Sanitized for My Sanity

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next seven sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

NORTH AFRICAN DAGGER
A nineteenth-century North African dagger with a sinuous blade.

AFRICAN RITUAL KNIFE
This African knife, probably made early in the twentieth century, was used in ceremonial rituals. Its hilt is decorated with a tuft of animal hair.

AFRICAN FIGHTING KNIVES
This pair of North African fighting knives have handles of ebony.

SCISSORS DAGGER
An Indo-Persian scissor dagger, with 6.5in/17cm blades. This was a particularly nasty weapon; the attacker thrust it into his victim's body, and the blades sprang apart during withdrawal to do maximum damage.

From Weapons: An Illustrated History, by Chuck Wills, which was sitting on the table next to my bed. I decided not to count the titles as sentences so I could include the bit about the SCISSORS DAGGER.

Star Trek trailer is online! Watch it before Paramount ganks it. Finally hear Simon Pegg's Scotty voice for all of a half a second!

Looks pretty fun to me. Mind you, I'm saying this as someone who has seen maybe all of two episodes of TOS, so I won't be going into this with the "ZOMG my childhood/object of affection is ruined!!"-type feeling of dread. I guess that will come when they decide to make TNG:Begins and cast Zac Efron as Data, or whatever.


And now a unrelated gripe: To Lane Bryant and other plus-sized stores, not every fat chick looks good in a fucking empire waist. Is it too much to ask for a top or dress that could conceivably look good on someone with an hourglass shape? Fuck, just grab your designers, show them some stills of Christina Hendricks' outfits in Mad Men and give them a memo that reads "LIKE THIS, BUT BIGGER". You stand to make boatloads of money. Well, from me at least. When I actually have some.

Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job

I am not a good cook. Whenever I try to make something edible that does not involve microwaving, toast, or small marshmallow pieces and milk, I fail. I overcook, under-cook, start small fires (though to be fair, the last time that happened I was able to put it out pretty quickly and was still able to salvage the pot stickers) fail to check the expiration dates of one or more of the ingredients (I had an...episode with some maple syrup last week. I'll spare you the details), you get the idea. Even baking, which for the most part seems pretty hard to screw up, and I'm pretty sure I even used to be quite good at once! The last time I baked anything that didn't have "Tollhouse" written on the packet was when I tried to make some devil's food cupcakes, misread the directions and added a tablespoon of baking powder instead of a teaspoon, which is the sort of mistake that you expect to see written into an episode of a crappy sitcom ("Oh my, it looks like I mixed in salt instead of sugar!* How silly of me!" *canned laughter*). Those were some big cupcakes, let me tell you.

( In the immortal words of Jeremy Clarkson: 'How hard can it be?' )

Although I thought that the recent TV film version of Hogfather was quite well done I skipped out on the recent Colour of Magic adaptation by the same production company, as I've never read the original book (not really a fan of the Rincewind books in general). However...Jeremy Irons was Vetinari? How did I not know about this until today? So, now I've got to watch it ASAP. And hopefully it's better than the other fantasy movies that Irons has been in.

And there's an adaptation of Going Postal in the works now, so hopefully he'll be back for that! I have no ideas/opinions about who'll play Moist, but my more pressing worry is Vimes. Yes, I know he's not in Going Postal that much, but still. Oh god, I hope they don't fuck him up.

I'm also wondering how the Golems will turn out. The Death costume in Hogfather looked a bit too close to a cheesy Halloween costume at times (especially the mask), but it will be interesting to see how they turn out in the end.

Today I found out that the little end-cap/button on my leadholder apparently also works as a sharpener! Had I known this when I was still taking my drafting class I would have been able to save myself some time, instead of whittling away with an exacto knife. *facepalm* Still, now that I know about this I think I'll be more inclined to use it for freehand drawing in the future. Also, in the process of learning how to use the sharpener I managed to get graphite dust all over my forearm and my t-shirt...and my skirt...and the little arm rest area on my laptop (but not in the keyboard, I hope think).

In other writing implement news today I also finally placed an order for what may well be the most awesome pen in the history of ever. It was out of stock for the longest time on the website I wanted to order it from (and more expensive on the few other sites that sold it), but a casual check a couple of days ago revealed that they had restocked without sending me the promised automatic alert. I wanted to wait until I had bought some of my textbooks first, but I needn't have waited, since I won't be breaking my bank account because of that this semester, and this particular pen isn't outrageously expensive. Though it might just be worth it for the most awesome pen ever.

What type of pen is it? Well, I'm not saying until it arrives, though some of you might be able to guess. :) However, I will say that I don't think I've been this excited about a pen since I discovered rollerball pens with ultra fast-drying ink*, and Rapidographs, though I'm hoping that my newest acquisition is not as diva-like as the latter (PROTIP: Do not take a Rapidograph up in an airplane. They do not like it). I am positively giddy with anticipation!


*As a left-hander, finding a writing pen that doesn't leave the side of my hand a mess or make me frustrated can be hard. Ball point pens are especially annoying, since they're designed to release ink while being dragged across paper, so when a South paw like myself writes by pushing the pen across the paper the result is a lot of stopping to "restart" my pen by scribbling in the margins. So when you need to write a lot in a short amount of time it can be a huge pain in the ass. And until recently it never occurred to me that this difficulty wasn't something that everyone experienced. Right now I'm in love with Pilot's Precise V7 pens (and I *sob* lost my green one ;_;) which write like a dream and rarely dirty my hand, but can bleed through paper pretty easily. I've been reading really good things about the Uni-Ball Jetstream, so if I had noticed this before I had completed my most awesome of pen orders I might have been unable to resist the temptation, (ooh, cushy gel grip!) but I think I'll just grab a packet of the basic models when I get a chance, since they're probably about half the price.

I should also note that my handwriting is horrible, and I'm a pretty poor typist. Not "hunt and peck" bad, but after all these years I still only use my index fingers, so I'm pretty slow compared to most. I think I just all around fail at the act of writing.

Man, when did I become such a ink nerd? If I was right-handed I'd probably be a total fountain pen enthusiast too.

I'm watching Masterpiece Theater's version of Sense and Sensibility right now! I've not read the book (haven't really gotten into Austen yet. Mind you, I haven't read any of her stuff since I had to read Emma in HS). I did, however, see the Ang Lee movie version, also while I was in high school, due to a friend having an Alan Rickman crush. I remember being incredibly annoyed by Kate Winslet's character (Marianne, right?)...and that's about it.

However! This new(ish) miniseries happens to star David Morrissey as Colonel Brandon, so of course I must watch. Oh, David Morrissey. You may well be the poor woman's Liam Neeson, and your American acting career has...not gone well*, but I still like you a whole lot. Also, I was totally rooting for you to become the 11th Doctor, even if I guess that isn't going to happen now. ;_;

Apparently this originally aired back in the spring, so I don't know when I'll see the other two parts. So far it's pretty good. I really like the actresses playing the Dashwood women (the youngest one is so cute!), the actor playing Edward is pretty, and the actor playing Willoughby looks and acts very punchable. Also, Arthur Weasley!


*Now matter how good of an actor someone may be, I just don't think it's possible for your Hollywood career to recover from being the male lead in Basic Instinct 2

Reluctant spring cleaning today. Threw out a bunch off stuff, organized everything else, and found my Nintendo 64 as well as all the felt I bought for mascot-making.

I also found a bunch of my old sketchbooks, including ones from as far back as middle school. *cringe* Oh hell, I used be so terrible. And I'm not being modest or underplaying anything when I say that. We are talking god-awful here*. The thing is, as much as part of me wants to throw out this old stuff, I know that I should hang on to them (as a reminder of how far I've progressed, skills-wise, and how far I've yet to go) but storage is getting to be a problem. Right now my old crap is taking up two of the drawers on my desk. I think what I need to find a bigger container and make space for them in my closet.

What made me even more depressed is when I found some notebooks and print-outs of my old fiction writing. Not depressing because it was all uniformly awful, but because it was actually not awful at all. Decent, even, perhaps good. What makes it depressing is that, despite whatever potential I may have had, I don't write at all these days. Only the occasional school paper and informal postings here and on LJ. I haven't done any fiction writing since high school, even though I remember enjoying the act of writing quite a bit. It's probably related to the fact that ever since starting college I haven't been reading for fun as much as I used to. Now, I've already began to tackle the second problem (finally started The Historian the other day, and I have a long list of books I want to read after that). As for the first...hmm. I do have a larger project that I'm working on, but as a comic. Perhaps I can find a book or site with writing exercises or prompts, then work on doing some writing every day (along with drawing every day). I could work on some short stories or something featuring the characters from my Comic Project as a way of fleshing their back stories out, as well as just the characters in general. Maybe I can even do some more world-building that way.

Lastly, does anyone remember where that Robert Downey Jr. picspam is? I thought it got linked in a Lounge post, but I can't find it. Except it wasn't quite a picspam, but the pics were all edited together like larger icons. Is this some new trend I'm not aware of? To be honest I'd rather just see the pictures.

*Though I did find a few pages of comic layout thumbnail sketches, thought "hey! This look like some decent layouts! Maybe [HS friend who was skilled at drawing] made them?" But no! A closer inspection of the handwriting revealed them to be done by me after all! So it wasn't all utter Fail.

I am starting to think that there is no bad mood (and dental appointment) that an episode of Psych can't cure*. I'm sort of kicking myself for not getting into this show sooner. But, I can slowly catch up because USA shows full episodes free, on their website.

There will be some ads (unless you have Firefox and adblocker, that is) and I don't know if it will work for those of you outside the US. But the quality is surprisingly decent (better than NBC's, I'd say) and it's a very fun show. So, watch!

QUICK, WHILE THEY HAVE THE TELENOVELA EPISODE UP seriously i just watched it and it is so good omg


Man, now I need icons.

In other news, I picked up Aranzi Aronzo's Cute Dolls today. So it looks like I'll be trying my hand at making some cute stuffed animals, despite the fact that my experience with sewing is minimal, and my experience with sewing machines is non-existent. I see no way that this can end badly!


*Well, except for the fact that apparently the Starman Omnibus is shipping today, when Amazon is still telling me that it doesn't ship until the 10th. Grr.

This why I'm afraid to buy Wii Fit. I mean, I like to think I've gotten to the place where I'm happy with my body, but I still don't know if I can't face the bluntness of a Japanese body critique, even if it's done via cutesy avatars. At the same time, I am smitten by the balance board and the possibilities it contains. Of course all of this is moot until I actually manage to get my hands on a Wii. Hopefully now that summer's here and I'm home I'll have more time to hunt for my four months belated Birthday present.

I'm re-reading through the Ponyfucker wank because someone linked it somewhere in the Mythbusters thread and I need to kill some time while I finish my boozy drink. I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT CENTAUR!DRACO

So apparently a few years back DC did this thing where all their covers for a particular month would have their titles incorporated into the actual cover illustration, rather than just pasted over. You can see some of the resulting covers here, and most of them look great. The Gotham Adventures, Supergirl, and Impulse covers are really cute, and it seems like all of the Batman covers are amazing. (but the Wonder Woman cover is totally cheating *g*)

The Sawyer nickname generator. Mine is "Moonbeam" :3 There's no thingy to embed in your lj or what have you (and I'm sure some of you are grateful for that) but it's quick, and you get to look a pictures of Josh Holloway while you take it. As an aside, is Lost good these days? I stopped watching sometime during the second season, but I heard that it really picked up again during the third season. And since I stopped bothering with Heroes and am undecided if I should try Torchwood again, so I'm considering getting caught up with Lost. Of course, I do have class the same night it's on...basically I am asking if the show still has stuff to over besides the hotness of Mr. Holloway.

The Health Institute of Nutrition continues to bring The Funny. with their latest post, on BMI. Granted the funny kinda comes like this "ahahaha...oh, wait, there are actually people who think like this D:", but it's still amusing.

x-posted to mah lj.

So I'm browsing my RSS viewer thingy, looking at all the various feeds and whatnot, and I come across this image, from one of the comic blogs:



Oh hell yes. I am so going to be getting myself a bunch of these and building myself a tiny Doctor Who army. And I will not rest until I myself a Master. Thumb-sized megalomaniac John Simm will be mine, oh yes.

So I guess I got kicked off another My Little Pony Forum

I think I'm still slightly shocked over Heath Ledger's death, like I still can't believe it's real yet. Of course, one thing that you most assuredly should not do when examining your own reaction/feelings is start to consider which actors/writers/artists/musicians deaths will completely devastate me. This is an incredibly depressing and stupid thing to do.

In more upbeat news, while I am probably not going to be getting my hands on my promised partial-birthday-gift Nintendo Wii, I have been able to play a couple of new games in the past few months. The newest one being The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass. The verdict so far? I like it. The Windwaker style (which for the record I liked, though I still prefer a more realistic Twilight Princess graphics style because everyone is so pretty that way) is really well suited to the DS and the ocean travel method has been greatly improved so that it's no longer as tedious as it was during Windwaker.

Everything you do in the game is controlled using the stylus. And oh my goodness is there one hell of a learning curve. I saw the game over screen several times in the first dungeon. In a Zelda game. WTF. Combat is easier than I expected, although the item management is pretty tricky. You can only have one item available for use at a time (unless that changes later on in the game) so if you need to use one secondary weapon right after another it requires so quick fiddling with the menu bar.

Also, I know it's probably a pipe dream, but I'd love to play a game starring Tetra, or maybe even some sort of team-up game with her an Link. That would be nice. ;3;

OH GOD, I WANT ONE

NO, FIVE. I WANT FIVE. AND THEY CAN ALL SLEEP IN THE SINK IF IT MAKES THEM HAPPY.

ETA: NIGEL. HIS NAME IS NIGEL. HOW IS THAT NOT PERFECT?

Dear Santa,

For Christmas this year I would like to be the filling in a Prince Caspian and Peter sandwich. I have been a very good girl.


XOXO,
Jenny

I have just read the latest chapter of Bleach and would like to comment:

( Spoilers follow, duh )


Also, this week I played through Okami to the point that I had reached on my other memory card and decided to continue on. Oni Island is a more time-consuming dungeon than I thought it would be. I was doing okay, until I got to the living wall dude (Blockhead, I think?).

Oh god.

How the hell can a game that is otherwise so wonderful contain one of the most frustrating obstacles I've ever encountered in my whole history of video games? It's a stupid memorization puzzle where if you're off by a centimeter you fail. And I Just. Couldn't. Do. It. I even taped some cling film to the TV screen and stood there with a marker and I still couldn't get it. After about a half hour of trying I was about ready to smash my controller through the TV screen, so I just turned off the system and went off to try cooling my head doing other things.

But the thing is, this isn't for some optional bit of treasure or anything. I can't progress any further through the dungeon until I beat this stupid thing. D: Why can't I just blow this guy up with my god bombs? Or pee on him.

I guess I'll just have to suck up my pride and ask my brother for help when I go home tomorrow. Though as far as I know, he isn't any better at these types of things than I am. >:

ETA: Okay, who's the smarty pants who thought naming a super advanced satellite Skynet was a good idea? WTF. That is just begging for trouble.

Can I just say that I am loving the Lexicon wank? It's like a parfait of stupidity and fan entitlement, with new layers always being added. It's beautiful :')

It seems like my brother has somehow gotten a hold of my PS2 memory card. I found out when I decided to try finishing Okami today (after some months away from the game--I am a horrible non-completeist when it comes to video games) only to be told by the game that I didn't have any saved data. After a few seconds of "oh crap, something happened to the card and now all my stuff is gone D:"-panic, I checked the contents of the memory card. It contained suspiciously high amounts of Madden and low amounts of...well, all my games. So my guess is that sometime during the summer my brother must have played my PS2 and forgot to put my memory card back in when he was done (why he couldn't have just used the second memory card slot is beyond me). So now I gotta play the two games through from the beginning (the aforementioned Okami and Ico) if I want to complete them. But you know, it's Okami and Ico, so replaying (parts of) them is about as annoying to me as watching Hot Fuzz and The Princess Bride for the Nth time.

The reason I didn't notice until now is that until my last trip home I only had two new(ish) games in the apartment for my PS2, which I guess I started on my brother's memory card. So I guess this explains why We Love Katamari couldn't transfer my data from the first game over. And funnily enough, this isn't the only video game-related annoyance my brother has caused me as of late. The last time I was home I discovered that the bugger has taken the N64 away with him. Oh sure, it sits in my room for ages, but when he moves three hours away is when he decides he wants to play Ocarina of Time. Bastard.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to kill the spider queen. Again.

Oh, Pinky St...s. Just when I think that I might have lost interest in you, somehow you manage to sucker me back in with incredible cuteness and adorable drag kings. Also, fingers crossed, in a manner of weeks I will soon have in my possession a Yotsuba action figure. Glorious. Also, some re-ment stuff for my little 1/6 scale Unoa Light, which should be ready to ship sometime this month. I ordered a random box, so I'll be pleasantly surprised by whatever manner of incredibly detailed and tiny toy food items I receive. Seeing as how I loved both tiny things and fake foods as a kid, this will probably spark another collection for me.

Also, volks, why is it that your girl doll clothes are so cute and yet your boy doll clothes are so hilariously lame? Really, if that doll was real and not made of plastic resin, it would probably die of embarrassment.

How in the heck has that Yuletide post gotten over 700 comments? Do I even want to check it again, or should I just wait for the wankitywank post?

...or shall I just continue getting caught up on Lackadaisy Cats? Yes, I think I'll do that instead, because Lackadaisy Cats is awesome.