Dear Non-Americans,

I'm pretty sure that the idea of Thanksgiving is strange to you. Those crazy Americans are celebrating a past meal their ancestors shared with the Indians, who were kind enough to share their harvest when our ancestors would have starved, that we later raped, pillaged, and plundered? Also, smallpox? Jesus Christ, America! The world was just getting over Bush!

Okay, guys, that's the demi-historical basis, sure. Just like Christmas is Jesus's birthday, when studies have placed his birth somewhere midspring.

So, that's out.

The Hallmark justification for Thanksgiving is to give thanks for everything you have. And if there's one thing people are good at, it's being content with what you have.

Uh-huh.

So here's my theory behind this bizarre holiday of no religious value. It's really about is eating WAY TOO MUCH food with friends and family. And it's the only true American holiday. There's no religious implications, no secular ideals or rituals, no special forms to fill out so you can miss school. It's something all Americans have in common. We live here. We may not have a lot, or we may have too much. We may have just moved here in the past week, or our ancestors may have crossed the Bering Strait to settle here, thousands of years ago.
Whatever, whoever we are, we're Americans. And we've all been given an excuse to revel in it.

But don't think this is just us. Every nation in the world has celebrations like these. You're not remembering some great battle or conflict. You don't have to go to church for it. It's just part of who you are, as a nation, and it's your chance to flaunt it and enjoy what it is to be who you are. It's a cultural holiday. I would not understand the depth of meaning behind it, but you sure as hell do, and that's enough for you.

So, to those beyond our borders, I wish you well in your own celebrations. And to one and all, Happy Thanksgiving.

Love,
Z

Oh, my goodness, she wrote more.

Looking For A Place To Happen: Master Post by waketosleep.

STXIV AU about Kirk and Spock and the gang being space pirates and starting intergalactic wars and having sexy tiems, not necessarily in that order. I almost want to call it a Firefly cross-over, but it so isn't. It is original and delicious.

I don't remember if I posted the first portion (then just a vignette) of this story, but if I didn't, ETERNAL SHAME UPON MY ANCESTORS.

PRIDE & PREJUDICE IS AWESOME WITH EMOTICONS!

!!!!!!

Bah. My math homework program continues to fuck up, not recording my results when I finish the section. I saved two screen shots from two sections where this occurred, but one got corrupted. So, I have to do two more homework assignments, one that I spent all day yesterday on, as well as study for my test on Monday. And there's no guarantee that my professor (who's English barely passes muster, some days) will believe that this is the program and not me Photoshopping my way to an 'A'.
Hah. If only.

So. Good times, there.

I'm pretty much kicking back, today. I spent all yesterday fighting with my math homework, and I have no desire to do the same, today. Today is a day for laziness, reading, and tea. It's supposed to rain all day, I got free Chickfila for breakfast, and I just do not give a damn.

Happy Saturday.

Ahhh, SG-1. You will never not be awesome to me.

Gone Fishin' by kaiz

After saving the world again, Jack finally gets to go fishing. Takes place immediately following: Small Victories. Jack/Thor, Jack/OMC, Jack/Daniel (UST), Drama/Fantasy/Romance, Rated R. [237k]

I drank this sucker down like it was water.

I can do whatever the fuck I want to.

Fuck guilt, and fuck statistics.

SHIT, I feel better.

Also: Strange insight for today = I'm pretty sure that if they got my down to my smallest iotas of personality and humanity, you'd find nothing but marshmallow bits, caffeine, and sharpie fumes.

I took a Hot Topic Health Potion energy shot thingy in the name of science. It promises 5-8 hours of energy, and I had to be over 18 to buy it.

I'm not gonna lie, it didn't taste awesome. I don't feel anything yet, but if you read news reports about some crazy bitch who tried to eat the Wendy's sign in Pensacola, send me bail money.

Also, if I die, y'all do not get my stuff. I expect a Viking Burial, with all my shit burned with me. Virgin sacrifices are a plus.

See ya in Valhalla.

Update
It's an hour and thirty minutes since I took the shot, and my head feels a little weird. I'm getting tired, though. Overdose, perhaps?

I got the RA position. I'm the RA for one of the most lavish living arrangements, which have kitchens and washer/dryers.

This means free living, free food, a salary, and money in my car fund.

WOOT AND HUZZAH.

My school housing admin are a bunch of prickteases. They say I'll get my results from my RA application today via e-mail, but so far, no joy.

So I'm gonna go and write Victorian pre-slash.

That'll show 'em.

Republic of Theives paperback due in Oct 2010.

YOU DO NOT KNOW THE SUFFERING I HAVE ENDURED, WAITING FOR THIS BOOK. And you push it back to next YEAR.

Dicks.

Sure. Ban them all. It only makes me want to read them more.

Fuck, if a teenager is picking up a book at all, the last thing you should do is slap it out of their hands because 'its not appropriate'. That and censorship is actually the quiet way of favoring one social or religious group's values over everyone else's. And that's not how we roll in America. Right?

Right?

Scared the bejeezus out of myself with Purgatorium, a point-and-click game from Casual Gameplay. It's short and creepy. I recommend it.

Purgatorium



EDIT: Played the creator's other two games, Exmortis and Exmortis₂, which a bit longer and quite freaky.

I let myself get so worked up on the first game, when my roommate opened the door, I screamed like a little girl. Ben Leffler is an evil bastard.

Exmortis

Exmortis 2

And, if you're a glutton for punishment, like myself, then you'll be pleased to know that Leffler is hard at work on an Exmortis 3. Whoo!

I am in a bad mood, and I'm rational enough to know that there is no real reason for it.
You know what that means.

Hopefully I can make it safely back into the world of free tampons before all hell breaks loose.

I'm very annoyed at my Art History teacher, too, but that has logic behind it. I made a dismal grade on a homework assignment on a technicality. I have been riding a borderline 'A' for a while, and this may be enough to push me into the 'B' range. Which annoys me.

The weather has given me a splendid headache, what with the temperature outside being all, "Brrr! It's fucking winter!" and the temperature inside the classrooms and my dorm being all, "Let's get tropical, bitch!" I have the window wide open and I'm still sweating.

I'm cautiously enthusiastic about Thanksgiving break, mostly because it's an excuse to give this school the finger and ride off into the sunset a few days ahead of schedule. Why, yes, I'm still bitter about the 'hurricane' fiasco. Thanks very much.
What I'm not looking forward to is, in order of least favorites:

01. The fighting, namely between my sister and my father.
02. The yelling, which will inevitably happen.
03. The guilt-trips.
04. Generally feeling like I'm twelve-years old, again.

Family time is stressful time. And people wonder why others hate the holidays.

I'm going to go eat junk food and sit on the internet for a while.

I was reading back in my own tags, and found a constant theme of restlessness and bucking the system.

( In case anyone cares about what's changed... )

Abide With Me by stripedpetunia

Merlin/28 Days Later. Yeah.

CLASH OF THE TITANS. WITH SAM WORTHINGTON AS PERSEUS. FEATURING THE USED.

I CAME.

So, I'm comparing Willy Wonka to Discword's Mr. Teatime, because they're both creepers.

( THIS IS WHAT I FIND. )

THIS FREAKS ME OUT A LITTLE, OKAY?!

I have my RA interview at noon today, which I dressed up for (as much as I ever dress up).
I set my alarm for the first and last time this week.
On my way back from class, I grabbed an abandoned traffic cone and carried it across two parking lots to set it behind a friend's car.

It's gonna be a good day.

So, my dad calls me.

The first words out of his mouth are, "I love the blue-eyed raven."

I'm like, "... Buh?"

He goes on about the blue-eyed raven, and I'm like, 'That sounds a lot like a certain story I've been writing on the side, but how in the hell did he-?'

Then he explains that he found it on "the Z thing."

Then my Dad-to-English babelfish kicks in and I realize he's talking about this blue-eyed raven on DeviantArt.

I am not one to self-promote, really, so when I say that I'm shocked that he even found this, know this to be an understatement. My dad likes to keep tabs on my DA account, so sometimes I'll let him know if I've posted something new.
According to him, though, it came as a complete surprise that I had done something like this. He hadn't even thought it was me, until he read my bitchy artist's comments.

He was extremely excited about the story, comparing it to Harry Potter in terms of the structure, telling me that he was very interested in reading it.

I am taken aback. What I think happened is that he had no idea that I've been writing stories for years. In fact, most people don't know that I write. I'm extremely self-conscious about it, and I don't let people read a whole lot of what I write just because I don't think it's all that awesome. My forte for a long time has been drawing (and even that is mediocre).

So I think the combination of my most thought-out story concept to date and a minor revolution in my drawing style really wowed my father, given how he had no concept of everything up to this point.

He gave me good advice, too. He advised me to draw before I write. If I'm struggling with a character's personality, I should draw the scene, the action sequences, the background, whatever. He says I'm an artist first.
This is probably very true. I don't enjoy writing exercises, as they strike me as just efforts to economize vocabulary. I write all of the time, and most of it is garbage. But the good stuff comes from what I can visualize.

I'm still a little in shock, how excited he was about this. I've already decided to put some more effort into my art. Guess I'll have to finish writing the damn thing, too!