Yzabel / June 9, 2012

Revival?

It’s been a while, really.

Due to various circumstances, including several writing & drawing projects as well as my studies and a couple of competiting exams, I’ve sorely neglected this blog, and I regret it; I’ve always kept fond memories of it, and I wouldn’t like it to remain dead.

I should’ve worked on it, and upgraded it, much sooner. I got delayed (and discouraged) for a long time because of heavy problems with the database, and didn’t dare to tackle those, in fear of losing my posts and comments here. So I slowly worked on the blog now and then, saving it page by page, and finally took the plunge tonight. Fortunately, I didn’t seem to lose anything in the process, not as far as the English version is concerned. Unfortunately, my webhost doesn’t support the latest WordPress version (yet), and I have no idea where the French version of the Y Logs has gone. It probably got lost somewhere in King Oblivion’s dark domains a long time ago, because I couldn’t find it even before upgrading. I guess it’s going to remain there. I certainly don’t feel up to translating all the existing posts again (some of which are pretty much outdated and not worth it anyway). For the time being, the Y Logs will be in English only.

Right now, I don’t have much time either to properly post every day again—there’s another exam coming up in less than 10 days—but I’ve got a few plans for the blog, that I hope to work on during the summer. I’d like to use it to post book reviews, among other things. We’ll see.In any case, I’ll do my best to be active here again.

Yzabel / October 31, 2006

A New Playlist Is (Finally) Here!

It took me one year to come up at last with a new lil’ playlist for the radio.blog here… And given the time of the year, what could be more suitable than one that I will use to keep me pumped up for NaNoWriMo! Of course, once again, this is only but a glimpse of what I’ll be listening to in November.

My genre this year is Fantasy, without dragons and all the fluff. It’ll be more focused on the characters, as well as on the magic in that particular world, its rules, and what being a mage really entails. So, don’t be surprised if there isn’t much… epic in that playlist.Read More

Yzabel / September 19, 2006

With September Almost Gone…

I’ve been a bad girl, I admit. I haven’t written much in the past few weeks, due to practicing English through exercises, diving back into some needed artwork, and trying to prepare for college as best as I could. Now is the week I’m finally settling down in my broom cupboard in S, and there are still so many things to worry about that, even though I had sworn to myself that I’d go on working on WoS in the next days, I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to churn down. But I’m getting there. Oh, yes, I’m getting there.

College is a mess, as expected. Of course, getting listed for my classes was to clash with my work schedule. Of course, half the people I talk to send me to other people, who in turn send me to offices that are open only on mornings (or on afternoons; or on some days of the week only). Of course, I need my student card for too many things right now, when I only receive it on Thursday. It’s all good, though. As said, it was expected, and the brain manages to retain its zen attitude for the moment.

On the good side of things, people at work were oddly understanding. As long as I do my job, they don’t care if I work my hours in the mornings, in the evenings, or on Saturdays at 4 am. That’s all good with me. I just wish I had my own laptop back, since the one I’m on now is too old to run all my software properly. Ah, and I also have an internet connection. Which means no sneaky updates from cyber-cafés here and there.

I definitely want to post here more again, if only to share the latest news (I’m doing NaNoWriMo again this year; I want to test how much not having a life and being busy 24/7 will make me more productive). Maybe I’ll even have nice bits learned during classes to share, who knows.

For the moment, I’m about to head to the office for the afternoon, so I need to put an end to this post. More to come soon. I hope!

Yzabel / July 13, 2006

The Great Disk Failure of July 2006

Time for another update, but not a happy one, I’m afraid.

One day, I’ll learn. Oh, yes, I swear it: one day, I’ll learn to make backups more regularly when it comes to my “unachieved” data, instead of stupidly dwelling in that odd pefectionism of mine that causes me to burn a CD/DVD only when I can fill it “for good”. Too bad if I end up with trash CDs, or CDs made unreadable by too much rewriting: from now on, I really need to change a couple things regarding all of this.

One of my hard disks died two weeks ago. The big one, of course, where I stored all my unachieved designs, drawings and writings, and where I used to park the footage for my videos, during those periods I was into video editing. It had warned me, poor thing, through very disturbing noises, but what I didn’t know was that it’d die in my arms on the very moment I’d start performing the needed backup, after the mandatory realization of “uh-oh, this time it seems really sick”. Aye, Murphy rules this world. Nevertheless, for once, I’d have liked a little less chaos in what is called my existence.

To tell about my disgust is the least I can do. I don’t care much for the video footage, since I can extract it again, but the unachieved and now lost artworks are daggers repeatedly thrusted in my ego. Yes, yes, I had backups. Alright. Dating back to several weeks or even several months ago. What pains me in particular is the loss of the edited version of my NaNovel (given how I loved editing it, I won’t do THIS again soon * sighs *), the latest version of the Wall of Silence (the few changes in it, I can rewrite and am doing so, though), and the previous attempts for the latter story. No matter how many times I try to persuade myself that it’s a fresh start, without these leashes hindering my Inner Editor, this is still a blow dealt directly to my heart.

Not everything is lost: we’re trying to resurrect the HDD, for long enough, at least, to perform a hard copy… However, I prefer not nurture too many illusions here–the fall would only be harder.

Ah, yes. One day, I’ll learn…

Yzabel / June 8, 2006

The Much Needed Update!

I cannot believe that it took me so long to post here again! Somehow, my mind had managed to convince itself that it had been only a couple weeks. It’s just like me to think “I’ll post an update later on today, when I have more time to think it through”, and to… just forget. Rotten memory of mine, as I was telling a friend not so long ago.

Therefore, I’m not coming up with some witful post about writing today, but with this simple update that got delayed for faaaaar too long. I sincerely apologize to those of you who worried. There was nothing to worry about, but of course, no news-good news isn’t that accurate when it comes to the world of Internet, where it’s so easy to lose track of someone and never see this person again. I should know of this by now. Someday, I swear I’ll learn!What’s up, one might ask?Read More

Yzabel / February 20, 2006

Not Dead

No, I’m not dead, I just haven’t been in the mood for blogging much these days. Coupled with being away the past week-end, fighting with scenes from my novel that wouldn’t go my way (see the “NaNo” blog for this), and falling sick (as usual every two months or so), life’s been full. Alright, to be realy honest, I need to blame Stepmania as well, though in a good way; I definitely needed to get back in shape, and doing mindless cardio on stationary bikes really isn’t my thing at all. I was looking at fun alternatives, and I remembered having tried DDR once… The fate of this author was sealed, and a dance mat went on its way to reach me.

Things are going well with the writing so far, in any case. In spite of my battle with scenes that will go to the unused basket, replaced as they are by more appropriate ones, the ball goes on rolling. Five chapters under my belt, it’s not that bad, and for a change, they’re planned ones, not written on the spur of the moment.

I’ll love this story as much as I’ve loved creating the universe it’s set in, which is an excellent thing.

Yzabel / February 3, 2006

Because I Felt Like It

I don’t especially feel like writing tonight–or, rather, the writing I’ll be doing will be for my upcoming WIP, not for a blog–but I still feel like sharing something amusing. So here in all his glory, I introduce Vulcain, in one of his favorite positions:Read More

Yzabel / January 1, 2006

Happy New Year 2006 (Very Original Title)

Into 2006 we now are. It’s odd. Poof, in a snap of fingers, it was 00:01, and another year. Where has 2005 gone?

Time is a weird, weird concept.

I’m not taking any resolutions for the year. Resolutions begin to sound like saying “I’ll go to the gym every day”, only to give up comes February because I want to make it too much, too fast, too perfect. I don’t see why I should bother with resolutions–I’ll do what I have to do, but on my terms, not because January 1st is some kind of magical number that will make everything easier. I don’t need a new year to start exercising more, or write more (already doing it, anyway). Let’s see, if I hadn’t taken my “resolution” in summer, I’d have started working on my writing now, instead of six months earlier!

Alright, this is said in joke. However, I still haven’t listed any. They just don’t feel right. They sound like some compulsory task, like an automatism everybody has to go through because it’s a new year. Resolutions can be taken and started any day, and I’ll decide on mine when the right time comes.

In the meantime, I hope that 2006 wil be a good year for everyone!

Yzabel / December 28, 2005

What About The Writing During The Holidays?

I’m not proud to announce that I haven’t done as much as I could have, in the past week, when it comes to writing. On the other hand, I suppose that the whole Christmas holidays thing isn’t “the right time to write” for many people, and that I’m no exception.I’m slowly reaching my 75k goal–I should be there tonight or tomorrow at the worst, but the beast isn’t finished yet. It seems I’m really crap at estimating the length of my works. Now I hope that by 80k I can call it a quit, since I know myself well enough now, and if left to my own devices, I’ll add ten more plot twists to the whole thing, just because I have too many ideas spring to mind, once I’m within my rut.It’s weird, but the period between Christmas and New Year is always a period of “depression” for me. Not in the clinical sense of the word, I’m not sick. Just feeling tired and not motivated about anything, including writing/drawing. I bet this is the downside of the pre-Christmas hype, gifts run, housework, and then spending every day at a different member’s of the family. It’s stressful in its own ways, and as a result, I don’t have much energy left. To be honest, the most productive things I’ve done in the past two days was to install my programs on my laptop, look for UxTheme and a good free PIM software, skin my Windows XP, and play Sudoku.Ah, but after New Year I have another week of holidays. I hope that I’ll be able to use that time to its full extent, with inspiration and without tiredness. It’d be a shame to waste it!holidays, writing

Yzabel / October 30, 2005

The NaNo Playlist Is Here

Time to change the radio’s contents again. These are a few of the songs and instrumental pieces I’ve gathered to keep me inspired not only during November, but also while preparing the outline, working on the characters, etc.The novel’s genre is sci-fi with a healthy dose of cyberpunk, so let’s not be too surprised at the choice of songs (even though not all of them will suit fast-paced scenes: I have a few quiet moments in it, too).Read More