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Amity Slash - Out of Character
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| Dear One Piece Chapter 513 |
[Sep. 5th, 2008|12:13 pm] |
Every time I get mad at One Piece, Oda decides to show me who is boss.
I'm sorry, One Piece.
You are still unbelievably spectacular. I made you some cookies to apologize.
( Spoiler cut ) |
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| Politics |
[Sep. 4th, 2008|09:24 pm] |
First off, I'm sorry for spamming any and all of you who live outside the US and therefore don't have to put up with the shit that is the American democratic process.
Second, please understand that I'm not a huge fan of Obama. The man is photogenic and a very good speaker and his plan for America is essentially to throw money at the problem(s) until there is either no more money or problem(s). And, as worker in the somewhat failing auto industry, I don't like the fact that he hates the laws of thermodynamics, which we cannot break just because we don't like them. Despite this, however, I will be voting for him.
Because.
While I was watching the Republican convention and being sick to my stomach, ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ragtime_wurm got online and we started talking abouts Reason We Don't Like the Republican Campaign, and she linked me to an interesting letter from someone who knows Palin personally. I didn't like her before. But, srsly, DO NOT WANT.
Then rags asked me to make a demotivational poster. So I did.
Plz to be spreading the letter virally. Poster, only as much as you wish to.
Right, done with politics for now. |
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| Thursday |
[Sep. 4th, 2008|10:57 am] |
So, MW was sleeping on the couch when I came out of my room, because apparently Dad was snoring and he woke her up. She does this sometimes. It kind of startled me, though.
Andalso, she asked me to take JJ to his violin lesson. So I will be doing that and then probably we will go to the bookstore for a time. Depends on JJ's amount of HW, though.
Farah is really easy to write. The Prince wants to angst a lot. I wish he would stop that.
Title: Internalized
Fandom: Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Rating: G
Warnings: Freaky things the Sands can do to people they don't like.
( They're Really Remarkably Cold-blooded when It Comes to Their Duty ) |
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| MW's Bday |
[Sep. 3rd, 2008|10:15 pm] |
We took her out for delicious dinner at this place that does good Lebanese food. And I kind wish I didn't keep Kosher so much because I've had Lebanese-style lamb and I know it is good but sadly I could not have it there. I has stuffed grape leaves instead. Also, has anyone watching me ever eaten quail? It too was on the menu, but it is not something I have ever had because I don't know of anyone who butchers quail to be Kosher.
Also, another bit of this PoP thing. These two will not shut up.
Title:
Fandom: Price of Persia: Sands of Time
Rating: G
Warnings: Look, it's G rated, okay?
( He's Zen about Most Things Now, Actually )
So, Farah walks all over her father. All over. And has had him wrapped around her finger since she was two. Minutes old. She's also Determined, and that probably not a good thing. |
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[Sep. 2nd, 2008|12:29 am] |
Saw a re-run of the ooold X-Men cartoon that I remember from being a kid. It... doesn't seem to have aged well. But one line begged for a proper follow-up.
Mystique to Rogue: "He has a secret base under Stonehenge. *pause* In England."
Needed Addition: "I tell you this because I've seen your grades, and I know you're bad at geography."
It's a Vlad quote. Don't mind me, non-DPers. |
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| Sunnyday |
[Aug. 31st, 2008|08:42 pm] |
So, it's done. Yesterday the Boy went of to Budapest, although he did stop by first to say goodbye and also get hugs. I told him to give me his address as soon as he knows it so I can send care packages, and also birthday presents at the appropriate time.
Then I played some Prince of Persia to cheer me up.
Today, MW and I went canoing. We could have gone kayaking, but I want to canoe for nostalgic reasons. So we canoed to Milford, where we walked into town and got free ice cream. The ice cream was free because the canoe-rental-place has a deal with them, and when we presented our ticket thing, they gave us ice creams. Then we got back in the boat and paddled upstream. MW I much better at steering than I, so I didn't keep getting knocked into brambles and riverbank. We stopped by a little beachy thing and I got out and splashed around and we both took a nap in the sun. I do not have a sunburn, though, because of the wonder of sunscreen! I do have insect bites :<
And now I am waiting for my family to shower so that I can go get unfilthy. Yay.
I'm thinking of attempting to turn an RP I have been having into a cohesive story. It may go better than some of the other things I've attempted to write, having a pretty well done plot and all the conversationy-bits being done. Maybe not WriMo, but something more than just snippets of time and action. Maybe. Iunno. Farah is still poking at my brain. |
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| DP Daily Icons Challenge Finished, plus icon blather |
[Aug. 31st, 2008|12:55 am] |
I finished a set of Danny Phantom icons... the problem is that I started the set eons ago, the community went and died, and I wound up just using the themes they'd said they'd use in a vote before they died. Well. I won't claim to be Icon Queen of the Galaxy (I know several dozen people higher qualified for that) but the older ones are a little embarrassing still. (Sometimes my newer ones are embarrassing too. I'm already regretting one of my new Usopp icons. Hrm.) The other side is that I had posted the link to the DP community before when someone requested icons, so I'd feel a bit spammy advertising the same table with 20~ additions.
So! I finished my Daily Icons 100 Danny Phantom challenge, anyway. Conclusion: Don't be emo, emo Vlad! But the nice bloody one does make up for it a bit, I think. Hey, whiny and self-centered and violently dangerous aren't mutually exclusive!
I've been working on some Pretty Cure icons still too, but I want to have more than just a few if I'm going to actually post somewhere about it. And with the DP icons, maybe I'll just make some more, and then post those plus a link to the completed old table...
You know, I've made over 250 DP icons, including the two 100 icon sets, plus ones I've made just for Vlad, Danny, Skulker and Walker RP journals? That is a lot of DP icons. I think I'll change out some of my own now, in fact. |
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| Hiatus |
[Aug. 31st, 2008|12:16 am] |
I am, as of now, forbidden to socialize online until graduation. This includes IM, journal, RP, chat, everything.
I am gravely sorry for this..and I will try to sneak on when possible...but that isn't going to happen too often. I can RP anything below NC-17 at school, but only over journals. I can't check e-mail at school so..yes. No RP over e-mail.
If anyone wants to RP with me continuing our IM RPs through personal journals, you can start up a post on your journal with the last posts (or a brand new RP) and then post the link here.
I am very sorry...and now..I really want graduation to come already, dammit. |
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| Sushi Friday |
[Aug. 29th, 2008|12:20 pm] |
JJ and I tag team to produce sushi sometimes. He makes the rice (which is the easy part, because of the rice machine) and and I buy the fish and spicy sauce and seaweed salad and koala yummies. That is the current Plan.
Title: Meditations
Fandom: Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Rating: G
Warnings: Starting to get really AU outside the realm of PoP:SoT canon. Also, Farah is being slightly herself here.
( Have some more lunch-break fic :D ) |
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[Aug. 28th, 2008|11:02 am] |
Won't have internet back at home until maybe Sunday or Monday.
IRL interferance and personal stupidity.
Leave a message here if ya need to reach me. :/
Will hopefully return with fics and complete sentences when less pissed.
Sorry.
At least aim should be working again when I get back online. >_ |
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| Buda-pest |
[Aug. 27th, 2008|01:43 pm] |
So, as you may or may not already know, the Boy leaves for Budapest on Saturday. This has been making me Sad, since I will not see him for another six months. I mean, I support it and all, because when else will he get to spend six months in Hungary? (Actually, probably more like five, given that he has all of December off so he can travel Europe and learn new things. Possibly that, in Europe, in the winter, it is cold. *Ahem*.) This still means I will be Boy-less until February at least, and maybe somewhat into March.
So today and tomorrow are going-to-his-house days, and then we will say tearful goodbyes and not be anywhere close enough to kiss each other for months. ;_;
Here, have some fic.
Title: Deeper Wounds
Fandom: Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Rating: G
Warnings: Still not considering anything that isn't PoP:SoT as canon. Also, the prince here is being a whiny emo brat, for no good reason that I can tell.
( Written During my Lunch Break ) |
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| Wedding Weekend |
[Aug. 25th, 2008|09:43 pm] |
So, say what you like about Ultra-Orthodox Black-Hatter Judaism, they know how to throw a party. But first, my weekend.
On Friday, I packed, and then at around ten we hopped in the car and headed towards Pittsburgh. The last time we were in Pittsburgh, Adrian was far too busy organizing her son's Bar Mitzvah, so it was nice that we got to spend time with her and her very cute three ear old son, Noah. And I got to know Adam, as opposed to just watch him do beautifully at his Bar Mitzvah. Etc.
Friday night dreams. I had three, but I don't very well remember the first one, so we'll skip over it and go straight to the second. It was about this man, thing, that decided to change the world into porcelain statues. Because this was a dream, of course, this worked, and so it was his world with his rules and everyone and everything was made of porcelain. Fragile, beautiful stuff, all the women dressed in fantastic costumes that tinkled as they walked. I was too, of course, and I think the man did it to me, but he seemed to have missed the memo that I wouldn't stop fighting for that. So I fought him by smashing his china people and whenever I could, catching and repairing his people, which was the one thing he could not do. It involved chewing the broken pieces to make a kind of paste, which when placed in the pits and chips dried to make a patch. And that was pretty much it, apart from me listening to one of his porcelain doll-children tell me a story I'd read in a book once, and decided to find a way to undo it.
The second part rewinds to right around the time he was turning the world all porcelain, and involves Batgirl and Lazarus Pits and zombies. As it was happening, Batgirl (there are two of her, Batman Beyond's Max in Cassandra Cain's Batsuit) discovered a Lazarus Pit, which had the power to restore her. Max was very angry and Cass kind of . . . surrendered herself to make a new and more powerful Batgirl. She decided right then that, a. she would lead all the secret societies among the porcelain-people and b. she would find a way to undo i, somehow by summoning Batman. There was some running across a large field and through a some trees and the building up of her group. Eventually, her people figured out that she was using a Lazarus Pit because it caused cancer in cats. Giving them Pit water would have cured them but reduced the time the Pit had, and she knew she needed it all. That one called the cats who died for the secret "the innocents" and Batgirl agreed and mourned them, but didn't stop. Near the end, the cabal-people were rebelling, because while porcelain people don't age they can't fix themselves and she wasn't going into the same kind of danger to bring back the clues that they were. They eventually shot at Batgirl, who dodged and showed them the grave of the cats, which she'd made to remember those whose deaths would not be in vain, including her operatives who were lost. And then, hidden in her little shed, she figured out how to rewind time to undo the damages, so she did. And the power of the Pit was mostly drained on the return journey and they still didn't make it back far enough in time, but Batgirl figured out something about a species of moth that had been used to turn the world into porcelain, and rewound time of her own will enough to catch and kill the moth. And thus, no one was ever turned to porcelain and the world was saved.
Then I woke up and had toast for breakfast. And, some hours of Intarwebz later, further sleeps.
Then we went out for dinners at a vegetarian Chinese place that also did sushi. So I shared a non-meat General Tso's Chicken with MW. Also, there were spicy tuna rolls and tuna and avocado rolls. And tea. Mmmm :9 Afterwards, we walked to this Rita's Ice Cream place and got Italian Ices with frozen custard. Yummy. And then we went back and I took a shower. That was Saturday. IT was just as uneventful as it sounds.
Yesterday, which was Sunday, we got up hella early and were washed and dried and packed and on the road at seven in the morning, and we drove straight through to New YorK by way of New Jersey. We arrived at the hotel around two in the afternoon, having not eaten since six thirty that morning, and this was a Good Thing. So we had a couple hours to get ready before the Wedding bits started at four. JJ and Dad took showers. I got MW to braid my hair, which she hardly ever does anymore unless I need a Really Nice Braid. Then we took a short nap.
A Jewish wedding is not, in any way, like a Christian wedding. There is no exchange of vows, or rings, or 'I do's. In the very simplest form, a Jewish wedding doesn't even need a rabbi; it needs the two persons being married and two witnesses. And this is because the essence of a Jewish wedding is the part where the bride and groom and witnesses sign the Ketubah (keh-tuba), which is a marriage contract, and someone recites the seven blessings. And that's it.
Of course, this being Judaism, there's slightly more to it most of the time.
Part the first - Bedekin (pronounce it like 'bedecking' and you'll be close enough)
The Bedekin is an ancient ceremony that occurs just prior to the wedding. As I understand it, it is very unlucky in a Christian wedding for the groom to see the bride on the day of the wedding before the ceremony. In Judaism, he has to, because the Bedekin is the part where the groom and a couple of witnesses go into where the bride is holding court and lifts up her veil and announces that, yes, this is the woman he's agreed to marry and not her sister. This entire ceremony stems from the biblical story of Jacob marrying Leah rather than Rachel because he didn't check behind her veil, and we do it now to make sure that kind of thing does not happen again.
This being a Graff affair, the bridal court was accompanied by (lots of) food. Lots. Cuisine from around the world, including sushi, lamb chops, sweetbread (which is not a bread at all, it's the thymus gland or pancreas of a calf), barbecue beefy bits, kikhul (kih as in kick, khul with the ch of a Sctottish loch and the ul of ultimate), which is a very Jewish kind of thing, potato-filled pastries, mushroom-filled raviolis, duck, coconut chicken, Israeli couscous (it's bigger than the regular kind), grilled vegetables, Israeli salad, and fruits. Understand that this was not that actual meal, this was the appetizer.
Anyway, the groom, Adam, came in with about fifty of his closest friends, and they sang and danced and Bedek'd and pictures were taken and then they danced their way out. And then it was time for the wedding.
Part the Second - Circling the Groom
So we all went out and sat in the son, and unlike the kind of wedding where the bride's family sits on one side and the groom's on the other, we were partitioned by gender. Only the very smallest of toddler boys were allowed to sit with their mothers. Both the bride and groom came in accompanied by both parents, which is the Jewish way. Other people came too, including all five of Joy's siblings and (if they had one) their spouses and (if they had them) children. And then Joy did her seven circuits around the groom. This probably has some deep religious meaning or symbolism or something, but I think it has more to do with the fact that seven is a very important number in Judaism. This was pretty no-nonsense.
Part the Third - Reading of the Ketubah
Next, we listened to the Ketubah being read. The Ketubah is the formal marriage contract. In ancient times, one supposes it would have specified what the groom owed the father of the bride in return for his daughter, and also what he owes his wife. (Jewish wives are entitled under law to food, shelter, clothing, and sex. No joke. Not getting laid enough is grounds for a Jewish woman to divorce her husband.) It would also specify what if anything he owed/was owed in case a divorce should occur. Then the father of the bride and the groom would sign it. This is the actual betrothal ceremony, and used to happen years before the wedding, especially in the case of an arranged marriage.
In more modern times, since we don't do bride-pricing anymore, it just specifies what the groom owes the bride, including upon divorce. Each Ketubah is different, and the bride and groom have them written up. My parents keep their Ketubah in a special case and take it out sometimes to show me. Before the modern age, in which the government of the countries ignored Jews at best and persecuted them at worst, a Ketubah was a legal document since Jews had to live by their own laws. Now, they are much more for show and are written in beautiful calligraphy on illuminated parchment, made from real dead animal skins. We take these not-officially legal documents very srsly.
Part the Fourth - Rings
Well, a ring at any rate, although there is no prohibition against ring exchanges even in the Orthodox community. They just didn't this time around. The groom said a blessing and gave Joy the ring. She'd have reciprocated then if she were going to, but she did not.
A note of newish wedding rings: we are prohibited from buying huje fancy expensive rings. It's supposed to be a plain gold band, a thing of negligible value. The ring is, after all, only a symbol and not meant for showing off how rich your spouse is, because that really is not supposed to be why you're marrying them. So most Jewish wedding bands are actually quite inexpensive, considering that they're pretty much the simplest gold rings imaginable.
Of course, no one ever said anything about the engagement ring, which is why my mother also wears quite a large diamond.
Part the Fifth - the Seven Blessings
The Seven Blessings are kind of well-wishes, hoping that God will bless the union with love and, being black hatters, lots and lots of little babies. A different person read each blessing, because it is quite an honor to be asked to read one. It isn't strictly necessary for a different person to read each one, though. It is just that in Orthodox Jewry, a wedding has more . . . call it "merit," for having well-known and respected rabbis, and more of them, perform these blessings. The wedding is not any less valid if you don't, of course. It's just a way of one-upping everyone else, saying I had such-and-such a rabbi perform at my wedding. And, because the Graffs are extremely wealthy, there were some Very Important Rabbis there.
Part the Fifth - Smashing of the Glass
This is more of a tradition than an actual requirement. However, it is Tradition, so isn't never not done. What happens is that after the blessings, the bride and groom stomp on a glass. (It's wrapped up in a towel or something to keep the pieces from going everywhere.) The idea is that the love between the two is supposed to fade when someone pieces the glass back together. Some couples buy very nice glasses and then keep the pieces, but I never really saw the point, seeing as it's symbolic in any case.
And that's pretty much it for the actual wedding.
Then we went to the reception hall, which was Big. Because this was an Orthodox wedding, there was a mekhitza (meh-khee-tzah), a kind of folding screen separating the male half of the dance floor from the female half. The men did the Horah with the other men, the women with the women. Even during the chair dance, the bride and groom remained on their sides of the dance floor and held other ends of the same handkerchief. And, yes, we did the Horah. You can't go to a Jewish wedding and not dance the Horah.
Two hours later, by which time everyone was hot and sweaty and kind of danced out and slightly less totally stuffed by the appetizer, dinner arrived. Dinner was plated, as JJ said several times, "like an Iron Chef competition." And it was, beautiful presentation. Egg rolls and fancy mango salad and duck bits. Then chikkin and beef and spargel (which is a German word, and means white asparagus. The asparagus is white because while it is growing they keep piling dirt up around the stalk so the plant doesn't produce chlorophyll in that bit. It's mostly grown in Germany, and is Very Expensive) and potato and carrots and green beans. Just about the point where you were feeling totally stuffed again beyond any possibility of further consumption, the dessert came out.
There was cake. There was fruit. There was mousse. There were cookies, and chocolate fondue. There were brownies marshmallows and cordials. There were canolis made of cream stuffed in a chocolate shell. There was bananas foster being made on the spot. There was a kind of parve ice cream called mocha mix that Jews eat because we can't have dairy right after a huje meal full of meat. The only thing thee wasn't, really, was a cake. Cakes are kin of optional extras.
Then there was more dancing.
And then we benched. Benching means doing the after-you-eat prayers, which are rather longer and more complex than the before-you-eat prayers, where I mean it takes fifteen minutes to get through benching. And then a different seven people, family members this time, recited the Seven Blessings again. They will be recited every day for the next week, just to make sure it takes. And then there was probably more dancing, but I waddled off like a penguin, overstuffed with good food and went to bed.
This morning, I got up although, admittedly, I was not happy about it. Then it dozed for a bit. Then I snoozed for a bit. Then I got dressed and went downstairs for some food. Food, in this case, involed bread rolls and tuna salad and egg salad, which I made into a sammich. It also involved further Israeli salad and noodle salad, and lots of sweet Danish-type things. So I had a tuna-and-egg-salad-sammich, plus Israeli salad tomatoes, plus orange juice, plus cheesecake, plus cookies. This was breakfast. The reason there was so much food was because it was a Jewish event, at which there is always more food.
Then we got in the car and droooove. On the way, we listened to Terry Pratchett's Wee Free Men, since the family liked A Hat Full of Sky So well last time and wanted to see how it started. Then we listened to music and I fell asleep some. Then we started listening to Wintersmith, the third and last of that series, but we got home a little over a third of the way through. After eleven hours. I mean, I don't mind the Bluesmobile. Actually I rather like it, but not after eleven hours.
So now I am home and should probably be unpacking instead of being online, which is what I am doing, but unpacking can happen tomorrow provided it does not happen too much later tomorrow. It is my day to cook tomorrow too, which is not something I want to do very much. Still, life goes on, even after a wedding. Or maybe especially after one.
I still don't really wish to go to work tomorrow. |
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[Aug. 25th, 2008|12:58 am] |
And despite poking the ever loving shit out of tril and aim and meebo, I'm still not logged back on. Wtfing hell. DX
So. Um. Yeah. Guess I can chat/rp here? Maybe? Too tired to poke [EDIT: the computer and stupid software; never get tired of poking you guys! XD;; ]anymore tonight otherwise. >_<
Sorry guys. |
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