shura

Length: ~5300 words
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Somewhat Tom/Harry.
Summary: Trapped in the diary, Tom becomes obsessed with manipulating Harry.
Warnings: Slightly AU, chan implications, some religious insults on Tom’s part.
Author’s Note: This was written for parsel_fest a while ago. It wouldn’t have happened without my wonderful beta Liz, or A.

The poem is by Dylan Thomas; there are also a few lines from the HP books. (This was also heavily influenced by “One More Night” by Stars as well as a few other songs, and Aoe’s Something Me In You.) References include the Androphile Project, glbtq, Wikipedia (for odd and varied topics), the UK EduBase, and the Online Etymology Dictionary.

Originally titled “Mirror, Mirror”.

( Into That Good Night )

Descartes: I can conceive of my mind separate from my body, THEREFORE IT IS.

Skeptic: Oh no you don't. Lois Lane could conceive Superman ≠ Clark Kent, but is it true? NNNNN.

( Read more... )

Right, so.

I was about to update Twitter, when I started reading my f-list there:

stephenfry Doing a signing in Harrods tomorrow. Then Richard   about 3 hours ago from Twittervision

stephenfry [in reply to responses] Now look here, filthy-minded dogs. When I say I am "doing R & J" it means - as well you know - that I'm on their prog, not shafting them x   about 3 hours ago from Twinkle

stephenfry Ah. Just seen. Half the tweet got lost. Mm. "Then Richard and Judy" it should have read. Sorry x   about 3 hours ago from Twinkle

What I really meant to say is I went to bed around 8 or 9 pm last night and got up past 12 noon today.

Lockdown: what to do at UBC. With '90s muzak and text effects.

To summarize:

1. Long corridors and bathrooms are Bad Places To Be.
→ My instructor (who is American) said that long corridors are shooting alleys. Bathrooms have only one exit: the one the crazy person is blocking.

2. If you can find a room with a door that you can lock or barricade, go in and do it.
→ As my instructor pointed out, most lecture theatres have multiple doors that (a) don't lock and (b) open outwards.* In that case, he said, run for the nearest door and not towards the crazy person.
→ If you're in the Student Union Building? You poor sucker.

* The room we were in is on the 3rd floor, with 4 doors (all open outwards, none lock), and only two tables that could be used to barricade. IIRC in the entire building, there is only one room with doors that swing in. It's on the first floor and has an entire wall that's floor-to-ceiling windows.

3. Close the blinds if you can and stay the f*** away from the door and windows.

4. Only open the door if it's emergency personnel.
→ Since some doors don't have windows, there's no way to confirm someone is emergency personnel. It could be the crazy person posing as emergency personnel. In which case, you're screwed.

5. If the fire alarm rings, DON'T GO OUT.
→ And just DIAF.

6. Instead, listen to PA announcements.
→ Hope the crazy person hasn't taken over the PA controls.

7. If you can, check emergency.ubc.ca.
→ I have more confidence in the UBC Computer Science department servers surviving an attack than the UBC wireless network.

Why I should not hang out in my student society longue: oh so pretty.

"Brainwashing [dates to] 1950, a literal translation of Chinese xi nao."

And I always thought it was the other way around :o

→ List of English words of Chinese origin*

* an example of a bad Wikipedia article

Also, just for fun: Unlikely phrases from real phrasebooks.

I made a "songs I listened to in the last 3 months" auto-playlist, and picked stuff out. Right. ( Read more... )

This past week my mother went to Taipei to take (dubious) care of her sister, who's undergoing chemo. On Friday we took the High Speed Rail back to Taichung. At the train station I saw someone with a huge (at least A3 size) Hunter×Hunter Animax paper tote bag, with another folded up bag inside ♥

Friday was the 15th day of the 7th month on the Chinese lunar calendar—i.e., the 7th full moon of the year. The 7th month is also the month of ghosts, when ghosts are most active. Thus, on the 15th day of the 7th month is Zhongyuan Jie, the day when people make a grand offering to their ancestors for the spirits' goodwill. Houses, shops, even department stores participate. (My Taoist paternal family does.) By the front door, there is a table upon which are mountains of food and sticks of burning incense. (Large businesses sometimes have a row of tables a block long shadowed by tents.) There are large bonfires of joss paper money; the belief is that ghosts receive these burned sacrifices in their afterlives. A fine ash of this paper covers the ground, fills the air. After the ghosts have partaken of the food offering, the living get to eat it.

Anyway, since Friday happened to be a weekend and a major Chinese festival, it was travel pandemonium. At the High Speed Rail station, there were staff with loudspeakers telling us to line up in three lines (for compactness), forcing us to line up downstairs instead of on the platform (so that the platform wouldn't become a crowd of anarchy), and telling us which train was departing when, on what platform and going where. I felt sorry for the tourists who had no idea what was going on. People with reserved seats got to sit and lounge until their train left. The rest of us had to rush on board to grab a seat.

My dad was determined to get me in a movie theatre with him, so I went to see Wall•E today. I'm very impressed with the film—I have so many things to say about it and I can't keep them straight! ( Read more... )

Bathrobe's Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese language site, by the author's own description "an armchair excursion three fascinating languages of the Orient." I found this website while searching for the names of the days of the week in Japanese, although it also has amusing things like how Harry Potter has been translated into these three languages.

When I first tried to learn the Japanese days of the week, I memorized them using the French names (which are based on the Latin names for planets) and the corresponding Chinese planet names. The two have an uncanny correspondence: ( Read more... )

Wednesday was back to Taichung. We took a bus to Taipei Main Station, where we ate lunch upstairs. The 2nd floor was designed by a famous designer of high end malls, so it's very swank. The first floor, on the other hand ... Let's just say Taipei Main Station was constructed by the Japanese during their occupation of Taiwan, as part of their island-wide railway system. Now it's also a major transfer point for most of the metro lines in Taipei, and the Taipei stop for the new Franco-Japanese High Speed Rail I took today. 276 km/h, yum.

An hour later we alit at the Taichung stop, which is not in Taichung proper. Rather it's in New Wurih, the Taichung equivalent of Coquitlam. So we had to take the train (part of the ever-reliable Japanese occupation infrastructure) to Taichung Main Station in the old part of town. Back when the Japanese constructed the railway, the rich and powerful in the Taichung area lived in the port of Lukang. By building the train station, and thereby the town centre, in a location away from the original seat of power, it cemented Japanese control over the area.

(Aspiring dictators, take notes.)

There are many laments about sexually degrading ads or sexually provocative ads where the kiddies can see them. Ms. magazine, the old vanguard of American feminism, has a regular section called "No Comment", where it reprints ads it finds offensive.

One of these articles was in The Observer the other day, about the proliferation of prominent ads for strip clubs in public venues. Across from school for 17-year-olds! Blasphemy! ( Read more... )

Back when I first learned Javascript (2001 or 2002), Netscape 4.7 was in its twilight and Javascript was in its budding years. To get Javascript to do things, or "Events", I'd simply write something like <tag blahblah onClick="doSomething()"> right in my HTML. The "something" would be simple, like changing the background colour of my webpage from garish green to garish pink.

I haven't touched Javascript in years. ( Read more... )

Taiwan's new president was inaugurated today. There were bets being made about whether his wife, Chow Mei-ching, would wear a skirt or pants. Ms. Chow never wears skirts or make-up, very much a powerhouse woman. But for this occasion, she showed up in a skirt, with a new hairdo and a bit of make-up.

However, despite pressure from her husband's party and the opposition, Ms. Chow is determined to stay in her job as legal director of a major bank, making her the only Taiwanese first lady to keep her job, rather than be a supportive wife to the president. (Full story here.) I hope she doesn't ever decide to stop being a career woman—in an Asian country, it's especially important for women to show that they can be independent of their husbands.

*

I told myself I was not. Paying. Attention. to Tenimyu fandom any more, but I was wrong.

ADACCHIN'S BACK!

*happy*

In other news, Here is Greenwood is becoming a TV drama! Now that BL fandom is on the up-and-up, they're digging out all the old "spring of youth" classics. (Takumi-kun series isn't that old, but Greenwood? Wow. There's barely even a fandom for that nowadays. All about to change~. Rumour says there's going to be some good people on the cast.)

In a discussion with papered, I brought up the idea of statistically analyzing my favourite characters for various traits. ( Behind a cut to save your sanity )

Ought to start working on that online portfolio :x

Anyway, ( here are some photos )

Remember that grass field where you had class once? You want to be there when it's sunny and empty. You love the city, the rusted wire window grates and the choking exhaust (and a small whisper, you forgot to take those pictures), but just in this moment, you are attracted to a utopia (in a game you long disowned) of long grass fields leading to a beach that you've seen in a picture once. These fragments, replaced by plastic veneers you cannot try to appreciate.

most of us could not try this hard and desperately
then again, most of us cling hard to our illusions

I still haven't finished those Akira Hojo icons >_> But I do have a few others.



02 · Gravitation (anime)
02 · Junjou Romantica
02 · Othello by Hasumi Toui
03 · Rules by Miyamoto Kano

( Read more... )

I am stuck, therefore more graphics.



( 10 icons + 2 banners )

Credit if using ^^o

01 · Bleach manga
06 · Honey and Clover anime
02 · Jigoku Shoujo anime
02 · Prince of Tennis manga
01 · Te wo Tsunaide, Sora wo by Miyamoto Kano
01 · Toumei Shounen / Invisible Boy by Odagiri Hotaru
01 · X/1999 manga
11 · Tenimyu actors (Aoyagi Ruito, Aiba Hiroki, Kato Kazuki, Miyano Mamoru)
03 · Rock Musical Bleach
09 · Princess Princess D
01 · misc.

( NSFW for language. Also, spoilers. )