Michelle DiPietro's 2005 WISE Journal

The Twilight Zone...

Fri, 22 Apr 2005 02:00:52 GMT

Today was weird for me. I felt as though I never actually went to school at all; as if my recollection of my school day was from somewhere last week or the day before. Anyway, that didn't keep me from getting stuff done.

I wrote a few hundred words, which made me exceedingly happy. I wrote a small section involving my main character and his return to his supposed home. It's supposed to convey a sort of bittersweet belonging that the character feels toward this place; while he feels it is the only place he truly belongs, he understands that this is not his home and that there is much about his past with which he is not aware.

Aside from that, I went to the Dentist and he said I need four widom teeth pulled. OUCH!

We'll see how that goes.

New prespective- Faulkner

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 02:37:09 GMT

Today I signed up for my presentation date in Mrs. Selvidge's room. It was kind of hard to decide which day to go because I want my Dad to be able to go (he is, after all, my community person), so I knew I was best off doing it on an Interact day when he's already planning to be there. At the same time, I wanted to go after prom and wear my Renaissance prom dress to the presentation. Oh well. Life goes on, and you have to have priorities, eh?

I also finished reading William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying today while I was at work. It's by far one of the best books I've ever read, though I didn't like it in the beginning at all. Now, I kind of have a feel for what it's like to write a book that starts off slow and seemingly disjointed, yet bring it all together in a grand finale for the end. That's kind of how I feel about Kneomir. I mean, I know Faulkner's not a fantasy writer, but he helped me to understand that an almost nonsensical style such as mine can work if its maneuvered properly.

Tomorrow's my mini presentation. Let's hope I can keep it under 3 minutes!

Another day lost

Fri, 15 Apr 2005 01:46:03 GMT

Well, today has officially passed and I've yet to find anything to show for it. I tried to write. Couldn't do it. I tried to tackle another website page. Couldn't do it. I've run out of initiative, despite never having possessed much in the first place. Overall, I'm thoroughly disappointed in myself, because I've begun to take less and less heed of the fact that the year's almost over and I've accomplished far less than I would have hoped. It's easy to say that I should just start making up for lost time, but if I didn't have the time then, I surely won't have it now. It's really not that bad. If anything, I'm extremely grateful for WISE, because otherwise I would probably be doing nothing for Kneomir. In any case, I'm off to go try and tackle my chapter one last time, and then I'm calling it a night.

Team Meeting day

Thu, 14 Apr 2005 02:53:02 GMT

Aside from my team meeting today, there isn't much to say about the realm of WISE. I got a lot of really great advice about my presentation, which was really nice. It was fun to hear other people's input about what I should do. Now, I'm looking into sharing the various elements of fantasy and demonstrating how they're represented in my book.

I'm kind of Medievaled out for the night... I just finished making a compilation of Irish Cantiga songs for a friend of mine, and now I'm pretty exhausted.

In other news, there are now 28 members on the mailing list. Unfortunately, very few of them are actually reading any of the actual book that I send out. Luckily for me though, the ones who are are really into it and giving me positive advice and sharing their opinions (yea!). Today I also hooked up with Veronica Cohen about her potentially providing some illustrations for Kneomir. I'd better get cracking on that sometime soon, because I don't want her to have to rush them. I'm so excited.

Fare thee well.

At the end of a tiring day...

Tue, 12 Apr 2005 02:17:23 GMT

Today I got back to work on my project after a long and grueling break. This weekend I worked a six hour shift on Saturday then babysat until midnight that night, only to wake up and work Sunday for another six hour shift. I don't mean to complain, but I'm still rather exhausted.

Today, I worked again, but after ward, I got to work on my website. I didn't add any new pages, but I enchanced the ones I already had. I also took my prologue to work with me so I could edit it and make it just how I wanted everyone to see it. I'm still debating whether not I'll include a pivotal hint in the prologue sections. On one hand, I don't want to overwhelm people as there's already a lot of inofrmation in the piece. At the same time, it would be nice to make mention of it so that when it re-emerges later it's not so unfamiliar. By the time I figure it out, I'll be very done with this entry.

I'm off to go brainstorm and see if I can (I really want to) send out my email tongight.

Oh, and another fun tidbit... when I logged onto my family's portal, the headline on the news page was, "Kneomir: Michelle's fantasy novel project." I consider my day officially made.

ExHAUSTed

Thu, 07 Apr 2005 02:34:54 GMT

Today, from the time I got home until tonight, when I'm making this entry right now, I have been at my computer working busily to take full advantage of the internet. How do I mean this? Most of you reading this probably already know, but I set up a mailing list for Kneomir. I'm using it to keep some of my closest friends and family members (and mentors) in the loop about Kneomir. I've also been building my site up tremendously, and can proudly say that I'm almost done with it... for now. I plan to keep revising it and making it more and more appealing. As of right now, not many people have stopped to take a discerning look at the site. Through various improvements, over time, I hope to build interest, just like I will with my book. Maybe my hopes are too high, but I really feel like I'm beginning to get my feet off the ground.

::sigh:: I <3 WISE

A good website day

Wed, 06 Apr 2005 01:46:31 GMT

Today I sat in on an interview with a potential student for next year. The interviewee was really enthusiastic and seemed excited about the program. This made me happy, because I hate to see people get involved in something they have no true conception of. Afterward, I got some really nice advice and encouragement from Coach Love, who boosted my confidence, as usual.

When I got home, I was compelled to work on Kneomir, but didn't have the patience to actually write. Instead, I worked on my Kneomir website. I added about four new pages to my site and worked on some that were already there. I devised a naming system for the characters in my book, to give myself a bit of a science for it. Who knows... maybe one day I'll have devised the whole language.

I was really, really proud of myself for having done all this. I'm learning so much about my book and myself as I go along with this project. Tomorrow I'll work on some actusl writing, and hopefully reach the end of a chapter (if I'm lucky).

Good night!

WOWIE!

Tue, 05 Apr 2005 02:13:37 GMT

Okay, I'm really, really excited right now. I just wrote my first combat scene, and it was great! I had so much fun and it came out really well. That put the finishing touched on the chapter. Its a really long chapter, but it only covered two days in the book, or rather, a night and a morning. Wow... I have such a buzz right now... the good kind.

Anyway, aside from this, I didn't do anything for WISE. That's okay, though, because it took me about two hours to write this. I'm so immensely proud of myself. And the cool part is that I don't owe it all that much to R.A. Salvatore or David Eddings, who are the two authors I read to get a little more knowledge about combat writing. That's probably because they write about grandiose battle using ornate weapons and strategic choreography of troops and the such. In my case, I just tumbled, snapped a broom in half and let the guy have it. Resourceful, huh?

Okay, I won't share any more gore, as I'm sure it doesn't interest anyone. In any case, good night!

Bring out the bulldozers...

Fri, 01 Apr 2005 03:17:54 GMT

Tonight, I had basically the same experience that I had last night; a rather good one. I had to go home early because I've been rather tired, so I regretfully used my WISE time catching up on my sleep. I felt a little guilty, but when I tried to write, I felt my head rolling and bobbing around. Oh well. I managed to make up for it later.

I had to go back to the prom expo to take care of my grad nite stuff, like seating, etc. When I got home, I started writing and haven't stopped since. I'm almost done with my chapter, and even have a little bit of the next one started already. I jsut couldn't help that my ideas were getting ahead of themselves. What I am dreading though is the major renovation project that Kenomir has yet to undergo. A while back, when I started the book, I was a lot less fluid in my writing and I was rather bad at establishing the necessary elements of a fantasy novel (i.e. how do they live day-to-day? how do they get along with other kingdoms? what influence does the court have over religion?) and instead I got all hung up on sticking two characters in a heated and extensive argument that accomplished nothing.

Needless to say, I need to work on this aspect, big time.

Back from Spring break.... and what've I got to show for it?

Tue, 29 Mar 2005 04:15:37 GMT

Well, Spring BReak was really exciting, over all. I went to the Tampa RenFest, as planned, and got to see Cantiga one last time. I just realized that this past Saturday was the first one on which I didn't see Cantiga, in five weeks. Wow, that's actually very saddening.

Oh well, life goes on. And so does WISE! I've been working overtime on Kneomir. Maybe it's the realization that the year's coming to an end and I haven't accomplished nearly as much as I would have like to, but I've had lots of strong urges to write lately. I'm upping my goal to a chapter a week. That way, I can at LEAST make it to chapter sixteen by presentation time. That's where I left off on my origianl draft, back in eleventh grade, so let's see if I'm up to surpassing my previous accomplishments.

The website is also coming along slowly but surely. I've been adding to it every so often. The whole project is coming along rather slowly, but I'm still satiisfied.

I guess it's not too late to finish up where I was working yesterday. See you later.

Finally, some progress!

Tue, 15 Mar 2005 03:16:57 GMT

Well, in relation to my past few days, or maybe weeks, I made some serious progress on my project today. Firstly, when I got home from school, I sat down and wrote some stuff for my website. Then, I went and updated it, such that I made a whole new page and changed the layout for the ones I already had. I wrote about another one of the kingdoms and even got to know it a little better myself in the process. It was nice to be making progress again. It's a really good feeling.

As far as future plans go, it's been officialized that my friend and I are going to the Tampa Renaissance Faire over the first weekend of Spring Break. I don't know how I'm going to afford that, but I'll manage somehow. It's going to be so much fun to see Cantiga again, and to spend even more time at a RenFaire than one person should be allowed to.

I guess that's really all I had to say. Considering that I spent a lot of time on a single endeavor, that's pretty much the extent of my accomplishments for the day. I'd better get to bed since I have to get up early and all. Nitey nite!

The last day of RenFest...

Mon, 14 Mar 2005 02:01:09 GMT

Today, as you could probably tell by the subject of this entry, was the last day of the Renaissance Festival for the year. I got to go as a patron and enjoy all the festivities of the event. I saw Cantiga for what they thought would be the last time. Little do they know that I'll be heading over to Tampa just to see them... yea! I got a lot of ideas from Kneomir, after I watched solme of the shows, like the Pubsing and et cetra. I also learned some more history behind Cantiga's music, which was really neat.

After the festival, my parents and I had dinner at my friend Tim's house so that our parents could get to know each other before officializing anything regarding Tampa. It was a fun experience, but not entirely or even remotely pertinent to WISE.

On that note, I am very wearily off to bed. More tomorrow!

A long day

Tue, 08 Mar 2005 04:14:58 GMT

Today was rather long and pretty uneventful, but I thought I should document it anyway. I spent fourth hour in Mrs. Selvidge's room and did a presentation in Mrs. Farbiarz's room to recruit future students to the program. After school, I had an Interact function so I didn't get home until rather late. After that, I had to go to work, and hardly had enough time to do my homoework. I wish that I could have done more for WISE, but unfortunately, time did not permit today. Hopefully tomorrow will be much more constructive.

The best day (without question)

Sat, 05 Mar 2005 23:39:59 GMT

Today being Saturday, I went to the Renaissance Festival again, but today was unlike any other. When I arrived, I was assigned front gate duty again, which made me very happy. The people there are very nice and easy to get along with, and the job itself is very fun. I took my break around 12:30 because that was the time the Cantiga show was scheduled to start. Sacrificing complimentary pizza and comfort in the shaded yet breezy volunteer pavilion, I spent my half hour watching their set, which succeeded in being different from all the other ones I've heard. It was truly amazing.

Now, here's the truly extraordinary part. When they were done (and I didn't have much more time left) I approached the flutist and asked if I could sit down with them at the end of their last set and talk to them about their music and the history behind it, etc. He seemed almost flattered and was very willing to do so.

When my shift was over (or rather, I forced it to be because it was nearing 3:30), I hopped over to Harmmony Glen (the stage where they were performing) and saw three of my friends who had come as patrons. The four of us sat in the first row and soaked in the entire half hour set, being completely immersed in it. I was absolutely delighted to see them all enjoying it so much, because this group has come to mean so much to me.

After the show, one of my frinds bought a Cantiga CD and then I bid them farewell; I had important business to handle (yea!). Then, the flutist led be to the back of the tent where the other members of the group were taking apart/tending to their instruments, so it was very much like being backstage. They greeted me very warmly--Bob, the flutist; Martha, the harpist; "Charry," the player of various South American instruments; and Michelle the violinist--and readily answered my questions. I asked them about the style of music they play, its influence on history and how they got together, etc. You can see more about it on my annotation. Anyway, to be short because I'm off to go somewhere, It was the most wonderful experience I've had in WISE so far. To meet one of my favorite bands and be greeted so warmly and with such appreciation AND have it pertain to school was utterly indescirbable.

::sigh:: I'm off to go call everyone I know and tell them all about it.

FCAT day 2

Fri, 04 Mar 2005 01:18:35 GMT

Today I stayed home again, but not without my reasons. The company that we'd had for about two weeks was to leave early Wednesday and I probably would have missed school even if there were no FCATs just to spend some extra time with him. While he was out running some quick last-minute errands, I stopped by the mall (twice after forgetting to bring my ATM card) to buy a computer game that came out that day. Okay, I'll admit, that was HIGHLY off-task, but what more can I say? It's not as though I didn't pre-order the game ten months before it came out. And that night, when I went to work, I wrote a humorous little Kneomir blurb. It's more developmental than chronology related because it conveys a turn in the way my two protagonists (yes, I have two, is that so wrong?) act toward each other. Afterward, I caught a mysterious whiff of the Renaissance Festival and hungered for a turkey leg... inexplicable perhaps... but perhaps just a product of WISE being permanently ingrained in my mind. Yea!

FCAT day 1

Fri, 04 Mar 2005 01:17:20 GMT

Today I stayed home from school and spent some time at home doing various chores. Later in the afternoon, before I had to go in to work, I went over to my friend's house where he and I brainstormed some Dungeons and Dragons ideas. The party that we've been playing with (ourselves included) are becoming rather bored with the campaign setting that we've been using since day one. While I was there, he and I worked on transforming Norastinis (the world of Kneomir) into a playable campaign setting. We reconfigured sodme mountain rages, expanded a forest or two and made outlines of each kingdom's history, cultures and politics. I thought this could be indirectly related to WISE because it involves my book to a great degree. It was quite an honor to have someone practically interview me azbout my own imaginary world, so that he would "stay true to my vision" when working on it.

Character Development

Thu, 03 Mar 2005 23:55:39 GMT

Today I wrote an off-the-wall blurb for Kneomir about one of my characters. She was, until today, not yet a part of the sotry because she is supposed to be featured later in the tale. However, I was compelled to write her intriductory sequence today, because I saw it clearly in my mind. It didn't seem to come out quite the way I envisioned it, but once I was done, I had a really good idea of who this woman is intended to be. Then , I went ahead and redid the tense and narration of the passage so as to be able to place it accurately within the story. From what I estimate, I guess I could have easily said, "I worked on chapter twelve today," but then you wouldn't have gotten the inside story, now would you have?

I also did a little more planning for my website. Today I thought up a little layout for which pages I want to place where, and what I want to put on them. It's sort of turning out like a little mini guidebook to Kneomir, and I must admit that I'm very pleased.

That's all for now... more later

Back from a long weekend

Thu, 03 Mar 2005 00:44:50 GMT

Monday and Tuesday of this week were very constructive for me. Because FCATs were taking place (and for other various reasons) I had plenty of time to myself to work on Kneomir. I've been adding to it gradually, bit by bit, as I decide the different devices and events that I want to include and how I want them to fall into place. Aside from that, there hasn't been much WISE stuff going on. Today I ran some household errands, and the such, but that's not important.

What IS important to me is how great I've been feeling about this project. I'm so excited about getting to the presentation, even though I won't be even close to finishing Kneomir. I want to carry it with my into college though becasue I'd like to incorprate some of the Medieval knowledge I'll acquire there into its pages.

As a fun little side note, I turned the Kneomir race into a playable character race in Dungeons and Dragons. Sounds goofy, but it killed time at work, and helped me elaborate on the species itself. I decided that there should be two different kinds of Kneomir people, (to be blunt) the wild and the civilized. I'm working on incorporating elements of these two sub-races into the book because they will juxtapose one another and emphasize the conflict within the protagonist who cannot decide to which half he truly belongs.

Yeah, I know... yammer, yammer, yammer.

Belated but awesome!

Sun, 27 Feb 2005 14:52:45 GMT

Well, a lot has happened since my last entry, but I will try to fill you in as well as I can.

Friday, when I came home from school, I sat down with my music and wrote about another page to my prologue. I would have gotten much farther were I not so stuck on one character. I decided to stretch the prologue back to a time period with which I'm not that familiar and thus I had to develop the mother of one character. Throughout all that I've wriitten, the mother's been dead so I've had no need to get to know her. Now, it's a little hard to just force her to come out correctly.

Yesterday I went to RenFest again and had SUCH an amazing time! I was placed at the front gate, where I spent half my time stuffing programs and the other half prancing through the ticket lines begging (in my phony "British" accent) "Milord and lady, would you fancy a program?" Eh, what can I say? It was fun.

Then, when I went on my break, I got to go see a show, so I chose Cantiga. I was delighted to find out that they were still there and will continue to be for the rest of the weekends. I talked to the harpist and she said that they'd be willing to talk to me a little bit more next weekend about Medieval and Renaissance music and the such, but at that time, I had caught them while getting ready for the next set. I bought a second CD and the flutist who sold it to me remembered not only who I was but which CD I had bought last week. Yea!

On a slightly unrelated note, I went to my D&D friend's house last night, but we didn't play since much of the group has turned catty, vicious and just plain ADD. Anyway, I got everybody hooked on Cantiga, and we drove around blasting it in my car. It's rather ridiculous to rock out to harps and fifes, but it was fun anyway. When we got to his house, we decided that we need a new campaign setting for D&D because we're all sick of the old one. Therefore, the responsibility was placed on me to come home and devise a detailed layout of Norastine ploitics, cultures and geography so that we can play in Norastinia. Truly, it was an honor that anyone would think so highly of my imaginary little world, but little by little it's becoming so real.

Okay, done ranting now. Maybe I'll come back later to do it again!

Grr...

Fri, 25 Feb 2005 03:14:51 GMT

Okay... It's weird how LiveJournal keeps doing that read-only thing. I couldn't even make an entry last night because of it. But I guess that's my own problem, eh?

Yesterday I started building a website dedicated to Kneomir. It answers all of the usual questions that I get regarding the book, like what it's about and how I came up with it and the such. At least, these are the kinds of things it'll say when it's finished. For now, it's still a work-in-progress. I'm in the process of finding pictures and typing up all the information.

On the subject of pictures, I talked to a girl in my Creative Writing class today about doing some artwork for my book. Supposedly she's really good and enjoys drawing for other people. I'm considering having her draw some of my settings and characters, which I would use on my website and in my WISE presentation.

As far as Kneomir goes, I didn't get very much done today. I did, however, use one of my two game building programs to begin constructing Norastinia. I'm thinking of using this as a tool to illustrate the landscape, and the verry essence of what my fantastical world is. Plus, it won't be copyright infringement to actually build my own world as opposed to taking pictures of the one built by the software company.

It's late. Good night, everybody.

Such a happy individual

Wed, 23 Feb 2005 20:45:40 GMT

I'm SO excited that LiveJournal's being my friend today! Well, anyway, yesterday I did really well WISE-wise... teehee.

I had a team meeting yesaterday, which was a lot of fun. I always like hearing about how other people are doing on their projects, not to mention WHAT they're doing. While I wish I was more modest, I have to admit that I kind of like bragging about my project to people who, I assume, are at least somewhat interested. I'm so pshyched about the mid-term. I know, I know, it sounds ridiculous, but I'm so anxious to lay all my plans for my final presentation on paper. Even though I'm nowhere near done, it's so exciting to think of how far I've come and how proud I am of my WISE project, silly as some people think it may be.

Why do I say silly? Well, you (whoever might be reading this) would be surprised at how many people find my aspirations to be quite unrealistic. Just yesterday I had someone ask "What would you ever do with a Medieval/Renaissance major?" and then proceed to scoff at the idea. If nothing else (which there IS plenty) the WISE experience so far has taught me that I can apply what I love to nearly anything. Anywhere I go anymore I feel inspired to write, by some unseen force. I've learned of individuals who've pursued obscure areas of study like mine and are being interviewed regularly by the Discovery Channel as renown historians, curators, and professors. So there! :P

More to the point of things, I wrote about a page and a half of my new prologue yesterday, which I was very surprised to have done. It felt like I was really taking it painstakingly line by line, but before I knew it, I had pumped out almost 1,000 words. It may have been my new favorite CD that inspired me so much. When I went to RenFest Monday, I picked up a CD by a Renaissance Festival band called Cantiga. There's a lot of history behind their songs, which are mostly from Medieval Spanish cultures. I really love the sounds of the authentic insturments they use. When I saw them I casually assumed that they were just another part of the Festival. Much to my dismay, I looked on their website and saw that they were only there for one weekend and are now touring at other Festivals around the country. I wish I had been able to talk to them about the mechanics and influence of music in Renaissance history. It would have eased me into including some bards or other entertainers in one of Norastinia's many pubs. Yes, I say many because there ARE many. What can I say? These are hard times for any self-respecting Nora man.

Tonight, I'm going to work on taking screenshots from one of my games and building a website to help you all understand a little more about Kneomir. Hmm... what a cool idea. I'm going to go do that now. This time, I think the world-famous webmaster Coach Love was my inspiration.

OH MY GEEEEZ!

Tue, 22 Feb 2005 03:04:46 GMT

Wow... I've been trying to update my Livejournal for several days but I keep getting the "Livejournal.com is in read-only mode... please try later" message. Maybe it's just me checking at the wrong times. But, regardless, I'm here now, aren't I?

Well, I had QUITE the weekend, if I do say so myself. On Friday I got my dress in the mail and on Satruday, I volunteered at RenFest! It was such an incredible experience. I got to meet all of the other volunteers and mingle with some of the workers. Also, I got a lot of compliments on my dress from the patrons. One observation I made was that I was one of the most authentically dressed people there. The other volunteers were wearing spandex outfits or brightly colored corsets or various kinds of anachronistic fashions. I was rather upset that I went to all the trouble to find an outfit in neutral (therefore appropriate) colors, made from all natural materials, just like they'd specified, when I could just as easily have thrown something together at Hot Topic. At the same time, I was proud to be the only person smart enough to know the difference between being authentic and "getting the look right."

The most amazing thing about the RenFest was the whole aspect of being there. Even though I was there for the setting-up stages, and I knew that it was all wood and spray paint, I had the mindset that I was actually within the boundaries of a fantastical town. In fact, I observed a lot of the aspects of the miniature village and related them to the world within Kneomir (Norastinia). My favorite part was one of the fairies who looked EXACTLY like the mental image that I had formed of one of my characters. Without seeming like a creepy stalker and without getting too off-task, I watched the female fairy character to comprehend the accent and mannerisms she adopted. It may seem strage, but seeing the human manifestion (or what appears to be such) of one of the characters you imagined and have fleshed out over two years is nothing short of surreal.

Guess that's all for now. Fare thee well 'til the morrow!

Yea!

Sat, 19 Feb 2005 00:36:38 GMT

Well, a lot has happened in the past few days, and unfortunately LiveJournal has been down (or at least in read-only mode). I officially purchased my dress for the Renaissance Festival, which I will definitely be attending, and working, this Saturday. I'm so excited for it to arrive, which it should later this afternoon. I'll probably be at work when it gets here. Oh well.

At least when I'm at work I can make myself useful by working more on Kneomir. Yesterday, I had a lot of time to myself and a lot of quiet opportunities throughout the day to work on Kneomir. I guess you could say I made up for all the time I've wasted wondering if I should continue and feeding the obstructions in my inspirtation's path. In other words, I got a lot accomplished. Also, last night, I began a book called The Burning Times, about Medieval France. It talks about the church system of the period and outlines the story of a young girl who is a saint mistaken for a witch and is sentenced to death by the Inquisition. It's all very historically accurate and is giving me a better idea of how old church systems were constructed. I hope to use this knowledge as a better foundation for the Balancial Council (the group of religious leaders in Kneomir who control the "Balance" of the world and are believed to be able to directly communicate with the Holy Dragons of the Balance, which is completely farce).

Wow... what a mouthful. More later!

Whee!

Wed, 16 Feb 2005 02:57:51 GMT

Well, I was a bad don't-be yesterday--I didn't make an entry because I didn't really do much of anything pertaining to WISE. Today, however, was different, which was very YEA!

After school I sat down and spoke with Karen Doscher, after weeks of trying to schedule a meeting with her. While it wasn't entirely WISE related, she told me all sorts of stories about her experiences at New College. Some of them were about the uniquely liberated academics at the school and others were about student life... the sorts of things I wouldn't share with my parents. :) I got really excited when I spoke to someone who was so enthusiastic about the school. She even told me about a friend of hers who majored in something like Medieval/Renaissance Studies, and spends her days traveling around the world curating, teaching, and refurbishing castles. Is there perhaps a dim light in Michelle's oblique future?

In regards to WISE, I have decided to go to the Renaissance Festival regardless of what my employers think of it. I've spent a good part of the evening online looking for appropriate attire that I could wear when I go to volunteer. With some luck, I'll hear back from the lady on eBay who's selling the dress I want. We'll see how it goes!

I did it! I did it!

Fri, 11 Feb 2005 14:59:54 GMT

Wow! I did it! Did what? IT! I did IT! What is IT? ...Sorry to be anticlimactic, but IT is just the end of chapter nine. I finished it! I'm very excited. We weren't doing anything in class today so I took the time to scribble down the last of "The Unkindness and the Kharul." What's it about? Guess you'll have to read it, huh?

Today's when I'm meeting with Karen Doscher about New College. That's just as exciting as making progress on Kneomir. I'm really looking forward to learning about my school and the such. I just wish that I could use that discussion as the WISE interview for the week, because the only time she was available was after the due date. Sad, but true.

I won't make any further comments about RenFest because I feel I've said enough already. I think I'm holding off until next weekend when it's not so hectic.

Til next time.