I found LibraryThing. I'm not going to bother linking to it here, because it's already up on my sidebar. I also got one of those amazon associate membership thingies so I can get a tiny referral fee for "qualifying revenue" -- i.e. I put up a link to the book's page on amazon, you click on the link, you buy the book, I get some money. So far I only have one such link up though -- the "currently reading" one (the "currently reviewing" one still goes to Active Christian Media, formerly known as Mind & Media). So, in future, if you're going to buy a book, do it through me (if I've got it up here, of course) and help me just a little tiny tiny bit in paying my bills. Yay!
Oh, so back to LibraryThing. As you can see, I've added stuff to my sidebar. It's all pretty self-explanatory. Clicking on the picture will take you to amazon, clicking on the other stuff will take you to what it says... My catalog isn't very extensive yet, I've just put a few things up and don't have it all organized like I want yet. I don't own all of the books -- if there's no "date acquired" listed, I don't own it (and it's probably from my amazon wish list). If there's no "date read" listed, I haven't read it. Oh, wait, never mind -- at the moment when someone else looks at my catalog they can't see those fields. I'll see if that's changeable or not... But yeah, pretty simple. I'm planning on having more fun with it in future.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Monday, August 28, 2006
Bubbling Snails and Blasphemy
“I just really don’t want to hear about bubbling snails right now.” –Melanie (attempting to quote herself)
“Now your fingers are toasty warm.... Toast with bubbling snails on top.” –me
“She picked it up and went, ‘Oh, poor snail, its shell cracked!’ and then it started bubbling! –Melanie, with a quotation from Sarah Lown
“Who knew that gravelly hummus was God?” –me, drily [Explanation: see, first I explained how the snails and toast quote was inspired by, “Gravelly hummus and jam! Infinitely better than spam! Eat it for breakfast, dinner and lunch, gravelly hummus and jam!” (an old chat…), to which Melanie asked, drily, “Isn’t everything inspired by that?” To which I said, “In a way…” and then, also drily, the aforementioned quote.]
“Now your fingers are toasty warm.... Toast with bubbling snails on top.” –me
“She picked it up and went, ‘Oh, poor snail, its shell cracked!’ and then it started bubbling! –Melanie, with a quotation from Sarah Lown
“Who knew that gravelly hummus was God?” –me, drily [Explanation: see, first I explained how the snails and toast quote was inspired by, “Gravelly hummus and jam! Infinitely better than spam! Eat it for breakfast, dinner and lunch, gravelly hummus and jam!” (an old chat…), to which Melanie asked, drily, “Isn’t everything inspired by that?” To which I said, “In a way…” and then, also drily, the aforementioned quote.]
Fruits Basket Volume 1
Fruits Basket Volume 1 by Natsuki Takaya
Finally I started reading the Fruits Basket manga. Well, okay, it was a while ago now when I read volume 1. But compared to when I should have started reading it (right after watching the anime), the word "finally" is quite appropriate! After borrowing volume 1 from Beth I eventually borrowed most of the rest from Andrea, and then recently bought and finished the last few currently published in America. Now that I can't read any new Fruits Basket volumes, I'm afraid I might soon start going into a Fruits Basket withdrawal. I think a rewatching of the anime is appropriate at this juncture. Ah, the anime is wonderful. I don’t know of anyone who’s watched it and hasn’t loved it. It’s hard to describe how good it is, or why. Just watch it, and give it a decent chance, even if you don’t like anime and think it seems too much like a cartoon or something at first. You won’t regret it.
Now, to talk to the majority of my readers, who have watched it! By now, many of you have read the copies I borrowed from Andrea, but some of you haven’t. I was surprised at how closely the manga followed the anime. I even caught myself thinking for a moment, “Wow, they sure got actors who look a lot like the characters!” And then I was embarassed. But not embarassed enough not to tell about it on my blog. Apparently. Anyway, it’s very good. There were a couple small things it explained a little better about the anime, but for the most part this first volume was the same. It covered Tohru’s first introduction to the Sohmas, her discovery of their secret, Kagura’s introduction, her grandpa’s remodeling finished, and ensuing events (I’m trying to be vague in case people who haven’t seen it are reading this part – those of you who have should know the scenes I’m talking about). Obviously it’s better with color, movement, and voices, but… I love being able to read it at my leisure, too. If someone asked me, “Fruitsbasket: anime or manga?” I would say, “Yes, please!”
Here are some quotes I liked, although of course they’re much better with the pictures (and that applies to every volume). It doesn’t come up in this volume’s quotes as much as in later ones, but generally when you see words, “… …” and more words, it’s because the dialogue was in two different balloons. With a later volume I tried taking most of the dots out to make the quotes flow better, but too often you lose the sense of them saying it slowly and thoughtfully. Of course, keeping them in doesn’t keep the perfect sense of things either, but I still decided not to mess with it and leave them all in.
“‘You may be a black belt fighter, but you’re still a white belt in dealing with people. For the sake of the girl who will one day tell you she loves you… …don’t run away. Keep training.’
‘Hmph. As if someone would ever tell me that.’
‘Heh. And if someone did, what would you do?’
‘I can’t even imagine. I guess… …I’d ask her if she was sane.’” –Shigure and Kyo
“‘Uh-uh-uh-um… I just hit you with my bag… but I guess you know that. But enough about me! Were you taking a walk, Kyo-san?’” –Tohru (Great save!)
“‘Moping around like a sad rat who lost his cheese.’” –Shigure, about Yuki when Tohru left
Finally I started reading the Fruits Basket manga. Well, okay, it was a while ago now when I read volume 1. But compared to when I should have started reading it (right after watching the anime), the word "finally" is quite appropriate! After borrowing volume 1 from Beth I eventually borrowed most of the rest from Andrea, and then recently bought and finished the last few currently published in America. Now that I can't read any new Fruits Basket volumes, I'm afraid I might soon start going into a Fruits Basket withdrawal. I think a rewatching of the anime is appropriate at this juncture. Ah, the anime is wonderful. I don’t know of anyone who’s watched it and hasn’t loved it. It’s hard to describe how good it is, or why. Just watch it, and give it a decent chance, even if you don’t like anime and think it seems too much like a cartoon or something at first. You won’t regret it.
Now, to talk to the majority of my readers, who have watched it! By now, many of you have read the copies I borrowed from Andrea, but some of you haven’t. I was surprised at how closely the manga followed the anime. I even caught myself thinking for a moment, “Wow, they sure got actors who look a lot like the characters!” And then I was embarassed. But not embarassed enough not to tell about it on my blog. Apparently. Anyway, it’s very good. There were a couple small things it explained a little better about the anime, but for the most part this first volume was the same. It covered Tohru’s first introduction to the Sohmas, her discovery of their secret, Kagura’s introduction, her grandpa’s remodeling finished, and ensuing events (I’m trying to be vague in case people who haven’t seen it are reading this part – those of you who have should know the scenes I’m talking about). Obviously it’s better with color, movement, and voices, but… I love being able to read it at my leisure, too. If someone asked me, “Fruitsbasket: anime or manga?” I would say, “Yes, please!”
Here are some quotes I liked, although of course they’re much better with the pictures (and that applies to every volume). It doesn’t come up in this volume’s quotes as much as in later ones, but generally when you see words, “… …” and more words, it’s because the dialogue was in two different balloons. With a later volume I tried taking most of the dots out to make the quotes flow better, but too often you lose the sense of them saying it slowly and thoughtfully. Of course, keeping them in doesn’t keep the perfect sense of things either, but I still decided not to mess with it and leave them all in.
“‘You may be a black belt fighter, but you’re still a white belt in dealing with people. For the sake of the girl who will one day tell you she loves you… …don’t run away. Keep training.’
‘Hmph. As if someone would ever tell me that.’
‘Heh. And if someone did, what would you do?’
‘I can’t even imagine. I guess… …I’d ask her if she was sane.’” –Shigure and Kyo
“‘Uh-uh-uh-um… I just hit you with my bag… but I guess you know that. But enough about me! Were you taking a walk, Kyo-san?’” –Tohru (Great save!)
“‘Moping around like a sad rat who lost his cheese.’” –Shigure, about Yuki when Tohru left
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Zoom Math
As I just said in a comment two posts ago, I am now working for Jeff at Zoom Math. A lot of you knew that already, but some didn't, and it's kind of important in my life, what with the 40 hours a week and all. Oh, and Jeff is my brother, for those of you who don't know. Zoom Math is a startup calculator software company. Our software is absolutely awesome, and I'm not just saying that because I work here. It vastly, radically, and completely improves the TI-83 and TI-84 graphing calculators. Check it out: www.zoommath.com. Just... pay attention to the concept and the screenshots, not to the website itself. It is not up to our standards at the moment. At all. I'll let you know when it's better. For now, here's the user manual -- it is up to our standards. It is good.
So yeah... I mostly do administrative stuff, right now. I'm the "DA's office" -- Department of Annoying Stuff, that is. Not all of it's annoying to me, fortunately. I had a lot of fun the other day discovering that we don't have to charge sales tax, even to California residents -- when software is sold over the internet without sending a backup copy on a CD, apparently it's not taxable. That kind of made my day (I know, I'm a nerd. Duh.).
So yeah... I mostly do administrative stuff, right now. I'm the "DA's office" -- Department of Annoying Stuff, that is. Not all of it's annoying to me, fortunately. I had a lot of fun the other day discovering that we don't have to charge sales tax, even to California residents -- when software is sold over the internet without sending a backup copy on a CD, apparently it's not taxable. That kind of made my day (I know, I'm a nerd. Duh.).
Friday, August 18, 2006
Masks
It’s been a while since I’ve written poetry, and I'd planned to write a real updatey sort of post next (and soon), but this one just sort of happened. It doesn’t make me look good (not in how well it’s written, although possibly in that too – in the subject matter… you’ll see). Normally I would revise a lot more before posting (I literally started writing this maybe... 10 minutes ago?), but... I'm ok with it for now. Maybe I'll revise it more later.
I can’t be your mother
Don’t come crying to me
Don’t even cry
Loud enough for me to hear
You were the one who taught me
To hide all my tears
How can I comfort you?
What do you expect from me?
Because of you
It’s hard to share
My pain with those who are closest
Who do you think you are?
Never close, not anymore
You taught me to hide my tears
How can I comfort you?
Let’s just agree:
I don’t need you,
You don’t need me,
Don’t you agree?
What are you doing?
Do you need me?
Well, I don’t have anything to give
(just like you)
I’m growing, now
I’m learning to slip the mask aside
But I’ve never felt the mask harden so much
As when I’m around you
Where’s your mask?
And how can that cause you such pain?
You can’t be my child
So grow up, already
I don’t know what to do for you
So don’t come crying to me.
I can’t be your mother
Don’t come crying to me
Don’t even cry
Loud enough for me to hear
You were the one who taught me
To hide all my tears
How can I comfort you?
What do you expect from me?
Because of you
It’s hard to share
My pain with those who are closest
Who do you think you are?
Never close, not anymore
You taught me to hide my tears
How can I comfort you?
Let’s just agree:
I don’t need you,
You don’t need me,
Don’t you agree?
What are you doing?
Do you need me?
Well, I don’t have anything to give
(just like you)
I’m growing, now
I’m learning to slip the mask aside
But I’ve never felt the mask harden so much
As when I’m around you
Where’s your mask?
And how can that cause you such pain?
You can’t be my child
So grow up, already
I don’t know what to do for you
So don’t come crying to me.
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