email: autumnriver@yahoo.com

This is a statue of a fox, one of many at the Fushimi Inari Taisha, the Grand Inari Shrine in Kyoto, famous for its many torii gates and its bronze statues of foxes.  I want to visit there someday.

My Passions
Manga: X, Berserk, CCS, Basara, KKJ, Rurouni Kenshin, Sensei!, Naruto, Juline, Suki Dakara Suki

TV: Buffy, Enterprise, Home & Garden Network, Iron Chef, International Channel

Reading: Meriwether Lewis: A Biography by Richard Dillon.

Biseinen: Kusanagi (X), Fuuma (X), Touya (CCS), Gatts (Berserk), Itou (Sensei!), Kakashi (Naruto), The Red King (Basara), Cho (RK), All the CCD cuties (Clamp Campus Detectives, X) and most especially Bob (Husband)

Hobbies: Learning Japanese, Calligraphy, drawing, writing, hiking, touring old houses, collecting foxes.

Cat of the moment: Lily

Subterfuge: Reynardine

Summertime

Summertime
Summertime
Sum-sum-summertime

Yes, it's the halycon days of summer and the State Fair is upon us! Not that it does me any good, we're not going this year. I'm a little disappointed, but it's a four and a half hour drive now, plus I'm not getting the free tickets I used to get from my (now ex) employer. I didn't bother with the Dubuque County Fair, as it was mainly farm animal exhibits and country music. Yee-haw. There's a part of me that really wants to go, actually, but Bob's car is making funny noises, which means an inevitably expensive trip to the repairshop. Bleh.

No AnimeIowa either, it looks like. Money is tight this year. Bob still wants to go to I-con, which we've heard is a pretty decent general Sci-fi/fantasy convention--a lot of our old friends from Des Moines usually show up there. But I'll miss Animeiowa--it was always a fun time, very laid back. And where else do you get to bash into a cute anime mascot disguised as a pinata?

Hmmmm.....looks like someone's birthday is coming up soon...what should we do about that? Hmmmmm....

Kerianne, weirdass conversations like that are one of the reasons I don't do chat much anymore. That, and I kept getting Vietnamese guys trying to talk to me. Evidently, there's another Autumnriver on Yahoo, and she seems quite the flirt. When I tell them a) they have the wrong person and b)I don't speak Vietnamese, then they want to be penpals. So that's pretty much why ya'll don't see me on the Yahoochat anymore.

Yeah, Lika-chan, it's lots of fun juggling multiple fandoms. I like when people talk about their other fan favorites on their blogs: gives me something to check out once I finish obsessing over my current favorites. Alison is especially helpful in that regard, as is Kristin and Rachel!

Of course, X has been so quiet lately...that may be because I'm getting frustrated by the complete absence of a certain favorite character of mine. Although it was nice seeing Yuzuriha this month, at least. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming American release...I want to hear the dub!

Oh, speaking of dubs, the American release of Berserk is going pretty well. The dub is not bad, but what's really funny is the dub outtakes. This latest dvd (volume 2) has a great run. The VAs just went wild this time. Hilarious! The latest Berserk manga volume (23) is out as well...looks like I need to put another order into Acclimate Solutions. Excellent place to order manga--they've done well for me each and every time I've used them.

That's all for now...looks like I'll need to archive again soon. Maybe it's time for a new layout as well...

Sunday, August 4, 2002 07:28 a.m.

She Lives!

So it's been awhile since I blogged. I've been tremendously busy--usually I get around more in the summer. Things are doing okay, though.

Firstly, Ammie-chan, I agree with Kerianne completely. Your brother is really handsome. Much better looking than my brother! Quinn is cute, too. Love the comments on the page. And just because I can: Daisuke? Good FUCK yeah! ;-D

Satsuki-chan, have I mentioned yet how much I love your new layout? Very elegant. Remus sounds very cute. I of course keep a couple of plush foxes around my desk...haven't named them yet, though. *tries to think of literary fox names* Reynardine? Briar Fox? I'm sure there are some Japanese ones, too. Isn't one of the guys on Yu Yu Hakusho a fox? (I tried to watch it, but it seems to be one of those "guys standing around yelling at each other about honor before they start fighting, then they fight" type of shows). What sucks is that the fox is almost always a coward or a villian. They do serve a purpose, you know, keeping the world safe from bunny domination.

Lika-chan, congrats on the proposal. ;-D Let me know what the china pattern is. The wedding WILL be on Tokyo Tower, I'm assuming? Oh, and about your mom's habit of showing up out of the blue: my in-laws have a bad habit of doing that--they may call like 15 minutes before, which isn't enough time to straighten up the house. And they live four and a half hours away!! It was worse when we were living closer. It's a power thing, I think. Actually, my mom would probably be doing the same thing: God knows she criticizes my housekeeping each and every time she's here. Although, last time we were at their place, it was none too spiffy. Bob told me he didn't ever want to hear them getting on us about our place when their's was so cluttered!

Alison, it's been awhile since you posted that, but I wanted to say I really liked your theory about the DOE's and selfishness. It was spot on. I've heard a little of Gestalt...is it good? What's it about?

Kerianne, Rachel, Kristin and anyone else who went to Shojocon: I'm horribly jealous. Sounds like everyone had a great time, though and got some neat stuff! Congrats especially, Rachel, on finally finding that Kamui pin! Loved the scans..especially the CCD guys cosplaying as X. And yes, I'd like to see the Aokizukamori!

Kris, I agree, the Farseer (Assassins) Trilogy by Robin Hobb is brilliant, although I think I prefer the supporting characters to Fitzchivalry. He was, I don't know, kind of whiny. I still think the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin is better, but Robin Hobb has crafted a very detailed world. The Liveship Traders didn't hook me, but I'm hoping her new series will be more to my taste.

Oh, and I'm building another suit of armor. Yay me. I must be crazy! This one is less on steel and more on leather. I'm still debating whether to harden the leather or to cheat and use plastic with leather riveted on to make it look more authentic. Full steel is out of the question (too dang heavy). *sigh* Decisions, decisions. *note to self: get pics of old armor scanned in*. Actually, it's kind of fun making stuff like that--my favorite thing about the SCA is learning to make things. I think that's something missing from modern society: even only a century ago, people made a lot of things for their households. Now, we just buy everything. It's very convenient and frees up a lot of time, but still, that sense of accomplishment is missing. I guess that's why "crafty" things like quilting and cross-stitch and such are so popular now in the US. I wonder if it's like that in other countries?


Wednesday, July 24, 2002 06:07 a.m.

Random

Well, Sats-chan, this is what I got:


Take the Purrsonality Quiz!

What's funny is that cat looks exactly like Bob's cat, Tegan. Hee!

Haven't been blogging much as I've been pretty busy. Will catch up on social things later this evening.

Mini-rant: I am SO SICK of Subaru/Seishirou fics. At least Fuuma's getting some attention now, but for the most part, it's the same S/S stuff time after time. I'm barely reading CFFML anymore due to this. (Although someone did do a real cute Kusa/Yuzu fic recently...vivat!)

But back to why I'm sick of Subaru/Seishirou: Mostly because the same story is getting told time after time after time. Now, granted, I'm not a great S/S fan anyway...I dislike Seishirou immensely. He's a freaking psychopath and the way he plays with Subaru in Tokyo Babylon is NOT romantic. It's a horror story, folks. Innocence and evil and what happens when the twain meet. Subaru tying Kamui's tie is romantic. Seishirou fondly an unconscious Subaru is creepy. Don't confuse the two, people! ;-D

Oh, saw the online trailer for The Two Towers, which can be found here. Ooooooooh, it's soooo cooooool! Dang, I cannot wait for December!

Monday, July 8, 2002 03:35 p.m.

Done!

The "yellow nun" tunic is finished! And so is a lovely green overtunic with trim! I had about a yard of cloth left over that will be used as a veil of sorts, I'm just finishing it off in a blanket stitch, which takes for-freaking-ever, but I can sit and do that and watch tv at the same time, so I foresee that part being done by the end of this week. Yes, Lika, we will take pics, once I can find the camera...

We also ended up getting a new tent, because the stores all have their camping equipment on sale (making room for the fall stuff, no doubt) and my old tent was pretty nasty. It was almost 10 years old, had been in storage for about 5 years and when I took it out to look at it last week, it almost fell apart. Oh, well, it was too small anyway. I'm not very keen on camping, but SCA camping can be fun, and this way we can go to events, stay late and not have to worry about the drive home.

Dang, but the Sakura Board has gotten busy of late! How the heck am I gonna catch up on the posts? ;-D

Satsuki-chan, my sympathies on the demise of Celtic House. In this modern world of chain-stores, it's hard to keep a small business running. We've got a couple of stores here like that, down on Cable-car Square: Shamrock Imports (Irish) and The Yorkshire Rose (British). Now all we need is a Scots and a Welsh store and we'd have the set! (Although I'm not sure what is unique enough about Welsh culture--outside of the language--that would support a shop, even a small one!)

So Team USA is out of the World Cup running. It's a sign of how apathetic this country is towards soccer that it wasn't big news. The only topic on the news concerning this was surprise that the team won anything at all. The big topic has been the fire in Colorado. My Elitist Bastard friend Clara was irritated because the national news makes it sound like the fire is about to descend on Denver at any moment, and it really wasn't that close. Colorado Springs is probably in more danger than Denver. It's really sad. Colorado is (er...was) such a beautiful place. And all for an unwanted loveletter.

Lika-chan, I'm sorry to hear about the CTS. One reason I've been offline so much lately (besides the sewing) has been the fact that my left arm has been bothering me so much that I don't want to type. I did just change my keyboard to another position, which makes things easier, and I will probably need to replace my chair. The doc said it was not CTS (pain is in the wrong area), so I think I've got a case of tennis elbow, which only time really can heal. Hurts like the dickens, but not enough that I can't do things. That, and I just finished rereading George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire which is three (long) books and still running. Probably some of the best fantasy I've ever read. Sats-chan, I'm especially thinking that you'd love it--I know it's been translated into German, you might want to check it out.

Aaaaaaaamiiiiiieee! I got your letter!!!! Thanks for the Yuzu/Inuki fanart! (The little ones in the letter were really cute, too!). Yes, I shall write you back (by hand, even).

Pretty astute observation, Kerianne. I've often wondered that myself. Although, straight or not, I prefer non-angsty relationships for my favorite characters. I will admit that angst is a lot easier to take if the relationship is yaoi. I guess if someone has to suffer, I'd prefer he be pretty. Go figure, huh?

Oh! We went and saw Scooby-Doo yesterday. It actually made me feel like a little kid watching cartoons again. I used to watch the show when I was little--err, first-run, which kinda dates me. Daphne was always my favorite character--Mom even got me a purple minidress because I wanted to look like her. LOL, I'm afraid I grew up more like Velma, however! That Matthew Lilliard deserves some kind of award for his take on Shaggy. He had it down perfectly. Anyway, it was much better than the reviews led me to believe. Then again, most reviews are written by boomers, who would have been too old to have watched Scooby-doo as kids, so what the f*ck would they know?!

There was also a preview for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which looked to be as fun as the first movie. Especially my boy Ron, who is far and away my favorite character (Snape runs a close second, with Remus right behind him). Can't wait, it should be fun!

'kay, that's enough for now.

Monday, June 24, 2002 6:01 am

Have a Cow

Or half of one, even. Well, we went to the Prairie du Chien Rendezvous yesterday. It was kind of funny because they had the historical campsite, with the tents and the blanket merchants and such, then beyond the campsite was a modern campsite where people had set up what turned out to be a huge flea market. We must have walked for miles looking at stuff. Luckily, the weather was quite mild. I got a couple of small wooden spoons (and a bit of a sunburn) and Bob got half-a-hide of cowleather.

Now, as you may know, cows are pretty big to begin with, and this particular cow must have been a doozy, because that's a big freaking piece of leather. When I made my armor I don't think I used that much! Bob wants to learn leather-tooling, though, and this will give him plenty to experiment on. Plus I can cut myself a new belt from it!You know, at some point I need to scan a couple of the pictures of me in my armor, or at least of the brigandine and post 'em...maybe when I'm finished sewing...

I thought I would finish the yellow tunic yesterday, but I screwed up. The gussets are too big, which screws up the fall of the rest of the garment, and it's a little short. I was so angry I cried, literally. The linen's too delicate to pull the stitches out, so I'll have to cut the seams and start from scratch. Shit.

(If you have no clue what I'm talking about, I'm making one of these using these instructions and not doing so well because I suck at sewing.)

And Ammie-chan, Daisuke/Yuzuriha just won't work. She's got a man already, and let's face it, if she can ignore Kamui, Subaru and Sorata in favor of Kusanagi, I'm afraid Dai-kun doesn't stand a chance, no matter how cute that button-nose of his is. Oh, and no, I haven't checked the autumnriver account lately, so I haven't seen your mail...I'll go look at it now.

Sunday, June 16, 2002 06:05 a.m.

Sew: A needle pulling thread

*Waves* I've not been online much lately--instead, I've been getting all friendly with my sewing machine and making garb. I finally finished Bob's tunic, with all the exterior stitching (neck, hemlines) done by hand. It's very plain (a light brown linen), but it looks good on him. I need to do an overtunic for him, but at least he has one costume. I'm working on mine now. It's a light yellow linen tunic with double-gores in the sides for fullness. It's not a particularly flattering style, but who cares? I'm going for the authentic look this time. So basically, I'm going to look like a yellow nun. ;-D I'm not very good at sewing, which is why this is taking so long. If I had to sew for a living, I'd be in deep trouble.

I read the English translation of Chobits volume 1. I'm hooked. What a cute story! Yeah, it'll probably turn dark and weird, but until then, I'm loving it! I have to say, I didn't think I'd like the new Tokyopop format, but I'm finding that I'm enjoying their titles. Of course, getting rid of that god-awful font of theirs probably helped.

Lika, sounds like your sister needs to learn to live within her means. Don't let her jealousy get to you!

Ammie-chan, sorry I haven't been much help in the Great Gimpy Argument. I think Daisuke's devotion to her is very sweet. However, I still think Keiichi would have been a better partner for him.

Satsuki-chan, will we get to see a picture of the finished product?!! I mean, the entire costume...!

Rachel, happy anniversary!! How was Into the Woods? I saw a film of the original production years ago (with that fake cow they dragged around). On the Tony Awards program, they showed a dancing cow? Of course, my favorite character was the wolf. And the witch, actually, but part of that was the magic of Bernadette Peters.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Berserk dub. Gatts (or Guts) was quite good, as was Casca. Griffith seemed a bit contrived, but I'm hoping the guy will settle into his role. Berserk is one of those animes that I really wanted to hear in English, because the Japanese was kind of jarring coupled with the European-like world the story is set in. Actually, it would be really interesting to see it in one of the continental languages (French, Spanish, German)! Hey, Sats-chan, have they brought Berserk over there yet?

Well, enough for now. Tomorrow we head over to the Rendezvous at Prairie du Chien. It's a little town about an hour or so north of here. The Buckskinners are interesting folk, and it's a great source for cheap leather. So later, folks!

Friday, June 14, 2002 09:13 p.m.

Hmmm

And I'm doing the insomnia thing again...bleh.

Well, the local comic shop is closing. The guy's been trying to sell it for the past couple of years (for an outrageous price, which is why he's gotten no serious offers!) and finally decided to throw in the towel. Not that the store was that good anyway...we had a box there, and even then half the time we didn't get our stuff. And forget graphic novels--we had to pick them up in other cities. Bob's all upset, though, because he was planning to do some GURPS demos at that store and maybe find some folks to game with here.

Kris, I concur about the sucky Iowa job market. I, too, have a college degree (and several years of experience as well) and honestly, the only jobs I have managed to get in the four years I've been in Iowa have been the sort that high school graduates can get.

What irks me is that in the interviews, they're sooooo insistant about that degree, then I get into the office and find that I'm once again working with a bunch of people that never went to college. I don't mean to sound snobbish, but honestly, why insist on a college degree if the other people in the office don't have one? It only causes problems in the office, because the high school graduates tend to resent the college graduates. It's true. I've run into this time and time again. There's a lot less friction working in an environment where everyone is college educated. (Okay, there's still office politics, but you skip some of the more petty bullshit).

So good luck, chica. At least Iowa isn't that expensive a place to live. If you're in the Iowa City area still, you might try Seabury and Smith. (They're an insurance brokerage firm that also does their own billing and claims). A friend of mine worked there for a few years, got some experience, then moved on to a better job. I used to deal with them when I was at Wellmark. Anyway, IIRC, Seabury has a good-sized office around there somewhere and usually they're pretty good about hiring entry-level workers.

The arm is feeling better today. I've been taking meds for it, but sometimes I overdo and it aches like hell. This has been going on for over two months now, so I wish the dang thing would just heal already. Sheesh!

Enough for now, will probably write more later.

Saturday, June 8, 2002 03:56 a.m.

Some Fun

My arm injury is acting up, so I am not up to typing much today. Instead, here are some links that I've been pointed to recently:

The Six Beers Theory

L.A. Coroner's Office Gift Shop

And a repeat, because it just makes me laugh:

Heartless Bitches International

And here ya'll were thinking I was such a nice gal! Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

Friday, June 7, 2002 11:20 a.m.

Awake

Okay, more about the trip.

The best part was getting to catch up with my friend Amanda. I met Amanda via the SCA, when I volunteered to help out at the event she was autocratting. Personality-wise, we are total opposites. She's given a whole new dimension to the word "extrovert", while I am rather shy and not inclined to deal much with people. However, we had a lot of interests in common, and what was really cool about Amanda was that she was astute enough to give me room when I needed to be alone, but was always happy for a night out when I felt like coming out of my shell. And even though we'd barely talked in the past four years (I moved away and she's hard to get ahold of), when we got together it was like no time had passed at all. Anyway, we'd done a lot together and it was really wonderful to see her again.

The comic/game shop that Bob used to frequent when we lived in Louisville is still there. It's expanded quite a bit, which led Bob to momentarily wish that we'd never moved away. (The comic shop here in Dubuque leaves much to be desired.) The city seemed much the same, although they added a convention center where the downtown mall used to be (I used to catch the bus there). Amanda said the city has grown quite a bit, but mainly in the eastern suburbs of town. I barely ever went over there during the six years I lived in Louisville, so I didn't bother to go see the sprawl.

The rundown apartment building that was our first home together is unchanged. It's too bad, because it was a cool old building (built in 1847). We used to fantasize about buying the place and fixing it up.

Mostly, we hung out with my folks and sorted through what they'd gotten from my grandparents' estate (the reason for our visit was to get some of the stuff out of their basement!). Actually, Mom ended up pawning some of her own stuff on us as well. Mainly art. The Ray Harm nature prints are nice (I just had bought one of my own--the Red Fox one). Most of them were already framed, so I spent most of today fussing about the house hanging stuff up. This house has a lot more wall space than our other house did. Dad and I talked business--he's developing some land near their house. And Bob was the Stepford Son-in-Law. He's never gotten to know my parents very well, so he doesn't say a lot around them. But he seemed to have fun on the trip anyway. And the cat just broke one of the lamps we brought back, thus proving "easy come, easy go." *sigh*

Some social blogging:

Satsuki-chan, saw your message on the Sakura Board. Hope all is well, blog more often! Or write me! You know my address!

Alison, I'm shocked that the US has done as well as they have in soccer (football). We're hardly known as a soccer superpower--although the game is slowly gaining popularity over here. It wasn't taught when I was in school, but now every school has a soccer team, so as kids get older, I daresay the US will improve.

Kerianne, I felt the same way when I was about the graduate, even though I loathed high school. And honestly, I haven't kept in touch with anyone from that time, although I admit part of that was because my parents moved out of state while I was in college. Bob hasn't kept up with anyone in his class, either. Glad to hear you're having your summer free! Enjoy it!

*Hugs Rachel* Been there, done that. That's the downside of ADSL. When we had it in Des Moines, it seemed to go down a lot. We haven't had that problem with the cable modem (well, except when they filed bankruptcy and we had to switch ISPs and the bastards increased our rates). Why is it that every time there's a merger, the new company raises the rates? The point of a merger is to make a company more efficient, not to make it easier to gouge the customers. Sheesh!

And that's all for now! *waves to everyone else* I'm still reading, just don't have anything to say right now! Tomorrow: some rants/whining/caustic observations.

Wednesday, June 5, 2002 07:24 p.m.

Singing in the Rain

Note to Iowa Weather Gods: Okay, you can stop now. We're wet enough, thank you.

Bob and I went down to Kentucky to visit my folks this past week. It's been awhile (almost 4 years!) since I went to visit my folks, as they usually stop by on their travels. Their little town hasn't changed much, although there were a few more buildings than before. More on the trip later--I'm tired tonight.

Eastern Iowa has been completely soaked for the last few days--Dubuque has had almost 6 inches of rainfall in the last day or so. We took some water in our basement, but it was minor compared to the flooding that some folks had to endure. They shut down some of the highways around here: fortunately, we returned yesterday, before things got so bad!

Changed the design again: this'll do until I finish with what I really wanted. The featured subject is one of the foxes in the Grand Inari Shrine in Kyoto (Fushimi Inari Taisha). This place is on the top of my list of things to see if I ever get to visit Japan. I also added a couple of links. One is to my husband's website, since he's always asking why I never linked him. It's small, but you can see a picture of him and decide for yourself if he looks like a Vietnam Veteran. *snicker* The other link is to Kris, since I've been enjoying her blog entries, and because she's an Iowa gal, too.

Anyway, I shall write more later. I've got some social blogging to do, plus some rants and general whining that have been building up for awhile. Until then...

Tuesday, June 4, 2002 10:28 p.m.