Mark Atwood

XMas 2009 - The year of the White Texas Christmas, and Auto-Tuned Christmas Carols.

( These are my tweets for the past day... )

from Persona Prime at http://silona.org/3rd-tier-love-and-belonging/2009/12/25/

Short post today… for Mazlow’s Hierarchy of needs

I have one level covered! and that is love and belonging… I think my family and friends is the main thing that keeps me grounded and sane. I never question that I am loved…

Thank you!

I Twitter, ( therefore I am: )

Christmas with the family in Newcastle has been fairly quiet and low-key, which is the way I generally like it.

The standout gift was a book my father put together with old photos and documents going back to our great-grandparents, tracing immediate family through to the one grandchild. They had a couple of copies made, my siblings and I each got a copy.

hollyqueen got me a certificate for a hot stone massage! Not something I would have put on my wish list but something I will totally enjoy. Thanks my love!

I just want to THANK EVERYONE HERE FROM THE ASTONISHED DEPTHS OF MY HEART for your response to my post from two days ago.


577 comments were left before noon on Xmas eve day.
15 people donated money.
A grand total of $1210.80 raised for homeless street kids.
Nearly half of that coming from scearley and his dollar-per-comment pledge.

I have never seen anything like this on lj. I have never seen such excitement and Joy
igniting like wild-fire throughout this community. I have never seen so many
uplifting comments and intentions. I stared at my screen with jaw agape and tears
rolling down my cheeks.

I want to personally thank: Sean Cearley, Cathy Compton, Noel Zapata, Jennifer
Keenan, Ann Lamoy, Marcos Duran, Justin Wieging, Marissa Wells, Nina
Forsyth, Shannon Riebman, Chelsea Feig, Matthew Coill, Kristin Carideo, John
Dempsey, and Kathleen Tuite.

Because of your monetary donations, many street kids will have the things they need
to survive this winter in Seattle.

I also want to thank everyone who said they had coats, sweaters, hand-knitted
scarves, etc. that they'd like to donate. Please contact me at: iamkatia@gmail.com to
set up pick up or drop-off times.

Some people gave a lot. Some people gave a little (which was probably a lot for
them). Every time someone gives something from the heart to others, it is a
significant event.

There's a story about when the Buddha went to visit a village to spread his
teachings. Kings and wealthy patrons came and lavished him with gold and the finest
silks. An old tattered woman with nothing to her name came and plucked a blade of
grass and humbly, reverently offered it to the Buddha. It was just as precious to
him as all the mounds of gold that lay at his feet. Any and all giving from the
heart is an amazingly precious thing.

WISHING YOU ALL THE HAPPIEST OF HOLIDAYS AND A PROFOUNDLY FULFILLING 2010.
The way to fulfillment is kindness and generosity.
You are well on your way..

Love you all,

Katia


.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY khallis!!!


Fuck that other dude who some people make wild, unsubstantiated claims about having a birthday today. You are the genuine article, with credentials and bonafides and documentation and all that shit. Today sir, is your day!

Have some cake! It's for science!




Have a wonderful day!!

~Aramada

What is Minx up to Tweeps?

• 15:44 Note: if you send a Facebook message with no capitalization and rife with misspellings, I will not answer. #
• 20:02 @Mollena Duude! That same guy sent the same message to me on FetLife!! #
• 21:32 About to watch Showgirls, narrated MST-style by a comedian. :-) #
• 21:35 "Then there's the script, which was clearly written ny a 13-yr-old woman-hater from Mars" #showgirls #
• 21:45 "Basically, Nomi has two emotions: staring and kicking" #showgirls #
• 22:12 Why is it that movies about strippers always assume that women do not enjoy being strippers? #showgirls #
• 22:24 Wow. But some damn fine asses in this show. #showgirls #
• 22:28 Seriously, what stripper gets shy when asked to show her tits? #showgirls #
• 22:46 WTF? #showgirls #
• 22:47 Aaaand there are monkeys! }showgirls #
• 22:52 "I have a problem with pussy" #showgirls #
• 23:09 Ok, seriously, how often can sexy women get pissed when someone wants sex? What's wring with a polite, "no, thank you"? #
• 23:15 "She looks better than a 19-inch dick, and you know it" #showgirls #
• 23:22 "I don't know how it happened, but Showgirls is the least sexy movie ever made" #showgirls #
• 00:04 I just spent Christmas Eve watching Showgirls. With HILARIOUS commentary! #
• 11:52 @Heinlein_Fan Commentary by the guy who did the commentary for the DVD--hilarious! #
• 11:53 @evilbeet That was mentioned in the commentary last night! #
• 11:54 @Mollena You're on! .... But isn't he 3,000 miles away? #
• 13:33 Being bold. #

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My friends, cohorts and family are large in my heart. Please know with certainty that I've chosen this adventure, especially the long hours, reluctantly only in that I miss you.

Bright blessings, love and cheery thoughts, to you and to everyone. ^_^

Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah to all my friends :)

Merry Christmas all!

We have all survived the shopping, and the wrapping, and the traveling, and the worrying, and the day is finally upon us. A day to kick back in front of a fire, put our slippered feet up on the ottoman (or the coffee table, I won't tell) listen to a bit of DeBussy or Rachmaninoff in our smoking jackets, share a fine port with family and close friends while saying "Pip, pip old turtle!" in faux British accents, open our many tasteful, thoughtfully selected presents and enjoy the perfect, untrammeled layer of snow outside the window that someone else will shovel for us when we're ready to have it trammeled.

What? No one else ever has those weird "Norman Rockwell has Masterpiece Theatre's lovechild" dreams and feels compelled to write them down?


In all seriousness: a very Merry Christmas to all of my wonderful friends, near and far. You brighten my life.

Christmas Morning. Yesterday I received my reviewer copy of John Brown's "Servant of a Dark God". Since this will be my mostly lazy day I will try to finish it and get the review up by the end of the weekend. The more timely I am (and write a competent review) will net me more books that *I* don't have to pay for. Wicked cool deal, that! :-)

(and the publisher doesn't demand a favorable review -- an honest, coherent, defensible one that will answer the compelling questions if I really despise the book)

ETA: The posting place for reviews is LibraryThing.com -- which, incidentally, is a kicking book catalog resource that I can now check my library on the fly from my 'droid.

The second part of the Big Reveal.

 

 

( This time from Ariane's point of view... )

 

And that last part has been often singled out as a favorite scene by my beta-readers; it's certainly one of mine, and I spent quite some time on it to make sure it said what I wanted it to -- much longer than I normally spend on individual scenes.

The nice people from the Jordanian chapter of the IEEE gave me this award after my two hour marathon talk. They were really nice and I suggest visiting the IEEE chapter in Amman.

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

( These are my tweets for the past day... )

• 20:41 @mamadeb1963 if ur rly bord come play bord games @ kings games. We'll be ther til they kick us out, then prolly burgrs bar #

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#262 - "Chafed Dickens [5 of 5]"

The finalle to the Chafed Dickens storyline, and the last strip of 2009. I wish to thank everyone for the support in this 10th anniversary year, and those who cheered me on during this Christmas Weekly spurt. Have a Merry Christmas, a great holiday season, and see you all in 2010!

This final strip in the Chafed series underwent some changes since I first mapped it out several years ago. It was originally intended to be a Mark and Mike strip, with the two of them discussing the dream. Mike wonders if he learned the obvious lesson, but Mike replies, "Who could concentrate on what they were saying? Those woman were hot wank material!" However, I decided to change it when I saw inspiration from an online "critic":

"The problem with OEL is that IMAGE comics, that Ninja High School guy, MegaTokyo, and Scott Pilgrim, already came up with the idea of stealing anime and manga ideas and art first. [And if I want to really be a dick about it, the Sexy Losers guy, which is why he's resorted to Kevin Smith-style humour to cover up his weakness in character development. Although I will admit that Japan did rip off his magic sex doll idea with that manga and movie..." from here, emphasis mine.

Weakness in character development? This made me do a double take. I've heard this criticism before and it always struck me as an odd criticism to find in a gag comic. Sure, the characters are all two-dimensional. That's because in a gag comic, the gag is more important than the characters -- the characters existence is to get to the laugh. Initially I tried hard to not have a lot of recurring characters, but I found that established characters were handy as a shorthand towards jokes. In a four panel comic, the less explanation one needs to get to the punchline, the better.

Since SL is a gag comic, I've strayed from developing any characters to maintain that shorthand. Mike jerks off anywhere and anytime. Mrs. Shibata is a horny housewife. Chie gets semen in her face. Touro fails to get Madame X in bed. That's all you need to know about these characters. Developing the characters any further would ruin them utterly, and SL would change from a gag comic to being another pseudo-love opera. The characters would learn and grow, and well, let's be honest, learning and growing is a lot less funny than fucking up.

So FUCK character development. It was never my intention to do a happy-good-feely comic with characters that you could laugh and cry and otherwise identify with. This is potty humor. This strip is an acknowledgement that these characters are icons of their idiosyncrasies and nothing more.

Watch the video...



( Then click! )