Below are the 7 most recent journal entries recorded in Qiao Jun Yi's LiveJournal:

Monday, January 16th, 2006
2:40 am	#007: I'm Back! Yo. All right, here's what's going on: 1. I finished the damn Christmas special on November 25th 2005. Hell yeah! 2. I finished editing it and putting it on the website by about the 20th of December...Damnation! 3. I think it's one of the weirdest, yet best, things I've ever written. So, what's the deal? Seriously, it's January and I've still got nightmares about that thing haunting me. I don't know why, maybe it's not as good as I think it is, but I worked so hard for it. I mean, I poured as much as I could into it, I gave it a good plot, I did my best to make sure it was as funny as I could make it, and I definitely made sure it had the best spelling\grammar to my ability (... ...Wait, that isn't exactly a good thing). Seriously, I have nightmares just thinking about what readers might think... Will they like it? Will they hate it? Will they think I'm screwed up in the head? ...Well, that last one is gonna happen no matter what, but what the hell? I probably should pray to Wo Long Gong for some help on this, but I'd rather not bug him... I think he and Guan Gong are still pissed at me for asking for lottery numbers (I was desperate... ...VERY desperate...). Ah well, I look at this scenario and remember the Japanese proverb, shikata ga nai, which translates either as "it can't be helped" or "whatever happens, happens." I believe in the latter. Anyway, in other news, I'm a bit dry on inspiration... I went on a trip about two days after Christmas, I had a lot of fun, I didn't think about work at all, and now... I've got no idea what to write. Off and on, I've been working on Project: Sun Zi, but that's not really going anywhere (especially considering that I restarted it). Then again, some of the project might be that I've had a bad cold since I got back... I think I caught something on the plane, or had some bad sushi... Either way, I'm just getting over it... ...It sucks because it's a sore throat, so I haven't been able to smoke for a week... Then again, that's not exactly a bad thing. Not much else in the news, but here's a link to the 2005 Christmas special for those interested: http://suishou.authorjunyi.com/humor/dreamofredcabins.html The title is a parody of a Chinese classic's title (A Dream of Red Mansions)... ...I don't know why, all of my Christmas Special 2005 ideas came with Chinese classic novel title parodies. Anyway, good night and a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. -Qiao Jun Yi Current Mood: drunk Current Music: Chase The Devil - Max Romeo & The Upsetters (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 16th, 2005
7:06 am	#006: Da meng shei xian jue? Da meng shei xian jue? Ping sheng Wo zi zhi. Cao tang chun shui zu, Chuang wai ri chi chi. -Zhuge Liang, Romance of the Three Kingdoms Translation (ala Moss Roberts): From this great dream who would waken first? All along, I've known the part to play. To sleep through spring and ask no more, Though outside, longer, longer grow the days. Two notes: 1. I'm not sure if the word is "shei" or "shui" in the first line, the Hanzi can be read as either. 2. This is for anyone wondering what the Chinese in that black and green poem I use as my avatar means... Which reminds me to edit the "-Zhuge Liang" part, it looks too much like the Hanzi for "one" and could be read as "Yi Zhuge Liang." Right now I'm just wasting some time before I get to work. I'm setting my deadline for the project at November 25th. I'm gonna finish it, or die trying! Oy, the length of this thing is amazing! Eight days, the story takes a total of eight days. That's how long it's going to take people to read it. I'm serious, if this thing ends up longer than my first book, I'm sending it to my publisher with a note attached: "My sales have driven me to this, enjoy. -Qiao" Then again, this would work as one hell of a free sample to potential readers... ...Or it could just be a reason to lock me in an insane asylum. Hey, either way, it'll have been worth it. One hand, my book's sales increase, the other, I get room and board AND meet interesting people! Win-win for all! Well, off to work, Qiao Jun Yi Current Mood: working Current Music: Nan Er Dang Zi Qiang - Jackie Chan (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 15th, 2005
5:36 pm	#005: Stoned Gamer Here Yo, No, I'm not really stoned. I don't do drugs, at least, not the illegal stuff (cigars are another story). So, Jack Thompson's book has been released, online for now, at least... Oy, according to GampePolitics.com, he's claiming commercials for Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories are airing during children's programming... ...And then (in his reply to an email), he says it was on Comedy Central. Jack, if Comedy Central is what counts as children's programming these days, America has a helluva lot more to worry about than video games. Anyway, the purpose of today's rant isn't video games... Well outside of this: Suikoden Tactics actually compliments Suikoden IV and makes parts of it make sense, it makes me want to play Suikoden IV again. It is a fun tactical RPG that still keeps true to the Suikoden feel. Today, I just want to say I have one less thing to worry about: This year's Christmas writing project (in terms of days in the story) is almost at December 25th... ...Just one more day to write about... ...I never thought this would happen... Seriously, to all young writers out there: Word of advice, never start any Christmas related story more than three days before Christmas unless you've planned it out in advance or don't plan to have it end of Christmas Day... ...This freakin' thing is... Well, you'll see this December... Once I finish this thing, I'm going to work on project Sun Zi for a while... ...Ah, good 'ol project Sun Zi... You'll never drive me to the very edge of my sanity, then push me off the edge and to the end of that chaotic maze known as insanity... ...Well, actually, it probably will, but at least I won't have to listen to Christmas music in August to try to get in the mood to finish it. With that said, I'm off to work. That's all for today, Qiao Jun Yi Current Mood: amused Current Music: Walk On Water - Ozzy Osbourne (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, November 11th, 2005
9:59 am	#004: Mou Shi Zai Ren, Cheng Shi Zai Tian Or, "Men devise, Heaven decides." -Zhuge Liang, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Again, I have gone an entire night without sleep...Still because of my cold and work. I decided to dedicate an entry in this blog to discuss my love\hate relatiobship with Mandarin Chinese (I love Mandarin, it hates me). I love this language, I really do. However, when I need to quote Zhuge Liang at 1:00 in the morning for a new project, it can be a living hell... Here's how it went: I wanted a character to quote Zhuge Liang's famous "Men devise, Heaven decides" line in Mandarin... Easy, right? Just whip out my copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, flip ahead to Zhuge vs Sima, and boom, use NJStar to figure out the pinyin reading of the Hanzi (Chinese character) via the radical look up... ...Turns out that the second Hanzi wasn't going to be that easy... Search every radical combination I could possibly think of... I looked through dozens of results... Found a couple similar, found many very different, but not *THE* Hanzi... ...The first Hanzi (Mou) was easy. Unfortunately, the dictionary didn't have an entry combining Mou with the second Hanzi...So, I got nowhere... Skip ahead about half an hour of searching, I remember a site I was directed to via Peng Guo's San: Three Kingdoms Comic, which had an index of quite a few Hanzi with a radical look up... ...Either the site is hard to navigate or I've gone stupid from lack of sleep\this cold (probably the latter), but after an hour, I found nothing that resembled the Hanzi I was looking for... Then, it hit me... ...I have a copy of the Mandarin Three Kingdoms Drama...It generally keeps in the more famous quotes from the novel... I could just watch that, listen closely to Zhuge Liang, and boom! I get not only the Hanzi's pronunciation, but the entire phrase! Why didn't I think of this before? I stick the disc in my DVD player, fast forward to about Sima Yi getting trapped in Zhuge Liang's fire trap... I wait... The thunder clouds roar, Sima Yi (unfortunately) is saved, and Zhuge Liang watches, calmly in defeat as his nemesis escapes... "Prime Minister..." Utters Ma Dai. Soldiers throw their weapons down in disgust, Zhuge Liang just stands there, soaking in the rain... ...Here it comes, the phrase... ...Or, not... Instead, the scene cuts to Sima Yi retreating... DAMN YOU ZHONG DA! Oy... So, the drama cut out the phrase... Damnation! So, back to square one, I'm looking at possible radical combinations... Then, I give up and figure "at the very least, I'll figure out the rest of the phrase!" ...The next Hanzi is "Zai," fairly simple... I look it up in the dictionary... ...Boom... ****ing boom... There's an entry with a spelling containing the Hanzi I had been looking for... ...Shizairenwei or (if I remember correctly) "through the effort of man" or something to that extent... ...So, with that out of the way, I only had to get the pinyin reading for the other Hanzi I didn't recognize... "Cheng." So I never forget it: The phrase in Mandarin is this: Mou Shi Zai Ren, Cheng Shi Zai Tian ...And yet, somehow, I get the feeling the difficulty of finding the Hanzi was Zhuge Liang either telling me to get some sleep or not to quote him... ...Probably both. Because once I found that Hanzi, I turned into a laughing fool for about five minutes... It had taken me a couple hours to find it, and I found it using the simplest method possible for a direct quotation like this... ...Oy... For those who didn't get all that, here's a summary: -Chinese is the hardest language on earth -Zhuge Liang is the greatest -I spent a couple hours trying to find out how to pronounce a Chinese character -I found out the Hanzi was right under my nose -I'm an idiot And that, ladies and gentlemen, is today's Why-I-Am-Slowly-Going-Insane Rant. Zai jian, Qiao Jun Yi Current Mood: crazy Current Music: Qi Bu Shi - Cao Zhi (San Guo Yan Yi Drama Soundtrack) (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 10th, 2005
4:49 am	#003: "It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum... And I'm all outta gum..." Yo, I'm not having a good week... ...Well, except for a couple things. Let's get the bad things you can laugh at out of the way, first. Sunday Night\Monday Morning: Cut my leg, bled profusely for a little while, it stopped after applying an herbal oil that stung like hell. Monday: My damn glasses broke. Without my glasses, I may as well get a seeing eye dog and a cane (I'm not kidding, my vision's been going downhill since the fifth grade). Fortunately, I have my (extra-dark) sunglasses. Now I just walk into walls less than I would without glasses... Tuesday: Nothing much, spent the day working. Wednesday: I think I'm coming down with a cold, either that or my leg is infected. Here's how I'll know: If I live to see Thanksgiving, it's just a cold. If I don't, severe infection. I might see a doctor if the gallon of green tea I drank doesn't help. Today: I haven't been able to sleep at all since yesterday (I fell asleep again at about 9:00 AM and woke up at about 6:00 PM yesterday, damn cold threw my internal clock off schedule), so I spent the night writing... Almost done... ...Almost... Anyway, in other news, I'm reading articles on GamePolitics.com, and I feel I must ask one thing: I played Wolfenstein 3D as often as possible when I was in the second grade, it was one of my favorite games at the time. In about the fifth grade, I got ahold of two of two of my other favorite games: Doom and Duke Nukem 3D... Ah, Demon and Alien slaying... I played those every day after school. Oh, and a side note: That was also the same time a friend gave me a Wolfenstein 3D mod where you went around shooting Barney the Dinosaur. Fun times... Later, after a series of school shootings hit the news (post-Columbine), a friend's mother gave me a friend's copy of Goldeneye 007 for the N64 because she didn't want her son being 'inspired' by the violence... ,,,So, she gives it to his best friend, instead (I love that logic, I really do). Now, I play Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas pretty much every chance I get some free time... ...So, my question is this: If these games are murder-simulators, and I've been playing them my entire life... ...Why the hell am I free man? Shouldn't I have, y'know, committed some violent crimes by now? Y'know, playing these violent games since the second grade... Should've, well, trained me to be the ultimate killing machine... ...And yet, when I fired a shotgun at a shooting range, I not only missed a target about five feet in front of me, I nearly crapped my pants in terror from the sound of it being fired (...okay, maybe I wasn't *that* freaked out). Where the hell did all of my training from Duke Nukem go!? Forgive me, O master Nukem, I fail as a killing machine... I shall now train for twenty hours with Masters Vercetti and CJ to repent! I am aware that video games do warp some people's minds, but in my opinion, if someone uses the "Grand Theft Auto made me do it" defense, they've got a lot more problems than that. Hell, I used Doom as a stress-reliever in school. I was bullied from first grade through high school, yet, I cannot wait for the release of Rockstar's "Bully." I've had a pre-order since August (...Then they push back the release until April...Damnation!). Don't get me wrong, though, I don't think kids should be playing things like GTA. Unfortunately, this happens, and I blame parents. Pay attention to what your kids play, if you bought them Grand Theft Auto and they turn violent: Your damn fault. If you kid somehow obtained a copy of Grand Theft Auto, punish them. If your kid is stupid enough to imitate Tommy Vercetti: Provided he's not in jail, take away their video games, send 'em to bed without dinner or smack 'em upside the head for all I care, just don't go off and blame the companies that make the freakin' game for your own mistake at parenting. I wouldn't let my kids play Grand Theft Auto, I wouldn't even let them watch me play Grand Theft Auto (I've got two younger cousins, when they come to visit, I hide GTA and if they ask about it, I say 'I let a friend borrow it'). If I catch them playing it, like I said, I'd punish them. When they're old enough and mature enough to play it, that's another story. Now, as for the occasional idiot clerks at Wal-Mart, EB Games, Game Stop and other video game retailers that don't check I.D: I am all for massive fining going on there. This is the problem, that is what Jack Thompson should be going after, that is what the other problem is. Why the hell do they check ID for R-rated movies, tobacco products, alcohol, porno but not M-rated games? Parents, you want to raise hell when your kid buys a video game, ground 'em, find out where they bought it, complain to the manager. It'd be a lot easier and we could avoid the often hilarious, yet so damn annoying, antics of Jack Thompson. All right, I'm done, getting off soap box. I'm just sick and I've just about had it with the negative publicity games have been getting... Marketing to kids, my ass. Rated M for MATURE, not M for Minors, not M for Magnificent, M for MATURE! 17+! Sorry, sorry, rant over. Though, a quick note: I owe Jack Thompson, I really do. If not for him, this chain of events would have never taken place: JT: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a murder simulator! QJY (Moi): Murder-simulator? What the hell can be so bad about one game? (One rental later) ...This is the best video game I've ever played... ...Next to Suikoden... JT: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be even worse! We must stop the release of this game! QJY: ...Well, if you say so! (Puts down pre-order, paid in full) Note: These are not actual Jack Thompson quotes, but damn near close. Oy, I'm out, I'm about to collapse from lack of sleep and this cold... G'night, Qiao Jun Yi Current Mood: sick Current Music: Ben Xiao Hai - Andy Lau (Comment on this)
Friday, November 4th, 2005
4:49 pm	#002: Grand Theft Attention Oy... I think I need to have a friend hide my Playstation 2. I've been trying to work on the new project (or at least, something) for a few hours now... ...So, when I can't figure out what the next line of dialogue should be or how to continue the story, I turn around and see that lovely little black game system called "Playstation 2." Currently, I've been distracted with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Which is a bad thing given the fact my personal deadline for the current project (that "I've finally freakin' lost it" Christmas story that may or may not end like Weird Al's "The Night Santa Went Crazy") is Thanksgiving and I've still got a long way to go. Will I make it? Possibly. Will Christmas be saved? Maybe. All right, so I'm easily distracted. Well, not easily, but if I've only written two new lines after an hour, I'm gonna go help the triads rob a casino instead (Damn that Cop Wheels mission...). Ah, Wu Zi Mu, the only other blind person I know who could kick Zatoichi's ass. So, I'm torn between three projects... Here's the breakdown. I hate giving out titles, so I'll give you the project names: Project: Christmas 05 Genre: Holiday, humor Status: About 75% complete... Inspiration Level: Medium-low, stuck on December 23rd, mid-afternoon. This one is my current favorite project, only because I'm cutting loose and having fun with it. Project: Sun Zi Genre: Military, Drama Status: About 2% complete Inspiration Level: Between none and high off and on. This project is mainly the result of reading The Water Margin and re-reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms at the same time. Of course, to make this thing more believable, I think I need to re-read The Art of War... Anyway, if I'm going to publish a "master work," I want it to be this series. The 2% up there is at 14 chapters, this is gonna take me a couple years... Project: Anime Daikirai Genre: Fantasy, Humor, Parody Status: Not quite sure Inspiration level: Medium This project, as the title suggests, is more of a vent against a few anime otaku (geeks) I encountered while in high school. No, I don't hate anime, I just hate the literal otaku stereotypes I encountered (I've run into three to date, and all three of them have made me want to stop watching anime all together). Anyway, the project itself is actually more of a parody of various anime and video games. Thus far, it's a bit unorganized, I'm probably going to start over after the holidays. Well, I think I'll brew up some coffee and get to work... I've got a long night ahead of me. Later, Qiao Jun Yi Current Mood: working Current Music: Dui Mian De Nue Hai Kan Guo Lai - Ren Xian Qi (Comment on this)
5:17 am	#001: Who I am, what I do, why I love and hate Christmas at the same time... Good morning, world. As we are all aware, it is nearly Thanksgiving. In fact, it is exactly 20 days to Thanksgiving. For me, this is crunch time. Why? As my profile has established, I am an author. I am not the most professional of writers, but I like to at least believe that I can write a halfway decent story... As I said, "believe." Now then, the first book of a four book fantasy humor series was released in October of 2004, the series (and first book title) is Suishou. Suishou, as a first project, is definitely not my best work. It was good enough to be published, at the very least. However, I feel I should rant about three things regarding the first book I must get off my chest: 1. The Description My publisher asked me to write the description, I begged them not to make me do this for a simple reason: I can write it, I can write over four hundred pages of it, but God help me if I try to describe it! Especially if I have a 300 word limit. For the love of all that is holy, I wish I knew what I was on when I wrote that description. Let me tell you now, ignore it, it's not a reflection of my writing ability, it's a reflection of how I can't summarize for crap. It makes story sound like a freakin' war epic, the book is meant to be fantasy-HUMOR. Y'know, funny. 2. CURSE IT! When I wrote Suishou, I had a friend who acted as the "moral commentator" let's say. She had a problem with the fact my characters swore )among other things, but this was what she was most vocal about), so to make her happy, I edited out the language. "Hell" became "Hades," damn and everything else became "curse." This, I think, is the worst decision I ever made. Unfortunately, this is something I can't really change (the book has already been published, I can't change it after it's been printed!), so I need to pray it doesn't hurt me as much as I think it does. 3. Artwork I can't draw for crap, I really can't. Now, I had a friend who can draw the most amazing artwork I've seen in a long time, but she has a thing with... Well, deadlines, originality, work, criticism, life. To begin, I wanted to create a website that would be fan friendly, simple and informative. So, I wanted to put up some character artwork on the site for the (eventual) fan artists (My work is fan fiction\fan art friendly, just so you know) to use as reference. Problem 1: Originality. The "official illustrator" we'll say followed very few of the character descriptions in the book. Not too bad, but a lot of her inspiration behind the new designs relied on using characters from her favorite anime as reference...This problem also marks the beginning of my growing dislike of anime. Problem 2: Deadlines. I gave fair deadlines, very fair deadlines, I ignored the fact that the artwork she sent was always late...Sometimes a three month deadline became a six month deadline... Or a year... ...A year of me "believing" her excuses ("Official Illustrator," if you're reading this, I didn't believe your "I'm working on it, I'll have it ready this weekend" bullshit for a minute, especially after the 5th time or so) and acting like I didn't know she was avoiding me. A side note: One of the signs of the "beginning of the end" of our friendship was probably the fact that I asked her to draw the cover for the book... Well, she agreed to do it when the book was first accepted (possibly before), but I only saw a sketch by around the time I was working with my publisher on the final submission (the version of the story that would go into editing), which I had two weeks to finish. When the two week deadline came, I told her, "Hey, the publisher's given me two weeks to have everything ready. How's the cover coming along?" I also add, "I also found out, the criteria is [certain dimensions I forget] and you need to include the side and back cover." Well, despite this, she still sends me a front cover (within the dimensions for the front cover), and I tell her, "I'm sorry, it's really nice, but they need a side and back cover, or else they won't accept it." Cue a brief argument about how she can't do fancy text (ie: for the side cover, I'm guessing), and refuses to do it finishing with, "Maybe we should find another publisher." ...We? WE?! Oh, excuse me, I didn't realize you spent a year writer Suishou, too. My response: "...The odds of me getting published again, without an agent can be described in these two words: Snowball. HELL." Fortunately, my publisher provided a cover for me. Of course, there's also the story of the illustrations... They were so bad, I didn't even bother to submit them to the publisher. She simply scribbled down six sketches of small events from the book and scanned them (no, wait, she used an art tablet she had for weeks before she finally mentioned it)... I couldn't make out a single one, but with the way things had been going, I just said, "Great! I'll send it to them right now!" ...And a few months later, I tell her they couldn't use them (I forget the exact reason I gave her, at that time I just stopped caring). Problem 3: Criticism This is the shortest, this girl had the lowest self-esteem I had ever seen. I had to constantly remind her she was the best damn artist I had ever seen, but if someone so much as wrote a half-assed "u sux" style message to her (which I'm amazed ever happens) I had to go back to square one ("What? You're a great artist?! Remember that picture you drew...")... ...What really pisses me off about this is the fact that I had three friends who were also artists that backed off from taking her place BECAUSE she was so damn good. With this out of the way, should you buy my book? Maybe, I don't know your taste, and I'm not going to tell you what to buy. I'm not the best out there, I admit, I'm not going to lie to you on that front. I listed two problems with the story, one with something that's only slightly related. If you want a sample of my writing, this journal should work. I feel the most open when I write. Further on the subject of Suishou and writing, knowing the potentially harmful problems to sales, I have taken it upon myself to provide... ..."Free samples." By this I mean, free stories to get a random passerby interested in Suishou. I love to write and I like to let people read my writing. So, occasionally, if I get an idea for a story in my head, I'll write it out. Last year, I put up a "Christmas Special" for Suishou, just a free holiday story using my favorite holiday plotlines: "Santa IS real, dammit!" Currently, the story is de-linked, but it should be back up soon. Here's how it came to be: I wrote the story in summer 2004 after a friend and I did a "Christmas in July" type marathon of our favorite Christmas movies. So, after watching Christmas movies all week, my mind started toying with a few ideas... For starters, Santa Claus is one of my favorite holiday figures. I mean, what's not to like about a guy who goes around the world and gives you free stuff? And a few Christmas movies\specials come about where there a child doubts that Santa Claus is real, at least until the big guy shows up, says "Ho Ho Ho" and gives 'em a teddy bear (why is it always a bear? Come on, Santa, you'd prove your existence to me with a new computer...) and all is well... ...So, I toyed with the thought of, "who would still believe in Santa Claus?" I came up with two characters, one of which is a raving lunatic and the other is a kid who is, well, a little *too* old to believe...But, looking at how much I bully him in the series, he needs some hope to cling on to. The story, in essence, centers around the former and two of his buddies (after a failed "toy drive" involving stolen toys) playing the role of Santa Claus for the latter, after realizing that...Well, the kid was raised by an ass, the ass's concubine-- I mean "bodyguard" isn't any better. They go off to steal toys, steal a Santa Claus outfit and... ...Basically turn Christmas into a crime spree that even Tommy Vercetti would be proud of, but it's for charity, so it's not as bad... ...In their eyes. The story is actually fairly long, about 1\5 of Suishou in terms of length. This is a simple prelude, though. As you can tell, I have some issues with my writing...So, as a cheap form therapy, I've decided to do another Christmas special, this time I break a few rules. The story thus far takes place in a town based on my home town, and features the cast of Suishou breaking the fourth wall and saying all the things about the series I want to say. The language isn't edited. I have a strange feeling that it will either make or break me, or both. I have been writing the story since July (inspired by another Christmas movie marathon). This story is killing me, as I want to release it this year, but at this rate, I don't know if I can finish it before next year. This story is, and I mean this, one of my better works, which may not be saying much, but I like the way it's going and I plan to unveil it publicly. Why? 'Cause I can. As I said, I love to write, and if an idea bugs me enough, I'll go after it. Now, don't think I'm all about Christmas specials and self-criticism (or self-loathing if you want to look at it that way). I have other projects in the works, two other series, and the third book in the Suishou series (I finished the second one over the summer), those I'll give details on later. Probably in my next entry. I started this rant at 5:17 in the morning, it's now 6:50. I'm heading out, I have work to do and my coffee's gone cold. See ya later, Qiao Jun Yi Current Mood: cranky Current Music: Nan Er Dang Zi Qiang - Jackie Chan (Comment on this)