Mostly for my own reference, I'm keeping a list of books I need to read/re-read, which will be updated continuously. Feel free to use it as a rec list though, since most things that go on here I enjoy. Also if you have something you think I'd like, feel free to comment and tell me about it. My default icon is a stack of books for a reason.

Last updated: 2/22/09

Key: strikethrough = Read. Past tense.
Bolded = At least started.
Italicized = Currently reading

Read:
- Temeraire series: His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, Empire of Ivory, Victory of Eagles
- Coldfire Trilogy: Black Sun Rising, When True Night Falls, Crown of Shadows
- Magister Trilogy: Feast of Souls, Wings of Wrath, [Third TBA]
- Nightrunner Series: Luck in the Shadows, Stalking Darkness, Traitor's Moon, Shadows Return, White Road
- Tamir Trilogy: The Bone Doll's Twin, Hidden Warrior, The Oracle's Queen
- Doctrine of Labyrinths: Melusine, The Virtu, The Mirador, Corambis
- Rai Kirah: Transformation, Revelation, Restoration
- Carol Berg Dualogy: Flesh and Spirit, Breath and Bone
- Emma
- Catch 22
- Alice in Wonderland
- Through the Looking Glass
- Dead Until Dark
- Lies of Locke Lamora
- The Graveyard Book
- Nicholas Nickelby
- Through a Brazen Mirror
- Song for the Basilisk
- Sorcery and Cecelia
- The Left Hand of Darkness
- Deep Secret
- Firebirds
- Changeling
- Big Fish
- Kushiel's Dart
- Dresden Files: Storm Front, Fool Moon, Grave Peril, Summer Knight, Death Masks
- Wigfield

Re-read:
- Wicked

Books Currently being read: 2



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Can someone with more experience with law enforcement than me tell what the different reasons the FBI have for getting involved in a case?

I know one is if the crime occurs on federal land - national parks, DC, etc., but any other reasons? (And also I'm not even entirely sure about that one - it can't be all crimes on federal land, right?)

...This isn't even research related really, I'm just curious.

ETA: Answered! Thanks. :D

This might've been better served for RaceFail '09, but I'm posting now. Because I am nothing if not timely? IDEK.

I don't post a lot of about race and privilege, and maybe it should stay that way. I sometimes compose these posts in my head and then end up never posting, because I don't have an end goal in mind. I don't want my posts to be taken as a cry for attention, or a cry for acknowledgment or congratulations ("Oh look at the poor little white person her struggles are so terrible and she's trying so hard let's pat her on the head and give her a cookie and tell her good job."). I honestly can't say what my end goal in this post is exactly, just that I feel like I have something to say, and I invite others to likewise speak their minds. I can't promise that what I'm about to say won't be offensive to someone, though I would like to say that any offenses given are unintentional, and I invite anyone reading to point out anything they see as problematic in my thought process without fear of censure or starting Internet Drama. But here goes.

I am an upper middle class able bodied mostly heterosexual very white American, and as such I do not have that much to contribute to the conversation of privilege. I also don't feel that much guilt about my privilege, because there doesn't seem to be any good in it.

I did not chose my privilege. I was born into it. I refuse to apologize for it.

The thing about us people in the majority (I refer to a majority of privilege here, not a majority of numbers - since starting college I have been in a numerical minority as my U is very heavily Asian-American tilted but I still do not consider myself in a minority of privilege) is that we get all the space all the time, so constantly apologizing and going on and on about our guilt and our problems and our struggles to overcome our racisms (etc.) is just taking up more of that space.

So I refuse to apologize for the privileges I have. But I will continue to try to be aware of the privileges I have (as someone of the upper middle class, as someone who is obviously white in a white dominated society, as someone who does not suffer from any disabilities or chronic illnesses) and make sure that I am listening to those who have different experiences than mine.

That, and pointing out to other people with my privileges when their White (or otherwise) Privilege and Blindness is showing, because honestly it might be the only place they hear it from. I have been lucky in that I have been made to see my own privilege in the past few years, and have been given opportunities to work through it and make sure it doesn't completely blind me (being the only white person in my apartment this past year possibly helped).

So I will listen and read and try to understand. And I will speak when necessary, but hopefully not before. And I invite others in my privileged state (or a similar one, as privilege changes massively depending on the individual situation) to do the same.

This will probably not be my only post on privilege, but don't expect a lot of them. Anyway. Comments are open as always, feel free to say whatever you like (as long as you maintain the one house rule of Be Polite).

Oh lord, so, karanguni gave me these questions, like, almost a week ago, but it was Move Out day, which kind of swallowed me whole, and then by the time I got home I kind of um. Forgot. And am just getting to it now. So, uh.

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions.
3. You post the answers & questions on your journal.
4. You include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else.
5. Add meme perpetuation line, etc.

Although if we're being honest no promises that I'll be able to think up five questions. ^^;

( Q&A )

Today I did nothing. It was awesome.

Also my room is impassable due to the huge dump of stuff onto the floor that occurred when I got home and unloaded the car. This is slightly less awesome.

In other news, I have too much stuff.

Finished finals! What was supposed to take 2:40 actually took me about 1:30, and that was with liberal applications of "Staring at the wall while a song plays in my head and doing absolutely nothing to proceed in the test taking." Which, let's face it, I always have. For the other in class final I had this quarter it was Relient K's "Deathbed," today it was "Slow Me Down" by Emmy Rossum.

Anyway, not my best since I didn't study and therefore had very little to say, but you know? I DON'T CARE. Also I got an A- on my final paper (first A on an MMW final paper ever), and I AM DONE. FOREVER AND EVER. With MMW anyway.

And now I have to pack. And get to the leasing office to SIGN A LEASE for our APARTMENT NEXT YEAR and then get to the airport to pick up my brother then go swing dancing because I have a crush on a guy from it and it's his birthday today and then get home and collapse into bed.

Then Saturday it's more packing and moving out (of the on campus apt) and partly moving in (to the new apt.), then on Sunday it's waking up early for a 10 hour drive back home.

I CANNOT WAIT TO BE HOME YOU GUYS. I'm currently composing a Summer To-Do list that is veeeeery long and composed of books, video games, some anime/TV watching, and in general hanging around being a lazy bum. I AM SO EXCITED.

Also if anyone's gonna be in the North Bay (or the Bay in general really), let me know, because I'll probably be kinda bored outta my mind within a couple weeks, and looking for something to do.

So, my summer job fell through. They were going to be opening a new location soon so they were going to be shifting around employees, but construction on the new location has stalled, so they're overstaffed and unable to hire me.

The greatest part though? Is that construction is stalled because they haven't paid my parents in so long they're halting the project. Which yes, means I probably wouldn't want to work for them anyway, because that's just kind of skeezy.

But. Now I'm locked into going home for the summer (we already have subletter for the apartment) but no job to go to and less than two weeks to look for one. CRAP.

I have to say though, that I'm really glad that next week is Finals. Because I am so checked out mentally right now that if I had normal classes next week I would probably miss all of them.

At fanime! Thought I would have Internet but the hotel wants me to pay for it, so I'm typing this from my friend's iphone, and as such will probably be absent until I get home on Monday. See you then!

I'm not sure why, but I've been getting light headed during dance lately. It makes me wonder if I'm not eating enough, though maybe it's that I'm dehydrated? Or slightly anemic? Or not eating enough vegetables? I don't know.

Other than that though, I've been really enjoying Lindy. For those of you that don't know, I signed up to take a Lindy Hop class - the swing dancing that East and West Coast grew out of - this quarter at the behest of the friend that lives in the apartment below, who's taking it with me but has taken it before. The class is 7:30-9 Wednesday nights, and then there's a swing club we carpool to afterwards that goes until 11:30, as well as smaller club on Thursdays from 9-11. So I've been staying out rather late lately, getting home around midnight twice a week when I have class in the morning. But I don't stop, even though I have to get up at 7 Thursday mornings and even though the clubs cost about $10 a week, because I'm pretty sure it's what's been keeping me sane this quarter. Spending more time with A has been great, and I've been meeting her Swing friends, who are all awesome, and the dance itself is a lot of fun. I was starting from scratch but I've always been able to pick up dance quickly so I feel like I'm actually not terrible even though I've only been doing it a little under two months.

So now I've actually been starting papers earlier than a day in advance because almost all of them have been due on a Thursday or Friday, so I get them done before hand to be able to go to dance. Because it's something I'm really enjoying, and if I didn't go I would just feel terrible the entire time thinking about how much I wanted to. It's really rather rewarding.

I've got two Dreamwidth invite codes, if anyone wants them. Just respond with your email address. Comments are screened.

So, I can has a Dreamwidth account, which is set to auto cross post to my Insanejournal. I think I'm going to keep DW and LJ separate though, since I think my audiences are a bit different. Feel free to friend one or the other or neither though.

Hey, so you know what I want to be over?

This school year.

No particular reason why. I just have a midterm, a paper, a quiz or other assignment for every day of next week and I've stopped wanting to go into work because I'd much rather go home early and I don't feel like I have time to do fun reading, so when I do do fun reading I always feel vaguely guilty. And I took a three hour nap from 8:30-11:30 last night before going to bed a little after midnight and I still had trouble waking up this morning.

Compared to summer, where I can have hanging out with friends and a job I don't have to take home with me and will probably have a totally fucked up sleep schedule (they'll want me most often between 6-11AM since it's a commuter coffee shop and that's when they're busy) but I won't have the kind of stress that's just endemic with college life no matter how much you study and how much you (don't) care about your grades.

I want to not have to worry about getting an apartment for next year, or getting enough money for Fanime (economically speaking Fanime is kind of a terrible idea, but I'm not sure that's stopping me), or about getting a new radio for my car's broken sound system, or if my car will even start when I get in it (though that's hopefully taken care of since I got up at 7 yesterday morning to get my car a new battery), or about my research paper topic this quarter that I've so far done 0 reading for, or the fact that it's week 5 but I don't really feel like I've LEARNED anything yet in some of my classes.

Today I'm not feeling bone-deep exhausted like I was yesterday (my lecture notes are kind of hilariously incoherent and full of typos). I'm not even feeling sleep deprived. I'm just feeling weary.

Oh, also, I'm supposed to be reading King Lear by Thursday, and I'm realizing that's the one book that hasn't come in the mail yet. *facepalm* Of COURSE it is.

So, there's all this talk about moving to Dreamwidth, and I'm definitely looking forward to getting an account there when it goes into open betta. However, some people mentioned wanting to change their handles, and I realized I think it might be time for a change for me as well. The problem is I haven't thought about my SN since I started consistently using RegicidalDwarf for everything back in middle school, and have no idea what to change it to, or how to go about finding/creating a name I want to stick with.

So my question to my readers is this: how did you choose your SN?

K: I was going to read today.
J: And then what happened?
K: I watched Doctor Who.
J: Figures.

J: I was going to do homework today.
K: And then what happened?
J: I watched Doctor Who!
K: Figures.

OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD YOU GUYS. NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES MOVIE. WITH ROBERT FUCKING DOWNEY JR. AS HOLMES. AND JUDE FUCKING LAW AS WATSON.

GUYS I WOULD HIT THAT LIKE A FREIGHT TRAIN.

AND THEY KNOW THEIR AUDIENCE.

So, I left my phone at home today. I do that sometimes - it'll be sitting on my bedside table and in my AUGH LATE SO LATE AUGH rush I'll forget to grab it. The thing is, I left at 7:45 (...okay fine, 7:50) AM (EIGHT AM CLASSES LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I HATE THEM) and didn't even realize I didn't have it until right before my last class of the day at 5PM (MY THURSDAY SCHEDULE LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I HATE IT).

"Oh," I thought, "that kind of sucks, but probably no one called me anyway, I'm sure it's fine." So I got out of class at 5:50, got dinner on my way back, got home for the first time since this morning at around 6:15.

And I had NINE MISSED CALLS. NINE. AND A VOICEMAIL. AND A TEXT MESSAGE. AND WHEN I CHECKED MY COMPUTER LATER I HAD TWO EMAILS PER ACCOUNT AND AN IM. ALL FROM MY MOM.

CHRIST MOM SOMETIMES I'M JUST OFF THE RADAR OKAY.

But the news was good! :D Which was that she got me a summer job! Basically, my parents did a bunch of work for Pete's and they owe us a bunch of money but haven't paid in, like, six months, so they owe us a big favor and Mom pulled a few strings. :D And I'd kind of been feeling lately that I didn't want to stay in SD all summer anyway, so the fact that it's in the North just sort of cements my plans to go home. So I'll probably be looking at about 25-30 hours a week, because without classes and without work I'll sort of be bored out of my skull, and MONEY. IT IS A GOOD THING.

But seriously.

NINE MISSED CALLS.

Change isn't really so accurate though, since it's more like Creation.

So, it looks like I might be going to Fanime this year after all. Have yet to book the hotel or register, but I have a panel to go to that my friend from HS has been bugging me about for at least a month (he's on it, so we'll excuse the persistence) and two other people to room with and I pay off my car on Thursday, so.

Now the question of whether or not to tell the parents I'll be in their area without seeing them...

So, with my recent obsession interest in Dev Patel, I heard a little bit about this show he was on before Slumdog Millionaire called Skins. And I heard some good things about it! And then I caught an episode about a week ago when I was up late zoning out in front of BBC America.

And I enjoyed it! But I didn't actually know when it was scheduled, so today I checked the BBC America site to look it up. And along with times they have specifically what episode is showing and a short synopsis.

So of course while glancing over the synopses I managed to majorly spoil myself for the one character other than Dev Patel's that I was actually invested in. And the spoiler?

"It's [enter character name]'s funeral..."

AUGH.

Guys I don't know if I want to keep watching anymore. D:

Amazon is now claiming that the stripping of book ranks was a clusterfuck glitch type of situation.

Color me skeptical, but this person has a really good take on it.

More developments as they come.

Amazon has decided to strip certain LGBTQ centered books of their Sales Ranking under their new "adult" policy, while keeping the rankings of equally explicit (and sometimes more so) heterosexual books.

bookshop has more complete information on the fail here, as well as better/updated information on what to do about it here.

Please spread the word, and protest if you can.