elfgirl

It is almost 9AM.

2009-05-01T12:56:42Z

I have not managed to have tea.

I have not managed to get dressed.

I've only barely managed to take my meds.

What I *have* done is make a fencer's mask out of posterboard and grey wool yarn. In under 30 minutes.

Crafty Mom powers FTW!

My house: Not a hollow tree.

2008-04-29T23:28:43Z

A couple of weekends ago, I saw a honey bee outside our kitchen window. I thought it odd, but not too odd. After all, we do have beekeepers less than two or three miles from us. It briefly crossed my mind that we might have a new hive somewhere in our wooded backyard.

Not quite that far away, it turns out. It seems some squirrels had eaten their way into our attic and left a little doorway to the outside on the back corner of our roof. That, combined with the Icynene insulation we recently had put in the attic, created a convenient, closed in space for an enterprising swarm to move into.

While I applaud their resourcefulness in finding such a unique dwelling, I’d like to point out that we have several hundred trees in our backyard, many of which probably have equally convenient (if less stylish) spaces for setting up their honey factory.

Today, this is making me smile.

2008-04-26T15:25:19Z

Weekly sideblog posts wrap-up

2008-04-25T15:55:01Z

Stefanie Posavec “On the Map” via (NOTCOT): Gorgeous maps that embody the possibilities of visualization of information.

Periodic Table Menu at Miracle of Science in Cambridge via Laughing Squid: Does the Hb come with Fr and Ko?

10 Best New Illustrators via Tigerprint: I love some of these. I foresee new books for The Boy.

Asterisk Bookends: And other functional art at Blank Project.

Blank is Like Blank, analogies to live by: Using Helvetica is like owning a Mac: It looks so cool that you never bother to stop and think if you really need to.

Busybusybusy

2008-04-21T19:34:36Z

I’m trying to figure out how to make time for all the things I want to make time for, without scheduling myself into minutiae. Not sure this is possible.

This weekend:

Dwiv and I drove up to Nashville and came back with this. It’s a 2007 Lexus RX400h (hybrid), it gets over twice the MPG of my Odyssey, and it’s lovely. (It talks, OMG!)
While we were gone, The Boy managed to fall face-first into Girl v2.0’s bed and split his lip wide open. It looks pretty big and ugly, but apparently ice cream heals all things.
Gaming happened yesterday. We’re at a sort of weird in-between place where we don’t really seem to have a goal. Or we have too many of them. Not sure.
I worked on my website. Laura’s inspired me to go back to getting all my stuff moved over to my domain and crosspost. She pointed out two WP plug-ins, one for LJ and one for IJ, and I found one for Vox so… I may have gone a little nuts with my tags though. ::look shifty::

And now, back to the new projects I’ve come up with for work and, later, reading lots of articles on folksonomies for school. Paper’s due in two weeks–EEP.

tags:

At my house this evening:

2007-10-01T01:24:29Z

[Dwiv is showing me a t-shirt online]

Me (quoting shirt): "My other ride is your mom." Hee.

Girl v1.0: Oh, that's horrible. Never say that again. [pause] That'd mean that you rode yourself. [horrified look] OH GOD. I DIDN'T MEAN THAT.

Me & Dwiv: [ROFLMAO]

Girl: STOP! Auuugh. I'm going to cry.

The State of Me (located just to the left of Belgium--pls don't sell on Ebay).

2007-09-24T17:08:19Z

Today, I have been Very Productive, Indeed.

I played around with Todoist and created a detailed to-do list for work/school--with ticky boxes! I also printed out the first of my readings/assignments for Copyediting II--which looks to be more fun than Copyediting I since we get to move into medium-level editing. For the record: People don't make aggressive copyedits, pens do. (I am happy to report I got a 'B' in both CEI and Grammar Lab. The CEI grade would have been higher, but I lost about fourteen points off my final grade for lack of discussion participation (read: was a dumbass and forgot to post to the discussion board).)

Mostly, there's been not much else going on since D*C (and PiratePaloosa) except a lot of trying to catch up and wind down.

The GRE went not quite as well as I'd liked, but right now I'm not of the mind to take it again. I'm curious to see what my scores are for the analytical writing portion, though.

...

HI.

6A CEO Resigns

2007-09-14T19:32:51Z

Six Apart, the world’s leading independent blogging services and software company, today announced that Christopher J. Alden has been appointed Chairman and CEO. Alden succeeds Barak Berkowitz, who has served as Chairman and CEO since January 2004.

Memeishness -- Career Suggestions

2007-09-13T15:48:56Z

via coalescent:
1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/.
2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post the top umpty results:

1. Costume Designer
2. Set Designer
3. Conservator
4. Special Effects Technician
5. Industrial Designer
6. Animator
7. Desktop Publisher
8. Interior Designer
9. Fashion Designer
10. Cartoonist / Comic Illustrator
11. Makeup Artist
12. Director of Photography
13. Graphic Designer
14. Artist
15. Computer Animator
16. Comedian
17. Exhibit Designer
18. Casting Director
19. Composer
20. Medical Lab Tech

elfgirl @ 2007-09-11T11:19:00

2007-09-11T15:19:35Z

“The most complex print I’ve done had 120,000 layers in Illustrator. The printer called and said, ‘How did you do this? How long did it take?’ And I said, ‘Oh, five minutes.’”

---------

I am way, way behind on comments. I'm trying to finish up with my distance courses (final yesterday, quiz and test this week) and the GRE (next Monday). Hopefully somewhere in between all of that I'll get around to catching up.

Tribal elfgirl!

2007-09-09T15:49:06Z

photo by gladstone

elfgirl @ 2007-09-07T21:22:00

2007-09-08T01:23:29Z

photo by amazing_tito

Why I love Neil Gaiman, by elfgirl

2007-09-06T19:53:23Z

An at-a-glance guide to spotting things like walls and me and giraffes

Post-con Lethargy

2007-09-05T13:16:31Z

For those of you who missed it, my con report is here. There's a video of part of the Tesla coils concert on YouTube, if you're interested.

Yesterday was kind of a one foot in, one foot out day because melonaise and myb0y didn't head back to Denver until mid-afternoon. Today, though, it's back to the regular day-to-day stuff.

I have a final due next Monday, the GRE in two weeks and two writing samples to produce. Plus, you know, laundry to do, house to clean, kids to herd... :)

Thanks again to everyone who made the weekend a good one.

S2 Torchwood Spoiler.

2007-08-29T21:55:20Z

G L E E

-----

In other news: still haven't done my grid, still not packed, will have a house full of people tonight.

In better news: am having these contacts drop shipped from CIBA for delivery tomorrow, so I'll have them for Friday's vampire costume. \m/ \m/

More D*C

2007-08-28T16:37:02Z

As of tonight, I will have finished all my schoolwork that needs to be done before next week. I will also, hopefully, be mostly packed. Or at least organized.

I'm still deciding on costumes. Friday night's costume has gone from random anime to vampire, but will require some sort of contacts. At this late date, I'm unlikely to be able to get any in my perscription, so I apologize in advance for running into you if I see you on Friday--see being a very relative term here. Sunday day costume looks like it may be a gypsy costume. I'm currenly in search of a crystal ball.

I need to find velcro to attach my SG patches to my shirt.

My evening schedule has been requested a couple of times, so here's a tenative one:

Thursday -- late night dinnerish Thing at Trader Vic's with melonaise and myb0y
Friday -- dinner with friends, then wandering about in costume
Saturday -- somewhat undecided, but likely involving the Rainbow Flag Party for some period of time
Sunday -- Pirate gathering, Secret Room

Apart from that, I'm probably also going to try and make some part of the Stargate track gathering, whenever that is. I'll probably end up missing most or all of the Yule Ball this year because it conflicts with the Pirate party. I haven't looked at any of the concert schedules, so I'm also unsure how those may impact the plans above.

I still need to sit down and do my grid. I discovered last year that in absence of a plan, I wander aimlessly and do nothing. I'm a little put out that the only art track panel I'm interested in is the exact same time as the parade. ::sulks::

In general, my plan for D*C 2007 is as follows:

See friends

See panels

Have fun

I'm probably going to post a poll tonight or tomorrow asking where everyone's likely to be, so I have the best chance of running into you. :)

Something to inspire cavalaxis with glee!

2007-08-25T12:29:08Z

Bill Nighy as Rufus Scrimgeour?

link via torenheksje

Your LOLcat of the Day

2007-08-24T12:27:17Z

...courtesy of gladstone.

w00t!

2007-08-24T12:21:48Z

Jason Momoa just popped up on the D*C guest list.

\o/

OMG MUST PACK OMG MUST PACK OMG MUST PACK OMG MUST PACK

Update to yesterday's midterm drama

2007-08-23T15:10:36Z

I woke up this morning to a terse, but sincere, apology from my instructor for her email.

I hadn't replied to her last email yet because I wanted the perspective of a good night's sleep before I sat down to write, so the apology came with no prompting from me. I'm going to follow the suggestion from several of those who commented and send her an email essentially saying what I'd said yesterday--not looking for change in grade, needing feedback to learn, etc. (sans jammy cow comments).

Thanks to everyone who gave feedback yesterday, both on LJ and IJ. I was really adrift after I received the email from her, and you helped me get a perspective on the situation I wouldn't have had otherwise. ::smishes you all::

Well, huh.

2007-08-22T19:07:36Z

So, I turned in my Copyediting I midterm in a couple of weeks ago. I got back my grade Monday, along with a detailed commentary of what I was counted off for and why. I went through my instructor's comments and there were a few I had questions about, so I wrote up my questions in an email (link to copy of my questions). I sent it off yesterday, and today I got a message back saying that she'd revised my grade, but that she was no longer going to give me feedback on my quizzes and exams because, "I do not have the time or the willingness to debate/argue each note that I make to student's test." O.o Plus, she said that she'd been teaching for ten years and other students had always appreciated her feedback, implying I was some ungrateful swot for daring to question her*.

My question is: for those on my flist that are instructors, was I out of line asking questions about her comments on my test? Were my comments/questions worded badly or impertenently? I didn't think so, but since the email got a much different reception than I was expecting, now I'm wondering.

Nothing I asked was different than what I'd have asked an instructor in a face-to-face class, nothing different than I have asked in the past. What's the point of having an instructor if you can't ask questions when you don't understand why you were graded the way you were, or get feedback about what you're doing? At that point, you might as well just be reading a book and doing the exercises on your own. Part of the reason I took the class was to learn how copyediting is done by others because I know that just because I was taught to do it one way, it doesn't mean that it's the only way--or even the right way--but how can I learn the difference if I can't ask why she's doing something differently than how I was taught?

The huge, freaking irony here is that I recieved an email from my Grammar Lab instructor not two days ago telling us to make sure that we emailed him with any questions we had with our quizzes. The email included an example from an email he'd had from another student, and it was essentially the same kind of email I'd sent to my Copyediting teacher.

I was, in all honesty, not looking to get points back. I was sincerely curious about how she'd marked certain things. If she'd come back and said, here's why, but I can't give you any points points back, that'd been fine. I just wanted to understand, and in one case help her understand something she said she was confused about. I'm one of those people who learns far better in a classroom setting than in a distance learning setting, so asking questions and getting clarifications is the only way I have to learn effectively.

So, any opinions?

* ::cough:: I'm a little miffed, so pardon the tone.

PSA: Fandom Diaspora, please sign in

2007-08-20T17:11:03Z

I'm slowly building friends lists on IJ and GJ and I'm trying to cut down on the crossover between flists on the different sites. I'm doing this as a poll, so all you have to do is click and submit. Please help me keep my sanity by answering! Only I can see the answers, just in case there are folks out there that don't want where they're moving widely known, for whatever reason.

View Poll: Where in the world is [Bad username: ???]

Danke!

For the record, my main journal for personal things will continue to be my journal on my site, Thorns., and my main fandom journal will be at InsaneJournal.

All my posts, fandom and personal, will continue to be crossposted to LJ.

I know there are a lot of folks who are moving to GJ or IJ exclusively, but I have too many non-fandom friends and family who aren't planning on going anywhere, so I'm happy to continue to crosspost to LJ (and use their bandwidth, server space, and electricity). I'm just not going to give them any more money.

Fair play to coffeechica

2007-08-15T19:43:01Z

There was an additional post put up in lj_biz a couple of days ago--a clarification of the clarification post--and in the comments there was a comment by coffeechica, the LJ employee that garnered a great deal of ill will from a lot of people, including me, with her statements about anorexia and pro-anorexia groups.

She's apologized and says, as I expected, that her statements didn't accurately reflect her opinion of the disorder.

I'm glad she's apologized. I still see her original statements as another in a long line of badly thought out comments and reponses by LJ staff as a whole, but it's good to see at least one of them take responsibility for the fact that they upset users and offer an apology.

This is my "Oh, my" face.

2007-08-12T01:54:05Z

Claudia Black is now listed as a guest for Dragon*Con.

And I'm doing Vala for the parade.

O.O

LJ/6A: Common carrier status and why it matters

2007-08-10T12:40:06Z

I posted this as a comment to liz_marcs last post. It pertains to why LJ may now be going after text links to offsite material, and since I mentioned that here yesterday, I thought I ought to post it here as well.

-------

And this, boys and girls, is what happens when you FUBAR your common carrier status.

For those that don't know, the common carrier exemption (in relation to ISPs and webhosts) provides a limitation of liability to a host in the transmission, storage and linking of material on their servers. This was originally meant to cover transmission of copyrighted material, a la mp3s, but has since been used to cover other types of material, such as pornography.¹ This exemption is part of title II of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA): the “Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act.”

There are two parts that directly apply to what's going on now:

The limitation for storage of information on systems or networks limits the liability of ISPs for infringing material on websites hosted on their systems.
The limitation for information location tools relates to hyperlinks, online directories, search engines, and similar applications. This provision limits ISP liability for linking to a site containing infringing material. [emphasis mine]

In order to maintain their exemption of liability, ISPs and hosts must:

First, upon notification of infringing content, the ISP must take down or block access to the material (“Notice and Take-Down”). In addition: (i) ISPs cannot be the initiator of the infringing material or be actively involved in the transfer of such material (i.e., all activities must be automated), (ii) the content of the material transferred or retained may not be modified by the ISP, and (iii) the ISP cannot receive direct financial benefit from the infringing material. [source]

Here's where LJ/6A current behavior comes in--up until now, when something has been reported to LJ, the standard response has been to say it's freedom of speech, they can't do anything about it. This has been the standard response in such cases for the vast majority of ISPs and web hosts. Instead, most carriers will wait until presented with a court order, law enforcement order, or C&D from a copyright holder. Why? Because if they don't put themselves up as the arbiters of what is and is not legal to have on their servers, then they have plausible deniability.

As soon as an ISP or web host starts removing content without a legal order, they are taking legal responsibility for a) knowing what is illegal for them to have on their servers and b) for making sure it's taken off. This is the slippery slope that 6A is now on.

If it's really a case of them not wanting this type of content on their servers, the smart thing to have done would have been to report the content to WB for copyright violation or, if they really thought it violated obscenity laws, to a law enforcement agency who would have then ordered them to take it down. I suspect, however, that 6A is trying to keep a lower profile than that and instead decided to remove it themselves rather than risking a stink over copyright or obscenity violations on their servers.

Unfortunately, in doing so, they may have sealed their fate in terms of their legal status.

¹ I don't know if this has been tested in court yet.