Saturday, January 26, 2002

I love hedgehogs. They're shy, prickly, and cute, kind of like me. *Silly grin*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:19 AM |

I've started FFX. So far: Lulu is cool, Wakka is pleasantly silly, Tidus can be a humongous -dork-, Yuna's kind of a sweet cardboard standup, and I know nothing about the big blue guy. (Note: I have only been playing it for about five hours, so it's not like I've gotten much contact with Yuna.)
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:24 AM |

"So y'c'n get oof th'bus, then." Ah, British Isles accents. Lovely.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:26 AM |

Travlang's Word Of The Day for yesterday? Fruit!

I'm so easily entertained.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:37 AM |

Fascinating Fact You Never Knew You Wanted To Know: Nannygoats hit peak milk production a couple of months after kidding, then gradually taper off. They need a couple of months to rest after they dry up, then they can be kidded again and start the cycle all over again.

Why do we care? Because I needed to know if Kelvath and Avrath were going to have milk for each day of the year, or if they'd have to go buy some, or if they should just start an account with the milkman. And considering that Zethil doesn't -have- a milkman...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:43 AM |

You know, the thing that the Daytona Beach commercials never show is the 400,000 -other- families that have been convinced that it's the place to go. Personally, I really enjoyed Fenwick, and I'd happily go back again.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:44 AM |

I'm thinking I'll give in to temptation and write the Marc/Tikka/Vic threeway-Valentine's fic that's been percolating through my brain of late. It wasn't helped by the fact that Lover's Lane's latest catalogue has the ref-striped crop-top/thong/hotpants set in it... *Holds up hands* I -don't- ask them about their kinks, I _just_ live here.

Not just because of Valentine's day, either -- Tikka's been after me to let him be part of Marc/Vic since I came up with him; Marc certainly wouldn't mind, and Vic's beginning to positively favor the idea. The only way I can explain it is that they -fit- together (yeah, yeah, I know), and that there really isn't any reason for them _not_ to be a unit. *Shrug* I think I'm just worried about presenting their relationship...um...poorly, I guess is the word I want. Inappropriately? Badly? Like it's something simple and easy and fun and requires no work? (Of course, given Tikka's easy-going and rather subby nature, there may not -be- much in the way of problems. I have no idea...)
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:57 AM |

Lover's Lane also has some beautiful, affordable corsets, which is pretty much the only reason I get their publication. Well, okay, the corsets and the amusement factor involved in the product copy, not to mention some of the expressions on the faces of the male models... *Snerk* "Honey? Have you seen my brain?"
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:59 AM |

Speaking of inappropriate... It's not appropriate to order presents from Adult Content catalogues for people that you're not sleeping with, is it? Which is sad, really, in some cases. Oh well...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:02 AM |

I had entirely too much chocolate waaaay too late at night. Bad Me. At least it's Friday night, and I don't have anything to do or anywhere to be tomorrow.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:02 AM |

I need a good cheap (read: really cheap or free) image editing program that lets me make gifs and jpegs. *Pokes at stuff*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:03 AM |

Romance, ick.

...says the girl that tends to -like- unmitigated sap....
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:20 AM |

Er... _All_ ticks live on blood. Or at least as far as _I_ know they do. Gross.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:28 AM |

According to my uncle Scott, walking around outdoors in Houston TX is like "walking on squished worms". I think I might kill for that sort of humidity... *Is dried out and itchy* *And prone to sharing too much*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:52 AM |

Okay, I'm going to sleep, now. Watashi wa ima nemasu. Oyasumi nasai!

Just for the record, I think that was a -newt- 'on' the woman's nose in the clip that Twisted Tales chose for their opening montage. I want geckos to live in my house -- they eat bugs! And about the only lizard I would go out of my way to actively avoid would be the Komodo, as they carry nasty bacteria and will make you sick if they bite you. Plus the fact that they have big teeth.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 2:03 AM |

And they -drool-. Yuck.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 2:04 AM |

I like Junkbusters already. They list alternatives for those of us running the Mac OS.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:37 AM |

Apparently, either the fan or fan belt on our furnace has failed, which is why I'm cold. It's also very cold outside.

I -love- Alaska. It's beautiful, it's relatively people-free, I enjoy the scenery and wildlife and shopping... But it's _winter_ I loathe. I'd hate winter no matter what northern portion of the Americas I inhabited.

You don't have to shovel rain... And it doesn't rain all that often in Palm Springs. Or Vegas. Or Moab. Or Elko. Or Death Valley. Or Mesa. Or Scottsdale! Or- I'll stop, now.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:45 AM |

Also! In FFX, there are -reflections- in the water. Of clouds and trees. And the clouds -move-.

I'm in love.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:03 AM |

Things I've never taken but lots of other people have:

Driver's Ed
Sex Ed*
Any permutation of the SATs
Auto Shop
Official School District Curricula-type Government Class

I'm sure there're others that I'm forgetting...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:41 AM |

* Mme. Jean is taking Sex Ed, much to her dismay and annoyance. I'm annoyed, too, on her behalf -- she's probably smarter than ninety percent of her peers, and of the people I know, is right there at the top of the list of 'People Least Likely To Do Something Stupid And Contract Disease/Become Pregnant'. *Snerk* Besides that, she already knows this stuff -- she has two older sisters, for cryin' out loud.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:44 AM |

My dad is here, fixing our furnace. I'm letting Mom and Yasminda keep him company...

Besides, I'm supposed to be drafting a thank-you note to Dory and Family. She sent Ev and I a card with pictures of her kids! Now I know what they look like. And how to spell The One I Am To Write To's name.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:49 AM |

I'm such a sucker... I do NOT _need_ the 'itty bitty kiddy' wildlife baby video series, but... It has moose! and opossums! and big cats! and I can no longer capitalize 'and'!

I'm stopping, now.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:51 AM |

I forgot that Yasminda loves Pop Tarts (or their generic equivilant, in this case Toaster Pastries). In fact, she'd once gotten to the point where the crinkling of the wrapper brought her running to bug you for a bite. At -least- one, if not more.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:01 PM |

I'm not sure what's going on, but mom just told dad that "the flamethrower is out of order". *Blinkblink*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:24 PM |

Yaaaaay! Warm air is blowing into my room!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:27 PM |

Friday, January 25, 2002

Aww! My BtVS Dream Date is Oz.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:23 PM |

In Important Blog And Stuff News: this blog will be moving soon. Well, soonishly, anyhow, and not very far -- I'm just going to consolidate everything (writing/art/blog) here on Tripod, under a different membername. It's not because I cannot stand topcities, it's just that for all of the runaround they give me, I still like Tripod better.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:27 PM |

*Snicker* "Listen, you two -- am I gonna have to take you in?" -- Special Agent Lukas to a rottweiler puppy that was chewing on a sibling, Animal Precinct
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:29 PM |

Thursday, January 24, 2002

Mangle this page (you'll have to copy and paste the results into a text editor due to Tripod's bandwidth limitations)! I found the results to be highly amusing, but I'm strange like that. (Link from Technomancy.)
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:00 AM |

Mangling Reesa's page is pretty damn interesting, too. (You have to scroll waaaay down to get to full paragraphs, though.)
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:04 AM |

I want to write about these two women that my mother knows that are getting married this year, but the phrasing is being stubbornly awkward and I think this is about the only way I'm getting that information out there.

Also in the spirit of randomness: if you are one of the (quite probably three) people that reads this regularly -and- feel the burning need to link to me, go ahead. I may even make a button to commemorate this occasion! Ooh.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:15 AM |

*Blink* That...went really really quickly. *Pokes to see if republishing worked*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:27 AM |

Going to bed now, honest! G'night. *wriggles off*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:12 AM |

Not that you care or can do anything about it, but I'm hungry.

Ev's coming over, though, so maybe we'll pop down to Village Idio-, er, Inn and have lunch. That sounds good... Then I'll have to zoom over to the Advising and Counseling Center and see if I can get them to give me my SII Interp results and just let -me- figure it out -- I'm pretty bright, after all.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:31 AM |

Wednesday, January 23, 2002

"So, who's on first?"
"I'm Zie. Wat's on first."

Bwahaha!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:12 AM |

I keep meaning to blog this, and I keep forgetting. The nicest part of not having much carpeting in my house? VERY LITTLE STATIC ELECTRICITY. I have gotten zapped, badly, more times than I can count in the last seven days. I think I am beginning to hate carpet...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:02 PM |

I have a login name, the first three letters of which spell 'ass'. I was not allowed to -choose- my login name, nor can I change it. I suppose it could be worse -- I could have been issued 'desade' or 'marquise' or something else in that vein based on my initials.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:04 PM |

In a record-breaking spate of calm, Snowy is the only cat that has thrown up around here, and she only threw up a little bit!

I'm easily entertained, yes, but not -that- easily. See, the -usual- kitty reaction to the stress of mom and dad being out of town is to throw up all over the place. So, as there was little vomiting this time around, I'm relatively happy. Of course, if I want to be a vet tech, I'd better get used to vomit and lots of it.... Whee.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:07 PM |

*Blinkblink* Eek, sorta... I was playing with the.random.emo.bandname.generator and this popped up: * the year shannon flew away . At least it didn't involve death... Some of the others I've gotten have sounded like opening lines -- 'the week evelynn fell in love', 'the summer joshua vanished', 'the month adrian lied'. Some of them have been downright hysterical -- 'the month my eyes ceased to exist', 'the summer my penpals ceased to exist', 'the year all my diaries died'. Then there were the plain odd -- '39 summers of hugging', '44 winters of screamo', etc.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:14 PM |

'* 10Êminutes of little stars *'... I like that one. Hm.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:15 PM |

* the winter shannon sparkled * ...I'm assuming that's some -other- Shan. *Snerk*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:16 PM |

"Your * 14Êminutes of alienation * begins now. Make the best of them."
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:17 PM |

* 50 months of rain * -sounds- like a lot...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:19 PM |

* the week the stars lied * sounds like something out of a book. I like these random snips of...stuff.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:20 PM |

I can't believe this. I just realized that nearly twelve hours ago, I was -supposed- to be at the Advising and Counseling Center to do the SII interp. AGAIN. I fuckiing missed it AGAIN. How lame can I BE? Yeesh.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:28 PM |

Tuesday, January 22, 2002

About writing, goaded by a trip to Suze's blog and a perusal of yet _another_ fanfic rant, this time by Tayla:

It is entirely possible to write for writing's sake -and- produce something that's readable. It's hard to do -well-, sure, but it's possible. It's also possible to write for no one but yourself, really. Half the stuff I write is for no other reason than it was rattling around my head and I liked it. I don't expect to have my Finch/Herbert stuff published -- it has very little in the way of 'real' plot -- but I don't -want- it to be published. I didn't write it with that in mind; in fact, I wrote it with nothing more than simply -writing- it in mind. I wrote Training Camp to see if I could, because I'd never written anything like it before. Training Camp was pushing boundaries with the side-goal of entertaining Scrubby, who'd asked for some -good- Krushers RPS.

I don't read a lot of mainstream fiction. I read a lot of mysteries -- of late, I've been reading Dennis Lehane and Andrew Vachss -- I avoid a lot of NYT Bestsellers. I don't care what kind of pablum/dross/crap the -rest- of the world likes, I want something that's going to make me hold my breath until we figure out what the heck is going on. Lehane wrote a book called Gone, Baby, Gone, in which The Good Guys don't necessarily win, nor do they even do what might be The Right Thing. It's an incredible story, well paced and plotted, with an ending that I'm still trying to pass judgement on. It does have a bit of a sour note in it -- some pedophiles that really only become central to the plot in the last hundred pages or so, elicting a 'why?' from me -- but it was _good_. And it had Bubba*, so I was happy.

But did Lehane write it that way because he had nothing better to do? I don't think so. That would be R.A. Salvatore or Clive Cussler. I adore their earlier stuff, but once they got famous (or something) they both hit a point where they no longer felt the need for either A) a thesaurus or B) an editor. I loved Cussler's early stuff, but when I sit down with his latest book and start editing it instead of getting lost in the story, there is something badly wrong with the writing. I think that maybe Lehane was trying to simply tie up the loose end he'd forshadowed at the beginning of the book, and maybe didn't have the time or the space to make it flow as smoothly as it shooooould/might have otherwise. *Shrug* I don't know.

I have no illusions about a writing career. Writing as a profession is -hard-. I wouldn't make it at the moment, given that it's taken me this long to revise MooT into something readable, and it's STILL not done... Stealing The Spire isn't even revised, yet; Vic and Marc needs revision (and a title); Hubie/Alvie/Cid has no more of a plot than your average newscast; etc., etc., etc.. But you know what? I know these things, and I'm not trying to pass off whatever I've got done as The Best Thing Ever Written By Me!. I don't tend to share them with the world at large, and when I -do- manage to rewrite the parts that need it, I'm happier with the piece and myself than when I first produced it.

I have no idea what my point was, except maybe 'there are exceptions to every rule'. *Blink* Or Something. I'm hungry and I think I want to try finishing my K/A smutsnip.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:42 AM |

* Bubba Rogowski is a psycho. In a GOOD way. I love Bubba -- he's one of those guys that you'd leave small children with (well, if you don't mind running the risk of him corrupting them when it comes to certain aspects of lawlessness and/or morality...), because there's no one safer. And he's -funny-.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:45 AM |

I've said this elsewhere, but I'm going to say it here. I like writing smut. Sometimes it's the only writing I ever get done at all... At least, it's been the only thing I've done lately.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:46 AM |

In the continuing trend of people that may be losing/have lost telco access due to nonpayment of their bill, I need to call Internet Alaska and ask them about this $214.50 charge I seem to have... It may be a mix-up on their part, in which case I can feel mild righteous indignation, or it might be a case of utter confusion on -my- part (not helped by them, more later when I have more details), in which case I'll hand over the cash because it's not their fault. (Well, not any more than can be blamed on a badly-designed system, anyhow.)
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:41 AM |

Looking at the links on Tom's page reminded me of one of the biggest regrets of my life to date: Mike Stout, wherever you are, I'm really, really sorry I was such a gutless coward and said no when you offered to teach me the finer points of extreme chess. Really, really, incredibly sorry.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:48 AM |

Note: Telephones were not designed as stereo equipment. Treble-heavy guitar solos are very unpleasant to listen to, thanks to the lack of stereophonic capabilities.

Also, I -do- owe my ISP that rather large chunk of money. Not Fun. It was also something of my fault, as I was under the impression that I was setting up a bill-my-credit-card-monthly thing, only I wasn't... Partly their fault as the website didn't specify that that was NOT an option. Oh well...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:57 AM |

I would just like to say that I dislike startling tinkly MIDIs, feeling like I should go back to bed in the middle of the afternoon (I can't! I have class! I have to stay -awake- during class!), and the fact that the end of my nose is cold. It's really strange, and kind of disconcerting...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:52 PM |

I'm getting the hang of purling, though, so that's good -- the top of my sock actually looks like a sock, and the scarf/hat/whatever it'll be I started is looking good, too. Go me and my knitting skillZ.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:53 PM |

And while I understand that it's -difficult- to organize large collections of graphics online, I also know it's not -impossible- to arrange them in a manner that makes it A) easy to get to them and B) easy to view them. *Grumples at sucky web page design* *Notes that it would help if she could, like, -read- the text on the pages* *Loves the fact that Japanese URLs at least use romanji, if not English*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:56 PM |

Okay, I'm not one to discount the whole psychic phenomenon, given my experiences and the experiences of my family, but The Pet Psychic? I can tell you what animals are thinking... "These people need to feed me more." "I wanna play!" "How come I have to sleep on the floor? It's hard, and it makes my old bones hurt. The couch would make me feel so much spryer!" "Once again, they feed me this awful dry cereal while they feast on chicken and steak." "Have I mentioned that I'm hungry?" "Take me for a walk before I bite you."

Well, maybe not. But...I just don't know about TPP. It just seems like it's too easy to fake.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 2:00 PM |

I also am quite fond of morning glories. I don't precisely know why, but that's not important.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 2:09 PM |

The aster, which is the flower for those of us born in September, is classed as a weed by plant scientists in New Jersey. Bah, what do plant scientists know, anyhow?
Posted by: Shannon M.: 2:14 PM |

How would you like to be known as the "weed scientist emeritus" of Rutgers University? It's right up there with your only claim to fame being that you've performed over 1,000 gallbladder surgeries.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 2:15 PM |

Botanists. -That- is how you spell that word. Finally!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 2:19 PM |

Lauren, shut up. Okay? I don't -care- about you and your menopause. Just...don't -share-, okay?

Shan, who may go complain on the FameTracker commercial thread.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 2:20 PM |

'Convolvulus' sounds like maybe you shouldn't eat the plant associated with it. Granted, eating morning glories is about the last thing I'd do, but this just reinforces that rule.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 2:22 PM |

A Latin-heavy introduction to the morning glory.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 2:28 PM |

Now, if you know me, the following will not seem strange to you at all. *Grin*

Oh boy! Slime molds! Also, regular molds, fungi, and other one-celled organisms. Hooray, more Latin nomenclature for molds... I can stop using 'Aspergillus'!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 2:38 PM |

Wow... *Blinkblink* I had no idea that Aspergillus was that useful. Cool. And it may explain why I don't care for miso all that much -- I'm allergic to a relative of Aspergillus, a strain of which (Aspergillus) is responsible for the fermentation of the soybean base.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 2:42 PM |

Bwahaha! *Ahem* If they're male but not human men, what -do- you call it? For elves, there's a LotR fic that has a suggestion, approximately three-quarters of the way down the page...

And actually, that question is why I decided that the Havothi are basically a version of human -- that way I can call Kelvath, Avrath and the rest of the guys 'men', instead of... I have no idea. Whatever the Havothi word for 'male' is, I suppose. (Kelvath and Avrath are very grateful. *Snerk*)
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:50 PM |

All right, I'm either going to go knit some more, or actually do my Japanese homework. G'night, y'all.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:26 PM |

Monday, January 21, 2002

You know, I wasn't alive during the McCarthy Era, and everyone I know that was lived in AK and/or other remote parts of the country, and was therefore relatively unaffected by anything going on in those rarified circles. However, the stories from that period of time have always bothered me. This article, from The Progressive, -scares- me. Particularly the bit about the book-purchase law, where it says booksellers aren't allowed to tell anyone that they were asked for the names of their customers.

I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again: I certainly don't mind living here. The rights I've got are great, if not getting a little squashed. That does not mean that I am a patriot to my marrow, that I bleed red-white-and blue, or that I will lay down my life for this country. I don't agree with ever single policy that comes out of D.C. Hell, I don't even agree with everything my STATE government comes up with.

I do not have a single flag anywhere on my vehicle.
I do not plan on putting one one it any time soon.
I want magnetic bumperstickers, one half saying 'God Bless' and the other half saying things like 'Finland', 'China' (because God knows the people there need blessing), 'Zaire', 'Cuba', 'The People's Republic Of Svalbard', etc. Because you know what? America _has_ been blessed. Many, many times over. God's not going to forget about us if we -don't- plaster 'God Bless America!' all over creation. In fact, He's probably more likely to bless us if we ask for blessing and safety and food and wisdom and health for those less fortunate than the majority of us living in this country.

God Bless the innocent Afghanis. So there.
God Bless the innocent Iraqis.
God Bless the innocent Palestinians.
God Bless the innocent and unfortunate in Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kahzakstan. God Bless the Ukranians and the Siberians and the people in Lichtenstein. God Bless Uzbekistan.

I don't want to be a 'good little American' and wave a flag and cheer when bombs fall out of the sky and ruin the lives of people that may not deserve it. I'm NOT going to laugh at Calvin peeing on the words 'Osama Bin Laden', something that resembles the Anheiser-Busch eagle defecating on 'Bin Laden' or anything else that makes it look like that hate is something to be proud of. How is that right? To say 'he hated us first!' is to sound five years old. 'He started it!' 'Did not!' 'Did too!' 'Did not!' 'Did too!' 'Not!' 'Too!', repeat ad infinitum, or until you get sent to your room.

Yeah, I'm an American. I'm a citizen, and I'm glad. But don't expect me to approve of every little legislative twitch because hey. Being an American means I get to have an opinion of my own, even if it's not a popular one. There's this old funky document called the 'Constitution', along with its addendum, 'The Bill Of Rights', that says so.

Anyone that asks if I have 'UnAmerican' stuff on my property will be made to stand in the cold with Yasminda barking at them from near my knees while they define just what -precisely- qualifies as 'UnAmerican', and then be told that unless they have a warrant and want to enjoy the presence of my dog (and/or lawyer) they can't come in. (Not that I think this will ever happen, I just like to be prepared for contingencies).

This was posted by Shan The Heathen, who got the link from BlackRose's journal.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:28 AM |

And because I'm a dink, here's the Blogger Code link. Finally.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:47 AM |

Watashi wa sozai no little eden suki desu. Watashi mo trigun suki desu. Soshite, watashi wa jyuuniji han ni jean-chan no uchi ni ikimasu. Watashi wa jyuuichi han ni fred meyers ni ikimasu.

...and I haven't even done my homework, yet. Go me.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:22 AM |

I am, as you no doubt know by now, off.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:22 AM |

Also, I really, really, -really- love the cute bunny-shaped whatever-they-ares for spring. I don't know if they're made of snow, or if they're made of rice or what, but they're darling.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:25 AM |

I'm leaving, honest.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:25 AM |

Finished Trigun. It ended the same as it always does, which never fails to elicit whimpers and sighs from me. Mme. Jean wasn't too surprised that it was... Well, that the UCD happened. She was sad about the characters left behind that were attached to the deceased.

I had something else to say and now I canNOT for the life of me remember what it was. *Blinkblink*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:19 PM |

Okay, my hair is officialy driving me insane. I think I'm calling the Locks-Of-Love affiliated salon this week so that my hair can go bring joy to someone else's life instead of cluttering up mine.

Oh, to be able to brush my hair completely in less than 20 minutes... To not have to brush it before I wash it... To be able to wash it and actually dry it in a reasonable amount of time! To be able to have a restless sleep and the only side-effects are the normal ones -- crankiness, tiredness -- instead of humongous knots that take FOREVER to work out...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:23 PM |

To be able to brush my hair while sitting down!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:26 PM |

Sunday, January 20, 2002

Well, I got started on the K/A smut-snip last night, which makes me happy. I also threw up, which made me feel _so_ much better it wasn't funny, though I wasn't -nearly- as thrilled about it. I could really go for the rest of my life without ever going through that again. The worst, or strangest, part was that I felt like I was going to die (or at least pass out) before it happened. My hands and feet basically fell asleep and my fingers did that wierd Vulcan-fusion thing, the sides of my neck and head got all tingly (like my hands and feet), my vision got all fuzzy... It was probably because I was hyperventilating, but it still wasn't my idea of a good time. Yuck.

I also managed to use all of the hot water in the house, between the load of laundry I had to run, my hour-and-a-half soak in a desperate and failed attempt to get my muscles to relax, and the shower I had to take after I got out of the bathtub. But, as I no longer feel like I'm a dog with bloat, I'm marginally happy. And clean.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:17 AM |

...and I'm sure you all wanted to know that.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:18 AM |

Okay, I understand that when people want my URL before they'll let me download something, it's ostensibly to make sure I'm not pretending to be an individual with a private site while in reality being a nasty cheapskate corporation that's ripping off hard-working designers. However, being the odd little weasel that I am, I don't -like- giving them my URL, mostly because I don't want to run the risk of them saying 'hey, your site bugs me and I don't like my work being associated with it, so you're not getting my graphics.' But that's Just Me, and I'm sure that it's an unfounded concern.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:38 AM |

Telecanvas has some beautiful Blog templates.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:48 AM |

Hmm... The mountain in the top border of Shoreline looks a lot like Sleeping Lady... Not to mention that at the right angle, the sand looks a _lot_ like snow. It gave me a bit of a pause to click on something that looked more like the sand in Delaware or Oregon and see something that looks more like looking across the inlet from Nulbay Park downtown.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:02 PM |

A site that incorporates -both- a pop-up window _and_ DHTML scrolling is...a good way to make me cranky. *Mumble* Maybe I should quit looking at templates and go write.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:13 PM |

I haven't gotten any more writing done (yet), but I -did- start a sock! *Grin* Sadly, my Snuggly Domino yarn isn't elastic enough for socks, but I can still use it for a scarf or a hat or something. I'm thinking a headscarf or a half-scarf-half-hat balaclava thing, so I can keep my head nice and toasty. Or maybe a shawl. I'll keep thinking about it.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:10 PM |

Reesa -- Hm. The Bloodletting Album rarely makes me think of sex -- mostly just The Sky Is A Poisionous Garden, and only during the bit about 'this body is someone she always has known' and 'she cried on his chest/tears so silent and slow'. Of course, out of the whole thing, I only like The Vampire Song, TSIAPG, The Darkening Of The Light, Days And Days, The Beast, and Lullabye, which might explain something. *Shrug* Or not.

Faithless's Reverence, now -that- is an album that makes me think of sex. Um, with the exception of the the song about God and the one about not getting yourself killed over a simple baseball cap. Mm. *Wonders where that album is* *Considers it for background sound on her sweetsleepysoft K/A scene*

There's not a lot of music out there that I think of as 'sex music' anyhow... I don't know if I haven't heard the right stuff, or if it's because I don't have the experience to know if I can pay attention to sex and music at the same time (or even if I -need- to be able to do that...)... Er, this isn't making any sense. *Grin* But it doesn't matter, because it's an interesting topic, which I will be thinking about for the next couple of days.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:31 PM |

Also: the concept of p0rn films (which I mistyped as 'filk'... sex music again!) starring (a) WWF reject(s) makes my brain hurt. *Blinkle* *Squint* I don't wanna know.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:34 PM |

This is probably Just Me, but the phrase 'shooting submarines' sounds like a euphemism for something smutty. What, I have no idea. In other news, I love The Brak Album, by Brak of Space Ghost (Coast-To-Coast).
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:49 PM |