I, too, have fallen for this simple yet ego-stroking meme! To give this post content, no matter how fluffy, though, I might as well try to review one of the imps from Black Phoenix Alchemy I bought myself as a reward for getting a job.  I bought ( Queen Mab. )

Don't you think Bush looks tired?

If you get it, pass it on.

gakked from sesame_seed
First, write down the names of 12 characters. Then read and answer the questions. You can't look at the questions (or click on the cut) until you write down the 12 characters you're going to use.

( series noted in case you want to avoid spoilers )

Living in Japan, I've noticed how Christianity is wound into English: more than just 'damn' and 'bless you,' there's 'meant to be,' 'forsaken,' and more. I'd like to communicate the total faith, world-in-the-hand-of-God outlook that formed English to my students, so I'd love recs for novels written from the point of view of the deeply religious. Thanks!
 
Meme from incandescens: Give a fictional character's opinion of what he or she wants or expects to see in the next Harry Potter book. (Anachronisms permissible, but no Rowling characters.) Then post this in your own journal if you please.

In Europe, there are freeways where are no finite speed -- from the student writing car porn. Why do I have to correct an essay on car porn, cruel world? I mean "I am suprised at wonderful of the interior when getting under the wheel"? Totally Car/human, car tops.
In reference to the interior: And the unique design like the sandwich has put out a good taste.

・75% of women is lung cancer

・It forms at experimentas of lung

Ooo, and here's stretching instuctions:
・not have reaction: You slowly extend it having neither momentum nor the reactionary
・not overwork: You do not endure pain and extend your body by force
・not stop breath: You inhale first, and extend the stripe while vomiting
・keep pleasant poise: You keep a pleasant body pose for tens of seconds and repeat every day

---

Things to remind them of:
"We" is a fairly intimate address form not appropriate for the general case in a scientific paper.
Do not begin sentences with and, but, so, or because. There are right ways, and you will get it wrong.
You will never perfect a, an, and the, so you should start working now.
Watch number on nouns and subject-verb agreement.
One moreover or therfore per page is probably plenty. More than one per paragraph is a death knell.
Direct translation from the Japanese leaves you with backward sentences, difficult grammar, and a bunch of vocabulary to make mistakes on. Are you really still convinced that it's not easier to compose in English to start with?

The beta workshop I've been modding at making_sausage is finally open to the public! Even if Batman isn't your cup of tea, you ought to go check it out: we have five stories with at least two betas apiece, each with beta comments arranged in a DVD commentary style to make them easy to read. The beta-edit is usually the most obscure part of the writing process on the Internet -- you should take this rare chance to see several versions!

Taken from jokersama and gostoffer

1. Identify the first word that comes to mind when you think of me.
2. Go to Google Image Search and search for that word.
3. Reply to this post with one of the pictures on the first page of results. Don't tell me the word.
4. Put this in your own journal so that I can do the same or tell me you'd like a response in this journal's comments.

First, does anyone know where I can get Bleach in Japanese? "Japan" isn't funny. I've finished up though tankubon 17 (chapter 149), but a look at moonsheen's journal makes me think something interesting happens in another few dozen chapters. I'd really appreciate any Japanese scan sites anyone happened to know about.

Second, though I realize I'm probably already jossed, I want to talk about the theology of the Bleach universe. ( Cut for spoilers through chapter 149, pictures, and pretentious philosophical wank. )

( Now I air my cracked theories about who wants Rukia dead. )

Is there a general problem with MSN or is it just me? I haven't seen anyone else on for days.

I forgive the show the gimmicky name, I forgive it the silly thirty-second science from people who couldn't explain radiation in less than thirty minutes if you held a gun to their heads. It's episode ten, though, and there are some things I can't forgive anymore.

( NUMB3RS is misogynistic. )

( Charlie is too sane. )

( NUMB3RS defames unpopular science. )

In short, NUMB3RS has bad politics, bad psychology, and bad physics. I wish those who are enjoying it a good time, I'm terribly sorry if this disappoints gostoffer, but I can't bear another second of this dreadful show.

Oh Cutter, you've got to read this. Starting in 16, I was a little ??, but 17 goes like this:
( though without words this can hardly be spoilery, I suppose I should just in case )
Seventeen books and she can still pack 'em with surprises. I am dying to talk to you about this; tell me when you have so I can IM you?

Live Journal is offering permanent accounts again! $150 for life with 50 icons, or about four and a half years' cost. I don't know if this is a good idea for someone with a real life, but if you're in high school or early college, this will probably save you a ton of money. I'm really tempted...

Lately I've been wanting to improve myself as a beta reader, so I pestered brownbetty until she humored my whims. We're both fascinated by the process and the synergy a good writer/beta team can produce, and we'd like to have some kind of betaing workshop. In that vein, I'm soliciting DCU stories (i.e., Batman, Superman, Sandman, comics not including Marvel) you'd like someone's opinion on. This can be something that's sat on your hard drive for a year and just won't move, stories that got painted into a corner, stories that are okay, but you just aren't quite satisfied, stories where you know something's wrong, but aren't sure what, etc. Or, just a story that needs a beta, and you could wait a while for us to get this challenge off its fat ass. After we've collected stories, people who don't have anything ready for corrections are welcome to sign up as betas.

You have to:
a) have a DCU story, finished or not, of at least a thousand words
b) that you still have enough interest in to at least correspond with a beta on
and c) the energy to beta something in return.

We'd like to:
a) raise beta consciousness
b) share whatever details of the beta-process you and your beta(s) are comfortable with
c) maybe get your fic out of its rut
d) train new betas.

Any interest?

We're well into final exam season, and some of you hapless academic overachievers need to remember that sleep and organized study schedules are much more effective study aids than, say, going sleepless, getting strep throat, giving it to everyone around you, failing all your exams, and getting run out of town on a rail by a pack of people you've infected led by your own advisor. And speaking of people who are pigheaded stalwart in the face of illness, I've been re-reading some of the stuff I betaed for Monnie over at sinsofwill. I'm quite ridiculously proud of what isn't remotely my own work, but when I see someone commented on something I suggested I pretty well go over the moon.

( Caesar's Bath meme, gakked from Sabina and written in the hope that at least one of these will bother someone on my flist. )

Am I the only one who can't seem to say no to her? Anyway, I've promised two posts in two days about the utterly dull minutia of my life, so only the desperately bored are advised to click these links. No particular spoilers, but I'll try to put headings in so the super sensitive can avoid them.

( Up late for vampires -- I've been reading Laurell Hamilton )
( Recs: MaryJanice Davidson's Undead and Unwed is more fun than kittens in kitten heels. )
( Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire series is better, but less fun. Watch for Elvis appearances. )
( My arm, the traitor, got an extra thirty seconds' sleep )
( Fun with scythes! 'Become a God of Death' is still firmly on my to-do list, though. )
( Fun with saws! My, what big teeth you have, Grandma. )

I haven't actually participated yet, but ladysisyphus is one of the Christians that make that mixed, contradictory and often massively intolerant faith interesting to me, so if you're interested in a liberal religious service/discussion online, you can check out the details at irchurch. The more the merrier, plus waltzing and religious argument are two things I always enjoy, so I'm looking forward to it.

I usually try to keep the signal to noise ratio down on my journal by keeping quiet, but since Sai asked, the Top Five Animanga Story Moments meme from sesame_seed

Series are in the cut tag texts, so please be aware of possible spoilers.
( 1. The Utena movie, Adolescence Mokushiroku )
( 2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doppelgangland )
( 3. Star Trek, Price of the Phoenix by Sandra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath )
( 4. Rurouni Kenshin, episode 58 )
( 5. Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett, sixth of the Lymond Chronicles. )
( Runners up: American Beauty, Hero, more Utena, Cyteen, The Game, and Andre Norton. )
So, I'm curious if anyone reading this has also read or watched all of these. I'm fairly sure that at least two of these are more about my mind when I watched them than abstract quality, so I'd love to hear from anyone who watched them but didn't notice these parts.

I've made some nice photorealistic icons of books for Windows XP. It's really ridiculous how much it has been bothering me to only have three. Eight icons of books, each with 16x16, 32x32, and 48x48 sizes. The 16x16 of each is usually a bit of cover decoration so they don't end up being a bunch of indistinguishable brown rectangles in list view. On the off-chance someone else is as strange as I am, I thought I might as well post them on livejournal. If you do download, I'd really appreciate a comment, because these were pretty easy and I want to know if I should post if I make more. Thanks!

First, the personal theme music meme from one_if_by_land. ( Of course, I couldn't pick just one. )

Second meme from koimistress, the friendslist mosaic: ( Seeing them all together, I remember how lucky I am to get to know you all. )

Last and doubtless least, personal content for this entry in the form of explaining my new icons and why I picked them.( Read more... )

I have some time that I ought to use to grade papers, so obviously I need to find something else to do. IM me or leave a comment with a part of your life you'd like to know more about, and I'll do a tarot reading for you. I use the Rohrig deck (you can see some images here) but I can't find a site with all the images online so it'd be best to look at the Thoth deck it's based on here, or if you're nudity friendly, the Cosmic Tribe tarot here to see what I'm talking about.

Note for anyone who thinks that debunking superstitions is amusing: my cards are simple paper, and if I could really see the future I'd have skipped the whole thing with that boy in twelfth grade. This game's for fun and, if you're lucky, for a little psychological insight.

Wow, TeniPuri Episode 136 and the show's finally getting to be interesting again.

The Jr. Senbatsu candidates are gathered for a practice camp:
all of Seigaku, Atobe, Oshitari, Shishido, Ootori, and Kabaji from Hyotei, Kamio and Shinji from Fudomine, Saeki, Amano Dabide, and Kizaru Ryou from Rokkaku, Sengoku from Yamabuki, and Mizuki, Fuji Yuuta, and Kizaru Atsushi from St. Rudolph, and Kajimoto, Wakato, and Shinjou from Josei Shonan (as if anyone cared). Moral of the story? The writers love redheads better -- or at least, Gakuto's the only redhead I can think of who didn't make the cut. The players were divided into three teams under Ryuuzaki, Sakaki, and that Hanamura pedophile from Josei Shonan, from whom the best will presumably be chosen. So far, I worry about how the doubles teams are going to do -- the competition and elimination haven't been clearly explained (or I didn't understand) but there doesn't seem to be a separate bracket for people competing as pairs yet.

I wish that they'd mixed up the established pairs a little, but I hold high hopes for the mixed doubles under Sakaki: Fuji+Saeki vs Inui+Renji. Actually, so long as I'm wishing, I wish for someone to gag Mizuki, and that Momoshiro be eliminated as fast as possible. He's a lovely boy, I'm sure, but I'm really, really tired of the pure friendship vibe he and Ryoma have for me. I'm sad Gakuto and Jirou didn't make it too, but I suppose Gakuto didn't have a chance, and Jirou... ok, I don't honestly know why you'd pick Kabaji over him.

The action that's not focused on the osanajimi doubles is between Kirihara and Kamio. In terms of sheer hatred, I can almost see slash there -- with the proviso that blood would be drawn; right now all Kamio wants for Christmas is Kirihara's head on a plate, and Kirihara hasn't learned a thing from being beaten by Fuji. The whole camp is a slasher's dream, really -- people are sleeping in private paired rooms, and bedchecks are apparently only done by team captains and your roommates. In any other world, you'd have to worry for Sakuno, Tomoko and An, the three girl assistants, but with these boys? I don't think it'll be a problem.

Teams are:
Ryuuzaki -- Echizen, Momoshiro, Ooishi, Kikumaru, Ootori, Shishido, Kirihara, Kamio, Sengoku, and Kajimoto (for those of you who, like me, could care less about the Josei team members, he's the captain -- looks like Tezuka with piercings, extremely bendy).

Sakaki -- Yanagi, Inui, Kaidou, Kawamura, Fujis Yuuta and Shuusuke, Saeki, Sanada, and Mizuki.

Hanamura -- Atobe, Kabaji, Oshitari, Shinji, Amano Dabide, both of the Kizaru twins, Wakato (the redhead who imitates famous tennis players), and Shinjou (the psychotic one with the grey hair who's sleeping with Hanamura).

I'm going to have to blame this on sesame_seed and two_if_by_sea, so direct your angry mobs there. Constructive criticism, however, is welcomed with open arms and virtual cookies.


They were flushed and sweating after they left the hot springs, but everyone was relaxed, forgetting, for once, the competition that usually divided them. Hikaru was sprawled casually on the folded mass of the futon that would be his bed tonight, damp and soft in the ryoukan's blue and white yukata. Without the crackling energy that practically defined him in Isumi's mind, he seemed like a different person.

They talked idly about their day, the sake making Hikaru's inattentive gaze less annoying than usual. Isumi had visited Himeji-jou today -- tomorrow, he thought he might try to persuade Waya to come back with him, to walk barefoot on the ancient floorboards and see the weapons stockpiled in one of the only castles that was never burned or foolishly destroyed in the name of modernity. Waya isn't any good at the history you see in books, but Isumi felt that the living weight of a home people died to defend would mean as much to Waya as it did to him.

Hikaru, predictably, had found a group of benches in the park under the wisteria where some old men were playing go and proceeded to trounce them all in a seven-to-one simultaneous match. When he'd come back, he was a little drunk and most thoroughly escorted by the whole noisy group. They had bombarded him with jokes and made him promise to come back the next day before they left, saying there was a local go champion he just had to meet, and that he wouldn't get so lucky tomorrow, kid. Touya had smiled and combed the purple petals out of Hikaru's hair, and then pulled him in to their waiting dinner.

Equally predictably, they'd fought later on, or at least Touya had tried to fight with Hikaru, who'd given a hand-lacquered hairclip with a winding vine pattern to Saiyuri-chan. Isumi had only noticed her as a short, round girl who worked in the ryoukan and made the flower arrangements, but when Hikaru had set it into her hair, her smile had made her shine like a queen. It was a good thing Hikaru was such a popular teacher, Isumi thought, because he'd seen that clip for sale in a local craftsman's storefront, and Hikaru couldn't possibly win enough in tournaments to give away presents like that.

Alcohol and relaxation must have combined to loosen his hold on his tongue, because Isumi found himself saying "What do you do with them all, Shindou? Even you can't possibly get bored that fast."

Hikaru had turned and looked at him, head slightly tilted and an odd smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "But Isumi, they're all so perfect, each and every one of them. How could I bear to miss one, when I might never have a chance to know them that well again?"

"That's not knowing, that's just sex."

"Maybe, but it's when they open up and trust you like that that you first really meet them. You shine right out of yourself when you're happy like that."

His eyes were really quite green, and there was a darker band right around the pupil... "So you're saying that after all these years, I don't really know you?"

Hikaru paused, then smiled like Isumi had given him a gift. "Not yet, maybe."

Somehow, he was getting closer, but Isumi couldn't look away to see if Hikaru was coming toward him, or if he was moving, or if maybe the floor between them was just shrinking away to nothing. It all seemed impossible, but Hikaru's eyes were warm, almost burning, and Isumi's hand was brushing Hikaru's hair out of his face so he could see them better.


...


Later that night, Isumi and Waya both had good cause to wish that Waya would learn to knock before he charged into a room he was sharing, but, as Hikaru had whispered into the hollow of Waya's throat, these things sometimes work out for the best.