Ayshela

Hah, and Alaeha walks in to prove me wrong.. LOL i'll direct her in to this, i'm sure she'll have better answers.

Beautiful, Rune. A wonderful poem done full justice.

Alaeha isn't home tonight to answer this, so i'll jump in and take a quick shot at it - small guesstimate on the issue of time limit: Alaeha mentioned starting on the second day of the Ball. I'm tentatively planning on throwing open the Ballroom doors in a week, so it would be, say, the end of next week or next weekend that her project would start. i imagine that it could run on as long as the ball does, for those who need a bit more time. i *think* that as that event opens i'll be introducing Alaeha within the ball thread and turning the stage over to her, but she will probably be opening a separate thread for her project, but the coordination of that will be up to her. does that help?

and much appreciated!

*giggles* okay, now that could get rather disturbing... this is the Fall Ball, not the Falling Towel Ball.. though the twisted homage would be quite an amusing idea. Oh, and Salinye - it's only the "same outfit" if it's the same colour/pattern towel worn the same way.

oh goodness.. which ones do i check regularly which haven't already been listed??? hrmm.. oh, will point to Megatokyo again, simply because it's *that* good. Kevin and Kell It's Walky Clan of the Cats some phenomenal artwork on this one! Sea of Insanity Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet i LOVE this one Bruno Not to be confused with Bruno the Bandit, this is QUITE different, and the one comic that i check even if i check no others

Again - NO date required. You may certainly bring a date if you like, but it is not a requirement. Lady Celes - i greatly appreciate the offer, but have the Ballroom pretty well drafted already, and one of the requirements was that i establish the setting for the event. Zariah - why? oh, maybe.. because it was well done?

=) no, i don't either, Canid, so it isn't just you for whatever that may be worth.

absolutely. All i REQUEST is that as many as possible make an appearance and introduce themselves, so that the new members (and some who haven't been here for a while and are back) have the most complete awareness of just who comprise the membership here. Beyond that, there will be lots of time and opportunity for interaction, dancing, conversation.. who knows, someone may set up a drinking contest at the bar, loser has to recite a tongue-twister or some such.. lol the more interaction the better, and this would be a splendid opportunity for those who haven't role-played in a long time, or ever, to stretch a bit and have some fun with it. And for those who for whatever reason can't.. please come and introduce yourselves anyway.

wonderful! i'm sure your coworker will treasure it.

Rune, you're reading my mind! i was just thinking of this thread earlier this mornng. *hugs*

*giggle* hon, if you're appearing in a towel you're fair game, but at this point the thought hadn't crossed my mind. i have a LOT of prewriting to do before the Ball properly opens. When that happens i'll open a separate thread posting all the groundwork and throwing the doors open. At that point any who want to may just post to the thread - the only need to PM me an entrance to the Ball is if you're going to be out of town or some such, unavailable to post but still wanting to attend. As hostess i'll be here and there and about, and i believe Alaeha has approval for a project she will be announcing which will dovetail as the main entertainment.. but once the main thread is opened, it's open. hmm.. as i think about it.. you're not planning on appearing in a formal towel, are you?

Why do they call the Pacific Northwest God's country? Because you walk on water nine months out of the year.

*giggle* i'm sorry, i should have specified that! Come as you are, and no date required.

Main Thread here ~~~ Yay! i've had my Quill Quest project approved, so this is your official "warning shot across the bow" and Very Polite Request to please be present at the Ball. The project and reasoning are thus: i will be hostessing a Fall Ball for all the members and honoured guests of the pen. It will take me probably a week or so to get the preliminary writing done, and i will be starting an official Fall Ball thread and posting the build-up and opening of the Ball at that time. What i need from each of you is very limited, but very important - i need your presence.. your entry to the ball and as complete a description of your character (with any particular quirks, traits, or talents as appropriate) as possible. The reasoning: we have a LOT of new members and pending members here. i joined The Pen on the 31st of March, and to this day i could list on the fingers of one hand the members i know well enough to be comfortable including in my writing in ANY way - one of whom i live with and one of whom has gone inactive. This situation severely limits the feasability of any role-played interaction or interactive writing. What i hope for is that by completely introducing our characters - description, personality quirks, special talents, personal preferences as appropriate, however we choose to introduce ourselves.. that our newer members will feel more comfortable taking part in interactive writings and working with each other and us as community members. As a part of the process i will be establishing the existence of a general Ballroom on the thread for The Many Rooms of the Might Pen Keep thread (as the only one mentioned there is in Lady Celes Crusader's tower and i'm loathe to take over another's space). (and BTW there is a LOT Of good writing there, if you haven't taken a look at it i strongly recommend you do so.) Again, it will take me a week or so to get the preliminary writing done. The Ball itself can go on as long as people continue to have an interest in it, but for story-line reasons i will be closing out character introductions on the 30th of this month. If you would like your character to make an appearance but will be unable to post between, say, the fifteenth and thirthieth, please PM me and i will make sure you are present. if you have any questions feel free to either ask them here or PM me. Thank you. i'm looking forward to becoming better acquainted with you all. ~Ayshela

Yawning sleepily, Alise wandered into the kitchen and started the coffee brewing. Looking at the clock she nodded to herself; it would be half an hour before anyone else awoke. She had plenty of time. Stepping out into the dining room, she crossed to the bookshelves and removed a battered notebook from the top shelf. She listened closely to the sounds around her as she walked quietly to the table. Silence from upstairs, soft snoring from down the hall – good, everyone was still asleep. She seated herself at the table, removed the pen from the spiral binding, and froze listening as she heard movement from the bedroom. When the muffled snoring resumed, she uncapped the pen, opened the notebook and began to write. Quickly, almost feverishly, she wrote line after line and page after page. The words flowed off the end of her pen as a jumble of thoughts whirled through her head, each trying to be the next to be written. Without rhyme or reason she wrote on, simple expression the only goal. When the whirlwind of thoughts finally spun itself out, Alise stopped and gently capped her pen. “Just in time,” she murmured, looking toward the ceiling at the sound of an alarm clock being knocked to the floor. She closed the notebook and replaced the pen in the binding. Rising from her seat she crossed the floor to the bookshelves and carefully placed the notebook back in its space. An odd place to keep a private notebook, some might say, but really – what better place? Who would ever open and read a notebook entitled “Spring Cleaning”?

i'll second that!!

so did i.. and it wasn't a large scale problem.. but it seemed some clarification was in order.

once i have a few moments of consecutive non-headache-blinded time, i'll get my entry for this one typed up. But, to clarify a point or two - YES i wholeheartedly agree that, especially with such ambiguous words (which were deliberately selected so), context matters. That's a major portion of the point of the exercise here. We communicate through words. IRL, face to face, nonverbal cues can clarify meaning, but here, IRC, instant messengers, PM or e-mail - words are all we have. There have been many instances around here of miscommunication and "oh no, that wasn't what i meant" and sometimes that's caused because words mean different things to different people. So, i thought, what better way for everyone to become aware of that than to have a little fun with it? I admit, i thought that as the exercise progressed our habits as writers would take over and the definitions would become more illustrative than narrative, but i didn't want to say "you HAVE to write a poem" or "you HAVE to write a story or scene" because i wanted to leave it open to everyone. The general gist of the exercise is - here's a word. When you read that word, what does it mean to you - first thought, because that's your most immediate association with it. Now.. provide the context and show us what it means **to you**, and when we have everyone's illustrations all lined up we can stand back and giggle a bit, and realize how very differently we all understand things. Choosing your words carefully is not a life-or-death skillset for everyone, which is a good thing, because it means it hasn't had to be. Yet for those who want to communicate effectively, sometimes you need to learn the skills learned early on by those for whom it was. i thought this would be a fun way to handle some of that. *shrug* (edited - i *will* learn to type in complete sentences, truly i will)

*groooooaaannn* a shaggy dog if ever i saw one... and punny to boot! LOL

Nicely written and i think a goodly number here could relate

i don't think it really loses direction, but the extended second lines of the last verses do interrupt the flow which makes it *feel* as if it loses direction. *hugs*

Ayshela scampers into the Cabaret Room, still smelling faintly of catnip from Pink Neko's birthday. "well," she thinks, "at least it's still appropriate!" Quickly decorating the room with lots of dangly streamers, she then brings in a large layer cake in the shape of a ball, with bells on the top. *giggle* Happy Birthday! i hope your day is marvelous!

Peredhil - yes, it is. that's part of the point.

I'll try to get these up on Mondays, though today i'm only making it by a half hour or so. Defining ambiguous words to illustrate the variance in definitions - what better word than this to define? normal Have fun!