May 23rd

I could go on and on about my training at guest services. I've had a completely incredible two days. The trainers are awesome, the training is interesting, the coworkers are nice, the job is perfect for me, and EVERYONE has spoken about advancement. It's basically everything I wanted from a job. Time has flown by and I feel that I've learned an intense amount of information in just two days. I can't wait to continue training and actually start working. I know that there is a ton still to learn, and I can't wait to memorize it all. Of course if I did continue to wax poetic about all the amazingness (Firefox doesn't think that's a word, but I do) I've been experiencing I'd be walking the fine line that is the UO blogging policy. Instead, I guess I'll have to wax poetic about other subjects.

TV shows are winding down for the season, which is both a happy and sad occurrence. It gives me a chance to breathe, to do other things, and it wraps up stories while still keeping me interested. Of course it also means that I have to wait months for the next chapter, or in some cases I'll never see the rest at all because the show got canned. For the ones that are coming back, I'm incredibly excited. For the ones that are cancelled, I'm sad, but most were expected. The few serious bummers are the ones that KNEW they would be cancelled and still insisted on ending the show with a cliff hanger of some sort. Especially the ones that wouldn't have even required a re-shoot, merely a cutting of the last few seconds. Missing fits into this category.

Of course with TV winding down it does give me a chance to enjoy more YouTube videos, and that has been a blessing. I'm keeping up to date and working my way slowly through my backlog of must watch videos. Being current on YouTube is once again making me more excited to create videos. I've made 2 (both Star Wars themed) already this month. I already have plans to make a collab channel video tomorrow, and this weekend when I go to Star Wars Weekends at Disney I'll make another for my main channel (making May all about Star Wars apparently). Then next month I can spend some time making video responses and borrowing inspiration from the amazing YouTubers that I watch.

I've also been working on that "reading a book" goal. The problem is that I'm also addicted to a Harry Potter fanfiction written by one of my friends. It's 363 pages, and yet another thing I could wax poetic on forever, but I'll save that till I finish it. The issue is that it has interrupted the reading of the most recent Vampire Diaries book (I don't care if you judge me). However, with the fanfiction being 363 pages, it's basically a book, so I feel that it should count towards the goal. I guess I can let you weigh in on that (not that you will seeing as I'm pretty sure that no one reads this). So, should a 363 page fanfiction count as a book for my read a book goal?

Reading that fanfiction has reminded how much I used to enjoy writing fanfiction. I might actually try my hand at some of that on flash fiction day. When I write fanfiction I usually stick to Harry Potter (although I used to write Star Wars), and I like to watch what I call "missing moment" stories. These are stories that add to cannon texts without changing the story line that's written. Perhaps they change your view on certain characters but they don't alter events that have already occurred. An example of this is a flash piece I wrote about the death of Emmeline Vance. In the HP books it's mentioned that she died, but not much else is known about it. I wrote a scene where Dumbledore tells her that she has to basically sacrifice herself because Snape needs information to pass to the Death Eaters because his loyalty is seriously being questioned. I'm actually really proud of that story. I also like to write stories that occur in the Wizarding World, but separate from Harry Potter, whether it's long after his time or during the same time somewhere totally different.

Of course there's a singular exception to my "no changes" rule, and that is the story of Sylvia Black. Sylvia came into being shortly after I started reading Harry Potter back in 1998. I often create myself a character in books I read or movies I see because I prefer that to thinking of myself as one of the characters that already exist. Yet, none of those are as well developed or as dear to my heart as Sylvia. When I first created her I knew nothing about what would become of Sirius Black, but I liked the name of the character and the fact that he had a flying motorcycle. Plus there's the fact that he seemed to be a friend of Hagrid's meaning he could have a child Harry's age. Of course I orphaned her as well, putting her father on the run and her mother dead until I learned the truth about Sirius. She knew Harry before  Hogwarts, growing up with him in the muggle world. Still with her I try to make sure she doesn't alter the story TOO much, allowing the stories to continue the way they were written with her adding a bit here and there. She's super developed and while it isn't all written down she spends many a night running around my head having adventures. Someday she will see the light of day, but not yet. Until tomorrow.