"Once Upon a Time" Lasts Forever

Via Shorpy.com: a childrens' party from 1922, in which not a single kid is having fun. XD

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Took Relpax earlier today. Have no pain at all, but man I'm spacey.

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I fucking hate people!

thanks for listening, I had to get that out.

will now return to normal quiet self.

Your Yuletide Stories Of The Day for Thursday, July 24, 2008 are:

Happy New Year
Fandom: Bones (tv)
Written by ladybug218 for Merry
Spoilers for "The Santa in the Slush".

The Flyting of Crisp-Kari
Fandom: Brennu-Njalssaga
Written by Vehemently for Ellen Fremedon
"With laws will our land be built up, but with lawlessness laid waste."

The Paths of the Undying
Fandom: Diana Wynne Jones - Dalemark Quartet
Written by rosemaryandrue for Temaris
Maewen, travelling the green roads again.

Pressure Points
Fandom: RG Veda
Written by magicnoire for Jet

The Dawning of a New Day
Fandom: Naomi Novik - Temeraire series
Written by sahiya for glaikery
Catherine is caught unawares in more ways than one by Lily's hatching.

Redeployment
Fandom: MASH (tv)
Written by Tara Keezer for Ignaz Wisdom
They've seen each other at their best and their worst and every way in between. Slash. Pierce/Hunnicutt

What If
Fandom: Love Actually
Written by Chelsea Frew for KarmasChild
A stocking-sized ficlet in which we meet with Juliet right after her kiss with Mark.

Aubrey
Fandom: Georgette Heyer - Venetia
Written by idella for Kali
A conversation over breakfast.

Stories from the most recent Yuletide challenge are posted in order of when they were uploaded. Please comment on the stories if you read and enjoy!

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The following New Year Resolutions stories were also posted:

High in the Sunlit Silence
Fandom: Sunshine
Written by Rubynye for thenewradical
She isn't letting herself wonder what it will feel like to burn.

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Your Random Unfilled Request Of The Day:

Recipient: Inner Voice
Request: Mark Twain - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Huckleberry Finn/Jim)
Details: Something happy, during their idyllic time alone on the raft. Slashiness optional, but welcomed.

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Your Random Older Story Of The Day:

Office Daze
Fandom: Dead Like Me
Written by Koanju for Merry in the New Year Resolutions 2005 challenge.
Georgia Lass: Reaper and wage slave. It really is a wonderful afterlife.



Note: comments are not e-mailed; please comment on an admin post to reach the Yuletide mods!

If you're feeling the heat, The Big Picture has a collection of photos from around the world featuring people playing in the water.

Via Mind Hacks, a Scientific American article on new research and discoveries about migraine. (Which is good, as that stupid headache is back and currently lurking behind my left ear :P) I'm especially interested in this bit:

This finding raises the possibility that cortical spreading depression is fundamental to migraine but that only in some instances does it give rise to visual symptoms recognized as aura. Instead the process might generate less obvious symptoms, such as fatigue or difficulty concentrating.

because YES, YES, THAT. And also, a bit later,

Through its connection with the brain stem, the limbic cortex affects the functioning of the rest of the cortex—a fact that might explain how emotional and psychological stress could catalyze mi­­graines, why mood fluctuates during migraine, and why there is an association between mi­­graine and depression and anxiety disorders, both of which occur more commonly in mi­­graine sufferers than in others.

because I can't get it across to people that I am not that much in control of my mood during a migraine. I can't just "not be that way" as someone told me once when I warned her I'd probably end up bitchy.

Today's set of interesting search terms that found projectbluerose.com:

2	manga artist inking tools
1	manga inking tips
1	sexually themed fabric
1	discount personal checks
1	computers internet blog
1	making keychains to sell at artist alley

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Looks like I bought the new printer just in time ... I set the old one to print a label for PaperbackSwap.com and it made HORRIBLE HORRIBLE NOISES and ate the sheet of paper in a very thorough way. And after I cleared it out and turned it back on ... HORRIBLE HORRIBLE NOISES and a long, thin, flexible plastic piece fell out and the thing tried to eat my finger when I poked it.

Headache FINALLY gone after 5 days. Not my longest, which was 7 and occurred before I was diagnosed with migraines - two years in a row, right during oak-pollen season, I had a headache for a full week that responded to nothing.

In other news, sat down to mat and pack some art to send out (late!) to a Tulsa convention the first weekend in August, only to discover that like an idiot I'D FORGOTTEN TO BUY MATS. I had backing boards, bags, tape, no mats. I shall be doing that at lunch tomorrow, matting them and filling out paperwork tomorrow night, and rushing out Friday at lunch to mail the box. Aarg, cutting it way too close for safety - I should have done this last week.

And earlier this week I got a book in the mail from paperbackswap.com that had been mailed 7 months, almost to the day, ago. I'd already reported it as lost and gotten a replacement. XD Ah well, listed it on my account and it got claimed almost immediately and sent out Tuesday.

Also got Clare Dunkle's The Hollow Kingdom from paperbackswap.com, and started reading it, but it's not grasping my attention yet. Have re-started Larklight, which bounced me off in the first ten pages some time ago, but I've made it to page 40 now.

I'll get back to the condfw.org website tomorrow. I can't deal with it any more today.

It's been a whole year since Sayuki fans have been able to read an official English translation of any new material - but of course, no time has passed for our boys. As you no doubt recall, the Sanzo ikkou had split up in the aftermath of the mysterious and nearly deadly attack on Goku. Sanzo's off on foot with cheerily narcissistic, youkai-hating Western exorcist Hazel Grosse and his massive native American bodyguard Gat, while Hakkai, Gojyo, and Goku (and Jeep) have been struggling to make it on their own without Sanzo's Gold Card to pay for their upkeep.

As of last volume, the three sort-of youkai had been rescued from the desert's hostile clutches by the inhabitants of a youkai village, all of whom have been through the Minus Wave and come out the other side quite sane, although frighteningly blasé about the possibility of Human as a menu item. This village turns out to have a serious water problem: the inhabitants used to be part of a mixed human-youkai town located on an oasis nearby, but the youkai were kicked out some time ago, and have since depended on hauling water from a river several hours away. When drought dries up even that remote source, the youkai are poised to invade their ancestral territory so that they can take what they feel is rightfully theirs. Hakkai, Gojyo, and especially Goku - whose friendship with a downright young youkai girl is blossoming rapidly into something more - are caught in the middle as events push the village to the breaking point.

Meanwhile, in a striking coincidence, Sanzo, Hazel, and Gat find themselves in ... a lovely, prosperous human town located on an oasis. The mayor and townsfolk have a wee problem, however. Seems some vicious youkai live just over the hill, and are fixing to attack the town for its water. Hazel is charmed to be among people whose viewpoints correspond so well with his own, but Sanzo is deeply skeptical about the entire situation. What's the truth about the town? Only time - and a lot of sorrow, and learning of the toughest kind - will tell.

This is a very involving volume with a lot of real-world parallels. I found myself thinking of racial conflicts, terrorism, water rights (obviously), and environmental issues, just to name a few.

( Read more ... with spoilers! )

It is really creepy when people refer to themselves in the third person, especially when they use a nickname.

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Yay, no more work for me this week. Goin' back home again, to Indiana. I would say "see you soon" to all my lifelong Hoosier buddies, but they all have MySpace accounts. OMG MySpace is scary.

First, though, tonight sharpeslass and I get to have dinner with a couple of local fangirls. Squee! Then, finish packing, go to airport.

I wish I'd gotten to finish my latest fic, which will be 53 again FINALLY, but hopefully I'll remember everything I wanted to write after six days of seeing family and friends.

See ya again in a few days, Las Vegas! :)

Anyone with CSS knowledge here know why the ConDFW logo on the ConDFW page sits nicely and neatly over to the left top in Firefox but sits squat in the middle in IE7?

The relevant (possibly) CSS styling under the cut.

( cut for code )

Off to get a haircut!


In order to forestall the helpful-intention comments that I usually get which don't help because they don't relate to the actual question I asked:

1) I don't give a damn if the site validates. We're not a government institution.

2) I'm using Wordpress, as shown by the little credits bar in the footer. This means that I don't have that much control over the placement of all the elements on the page without getting into the guts of the theme programming and the ENTIRE POINT of using Wordpress is to AVOID getting into the guts of coding. So don't worry about letting me know that you don't like (X) type of design, because chances are I'm not going to be able to change it. Bugs that render parts of the site unusable excepted, of course.

3) Anyone who wants to argue either of the above two is cordially invited to code their own version of this site. Keep in mind it's going to have to include a robust content management system that allows non-coders to update the site *and* manages guest/panelist bios that we keep from year to year (with some guests returning, some not) *and* has a shopping cart attached so we can sell t-shirts and memberships. Yeah. I didn't think so.