• Easy-to-use interface
• Inspired by Firefox ♥
• Integrates Twitter, facebook, livejournal, Gmail, and feeds so that they are all in one place together
• Good speed

• No way to integrate deviantART (because despite the fact that I hate the "new" dA, I still cannot get away from it)
• No way to adjust mood, location, and music for a LJ entry (that I know of).
• Doesn't have any themes for it like Firefox does
• All that integration has destroyed any chance I had of spending half the day doing these activities.
• No way to integrate dA

kelly_noel

• Internet Explorer: Too slow and very awkward for me to use (especially the latter versions)
• Netscape: Just lacked that certain....something
• AOL: It was AOL...what do you think?!
• AT&T Yahoo!: Reeeeeeally slow on my computer. :[
• Firefox: Love love love...but considering the only thing I have to compare it to are browsers I've hated, that's not really saying much. XD

Written for my English 1302: Composition and Rhetoric II class. The prompt that I chose to write on was simply to find a symbol and explain it citing sources from the text. The actual symbol part is a bit....not obvious, but I'd rather write a good essay that's a bit meandering when it comes to being on topic than a bad one that remains true to prompt. "Miss Brill" is a short story written by Katherine Mansfield and can be found in full text here.

"Oh, Diana," said Anne at last, clasping her hands and speaking almost in a whisper, "oh, do you think you can like me a little--enough to be my bosom friend?"

Diana laughed. Diana always laughed before she spoke.

"Why, I guess so," she said frankly. "I'm awfully glad you've come to live at Green Gables. It will be jolly to have somebody to play with. There isn't any other girl who lives near enough to play with, and I've no sisters big enough."

"Will you swear to be my friend forever and ever?" demanded Anne eagerly.

Diana looked shocked.

"Why it's dreadfully wicked to swear," she said rebukingly.

"Oh no, not my kind of swearing. There are two kinds, you know."

"I never heard of but one kind," said Diana doubtfully.

"There really is another. Oh, it isn't wicked at all. It just means vowing and promising solemnly."

"Well, I don't mind doing that," agreed Diana, relieved. "How do you do it?"

"We must join hands--so," said Anne gravely. "It ought to be over running water. We'll just imagine this path is running water. I'll repeat the oath first. I solemnly swear to be faithful to my bosom friend, Diana Barry, as long as the sun and moon shall endure. Now you say it and put my name in."

Diana repeated the "oath" with a laugh fore and aft. Then she said:

"You're a queer girl, Anne. I heard before that you were queer. But I believe I'm going to like you real well."

When Marilla and Anne went home Diana went with them as for as the log bridge. The two little girls walked with their arms about each other. At the brook they parted with many promises to spend the next afternoon together.

"Well, did you find Diana a kindred spirit?" asked Marilla as they went up through the garden of Green Gables.

"Oh yes," sighed Anne, blissfully unconscious of any sarcasm on Marilla's part. "Oh Marilla, I'm the happiest girl on Prince Edward Island this very moment. I assure you I'll say my prayers with a right good-will tonight. Diana and I are going to build a playhouse in Mr. William Bell's birch grove tomorrow. Can I have those broken pieces of china that are out in the woodshed? Diana's birthday is in February and mine is in March. Don't you think that is a very strange coincidence? Diana is going to lend me a book to read. She says it's perfectly splendid and tremendously exciting. She's going to show me a place back in the woods where rice lilies grow. Don't you think Diana has got very soulful eyes? I wish I had soulful eyes. Diana is going to teach me to sing a song called `Nelly in the Hazel Dell.' She's going to give me a picture to put up in my room; it's a perfectly beautiful picture, she says--a lovely lady in a pale blue silk dress. A sewing-machine agent gave it to her. I wish I had something to give Diana. I'm an inch taller than Diana, but she is ever so much fatter; she says she'd like to be thin because it's so much more graceful, but I'm afraid she only said it to soothe my feelings. We're going to the shore some day to gather shells. We have agreed to call the spring down by the log bridge the Dryad's Bubble. Isn't that a perfectly elegant name? I read a story once about a spring called that. A dryad is sort of a grown-up fairy, I think."

"Well, all I hope is you won't talk Diana to death," said Marilla.


- Anne of Green Gables

My relationship with Bob the Trout (who, it must be noted for the purposes of this rant, is female) is best described as a never-ending mental boxing match. Not in a chess sense, where we're constantly looking for openings and maneuvering into favorable positions. No, we're engaged in a constant 15th-round slobberknocker, trying to inflict as much mental pain on each other as possible for reasons that have long been forgotten. This isn't to say we hate each other. Quite the opposite. We just like tormenting each other. Because of this, I was naturally suspicious when I walked into the Anime Expo cosplay office to say hi and was immediately greeted with a cackle and an offer of chocolate.

It's not that Bob the Trout is a bad cook - far from it, she tends to cook giant batches of cookies for Christmas as a catch-all present for friends and hey are delicious. However, the last time she offered me food, it was just after she'd watched some Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, and she cackled as she offered me onigiri. I'm a horror wuss, so I've never seen Higurashi (or its followup, Umineko), but I'm pretty sure that when Hodge Podge shouts "Oh God no!" in warning, it's a bad thing.

When I declined the offer of free chocolate, I found out what the cackling was for - they were props made from sculpey that were never meant for human consumption. The girls in the cosplay office left them out in a cup in the hope that people would try one, but they hadn't had any luck. But the press being the press and free stuff being free, I took the cup full of fake chocolates back to the press office and put it on the desk. I didn't have to wait long for someone to take the bait. That same day, we were sitting around with a bunch of photographers waiting for the masquerade and heard a surprised squawk.

"What is this?" asked the poor victim, holding his jaw. I recognized him - it was one of the Traveling Valentine crew, fixtures on the west coast cosplay circuit for years.

"Sculpey," I answered, not bothering to hide my grin.

"I thought so," he sighed as he picked the polymer clay out of his mouth, and he completely floored me with what he said next: "The sad thing is, this isn't the first time this has happened to me."

The lesson: Beware of cosplayers bearing chocolates.

If you just whistle every now and then, Megan; skip every thousandth step or so; skim the odd stone across the odd pond; go dancing on the occasional blue moon, if only alone in the dark; dress up sometimes, even with nowhere to go... for simply stirring up some little bit of hope, no matter how silly or disconnected your actions seem to be with the rest of the world, magic flashes in the unseen, friends are summoned, connections are timed, stars are aligned, opportunities are crystallized and serendipities are calculated, creating possibilities for new realities that cannot now even be imagined from where you presently stand.

Shazaam -
The Universe

What sort of theme should by party be?

What TYPE of party should I have?

What time should the party be held at

Explain your answers, suggest stuff, or just say hi:

What are the chances of me seeing you? (10 being the highest)

View Answers
Mean: 7.33 Median: 10 Std. Dev 3.77

1	0 (0.0%)
2	1 (33.3%)
3	0 (0.0%)
4	0 (0.0%)
5	0 (0.0%)
6	0 (0.0%)
7	0 (0.0%)
8	0 (0.0%)
9	0 (0.0%)
10	2 (66.7%)