katekat1010

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:


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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.

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!

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)

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?


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Friend? Love? Perhaps sign up?

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.

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

This is what an old entry from my LJ looks like

• 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 )

sorry, when in doubt i'm going to go with a list:

Academically

• For the remaining three weeks of the semester my Globalization classes will be held at a local pub.  Bubble & squeak and Cider here I come!
  
• Didn't get into one of the summer Japan programs I wanted to go to.  It's one of the top programs, period, so this is ok.  Still waiting for the other program I *really* want to go to (had to send them transcripts from UCSC this week).  Keep fingers crossed. My fingers and toes are completely knotted.
  
• My favorite horror movie from this term was definitely Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.  However, my second favorite is probably Fruit Chan's Dumplings, which really must be seen to be experienced.  Seriously.  So the discussion on Tuesday about the film was fantastic.
• Cavite (Tuesday night's film) was F U C K E D U P.  And I say that on the heels of having watched Dumplings, a movie about ( cut for disturbing content - mommies do not read )  And yet, Cavite was still more disturbing, in an entirely different way.
• I got a Study Abroad Scholarship!  Now if only I can get into a school abroad for this summer.
• Finished the story I've been translating in one massive push on Wednesday.  I'd been trying to do it since the Friday before, and finally just ... did it.  Sadly I have comments back from my advisor already that I'm afraid to look at.  Soon though.
• Made it to the class I'm auditing twice this week - of course, one day was filled with an entirely fascinating presentation about the history of the kimono, and another just freakishly interesting pictorial tour of Japanese palaces and shrines (or, at least, some of them).  / sarcasm.  The "history" of the kimono was something I could probably find off of Wikipedia if I looked.  The "pictorial tour" was basically this woman who threw her pictures of her trips to Japan up on the overhead in completely random order, and occasionally remembered to mention that this or that place had been part of our reading.

( Personally )

Fandom-ally (*grin*)

• summer_of_giles sign ups open on TUESDAY!  And I can't wait to see who signs up.
• I'm petitioning to move my spring_with_xan date up because seriously, it is HARD to hang onto graphics and not post them.
• Also, a pimp/woot (and this is kind of fandom-ish in that it's art).  Vivian Dean asked if I would do a cover art for her and Pepper Espinoza's upcoming erotic romance serial Forsaken (they write together under the pen name Jamie Craig).  Not only was it absolutely awesome to actually have someone think of me to do their cover art, i couldn't be more pleased that it was these two women who'd asked.  The teaser for the serial (it gets published on a blog for an entire two months) can be found here if you want to check it out (and you really should!  They're a fantastic writing team).  And here's the artwork itself:
   
  

and I think that's far too long, but oh well, it's bullets. I am off to get ice cream ;)

it was supposed to be fantastically productive and instead it's been fantastically crappy.

( where i've been from friday-wed )

Speaking of Terry Pratchett, if you haven't heard, he was diagnosed with a rare form of alzheimers, and has donated a million dollars to their research.  And there's a fan movement called Match it for Pratchett that hopes to raise a matching amount as a show of support for the awesome author:

Match It for Pratchett

Then there was yesterday, the "I'm trying to get work done, really" day ( where D & I ran up to campus )

( in the day-to-day life )

( fandom-filled goodness )

thank you to the *darlingest* darlings who nommed me at the forbiddenawards !!!  I'm nommed in both best layout for spring_with_xan (which I'm so pleased about as I could cuddle that layout if it was possible) and also for the darker_xander banners!!  (which also turned out much better than i thought they would - yay)!



if you are at all inclined to nominate for awards, please go check them out and nom!   it looks like they could definitely use some nomes in non spangel or spander slash, best finished story (het or slash), best threesome, and best layout and icon categories!  I know for a fact, from my delightful little poll, that most of you think awards are a great way to recognize people for their work so... ;)

Ok, so, first off, someone nommed me at the SOTHAs for the Xander/Riley banner I made for xanzpet 's fantastic set of X/R ficlets (if you haven't read them yet, they're AWESOME and NC17:  Second, Linger, Nadir) !  Thank you, you crazy darling!

And, also, this is kind of a semi-self-pimp.  I've been configuring lj layouts for people lately, and wanted to post a list of everything I've modded so far.  SO, here's the list (to be added to as I do more):

_xangel (a Xander/Angel shipper comm)
musicatwork (a Tragically Hip lyrics challenge comm)
beegee_icontest (a Buffy/Giles icon comm)
fall_for_spike (a seasonal Spike comm)


finally, dunno if you like/read Xangel (but if you do, you probably already know about the comm).  Just in case... PIMP!


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i hope everyone's having a fabulous weekend! i'll post on mine later...

Hey all, this is just a quick little note to let you know summer_of_giles sign-ups are closing and we still have a bunch of slots open - so if you were considering submitting, we'd LOVE to have you!  Check out the master list, pick your day, and come join the fun!

Ok, first off, check out this meta (link via sl_podcast )

What you want, what you need: fans and endings, and narrative satisfactions
 
From the article:

Authors are readers, and authors desire order and satisfaction as well. But the job of an author is to suspend satisfaction, that is, to sustain the reader's desire so she'll finish the story. Therefore the author's discipline is to resist the narrative path-of-least-resistance - in simple terms, to put off the happy ending. In order to balance security and risk/conflict, the author plays on generic expectations, so that the reader is simultaneously reassured (by the appearance of familiar tropes and structure) and challenged (by some appearance of newness - the fiction that this time it might be different).

Also, from fanthropology, there are three people who are trying to gather some informal information on slash - and they're really really interested in people who don't read slash answering their poll.  So, if you're bored, clicky!

From their poll header:

We (myself and my two co-moderators, shoemaster and lovelokest) are trying to gather some informal statistics on whether or not most fangirls (or fanboys!) are open in "real life" (RL) about reading/writing slash (i.e. are you in the slash closet?). We are co-moderating a panel at a very small fangirl gathering and this information will help us in our discussion. We would be very appreciative if you took this poll and PIMPED it to EVERYONE you know INCLUDING NON-SLASHERS. Thank you!!

Ok, I know, it's overused, but ... I love that line.

Managed to do most of the stuff on my to do list for the last couple of days.  Most, but not all.  Now we're ready and packed and waiting for our time to come so we can leave for the plane.  And I'm making Neil watch gilmore girls (my secret love that he almost can't stand... but that's fine, he's the one that's made me watch endless reruns of the Match Game).

( cut for endless babble about the chores )

( omg! also nommed at the forbidden awards! )

After a short discussion with entrenous88 in comments the other day about B/G fic, I have a question/favor to ask of all of you:

What fics would you suggest to someone who is resistant to Buffy/Giles as a romantic pairing to kind of get them started?  Or, what fics do you think would convince someone that the pairing worked?  This is a slightly different list than those "must read" ones, and so I'm hoping to get suggestions y'all that maybe delve into the potential of B/G in more ways than the usual.

Not that I'm opposed to links to smut fics, actually, if they somehow also provide an interesting look at the two and why they're so perfect for each other.

So, how would you convince someone?  In fic links, I mean...

The last couple of days have not been entirely filled with homework for me.  No, instead I got into this crazy idea that I would help out xdawnfirex in her project to get the Buffy/Giles Fanfiction Archive back online.

You see, for most of us that love Buffy/Giles, the website www.buffygiles.com was the place where we found boatloads of fics to satisfy our craving.  But for the last year or so it's been having hosting problems, and it was pretty much given up for lost.

That is not the case now!  Nope!  I spent most spare moments of this last week (and some not so spare, to tell you the truth) taking codes that nemo88 was sweet enough to let me have en masse (THANKS AGAIN NEMO!  YOU ARE THE STUNNING ROCK!) and reskinning the old website so that it's a little bit more up to date, and hopefully the fics are slightly easier to read.

fiareynne provided the webspace, supermom20 & xdawnfirex rewrote some of the intro texts and secondalto bolstered and provided moral support, and what we ended up with is pretty damn fabulous!



www.buffgiles.net

so go check it out!

saying that I had a sneaking suspicion was going to be a good day... AND I WAS RIGHT!

Things that have actually gone right today:  I woke up for a change!  At 9 am!  And learned my japanese vocab!  And did other trifling things like have coffee, pet the cat, smoke with the boy and say good morning - you know, all of those delightful things that are involved with waking up when one doesn't have to leave for school until 11 am.  Now my only hope is that I can keep this schedule and not sleep in every morning.  The temptation is there, trust me.  The bed, especially when it's cold,  is incredibly hard to get out of.  But I have things to do!

Other than that, class was great, I managed to bring up Foucault in class (and he was immediately shot down by our Prof, a fact I have grown used to, and can smile about).  And Japanese went incredibly fast and quite swimmingly! I even managed to have fun hiking back to my car (now that I don't have a part time job I can't justify parking in the paid parking... but it means a mile or so and surprisingly is uphill both ways.  No, really, it is!)

I got home and got to have leftovers - I say got to because the other night I made mushroom soup that turned out to be scrumptious, and today was just the kind of day you want to eat mushroom soup on - cold outside, warm inside. 

Then what do I do?  check email and find out:


And if you haven't figured it out, I'm also going to pimp the site I was nommed at.... see, pimping!  So please head over and nominate your favorite icons/ headers/ banners/ wallpapers/ character drawings - anything and everything that's btvs/ats fan art!  They need nominations, and i know that y'all have your favorite artists!

The Sunnydale Fanart Awards
the award site for Buffy and Angel fanart.
Round 3 open now!

Just a quick reminder that Contest 48 closes tonight and we need entries!  You know you missed making Buffy/Giles icons, you know you did!  Find out details about the contest (and enter) right here.

Delicious

So gray_ghost finally bullied me into updating my delicious account.... I've now uploaded ALL of my bookmarks, and am slowly going through and sharing them to the world.

Damn I bookmark a lot. 

If you're bored and you want to make an account, delicious is a way you can share your bookmarks to other people in your network (and keep 'em online for access from any computer, I suppose).

If you get on, and want my weird bookmarks (really, they go from obscure japanese anime to all my graphics resource websites to poetry to math to ... yeah, i bookmark a lot), I'm (not surprisingly) katekat1010

LJBook

I don't know if anybody else occasinally freaks out that LJ is gonna go down and you're going to lose all your entries.  Maybe it's just me.  But there's this totally free way to actually create a PDF book of your live journal.  For all of my entries it took about 3.5 minutes and now I have a pretty document that even captured thumbnail versions of most of my art! 

Check it out!