how public, like a frog
Jan. 25th, 2011 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
langwidereMy cat had to have one of her canine teeth pulled. Last Wednesday. The other canine tooth is beginning to loosen, too, and will have to come out sooner or later (let’s hope for "later" — I’m actually hoping to wait until it’s almost out on its own and can be yanked with forceps like the first one, because she is almost fifteen years old and has asthma and I don’t want her sedated unless there’s no other option). Of course, she was fine as soon as she got out of the cat carrier when we came from the vet’s office, and I spent four days crying intermittently because I love her to pieces and the only heirloom bequeathed to me by my bevy of Irish-American ancestors is the Sentimental Weeping Idiot gene. (The rest of her teeth are, to quote the vet, "fantastic for fifteen." So, that’s weird, probably, but really good? Please?)
Anyway. So, I still have people’s Christmas presents sitting on the piano. In the future I will invent some kind of new Christmas/Valentine’s Day hybrid celebration in order to clear my conscience in these sorts of situations. I was able to upgrade most of the cards, however. ♥
I used WineBottler to install Internet Explorer 7 — and check out that awesome interface! I am guessing the real IE7 does not quite look exactly like that — and then I used it to test my sites for cross-platform awesomeness:
Whhhhhut? Warn the Duke also looks horrible on my iTouch:
WHY? WHY IS THAT HAPPENING? I CUT THE BACKGROUND IMAGE RIGHT OUT OF THE GRAPHIC, USING PREVIEW. HOW COULD THEY POSSIBLY HAVE DIFFERENT ALPHA SETTINGS?
I’m also thinking of maybe using FontSquirrel’s @FontFace generator to replace all the Helvetica Neue and the other proprietary, jaggedly-rendered fonts with open-source alternatives that look exactly like them. Do you think that is a good idea, or what?
Um. Look! A photo of a black lady on Ffffound! First one ever, out of a whole year on the feed. Next, maybe I’ll see an Asian person! Very exciting. You are allowed to look at Asian person-generated artwork on Ffffound, a lot, because it is hott — but not at the actual people, who mostly fail to adhere to the universal Western standard of beauty defined as "people who look exactly like my friend’s 15-year-old cousin Jeff, but with long hair and tube socks and after an extended battle with a particularly virulent strain of stomach flu, which he lost." Because that is just what sexy is, here in the diverse and prejudice-free melting-pot that is the United States of America’s repulsive digital social-media cesspools.
Speaking of which: I joined a new service! It’s called Readernaut. It’s basically useless and stupid and really, really buggy, but I’ve been having fun making mean comments about crappy import manga, so there’s that.
Is Skins not a British show which has been on for like four or five years, or am I Ripannina Van Winkle over here, or what?
I missed Blogging for Choice Day. Oops.
And speaking of which! I just found a thing, which is called The Feminism 101 Blog. It has as clear a description of the male gaze as I think can be found online, and is worth reading for that only. (Although they left out Lacan, for some reason?) Which is, you know, the objection most of us have to those disturbing, sad little naked-lady tumblrs (see above). The girls are always terribly vacant and mouth-breathey and possibly high and unkempt and so victimized-looking, and they’re presented — probably by unattractive white/male tools — as sexual eidolons. It’s weird. Men are strange, and gross. I have never been able to understand why we are supposed to want them to like us. I know postmodernist (post-postmodernist?) feminism is kind of turning into performance art with the vagina necklaces and the stripper poles and the personhole covers and all, but it’s still an embattled discipline. It probably doesn’t hurt to remember exactly how much better feminists have left the world, sometimes, and to realize how much further we all have to go.
But I’m not wearing a vagina necklace no matter what.
SOME LINKS, FORJESUS BETTY FRIEDAN:
1. This Paul Krugman story is hilariously topped with the words "Can Europe Be Saved?" (implication: no!!!!), but it’s actually about the ill-considered adoption of the Euro. It is not interesting, but if you like that sort of thing it could be useful, potentially.
2. This is the very hilarious review of 43’s awesome novel Decision Points, by the London Review of Books. I just now noticed it exists, because it was linked by Wonkette. I am not up in the London Review of Books on the regular.
3. From The Guardian, a piece on the fiction/internets ouroboros which I have not yet finished reading myself.
These are better screenshots of my new boyfriend, who looks, upon close inspection, like he wandered out of Labyrinth, limping, after David Bowie was finished with him. I hope he will be named something like 'Valumphis Stagne.'
This season of American Idol is too boring even for my granny.
On the other hand, this is very funny.
ETA link, because the iframe wouldn’t load.
I recently learned that I am the last person in all the world who downloads fansubs. I think this is because I originally visited Crunchyroll back when it was staffed by, I surmised, photosynthetic multi-celluar plant-people who were heroically fansubbing Naruto despite the fact that they lacked formal brain structures and spoke neither English nor Japanese — and I had my delicate sensibilities offended to an extreme degree. Also, I am not paying for fansubs. Ahaha! HAHAHA! What? Really? Are you kidding me? People are paying for fansubs? Voluntarily? Why? You kids today, with your fancy bullet trains and your Lawrence Welk records and your super-sweet iced tea.
Is that it? I think that’s it.
Next week: Sherlock! Probably. (And the Kindle.)
Anyway. So, I still have people’s Christmas presents sitting on the piano. In the future I will invent some kind of new Christmas/Valentine’s Day hybrid celebration in order to clear my conscience in these sorts of situations. I was able to upgrade most of the cards, however. ♥
I used WineBottler to install Internet Explorer 7 — and check out that awesome interface! I am guessing the real IE7 does not quite look exactly like that — and then I used it to test my sites for cross-platform awesomeness:
 |
 |
 |
Whhhhhut? Warn the Duke also looks horrible on my iTouch:
 |
 |
WHY? WHY IS THAT HAPPENING? I CUT THE BACKGROUND IMAGE RIGHT OUT OF THE GRAPHIC, USING PREVIEW. HOW COULD THEY POSSIBLY HAVE DIFFERENT ALPHA SETTINGS?
I’m also thinking of maybe using FontSquirrel’s @FontFace generator to replace all the Helvetica Neue and the other proprietary, jaggedly-rendered fonts with open-source alternatives that look exactly like them. Do you think that is a good idea, or what?
Um. Look! A photo of a black lady on Ffffound! First one ever, out of a whole year on the feed. Next, maybe I’ll see an Asian person! Very exciting. You are allowed to look at Asian person-generated artwork on Ffffound, a lot, because it is hott — but not at the actual people, who mostly fail to adhere to the universal Western standard of beauty defined as "people who look exactly like my friend’s 15-year-old cousin Jeff, but with long hair and tube socks and after an extended battle with a particularly virulent strain of stomach flu, which he lost." Because that is just what sexy is, here in the diverse and prejudice-free melting-pot that is the United States of America’s repulsive digital social-media cesspools.
Speaking of which: I joined a new service! It’s called Readernaut. It’s basically useless and stupid and really, really buggy, but I’ve been having fun making mean comments about crappy import manga, so there’s that.
Is Skins not a British show which has been on for like four or five years, or am I Ripannina Van Winkle over here, or what?
I missed Blogging for Choice Day. Oops.
And speaking of which! I just found a thing, which is called The Feminism 101 Blog. It has as clear a description of the male gaze as I think can be found online, and is worth reading for that only. (Although they left out Lacan, for some reason?) Which is, you know, the objection most of us have to those disturbing, sad little naked-lady tumblrs (see above). The girls are always terribly vacant and mouth-breathey and possibly high and unkempt and so victimized-looking, and they’re presented — probably by unattractive white/male tools — as sexual eidolons. It’s weird. Men are strange, and gross. I have never been able to understand why we are supposed to want them to like us. I know postmodernist (post-postmodernist?) feminism is kind of turning into performance art with the vagina necklaces and the stripper poles and the personhole covers and all, but it’s still an embattled discipline. It probably doesn’t hurt to remember exactly how much better feminists have left the world, sometimes, and to realize how much further we all have to go.
But I’m not wearing a vagina necklace no matter what.
SOME LINKS, FOR
1. This Paul Krugman story is hilariously topped with the words "Can Europe Be Saved?" (implication: no!!!!), but it’s actually about the ill-considered adoption of the Euro. It is not interesting, but if you like that sort of thing it could be useful, potentially.
2. This is the very hilarious review of 43’s awesome novel Decision Points, by the London Review of Books. I just now noticed it exists, because it was linked by Wonkette. I am not up in the London Review of Books on the regular.
3. From The Guardian, a piece on the fiction/internets ouroboros which I have not yet finished reading myself.
 |
 |
These are better screenshots of my new boyfriend, who looks, upon close inspection, like he wandered out of Labyrinth, limping, after David Bowie was finished with him. I hope he will be named something like 'Valumphis Stagne.'
This season of American Idol is too boring even for my granny.
On the other hand, this is very funny.
ETA link, because the iframe wouldn’t load.
I recently learned that I am the last person in all the world who downloads fansubs. I think this is because I originally visited Crunchyroll back when it was staffed by, I surmised, photosynthetic multi-celluar plant-people who were heroically fansubbing Naruto despite the fact that they lacked formal brain structures and spoke neither English nor Japanese — and I had my delicate sensibilities offended to an extreme degree. Also, I am not paying for fansubs. Ahaha! HAHAHA! What? Really? Are you kidding me? People are paying for fansubs? Voluntarily? Why? You kids today, with your fancy bullet trains and your Lawrence Welk records and your super-sweet iced tea.
Is that it? I think that’s it.
Next week: Sherlock! Probably. (And the Kindle.)
no subject
Date: 2011-01-27 06:16 pm (UTC)skins is a British show, but I guess MTV has begun "remaking" it, from the beginning, but set in America. I've heard it's pretty bad.
(I've seen the British version. It was okay, not as great as I'd heard, but I actually liked it more once they got into the second generation and dropped the ostensible "realism" in favor of a more "Degrassi on steroids/Greek tragedy" vibe.)
Do I detect a hint of stereotypical "Native" design elements in Valumphis? Oh boy.
A "Premium Membership" at Crunchyroll is like... 7$ a month. That's like... I could buy lunch with that. I could buy... almost 3 cans of Redbull. I could buy a book! Pshhh.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-27 08:42 pm (UTC)The fingers are crossed. She got up in the middle of the night on Tuesday and shredded my last intact pair of opaque black tights, so maybe she’ll set a world record. For bitchiness, probably :]
I've heard it's pretty bad.
If the effing New York Times rolls out five consecutive articles about how bad your show is, it is a bad show. The only people who are ever impressed with this sort of thing are old-timey scolds and loony Christians, anyway. The nation’s youth have already watched 2 Girls, 1 Cup six times, barfed, and are over it completely. (I’ve never watched the show myself; I heard it didn’t have fairies/a connection to Douglas Adams and begged off.)
(Unfortunately I did watch most of 2 Girls, 1 Cup. Eurgh.)
Do I detect a hint of stereotypical "Native" design
HAHAHAHAHA. I didn’t notice. I was trying to decipher which sexxxxxy Western actor Nomura had used as a face model. Now that I look at him, though… HAHAHAHAA. HAHAHA! THAT IS AWESOME. I LOVE HIM MORE.
I could buy a book!
This is what I’m talking about! Those wacky kids.
I loved your bird illustrations, by the way. Really. Loved.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-27 09:25 pm (UTC)Ahahahaha. See? Still got that fightin' spirit. She didn't even need two canines. She could do it with one.
As if the nation's youth needed any extra incentive to drink, do rolls, and have crappy sex. If they want to do it, they'll do it. If they don't, MTV isn't going to change their mind. But it's cute that anyone still thinks MTV is relevant.
I'm glad you liked the bird illustrations! Thank you. ♥
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 05:01 pm (UTC)Re Skins: I've never watched it myself (although I was seriously tempted for a moment because the advert for it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L1n0UV6k-s was the first time I'd heard the Gossip and I was salivating for the music ) so I can't really pass judgement on whether it's good or not. I do have plenty of friends who tell me to watch it though, so maybe that's a good sign?
I don't remember there being any furore over here when Skins came out about it being child-porn or pushing too many boundaries, so I was quite confused by that NY Times article, but then maybe I wasn't paying much attention to the press when Skins came out over here.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 06:19 pm (UTC)I watched part of one episode of Skins when it first came out — about four or five years ago, I thought — and I was like, arrrrgh teenagers nooooo stooopid. I remember that it was supposed to be "controversial," but nothing like the burn-the-house-down, censor-baiting weirdness implied by that NYT article. I think maybe we just have a much stronger, more influential Official THINK OF THE CHILDRENNNN!!!!! Industry in this country. The aggregate American population is always shitting itself over dumb things on the teevee, but routinely gives the thumbs-up to, say, unjustified, horrible wars, for example, and drastic cuts to the social safety net — which are things that actually do harm kids. As opposed to our old friend the television, which usually only directly damages children when a badly-installed wall unit falls on one of them.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 09:00 pm (UTC)And I can't figure out how to reply on my blog so that you would be able to see it, so I resort to commenting on your blog posts. Which sometimes is fine because I read your blog anyway, but I don't want to make unrelated comments. I also just overused the words 'blog' and 'commenting' to the extent that I'm not sure I'm spelling or using them right any more.
(What I'm trying to say is, thanks for visiting my art all the time! I think you're my only viewer. Oops.)
I've only seen two episodes of Sherlock, but I enjoyed them.
And best wishes to your cat! It sounds like she's doing fine!
no subject
Date: 2011-01-31 02:53 pm (UTC)Yes, me too! It looked slightly less oppressively "social," too. Sold!
I hope you didn’t see what a hard time I had following you? I followed you, then I unfollowed you somehow, and then tried to friend you — but my contacts page is blank, and so it yours, and so is everybody else’s, so whatever. I think I ended up back on the side of following, though.
It is super-sweet that you implied that my blog posts have enough of a point for your comments to be "unrelated" to them! Aw. Such is not the case, I assure you. You could’ve replied with, "HELLO I LIKE BEARS & ICE CREAM DICK CHENEY SUX FAKE-FUR RUSSIAN HATS EDIBLE FERNS!!" and it would’ve been perfectly on-topic. My posts are really weird and random and pointless anyway, and I’m always happy to hear from you in the first place, so no worries. Also I follow your artblog for purely selfish reasons; I am a super-fan! I think you are amazingly talented, and I love to look at your work. I save it all to my 'Artwork' folder. Wow, you are great at what you do. I am looking forward to your long professional career.
I've only seen two episodes of Sherlock, but I enjoyed them.
Well, there have been only 3 episodes so far, so you’re doing pretty well. The last ep is definitely on TPB, if you aren’t too squeamish about that sort of thing. I think they’re also streaming Sherlock on the PBS mainpage — I could try to look up the link, if you like?
And best wishes to your cat! It sounds like she's doing fine!
She is! Thank you very much :]
no subject
Date: 2011-02-01 04:08 am (UTC)As always, you make me blush. It's really nice of you to say so about my art stuff, since I'm still in school and all and really struggling with keeping up with a lot of my classmates. So thanks again!
And I have the third episode on my hard drive, so no worries about that, I just have to find the time to actually sit down and watch it.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-01 08:19 pm (UTC)Just one of many, I think — I keep trying to take a couple of ill-considered Mark Twain Kindle editions (and a titleless French edition of Naono Bohra’s The Future I Whisper to You) off my list to absolutely no avail.
So thanks again!
You’re welcome :]
I think I am very lucky that all my online friends are so amazingly talented. You guys are all brilliant artists and writers and translators and stuff; it’s a little intimidating, actually. And not fair! That one, too.
I just have to find the time to actually sit down and watch it.
Yeah, they can be pretty attention span-destroying. The show’s like BL for self-denying Westerners. Sad world, sometimes.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-31 08:30 pm (UTC)I find the best way to remedy my revulsion of looking at all those super-skinny white models all over everything is to look at how Photoshopped they are. My favorite is when they accidentally brush out bellybuttons, give a model an extra hand, or supersize boobs while also supersizing one part of an arm.
I download fansubs! Or go to sites that let me see them for free. I see no reason whatsoever to pay a site so I can watch something that says right on it that it should be free. ...But I do like super-sweet iced tea.
Also, I am excited to hear about your Kindle, even if you say it's really, really bad. Waiting for it!
no subject
Date: 2011-02-01 09:01 pm (UTC)I’m hoping! 27 is utterly amazing, by the way. Cattey (that’s her name; she was going to be "Cat," in honor of Holly Golightly, but she was so tiny and bitchy and fluffy as a kitten that I ended up adding the diminutive involuntarily) seems to be doing really well, and I give her Proventil — which is the same asthma medicine that I take, weirdly — every day with a special cat spacer, so the asthma seems to be doing okay, too. It’s a cautious but optimistic "YAY!" all around.
to look at how Photoshopped they are
Well, you know, that is true. The starving white models don’t tend to make me feel so bad about myself, usually (usually) — but I get a little resentful that the issue is always always always clogging up the internets, and I’m also irritated by the fact that starving, dumb-looking white people are just not pretty. It’s a lie. I want to look at pretty people! I have no objection to photos of pretty ladies in their underpants, but I’d just like them to not all look like stage-one zombies. And also: where are the pretty men in underpants? ← Now that is real diversity.
I see no reason whatsoever to pay a site so I can watch something that says right on it that it should be free.
Yeah. I watch Glee online, and sometimes I download it off torrents, too — I don’t hear a lot of people howling about that. But Japan is the land of magical unicorns and crazy copyrights-holders who love fansubs and scanlations to bits, but only until "official" imports are negotiated. I mean, that’s what most fans are suggesting — that Japanese networks and publishers smile beatifically at fan translation before a "license" and loathe it afterwards, which adskfljoiurfr. Llksafglidd. Whatever.
it's really, really bad
Well, it’s not that’s it’s "bad," so much as that it’s not an iPhone. Also I wish Amazon had a giant digital library. More later, though, right?
And thank you again for the cat-related pep talk! ♥
no subject
Date: 2011-02-07 09:35 am (UTC)my new boyfriend, who looks, upon close inspection, like he wandered out of Labyrinth, limping, after David Bowie was finished with him
I THINK I JUST SNORTED? Those pictures make me feel so many confusing feelings! HE HAS FEATHERS IN HIS HAIR.
Aw gosh, your kitty is kicking butt. Go, cat, go!
no subject
Date: 2011-02-08 05:52 pm (UTC)Having said that:
I am not making this up: I met Martin Freeman the other day, and he was totally lovely, and squeezed my hand, and looked sooo very sweetly rumpled. So, Sherlock, pretty please!
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKS!!!!
[*PASSES OUT FROM DIGITAL FANGIRL CONTACT HIGH*]
OMG, where was he? That is very exciting! Very! Exciting!!
I am extremely jealous!EXCITING!!!Those pictures make me feel so many confusing feelings! HE HAS FEATHERS IN HIS HAIR.
I know, right? Every time one of these games come out, I’m twelve for the whole day. YES I KNOW FEATHERS, FEATHERS AND JAZZERCISE ACCESSORIES. THAT IS WONDERFUL. WHY NOT? Alexa pointed out that he may be a Pretend Japanese American Indian, also too. I’m trying not to hope, so I don’t get too disappointed.