everything but the girl

After Herculean efforts I bought a light bulb for the kitchen today (fluorescent, 1500mm) and discovered the dreadful truth. I live like a pig. For some reason, the new bulb seems to be brighter than the one it replaced, and the kitchen is now lit like the opening scene of a panto ("are we all happy boys and girls?") bringing into sharp relief my kitchen-cleaning failure of the past few weeks. (This may be a lie. It may have been longer – cleaning the kitchen rather went by the wayside when I got depressed. Don't eat at my house.)

I first tried to buy this thing on Sunday at the horrible shop near where gloria1 lives, and over a week since the previous one bit the dust. They had everything else, they sell kitchens let alone kitchen sinks, but not a 1500mm fluorescent bulb. Every other size, and shape, but not that. So, frustrated, I bought a Christmas tree. As you do, obviously.

The young man in the horrible shop told me strange stories of an electrical shop further down the road at Thatched House - which is near the place where the psychiatrist has his office – but obviously he was not open on a Sunday. It seemed to me therefore that I could roll two visits up together today.

Had I the sense given a billiard ball I'd have visited the psychiatrist first and then bought the bulb, but for some reason that obvious way round eluded me and I arrived at the psychiatrist's office clutching a fragile 1500mm of glass. And the psychiatrist says I'm not mad – really, he does. I asked him.

I also asked him what I should do about my generalised cleaning failure. He said, "Get a cleaner." Which is what gloria1 told me when I asked her. So I'm considering it.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/17902.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

1. Is it just me, or did Legend of the Seeker kick it up a notch in the past two episodes and start decreasing the pretty:interesting ratio? (While arguably getting prettier, even!)

2. Consider, if you will, that the all-male lawyers at this Texas firm saw nothing wrong with the images appearing on their website. (Possibly triggery for sexual abuse/child abuse.)  I actually believe very strongly that we need defense lawyers who specialize in crimes for which even defending an accused is excoriated—but this isn’t the way to do it.

3. Now for something completely different. I am a technological incompetent with a CMS on my website and a planned move to a new webhost. Anybody have recommendations for cheap assistance doing the move? And by assistance, I mean: somebody to whom I could trust with my site password and have the thing moved? Because the semester is so crazy, we’re probably looking at a move in early 2010.
comments on DW

You stay classy, Ahmadinejad, you just stay classy...

That's right! In six days, on December second, I, Cluegirl, shall spontaneously become The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. (Line forms to the right, gratuities are appreciated.) For those hoopy froods who don't speak Hitchiker, I'll be turning 42.

I expect it to be nothing at all like being 41 has been, but just in case, I've liquidated my assets, put everything into canned goods and shotgun ammunition, and have stapled my towel firmly to my elbow. With that, and my wand in my back pocket, I expect I'll be ready for anything. Except possibly zombies. Zombies take a little more preparation.

As for what I want for my birthday?
No frelling idea.

I mean, there are the old standards, of course; I always get a bit giddy at just the notion that someone might illustrate one of my stories, or conversely, might write a story for one of my drawings. Collaboration is highly squee-some in my little world, y'see, and I swear that one day SOMEONE will illustrate the mirror scene from Pink Slip, and I shall expire of Happy on the spot.

I could wish for world peace and the brotherhood of man, but I've noticed how shittily brothers treat each other, and as we all know, the last time the matrix was configured for world peace, it crashed and we lost whole crops to the logic failure. So that's out.

But reining things back into the realm of the distantly plausible, I'd say I want for more or less nothing of note. I want to keep rolling on Tempus Fugitive. I want my cats and my snakes to stay healthy in the coming year. I want the resources to close up the hole in my house properly, and to begin the next major set of repairs (Hopefully before the porch falls entirely OFF Mandala House, thanks!)

And most importantly, I want my friends who are in reach to join me for a Solstice party on December 19th, to celebrate both my birthday, and the Sun King's in one swat. The date is positive; December 19th. Save it, and if you can possibly make it to Troy, NY, do consider coming! And don't worry if you're not of the witchy persuasion -- I plan no heresy, just cake and shenanigans.

A note of explanation: Dominus is a boy scout. As such, he has the requisite Scouting addiction to Corned Beef Hash. Anywhere we go to eat, if it's got hash on the menu, I immediately know what my husband will be ordering, no matter what else they may serve. Seriously, he loves the stuff so much that from time to time, he'll scratch the hash itch with tinned. Clearly, this was a situation I could not abide. I mean, if you're gonna feed your monkey, feed it the good stuff, right? So here's what we're having for breakfast today.

* Go to your deli, and ask for a butt end of corned beef. Anything over a quarter of a pound is great, and they don't need to slice it for you. You'll be mincing it up at home yourself.

* If you are pork-compliant, then chop up three good, fatty strips of bacon, and put them in a BIG, flat-bottomed pan on low heat. (The object here is to render their fat, not to cook the bacon; cooking the bacon is a side effect of the rendering.)

* If you are pork-resistant, then do the 2 - 1 mix of olive and sesame oils here, to add the smoky taste of the bacon.

* Peel a few cloves of garlic, and crush them with the flat of your knife. Throw those in with the bacon to render.

* go out to the sage bushes, and get a handful of fresh leaves. Throw those in whole too.

* Add a generous drizzle of oil into the pan to help the bacon give it up in case it's a bit chary. I think I put about two tablespoons of olive (because I keep olive oil ready to hand. You can use whatever kind of oil you fancy, really.)

* Rough-chop a medium onion (red ones are tastiest!) and enough potatoes to match volume, then half again. In my kitchen, that was three small blue potatoes, and one large red. (I have goth tubers. No one's surprised, I know.) You want to cut them fairly large, but fairly thin -- that is to say, quarter each potato longways, and then slice the pieces about half an inch thick at most. They need to be large enough that they'll hold together, but thin enough to cook all the way through. In my case, the blue potatoes were a bit elderly, so they didn't need any pre-cooking, but I slung the red in the microwave for two turns at 30 seconds apiece, so its texture would match the others. You do as you see fit.

* Take your biggest kitchen knife -- this is the time to break out your cleaver, if you've got one, -- hack your corned beef into crumbles. There's no rhyme or reason to this, you just whack away, and try not to let it fly all over the place.

* Once the bacon's not showing any white anymore (that is, all its fatty rind should now be caramel coloured and kind of translucent) you can dump the onion, potatoes, and beef into the pot. If you don't have enough oil to lightly coat everything, then add just a little more, but otherwise, just turn the lot to get it evenly mixed and coated, throw in salt and pepper to taste, pat it all down flat in the pan, and walk away.

* Ignore the sizzling, and the searing smells from the pan for a good long time. Hash is SUPPOSED to be kind of scorchy and burny, remember? If it really distressed you, you can fuss it about for awhile first, to try and get everything to cook up, but that's kind of redundant, since you're going to settle it to scorch soon anyway, and when you flip it over to do the other side, everything else will cook up then.

* Fry up an egg for each person you'll be feeding. (From our stovetop, it looks like this is going to feed four, which means two for us today, and two lunches for Dominus later on.) Scrape all the good stuff up from the bottom of the pan, and ladle the hash into the plates, then slap the egg on top.

* Serve with tabasco, worchestershire sauce, and ketchup on the table, but don't be surprised if your guests don't even notice they're there all.

* Make this noise: OM NOM NOM!!!

* Wish you were eating breakfast with Clue and Dominus today!

Things for which I am thankful this evening:

* The Litter and the Leaves, by Enter the Haggis (And as you can purchase their albums directly from them, or, should you prefer it, cherrypick their song library at a buck a pop, YOU SHOULD BE DOING THAT!)

* That I have a husband who will close his computer and help me figure out why I'm grumpy when there's no easy answer, instead of taking it personally, or hiding in his WoW.

* That I have a husband who will close his computer and march straight into the kitchen with me when, upon failing to nail down a smoking gun, I give up and say "Let's go cook something." Didn't even ask what, or why, or complain that he'd rather be doing else. In short, he loves me, AND he loves cooking with me, and how can that not cheer me up?

* That I did not burn the orange peel when I forgot it was boiling away on the stove. I caught it JUST before the water was all gone, and the caramel began to really scorch, so there'll be no using the leftover syrup as I'd intended, but at least my candied orange peel survived!

* That Hilfy is here to inform me of the error of my ways, with her adorkable sulky-duck miao. *Snoodlesthekitteh!*

* That I did not burn out the blender motor when I made it pretend it was a food processor, and grind up all my carrots and ginger for the carrot cake I've just decided I'm making. That thing SO does not owe me!

* That I am living a life which allows me to concern myself with unfairnesses to other people, instead of having to focus on injustices against myself or my family. That I can afford altruism, and idealism, and pride. These things are so impossible, so out of reach in so many other people's lives, I can't help feeling gratitude that I can reach them, and I can afford to speak to them as well. I have the luxury of being able to DO something that is not just for me.

* That I live across the country from any of my birth family, and so will not have to eat their idea of Holiday Food tomorrow. Nor will I have to endure the casual, unthinking racism and sexism over the table, either. Which is good, because getting arrested over Thanksgiving is bad for the digestion, I hear.

* Giada Dilaurentis. Nuff said.

* That we've had contractors actually return our calls on the house issues, and it looks as though we'll have managed to save enough to cover the sill replacement by the time they can schedule us in. And once that is done, we can repair the great, gaping HOLE in our house! Hooray!

Okay then. That's lifted my mood from the stew. Time to go assemble my carrot cake now!
Avaunt!

Yes. Yes, she bloody well is.

UN unveils Network of Men to fight abuse of women
UN Secretary-General Bn Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon said men's attitudes to women needed to change

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has unveiled a Network of Men Leaders to act as male role models in a campaign opposing violence against women.

He urged all men to join the campaign, saying about 70% of women experience some form of physical or sexual violence from men.

The 14 men currently in the network include Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Wednesday is the International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women.

This is the 10th anniversary of the founding of the day.

'Global chorus'

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho and Norwegian Justice Minister Knut Storberget are also among those chosen for the new list.

They had all demonstrated a commitment to oppose violence against women, said Mr Ban, adding that the group was expected to grow.

"These men will add their voices to the growing global chorus for action," he said.

Speaking at the UN headquarters in New York, the secretary-general called on men and boys around the world to join the campaign.

Victim of violence (posed by model)
Women are most at risk from violent partners or a man they know

"Break the silence," he said. "When you witness violence against women and girls, do not sit back. Act. Advocate. Unite to change the practices and attitudes that incite, perpetrate and condone this violence."

He said it was unacceptable that so many women experienced some form of physical or sexual violence from men - mostly from their husbands, intimate partners, or someone they knew.

He said men must teach each other that real men do not violate or oppress women - and that a woman's place is not just in the home or in the fields but in schools, offices and boardrooms.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African Nobel Peace Laureate, said: "You are a weak man if you use your physical superiority to assault and brutalise women.

"I will continue fighting until the end of my days for the right of women and girls to live a life free from violence and abuse."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/obese-students-may-be-barred-from-degree/tough-love/

You know, I'd still have a problem with this, even if they made UNDERWEIGHT students take the same 'health and fitness class' in order to graduate as the so-called "obese" students. Less of a problem, but still a problem.

Because by this university's flawed standard? I am obese. Meaning that, had I given the school my thousands of dollars and four years of my life, I would be barred from graduating too. I am a size 14 - 16, and am over the 30 bmi limit.

Methinks this university is going to spend a whole lot in legal fees, and soon!

So it's that time of year for wish lists and such. I'm trying to save them as I go, but feel free to link me to your wishlist as I would like to do something small for any of you if I can. As usual, because I'm poor, I tend to keep my list fannish/creative because that's all I really can return. And it's the small things that always make me happy anyway.

so onto it...

( wishlist rules... )

( And my ten wishes - know that world peace is always an understood wish... )

Again, I wish I could do things like buy y'all books and such, but I'm broke as broke could be, so I try to stick to the small things and don't ask more of that than anyone else.

Tonight's dinner was a triumph of improvisation, ergo I want to record it before I forget the details of what went into the pot.

* 1 lb ground chicken

* 3 smallish cloves of garlic, minced. (For once, I did NOT salt-grind them.)

* One poblano pepper, chopped.

* One small yellow onion, similarly chopped.

* A drizzle of sesame oil. I'd guestimate between a teaspoon and two.

* One 15 oz can of tomatoes. (I used Muir Glen's fire roasted with green chiles, but you should use whatever you fancy.)

* One wee can of sliced black olives, drained of its brine.

* A cup, more or less, of chicken broth (I eyeballed this. Sorry for the inexactitude.)

* One cup of long grain brown rice.

* Black pepper (five grinds,) cumin ( a very light dusting over the top,) and crystalized garlic (a generous dusting over the top,) to taste.

Prep is ridiculously easy. In a very deep frying pan, saute the chicken, garlic, onions and pepper in the sesame oil. Once the chicken is not very pink anymore, add the rice, and saute for as long as it takes you to get your cans open, and your broth measured out. (The extra saute induces the dry rice to take up the liquid easier, which, being brown rice, it really could use the help.)

Dump the tomatoes into a two cup pyrex glass measure, and then add chicken broth to the tippy top. Dump that in, then splash another third cup or so in for good measure. (Consider using that to rinse the dregs out of the tomato can. Cos it's yummy, that's why.) Stir in the olives (which will bring all the boys to the yard with their saltiness,) Bring it to a boil, then down to a simmer, and cover the pan for 25 minutes. I put the dry spices in about fifteen minutes before serving, but really they can go in just about any time.

Overall simmering time was around half an hour to 40 minutes, with three stirrings in, and the lid left off for the last ten minutes.

Try not to be appalled by how much like boxed mix the result will look. Fact is, it tastes worlds beyond better. And what's more? Gluten free.

If you're a lightweight, you can replace the poblano pepper (which ain't that spicy, really,) with something like a Romano, Anaheim, or Cubanelle pepper. If you do it with a bell pepper though, I will scorn you from afar, so it's best you don't tell me that detail. However, as usual, I want to hear the REST of how it comes out if/when you try this in your own kitchens.

Om Nom, my darlings!

No, really. The bum says so!



(Thanks and a million more thanks to debitha for posting this. I lolled so hard I might have sporfled a little. Srsly.)

I am SO crushing on Enter the Haggis's newest disc, Gutter Anthems! We listened to it pretty much nonstop on the drive back from Boston, and sure enough, it's back in the player again this morning, with no sign of galling yet.

It was a strange venue -- all baby boomer, arts council sort of crowd, butts planted firmly in seats, and no room to get up and dance. NOT the kind of environment which comes naturally to EtH, or the HaggisHeads (the latter of which were moshing and jigging about in the corners anyhow, by the end of the show.) I bruised the everlovin out of my hand with all the clapping though, and that is a surefire sign of a great show. Brian, the great woobie, clearly has someone in his life who's Taking Care Of Him now -- he's put some flesh on his face and frame, and no longer looks starveling thin. Myself, I find it cute, but I know there are some who'll be having the "he got all fat!" reaction. I say fuck em and feed em fish heads; he looks HAPPY! And of course he's still musically brilliant, as well, going from fiddle to vocals to keyboards to rhythm guitar to percussion with misleading ease. Oh, I am quite content to fangirl him from afar, though it would be quite the fun thing to seissun with him just the once. I've no intention of working that closely with another genius again though. I've done my time in that salt mine, thanks!

So the concert was great, the company was great, both our overnight hosts, and our lunch date as well. It was great to see Spider doing so well, and to get to meet, and highly approve of Boy. The ride home was pretty as always, and filled with New Music, and once we got home, the Faithful were so happy to see us they decided to forego the Rite of Shunning altogether. So they were underfoot and Helpful while we made ourselves a supper out of brussels sprouts, shallotts, quinoa, and ham. And then we had DVR'd episodes of NCIS and Criminal Minds to get caught up on, and the cherry-on-top of an early bedtime, and our own bed to have it in.

Perfect Weekend. Yesh.

I even got some work done on Tempus Fugitive on the drive out there, so that's good.

And now Godric is holding down the arm of my chair, and conspicuously leaning on my elbow, since I won't let him sleep in my lap. Should I move my arm out from under him, he'd fall against my ribs without noticing, however should I use my elbow to nudge his arse back up onto the chair arm, he'd get offended and bail. Just like that. *sneerk* Kitties are so funny!

And best of all? Dominus is taking the week home from work. So I have companionship which is conversant in English! Woo Hoo!

For the last 24 hours my nephew has been in Emergency with a serious flare-up of Chrohn's disease. He's managed to control this pretty well for years with diet, and now they're trying to decide whether there's a medical solution, or whether they're going for surgical (surgeon seeing him tomorrow). WTF went wrong? Until this happened he was in tip-top physical shape, despite occasional poor patches (martial arts instructor, and beautiful to look upon – and I'm his aunt).

We have bush fires all over the shop – NSW, Vic, SA, Qld (but not here in the ACT). Specifically, there's a major fire just the other side of the road we take to Mudgee on Tuesday (to attend a concert series every year). Tonight they are expecting two changes of wind direction. I wonder what tomorrow will bring? When I think about that road running through deep isolated bush, I really don't want to meet fire. We're trying to keep on top of the fire incidents advisory.

And it seems fair to say I'm in some kind of self-destructive mode, in that I'm still having terrible trouble writing the fest fics I committed to, this season.

Still taking Eight Crazy Nights prompts; Thuvia, I’ll hold a space for you unless you tell me otherwise.

Week-old TV thoughts (boy am I behind: this is not a good semester for fannish activities for me!):

( SPN, The Real Ghostbusters )

( Last week's Fringe ) comments on DW

!!!EIREE si tihs isht esuaceB ?SIHT gniod si ertupmoc ym yhw nialpxe ydobyna naC

You stay classy Harlequin! You stay classy!

What gets me, is that they've the nerve to be upset that the RWA's taken away thier princess points for that stunt. Did they somehow think that authors would APPROVE of Harlequin pimping (and yes, I mean that 'pimping' in the most denigrating way possible, by the way,) a brand new vanity press at its slushpile? Of COURSE the RWA's disgusted!

Harlequin's spin doctoring attemtp is even worse, given that it's more or less like Huggy Bear trying to deny the existence of his stable of whores to his wife when she busts him at work. It's a plain sign of disrespect, and I look forward with schadenfreude to Harlequin's authors jumping ship in hordes over it. (Not that that'll actually happen, of course. Authors are too desperate, generally, to continue seeing their works in print once they've got a taste of it. Still, chance would be a fine thing.)

In other news.

I lost yesterday to being eaten by a grue. I lost today to a migraine. I got more or less nothing done on either, and am therefore a Very Bad Girl. Now who's going to write my spanking? (Leers at Certain Demographic of my Flist.)

This weekend will involve a drive to Boston, during which I expect I shall write some. We're going to see Enter the Haggis, and that'll be a good pick up to wash the dirt off the shovel with which I'm burying the dismembered corpse of this past week. (And how's THAT for a metaphor? Cause I mean every word, thanks.)

So. I appear to have fallen off the NaNo wagon. Kind of. Except not in such a way that it means I'm not still working on Tempus Fugitive every day or anything.

I'm strangely at peace with this realization, actually. I had thought that if I pussed out on NaNo after having committed to doing it, that I would nosedive in my motivation, and wind up tanking or abandoning the book out of sheer self-disgust. However all that's happened, is that I actually seem to have internalized my ideal pace for this thing, and have managed to more or less divorce it from NaNo's daily grind mentality.

I do not seem to be a Death March sort of writer. That's not to say that the wordcount is anything unapproachable -- for Cod's sake, I wrote Tower of Air in one day, and that story was around 10,000 words. It's the every day without a break thing that seems to be the dealbreaker for me. It's too much like monogamy. That is, the 'you may only focus on this one thing, forever' vibe that makes my inner magpie screech and hurl itself against the bars.

The reason I didn't write yesterday had a lot to do with burnout. I discovered this when I stopped staring hatefully at the blank screen and flashing cursor, and just cracked open hobbitdragon's The Bondage of the Mind (which is the best Snarry I've read all year, by the way,) instead. I gave up. Did you catch that? I gave up on TF for the day, and went to read porn. And suddenly felt immeasurably better, and less like just hitting delete until the entire manuscript and all its generative notes were gone. (Lo, the healing power of pr0n...)

Then today, I woke up with a new take on the scene that had been flummoxing me yesterday. I spent most of today finishing the read (yeah, it WAS that good,) and letting that notion percolate in the back of my head, and then this evening, I started outlining it. Which turned halfway through the outline into proper prose, and even in its half-finished state, is still comfortably within wordcount for the night. Mind, that's WITH all the blogging and thread-debating I was doing today.

So... NaNo. Not exactly my thing. It's not quite as supportive as I'd imagined, what with everyone focused (rightly) on getting out their own wordcount, and therefore not able to talk much. And I do tend to obsess rather awfully about that bar graph on the 'writer's stats' page. However, it did absolutely serve its purpose. It kicked my arse into gear, and it made me get past that fight scene I had stalled out on months ago, and underway. And I intend to still make a concerted effort to have my wordcount at or over 50g by the end of the month, however there's no BLOODY way that number will mark the end of the novel. This is me, after all. My idea of a middling story is around 65,000! My current guestimate has Tempus Fugitive coming in somewhere between 120,000 and 150,000 words. Which is long, yes, but not out of the question for a first novel.

And I'm still going to maintain my wordcount on the NaNo site as I get sequential scenes finished. And I'm still going to be doing updates on cluewrites as I go along. (Although not today, because of that whole 'the first half of this scene is an outline' thing. I have to fix that first.) Only now I'm going to go ahead and let myself TAKE days off when I need them, and to read other things when my brain aches from all the sameness, or when my subconscious knows there's something off in the outline, but can't get its fingers round exactly what it is. (That happens to me a lot, I'm afraid. I have a plot sense that will sometimes just stop me DEAD until I figure out what aspect of the upcoming scene needs to change. It can be vexing when it hits me in the middle of a deadline crunch, but it's never steered me wrong yet.)

So la.

In other, related news, Mr. John Robert Rose, Fenris of the Blackwatch Council, has stepped up and made it known to me today that he is one FUCK of a sexy beast, and Mr. Remus Lupin only wishes he'd been this hot.

Hee!

The Piano Forest (Piano no Mori) (Perfect World of Kai) (2007) # Genres: drama, tournament. Themes: music, piano. Status: OVA (101 min) Anime Start/End Chapter: Starts at Vol 1, Chap 1. Ends at Vol 6, Chap 41. Director: Masayuki Kojima Summary: Amamiya Shuuhei transfers to Moriwaki elementary filled with hope and ambition. But it doesn't take long before he gets picked on by the class bullies, and gets involved in a dare to play the mysterious piano in the forest. Igniting his meeting with an equally enigmatic child that goes by the name of Ichinose Kai, who seems to be the only one capable getting sound out of the thought to be broken piano. Found: saw it shared in some anime comm and thought the summary looked intriguing. Manga BU page. Mangaka: Isshiki Makoto Genre: Comedy Drama Seinen Slice of Life Status: 17 Volumes (Ongoing), scanlation ongoing. Summary: from KEFI: A tranquil tale about two boys from very different upbringings. On one hand you have Kai, born as the son of a prostitute, who's been playing the abandoned piano in the forest near his home ever since he was young. And on the other you have Syuhei, practically breast-fed by the piano as the son of a family of prestigious pianists. Yet it is their common bond with the piano that eventually intertwines their paths in life. Download: I've watched it at Youtube.

My notes: I must say it at the very beginning that contrary to my usual way of getting familiar with a new animanga, I haven't read the manga this time. I only watched the anime, so please take into account that everything I'll be saying is only about the anime.

This is a pleasant story: while not action/adventure, it has enough plot to keep your attention, especially around the climax. The boys are likeable. Kai's pretty wild and brash but also kind and has this inner purity and honesty that sometimes accompany raw talent and that influence people around him. I liked his practical reasons for learning things. He can't read score; he plays what he has heard. Once he found that he couldn't reproduce a particular piece of Chopin's, he plays scales to learn to play this particular piece, not because one must learn scales first, nor to become a good pianist in general. And so on. I absolutely adored his literal-mindedness about Mozart. The crowd of Mozarts made me laugh every time they appeared. In other words, Kai is lovely and very refreshing. Shuuhei is a bit more boring because he's very straight-laced for a boy his age and he plays the piano for all the wrong reasons, but doesn't it often happen this way? The two boys meet and gradually change each other. The best about their relationship, as for me, was the ways it didn't go. I can't say much more here but I liked how the dramatic side of it was downplayed rather than milked for all it's worth. It makes Piano no Mori a soothing story.

I think animation and drawing are good. I hear that the main problem people have with the manga is the drawing style. Am not able to say anything about that yet but I can't see what's not to like in the anime, if to speak of the visual side. It's neither cheap nor banal, and it's the only anime so far where a character playing the piano didn't make me cringe.

This leads me to why I give it only one star if I like everything. Not quite everything, as it turns out. You see, it's piano this and piano that, piano this and piano that. In more coherent speak, the story is fine and lovely but, I don't know, very narrow. Not unlike Hikaru no Go. But HnG was much more emotionally affecting and the story was much bigger than just about Go in the end. It sort of turned me inside out, made me live it for months. Here somehow I didn't have the impression that the story is bigger than the main theme. Pleasant? Yes. Interesting? Yes, enough. Can I relate? Nope. Apart from that, I repeat, it's a lovely story. I doubt you'd regret spending 1.5 hours on it, so give it a try!

*Sorry if you have seen some (a lot) of this post before. I accidentally posted the draft :/

Let's talk about insults, shall we?

One in particular, for today. Please tell me, in your own words, just what is meant when one is called a "slut".

I am aware that circumstances of activity, surroundings, and relationship to the speaker all have bearing on how the word gets used, and just how much of an insult it's meant to be, but let's discuss its worst first, shall we?

Linguistically and historically, a slut was a lazy maidservant. (This shows up in the word's Middle English origin, of slutte, or dirty) and through use, it expanded to include whores, prostitutes, and Ladies Of Negotiable Affection.

But what I want to know, is what's supposed to be meant by it -- really meant by it today. If some stranger spits the word at you on a bus, what's the first thing your brain's going to seize on as far as meaning? What would bring such a word from you, in anger, with intent to wound? What words go along with it, snugly nestled in the vocabulary arsenal like grenades in a belt? What softens it? What gives it teeth?

And -- this is the discussion part, -- how could we in the world who do not find sex and dirt equable, go about reclaiming the word from the public's vernacular of scorn? Has the process begun already? Even now, girls will sling 'slut' and 'ho' at their best friends by way of a compliment -- is that normalizing patriarchal attitudes of inherent female unworthiness, or is it pulling yet another bolt out of the old Scold's Mask?

Share me your thoughts; I really do want to know.

It's getting towards that time of year--less than a month to Hanukkah.  So prompt me for my Eight Crazy Nights of fic posting.  You might get a snippet, you might get a longer story.  Available fandoms are at least: SPN, Chuck, Fringe, SV, BtVS, XF, The Inside, and you're welcome to try your luck with anything else.  Multiple prompts welcome, though I will try to fill at least one of everyone's before circling back around.  Prompts need not be Hanukkah-themed.

comments on DW

Part 3 of my Japanese music favourites. Today's topic is J-Rock. As usual, some songs are more rocky than others and the range is from Speed Metal to Pop-rock to anything I've found similar enough or fitting, with a generous dash of anime music and some hip-hop. It just means that on the whole, today's selection is gloomier and heavier than the two before it. I've shared three of these songs with you already but not the rest of them.

Files are uploaded to Box.net, which means that you can listen to them before/as well as download(ing). Box.net tends to mess up the sequence of the uploaded files, so I've added links to each song as well as to the folder. I did make it with the proper sequence in mind, so that one song flows into the other smoothly. But in any case, hope you like a few of them! So, with thanks to lyssaphra and kyuuketsukirui for sharing music with me, on to the music!

*Nitemare and Nightmare is the same band. I just kept the song tags as they were :)

Song title Length Singer/Band Album (where it was already in the tags)

Crucify My Love 4:36 X Japan
Curtain Call 5:34 GLAY Beloved
Wind 3:40 Akeboshi STONED TOWN
Kenji 3:51 Fort Minor The Rising Tied
I.V. 4:55 X Japan Saw IV OST
Moshimo Piano ga Hiketa Nara 3:53 Plastic Tree Baka ni Nattanoni
Jisatsu Ganbou 4:39 Due le quartz Best of Due le Quartz
Eternally Beyond 4:25 Moi dix Mois Beyond the Gate
Brave Love: Galaxy Express 999 5:16 The Alfee
Dancing Yooderu Night (Leorio) 3:36 Gouda Hozumi Hunter X Hunter Singles Collection
The World 3:47 Nightmare Death note anime soundtrack
Haiiro no Hitomi 4:24 Shiina Ringo & Kusano Masamune Utahite myouri [disc 1]
Shangri-La 4:37 Angela Soukyuu no Fafner OP/ED Single
Again 4:15 YUI FMA:B 1st OP
D-tecnoLife 3:53 UVERworld D-tecnoLife
Monochrome no Kiss 4:00 SID Monochrome no Kiss (Kuroshitsuji OP)
Coming Closer 5:14 L'Arc~en~Ciel Smile
Kaze no Uta 3:40 Motoda Minako Hunter X Hunter Singles Collection
Kasou 5:09 L'Arc~en~Ciel
Bokutachi no Yukue 4:33 Takahashi Hitomi Bokutachi no Yukue
Alumina (Tv size) 1:13 Nitemare Death note anime Soundtrack
Desire 4:24 Luna Sea Style
Hologram ANIME Ver. 1:41 NICO Touches the Walls Hologram (FMA:B OP)
Talkin' 2 myself 4:53 Hamasaki Ayumi Talkin' 2 myself
MY LONELY TOWN 3:38 B'z
Drink It Down 2:51 L'Arc~en~Ciel Trailer Rip
Blessing 4:34 FictionJunction YUUKA Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto Intro Theme - Koya Ruten OP/ED
Still Doll 3:20 Kanon Wakeshima Vampire Knight
Shinkai no Kodoku 3:58 Kuwashima Houko Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED DESTINY ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK II
God Knows... 4:38 Hirano Aya, Goto Yuhiko Oricon 2006-07-03 Single Weekly Best 30
Rolling star 3:09 YUI Rolling star
Kimi Dake wo 5:26 Spitz Crispy
Ain't Afraid to Die 7:15 Dir en Grey Ain't Afraid to Die
Kaze ni Fukarete 4:16 Elephant Kashimashi Ashita ni Mukatte Hashire -Tsukiyo no Uta-
Separation 4:49 Angela Soukyuu no Fafner OP/ED
Memorial Address 3:56 Hamasaki Ayumi Memorial Address
Forever Love (Acoustic Version) 7:54 X Japan X

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