Saturday, March 9, 2002
To Her Coy Mail Server
(with apologies to Andrew Marvell, who's really much better at this sort of stuff)Had I but world enough, and time,
This email coyness were no crime.
I should sit down and think of a way
To make you transmit that which I say.
Alas, to the clouds of email heaven
You've been gone. Since the stroke of seven.
Since early this morning I complain
And yet does the network error reign.
Think: any ISP chould I choose.
And yet, you continue to refuse!
My silicon empire ought to grow
Faster than thought, and yet: you're slow!
A hundred nanos should email take
Before I start my game of Quake.The Trash's a fine and private place,
But not for email, which longs to race.
Thus, though I cannot make the Sun
Reboot, yet still, I ask you: run!Posted by Mie Tsukikoushi @ 11:02 PM EST
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[add your comment - currently 6 comments]Thursday, March 7, 2002
For those very few of you who may be concerned: my summer con schedule.
Unfortunately, I won't be going to Anime Expo this year. Instead of doing the west coast, I'll be doing the east coast. I'll be attending Shoujocon (July 19-21, East Brunswick, NJ) and Otakon (July 26-28, Baltimore, MD).
There's still a chance that I'll also attend Anime North (May 24-26, Toronto, Canada), but I'm not certain. If I do go to Anime North, I'll decide closer to time and probably just register at the door.
We now return you to the blog already in progress:
... grapevines.Posted by Mie Tsukikoushi @ 10:20 PM EST
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[add your comment - currently 2 comments]Tuesday, March 5, 2002
Once upon a time, a long long time ago, I lived in beautiful calm quiet small town Indiana. And while small town life didn't quite kill me, it sure as hell tried.
From here, looking back, it's easy to laugh at that year in a small town as my 'lost year' and let it go. But I really did come perilously close to mental problems, for many reasons. But that is, fortunately, only tangential to my story.
You see, Smalltown, Indiana was a corporate town. This little town of approximately 30,000 residents were overwhelmingly the employees and support network of a major engineering corporation I'll call Bobbins.
If you lived in Smalltown, you either worked for Bobbins, you worked for a company that did contract work for Bobbins, you worked in one of the service industries that supported the Bobbins employees, you were in school preparing to go work at Bobbins, or you were a retired Bobbins employee waiting peacefully to die.
I'm exaggerating a bit, you know. I think there was a cardboard-box factory, too.
But it was a town where there was little to do besides work, eat, and sleep. Teenagers cruised the main road and drank stolen beer in the mall parking lot. Children roamed the residential streets in packs and occasionally kicked sports equipment at passing cars. Adults watched TV and went to church. And everybody got a year older every three hundred and sixty-five days or so, and life went on.There is, however, one good thing that Smalltown did for me, before I fled. Some lone deejay, perhaps someone as ill-suited to Smalltown life as I was, introduced me to the music of Dar Williams, now one of my favorite artists. And, also, to the very sense of irony I hadn't realized I'd been missing all that year.
Boyfriend and I were driving home one day, and all of a sudden, one of the dinky-shit radio stations started playing 'Are You Out There'. We listened fascinated all the way through, and then the deejay in question quickly said her name and moved on.
'Are You Out There', of course, is a paean to a deejay who helps his listeners realize the shallowness of small-town corporate life, before he gets fired for being too radical. Or at least, that's how I always read it.Self-referential irony? I'd sure like to think so.
Posted by Mie Tsukikoushi @ 10:48 PM EST
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[add your comment - currently 9 comments]Saturday, March 2, 2002
Of The Awefull Battle Of The Boys And The Slashfangirls
(Together With Some Account Of The Participation Of The Trolls And The Newbies, And The Intervention Of The Great Moderator, And A Great Big Honking Apology To The Memory Of T.S. Eliot)The fanboys and fangirls, as everyone knows,
Are lecherous passionate RPG foes;
It is always the same, wherever one goes.
And the Trolls and the Newbies, whatever they say,
Are more than happy to join in the fray,
Their only reason their voice to display...
And they
scream flame growl hiss
scream flame GROWL HISS
Until they have drowned out the whole BBS!Now on the occasion of which I shall speak,
There'd been no flame war for almost a week
(But don't make the mistake of thinking them meek!)
The Volunteer Mod couldn't take any more
(I don't know the reason, but most people think
That the last stupid flamewar drove her to drink)
And so no one at all was holding the floor
When the first slashfangirl slipped through the door.
Her first post was simple, her second said more,
And then up spoke a fanboy, an acknowledged boor,
And they
scream flame growl hiss
scream flame GROWL HISS
Until they had drowned out the whole BBS!Now all those fanboys, they travel in packs
And support each other if their argument lacks,
And so all the fanboys, they leapt to the boor's aid
And the slashfangirl they did loudly upbraid,
And promptly ignored all the points that she made.
And together they started to troll and to flame
So that no single fanboy would absorb all the blame.
But a terrible row is what slashfangirls like!
And as soon as the fanboys had called one a dyke,
Out they all poured to make posts by the ton
And start a battle that just couldn't be won.
With their brave warcry 'don't like it, don't look'
They made each poor thread the length of a book...
Then the Trolls and the Newbies entered the fray,
Some posting by night, some posting by day
Joined in
To the din
With a
scream flame growl hiss
scream flame GROWL HISS
Until they had drowned out the whole BBS!Their insults were as sharp as gladiator's trident
Their flames, they were roasting, their voices were strident
And some of the regulars were so badly annoyed
They abandoned the board that they once enjoyed
When suddenly, and better sooner than later,
Up from HTML stalked... the Great Moderator.
His answer was lengthy and vicious and long,
He made a great post and his points, they were strong.
He silenced the fanboys and fangirls alike
In one great swooping unmerciful strike.
And those who were left in the harsh glare of morning
Gazed over the rubble, and boy, they took warning.
The Moderator yawned and he went back to sleep...
And the boys and slashfangirls, they scattered. Like sheep.And when Volunteer Mod returned, clutching her head,
There wasn't a single one left in the thread.Posted by Mie Tsukikoushi @ 12:32 AM EST
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[add your comment - currently 19 comments]Friday, March 1, 2002
(Ahem.)
Today, March the first, Anno Domini two thousand and two, is the second anniversary of the opening of my main site, conveniently named 'mooncalf'. Funny, that.
Happy birthday to my site, la la la, wow, two years, whoda thunk it. Off to light a candle and eat a piece of cake!
Posted by Mie Tsukikoushi @ 01:02 AM EST
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[add your comment - currently 8 comments]Wednesday, February 27, 2002
Briefly, because I feel philosophical but too impatient to work with it:
Remember, friends, life is short, but it's wide.
Getting off the narrow path is as easy (and as hard, really, nothing's harder) as going where your heart leads you, if only once in a great while. Succumbing to impulse when you have an hour to spare.
Even just doing something that you don't have to be doing. Creating something for the love of doing so. Finding the small ways to be generous. Learning to smile and let it go.
So, hey, step off that narrow road and join us over here. We're having a barbecue!
Posted by Mie Tsukikoushi @ 07:06 PM EST
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[add your comment - currently 5 comments]Monday, February 25, 2002
Reason no. 1,820,445 that I love Boyfriend, which will not be all that funny unless you've played some FFX:
I'm playing FFX. And there comes a point where Tidus must jump off a precipice into the water. And even though I was leading the way, when I get into the water, Wakka and Rikku are already floating there waiting for me.
BOYFRIEND: Hey! How'd they get down there so fast?
ME: ... I had them in my pants.
BOYFRIEND: ... you had Rikku in your pants, Tidus? Shame.
ME: Yes I did! And Wakka too! Never mind that he's twice my size!
BOYFRIEND: (considers Wakka the blitzball player) Hey! You had Wakka's balls in your pants!!
ME: (brief pause) AUUUUUUGH! (screams, throws things at madly laughing boyfriend)The moral of the story is: some games do not contain the gay. FFX is one of these games.
Posted by Mie Tsukikoushi @ 08:04 PM EST
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