I have a separate journal for my RP shenanigans (llamafordrama, if you're an RPer and/or interested) because it's what the cool kids at Insanejournal were doing and I desperately wanted to be cool. I had no idea what to do with it, but I created one on IJ, then on LJ because I did most of my RPing there, and then on DW when the mass migration happened.

I've been using it for muselists and posting drafts of apps for awhile now, but recently I've also started up a project I've been contemplating for awhile: a timeline of my RP history. I've been doing journal RPs since 2005...and online RPing a lot longer if you count the The Scarlet Pimpernel email RP I was involved in in middle school. Wish I could remember what that was called.

The timeline is a very slow going process... there's a lot of history to dig through, and the dates aren't always very clear. It's also kind of sad, remembering friends I was so close to that I don't speak to anymore, or realizing there are characters/games I played in that I forgot the names of and can't put on the list.

It's a similar kind of sadness I feel when I look at my old LJ, which I've had since 2003. So much of my life and so many of the people in it are wrapped up in those entries. But it's kind of terrifying to wade through. Not only did I get my LJ before they implemented the tagging feature, but it's only in the last year or so that I've actually gotten serious about using tags as an organizational/archival tool. 9 years of my life are not properly indexed. There are worse things, of course, and I'm not anal enough to go back and tag them properly, but it does make me a little sad to think about.

It also makes me really, really admire people who do archival work full-time. If organizing one small section of my single short history is this much effort, then I can't imagine the work that goes into doing things like keeping a history of the internet, or of fandom, or of a geographical region.

I love the internet.

I saw Brave yesterday and want to babble about it, but instead I am babbling about...nothing really. Courtesy of astro_noms

Accent Meme by esotaria

Your name and URL
Where you're from
Your age

Pronounce the following words: Aunt, Roof, Route, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Pajamas, Caught, Naturally, Aluminum, GIF, Tumblr, Crackerjack, Doorknob, Envelope, GPOY, Abrasion, Charm, Cinnamon, Demeanor, Elixir, Epiphany, Fermented, Iniquity, Labyrinth, Leisure, Mannequin, Mermaid, Pandemonium, Phoenix, Quintessential, Spice, Unicorn, Warfare, Whiskey, Winter, Zest

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is a bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What is the thing you change the TV channel with?
Do you think you have an accent?
Be a wizard or a vampire?
Do you know anyone on Tumblr in real life?
What is your favorite swear word?
Read a passage from a book.
End this audio post by saying goodbye in a different language.

I am incapable of not goofing off with my voice. Give me a list of words and I have to start doing weird shit with it.

So this morning, I woke up at 6 and decided fuck it, I'd get to work ridiculously early.

Before 8 AM, you have to use your keycard to get up and down the elevators in my office building, and your keycard is coded to your specific floor (except for the first floor, which is the ground floor).

I got on the elevator and pushed the button for the 6th floor. Elevator wouldn't accept it. It took me to the second floor and just stopped.

So I went down to the first floor and tried to get on a different elevator.


We have four god damn mother fucking elevators in this building. THAT ONE WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT WOULD COME.

For FIFTEEN MINUTES, I tried to get another elevator. One guy was going to the fourth floor, and HE managed to get it to work.

Finally another guy came, and he was going to the 7th floor, so I hopped on with him and tried to take the stairs down to the 6th floor.

The door from the stairs to the 6th floor was locked. I tried all my keys, but none of them would open the door.

I saw that there was a button - push, alarm will sound for 15 seconds, and you can open the door. I pushed, and while the alarm was sounding, tried to open the door.

Still locked.


So I went down the stairs to the first floor. Except the door to the first floor WAS FUCKING LOCKED TOO.


Visions of being trapped in this goddamn staircase danced in my head. I didn't have a cellphone, and even if I did, I didn't have the building manager's number saved on it. I would have to go back to the 6th floor, hope that I could still get on to my job's wireless, and send one of my coworkers an email saying "When you get in, can you open the door to the staircase? I'm trapped." And then wait an hour and a half until someone arrived.


I climbed back up to the 6th floor. Out of desperation, I tried again.


And the door was unlocked.


Whatever higher power is laughing at me right now, you can cut it the fuck out.


Or grab me a Coke and let me laugh with you. Like, what the fuck is that.


The lesson, ladies and gentlemen, is that you should never randomly decide to arrive at work two and a half hours earlier than you're scheduled.

subject line stolen shamelessly from Tumblr

Happy 4th of July, my fellow Americans! (And a happy July 4 to everyone else as well. Just because it isn't your national holiday doesn't mean you shouldn't be happy today.)

In honor of this new birth of freedom, I will be holed up in my room, as far away from other human beings, loud noises, and pretty lights as I can get. Freedom is a beautiful thing.

I just realized that the Declaration is basically the world's most famous Dear John letter. This is going to make me happy for the rest of the day.



Also, US History Minus the White Guys. You're welcome.

-- Do that write-up of my Japan trip
-- Post my Reverse originalbigbang story
-- Start writing/posting tv thoughts again. I've been watching a lot of stuff and my meta-loving armchair pop cultural analyst is frothing at the bit.


In related news, hello Dreamwidth! I have been back awhile but I will now endeavor to actually be present.

I just want Pinterest's interface with Pinboard's tagging capability, and for that to somehow magically merge with Tumblr. I hate having things spread out like this. Pinboard is the best for organization, but it's ugly and really not good for organizing pictures. Pinterest has a gorgeous interface, but it's only good for certain types of organizing, and I really don't understand how its tagging system works. Tumblr is almost like a hybrid of them both (albeit one predating both), but it's not as pretty as Pinterest and its tagging system is not nearly as nice as Pinboard.

Perhaps because for so long Livejournal was my only social networking site, I'm really not comfortable with being scattered across so many social networks & bookmarking sites. But there's no elegant way to consolidate them that I can find. There are plenty of ways to consolidate posting to most of them, but no way to consolidate reading them.

Meh. I'm all kinds of mentally overloaded right now. I'm really looking forward to disconnecting from work and the internet entirely when I head to Japan with yinza.

In the meantime, I'm curious - what social networking/bookmarking sites are you on, and how do you manage them? Do you use a specific site for a specific purpose?

Kristen Cashore is going to be in my area promoting Bitterblue the same weekend as Maryland Sheep & Wool.

HYUNNNNNNNNNNNG. Must figure out a way to finagle this. Must must must. Bitterblue was my favorite character in Graceling and I'm so excited to have a book that's all all all about her.

Aang, along with his true love Katara and her brother Sokka

It shouldn't bug me as much as it does, since it's all relational. It's not like they went "Aang, his true love Katara, and lone watertribe warrior Sokka". Philosophical questions like "is there such a thing as 'true love'" aside, it's also completely true.

But LAWD it is grating on me.

Between this and ( the minorest of spoilers ), I am reminded why I fucking hate advertising. Not hate as in "WHY DOES ALL ADVERTISING SUCK? WHY CAN'T THEY MAKE GOOD ADVERTISING, GAWD!" More like "Oh, hey there, advertising. OH, LOOK, THERE'S SOMEONE I HAVE TO SPEAK TO! /leaves quickly before getting sucked into horrifically awkward conversation".

You just have such a small space to tease such complex stories. Ensemble shows get reduced to one central character and their satellites; ambiguous conflicts are made black and white. It's just doing its job.


This pointless whine-fest has been brought to you by: Friday the 13th. One long, crazy, messed up day, and I've still got two hours to go.

After years of hearing talk about Nutella like it's the most delicious thing heaven ever sent to humanity, I decided to try it. So I picked it up at the grocery store this morning.

Morning
Puts it on a piece of a plain bagel Hmm, okay.
Mixes it with cream cheese to put it on the rest of the bagel Tasty, but not world-changing. I don't understand why people eat it out of the jar with a spoon.

Over the course of the day
Dips finger in and sneaks a few nibbles

Dips get increasingly bigger

By the end of the day
Gets out a spoon
Twice