inkdancer

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T16:23:16Z

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

I just want you to know that I'm thankful for all of you. You're the best friends a girl could ask for. I love you guys!

Read a book, read a book! [meme]

2010-11-19T01:40:46Z

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. (Seriously? That's a bit shocking.)

Instructions: Copy this list.
• Bold those books you've read in their entirety.
• Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read only an excerpt.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

35 read to completion, 16 read in part

Well I feel good about myself now :D

There's more to living than being alive

2010-11-17T23:22:18Z

Some of you guys may be familiar with fandomsecrets. If you are not, it's a community basically like PostSecret which allows people to post secrets about their fandom lives. It is sometimes boring, often hilarious, generally full of fandom drama, and occasionally beautiful and touching. Today, though, there was a secret that absolutely broke my heart. It basically talked about how the OP had an office job that was not very fulfilling, a marriage that was not very fulfilling, and generally an unhappy life. Fantasy was his escape, to the point that he would rather spend more time there than being in the real world.

I was shocked to see the number of people who responded negatively, essentially telling him to quit bitching and make things better. I understand where the author is emotionally. Tackling life is really hard, and as much as people can say "well get up off your ass and fix it," it isn't so simple. Adventure stories have a big obvious problem to tackle. There is a Big Bad Evil Guy with a Big Evil Plan and the Hero rushes off to defeat the Evil and save the day and maybe even get the girl. IRL, your mortgage isn't evil and your job isn't evil and your wife isn't evil, but it's all difficult and exhausting. Most days it feels to me like living an ordinary life takes a hell of a lot more bravery than facing down the Bad Guy to save the world. Because day to day, you aren't saving the world. Whatever you do feels relatively insignificant. You feel small, and it seems like the whole world is working to make you feel smaller. In fantasy you can make a difference, be larger than life, come out on top, and succeed at something that gets you recognition and works for the good of everyone. How much more satisfying must that be than what the average American experiences?

I'm not going to advocate avoiding your real life and hiding yourself away in fantasy. That can only make things worse. But I hope that people can find some things in their everyday lives that make that sense of smallness feel a little less daunting. I hope that we can have better relationships with our families and like our jobs more and find some hope and passion to get us through every day. We all need it.

Birthday Present for my Mom

2010-11-09T03:11:28Z

Pathology results came back from the surgery: the cyst was a harmless fibroid, which means no cancer and no more worrying and no more appointments!

Home again home again

2010-11-05T22:22:10Z

I am home from the hospital and I'm on a lot of drugs but everything seems to have gone okay but now my boob looks really weird

Ack

2010-11-05T11:43:28Z

Going in for surgery at 1:15. Should theoretically be home by around 4 p.m. Please keep me in your happy thoughts. I love you guys.

Reminder

2010-11-02T17:25:02Z

Hey flist! ...well, the American ones anyway...

Don't forget to vote today. Even when I don't agree with you, I want you to participate in the conversation that is American government. So please, whatever your beliefs are, go make them heard.

Icons (Bleach, Christina Hendricks, Claymore, various anime)

2010-10-19T02:51:50Z

Icon tally: 45
Bleach- 27 icons
Claymore- 3 icons
Various anime/manga- 3 icons
Christina Hendricks- 12 icons

Most of these were made for various icontests around LJ, particularly bleachorus, hendricksstills, bleach_icontest, and manga_itest.

Bleach

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Claymore

001

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Various Anime

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Christina Hendricks

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Created with angelamaria's Icon Table Generator @ Bauble

Happy Face

2010-10-11T03:06:48Z

Because I adore you guys, and everyone would rather watch Sesame Street bits than hear me be emo.

You don't even write to say "Goodbye"

2010-09-28T19:09:59Z

So it's been a long time since I've written fanfic. Please be gentle. I spent about an hour and a half on this, so I imagine it could use some concrit, and you guys are the best betas I can think of.

Without further ado, I present to you:

The Kiss that Saved the Universe

    "YOU ARE THE HEATHEN. YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED."
    He'd done a lot of stupid things in his time, most of them in the name of bravery or justice. But before, he had always left himself a way out. Standing there, face to eyestalk with the Daleks with no TARDIS at his back, The Doctor thought for a moment that he had finally made his fatal mistake, finally come to the death that would not be followed by a regeneration. He didn't regret it. In a way, it might be a release, an opportunity to forget the horrors of the Time War and the accident that had allowed the Daleks to survive it. But it wasn't a mistake. I kept the TARDIS out of their hands. I saved the rest of time from them. He allowed himself a small internal smile. And I saved Rose.
    "Maybe it's time," he said, and closed his eyes.
    And then, that terrible and miraculous sound, like wind being pushed through an engine that won't quite turn over.
    "ALERT! TARDIS MATERIALISING!"
    The Doctor opened his eyes, spun around. Part of him wished that this was just the escapism of a mad mind that knew it was about to die; but he knew Rose better than that, knew that she was really bringing herself and the TARDIS back into harm's way to save him. She never would give up. That stupid, lovely ape.
    "YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE!" The Emperor Dalek might almost have seemed furious, if he could have felt such a plebeian emotion.
    The Doctor wasn't thinking of escape after the doors swung open. He was thinking how much more beautiful Rose's eyes were without the glow of the Time Vortex obscuring them. He was thinking that he hadn't seen power of that magnitude since the Time War. He was thinking that his pure, sweet Rose might have gotten a taste of the Vortex's destruction. With hands up to shield his eyes, he stumbled backwards and fell to the floor. "What've you done?"
    She turned her gaze to him, her eyes full of the flames and the beauty of every sun the universe had ever known. "I looked into the TARDIS. And the TARDIS looked into me." Every trace of her London accent was gone. Her voice was all the voices of time itself.
    His hearts skipped, in despair and fear. "You looked into the Time Vortex-- Rose, no one's meant to see that." Even a mind like his surely could never encompass the vastness of the Vortex. It must be burning inside her, burning her up like coal in a furnace.
    "THIS IS THE ABOMINATION!"
    "EXTERMINATE!" The horrible springlike noise of a Dalek bolt, and the light leapt forward toward Rose. She held up her hand and turned it away the same way she would turn away a paper straw wrapper that Mickey had launched at her. The Vortex rippled in her hair.
    "I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here."
    "Rose, you've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now." As Rose continued to stare ahead, insensible of his urgency, The Doctor had a brief vision of himself during the Time War standing behind her, guiding her through the paths of destruction. I did this to her. His breath caught in his throat. "You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're gonna burn!"
    She turned her face to him, some of the hardness ebbing away. She looked a bit more like herself. "I want you safe." Tracks of tears shimmered down her face, refracting the light of the Vortex in sparkles. "My Doctor, protected from the false god." Her eyes burned brighter, fixing on the Emperor.
    "YOU CANNOT HURT ME. I AM IMMORTAL."
    "You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space, every single atom of your existence. I divide them." When Rose raised her hand, the Dalek in the center of the group melted into golden mist. "Everything must come to dust... all things. Everything dies." The rest of the Daleks shimmered away, leaving the Emperor to speak with her alone. "The Time War ends."
    "I WILL NOT DIE. I CANNOT DIE." Fear pulsed beneath its skin, its single eye squinting with determination. It had only a moment of defiance left, before the Dalek armada was dissolved into the swirling gold of the Vortex.
    The Doctor watched her in fear. She was shaking. He could see the power coursing through her, could feel her fighting within herself not to burn away. I should have been the one to destroy them, so this power wouldn't destroy you. Gratitude colored his thoughts, but with the Daleks finally gone his worry bubbled over. "Rose, you've done it. Now stop. Just let go."
    Her voice came out near a whisper, the thundering command of the moment before hushed now that the danger had passed. "How can I let go of this? I bring life!"
    He felt her power surge, and felt the life flow back into Jack, and knew that something terribly wrong had just happened. He was beyond frightened now. He was becoming truly terrified of what the Time Vortex could do, using Rose as its vehicle. "But this is wrong! You can't control life and death."
    She looked at him again, as though she were looking into him and seeing, with eyes more than human, something new. "But I can. The sun and the moon, the day and night." Her eyes darkened, her voice trembled. "But... why do they hurt?"
    Anguish broke over him like a wave. He wasn't sure if he even spoke his thoughts aloud. "The power's gonna kill you and it's my fault." He lowered his head, certain that his failure was finally complete.
    "I can see everything," she said. He raised his face to her, with the dawn of a mad idea beginning to break. "All that is, all that was, all that ever could be."
    He stood, and looked down at her. "That's what I see all the time. And doesn't it drive you mad?" He wanted to laugh at his own joke, but her tears were rolling down again like gold melting from her burning eyes and he just couldn't laugh at her now.
    The whisper faded softer. "My head...."
    "Come here."
    "It's killing me."
    "I think you need a Doctor."
    And kissing her was everything he knew it would be, even with the Time Vortex pouring into him. It blazed and it burned and it warmed the coldest parts of him and both his hearts beat faster, trying to meld with her one. He didn't even try that thing with his tongue that he knew he was good at because she felt so perfect there, held still against him, and wrapped in the Vortex energy he could feel just a touch of her love.
    He would have liked to end the kiss slowly and sweetly and maybe have another one, but when the energy of the Time Vortex was gone, Rose slumped against him, drained. He lowered her to the floor carefully, as though she were fragile, in spite of the evidence she'd just given of her strength. He turned and exhaled, letting go of the Time energy he held, putting it back into the TARDIS where it belonged. He knelt down to stroke Rose's hair, thanking her without words for her courage, and apologizing silently for what he knew would come next.

Characters Meme and Song Meme

2010-09-23T00:06:32Z

1) Stolen from fairytaledreams : Reply with "Flying saucers for everybody!" and I'll give you four fandoms. You then have to make an entry writing about your favorite character from each fandom, and why.

Well, she only gave me three: Final Fantasy, Doctor Who, and Firefly. The other was "of my choice," so I'm redefining it slightly, with Final Fantasy (female character) and Final Fantasy (male character).

Final Fantasy (female): Lulu. I cannot say enough about how much I love this character. Although she's a bit cold initially, it's very clear that she does that because of protectiveness and a firm grounding in reality (which many of her friends seem to lack). She's beautiful, confident, and fiercely loyal. Add to that her biting humor and utter badassery, and she's basically the coolest woman out there.

Final Fantasy (male): Hate to spam FFX, but it has to be Auron. He's just so freaking awesome! He's gentle to the weak, and firm on those who need to learn. He's strong both physically and morally, and he's pretty handsome in the hardcore older guy sort of way. Oh, did I mention that he carries out all of his fighting other than overdrives with one arm tucked inside his jacket and still kicks all kinds of ass?

Doctor Who: Saying The Doctor would be way too obvious, so I have to go with Rose. I love her innocence, her sweetness, her adaptability, her resilience, her ever-springing hope. If I were to be put into a life-threatening situation, I hope I could handle it with the strength of character and compassion that she always displays.

Firefly: Kaylee. Obviously. To me, she has the perfect balance of seemingly opposing traits. She has a childlike optimism, yet an adult willingness to embrace her sexuality. She is strong and capable when it comes to fixing things and taking on tasks, but she never lets go of her femininity. She loves deeply and openly, but doesn't let her rosy view of the world cloud her judgement. Definitely a young woman to admire and imitate.

--------

2) Reply to this post with a sentence involving the word "sing" or "singing" and I will respond with a few lines of song lyrics that explain how I think about you/ remind me strongly of you.

Bleach 20 in 20 Round 2: Orihime Inoue

2010-08-25T21:56:39Z

My entries for 20 in 20!

10 themes
help	friends	night	green	notice

proverb	spring	high	contact	lie

5 category - no eyes
c.1	c.2	c.3	c.4	c.5

5 artist's choice
ac.1	ac.2	ac.3	ac.4	ac.5

OMG Y'all!

2010-07-15T18:27:06Z

If you like the Old Spice guy (Isaiah Mustafa) you really, really need to watch this and the related videos. (Related videos here.)

That is all.

Bluh.

2010-06-03T02:25:31Z

I have strep throat for the third time in 6 months.

This is not fun.

Backpacks are totally in this summer.

2010-05-19T15:36:24Z

I am officially enrolled in ENG 571 20th Century British Poetry.

I start classes on Monday. Summer vacation? What summer vacation?

(I'm really excited though!)

It's my birthday!

2010-05-10T01:44:33Z

And it's been a fantastic one! Thank you to all my lovely friends who've made it a truly excellent day. You guys rock.

Icons for bleachorus Week 154

2010-04-29T01:35:58Z

I made these icons for bleachorus Week 154 challenge, based on the lyrics to "Tyrant" by OneRepublic. The Aizen/Momo one landed me 3rd place!

Meditation of the Day: Negativity

2010-04-26T13:00:28Z

I've started reading a book that contains meditations for every day. I'm supposed to try to apply what I read to my day. This is today's:

"Today, God, help me to know that I don't have to allow myself to be propelled into negativity, even around those I love. Help me set boundaries. help me know it's okay to take care of myself."

Let's see how well I manage it. I'm very bad at boundaries.

Your love keeps me wishing

2010-04-13T14:55:42Z

I forgot to do my daily entry yesterday, but that's okay. I had a fantastic day! Nothing at all to make me anxious.

Things to be grateful for:
1. Mom somehow convincing Granddaddy that showing up at my graduation is really important. He managed to get days off from military service to come up and see me.
2. Mini-Michelle. My roommate knows her from Young Life, and she's been coming over to our place once or twice a week. She's a very mature young woman, and she also loves all the nerdy things we love. I like having her around a lot. Apart from her being a good friend, I feel like she reminds me to be a role model, and also reminds me that things have improved a ton since I was in high school, and they're only going to keep getting better.
3. Quiet time. I got to go to bed at 10:30, which was a nice relaxing change. I feel really well-rested for the first time in a while.
4. Wonderful, wonderful roommates. I am very lucky to live with smart, levelheaded, kind young women. A drama-free personal space is something you absolutely should not take for granted.
5. I got to get back into icon-making today, and I realized how much I've missed it. A little bit of artistic expression can be very relaxing.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2009-12-25T05:00:14Z

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!

I LOVE YOU ALL!

I hope you have lovely holidays, my friends. I am blessed to have you all in my life, and your love and friendship is one gift that simply can't be boxed. Thank you all so much.

Suggestion Box

2009-10-27T15:11:36Z

So this year I'm the nonfiction editor for our literary magazine. And for this issue we're trying something new. In the back, after the student work, there will be a section where editors can review a work in their genre. This will be great fun, except I have a problem

I don't read a lot of literary nonfiction essays.

Friends, I would love it if you could help me out. All you literary and smart people, if you have a favorite nonfiction author, please share the name. I will be happy to try out any and all suggested works if it will help me find something to review.

You guys rock.

Guess what?

2009-05-17T22:56:21Z

I'm applying to an LJ RP over at entranceway . As YoSaffBridge from Firefly. This will be 100% awesome. Icon for authenticity.

(Also, I made my mood theme all by myself!)

Triumphant wibble

2009-05-08T20:32:43Z

I just finished playing Kingdom Hearts. It was a beautiful game, but darnit Square Enix makes me cry every time. This is one I'd recommend pretty strongly, since... well, who doesn't love Disney? Good storyline, a little frustrating at times (Atlantica is hard) but for the most part it was a really good game.

On to Kingdom Hearts 2. Maybe eventually I'll play Chain of Memories, but not today.

I'm gonna go have some chocolate-covered donuts.

Seriously. The best ever.

2009-05-08T17:42:34Z

I have the best boyfriend ever.

My birthday isn't until tomorrow, but I already have presents from ironyaficionado . Now I have an octopus cup, pocky, three pounds (!!!) of my favorite gummi-bearchen, The Te of Piglet, and a whole book on CUPCAKES!!! But the best present by far is that he gave me a paid LJ account! Hooray! I think it's mostly part of his effort to get me to write and talk about it more, but... awesome!!!!

Excuse me, I have to go do a happy dance now.

April 16-17

2009-04-18T02:56:25Z

Missed yesterday because I'm still sick and by the time I went to bed was too exhausted to post. I don't really even remember if I made my goals for the day. Now that I'm feeling a bit better, here's what I've been up to over the past few days:
-Slept like it was my job.
-Shopped for more craft materials.
-Tried in vain to find a cute new skirt to wear.
-Turned my hands gold with spray paint.
-Almost entirely finished my first gift.

Tomorrow:
-Post
-Finish and mail present.
-Either go to Chapel Hill to see people OR bake something delicious.

I may be in Chapel Hill tomorrow if I am well enough to be a functional human being and not make anybody sick. Here's hoping, right?