It's confirmed, I'm addicted. 21 movie posters for 20 fics... there are so many Giles fics you might have reading material for the month (and they're from all different kinds of genres from angst to fluff, from crossovers to AUs).

( So, this way, for fic you can find at a livejournal near you! )

It's that time... just in case you missed some of my Summer of Giles posts (and because I like to have everything in my journal anyway), here's the first of two posts of everything I've put up so far.

04x wallpapers
06x banners
37x icons
02x layouts

the teasers:
     

( Icons --- Giles: How did you know it was me? / Buffy: Your eyes. You're the only person in the world that can look that annoyed with me. )

( walls & banners ---- But that's the thrill of living on the Hellmouth! There's a veritable cornucopia of fiends and devils and ghouls to engage. Pardon me for finding the glass half full. )

( Layout #1 )

( Layout #2 )

First off, HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY DARLING mishloran!!!

So, what did I learn today?

Do not attempt to read a Charlaine Harris novel right after you've read the 'all old movies suck' entry (and a good half of the comments, at least) at iblamethepatriarcy.  Or after you've read this fic rant about over-idolization of a single character.  Basically, the upshot is that Sookie Stackhouse novels, while entertaining, are never ever ever going to be anything other than mediocre fiction with a lot of problems.

Also, do leave the house because apparantly it puts everyone in a better mood.  Even me.  For, like, at least 10 minutes.

Sometimes the joy is all about the goofy meeting of minds, perched on seat edge listening with all ears attuned to someone elses' theories about life the universe and everything. 

( In otherwords, I was a geek and attended a couple of panels at a Taiwan conference today. )

The best part about the whole thing was the holiday atmosphere - everyone was chatty and sweet and having a good time.  OH, and Mulhollando-san, if you're reading this, I met a friend of yours!! And I bonded with the woman who gave the talk from USC so I actually got to ask her some of my financial questions - and had on the whole a totally intellectually stimulating day.

The roofers seem like they're done with the re-roofing of our house, but of course they screwed up the alignment of the satelite dish when they put it back on the roof so we have no TV (the horror!).  After two days of incessant pounding going on over head I'm glad they're done and everyone around here is a little tired and a little on edge and ready to drop.

Oh weekend.  I am pleased you're here.  Perhaps there will be graphicing.

gacked from wesleysgirl:
Name fifteen books you've read that will always stay with you, and don't take too much time to think about it (the first fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes). Copy this into your own post. (and just like WG I have included the first lines of each in my own description, because, well, it was awesome to go revisit them... and linked to their Barnes and Noble profiles because Amazon is still evil even if it is convenient)

( 15 books right off the top of my head worth keeping ... and their first paragraphs )

ok, first off, one of my all time favorite EVER WIPs just got a new update, so really, if you haven't read it before you should start now, even if you don't read WIPs, even if you don't read Spike/Xander, even if you don't read fanfic, and tell the author how you got swept up in its wonderful small imperfectness too:



And then, I spent most of the afternoon reading a Star Trek: Reboot Kirk/Spock called Breaking Point that was about two men whose weaknesses actually help shore each other up, and about a third man who sees way too much potential in them both and so makes things happen, and it was absolutely wonderful and plotty and kind of adorable and fun and most of all hopeful at the end.

And speaking of hopeful if you're ever going to venture into Buffy/Giles, you should really be aware that it can be done like glimmergirl does it in Love is an Evil Word because she does it well, she does it beautifully, and she somehow fixes Season 3 things that are broken with the delicacy of an architect who only works with dreams.

And finally here's a dirty, pithy (and yet nicely satisfying for a one-shot), adorable Merlin/Arthur fic by freudian_fuckup called Forgotten for Good that is not only hot but sweet with a slightly grumpy Merlin, a slightly snarling possessive Arthur, and even though they're in an a ... relationship, this is the big magic reveal and it's important and sweet and serious all at the same time.

Besides, you know you're bored, and you know you want to go read!

( and we saw UP, the preview for the new Disney movie, and other random bits )

the only other entertaining thing I've done in the past week (it has been atrociously hot here and it leeches the energy out of humans at an evil rate) is to play with a cooking thing that my mom (dhranstz is her LJ, and she even occasionally updates it) suggested on Saturday.  They're like mini-quiches except you don't have to work hard on the crust... and they are SCRUMPTIOUS.  We made a set on Saturday, gobbled them all up, and then made another set last night.

( let's just call them 'those muffin things' shall we? )

Oh dear god I'm playing in different fandoms!!  *looks around* it feels very weird around here.  But, I can't resist.  So behind the cut you'll find me experimenting with new faces in icon form.  Hopefully it won't be too boring.  And if you don't like them, it's not really my fault! It's all because elizabuffy and glimmergirl are such temptresses.

teasers:
   

32 Merlin icons (all of Merlin)
32 Torcwhood icons (mostly Jack & Ianto)

( hello pretty boys )

And finishing with movie posters ...

I offered to make movie posters for fics (either completed, WIP, or forthcoming).  Inside you'll find the results!  I hope you like looking (and perhaps reading the fic attached to them) as much as I enjoyed making them.  And if you do like the fic, don't forget to feedback your author as well.  :D

( complete fics now available at livejournals near you! )

( works in progress in journals now! )

( coming soon! perhaps even to spring with xan! )

( a special tribute to Conspiracy Theory )

And THEN, I had this idea that I'd make a movie poster for every story posted at spring_with_xan this year. So, I made it up to April 26th before I totally buckled. So if you missed an early fic, here you go! If you wrote a fic, here you go too!

( here you go )

So, in the rush of the end of the semester, the packing and the sellin of the house, I realized I hadn't posted my graphics for spring_with_xan in my own journal. Crazy huh? Yeah, not so much. But for those of you who weren't watching the comm (or those who want a second look) here are two posts with everything I did.

Starting with Icons...Oh Xander.  How I love your expressions.  Your rolled eyes.  Your chagrined grins.  Your long suffering looks of sheer terror (check out #15 of the 'couples' icons, you will see what I mean).

teasers:
   

( 38 Xander only icons )

( 29 Xander+ icons )

And THEN ... for last year's spring_with_xan I went back to my favorite Xander season (three) and picked out a bunch of my favorite moments. Sadly, I didn't actually get the chance to finish up the season last year. The bonus though? It means I got to finish it this year!  Behind the cut you'll find the dial-up unfriendly caps I've collected and messed with.



( sweaters, patterned shirts, amazing expressions of amusement, surprise, and disgust, oh, and a little blowing up the highschool too )

You read that right.  Three days (ish) after we put it on the market, one day after the first person who came to see it saw it, we had an offer, Neil signed it, and IT SOLD!

The inspector is coming over this morning to do the inspection, and other than finalizing that, we're actually done with this part of the process! 

Funny thing was we went out to dinner last night to celebrate and we're all so tired by the end of it we had trouble making conversation.  But no more having to think about how we're showing the house! No more cleaning every little speck of something everytime we walk past it (it was kind of crazy what D. and I were doing - I think we literally wiped down the cabinet doors more than 30 times in the last month.... and taking an electric toothbrush to the linoleum to get it *really* clean... yeah).  But it all paid off since the first person who saw it wanted to buy it.

And the best thing about this is that they're an investor, not a family that wants to move in, so we can set our timelines and our dealines for moving out to something that *works* for US!

SO YAY!

I think my brain is still on vacation. 

My car is mostly fixed, except I discovered that they didn't reconnect the wiring that lights up the dashboard at night.  Someday I'll schedule a trip back to the dealership to get it fixed.

The first possible buyer is going to see our house tomorrow!  And the cool part is that they're looking for an investment property (which means we might have a little bit more flexibility with our timelines if they like the house).  I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but how amazing would it be if we put the house up and the first person who looks at it buys it?

We made cupcakes yesterday because it is one of the few desserts we all three actually enjoy eating.  This whole baking thing (in retrospect, of course) meant that we felt we were finished with the house ... or as finished as we can be without moving all of our posessions into the garage.  Now only about 50% of our things are sitting out there (thus why my car is in the driveway).  It's frighteningly clean in the house right now, with nothing sitting on the counters and no dog toys on the floor.  And our bedroom, which is usually a hodge-podge of strewn clothes and books overflowing from the nightstands and desks and every other available surface, is now practically barrent.  The only thing I'm half-afraid of is that I'll start to really like this whole uber!clean look and want to keep it up.  It's too much work for normal people to keep up every day, I think.

summer_of_giles of course!

but also, check out this picspam comparing Angel the Series to Torchwood (be careful though, major spoilers for TW if you haven't seen the second season all the way through).  It may not be a perfect fit but it's kind of awesome anyway!

and i have finally fallen off the log and gone competely crazy becasue I'm reading American Idol RPS.  Yes, you heard me, I've read Adam/Kris and I'm actually admitting to it.  But that's because it's written by astolat, who could probably lure me into anything with her writing. And she just started the first square of idol kink bingo so my ticket to hell should be coming any day now.

And glimmergirl? I finally downloaded Merlin! I am hopping on that crazy train with you darling. They are so frigging slashable it's creapy and I'm only 3 episodes in. and oh my god the pretty.

you can tell my brain is taking a break, can't you?  I've also finished 1-8 of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, which were delightful brain candy that didn't hurt the way LKH / Anita Blake does. YAY.  And our house may be going up on the market tomorrow.  And we will probably have an open house on Sunday.  eek!

my car was broken last night.  Not broken into, because I am an idiot and didn't lock it.  So, broken.  They apparantly watched too much TV because they tried to circumvent the steering wheel locking mechanism by breaking off the top of the key cylinder.  The only upside is that I'll get to get my driver's side door handle fixed in all of this mess.  And of course our insurance deductible is high enough that this is all out of pocket.

this is only made worse by the fact that i basically got ripped off yesterday by the auto repair shop I took my car to, to get the breaks fixed.  They doubled their advertised price for the breaks and I ended up having to pay it because they said I got a 'different kind' of breaks than the cheap ones they put on for the special.  And I couldn't get my car back until i paid them.

I just want to dump my car into the river and be done with it, but I need a car.

Buffy: Did you know about this?
Rupert Giles: No. Unless I blocked it from my memory, much as I will Xander's vigorous use of his tongue.
[Giles takes off his glasses and starts wiping them]
Buffy: Is that why you're always cleaning your glasses? So you don't have to see what we're doing?
Rupert Giles: Tell no one.

Not that I totally want to hide behind glasses over the last couple of days, because I don't.  Things have calmed down on the house front - instead of major emotional breakdowns there are minor grumbles, insignificant and quickly gotten over.  The house is almost in shape to show, and hopefully we've done such a wonderful job that we will put it on the market and it will be whipped up by someone who falls in love with it.  It is strange to live in a place where more than half of your stuff is sitting in the garage.  It feels practically empty, but it is definitely easier to clean.  It is strange that the things that make it 'our house' are not really the couches, or the bed, or the dining room table... but are instead the books and the curios and the little pieces we have collected here and there.  We'll find out tomorrow if we have to take down some of the paintings in the living room (they're nudes, and honestly I didn't even think about them being something a house-hunter might object to, but Neil wondered, and so the real estate agent will be over to offer his opinion).

I started working yesterday.  My summer job is the same as last summer, but this time I'm actually trying to stay within the 20 hours a week and not get carried away working on projects until all hours of the morning. 

Oh, and apparently I got the 'she's a woman' treatment at the place I took my car today - they called this afternoon and told me they were going to charge me double to redo my breaks.  Neil looked up their website and they're running specials they failed to inform me about.  Since they aren't finishing with my car until tomorrow I'm waiting until then to wander in with their website coupons.  Since they're pulling the 'we're mechanics, we can overcharge you' schtick, I'll be pulling the 'oh gee, i'm just a girl, i have all of these coupons I forgot to mention initially that mean I won't pay you the price you quoted me over the phone... sorry!' card tomorrow.  Hopefully it'll work. :D

And other than that and allergies, it is proving to be ... not so bad a week.

OH, AND summer_of_giles FINALLY STARTED!! YAY!

We had the carpets cleaned this morning and they got here early, we were not ready, and oh my god. They called from down the street to say they were on the way and I was standing naked in the bathroom brushing my teeth when Neil announced they were here and at the door. We shoved the animals in the bathrooms and traumatized them with banging noises while trying to get all of the small furniture in every room off the carpet. Neil made a four-foot-high lump in the middle of our bed by piling laundry and pillows and futons and stuffed animals all into one gigantic pile. The cat managed to leave a four-inch cut in D's collar bone because, while he may be cute, he's also incredibly strong and doesn't react well to crazy machines and half-asleep and freaked out guardians. It felt like a noisy war was being waged around us as they cleaned vents and dragged their hoses into the house to go over the carpets. Of course it was also pouring down rain, thunder and lightening making the whole process more ominous and much wetter. Even after they decamped we were left feeling somehow as if we'd been overrun, not helped. And the combination of our bad planning and their ruthless efficiency left us with wet floors for the next six hours and two people who are supposed to work from home in separate offices jammed into the dining room and kitchen with roughly 2/3rds of the living room in there with them.

Saying the day did not start out well was an understatement. We're still waiting for the bedroom floors to completely dry, but at least we've regained a sense of calm. It's been two days of this house-type madness since we had contractors here replacing the bathroom flooring and redoing the deck yesterday. But, even including the three separate trips I had to make to Home Depot, yesterday was nothing compared to the weird 'i'm not awake enough for this shit' terror of this morning.

The realitor returns tomorrow to (hopefully) tell us how much we're going to be able to sell this house for, I get to start packing the books that aren't in our bedroom and (hopefully) finish up some of the painting/touch ups. And then we'll be in the awful business of trying to sell the house while still living in it with a dog that sheds and an untidy cat.

Ok, so i'm not going to the ceremony where they have you move your tassel (because it's open to every graduating student, undergrad and graduate, and that's like at least 5,000 students).  BUT, I went to the other one this morning where they awarded me my hood!

pictures forthcoming(ish), but it was great fun, and one of the other women from the department (south asia side but still) was there so we sat together and made sure we looked pretty when we went out on stage.  I could hear my mom screaming from the audience when I walked across (the lights were a little bright to actually see).  It was all of the hurry-up-and-wait-in-lines that you'd expect from a graduation, but overall great fun, and only a couple of hours, and I kind of feel like I really did finish my master's now.

We went out for fantastic brunch afterwards (we were all amazingly hungry because the 'champagne toast' at the alumni center right after the ceremony only served popcorn and jawbreakers ... seriously!  and we ran out of the house this morning at 7:30 without having done anything but suck down a bit of coffee), with challah french toast, and portabello eggs benedict, and fresh croissants.  mmmm.

so yeah, it's done!  and celebrated!  and all of that!

Calling all Giles fans!  We wanted to let you know that we've decided to keep sign-ups open until June 1 for summer_of_giles

We still have 15 whole days open, so if you were hesitating signing up, please reconsider!  Picspam, drabbles, meta, short fic, a couple of icons - we'd love to see anything and everything you'd like to share to keep the Giles!love strong.

Also, if you wanted to sign up for a second day, we're pleased to have those requests too!  So stop on by and sign up (again).

ok, admittedly, i'm an idiot.  i didn't realize that both murielle and tokidokiame commented to my meme too... this is for them:

for murielle( on my taste in art )

for tokidokiame( on anime consumers who have no idea bout the cultural context )

responding to the only random request for info (so aesiron, this part of the post is for you) ( on panties )

( things, things, and more things )

(  the whiny kate )

oh, and in strangly not disconcerting (and yet, on reflection, possibly not good for future job people who are internet savy), Kelsey, an internet machine from my Weird Science class, decided to stalk the whole class and create diaramas based on the information she could find out about people online.  She found my livejournal with EASE. I realize that while I don't mind at ALL that people in that class might be able to find my blog and fanart and the like, I should make it slightly harder for someone who is ... say ... interviewing me.  Or someone who has an assistant who is web savy (or heck, is a websavy intellectual themselves).  Or for my students.  I thought I had things locked down, but I found a way to find myself within about 4 clicks from my real name to my livejournal profile.  While I can't change everything, and I don't want to friends lock all the time, I am going to have to figure out ways to distance my fandom self from my "RL" self.  If anyone has any advice (not the 'delete your livejournal and start another one' advice, but anything that's a step down from that) I'd much appreciate it.

all of that is the long run on explaination as to why I'm in the market for graphics hosting.  Does anybody frequent a non-LJ graphics website they like? Especially one that hosts icons in a nice way?  I really want to explore new possibilities and I don't know where to look.

snagged from maharet83

Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on yaoi, favorite type of underwear, graphic techniques, etc. Repost in your own journal so that we can all learn more about each other.

I spent the day doing house chores so the realtor would see the pretty house instead of the frankly scary house of last week. Went back over everything we'd done in the last couple of days and added in a couple of things that needed extra clean up.  Oh, and went to Home Despot.  And the grocery store, again. 

Started reading / grading fairly pathetic final papers for the class I'm TAing (it makes me sad because we did so much work on writing this semester and clearly we either did it wrong or they didn't care).

Oh, and toss in a minor fight with the housemate and you'll find I'm stick-a-fork-in-me done.

This whole having to put the house up on the market by the end of the month is for the birds.

The finishing of the thesis has been accomplished! It was like giving birth to a baby. A whiny, comma-ridden, overwhelming, far too long, hopefully showing flashes of brilliance baby.

So, now that I've won the superbowl, what did I do?

• Friday: went to a party w/the other grad students in my department and had a great time for about two hours until my energy gave out and Neil took me home.
• Saturday: slept in, watched TV, took my family to see the new Star Trek movie, walked the dog
• Sunday: slept in, mowed the lawn,  cleaned the kitchen and dinning room, went to the grocery store, walked the dog
• Monday: slept in, cleaned out the email inboxes (ack! email!), cleaned the bathroom, started the laundry, and didn't walk the dog.

My brain is still fried from writing, so it all seems exciting to me. Exciting in a 'i don't have to be coherent about that' kind of way.  We're trying to get the house ready to put up for sale, so there is a to do list about 100 miles long, and at some point we're going to start packing the house up to put it in storage, so it doesn't seem like the house is as full as it is when it shows. Why yes, we have learned from watching HGTV way too much.  Oh, and I have a final art project type thing due on Sunday, plus a bunch of undergrads who are probably going to want grades at some point here. But I'm waiting until after the real estate agent drops by tomorrow before I get started on projects that will muck the house up.

helllloooooooo! i have 3 more days until the thesis is due! I have .... a weeks worth of rewriting to do (at the least).

So instead of nattering on about rewrites or bemoaning my work habits or freaking right the hell out (or responding to comments, actually) I will give you something that totally amused me (but may, indeed, start a fire, but i don't care, I love it).

It's Twisty's amusing Law of Conservation of Human Dignity:

The Law of Conservation of Human Dignity, which states that, within a social order based on dominance and submission, the total amount of human dignity must remain constant. In other words, whenever women are treated with an iota of decency, a reciprocal diminishment of men’s humanity must obtain.

A consequence of this law is that whenever a girl gets to kick a soccer ball, somewhere a boy will be made to play with Barbies. Whenever a woman exercises sovereignty over the contents of her internal organs, somewhere a man will have to wear a frumpy 19th century calico dress and do the family laundry by hand. Whenever a woman publishes a paper on particle physics, somewhere a man will be waterboarded for a week before being shot by a firing squad of hairy humorless feminists. Etc. Ergo, the fact that a mysterious benefactor has given a few bucks to women’s education means that no colleges run by men will ever get any money ever again. [from iblamethepatriarchy]

And some of you may say to yourselves, 'oh no, not another radical feminist talking about things that just aren't true'. But some of you may see that this whole law seems to be behind some of the most "we're ok with women but we're not ok with...." dialogues that happen all the frigging time (case in point: most recent issue of Maxim that bemoans modern feminism in the US because it used to be all about guys finally getting to sleep with whoever they wanted and NOW it's turned all women into plastic mannequins who are interested in making money or being respected. Yes, they do actually say that.)

Happy tuesday beloved peoples.

a lemming with a dreamwidth account: http://katekat.dreamwidth.org/ (thanks to entrenous88 thanks darling!)

i am trying to find people, but it is slow going.

for me it totally is.  Look at the fabulousness of this banner (click for full fabulousness):



thank you to whoever nominated me for my Jack/Ianto walls at the Children of Time Awards!!!

geocities is over.  i've been trying to go through some of my fandom stuff and figure out which authors had archives there (there weren't a ton, but ... they're out there).  Hopefully most of their stuff is archived somewhere else.

and just because dwg has awesome link-fu, I am now aware of giant spiders taking over Yokohama. And you should be too. they are AWESOMESAUCE.

Richard Stillman is coming to talk on our campus

Tuskegee experiment - details on national health conspiracies that were ... well... real

The etymology of conspiracy : conspire
c.1300, from O.Fr. conspirer, from L. conspirare "to agree, unite, plot," lit. "to breathe together," from com- "together" + spirare "to breathe" (see spirit). Conspiracy is from 1386; conspiracy theory is from 1909.

An article on Artificial intelligence from Wired (we were trying to define AI)

Khronos video projection (an organic interface to the digital world that plays with ideas of space and time)
- images and video page

A kid's toy that possibly reads electrical impulses in your brain (a la the force!)

San Francisco Exploratorium (mecca of weird science)

Zebra Imaging - company that does imaging (though not often for art purposes)

Rabbit Holes Graphics - company that does 3d imaging / visual effects FOR art!

Tinmith Augmented Reality Project - a man who wants to take the visuals he's created and put them in the world

Dr. Adder by KW Jeter (and also, look up his book Noir)

oh my god i am crap with doing this meme.  not that happy things don't happen, because they do, but apparently i have trouble keeping up with it.  So, for the last couple of days, happy:

( random meanderings )

so i've been doing these things every other day on accident (me and "before midnight" seem to have a lot of trouble getting together to post).  Now I think I'll make it official (and you guys will be plagued by this for longer than 8 actual days.

So, today in the happy Kate world:

• the guy who does the $ taking at the parking garage actually let me pass for free! (actually, yesterday, but still, counts)
  
• there was the cutest widdle cat activity involving the cat and bookcases ( shared behind this cut just cuz )
• the whole backyard looks like a mint-green jungle
  

ha!  i missed you last night, but i'm on it tonight.  happy things:

• summer_of_giles is underway!
• i met with 2 students today and there is an actual chance they will write decent papers

Ok, doin this fast in the hopes of finishing before midnight:

• worked on translation
• had a good conference with a student
• got contacts!!!  oh how i have missed you contacts (glasses are fun, but get dirty way fast in my world)
• had a good talk with the advisor about the thesis - she has faith i will pull it out of the trash can and make it work
  

Ok, first off, I missed my day yesterday, but here is my Day 2 of 8 days of happy:

• had nummy easter breakfast with my family today (french toast with strawberries and banannas)
• had great coffee with great friends today
• started on my graphics for my second spring_with_xan (last night, and today, and oh my god picspams take too much time)
  

( now for the fail )

And just in case anyone hasn't seen this (and to keep the google bomb going)
Amazon Rank
Explanation here (with links)

What kinds of things should I do for my other day at spring_with_xan?

Poll #1381785 Spring with Xander...
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

what do you think?

vote soon? vote often? :D

I have been tagged!  by lilianvaldemyer!

(  So, today, happy thing(s) )

3 whole things.  I think that counts as a win.

It was a puppy-tastic weekend:  the adoption place where we got Domino has a puppy easter egg hunt every year, and so we hopped in the car with our dirty dog and went to go hunt plastic easter eggs filled with doggie treats.  It's a great way for Domino to visit with other dogs, and we were hoping to see the people who we'd adopted her from there, so they could see how much progress she's made now that we've had her for a year.  Sadly, they weren't there, but they did have someone in an easter bunny costume, so we got a picture taken with them, and it's really cute.  Perfect picture of Domino, if I do say so myself.  She looks a million times healther than she did in her photo from last year.  And on the really fun side she/we hunted down one of the "special" golden eggs that were actually well-hidden (since the rest of the eggs are sort of nestled at the edges of grass borders so the dogs can find them, and usually the dog sniffs at the egg and moves on, and the owner is the one who cracks it open and hands over the treat).  The special eggs are prizes, and we ended up with a basket of doggie treats, some dog shampoo, and a squishy toy.

( 2008 easter pic, and 2009 easter pic (and a whole lot of cuteness) )

This lead to me thinking it was a great idea to wash the dog at home.  Never again.  NEVER AGAIN.  Not that she did all that badly in the bath, but after she got out there was that "getting water off" shake, and she probably sprayed all four bathroom walls and possibly the ceiling.  It is not fun to clean that up after cleaning the dog.  The N & D spent half an hour brushing her wet hair while she was on-leash outside.  I spent the rest of the day combing her hair with a metal comb, trying to get some of her undercoat out.  She looks 5 lbs lighter now, and she's definitely far more pettable, but dear gods.  This is why we take her to the $7 dog wash place - not only do they have endless towels, when she shakes the only thing she gets wet are the floor and us, and we get smocks.

today we did coffee (another trip, car ride and all, that involves doggie fun), and that was good even if I froze way to fast.  But sometimes that happens when the wind is going and it's not exactly super warm.

( now for the wittering parts )


And ok, I feel much better just having gotten that out.  Now, back to reading about High and Low and King's Ransom, HAHA!

I have for you two wallpapers shared by the generous graces of miss elizabuffy... both Jack/Ianto, both worksafe.  Enjoy!

teasers:       

( stopwatches? who said something about time? )

I've been going through my resource archives, and I have all these pics I really like of the btvs characters/actors.  So, here are my five favorite pictures (and my attempts to make them into pretty icons).  5 icons each of xAngel, xAnya, xBuffy, xCordelia, xDawn, xEthan, xFaith, xGiles

(you'll note I've done A-G... H-Z are forthcoming)

teasers:     

( this way to the pretty )

Monday was, to quote, "A rare and historic occasion, bringing critics AZUMA Hiroki and MIYADAI Shinji together in dialogue with North American scholars for the first time outside of Japan." And it happened at our University.

( And these guys?  They are so frigging smart )

other random babbling....

I managed to forget my Father's birthday yesterday, so I called him tonight.  Not only am I profoundly grateful he's my father, but I'm profoundly grateful that he doesn't sweat the small stuff (and since every year he mutters about not really wanting to celebrate another year passing... yeah, my dad is not the party type).  He is, however, the super duper dry and sarcastic type, and I adore that.  It all works out.

School is crazy and relaxed at the same time.  I went thrugh most of today trying to play a DVD on different devices (school dvd players, computers, my own laptop, etc) and came to the conclusion I think my own laptop dvd/cd drive is dead, and finally after all those other devices, that the dvd I was trying to watch was smudged enough that it wouldn't play.  Hail the unsmuger!

right now my eyes are itchy -- too many graphics, too much pollen, and too few contact changes.  I get to talk to distinguished faculty vising from Oslo tomorrow about our graduate program (yay!) and OH my god I forgot what happened monday:

( the to do list - done and undone )

I didn't go into this naively.  I didn't expect it to be great.  I didn't expect it to be good.  I expected it to be bad on the order of .... oh, say Resident Evil: Extinction.

But it made RE:E look like movie-making genius.  I am SO glad I didn't pay for that, and didn't bother to see it in the theatre.  This is what I get for being curious - sometimes it really does not pay off.  The pathetic part is that we even ran out of mocking material because it was so repetitive that we couldn't find anything new to mock.  And that was HALFWAY THROUGH THE MOVIE.

anybody want to rec me some vampire fics where the characters actually do have sex and there is biting?  because at this point i'm trying to do the fic=brain bleach.

I mean, Twilight made Dollhouse look good.  that's just frightening.

and ok, i know, i'm totally late to the Twilight dissing party, since it was forever ago, but ... I'm traumatized now dammit.

from SGA.  from SG-1.  from Torchwood. from Harry Potter. from Doctor Who. from Dark Night/Batman. and from the fandom that will always be nearest and dearest my heart: Buffy (and Angel).

Still curiously liberating.  Still have more to come.  Still working on the thesis, promise.  And eventually an icon post, believe it or not.

( now showing at websites near you! )

SO. MUCH. FUN.  and addictive.  but that's ok, graphics are one addiction i've had forever, and i'm not willing to give up.  so, to repeat myself a little bit... the request post is still open, the fics just keep coming out, and i'm having an absolutely great time not working on the thesis and working on these instead.

oh, and remember, if you haven't read the lovely fic that inspired all of these, just click on the poster!  because seriously?  WORTH IT.  (although do remember to read the warnings when you get there, since some are dark and some are kinky and some... well, you get it)

( all available right now at a livejournal near you )

Behind the cut you'll find all of the movie posters I've made so far.  They are GREAT fun to do for some reason, so if you were hesitating about it, don't.  Check here and leave a comment instead. Now, as for the stuff that's behind the cut, I've linked to the fics with each poster, so if you would like to go read (perhaps based on my crazy little poster?) you should. I've read them all and they're fantastic, so, um, there.

( now appearing at livejournal fic sites near you! )

Hi guys ... I have an offer.  I'm totally enchanted with this post and this post that have promo posters for different movies and television shows.  I would love to make some for people's fics. 

So if you'd like to have a fic poster that might turn out like this, or this, or this, or this, or this, or some combo from those pages and out of my imagination, comment with the following below:

a) title
b) your name (ie: lj name, writing handle, etc)
c) tag-line OR favorite sentence/quote from the fic
d) characters/pairing  (please give me at least two characters, but if you have a fic about an ensemble, tell me how much the others are in it so I can arrange them properly)
e) link to your fic OR
e) if the fic isn't finished, give me a general idea about what type of fic (angsty, dramatic but hopeful, action adventure) and a general summary of what happens, and if you would like 'coming soon' text on the poster

[ i'm screening comments in case you want to tell me about fic you're working on but don't want to share with the world ]

• I'll be making the "posters" 415 w x 580 h (that's about as big as I can get a "poster" to fit on my screen without having resize issues, so I'm arbitrarily working with that size canvas), and can make you smaller "promo" sizes if you like.
• any fandom.  ANY fandom.  :D
• since i'll be doing these in my free time, they may not get done fast.  but since i'm interested... they may.  no promises unless you specify a date you need it by and I'll try to work to that deadline
  

I'll edit this entry to close if I feel like I'm getting overwhelmend with requests, so until then, ask away!

ETA: 3.22.09 I'm still taking requests! but i head back to school tomorrow, so it will likely be more like a week before i can get to requests. if you're ok with that, keep commenting.

ETA: 3.23.09 I'm closing down with current requests. If you are here and wanted one, but didn't get your request in, bookmark my tag for "my movie posters" and you'll get notified when i have time for more.

I'm back from my uncle's funeral (in the glorious wilds of Witchita).  It was a pretty beautiful service, and they'd arranged for an honor guard since he was in the Marines, so they did a salute with guns and the flag and everything.  I think my favorite part was the songs sung by my grandfather's pastor though.  Very sweet. 

the rest of the time was good as well - no family drama, and there was for a short time a special kind of kinship.  And apparently my KS family have started hugging, thank goodness.  After we headed back to his apartment my grandfather got out his coin collection (among other things) and we had a great time looking at his three cent coins and pennies from the 1800s.  And staying with my aunt and her husband turned out to be the very best of choices, as they were great company and last night when we got back from Abilene we spent a couple of hours looking at pictures and sharing stories.

the fun part about going through pictures is i get ones like these (cut to save your flist).


mom and I were both wiped out from having to do the fly up, drive, funeral, drive, fly back thing, but I'm home safe despite the screaming baby behind me on the last leg of my flight.  Tired though.  very tired.

It's time for Spring with Xander!  You know you want to run right out and sign up, because, um, it rocks. 


{info} l {join} l {affiliate} l {sign up!}

Sign-up Period: Monday March 9, 2009 to Tuesday March 31, 2009 (and continuing throughout the fest, if there are blank days)
Sign up:  Go HERE for all the details and to sign up!
Posting Dates: Wednesday April 1, 2009 to Sunday May 31, 2009

ruuger is running a poll over here about Dollhouse, and I thought I'd transplant my overly long comment into my own journal and see if anyone else wants to agree/disagree with me. 

So here are the problems as I see them:

( NO real SPOILERS - just cut in case you're trying to avoid discussion till you've seen it  )

will this teeth thing never end?  I was on the receiving end of a root canal on Monday, after having spent most of last week in considerable (and mounting) pain.  The dentist had, on Friday, given me antibiotics, vicodin, and a reference to the specialist who could see me monday morning.  So I basically spent the weekend doped to the gills (i was taking halves, but they still worked), not really doing much but consuming TV. 

( Monday dawned, and I found out my root was  )

I am so tired of things being wrong with my teeth.  I'm glad I did get them cleaned and worked on, but oh my god I could really do with a weekend where I wasn't having to baby some part of my mouth, and where my head was clear of tooth/jaw pain.

ETA: i am so behind on comments and on flist reading, and i apologize but i'm just gonna give 'em a pass. if we were in mid conversation and you want an answer, let me know now? :D