When you read this, you're tagged! Take a picture of yourself in your current state - no changing your clothes or quickly putting on makeup, and absolutely no photo-manipulation. Show your F-List the Real You!
(caught this today from a post by
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ladibug21 a few days back)
Tags:
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alchemi recently posted a self-esteem meme based on an earlier post from finding_helena, here (who cites an earlier post on another blog - warning: language). In the introduction, alchemi quotes the opening paragraphs of finding_helena's post:We all, particularly women, tend to downplay what we're actually good at. When somebody compliments us, we demur. And I definitely include myself in that. I don't want to seem too vain in accepting a compliment. And it's true, I think, that bragging can go too far.
And I do feel a little silly taking credit for things that come really easily to me. Like if somebody is impressed with, oh, my ability to tell you what note you just played to me. Seriously, that's just a little quirk of my brain that I have nothing to do with. It's like complimenting me on having pretty eyes... I mean, glad you appreciate them, but I didn't have anything to do with the process of them being so.
BUT. There are things that I've worked hard on and am good at.
Now, I think there's something interesting to be said about what you can and cannot take credit for, and what taking credit should mean ... but in the meantime, ( some things do I take credit for )
I'm sure I could say more, but at 1:05 in the morning it might be better to stop here.
As a number of people have noted, Livejournal placed into their software for a period of time code which would do two rude things:
1. Alter links to ecommerce sites to forward users to a particular company's URL.
2. Replace affiliate markers on such links with a different affiliate marker.
...and do these things on every link on Livejournal, regardless of context.shatterstripes looked into this from the technical side, and made a series of relevant informative posts, but the implications are clear: they were mining money from everyone on Livejournal without telling anyone that's what they were doing.
I personally like my Dreamwidth+crosspost solution, and have three invitations on hand, but I'm not going to remove all my LJ content. If you are staying on LJ, I will still be paying attention - if you are migrating elsewhere, please let me know so I can find you there.
1. Alter links to ecommerce sites to forward users to a particular company's URL.
2. Replace affiliate markers on such links with a different affiliate marker.
...and do these things on every link on Livejournal, regardless of context.
shatterstripes looked into this from the technical side, and made a series of relevant informative posts, but the implications are clear: they were mining money from everyone on Livejournal without telling anyone that's what they were doing.I personally like my Dreamwidth+crosspost solution, and have three invitations on hand, but I'm not going to remove all my LJ content. If you are staying on LJ, I will still be paying attention - if you are migrating elsewhere, please let me know so I can find you there.
ladibug21 has asked me questions five, and answers five I bring!(If you'd like me to ask five questions of you to know you better, just say the word. Yes, this is a meme.)
1. Given your answers to the recent LJ Question of the Day, what's your favorite breakfast? Are you a savory or sweet breakfast person? Where is your favorite breakfast place?
Some day ... some day ... I will find the breakfast-spot where they know how to cook an egg over medium instead of over easy.
For the meantime, I believe hotcakes, eggs, and bacon at the Vienna Inn are pretty good, when I get the chance. Hash browns are a little much.
2. Are you a fan of the winter Olympics? If so, which is your favorite event? If not, why?
Not a big fan, really - my interest in spectator sports seems to start with baseball and pretty much peter out there. I think it would be cool to learn cross-country skiing just because it's useful, but, given my current lattitude, a ham radio license would be a higher priority.
3. What's your favorite comic or printed cartoon?
Online right now, it's just about a dead heat between Kaspall (a very metafictional fantasy suspense novel) and Dead Winter (a post-satirical zombie apocalypse bildungsroman). Offline, I would have to decide between my childhood love, The Adventures of Tintin, English translation (a bit of a wandering-the-earth series), and the books I've become interested in more recently, such as Sandman Mystery Theatre, Transmetropolitan, and Invincible.
I think I would go for Dead Winter and Tintin, respectively, and would hate to choose between the two.
4. What do you plan to do once you're done with school?
I think at this point it is abundantly obvious that teaching is in my future.
5. What are your feelings on Valentine's Day?
Is that today?
On the one hand, I don't like obligations, but on the other hand, I tend to forget to do things I should if I don't have a reason and a date. On the gripping hand, I'm single (sighs!).
...well, that's all. Now to throw on some clothes to rush for the library booksale!
bliumchik i.e. maggiebloome had a tasty, tasty post+links about the sort-of self-destructive anti-ego thing which a lot of women do to avoid seeming too self-confident establish their femininity ...
... and that reminded me of an entirely different self-destructive anti-ego thing that I do, when I don't get things done that I wanted to have done. The thing is, I have this self-image of this feckless, flaky ass who blows off important assignments and mooches financially and emotionally off everyone he meets ... but the whole basis for this persona is that I'm ADD. I don't concentrate well, and I don't have the tools established to work around it (other than "be so clever that you can solve the problem in fifteen minutes or less"...). And given that I'm the only person I have ever met who has given any weight to the ass-hypothesis, I suspect the truth is closer to "my organization skills need a little work".
The self-destructive part, then, is whinging about being a horrible person who deserves to die (a total lie, for the record), rather than doing that little bit of work. Because I can - I have the technology - and everything else is just that I haven't, yet.
maggiebloome had a tasty, tasty post+links about the sort-of self-destructive anti-ego thing which a lot of women do to ... and that reminded me of an entirely different self-destructive anti-ego thing that I do, when I don't get things done that I wanted to have done. The thing is, I have this self-image of this feckless, flaky ass who blows off important assignments and mooches financially and emotionally off everyone he meets ... but the whole basis for this persona is that I'm ADD. I don't concentrate well, and I don't have the tools established to work around it (other than "be so clever that you can solve the problem in fifteen minutes or less"...). And given that I'm the only person I have ever met who has given any weight to the ass-hypothesis, I suspect the truth is closer to "my organization skills need a little work".
The self-destructive part, then, is whinging about being a horrible person who deserves to die (a total lie, for the record), rather than doing that little bit of work. Because I can - I have the technology - and everything else is just that I haven't, yet.
Abrupt transition!
Reply to this post, and I'll tell you one reason why I like you. Then repost this [if you like] and spread the love.
Except! Amendment!
Reply to this post with something you like about yourself. No cop-out complinsults please! I know you've got it in you! And if you don't I will still do the original meme above, so no pressure or anything, but try. For me.
From a couple people:
You know how sometimes people on your friends list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when were they working THERE? Since when were they dating HIM/HER? Since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.
Please copy the topics below, erase my answers and put yours in their place, and then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration. One-Word-Answers seldom help anyone out.
first name: Robin. I, like my siblings, have a gender-neutral name, and like (at least one of) my siblings, that means occasionally getting mail with the 'wrong' honorific. (As you can see by my scare quotes, I 'care' about this. For the record, the correct honorific is "Mr".)
age: 770 Ms - or about 24 years 5 months, if you like the merely standard units of measure.
location: Near DC on the Maryland side - convenient to the bus lines and Metrorail, which explains why I don't have a driver's license. (Which explains why I have disposable income - can you say "car insurance"?)
occupation: Graduate research assistant at the University of Maryland, College Park, doing research in two-phase cooling for power electronic systems. From the back forward: "power electronic systems" are, for example, the thing that turns your AC into DC or vice-versa; "cooling" is taking the waste heat off the device (it's not 100% efficient) so that it may be dumped into (probably) the air somewhere else; and "two-phase cooling" means doing the above by making a liquid boil, later to be condensed elsewhere. This is something which is an active area of research because it's kind of a messy problem (like turbulence in fluid flow) and the best solutions are of the plus-or-minus-30% strength. Which works in steam power plants, but not in microelectronics.
partner: Romantic? None so far.
kids: In light of the previous question, I am quite glad that the answer here is "none" as well.
brothers/sisters: One each. The sister is a twin, and yes, I've been asked if we're identical. I don't get it either. (The brother is older, and makes me look boring.)
pets: None. My parents had a guinea pig when I was young, and my sister had a rabbit some time later, but I've never been responsible for another living being. (I did quite poorly just caring for a plant!)
3-5 biggest things going on in your life: Largest is the research project, presumably, and second is my schoolwork. (I'm actually pretty stressed these days thanks to an incomplete from last semester I'm having trouble tying up. The class I'm in now is pretty chill.) There on down, it gets pretty minor-scale - the novel I started for Nanowrimo is the biggest thing, and I'm ... not really diligent about working on it.
parents: Both living, and both with a Web presence. I'll mention my father's (done!), as he comments on this blog from time to time. Oh, and is a fierce blogger himself. Pretend that I said that when I mentioned him.
some of your closest friends: There are a couple from my Scout troop that I've been absolute rubbish keeping in touch with (K and W), and then there's several from school with whom I'll banter in the ASME lounge, exchange books, and occasionally play board games (particularly J, J, and T). Other than that, I get on decently with my parents, hang out with my brother, and exchange communications with quite a few people on the Web of Lies (as my mum would call it).
I believe that's better than one-word answers, anyway! Toodles!
You know how sometimes people on your friends list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when were they working THERE? Since when were they dating HIM/HER? Since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.
Please copy the topics below, erase my answers and put yours in their place, and then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration. One-Word-Answers seldom help anyone out.
first name: Robin. I, like my siblings, have a gender-neutral name, and like (at least one of) my siblings, that means occasionally getting mail with the 'wrong' honorific. (As you can see by my scare quotes, I 'care' about this. For the record, the correct honorific is "Mr".)
age: 770 Ms - or about 24 years 5 months, if you like the merely standard units of measure.
location: Near DC on the Maryland side - convenient to the bus lines and Metrorail, which explains why I don't have a driver's license. (Which explains why I have disposable income - can you say "car insurance"?)
occupation: Graduate research assistant at the University of Maryland, College Park, doing research in two-phase cooling for power electronic systems. From the back forward: "power electronic systems" are, for example, the thing that turns your AC into DC or vice-versa; "cooling" is taking the waste heat off the device (it's not 100% efficient) so that it may be dumped into (probably) the air somewhere else; and "two-phase cooling" means doing the above by making a liquid boil, later to be condensed elsewhere. This is something which is an active area of research because it's kind of a messy problem (like turbulence in fluid flow) and the best solutions are of the plus-or-minus-30% strength. Which works in steam power plants, but not in microelectronics.
partner: Romantic? None so far.
kids: In light of the previous question, I am quite glad that the answer here is "none" as well.
brothers/sisters: One each. The sister is a twin, and yes, I've been asked if we're identical. I don't get it either. (The brother is older, and makes me look boring.)
pets: None. My parents had a guinea pig when I was young, and my sister had a rabbit some time later, but I've never been responsible for another living being. (I did quite poorly just caring for a plant!)
3-5 biggest things going on in your life: Largest is the research project, presumably, and second is my schoolwork. (I'm actually pretty stressed these days thanks to an incomplete from last semester I'm having trouble tying up. The class I'm in now is pretty chill.) There on down, it gets pretty minor-scale - the novel I started for Nanowrimo is the biggest thing, and I'm ... not really diligent about working on it.
parents: Both living, and both with a Web presence. I'll mention my father's (done!), as he comments on this blog from time to time. Oh, and is a fierce blogger himself. Pretend that I said that when I mentioned him.
some of your closest friends: There are a couple from my Scout troop that I've been absolute rubbish keeping in touch with (K and W), and then there's several from school with whom I'll banter in the ASME lounge, exchange books, and occasionally play board games (particularly J, J, and T). Other than that, I get on decently with my parents, hang out with my brother, and exchange communications with quite a few people on the Web of Lies (as my mum would call it).
I believe that's better than one-word answers, anyway! Toodles!
From across the blagocube:
Comment here and tell me something you did recently that you're proud of and I'll comment and tell you that you're awesome and I'm proud of you. And if you see anyone comment and you know them (or understand why they'd be proud of that thing), then you comment to them and tell them why they should be pleased with themselves.
Comment here and tell me something you did recently that you're proud of and I'll comment and tell you that you're awesome and I'm proud of you. And if you see anyone comment and you know them (or understand why they'd be proud of that thing), then you comment to them and tell them why they should be pleased with themselves.
Tags:
Memesheeped from stagemanager.
1. I finished writing the summary of events in Issue #1 of my Truth & Justice campaign. (Linked post was not xposted as it was posted with iPhone app.) (Technically, this was last Evening, but clock-time was today.)
2. All my transfers this morning (boarding the train near my house, switching trains downtown, and catching the shuttle to school) went quite well.
3. Tasty, tasty co-op burrito! Also juice.
4. Had a great rambling convo with some dudes in the Lounge of the ASME. Among other things, we concluded that Maryland is, in fact, a Southern State, despite the facts that (1) Wikipedia disagrees and (2) the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area is generally more cosmopolitan.
5. Air conditioning! Yeah, it's probably ecologically unsustainable, but it sure is nice!
stagemanager.1. I finished writing the summary of events in Issue #1 of my Truth & Justice campaign. (Linked post was not xposted as it was posted with iPhone app.) (Technically, this was last Evening, but clock-time was today.)
2. All my transfers this morning (boarding the train near my house, switching trains downtown, and catching the shuttle to school) went quite well.
3. Tasty, tasty co-op burrito! Also juice.
4. Had a great rambling convo with some dudes in the Lounge of the ASME. Among other things, we concluded that Maryland is, in fact, a Southern State, despite the facts that (1) Wikipedia disagrees and (2) the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area is generally more cosmopolitan.
5. Air conditioning! Yeah, it's probably ecologically unsustainable, but it sure is nice!
Tags:
Stolen from active_apathy, who swiped it from laurenmitchell:
active_apathy, who swiped it from laurenmitchell:- Choose an episode of anime or television series you have on your computer. Make sure you're certain you want that one, you cannot change your mind once you skip this step. DO NOT TELL YOUR FLIST WHAT YOU CHOSE.
- Make note of how long the episode is here: 59:59
- Ask your flist to choose a time between 00:00 and whatever the length of your episode is. Be specific - e.g. 21:09, 02:42, 36:50. (No guarantees that times more precisely than the second will be respected, but feel free to try!)
- Make them an icon using THAT FRAME ONLY no matter what it is. And remember, you can only use that ONE episode you chose previous, even if the person posting isn't familiar with it.
Inspired by active_apathy:
This is the evolving Internet meme. Copy this text, change it in any way you like, and then repost it on your blog. Then come back here - http://packbat.livejournal.com/250271.html - and post a link to your new version so we can see how it's changing!
active_apathy:This is the evolving Internet meme. Copy this text, change it in any way you like, and then repost it on your blog. Then come back here - http://packbat.livejournal.com/250271.html - and post a link to your new version so we can see how it's changing!
Coming from the maggiebloomes and the active_apathys, with appropriate edits/redactions1:
1. I suppose I could leave the whole "of a pairing" language in, but (a) I have no fanficcing experience and (b) my fandoms pretty much comprise, first, the original Dragnet series with Jack Webb, second, most of the Hal Clement canon, and third, Castle.
OhgodImentionedaNathanFillionshowIshouldleavenowbye.
2. Length of forever may vary. Offer not valid in parts of Alaska south of 51° 15' 43" north latitude. Limit one per customer.
maggiebloomes and the active_apathys, with appropriate edits/redactions1:The first ten respondents to this post making the request shall get probably-crappy sketches from me, word- or pencil-. However, they have to make a similar offer on their own blog, or be forever2 dubbed a freeloader.
1. I suppose I could leave the whole "of a pairing" language in, but (a) I have no fanficcing experience and (b) my fandoms pretty much comprise, first, the original Dragnet series with Jack Webb, second, most of the Hal Clement canon, and third, Castle.
OhgodImentionedaNathanFillionshowIshouldleavenowbye.
2. Length of forever may vary. Offer not valid in parts of Alaska south of 51° 15' 43" north latitude. Limit one per customer.
Tags:
Dead At Your Age (hat tip to shatterstripes):
You are 23 years and 266 days old today.
That’s exactly half the life of somebody famous. In another 23 years and 266 days, you will have lived exactly as long as Fernando Pessoa. He was an innovative poet and creator of heteronyms, imaginary characters who write in different styles [sic] who died at the age of 47 years, 170 days of cirrhosis of the liver.
Fernando Pessoa lived twice as long as you have, but other notable people have died at about this age.
shatterstripes):You are 23 years and 266 days old today.
That’s exactly half the life of somebody famous. In another 23 years and 266 days, you will have lived exactly as long as Fernando Pessoa. He was an innovative poet and creator of heteronyms, imaginary characters who write in different styles [sic] who died at the age of 47 years, 170 days of cirrhosis of the liver.
Fernando Pessoa lived twice as long as you have, but other notable people have died at about this age.
- You've outlived Booker Little Jr. by more than 2 months. He was a trumpeter-composer who co-led a quintet with Eric Dolphy. He died on October 5, 1961, 24 years before you were born.
- Bonnie Parker was about 3 months younger than you when she died by homicide on March 23, 1934. She was a Depression-era outlaw who joined Clyde Barrow in a bank-robbing spree across the West. She died 52 years before you were born.
- You've outlived Jacques Herbrand by more than 3 months. He was a mathematician who introduced various theories of mathematical logic. He died in a mountaineering accident on July 27, 1931, 54 years before you were born.
- Ernie Davis was more than 3 months younger than you when he died of leukemia on May 18, 1963. He was a football halfback for Syracuse University and the first African American to win the Heisman trophy. He died 23 years before you were born.
Tags:
From baxil, with his modifications:
Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you. They might make sense or they might be totally random. You're encouraged to post that list, with your commentary on each item, to your lj (or just add a reply back at me).
Extra Baxilian addition: If you have a mental association with me that nobody has mentioned yet, add it to your five-things request and I'll write some bonus commentary.
Swing Sets
I like swings. I would consider this a fairly awesome date.
I'm not sure when or where my earliest experiences were, but I know we had a swingset in the back yard of the family house when I was a kid, and I seem to recall a swingset at the park down the street, too. I think both of them are gone, now. So is the swingset in the icon, at K's house, but the swing in the icon - the brown thing I'm holding on to is the seat of a tree swing - is still there and still a lot of fun. Without the swingset to climb on for extra height, though, it'll be a little harder for me to fall off at the highest point off the ground and knock my wind out. Again. Pity.
Atheism
n. Not believing in any gods.
Now, this is not the definition you will from Messers. Merriam and Webster, should you ask of them - they will tell you that it is the positive belief that there exists no deity (and yes, they use the singular). It is also slightly different from the definition common at the once-IIDB, now FRDB (Freethought and Rationalism Discussion Board) - while that definition may be worded identically through sloppiness, strictly speaking, they refer to the negative belief, lack of belief, that any gods exist.
That said, provided that you interpret all three of these definitions reasonably, by which I mean avoiding the stupid, stupid idea that beliefs have to be infinitely certain, all three apply to myself. I positively believe that no people with power over the laws of nature exist ("in my opinion nothing occurs contrary to nature except the impossible, and that never occurs" - Sagredo, "Two New Sciences" (1914 translation), Galileo Galilei), and I decidedly don't have faith in any such creatures.
I made a post for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
convert_me a while back talking about the history of my opinion - I won't bother to repeat it here.
Magic: The Gathering
My dad, my sibs and I got into MtG early - not beta-early, but Unlimited Edition and Arabian Nights expansion early. Back then it was a great game, a lot of fun, though I stank at it - now, with the tremendous backlog of expansions and extra rules and so on that it has acquired, not so much (though I stink much less, now).
Still my favorite collectible trading card game, though.
Writer's Block*
* The LJ thought-prompter, not the creative affliction.
The LJ Writer's-Block feature quite often has interesting prompts - certainly better than Sturgeon's-Law percentages. Today's, for example, is "What do you think happens to us when we die?", a question of deep interest to many people that normally wouldn't occur to me to answer.
I normally don't put a great deal of effort into answering the Writer's Block questions, though. I expect if I were answering today's I would merely reiterate my support for the physicalist position - that you are (mostly) the operation of your brain, and if your brain data is destroyed, so are you. A more thorough response would invoke some of the evidence for the position - from Phineas Gage to the neurophysiology of near-death experiences and hallucinations.
Nomic
I've always been a bit of a rules-lawyer and I've always loved paradoxes (growing up, we had both of Martin Gardner's Aha! books, and at least one Raymond Smullyan - The Lady Or The Tiger? - I read all three often), so when I first heard of the game of Nomic (probably through my older brother), I was hooked. A game where you could change the rules! Nay, a game where you were encouraged, nay, required to change the rules, not just one where there was no-one to stop you! The very language of Suber's Initial Ruleset appealed to me.
And, of course, no-one in my circle of meatspace acquaintances was interested in playing. So the desire persistent, unfulfilled, until that fateful day whenactive_apathy decided she wanted a game. And by January 23rd, there was nomicide, and we've been off and running (with occasional stumbles) ever since. </plug>
Edit: That's January 23rd, 2007, for reference - over two years, now!
baxil, with his modifications:Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you. They might make sense or they might be totally random. You're encouraged to post that list, with your commentary on each item, to your lj (or just add a reply back at me).
Extra Baxilian addition: If you have a mental association with me that nobody has mentioned yet, add it to your five-things request and I'll write some bonus commentary.
Swing Sets
I like swings. I would consider this a fairly awesome date.
I'm not sure when or where my earliest experiences were, but I know we had a swingset in the back yard of the family house when I was a kid, and I seem to recall a swingset at the park down the street, too. I think both of them are gone, now. So is the swingset in the icon, at K's house, but the swing in the icon - the brown thing I'm holding on to is the seat of a tree swing - is still there and still a lot of fun. Without the swingset to climb on for extra height, though, it'll be a little harder for me to fall off at the highest point off the ground and knock my wind out. Again. Pity.
Atheism
n. Not believing in any gods.
Now, this is not the definition you will from Messers. Merriam and Webster, should you ask of them - they will tell you that it is the positive belief that there exists no deity (and yes, they use the singular). It is also slightly different from the definition common at the once-IIDB, now FRDB (Freethought and Rationalism Discussion Board) - while that definition may be worded identically through sloppiness, strictly speaking, they refer to the negative belief, lack of belief, that any gods exist.
That said, provided that you interpret all three of these definitions reasonably, by which I mean avoiding the stupid, stupid idea that beliefs have to be infinitely certain, all three apply to myself. I positively believe that no people with power over the laws of nature exist ("in my opinion nothing occurs contrary to nature except the impossible, and that never occurs" - Sagredo, "Two New Sciences" (1914 translation), Galileo Galilei), and I decidedly don't have faith in any such creatures.
I made a post for
convert_me a while back talking about the history of my opinion - I won't bother to repeat it here.Magic: The Gathering
My dad, my sibs and I got into MtG early - not beta-early, but Unlimited Edition and Arabian Nights expansion early. Back then it was a great game, a lot of fun, though I stank at it - now, with the tremendous backlog of expansions and extra rules and so on that it has acquired, not so much (though I stink much less, now).
Still my favorite collectible trading card game, though.
Writer's Block*
* The LJ thought-prompter, not the creative affliction.
The LJ Writer's-Block feature quite often has interesting prompts - certainly better than Sturgeon's-Law percentages. Today's, for example, is "What do you think happens to us when we die?", a question of deep interest to many people that normally wouldn't occur to me to answer.
I normally don't put a great deal of effort into answering the Writer's Block questions, though. I expect if I were answering today's I would merely reiterate my support for the physicalist position - that you are (mostly) the operation of your brain, and if your brain data is destroyed, so are you. A more thorough response would invoke some of the evidence for the position - from Phineas Gage to the neurophysiology of near-death experiences and hallucinations.
Nomic
I've always been a bit of a rules-lawyer and I've always loved paradoxes (growing up, we had both of Martin Gardner's Aha! books, and at least one Raymond Smullyan - The Lady Or The Tiger? - I read all three often), so when I first heard of the game of Nomic (probably through my older brother), I was hooked. A game where you could change the rules! Nay, a game where you were encouraged, nay, required to change the rules, not just one where there was no-one to stop you! The very language of Suber's Initial Ruleset appealed to me.
And, of course, no-one in my circle of meatspace acquaintances was interested in playing. So the desire persistent, unfulfilled, until that fateful day when
active_apathy decided she wanted a game. And by January 23rd, there was nomicide, and we've been off and running (with occasional stumbles) ever since. </plug>Edit: That's January 23rd, 2007, for reference - over two years, now!
If you see this, post a favourite poem.
My favourite poem, as I have mentioned, is modern and under copyright - it is called "The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently" by Thomas Lux. In lieu of that, I would have posted another favorite - "The Tree", by Ezra Pound - but that, although less recent, is still modern and under copyright. Therefore I will offer this, which is modern but not under copyright:
- from "Love Songs", 1917.
My favourite poem, as I have mentioned, is modern and under copyright - it is called "The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently" by Thomas Lux. In lieu of that, I would have posted another favorite - "The Tree", by Ezra Pound - but that, although less recent, is still modern and under copyright. Therefore I will offer this, which is modern but not under copyright:
Sara Teasdale Interlude: Songs out of Sorrow II. Mastery I would not have a god come in To shield me suddenly from sin, And set my house of life to rights; Nor angels with bright burning wings Ordering my earthly thoughts and things: Rather my own frail guttering lights Wind blown and nearly beaten out: Rather the terror of the nights And long, sick groping after doubt; Rather be lost than let my soul Slip vaguely from my own control Of my own spirit let me be In sole though feeble mastery.
- from "Love Songs", 1917.
Saw this "genre fiction" (how I hate that term!) book list on hmmm_tea's journal - made a few inconsequential alterations to the rules myself...
In no particular order:
( 100 items long, for whatever reason. Be warned. )
Obvious lacunae - Richard Adams (at least "Watership Down", and I'd add "Shardik"), Hal Clement ("Needle", "Mission of Gravity", but probably not "Still River", however much I love that book), Vernor freakin' Vinge ("A Fire Upon the Deep", I haven't read "A Deepness in the Sky", "True Names"), Edgar Allan Poe (anything, for cripe's sake), Bruce Sterling ("Islands in the Net", for one), Bram Stoker ("Dracula")...
hmmm_tea's journal - made a few inconsequential alterations to the rules myself...1) Look at the list, copy and paste it into your own journal.
2) Marks: read one or all of, intend to read (or reread, or finish), loved,hated.
3) Feel free to elaborate wherever you like, whether on the books, the rules, or the list itself.
In no particular order:
( 100 items long, for whatever reason. Be warned. )
Obvious lacunae - Richard Adams (at least "Watership Down", and I'd add "Shardik"), Hal Clement ("Needle", "Mission of Gravity", but probably not "Still River", however much I love that book), Vernor freakin' Vinge ("A Fire Upon the Deep", I haven't read "A Deepness in the Sky", "True Names"), Edgar Allan Poe (anything, for cripe's sake), Bruce Sterling ("Islands in the Net", for one), Bram Stoker ("Dracula")...
A quick survey of the readership. Post your replies below if you so desire! Hat-tip to joee_girl, who got it from one composingliger...
YOU
1. Name:
2. Date of birth:
3. Where you live:
4. What makes you happy:
5. Currently listening/the last thing you listened to:
6. Do you read my journal?:
7. If yes, what makes it especially good or bad?:
8. An interesting fact about you:
9. What do you love at the moment?:
10. Favourite place to spend time:
11. Favourite lyric:
12. The best time of the year:
RECOMMEND
A. A film:
B. A book:
C. A band, a song, or album:
PLUS
I. One thing you like about me:
II. Two things you like about yourself:
III. Look at my friends-list and tell what you like about one of our mutual friends:
IV. Put this in your journal so that I can tell you what I like about you.
joee_girl, who got it from one composingliger...YOU
1. Name:
2. Date of birth:
3. Where you live:
4. What makes you happy:
5. Currently listening/the last thing you listened to:
6. Do you read my journal?:
7. If yes, what makes it especially good or bad?:
8. An interesting fact about you:
9. What do you love at the moment?:
10. Favourite place to spend time:
11. Favourite lyric:
12. The best time of the year:
RECOMMEND
A. A film:
B. A book:
C. A band, a song, or album:
PLUS
I. One thing you like about me:
II. Two things you like about yourself:
III. Look at my friends-list and tell what you like about one of our mutual friends:
IV. Put this in your journal so that I can tell you what I like about you.
Tags:
Yeah - should be writing a paper, way behind on my flist, but this old meme active_apathy did looked fun.
Put your MP3 player on shuffle, and write down the first line of the first twenty songs. Post the poem that results. The first line of the twenty-first is the title.
So, I present:
( This flower is scorched, this film is on )
At least it's short.
active_apathy did looked fun.Put your MP3 player on shuffle, and write down the first line of the first twenty songs. Post the poem that results. The first line of the twenty-first is the title.
So, I present:
( This flower is scorched, this film is on )
At least it's short.
Tags:
In response to shatterstripes, ceruleanst, and tracerj simultaneously:
Turn to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post that sentence along with these instructions on your LJ.
"All part of the show."
(Dag, two fifty-plus word sentences to start the page and I hit the five-word? The book is Rhyme's Reason, John Hollander.)
shatterstripes, ceruleanst, and tracerj simultaneously:- Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
- I mean it. Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the closest.
- ...straight line to the centroid of your head, if you have to ask.
- I mean it. Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the closest.
- Count if you have to. Start on the first page (including the title) of Chapter One, and remember to count both sides of the page.
- No, a colon doesn't end a sentence.
- Yes, a question-mark ends a sentence.
"All part of the show."
(Dag, two fifty-plus word sentences to start the page and I hit the five-word? The book is Rhyme's Reason, John Hollander.)
Tags:
Original to me, for once:
Most people have the same religion (or lack of religion) as their parents. That something this large in the life of an individual should even appear to be so much up to chance invites the question: what would you be like if you changed that one variable? And how would you interact if you met?
If I were a Christian:
If real-me met Christian-me:
God bless, as he would say, and wind to thy wings, as I would reply.
Most people have the same religion (or lack of religion) as their parents. That something this large in the life of an individual should even appear to be so much up to chance invites the question: what would you be like if you changed that one variable? And how would you interact if you met?
If I were a Christian:
- I would play Christian rock. (But possibly good Christian rock, if my church were liberal enough to give me my Joni Mitchell et al.)
- I would go on missions to third-world countries and donate generously to charity.
- I would play by the rules with a passion, and deplore the hypocrisy I see in others, also with a passion. (Probably to excess on both counts - I would still cross at the crosswalk were I the last person on earth.)
- I would debate theology for fun - possibly even go to seminary.
- The Man Who Was Thursday would still drive me nuts.
If real-me met Christian-me:
- We'd get in long arguments about the justifications of belief and foundations of morality.
- We'd exchange mixtape-CDs. I would be very nervous about putting anything anti-religion or anti-Christianity on them.
- He'd badger me to take up playing the piano again. I would promise, and then forget.
- He would be appalled that I could lose my Eagle Scout for being an atheist.
God bless, as he would say, and wind to thy wings, as I would reply.
Tags: