Makes me want to get back to my own animation.

Stumbled upon these little gems of internet entertainment yesterday. There's ten total so far and I do hope they make more. Here's the first two to get you started:

My significant other -- my Montana raised, meat and potatoes hold the potatoes, significant other to be more precise -- , Slasher, turned vegan not too long ago.  He's never been big on the healthy eating to begin with and the sudden removal of several sources of what few vitamins and nutrients he once just happened to ingest as a by product of eating has made me worry.  I fully support and applaud his choice to cut animal products from his life, I just wish he'd do so a little more intelligently.  I also hate feeling like the bad guy when I have to point out to him that the delicious Payday bar has egg whites in it or that the restaurant's apple cobbler has milk in the topping and most likely a healthy chunk of butter too.   The worst was when I had to tell him that his favorite Caesar salad has all kinds of things that he can no longer eat.  I know that there are many recipes out there for tasty vegan friendly substitutes, but I also know that there is little chance of him seeking them out on his own - after all a person can live just fine on pasta and brown rice, right?

te_amo_azul and zenithblue have been lifesavers with the loaning of vegan cookbooks, and I don't mind doing the cooking - what I do mind is having to rack my brain for things to eat.  When he says, "Oh, the girl, we'll just have whatever you want to eat!", I'd like to throttle him.  What I'd like to eat is a nice grilled halibut steak with caesar salad and some cheesy bread, and I am not about to cook two meals after a long day at work.  The solution has lately been to eat out.  A lot.  There's both a Japanese and a Thai place near his house which we have regularly frequented - distance is also an issue since I'm not big on doing a whole lot of driving after work.  Last night, however, we were both tired of sushi and Thai and neither of us wanted to cook.  He said we could go where ever I wanted to eat.  Silly boy.  We got in the car and I decided to let Whitecar choose the restaurant - which is easier than it may sound even though my beloved automobile cannot talk.  When approaching an intersection, I simply took my hands off the wheel for a few seconds and let the drift, or lack there of, indicate which way Whitecar wished to go.  A pull to the left, and I took a left at the light; no discernable pull one way or another and we simply went straight.  When Slasher realized what I was doing, he was a little alarmed.  I locked the doors.  Slasher feared Whitecar was going to take us out of town.  I didn't worry.  We did get rather close to a freeway, but Whitecar, it seemed, thought Sweet Tomatoes would be a good place for us to eat.  Our first warning should have been when we were assured that 'it's salad and soup and pasta, but there ain't no meat or nothing if that's whatchu want' upon walking in the door.  We quickly found that our greeter was woefully misinformed about just what 'meat' actually is; bacon bits are apparently an integral ingredient in most of the salad dressing, soups, and pasta sauces to be found at this restaurant.  What non bacon bit offerings we could find, was by dictionary definition food, but didn't aspire to anything beyond simply that.  Poor Whitecar, his engine was in the right place - it was a salad buffet place - but bless his little transmission, he is just a car and thinks gas and oil taste good.  I think next time I'll make Slasher pick.

Here we are at the James Bond of years. 006 went out with a whimper which, all in all, was rather fitting since it was something of a lack luster year. 007 I've decided will be lusterfull. zenithblue did a tarot spread for me (two actually). The first basically said this year is going to be tough and full of roadblocks and the second said I had the power to build a complex series of jumps to clear those roadblocks Dukes of Hazard style (well, ok maybe the mystical cardboard didn't use those exact words).

Building a network of the types of jumps I'm going to have to make takes some planning, so I've started drawing up blueprints in the forms of resolutions. I've never really been one for the whole new years resolution thing but this year I did feel like a needed to set some goals (and of course by putting them out here I am hoping to better stick to them).

First: see Casino Royale in honor of the new year and learn how to kick all kinds of ass.

Second: get back to the gym so I will be in shape to deliver the aforementioned ass kicking (so what if they're only metaphorical asses).

Third: pay off my amex; it's hard to take risky moves at work under credit card debt.

Fourth: earn my name back. Drawgirl hasn't been doing much of the whole drawing thing and I'm afraid I'm getting rusty. Which brings me to...

Fifth: be more creative - easy to say, hard to do. I have all these projects (Fish and Robot, Soul Guard, Day at the Beach) which have been sitting around gathering dust, so it's time to clear off the cobwebs and get to work.

That said I am now going to leave work (as I am the only one here and it's rather lonely) and go home and finalize those blueprints.

There were these books I remember from childhood like one remembers a nightmare: a few mishmash of horrible details surrounded by a general sense of absolute terror.  I put these books in a bag and placed several  'happy' books on top of them and buried them at the bottom of my unicorn decorated trunk of dress-up clothes every night to keep them from getting me as I slept.  Needless to say, I had issues with these books.

Here in my cube I start a day just like any other: checking my email, making sure to delete all the spam, even the Japanese spam that is all in Japanese kanji and I am oh so curious to know just what it might say (I pretend it's something of a higher order than the typical viagra sort of spam, maybe stock options or a letter from a tragic yet wealthy high school girl) before getting to the serious emails about scheduling meetings which in the end may or may not be attended by my boss. A day like any other... or so I thought. Then lo, there is a package for me from the amazon.com (you may have heard of it; it's a small up and coming sort of website that I think has real promise and a bright future) and what is inside that box you ask? (or don't ask for that matter; maybe you don't really care, but I'm going to tell you anyway) THE LADIES OF GRACE ADIEU!!! You may want to eeeeeee with excitement. I certainly did. Now of course the problem is staying and doing my job instead of scuttling off to some forgotten corner to hide and read for a couple of hours. Alas, there are phones to be answered and what not. For the moment Ms Clarke and Mr Vess must wait. I will be posting a review when it is done.

So apparently there's a little nudge function I didn't know about in live journal.  It seems this little button lets you send emails to people when you are bored at work and they haven't posted to entertain you in a while even when you know exactly everything that person has been doing since you live with them (feel free to replace 'you' with zenithblue).

Seeing as how zenithblue</span></span> covers most of our mutual activities, I'll not be regaling anyone with a recap of the roller derby or the saga of White Cat (whose name will not be George or Specter or Casper or anything other than White Cat so we don't get attached to him and have to be really really sad if it turns out he has the kitty death plague).  I will however say that my room is still an ever living mess, my job is still a rollercoaster of suckiness and non, and that I'm still here.  Whee.

(wow that little 'busy' cat face looks a whole lot happier than what I think of as busy, but it's cute so I'm keepin' it!)

So I know that this study has been out for a while, but I came across it again today and wanted to share.  I just find this so incredible awesome!  I love the brain!

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

I went to the bank on my lunch break & I'm at a stop sign.  There's a very large Suburban heading very quickly down the one way street - he's not speeding, it's just a fast road.  After he passes, there's no one behind him; I can cross.  On the other side of the street, coming towards me is a bicyclist.  He has a stop sign on his side, too.

I don't ride a bike (mainly because I never really learned how; a story for another time), so I may be a little shakey when it comes to bikes and traffic laws.  Nevertheless, I was shocked as all hell when the bicyclist cruised on through the stop sign; didn't slow down at all.  It was a very near miss with the SUV.  The driver breaked hard and honked, and the bicyclist fliped him off.  Let me repeat that, the bicyclist - no helmut or pads or any sort of safety equipment, who speed through a stop sign - flipped the driver off.  And I know what it's like to be that driver.  How scary it is to obey all manner of traffic laws and still come so close to hitting a person on a bike.

I know there are safe bicyclists in Portland; I see them all the time.  I love it when a bicyclist signals and when they check to make sure I've noticed them.  I will gladly slow down for a person on a bike that needs to cross my lane.  But I also see the bad bicyclists - the ones who flip from being a 'vehicle' to a 'pedestrian' on a moments notice, the ones who do what they like at intersections disregarding whatever signs may be in place, the ones who dart out in front of cars and make wide turns crossing several lanes.  I know that it can be scary to be a bicyclist, to have to share the road with cars that get larger and larger every year, and I know there are bad drivers out there who don't notice or care about people on bikes.  But please, if you are a bike rider in Portland, please, please ride safely.  I will give you all the room you need and do my best to work with you on the road.  Just please stop doing such stupid, dangerous things.  And for those who already ride safely, thank you.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  And maybe someday you can teach me how to use one of those newfangled bicycle things. 

And lo, I was unto a god!  Gazing out over the varied land, I chose a place, not the one most pleasing nor the least.  A rolling and fertile land, verdant with life and it was here that I would build my nation.  And though I had the power to raise mountains with a whim and carve out lakes with a thought, and though I could split the ground or call down meteors with my displeasure, though I could summon forth a horde of green skinned, large headed warriors with their saucers of silver to be the instruments of my wrath and rain their green lasers of destruction down upon my people, I vowed that I would not.  I would be good.  I would be kind.  I would listen to the desires of my people and so build a better city for it.  I would be loved.  I would be worshiped.  I would be both Mayor and God, and my people would rejoice.

And so I called the place Brightington and chose as my name Twisp Cattersby and set forth to build my city.  I gave them power and water and a place for their garbage.  I set aside a small area for industry and stores and began laying down their homes.  Carefully did I plan my town, my perfect society.  Closely did I listen to my people's whims and did build for them farms.  More farms than you could imagine.  The fields blanketed the sides of the hills and crested the top of them.  And with precisely gridded roads, my land looked like a quilt to warm and protect my citizens.  I gave them a library and schools.  I gave them bus stops and medical facilities.  I planted trees to clean the air and built treatment plants to clean the water.  I chose the most law abiding of my people and set them to be the police protectors.  I chose the most watchful of my people and set them to be fireman ready to spring into action at the slightest hint of smoke.  And we thrived.

I beamed at my burgeoning city.  My people cheered for me.  My advisors doted on me.  And we were happy.  And so, I went to leave my town, but the people cried for me to wait, but a moment.  Here was a school they wanted, a gift; large and well suited for them, and who was I to deny my children.  I placed the school as I had with all other things, with thought and care, and then, as the arrow shaped finger of my power approached the 'save and quit' option, as it was but mere pixels away, as my finger readied to click upon the mouse button....

THE GODDAMN GAME CRASHES!!!  The first city that I make that does really well.  The first city that is not in the red, that I don't want to destroy on a whim.  The first city that I actually want to save and the game crashes!!!  ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
...
...
...
I'd like to say that I'll never touch it again.  But it's like crack.

And I'm weak.

A friend of mine recently recommended Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale (I have had better luck lately finding good fantasy novels in YA than the ‘grown up’ section).  For some reason I found myself expecting a fairytale and was pleasantly surprised to realize that Holly Black actually did mean faerie (with all the sorts of capricious cruelty and malice that the spelling implies). 

While I did have a few problems with the book, as a whole I highly enjoyed it.  Kaye is a refreshingly real and unorthodox heroine, and I must admit to having a soft spot in my heart for brooding, dark, fallen heroes like Roiben.  I’m impressed that Black chose to go with a main character like Kaye (drinking, smoking, 16 year old high school drop out; a less than ideal role model, but nevertheless a smart and savvy young woman), and I have to laugh a bit at the outraged parents writing reviews on Amazon (I suppose they like their teenagers more sanitized).

I was disappointed that the book didn’t keep the gritty tone it started with.  It opens late at night in a bar where Kaye sits, smoking, and waiting for her mother to finish a band gig.  And soon afterwards introduces another character, Corny, who likes to driving around to the local make out points, imagining he has a semiautomatic, and counting how many he could have gotten.  These two soon get involved in a murderous plot between two faerie courts.  Unfortunately, as the book involves more and more faerie, the quality goes down.  Black tries very hard to make the faeries ‘other’ but ends up simply making them mean.  In Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell the Thistle-down hair gentleman is a perfect example of what Black was trying for, but her faeries lack the same kind/cruel duality that Clarke’s character has. 

It’s still entertaining, but it falls far from how I had hoped it would be.  If you’re looking for a dark faerie tale with plenty of Sub/Dom/control bits then Tithe is a fun, fast read.

Having just finished China Mieville's collection of short stories, Looking for Jake, I find myself wishing to comment on it but at a bit of a loss for where to start (in part because of the subdued state of contemplation that his work leaves me in - it is somewhat difficult to discuss things while my brain is still trying to wrap itself through the ins and outs of what I just fed it - and in part because I must admit to a sort of writer-block inducing intimidation when it comes to these sorts of things).

I had all these other things set up to blog about - Sauvie Island with Zentihblue, China Mieville's Looking for Jake, Kino's Journey - lots of other things, but instead it's time to bitch about work (I said I would, I just never imagined it would be so soon... how silly of me). I had a bit of long talk with Zenithblue this weekend about how utterly amazing it is that I get paid to do my job which consists, for the most part, of 30% work and 70% trying to figure out how to fill my days (three cheers for the internet).

When I do have actual work-work to do, I do it well and efficiently, and I am somehow considered some sort of godsend for doing it. Lemme just say my job isn't that hard, I'm an assistant, and granted I've been told on a frightening number of occasions that I have the 2nd worst job in the company (my boss isn't always a thrill to work for), but regardless, it's not a real big strain on the mental resources. So when my boss has the gall to question my ability to do my job or proceeds to actually undermine me, I get a little pissed. I had meetings all planned out for him today, meetings which involve the coordination of several different people's schedules and their ability to finish projects for him to see. He didn't like when those meeting were. He rescheduled everything. Now the projects won't be done in time for him to see. Now things may have to be put off until tomorrow, or... gasp.... maybe he'll realized that the original way I had them set will actually work and he'll go back to meeting at that time. Arrrrggggh!!

Is it time to go home yet?

-dg

One of the problems that I find myself running into with regards to this blog is the sort of 'public diary' nature that these things can take on (which has something very much to do with the previously mentioned knee-jerk dislike). I find the idea of blog-as-personal-diary repellent. However, I am forced to admit I can see how it is very tempting to spill every little innermost thought here; there is something surprisingly private about sending things careening off into the infinite void of the internet.

Here endth a much restrained antiblog rant, because yes, I realized mid-writing the foolishness of railing against blogs in my blog. I hereby swear to keep my big mouth shut about blogs.

That said, I will also do my best to refrain from adding my personal life to these pages. Here I will attempt to keep discussions limited to books, anime, video games, comic books/graphic novels, perhaps TV, animation, and - rarely - work ('cause I know I'm gonna bitch about work at some point).

-dg

Dear Reader,

How you stumbled across this site, I will never know. If you find that yourself coming back here, I can only promise to attempt to try to make an effort to think about keeping up with this whole thing. Although I will admit to having a rather unpleasant history with blogs and have developed a knee-jerk dislike of them.

Now, of course, you are wondering why on earth I even have one what with my distaste and all. Well, like drinking, smoking, and bridge jumping, it can be attributed to peer pressure. Or rather I suppose, the imaginary peer pressure that arose from the desire to have a funny little picture next to my opinions when I am being obnoxious on my friends' sites. Hmmm... The punctuation is off in that sentence. It should read "friend's site" since there is only the one. But let's pretend for now that I'm oh-so-popular and am invited to so many bars and parties and debutant balls that I simply have no time to squander my youth lazing around the house playing video games and watching anime.

So here's to the first of many (and by many I most likely mean one or two before the shiny newness wears off and I put this in the box of the discarded - let's call it the BotD) journals, which I may actually keep up with seeing all the non-work I seem to be doing at my job!

Yours,
dg