Part Twenty-Six: April, 1978 13 May 2008 ; 09:27pm ladyjaida Wow guys! Long time no...do this. That's crazy. Here it is at long last! Late on Tuesday, but on Tuesday nonetheless. We thought we might wait until Thursday to make it like old times, but then we figured, we never had patience in the old days anyway, so why start now? I just personally wanted to thank all of you for being so patient, because you are all so patient—way more patient than I am, for example, because I am so not patient ever about anything. The first part of Shoebox was written in the summer of 2004. I was seventeen years old and I was about to go to college, and, let's face it, I was totally terrified and totally excited. I was also totally different from who I am now. Now, four years later, I just finished my last final ever yesterday, so that I am feeling both exhausted and nostalgic. And I would like to take this moment just to say that Shoebox has changed my life. Were it not for this project, I would not have been able to meet so many incredible people, nor would I have been able to do so many incredible things, all of which have altered my perspectives. In so many ways, this story has shaped the course of the past four years. I am so glad whenever I think back on meeting Rave by bizarre and happy accident once upon a time—leaving a comment on her livejournal to talk about, of all things, Severus Snape. Thank you guys so much. I would be such a different person were it not for all of you, and I cannot really express my gratitude. Forgive me my moment of cheese. I think I can speak for both Rave and myself when I say: Camembert, anyone? ♥ Jaida PS, yeah basically ditto -- xoxo Rave ( Part Twenty-Six: Five Photographs of Peter Pettigrew. ) 671 &remember

where in the world is shoebox sandiego 08 May 2008 ; 01:26pm ladyjaida SCENE: Six Months Ago. The internet. [RAVE HAS SIGNED ON] Jaida: Oh my god it's you! Rave: Oh my god it's you! Jaida: So how about we work on Shoebox! Rave: Awesome! Let me just unpack these seven hundred boxes, find a job that pays money, and endure a couple of ill-fated personal relationships. BRB! Jaida: Rockin'. SCENE: Five Months Ago. The internet. [JAIDA HAS SIGNED ON] Rave: Oh my god it's you! Jaida: Oh my god it's you! Rave: So how about we work on Shoebox! Jaida: That sounds great! Let me just undergo the soul-killing process of getting published, get about an hour of sleep a night, and try not to fail out of school. Hang on one sec! Rave: Cool! SCENE: Four Months Ago. The internet. Jaida: Oh my god it's you! Rave: I cannot find gainful employment! Jaida: Have you considered selling yourself to the governor of New York? Rave: Does that have health insurance? Jaida: I was actually kidding. Rave: Oh, yeah, uh, me too. SCENE: Three Months Ago. The internet. [JAIDA HAS SIGNED ON] Rave: Oh my god it's you! Jaida: JAKJSJKAHS THESIS WRITING IT Rave: I hear you, soul brother, I hear you. So how about we, uh, work on Shoebox? Jaida: DID YOU NOT HEAR ME WOMAN SCENE: Two Months Ago. The internet. Rave: We're so close to finishing this next part! Jaida: Oh my god we are! Rave: Wahoo! I'll do it this afternoon! Jaida: Yes! Perfect! SCENE: One Month Ago. The internet. Rave: ...just kidding. SCENE: Today. The internet. Rave: Oh my god it's you! Jaida: JAKJSJKAHS FINALS STUDYING FOR THEM Rave: Can I tell you something embarrassing, I opened the Shoebox part up to write it and then I wrote "Iron Man" fic instead. Jaida: Robert Downey Jr. He is hot. Rave: Wrong. He is beyond hot. He is the Yellowstone supervolcano of hotness. He is the flaming apocalyptic comet of hotness. Only hypothermophile microorganisms can dwell in the vicinity of his extreme hotness. Do you get where I'm going with this? Jaida: OK, but, Shoebox. Rave: I'm sorry, did you say something? I was thinking about Robert Downey Jr.'s soulful, soulful eyes. But, okay. The next part. God's honest truth, we've actually been working on it for this long. [IF NOT FUCKING LONGER. --Rave.] And it's coming. Maybe Monday afternoon. Maybe Tuesday. We're posting this notice here so that we will be online, at that time, finishing this next part OR. ELSE. The internet knows. And the internet is binding. 332 &remember

21 Nov 2007 ; 11:56am ladyjaida HI GUYS. All delay on the next part of Shoebox is totally my fault--for which I prostrate myself at your feet and also, check to make sure "prostate" is not the word I want here, which it isn't, so all's well. You're the best and most forgiving group of people in the entire world, and my apologies will never be satisfactory. To be truthful, I have been working on the awful hideous beast that is my senior thesis, so if I had tried to finish up the next part of Shoebox during this time, it would have become "Remus Lupin and the Lacanian Theory of the 'Real'" which, let's face it, no one wants to read about except possibly for Remus, and even then it's pushing it. As an attempt to make things up to you, I have scored three extremely advance copies of this fantasy book I co-wrote that's coming out in the summer of 2008; I got them specifically for you boxers only. It has some metal dragons and an exiled magician and some other things, and the book also happens to have a special little something in the beginning for all the patient kind wonderful amazing not-killing-me readers of shoebox_project. I am going to raffle them away here for totally free. It'll work like last year's Christmas raffle; you put your name, your address, and some quirky fabulous fact about yourself in a comment (all comments are screened) and then I print out all the comments and put them in my top hat or my bathtub and pick three winners at random. The good news is, if you are a winner, you will also probably get a new part of Shoebox before you get the book, since the books might not be sent out until post New Year's. Just wanted to do a little something to thank you guys for being so patient and understanding, or at least for not beating me up, which would be totally understandable at this point. Hope you guys think this is a cool idea! And good luck to everyone, and now I am late for lecture! remember

26 Sep 2007 ; 03:25pm ladyjaida Well, we know that we promised a new part when everyone had fully digested Book 7, and it's been a couple of months. But let's face it: that book was pretty thick, and books are in general fibrous to begin with, and only a goat could digest a book of that size that quickly. ALSO, dorkorific had the absolute gall to get on with her life and move halfway across the country, while I had to edit a book and also go back to school. However, we like to think of the next part as a little choo choo train, chugging along a hill of two parts guilt and five parts shame, towards the inevitable goal of actually putting a part out and being able to feel free of said shame and guilt for probably a whole two minutes. In the spirit of allaying all your fears: have a caboose. Also, dorkorific would like to remind you all to watch The Office on Thursday, September 27th, at 9/8 central. And because she's holding all the images for this part hostage, I am telling you all to please, please watch The Office. ( A teaser! From like, an actual part! ) 481 &remember

Shoebox Potter and the Deathly Hellos 19 Jul 2007 ; 11:49am ladyjaida So this one time we and our girlfriend Jojo (we call her Jojo) were getting our monthly pedicure with pure-gold nail polish, taking the Cosmo quiz and eating truffles, and all of a sudden she goes "Oh my god, girls, I have totally no idea what to do with this last Harry Whoever book and it's destroying me, I can barely get out of bed, I swear even tickling the cabana boy with a long pink feather has lost its charm. Would you two be babes and just write me a last chapter while I summon Alessandro to fetch us some more Mangotinis? And then I can, you know, work off that." And we said, "Oh Jojo, you charming scamp, of course we'll bail you out--again--but only if you give us the exclusive rights to reveal that last chapter to a select group of Shoeboxers, like, maybe a day before everybody else." Of course she agreed. Seriously, what would that woman do without us? NOTE: THERE ARE NO ACTUAL SPOILERS CONTAINED IN THIS CUT. UNLESS WE'RE READING ROWLING'S MIND AND WE DON'T KNOW IT. WHICH WOULD EXPLAIN THE WEIRD DREAMS, AND THE MANIACAL CACKLING. ( If Shoebox WERE canon, which it's not but anyway, the following would be the final chapter. ) Now say it with us, guys: LOL, JK.......ROWLING! Feel free to post alternate-alternate Shoebox endings in the comments. Oh yeah: and enjoy the final book! Note: There will be another part coming out, and soon, once everyone's digested book seven. 709 &remember

'Tis Somebody's Season! SHOEBOX RAFFLE! 19 Dec 2006 ; 12:37pm ladyjaida Hallo my pumpkin pies. 2006 is winding up, and there has not been a new part in a long time--for which we are both very sincerely sorry. This semester has been a rough one. I know that Rave is working on the dread pirate thesis, and I...well, I take Japanese. So, hopefully, I will be wily enough to ensnare Rave in a Shoebox tango for some sort of generally-in-the-area-kind-of-seasonal-for-all-your-present-needs update. But, seeing as how I've been typing up anthro IDs for the past hour, and I would really like not to be typing up anthro IDs for at least another ten minutes, and how I have sitting next to me a set of five lovely paper cards that reminded me so much of Shoebox, I got an idea... Five Holiday Cards From Shoebox Remus are available. They're very small, but they are exactly note-sized, and therefore have just room enough for a doodle. (Probably from James; Remus does not doodle. Waste of ink.) I thought that, in order to apologize for the patchy updates, I could offer up a blind raffle to send out, at random, one card each to five of you who might want to receive a holiday card (holiday of your choice!) from Shoebox Remus this season. What would you need to do? I'm not entirely sure, as I've never done something like this before. However, as I see it, I will screen comments so that only I shall be able to see your address, and those of you who want to be entered into the raffle should comment here with Your Name: Your Address: Your Age: Your Favorite Shoebox Quote: Holiday of Choice!: And One Random Piece of Trivia About You*: *This could be Shoebox Project related, fandom related, real life related, or anything at all! Mostly it is so I can get to know you! After my final-final on Thursday, I'll print out all the names, put them into a hat--or a bag--or the bathtub, depending on how many of you there are who are intrigued!--and I'll write up the cards and send them out. Hopefully, they will arrive in time for the new year. And hopefully, there will be a new part once school gives us some room to breathe. Hope this isn't a silly idea and that some fun will come out of it! remember

16 Sep 2006 ; 10:34am ladyjaida Hallo all you boxers! This isn't an update (so sorry!) but it is a little announcement that all of you who are interested should go out today, snag a copy of the Wall Street Journal and check out the article on the front page of the Pursuits section entitled Rewriting the Rules of Fiction, an article about fans, fanfiction, the fan community, fan generated content and the like -- it has a little me, a little Rave, and a whole lot of shoebox_project. (With an emphasis on the latter.) It also has a wee mention of the imminent pub-lee-kay-shun of my poetry book, which I confess made me cry just a little. ;) So check it out, if you want to see the SB, baby! Edited to Add: Because a couple of you crazy kids asked me to post the link, the book o' poems can be snagged here if you're, uhm, interested in serenading your Lily-love. Or something equally pumpkin-like. Now I'm going to run away and hide! THAT's how we do it in the SB, baby. 263 &remember

Part Twenty-Five B: August 1977 31 Jul 2006 ; 10:26am ladyjaida ( Part Twenty-Five B: One Photostrip, One Good Morning Note, Some Death Eaters, and a Scene That Might Not Be Safe For Work. Also, a Surprise. ) 1007 &remember

Part Twenty-Five A: August, 1977 31 Jul 2006 ; 10:26am ladyjaida Once again, a part two big to fit into one post. Hope you all enjoy it, and thanks for being so patient with us! ( Part Twenty-Five A: The Letters of Summer, Two Cheeky Photos and one Sandwich Colony. )

we aten't dead (or, shoebox: the natasha lyonne of fanfiction.) 24 Jul 2006 ; 07:15pm dorkorific okay uh! So it has come to our attention that some people are curious whether Shoebox is over, which is hardly to be wondered at given that, you know, it has been like a million years. But no! it isn't over. Jaida and I continue to adore shoebox (or "the SB" as we call it between ourselves, as in "This is how we do it in the SB, bitch!") But unfortunately we both have jobs right now, and, you know, all the other time-consuming things that come with being college students struggling through til September (ex. summer classes, sketchy love interests, reruns, vodka). And we really, really don't want the next part to suck. We've sustained our affection for this project and these characters for a pretty long time, and we can't let this be fifth-season West Wing, know what I'm saying? So in short, yes, we are actually working on the project even as you read this no actually that's not true, since I think it's my turn to write a section now, and I'm obviously doing this instead. and maybe you won't read this until later and we'll be asleep or we'll maybe be in the toilet or talking about jensen ackles or something. but figuratively: We are working on the project even as you read this. no, because, I mean, we love the SB, and we love that you're into it, and we're so grateful for how good you've been to us just by reading and commenting and generally being completely out of your minds, but in a good way. and we will NOT be that boyfriend who you were really getting along and then over dinner he was like "I think I'm falling in love with you," and you're like "Excuse me?" but secretly you were kinda pleased and then like out of nowhere things started trailing off and then he never called again and you were pissed, not because you were that fond of him even, but just, come on. No, when the time comes we will do the decent thing and just break up with you. But we don't anticipate that happening any time very soon. Also. It has come to our (my) attention that the last picture in the section below looks like wanking. You are right: it totally does look like wanking, god damn it. I thought that was a very touching picture in which possibly they were having a moment of emotional intimacy, at a funeral, I thought, and Sirius was like holding James's arm -- but no, it's definitely wanking. Darn you kids, with your sharp eyes and dirty imaginations. 281 &remember

Retrospective. 27 Jan 2006 ; 02:14pm ladyjaida So, we thought we'd do a little something-something as thanks for the giftbox_project giftboxes we both received, which were truly amazing and resulted in lots of wild screaming and the best return to classes we've ever had. dorkorific and I put our heads together for some proper way to thank the giftboxers for their amazing craftiness (really, far more talented than I am, for serious!) and also just to let you guys know the fic ain't over yet. It's just napping. While we write papers and take tests and weep into our pillows. But really. Thank you so much, giftbox_project-ers. That was amazing, and unexpected, and truly wonderful of you. This one's for you, and your superior skills, and your incredible generosity. And thanks to the rest of you for being so patient with us. We salute you! ( From Remus Lupin's Photo Album. Hogwarts Retrospective. ) 529 &remember

Part Twenty-Four: June, 1977 26 Dec 2005 ; 11:02am ladyjaida Thank you all for being so wonderful and patient. Also, just a small note -- those of you who participated in giftbox_project should let us know by email or comment or something so we can ponder how best to worship you and/or thank you properly. ( Part Twenty-Four: Four Final Days, Some Socks, One Photograph, Sneezing, a Note and a Map. ) 780 &remember

The State of Shoebox 24! 25 Dec 2005 ; 05:46pm ladyjaida First of all, so I don't get your hopes up only to dash them so cruelly on the rocks below, this is not an actual update either. It is certainly not the actual update dorkorific and I had planned and upon which we have been working so feverishly for the past week. However -- as I had told you all last not-update that we were trying to get a holiday present part out to you come Christmas day -- Part Twenty-Four of Shoebox is written. And I've edited it, and my mother's edited it, and dorkorific has edited it, and there are even no html tags gone awry, so it's so close to being posted I can almost taste it, though sadly no cigar is involved. Woefully, dorkorific's internet poops out in the evenings, so I haven't all the art to go with the text. If my internet, which also poops out though not just in the evenings, is still holding strong by tomorrow then there will be a (belated! We're so sorry!) holiday Shoebox for you all then. No matter what, this part will get posted incredibly incredibly soon. I am so sorry to disappoint! If the internet were within my control I would 1. be incredibly wealthy and 2. have parts without any delays. For now, all I have to say is: Happy Holidays! I hope they are and have been and will continue to be splendid. Much love to you all. Eat lots of Christmas pudding. (Jesus would want you to, &c.) 143 &remember

Answering a coupla questions! 26 Nov 2005 ; 07:42pm ladyjaida Not an update but an ... update on the nature of future updates! (I do not wish to lead any of you astray, after all!) I am here, however, to answer a couple of questions that have been asked a whoooole bunchola recently and, just as I do not wish to lead any of you astray, I certainly don't wish to leave any of you hanging! Question: Is Shoebox over? Answer: No. It is most definitely not over! Rave and I would like to believe it will never be over, as it is the one ephemeral light in our separate collegiate darknesses. The simpler answer is of course that when it is over, everyone will know because 1. the part will have something like "last" or "final" or "the end" or even some combination of all three in it (no astraying! no hanging! we pinky swear! Plus we'll have to convince ourselves of it, too, which is going to be hard) and 2. characters will arrive at certain inevitable canonical conclusions that, being inevitable, cannot be avoided. This of course sucks, to use the technical term. But it brings us back to the world of "Rave and I would like to believe it will never be over." Hopefully the slower we go, the longer it will take to arrive at said inevitabilities. In any case we had planned to bring (and still plan on bringing) Shoebox up to somewhere around the birth of little Harry Potter and beyond. Have no fears! We'd never not tell you it's finished. That would be cruel and unusual. Question: So when is the next part coming out? Answer: Unfortunately, Rave and my schedules for college this semester are sort of like the odd couple. Her schedule says spaghetti, mine says linguine. Her schedule says very old meat, mine says very young cheese. The upshot is, we have no time to work together at all. We actually just worked on a few pages over our Thanksgiving break, but now it's back to the grind until finals chew us up and spit us out. We are trying -- very very hard, we are trying! -- to get you all the next part by Christmas. Keep your fingers crossed. Finally: we are so, so sorry that it's taking us this long. I personally wish I could lock myself in a room with a computer and just write Shoebox forever (on the assumption that, of course, I will first have done the very same to Rave). It would be a far, far better thing than ... I am doing right now. But then again, mine was apparently not a brain made for studying. Thank you for your patience. It's slow going -- but we are workin' on it! 330 &remember

Part Twenty-Three: May, 1977 19 Aug 2005 ; 12:31pm ladyjaida Finally think that the answer to the webspace/bandwidth woes is to see if I can enlist some help from folks with paid journals who wouldn't mind hosting a part or three on their livejournal pics since they're rather small size-wise while the lj galleries have unlimited bandwidth. If you're willing to help, please drop me a line by email! I used my own LJ pics to recode parts 1, 3, 4 and 5 and, apparently, give myself a whole lot of headache because I got out of order a hundred times. I am inept. Anyway, we promised Voldemort in this bit but then realized Voldemort needs to come later -- this bit needs to come now. We hope you agree with us. It's the moment dorkorific and I have been waiting for, in any case, since the whole project's inception. We love you guys. We hope you enjoy. ( Part Twenty-Three: A few good kisses. A few bad ones. A few right ones. One picture. ) 1518 &remember

Part Twenty-Two: April, 1977 20 Jul 2005 ; 04:05pm ladyjaida Once we have a domain name again (which, as of now, it's up in the air like a daring young man on a flying trapeze!) we'll have an enormous pictures-and-notes post extravaganza. And stay tuned for the next installment, in which Remus acknowledges that such a thing as homosexuality may exist in the world, you know, around; in which Fabian is kissed by someone; and in which Voldemort makes his first appearance. Coincidences? Who knows. ATTN.: those of you who can't read note-heavy parts, download the WONDERFUL Shoebox PDF file here. We live in gratitude. PS: We're introducing the new canon, but nice and slow -- so for those of you looking for that, there will be more of it in later installments! ( Part Twenty-Two: Two Photographs, One Funeral. ) 869 &remember

Images, July 15th and Explanations! 13 Jul 2005 ; 12:19pm ladyjaida Hey everyone! After two weeks -- yep, two weeks -- of trying to figure out what's up with my domain, and therefore all the Shoebox pictures, I've still gotten nowhere. (Though I'd like to thank my host a million times over for all the hard work he's doing on my behalf in attempting to sort this problem out.) Shoebox hauls an enoooormous amount of bandwidth per month, so I can't ask anyone to host the images for us. So for the time being, as emails are being sent and nowhere is being gotten, I'll have to beg you all to forgive me and be a little bit patient with the broken red x invasion until the site goes back up! Just thought I should leave a little note of explanation, though I'd wanted to once I knew what was actually going on. Lots of hair has been torn out. I am so, so sorry about the inconvenience to you all! Secondly, as you are probably aware, the sixth Harry Potter book is coming out at the stroke of midnight this Friday and dorkorific and I want to digest the new canon a bit before we talk turkey and the direction of further Shoebox installments. Can't write a fic without knowing where it's going to go, after all. But suffice it to say that we are working on more Shoebox and will always be working on more Shoebox, so new parts are in store! (Are you all doing fabulous midnight book things? Or do you want to hide under a desk?) Finally, dorkorific and I have begun an original fiction project these past few weeks and are very revved up about how it's working out. (Plus, it's just fun.) So we hope you'll forgive us while we balance the two projects and attempt to give them equal attention! I think that's it -- enjoy the sixth book, of course -- and we have a little something in store for you all once the frenzy of "HBP" has died down a bit! -Jaida 174 &remember

Part Twenty-One B: March, 1977 11 Jun 2005 ; 02:14pm ladyjaida ( Part Twenty-One B: Aftermaths, Coves, Tragedies. ) 635 &remember

Part Twenty-One A: March, 1977 11 Jun 2005 ; 02:09pm ladyjaida This part is extra long and extra something, as there in all likelihood won't be another one whilst I am frolicking on the merry shores of England for (almost) two weeks. We do hope you enjoy, even if it does take a turn for the ... well. On to the installment! ( Part Twenty-One A: A Little Vacation, Two Commemorative Photographs, One First Time For Something Anyway. Continued in Part Twenty-One B. )

Part Twenty: February, 1977. 26 May 2005 ; 04:24pm ladyjaida At last! And thank you all for being so patient. ( Part Twenty: Getting into a fight. With photographic evidence. ) 686 &remember

13 Apr 2005 ; 09:17pm ladyjaida Hi guys! First and foremost, I want to say that this is not an update, that I'm sorry there hasn't been an update, and that I don't know when there will be an update. I'd change the information on the main page, but when I tried to do that I discovered it can't be changed because the paid account has run out, and until I have five bucks handy to renew it just enough to change the misleading and outdated info about updates and the like, it will have to stay that way. I'm really sorry if it's upset anyone. It's a leftover relic from the summer, when time was more bountiful and schedules better co-ordinated. As for the delay -- no matter how busy dorkorific and I are or are not on any given week isn't really the issue at hand. It's a matter of finding time when both of us aren't busy, and when dorkorific can get at a computer, and frankly it's really, really hard. It gets me down -- so of course I fully understand that it gets you guys down as well -- but after trying and trying I've come to realize that until the summer comes, there just might not be anything I can do about it. Again, this does not mean that the project is over; it's one of my favorite creative pasttimes and I think out of all of us I might be the saddest if it were to just stop like that. ;) I have plans, dorkorific has plans, and it remains as always a source of pure fun for the both of us, so for those reasons alone -- not even accounting for our delight in all the comments and our eagerness to please! -- we wouldn't stop it for the world. The reason I haven't posted this sooner is because I just haven't been able to contact dorkorific to see if she'd OK posting without some sort of update material -- but with the tone of some comments lately and the feeling I got that we owed you all this much, I decided tonight to just go ahead and post it anyway. If you have any questions, you can email me at jaidajones@gmail.com and I'll get back to you ASAP. Thanks for bearing with us, for those of you that are. :) It means a lot. One day I'll know what's going on, and if I get any more info, you'll be the first to know.

Happy Valentine's Day! 14 Feb 2005 ; 09:25am ladyjaida dorkorific and I had planned a Valentine's update for all of you -- because let's face it, some of us have only chocolate to soothe the bitterness in our hallmarked souls -- but unfortunately, life yet again intervened, this time in the form of destroying dorkorific's computer completely. This means that she's only around intermittently, and from the library, and it limits time tremendously. Of course, far more important is that her computer went explodey and that sucks, but amongst the many casualties the update was one of them. So, in lieu of an update, I've an excerpt from what remains salvaged of the next part, and wishes for you all that the chocolate flows and the secret valentines are abundant. ( A bit of a teaser for you all! Happy Valentine's Day! ) 584 &remember

Happy Holidays! 24 Dec 2004 ; 05:12pm ladyjaida From our proverbial hearth to yours. There might have been an actual part except I, in the joyous flurry of packing, left a chunk of part twenty on my computer in my dorm room, which is now locked down in the spirit of vacation. Nevertheless, dorkorific and I put our heads together and came up with a little bit of a present. Wishing you all the best for the holiday season and the new year! ( Christmas Memories; a Scrapbook. ) 373 &remember

Part Nineteen: January, 1977. 02 Dec 2004 ; 10:49am ladyjaida It's my birthday and I'll update Shoebox if I want to. EDIT: And to you guys who were/are a part of jaidafest04? I cry like happy baby. Thank you so, so much. EDIT 2: Now with art from dorkorific -- check it out! ( Part Nineteen: Lessons in Cartography. ) 621 &remember

Ask Our Characters Anything! 12 Oct 2004 ; 07:05pm ladyjaida So, college is hard. College is very hard. What we've decided is: we're going to sacrifice speed for length and quality. We thought that was a better option. NO, we are not going to stop writing, and YES, we are going to put out parts in a timely fashion. There will be at least one part per month -- longer and with more media -- and sometimes, more! So sit back, and enjoy, and pity us. For now, however, to keep you occupied: Ask the Shoebox Characters anything. Anything at all.

The State of the Shoebox Union. 30 Sep 2004 ; 11:41am ladyjaida ; mood ; crazy ; All right, here's the deal. Due to some horrific technical difficulties -- suffice it to say much hair was torn out, and my new nickname amongst my friends is "Patches" while dorkorific's is "Skinner" -- we are being forced to rethink once more our course of posting action in terms of schedules and technological meltdowns. In other words, we are poor college students, we have some craptastic computers to our names, we have a whole lot of work to be doing and this is, as some of you may or may not know, the approximate recipe for "catastrophe." Simply put: there will be no update today! No one is more sorry than we are; but please bear with us while we attempt to work this out. We are like little fic producing munchkins, except our witch is not dead, has a really slow processor speed, and keeps deleting files, kicking us offline, and cackling while we try to fall asleep. Or maybe that last one is the girl in room 602. So, keeping that in mind -- and if anyone has any sensible solutions, please do tell us -- there are two things to be offered today, sort of an apology, sort of a "Hey all, 'sup?" with a tentative shifty hopefulness that we will prevail! Somehow! Despite the odds! ... And the girl in room 602! ( First: A little snippet of what you can expect in the next installment of Shoebox, whenever that may be! ) Second: Hello everyone. We are sorry. But please, take this time to introduce yourself. Who are you? Where are you from? How's it going? Do you like gala apples? What are your thoughts on Splenda? And &c. These aren't diversionary tactics! Well, okay, they are. But also, you know, it was about time to say Hi! 685 &remember

Happy Anniversary! ... Well, sort of. 26 Sep 2004 ; 01:07pm ladyjaida I woke up this morning smelling oddly like cantaloupe, only to discover that today -- the 26th of September -- is exactly three months from the 26th of June -- or, to be more clear, when Part One was posted on a deranged and hopeful whim. Never one to ignore cosmic signs of great importance, the fact that Shoebox's ThreeMonthIversary falls on a day when over three thousand people are watching, I 1) cried out of amazement for literally an hour and then 2) decided we needed some sort of celebration, some sort of Thank You, some expression of our total awe and joy and gratitude. This continues to be the most fantastic experience. We have so much love. ( One Undated Page from One Old Journal. ) 271 &remember

Part Eighteen and a Half: Decembers 23 Sep 2004 ; 11:16am ladyjaida ( Part Eighteen and a Half: Decembers. Five Christmases, Six Christmas Memories. ) 222 &remember

Part Eighteen: December, 1976 16 Sep 2004 ; 07:22pm ladyjaida As you can see, the part is a bit shorter and there are no artographs this time around -- the former is going to become the norm (6,000ish word parts instead of 9,000ish) while the latter is due to a freak scanner incident. Also, one may note that a lot of the time there is trouble with loading the images that accompany certain points. I really wish there was something I could do about this but hosting Shoebox has made it so that my site, for the month of September -- only half of it having past so far -- is hauling over 63 GIGS of bandwidth. Please bear with me: this is madness. In any case, without further ado: Update Day. And now I slip back into the void... ( Part Eighteen: One Invitation, A New Flat, Cockroaches, and Christmas Spirit. ) 429 &remember

Part Seventeen And A Half 09 Sep 2004 ; 01:21pm ladyjaida To tide you over until next Thursday. The plan now is, every other Thursday there will be a part; on the Thursdays in between, there will be unrelated Shoebox offerings. This is because college is a giant Star Warsian mouth with many, many teeth that does not so much eat you as digest you for a thousand years. (Poor, poor Boba.) In any case: Enjoy! ( Part Seventeen and a Half: One Picture and One Page of One Essay. ) 264 &remember

; go ; earlier

 

question - how can all this fit into the shoebox? it is simply not plausible.
answer - the shoebox is somewhat metaphorical. it has bits and bats here and there, but the rest is memory.

question - when will the next part come out?
answer - no doubt once the summer commences (mid-May, we're hoping).

question - i've asked to join the community but haven't been added yet. do you hate me?
answer - no. we love you. to keep things simple, the only two members of the community are dorkorific and ladyjaida. but watch for updates!

question - can i take your pictures/quotes and make icons with them?
answer - are you joking? of course you can. we would be ecstatic. please do credit the project in your keywords, however.

question - why haven't you replied to my comments?
answer - oh my god, we are sorry. as above, we love you madly, and we do cherish and pet and love every single comment. (especially you wonderful britpickers--oh, the things we have learned. NO MORE UNDERCLASSMEN, we swear.) unfortunately we can't reply enough to show our love. in our hearts, however, we are doing so. like madmen. you guys are too awesome for words.

question - will this be one of those perpetual work in progresses that will fester in our souls until we hate you?
answer - no. that is why we are cowriting. we will not do this to you. or ourselves.

question - why are there no capital letters here?
answer - to bring remus pain.


you've got questions? we've got answers. email jaidajones@gmail.com !


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