the CLAMP friending meme!

Who needs sparkly vampires? We have psychic vampire twins.

Who needs day-glo ninjas? We have a cyborg ninja.

Who needs spare eyeballs? Most CLAMP characters.

Join the fun, we have enough Clow cards and clones for everyone!

<b>Name:</b> <b>Age:</b> <b>Active CLAMP Fandoms:</b> <b>Favorite CLAMP series and why:</b> <b>Favorite pairings:</b> <b>Up to date with Kobato, TRC, or xxxHOLiC:</b> <b>If I could change one thing about a CLAMP series, it would be...:</b> <b>Likes:</b> <b>Dislikes:</b> <b>My journal contains mostly:</b> <b>Free space:</b>

Pimp at your journals!

<a href="http://rhap-chan.livejournal.com/261759.html"><center><u><font size="6" color="green">the <font face="impact">CLAMP</font> friending meme!</font</font></font></u></center></a>

my original herding cats post

Book: The Stand by Stephen King
Available from: local bookstores, Amazon
Suggested Retail Price: $8.99 (paperback)
Focus: Apocalypse, Horror

Amazon reviewer's summary: This is how the world ends: with a human-engineered superflu which escapes containment in the form of a terrified guard who unwittingly spreads death over a wide swath of southwestern America in his bid to escape infection. Captain Trips, they call it - until they die, and people die in droves within a matter of days. In almost no time at all, well over 99% of the American population have suffered an agonizing death. Those that are left all alone begin to dream: comforting visions of an ancient black lady called Mother Abigail in Nebraska rising up alongside nightmares of a faceless man out west. Many find their way to Las Vegas to serve under Randall Flag, the Walking Dude of their night visions, but many others flock to Mother Abigail in Nebraska and eventually Boulder, Colorado. As the citizens of the Boulder Free Zone attempt to reform society and make a new life for themselves, they are forced to come to terms with the fact that they are caught up in a struggle defined by their spiritual leader in religious terms. They must destroy Flagg or be destroyed by him - in a word, they must make their stand.

I've been a King fan for a long time. Reading Carrie first was a definite mistake, however; I hadn't realized King's propensity towards gross horror and I couldn't stand that scene at the beginning of the book-- yes, that one. I didn't pick up another Stephen King novel until I found The Tommyknockers for a quarter at a booksale. That got me back into the King phenomenon.

I would disagree, however, with those who say this is King's best book. His short stories pack a great punch, and I read On Writing over and over. Still, this is definitely one of his best, plot-wise.

It is a good book-- disgusting horror at the beginning, King's trademark, followed by a thoughtful, plotty romp through the basic story. The structure of his post-apocalyptic world will have an effect on my own post-apocalyptic writing, because it's absolutely brilliant and shows a great knowledge of psychology and sociology. The characters are pretty well-fleshed and I grew quite attached to many of them.

The book has issues-- what King book doesn't? Even as I state my love for the Dark Tower series, I acknowledge its flaws. Like that series, King seems to have gotten a bit off track in the middle of The Stand. I think the book could have been reduced by about 25% and still retain the important parts. The Nadine subplot, for example, ended up going nowhere, really, and probably could have been cut entirely. This book would also have worked quite well as a trilogy, given its threefold nature.

For the most part, it was an enjoyable read. I think there was a little too much exposition in places, and it took me nearly a month to finish, but I loved the ending. While it smacks of Deus Ex Machina, it also fit the story very well.

Thanks for the rec, herding cats project!

If you've read this book yourself, feel free to leave comments about your experiences with it.

I know, I'm spamming. But I finally came up with a list of books to sell and I wanted to give the f-list first crack at it.

Organized by genre, then by author. Books are paperback unless marked hb. Any book $3 shipped UNLESS OTHERWISE MARKED. Bulk discounts, just ask. All books are in READABLE condition-- some are practically new, some are very old. Ask if you're worried.

( teen books )

( sci-fi and horror )

( general fiction and etc. )

( manga )

( individual manga comics )

( bargain books )

my original herding cats post

Book: The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs
Available from: local bookstores, Amazon
Suggested Retail Price: $25.00 (plz to be coming out with paperback soon!)
Focus: Mosaic Law, Daily Life, Memoir, Religion, God

Amazon summary: What would it require for a person to live all the commandments of the Bible for an entire year? That is the question that animates this hilarious, quixotic, thought-provoking memoir from Jacobs (The Know-It-All). He didn't just keep the Bible's better-known moral laws (being honest, tithing to charity and trying to curb his lust), but also the obscure and unfathomable ones: not mixing wool with linen in his clothing; calling the days of the week by their ordinal numbers to avoid voicing the names of pagan gods; trying his hand at a 10-string harp; growing a ZZ Top beard; eating crickets; and paying the babysitter in cash at the end of each work day. (He considered some rules, such as killing magicians, too legally questionable to uphold.) In his attempts at living the Bible to the letter, Jacobs hits the road in highly entertaining fashion to meet other literalists, including Samaritans in Israel, snake handlers in Appalachia, Amish in Lancaster County, Pa., and biblical creationists in Kentucky. Throughout his journey, Jacobs comes across as a generous and thoughtful (and, yes, slightly neurotic) participant observer, lacing his story with absurdly funny cultural commentary as well as nuanced insights into the impossible task of biblical literalism.

My review: I'd become jaded.

That was the only reason I hadn't read this book yet-- it had a fascinating premise and I wanted to read the one he'd written about reading the entire encyclopedia. But I was jaded.

"Man attempts to follow all Biblical laws for a year!" the pre-reviews read. And underneath, I was sure, was the derision. The ridicule. Jacobs would follow all Biblical laws in order to mock the Bible and show how worthless it is in this day and age.

But I was in a Borders the other day and I picked the book up and headed to the cafe to check it out. I'd read 30 pages or so and see how angry it made me. Jacobs, I read, was a mostly agnostic Jew. He didn't expect this project to bolster his lack of faith.

I didn't expect it to bolster mine, but it did. In a respectful, intelligent way, Jacobs writes about all of the difficulties he had being the perfect Jew (and later, Christian). It starts with the beard and being unable to touch women (in case they are on their menstrual period, because this makes them unclean). He celebrates holidays. He consults with a bevy of religious advisors from all Judeo-Christian backgrounds. He even spends some time with some gay Christians.

The book is both incredibly funny and moving; I won't spoil you to say whether or not Jacobs makes a true conversion, but the ride to the ending is totally worth it. He explains intelligently the reasons behind many of the Bible's more obscure laws, citing his sources liberally, and I think I came away from the reading with a better understanding of my own faith.

He's incredibly honest, admitting up front that he isn't sure about prayer or even which Bible to use (he ends up with a stack of them which he says is waist-high-- he must be pretty tall if you judge by the picture in the book). Jacobs also paints a sweet and moving picture of his family and how they are affected by the book.

tyy_tad, you better have read this far, because I'm forcibly lending you this book. You'll love it, I promise. Did I mention that it was hilarious?

I sat in Borders and read about 80 pages that night, not 30. And a day later, I'd marathoned it through to the end. I just couldn't put it down.

Thanks for the rec, herding cats project!

If you've read this book yourself, feel free to leave comments about your experiences with it.

My alphabetical list of fandoms, updated 1:31 AM 10/3/2008. I have 73 fandoms. My primary fandoms are Cardcaptor Sakura and xxxHOLiC.

The links go to my fic journal tags, so you can see what I've previously written in this fandom. If there's no link, I've never written in that fandom before, but I'm willing to try! If you're going to make a request, please take note of the footnotes.

In general, I rarely write/read slash (yaoi/shounen ai), I love femslash (yuri/shojo ai), and I often enjoy reasonable het. I love crossovers and write them on occasion.

1. AI Love You (fic)


2. Absolute Boyfriend (fic)


3. American Gods by Neil Gaiman (fic)


4. Animorphs by K.A. Applegate (fic)


5. Anne McCaffrey's Harper Hall trilogy


6. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer


7. Disney's Atlantis


8. Avenue Q


9. The Bar Code Tattoo series by Suzanne Weyn


10. Beauty Pop


11. Beauty and the Beast


12. Bleach¹


13. Cardcaptor Sakura (fic)


14. Kitty the werewolf series by Carrie Vaughn


15. Chicago (musical)


16. Chobits (fic)


17. Chronicles of Chrestomanci by Diane Duane


18. Chrono Crusade (fic)


19. CLAMP Campus Detectives (fic)


20. CLAMP Defenders Dukylon


21. Danny Phantom


22. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King


23. Dead Like Me² (fic)


24. The Dead Zone (TV)


25. Dexter book series by Jeff Lindsay³ (fic)


26. Discworld by Terry Pratchett⁴ (fic)


27. Drake and Josh (fic)


28. Enchanted (fic)


29. Feline Wizards series by Diane Duane (fic)


30. Final Fantasy VII (fic)


31. Fullmetal Alchemist⁵ (fic)


32. Futurama (fic)


33. Girlfriends


34. Good Omens


35. Guilty Gear (fic)


36. Harry Potter⁷ (fic)


37. Hairspray (2007)


38. Disney's Hercules


39. House⁶ (fic)


40. Historical RPS of the Wagner/Nietzche variety (fic)


41. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (fic)


42. The Incredibles (fic)


43. Juno (fic)


44. Kashimashi~Girl Meets Girl (fic)


45. The L Word⁸ (fic)


46. Lamb: the Gospel of Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore (fic)


47. The Little Mermaid


48. Man of Many Faces


49. Monk (TV)⁹


50. Mulan


51. Original (anything original you've seen me write)


52. Otoboku~maidens are falling for me (fic)


53. Outlaw Star (fic)


54. Pet Shop of Horrors


55. Pirates of the Caribbean¹⁰ (fic)


56. Pride and Prejudice (fic)


57. Pokemon (original series)


58. Powerpuff Girls Z (fic)


59. Rurouni Kenshin (manga) (fic)


60. Sailor Moon¹¹ (fic)


61. Shugo Chara


62. Strangers in Paradise¹² (fic)


63. Disney's Tarzan


64. Tenchi Muyo! (fic)


65. Toy Story (fic)


66. Trigun (fic)


67. Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles (fic)


68. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer¹³ (fic)


69. Venture Brothers (fic)


70. xxxHOLiC (fic)


71. Young Wizards series by Diane Duane


72. Yu-Gi-Oh! (not GX) (fic)


73. Zombie Powder

¹But I haven't seen any canon beyond their entrance to the Soul Society, and I don't plan to. Too many characters.
²At this time, I've only watched the first season.
³None of that supernatural crap, please. Dexter #3 jumped the shark for me.
⁴I'm especially fond of Death and Vimes, but I don't know much about the witches or Tiffany Aching.
⁵I haven't seen/read the end of FMA, including the movie.
⁶I missed most of Season 4, though I have been spoiled for it.
⁷I don't write Slytherins, at least not in a pleasant light. I love femslash in this fandom, though.
⁸I haven't seen Season 5 yet, and I probably won't until it's out on DVD.
⁹I haven't seen most of the earlier seasons with Sharona.
¹⁰I hate Will and if I have to write him I will kill him. With glee.
¹¹No Starlights, please, I haven't read that arc.
¹²I've barely started this series-- I've only read book 1 and part of book 2, though I love it dearly.
¹³I don't really like any of the men in this book, though I'm quite fond of Alice/Bella.

342,745 Ways to Herd Cats, OR tl;dr
May 1st - November 30th

The idea is: rec ten books for others and read/review at least three from their lists. I have, as usual gone a bit farther.

Each of my recs has a bonus rec after it: in most cases, it's an interjection to read the rest of the series. By reccing books from series, I'm not just reccing you ten books, I'm reccing you whole UNIVERSES to read in. They're some of my most favorite places to visit, and I hope they'll be some of yours.

If you read one of my recs and want to talk about the book, come back here and talk to me! I'd love to squee with you (or argue if necessary, lol).

Thanks to mekosuchinae for linking me to this.

( this is really long )

This is how much I love you guys. I spend 20 mins in the middle of the day fixing the code for the icon table generator. For 92 icons. I don't think I've ever done a batch this big, but making most of them was really easy, so...

Some of these are variations on the same base, but my Renamer program spat on my last night and I was too tired to put them next to each other in order.

Many, many thanks to jlarinda for her bases. They just keep on going.

Most of these have no text. It's perfectly okay to use them for bases, though I'd love a comment to see the new icon!

Cardcaptor Sakura x92
Syaoran/Sakura x4
Eriol and Yamazaki x1
Eriol/Kaho x1
Eriol/Sakura x12
ERIOL x74



Yes, they are almost all Eriol OF COURSE. I needed some for my muse journal and it sort of snowballed from there.

( Read more... )

Been a while since I've done icons, hasn't it? 43 CCS icons under the cut (and one Haruka/Usagi Sailor Moon). Most are variations.

The 44th icon is an icon colored from a doujinshi I found on my computer from somewhere, entitled "Christmas Magic." I'm afraid I don't have any more info about it than that, though I may be able to upload it at some point if there is interest.

CCS x43
Eriol x10
Eriol/Sakura x3
Yamazaki/Chiharu x1
Rika x1
Syaoran x3
Sakura x7
Clow Book x1
Syaoran/Sakura x4
Nadeshiko and Sakura x5
Tomoyo and Sakura x1
Nadeshiko x2
Tomoyo x1
Touya/Yukito x2
Yukito x2

Sailor Moon x1
Haruka/Usagi x

( Read more... )

I've wanted an Eriol moodtheme for a long time, so I've finally made one.  Let me admit first that this is my first moodtheme, and a few of the moods are a bit iffy (have you ever seen Eriol infuriated? come on), but to make up for Eriol's lack of expression I've also made it available in several colors: the plain gray that I started out with, an orangey red, a pinky red, purple, blue, and green.  I did edit all of these, but a great deal of credit goes to jlarinda and her fabulous Eriol bases.  I used quite a few.

There are a few repeats, but not many.  To download, you'll have to go to my 4shared drive, which is here: http://rhap-chan.4shared.com.  4shared links expire if I don't log in for 30 days, so if you happen upon this moodtheme and all of the files are gone, just comment and I'll reupload them.

DOWNLOAD: http://rhap-chan.4shared.com.  The plain gray one is the one labeled "eriol_moodtheme," and the copies are organized by color.  You only have to download one.

Preview pictures below.

TO USE THIS MOODTHEME go to
http://www.livejournal.com/admin/console/

1. Type or paste the following: moodtheme_create [name] [description]
2. Click the "execute" button and note the Theme ID number given to you.
3. Copy the coding below to a plain text document (use Notepad, it's easiest).
3. Edit this document to reflect the URLs to which you've uploaded the following, and the Theme ID.
4. Once you've edited the everything specifically to your settings, copy all and paste it into the LJ Command Console command box. Click execute and you should get a page listing out each image and it's settings.
5.Now, all that's left is to select the mood theme from the mood themes area of the LJ customization area.

If you have questions, please leave a comment.

Been debating this for some time, and I'm finally going to do it.

Friends-cut. That means communities and people. If I cut you, there's a reason. If you want to know the reason, comment on this post. I might not add you back, though.

I'm just not looking forward to ?skip=400 Monday morning. Have a nice weekend.

ETA: From 253 journals and communities to 163. Yeah, told you I wasn't kidding...

I bring you... 23 icons, most of which I made last night. I'm experimenting with a watercolor feel. I would like to extend my utmost thanks to jinarocks, for the Eriol/Sakura fanart I colored, caesyrian for the wonderful CCS manga bases I colored, and dearest for all of the textures I used.

CCS
2x Eriol/Sakura (fanart)
10x Sakura
1x Tomoyo
1x Yukito
1x Touya
5x Syaoran
2x Syaoran/Sakura
1x Yukito and Sakura

Teaser:


( 23 icons, traditional style )

I'll lie and say I've been creative this month... Here's 3 icons and an assortment of banner things. Click on the thumbnails to get to the real banners.

CCS
2x large Eriol/Sakura banners for friends-only or headers
5x small Eriol/Sakura banners, for friends-only or userinfo
5x Eriol/Sakura wallpapers (2 600x800 and 3 768x1024)
4x small Eriol/Kaho banners for friends-only or userinfo
Other
4x Kohaku friends-only banners (Wish)
1x Rukia icon (Bleach)
1x Fai icon (Tsubasa)
1x Syaoran/Sakura icon (Tsubasa)

( lots of images under the cut )

I'll stop spamming after this, I promise. In honor of my day off school, and in sympathy for Tat-chan, here's an icon post. There's a whole 50 icons here, wow. But most are variations. I was going to put the numbers on top, but I clicked the button early, and no way was I going to put in 51 URLs again. Oh, and one of the Meiling icons is a double. Oopsies.

Resources post here.

CCS
Yue x2
Syaoran x1
Sakura x5
Nakuru and Touya x1
Meiling x2
Sakura and Kero x2
Eriol/Sakura x10
Eriol x6

Tsubasa
Sakura/Syaoran crack x5
Tomoyo-hime and other Tomoyo x4
Syaoran/Sakura x2
Sakura x2

Other
xxxHOLiC: Yuuko x1
Bleach: Rukia x1
Fullmetal Alchemist: Sheska x1
Chobits: Chi x1
Negima: various girls x4

( Read more... )

Wow, it's been a while. Several CCS icons, some others, and a bunch of banners, all Eriol/Sakura.

CCS
4 x Sakura Valentine's variations
2 x Sakura
1 x meme (using Eriol's plush sheep)
1 x Yamazaki/Chiharu
1 x Nakuru and Sakura
1 x Fujitaka alone
2 x Fujitaka and Eriol
1 x Eriol

Other
1 x Tsubasa Sakura
2 x Mahou Sensei Negima
7 x rings/engagement/marriage

FO and Header Banners
4 x Eriol/Sakura friends-only
3 x Eriol/Sakura header banners
( Read more... )

I figured it was about time I got credits up for the screencaps and textures I use on the icons I make. Will be added to over time.

( crediting is good )

So, some more fun icons!
9 x Cardcaptor Sakura
2 x Eriol-tachi
1 x Sakura
1 x Nakuru
1 x Eriol
1 x Touya/Yue
1 x Eriol and Syaoran
2 x Eriol/Sakura
3 x misc non-anime
1 x wedding
1 x marimba
1 x feathers

Teasers:


( CCS, misc )

Somewhat dial-up friendly, about 25 icons... Three S&S variations, Syaoran/Tomoyo friendship, a beautiful Eriol icon, Clow... And then I iconized some parts from Everything I Learned in Life, I Learned From CLAMP. More forthcoming.

And if that's not enough, I also have a super spiffy S&S header! Crossposting tomorrow.

( CCS gang )

( Evil takes the form of four Japanese mangaka. )

( header )

Ahem. This post is an excuse to use one of the best icons ever. Go here for context, what there is. (warning of bad language, but it's so darn funny....) The sad thing is that this appears to be based on some sort of real song.

Flocking is done, but all icon posts will be public. In that spirit, here are a few more that tutorials have helped me with. Much thanks to all of the beginning tutorials in icon_tutorial , bloodregrets for a texture I have used on the Meiling icon (the pretty heart), and _middleofthesky for the bases.

Someone should totally go to Best Buy and buy me those $5 font CDs. I am seriously lacking in the font department. *makes note to go to BB*


+8 more

( rika, meiling, kero, and a request )

Yay, my first shared code! Because I had to make something simple but awesome for the wallpaper.

( code under cut )

Because I just got Photoshop and have been playing around with it. Credit is appreciated, and comments are loved. Last icon post here.  There's only these today.

       

The first one was a request from sky_pirate_tat and I'd appreciate it if no one else used it.  It's a gift. ^^

http://storypaint.livejournal.com/90663.html why am I being redirected?

http://storypaint.livejournal.com/107770.html why am I being redirected?

http://storypaint.livejournal.com/91129.html why am I being redirected?