Spelling
by V.E. on January 9th, 2012
filed under meta, words, writing, wtf
This morning at 6:21 AM PT, I was left a (spam) comment on my post about Strawberry Eggs by someone calling themselves Samira Stoots (email address Kornfield[at]gmail[dot]com—yes, really). It reads
Certainly I like your web-site, but you have to test the spelling on several of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling problems and I find it very troublesome to inform you. However I will surely come back again!
Um, no; sorry. I’m laughing at you right now. Not to be mean, but… well, yes, actually… I am being mean here: everyone makes mistakes (gasp! even me, heaven forbid!), but I’m not the kind of person who makes spelling mistakes on a regular basis. I’m a writer; I should hope I don’t make a lot of spelling errors, you think?
Anyway, I’m deleting that comment, but I thought I’d share the laughs with you all, too.
My name is Eve… sometimes
by V.E. on December 29th, 2011
filed under meta, personal, politics
My name is Eve. I believe in the right to privacy and in voluntary information disclosure, and that’s not a contradiction.
My name is Eve… sometimes. When I was young, my parents made clear to me that I had to use a fake name online so that I would be protected from predators. I chose the name Gabrielle, and it’s still one of my favorites. My online persona grew up with me, and eventually I took the name Eve, which is the name I most often use today.
And yet my parents (and others) are surprised when people call me Eve in real life (that is: not only online), and then tell me that my “real friends” would know my “real name” if they were truly friends. But do they not realize that some of my friends have never known me by any other name? To some people, my name is Eve, and that’s fine with me. I am Eve. I am Gabrielle, too.
Maymay’s name has been with him since he was nine. “Maymay” is just as much his real name as his legal name is. He writes, “Young people are routinely admonished for giving out personal information online, but the services they use increasingly demand that very data.” I’m looking at you, Facebook. I’m looking at you, Google+.
The networks and services online that require legal names are trapping us into the use of those names, whether we like or want that or not. Imagine a school teacher who goes by her maiden name in her class but her email provider forces her to sign her emails—even the ones to her students’ parents—with her married name. Nobody wants that (or needs it) and that’s only considering that person’s legal name, not her chosen one!
I don’t understand why (mostly) older people seem to want to protect young people online while at the same time discouraging them from using chosen names in any sphere besides the internet. If a young person uses his or her legal name online, he or she is reckless and unsafe. If they use their chosen name in real life, they’re dealing in fantasies. Kinda makes for a no-win situation, don’t you think?
My name is Eve. And Gabrielle. And V. My name is me. Respect my privacy and I might just be more willing to give you my information freely.
420 visits on December 23
by V.E. on December 24th, 2011
filed under meta
Not that I’m complaining, guys, but why did I suddenly have an influx of visitors to my site yesterday (December 23)? 420 unique visits, to be exact. The past few weeks have been 120 visitors or less per day, with the average somewhere in the low 70s. I mean… what happened?
Like I said, I’m not complaining, but… whaaaat?
Ten Years
by V.E. on December 12th, 2011
filed under fyi, meta, personal, recap/review, school, thoughts
I’ve had this journal online, in some form, since 12 December 2001. That makes today my tenth birthday. I’m double digits, guys!
I really wish I’d thought of this ahead of time because I would have commissioned some art or something from one of my artist friends to post here as a birthday present to myself. It’s not every day a website turns ten years old, after all. ^_^
Unfortunately, I didn’t plan anything, so: here, have a clip art birthday (cup)cake instead. (I couldn’t even find one with ten candles haha. One candle, yes, obviously. Five? Yes. Even seven and eight candles, but not ten. Oh well.)
I’m ancient, in internet time.
Here’s to ten more years! I’m sure they’ll be as interesting as the last ten.
2222
by V.E. on November 20th, 2011
filed under meta, personal, spirituality, thoughts
This is, somehow, my 2222nd published post. Since December 2001, I’ve actually published more entries than this landmark shows because this past August I deleted a bunch of my old posts up through about June 2006. (Hahaha, bet you hadn’t noticed that.)
This month, my family and I celebrated International Pocky Day (11/11/11), so named because it’s possible to use Pocky to write out the entire date!
Now, it’s my 2222nd journal entry here at duncan heights.
I’m waiting for something with 3333 in it. If that happens in the next month or so, I’ll have to add an extra sprig of holly and ivy to my altar to Athena. She’s been on my mind a lot recently, and I think it might be because She wants me to either (1) get my act together for once in my life, or (2) just let my life finish falling apart so she can help me pick up the pieces.
We’ll see.
Here’s to 2222 more entries!
Schedule of Reviews: Update
by V.E. on October 20th, 2011
filed under anime/manga, meta, recap/review
As I noted (and expected) in my first Schedule of Reviews, I’ve had to re-evaluate how much I can review in a given period of time, given that reviewing isn’t the only thing I do in life (nor is it the only thing I want to do).
A few notes about my regular reviewing gigs. I still write opinions about Thomas Nelson books (but only on a “wow, I actually want to read that” basis), but Elevate Difference shut down at the end of March. In the meantime, I picked up reviewing some books for LitFuse Publicity on a semi-chaotic basis (one review in June, two in July, four in August, and none since), and I also read and comment on one Pagan-themed book per quarter for Eternal Haunted Summer (EHS).
In late July, I rolled out One Paragraph (more info here) and followed that up in early August with some Thoughts on Reviewing. Since I reviewed four LitFuse books in August and was basically trampled by real life, I’m counting it as an outright loss and just moving on. I managed to watch the first twelve episodes of Princess Tutu (see previous review schedule), but I haven’t done anything about writing any thoughts; The Sky Crawlers and Pohcahontas are down for the count.
In September, I finished up some non-reviewing work for this journal and started a couple college classes for interest. I didn’t watch Cowboy Bebop—or any other anime—though I did begin reading Boys’ Love Manga, a book of academic essays about yaoi and male/male romance across cultures. It’s on my list to review as soon as I finish it, but since it’s a lot of information packed into a relatively thin volume, my reading is slow going.
And now, it’s late October, and I haven’t done much in the way of reviewing this month, either… except that I’ve mostly been catching up on Anime Expo stuff (which happened back in July, for godsakes) because I swore to myself that I wouldn’t go to Yaoi-Con without having finished the AX stuff (which I did!)… and there was no way I wasn’t going to Yaoi-Con, so.
With all that said, here’s the new (still tentative) schedule of reviews, including any Thomas Nelson, EHS, or other “regular” reviews but not including any One Paragraph reviews I’ll write. I’m not limiting myself to these, of course, if I just feel the need to write about something I read/watched/experienced, but it’s a starting place; and if I don’t have time for anything else, that’s fine, too.
October
Yaoi-Con 2011
Princess Tutu, eps. 1-12
November
Pandora Hearts
Tin Man (Sci-Fi miniseries)
NaNoWriMo (also)
December
Candlemas
Ascent from Darkness
Princess Tutu, eps. 13-end
12 Moments in Anime
One Paragraph 0
by V.E. on July 28th, 2011
filed under fyi, meta, one paragraph
I read and watch and otherwise consume way too much stuff in a month to review everything the way I want to, so I’ve come up with this “one paragraph” category for short reviews that will be a paragraph or less each and will be grouped in batches of… probably five or so. There’s no schedule of posts for this… When I have at least five short reviews in one post, I’ll post it; otherwise, not.
So here’s how the reviews will look and what they could contain:
———
Title of book/movie/whatever (date I finished it)
Appropriate link in the title for your information. Why I picked it up in the first place. My impressions; what stood out to me; what I liked and didn’t like. Whether or not I’d recommend it to anyone else. No summary (that’s what the link is for, after all). All in a paragraph or less.
———
(Repeat x4)
I’m doing this for a couple of reasons. First, I feel obligated, for some inexplicable reason (it’s not like I don’t already have enough to do), to log and respond to the movies and anime I watch, the books and manga I read, and the events I attend. I want to remember when I watched/read it, and I want to remember if I liked it or not. But, I don’t have time to write an in depth review of everything, and—in some many cases—I don’t want to, either. I want to do all that and also not feel guilty for not doing it and/or not doing something in the first place because then I would have to review it. Second, and more simply, I need to practice being more concise in my thoughts, and this is a good way to do that.
I’m not going to go back and do anything that’s already past because that would partially defeat the purpose of this new (for me) type of review. In any case, look for some short reviews here in the near future!
