Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

I didn't expect to find an image made by someone else, other than a photo of myself, that I'd want to use as a LJ user icon. While I enjoy some of the cartoons and other images I see other people use (when they illustrate something about the user in a way that makes immediate sense to me -- identifies them -- rather than making their "face" an anonymous cookie-cutter symbol -- or somebody else's face entirely ( too-long sub-parenthetical comment )

As to whether any of the images work at 100x100 pixels, it's a little small for the important details, but I think it mostly works. I probably still won't use this as a user icon anyhow though: while including a screen-capture in a post about the animations (if I hadn't found a copy on their web site to link to) would be "fair use", I don't think using a cropped and scaled version as a user-icon passes that test. (Yes, it's a wee tiny snippet, but I think the context matters as well ... time for me to go re-read the rules.) Uh, and my having said that here kind of prevents me from using the "it was an innocent mistake" defense if I get caught.

Still, it's a cool axe. And the image speaks to me. I wonder how badly I'll still want the image in the morning. Maybe I can photograph a few of my guitars and try to Photoshop them together into a new work inspired by this one ... But I do like this image.

"When Ronald Reagan used to say `It's morning in America,' I always thought to myself, `But I'm not a morning person.'" -- Bill Maher, quoted in an article about the right to be grumpy

• I'll put the mood-killer (pointed out in a friends-only post by someone on my friends list) first and hope the rest of the links can cheer you up afterwards ... "The Last Resort" is an artcile on Guardian Unlimited from The Observer, 29 June, about personality re-education camps for teens. It's mostly about one such facility in Jamaica, but it turns out there are ten similar programs elsewhere. It's hard for me to summarize all the aspects that horrified me in part one -- it's basically a simple, organized, brainwashing system for trouble teens (I left the 'd' off the end of "trouble" intentionally) -- but it was in part two that my blood began to run cold, when I hit quotes such as, "Other students were sent here for wearing inappropriate clothes, using bad language, or hanging around with the wrong sort of friends," and, "Also striking is the assumption parents make of entitlement to their child's affection, as though this is a legal right. 'She's a neat kid, she really is,' a former student's mother says. 'She just didn't like us.' But now, 'I don't believe she's lying to me any more, and that's a neat feeling.'" Or one student who said, "Oh, my relationship with my family was pretty bad. I just went to my room and avoided my parents. There was always arguments and stuff." And one student described thus, "A straight-A high-school graduate, she was heading for Harvard until an unsuitable choice of boyfriend had her sent here at the age of 17." Perhaps the clearest phrasing was when the author said, "once adolescence is criminalised [...]". I was sufficiently horrified to think, "This can't possibly be real, can it?" A bit of searching turned up a 1999 article from Forbes, a January 2003 article from the Tico Times about a related facility which included a quote from a parent who said, "The parents are just as brainwashed as the kids," and a message on a FACTNet discussion board containing lots of additional links. Go read about it, be horrified and disgusted, then come back and chase some more entertaining links so that I won't have completely ruined your day.
• Odd that in the same day of reading LJ and mail I run across links to images of a tree and an interstellar dust cloud that each seem to be sending the same message to whoever is looking. (Okay, after reading the suggested interpretation on the Astronomy Picture of the Day page and squinting a bit, I saw what they meant, but my first impression was the same as the description of the tree.)
• The latest incarnation of the slidewalk idea, this time in Paris: the le trottoir roulant rapide: "'People have to learn how to use it and that takes time,' the trottoir's inventor, Anselme Cote, told BBC News Online. He added that escalators had presented travellers with a similar challenge when they were first introduced."
• Lightning strikes chursh as preacher asks for sign from God, "[...] the church's steeple was hit by lightning, setting the church on fire and blowing out the sound system. [...] the lightning traveled through the microphone and enveloped the preacher, but he was not injured."
• Well, it's not an X-wing or a Y-wing, but this might still have to be silmaril's next computer. :-) (Okay, I'm drooling over the idea myself pretty seriously...) An ariticle in The Register describes the PC that one Russ Caslis built inside a Kenner toy scale model of the Millenium Falcon. The project included physical mods to a hard drive and power supply. The project requirements going in included "working engine lights" and "adequate cooling". "Unlike the toy, my ship won't be able to rotate it's laser cannon. That's OK... I have lots of other surprises in store that will make up for the lack of a rotating laser cannon."
• The LiveJournal Pizza Arbiter lets you enter a bunch of LJ usernames, and returns a list of pizza toppings the folks on the list who've previously entered their pizza preferences can all agree on. (krikket wanted it to track crust-style preferences as well. I'd like to see "I really like this", "I'll eat this without complaint but wouldn't choose it for myself", and "no way" as the options for each ingredient, rather than the simple "like/don't like" check boxes currently there. Still, it's a cute toy. Go enter your preferences now.)
• holzman pointed out this precious script for the Useless Invasion Sketch from rec.arts.sf.fandom. "THE AMERICAN PEOPLE (played by John Cleese) walks down the street carrying THE IRAQI INVASION (played by an empty parrot cage). He walks into THE WHITE HOUSE (played by a cheesy storefront) and addresses COLIN POWELL (played by Michael Palin). [...] AP: I wish to register a complaint about this military action, which you sold me just a couple of months ago. [...]"
• Behind the Name offers up translations and etymologies of lots and lots of given names. (sometimes_nate pointed out the random name generator on the site, but I found the rest of the site more interesting.) I remember enjoying looking through the list of name-meanings in the back of my dictionary and wishing for a much larger list -- here is a larger list. Names from several ethnic/language groups are included, and not just from Europe. There's also a related site for etymologies of surnames.
• Oh boy. Put down your drinks. It's the "Smeagolian Rhapsody" by murnkey and mightywombat:

  Isss this the real life?
  Isss this just fantasy?
  Caught in my dark cave
  No escape from reality
  Open our eyes
  Look up to the caves and see
  I'm just a poor Smeagol, we needs no sympathy [...]

  and later:

  [...] But I'm just a poor Smeagol and nobody loves us
  We's just a poor Smeagol from a hobbit family
  Lives-ing our life as a monstrosity [...]

  along with a bunch of other "songs heard through the Gollum filter". I fear this form of brain damage may be contagious. Thanks to scherzoid for pointing it out.
• And to round things off, here's a Cthulhu/Muppet crossover filk by lensman, who took a few lines from krikket and ran with them. (Bwah-hah-hah! I know what half of you will be humming the rest of the day!)