This is for your language enthusiasts/writers on my friends list (I'm looking at you ysabetwordsmith -- can I go ahead and throw the Sijo style at you for your next Fishbowl? :) ). Came across this last night. Watch the timelapse movie if you're able. The way it moves is amazing!

One Day Poem Pavilion

The world's oldest animation

Primitive in execution perhaps, but I think even Walt would be impressed.

Does it make me more a dork that I think this is insanely cool?

There are times that having this thing kicks so much ass, you better not even joke about it. Like right now, for instance, when I happen to be crashing at Eddy's but got here after his roommates have left for work, and before he's home from gaming. Heh, so I sit in my car where music plays and heat lives (at least for the moment), and log into the 4- to 5-bar wireless network I'd be using if I was inside :D (Not posting to my website-blog atm, as I'm still working on setting everything back up and debugging after the move :p)

9 <3!

Random music aside for the evening: If you haven't heard any of Sara Bareilles' (that's "bah-RELL-iss") music, go find some now. It's ok, I'll wait. ("Fairytale" is probably my absolute favorite song by her.) I fell in love with this lady's music in 2006 when one of my coworkers introduced me to some of her self-recorded stuff. I think I may be a little spoilt on it now -- I like the older stuff so much better than the professionally recorded versions she put out recently. But don't let my pooh-poohing stop you. It's *all* good. (dustyskinandall, I'm lookin' at you. I think you'd really like this stuff if you haven't heard her already. :) ) She needs to play in the ATL. I'd lovelovelove to see her live!

And perfect timing! The Eddymonster has arrived, and I am off! :D

Note: This will likely get copied/backdated to my site once everything is up and running smoothly.

I apologize for the repeated flood of backposts from my site. I've had to reupload/reinstall everything like two or three times. I wish there was some way to deactiivate the feed here while I'm working on stuff. (If anyone knows a way I could, please tell me! ;p)

I am in the process of switching webhosts, so if anyone actually happens to drop by my website and something weird happens, that would be why :)

I've had the feed url updated for the tabardsin syndicated account here. No clue when the change will actually go through, so don't be surprised if a handful of tabardsin posts randomly appear on the friends list of those who have it added. It should, theoretically, only happen once, and then update normally in the future.

So..erm...sorry in advance for the flood :p I won't be renewing my paid status here, and will be posting mostly on tabardsin.com from now on. I'm not *leaving* lj, because I still want to be able to keep up with all you guys. I'm just moving shop, so feel free to drop by :)

Prince Caspian

*wants*

(Found on floorlamps's lj)

Edit: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809244324/info

OMFG, release date is MY BIRTHDAY next year! Best birthday present EVAR.

Someone from one of the other print shops (we're a franchise, and there are a handful of other shops in the Atlanta area) is here to use our printer because theirs is out of commission or something. He brought some specialty paper with him for the job he's running. And it smells like their shop.

It still smells like paper and ozone like all of our stuff does. But it smells....foreign. If I hadn't seen him bring it in, I could still tell it wasn't one of our stocks. It's the weirdest thing.

In other news, heavens praise Hershey for hot cocoa hershey kiss truffle things. And caramel. And cherry cordial. Tasty!

There is apparently something going around, and, unusually, it's managed to get me on the first round. I've got flu-like symptoms, excluding the fever and cough (so far): aches, headache, exhaustion, runny nose/postnasal drip, sore throat. I so did not want to get out of bed this morning. It didn't help that only one of my two alarms went off, due to a power outage. And now all I want to do is go home and crawl back into bed. I hopehopehope this just ends up being some sort 24-hour bug. I hate being sick.

If metalepsis or gizmomage read this, I likely will not be over to hang out tonight, but I'll be there for gaming tomorrow, come hell or high water. I'll just hermit myself over on the far side of the room :)

I did write yesterday, I swear! I had about half to 2/3 of this written, but I got distracted by music and pictures of pretty ponies :p Um, so here's the whole thing, which I finished today. It's about Chardra again, and this is actually a dream sequence/hallucination (one of this character's flaws) following our recent gaming session. And now, to tonight's prompt!

Edit: From kwsapphire's prompt: "horses in a field"


“Have you ever seen anything like it before?” Chardra swung the beam of light at the grass, and it fell away in a sheet that smoked momentarily. An old woman sat next to her atop the hill. Graying blonde eyebrows rose in surprise, but her features remained otherwise impassive as she stared across the strange landscape. Snow drifted across sandy desert plains, and a rainbow-hued herd of horses appeared on the horizon.

She shook her head. “You say you took this from a man made of moonsilver?”

“Yes, and after he was dead, his body melted away into a sort of…sludge. And then it disappeared altogether. It was the strangest thing I think I’ve ever seen, Tressa.”

“And I suppose that is saying something, eh, little Ghost Wind?” The old woman’s blue eyes smiled up at her former apprentice. Chardra released her power from the weapon as she sat down, and the beam of light disappeared. It was impossible for the old wisewoman to say what memories shaded her companion’s strange green eyes as she watched the horses float across the surreal tundra. Tressa was sure they were filled with wonders she’d only half believed in before the younger woman had become one of Luna’s children.

"He said, 'We're coming to consume you,' -- these Children of Autochthon. I've heard the name before somewhere, but I don't know much about it. Something to do with the war against the Primordials."

"That lore is older than even your people. It may be difficult to learn more."

"I wish I could have gotten him to talk to me more. There was a font of knowledge at our fingertips, and they bashed his skull in!" Frustration rippled off of Chardra, forming the vague shape of a horse that distorted the air like heat. The herd galloped closer, perhaps drawn by the scent of a familiar spirit. Their hooves never seemed to touch the earth, but they kicked up plumes of snow as they circled the two women.

"He did attack you and your fellows unprovoked, child. A bear totem is not likely to suffer such insult gladly. And as strange as this man sounds, even your silvered tongue may not have been enough to make him spill his secrets."

The stallion leading the colorful mob approached Chardra, pushing his muzzle into her shoulder. She reached a hand up absently and scratched between his ears. "I don't know, Tressa. He...thanked me. For my compassion." The stallion snuffed her hand away and shoved his nose into her side. "If I'd only had more time--OW!"

She looked up into large eyes that matched the color of her own. Eyes that looked very self-satisfied at the nip the towering white horse had given her leg. Sweeping Wind lifted his head and nodded enthusiastically back toward the village of Burning Leaf. The hill was just visible through the trees that surrounded them.

“Okay, okay! I’m coming!” She chuckled, and stood, swinging herself astride her friend’s broad back.

From prometheus54's prompt "chasm leaping." When I started this, I had a slightly different ending in mind. But this one is better. Much better. The most satisfying part is that if you look closely, all the elements are there.


“It’s incredible,” she breathed into the sky. The precipice dropped away into the distance below her toes. She’d been terrified when the idea had first occurred to her weeks ago; as the time had grown nearer, she hadn’t been sure what she’d do once she made it here. But with the world laid out before her, stretching toward infinity, and breezes playing through her hair, the fear seeped away.

“No turning back now.” She closed her eyes and spread her arms in silent salute to the sun, a blaze of fiery color on the western horizon. Taking several paces back from the brink, she knelt and pressed her lips to the stone under her feet. “See ya,” she said to the earth with a smile, as she stood up into a sprint.

The world disappeared into mist below her, and she reached for the clouds.

Yep. I should've waited until after the holiday weekend to do the 21 days thing. So, this is me, starting over :p I'm very happy with the way this one turned out. It's actually a scene from my Lunar Exalted character's history (from an outside POV).

P.S. I'm nixxing the "these-shorts-have-one-super-secret-thing-in-common" thing. I realized it's going to make these even harder to write, and I'm really just trying to get started again. Maybe later :)

Edit: Erm...and if it's not clear, this is inspired by haikujaguar's prompt "fever-real," though I didn't use the actual phrase in the short.



She had been ill, Tressa remembered, recalling in that distant, fuzzy sort of way you do halfway between dreaming and waking. The winds that blew in from the wylds had brought the Icewalker village ghostly voices and an ague that mysteriously affected only those with the Sight. She’d lain shaking from fever and chills for a week, but now found herself walking alone outside in the moonlight, expectation hanging in the air like the world holding its breath.

Snow floated around her, and the ground crackled under her boots. She watched the horizon as she made her way through the village, and was only half surprised when a silhouette appeared there. A figure made its way across the frigid landscape, and as it approached, she could see snow swirling wildly around it, and felt the piercing chill of blizzard winds. The disk of the moon loomed at its shoulder like a pale sentinel as a woman’s form took shape among the shadows. Her winds enveloped the village as she stopped a few paces from Tressa. Her face remained obscurred, but her eyes blazed like green fire through the blizzard.

“What do you want here?” Tressa demanded. The figure remained still for a moment, then began to sing in a strange undulating voice. The language was unfamiliar, but nothing like the voices from the wyld. A hand reached out toward Tressa, and she felt the cold roll off of the woman in waves.

I think the fever has broken.

The wisewoman opened her eyes to see two healers leaning over her. Without a word, she pulled the blankets up around her shoulders and rose to join the crowd that had gathered outside. A stranger with wheat colored hair was given a wide berth in their midst. Why had she come? What did she want from them, they asked. Her gaze swept around around the circle dreamily, but when those cat-green eyes met Tressa’s blue ones, she stopped and seemed to focus a little.

Tressa pushed her way through the murmuring crowd. Here and there, she saw hands flash signs of protection. The stranger was barely a woman, but with the Fair Folk, appearances could be decieving.

“Please join me by my fire, Traveler.” Tressa waved the others back as she led the girl to her tent. As they approached the fire, she seemed to become uncomfortable, and suddenly shied away from the flames. A piercing wail escaped her lips as she dropped in a faint. Tressa patted the girl’s cheek, jerking away in surprise when her fingers met ice-cold skin. She watched her apprehensively for a few moments, then pressed her hand against the young woman’s chest. A heart beat faintly against her palm.

“Bring me some blankets!” she called to the whispering villagers that watched anxiously at the tent’s entrance. The wisewoman left the girl who brought the furs to watch over the unconscious young woman, then made her way to the Chieftan’s tent. They suddenly had much to discuss.

I was going to start after the holiday but I'd already started writing :p I'm not sure how I feel about this. It started out well, but due to the constraints I've set for myself, it feels like it gets cut off rather abruptly at the end *shrugs* Guess we'll see how the next one goes. In any case, this exercise is already showing me how very out of shape(!!) my imagination-muscles are :p Oh, and if you haven't tossed a prompt my way (or if you want to give me more :) ), feel free. I need at least five more to make 21, but more would be great so I have lots to choose from.



The dials rolled slowly under Starkov’s fingers, alternating static and dead air. It'd been two weeks with no contact. Shut away in their dimly-lit listening post, reports from HQ were the only indication that the outside world still existed at all. Manning his station had become reflexive: turn two degrees; stop; two degrees; static; pause; nothing; continue two degrees. Day after day, it’d become easy to convince himself that the enemy might be gone for good, but he kept his ear to the air. There was no telling when a signal might pop up again.

Entropy this is Maker. Come in, over.

Starkov jerked upright and scrambled for his notebook. Maker – the enemy command unit – was a handle they’d all become familiar with. Entropy was new, and that couldn’t mean anything good.

This is Entropy, over.

Entropy, *crack* call for fir*skree* these coordinates. Standby...

The line went quiet and he held his breath. A cold sweat broke across his palms. He started as the voice of Maker returned, relaying a half dozen sets of coordinates. He scrawled them across a page then handed it off to the team leader. He calculated quickly, then marked the positions of six radio compounds on a map on the wall, one of them theirs. The team leader swore and snatched up the handset to ring Command.

“Cosmos, this is Satellite 1. We have a recorded strike order on six collection points. I say again, Lucy has called in a strike on six Satellites. Please advise, over.” In the distance, they heard the drone of airborne engines.

Satellite 1, all Satellites are advised hold their positions, over. Counter measures are being-- *screeee*

The team leader tried in vain to raise HQ again, then turned to face them. His sudden twitchiness told them he wanted to flee, but they knew it would be pointless now. As the sounds of bombardment began, Starkov couldn’t help but wonder if the callsign “Entropy” had been a cruel attempt at humor.

Hmm..how about a quick bullet-point catch-up (at least for the moment, as I'm at work):

• DragonCon was a blast. Probably the most fun I've had there so far.



• the period of celibacy ended prematurely, but not on a whim. I'm glad I did it, and I don't regret that it ended early. I still feel like I learned a LOT about myself, and have the foundations to learn a lot more



• I've been seeing a great guy since mid-September. We've dated off and on a little since 2005 (heh, it's a long story, if I haven't already mentioned it in older entries), and I've had feelings for him for a while now. Of course, he moved to Richmond a week after we called it official, so that's made things interesting, but it's been wonderful so far.



• I moved into my own place in August, and I (with a ton of help from prometheus54 and lankylad) put a lot of work into it to really make it my own. I love it! There's still a little tweaking to be done here and there, and the apartment itself isn't perfect, but it's really starting to come together and feel like home.



• I'm really looking forward to the holidays this year. Moreso than usual, I think. I'm doing thanksgiving with the boyfriend (henceforth to be named Hippie :) ) and his family, and Christmas with either him and his family or mine in SC. New Years is still up in the air, but he's coming down then too, so I'm sure it'll be great no matter where we end up :)



• I've become a little bit of a hermit, and a little lethargic lately. I think it has to do with Hippie living so far away, and me trying to save money, as well as some crazy emotional junk that has hopefully subsided for now. I've been hanging out with a few new people here and there, and went to a post-Halloween costume party that was a blast. I've just been finding it really hard to motivate myself to do anything after work everyday, and most of the time, I just want to be lazy on the weekends. I need to find some sure-fire way to lure people to my place every now and then. Come see me! I have chocolate! And if I don't I can procure some! I know a guy... ;)



• I'm gonna try and do some baking for Christmas (yeah, me!). I need to call my mom and find out how she makes cookies. I willl have M&M cookies this year! I've never made cookies before, so it should be an entertaining experiment.

Hmm...anything else...? I've probably missed a bunch of stuff that I can't think of at the moment, but that obviously means they weren't that important :) And might I just say, yay Christmas music! :D I love the warm fuzzies it gives me. The holiday season is here!