Date:	2007-09-07 14:36
Subject:	Damn.
Security:	Public
Mood:	sad

Madeline L'engle dies at 88.

"A Wrinkle in Time", "A Wind In the Door", and "A Swiftly Tilting Planet" have been on my bookshelf in various editions ever since I first read them. Hers were some of the few books I literally read to bits. I never actually got around to reading her other work, but she was one of those writers whose presence in the world seemed to mean that things were still stable. A child-like view of things, but there you go.

I think I'm going to go read those three again.

Date:	2007-09-07 01:32
Subject:	"When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean..."
Security:	Public
Mood:	annoyed

These lines all came from the same story. It was also the best of the lot submitted to the workshop last week.


"Dressed in a braless tube top and a super-short tennis skirt, the guard would not be able to keep his eyes off of her."

"The nightmare haunted her dreams, whether she was asleep or awake."

"Tree roots had formed under her eyes."

"Sinewy [dragonfly] wings, fragile and shaped like a spider's web..."



For fuck's sake, people! This is a 400-level writing course! At least pretend to pay attention to your use of language!

Date:	2007-09-04 09:48
Subject:	Elfquest Wolf Pack
Security:	Public
Mood:	artistic

More fun with the digital camera. Had a bit of time today, so I finished off the wolfpack using the 'As We Were' plate from The Wolfrider's Guide to the World of Two Moons and book 4 of the Starblaze editions as color refs. Won't be able to finish the lot of them until I get more wolves, but here are the ones I have so far:

( Read more... )

Date:	2007-09-01 22:31
Subject:	Alter Ego.
Security:	Public
Mood:	awake

I have stumbled upon an interesting little game called Alter Ego.

This game is complete crack. Think of those old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, only more intimate and with more infant deaths.

Now, I can't say that I'm entirely happy with the game. It originally came out in '86 and some of the modules definitely show their age. If you're a girl, you're going to lean toward the boy-crazy side of things. And the module dealing with a friend coming out to you made me grit my teeth a bit. But generally, it's a well-written, funny time-waster.

Date:	2007-08-31 19:40
Subject:	Do you speak it?
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

So we decided to try a bit of language manipulation at the warehouse some weeks back.

Sam and I decided that if gay, which used to mean happy, has come into common usage as slang for homosexual, then it goes to follow that "heterosexual" should be a term for being angry. And so many a morning started with conversations akin to:

"Oh, look. It's Joe."
"Yep. Good morning! You're looking particularly heterosexual today."
"Oh yes, very heterosexual indeed. Do you sleep all right?"
"He doesn't look all that heterosexual, come to think about it. I think he just hasn't had his coffee yet."

We should not be out of bed before sunup. No good ever comes of it.

Date:	2007-08-31 16:03
Subject:	God, I'm a nerd...
Security:	Public
Mood:	geeky

So I just read an entry in rian's journal about this photo comm whose prompt for the week is for folks to take photos of where they keep their books. This sounds like fun so...

( Massive graphics beneath the cut )

I am such a nerd...

Date:	2007-08-30 22:59
Subject:	*sigh*
Security:	Public
Mood:	worried

So full_scans_daily got TOS'd by LJ.

I can't say that I'm particularly surprised. FSD was a spin-off of scans_daily, a comm whose mods knew from day one that posting full issues of comics to the internet was a bad idea, regardless of their print status. I'm not terribly sad about full_scans, just worried that this will cause splash-back to s_d, which would be a fucking shame. There's some great stuff on that comm and they're responsible for most of the books on my pull list right now.

Date:	2007-08-26 20:36
Subject:	Even More Minis
Security:	Public
Mood:	accomplished

Finally getting the hang of the camera's close-up function, so here are the latest minis.

( Read more... )

Date:	2007-08-20 23:07
Subject:	Comic Pimpage!
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

If you're not reading Looking For Group, you don't really love yourself.

Date:	2007-08-19 22:03
Subject:	Useless f-list spam
Security:	Public
Mood:	indescribable

A group of rats is called a mischief. That is cuter than it has any right to be.

...

In other news, I still have a cat. And a camera. Watch me combine both interests.



That is all.

Got a few more EQ minis painted, but since the new scanner is a tempermental beast, no close-ups this time. Instead, you get photos of a mini-encounter put together for the purpose of testing the Hunter class against the ECLs of some of the nasty animals out of the 3.5 Monster Manual.
( Read more... )

Date:	2007-08-16 21:57
Subject:	Lemmings!
Security:	Public
Mood:	bored

Idea stolen from limyaael (and tweaked slightly 'cuz I can't do polls):

Ask me any question you like via comments and I'll answer.

I've got several people I've not seen before on my new f-list, so I figure this could be a quick and easy "get to know you" exercise. But feel free to ask even if you know me too well. I reserve the right to keep mum if I feel a question is too personal, though.

Date:	2007-08-16 00:36
Subject:	I shall surely be damned for this...
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

LOLRATS!

Because the internet doesn't have enough macros.

Date:	2007-08-14 23:23
Subject:	Bwaha!
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

Today has been full of win. Got into that dratted Classics course that I need; some kind soul dropped a few days before the start of classes and I wriggled in at the last moment. No drop/add madness for me, yay.

Also got a lot of miniatures primed today and got the Green Knight painted. Looks so cool, he does. Unfortunately, the new scanner is crap for minis and the camera isn't cooperating. Pictures as soon as possible, though.

Went to see Stardust last night. It wasn't a must-see for me; I like Gaiman's work all right, but he's not in my top 10 and I haven't read the novel the movie's based on. That said, I'm happy that I gave it a shot. Without being spoilery -- strong performances all around and, aside from a rush to get everything tied up neatly at the end, the story didn't drag at all. Cute, fun and funny movie, two parts Grimm Brothers, one part Princess Bride.

Date:	2007-08-14 01:59
Subject:	Last words on this debacle
Security:	Public
Mood:	annoyed

LJ/6A respond to the topic at hand. Again.

Really, there wasn't much chance of me going back to their service to begin with, and this just cinched the deal. Somehow, these schmucks still have the idea that fandom has a keen interest in child pornography, when all their customers really want to clarify is that they have no interest in kiddie porn, don't want their work labeled as such, and want LJ to stop using that fucking term if they don't know what it means, thanks!

I'm sorry, but after three swings and three misses, a company has to deliver a lot more than not-quite-competance to re-earn my trust.

As the good friend from whom this link was stolen said...

"There is a god and god is gay."

I will not watch the episode. I will hunt down screencaps.

I didn't think I had that many journals over on LJ. I deleted twelve today, leaving just my one RP journal that will be in use until the end of the current storyline, at which point it will too get the axe, and my personal journal, which is only still around because I haven't decided which application would work best for preserving comments.

In other news, got a reminder today fandom can be a cowardly, superstitious, hysterical lot. Just makes me that much happier than I'm in it for the individuals, not the mob.

Working on the Shaman class for the EQ d20 project. It's interesting coming up with "magic" effects for trolls and humans and trying to make sure that they balance out with true magic that all the elves are slinging around.

Anidash continues to spout the company line over at innocence_jihad. It still stinks.

All right. For those of you who have not been keeping up with the various facets of this LJ debacle, this is is why people are so upset about the pro-anorexia business in regard to LJ/6A.

First, we're aware that pro-anorexia communities are a legal form of assisted suicide, thank you. Legality of content has fuck-all to do this mess. The pictures that kicked off this latest bruhaha weren't dumped because of their legality; a letter from the LJ Abuse staff stated that they were removed due to lack of artistic merit (a category of complaint that doesn't show up when you click the Report Abuse button, trust me). The art was removed and artists permanently banned because LJ decided that they didn't like it. It's LJ/6A's right to decide what they will and will not host, but if the only criteria that really has weight is LJ's preference and not actual legality -- because it doesn't appear that they're dumping their file-sharing comms either -- then the only reason that any data remains on LJ's servers is because they are implicitly saying that they approve of it. In this case, they approve of young women using their service to kill themselves.

Secondly, this means that Livejournal is willingly and knowingly harboring a group that violates their ToS, in which it is clearly stated that Livejournal will not tolerate users of their service uploading content that "...promote(s) or provide(s) instructional information about illegal activities, promote physical harm or injury against any governmental entity, group or individual." These girls give each other tips on how to starve themselves to death. That is most assuredly promoting harm to the nearly 12,000 individuals that make up the LJ comm "Proanorexia".

Thirdly, as recent events have shown, the people that LJ employs are barely qualified to tie their own shoes when it comes to interaction with their customer base. They are not doctors or psychiatrists and are not qualified to determine how much harm these girls are likely to do to themselves, especially when their staff has already shown such astounding ignorance on the subject by claiming that these groups help girls to heal from the disease, and that they're only aspiring to be skinny. Putting these people in a position to decide which of the reported posts to these communities are too harmful to allow and which are "safe" is preposterous.

If Livejournal is going to begin taking extreme measures against users who violate their ToS, then that's their right. But to take those action against users on a matter that harmed no one for entirely arbitrary reason, and then let 12,000 people get away with blatant violations of the ToS which could result in someone's death is sickening. It's something that should be commented on and brought to greater attention.

Date:	2007-08-09 12:33
Subject:	The idiocy and contradictions continues
Security:	Public
Mood:	pessimistic

Livejournal staff finally answers one question that their userbase has been asking...EVEN THOUGH THE ANSWER GIVEN CONTRADICTS THEIR STATED ABUSE POLICY! Do these idiots WANT to be handing out refunds in small-claims court for the next century? Because they're making it more and more likely with every statement they make.