Ree’s musings

Oh. My. GOD.

Remember Ráwen from last entry? I was just reading "What Tolkien Officially Said About Elf Sex" (shut up, it's far less slashy than you might think) and I bumped right into Rodwen, meaning "High Virgin Noble (female)."

Rodwen. Ráwen. *dies* Funny as hell, given that dear Ráwen is... uh... she's not high or noble and you can guess the rest, yeah? *blush*

*idly wonders how many of her online compatriots use that nasty Grey Company psuedo-Elvish instead of Tolkien's own Quenya and Sindarin* Grelvish is icky. It sounds faintly like real Elvish but does not exist in my resources and it's not Tolkien, dammit.

Anyway.

I got my grade and changed my desktop shortcut to the online classroom accordingly: a closeup of the cover art for The Lurking Horror, a Lovecraftian text adventure (with sound effects!) from Infocom.

Blah.

I need to quit wandering websites. They torque me off and then I blather on about usability and semantics and more stuff that makes people stare at me like I've grown a fifth head.

Memo to Ree: Not everybody who puts up a webpage follows design and semantics blogs the way the Toesies does. It is right and good that they should make pages as soon as they show interest --

Frames suck!

*cough* Yes, well, they do have the occasional good use, but by and large -- anyway.

Why do some people (by no means all) insist on using mailforms that -- I'm not sure I can explain this dreck. *considers* I've been seeing some mailforms online lately that send directly to email via a "mailto:" in the form. This is not bad; nor is it ideal. Such forms only work if the website visitor has a default mail client selected and configured.

Guess who uses webmail. C'mon, guess. First five don't count.

So these forms completely do not work for me. I'm getting pulled into usability issues just enough to feel that I should not have to install a program (Outlook comes on my computer, but like HELL am I going to use that virus magnet) and configure it, just so I can use the occasional webform. You with me so far?

It really bugs me because I'm seeing otherwise beautifully done sites (that have complex layouts that work in Opera, which sends me straight to Cloud Nine without pausing to pass Go!) include these forms for contact. The operators of these sites desire feedback, but the forms don't work for everyone.

There are alternatives. I have at least two bookmarked and have made fairly heavy use of one: http://www.response-o-matic.com/ . It's free. I like free, what with being cheap and a poor twentysomething and all. There's a wizard for setup. Since it processes the form with a remotely hosted CGI program and then emails the results, it doesn't require any additional software to be installed to send a simple email. I also like simple. Yeah.

What I want to know is where people are getting this "use the mailto: to handle a form" bit. That's bogus. Please don't do that. Anyone setting up an HTML help site or advising on how to handle forms should know better, yet it looks like someone's doing it anyway. That's irresponsible.

There's also the issue of relying on JavaScript menus for navigation, but I'm not going to get into that. The mailto: thing has a fairly simple solution. Javascript menus are harder to replace, especially when they're on several pages within a site.

Forms are pains, yo.

...I'm having seconds thoughts about posting this to Xanga as well, where the perpatrators of these sites are much more likely to see it. Maybe I'll leave it here for now and ponder a posting it to Xanga for a bit.

cerhnfeed

Because it wasn't there. Interested parties only, please.

...god, that was lame even for me.

First Jessica Biel in Blade III. Now this. Where do I go to rescind my fangirl card? I don't want to be even halfway associated with this nonsense.

*sulks*

ETA: Oh, shove off. *mutters angrily, black smoke curling above ears*

...So now I see the whole design
my church is an assembly line
the parts are there
I'm feeling fine
I want to be a clone

I've learned enough to stay afloat
but not so much I rock the boat
I'm glad they shoved it down my throat
I want to be a clone

Steve Taylor, ladies and gentlemen. *dies happy*

There is a band called Folk Uke.

....

Ack.

*pinks* I found a speed of reading test and idly took it. Um. I knew already that I'm a fast reader, but now I won't even state the speed it gave me. People would think I was lying. I'm above average (and how), that's all.

My browser settings were screwy the first time and I didn't get the alert telling me when one minute was up, so the test I actually took was this. The material was quite enjoyable: a description of a good-looking fellow, by and large. Yummy, and possibly a contributing factor to my speed -- I want to absorb it all!

Swimmer's build, bronzed skin, that devilish look about him... fun reading indeed. *runs back to finish the text*

Massive friendslist snip. Several reasons I defriended: the only thing we had in common was an RP I'm not active in anymore, blog switched from English to any other language (I'm monolingual, tsk tsk on me), I read the journal in another form (crosspostings to Deadjournal or other systems, etc.) and I think that's all the reasons, which means there's at least one I've forgotten.

LJ proceeded to throw out everyone on my friends list, A-M, with one exception. See, if LJ were set up like an RSS aggregator, I could've exported all my reads into an OPML file. Then when LJ ate my list, I could've just imported the OPML file and everything would be peachy (except my removals would still need doing).

I'd kill a random lifeform, but my contacts are sitting screwy. I have to concentrate and stare to make sure I don't somehow have 12 or 14 fingers as I type. Toes? Could be 20 or more. If I attempted violence I would surely put my own head through a wall. Which might knock the contacts into position, come to think of it, but oh the pain.

Dizzy. Pissy. Muh.

Comic book women, unrefrigerated (via Bookslut. This makes me feel better.

If you have a buck to spare, please consider donating it to the Bamf's Books fund. Backstory is here on Enchanted Elf/Pam's new blog. (Note the username terminating in XXX; it makes me grin.) She's threatening to destroy books that do not belong to her unless people come together to pay to have the books shipped to their rightful owner. Pass on the donate link, please.

I left a comment there asking how internet roleplay was a sin of the flesh (in reference to this), but it's been deleted.

Jesus hung with the whores, man. For God so loved the world -- not just the straight WASPs with gaudy cross decor. I'm so angry I'm going to cry. How can people claim to be good Christian souls and treat their brother man like dirt? How?! How dare anyone defile their deity by claiming their own selfish behavior is what a righteous God would ask of His children?!

Now I *am* crying. Okay Ree. Time to sign off for a bit and read your book. It's Heinlein -- Stranger in a Strange Land. I just got to the part where religious kooks confuse the hero.

They're good at that.

Oh, and please comment if any of those blog pages disappear, and I'll get my saved copies online and linked. I wish I'd saved that comment. I should have known a two-face would think nothing of slapping the Delete link.

Oh sweet God. I got my friends list over halfway restored -- and it died again, this time only leaving six names in the entire thing.

I think I got it now. I'd knock on wood so not to jinx it, but I've already been pounding the crap out of this computer desk. My wrist is fairly sore and my contacts must be crusted with salt, but I think I got it and by God, if it ain't broke I'm not about to fix it. Or breathe heavily around it. Or anything I suspect might break the thing.

I wish I knew what happened! I'm befuddled by this. Livejournal is usually incredibly stable; what the hell fell off the server today? Or it might be my computer, but I'm doubtful of that. Except for the scrollmouse finally giving up the ghost earlier this morning, it's running pretty smoothly for a change. I haven't installed new software all summer... unless my brother put Kazaa back on, the better to download spyware. *grits teeth*

I'm just not having a good day. I think I'll check and make sure the dog's fed, then... I dunno. Watch Yami no Matsuei or El Mariachi. Ooh. Mariachi. Yes. Anything to not break something online.

Just wait -- the VCR will eat my treasured Mariachi tape now to spite me. Fucking metaphor shear. I'm afraid to even look at my friends page before I go, so I won't. My glance might shatter the page's code or something.

Speak like a pointyears! (Link via Mutt.) Heh. I used to know a couple words of authentic Sindarin and Quenya, but I've forgotten most of it. Except "melda". I can never forget "melda".

(I also used to know "Take off your clothes and get on the bed!" -- ten guesses who pointed me to that one!)

I need to dig that out again. I have a half-elf in D&D (in sore need of an outing) and a thoroughly mixed-blood mercenary who could stand to know a little. I always meant to use Sindarin more with elvish characters, but in my D&D game, the GM used his own form of Elvish: a differently-accented Klingon. I think it's safe to say I am a geek among geeks.

(And where are my elf icons to tack on this post? BALEETED! By me, not by accident. I need to learn to live with less than 50 usericons like normal people.)

I've been trying to think what I have to say about this pic and I really can't come up with anything in the English language. Various glottal sounds, sure. Language, not so much.

7.54 is out, with better security (check the changelog). Upgrade! Upgrade, all ye Operans!

I just saw a roleplay character on the telly. Not mine, for a change -- the last of mine was a perfect Iman. This one had red hair, slightly more orange than Jaina's #FF0000 red. She wore black leather. Her name was Vorgeen (assuming closed captioning didn't bork the spelling) and she was fighting on SciFi Channel's daily marathon, which today is the stunning ROAR.

She even had that fire in her eyes, a look that only an aggressively confident woman can possess. I half-expected her to sprout red wings at any moment and run (fly?) off to grope Ben Affleck. Even her face seemed right; not quite that of the character's usual avatar, but close and certainly appropriately expressive.

The commercial break will end any minute and I must see if there is more of her to come.

I am just now emerging from wrestling with online reg. mechanisms. I suppose I should be grateful it's there at all -- I had to physically appear at the school offices to register for my summer online class -- but this is ridiculous.

I apparently can't register for anything, but I can join the wait list. Except I can't, because it tells me to select my classes and mark them "Wait" instead of "Credit"and when I do that it tells me the same thing: to mark them "Wait". Like I just did.

I can't figure out if I'm going to have a nervous breakdown, smash the hard drive, start vivisecting insects, or scream until I'm harsh. Possibly some combination. The point it, today? BAD DAY.

At least I finally realized to register though -- today is the last day of registration. Yay, I may or may not get to suffer through more online tests over everything but the class they're allegedly for! *violent head-to-desk*

On a related note, my final grade for sumemr got changed from this to a solid B: not all bad, but still not a fun trip.

Jaina has gotten interested in song lyrics lately. She insisted on posting the entirety of the Ramones'"I Wanna Live" in her private journal the other day. (I think she just likes the phrase "fine German steel", though I'm not sure why outside of guns being handy against zombies and such.)

Today she wants this snippet again:

I'm known to hang around the undead..
You always see me comin' cuz I am RED..

I don't know what the rest of that song is about. Dorky rhymes, presumably. Even so.

And what will happen with the quotage? No idea. I don't do sigs -- can't manipulate an image worth beans, really; I can crop and that's about it. Pfft. Something will turn up.

It's official: Something's wrong with me. No, not mentally! The outdoor temperature is hovering just below 100 degrees (that's about 40 Celsius, I believe) and I'm wearing winter blue jeans and a flannel overshirt, and I'm cold. Oh, and the computer is borked. Great.

I don't feel sick. Just really really cold. And angry with this horrible ancient decrepit error-a-minute (note: not exaggerating; that's its current rate) computer. Must finish this and diagnose the chippile.

Time for a quick rant. I realise most people reading me via a hive site like Xanga or Livejournal will be people whose blogs don't have their own host and domain, but what the hell.

People, if you should ever run a blog that uses MovableType, Wordpress, Blogger, or whatever, there is one very important thing you should do: DON'T TURN OFF YOUR FEED. I don't care if it's RSS 0.91, 1.0, 2.0, or not RSS at all but Atom (Blogger's default). The point is that RSS and Atom are how I read your site, and if you removed your feed or refused to enable it, I don't read your site. Pfft.

Diaryland and Diary-X still don't offer RSS. Ignore them. They dwell in 1998, which is practically the internet Stone Age.

I've been doing some random reading and bumped into the mention of 5 foot 11 1/2 inches being "giant" for a woman.

Giant? I measured exactly that for my high school graduation gown (so they rounded up to six foot even, ack). I know I'm on the tall side, but come now, I'm not unusually tall. I can't be -- I'm the shortest of my parents' children (albeit the only girl and taller than my mom, about tied with my dad). My brothers both clear six foot: one is (I think) six one or six two and the other bumps cirrus clouds at six foot five.

So now I can't figure out if I'm a shrimp among my family or a towering Amazonian freak. Figures. Typical day in the life of the Ree.

Guess what I did today? I gave myself a metal zit! (Your Ree-to-English translation of the day: that means "nasal piercing that hurts like a bitch.")

So. We'll see how this goes. Mom already suspects I used her day out of town to mangle my face (as I imagine she thinks of body modification) but I told her it's a horribly sore and unpoppable pimple. Which is gross, but not that far from the true discomfort that is having a metal booger in one's left nostril.

We'll see how it goes. I intend to follow aftercare with religious-like zeal. I'm worried about Mom's reaction when I have to let her know about the piercing. I really want this. Once it's healed (around a month, depending) I can switch out the current (bulky as hell) jewelry for a sleek, nearly invisible nasal screw. (Hee, fun terms.) There's an entire sub-industry devoted to making jewelry that makes various piercings appear unpierced and they'll be getting a little of my money.

What else... I just recently visited my grandma, so that shouldn't come up again until it's healed and I can use much more discreet jewelry. It's not cold season so runny nose shouldn't interfere with healing. The cost isn't an issue because my darling Jo covered me in exchange for some books I gave her today. Aftercare doesn't require any new purchases, just the liquid soap and ointment I already have at hand.

That can't be everything, but y'all get the idea. I'm told the placement looks very cute. Erin already thinks I have a cute nose (which I appreciate, but s/he and I must have different standards of nasal beauty because I think it's puffy and mannish). I'm curious if this marrs or accents whatever she sees in my breathing appendage, but as I can't find my camera, I won't find out in the near future.

Freaking hurts. But it's pretty. I think so anyway.

My little brother and I hung out and channelsurfed right into the finale of Doppelganger. I'd seen it before and remembered the incredibly -- no, impossibly -- awful ending. Squirt was unaware.

We watched.

He had some questions, all right. I answered them as well as I could.

"So does this movie make even a little more sense if I watch the whole thing?"

"Nope." It doesn't. It actually makes less sense, because once you know the who and watch the film again, the how falls completely apart. The climatic effects also have precious little to do with the revelation immediately preceding them, so the movie goes from "oh, okay, I guess I kinda get it" to "Huh? Whoever plugged this into the movie should be shot. It doesn't `go' at all!"

As the link I Googled for above points out, the movie has Drew Barrymore naked. That's about it. Oh, wait: it's also very loosely based on the horrendous idea of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" as a horror movie. With spontaneously appearing slime. (Don't ask. It's painful, man.)

Now with actual non-error-ridden formatting!

Your name spelled backwards. Eer.

Where were your parents born? Presumably their small-town homes in South Dakot and Nebraska.

What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer?Knoppix, but I still need to burn it to CD.

What’s your favorite restaurant? One with food. Seriously? Probably the local Chinese place.

Last time you swam in a pool? HAHAHAHAHA a year ago, but only because the temperature cracked 100° F and the AC was broken. I couldn't swim now even I wanted to -- healing piercing.

Have you ever been in a school play? Yup.

How many kids do you want? Probably no more than two. Overpopulation's a bitch as it is.

Type of music you dislike most? Whigger rap. DIE.

Are you registered to vote? Damn right I am.

Do you have cable? I am Cartoon Network's/Adult Swim's bitch.

Have you ever ridden on a moped? Nope.

Ever prank call anybody? Heh. Yes, in third grade or so.

Ever get a parking ticket? Sure. Campus parking blows.

Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving? I seriously doubt it.

Farthest place you ever traveled. From where? Oregon from South Dakota, but I was a tiny squirt then. Oregon or Texas.

Do you have a garden? I have a brown thumb, making any attempt a garden an eventual tragedy.

What’s your favorite comic strip? If online and completed counts, Demonology 101. If not, Dilbert.

Do you really know all the words to your national anthem? Just the first verse and snippets of the remainder.

Bath or Shower, morning or night? Shower, usually in the afternoon (working online rules like that). Night works too.

Best movie you’ve seen in the past month? NOT DOPPELGANGER SWEET JESUS MY EYES. Uh, probably High Fidelity, which got my brother making a pile of meaningless top five lists. Gah.

Favorite pizza topping? Hawaiian: ham and pineapple.

Chips or popcorn? Generally chips, especially Pringles or Cool Ranch Doritos. Mm.

What color lipstick do you usually wear? None. It feels gross.

Have you ever smoked peanut shells? HELL no.

Have you ever been in a beauty pageant? If by "beauty pagent" you mean "exploitation of little girls with allegedly above-average intelligence that still requires a formal gown and dance routine", then yes. We shall not speak of it.

Orange Juice or apple? Apple. I love cider. The only time I can tolerate orange juice is when I'm ailing and need vitamin C that badly.

Who was the last person you went out to dinner with and where did you dine? Assuming that doesn't have coded romantic connotations, Jo. We had Chinese. Now I'm hungry.

Favorite type chocolate bar? Milky Way, snack of the true SF fan!

When was the last time you voted at the polls? I haven't. *reddens* Elections have a way of rousing my panic disorder. I intend to vote against Bush this fall though.

Last time you ate a homegrown tomato? Possibly never. I don't care for tomato.

Have you ever won a trophy? Yup, and plaques and money! But that was a long time ago.

Are you a good cook? Only with a carefully limited menu and/or supervision by someone who has a clue.

Do you know how to pump your own gas? What are you, in Jersey or something? Of course I do.

Ever order an article from an infomercial? Why would I?

Sprite or 7-up? Ew. Give me Dew or give me death!

Have you ever had to wear a uniform to work? Yes. I hated it even more than I had thought I would.

Last thing you bought at a pharmacy? Eyedrops for my contact lenses.

Ever throw up in public? It's a recurring theme of my childhood.

Would you prefer being a millionaire or find true love? I would prefer finding true love with a studly millionaire, but love trumps dough.

Do you believe in love at first sight? Oddly, I do. I didn't always and I still don't think love at first sight automatically equals OMG WE R 4evah, but yes.

Ever call a 1-900 number? No.

Can exes be friends? Depending on why they broke up, it may be possible.

Who was the last person you visited in a hospital? My other mother.

Did you have a lot of hair when you were a baby? Hehehe, no! I was bald until I was two. It's sure thick and long now though.

What message is on your answering machine? That is an excellent question. I think I'll check.

It's something like "Hi, you've reached Ree [Lastname] at [number]. I'm not picking up the phone right now, so please leave a message with your name and number if you want me to call you back. I don't have caller ID, so if you don't leave a message, I don't know who's called. Thank you." It used to be much moodier and cooler, but I changed it my last round of jobhunting.

What’s your all time favorite Saturday Night Live Character? Perhaps not quite what was meant by the question, but -- The Ambiguously Gay Duo!

What was the name of your first pet? Boots. Shush, I was six.

What is in your purse? Oh God, what isn't? Wait, I did actually dump a lot. Three paperbacks, my ID and credit cards, my daily medication (thyroxine for my hypothyroid), chapstick, keys, ponytail holders, your choice of pens, and 1.5 zillion scraps of paper with important notes like the title of a Heinlein novel. At one point there was a hairbrush, a videogame in playable state, spare AAs, nail clips, and quite possible a partridge in a pear tree. I swear it still smells of pear.

Favorite thing to do before bedtime? Watch anime. I love falling asleep to a familiar episode.

What is one thing you are grateful for today? I can h4>l<0r Amazon's URLs to make it take my credit card. Take it, bitch! Take it!

Bloody interesting quick summary over at 11D. I have an interest in gender issues, including being trans, but I never stopped to wonder how a TG protester would be treated.

I'm linking to the HTML entry, but the meat is in the PDF file. Dang.

Warning: Link shows bizarre image that is still giving me the willies. Don't click unless you want to be spooked.

Today was a really bad day for me to check up on Boing Boing. The crazy part is that the image shown on BB is the worst of the lot (disclaimer: My monitor is set very dark, so pictures relying on the blurred border between black and dried-blood red all look like murk to me). I have an awful thing about eye contact and that picture is not helping. Hoboy.

Well, I'm awake! What a way to start the morning, though.

"rEGiSTeR oNLiNe fOr tHE pATH2sUCCESS tOUR!"

Must transfer. t3h 5t00p|d iz |<illing m3y3 br41n yay. *runs the spellcheck and giggles insanely*

New round of The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books (1990-2000 edition). It's the list that continues to astound me.

The top of the list? Hell yes. I read that in the grade school library. I still have the occasional night terror that seems shadowed by those tales. Of course these days I'm grown up (*snicker*) so I read Snopes instead. Same tale, new day, really.

Back to that list:

22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

That's appalling. That's stupid! That book is one of my beloved treasures. It's in my purse right now as I re-re-re-re-read it. Anyone who thinks Wrinkle should be banned has a screw loose. Or five. Tighten those bolts people.

And Bless Me, Ultima had been in my discard bin, but now that I've seen it on the list I feel obliged to keep it. I despise people who think they know what's best for everyone. Themselves, sure, but me?

Anyone wanna guess how many titles on that list I own or have read? I'm too overwhelmed to bother counting those on my shelf. There are simply too many.

I love it.