http://www.sarahpin.com snarp's blog Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:57:56 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'm not presently updating this blog. To see newer stuff I've written, go to snarp.dreamwidth.org. http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/03/17/go-to-dreamwidth/ I sometimes suffer from compulsions to do things like brush my hair exactly a hundred strokes, or make sure all the blinds are pointing the same direction, or build simple structures out of my macaroons, or reread manga that I just read a week ago because I want to memorize ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/02/15/i-cannot-be-stopped/ For some reason I thought this was the last volume... I guess I'm happy it's not? But I'm disappointed by the sense I'm getting that, in the long run, no shounen manga dares stand in the way of the almighty Shounen Jump formula. For one thing, the formula seems to require ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/02/12/soul-eater-up-to-volume-14/ 1) Do the tutorial mission! 2) Do the first three career-path mission sets! They will be easy and will give you the same items over and over! You can sell the extras? 2a) At the end they will recommend you someone to visit next! That's good, because there are seventy billion star ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/02/11/how-to-play-eve-online/ 1) When I am the villain, my minions' uniforms will involve full-face masks of an easy-to-duplicate design, just to make it that much more convenient for the good guys to infiltrate my secret lair. 2) When I am a manga artist drawing a wacky shounen comedy series, just before the final ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/02/11/soul-eater-up-to-volume-12/ I want to go out in the snow, but I'm afraid to. I'm afraid because there's a small swimming pool out in the yard somewhere... and I can't tell exactly where. Someone stop me from playing EVE Online and watching Soul Eater all day. I think it likely that neither one ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/02/10/still-snowing/ is that there's another Hell that is way worse than regular Hell and is called "NetherHell." ... I'm really trying hard here, but I think the book just beat me. I'd gotten over my cold, but it relapsed; and all my downloads keep aborting themselves; the milk has all curdled; and the ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/02/09/the-basic-premise-of-mona-lisa-darkening/ Three small bets I just made with myself: 1) I bet the City of Heroes website is red or blue. (I won - both.) 2) I bet the EVE Online website is black. (I lost, it's brown.) 3) I bet the Star Trek Online website is dark blue. (I won.) I didn't think to ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/02/08/its-bad-decision-time-again/ http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/02/06/snow-6/ What just happened? Why do I find the horrible romantic lead likable? I like how it's mentioned on one page in the second volume that all these people are about three inches tall, and then that's never brought up again. It's irrelevant! Doomed reincarnated alien love is relevant. (My ability to get ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/02/05/i-just-read-all-of-please-save-my-earth-in-about-a-26-hour-period/ There's an interesting interview here (via Ta-Nehisi Coates) about an African-American woman named Henrietta Lacks whose cervical cancer cells were taken as samples in 1951, shortly before her death, and were found to reproduce in a culture so quickly and efficiently that they revolutionized research on human tissue. They called ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/02/03/hela-cells/ I just read this book. And you guys. It is Anne Bishop fanfic. Unequivocally! Terms and social structures are duplicated! Lisa is a nurse at a New York hospital who has magic diagnostic powers - she only needs to touch a patient to know what is wrong with him/her! Obviously we must first ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/02/02/mona-lisa-awakening-by-sunny/ So I've been looking at the message board for a Facebook game. I know that I yelled at my cold cream the other day, and I made libelous remarks about Octavia Butler due to my displeasure at her having gotten Serious all over me, and I suggested that Lois McMaster Bujold's ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/02/01/warning-ill-natured-post/ 1) Google Chrome is wayyyy faster than Firefox. 1a) But my life depends on search-as-you-type, and that's presently only available via an extremely jittery alpha plugin. 2) It's actually pretty easy to write a Second Life bot. 3) I like Metaplace's aesthetics enough that I'm actually playing the Facebook time-waster game they set ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/01/29/discoveries/ Technically, Maryland, but there's a subway station. What should I do in Washington, DC? Aside from go to the Freer and Sackler galleries and wish I were a master thief, probably from a manga with peculiar ideas about either Catholics or consent. Because I can only do that so much. (Restaurants ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/01/26/i-am-in-washington-dc/ The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords manga. Four Swords is the one where Link gets split into five Links with different-colored hats, and the one in the black hat is evil! In the game, they basically just fight, but the manga felt that this situation would be improved by a ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/01/21/things-that-got-licensed-somehow/ Bring back negative feedback for buyers RIGHT NOW. Auction Title: Pokemon The Movie 2000 DVD - No Box Gray Feedback Left By Stupid Stupid Stupid Idiot Buyer: i didnt know that it was only the cd with no box (I am very petty.) http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/01/19/argh-ebay/ I regret to inform you that the Regency Buffy book - aka, The Rest Falls Away, by Colleen Gleason, #1 in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles series - just is not very good. At all. The prose is clunky, and there's no pacing, and the love triangle has so little chemistry ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/01/19/i-have-an-unfortunate-announcement-to-make/ Neither Darkover Nor Manga Fool Moon (Dresden Files 1), Jim Butcher I heard somewhere that Jim Butcher and the Ah! My Goddess guy can combine to form a bigger misogynist. Dawn (Xenogenesis 1), Octavia Butler Octavia Butler punches you repeatedly in the stomach. Adulthood Rites and Imago (Xenogenesis 2, 3), Octavia Butler Octavia Butler punches you ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/01/15/one-to-two-sentence-reviews-again/ COMYN LORD: I am so angry and celibate! It has something to do with my psychic powers. HIS DAD: Cry moar. You are going to be a warrior and awesome and give me millions of awesome grandchildren because I have inadequacy issues. COMYN LORD: I hate you, father! I fantasize about killing ... http://www.sarahpin.com/2010/01/15/today-i-am-a-darkover-book/