I don't think this one was posted and if it was, my apologies. How adorable :')

Sup. Any other AP English tards out there besides me?

I have a question. In my English class, we have to choose a book to write an essay on. From that book, we have to select a particular character with internal conflict and basically write about the internal conflict. Easy, right? Wrong. My English teacher told me the book I had chosen had no "literary merit" and, unless I wanted to completely rewrite my essay, I had to prove the book's worth.

So my question is, how the hell do you prove a work has literary merit without directly coming out and saying it? If I did that in my essay, I'd probably get dinged for veering off topic.

P.S. I've noticed a fair amount of gamers in this comm. Any Fire Emblem fans? :)

Not only is Lucy coming into the house all on her own, and not flinching so much, but she now is interacting with us, playing and demanding attention.



Both Lucy and Simba are improving in appearance and health. Still eating a lot more then normal, but it's slowed considerably compared to what they were doing when they first realised food was available. From 5 or more feeds a day to 2 or 3.

And for a special treat, an animated gif of Aikidomayland playing 'catch' with Lucy.

( Meow! )

Dear Hinata,

I love it when you climb on my belly and "make bread" on it. However, in case you didn't notice, I'm massively pregnant now. Because of this, my boobs hurt a lot- you're welcome to make bread on my belly, but stay off my boobs if you insist on digging your claws into my skin while you're doing it.

Also, good on you for hissing at my father-in-law. I don't like him either.

Love,

Nicole

It took me longer than expected (thanks to so many people signing up) but all the emails/notifications are sent out!
If you left me your email I sent you the notice of who you're to do the Secret Santa for in that email, if not I sent the notice via the Livejournal message system.
If you have any problems or didn't get the message/email let me know either here or at Craig.Arndt(at)gmail.com.

Remember the deadline to mail your piece to your Secret Santa is December 11th and feel free to let me know when you send/get your piece, I'd love to know how everything turns out!

Best of luck guys!

Dear Abby, Gwim, and Pero,

I thought you would enjoy a treat, so I opened a can of tuna, carefully divided it into 3 bowls, set one down in front of each of you, and then.... each of you ate a tiny bit of it, then walked away. WTF, I thought all cats liked tuna and I know that when I open a can to fix some for me that each of you comes abegging. So, now that I give you some of your own, you all turn up your noses at it? I don't get it!

Also, while I have your attention, I am one person on a single bed, so when all 3 of you want to snuggle, you know that you have to plan where to plop down very carefully. Gwim, this especially goes for you: Pero does NOT appreciate it when you plunk down with your butt right in his face, ok? Pero, it's okay if you sleep in my wheelchair when Gwim is sticking his butt in front of your nose, but please vacate said chair when I get up in the morning.

By the way, I'll leave the bowls with tuna out for you tonight in case one of you wants a late night snack, but the bowls will be picked up when I get up tomorrow. The whole apartment smells like tuna right now!

I loves you all,
Your human who spoils you

In chaos there is fertility.
- The diary of Anais Nin, Vol.1

He couldn't stay still; he wanted to get up and busy himself with something, to choke back the fear rising in him, against which he felt quite powerless...

I finally was able to get video of Jasper and Evy playing! They are so cute. But I do have a question. In the video you will hear Jasper 'crying' and hissing at Evy as they play. He always does this. But he comes back to play with her and doesn't hide...so...is he really disliking how Evy is playing, trying to tell her to stop but she is too much a kitten to understand or is Jasper just a wimp and being vocal about it? Thanks and enjoy!

Community Updates

fma_fic_contest announces:
Their latest Poll results
Prompt 37 Vote Post [flocked to fma_fic_contest]
The "Guess the Authors" Post for Blind Prompt 37 [flocked to fma_fic_contest]
| and |
Prompt 38: Poke
alltwelve announces Projects (plus a poll). [flocked to alltwelve] | and also |
posts a list of upcoming Raws/Projects

Fan Fiction

One-shot

All the Infections that the Sun Sucks Up Blind posted fic (secret Author) for fma_fic_contest [Havoc, Havoc's platoon, Breda; PG-13]
Pride of the Pantheress by enemytosleep [Ed, mentions of Al; PG]
CrackFic/Musical: Amestrian Idol: Edward and the Automailettes, Hosted by MC Hughesyourdaddy by binaryalchemist [Ed/Roy, R]

Multi-chaptered

Simple Offer, Chapter 8 by tenshishanai [Roy/Ed, PG-13 (NC-17 overall)]

Graphics

bodyline posts 112 FMA CoS, fanart/doujin icons [NWS]
blackspandex posts [Doujinshi Clip] Manga!Riza x Anime!Riza [NSFW, flocked to fma_rare]

Miscellaneous

celaith has FMA Metallic Character Tags for sale
kirarakim posts a Poll of your Favorite Team Mustang Subordinate
murdering posts about the candy cosplay red stones she's making
alchemyotaku75 asks for help finding DVD's of FMA:B

DJ Talk

Wow! It was a busier day than I thought at first! Especially for fma_fic_contest!

kalliel is up for Saturday!

The British Antarctic Survey's Penguin of the Day for yesterday ( is an emperor penguin chick. )

I think I could turn and live with animals, they're so placid and self contain'd,
I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the earth.

Dear Self-Proclaimed Lore Lover,

It's cool that you decided you wanted to scream at me in tells for pointing out that Jungle Trolls have fur and Forest Trolls have mossy skin. Really, I got a good laugh, however...

I don't care what you "imagine" or what you "prefer", the fact remains that Jungle Trolls have fur and Forest Trolls have moss on their skin.

I'm not pulling that out of my ass or from some wiki article, I'm pulling it direct from Blizzard's own pages.

Whether you like it in your RP or not is irrelevant, if your Troll doesn't have fur or moss and is either a Jungle or Forest Troll, you're one of those "lore breakers" that you rail against all the time.

And, yes, darlin', it is hypocritical of you to say otherwise.

- Fuzzytroll.

x-posted because my furry, three fingered RP hand can.

♥ Black: ...I aint a doubter. But I am a questioner.
White: What's the difference?
Black: Well, I think the questioner wants the truth. The doubter wants to be told there aint no such thing.

♥ Oh, you might say somethin about the other man's mama. That's a sensitive area, you might say. And he might lose it and come after your ass but when he done that it's like he's sayin that what you just got done tellin about his mama was true. It's like he sayin: You aint supposed to know that about my mama and you damn sure aint supposed to of told it and now I'm fixin to whip your ass.

♥ White: Well I still dont get it. Why not go someplace where you might be able to do some good?
Black: As opposed to someplace where god was needed.
White: Even God gives up at some point. There's no ministry in hell. That I ever heard of.

♥ Well now wait a minute. Just cause you dont like em dont mean you aint like em.

♥ I don't know, Professor. I try and go by what I see. The simplest things has got more to em than you can ever understand. Bunch of people standin around on a train platform of a mornin. Waitin to go to work. Been there a hundred times. A thousand maybe. It's just a train platform. Aint nothin else much you can say about it. But they might be one commuter waitin there on the edge of that platform that for him it's somethin else. It might even be the edge of the world. The edge of the universe. He's starin at the end of all tomorrows and he's drawin a shade over ever yesterday that ever was. So he's a different kind of commuter. He's worlds away from them everday travelers. Nothin to do with them at all.

♥ You need to listen. Or you need to believe what you hearin. The whole point of where this is goin - which you wanted to know - is that they aint no jews. Aint no whites. Aint no niggers. People of color. Aint none of that. At the deep bottom of the mine where the gold is at there aint none of that. There's just the pure ore. That forever thing. That you dont think is there. That thing that helps to keep folks nailed down to the platform when the Sunset Limited comes through. Even when they think they might want to get aboard. That thing that makes it possible to ladle out benediction upon the heads of strangers instead of curses. It's all the same thing. And it aint but one thing. Just one.

♥ Here's what I would say. I would say that the thing we are talkin about is Jesus, but it is Jesus understood as that gold at the bottom of the mine. He couldnt come down here and take the form of a man if that form was no done shaped to accommodate him. And if I said that there aint no way for Jesus to be ever a man without ever man bein Jesus then I believe that might be a pretty big heresy. But that's alright.

♥ White: I don't know. The Germans contributed a great deal to civilization. (Pause) Before Hitler.
Black: And then they contributed Hitler.

♥ The darker picture is always the correct one. When you read the history of the world you are reading a saga of bloodshed and greed and folly the import of which is impossible to ignore. And yet we imagine that the future will somehow be different. I've no idea why we are even still here but in all probability we will not be here much longer.

♥ Sometimes faith might just be a case of not havin nothin else left.

♥ What kind of pain we talkin about? I got to say that if it was grief that brought folks to suicide it'd be a full time job just to get em all in the ground come sundown. So I keep coming back to the same question. If it aint what you lost that is more than you can bear then maybe it's what you wont lose. What you'd rather die than to give up.

♥ You give up the world line by line. Stoically. And then one day you realize that your courage is farcical. It doesn't mean anything. You've become an accomplice in your own annihilation and there is nothing you can do about it. Everything you do closes a door somewhere ahead of you. And finally there is only one door left.

♥ I dont believe in God. Can you understand that? Look around you man. Cant you see? The clamor and din of those in torment has to be the sound most pleasing to his ear. And I loathe these discussions. The argument of the village atheist whose single passion is to revile endlessly that which he denies the existence of in the first place. Your fellowship is a fellowship of pain and nothing more. And if that pain was actually collective instead of simply reiterative then the sheer weight of it would drag the world from the walls of the universe and send it crashing and burning through whatever night it might yet be capable of engendering until it was not even ash. And justice? Brotherhood? Eternal life? Good god, man. Show me a religion that prepares one for death. For nothingness. There's a church I might enter. Yours prepares one only for more life. For dreams and illusions and lies. If you could banish the fear of death from men's hearts they wouldn't live a day. Who would want this nightmare if not for fear of the next? The shadow of the axe hangs over every joy. Every road ends in death. Or worse. Every friendship. Every love. Torment, betrayal, loss, suffering, pain, age, indignity, and hideous lingering illness. All with a single conclusion. For you and for every thing that you have chosen to care for. There's the true brotherhood. The true fellowship. And everyone is a member for life. You tell me that my brother is my salvation? My salvation? Well then damn him. Damn him in every shape and form and guise. Do I see myself in him? Yes. I do. And what I see sickens me.

~~The Sunset Limited by Cormac McCarthy.

Here are some of the wonderful cats I get to see every Saturday when I volunteer for a no-kill cat shelter.



( Sleepy Tigress invites you in )

"Death. Yes, death. And none of them know, and none of them want to know, and none of them are sorry. They're having fun." (From beyond his door he heard the distant sound of voices and a musical ritornello.) "They don't care, but they'll die just like me. Idiocy. Sooner for me, later for them, but it will come. And they're happy. Mindless brutes!"