A Step to the Side and a Half-Beat Off

dragonimp @ 2009-12-18T17:33:00

2009-12-19T01:33:40Z

A much belated happy birthday to both bloody_winged and yolee4121! I have no idea how those got past me ^^;;. Hope you both had good ones!

Not sure what to think about this...

2009-12-16T20:54:43Z

Okay, weird. I just went out to go run errands, and the driver's door on my car was no only unlocked, but unlatched. Locking it is a pretty automatic habit for me, but the last time I drove it I got in pretty late. Not likely - very unlikely - but possible. I noticed the glovebox was open, but I'd just gotten gas and filled my tires, so I could have left that open. But again, not very likely.

Then I noticed the ashtray was open. I don't remember the last time I've even touched the ashtray.

Then I sat down, and found the seat had been moved back.

Last time I took the car out was Saturday. Mom and I were both home all day Sunday, I was home Monday, we were both home yesterday. That doesn't mean we would have noticed if someone had gone through the car, but - why was the seat moved back? Maybe they were thinking I'd stashed something underneath?

It's kinda amusing, though, because 1)I'm not in the habit of keeping valuables in my car, and 2)it's such a mess you'd never find them anyway. They probably took one look at the glovebox - which is stuffed with napkins, mechanic's receipts, and old tapes - and gave up. The only thing that might remotely be of interest to anyone is the car charger for my phone, and it was still there.

I want to talk to my mom so see if she's noticed anything, but she probably would have told me already.

Still don't get why the seat was moved.

Edit: The only things that were in the ashtray - two years-old parking stubs from the Renaissance Faire - were between the seats, like someone had swiped them out of the tray. This seems like teenagers and enough kids go by our house to make it likely, but I really don't think I left the door unlocked.

Etsy?

2009-12-14T23:43:32Z

("Unremarked" is too a word and don't try to tell me differently, you damn Microsoft product :P)

Anyway. Does anyone have an experience with Etsy? I was thinking of opening a shop there to sell beaded earrings and maybe other items. My theory being that they would have more of a chance of selling there than on ebay, where any one item would only be up for a week. Has anyone had or know of anyone who's had success with it?

clever little beasties

2009-12-12T18:42:36Z

(Ignore the mess, plz.)

What I want to know is how they managed to hang the skein like that. Because it wasn't like that when I went to bed.

dragonimp @ 2009-12-10T11:56:00

2009-12-10T19:56:30Z

Happy birthday to animanga_maniac! May the pr0n keep comin'!

Winter!

2009-12-07T18:52:41Z

The little snowflake cookies are so cute! Thanks, you guys ^_^!

After passing us by the last couple years, it looks like winter has actually decided to pay us a visit. Temperatures got down to the high 20s last night, and it's predicted to get down there again tonight. Apparently there's snow in the hills, but it's been so overcast we can't see it from here (we're just getting rain). But as much of a hassle as the freezes are, it's kinda nice to get winter again.

Though I wasn't really glad of the cold yesterday, when we were dealing with burnt oatmeal and had to open the windows to get rid of the smell. The house got pretty cold pretty quickly.

I really need to asses where I am and get on the Christmas shopping.

:P

2009-12-04T17:13:24Z

Mmmkay. The adds that kidnap the screen? Just a bit beyond my tolerance level. Quit it, LJ.

What the hell.

2009-12-03T04:11:23Z

THE FANFICTION LOVE MEME

the ♥ fanart love ♥ meme

Question:

2009-12-02T23:50:27Z

Does the anime give a figure for the number of people caught in the Liore array? Even a general figure like "hundreds" or "thousands" would be helpful.

dragonimp @ 2009-11-28T23:13:00

2009-11-29T07:15:45Z

Any desire I may have had to read or watch New Moon has been successfully killed. From what I understand, the books only got worse from there on out.

dragonimp @ 2009-11-23T18:06:00

2009-11-24T02:26:38Z

Last post mostly stemmed from how disconnected I feel and not liking it. LJ's pretty much all I use right now but it's obviously not all there is, I hardly see some of you on LJ. But the one chatroom I knew about seems to have died. Specifically on my mind was not having a way to talk out writing problems, when other people seem to be doing so, somewhere, but mostly I just don't like feeling so isolated.

dragonimp @ 2009-11-22T10:31:00

2009-11-22T18:33:19Z

It seems people discuss in-progress writing, and I'm wondering what I'm missing. Wrong venue, or do I not post things right?

Etc.

2009-11-18T01:53:14Z

I remember reading in Stephen King's On Writing the idea that we all write for a "perfect reader." His is his wife. It made a lot of sense to me because that's exactly what I do, or did. For original fiction, my perfect reader is my mom. She's also my editor.

But I realized I don't have that for fanfic (either one). I've unconsciously fallen into thinking I did a few times, only to be disappointed. I've tried to distance myself from it, but doing that is not easy and feels unnatural. I think it's only normal to write with someone in mind. So who am I writing for? Does it matter?

Not that I've been writing. I've been doing a lot of thinking about writing the last few days, but I haven't been able to get myself to sit down and put words to anything. Part of the problem is that I'm going to feel guilty no matter what I work on, and I haven't really wanted to deal with that. I know people are waiting for the fanfic, but Silver has been sitting for so long that anyone who might have been following it has probably given up. As far as I can tell, anyway. But this is my baby and I need to finish it.

Not that I've been completely unproductive. I rediscovered the joys of velour and pastel dust, and impossible to open fixative cans. I can't even express how it feels to be able to draw again. I still have to be careful, but it's not making me want to curl up and weep afterwards.

Tomorrow I will get back on the writing. Though on what, I'm not sure.

dragonimp @ 2009-11-17T11:17:00

2009-11-17T19:22:19Z

It struck me last night that they'd talked to a couple cops a few chapters back. It wouldn't be too random to bring them back in .. .I think.

Any thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated, I'm still kinda floundering here. Though I suspect most people didn't follow my babbling. I know NaNo and other things are rather pressing.

This just shows how far behind I am

2009-11-16T19:41:57Z

I can't be the only one who thought the scene at the end of ep. 23 of Gluttony's large mouth/pseudo-Gate thing opening was obscene.

And May's voice ranks somewhere near the top of most annoying anime voices :P

Oh, Scholastic...

2009-11-12T17:04:01Z

Scholastic U.S. reverses decision to ban book

... In a letter sent to her publisher, Amulet Books, Scholastic’s book fairs division asked her to clean up the relatively mild language and to change the two same-sex parents to a straight couple. “The other issues [Scholastic had problems with] – words like ‘crap’ – just made me shake my head and laugh,” said Myracle. “But the idea that two moms could be problematic ... well, astonished would be the best way to describe my reaction.” ...

Now, why am I thinking that complaining about words like "crap" was a case of "we have to find something else to take issue with so we don't look quite so homophobic!"

Interestingly, Scholastic Canada didn't have an issue with the book.

Rant on romance in FMA

2009-11-10T18:44:52Z

I'm thinking Arakawa shouldn't tackle romance. The only ones that work are the ones that happened in the past - meaning we see the happy couple, not what led up to it. Trisha/Hohenheim, Izumi/Sig, Maes/Gracia - and Roy/Maes. The ones she's trying to do within the series - eehhhh.

I'm not saying this because I'm anti EdWin - most people have relationships that aren't good for them, teenagers are notorious for it - or anti Royai. Both of those would have been perfectly fine, except that she's mangled the characters in favor of the 'ship. I buy Winry's feelings for Ed, but Ed, damn it, falls out of character every time his supposed "feelings" show up, right from the first "Oh, she's cute when she's submissive" moment. Plus, whenever he comforts Winry, a prime moment to showcase hidden feelings, it's damn near identical to how he comforts Al. Which tells me that the affection he feels for Winry is more brotherly than anything else.

Royai gets a double blow. Roy treats her no differently than his other subordinates, which is actually a shame considering how long they've known each other. There's been no hint of deeper feelings on Roy's side, unless you also want to admit (even stronger) evidence for Roy/Havoc and - of course - Roy/Maes. Riza, poor thing, falls out of character and completely loses her edge, the prime example being her giving up once Lust tells her Roy is dead. The fact that the Royai shippers have been even worse than the yaoi shippers for reading in subtext every time they have two seconds together in a panel is pretty telling.

The only ongoing romance I can think of that's believable is Ross/Broche, and I'm starting to think it's because we don't ever see them.

Okay. Rant over.

Ha!

2009-11-09T19:50:08Z

I was looking through the library jobs listed on indeed.com and this came up under the "sponsored jobs" section:

Craigslist-like postings site for gay men dating

I guess they're looking for someone to handle the the digital libraries on their site.

Um, yeah. Not exactly what I'm looking for ^^;

Icons

2009-11-09T06:42:50Z

These are all icons that people are free to use and redistribute. The other ones I have either use my artwork or were made by other people, but these were made by me and use either official art or doujinshi art (and one from an AMV). They're pretty much up for grabs so I thought I'd put them out there.

Small update

2009-11-05T22:33:47Z

A short backstory to Silver, Worth, is up at Paper Demon. I'll deal with Elfwood later.

Silver's voice is always an interesting challenge to pin down. I don't think I've yet done it justice, quite, although no one would know that but me. He's the only character I have that pushing my vocabulary in that way, for most other characters I have to tone down the academia.

I ought to be working on the main story, of course, but it's still stuck in the what-happens-next problem. I was talking with my mom about it the other day, and she gave me some ideas to work with. I miss brainstorming like that. But it still comes down to figuring out what the various characters are going to do. And working around my narrator being locked in a room.

dragonimp @ 2009-11-04T20:11:00

2009-11-05T04:15:37Z

By the way, with Twitter, I'm going to assume the non-responses are because of non-interest, which means the majority of my f'list would not be interested in cross-posts. So Twitter will stay where it is. Which is here if anyone's interested. Not that I ever tweet anything profound, but it is turning out to be useful as a micro-blog.

dragonimp @ 2009-10-31T17:27:00

2009-11-01T00:30:58Z

Happy Halloween/Samhain everyone! Once again I'm pretty much doing nothing. I'm not at work today so there's no point in dressing up, and I just can't seem to be motivated to decorate. Have a fun night, though, people!

memeage

2009-10-30T22:12:16Z

It really depends on my mood and the particular test whether I end up as an INFP or an INTP. Both descriptions usually fit.

On the second one, I found my lack of interpersonal intelligence amusing. 10%, wow XD

lol

2009-10-27T03:13:53Z

Ganked from lynx212:
dragonimp's Halloween party:

actionranger dressed as a zombie.
animanga_maniac dressed as your grandmother, and it suited them disturbingly well.
anotherfmafan dressed as a very fake witch-doctor complete with a collection of shrunken skulls.
ashacrone dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Armor of Stars.
auragirl dressed as a halfback for the Steelers.
binaryalchemist dressed as the President of Syria.
bloody_winged dressed as Elizabeth Regina on steroids and roller skates.
brinylon dressed as a character from a Resident Evil game.
crazyloststar forgot to put on clothes!
cryogenia dressed as Mia Hamm.
cuylerjade dressed as Jennifer Lopez.
darkshifter dressed as Optimus Prime.
dormantdrake dressed as a Level 4 fighter.
eve_n_furter dressed as Pavlova the ballerina -- dancing on point too.
fleurette dressed as Rutherford B. Hayes.
fullmetalrose dressed as Tiffani-Amber Thiessen.
funny_edo_bean didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.
greedy_lover dressed as Guy Fawkes but the exploding barrel of dynamite didn't go down too well, though it looked more like the Marquis of Eqitax.
hikaru_9 dressed as Mde. Lachienne Foutue d'Enfer -- you don't wanna know.
inugrlrayn dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.
jade_pen dressed as the Vicomte des Boules-Velues.
kianacao dressed as a badger, and it suited them disturbingly well.
krenyu dressed as a tasty claw.
kurai_mori dressed as Ichabod Crane, the schoolmaster from Sleepy Hollow.
laragoth dressed as a NLJJ Attorneys at Law employee.
loreamara dressed as Jack the Ripper in a time machine, complete with gory knives.
lost_variable dressed as something steady, but what, specifically, you can't tell.
lynx212 dressed as Lady Godiva without the horse and far too little hair!.
mayracs dressed as Wonder Woman.
mikkeneko dressed as Kobe Bryant.
militsa didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.
mirandastark dressed as a horned zombie.
mumumugen dressed as the resurrected dead -- complete with the most convincing coffin.
mustanginblue dressed as Halle Berry.
nochick_fics dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Christy.
nomdeplume13 dressed as a character from "Full Metal Jacket".
numi_nami didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.
pandoraculpa dressed as legendary space hero Brick Fizzlebeef.
priestess_grrrl dressed as a column.
rainjoyous dressed as Keanu Reeves.
rainjoyswriting forgot to put on clothes!
rsndgrass dressed as a walking Guillotine.
shawk dressed as Sybil - except that Sybil didn't show but the other 23 personalities did, though it looked more like the Governor of California.
sky_dark dressed as a new superhero: B'Wana Manhunter.
smuu dressed as Josephine Baker but the banana "skirt" didn't survive the night.
truths_in_lies dressed as Ivan the Terrible of Russia.
wateria dressed as Mr. Sulu from "Star Trek".
yolee4121 dressed as Yu-Gi-Oh.
zakai_ dressed as Camilla Parker-Bowles when she becomes Queen.

Throw your own party at the Hallomeme!
Created by sigma7: More info here.

dragonimp @ 2009-10-25T18:28:00

2009-10-26T01:29:20Z

Happy birthday to mayracs! Hope it's a good one (weekend!)