Have spent most of the day napping, eating oranges, drinking Emer-Gen-C, doing light wash, and reading Eagle In the Snow.

I think if I mostly rest tomorrow, I'll be fine.

(I hope.)

Part three of my dare: I AM PRETTY SURE THAT NINJAPOPES ARE UNSTOPPABLE. Yes, I was challenged to capture this terrifying visage, and yet I did not flinch! Much. Okay, I flinched the whole time I was drawing this since the SHEER FORCE OF LOLCAPS was so overwhelming.

mrfantastico has the strength of 765 CHUCK NORRIS-ES. (Norrisi?) HE TRAVELS EVERYWHERE ON ULTRA-POWERFUL WHEELS THAT CAN RUN OVER PEDESTRIANS IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE. HE HAS A MACE-LIKE TAIL THAT CAN CUT A BITCH. BEWARE THE NINJAPOPE.

BEWARE.

It's not entirely clear what ninjapopes actually look like in the wild. However, the sheer awesome of a Ninjapope Josh is just TOO FUCKING PHENOMENAL for ordinary cameras, so this artist's rendition will have to suffice for now.

THE DARE PART 3: mrfantastico WILL PROBABLY DEMOLISH WHATEVER LOOKS DEMOLISHABLE


More to come!

Chapter twenty eight and twenty nine

Hey. Anita's pregnant! Remember that? But before we get to that, we have to go through Anita getting dressed. All the guy who she considers lovers and boyfriends have left. I'm not very clear on the difference between the two. Or at least what she considers the difference between the two. She's an emotional wreck because she's "bound metaphysically to so many different men". \~/ We get the whole kit and kabbodle on what she wears, which is very important. So important that I shall reproduce it for you here.

( Yay block text of description! )

So as you folks know, I was dared to do a whole bunch of things. One of the "dares" was to do a self portrait. I decided to make a pop-art/cel-shaded/manga-style doodle of me! Here you go:

THE DARE PART 2: ARTISTIC LIBERTIES WITH MY OWN LIKENESS


Thanks for the idea, komejo! I know you are no stranger to tall artistic Germanic giantess redheads who grew up in the middle of nowhere and have obscure interests and wear large boots, so I figured I'd do this one because it was fun. :)

I have a favorite photo of myself in a Zeke-like wig. I worked off that photo for this but took some liberties with it - the original was kind of a difficult pose to transcribe exactly. Also, as you saw in my previous post, my hair isn't actually pink. :P

I continue! More to come!

Okay. In my previous post, I asked you good people to dare me to do stuff. I couldn't do it all, so I picked a few that could be easily done on the Internet. I'm going to get to as many as I can today!

I don't know if this really counts, but most of you wanted to see me put on a little halter top and eat produce and photograph it.

So here.

THE DARE PART 1: PRODUCE AND ANGER


I abase myself before you, Livejournal. Also I cut my hair too short in back. Sigh.

More to come!

Wonderful, just wonderful. The Agatha Christie puns and references, the lovely 1920's gay boys, the classic drawing room discussion of the murder.

And of course, giant wasps.

And yes, that could read W.A.S.P too. *giggles madly*

When: 1980-90's
Where: Britain (the fantasy universe of Harry Potter)
Research: searched for translations at the University of Notre Dame's online Latin-English Dictionary


I'm looking for a possible Latin translation for a mirror that depicts enemies/danger. Ideally, I'd prefer the translation to be something like "Danger-mirror/Danger Mirror".

The online dictionary gives the following as possible words for danger:

n infestus -a -um act. [aggressive , hostile, dangerous]; pass. [infested, beset, unsafe]. Adv. infeste, [in a hostile manner].

n periculum (periclum) -i n. [a trial , proof, test, attempt; danger, peril, hazard]; at law, [a trial, action, suit]; hence, [a legal record or register].

And speculum as a translation for mirror.

Would Periculum Speculum work? Infestus Speculum?

I may become hugely unpopular for this post, but silence isn't golden in some cases.

I did not like what Obama did, calling that reporter "sweetie". Only lovers and husbands can use that term, but patronizing males tend to use it a lot as well. It's a quiet dismissal of women as people, as adults. Even such a small transgression reveals the deep-seated and long-festering inequalities between our sexes.

It called back images of Bush mistreating the German chancellor.

What would happen if Obama were president? "Barack, the women of America beseech you! Our reproductive rights are being challenged! Will you assist us?" "In a minute, sweetie."

Screw that. I was worried about his anti-gay past. It's nice to know we have an anti-female future.

If you are not upset, you aren't thinking about it enough.

It was in the high nineties for the last two days, and is currently predicted to remain so for some time; even inside the semi-reliable prediction window of two days, things look bleak. And I'm going to be spending most of Sunday inside the tiny, and definitely not air-conditioned, Language Study Institute in beautiful Berkeley, sewing a Victorian corset. Ah, well. I don't think I'll be sewing the projected matching chemise today, though; I'll get by with my voluminous Renaissance chemise from my long-gone SCA days.

Post-50s houses in North Carolina were built with central air conditioning as a matter of course. Northern California homes were built to take advantage of prevailing breezes, although some have retrofitted central air and the more lavish recent houses were built around it. (We have one window air conditioner and an exhaust fan, which helps a great deal in the post-sunset wind off the Bay.) As global temperatures continue to rise (high nineties in mid-May! It isn't fair!), no doubt air conditioning will become more and more popular, with the corresponding power drains, which will release more CO₂...

Heat or no heat, we're going to the outdoor Mountain View Arts and Wine Festival, because it's a tradition and also fun. I shall slather everybody within reach with sunscreen and wear a broad-brimmed hat. I predict many, many cold showers in my future, and not for the legendary reason.

Fresh off of yesterday's Yahoo news, via AP:

Republican Mike Huckabee responded to an offstage noise during his speech to the National Rifle Association by suggesting it was Barack Obama diving to the floor because someone had aimed a gun at him.

Hearing a loud noise and interrupting his speech, Huckabee said: "That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He's getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he — he dove for the floor."

There were only a few murmurs in the crowd after the remark.

At least the S.O.B. didn't get the laugh he was cruising for.

I wish he'd go cruise somewhere else. Fallujah, say.

A friend and myself were going to Denvention this year but work has conspired against us and we can't make it.  So we have 2 full memberships for sale for what we paid for them.  $130 each.  Checks only please.  Contact me if interested.  Thanks!

- Mari

meresy - a little birdie (or the LJ reminder e-mail) told me that today was your birthday!! *beams at you* I am only sneaking time in on my laptop before heading off with my twerps to the land of pot, scarves and GRETA (Also known to normal people as tonight's Honda Civic Tour) so I didn't have time to make you anything, but I still wanted to wish you an AWESOME day! And if I find any spare Callums hanging around anywhere, I will send them up your way to enable you in your evil cloning ways. I PROMISE. \0/

When: Now, post-2000 also acceptable.
Where: Modern Japan.
Research: googled variations of japanese + language + illiteracy + celebrities, wiki'd Japanese language

In an old article, I read that the average Japanese student needs 12 years of schooling to learn enough kanji (characters) to get by in daily life. Interesting. Added on to the end of this paragraph:

"Since many Japanese entertainers get famous early, and drop out of school to act or sing, they often cannot read...These people may remain illiterate all of their lives."

I was going to write a short piece about this, except that I don't know any illiterate celebrities. How do they get by in daily life? Do they make any attempt to learn to read? Preferably Japanese, but I'm willing to take Chinese or English if s/he can't read for a reason that isn't medically related (read: Tom Cruise and dyslexia - I heard through the grapevine that his ex-wife Nicole Kidman read his scripts to him).

Just how widespread is the problem - can I assume that any Japanese pop star who made it big as a kid can't read more than 50 kanji?

Links would be most helpful. In English.

* Yes, you may go off-topic. I teach English in rural Taiwan, it's not the quite the same as teaching 40 Japanese teenagers the same topic.

When I first came out of the wank-infected pond that is fanfiction and decided to go professional, I had some kind of misguided idea that the world of professional fiction would be some kind of rarified temple, where writers wrote and all in the garden was lovely. I thought that it would be an entirely different world.  I was soon to find I was horribly wrong, and this past week seems to be the nadir of that belief, just about wiping away any faith I did have.

Firstly - the world doesn't owe anyone anything.  Reviews are nice, nice reviewers are even nicer, but if an author doesn't ( Googlewank )(and a lot of authors DON'T believe you me) and/or a friend/fan or the review site doesn't let them know that they've had a review, how the blinkity blink COULD they know?  I've often found reviews on my work ONLY through Googlewanking. A good few websites (particularly for unsolicited reviews, and in some cases even for solicited reviews) DON'T let the authors know when a review goes up.  Then, even if the author has seen a review there's no moral duty that said author should blog about it, even if it's a good review. Granted many authors do, including me-but I don't kid myself that my links to reviews make one gnat's fart of difference in future sales- but not everyone does.  No reason that they have to. Why should they?

Perhaps this obsession with squeeing about good reviews is only found in this stratum of writing, I couldn't see JKR linking to reviews could you?  Or the Telegraph or The Observer or The New York Times getting bitchy and huffy and saying "OMG That bitch, I'm always giving her reviews and you know, she NEVER mentions them?" No. Me either.  However, I can see JKR or Anne Rice bitching about bad reviews which shores up my belief that this kind of wank goes from fanfiction all the way to the top of the tree.

While I appreciate every single review I get, good or bad, I don't feel any obligation to mention them to anyone. The reviews are not for me, (unless there's something odd about the reviewer) the reviews are for the readers.

So when I see this sort of reported behaviour it really makes my skin crawl, especially when one person publicly starts name-calling on another in public. It just gives everyone who cheers this sort of thing on a bad name and smacks of the sort of thing I read time and again in the shallow end of the gene pool in fanfic. 

I've said similar before, but Kirsten Saell sums it up nicely in a longer form, in the comments to that post.

"...the best response to a good review? An email: "Thanks for taking the time to review my book, I hope you'll consider my next release."

And a critical one? An email: "Thanks for taking the time to review my book, I hope you'll consider my next release."

A vitriolic one? No response at all."

Hear bloody hear. And ditto for reviewers with a grievance. With knobs on.

On a mildly related note, I am disgusted with Kellie Lynch's behaviour regarding Iris Print. Three friends of mine are tangled up in this mess - not that you can even call it a mess as Ms Lynch is simply refusing to respond to anyone:  rwday and Tina Anderson and gehayi (and very probably more). Ignoring emails and letters from contracted authors is not funny, clever, and it's definitely NOT professional. It's the behaviour of a little girl who's dented daddy's car and is terrified to admit to it.  Ms Lynch, if you listening - you owe your writers AND your readers an explanation.  People have paid you good money in advance for Queer Magic and they either need their money back or assurances that they will get their books and when. Otherwise, it's fraud.  Writers need their royalties. NOW. Otherwise it's theft. And breach of contract. Speak up, will ya?

Speak Its Name (the new anthology of three gay historical romances) is now up at the Linden Bay Website in their coming soon section. It will be available first as an ebook, and then in print in 4 or so weeks later. We worked hard with the publisher on the cover, Linden Bay insists on naked men on their gay book covers, but I think we've managed to diffuse the nekkidness and instil the romance.

It contains the following:

Aftermath by charliecochrane - a tale of 1920's Oxford Undergraduates

Gentleman's Gentleman by lee_rowan - A Victorian soldier/spy drama

Hard & Fast by erastes - the Regency that makes Heyer spin in her grave!

To celebrate we've got a few chats lined up in the next couple of weeks. Today all three of us will be over at Coffee Time Romance where we'll be giving away a download of the book (though you won't be able to get it until 1st June) and we'll be taking requests for m/m drabbles from the peanut gallery.

We're also going to be over at Love Romances Cafe with many other authors from the Linden Bay Romance stable.

I hope you can pop in and read some excerpts.  I'll probably be sharing some work from Transgressions and Frost Fair too.  Busy busy!

I am about ready to toss in the towel looking for a good, open-minded, inclusively leaning atheist writer.  My atheist friends, I really feel for you.  It's not enough that you guys face major discrimination, that a majority of American voters wouldn't vote for an atheist candidate, you have to put up with this weird Freudian projection thing from opponents, that...  Well, you know the laundry list better than I do.  But on top of that, the representatives who get the major air time are...  Well, it's about like if I were judged on the basis of Fred Phelps, Pat Buchanan, and Pat Robertson.   (Never trust an evangelist named Pat.)  Or if everyone who was not a strongly biological-gender-identified heterosexual who solely uses the missionary position were represented by trashy talk show guests.

The two I've found who don't significantly trigger the nut-o-meter are both internet celebs.  They're not really getting the big book deals and video shots.

Greta Christina's generally OK.  Except when she gets angry.  Then I'm the enemy and nothing I can say or do will change that unless I change a fundamental part of myself or cease to exist.  Can't help you there, ma'am.  If you're interested in working together to solve those problems once you calm down, gimme a shout.
PZ Myers is also OK, but I personally wouldn't really call his page an atheist blog, because he generally concentrates on science.  No, the two are not the same.  Which nicely leads to my biggest complaint about most of the big name, well-known (well, as well-known as possible) atheist names.

Just because I have some religious beliefs does not mean I am a flaming moron who is actively hostile to fact-based reality and has no understanding of science.

I'm an extremely fact based person (or so I'm told).  I love data.  Show me a study, and I want to know your sample size and your margin of error.  Show a confidence interval too, and I'll squee.  (Literally.  I really did the last -- OK, the one -- time I saw a confidence interval included in a mass media write-up of some study or other.)  I not only support the theory of evolution in the same way I 'support', say, the theory of gravity, but furthermore, I know the difference between a theory, a hypothesis, and a law.

Yes, I have some beliefs that are not fact based.  Um, so does everyone.  (Any Cubs fans?  Sorry, guys, but the idea that "this is their year!" is not fact-based.)  I personally don't expect other people to share my non-fact-based beliefs.  They don't even have to like them, but I do expect a certain basic level of respect for the fact that I have them.  If someone calls me a flaming moron for the mere act of having such beliefs, he and I are not going to get along.  Point blank.

OK, I'll be honest.  Anyone calls me a flaming moron, he and I are not going to get along.  Everyone's got buttons.

Usually at this point someone says "Oh, you'll like Dawkins."  No, I will not like Dawkins.  According to Dawkins, I'm a wishy-washy fence-sitter who doesn't have the guts to be an atheist.  I'm a liberal, you see, and liberal religious apparently doesn't compute so well him for him.  So we're obviously in denial.

Actually, this brings up another point.  A while back I watched this chunk of a Dawkins video.  No more, because after getting slapped with the insanely irrational idea that religion is the only thing that will make 'good' people do 'bad' things (uh huh.  Jingoism, fear, greed, lack of survival needs, those have NEVER caused such things.  It's 100% religion. *eye roll*  Tell me how this is rational.), I decided that an hour of my life was worth more than that.  But, at the end of that snippet, he asks how religious people (Christians in particular) decide which parts of their scriptures, traditions, etc to believe and which to toss in a rhetorical tone that supports the "don't have the guts to be an atheist" implication.

Let's say I drop a stack of scientific studies on the desk in front of you.  Some of these studies are well-done and insightful.  Some are poorly done and biased.   Some have a broad body of work ahead of them.  Some are brand new areas, wholly unique.  Now, how do you decide which of these studies to believe for the time being, which should be filed away for future observation but are not yet strong enough to act on, and which to toss as complete junk?

Same thing, guys.  When I decide which portions of scripture might be worth keeping around and which should just be ignored, I look at my own life, I look at the contradictions in the work itself and the relative dates they were produced, I look at what we now know scientifically (yes, data trumps scripture for me),  I weigh against some base assumptions (for instance, I refuse to believe in an incompetent asshole god), I use a little judgement, and I do come back and re-evaluate every now and then.  It also helps to know a little history behind some of the books in the Bible.  [Not all 66 (isn't that a terribly ironic number?), but I can tell you, for instance, that the books of Ruth, Job, and Jonah were all written as fiction, not intended to be taken literally, and Revelations likely was as well.  (Apocalypses were a popular literary movement at the time.  And Revelations was not necessarily a description of the end of the world anyway.  The Greek word used in it is 'eon', an age.)  See, more data.  I like crunchy bits.]

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.  So, Dawkins does not work for me due to his message that anyone who does understand and agree with science is either an atheist or a closet atheist, and conversely all religious people are morons, often violent.  And he's about as good as it gets in the mainstream channels.  Then there's Hitchens, who's probably about the most well-known atheist writer out there from my perspective.  He's also the nuttiest.  I'd almost think he was responsible for the "atheism is a religion too" BS some fundies spout, because the man is a zealot.  And like many zealots, he has no problem lying to promote his beliefs.  (He's also terribly sexist, and an arrogant dick to boot.)

I almost think it's a conspiracy that the atheist writers/speakers who get the air time and wide distribution are the nutty, non-mainstream ones.  The media has an agenda to show that there's "something wrong" with atheists, so they only let atheists who are hostile to theists have the camera.  Which doesn't help me find books by intelligent, inclusively-minded atheists, and certainly doesn't help my atheist friends get treated with the basic respect and rights all humans deserve.

Someone on TV Tropes mentioned this, so I dug around, and here it is where people can see it!

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN
by Scott K. Jamison
Ranma 1/2 and its associated characters created by Rumiko Takahashi

( Peggy Sue! Peggy Sue! P-p-p-p-Peggy Sue! )

I'm writing a story based on the Pied Piper of Hamelin legend, and I have two questions:

1) Does anyone have any idea what kind of town Hamelin was in the 13th century? Small village? Large town? Trading center? Agricultural? I've tried googling all sorts of combinations of things and perusing wikipedia, but it seems if you put "hamelin" into a google search, all you get is things relating to the Pied Piper legend, er.

2) What could two 15 year old boys, one blind and the other with a ruined leg, do so far as work in a medieval setting goes? Would they be assumed to be incapable of doing anything and thus have to rely on family support or beg for sustenance, or would there be some place for them in a medieval society? The boys are ordinary commoners, and I have not decided for certain whether they are low or middle class.

So, sixbeforelunch posted a link to this news story about Angelina Jolie. And she excerpted the following bit:

“I'm very happy,” said the Oscar-winning actress. “Like most women, I love being pregnant.” She added that pregnancy makes “you feel like more like a woman than you've ever felt. You just feel like everything about your body is there for your baby.”

So...I have to ask:

Poll #1189083 Pregnancy
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Did you love being pregnant?

I am totally coming down with something.

And what I really really didn't need a book run that lead to 4 carts of fine sorting, plus people turning in mounds of books, plus several people needing help with complex transactions and/or problem resolution.

I am so wiped I'm shaking.

Having the 3rd Emer-Gen-C of the day.

Short Hostile Takeover chapter.

Title Hostile Takeover
Fandom Anita Blake
Notes Once again; Lan, Orion, Maddy and Kev belong to canadianevil, Alec, Kale and Trever belong to me.

( mind-fucked puppies )