archonproject

I was tagged by


RULES :
- Write the rules in your journal entry if you are tagged
- Write 13 things about yourself
- Answer 13 questions made by the person who tagged you, and make your own 13 questions.~
- Tag 13 deviants. Make sure they know they are tagged
- Don't say "You're tagged if you read this"
- It is forbidden not to tag anyone.
- No tagging back.

Oooh, no tagging back...that's unkewl.  *swat*  However, I shall get you back for this, Rattie...so help me... *mwahahaha!*

13 things about me -

1) I'm over a half-century old (yet I don't feel like I'm over 35)

2) I sometimes forget to eat, despite being over-weight.

3) When I asked my dad to teach me how to drive a standard, he asked if I had been taught when I was in Driver's Ed, I said yes and he tossed me the keys.  For the next thirty minutes (after choosing a cross-street with stop signs every block) the car died every time I stopped.  HOWEVER I did manage to drive back home without it dying once.    (my mom was livid with my dad's nonchalant attitude but a month later he signed the car over to me)  lol

4) I am addicted to cigarettes and Dr. Pepper

5) I once taught a bouncer how to flip a person over their shoulder.

6) I used to be a sweet 36-24-36, however, that was so long ago I hardly remember what it was like.

7) I can play quite a few instruments including piano, flute, clarinet and drums.

8) I talk to my computer when I'm alone (and thankfully it doesn't talk back)

9) I've been married twice and both times were painful in more than one way.

10) I have 3 grown boys and am a very proud mom!  

11) I've been told that I have a penchant for dreaming up the most interesting names for my characters and a lot of them are completely made up.

12) I played World of Warcraft for 10 years straight.  (I haven't played it in almost 2 years though)

13) I always wanted to be a writer but being my own worst critic I rather doubt that'll ever happen.


My 13 Questions from

1) If you could have ONE uber-expensive toy, ( car, jet, rocket, satellite, etc... ) what would it be?  Jeep 4x4, gun-metal grey with soft-top and ALL the trimmings (that means it MUST be a standard...I hate automatics)

2) What is your favourite genre of books?  Erm...sci-fi/fantasy

3) What's the strangest food you have ever eaten?  sushi (I'm not big on trying strange food )

4) If you could go to ANY universe, IE: Harry Potter, LOTR, FFVII, etc, where would you go?  Well, duh...FFVII, or more precisely, Rabid Tiger-verse

5) Cake or pie?  definitely pie  

6) Ever met any of your heroes?  I don't think I have any 'heroes' altho my dad has always been the person I look up to so I guess yes, if that qualifies?

7) Oh no! You've been sucked into a fan fic and are now a Mary-Sue! You can use your powers of Sue to make the characters do anything you want! What do you do?  Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what a Mary-Sue is.  Yeh, I'm not the brightest crayon in the box but what else is new.  However, to make the characters of my favorite fan fic do anything I want them to...uh, you really don't want me to type that out here.  It's sorta x-rated.  *waggles eyebrows*

8) What's your idea of the ultimate pet?  A chocobo!  Oh wait...you mean a real type of pet?  A cat.  Cats are kewl.  And one day I hope to own a Scottish Fold. (if I am ever living alone in my life, which, if I have my way will be as soon as my parents pass this world)

9) Who is your favourite actor?  That'd be a toss-up between Sean Connery (no man should look that good at that age, seriously!) and Kurt Russell (he can play any type of role and still look good).  

10) If you could do one incredibly dangerous thing, KNOWING you will not be hurt, what would you do?  Hang-gliding I think.  Always wanted to try it but was never able to get up the nerve.

11) Storms or sunshine?  Storms (love the way thunder sounds and the drilling of heavy raindrops on the roof)

12) You found a magic potion that can take you back to any point in your life, but it's permanent. Do you go?  No.  I'd rather not go through any of that again, thanx.  (nope, not even the good times)  However, if you happen to have a magic potion that cures stupid, or erases the idiocy of my choices in life, I'll give you my right arm!

13) What's your dream job?  Getting paid for doing whatever I want whenever I want.  Yeh.  That.  

My 13 questions to my unwitting victims:

1) Are you right or left-handed?
2) What do you consider your strength?  Your weakness?
3) What is your earliest memory?
4) What is your favorite time of year?  Why?
5) Did you go to college?  If so, what did you major in?
6) Introvert or extrovert?
7) Your best friend is taking you for a 'night on the town'.  What do you want to do?
8) What was your most embarrassing moment?
9) What is the color you most surround yourself with?  (doesn't have to be your favorite color)
10) What is your spirit animal? (or the animal you most compare yourself to)
11) Are you more likely to go out with friends or stay home with a good book?
12) What's your favorite television program?
13) Do you consider on-line friends real friends, or just acquaintences?

I tag -

To the world beyond the screen (and all who inhabit it) -- halo!  and I'm not dead yet!

For those who care, or who accidentally happen to flicker past my page/profile, I also send warm hellos and howdy's and hugs.  It's been a while...a long while...and I don't have an amazing excuse to present to you.  However, it has been inordinately (and strangely) busy in my life these past few months.  I'm not quite sure what happened other than I was accepted by Medicaid and I've been working to get my body back into shape (which is a challenge worthy of Hercules) as well as find some balance in my mental attitude (which is far past that earlier challenge and is a scary mountain to climb).  I've been doing lots of things...and in between, nothing of note.  But the brief moments of 'nothing-at-all' have been far too brief, believe me.  I've been surprised just how my life now has become weirdly reminiscent of life-before-my-kids-were-grown.  You know how that goes, right?  The whole "ohmygod, I need some down-time!" and the brief few seconds of "geebus, I'm so glad that's over"...?  Yeh, you know.    So there hasn't been time to do much beyond re-gather my tiny little braincells (what remain of them) and shove them back into my head, hoping that I'll at least be coherient enough to continue to fool the world around me into thinking I'm okay/happy/....sane.  *mwahahaha*

Most recently, the past week or so, I was surprised to find myself in the hospital.  Nothing horribly serious, but I must say that in retrospect, I had the foolish idea that one should be allowed rest and recuperation in a hospital setting.  I was sadly mistaken.  I was being poked (daily), prodded (everytime a doctor shockingly appeared for a moment), x-rayed (repeatedly over a 4-day period), stuck and re-stuck (far too often) by needles and passing-fair professional vampires, drained of blood (twice a day), and utterly ignored when I actually -needed- something.  That's not to say that the hospital nor their staff was inept, merely torturous in their endeavor to find the root of the problem.  And the resting thing?  C'mon.  When you have them bring others breakfast at 6, lunch at 11, supper at 5 and deny you the blessed wonder of a simple glass of water for almost 2 days...yeh, there's not much sleep going on.  Slamming doors, laughter and arguments outside my own, the monotonous horror of a heart monitor next door (which I found myself listening to intently when it began to race at 4 in the morning), clunking and rattling of dishes and equipment at all hours of the day/night...and they call this a hospital?  Honestly, I stupidly thought there would be -some- sleep and/or rest given here.  Stupid me.  And the bed?  Seriously, I've never been one to argue the generously-given private room in any shelter from a storm.  However, after a night on a metal plate with only a scant 3 inches of foam between me and that metal... I wasn't a happy camper.  By night three I was calling for pain medication from the intense agony of my hip-bones and legs literally pounding pain through them with each drawn breath.  Lucky me, I was mobile, that's to say I could get up and walk (taking my buddy Harry with me, with his several bags of whosywhatsit) wherever I wanted to go.  Alas, pain medication and a half dozen colorful bags of god-knows-what every four hours doesn't a steady-Archette make.  I lived though, and I'm grateful I'm alive and kicking and sane enough to actually be able to grouse about the whole ordeal.   I found out I have fatty liver disease and, to those who don't know, that's not as horrible as it might sound.  The odd thing seems to be that I'm neither a drinker nor do I have diabetes, but I've managed to get this disease nonetheless.  And what do I do about this situation?  I asked...and the response was a simple: lose weight.  Seriously?  Like I haven't been trying to do that for years now?  <_<  I asked for perhaps some sort of diet I could follow, or exercise regimen I might struggle through...but no.  There was nothing but 'lose weight'.  Well thanx for that doc.  'Preciate all your valuable insight.  *le sigh*

So, I'm back again, still in the same situation I was before pretty much, still fighting against gravity, age and my weight problem, still working to try to become a better person, still hoping that the few friends I had/have on dA haven't all forgotten and/or left me behind.  

I also recently had a birthday and although it wasn't anything to get all excited about (basically just another day with my children calling to wish me good tidings and a simple lunch-out), I was somewhat downtrodden than I got only one well-wisher on dA.  I shouldn't be surprised, I know.  I mean, seriously, I'm hardly around anymore, or at least not enough for people to know I am...and for that I apologize.  But the lack of simple hellos was a bit depressing.  *tsk*  I feel bad that I've missed so much, that I've not been around for my friends and others I know and see around dA and again, I have no seriously impressive excuse other than I've been so busy lately I hardly have time to sit down anymore.  I've actually got a calendar now which reminds me of things I need to do and that hasn't happened (or been needed) in long years.  My son regularly texts me to remind me of those things too (and I blushingly admit I still forget the small things).  However, I do want you guys to know that I'm still around and I do intend to try my best to get back to what I once enjoyed here...at least that is my fervent hope and wish.  I miss the laughs and the jokes, the jibes and the fun times and I miss being around when things go wonky and the world crashes around my friends' heads and hearts.  It hurts me to know that I've missed so much and that some of my friends are long-lost now.  One specifically whom I dearly cherished and now I can't even email her because I stupidly never got her email address despite the many times we chatted.  *headdesk*  

Specifically to MagicRat I want to say that I'm going to sit down and get that review written, although I fear its far too late for that.  I had originally planned it out and begun a review but somehow by some horrific magic (my computer hates me), I lost that original idea so I must begin again.  Frack and hells-be-damned.  But I will get it written if it kills me!  

To the many others I know and love here, I can only say I apologize that I haven't been around but I still hope you're all well and safe.  If you can find a moment to drop by and simply say "hi, I'm still alive" that would be a great comfort to me and would cheer me very much.  I honestly do think of you guys all the time and worry about you, your families and want to know how your lives are going.

 Much love to all, hugs to any and all who want them.  Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things very, very soon.    

-- Archette

Just like the title says, you can win the hardback edition of the book "Gryphons" by Alyx Jae Shaw!  All you have to do is go here:

CONTEST! WIN A HARDCOVER BOOK!LORDS AND LADIES PRAY ATTEND!
HEY YOU! YES YOU! D’YA LIKE BOOKS? D’YA LIKE FREE BOOKS? D’YA LIKE FREE BOOKS AUTOGRAPHED BY THE AUTHOR?! THEN THIS IS THE CONTEST FOR YOU!
OMG HOW DO I ENTER?! – easy! Just post a link to this journal entry on your DA journal, and then let me know you have done it so your name can go into the draw!
WHAT DO I WIN?! – A FREE AUTOGRAPHED HARDCOVER EDITION OF ‘GRYPHONS’ BY ALYX JAE SHAW, A $65.00 VALUE! BUT THAT’S NOT ALL! THERE’S A GRYPHONS COLOURING BOOK BY KIMBERLY SNIDER, A FABULOUS ARTIST! ALSO A ONE OF A KIND GRYPHONS WATERCOLOUR PAINTING BY ALYX JAE SHAW, ALSO SIGNED!
OMG HOW DO I KNOW IF I WON?!
All participants will have their name put into the author’s hat, and the winning name will be personally drawn by Dweezil the Chicken. The drawing will be filmed and posted on July 19th to show that the choosing is completely random. The first name drawn will be the winning name, regardless of how man 

and follow the directions!  You KNOW you want to!  I know I do!  I SO VERY MUCH WANT THIS BOOK!!! It's by my favorite author!    Go!  NOW!  

Everyone has a personal opinion on the canon characters in Final Fantasy VII (and if you don't, you're telling a huge fib!).  I've been thinking recently about one of my favorite characters, Zachary Fair.  

What is it about Zack?  To those of us who like/love him, Zack is just a great character in so many ways.  And there are so many different sides of him that we see both in canon and more so in fan fiction.

I was thinking most recently about "my" take on Zack Fair and why he's one of my favorite characters.  

There's the 'hero' part of him that's so lovable, so fierce and battle-ready, so strong and brave.  And when we lost him it was a heavy blow to us all yet he still lives on in our hearts (and will forever).  

There's the 'friend' part of him that almost everyone knows so well.  The guy who would take on the world to save a friend, who would risk it all to protect one.  And that's what we see so often when people write about him in canon type fiction.  

There's the silly part of him, the goofball who's always in some sort of trouble (or starting some) and who would stand on his head to get someone to smile or laugh.  That's the guy you'd want to be the first to arrive at a party, the one who could keep things going, the one who everyone would know and love despite his frequent slides into near obnoxiousness...but who we'd never forget to invite nonetheless.  

There's the sweet side of Zack that we see most often depicted with the flower girl, Aerith (Aeris).  That's the guy who gets embarrassed by his stumbles over words or his inexperience in spite of his bravado and tendency to brag.  That's the guy who smiles often and blushes too but wouldn't admit it to anyone (and would argue that he never blushes!).  He's the sweet one, the one who would build a wagon just for his girl so she could sell flowers and not think twice about it.  The one who would buy her a ribbon for her hair and tell her it looked absolutely great on her even if it was a bit too large.  

And then there's the serious side to Zack Fair.  The one who knows what it means to be someone people look up to, the kind of guy who is aware that there are those who watch him and take their cues from him even though he doesn't see them all the time.  This is the guy who believes in truth and justice, the one who cares what happens to the world and the people in it...the one who would give all he had just to see to it that one person lived through a holocaust.  

And there's the SOLDIER part of Zack, the intricate part which has yet to be completely or fully explored.  The part we see snippets of during his training and how abruptly it was ended even though he wasn't at the top of that ladder quite yet.  That's the part people talk about the most, the strong SOLDIER, the man who gets things done, the guy who's got answers to questions he isn't even aware of - the one we remember most.

In searching for pictures of Zack to add to my collection of desktop art, I came across one which hit me in the heart so hard that it took my breath away.  Of course art is a subjective thing and not everyone will appreciate or like what I like...but I thought I'd share a picture which, to me, means a lot.

This picture is one which struck me as Zack from the instant I caught sight of it (a happenstance I am grateful for).  And for more than a few days I simply looked at it on my desktop and tried to figure out just -what- it was about this picture that means so much to me, that stands out over all the others I've seen.

In looking it over from top to bottom, each and every line and stroke, I came to the conclusion (quite surprisingly) that it's not the perfect picture of the hero as we so often see Zack.  And in my humble opinion, he seems so very much "Zack" that it's uncanny.  Here, in this picture, we see the happy Zack.  The one who is just an ordinary guy.  Not a SOLDIER, or a hero, or even a warrior...but rather simply a guy who is happy and smiling (and it's not a fake smile).  There's something about the way he's smiling.  Perhaps his eyes?  Or his lips?  Or those adorable dimples?  Or just the fact he appears so very happy, as if someone's told him a joke or made a comment that's made him smile...as if he's about to begin laughing at any moment.  That's what hit me I think.  The fact he seems totally human and real, and very, very much Zack Fair.



I don't know the artist, haven't had the pleasure, but I know that I absolutely love this picture of Zack simply because it seems so much like my 'head-canon' of Zack is that it's unbelievable.  He's simply a guy.  A happy guy.  Not silly or stupid, or even goofy...not the 'puppy' we hear so much about, or the SOLDIER the games/stories speak so highly of.  THIS Zack is just a guy who, deep in his heart loves life with all its weird, crazy twists and turns and who enjoys every moment as it passes - and doesn't regret any of it.  In -my- head-canon, Zack never once regretted his life, or the direction it took.  He didn't regret helping those he helped, fighting the evils he came across and he never regretted giving his life to save a friend.  That's the Zack in my head, and that's the Zack I can see in this picture...

Thank you, Insant, for drawing such a beautiful rendition of 'my' Zachary Fair.  For making me smile repeatedly in the past week or so.  And for sharing with those of us here on dA your wonderful gifts.  Thank you so very much.  

I DO write in complete sentences!  Sometimes.  Maybe.  Sorta.  Kinda.  Uh...yeh.