The IM Takeover

I never thought anything like this would happen.
Yet the unbelievable news showed up in my mailbox earlier this week.

Instant Messaging....is no more.
Y_Y
Okay...so it's not totally dead.
But the service has gotten a face lift.
For my hotmail account...Microsoft?
Whoever, created the IM system....
decided that they would get rid of it....except in mainland China?
:( But they have it no more.
No....instead an agreement or something was made.
And Skype is the new system that is being used.

Unfairly though, I wasn't even given the choice of ignoring this 'advancement' and sticking with my good friend IM.
No. I was told unceremoniously that at some point in the near future I would try to log into IM...and I would get an error message. It would no longer work, and a pop up would pop up and tell me to download Skype.

Grr....I hate being forced into things.
I don't like getting into the computer world more then I have to. I basically was dragged onto facebook......

Plus it just feels weird.
Not in a bad way. I'm sure there are benefits to this Skype.
like video calls....*rolls eyes* ....if I don't like talking to people over the phone why do you think I would like talking to people and having them see me while I see them?
Nope...not for me. I communicate better (most of the time...) when I can just write my words, not have to say them.
Anyways...I can still IM, but my favorite green and blue people icons are gone forever. :(

I mostly comment on this because I've had the IM style of messaging for AGES.
Green and blue people swirling around each other to connect me to my friends.
I got it in Jr. High when I really discovered computers did more then let me play my computer games.
Oh. Internet. :) lol.

No IM is basically where it all started.
With me and my friend Jesva.
She and I have been friends since like....5th grade.
We shared a passion for stories.
And upon both of us getting IM accounts.
Our passion for stories was increased.

As we started writing.
We would come up with an idea have my characters meet her characters and write out their storylines until well....most of the time we just got stuck and/or one of us got bored and we dropped the story line only to pick up another.

lol my siblings would get so annoyed with me...my parents would as well, as I would spend hours upon hours upon hours staring at that little white screen on the computer, waiting for Jesva to type her bit and then have me type my bit.
This was back when our Internet was connected to the phone line. lol. So... we probably missed a bunch of calls, and it's part of the reason why we were given time limits on the computer, so that everyone would have a chance on the computer and no one *coughmecough* would take up too much time.

Jesva and I have been using this IM communication device to write stories for years.
I don't know how many we've managed to write. Thirty? Forty? Most of them aren't done at all...yet it was our bonding moment.
And...it helped us to be better writers. :)
As we were able to work out problems and help each other.
lol actually Jesva has been working to help me out more then me help her.
She's great at having her characters known inside and out and their plotlines/histories/motives known from start to ending.
*shakes head* Her world building is great as well.
lol.
Me....I tend to focus more on scenes. Building up a character from that scene and then the story from that....most of my stories are unfinished. I think I only have a handful that have endings in mind. Like...Five....out of hundreds. Most of them are just a couple of scenes and a general plot line that fizzles out towards the end.
So recently through our IM stories we've been working on improving my...abilities.
lol the focus has been on villains mostly. As I totally...am detrimental at keeping my bad guys....well bad. I keep wanting them to turn good. lol.
Yet. The writing has helped through IM. Help me get to know certain characters.
And it's helped me with my....conversation style?
As in writing groups the main comment is that I can make my character's conversations sound...real.
lol the only detriment to the IM writing system is that....we don't do much in descriptions. Settings are mentioned like once to get the idea. Character descriptions are the same way...most what we write involves conversations, chatter, character thinking. :)

It's been fun. Collaborating as we do.
I do admit that I struggle though...with writing stories....as I tend to be...a bit....idk wishywashy? I tend to let Jesva lead in the stories while my characters work with her characters mostly in a world of her creation. Y_Y;; This comes from not knowing my own worlds that well...or not being able to fit her characters into my world.
Plus...I love her worlds and having my characters interact.
I guess I like just being able to write.
I feel like I don't need to think as hard when writing when she's in charge.
Because if I think too hard....or she demands/asks too many questions that I can't answer, then I lose the fun of the story. (I'm pretty sure I've been the reason why most of the stories fizzled out. I lost interest.)
It's been more like a...release to just write and not worry about spelling or punctuation...editing. We get the story out as far as we can and have fun. :)

lol all in all I think we managed to finish....three stories? Two? four? I can definitely recall two, and maybe two more others....

All because of IM. :)
I mean our last main story Jesva and I did got to be over a thousand pages in Word.
Of course...that's in IM mode as I just copy and paste from IM to Word. :) lol

IM wasn't just for stories though.
Back in the younger years I used it to talk to friends after school. Plan stuff and talk about stuff.
When I moved away from home from the first time I used it to keep in touch with my family. :)
Plus it was handy as I would get little messages telling me when I got mail. :)

Yet...I guess I've been holding too much onto the past.
The use of IM has dwindled among my friends and family. To where only one or two people get on when there used to be ten or so on at a time.
Recently I've only used IM to talk to Jesva and my parents...

Now....within the past month...I've barely been on it at all.
For I mainly got on to talk to Jesva...and she left a month and a half ago on a mission.
My Itouch lets me know when I have mail.
And I call my parents and talk to them more over the phone then through IM.

So I admit....IM has faded with me as well. My main reasons for getting on have disappeared.
Yet. I still feel a loss.
There were so many memories, years of work connected with my little IM icon and messages.

Everything changes.
But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Glancing over Skype...it looks similar enough to me, I hope that I will be able to write the stories in the same manner...though I won't find that out until Jesva gets back....if we want to continue collaborating on stories when she does get back.
In any case...there is no one online on skype to talk to right now either.....

So I guess it's not that big of a change....for now. Just switching out icons and layouts....for now.

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Dream

I had a bit of a dejavu dream where I was racing up a green hill, trying to get away from an assassin that was muscular, and long curly black hair...I think he looked a bit...Mongolian? As he wanted what I had, and I had powers....I dashed up two hills, basically climbing a mountain and reached the top where there was a castle in grey stone. I snuck my way inside, looking for particular objects, that wouldn't be obvious at first glance that they were important for my quest. I had to hide quickly as the front doors open and Dumbledore stepped in, chatting with some other fellow. At some point Verin from the Wheel of Time series also came into the dream...I don't remember how she applied. In any case, I didn't want to be caught with the items in my possession so I quietly sneaked out, with the two keys one big one small one golden one silver, and some other scraps. Dumbledore found me though soon after I went outside and told me to...basically get to work. So I grabbed the statue...I think it was of a flying horse and placed the items...keys, pieces of paper with words on them, and other things in their specific locations in order to unlock the statue...maybe bring it to life, and be able to control my powers.
It started out like the introduction to a movie. The scene opened up to reveal a regular looking neighborhood with trees, lawns, and neat little houses. The narrator was narrating the story. But I noticed right away that something was off. Staring at the trees, I saw the feet and lower legs of...something. They looked like human legs, one wearing a set of boots, another something like slippers. But, they were made of green leaves. I got the sense that I wasn't supposed to notice them, yet the narrator hinted towards them, hinted towards that we don't always see what we think we see. Well, I was definitely seeing the legs of people made out of leaves. The story focused in on them, a family -mother, father, son, and...another child. another son I think. They were out on a...I would call it a 'Treeing lesson.' as the father was teaching the older son about blending into the trees and the like. The son was enjoying the lesson, hoping from tree to tree with wild abandon, excited to be out in the real world and not still at home. Yet, he got over cocky and he grabbed onto a branch that broke under his weight. He managed to shimmy down the remaining stable part of the branch and keep himself hidden from human eyes, but the branch fell...onto the road, where a car was coming.
We cut to a scene of a human family, a young married couple with their young child...it kept switching between a boy and a girl.
The Tree leaf father realized what was happening about the same time as the human father saw the car coming straight towards them. -he was on the ground below a window that rounded out, while the mom and the child were on the window seat above. He saw the car coming straight towards them, and put the child back in his mother's arms before stepping in the way to try and protect his family.
I didn't see what happened next, but the tree leaf father was laying motionless on the ground, and at the other house...it was the same with the human father. Soon though the Otis Tree Leaf family showed up a group of three men. Their father and two sons who were in the business of saving lives, they proclaimed that they were never too late to save a Tree Leaf person. Only to say moments later after trying to revive the dad that this time....they weren't quick enough.
The view point shifted. The son ran home to hide aghast at what had happened and feeling that he was the cause of it.
The mother followed more slowly and everything seemed to...yellow. She reached the house that they lived in....which looked like a human house...but they now looked human as well. The steps up to the front door had yellowed grass and moss on them, as she walked up them, when they used to be green. The inside of the house felt....abandoned. Everything was faded in a 'we've been used over and over and over' again sort of way, but there was also the feel of neglect. the feel that the house was empty. The front room had two leather chairs and a table in it,. The chairs were moth eaten and worn, the table unvarnished, the walls empty and the floor bare of anything but the wood flooring. much of the house was the same way, but when she reached the kitchen/living room area she found her youngest son, sitting on a chair watching a multitude of tv/computer screens. Or trying to. They kept flickering with static. The mom asked her son "He's upstairs doing the _____ isn't he?" I can't remember the name she used for it. The youngest nodded not looking away from the tv, with his spoon still in his mouth. They were still mourning the loss of their father, and the youngest hadn't forgiven the oldest for what had happened. The mom made her way upstairs and found her son in the attic, surrounded again by flat screen tvs. Only...he was manipulating them. Every screen had a different news station on it. The oldest would cup his hands so it looked like he was holding a ball (though you couldn't see anything) and then he'd throw his energy at one of the tv screens. It would static out...or I guess the better way would be that the picture would clear and bits of words could be heard being uttered from the newscaster's lips, male and female news anchors. Balls of energy flew constantly at the multiple screens so that the words that were clear, even though they came from different broadcasts made sense. It went something along the lines of.
"He can't be"
"Trusted, it's not"
"right."
"His fault"
"For not being"
"Careful with the"
"lesson. This will teach"
etc etc. He was basically manipulating the tvs to verbally lash out at him. He was torturing himself because he believes that he's the reason why his dad died, and that he's like what all the neighbors called him....trouble.
The mom sets out to soothe him, but the youngest...briefly a younger sister, then back to a younger brother, comes in and actually talks to the oldest. Something that hasn't happened in a while. The mom leaves the two in the room by themselves to work it out. And they do, the brothers become friends again, but in the middle of this touching moment, the door opens again. The oldest turns to the door expecting to find his mom there and ready to tell her to leave the two of them alone,
but in steps a....black figure. He kinda reminded me of that werewolf creature from the movie the Nightmare Before Christmas, but he was totally black. He attacked....
and I got a sense that the oldest was left alone...possibly the only survivor, the mom maybe dead, the brother captured and taken to the bad guys to become one of them, and the oldest brother desperate to rescue his family. There's also a sense that he gets help from the child who lost their dad the same day he lost his...possibly a girl. And that the two would team up.......

But then the unholy tones of daylight pulled me away....
and I became myself again. :)

-S.N.D