*headdesk*

All right. This is just driving me buggy.

I've been reading juvvie books, trying to see if there's something I'd like to get for my bookwormish nephew, and have discovered 1) The Secret Country trilogy is all right, though missing a certain something (perhaps its dose of reality in terms of relationships between kids and their parents), 2) Diana Wynne Jones books MUST be bought from the UK as the US versions are but pale, heavily-edited shadows, 2a) I must buy lots of DWJ for the bookworm, and 3) Jane Yolen has no fucking clue how to you thou/thee in a sentence.

The Third is the subject of this post, as, for pity's sake! English is her first language and she's not a moron. So why does she write like one?

Thou and thee are, of course, older forms of you, no longer in use. Still, it's somewhat easy for anyone who studied Elizabethan and Jacobean literature in college (and for whom English is the primary language) to pick up the rules. Thou is used when the you is subject, thee when it's direct object, like the difference between he and him or she and her. The possessive, thy, changes form to thine when the noun is defines is plural. Per the following:

"Thou art a great beauty."

"T'would go better for thee if thou wouldst not lie so."

"Ah! Thou art a true Venus! Thine eyes, thy skin, thy mouth...!"

"Ach! Go to, go to! I'll no more of thee."

All right. Not the best dialogue, but I think you can probably pick up the use of thou/thee/thy/thine from it. Yes? It's not that hard.

So why does Jane frickin' Yolen screw it up? Why? At first, I hought she was simply illustrating the ignorance of a poor boy who lives thousands of years in the future when she used thee where thou should be, and thy in thine's place in The Dragon Pit trilogy (now, apparently, a series of four or summat). Now I'm reading The Young Merlin trilogy, and it's wrong again. Why? Why, why why?

Augh. It's so frustrating, it makes me want to go read some more DWJ. I swear, reading Diana Wynne Jones's ficture for preteens-and-up is like taking a lovely cool bath after a long hot day. Too bad I can't buy any more books until next month. Poop.

The Smithy Code

You've probably heard of this already, but how fabulous is it that a London judge has put a code into his ruling?

You don't know about this? Um, well, there's a New York Times article about it here.

I know that American rulings are available on the web, but are British? Does anyone know how I can find the Baigent v. Random House ruling? I'd love to read it, though I should imagine it can't be half as fun a read as the Mattel v. MCA (over Aqua's "Barbie Girl" song) ruling.

Yakitate!! Sugar Kat-pan

I'm all in love with the Yakitate!! Japan scanlations I've been reading, so I poked around the interweb a bit, and have discovered that the super-awesome, mega-good "solar hands" that the better bakers in the series have...I have them, too! Turns out "solar hands" means you have naturally warm hands. I'd always thought it was freaky that I had such good circulation, considering how much I loathe to exercise (ew! sweat! ugh!) and how much time I've spent over my lifetime just sitting on my arse, reading or watching TV or mucking about on the internet. Turns out, if I felt like it, I could be a naturally kick-ass breadmaker thanks to my freakishly warm hands. My freakishly warm hands about which my very own mother teases me.

I should make bread this weekend and test my "solar hands"-ness. See if it's all they're cracked up to be in the (very silly) manga.

I refuse to grow a 'fro if they don't work, though.

By the way, "yakitate" means "freshly baked." Don't you love Jim Breen?

This made my brain hurt

A link sent to me by my dear younger brother: Suri Cruise Explained.

Not all people from Syracuse are this insane. Honestly. My elder sister is very, very normal.

Gary is awesome!

Of course, those of you who know Gary already know this.

But why is this Gary of whom I speak so awesome at this particular time that I feel the need to post about his awesomeness on my publically-available blog?

Because Gary sent me a huge-ass box of Pocky, that's why. Not just chocolate Pocky, but Kurogoma Pocky, and Chocolat Chaud Mousse Pocky, and all sorts of other Pocky varieties. Even two big boxes of chocolate Pocky multipacks, with lots and lots of minipacks of chocolate Pocky inside.

I was bitten by a charity bug today (gave a bunch of donations to the groups you see listed above), and somehow this led to my giving away Pocky packets from one of these boxes. (One jerk gave his away instead of returning it to me, which is so jerky! No more treats for the jerk! He doesn't deserve the goodness that is Pocky.) The upshot of this is that I've now about three coworkers who, after one small pack, are totally addicted to Pocky and are attempting to come up with ways to get their own supply. Which is good, 'cause then I can mooch off of their Pocky supply, as, though Gary sent me what seems like half a metric ton of Pocky, I just might get through the delicious, delicious Pocky by the close of the weekend at the latest.

THANK YOU, GARY! YOU TOTALLY ROCK!

Wherefore Rabbit?

From yesterday's The Writer's Almanac.

The word "Easter" comes from an ancient pagan goddess worshipped by Anglo Saxons named Eostre. According to legend, Eostre once saved a bird whose wings had frozen during the winter by turning the bird into a rabbit. Because the rabbit had once been a bird, it could still lay eggs, and that rabbit became our Easter Bunny.

Holy shit!

NYTimes.com today: Cheney's Aide Says President Approved Leak

The testimony by the former official, I. Lewis Libby Jr., cited in a court filing by the government made late Wednesday, provides an indication that Mr. Bush, who has long criticized leaks of secret information as a threat to national security, may have played a direct role in authorizing disclosure of the intelligence report on Iraq.

You know they're still going to get away with it, though, don't you? Bush and Cheney could step out onto the White House lawn and shoot target practice at passing citizens and they'd still be sitting pretty. They could toss incendiaries into random in-session courtrooms and still be praised to high heaven by Republicans. They've done nearly entirely nothing but wrong since they came into power, and yet they can still do no wrong.

On volcanoes and colds

Vesuvius Due For Giant Eruption

"There was this Bronze-Age eruption about 4,000 years ago, and then 2,000 years ago there was the A.D. 79 event. It seems that just about every 2,000 years, there's been a major eruption of this scale at Vesuvius," said Sheridan.

I don't know why I think this is cool. I just do. As cool as the potential for life on Europa? No. But still, cool. In an opposite way, I guess, as Vesuvius is about geological activity killing life, but Europa's all about the cultivating of life. Alien life forms. Sucre, they're just bateria, but... Dude. Millions of years ago, so were we.

Speaking of single-celled life forms, I have myself a very nasty cold. Everyone else has a cold, too, so I guess I'm just being fashionable, in a sincerely lemming-like way.

Today's a day of baking banana bread (we have about forty-five frozen bananas sitting in our freezer, waiting to be turned into a baked good) and figuring out my personal finances and being sick. I wish it were a day of chocolate, laughter, and very good sex, but it's not. I'd even go for a day of laughter and good movies. Actually, that'd probably lead to a lot less chaffing. Yes, I would rather today were a day of laughter and good movies than of banana bread baking, balancing personal finances, and coming down with a horrible cold.

I'm going to go lie down now. Go read about Vesuvius. Learning things is groovy.

GSB: All Braff, all the time!

Holy crap! Zach Braff has a blog! He started it up when he was working on Garden State, apparently, but has very awesomely decided to keep it going. And he makes his own posts! Not an assistant, or a publicity wonk, but young Master Zach himself, posting!

...I don't know why I'm so tickled by this. But I am. Hear that? That's me, squeeing.

*squee!*

Also, he makes an awesome reference to Shotgate, or whatever the hell they're calling it now, in his most recent post.

Awesome!

*squee!!*

Score!

I just went through a bag I haven't used since early December and discovered a packet of Kurogoma (black sesame) Pocky! \/\/007! I am l33t sp34king with joy!

Mmmmmmmm. Pockypockypockypockypockypockypockypockypockypockypockypockypockypocky. *Cookie-Monster-style munch*

Crap. Now it's all gone. *wah*

...Hey! Melty Kiss! Three Melty Kisses! *squee!*

...

Two Melty Kisses!

Ow. My back hurts.

God, what was I going to say? I can't remember. I purposely opened up Manage Posts in order to write something, but I'm so freakin' distracted by this back pain that I can't think straight.

Fudgemonkey.

I have a house to catalogue. I don't have time to sit here, typing pointless crap into a computer in order to post it for all to see upon the interwebs.

Oh! This is completely unrelated to the original purpose to this post, but I thought I'd remind folks that those people who suffered through Hurricane Katrina who were without housing and living in government-subsidized hotel rooms have been kicked out of their rooms and are now homeless. PLEASE GIVE WHAT YOU CAN TO THE CHARITIES ABOVE. These folks still need our individual help and the help of reputable charities, as our government is too busy misusing its funds (tax cuts for the rich and corporations, corporate welfare, paychecks for Tom Delay and Karl Rove) to help the neediest.

For the Octopuses

I take it you all have already seen this, but, just in case, Pharyngula has a post about an octopus attacking an ROV. An epic battle between monster and machine! Epic!

That all said, my cat, Lucy, is going insane. In a cute way, but, man. Weird.

Also, I'm looking for housing in the City and my mom might be, too, as it looks like she might lose the house and everything she owns.

One of my favorite (true) stories

I haven't updated, for real, in forever. I've been spending my sporadic time online either looking for a job or downloading manga scanlations. I haven't checked my e-mail accounts with regularity in ages, except for the account where the job search results from various websites are sent.

So, I update now, sitting at the desk I set up in September or so for my monitor and keyboard and mouse. The computer I prefer to use while sitting on the sofa, but the internet connection, crappy as it is, doesn't go that far. It should, the router thing should work that far and further, but it barely works here, in the same room. I sit at my desk, trying to sit up straight and hold my hands in a position which would do least damage.

The window above my desk is high and wide, and has two laminated construction paper cutouts taped to it which my eldest nephew, S--, made while in preschool: one a basic shape of a person, with dot eyes and nose and line smile, the other an outline of his hand at that age, both with his name written on them in the teacher's neat pen. They are there to ward off the birds which had flown into the window, slammed against it, and fallen into the bush below. They have all, so far, recovered after a few moments' rest, but I didn't like being surprised by the sudden slam or the thought that, one day, one of the birds would not shake itself together and fly off. Also, I miss the kid, and the laminated cutouts have nostalgic value. The window is black behind the cutouts, the ceiling fan and the ceiling tiles casting pale reflections in the lower half, and the bright, dime-sized moon glowing past black silohoutte branches beyond.

I have little to do, beyond the job search and house cleaning. I try to read, but I'm too often distracted by dark thoughts of debt and bills to focus on what's in front of me. I cannot bring myself to read fiction for some reason, so I take in small bits of a biography on William Shakespeare and a biography of Benjamin Franklin, depending on where I left which book and where I am at hat moment. I haven't updated the reading list on this site in forever. I can't be bothered to go in and correct the template, especially when I'm not sure for how long the router will work.

I finally checked my AOL account today, to which I have a lot of mass e-mail sent. Going through the Writer's Almanac e-mail, I found in the December, 24, 2005, e-mail, this story from WWI, which I haven't heard in ages but have loved since I first heard about it when I was in elementary school:

It's Christmas Eve, and it was on this day in 1914 that the last known Christmas truce occurred, during World War I. German troops fighting in Belgium began decorating their trenches and singing Christmas carols. Their enemy, the British, soon joined in the caroling. The war was put on hold, and the soldiers greeted each other in "No Man's Land," exchanging gifts of whiskey and cigars. In many areas, the truce held until Christmas night, while in other places the truce did not end until New Year's Day. In one area, the opposing sides played a soccer match together.

British commanders Sir John French and Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien disapproved of the truce, and they ordered artillery bombardments on Christmas Eve in the remaining years of the war. Troops were also rotated with regularity to keep them from growing too familiar with the enemy troops in the close quarters of trench warfare. The Christmas truce was a war tradition of the 19th century, and its disappearance marked the end of wartime protocols of that time.

I wasn't aware before of the commanders ordering the end of the truce tradition. Makes me dislike them even more than I did before. When I first heard the story, it was as the origin of the English version of "Silent Night" and "O Tannenbaum," both of which were sung by German troops. The British troops returned their own traditional carols, and a bugler played. Or something. I can't remember exactly. It's possible that both sides knew "Silent Night" and sang it to each other in their native tongues. I should read the link The Writer's Almanac set up.

I like the idea of a truce on holy days. There are a lot of them, minor ones, mostly, on the Catholic calendar. I'm sure there are plenty in the Muslim and Jewish calendars, too. Maybe if we could all just hold truces on these various holy days, we could keep our war-mongering, pugnacious natures to just a few days of the year. All I know is, I'm exhausted. I'm tired of the fighting. I don't know why we can't just stop, all of us, every side. Just stop.

*pop* goes the champagne*crack* goes my spine, three days into my new year resolutions

Happy Thanksgiving!...I'm bored

I am waiting for dinner to be ready and my brother to arrive. I am sitting on my behind, half-watching some cartoon with pseudo-Asian characters in it. Mostly, I'm wasting time by, yes, making more Gaia Dream Creator mascots.

I'm on my sister's computer, so I can't save the pictures. So, I'm posting even more mascots here. Tra la.

Oh, man, this is addictive

I should be in bed, as I have to get up early to catch the train to Boston, but I simply cannot stop making little dudes and dudettes at Gaia Dream Creator. An example of the strange products of my mind is below:

Crap! Once more, FOX cancels shows I really like.

I went to IMDB, just futzing around as I wait for dinner time to roll around, when I see something about Arrested Development getting canned. "No way! Crap!" I shouted, but I couldn't get into the piece, as IMDB's gotten retarded about access. So, USA Today had to tell me the news. Something about 7th Heaven getting dropped, which is good, as it sucked ass, but...Shit! Two of the funniest shows currently on television, AD and Kitchn Confidential, are the latest victims of FOX executives' asshattedry:

It looks like curtains, too, for Fox's comedy Arrested Development, which never translated its Emmy Award and critical raves into a broader popularity.

Fox didn't announce the end of the show, but said it wouldn't order a full season's worth of 22 episodes. Barring a miraculous turnaround, that usually means a series is kaput.

Critics loved the quirky comedy starring Jason Bateman, and it won the Emmy for best comedy last year. But its already paltry ratings dropped precipitously this season, averaging 4.3 million viewers on Monday nights.

Fox also decided against a full season order for Kitchen Confidential.

Two of my favorite authors when I was 22

From The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media, October 15, 2005:

It's the birthday of the novelist P.G. Wodehouse, (Pelham Grenville Wodehouse), born in Guildford, England (1881). His father was a magistrate in Hong Kong. His mother traveled back and forth between England and Hong Kong, so Wodehouse was raised by a series of aunts. He wanted desperately to go to college, but his father went bankrupt and couldn't pay for his education. Wodehouse got a job as a bank clerk instead and started writing humorous stories and poems on the side.

It was as a journalist that Wodehouse first came to the United States—to cover a boxing match—and he fell in love with America right away. He said, "Being [in America] was like being in heaven without going to all the bother and expense of dying."

He moved to Greenwich Village in 1909 and started to write stories for the Saturday Evening Post about an imaginary cartoonish England, full of very polite but brain-dead aristocrats such as Bertie Wooster, who was looked after by his butler Jeeves. The first Jeeves book, My Man Jeeves, came out in 1919, and it was followed by many others.

People who knew P.G. Wodehouse said that he was incredibly dull in person, not a funny man at all, and did not seem to have any emotions. But he authored some of the funniest books in the English language.

P.G. Wodehouse wrote, "It was a onfusion of ideas between him and one of the lions he was hunting in Kenya that had caused A.B. Spottsworth to make the obituary column. He thought the lion was dead, and the lion thought it wasn't."

It's the birthday of the novelist Italo Calvino, born in Santiago de Las Vegas, Cuba (1923), who edited the anthology Italian Folktales.

Celluloid adventures of Little Trooper Sugar Kat

Sugar Kat in Bad Blood Loss

In this fully-fledged masterpiece, Sugar Kat (Jennifer Aniston) is a retired prisoner with a terrible past. She is forced to interrogate Angry Rabbit (Sarah Michelle Gellar) before her closest friend, SheepBoy (Pierce Brosnan), captures her. Predictably, she charges into a secret submarine with no thought to her own personal safety. See it because all of your friends will.

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