momebie and I have a very important question to ask.

[Poll #1437955]

Okay, so, I just clicked on my flist because I was like, "Oh ho, haven't checked the flist yet today. Must see what's going on in the world."

And then I realized it's only been an hour since I actually checked the flist.

Apparently I'm not quite awake yet.

Okay, so, I just clicked on my flist because I was like, "Oh ho, haven't checked the flist yet today. Must see what's going on in the world."

And then I realized it's only been an hour since I actually checked the flist.

Apparently I'm not quite awake yet.

SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHY I SHOULD NOT BUY MYSELF A TACTICAL DEFENSE PEN.

I mean.
It's TACTICAL.
And DEFENSIVE.
AND A PEN.

. . .

It is totally time for the weekend to start.

SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHY I SHOULD NOT BUY MYSELF A TACTICAL DEFENSE PEN.

I mean.
It's TACTICAL.
And DEFENSIVE.
AND A PEN.

. . .

It is totally time for the weekend to start.

KL is insane and looking for parties interested in a postcard campaign to get Gerard Way at DragonCon 2009. If people aren't interested, she and I will just have to flood the offices of Dark Horse, D*C and whatever as much as we can (which probably wouldn't be much since we're both lazy).

ANYWAY.

Poll here.

But not the kind you dance around.

The kind you clicky to tell KL that you would totally send postcards to show interest in having Gerard Way at an Umbrella Academy panel in 2009.

If you don't do it for you, DO IT FOR ME!

And if you just want to see the poll you dance around click here.


I have totally not gone completely insane.

KL is insane and looking for parties interested in a postcard campaign to get Gerard Way at DragonCon 2009. If people aren't interested, she and I will just have to flood the offices of Dark Horse, D*C and whatever as much as we can (which probably wouldn't be much since we're both lazy).

ANYWAY.

Poll here.

But not the kind you dance around.

The kind you clicky to tell KL that you would totally send postcards to show interest in having Gerard Way at an Umbrella Academy panel in 2009.

If you don't do it for you, DO IT FOR ME!

And if you just want to see the poll you dance around click here.


I have totally not gone completely insane.

It was muggy this morning as I walked down the ramp to the parking garage. So muggy and overcast that it almost combined to form a mist. The light flickered overhead like a power outage threatening in a storm. An alarm, constant from a truck, trill-beeped like an eerie omen. "The zombies are loose," it seemed to say, but that would be ridiculous of course.

The zombie-mist faded as I stepped from underneath the cover of the garage and suddenly there were other people, co-workers I didn't recognize because I didn't arrive quite on time. The security guard was familiar, a casual acquaintance even, and we smiled when we said hello—more than polite.

The trill-beep of the truck's warning completely lost in my memory, I entered the cafeteria, saying hello to another acquaintance, thinking belatedly that in response to his friendly "How are you?" I should have said, "Better once caffeinated." I strolled past more-familiar co-workers, smiling and nodding hello once they saw me, dodging the woman who was paying more attention to her coffee than the collision in the making. I turned the corner sharply, part of my normal routine, and pulled on the refrigerator that holds the soda.

It took me a moment to realize it was still padlocked shut.

The coke was safely nestled in its cold cell, red labels bright against the brown-liquid. Like taking a trip to the zoo, I could only tap at the glass. I then realized what the trill-beep zombie alarm was warning. . . .






And now that I have proper change, I'm taking my ass to the vending machine. COOOOOOOOOKE!!!!!

It was muggy this morning as I walked down the ramp to the parking garage. So muggy and overcast that it almost combined to form a mist. The light flickered overhead like a power outage threatening in a storm. An alarm, constant from a truck, trill-beeped like an eerie omen. "The zombies are loose," it seemed to say, but that would be ridiculous of course.

The zombie-mist faded as I stepped from underneath the cover of the garage and suddenly there were other people, co-workers I didn't recognize because I didn't arrive quite on time. The security guard was familiar, a casual acquaintance even, and we smiled when we said hello—more than polite.

The trill-beep of the truck's warning completely lost in my memory, I entered the cafeteria, saying hello to another acquaintance, thinking belatedly that in response to his friendly "How are you?" I should have said, "Better once caffeinated." I strolled past more-familiar co-workers, smiling and nodding hello once they saw me, dodging the woman who was paying more attention to her coffee than the collision in the making. I turned the corner sharply, part of my normal routine, and pulled on the refrigerator that holds the soda.

It took me a moment to realize it was still padlocked shut.

The coke was safely nestled in its cold cell, red labels bright against the brown-liquid. Like taking a trip to the zoo, I could only tap at the glass. I then realized what the trill-beep zombie alarm was warning. . . .






And now that I have proper change, I'm taking my ass to the vending machine. COOOOOOOOOKE!!!!!

There are times when fandom_grammar is not enough for me and my passion for punctuation explodes from my face (beware projectile commas). There are also times when I read a few fics in a row that have no conception of how to punctuate for pauses, and that vexes me.

So, today you all are suffering through a lesson on punctuation for pauses.

( Lesson 1: Periods end sentences. )

( Lesson 2: How to pause. )

In short: Don't abuse punctuation!

Also, I provided a very nice write up on punctuating pauses at fandom_grammar last November.

There are times when fandom_grammar is not enough for me and my passion for punctuation explodes from my face (beware projectile commas). There are also times when I read a few fics in a row that have no conception of how to punctuate for pauses, and that vexes me.

So, today you all are suffering through a lesson on punctuation for pauses.

( Lesson 1: Periods end sentences. )

( Lesson 2: How to pause. )

In short: Don't abuse punctuation!

Also, I provided a very nice write up on punctuating pauses at fandom_grammar last November.

The other day katilara tells me about how her co-workers are being "annoying ridiculous." I ask her to explain what "annoying ridiculous" is and we then get into a discussion about the varying levels of ridiculousness. Clearly the culmination of this discussion is a color-coded chart to identify the varying levels of ridiculous. And thus I am proud to present to you, a chart that you can use to identify the current level of ridiculous in your life:



( GREEN: FAIL!Ridiculous )

( YELLOW: Asshat Ridiculous )

( ORANGE: A Little Ridiculous )

( RED: YAY!Ridiculous )

( RAINBOW: Ryan Ross Ridiculous )

Feel free to inform your friends of your personal ridiculous level on your userinfo, journal, or forehead (which would be pretty ridiculous).

<center><img src="http://pics.livejournal.com/theemdash/pic/0009fch3">
CURRENT RIDICULOUS LEVEL: <A HREF=http://theemdash.livejournal.com/667482.html>ORANGE</a></center>

[Poll #1182886]

[Poll #1182886]

snagged from mustanginblue .

Instructions: Open up your iTunes and fill out this survey, no matter how embarrassing the responses might be.

*cough* I swear, I have more music than just Wizard Rock (despite what this is showing).

How many songs total: 1693
How many hours or days of music: 3.7 days
Most recently played: Teenage Werewolf - The Remus Lupins
Most played: Expecto Patronum - Remus and the Lupins
Most recently added: Under Your Nose - DJ Luna Lovegood

Sort by song title:
First Song: Accio Deathly Hallows - Hank Green
Last Song: 5150 - Tsunami Bomb

Sort by time:
Shortest Song: (Four Seconds of Noise) - Hot Hot Heat
Longest Song: I'll Be Ok - Catchlove

Sort by album:
First album: Afterglow - Sarah McLachlan
Last album: You Could Have It So Much Better - Franz Ferdinand

First song that comes up on Shuffle: Hermione Granger - Ginny and the Heartbreakers

Search the following and state how many songs come up:
Death - 74 (I'd like to point out it's because I have the Death Note soundtrack)
Life - 15
Love - 85 (3 album titles have "love" in it)
Hate - 14
You - 157 (again with 4 album titles)
Sex - 2

And just because this is my iTunes:
Stargate - 53
Harry - 189
Remus - 44
Buffy - 40
Star Wars - 125

Nerd music FTW!

snagged from mustanginblue .

Instructions: Open up your iTunes and fill out this survey, no matter how embarrassing the responses might be.

*cough* I swear, I have more music than just Wizard Rock (despite what this is showing).

How many songs total: 1693
How many hours or days of music: 3.7 days
Most recently played: Teenage Werewolf - The Remus Lupins
Most played: Expecto Patronum - Remus and the Lupins
Most recently added: Under Your Nose - DJ Luna Lovegood

Sort by song title:
First Song: Accio Deathly Hallows - Hank Green
Last Song: 5150 - Tsunami Bomb

Sort by time:
Shortest Song: (Four Seconds of Noise) - Hot Hot Heat
Longest Song: I'll Be Ok - Catchlove

Sort by album:
First album: Afterglow - Sarah McLachlan
Last album: You Could Have It So Much Better - Franz Ferdinand

First song that comes up on Shuffle: Hermione Granger - Ginny and the Heartbreakers

Search the following and state how many songs come up:
Death - 74 (I'd like to point out it's because I have the Death Note soundtrack)
Life - 15
Love - 85 (3 album titles have "love" in it)
Hate - 14
You - 157 (again with 4 album titles)
Sex - 2

And just because this is my iTunes:
Stargate - 53
Harry - 189
Remus - 44
Buffy - 40
Star Wars - 125

Nerd music FTW!

I want to play a little game. It's called "Did Em Kill A Character In Your Fandom?" As many of you are well aware, I have a tendency to fall in love with characters who are doomed. Almost all of my favorite characters die. That's not even a spoiler any more, it's just a pattern. Thinking about this has made me wonder exactly how many characters I've killed through love. So, the "game."

1. Name a fandom (one at a time, please; feel free to name anything and I'll tell you if I've seen it).

2. I will respond with my favorite character and whether or not that character dies in canon. (I will screen my replies with the character names to hopefully avoid spoilers.)

3. At the end of this "game" I'll count fandoms and characters and determine how many characters I've killed through love.

( So Far )

getaway_machine and imthelobster were having some difficulty staying on task for blog365, so I offered to challenge them periodically. Because they're masochists, they accepted!

Here are the rules we agreed upon:

(1) I will challenge them each time they complete a challenge.

(2) They must complete the challenge by the assigned due date.

(3) If they do not complete the challenge, they will be given a punishment related to the challenge.

For my own records, I am keeping track of their challenges here. For Em: the Challenge Queue.

getaway_machine
( Challenge 1: Defenestration )

---

imthelobster
( Challenge 1: Icons )

A few years back I wound up writing a research paper on forensic investigation for arson. (Actually the research paper was on something else and this was a loosely related topic and infinitely more interesting, so, um. . . .) Since then I've taken to critiquing tv shows saying things like, "There's no way that fire would have turned that bone to ash" and then explaining to everyone within hearing distance why that fire wouldn't have turned that bone to ash.

Recently I saw a show in which a fire melted bone. And just, no, no way can a fire melt bone. Bone doesn't melt. Right?

Well, while trying to decide what to NaBloPoMo today, I thought I'd google a little information on whether or not bone can melt. And apparently, bone can melt. Color me stunned.

Bone begins to melt around 1600 °C (2912 °F). To put that into perspective, a crematorium generates 870-980 °C (1600-1800 °F). Cremated ashes will have some bone fragments because all of the bone doesn't turn to ash (though most funeral homes will powder the remaining bone fragments).

Despite evidence that bone can melt, I still think that particular show was wrong, wrong, wrong because keeping an open fire hot enough to completely incinerate a body is difficult enough, but adding an additional 600+ °C would be impossible. To burn a fire that hot you need an accelerant and a closed area. Open fires need not apply, Mr. Mustang.

In case you are wondering, the two episodes that make me go into my bone-ash-melt rage are SG-1's "The First Commandment" (yeah, total ash? I don't think so) and FMA's "Laws and Promises" (melting bone, possible, but not in this case).

This post in no way advocates playing with fire.

A few years back I wound up writing a research paper on forensic investigation for arson. (Actually the research paper was on something else and this was a loosely related topic and infinitely more interesting, so, um. . . .) Since then I've taken to critiquing tv shows saying things like, "There's no way that fire would have turned that bone to ash" and then explaining to everyone within hearing distance why that fire wouldn't have turned that bone to ash.

Recently I saw a show in which a fire melted bone. And just, no, no way can a fire melt bone. Bone doesn't melt. Right?

Well, while trying to decide what to NaBloPoMo today, I thought I'd google a little information on whether or not bone can melt. And apparently, bone can melt. Color me stunned.

Bone begins to melt around 1600 °C (2912 °F). To put that into perspective, a crematorium generates 870-980 °C (1600-1800 °F). Cremated ashes will have some bone fragments because all of the bone doesn't turn to ash (though most funeral homes will powder the remaining bone fragments).

Despite evidence that bone can melt, I still think that particular show was wrong, wrong, wrong because keeping an open fire hot enough to completely incinerate a body is difficult enough, but adding an additional 600+ °C would be impossible. To burn a fire that hot you need an accelerant and a closed area. Open fires need not apply, Mr. Mustang.

In case you are wondering, the two episodes that make me go into my bone-ash-melt rage are SG-1's "The First Commandment" (yeah, total ash? I don't think so) and FMA's "Laws and Promises" (melting bone, possible, but not in this case).

This post in no way advocates playing with fire.