I've been making a lot of comics on Gaia Online (which has eaten my brain of late). Thought I'd share them here.

( Cut to save friendlists )

Dead woman found in freezer

Police executing a search warrant tonight at a north Mobile house discovered the body of a woman in the freezer, authorities said.

Anthony Hopkins, 37, who resides at the 258 Rylands St. house -- just off of St. Stephens Road -- where the body was found is being held for questioning, police spokeswoman Nancy Johnson said.

The body of the woman had yet to be identified late tonight, she said.

Police obtained the search warrant after learning that there was "foul play" at the location, Johnson said. They hit the house at about 7 p.m., she said.

What killed the woman and how long her body had been in the freezer before police arrived, was being investigated, Johnson said.

I'm feeling: horrified

Yesterday our older cat, Gohan, began exhibiting signs of serious distress. When we came home last night he was huddled under the bed. We got him out and got him settled on a chair next to the bed. He woke us up at 1 AM yowling and crouching by my side of the bed. We sat up with him for several hours until he calmed down and went to sleep. We got some water in him but he was past eating.

This morning around 9 AM I had just gotten up when Gohan leapt down from the chair where he'd been sleeping and collapsed at my feet, making feeble efforts to climb up my leg. I gathered him up onto the bed beside me and let him lie in my arms. Barbara came to sit beside us through the next hour or so, while he went through what most animals don't want anyone to see. He didn't want to be alone, and he wasn't.

Around 10 AM Central time, Gohan, our ten-year-old cat, died in my arms. He died with Barbara stroking him and talking to him softly. He died of natural causes, the first of any of our cats to do so.

He is survived by his adopted brother, Max, a 2 1/2 year old orange domestic longhair.

He will be greatly missed.

I'm feeling: grieving

So the lease at the Apartment From Hell™ ended last month, and we decided to start looking for a house. Actually, we had been looking for a house, or at least a bigger apartment, but pickings suddenly turned slim around the time our lease was up.

But lo and behold, a house almost literally got dropped into our laps. The landlord is more than willing to work with us on the deposit and such, and we were able to move in this past weekend.

The reason I haven't told anybody about this development is because I didn't want to say anything until we were moving for sure. I was going to post about it this past Saturday--the last day we were spending at the apartment--but they switched over the phone early, so I ended up intarwebless for the entire weekend.

So now we have a lovely 3BR/2bath house, with a real back yard and a big lovely oak tree and a back porch and a patio and everything.

Happy R us.

I'm feeling: bouncy

We had our nice car for, like, two weeks. Then somebody slashed all the tires, bashed in the back hatch windshield, and spraypainted "BITCH" all over it.

We've got the tires replaced and the paint's been washed off, but right now we're driving around with plastic over the back hatch and broken glass still falling out of it.

We think we know who did it, but of course we can't prove it, and the police aren't interested because it's less than $500 in damages and it would cost more to prosecute.

She's a 20-year-old girl who used to work at the laundromat. She got fed up and quit and walked out in the middle of a shift, then started coming up to the laundromat to wash her clothes, and while she was there she would badmouth us (Kristyn and me), the new owner, the machines, and the whole business to anyone who happened to be in the laundromat at the time. When Lee (owner) got wind of this, he said the next time she showed up he wanted her informed that she was no longer to come into the shop or he'd call the police on her. WHen she got wind of this, she inexplicably blamed Kristyn and me for "getting her into trouble". She started stalking us and telling us she'd "get" us. She also lives int he building across the driveway from us so she can watch our comings and goings, and she knew when we got the car. We have witnesses who saw her and her friends go after it, but still the police won't do anything. She did the exact same thing to another girl who used to work at the laundromat and not only admitted it, but BRAGGED ABOUT IT openly, and still the police won't do anything.

Our lease is up this month and we really wanted to move. But we're going to need about $1500 to move (with all the deposits and paying first and last month rent) and we just don't have it. So it's either sign a new lease or pay month-to-month, which is $750, which is $230 more than we're paying now, and try to save up to move in a few months' time. (Which means we won't have any spare money for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or even my birthday or Barbara's birthday.) We can't stay another year in this place with the little slag who lives across the way from us just watching for her chance to "get us" again, so we don't have a lot of choice.

I'm not asking anyone for any money. We've already received more help than we could expect, and I'm not asking for any more help, though God knows we could probably use it. I'm just at my wit's end and it's either blow off steam here or self-destruct.

I'm feeling: depressed

I have joined a drabble community, stories_100. I have laid claim to my current character obsession, Brainiac Five from Legion of Super-Heroes. I have taken the challenge to post 100 drabbles about that character.

This is the table I intend to fill up with friendly links.

I'm feeling: creative

Okay, I've been quiet for several weeks and I'm sure people were wondering what was going on. Well, some people, anyway, since I do tend to neglect this journal for months at a time. This time, however, there were things brewing.

Management at my apartment complex (where I have lived for the past 18 years) has changed four times in the last six months. We have been alternately promised much-needed renovations on our by-now falling-apart residence and threatened with eviction if we complained about what was broken.

However, the good news is that the current manager is willing to work with us on the many problems we've been having. Even so, we're looking to move. We're hoping to find a nice three-bedroom house to rent. Think good thoughts for us.

At the moment, we're pretty stable. Thanks for everyone who was pulling for us.

I'm feeling: relieved

Night Terrors

This one's really really short. The one I'm working on now is a lot longer and has Supergirl in it (are you listening amusingmuse? XD

And for those who have been reading the Legion for as long as I have, here's a layout I stole for the previous story. My humble homage to my favorite LSH artist ever, Mike Grell.

( Mike? He's the man. )

I'm feeling: hyper

This picture is was specifically made for one of my oldest and dearest friends, amusingmuse. (We're talking decades, people.) She wanted a pic of Phantom Girl, and I was happy to oblige, since without her help I wouldn't be able to upload this pic in the first place.

Totally PG!

Thanks, kiddo.

(PS: No, musume, I haven't forgotten your birthday pic. Still working on it. <3)

Okay, this is very experimental in nature, so feedback is greatly appreciated, especially if you're a Legion fan.

Nothing Like The Sun [A Legion of Super-Heroes fanfic experiment]

Most of the connecting text is in the form of drabbles, because I like writing drabbles. The main focus is the gallery of pretty pictures I did. No, there are almost no backgrounds. Yes, I'm lazy. I did this for fun, after all.

References to Brainiac 5 as a dick are a specific homage to mightygodking, whose attitude about the Legion I like very much. HE SHOULD WRITE LSH NOW OMG.

I'm feeling: creative

For the past week I have been fighting my rekindled obsession with 30th 31st century teen angst and weird science.

I give.

I am once more enamored of Legion of Super-Heroes, the only DC book I ever read on a regular basis. I gave up on the entire DC universe shortly after the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, and I haven't given the post-Zero Hour and the "Threeboot" Legion more than a passing glance.

Still, I've been waxing nostalgic the last week or so for the Legion, and I think I might be on the verge of actually writing my first DC-themed fanfic in like...well, ever. The story will involve my own personal vision of the Legion, a combination of the Silver/Bronze age team I loved so much and adore still. (I'm talking good old-fashioned Levitz/Grell stuff here. Including Cos in a bustier and Saturn Girl in a pink peekaboo swimsuit.) Sorry, post-Zero Hour and Threeboot fans, there won't be much to interest you. Unless you like the usual themes of cosmic power, teenage superpowered angst and the most brilliant man in the 31st century being driven slowly and methodically insane.

Like 99.9999993% of my fanfiction, this will include an original character. I know, I know, like the Legion really needs more characters...but this one serves a purpose beyond author gratification, I promise.

Although there's that, too. Why write fanfic if it isn't fun to write?

I love doing pictures in DAZ, so here's one I've done as a preview for the new story.

( OC being mildly terrorized under the cut )

I'm feeling: can't sleep..plotbunny

Kifed from katzedecimal

Comment and I will:

1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something. A fandom, a song, a colour, a piece of fruit. SOMETHING.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Associate you with a character/pairing.
6. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
7. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
8. In retort, you must spread this disease in your LJ.

I'm feeling: cold

Look who made the front page of the Mobile Press-Register today! I'm talking front and center, page 1!!!

I'm feeling: mischievous

Oh noes I been taggeded.

Total number of books owned: Over a hundred. Literally. Most of them are paperbacks but not all. I still have books that I owned when I was in single digits--no small accomplishment, that, since we moved around so much and I've lost a lot of things during moving, natural disasters, et cetera. I would say somewhere between 100 and 150. And that doesn't count my lifemate's collection...

Last book read: Cell, by Stephen King. After the disappointment of Dreamcatcher, the newest work of horror by King was a marked improvement. I didn't really hate Dreamcatcher but some of the magic seemed to be gone. It's nice to know that Steve has rethought that whole retirement thing.

Five books that mean a lot to you:

I'm with amusingmuse here. Picking only five is going to be hard, really hard. But I'll try.

1. A Little Princess. This is probably my favorite book of all time ever. Sara is who I want to be when I grow up, and she's only a child. When my temper threatens to overwhelm me I often repeat to myself one of the many lines I have memorized: "There is nothing so strong as rage, except what makes you hold it in--that's stronger."

2. 999. This fin de siecle collection of short horror stories was brought to me by my darling yuugimotoh while I was in the hospital recuperating from emergency surgery. Not only does it have sentimental attachments, but the stories are really gripping and well-chosen.

3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This is my favorite of the HP books. Not only is Harry almost lustable age, but JKR is really beginning to hit her stride here. The writing is much better than previous books, technically superior even to my other favorite in the series, The Prisoner of Azkaban. I got this for Christmas two years ago and I've read it almost to tatters.

4. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. I love dolls, everybody knows it. I read books like Miss Hickory and Wassilissa the Beautiful and Racketty-Packetty House when I was growing up, but somehow I missed Rachel Field's simple, timeless, wryly witty story of a small handmade wooden doll and her century of travels and observations of the changing world around her. There really is a Hitty doll; she's on display in New England, and there are reproductions of her made all the time. I myself have a small cloth doll I made in her honor, and my current desk companion at work is another small doll very like Hitty, by the name of Miss Pearl.

5. The Blue Fairy Book. Actually, all the "color" fairy books by Andrew Lang are beloved by me, but the earliest ones are definitely the best of the lot. The first book, listed here, has such standards as "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty" as well as all-but-forgotten tales such as "The Yellow Dwarf" and "Snow-White and Rose-Red" (in the last story, there is one dwarf, not seven, and he's a baaaaaaad dwarf).

I tag: yuugimotoh, feyth, darksakura, kimikohime, and batchix.

I'm feeling: contemplative

When are you guys going to stop paying out hundreds of dollars to fly-by-night corporations for the questionable privilege of sharing space with genre celebrities who don't really want to be anywhere near the public and will only do so if they are paid exhorbitant appearance fees funded by the fanaticism of a handful of devotees?

I have been involved with science fiction/fantasy/comic book conventions for nearly three decades. Most of the events I attended were fan-run, not-for-profit, and the actors, writers, artists and other notables who attended did so not for a fee, but with only their expenses paid. (Hotel room, travel fare, etc.) The convention organizers and workers didn't get paid for their efforts. Maybe the really big names (with the attendant really big egos) weren't attracted by that concept, but the celebs who actually wanted to interact with their fans would flock to these venues. Tickets were ten or twenty dollars for the weekend and of course you paid your own hotel and travel expenses. That's what a convention should be.

When you get charged upwards of $100 a ticket just for the little admittance badge and have to stand in long, tedious lines to get a book autographed or a picture taken? When the celebrity guests only appear with bodyguards and never, ever "mingle" with the fans at all? That's where you start getting into trouble.

And then something like this happens.

I feel deeply sorry for the people who wanted to attend this event and only found out an hour before it was to begin that it had been cancelled. I feel nothing but deep and abiding love for Adam Baldwin, who decided to show up anyway (and is trying to convince other Firefly celebs to do the same). And I feel nothing less than bitter, black contempt for the organizers who took people's money and then pulled this absolute bullshit without even giving fair warning. They deserve whatever they get and then some.

I hate for-profit conventions and I would not attend one even if I was the main guest of honor. Which I will never be. But still.

I'm feeling: pissed off

Now, I don't have a Wii. I probably will not get a Wii for a very, very long time, if ever. (We're a PS household and have been for years.) But I happened to stumble across this information in another forum and simply had to share.

Safety Information for Playing Wii


As you become comfortable with using the new and innovative Wii Remote, we would like for you to take a few minutes to review some important safety information which, when followed, will help ensure a fun playing experience for all.


1. Wear the wrist strap. Make sure that all players using the Wii Remote are wearing the wrist strap and that it has been tightened using the strap lock. When sharing the Wii Remote between multiple players, please be sure each person using the Wii Remote takes the time to properly put on the wrist strap. Wearing the wrist strap will help prevent the Wii Remote from flying across the room if you accidentally let go of it during game play.

2. Hold the Wii Remote firmly and do not let go. Even while wearing the wrist strap, make sure you don't let go of the Wii Remote during game play and do not use excessive motion. For example, in Wii Sports bowling, the proper way to let go of the ball while bowling is to release the "B" button on the Wii Remote—DO NOT LET GO OF THE Wii REMOTE ITSELF. If you are having so much fun that you start perspiring, take a moment to dry your hands. If you use excessive motion and let go of the Wii Remote, the wrist strap may break and you could lose control of the Wii Remote. This could injure people nearby or cause damage to other objects.

I'm feeling: boggle

Gacked from katzedecimal.

1) Pick one of my characters. If you can't remember names, a vague description will do, as long as it's enough to jog my memory.

2) I will tell you the origin of his/her name.

3) I will tell you random facts surrounding his/her creation.

4) I will give you a random fact of his/her backstory.

5) I will give you a random fact of his/her forestory.

6) You may ask me up to ten questions about the character

7) I will give you one TMI fact. (And if you don't want that, please specify. If you want more than one, you're a pervert, but so am I, since I'm offering TMI in the first place.)

Here are my primary OCs in fanfic. This is not an exhaustive list and if you're curious about someone who's not listed here, feel free to ask about her!

Dark Shadows: Charlotte Collins
Dragonball Z: Crystal Silver, aka Cyborg 18*; Jet Silver, aka Cyborg 17*
Fantastic Four: Cherry Moon
Final Fantasy VII: Ceilys Walpurga
Gatchaman: Washio Miyae
Harry Potter: Prudence Hawthorne
Highlander: Lucinda Drake
Jonny Quest: Pearl Bannon
Legion of Super-Heroes: Vesta Garr/Nova
Pokemon: Sayuri/Gina Giovanni
Vampire: the Masquerade: Ashe
X-Men: Miriko Kagami/Mirror
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Hino Erika

* #17 and #18 are series characters, but I created a backstory for them and chose "human" names for them, so I think they qualify.

I'm feeling: playful