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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
melannen's JournalFen:
| Saturday, November 15th, 2008 | |
| 6:46 pm | ....my computer appears to be infected. When I do a google search, all of the search results get replaced with links to spam sites, *including* the googlecache links and "more from this page" links. This is *amazingly* disorienting for someone who has adapted to using Google as prosthetic memory. I did all the standard virus-and-malware killing stuff, and it keeps coming back, and since my searching is messed up (yay dogpile?) it's annoying to research it. I'm probably going to have to spend tomorrow backing stuff up and reformatting the harddrive. oh yay. |
| Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 | |
| 3:29 pm | Yuletide assignments are out! ...time to go reserve some books at my local library. And, a note for my Yuletide writer! This time, I'm asking mostly for things I've requested before. (Okay, I'm asking mostly for things I requested last year.) So, here's my last year's letter, and most of the things in it still apply, especially the part about how I'm largely unsquickable and just want anything in these fandoms. At all. But I'm going to write a new letter anyway, because I am not passing up a chance to squee about my small fandoms! And last year, my writer ended up writing in a canon she'd never heard of before. I am *all about* encouraging that, so if our matching fandom doesn't inspire you, dip into the others! None of 'em have much you need to learn, and I've put mini fandom intros in this letter. ( Tek Jansen ) ( Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler ) ( Cadfael ) ( The Left Hand of Darkness ) 1 .cbz files are comic-book-archive files, readable with cdisplay, the free comic book reader, among other programs. If you aren't into that you can also just change the suffix to .zip to get at the individual image files for each page. Current Mood: Dangerous |
| Sunday, November 9th, 2008 | |
| 8:24 pm | MÁRGARÉT, áre you gríeving Over Goldengrove unleaving? Leáves, líke the things of man, you With your fresh thoughts care for, can you? Áh! ás the heart grows older It will come to such sights colder By and by, nor spare a sigh Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie; And yet you wíll weep and know why. Now no matter, child, the name: Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same. Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed What heart heard of, ghost guessed: It ís the blight man was born for, It is Margaret you mourn for. Guess what I spent all weekend doing! Ah, the joys of being a grown-up with your own place. |
| Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 | |
| 2:45 pm | |
| 12:11 am | Jellicle Cats Come Out Tonight To eight years of hope. And Palin vs. Gravel 2016! *clink* Current Mood: ecstatic Current Music: Jellicle cats come one, come all! |
| Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 | |
| 12:28 am | SPECIAL US ELECTIONS PLAYLIST!!!!  The tracks can all be individually downloaded at http://melannen.katycat.net/fanmix/c (here you see the difference between "this fanmix is a work of art!" and "I need to do this so I don't go insane. Might as well share!") ...'cause, yeah, you can bet I'll need to have this on repeat *all day* tomorrow. (How are Jon and Stephen not doing a live webcast?? *weeps*) |
| Monday, November 3rd, 2008 | |
| 5:11 pm | Yep, it's got to that time of year where I start picking out my clothes the night before. So I can sleep with them under the covers with me and they'll be warm in the morning. Though it's also the time of year to sign up for yuletide! I offered less than 100 fandoms this year, which I think is a record for me. (It seemed a lot lighter on '80s and '90s YA than usual, though, which is maybe why.) I may have to go back in and offer more, though. |
| 1:44 am | Today I went to the monthly fannish stitch'n'bitch that ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} synecdochic has started giving, where there was much talking about NaNo but very little actual *writing* nano.I did, however, pass around my planning notebook and have everyone writing something that should go in my novel. So, for the record, what the denizens of the Baltimore fangirl stitch'n'bitch think I should write about: - ritual dance. Have one of these already! Actually two or possibly three, depending on where the line between "dancing" and "mating" and "murder" is. - a product all your characters use, complete with a brand name and marketing. Don't have one, but know exactly where it can go in, for at least most of the characters. - surfing on supernova shockwaves. ... I have surfing on air puddles, and on gravity waves, but I have no supernova. This one will take some shoehorning. - Library dragons (and yes, I do mean mythical firebreathing dragons!) I will probably cheat and have these be in a VR interface, but I can totally do. (I already have a "scene in a library" dare from LT's nano group.) - Traditional "bardic" tale with a twist ending (and a female with spine.) ...depends on whether it has to be singable? -Boys sexxin'. This happens around my characters, but I had not yet decided whether do actually put in a sex scene or two, so that solves my dilemma. -Advent calendars for all occasions! Heh. I can do at least a couple of these, no problem. Though they may not have chocolate in. And only one of my major characters would get the Advent reference right away. -Penguins! - I agree, multiple penguins! This had me stumped, but if alien-creatures-that-are-penguins-under-v -rats, polka dots and musical lessons too, because a reality warper wants people to be happy! I will have to think about this one. There may be knitting involved. --dude, this could totally be an *FTL piloting sim*. -darjeeling tea. That, I can do. -snakes (goa'uld or no). Should be doable as at least a passing reference, though my worldbuilding tends to lean more toward tentacles. -a mythological creature coming to life. I will have to decide how far I can stretch that one. |
| Friday, October 31st, 2008 | |
| 11:07 am | Blessed Samhain & All Saints! Okay, I am getting very tired of this hallowe'en costume. (Especially since me? I don't even know what I'm being yet. Aren't you supposed to be a parent before you spend all week on someone else's costume?) So I declare a break. When I need something to occupy my brains, I put together major arcana tarot decks for fandom I'm in. So last weekend while I was working a table I did one for the 2008 elections. ... shut up. Anyway, before it becomes not relevant at all, I share! ( Also, if you're just going to complain that I'm using the wrong names for the cards, go read some history. I recommend Robert Place. ) ETA: Just did a super-quick reading on the question of "Will Obama win the election?" The answer was yes, 8-5, which isn't bad, but not quite enough to get a supermajority. :D Also the final card in the layout was George Bush reversed, which amuses me. (Election day was also reversed, btw, so we may be holding our breaths on Tuesday. Though it's immediately followed by Rachel Maddow triumphant.) |
| Thursday, October 30th, 2008 | |
| 4:36 pm | FREE STUFF (take two.) Okay, let's try this again. The lists of free books have been updated. I am giving away all the books tagged "togoaway" in my LibraryThing Account. You can see the list at my LibraryThing account here, or if LT is being buggy, it's up my webspace here. I am also giving away books from my Dad's library, here at Librarything and and here at my webspace. If you want any, leave me a comment with titles, and I will send them to you for shipping costs or less. Get me your email address (either here or at thisaccountname at yahoo) and I'll get back to you early next week for details once I've actually pulled out your books. Also! Have another weird LP rip. This one appears to be the soundtrack of a son et lumiere production given at Gizeh of the pyramids in 1961. Full of bombastic classical music and very British historical voiceovers and random, old-fashioned translations of Egyptian texts. Fun! It's one mp3, because there were no natural breakpoints, 50 minutes. Here History Began.mp3  ..also, as part of my ongoing effort to be less lurky online, I'm friending some of the people I've been watching through friendsfriends. So if I've just friended you, Hi! I've been watching you! Claim some books. |
| Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 | |
| 2:23 pm | FREE BOOKS So, we have recently cleaned out our book collection, and as a result, there are a whole *ton* of books I am getting rid of: lots of older SF particularly, but also some general fiction and some non-fiction. If anybody on my flist wants any, I will send them to you for the shipping costs (if the shipping turns out to be <$1, like for one paperback, or I can just give them to you in person, it will be free.) Claim them in a comment here, and then I'll get in touch to get your address and confirm your claims. I'm not guaranteeing condition, and it's first come first serve 'cause I'm also offering these in a couple other places. Everything tagged _togoaway in my LibraryThing account is going. (There are ~650 books up for grabs, but you can sort the list by any of the columns to make it easier.) Also up for grabs is what's going from my Dad's collection, here, another 215, mostly non-fiction. Same procedure. ETA: Time out. Okay, the site I was going to use for this is currently having major issues, so there will be a new give-away post when I figure out a new way to post the list. Feel free to use this one meanwhile if it works for you. |
| 11:44 am | I dreamed an XF casefile last night. Not that I'm complaining, mind you - it was a deeply adorable XF casefile that hung together suprisingly well for a dream, with a beautiful New England town in the fall, an evil monk, mushroom-hunting, a lake monster, a werewolf love triangle, Scully playing baseball, our Agents stuck staying at a very frilly B&B and Mulder being very smug. I just don't know *why* I was suddenly dreaming XF. It's not like I've done anything particularly XF related for, like, *months*. |
| Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 | |
| 12:39 am | The Sound of Drums Fanmix Okay, I have finally posted the Doctor Who "Sound of Drums" fanmix that's only been in the works for oh, six months or so. It's up at ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/community.gif){kind=small} fan_mix : Revolution Just For Fun, and also at the best_enemies community on LJ (with bonus material.)Hooray! (The John Sheppard mini-fanmix I posted awhile back -- World Spinning Round, featuring the world's only known Surf Rap track -- is still up for download, btw, but I'll probably take it down whenever I get my next fanmix up. And I have no idea when that will be, since I seem to generate Doctor Who playlists like the cats generate sheddings, but then take forever on the associated stuff.) |
| Saturday, October 25th, 2008 | |
| 8:05 pm | Things Which Are Amazingly Awesome (update) So today at the sale, I got to talk to the lady who knew the lady who was married to the guy who owned the awesome thing, and she says that it was bought about twenty or thirty years ago while he was in Suez for the Navy, and it's over two hundred years old. (She has a really cute assistance dog, too.) I'll buy about half of what she told me (it may have been bought somewhere in the Near East by someone who was told that it was over 200 years old) but I don't believe it could actually be that old; it's not *that* cool, and the textiles used really say 20th century to me. But this adds another level of possibility: instead of being made by an American who didn't know much about Egypt, it may have been made by an Egyptian to sell to Americans who don't know much about Egypt. Though that still leaves the question of why it was being sold, in the '70s, in a very aged condition. (If it is close to two hundred years old, it would pre-date Champollion, which would at least excuse the symbology being off and explain why there are apparently random heiroglyphs scattered around. Though I find it hard to believe it would be even as accurate as it is in that case.) ...more hearteningly, I now have an e-mail address for the actual lady it was donated by, so maybe I can get a more direct version of the story. Current Mood: Wiped |
| Friday, October 24th, 2008 | |
| 8:42 pm | Things which are amazingly awesome (pt 1) So tommorow is our church's big fall rummage sale, so I came home today to help Mom set up and price, and in the big pile of STUFF THAT WAS DONATED was this:  It is not it great shape - some of the fabric is deteriorated and some of the dyes have run as they faded - but it is *old* - my conservative guess would be 1940s - and over five feet long, all hand-appliqued on heavy canvas - and did I mention it is made of pure awesome? (Possibly quite literally.) All I know about it is that it belonged to the deceased husband of a friend of a woman who knows someone at our church. Here's a close-up of Horus so you can see the stitchwork: link. (And a huge version of the whole thing: link) Hey eleutheria, know anyone who needs a hanging for a Horus altar? :D(I would like to at least figure out who the other two figures reresent - they're not anything I know offhand - and get a better idea of the age and origin - and maybe figure out how to attempt to properly conserve it. I've gotten ratty old quilts before, but they were all obviously used hard when they were new and intended for it, so I was fine with continuting to use them as ratty old textiles. This one, however, is *awesome*.) |
| Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 | |
| 11:58 pm | Okay, so why didn't anyone let me know that Sean Pertwee (yes, son of Jon) played Hugh Beringar in the Cadfael mysteries? *now knows who she is rooting for to be the eleventh Doctor* *among the white male possibilities, anyway.* (Also, if they get Sean Pertwee as Eleven, they had *better* bring Jenny back with him.) |
| Thursday, October 16th, 2008 | |
| 12:38 am | Ahhh, American politics. These people? My people. Also my people! I missed the debate tonight because I was at a rehearsal for our local faith-based social justice umbrella group's annual October summit meeting. (Their website is still of teh suck, alas.) So have my biennial "Pay attention to politics" post: Time to check to see what's on your ballot that isn't a national race, and decide which ones you care about, and where you stand. Just 'cause the presidential and senate races are big, doesn't mean local candidates and ballot items aren't important! They may be *more* important, in terms of directly impacting your quality of life. There is even a Wiki for checking your local ballot measures now. So no excuses, my fellow Americans! If it has a wiki, it must be important, right? :D Maryland has two constitutional amendments up for popular vote this year, but they're both big ones: slot machines (on which there seem to be only two possible positions: a) I think it will make me, directly, richer! and b) God no. On the upside, it's totally not split along party lines) and early voting, about which I have yet to decide, but it is also a big issue this election cycle. ...Anyway, tomorrow being currently open, I plan to make it my Day Of Getting Things Done That I Have Been Putting Off, to wit: gardening, clean bathroom, post one of the ficlets I owe, officially re-open lj, post book giveaway lists, work on art, catch up on reviews, post a fanmix, update resume, turn the compost, do Sarah's mending. We shall see. |
| Monday, October 6th, 2008 | |
| 11:55 pm | Specially meme-scented entry! So I have been trying not to get to emotionally involved with the politics (though I still want to do that "Sarah Palin or TGP: Who Is More Qualified?" point-by-point comparison), but I have been following fivethirtyeight.com pretty closely. And OMG, if Obama takes the South? That will be not only win, it'll be the most important thing to happen in American politics in my *lifetime*. *** Anyway. 1. Comment on this post. 2. I will give you a letter. 3. Think of 5 fictional characters and post their names and your comments on these characters in your blog. stellar_dust gave me "D"....I had a list of twenty-five characters to pick from, and that was before I checked my notes. So, um, have the short list as meme x 3. And hey, while I'm at it, why not give me two numbers between 1 and 15 and I'll write you a comment-fic where those two characters meet. :D (Random or calculated, I don't even care.) ( Five Large Fandoms ) ( Five Small Fandoms ) ( Five Nonexistent Fandoms ) ...Yeah, I should probably stop there. Even if it means I have to leave out David Starr, and Mike Doonesbury, and Dick and Dorothea (the D's), and Diana Fowley, and Dick Grayson**, and Dickon Sowerby**, and Daystar, and Death**, and Doli the Dwarf, and .... (** marks characters I have either written in fic or tried to write.) |
| Friday, October 3rd, 2008 | |
| 10:09 am | "The Only Sex Symbol in Economics" Damn it, I went to look up who composed the W$W theme song (to tag my new mp3) and now I miss the show more than ever. D: I bet there's never never going to be a DVD release, either. And I'm still pissed at MPT (*my* personal TV station, they were supposed to be the good guys, goddammit) for how they destroyed it. ...Yeah, some people have strong nostalgia for Saturday morning cartoons and pop music. I get teary over Louis Rukeyser and the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Tapes. Sh'up. Anyway. I wonder what would happen if I requested Wall $treet Week fic for Yuletide....? My belated Yuletide brainstorming contribution is here, btw. In which I go all fangirly on Ael t'Rllaillieu again. Though now - man, W$W would be a total Hail Mary, but it would be *so* win if I got it. I wonder if I could just sneak Lou into the Punditfic character list? I also went through that whole post backing up the people who needed backup. Somebody wanted Mathnet this year! \o/ Current Mood: Blessed |
| Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 | |
| 1:46 pm | I'm a grown-up and I pay for my own groceries, and that means that if I want to mix up a bowl of powdered sugar and peanut butter 'till it's the consistency of mud brick, and then eat it with a spoon, I can, right? (..hey, there's *no* candy in this house, and my roommates won't let me bake. Except what I just mixed up. Granted I could have walked down the street and bought some candy, but a) broke and b) I went from Cake Wrecks to mazapan the other day, and it that time of month, so I'm allowed to cave to random cravings.) ---- Anyway, if someone was, completely hypothetically, thinking about finally installing an IM program, what program would you hypothetically suggest? Bearing in mind that this hypothetical person last tried to install Trillian, and gave up due to FAIL, and that the last time she bothered with IM, she hypothetically had AIM, ICQ, and Y!M accounts, because this was way back when you needed different accounts and programs and they wouldn't talk to each other. |
