my monkied brain

Graphics Offer: Movie Posters....favorite fics edition [closed]

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:02:24 GMT

[queue closed]

Ok, so I've just thought of a project and we'll see if it takes off. I'd like to do some Buffy/Giles movie posters. I'd love to do some Giles/Spike movie posters. I'd love to work with any pairing, and in fandoms I'm not totally familiar with. And hmm, maybe some others. In the past I've offered these to the authors -- now I'm offering them to ... non authors & authors.

Sound weird? Let me clarify:

Comment with 1 of your favorite fics. It can be one you've written or one that someone ELSE has written. I'll make movie posters for them for the holidays (probably xmas holidays, but holidays nonetheless). They don't have to be new. They don't have to be old. I'll definitely post them before xmas so if you want to consider it a comission for a friend whose fic you love, it can be a surprise present from both of us.

The only thing I do ask is that the fic be finished - because I pretty much read the entire work and I have lots of trouble reading WIPs.

a) title of fic
b) writer's name
c) link to fic
d) if you think you know a good tag-line, sure! [again, i may use, may not]
e) short summary (couple of sentences)
[queue closed]

it's really been a whole week?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:27:40 GMT

so much for trying to post more often in the month of November.

The weekend was a little busier than most - dog park with Neil and my absolutely adorable puppy (who is not a puppy, but whatever) on Saturday and the Derby Dolls of LA with Maija on Sunday. I think the best part about the dog park is not so much how awesome it is for my dog (because it is, it really is, even when she's not very exciting), but how much fun it is to meet other dogs. If you go to a dog park, you really are there to be social, even if it's simply that you're there so your dog can be social. Fun. Petting. Little bit of drool. And getting to actually hang out with my boyfriend in the process? Kind of a slam dunk.

The Derby Dolls, however, not really as entertaining as you'd think. There were body slams, there were elbow fights, and there were definitely falls of the highest order, but at the end of the day it's watching a bunch of people skate around a rink. Fun for about half an hour. If I ever decide to go again I'll also look up the rules. The amusing part to me were the concessions - vegan tamales and off-brand natural sodas (and horchata, but that's not surprising). I had a sweet potato tamale with red bean filling. Weird, but pretty damn good.

One of the best parts of this week has been corrupting elizabuffy over to the dark side of American Idol! Now I have someone to share the joy with, and she agrees that Adam is a pretty awesome sparkly unicorn prince. I realized I'm definitely a fangirl now because I listened to his album last night and ... deep breath, I can admit this really I can... I liked some of the tracks. Oh sparkly unicorn prince. You glittered your way into my ears.

I can't tell if I'm working on a cold or having a severe allergy attack for a couple of days, but either way since Monday my head has been fuzzy, my eyes a little gravely/burning, my chest half-congested, and I've been moderately tired. It makes gathering the mental energies a very difficult thing. Except, apparently, for my new media class, where even if I'm not all there I will still manage to dominate the conversation like a loon -- I guess I feel that more is at stake there than in my other classes. More fun too though.

On the work front I'm heading into the end, and not really quite finding the sense of urgency I need to take care of everything. So I have this film that I need to watch for my film paper, and some research to do, and an entire new media paper to write, and .... yeah. Japanese continues to be exactly as it has been - little difficult, mostly entertaining, and definitely no cake walk. This week is a little annoying as we're doing 'how to order things in restaurants' and so the entire class we talk about food. It's a good thing I generally have lunch right after.

fall_for_sx redux: 15 movie posters

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:07:11 GMT

I did more than just make icons for fall_for_sx.... what else? movie posters! I can't help these things, I adore them. I've noticed that there are movie poster comms out there now. And I love it! So, addiction, here you go again. The other best part? Reading fic I would have never read before (I tend to run screaming from angst or unhappy stuff, even when it's by good writers, because I am a shrinking violet. And yet some of the most poetic, or haunting fic is written around the characters when they're not in a happy place).

AND COMING SOON TO A LIVEJOURNAL NEAR YOU (PERHAPS EVEN THIS COMM)

+ please let me know what you think
+ please don't link directly (though authors, if you do not have hosting, you are welcome to link directly to these pieces, just let me know)
+ icon/graphics website HERE, resources HERE.

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:24:28 GMT

Kaja Silverman was giving a talk introducing her new book yesterday and she reminded me of some of the essentials of scholarship (even though I'm not sure if she intended to):

love the texts you're working on
if you do what you do will have meaning
don't forget the theory; and Freud may have gotten everything wrong but he's useful

I first read her Subject of Semiotics in Earl Jackson's Theory 101 class at Santa Cruz. I'd failed the Theory 101 class I'd taken the quarter before and I thought I hated theory. Then we read this book, along with Earl's warning that we weren't going to understand anything we read until at least a week after we read it -- but that we needed to do the reading anyway. That, and the talking we did in the class that I often felt was over my head but ... just over it, so I could kind of reach that level sometimes, made me realize that I kind of love theory. I love the idea that someone out there wants to talk about meaning, and that there are different ways to figure it out, different guides, different scaffolds. And we're all operating under those scaffolds anyway, so we may as well know about 'em.

(ok, that's probably the subject of a much longer post, because it's a gut feeling and something I have a little trouble articulating, but the basic premise is that honestly? we all employ theory all the time to make most of our judgements, we just pretend we don't).

And today I am beginning to freak out for intellectual reasons. The new school is a great environment, and I'm getting to work with someone whose work totally excites me, but on the other hand I'm feeling a little lost at this moment in time. I have two 20-page papers due in a couple of weeks and I have absolutely NO idea what it is I want to write for either of them. Some vague notion of new media in Japan, and some vague idea about post-war Japanese film and that's all I've got.

On the way home I realized that part of my trouble is that I'm not speaking intellectually to anyone in my field right now. Oh, the girls in my cohort are nice, but they're all in slightly different areas (hello classical Chinese linguistics, do you care about my stuff? do i care about yours? not for paper writing/discussion). I've got to try tomorrow to meet with my advisor and figure out what direction I'm taking this semester. It's overdue, and I think I let the fact that she and I are not getting along like houses on fire sort of distract me. Just because we don't get each other doesn't mean I shouldn't talk with her about these things.

I know. *hangs head* figuring out this whole business seems like it's long overdue. I can't believe the semester is done in like two weeks.

Icons! Who knew I could make 'em? AI, S/X, and Merlin iconses....and an s/x wall

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:11:47 GMT

teasers:

+ please let me know what you think
+ if you decide to mod please leave a comment and let me see what you do w/it?
+ please don't link directly
+ icon/graphics website HERE, resources HERE.

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hi journal land

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:01:20 GMT

*peeks out from behind the rock of life* HI! Wow. I keep forgetting to actually use this think to check in. Instead I'm lurking around the total meltdown over at ontd_ai (and wow, when they melt, they melt!), doing homework, avoiding dressing up for halloween and other ragingly entertaining things.

No, really.

Best parts about last week?
1) it ended.
2) our friend Ryan came to visit and was like a breath of fresh air. I miss living in the same city as that guy, because he rocks. Even when he's farting on my head and laughing bout it. It's just too bad that he only came to visit for one day, but I think both Neil & I remembered why we loved living with him in the first place.
3) Going to Maija's house for Halloween (official) and not bothering to do anything but show up and hang out for a couple of hours while she turned the lights off and tried to get kids to stop knocking at her door. It was good just hanging out with a bunch of friends.

Best parts about this week?
1) it's on the way to ending.
2) neither my computer or my car broke.
3) i managed to get my ass into school every day (because after the pile up last week I wasn't sure I was going to make it).
4) I am looking forward to staying at home in the quiet and getting back to my usual schedule tomorrow. And starting the research for my two term papers that are due at the end of the month.
5) I decided to sign up our house to get a vegetable-box from a service that puts together local organic produce. I am SO excited about this - they don't deliver until next week, but I am really looking forward to the challenge of trying to cook with different veggies that I wouldn't ordinarily buy. The best part is that the box is 2/3rds veggies and 1/3 fruit and I'm looking forward to the fruit even more than I am the veggies. The only bad part is that both Neil and D. think that someone is going to steal the box when it gets dropped off. We have an entryway with a door, but it doesn't lock. However, I think it's going to be ok. And I guess we'll just see... if no veggies show up when they're supposed to I'll know.

On the horizon? Even more quotidian stuff: housecleaning, lasagne cooking, and whittering about my research projects. Oh, and memorizing Japanese.

If anyone has ideas how I can combine Japanese fiction & New Media, or has an opinion on good post-WWII Japanese films, I'm looking for help/advice/comments!

5 words meme

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:47:25 GMT

from mishloran:

Post a comment asking for words! I'll post 5 words that remind me of you. You then make a blog post with those words and explaining them.

puppy - OH PUPPY! It's funny because for most of my life I would have said I was a cat person, predominately, and yet now? I love my dog. I love her so much it's kind of amazingly weird. I think part of it was that I was really ready for a dog when we got Domino. Really ready. My whining about walking her enough aside, the undivided and constant happy love that my dog offers is one of the most amazing things in the world. I think the other part of it is that when Felix died, she was such an indescribably wonderful cat that she kinda ruined me for all others for a long while. But it's also that I feel like I understand most of Domino's impulses. (it's not like she's a brain surgeon, but I've had some discussions with Neil and D about what she's thinking and we have different opinions). We're not totally similar (she's afraid of people, she wants to run way more than I do, and she sheds more hair than me), but I feel like I know what's going on with her, and I adore her. And she gets more cuddly by the minute. It's fantastic.

dedication - wow. That's a word I'm kind of surprised by, but also kind of honored to have! (thanks Mish) I kind of think I'm more on the stubborn side than dedicated, but then again it is taking me an awfully long time to get through grad school. :D I also think I tend to have a big burst of energy at the beginning of a project or something and have a bunch of trouble finishing it up -- so I consistently work hard on getting through all the way to the complete end. Then again, dedication is trying hard? And I certainly do put a ton of energy into a lot of things.

artistic (girl got talent!) - LOL. You are TOO sweet on this one, too, Mish. Although I will say growing up with a mom who was an artist working in dozens of kinds of media (from cloth sculptures, to clay, to acrylic, to plants, to singing to ... yeah, you name it) I was always delighted by being able to make things. There's something really cool about having an image in your head and seeing if you can get it out somehow. And I love the zen of making computer art - lostgirlslair and I have had this running conversation about how when you're making graphics the world can fall away and there's a lovely quiet. Just the image and the layers that go into it. Gah, I miss playing. I haven't had the time lately (or the brain space - because even though there's a lovely zen about it, if I'm too tired everything just looks like shit).

Texas - HA! Especially because I'm not living in the state anymore. I am surprised I liked Texas so much. I'm doubly surprised when I think about it now. Austin was a great city to live in (even though sometimes I hated being so disconnected, and by the time we moved out parts of me were really ready to leave). But I get more nostalgic about it now than I ever thought I would. Like today, I had to call UT's Health Services today to get my medical records sent to school, and just getting on the phone with someone from Austin ... made me nostalgic. They don't hurry things, and they're not sharp, and even though she basically directed me to downloading a form she was just ... sweet. Something about that Texas charm.... and I hope that I brought a little bit of that back to Cali with me but it's much easier to speed up and be curt (not rude, just quick) than I thought it would be.

language - oh language. How I struggle with you. Formulating words into sentences- it's harder than you think. And the Japanese? well, someday I hope that I'll master it enough to read. I go through waves of time where I'm feeling more competent than others, and study it a lot more than I thought I'd ever study anything in my life. And still I could stand to do more. gah.

Those were my words. Now it's your turn.

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:52:02 GMT

I had this theory back in Austin that an MA was easier than a PhD, and that as an MA I had more goof around time than I would in the future.

Theory: confirmed.

The short and skinny things I did well Sunday night & Monday day:

Created a project for the New Media Literacy class that is significantly longer than others (and hopefully instructive, we'll see when the grade rolls in) and at least partially interesting (so that's something) from scratch on Sunday.
Struggled with the damn interface for said project but DID NOT GIVE UP. Kate = 1, Interface = 0
Finished the reading for the Intro class, and opted out of the paper (it's called conservation of energy)
Corrected my Japanese 'speech' (and yes, it did take me until 4 am to get 1-4 finished)
Got up for class today and even managed to study through the kanji quiz
Did not lose my shit when attempting to use the library printers (even though the first printer was out of service, the second printer went out of service while the guy in front of me was attempting to use it, and the third printer was actually the librarian office printer)
Had a conversation I was supposed to have last week (because EB & LG both spent hours last week pumping me up for it) and said some of what I needed to say. The really important stuff.
Proofread my damn NML project one more time to fix all the errors.
Am studying for the Japanese test tomorrow.
Set a deadline for myself (and emailed it to the professor) of two assignments that need to be done by end of semester

Things I don't look forward to that are coming up:

writing the 5-7 page film analysis mid-term paper tomorrow
reading Otaku: the Database Animals and writing a film review of it by next Monday
having class, a conversation meeting, a therapy appointment and a lecture (that I think I may have already seen at UT) all scheduled for Thursday (but I will be going to them all anyway)
having to get my ass in gear about the end of the semester since it's basically a month away and I have two research papers due. Oh and a Japanese final and speech and ACK.
A second day at fall_for_sx that I have not prepared any graphics for

The work is mounting.

listing the good things

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:44:59 GMT

Once again this is me copying one of mireille719's good ideas (sorry Mir, you have good ideas, I can't help it!). And since it's been a while since I've done a public post, I'm going for 10 to cover the last week or so.

It was my 15th anniversary with the most wonderful man in the world on Saturday. 15 years. And the best part? We decided we're going to hang around each other for another 15! :D
I got taken out for said 15th anniversary to a cute little bistro down the street and had a fantastic dinner with my boyfriend.
I started acupuncture on Monday and LOVE the needling. It is helping me mitigate the effects of stopping smoking, along with the pharmacopoeia of chinese herbs my friend Maija gave me to help regulate, detox, and go with the flow. Anyone needs treatment in the LA area, I have a fabu doctor for you.
Getting to see my friend Maija every night this week. The acupuncture is an awesome excuse to enjoy her company
I got a B- on my Japanese midterm! Which is happy-making for me since I made some rookie mistakes and was worried about getting a C.
My dog is getting cuddlier. You ask how can that be? Well, since she was adopted and a pound puppie we're pretty sure she was abused in her former life (she reacts really badly to a fly swatter... even if you put it on a table). Anyway, she's always been a little stand-offish except for belly rubs. But in the last three weeks or so she's hopped up onto the couch or the ottoman and stuck her head in my or Neil's lap. It's awesome.
I ran for two blocks last night without keeling over after. (I can only make it for two blocks because I ran with the dog, and she doesn't go for that 'jog' level but only for *full-out-run-as-fast-as-you-can-like-a-little-kid* kind of running. Two blocks like that is a feat for me)
I dyed my fur! Very dark purple red-brown. I LOVE this color on me.
My roommate from college (and all around awesomesauce woman) is coming to stay with us this weekend for a visit. I can't wait to see her.
There was absolutely no imploding today. And there is the possibility that there will be no imploding tomorrow. Yay!

on Iranian cinema

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:23:23 GMT

Today we had guest speakers in our film class - half a dozen Iranian directors, writers and an actor. I now live in a city where people from all around the world just appear because the film industry is actually, you know, um, here.

They were brought into the country by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (yeah, they're the Oscars people), for "Up Close & Personal: Iranian Filmmakers in Their Own Words"

It brought me up a little short - even though the speakers seemed fairly resigned to it, the idea that you can't leave your country just because your government decides you can't is frightening. (they were literally stopped at the airport apparently - even though they had already received approvals on the visas and everything) The translator stressed that they weren't in police custody or anything, they were just not allowed to leave the country, as if that should have been much more reassuring.

Things I didn't know about Iranian film: Um, everything?

They've had a film industry there since 1900, though the first film wasn't shown in theatres until the 1930s. There's a populist style of filmmaking that locates itself somewhere between mainstream hollywood films and bollywood films. The art-filmmakers emerged and identified themselves themselves with the french avaunt-guarde (go figure - everybody loves those guys).

One of the most revealing things they said went a little something like this:

Most of the national cinemas look at Hollywood and want to emulate it's distribution, it's traditions, and it's studio system and the like. However, we don't. Even though we have to work within some restrictions [their government has to actually approve scripts before they start filming, and then after the film is done they assess a rating / if it's ok for distribution] we are making films in an entirely different way - through government support, through our own distribution system, and not through some Hollywood-mimic. And we feel that Iranian cinema has something to say to the world and that the world is listening.

All in all they were far more apt to joke around than I thought they would be, and were far more interested in giving advice to young filmmakers than I cared for (but that's ok, it was probably good for other people to hear that).

Really interesting day though

This week in New Media: Fanfiction!

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:18:32 GMT

Since I know you many of you may be interested in this, here are two of our readings on fan culture for this week (neither of which I've read since I have three other docs that I have):

"Access and Affiliation:: The Literacy and Composition Practices of English Language Readers in an Online Fanfiction Community," https://webfiles.uci.edu/rwblack/rwblackjaal.pdf

"Let Everyone Play: An Educational Perspective on Why Fan Fiction is, or Should Be, Legal," http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/ijlm.2009.0007

(both links are downloadable pdfs)

And our prof, Henry Jenkins, writes a chapter of his book Convergence Culture (found here as a google book - you can read most of the chapter "Media Literacy" -- use the 'content' menu drop down to choose) on Harry Potter fans.

I'll be blogging about the conversation tomorrow (in a locked academic post) should be interesting... I hope.

(for those not following along in my academic filter I'm taking a class that talks about how new media literacy should / can take place in education... or how education is changing via new media, etc)

[ETA: if you want to do *all* the readings, check out this link (it's a pdf of a book) and read Chapters 6 & 7: Digital Design: English Language Learners and Reader Reviews in Online Fiction (Rebecca W. Black) &
Blurring and Breaking through the Boundaries of Narrative, Literacy, and Identity in Adolescent Fan Fiction (Angela Thomas)]

the post birthday post

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:18:55 GMT

Despite the grim warnings Friday night seemed to be throwing out I actually had a pretty fantastic birthday. Not the usual sort of thing LA thing - no wild party with much drunkenness (which has pretty much been my modus operendi for years and years), but instead a series of events that were all together entertaining.

Friday we saw Inglorious Bastards.

No one really liked it but me. this is not surprising. too long, too much time spent on secondary characters, too much violence for violence sake (especially the scalping).

However, because I'm taking a post-WWII film class that basically celebrates lots of films that are obsessed with postwar and it's aftermath it actually made sense. The length, for sure, had a pacing quite similar to the art house cinemas I've been consuming on a weekly basis. The episodic nature of the whole thing was a lot like those French New Wave experimentalists. Frankly so were the camera angles.

The secondary characters all had better stories than the Bastards, which also made a ton of sense - celebrate the marginalized I say!

The funniest part was that both Neil & D laughed out loud at parts of it but on the whole didn't really think the whole thing was funny. And I happened to come away thinking that it was a great romp. Campy romp.

Saturday I had an ice cream social.

No, really, I did. There's this dessert shop down the street from us called Milk that's set up a bit like an old ice cream parlor (a la LA though). Not only did I get to share a sandwich with my cutie, but I had an actual old-fashioned ice cream sundae (with cherry on top mind you) surrounded by friends. Other than it being slightly colder than I had thought (the sun was out but there was a bit of a breeze) it was an absolutely perfect couple of hours. And I was strangely delighted with my presents from friends - a hanging bat-totem, a bunch of knee socks, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers that D & I split up into 10 different vases when we got home. There are now flowers in every room in our house, even the bathrooms.

And I kind of got a ton of loot, the best of which is a book I have been slavering over for nearly a year now (don't ask me why I hadn't bought it before, but I hadn't, but I *have it now*!): Otaku; Japan's Database Animals by Hiroki Azuma. Of course I'm going to be using it for class, because that's just how frigging geeky I am.

By the time we got home from ice cream I had called off our dinner out (too much ice cream to add a possibly-too-rich-dinner on top of it) and we settled for getting dinner brought to us from my favorite place in town. And glutted ourselves on TV (something which I don't get to enjoy often enough now that my school schedule is overwhelming.

yeah, so, the spangles and stars may not have exploded in huge measure but for me? it was a pretty damn fine day. No angst. No annoyances. Everything I wanted to do and no drama about doing it.

(of course my present from school was that I had a Japanese test today -- and it continues tomorrow -- so I spent most of Sunday studying. Bleh. The life of a grad student is truly boring. Although I think I did ok today, so hopefully I'll get a good grade as a bit of a retroactive present to myself).

flying.... time

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 03:23:46 GMT

It was just last week and I kept meaning to post something then, and now it's already the next week and here I am on Saturday again thinking .... oh, i'll just post later.

This is not conductive to actually filling a livejournal with content.

So here, a couple of the highlights of the last two weeks:

As I pulled out my computer in my Intro to Asian Studies class, my adviser (who is also the prof for the class) looked up and said, in that funny half intellectually charged half ditzy way she has, and said "Oh"

That Oh was proceeded by a lengthy diatribe on how computers create a dual distancing technique, on the one hand separating me from the materiality of reading textual materials, and the quality of engagement between myself and the printed sheet (HEY, THIS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS HERE), and on the other separating me from the rest of class, creating a literal wall and separating me from the group discourse.

Yes, these were her objections.

I had some back (even though I knew this was an argument I wasn't going to win, and low and behold, I didn't): we should be provided a reader if the 'materiality' of texts is so important... not have to download them from the internet and print them out on our own printer. Because mine sucks. (at that point she told me to get a better printer). Besides (as those of you on the filter might have seen) I take a hell of a lot more notes now that I'm typing them up than scrawling in the margins (this point was conceded). Finally, ok, for some a computer might be a separation from the class, an admittedly even I have been known to check my email when someone is rattling on, but that is so NOT a bar to my participation. I'll talk even when I don't know what's being said.

Sadly, that means I'm back to killing trees.

it was our friend Maija's birthday on Sat.
And she had her get together at a Tiki Bar - it was absolutely *fantastic*! Super cute tiki stuff, lethal mixed drinks, lively and lovely people, and a darling birthday girl. Could not have been a better night.

Apparently the federal government doesn't like people like me
I smoke clove cigarettes. Have for years. It's been increasingly hard to find them (especially in Cali where they don't like you if you smoke). So last month when the 7-11 guy warned me they weren't going to carry cloves anymore I just assumed it was a 7-11 thing.

Not so. Apparently a new law got passed at the first of the year that went into effect in September that outlaws the sale of all flavored tobacco. Because it's a gateway to smoking for kids.

This is how I found myself calling around to half a dozen different specialty smoke shops just to find the last 10 packs of clove cigarettes in my area. I bought them. And I'm smoking them slowly. Very slowly. Because after this... I'm either forced to move to regular cigarettes or quit.

And I hate the taste of regular cigarettes.

Now I have a little dwindling stash that I hope will last me through my birthday, and then I will be a very cranky girl trying to manage an addiction that I can't satisfy. I'm not looking forward to it at all. Luckily Maija is an acupuncturist and is willing to help me with acupuncture to get over some of the worst of it, but it wasn't something I was particularly planning on soon, and now... yep. Enforced quitting.

I just read 200 pages of Chinese Art History and I'm not any more enlightened than when i started.
Too technical to be revealing, unfortunately. Or too technical to be revealing in the way that allows me to write a paper on it. I know these things are very important to art historians, but my unfamiliarity with the work itself makes the disciplinary style seem almost abusive (so many footnotes, total namedropping, absolutely impossible to dispute unless I was also in the field). I somehow have to write a response paper to all of this and the only thing I can come up with is to complain about the impenetrable format. Schoolwork seems particularly banal this week, but there's always tomorrow's readings to give me a hopeful boost, right? At least I managed to get a B on my last Japanese test, so there's hope for me there. Next week we're doing oral mid terms and the week after we're doing two days of written mid terms, so i expect that will be exciting. Considering, especially, that my birthday falls into the middle. Yesh.

Tonight's another b-day celebration for my first USC school friend, and D & I are heading out to that. Hopefully we'll last for a while - not used to things that start going at 11 pm anymore. I've been really looking forward to it, and I hope it's going to be fun.

Happy Saturday night lovely ones. I hope everyone else is having a beautiful weekend of some sort or another!

fandomy link post of fun and joy (and a heck of a horoscope)

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:40:21 GMT

Ok, first off, if you missed the posts about LJ turning off media embedding for a while (it's back on now, but it was because of an attack), you may want to check your privacy settings on old posts and make sure they're correct. Check news for more info [ here's a link to the direct post ]

wesleysgirl and janedavitt wrote an absolutely beautiful addition to their Act of Nature verse (Giles/Xander, Adult) called To Have and To Hold, and they asked me if I'd do a banner for it, so ... I did! check the entire thing out here (and leave feedback for the authoresses here)

If you haven't already seen it, cmk418 is asking prompts for the Giles/Xander Fabulous Fall Fest right here. The idea is that you prompt up to 10 things you'd like to see (from Gen to NC17, from art to icons to whatever) and then pick and choose from the prompts there and do some of them to make happy-fun-Giles/Xander time!

and i was gonna do more with some Merlin links, but ... it is bedtime!

My horoscope for this week (and for all you other libras):

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): This is an excellent time to celebrate the pleasures of emptiness . . . to extol the virtues of the blank slate . . . to be open to endless possibilities but committed to none . . . to bask in the freedom of not having to be anything, anyone, or anywhere. Are you smart enough to need no motto to live by? Are you resourceful enough to rely on nothing but the raw truth of the present moment? If so, you will thrive in the coming days.

High school crazyness links

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:12:09 GMT

From Corey Doctrow's Little Brother

More journalists asked questions. Some were sympathetic, some were hostile. When I got tired, I handed my keyboard to Ange and let her be M1k3y for a while. It didn't really feel like M1k3y and me were the same person anymore anyway. M1k3y was the kind of kid who talked to international journalists and inspired a movement. Marcus got suspended from school and fought with his dad and wondered if he was good enough for his kick-ass girlfriend.

Angry Teacher video (caught on a cell phone)

A vid made by one of the women in our class (from high school) drug free america

from Cory Doctorow's book, w1n5t0n's Instructables

ALA.org's list of 2009 Best Children's books (including Little Brother)

Did you know you can measure hope? there are like a million ways to measure hope that have been academically agreed upon. You can even google scholar them.

2nd parental visit down!

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:19:20 GMT

Ok, so, the point of this visit was to celebrate Neil's parent's 39th wedding annaversary. And since they're foodies, his dad picked this american-french restaurant in Santa Monica called Melisse. It's got a couple of Michelin stars. It's a place where you have to dress for dinner. They had small stools they put by our chairs so we didn't have to rest our purses on the ground. They actually tried to serve the dishes simultaneously (there were little glitches here and there, but you can't fault them for trying). Our waiter was brash and kind of adorable, our somellier had the loveliest deep voice, and it was .. without a doubt on of the loveliest dining experiences i've ever had.

so, they started us with a very very tiny amuse bouche:
1/2 a cherry tomato covered in goat cheese crusted in pistachios

and then brought another, slightly larger duo:
a little tiny medalion of salmon roulade in a meyer lemon vinagrette
a tiny shot of cucumber tofu, a gaspacho and tomato gellee

First course:

I had the Seared Foie Gras with Cavillon Melon Confit, white port balsamic reduction with candied orange

If you've ever actually read any of my other food reviews, I do not pass up foie gras anymore. I konw, i'm going to hell, and I like it. This was beautiful, perfectly done, and every mouthful was so buttery and rich and soft and nummy. Although I'm not sure if I'd do the candied pieces with it - I think I like an earthier berry (say blackberry) with my foie gras

Neil & his dad had the Duo of Foie Gras: one was twice cooked and the other terrine, with peach compote and puree, toasted brioche (which was also really super duper tasty, but cold, and so i'm glad i went with what i got)
His mom had the Seasonal vegetable salad with the blanched Kolrabi, Daikon, Beets and Buratta cheese (oh my god if there was ever a salad that would make you pee your pants this was it.
His aunt had the Sweet White Corn Ravioli with Summer Truffle Sauce (and a foam!) One ravioli, and oh WOW was this packed with flavor and beautiful taste. and just ... the essence of corn.

Second course:

I had the Monterey Abalone, Geoduck clam with fennel, mizuna, and yuzu koshu

I would have never expected the Geoduck to be better than the Abalone, but it was - MUCH BETTER. Not that the abalone wasn't good, but it was chewy, and the geoduck was actually really tasty without being fishy or clammy or anything.

Neil and his mom & dad all had the Salmon souvide with butternut squash gnocchi and a butternut squash broth with chanterelles and miataki mushrooms
His Aunt had the Imported Dover sole "Goujonnettes" with chanterelle mushrooms, almonds, and white corn brown butter jus

(and those two other plates were also nummy, but not as good as my geoduck, believe it or not)

Entre:

I had the Liberty Farms Duck Breast and Confit with black mission figs, beets, and banyuls-star anise sauce

OH MY GODS duck with figs?? Yeah, i know, it's pretty traditional, but oh so frigging good, because the sweetness of the figs compliments how strong the flavor of the duck is, and the duck fat is mmmmmmm soft and tender and wonderful. and the banyuls-star anise sauce came in these little red dots on the plate that just burst with flavor

Neil and his Aunt had the Prime Rib Eye and 48 Hour Short Rib with confit celery, dijonnais, herbed bordelaise sauce

admittedly, these were yummy and the short rib definitely fell apart, but i was far far happier with my duck

His mom & Dad both had the Slow Cooked Rabbit, Ras el Hanout with Heirloom carrot 'tajine', boudin blanc, and jus de lapin

and finally, we were able to actually eat dessert:

I had the "Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate" which meant I got 4 different styles of chocolate:
1) a chocolate souffle that was injected table side with molten chocolate
2) a peanutbutter chocolate mousse on a peanut crust
3) a 'marshmellow' (which looked like a marshmellow on a stick) of chocolate mousse ice cream dipped in white chocolate
4) a chocolate flan with little bits of toffee in it

Now, after the menu above, i was pretty damn close to done, and even though none of these were more than 10 bites, getting through all of them was completely impossible. But how could I pass up chcolate souffle? So I didn't, nor did I give out much of the peanutbutter chocolate mousse. The other two I had to give away though (well, after a bite)!

Neil had the Peach 'glazed' with rosemarry, greek yogurt mousse, and caramel powder
Neil's aunt had the Poached cherries with frozen almond parfait and basil sorbet
Neil's parents had the Sticky Toffee Pudding with mocha malt ice cream and red berries-hibiscus consomme

OH, and then AT THE END, they came around with fresh plums in a bowl with a little creame freche and some rock-sugar (though they didn't need the sugar at all). AND a custard post-dessert amuse that i can't for the life of me remember the name of, but it was baked custard in a little dime-size pastry type thing. Seriously blew the lid off my stomach, for sure.

Even though there are smaller portions with a tasting menu I'm amazed we were able to waddle out of there. Oh, and that doesn't even include the champagne, then white wine, then red wine that we all put away. Ooofta. But amazing, nonetheless.

Other than that I haven't really been all that productive this weekend, so I've got to get to it.

And remember, if you have a Spander Story and you might want a fic banner, I still have spaces open so PLEASE PLEASE REQUEST ONE HERE!

thanks

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:20:24 GMT

to everyone who took my silly poll yesterday! I managed to get laundry done, and get started on the first set of homework, and (as those of you who want to read it know) managed to get some notes for my lit reading done as well).

And the house is clean! Which is really quite good because Neil's parents are flying their way down here as we speak. It's their annaversary, so they're coming to visit for a little vacation and to see our new digs. Which, if I don't say myself, are looking pretty nice at the moment. Two days of cleaning will do that to a house.

It's not much easier cleaning the apartment than it was cleaning the house, but things get dirty differently. For example: it's much dusteier here. In part because we have the windows open all the time, and the house in Austin was a hermetically sealed box (air conditioning in the summer and heater in the winter). In part because I do think there's more dust in the air in LA. Even if the skies are blue if you look straight up.

Tonight we'll be playing Beatles Rock band and enjoying the fruits of an expidition to the Farmer's Market (at 3rd & Fairfax). And I'm looking foward to the weekend. Tomorrow night there will be fine dinning, although I'm not remembering the restaurant right now, I'll give a report tomorrow night. And Sunday there will be brunch and then lots and lots of homework for me, YAY!

I completely forgot to mention that my Mom's visit was a blast. She got here on thursday and after some making sure the sick housemate was doin better (yes, I do get my mom habits from my MOM!) we watched a movie and got take out. And Friday was awesome - we went to our favorite hairstylist so mom could get a haircut (because he does my hair, Neil's hair, and mom's hair!) and she came out looking 10 years younger. We went to LACMA to see their exhibition of contemporary South Korean Artists and I completely fell in love with this one guy who was reimagining blank public spaces. Here, from LACMA press release:

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents the first major museum exhibition in the continental United States in almost two decades to focus on contemporary art from South Korea. Organized by LACMA and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Your Bright Future: 12 Contemporary Artists from Korea features a generation of artists who have emerged since the mid-1980s—some well-known and others on the brink of such recognition—all of whom work on the cutting-edge of international art trends and within a distinctly Korean context: Bahc Yiso, Choi Jeong-Hwa, Gimhongsok, Jeon Joonho, Kim Beom, Kimsooja, Koo Jeong-A, Minouk Lim, Jooyeon Park, Do Ho Suh, Haegue Yang and the collaborative, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries. Your Bright Future (a deliberately ambiguous title taken from a sculpture by Bahc Yiso) will represent each artist through a large-scale installation or substantial body of work, including site-specific installations, video art, computer animation, and sculpture.

It was so good that we actually went down before lunch, had lunch with M and her adorable daughter A, and then went back!

I love museuming with my mom because she just LOVES art, no matter if it's from 3rd century or 23rd (kidding, really). Oh, and they had just opened the 'interactive' room as part of the permanent Korean collection there, which meant we got to use thick brushes to try and make some Korean-, Chinese-, or Japanese-inspired 'art'. Mom did a mountain scene (her mountains were WAY better than mine) and I did an Iris.

Yes, we are crafty girls.

Saturday we met Maija at the dog park, and luckily the dog had a fantastic time. That night we went out for the Japanese take on Korean bbq. It's called Yakiniku 焼肉 and basically you have a charcoal grill at your table and they bring you small plates of things to roast over it. They even had an entire tofu selection for our resident vegitarian. And SMORES for dessert!

Sadly sunday came and mom had to go home, but it was a fantastic visit and so cool to actually see her without it being a 5 hour plane flight for her to do so.

Graphics special offer: calling all of my flist who are S/X authors

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:01:34 GMT

I've signed up for fall_for_sx and have an open call for movie posters (since I love doing them and they're not so bad right?)

Anyway, if any of you are interested in having me make a movie poster for your Spike/Xander fic, now's the time to drop your name in! I'll take the first 20 requests to start (and then we'll see). And you don't have to post or be signed up to fall_for_sx to ask for a movie poster, your fic doesn't have to be new, doesn't have to be finished, heck, doesn't have to be started even -- it just has to be Spike/Xander!

So,

tell me what to do?

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:43:17 GMT

I've totally lost motivation at the moment (not in a bad way, just in an indecisive one). So, not that y'all care if I get homework done or clean the house or anything like that, but just in case there's someone out there who can offer guidance, what should I do today?

View Poll: Ordering Kate Around

leave me comments if this did not provide adequate room for you to tell me what to do - trust me, i'm open to any direction at the moment!

well, at least i'm encouraged!

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:51:27 GMT

i got my first comment on a paper written for a professor at New University!

Anyway, thanks for a smart, thoughtful response paper. I really enjoyed reading it.

*DOING THE HAPPY NERDY DANCE OF JOY*

i'm still here, mostly....

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:01:31 GMT

After a bunch of days where I felt like I was on a roll - things were still progressing forward in that sense that you get - even though there are highs and lows everything was still mostly on track, and then.

this week. housemate down with cold-type-thing. The only really scary problem is that she hasn't gone into work for three days and even though she's talked with them about it and they're mostly cool, they're not going to be cool forever and WE CAN'T LIVE HERE IF SHE DOESN'T HAVE A JOB.

To top it all off my mom gets into town today for a visit. Which I've been looking forward to. But the house is a shambles.

Oh, and Tuesday? I had a japanese test I'm pretty sure I didn't do that well on. EGH. I think I'm ready for this week to be over and to have some return of a little bit of our regularly scheduled program, you know?

GRAPHICS! Movie posters, fic banners, and a couple of manips

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:42:15 GMT

Apparently I'm fandom hopping. I promised some graphics to people... and then actually delivered! So inside you'll find some Buffy stuff, and then... I did a couple more completely unsolicited for fantastic crack!fics (one steampunk AI and one star-warsy Merlin)

banner for ladyforash

banner for xbeyondinsanex's The Devilstone Registry (Adam/Kris, R)

and two manips for the same story (that went into the banner)

working on an icon post to hopefully go up sometime soon!

Picspam: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (color)

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:43:39 GMT

[ screencaps from here ]
[ feel free to play with as you like ]

would you like to be on a filter my friend?

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:02:37 GMT

I think I'm going to be attempting to write up my thoughts on articles for my classes on my LJ. I'm thinking I may filter it just so that not everyone gets blasted with my occasional opinions and borderline incoherency. Right now I'm going to keep this on LJ although I have been considering starting an academic blog for a long time to keep things separate.

ANYWAY, all this was a long thing to say - Anybody want to be on an academic filter? Opt in here!

View Poll: Kate's Academic Filter

a horoscope ...

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:33:35 GMT

possibly a needed one?

I know a 19-year-old woman who has been going through an especially vivid phase of living on the edge between yes and no. She told me that yesterday morning she woke up with the feeling that in the next 12 hours she could either commit suicide or else perform some epic deed in which she surpassed all of her previous limits. She chose the latter path, completing an 18-mile bike ride that tested her endurance and drove her into the heights of exhilaration. As she pedaled, she drove herself onward with the throbbing thought that this was a perfect way to silence the self-destructive voice within her. I offer her victory to you, Libra, as being worthy of imitation.

There are nights when i get home that i wish i was living alone. I am truly tired of the roller-coaster-drama-rama that I have had a hand in creating. Can it be over now? Please?