Signs you have seen too many lolcat graphics: You forget how to actually spell "cheeseburger." MS Word has to correct you.

*headdesk*

( Answers to questions from rivreaCollapse )

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It's not Halloween, but go download this video anyway. It's called "Zombie Jamboree," and includes footage from The X-Files, Pushing Daisies, Stargate, Buffy, various Star Treks, Hercules, Michael Jackson's "Thriller," Plan 9 From Outer Space, and more that I can't remember. (Oh...Fiddler on the Roof makes an appearance. Somehow.) HILARIOUS.

This time from sleepingcbw.

( AnswersCollapse )

( Meme questions from tarzanicCollapse )

I don't believe I mentioned all the fun I had last week in the bargain aisle at McKay's. And at Barnes & Noble. And Borders. (Hey, apartment offices close at 5. What else are you going to do in strange city?)

I came back with quite the haul. The last time I was at McKay's, I bought a book from the fantasy section titled Resenting the Hero, by Moira J. Moore. I figured from the cover and blurb that it would be sort of a comedy, but it...well, it kind of was, in places, but overall was more of a drama. The premise is that there is this world out there that was colonized long ago by humans who have forgotten all their technology, because it doesn't work on this world. Further, there are massively destructive weather events on this world, and that would spell doom except for the fact that there are these people, called Sources, born with the ability to "channel" the destructive forces into...well, I don't know where, but basically they're a human lighnting rod. Only they die if they do it without the help of a Shield, which is also a person born with a (different) natural talent. A particular Source and Shield bond with each other at around age twenty, after spending their lives to date in school, and they must work together forever more, and when one dies, so does the other. The Source and Shield the book follows are Shintaro Karish and Lee Mallorough, respectively.

(Those of you who know my preferences may be able to predict some of the rest of the plot now.)

Anyway. The plot started out interesting, with a serious questioning of what is implied to be a corrupt institution which the two characters have to work for as part and parcel of being a Source and a Shield. Then the interesting character who was leading the questioning turned into a bog-standard moustache-twirling villain, and it kind of went downhill from there. However, I liked the sarcastic voice of the narrator, Lee, and, yes, I enjoyed her prickly, UST-filled relationship with Taro.

So I ended up with the next two books in the series, and they are much better-plotted. And there's timely and believable progress on the UST-to-RST front, which is always nice. I hear there are more books coming out at some point, and I imagine they will wind up in my possession at some point. It's nothing that'll set the world on fire, but they're fun books with great main characters.

On this latest trip, I also bought a children's book called Behind the Attic Wall, which turned out to be about a girl who finds a room in her new house where people with a connection to the property who die have, apparently, been turned into china dolls that move and speak. Most of the way through, I was wondering how on earth this Stephen King-like madness could in any way be categorized as for the grade school set. Gah.

And now I'm about to start on Jane Yolen's Briar Rose, which I read at some point in middle school but remember very little about. On my last trip to McKay's I bought Patricia C. Wrede's Snow White and Rose Red, whcih I'd also read long ago, and while it was good this time, I remembered it as better. Alas.

Now I'm wondering which of that multi-author fairy tales series I haven't collected yet...I have Pamela Dean's Tam Lin as well. Hmmm. Must investigate.

alto2 asked me really excellent questions. I answered.

( Meme!Collapse )

To play:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me" or something of an equally pithy nature.
2. I will respond by asking you 5 questions of a very personal nature. Be warned! (Although I don't promise to be quick about it...)
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions, or there will be trouble.
4. You will include this and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them 5 questions.

Huh. I found out from Wikipedia that parts of this music video were filmed at my high school, and what do you know, those are definitely the over-varnished wooden floors (the building is more than 150 years old) and terrifically blue lockers I remember. Also, the library and Mr. Hornaday's former chemistry classroom make appearances. And if that chick is supposed to be a high school student, she has an amazing bedroom.

I recommend turning the sound off, as it's gag-inducing country music.

So many times this week, I've opened the LJ update window, started to type something, and given it up as boring to everyone who has the misfortune to read it. But what the hell; tonight I'm going to put all those half-started entries into one and throw it out there. Beware.

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This morning, my mother and I had the following conversation, paraphrased:

MOM: Argh, why are you always wearing white socks with your work clothes?
ME: *takes off shoe and wiggles bare foot*
MOM: OMG, those are your feet?! [perhaps with fewer internet acronyms and excessive punctuation]

Heh. And now I have proved my point that white socks or tights are actually at least as close, if not closer, to my natural skin tone than tan hose are. I WIN AT PALENESS. (Excepting for the albinos out there, I guess.)

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I have to teach my team how to interpret specifications tomorrow at work. Fun times! My tack is essentially going to be, "See these ten pages? All they're doing is saying, 'We need elevation drawings and wiring diagrams. Oh, and some info on how to install and maintain this equipment we just bought would be good too, kthxbai.'"

Actually, reading through specs might be one of the more enjoyable parts of my job. The flippancy above aside, it probably is the most challenging aspect, as often they do want weird things that, okay, most of the time we can't provide, haha. The project managers have to figure out how to provide it. I'm glad I don't have their job.

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I meant to talk earlier about my trip to UT last Friday, but never quite got around to it. In short, my impressions were: concrete, construction, and orange.

Heh. Okay, seriously, UT has a perfectly pleasant campus. It's smaller than I expected, actually, although I probably didn't see all of it. I of course chose to visit during their spring break, so NOTHING was open, which was a bit unfortunate, but I did get something of a sense of the campus, anyway. Knoxville was bigger than I thought it was, too; I had thought it was the same size as Chattanooga, but no. Not really. Uh, sorry Knoxvegans? (BTW, is TN the only place that turns placenames ending in "ville" into "vegas" with creeping regularity? I can't think of another state where cities have that done to their names, although I'm betting there's an Ashevegas in North Carolina. Hmmm.)

Pictures soon. Really.

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I've recently been reading a lot of Richard Russo. Three novels, in particular (Empire Falls, Bridge of Sighs, and Straight Man), which all pretty much tell the same story about the same characters in the same town, with all the names changed. And really, that's been okay, because Russo tells this one story very, very well. And let's face it, I eat up quirky, darkly mysterious stories set in small towns with a giant spoon, so this fills my need nicely.

However, I would say he needs to change a few more details than he has been--one that comes to mind is that EF and BoS both are set in a town with a dying or dead factory which, in times past, used to dump dye-filled runoff into the town river, and you could tell what day of the week it was by what color the river ran. That's such a fantastic (if cancerous) image, and it really sticks with you. Perhaps one ought not to use it twice in two books published over a span of seven years. Another repeated detail is that in EF and SM, there's a tragicomic sad old man character who (usually when drunk) continually refers to the main character as a "peckerwood" in an ambiguously agressive/possibly joking way.

I feel like I'm damning with faint praise, but really, all three books are very good. Straight Man is by far the funniest, and involves academia, which is always a plus. Bridge of Sighs seems to be the most well-done, probably because it's the most recent. Empire Falls was the one that won the Pulitzer, though.

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New BSG next Friday! Woot!

Bunny Show Jumping! (I swear, anything ever can be turned into a competition. According to Wikipedia, there is such a thing as rat agility out there.)

Baby Bunny Cam!

I found these in the course of a few hours' Googling on bunnies, just to see if I might ever want to own one far in the future. And the answer is no, because while they're undoubtedly adorable, and can do the litterbox thing pretty easily, and, as seen above, can do tricks (they also come when they're called), the fact that coprophagia is a normal, and indeed necessary, part of their diet is...somewhat disturbing. Also, the feeding sounds way more complicated than I'd like to deal with--hay, pellets, some vegetables but not others, fruit...I'm more of a kibble person, I gotta say.

Go, enjoy the cuteness!

Seen most recently with comedownstairs:

The Unpopular Opinions Meme
01. Post this on your journal.
02. Your friends will comment with some of your fandoms.
03. In a new post (or in comments) respond back with one or two of your unpopular opinions for that fandom.

( List of fandoms I remember enough about to have any kind of opinion onCollapse )

Don't mind me. I just wanted to have a post with February 29th as the date.

Comment on this entry, and I will:

1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, a word etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must post this in your LJ

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Also, check out the song in my music field here. I love the horns.

I discovered the Strange Maps Blog tonight, and am thoroughly in love. I'm particularly amused by this map of an anthromorphized Europe during the Franco-Prussian War. I'm not sure which part is more amusing--Switzerland as a locked-down cottage, England as an old hag holding rebellious lapdog Ireland on a leash, or Corsica and Sardinia joining together to moon everyone.

In other links, how cute is this? I'm tempted to buy some fleece and a couple googly eyes and make one for my own self.

Spend less time on crusade. Heh. Yes, dear, I'll come back to England before the year's out...here, have some luxuries I pillaged while I was in Turkey...

But the buying new digital cameras I could do. And giving macs to charity, because that means I'd be getting a new lappy! But awwww, cut down on my shipping...sadness... *sniff*

( Best. Lolcat. EVER.Collapse )

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Heh. I was reading the Wikipedia article on smart cars, and while I was doing that, Pandora played a song called "Tiny European Cars." (Good song; by a group called Clem Snide.) Sometimes I wonder if it's keeping a log of where I go online in order to match the music to my surfing...

Speaking of tiny cars, check out this YouTube clip from the British program Top Gear, wherein Jeremy Clarkson drives the smallest legally-driveable-on-actual-roads car ever. This car is basically Power Wheels for adults; it's so small that he can drive it to work, and then pick it up by the rear bumper and roll it, suitcase-style, into his office. Then drive it around the office. (He says in the clip that it has four and a half horsepower. Even I know how funny that is, and I know zilch about cars.)

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And finally: fraser_thatcher now has 10 members and 17 watchers! I totally expected to get about five people joining that comm. Eeeee. This is so exciting.

I think this weekend I may make a recs post.

Wow, I haven't posted in a week. I R boring.

Yay, it's the weekend! Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to get as much work done on my Cupid/dS fic done as I did last Sunday, when I wrote 1,100 words in one afternoon/evening. (Sadly, in the 4.5 days since then, I've written, er, 400.)

Shut up, 1,000+ words in a single day is a great figure for me, at least since I left college. (Hmmm. Note to self: Find job that includes writing of more than just e-mails.)

I watched a couple episodes of Cupid the other day so that I could get Trevor's voice back in my head. (Of course, now the trick may be getting him to leave...) Every time I watch one of these episodes--and I've seen each of them at least three times now--all I can think is, "ABC! You foolish fools! How could you not see the AWESOMENESS of this show??? In addition to the fabulous premise, I'm worried that my computer screen is going to burst into flame from the UST whenever Paula Marshall and Jeremy Piven are onscreen together!"

Sigh.

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I think, after nearly three years, I'm in need of a new mood theme. I enjoy the heck out of my Wonderfalls theme, but it might be time to move on to another fandom. Anyone got links for shareable due South or Slings & Arrows themes? Although I'm thinking about making the S2 DVDs of S&A my response to my mother's question of whether I could buy something from Amazon to help her get up to $25 (and thus free shipping) on her order, so I could just make my own, I suppose. Hmmm.

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Random linkies: Mini student documentary on Centralia, PA from YouTube. It's very cool. Check it out.

The Tennessean has put up several hundred Nashville photos from the past century here. I imagine most of you will have no interest, but I thought I'd put it up for the two flisters I have who are from here. It's rather fascinating to watch the city I know take shape over the years--as well as to see what was there before I was around. I find the way the utility poles have multiple crossbars--to support the now unheard-of telegraph wires and/or power lines for the electric trolleys, which have now been replaced with busses--up until the 50s or 60s to be very cool.

Quiz stolen from williqueen:

( Ohhhhh, I'm Henry the Eighth('s wife), I am, I am...Collapse )

From YouTube: "I Dream of Jeannie" Samba on the Aussie version of Dancing with the Stars. Thank me later for getting the theme song stuck irrevocably in your head. Take comfort in the fact that I'm suffering right along with you.

From asinpterodactyl: Star Trek-style replicators become a reality. No, really.

At work, people in my department communicate among ourselves primarily via Instant Messanger because we are spread out over a good third of what is really quite a large building. I recently caved to peer pressure, delved into the weird world of "WeeMes," and made one as my avatar.



The crossed eyes and lack of fingers still kind of freak me out, but I was won over by the unutterable cuteness of the dragon. (It blows smoke hearts. THE DRAGON BLOWS SMOKE HEARTS, PEOPLE.)

People say it looks just like me. I went for as close a resemblance as I could get before my patience wore thin at the slowness of AOL's website, but I don't know that I'd call it just like me. The hairstyle isn't quite right, for one, although the glasses are remarkably similar for something chosen from such a small selection.

But whatever: a dragon that blows smoke hearts. And purple bunny slippers. Oh, yes. I enjoy this.

Last seen with wiliqueen:

You Are 8% Girly

Um... you're a guy, right? If not, you're the most boyish girl in the world. And for you, that's probably the ultimate compliment.

Heh heh. For the record, the only ones I checked were "I like puppies and kittens" (and they lumped babies in there, so I could legitimately not have checked it, but I figured two out three merited a yes) and "I took ballet as a kid."

And yet it would be incorrect to say I'm a tomboy. Actually, I'm just lazy. Much easier to sit at the computer or read a book than fiddle with makeup or play sports, y'know?

*uses most excellent non-girly girl icon*