Beware of Poison Ivy

-Here are the best of the pictures I took at Bey/buxom_bey's Halloween party. Enjoy, but don't scratch . . .

( Cut for large images . . .  )

NaNoWriKu

-I was reading up on the history of the haiku, and learned that it originated in a longer form called haika. The first verse of a haika was the hokku. Since the hokku set the tone, it was very important, and poets would spend a lot of time on it . . . and often would never bother to write the rest of the haika. In the 1890s, Masaoka Shiki formalized this as the creation of independent verses, called haiku.

-Being a snarky sort, when I read about people writing hokku and never bothering to write the rest, I immediately thought, "Oh, it's like NaNoWriMo." You may all now give me dirty looks, and your nasty comments about my arrogant elitism are thoroughly appropriate. My polite side hereby apologizes for my snarky side.

-Nevertheless, this does suggest a new art form: the nanowriku. A nanowriku is the first paragraph of a (notional) novel, containing 5 to 7 sentences, and intended to set a tone and introduce 1 to 3 characters. It should contain minimal plot. Bonus points for a reference to a season of the year, weather, or angst.

Photographers

-With regards to this post, a couple people wrote to me to suggest photographers on this coast. My points of response, not in any particular order:

• I'm not, like, the agent for any of the women I had in mind. They're just friends of mine I think are beautiful.
  
• I don't have the spare funds to pay a photographer.
  
• Am I supposed to say, "You, go get photographed by this person, I'll pay"? Just out of the blue?
  
• I was mostly saying that I specifically like Amelia's work.
  
• If my women friends want to get photographed, they are more than competent to handle the arrangements themselves. And often have.

Return of the Chin

-In case you were curious, here's my bare chin.
( Read more... )

-Every time I look in the mirror, I wonder where my face has gone. I'm not likin' it.