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Meme a little meme of me...
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May. 11th, 2008 @ 10:07 pm
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Well, actually, I nabbed it from ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) chez_maltesers:
Comment and I'll give you a letter; then you have to list 10 things you love that begin with that letter. Afterward, post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own.
( She gave me the letter R... )
::sets out a sign:: I've got a whole alphabet of letters here, hand-picked and appetizing! Any takers?Current Mood:  random Current Music: a shushing sound that may be rain |
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Crypto-kvetching
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Feb. 26th, 2008 @ 06:21 pm
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It feels odd to post after such a long silence when it's just to rant; on the other hand, I need to let some of this stuff out and lack a punching bag, so: ( gyaaargh )
On the much, much brighter side, I visited Pittsburgh again for the first time in years. I fell in love with the city when I was there for grad school in 2000-2002. It was a flying visit, literally and figuratively--I caught a plane there on Saturday evening after a full day of work, then flew back Sunday night.
The reason I went was this: Lost in the Stars by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson, a musical based on Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country.
There are some musical works which have, since I was a child, helped shape the way I look at the world. ( This is one of them. )Current Mood:  aggrieved or grieving? Current Music: Elvis Costello, "Lost in the Stars" |
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a letter I have hid
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Sep. 20th, 2007 @ 12:26 am
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After writing about war and the death of language, I couldn't stop hearing the end of Amy Lowell's "Patterns" in my head.
( So here's the whole thing for you. )Current Mood:  melancholy |
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linguistic lifespans and crimes of conjugation
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Sep. 19th, 2007 @ 10:59 pm
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Gah, it's been eons since I've posted. I check my friendslist daily (hi, y'all! ::waves::), but have kept mostly mum in my own journal. Though there's a lot I could talk about--things going on in my life, world issues I care about, fannish matters, library concerns--I don't feel cut out to be a steady diarist or commentator.
Oddly enough, what tends to stir me out of my accustomed silence is language itself. ( natterings of a glottophile )
( linguistic lifespans )
* * * * *
( crimes of conjugation )Current Mood: tetchy Current Music: some Fullmetal Alchemist ending theme (in head) |
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The law of the meme declares it!
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Jul. 15th, 2007 @ 08:35 pm
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The Rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. You WILL update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.
I responded to cheeky_duckie's posting of this meme. Her questions to me, and my answers:
1. What is your favorite album ever?
Gaah. I reeeallly can't pick. High on the list are ABBA Gold; American Pie by Don McLean; the Hikaru no Go and Revolutionary Girl Utena original soundtracks 1 and 2; much of Mercedes Sosa's Vengo a ofrecer mi corazón; Water from Another Time by John McCutcheon; If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot; Tracy Chapman's self-named album; Joan Baez in Concert; Peter, Paul and Mary's ten year anniversary recording; and a ton of musicals--Candide, Lost in the Stars, Fanny, Camelot, Music Man.... Also, Leonard Bernstein's Mass. (And I still feel sad for excluding many favorites!)
2. Do you drink tea?
Coffee's my current caffeine of choice, but I used to drink tea a lot, and still do sometimes. I love the ritual feeling of teapot and teacup, of pouring for others and for oneself. (And tea itself is tasty! More calming, somehow, than coffee.) I used to drink Celestial Seasonings' Morning Thunder all the time, but coffee has now supplanted it.
3. What genre is the majority of your book collection?
::Eyeing said book collection:: Er. The proportion of manga to other types has been increasing exponentially, but overall it's probably 60% novels (especially children's books and most particularly children's historical fiction), 30% nonfiction, and 10% manga. That's a very rough and unscientific estimate, however!
4. How do you feel about faith?
I would like to live up to my Quaker beliefs(to live them) a lot more than I feel I do currently. I think my faith may cycle through fallow periods--I hope that's what this is, and that I'll eventually return to a more Quakerly state of being.
5. Monkeys?
OOKIE! (I love the monkeyish character Tatsukichi from SuperGALS, who commands one's respect by the end of the manga/anime for having stuck with the charismatic, temperamental and supremely self-centered Ran through thick and thin. I'm also fond of Honda Hiroto from Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, who undergoes a brief but memorable stint as a robot monkey.)
And now: Come one, come all! Reply to this post and I'll pepper you with questions!Current Mood: uncomfortable Current Music: "Dancing Queen" on ABBA Gold |
| » It's the principle of the thing... |
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I'm posting the answers to the previous post's meme--if you still want to try guessing 'em, Don't Look! ^_~
( Consider the source )
Jun. 18th, 2007 @ 10:06 pm
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| » No coherent personal reflections at the moment, so... two book memes! |
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Both snagged from tuuli_chan.
Meme the First: List the first sentences of ten of your favorite books. Have your friends guess which books they are!
( Mostly children's/young adult novels here... )
Meme the Second: Are you a book lover? A TV freak? A movie aficionado? Put your mind to the test, and list some of your favorite fictional characters - one for each letter of the alphabet.
( Basically, I stuck to characters in books or plays I've read. )
::phew:: Yes, the letter X has defeated me. ^_^;
Hope you're all well!
Jun. 2nd, 2007 @ 08:40 pm
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| » All of Prydain mourns |
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And Westmark too.
'Chronicles of Prydain’ author Lloyd Alexander dead at 83
Lloyd Alexander's official website [not yet updated with the news]
His works shaped my childhood. He knew how to write pathos in a way that was accessible to kids and adults alike; how to create flawed, sympathetic heroes and lovable side characters (here's looking at you, Gurgi and Fflewddur Fflam). (He knew how to write great fantasy about cats, too.)
Sometimes, in later years, I felt his plots and characters fell into patterns--but there was always something to redeem each story.
Farewell, Lloyd Alexander.
May. 18th, 2007 @ 12:26 pm
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| » Selkies, in song and fanfic |
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I interrupt my regular silence for a brief post. A musical goodie--"Ballad of the White Seal Maid," written by Jane Yolen and set to music/performed by Lui Collins--reposes beneath the cut for your downloading pleasure, provided you hop to it within the next six days.
( for selkie's my nature and name )
I uploaded the song for some friends following a conversation about selkies in general. Coincidentally, I'd also recently read this Prince of Tennis fanfic: "The Skin of a Seal" by kishmet. I recommend it for its wonderful job of capturing both the nature of the PoT characters and the wistful feeling of selkie mythology.
Not much to report about this summer--it's been up and down, busy and not. A few more fandoms have been added to my repertoire, though I haven't worked on fanfic (or other creative writing) in ages. I'm still at the same library branch. My cat continues lovely and marmalade-colored with smidgens of cream. My parents moved into a retirement community, meaning the house I (partly) grew up in has passed from our family. The singing group I'm part of has worked on some glorious songs lately, including an a cappella version of "Love is a Fearsome Thing" by Judy Small.
::waves a friendly flipper, then sinks beneath the surface again::
Sep. 11th, 2006 @ 09:34 pm
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| » In honor of National Poetry Month: my anime/manga haiku riddles |
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For those of you who
enjoy haiku and anime,
click (fake) LJ-cut!
I posted them at
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) haiku_for_you. Join the group
if you love haiku!
Apr. 21st, 2006 @ 12:19 pm
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| » At sheron's suggestion...links to tracks; one more meme |
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sheron pointed out that the Music Library meme below would be even cooler if one shared the songs in question. So, for a limited time (one week to be exact) and for a limited number of downloads, here are the tracks I mentioned! Please, if you like the songs enough, consider (when possible!) buying the official recording from which I've taken them. I mean this post as a promotion of the artists' work.
( Snapshots from my music library... )
And, while I'm at it, here's another music-sharing meme (got this one from tuuli_chan):
Do you trust my taste in music? Pick around three numbers from 1 to 623 and I'll find the corresponding song in my playlist. I'll upload it for you to grab. When you've gotten a song from me, go post this meme in your own journal, replace the number with the number of songs YOU have so I can grab a random song from you.
P.S. Thanks for the ones you sent me, Tuuli! Liked 'em all. ^^
Mar. 7th, 2006 @ 05:54 pm
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| » ...so what makes you think I'm procrastinating? |
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iTunes Music Library Meme, gleaned (and slightly altered) from the journal of akainagi
Open iTunes, Winamp, RealPlayer or Windows Media Player to answer the following. Go to your library. Answer, no matter how embarrassing it is.
Number of songs: 544
Sort by song:
First Song: "A Circle Is Cast" - A Circle Is Cast, Libana
Last Song: "Yuu" - Hikaru no Go Original Soundtrack 1, various artists
Sort by time:
Shortest song: "Eyecatch" from Descendants of Darkness Original Soundtrack (9.5 seconds!)
Longest Song: "Drop of Water/Traditional Song" by Dana Lyons from Turn of the Wrench (10 minutes, 23 seconds)
Sort by artist:
First Artist: ABBA ("Waterloo" on ABBA Gold)
Last Artist: individual = Vanessa Carlton ("A Thousand Miles" on Be Not Nobody); collective = Various Artists--though actually, I think it's Topol ("If I Were a Rich Man" on Fiddler on the Roof)
Sort by album:
First Album: 1962-1966, Disc 1 (The Beatles, "From Me to You")
Last Album: Yu-Gi-Oh! Sound Duel 4 ("EYES (TV-Size)")
Search the key word and see how many songs appear:
"Sex": none
"Death": 4
"Love": 24
"You": 25
"Me": 14
"Drugs": none
"Hate": none
Search for your own name, how many?: none
Do The Shuffle!
Shuffle your library and list the first five songs. No padding your playlist, you hipster, you. Be honest!
"Yesterday" - The Beatles (1962-1966, Disc 1)
"Confrontation" - Various (Descendants of Darkness Original Soundtrack)
"Deja Blue" - Various (Into the Sky: Vision of Escaflowne Original Soundtrack)
"Eternal Flame" - The Bangles (Love Songs of the 80s)
"Family" - Dar Williams (Mortal City)
Mar. 2nd, 2006 @ 07:24 pm
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| » Beware the rice cake |
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I have fallen in love with mochi--that sticky-rice substance which can variously be toasted, put in soup, shaped into coats around balls of ice cream, and more. This warning label amused me: "Children (especially under three years of age) and elderly people should be cautious. Please chew thoroughly before swallowing."
Apparently, though, the warning is very much in earnest:
Mochi (rice cake)
"Glutinous rice is steamed, pounded into a paste, and shaped into cakes. ...They are one of the essential Japanese foods, and having a celebratory significance, are particularly eaten at New Year, when many people try to eat a lot of them. They are served in zoni, the special New Year soup. They are very soft and sticky and every year a number of people, usually old people, choke to death on them."
Fear the goo. o_O
(But I gotta say--the Mochi*Mochi manga scanslation site redeems the food's image for me! Mochi makes for some very cute credit pages.)
Mar. 2nd, 2006 @ 05:55 pm
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| » Cute li'l' memelet |
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Purloined from caitirin:
Make up a title for a story I didn't write, and I will respond with details of those non-written stories. Just think of the possibilities! (If you'd like to include details you'd like, pairings or fandom or something, you can do that too.)
Feb. 21st, 2006 @ 09:08 pm
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| » Inspired to Potterfilk! |
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The other night, jobiska and I laughed ourselves silly (-er?) over this site:
Harry Potter - The Musical(s)
A lot of the songs are impressively singable!
I couldn't help but be inspired.
( Draco's Lament )
Jan. 31st, 2006 @ 07:05 pm
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| » (No Subject) |
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Gack'd from fish_are_evil, though it's popped up in several other folks' journals since…
Leave a list of fictional characters in your journal that you would love to get a message from. It is your friends-list's mission, should they choose to accept it, to write you an in-character "letter" from a character on that list. Then they post their own list in their journal and the process continues!
1) Fflewddur Fflam or Gurgi (Lloyd Alexander, Chronicles of Prydain)
2) Treebeard or Gandalf (J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings)
3) Saki Hanajima, Tohru Honda, or Momiji, Hatsuharu, Shigure or Hiro Sohma (Natsuki Takaya, Fruits Basket)
4) Mr. Yotsuya or Mrs. Ichinose (Rumiko Takahashi, Maison Ikkoku)
5) The Gushoushin brothers...because hey, they're my colleagues! (Yoko Matsushita, Yami no Matsuei/Descendants of Darkness)
6) Sai no Fujiwara (Yumi Hotta/Takeshi Obata, Hikaru no Go)
7) Jaken (Rumiko Takahashi, InuYasha)
8) Daichi Fuwa (Daisuke Higuchi, Whistle!)
9) Shuichi Nakatsu (Hisaya Nakajo, Hanazakari no Kimitachi e)
10) Alphonse Elric, Maes Hughes or Alex Armstrong (Hiromu Arakawa, Fullmetal Alchemist)
11) Mai Kujaku (Kazuki Takahashi, Yu-Gi-Oh!)
12) Princess Ishtar (Judal, Vampire Game)
13) Anthy Himemiya (Be-Papas, Revolutionary Girl Utena)
14) Puss in Boots (from Andrea L. Peterson's "No Rest for the Wicked" online comic, or general folklore)
15) Vetch (Ursula K. Le Guin, Wizard of Earthsea)
16) Charlotte (Amy Winfrey, "Making Fiends" webcartoon)
17) Cyrano de Bergerac (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac--Brian Hooker translation)
18) Beatrice (William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing)
19) Anansi (from folklore, but especially as depicted by Eric Kimmel in his picture book retellings)
20) Mr. Bennet (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice)
Jan. 25th, 2006 @ 11:13 pm
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| » Bearing fruits, delicious they be! |
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Author’s Note: My attempt to write a fic for a request by ferretgirl_1124 here on fic_on_demand--it didn't wind up satisfying the terms of the request, alas.
Title: Secret Bases
Fandom: Fruits Basket
Rating: K+ for mild teen angst.
Pairings: a bit o' Kyou/Tohru here, a bit o' Yuki/Tohru there…
Summary: Set somewhere during manga vol. 9 (after the end of term, just before the momentous visit to the summer home).
Disclaimer: Heigh-ho, nobody home, Furuba copyright have I none, still will I be merry...
( sun-glow through flapping sheets )
This feels pretty rough—I'm passing the hat for suggested revisions. I find Yuki hard to write, partly because—as of manga vol. 12—Takaya's still withholding key information on what makes him tick.
In other news, I'd like to tout the virtues of
del.icio.us!
What is it?
--An online location for your bookmarked websites, so you can retrieve them from any Internet connection
--A flexible system for organizing bookmarks (you assign subject tags--then, if you click on one of the tag labels, it will retrieve all the sites with that tag).
--A way to share your favorite sites with others!
lislemck posted about it some time back, but I just got around to setting up my own account (take a look!). And boy, is it fun--not to mention a lot easier to deal with than the Internet Explorer favorites-folder system.
Jan. 4th, 2006 @ 10:01 pm
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| » (No Subject) |
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Because I got tagged by bakashoujiki...
( List ten things that make you happy in no particular order and then tag five friends... )
Tagging five friends? Hmmm...
::eyes friendslist::
lediz * rayemars * jobiska * fish_are_evil * sheron * cairnsy * cheeky_duckie * tuuli_chan * kay_cricketed * fourth_moon * murinae
That's if y'all feel like doing it. And any of the rest of you-uns who want to try it, consider yourselves summarily TAGGED!
::grins::
....Love,
sarasusa, who used to be able to count
...and who will make the necessary posts to goal_posts soon, I promise you, fourth_moon!
Dec. 6th, 2005 @ 10:57 pm
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| » Heh. Heh heh heh heh heh. |
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Nabbed from cheeky_duckie:
If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now (even if we don't speak often), please post a comment with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL memory of you and me. It can be anything you want--good or bad--BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE.
When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people DON'T ACTUALLY remember about you!
Dec. 2nd, 2005 @ 10:00 pm
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| » I, author |
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Another two drabbles (Fruits Basket and Here is Greenwood) and a personal statement.
Title: Through the Mantilla
Fandom: Fruits Basket
Rating: K+
Pairings/warning: slight one-sided Hana-chan/Tohru. (Hence, a hint of shoujo-ai.)
Summary: Hanajima's studied carelessness. Diligently. 100-word drabble.
Disclaimer: Hail, all hail Natsuki Takaya. This fic is merely a tribute.
( Each evening Saki undoes her braids )
Fandom: Here is Greenwood/Koko wa Greenwood
Disclaimer: Yay, Yukie Nasu! Boo, anyone who tries to steal her thunder!
Title: Debt
Rating: K
Category: Introspecti-fic.
Characters/Pairings: Mitsuru and Shinobu
Summary: Canonical metaphor--Shinobu can't balance his checkbook, and it's all Mitsuru's fault. 100-word drabble.
Warnings/Spoilers: Especially refers to one of their interactions in vol. 5. (I've only read through vol. 7.)
( the real creditor )
* * * * * * *
Yesterday, I was part of an assembly in a public elementary school where the Pledge of Allegiance was recited. I didn't feel clear (Quakerese for being spiritually comfortable with something) to honor the flag as a symbol. However, standing there with my hand over my heart but remaining silent until "liberty and justice for all," I started to think--how might I express what really matters to me? What would I say instead?
I came up with the following. (I wonder what other "alternative Pledges" folks have created?)
( My pledge of allegiance )
Nov. 18th, 2005 @ 08:16 pm
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