Teru : turns around What are you doing again?

tumblrs & musics

2009-12-17T04:48:16Z

Do any of you have tumblrs? I started one but just to keep track of all the tumblrs/posts that I like, it's exhaledtroop.tumblr.com. It's pretty empty right now. But these are people whose tumblrs I check regularly:

http://tiredofbeingignored.tumblr.com - posts a lot on sexuality, fat-acceptance, sexism, racism, feminism. Some posts NSFW.

http://ihatethismess.tumblr.com - same, focus on sexism, racism, feminism

http://liveship.tumblr.com - posts pretty screenshots from movies/shows she likes, and pictures of animals. and Zachary Quinto.

http://patriarchyisbullshit.tumblr.com - posting is kinda sparse but still like it

http://sexismandthecity.tumblr.com - women's rights, racism, feminism, art regarding all of it

here's a couple songs I found thru tumblr. like an orchestral version of Poker Face. along with other music I've been listening to on repeat.

PREVIEW	D/L
For Orchestra #9 - Lady Gaga's Poker Face
Snow Patrol - Set the Fire to the Third Bar
Angela Zhang - 夢裡花 (Meng Li Hua)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Breaking the Girl
Cupid - Cupid Shuffle
The Hush Sound - Lions Roar
The Hush Sound - You Are the Moon
Roisin Murphy - Ruby Blue
Nick Cave - To Be By Your Side

The preview for Lions Roar isn't the whole song, but I linked it anyway cos it's cool. It's a fan-made typography video.

me and me and me.

2009-11-26T00:50:41Z

mmnh I think I will fall in love with a guy who would say Have a blessed day. Peace!

I love how strong my body is. No, it's not the poster body for strength & there are tonnes of people way stronger than me but- the other day I ran up the hill right outside my house with my dog and with surprise I realized I wasn't winded at all. About a year ago? A year and a half ago? I put on some running shoes and started jogging up that hill and I was so winded after about 100 ft. I stopped.

I am really such an addict but I am grateful for the internet. Yes Means Yes! Visions of female sexual power and a world without rape. A sex-positive blog that discusses such topics as determining your own definition of virginity.

on the disappointment with Spock/Uhura

2009-11-19T06:23:12Z

Well, on ontd_st people posted the most recent news of JJ Abrams & the rest of the writer/production crew talking about what we may expect from the sequel. One of the bits was that the Spock/Uhura relationship will be taken "to the next level," and tho that is really vague, we can take from it that S/U will continue onto the sequel, and tt we will get more of an idea into what their relationship means to each other.

The majority of the comments express disappointment with the S/U storyline in the first movie, and its continued exploration in the next movie.

From what I can gather, a lot of the complaints were of how the relationship was out of character for either of them (which is one reason why I'm hesitant to input my own opinion, since after all, I have only the 2009 movie & fanfic to base my characterizations on), that the pairing seemed like it came out of nowhere, and the fear that S/U will take away from the S/K that was so integral to the original.

By "take away from the S/K" I'm not quite sure if it necessarily means BOTH the deep friendship that will develop between the two AND the homoerotic subtext between the two. But my impression is that the annoyed fans are mostly concerned with the latter.

After all, for sure the message in the first movie makes it so very clear that Kirk and Spock will have that close personal relationship they had in the original. The writers state in the commentary that (or that they liked the idea of?) their friendship/partnership (here meant w/out romantic subtext) is fated, that they are destined to be together. No matter what, they will be great friends and do great things together. So, it's a given that at the very least, it will come across in the next movie that S/K have respect for each other's capabilities & general person.

There is also fear expressed in the comments that too much romance would detract from the action movie - tt the romance will contribute nothing to the plot, will be too "mushy," reduce Uhura's general importance to the plot (as she is then relegated to Love Interest) and weaken her character. But, of course, if that romance were directed between Spock & Kirk, that is something to look forward to.

And- well, in a way, I can agree. But I disagree that the problem is just with S/U.

It's true that traditionally women have been pushed to the wayside in terms of relevance to the plot and characterization. There IS a risk that Uhura will simply be the love interest and that is all. But is the solution really to remove her from romance entirely? I think it would be better if the romance element could be sustained at the same time as Uhura having more to do with the plot/more chances to show off her capability and personal brilliance. And of course, it would be even better if women overall got a boost in screentime, plot relevance, characterization, variability. That way it won't fall on just a few women characters to represent what we are given to know of the women of Starfleet/Star Trek, along with not reinforcing stereotypes of women in the real world.

Don't the alarm bells go off when a romance between a man and a woman is expected to be mushy, but a romance between a man and another man will not? There's more than one way to participate in a relationship. There's more than one way to be a WOMAN, to be a MAN. Especially in this futuristic fantasy world, you'd think the typical/expected man/woman relationship dynamic would've lessened its hold considerably or even have disappeared. If the depiction of Uhura and Spock's relationship does go flowery, if Uhura's character is weakened by it, I think it's more appropriate to get angry at the writers (or the studio that pushes for it, or whomever) rather than at the fact that a romance between a woman and a man was included in and highlighted within the movie.

So it's particularly annoying to find someone say, "I would rather not see any romance involving a female," because that comes off really anti-female.

The believability of S/U as depicted in the movie.

Ok, being that I haven't watched TOS, all my assumptions on their character will be based on the 2009 movie and, cautiously, fic I've read.

I don't think it matters that there was no background to set us up for that first big reveal (which was, I think, when Spock loses his mom and his planet and Uhura says, "Tell me what you need."), cos we can fill in the blanks ourselves w/ no major nonsense-making, and without the movie holding our hand through everything. Sometime during those 3 years at the academy they met and felt attraction for each other. We don't know if they actually dated, kissed, or had sex. The way I interpreted their first kiss scene was, that that is actually Spock and Uhura's first kiss. Spock just suffered a massive loss. Uhura wants so much to comfort him, to show that she cares and wants to be there for him, so she is the one to take their history of mutual attraction to the next level by kissing him.

The second time they kiss, I hardly think was over the top, and even if it was (for a vulcan), well, Spock DID just get out of a scene (right????? ARGH) where his dad finally tells him that he did marry his mother because he loved her and that it is in fact ok, to feel. And he's about to beam onto the Narada in a mission with a less than 4.3% chance of succeeding. :P I think the emotional display is justified.

Idk, I don't have much more to say on the subject, there really wasn't that much time spent on it. It's merely the introduction of their relationship. It's not much of a surprise the writers want to explore it more in the sequel.

The desire for more K/S subtext, and/or back to focussing on the development of the close friendship between K/S (so in both cases, get rid of the S/U)

I just feel like- this is the direction the writers chose to go in, and it's already established that this is an AU, and they've already expressed that it's fun to play around (to a certain extent) with well-known characters and tropes - this is really. unnecessary hating on? Ugh what is it? There's already so much K/S fanfic, even WITH that S/U plotline! I suppose they just want to be able to see it large and in charge and in 256 million colors. And I can understand that, I guess it just bugs me when these same people want to defend their preferences by saying that S/U doesn't make any sense or should be seen as universally undesirable or something. (tt it is OOC, serves not the plot, threatens "to change Spock's entire role in the story." And even if it does completely change Spock's role in the story- as someone who is "always at Kirk's side" presumably to the point of forgoing all [female, non-kirk?] romantic relationships- is this really such a horrible direction for it to change in? Is it really such a radical change?)

I don't really feel any particular pull TO the S/U, but that's NOT to say that that is evidence S/U isn't "working," it's just not my preference, that's all. Like- I'm neither against it OR for it. Their scenes DID affect me - Uhura's, "What do you need?" but it's like, if they ever chose to show Bone's relationship w/ his ex-wife in more detail. I don't ship them. But it wouldn't bother me if that's what they chose to do.

(ya) booookkkksss!!!! & other recs

2009-11-14T06:16:26Z

Hey lords and ladies. Here's an amazing post from ontd. 15 pages of YA book recs featuring female protagonists. Go ontd! Even though the comm is ripe for/with wank I love that there is also a (small?, persistent) strong presence of feminists on there willing to educate/debate, and we get posts like this that call out the misogyny in a book that result in people listing their favorite books with strong girls/women.

-Sabriel by Garth Nix
-author Tamora Pierce
-The Hunger Games
-The Westing Game (dunno if it's female-protagonist, but listed as "classic YA" - like -Mixed Up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler!!!!)
-want to read The Giver again.
-series 1 800 Where Are You by Meg Cabot
-Sloppy Firsts series by Megan McCafferty
-back to Francesca Lia Block- The Wasteland, Dangerous Angels, The Rose and the Beast
-remember Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson???!?! I own it I THINK. somebody says her new book WINTERGIRLS is good as well.
-Redwall series? about mice I think???
-Juniper by Monica Furlong (and Abhorsen trilogy by her??)
-omg reread His Dark Materials (Golden Compass)
-The House on Mango Street (written in vignettes)
-reread EVERWORLD (K.A. Applegate)
-reread Catherine, Called Birdy!!!!!!!! by Karen Cushman
-Chocolate Wars (not fem-protag) err I don't rmb what went on in it, it got banned in US for a while.
-Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech, along w/ Chasing Redbird
-Perks of Being a Wallflower
-Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voight
-Judy Blume's, Are You There God? It's Me Margaret.
-Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier
-The Royal Diaries series, Cleopatra VII, also one about a girl on the Titanic
-Youth in Revolt by C.D. Payne
-King Dork by Frank Portman (this & above not fem-protag I think)
-Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
-Running out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix
-The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), about murder, skipping classes & being a neurotic intellectual
-A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
-The Secret of the Old Clock, 60's Nancy Drew
-A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
-Bridge to Terabithia
-The Realm of Possibility, by David Levithan - rmb!!!??? about queer boys.
-Wayside School is Falling Down!! Louis Sachar
-Half Magic by Edward Eager (about a magic ring that grants only halves of wishes so careful and that)
-The Time WARP TRIO!!!!!!!
-Dealing with Dragons, Patricia C. Wrede
-The Silent Storm, Sherry Garland
-A Ring of Endless Light, Madeline L'engle
-Julie of the Wolves, Jean Craighead George

and
Maru in Michigan, adorable dog blog. So very fucking adorable, fucking seriously. Pics look good, dog looks good, some good setups. part of a Japanese blog ring that ranks popular dog blogs.

and!

Vogue by Luminosity, it came out in 2007 so you might've seen it before. You don't need to have watched 300 to get/enjoy it, and the editing is quite beautiful on its own. It's a mashup of 300 with Madonna's "Vogue." Don't judge it by the weirdly crappy screengrab? Uhh I don't recall a red rectangle appearing anywhere in the video. Her summary:
Bite me, Frank Miller.

365, 5

2009-11-13T21:22:20Z

haha I make myself laugh looking at this, such a hopeful look he's got.

365, 3, 4

2009-11-13T07:14:52Z

for Wednesday n-e-s-day

Thursday!!!!

365, 2

2009-11-10T05:48:14Z

365, 1

2009-11-09T08:03:59Z

I've entered that terrifying stage where I have no clue what to draw unless it's right in front of me and moving very, very slowly, so, I'm going to try to relax that by drawing just that, EVERY! DAY! or as close as possible, and I mean it. I mean it this time. Hands drawn with opposite hands.

fanfarts

2009-08-29T02:17:20Z

5 sketches under cut, they're old, I'm slow.

and like most of the internet I'm kinda embarassingly crushing on Zachary Quinto. sigh he's so smokin I wanna roll around on the ground.

chinbat @ 2009-05-29T20:57:00

2009-05-30T01:28:27Z

Something I did for a web zine called Bang Bang Shousetsu. For the upcoming issue I submitted this to, the theme was "Picture Perfect" where the stories will be determined by the picture the writer chooses. Guidelines for illusts were basically anything goes, so when I was rushing to finish smth the morning of deadline that's all I remembered. I've been procrastinating and didn't look around the comm first so it was only afterwards I realized that the issue was still going to be m/m based, and that it's required that there's a sex scene in every story. /dumb

This evening for a couple hours all the air around outside was this buttery yellow color. I felt like someone dropped us into Pleasantville or some fake world made out of plastic or something. I was all excited at first and ready to TELL THE WORLD but then my mom was all like, There's a phrase for this kind of thing in Vietnamese, and we say it represents the beauty in life cos it doesn't last long and blarblar..........

I also went to an observatory a while ago and observed Saturn. It was so tiny and one-dimensional being so far away, looked like someone cut out a picture of Saturn from the paper and stuck it on the glass. The observatory also smelled faintly of cats. Reminded me a lot of e Jean days.

I saw the Big../Little?? Dipper in real life for the first time. I was also excited about locating the North Star in rl cos of this segment in this videogame where I maneuvered by watching the stars. Yeah fake world inspiring me to be interested in real world. Of course in the videogame the North Star was SUPER bright and even flickered strobo-light -like. Right? Or maybe it was the Evening Star. Which I found out in rl is actually a planet, usually Venus, and not always visible.

1/100

2009-05-09T06:33:08Z

I saved this sucha long time ago but I'm going to do the muura art meme. You can find it in its entirety here.

1. Draw an image, copy it three times and colour each differently/with different colours.

Texture for second copy from ex-posed.

hOOORahhh

2009-05-08T05:21:55Z

ughhh school. I am just so stupid about it sometimes.

Lately whenever I have to write papers I hate it so much. Or maybe just writing for public consumption in general cos even now I feel like I can barely get the words out. I guess I'm just really self conscious still this way. Way too much overthink! I remember when it used to come out pretty easy, but that was a while ago and I had different motivations back then.

I've joined the illustrationfriday ml but haven't done anything so far, uhh maybe I should also ask myself to write a short whatever for the illustrationfriday topic also & get some sort of juice flowing.

I really really like Blade of the Immortal.

Wow and I went to this restaurant in Philadelphia, called Yakitori Boy, and although I thought the waiters/waitresses were a little TOO dressed up, like making me laugh sort of way cos these guys would be tough and burly and wearing golden bangles and rings on every finger and giving off a cheesy costume night vibe, but dang if the food wasn't delicious. They have a karaoke bar upstairs too but we didn't check it out. If you ever go there get the okonomiyaki, which is a savory pancake usually drizzled with freakin delicious kewpie mayonnaise. AHHHHH I want it so bad right now.

Their meatballs are good too. SO juicy like there's soup inside.

And I think I finally get the point of Oleanna.

and I can't wait to go SEE UP!
and check out this HP fic. Strictus Snape and a Cure of Writer's Block I haven't finished it yet but it had me cracking up IMMEDIATELY. You don't have to wait for it to deliver and it delivers so good.

some

2009-04-04T05:14:57Z

1x tekkon kinkreet
2x gurren lagann

I like this episode of radiolab, Quantum Cello, which is mostly just music by Zoe Keating, who used to play in the band Rasputina.

response mix!

2009-03-29T00:00:23Z

SUSAN MIX [ D/L 98.8MB .ZIP ]
PREVIEW	D/L
Okay - Natural
Modern Talking - Cheri Cheri Lady
La Bouche - Be My Lover
Rilo Kiley - Portions for Foxes
Rilo Kiley - Jenny, You're Barely Alive
Natalie Merchant - My Skin
The Chieftains & Rosanne Cash - The Lily of the West
Us3 - Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)
Thomas Ferson - Au Cafe De La Paix
Julie Ruin - Stay Monkey
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - Mondo Bongo
Carla Bruni - Quelqu'un m'a dit
Carla Bruni - Raphael
Carla Bruni - L'amour
Emiliana Torrini - Unemployed in Summertime
Of Montreal - Tim I Wish You Were Born a Girl
Royksopp - What Else is There
Elvis Presley - A Little Less Conversation (JXL remix)
dj BC - Can't You Hear Biz Knocking?
Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington - It Don't Mean a Thing
RJD2 - Ghostwriter

I use dowint.net to get d/l links from goear. My reccing skills when trying to tailor to other ppl's tastes aren't that great, but if anyone else wants to rec a couple of their fave songs to me, I'll rec you songs I have in return I think you'll like.

chinbat @ 2009-02-08T20:56:00

2009-02-09T02:02:53Z

I've been listening to these on repeat and I wanted to share (group hugs all around)

PREVIEW	D/L
Beirut - Postcards from Italy
Beirut - La Banlieu
Beirut - Nantes
Yann Tiersen - La Noyée
Yann Tiersen - Les Bras de Mer
Shakira - La Tortura (w/ Alejandro Sanz)
Melody Gardot - Goodnite
Yiruma - When the Love Falls
Kung Fu Hustle - Zhi Yao Wei Ni Huo Yi Tian (instrumental)
Kung Fu Hustle - Zhi Yao Wei Ni Huo Yi Tian (w/ Huang Sheng Yi)

k first Susan introduced me to Beirut with Postcards from Italy. It has a dreamy, idyllic quality, although I imagined an old grizzly man singing it for some reason, instead of this babyfaced guy with lip slices. He likes to use strings and horns, two of my all time fave musical food groups, and he has a solid, handsome clear voice.

Yann Tiersen writes the sort of music that makes every mundane part of your life suddenly epic and legendary and drowning in nuance and meaning. Go ahead, try opening the linen closet to this sound. You won't see it the same way ever again. Also, if you start crying while this music is on, I don't think it's possible to stop. Anyway, I like horns. A lot. (Or in this case, the accordion) La Noyée is from the Amelie soundtrack, and Les Bras de Mer features a man singing slowly. Yann Tiersen has collab'd with a number of singers, which I guess shouldn't be that much of a surprise to me, although I clicked on this one track that was supposed to feature Carla Bruni and she sounded decidedly manly so I don't think it was actually her.

I recently watched Love in the Time of Cholera. Not really my cup of tea, but I heard the book was better (at seducing you to symphathize with Florentino). I had some terrible dreams after watching the film, but I digress. Shakira wrote and sang a couple songs for the film, and while looking them up I listened to La Tortura. I think I'd listened to it before but I don't remember it sounding anything like this.. the man singing with her sounds like how you do when you've got a cold and your throat is coated with phlegm, and on top of that, he sounds like he's on the verge of bursting into hot, sweaty tears. But that's how I like my men so I found it really attractive.

Melody Gardot's Goodnite is jazz, a slow, seductive piece. Her voice is just perfect. If her voice were personified it would fit exactly the image of the woman in a pulp detective novel - it's assured, low, and husky. It wouldn't quite set off a thousand ships but it has led to ill-advised comments being posted to Youtube.

Yiruma is a Korean composer whose work has been featured in several dramas, and he's 31 right now and released his first album when he was 23. When the Love Falls is a simple piano piece whose sheet music you can find here (via the search box on the upper right)

and finally
I really like what Kung Fu Hustle did with the music of 只要为你活一天, which was really big back in the 70's, which was a lot less subtle and more brash and just has that 70's tang interrupting every 10 seconds. The score is layered so delicately and so well that no sound is introduced abrupt or strange, and it comes at you like a wave. Huang Sheng Yi's voice is sorta weak but her rendition is still sweet. I totally cried when the music came sweeping on during the movie, and I hope you cry too.

Here's a pic of my dog looking like a minnow

or alternatively, like he was just squeezed from a toothpaste bottle

rl

2009-01-26T06:54:52Z

Happy CHINESE NEW YEAR!
新年快樂!
Go rub out all that lixi from the palms of your relatives.

Just spent the day w/ my mom's side of the family. Well, not even really, since it was only for 2 hrs and not everyone was there, since they were off at the celebrations of their respective OTHER side of the family's. We ate a little, chewed the fat a little, and if you were me got ignored by grandma a little whenever you talked to her. :/ The majority of the time was spent watching this hella OLD video (shot 20 YEARS AGO! ha ..... in the car I blew off the "time really flies" attitude my mom had abt it but looking back yeah a lot of things did happen in 20 years. It's kind of funny saying that, That was 20 years ago, so neat a number like the space of two inches between the fingers of my hand. It's kind of hard imagining I've been alive this long, not cos I thought I was going to die before now but I never really think abt the passage of time itself or all the things I did or didn't do or happened or not to me that led to how I feel about myself and everything today.) ..about all the stupid things we did as kids.

Like. HAHA it showed my 9 yr old cousin, celebrating his birthday, allowed to wield a 12 inch BLADE. He was allowed to cut the cake himself, gesture at ppl (aka his fellow young cousins crowding him and eagerly hovering over the cake) when he ordered them for things (GET THE BOOOWLLLS, STOP SINGINNGGG HAPPY BIRTHDAY yousingsougly) himself, and all around pose a threat to the wellbeing of the inhabitants of his immediate society. ahahahhahaha. Even my grandma, in the video, gestured w/ the knife for things while standing in the midst of tiny running children.

and my cousin learned a song about being a cat that my uncle made her, for the benefit of his video, consecutively sing 6 billion times (a heady rounded-down number). He shot her singing it facing the camera, he shot her profile singing it, he shot her WITH the accompanying dance routine, he shot her WITHOUT, he shot her w/ her fellow bros being cats with her. And yes, since it was a performance, without a doubt, the routine included her opening with a curtsy, shouting ACTION!, doing her song and dance, and then running at the camera screaming when my uncle told her "Ok 3 more times and then we're done!" (which he artfully edited so that the shot started with her wildly screaming and running at him to suddenly singing the song again HAHAHAHA.)

I've been rereading books that I remembered that I loved from my childhood- so far, Ella Enchanted (still so good), and The View from Saturday (by EL Konigsburg, of The Mixed Up Files of...whatever her name was). Without a doubt I will never stop loving Maniac Magee, never ever, never ever ever.

Then I came home and watched Winds of September. (lovehkfilm review)

It's another coming-of-age movie featuring the loss of innocence and follows the friendship of 7 guys. I thought of Blue Spring while I watched it, but it's way less flashy and not so overtly stylish. It was very charming and very fine and feels down to earth. Its subjects were handled sensitively, and the film is a first in a planned trilogy that I'm excited to watch.

The aesthetic of its cover really appealed to me.

art meme pt 2

2009-01-11T06:01:34Z

skuuld

ayamachi

kyriaquinzel

supergasnojutsu

Rachael

drawing meme

2008-12-25T08:00:19Z

ganked from Susan

The first 5 people to comment in this post get to request a sketch of a character of their choosing from me. In return, they have to post this in their journal, regardless of their drawing ability level. If you absolutely can't draw, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to offer drabbles or icons or something instead.

HAPPY HOLI! *forehead bleeds*

chinbat @ 2008-12-05T17:29:00

2008-12-05T22:30:05Z

Finally, two classes down, two more to go.

Thanksgiving no money no honey

2008-11-28T03:00:17Z

I'm playing the game Professor Layton and the Curious Village for the nintendo ds and it's SO addicting, it's literally one puzzle after another and its fandom (and art style) is really cute. the art style reminds me of that animated French film that came out a couple years ago that won an Oscar for something. The main two characters look typically anime-esque but the other characters are different from what you'd expect in terms of them resembling the main charas and look more western-style influenced. ly. This game made me really want the Nintendo DS until I finally just downloaded an emulator.

The affable Professor Layton, in position

and his boy buddy apprentice Luke with some people I haven't met yet

I'm also playing Animal Crossing but I'm ugly and bored. I guess I'm doing it wrong.

We just finished hanging out with my family today.....we ate in the afternoon and I'm STILL full. I'm kinda sad my little neices didn't show up. But I got to hold my cousin's brand new BABY! he's only a couple months old so he's pretty boring for now. but I can't wait until he grows up a little more and can play.

ughh I gotta wake up at 3am to help my mom do black friday shopping tomorrow. YAYYy..............................

chinbat @ 2008-11-20T15:37:00

2008-11-20T20:39:36Z

Freerice.com has upped its repertoire to include OTHER LANGUAGES (German, Italian, Spanish, and French! tho basic, up to 10 levels compared to english's 60), geography, art, chemistry, and the multiplication table. If you don't know what it is, for each question you get right 20 grains of rice are donated to the UN World Food Program via money earned through ad sponsorship. It's fun, simple, and compelling like a hot snake temptress cos you wanna, you want to prove your smarts.

Last Saturday I drove with a couple people down to DC and marched with a lot of people to protest against Prop 8. Sources say anywhere from 5000 to 10000 participated? I have no idea, but I know from where I was I couldn't see the front or the end of the line. We walked from the reflecting pool to across from the White House, which I saw for the first time in person and which I found rather underwhelming. hahaha. It was more huge and magnificent in my mind, like all up in my face slapping, but? Maybe it was the composition of photos, or the grass, or the way it was caged up cos they were setting up the inaugural stage. Even the people I was with didn't believe it was the WH until they saw the construction set with printed all bold INAUGURAL.

The crowd was made up of a lot of young people. I would say something like 60-70%. There was some dedicated people shouting call and responses until they were hoarse. Afterwards we went back up to Baltimore to see my friend for a bit and her freakin big nice apartment with her own personal washer and dryer INSIDE and all in all it was a good time.

In other news I'm going to check out Flight of the Conchords cos of this icon post. I thought they were a band but they are a SHOW. A funny show.

OBAMA PICSPAM

2008-11-05T16:17:56Z

A huge post by adinfinitum on why Obama is. hot. LOL NO REALLY but it's amazing, so amazing, so many pictures of him and his wife and his family and Biden and it will make you feel good. Riding the wave.

Have you been reading political blogs? Mostly I've just been following personal blogs and not many of them, I was on Slog (Seattle's newspaper The Stranger, which I read cos of..DAN SAVAGE) last night refreshing periodically but that's about it. It was so exciting to have something so immediate although I completely missed McCain and Obama's speeches. uhh yeah I plan on watching them on youtube later today. After I stop procrastinating on my schoolwork...

OBAMA!

eta- "Neighbours has moved their speakers out on to the roof, there’s a red SUV circling the block booming Baby Got Back and there are hundreds of people dancing in the street." omg

headlines around the world

chinbat @ 2008-11-05T23:42:00

2008-11-05T04:43:13Z

PRESIDENT OBAMA

pagus

2008-11-04T20:13:16Z

some stuff I did recently. I remember how I said I was going to draw every day but I forgot to do it. So now I'm going to work on an art meme...for serious. That will be my next post.

1xgaia
1xpagus

His hairstyle is a reverse bald spot.
I like his massive jaw too. Like you can dig your hand under and lift it off.

and some rl ramble

2008-10-17T05:46:55Z

not a tut just bare bones procedure. Because I like my sketches more than the finished product.

can you tell what is wrong with this picture?

1

2

3

The thing I like most is the word daubs and the daubs of white just sitting on top of her hair.

an old thing I did for parapagus. Unrelated to the last one but I never really end up liking art I do for OTHER people. I always thought it would be easier because so much info is already THERE, that I can build off on instead of having to come up with chara designs and outfits MYSELF, but then, I have to rmb that not everyone likes what I like or want to see their chara reimagined as a saggy old woman with a banana on her head. Or naked period. Unsexily.

Hem haw.

How is that my dog can smell so bad that it transcends base smelliness into pure freshly baked cookie goodness? Can this be ...............LOVE?

You know I actually think Obama has a good chance of WINNING AND BECOMING PRESIDENT! Compared to before, a couple mos ago, I was really, really scared. Although actually, I am still pretty scared someone might actually be fucked up enough to pull an assassination attempt. But omg. I feel so much better when I watch and hear him speak to us through the television.

Dissected a cat OVER AND OVER for the past couple weeks recently. God I thought I was going to hurl the first time, from the smell most potently and the fact that I was

GROSS ALERT

pulling its skin apart from its body. The next day my arm was sore.

Its eyes were blurred and half open and half-liquidy and it looks like it's glaring. Its mouth is also open in a snarl and its tongue stuck to the roof of its mouth, partially liquidated. We're only focussing on the muscle system right now, so we don't have to go too deep but I accidentally cut too far into its abdomen and it warn't pretty. It gets better when I stop thinking of its status as a cat and just as an animal specimen. Haha I read in my textbook that gynocologists must de-sexualize the examination procedure through several rituals, like being absent from the room when the patient is undressing, and observing while having a sheet put over their head so the vagina is ALL they see and are unable to be tempted into thinking of the body as a sexual object. I know this also reflects my own issues but I always get hella creeped out by male gynos.

THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY TO be a girl, a woman, a possessor of XX chromo. This is in response to general expectations of women. Sometimes I wonder if I'm limiting myself though. Like if I'm hating it too much and getting too angry about it. Like how I used to irrationally hate everything pink for a period and refuse to have anything to do with it because of its associated connotations. Now I extremely hate to exhibit or even witness "feminine displays of weakness" in the presence of such manly men, such as acting more stupid and pathetic than you are, whining and being uninitiative. Although that's such an easy thing to dislike, so what else? I suppose exercising "feminine wiles" and trying to be alluring and seductive because that is supposed to be the woman's realm of power. I mean. Not even something so obvious (at least in writing)

I went salsa-dancing with some people a while ago.. and my outfit was, tshirt, skinny jeans, sneakers. I was supposed to meet up with this girl, and I didn't go with the mindset of "Is this going to be OK to wear?" because I didn't think it was going to be an issue. It was going to be dark, and I was going there to dance and not try to get macced on. When the girl sees me she stops in her tracks and asks me WHAT am I wearing, WHY am I wearing sneakers, NO MAKEUP!? and asks me if I'm ok and if I want to use any of her stuff. She couldn't get over the fact that I didn't want to put any makeup on, and asked me over and over if I wanted some. Finally I threw a fireball at her and she stopped.

Long story short SHE couldn't even tell me why she wore makeup, because she denied wearing it purposefully for other guys or other girls (as peers) and agreed she didn't NEED it to have a good time but she did it apparently because it is just the thing to do when you're a girl and you're going dancing. And I hate that there is this normalization of it and you just do it without thinking because this way of thinking becomes a part of you.

Teru : *turns around* What are you doing again?