my monkied brain

psssssttt..... I'm done!

2008-05-15T04:03:18Z

i completely forgot to mention this!! I am done, finished, completed, taking a deep breath and letting all of the other crap go DONE! And have been since a little after 6 PM yesterday.

(although apparently I am so in the groove that I actually caught myself mentally revising my last paper while falling asleep last night. I sternly told myself to disengage)

Now comes the wonderful break that is this week (though the days pass more quickly than I think they will). To inaugurate the whole business I nabbed pick up italian food last night so we didn't have to cook, and we went to see Iron Man tonight, and tomorrow is my posting day at spring_with_xan so... deep, happy, fun filled days!

I happened to like the movie - the only thing I'm frustrated by is the name, simply because I'm working on Tetsuo: The Iron Man and BOY are they not the same thing!

So there you go. I'm off to prep my posts for tomorrow and try and do some last minute graphicing just... cuz. :D

what's that? is that a finish line over there?

2008-05-13T02:04:16Z

So, by this time tomorrow I will be done with my papers. I may have a lingering translation hanging around, but ... I will be DONE.

Now, the bad news - I didn't get a TAship for next semester. I don't know where i'm going for summer. I'm pooped.

The good news - I was offered an admin position through the school for next year that I can do with my eyes closed, which is fantastic. The parental visit went great (although I had to work too much over the last four days to be really good company). We only have 5 days left at summer_of_giles and there are offers out by some very talented people to possibly pick up a couple of those.

It's my last break before I plunge back into the lovely world of prosthetics, cyborgs and Tetsuo. *deep breath* NUM!

Guess I'd better post this to my journal too!

2008-05-09T02:51:35Z

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}

When I read the script, I was like, Hello, woman in a box. I had to explore that to the end. SFenn

2008-05-08T17:44:18Z

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)

Oh Laurel K H
You play at being high brow
Yet love crotch of doom

Fury, Frustration
Cage me up, lock me away
my rage is endless

festival dancing
acrobatics and lacquer
Japan I loved you

two boys, men really
all the quiet spaces fill
with little moments

in sunlight, in clouds
never forget who she is
a moment of light

Image Meme!

2008-05-02T04:03:32Z

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.

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your last name?

3. What month were you born in?

4. Favourite hobby

5. What is your favorite flower or plant?

6. What is your favorite color?

7. Who is your favorite Disney Princess?

8. What do you want to be when you grow up?

9. One word to describe you?

10. What do you dream about?

11. Favourite tv show?

12. Favourite celebrity crush?

13. Favourite place?

14. Favourite vacation spot?

15. Name of pets?

Ash (the kitten)

Domino (the puppy)

16. Favourite dessert?

17. Favourite food?

18. Favorite drink?

19. Favourite alcoholic beverage?

Appletini (JD, I love you!)

20. What are you afraid of?

21. Favourite time of day?

22. What do you love most in life?

not another list

2008-05-01T23:55:53Z

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.

Rough draft of the 20 pg Horror paper due May 5th
Neil's parents visit starts May 8th
Final 15 page Globalization paper due May 9th
Translation due? Possibly May 9th as well...
Final Horror paper due May 13th

So few items. Such big crazy. Here I go!

meme-tasticness

2008-04-25T05:29:14Z

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 used to be annoyed or stressed in LA I tended to listen to very loud pounding music (or that's what I consider it), turned up pretty high in the headphones.

Favorites from that time period:

Foo Fighters - All My Life (song)
Evanescence (the louder faster songs) - Bring Me To Life (song)
Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up (song) (well, and everything else)
And two albums called Departures and Arrivals that were compilations of techno (sorry, can't find easy links for them... )

Before that, I used to plunk in Miles Davis' album Kind of Blue to start every single day. Seriously, it didn't feel like morning unless I was playing that album.

These days, though, I tend not to listen to music when I'm writing/working. The concepts are complex enough that I don't want to distract myself. If I do anything while I'm *working* (which is when I'm most stressed out) I throw on the "chamber music" channel of our cable and listen to that. Give me a string quartet any day.

now, as for other times....

I have this stuff I like to call Sunday music. It's the kind of stuff you listen to on a warm (but not too warm) summer day, when the sun is out and you're going to garden or go driving, or laze around and watch the birds fly by in the backyard. For that it has to be people like:

Cake - Everything they've ever done, but I love Fashion Nugget, especially their covers of songs like Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps (song)
Gomez (band page) - this is my ALL time favorite band on the planet, and there are only like three songs they've ever written that I won't listen to. They're brit pop (which is entirely different from any other pop on the planet) and they're one of the few bands I actually WANT to go see in concert (and one of the few that's ever held my attention through an entire show). LOVE. for all occasions, actually.
Soul Coughing (band page) - the other band that basically stole my heart and didn't give it back. Ruby Vroom is one of the best albums, EVER. And many people have actually heard me say this before, but Screen Writer's Blues (song) is my anthem song for Los Angeles. I can't even catalog the number of memories it encapsulates from the early days when we ended up crashed on Ricky and Tassa's couch at 4 am, to working the late nights on the 37th floor of the Century City Towers, watching the sky turn purple.
Matisyahu (band page) - I know I've mentioned him before. His voice is cool, I love the way he sounds, and the love in the songs.
Beck - Loser (song) - I love this song. It's one of the few I'll sing along to and actually, you know, remember the words.

Now for the most important category - what do I listen to when I walk?

This has become the most important way I listen to music these days - either walking the dog (which is a 50 minute stretch a couple of times a week) or walking from parking to campus (which can be anywhere from a 5-20 min walk, at least 4 days a week). For both I want music that's going to make me smile, get me up and going, and ... excited.

So, of course, the Prodigy is on there (see above), and Foo Fighters, and Gomez
Tullycraft - Disenchanted Hearts Unite (album) - two years ago I was introduced to this genre of music called "twee". Tullycraft can be ... too perky for me to listen to sometimes. Other days? It is the perfect thing to set my feet to pitter pattering across the street, grinning at flowers and students and other dogs
A3 - Cocaine Killed My Community (song) - These are the guys who did the song for the sopranos, but that isn't what makes them cool. They're unrepentant in everything - saving, god, drugs, and all. Love their sound.
Offspring - Self Esteem (song) - So I guess Offspring polarizes people. I can't help myself though, I love singing this song at the top of my frigging lungs. I can't help but walk fast too.
Kanye West - Touch The Sky (song) and Gold Digger (song) - So this one may not seem like the others, but I love the way these songs are put together, I love the beats, I love the horns, I love the unrepentance. They are what they are, awesome.

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

Spring With Xan Redux: 113 Icons and 8 eps of picspam

2008-04-23T22:36:16Z

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:

+ please let me know what you think
+ please don't modify (talk with me, I'm happy to modify for you!)
+ please don't link directly
+ icon/graphics website HERE, resources HERE.

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49 50 51

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79 80 81

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85 86 87

88 89 90

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103 104 105

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109 110 111

112 113

meme-tastic responses

2008-04-23T05:22:35Z

My 5 Five Favorite Fandom Cliches (for xanzpet )

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!
Soul bound. Primarily I love it for Buffy/Giles, but ye gods I can't forget the great Tabaqui Spike/Xander fic Changes either.
Epistolary. Give me letters, notes, diaries, emails (although I do prefer there to be something other than 100s of emails). But... love.
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.
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 )

Cranium. You get the mix of everything all in one game, and it goes fast.
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.
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.
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.
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. Because they're two different things, I think. On the one hand, there's spectacle and spectatorship, and I am a half-hearted consumer of the spectacle. I come home some days and ask Neil & D what happened in the tabloid world. I take prurient satisfaction in hearing someone is a train wreck, and I'm trying to be honest here and actually say so. I like shaking my head and thinking, Oh, those coke whores.

But that's not what Xanzpet actually asked - he asked what I thought about the power of this same media (and here I think of things like TMZ, thesuperficial, the fact that even my local newspaper has, mixed in with it's bulletin posts about the world news --you know, the fires, crashes, goverment change, etc-- entries on Sandra Bullock's new baby and some other star's time in prison). Frankly, it freaks me the fuck out. The day I opened a US Weekly (I think) and saw a pictures of actress and other celebrities doing "normal" things with the caption "They're just like us!" and discovered it wasn't ironic and that it was a segment in every issue I shuddered in horror. The thing is, the coverage is a mix of the most extreme and self-involved behavior together with the quotidian, the every day. And I believe it does have a profound effect to combine both of those constantly. Because for every picture where we see Paris Hilton drinking her Starbucks latte, and then see her tweaked at the end of the night, it sets up a bridge - she can do both, she can be both. I do believe that, once people see this kind of thing, that "She can" becomes, somehow, "I can". The fact that more and more "news" outlets feel the need to both comment on and perpetuate this kind of gossip as news amplifies the problem. But they're just giving people what they want, right?

katekat1010 @ 2008-04-22T13:22:00

2008-04-22T18:22:14Z

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...

wait, you mean to tell me i have a lj? and i can post in it?

2008-04-21T06:48:21Z

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

going to Friday's lecture on Korea
vet visit where the dog's ears finally got ok'ed for business,
lunch/afternoon margarita with some friends of the boy's parents (who were delightful company),
cleaning the house a little (hey, the new vacuum actually works to pick up dog hair)
reading the rest of my two theory books to help with the presentation tomorrow,
watching my two films (narrowed it down to two) for my presentation tomorrow,
installing the correct software to be able to screencap and bookmark said films (for my presentation tomorrow... sensing a pattern here?)
picking up D. from the airport to welcome her back home
dropping by the neighborhood bbq to introduce ourselves to the actually nice people living three houses over
finishing my abstract for the Asian Studies Regional conference
getting together with my panel to finish our panel proposal for same conference
working on my translation

not too shabby for a weekend's worth of work, I think.

IT'S HERE IT'S HERE IT'S HERE!!

2008-04-16T01:33:39Z

sat graphics post: banners & icons

2008-04-12T18:36:38Z

teasers:

+ please let me know what you think
+ please don't modify (talk with me, I'm happy to modify for you!)
+ please don't link directly
+ icon/graphics website HERE, resources HERE.

[ icons: riley*, buffy, cordy, faith ]

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[ headers: riley*, buffy, faith ]

riley, the look

forgotten soldier (2 variations)

my hero

introspective

buffy I

buffy II

i am extraordinary

faith I

faith II

faith III
a

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

friday night, 8 pm, and here we are again my friends

2008-04-12T05:00:19Z

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 eating chopped up aborted fetuses so that women can stay looking young forever. And we're not talking South Park-esque kind of spinal fluid sucking here, but seriously life-like aborted little babies being chopped up in closeup. 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

Had a date night with my honey boy on Wednesday, and he is beautiful. It's been a while since we've done that, and it was seriously so good. Nummy italian food at this local bistro place that grows their own vegetables in the back lot. We had a wagyu beef carpaccio that was simply divine. But it was the company that was the best.
Am helping my mom do a website, and it's actually fun.
D & I managed to make it to the store last night, so there's actually food in the house
We also managed to wash the dog today! So now we have fluffy-good smelling puppy instead of sorta fluffy-doggie smelling puppy
AND we bought a bunch of spring flowers today and popped them into the front yard. We actually have a flower bed for the first time in 3 years. Tomorrow D & I are going to put the tomato plants in the backyard along with some peppers. This dream of having an actual garden might actually come true. And I'm reminded again today that it's much easier, and more fun, to garden with two people instead of one. Sticking fingers into the dirt, letting happy flowers say "hello". Tomorrow I'm going out in the morning to take pictures.
The new couches? beautiful, comfortable, and I totally fell asleep on one of them on Monday night all stretched out and not falling off at all.

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 ;)

Since EB did it, I'd better too!

2008-04-07T02:25:38Z

{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 ;)

My Unpopular Opinions

2008-04-05T18:19:10Z

You guys are actually curious!? Thank you!

sl_podcast asked about Buffy:

I thought Tara was a totally creepy stalker for most of Season 4. The whole "peeking out from between her hair" thing, combined with her instant adoration for Willow made me think she was going to go insane at any moment and lock Willow up in a closet she couldn't escape from. (It's only post-show, through elizabuffy and through fanfic that I've reconsidered that.)

Now, this is just at odds with my flist, but I MUCH prefer Jonathan to Andrew. By like, times a billion.

I really really wanted Riley/Willow.

I liked Buffy having the angry!dirty!sex with Spike, until it was less bout angry!dirty!fun and more about woe is me (which, I think, may have been an interval of less than one episode). But I love the idea of dirty!angry!sex on tv, and I loved the idea of Buffy just wanting.

khaoschilde asked about Scrubs:

Ak! I put this one in here and I'm not sure if my opinions are unpopular or not. But no, I definitely don't hate Dr. Cox, don't worry.

I do, however, kind of despise Carla. I just don't think she adds much and I'm a little bored by much of her scenes/story lines.

aesiron asked about Firefly and Angel

Firefly: I never thought Mal/Inara were the perfect couple - I like them separately, but Mal is way to mysoginistic for me to be comfortable with the way he treats her. They are not star-crossed lovers.

Angel: Oh boy. The Kate storyline was stupid. The Connor storyline was stupid (the only good that came out of it was scruffy-Wes). The taking over Wolfram and Hart storyline was the biggest mistake of them all, and completely annoying. I'm not actually sure if these are unpopular, but I firmly believe them.

I never got the fuss about Fred (and not just because I like Gunn/Wes, because I hadn't even thought of the pairing until years later). But Fred as a love interest for either man was just too pat.

soft_princess asked about CSI

I don't like Brass. I don't understand about people who love him (sorry guys).

Unpopular Opinions Meme

2008-04-05T06:28:12Z

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.

weird dreams last night

2008-04-04T17:14:25Z

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.

katekat1010 @ 2008-04-03T00:14:00

2008-04-03T05:14:28Z

+ edits to 3 classmate papers
+ edits to the mom website
+ 1 hr of Japanese work
+ scores for fandom judging
+ 1 hr doggie walk
+ 50 min w/the therapist
+ talk with d
+ start on article 2 for next week's horror class

not bad for a wednesday when I usually don't get much done. Tonight I'll cuddle up with the reader and knock that article off, because I'm tired of being behind - besides, I gotta start the charge! ahead for the end of the semester

The friend visit and the wedding were both absolutely wonderful. It's funny how much I realize I miss friends when they're here - especially because, even though Ryan was sick and sorta low-energy because of that, and Kelly got tired out because she didn't sleep well, STILL they were fantastic.

The wedding couldn't have been more perfect. I'm waiting for permission from the bride before I plaster pictures up (but trust me, i want to). But it was great - it didn't rain, the judge got there eventually (and actually did a lovely ceremony), the bride was beautiful, the groom was handsome and smiled the biggest smile all day long, the guests were sweet and fun. Oh, and the bbq was good but the wedding cake was definitely best!

snips and snails and kitten tails

2008-03-28T05:59:08Z

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. I had to take it in bits - a paragraph at a time - and this woman I'm translating is practically certifiable. But there's something about the way she thinks that I like anyway. That was Monday: no class, no audited class, just translating.

Tuesday jammed itself up. Morning of the girliest kind. I chopped off half of my hair and it's so much better for this climate. Makes me happier, looks more stylish, uses less shampoo, everything. D. did the same with her hair, except even more fantastic (she has a much shapelier head than I and can handle all those fierce short cuts).

Midday we got an HD TV! *pause for consumerist glee* Or, well, watch your boyfriend do it. It's not one of those monsters that covers half the room, but instead fits in our existing entertainment center (by literal millimeters). And Oh Dear God it's BEAUTIFUL. Of course this means we have to get the HD DVR, since our "lifetime" Tivo plan doesn't transfer to Tivo HD (they were so cute, but now they've just become another evil empire). Thus consuming begets consumption begets the search for more consumables, and on and on in an endless cycle. I don't know if I'd call it life, per se, but it's damn pretty TV.

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.

Wednesday's Classical Japanese was a completely useless class to audit - he talked about the class papers for 50 full minutes. On the other hand, the rest of the afternoon was a resounding success since D & I found beautiful summer-time dresses. We're now completely kitted out for the wedding and have pretty things to wear when it gets hot. So what did I do? Of course I wore one of my new dresses today - and luckily it was beautiful, in the 90s, and worth it.

So, after that, I productively made it through Freud's "A Child is Being Beaten" (which I actually wish I'd read last year, because it would have helped with my spring paper, but oh well), Jordan Sand's paper on the Tokyo Museum (he's coming to talk tomorrow), and two articles in my horrible little book on Japanese Horror Cinema.

At this moment in time I feel theoried out. Yet somehow I have to finish the Arjun Appadurai "Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization" and write my response paper on it by Monday. EEK.

Today was the marthon session of a meeting with my Asian Horror film prof and my advisor - I get to rewrite my film paper, and I get to rework my translation, and although there's nothing wrong with my progress for both of them, it's still an emotionally taxing feeling to have your two professors one after the other get you ... working that brain, and working it hard.

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.

Random Kate-life Picspam

2008-03-23T21:03:51Z

Ash, being adorable.

More cuteness. He's really not this cute all the time, but I think he tries to make up for all of the bad behavior with moments like this.

Neil & Domino at the "Puppy Easter Egg Hunt" There were doggie treats in all of the eggs.

A closeup of my bamboo in their new planter.

Domino with her (now defunct) favorite squishy toy: the ape-bear (with red stitching from a first repair)

The beautiful flowers of spring! We have one plant that is just so excited to get rain and sun that it's exploded with flowers.

AWW! Kisses!! A man & his dog.

A girl and her dog! We realized there weren't many pictures of me with the puppy, so, now there are.

what a happy way to wake up on easter morning

2008-03-23T18:31:42Z

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

Last week was a week of appointments. Paper due on Tuesday that I rushed through, even though it's extremely important to me. The reward was watching Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, and Chan-wook Park is seriously one of my new favorite directors of all time.

Wednesday me and therapy had an appointment, and Thursday was the return of Susan Napier and her lecture on how Japan is an imaginary place in the west. Sadly, and I'm not sure if this is a problem with her attitude overall, or just with the audience she thought she was pitching to, but the whole thing was so lacking in theoretical meat... that it was a bit frustrating. Most of the people in the room were Asian Studies scholars, most of us aware of if not immersed in the theories of Edward Said, most of us totally aware that Japan has occupied the mind and the imagination of the Impressionists, the American-Otaku, the Sci-Fi fan and the film-maker alike. And her lecture was kind of a greatest hits version of all of this - stuff that wasn't revolutionary but instead descriptive.

For instance, the texts she mentions are as follows:

Said's Orientalism
Monet's Haystacks (based on a Japanese painting of Mt. Fuji)
Van Gogh's Self Portrait (in "buddhist priest" outfit)
Gojira (though she only referred to the thing as Godzilla)
Akira (groundbreaking anime)
Blade Runner
Rising Sun (the Wesley Snipes/Sean Connery movie set in Japan... basically racist)
Miyazaki films (Totoro, the "cute" anime)
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Matrix & Matrix Evolution
Paprika

With the exception of Paprika and Neon Genesis Evangelion, this reads like an Intro to Japan syllabus that's trying to talk about East/West.

And this is not to say that I'm not happy about there being a Japan scholar who's doing the whole "Japan as imaginary in the eyes of the west" kind of project. And sure, that project *has* to basically namedrop the big events/texts. Those are the ones people in the West have used to construct their dreams about Japan. BUT STILL.

It was not as exciting as I was hoping, that's for sure.

Friday there was a mandatory meeting of our grad department, so they could roll out a formal process of goal setting for every student. I don't mind at all, since my advisor and I have been talking about needing this kind of thing for about a year now. It was funny, however, that the administrators who were leading the meeting were apologetic bordering on guilty (seriously, the words "big brother" were mentioned like four times in the context of having us fill out a two page form with our academic goals for the year). I definitely come from the land of never apologize, especially not for documentation that could potentially help people.

Luckily the last "appointment" was the best - Neil and I went couch shopping yesterday! And bought new couches! Sadly buying furniture is not like other kinds of instant gratification, since we have to wait 7-14 days to get said furniture, but sooon! Soon we won't sink into the couch because it's old and falling apart! Soon we will have to rearrange the living room! Soon!

And in honor of that, last night I mostly singlehandedly rearranged our bedroom. Sometimes it's incredibly good to change one's perspective, and now the room feels new, even if it's basically got exactly the same stuff in it.

LJ Content Strike

2008-03-20T20:04:45Z

What is the strike for?

+ LJ was censoring keyword content for their advertisers. Keywords censored: Sex, Boys, Guys, Girls, Fanfiction, Yaoi, Hardcore, Porn, Bondage, Faeries, Pain, Depression, Bisexuality. Although this filtering has been removed, and LJ claims it was a mistake, the misrepresentation of this corner of the blog world is distressing.
+ LJ has removed the opportunity for new users to create a basic account (they can only have "plus" accounts w/ads or pay for subscription).
+ LJ's Anton Nosik gave an interview about the efficacy of a strike (the fact that it won't be effective) and is forthright about the SUP's opinions of the LJ community.
+ What the strike *hopes* to achieve
+ Another post w/more info

Why am I participating?

I don't believe in crossing picket lines in my daily life, and although it is increasingly clear to me that the vocal userbase probably has some fairly unrealistic expectations of LJ, it is also clear that the LJ owners have some completely unrealistic views of the LJ community. Perhaps this will do something to get their attention.

What will this accomplish?

The stated goals of the strikeout are above (second to last link). The actual result will probably not be as widespread as the organizers hope - that's also why I'm posting this and hoping others on my flist will consider taking part. But if you choose not to, that's your decision as well.

I am very tired of feeling as if LJ, and the Buffy fan community presence on LJ, is going to end/go away every couple of months. My fatigue makes it hard to believe in change. My frustration with the LJ organization just gets bigger and bigger. At the same time, very few of the new policies put in place on LJ over the last two years have directly affected me or my friends list. No one I know, no one in the larger Buffy community that I interact with, has been banned or censored. The main policy that affected users was the adult content filtering that was turned on, and although it requires several more clicks to get to a page (and at one point had an error in the code that disallowed age verification). The rest of the time, frankly, that people have been distressed by changes, they were theoretical/ideological issues. They still are. Also, the Buffy fandom operates in a very small, and continually shrinking, corner of this big lj world, and as much as I like to hope that fandom has the power to change the universe, the realist in me knows that we, as btvs fandom, are not loud enough or big enough to register on the radar. But the idealist in me says that it's better to light a candle than curse the darkness. So we'll see. this is me flicking the bic once again.

a jumbled mix of completely unrelated things

2008-03-17T20:37:06Z

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.

hello shit week

2008-03-14T22:48:44Z

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

Instead I got a frantic call from my advisor asking me why i hadn't applied for scholarships and grants that were due on friday and spent the entire friday writing, fixing, applying, etc.

Saturday was me and summer school applications - pretty much all day. Gave myself the night off, though, and worked on some fandom things for spring_with_xan.

Sunday there was some wrapping up, and coffee with lostgirlslair and TF, which was goodness in and of itself.

Monday it rained. Cold, forbidding rain. The kind of rain that makes you call in sick or stay home in bed, wrapped up in a book and drinking a cup of hot chocolate. So instead D. and I went up to campus and got things printed out for my applications, dropped off a few, and hunted around Target for storage boxes.

Tuesday felt like Monday - oh, sure, sunnier. But there were missives of doom from my old Japanese professors - they don't want to recommend me, nor do they want anything to do with me, really. It's sad when I wasn't *that* crappy of a student in their classes. Really, I wasn't even mean. But that capped off a lovely day, let me tell you. The only nice part of it was that Neil and D. went to the store and brought home fresh salmon and veg for a bbq, which turned out delightful, even if we didn't use the smoking plan we'd prepped. Wednesday I came down with something and spent most of the day sleepng and waiting for my throat to feel less like sandpaper. Me and Terry Pratchett reacquainted ourselves with eachother.

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. and I ran up to campus, grabbed rec forms from professors, went to wallgreens to get some stuff to mask the cold symptoms for me (yay, i guess), went back home, printed more stuff, went back to wallgreens - because who else knew that Wallgreens has DHL and you can send internationally there?? Not me! Except, of course, you know, now I know.

Today has been a cluster fuck of monumental proportions as I managed to bundle myself into a pile of nerves about how dirty the house was (and how sick it was making me feel) and then take it out on everyone around me. I'm hiding in the bedroom right now so I don't do more damage. And trying to read Donna Harraway and think productively about my 10 page paper that must be written today and tomorrow. Fantastic stuff.