katekat1010

coughing, hacking, throat sore.  not the kind of body to get a lot of work done with.   it's passing.  slowly.

And if you found that incredibly boring (and i can't imagine you didn't), consider signing up at these lovely areas of fun:

Giles/Xander October Fest!  (at gilesxander )
A celebration of all things Giles/Xander

Welcome to the Nancy Tribe (at ruuger 's lj)
a Giles, Spike & Wesley ficathon ... signups close today!

i have been deeply amused today by the troll post on lkh_lashouts

i remembered to take a spoonful of b-complex today and WHOA it was actually wonderful having energy for a change - i feel like an an energy drink commercial without the crash - but I hope I can sleep.

i am appalled by Amy Goodwin's arrest and the fact that you can't even get a hit to Democracy Now! from Google news.  This story is BURIED, and it's really really creepy.  Makes me believe in the concept of a media conspiracy for sure.

i am reading about Mori Ogai.  And Maeda Ai.  And they are hawt.  Well, in an intellectual, modernist kind of way.

i got an email back from a tokyo cyberpunk prof I emailed!!!!  I'm like a fangirl in scholarly clothing.  In his last line he actually took my bait about looking for a Phd program and told me I should go there.  I'm trying to set my sights slightly higher, but hey, it's a fall back school in case my GRE scores are that crap.

i ran the stupid conference meeting today.  But at least we were done in about an hour and I didn't get so annoyed I couldn't stand anyone in the room... just mildly annoyed that they insisted on having the doughnuts vs. bagels debate during the damn meeting.  For 20 minutes.  Count them, 20.  Imagine how efficient it would have been if they could've, you know, not worried about which kind of pastries to have in the morning right in front of the rest of us.

i'm done.  lol.

first off, I had no idea this existed:

ISBNdb.com
Yep, for all of your ISBN searches.  It's slow, but ... it's there.  And I'm kind of stoked.  In a completely nerdy way.  So of course I immediately look for Japanese science fiction. 

( Now for the books )

first things first, elizabuffy and lilianvaldemyer (and any other Willow/Tara shippers on my flist) you should go check out this beautiful and heartrending W/T picspam by mouthfullofdust ... it goes through all of their time together through the whole show.

( second, it was my beloved's birthday!!  )

( third, school, oh you (planning, rants, annoyances) )

* I'm starting to actually do research this semester.  And sadly, I already have a massive, overwhelming list of bookmarks... so it's not really constructive of me to keep everything there.  Instead I thought I'd put them in my LJ, that way I have a chance in heck of remembering what I found and why it's important.  We'll see how it goes.  I'll try to put everything behind a cut so no one is bombarded with long lists.  And who knows?  some of you might like this stuff, right?

( round up- searches for Japanese Sci Fi )

In my usual fantastic way I found out today that I start school tomorrow (instead of the time I thought - Friday).  Just in the nick of time!  Luckily I managed to hid my start of surprise since I was in a meeting for the class I'm TAing, trying to sound competent.  Hopefully I skidded just under their radar. 

( It is going to be an interesting semester )

Wow, when I write it all out ... it's not a small list.  And that's just the big stuff!

64 Giles Icons
   

( Whoa, Giles has a TV. Everybody, Giles has a TV. He's shallow like us. )

teasers for the wallpapers:
 

( I had very definite plans about my future. I was going to be a fighter pilot. Or possibly a grocer. )

( august thru sept )

someone absolutely lovely nommed my tribute wallpaper for mirielle719 's Sleep While I Drive series at the Bodice Ripper Awards!  Thank you, you sweet person!


and... I got notified today that I won for best wallpaper (for my tribute wallpaper for lostgirlslair 's Second Glances) at the Running With Scissors Awards (rwsawards )!


Congrats to lostgirlslair , entrenous88 , wesleysgirl , purplefeen , and soft_princess on their RSA awards too!!

From my summer_of_giles posting day - the fic tributes, in their entirety (gushing included)...

Set I:
This is another open love letter.  I seem to be sending them out a lot lately, but that's because there's plenty of love in this fandom, and I couldn't leave Giles out of it.  For those of you who saw my spring_with_xan posts, you'll know what I'm talking about.

For those of you who didn't, I wanted to create graphics for my favorite Giles stories and for my favorite Giles authors.  It's going slowly, but this post today will hopefully reflect a little of the fangirl adoration I share for two radically different but equally amazing authors mireille719  and janedavitt.  Both of have a habit of writing the Giles I fell in love with, and yet both bring their own interpretations of his personality to the front so much so that I fall in love with him all over again after reading their fics.

Behind the cut you'll find links to wallpapers that include some of my favorite lines from each fic, so you can enjoy the memory of the fic even when you're not reading it!  And, of course, links to each fic in question so you can read them if you're so inclined!

( here are two tributes that hopefully show how grateful I am )

Set II:
There are some fics that stay with me, with sound or shape or form. Sometimes they're richly textured enough that they leave an indelible imprint on me.  Doesn't matter how long the fic.  Sometimes it just takes a couple of words. 

So below the cut you'll find my adoration for savoytruffle and lostgirlslair and glimmergirl expressed via images (paltry, but hey, it works), and a couple of fics that, if you haven't read them, you really really need to check them out.

( this way to the three tributes that hopefully get close to the fics they're based on )

I admit it, I dropped the posting ball!  Because I'm actually back home, and have been for a day or so.  Jet lag is either catching up with me or hopefully almost done with me - I slept twelve hours last night and when I woke up I still felt like I could sleep some more.

My last couple of days in Tokyo were filled with preparation - for the end of the semester, for my two finals, and for the trip home.  A month in Tokyo was perfect - I was ready to either get on the plane or stay there (and since getting on the plane was my option ... *grin*).  Finals were taken on Friday,  questions answered in both classes, oral exam discussed, all of that good stuff, and then I headed back to the apt to pack and rest a little.  Because even though they're summer classes I actually put some effort into them and I wanted to do well! 

Saturday night was the perfect ending to this whole journey - I met Gabriel and his friend for kaitenzushi and then later drinks in Ni-choume, we had a fantastic time and mostly ignored the boys hitting on Gabriel and talked goofy fantastic stuff until we needed to catch our trains.  I can honestly say that one of the things that made this summer trip so great was having Gabriel as a companion. 

So, good friends, great classes, a school that actually had interesting activities and me better able to manage myself (since I think last year I didn't say no when I should have) and it all combined to equal greatness (well, greatness with a dirty bathroom.  *grin*)

( the last of the piccies!! )

Coming home was a wonderful blur - I got to the airport early but not as early as I thought since I had to repack my suitcase twice to get it under the weight limit, and then it was 10 hours in a middle seat on the airplane with two crying children in the rows in front of me (thus I did not sleep - but watched movies with the sound turned way way up).  Getting off the plane in LA my darling M was there to pick me up and whisk me away to the Malibu Beach House (and yes, it really was in Malibu, it really was on the beach, and it really was absolutely wonderful).  It's a tradition that the house gets rented every summer by our friends or their parents, and this summer was no different.  I got on the porch, was handed a round of hugs, and then a drink, and we watched the waves roll in as the bbq got warm.  I may not have been able to string a coherent sentence together, but I cannot imagine a better place to ... not string coherent sentences together.

That night M put me to bed and left me a key, and I got to wake up and have breakfast the next morning with M2 and then hop on the air shuttle for ... that most wonderful of places... home.

It's 12 midnight my time, and I'm supposed to be in bed, sleeping, so I'm doing a drive by post with links instead of full thoughts.  Will come back, soon!

Monday afternoon I saw two kabuki performances at KABUKI-ZA!!  Kabuki rocks when there are demons in it!

Tuesday I ran down to Akihabara for more kaiten-zushi (see previous post for link to that) and some present buying, then went to an Izukaiya with my rommie B and ate bite size chicken skin and livers and stuff and had my first sake in Japan on this trip

Wednesday was my last tutoring session, and after I took myself off to Yasukuni Jinja and found the best thing about the place, for me, was the little koi garden in the back.  (pictures forthcoming, promise).  After that I went to Ikebukuro for my first American fast food in Japan - KFC and did some shopping and met a school friend H for coffee and cigarettes.

THEN, I spent the rest of the night reading our homework assignment for class and:

EVERYONE INTERESTED IN ALTERNATIVE FICTION (i'm talking new forms of writing), please check this out - it was a sensation in Japan.  It's a supposedly true story from a single-men's BBS (online forum) in Japan - this guy was worried about asking a girl out on a date.  The BBS of single men (they call themselves poison men because they're the kind of guys who, here, are expecting to be geeky confirmed bachelors their entire lives) gave advice to the guy and basically coached / followed his story.  So, this happened on a forum right?  Well, the owner / mod of the forum compiled the threads into one single narrative, and then it was consumed by millions in Japan.  AND THEN.  they printed a book that is the *exact* same thing you can get on line... and know what?  It sold in the MILLIONS.  I sound like add copy, but it blows me away that the thing that most of us take for granted is our daily life online ... and it was published as a  new form of media and not only sold, but was one of the most popular books of the year here.  Also?  A TV series AND a Movie and I think also a manga and WHOAH.  That's a lot of readers.

I want to write more about alternative writing forms, but have to stop gushing.  Check it out here:  TRAIN MAN  電車男

Today!  Today G & I got together after my class and went to Ueno Park: the National Museum, and also the old black market of Japan that used to be right next door (it's now not a black market, but a market, still!).  And I had falafel that was FANTASTIC and should be on a show about Tokyo - a $5 falafel.  MMMM.  Then we finally, after two previous abortive attempts, saw the new Batman movie and ... well, it just about blew the top of my head off with the goodness.  Even though I was supposed to go home right after we stopped and got some food so that we could discuss because AH! there was so much to talk about!

tomorrow (friday) i'll try and put up the pictures - studying for my finals on saturday, yay, and then on Sunday I depart for LA!

(and this is what I call a short post)

Tueday's child:  Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging)!

Well, I know the rules of one school of flower arranging!!  The Sensei did 7 different arrangements, including one gigantic tree that was ... colossal.  They gave us the opportunity to make our own ... in a group of 5.  The thing I learned?  Ikebana is not suitable as a group pastime by any stretch of the imagination.  I basically sat back and let other people cut the flowers because it wasn't worth it to bicker over the heights.

( Some of the highlight pictures )


Wednesday... I studied.  Got ahead in my reading.  Waited for a friend to drop off his suitcases in my room since he's just finishing a year in Japan and is headed to Okinawa for diving.  At first we were going to meet at 5, then at 8, then at 10, then at 10:20, then finally 11 pm rolled around and he made it to our station.  Funnily enough I didn't really hold it against him - it was still lovely to a familliar and dear face even if it was only long enough for him to lug his luggage from the station to my room.

Thursday... Sophia put on a Rakugo performance - a one man comic who made us laugh for about an hour, even though he'd learned english from tapes that he'd put together to get the intonation down.  Pretty impressive, and since the guy's full time job is as a musical signer his voice and range was incredible.

Tried to see the Batman movie with my friend, but sadly we misjudged the date and it wasn't playing at the movie theatre we went to. So we went to Ni-choume (the gay district in tokyo) and had some drinks and talked instead. All in all a totally pleasant evening.

Friday's child:  Nekobukuro!  (Kitty-town)

Friday afternoon a friend from school and I decided we'd go pay to pet kittens!  Hey, when you go through pet withdrawal, you'll do anything to catch up.  The cats were absolutely beautiful, and some were even sleeping down close enough that we could actually pet them (sadly, no picking up).

( So, the kitties looked like this... )

Last night I got a roommate!  A friend from Texas needed a place to crash for a couple of days, so now I have a roomie - and last night was his night to grin and goof around with his Tokyo friends (and he of course invited me and the friend from school).  We landed in one of those tiny places in Shibuya that makes fantastic food and brings you lots of drinks (all of which are... well, not as cheep as they could be).  Hilariously some of Blake's friends had opted not to take the class I TA'd for in fall.  Apparently talking about Harry Potter on the first day of an adaptation class is a no no according to them.  Other than not taking my class, they were quite lovely people and I had a great time.  Oh, and I had a mahi-mahi / avacado salad to die for!  Sadly I pooped out at about 11:30 pm - getting up at 6 am really puts a crimp in your ability to stay awake until a decent hour.  I split off from the group as they moved to a dance club and managed to catch the last train home (yay for trains!)

Saturday's adventures:  Vampire Cafe!!

Today, after my tutorial I met up with my gothy school friend and we went to Ginza to go to the swankiest goth place ever - a Vampire cafe!  The menu was hilarious, we ate in a velvet-draped alcove, had to ring a bell every time we wanted service, and it was actually really good food (not the kitchy kind you'd expect from a themed place in the states, to be sure!)

( Check it out! )

and now.... to bed!! 

xxxooo

there's a man I see on my way home from school sometimes, a small and thin bent-backed, white-haired man who has a container garden.  A little gray fence screens a square meter of green, with a long-needled pine tree and another leafy vine reaching into the alleyway.  But outside of the perimeter of the fence is where the containers lie.  Three days ago I swore he was pulling carrots from one small pot, and yesterday he was trimming dead leaves off of his geraniums.  Each pot is hardly bigger than the plants I used to have on our porch in LA, although he probably has fifteen pots, some bunched together in one small space like little terraces, four others strung out along the outside of the fence with late-summer plants growing valiantly in the summer humidity.  It's a marker for me, when coming back home, that I'm more than halfway back to my little room - a place to set my burdens down and cool off from the sweating, sweltering, cloying heat of the day (no matter how cold the air conditioners on the trains run they barely cut through the air).

( but my recent days have been less filled with quiet things )

And now, since I haven't taken pictures, but I succumbed to the temptation of snapping away while at Meiji Shrine, the three pictures that I actually liked from the bunch.

( they're not too bad, for touristy pictures )

Ikebana (flower arranging) tomorrow. Possibly movie Thursday night, and a friend from Texas is coming to stay with me on the weekend!

I just had this pizza



for breakfast, at a Coco's Restaurant (Coco's Japan, mind you).  And it was ... really good. bbq pork on one side and panchetta & sausage on the other.The only thing that would have made it better was corn.

Scintillating things have happened to me since the last time I posted.  Absolutely scintillating.  Or titillating?  Possibly dizzying or dazzling.  Ok, I'll stop with the thesaurus and the sarcasm.  Especially since it wasn't the most exciting of the last couple of days. 

( The highlights have been: )

No new pictures though.  I suppose at some point I'll take my camera to school with me and take pictures of the campus, but as of right now I'm kind of settling in to life.  Perhaps there will be some great Harajuku girls who want to be photographed tomorrow!

Ok, so... anybody ever read anything about a place in Tokyo and wanted to go there? I'm looking for things to do and I've gone through a bunch of the travel brochures and websites, and I thought... why not ask the online friends? So, if you've heard of someplace that you think is a must see, I want to go see it!

Let me know in a comment, and if you have a link to the place description that's a bonus!

Time ran away from me yesterday a little bit, and it was a fuller day than I expected.  We had our orientation for summer school - big differences from last year's program - this one actually gave us student ID's, we have access to the Sophia computers/library/internal internet, and generally the whole thing went off like a well oiled (of a sort) machine.  They've been doing this summer program for years and it shows.  There are about 200 people in my program (up from last year's 80 or so), and we all sort of wandered around introducing ourselves to each other in piecemeal fashion...dribbles of hometown, or major, or Japanese experience, or just who found a way to buy a phone or not.  Most people in the program seem really young, but we'll see how that sorts itself out as we get into classes. 

As a fantastic bonus for showing up at school for the orientation (well, and as one of the planned activities) we were herded onto four buses and driven down to the port so we could take a cruise up the Sumida river to Asakusa.  The river was beautiful and possibly slightly cooler than the rest of the city, and I started talking with a couple of people from my bus (Japanese natives taking the non-Japanese classes for summer credit).  We arrived in Asakusa and they gave us the option of sticking with the tour or heading off on our own.  I stuck with them for about 15 minutes, until I couldn't stand hearing one more word that I already know about temples and fortunes and the whole shuffle-shuffle-snap picture-shuffle  process of being in a group on a tour.  Not that it's not interesting, but I think there's one generic spiel about the functions of temples, how to cleanse yourself, how people gift their prayers, and I heard it three or four times last time I was here.  I want to get a religious specialist to come with me someday and tell me about each temple's distinctive personality, but until then I'd rather walk through the temples and the stalls of food and touristy things (Mom, I got one of your requests already!) on my own.  That's how I found the Buddhas at the end of the first set of photos.

After that I took myself home and managed to save some money not taking the train all the way back from the school.  Talked to my darling man on the interwebs (much better access this year) and got ready to get up at an ungodly hour in the morning.

( And here you go, the pictures of the day )

Today was more exciting for me but less exciting to read about, since classes probably aren't interesting unless you're actually in them.  Japanese looks like it's going to be great, and my literature of Tokyo class is going to be fantastic - a smart woman from University of Washington is teaching. When she heard about my major interests she promptly gave me the name of someone on their faculty who does a cyberpunk class.  Yippee for making connections in Tokyo!  While sitting around / having lunch / etc I also managed to read the book we're reading last in the class, so I'm already ahead of schedule on day one. And I may have a class buddy or two - there are three really sweet German students, two of whom are in my Japanese class, and then one in my lit class, and we talked a bunch today.

I decided to spend another hour or so walking around my neighborhood instead of freezing this evening while watching a Noh play (school activity, yay). Every time I ride the train back to my stop I see these pretty flower streamers hung up on the north side of streets leading away from the train station, so I decided to follow them.  Turns out there's a little shopping district down there with more bookstores, cds, kimonos, groceries, and everything else that seems to be found on every other corner here, but I had a lovely time and took a couple of pictures worth sharing.


( My neighborhood - a couple of streets )

and finally, since *someone who shall not be named* yelled at me for using photos from last year as my Japan icons, I have a couple of new icons from the things I'm posting today... *neener, neener, neener*  ;)

when buying yogurt in Japan be very careful to not only look at the picture on the yogurt container, but also be on the lookout for the tiny label that says アロイ (aloe) because it is not a pleasant experience when expecting only blueberries to be eating yogurt with blueberry and small chunks of aloe.  My tongue feels funny now.

Since I have the leisure to do so this year, I thought I'd start posting pictures now instead of waiting forever and posting them in one massive overwhelming bunch.  Besides, my day wasn't so exciting as I pretty much managed to

a) find my way to my school campus, which may take up to 45 min to get to from door to door - but on the good side one of the administrators was actually there and informed me I don't have to be on campus until 9 am tomorrow instead of 8:30 (yay!)
b) eat lunch at a little cafe
c) go to Rikugien Koen (Rikugien Gardens).  The garden reproduces in miniature 88 scenes from famous poems - although I didn't actually wander around to every single scene, I did see a bunch, and all of them were beautiful.
d) discover the "little" grocery store in my neighborhood is actually a 5-story ... department store with a food component in the bottom.  I got dinner and an alarm clock!  And I'm seriously thinking about going back to the housewares section to get myself a second comforter, since I'm actually using my first one as padding because the mattress is so lumpy.

( To start off the photo tour, you get the neighborhood I'm living in as seen from my 4th floor window. )


( Now, photos from my garden adventures )

Finally, once I got back home this afternoon it had started to rain, including lightening and thunder that I could see in the distance reflecting off the buildings.  At one point the sunset turned everything an almost starteling deep yellow-orange color, and low and behold, I saw a rainbow! 

( That's right folks, a rainbow over Tokyo. )

So there you have it - day two in all it's glory.  I'm sacking out early tonight with a movie and some JapanesePodcast language lessons to get ready for class tomorrow, after which I will continue my search for a cell phone (which was, again, the only thing on my personal agenda that didn't get done today).  I checked online and it appears there are only *certain locations* where I can pick one of these suckers up, or I have to order it online and get it mailed to me.  So I'll be heading to the depths of (or possibly wilds of?) Shibuya in search of the mythical pre-paid cell.

I'm in Tokyo!!  And it's fantastic.  After two and a half days of visit with my dad & stepmom, and then another two day visit with my mom, and a night spent at Hawk & Miranda's house (all of which were amazing and fabulous and just good in multiple ways that I won't try to describe here) I got on an airplane and arrived in this city!

( Not only that, when I landed last night I managed to get myself to my lodging, jet lag and all.  )

Anyway, my day started great and ended great, despite the frustration of the phone in between, and I'm going to bed happy.  I'm also hoping to get myself out to one of Tokyo's gardens tomorrow to walk around - it's been pretty hot here so it might not be the best time to see it, but supposedly it's actually a bunch of mini gardens who were all planned / inspired around a series of poems.   Oh, and Gabriel showed me this fantastic grammar book that he's working through that I really want to get, so perhaps a bookstore visit?  We shall see.

So, this is my last post before I head off to California before I head off to Japan.  I don't know if I'll have internet while in CA because the parents ... well, one of them does, and the other is doing dial up and I have lost the patience I used to have with it.  Besides, I kinda want to hang out with them a lot.  And then... JAPAN!

I'm sure I'll be boring you all with posts once I get there, as this year I'm supposed to have much better (and more reliable) internet access.  But until then, in the words of the goofy reprobates (and I seriously hope they don't remake this movie): Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes!


OH, and PS, for all you Cordelia lovers?


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

Friend? Love? Perhaps sign up?

I almost hate to do this, because looking back over the list I realized why I love my friends list... it's because all of you are fabulous people and I could pretty much write books about your wonderfulness.  At the same time, when I looked at each of the 34 usernames on this list and thought about a sentence that could describe that person?  These are what I came up with

( Which one are You?� Well, you are to me )

If there are one or more people on your friends list who make your world a better place just because they exist, and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the Internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

*squishes you all*

( Which one are You? )

based off of secondalto 's post here...

The NY Times article Abortion Proposal Sets Condition on Aid:

The Bush administration wants to require all recipients of aid under federal health programs to certify that they will not refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and even certain types of birth control.

more importantly:

The proposal defines abortion as follows: “any of the various procedures — including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action — that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”  [ emphasis mine ]

and finally,

“The proposed definition of abortion is so broad that it would cover many types of birth control, including oral contraceptives and emergency contraception.” [ emphasis mine ]

Feministing, as usual, has their own unique take on things, and even lovelier graphics, but I also believe they have a point - there seems to be some idea that if it offends somebody those who are offended have to be protected, which isn't quite how I think anit-discrimination laws work.

The full text of the draft memo that's sparked the whole debate [ in PDF form ]

A link to the Department of Health and Human Services' comment form (where you can express your displeasure.)

A link to the Planned Parenthood campaign form to "Stop President Bush's massive sellout of women's healthcare".

And, in my reading on this, I've found this site that has stories of people working in abortion clinics and the anti-choice women they gave abortions to (which makes for really interesting reading).  One of the many stories:

"I've had several cases over the years in which the anti-abortion patient had rationalized in one way or another that her case was the only exception, but the one that really made an impression was the college senior who was the president of her campus Right-to-Life organization, meaning that she had worked very hard in that organization for several years. As I was completing her procedure, I asked what she planned to do about her high office in the RTL organization. Her response was a wide-eyed, 'You're not going to tell them, are you!?' When assured that I was not, she breathed a sigh of relief, explaining how important that position was to her and how she wouldn't want this to interfere with it." (Physician, Texas)

And finally, an absolutely amazing rant by naamah_darling .  She is not at all fair minded, but she's passionate, and tired of all the shit (and by shit I mean the government attitude and the common discourse about women's rights to their own bodies), and I respect that, deeply.

Although this is still in the draft stage, and I completely understand that, I'm saddened, disheartened, and frankly terrified that this kind of thing could even get to the draft stage.

I figured out how Cinderella lost her shoe - if she was anything like me this afternoon, walking up stairs in heels, I only put the front half of my foot on the stair so I don't make that weird clicking noise that heels make on the floors in the Asian Studies office (they're some kind of formica stuff - institutional and easy to clean).  Anyway, feet are warm, slightly sweaty, and one shoe decided it was going to fall off instead of stay on as I was heading up.   I had to go back three steps to grab it.

I've worked, in the last two days, on both jobs for at least 6 hours each day, and probably more like 8.  They conned me into going to the temp agency today for a couple of hours.  I managed to get up to go in on Monday in the nick of time because Neil turned over at a quarter to 8 and asked me if I was going to get up.  Today I wasn't due in until 11, but I managed to get distracted by graphics (for them, mind you, but stuff I could do from home), and didn't leave the *house* till 11.  Then off to the department to turn in my time care for the other job ... had to make it before 5 to get paid properly.  I feel like I've been rushing frantically from one place to the other for longer than just two days.

And last night I decided I was going to push myself to finish projects for the Department, and then do some laundry, and then work on the stuff for the temp agency, and then email my advisor.  I managed to finish most of the stuff for the department, and ended up working up an emergency SOG entry.  At least those two things got done, though.   Before midnight.  That's the good part.  And I finished the temp stuff and started the laundry today.

The part that's amusing (to me) is that I'm leaving in 4 or so days for an entire month, and I'm finding MORE stuff for myself to do than I thought I would last week when I drew up my "I'm going to Japan, what do I need to take care of?" list.  Except none of it is related to my trip -- it's all things I have to get done before I go.  Thus I use my icon sarcastically.

i now have three more fic tributes that I want to post right now, but am trying to hold for an non-posty day at SOG.  GAH, the waiting is killing me!

I went to see a woman about my knee today, since the pain has pretty much stayed constantly annoying but totally undebilitating since about the second day after my injury.  The preliminary investigation of the x-rays shows ... nothing.  Which is good, as it means I probably just bruised the space in between the knee cap and the leg bones.  The bad news is it will probably still hurt all the way through me walking around Tokyo.

10 days to go!!  The countdown continues (and yeah, i know, it's past midnight, but it's still Tuesday to me).  this weekend will be spent doing all kinds of wonderful things like installing skype so I can communicate with my loved ones while I'm across the world.  I'm finally getting to the point where I'm making lists of things I need to do before I go, which is good, because otherwise I'd forget something important and the mail from the US to Japan?  not very fast.

I both remembered and forgot lots of Japanese today - it was an exercise in frustration listening to the conversation between my old Japanese professor and my advisor this afternoon.  And they were actually just telling funny stories.  *sigh* hopefully this month will change all that.

I seem to have a number of projects that I started with the intention of actually completing them *before* I left for Japan still unfinished.  soft_princess , I totally sent you an email tonight about one of them!!  Others are school related, and others are things I'd fully intended to do, but have been subsumed in the daily grind of temp agency fatigue and other emotional distresses.  Now that things are not quite as distressing as they could be (or I'm less on pins and needles about everything), I have the emotional time to do them, but not the ... *actual* time.  When is someone going to mass produce a time-turner??  I want one.

Neil and I got into a discussion (short) the other night about identification as we've both finished (Sun of Suns and Queen of Candesce by Karl Schroeder).  The first story follows (mostly) a young man (although this one woman character is introduced in the first book), and then the second follows the woman's story (and yes, you're right, the 2nd book title kind of gave that away).  He said that he didn't identify with her in the first book, but that I did because I always tried to identify with the female characters in the books.  I'm not sure if he's right or wrong or partially wrong.  I do tend to look for female characters in novels, but it's not as if I haven't had a lifetime's practice identifying with male characters (besides, it's been proved over and over again that identification does NOT fall along gendered lines no matter what).   But I did think it was curious.  Good books though.

sometimes when I wake up my mind is wiped clean from the worries of yesterday - like an open blank canvas where the murky colors of my dreams leave water-colored splotches that fade as I brush my teeth.

then yesterday, and yesterday's yesterday comes trickling back in, like the volume in one of those cars that adjusts for speed - the faster I wash my face and walk out into the living room the quicker my brain seems to come alive.

this morning, though, i woke up with an Oasis song already in my head from yesterday, and the world was already at my beck and call before I touched coffee.  Things I told myself I have to remember -

• i leave in 12 days for Tokyo
  
• how does the wallpaper i was up until 3 am making last night look in the morning?
• will every song we practice on Rock Band get stuck in my head that way or just the Oasis songs?
• It's time, far past time, for me to do laundry
• the dog is limping less, thank god, and she's going to be one of the people I miss a whole lot when I'm gone for a month
• the dishes are never ending
• My boyfriend is unhealthily interested in gameshows.  Unhealthily, I tell you.
• Leaving for Japan doesn't seem real, but it will be.
• we watch way too much reality TV - TLC, TLC, TLC.

what about you?  how do you wake up?  does it take that first sip of caffeine before your eyes open?

I went to a mock trial yesterday - it was really fascinating.  And the bonus?  Getting paid for giving my opinion.  My opinion was contrary to the other outspoken people in the room, so it was great fun to be the voice of dissent.  It's crazy how easy people fall into types in my head though - without knowing names or backgrounds or anything that makes people unique there were people I ... recognized.  You know, the lady who's in her 50's and very particular about how things are supposed to be happening, who had some legal experience and so was annoyed that they didn't "instruct" the jury as they ought.  The woman in her mid-40s wearing a long flowered skirt and a sensible top with frizzy hair who saw things in black and white, the younger (maybe 20s) guy who slouched in his chair and was  a total idealist.  The guy whose white shirt didn't totally hide his tattoos in his 30s with sharp eyes and day-old stubble who didn't want to make decisions fast and who tried his damnedest to be fair to both sides. 

Makes me wonder what my type is.  I know I've got one, and I used to be percieved as that girl in my classes - too precocious, doesn't know how to shut up.  But at this point I'm getting too old to be qualified as "girl" anymore.  Still don't keep my mouth shut though, but I don't know if I come off as an idealist or a know it all (probably both, but I'd like to know if it's a 60/40 split or the other way around).  I had trouble staying quiet while other people made their points, I was the one who directed conversation through the first run through and made sure every one in the damn room had the chance to give their opinion at least once, and I spoke up in the first group during the debriefing.  I wonder if, in 20 years or so, I'm going to be the woman who is all uptight about the rules.  Guess I'll have to ask the question again in 20 years or so.

( it is sunday night in kate-land and that means i have a week to recap )

Stolen directly from Miss eurydice72 ....

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let's see.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Put an asterick next to the books you'd rather shove hot pokers in your eyes than read
5) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

( this just proves that me being a lit major should not be a surprise )

Now, when does the forcing of books happen?  Cuz I'll buy another book shelf.

Now, if you're wondering what else is going on?  It's fairly boring stuff... ( which is why it is going behind a cut )

so, following antennapedia (hey, i am a sheep, and my desktop is not nearly as interesting as hers, but)... here is my desktop right now!



( want it explained...check here )

and this would have been my LJ entry, but I'm addicted to the wordle thing.


( ok, fine, i saved the words too, but they're kind of random )

go, go check out http://wordle.net/  !!

This is what an old entry from my LJ looks like

• updated my graphics website with ... well, some of the stuff it needs updated with.  Especially fic tributes.
• rescheduled my trip out to Japan via California so that I can go see my dad and co for a couple of days before hand
• watched one of my netflix movies - The Machinist - which wasn't as cool as it should have been given Christian Bale starved himself for it.  It pretended towards Memento, but never quite reached the same kind of tension, and was instead all about hard edges and delayed fear and ... at least to me ... almost obvious ending.
• remembered it was father's day (not early enough to figure out a card and get it in the mail or anything, but ... i didn't forget to call dad)
• put almost half of the 2007 summer_of_giles entries into the memories.  It's something I've meant to do forever, but since lj has the dumbest system for doing it, it's tedious.
• had good movie night with good friends last night.  We saw the new special edition of Blade Runner and it was just as amazing (maybe even more so w/out the silly voice over) as I remembered.  And we saw The Prophecy which was, in two words, pretty fantastic.  I can't believe I'd never seen it.  Erik Stoltz!  Christopher Walken!!!!
• actually have a fic to rec on giles_fic_recs  (not that there aren't some great ones being produced at SOG, but I figure most people who watch one comm watch the other!)
  

Went and had girl-dinner with a girlfriend of mine tonight, and it was perfect.  She's smart and funny and truly a close friend of mine and we don't just get together often enough.  I had a great time, ate *way* too much food (mmmmm....goat cheese), and drank these funny drinks called "Kristin" - a mix of raspberry vodka, lemonade and grenadine. 

I'm starting a temp job tomorrow at my temp agency.  This is after I stuffed invoices and checks for an afternoon for them last week (and, honestly, this is not a job I would have delegated to a temp because it allows the temp in question to actually find out what their own markup is... well, if they're curious while they're folding.)  On the one hand, it's great because it's a job and it's money and it has the potential for lasting for more than two days.  On the other I like short-term stuff.  I like staying up late and waking up late.  I like goofing around online because I don't have anything to do, and I like working up at the university when I get bored with the house.  But... $$

And it's actually not true that I don't have anything to do.  I've offered to help a friend try and collect on a job he'd completed (and now the guy he did the work for isn't even bothering to return calls), I'm developing branding for the Uni job, so they'll actually be able to have pretty things when I leave, I'm trying to get the dog washed and both the animals into the vet in the next weeks, and see friends and have an interesting summer.  Oh, and I need to write a paper for the two conferences I'm going to this fall since I doubt I'll have time to do it when the semester starts, and I have a 30 page story to translate. 

Why haven't I?  Lazy? Emotionally confused? Obsessed with the internet?  Take your pick - it's probably a combination of the three along with some low level anxiety going right along with.

In just five weeks I'll be heading back to Japan for a month of school.  The tickets are purchased, the application is submitted, and at least one of the friends in Tokyo is informed of my impending arrival. 

I want things to be settled at home before I go, and I'm trying to be hopeful about that happening in the next week.  We shall see how that goes.  All my fingers and toes are crossed.

my horoscope for the week:

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "I've been all over the world and have lived among every kind of culture," wrote Dan Liebert on mcsweeneys.net, "and I can say, without any hesitation, that the most ignorant, rude, selfish, and self-centered people on Earth are babies." I agree with him, though I've got to add that it's senseless to get mad at babies for being such jerks. Their brains simply aren't sufficiently well-developed to be any different. This line of thought can be applied to a whole range of bad behavior by people who have technically reached adulthood: They engage in ill-advised actions not out of evil intent but because they're emotionally immature. Keep that in mind as you deal with anyone who's doing unreasonable things. Be the composed adult who's in charge of leading the big babies.

OH Rob B - this is why I'm psychically in love with you, utterly and totally.  On days when I want to ignore all the wonderful things the universe has to offer, to be small and petty and snappish, you somehow figure out a way to nail all of my snarly annoyance to the wall, to make me jerk my head up, out of my ass.  It's a tough job.  I don't envy you.

• saw Indiana Jones tonight and quite liked it!  It did not spawn a deep seated need to break it into itty frustrated parts (like SitC).
• managed to get some work done this week, which was great!  And working from home definitely has fantastic bonuses.  Oh, and the temp job earlier in the week was fantabulous even if it was only for three days - lots of geeky engineers to say hello to, lots of time on my hands to read my own books, and some sorting of mail.
• I took a nose-dive into the sidewalk last night while walking the dog.  Nothing seems to be permanently broken, and I'm not really having any trouble walking.  I think I've bruised the bone though.  I'm the worst person for this type of thing because I bang my legs and knees all the time.  I've totally hit it three times since last night just by accident.
  
• took myself out to the coffee shop last night to take a break and just ... be.  It was fantastic.  I didn't get much done, but I did get to hang out, listen to Miles Davis, drink coffee and rose-lemonade, and play on the internet until about 11:30.  Refreshing, really, since most of my semester was spent needing to do *work* at the coffee shop.  Getting play time in made it even nicer.
• I don't know if you guys looked at my spring_with_xan redux post, but laazikaat, who runs the mega-Spike/Xander archive The Spander Files has awesomely added my fic graphics to the three fics I was so in love with:  Letters (by tabaqui ), Subleties (by anna_s), and Incident on the Bay of the Descending Dragon (by reremouse )
• finally, behind the cut I give you the first Friday Feedback List from summer_of_giles !!  It's been a seriously good first week, with a huge portion of talent being displayed (and not a little bit of smut, which always makes me terribly happy).  I think this bodes incredibly well for the entire summer.  So if you're not already on the SOG comm, or aren't tired of hearing me talk about it yet, check out what was posted this week...

( Summer of Giles - Week 1 )

Ok, so before I respond to all of your lovely comments on my last post i wanted to kind of work through this movie.

So here's the thing - I'm one of those people who will watch Resident Evil: Extinction all the way through (and then tear my way through it afterwards).  I tend to get caught up in a movie, watch the whole thing, and then come back to it later and I'm able to articulate things that made me... uneasy, uncomfortable, or happy.  So my first impression was actually that... SitC was exactly what it purported to be.  It was a chick-flick.  It was much like a long episode of the series.  It was... possibly more entertaining watching the women in the audience, but on the whole it could have been worse.

Now, though, it's several days later and I'm able to actually articulate some of my unease.  ( Thus I give you, on deeper consideration, what bothered me - SPOILERS BE HERE )

We're watching the Bachelorette right now because that's what summer-TV has done to us.  Except that I'm not, I'm actually enjoying fabulous ficcage at summer_of_giles  (it actually STARTED!  It did!), from elizabuffy  to drsquidlove to kivrin.  What a hell of a way to start off the summer!

This last week has sent me boomeranging from ok to not at all, from coping to hiding, from productive to utterly .... I won't say useless, but I actually reread books I've read time and time again that I actually decided weren't worth rereading.  I felt as if I picked up the graphics paintbrush only to put it down time and time again.  I'm trying to reach a balance and still feeling like a teeter totter.

Like yesterday - went and saw Sex in the City (which seems to not have made an appearance on the flist so you were all perhaps smarter than I ... I will hopefully get up the balls to do a tear-down of this film later, but it's sneaky poison, so beware).  Left me in a weird weird mood.  But coffee with lostgirlslair and the fiance and my darling was lovely, even if there was some bleed over.  We hit our intellectual stride right at the end again, though, and I love four parts of a conversation that all come together.  But then last night, getting home, I was back down again and not just emotionally but apparantly had some kind of sugar low so I spent half an hour almost convinced my emotional world was ending and the next two eating proteins and fruits and drinking apple juice to get my body balanced out.  And of course I felt like I was going to pass out from fatigue at 11 pm, but went to bed and read anyway and ended up tossing and turning forever after I turned out the light, so that sleep came in fits and starts.

Despite that?  Because of that?  I was up at 8:30 am (hellishly early if you asked me) and out of the house by 9 to get myself coffee and be at my temp job by 10.  They made me smile - it's a company filled with engineers, and it reminds me of the good old days at Feed the Monster Media when I was the girl who knew everyone (and answered the phones but did so much more than that besides).  Geeky engineers offered me breakfast tacos and conversation.  I'd brought my own granola bar though, so conversation was the only thing consumed.  Then there was the satisfaction of showing up to the Center for Asian Studies this afternoon (after buying myself healthy lunch - no sense in courting disaster) and organized, organized organized.  I got 300 emails down to 50, broke down and dealt with 5 boxes of ... leftover crap that had been taking up room in the office, and managed (I hope) to start to smooth the ruffled feathers of the woman who works the front desk and fancies herself a graphic designer.  She was still condescending, but I think starting to thaw by the end of the day.  Or not - I'm attempting to not care.

It was good, good without measure, to get out of the house and be doing something, not just living in the same physical and mental headspace of last week, of this house right now, and I'm looking forward to doing it again tomorrow.  Except, dammit, part of me actually wants a summer vacation!  (well, part of me feels like I should get one  - but perhaps the mental vacation is pretty much the same thing)

I am a great believer in found families and I'm not a great believer in blood. Although I love my family, even the ones I grew up with, to me I've always felt that the people who treated you with respect and included you in their lives were your family and the people who were related to you by blood might happen to be those people but that correlation was a lot less [strong] than society believes it is.  ~ Joss Whendon

Probably more than half of you have heard this.  It's one of the loveliest things I've run across today, though, so I thought I'd share it.  Also because it expresses a better concept of family to me than many others out there (and for me it means I don't have to be quite as depressed when my parts of my almost blood-family don't make the attempt to include me in their lives).  This concept of family lets me honor the people who have honored me.  That's worth it, I think.

Anybody else prefer a found family?

so the job officially starts on monday - I'm working for our department part time (YAY MONEY!  YAY WORKING FOR THE DEPARTMENT) - but it seems ... well, for lack of a better word completely unorganized and not very ... office-y.  And the woman I need to talk to, so that I can get a bunch of organizational information, is out of the office until next week.  The woman I "trained" with gave me about an hour and a half instruction on what she does and ... that's it.  That apparently covered her job.

So the stuff I thought was going to take up my week is definitely not going to take up my week.  And I've been finishing graphics for summer_of_giles , but the last couple of things I've done are turning out ... weird ... so I figured I'd better stop.

I'm seriously thinking about going to a coffee shop for a couple of hours because I think I have cabin fever.  We shall see.

Most of last week was pretty fantastic - the trip to whole foods was entirely worthwhile since we managed to feast like queens off of all the wonderful goodies we bought - imagine meals like stuffed peppers (with wild rice, mushrooms, smoky cheese, walnuts, zuccini and tomato inside), or potato knishs, or feta and spinach stuffed skirt steak, and little platters of cheeses and fresh strawberries and chopped veggies in between.  Dar and I watched all of Firefly, and then jumped right to Serenity in one crazy burst.  I managed to get myself signed up at a temp agency for summer work and then got a job for this last Friday (waking up way earlier than I'm used to).  The job itself was a total snore - not only because I hadn't gotten much sleep on Thursday night worrying about if i was going to wake up on time - but all I had to do was answer phones and read my own book.  I've even got an lj entry (hand written) around here somewhere because writing kept me awake.   Last night was some crazy family stuff that I won't get into, but today is the aftermath where all I want to do is read fic and watch tv.  Neil's home (yay!) beside me on the couch, playing video games while I type this.

Me and Daria and lostgirlslair went to the Zilker Botanical gardens on Thursday too, and I thought I'd share some of the pretty pictures we ended up with!

( so heres a little photo tour of our cute botanical gardens )

(from antennapedia - please everyone, consider yourselves *tagged*)

• Aerin, from Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown because not only does she fight dragons and wield a sword, she is funny and bright and quite often afraid and does everything (including falling in love twice) anyway.
• Lessa, from Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels (particularly Dragonflight).  She's tenacious, she builds her own family and life bit by bit, and she makes the big, crazy, scary decisions and then carries them out.
• Paksenarrion, from Elizabeth Moon's The Deed of Paksenarrion (it's three books compiled together).  She's wounded doing something that she ought, and hurt so bad and so deeply but even at the very very worst she chooses not to hurt the people around her... and then chooses life.
• Eowyn, from Tolkien's LOTR.  It may be trite to choose a Tolkien girl, especially since one of the major complaints about his works were the lack of real women, but I've always loved Eowyn - she falls in love too easily, but she's the one person in all the world who takes down the Morgul king.  The one.  And the one who recognizes Merry deserves to be part of the fight too.
• Gina, from Pat Cadigan's Synners.  In some ways the most practical woman, the one who takes care of it all.  The one who... gets things done, even when the doing cuts out your heart.
  

did you know there are black carrots?  They are not a joke - no, they are one of six ingredients in the black cherry italian spritzer we bought tonight (apparently used for their color).

While walking the dog tonight at 11:15 pm, I was cruised.  I mean the car slowed, pulled over beside me and the dog, and the guy had his window open and tried to talk to me.  Of course I laughed and kept walking.  Trust me, I am not the kind of person you'd cruise, even on a Sunday.  Especially not on dog walks when I'm in tight sweats (not the glamorous kind - more the kind that show I have ... norweigan hips and ass), a sports bra, a t-shirt I've used for painting, with my hair tied in a greasy ponytail.  I have no idea what in the heck the guy thought he was doing.  Domino, luckily, was completely unperturbed (which in my book is better than having her freak out).

I'm very glad I figured out how to deal with the remotes before Neil left for LA, otherwise I'd feel cut off at the knees.  A whole media center and no one to play with it - it would probably end up feeling neglected too.

here's a Cordelia as Snow White, Tara as Little Red Riding Hood, Anya as the Princess (and the pea), and others.  6 manips of the Btvs women in entirely different worlds.

teasers:     

( Come away, O human child: To the waters and the wild with a fairy, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.  )

Also, a HUGE congratulations goes out to the wonderful authors and artists who were recognized today at the indigo_crypt awards! Particularly mary5958 for best lj layout & best general fan art, and sueworld2003  for best general fan art! 

( I'm delighted to have been recognized myself for a couple of things )

So I had this crazy "idea" for my spring_with_xan day - I thought I'd make wallpapers (and virtual book covers) of my favorite Xander stories.  Of course, I have a list of a dozen stories I intended to include and I only managed to make six, but hey, I think I'm doing well.  So these wallpapers all come with links to the fic they're inspired by.  

( The quotes in these wallpapers are theirs, but the love is totally sharable )

now, for icon teasers:
    

( I'm not gonna waste the perfect comeback on you now. But don't think I don't have it. Oh yes, it's time will come! )

( picspam - my fav xan moments 3.13 through 3.16 )

i completely forgot to mention this!!  I am done, finished, completed, taking a deep breath and letting all of the other crap go DONE!  And have been since a little after 6 PM yesterday.

(although apparently I am so in the groove that I actually caught myself mentally revising my last paper while falling asleep last night.  I sternly told myself to disengage)

Now comes the wonderful break that is this week (though the days pass more quickly than I think they will).  To inaugurate the whole business I nabbed pick up italian food last night so we didn't have to cook, and we went to see Iron Man tonight, and tomorrow is my posting day at spring_with_xan so... deep, happy, fun filled days!

I happened to like the movie - the only thing I'm frustrated by is the name, simply because I'm working on Tetsuo: The Iron Man and BOY are they not the same thing! 

So there you go.  I'm off to prep my posts for tomorrow and try and do some last minute graphicing just... cuz.  :D

So, by this time tomorrow I will be done with my papers.  I may have a lingering translation hanging around, but ... I will be DONE. 

Now, the bad news - I didn't get a TAship for next semester.  I don't know where i'm going for summer.  I'm pooped.

The good news - I was offered an admin position through the school for next year that I can do with my eyes closed, which is fantastic.  The parental visit went great (although I had to work too much over the last four days to be really good company).  We only have 5 days left at summer_of_giles  and there are offers out by some very talented people to possibly pick up a couple of those.

It's my last break before I plunge back into the lovely world of prosthetics,  cyborgs and Tetsuo.  *deep breath*  NUM!

To all the Giles lovers on my flist: this is just a quick reminder - you have 7 days left to sign up at summer_of_giles !  Yep, that's right, 7 days until sign ups close (and our opening day is less than a month away!!!)

Just a note, we have over 50 available spaces still open!  (15 entire days open and the rest are days with only one sign up). 

We'd like to have at least one person for every single day, so please consider signing up!  And if you're half as excited about the summer as we are, please consider pimping to your flists to get the word out.

{check the master list} l {sign up now}

Whooeee!!  I'm buried under papers.  Or would be if they weren't all digital.  Instead I'm frantically tipp-typing away and trying to make sure there's plenty of coherency.  Finished the rough draft of the Asian Horror paper on Tuesday, turned it into the prof for comments, picked them up yesterday afternoon, and glory of all glories - IT'S NOT CRAP!  I still have some significant revisions to do, but ... she likes it!  She really likes it! 

Biggest load off of my mind in forever.  Now I'm writing the Globalization paper, basically trying to discuss how Japanese cyberpunk is essentially a global enterprise so as to prove my two pronged point that Akira and Tetsuo fucking matter.  It's going well. 

Then there's a translation that I've got due tomorrow, but I just asked for an extension so everything doesn't come down at once.  And got it!  Monday translation, here I come!

Now for the cool stuff:
- OMG!!  Chapter 1 of Jamie Craig's Forsaken is up!!  If you like m/m erotica, please go check it out, since I did the "book cover" for it and I'm exceedingly proud to be associated with these two writers and the awesomeness that is their story!
- all because of khaoschilde I decided to actually use my Deviant Art Account to upload some... well... stuff.  Old manips and wallpapers, and some pictures that, for whatever reason, I haven't uploaded to the lj.  Yes, I am a feedback whore.  Do they have 12 step for that?
- Neil's parents are arriving tonight for a 4 day stay tonight at 10 pm, and I actually have *help* cleaning the house because D. understands that, while I may seem psycho about cleaning, it's how I deal (and she actually has patience with it).  And Neil is chipping in!

And finally, from entrenous88 's choices, the ICON MEME!  This time with my horribly bad attempts at haiku.  Look, laugh, mock.  And if you reply to this post I *WILL* pick your icons, even though my response may be slow.

1. Reply to this post, and I will pick four/five of your userpics.
2. Make a post and talk about the icons I chose.  (OR write a fanku or drabble about each of the icons - inspired by icon mood, what it represents to you, or whatever)
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon squee. (YAY)

( and so, the pics were )

stolen from malnpudl , that gorgeous cookie....

1. Go to www.flickr.com or Google Images.
2. Type in your answer to the question in the "search" box.
3. Use only the first page.
4. Copy the html and paste for the answer.

( ok, mine is longer because I did this a while ago with a slightly different one - and forgot to post the pics )