Kaesa

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:04:59 GMT

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:

Tagging. AO3 allows you to tag fic in several categories, including rating, several warning options, fandoms, shipping category (gen, f/f, m/f, m/m, other, or multiple relationships), pairings, characters, and a general tag section. The general tag section is great, because it lets me warn for, say, minor violence even though graphic violence doesn't really apply, or it lets me indicate that a fic takes place during the Marauder era or pre-canon or that it's about kids, or that it contains some trope I think people should know about. (I am the only person so far using the tags Biting Pear or Mad Science, and also the only person so far who has posted Girl Genius fic. Hopefully soon that will no longer be true, although possibly Ursula Vernon and I are the only people weird enough to independently come up with biting pears. It made sense! I like pears, and Helga's plants bite! But Ms Vernon probably has the prior claim, and I would feel odd issuing some kind of fanfic challenge to get people to make my weird fic less lonely.)

Serieses. OMG I LOVE THIS. Okay, there are some flaws. This is how a series looks on AO3. You can theoretically reorder the series as often as you like, although for some reason it refuses to let me put the incomplete novel-length anywhere but the very end. I'm not sure if that's a bug or a feature; it might be either, since fandom seems to really dislike WIPs at the moment. To me it's a bug, but I won't bitch. Anyway, if you look at the page with all my serieses, it has one big clump of tags that apply to the whole series, and you can say to yourself "oh, well, I don't want to read anything with a major character death, so I'll skip her Founders series, especially since it's like 35k words, but the Millicent series at the bottom is only 3k words total and has some pairings I haven't read before." You can also tag something as belonging to several different series, which is something I will probably do when I write the Rowena Ravenclaw/Cassandra Vablatsky fic(s) set in the Department of Mysteries during WWII. Any fic listed in one series has links to the series page as a whole, the next fic in the series, and the previous fic in a series, so it navigates like chapters.

Copy and paste from Word. Kitty and I were talking last night about how this is LIKE MAGIC. Seriously, in order of difficulty from highest to lowest, posting the sixth chapter of my fic last night went Skyhawke > FF.N > LJ > AO3. Skyhawke has this frankly stupid setup where you can either c/p HTML or upload a Word document and NOT EDIT IT. FF.N's is similar, although you can edit Word docs, they just may or may not look the way you hoped, depending on how they've changed their weird-ass policies. For LJ/IJ/JF posts I use the Semagic client, which is kind of time-consuming because I have to C/P the raw text from Notepad, and then semi-hand-code all the formatting from the Word reference. And on AO3, if you've written a document in Word, you can just click the little "Copy and paste from MS Word" button, a window with a text box pops up, and you copy and paste your fic from Word. And that's it. You can edit it however you like, either in Rich Text or HTML -- both work on their own, you don't need Word -- but if you C/P from Word there's no nonsense about having the font set to 11 or 10 or 12 or double spacing or your default font; it strips away that formatting and leaves only the stuff you added -- the bold and the center and all that. I write in Word because it's the word processor I learned on and it's easier for Kitty and I to manage beta commentary and correction, but I've always hated having to clean up Word documents for web posting, so I really like this.

Things I think other people would like but that I haven't used:

Pseudonyms. Say you've changed your screenname three times and written fic under each screenname, and you still like the fic, but for whatever reason want to associate older fic with the name you wrote it under, or you want people who read you under your old username to be able to find your new work. You only get one official screenname at AO3, but you can have different pseudonyms associated with that name. I'm not really sure how it all works, but I know there are people who would find it useful.

Orphaning works. Say you wrote this EPIC EPIC Draco/Hermione fic or something when you were thirteen, and it had a lot of badly-written romance and a nonsensical sex scene and, I don't know, some Ron-bashing, and now you're in some other, very mature fandom, and you cringe every time you think of HP because you had all these fans and they loved this fic and you can't stand to look at it anymore. You don't want to just take it off the internets forever because, well, you know how Harry Potter fandom can get, but you also don't want to be reminded of its existence ever again. You can post it on AO3 and orphan it, so that you aren't listed as the author anymore but people can still find it and read it.

Coauthors. I imagine it's irritating to have to either post a co-authored fic on one account and keep reiterating that the other author(s) also participated, or to keep a coauthors account just for fic written by one pair/group/set of people. I'm not entirely sure how the coauthors feature works, but I think I've seen round-robins posted on AO3 with each author credited by chapter.

Fannish next-of-kin. If you die in real life, you die in fandom! Who will control your fics? Technically, I will probably take advantage of this once thinkatory gets an account and this feature is active, because these are the kinds of things that keep me up at night worrying, but right now I don't think this feature is up and running, and hopefully it will be before anything horrible happens to me. Basically, if your designated fannish next-of-kin finds out that you have died or are comatose, they can email the Archive to gain control over your fics. Obviously, this is open to abuse if you designate someone who turns out not to be trustworthy, but if you're not dead you can email them and tell them you aten't dead.

Issues I've had:

Heavy load blues. The archive runs slowly sometimes. I'm honestly not surprised. But at least it's consistent; you will get to the page you were going to, generally, unlike JournalFen's occasional bouts of server robustness, where reloading is kind of like an exciting game of chance, only without being exciting, or a game.

How do I know when people bookmark my fic? I do not. Someone has bookmarked one of my fics, actually, and I found out completely by accident as I was clicking on tags and being all "hey, I wonder if anyone has recs for this trope?" Technically there are three kinds of bookmarks: private bookmarks, public bookmarks, and fic recs, and this was a public bookmark, not a rec. So I suppose an author could be notified of fic recs. I just don't know. I'm also not sure how they handle reviews.

Uploading from existing URLs. I tried uploading a bunch of fics at once, from my Google site and from tamarindchutney, to no avail; oh sure, I managed to edit one of them into a decent-looking fic, thought I posted it, and alas, it disappeared into the ether. So I reposted it in the copy-and-pasty way and went on my merry way, only to find the old copy still in the ether. I keep finding the rest, floating about, poorly-formatted and badly-tagged and with my name on them. I think I finally got rid of the last one. In conclusion: upload from existing URLs at your hazard. It is still in beta.

Word count. Seriously, what is with the word count? It's within the ballpark, but I am baffled as to why the archive thinks this 100-word drabble is 90 words. I just checked in Word, which says it's 100, and there are no hyphenations or anything that might cause errors.

Anyway, my stories uploaded there are all at this link.

And in honor of the actual chapter posted, some music from YouTube:

"I Hate Everyone" by Get Set Go.
I think I included this in my mad science playlist. I link to it now in honor of Godric, who is especially cranky in this chapter, but is generally mildly cranky in every chapter because that's just who he is. He's very introverted and does not like socializing with people he doesn't know or people he knows well enough to dislike, but he's really scary-looking so he tries to act nice because he doesn't want anyone to decide he's dangerous! And sometimes his brain just overloads from the dealing-with-assholes. So this song is really cheerful and happy and irate. (I should note that this is the sweary version, which has better lyrics.)

"Story of Isaac" by Leonard Cohen.
This one is for Rowena, who is a cynic about religion, family, and societal expectations in general. Her mother keeps trying to marry her off for political reasons, and having been there, done that, and got the kid and the PTSD to prove it, she's sick to death of saying no. I don't think her mother has yet invoked specifically religious reasons for this, but the Middle Ages was really not a good time to be an atheist. (The world I have built for my Founders isn't the real Middle Ages, of course; about half of the wizarding aristocracy within the geographical area encompassing "Christendom" is not actually Christian, or is Christian AND something else, but they pretty much all at least pay lip service to a religion, and there's not much freedom to convert -- if you're born New Reformed Hellenic, by gods, you're not converting to Veela Syncretic Heathenry, they probably won't have you anyway and you'll get glared at during family reunions and blots.)

"Came Ye From Newcastle" as sung by Maddy Prior.
This one's for Helga, specifically Helga and Basil. Helga gets a lot of crap for marrying a werewolf, and probably got a lot of crap before he was bitten for marrying someone who had less money than her. So I like this song because while Helga generally tries to remain cheerful in the face of asshaberdashery, she also refuses to acknowledge any nonsense she gets about how she "could do better." This particular song doesn't really suit Helga for this chapter; I tend to associate it with the time before they were married when Basil was a hunter and was sometimes off travelling for days or weeks through dangerous areas.

"Wonderful" from Wicked.
This is my favorite song in the musical, and while the first part, about how the Wizard is a fraud, doesn't really suit Salazar, everything from "Elphaba, where I'm from, we believe all sorts of things that aren't true. We call it 'history,'" suits him well. Salazar is set up as the good to Lady Aeaeae's evil, but he's really the lesser of two evils -- it is politics, after all. He doesn't kill people just for irritating him, like Lady Aeaeae, but he doesn't not kill people, he's just more predictable about his reasoning and methods.

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:15:17 GMT

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.

Mon, 04 May 2009 04:33:15 GMT

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.

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:35:06 GMT

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.)

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:19:57 GMT

Is it me or did Lady Christina just seem like someone's idea of a hot kickass girlfriend who was exciting enough to be Sexy Danger but not enough to have her own adventures and life and ideas? But alas, the Doctor has manangst. Time Lord angst. Whatever. That's all that's preventing him from taking her along. It's not like she would get distracted by shiny things or anything. (Okay, who doesn't get distracted by shiny things? She just seemed more distracted than sensible.)

She just seemed very fawning, and I had kind of expected the Doctor to see through that, find out what she wanted from him, and defeat her -- this was actually so bad that I assumed she was an alien thief masquerading as a common Earth trope but actually with much more elaborate plans. When he didn't "see through it" it became clear that there wasn't anything more to her and that's how the writers thought she would act -- fawning and cutesy and lovestruck. Despite being ready for anything and not unused to bizarre situations of her own design. If you're going to have a ridiculous cliche in your script, and you're not going for metahumor, you'd better work twice as hard to make her seem like she has an inner life. Especially in Doctor Who, because otherwise people are going to think the character has more going on, and not in a good way. And she could've been an alien, you know?

Anyway, when I write I try to keep in mind that every character is the main character in their own head.

I feel weird about objecting to this because I loved Bela on Supernatural, and she's a very similar character -- with one exception. She wasn't a thief with a heart of gold, doing it for the adventure, she was (mostly) a straight-up selfish doing-my-own-thing bitch, and when her own life intersected with the show's plot, she didn't drop everything in the sudden realization that she was a secondary character. I'm not saying she didn't have any redeeming characteristics, but they took an awful lot of drama to come out, and I was hoping to see more of her. I miss her.

I am entirely weirded out that I'm saying Supernatural did a better job of female characterization than Doctor Who, because even with all the issues DW and TW has with women, SPN usually has more.

Thoughts?

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.

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 04:42:29 GMT

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.

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 07:50:08 GMT

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.

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:52:02 GMT

C:>WAKEUP.EXE
GOOD MORNING!

THE SYSTEM HAS DETECTED A VIRUS.

DO YOU WISH TO INITIATE EXCESSIVE MUCUS PRODUCTION? (Y/N)...................? [N]
MUCUS PRODUCTION, 3000% COMPLETE
DO YOU WISH TO INITIATE HEADACHE? (Y/N)...............................? [FUCK NO]
HEADACHE, 100% COMPLETE.
APPLICATIONS MAY RUN SLOWLY DUE TO HAVING A SKULL STUFFED WITH COTTON AND NAILS.

C:\>FIRSTAID
C:\FIRSTAID>BENADRYL.EXE

ILLEGAL COMMAND: BENADRYL.EXE

C:\FIRSTAID>C:
C:\>SKOOL\
C:\SKOOL\>RUSSIA.PPT

WRITING POWERPOINT DOCUMENT, 100% COMPLETE
GIVING PRESENTATION, 100% COMPLETE
DRINKING TEA, 73% COMPLETE
ERROR: ELECTRIC KETTLE IS EMITTING COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF SMOKE. ABORT AND
UNPLUG?(Y/N)................................................................? [Y]
SAVING CLA FROM BEING SET ON FIRE, 100% COMPLETE

C:\SKOOL\>C:
C:\>FOODS\
C:\FOODS>NUKE.EXE
YOU NOW HAVE AN ANNOYING CRAVING FOR SOMETHING YOU ARE TOO TIRED TO MAKE, AND
ALSO NEED MOAR TEA.

C:\FOODS>NUKETEA.EXE
MICROWAVED TEA TASTES LIKE SHIT. ARE YOU SURE?(Y/N)................? [FUCK YOU,
LIKE I DIDN'T KNOW THAT ALREADY.]

SPECIFY TEA: EARL GREY, HOT.

ERROR: USER IS NOT A STARFLEET CAPTAIN
SPECIFY TEA: ENGLISH BREAKFAST

C:\FOODS>EATFOODS.EXE
ERROR: WAY TOO HOT!

C:\FOODS>EATFOODS.EXE
BUT I REALLY WANTED TORTELLINIS! CONTINUE?(Y/N)............................? [Y]
CONSUMING DINNER, 100% COMPLETE

C:\FOODS>DISHES.EXE
WASHING DISHES, 100% COMPLETE

C:\FOODS>FIXTEA.EXE
SUGAR? (0,1,2).............................................................? [3]
CREAM?(Y/N)................................................................? [Y]

C:\FOODS>DRINKTEA.EXE
I TOLD YOU IT WOULD TASTE LIKE SHIT.

C:\FOODS>C:
C:\>STFU.EXE
C:\>INTERNETS\
C:\INTERNETS\>MUSICPOST.EXE
ERROR: OUT OF TEA
ERROR: OUT OF TEA
ERROR: OUT OF TEA
ERROR: OUT OF TEEEEE938262QGYWXSIHBCBIDXQGANVZD83CSICC2N25729E0SASKLDFJSALSALFDB
SEKGQ3JHAWCSDQOGICAGIFDOZW4GEW91IGFCSICC2NYZSBPQGYWXSIHBCBIDXQGANVZDBIBCBG9VBWLU
DWXKIHN0YXJ0IHDVCMTPBMCGB24GCGXHBNMGZM9YIGCSICC2NEGCMV0AXJLBWVUDCBJBQGYWXSIHBCBI
IG9SZCB1BML2ZWVZLIBKDXNBGQGYWXSIH0IHROAW5RIG9MIHROZSBWB3NZACSICC2NWJPBGL0AWVZISA
ZGLNIHR1BM5LBHMGDW5KZXIGDGHLIGZVDBGQGYWXSIHW5KYXRPB24GYW5KIHJLLWVUCSICC2NYWN0IG9
B2QGBWLZY2HPZWYSIHN1CHBSESQGYWXSIHBCBIDXQGANVZDBKZWFKIHNCSICC2NRBGQGYWXSIHDW5RCY
CYBHCMUGC3VWCG9ZZWQGDG8GYMUGZ29VZCB3YXLZIHCSICC2NRVIGBGQGYWXSIHZVC3RLCIBTZW1VCML
YWQGB2YGDGHLIHR5CGLJYWWGC2HVCHBPBMCGDHJPCCB0BYB0ACSICC2NGUGBWFSBGQGYWXSIHBCB3ZSB
IHNWZWVKIHJHY2VZIGLUIHNVDXBLZCB1CCBVBGQGY2FYCYBQGYWXSIHBCBIDXQGANVZD0BYBOYXNOCSI
D2LUBMVYIHDOBYBMAW5KCYB0AGUGBW9ZDCBWAW50CYBVZIBWZXJZAW1TB24GCHVCSICCQGYWXSIHBCBI
BGQGYWXSIHDMUGDGHLIGHVBM9YIGCSICC2N9MIGNSZWFUAW5NIG91DCB0AGUGC3RPBMTPBMCGDHVIYXM
QGYWXSIHBCBIDXQGANVZDBGQGYWXSIHBGQGYWXSIHBSYXKGYSBSB3QGBCSICC2N2YGBXVZAWMSIGDVIG
ZD8PLCBWBGFUDCBSB3RZBQGYWXSIHBCBIDXQGANVZDGQGYWXSIHIG9MIHJLZCBHCSICC2NBMQGD2HPDG
IHNOB3CGQU5EIG5LD3NWYXBLCIBMCMBGQGYWXSIH9TQGYWXSIHBCBIDXQGANVZDIHROZSBCSICC2NWCM
BMDYAS1SYT8GILROZSBHCMV5IED1AW5LYSBQAWDZBGQGYWXSIHIFJLDGCSICC2NQGYWXSIHBCBIDXQGA
AGUGRUFFTCAORWXKZXJSECSICC2NSBBZ2FPBNN0ICHVB3BZLCBBGQGYWXSIHJIG1LYW50IEFUDGKPIEV
TGVHZ3VLII4GDQOGICAGICSICC2NFDLJ2QGYMV0DGVYIHBSYW4GBM93LG0KIBGQGYWXSIQGYWXSIHBCB
CSICC2NZ2CSICC2NW0KIA0KIA0KIA0KIA0KDQOJLS0TLS1PCMLNAW5HBCBNZXNZYWDLLS0BGQGYWXSIH
CSICC2NBTOGRUNNTEFXQGFVBC5JB20GW21HAWX0BZPFQ01MQVDAYW9SLMNVBV0GDQOJU2VUDDOGVHVLI
MTCVMJAWMYA1OJU0IFBNIA0KCVRVCSICC2NOIBPBI1QGYWXSIHBCBIDXQGANVZDIBG9VBWLUZ3RVBI11
BGQGYWXSIHCUNJOIANCGLTDWJQZWN0OIBSZTOGAHVNACWCSICC2NGA3JVBMV5LCQGYWXSIHBCBIDXQGA
ZWN0CMLJIEDBGQGYWXSIHHCMFNZSBEB29YIE9WZW5LCNMNCGKNCGCSICC2NKNCG0KCVROYW5RIHLVDSW
CIB0AGF0IGNVBXBSZXRLIBGQGYWXSIHHJLCGX5LIBPBMUGB2YGDGHLIHJLYCSICC2NXNVBNMGZM9YIHD
C2QGYWXSIHBCBIDXQGANVZDTLZCB0AGUGCXVLC3RPB24GD2FZIHRBGQGYWXSIHOYXQGSSB0AG91Z2H0I
YXJSAWVYIGVTYWLSIGZYB20QGYWXSIHBCBIDXQGANVZDGEW91DQOJCMVMZXJPBBGQGYWXSIHMCGDG8GA
ZWFSIG9MIHRPBWUGB24GVGVSZWDYYXBOIEF2ZW51ZSBHQGYWXSIHBCBIDXQGANVZDBMQGB3RBGQGYWXS
A2VSZXKUIEKCSICC2NGD2VUDCB0BYBDYWWGYW5KIGXPDMUGBMVHCMJ5LIBJIHBGQGQGYWXSIHBCBIDXQ
DIGJLICJSB2NHBCWIDQCSICC2NOJYXMGD2UGC2F5LIBPZIBJB3VYC2UGEW91IGFYZSBSB2JLIGP1C3QG
DRCBPBIBHIGRPZMZLCMVUDNHBGQGYWXSIHBCBIDXQGCBSBCSICC2N2NHBGUUDQOJVGHLIEJLBGWGC2LZ

THE SYSTEM DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH ENERGY TO CONTINUE OPERATIONS, AND WILL NOW SHUT
DOWN. PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BOOT UNTIL MID-JULY. HAVE A NICE DAY.

->snpf!<-

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:19:57 GMT

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.

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 04:45:16 GMT

... 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.

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 03:56:57 GMT

I am instantly cheered.

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:13:42 GMT

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.

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:59:54 GMT

Some fucker has been buying surveillance equipment with my debit card.

I am not a happy camper.

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:28:57 GMT

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.

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:54:41 GMT

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.

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:44:22 GMT

Sometimes the mental image I get when I read Gmail's ads is probably not the one the ad writers were intending:

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:33:14 GMT

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.

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:12:02 GMT

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.

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:53:38 GMT

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.

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 05:59:32 GMT

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.

Weightlifting: This is for my final PE credit. The teacher kept talking about how if we wanted we could lift for strength or lift to tone muscle or lift to lose weight, significant look mewards. Yeah, no. I told him I felt like I had no upper body strength compared to the rest of my karate class, and he gave me some advice. It's going well, but it's first thing in the morning, and it is not fun times. But mostly because they play that fucking song that starts out exactly like Werewolves of London, then ends up being all about Sweet Home Alabama. If you're gonna start out with Werewolves of London and I'm stuck in the weight room doing crunches, I want howling and perfect hair, damnit.

Cults in America: This apparently should be New Religious Movements in America, but the professor figured no one would sign up for that, so it's Cults. I like it. It's a little terrifyingly full of Religion majors, whereas I am really bad at religion, but it's damn interesting. We started off with reading apocalypses -- Daniel and Revelation -- and now we're looking at the history of new religious movements in the United States. My term paper's going to be about pagan reconstructionist movements, which I think is pretty broad so I'm probably going to focus on Hellenismos, since there's a lot about it. I pick these things for selfish reasons -- I'd like to examine how modern pagan reconstructionists have managed because I'd like to figure out how the various pagan religions of my Founders-era Europe operate amidst organized Christendom, and while I get the feeling they're not devoted as much to accurate reconstruction as they are to not pissing off the gods while also not pissing off the neighbors, I'd like to look at how real groups do things.

From Frontier to Urban Ferment: It's a history course! On the industrialization of America. And everything else that happened then. I like it because we get to talk about temperance ladies with AXES. I like axes. Not sure what my term paper will be on, yet. I'm thinking something entertainmenty, or maybe technological. Or it could be about axes.

Comparative Environmental Politics: Professor Jahiel teaches this one. I really like it, actually, but I'm a dork. At the moment we're reading about the German Green Party, who are, so far, fascinatingly crazy in all the right ways. Earlier we were tentatively looking at monkeywrenching in the US, but my classmates seem to find that too undignified and rowdy. (I like axes!) I'm doing a paper on Russian environmental policy with a focus on nuclear stuff, hence the next Book To Read. Apparently nobody else can pronounce 'nuclear,' and the other Sarah wanted my specialty (water quality) and since she has no discernable sense of humor, I decided to let her have it.

Advanced Karate: Is going surprisingly well. I mean, I still suck at it but I'm at least getting better at balancing on one foot while kicking imaginary people in the face -- a valuable career skill -- and those girls in back of me have stopped giggling about how FAT I am. (Why? Because I am FAT, and apparently nobody told me FAT people shouldn't be seen in public, because someone might notice they are FAT. The horror!) I do wish I had a uniform so I could wear my yellow belt (and still be FAT), but my Dalek shirt works decently AND Flowers-san is a Whofan. Nobody else on campus is, so I was like YAY FINALLY SOMEONE DOESN'T THINK I JUST WANT TO EXTERMINATE SALTSHAKERS AND R-2 UNITS.

Linguistic Anthropology: Just what it says on the tin, only the tin is nearly three hours of lecture on Wednesday nights. I was nearly going to have Clingy Jealous Girlfriend issues in it (apparently I should not share an interest in Lovecraft with another woman's property -- this happened to me freshman year when I dared share an interest with the Beatles with, again, another woman's property, because I am a personality'd Jezebel, who attends class and does group projects and other such sinful things) but I think I might have diffused it last class. We shall see. I want to do my term paper about sarcasm in this one, but Croaker's having none of it.

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.

Why I don't read the local newspaper. (Well, also, it's... Bloomington-Normal. Still.)

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:22:14 GMT

...

What. The fuck.

Why not set up a gilded shrine to the Goddess of Reason clutching her offspring - Self? Around her position several bowing figures of famous atheists such as Nietzsche, Marx, Ingersoll, Russell, Huxley, Mao, O'Hare, Sagan, etc.

Our atheist friends could then make their own religious statement without dragging in Christianity which they detest anyway.

Man, I'm not even an atheist and seriously. What the fuck. I can hear the writer insisting that he was just trying to be nice, just trying to give some advice. I can hear it. "I don't know why atheists should be offended when I say that they're Communists, worship themselves, and universally hate Christianity! Everyone knows that's true!" I mean, I'm surprised there was no suggestion that if atheists aren't going to have moral codes, moral codes being the province of divinity, the least they could do is blah blah blah fuck you.

I'm not even an atheist. I'm agnostic! And I'm still pissed off! What am I supposed to do, build a gilded shrine to confusion? I mean, I really like mazes, but it doesn't seem terribly practical.

(To be fair, there are some atheists who do hate Christianity, like Dawkins, and there are magical traditions/religions that explicitly worship the self, like LaVeyan Satanism. But I can't imagine the Satanists getting along well with Dawkins, and I can't really blame them. He seems like kind of an ass.)

...ironically, I am going to church on Sunday for the first time ever (minus that one funeral) this week. But I'm going with Katie so she's not lonely, and it's Unitarian Universalist, so I know there will be superintelligent gerbils.

I should post about my classes, I guess. But basically everything's been going well, except I keep sucking at Karate and Weightlifting. Because I have them on the same days as all of my other classes.

But! I got my room mostly decluttered and semi-decorated, and I finished Feet of Clay, which was excellent. I'm not caught up on Discworld, I never am, but the books tend to hit me at just the right time to fully appreciate them. That and I get distracted by rereading Small Gods. Anyway, right now I'm halfway through The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, which has disappointing golems and alchemy -- well, I mean, next to Pratchett, anything is a little disappointing -- and kind of cardboard characters. But it works as mind-candy. Still, I'm missing my good YA. I need to dig out my Bruce Coville books next time I'm home, and I have to read all those Young Wizards books I missed when I was busy taking myself too seriously back in high school.

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:15:29 GMT

AND NON-BELIEVERS.

I did not realize this would make my day. And forgive me my fonts, as I forgive those who type things in horrible colors and sparklies. But YAY.

Also, acknowledgement of environmental issues. And SCIENCE. Please actually do these things, Mr. President.

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:24:42 GMT

So I'm having plotbunny difficulties. As if I didn't have enough to write what with the Founders, of course, and my various other unfinished projects -- Martin Umbo, and the ... the thing which only Kitty knows entirely about that is basically one of those awful romcoms where Nerd Girl falls for Popular Guy, gets a makeover and changes her ENTIRE PERSONALITY, Popular Guy finally realizes how ~~hot~~ wonderfully intelligent she is, and they live happily ever after. Except it's written by me, so none of those things happens. Especially not the ending. And I think the characters involved would horrify some of my flist, so I'm waiting until it's posted to talk about that.

Anyway, then I've got this original-fiction cyberpunk superhero thing with character-seeds mostly taken from the Founders. I'm wibbling about race right now, because the thing is set in the Chicago of about fifty years in the future, and while it's ...not so weird to have an entirely-white main cast in a European medieval setting, I do not expect Chicago in 2060 to be populated entirely by white people. (I especially want to do this thing right because Girls Read Comics was both my introduction to the wider world of feminist and progressive blogs, and is still sort of my jumping-off point into superhereoes and comics.) The main characters are two ex-pat Brits, because try as I might, I could not make Rowena American. I once tried to make an elflilke race and ended up with a slave race of giant intelligent horseshoe crabs, so it's a little weird that she refuses to be American, but whatever. Anyway, Livia (by which I mean Rowena) is a pyrokinetic superheroine (by which I mean she's just starting out and trying not to die or kill anyone) and an independent political blogger (by which I mean she is a recently laid-off bookstore cashier). Her plant-controlling restoration ecologist best friend from university ends up becoming a supervillain. (There are reasons. They just encompass a large plot arc which is difficult to explain in less than a paragraph.) Then we have the technopathic Batman wannabe, his dad who works for Daley III, the terrified-of-heights postdoc student who can fly, and the superhero-hating FBI agent on the evil restoration ecologist case. The whole thing also largely baffles me because while I didn't create her as one specifically, the protagonist is a bisexual English major girl gamer.

The other plot gnawing on me at the moment is one that just kind of started bugging me again after a year or so of dormancy. Originally, the plot was, Kid from Our World is dropped into Fantasy World, realizes the whole setup sucks, takes over, becomes well-intentioned Evil Overlord, realizes he will be conquered by later Kid Heroes from Our World, and is doing his damndest to keep that from happening without hurting his people. Now it's... different. The necromancer ruler in my head seems very sad and worried for the country he's been trying to rule, and at this point I think that if he is indeed from Our World (as he doesn't seem to be from Fantasy World) he's from somewhere else. At this point I'm wondering if being From Our World but sometime in the past would be better. Anyway, the Fantasy World seems to be in the middle of an ice age, this being an ideal time to have armies of the undead, since they wouldn't rot. I also kind of want to have volcanoes in there, but I'd rather have more Inuit inspirations than Scandinavian ones -- mostly because there are already a lot of Scandinavia nerds in fantasy fandom and Inuit mythology is... different. Oh, and there will be Neandertals in there somewhere, as well as "modern" humans. But I need to have more characters sorted out first. Mostly I'm annoyed with Necromancer Dude for giving me only emotional impressions (sorrow, hope that the heroes won't fuck up his hard work after he's dead, hatred because they killed his lover's daughter) and nothing concrete about who he was beforehand. I think probably he was in a war earlier, because that would explain both his fighting skill, and his willingness to take over his area and end the fighting.

Anyway, more random picspam: Godric and Rowena illustrate several tropes at once. The much better-looking pencilsketch of Rowena. A sketch of Edwina Espis, Unspeakable and ex-convict. Me on Halloween, in a meticulously-planned costume which I never bragged about on LJ. (Sadly, you cannot see my awesome boots in it, or the gun's paintjob. However, they are there.)

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:08:10 GMT

So I did a presentation on the propspect of using vermicomposting both as a sustainable waste management tool and an educational one in a local elementary school. Sadly, my research results suggest that this is not likely unless the school redoes its schedule and hires more custodians. If anyone wants my powerpoint or paper, comment.

I also took my Earth System Science final, and it is such a relief to be out of that class. It is a fascinating subject, but now that Dr. Hoffmann is gone it was being taught by a very nice woman who does not know when the Little Ice Age was and says that pH is the concentration of hydrogen in solution. (I'm not even sure she meant protons.) Having accidentally gotten a teacher fired in middle school, I cringe every time my classmates go on about how evil she is, since she's not, she's just bad. But. It still sucked, because every time we sat in lab and she told us to put down an answer that was demonstrably scientifically wrong, Meaghan and I were all "SCIENCE WILL SAVE US!" and ignored what she told us to write.

(I realize in some cases "well, she's a professor, she obviously knows more than you" is a valid objection. I'm pretty sure, though, that she did know these things and was just trying to make it easier for the rest of the class to follow by not including her ironically non-Earth logic.)

...also, speaking of actual evil professors, Dr. Mohan held the door for me today. But to object would be like one of those weird guys who refuses to go through when I hold the door, so hell, I dunno, I thought, and I thanked him and went through. Happily, the door led to CNS, as I was hoping, and not to some terrible hell-dimension. Perhaps he is losing his chemistry vampire powers.

Anyway, best inadvertently-funny line read while procrastinating today:
"You can trust Albus to be discrete, Harry."

It is a little-known fact that Albus Dumbledore is non-continuous and can be counted. How this makes him more trustworthy, I'm not sure, since the entire point of the last book was that Voldemort is also non-continuous and can be counted. Although to be fair, it takes a lot longer to count Voldemort.

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 05:05:20 GMT

Dear world,

I actually kind of love you right now.

But! Back to work. Always room for improvement.

And this is not an excuse to slack off.

Squeefully and Amid Fireworks in a (Surprisingly) Blue District of Central Illinois,
Kaesa

...also, I totally got a review for my Millicent/Ron-and-maybe-Millicent/Neville. Now if only the fruit flies would clear off my compost and people would learn to recycle paper they don't reuse or compost. And maybe if I could get a good grade on this lab report? That'd be cool too. Also, Earth Systems Science should stop sucking.

There, that was enough to remind me that not everything is awesome. For a few seconds.

...LAUNDRY. I knew I forgot something important today.

Oh well. EEEEE.

Also, I'm very sorry to any McCain supporters to whom this post is obnoxious. I'm not sorry y'all lost, but I know this post might make you a little more irritated.