User:	tjwritter
	Date:	2008-07-07 09:55
	Subject:	Drabble for MidnightBlue88
	Security:	Public

Title: Mars is Bright Tonight
Characters: Harry Potter and Ron Weasley
Rating: PG
Warning: Unbeta'd
Word Count: 730
A/N: For midnightblue88who requested Harry/Ron after the battle.

 

	User:	tesla321
	Date:	2008-07-07 08:52
	Subject:	(No spoilers) Well, butter mah butt and call me a biscuit!
	Security:	Public

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

	User:	jenna_thorn
	Date:	2008-07-07 08:57
	Subject:	May the Fourth be with you.
	Security:	Public

Okay, that didn’t feel like three days off.

Granted part of that may be that I let myself get off schedule, so we were watching Star Trek at ten last night (cheesy special effects! Anvil dropping moralism! A Canadian reciting the Pledge of Allegiance with fervor!) and of course the dog woke me at four this morning, so I’m wandering around in a bit of a haze, but the actual vacation part of it felt like a week away, in blissful peace and quiet and I suppose I didn’t realize how often we overpack our vacations.

We napped. In really comfy chairs. We ate. We snuggled and played with stuffed dragons and Bear painted minis with his gramma and carefully didn’t get paint on anything. Though there was one near miss with the glue.

But mom’s (gramma’s) house is an oasis of calm in comparison to ours and that’s good. They live in a managed community with restrictions that would drive me round the bend, or more likely drive me to a sinister evasion of the spirit of the law while ostentatiously abiding by the letter of it in a cerebral rebellion that only I would appreciate. Like planting a yardstick next to the statuary in the front yard to show that it is, in fact, three feet to the inch above grass level. Or trimming the hedge so that the edge was exactly outside the twenty feet required clearance. I’m not making these rules up. No birdfeeders allowed. I don’t have a birdfeeder now, but I guarantee that I’d make a special project of figuring out a way to make one that didn’t look like a birdfeeder, just to make a point that not even the HOA would care about. Because that’s how my brain works.

But their neighborhood is lovely, if a little repetitive in regularity and strangely quiet of a Saturday morning. It’s an entire community of child-free, older people. Rather pricey, I understand, and obviously draconian in their requirements, but the trade off is a safe, quiet, child-free, immaculate neighborhood.

Mom has dragons in the front yard.

Yep, really, one of those nifty Spencer dragons in three parts, so it looks like it’s swimming through the mulch. HOA rules specify only “statues” and limits only height. They don’t say a damn thing about dragons. So while her coiffed, linen-wearing neighbors have garden gnomes and cement lions, mom’s got sea serpents and a rather ferocious fellow on the back porch. *grin*

Go mom.

Inside is the mini museum she always wanted, huge dioramas with miniscule detail but words can’t do that justice. I grabbed some photos, admittedly with my little cell phone camera, but I need to ask her permission before putting them up.

So our vacation was baking cookies with gramma and Bear stealing bacon off everyone’s plate at breakfast and a foray off to nearby Innerspace Caverns which is a nice little jaunt. The trail is a little less than a mile, so it’s good for kids, though bits of it are steep and a trifle slippy, so wear tennis shoes and not the floral mules. I suspect the guide makes or breaks the tour, but that’s okay as ours, Amy, was charming and clever about the kids’ questions and sometimes unexpected responses.

Then we came home and picked up Badger from the Amazon, who was puppy-sitting. Then we dragged ourselves home and before we could unpack we bathed Badger, because the Amazon has her own menagerie and Badger’s new bestest friend in the whole wide world is the English Labrador who is seven times his size. Seriously, he’s not so much a dog as a pony and he drools, as big dogs do, but our little dumb ass dog apparently never caught on that the pond of slobber he was sitting in was coming from the dog he was snuggled up against and…yeah… Badger got a bath and I had to wash his collar separately. Eww. Sticky. But they had big fun romping around with one another and now we are home with our own pillows, and our own flipping thermostat control – I love my dad, but sometimes, I swear, he researches cranky old man mannerisms. I don’t remember fighting over the thermostat twenty years ago, but no, daddy, 82 degrees is not room temperature, dammit.

So he has his own house again and is content and doesn’t miss us quite so much as he wanders around and finds the grass clippings we trekked in and adjusts all the chairs back to their proper height because Bear figured out that he could raise and lower them. Yes, every chair in the house. Think of it as a subtle reminder of our visit, daddy. *grin*

And we are home (or in my case, back at work) with the puppy whining and our own laundry room that isn’t nearly as fancy (who puts granite countertops in a laundry room, I ask you?) with the pipes that back up periodically but is ours in predictable ways. I wandered around the garden last night looking for harvestable stuff, but I gleaned pretty hard when we left and it’s only been three days. Feels longer. Or maybe shorter. Hard to tell.

	User:	bibliovixen
	Date:	2008-07-07 08:41
	Subject:	Celebrating the 4th, part II
	Security:	Public

Finished watching Not For Ourselves Alone yesterday. An amazing documentary that's expanded my knowledge of Anthony and Cady Stanton tremendously. I also learned that the 19th Amendment took 45 years to pass in Congress.

A friend of mine passed on these other book titles:



Eighty Years And More: Reminiscences 1815-1897





The Elizabeth Cady Stanton-Susan B. Anthony Reader: Correspondence, Writings, Speeches


Here is Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Declaration of Rights and Sentiments.

( and here is the text of her resignation speech, Solitude of Self, which is stunning )

I've never taken my right to vote, own property, child custody, higher education, and to keep my own earnings (among other rights) for granted. My basic civics course in 9th grade taught us how hard women had fought to get those rights. What I didn't know, and it wasn't covered in school, was how this was such an altering event in the course of US history.

Why couldn't my Women's Lit course been this informative?

	User:	aprilhenry
	Date:	2008-07-07 06:54
	Subject:	My new best friend - not
	Security:	Public

On July 1, on a hot and unusually humid evening, I headed out to my neighborhood book store for a reading of Finding Nouf. . I felt pleasantly charitable. I was going to go see a brand new author, a mystery writer like me. Support the troops, represent, all that. So often at signings, there aren’t that many people. Last year about this time, I went to a reading by a guy whose book had been on the Canadian bestseller list for weeks.

I was the only one there.

The event coordinator opened the till and took out enough money to buy him and me a beer at the bar next door.

Back to the present. What was the publicist thinking, I wondered as I walked along, booking a first time novelist in the middle of a holiday week in the summer. The author, Zoe Farris, would probably be all alone. We would bond in the bar. We might become best friends.

I had brought my laptop and arrived 15 minutes early, figuring I would work in solitary splendor – and airconditioning! – before the event began.

When I walked in the store, every seat was already taken.

Can we say “hubris”?

	User:	mistress_sin
	Date:	2008-07-07 09:38
	Subject:	writing - fanfiction update
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	sleepy

The fanfiction is going slowly. I have a paragraph done, or I call it a paragraph in the sense that combine the words and take out the dialogue breaks it would be a paragraph.

I even went down to the bookstore and purchased additional 'research'. Then realized I had forgotten one essential 'research' book, the one for my WIP, and will have to pick it up later. It was the one book I didn't want to forget, didn't write it down and subsquently didn't purchase. I don't really need it. I'm hoping if I read it, ideas will twist and shake to make something new and not seen before.

Later Days!

	User:	indiana_j
	Date:	2008-07-07 09:40
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Happy birthday, technophobia !

	User:	madkestrel
	Date:	2008-07-07 09:16
	Subject:
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	melancholy

Happy Great Pestilence Day! (The plague broke out around this day in England in 1348.) Bring out your dead!

As I mentioned last week, I got my hands on Kushiel's Mercy, and read it over the weekend. This was a wonderful ending to a series I was surprised to love. If you've never read any of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel books, you're missing something masterful. Every single character she creates is individual and real, even the minor folks. The political machinations are subtle and thrilling, and the battles are vivid and heartbreaking. Sure, the books are long (Mercy was 672 pages), but once you fall in, you'll be wishing the story was longer. The series is very physical, very sensual and stunning. Truly, you have not read erotically-charged fantasy if you haven't read these. But start with Kushiel's Dart, the first book.


WARNING - These are not books for middle-schoolers, and I'd probably recommend them to 18 and older ONLY. This is a grownup series. If any of my students happen to be reading this post, don't tell your parents I said you could read these! I'll be very cross with you if you do!

	User:	genehunt (posted by joannacullen)
	Date:	2008-07-07 08:30
	Subject:	TV's 50 Hardest Men?
	Security:	Public

Any chance someone caught and recorded TV's 50 Hardest Men this weekend? I'd love to see the bit with our Gene! :)

	User:	mnelson
	Date:	2008-07-07 08:19
	Subject:	Office Update
	Security:	Public

1. Last month the Sales Department had a NASCAR-themed campaign. This month, the theme seems to be Fish. An inflatable dolphin and inflatable shark are laying on top of cubicle walls, and paper-mache' fish are hanging from the sea-ling... (bad pun, I know)

2. Old woman's perfume has been smelt this morning...ick.

3. I walked by a group and heard someone say something like "That's great! That's exciting!" Someone has either quit or is pregnant.

	User:	ecogryff
	Date:	2008-07-07 06:27
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Happy Birthday, spotweld!

	User:	onetimeoffer
	Date:	2008-07-07 07:26
	Subject:	*deep breaths*
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	aggravated

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

	User:	schizophrenic
	Date:	2008-07-07 09:24
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

	User:	lalam
	Date:	2008-07-07 09:09
	Subject:	Hate Meme
	Security:	Public

I've been tagged by onegrapeshy for this fun meme:

1. I hate the color....
2. I hate the TV show...
3. I hate the taste of....
4. I hate the smell of....
5. I hate the word....
6. I hate the sound of...
7. I hate the song...


1. Puce... what exactly is puce? sounds gross!
2. Beauty and the Geek... what the hell kind of show is this?
3. Vinegar. 
4. Gonna go with onegrapeshy on this one and skunk.  Can't stand it
5. Puke, up chuck, just say throw up or vomit.
6. tires squeeling by teenagers who think their hot shit.
7. anything by shania twain.

Okay I have to tag three people... hmmmm...twilightxedward, mockingbird39, jp_davis

	User:	writtendarkness
	Date:	2008-07-07 06:53
	Subject:	And now, a writing post.
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	annoyed
	Music:	Sheriff - When I'm With You.

So the writing's going slow, but at least it's going. I'm working on Dreamer this week. The system I've been using for the past month or two is working pretty well, allowing me to spend some time on the four stories I'm working on, though Dreamer and Zombese get the lion's share of the time. The other two stories are meant to help me relax at the end of a week. I feel like I'm writing in circles half the time. I figure circles can be fixed eventually, but not writing anything can't.

Honestly, Dreamer has been the harder of the two main stories for me to work on lately. No matter what I'm working on, the first few words are hard, but with Dreamer, they aren't getting any easier. There are too many resentful parallels being drawn in the story; too many places where the words coming out of the characters' mouths could be coming out of mine, as well. At this point, it's therapy through writing. (Kind of like that time that I made a character in one of my Nanos rant for several paragraphs about things I thought were stupid. That was therapeutic and fun!) Only the problems are not getting solved, and I'm frustrated with both the characters and the real-life causes of my stress. I need to get off the ranty scene and get back to one of the more fun scenes, because there haven't been that many, this time around. Right about now, the story and I could both use a little light hearted fun. I have no idea where it's going to come from, though.

	User:	yasminegalenorn
	Date:	2008-07-07 09:07
	Subject:	Luna ATE
	Security:	Public

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

	User:	stevenagy
	Date:	2008-07-07 09:03
	Subject:	Writer's Block: Hope
	Security:	Public

	User:	heroineforhire
	Date:	2008-07-07 22:40
	Subject:	one word
	Security:	Public

Where is your cell phone? Adjacent
Your significant other? invisable
Your hair? straightened
Your mother? away
Your father? elsewhere
Your favorite thing? Friends.
Your dream last night? insnae
Your favorite drink? Water.
Your dream/goal? MAster
The room you're in? Office
Your ex? stupid
Your fear? Irrational.
Where do you want to be in 6 years? secure
Where were you last night? Home.
What you're not? sane
Muffins? ew
One of your wish list items? car
Where you grew up? Melbourne
The last thing you did? chew
What are you wearing? Gumdo
Your TV? Big.
Your pets? native
Your computer? Two.
Your life? pathetic
Your mood? bad
Missing someone? stupidly
Your car? crap
Something you're not wearing? Socks
Favorite Store? rmr
Your summer? Sizzling.
Like someone? headdesk
Your favorite color? Red.
When is the last time you laughed? Today.
Last time you cried? earlier
Who will/would re-post this? people

	User:	stevenagy
	Date:	2008-07-07 08:17
	Subject:	Geeked About Wall•E
	Security:	Public

Before I sit down and tackle the WiP today, I wanted to mention that I saw Wall•E this weekend with the family, and what got me was the soundtrack. I immediately recognized the source during the opening credits. Yes, I am weird, enjoying musicals and most Barbara Streisand films. But Michael Crawford's voice is distinctive and he stood out in Hello, Dolly.

All in all, it's as good as everyone says, well worth the money for the ticket. There were places where I laughed out loud, and another where I shouted -- yes, shouted -- "No!" as an early scene played out on the screen. :-)

	User:	mnelson
	Date:	2008-07-06 21:10
	Subject:	The 5 Most Unintentionally Scarring '80s Music Videos
	Security:	Public

http://www.cracked.com/article_16445_5-most-unintentionally-scarring-80s-music-videos.html

"No art form was more significant in the '80s than the music videos that appeared on MTV, the fabled source of our MTV2. And while history and even the songs themselves paint the '80s as a period of shallow prosperity, the music videos seemed to be on a mission to make George Orwell's vision of their decade look like Epcot Center. Sure, other generation may have lived through wars and depressions, but '80s kids have just as much a claim to psychological trauma, on account of videos like:"