Saturday, August 18, 2001

I always have this problem at Aces games. It's so much -easier- to understand what's going on when you have an instant replay to look at... And when you have a bunch of camera angles to compensate for only being 5'3'' in a sea of 5'8''+ fans.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:27 PM |

On my monitor, this color isn't eggplant. Or at least it's not giant-eggplant eggplant. I think some of the smaller ones are this color.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:40 PM |

FairPlane looks spiffy.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:14 PM |

07.26.01
--------------

This one needs a little explanation. After midnight, my local PBS (that's Public Broadcasting Station) runs telecourses for people taking distance education classes. I lucked into a series of interesting programs about the 2nd World War, one of which covered the mess in Spain. Between the information I gleaned from my Grandparents' 1955 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and the show, I learned that much of the violence could have been avoided if France, Britain and America had had backbones instead of being big weenies and had gotten involved. Hell, Britain and France conceded Czechoslovakia to Hitler and didn't bother to ask the -Czechs- if it was all right with them. If they'd held on to Czechoslovakia, the war might have gone -very- differently.

The history show then went on to cover Germany and the concentration camps, and I had to change the channel. Before I did, though, I had A Question.

------------------------

It wasn't until much, much later that they all learned how lucky they'd been.

Certainly the loss of life, of their beloved and beautiful city had been awful. The epidemics, the occupation, and the fascists, all terrible.

Nothing was as horrifying, though, as the reports trickling in from places that he couldn't pronounce in countries thousands of miles away.

The Euskaran nation was a secret dream, whispered in the dark like a prayer. Like prayers themselves, forbidden by the Generalissimo. They still had their lands and their homes, as damaged as they were. They had their history and their Tree, and they would manage.

Asti usually left when the talk turned to what was happening elsewhere. How could -anyone-, _anyone_ in good conscionce, condone such evil?

Starvation was a grim spectre, here, but not purposeful starvation. Laborers in factories, yes, but more or less voluntarily. Basques beside Spainards, with hostilities limited to insults and the odd drunken brawl...

Evil. It didn't matter, any more, to what doctrine a leader subscribed. Not to Asti, anyhow. Good or evil were all that mattered, and on the surface, Communism didn't seem so bad. All working together for the good of all, how could that be wrong?

------------

And that's all, for now. I may have more later...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:48 PM |

This is a teeny chunk of MooT, post-relative scene. It may or may have something to do with the next bit I'm going to transcribe, but it's probably just a little interlude bit.

08.09.01
-------------

Maus blinked at the half-naked and ink-stained vision before him. "Ah... Hello. Is this a bad time?"

Silver shook his head and held the door open for his visitor. "No, it's fine. If you were anyone else, it might not be fine." He grinned.

"What are you doing?" He looked around, amazed at the drifts of paper in the entryway. They seemed to spill out of a doorway further down the hall, and to be covered back and front with writing.

"Hm? Oh, failing miserably. Do you want anything?" Silver shut the door and led the boy in the direction of the kitchen.

"Failing miserably? At what?" He shook his head, following the man. "Just the chance to borrw Standing On The Promises. I brought Last Road back."

"Mm, just this project I've been working on. I don't want to say too much." Silver sighed and dropped into a chair, waving at the other one. "Standing On The Promises? That's another... Do you have -any- idea what a marvel you are? Most people..." He couldn't finish.

"Most people can't read, and those that can avoid Furnier because they think it's so -deep- and _meaningful_..." He snorted and rolled his eyes. "If they bothered to think about it for a minute, they'd find out all kinds of things. Like, Last Road is full of sex."
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:00 PM |

I have no idea why I keep using these Biblically-themed titles for the books Maus and Silver discuss... I just like them, I guess. And I wish I knew what he was working on.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:06 PM |

06.02.01
------------
My lover
holds his breath
light dawns
desire blazes
melting ice
with one kiss

This is why, as I've said before, I only write poetry for fictional characters. And I think this was for Marc and Vic. *Blinkle*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:07 PM |

Friday, August 17, 2001

Okay, I figured it out (by the expedient method of listening to SNGP and WWC)! When Worlds Collide is sort of a 'this is what happens when the worlds of two people suddenly merge' thing, and Supernova Goes Pop has a couple of appropriate lines: 'Can you tell me just what you are, 'cause I've never been this close to a star' and... uh... This computer won't play .cda files, which is strange and very stupid. (That is, I can't remember what the other line is.)

Oh well.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:31 PM |

Lessee... In other news, I have more MooT that needs transcribing, but I can't do that here and I bought some nifty notebooks. *Grin* There's this line of binders, organizer/planners, and notebooks called 'Galaxy', and they come in glitter and hologram versions of red, blue, and green. They're great... Mostly because of the little logo, which looks like the logo for some organization that I had once upon a time.

For the first time in years, I'm buying school supplies. -I- get to be the one going back to school! This makes me strangely happy... I think it's because I've missed that part of the yearly cycle.

Also, for the first time in years, I am going to have homework. *Blinkblink* Heh.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:36 PM |

I've had enough of spam. So. I'm going to be changing my AKnet addy very shortly... As soon as I think of a new one. I'm really tempted to go with the really boring shannonm@, though I hope to come up with something a little more interesting.

Odd, isn't it, how self-applied nicknames really never seem to stick?
Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:39 PM |

Thursday, August 16, 2001

Bah! I fogot where I put my bookmark for this, so I'm making it part of my loooong list'o'links I keep here, where I also can't necessarily find them easily. And dammit, the whole Nicky-and-his-little-brother thing made me sniffle the first time I read it.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:05 AM |

Oh, I promised more about Bundori, didn't I?

Bundori has a -great- premise (serial killer loose in Feudal Japan, and only a samurai can track him down...); excellent characters (Hirata-kun and his hero-worship; Sano-san and his stiff-necked Daln- wait, I mean -samurai- pride; Aoi the Mysterious Female Ninja; the somewhat ditzy Shougun); shounen ai, yaoi, and hetsex (do the Japanese have aterm for that, too?); and a fairly good surprise twist at the end.

Best line of the book: "Manly love was practiced by many samurai, who considered it an expression of bushido." This line draws most of its value from the fact that it uses the phearse 'manly love'. Why not just say 'homosexuality'? Or 'some samurai liked other samurais, and there were no prohibitions against them sleeping together.'? But anyhow.

Also found in this book are -bad- examples of: NonCon sex, NonCon with an underaged partner (severely underaged, I think the kid's like 10 or something. I skipped those parts when I figured out what was going to happen), a scene between a man and a woman that starts out NonCon and evolves into con... I skipped that one, too, because I didn't like what it did to the previously utterly loveable Sano-san.

It's not the fact that it's NonCon, exactly, that bothered me the most about these scenes. NonCon can be an incredibly -effective- thing to have in your plot, as it can highlight or illuminate certain character-quirks (see Neets), or it can offer motives as to why the character perpetrates such actions (see... Uh... I can't think of anyone off-hand, 'cept maybe someone in one of Te or Viridian's stories...?). The bothersome parts of the scenes were the fact that they involved underaged characters (though that too has its value, again, see Neets) and that they were not very well-written. The author used words like 'member' and 'organ'; didn't include lube of any sort** (no wonder the bottom spent so much time screaming...); and just generally didn't do anyone any favors.

Parts of it were really good, but mostly the overall effect was that of someone writing not-so-great fanfic for something. It -is- the author's second book, so maybe it's just sophomore slump. *Shrug* I'm just glad I bought it at a used bookstore.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:25 AM |

Whenever I write Issy, my exposition gets all stiff and starchy, kinda like Issy himself. *Snickers a little and pats him* *Gets glared at, as usual* *Needs to go to bed soon*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:41 AM |

**

I was thinking about MooT the other day (more specifically, about a part of MooT that needs transcribing...), and I was trying to figure out what in blazes they were going to use for lube. I don't think aloe grows where they live, but it's probably imported; and I guess they could use animal fats (though personally it kinda squicks me... But then, I'm weird.); or petroleum-based lubes since they don't have condoms to worry about (but where would they -get- the petroleum? And more importantly, vaseline is the result of -refining- petroleum... I think.)... Then I read Bundori, and got all sidetracked thinking about lubricants of Feudal Japan. *Snerk* Now -there's- a search to run on Google...

I'm tired, and my clothes are drying sloooowly. I guess I'll read a little more Spencer and Clark and go to bed.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:57 AM |

Okay. Going to bed, now. Oyasumi!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:04 AM |

Well, I -was-... I found my link! Blambot. See, I -knew- it had _something_ to do with an explosion in there -somewhere-.

I gotta call Mme. Jean tomorrow.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:13 AM |

Some broken sleep later... Gah. One of the poor kitties here is throwing up while I'm not looking. I wish they'd stop... Well, stop throwing up, period. The next best thing would be to throw up in front of me so I know who's sick. Please, please, please let this be a temporary thing, Lord, I -so- do NOT want to have to call Lisa and tell her one of her girls is sick...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:17 AM |

I'm off to do stuff, including but not limited to finding something to eat and heading over to UAA to figure what's up with my whole wolfline registration thingy. See y'all later!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:29 AM |

"South-Italian-American. Or is it Italian-South-American? Fuck, this is why I hate bullshit like that."
"The former is someone from Sicily who lives in the Bronx; the latter is someone from Florence who lives in Buenos Aires."

This is yet another example of why I love Technomancy. *Snerk*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 5:25 PM |

A band named Squeeze did Tempted By The Fruit Of Another. I'm in the process of making myself a MiLVO Mix CD. Hee.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:53 PM |

I still cannot tell you why I think that Supernova Goes Pop and When Worlds Collide belong in the MiLVO playlist, but they do.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:54 PM |

Wednesday, August 15, 2001

Waaaaai! I am sitting in front of one of the most powerful computers I have ever been privileged to lay hands on *; clean; and back in my home city.

Homer was spectacular as usual. Halibut Cove was nice, and dinner was excellent. It rained a little bit, like it always does, but... I. WAS. DRY. And WARM. And It Was A Very Damn Good Thing. I loved our motorhome... Scrubby, I know I owe you email, and I'll get on that in a little bit.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:50 PM |

*

This computer is my Uncle Scott's Killer Music Machine. My aunt and uncle have given me the run of their home and the run of their toys, which means that if I want to expend the effort to make myself a HappyPear shirt, I can. I can burn myself a jillion and one mix CDs. I can download anime and watch it (which I plan to do, actually).

These people are amazing. *Blinkle*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:52 PM |

Gaaaah, bad me. I cannot remember what site I found 12-ton Fishstick (HappyPear's font) on. I know it was a how-to comics site; I remember that the name had something to do with blowing things up, and that I found the link on Reesa's blog. Was that posted in April? May? *Pokes at Google*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:58 PM |

I have an opinion, and in the grand tradition of HissyFit, y'all are gonna hear it, 'cause you're entitiled to it.

No one, and I mean NO one, should let the preference of any one person dictate what they write. Just 'cause you don't -think- you can write smut doesn't mean you can't; just because you'd like to work into it gradually doesn't make you some kind of idiot. "Half-written smut" can be -really- incredibly good. It can also suck in unimaginably horrible ways (I offer the book Bundori as a prime example of this, more in a sec). So fucking -what- if you know someone that doesn't -like- half-written smut? Write the damn smut. Write it. learn, and move on.

It took me a while to get around to writing all my smut. And I'm still learning, still pushing the envelope. Still trying to learn where my boundaries are; what I will write and what I'll let my characters do, or what my characters will allow to be done to them. I learned only this morning that Silver's Maus (as opposed to Conrad's Maus) will not agree to be a buffer between two brothers that would rather have sex with him at the same time than face the fact that hey really want to have sex with one another. And my squick regarding incest is less touchy, these days... Provided that the principals involved are fictional, and are not necessarily characters I care deeply about. (That is, twincest involving Vash and Knives is right out, but there was some posted to RareSlash involving characters from some movie I'd never heard of, which was okay...) And you'll notice that writing/reading smut varies wildly at the personal level.

So. just 'cause someone hates Stupid Fangirls and Half-Written Smut does not make it okay to let them rule your writing life. Just because someone is incredibly opinionated does not make them Master Of The Universe. Just because they intimidate you does not make them better than you.

Write the smut. Write it in a way that makes YOU happy. Me? I'll be over here, squeaking and drooling over the bishounen, and trying to find a metaphor for 'penis' that I can use in polite company. *Snerk*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:00 PM |

Enough opinions. Here's a fact:

You can tell that I haven't typed at all in the last week. I keep messing up and having to go back and fix my typos.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:01 PM |

Oh, and I really. Really. REALLY -need- a laptop to take wih me, because my family always generates these questions that I could find the answers to, If Only... Like this afternoon, when mom and I were having lunch and talking about the oh-so-very-ultra-spiffycool fact that we have tickets to the Bues/Sharks exhibition game in September (eeeeee! NHL teams -here-, which is like... like... I don't know. It's nothing like Alberta, at least around here. Out in the Interior, maybe. I digress.). We were trying desperately to remember what changes had been made to the Blues' lineup, and we remembered that they'd pretty much gotten rid of The Czech Line, but we couldn't remember where they went, really, or who'd they'd gotten in return. Or what sort of shufflings the Sharks had undergone.

Anyhow, I could have looked these things up, if I'd had a laptop.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:05 PM |

Which leads me, rather indirectly, to the best part of my whole trip! The day before my grandparents left (my Gram had some School Stuff she needed to get back to), my Gram and I sat down and talked some stuff over. It wasn't nearly a Talk on the scale of The Talk I had with my mother a couple of weeks ago, but it was still good.

I have my job back.

Sort-of. Apparently, they've been interviewing for someone to take over my position. If they can find someone to do that, they'll hire them. Personally, I think I have far more tech-support experience with this particular LAN, but whatever. I'm trying not to be resentful of the idea that maybe there's someone in town that can do my job better, because... Well, I just am.

So I get to come back, in a part-time capacity. I'm probably going to be there M-F in the mornings, leaving my afternoons free for whatever (and quite possibly/probably more Mme. Jean ferrying, yay!), and of course my classes in the evenings. I've decided that I'll drop Technology For The Uninformed (though I'm sad about it -- I really wanted to learn about How Things Work) and that I -will- take Elementary Japanese I. I was thinking about how many Japanese words I already know and was surprised -- in fact, I dredged up the fact that 'nice to meet you' is 'hajimamashite', so I could tell my mother that the translator for The Big O was wrong when they tried to pass off 'konnichi wa' as 'how do you do/nice to meet you'.

So things aren't perfectly patched up, but I didn't call my grandmother a crazy woman, and I didn't have my own mental health questioned in front of Gail again, and I get a positive cash flow starting in September. Now, to find that dreaded and necessary Second Job, so's I can have a better cash-flow and afford Health Insurance. *Grumple*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:15 PM |

PocketWatch Romances is just over a year old. *Blinkblink* I was gonna say something about that earlier, but I was busy...with...something important, I'm sure, on the 30th of July.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:29 PM |

Y'know, I have really, really missed this. Having information at my fingertips (well, as long as my -brain- doesn't get distracted...), and having access to the wonder that is other people... Without all the messy human contact! *Snerk* I was mostly kidding about that last one.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:41 PM |