Awhile ago, I got together a big batch of songs to try to learn to play on guitar. A couple of them* I was really enjoying, and liking the sound of, except they each had one chord I was finding impossible to play - sure, I could try to play them, but however slowly and carefully I laid down my fingers, I'd get dud notes ( Read more... )

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Thinking about Iron Man and Batman today. They are both popular superheroes who don't have any true superpowers, but do everything with gadgets. They are both orphans. They also both were born into incredible wealth with family-owned corporations. I wonder how they'd have ended up without the money ( Read more... )

I have some friendships where, whenever we see each other, there are big smiles, big hugs, and general excitement to see each other. I have other friendships where we greet each other with much more reserve, no physical contact, smaller smiles, quieter conversation. Large smiles and excitement will occur only if there is some exciting news or ( Read more... )

I never met merle_ in person. In fact, the only communication I ever had with him was through livejournal posts and comment threads. Nonetheless I felt like I knew him and that we had some deep conversations. Perhaps we skipped the shallow ones?

Until I saw his wife's post in his journal about his death (scroll down and see the comment from eryn_ for ( Read more... )

Kindle Worlds

Fan fiction and pro fiction are both very large places, which blur into each other here and there. My most comprehensive experience of them both is in Star Trek fandom, the main obsession of my coming-of-age years. In Star Trek, none of the writers own the characters and world they are writing in. They are owned by Paramount Pictures ( Read more... )

So, I recently read this article on salon.com about one woman's experience of post-pregnancy plastic surgery, because I was bored at work, and because I know someone who is thinking about getting such surgery. One quote from the doctor in the article really stood out for me, because I think it's complete bullshit ( Read more... )

There's been a lot of uproar lately over handmade Jayne hats being removed from Etsy and their sellers being served with cease-and-desist letters, in conjunction with an official licensed Jayne hat going up for sale on ThinkGeek. The cease-and desists did not come from ThinkGeek, and ThinkGeek responded by donating all their profits on these hats ( Read more... )

So, a few of my friends have been posting about their usage of Plan B (the morning after pill) to try to dispel misconceptions about its use ( Read more... )

I hung out with my friend Tom M. for awhile tonight at the Music-Go-Round where he works, and, as usual, I picked up various guitars and played them a little ( Read more... )