(As usual, I wound up rambling as I typed, so the "important" part is at the bottom if you don't feel like reading it all.)

Isn't there a song by the Decemberists like that? July, July, July~y, it never seemed so strange~ Etc. etc.

Anyway I know I went overboard with the journals last month, what with posting MORE THAN TWO JOURNALS OMG. So I specifically waited until July before making another. We'll disregard the fact that I only just realized that today is July 1st a couple hours ago.

Okay the following turned into a huge worthless rant as I wrote it, so only read it if you're really bored or something.

<sub><sup>First of all, I'm obviously really bad at responding to comments. After clearing them out not too long ago, somehow I've already got more than 400 again. Most of them - that is, almost 300 of them - come from favorites, which I really shouldn't complain about, but it's only very rarely that anyone actually favorites a picture that I drew. 90% of the time it's just that they're faving those SAI tutorials I did. Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy that I was able to make something that so many people consider helpful. Actually I just looked and holy crap the first part of the tutorial has been faved more than 450 times, and the second one an even 310 times. Holy crap! That is a LOT! I never imagined I would see a number that high on one of my submissions! But at the same time, while I worked hard on it, it's not as though someone looked at a picture that I poured heart and soul into and said "wow that's beautiful" and faved it for that... Somehow I'd rather have 50 favs on an actual picture because 50 people were moved by it than have 500 or even 5000 favs on a tutorial because it was an easy way for them to learn the basics...

Geez, look at me, am I effin' ungrateful or what? I mean seriously, 31,021 pageviews, but it feels like I just made the account the other day, feels like I still have my 100-odd pageviews... It's not like pageviews actually mean anything though, but I'm still really happy that people see what I do and like what I do, even if they're not liking the pictures as much as the process and the explanation of the process.

I'm really trying my hardest to not sound ungrateful, really. D:</sup></sub>

'Kay now for what I ACTUALLY sat down here to write about...

After working pretty hard on that video project for a while, I've been taking a break lately. I've gotten almost all of the stills done, but it's the prospects of animating intense battles and a large amount of quick movement that's worrying me. The stills, though, a lot of them are really really nice. I'm working on really cheap, rough paper, so I'm not really taking the time to clean or refine anything, but that gives a whole lot of extra emotion and, uh... oomph to it. So it's nice and all, but like I said, I've been taking a break to finally delve into my Golden Sun games that I bought a while back. I beat GS1 easily enough; I even managed to take on Deadbeard on only my first try. Playing the second game, I skipped Air's Rock so that I could get Piers first, and now all that's left for me is Air's Rock and... I really really really hate Air's Rock... so now I'm taking a break from that too.

Wait, don't go! This journal has a point, I swear!

So, today I went back and read some of ~Catzandbirdz's stories on fanfiction.net, namely The New Kid and the four existing chapters of its sequel as well as the more angst-centric one-shots in her one-shot collection. And oh my goodness, even though she's always on about "all I see when I look at that story is a huge mess of rewriting", it's such an amazing story! When I think back, it's definitely Chowder's fanfictions that made me the sadist I am now, especially towards Isaac, and it's definitely The New Kid that made me EFFIN' HATE BABI WITH A PASSION.

Anyway - What's with that look? I'm getting to the point! Honest! Anyway, after reading all that, I've gotten totally fired up to get back into the game. I really really want to write a new GS fic! The first one since Uncertain Future, which unbelievably won me first prize in ~The-GoldenSun-Club's contest a long ways back, the theme of which was "sci-fi". (I was seriously amazed by that; I couldn't believe people actually took the time to read my story - and liked it!) The problem with writing a new GS fic is that I totally don't have a plot. I've got a lot of extensive planning for what would have been a really great story from way back in the past - I had even finished a chapter or two - but I really don't want to dig up something ancient to work on. I want to do something fresh and new! So, off of Chowder's recommendation, I'm trying to come up with a list of elements that I definitely want to include and then work a plot around those... So far, I've come up with two different lists and a prospective plot for both, but neither would work out.

The first list was: a large amount of death, worrying so much that it causes a loss of appetite, chills and cold, and "PIERS MAKES A DAMNED APPEARANCE BECAUSE I ALWAYS FORGET ABOUT HIM" is the direct quote from the list. The plot I gathered from that was something about an epidemic, but I figured that would actually be pretty boring, dealing with illness.

The second, considerably shorter list was: an earth-shaking thunderstorm, a phobia, and a long adventure. The plot had to do with a second catastrophic storm striking Vale and killing Garet's little brother, giving Isaac a phobia of thunderstorms, but the prospect of writing about a depressed Garet isn't thrilling at all, and the only basis for it is that I think it would be kind of cute if Isaac were desperately afraid of something...

-- (division denoting the start of the important part) --

So! This is the important part! I'm not going to ask you to come up with a plot for me; all I ask is that you give me a list of things that could work as plot devices. They can be as general or specific as you'd like, and it's fine if they're all totally random and unrelated too. Chowder said that her basis for The New Kid was the idea "modern high school", and her necessary inclusion for another of her stories, Star of venus, was "having Isaac bedridden after being stabbed through the chest", if that gives you any idea of how general it can be in contrast to my more specific lists.

As another example! I'm just going to throw this out here right now, let's see... Candles, notes, frilly skirts, rivers... Um, this sounds like it would be more of a romance story than an epic-adventure-type... But yeah, anything will do.

Or, if you don't feel like doing that, you can tell me what size shoe you wear and what your favorite kind of melon is. Just for shiggles.