I will update "Marching Orders" as soon as I can. I know that I'm a bum about it. However, I'm back in school, so time is at a premium now. I apologize to everyone who has read and enjoyed it for the slow updates.

A list of George Orwell's writing tips, from http:///InformationPages/index.php/PageID/300:

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:

What am I trying to say? What words will express it?What image or idiom will make it clearer?Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

And he will probably ask himself two more:

Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

One can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases:

Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

I'm a Teen Titans fan, it was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid, and so brings about a feeling of nostalgia for the days before long college problem sets. I also enjoy NCIS, Bones, and Fringe as well as any generally well put together anime.

I almost always support canon pairings.

I actually don't get RaeRob. That has more the makings of a suicide pact rather than a relationship, and completely ignore the storyline. They need fresh perspectives on how to deal with tragedy. In fact, just going outside of the main two (BB/Rae, Rob/Star) really confuses me. After all, isn't Rob/Star really obvious and BB/Rae strongly implied? You really have to twist some stuff to get that. Though, I get the people who point to "The End." But, any Rob/Rae implication in that arc was removed by the following stories. But, to each his own.