Monday, February 4, 2008

A few things.
Technology continues to thwart me. A lot. There's something wrong with the Wireless login in my room... every time I enter my username and password, it just takes me back to the same screen. I've been using the Guest login since Friday, but that has its drawbacks. Namely, that for some reason, my AIM hasn't been working, so I have to log into AIM Express. Which is fine, except for the occasional hiccups.

I could go to my desk and plug into the wired network, obviously, but the bed is comfier, so hey. XD

On the external hard drive front, I'm still working on the file recovery. SimpleTech is being as unhelpful as possible. OTL

But enough of that. I HAVE A NEW SHOW, GUYS. ♥ Courtesy of my friend Chira, who is an evil temptress, I'm in the process of watching Ergo Proxy on Veoh. It's a dark, dystopian, slightly pretentious sci-fi show, but it's actually REALLY GOOD. (And from the Bebop-Champloo creative team, I can't really imagine that it wouldn't be.)

I'm actually a bit surprised that I'm enjoying it so much, seeing as I tend to avoid things that are dark, depressing, and more than a little confusing. But I usually don't like that sort of thing because those shows usually lack characters that I can like. The characters tend to be... well... sulky, selfish, and kind of detestable. But Ergo Proxy has genuinely likable characters (love Re-l and Pino, and Vincent, CAN I HUG YOU PLZ), and even the characters you don't like are really interesting.

And I actually want to write fic for it! Which is rare enough on its own.

Anyways, I can't promise the show will be your thing. But I still recommend taking a look! It's all up on Veoh.
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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

   Don't these things usually happen in romantic comedies?
Okay, so. Long story short.

I'm sort of having a crap couple of weeks, so when my Poetry class was canceled today, I said, "Fuck this, I'm going to the movie theatre." (Solo trips to the movie theatre have been sort of my thing to do to cheer myself up since I moved to Florida.) So I got a nice faux-Japanese lunch at Asian Grill, and walked to the movie theatre...

... to find that the times I found online were the weekend times, and my movie wasn't actually for three hours.

Fumed for a few minutes, and then decided to try to kill a few hours in Waltham. As I was wandering around, I found a little independent bookstore, Back Pages Books, and decided to go in. I thought they might have some blank notebooks, so I could settle in and write for a while, maybe.

No blank notebooks there, but as I was looking at the shelves, the two guys working there came over and asked if they could help me with anything.

We ended up talking about poetry for about an hour. And not just the "I talk while they nod and pretend to be interested" thing. We talked about James Wright, James Merill, Li Young Li, the creative writing program at Brandeis - they're both graduates - a lot of things. It was a really rare, great conversation, and I ended up buying Persepolis, which is a graphic novel memoir of a girl growing up in Iran in the 80's. Before I headed out, one of them lent me a copy of a Li Young Li book and said I could bring it back when I finished.

I read my books until it was time for the movie, and then headed to the theatre. And when I get there, this happens:

Girl at the box office: Are you a friend of Ben's?
Me: ... *long pause before remembering that one of the boys was named Ben* Ben from Back Pages Books?
Girl: Yeah. He called ahead, you're all set.
Me: .............. *WHAT*

So yes. I got myself a free movie, and some new friends when I go back, I guess!

And I heard back from SimpleTech about my hard drive. Not good news: it's defective, and I need to send it in to be replaced. But apparently they can do file recovery at Best Buy.

Thank you, karma. ♥
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Friday, January 25, 2008

Fantastic.
My external hard drive isn't working.

The drive itself is being read on the computer, but the files won't come up. Same goes for both roommate's computers. According to various sources online, that seems to be the typical end for this brand. I've only had it since last summer.

For those of you keeping score at home, that's about 50 gigs of movies, anime, manga, and the like. Things that would take me ages to download again, if I could even remember everything on there.

Fuck.
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Thursday, January 17, 2008

   Ah well.
Vicky, thank you for commenting on the poem! Love you, girl! <3
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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Because I haven't done this in a while?
Something I wrote for my Poetry workshop. Enjoy? :D

lying on an air mattress in my new house, two days after the new year

There’s this green light blinking
from somewhere behind the trees
bordering the property.
Not bright, but persistent,
impossible to ignore when lying
next to a door covered entirely in windows.
Without a pattern, it clicks off, only for a beat,
then floods the lawn with a sickly glow
like the ghostly orbs in those true haunting shows
I can’t seem to stop watching,
though I already decided the place isn’t haunted
because we saw the previous owner at the closing,
unmaimed, with a glinting smile.

This place moves by a different clock.
No minutes, no hours.
Staying at my friend’s lake house years ago,
we decided that dusk was a portal into
some dystopian universe where all the rules changed,
but I’d hoped for more than watching the stars
rise and set and rise again, a moonlit hike
that only ends when it feels like it.
My lantern is a lava lamp, one bought at
Wal-Mart a few hours earlier, and
though I always believed it when Mom told me
that Wal-Mart is evil, I spent the afternoon
buying things I’d always wanted in my room
but never got around to.
That’s what Florida does. Compromise.
Tuck my past life under one arm
while sunlight and beaches glitter
off his perfect teeth.

This is not my house.
It reminds me with every gulp
of dusty air it takes, in every
asthmatic wheeze, just so I won’t
be mistaken. It likes to pretend that,
even when boxed in by those
dark, hooded colors, that I could forget.

Isn’t it funny
how Florida is just as cold
as the place I left five days ago?
In the greenish pallor of that blinking light,
the ground looks more frozen
than any snow, a rock drifting in the orbit
of some warm planet, surrounded
by a whirlwind of stars that never go away.
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Tuesday, January 1, 2008

   Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, everyone! May your 2008 get off to a rockin' start!

I'll say something more substantial after I've slept, I promise.
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Monday, December 24, 2007

   'Twas the night before Christmas...
A few pictures of my tree and decorations! Just because everything looks so nice.



The hearth! Yes, we have fireplaces in Florida. From left to right: Dad's stocking, Keenan's, mine, and Mom's.



A nice side-image of the tree.



And from the middle! Isn't it pretty? Dad and Keenan picked it out this year.



Random close-up image.



And without flash for the full effect. Sorry it's blurry!



And my favorite part... the presents! :D Y-Yes, that IS packaged tandoori naan with a bow on it. My dad is crazy.



Another present shot. In case any of you have really good eyesight, you're probably wondering wtf those tags are about. XD It's a family tradition to include extremely infuriating clues on the present tags. We are amazing geeks, okay.



And one more present shot for y'all. I really have no idea what I'm getting this year.



And to close, a close-up without flash. My late maternal grandfather was an architect, and always used to encourage putting ornaments towards the trunk as well as on the branches. I rather think we did him proud this year. :D

Christmas fics (including Yuletide) are done, presents are wrapped, cards are sent, Christmas dinner has been made and consumed (quite nicely I might add, if I may brag)... my work here is done! I'm going to quietly enjoy the rest of the night.

Merry Christmas, everyone! ♥ I hope y'all get exactly what you want!
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Monday, October 29, 2007

   MyO returns, and a video!
myOtaku is back, baby! Huge thanks to Adam and the rest, who worked tirelessly to restore the site for us. We love you guys!

And secondly, a little video for y'all:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WTg_BzddIUc

(I'm the one on the front right, in the plaid skirt.)
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Thursday, October 25, 2007

   What?
I'm currently unable to make comments on anyone's pages. I can view comments from others, but it's not giving me a text box to write in.

Is anyone else having this problem? (If you are... don't say anything? Haha.)
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Tuesday, October 23, 2007

A very brief note on the SoCal fires.
All of my people are accounted for. I have an aunt and uncle who live near San Diego, and a couple cousins who have families between SD and LA, and they're all fine. Most of them have already evacuated; there have been several fires in my aunt and uncle's town, so here's hoping that their beautiful house (and vineyard!) are okay. It's wonderful to know that they're safe and out , though. And as I'm typing this, I just got another e-mail from a different aunt asking if I'd heard anything further, which I have not.

My darling Elaine has also evacuated already, and I wish her luck, too. ♥ Stay safe, love.

If anyone else on my f-list lives in the SoCal area, I'll be thinking of you and hoping the Santa Ana winds give you a break, and hopefully some rain will fall. With the Georgia/Florida wildfires at the beginning of last summer, I know how much this sucks. ♥ Take care of yourselves!
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