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writings
my essay on Bast, thoughts on aromatherapy, what this page is about, reviews of stuff, and an old archive of Vents images my art page, photos from Wag 2000, and the daily image of the day for the day cast I really ought to do this, eh? misc contact information, and maybe even banners someday
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  Maneki Neko! (Thanks, Gryph!! :) >> 11:14:13 AM "How I Spent My Weekend", by me. I'm not in any of those photos, by the way. I'm tellin' ya, I've seen corpses that were more photogenic than my face. Busy week. No soap done! Feh. But I bought a bed. Did I mention the bed? >> 1:14:57 AM
Updates to Kemet.org are being done. I have two or three more changes to make, and then the loose threads should all be wrapped up. Oh, and I bought a bed. Wheeeee! >> 6:16:28 PM
I just know there's got to be a trick to clean scans and compressing images. If anyone knows it -- please, share. For the rest of you: These are some big images. You've been warned. Now the real question: Can I motivate myself to get up in 6.5 hours to swim? I'm guessing the answer is no, but then I can make up for it by heading in on Saturday instead. I think that might be the good thing to do. I just have to hold myself to it. I need sleep. (And I really shouldn't have continued on trying to get these files squished down, but I'm tenacious and silly. Feh.) >> 2:33:13 AM
My speech is degenerating. Well, really, my typing is. My speaking abilities have always been in the underdeveloped region. I'm catching myself typing "K." instead of "Okay." when I'm IMing people. Is that lazy or what? Meanwhile, something really neat has come up at the office involving a project Melissa is working on that she wants my help on. When it comes to fruition I'll be sure to let you all in on what I'm not talking about. K? >> 6:00:51 PM Ah, poor Suz and Bruce, forced to endure life without showers. Some people need their morning cup of coffee. I need my morning shower. Y'know, I used to be able to not wash my hair every day. Somewhen -- during college -- this changed, and now my hair gets so greasy that I can't stand going out in public with it that way. I also sweat a lot more when I haven't had my shower. I can't stand that, either. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's making a first impression on someone when I'm sweaty and greasy. Ugh. This doesn't mean that I don't sometimes get uberlazy and go out that way anyway, but I always end up regretting it. Not to mention my body just doesn't feel right if I haven't showered. I don't know what it is about being drenched in hot water -- something in my bones needs it for me to feel right. >> 11:46:35 AM Bakuretsu Hunters (aka Sorceror Hunters) was a disappointment. Was expecting something much funnier. Honestly, maybe it's just me, but the girl-chasing guy character just isn't funny after the fiftieth time he gets smacked in the face by an angry maiden. Not that I'm saying it can't be funny. The womanizing male is a staple of animé humor...heck, sometimes even the reverse is true (a la Haunted Junction)...but if it's all your series has in the way of the funny, then your series is in trouble. This isn't going to stop me from someday buying the MAZE fansubs, but I'm giving up on Sorceror Hunters for now. Too! Much! Work! (pant pant pant) >> 1:04:52 AM
I wish I was better at asking people the right questions. I wish I had more time to finish up all the stuff I need to before I go on sabbatical. So, the difference between me three years ago and me now is that -- when I walk into the women's locker room at the Bally's, I have absolutely no problem stripping down naked and toweling myself off around the other women. I don't know what changed between Steph at 22 (the girl who ducked into the alcove to change so no one would see her nekkid) and Steph at 25, but it doesn't seem like a big deal to me anymore. I remembered how to breathe today, and how to trick my lungs into drawing air when I come up on the third stroke. I didn't even have to think about it, it came naturally (as opposed to on Monday, when it took effort). Very odd. I got through ten minutes of mostly freestyle strokes, but I was also pressed for time this morning. I had to be ontime to work today for reasons that may or may not be clear later. Friday I'll stay in for fifteen or twenty minutes. And if I can, I'll go on the weekend. Today, though, my brain needs some rest. Lots to process. New experiences mean new lessons, and that always puts my winsome little ka into confusion. Poor ka. I think I'll go treat it to some ice cream. >> 4:55:38 PM
Tomorrow I swim again, insh'allah. >> 1:04:11 PM
Well, I went swimming this morning. And it was good. I don't think I mentioned it before, but I used to be (in high school) a competitive swimmer. I wasn't a good one, but I was on the team for nearly two years and ingrained in my muscle memory are the four primary strokes of competitive swimming: freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and the fear-inspiring butterfly. On weekdays, after school, my stepfather used to take me to the beach and I'd sit in the surf for hours. I miss that. Back to now, though. To the shock of the cats and Dave, I got up extra early, prepared the crockpot dinner, and drove through the slanting raint to the gym I've only visited a handful of times. I slated myself to swim for 30 minutes. I was lucky to make it to 15. The thing about swimming is you don't realize how hard you're working yourself until you come up for air and realize you're feeling light-headed and your heartrate is seriously accelerated. Water is tricky. Water is gooood. But aside from that, the first major problem I ran into was a rather sizeable one: Total Lack of Oxygen. I realized as I swam that I had forgotten how to breathe properly when doing the freestyle stroke. Freestyle is face-down in the water, and every third or fourth (I forget which) stroke, you go up for air. I'd try to go up for air on the breath stroke, and I couldn't grab any. I figured it out toward the end: exhale right before you come up, and your lungs will grab what they need. Up to that point, though, I must have been quite amusing for the little old ladies floating around in the lanes next to mine. I want to get back to where I was in high school, when I could swim for uniterrupted chunks of time in a sort of meditative trance, just going back and forth through the water. It's going to be a few months before I can do that, though. Remembering how to breathe is the first challenge. It seems fitting, somehow. I'm sure I'll be regretting this come tonight. Swimming works out the whole body, so my legs and arms and chest will be complaining bitterly. And I have to remember to eat before I go into the water -- I damn near passed out going from the gym to the ATM to the restaurant for breakfast. I wish I could say I was exagerrating, but I'm not. I really did almost pass out. :) I promise I won't do that again, though. The initial recalibration of self to new stimulus is still underway. It'll be fine once I get used to the concept again. And now, for those of you who have endured this lengthy discource on exercise: Kung-Fu Cats! >> 12:13:06 PM Gone Fishing After thinking about it a lot, I decided last month that I was going to go on sabbatical from the temple for the month of May. It's not what you think. I've been officiating as a priest for three years straight. Even when I went on vacations, I regularly checked in and read mail, talked to people, read board posts. And you'd think that would be why I'm taking a month off, but it isn't. Nor am I having a falling out or issues with people. Far from it. I personally feel the temple is doing better now than it was a year ago. Which is why I am going to be able to take a break at all. I wouldn't have thought about it a year ago -- there was so much to do, and so little room to maneuver. Things have changed, though, and by the grace of God and my Nisut (AUS), I'm taking a month off. The real reason for the leave-taking is work. I need to get a whole truckload of webpages done, and I just can't pull the overtime I want to when I have to go home on weekdays and weekends and spend 75% of my free time working on webpages, answering email, or counseling people. Which was how most of my weekend was spent, by the way. I love it a lot, I enjoy doing it and talking to people and being helpful, and that is exactly why I'm doing this as a planned, temporary retreat. I really need to focus on work for a period of time, and once that's over I'll hopefully have a lot of project deadwood cleared out of the way, and stop being anxious over pulling between my two loves. I know in my heart of hearts I could be putting forth a lot more effort on the work project, but I also know that if I did that I'd be neglecting people who are depending on me. So instead, I'm arranging it so that my temporary withdrawl will be as painless as possible. The next part of the comic will be up hopefully by mid-week. I say "hopefully" because my Kemet.org webwork has increased substantially in an effort to get done the priority stuff before I vanish. Whee. ;) Anyway, if I post less in my blog over the course of May, now you know why. Andy and I are both putting a lot of effort into Web 2.0 to make sure it comes out by the date it's supposed to come out, and it will definitely be cutting into my freetime. Florida will be a welcome treat when it comes. :) >> 1:28:06 AM
Plato relates that Socrates once said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." This may well be true, but it has also been my observation that the over-examined life is not truly living. If you spend all your time analyzing, at what point do you actually enjoy the fruits of your labor? And therein lies the rub. We ordered pizza, though we really shouldn't have. I have plenty of stuff to make for dinner, but the sink is full of dishes, and none of us wants to wash them. Outside we have stormy weather -- warm days that beckon thunder and rain at night. I'm going to have to get my car fixed soon if I'm going to be able to endure this sticky heat. Gundammit. >> 12:56:43 AM
Martian Successor Nadesico is all that and a bag of shrimp chips. I think those of use who are hopelessly addicted to animé will find it a lot funnier and nostalgic than those of us who aren't. I can't recommend this show enough to those who are animé fans; especially Gundam, Voltron, Starblazers, Macross/Robotech, or Evangelion fans. It's great. I'm drawrin' bishounen, oh yes, I am. And tomorrow, I'm makin' soap, too! >> 2:23:58 AM
One of the hardest things about working at a game company, sometimes, is keeping things under wrap when you're practically asphyxiating with the need to tell others about it. That said, despite the fact that I was bursting at the seams with the need to talk before, I have only one word to say now: >> 4:45:53 PM The opening themes from Gasaraki and Generator Gawl are playing. Lots of work to do. Many good ideas in my head, and gifts sent have arrived. I feel good. :) >> 3:22:36 PM YES! Ayashi no Ceres (as Ceres, Celestial Legend (eh?)) comes to DVD in July. I think it'll be three volumes per disc -- I can live with that. I hope it's worth the wait. :) >> 12:46:23 PM Heh. I told you the sequel would be better. I'm really enjoying this. I can probably finish the next one this weekend sometime, inbetween designs and soaping. As to the nature of Belligerent Usagi's machine...well, wait and see. :) >> 12:04:39 AM
Should add Senkaiden Houshin Engi to my list of fansubs I want. Also up there are Highschool Aurabuster (isn't that a funny name?), Combustible Campus Guardress (even funnier), and the Weiss Kreuz and GraduationM OAVs, if someone ever subs them. The first Rurouni Kenshin OAV was excellent, but I'll never forgive ADV Films for putting a 120-minute series on two DVDs. I understand they're a business and they're trying to make money, but that just seems a little too greedy. Despite that, the art was...wow. So nice. The fight scenes were incredible. Especially for those of us who've watched Kenshin TV and had to endure the standard "The main character moves so fast that we don't show him fighting people cuz that's how fast he moves -- oh yeah, and because this show is on a TV budget and we don't have the money to animate that much action." The other thing that struck me were the sounds. The ocean-wave noise of a gushing blood wound, and the drowsy chirring of the locust on a summer afternoon...whoo. It makes me think of a Kurosawa film. The storyline is a little on the standard side, but the show doesn't make allusions to being anything more than it is: a romance based during the Meiji restoration period. Except that in Japan, "romance" means several bloody swordfights and lots of dead folk, apparently. Heh. I've been a Kenshin fan since I heard the concept. Kenshin, the main character, mirrors a lot of the ideas I was trying to do with Pick and his story back when I was writing it. Not that that idea has been abandoned. I think I know where I'm going to go with it ultimately, though, and watching Kenshin's story unfold has helped me to get to that goal. I'll try to scan and put up the next part in the little Nekoukan vs. Belligerent Usagi story I started on Tues./Weds. It's cute. Trust me. :) Oh, and Kemet.org now uses a text navigational system at the top on most pages (still have to fix the CGI pages). And I got a great idea for the Netjer.org design last night. It's about time. I've only been waiting a year and a half for it :) >> 3:32:04 PM "The Forewords to Divine Horsemen" -- an excellent piece on Voudoun by the late Maya Deren. (And yes, I consider Divine Horsemen to be on my recommended reading list.) >> 12:08:13 AM
Hey now. I'm trying. :) >> 12:52:21 AM
Just an FYI. :) >> 12:33:04 PM My hands smell like garlic. An interesting odor for what is, to me, early morning. The result of preparing your dinner in a crockpot, I'm afraid. Lucky for me, I like garlic. Today is the Day of Paying Debts. All my bill pay service stuff is set up today, much to the glee of Those To Who I Pay Bills, I'm sure. Donations and gifts go out today as well. It's the day after taxes, and I feel fine. Other stuff is pending, as well. I can't make any announcements yet, but something is coming that will hopefully ease the burdens in my life a little. I've started getting up at 9:30 am, much to the falling-down-breathless shock of my roommates. I'm going to try moving the bar down even further and get up at 9 am starting next week. If I can school myself into that schedule, I'd be able to start working out again. Finally, I've made a sad discovery: I feel worse when I sleep in as opposed to when I get my bare minimum of sleep. WTF? It's sad because I honestly love sleeping. I love lying in bed, feeling lazy, waking up to warm sunlight and laying under covers. I have a passion for pursuing sleep as fully as possible. But honestly, when I sleep in I also come out headachey and sluggish for the rest of the day. What a bummer. Case in point was Sunday, when I had a killer headache for most of the day. I took Advil, and it went away for a few hours, then it came right back as soon as the Advil wore off. :\ So, I guess I'm just going to have to live with not being a sleepyhead. Sigh. Ah well. I'll just take up swimming, instead. :) >> 12:06:03 PM
It's not like I listened to the Ramones, but I know who they are, and they were a defining influence on the generations. And I remember Rock and Roll High School. Oh yes. >> 3:08:17 PM The mac and cheese recipe, modified from the one that I was given by Nakht. I'll warn you in advance -- this is not a healthy meal. But it's tasty, and better than a cheeseburger. Without further adieu...
Yeah, yeah, I know. Just trust me. One pound ground beef One yellow or white onion One packet of dry onion soup mix Red wine Red or yellow bell peppers, mushrooms -- as you like it An important note about this recipe: DON'T SALT ANYTHING. Not the water you boil the shells in, not the ground meat. There's so much salt in the onion soup mix and the velveeta sauce that you could pay an entire legion with it. Trust me! Really! Start boiling some water. Chop up the onion, and sliced the mushrooms and peppers if desired. I really recommend a salad with this meal, so any veggies you're using for the salad that would be good sauteed work (ie, the salad I made this time around had bell peppers and mushrooms in it -- make sense?). When you've got the water to a boil in your pasta pot, throw the ground beef, onion, and optional veggies into a pan of their own and fry 'em up. When the beef is to the halfway point of being a little brown but still a little red is when you want to put the pasta in the boiling water. The box says to cook the pasta for 10-12 minutes, but it's usually done in 8. Watch it and make sure you stir the pasta from time to time to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. When the ground beef is thoroughly cooked, drain it, then put it back on the stove. Sprinkle on the onion soup packet, then pour on enough red wine to deglaze the pan and wet the soup mix. You don't want it saucy, but you do want it wet. Mix it up good. You want to distribute the wine and onion soup thoroughly through the meat mixture. If you time it right, the pasta should be up at about the point the meat mixture is done. Drain the pasta, cool the pot it was in by swishing some cold water in it (and then dumping said water back out), and then put the pasta back in the pot. Add the meat mixture, and stir it all up. Break open the two-ton packet of cheeze goo that came with the Velveeta box, and pour it over the pasta mess. Mix. Serve with a salad. Will make enough to feed three very hungry people, or six moderately hungry people. If you need to pad it out, consider rolls, a side dish, or more salad. Tomorrow night is the return of the red wine roast. Yum. And as to what I did today -- webpages and soap, baby. I made the extra-pure castille bars and unmolded the cocoa butter lovelies. They smell soooo good. My Bast bar. :) >> 2:12:52 AM
We watched Run Lola Run -- whee!! I liked it, especially the music. And then I came down here and read all my websites for the day. Whee! We bought over a hundred dollars worth of groceries, and I bought molds for my soaps. Tonight I'll make cocoa butter soaps. Yum. I had a short talk with my mom on Friday while I was buying the plane tickets and she brought up Easter. She wanted to know what I was doing tomorrow to celebrate. I blinked and said the first perfectly logical thing that came to my cat brain: "Well, nothing. I'm not Christian." Her response was (roughly) that Easter in our family isn't about Christianity. Heh. I think what bothered her, though, was that she thought I was missing out on a family tradition. I tried to assure her that I have other festivals and holidays that I celebrate now. I didn't name them, though I could have -- Wep Ronpet, Bast festivals, the Mysteries of Wesir, Wag Festival, just to name a few. Days I make special meals and even buy gifts or give them. So, um, tomorrow -- in celebration of the Day of the Egg Dye and Chocolate Bunny Baskets, I will be cooking my household a delicious, um, Pasta Shells and Cheese Dinner. Yes. And making more soap, of course. >> 10:25:51 PM 
Me: Watchin' Kids in the Hall, drawin' bishounen. Friend: True, true. And here is a sketch of said bishounen, Rowan. Mr. Rowan, friends. He's not a girl. He's a guy. Even if he does have floppy hair. Now that Valdemar story and taxes are done, and Phoenix Coffee is soon to be done, I can get back to thinking about the World Tree. I'm still not sure that this will be his final design. He's gone through three or four. And...hm. I just realized I messed up something with his overall design. I will have to fix that. We made fun of DragonBallZ this evening. This is pretty easy -- the show is eminently riffable. Then we saw an ad for The Big O (heh heh heh) and said, "...it's Batman! Well, Japanese Batman...." Still, if you gotta rip off a style...rip off from the best. The first time I saw the character designs and backgrounds, I knew in my bones that the production companies had to be related -- and surprise, surprise: they are. I adored Batman: The Animated Series (first season especially). The voice acting gives me chills and the stories are exceptional. I even dug the funky minimalist redesigns that Bruce Timm came up with in the later seasons (though I missed the first season production values). Despite the name that still gives me giggles -- The Big O, huh -- this seems to be a mix of that later, minimalistic style (which usually means better production values -- less lines to draw means that the animators make less mistakes) and the animé "coolness" factor that genki chicks like me dig. And since two of my finest sources say it's good, I'll just have to see it on DVD when it comes out.... >> 2:20:17 AM
(mutter) Of all the Buffy characters I could come out as, why'd it have to be Dawn? :P Now that taxes are done, I have one last major undertaking, and then the road is clear. Hurray for that. Aunt Sarah, please forgive me for the huge delays in getting Phoenix Coffee's site done. It won't be long now. >> 12:32:31 PM Well, I refigured my taxes, and they came out to owing $213 to federal, getting back $45 from Missouri. Whoo hoo. One more thing done. Well -- assuming it isn't rejected by the IRS. I love completely paperless tax filing. It's very nice. >> 12:21:27 PM Did my taxes. I owe $350 to the federal government, and Missouri is reimbursing me $35. Weird. Ah well. Tomorrow I print 'em out and send 'em. Hurray for installment plans. >> 12:22:36 AM
I realized at that moment that I hadn't been aware I was smiling -- I was in a fairly poi-flavored mood -- no really stronge emotions churning through me -- and it just so happened that the expression my face defaulted to a mischevious smile. I guess this coincides with that "keep 'em guessing" mentality that I've had pounded into me over the ages. Like Melissa, I would love to know just what that smile was about. >> 6:23:59 PM
I'm sure there are exceptions to the above blanket statement, but humor me for now and trust me when I say -- no one goes into writing to make money. I suspect that, for the most part, I am right on this statement, by the way. Let's face it -- if you're smart enough to be able to analyze markets and evaluate the different job markets, you're smart enough to know that Writers Don't Make Money. Some writers make good -- even stupidly good -- money. About 5% of them (and usually not the highly literary ones). The rest -- the ones who do manage to break into fiction, which is about .005% of All People Who Want to Be Writers -- either bomb out with their first few works (occasional), or they settle into what is called the mid-range bracket (more likely). They're authors with a good following, but not enough to crack the charts -- they usually have to write in other genres or do collaborations to encourage their sales. Sometimes they break out from the bracket. Sometimes they don't. Their fate is indeterminable. Which is why when an author does hit it big -- they usually end up screwed. I suspect the same is true for actors and musicians who get their "big break" after years of effort and mac-n-cheese. The only difference is that it's much easier to pursue writing inbetween working a job (or, in my case, two) than it is music or acting. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm saying it's easier. Primarily this is on my mind because of the latest rumblings in some of the webcomic communities about money and quality of webcomics. Some of the webcomics are self-sufficient due to sales of merchandise (PVPOnline, User Friendly), some aren't (Sluggy, despite being immensely popular, is still penned by a man who works a dayjob). There are a large number of so-so comics with good followings, and there are genuine problems with paying for server space and dealing with working a dayjob and missing episodes (Megatokyo). With success comes business, and that can strangle, smash, and demolish the creative spark that started the whole mess in the first place. We want success -- but at the same time, those of us who have seen success in others have learned to dread it. What it comes down to for me is that the authors of these comics did not originally go into it to make money. If you create a success, however, money becomes an issue -- and that is why authors, actors, and musicians inevitably get screwed by it. Because we don't go into it for the chance of monetary satisfaction. And when we do get it -- we don't know what to do with it. I have seen the results of people who had relatively poor upbringings suddenly trying to navigate the muddy waters of being affluent. Inevitably, they spend too much, too little, or don't realize that they now have new issues to deal with (taxes, living trusts, and so on). And even if they are familiar with such things, other troubles arise. "Friends" coming out of the woodwork who expect said person to "spread the wealth" and take care of them and their habits. Lawsuits from individuals wanting a stake on the claim. Bitter fans who blame them for "selling out" -- when, in fact, it was them who put forth the money for the "selling" in the first place. Most "sell outs", in my experience, aren't. Most claims of "sell out"-hood come from mouths that have drunk too deeply on wine made from sour grapes. I am not saying success is bad. I am not saying money is bad. I have a view on money that says that neither extreme poverty nor extreme wealth are good for anyone -- they both effect quality of life. I am saying, though, that sometimes you go into something for the love of it -- and sometimes that love can bring about things you never expected or wanted. You have to be prepared for it, though -- success is a double-edged sword. With spikes. And acid. One side of it is bright with new possibility, and the other side is dark green with the envy of others. On another note, I finally finished watching Babylon 5, and yeah, I got weepy. Turns out my guess about the Aragorn and Arwen analogies between Sheridan and Delenn were correct. The music for the last episode was great. I can't wait for the new series, though I'm sure what I really want to know (what happened to Lyta??) will probably never be answered. >> 3:40:50 PM
In a way that I would not sound fawning, or false, or empty. I wish there was a way that I could give you the words and know that they would come to you with their intent intact. Alas, I cannot think of a way to do so. I think about it, and I keep coming up to the same brick wall: that describing Her is not the same as knowing Her. I wish I could explain to you all the good She has done for my benefit, and all the good I have seen Her do for others. And I know change comes from within -- and I am not depreciating that which I have done for myself, but I feel sometimes that I do not give Her as much credit as I want to. I want to jump up on top of my rooftop sometimes and yell, "See here! This is the Nisut, and She has helped me! She has shown me that I don't need to hate people! She has revealed the things that I already knew, but that I had been telling myself I didn't!" And then I'd probably shout, "Um, sorry, ma'am. Didn't mean to wake you. Forgot it was 3 am." So I want to tell you these things, but I really can't, see. I can only tell you that She is very wonderful. That She has changed my life. That I have sometimes not listened to Her advice, and usually I have regretted it, but She has never forced me to follow what She has asked of me. Because as I said, change comes from within, and She knows this. And I know this. And that is the hardest part about being a teacher sometimes -- knowing the path, and guiding people on the path, and watching them walk away from the path...and having the patience to wait for them to come back. I just wanted to tell you, though. I love Her very much, and I have always respected Her more than I suspect anyone but God will ever know. >> 7:46:19 PM I think I finally broke my brain. I woke up this morning listening to the thunderstorm and thinking how nice it would be to just lie in bed and enjoy the sound of the rain and the thunder. But alas, it was 10 am, and my alarm was whining at me, and I had to get up instead. I have always loved rain, especially noisy rain. My sister Cynthia was terrified of thunder and lightning when she was a child, and I can remember as a little girl sleeping in the same bedroom with her and her screaming at the top of her lungs every time lightning flashed outside. But unless my brain revised my past, I have always loved the charged, flashing ions, the pattering slamdance of raindrops, the rumble and growl of violently disrupted air. It's soothing. This doesn't change the fact that my brain is broke. I think that between the story and the soaping and the other things going on in my life, my mind finally gave up and I'm left staring slackly ahead. By the way, the soaps came out fine. Four weeks of curing starts now. >> 3:45:05 PM
A very unique office. An office where I show up to work at 11 pm, and go home around 7 or 8. An office where pugs, cats, geckos, rats, birds, and ferrets are not uncommon visitors. An office where I can have a new cubicle mascot just about anytime someone sends me a plush/stuffed animal. This morning, Dave got jealous of my current mascot, Mr. Cluckers. It has to have been jealousy, because how else do you explain his purloining Mr. Cluckers and hiding him from me?
So Dave, jealous of Mr. Cluckers, stole him from me. I had only one path of retaliation: brutal, swift, and uncompromising. I nicked his Death action figure. Dave returned from his trip to the loo, unaware of his Death-less cubicle. Over the gray walls separating our territories I called out: "Surrender Mr. Cluckers if you want to see your precious Death again!" We performed the exchange at high noon -- I warily putting my hand out for the proffered Mr. Cluckers while simultaneously extending a hand with Death resting on my palm, he eyeing me suspiciously, no doubt plotting to Kill Me In My Sleep for treading the sacred ground of his cubicle demesne and flaunting the theft of his beloved Death. I am happy to say that Mr. Cluckers is once again safe at home on my monitor, along with mini-Cleo, Usagi, and Mousie -- mascots of the past. I'm not a cute chick in that I keep lots of stuffed toys, but if people want to buy them for me -- by God, I'll give them cute names! >> 4:51:45 PM Soap. I made soap. My feet hurt, but I made soap. I made two batches. They're setting up now. If I failed I'll know tomorrow, when I unmold them. The whole lye and water thing is not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. And next weekend I'll be continuing the soap thing by making another few batches (hopefully for my sister, Jenny, Melissa, Bwien, and a special someone else). I'd say more, but I have to do final revisions and I have to be up early enough tomorrow to get to work before the mail guy comes by. Thanks to my first readers. You're all swell folks. :) And now...to finish revising the story! >> 1:05:35 AM
Please note that comments you make won't be apparent since they removed the comment counter in an effort to speed up load time. I understand why they did it, but this doesn't change the fact that BV is not really what I want in a comments system. Hopefully we'll be changing this in the future for all of Mooville. Until then, I have things set up so I receive email when someone comments. Hurrah. >> 8:52:05 PM Insults you can use around your children and pets, first in a series:
Hwang. Huh huh. >> 8:35:37 PM The Kemet.org boards are proving once again that there will always be things about Egypt for me to learn. For some reason, the information on the heavenly bodies struck me as really neat. >> 1:11:38 PM Around the time of my last blog, I realized it was time to go to bed and quit writing when I couldn't remember what the sound a horse makes when it's walking (hoofbeats). Of course, when it rains, it pours -- I finished the story, and was immediately handed the on-call phone. Heh. No rest for me. ;) I'm going to try to make soap this weekend in-between doing final edits on the story. And get some work done on the site I've been neglecting. If I don't blog between now and then, it's because I am, as ever, busy. :) >> 12:42:03 PM Yes kids, I finished it. I remember the days when it used to take me one, two days to write a short story. "Jewel-Bright"? No problem. Twelve hours hunched over the PowerBook and multiple listens to Captain Jack and the Mermaid and I had it. "Empty Jar, Empty Chest"? A couple days, some review by Madame Cynthia, and it was done. This one? Five! Bloody! Months!! Feh. First readers, you should now have copies in your virtual hands. Please enjoy it, but know that you are handling beta authorware. If your imagination crashes while reading my fiction, I cannot be held responsible. The rest of you will just have to hope it gets published to read it :) And now that it is done, I can go back to listening to JPop instead of the filk CDs I've had playing constantly since two days ago. Row, ye bast'rds! ROOOOOW! >> 2:47:35 AM
First readers, you'll probably receive a copy sometime late tonight. >> 12:50:07 PM
Huh huh. Hwang. >> 1:34:07 PM I'm not big on sweet stews, and I really should have thought about that when I made a steak-and-sweet-potato stew for dinner in the crockpot last night. The guys ate it and said it was okay -- read: edible -- but I couldn't eat it. So I went out driving with Dave instead, got my car some gas and oil, got him a slurpee, got the household some donuts (Krispy Kreme is ten minutes away from our house), and me a taco salad (hold the shell). Then I played SoulCalibur till my thumb hurt. I found out I'm pretty good at playing Hwang -- huh huh huh..."Hwang" -- he's a nice combination of speed and power. Usually I play Taki -- I have the mad skillz with Taki -- but Hwang is fun. Jeff is a Xianghua type of guy. She's the genki-genki (super cheerful) one. This is not to say I like fighting games. Mostly, I don't. SoulCalibur, though, is easy to play, and even the simple single-tap button moves look cool. It doesn't frustrate me too much -- some of the missions are hard, but if you don't like one, there's fifteen others to pick from, a survival mode to try, an arcade mode to try, and lots of other stuff. And the art is so lovely -- the voices kick ass, too. The only other fighting game I'm interested in along those lines is Dead or Alive 2 ("My feet ache...with justice!"). But I think the big reason I like SoulCalibur is because I know I'm not good at fighting (twitch) games, yet it never makes me feel that way. And it is fun to execute a combo that looks neat. Tuuurya! Despite all this, I'm not feeling all that great this morning. Might have been something in the taco salad. So I'm resting up with the cats amidst the glorious, sprawling wreckage that is my house. >> 1:11:19 PM
(And thank you for the nice thoughts and wishes lately. I appreciate it.) Bruce is talking about walnut bowls. Oh boy. I've traveled the southern route from San Diego to Missouri before, and I know exactly what he's talking about. Heh heh heh. Melissa's ferret is cute. Super duper cute. My cat, unfortunately, has the nasty tendency to go for the throat when she's "playing", so I can't have a ferret. The ferret would want to play, and Amber would snap its neck. That's just they way my two-ton cat is. >> 12:55:00 PM Scrollbar coloring in IE 5.5. A good tutorial on the subject (booyah!). >> 12:05:18 PM
Pint of fresh mushrooms Half an onion, sliced 1 can, cream of mushroom soup Bay leaves Red wine Onion powder Garlic powder Celery salt Paprika Soy sauce Salt Pepper Combine in quantities you dig. Use at least a 1/4 cup of the red wine; more if you want it to be really saucy. Cook on low in the crockpot about eight-ten hours. You should be able to cut the roast with a fork. Stir up the sauce a little, fork-cut the meat, and serve over hot, cooked egg noodles. A little too salty, but all told I really enjoy this one. >> 9:07:21 PM Oh and by the way -- in regards to that caffeine thing? Yeah. Double espresso with a shot of caramel syrup just for the hell of it. I *heart* Alexandra's Cafe. >> 3:01:01 PM "Need psychic advice? Contact Renowned Psychic Miss Cleo at 1-800-HASTUR-HASTUR-HASTUR." >> 2:59:34 PM Five thousand words ain't enough for fiction as rich as mine! Raaaarrrr! One more night, though, and I'll at least have a rough ending done (or be very close to one). Then I can pare it down, rush it onto my first readers, and hopefully get it in the mail. I admit -- I feel a little rusty. I haven't written a serious short story in years. I'm too used to writing long, convoluted storylines; this format -- which used to be my ONLY format -- is alien, in comparison. I'm re-reading the Vanyel books inbetween moments of contemplation on the story, which is quite useful. I have all three volumes laid out in front of me -- frightened, water-logged Vanyel to "Stop! In the naaaame of Valdemar!" Vanyel to let's-kick-this-mother-right-baby Vanyel . I think of all the Valdemar books, they're my favorites -- it probably explains why I inevitably set my stories (including this one) in the Herald Mage periods of time (hard to have a blood mage for a villain if it's set during Talia-period Valdemar). These are the books that got me through high school -- tons of sympathy for the downtrodden teenager in these pages, for which I was quite grateful when I was thirteen (yeah, it's been that long). I also LIKE the ANSTAAFL ("Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch") concept of Valdemaran magic; it permeates much of the fiction I write to this day. I also liked Yfandes and Savil -- and yeah, Vanyel, Stefen, and poor, poor Tylenol. I admit to also getting choked up when I read the end of Magic's Price. I'm such a sucker for fantasy-based romances. I mean, if you gave me a romance novel I probably wouldn't read it. But if it has thoughtfulness and plot -- and a dragon -- I'm all for that. From the tender, juicy fantasies to the tougher ones -- Gene Wolfe! AAAAAAH! MY BRAIN IS MELTING! -- I pretty much like them all. Unless Ed Greenwood writes them. Oi. (Okay, to be fair I only ever read one Ed Greenwood novel -- Spellfire -- and that was back in junior high school. All I remember was that it made about as much sense as, say, David Lynch on speed. Maybe Greenwood's improved since then -- I noticed he's being published again -- but I just don't have a lot of faith in former TSR writers of the 80s. I got burned one too many times. You can thank TSR for one thing, though -- it motivated me to write professionally, a la: "Well hell, if this guy can get published....") Anyway, I need to go to bed now. Long day of work and chat schedules tomorrow. I will need to imbibe much caffeine if I expect to last the day. At least I had the sense to set the roast out to defrost. So no take-out tomorrow night! Yeah! >> 4:12:36 AM Tonight's episode of Fear illustrated what I've been saying all along -- the people they put on the show are what make it enjoyable. And I would say that it was probably one of the better episodes since St. Agnes, if only for the part with the nodding girl. Just wish I knew now if she was an actor they planted or if Yinepu finally sent in one of His own. :) It doesn't really matter, ultimately, because the point of the show is to entertain -- and I definitely got goosebumps when she picked that key up off the sink.... Speaking of ghosts, I know where the story is going now. I have to finish it before the 6th, and mail it off by the 7th. Can She Do It? Ron's last email to me is still sitting in my mailbox. I know we were effectively apart for five years, but I'm still not accustomed to the feeling that we're not going to be together again. I really, really had hoped something would happen and things would be different...y'know? I watch too much animé. :) >> 2:26:04 AM
The reason I find this amusing is because I'm writing this at 2 a.m. (well, 3 a.m. now) on Sunday, and the article was obviously written Saturday with the intent of being read Sunday morning...the author makes the assumption that "most people in the United States lost an hour of sleep" without actually knowing that people did or not. Maybe a better sentence would have been "most people in the United States will have" or "traditionally, people in the United States".... I know, I know, nit-picky. I'm bad at that. I'm just sort of amused that the article is being reported like it's breaking news when really it's just filler material written for folks like me who forgot about this whole silly time-adjustment thing. Oh, and it's April Fools. I was going to do something but, in retrospect -- nah. Bubblegum Crisis Review Which is...well, not really extraordinary. First off, it's not meant to be a continuation of the original BGC series but an updating of it -- new character designs, expansion on the BGC universe, TV length instead of OAV length...it's a remake of a classic. It is not, however, itself destined to be a classic. I like the new character designs. No more ultra-poofy Takahashi-esque hair, no sir. Priss is lean and sparse; she looks and behaves like a female Heero Yui (a la Gundam Wing). Sylia is pretty nifty with her ice-white hair. Linna...well, she's genki girl ("I'm the heart of the Knight Sabers!") and Nene is the ultra-ditz who serves mostly as comic relief (though, surprisingly, she's also the most computer-savvy of the group -- implying that her air-headedness is self-imposed and not due to too much inhalation of peroxide fumes). The Japanese voices are good matches, though I think Leon sounds too old. The mech designs of BGC always struck me as odd, and the more I watched the current version the more I felt like I was watching an episode of The Powerpuff Girls gone serious. On to the music. The BGC 2040 background music is interesting -- a combination of electronic and grunge -- but the vocal tracks are kind of hum-drum and the singer for Priss just isn't up to the standards Oomori Kinuko set back in 1988. You'll know what I mean when you hear the opening song, which just seems to fly all over the place in regards to rhythm and scan. It doesn't compare to tunes like "Konya wa HURRICANE" and "Mad Machine" -- classic examples of 80s-pop animé music at its best. I strained to hear a song in this series that equaled their infectious catchiness, but I didn't find one. Don't get me wrong -- I do like Priss's voice when she's talking (ooooh, low and husky!), but when she's singing it's very obvious that she's either not a good singer, or the person writing the music isn't a very good songwriter. The fight sequences are nicely choreographed, the animation is fluid (by Japanese television standards), the story leans on the "creature of the week" formula, but doesn't strain it too far. The formulaic aspects might be annoying to some viewers -- I was dreading Sylia chanting the "activation phrase" ("Knight Sabers - action!") every time she "launches" them, but (blessedly) they only show her doing it a couple times (alas, I'm afraid I am scarred by the half-an-episode-long transformation sequences so common in magical girl shows like Sailor Moon). Some episodes do end in cliffhangers, and more emphasis is put on the difference between the girls' HARD suits than I think was in the original series (I really gotta go back and watch it now). I like that they threw in more backstory in this incarnation of BGC. I like Linna's introduction. But despite what I do like about it, it just lacks something -- I dunno, something compelling. I have a vague interest in seeing the rest of it, but it's not gnawing at me the way other shows like GundamW or Outlaw Star gnaw(ed) at me. Anyway, it gets three and a half out of five in my book. Definite rental material, but I don't think I'd buy it. If you liked the original BGC it's good for nostalgia value, just don't go in expecting the same series -- it's not. It took the essence of the original story and reforged it. And in some ways it's superior, and in some ways it's not. At the very least it's not bad -- it's just not a classic. >> 3:09:22 AM |
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Mr. Cluckers, for those of you just tuning in, is a bright yellow