More randomness

[cleolinda]

you are paleturquoise #AFEEEE

Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well. Your saturation level is low - You stay out of stressful situations and advise others to do the same. You may not be the go-to person when something really needs done, but you know never to blow things out of proportion. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

The weird thing is that every time I do the "what color are you?" meme, I always end up with some shade of turquoise... which is also my birthstone. Heh.



I had a thin cup of Nestle cocoa today with my lunch (which was cheese and crackers. And not even good cheese. Like, Kraft singles. In the individual plastic wrappings. Ah, comfort food), so I decided to go look for a better hot chocolate recipe. Here's an interesting one I found, but it's like, "government barrel o' cocoa" sized:

2 lbs powdered milk
4 lbs powdered sugar
1 lb coffee creamer
8 ounces unsweetened baking cocoa

Now--how many ounces are in a pound? Sixteen? If you do a little elementary school math you can convert that to

32 oz powdered milk
64 oz powdered sugar
16 oz coffee creamer (I assume they mean powdered)
08 oz unsweetened baking cocoa

and get a ratio of one part cocoa, two parts creamer, eight parts sugar (wow), and four parts powdered milk. You know, to make a much smaller amount of mix, to test it out--
"one part" could be an ounce, or even a tablespoon. I'm going to see if we have any powdered creamer (I don't think we do), but if anyone tests it out before I do, let me know.



Another interesting meme:

This is the problem with LJ, we all think we are so close, and we know nothing about each other. I'm going to rectify it. I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about.

Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

However, I reserve the right to not answer some questions, like "What is your real full name?" and "Where do you live?" and "Can you let me in? I'm sitting outside your window right now."

Comments

[wendywoowho.livejournal.com]

"Can you let me in? I'm sitting outside your window right now."

Actually, I think that's exactly the sort of question you'd want to answer....

[wendywoowho.livejournal.com]

Dude, the QUOTE feature? SUCKS.

[musikologie.livejournal.com]

When you're lounging around the house, what do you usually have on your feet?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heh. I go barefoot as often as possible.

[decor-noctis.livejournal.com]

What was the best present you ever got? Who was it from? Why?

k that's three questions but yknow.

<3

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I'll have to think about that one...

[arielchan.livejournal.com]

Can you let me in? I'm standing outside, beside the mailbox.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

You know what the sad thing is? I actually kinda peeked out the window to check.

[girlalmighty]

Do you like musicals? 'cause I'm getting pretty excited about this Phantom movie coming out and the rumor is that Rent is finally going into production.

[leucocrystal]

"Rent" is in pre-production, is set for 2005 release, and is being directed by Chris Columbus, FYI.

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

are you double-jointed in any limbs or digits?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Both thumbs.

[shanisasha.livejournal.com]

Do you like having so many people that love your writing around or would you like privacy sometimes?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

It's really nice, mostly. I mean, it really helped me to post those M15M snippets and to get such resoundingly good feedback, particularly when I didn't even think they were all that good. The only downside (so far) is the pressure you feel from knowing that people are waiting to read your work, and you worry that you might be letting them down. As for privacy, that's the beauty of LJ "fame"--if I want more privacy, I just get off the computer.

A Hot Chocolate Comment

[zombiequeen.livejournal.com]

I'm home sick today, and I've been drinking cup after cup of Ghirardelli Double Chocolate (made with milk). It's excellent. Plus, Trader Joe's sells a spicy Mexican hot chocolate mix, and I swear to God, that stuff is like crack. I wish I had some.

Re: A Hot Chocolate Comment

[kittenkatt.livejournal.com]

"The Mexican Hot Chocolate Effect" (coming next season to FOX) can be achieved by putting a few dollops of Hershey's syrup and a dash of cayenne pepper into a regular ol' cup of Swiss Miss. Not that Trader Joe's isn't crack, but....

[jedilora.livejournal.com]

How geeky do you consider yourself, particularly in comparison to the stereotypical geek?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heeeee. Well, it's not really true that I can't math, because I can clearly do cooking math, but I'm also terrible at science, and stereotypically I think of geeks as being good at those two things. My movie geekness reached alarming levels for a couple of years there--about the same time my LOTR geekness did too, now that I think about it. I think I'm a very geeky person in that I have that obsessive OMG I Know Everything About This Subject personality. And I was certainly shunned like a geek in high school. But really, geekitude can be an awesome thing, and I pale in comparison to some of the really hardcore people out there. I mean, I can't build rockets in my backyard or anything.

[p-tripp.livejournal.com]

I guess this falls under the "should be obvious" descriptor, but I'll ask anyway. :)

Who is your favorite literary character of all time and why?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Ooo... that's another question I'm going to have to think about for a while.

[fba.livejournal.com]

Do you ever regret writing 'Van Helsing in 15 Minutes'? Did you ever imagine it would get so big?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Not for a moment. And that's for both parts. I don't regret it because it's opened up so many other opportunities for me. But I never imagined the whole thing would ever actually get so big (in truth, it was Troy that set the whole thing off for real, after VH set the stage, I think). I can't tell you how flabbergasted I was to get an email from Orion, and how I spent a good 24 hours dead certain that it was some kind of scam, and I kept waiting for Simon to ask me to send money to Nigeria.

Now, do I regret writing "Prisoner of Azkaban in 15 Minutes," that's another question...

[duncanatrix.livejournal.com]

What's your personal favorite writing that you've done? (Includes Black Ribbon, m15m, anything at all that you wrote.)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm... that's a tough one. Van Helsing in 15 Minutes turned out pretty well. I'm really happy with Black Ribbon so far. I have several poems that I thought were really good at the time, but mostly seem like good first drafts now. Some of the stuff I like most hasn't been available for anyone else to read, though. :)

[all-ephemera.livejournal.com]

Name one place in the US that you would love to visit. (*cough*Boston*cough*)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

This is a hard question in that I haven't traveled much, and the one place I just reeeeeally wanted to go, New Orleans, I finally visited this summer. I'd really like to see Savannah. But there's all kinds of places I haven't seen--Los Angeles, New York, Chicago (and Boston :).

[highlystrung.livejournal.com]

..... I feel like I'm wasting my question. (You, should be going in-depth psychological stuff.) But how old are you?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I'll be 26 on December 14. :)

[whoisdialogue.livejournal.com]

I write on a regular basis both for my own pleasure (http://www.randomdialogue.net) and for pay (http://games.slashdot.org), but most of the writing I do is explanatory or experiential. I feel like I've found my voice when it comes to writing in general, and as an avid (dork alert) Gamemaster I have more than enough ideas to go around when it comes to fiction writing. I find that I have a disconnect in allowing ideas to flow from my creative mind to my writing mind, if that makes any sense. I constantly edit and correct myself when I write fiction, seeking to gain the clarity of voice that I have when writing reviews or editorials.

My question (after all that) is: Do you have a process for channeling your thoughts into actual words? Sitting down and writing are aspects I'm beginning to get a handle on, I just can't seem to leap the void between thought and narrative. When you have notes or ideas for The Black Ribbon and m15m, how do you translate that into the alternately humorous and interesting dialogue you show us livejournal humans on a regular basis?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I constantly edit and correct myself when I write fiction, seeking to gain the clarity of voice that I have when writing reviews or editorials.

I think that's a big key to any problems you may be having. My process is simply to sit down and transcribe what I see in my head as if I'm talking to myself ("So then you want to have him go down the stairs, because that's where the next clue is..."), because that's clearly not for public consumption, and knowing that can take off a lot of pressure. I have other ways of getting around that performance pressure thing, too--type in a different font (Arial is my "draft" font, Times New Roman is my "real writing" font), or write on a blank sheet of typing paper--sometimes I even write diagonally across the page. They're all ways of saying, "This doesn't count, so it doesn't have to be 'good.'"

A lot of times I slip into my "real" writing voice in the middle of this; sometimes I just hit the ground running that way. "Fifteen Minutes" stuff I do differently--I mostly just write down a loose series of one-liners and start to shape them into a script format ("Something about Goblin's pumpkin bombs here"). Journal entries I just write off the top of my head, although I do comb through and tighten them afterwards. The key is to get yourself writing without fear or judgment, and bring your internal editor in after you're done.

[girlfrom10thave.livejournal.com]

You write 'y'all' a lot in your entires (and now you've got me doing it too) so I was wondering whether you say it a lot too.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I mean, I was born and bred (and still live) in the South. We all do. It's basically "you" plural ("Can I get y'all anything?"). Now, sticking "y'all" at the end of a sentence is something I picked up on the internet, I'll admit that. :)

[myrafurs.livejournal.com]

When was your first kiss/really good makeout session?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow--this is kind of embarrassing. I was 19 or 20, I can't remember which, and it was in college. Late bloomer, what can I say?

[jonnorthwood.livejournal.com]

What is your favorite style of 'night terror' story?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Elaborate on the question for me a little?

Questions

[queenmabwords.livejournal.com]

How did you get started on LJ?
or
How did you get started with Movies in 15 minutes?

Re: Questions

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I started reading brassyn's last year, after getting to know her some on Fametracker, and so I asked her for a code (they were still using invite codes then) and started my own last Halloween. I already had an Easyjournal, but it's a lot easier to make friends and keep in touch with people on LJ, for some reason.

Movies in Fifteen Minutes started right here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/cleolinda/93639.html). Seriously, I have no idea what prompted me to just write that, but I came home from the movie and in a few hours it was done.

[pistolharris.livejournal.com]

... well? Can you?
Actually, one question: have you ever read or heard of Terry Pratchett? (if so, which is your favourite book of his?)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I have--in fact, I think Orion publishes some of his stuff--but I haven't gotten around to reading anything of his. Didn't he write Good Omens with Neil Gaiman? Since I like Gaiman, that's probably where I'd start.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Because I am utterly crass, and do the fangirl thing ever so poorly:

What's your favorite bra size?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I... the... favorite? Uh... the one that fits me?

I don't know. "36B" also has a nice ring to it.

[missmp.livejournal.com]

Have you ever permed or straightened your hair, or dyed it a color not found in nature?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Honestly? It's permed right now. This is sort of a dirty secret I keep from people who didn't know me when my hair was straight, but my hair is very straight--very fine and very straight and very limp. I went to hair guy when I was in high school who gave me pretty awful crunchy poodle hair, but I was fifteen and didn't know any better. Eventually I cut it off and went straight again for a while, but that wasn't so good, either. Finally, I found this awesome woman who gives the most excellent natural-looking perms, and I've been going to her for several years now. I've followed her through three location changes, and if she ever retires, I don't know what I'll do. It's a testament to how good she is that people are always shocked to find out that it isn't naturally curly, or see pictures of me with straight darkish-brown hair.

I've never colored or highlighted my hair, though. The twice-yearly perming (see? It's that good) is enough work as it is, and the way the wave diffuses light, the brown looks a little more golden anyway.

[serpentinthesun.livejournal.com]

Not the most original, but: How do you feel about random nobodys (nobodies?) like me commenting in your journal and stalking you?

[inkytwist.livejournal.com]

(icon love!)

...I second that question...

[arayuldaiel.livejournal.com]

Hot chocolate? Rocks. That's all I've got to say.

My question:

Do you have long hair or short hair or what? Odd question, I know, but all of the good ones are taken already...;)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Awww! It's sort of neither, at this point. I don't know that I've ever managed to grow rilly, rilly long hair; down to my elbows is the best I've managed, I think. Right now it's a little below my shoulders--it's really at that "grow hard or go home" stage, where I need to just chop three inches off and go really short and cute or get back into the long growing-back haul.

[kittygopounce.livejournal.com]

Oh! Oh! Unless, if you've already covered it and I missed it or if it's too personal, in which case *nodnods* fair enough, I'll do you another question ... (In any event, if it's not too personal and "you know too many details about my true life" like, it has much potential for squeefulness) ...

How did you meet Squishy the Vladimir?

:P If that's too much to ask, then let me know and I'll brainstorm a new question :)

[kittygopounce.livejournal.com]

Oh! Oh! Question, should the other one be deemed too personal.

Why "Cleolinda"? More specifically, is Cleolinda the handle you've always had, and how/why did you come across/select it?