I posted a meme then deleted it because I realized that I would have to respond to things, and I didn't want to do that when I had other things to respond to. Then I got tagged for this meme. Since I'm bored/frustrated at work right now, why not?

Tagged by pinklady_apple:
A) People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.
B) Tag eight people to do this quiz and those who are tagged cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

1. What are your reasons for having an LJ? If I told you, I would have to kill you.
2. What do you do before bedtime? Take out my contact lenses, brush my teeth, get my pajama T-shirt/shorts on, put on deodorant because I like the smell.
3. Last book you read, and did you like it? Neverwhere. Yes.
4. What is the city of your dreams and why? Brisbane, I miss you. :(
5. Are you an introvert or extrovert? I'm an ixtrovert.
6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone? Dichotomies suck. I can't have one without the other.
7. Do you trust easily? No.
8. If you could have one superpower, what would it be? Dr. Strange-esque magic powers. If not, then controlling one of the classical elements or something.
9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days? Issues various family members/friends, online and offline, have been having.
10. What is your best quality? Subtlety. Or making banana pancakes.
11. Is being tagged fun? Depends on which definition we're talking about. I'd rather people not write graffiti on me, thanks.
12. How do you see yourself? I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
13. Who are currently the most important people to you? My family.
14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is? pinklady_apple is really intelligent and sweet, although too hard on herself.
15. Would you rather be single and rich or married but poor? I dunno.
16. How many children do you want to have, if any? 2.
17. What's better, to give or to receive? Giving, which explains the occasional martyr-esque impulse. HURR.
18. If you could go back in time and change one thing about your life, what would it be? Taking better care of my body, letting adults know about my depression issues sooner, telling certain people off, deciding to become a vet, etc., etc. I can't decide these things, really.
19. What would you do if you (or your girlfriend) became pregnant unexpectedly? Wonder if I was in a really bizarre fanfic. (Alternately: Ask her what she wants to do with the baby.)
20. What is your biggest fear? I don't know.

Tagged: cherrybomb, turandot (you can answer here if you want :P), randomcub, levade, witchybitch, archanglrobriel (same; answer here if you want), bitsofmymind, theotherbaldwin

I'll get to that other one later.

*looks at yesterday's poll*

Mentor, huh?

...does that mean I'm gonna die soon?

---

I have two courses of action of things to do tonight, both of them appealing:

Option A: Go home, drop off things, go to the store for things for dinner, go jogging, make dinner (salad with chicken on top), clean and/or fill out dating classifieds. Before leaving, grab a cookie at the cafe here.
Option B: Go downtown, eat out, buy Final Fantasy IV DS, and chill out in a coffeehouse before going back home.

Decisions, decisions.

---

I'm feeling a sense of dread/discomfort at something and I only vaguely know what it is.

Now I remember why I didn't get very far with the Salon.com personals.

'Kay, so along with all of those questions, I need three other things:

- A catchy headline
- Stuff about me
- Stuff about my ideal match

The third one shouldn't be that problematic. The first and the second? Unngggh. The closest thing I have to the first is "Now with 50% less sodium!" (even though I'm not under the Pretzelcoatl name there, I know I would look at someone with that headline), but I'm still uncertain of that. The second one, though, is more problematic. How do I sum myself up in a way that makes me sound interesting and yet honest? And more importantly, why am I having this trouble? I've kept an online journal for seven-going-on-eight years now and numerous paper journals before that, where I devoted myself to digging out what makes me both unique enough to feel important and similar enough to connect with other people. I spiraled into egoism, flew out, flew back in again, and came back with the knowledge that egoism sucked and I'm not going anywhere if I keep on just allowing myself to introspect without any results. Why am I having trouble with this?

My sister's going to help me brainstorm for some of this, but I guess I could use your help too.

In other words: How do I sell myself, Internet? ...And I'm suddenly expecting lots of very wrong responses but I'm asking anyway.

I stopped reading Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? for now because I realized that, yes, I do find books covering hedonistic escapades to be boring. Maybe I'll pick it up again after reading a few other books. Until then, I'm reading a tag team of Bardo Thodol (The Tibetan Book of the Dead) and Christopher Moore's The Island of the Sequined Love Nun.

Why do I find books centered around sex, alcohol, and drug use boring? I dunno, but I don't think I could blame Slimer or Michaelangelo. At least not in this case.

( Oh, Final Fantasy fans. )

WAT.

(Oh, I'm totally picking up FFIV DS next time I'm downtown. :D)

'Cause I want something goofy right now.

I've been reading, you guessed it, TV Tropes again, and I'm kind of amused at how many examples people have found for the Five Man Band. This, of course, led to this poll:

Poll #1227783 Five Man Band (+ Others!)
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

If you were in a group of superheroes/crimefighters/etc., who would you be in the Five Man Band (plus the supplements)?

Who would I be in your Five Man Band?

I.

I'm currently reading Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?. It has been a pretty good book so far, I guess. The author is intelligent and spares no punches, but it isn't the kind of brutal honesty that makes me think the author is either an egoist, crazy, obnoxious, or all three. There's a very clever summary of travel guidebooks, namely the three kinds you'd be likely to find, and he's critical of both wide-eyed idealism and narrow-minded ethnocentricism when it comes to biases when writing about different countries.

That said, this one passage made me...

( ...pause a bit )

Oh *HORF*.

II.

Stolen from archanglrobriel:

'There's never been a great woman artist'

"The art market is not sexist," Mr Sewell said. "The likes of Bridget Riley and Louise Bourgeois are of the second and third rank. There has never been a first-rank woman artist." (emphasis mine)

"Only men are capable of aesthetic greatness. Women make up 50 per cent or more of classes at art school. Yet they fade away in their late 20s or 30s. Maybe it's something to do with bearing children."

This is true. It's a well-known fact that as soon as a fetus begins to develop, it absorbs all of the creative potential of a mother like a sponge. TRUFAX!!!

d2leddy and someone else on his friends list have been responsible for adding a new Celebrity Crush to my list: Tricia Helfer.

( Y HALO THAR NUMBER SIX )

In a completely unrelated note, after hearing about people online having self-proclaimed e-nemeses/real life nemeses, it both makes me happy and sad that I only have nemeses in the friendly-not-really-a-nemesis sense. Happy because being desperate enough to dislike someone or someone desperate enough to dislike me is not a good thing. Sad* because this means I don't have a Moriarty to match my wits against or who embodies everything I dislike or who is like me only gone horribly wrong. Anyone who fits that?

As much as I'd like to declare Guy Fieri or Shouting Oxyclean Guy as a nemesis, I don't think they'd be a good fit. :|

* DISCLAIMER: Not really.

vash_donutangel, here's that cherry cobbler recipe I mentioned that my grandmother made.

CHERRY DESSERT SUPREME

1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. baking powder
dash of salt
1 2 lb can cherry pie filling

Melt butter and put into 1 1/2 quart casserole. Mix sugar, flour, milk, baking powder, and salt. Put on top of melted butter. DO NOT MIX. Pour cherry pie filling on top. Bake at 350° for 45 to 50 minutes. Serve warm.

New weight loss goal: As soon as I hit ideal weight, MAKE THIS.

These were the posters I got yesterday and got back, framed, today:

Cafe Terrace At Night, Vincent Van Gogh (gold frame; going in my living room area to match with the light wood furniture)
Squares with Cocentric Circle, Wassily Kandinsky (gold frame; same as above)
Asummpta Corpuscularia Lapislazulina, Salvador Dali (black frame; in my bedroom)

Pretty typical except for, er, probably that last one. Ah well. :)

I also forgot to mention I picked up this yesterday:

( Yay Pop Deluxe )

After picking up those posters, I began to marvel at how it took me so long to get them to begin with. It's amazing how much of an effect which mental disorders can affect you, when you realize certain thoughts are obviously irrational and you know they are, but you believe them anyway. It feels like it's been more than 3 years since I've been here when in actuality, it has only been 2.

I already posted the video to this song before, but it's definitely one of the songs on my current summer soundtrack. I try not to overplay it because I want to savor how true it feels, even though the singer's circumstances for writing it (addiction) are different than my own.

( Youtube vid ahoy )

All I have to say about that finale is this:

omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg

Okay, I didn't get my pan or my baking sheets :( but I did find a cool cast iron skillet to use at some point which would be nice for frittata. But more than that! I came in the middle of Maxwell Street Days, which meant that almost every store on State Street had either things for sale outdoors or in the store. It was hot, but it was worth walking up and down the street.

I ended up getting some posters but not getting frames yet because I wasn't sure if I could carry them, then ended up finding another poster/framing store which had frames at 20% off. Even better than that? I was able to drop them off so they could be framed tomorrow morning and I could pick them up tomorrow afternoon. I HAVE STUFF TO HANG IN MY APARTMENT. HELL YES.

I got a bunch of other things, but I suppose the one you'd find the most interesting is

( the new hat. )

There were also musicians and food stands, as well as a group doing Capoiera demonstrations. The group was handing out flyers for a free trial of it.

...I think I might check it out.

I am bound and determined to make this weekend be awesome, and so far it has. I saw Murder by Death for the first time and it was hilarious, I did a bit of cleaning last night, I made some new LJ icons, and I'm generally in a good frame of mind. And yes, I did see Dr. Horrible and it was also good. A bit predictable until the third part, and Nathan Fillion can't really sing, but I still enjoyed it.

(And now I'm prepared for the Internet to tear me apart.)

Also, zenhansei sent me a link to the Baby Animal Alphabet and the albino microbat in the beginning was enough to almost kill me. And now I know what a quokka is and OH MY GOD LOOK AT THIS

( caution: disturbingly adorable fuzzy thing and newt )

Also, wieimmer introduced me to the Hot_Daily Journalfen community and assieerijkkl; Aishwarya Rai and Sigourney Weaver.

I love you world.

Today I seek out new baking pans because 2 of my 3 are now suddenly rusty. What. I also realized I need a new frying pan because the old one I have became way too scratched. In the case of the first kitchen disaster, I should probably see if there's anything weird going on with my dishwasher.

For some reason, this is one of my favorite songs again. So I leave it with you, loyal readers, to classic rock out or something.

( HOLD THE LIIIIINE )

- theotherbaldwin has a podcast with his friend entitled The Geeky Weekly. There was a new episode this week where they interview John Scalzi and I have no idea who that is because I am bad at sci-fi but I'm sure some of you know of him.

- Vote for teh_dirty_robot's dog for being on a Jones Soda label here.

Because puppies + rainbows + soda is the best combination of everything ever.

I really should start pimping out LJ friends stuff regularly. I HAVE BEEN LACKING. Anyone have anything else to share? Let me know and I'll spread the word.

ETA: My sister also turned out to be a finalist in Time Out Chicago's Create Your Own Hot Dog contest. Vote for her hot dog here. Hers is the Johnny Depp. :)

So, yeah, I could expound on my entry last night -- what got me angry, why, etc., but my thoughts on the general matter (hint: it has to do with prejudice, egalitarianism, and all that other stuff which motivates me and why it does) will be expressed with more calm and tranquility. You'll have to put up with me being vague on that matter for the time being.

There's something else too. ( Cut for admittedly needless self-deprecation )

Feel free to come up here and beat the crap out of me for that. :)

It's Friday and I still haven't done my weekly music post, so here you all go. The theme today is Mash-ups. Most of these are things you've heard before because I posted them here, but this is primarily for another comm anyway, so I figured I'd share the joy.

• Beasties on the Run - "So Watcha' Want" - Beastie Boys / "Always On the Run" - Lenny Kravitz (by Miss Frenchie)


• She Blinded Me With Weird Science - "She Blinded Me With Science" - Thomas Dolby / "Weird Science" - Oingo Boingo (by dj lil'e)


• Karmastition - "Karma" - Alicia Keys / "Superstition" - Stevie Wonder


• Take Me Out For a Milkshake - "Milkshake" - Kelis / "Take Me Out" - Franz Ferdinand


• Never Feel Good - "Never There" - Cake / "Feel Good Inc." - Gorillaz (by Party Ben)


• Closer to Mario - "Closer" - NIN / Mario Theme

Still responding to that meme. Thanks for your patience. :)

I'm planning on revising my userinfo tonight. Anyone have any new testimonials to add? :)

I'm also tempted to find a quote or a song lyric which is applicable right now, but I'm having trouble finding one. The only thing that I'm coming up with is a song which is strangely bitter and not applicable in the least... and yet I listen to it and nod. Curious.

( Lyrics in question )

Any thoughts?

PSA:

One of my friends will be on Jeopardy tonight. :) This is the same friend (Caitlin) who got married to my friend/roommate, Matt. She's not able to mention how far she got in the game, but regardless, she'll be on tonight. Even if it's been filmed at this point, go ahead and cheer for her anyway.

Writing:

Ugh, I want to do this but my creativity has been sapped away by work. At some point, however, I would like to revise this and work on another short story before beginning on that big project. It would at least be nice to actually give the damn thing a title.

Rejected Title Names:
- "How is This Not Symbolic"
- "Jungian Monkeyshines"
- "Bill and Ted's Therapeutic Quest"
- "OH MY GOD MOTHS EVERYWHERE"

One interesting thing to come of this? The one figure I've mentioned before (the "Shadow" figure, the one I based Kelvin off of) has not been in my mind at all, neither consciously nor in my dreams. Seriously.

Hmmm. I'll think about this later.

Just for those of you who don't watch sf_drama, where this came from.

Text c/ped from starsatnight13 here.

A customer blogs about being refused his order at a locally-owned coffee shop. His drink order? A triple espresso over ice which he was told he couldn't get because iced espresso is "against policy."

Small stupid that ends up on the internet, gets blown out of proportion and results in this loltastic response from the owner.

"Okay, we don't do espresso over ice. Why? Number one, because we don't do it. Number two, because we don't do it."

And the owner then follows that up with threats of a cockpunch!

"if you ever show your face at my shop, I'll punch you in your dick."

Bonus stupid - Another branch of the shop was shut down because the owner didn't bother to pay his taxes.

This is pretty incredible. Especially to a coffee snob like me. :)

I had a couple of nice AIM conversations with people last night; the one I had with witchybitch, who is *checks* yes, the newest friend on my list, made me think about asking that archetype question again. But that'll be another time.

And since I brought up AIM, I posted my contact info here in case you wanted it.

But more to the point, some er, pointlessness.

Post a comment and...
1. I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
4. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
5. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
6. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
7. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal.

hurr

Pointless Body Stuff:
I've been feeling sick in my stomach since the beginning of the day. It's very odd. It isn't nerves (I think), since I'm feeling very relaxed. It wasn't coffee, because I felt this way before having it. The only thing different was how I had a waffle with a little bit of butter on--

Oh.

Screw you, late-onset lactose intolerance. :|

Pointless LJ Stuff:

I'm thinking of updating my default LJ icon. I'm not sure whether it should be a cropped icon of this or this or something else entirely.

Other LJ icons I want to make when I have the time/patience: one of that rabbit in the new Pixar short (the one before Wall-E), something from The Maxx and/or Clone High, another Megaten icon, and one that reads "Jellyfish are assholes." Because they ARE.

Pointless-- Oh no, wait, this does have a really big point:

You've probably already heard this, but I'm posting it again because there is not enough "WHAT." in the world.

Jury: Black neighborhood was denied water service

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Residents of a mostly black neighborhood in rural Ohio were awarded nearly $11 million Thursday by a federal jury that found local authorities denied them public water service for decades out of racial discrimination.

Each of the 67 plaintiffs was awarded $15,000 to $300,000, depending on how long they had lived in the Coal Run neighborhood, about 5 miles east of Zanesville in Muskingum County in east-central Ohio.

The money covers both monetary losses and the residents' pain and suffering between 1956, when water lines were first laid in the area, and 2003, when Coal Run got public water.

nfdknfkmkmkmlkoekorm

45 minutes of aerobic exercise-- an equal mix of walking and jogging/running. Still not feeling tired.

I AM HERMES, MESSENGER OF THE GODS

brb stealin ur cattle