"I raise my hands and I surrender...~

1) Does anyone like to look at the stars?
The Nagi Contingent are the star gazers, but on nights when we are working, Zack has been known to look at the stars with wonder.

2) What are people's star signs? (only listing a few)

Yazuu: Scorpio
Kadaj: Scorpio
Nagi: Cancer
Halevan: Leo
Kiyoshi: Aquarius
Mischa: Taurus
Chloe: Taurus
Romy: Aries
Ravenne: Capricorn
Duo: Pisces
Zack: Virgo
Karl: Taurus
Genesis: Unknown - sometime in the spring. He can't remember.


3) Is anyone's star sign the same as the body's?
Yes, Romy matches the body and I am quite sure there are a few others.

4) Does anyone believe in astrology?
Some people do. The rest either don't or just think it is a cute hobby.

5) Does your household have any sort of astrology of your own?
Not really. Some of the off-worlds are a bit different, like Gaia and Early China (not quite the same), but many over here figure that they live here so they will just use the system here. That doesn't stop them from referring to their own occasionally though.

http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/12/pardon-me-i-m-1.html

Deedle-dee

Deedle-dee

Deedle-dee [tiny foot pad sounds]

Lindsay D., the (ahem, caterpillar) cobbler's children have no shoes.

Dear Santa... Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! Last Tuesday I got in line at the supermarket at the same time as someone else and I didn't yield (-8 points). Last Saturday I helped imago_01 hide a body (-173 points). Last Friday I broke heldc's X-Box (-12 points). In October I bought porn for chloekttn75 (-10 points). Last month karalianne and I donated clothes to the needy (11 points). Overall, I've been naughty (-192 points). For Christmas I deserve a spanking! Sincerely, hazumuchan

Write your letter to Santa! Enter your LJ username:

---

I know this uses LJ nicks, but still... I couldn't resist when I saw what answer it had given me.

http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/12/pardon-me-i-mus.html

Deedle-dee

Deedle-dee

Deedle-dee [tiny foot pad sounds]

So that job ad was nothing but a 419 scam. Check this out:

( IM conversation )

Say, would one of you help me out with my Yuletide assignment and beta the story when it's finished? (It's a gift!fic and in English, so I want to make sure I don't make any embarrassing mistakes like misspelling the capital where the story takes place like I did last year. Twice.)
I have yet to get a bunny to bite but I'm trying to get this done by the 10th/11th (and would love to get it back on or before the following Monday (the 15th) so that I can look it over again and post it to the website before the "no edits possible" period begins on the 17th. There will probably be 1000-1500 words to beta, for a fandom you most likely don't know, fluffy as per request and... okay, I don't know about the rating yet, but there will be slash. With the characters involved, anything else would be very strange indeed.

Fic post from my archive.

Breaking of the Day: Omake

Because I really couldn't resist. Toward the end of Tsuna's investiture as the Tenth Boss, Xanxus puts in an appearance. Humor, I-2

Xanxus stopped in the middle of the room, feet spread, and glared at him. "I hate your fucking guts," he declared.

Tsuna considered this blunt, frontal statement of the obvious for a moment and relaxed. "I know," he agreed, quietly.

Fic post from my archive.

Breaking of the Day

Tsuna gets taken off to Italy to get better acquainted with the Vongola. While he's there, he has to come to some kind of terms with Xanxus. Kind of, sort of, mental Tsuna/Xanxus. Drama, I-4, some spoilers

"I can't believe you told Kaa-san this was overseas study," Tsuna grumbled as he was frog-marched to his doom.

Well, all right, not really frog-marched, his dad had his hands in his pockets and Reborn wasn't tall enough, but the effect was the same.

"It is overseas," his dad said, cheerily. "And it's definitely higher education."

http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/12/camouflage-is-s.html

"Daaahling, what do you think?  I was so weary of blending in, and Mr. Rudolfo says the orange highlights are the perfect complement to my bone structure.  When he's right, he's right — I feel faaaaaaabulous!"

Fingers by belgianchocolate

Fingers crossed for girls other than the pink and purple!

Here's a journal entry I made at MisterCat's deviantART Journal, but I like it so much I'm re-posting it to both InsaneJournal and LiveJournal. This discourse is not a reflection in any way upon any of my on-line friends whom I visited whilst traveling!

Crap Airports
Journal Entry: Sun Nov 30, 2008, 1:10 PM

Hello there, fellow cybernauts and other inhabitants of cyber space, travelers upon the vast Cyber Sea! I've been back home for more than a month, but I'm only now getting into the swing of things again. Mind, I had a wonderful time and met lovely people; but the aircraft/airport parts were emotionally and physically draining.

The worst airport I'd ever encountered was the one at Da Nang Air Base in the Republic of Viet Nam, back in 1968-69. That was, of course, a dangerous airport because people were always lobbing mortar and rocket-artillery projectiles onto the place; but such activity has long since ceased, so the airport at Da Nang is no longer on my shit list.

Now, the new champion in my Crap Airports category is Toronto Pearson International Airport [link] in Ontario, Canada. What I noticed right away was that very few Canadians work there; and you have to ask for everything to be repeated, multiple times.

Additionally, nearly everything anyone working at that airport tells you is wrong. Plus, when I entered Canada for the first time, the Canada Border Services Agency officer was a real first-class cunt/jerk; and when I left Canada for the last time, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority people were jerks.

See, I was expecting U.S. Customs and Border Protection -- along with the U.S.'s Transportation Security Administration -- to provide me with the most obnoxious and rude travel experiences possible; but, lo and behold, those honors went to the Canadians at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Here's the clincher: My checked baggage, a government-issue flyer's garment suitcase, left Glasgow in Scotland but didn't show up at Toronto. It went to Boston in Massachusetts instead. Well, the trans-Atlantic carrier -- Icelandair -- found it almost immediately and sent it "Rush! Urgent! Meds!" to Toronto.

Was I informed of its arrival? Was it delivered to me, as promised? No and no. In fact, both the on-line and telephone tracking services reported the suitcase had been found in Boston and flown to Toronto; but there the trail ended.

Upon arriving at the airport for my departing flight to the U.S., I made one last effort to discover the whereabouts of my lost suitcase. It paid off! A fellow with Northwest Airlines proved most helpful, informing me Air Canada was responsible for all baggage at the airport and that I should check with them. I did.

"See that door down there on the left?" the Air Canada guy asked. "Go through it and you'll find two rooms full of unclaimed baggage." Ta da! My poor lost suitcase was there! Most of it, anyway.

The special locks -- four of them -- which are supposedly able to be opened by customs and security people who (supposedly) have a special key, were simply gone. Can you imagine how futile it would be to learn who'd cut the locks and discarded them? Four federal agencies from two nations.... Right. But at least they hadn't stolen any of the suitcase's contents!

Oh, how come nobody brought my suitcase to me at the hotel? The guy assigned to keeping those unclaimed-luggage rooms as empty as possible was inexplicably transferred elsewhere; and nobody was hired in his place or transferred in. "Lots of budget cutting at this airport," the Air Canada guy told me.

Even now, I think of the mountains of unclaimed baggage in those two dreary rooms: People expecting to have their lost luggage returned to them will never know it's languishing at Toronto Pearson International Airport. It's gone, forever -- doomed by arrogant managers, conservative politics and institutional laziness.

First runner-up honors in the Crap Airports category go to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in The Netherlands, thanks to discourtesies perpetrated by security agents working (one must assume) for the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management via either Civil Aviation and Maritime Affairs or the Inspectorate for Transport, Public Works and Water Management -- or both. It's difficult to know for certain just who those guys are, as bureaucracies in The Netherlands apparently hate talking about security.

Tell you what, though: The passengers waiting to go through security prior to our flight to Glasgow in Scotland were mainly from The Netherlands; and they were very obedient, expressing considerable shock when I -- Horrors! -- actually spoke up during an inexcusable delay. Maybe this is a worldwide phenomenon these days, this dutiful obedience to incompetent and/or overzealous authority?

My over-arching gripe about airports is that they're too damned big. If you know your civil-aviation politics, you'll know about the corporate-driven "hub and spoke" malarkey foisted upon the flying public back in the early 1970s. In short, most local and regional airline routes were done away with -- and with them, the relevant airports and jobs; and a few big cities were handed blank checks for building mega-airports to take the places of all those medium-sized and small ones.

That means you walk five miles to board your connecting flight. Progress! Oh, by the way, the U.S. has the absolute worst airline service in the world. It used to be the best, once upon a time. But along came Reagan with his stupid deregulation/privatization and now flying in the U.S. is just crap. Mind, it's not much better anywhere else; but seeing airline travel made into a Spam-in-a-can experience thanks to uncaring U.S. federal politicians is sad. I remember the 1960s "golden era" with wider seats, more leg room, full meals with actual dinnerware and flatware....

=^..^=

Surely there are enough trenchant statements in the above essay to elicit discouraging words of reply from somebody out there. Go ahead: Make my day!

=^..^=

That work from home job I got? yeah. the dude decided to try to give me my "breifing" today. didn't really happen. check out the IMs.

[16:34] p_desk5: Hello
[16:34] p_desk5: Are you there?
[16:35] p_desk5: p_desk5 has buzzed you!
[16:35] dak_ajil: hi.
[16:35] dak_ajil: sorry, i was afk.
[16:36] p_desk5: Okay
[16:37] p_desk5: How are you doing today?
[16:37] p_desk5: Are you busy?
[16:37] dak_ajil: I'm okay. I'm not really busy.
[16:38] p_desk5: okay
[16:38] p_desk5: can we proceed with the briefing?
[16:38] dak_ajil: Sure.
[16:38] p_desk5: okay
[16:40] p_desk5: But before we start did you receive any interview questions from Mr Stowe?
[16:40] dak_ajil: I did, and I answered them and sent them back to him.
[16:40] dak_ajil: I still have the original e-mail, if you need to go over that.
[16:40] p_desk5: okay
[16:43] dak_ajil: Still there?
[16:49] p_desk5: Are you there?
[16:49] dak_ajil: yes.

at this point, i thought maybe meebo was having issues, so i switched to real YIM.

Dak Ajil: Hello?
p_desk5: am here hold on
p_desk5: Hello
p_desk5: I have to go now
p_desk5: just got an urgent call
Dak Ajil: Okay then.
p_desk5: i want you to available tomorrow 8am your time
Dak Ajil: Can do.


what do you guys think?

Meme, ganked yet again from musesfool.

the "Be Pete Wentz" meme:

1. Put your music player on shuffle
2. The first lines of twenty songs = a poem; the first line of the twenty-first song is the title

I had this perfect dream

See a glimpse inside the pool it's hollow

Givin' up is hard to do with you

If I were a sculptor, but then again no

In the deserts of Sudan, and the gardens of Japan
Here I am, and within the reach of my hand, she's sound asleep

Sometimes I feel I've got to run away
That's all right; learn there's a voice in this howling night

You didn't stop to look round
My story is much too sad to be told

Cecilia, you're breaking my heart
There's nothing you can say to make me change my mind

Hey, where did we go?
There's a song that I recall my mother sang to me
One of these days
If you change your mind, I'm the first in line

Life is a mystery, everyone must stand alone

High, higher than the sun
This could be heaven for everyone

When you try your best but you don't succeed
A hand above the water, an angel reaching for the stars


Key to the songs used:
( Read more... )

I should imagine this song/poem/thing probably works better as a duet - it doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense either way, although Winamp seemed to get into a groove from Cecilia onwards...which is kind of odd, kind of annoying, and kind makes me want to do it all over again...

And yes, there are three a-ha songs in there. There would've been more if I'd let Winamp have its way (but I didn't, obviously).

...Something.

Anything?

First day of the Advent Series. Lets see what's about cut number one. I nearly missed this one. And yeah, my sidebar's at the bottom of the page. I hope to find a way to fix it. But I need to go to bed first.

( Advent 01 )

New work up at my dA!

Celice - (obvious reference is obvious, but I couldn't resist. Its companion will be getting just an obvious reference as its title and to exactly the same bunch of Norwegians *g*). For those of you that either know it's me or recognise me, please don't let that be known on there. I'm pretending it's not me *snerk*.

Comments here or there would be good.

( cut for not a great deal of rambling about the above pic )

~*~

I was quite distressed to learn yesterday that of four pairs of ripped jeans, only one fit me now. My favourite pair are incredibly uncomfortable to wear - I could hardly breathe when I had them on, which...pains me greatly (no pun intended). I wore those jeans a lot while I was in my very late teens and extremely early twenties, which is why they're in the state they're in. But while they look good on my legs now (I used to weigh so little that they were baggy), I'd rather not pass out from not being able to breathe properly.

Oh well, I guess it happens. Good job I have a new favourite pair of jeans now (which got covered in plaster dust today 'cause I love them so much).

~*~

I went into college today, which is rare (usually I'm asleep till dinner time on a Monday). But I was itching to play some more with my lump o' plaster (and didn't want it to have dried out too much. Now I am of the opinion that it's too damn wet. I can't win).

I also harangued a few (four) people on their opinion of Albatross. Three of the four said "Wow" on first seeing it, I suppose because it's so different to anything I've ever done before (even with other photographs). And one of them was Jeannie, who I adore but rarely ever talk to any more, 'cause she doesn't teach HND students (i.e. me and my ilk). But it was all very interesting, and she's of the same opinion as Tony, that I should follow this through and see where it takes me.

I'm kind of nervous, but then again, I always feel like that about the unknown. The very worst that could happen is people won't talk to me, but eh...I can probably live with that.

http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/12/crazy-ernies-fa.html

Friends, are you looking for an exotic pet for your family, but those sky-high pet store prices have you settling for hamsters?  Then bring the kids down to Crazy Ernie's Factory Seconds Discount Pet Warehouse and select from dozens of one-of-a-kind irregular and discontinued pets, all with a 30-day guarantee!  You'll find deals like this feller here — now, I don't know how they did it, but they managed to get his head on sideways.  It don't bother him none; he gets around just fine, and he's yours for 70% off the pet store price!  Hurry down now, and I'll throw in a starter pack of six-legged mice absolutely free!

This is the coolest idea since pet conversions, Johanna S.

I made two new Christmas icons. ^^;; Yes, the second one is from A Muppet's Christmas Carol.



Have an icon you want made? Love Christmas? Against torturing small puppies? Well, besides the puppy thing, you qualify! Qualify for what, you ask?

To get an icon! Yay!

1. torino10154: Snarry, not too porny, possibly holiday related.
2. littleblackbow: Gilderoy, shiny and Christmas-y!
3. alisanne: Snarry, porny is good!
4. snarry_fan7: Snarry, non-animated.
5. pepper202: Super Special Awesome icon!
6. angela_snape: Bill/Neville or Charlie/Kingsely!
7. the_con_cept: Name and pretty little twink.
8. knight_move: Name! And Awesomeness!
9. dementor_delta: Snarry or Harry, porny as can be!
10. centaury_squill: Christmassy Snarry!
11. You know you want your name here!
12. You know you want your name here!
13. You know you want your name here!
14. You know you want your name here!
15. You know you want your name here!

Doesn't matter what kind! Animated, non-animated, Ship, Non-Ship, Funny, or Sad! Just, give me something to do. Please?

I BEG YOU! I BESEECH YOU! TELL YOUR FRIENDS! I like making icons ^^;;

I'll take more than 10, in fact, I'll take as many as requested. I'm only putting 10 spots because I assume many people won't ask ^^;;

Edit: OMG! I got 10! Oh I hope I get more! And I got 9 done! SQUEE!

*waves to all her LJ friends* Hey, just wanted to make sure people knew, rss feed journals don't send comments.

So, if anyone comments on branchandrootij, or similar, I won't see those comments unless I happen to go look at the feed journal in person (which I don't unless someone mentions it). Feeds aren't associated with anyone, so there are no notifications.

Personally, I think LJ would do a lot better to see about sending notifications to the source of the feed, instead of uglifying the user info page, but that's just me. *grins*

So if you want to comment so I can see it, click on the url at the top of the entry and leave the comment here on IJ. (See also OpenID commenting so you can get notifications of replies to your comments over here.)