fishpatrol

What program do you guys use to rip DVDs (and possibly also convert the files into AVI format)? I've never copied a DVD before and the process seems a bit daunting. X3 I have Nero (I've only ever used it to burn data CDs/DVDs) and InterVideo Win DVD Creator (it came with my computer, but I've never used it) -- will either of these programs do the trick?

I have devised a way to make studying GRE vocab seem...enticing. I'm not sure how long this method will remain effective (read: how long it will remain entertaining and novel) and I can never allow my study notes to fall into the hands of, well, anyone, but hey, as long as it works... :Db

The slightly annoying thing is, I'm so conscious of this LEARN-NEW-VOCAB thing that I will automatically stop in the middle of a story (in the middle of the sentence, usually!), whether it'd be a book, fic, or even audiobook, and jot down and look up the unknown word. I can't even make myself read to the end of the paragraph and double back for the word because my brain will be blaring, "LOOK UP THE WORD NAO NAO NAO". Talk about breaking the flow of the story! (and let me tell you, it gets especially irritating when you're reading the NC-17 part of an NC-17 fic)

Is this a permutation or combination question:
Brooke wants to hang three paintings in a row on her wall. She has six paintings to choose from. How many arrangements of paintings on the wall can she create?
I think it's combination, because order shouldn't matter, but my book says the opposite. D:

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Snagged from dear_whimsy:

The problem with LJ: we all think we are so close, but really, we know nothing about each other. So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away :D

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I wonder what it would be like to sleep on a $159.99 pillow.

The power went out again last night, and since I had some battery power left on my computer, I wrote an entry in Notepad:
( Writing by candlelight )

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So on Tuesday, after class, Friend R left the classroom as Friend B and I stayed to ask the instructor about something. A minute later, Friend R comes rushing back into the room, with the kind of excitement usually reserved for cute animals and cute boys, telling us to hurry and follow her. We jogged through the hallway after her, completely and utter perplexed. She stopped right around the corner and pointed to something, giggling hysterically. It was a water fountain, gurgling and spewing mud. Like any other person would do in this situation, the three of us whipped out our cell phones and started taking pictures. Lo and behold, the mud spewing fountain :D

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Speaking of pictures and cell phones, I realized mine can support moving .gif images as wallpapers. I now have this picture as my background and I giggle every time I flip open my phone.

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Say, hypothetically, you've roped some poor professor into being your undergrad thesis supervisor. Now, your thesis project doesn't start until September, but he asks you if you want to do some work as an RA (aka research assistant aka professor's lackey) during the summer. He's this nice, but completely scatterbrained and quite possibly computer-illiterate old man. He doesn't say anything about pay, but he does say, in his first email about RA-ing, "do you want to be hired for the summer?" So, hypothetically, how would you go about asking him whether you're hired as in hired or if you're simply working as a volunteer? ;;;

( 1-3 cut for too much RL content )

4. Tenipuri songs are educational, okay
We saw an plane with a long streaming white tail of clouds. I pointed up and said, "That's called a contrail."
My head has been saturated with useless words lately because I've been studying for the GREs.

5. There are no such things as stupid questions, right?
Okay, so in Korean shows you often hear people refer to their friends by their names plus an "yi/ie" -- e.g. Sungminnie, Kibummie, Jaejoongie. Is the "ie" a form of endearment, indicating a close relationship, or is it actually the subject particle "이"? I can't recall if I've ever heard one person call another [insert name]-ie -- usually it's [insert name]-ah/yah ("ah" or "yah" depending on whether the ending letter is a consonant or a vowel, I assume). I could be totally off the mark. Idk. XD

What does it mean to "be in a fandom"? To my BFF who does not read fanfic, look at fanart, slash (she does do the whole het-shipping though), to be in a fandom means trawling through communities and forums for photos and video clips and the newest songs by her favourite bands. Being in a particular fandom simply means to be a fan of that particular something. To me, an avid reader of fanfic, an ardent slasher (of the boy-on-boy variety and none of that saw and hacking stuff), and a dabbler of fanart, being involved in a fandom means going above and beyond the available canon. The way I see it, while being a fan and being a fandomer are not mutually exclusive concepts, they are also not the same thing.

The non-fandom fan squees over the latest episode of an anime, the newest album of a band, the last Harry Potter book. The fan-fandomer squees over the latest episode, and then proceeds to trawl through the Internet, searching for fanfic that depicts their favourite characters or pairing interacting based on the most recent canon development. The non-fan fandomer disregards the latest episode, and probably the whole of the latest arc, and thinks that "sometimes life is pretty awesome" when stumbling upon fanart that shows two characters who may have exchanged all of two lines throughout the anime in a compromising position.

Even using these categories, it's still hard to pinpoint what being in a fandom is all about. The fanficcer is a participant of the fandom. But what about the fanartist that only draws portraits based on the pre-existing photographs? What about the icon makers and the layout makers and the people who keep everyone else on top of the latest news?

Perhaps my BFF has the better definition of fandom: being in a fandom means being a fan of a certain source who interacts with other fans of the same source. That explanation doesn't quite sit well with me though. Several years ago, back in my Harry Potter days, I wondered, as a fan, what was the difference between me and my friends who could not care less about the multitude of fan-created works, but would jumping with glee at the announcement of the release of the next HP book. I loved the books, I loved the world and the characters that JK Rowling had created. But what I loved more were the fanfics and the different possibilities that fandom and fanon made available. HP fans who talked to other HP fans about the books and analyzed them to the last detail -- are these people participating in the wider HP fandom? What about the people who read only half the books, watched half the movies, and read/write a disgusting amount of Mary Sue-in-Hogwarts fic -- are they in the fandom?

(Now I've taken myself in a full circle and can no longer conceptualize what I was trying to argue in the first place. Whoops.)

On a similar topic, I find with non-story based sources, it's trickier to define canon. With TV shows and anime and books, there is a clear-cut story: these events happened, these events did not. This character hates this one, but loves another. With real people, it's hard to say what precisely is canon; people's behaviours are fluid, and it's harder to predict what a real person would do in any given situation. The easiest way for me to conceptualize canon and fanon is simply: canon is the way I interpret the original source; fanon is everyone else's interpretation. XD

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And for the obligatory Suju part of this entry:

I've noticed a general tendency that the LJ Suju fans and the Soompi Suju fans have opposing views on the issue of E.L.F. Many comments I see on the LJ comms seem to portray "elves" as rabid fangirls whom you would not want to approach with a ten-footmetre pole. Given some of their actions (and reactions), I can see why this claim is widely spread among non-"elves". Now, on Soompi, every Suju fan is an E.L.F. "Elves" are wonderful fans who will support the boys (but only13) to the end of the world and will protect them from everything and anything (but who will protect the boys when the rabid fangirls attack?). I was going to make a comment comparing the intelligence the level of rabidness LJ fans and Soompi fans, but I shall refrain because this is a public entry. ^0^; (I suspect that I have something against fan-bases on forums)

Note, though, that I'm not entirely familiar with the ELF vs non-ELF issue and may be making an over-generalizing statement; I apologize in advance if anyone is offended by my comments.

Now that I've bashed a certain subsection of the Suju fans, I'd like to point out some very pretty awesome fanworks done by some pretty awesome fans:
Chinese fans perform Happiness -- The clothes, the hairstyles, the actions, the backdrops, the camera slices and angles! *__* The whole thing is an amazing imitation of the original Happiness MV. *boggles*
Korean fans perform U -- Again, fantastic imitation of the original U MV. I think this was meant to be more of a parody than a pure imitation...? But either way, the dancing and the clothes? PRETTY AWESOME.

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I totally just ate nine fried spring rolls in one afternoon/night. I'm sure they are awful for my health, but damn, those things are yummy. :9

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eta: Is it really awful of me to be looking forward to AST1's debut? :D;; I thought the strategy for their promotional video wasn't such a bad one. It certainly garnered them plenty of publicity (though, admittedly, a good chunk of it was negative publicity -- but hey, isn't it also true that any publicity is good publicity?). When I saw this I thought of all the potential AST1+Suju crossovers, haha, oh, self. *facepalm*

Though I promised myself that I'd devote my day studying statistics, I ended up spending most of the morning and afternoon reading The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner. Who cares about ANOVA and F-statistics (adlkfajds) when there is a book full of excitement and intrigue, just waiting to be read. I absolutely loved Kushner's Swordspoint, as well as The Fall of the Kings to a lesser extent. The Privilege of the Sword is a sequel to Swordspoint and a prequel to The Fall of the Kings (though it was written most recently).
[Amazon summarizes the stories far better than I ever could ;;;]

( click for more rambling XD )

The problem with finishing a really good book is that it leaves you in somewhat of a (happy) daze and then you're pretty much useless for the rest of the day.

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Since I'm on a rambling rampage right now (and ignoring my statistics notes that are glaring at me -- they would be saying, "pay attention to us!" if they could speak, I'm sure), I may as well keep going. :D

( cut for length and what could possibly be interpreted as nonsense )

And now I have some questions for the writers on my flist:
How exactly does your writing process work? Which parts do you come up with first? Do you have a full outline before you start? Do you write everything in a chronological order, or do you write bits and pieces and put the whole thing together after you have enough scenes written?

Oh, and here's something I've been wondering about:
Do your characters actually speak to you in your mind? Or do you "see" and "hear" them interacting with each other?
The other day, I read this article about how some people (normal people) heard voices in their mind and how the voices often have distinct/different personalities. I think that is so fascinating.
My characters never talk to me. :( I am probably not cool enough for them.


My clock tells me that I have spent an hour on this entry. My stomach tells me that I'm starving. And if my stats notes had arms and hands, they would be rebelling right about now (that is a frightening thought -- they are frightening as is without limbs).