A while back, a little bird (who looks suspiciously like stacye13) told me that someone was going to publish an anthology of the best entries for LJ Idol.

Well, of course I had to go through mine. I submitted two, just for fun.

This one was chosen. This one was not.

Now I have to decide if I want it to be published under the old user name or change the title (as the title won't make much sense without the name), and I have to write two more entries that would only be for publication in the book, "one an Open Topic and one on either 'Almost Killed Me' and one on 'The Next Step.'" The deadline for those is July 21. I also have to decide just how much time I want to devote to this.

She died this morning.

I watched Charlie's Angels religiously when I was little. It was our favorite "game" to play, too.

I read a few webcomics. You might have noticed. Not many, really. Currently, I'm reading Looking for Group, Darths and Droids, Lovecraft is Missing (yes, that Lovecraft), and Something Positive. I also intermittently read Least I Could Do (sometimes NSFW, and I'd read it more if it weren't for the fat jokes, but it's the same guys who do Looking for Group) and xkcd (which I'd read more if it weren't for the frequent use of "gay" as a putdown). Obviously, if I'm reading them, you should be, too.

In particular, however, even if you don't want to read the rest of them, you needed to see today's Something Positive. So here it is.

This is extraordinarily cool. You go, girl. Talk about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.

I just hope she doesn't completely lose touch with her mother and younger sister.

Cougar Ridge, Colorado attracts people from all over the world, from all walks of life. Some succumb to the allure of a resort town, with its quirky combination of small-town atmosphere and cosmopolitan shopping. Others come on the heels of rumors and strange tales they've heard about the town. Still more don't know why they've stopped here, only that it's where they are, and it's as good a place as any for the time being.

Some are here for weeks, or months. Some move in to stay. Of course, there are those who live their whole lives in the shadow of the mountains, too. They each have a story to tell, a life to live . . . a secret to hide.

Come to Cougar Ridge. Meet the people. Learn their stories. Tell a few of your own.

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( The Fine Print )

Don’t take too long to think about it.
Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you.
First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.
Copy the instructions into your own post.

1. The Stand by Stephen King (original publication, not the updated one)
2. Jonathon Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
3. The Flamingo's Smile by Stephen Jay Gould
4. Jhereg by Stephen Brust
5. Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins
6. Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
7. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
8. The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman
9. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
10. Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R. Tolkien
11. The Children of Odin by/trans. Padraic Colum
12. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursala K. LeGuin
13. Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine
14. And Both Were Young by Madeline L'Engel
15. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

Even if you aren't interested in joining cougarridgegame, feel free to mention it to anyone you know who might!



Cougar Ridge, Colorado is a town with secrets. Some lie close to the surface, needing nothing more than a sharp eye to uncover them. Others are buried deep within the history of the town, and have become entwined with each other to the point where puzzling them out is almost a full-time job. Still more may be known only to you.

Come to Cougar Ridge. Search for the Sasquatch. Plumb the depths of the "haunted" Cheshire River. Investigate Men in Black. Or maybe all of this seems . . . normal to you? You can write your own stories into the town's rich tradition of mystery and intrigue. You can even just go on with your life and never notice the weirdness around you. That's all for you to decide.

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cougarridgegame is an original concept/character, text-based game on LiveJournal, that was played from October 2007 through January 2009, and is starting again on June 7, 2009!

Cougar Ridge is a small town in the Rockies where strange things happen, and how your character reacts to these occurrences — if at all — is up to you.

This game has mature themes, and is not intended for people under the age of eighteen. Some of the entries may involve graphic depictions of violence and/or sex. Anyone who is offended by such material should not join the game.

For an idea of what the game is like, and the tone that we try to achieve, please read these entries: Week 2, Week 6, Week 19, and Week 42.

FAQ
Overview
Character Suggestions
Introductions

Contact the GM at cougar.ridge.gm (at) gmail (dot) com or at cougar_ridge_v2.

If you want five questions from me, just ask. I got this lot from ayoub.

1. What do you consider to be your favourite memory? Probably my wedding day, although I don't really remember much of it.

Aside from that, a lot of my good memories seem to involve seeing birds. On Thursday, the_original1 and I were driving down Route 2, along the Rock River, and there was a male bald eagle, sitting at the very top of a tree. We've seen them a few times over the last couple of years, and it's always a rush. Of course, right after seeing that one, we started seeing the headlines about the bald eagles on the east coast that have come back so well that they're decimating the population of another rare bird.

2. Where would your ideal vacation be? In the Rocky Mountains, probably. Thing One and I just did a paired writing thing for school where we each wrote about our favorite places. She picked Brookfield Zoo, and I said Yellowstone National Park. Then this weekend, satanismyname called and said he's going to be house-sitting for his parents while they're visiting Yellowstone this summer, and invited us to come see him then.

3. What's your favourite store? The store that the_original1 and I are going to open someday.

I really liked the Borders in Oak Brook, Illinois, before they got bought out by K-Mart and got all homogenized. It was in an interesting building (why do I keep remembering it as a pink house? Maybe it was, I can't remember that well), had two floors, and was just really . . . neat.

I also really liked The Alley in Chicago, before they seemed to start catering more to the pothead and skater/thrash metal crowd (late 80s/early 90s, I don't know what they're like now).

I think I generally prefer stores that are a mish-mash of things — even if they only really sell one kind of thing — to stores that are all neat and compartmentalized. That kind of store seems very hard to find these days — in part, I'm sure, because they tend to be locally owned, small businesses, and the big corporations and the internet are pushing them all out of business.

4. What's your favourite movie of all time? Oooh, picking one is impossible. The Princess Bride. When Harry Met Sally. Monty Python and the Holy Grail. My Cousin Vinnie. Mystery, Alaska. Casablanca. Rockula. Dead End Days. I could go on.

Last night we watched A Mighty Wind, and I think that has to be way up there on the list, too.

5. Who was your first crush? (It's obvious that ayoub doesn't know me very well.) Johnny Cash. My dad would put on Johnny Cash records and dance around the living room with me when I was very little (like two or three). I always thought they looked very alike, but I couldn't tell my dad that, because he thought Johnny Cash was one of the ugliest men alive!

GOP Chairman Michael Steele is trying to say that gay marriage will be bad for the small businessman.

"Now all of a sudden I've got someone who wasn't a spouse before, that I had no responsibility for, who is now getting claimed as a spouse that I now have financial responsibility for," Steele told Republicans at the state convention in traditionally conservative Georgia. "So how do I pay for that? Who pays for that? You just cost me money."

It seems obvious to me that it's been a long time since Mr. Steele has been an employee of a small business. In my experience (which is fairly extensive in this particular field), small businesses that provide health insurance (which is the main point of his argument) to their employees don't often pay for spouse and children. Sometimes they do, certainly, but I think it's fairly uncommon, and with the rising costs of insurance, it's becoming moreso.

Another point of interest in this is that if it would be bad to provide benefits that include a same-sex spouse . . . it would be bad to provide those benefits to other-sex spouses. I think taking this tack could prove detrimental to those traditional families the RNC is so concerned with saving.

Your result for The Social Persona Test (What kind of man/woman are you?)...

The Renaissance Faire Wench (QLAF)

Quirky Liberal Alpha Female

Take The Social Persona Test (What kind of man/woman are you?) at HelloQuizzy

FYI: I resized the picture (it had been 1500x1500 pixels, I cut it to 500x500) and the font (it was 13.5, now it's 11pt.) If you take the quiz, you might want to preview the results before posting them.

. . . been on the observation deck of the John Hancock Building.

. . . been in jail (except to visit). I know, it's hard to believe.

. . . been in a fist fight.

. . . sent a fan letter to anyone (although I've written some).

. . . successfully seen the Leonid or Perseid meteor showers.

. . . been to New York City.

. . . sung karaoke.

. . . watched American Idol.

. . . completely broken a bone (I fractured my elbow when I was eleven or twelve).

Thank retro_rider55 for this. He hasn't written any rules for it, but I'm going with "nine things I've never done." What haven't you done?

One of the far-too-many e-mail accounts I have is with AOL (it started as a Netscape address). After you sign in, while you're waiting for the page to load, there's generally an emoticon on the screen, with a description. One I'd never seen before was "glass half full" (which I immediately, of course, switched to "glass half empty"), which looks like this: \~/.

Today, it was "rock 'n' roll": \m/.

I've been voted out of thebrenljidol this week. I may be posting this a bit prematurely, as the official announcement won't go up until at least tomorrow. There is a tie-breaker poll that is yet to be posted, but that's for the other person who will be voted out this week. If you're interested, these are the entries I submitted, with the prompt we were given.

( Week One: Destination )

( Week Two: Unconditional Love )

( Week Three: Betrayal )

( Week Four: Fire )

( Week Five: The Forbidden )

( Week Six: Violet )

( Week Seven )

( Week Eight: Mischief )

I didn't vote for myself this time around, so I can't really complain about getting the boot. Except that while I didn't think mine was the best entry this week, I certainly didn't think it was the worst. I'll get over it, though.

I've actually been waiting to get voted off since shortly after signing up for the contest, because I have an announcement to make.

( I'm not going to write anymore. )

It's that music meme-thingy.

1. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter.
2. List 5 songs (with links to them, if you can find them) that start with that letter.
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions.

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ayoub gave me "T." I took it upon myself to not take the easy way out, and didn't use any songs whose titles started with "The." Links will open in a separate window.

1. "Turning of the Tide," Richard Thompson (lyrics on Beesweb)

2. "To Lay Me Down," Grateful Dead (lyrics on The Annotated Grateful Dead)

3. "Tear Stained Letter," Johnny Cash (lyrics on Sing365)

4. "Thick as a Brick," Jethro Tull (lyrics on Cup of Wonder)

5. "Tenderness on the Block," Warren Zevon (lyrics on Sing365)

Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate with you (if you're lucky). Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.

triskellian associates me with ( online RPGs of the genuine-roleplaying variety, being tough and spiky (in a good way, I hasten to add!), zombies, scarily-coloured ice cream, and Dr Seuss. )

the_original1 and I went to K-Mart last night. Yes, the K-Mart of the foot fetishist. But we didn't see him. Thankfully.

I need new shoes for work for summer. I have a pair of white flats with an open toe and open side, and I like them a lot, but they're five years old, I think, and not quite so white as they used to be. For the last couple of years, I've been looking at summery work shoes almost as compulsively as I look at purses (which I really do — I haven't bought a new purse in years, but I'm always looking for The Perfect Purse).

A couple months ago, I saw these at K-Mart. I have had the best luck with Thom McAn shoes over the last ten years or so. They last forever, and they aren't expensive, and sometimes they're really nice looking.

But, I don't wear high heels anymore. I was never very good at walking in them, and the_original1 is only a little taller than me, so why risk the broken ankle? (I have twisted my ankle in heels so many times that I don't want to think about it.)

But I really like these.

I tried them last night (although in a darker brown than the picture). They fit very nicely. They look really good. And after having them on for five or ten seconds, I still wanted to buy them even though I knew I would break my ankle wearing them. I tried them on three times. I don't remember the last time I wanted a pair of shoes this badly. If they were an inch shorter, I'd be wearing them right now. Except maybe they wouldn't look as good.

By the time I convince myself that I don't care about my ankle, they will no longer have my size.

I have a "Five Things about Me" type thingy on my desktop at home, from triskellian, from weeks — maybe months — ago that I really need to finish and post.