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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
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| Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 |
itlandm
|
4:27p |
No control group
By now, I don't know which of my personality changes come from meditation, which from being a near-hermit, and which just from growing old. |
| Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 |
kemayo
|
7:45p |
Contwextual information
- [05:37] <kemayo> Very busy day yesterday. Walked all around downtown St. Louis, and looked at lofts. Found two which were quite promising. #
- [05:37] <kemayo> Today more walking around downtown St. Louis. Plan to do my conference call from downtown, too. #
Posted with Contwext |
nidoking
|
8:55p |
Finding the cup holder was my biggest accomplishment today
The first day of our meeting went pretty well, except that I foud out that we're having a party out near the base on Thursday. I don't want to drive to the base without my cruise control, even if I managed to locate the cup holders hidden in the dashboard at last. I gave The Lawnmower Man another try, but blew two of my continues just getting to the impossible level. then I forgot which side the second surprise gate was going to pop out of and lost. Oh well. I'll try again eventually. |
twoflower
|
6:52p |
Watered Down Entertainments and Vicious Pens
So, Warehouse 13. I caught the pilot for free thanks to Tivo/Amazon's integrated weirdness. In a nutshell: The Obligatory Tough Doubting Chick and The Obligatory Rugged Yet Open-Minded Dude and The Obligatory Casual-Atttitude Sporting Offbeat Nerd are tasked by The Obligatory Mysterious Badass Spook to guard a pile of randomly dangerous stuff and go On Location to various low-shooting-cost parts of America or possibly Vancouver to track down more randomly dangerous stuff using the power of the guy's "Vibes" and her "I see details" talents and every now and then they shoot a stungun at people. I was hoping for more, but that describes everything you could possibly want to know. It's got the depth of a kiddie wading pool. No doubt a haunted kiddie wading pool. The objects themselves, at least the ones shown so far, have little to no spooky, alien-feeling twists to them. The whole thing relies on genre blindness and investigative roadblocks to provide any sense of tension. And, this is the death blow for me, the characters have all the personality of a three minute egg, with predictable little Past Tragedies and dialogue that rivals Roland Emmerich's remake of Godzilla for the old staple of junior high school level maturity coming out of the mouths of 30-somethings. You want the same concept done better? The Lost Room has far more interesting and menacing objects with a better mystique to them and more clever applications thereof. The SCP Foundation has your government spook research and cataloging of mysterious artifacts done to perfection. Hell, even Friday the 13th: The Series swings the same basic concept and even the same cast archetypes better than this. I really wanted to like this, since I like all three of the above, but this was like the Near Beer of that genre. The Shirley Temple of government warehouses of spooky stuff. Pass. On a related note: Sometimes I thank my stars my own writing remains obscure. I don't know if I could cope with the kind of dismissive savaging of my work that I just gave Warehouse 13. Obviously you can't write something that everybody likes, and given I dabble in trope exploration and genre mashups there's bound to be someone out there who thinks my work is only suitable for papering the catbox. Thankfully I'm not a big enough target for said opinions to be published. I have a hard enough time convincing myself to keep going on these crazy projects to have to weather the slings and arrows of bastard-level criticism. (One of the many reasons I don't bother submitting my Mission Architect arcs to self-declared reviewer elitist snob puswads like Venture over in City of Heroes.) Still pondering the outline for a05. I've got my ruined-city problem fixed; now I'm pondering if I want to rely on another situation where Una's endanger'd. It's becoming a gimmick, but the problem is that the menace in question WOULD probably want to endanger any visting Orbitals, specifically, and that's what she is. I might be making it more contrived NOT to have her in the crosshairs. |
tsaiko
|
6:59p |
|
del_chan
|
6:53a |
Grandpa
My grandpa died yesterday morning. He lived from 1909-2009. He would have been 100 years old in November. And part of me is sad that he didn't make it to three digits, but the other part of me knows that he couldn't appreciate 99, that he was lonely and pained and just wanted to 'wake up dead' one morning. 100 wouldn't have meant anything. Or 100 would have been worse. 100 would have been all of us gawking and smiling and patting him on the back for his stamina and amazing will to live, when he had lost that years ago. I have fond memories of him from my youth. We visited him and grandma often. He was a simple man who moved to California from a small town in Iowa. He tinkered and built things for as long as I knew him. His one joke was that I was his "favorite granddaughter", because I was his only granddaughter. But if I've learned anything from deteriorating deaths in my family, it's that we all step backwards through our ugliest stages. To whining, crying adult babies who can't control their bodily functions, who refuse to eat, who have no coherent thoughts, who get wheeled around in strollers and walkers, who we try to inspire to mental alertness with toys and games failingly, who we put in day care and keep under watch so they don't hurt themselves, who sleep and sleep, only one day, they don't wake up. All those fun things seem like disgusting and cruel reminders that we're doomed to repeat them backwards, shedding every layer we grow to make ourselves different and better and coherent. If you want to look for something positive about someone, you have to look back at who they'll never be again, and even little bubbles of progress today may mean nothing tomorrow. That's probably why I don't like babies, and why I can't handle invalid old people. Because birth is too similar to death. Current Mood:  melancholy |
tsaiko
|
8:45a |
|
| Monday, July 13th, 2009 |
kemayo
|
7:45p |
|
shmitz
|
6:52p |
Life metaphors
Sometimes I feel like not only did I miss the boat, but it was the last boat ever, and its never coming back. Current Mood:  depressed |
nidoking
|
9:54p |
Fun, Tricky, Taxing, Mayhem... a Nidoking entry
Happy birthday, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sakanagai. We'll do something special to celebrate one of these weeks. The trip was okay, but I got the worst rental car ever. No cruise control, no power locks or windows... I'm surprised they even gave me a gas pedal. I was expecting a big hole in the floor and I'd have to run. Oh well. At least I only have to drive around town a bit. No more long trips until I go back to the airport. And I got a room without a wireless router for once, so I'm plugged directly into the router. No more dropped connections! (I sound like a diaper commercial. Maybe I need to make a product like that. The Internet Diaper - prevent data leakage and get a snug fit.) Yesterday, I came up with the best idea ever for one of those upper-class fancy clothing stores that have to be called "boutiques" because anything that sounds French has to be good and worth twice as much as any sane person would pay for it - "ə". It'd be cheap to name... all I need to do is get an "e" and turn it upside down. And it sounds French, so people would definitely pay top dollar for anything I would sell. Sorry... top franc. |
twoflower
|
9:01p |
anachronauts tidbit: post-post-apocalypse
I have no idea where to turn to research this, so I'll ask on the blog first. A major metropolitan city freezes over near instantly and stays that way for 200 years (and is in fact still frozen). What, if anything, is left that would still be functional / useful / safe provided you could chip it out of the ice or find it lying around? Any food, or would it all be spoiled and gone? Any gasoline? How about batteries? Edit: Fascinating research material so far, and only an hour since I posted it. :D It's looking like to have anything other than an unrecognizable pile of metal building skeletons full of utterly decayed or gone food and useless electronics I'm going to need to pull a supernatural rabbit out of a hat -- which is fine. I need some ideas for a05, anyway, beyond "And then they find this out, and fight something, I don't know, like a giant nazi t-rex with a laser gun, the end". Still, I have other opportunities, particularly in a07, to show an actual, honest to goodness city left to decay for 200 years. So hey, keep the P-P-A ideas and links coming! |
tsaiko
|
8:13p |
Thesis: Fail
I have to go back and do more analysis to make my committee chair happy. Sigh. So much for being done... Current Mood:  aggravated |
skyknyt
|
11:42a |
|
tsaiko
|
11:25a |
Bleck
Why yes body, I would love to celebrate finishing my thesis by getting sick. Thanks so much! Argh. Current Mood:  tired |
skyknyt
|
7:18a |
On eccentricities
How did the whole damned bunch of us turn out so eccentric? Actually if I had to guess, I'd blame it on our great great grandparents being cousins. Posted via LiveJournal.app. |
twoflower
|
8:52a |
The Weeaboo Disconnect
Every year, I go to Otakon. This is despite a lot of factors. It's despite the royal pain in the ass travel is in general for me. Being Ye Disabled, I have to utilize yon scooter type vehicle for navigating the throngs of otaku. I bought a new one this year since the old one, while a vertiable tank in terms of durability, just can't keep a charge going as well as it used to even with a battery replacement and it weighs an upwards of 78 metric tons. The new one is lighter, a bit sloppier on control, but stable enough. But on top of navigation, the whole affair of using an unadapted bathroom, unadapted resting space, and having nowhere I can actually sit down except yon scooter is a pain. Add on top of that my limited menu of things I like on top of the craptastic Food Court of Doom and, well, bleh. The only advantage is at least I don't have to FLY anywhere -- that compounds every problem by a factor of two, since then you need to make sure I can "sit" in the airplane seats (I can't, but I can fake it), get the scooter somehow checked in as luggage without them destroying it, deal with rental car issues, and so on. And obviously, I can't go alone, because I can barely do anything on my own without an adapted environment, and... I think I just went wildly off track. Ah, yes. Otakon. The main oddity factor is that I'm not really an otaku anymore. My starry-eyed fascination with all things Japan, coupled with a tendency to go "Wai!" and "Sugoi!" and "Koko wa Furinkan doko wa" and so on kind of came and went late high school / early college. I think the mystique of anime collapsed in on itself for me when I realized that Ranma 1/2 was not in fact a dramatic epic of love and triumph but in fact A) the thinnest excuse for a slapstick driven pile of cliche ever, or B) a hateful pile of madness and agony where nobody ever gets anything they want, ever, nobody is really friends with anybody, and nothing ever goes right and it's a miracle that none of the characters have committed a vast and sweeping murder-suicide by this point, or C) both. After figuring out that it was just a TV show and not a transcendent experience I started realizing most of it was basically just animated entertainment and nothing more and the whole affair felt kind of ordinary. I stopped following what was new and hot in Japan, keeping up with the Jones-chans, etc. But I still go to the conventions. I like the art style in general, I like collecting figurines and UFO catcher dolls that meet my aesthetic requirements even if I don't quite recognize the series they're from, I like the fan music videos, and I like the general con atmosphere of communal geekery. However, if you asked me to identify any one specific anime that's less than 5-10 years old my chances of success would be low. Go figure. Next year I think we're skipping Otakon in favor of PAX East, though -- an experiment. I'm absolutely a video game fan, after all, and despite having to head up to Boston for it (I hope we can avoid a plane..) it might be more firmly up my alley. We'll see. EDIT: I know I'm not supposed to cheer on the suffering of others, but if it were possible, I'd probably order a nicely decorated cake reading "Congrats on the terminal pancreatic cancer you douchebag!" sent to Kim Jong Il today. |
skyknyt
|
12:14a |
|
| Sunday, July 12th, 2009 |
nidoking
|
11:01p |
At least I haven't thrown away my bottle yet.
Today's Manga: I got the final books of Captive Heart, Fruits Basket, and Kitchen Princess. I'll be sad to see most of those stories end. I also got Tsubasa 22, Fairy Tail 7, and Negima 23. Today's Games: We stopped by the mall, because I thought the food court might provide a decent meal (I know... duh), but we checked out the EB while we were there, and I decided to get a copy of Ar Tonelico 2... just in case someone else decided to buy it first. Then we stopped at Game World on the way home to look at their used games for older systems. Curt got a new Playstation One and some games, while I picked up the Banjo-Kazooie games for N64, Lemmings for the PSP, and Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare for the Dreamcast. I may try to LP it someday, if I can beat it successfully enough and if I get something that lets me record video from the Dreamcast. It might happen. I didn't do any packing for the trip today. I really should get to that. But I still haven't finished putting away the new manga. I have my priorities. |
kemayo
|
7:45p |
Contwextual information
- [22:57] <kemayo> Another long day. Spent it all with the in-laws at a party. Delicious ribs. #
- [23:41] <kemayo> In positive development for Kellie, watching me give her a backrub put the baby to sleep. #
- [11:24] <kemayo> Day 3 in Missouri: massive thunderstorm. Not waking up Danielle, thankfully. #
Posted with Contwext |
tsaiko
|
2:27p |
I feel pretty!
I was at Jo-ann's today, which is a giant craft store. miome was looking for beads and I was just wandering around. I walked by one of the aisles filled with feathers, masks, etc. and saw a man who was in his late 20's or early 30's trying on feather boas. He noticed me watching, quickly put it back, and scurried away. Which was a shame. Of course, I had to tell Miome when we got in the car. Tsaiko: I kind of wanted to tell him 'Don't stop on my account.' Miome: Little did he know that the feather boa made him 10x as interesting! |
skyknyt
|
1:39a |
|
| Saturday, July 11th, 2009 |
twoflower
|
11:29p |
a04 is tripping balls, yo
Your attention please; the captain has turned on the Massive Pretension sign. Please remain seated with safety belts securely fastened. I probably went completely overboard on the surreal imagery and heartwrenching backstory, but hey... when you're locked into a serious melodrama groove, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. And this completes a04. As I keep saying every time I finish one, "I have no really solid ideas for a0X and so it may take awhile," which seems to mean "I'll get a great idea eight minutes from now and have an outline ready in a few hours." We'll see if that maintains. No promises. EDIT: For the curious, the thing I was last-minute rewriting was Emily's final flashback. I found the original draft I ran by my sister prior to posting -- she confirmed that yes, it was a rambly and unfocused mess which put too much emphasis on Emily's ego. If you'd like to see how Ye Writing Processe works, check out the scene draft. I kept a few parts, but by and large I jettisoned most of it and started over. |
assassingalaxia
|
7:55p |
I am currently stuck in the Rapid City, South Dakota airport and have commandeered borgrat's laptop to keep warm and to whine discuss my extended stay in the terminal. Ok, not really. But I am alive, and I'll be spending tonight in Salt Lake City, not my own bed, and missing my first volleyball game tomorrow. Otherwise, the trip was awesome. -Sassi |
nidoking
|
10:47p |
I wasted all my "nothing day" posts on days that were something.
I didn't even go shopping today. I figure that I'm not going to be reading any manga this week, so why bother? I've got enough to get me through the weekend, and I still haven't come up with a birthday present idea. I'll probably do something tomorrow, at least. So I spent the day watching some Twilight Princess gimmick videos, reading the transcripts of the Enchanter trilogy, and kept up with the new Dream Zone thread. I'm hoping the pace picks up a bit before I have to start spending my days at work again. And I played a bit of inFAMOUS later in the day. |
kemayo
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7:45p |
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