Thursday, July 26, 2001

W2: Last night, we came to the conclusion that while Whit has Kenshin and Ashlea has Trigun, I have not found my One True Love Anime. I am polyanimeorous.

I think this is what people mean by 'Blog stalking' -- they find themselves constantly amused/amazed/just plain fascinated by the people responsible for the posts on their favorite blogs, so much so that they. Can't. Stop. Linking. To. Them. (Yes, it's Technomancy. Again. They're -Mac- geeks, they _love_ Trigun/Kenshin, they write -yaoi-, they make me want to take up a life of crime to support my anime habits and theirs.)
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:45 PM |

I wish I knew how to say 'Heini'. For now, though, I'll just say 'Pretty!'
Posted by: Shannon M.: 3:18 PM |

I like Silas' new stuff, and I've always loved Mike's art, though I can't exactly say -why-. Well, I know why I like The Great Baraku's First Kiss, but then, that's obvious. I need lunch. And I am _SO_ happy that Elfwood is back... Now I need to scan and tweak...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 3:20 PM |

Aigh! I -know- I know where the quote at the top of this page comes from, I just can't -remember- it. It's... British, right? *Squint* And all I can think of, for some reason, is Neil Gaiman. *Squintsquint* Sandman, maybe? Or Neverwhere? Or am I completely and totally off-base?
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:17 PM |

I would be sooooo lost in Iceland.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:22 PM |

More tidbits...

Sex Vs. Studying For Midterms -- a CLAMP yaoi site. (Okay, so that's not the -whole- title, but I'm not in the mood to type a lot right this second.)

Minipops. Like sprites or chibis, only less detailed. They've even got one of Tony Blair. Odd.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:33 PM |

I have no idea what this is, or what it's about, but the pictures are pretty.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:40 PM |

I've seen Warehouse 23 before, but I got hold of a different part of the site. The contents of the boxes are highly amusing, but I'm waiting for the Bavarian Light And Power ad to come around again. *Snerk* Obscure humor, my favorite.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:55 PM |

Eek!

You open one of the 992 boxes on this floor and find...

A physical-political map of Canada, labelled with the main geographic features (cities, rivers, mountain ranges, etc.) in some detail. There are several hundred locations marked with a prominent red "X". The map legend keys these as the locations of hidden missile silos. All of the locations are within 100 miles of the 49th parallel or the Yukon-Alaska border.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:05 PM |

Bwahaha!

You open one of the 992 boxes on this floor and find...

A grue. It calmly explains that it's not dark, so therefore, it won't eat you. The lights begin to flicker...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:09 PM |

From the second level:

You open one of the 1000 boxes on this floor and find...

A crate of aerosol spray cans labeled "Greyco Instant Hair" in assorted colors.When first applied, it looks like wet spray paint, smells like burning rubber, and stings slightly. However, as the product dries (in 5-7 minutes), it metamorphoses into very real-looking hair that is firmly attached to the scalp.The resulting hair is water-soluble, however. It dissolves into a gummy mass when wet.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:32 PM |

Hi. It's time for Tool Identification Studies! I'm your host and teacher, Shan. Is everyone ready?

Good. Okay, I want you to look at this picture. Take your time, study it carefully. Can anyone tell me what that tool is called?

That's right! 'Vicegrips', for keeping hold of all of those not-quite-legal habits you may have. It is NOT a wrench. Good job, everyone.

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled...whatever.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:40 PM |

I'm looking at Topcities' backgrounds for their EZ-Bild pages. I actually kinda like this one, though I doubt I could use it in its current state.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:42 PM |

Okay, I'll bite. What on _Earth_ was Harlyss' last name? It started with a P, I think...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:58 PM |

These are all the Cs I remember off the top of my head. If I missed old favorites (or people who are glaringly obvious in their omission), lemme know.

Blackwater Jones

Carrot Teaselweed

Dythnaali

Kessir

Khobelithalichen Myrsaalth

Phitche Valentine

R. William Meyers

Maus Biderlack (both incarnations)

Sherman Silver

Lythen Rhysse

the alluring Spiffy Bugcatcher

Celare Tansey

Dinwiddie Slough

Alvin Ezra Betzalel

Zedekiah

Hubert (St.) James

Bita

Carter

Blinky Starduster

Orion Starduster

Mulholland Stottlemyer

Petropavlovsk Valaparaiso

Marc-Paul Furnier

Victor Viazhi-Litskov

Conrad Edgecoombe

Laurel FizzWicket

Le'edra RavenSmith

Nedru T'zzard

Nocturne Speedlight

Cricket Peppercorn

Harlyss P--?

Willow Thornblossom

Marune Koibito

Spencer

Clark Sands

Thomas Z. Murphy

Cole Amantialldo

Mercy Grace Faith-Murphy

Grace Mercy Faith-Murphy

Kristjan Matthews

Gavrilin Matthews

Lucian Alderman

Istvan Ennismann

Lunelda

Geoff Sanderson*

Zaidie Kincade

Nomi Jones

Randazzo Jones

Vasti & StrayRook

* -- I can't remember if I spelled his name Jeff or Geoff. I could go look it up, but... Ooh, Bright Shiny...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:08 PM |

Oh!

Sparx Malloy

Aunty Innove

T'zaida and Ray... Raieth? Those guys from Random Fiction that I wrote way the hell back when we all first met...

Broaddus Cassingham (Editor-In-Chief/CEO/Grand Poobah, BTN)

Corvette MacBeth

Chickadee and her sister... Uh... Her. Yeah. McGee, the TOSCH girls.

Hannah 'BoomBoom' McGee, no relation.

Asti, Mats, Zubie, Helizpe and the rest of the Basques

Jake and Crowe, of MiLVO/Max'n'Deuce

Acey Delco

Maxim LaRouge

Deuce Proxy (P.I.)

Finch McCade

Herbert Lichtelman

That's really all I can remember, for right now. *Blinkblink* I'll keep working on it, and I _know_ I had a fairly comprehensive list online _somewhere_...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:16 PM |

*Giggle* I so completely forgot about this... Catgirls!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:36 PM |

I _KNEW_ I had a list _somewhere_. And I can't believe that I forgot -Jor-, of all people. Icky. Or the Raisincains, for that matter. And look! More elves! Ruby was a plumber, and Malachai was in -such- denial over his sexuality... Of course, when one belongs to a sect in which one isn't supposed to have a sexual feeling in their -body-... And Trinity! She made Finn's hero blush. Oh, what -was- his name? Fraser Lyn Coventry. *Grin* I remembered! I loved Fraser. He was such a good sport...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:41 PM |

Durango Sweet! Wai! I'd forgotten about him! And of course Biff, and Avi, and... Well, everyone. *Sigh* Bingo! Bingo-as-Sprite and Bingo-as-Radio-Personality...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:44 PM |

Well, -crap-. It looks like Go finally folded the chat and homepage side of things... Well, at least I still have a lot of info on disk and in other places.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:49 PM |

Well, this is good. I very carefully put all of my passwords and other important notes into a textfile. I then uploaded this file to the now-defunct Driveway. Of course, that was only one copy of it, and it merely makes my life somewhat inconvenient, instead of threatening all of my precious data. Mmph. I need to rememorize my Tripod passwords... The only ones I can remember are for accounts I don't currently want to get in to.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:54 PM |

Yeah. Gross, isn't it? If I knew where that picture was, I'd rescan it. as I don't, however...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:58 PM |

Harlyss' last names was _Culpepper_. I -knew- it involved the word 'pepper', but I didn't think he was another Peppercorn.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:05 PM |

Er... A Russian anime-download site. *Blinkle* Oh, and that's Japanese anime, not Russian anime. Though Russian anime might be cool to see, too.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:28 PM |

I got a copy of whatever stupid virus is out there -- the 'I need your advice!' one. It likely won't affect my home computer, and since Yahoo is actually -very- cool about _not_ opening/automatically downloading attachments, I was able to check on the contents of the e-mail without infecting my grandmother's computer, which already has a virus of some sort.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:40 PM |

Alexandra's LJ...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:51 PM |

Muh. I'm going to go do something else, since I've been immobile (more or less) for the last couple of hours...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:52 PM |

Wednesday, July 25, 2001

I can't think of anything else to say about Maus that no one already knows about him, save for things I -don't- want to reveal, yet, 'cause they belong to MooT. So. I guess I could talk about Silver instead...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:01 PM |

Er, more specifically, Silver's name. His full name is Sherman Silver, and since I was a ninny and left ALL of my babyname books at home, he's the result of opening my 9th grade history book and poking a random page. He's named for the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.

The Sherman Silver Purchase Act was the result of falling silver prices. It authorized the purchase of 4.5 million ounces of silver a month, paid for with paper notes. Treasuries were buying -all- of the outputs of -all- of the silver mines in the U.S. at that time (during the 1880's) and the miners were expecting a raise in silver prices; farmers (who had lobbied Congress to enact this law) expected a flood of paper money that was actually worth something (that is, they wanted a shift from a gold standard to a silver).

It didn't happen. The mines produced far more silver than had been expected, so the price of silver didn't rise (demonstrating once again the importance of supply and demand)... While there -was- more silver, and more paper money that was worth something, it wasn't enough to affect the economy. Eventually, the SSPA was repealed, though repealing it didn't help any more than enacting it had. Oh well.

The book's title is 'People And Our Country', and yes, it's the inspiration for Maus' first book title.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:14 PM |

Good Lord. *Blinkblink*

Okay, I just got off the phone with the mother of three of the handsomest boys at Gateway... *Blinkblink* Jeff's getting married. Gabe's married. Sean, whom I remember as a brat that got on my nerves and constantly sung 'Brass Monkey', is -married-.

I can't believe it... Though I know I -should-, since Gabe and Jeff are at least two years older than I am, if not more. But -Sean-? _Sean_ was the baby of the family. How can he be -married-? The mind boggles.

Fun Fact: This is the woman that gave me Rick's mother's middle name.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:29 PM |

Speaking of people that live in Texas... Ms. O'Day is coming up over Thanksgiving. I've seen pictures of her -- she looks nifty. And she makes my dad happy, so that's good. I'm still nervous about it, though. Dad keeps telling me that I don't -have- to like her, but that's -not- what I'm worried about -- what if _she_ doesn't like -me-? Which is silly, I mean, she can't exactly decide if she hates me if we don't see each other all that often, right?

I've never had step-anythings before. I know it's not going to be Cinderella.... And -hey-, her daughters are the older ones. I could end up with -sisters-. *Blinkle* Life is weird.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:41 PM |

Excuse me, but flying a powered parachute does -not- qualify as an 'extreme' sport. You take off from a solid, level surface (preferebly a paved airstrip, but it's not utterly necessary), the only danger involved is that of your chute getting tangled in your prop, which is an extremely unlikely occurrence (at least in midair) -or- getting blown off-course. One of the guys my dad flies with once clocked himself being blown backwards at 11 miles an hour. And it's a -parachute-, how safe is -that-?
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:49 PM |

Tripod's Super Member Site that brought about the foregoing, misfiled under 'extreme sport'.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:50 PM |

What's so freaking -special- about hand-coding pages in NotePad? So you like to spend forever tweaking tags -and- generating content -and- debugging. Whoopee. If you wanna, go right ahead. Just don't tell me how flipping -righteous- you are and how I'm scum 'cause I use a WYSIWYG HTML editor.

This post brought to you by Those Of Us With Not Quite -That- Much Time On Our Hands And Who Hate Having To Remember To Use Tags Instead Of Just Hitting Return Like Usual.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:00 PM |

Archive and other page-tweakage. Did it work?
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:09 PM |

-Now- the Archives link works. Amazing what leaving out an equals sign will do...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:13 PM |

I've been thinking about my characters. More specifically, the CData sheets, the fact that I forgot Neddy's name, and the fact that I occasionally managed to keep their secrets secret from muns and Cs alike.

In short, I've got this urge to make some sort of character catalogue, with bits of backstory, facts, faqs, and whatever else I think to add... I don't really want to work on it from -here-, though, because while I'm quite proficient at my strange brand of six-fingered touch typing on an ergonomic/split keyboard, I don't have ready access to ClarisWorks HP. I love that piece of software, and I -hate- making pages without it.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:18 PM |

More Random Weirdness:

I've been rereading Mary Norton's Borrower books. I forgot how much I adored Spiller. D'you think anyone would write Borrowers 'fic for the books? I've never seen the movie...

I'm sort-of waiting for my dad to call me. Ms. O'Day is having computer problems, and as I'm the resident MacGeek...

I want a Bishy Catboys shirt from Strange Candy. I think I'd also take a Loyal Minion Dom shirt, or a Got Wings shirt, or... Hell, I'd even wear one of the k4w4Ii shirts.

I don't -need-. Any. More. T-Shirts.

I could use some more underwear, if anyone cares.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:23 PM |

I finally picked out some college classes. I'm still not happy with all of my choices -- Electronic Technology: Networking, ET: Network Cabling, and ET: Technology For The Uninformed. (Love that diplomacy -- my _father_ should be taking this class) Still debating on Japenese I. I could take it, but that'd give me 8 credit-hours to pay for, and as it's 80.00/CH... Which is actually -really- good, I bet. It's the resident's rate, and about -half- of what it costs for non-residents. But it's still expensive. And I'm still panicking over the whole no-job-running-out-of-time-on-health-insurance side of things because...because... Well, What If, you know?

What if I finally get -really- sick, or get in a horrible wreck, or...? What if I -need- that stupid expensive _vital_ health insurance and I -don't- have it?

What if I finally get rid of my overdeveloped sense of responsibility*?

What if I finally give up whining and panicking as my two biggest past times?

Why is it that I always discover more grey hair when I house-sit here**?
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:29 PM |

I'm not happy with my choices because I can't really -see- how it is they fit in to the grander sceme. And while I -know- that it's probably one of those Not For Me To Know Until Later situations, and that it's all -right- if I go into things without a clue, it still -bothers- me. I _like_ to know how this is going to make a difference in the future. I -like- to know what will apply and what won't.

On the other hand, I've rarely used the principles I learned in geometry in my daily life. The last time I used -any- sort of geometry-related anything was an Art-Slave project for Margret. I was drawing circles and straight lines, and I managed to draw some nice tangents, a few radii, and even defined a couple of arcs. Other than -that-, though... And I -like- networking computers. I even kinda like geometry. And I know that learning more about networking can only help me to go on to greater things.

Unlike writing and drawing, learning more about networking won't corrupt my current style of putting elements together. I'm not too thrilled by the idea of taking writing or art classes because I've -finally- developed my own style, and because I _know_ that every single thing I see, hear, or read goes into my brain, composts for a while, and then is regurgitated in a slightly (or occasionally -really-) different way. I _like_ my style, and I'm not quite ready to change it, yet. At least not in -big- ways... For my Art-Slave project, I had to paint two pieces of roofing paper, back and front. One side was the circles-and-lines, two sides were gradiated rays in blue, green, purple, yellow, orange and red, and the last side was a very strange free-form thing I did with my leftover colors. That last one was one that I simply -did-. I decided that I wouldn't paint anything specific, no people, no hiragana/katakana, no real shapes (though these curves kept creeping in...). And it turned out -beautifully-. I didn't really like it or the colors as I was working -- in fact, Katy and I had a discussion as to whether I was a genius for painting it the way I was -- but once it was done and dry, it was actually -very- spiffy***.

So I dared to paint -nothing- at all, and it turned out well. I'm trying to write MooT like that, a little looser than I'm comfortable with, a little more- no, not -more-, but _less_. -Less- sugary than I usually do, less relationship-driven for sure. Yeah, I want the relationship between Maus and Silver to be a catalyst of a sort, but not the be-all-end-all, because I have problems with that. And damnit, I want the -plot- to be a factor! A real live -factor-, instead of window-dressing. And I'm babbling again... But I've been drawing, and now drawing is over with and it's time for words again.

*** We cut the pieces into strips on monday and started weaving them together... It's hard to explain, but let me tell you, it's a -very- cool technique. The results are incredible... If I get to keep my piece, I'll get Ev to take pictures.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:45 PM |

* -- My mother told me this story, once, about how I was the only reason that she didn't do herself in after I was born. I understand the motivation of responsibility of that sort -- If I Don't Do It, Who Will? And I'll Be -Damned- If It's Some _Stranger_ That Doesn't _KNOW_ Anything! (This is why I don't want to leave ECA... I mean, I -know- these machines, and the kids, and- and- and- there's no one -else- that _does_ this! How will they get along without me? Swimmingly, I'm sure.)

Anyhow. In this case, it's fiscal responsibility. I'm a Responsible Adult, now, that means I need to be paying my own way... But I -can't-, at the moment, and it -worries- me that I need to be doing this thing and I'm not. Does that make sense?
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:49 PM |

** -- It's weird. Every time I've been here since the July/August after I turned 21, I've discovered at least one grey hair. I'm not objecting, because I love the way the colors go together in my mother's hair, just noticing. Counting the odd one that grows above one of my eyebrows, I now have 5. I think... I could only have 4.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:52 PM |

SmutBlog's not working. Hmmph... I have a few ideas, though.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:46 PM |

Bah. I'm not messing with SB for a while, yet. Only a few more days and I can go home... Guh. I should go over tomorrow and spend the day rearranging my room so that I'll have room for all my stuff... And so that if I ever get a positive cash flow again I'll have a place to put new stuff.

I don't know why this whole being-unemployed thing is giving me such fits... Gonna go eat and watch anime. Or maybe MST3K. 'Night all.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:41 PM |

But before I go... Gunchello!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:42 PM |

Tuesday, July 24, 2001

My dad needs to see some of these songs. Personally, I'm half in love with and half in awe of the fact that someone sat down and figured out how to make Martin Luther's Reformation movement scan to the tune of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. *Blinkblink*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:17 AM |

I have this theory.

This theory states that everything goes in phases or cycles. Right now, I happen to be in more of a drawing phase than a writing phase. Maybe I'm not churning out a half-dozen perfect pictures of Hubie and Zed snogging, or Cid and Alvie being mushy, or Alvie at work and Bita at play, but I am drawing. When I try to write in a drawing phase, I'm never terribly happy with what I come up with.

Does this mean no more Maus and Silver? No. What it means is that right now, I'm stuck. I'm not sure how I'm going to end the current piece, I don't know -if- I'm going to have a follow-up. I'm considering adding a piece wherein Silver makes his decisions about going to find Maus, and maybe even shed some light on Maus' Mysterious Past. Maaaaybe. All I know is that right now isn't necessarily the best time for words. Sometimes, when I'd had an exhausting day at work, I couldn't write a damn thing to save my life.

Herbert and Finch were only released after I -stopped- working. I'd done a little Mercy/Grace stuff, some Marc/Vic, but nothing really -different- or _long_ until I had some time to recover. Once I stopped running around like an idiot, I had this -stuff-... And a lot of the poisonous parts of Finch and Herbert's relationship are the result of me being in a situation I probably should have gotten out of much earlier. It was nice to pour that vitriol out, to let it be steamed away with someone else's...not really understanding, but... Hm. No, it -was- understanding. Herbert finally Got A Clue, and -didn't- just dismiss Finch out of hand. He sure as hell wasn't -prepared- for sex and revalations, but he handled it admirably.

So anyhow. Maybe this is not a Writing Phase for you, Scrubby, or for Reesa. Maybe this is a Learning and Sewing phase or something. It can be -incredibly- frustrating, particularly if you're like me and you -need- to write, you -want- to write, but nothing comes together because it's not That Time. *Shrug* I don't know, just tossing out ideas. I'm gonna go finish An American In Paris and go to bed.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:20 AM |

Er, one correction to my Maus As Opposing Stereotype post -- he -is- cute, or at least attractive. Of course, he -does- have a few flaws that help... I may expound on this later when I'm more awake.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:38 AM |

Monday, July 23, 2001

My college offers an international class on Canada. It doesn't mention field trips, though, so I guess I won't take it.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 5:48 PM |

On a side note, I utterly loathe PMS. This post brought to you by TMI Industries Incorporated.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:56 PM |