katekat1010

sunday afternoon coffee, as usual, was stimulating and caffeinated.  We got to talking about the Bechdel Test, and I wondered if the flist knows about this?  It's popped up here and there for me in the past couple of years.  The test is this:

1.  Does the work have at least two women in it?
2.  Who talk to each other?
3.  About something other than men?

It comes from a comic by Alison Bechdel called Dykes to Watch Out For. One of the characters suggests that she doesn't watch movies that don't pass this test.

Even though it originally came up in the context of film, it's a curious experiment to think about it in other contexts. Do the fantasy novels I've just spent the last week qualify? (on the whole, no) What about the fic? (pretty much no) My favorite television shows? (not often) Every episode? (nope)

It seems like such a simple thing. I do it every day (I mean talk to women about something other than men). And yet...

Now, I'm not advocating that every single mm slashfic has to have two women in it who are talking to each other about something else. And I'm certainly not going to boycott texts or films that I don't think will pass this test. But when the sexes are evenly divided out in the world, why don't we have more parity in our fictional texts.

more links about the Bechdel Test
[ wiki on DtWOF ]  [ bechdel test movie list ] 

grrr.

i've been alternatively on the job and frittering my time away.  Frittering - discovering new things to read, making my way through four Tanya Huff books in as many days, goofing around online for hours and hours and hours.  Yet on the job hasn't been so bad - doing all those mundane things I'm supposed to have accomplished during the break - laundry, packing up the christmas decorations, updating the address book.  And then the vaguely scholastic stuff - all those pesky academic details (like making sure my last recommender actually send her letters at some point before the colleges send out their acceptance letters), making sending check ins to my advisor, cleaning up my school email.

I still have a to do list that's three miles long, but I have hope and faith I may actually get through it someday.  And as it stands I'm taking each lazy day as an opportunity to be mildly productive and partially lazy. 

( the rest of this so called update )

icon meme stolen from antennapedia, because, and I quote, "Everybody likes icons!"

( it's better than calling it an addiction )

lostgirlslair and I have been in the process of developing an idea. An IDEA (we hope). For anyone interested in graphic art who is tired of icon_tutorial as the only place where you find "how to's" on livejournal. And so, I'd like to introduce you to:


[user info] / [join] / [affiliate]

GraphicSluts is intended to be a resource and discussion arena for multi-fandom graphic artists - the processes, the techniques, the theories behind making art. Once a month we'll be hosting an open discussion about some trend we see in graphic art. At the end of every month we'll have a guest speaker who will offer their own unique perspective on the kind of art they do.

Membership is open, posting access is restricted as we start up (although we have great plans for mid year), and if you've ever been curious about making icons, making wallpapers, making anything ... and curious about how others do that magic they do so well, this comm is for you.

( that first line of every month meme - there is only one I really like - July ... well, and December )

( my favorite of my own graphics from 2008 )

For the holidays this year I put together a couple of graphics for many of my favorite people.  Some are fic graphics, some are layouts, etc.  If you haven't taken a look at the fic they were created for, please take a look!!  Read!  It's my way of saying happy holidays to some of my favorite people.

teaser:


( this way to the pretty )

I'm in a warm house, with football on the TV (this is not by my choice, but the BF is a fan, and it means I find other things to do than watch TV), my mom is on one side with a book about eastern religion, and my D is on the other with a book about graffiti artists.

The best kept secret of the house is that my mom, master of many talents, has cornered the market on breakfast for the WIN.  The first morning she was here she did a simple scramble with spinach, tomatoes and cheese, the second morning we did waffles and butcher's thick-cut bacon (the only way to go, as far as I'm concerned), and there were three perfectly (and I mean PERFECTLY) done fried eggs.  Buttery, seasoned to perfection (so much so that Neil didn't even object to the pepper the way he usually does). 

But this morning?

We got fresh potato pancakes, perfectly formed, crisped to a fantastic golden color on the outside and cheesy and warm on the inside, parmesian scrambled eggs done to a soft fluffy perfection, and the rest of the bacon.  

If only breakfast was this way every day.

Now, for your entertainment, linksies:

The Bush-Shoe Game (not for conservatives w/out a sense of humor)

I Made This. You Play This. We are enemies.  The best po-mo game I've ever played.  Don't expect to win.  Don't expect to understand.  Just ... play.

Uncontrollable Semantics.  From the same digital/web artist (Jason Nelson) it's just ... beautiful.  I spent almost half an hour going from word to work and playing with the patterns and un-patterns.  Rootshape is my FAVORITE word.

play!  enjoy!

just wanted to wish everyone on here happy whatever holiday you celebrate (or happy winter if you celebrate no holidays) and have a safe and wonderful new year.

all in all it's been a wonderful holiday.  And it's not over until we put mom back on an airplane, so I'm considering the christmas season extended until the 30th.

[ my favorite things ]

• I made it to Sacramento! 
• I took my little sister out for her birthday to get our nails and toes done, since she's a girlie girl and had never really done those girlie things.  We had a grand time, she ended up with flowers on her pink toes (perfect for an woman turning 18), and I found out she's truly in love with the guy she's dating, which was sweet and fairly wonderful.
• ( My dad and I spent a day together that was perfect in pretty much every way [and the rest of the good] )

[but it wasn't all hearts and flowers]

• ( Hey, life isn't life unless it's a little rocky )

And today I've done a whole lot of nothing.  Fantastic, wonderful, yummy nothing (well, except make waffles for breakfast, finish the dishes last night, and order pizza - that's something right?)

Ok, so the short version is that my plane last night was grounded forever for mechanical difficulties, so I went back home, collapsed from airport-stress, and left the house at 8 so i could get to the airport for a rescheduled flight (and then got to wait for the fog to clear and our plane to board in 10 min or so, which would be 12:10 pm)

Now, crazy stuff out from cyberpunk review - they've done a body swap!:

The concept of an individual swapping his or her body with that of another person has captured the imagination of writers and artists for decades. Although this topic has not been the subject of investigation in science, it exemplifies the fundamental question of why we have an ongoing experience of being located inside our bodies. Here we report a perceptual illusion of body-swapping that addresses directly this issue. Manipulation of the visual perspective, in combination with the receipt of correlated multisensory information from the body was sufficient to trigger the illusion that another person's body or an artificial body was one's own. This effect was so strong that people could experience being in another person's body when facing their own body and shaking hands with it. Our results are of fundamental importance because they identify the perceptual processes that produce the feeling of ownership of one's body. 

[ full text of findings here  ]

It costs $6.50 to rent some webaccess, but my airplane is (as of right now) almost an hour late, so I figure I'm buying myself entertainment. 

I'm done!!!!  Done with papers, done with grading, done with feeling like I want to make redmarks all over papers that were ... well... pretty awful.  I honestly think that my ability to write has declined because I've read so many horrible sentences this semester. 

Thank god the class I'm TAing for next semester is upper division.

Now, that complaining done, I'm on my way to the great state of California to visit half the family for early christmas.  I've got my Christmas-calm on (helps that I don't have ANYTHING due until January 15... hallelujah!)  a mocha beside me (because the airport got an actual espresso bar, and some a crack-book to read if the mood strikes.  It's going to be a good day. 

It will also be the last time I'm around the internet for the next five days as I return to the land of AOL-dialup.  Every year it's like this.  Someday I'm going to convince them to get DSL... someday.

So, don't go being crazy and I'll see you all when I get back.

There once was a fic.  A massive, intense, beautiful fic that starts out at the bottom of a pit in Sunnydale (sorta) and climbs to dizzying heights.  Written by two of my most favorite Buffy-verse authors.  Every line is love.  And since I first discovered it I've read it, and re-read it, and honestly if the computer screen or the links had the ability to wear away they would have with the number of times I've returned to take in a chapter or two, or go through the whole long ride one more time.  So you'll understand that I couldn't just make one graphic for this fic.  I couldn't even just make two.  Instead, like the fic itself that has 25 "squares", I've made a graphic for each chapter.  Each is a little visual ditty that hopefully will evoke a little something for each of you that have read it (or if you haven't, please, go read it).

So, I'd like to introduce to you to:



( don't forget to start at square one here )

it's SNOWING right now!!  (it never snows in Austin)

ETA: Now with photographic evidence!

for you Merlin watchers who complain that they're not following "the story", here's a lovely little rebuttal from icarusancalion (via malnpudl)

Negotiating the Boundaries of Legend

I've been hearing all over the Merlin fandom how Merlin tramples the Arthurian legend into dust -- "but we don't care! We love it anyway!"

Well. Ahem. I just finished my Arthurian Lit class.

I'd like to call into question first the idea that there's "one" Arthurian legend. Second, certainly the BBC's Merlin tramples Malory's popular Morte d'Arthur, yes, but it returns to a tenth century Arthurian text, Geoffrey of Monmouth, where Uther raises Arthur, and then runs from there. The BBC's writers show a familiarity with a breadth of Arthurian texts as they remake the legend.

If you're going to depart from the legend, you'd better know what you're doing. And they do.

It's a weird feeling, choosing something because I'm interested in it and not because it's on a reading list.  It was the last week of classes, and I have one paper left.  I never, ever, want to have to experience the last week of classes right after thanksgiving ever again.

( however this is what i accomplished this week )

It may not have sounded like all that much, but the brain-output for this week has been enormous.  One last thing and some grading next week and I'm all done.  I look forward to that end of the semester moment when I can twirl around and say "I have nothing to do!"

( To me that's the best part of the show and the best part of the business. Occasionally you are blessed with the chance to do something that people are so taken with they hold it dear. )

( just a few pics )

Title: The Tanizaki Problem
Pairing: Giles/Wesley
Rating: G
Summary: In the summer between Season 3 & 4, Wesley calls Giles because he's in a bit of a pickle. Written for mireille719's request (at end) for ruuger's Welcome to the Nancy Tribe Ficathon.

All other notes at the end of the fic

( There was a phone call in the night )

Thanksgiving was ... in a word ... wonderful.  I guess we're doing something right because it was an evening that went off without a hitch.  Food was fantastic, we didn't scramble to make anything (partially because we'd made two entrees and the desserts on Tues/Wed), the company was amazing.  The dog didn't freak out and the dishes weren't too bad the next day. ( It was, indeed, a day to be truly thankful for. (with 4 random pictures) )

( I almost forgot, Jesus showed in our potatoes )

Puppy training today, where we basked under praise and got a whole new set of things to practice through the new year. It was cold and rainy all day, so we trained inside at the trainer's office, and promptly came home and tried to stay warm. I even broke down and made myself a cup of hot chocolate tonight, both in an attempt to warm myself up and as a present to myself for grading papers on a Saturday night.  I've only got seven to go!

And since I'm being silly and procrastinating, I have a flickr meme stolen from tabaqui

The Rules:
1. Answer each of the questions below using the Flickr Search engine.
2. Choose a photo from the first three pages.
3. Copy the URL of your favorite photo into this site: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php  (a cool little generator that will assemble your pics into one handy jpg and then give you an html file to boot)
4. Save mosaic to some form of photo hosting thing and share w/world.

1. First Name
2. Favorite Food
3. Hometown
4. Favorite Color
5. Celebrity Crush
6. Favorite Drink
7. Dream Vacation
8. Favorite Dessert
9. What I Want To Be When I Grow Up
10. What I Love Most In The World
11. One Word That Describes Me
12. My LiveJournal Name

( my mosaic (without answers, though you may be able to guess them from the photo links at the end) )

statement of purpose update:  it continues to elude me.

paper grading update:  50% done.  I now have a grading "metric".  This includes a base score of 40 points (out of 100) for turning the paper in.  I'm so glad it's the last one

thanksgiving update:  ( THE MENU IN ALL OF ITS GLORY )

i don't think i've ever really done this, but since i'm procrastinating, here's my thoughts on the things I'm watching right now.... (everything behind a cut since I'm potentially spoiling up to most recent eps and being annoyed and probably unpopular)

True Blood ( is still cracktastic. )

Heroes ( kinda sucks. )

My Own Worst Enemy ( continues to be entertaining. )

Friday Night Lights ( is totally rocking in its own FNL way. )

CSI ( has well and truly jumped the shark. )

90210 ( yes, i'm admitting i watch this. )

That's all the fiction (that's not in re-run).  If I listed reality shows you'd probably start to wonder how I get homework done.

i have a new perspective on my statement of purpose, which is good since i have to have the first final version due Dec 5th. 

It's getting cold here at night, and while on the one hand I'm so grateful for a break in the odd sun, it makes walking the dog at 10 pm at night a really shiver-inducing experience.  And my glasses fog up.  Sadly the sunny days have sent some pollens or something into overdrive and I'm now on claratin-D (12 hr) to keep myself from being a mouthbreather full time.

fannish projects are all limping along (ha, betcha no one knew i was even doing them!  i'm trying to "illustrate" [possibly graphicize] one of my all time favorite book-length fics, and write something for ruuger's Welcome to the Nancy Tribe ficathon... yes, i am writing fic)

the children (oh, wait, students... no, children is more apt) in the class i TA for continue to be delightful and completely and utterly annoying in turns.  I just had one ask me for an extension on the Zen Buddhism paper because he didn't buy a copy of the book and he and seven other students were fighting over the reserve copies at the library, and "if i could get like a six or seven hour extension and turn it in by 5 tomorrow that would allow me to keep from having to fight somebody for the book. it just doesn't seem very zen like to do that."  I will look back on this and laugh but right now I'm annoyed.  BUY THE BOOK!  It's that simple.

It's over.  The belief that I can do math unaided.   I had faint hope - but it was dashed today. [ side note - dashed was not in my online dictionary... it is now, but how weird is that? ]

On the up side, apparently I'm not half bad at this lit/language stuff.  Thank god.  Otherwise I would have had to drop this whole academic endeavor (and give up my pretensions to some kind of brainy-ness).

( for the curious, the actual GRE numbers )

I drove outside Austin today for the first time.  Of course it was for the GRE so I didn't really get to look around San Antonio.  But hey, I made it outside of the city!  San Antonio looks like every other major city that has freeways. I didn't drive through any of the pretty parts, or so I've been given to understand.   Luckily I had a fantastic phone conversation with D. on my way back when I got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic.  Had a belated breakfast once I got there and generally ignored most of my scholastic duties until 8ish, when I assembled my packets for Grad School references.  It's all beginning.  GAH!

I have been an emotional spaz.  I actually had tears in my eyes last night during Obama's victory speech.  I am actually, against all of my cynical tendencies, filled with hope. 

On the way home from school today, listening to NPR, they had a 10-second or so quote from Pelosi where she said she'd be reintroducing a child-health care bill that Bush had vetoed with the hopes that Obama wouldn't and the lightbulb went off over my head.  Not that I expect Obama to change the whole world.  Or do everything the way I think he should.  On the other hand it was SUCH a mental relief to contemplate the President at least paying lip service to ideas I actually care about.  And possibly voting for things I agree with.  It was like some tension I hadn't even realized I'd been holding in was GONE.  I've literally cringed my way through 8 years of Texas Twang (and I'm sure others will agree with me that when you accidentally program your clock radio to wake you up with NPR in the morning, and they carry some presidential speach, it can ruin the entire day to wake up to Bush's voice declaring he's taking away more rights, or sending in more troops, or some other awful crap.)  It is an awesome thing to see an end to that ahead.

That being said I am now freaking out about how much work I have to do as the semester rolls inexorably forward.  Tomorrow night is the department's annual mixer and I'm debating with myself about going - on the one hand it's the one social event of the year for our entire department.  On the other I have grad school applications I haven't even started, a paper to write for my Lit Crit class, a translation analysis to work on, and a thesis to draft.  Tonight I've been in high gear reading The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa (Kawabata), Seji Lippitt's chapter on it from Topographies of Japanese Modernism, then trying to prep my presentation on Maeda Ai.

Truth be told I'm burned out tonight and going to take the evening off from this point forward.  South Park awaits.

Today was my posting day at at fall_for_sx... I did not do my usual spectacular spammmm. But I still think there are some pretty things in here... manips, banners and icons, oh my!

teasers:   

( icons oh yay )

( banners oh my )

( the pretty boy manips (worksafe though provocative, i hope) )

... last thursday.  But this is proof!  Even if you can't see any of our "I voted" stickers.  Our county does early voting and it was a creepy breeze.  The crazy part is that 50% of voters in our county used early voting, so that's half the people actually at the polls today.  I thought that it was going to be anticlimactic because there wasn't that rush of fellow feeling, that standing-in-line camaraderie.  But trust me, I still had chills actually picking Obama for President. 

Now I'm restraining myself from turning on the TV just so I don't obsess.

In case anybody noticed, I dissappeared again, I know.  I've been creating (completely inadequate) artwork for my posting day at fall_for_sx and that plus the whole teeth biting fear that I have to pick a grad school (oh, and research for that), along with another set of 70 essays from ... well let's just say "the class" that this time might be able to successfully write it's way out of a paper bag, I hope ... I've been swamped, overwhelmed, and without sleep.  We did more doggie training last Sat (and really, it's an expensive human trainer, but if we end up with happy relationships with our dog in the end, it all works).  GRE is next week, applications due Dec 5th, registration for Spring 09 happened somewhere in there (I'm taking one class - a film class - called Weird Science).  The avalanche of work seems to be getting bigger, not smaller.

i meant to post that particular subject line four days ago.  Still remains true though. 

Thursday: D and I cafe hopped - started at the place that makes these crazy sweet lattes (more like a vanilla mocha) until the woman two tables over got really loud, then moved to Boudin Creek for vegetarian lunch and spiced mocha, and then to a third coffee place (the Fair Trade Place) to grab our pound of coffee for home.  Hey I also managed to grade most of the freshman tests, so I count it productive.

Friday: i slogged into class and then took myself off to the coffee shop to get some much needed translation work done.  If only I could figure out a way to do that once a week I'd be set.  Perhaps now that my schedule isn't filled with conferences I'll be able to.

Saturday:  We hired a doggie trainer.  It may be extreme, but Domino, the cutest dog in the universe (see icon), has been waking us up barking every single night for a couple of months.  Or she was.  ( The trainer was absolutely perfectly fantastic )  And to top all of that off D & I went and saw Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist and it was perfectly what it said it was going to be, which totally delighted us.

Today:  I was supposed to get work done, but that didn't really happen.  Instead we played rock band.  Yep.  Now that I've sung myself close to hoarse, I'm going to bed.

as part of her posting day today at gilesxander, the awesome and talented lostgirlslair made a pretty for my (someday, promise it will be completed) silly fic The New Men.

LOOKIE:

How cool is that?  And it's frigging BEAUTIFUL!!!

Other than that i have a big study day planned tomorrow - including coffee shop time.  YAY.  that's all.  Hope everyone is having a lovely evening.

ETA:  forgot to add these are the books that came from the evil Amazon today, so study time will include them:
Train Man / Densha Otoko (the movie)
My Mother was a Computer: Digital Subjects & Literary Texts N. Katherine Hayles
Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film Vivian Sobchack
The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film Tom Mes & Jasper Sharp
Technologies of the Gendered Body:  Reading Cyborg Women Anne Balsamo

well, second opinion from the doctor today is far more measured.  ( He basically said... )  The upshot is that I'm doing better and that's a good.

now, from tabaqui, a test that measures my taste in art... though I'm not quite sure if it's accurate... not that these things are ever really *accurate*

( yep, i'm inspirational )

and from entrenous88 a long procrastination meme because I'm tired of doing Kaplan work

( procrastination rocks )

it's been years... literally years... since i've gone to a doctor regularly.  Student health care is really not the same thing.  And so I have no litmus test for what I'm currently doing, because either my lungs are in really serious condition or I've found the most over-proscribing doctor in the world.  I think reality is somewhere in the middle.

I'm currently on 5 different kinds of medication to take care of my bronchitis.  Two are inhalers, because my doctor says that I've developed asthma (could be because of the cold, could just be something that developed, she doesn't know).  I'm on an internal steroid too, to reduce the swelling in my broncial tubes and the rattle out of my lungs.  Then I'm on an antibiotic AND codeine laced cough syrup that I can take any time I feel like. 

That seems like a lot of medication to me.  My energy levels are back up to normal, but my cough, while decreasing in frequency, seems to be just about the same level of intensity.

Part of me worries that all of this cramming crap into my lungs is just going to make things worse, but really, that's just the part of me that doesn't like taking things.  That and I really don't like my doctor... I went to her specifically because I wanted someone in the neighborhood, and she's female and has been practicing for a while.  Unfortunately she uses metaphors like "your lungs sound like a barn door that's been left open" instead of telling me what's going on, and when I went and saw her for my check up last week and she added in the second inhaler and the steroid, she was defensive and almost close-lipped when I questioned her as to why in the heck I was going to have to take MORE medications.  I'm sure her style would be comforting for some, but I'm the kind of person who needs more information, not less, and I don't want to hear that my broncial tubes/lungs are like an upside down tree... but that they're 30% blocked/inflamed and that's why I need to do all this asthma stuff.

Of course it doesn't help that I'm not smoking so I'm annoyed and wish that I could simply go have a frigging smoke.  Cold turkey + medication is NOT my idea of fun, that's for sure.

Remember those screencaps?  Liked any of them?  Well, here are my interpretations in icon form... hope you enjoy!


teasers:     

( variations in color and black&white )

( this way to the pretty )

checking in from the lands of the half dead ... first off...

THANK YOU to all of you who sent me happy birthday wishes!!  I adore you all and I suck for not responding, but I appreciated every single wish, seriously.

and (so i don't keep forgetting)

happy belated birthday to those two most wonderful women, soft_princess   and kivrin  (i'm sorry i missed greeting you on the days)
and happy early birthday to that talented (if a bit quiet and permanently introspective) of men keysersoze5050
and and even earlier happy birthday to miss emeraldswan because i don't want to forget and i'm worried I will!

( the day of the birthday )

Then Neil and D took me out to dinner at one of the loviliest little places ever - Zoot Restaurant - where I got my birthday dosage of fois gras (oooo so tasty!!) with blackberries and a rice pudding, and a fantastic steak with potatoes and spinach, and an absolutely beautiful and perfect flourless chocolate cake.  MMMMM.

( unfortunately, the anti climax )

I'd also wanted to actually, you know, celebrate my birthday with my friends, so on Sunday we had a picnic.  I was feeling slightly better after Sat's rest and rest and more rest, and the day was absolutely beautiful, and everyone came out and brought yummy food and we goofed around outside talking and sitting on blankets and it was exactly as I'd pictured it (well, ok, my throat wasn't quite as scratchy in my head, but still) it was picture perfect.  Mochie flew the kite lostgirlslair brought, and our other friends played frisbee, and Domino the puppy an amazing time running around with everyone and probably getting fed way too much people food.

( after that though, the cold really kicked in )

So, I'm still here but I haven't actually had enough energy to even face the computer until this morning, and I'm figuring that after this I'm going to be heading back into the gentle quiet of the bedroom for a nap prior to my dr's appointment.  But I'm still alive, promise, and doing well, if still overwhelmed.

yesterday was the day from hell for some reason - ( the kind of day where I woke up late and couldn't even decide what to wear.  )

Today though, today was a good. day -- one of those good days that I expected yesterday. 

Made it awake this morning relatively on time, got breakfast and a bagel, met with students about their papers, took my kanji quiz, finished the reading for class and even squeaked in a surprise meeting with the coordinator from the Conference from Hell.   Had a fantastic time in class reading everything in super close form (and finding out our translations were strange things indeed compared to the Japanese), and had a lovely conversation with my advisor while giving her a ride home.  OH, and one of my friends in the program gave me flowers for my birthday!!  How cool is that?

Got home, loved my family, and am working on homework for next week so that I can be prepared.  Life is definitely looking up.  Best of all, I get to play all day tomorrow at making the Conference from Hell a fun event, then get to give my Tetsuo talk (again!).  Best of all, I'm getting nummy food tomorrow night... and possibly stopping by the Asian Studies party after.

:D

( for those of you curious, the new fur )

I'm having these intense urges just to dig in stubbornly and do nothing.  It's my reaction to having too much to do, and not having enough time to do it.   And I'm conquering the urges, mostly, so it's not like it's the end of the world.

( however, my to do list )

Now that it's all out there I think I'm going to be ok.  I really do.  But wow.  It's all a matter of seeing what's on the list and getting it all done one by one.

And I don't think I mentioned it but the best part of going to the conference was that I figured out what texts I'm going to write my master's thesis on.  ( for the curious... like three people )

I did it!!!  Conference 1 = ROCK.  Unfortunately it also included six hours of driving getting to Huntsville and back, and I'm one tired monkey (well, tired from that and from all of the nervous excitement before and after).  But the presentation??  I was great!  (quote from my prof, not self-aggrandizement, promise)

( you want the more than one paragraph version )

We were very responsible pet people and took the stray kittens that decided our house was great to the animal shelter today - this way they at least have a chance at a good home, since we can't adopt any more pets and they deserved it - but it was one of the hardest things I've had to do in a long time. 

My last goals today?  work on:
x gilesxander 's giles/xander fest postings
x roshomon translation
x abstract for the Thesis

I think it was Saturday Night Live that suggested the less Palin knows the cuter she gets, and good god did the woman have to start with a wink???  EEUGH.

I automatically hate everything that's coming out of her mouth (or am suspicious of it).  What I fear?  That the uninformed think that she's a straight talker who did just great.

Not the fucking "meet without preconditions" thing again.  OH MY GOD is that ALL you can come up with??

Ha, we're fighting terrorists, securing democracy and building schools in Afghanistan?? Please.  (at least Joe read the paper today about how the Surge won't work there)

I HATE her "oh gee, i'm just an outsider and i just don't get what you do".    Oh no, she's going to use the silly grin again... damn her.

Dude, McCain did NOT win the Vietnam war.  WTF?  He doesn't know how to win a war just because he has experience being a soldier.

my favorite quote from the peanut gallery - our couch - "according to her, International Policy is like a bar fight in Alaska"

Joe Biden, you kinda rocked it out.  Sadly, I'm pretty sure the polls are going to say that Palin did just fine - cuz as much as she said things I violently object to, she wasn't stupid.

( and now for State of the Kate )

from mechassninja

Leave a comment to this entry and I will answer the following (either truthfully or as artfully as i can)

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b) Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, etc.
c) Tell you something I like about you.
d) Tell you a memory I have of you.
e) Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
f) Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
g) in return, you must post this on your own LJ.

Mom visit is good, continues until tomorrow, and overall was actually kind of active, what with the visit to Fredericksburg, the gardening plans we have tomorrow, and me dragging her to Uni to check out my classes and my performance.  (1)

I saw Tokyo Gore Police on Tuesday night (after going to my Kaplan class - test prep YAY) and it was not only gorey but kind of funny and fantastic.  Having the director do a Q&A afterwards was adorable and more entertaining ... and I think I actually understood his japanese.  Oh, and I got to ask him about Tetsuo and the dick drill since he had a giant mutated penis gun in his film.  (2, 3, 4)

Wednesday was exhausting but transcendently amazing since our department hosted mock-presentations for those of us doing conferences next month and I ROCKED it OUT (and manage to frighten my audience at the same time).  I dragged Mom and Daria along with and so not only got great feedback from the people there, but got my own private critiques from the family.  (5, 6)

We had ribs last night and I feel like my stomach has expanded two sizes from the food - but it was actually good, so hey, who am I to complain! (7)

I'm running on coffee fumes what with the emotional and mental juggling act of crazy school presentations and adding "hey, I'd like to hang out with my mom" into the mix.  I think I'll be collapsing this weekend.  Find me under the dictionary under over-caffinated heap. (8, 9, 10)

I'm giving my first conference talk October 4th, and my second Oct 10th (yep, one week apart), and so our department is putting together a mock presentation for those of us who are giving talks ... a dry run of sorts ... this Wednesday.

What that means is, along with the Mom-visit, I've been frantically writing my talk paper and sending the drafts to my adviser for her comments.  The first one, as usual, she doubled the length of the paper with her comments.  But it was, in her words, a promising start (big sigh of relief there!).  When I worked on it Saturday I kind of lost the plot a little, and then had an intense hour-long session with D on Sunday where she let me bounce ideas off of her and helped me actually get to the frigging point (and made Sunday a lot, lot better).  I revised again today, and sent it off to my adviser.

I got her comments on this evening and....

SHE LIKED IT!!  Not only liked it, her words were actually, "I think this is really excellent."

This is not a woman who hands out the praise.  I actually jumped up and down.  This time her comments?  They're more like someone who actually got into my argument and was nodding along and getting excited than comments about how I need to fix things.  It gives me serious hope.

i couldn't decide if i'm going to include the questions or not, cuz the whole "email me the questions" things seems laborious, but apparently I am a sheep (which really, sometimes is what meme-ing is all about isn't it?).

Rules:
1) Ask for the questions and you shall receive.
2) If you receive you must reciprocate.
3) Give only one name per answer (whoops, i messed this one up a little)

( 30 questions )

The mom (mine!) is here for a visit and so far it's been a lovely day - I dragged her to class with me, we had a great time, and then we goofed around the house while I half heartedly did translation.  It's going to be a bit of a weird visit since I'm pretty overwhelmed with work right now, but that's ok, because it's worth it just to spend time together. 

( The plan for the week (we'll see how this goes) )

the btvs one:
When you see this, post another Buffy quote in your LJ. Let's see how long this can go on.

It's kind of long, but it's one of my favorite exchanges, ever:

Buffy:  Does it ever get easy?
Giles: You mean life? 
Buffy:  Yeah, does it ever get easy?
Giles: What do you want me to say?
Buffy: Lie to me.
Giles:  Yes.  It's terribly simple.  The good guys are always stalwart and true.  The bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and we always defeat them and save the day.  No one ever dies and everyone lives happily ever after.
Buffy: Liar.

the picture one:
from aesiron and elementalv :

1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair. Just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with no editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.

( just in case you don't want to see )

• Weird article by David Wall:  "Cybercrime and the Culture of Fear: Social Science Fiction(s) and the Production of Knowledge about Cybercrime"
  
  Without reading his paper (but hey, i'm a grad student, i'll make summary judgements from the summaries), it sounds like he's made two errors:
  
  1) not giving enough weight to his examination of the culture of fear that the news media use to get more viewers ... about everything - cybercrime, medical crime, incest scandals, etc.
  
  2) by implying that it's in cyberpunk that these characters originated it's excluding the idea that the baddies come from other literary tropes..
  

• spaceless.com with extra spicy article action:
  
  'Better than (Real)Life': Cyberspace as Urban Space
  
  Virtually There:  The social construction of computer mediated identity 
  
  (and a listing of all of their papers up to yr 2000)

I was excited this morning - the first paper for the class I'm TAing was due today.  I was looking forward to seeing how people addressed the prompt, and I knew there were going to be some doozies, but considering the most I've had to do for this class so far was to create a sign in sheet, anticipation about doing work and earning my keep had gotten to me.

Until I started to read.  I cannot explain the bad.  Admittedly, it's the first paper, and most of them are probably freshmen or sophomores or people from non humanities disciplines.  Some of them may never have written a paper in their lives.  It shows.

I'm trying to be as fair as I can... in part because there are 70 of them and 1 of me, and if I spent the time on working through their I'd like to with each one of them?  I'd never do anything else again.  Even if I spent the time correcting each one the way I'd like it would take me more than a week. 

My solution, I think, will be to talk to my professor about putting up a "tips for writing your paper" sheet for the next one... and we'll see who actually uses it.  But I foresee an entire semester where I have to slog through these things.  Thank god they're mostly three pages long (and yes, the margins are all messed with, the text is turned up to a 14 ... or 13.5...or not times new roman.  It's so funny how patently obvious those little tricks are).

Still... it's kind of fun....

Getting sick is not productive.  And sure, you say, "I knew that already, trust me" but for me this last week has been an exercise in forced remembrance.  For a week I've felt as if I was pushing too hard trying to break through some invisible barrier of "behind" to get to the point where I'm ahead.

My rough draft of my conference paper was due today to my adviser (and if you count a draft without a conclusion I just sent it to her at 11:34 pm), translation of a page or so of text (of a fantastic little story called Hanabi [Fireworks] by Uchida Hyakken) was due in class Mon & Wed and it was a little painful to get through, along with the kanji quiz per day.  Plus I found myself taking an active role in the conference-from-hell planning, which meant I worked (probably too much) on things all last weekend while I still felt about 50%, then on sending emails.  Much needed relief came this afternoon when my grad seminar was canceled due to the hurricane (well, not due to the actual weather, but scheduling difficulties on the part of our prof) and while on the one hand I'm depressed that I didn't actually get the chance to prove i did the 200 or so pages of reading for this week's class, at least it's reading I won't have to re do next week.  And I worked on the paper.  And volunteered to co-chair the East Asian Studies graduate student stuff until I can get someone else to do it (which will be at some point, but right now it's monthly meetings -- and compared to the conference-from-hell monthly meetings are ... soooo far away).

the only way i've managed to be as productive as i have is through massive infusions of vitamins - a vita-C here, a double-boost jamba juice yesterday, b-monster Odwallas on tuesday and wednesday and m/w/f i've been a good little munchkin and had apple juice.  I don't think I've drunk this much juice this consistently since I was a kid.  Other than expensive, its not as bad as I remember it.

So this weekend?  I want to collapse.  Instead I need to get started on my abstract for my master's thesis.  Whew. 

OH, but about that?  has anyone ever heard of this movie [ tokyo gore police ] ... cuz i think it might work as a second text.  not cyberpunk though as far as i can tell (oh, and warning, the link is not for the faint of heart)

The Cyborg DB (from a UCSC class, haha), it has no content at the moment, but should be pretty interesting and worth looking at later.

And here's the Cyborgology 101 (from SJSU '06) that's got all kinds of academic sources on cyborgs and a nice little summary of Haraway too.

The IO9 "Where are my cybernetic implants" where they claim "Full disclosure - I'm a cyborg.  I wear corrective lenses and shoes that modify my feet appropriately for an urban evnironment.  It's not exactly Robocop, true, but according to the loosest definition, most of us already have a complicated relationship with technology blurring the line between "me" and "stuff"

Today for my day at fall_for_cordy I posted many many things :D

63 cordelia icons
9 cordy/xander icons
6 cordy/angel icons
5 cordelia headers/banners
3 cordelia color bars

teasers:   

( Thank you for making the right choice, and for showing me how much you all love me. Being this popular is not just my right, but my responsibility, and I want you to know I take it very seriously. )