Saturday, November 11, 2000

So it's six in the morning and I'm awake. Why? Because I was basically exhausted and went to bed at about a quarter after eight last night. Winter always makes me like this -- I never want to get out of bed, even when it's 40 degrees and raining out.

Well, the wind's blowing too, which makes it okay -- the ice all melted off the roads, which means they're just wet rather than slick. I don't mind wet pavement.

Got my bloodwork done yesterday -- three big vials for the fasting draw (insulin and hormone panels), then ten ounces of übersweet sticky orange soda stuff for the glucose tolerance test. Gah, that stuff is _horrible_. It was the only thing I'd had to eat or drink all day, which made it worse. Well, that and it was room-temperature, instead of chilled. If it had been cold, it wouldn't have been so bad.

So after sucking down a whole bunch of sugar in about five minutes, I got so sit around and be nauseated for 30 minutes before I had another little draw... And then another, thirty minutes later, and then another an hour after that. I feel like I've been chewed on by Hubie and Alvin... I kind of look like it, too.

I kind of -wish- I'd been nibbled on by them... *Snicker* I wonder if the glucose would make me taste sweet and orangey to them. And now for a wild digression...

I don't know enough about vampires. Most things I've read says that they can't eat solid/liquid food; a few things I've read (most notably Chocolatey Goodness, Spike/Xander fic) says they can. Most things I've read say that vampires cry tears of blood (which sounds messy); other things that they can manufacture saline solution, and therefore tears. Does that extend to saliva? Other bodily fluids?

Conventional wisdom also says vampires cannot reproduce sexually. Does this mean that males do not produce sperm? I would assume, also, that egg production would cease in females. What does that do to sex drive? (Not much, also according to conventional wisdom.)

And does getting bitten by a vampire result in euphoria/arousal, or is it merely painful?

How -did- Hubie get his ears, and why doesn't he have a tail?

Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:39 AM |

Validate another human being's existence -- tell them if they make the cut at Am I Goth Or Not?

Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:46 AM |

Know what I want for Christmas? Cleavage. Not that I think it'd make me happy, necessarily, but... I guess I hope it'd make me look better or normal or something.

I wanna know how come I have to live somewhere where no one dresses like this.

And I think my grandmother would kill me for that last sentence. Heh.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:46 AM |

Um. This index page made me laugh, even though it's kind of bizarre.

Ah, the Understated-Punk/Goth At School look. *Grin* I actually really like this picture, partly because it's so _different_ from most school pictures.

 

Grrr... I wanted to just show the picture from Cathouse Clothing, but in the interests of protecting their profits (which I can understand and appreciate, vaguely), they do not allow one to just click on the picture and get the URL.

So, you'll have to load the page, javascript sparklies (and _those_ are another rant altogether... *Mutter*) and all. I kind of like the idea of the shirt, though I don't think _I_ would ever wear it myself.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:48 AM |

Watch someone doing their thing. Read a William Gibson quote. I've always been alternately fascinated and very faintly appalled by the idea of webcams, mostly because they belong to strangers...

This has to be one of the most... Unusual shoes I have ever seen. *Blink*

Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:50 AM |

Yay! I _finally_ got something to upload on Elfwood! Note: IE 4.5 will -not- make my pictures show up on Elfwood. *Bouncebounce* So now I can go put up my other pics that weren't showing...

And now you too can read all about the life of a man that should find a new job.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:58 AM |

Thoughts while rereading the Nov. 6 issue of US Weekly:

What the hell did Drew Barrymore do to her -hair- for Charlie's Angels? It's like whatsernames from the remake of Gone in Sixty Seconds. Barf.

And speaking of attractive stars doing things to themselves, _I_ like Matthew Perry no matter what he weighs. Of course, I'm probably the only one, but hey. I've always been the odd man out.

Um. I was just proved wrong on the spelling of Vicodin -- bad memory. I could have -sworn- it was an a in place of the i...

And Jennifer Aniston is... Ugly. Blech. So is Lisa Kudrow.

Matt LeBlanc reminds me of the guy that played Ferris Bueller, whose name escapes me at present. I will remember it when it is no longer of great import, no doubt...

Jakob Dylan has always looked like a statue that suddenly decided to be human. I caught him on an old SNL the other night -- he was standing kind of hipshot, one foot in front of the other, playing his guitar and singing.... Gorgeous.

Ooh, lookie, what a role model: Jane Leeves, "perfect size six even when pregnant." Maybe it's just -natural- for _her_. Most women gain weight when they're pregnant, but not all of them do. *Mutter* I think I'll reread the Carnie Wilson interview, even though it irks me as well... For totaly different reasons, though.

And the fashion spread is utterly hilarious. These -things- won prizes for being the most fashionable? I'd like to see these walking-sticks wear that trash for a few hours downtown... Walking on the sidewalks, not around the malls.

And what possessed Milla Jovovich to particiapte? She could be so pretty, if she just wore 'normal' clothes...

Uma Thurman looks like a mannequin wearing a chenille awning.

Jennifer Lopez: synonym for 'too much money and not enough taste'.

Renée Zellweger looks incredibly uncomfortable in those shoes, and it appears her dress is going to fall off at any moment. Does money make you stupid?

Paul McCartney's T-shirt: "About flippin' time". Why is it that men usually get to dress in sensible outfits?

Cuba Gooding Jr. is the exception to this rule... A cowboy hat and white furry jacket? Oookay, whatever...

David Bowie idolizes David Spade... Or is it the other way around?

Macy Gray is like Björk. She can wear almost anything and get away with it. The Spice Girls (Former Spices?) should just go away now.

Kieth Richards looks a million years old. One more reason not to do drugs, smoke, or drink one's self insensible every night.

The Fashion Police spread just makes me giggle -- these people ragging on Björk. She's -Björk-, fer cryin' out loud! She's allowed to wear outlandish clothes because that's just who she is.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:54 AM |

Um. What's worse than giggling at Ronin action figures in the toy store?

Giggling at the term 'aspiration' when it's being used in conjunction with 'needle' and all of it is dealing with a biopsy of a mass. Oops.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:57 AM |

Write. Write now. Tell your story, tell someone else's. Write, so that people will remember. So that no one is lost. Write.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:03 AM |

*Pokes stuff*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 2:34 PM |

Thursday, November 09, 2000

For the last time, and for God's sake, I am NOT taking the frigging _PUBLIC_ bus anywhere in town! It is NOT convenient, it is NOT a "good way to avoid traffic", and it is NOT populated by people "just like" me.

I have to be at work before 8. Busses run on a schedule, which means that I am dependent on them to get me to work on time. I don't believe that they are capable of doing that.

The nearest bus stop, to my house, is at least a mile away. To get to work by 8, I would probably have to -leave- here at 7. At least. Probably more like 6:30 or 6. That's A.M.

To get to said bus stops, I'd have to either slog 2 and a half miles downhill or about a mile up-and-downhill along snowy, icy, _DARK_ trails.

And the people that ride busses are... Well, not _ususally_ the type of people I want to share my life with. They aren't like me. They wouldn't all mind their own business, or keep their children quiet (because I would inevitably end up on the bus with all the horrible screaming brats), or practice the ancient (and seemingly lost) art of courtesy.

And bus -drivers-... Those people are _crazy_, man.

This rant brought to you by the four hundredth ad/"suggestion" from the Ak. Clear The Air campaign on KNBA. Gah.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:56 PM |

Hmm... According to Emode, I'm a basset hound. I don't know that I -like- it, but I have to agree with their assessment. Odd. I'm also brown... I thought for sure I'd be grey.

 

I'm lurking in the new IWT location, wishing I had someone to RP with and trying to decide if any of the people there are worth exposing my precious characters to...

Any interaction with the players there will warp them. Every encounter changes them, shapes them and the future. If I don't care about a character to actually -try- to engage a stranger in a game, then I'm not going to want to play the C. If it's someone that I love to play, though... I don't want to play them because I don't want them to go in a direction I don't want them to.

Did that make sense?

With a few people, I know that I can just let go because wherever _they_ steer my C, it'll be interesting and possibly informative. (See Val and the whole Bar Mitzvah/Bris discussion. *Snicker* *Ahem*) But with a stranger... I think I've got a less-than-slight fear of falling into the typical meet-and-marry-two-days-later trap that 95 percent of GS/IWT/Nails' seemed to engender.

Not that I wasn't -immune-, but it -did- take longer... And I outgrew it. And Beej doesn't count. *Shuffles feet and looks away* Anyhow... Ooh, someone has the chorus to Blackbird in their tag... *Sigh* I love that song.

Yiffle. Sentence fragments, sentence fragments! Baaaaaad, -bad- sentence fragments.

I hate sentence fragments in RPing. They look so bad, and so... Dumb. They make you look dumb. Gah. *Shudders* *Takes a deep breath and calms down*

So. I wanna take a nap, but BSN6 comes on in a little while.

I should do some writing... I should finish cleaning up my room. So many shoulds, so little time. That's why I'm sitting here complaining to the void instead of doing what I 'shooould'.

I miss Mario. I hope he's okay... *Frets some*

Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:57 PM |

What does it mean when I can tell someone that they've misspelled 'Vicodan'? (Well, besides the fact that I spent waaaay too much time reading about drugs and stuff when I was younger...)

 

And, just in case you were wondering... Tori Amos, REM, and Radiohead (much like Jaromir Jagr) are _not_ the be all end all of music (or hockey). I just don't like them all that much, and I can't say why, yet. I just don't.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:58 PM |

Wednesday, November 08, 2000

The TechnoGoddess' Handbook: I've got a Mac and I'm not afraid to use it.

The Technogoddess' Handbook: A MacGeek Speaks Up

The TechnoGoddess' Handbook: A Mac Primer and Evangelistic Hotspot.

Eh, I'll figure something out. I need to find out how to change the 'Fax...' command back to the Print command. *Grumple*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 3:46 PM |

Apple-flavored Airheads candy is kinda scary-looking. It tastes okay, though, for all that I don't like apple-flavored things.

The candy I like best (aside from Cloud Nine) is watermelon Jolly Ranchers. It's not even a 'real' watermelon flavor, but they're darn tasty anyhow.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:18 PM |

Hockey night! It's hockey night! In Canada and everywhere else. Well, okay, -almost- everywhere else. In a few places, anyhow.

We're off to see the NHL Oldtimers (guys older than Guy Carbonneau of the Dallas Stars, even!) play the Aces, which should be fun. I think I'll be cheering for the old guys.

*Snicker* I also think that the NHL's 'Every player has a story' campaign is one of the best yet.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:20 PM |

I've been watching Blue Submarine Number Six on Cartoon Network the last couple of days, and it kicks ass. I'm thinking I need to own the series... I think what gets to me about the dubbing is that Japanese is spoken _fast_. Considerably faster than English is. When people dub English over top, they have to talk faster than they normally would to help make the words match the rhythms of the mouths. When English-speaking people talk really really fast, they sound really really dumb.

The idea-shifts don't sound natural. "Look the bad guys are attacking run for your lives!! Hiiro, why are you attacking Oz? Don't the colonies want peace? What could trouble your heart so to make you such a cold boy, Hiiro?"

Awful. It doesn't help that Relena's not the greatest character-idea that has ever occurred, either. *Cough* I'm sorry, I just don't _like_ her. And there's absa-frickin-lutely NOOOOO basis for her falling in love with Hiiro! Grrrr.

Sorry. Will stop, now.

So that's why I don't like dubs. They sound terribly unnatural, the voices tend to not go with the character (maybe Hiiro's only sixteen, but the Dubber's voice was not right for him. Midorikawa-sama's voice isn't exactly a little boy's, either, but it is SO much more -right-. And dammit, Duo may not be serious but he is not a stoner/surfer! *Ahem* I got on my soapbox again, didn't I? Oh dear.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:22 PM |

Speaking of Cartoon Network... *Giggle* It's Jonny! And, in a more serious vein, is it wrong, or at least weird, to see quasi-slash possibilities between Ed and Edd of Ed, Edd, & Eddy? Edd's usually nicer to Ed than anyone else ever is, and he seems to like Edd well enough... The reason I say quasi-slash is that it would just be _weird_ to write slash for characters that aren't even 16 yet. *Squint* At least, I'm assuming they aren't. They don't -seem- to be that old... More like 12 or 13.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:23 PM |

Sunday, November 05, 2000

Well, I figured out what Mercy really wants. He wants to be the one that brought in Kobelathalichen Myrsaalth and R. William Meyers. That will make him rich -and- famous.

Speaking of figuring out your characters, I recently came across a handout that my 12th-grade English teacher gave to me during my Pulp Fiction intensive. It was 25 questions designed to help you 'sketch' a character and bring them to life... One of the bonus things at the end was "Create a conflict between the character and an object in the room." That sometimes-useful advice gave rise to Mercy Vs. The Toaster. Anyhow! The questions were put together in a strange order, and I found it an awkward framework to fit my current characters into. So I took it apart and remade it in my own image. Feel free to use it for your own characters, or to modify it as you need to. I've already done a few of mine... It's surprisingly difficult, sometimes.

My Cs are found here. I recommend reading Mercy and Grace's in that order, if for no other reason than Mercy's explains Sector Fifteen. I don't know if I'll finish Marc and Vic's any time soon, or who I'll do next... I'm kind of leaning towards Maxim and Deuce. Or maybe Ko and Meyers, or Kesiir and Dythnaali... *Shrug* We'll see.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:43 PM |