How did I miss the Transposition series on the site? I guess when I first signed on I was homing in on just dbz so I had blinders on. Joules, this is killer work! Wow! I can easily suspend my belief and see Sulu and Chekov in their new environments, with Raddittzu and Zaabon along for the ride. And Garak! Very interesting! Always liked that 'simple tailor' chara who was oh-so-much more. Always considered him older age-wise and not anybody who was interested in 'those' kinds of pursuits, or 'beyond' that in the species reproductive cycle. Now I have to wait for the next chapter when Sulu 'gets his' with the ravishing Radi-chan. *eyes glint with a touch of lust* Yummy scrummy!
Lovely, Lutra!
Such a sweet Wish Fulfillment! More caves I see! Bit of a protective image in my mind.
These are charas I would like to know more about. Hope you consider putting together some short chara studies stories in the future.
Talon, LOVE the HI entry! Been re-reading it to confirm it is as tight as possible (I want you to win!), then I will send it back, probably today. Really like the repeating idea/phrase. I know there is an official English grammar term for it but I have no clue what it is called.
Before I realized the contest was to describe the particular pic on the contest page I was inspired last night to draw my first true yaoi pic, of Vejiita and Gohan. It was to be an illustration for the story. Then, after rechecking the contest page for the rules (to confirm the story was meeting the criteria) I realized the moment being written about was the pic on the page. Oops! Oh well, the pic still stands on its own and I suspect the Institute will want a copy for their "A Prince and His Boy" section.
Have been VERY bad about not doing any grading. Last night I was feeling incredibly ill after eating so the idea of grading was not pleasant. I began feeling better once I picked up the drawing tablet and the crap pencil and began sketching in front of the computer, with just the light of the monitor and Talon's story on the screen. Yep, most of the basic foundation work was done with a regular and kinda inconsistent #2. It was only later, when I wanted to get the hair darker, did I move over to my drawing space and pull out the good pencils and the kneaded rubber.
Ended up staying up until 3am last night working on it. Yes, I was inspired and driven to work on it, even through my yawns. Those muses are persistent when they want me work on something! Jeeze, who would have guessed THIS particular pairing would be the first yaoi pic I would do? Not me! I would think a Kaka/Vege would have been my first. Well, the muses decided otherwise and I find I need to listen to them and follow through with the impulse or I will be unhappy with my artistic results.
Interesting tidbit, at one point I passed the drawing to rat, who turned it to the side, thinking Gohan was yuke. By gum it worked! Hadn't even intended that. Have the monk-monks in a very tight clinch so it could actually be read that way, at least when the drawing was in that stage. Adding fluffy tails has pretty much gotten the pose back to being a standing one.
Had to look at a teen Gohan pic to try to get the hair right and one of my reference photos of boys kissing boys to get a neck position, but the rest was done from my peabrain. I was amazed at myself. Now I need to find some muscle references for their arms and I think I will be done with the basics. Plan to do this as another full pencil drawing so after I lay the foundations I will begin serious shading. The cg colouring will probably suffer but I don't care.
Should have followed my gut with the Gohan/Sage pic but I didn't. I tried to force it a certain direction because I was wanting it to be clean for cg. Now I regret it and am not too happy with the drawing. I WILL work on it when the muses deem it time.
Yes, Xe, points well-made about the delectable brat Prince. Such a complex chara!
The Oji is rat and I's fave DBZ chara and we especially like doujinshi with chibi Vejiita, Vejiita stomping around CC and Vejiita looking stunned.
Except for rat's bathroom, each room in our household has at least one bit of Prince Grumpy in it. The only reason why rat doesn't have a piece of prince in his bathroom is we haven't figured out what to put in there. The bathroom gets very steamy so we want something durable and moisture-proof. Nothing with batteries or metal bits.
Anyone heard of Ai no Kusabi (Wedge of Interval)? Found a fan music video at one of the sites where I downloaded one of the 2002 Yaoi Con entries. Whoa! It shows real yaoi action, amazing!
More Yaoi Con vids
The vid using the song, "Which Backstreet Boy's Gay" is such a hoot! It uses the MST3000 format as the basic idea. Good thing I watched it at the office first and saw how the music synced up because when I got it home it would not run right in most of the players. It kept slowing down. Finally took it into an OLD program called VuePrint (excellent program btw) and it ran fine. rat was laughing too.
These vids are letting me see other anime series without actually watching them. I am able to look at the style and artwork and decide if I want to invest time in watching more. It's been fun.
Secrets Good
I probably didn't say it right, Xe. Wouldn't be the first time what I wrote came out sounding muddled. It seems Saiyajin Secrets goes through stages of few fics being submitted, but when they ARE submitted people do respond much more than at Slash. Slash seems to have more messages being added in general but it is not always fics/pics and some things I just want to ignore...
Gah...
Again I fell asleep in front of the TV after dinner and still feel like crap. Felt bad about 3pm today at the office and just held on until 5pm today. I think I am still trying to get sick. Best try to go to bed.
Hee, I have been out at Saiyajin Secrets for a while, Talon, and I do find it a slightly different flavor than Saiyan Slash. It seems more stories than chat stuff are posted there but it could just be my imagination. The Secrets list is not as active as the Slash list so sometimes it gets a bit dry when it comes to submissions but it does pick up eventually and the list seems a bit more laid-back, if you catch my drift.
Wondered why you hadn't been out there sooner, danglemate. Glad Xe twisted your tail to join, Talon!
Doncha just love it when you find things you thought you had lost forever? Too cool and congrats!
Pencil Scratches
Plopped down this morning in front of the tube as usual, watching the Weather Channel to see if something would be rolling in and what temps to expect this week. So for some reason I felt compelled to pick up my small sketch pad, pencil and kneaded eraser. I ended up putting together the sketch for our Xmas postcard this year.
Last year I used a doujin scan (Hush Little Baby) of a kawaii sleeping chibi Vejiita drawing, complete with blankee and nightcap, and put the text, "not a creature was stirring..." in a curve around it. Then dumped the graphic into Word in a postcard template. The little comment on the back (the place where on picture postcards it says where the pic was taken) I put the text, "not even a Saiya-jin Prince." Added some kind of generic sentiment below the little comment section to avoid offending anybody's personal religious beliefs, added some clipart holly berries to frame the text, put our names in another font style, then we printed them front and back, including the names/addresses of the receivers, signed each one (for that personal touch) and mailed them out. Sounds harder than it really was. It was really just a black and white graphic dropped into Word, no colour whatsoever. We STILL haven't unpackaged the colour printer I purchased a few years ago.... No place to put it right now.
Of course, 99% of the people who got the postcard had utterly zero clue just WHO the little guy was. They just saw a sleeping chibi, but since the drawing was just adorable it didn't matter if they 'got' it or not. Even got a comment about the pic from my friend who makes chainmaile, wanting to know if I drew the pic. At the time I said, "I wish!", because back this past May I had not yet gotten up the courage to attempt my own drawings of the dbz charas. I still bless Lia (the late Maetel) for that encouragement to try my hand at it.
This year I am torturing the chibi with my very own hand and twisted mind. Actually, currently the drawing has a little smirky grin because that's how I scribbled it in and it may stay that way. It will be another black and white postcard (the card stock has some glitter flecks in it) and I will add cg text and probably some kind of textured background to the image to give it some dimension. Have an idea for a background but I will need to see what can find in my clipart library so I do not have to draw it from scratch.
I suspect I will have to cg colour it because it will be way too tempting but the colour version will not be used for the card. And I will post the colour version on the site, but only after I have mailed out the postcards.
Thought about doing some watercolour on the cards but then remembered the colour would run if the card got damp. Maybe I can find some inexpensive version of the manga colour pens in some specific colours. Nor not. 'Virtual' screentones are a real option here. I enjoy the extra bit of 'umph' they add to my pics when I use them, even though cobbling a tone into a useable size is a royal pain. One of these days I need to purchase some tones and scan the full sheets so I can 'cut out' whatever I want.
So soon I am going to have to start asking for snailmail addresses from the muses so they can get their postcards in the mail in a timely manner. *winks*
Our friends working in Japan, Barbara and Todd, sent us their latest newsletter about their Japan adventures today. I was grinning the whole time thinking, who would have guessed five years ago when the four of us were sitting around talking about anime and rat & I were not that interested at the time (and laughing about the silliness of dbz) we would be where we are now, basically entrenched in quite a bit of it and becoming more and more each day. I know if someone would have told me I would be active on maillists, drawing fanart, reading and betaing fanfic, especially anything dealing with dbz, and eating Pocky I would have laughed in their face.
Cool, Talon! You know the book too! I have a paperback edition of the book. I found it years ago in one of the Ft. Worth art museums' gift shops and HAD to have it then and there! As a kid I would check it out of the library, along with the Norse myths book by the same people, dozens and dozens of times!
And here's a weird one for you, when I was a tiny kid I was given a book about Christopher Columbus. Didn't like it too much at the time. Later, after looking at the Greek myths book, I realized the style looked familiar, pulled down the Christopher Columbus book and it was done by the same people! So I do like the distinct D'Aulaires style and cannot draw like it at all.
Yaoi-con Vids!
Some of the video winners are posted at the Yaoi-con site! One is a Gravitation one called Shuuichi's Back, using the song, "The Cat Came Back". Some magenta-haired kid is bouncing around, sometimes looking very neko, and the song is referring to him. Some blond guy is being tortured by this 'cat'.
To view this I had to get new codec called DIVX and it had to be for avis, not for mpgs. Took a while to find the right codec and get it downloaded and installed.
The rest of the Gravitation videos have no direct links to the vids themselves but I have not checked the websites yet to see if they will be there in the future.
I have also looked at Yaoi Busters, a Ghostbusters video, using clips from an anime called Yami no Matsuei. The anime looks interesting. The video edits imply yaoi which may not actually be there. However, since I have noticed Yami no Matsuei seems to be another popular one for the vids I guess something must be there.
Wish I had some super-clean dbz vids I could video capture and do some yaoi. Gotta get our beefy monks out there too! Well, I would actually put doujinshi scans in as well...
My fiancée's mother is not only very attractive but really great and understanding. She is putting the entire wedding together and invited me to her place to go over the invitation list because it had grown a bit beyond what we had expected it to be. When I got to her place we reviewed the list and trimmed it down to just under a hundred ... then she floored me. She said that in a month I would be a married man and that before that happened, she wanted to have sex with me. Then she just stood up and walked to her bedroom and on her way said that I knew where the front door was if I wanted to leave. I stood there for about five minutes and finally decided that I knew exactly how to deal with this situation. I headed straight out the front door...There, leaning against my car was her husband, my father-in-law to be. He was smiling. He explained that they just wanted to be sure I was a good kid and would be true to their little girl. I shook his hand and he congratulated me on passing their little test. Abby, should I tell my fiancée what her parents did, and that I thought their "little test" was asinine and insulting to my character? Or should I keep the whole thing to myself including the fact that the reason I was walking out to my car was to get a condom?
Oh yeah, about the Greek Gods and myths. LOVED reading about them as a kid and still enjoying finding books on them, especially novels which draw on the myth to write an interesting story based on it but really fresh in delivery.
I really liked one particular illustrated book as a kid and I still think it is one of the best to introduce anyone to the myths. Had a lot of the meat of the story without being too gory for kids, yet was not very sanitized either. It is called "D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths" and the listing at amazon.com is glowing too.
Read some the reviews and not just the few on the page. Click the button at the bottom to see more of them, they sound like me. I haven't read all 60 reviews, just the first page or so.
If you want a book on Greek myths for your kids, this is the one. The illustrations stuck with me as a kid and remain some of my favorites. I find it amazing so many other people had such a positive experience from this book and the illustrations stuck with them as well. Too cool!
When I got to junior high they made us read Edith Hamilton's book, which was dreck. Don't let your kids suffer through it!
As if you didn't figure it out already, I collect various kinds of animals as wearables and dust-collectors. I like (in no particular order) cats, dragons, reindeer & deer, sheep, horses and rabbits. Also like Eeyore.
Have Grumpy stuff too, but officially he is not an animal.
Of course, gotta a lot of widdle monk-monk shirts now too.
Didn't get to the pancake breakfast, rat wasn't ready in time. So I did post office stuff and we grabbed a wee bite before going to the craft show. Surprised rat wanted to go along but his motive was to scope out the baked goods. The craft show/sale is a yearly thing to raise money for one of the high school's drill team. rat hated the little girls running around in their little outfits too. Only spent 45 minutes there even though it is a big show. One of my school acquaintances had a booth there and does some cute cat stuff so I got one of her little stuffed orange Halloween cats. At another booth I found two reindeer with a distressed finish. rat found some yummy-scented homemade soap. He likes to wash his face with good-smelling soap, partly so I will go up to him and tell him how good he smells. And he found and purchased a big container of scrummy iced brownies.
Got a chance to go home for a nap for a while. Then we went for dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, Dos Charos. After that, met the folks at their place so we could car-pool to the play at the new theatre center. Luckily they had been there scoping the place out because the place is one of the most poorly designed places I have ever been in.
In the car garage is two elevators but only one of them actually opens to the theatre with a door on the other side of the elevator. The other just goes up and down in the garage. Any signs about this posted anywhere? Not even!
Once you actually get into the theatre you have to walk from the back of the building to the front of the building to get to another set of elevators to get to the second level of the small theatre where the show was to be. No restrooms on this level, stupid design. You either have to go up or down a level to find any restrooms.
And both elevators are not labeled with simple buttons like 1, 2 and 3. They have to add L and T and other confusing letters.
The play was "Bye, Bye Birdie" and it was definitely better than the sucky movie. We had friends in it we have worked with before in past shows so it was nice to see them again. The church preacher was in the show too and he stole the show with physical ad libs. We laughed hard even though we don't know him. Anyway, it was a light and fun time.
Of course, right before the show began mother nature raised her head. Being under the influence of hormones makes it pretty predictable so the headache I have been suffering all weekend is part of it.
Have done jack with midterms but did go out to see what students actually did the midterm. Only about 6 out of 18 students did it. Eep! And this is one bit they cannot turn in late. Oh well! I think probably about half the students who is actually showing up for class are going to bail by the last day to withdraw deadline date.
Nope. Definitely not bisexual. Thank you for trying ;)
Although you only like to eat one kind of meat, that doesn't mean you are any less of a sexual gourmand. You just have refined your carnal palate and choose only the finest of dicks/breasts (whichever strikes your particular gender's fancy) and enjoy them with the style and panache that ideally suits you.
As a man (or lesbian), your appetite goes out more towards melons, jugs of milk, sliced apple pies and cherry desserts.
As a woman (or gay man) you like to feast on baguettes, lavishly laid with thick slices of baloney and tiny little gherkins followed by a carrot/cucumber/zucchini salad.
Had wanted to make this a Sage pic, including Goten and Trunks in costume as well, but it did not happen for the Hentai Institute contest with the time constraints. Decided to torture Vejiita instead, because he is SO CUTE as a chibi. And who else could torture the Brat Prince in such style better than The Ginyu Force?
Anyway, this copy is not as high a quality as the one I sent to the Institute. This is an extremely compressed jpg.
I really wanted to enter the Hentai Institute's kawaii pic contest but it ends tonight and I haven't even started yet....
rat keeps poking me about all my ideas and how he doubts I will follow through. I got a bit mad at him for that comment. If I had all these stupid midterms and quizzes done I might be able to get something done, but knowing life, something would keep me from concentrating on drawing, like work!
Can you believe it? My big boss (femme) sent this to me! Had to share it, too funny and frighteningly true! Many women are afraid of their first mammogram, and even if they have had them before, there is fear. BUT THERE IS NO NEED TO WORRY. By taking a few minutes each day for a week preceding the exam and doing the following practice exercises, you will be totally prepared for the test, and best of all you can do these simple practice exercises right in your home.
EXERCISE 1: Open your refrigerator door, and insert one breast between the door and the main box. Have one of your strongest friends slam the door shut as hard as possible and lean on the door for good measure. Hold that position for five seconds. Repeat in case the first time wasn't effective.
EXERCISE 2: Visit your garage at 3 A.M. when the temperature of the cement floor is just perfect. Take off all your clothes and lie comfortably on the floor sideways with one breast wedged under the rear tire of the car. Ask a friend to slowly back the car up until your breast is sufficiently flattened and chilled.
Switch sides, and repeat for the other breast.
EXERCISE 3: Freeze two metal bookends overnight. Strip to the waist and invite a total stranger into the room. Have the stranger press the bookends together as hard as he/she can. Set an appointment with the stranger to meet next year to do it again.
You are now properly prepared! And just another thought for all you women out there: MENtal illness, MENstrual cramps, MENtal breakdown, MENopause.
Ever notice how all of women's problems start with "MEN"? And when we have real problems, it's HISterectomy!
Send this to all the women you know, and brighten their day!...
P.S. Don't forget the "GUY"necologist!
Reminds me, I need to get another one soon, to check if the benign lump removed last March has grown back. My poor right boob! Looks like someone has been having a war all over it!
Saturday
It's gonna be a busy one, and joy of joys, I will probably start 'mother nature' as well. Gotta go to the post office to do an International Postal Money Order to Japan (where else?), rat wants to go to a pancake breakfast held at my folks' church, then off to an annual craft show and in the evening we are supposed to go to the church musical being held for the first time at the new city civic theatre. Goodbye sleep!
Now, before you look askance at the idea of a church musical let me relieve your mind, these musicals are good. The church choir is excellent and lots of voices from the choir are in the show. They may not all be able to act very well but they ARE warm bodies on the stage. We used to do the musicals when they were held in the summer and we had the time to commit to them. It's been a long time since we have participated but we still like to go and support the people we know from the church. Also understand, these are Methodists, and liberal ones at that. Drinking and swearing are not frowned upon.
*looks down at leg*
I see you, Dasia! *grins* Sure, I knew I had 'acquired' both twins, not just Talon. Thanks for signing the guestmap!
To work, to work
Need to order deskcopies soon, mayhap today. Hopefully I will have time to grade some midterms today too. Hn, might wait on the deskcopies until the online schedule gets posted. Will have to think about that one... Wonder how my students are doing today?
First time ever I asked rat to help me colour my hair. I just cannot get the back covered correctly anymore. Too many places with a few long grey strands I have missed in the past. So after I did the top and sides I sat on the tub edge, he sat on the john and he worked on it for me. He did a great job! Now my hair is dark and light auburn with some deep bright burgundy places where the white hair and lighter dye jobs were. Those burgundy places are going to look wonderfully bright and flaming in the sunshine. Whoo hoo!
dances about
Don't have to teach tomorrow, yippee!
on the other hand...
Still haven't started grading the midterms. Been too dead to do much of anything.
And now I think I will sign off, finish the biblical show rat taped (haven't been watching closely) then off to sleep.
Joules, hope you are feeling better soon. Maybe you should ask the man in the cloth if he enjoyed the yaoi! Hope your teeth are better, too.
Talon, my sincere sympathies about your chibi and I hope it was a miss-read on the machine. My heart goes out to you. Wish I could've been there for you!
And I can definitely relate to not having a koi around too. The money will be a good incentive and perhaps he will not have to travel that long some of the time.
Crazy Cat
When rat had to go to Boston for two weeks I went crazy. It was the first time we had been separated for that long before, after over a decade of being together. He ended up flying me up for the weekend because he missed me too! We had a great weekend running around Boston and New Hampshire. We went to America's Stonehenge, which was interesting.
Such fluffs are we! We still do not like being separated from one another for long periods of time. The extra money did come in handy so in the long run it was a good thing. It was just hard when it initially came up and reality hit we had to be parted. I was the bigger weinie, of course. Guess one of these days I should attempt to put this sappiness in a story.
The rat comments: At Texas Tech I could have been paid $10 for participating in precognition tests ( guess the card ) but I would have had to agree to shave a few spots on my head for the EEG... But these poor students....
Students to test ride condoms
Thu Oct 24,11:26 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Hard-up students are being recruited to test condoms, rating them for their pleasure, comfort and performance qualities.
The 100-150 successful job applicants will be paid 100 pounds per academic term as they road-test a range of condoms from German manufacturer Condomi.
"The condom testers will be asked to give a pleasure rating. They will not be asked to test quality -- that has already been done," Condomi's marketing manager in Britain Victoria Wells told Reuters on Thursday.
"Test results will be fed back to our research and development department, and we hope that the students who participate will both enjoy the testing and the money, and give us a frank response which we can use for product development," Wells said.
She said adverts had been placed in a number of student publications and will run on several student radio stations from October 25.
Would-be testers will be asked to fill in an application available online at www.condomi.co.uk.
Among the voluntary questions asked of candidates will be: how many partners they have had, how often they have sex and how long its lasts -- with the option to tick various boxes marked from "under one minute" to one marked "1.5-two hours".
They weren't doing anything like this when I was at school...
Macbeth's: Lady Macbeth - Macbeth's wife, a deeply ambitious woman who lusts for power and position. Early in the play she seems to be the stronger and more ruthless of the two, as she urges her husband to kill Duncan and seize the crown. After the bloodshed begins, however, Lady Macbeth falls victim to guilt and madness to an even greater degree than her husband. Her conscience affects her to such an extent that she eventually commits suicide. Interestingly, she and Macbeth are presented as being deeply in love, and many of Lady Macbeth's speeches imply that her influence over her husband is primarily sexual. Their joint alienation from the world, occasioned by their partnership in crime, seems to strengthen the attachment that they feel to one another.
And it is Heroine, not Heroin..... One is a female hero, one is a drug.
This is kind of stuff is interesting to me, whether I believe it or not.
Hee, wonder what kind of score Vejiita, Kakarotto or someone like Frieza would get! *LOL!* There's no questions about killing or torturing people! *snicker*
Talon, today I defended you out at Saiyan Slash, along with Xe. I guess I should have gotten back immediately with a comment about wearing a collander on my head and other various kitchen pans as armour and laughed about your thwacking. Did not think your silliness at me would raise such a bad smell all around.
Actually I was wanting to do a silly animated gif of 'stumpy' wearing the kitchen gear and stuff being lobbed at and bouncing off the stump-meister.
In my search to find the Four Ways System we took on Tuesday at the Intercultural Competency program I found the Jung - Myers-Briggs typological approach - Jung Typology Test. So I took it and came up with the following score:
Your Type is: INTJ
Introverted Intuitive Thinking Judging
Strength of the preferences %: Introverted 67
Intuitive 11
Thinking 56
Judging 78
Qualitative analysis of your type formula You are:
distinctively expressed introvert
slightly expressed intuitive personality
moderately expressed thinking personality
very expressed judging personality
Wish I could find the Four Ways System online. It is actually something that would work well as a multimedia module so I am still looking.
You're A Hero! You live to save the world! You are honest, true, and always victorious! You may not always get the girls/boys, but all you really want to do is battle the bad guys.
Think it has something to do with picking a sword... I think I am going to mess with the results. Yep, when I went back and picked car I got this:
You're A Bishounen (Attractive Young Male)! You hunk, you. All the girls want your body! You have a cool car, and a way with words. You know exactly how to get what you want.
You're An Intellectual! You can always be found reading or on the computer. People always come to you when they need information. You don't really care about love at this point, your only goal is to improve your mind. After all, knowledge is power!
Okay, I guess I am an intellectual bishounen hero. *snickers* Not with these wide hips!
Better Today
Feel much better today. Think it came about because of the barometric pressure, which likes to play squeeze-box with my head occasionally. It has been raining or attempting to rain all week. Love the weather but it can wreck havoc on my head.
Woke up with one of my hideous headaches, light-sensitive and the whole nine yards. Stayed home and remained "out-of-body" most of the day. Still feel pretty bad but I know I will feel better tomorrow. Still keep falling asleep so I think I will check yaboo & hotmail, then either lay in front of the TV and nod off there or go back to bed.
Off to sleep. Still no midterms done - after doing my last extra hours for this semester (yay!) we had to do a major grocery run tonight. Was too pooped afterward to do more than make a few comments at yaboo and watch the latest db & dbz new eps.
ROME (Reuters) - Restoration works in a Roman church have revealed two bare-breasted beauties designed by Bernini but hidden behind bronze "corsets" for more than 100 years, officials say.
The figures, representing truth and charity, were designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and sculpted with his assistants in the 1660s for the Baroque church of Sant'Isidoro, but later censored by religious leaders.
"The nudes were a bit too provocative for the Victorians, so they were covered with bronze corsets in 1863," Angela Negro, the director of restoration works at the church, told Reuters on Tuesday.
"We decided to bare all," she said.
The striptease revealed two white marble figures squeezing their breasts seductively.
"The surprise was that the original marble hadn't been damaged in any way," Negro said. "We have always seen these virtues covered and we were worried about what we would find underneath, but the nudes are in perfect condition."
The same was not true for a little marble cherub. After removing the loin cloth that had been added, restorers discovered his offending parts had been chipped off.
The works are part of a broader 50-million-euro restoration programme at Sant'Isidoro that includes deep cleaning of the elaborate marble statues and paintings.
I really like Bernini's sculptures. See Apollo and Daphne and the Ecstasy of St. Teresa. Look at that amazing fabric!
Can you believe it? All full-time faculty/staff have to go to six different sessions over six years dealing with Intercultural diversity, awareness and all that rot. Today a bunch of us are going to get it over with. It just gripes me because the program is REALLY making generalized statements about various cultures, which is frigging stereotyping people!
Oops!
Talon, looks like I missed a word spelling. Should have been bidding instead of biding. Oh well.
Question
Thinking about opening up the website to have hosted dbz fanfics. This would be an invitation only kind of thing (nudges the muses). It is just I have read some stuff I would like to host. The "Something Jazz" series is one in particular I would like to put out. Of course, many many others come to mind but I thought perhaps one or two fics with a link to the writer's site might work well. What does everyone think?
Chap 4 betaed and back at ya! Hope you are enjoying writing this as much as I am reading it!
Oh, tried to send you a silly card today but it would not deliver.
Grading, Take Two
Did my last long day for this semester (11 hours) and got the gradesheets for Asns 5 & 6 out. Plus got the first two sections of the midterm graded and grades posted on the eCampus gradebook. Students haven't gotten the actual gradesheet yet since they are attached to the midterm gradesheet which has all three sections listed. Next is the grading of the midterm proper. May get some of it done at the office tomorrow, I hope I hope.
Hope to have everything graded before Friday so all I will have to grade next week is a one-page html quiz.
Tablet Demos, etc.
Showed two of my students how to use the lab Wacom tablet today. What did I ever do without one? I do not like Photoshop 7's airbrush so I will continue to use version 6 when I want to use the airbrush. I suspect some setting can be changed to get the type of airbrush tool I want with 7 but I haven't figured it out yet.
Eye, Iie
Woke up with something in my eye so my eye was red and painful. Have some gooey eye medicine so gooped it on my orb. Had to forego some eye makeup today (looking scary without it) and both eyes were not up-to-par today. Still burning. Only getting about 3 hours of sleep last night did not help.
Just falling apart, ya know.
Time to sign off and go to bed, do not pass yahoo groups, do not collect yaoi...
Your anime power is that of super charging. Like Super Saiyans (spelling?) or Tenchi's Jurai power...etc, you can get a rush of adrenaline to make you all the more powerful. You can seemingly do this at will. Enjoy.
The way to get the percentages to work is to go to the similar minds site, type in both email addresses and you will get the percentages. You will NOT get the words "Your match with ----" but you can easily drop it into the coding because the box is all code, not a graphic.
Drawing
Actually did two oekaki this weekend, to get the fingers going again. One I posted today (along with one I did last week) and I just finished another one a few minutes ago. I will post it next weekend. Still cannot capture the brat prince. For some reason I am getting an elven look to what I am doing, probably because of the eye shapes that keep coming out of my tablet pen. The eye shapes remind me of Hiei. The little demon may be lurking, wanting me to draw him for the first time in the near future.
Grading Hell Continues
Finally got two assignments done but now I am in the middle of getting the gradesheet for the three sections of the midterm written. I am going bonkers because of all the details I have to make sure are listed so students know what they did correctly and incorrectly.
Tomorrow I will send the grades for the two assignments to the students at work because the T1 connection is so much faster.
*Snore*
I think I am ready to go to sleep, again. Don't know what's been going on but I do know I am pooped.
You are the deceptively spritely Master Yoda. Your past is mysterious and you like bran. Though you walk with a cane, everybody fears your ability to deftly manipulate your lightsaber. Everybody thinks you're alright, but secretly people want to throttle you for your poor english. If you can manipulate other peoples' minds, why can't you teach yourself to speak?
You are Thoth, the most intellectual of the egyptian gods. You savor the muses in all their forms, and you'd rather observe than take action. You are considered peerlessly just, and so you are often considered the arbiter of the gods.
I slept much of the day, then got up and we shlepted over to Cafe Max about 5pm to meet Jacque and Becca. About 10pm they finally decided they needed to get back to their stomping grounds so the gab session ended. Now I am feeling sleepy again. I hope I am not trying to come down with the flu going around the office.
Got no grading done today.
So we are now watching our time-shifted Inuyasya & YuYu and then I think I am off to bed again. My eyes are burning for some reason and I am yawning a lot, which is stupid. I have slept a lot today and why I still want to sleep is beyond me but I know I need to take the hint when my body says acts like this or I will regret it later.
What kind of Warrior are you? Results:
You have qualities associated with more than one type of Warrior. That's okay -- read the descriptions below and decide how you feel about each one, then choose one (or a couple) that feels "right".
My sphere is Guardian (Person of great Love and Altruism), and my class is Arms Master (Pragmatic and Stout).
I am a Guard.
You are a true, versatile guard. You have a defensive nature, that is, you are good at instilling a sense of security in the places around you. A strong presence weakens any possible threats around you, and a swift, practical approach to the problems that crop up puts them down before they can get out of hand.
My sphere is Guardian (Person of great Love and Altruism), and my class is Rogue (Precise and Unhindered).
I am a Protector.
You won't let anything or anyone threaten the ones you love if you have anything to say about it -- and you aren't afraid to back that up by any means possible. You might get your hands dirty in your life. You might do things that more lawful people would question. But there is no doubt in your mind that what you are doing is right, and you will have no regrets. To be a Protector is to shed many layers of "status quo," of "morality," and, to a degree, of honor, in order to dedicate yourself to the protection of your love in any way you can. You are a truly rare breed. You are loved in return for your great dedication by the people who value you. You know how to keep secrets, and uphold your word.
Mothman is a tall (6/7 feet) gray creature with no real head, and big glowing hypnotic red eyes. It has a loud screech and has also been accompanied by the sound of a record player playing at high speeds, which might be the sound of it's wings flapping.
Mothman doesn't really do any real harm but it sure scares the hell out of witnesses. In one case it chased after a car full of people who stumbled upon it walking around in a feild, in another case it hung around a familie's home, peering through the windows and scaring their dog.
Mothman has also been sighted by large groups as big as a hundred people, and sightings of him have coincided with telivisions going haywire.
Teletubbie panties???? What a friggin' SCARY image!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
Shit, Talon!
That is SO fucking unfair about the union screwing your koi out of his journeyman's card! What utter crap! What do THEY consider enough experience? Who can he petition to?
Interesting... at one time I was writing a lot of poetry
I Am Fachea Celtic Goddess of Poetry. I'm a freaky writer type who doesn't like to leave the house. I'm probably a lot smarter than you.
You yourself love all things beautiful and earthy, and writing poetry is your passion, although you might divulge in a good story once in a while. You have always been the English teacher's favourite and are generally a very artistic person.
Actually.... rat DOES have an older brother (alas, married) and when they were young they both had beautiful red hair. They now take after the rest of men in the family and are bald/balding/thinning. rat's beard still has quite a bit of deep red in it but his hair is mostly white with light red highlights. I still 'see' it as red in my mind. Every once in a while I get a reality check and realise my squeaker is getting white and it makes me a bit sad because his red hair was so pretty.
I call rat's bro the poet because he writes a lot as an outlet to express himself. He is actually pretty darned good and I wish I could convince him to get a blog and e-publish. I know he has been published in a magazine at least once. I'd like to see his work out there more, either blogged or on a website.
rat says his brother is the more spiritual one, the one with the animal magnetism. I never saw it even when we were kids. I always preferred the company of the youngest and gangly brother for some reason. FYI: We've known each other since I was about 8 and he was about 11.
School
Well, today the students make their midterm presentations to the class. Wonder how many will be finished. I have already given extensions to three students who have work commitments which keep them busy. You are welcome to see some of the stuff they have been doing. Remember, these are new-to-the-software students and a lot of their work is not polished.
Still will have to do six extra hours next week and grade a bunch more but then I will be pretty much done. I posted the html quiz last night and it will not be due until next Friday night at 11pm. I suspect, since I will be available in the lab, the students will still be coming to me for help.
Art
Got a nice quick note from *a-san at the Hentai Institute last night, commenting on my comment about the Gohan/Vejiita pic which used to be part of the splash page of the site. She says she will eventually put another section in for prior splash images. I REALLY liked that particular image because it was so funny.
Word Smith
Believe it or not I have a short one-shot story idea percolating in my head. Still working on some details but already have a punch line. Yeah, it is a bit of silliness again. I might even pull it off in the next year or two....
Finally! The nights are pretty much consistently getting into the 50's and the days are getting no higher than the low 70's. I am in HEAVEN right now! Texas is such a beastly place most of the time temp-wise.
I prefer winter clothes over summer clothes any time anyway. Haven't worn shorts in decades and the only time I wear tanktops now is in the winter as a layer under other clothes. I love sweatshirts, sweaters, turtlenecks and other bulky tops. I wear mostly men's winter clothes now because they are low maintenance (washable AND dryable without shrinkage), about half the price as women's tops and usually better made (most men have never even picked up a sewing needle to fix a seam).
I think it is time to leave the land of work and have a nice walk to the car.
As the ambitious and capable leader you are, Count D's Scroll Tiger is just the pet for you. Most of the time it shall remain a simple scroll on the wall, but if a tiger comes out of the bamboo to greet you it'll mean you're the chosen one to have all your dreams of power and glory fulfilled. Pretenders shall be mauled mercilessly. The figure of the Tiger shifts according to your personality.
Romantic-Sexy.... Your fantasies involve love, not lust. You are a fantastic kisser, and for very good reason: it's your favorite thing. You are sappy as hell, and you don't care who knows it.
Languid-Sexy.... You rock the messy hair and crisp white cotton sheet. Your idea of bliss is a day spent in bed with your lover. There is nothing wrong with that, though some people like to leave the bed at times. You're a total fox, even if you are a hedonistic bum.
Crockett --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your name of Crockett makes you quick-minded, versatile, and very expressive. You are adaptable and creative in responding to new situations. This name has given you an interest in people and a desire for new experiences. You have the ability to create a favourable first impression, and so you could do well in the fields of sales promotion or entertainment. The use of this name creates a lack of stability in your affairs as it inclines you to procrastinate. It spoils patience and weakens your stand in matters of principle. You are inclined to do whatever is expedient in order to avoid facing issues. You could suffer bitter experiences through attracting wrong types of association and can be drawn into circumstances involving you in unwise situations. Weakness in your health would come through emotional disturbances and tension affecting the nervous system. Nervous indigestion and disorders in the fluid functions could result.
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The Rat's First Name
Gary --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your first name of Gary creates a serious, thoughtful nature, shrewd, efficient, and business-minded. You are one to make your own decisions, and not be influenced by others. You desire independence and freedom from the authority and interference of others. You are not overly ambitious, preferring instead just to seek stable, settled conditions which are adequate to meet your responsibilities. In your personal relations with others, you are inclined to be rather serious, and not to see the humour others see, or to respond spontaneously. Your positive manner and outlook can make others feel that you are imposing your will on them and even interfering in their affairs. Weaknesses in your health caused by the influence of this name centre in the head. Head colds, sinus conditions, hay-fever, and weak eyes are relative conditions. Also, your tendency to worry can lead to insomnia and other overwrought conditions.
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Oh, THANK YOU for the defend, Talon, but it really isn't the office causing me to lose the touch. It's just my 'devotion' to the class and needing to have my attention there. The office and teaching are actually two separate jobs. The office is where I am a glorified clerk/student assistant supervisor/assistant to directors/lab coordinator, et al. That is pretty much straightforward 9am-5pm. It is all the time I need to devote to the students (who deserve my attention) which has crumbled me, albeit temporarily.
I must admit, I opened the Gohan/Sage pic this weekend and just stared at it blankly for a while- did I draw this? What was I going to do to it? Then some of my ideas kicked back in and I remembered some of the stuff I had hoped to do to it. I suspect it is going to be a monster before I am done with it, full of all sorts of layers, special effect or otherwise.
Just to let you know, this 'diaper butt' pic has quite a few layers because of all the special effects filters I put on one at a time and each on a separate layer. Those rays of light coming in from the top left corner is actually at least eight instances of the same special effects filter but with different attributes and colours used. I then shifted the layers around to get the final completed 'ray of light' you see here.
While my talent has currently flown the coup, I WILL get back to it, I am confident! I just need to study up and draw a lot again.
I am so angry with my hands and brain. I cannot draw Vejiita from memory anymore and barely from a reference. I have currently lost what little ground I had on the charas and I am not happy about it. All those hours of study gone and now I have to start from scratch again. Fuck... I discovered this when I was at an oekaki board practicing (gearing up for November!) and just could not get Vejiita's head and face right. For some reason the chest and shoulder muscles references have remained but I have lost all the neck detail as well. Jeeze Louise! What a pisser! Just hope it comes back quickly.
I had an idea for a silly halloween pic I will probably have to trash now because my skills are shot to hell. I had wanted to do something for the website main page as something new and different. Then, after reading Talon's blurb and checking out the Hentai Institute (that great V&Gh pic is gone, wah!) I even considered putting it in the contest just for grins. Oh well, that's not going to happen now. *glares at fingers, kicks brain*
Teaching and Grading
Looks like I will be still involved in the class even after I stop officially teaching it. I am behind on grading because looking at bits of html is REALLY tedious and the download from a modem is worse than tedious (need to have the files on my hard drive in case the server is down). The students have particular requirements to meet and so I have to not only look at the html page in a browser but I also have to look at the code itself to see if the "behind-the-scenes" requirements have been met - things like meta tags, comment tags and the like. I have only gotten about 1/4th of the student files done on one assignment and I still have one more assignment, the three sections of the midterm (the last section has not been turned in yet) and the still-to-be-assigned html quiz to grade. Looks like I won't be drawing for a while still. Again, fuck. At least I will not be spending six extra hours each week at work anymore. I hope to actually get some grading done here today, like I have planned all week but haven't, haha....
LOVER. You're a lover, not a fighter. You're romantic, and sexy... possibly even sometimes kinky. But sex fiend... Never. You're too romantic for that.
You are totaly and utterly in love and you couldent stand to be without this person. If your not already dating them START! Too late! I keep him barefoot and mpreg in the kitchen all the time now!
Romantic movie! You probably won't star in a porno anytime soon. You seem to be really into the whole "love" thing...romantic sex with perfumed sheets and candles all over the place. You're probably a hopeless romantic. You value sex and respect your partner too much to do anything like porn. AWWWWWW! <3
What kind of porno would you star in? brought to you by Quizilla
I am dad. I love having fun and I don't care who doesn't love that I love having fun. I can go on. Regardless of whether or not I have a clue what I am talking about. What member of the Brak Show are you? brought to you by Quizilla
I can always depend on Sue Berens to brighten my day with some silliness! 1. Andy Rooney on Vegetarians:
"Vegetarian - that's an old Indian word meaning 'lousy hunter.'"
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2. Andy Rooney On Prisoners:
Did you know that it costs forty-thousand dollars a year to house each prisoner? Jeez, for forty-thousand bucks apiece, I'll take a few prisoners into my house. I live in Los Angeles. I already have bars on the windows. I don't think we should give free room and board to criminals. I think they should have to run twelve hours a day on a treadmill and generate electricity. And if they don't want to run, they can rest in the chair that's hooked up to the generator.
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3. Andy Rooney On Fabric Softener:
My wife uses fabric softener. I never knew what that stuff was for. Then I noticed women coming up to me, sniffing, then saying under their breath, "Married!" and walking away. Fabric Softeners are how our wives mark their territory. We can take off the ring, but it's hard to get that April fresh scent out of your clothes.
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4. Andy Rooney On Morning Differences :
Men and women are different in the morning. We men wake up aroused in the morning. We can't help it. We just wake up and we want you. And the women are thinking, 'How can he want me the way I look in the morning?' It's because we can't see you. We have no blood anywhere near our optic nerve.
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5. Andy Rooney On Phone-In-Polls:
You know those shows where people call in and vote on different issues? Did you ever notice there's always like 18% that say "I don't know." It costs 90 cents to call up and vote and they're voting "I don't know." Honey, I feel very strongly about this. Give me the phone. (Says into phone)
"I DON'T KNOW!" (Hangs up looking proud.) Sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe you're not sure about." This guy probably calls up phone sex girls for $2.95 to say, "I'm not in the mood."
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6. Andy Rooney On Cripes:
My wife's from the Midwest. Very nice people there. Very wholesome. They use words like 'Cripes'. 'For Cripe's sake.' Who would that be -- Jesus Cripe's? The son of 'Gosh' of the church of 'Holy Moly'? I'm not making fun of it. You think I wanna burn in 'Heck'?
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7. Andy Rooney On Grandma:
My grandmother has a bumper sticker on her car that says, 'Sexy Senior Citizen.' You don't want to think of your grandmother that way, do you? Out entering wet shawl contests. Makes you wonder where she got that dollar she gave you for your birthday.
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8. Andy Rooney On Answering Machines:
Did you ever hear one of these corny, positive messages on someone's answering machine? " Hi , it's a great day and I'm out enjoying it right now. I hope you are too. The thought for the day is: "Share the love." Beep. "Uh, yeah...this is the VD clinic calling....Speaking of being positive, your test results are back. Stop sharing the love."
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9. Andy Rooney on Research:
Because over the past few years, more money has been spent on breast implants and Viagra than is spent on Alzheimer's Disease research, it is believed that by the year 2030 there will be a large number of people wandering around with huge breasts and erections...who can't remember what to do with them.
Didn't get much reading in after I got home last night. Actually did pull a 12-hr day yesterday and from 6-9pm I was giving one of my students a one-on-one html lesson. He is one of the two brothers (probably in their late 30s-early 40s) I have as students and these guys have real jobs - one is a wallpaper hanger and one is a master plumber. I am cutting them lots of slack about getting work in because when you're in that kind of business you have to take the work when it comes in. And the plumber has had to be available for inspectors so he has missed a class. So I am willing to give them some extra help to make sure they will succeed in the class. The wallpaper hanger is a musician and the plumber is an artist - both creative individuals - so my class has allowed them to let that aspect of their selves out.
Gonna download Chap 3 now, Talon. Thought it was interesting you are posting to MediaMiner now. Probably a good place to have a backup as well. I bet MM is either really happy about the influx of folks defecting from ff.net or they are going bonkers. I always have problems browsing mm, however. If I know who I am looking for it works fine. If I am just looking around the search engine does not seem to narrow things down enough or it narrows too much. Oh well, gonna have to learn it since so many fine writers/artists are living there now. Also gonna have to check their policy about posting artwork and if they can handle 'tabled and sliced' images.
Gotta go dry my mass of curls now and start getting ready for work.
Oh yeah, the bookorder got out! Now I have to do the deskcopy order, which means badgering publishers for books we need for instructors. Another fun time!
This is the kind of Pocky we tried last night. It had a bit of a coffee flavor undertone to it. Not too impressed but it was okay. rat says I can have the rest of it. I thought it was okay and liked it better as I ate more. Definitely did not feel like gobbling the entire box. We split one foil wrapper full and that was enough for us. Another picture of the box.
The wrapper we have for Men's Pocky looks a little different than this wrapper but the wording is the same.
This one is known as Pudding Pocky, the other one rat got. See the weird critter on the front?
The final box is basic Pocky, which I got for comparison.
We are a bit curious about the chocolate quality. We do like quality chocolates when we can get them.
Heheh... this one I got from a teacher friend of mine.... Three mice are sitting at a bar in a pretty rough neighborhood late at night, trying to impress each other about how tough they are.
The first mouse throws down a shot of bourbon, slams the empty glass onto the bar, turns to the second mouse and says, "When I see a mousetrap, I lie on my back and set it off with my foot. When the bar comes down, I catch it in my teeth, bench press it twenty times to work up an appetite, and then make off with the
cheese."
The second mouse orders up two shots of tequila, drinks them down one after the other, slams both glasses onto the bar, turns to the first mouse and replies, "Oh yeah? When I see rat poison, I collect as much as I can, take it home, grind it up to a powder, and add it to my coffee each morning so I can get a good buzz going
for the rest of the day."
The first mouse and the second mouse then turn to the third mouse. The third mouse finishes the beer he has in front of him, lets out a long sigh and says to the first two, "I don't have time for this bullxxxx. Gotta go home and have sex with the cat."
Wiccan has NOT been around for so short a time. Someone did not do their homework.
It always kills me when we watch the History Channel or the Learning Channel and the narrator of some historical show says something rat & I know is not the full truth. We just look at each other and say something like, "Buzz, Wrongo!" It is especially fun with shows about religion, sex and fashion. We know lots about those topics.
Martha, what are they teaching kids these days?
I actually took a college course called "Love and Sex". It was a combination of history, philosophy and psychology. Really fascinating and difficult class. Lots and lots of readings, even more writing (had to write at least one page for each class lecture AND each separate reading, AND keep a daily journal!), plus tests. I really worked hard for that "A". We read and discussed everything from St. Augustine to Marque (sp?) de Sade, Greek to Modern, Playboy to Hustler, Straight to Gay/Lesbian to Transgender, you name it, we covered it. Excellent class.
Which Witch? Wiccan (Wicca: A Neo-Pagan religion created in the 1950s. Focuses on balance, nature, and harming none.) Your aim is to help and heal those around you, improving their lives as well as your own. Carefully avoiding tampering with another's Free Will, and living by the Wiccan Rede of "Harm Ye None", you strive to keep your magick harmless yet effective. Following either a Goddess or a God, or both, you acknowledge and honor the balance in all things, including the balance of positivity and negativity - two vital parts of a whole. Which Witch Are You?
Thanks: --> to Lia, my sensei, who has inspired me to draw again. I
wouldn't be doing this without your support, Domo Arigato!
--> to Talon, for sending me her fabulous fics, inspiring me with her writing to draw my first
illustration for a story and actually liking what I drew.
--> to Dasia, for her words of encouragement when drawing her original chara.
--> to Joules, a wonderful epic fic writer, for liking my art enough to want to post them with Talon's
and her own stories.
--> to Lutra, the other half of the epic team, for being so supportive.
--> to Jacque' & Becca Raddittzu, we met on eBay as bidder and sellers and now we are face-to-face
friends. You showed us the real DBZ with your fansubs. It's all your fault the house is full of
doujinshi! *LOL*
:: welcome to bakayaro onna's mindless ramblings, rants & raves :: 
