telophase | (no subject)

oyceter asked random questions of her friendslist.

1. Describe your strangest pair of socks

I have no strange socks. I have boring socks. Boring socks that are about to develop holes because they're all worn thin enough that I can see through them at points.

2. Can I see pictures of your bookshelves (or book stacks or piles or boxes)?

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I can't show you the other five bookshelves, which have all the non-manga books on them, because my camera currently is doing weird things. They're more crowded and don't, generally, have paintings leaning on them. Note: this picture was taken shortly after I moved in and the shelves haven't been that neat since. There's stuff piled all over them now.

3. If you were a hat, what kind of hat would you want to be?

A cloche. Because I've always liked cloches. Or one of those big furry Russian ones.

4. What's the worst song you've gotten stuck in your head before?

The Barney theme song. Damn you for bringing it to my mind again.

5. My rats: evil killers of paper bags, cute sleepy fuzzballs or embarrassingly tame yogie-drop eaters?

Yes.

6. Books or food?

Books. Duh.

7. If you could live in a book, what genre would it belong to? How come?

Travel writing. Preferably the funny stuff. I seem to reread them more than anything else; I have no idea why.

8. Stealing from the movie Wonderful Life (also known as After Life): if you were told that you could only carry one memory with you into the afterlife, which would you choose?

Er. Hm. Being in a small four-seater prop plane in Africa - when we first arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, the director of the Seronera Research Clinic flew to pick us up and take us into Africa, and my very first memory of Africa is looking out the window as he buzzed a herd of giraffe. I was four at the time.

9. What do you know a lot about that most people don't? Most people here should be most people, not most people in that field. I specify this because I know how badly I prevaricate when I'm asked about something that I'm good at. Or if you still feel weird, what do you know a lot about that I don't (I don't know about a lot of stuff)? Why is it cool? Tell me about it!

Erm. Anthropology? And obviously nowhere *near* the amount that the pros do, but with a BA and an MA in the stuff, I know more than the average layperson. Out of date, since I haven't done any serious reading and only a bunch of light reading since I graduated. And it's cool because of teh infinite variety and expression of the human experience. And because I am allowed to say, "I have two degrees in anthropology, so this is a professional opinion: people are weird."

10. What random bit of trivia do you know?

When you get monumental architecture in the archaeological record in premodern societies - Stonehenge, the Pyramids, Easter Island statues, and so on - it happens at times of social and political unrest, and the stuff goes up because the elites are using it to consolidate power, to show off their power, and to impress the rubes. You don't get it in times of peace and prosperity, oddly enough. I don't know how it works with modern societies; in that section of the anthropology of landscape class I took we didn't study that theory in the context of modern societies.

However: the Empire State Building was built in 1930-31. Draw your own conclusions.

11. And finally, the question I've always wanted to know the answer to but was too embarrassed to ask: how in the world did you find my LJ and how come you're still reading?

I think you found me, and I am always desperate for new information coming in, so I read my freindslist obsessively; all of them. XD

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Whenever I see the "frog" thing on your posts, I think, "So can I, or any other man, but will they come when you do call them?"

Hee. I love it because it's so random when taken out of context.

And now I can't remember who on my friendslist said it. On the chance that it's not someone on your reading list as well, and on the off chance you don't watch/read Naruto, it's part of a summary of an episode of Naruto, after Naruto learns to summon spirits and learns to summon frogs. He manages to summon Gamabunta, the Boss Frog himself, who is, er, very large, although not quite the size of Texas. Maybe just the size of Austin. At any rate, whoever-it-is summarized that as:

Naruto: ...fuck y'all. I CAN MAKE A FROG THE SIZE OF TEXAS.

I edited it a bit because I figured having "...fuck y'all." show up at the first words in any LJ email replies sent to people wouldn't be the best of things.

Some days it seems like fair warning. But probably not the long-term best, no.

I think, "Should I bow down and acknowledge your superior origami-fu?".

You know, I read this comment and thought it was amusing and went on with my life.

Until sometime last night, when the problem of exactly how big a sheet of paper would be needed to actually fold a frog the size of Texas occurred to me. I suspect I'd probably have to use an Umberto Eco-like 1:1 scale map of the entire US to do so. :/

My brain is mush from sleep-deprivation, but I think with the pattern I use for folding a frog, you'd need to throw in Canada, too.

PLANETES!

I admire your taste in manga. It was a lovely anime, too.

Thank you! :) I've got the first 5 episodes of the anime, but haven't watched them yet, and am unlikely to be able to get more for a while since my ISP blocked P2P filesharing. I probably won't watch them for a while, since it will just drive me crazy that I won't be able to get them.

youshou has, like, *every* anime, ever, so I predict he's got it, but I need to buy a separate hard drive and put it in a dock and take it over to his place to get it and my car payments are currently eating into my fun money for things like hard drives for anime.

It was licensed a while ago, and the first R1 DVD is finally available for pre-order. So sooner or later, you should be able to buy or rent it (I'd buy it instead of food, but I've already seen it).

Ah, sweet! One of my essentials that I'm not giving up, along with high-speed Internet access, is my Netflix subscription, so I'll slap it on there ASAP.

I'd give up cable before high-speed Internet or Netflix. :) I lived without a TV for two years, renting DVDs and playing them on my DVD drive, so I can do that again if necessary.

I'm not currently paying my own bills, but I will be soon, and I've been trying to figure out what's essential and what's not. Somehow, it turned out that when the only thing I ever watch on television that isn't a DVD is All My Children (and only when I'm home and no one's around to make fun of me), cable fell very low on the list of priorities. I'd take Netflix over cable any day.

I can't read any of the titles, but just from the spine designs I spot Petshop of Horrors, Flowers and Bees, Clover, Blade of the Immortal, Mars, GTO, Demon Diary, Peach Girl, Rurouni Kenshin, Bleach, Snow Drop, Planetes, Planet Ladder, Trigun, Kodocha, Tramps Like Us, and Lupin III. I am a scary obsessive person.

PS. Did you get my email?

Oh, thank God. I was somewhat concerned that I could recognize most of the manga series on the bookshelf just by their binding. Glad to see I'm not the only one.

... also Basara, Clover, Wish, Hot Gimmick, and one volume of Getbackers.

I don't even read any of those except Clover. *facepalm* I need to stop spending so much time going through the manga shelves at the Harvard Coop.

XD I think it's Bastard! instead of Basara.

This has been collected over the past 4 years, and I've got more now, since this shot was taken about six months ago, but I'm currently slowing way down on buying manga since I've bought a new car and my car payments are making a major impact on my manga-buying budget. :)

Happy Mania, Club 9, Kill Me Kiss Me, Bastard! and I can't believe you missed the one visible volume of Saiyuki at the bottom of the horizontal stack on the top right shelf. :)

P.S. Yes. I have nothing worthy of notes yet: just a mess. I WILL CONQUER THIS SPREAD TONIGHT, DAMMIT.