH
-------------------------------
[X] All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989): Another movie full of soundbites I can recall at will. I named my car after the main character, Charlie. I've watched it... a lot.
[X] An American Tail (1986): So sad and sweet and lovely. It's definitely better to watch when you know what's going on within the historical setting, though, because then there is a whole 'nother layer to everything.
[X] An American Tail: Fieval Goes West (1991): Inferior to the original, I still find parts of this movie to be little moments of brilliance. Overall, though, it went straight to 'goofy', leaving out most of the graceful, timeless elements of the first one.
[X] Anastasia (1997): All of the female lead music is in my vocal range, so I've got most of it memorized.
[X] The Land Before Time (1988): I watched this ten zillion times. At the end it says, "They grew up and lived happily ever after." I'm not sure why they made equals when WE KNOW they grew up and lived happily ever after. Oh wait, I do know why. Money. >_>; None of the sequels count.
[X] The Pebble and the Penguin (1995): Don't remember much, but I know I watched it.
[X] Rock-a-Doodle (1991): It's ELVIS and rock and roll and so silly. Don't judge me. *grins*
[X] The Secret of NIMH (1982): This movie is amazing and hands-down one of the best animated movies ever.
[X] Thumbelina (1994): "Romeo and Juliet were very much in love when they were wed. Were are they now? They're DEAD!"
[X] Titan AE (2000): The dialog hurts. The plot is stereotypical. But this movie is so utterly gorgeous. The main character for this one is the same model as the male romantic lead from Anastasia, or close to it.
[X] A Troll in Central Park (1994): I watched, but I barely remember it.

Note: I. Love. Don. Bluth. The animation style of all of his movies is so distinctive that it's an intrinsic part of my childhood and has influenced both my art and animation (if I animated) styles.


CLAYMATION
-------------------------------
[ ] The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986)
[X] Chicken Run (2000): First movie I saw out of this studio. Amazing.
[X] Corpse Bride (2005): It was okay, but nothing special.
[X] James and the Giant Peach (1996): I adored the book, so I had to watch the movie. He didn't screw it up. :)
[X] The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993): Why is it 'hail to the pumpkin song'? That makes no sense. It SHOULD be 'hail to the pumpkin throne' because that rhymes (same 'o') and ALSO makes sense. Gah. It drives me absolutely bonkers every time I see it.
[X] Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
[X] Coraline (2009): I pretty much love Gaiman anything, and this was a satisfactory interpretation, preserving the Creepyness of the book.


CGI GLUT
-------------------------------
[ ] Antz (1998)
[] Bee Movie (2007)
[X] Happy Feet (2006)
[X] Ice Age (2002)
[] Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)
[] Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)
[X] Kung Fu Panda (2008)
[X] Madagascar (2005)
[] Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)
[X] Monster House (2006): I really liked this one.
[X] Over the Hedge (2006)
[X] The Polar Express (2004) I think I saw this one, but I might have thought it was creepy and blocked the memory.
[X] Robots (2005)
[ ] A Shark's Tale (2004)
[X] Shrek (2001)
[X] Shrek 2 (2004)
[X] Shrek The Third (2007)
[ ] Shrek Forever After (2010): There was a fourth?
[O] Monsters vs. Aliens (2009): I've seen big chunks, but never the whole thing.


IMPORTS
-------------------------------
[X] Arabian Knight (aka The Thief and the Cobbler) (1995): This is a wonderful, wonderful movie. It's got a unique art style and utilizes optical illusions as part of the fabric of the world. Excellent and I recommend it all over. I watched adverts for this forever, since it had some production issue (?) and was delayed for years and years.
[X] The Last Unicorn (1982): Classic. Essential.
[ ] Light Years (1988)
[X] The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
[ ] Persepolis (2007)
[ ] Waltz With Bashir (2008)
[ ] Watership Down (1978)
[ ] When the Wind Blows (1988)
[ ] Wonderful Days (2003)
[ ] Yellow Submarine (1968)


STUDIO GHIBLI/MIYAZAKI
-------------------------------
[X] The Cat Returns (2002)
[ ] Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
[X] Howl's Moving Castle (2004): One of my all-time favorite movies ever. I can watch this, finish the credits, then watch it again.
[X] Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
[X] Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
[ ] Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
[ ] My Neighbors The Yamadas (1999)
[O] My Neighbor Totoro (1993)
[X] Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
[ ] Only Yesterday (1991)
[ ] Pom Poko (Tanuki War) (1994)
[X] Porco Rosso (1992)
[X] Princess Mononoke (1999) I didn't like this when I saw it the first time. It was 'too weird'. Also since it was the first Miyazaki i'd ever seen. It has since grown on me.
[X] Spirited Away (2002): I can also watch this one over and over. It never gets old.
[ ] Whisper of the Heart (1995)
[ ] Ponyo (2009): Soon. Soon.


SATOSHI KON
-------------------------------
[X] Millennium Actress (2001): This was so amazing. I want to tell everyone to watch it, but no-one has ever heard of it.
[X] Paprika (2006): I absolutely adore this to little bit.
[X] Perfect Blue (1999): This one hurt my head. Very dark.
[ ] Tokyo Godfathers (2003)


SHINKAI MAKOTO
-------------------------------
[ ] She and Her Cat (1999)
[ ] Voices of a Distant Star (2001)
[ ] The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)
[ ] 5 Centimeters per Second (2007)


OTHER ANIME FILMS
-------------------------------
[X] Akira (1989): I saw this when I was really young. So when I watched it during high school when I could actually remember images, I was really weirded out by the constant sense of deja vu.
[ ] Angel's Egg (1985)
[X] Appleseed (2004): The movie takes a couple of watches to make any sense, but I'm in love with Briareus, the cyborg.
[ ] Appleseed: Ex Machina (2007)
[ ] Arcadia of My Youth (U.S. Title - Vengeance of the Space Pirate) (1982)
[X] Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2003)
[ ] The Dagger of Kamui (U.S. Title - Revenge of the Ninja Warrior) (1985)
[ ] Dirty Pair: Project Eden (1987)
[X] End of Evangelion (1997)
[X] Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone (2007)
[X] Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance (2009): Rainbows make EVERYthing better.
[] Fist of the North Star (1986)
[ ] Galaxy Express 999 (1979)
[X] Ghost in the Shell (1996): Didn't like it when I watched it. At all. I still think it's got a better concept than execution, but I should probably watch it again.
[X] Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004)
[ ] The Girl Who Lept Through Time (2006)
[ ] Lensman (1984)
[X] Macross: Do You Remember Love (U.S. Title - Clash of the Bionoids) (1984): I think I watched this with Josh? I know I watched Macross Plus, which is not on here but has the most gorgeous music.
[ ] Memories (1995)
[X] Metropolis (2001): Pretty sure I've seen this once.
[ ] Neo-Tokyo (1986)
[ ] Night on the Galactic Railroad (1985)
[ ] Ninja Scroll (1993)
[ ] Patlabor the Movie (1989)
[ ] The Professional: Golgo 13 (1983)
[ ] Project A-ko (1986)
[ ] Robot Carnival (1987)
[ ] Robotech: The Shadow Chronicle (2006)
[ ] Silent Möbius (1991)
[O] The Sky Crawlers (2008): I own this, but haven't had a chance to watch it.
[ ] Space Adventure Cobra (1982)
[X] Steamboy (2004): The quintessential Steampunk movie. Um, ever. It also has a gorgeous representation of Victorian era architecture.
[ ] Sword of the Stranger (2007)
[X] Unico and the Island of Magic (1983)Weird. As. Hell. One of my favorite. I also have the first Unico movie, which is even weirder, where the bad guy gets /impaled/ on a steeple at the end of the movie.
[ ] Urotsukidoji: The Movie (1987)
[ ] Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer (1984)
[ ] Urusei Yatsura: Only You (1982)
[ ] Vampire Hunter D (1985)
[ ] Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust (2000)
[ ] Wings of Honneamise: Royal Space Force (1987)


CARTOONS FOR GROWN-UPS
-------------------------------
[ ] American Pop (1981)
[X] The Animatrix (2003)
[ ] Beavis & Butthead Do America (1996).
[ ] Cool World (1992)
[X] Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
[X] Final Fantasy: Advent Children (2005)
[ ] Fire & Ice (1983)
[] Fritz the Cat (1972)
[ ] Halo Legends (2009)
[] Heavy Metal (1981)
[ ] Heavy Metal 2000 (2000)
[ ] Hey Good Lookin' (1982)
[ ] Lady Death (2004)
[X] A Scanner Darkly (2006): This counts as animation? o_O Huh.
[ ] Sita Sings the Blues
[ ] South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
[ ] Street Fight (Coonskin) (1975)
[X] Waking Life (2001)


OTHER ANIMATED MOVIES
-------------------------------
[ ] The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
[ ] Animal Farm (1954)
[X] Animalympics (1980): I wish this was on DVD, but the rights are in limbo and the only copies are crap.
[ ] Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon The Movie (2007)
[ ] Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000)
[ ] Batman: Gotham Knight (2008)
[ ] Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010)
[X] The Brave Little Toaster (1988): Besides Dumbo, this was the other movie I watched until I could recite it. I can still do huge chunks of this movie for anyone who will sit still long enough to listen.
[ ] Bravestarr: The Movie (1988)
[X] Cats Don't Dance (1997): One of my sister's favorite.
[X] Care Bears: The Movie (1985)
[X] Charlotte's Web (1973)
[X] Fern Gully (1992)
[ ] G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987)
[ ] Gobots: Battle of the Rock Lords (1986)
[ ] Green Lantern: First Flight (2009)
[ ] He-Man & She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword (1985)
[X] The Hobbit (1977): The music. THE MUSIC. It is magnificent.
[X] The Iron Giant (1999): One of Josh's favorite.
[ ] Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010)
[ ] Justice League: The New Frontier (2008)
[X] Lord of the Rings (1978)
[X] Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1992)
[X] My Little Pony: The Movie (1986): Hush, this was amazing. Another sound-bite repository in my skull is filled with this movie.
[ ] Pink Floyd's The Wall (1982)
[X] The Prince of Egypt (1998)
[ ] Powerpuff Girls: The Movie (2002)
[ ] Quest For Camelot (1999)
[ ] Ringing Bell (1978)
[X] The Road to El Dorado (2000): The main characters are so smarmy.
[ ] Shinbone Alley (1971)
[X] Space Jam (1996)
[ ] Starchaser: The Legend of Orin (1985)
[ ] Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009)
[ ] Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010)
[ ] Superman: Doomsday (2007)
[ ] The Swan Princess (1994)
[X] Transformers: The Movie (1986) They say 'damn' AND 'hell' and still get their G rating.
[ ] Wizards (1977)
[X] Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988): Still a favorite. Everytime I watch I pick up more little details.
[ ] Wonder Woman (2009)
[X] Balto (1995)
[ ] Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002): I love horses, I should have seen this. Not yet, though.

There are several not on here that I recall, but one which I don't remember. It might be Wizards? About a guy who is playing a board game and flies on dragons who produce their own lift by chewing stone and land by breathing fire? Still haven't figured out what that one is.

Also missing is Felix the Cat: The Movie, Magical Princess Gigi, and Clémentine (which is French and the main character is in a wheelchair). To be fair, though, the latter two are - I believe - compilation 'movies' of popular tv shows. They are, of course, fantastic.

Polish and Writing

Yesterday, Gen informed me that I hadn't sent her any of my polished short stories.

Well, the conversation was mostly that Gen was sad that I didn't finish things. I informed her that it was patently untrue and bombarded her with old work I've just had sitting in my folders waiting for someone to read it.

No, nothing novel length polished. The only thing even remotely novel length that I've written is Princesses. I finished Princesses, but it's draft zero, needs a complete rewrite of the beginning, and I still have to write some song/poems for it and remove some of the detritus from the ending.

So I says to myself, I says, "You need to polish a full-length book and soon." Alright then, self, I will take your advice.

After Nano is over I would like volunteers to read my Draft Zero of Red Riding. It'll be rough, but entertaining. :) Any takers?

Additionally, you can peek at my writing sketchbook over at Dreamweb on Tumblr or I can send you larger pieces that I have hiding out online elsewhere.

The Empress has Lost her Groooooooove.

I skipped writing on Sunday and only managed about 800 words a day on Monday and Tuesday. Luckily, I was a couple days ahead. Now... I'm basically right on track, but I've completely lost my groove.

Now, I'm going to keep writing because I'm not blocked. I have at least 20k words planned out and coalescing ideas about the end of the book. I know the shape and I know how to make it go even when I have only the cool parts planned out. I am not feeling it, though, and I'm thinking I'll have to do something else to improve the outlook because whatever I'm doing now is not working at all.

So, I'm off to find a source other than wikipedia and see if a little research will cheer me up. Josh flies in tonight which should improve my mood tenfold, but it remains to be seen if I'll get any writing time this weekend at all. *grins*

On Blog Comments

I stumbled across something that affected me today while puttering through blogs.

"I translated it into Arabic, please let me know if you would like a copy." - Tima888 commenting on the post I am your Mother on Axis of Fat.

This rings a bell in the very deep part of me that likes to share knowledge, to feel the click of understanding between two participants in a conversation, and cherish the idea that anyone can boost the signal, even me with my cobbled-together homebrew operation. This is why I love the internet.

On a completely different note, I love westerns. There's something comforting-fuzzy about them in all their sepia-toned glory. There was one on during lunch at the cafe I write at and I have no idea what it was, just that there was a horse race and a woman who wore a french hat (a casquette!) and there was an awful lot of awkward romance. I kept trailing off writing and staring at the screen with a fond smile on my face. I'm pretty sure the horse was named Durango, they repeated it about a zillion times.

Nano report day 3 and 4.

My novel - which I have named Red Riding - is going pretty well. I learned that I can crank about about a thousand words during lunchtime. This is an improvement from last year, where my lunchtime wordcount was about 600-800. I don't know where the extra 200 words an hour are coming from, but hey. Gift horse.

I'm still slightly ahead of the curve for when I start to fall behind because I'm, oh, GMing a game of Dnd or mooching gourmet food off of the guy who runs Exalted for us. Or, yanno, family holidays or the week that I'm /hoping/ Josh will get off work before they start whipping him to put more fur on digital puppets.

Either way! Writing.

In my story last night, my main character (MC) Red (Yes, I know she has a stereotypical name, but it's kind of required because of the natureof the fairytale/horror/epic poem storyline) was talking on the phone while riding in a taxi. Since my taxi driver could obviously hear her, he stopped her on the way out and basically told her she should claim her city as territory like her parents did to protect it from supernatural beasties. The only problem with this is, of course, that he used some really reactionary, extremist language to do so. So now Red is posed with a philosophical conundrum. She nominally agrees with him that someone should do something about the influx of dangerous netherworld creatures, though she's not convinced it should be her, but she is greatly disgusted at the blanket bigotry being applied to Physical In-The-World People-Eating Monsters.

Red got real uncomfy real fast, especially since her plan - even though she doesn't want to admit it - is to hunt down the people/creatures who attacked her friend and deal with them in what probably won't be a 'throw 'em in jail and let the authorities sort it out' kind of confrontation. She doesn't want this random guy's extremist argument tarring her actions, because she already knows she's stepping into a moral gray area by falling back to vigilantism however justified by the world built around her.

Anyways, this bit just came out of nowhere last night. Don't know if it will stick in the final version, but for Nano it's turning into an interesting part of the 'following in her parents footsteps' subplot.

Day 1 (and 2) report.

Happy November!

I have begun Nanowrimo in earnest and have, much to my surprise, completed the first chapter of my scrawny little book as of *checks watch* about 1 pm today.

I'm not sure how I feel about how things are going so far. I'm writing in a new style, some of which is choice and some of which is just so utterly 'I have no idea what's going on' that I can barely stand it. I think it has something to do with the perspective I'm using. Since it's first-person and my main character is very no-nonsense, the prose is very no-nonsense.

I just hope it's not also very boring.

It seems to be the order of the day to not have wireless internet at any of the places I've been choosing to write, so I've been trying to scatter multiple copies of my baby book across several computers and have been attempting to use DropBox and Gmail to save bits and pieces, just in case. Never can be too careful.

First chapter events: Red shot a monster, called an ambulance, and chatted briefly with a psychopomp.

Current word count (CWC): 3800 or thereabouts.