Saturday, September 08, 2001

Since my birthday was this week, I've been on a little astrological kick. According to the Chinese Horoscope site, I'm an Earth Horse.

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

The Earth Horse

For all his outward toughness, this Horse functions more with his heart than with his head - a fact that he is never willing to admit even to himself. His bright intelligence is always colored with some shade of sentimentality. Selfish he certainly is, but no one needs friendship more than he does; as a consequence, he is irreproachably loyal to his friends, takes the existence of others into due consideration, and is prepared to make tactical, if not strategic, concessions; a certain sense of fair play and compromise is not alien to him. Male or female, the Earth Horse is vulnerable to excessive idealism. While afraid to fall victim to duplicity, he cannot help trusting others much more than he should. He loves to give counsel and be of service but does not resist his urge to meddle in other people's affairs. Although not overly attached to worldly riches, material possessions are a decisive factor of his feeling of security. On the other hand, marriage, which he delights in scoffing at, can ironically have a great stabilizing and stimulating effect on his comportment and often proves indispensable to his success in life. His lack of self-confidence is most apparent in the realm of love. The Horse of this combination suffers greatly through his compulsive inner fear of being hurt or deceived. It is always hard for him to recover from disappointments in love. In addition, he is often haunted by the prospect of death, and the idea of having to leap into the beyond may sometimes take on a psychotic dimension in him.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:17 AM |

According to the Celtic sites below, I'm also a vine and a swan. Personally, I think they're very, very -wrong-, but then, I'm not Celtic. (I'm not Chinese, either, so maybe that doesn't matter as much as it might, otherwise. *Blink*)

The Celtic Wellspring

Celtic Moon Signs

Celtic Animal Birth Signs
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:26 AM |

*Snerk* I forgot about the Southern astrological signs! I'm grits, which I have never eaten, not even instant.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:30 AM |

Heeee! Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:45 PM |

Oh, _crap_. -Again-, it happened -again-... *Glowers at the above post* IwillnotswearandrantandraveaboutstupidevilcrappywintelsIwon'tiwon'tiwon't... *Ahem*

The gist of that post was that I get to see Buffy. The link was merely to FX Network's website. It also contained whining about the fact that The Lone Gunmen are not on this season (maybe never again...) and the fact that The GCI Guy (a.k.a. J. Peterman from Seinfeld) is NOT playing The Tick in the live-action show.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:55 PM |

The GCI Guy is at the top of GCI's homepage.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:05 PM |

Wow. GCI's page is -so- completely unhelpful. *Blinkblink* DirecTV tells me how much I can expect to pay per month for their service, yet I can't get the same courtesy from my local cable company. I fell so loved and valued as a potential customer. *Snort* 'Course, I -could- just go downstairs and rifle through the bill basket 'til I found the cable bill and figure it out for myself...

I'm just going to have to go haunt the DTV kiosk at the mall 'til I get some answers.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:09 PM |

Here's the rationale. The web is authored by everyone from advanced designers and programmers to absolute beginners. Beginners tend to design according to what works and looks good on their system. On the Windows platform, with its larger fonts, 8pt type looks good. Since Mac OS was designed to implement desktop publishing, it delivers a one-to-one correspondence between points and pixels. Thus, 8pts is the same as 8 pixels. And 8 pixels is at least one pixel too few to render type legibly. Since CSS came into use, Mac users have been hitting pages they could not read, because Windows-based web designers had specified 8pt type in the style sheet.

So -that's- why I can't read teenyfont pages in IE on my computer! Huh.

From A List Apart.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:34 PM |

I guess I'm just wearing my cranky pants today... Everything that I've done/read/tried in the last few minutes has just really really annoyed me.

Why in God's name does the cursor automatically jump to the 'cancel' button of a download?
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:53 PM |

On the other hand, I really really like cognates. And this sentence.

ouvrir les liens dans une nouvelle fenêtre?
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:57 PM |

I have an announcement to make.

I am no longer the tolerant, forebearing, sweet kind -nice-about-it person I once was when it comes to Platform wars.

I am a Mac -bitch-, baby, and you _WILL_ bow to me.

After screaming this at Ev's thoroughly unimpressed POS, I feel better.

I'm going to go do something else, now.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 2:55 PM |

All about Gladioluses, in Finnish!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 3:17 PM |

She, like, can't, like, use commas, but like, the point she makes is, like, excellent. Like, y'know? With the exception of the quote at the top of the page. I HATE Victorian language, and would NOT enjoy returning to that era.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 3:29 PM |

Well, isn't -that- nice. I spent over a freaking -hour- composing a nice, non-whiny, poor-poor-pitiful-me-free query to The Vine, and freaking Another.com -ate- it. Rat bastard.

I'm taking my dolls and dishes and going to Yahoo mail.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:48 PM |

*Snerk* My dad sent me this:

Subject: Thanksgiving
everyone's invited to dinner at my house. Bring your own turkey, forks, slingshots, and pie. I'll supply the ammo and the cool whip.

It smacks faintly of my mother's machinations, but then, she was out there for most of this afternoon, helping him out. He just may have OutLook Express working -for- him, rather than against him...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:52 PM |

Y'know, hours later, I'm still entertaining myself with the 'I'm a Mac -bitch-, baby' line. Yes, I am weird, why do you ask?
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:55 PM |

Oh, and the thing about the Glads in Finnish link -- I was bored, and put the first word that came into my head into Google's search box. All I put in was 'gladiolus'. *Shrug*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:00 PM |

Friday, September 07, 2001

I feel like there's a religion in narrative, and I feel the same way they do. I feel like we're both paying homage to something else; they're not paying homage to me.

Oooh. -Ooooh-. Wow. Reesa's right -- Mr. Whedon -is- a God. Ooh.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:16 AM |

Thursday, September 06, 2001

hey peeps..k after the VMA'swe have to work on gettin gone of the guys cosmogirls hotite of the year or somethin LOL ok anyways...thers not alot for me to say so iam gonna go cuz i gotta wake up early tomarrow.ugh work ttyl byebyebye

Yes, that is unedited. No, I did not write it (I've written some bad, bad things before, but...). I have nothing more to say, really, beyond 'igh'.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:34 PM |

So. The latest Silver/Maus stuff... See? -See-? Silver's being weird.

And remember, in The Rescuers, when Penny has to go down into the cave? It's kind of like that, though without the ocean and the pudgy bad guy.

---------

Dyshka well was deserted. It was also as dry as the land around it, which explained a few things.

Maus peered dubiously into the empty shaft. "You're sure it's really down there?"

"No, but that's what you're going to find out." He smiled cheerily and finished feeding the rope through the block and tackle he'd borrowed from the boat.

"-Me-?"

"Sure. You're smaller than I am, after all." Silver set about tying a loop in one end of the rope.

"I...didn't agree to this." He backed up a step.

"Come on, Maus! Why content yourself with merely -reading- adventures?"

"Because it's a lot -easier- to read them!"

Silver arched a brow and tilted his head. "You trust me enough to let me bring you all the way out here -- to sleep with me -- yet I ask you to do this one little thing..."

Maus opened his mouth, closed it, and glared. "That is -not- at _all_ -fair-."

"Never promised you I'd be -fair-..."

"Never promised me -anything-, that I recall." Maus glowered some more. "In fact, -I- have made all of the promises."

Silver bit his lip, hard. Then he shifted from foot to foot, looked away, and chewed on his lip a little more. After a while, and still acutely aware that he was being watched, he cleared his throat. "I solemnly vow not to drop you. Or to let unsavory types rob you, deface you or your books, ravish you, or make unkind remarks about your mother."

Maus, despite himself, smirked. Then he relented and walked over to Silver, holding out a hand for the rope.

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

The well was dark, clammy, and musty. It wasn't his ideal habitat, that was for sure. It was also reassuringly silent. He wasn't sure just -why- he was anticipating rats, but he was...

The bottom revealed itself as lumpy, slimy, and covered with an odd assortment of stuff. Maus held his lantern out and prayed vaguely that none of the things were bones. A thin trickle of water oozed between the biggest rocks, explaining the mold and algae. He delicately picked his way across the bottom, pausing now and then to poke at something with his toe and wishing he had a stick.

After pocketing a couple dozen gooey coins, a small doll, and what appeared to be a perfectly good knife, he approached the book. It was rather plainly bound in green leather, with the title incised and stained black. It leaned upside-down against the wall, covers splayed and pages fanned against the brickwork. Only the top corners seemed to have gotten wet, which didn't relieve him as much as it might have...

Bad luck because of a book was a lot of superstitious folk fiddle-faddle, right? Of course.

He, Maus, was a man of the city, and as such was completely impervious to that kind of thing... Not that he -wanted- to take chances. Silly, really...

The boy moved his hand through a traditional Ki'shari blessing gesture and carefully wrapped the book up in a square of silk that Silver had given him. When that was done, he waved the lamp over his head, stepped back into the loop, and gave the rope as much of a tug as he could manage. And then he was rising; up, up into the true light...

Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:40 PM |

Moolah Beach: Teaching kids that it's okay to backstab and cheat for money. Let's hear it for family programming!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 3:05 PM |

I'm loving Best Of El-Hazard, and I really want to see the anime, now...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 3:44 PM |

Hee... WinAmp pulled a Wolfwood skin on Zero Hour. I don't know if it has a name, but it's red.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:10 PM |

It's mocking me! I can't find the site from which I grabbed that skin, and it pulled it -again- on Permanent Vacation, which sounds like Midvalley -before- he ran into the Gung-Ho Guns. 'Cause, like, this sax-noodling has a -point-, unlike the crap he plays in the anime... *Ahem* Sorry, I just like my improv-jazz sound like -music-, y'know?
Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:27 PM |

And the Ghost/Sydney skin from TM's Vagrant Story site, on Suna No Hoshi, AKA The Quiet Song. It's not as bad as Rakuen for melancholy air, but man, it's not happy. It is soothing, though.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:40 PM |

Red Cross, featuring Nicholas D (for Doughnuts) Wolfwood. Go see the rest of Leigh's Trigun skins... Mmm.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:48 PM |

Club P.I.E... So talked about that I've never heard of them 'til today, so cool and hip they need pop-up ads to announce their presence...

And would whoever's smoking outside knock it off? Ev's room is beginning to reek like every rented car I've ever ridden in.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 5:55 PM |

And, since I haven't mentioned it, lately...

Job hunting bites.

Lots.

Hard.

And I suck at it, and I hate it, and I can't get fucking hired in this city to fucking save my puny little life.

Thank you, that is all. Breckinridge.

What I need is some advice on how to lower my standards while retaining what little dignity I have, so I can fucking get a job I don't want somewhere that I don't want to work. So I can make -money-, so I can contribute to our capitalist system, so I can fucking provide some kind of -service- to -others-, or something.

All I want to do is something that makes me happy and doesn't bore me to tears. Something that doesn't necessitate me taking a book to work because all of the websites I remember the URLs for are usually heavy on the gay-smut end of the spectrum. Something that won't make me hate most of humanity more than I already do. Something with a decent health-care plan. Something that I can do without having to get too dressed-up. Something I can do without too much physical effort. Something that doesn't involve dead things.

I'm _such_ a fucking moronic -dreamer-, aren't I? I'm gonna go be bitter elsewhere, now.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:01 PM |

Anch. Help Wanted

ADN

Ak Jobs

I [Heart] AK
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:03 PM |

And now that I've eaten and discovered that there are two other people of an age that are -also- wallowing in self-pity because they too are Not Happy where they are at the moment, I'm feeling somewhat better.

Other Important Stuff:

Because I'm reduced to using my brother's wintel, I'm no longer D/Ling mail to disc on Sven. So, if you wanna, you can just mail me at shannonm_eca at yahoo.com. I'm using that account to get my elvisorp mail, so you can still send it there... Whatever works for you. Just be aware that all of my replies will be coming from that account 'til God knows when.

At least my classes are paid for.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:27 PM |

I can't figure out what I want to say when I'm confronted with the little comment-box on Tom's page. The guy is an incredible writer -- he turns nonfiction phrases so beautifully that I can't imagine that his fiction would be anywhere near 'bad'. His pictures are astonishing, too.

But I have no idea how to phrase any of these thoughts, how to quantify any of the feelings that his skills inspire.

I want a moss-bed of my own.

I could see the storm sewer that he was running down.

He's the first person I've seen that has posited a way to improve the range of a trebuchet using physics.

He can explain things that I don't spend a lot of time thinking about (particularly scientific things) in a noncondescending yet easily understandable way (or at least -more- easily understandable...)

So. I like Nothing, and I like the way Tom writes.

And maybe someday I'll be able to tell him that directly.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:48 PM |

Wednesday, September 05, 2001

Silver-poking did NOT help. *Grumple* Well, if nothing else, I guess it provides conflict and interest (as opposed to conflict-of-interest...), or something.

I will start my day tomorrow by transcribing what's left in my notebook. I will.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:13 PM |

Mouse News:

Pest-X sonic repellers work. I'd unplugged the one in my room to charge my cell phone and regretted it at 3:30 AM. There was rustling, there was scrabbling, there was a HELL of a lot of noise.

I plugged the little repeller unit back in.

This is what happened:

Shan: Shut up and get the hell out of my room.
Mice: Squeak! SQUEAKSqueaksqueak! Scrabble skitter scrabble squeak! (Translation: Ow! Owowow! Help, I'm stuck! Ow!)
Shan: Shut -up-! You got up there by yourself, you can jolly well get -down-. And I don't -care- if you have little mousy headaches!
Mice: Squeak... Skitter skritchskritch skitter squeaksqueakSqueak! scrabble skritch. (Owee... Mommy... How the hell did I get up here? Oh, yeah...)
Shan: If you wake me up again, I am getting my gun.

Okay, so the threat about the gun was actually made Sunday night, I believe. My mother talked me out of it, though. I'm gonna have to take my room completely apart and clean it really well. *Whinewhine* I'm gonna have to take -everything- out of my room, an' I'm gonna have to sort everything, an' there's -dust- _everywhere_... *Hushes*

We spent the entirety of Labor Day Weekend cleaning the kitchen, between baseball games. It was kind of nice, actually, once everything was done with. Not the way I'd -envisioned- spending the holiday, but as I didn't -have- a plan in mind... It all worked out.

In other news, we have far fewer mice than we did.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:23 PM |

And one last bit of Sad News:

My monitor died this morning. It was a good and faithful monitor, and now it is dead. *Sigh* Well, at least it was my monitor and not my videocard. I still have my adapter, so I don't have to look for a monitor that's old and weird.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:28 PM |

Happy News:

I'm ferrying Mme. Jean again, this year! School started Tuesday, and we've had great fun in the afternoons, so far.

I got great stuff for my birthday, including a very cool Samurai X/Rurouni Kenshin T-shirt and a Badtz Maru bobble-head doll. I also got some nifty snail hooks (hooks shaped like snails, that is), The Spicy Stewed Doughnut album from Trigun, the soundtrack to EL-Hazard, a Hello Kitty & Mimmy bento box, a spiffy hat, a fleece pullover, and a couple of gift certificates (one of which is to Suncoast, joy!).
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:37 PM |

Oh, and Mme. Jean gave me a wild pair of Badtz Maru socks, which are kind of orangey-yellow with darker-orange polkadots, with Badtz's head on the ankles. I wore them on the first day of class.

In my Japanese class, there are some girls that I would definitely classify as FanGirls. They're not screaming, or drooling, but they've definitely got that FanGirl look to them. Anyhow, none of them have worn any anime-related clothing to class... I wore my new Kenshin shirt. And no one said a word. Well, okay, The Korean Guys did, but then, they talked through the -entire- class. And they kept saying 'Samurai!' in this funny voice. So am I the hardcore otaku of the class, or am I merely the most comfortable?

The Korean Guys have names, but I'm not sure of all of them. There's Chang, who wears a lot of yellow Tommy Hilfiger and likes basketball. Then there's Kim, who is constantly volunteered to write things on the board by his comrades. Kyong (I thiiink...) usually has to pronounce his name for poor Senshu-sensei, and Joo is the one that dresses most like a Serious Student. There may be one more, but I'm not -sure-.

Anyhow, I think that's all the news that is news. I'm gonna go to bed.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:48 PM |

Oh! My mother gave me a set of three decorative pears, too. I'm really tempted to draw a happy face on one of them. Hee.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:53 PM |

Sunday, September 02, 2001

Because I know you care so very deeply, two things:

1) Mice are _STUPID_. Not bold, brave, or daring, but STUPID. If I were a fox or hawk or owl or something, I'd be so stuffed I couldn't hardly move.

2) Maus and Silver are being -weird-! *Whimper* And I don't -want- them to be!

Well, okay, I want them to do what I want them to, but heavan knows they're not exactly -listening- to me... *Rolls eyes and pokes Silver with something big and pointy*

Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:05 PM |