from kitminx

Passion - I actually don't apply this word to myself. Passion is a thing other people have, where they feel so strongly that they cannot help but speak or act on it. It is a rolling boil emotion. I've experienced that, but I am more of a slow simmer person myself. Things cook for a long time before they come up to that boil, and I will often opt for backing away from things about which I feel too strongly since I perceive that strength of emotion as sometimes getting in the way of perceiving things rationally.

Martial Arts - Are a thing I wanted desperately to be allowed to do since I was a kid. As a little, my grandfather taught me some very basic boxing, but this was before women in boxing was even a possibility and, honestly, I can understand the adults not much wanting the brilliant kid in a sport that calls for getting hit in the head. As it is? I'm looking for something that fits, while continuing with the dojo that's conveniently located. (Or, continuing probably tomorrow since today I still feel like the airplane beat me up and took my lunch money.)

Separation - Is the hardest part of my life. I have serious abandonment issues, and a husband who is often away for long months on end. While rationally, it all makes sense to me, emotionally I am pretty upfront about needing to understand why he is leaving if he loves me. On the other hand, I think I deal better emotionally with being a bachelor than Sinthrex does. I like to be alone, I just don't like to be left.

Family - Is a choice. I've been choosing my family since I was a little kid when my mother was horrified that I called the little old Jewish lady across the hall "Grandma Noah". Noah got it, though, and she pretty much explained it to me, that family is what people do, not how they're related to you by blood. She was my grandmother, probably more than my dad was ever my father (what with living on the other side of the country for most of my childhood).

Creation (I was going to put writing, but you seem to have a more whole person take on writing so...) - I don't know when I realized that I write best when I allowed the words to connect to the pain, but at some point I did. What I didn't have at the time was an ability to ensure that those two really did connect pretty much at will. Then I had the good fortune to study under Stewart Stern, and I got some better vocabulary and a whole new definition of pain and suffering. And now I'm a better writer, but I feel much more like I'm trying to dance architecture when I try to talk process.

I am very glad to be home, even if it means returning to work tomorrow...

That said, the trip was great. I got to see tedshubris, raven_albion and kilted_omalley, plus a variety of non-LJ people, and fireworks. I ate way too much except on the day when there was no breakfast, and drank far too little water. sinthrex greeted me at the airport with a stuffed octopus! And so on.

I failed to find a dress for the wedding I'm going to [checks calendar] gah! next week! Well, I'm glad I didn't buy the slightly too small dress and try to convince myself I would lose a little weight for the wedding. I begin to suspect there will be no new dress and I'll just wear something I own.

Currently, I'm trying to convince myself that my sniffling is a reaction to mold, or dry airplane conditions, or something, and not that I've managed to pick up something between here and back again. Because allergies are better than a disease picked up somewhere between four airplanes, three airports, a cookout, random wanderings in Vermont, etc., right?

Actually, it doesn't, as things back home have been sunny and beautiful and things here are grey and foggy.

Also, for anyone who noticed how I said that if you need me I'll have my cell phone? Envision that your urgent messages are going to my car. Now, my car is pretty spiff, but unlikely to care about your urgent message. (They may also be going to my living room, where the cat might theoretically care but only if your urgent message involves breaking into my house to feed her tuna fish.)

I'm setting a goal of finishing the current WIP (Kipper King) by September 15. Anyone care to join me for crazy wordcount efforts? I might try hassling the mad_collective on this note this afternoon, or I might not.

Secondary goal: Second round of edits for Mirage and send her out the door by the end of the year. But I think I might like another round of beta readers on that. We'll see how I feel after round 2. (I'd like to pretend I'll do the same w/ Rook Odds, but that will mean thinking about the cutesy chess names for the chapter titles, which is pretty much what is stopping me.)

In other news, I'll be offline for much of the next week. If it's important, email me directly. If it's really important, call. If you think you might have something really important and don't have my cell number, email me. I will try to catch up on LJ when I get home, but you know how that goes.

Mostly writing but not all.

I've linked to these adorable adventuring cherry blossoms before, but today I decided that I wanted icons of some of them. So now, Sakura no Yoshitsune leaps in my icon set and some unnamed Sakura go to Sakura Shrine for purification. If I spent more time battling giant insects, I would also do the centipede one...

Salon.com has an article on heroines in urban fantasy (stolen from SBTB) that I thought was pretty good.

William Zinsser talks about writing and revising his famous book, On Writing Well. I own a somewhat dated copy (I would have to go look to tell you which edition) and I find the discussion of how he's changed the book over the years interesting.

China Mieville offers up five literary movements to watch out for in future. One of those reminds me of an abandoned project I have around here somewhere. Perhaps after I finish the current WIP. Or sometime after that...

I don't meet the requirements to join The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists, as I no longer have flowing hair and I'm not a scientist, but perhaps you or someone you know could join.

alg (co)-wrote a book. It was on the shelf the last time I stopped at B&N, so I bought it. If nothing else, helping Anna sell through is good, right? Right.

And then I started reading it and was totally overwhelmed by the good. I mean really. I have been limiting my reading of it, because there is no more, that is how good it was.

Now, if you read Anna's LJ and you do not like the way she uses words, you will not like this book (or I assume you won't). But I squee on this book and at you about the book with vague flailing hands because I don't want to say too much about it while encouraging you to read it. Because it is delicious and snarky and wonderful.

I recently said (f-locked post):

I am a great fan of messages that require unpacking, in part because I like unpacking messages.

Because the universe loves me and wants me to be happy, it has given me the opportunity to unpack a great many messages, in just a few simple sentences from the Henka blog:

Reflecting deeper on this concept, the kenjutsu concept of Satsujinto (殺人刀) or satsujinken（殺人剣）life taking sword and Katsujinken (活人剣) life giving sword came to mind. Changing the character for sword “ken” 剣 to “ken” that of fist拳 binds this concept well.

Every sword might be a fist.

Every. Sword. Might. Be. A. Fist.

While this is largely apparent since I've been actively applying sword knowledge to fist knowledge for a while now, I didn't know about this particular cross-meaning in Japanese. Many things may need to read again with this knowledge in mind. (Starting with the Yagyu Life-Giving Sword since it's so clearly connected to where I gained the knowledge.) Off to revise the reading list!

Because I'm a sucker and it's a good cause, I'll be at Warren's How to Grill a Star tomorrow at 7. I need to be in that neighborhood to pick up my ticket before the office closes at 6, but otherwise I will have a chunk of time for dinner and hanging out.

Anyone interested? Any restaurant suggestions?

In honor of the solstice, I tried to go buy a dress for my ex-coworker's wedding.

Okay, more like I had some time and a need for a dress for the wedding. The solstice had nothing to do with it. I figured I would stop by the shop where I've purchased most if not all of the sundresses, since I know the sundress cut comes in a longer version, is flattering on me, and is comfortable to wear. And, lo, they did have many variations on the long cut of the sundress. All in a size XS. Yes, that's right, XS. Not just small, extra small. Okay, there were a couple of smalls and a single medium. Still, not so useful since I own 3 copies of this dress and take the large. (They had a lovely version in light blues and purples that I thought was pretty and wedding appropriate and might be strong enough not to wash me out. But I'd have settled for the red--which seemed least wedding appropriate--if it'd been in my bleeding size.)

Bought groceries (catfish!) and came home, to get home just in time to enjoy the thunderstorm. I miss thunderstorms. It's mostly passed, though I'm still hearing a periodic crash of thunder. I'm sure that the way I automatically turn toward the thunder would feed shadow_and_veil's Valkyrie fantasies, and so I mention it in the hopes of making her smile. (I'll go grab a sword, too, if that'll help. I'm obliging that way.)

Yesterday's solstice parade in Fremont was great fun. Saw scarlettina and varina8 (whose new hair color is gorgeous, btw), met several people who probably have LJs and one who seems a bit young for such things. I didn't end up taking any pictures, but I'll probably link ya'll to ironymaiden's set when she puts them up. My favorite of the naked bicyclists was actually a Silver Surfer on a skateboard (no bicycle at all), but that's clearly more to do with my fondness for Norrin Radd than anything else. melkahb and I were a little too far back to be touched by the noodly appendage of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but that also kept us safe from the Super Huggers, so these things probably even out. Anyway, members of our party were touched, and that counts for something, right? Right. (And, really, do you want me and C trapped in a press of strangers, getting increasingly twitchy the longer we're there? No, you don't.)

I appreciated that so many people were out to celebrate. As I've mentioned before, Shinto-sensei thinks we're all sun worshippers here, and this pretty much proves his point.

And now, I'm going to try to break 10K on this stupid book. Or take a nap. One or the other.

As you might have noticed, I like this meme...

From mseuphrates

metaphysical - actually leads me directly to thinking about metagaming, which I suppose is sort of what metaphysics is: an attempt to metagame life. If you can just find out how the things behind the curtains think and feel, you can get them to do what you want--not by playing by the rules but by playing a different game entirely. I am good at choosing my own game.

Fam - family-by-choice. Who fits this definition varied day to day. Some days, it's bloody small, some days it's expanded to include an awful lot of people. Like real families, there's the people I'm closest to, but also people who I simply trust and accept, good or ill. And our family does contain some ill...

garden - I'm actually a really awful gardener, but I like doing it and the older I get the less I mind being bad at things. To a certain extent, I feel like I continue to garden so have an excuse to continue keeping my worms.

karate - Another thing I don't mind being bad at, except that I'm not all that bad at it.

coyote - He's the Jackal's brother, which means his people tend to by extension be my brothers. And having said that so succinctly, it would have saved a lot of us a world of hurt if we'd known it back in the day. ("Sorry, you're with Coyote. I'm with the Jackal. It would be like sleeping with your sister, and not in some cool kinky way but in that way where I know exactly who and what you are. And no, you're not okay with that, or you won't be when you think you're bein' all sneaky and I'm not impressed with your sneakifying. So back to no.") And I tend to view Coyote antics with that weird sibling mixture of amusement, pity (because they never learn), jealousy (because they never have to), and dread. I'm good at brushing burrs out of fur, at being just nice enough to the latest floozy, and at being just honest enough that people forget he's not the only trickster in the family. Also, I look better in purple than his boys ever do.

Because that's the way we roll around here...
from buhrger

tengu - I continue to not know if I'm running into real meaning, as per Wilson's haunting by the pookah, or if I continue to find things because I am looking, per the 23s. (Or if Wilson found the pookah because he was looking and was being haunted by the 23s.) I know that I recently saw a woodblock of Yoshitsune doing something I have only seen one place: my training dreams.

chess-club - My school didn't have one and I probably wouldn't have joined if they did. I don't really enjoy chess. I'm fine at the strategy of it, but it's not fun and there's a gap between how deeply I can understand the game and how deeply people who are good at it understand it. And I'm tired of saying, "I'm not very good at this game," and then beating people who think they are because they've never played with anyone who actually is very good at the game. It's annoying.

monkey-boy - The first time I saw Buckaroo Banzai was in high school. I went to a party, a housewarming party for people who became my family. It was the first time I met them, and several people I later dated, and saw BB. And I really, honest-to-gods, had someone drop a cup of punch on me and my mother smelled the booze on me when I got home and would not shut up about how I'd been drinking and it was okay to tell her. We get back to "always lie to mom".

ironymaiden - Early in our friendship, IM pointed out that we would get together and do all the crazy femme stuff we didn't do with other people. I think that's a bit less true these days, but she's pretty much the first person I think to invite to do things.

regicide - I needed a monster that was known for killing kings. This is harder to find than it sounds. I ended up with a basilisk, which isn't really known for that at all but is sometimes called regulus and I figured I could throw some mumbo-jumbo at that combined with the super-deadly nature thereof and be okay.

Apparently it's a meme kind of day.
Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you.

Words from scarletwildfire:

Seattle - Home. The Seattle skyline calms me. I love the neighborhoods, the hills, the grey skies, the people. I love the fact that in Seattle, you stand up to let the girl with the giant bag sit down on the bus and it's normal and right. I love seagulls that live on the sea, espresso stands, strangers who look like people I should know. And I'll stop now because clearly I am still in love with Washington.

sage - Yum. Nothing ever has too much sage and things rarely even have enough sage to begin with.

fanfic - I pretty much only write fanfic when I can't get the story out of my head any other way. I don't mind fanfic, I have nothing against the concept, but for me it's pretty much all about stories that can only live in one world and yet I must tell them.

earthworms - Bait. I know, I talk about my worms like they are pets (they are! I worry about their little worm healths and their little worm appetites and...) but remove them from the bin and I revert to being a kid with a coffee tin of bait and all day to spend fishing. Don't tell the wormies in the bin, okay?

no-nonsense - Pantyhose. Okay, maybe not. I think this is... almost every time that someone tries to soften something, what they are actually doing is protecting someone who has done wrong. You aren't protecting the person who's going to get hurt; they're going to get hurt one way or the other. But you're protecting the person who fucked it up. And sometimes, that's the right thing to do. Sometimes, it really wasn't their fault. Usually? Not so much. Requiring that people own their shit is not saying that you can't be kind or forgiving. It's just asking for some accountability in this world. And I'll stop before I rant.

kindred - The Embarrassed! Horrible vampire TV! Also, family, of the real, you can count on them kind.

About 1500 words today on the new project (working title: The Kipper King). All of the major characters have been introduced, if some very briefly.

Tried to do a bit of research this morning. Fraser, who probably does talk at length about the subject, lists only one reference in the index, which points to a chapter that is perfectly titled to indicate it should talk all about the topic in question. Except that it wanders off into talking about why you shouldn't eat your totem instead. While the latter information is interesting, it had not a blessed thing to do with the topic at hand except in Fraser's stream-of-consciousness. I suppose that's how we get 13 bloody volumes to say, "Probably mistletoe."

In other news, I bought a tiny watermelon at the grocery today.

Oh, and amusing (to me) story: Yesterday, went for haircut. Having seen the undercut, Hairdresser-C now understands what I want. She did a lovely job of that, cut my hair a smidge shorter than usual, and gave me some goop to help alleviate the irritated follicles from the shaving the back of the neck. I got the stuff home and looked at the ingredients to try to figure out what it is (since she gave me a tiny packet that's something like two applications and won't keep me till I go in for another haircut). The ingredient list is awfully familiar and it takes me only a couple seconds to identify that it's effectively unscented aftershave.

Now try to find unscented aftershave at the grocery. Go on. I dare you.

Only I'm sure one of you will have no trouble. I ended up with a rose-scented witchhazel toner that also has all the same basic ingredients as both aftershave and the hairdresser goop.

For the record, the goop definitely does seem to help with the irritation. I will probably forget to let you know about the rose-scented witchhazel toner, but if you care enough to ask I'll probably answer.

The library has spat out an audiobook of Neil Gaiman reading Fragile Things. The only problem with this is that I mostly want to sit in my car while Neil reads to me.

The internet has provided me some goodies as well:
Philip K. Dick's How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later -- I'm sure I've read this before and probably linked to it.
Possible North American Mammoth Art -- Check this out. Really. It's way cool.
Penny Arcade's Lookouts -- when they start selling the hoodie, I want one. also the bookbag.

Since I mentioned it in comments elsewhere, I'll point the interested to TheFilmSchool's Short Screenplay Contest - 7 pages, must be postmarked by June 26.

I need to put in another hour at the day job and then, due to the magic of flex, I can call it quits for the day and go out to lunch. Later, I shall make coconut rum ice cream, which had better be delicious.

Seattle writer types:
I know I've gone on and on about The Film School. If you're interested in meeting people and having them go on about it, there's an open house next Thursday, the 18th of June. I plan to attend, so you won't have to face a crowd of total strangers.

Details here.

In non-film news, or actually in sort of film news, I have finally got the opening to a thing that I initially meant to write as a martial arts flick and which I clearly just don't have the skills to do justice as such. There may be more on that later. I'm also thinking that I may revisit Flowers Under Moonlight, the screenplay my TFS classmates jokingly called Vampire Mama, in the same way, if I can ever figure out how to tell that story.

This post is brought to you by the fact that my hairdresser no longer works Mondays so I won't be going to get my hair cut. Two quick thoughts on that: I never thought I would have a person who was "my hairdresser" and I really never thought I'd have a moment of complete panic when "X no longer works..." came out of someone's mouth at a salon. Fortunately, she just no longer works Mondays as opposed to no longer works here, so I am not curling up in a ball and wailing.

Anyway, as you are all sick to death of hearing, Race for the Cure was Sunday. I was signed up for the 7:45 women's only 5K and I came in with the last third of the runners and I'm perfectly fine with that. I've never been fast and I don't expect I ever will be. But I had fun and didn't get sunburned and I'll certainly sign up for another 5K.

( Read more... )

In a fitness conversation elsejournal, someone posted a link to this article on linking Myers-Briggs personality types to exercise preferences. The article itself is kinda lame in the sense that, duh, people who like their exercise program will be happier and do more exercise. Brilliant. How long did it take you to figure that out?

However, I took the quiz and came up a Saffron, indicating that I went INTP rather than INTJ on the quiz. (The quiz itself is interesting in that it is subtly different from other M-B personality tests I've taken. I expect I scored as less introvert than I usually do because I like to do exercise with near others, along with the P/J shift. P/J is always my weakest score anyway; while I consistently come up J, it is usually by very few percentage points.)

Because I came up with a non-standard result, I also read the selection for INTJ White. Based on the blurbs on the website, I think Saffron is closer to accurate for me, while there's useful information to be gleened on the White side. (I hate the random assignment of colors. Saffron? Really?) I assume that the book would provide more information and helpful hints and would be useful in that regard. If I were less okay with where I am, I'd be more interested in the book.

Anyway, I found the whole thing interesting and potentially useful enough to want to share. I'm not impressed enough to buy the book, but enough that I checked if my library system has it (no) and to link ya'll to it. I know some of us have trouble finding the motivation to do the exercise, and maybe this will help?

Yes, okay, I bought the stupid book. It looked like fun.

It was fun. It was a (really) short little fun romp. It was probably not worth the money I spent on it, but I don't begrudge that because it really was pretty fun. It was completely the marshmallow fluff of fiction: no nutritive value and too much of it would make you sick but sometimes a little of it is just what you want.

It was not great literature. Were you expecting great literature? It has some serious character and narrative issues and (oh no, a spoiler) a lot of people die for no good plot reason. I don't quite understand the ending. You know what? I still *like* it. See above under marshmallow fluff.

It wasn't even great fanfic. I think some of you could have done a better job with the idea. (I couldn't. I am far too ignorant of the many faces of Shatner.)

It appears to have been basically self-published. For a self-published book, it contained shockingly few grammatical errors and none of those made me want to beat the author with Strunk & White while screaming, "This is MY boomstick, bitch." No, it was like one of ya'll made a grammatical mistake in a piece of fic: I sort of want to correct it for you but I don't think less of you for making it.

If it had been longer, it would have charmed me less. But since I finished it in one (short) sitting, I want to give it 3.5 Star Fleet uniforms out of 5. (My uncharmed, rational self says it probably deserves about half that, but then she remembered books she had to read for college, giggled, and said, "4.5 out of 5 and an 8 page critique of the appearance of women in the book! Take that James Joyce!" I'm gonna go get her some ice cream.)

Seattle-locals: If you want to borrow it, speak up. One condition: You may NOT tell me I'm wrong about the silly fun. You don't have to like my marshmallow fluff, but you can't tell me about it. (Posting a "that's two hours of my life I won't get back" review to LJ isn't the same as telling me about it.)

Part of the recent trip back east involved a whirlwind tour of NY, meant to get us into Saso's and Beverly's.

Saso's remains the best sushi I've ever eaten. This time around, it was a few old favorites (Sophie, how I love thee with your eel and apple goodness!) and some new friends (Saso named a roll for himself--mountain potato, tuna, pickled plum--and it may be my favorite sushi roll ever). Yum!

But if you click through, you'll see that Saso-san actually calls his restaurant a Japanese noodle house, and I can recommend all of the noodle dishes on the menu. My favorite back in the day was the seafood spicy yakisoba.

What you don't see on the menu is something he made very briefly one summer as a special. It was a cold green tea soba salad with a wasabi dressing. It was about that simple: cold green tea soba, salad greens, delicious dressing. It was before lolcat taught us to say nom, but nomnomnom.

Today's experiment was an attempt at that dish. I have the green tea soba, I have salad greens, and I picked up a bottle of wasabi dressing at the market last weekend. (I've looked at wasabi dressing recipes online and they've all been for viniagrettes rather than for a creamier dressing which is what Saso-san used and I bought.)

Results: Not bad. I overcooked the soba a little (oops), and used a little too much salad onion (one onion looked like too little, two was clearly too much), and the dressing is a little sweet and not enough wasabi for my tastes. I have a solution for 3/4 of those issues (watch the noodles better, use less onion, add wasabi to the dressing), so overall I'm counting this as a success.