Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: A Dream that was Rome
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On Saturday, December 21, 2002 at 09:02 a.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Hypothesis: Mountain Dew is made out of the same stuff as firefly ass.

Support:

• Both are day glo colors
• Both taste like ass

Dissent:

• Mountain Dew does not glow on your hands when you pop the bottle
• Different consistencies
• Really big fireflys needed to get enough of the stuff.

Conclusion: Despite the evidence to the contrary, we conclude that Mountain Dew is not made out of the same stuff as firefly ass. thank you.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Lord of the Rings Inspired by Ancient Epic
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On Friday, December 20, 2002 at 03:32 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I was going to write about dinosaurs. I really was. Especially since National Geographic has another two articles up about them. This brings it up to about 5 articles in three days on dinosaurs. But I want to see if they'll post any more before I address some of the stuff in the articles. Instead, I shall talk about one of my favorite and least favorite channels. I am, of course, talking about the Discovery Channel.

I have a love/hate relastionship with the Discovery Channel. On one hand, they have some really great shows. My particular favorite is the Unsolved History, where they systematically go through and either prove or disprove a historical "fact." On the other hand, they show some of the worst, most poorly thought out shows I have ever had the misfortune of seeing. I'm talking about over dramatized, watered down fact shows that have all the substance of a piece of tissue paper.

An example, was the Discovery aired an absolutely atrocious show stating that the lunar landing was faked. And when I say atrocious, I do mean it was the worst peice of drivel I have ever seen. There supposed "expert" from NASA was probably worked in the copier room for all the expertise he had on the space program. And this supposed expert was the ONLY person they interviewed to contradict that supposed TONS of support that we didn't land on the moon. Heck, I was beginning to doubt until I found this page which systematically went through and explained in nice clear terms (and some links to actual demonstrations of some of the concepts) exactly why this show was baloney. This was my first run in with some of the bad stuff that gets shown mid afternoon on Discovery.

Then, I discovered the geology programs. Now I understand that not everyone has a degree in geology. I understand that science programs for the general public need to water down the science some. I can ever understand the need to try and make science more interesting. But the Discovery Channel's programs take it way too far.

For instance, did you know that the world is still changing? You mean everything didn't become fixed in place once humans showed up? GASP! SHOCK! The Rift Valley is still widening! Rivers are still changin their course! Volcanos are still erupting! Earthquakes are causing the off set of roads! Nature did not stop doing what it's done for millions of years simply because someone decided to plop their house down right there. It continues to amaze me that this fact is news and should be accompained by appropriate shouts of outrage and shock.

Another favorite thing for Discovery to do is over hype everything. They don't have shows about volcanos. Oh no, that's not good enough for them. Instead, they will do a show on SUPER VOLCANOS. So my question (and the question all you people in blog land should be asking) is "What makes a Super Volcano different from a regular volcano?" I watched the show. I get to the end. Do you know what the difference between a regular volcano and a super volcano?

A super volcano is a big volcano. They never tell you HOW big a volcano needs to be in order called a Super volcano. They don't tell you much of anything other that "Volcanos bad." In fact, I as a geologist, had never heard of "Super Volcanos" until I watched the show. This page pretty much proves my assumption that the term was made up and has no real definition beyond "really big volcano."

I'm going to continue bashing this lovely show because it illustrates most of my problems with Discovery Channel shows. In this show they make a huge deal over the fact that Yellowstone was not only once a volcanis area, but is STILL an ACTIVE volcanic area. To which I reply with, "Well no shit Sherlock." Hello? Yellowstone is known for it's geysers, hot springs, and sulfur deposits. Then they go on to imply that geologists were shocked by the realization that Yellowstone was still active in the 1970's. While most of the general public wouldn't connect that with volcanic activity, anyone who's passed a general geology course would figure out that this was a volcanically active region. Hell, they probably figured that out before they even understood plate tectonics.

Finally, the show used wonderful graph to show that Yellowstone usually has a large eruption every 600,000 years. It's now 40,000 years overdue. Which is slightly worrying. It would be much more worrying in my viewpoint if the graph they were using to predict when it Yellowstone would erupt next contained more than 2 datapoints. That's right! They decided that two datapoints was enough for them to then extrapolate into the future. And never mind that there was a third, earlier datapoint that did not follow this "Every 600,000 year" line. They needed to make a point and they were going to make and to Hell with the statistics.

Oh please.

And now for something completely different. This was the conversation at the dinner table last night.

Miome: This girl couldn't even spell masturbation correctly. I fail to see how she thought she could do it, much less argue for or against it if she couldn't be bothered to use the spellcheck feature on LJ.
Tsaiko: It's spelled with a "u", not an "e."
Everyone at table: ...
Tsaiko: It's one of those words I mispell a lot.
Everyone at table: ...
Tsaiko: I think I'll just be quiet over here now.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Rosemary for Remembrance
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On Thursday, December 19, 2002 at 04:46 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I love ghost stories. I do. I absolutely love them, especially when they are done well. So I was absolutely thrilled when the author of my most favorite ghost story fanfic of all time wrote a Christmas ghost story. Yes, a Christmas ghost story. I doubly love it because it's for Suikoden II and, whil enot exactly yaoi or even shounen-ai, does have slashy hints to it. So go check out my link of the day. Read. Enjoy. Squeal like the fans you are! WHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ahem.

Tomorrow, I will have to do a dinosaur entry because in the past week I've read about four articles on them. Lots of discoveries and discussion about them one right on top of the other. Always fun. Also want to see the Discovery special about evolution 200 million years in the future. Although, I am kind of scared about that as Discovery has the absolute worse record when it comes to geology/paleontology. I need to do a rant about that sometime.

I accidently stayed later at work. Didn't mean to. but I got caught up in something. And I don't even think it'll be as helpful as I thought it would be.

It's not often I discuss politics. in fact, most of the time I avoid the subject like the plague. However, I am throughly disgusted with this. My tax dollars are going to pay for a website about the President's dog? EXCUSE ME? I did not vote nor pay taxes so that the White House could put this stuff up. Silly me, I want my goverment to... oh, I don't know... RUN MY COUNTRY AND GET THE ECONOMY OUT OF THE DUMP. Not put sites with the dog's webcam or the "Life in the White House" on the web. Hello, who do you think you are George W. Bush? The f^cking Osbornes?

I also find it quite sad that CNN has article about the dog, but fails to mention this little gem. Sigh.

Catt, I'm glad someone other than Cneko will be enjoying my Kingdom Hearts yaoi. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Thorne, I know of a guy who slayed a plant on my teacher's desk with a #2 pencil. It was kind of funny, and kind of scary. We didn't mess with him for years.

I love Ann's Christmas story. Have no idea who the characters are, but it's still good. This seems to be a X-mas story kind of day.

I love the story at Neil Gaiman's blog about the letter. It's just a strange, cool story. Speaking of Neil Gaiman, I am currently reading Coraline and it is GOOD. Creepy good. Remember, I like ghost stories, and while this isn't exactly a ghost story, it's creepy enough to be one. I highly recommend getting it.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Harry Potter Fanfiction: Protective Bonds
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On Tuesday, December 17, 2002 at 04:32 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Somehow, I managed to miss the fact that it was Lunar's birthday a few days ago. Happy belated Birthday! I don't know how I managed this. However, I also almost managed to send a card reading "Merry Christmas" to a Jewish friend and a X-mas card to a Jehovah Witness friend. Right. My brain is not turned on tonight. Luckily, I caught myself before I had sent them out. Maybe I shouldn't be addressing these cards right now.

And I just signed a card to an old HS friend as Tsaiko. Lovely.

As a side note, the empty soda can next to me just started making noises. I thik something crawled into it and can't get up. I am not about to look into that can. Unless I've started attracting yaoi spirits that is. Somehow I doubt it.

Thorne, oddly enough, I'd take the exam if I could. I'm one of those few weirdos who misses classes. I mean, when else do I get a large block of time in which to write smut? Which is what I use to do through most of my classes. especially my business classes. Use to piss off all the Business Majors when I pulled A's in them too. ^_^

Twig, I'm glad that my taste in what's good in fanfics meets your approval.

Wind I feel your pain. I had much the same problems when printing my resume. Good luck on the applications. May you get into wherever you want to go.

Finally, Cneko has asked for a continuation of the Mystery Goo fragment for Christmas. Fine, I thought. I'll just need to whip up a plot with some fluff in it. No problem. After 24 hours of letting my brain stew on the idea, I have one thing to say.

Sora! Riku! You are both perverts! PERVERTS! Both of you! There is no excuse for the plot you have given me. PERVERTS! This is so wrong.

I'm going to be writing this, aren't I?

Thank you, that is all.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Tea with the White Dragon
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On Monday, December 16, 2002 at 03:45 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

And lo, did someone ask the great question: I wonder if there's any good, slightly smutty "Spirited Away" fanfiction out there? Thus the great Tsaiko answered, saying: Why yes there is. Go look at my link of the day. And then were the populace's minds corrupted. Ah-men.

You know what's really sad Thorne? I understood that entire paragraph. I shall summarize to prove it (wow, aren't you guys impressed?). Everyone remember biology 101? Males are XY and females are XX. Since the Y chromosome is wimpy, and missing a little tail to make it an X chromosome, it can't mask a disease that's located on the X chromosome. Therefore, guys with a deflicted X chromosome will show the condition REALLY well. A female, on the other hand, has another X chromosome. If one X is fine, and the other is deflicted, then the first X can make up for the second. So they don't show the disease quite so badly. Meanwhile, you have a strange situation where you find a guy who's XXY. Since he has an extra X (which brings about it's own whole host of afflictions) to mask one of the deflicted ones, he doesn't show the disease as much as those males that are normal and have just the XY.

Yes, I am well aware deflicted is not an actual word. It's a variation on the word afflicted that I use to be funny. I like my made up words.

It's really strange, but someone on-line today told me "I just realized that you're really intelligent." Which made me blink a few times. I thought it was obvious, but apparently not. I don't usually dumb down what I'm saying for people. I like science, a lot of science, and I like to talk about science. I also like random facts and bits of trivia. Such things tend to wander into my writing more than my conversations (though if you ever get me started on my rant about end of the dinosaurs, I'll have you in stitches). So it kind of surprised me that it wasn't immediately obvious that I'm just a big science geek at heart.

I guess it's because I don't like being pretensious about it. I don't sound extremely intelligent. I like very direct ways of saying stuff. I like phrasing stuff so people can understand me. I'm simple, and direct, but I get the point across. I much prefer to use the term "Glass like" than "vitreous." And it shows.

Still... for someone to just suddenly realize how much useless knowledge I have? I must be slipping.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: And lo, the cough syrup does effect me
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On Friday, December 13, 2002 at 03:31 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Anyone who has known for me for any length of time IRL and sometimes on-line realizes that giving me cold medicine is about the equivalent of giving small amounts of illegal drugs. I get high. I write some of the most graphic porn ever. Blessedly, I forget what happens between the time I take the cold medicine and when I wake up some 3-6 hours later. This is why I try to delay taking cold medicine at all costs until I can safely lock myself away from the world in a mound of blankets. Otherwise, I tend to decide to do my laundry at 5am in the morning on a Sat. or wind having friends walk me back across campus because they think I've been taken the hard core stuff.

My cold is not bad enough to require me to take cold medicine. But it is bad enough that I've knocked back some cough syrup. I am still sane. I am still (mostly) lucid. I won't know if I'll remember this until a few hours pass. What I am right now is very tired and wired like I've downed about five gallons of hot tea. And I'm stil coughing. Dammit, this stuff was supposed to work! If it's not going to work the least they can do is put some alcohol in it so that the world will be a nice, warm, fuzzy place.

Anyway, this tired drunk feeling the cough syrup has given me has inspired me to ignore my earlier inclination of going to bed, and instead write another pitas entry. This is probably not a good idea. In fact, I can almost guarantee this is not a good idea. Is this going to stop me?

Hell no.

So one of the things I've been considering in the back of my brain for the last few days is when exactly I got interested in smut. Not only writing it, but also reading it. This thought was started when someone mentioned they started reading slash and such seriously (instead of the usual: "o_O Ew" reaction which I think everyone has at first) at the age of ten. "Ten?" my mind cried, and was dutifully shocked. Then one of my little voices popped up. I shall from here on out refer to him as the Snarky Voice.

Snarky Voice: I don't know why you're so shocked.
Tsaiko: But... she was only 10! And reading yaoi! I've read yaoi! I know what's out there!
Snarky Voice: And when did you start reading smut?
Tsaiko: I was in college before I ever read yaoi (or even knew what it was...)
Snarky Voice: And how old we you when you started reading romance novels?
Tsaiko: mhfmhfg
Snarky Voice: How old?
Tsaiko: Ten
Snarky Voice: And what's the difference between the four boxes of romance novels you have and the yaoi/slash stories you can find on the web other than the fact that the people involved are the same gender?
Tsaiko: None.
Snarky Voice: And you are shocked why?
Tsaiko: Shut up you.

Which is essentially true. In Romance novels you ahve everything from fluffy, sugar sweet brain candy which takes you a few hours to read to angsty, heart breaking stories where the main characters get together over the span of several novels to stuff which you readmore for the humor than the sex. They can be graphic beyond belief, or fade to black and bring you in the next morning. Romance novels, like a lot of yaoi and slash, ranges over the whole spectrum, and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

So I read what I would consider a "romance" novel at the age of nine. I'm pretty comfortable with that age estimate because I found it at my grandparent's house and we moved to our own trailer when I started Middle School. That is, around 11. Since I can effectively remember finishing off "So you want to be a Wizard?" at the same time I was sneaking reads of this book I was pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be reading, I can safely safe it was around 10.

I use the term "romance" novel very loosely because the thing was from the seventies. At that time, a lot of "romance" novels involved sex in the form of attempted or almost rape. I don't know why, they just did. This little jewel was no acception. With the the typical "No! Stop!" dialogue and the "But I love him! It's what I really want. For him to dominate me." thoughts, this book was my first introduction to adult novels. Needless to say, I wasn't to thrilled with it at 10, and I'm not thrilled with that particular plot device now. It turned me off of them for over a year. When the book "mysteriously" disappeared from my hiding place behind the bed, I was not to disappointed I couldn't finish reading it.

Flash forward if you will to Middle School when one of my classmates started sneaking her mother's romance novels to class. She couldn't read them at home, so she's take them to class, read them there, then return them when she got home. Occasionally, she'd lend them out to her friends. I'm not sure if I could be counted as one of her "friends" but I got a few of them lended to me.

I was instantly addicted.

So when the girl decided that I really wasn't one of her friends, and took away my only source of them I did two things. 1) I raided my mom's store of books that were still packed when we moved from California and 2) I started buying them for myself with saved up allowance and lunch money.

My mom's books produced two "romance" novels of similar veins as the one I had found at my grandparent's house (probably gifts from someone she never read), only these included more story in them. Still they had the almost rape in them. Ick. It also produced a novel with "coming of age, wild hot teen sex" and a book which was straight out PORN (and not good porn either) set in Victorian England. I read all of the first two "romance" (mostly because one was set in Japan and I was fascinated by the culture it described) but could not get through the two other books. That last erotic book was too much for me. I can still remember some of the stuff it describes and I wouldn't read it again today if you paid me. Too hardcore for my tastes thank you.

The romance novel section of the bookstore proved to be much more to my liking. I would buy books from there whenever I could. Being extremely shy and nervous about buying romance novels (something which I was never told not to do, but figured since that one girl had hidden it from her parent's I should to), I tended to choose the novels that didn't have any pictures on the front cover. Sometimes, these novels were much more graphic than the ones with half-naked people on them. I read as much as I could of romance novels, trading them with friend's when I found a particularly good one, up into college.

Somewhere in there, I figured out that romance novels weren't telling the whole story. There were too much glossing over the details and small inconsistencies for me to really trust them. I decided I needed a realiable source of facts about sex. So what did I do? Did I go to my mom and ask? No. I opened the Encyclopedia Brittanica to it's section on Human Sexuality and I read. Sure, it was clinical. But it was also very non-biased, factual, and detailed. I must be the only kid in America that learned about the birds and the bees from an Encyclopedia. No wonder my mom was so disturbed when she tried to have the "talk" with me and I knew more than she did.

Towards the end of HS, my interest in romance novels began to wane. They all seemed the same. Instead of reading widely, I just picked up the newest thing by a few authors. Even they seemed to be getting old. Either there was sex and no plot, or lots of plot and no sex. I was becoming disillusioned.

In college everything was about to change. In college, I discovered not only anime but also the internet.

I had seen the internet before and knew vaguely what it was. Some of my friend's in HS had shown me websites and chat rooms and such. I knew what the sideways smileys were (and that's why I use emoticons which are right side up whenevr I can). But my friends never let me talk or stay on for long. I tend to say (and type) exactly what I think. They were afraid I'd get them kicked off of whatever chat they were on. So college remained my first big experience with the internet.

I was, to say the least, a big scared dork. I still am. Get me on-line, and unless they're acting like a total ass or completely immature, and I assume everyone is older than me. Especially writers. As such, I tend to treat them with a lot of respect and very deferentially. If I were Japanese, I'd be doing a lot of bowing on-line. When I find out that they're atcually younger than me by quite a few years, I'm floored. I never expected people to be that good and that young.

My first fandom was Fushigi Yuugi, both in reading fanfics and writing them. My first yaoi story was in FY as well over at the now defunct Almighty Chicken of Doom page. It was about the Boshi twins. I remember that the writer was a girl named Lorelai. It was sick. It was twisted. It had more plot and more beleivability than most of the romance novels I had in the boxes under my bed.

I was addicted all over again.

And the rest was history.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: The Costume Museum- Rebirth of the Tale of Genji
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On Friday, December 13, 2002 at 02:25 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Which random GW object are you?
quiz by Ponderosa and Psyche

I've started hitting up some of the links I found while doing research for my NaNoWriMo Novel for links of the day. Hence the current link of the day. I found this site most helpful when I was trying to picture any of the older styles of dress in Japan. I could find descriptions of the outfits, but this supplied pictures. Well, the "Costume History of Japan" supplied pictures. For which I am eternally grateful.

I'm still sick. I have a wedding to attend tomorrow. And I am going unless I'm dying. I missed this friend's shower because I got sick. Now I've invested money in a wedding gift and damn it, I'm going to see her walk down the aisle. No matter what.

I was planning on being more interesting, but I don't really feel like it. Oh well. Check back Monday.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: The Code of Chivalry
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On Thursday, December 12, 2002 at 02:23 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

So I am sick. I have this wonderful little cold that has settled quite heavily in my lungs so that I am coughing with nice wet sounds. My breathing is heavy. Occasionally, I breathe it to hard and I can feel my airways clog up from gunk. Then I spend several minutes hacking to try to break it up so I can breathe. I have no fever. I have no other sysmptoms. Just difficulty breathing. It is remarkably like having croup all over again. Only much wetter feeling inside.

Soyesterday I went to the eye doctor in my hometown, about a hour away. I would have gone to one in the city I live in, but the last one I went to managed to fix the astigmatism while completely screwing up the actual prescription. Then, when I told them that my prescription wasn't right, they patted me on the head and told me "We know what we're doing. It's fine." I hate when anyone takes this attitude with especially when I can tell for a fact that I cannot see stuff at a distance. And wearing my contacts with the wrong prescription was giving me headaches.

Needless to say, I didn't go back there. Instead, I went to my old doctor. Or tried to. I found out the guy I really liked, the one that I was always reminded of when I worked with the absent minded professor in college, had died in a small plane crash a few months ago. I can tell. The office (which has moved to it's third new location since I've been going there) is not as... homey as it was before. Much more impersonal. That saddens me, though the administrative staff is still nice. Here's a hint people: always be nice to the administrative staff. That way if something goes wrong, they're more likely to help you.

Anyway, they wound up having to dilate my eyes. This was not a good thing since I was driving myself. You know what's not fun? Driving for an hour in rush hour traffic at night with dilated eyes. Not only do you get this wonderful halo around any light course, you also have no kind of depth preception. This makes changing lanes a death defying experience. Literally.

Velithya, I would definitely trade you some cold for some warm. But not too much warm. Either extreme is not good for me. I tend to pass out in extreme heat and get sick in cold. As evidenced by my current problem.

I stand corrected Catt. There are blanket fics that do not center around a blizzard ^^. Good luck on your final exams. And that goes for everyone who is still taking exams.

And now, I'm going to go hack up my lungs.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: The Death of the Sims
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On Tuesday, December 10, 2002 at 04:16 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

It is cold.

Correction.

It is DAMN cold. I do not think I will go for my walk this afternoon as it is COLD and rainy and I had work late today and it is cold.

Did I mention it was cold?

So last night I started working my Harry Potter fics. More specifically, my Sirius/Lupin fics. Mostly inspired from rereading some of the fics at The Happy Valley Puppy Farm. Everyone seems to want me to write Harry Potter fanfics. I think this might be because some of the people I know who like my style of writing aren't interested in the anime series that I'm interested in or the yaoi aspect of a lot of my writing. Which I find amusing. I have actually gotten emails from people saying "I don't like yaoi, but I love your fics. So I'm willing to read it as long as you write it." or my favorite "Whenever you put something up, I can find comfort in the knowledge that if it's not the best thing you've written, I will at least be entertained."

Thorne, I do the exact same things when I see horses. When I'm driving, I have to make extra sure there's no way for me to crash because I will crane my head into all sorts of contortionist positions to look at them. It's especially bad if I'm riding, as I whatever I'm saying as I spot the horses will trail off and I have been known to press my face against the window to watch them. I think it's because I never got over the whole "UNICORNS!" stage of my life. I still collect them. I will still turn into a squealing fangirl when I see a unicorn in a store. Since I can't exactly get my hands on a unicorn, horses are a good substitute.

So Lunar was wondering why blanket fics always wing up dealing with blizzards over at the Great Conjunction. For those of you who don't know what a blanket fic is, it's a fic centered around the plot cliche "Oh no, it's cold! We must snuggle under a blanket, barely clothed to fully naked, in order to remain warm." Sex is optional, but is usually included in such fics.

Of course, said observation instantly makes me want to go out and write a blanket fic not involving. Maybe dealing with caverns because let me tell you, you will not know true cold until you enter a cavern. You spend 20 minutes in pants and a short sleeve shirt in most caverns, it'll take you thirty minutes in the summer sunshine to get the chill out of your bones. There's something about the earth and the darkness that leaves a frigid stain on your soul that takes a while to leave. I can easily see how a cave-in could be the set up for a blanket fic.

But not today. Today I continue writing Harry Potter fanfiction. I'll let the blanket fic sit in the back of mind to see if anything develops.

Any suggestions on what fandom it could be set in?

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Naked Quidditch Match- Fanfic
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On Monday, December 9, 2002 at 03:58 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Well, I thought perhaps I had simply misplaced them. It was not the case. I have managed to lose my set of keys to the PO box at work. I don't know where they could have gone. I always keep them in my purse. That's the only place they could be unless I stuck them in my pocket. But I checked all my pockets. If I find them in about a week or so I'm going to be... slightly perturbed.

So after several weeks of not having any real inclination to write more than 30 minutes at a time, I find myself writing again. This time on something where I'm combining about three seperate worlds into one world. There's a lot of stretching and shoving and minor alterations going on to get everything to fit, not contradict itself, and be beleivable. But hey, this is what I enjoy about writing. Trying to do what seems impossible.

Life is life. Nothing too incredibly spectacular happening. In fact, I think I'm just going to write some more. Short entry for today.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Print Publishers
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On Saturday, December 7, 2002 at 09:04 a.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I think most of this madness was inspired by Twig starting on the road to getting published.

So, yesterday around 9:15 pm instead of working on my story (I am not about to say "manuscript" because it sounds extremely pretentious) I decided to go look at publisher's submission requirements. I did what I normally did on the subject, and used my friend Google. I turned up site which is my site of the day. Then I went through the list one by one and looked at the submission requirements. All the ones looked promising, I saved in my bookmarks to look at later.

All I have to say is nothing will destroy an unpublished author's confidence like looking at submission requirements.

Some of the sites had gotten out of the publishing business altogether. That is kind of depressing. It means one less avenue for people to get their work in print. Some of them want me to pay to have my stuff published. While that might happen eventually, I'd like to explore all other avenues before I have to cough up money. The point of me attempting to get published is to make money not lose it. But if that's what it takes to get my foot in the door...

A lot (and I do mean a lot) of the publishers no longer take unsolicited submissions. Some of them simply say that with the sheer amount of submissions, they can't handle any more. They'll start taking submissions again once they've processed what they have. Or they can no longer accepts random submissions. Most of them put a little disclaimer asking you to go find a literary agent. Hello, if I thought I was good enough for an agent, I would have found one by now. I am just starting out. I have nothing in print and only a hand full of non-fanfics finished. I somehow doubt any agent is going to take me seriously.

The guidelines always drive me nuts. Always. Some of them I can understand. "We want the manuscript to be double spaced, printed in size 10 font or typewritten, margins 1 inch, etc." Formatting specifications are always good. Otherwise, you'll get some loonies sending in their manuscripts handwritten in purple ink with hand drawn pansies in the margins. I can even understand when they specifiy what genres they'll except. I mean, a publisher which specialized in Science Fiction does not want to be sent manuscripts of westerns.

But some of them just get on my nerves. "We want the heroine of the book to be strong and independent, someone who is fully capable of dealing with life and handling herself. She should be interesting and have a wonderful career. But she should also be feminine and have strong traditional values. Once she finds a man, he should be the most important thing in her life." It's just a summary, but that paragraph gives me the hives. I can feel the four walls of conformity pressing in on me just by reading that.

I have the sudden urge to write horribly graphic, sci-fi gay smut, but that's neither here nor there.

What really annoys me is that so very few places accept short stories. They want novels. 80,000 - 100,000 word novels. Which is what I do not have, and what I'm currently working on. Or... avoiding working on in favor of writing this. Luckily, I found one that publishes gay erotic short stories set in fantasy/sci-fi worlds. Who knew? But I think that's going to be my first attempt.

So wish me luck. I'm going to need it.

Velithya, I had much the same problem with your blog as you had with mine. I found your blog, read it several times, then would promptly lose it again. Finally updated my links and added yours. This should keep me from doing that anymore. I'm glad you like my rants. I'm also glad that no one was seriously hurt in the car accident. Car accidents are never fun. And that woman was a complete bint. Someone you have smacked her with the broom.

And now to end on a random note: Is it strange to watch your roomie play Suikoden III while listening to the Chrono Cross Soundtrack? I thought so.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: The Mathematics of Monkeys and Shakespeare
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On Friday, December 6, 2002 at 12:16 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

After two days without heat, power, or phone we now have all three. I was going to take the two days I was getting off work due to the ice storm to do all sorts of things. That was quickly, and effectively shot down. I will be saying something much more interesting after I've had a hot meal and a hot shower. In no particular order.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Area 404
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On Tuesday, December 3, 2002 at 02:47 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

So as part of my job, I have to make a lot of phones calls ususally between 15 and 25 per day (and I only work in the mornings). I'm not a telemarketer. I don't try to sell these people anything. I call people who have already received our services. All I do is ask them if they've had time to fill out an evaluation for the services we provided, and if they haven't remind them to please do so. Still, some people don't get it. For example, I called up one guy and politely asked if he had had a chance to fill out the evaluation.

"I neither confirm not deny that I have filled out the evaluation." *Click* Dial tone.

Can we say paranoia?

Twig, it would not surprise me to find out that I have little gremlins following me. Anyone who's ever walked around campus with me soon learns that street lamps will go out as I walk by. It's kind of creepy.

As I wrote this, the UPS guy stopped by. This might seem unremarkable to most people, but understand it took us OVER A YEAR to train the UPS people to come to the apartment. They honestly beleived that Apartment J did not exist. In fact, they insisted that Apartment J didn't exist. Never mind that both the US Postal Service and FedEx could find it. No, UPS continued to tell us that where we lived didn't exist. "What? That door between Apartment I and Apartment K? Nah, can't be Apartment J." Which leads me to beleive that you do not have to graduate from kindergarden in order to be a UPS delivery person.

So how did we finally get UPS to find our apartment? My roomie took a notecard and drew a big "J" on it. Then she tacked it beside the door. Form that point on, UPS could find our apartment. It would be amusing if it wasn't so sad.

But now, I have more John McPhee books (THANK YOU ITLAND). Which is good.

I also did some cleaning up of people I'm linked to. Still haven't gotten all the LJ ones up to date. I am lazy. But I did take out those that were no longer updating and added a few that I kept meaning to add. So everything is good to go.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Drought ruining crocodiles sex lives
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On Monday, December 2, 2002 at 03:20 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Well, in the tradition of the sex lives of animals and another insight into suffering caused by the drought in Australia, I present an article woes of crocodile sperm production. Yes, I am dead serious. It seems that crocodiles need summer storms in order to make sperm. Who knew? I certainly didn't until I read the article.

What is it with me and posessed appliances? Those of you who have read my pitas page for awhile will remember my encounter with the posssessed toaster. Well, today I think I met his smaller impish cousin. The possessed space heater. Luckily, this space heater does not belong to me. Oh no. My work own s this little monstrosity, and as of this morning said space heater is heading back to Hell where it belongs. Or to the local trash dump. Quite frankly, I don't really care where is goes as long as it doesn't join it's larger cousin at the foot of my bed.

Now, unlike his larger cousin, the space heater did not show a history of demonic possession. In fact, up until this morning it worked perfectly. Wonderfully. Without flaw. Almost... heavenly. I think this was just a devious attempt to gain my trust and make me lower my guard. It worked. I was not expecting it's turn toward the dark side. I totally was unprepared for what was about to happen.

So I plugged the space heater in. All was fine. I went about my work. Then I noticed a smell. It was faint at first, kind of like ozone. I didn't pay it any attention. I simply went about my work, warm and toasty. It was extremely cold outside today, so the little space heater was much appreciated. Especially given the huge windows that make up one whole wall of the office. My co-worker came in talking about his baby and all was well.

All was well, except for the ever increasing odor.

My co-worker, a devout Christian, was the first to comment on the smell and the possibility that there was something wrong with the space heater. I think it's evil presence alerted him. Not wanting to jeopardize his immortal soul for the sake of warm toes, he asked me to take a look at the space heater. I got up, walked over to the heater, and took a look.

It never made any noise. There was no pops. No bangs. It went over to the dark side without so much as a whimper. Just three inch electric blue sparks that shot out the front of the space heater with the crackle of lightning. I jumped back. A smell arose from the little machine that was far worse than any brimstone. It was the smell of charred plastic. The little heater sat smuggly on the carpet. It was obviously pleased with itself. Don't try to convince me otherwise. I know smuggness when I see it.

But unlike last time with my toaster, this time I would triumph. Just when the little demon heater thought he had won, I had the last laugh. I turned him off. Oh well, thought the heater. My older cousin mentioned this part. There's nothing to worry about. Then I unplugged the space heater from the wall. I could tell that the little demon was getting nervous. No, nothing to be nervous about. My cousin wanred me about this as well. It doesn't mean anything that I know longer have any power.

Then I grabbed the little devil and threw him in the trash can. "TAKE THAT!" I yelled, "Back to Hell with you foul spawn." Okay, so I didn't yell that. I like this job. I want to keep it. I do not want them to have to call the padded wagon for me. At least, not yet. Not until they realize I am indispensible. Then it will be too late. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

*cough*cough* Where were we? Oh yes. I vanquished the evil space heater. No priests. No exorcisms. It was me and my faith in humanity's ability to remain victorious over technology. We shall overcome!

And now, if you'll excuse me, my toilet is bubbling. I think it's a sulfur pit of Hell that has somehow been displaced into my bathroom. I can hear in gurgling as I type. But I shall face this knew intrusion of Hell into my life. I SHALL OVERCOME!

Eeep.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Software aims to turn pandas on
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On Wednesday, November 27, 2002 at 05:04 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Yet another article in the saga of trying to get pandas to mate. First, panda porn. Then Viagra. And now, software. Sigh... what some people won't do for pandas. In other news, it appears that people in Australia now have to be worried about sharks in the rivers. That's right, sharks as far as 25 miles inland according to this article. That is rather scary in my opinion. I think I'd freak if I saw a bull sharks swimming around where I use to swim.

I was going to write a special entry in honor of Thanksgiving. I decided against it. What can I say? I'm lazy. Though I do have to wish Catt a happy belated birthday. I knew I forgot something when I last posted.

I will be gone starting tomorrow, going home for the Thanksgiving Holidays. Who knows? Everything might go just fine.

Or, I could come back with a full blown rant.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Scientist burns penis on hot laptop
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On Monday, November 25, 2002 at 04:24 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I know just about everyone has seen this article, but damn, it's just too funny. I don't blame the guy for not wanting his name revealed. Hell, if I burned my penis (that is, assuming I had one) on a laptop I wouldn't want anyone to know either.

Dear subconcious,

Lay off the FF8 crack. I'm tired of the cast showing up in my dreams. No, Selphie and Rinoa are not a couple, no matter what you want. Selphie does not flirt with the girl. They definitely do not take long walks on the beach at night discussing their childhoods. And what was up with last night? Why the Hell was Zel running around wearing a TAAS T-shirt? How the heck did Squall get sucked down a washing machine? What was up with the AU scenario? Please, stop.

Yours truly,
Tsaiko

And I have finally broken down and started writing Yami no Matsuei fanfiction. At this time, it is a ONE SHOT. You hear that mind? ONE. UNO. ICHI. EIN. Single. As in NO sequels. NO part of a series. JUST ONE STORY.

Why do I get the feeling my mind is not listening to me?

My apologies for not talking to you on Saturday, Jeram. Even though my roomie contacted LH and found out you were leaving, I still thought you'd be around on Sunday. My stomach was once again giving me trouble. I don't think it was food poisoning though. I don't know what it is about you visiting. ^_^

Thanks for the good wishes Flidget. Even though I got them a little late, they are much appreciated.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Cursed Moons
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On Saturday, November 23, 2002 at 08:28 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Okay, why is it that as soon as I started working on my NaNoWriMo Novel I kept getting the urge to work on other projects? I mean for the past 23 days I've wanted to work on a) my webpage, b) a Excel Spreadsheet that will let me track progress on my other novels, c) other original stories which do not pertain to the novel I was working on in any way, shape, or form and d) Yami no Matsuei fanfiction.

That's right, Yami no Matsuei fanfiction. Nevermind, that I haven't seen the series in over a year and a half. Nevermind that the animated series deviates from the manga and therefore feels very incomplete. Nevermind that the first time I saw the series, I was only mildly impressed. Now, a year and a half later, my mind decides "Hey! I know! We can write Yami No Matsuei smut!" I think this mostly has to do with the fact that my roomie now has the entire manga set. She's been reading it (with the help of a translation) and telling me about the plot and stuff. So now, my mind has latched onto it like a puppy onto a chew toy.

I don't know why I am surprised. I shouldn't be. The only series I've discovered and started reading/writing for on my own was Yu Yu Hakusho. I got interested in that fandom strictly from the fanfiction, before I had even seen the series. Everything else has been shown to me, mostly with the hope that I'll latch onto the series and start writing for it. You know your writing is good when your friends encourage you to send them whatever you're working on as long as it's from the series they showed you and who cares if it's finished. You know your smut writing is good when they keep trying to slip you cold medicine everytime you so much as sneeze in order to get you to write more.

Despite their ferverent attempts, I rarely get interested in animes or games on my own. I usually look at them, go "Yeah, I like this, and never consider them again. It's only when my friends get really into stuff that I find myself wanting to write for it. I think it's because I have trouble with coming up with plots. I'm not like some writers. I can't just base a story off of wandering feelings and vague thoughts. I need something concrete to happen. Actions to fit the emotions being portrayed.

I can't seem to get plots like that unless I start hearing how other people see the characters. It's like I have a way of looking at the characters which is very flat, and very close to how they are portrayed. Then someone shows me another side of them. So then I want to write in order to explore that new side. And since I can't write a PWP to save my life (I've tried! I really have!) I have to work out the plot. Most of the times in the confines of the world that the original author of the series created. Which then turns it into a challenge which for me makes it even more fun. Basically, what I'm trying to say, is the more others are interested in characters from a series, the more interested I become myself.

Which is what makes this Yami no Matsuei fragment I have in my head so incredibly frustrating. THERE IS NO CONCRETE PLOT. It's basically Hisoka talking about his feelings and a series of "scenes" where things get hot and heavy. THIS IS NOT A PLOT. And yet, my mind wants me to write it. I have no idea where to start so that this doesn't sound corny. I have no idea what's going to happen. And yet, this thing wants to be written.

...

This is what happens when you write 50,000 words in 20 days.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Tsaiko's NaNoWriMo Profile
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On Friday, November 22, 2002 at 09:11 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

At 9:12pm today, I became a winner of the NaNoWriMo contest with 50,112 words. Is my novel actually done? Hell no. Do I actually care? Hell no.

This has been one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. But I have proved once and for all, that dammit, I can do it. I can write. I can write well. And I can write over 50,000 words.

Sweet mother of mercy, thank god it's over.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Kikkoman
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On Monday, November 11, 2002 at 01:35 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I have torn myself away from my novel (almost 1/2 way through and it looks like I'm going to be able to get 4+ usable short stories out of it) to bring you this link of the day. No, there's nothing else that needs to be said. Really. I hope to be able to get back to writing every day after the 21st or 23rd (which is when the 50,000 words will be done).

Until then... Long live Kikkoman!

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Random Word Generator v 1.0
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On Wednesday, November 6, 2002 at 01:47 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Your Random Word:-- metafloroism

Meaning:-- an ideology based on higher-order flowers

This bit of weirdness brought to you in place of an actual entry. NaNoWriMo is eating my life. I have crossed the 11,000 word threshold. I am in the middle of my first yaoi smut scene. I think, with very little rewriting on my part, I may have a really good, sellable yaoi short story out of this. I don't know about any of the other short stories. I think one may weasle it's way into becoming a novel. Pushy little bastard.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: http://www.bad-luck.net/nostyle/randomhumpy.html
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On Tuesday, October 29, 2002 at 04:21 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Dear God or any other Deity listening,

In the future when/if I am reincarnated, I ask that you do not use the "My First Mammal Construction Kit" (which I am sure is available at fine divine outlets everywhere) to construct any of my major organ systems. Specifically, but not limited to, my digestive track. Thank you.

Respectfully yours,
Tsaiko

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: 10 Ways to Tell Pokemon from Digimon
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On Monday, October 28, 2002 at 02:00 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I might have posted this link already, but damn it deserves repeating. This is done by someone who isn't too fond of either series, so beware. Lots of Pokemon and Digimon bashing. And yet, it's so funny...

Well, I have less that four days to prepare myself for writing 50,000 words. The panicking has begun. I finally broke down and started planning and plotting out an outline. Which is perfectly legal given the rules as long as DON'T WRITE ANYTHING USED IN THE STORY. So I'm still good to go. Although, now I know what I'm going to be working on. Which is basically a series of interconnected short stories.

And sorry, Lighthawk but some of them are going to be yaoi. Possibly one yuri story. And at least one story between a male and female. And some relationships without any sex at all. Because that's going to be one of the main themes, relationships. I like relationships. I find them very fun to play with and discuss and work with. Also, all the stories are set in the same fantasy world. Which makes me very happy since I get to develop the culture as seen from many, many viewpoints. Wheee!

Sofia, one thing you said really struck me. It was your statement about honesty bveing the best policy and how you wish you had been taught that/could live by that. That statement is not entirely true. I tend to be extremely, brutally honest. I also like people to be honest back to me. However, in society we have these wonderful things called "polite fictions" that we are supposed to adhere to. For example, when someone asks you "How are you feeling?" they do not want to hear in detail exactly how you feel at that moment. They want you to say "Good" or "Fine" or "Okay" so they can about their own life secure in the knowledge that they have made the effort to be polite. If you start answering questions like this in any sort of detail, people will get uncomfortable being around you.

Anyway... hope everything works out for you. Good luck.

And in thw category of "Things that make me go.. o_O" I was talking with a girl at anime. We started talking about yaoi considering that we are showing Gravitation this semester. I was saying I was really impressed that so many people were staying to watch it (something like 40 people staying to watch it). She seemed to agree saying "Yaoi is great! I love yaoi. There's nothing wrong with two guys being together as long as they love each other. I wish people would be more open minded about such things." So we got to talking some more and I mentioned a yuri story I had read. Her reaction "Oh my GOD! That is so wrong. I wish people would NOT write two girl characters together like that. It would NEVER work. And it's just WRONG."

My only comment at the time and now is still: O_o

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Coming Back- Strip from
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On Friday, October 25, 2002 at 01:52 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

WARNING! LINGERING BITTERNESS ABOUT MY HIGH SCHOOL AHEAD! ANGSTY AND BITTER! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Still with me? Good.

So as some of you who have been reading this page for awhile know (or those of you who have talked to me), I did not have one of the best High School experiences. In fact, I had a pretty damn sucky one. As one of my classmates put it "If these are the best years of my life, I might as well shoot myself now and avoid the misery." Most of my class agreed. I had it even worse until my junior year when I got accepted into a group and actually gained some measure of protection. Until that time I had basically no friends. Even with friends they were not fun times. but it did get better.

I was to later learn that my class at High School was one of the most clique-centric groups the teachers had ever seen in their thirty years of teaching. Meaning if you didn't fit in, you were basically ostracized or fair game. I didn't know that at the time, but the way I was being treated (basically like was something less than human) was NOT the norm. Somehow knowing that others were aware of what was going on and were doing what they could to help us that were on the fringes of the cliques makes me feel better. But they were the teachers and the administration. There was only so much they were aware of, and only so much they could do.

During this time I had to devise a way to deal with all the stress and crap that was happening to me. So I came up with my plot for sweet, sweet revenge. I would picture this little fantasy whenever I got bored or needed a break from reality. And you know what? It worked. I made it through my four years of High School, went to college, and met some of the best people you could ever hope to meet. I still see my friends who helped me get through High Schoo, only now, I don't have to deal with the idiots as well. Life is good.

But my roomie and I got to talking about High School last night, and suddenly I remember my little revenge daydream. I often use to daydream during High Schoo, especially during stuff like football games and school functions. Most of them involved strange things happening to an otherwise ordinary school. So it's no surprise that this is set during a ceremony at my High School. Enjoy.

It starts off in my High School gym. There's an award ceremony going on and the gym is the only place in the High School large enough to hold the students, teachers, and some of the parents. The bleachers are full, and the heat in there is stifling. there's no airconditioning in the gym and those in attendance have to make do with waving papers around to get relief. Consequently, there's a lot of background noise: the rustle of papers, the squeaks of people shifting in their seats, quiet chatter of bored students.

I'm a senior by this time, and my entire class in is full graduation regalia. The gowns are royal blue, as are the the square caps. Most of the tassles are blue and silver, though golden ones marking the honor society do appear. I'm wearing one of these golden tassles, as well as golden cords, a silver sash, a blue sash, and a medal around my neck. I'm sitting in the middle of a row of students. Which means I will have a hard time getting out when my name is called. And I know my name will be called.

All the soon to be graduates are sitting in folding metal chairs facing the make-shift stage that is set up at the front of the gym. A formal, wooden podium and several large ferns make it the center of everyone attention. The principal of the school is up at the podium, making a long winded speech about how great the school is, how great the graduating class is, and how important this award ceremony is. Most of us have tuned him out long ago.

Finally, the Principal finishes up and it's time to anounce the first award. One by one teachers in their finest dresses get up and read off names and accomplishments. Perfect attendance, highest GPA in classes, most improvement all go by. I go and retrieve the honors due to me. I smile and nod and shake hands with the teachers giving out the awards. Nothing seems amiss.

Finally we get to the most important part of the ceremony, the reason we've all been given a break from our classes. The heat has climbed several notches by now. The doors of the gym have been opened in an attempt to give some relief. A teacher climbs the steps to the stage and speaks into the microphone. My name is called. I get out of my seat to polite applause. In reality, my fellow classmates could care less. As I predicted it's hard to get out but, like the previous times, I manage. I take the steps to the stage slowly to make sure I don't trip. Then I'm in frontof the podium, receiving my plaque, and being asked to give a speech.

It's made to look like the acceptance speech is a spur of the moment thing. Of course, it's all been carefully planned before hand. Every word I am to say has been carefully rehearsed, double checked, and sanitized by the teachers and principal. Nothing is left to chance.

Nothing but me.

The teacher takes her seat off stage and I begin. From the very first word, the faculty knows there is something wrong. This is not what I'm supposed to be saying. I am no longer their carefully controlled puppet. They cannot effect me now, not with the grades already turned in. And they make no move to drag me off stage, too stunned by this turn of events, glued to their seats by the improbability of it all.

Have you ever had that feeling, twenty minutes after the insult is made, that you've found the perfect comeback? Have you ever wished you could have come up with it right after something was said to you? Have you ever known that deep in you heart, if you could have said those words, the person who hurt you would have been instantly put in their place? That's how I felt behind that podium. Only this time, I was saying the words when they would have the most effect. Every phrase that came to mind: pefect. Every word that left my mouth: true. And for once in my life, the school entire school knew exactly how I felt. And it was sweet.

I could see some of the students crying in the front row. I had no compassion for them. Where was their compassion when I cried, alone, in the bathroom? Where was their remorse when the taunted and laughed at my failures? No, I have no compassion for them. None at all. Let them, for once, know how it feels. Some teachers are also weeping. Fine. Weep. See what you have done to me? See what you have made? You who said you only wanted to help then turned your backs on me when I needed it the most? Weep. I no longer care.

Too soon for me, and much too long for those whom my ire has touched, the speech is ended. The gym is filled with the sound of stunned silence. I leave the poduim and gracefully walk down the stairs. My head is high. I have completed what I set out to do. I walk the length of the gym and leave through an open door. All eyes are upon me, yet no one moves to stop me. Maybe they are afraid. I don't know. All I know is that I am free.

For the first time in four years, I am free.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Voodoo is Legitimate Religion
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On Wednesday, October 23, 2002 at 02:26 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

You got to love National Geographic. Right after this story is the one about them finding the burial box of Jesus's brother. There are times when coincidences just amuse me.

So last night was the fair (meaning I've got to find time to watch the Buffy episode I missed off of Jag's TiVo). The NC State Fair is like any fair Which means the absolute dregs of humanity come out to have a good ol' time. Only since NC is in the south, we get all the rednecks AND the trailer park trash.

Now for all those going "Aren't those the same thing?" I must educate you. You see rednecks are generally male. They drive big ol' souped up trucks, come to school in camos because they couldn't be bothered to change after going hunting at 4:00am, and generally always smell like tobacco of one form or another. They date trailer park trash, but generally marry more housewifie type people who can keep the house and cook whatever it is they shoot.

Trailer park trash is generally female. They wear tight, tight clothing three sizes too small, make-up that is applied with a trowel, and tend to acquire very nasal and/or obnoxious speach patterns. In other words, they are redneck daughters/sisters who are trying to be more classy and instead are taking a step backwards. When not dating rednecks, trailer park trash will inevitably date and marry assholes. I don't know why, but they do. And these are the type of people who congregate at the fair.

Despite this fact, I had a good time. I think it's because the group I was with is mostly made of otaku. So we had lots to talk about that didn't not involve livestock, produce, or screaming in the middle of a crowd at a boyfriend to shut the #$%@ up so we could look at guys. I hate that chick. She was right behind me and had the most obnoxiously loud voice ever gifted to a human being. Instead we talked about yaoi and anime. We road rides and ate fair food. Then we watched piggy races. It was fun and thankfully not as cold as last year. Of course, the fact that I was wearing a fuzzy sweatshirt this year helped.

While at the fair, we wandered into the arena there to use the bathroom. In the lobby of the arean were these huge three sided pillars, I would never have noticed them except on one side, in huge letters, the pillar had the following message:

HOW BIG IS IT?
Needless to say, being the wonderfully mature person that I am, this sent me into hysterical bouts of laughter. What was worse was the following questions were found on the other pillars in the same giant letter.
HOW LONG WILL IT LAST?
IS IT SAFE?
HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?
WILL IT BE ENOUGH?
I have no idea what these pillars were actually for. I was too busy snickering to read further.

And despite what you might think, no I did not just add your journal to my list and then forget to delete it. I actually read it everyday. I don't remember how I found your pitas page, but if I were to bet money I would say through the now defunct Technomancy blog. I just happen to randomly read journal's linked by other people, and it they're interesting, I keep reading them. Besides, hearing you talk about band problems reminds me of when I played trumpet and had to deal with much the same issues. So... um... Hi.

Twig, I would dispense advice about getting published, but Catt's done a much better job of dispensing it. Kind of like a really nice vending machine. And Thorne your rendition of waking up also made me laugh. Again, I hope you feel better soon.

Finally, for all the Suikoden fans out there...

You are Camus x Miklotov! Aw, come on. Knights have to know how to treat a lady, but how many ladies do they get to deal with on a regular basis? It's too obvious - and you've got to have some help taking off all the armor...

Which ambiguously gay Suikoden duo are you?
Quiz by Andrea.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: No More AOL Cds
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On Monday, October 21, 2002 at 02:22 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

This weekend was a good weekend. My Roomie and I attempted to make sushi. So we got the ingredients and followed these instructions to make the rice and everything. Of course, having eaten sushi before (and since this was out first time and we didn't know if it would come out edible) we also made steamed brocolli, fried dumplings, and instant miso soup. The brocolli was great. The dumplings okay, but then again, I can't remember wheni bought the suckers. The instant miso soup was nasty. Strangely enough, our cats were willing to drink more of it than I was.

After all that, we started putting together the sushi. The ingredients were crabmeat, brocolli hearts, and avacado. It's a Miome Roll! I'm proud to say my first attempt using the small bamboo mat produced a roll. It didn't hold together to well when we cut it with a knife, and produced possibly the ugliest sushi ever created. But it tasted good and that's what really matters.

The other thing I did this weekend was bake pumpkin bread. I think next time I'll halve the recipe because it makes two loaves. And these are not small loaves. That's okay because I plan on taking one loaf over to Em and Cneko's when we meet them before going to the State Fair. Yes, I am going to the State Fair. Only unlike last year, I am going to remember to bring a DAMN SWEATSHIRT. None of this freezing my ass off.

I've been working on Digimon fics all weekend. I posted a fragment from one of the Digimon Emperor stories I'm working on to the Boys_Inc. and got one good review. Hell, I can live with that. Given my track record with other ML's, I can jump for joy with just that. Although I now feel motivated to work on the Knowledge is Power series. I need to get Power Corrupts (the sequel) done soon. And I think I know now where the third one in the series, Study Hard. Be Evil., is going. Or at least where part of it is going.

I have also finally figured out where the next part of the (A)Typical Gundam Wing Fanfic is going. I had written some on it, but I was kind of disappointed in the lack of cliches and plot. Then it hit me. It's not a Gundam Wing fic UNLESS Relena finds out! So... you can see what the next part is going to be about. This ought to be amusing.

Finally, Thorne, get better soon. And know that you are not the only one interested in people's day to day life. I too am a voyuer into such things. So you're in good company. Or at the very least, slightly insane company that likes to write yaoi and scare all the people at her anime club.

Until later.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Pocket Full of Stars
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On Sunday, October 20, 2002 at 07:58 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I have issues with...

selfishness present excess future wealth

Take Word Association Test

Sense a pattern in the results?

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Weird French Flash Game
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On Wednesday, October 16, 2002 at 01:53 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

This is one of the weirdest Flash game ever. It might actually make sense if I spoke or read French. Then again, maybe not. It's actually four games in one. I've played all four but only beat two of them. I think my favorite is id.2, because I like the sounds the runimant ghosts make when you chase them into the black goo. I also like the id.4 game since that involves much for strategy than the others.

Also, for all those poor souls doing the NaNoWriMo I found this site that has some nice stuff inclduing a manuscript template and a couple of nifty progress trackers. I highly recommend the NaNoWriMo Report Card (which is a Excel file) since it's fairly easy to use and several nice graphs for tracking your progress.

And what is up with the number f hits my pitas page has been getting lately? Not that I'm complaing or anything, but 95 hits yesterday? My little rant wasn't THAT good. I think it's because I mentioned Kingdom Hearts. My referral hits have been through the roof (and not foor like I almost typed. Dyslexic much?) since I mentioned that game and yaoi in the same sentence.

Why is it so cold today? Dammit, if it's cold it should snow. Otherwise it should be fairly warm. Althought the cold means that maybe, just maybe, the laptop showing the anime tonight at TAAS will not freeze. Maybe. I hope.

Baaaaaaa! I am sheep.

Today I ponder,
What will I do for next month
Scream is the answer.

Finally, because Robbie gave me an update about how their business is doing, go to Infernal Funhouse Productions. Buy the Anime RPG book. Come to the dark side...

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Different Strokes for Different Folks
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On Tuesday, October 15, 2002 at 02:09 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I now know why people with a medical background wince whenever they pick up a novel where the author's knowledge of medicine comes from what they remember from the Health Class they took in 9th grade. What I am talking about is erroneous facts in novels. Usually, I'm very lenient about this sort of thing, because I understand that as a writer you can't be an expert in everything. I also know from the countless times I've attempted to track down facts, that researching subjects can be a big pain. And sometimes hunting down that ONE FACT in order to make the story beleiveable to that .01% of your readers who will care just isn't worth it.

For instance, when Lynn Flewelling screwed up in her second book Stalking Darkness by describing a cliff made up of basalt and granite, I didn't mind. For a geologist this was a very jarring description. Granite is a light colored rock that forms slowly deep in the earth. So you wouldn't find it above something like basalt, which is a dark rock that is associated with volcanoes. There's some other chemical and minerological reasons why this scenario is highly unlikely.

But for the most part, I could ignore this. After all, the author is probably not a geological expert. All she needed was two rock types that were distinct and easily recognizable by people to describe one scene. Hence, basalt and granite.

Then there are the times when I want to reach through the written pages and strangle the author. Kate Elliot is one of those authors. In her novels, King's Dragon and Prince of Dogs (which are the two I've read), she has this large foreword about how much time and research she has done into Medeival England to write these books. It shows! For the most part they are well written, contains obvious parallels about the Church, and uses a lot of detailed information about the era. Therefore, when she screws up it's really obvious. And where she screwed up was in heraldry.

Heraldry was basically started as a way of identifing who was who at a great distance, ususally in a battlefield situation. Therefore rulea arose so that 1) if you used two or more colors, the colors had to contrast and 2) ones person arms (ie, colors and symbols used to represent a person/family) had to be easily distinguishable from another's at a distance. From this came the idea of metals and colors. Metals are the colors gold and silver, often shown as yellow and white. Colors are basically the colors black, red, green, blue, and sometimes purple.

The ABSOLUTE first rule of heraldry is that you do not put a color on a color, or a metal on a metal. There just isn't enough contrast between the colors and between the metals for that to work. It takes a grand total of FIVE SECONDS to find this out. Any book, site, or paper that talks about heraldry mentions this rule. An additional 20 seconds of research will explain why this rule is in place

Therefore after reading Kate Elliot's foreward, I was extremely disappointed when her characters started talking about how they saw at some distance a white deer upon a yellow flag. Here's a hint folks. Before you brag about how much research you did for a book, make sure you don't make a mistake any 8 year old with a 30 year old encycopedia set can point out. Thank you, please drive through.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: On-line Rhyming Dictionary
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On Monday, October 14, 2002 at 09:05 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

That's right people, a rhyming dictionary. And you all know what that means, right? It means I shall now inflict upon you some DEPRESSING POETRY! WHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ahem... seriously, this was written over a year ago during a kind of bad time in my life. But it's all better now. I just wanted to get it down somewhere before I forgot it or lost the sheet of paper it was written on.

---

I think the entire world should mourn,
For every broken heart.
That it should notice each color is grayer,
Each smell softer, each sound more jarring.
I suppose that all the little joys,
Balance out all the sorrows.
But explain that to the one who weeps,
I doubt you'll get much sympathy.
In those moments when it hurts to live,
To breath, to cry, to laugh, to move,
The world should have the decency to notice.
Angels should cry, and the heavens should pour.
Birds should descend into silent reverence.
Dogs should howl their grief to the sky.
And the one who caused it should notice.

But when all is said and done, I wonder
Why the world does not mourn the heart broken.

---

And do you know how hard it is to type up depressing poetry while listening to Mandar of Dexter's Laboratory laugh?

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: What a Turn-on!
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On Thursday, October 10, 2002 at 02:13 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Okay, linked to my previous entries. So all you people looking for Kingdom Hearts yaoi, there's a fragment in the side bar in the LOTS of ENTRIES link. I need to update the links to what journals I read. I really do. Sigh, I'll do it later. Right now, I'm going to read through the Etiquette Hell site I found yesterday and be lazy. Bye.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Etiquette Hell
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On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 02:48 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Well, my pitas page is getting smacked-up for Kingdom Hearts fanfics. Miome I don't think you're the only one despersatly searching for good fanfiction for the game. I'm tempted to start writing it. I really am. But I'm already starting to panic about the NaNoWriMo.

50,000 words? I think the most I've ever written on anything is something like 12,000 (although I have no idea how many words ANI is because it's all in seperate chapters and files). That's not even half of what I'm going to have churn out for this contest. The thing is, if I'm going to plop down 50,000 words on something I damn well want it to be worth it. I want to be able to sell or at the very least, remake what I write into something that is sellable. So no retelling of the orange I ate for a snack in 2,000 words just to get that days quota of words in.

Yes, I'm going to try and write on a day by day basis. I don't know how that is going to work. I'm trying to keep it in manageable bits. So by my calculations I should write between 1,500 and 2,000 words per day. I haven't picked a plot. No characters. No outline. No research. Hell, at this point I'm not even sure I'm not going to just sit down the first day, start writing, and then see what comes out. 49,999 words to go and even the writer has no idea where this is going.

I am going to do this. I am. I need to prove to myself that writing is more than just a hobby. That I can and will complete something. Yet at the same time this is scary at Hell. How the Heck am I going to write something 50,000 words long in a month? Well, guess everyone else will find out when I do.

And yes, you will hear me rant and rave in here about my progress. I probably won't post any fragments from it. And all my other stuff will probably be put on hold until this is over. Just a warning.

Just remember, I can do this.

I hope.

Oh god, I'm insane.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: National Novel Writing Month
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On Monday, October 7, 2002 at 02:31 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

So I joined the masses and registered. Help.