To all the Giles lovers on my flist: this is just a quick reminder - you have 7 days left to sign up at summer_of_giles !  Yep, that's right, 7 days until sign ups close (and our opening day is less than a month away!!!)

Just a note, we have over 50 available spaces still open!  (15 entire days open and the rest are days with only one sign up). 

We'd like to have at least one person for every single day, so please consider signing up!  And if you're half as excited about the summer as we are, please consider pimping to your flists to get the word out.

{check the master list} l {sign up now}

Whooeee!!  I'm buried under papers.  Or would be if they weren't all digital.  Instead I'm frantically tipp-typing away and trying to make sure there's plenty of coherency.  Finished the rough draft of the Asian Horror paper on Tuesday, turned it into the prof for comments, picked them up yesterday afternoon, and glory of all glories - IT'S NOT CRAP!  I still have some significant revisions to do, but ... she likes it!  She really likes it! 

Biggest load off of my mind in forever.  Now I'm writing the Globalization paper, basically trying to discuss how Japanese cyberpunk is essentially a global enterprise so as to prove my two pronged point that Akira and Tetsuo fucking matter.  It's going well. 

Then there's a translation that I've got due tomorrow, but I just asked for an extension so everything doesn't come down at once.  And got it!  Monday translation, here I come!

Now for the cool stuff:
- OMG!!  Chapter 1 of Jamie Craig's Forsaken is up!!  If you like m/m erotica, please go check it out, since I did the "book cover" for it and I'm exceedingly proud to be associated with these two writers and the awesomeness that is their story!
- all because of khaoschilde I decided to actually use my Deviant Art Account to upload some... well... stuff.  Old manips and wallpapers, and some pictures that, for whatever reason, I haven't uploaded to the lj.  Yes, I am a feedback whore.  Do they have 12 step for that?
- Neil's parents are arriving tonight for a 4 day stay tonight at 10 pm, and I actually have *help* cleaning the house because D. understands that, while I may seem psycho about cleaning, it's how I deal (and she actually has patience with it).  And Neil is chipping in!

And finally, from entrenous88 's choices, the ICON MEME!  This time with my horribly bad attempts at haiku.  Look, laugh, mock.  And if you reply to this post I *WILL* pick your icons, even though my response may be slow.

1. Reply to this post, and I will pick four/five of your userpics.
2. Make a post and talk about the icons I chose.  (OR write a fanku or drabble about each of the icons - inspired by icon mood, what it represents to you, or whatever)
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon squee. (YAY)

( and so, the pics were )

stolen from malnpudl , that gorgeous cookie....

1. Go to www.flickr.com or Google Images.
2. Type in your answer to the question in the "search" box.
3. Use only the first page.
4. Copy the html and paste for the answer.

( ok, mine is longer because I did this a while ago with a slightly different one - and forgot to post the pics )

and yet, I can't help myself....

• Got into the Southwest Regional Conference!!  With a panel, no less!  This took absolute days of revisions, believe it or not.  I've never worked this hard on 250 words in my life
• Finished all of the important classes, YAY!
• On the waiting list for the summer program I really want to do - now I have to figure out if I'm going to pay to go to Japan or wait for someone to drop out.  Not exactly a good idea to buy the tickets if I'm still deciding.  Wish this was an easier process, but it's my own fault for applying to better programs this year
  

That wasn't that bad.  I haven't actually done much of anything else but school, homework, and, well, work on more spring_with_xan stuff for my day later this month. 

( Now, though, for the future to do list (ie: why i won't be around for a while) )

for lilianvaldemyer, who wanted to know my thoughts on music, what kind of music I like when I'm stressed or angry (or any other time).

See, the first thing you have to know about me is that I'm a horrible music person.  Although I listen to music, and my tastes are pretty eclectic, I don't... do that thing that most people do.  You know, the thing where you find new music and download it/buy it, or where you pick artists and then go find other artists like them?  I don't do any of that.  Take me into a music store and I'm bored before I walk through the door.  And I don't memorize lyrics.  Much of the time I don't hear them properly, and I just don't retain them either.  I don't remember the names of the artists in the bands I like.  I don't look at their band photos and even really recognize them, I don't pay attention to their careers.  I don't really like seeing bands in concert after the first 20 minutes or so.  I don't know if it's that I didn't have that kind of a musical education when I was younger, or that I have a crappy attention span or what.  And I just ... yep, I listen to the music, and I like it, but I don't do any of that other stuff.  I'm also pretty resistant to new stuff when I'm not in the mood.  And unless I'm in Neil's car and he pops a new CD in, there is practically no time when I'm in the mood.

( that being said... when I'm annoyed )

( now, as for other times... )

( now, for the most important category )

(oh, and lvm, all my links are from lastfm.com because I'm too lazy to go find them elsewhere)

For my first day at spring_with_xan  I did 113 icons, and collected some of the great Xander Harris moments of Season 3 into 8 picspam sets.  These icons are both variations on textures using promo pics, and images cut from Season 3. 

to give you a taste:
   

( Icons anyone -- Forgiveness is my middle name. Well actually, it's Lavelle, and I'd appreciate it if you guard that secret with your life. )

( Now, onto the picspam -- So the dummy tells us that he's a demon hunter, and we're like, 'Fine. La la la la.' He takes off, and now there's a brain. Does anybody else feel like they've been Keyser Soze'd? )

My 5 Five Favorite Fandom Cliches  (for xanzpet )

1. Amnesia.  I love memory loss that starts everybody from a blank slate (and of course the resulting attraction that they never consciously acknowledged totally comes to the fore.)  So much love!
2. Soul bound.  Primarily I love it for Buffy/Giles, but ye gods I can't forget the great Tabaqui Spike/Xander fic Changes either.
3. Epistolary.  Give me letters, notes, diaries, emails (although I do prefer there to be something other than 100s of emails).  But... love.
4. Giles as a kinky sod who knows what he's doing in the bedroom and is comfortable with himself and his partner once he's made the decision that he wants them.  Gah.
   
5. Spike can bite even with the chip as long as someone wants him to.  I like it when Spike bites.  Nummy.
   

My 5 Favorite Board Games (for entrenous88 )

1. Cranium.  You get the mix of everything all in one game, and it goes fast.
2. Scattergories.  Even though it takes like three rounds for my brain to get into it, and even though every time the buzzer goes off I jump, it's great.
3. Uno.  Ok, it's not quite a board game, but it gets really hilarous when you start making alliances to crush the person with the least cards.
4. Apples to Apples.  Again, I know, it's a card gameish thing, but I'm always amused by it, so on it goes.  Best to play with as perverse as brains as possible though.
   
5. The Buffy Board Game.  Ha.  This is when I knew I was a fan, when I loved this game beyond reason.  Sadly people in my house will not play it with me - they say it's quite boring and I'm just gaga.
   

finally, for xanzpet again, my thoughts on the power of tabloid media in this country.  ( First, I'm going to differentiate between tabloid media and it's power )

The Globalization presentation tanked.  We are talking jump off the deep end, water covering your head, rip tide pulling you out to the ocean kind of tanking.  People were interested in the films but I had to spend so much time explaining them that I didn't really get the chance to explain their connections, or why I'd chosen them, or what the heck was going on.  And the Prof actually said "I don't see any value in literature, I just don't" so I have to address that in my paper somehow too.  Now the really frightening part?  I was kind of expecting the last bit - that's part of the reason why in the past I've stuck closer to his perspective, and this time I decided I'd take the chance and do my own work for real... so we'll see how that turns out.

And since it's that kind of day, I have two memes for you:

gakked from dwg :

Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Tell 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.

gakked from swsa :

Ask me for my Top 5's of...anything, I guess.  Movies, tv, celeb gossip (and i kinda have opinions), fandom, literature, language, whatever. And I'll endeavor to come up with something brilliant...

Sometimes I actually feel that way - too wrapped up in what else is on lj to remember to make my own contributions to lj. 

Too, my contribution to lj right now consists of massive delight over the signups at summer_of_giles .  It continually amazes me that fandom is filled with so many fantastic people, and it's so nice to grin my head off at the number of people coming back to sign up again this year, and then grin my head off in an entirely different way at the new people who are signing up.

Ok, and this post.

( There was much doing of things this weekend  )

teasers:
   

( icons - riley, buffy, cordy, faith )


( headers: riley, buffy, faith )

* riley headers & icons created for the Riley & Kate round at the_jossverse

sorry, when in doubt i'm going to go with a list:

Academically

• For the remaining three weeks of the semester my Globalization classes will be held at a local pub.  Bubble & squeak and Cider here I come!
  
• Didn't get into one of the summer Japan programs I wanted to go to.  It's one of the top programs, period, so this is ok.  Still waiting for the other program I *really* want to go to (had to send them transcripts from UCSC this week).  Keep fingers crossed. My fingers and toes are completely knotted.
  
• My favorite horror movie from this term was definitely Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.  However, my second favorite is probably Fruit Chan's Dumplings, which really must be seen to be experienced.  Seriously.  So the discussion on Tuesday about the film was fantastic.
• Cavite (Tuesday night's film) was F U C K E D U P.  And I say that on the heels of having watched Dumplings, a movie about ( cut for disturbing content - mommies do not read )  And yet, Cavite was still more disturbing, in an entirely different way.
• I got a Study Abroad Scholarship!  Now if only I can get into a school abroad for this summer.
• Finished the story I've been translating in one massive push on Wednesday.  I'd been trying to do it since the Friday before, and finally just ... did it.  Sadly I have comments back from my advisor already that I'm afraid to look at.  Soon though.
• Made it to the class I'm auditing twice this week - of course, one day was filled with an entirely fascinating presentation about the history of the kimono, and another just freakishly interesting pictorial tour of Japanese palaces and shrines (or, at least, some of them).  / sarcasm.  The "history" of the kimono was something I could probably find off of Wikipedia if I looked.  The "pictorial tour" was basically this woman who threw her pictures of her trips to Japan up on the overhead in completely random order, and occasionally remembered to mention that this or that place had been part of our reading.

( Personally )

Fandom-ally (*grin*)

• summer_of_giles sign ups open on TUESDAY!  And I can't wait to see who signs up.
• I'm petitioning to move my spring_with_xan date up because seriously, it is HARD to hang onto graphics and not post them.
• Also, a pimp/woot (and this is kind of fandom-ish in that it's art).  Vivian Dean asked if I would do a cover art for her and Pepper Espinoza's upcoming erotic romance serial Forsaken (they write together under the pen name Jamie Craig).  Not only was it absolutely awesome to actually have someone think of me to do their cover art, i couldn't be more pleased that it was these two women who'd asked.  The teaser for the serial (it gets published on a blog for an entire two months) can be found here if you want to check it out (and you really should!  They're a fantastic writing team).  And here's the artwork itself:
   
  

and I think that's far too long, but oh well, it's bullets. I am off to get ice cream ;)

{info} l {join} l {affiliate} l {sign ups 4/15}

It's *c*o*m*i*n*g*!!

It was a lovely weekend - almost done with laundry, almost done with homework, almost had dinner.  Watched 300 (yes, i love that movie for exactly what it is - lots of chest/abs/legs!porn) on Friday night, homework day for me on Sat (and tried to catch up with Torchwood - we're one ep behind now instead of three), and Coffee! with LG & TF today (and more homework).  So there ;)

You guys are actually curious!?  Thank you!

( my (possibly moderately) unpopular opinions )

I can't help myself.  And I'm posting this in the middle of the night, so I'm guessing likely I will not have many people who are curious what I think, but:

Ask me my unpopular fannish opinion! I promise to have one for you. Fandoms I am in, plus shows I loyally watch (or series I read):  Buffy, Angel, Heroes, Torchwood, Anita Blake, Diskworld, Firefly, Gilmore Girls, Hex, Coupling (Brit version), CSI, South Park, Scrubs.

The light of day shining on these things always makes them seem even more absurd than they were at the time - but still, I was dreaming about running to old friends for support on some assignment about the cat and dog, and old friends of D's showing up looking exactly the same as they did 10 years ago (and fantastic, damn them), and working on some kind of an assignment with my advisor (who happened to look just like my best friend in highschool).  She was talking about how difficult it was to advise one of the other students in my cohort (although she didn't use that word), and we were driving around looking for a McDonald's so that she could get a doughnut and I could have some fruit (this was, of course, after she had morphed from one of my other highschool bff's moms - pouring fizzy water out of a strange contraption meant to keep it fizzy).  I don't know for sure, but I think my brain is definitely on the technocolor fritz.

And then I woke up - late, to a rainy day that's actually cold, and drove to campus.  Where the classroom was empty (I didn't know that it was going to be, obviously, but it's a class I audit so I may not have gotten the info that class was canceled).   At least I was out and got gas for the car.

Today we get new couches!  Which is great because the old ones are dying right before our very eyes.  Of course, this means I'm going to be cleaning in order to make *room* for said couches - so off to do that and homework.

Translating for an entire day can tie your brain into knots of subject and objects, yet there's a little bit of a transcendant quality to three pages of text I put into english.  ( Translations...  )

Tuesday jammed itself up.  ( Morning of the girliest kind. )

Midday we got an HD TV!  *pause for consumerist glee*  ( look, sometimes it's worth it to sell your soul a little )

Afternoon was all about Chan-wook Park, whose movies I want to grope they're so sexy.  It's possible that he's using motherhood in Sympathy for Lady Vengeance to basically domesticate the narrative of the violent and vengeful woman.  On the other hand, he's playing with styles, messing with fairy tales, narrating national traumas, and besides, we all really liked the movie (in the warm fuzzy sense of the word).  Without realizing what I was volunteering for I got to sit through another showing of Juon, and as much as I like talking about the film, this is the third? fourth? time and ... I'm bored now.

( the rest of the week...ish )

That being said, tonight we get FRIENDS!!  Our friends Ryan & Kelly are flying in for the wedding of the year, so we settled down, caught up, and tucked everyone into bed.  It should be a damn fine weekend.

I don't need eggs, definitely don't really need anymore chocolate, but can handle a little Chomsky & Foucault debating how to create a future society:



Thank you Helen DeWitt

( my week last week )

What is the strike for?

( several links here )

Why am I participating?

( justifcation? sheep? you tell me )

What will this accomplish?

( outlook: grim )

( finally, some unpopular thoughts )

Is that my headspace right now?  Possibly.  It is also the Monday-space of the week back from spring break.  It is the definition of a girl who's typing on her brand spankin new fluffy computer (well, it's not the *exact* same model, but you get the idea).  Yes, the tax man gave me back some money and what did I do?  I spent it on electronics.  It's a weird weird weird world. 

The weekend was spent in halves - Saturday I papered.  Sunday I backed-up and loaded and restarted and installed and, oh, yes, originally went to all the stores to actually buy the new computer.  I was still configuring and crunching and munching as of 1:30 last night, trying to get my bearings on a new sea of different keys and strange things like battery life.  And vista.

Today, though, I count a success - I've managed to get up, make it to class, be informed, be fed and watered, write a short second paper, and now I'm moving back to the biggie that's due tomorrow.   I did however manage to forget my headphones so I can't actually listen to the film - but that's ok as the soundtrack is often more of a jarring distraction than a help. 

Huh, looking back on that, I'm not sure all those things were totally unrelated.  Surprise, surprise.

it was supposed to be fantastically productive and instead it's been fantastically crappy.

( where i've been from friday-wed )

Speaking of Terry Pratchett, if you haven't heard, he was diagnosed with a rare form of alzheimers, and has donated a million dollars to their research.  And there's a fan movement called Match it for Pratchett that hopes to raise a matching amount as a show of support for the awesome author:

Match It for Pratchett

Then there was yesterday, the "I'm trying to get work done, really" day ( where D & I ran up to campus )

Last night we had our first puppy escape.  Domino and Neil had gone on a walk, and while on a busy street she got spooked by a bus and popped her head right out of her collar.  Neil called me from a parking lot on the edge of a woody creek where he'd basically (mostly) cornered her, and I had to ride to the rescue with treats to lure, and then grab our shifty slippery dog.  You wouldn't think it would be that harrowing, but sadly Austin drivers do not look out for dogs.  Needless to say she won't be walked along that road again until after she's completed her obedience class (and possibly not again when she's walking with Neil, period).

It's funny how fast I went into full scale alert when I heard the slightly frantic tone of my beloved's voice on the phone - I pretty much dropped everything and crisis mode was on.  Not that it was a huge crisis, but we certainly have a better idea of her previous life now, and possible reason why she was on the street to be sheltered in the first place.  She was fast, and unrepentant, at least until we got her home.  Then she was looking for reassurance because she could tell we'd been scared by the whole experience. It made me glad we'd microchipped her (although I know that's not a gaurantee, but still, it is a safeguard). 

Sometimes it seems like bonds with pets are so strong, and yet this just goes to show how fragile these things can be.  Not that Domino's completely bonded with us - she's only been with us for a month or so, and although I think she has a great time here, I'm not quite sure if she's completed the whole "you're my pack and my family" circut in her brain yet.

All's well that ends well though.  And speaking of animals, here's a way you can support the ASPCA (for no cost):

Did you realize that it is now March and you can use the fancy-pants Giles!March!calendar as your background?  No?  Well you can!  (kidding, unless, you, like me, want to ... )

But I do have two new calendar months for those who want to download early.

( June & July, right this way )

teasers:  .


( note - large size manips - click all for full size )

So, I've joined this lovely graphics comm called whedon_art ... and the second challenge was titled "fire".  And I'm a dork.   So I have here for you a wall in two variations.  It actually comes from a picture of a fire dancer (you  know, those magnificent souls who play with burning flame on a rope?  and then stand so someone can take etherial and beautiful pictures of them?)

And you get... ( burn, baby, burn )

And for those of you who like voting, they're actually voting on Challenge 1 (Things that Go Bump In The Night) - open to all.  There are some fairly fantastic and scary (in the best of ways) pieces there... by the ever talented khaoschilde and mary5958 among others!

tagged by xanfan27 ... besides, i've really been into lists lately. 

10 things that made me happy recently

1.  Making my favorite black bean and feta thingy.  It's almost healthy.  And mmmmmmm.

2.  Writing a paper proposal for my globalization prof that he's not going to like, but he's going to let me do anyway because it dovetails with my research and is actually applicable to the class (but like I said, just not in a way he's going to like).  It's not petty revenge, but some part of me is very satisfied that I get to make him read something he finds despicable since I've had to read economic theory books in his class... more than once.

( 3-10 )

5. ever try to write a paper and you end up so blocked it's like you can't talk?  That's me.  Luckily D, my savior and goddess, hashed it's shit out tonight, and I actually wrote the thing.  It's still got to be edited, but I'll do that in the morning.  At least the critical parts are *there*

4. It's been the month of birthdays!  Today was a bbq celebration, with puppies and hill country and tromping around outside.  Thursday was an extravaganza of silly for D's birthday - she and I went out for lunch, goofed around in the afternoon, made a birthday cake, and then there was scrumptious dinner and a good time had by all!

3. Saw my advisor for two seconds on Friday and, as always, was delighted and amazed and fantastically pleased by even that brief a meeting.  I'm going to be applying for a workshop at her suggestion, so keep your fingers crossed that I can get in.

2. Tomorrow I need to a) finish reading for Asian Horror, b) skim reading for Globalization, c) complete at least 1 (or hopefully two) applications for summer Japanese study, d) go get a manicure.  I know, it's weird, but trust me, necessary.  These women did my eyebrows last time I was there and ... they are masters of the eyebrow.  Anyway, they're good with the digit painting too.  e) kanji quiz, f) study 8 types of grammar

1.  CRAP there needs to be more time in the week.  but at least I feel like things are back on track.

Couldn't sleep on Sunday night, so instead I was up forever reading and then marched myself to class yesterday at 10 am.  Evening class was fun, although we ripped Ian Conry's book into itty bitty tiny shreds. If I feel up to it, I may end up writing about exactly what was wrong (I always have these half baked ideas that my journal is going to become the place where i suss out these ideas... but ... well, they're just half baked ideas). 

So yes, then I came home, had a little pizza, and got to read Freud's The Uncanny, which is actually way more readable that I'd remembered.  Couldn't sleep last night either, so I ended up turning in at 4 am or so, and my body tried to tell me I didn't need to wake up this morning in response.  However, there were presentation notes to draft and some Marilyn Ivy to read, so I hauled out of bed and read.

Class raked me over the coals.  Raked the whole class over the coals, actually, and it was disheartening to say the least.  I found out my presentation notes were supposed to be a four page paper draft (this was not made clear at all, but whatever), and for whatever reason we spent three hours on a segment of Tuesday's film that was approximately 60 seconds long.  We watched it.... 7 OR 8 TIMES.  At least, I think. It may have been more.  Not that it wasn't productive, but OUCH.  a little painful too.

Back home I'm ... spent. Tomorrow is another day filled with many many many to dos.

1.  wedding planning is fun.  Well, it's great fun since it's not my wedding and it's not my budget and i get to do the cool things like come up with ideas.  our friend's getting married in march, it's a 30 person deal, and it's going to be superfabulous in the most relaxed and fun ways.  Working a little bit on it yesterday reminded me how much I like event planning - it's all there and it all comes together right in front of you.

2.  ( thursday was the day of fabulous women mentors )

3.  last night was delightful and fantastic - celebrated mrtwstedwhsprs' birthday last night at the only goth club in town.  There was dancing, grinning, much talking, even more smoking, and ... just perfect.

4.  On Ian Condry's Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the paths of cultural globallization ( is not as thrilling as it ought to be. )

5.  ( the to do list thus far today.... )

thank you to the *darlingest* darlings who nommed me at the forbiddenawards !!!  I'm nommed in both best layout for spring_with_xan (which I'm so pleased about as I could cuddle that layout if it was possible) and also for the darker_xander banners!!  (which also turned out much better than i thought they would - yay)!



if you are at all inclined to nominate for awards, please go check them out and nom!   it looks like they could definitely use some nomes in non spangel or spander slash, best finished story (het or slash), best threesome, and best layout and icon categories!  I know for a fact, from my delightful little poll, that most of you think awards are a great way to recognize people for their work so... ;)

Tetsuo consumed me today.  Woke up this morning, read three essays, and tried to put together a roadmap for talking about a film that is completely and totally schitzophrenic.  Imagine three hours of me trying to get the rest of the class to talk about a film that, I think, renders people speechless.  And some of it was fun, but some of it was truly painful.  We were treated to lecture #5 - the one where your professor says "you need to not only do the work, but come to class excited and ready to talk" ... a talk WE SHOULD NOT be getting in a graduate class... it's just pathetic.  The reason why I say pathetic is that it's NOT me.  I can talk about anything for hours on end, and I love love love this class.  And I love love love this film - we didn't even make it halfway through the movie because I had so much to talk about with them and I wanted to be careful about what I was doing.

Being in front of the "crowd" of five other students today, I realized how hard our prof has had to work each week.  She's pulling teeth to get people to actually talk.  They're grad students who don't seem to have opinions.  It's ... WEIRD.  But she thanked me profusely for my presentation, so hey, I'm doing brilliantly right now.  And she brought a book in on the film that I hadn't seen, and she basically told me that's what I'm doing my work for the semester on (and part of me is like "NOOOOOO I don't want to be assulted by the film again!" and the other part is like "YAY!  I SO CAN TALK ABOUT THIS FILM" so ... it'll work out, it will).  It was thrilling and lovely and brilliant and part of me didn't want to leave the room at the end.

Then we watched a 2-hour movie called Kaidan.  And now I'm (thankfully) back home.

You are the purple in my happy rainbow and the secret grin in my Mona Lisa!!!

I love you to pieces and I hope today is the very happiest of birthdays!!

Nothing entertaining to see here. Nope, nothing, honestly.  A little dog watching, petting, scratching, brushing, feeding.  A little graphic making.  A little cat petting.  A little reading of things like the Cyborg Manefesto, Globalization in East Asia... retyping of syllabi, typing of translated Japanese, kanji review (although not enough of that).  Lots of refreshing of the friends list. 

Rewatching of Tetsuo: The Iron Man, and yes, it is still disconcerting and creepy and frightening and makes your nerves jangle.  But after this, my fourth? fifth? viewing, I'm finally to the point where I can seperate what they've done with what it's done to me, and start to ask how, and when, and where, and how they did it.  Still don't know why though.

There's a presentation waiting for me on Tuesday, and a paper waiting to be written for tomorrow.  Busy week, lots of energy trying to escape, what with having to go to trianing on Monday too.  And still I contemplate other things....

Speaking of, if you haven't taken it yet, and you're in the buffyverse fandom - PLEASE take my poll?  Pretty please?

Since I was curious just how many award sites seem to be active, going, or have gone and I knew about them, I put together the list below.  It's for my own edification, but if you're curious, here are links.

( all the BtvsAts Awards Sites I could find )

now back to the to-do list... and apparantly the Grammies are being watched as well.  Multitasking, I love you.

ETA: crap, I did this, but I forgot to put it up:


Get your own valentinr

I'm making the responses on this anonomous, because I'm trying to judge if there's interest out there for something, so please please please, if you read this, take it!  Don't fear your answers!

( please, please, take my poll! please! )

Actually, we named her Domino.  And I would like to present, to you, the newest addition to our household:


She's a two-year old Shiba Inu/Heeler mix, adopted from Austin Dog Rescue (they rescue the dogs that are in the pound but aren't found homes).  We met her on Monday night, had the home visit on Wednesday, and she came home with us tonight!  She's settling in, doesn't care one whit about the cat (although he is still trying to figure out what the big fuzzy alien thing is doing in the living room), and is super sweet and a little shy.  We love her to pieces already.  And here are some other images of random adorableness from her first night home.

got taken *down* by something cough like on saturday, and am slowly trying to come back up for air (but coherency seems to have left the building).  Am also hoping I can make it through class today (*fingers crossed*).  i hate being sick.  It's like my brain goes MIA.

1 Buffy, 1 Faith, both worksafe....

( girls rock )

Ok, it's now the tooting my own horn portion of the evening, I guess. cordelianne  and reremouse are the new mods over at spring_with_xan, and they let me do a new layout for them!!  And I'm loving it!  So if you're not already a participant, or at least watching the comm, spring is coming up soon, and you should consider signing up!  (or at least take a look at the new layout)!


{info} l {join} l {affiliate} l {sign up coming soon}

you know when people make fun of those crazy academics that sit in their ivory towers and pontificate? That crazy academic person? I want to grow up and be that person. I know, there's not much redeeming in that, but i also don't think there's much redemption in working as human resources or other type of wage slave (i speak of my own job experiences here) for the next 20 or so years. The seats are more comfortable, you get paid differently (or, for me, right now, at all), but seriously... I would pay to do what I'm doing. In fact, I am.

I'd much rather be right the hell where I am. Right here, just come from a room where all six of us rewatched Gojira in minute detail, discovering that it doesn't really matter how hokey the effects were, the camera angles and the cutting and the mise en sene all combine to create discomfort so that seeing the monster is almost secondary. How the film reimagines a Japan with a quickly mobilized military and scientific community (without mention of Hiroshima or Nagasaki or WWII) by using WWI military footage of tanks and boats. How the theory that's out there doing socio-historical analysis of Godzilla/Gojira is just ... LAME compared to the kind of analysis they should do.

In short, if I could have an academic woody, I probably would. And there's Akira-watching tonight. I can't wait.

(last week)

monday....

D, Joel, Christy & Greg and I went to see Cloverfield.  ( It was impossibly hard not to compare it to Gojira & Godzilla: spoilers )

tuesday...

Oh class.  Fantastic wonderful class.  And my professor, when I suggested I would try to restrain myself a little so others could talk, stridently told me not to censor myself in any way.  Period.  That was pretty fantastic validation :D

wednesday...

I know there was one.

thursday...

stuff happened, i'm sure of it.  it was cold.  Neil built a fire.

friday...

a day filled with errands!  Meeting with the advisor (who quite liked reading The Last Samurai, one of my favorite all time books, even if she did have a different take on it than I), class, and oh dear, I went to the conversation group for Japanese.  ( that was strange )

saturday...

D and I went wedding dress shopping with a friend - and she got her dress!!  And it's so beautiful that both D and I were amazed, pleased, happy, overjoyed.  She's going to look beautiful.  And then we bought the boots to go with.  It was that kind of a kismet type day. 

sunday...

Sadly, I actually had to face the globalization homework for real today.  Words cannot express how painful some of the essays were.  Luckily, after having to put my darling man on a plane to LA, D and I treated ourselves to whole food goodness... and it wasn't even that expensive!  And now we're watching Btvs S4!  Buffy & one night stands!  heee!!

and that's all from the world of kate, i think. :D