C H I A R A S C U R O

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:52:03 GMT

1. Neo-Pagan (100%)
2. Mahayana Buddhism (94%)
3. New Age (92%)
4. Unitarian Universalism (91%)
5. Theravada Buddhism (84%)
6. Liberal Quakers (83%)
7. Taoism (76%)
8. Secular Humanism (69%)
9. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (68%)
10. Hinduism (67%)
11. Sikhism (67%)
12. Jainism (65%)
13. New Thought (60%)
14. Reform Judaism (59%)
15. Scientology (57%)
16. Orthodox Quaker (47%)
17. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (37%)
18. Nontheist (37%)
19. Baha'i Faith (33%)
20. Orthodox Judaism (29%)
21. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (25%)
22. Seventh Day Adventist (23%)
23. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (18%)
24. Eastern Orthodox (16%)
25. Islam (16%)
26. Roman Catholic (16%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (13%)

From BeliefOMatic quiz. I will admit to being a bit gratified when these support me.

On Racewank, and wank in general

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:56:18 GMT

A number of mildly related issues have surfaced on the internet of late; the first is what is now being called "Moff's Law" and basically states "Do not ever comment in a serious thread that people should stop analyzing a piece and just enjoy it" (see: here) and the second is the release of the movie Avatar in mainland China. ( translated reactions here)

Now, early last week, having seen Avatar a second time, I violated Moff's Suggestion (to call it a law is presumptive and inane). In a thread on one of the Gawker Media sites (I don't remember which, but it may have been Jezebel), I told people to shut up about racewank in regards to Avatar and enjoy the movie for what it was. "But Austin," you say, "Why would you dismiss what other people feel is a valid issue?" Dear reader, the answer is simple: Because it's a nonissue.

The Chinasmack article I linked earlier contains any number of comments from one of the most popular Chinese BBSes, Tianya. Now that a fair number of Chinese people have seen Avatar, they are beginning to discuss the movie amongst themselves, and have come to a consensus: Avatar is about Nail houses. "That's ridiculous," you say, "Avatar isn't about nail houses; even if James Cameron knew about them, that's not why he wrote the movie." And you would be absolutely right. But I beg of you to also stop pushing your interpretation of Avatar on it as well. Avatar is not a movie about how much white people are better than black/brown/blue people. There are themes of colonialism (which in the West has traditionally been associated with race, it's true, but make no mistake: They are separate) and of environmental stewardship, but that's about it.

People (particularly people on the internet, where they can be as shrill and dramalicious as they want without fear of reprisal [see the work on backstage by Goffman]) see what they want to see. It's called pareidolia: Seeing patterns where there are none. James Cameron is a white man. He is comfortable writing about white men because he understands them; it's only natural that his characters be white men. I write about white men too, because my racial identity is primarily white. I frequently write about straight people: it's not some presumptive act reaffirming heteronormativity, it's because the character is straight. What agenda I write with is independent of the means I choose to broadcast it. The Eightfold Path is about extremism; one of the main adversaries is a radical Christian organization. I don't hate Christians, or think they're evil, or anything else; it's simply an elegant and effective way to tell the story. (See also: THERE IS NO P7 CONSPIRACY*)

I wouldn't dare presume to say that Oscar Wilde wrote "The Importance of Being Earnest" about white straight people because he hates everyone else; he wrote characters they way they needed to be and the way he was comfortable representing. James Cameron did the same thing. It's not about race, or sexuality, or nail houses or anything but the (admittedly indelicate) messages of colonialism. Stop injecting your own agenda into it and STFU.

*"The P7 are the ruling conspiracy of the age: Pale Patriarchal Plutocratic Protestant Penis People of Power" —Charlie Stross

Top Decadey Things, Part One: Movies

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:11:52 GMT

I don't like to number things, because that implies that some are better than others, but they may just be different. So, without much further adieu, here are some of the best movies of the past decade:

Le Fabuleux Déstin d'Amélie Poulain, ("Amélie"), Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001

District 9, Neill Blomkamp, 2009

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Peter Jackson, 2001-2003

Moulin Rouge!, Baz Luhrmann, 2001

A Beautiful Mind, Ron Howard, 2001

El Laberinto del Fauno ("Pan's Labyrinth"), Guillermo del Toro, 2006

The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan, 2008

Hotel Rwanda, Terry George, 2004

Children of Men, Alfonso Cuaron, 2006

Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi ("Spirited Away"), Hayao Miyazaki, 2001

The Hours, Stephen Daldry, 2002

UP, Pete Docter & Bob Peterson, 2009

The Prestige, Christopher Nolan, 2006

Minority Report, Stephen Spielberg, 2002

American Psycho, Mary Harron, 2000

Chocolat, Lasse Hallstrom, 2000

Låt den rätte komma in ("Let the Right One In"), Tomas Alfredson, 2008

Avatar, James Cameron, 2009

These may not all be the greatest screenplays, or best acting, but they are a testament to the triumph of cinema and its development as an art form distinct from that of novels and plays.

Feel free to discuss/challenge/make wild accusations.

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:50:44 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8419948.stm

No fucking way. Someone stole the Arbeit Macht Frei sign from Auschwitz.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:31:06 GMT

I laughed so hard I cried. Five times. For six minutes solid.

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:48:18 GMT

Character meme! I vastly prefer memes that assume my character is a person and work from there, rather than having me describe them. That's what the original work is for!

THREE NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
1. Luc
2. Lucifer
3. Lux

THREE THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. My eyes— Richard says they're the most stunning blue
2. Euh...
3. I don't know.

THREE THINGS YOU DON'T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. My personal weakness
2. My inability to do things to the best of my ability
3. Being too hard on other people

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. French
2. Maybe Algerian?
3. Probably Roman, a long time ago.

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. The possibility of losing Richard
2. Spiders
3. Losing my comm glasses, again

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. Conference calls with the Path
2. The coffee in the faculty lounge
3. Richard, of course!

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. Light blue oxford
2. Charcoal slacks
3. My comm glasses

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTISTS:
1. Classical music
2. Les Béatles
3. Émilie Simon (I know, I'm so old-fashioned)

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS:
1. Je T'Aimais, Je T'Aime et Je T'Aimerai, Francis Cabrel
2. Eleanor Rigby, Les Béatles
3. Fille Sauvage, Claude François (What? It makes me smile.)

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
1. Love
2. Stability
3. Friendship

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE:
1. My natural hair is so blond, it's white
2. I smoke Gauloises sometimes even though they are nasty
3. I used to want to be a painter

THREE THINGS ABOUT THE OPPOSITE [same!] SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. Easy-going personality
2. Intelligence
3. Passion

[All things mon chèr Richard has in abundance!]

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. Drawing
2. Testing my memory
3. Breaking into systems I should not be in XD

THREE THINGS YOU WANT REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. To see the Jardins Tuileries next spring (fingers crossed)
2. Richard to finish his homework
3. Oreos, I love them!

THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING:

I don't know if this is such a good question for an old fogey (did I use that right?) like me who already has a career or two. I'm an assistant professor in my spare time from the Dharma Group.

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. Spain (J'adore la playa del sol!)
2. Kyoto
3. Antartica

THREE KID'S NAMES YOU LIKE:
1. Émile
2. Gilberto
3. Michel

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. Get married and have a family
2. Make the Dharma Group into the world's largest corporate donor
3. World peace, of course. :D

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A BOY:
1. I graduated with honors from a military academy
2. I am not afraid to get what I want
3. I'm a computer geek

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A CHICK:
1. I like to decorate our apartment
2. I get jealous when I see Richard talking to his classmates sometimes
3. I love receiving flowers, especially amaryllis.

THREE CELEB CRUSHES:
1. Cary Grant
2. George Clooney (I know, I know, how unfashionably retro. All right.)
3. Michael van Bloek

THREE PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO TAKE THIS QUIZ NOW:

1. Richard, bien sûr! <3
2. Tara
3. Claire

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:32:40 GMT

Tora of Danger Field on art: (no italics/blockquotes because it's long)

As an artist I feel like I deal in a completely different currency. If we were to really count every little income and expense and average it out over our entire careers, we would probably (for me CERTAINLY) have earned well under the poverty line in terms of a weekly or monthly or yearly ‘income’. But thats because a monetary currency is not relevant to our cause. We don’t clock on ‘hours’ with ‘time cards’ because time is not constant or relevant for us either! My job when I work in theatre is to manipulate time and space, to bend and fracture everything we know and present it in a stylized form so that we might learn lessons from the stories we are telling…and when I think about it that way, how can I possibly fit that job (and myself) into an ‘approved’ social structure? I cannot. In a way, the only way I can possibly be paid, is if people pay me what they think I am worth.

There are those who think I am useless.

There are those feel they owe me their life.

There are those who are too proud to give (but take nonetheless).

And there are those who are generous.

Yes we do need to eat, but it also needs to be acknowledged that we work on a different system, but a system that runs parallel to the mainstream and is just as supported by it as it supports it, they feed each other. I put my hand into my pocket for the buskers because I know that we are all the same…and at the end of the day, if I really asked myself what it means to me - my favorite story, my favorite album, my favorite painting, my favorite movie, my favorite song - I can’t put a monetary value to it. It is truly priceless. And when we realize THAT, maybe we will start to be more generous towards artists.

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:55:16 GMT

International friends! I want to do a Thing* with postcards, can you please send me some?

*I want to make a wall display with a grid of postcards from cool exciting places like Paris and Freiburg and Jeju-si and Newfoundland, I would like to make it at least 3x4 which means I need 11 postcards! (I have a couple from Paris)

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:25:43 GMT

I managed to convince semyaza to do this, so I suppose it's only fair that I should give her the chance for revenge.

Give me the title of a story I've never written, and feedback telling me what you liked best about it, and I will tell you any of: the first sentence, the last sentence, the thing that made me want to write it, the biggest problem I had while writing it, why it almost never got posted, the scene that hit the cutting room floor but that I wish I'd been able to salvage, or something else that I want readers to know.

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:28:51 GMT

Total comments: 335

1	eleraama	62
2	daiv	44
3	deliapants	33
4	your_lake_como	26
5	delight046	24
6	battlepunk	22
7	angel_06	17
8	saralogan	15
9	only_as_a_muse	15
10	semyaza	14
11	clemsblueruins	11
12	_coherent	10
13	_youngblood_	8
14	dandg4evr	5
15	nmugirl2276	5
16	pencilghost	5
17	oaksylph	4
18	Anonymous	3
19	floraldeoderant	3
20	kerpami	1
21	starmist1	1
22	a_is4addiction	1
23	evidux	1
24	l_ces	1
25	squishychicka15	1
26	mister_duster	1
27	perignonic	1
28	twilightmagi	1

Generated by LJ Comment Stats.

Writer's Block: To Infinity and Beyond!

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:02:44 GMT

Are you interested in intergalactic travel? What would you hope to discover?

Presented by Intel, Sponsors of Tomorrow.

View 481 Answers

I could not possibly participate in intergalactic travel. Sub-light interstellar travel is at the very very edge of possibility of a single (enhanced) human lifespan. Our own galaxy is 100,000 light years wide! Short of a more or less physically impossible "warp" drive or tesseracting that distorts spacetime, it would take more time to cross the Milky Way than the entirety of human civilisation.

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:58:48 GMT

Warning: ENORMOUS picspam!meme post. Seriously.

General gist: Post pictures on your computer that you think represent you, without any comment or clarification.

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:38:28 GMT

A short film (~5 min) from France about the Plague:

La Peste from La Peste on Vimeo.

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:04:08 GMT

Just as an FYI, I've started a cooking blog called

Cinnabar Road: Culinary Journeys

The general idea is to document my experiences learning to cook various asian cuisines (focusing on Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indian with possible forays into Thai and Mongolian). I'll include recipes, technique breakdowns, and suggestions for variants as well as (hopefully) insightful commentary on the history of asian ingredients and methods.

I'd love to hear your ideas for what I learn to make— if you suggest something and I use it, I'll invite you over to eat it, so suggest as many as you can think of!

NAS-ty, yo

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 08:45:30 GMT

Okay, I mentioned this on Twitter, but many of you do not tweet, so I shall post it here as well (plus it's easier to corral* comments)

I've decided to start a Nighttime Appreciation Society. The main goal is to, well, appreciate nighttime and how awesome it is. To this end, it will largely revolve around nighttime walks and gatherings.

I have decided (because I am all modern and shit) to make it an adhocracy, run by its members. So here's how it works:

1) Comment if you want to join.
2) Include how late you are willing to be contacted about impromptu walks and how late you are willing to be out.
3) Theoretically we should all have each others' cell phone numbers. If you want to take a walk, mass text message the group. If you are interested, reply; if not, don't (or reply in the negative).

My info/sample:

I want to join! I am willing to be texted until about 2 AM, and I am willing to be out until about 3 or 3:30. My cell number is on Facebook if you need it, or PM me.

*No, not coral. Corral.

Books! They are my drug of choice.

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 07:16:40 GMT

I'm looking for something to read. I read a lot of things, of course, and many of them have been at least passably good. But that's not what I'm looking for. I'm in A Mood, majuscule. And when the mood strikes... Oh, I let it carry me.

I'm looking for A Book. The Book. A book that will thrill me and chill me and fill me, a book that will wear me as a skin and throw me about, a book that will bend my psyche and blow my mind and chew me up and spit me out. I'm looking for what Neuromancer takes to get high, whose complexity Dune reels in, who cyber-beat-anarcho-opiates crush up and snort directly into quivering, melting brainmeats.

I am looking, in short, for a Book that will explode my fucking mind into ten thousand glinting pieces of broken dream and razor-sharp reality and cut me until I bleed.

Please?

Books: I like them.

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:17:10 GMT

I can't be arsed to put the bolds back in by hand in HTML; suffice to say the Rich Text editor was being a bitch.

1) What author do you own the most books by?

Errm, it depends on what you mean by "by". I have eight books with Neil Gaiman's name on them, but I am uncertain if he authored some of them (such as "Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere", the comic adaptation). Other than him, I've got seven JK Rowling books, only one of which is in French.

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
I try not to duplicate if I can help it. Once upon a time I had copies of "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" in two languages, but the English has since disappeared. I also have two different translations of the bible among my religious collection.

3) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?

I don't form attachments to characters other than my own easily, but I have a certain fondness for the Lucifer of the titular comic series (a spin-off of Sandman) and Lucien (from the series itself). Also early Dumbledore, the Dumbledore who said things like "Nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak" and didn't plot.

4) What book have you read more than any other?
I generally don't like to repeat reading things very often, and so the "not yet" date hasn't expired for most of my collection, but I believe I've read "The Phantom Tollbooth" and "Sabriel" three times. I don't know how many times I've read "A Light in the Attic" or "Where the Sidewalk Ends," though, so it might be them.
There is also a list of things I've read twice, which more or less puts them in "beloved" territory.

5) What was your favorite book when you were 10-years-old?
Oh, I don't know. I read a lot then. Maybe Bruce Coville's "Into the Land of the Unicorns"?

6) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
No wallbangers as far as I remember, though there was a book in my Chinese Families class that was nigh impenetrable until I'd read another book on the same subject. I haven't read as much as I would like in the past year, and I've been pretty selective about what I have read.

7) What is the best book you've read in the past year?

Maybe only because it's fresh in my mind, but "River of Gods" by Ian McDonald is probably the freshest SF I've read in a while.

8) If you could tell everyone you know to read one book, what would it be?

Probably Dune.

9) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?

Probably "The Sound and the Fury". It evens out, but those first Benjy chapters are rough.

10) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?

I am an existentialist.

11) Shakespeare, Milton or Chaucer?
Honestly, they've all got their problems and benefits. Shakespeare did some interesting things with language, Milton had the benefit of writing "Paradise Lost" which shaped Western literature, and Chaucer amused me.

12) Austen Or Eliot?
Which Eliot? If I get to choose T.S., then definitely him.

13) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
My reading has a distinct Western bias. Also (in a move that will probably shock all the English majors) I have never read "The Yellow Wallpaper".

14) What is your favorite novel?

You wouldn't pick a favorite child, would you?

15) Play?

Are we defining "play" to exclude musicals? If so, "No Exit"/"Huis Clos" (depending on your language preference)
If not, I am torn between "RENT" and "Tick, Tick... Boom!" which have both helped me become who I am.

16) Poem?

I like a lot of poetry. If a gun was held to my head, I might say "l(a" by e.e. cummings

17) Essay?

Maybe "So You Want to Learn Japanese", though I'm sure there are others that I have forgotten.

18) Short Story?

Ray Bradbury's incomparable "There Will Come Soft Rains". It is a masterpiece of English literature.

19) Non-fiction?

I don't read that much nonfiction, but I of course enjoy Dave Sedaris like a good gay. I've found myself very much enthralled with Alistair Horne's "La Belle France: A Short History," which is simultaneously the most thorough and funniest history I've yet come across.

20) Graphic novel?
The term "graphic novel" is a slippery one indeed. I frequently take it to mean "comics with literary merit", but in this instance, because that is also slippery, I will go with "Graphic works published in entirety in a single volume" whereupon my answer would be "Sandman: Dream Hunters" by Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano.
(Among my favorite comics are "Sandman," of course, "Hellblazer," "Lucifer," "Watchmen," and "Madame Xanadu." My favorite manga is "Petshop of Horrors," the original series, though I also read PoH: Tokyo.

21) Memoir?

"The Hiding Place," Corrie ten Boom. The most moving Holocaust memoir I've ever read, the story of a gentile hiding Jews.

22) History?

Oh, most definitely "La Belle France".

23) Mystery or noir?

My favorite mysteries are by Bartholomew Gill, who I actually knew before his untimely death. They are about Ireland.

24) Science Fiction?

Seeing as how I've already name-checked "Dune," I will go with "The Martian Chronicles".

25) Who is your favorite writer?

I have several. People you should know about (heavy emphasis on modern): Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, Garth Nix, Charlie Stross, Cory Doctorow, China Miéville.

26) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?

Stephanie Myer. At least Dan Brown holds my interest. (I was tempted to say JK Rowling after that miserable attempt at Book Seven fanfic, but then I remembered the first three.)

27) What are you reading right now?

"Wizard's First Rule"
"Bones of Faerie"
"Ritual Practice in Modern Japan"
"Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination"
"Japanese Love Hotels: A Cultural History"
"Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation"
"The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture"
"Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan: Dislocating the Salaryman Doxa"

(can you tell I'm doing research?)

Forgot to mention that I stole this from dokkaebi

Current Writing Projects

Mon, 25 May 2009 18:02:09 GMT

Active Projects:

Novels:
* The Eightfold Path
* Fey
* Adrift

Questionable Length:
* The Diary of Hiroshi Matsuzaki
* Samael

Short Stories:
* The Thing
* Old Lace
* The Rose

Comics:
* Amaranth

Plays:
* As Yet Untitled Play About Knights

Inactive Projects (Shelved/Nothing Written)

Novels:
* Shaolin
* Betrothed
* Followups to Fey
* As Yet Unnamed Drug Narrative
* The Fall of Utopia
* City of Dreams

Tentatively Short Stories (all untitled):
* Travelogue
* Cthulhu Mormons
* Graveyard Slipstream
* Witch Wars
* Fab World
* Where Is the Love for the Occult Zombie?

From the Diary of Hiroshi Matsuzaki

Fri, 15 May 2009 19:56:29 GMT

１５日５月２００９年

Kimura and Ono hid my indoor shoes again today; I had to wear socks until gym class. Honestly, I've gotten used to it at this point. What's really pathetic is the ignoring. Like by pretending I'm not there, I'll somehow just disappear. The only time they break the silence is to insult my father. Of course, they're about as subtle as a traffic cone— "Naa, Hiroshi, you'd be better at math if your dad hadn't been a drag queen." I was saved having to reply by a passing teacher, Kawamura-sensei. He pulled me into the teachers' room and told me that if I didn't start studying more for math, I'd flunk my entrance exam and have to go to technical school. You can use all the regretful language in the world, Kawamura, but that doesn't mean you care. And I know that Honda-sensei and Tachigawa-sensei heard you. It probably never even occurred to you that Honda is Ono's first maternal cousin, did it? And (I really had no doubt this would happen) by the time school is over and I go to cram, Ono already knows. Another two hours struggling to keep up with what the teacher is saying while Kimura talks loudly about me as if I'm not behind him.
Mom was home late again; I had curry-rice from the convenience store for the fourth time this week. I tried to talk to her about maybe changing schools, but she said that if I wanted to get into a good college, I needed to stay. I told her that I didn't care what college I went to, but she just frowned and told me to go study.

The entire world seems to think that studying will solve all my problems. I'm not so sure.

For Your Information

Sun, 03 May 2009 08:11:15 GMT

Just as a general note, I can now also be found on Dreamwidth as user eleraama, as usual. Look forward to seeing you all there in the coming months!

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:57:08 GMT

You guys want to read some amazingly crafted fiction?

Hell yeah you do.

A Buyers Guide to Maps of Antarctica

Structure: It can make or break a piece.

Merci mille fois à The incomparable semyaza

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:41:10 GMT

Unanimous ruling: Iowa marriage no longer limited to one man, one woman

This is one of the happiest days of my life.

The icon I want to use:

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 04:15:20 GMT

default	oldest	newest


saddest	happiest	angriest


cutest	sexiest	funniest


fave ship	fave fandom	fave animated


best quote	best textless	best stolen idea


use the most	favorite

HOW MANY ICONS DO YOU HAVE: 79
OUT OF HOW MANY AVAILABLE ICONS SPACES: 15, apparently? This has to be wrong-- I'm not Plus. (No longer paid. In those days I had the 100-icon pack.)
IF YOU COULD BUY SPACE FOR MORE, WOULD YOU: I was getting close to wanting another 100-pack (but alas, it is impossible)
DO YOUR ICONS MAKE A STATEMENT: My icons are mostly specific emotions or thoughts that speak perfectly to what I'm writing, plus a few generic ones.
WHAT FANDOM DO YOU HAVE THE MOST ICONS OF: X-Files, I think.
AND THE SECOND MOST: Ermmm... Haruhi Suzumiya.
WHAT SHIP DO YOU HAVE THE MOST ICONS OF: Mulder/Scully
ARE YOUR ICONS MADE MOSTLY BY OTHER PEOPLE: It's probably half and half these days.
DO YOU MAKE ICONS: All the time!
ARE THEY ANY GOOD: I've only recently developed my own style; the others are well-executed one-offs.
ANIMATED ICONS ARE: Generally kind of distracting.

ETA: Apparently I am a Plus account. I'd downgrade on principle, but then apparently they'd delete everything from my scrapbook, and that's a dealbreaker. Balls.

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:30:21 GMT

Somewhere between daylight and moonlight I must find the strength to carry on.

Catch up on Japanese missed from sickness

Learn entire Chinese language (or at least this chapter)

Put living room back together

Figure out what the hell is going on in my bedroom

Pet the kitty

Set up GTD

Chinese Families Joy Luck Club mini-paper

Fill out Janssen Ortho form for prescription assistance

Talk to French teacher about dropping class

Pet the kitty

Write two short stories

Timeline Eightfold Path and maybe Fey

Rent carpet cleaner; clean carpets

Set up savings account for study abroad

Pet the kitty

Read 20 or so books about Japanese art for thesis

Work on Beardsley tarot deck

Find Vitamin D tablets (also possibly amphetamines to do rest of list)

Prepare skit for Chinese speaking contest

Write Sakubun #2

Practise chinese characters

Learn to read traditional characters

Exchange clothes at Kohls

Eat more

Sleep less

Attempt not to die

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:02:39 GMT

Dear LiveJournal:

When you are copypasta-ing a quiz result or what have you in HTML code, make sure to switch LJ to "HTML" rather than "Rich text" (which is the default). I can read HTML, but my computer is much better at it.

Love, Me

*This is not really meant to be overtly passive-aggressive, just a heads up because I've seen it several times of late.