Rumors of my death have been greatly exagerrated

I went toobing down the Comal on Sunday. Perfect choice. Was originally supposed to go to Six Flags, but it was too dang hot to take in an amusement park. Hottest day of the summer to date so the river was a much better choice. It's actually quite relaxing to sit in a toob and just float down. We had originally planned to toob the G--- river, but it is completely wild and has overflowed its banks due to the torrential flooding in July, so toobing there isn't allowed. Even the Comal was high and overflowing its banks (very weird to see picnic tables *in* the water), but it was calm (with the exception of the take-off chute - which was a blast. Imagine a toob on white water - fun!), thanks to being dammed off on both ends of the toob-able part. It took about two hours for the whole ride down and it was pretty fun. When we got out of the water, it was about 6 pm and the temperature was sitting at 102.

Today I hung out and watched "Mission:Kashmir," which tells the story of a terrorist in Kashmir (they call themselves "freedom fighters", but whatever). I've gotten about two hours through it, and probably have another hour or so to go. So far, it's pretty interesting. The one thing that I've noticed is that the real problems are never articulated in this movie. The terrorist - his name is Alfaat - says he's doing it in the name of religion, but his "girlfriend" Sufi says that she's a Muslim too and what Alfaat does is not what Islam is about. Interestingly enough, this movie came out before September 11 but I could see a lot of the same rhetoric that is being used these days in the media very much in evidence in "Mission:Kashmir."

I also went to the library and picked up a couple more "Star Wars" books - "Vector Prime" which I read a while ago and "Balance Point" by Kathy Tyers which I skipped because I didn't particularly care for her "Truce at Bakura." So much reading to do that on that front. I did want "Dark Journey" by Elaine Cunningham which is the next book after "Star by Star" but it was unavailable. I'm really, really addicted - weird. I was addicted to the books when the Timothy Zahn trilogy came out and it was a can't-put-this-book-down experience. Then I got confused as the books came out in different orders, not to mention, how fast they came out. I'd finish one and about ten new ones would be on the shelf. So anyway, it's weird now to read in reverse order because I already know what some of the major character arcs are - a lot of them came to a head in "Star by Star" but I figured there were things that I missed that I wanted to go back and review.

Someone somewhere mentioned a "fic diary" - sounds like an intriguing concept. Keep a diary as you're working your way through a longish fic. It'd be interesting to see what comes of it. I can already imagine mine saying something like "This sucks. Who's going to read this? I think I'll eat some chocolate instead." I think I'll keep a diary on the Kasidy fic - it's going slow enough for that. I think I'm on page 30 and I'm still not sure how Kasidy got to DS9 and whether it makes sense - but there she is and I'm going to have to figure that out. So, I'll do a diary.

Wednesday is "official get ready for school day." That's the day I pay tuition, buy books and get my parking permit. Hard to believe year two begins on Labor Day. My new schedule is whacked - I only have one class on Mondays and Wednesdays and it starts at 12:45. I have three classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and they start at 2 pm and end at 7. I'd like to point out the complete lack of accounting in this schedule. I did get notebook paper, folders and binders today - so school supplies are out of the way.

Feedback is making me feel all warm and fuzzy, but at the same time, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I've got a few notes yet to respond to and I'm just generally feeling that same weirdness that I felt right after the ASC Awards. I got counseling from the Mod Squad on this but every now and then, I get that same feeling where it's like, "Okay, what now? If this one is a hit, how do I do better next time?" And of course, every time a new story falls flat, it's the reverse - "Oh, they just liked the fact that J/C kissed in that other story and I really suck and everyone's keeping quiet because no one wants to say so" (okay, I've never written a story where J/C kiss - at least I don't think I have). Weird. I think FB motivates people but it freaks the heck right out of me, to be frank. I stare at each note, contemplate how to answer it without sounding like an idiot, and then hope that I can make this same reader happy next time (unless it's a troll - and trolls have come out to play in droves on ASC as of late - in which case, I'm not really sure what to say). Pressure. I know fanfic is just for fun, but sometimes, it's an awful lot of pressure and it sends the angst bunny fleeing in a hurry.

Yahoo! is still acting weird. It's dumping mail by the bucketload into my inbox and it's getting a little daunting to shift through it - especially since I had to shift everyone over from my regular email address to Yahoo since my ISP mail server went down last week and still hasn't come back online. If I owe you an email, email me.

On a "slightly sorrowful because I'm going to miss you but oh so excited for you" note, bon voyage to Liz!