Fortress of Perpetual Midnight

Better than Work, at Least

2009-12-18T22:58:43Z

I'll be gone to Georgia from Sunday, 2009.10.20 to Sunday, 2009.10.27. Of course, that means I'll probably be able to check my mail and LJ every day. . . .

Three-Card Pickup

2009-12-16T03:48:38Z

My brother tells me that besides Indiana, he's considering applying for a precinct in Seattle due to the pay. In either location, rooming with him would make things a lot easier on me. Also, having a brother on the squad could possibly give me access to information about laws and/or weapons.

Incidentally, there are some other conceivable perquisites to the job that I failed to mention before. I can remember one: As it doesn't publish anything that has to be out the morning after it's written, the company would presumably allow me to work during the day, which would allow me to keep a constant schedule several days in a row, making things a lot easier on me physically and mentally.

It also occurred to me that I could try being a bounty hunter. Even if they don't let me have a firearm, I could try disarming people with a nightstick and stuff. And for that or being a private eye, I'd only need to have a reasonable relationship with one area police officer, and I have a pretty good idea of who(m) that would be.

Must Make It Hard to Take an Intelligible Statement

2009-12-16T03:32:10Z

Gibbs was continuously badgering the suspect, to the point of going jet-skiing with him. He finally got him to confess as they landed. Conveniently, DiNozzo (who was undercover as a UPS delivery driver) and Agent Todd (who was just there) arrived at the beach just in time to take him into custody.

This came from seeing the pre-title sequence from the episode with Ms. Moennig—I didn't watch the rest that time, since I'd already seen it. I've also seen her on two LAWs & ORDERs, but sadly, the only one of these three with any LGBT content was the SVU one. Apparently people like being disturbed, because NBC kept that show while dropping CI.

Shoo Demon, Don't Bother Me

2009-12-16T03:21:52Z

It recently occurred to me that I can leave the computer in the bedroom on, since it doesn't have Internet. This is making it a lot easier to note down ideas. As the only functioning OS is Linux, I haven't gotten it Japanese tech support, so I've been working on my latest fix, Project Supernatural Weapons and Tactics (as always, only a working title). This one doesn't have much necessary world-building design work, doesn't have female characters getting naked all that often, and is about fighting rather than relationships, so I thought it would be a good starting project for drawing. Unfortunately, I don't get to use firearms and don't know anyone who does, so I'm a bit vague on a lot of the details. Most significant is the armament for the entry team, which is shown off in the first chapter. It's too bad blitzcon only got that one course, and lokodraucarn doesn't use LJ. I'm currently thinking about just posting it online and using commentary from readers to build the corrected version, which they'd have to buy.

Incidentally, other things about weaponry I've thought up for MythBusters are here. Too bad the ideas I have for my story aren't going to be urban myths until I've drawn it. . . . I guess I could wait until the boys have had time to read the online version and test the myths before finalizing the printed graphic novel.

Evident Heredity

2009-12-15T01:54:23Z

Rankin/Bass: +1 beard
Jackson: –1 beard

Where?

The Crux of the Problem

2009-11-21T23:49:43Z

When I talked to my social worker about the fight mentioned here, she said she didn't notice. This difference in perception has always been a problem in dealing with human beings. Although I was acting extremely angry, normal people often seem to do that even when they're not, sometimes to the point of explicitly telling their friends to ____ themselves. It's irritating always to have to assume that someone is hurt since there's no way of knowing (since people who aren't angry often pretend they are, and those who are pretend they aren't), and even if I could ask, I've never encountered someone who is willing to talk out a problem. The obvious solution (one covered by the book we're currently studying) is not to care when I hurt others, but I still don't want to resort to that.

A Fun Quiz from Ms. mizuno_youko

2009-11-20T03:29:20Z

Your result for The Social Orientation Inventory...

The Complainer

-Attent/Self/+Attach/-Emo/+<3/Narrow/Insecure

You scored 43% Attention-desiring, 22% Other-directedness, 77% Attachment-desiring, 45% Emotionality, 79% Romance-seeking, 23% Range, and 15% Secureness.

Your Bonding Quadrant: Companionate

Summary: You tend to live in your own head and do not get too invested in the details of others' lives, but you do make an effort to hold onto the few important people in your life, especially romantic partners. Your relationships are somewhat impersonal and center more on shared interests and/or lust than shared emotions. You are likely to be shy.

Here is a glossary to help you understand the cryptic, septapartite notation of your SOI type:

-Attent=low desire for attention, acknowledgement, and/or interaction

+Attent=high desire for attention, acknowledgement, and/or interaction (specific attentional needs vary from type to type)

Self=more interested in oneself than in others when interacting

Other=more interested in others than in oneself when interacting

-Attach=does not seek out long-term attachments

+Attach=seeks out long-term attachments

-Emo=prefers unemotional relationships

+Emo=prefers emotionally intense relationships

-<3=low desire for sex and/or romance

+<3=high desire for sex and/or romance

Narrow=interacts with few people

Broad=interacts with many people

Insecure=expects negative evaluation from others

Secure=does not expect negative evaluation from others

Merging=High attachment-seeking, high emotionality (merging types are prone to obsession; devotion; identity crises; offspring)

Companionate=High attachment-seeking, low emotionality (companionate types are likely to be loyal, cool-headed, and dependable, with a long-term temporal orientation)

Acute=Low attachment-seeking, high emotionality (acute types tend toward extremes, and temporal orientation is mostly immediate)

Distant=Low attachment-seeking, low emotionality (distant types are the most autonomous and the most avoidant)

Take The Social Orientation Inventory at OkCupid

Still Less Weird than Backward Time Travel

2009-11-07T22:45:09Z

I was investigating a crime scene when I found Goren under the carpet searching for clues. Apparently it was also a crossover episode, as I believe I spotted Munch or Briscoe in the opening credits. Later, my investigation took me to a residential airship, where I was assisted by a young, female witness. The natives were rather hostile.

Meanwhile, Speed and Delko were visiting some sort of store on Stair Road, which was apparently on the coast of Florida due to the cornfield across the road flooding. A shootout ensued, resulting in the deaths of both CSIs. But I went back and tried again; in the second version, Delko survived.

Taking along a civilian toward the end of the first paragraph may have been influenced by CMs for White Collar. (Yeah, I watch so much TV that I dream about shows I haven't even seen.)

The latter paragraph's divergent realities were related to something else that I was considering lately. Back in my less realistic days when I thought about designing video games, one of the ideas I had (perhaps itself inspired by CHRONO TRIGGER, for all I can remember) was about a protagonist who hibernates, only waking during important turning points in history, thus seeing the long-term effects of her decisions in the past. I recently brought the idea back to mind after considering a freeware game engine for visual novels, which I discovered in the game I've mentioned here and here. The idea was to base it on the character of Lilith, a resident of "Earth" who is cursed due to her rebellion from YHWH to be hunted down and killed every time her followers reincarnate her. This would be intertwined strongly with Project AnthraXX, including subsuming the numerous background stories set in the distant past. Of course, an epic of that magnitude would be a full project rather than a shōrt, so I'm not sure how likely I am to make it. I also thought of a similar one set in the Grim Darkness of the Far Future. It would be a lot of work for something that's in someone else's universe and thus not something I can sell, but at least it would take less drawing than Abdiel.

Took 'Em Long Enough

2009-11-06T21:54:01Z

So, it turns out that two of my regular buys are opening subscription services here. This is now apparently the only way to get the comics to which they're trying to restrict access. Unfortunately, they only allow addresses in Japan. If I use the proxy service, they'd be too far apart to allow me to combine them in one shipment, so I'd have to make twice as many orders a year. I guess there's probably only going to be one special per year, so if I use the subscription for one, I can get that, and I can buy the other one normally at that time to get it in the same shipment.

Overtime

2009-10-31T01:39:18Z

Other things I forgot to mention the other night:

Considering the accessibility of the brass, perhaps paizo would be a small enough company that they didn't use huge machines to pack the stuff, meaning people could converse without screaming. I think that would be helpful for building relationships and communication. On the other hand, there wouldn't be anyplace in the department where you wouldn't be chugging smoke from the people outside (or inside) the loading dock, or those who had just come in from break. (I wonder how people with significant allergies to tobacco can survive in America. They can't work at blue-collar jobs, and there are very few colleges they can attend in order to get others. Is that enough to get you disability benefits?)

It also occurred to me that I could use the skills I've had to develop to my advantage. Most significantly, at work, I've had a lot of practice hiding, sneaking, and keeping an eye on my enemies. Unfortunately, I can't join the military or a S.W.A.T. team or anything, so I don't know where I could turn that into a legal profession. In fiction, private eyes do a lot of spying on people, but I don't know anywhere that would be legal or tolerable, and I'd have to join as a specialist in an agency where someone else does the customer service.

アッカリーン

2009-10-31T01:12:03Z

I had a good idea for a shōrt about ladies sharing their notes in school. I wasn't at the computer, so I noted the word "Notes" in my notes.

Unfortunately, as there is neither such a note in my phone nor a good idea in my brain, it was just a dream. I have way too many ideas for someone who can't publish them, but I always appreciate more to mull over. The ones for which I've typed blurbs are only the very tip of the iceberg.

The dream was obviously brought on by reading 『★Y★R★Y★R★』 here. They finally get to the real yuri, and apparently that's not the part that sticks in my head. Bloody comedy

Foot in the Door

2009-10-27T01:50:21Z

When I talked to my contemporary social worker about the idea of joining the force noted here, she said she didn't think I'd be able to become stronger by it. That's fair enough; I also realized that I'd make a lot of enemies in the force by my opinion that officers should follow laws. (It also occurred to me that they don't get to take the squad cars home, do they? If not, most of the time they're driving them around would be when they're on patrol, which begs the question, why the hell are they in such a hurry?)

Beside the warehouse job at Privateer Press noted at the bottom of the same post, there was also a similar position at the other best company in the same area. However, where the former one stopped responding to my emails on several occasions after discussion, the latter was never willing to answer even once. Oddly enough, whenever I've sent an email to the company about anything other than that position, the CEO personally replied, to the point of giving me information about their lines that wouldn't be announced for some months afterward. It (relatively) recently occurred to me that I could try going through her to get to the job. But, after the wake-up call, I guess it wouldn't work. I imagine the people at the company wouldn't treat me as such a freak as the ones where I am now do (or at least I'd be able to find someone to talk to), but the rest of my life would probably not work without anyone I know in the entire region.

Anyway, my current social worker suggests that maybe I could get Mother to let me quit this job if I got another. Of course, there's no way I can go to any interviews, so the best we have on that front is considering applying again for assistance in that area.

I Had No Idea Ms. mizuno_youko Watched Such Geeky Shows

2009-10-18T19:27:57Z

[01] -- Go to IMDB.com and look up 10 of your TV shows.
[02] -- Post three official IMDB "Plot Keywords" for [each of] these picks.
[03] -- Have your friends guess the show names [preferably without looking them up].

It doesn't say what it means by "your TV shows," so I just randomly picked a bunch that I like and that had enough keywords.

1. Acronym in Title; Place Name in Title; Spin Off
2. Babe Scientist; Deoxyribonucleic Acid; Divorcé (guessed by blitzcon below)
3. Bleeped Dialogue; Explosion; Segway (arifyn)
4. Brother in Law Sister in Law Relationship; Evil Capitalist; Smartest Person (blitzcon)
5. Cyborg; Epic; Sword Fight
6. Disembodied Head; Pneumatic Tube; Tank Top (arifyn)
7. Docket Number; Female Boss; Twist in the End
8. End of Mankind; No Cast of Characters in Credits; Post Apocalyptic
9. Evil Brother; Impulse Engines; Positronic Brain (mizuno_youko)
10. Gadget; Insurance Investigator; One Word Title

RSSに付き合う程ひまな者は居ないでしょうな

2009-10-13T02:44:41Z

最近（と言うかいつも）読んだ漫画のかんそうをちゃんと書く気にならんので、こちらで一言ずつ入力しておいています。売る事にもべんりになるでしょう。

Unfamiliar with Vestments, I Don't Know What Those Were Called

2009-10-08T02:27:28Z

So, I went to the wedding. Besides getting out of hell for a while, it also gave me the chance to experience a bunch of unusual situations (such as hanging out with people who've been drinking). The wedding itself wasn't overtly religious; although the officiate (the bride's brother) had "vestments" and "authority . . . by God," he was apparently joking. During the actual ceremony (from what I could make out from behind all the more important people who were able to stand in the area with chairs), I don't recall if he referenced any religions that are still believed by significant numbers of people. On the other hand, it appears that the bride took the groom's last name. It's sad that people still cling to this chauvinistic tradition even a full generation after people started fixing it.

One thing, however, that struck me was how many times I was too afraid even to say things to lokodraucarn, one of the closest I have to a friend and one of the few people I'm inviting when trying to get together a group where I don't have to be afraid. In this case, I believe that having a common interest gives me courage, but I don't know whether it will help me move on or just be inapplicable to other situations. I went to another diagnosis last week, and the best they could drum up was "schizotypal disorder."

行って来ます

2009-10-02T02:12:39Z

As noted, I'll be out of town from tomorrow through Monday. I don't know whether or not I'll be checking email or LJ during that time.

I Can't Keep Track of All Those Holidays, but This One Is Just a Sunday

2009-09-24T01:01:02Z

To go along with the fact that it's released on a slightly different date due to a holiday, the preorders are starting comparatively really early, too. Any requests?

In This Movie, He Has Hair Neither on the Top Nor the Bottom of His Head

2009-09-19T19:48:14Z

On the topic of my last futile plea, as you can see, I can't figure out how to get the GIMP (which I like in all ways except the name) to use transparency (so you can see what the square is where the token is standing). I just used the method specified, and the undo log confirms that the clear happened. Is it something about exporting to .gif and .png formats? It says it has to flatten layers, but if that destroys transparency, then it kinda defeats the purpose of those being the formats that allow it in the first place.

(Y'arr, I be lucky it be not Type like a Pirate Day. Those kinds of pirates be not terribly tech-savvy.)

If the Sphinx Survived to the 20th Century

2009-09-19T02:56:25Z

On three legs, I am a brute.
On four, a beauty.
Any more, and I am called abnormal.

If She Hadn't Taken Her First Husband's Name, She Wouldn't Have to Worry about Confusing People

2009-09-11T22:06:45Z

Continuing from my previous post about surnames, there was a new character in the summer finale whom I couldn't quite place. When I looked it up, I was surprised to find that she was one of the actresses at the center of what (from what I've heard) seems to be the biggest yuri fandom (as opposed to series having actual yuri characters) in American history. Her comment on meeting Ms. Parker: "You are cute." Too bad the actresses both appear to be extremely straight.

きおくりょくも小

2009-08-25T01:34:44Z

In light of the previous announcement, I'll probably keep the blog to more timely things. For instance, I just found that I have so many ideas for shōrts that I can't really remember what one of them is. I really should just type them all up so I don't forget all the specifics. It's too bad it's so inconvenient to use the computer.

Hopefully You Keep More than One Bar of RSS Feeds

2009-08-25T01:29:31Z

I've found that wikispaces provides RSS feeds for individual tags, so you can subscribe only to what interests you. In that respect, at least, it's a good thing that I'm posting much more stuff there than here. It's much more organized than spouting off stuff that I have to muck around to find. It's also indexed on Google, so it'll hopefully be slightly more likely to generate response (since people will go back to pages rather than ignoring each post just once).

IMNSHO

2009-08-14T23:04:33Z

What film features two leading men who are both every bit as good-looking as Leonardo DiCaprio?

売買

2009-08-11T02:05:10Z

As noted before, if ebay allows sellers to ship a week after receiving payment, I would be able to sell my things. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any official reference to the rule. Does anyone know about specifics, or if it's just left up to the buyer and seller?

What Would Be the Point of Riding It?*

2009-08-11T01:34:53Z

As Astaroth was one of the demons I'd dragooned for my works (as noted in the tags), I was rechecking his entry in my grimoire (yeah, at 1st level, I only have one). Two things struck me this time. First, it didn't say anything about him having two pairs of wings in the description. Second, there wasn't much in the picture that portrayed the steed as "like a Dragon." So, now that I actually looked at the picture closely, I saw the truth. According to the current edit, this is what you find "Upon closer examination"—but it's completely obvious if you aren't biased by reading someone claiming that the wings are the steed's. This is another example of how you should check references. (It's too bad that this is about the only thing that's so mainstream that I actually can get the reference.)

Fortunately, since I inserted him into the setting, Astaroth has grown to have other characteristics, including one that explains why some of the wings are attached to the dragon. I should make a character page for him.

*Yes, I'm aware that the mount could be faster, or it could just be there so the rider doesn't get tired. But I still feel that it's wasteful for a flying creature to ride around all the time.