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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Kaesa's LiveJournal:
| Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 | |
| 4:05 pm | So, long time no post! I posted the sixth chapter of my novel-length Founders story on LiveJournal, Skyhawke, FF.N, and the Archive of Our Own, which is now in Open Beta, and which, strictly as a user and not getting into fannish politics or whatever? I fucking love how it's set up. There are a few flaws, but overall it's a really nice way to upload. ( Firstly, the features I like. ) ( Things I think other people would like but that I haven't used. ) ( Issues I've had. ) Anyway, my stories uploaded there are all at this link. And in honor of the actual chapter posted, ( some music from YouTube, with accompanying blather. ) Current Mood: cheerful |
| Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 | |
| 10:15 pm | I just wanted to say this: I am watching old Doctor Who episodes in order, and "The Chase" (a First Doctor serial) is the BEST ONE EVAR. It has, in no particular order, Daleks, Dracula, Abraham Lincoln, a Jager inexplicably giving a tour of the Empire State Building, and an OLD MAN VS. EVIL ROBOT CLONE FIGHT TO THE DEATH. WITH CANES. And clicking fungi in the background. It kind of gets slow around the beginning parts with the pathologically stupid desert fish people, but believe me, it's TOTALLY WORTH IT FOR THE OLD MAN FIGHT. Also recommended for complete crackiness and/or awesomeness (so far): "Planet of Giants," "The Rescue," "The Romans," "The Web Planet," and "The Space Museum." (Although be warned that "The Romans" contains a really terrifying sexual harassment situation played for laughs. They're all somewhat sexist, but that's the worst of it in those episodes, I think. Vicki's awesomeness has been making up for a lot of it for me, so I might not be noticing it as much.) But seriously, you guys. OLD MAN CANE FIGHT. AWESOME. Current Mood: enthralled |
| Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 | |
| 11:33 pm | So apparently I am a college graduate. B.A. in Environmental Studies, with an Environmental Chemistry concentration. No honors. Fooling around with being a Bio and Chemistry major ruined my GPA, but it led to good things so I won't complain. Although I am disappointed that I don't have a B.S., because it sounds funny and I'm really not mature enough to be a real live adult. (Oh, and I'm a red belt in karate. That felt like more work, actually. Probably because I got lost on the way to the atheletic club and walked two miles in the wrong direction. Yay Google Maps.) Um. More later, because I'm exhausted, but please don't ask me "what are your plans now?" because I really don't have any, and I anticipate having to say that eighteen thousand more times before I finally get some. However, I am considering law, because it seems like I could do some good there with my writing skills and scientific knowledge and environmentalism, whereas I don't think I'm really cut out to do scientific research anymore. Anyway, as I told Kitty, I keep looking at the diploma and thinking "Wow, they put a seal and a ribbon on it and everything. It almost looks like a real degree!" and then remembering, that, um, it is. Current Mood: tired |
| Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 | |
| 4:34 pm | I apologize for the total lack of music posts and pretty much anything else lately; I have been consumed with finals. BUT I just got out of my last final exam and now all that stands between me and graduating with a BA in Environmental Studies is a week-sized clump of timey-wimey ...stuff. I mean, I have other shit to do -- pack, clean room, deal with kvetching parents who want to get the fuck out whining about how Bloomington-Normal has no good restaurants (adults, so spoiled!), convince kvetching parents that I should be allowed to stay for a few minutes longer to say goodbye to all the Environmental Studies people, and figure out how on earth I'm going to be able to serve hot tea and sandwiches to my friends during our hike at Starved Rock. That last one is really the only problem I'm looking forward to solving because if I can do that it will be the epitome of needless luxury that I can actually appreciate. (Anyway, I think I offended Professor Jahiel by warning her that I might not stay very long after graduation, because of the whole whiny parents deal, but I actually would like to stay. I am being honest here, literally ALL THEY WILL TALK ABOUT at this point is how much they want to get out of Bloomington-Normal quickly. They won't even discuss, like, the dogs. They will always discuss the dogs.) Also, I got my May Term journal assignments back, which is awesome because I forgot a lot of what I wrote about (a lot of it I now take for granted, actually) and rereading it is awesome, because I completely failed to keep the non-academic journal up. (I think I got halfway through the month. Yup! Detailed entries including drawings of plants up to May 14th, when I realized exhaustion was something to be avoided.) Anyway, technically I have karate practice mentally scheduled for Two Hours Hence, but Awkward Physics Blue Belt Guy stood me up last time, so I think I'm going to do that tomorrow and today I'll listen to music and write. Or maybe draw. Or both! My Lovecraftian romantic comedy is from three points of view, with text and pictures (See? It's totally Lovecraftian, y'all know my drawing is terrible.), and I need to research postwar fashion and work on my character designs. ...oh yeah, and I didn't eat lunch. Guess I should do that before my stomach rises up and eats me. ...Cassie, I will respond to your email eventually. Sorry. Lunch comes second, triumphant LJ post comes first, sleep or at least brain rest comes third. Haven't read the book, though, alas. And yes, I will try to make up for the Lost Music Posts. But I'd love it if you suggested themes. And I'd love it if they were easy for me to do. (Not steampunk. I suspect there will be a steampunk music post soonish but I would rather save it for when I'm at my best, and that is not now.) Current Mood: ravenous! |
| Monday, April 13th, 2009 | |
| 5:19 pm | ( Brief spoilerly whine about the Doctor Who Easter special. ) Oh, and there's Amazonfail, of course. I have nothing of import to add, except that if you are boycotting them, you might also want to take a look here. Some notable things owned by Amazon: IMDB, Mobipocket, Audible.com, AbeBooks, and they apparently partially own LibraryThing. I have no personal experience with anyone's recs for alternate internet book retailers, but apparently there is talk at Powell's of having an LGBTQ-themed Amazonfail sale, which suggests that they are at least willing to take advantage of their competitors' craniorectal issues rather than imitate them. Current Mood: annoyed |
| Sunday, April 12th, 2009 | |
| 11:42 pm | Um. Music post tomorrow, I think. I have the songs picked out but not uploaded or blathered about. Tomorrow is still a weekend for me, though, so it totally counts. I can brighten your Monday with mp3s! Tomorrow I also have a paper to write on Bellamy Clubs and the Chicago Tribune's frothing hatred of socialism in the late 19th century. As opposed to the Trib's current frothing hatreds! Though, to be fair, they're pretty good about the frothing lately. The sports page is by far the wankiest, they're always getting into it with the Sun Times. But I digress. It shouldn't be as bad as most of my term papers because it's supposed to be much shorter and poor Professor Schultz was like "...but you have enough to write a paper with just that," when I was going ON AND ON about how I wanted to find sources on A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and other early SF novels, could only find tons of articles on the evils of Looking Backward. Also, he mistook me for a history major. I do not need to switch my major another eight times. And semi-related, but the reason I am exhausted right now, what is it with everybody and their crazy aunt saying "You know, I need to publish this novel. I KNOW, I WILL SELF-PUBLISH! ...good, now that's over with and I have all these books in my garage! Hey, you, random person on the Internet! How do I sell my books?" It's not that I'm against self-publishing. I accept that there are situations where it's the only logical choice, even if it isn't your great-grandmother's recipe book. I just don't see why you'd put in the effort to self-publish without either accepting that hardly anybody will hear about your book, or doing some research into what it takes to publicize a book without the backing of a publisher. Also, uh, you might want to get a blog, or at least an LJ. And for the love of Gutenberg, proofread your website. And make sure the graphics don't suck. I mean, let's face it, if you're so bad at this that I can give you advice you haven't heard, you are not doing well. I am the girl who doesn't advertise her fanfics in the appropriate communities for fear of seeming egotistical. If I know it, everybody probably knows it. Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: Unnamed a capella cover of U2's "Mysterious Ways." It's probably a college group, but not the one y |
| Saturday, April 4th, 2009 | |
| 2:49 am | So, in case anyone was not yet convinced that you could find nearly anything on the internet if you looked hard enough, I bring you something I found on a random GoogleImage search of the quoted phrase "the doctor." So, I bring you a series of Doctor Who and Torchwood characters (and some OCs, apparently) drawn as the artist thinks they would look if they all happened to be lions. I have to say, I think Jack and the Doctor look all wrong, but Gwen and Martha look very much like themselves. If they were lions. Of course, I am ignoring the sexual dimorphism in lions, particularly with regard to mane and tail tufts. And also the fact that lions don't come in blue. But I think when one is drawing a time-travelling immortal alien who at the moment looks strangely like David Tennant, except when he looked like Christopher Eccleston, or Paul McGann, or -- you get the idea -- these small facts of leonine biology can be safely ignored. Also, earlier I had been trying to find a URL for that Carl Sagan "Wibbly wobbly timey-wimey ...stuff" icon to show to a friend, so if anyone has that, cool. |
| Sunday, March 29th, 2009 | |
| 11:51 pm | |
| Monday, March 23rd, 2009 | |
| 2:19 pm | ARGH. Now that that's out of the way. My professor has emailed me asking me to bring in the commented-up copy of my rough draft so she can scan it for her files, because she says she handed it back to me the day before break without having made the copy. The final is due Wednesday at noon. Okay, whatever. That would be totally fine if she, in fact, had handed it back to me. This year my stuff is actually well-organized, so I can confirm that no, I do not have it. Alas, no such luck. What she did hand back to me was the heavily revised version of the outline, which she still did not like, so I basically have to rewrite the thing anyway and I already have enough shit due this week and argh. ARGH ARGH ARGH. Okay, I guess that wasn't out of the way. ARGH. Current Mood: annoyed |
| Monday, March 9th, 2009 | |
| 11:44 pm | ... guh. So you know how there are some things you just should not, under any circumstances, GoogleImage? I have found the opposite of that. 'Mechanical hand' got me this. Current Mood: pretty! |
| Thursday, March 5th, 2009 | |
| 9:56 pm | |
| 8:12 pm | It's been a while since anyone has been enough of an asshole in person to instill homicidal rage in me. Thank goodness I was on my way to karate anyway. In karate I get to hit people without them pressing charges, and it gives me time to really understand that violence is not the answer. So, a public service announcement: any joke where the punchline is that group X will get cancer and die horribly is not funny, and if group X includes one of my loved ones, oh hey! Homicidal rage! But since violence is not the answer, the next time you decide it is funny to follow my coughing, sick, plague-ridden, feverish ass and insist that I stop smoking because you are just so concerned about my health, I am not going to hit you. Instead, I will blow my nose into a tissue, force-feed it to both of you, and see how long it takes you to get as sick as I am. You know, for science. Then, if you don't stop coughing (because coughing is clearly not polite when you're walking by yourself in public) I'm going to track down your mothers and make them breathe asbestos for several days. Then I'll wait. I bet the cancer jokes at their funerals will be hilarious, but they were bringing it upon themselves anyway. If they hadn't raised a couple of assholes like you... I really really hate people. Did I mention that? Really. Hate. Current Mood: pissed off |
| Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 | |
| 10:58 am | Some fucker has been buying surveillance equipment with my debit card. I am not a happy camper. Current Mood: angry |
| Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 | |
| 3:28 pm | Occasionally I come across awesome or amusing quotes in my textbooks. I never posted the really amusing one I found freshman year, about the extremely admirable chemist who blew three of his fingers off for science, but more philosophically, my history textbook now notes that "Greatness, one assumes, is distributed randomly across time and space." There was another one about symbolic fishladders in my Russian environmental politics textbook, but that was mostly just depressing. I just like the mental image of some people looking at a four-dimensional map and noting the random distribution of dots indicating greatness nodes. And I really need to get off my ass and get some Doctor Who icons. Current Mood: mellow |
| Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 | |
| 8:53 pm | So I had a nice day. This morning, I woke up actually awake, and after weightlifting, the traffic lights changed as soon as I pressed the button, so I was filled with the urge to shout "BUAHAHA! I CONTROL ALL THE TRAFFIC!" So I did, and after that, the traffic lights behaved for me the entire day. Then in Religion, Mr. Goddesses-Are-Just-Weird gave a spirited and logical and feminism-based attack on Sun Myung Moon/the Unification Church's attitude towards women, which was cheering if confusing. I think my history midterm went well, I drew a pretty good picture of Rowena in Polisci, and on the way to Karate I saw an owl. It was about the size of both my fists together, and I got close enough to grab it (although, for obvious reasons, I did not) before we both decided we had other places to be. Flowers-san let us out early because it's Mardi Gras, and then when I got back, my RA was taking down the bulletin board on the dangers of hookah-smoking, and I learned about the hookah-smoking epidemic that's sweeping the nation. (Okay, not really, but the billboard had baffled me, as I had no idea that there was a hookah bar in Normal that let you in if you were over 18. The more you know!) Yay. Also, I have accidentally done all of my reading for Polisci two days in advance. Current Mood: happy Current Music: Rangers // A Fine Frenzy |
| 10:43 am | Sometimes the mental image I get when I read Gmail's ads is probably not the one the ad writers were intending:  Current Mood: amused |
| Monday, February 23rd, 2009 | |
| 3:32 am | Someday, I would really like to know why every single Environmental Studies project I'm assigned turns to shit. Oh, they all go perfectly well. Well, not perfectly. But they all do what they're supposed to do, or rather, I do what I'm supposed to do, and I can write, and I have this ridiculous ability to finish papers just before they're due. I just end up having to talk about fecal matter a lot. Apparently the universe has a sense of humor even more immature than my own. Anyway, on the topic of schoolwork, I did my presentation on Wicca last Thursday. I was disappointed in the class, half of which thought Wicca was Satanic before we covered, you know, the actuality of Wicca. (Seriously, wtf. When I was a kid, the topic of "if I stopped being Jewish" came up a lot and Wicca and Baha'i were the two semi-respected religions "good enough" to be not-Jewish for. Maybe when you grow up Christian all your options are other versions of Christianity?) I'm by no means an expert on Wicca, but it miffs me because damn, I try not to assume someone is a Satanist unless, you know, they tell me they are. Anyway, the crowning moment of wtf came when a guy told us that he thought Wicca was a cult anyway, even if no Satan or brainwashing or suicide-encouraging creepy leaders were involved, because he thought "a female god" was just too weird. That point of view had honestly not occurred to me -- I really like mythology, and the Greek goddesses have always really appealed to me because despite some misogyny in the actual myths, they got to be awesomely kickass -- well, goddesses in general often get to do that, being, you know, goddesses -- and to be honest, I think a female creator deity makes a little more sense than a male creator deity, because your options for creation myths are either Frankenstein-y ("I MADE THE WORLD and gave it LIFE, and all y'all have to OBEY!") or pregnancy (which does not happen to most men and no, fanfiction doesn't count) and pregnancy seems like maybe less of a stretch. (Although now I want to write a Frankensteiny creator goddess, or maybe one who mixes it up a little and does both.) Anyway, back to my point: apparently goddesses = CRAZY CULT, even though plenty of intellectually-respected ancient peoples worshipped goddesses as well as gods, and even though there are female saints, and even though goddess-worship doesn't mean you have to do things like give women rights and all that inconvenient shit. (In fact, you can easily make up stories about the goddesses themselves reinforcing misogynist beliefs! See also: Athena's decision in Eumenides vs. Orestes.) But yeah. I really should have said something to him, but I was a little too horrified to think anything but Kaesa, he is allowed to have an opinion that is different from yours. Even though it's fucking stupid. But later, while I reading feminist blogs, I thought of insults. Hence my new icon. Argh. Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: Ice Queen // Within Temptation |
| Monday, February 9th, 2009 | |
| 1:11 am | The lump on my forehead is gone, but it still hurts to facepalm. Please, do not embarrass me for another few days, world. I'm about halfway through A Feast for Crows, which is surprising since I started it yesterday, but there you go. I need to finish it quickly because I accidentally got it in hardcover, so it's not easy to carry. On the other hand, it's difficult to lose and forget, and having left A Storm of Swords on the airplane to Las Vegas when I was about twenty-five pages from the end, that's kind of reassuring. Also, oddly, I keep finding badly confused fanart of the Lannister twins. I have so far found one silver-haired Jaime and one black-haired Cersei. With other authors, I can see how you'd make a mistake like that, but in this series, it's just weird. Anyway. I've been trying to write a thousand words a day. My favorite thing from today comes from a conversation betwen two Trainee Unspeakables, sometime in the late 1940s: "Maybe Cadwallader will hit him," said Toby. "There's something I would love to see," said Ed. She stared off into space serenely for a moment, apparently contemplating the glorious spectacle of Cadwallader's disused Beater's bat against Winter's cast-iron arm. At least, that was what Toby had imagined. She was an Espis, so who knew what went on in her head, really. "Who do you think would win?" she asked. "Cadwallader," said Toby immediately. "She's terrifying. She'd turn him into a rat and eat him in a sandwich." "Not that it wouldn't be an improvement on the Ministry cafeteria food, but Winter's got that metal arm," said Ed. She winced. "It's horrible and cold. Anyway, he'd make a bad lab rat. He'd be a better guinea pig." The lift doors opened, and they stepped out into the Atrium. "Maybe," he said doubtfully. He couldn't see Winter as anything fluffy. "It's only the one arm, though. I bet Cadwallader could knock him out without trying," he continued. "It makes sense, you know, that they would choose a Department Head who can keep the Department in control with, er. Percussive maintenance." "You think it's a physically demanding job?" Ed asked. "Remember that rampaging pipe-organ our first week of testing?" Toby asked. "Oh yeah," said Ed, her face lighting up. "That was brilliant, wasn't it?" She was an Espis. Right. Mad. Current Mood: working |
| Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 | |
| 11:52 pm | Dear creepy slouching guy who walked RIGHT FUCKING BEHIND ME AND KEPT MATCHING, THEN EXCEEDING MY EVER-INCREASING SPEED on the dark path back to Gulick: I am certain you were only a student minding his own business, not a potential rapist/mugger, but that was not clear to me until our paths diverged, especially since I couldn't see you until then. However, it was quite dark, I could hear that you were too damn close and getting closer, and the fact that I kept speeding up and looking back, and checking that my keys were easily accessible, should have maybe indicated some discomfort on my part. I would like you to know that next time you do this sort of thing to me, I will be much more likely to just run, or maybe preemptively kick you in the crotch, rather than hurrying to Gulick paranoiacally and opening the door into my very own forehead, giving me a huge lump on the head and probably a mild concussion. I prefer this former set of actions (that is, violence) not because they are wise (as I know they are not), but because they hurt me less and I don't really care about you. Because you're an inadvertent asshole, but you're still an asshole. Unfondly, Kaesa, who does not want to go to all her classes tomorrow PS: I feel kind of stupid ranting about this, because nothing Bad has ever happened to me, but argh. I know irritability is a symptom of concussion, and the above post is probably pretty unreasonable, but I'm so frustrated. Especially since if anything had happened to me the second question after "OMG ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" would be "What were you doing walking back from Ames alone after eleven, anyway?" PPS: But seriously, what am I supposed to do? Turn to him and say "Excuse me, but I don't know you, and I was going to run away, but I don't want to be insensitive to your feelings. Are you planning on harming me in any way? No? Oh, all right, then, I guess you can keep ominously creeping up behind me!" PPPS: I will be so pissed if I miss Karate because my head hurts tomorrow. I was just getting the hang of the advanced kata. PPPPS: Yes, I know that my opening a door into my head was not his fault. I'm just annoyed. Current Mood: goddamnit, my head hurts |
| Saturday, January 31st, 2009 | |
| 11:58 pm | My textbook for Cults in America has a whole section about H. P. Lovecraft. It makes me wish my next book to read was something fictional, and not The Struggle for Russian Environmental Policy. Right, classes. I promised I'd post about that, didn't I? ( I'm taking six classes this semester. ) And that is that. The first five are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so that wears me out a little, but then I have a four-day weekend. (Well, I try to lift weights on Saturday or Sunday.) I really didn't mean it to be that way, but that's how my schedule worked out. It's actually really nice, because I know with absolute confidence if someone invites me to a party one evening, I can either say Sure! or No, I Have Class, Sorry -- none of this "ooh, uh, well, I might need to do homework..." and then I don't. Anyway, I should sleep because apparently I'm going to church tomorrow morning. Man, I don't even know what you wear to church. And we're walking. Current Mood: tired |
