LothSilme's Journal

Phantaralsicol or Fantaralsicol for non-Phantom fans. (fan-tuh-ral-zik-ole) -a fan, or phangirl meshed from the words of their top obsessions: Phantom (spelled F if only the following apply) fantasy, ancient, fairy tale, musical, and historical. Some characteristics of a phantaralsicol include; wearing period costumes and cloaks in public, having a collection of musical CDs, Phantomesque items, and medieval/ancient objects, and having a general adoration for anything historical or old fashioned. Mostly made up of girls, phantaraliscols often critique historical dramas for their accuracy, and want to bring back styles from the 12th through 19th centuries.

Just so those labelers have a word to label me with. Oh... is it too hard for you to say? *pouty expression of obvious mockery* Maybe you should just get to know people as PEOPLE, and not as a herd of cattle who share similar spots.

-x-Edited because Kit is smarter than me-x-
This just in!
Phantasmagorical
This actually works, too, even though it's a word already in existence and means,
1.a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination. 2.a changing scene made up of many elements. 3.an optical illusion produced by a magic lantern or the like in which figures increase or diminish in size, pass into each other, dissolve, etc.

So it really fits for a fan-girl who has a vast and varying amount of interests, mostly having to do with those words above that look like they could really mesh into phantasmagorical. And this one may be easier to remember. I couldn't even remember the first one. xP Either way, we're pretty much shortened to 'phans.' Since I doubt the kind of people who label others will be able to say the entire thing. Ooo, big words! Scary!

It's what everyone is talking about.. the new Quizilla. Here are my opinionated opinions.

Good:
-The quiz editor makes a lot more sense with the adding results and answers.
-You can still open things in a new window.
-When you put a meno in a story, you can actually see where it goes and people can really read it.
-Change can mean progress, and progress means we're one step closer to flying cars.

Bad:
-No pretty HTML/CSS layouts for stories. (So I just wasted about five hours of my life by prettifying LAAS and my One-shot and such.
-Where is the mascot? Quizilla without Penny is like the Phantom without his roses and cape.
-What's this I hear about censoring swear words? So... the whole rating thing is pointless? It would be better if users were just required to put a note at the beginning of each story or chapter explaining what it's rated for. That way we're all forewarned, and no one has to get angry about getting things blocked.
Phanty wasn't raised right. He can't help but swear.

Unsure yet:
-Homepages. Picking a layout and messing with it to fit your special info (adding music playlists and such) are part of the liberty we have in expressing our personalities here. I don't know how these will work on the new site, but so far it looks like they'll all be white washed clone pages. Boring, bland, and stupid. Besides, if we can't use HTML/CSS homepages, poor Aoife's head will explode from the time she wasted in painstakingly figuring out how to set her current one up! Don't let the Irish chicka die!!!
-The site layout. It's like they wanted to make it more fun with the scribble things, but I like Quizilla's plainness, actually. It's not distracting from the stories. We're painting a picture here with our words, and we (that is I) don't want princessy/swirly/or ANY decorations really on every single page, including the ones that host my phan-fiction which has nothing to do with tiaras and stars. (Unless you talk to Christine, but the point of the pf is kicking her out.) It just doesn't look professional enough for authors that want to be taken seriously. It's too juvinile (sp?). If people want pretty, fun story layouts, THAT'S WHAT THE FREAKING HTML IS FOR!!!
-Folders vs. the current 'new story editor. I want my table of contents to show up on the side so that when I'm reading a story, I can just click on the next link. That's the best think Quizilla ever added or changed on their site. They better keep it or I'm getting out the ski masks and machine guns. Maybe it's going to be easier to change the order of your chapters, too. That would be great. But if it's all just thrown in folders like they are now, that doesn't help a whole lot in my eyes.

Ok, here's my updates on myself.
In stories, I am currently working on LAAS, Chapter 16. This is probably the easiest story I have to work on, but with all my other distractions and pleasures, there's no telling how long it will take for me to write it out. I am also attempting to add about 2-3 chapters in A&E I: A Predestined Marriage. It's sad that the only thing I finished could use some extra... stuff, but I like the extendedness, so hope for that soon. I just have to make sure when I sandwich it in, that it doesn't conflict with the rest of the story or mess stuff up and it still flows and all that junk.
The distractions you can blame the lack of updates for are as follows:
Maple Story -I know... a friend got me hooked and now I have five characters I want to level up. >.<
Christmas -I'm almost done with presents, but I need some more wrapping paper. I'm sure you all know how busy this time of the year is.
My health -Moi has a cold. It's the evil, sinus preasure cold with much sneezing and aching.
Period dramas -What better way to fight a cold than with a large mug of hot drink, and a box of joy? AKA: Top hatted gentlemen with fencing shirts and nice jackets who are not ashamed of proclaiming their undying affection for the story's heroine. :) You know you envy me.
Brothers. -With Maple Story being first downloaded on my laptop, my brothers WILL NOT LEAVE ME ALONE!!! They guilt trip me every time I kick them off to use my laptop! It's MINE for crying out loud! Sheeeeesh. Yet, I get branded as a selfish sister when I use it for multiple things such as e-mailing, writing,...etc... *growl* It's not like mine is the only computer in the house. It's just the nicest.

So, that's about it. Of course I'm still working on A&E II, and I have the main plot for A&E III jotted down on Notebook. But I'm not going into that right now. I sort of started 'Cindarella' of Happily Ever Altered, but it hasn't come out right. The first couple paragraphs just don't please me, so I may leave that for another time, too. Or I'll clean it up... I don't know.

God bless us, one and all and Merry Christmas!!
XXXs from,
Beth, the froggie princess

You all pretty much know I've had a busy week and dropped off the face of the planet for a while. Happiness!! I get to go see Phantom when it comes to our town!! Hopefully. I mean, most likely. If we ever find out when my friend is going so we can order tickets. I love music. I have a huge list of songs already set out for my wedding. There's going to be TONS of dancing. xD
I'm kind of in a bad mood right now. I know that sounds weird after I just pronounced my joy and happiness... but really, I'm ready to attack someone in a dark alley. Who? Oh, no one in particular. Just whoever has the ability to make us robots that will wash dishes for us and hasn't. Whoever continues to misinterperate some of the greatest novels of all time and make cinematic crap like the 2005 Pride and Prejudice remake. Or idiots who never opened a history book in their lives and decided to make another retarded love story between John Smith and Pochahontas. The girl was freaking 12 years old when he was 40+ for crying out loud!! Is not that creepy, disturbing, and completely unoriginal? Also consider the fact that real life was EVEN MORE ROMANTIC!! I think Rolfe is an awesome historical figure. Who else am I enraged against? Let's see... rude store employees, Raoul bashers, old guys who yell at my dog, and music links that don't work. *sniffles*
I feel better now. =)

So, last night I thought I was going to die. I seriously did. My right hand was tingling and going numb and this pain shot up my arm and all I could think about was how people get heart attacks after their right hand going numb. I got up, wrote a note for my family, just in case, prayed that dying wouldn't feel like suffocating, and woke my Dad up just in case there was something he could do if I did have a heart attack. Of course, I just told him I couldn't sleep because my hand felt weird, but yeah... he was fast asleep and snoring within three minutes. I kept startling myself awake thinking I had already died or my breathing was too slow or whatever. But look at me!! I'm alive today! And I got my meds from the pharmacy for my hand pain. The doc now says it could be caused from hyperventelation... which I didn't even know I do. But it kind of makes sense because my hands seem to hurt when I stress out. So she's having me breath in a paper bag (haa, I look so funny when I do that) and I took some meds a little bit ago because my hands have been really hurting today. The side affects are supposed to be increase in activities and talking (mania) -If you know me at all, this is hilarious. Aggresion, thoughts of suicide, violent outbursts...etc...
You can just call me Hyde. Beth Hyde. MWAHAHAAA! "What is this feeling of power and drive, I've never known? I FEEL ALIVE!!" Sorry... more musicals. Really, I'm not suffering from Hydeness right now. But there it is.

In case my recent string of updating goes kaput for a while, here's the post I made on my Xanga explaining why:

Today I had a test at the neurologist for my hands. I was a bit nervous because the doctor said that the odd looking, two pronged metal thing she was putting on different parts of my arm would feel kind of like getting shocked on a door in the winter. I hate that feeling. In fact, I've felt like crying in the store from it happening more than two or three times. I can normally handle pain. I've grown up with 6 brothers, so cuts, scrapes, bruises... all that I can handle pretty well. But I will tell you, if I know the pain is coming before hand, I am the hugest baby you will ever know.
For a while, I was doing okay. Although I thought the sensation of the little metal thing making the nerves in my hands jump was far worse than just, "unpleasant," I soldiered through without complaint. However, the doctor had to hurt me with that thing a lot, and soon after the eighth time, I felt like crying as well as quitting, but I didn't want to sound like a baby by sobbing my head off and asking her to please stop it.
I wasn't sure how much longer I could take it, when my brain obviously figured I was through, and it told me to faint. So I blacked out entirely. I was only out for a few seconds, but it was long enough for odd flashes of my life to race in my mind while I was lying there. I saw my brothers, and friends, and parents, and so many things that I'd never remember them all, but the weirdest thing is the one near the end where I was dancing with Fiyero (The prince from 'Wicked' the musical) and I was green. I was wondering why on earth I was green, when I came to and I realized that I was at the doctor and my head was swimming, and the room was lopsided, or sideways, maybe. First, I felt sick to my stomach, and I nearly threw up, then as my head cleared a little, I wanted to cry again because I wasn't dancing anymore and I thought I might have to take the test over. But what the doctor already had of the test showed no signs of carpal tunnel or any of the other weird nerve problems that she was looking for, and thank the Lord, she said she wasn't going to try to get any more information from the same testing, because it would most likely come out normal, anyway. Apparently, my fainting spell is something that runs in the family. It made a lot of sense to the doctor when I told her that my cousin has had fainting spells, too. It's kind of how some people get sick at the sight of blood, or from pricking their finger. Mine was caused from fear of the metal machine thing. It made perfect sense to me that that's what set it off. Think terrified. I guess I didn't know I was capable of fainting. I always wondered what it was like, though, and now I know. So if I ever need to write a story about a poor damsel in distress who faints- I'll be able to write from experience and relate to her as well.
Mom bought me some lunch and that made me feel better. I'd had a large breakfast, so it wasn't from lack of nourishment, but like I said, it's hereditary and hasn't anything to do with not eating. Soon as I got home, I went to sleep to try to get rid of the headache that was caused from it. I just woke up after a three hour nap.
I should have worn the pretty, medieval dress that I just picked up from Sara's to the doctor like she said. Then I could have fainted in true princess fashion. Oh well, I'm not looking forward to fainting again. Just don't chase me with odd looking metal devices, and I think I'll be ok.
Here's some irony, for you, though. All through the waiting room and in the room waiting for the doc, I was singing 'Dancing Through Life.' Now I know that life really is more painless for the brainless. 

Maybe this entry deserves some background history;

You know the guys you see in a movie, or listen to on a CD, or even randomly pass on the street, and they're so awesome that you immediately put them on your list of potential husbands whether they're fictional, way out of your league, or whatever? Well around here, we all call that 'next husbands.'
 
The phrase started as a weird joke. My best friend's real husband pointed out some fat clown (literal term) on a poster, and said, "Hey Beth, that's your next husband!" Now, apparently, his family had been doing that for a while before I ever heard of next husbands, but now my friends and I say that when there are actually desirable menfolk around. In fact, one of my friends helped me make a chronological list of how I'd marry each of my fictional next husbands starting with the ones living in the past and moving all the way to the future.

Wanna see the list of the top ones!?

Of course you do! And here it is!

Carth Onasi (Knights of the Old Republic RPG) -A long long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Longer ago than the Star Wars movies in fact, because Carth was boppin' around 4,000 years before 'the fall of the Republic.'
Raoul de Chagny (Phantom of the Opera) -1870
Robin the Boy Wonder (Teen Titans) -Modern day
Zac Efron (High School Musical) -Modern day
Simon Tam (Firefly and Serenity) -Future

Who are your next husbands?

From The Scarlet Pimpernel Broadway:

Percy: As roses bend through breeze, unbend me.
Marguerite: As the rose bends to the sun.
Percy: And in the darkness, please, defend me.
Marguerite: Two in love become as one.
Both: As waves lean on the sea; My love, come lean on me. I do believe in you.

My best friend was joined in holy matrimony on October 13th of this year. As you can imagine, the weeks before were spent in a flurry of exciting preparations, which I, as one of her six bridesmaids was involved in. If this isn't enough explanation for my absence from Quizilla, I'd like to see you kiss your best friend goodbye as she's leaving the church in her traveling clothes with the love of her life as you try not to cry on her shoulder while you realize that although she is supremely happy, nothing will ever be quite the same with her married- and still feel like writing a fictional love story when you get back.
Yes, I'm still going to write. It's not like marriage is a death sentence to fantasy. Especially when I'm not the one that got hitched. But the reality of it all is kind of trying.
However, the lull in the drama as it were, is leaving me some free time for the moment. I'll try to catch up in my stories along with my history and Bible classes. (Dad will be pleased.)

In other... minor notes... I'm turning 17 years old on Thursday!! (Ya'll thought I was younger, huh?) ((12, maybe?))

Oh! Here's what I gathered from my poll about Happily Ever Altered:
A&E II seems to be the favorite of my stories, closely followed by Life as a Song. LAAS is really easy to write, as long as I just sit down and type, but as A&E II is part of a 'series' kind of thing, I'm going to work on that one mostly. As for Who Needs Christine?, I'll keep up with that semi-often since it's a joint project with Kit. (TwistedxTears)
The idea of starting out the stories with Once Upon a Time is not as popular as the original idea, but since the votes are close, I think I'll start the first story with Once Upon a Time... and the rest will be something different.
Happy endings and tragedy are always tied! So guess what? ALTERNATE ENDIGNS!! Whoot!
Don't know when I'll start these. I have most of the plots of all of them typed out on notepad already. So we'll see. Wish me luck!

In celebration of my newly working fingers.. (still don't know what caused the problem, but they've been fine for a while, now.) I have decided to give you all a sneek peek at an upcoming series I plan on writing sometime before I die. (Hopefully.)

The name; Happily Ever Altered: A Collection of Futuristic Fairy Tales
The idea; Just what it says. I'm taking the classic fairy tales like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red, and Thumbelina (to name a few) and setting the stories in a futuristic world. Expect some odd twists along the way, like, sleeping serums instead of spindles, evil scientists instead of witches, and new names for the enduring princesses.
Your job; I have already a lot of other projects to work on before I can start anything new, so please find the poll I made for this and help me out! I kind of titled the quiz, 'Help Me Out!' or something like that, and I can't change it now, so that's what it is. Go find it. ;)
The warning; If you steal my idea for this and take advantage of the fact that I have a busy life and too much inspiration to work it all out at once, I will make you a social Quizilla outcast! (Don't think I can't do it. I may be small, but I have powerful friends.) And did you know that stories are automatically copywrited? That's right. I don't have to do anything but write it out from my own little brain and it's MINE. Nice, isn't it? =)
The thanks; I <3 all you lovely fans. And a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who supported me during the whole hand/finger issue. I really appreciate it. You know who you are. *mwah*
~Beth M. W.

I figured it was a good idea to update you all with a creation; namely, this journal post. I don't know how many of you read the updates on my homepage, so I thought this might be an easier way to clue you all in on my lack of updating stories. (A&E II, Life as a Song, Who Needs Christine?, Once I Dreamt... etc...)

I know on my homepage it says I'm taking a break due to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, but I just saw my doctor and I'm not so sure that's what it is. (CT normally comes with numbness, and that's one symptom I do not have.) The pins and needles feeling has gone away for now, although it's been replaced with soreness/weakness/occasional spasms in my hands and fingers. Taking a break from typing seems to have helped, so I really don't know when I'll get back to regular updates. It all depends on what is wrong with me and what I need to do to fix it. I'd be devastated (obviously) if this meant that I couldn't write much anymore. I write for the same reason I breathe; if I didn't- I'd die. So maybe that's a bit dramatic, but I cried at least four times last night thinking the doc might tell me not to type anymore. Thank God she didn't. But she did send me to get X-rays, blood work, and eventually to see a Neurologist- just in case.

This is something I wanted you all to know so that you're not wondering about goblins whisking me away to their gothic citadel of horror, or me impulsively running off with another fictional fiance, or even being stricken with the plague and infecting all I come in contact to. With the imagination of the writers around here, you never know what might come to mind. ;)

Anyway... I'm pretty upset. And my hands are starting to hurt again so I'll have to go. God bless you all. ~Beth M. W. (I figured out my writer's signature if I ever publish anything.) ;D Sounds professional, don't it? xP

I hadn't planned on starting one of these because I already have a million projects I should be working on, but I couldn't stand the Quizilla homepage a minute longer without speaking my often outspoken mind.

Query; What's up with the highest rated/most popular creations these days? Am I the only one sick of sifting through Naruto seven minutes in heaven quizzes and stories about singers that I'm not even familiar with? And honestly, I wasn't that thrilled over the Harry Potter series, so why would I want to read fan fiction based on the characters from it?
The problem isn't just the type of stories and quizzes. It's the complete illiteracy that some of these quizillers have while publishing their work. I'm not grammar queen, but at least I have the decency to run my stories through a spell check before releasing them. Is it possible that a lot of these readers now are just kids who are looking for cheap sentiment?
I have no problem with mush/romance/fuzzy wuzzy fairy tales. Heck, I love 'em. But some of the stuff I've read is just blabber about undeveloped characters who are more interested in lust and physical contact than anything else. You'd think that being on the most popular/highest rated list means that it's what everyone else wants to read, but maybe it's our fault for not rating good material when we do come across it.
Be honest- we're all guilty. Too excited to get to the next chapter of story to bother clicking a couple buttons that will take you out of your way. Well, I'm here asking you all to rate! Not even my own work. Just anything other than the same old, unoriginal stuff.
Call me hypocritical if you like; I've got a piece of Phan-phic, an alternate Phantom ending and a completed arranged marriage story, but I've got at least four other projects that are completely and utterly original. (Not to mention the fact that I've had my arranged marriage story scribbled on a piece of notebook paper since before I discovered the joys of Quizilla.)
Am I asking too much for the Quizlla stories to have some kind of plot or structure? Are we getting sucked into this stuff just because it's a turn on?
Give me some feedback, I'd like to hear what you think. Please, no language if you disagree. Slang is fine if you can't express yourself strongly enough with flowery adjectives- but keep it clean.

Note: I'm not disrespecting any fan-fiction works/vampire stories/HP stuff or anything like that. I just would like to see more originality around here, that's all. And the same goes for the quizzes.
*Header quote, "A clue: No." is taken from Robin Hood the BBC drama series. Great show! The quote is something the hilariously wacky sherrif always says.