Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in anything but jimmy!'s LiveJournal:

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Saturday, October 7th, 2006
12:31 am	24 hour comics day - hourly liveblogging! Hey all. The hazard of having two blogs is tht I always pick the wrong one to update. More comics folks probably read this one, but tonight all the action is on my regular blog at http://jaylaird.typepad.com/ We're doing 24 hour comics day and we're updating every hour with a report on our comic's progress! Check it out! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 26th, 2006
11:34 pm	So yeah, I'm not on here much now... I actually have a TypePad account, for which I pay, and yet I don't use that much more than this! As always, to know what's really going on, the best place to find me is my homepage -- and follow whatever I've put up there at http://www.jaylaird.com. I dunno, I just am not a very good blogger, I've decided. When something bad happens, most of the time it's not the kind of thing I want to write about on here, and when something good happens, usually it's something that makes me so busy that I have no time to write! However, I'm on here tonight, however, because I spent the evening hanging out with the McCloud family: Scott McCloud of "Understanding Comics" fame, his wife Ivy, and his daughters Sky and Winter. Winter and I spent most of the night chatting, and I told her I'd pop on here when I got home to check out her LJ. 'K-bye now... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, March 12th, 2005
10:47 am	This is scary. Now, I love Apple, as many of you know. Not enough to marry it, but yeah, my main computer is a Powerbook. I was gonna write something this morning about my latest foray into gadget geekery, but instead I found this in Salon.com: "Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg ruled that no one has the right to publish information that could have been provided only by someone breaking the law." The subject of the case was Apple's suit against three publications that revealed trade secrets. The judge is forcing the publications to reveal their sources. Usually, I'm not even that much of a free speech activist. I mean, yeah, I want the right to mock anything and everyone on BurningVillage.com, once we get it up and running full steam, but do I want the Klan marching through my town? Not really. I suppose in some ways it's the flip side of that tiresome half-baked rhetoric we hear from people too lazy to care: "We have to give up some privacy to have better security." Again, personally, I think some privacy nuts go a bit too far -- face it, folks, your information is already out there -- but I can see why their reactions are so severe: we're talking about a situation where 51% of the country seems to live in fear of people that are halfway around the globe that we decided to go in and bomb the crap out of. Yeah, the World Trade Center was a horrible, horrible moment in our history, but the reaction now seems almost like that of a three-year-old: we can't get the real culprits, so we lash out at anything that looks bad. Now where was I? Oh yes, this suit and Apple. What scares me about this is the idea that maybe freedom of speech isn't so free anymore. One of the few things keeping me from becoming a privacy nut is the idea that we can still say what we want, and that if good ideas can (for once) out-shout the bad ideas, we might get somewhere. But with the current state of journalism, it seems like that's going away. It's gotten to the point where my main news sources are Salon.com (which is wonderful, but somewhat of an echo chamber for lefties) and various blogs (which are fallible because you never know exactly who's behind them -- see also Jeff Gannon, former porn star turned reporter). And if we're getting to a point where exposés can't be written without fear of legal reprisal, well, that's kinda scary. On the flipside, it does suck that some people have nothing better to do than to try to get hold of trade secrets and publish them. I mean, I'd love to know as much about the inner workings of Apple as the next guy, and it'd be great if they'd be a bit more open about what they're up to. But I can see why they're a bit gun-shy about such a move, what with Microsoft always hanging around, giving kids their crack operating system (and I mean "crack" in both senses of the word -- broken, and also the drug: it's cheap and easy to get hooked, and then they dig in their claws). So yeah. I'm pretty law-abiding. I don't mind knowing that someone knows something about me. And occasionally there are folks who I'd rather see shut up. But that's just me. I'd be unhappy if you couldn't disagree with me. Well, unless you're Ann Coulter, in which case, please do shut up until you get a real education. Thanks for listening. Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: 1963 - ('95) -New Order (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 26th, 2005
1:47 pm	coffee with creatives i love hanging out with creative people. it usually involves coffee, but it just occurred to me that maybe we could eliminate the coffee and still be creative? maybe i'd be less jittery that way. funny, i'm the one always telling people that getting stoned doesn't enhance your creativity, it just gives you the illusion of enhanced creativity. you'd think i'd have figure out that this applies to stimulants as well as depressants. now if only i had some ritalin to get me through this chapter that's due today... maybe i'll just have some more coffee! Current Mood: creative Current Music: Teach Me How to Fight-Junior Boys-Chocolate (4 Comments |Comment on this)
11:49 am	saturday morning so here it is, saturday morning, and i'm at the office. forgot my mouse and power cord on friday night, so i couldn't work from home today. ah well, got to catch up on my reading on freemasonry (snooze) and check out the day's headlines on my way in. the pope is recovering nicely from his surgery. dammit. not that i would wish death on anyone. i wouldn't. the pope must simply DIET. actually i'd just be happy if some divine intervention would show him the error of his ways. why don't catholics get visited by 3 ghosts like scrooge was? of course, is catholocism ever very exciting? my one brush with it this year was going to my boyfriend's grandmother's 25th anniversary memorial mass (25th anniversary of her death, that is). i dunno, some people talk about the ritual and the mystery and the OY, FLAY-VIN! but the only mystery i see is how parents get their kids to sit still through the services. not to dis catholocism. i know a lot of folks who like it just fine, or who go to church because it brings them closer to their parents, or who are lucky enough to have a priest who inspires them instead of making them feel like crap. i just have yet to go to a catholic service (standard, wedding, funeral, or other) that doesn't sound lke the ramblings of an old man -- and unlike listening to my (now deceased) grandfather, i don't get a shiny penny for listening, but instead i'm expected to fork over a dollar? but anyway, back to the pope. if gay and lesbian families are the new "axis of evil", then why doesn't bush try to "bring democracy" to us, too, eh? eh? bring it, big boy. oh yeah, and your popeness, for the sake of your own salvation, i sure hope someone ghost-wrote that book you just came out with, because in the age of the internet it's a lot harder to repent: sins of writing stay cached forever! so yeah, anyone with good catholic experiences (and i know some of you), feel free to post in the comments section here. i'd love some good stories from the brighter side of things... Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: Mischief (Gabriel Yared) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, February 25th, 2005
5:18 pm	a new season... henry's excellent alien-bursting-through-the-pope's chest posting to nick's livejournal has provoked me to not only add nick as a livejournal friend, but to also get my sorry writerly ass back on here. you'd think i'd be on here all the time, since i'm not one of those "i only write when i get paid" kinda guys. but since i've been doing so much writing for edge/boston, i haven't really found the time. heck, at the moment i can't even find capital letters. mostly keeping busy with life at metaversal studios, getting ready to launch us into the stratosphere with some kickass games (though i suppose if we're going for the stratosphere, we may need boosters. little help here, rocket scientists?), and ready to get us consigned to hell with burning village. in the meantime, i'm having all kinds of fun delusions. yesterday i managed to get confused the following three subjects: "tearoom trade" (a sociology book on anonymous sex), "1984" (the george orwell book), and the book on freemasonry that I am currently reviewing. i wish i had the time to draw the image that somehow popped into my head. it wasn't so much obscene as surreal. no, really. most of the obscenity's confined to the office, but in a good way. next week we get our bigger office with couches. maybe i'll actually catch up on my sleep and have less waking-dream delusions. or maybe that's helping our creative output... then again i referred to my students as "my little plum blossoms" today, so i'm hitting the edge of some kind of (non)sense, i think. ok, back to the boring world of tech book writing... --J Current Mood: delusional Current Music: Big Gun (Tank Girl Soundtrack) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 7th, 2004
12:43 pm	it's like thinking about mom and dad... *shudder* so yeah, i've been away a while. thought of lots of entries to write, like how everyone should see "eternal sunshine of the spotless mind", but haven't gotten around to it yet. (SEE IT!) so do you remember the song "afternoon delight?" oh wait, if you're reading this, i'm probably older than you, but maybe you remember it anyway, because it just won't go away. very harmonized little ditty from the seventies, yadda yadda. so i always thought it was an innocent little song, until my ex mark (back when we were dating, oh, maybe 7 years ago) told me that it was really about a fourgy (or "folie-a-deux" for the more sexually advanced and/or french among you) between the two couples that wrote the song. fortunately, it seems mark had succumbed to an urban legend. now labbyAbby tells me that the song is, in fact, about a cheese plate, and this article supports this idea. this may also be urban myth, but hey, i'd rather think about these four stuffing their faces with cheese than mansausage. check it out, you'll see what i mean: http://www.superseventies.com/sw_afternoondelight.gif Current Mood: amused Current Music: oh, guess! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 11th, 2004
9:05 am	work i need to remind myself to stop working for brownie points. well, unless the brownies are my favorite flavor. which is money-flavored. Current Mood: pop-up videos with cream cheese Current Music: All U Crazies-Basement Jaxx-Jaxx Unreleased (Australian Tour Edition) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, March 5th, 2004
5:20 pm	updates ok, so i have not been on here in a while again, partly because i have not had a whole lot to say in liveJournal form (it's mostly being translated into semi-transparent fiction at this point). the other reason i haven't been on much is that i've always renewed my interest in liveJournal around some boy, and i don't want this to become the Teen Girl Squad live journal ("I love every boy!"), or to be turdinated by a Foster. so i'll just say my previous "mood" of andrew-licious has continued since my last entry with no faltering whatsoever. the other updates (as can be seen on my web page, for those who still look, once I update it tonight): I'm all over the Young Bottoms... and no, that's not as dirty as it sounds. This week is the 300th "issue" (1 page at a time...) of the "Young Bottoms in Love" comic strip that I contribute to, so they're doing a big retrospective, and a bunch of my stuff got picked, hopefully out of love and not out of desperation (hmm, I often say the same thing about my boyfriends!). I've been anthologized! I was pleasantly surprised to receive "Star Wars Tales", Volume 4 and to find my story in there. Of course, everybody's stories that get published get in, but it was still an unexpected treat. K-bye! Current Mood: over-engineered Current Music: Suck My Kiss-Richard Cheese-Lounge Against The Machine (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 18th, 2004
11:42 pm	ok some things can still get through my cynicism i thought this email from one of the other ferret folks was really touching. yes, yes, it probably seems freaky to some people to memorialize pets to this extent, and i probably wouldn't go this far myself (since i think funerals are for the living, not the dead, and i have my own ways of dealing with grief). ultimately it's just another touching coincidence to add to the "lifetime movie of the week" of domino's life, but hey, it got to me, so i thought i'd share, for the more hankie-prone among us (including myself)... I was getting worried when I hadn't heard from you and my biggest worry was that it was somehow related to Domino. I can't tell you how sorry I am having just gone through it twice in 8 weeks. As a matter of fact, , and I had a Memorial Service at the ocean today for Tyler and Duchess. Ironically we had three candles burning and I guess now I know who the third candle was for - Domino. It was really a lovely service with the 3 of us reading poems and telling stories about Tyler and Duchess. We had fresh flowers around the candles (stuck in the sand). We ended up tossing the flowers into the ocean to be taken away. As soon as I can figure out how to download my pictures, I will send you a copy of one with the three candles buring surrounded by flowers. This was all while it was snowing pretty heavily. It was very touching and please know that our thoughts are with you. Current Mood: andrew-licious Current Music: Brand New Lover-Bibiche (Comment on this)
10:48 pm	procrastination i am the world's champion procrastinator. here's the thing: because i actually make some money doing the things that i love (writing, composing, game design, etc), i can pretty much excuse almost any time i spend goofing off as "research and development time". it's kind of like being able to write off all entertainment expenses on my taxes... which come to think of it, i should probably look into... but the problem is, unlike with taxes, if you spend time you don't have, there's unrecoverable penalties. this last fall, i lost out on a great contract because i'd wasted too much time working on other projects that i'd committed to. of course, i justified it to myself as prioritizing, but really, it was just not parcelling out my time in equal enough chunks. i just love too much stuff. i love teaching, and i throw myself into that to a ridiculous extent (even if i occasionally make it look like i'm totally pulling lesson plans out of my ass... which of course occasionally i am, but it's like pulling a rabbit out of a hat, albeit less smelly... it just takes practice.) i also love all the little client projects that i get, even though i know i should turn some of them down and keep my eye on the big score. especially since i seriously want to hire all of those folks who are waiting in the wings with their creativity and their tech skills. some of the key ones are already going off and finding other amazing opportunities, so i've gotta get my ass in gear if i'm gonna match those. then there's that whole dating thing. it seems like whenever i'm on deadline, i meet someone really cool. the most recent example is this guy andrew. yes, ANOTHER andrew. i must just get along well with people possessing that name, or else there's something to that numerological crap after all. we spent a fair chunk of the night hanging out last night, and tomorrow afternoon, when i'm supposed to be catching up on work, we're going to probably have some kind of coffee date. or something. THINGS! so yeah, i guess the surest way to meet cool, datable people is to not have time for them. the universe is funny like that. if "joan of arcadia" is right, then god is a pretty twisted character sometimes, but hey, what could the people at FOX possibly know? rumor is they're in league with much darker forces anyway ;-) ok, this is all about procrastination, so in that spirit, i'm going to get back to work. Current Mood: ewan mcgregor & renee zellweger (figure it out) Current Music: Schoolhouse Rocky (Original Theme Music) (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 15th, 2004
9:20 pm	death is confusing. :( so today one of the household's pet ferrets died. this would be domino, generally known as the "world's sweetest ferret" (and not just by my household -- even people who don't like ferrets couldn't entirely resist domino's charms). on the way to the animal hospital, i had lots of thoughts on the subject that i was itching to write down (because that's how i deal with this stuff. i write.) then in the waiting room, i ended up sitting next to a nice woman who asked about domino. while trying to avoid being too much of a mess, i told her the short version of his story. turns out her dog has a brain tumor and was not there to be euthanized, but is definitely living with numbered days as well. so just when that was helping me to get a little perspective on the whole thing, they called us in for domino's appointment, and suddenly it was back to all kinds of new choices, like did we want to be there while they injected him, and did we want the body, etc. etc. we took a few minutes to discuss (they were really nice about giving us space and time) and decided to stay for the procedure. the doctor and assistant came back in, and i was already getting all worked up about it again (not only over the interbal conflict of doing this, but also the fact we were paying someone to have to do this thing that can't be easy for anyone, really). then the doctor announced that domino had actually died in our (well, mine or jody's) arms in the few minutes she was out of the room, so ultimately he kind of made his own choice, ending things still as the most considerate ferret ever. yeah yeah, i know some of you probably can't conceive of a ferret being as bonded with a person as a cat or a dog, but trust me on this one. although, i have to say (partly because it's true and partly because i can't leave a post entirely heavy), he did go out as quite the little drama queen. i mean, i had been thinking his life (found in a dumpster, raised to become an award-winning show ferret) would make a fun children's book, but instead he ended up becoming a lifetime network movie... especially with that whole milking it right up to the last minute thing. ok, enough with the hiding behind the humor. i admit it, i'm a little jealous that when domino had a brief moment where he looked directly up at someone and didn't spazz out (while in the car on the way to the operating room), that i didn't get to see it. but he was probably the ferret mark cared for the most, so it's only right that they got that moment. lots of thoughts about god, morality, afterlife, etc, that could be wrenched out of this story. it's still all running through my brain, but i think i'll give it a rest rather than subjecting y'all to it. Current Mood: brian wilson Current Music: Who Is Tyler Durden ?-The Dust Brothers-Fight Club Soundtrack (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 13th, 2004
11:01 pm	90210 happens sometimes it amazes me how you can wander sleepily through your day (especially when it's only week 2 of the semester and you're already not sleeping), and then --BAM-- suddenly you find out that you're the villain in some teen angst drama, and you didn't even know it. except the teens are all pushing 30 and really should know better. maybe that's part of what i like about "the OC" -- it's what happens to the 90210/Melrose folks when they grow up and have their own kids to deal with. when my dad was my age, i was heading off to high school, and he was getting his first divorce. weird. of course, now thanks to the internet, you can have remote drama -- much easier to just phone in your role that way. i think i'm much closer to my family as a result. after all, you can pick apart people's exact words again and again when they come to you as text. no, this isn't angst. i'm actually in a decent mood, almost amused. but mostly just tired. Current Mood: shannon doherty Current Music: My Hero, Zero - Lemonheads (3 Comments |Comment on this)
2:03 am	ah foolish me... 2am... drinking coffee... again feel like i got nothing done with my evening, even though my evening social plans were cancelled and i've been in front of my computer ever since... a bit of capstone progress, but not enough to get us through tomorrow, yet. however, since coffee's already not working when i am half a cup in, i am guessing it is time to sleep. except i know i'll get all itchy from the weather change (yes, it's JUST the weather!) and will be all crabby and distracted again tomorrow. i was going to write something clever about my nonidentical unrelated identical twins, but i think that will have to wait. Current Mood: zonker, or perhaps mike (doonsbury) Current Music: notebook fan additive synthesis (Comment on this)
Monday, January 12th, 2004
3:13 pm	now where was i? ok, so sounds like there's all kinds of livejournals i should be reading these days, which i guess means it's time to throw myself back into the LJ pool along with the sharks (yeah, I'm looking at you, brothers Foster). sadly, not much to report on or rant about, other than the weather being all kinds of crappy. makes me sleep badly, meaning i sleep longer, meaning i get less done in a day, meaning i get more stressed, meaning i drink more coffee, meaning my entries on here will no doubt head towards the rantriffic sooner rather than later. meanwhile, back to trying to purge my XP box of Spyware. my mac may have a boatload of problems, but at least it doesn't get spyware. it's kinda like sticking with the boring boyfriend because he doesn't do everything you want, but at least he doesn't shit on you while you sleep. metaphorically of course. i don't really know anyone THAT gross. heck, apparenty some of my friends still don't even know the meaning of the word "felch". and good for them, i say! Current Mood: conformist Current Music: something with a name and a number (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 1st, 2003
11:48 pm	Check out the new (paid) livejournal! Hey everyone! I'm back! So it's funny re-reading my old entries about frustration with Capstone, high hopes for Richard, etc. Richard and I are now dating (granted we have almost no time for each other so it's very slow dating... I feel like I'm in kind of an ABC Afterschool special almost...) and Capstone, despite my relief at its completion back in March, managed to plague me until last Friday. However, now it is done done done. I'm actually thankful for the extra time at the end, even if it was hellish, as now we're sending out a much nicer, much less buggy product. It's still not perfect, but considering that it started as a seemingly manageable student project and ended up turning into this epic ordeal that sucked every possible spare moment out of most of the folks involved... it's the best we can do. Anyway, the big news. You should now start reading the live journal of octo_inkling. it is the shared journal for mark, jody, and me -- and our octopus farm. For more information, check out http://octopus.actwin.com. You can also read the liveJournal from there! Current Mood: artistic Current Music: A New Argentina (Evita) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 15th, 2003
4:50 am	a rush of stupid to the head You know, sometimes I miss the good old days when the Internet was a small, exclusive club for people smart enough to figure out how to get there. Now any stupid person can get online and it shows. Don't worry: if you are smart enough to have found my livejournal, or if you've been invited to read it, you aren't among the aforementioned stupid people. On the other hand, if you're connected to me via friendster, just go out a few levels from my link and you'll be wading in the shoals of stupidity. Granted, this partly a natural phenomenon in any social group. First, you have your immediate friends, with whom you presumably share a lot, then the friends-of-friends, who could become friends, since they have something in common with your friends. Then there are the friends-of-friends-of-friends, who might have exactly the things in common that you hate about your friends-of-friends. On the other hand, you might get lucky and meet someone with whom you have even more in common that you would have ever expected from your immediate friends, which is why, I suppose, services like friendster exist. And I have to admit, it's kind of cool to see all of these connections forming... I guess you just get stuck taking the bad connections along with the good. OK, I feel like I've vented now. Not much to complain about, really, just a mild annoyance. Well, that and the fact that it's 4:46AM and I've been up for two hours because my sleep schedule has been completely messed up again. And once again I am on the verge of dating someone diurnal instead of nocturnal. Not that I can complain about the dating, but clearly I'm supposed to be dating night-people, since I can't seem to become a day-person. And not the Lestat/Angel kind of night-person either, thankyouverymuch. Blood doesn't do much for me! (the current music, Sound 13, is brought to you by John Cage's Pieces for Prepared Piano) Current Mood: cranky Current Music: Sound 13 (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 19th, 2003
4:03 pm	we interrupt this liveJournal for late-breaking news, and a commercial... ... both in the same announcement. STAR WARS TALES #15, which contains my first "major" comics writing sale is now available at fine stores everywhere. In fact, as an added bonus, if you purchase my comic book from a Borders located somewhat near Commack, NY (I think), you can probably get a nice smile from a cute Cafe Manager there. On the other hand I can't promise anything if he's in a grumpy mood. Oh yeah, I'd offer to autograph them for people, too, but it's not THAT great. In fact I'm not all that thrilled with how the story ended up on the page, though the drawings are pretty nice. It was supposed to be an 8 page story that ended up being 4 pages long. I actually was the one who did the major cutting, but still, it's interesting seeing how what's in your head changes after going through the filter of a few other heads (ie, my editor at Dark Horse, and the artist). Ironically the artist for this was Timothy II. As most of you know, most of my comics work has been done with my ex boyfriend, a comics artist/writer/editor named Tim. So having my first major comission drawn by Tim 2 is just really funny to me. OK, sorry to advertise and run, people, but I have a ton to do before I go get my haircut at 6pm. I'm furthering my transformation into an anime character by getting more blue highlights put in my hair. Yes, it'll still be subtle, but not so much as before. I mean, I figure I'm stuck with my small mouth so if I could just make it look like I have really big eyes, I'd be soo close to an anime character. Room cleaning time! Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Green Eyes-Coldplay-A Rush Of Blood To The Head (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, March 15th, 2003
2:38 am	neckache this content-free entry is dedicated to andrew, who deserves lots of content-ment. :) Current Mood: sympathetic Current Music: Bitter-Remy Zero-The Golden Hum (1 Comment |Comment on this)
1:04 am	the days of our lives... So today John (another NU student, not yet graduated), joined Kara and I for our ASL lunch. He knows even less ASL than I do, though he seems to know more dirty words. Still, it was fun. Then I had a coffee get-together with Richard, the CS grad student who I met at that party last month. It wasn't so much a date as just a get-together to discuss programming methodolgies, but we ended up getting on to other topics by the last hour (it lasted from 3:45 to around 6:15 -- not bad for a coffee date). He looked at his watch a couple of times, but made no effort to leave, and neither did I, until finally it was getting late and I suggested we get going. He said "Yeah, I have to cook tonight. I'd let my roommates just fend for themselves but I have meat thawing on the counter." I chuckled inside, thinking that had he used the meat thawing as an excuse to get away from me earlier, it would have been perfect to set him up with Andrew's crackers fellow. However, he didn't, so I guess I won't. Hopefully I'll get to see him again. This entry has absolutely no deep thought in it whatsoever, so I guess the headline is appropriate. Oh, I learned the signs for "slut", "prostitute", and "loose woman" today. Not that that applies to any of the above. Although I do seem to be gathering quite the collection of non-boyfriend-type men. In fact, I don't think I ever mentioned Buckley here, another guy I've been talking with for quite a while, though we only finally met in person recently. Although he already has a boyfriend, so that's not gonna go anywhere too deep. What is it with me and boys with exotic names who already have boyfriends? Exhibit A: S'ven. Exhibit B: Buckley. Richard, who has a perfectly normal name, also does not have a boyfriend. However I suspect I will not be signed up for that position any time soon. Strangely enough, though, I'm ok with that. It's weird -- I think I'm finally getting to the point where I can view the occasional date as a pleasant recreational activity without worrying about what it's going to become, or not. I think most people figure out how to do that in high school, but oh well... I can't be good at EVERYTHING... Current Mood: touched (but not in a dirty way) Current Music: Yellow-Coldplay-Parachutes (1 Comment |Comment on this)