Tuesday, October 10th, 2006

Time	Event
1:56a	there's a lot of icons under that there cut It's nice when having to slightly change direction in a story doesn't mean having to rewrite a lot of paragraphs. I'm on page 17 of Usagi in the Moon and just coming towards the last of the rising action and climax. Of course the climax will probably take five pages. I hope to finish this story well in time for Halloween. It's not the Ninja Turtle ghost story I wanted to, but that one may be better off coming out around the same time Grudge 2 comes out. Grudge 2 doesn't come out for awhile, does it? Anyway, meme time! I havne't done this one in awhile and there's so many more now! ( Pictures of my LJ Friends ) Try out this Meme Brought to you by NardVille and BearPodcast. (8 Comments | Comment on this)
2:41a	possible holy war in Africa Somali Islamists declare 'holy war' on Ethiopia after town falls MOGADISHU (AFP) - Somalia's powerful Islamist movement declared "holy war" against neighboring Ethiopia after a Muslim-held town near the seat of the weak government fell to Ethiopian and Somali troops. But government commander Said Mohamed Hirsi adamantly denied that any Ethiopian soldiers were involved in the move on the town and said his forces had merely accompanied an official delegation there on a planned visit. "There are no Ethiopian troops that crossed the border," said Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman Solomon Abebe. "This is repeated false rethoric and propaganda against Ethiopia. They want to use Ethiopia as a pretext to fulfill their motives, because they know Ethiopia is not going to accept terrorism and what the extremists are doing," he told AFP in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia, which is mainly Christian, is wary of the rise of the Islamists whom it accuses of being "jihadists," and has vowed to defend the Somali government and its calls for the deployment of a regional peacekeeping force. Unveiling Somalia's Islamists The Islamist alliance, the Union of Islamic Courts, may have succeeded in gaining control in much of Somalia, but, having defeated the country's warlords, the papered-over cracks in the alliance are now becoming more noticeable. The Islamists are fast squandering the public goodwill they earned since they ousted the hated warlords. Liberal-minded Somalis feel uncomfortable with their puritanical creed. Islam in Somalia has traditionally been moderate, relaxed and tolerant. But not only have the UIC's moral vigilantes raided cinema halls, but they have also stormed wedding parties and mixed-sex gatherings. Petty traders are also unhappy with the high taxes imposed by the UIC. There have been protests, some bloody, in UIC-controlled towns such as Jowhar, north of the capital. (Comment on this)
3:20a	disappearing videos on youtube A Slippery Slope of Censorship at YouTube LAST week, as YouTube continued its recent campaign to spit-shine its image and, perhaps, to look a little less ragtag to potential buyers (including Google, which was said to be eyeing the upstart in the $1.6 billion range), the company took a scrub bucket to some questionable political graffiti on its servers, including a video entry from the doyenne of right-wing blogs, Michelle Malkin (michellemalkin.com). But the incident raised some questions about the fine line YouTube’s administrators walk when they decide to respond to users’ complaints about contributions to the site — a mechanism that is fraught with the potential for vindictive shenanigans. ( full article 'cause I hate news sites that force you to register ) Just an aside, it's neat to note what Riding Sun feels about the article. (2 Comments | Comment on this)
4:25a	two nifty things Yoda Backpack Buddy I dunno, I see that thing and all I wanna do is pretend I'm Fezzik wrestling with the Dread Pirate Roberts. Sugar Skull Making Instructions ( of course I have no way of knowing if the recipe is accurate ) (16 Comments | Comment on this)
5:04a	this ain't exactly making the 'extreme right-wing' look wrong Web sites remove videos mocking Muhammad COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Videos showing anti-immigrant party members mocking the Prophet Muhammad were pulled from Web sites Monday as two youths seen in the clips were reported in hiding and the Foreign Ministry warned Danes against traveling to much of the Middle East. The video was produced by an artists' group, Defending Denmark. In a message posted along with the video, the group said it had infiltrated the Danish People's Party Youth, known as DFU, for 18 months "to document (their) extreme right wing associations. This is not an example of something that is meant to provoke. This is an example to show how things are in Danish politics," artist Martin Rosengaard Knudsen told Danish public radio. The clip was removed from that broadcaster's Web site Monday, as well as from the Nyhedsavisen newspaper's site. The purpose of the original publication was "not to insult Muslims or expose any members ... to any danger," said the paper's editor, David Trads. In Jordan on Monday, the Jordanian associations, a powerful umbrella for some 200,000 professionals including engineers, doctors and journalists, said the video "reveals hatred toward the Prophet who came to the world with a message to enlighten the people." "We call on all Muslim states to sever relations with Denmark or any other country which harms Islam," the associations said in a statement. Wasn't the 'extreme right-wing' that threatened the artists' group, apparently. If they had, I'm sure that would be in the article. And I'm even willing to buy that maybe the group didn't think this would blow up. It's short-sighted and naive on their part not to have anticipated it, but I can't call it malicious. The reaction, however... The ultimate translation: a handful of drawings by a few kids are too much criticism for thousands of Islamist fascists and apparently enough to frighten the Danes into issuing a warning against travel in the middle east. I would've thought that being accused of being so reactionary that mere drawings could ignite violence from the population would be more of an insult. (Comment on this)
6:12a	frag I wish I had a floorplan of a Japanese nobleman's house from the feudal era. As it is, I'm winging it from my memory of various samurai movies, esp. Kwaidan. (11 Comments | Comment on this)
11:31a	writing surprisingly quickly On page 20 of my Usagi/Leo story. Just about to meet the big bad. Then there will be much slaughter, a conversation over tea, and falling action. And probably something about a bird and fish. I'm not too wrapped around the wheel about historical accuracy but I'm just hedging my inevitable inadequacy on that. Thanks to la_fee_verte67, the story's better in that regard than before. Otherwise, I'm relying on old samurai flicks and my Usagi volumes. I'm also glad I'm done with the cross-dressing in this fic. I was extremely uncomfortable writing that and I know I'm going to have to proof and revise those sections to smooth 'em out. It's one thing when the character is into it. It's quite another when it's completely non-sexual gender-acting and the character is very nervous. And Leo's been surprisingly cold-blooded in this fic. I mean, I'm used to violence and gallons of blood reminiscent of Sam Peckinpaw or Evil Dead, but in my other fics, Leonardo's always shown some mental conflict or the violence has been kind of Marvel'esque monsters and not-so-graphic bloodshed. This time there hasn't been much blood but the death itself feels more palpable. It's kind of nice to write a killer who isn't psychotic but likewise doesn't feel remorse for killing enemies. The boy has a sword, it's satisfying to put blood on that edge. The instances of mercy make the contrast stand out a bit more, I think. Current Music: Vanessa Mae - Happy Valley (Comment on this)

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