If I'm snappish or antisocial today, I apologise in advance. A creep on the street tried to pick me up--to put it very mildly--and it left me kind of shaky.

The worst thing is, after they're gone, that stare stays with you.

i saw your face, and i ascended...
03:00 p.m., Friday, August 23, 2002

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Granddad: Now, can you come in an hour earlier for work on Thursday?
Me: *piku* *whee, more money!* ^__^ Sure, Granddad!
Granddad: Good. Because I have to take my new medication at the time we usually start, and it might make me nauseated, so I want to get at least an hour of work done before I start getting sick.

Me: o_O ... >_<;;;;

i saw your face, and i ascended...
11:37 p.m., Thursday, August 22, 2002

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...I hate being confused.

I mean, I really hate it.

i saw your face, and i ascended...
10:44 a.m., Thursday, August 22, 2002

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Great-Aunt Jean: *looking at pie recipes* Hm. Well, most of these butterscotch pies need actual scotch.
Mom: I don't think we have scotch. We have some sake, though.
Cousin Julie: Ooh, ooh, we could make sake pie!
Me: Yeah! And we could have a little raw fish garnish on top, in the shape of a fishy!
Cousin Julie: Yeah!

I love my family.

i saw your face, and i ascended...
02:01 p.m., Monday, August 19, 2002

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A little sort of... vignette on something that happened to me today.

My great-aunt Jean is also in town, and got here this afternoon. She has inoperable cancer, and while she's waiting to determine a course of treatment and the spread of the disease, she's decided to go visit relatives. In a way I feel a little sad to see her--I'd hoped that the next time I saw her, I'd be writing original fiction, and back in school, and generally making something much better of myself. I know I'm making progress now, but... she's always had such faith in me, a thing I've never really understood, and I want to live up to it.

So. While everyone was fussing over everyone else in our gigantic kitchen, I spotted some lemons and limes. So I made lemonlimeade by hand, and poured it into a little stoneware jar we have, and then I got down the blue glass goblet I bought that one year we went to Nice and had a glass of my own lemonlimeade (with a maraschino cherry in it, just because).

It was good to make something, and have it turn out well. I'm just not exactly sure why I had the urge to do it.

i saw your face, and i ascended...
05:14 p.m., Sunday, August 18, 2002

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Brief bloggage after my shower. *shakes, pops out dripping neko-ears*

So my aunt and cousins are here, along with their gigantic dog Baci. Baci is one of those big majestic white Samoyeds--in short, he looks like Inuki, but white all over and much more smiley. ^___^ We call him "the puppy" even though he's nearly three feet tall and 80 pounds--but, really, it's because he's so damn sweet and well-behaved. A prince among dogs. He and I have gotten along wonderfully so far; he's an absolute sweetheart, and I think I've found his favourite scritching spot, right below and behind his left ear. ^_^
(Note to self: is Subaru's affinity with animals possibly rubbing off on me? Because that would rock.)
My cousins, who run a tiny little software company, have brought their Powerbook and art kits and geek senses of humour as well, so the weekend has been very happy thus far. Here's an example of the kind of antics we get up to:

Lisa: *sitting at the kitchen table, reading the paper*
Cousin Catherine: *brings over a box of cherry tomatoes and opens her sketchbook, so she can draw them* :d
Lisa: Ooh, cherry tomatoes! *grabs one and eats it*
Cousin Catherine: ...*stare of disbelief*
Lisa: *sees the sketchbook* ...um...
*brief silence*
*uncontrollable laughter from all involved*

...hey, I did say geek sense of humour. XD

Um. In less family-oriented news...
Ren-sama quoted chunks of a book by R.A. Salvatore at me last night, and I was shaking with both laughter and genuine horror. I'm sorry to anyone who likes those books, but... I've learned a lot about world- and society-building since taking up Imago with Ren, and the kind of mistakes he makes are things I wouldn't have considered doing even before I started to learn about the nitpicky basics of world-building. Reads like bad fanfiction.net stuff in places. Want smack bad author. *twitch*

Okay, but in good news: I finished chapter seven of Tabula Rasa last night and posted it to CLAMPesque. (I think I have afterglow.) And, in the space of about ten hours, I've gotten two of the most flattering compliments on fic-writing I could ever hope to get--both of them for Tabula Rasa, which is my baby, my joy, and my perpetual frustration. I really love that story, but... I feel a little odd that nobody seems to have considered the idea of putting Tokyo Babylon Subaru into the X universe before I did it with TR. I'm not going to give a "state of the X fandom address", here, but I do see a lot of untapped potential in story plots that just... mystifies me.

And now, because D-chan and Kira-bop begged me, I'm going to go work on that conversationfic. Also because Kira gave me one of the aforementioned compliments, which of course means I owe her. #^_^#

i saw your face, and i ascended...
11:11 a.m., Sunday, August 18, 2002

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Guess who got a big fat paycheck and now has Tokyo Babylon 1-7 on the way from Japan.

G'wan, guess. ^_______^

*hanyaan*

(Although, on the general note of work--it's really sad that I, who am the only of Granddad's readers/typists/general dogsbodies not sporting a college degree, am also the only one who can spell and use commas correctly and knows how to download and locate files off of AOL. The one who works the shift before me apparently had a GPA of 3.8, and just on the basis of seeing the stuff she's typed for Granddad and hearing his account of what she can't spell correctly--including, and I'm not making this up, the word "legacy"--I have determined that if she doesn't clean up her act within the next three months, I am going to lie in wait for her outside Granddad's apartment building and beat her with vile-smelling tropical fruit.)

*looks up* But, y'know, all that considered... it's so good to feel like I really earned what I made.

Which I do.

^____________^

i saw your face, and i ascended...
06:53 p.m., Thursday, August 15, 2002

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You know, I'm glad I check my referrals.

*waves at Flamebyrd* That counted as a comment, IMHO. ^_~ (Damn, now I have to make a site or something called "dreamy SubaruAngst". That's a great phrase.)
Glad you're enjoying TR, though... Chapter 7 is about half done, which is depressing because it now clocks in at nearly eleven pages. Possibly twelve or thirteen, after I take a shower. And it needs beta.
And, dude, I love your layout. Jim Henson is my childhood hero... I must have watched "The Dark Crystal" about a hundred times when I was in first and second grade. (My dream day job is to work as a puppeteer at the Jim Henson studios... but you can't major in puppeteering. ._.)

Now about that shower... *hops off to soak her head*

i saw your face, and i ascended...
11:20 a.m., Wednesday, August 14, 2002

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I have ranting to do, and I want to make some Subaru icons for my LJ and AIM.

But I'm tired, and don't have Photoshop, so instead I'm going to slink off to play Paper Mario for a while. And eat. And gloat that in a few days, not only will I have my next paycheck, but that people with scanners will have the (hopefully) pretty pics I drew for them. Not to mention other little treats. ^___^

i saw your face, and i ascended...
07:16 p.m., Tuesday, August 13, 2002

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Spastic social blogging before I disappear--and if you want to know why I'm disappearing, check the fic blog.

Kira-imouto, I will get Yami back to you--I just want to watch it through one more time after I get TR7 done. (And, uh... I need my paycheck from granddad. >_<)

Becky-onee-san, I hope you know that now I have to go hunt down good reference pics of Ryuuichi so I can dash off a sketch for your next art pack. "Ero-site-o na no da! Ero-site-o na no da!" XD

Snicks, I know what you mean. It happens to me too, especially when I watch Cyrano de Bergerac. (Ignore the fact that the movie's in French and rent it. Trust me.)

And, D-chan, I do have pieces of the Broken Glass Fic (har har) around here somewhere. They'll get typed as soon as I'm done with TR7.

And now... to do battle with the muse. *handcuffs self to keyboard and fic notebook*

i saw your face, and i ascended...
09:25 a.m., Monday, August 12, 2002

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Take THAT, ornery HTML code! *flourishes Stick of Internet Whacking +2*

And, look! Colour! ^_^V

So... mrf, what's new. By the end of this week, if granddad and I switch to the one-paycheck-every-two-weeks plan, I'll have almost paid mom back for Otakon completely--and still have enough left over for the semi-frivolous things I want to buy this month. (I say semi-frivolous because, while Tokyo Babylon manga is not a life necessity, it's fairly damn important to my current writing/art kick.)

And, about my grandfather... I'm disappointed in him. Not angry, not really surprised, but... disappointed, and a little upset.

Because, really, I never thought I'd have to hear the whole ultra-Catholic, "gay marriage is WRONG" argument from a member of my own family.

No, it had nothing to do with me bringing up my own personal preferences; we were reading a recent issue of the Economist, and the subject of Vermont came up. (Hell, I haven't told Granddad that I'm a Quaker. I'd like to think I have a little more tact than to give him a coronary over being prohibited by my faith from taking any military profession.)

I politely explained to him my stand on the emotional and legal aspects of marriage--that a legal contract does not become a marriage unless it's a partnership and a loving relationship, and that two people of any gender can have such a bond--and he, thankfully, didn't persist in arguing. But it was uncomfortable, and a little upsetting.

I guess you have to take the good with the bad, though. And, for me, the good--money, old issues of foreign affairs magazines, stories about the grandmother I didn't get to know--is enough to balance out his less-than-virulent objections to some of the things I support.

i saw your face, and i ascended...
02:09 p.m., Sunday, August 11, 2002

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Ahh. Nothing like one hour of free time before eight solid hours of work at two different jobs.

... -_-

Anyways! I owe people fic, and am writing it, and I think I have a not-too-cliched plot for the one story that's been begging me to be written for a week. I just really hope I can keep it comic without being obnoxious or too obvious... my sister the actress has told me that, onstage, it's much harder to be funny than to be serious. I absolutely agree with her.

Wah. Next paycheck I get, I'm caving and buying myself the Nightmare Before Christmas DVD. Having a Tim Burton/Danny Elfman mindscrew in my house is approaching vital necessity... that, and I am really the kind of person who should have Jack Skellington in her personal library as a permanent fixture. ^_^ "There are few who'll deny at what I do I am the best, for my talents are renowned far and wide..."

Oh yes. Everybody, say hello to my shiny new stalker. ^_~ *waves* I see you! You no can hide! (And, dang, nice layout. Kyonkichi! XD *must remember to make an Ayame layout sometime. when she gets access to Photoshop again*

*...and runs away before she babbles some more*

i saw your face, and i ascended...
10:07 a.m., Thursday, August 8, 2002

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