A Safe Space for Moogles

Finished my first hat to sell at Botcon - well, the actual hat part, anyway. The sigil to be affixed thereon will have to wait a bit. Also, I've been playing around with recording myself in Photo Booth, and throwing tracks together in Garage Band, and it's occurred to me that the three-part opening episode to Transformers would make a way cool musical.

SOMEBODY STOP MEH

It's the 100-Prompt Challenge, part 1! I'm going to try to release these in five-fic sets, but we'll see how that goes.

( Mistake, Need, Grumpy, Loud, Bitter )

***

Today I also crocheted most of a hat, and watched in amused horror as the local news went into low-level panic over another coming snowstorm. MY GOD WHEN DOES IT END.

February sucks so far, you guys. (What does it need that extra R for, anyway.)

Because she inspired me, I've got a list of 100 prompts that I've applied to Roddy and the Unicronians. (Sounds like a band. XD) I used a virtual die to assign a character or pairing (or, rarely, a foursome) to each prompt.

I intend to do all of these, just - not all at once. And most of them will only be a few sentences. Still, porn is porn, yes?

( My list, plus color commentary. )

Feel free to squeak at/encourage shamelessly/shake me and go 'what the hell are you doing girl'. XD

Yep. It's another Snowpocalypse. We've topped two feet so far and it's not supposed to stop for another nine and a half hours or so. I guess this is the Blizzard of '10. XD

We've got plenty of provisions (and birthday cake, for Mom), and the power hasn't got out yet. SO, I think we'll be okay. As long as we, uh, stay inside.

A metric buttload of them, to be precise, and I am alarmed by how much of Photoshop I have forgotten. ...Oh well, easily remedied.

29 icons, 44 bases; want, take, have, edit, credit. See if you can figure out how many I made when I was low on sleep and loopy. ;)

( The icons. )


( The bases. Which, I suppose, can also be used as icons. )

Working on WfC icons. And... other things.

I've been asked to pass this along: helptheproject. It's a fandom charity auction along the lines of helphaiti, only the proceeds go to an afterschool arts and academics program in Los Angeles called the Virginia Avenue Project. Looks pretty cool. ...I kind of love fandom.

Comment with the name of a female character and I'll tell you why I love her. In return, you can do the same in your journal. :D

Because girls kick ass.

You guys. You guys. Someone please talk me out of (lj)springkink this round. It's fabulous, it's wonderful, but if I let myself get sucked in I wouldn't get anything else done. I've got a zillion other projects staring me in the face! (Also, at least a third of the prompts I'm eyeballing are my own.)

Also, please indulge me a moment while I explode from squee over the Transformers: War for Cybertron trailer.* Rest assured that I have already screencapped the hell out of this thing, for purposes of making icons. (I told you I have no self-restraint. It's a miracle I'm not planning on staying up 'til two in the morning iconsmithing already.)

I just. Gaaaaah. *flailyhands* Fandom makes me an incoherent ball of shiny-following fluff.

*Even if, on second listen, Megatron kind of sounds like Arnold Schwartzenegger.

So, the iPad. Shiny new toy. Certainly looks/sounds very impressive. Don't want one, though.

I'm kind of a practical-minded girl when it comes to new tech, I guess. I don't need another browse-the-Internet tool, which is mostly what I'd use it for. For gaming I already have two consoles and two portables, and for music I've got my Zen. I switched to Mac in the first place mostly because of the reliability issue. And I'm still hanging on to my paper books, Luddite that I am.

I may change my mind in a few years, depending on my situation. I can picture myself using an iPad for travel. But until then, let's wait and see how this whole thing shakes out. ;)

It's been a week since I last posted. I haven't had a lot to say, but I am still alive.

I've been giving myself headaches reading some blog posts.

Start here: Schrodinger's Rapist: or a guy's guide to approaching strange women without being maced. On how women navigate the risk of being raped/assaulted every day of their lives, and what men may do to alleviate that risk a little, all presented in the form of a primer on approaching women in public. (Comments are worth a read.)
In the same vein: How not to be an asshole: a guide for men and Stuff What Boys Can Do. The first is written by a man, which I wish wasn't worth brownie points, but it is; and the second goes a little more in-depth by means of personal anecdata.
And for those of you who read the above and still have no idea what's going on (as I kind of didn't): Rape Culture 101
Tangentially related: Dear Fat Nutritionist: You're pretty good-looking (for a girl). One (overweight) woman's experience with beauty and how it changed how people reacted to her.

And I still haven't gone through all the links I've found yet.

As I've been reading these, and the comments from women sharing their own personal experience, I felt: sympathy, caution, solidarity, a renewed commitment to my own safety and a need to examine my own assumptions about race and class as they relate to the issue of Not Trusting Men. And I also felt something kind of ugly: jealousy. Who are these women who are apparently attractive enough to men to be stalked/accosted/assaulted? Why don't men think I'm a worthy target?

Which is a giant load of horseshit, of course. First, I have had trouble with skeevy guys in college, though these were extremely minor events. And there was that guy at the Def Leppard concert, and a couple of people at the Renfest, so it's not like I've never been the target of Creepy Male Attention in my life. It's just never gone anywhere worth mentioning. Second - oh my god, self. Are you seriously letting your self-worth get tangled up with being sexually assaulted?

Well, yes, I am. This is how our culture of conflating sex with violence-against-women has affected me, and I'm nowhere near as enlightened as I thought I was. Regardless of my preference for women, regardless of the very real fear of what these men could do to me, I still have a hunk of cultural sludge in my brain that says 'sexual assault means you're desirable, and desirable is exactly equal to being worth something.'

Oh my god, self. Brb, beating inner demons with a stick.

(And it's not like I don't know why I'm not a target. It's laughingly simple. I stay away from people. It probably helps that I don't put effort into my appearance, I have a lot of 'don't touch me' body language, and I dress more or less like a guy, but those things have never been Rapist Raid from a historical perspective.)

Reading all these things also kind of makes me feel kind of skeevy about my taste in porn fic, but that's a whole 'nother blog post.

( Just talking out my issues/options/etc. You've all heard this before. )

Now that that's over with, have some fic.
Untitled, Galvatron/Hot Rod, for porn_battle. rosieknight kind of inspired it via this thread, and it'd probably be a good idea to read that first. (And yes, I'm totally answering my own prompts. It's not like anyone else was. Transformers fandom is sadly absent on IJ, which is probably why I still have an LJ.)
Untitled, Galvatron/Rodimus plus First Aid, nothing more destructive than talking. Because it occurs to me that most people don't check my DW on a regular basis, who might want to see this. ^_^;;;;

Also, please someone talk me out of making a Rodimus flash vid to 'Breaking the Habit.' Not only could I probably not handle the 'lol rodimus is suicidal emo lol' comments that would inevitably result from posting it on YouTube, my Flash skills are not that good.

I've finally got the next three Kingdom Hearts: Metal Heart pages drawn out, and my scanner won't talk to my Mac. Software issues, according to the Tech Support Guy on the other end of the email; the necessary driver hasn't been written for Mac yet. Could take 'several weeks.'

Rrrrrgh.

In other design news, my aunt's sent me a job listing. The only real problem: it's located in Illinois, specifically the town where my neurotic granny lives. I don't wanna live there. ...But the way things are now, to hell with what I want.

A lot of setup and exposition in this chapter, mostly. Also, Seph needs hugs.

Title: On Broken Wings
Rating: PG, gen for now, though I make no promises as to later chapters
Word Count: 4620
Previous Chapters: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2

( Sephiroth paused, hands tight on Gleipnir's reins... )

So, watching the news. They were talking about the recently-passed bill allowing same-sex marriage in the District (insert victory dance here). It's apparently in limbo for a period of thirty days, after which it will become law 'if no one successfully challenges it.'

Said I to Dad, "What exactly does that mean? One guy is walking down the aisle in Congress to challenge the bill, and another guy sticks out a foot and trips him?"

"Yeah, that's about it," says Dad. Now you know where I get my smart-assery.

Of course I had to take the analogy further. Well, in that scenario, it'd almost be like a gauntlet: you'd have to walk down the aisle to the front without getting tripped/stepping in a bucket/getting a Kick Me sign taped to your back. Or what have you. And some people might be willing to brave that - take one for the team, as it were, but chances of success are pretty low. Well, what about subterfuge? Somebody sneaks in through the janitor's entrance at midnight, clutching an enveloped marked 'CHALLENGE' in big, unfriendly letters? But! Your opponents are keeping watch in the rafters, armed with blowdarts of Censure! Ninja congresspeople!

This would be an awesome anime, you guys. XD

Another meme! Because why the hell not. It's not like I've got anything else going on. XD This is from (lj)straya, though she used fancier HTML.

in character.
◢ ask any of my characters (listed or not! ) a question. ask them anything you want, regardless of knowing their canon (or even if you don't RP!)
◢ feel free to ask them as your own character, if you want. either way, your question might be returned with one of their own, if they feel so inclined.
◢ it's totally encouraged for you to tag with your own character.

I figure y'all know my fandoms by now. XD

*eyes stashes of cookies in various spots around my computer* Apparently I am part squirrel.

And on another note, meme from (lj)shaysdays:

Were I a summonable creature, what kind of ritual would you craft to summon me?

Alright, now let's talk banishment.

Saying 'ChocoMog Materia' is cheating, by the way. ;P

...and what do I do? I run out and buy a PSP. XD I got some monies for Winterthing and aside from student loans and future Botcon funds, it's really just all sitting there. Maybe I should invest some of it, I dunno.

First thing I did was download FF7, of course. *eyerolls at self*

On the subject of Botcon, I'm going to contribute some crochet pieces to Poptart and Oasis's art table, but the design isn't going well. I'm not really getting the results I want for the scarf with the sigil crocheted in two-color tapestry. *frowns and pokes at it* I'm thinking I should do iron-on sigil patches on hats and wristlets instead - easier to control shape and it doesn't have to be perfect. Of course, I'm open to ideas.

teamromy and weranarchist!

Thank you for my present! It's not just a game - it's the excuse I needed to finally break down and get a PSP. :D

I couldn't think of anything to draw for you, but *hearts!*

My motto this year is 'Don't look back.'

Not going back through my calendar to do that first-line-of-each-month meme. Not going to look back at my list of resolutions, 'cause I'm pretty sure I haven't filled a one of 'em.

No self-recrimination, it's counterproductive. I have a Mac and the good software, I have my own two hands and most of my health left, and I'm not looking back. Let the past stew in its own juices, I've got too much to do.

*...breathes* *hoping sheer bloody-mindedness will make this phase last*