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"Dash dot dash dash dash dash dash dot dot dash dot dash dash dot dot dot dash dot dot dot dash dot dot dash dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dash dash dot dash dash dot dot dash dot dash dot dot dash dot dash dash dash dot dot dash dot dot dash dot dot dot dash dot dash dash dash dash dot dot dot dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dash dot dash dot dot dash dot dash dot dash"

Stand up for yourself! Stand up to your bullies, stand up to your teachers and parents when necessary. Turning your back and walking away from your bullies doesn't do a damn bit of good, because they'll just find ways to hurt you even worse. Knock him down and stomp on his balls, if you have to. Don't be such a quitter, dig in your heels and try harder. You're different, yes, but it doesn't mean you have to be the world's victim. Show that you're strong, even when you feel you're not. The fact that you made it through public school without killing yourself says that you are stronger than you think you are.

I wish they'd have been more specific with this question. Do they mean mainstream, underground, counter-culture, webtoons, what?
I recently posted about watching an episode of the hilariously bad Herculoids, and being rather unnerved by Gleep and Gloop. There's just something icky about them. They remind me of sinus infections with beady eyes.
Some of R. Crumb's creations and characters could be really freaky, but I think he meant to provoke thought by use of unabashedly racist and sexist characters.
As a kid, I found images of Rat Fink a little disturbing, but now I really respect that Ed Roth created, in terms of the hot rod culture.
I think the only cartoon character I find disturbing is Salad Fingers. I've watched all the cartoons, and I've ended up wondering if I'd have nightmares after. But the Salad Fingers series also strikes me as funny in a sick, sick way.
It's not a cartoon per se, but holy shit, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is some seriously disturbed art and storytelling.
Oddly enough, I can think of examples of some of Disney's works that probably traumatized other little kids. The "Night on Bald Mountain" movement from Fantasia probably scared a lot of people, but it never phased me. I even enjoyed the stop-motion "Mysterious Stranger" cartoon from a movie (forget what the title is) based on Mark Twain's stories.
I'm just jaded, what can I say?

Ever heard of the Winchester Mystery House? Yeah, something like that. I hope to visit it one day.
I admit it, I absolutely love, love, love huge houses and mansions, especially ones that contain all the suspense and mystery story setting cliches, like secret passageways, trapdoors, revolving bookcases, dumbwaiters and catacombs. And as far as I'm concerned, the older the house is, the better I want the echoes of time in every creaking floorboard and mossy chunk of masonry. And of course I'd also want an apple orchard and riding stables.
Seeing as most of what I've described is wildly impractical for everyday use, my ideal house would be a four or five bedroom (as I said, I like big houses), 2 bathroom older Victorian with a good-sized kitchen, an attic, and maybe a parlor room and wraparound porch, with plenty of mature trees on the property.
Something like this*:

And above all, it has to be distinct looking. I despise it when a neighborhood is constructed and all the houses look exactly the same.

*Yes, blame The Addams Family for my love of Victorians. In my heart, I am an Addams. *snap snap*
Ye Gods, I need an Addams icon.

My favorite set of comments were definitely the ones I got when I posted in regard to an overly-pushy salesguy at a kiosk in the Great Lakes Crossing mall: http://anodracs.livejournal.com/369307.html
I wonder where lithiumdelusion has vanished to? I miss her.

I've lived in at least seven places that I can recall, more than that when I was a small child. My favorite was probably my room at the Avalon co-op, even though it did have a lot of disadvantages, as it was quite a small space, and had to outside walls, which meant a wickedly cold room in the winter, but the co-ops allowed residents to decorate their rooms as they so desired. At first, I was going to paint a mountain mural on the walls, and a sunset/star scape on the ceiling, so I painted most of the ceiling dark blue, but I ran out of paint, so one corner was still white. Later, I decided that a mountain mural was too complex, so I painted the walls rose, as it was one of the "spare" cans of paint lying around the utility room. Later I found out that rose colored bedroom walls are supposed to be good for one's blood pressure, and I definitely felt calmer when I was in my room. In fact, I was quite good at starting home decorating projects and never finishing them. I also attempted to paint a Chinese dragon on my door and got the outline done, but the paint that I was using tended to run, and I included too much detail to paint and have it come out well, so my dragon remained half-finished until I moved out. I wonder if he's still on the door?
My least favorite place that I lived was the dorm at NMU. I had a good roommate, but I was so depressed and homesick while at college, and I was pursuing a course of study that was all wrong for me. Even though M. was really nice, I'm a very private person and I need a space that's for me, and just me, so sharing a room stressed me out. Not to mention that I had to share the bathroom with three other girls, including one who was a total bitch and did horribly inconsiderate things like using up the TP and blow drying her hair at 6 in the morning.
But I've never really experienced a living situation that truly feels like "home" to me. I'm still searching for that perfect place to call my own...

I probably know hundreds of songs more-or-less by heart, many that I learned when I was a little kid, and have remained ingrained in my long-term memory ever since. I suppose that the Sesame Street theme might have been one of the first that I learned. I also recall every word of "My Country Tis of Thee", even though I haven't recited it in years. We were taught this in kindergarten, and probably said it every morning, because blind patriotism totally RAWKS!
Our kindergarten teacher also taught us Whitney Houston's "The Greatest Love of All", to be performed at our little graduation. Imagine 30 fidgety 5 year olds in formal clothes, standing on (and trying to shove each other off) risers, called to reluctant attention by the teacher, and proceeding to screech out an overwrought, hopelessly saccharine pop ballad. Gad, that would be my personal hell were I forced to go back in time and watch the young me perform. At least there were punch and cookies after the graduation, I remember that much.
The song mentioned... *gags, twitches, dies*


And just because I'm a smartass, here's another song that I remember to this day. Lamb Chop's Playalong, bitches!

I got volume 4 Petshop of Horrors Tokyo today, and unfortunately the inconsistency in Akino's stories continue...
Major spoilers under cut.
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*Yawns* I'm tired, so I'll try to sum up the other two stories tomorrow...

Sometimes I wonder if one's race is becoming more important than ever in the United States, instead of less important.
Earlier today, I logged onto OCC's student network to check the start date of my next class, and got one of OCC's survey pages. These show up occasionally, usually asking why you're taking classes at OCC and what your educational goals are. However, this particular questionnaire was asking whether I am a Latino, or a non-Latino, and of what race. Thing is, one can't skip these questions and move on to one's student records. These sort of questions both annoy and confuse me, I assume I got these questions because I have a last name that is Spanish in its' origin. As far as I understand it, the definition of "Latino" is something like "a person of any race who is of Hispanic heritage". In this case, I sort of am a Latina, and I'm sort of not. I have some percentage of Spanish blood, from an ancestor who came to America from Spain around the time of the Civil War (I refer to the USA's Civil War), but the lion's share of my heritage would be defined as WASP, with a possibility of Native American genetic influence. I was not raised with any particular ethnic traditions, though sometimes I wish I was. I'm not Mexican, nor am I Puerto Rican, Cuban, or any other Latin-American region. I don't speak Spanish. However, I can speak fluent Midwestern.
I understand why OCC would want this information, the college might even receive funding if a certain percentage of the student population is Latino, but I still get peeved that race and cultural classification is still such a big deal. I could have screwed with the system and answered with something other than "Non-Latino, white", but that would have been dishonest.
I am what I am. Isn't that enough?
Heh, and even amongst other "whites", I'm pretty damn white. Areas of my body that have not frequently seen the sun practically glow. My brother's the same, but on him it's even more startling, because he's got dark hair and eyes, but an ivory complexion.
In other news, Rammstein has announced their 2009 tour dates! http://www.rammstein.com/Tour.html
No United States dates yet (can't blame them if they don't want to tour in the US), but one can hope! I'm not much for gambling, but I'm going to buy a ticket for the next mega millions drawing, as it would be so cool to travel to Europe and see my favorite sextet in concert.

Not at all. The media hypes everything out of proportion. It is noteworthy that otherwise healthy adults have died of this particular strain of flu, but those deaths occurred in Mexico, and as far as I know, there haven't been any deaths from swine flu in other countries. Not to speak poorly of Mexico, but sanitation standards there may be different, as well as diagnostic processes when it comes to infectious disease. I also find the idea of quarantine a bit silly. I mean, the privileged few might be able get sufficient resources to efficiently seal themselves from from humanity, but most of us have necessary lives to lead that require interaction with many other people on a daily basis, not to mention that some people have to travel extensively for their jobs or other obligations. What does concern me is the idea of the swine flu becoming a pandemic that could seriously damage the economy on both a local and worldwide scale. And I'm sure there are overly excitable individuals who will have their doctors' phones ringing off the hook because they have a slight fever or a touch of nausea. Having briefly studied zoonoses, I can say that every damn disease that can be transmitted from animal to man starts with very general, flu-like symptoms. I can see where this information would upset some people, but I just tend to think about all the relatively harmless strains of flu virus out there, and have faith that my immune system can overcome such a challenge. Face it, we live in a germy, dirty world. What gets me, and here I'll turn misanthropic, but we humans seem to think we're exempt from what goes on in Nature. Major diseases are just a way of controlling population growth, and we're overdue for a serious global pandemic as it is. I can peacefully accept the idea of dying by way of a pandemic, as I can also peacefully accept the idea of being fatally struck by lightning or being stung by a box jellyfish. After all, we're none of us immortal. I also feel bad for those who depend on hoofstock for their livelihoods, as I'm sure sales of pork will go down for a bit, despite the fact that one can't catch swine flu from pig products.
A page about the 1918 Spanish flu, one of the great pandemics in more recent history. I remember seeing a video on this in a high school science class, and I found it rather fascinating. http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/

Oh, how can I choose? There are so many!
psohdrabble is a favorite. It's quite a small community, which I like, but even so I've become friends with a good deal of the members of the community.I also like the challenge of writing 100 word stories, although I haven't been feeling the urge to write fanfic much lately.
I enjoy browsing wtf_nature, as I can invariably find posts about things that shock, amaze, and amuse me. Often the posts are like biology lessons gone mad. And the macro on the info page makes me laugh every time I see it.
I'm not amongst the most active members of ask_me_anything, but I do like being able to offer my two cents on the topics that catch my attention.
I have quite a morbid streak, so I love deadphotos. The photographers who post here really seem to know their stuff, and produce some of the most breathtaking works of art.
I also like communities focused on cooking or baking, especially where recipes and pictures are shared. I like cooking as it's the most "visible" cooking community, and it's not as highbrow as food_porn, and not as low-class as trashy_eats.

dax_strife, seeing as he's my sibling. Otherwise, stealingbabies, who I met waayyy back in my Redwall fandom days. I've also met blackthorn45, though I am sincerely sorry if I unwittingly took her out of her comfort zone, as I can be such a social retard. I also dated my friend codewolf for a bit, so I've known him for a few years now.

Yay! I've successfully renamed my journal! I'm still the same person I always was, it's just that Jeweleyes no longer fit me as a person. Anodracs works so, so much better. A little pricey, maybe, but worth it!

Horace Twittypister.

Hmm, this is a tough one. I could say Tetris, but I bet more than a few other people who responded to this question said the same. Super Mario Bros. was good when I had the patience for it, but I'd often get frustrated and end up throwing the controller across the room, either that or I'd start wiggling my arms and shoulders around like a spazz when I played, and my brother (the real game guru in the family) would get disgusted with me. Sonic the Hedgehog was a lot easier for me, and usually more fun. There were a few games that I certainly had no chance of beating, but that I watched my brother play, one that I enjoyed was The Illusion of Gaia. I enjoy playing trivia games like the various versions of Jeopardy, and more recently You Don't Know Jack. Some of the SNES games based on Disney blockbusters like Aladdin were pretty good, but some of the games based on cartoon shows could also be pretty bad, the Addams Family games in particular, but I may be saying this because I hold the orginal sitcom in such high regard.
And this has been bothering me in a minor way for some time, I remember my brother borrowing a game from a friend, the main character was this little guy with a springy neck, and it had a villain with a "Mr. Ick" style face on his robe. It was very bright and toony, and it was relatively easy to beat, at least it was for my brother. I was glancing over the list of SNES games on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_SNES_games but nothing's really jogging my memory. Oh, mystery solved, I just asked my brother, and the game was Dynamite Heady and it was for Sega.
Wow, I did not know there were so many videos of old video games on Youtube...
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Edit: Damn, and how could I forget Street Fighter 2?! I especially liked playing as Vega. A pretty Spanish boy with a viscous looking claw weapon thingy... What's not to love? Ole!

Yay, I've found a new favorite internet time waster! http://www.brokenpicturetelephone.com/
Seriously, this game has the power to become very, very addictive...

Hmm, this is a hard one, though depending on my offense, food might be the least of my problems. But cheese is the first thing that sprang to mind. There's probably cheese in prison, but it's that unnaturally yellow, made mostly of oil kind that has no business calling itself true cheese. Yes, I'd especially miss real parmigiano-reggiano and brie. But I'd also miss steak, ribs, shrimp scampi, creme brulee, fresh pasta, fresh fruit, fresh salad greens, aioli Coca-Cola, fruit-forward white wines... I could go on and on. On second thought, I'd probably kill myself rather than facing a lifetime of prison food.

Here, have a fish!
SFW...

I swear, I have had the worst trouble with my debit card in recent months. First it was the thing with the PIN, and now if I'm trying to place an order online, my card info gets rejected!
I'm trying to change my user name, as I dislike "Jeweleyes", that name came from a fandom I'm no longer really a part of, and overall, "Jeweleyes" is not who I am anymore. I want to be known as "Anodracs", but I've also fiddled with the idea of calling myself "Queso_dip", though with that sort of name, I'm not likely to be taken seriously. Maybe that's a moot point.. However, my token order is not really going through, and it's pissing me off royally.
Or maybe I'm overlooking something because I'm not feeling well. A dramatic temperature change and two days of continuous rain does not do a body good. There's standing water in more than half of the backyard, and now that the ground has thawed, it's doing that gross squishy sponge thing.
I hope I can get my card working soon, registration for the next semester at OCC is starting soon. I have no idea what I'm going to take, but schooling is the only way I can validate my lifestyle right now.
Chessie's pretty much stopped eating, but she's still drinking. At this rate, I doubt she'll make it another week...