Nike's Journal

My mom's constantly trying to get me to join Facebook so she can "keep up with me". Just today, she's tried something different. She's joined Google+ and invited me to join as well. It took me a minute and a quick search to remember what Google+ was and why I quickly undid my account with them when they automatically signed me up because I use gmail and then got lost in, you know, rereading about the whole nymwars in general.

Honestly, I'm still a little ticked at Google for the whole "your YouTube account name must match the name you used when setting up your gmail account tee-hee!", although they earned a few points back for asking why I didn't want to change it right then and there (even if they didn't offer my reasoning as one of the options, so I had to choose "other") and in the end not actually changing it at all. Not enough to make up for the points they lost for making me panic at all and checking that I didn't actually have my legal name on my gmail account info. (I don't, by the way. I signed up as Nike Victory. Which explains why my brother-in-law asked who the hell I was the first time I replied to one of the emails my sister sends. :D)

Anyways, some of the conversations I didn't stumble across the first time around on the nymwars has been rather enlightening on why I'm the way I am. I was born in the early 80s and like many kids born around this time, my first introduction to the internet came with the constantly reinforced caveat that if you went online, you didn't give your RL info to anybody. This was not only reinforced by all the computer classes I took in school, but later on when I met people who had a very good reason to separate their online and offline identities (*waves* You know who are). I am, as a result, next to impossible to find online if I don't personally clue you in. And not just my real name, either (Google search only finds one thing that's actually me, and it dates back to when I was in high school). Nike is, of course, incredibly common. Nkvictory, which I use on sites I can't use Nike or Nike Victory, is, oddly enough, also the name of a common type of rapeseed (canola, for the Americans in the audience). Nike Victory only brings up my DeviantArt account, and since I haven't attached that to anything, it can easily be mistaken as belonging to the person who's Nike Victory on Twitter (who is very obviously not me, considering they also have their "real name" attached).

My brothers, despite not being that much younger than me, didn't take the computer classes offered at my school (because the idiot doing the scheduling scheduled it at the same time as FFA, because of course the Future Farmers of America don't need to know how to work a computer *rolls eyes*). Mom, likewise, didn't have internet access until she divorced my Dad and moved to a much less rural area. The end result is that Mom and my brothers discovered the internet at their own, unsupervised, pace right about the time Facebook was coming out and revolutionizing ideas about anonymity. The end result? They don't understand that, like many people my age, I have a mild panic attack when asked for personal information online and look at any site that frowns upon pseudonyms with great suspicion.

Dad's the closest to understanding my gut reaction - I still don't have an email address for him, despite the fact I know he now has internet access - and probably why my brothers don't bother me much about social networking. Mom, who has no desire to keep in touch with Dad, doesn't get it at all. Even then, it wouldn't be so bad if my gut reaction to her wasn't, "I love you, but I don't want you in my safe spaces" so I can't even bring myself to point out alternatives to the type of sites I'll never join.

I don't think it would even do any good in the long run. Heck, you guys know me. Even at my most active, I don't tend to post a lot. You guys don't need to know when I'm going to the bathroom (unless I'm in a chat session with you, and even then it's more brb than anything detailed). Mom doesn't need to know I sometimes write porn. And someday she's just going to have to accept that I'm not going to join Facebook or Google+ and face the fact that I'm just not that chatty.

"...then there's the weird uncle no one talks about." That made me laugh so hard. Loki is so the mommy.

God, it's been far too long since I've posted anything. Honestly, it's been far too long since I've done much more than wander into some of the communities I have on my reading list for far too long. Well, on Dreamwidth and LJ, that is. I keep thinking, "Oh, I should post about that!" and then forgetting because something distracted me. If it weren't for the fact that I can sit still, I'd think I have ADD or ADHD or something. So, here's what I've been up to:

I'm trying to publish my first book as an online serial novel. The downside is that the story is like Lord of the Rings in length, so I'd be trying to break it down into at least three - preferably five - shorter books with each as a serial, and I'm not sure how many people, much less publishers, would go for that. On the plus side, my beta readers for it keeping going on about how awesome it is and how they're looking forward to buying it, even though they've already read what I've got already. Right now, though, I'm playing the waiting game with Amazon's serial publisher. Wish me luck.

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In the meantime, I needed a break from wandering around the Avengers/Thor fandom (which isn't to say I'm not still wandering around that fandom), so I decided to find some fluffy reveal!fic in the Merlin fandom. Of course, I soon after realized that I wanted a Merlin future!fic where the cast ends up in the future per Arthurian legend. That's when my muse stepped in and pointed out that what I really wanted was to write an epic crossover fic between Merlin, Gargoyles, and Harry Potter (w/ maybe a little Yugioh because a boardroom battle with David Xanatos and Seto Kaiba would be Epic!).

It would work, too. Gargoyles has that unfinished plot arc where Eliza Maza wakes up King Arthur, who proceeds on a quest in a magic boat to find Merlin (who by this time has probably gotten bored of the crystal cave Nimueh's supposed to have trapped him in and spelled himself to sleep until Arthur finds him - thus possibly giving rise to the whole Snow White story. ;D ). And the time frame for all of that matches up with the end of Fifth Year/beginning of Sixth Year for the Trio. And you know Arthur would be all "Not in my kingdom, you don't!" at Voldemort, especially since Merlin's technically a half-blood by the Wizarding World's standards.

I also think Merlin would get along really well with the Trio. He'd get the whole "plaything of Destiny" thing Harry's got going and the "shadowed by the guy with great Destiny" thing Ron's got going, and he'd probably be curious enough about how the world's changed and what the Wizarding World's like to endear himself to Hermione. Add in the possibility of Nimueh and Demona working together (dear lord, they'd be scary together), maybe adding in Thailog and Puck, and oh the fun that could be had. *rubs hands together and cackles*

Maybe if I have time I'll actually write it one day.

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I've been messing around with nail art lately. I've always been able to naturally grow long nails, but painting them one color was always kind of boring. With the whole nail couture thing going on, I've finally started doing something with them. I've done snowflakes and starry night skies and candy cane stripes and starbursts. I really need to figure out where I put that cheap camera my brother got me for Christmas '11 and start taking pictures of them.

Right now? My nails look an awful lot like this: http://designergirlee.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/de-stijl-decorative-art-painting.jpg

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My Youth Group took the kids to see Rise of the Guardians in 3D earlier this month and I'm not sure whether to curse them for deciding on that movie or blessing them because I now have a new obsession. I can't help it. I wasn't expecting a movie where the main characters are Santa Claus, the Sandman, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost, and the Boogieman to be nearly as good as it was. The character designs are gorgeous and beautifully detailed (For example, check out Santa's tattoos! http://cdn1.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/Rise-of-the-Guardians-Movie-2012.jpeg ), the interpretation of the characters was very well done and such an interesting take on them, and, well, I have a soft spot for woobie!trickster types like Jack Frost. The fact he's just as pretty and detailed as the rest of the cast doesn't hurt: http://s3.amazonaws.com/kidzworld_photo/images/20121115/1a403266-973d-451a-87e5-3c9265e8afdb/jack-frost.jpg Yes, that is highly detailed frost on his hoodie. Here's a better picture: http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/still/rise-of-the-guardians-image07.jpg (I so need to learn/re-learn how to put pictures on DW.)

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How have you guys been?

Or a Loki icon. A Loki icon would be good.

Still wallowing happily in fanfiction in norsekink, AO3, and ff.n. I've recently fallen in love with the on going series "Agent Loki: International Man of Mayhem", which can be found here.

I know, the title makes it sound like complete and utter crack, but it's really not! It's got all you really need for a spy thriller series. Three of the current five stories is written in present tense 2nd person, but please don't let that throw you off. I've never seen 2nd person POV pulled off so brilliantly. And honestly, it's kind of necessary because the person the POV represents is more than little... not quite right in the head and this just allows the reader to really understand the motives of someone who, especially in the 3rd person POV stories of the series, really isn't that easy to comprehend.

I still haven't been on here much because I got sucked into Marvel Movie Universe by Thor and The Avengers. That and TV Tropes. The last one alone is quite the time drain. Combining the two has landed me with The Sorting Algorith of FaceHeel Turning and me figuring out where Loki fit on it. In other words, how likely was it that he'd turn traitor in Thor and how likely is he to be redeemed in some future movie? Oh, and potential spoilers ahoy under the cut. ( Long post is long. )

I got lost in the Naruto fandom. *sheepish look* It's a very large fandom and it's very easy to get lost in it. I've finally started pulling myself out of it, only to remember I wanted Thor fanfiction because of Loki, which is really the only reason anyone should need. Oddly, while I'm enjoying reading in that fandom, I'm not yet inspired to write for it. My writing has actually been going to The Lost Ones. That, and I've become addicted the new My Little Pony, although not yet to the point of reading fanfiction. At this rate, I'll never get anything done.

Anyways, it's been way too long since I posted anything on here, so I'm going to do that wip meme that's going around:

1. Go to page 77 (or 7) of your current ms.
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines – sentences or paragraphs – and post them as they’re written.
4. Inspire your subscribers to do it too.


“We died, Wendy. Don't you remember?”
“No! No, you're not dead!” I denied.
“Then why didn't Mother and Father see us?” John asked softly. Hope gripped me. Mother had still been gripped by a dream until she'd been distracted. I turned and ran down the hall.
“Mother! Mother, we're home!” I entered my parents' bedroom and went to where Mother sat by a bassinet, nursing my little sister.
“Mother?” I asked when she didn't respond. I reached out to her, but stopped before making contact when I realized I could see her through my hand. It wasn't just John and Michael my brother had been referring to.
“No,” I whispered before despair and rage swept through me. “No! It's not true! It's not!”
I ran through the house. My hands went through Father, who didn't even flinch while shaving. Nana was nowhere to be found inside or out, and I ignored the little voice in my head that said, Of course not. Father got rid of her after...


For those of you who don't remember, or don't read my LJ, The Lost Ones is my attempt at a professional version of what is, essentially, Peter Pan fanfiction. I start with the general assumption that the original story happened, but that one of the early interpretations - that Peter's a psychopomp (which Barrie pretty much confirms in story) and it's a dead child story - is true and thus continue the story after the original ends. I'm not yet at page 77, so that's page 7. I'm not terribly certain how well I'm doing with an early 20th century British voice, although setting the spellchecker to British English is probably helping.

Oh, if anyone wants to read the original story, it's online here: James Barrie's Peter Pan. I recommend it. Too many people are used to the Disney version (which I've never liked) and the original story's actually a bit darker than you'd think.