en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/77961 Comments by Mina http://nisshinjen.blogspot.com/2008/08/mandalas-online.html#IDComment3618633 That one is gorgeous! All the ones I have done are.. pretty bad, but it's still really fun and... soothing, maybe? to play with it. I love seeing the image grow as it reflects what I'm doing, and the new, unexpected things that happen when I draw near a mirror line. Everything we do reverberates times unknown, and there are surprises waiting for us even when we think we know what the result of any given action will be. And the final design might not be as elegant as the one you posted, but it integrates the mistakes and the good lines, and the whole is usually pretty if you gave it some thought, even if it might not be as delicate or perfect. It's definitely been keeping me busy lately, both with drawing and with thinking. I hadn't thought about it as mandalas! I just.. was reminded of snowflakes, and how each one is different from the rest. I love the mandala simile. Sorry for missing you last night, the modem crashed for no reason and I couldn't get back to you! Fri, 1 Aug 2008 09:46:38 +0000 http://nisshinjen.blogspot.com/2008/08/mandalas-online.html#IDComment3618633 http://nisshinjen.blogspot.com/2008/07/over-investment-and-fiction.html#IDComment3244313 I kept thinking after reading your post, if this was typical Wheedon or not... I haven't watched much of Firefly -a handful of episodes, but not the whole series- though I do know he doesn't shy from killing the characters, and you spend a lot of time wanting them back, wanting for somehow, someway, get that fixed... and no, it hardly every gets fixed, the stories just keep going.. which has caused me a lot of angst before -my favorite Wheedon show is definitely Angel, screw the other too!- and yeah, talk about short ends of the stick. Everyone gets them. It's... kink of awful! I never thought about it that way! I don't think he is mocking you as a fan for caring about the characters and feeling wretched about loosing them, I think it's just... his formula, the punch in the gut thing he does, though Dr. Horrible is really, really painful because there is no after. In all the other series, after something terrible happens, people move on and continue and grow and... you know. They have acceptable mourning periods and personality changes, but Dr. Horrible just ended in such a bleak note, it was a very painful short story... I still think you might like some of his series -his cred as a feminist is kind of wobbly, I've seen a lot of feminist talk dissing him for the glorification of prostitution with Inara in Firefly and other not-so-empowering things, but.. you know what overthinking these issues does to my head. Fretting! In Angel, everyone gets screwed over and by the 5th season half the cast is dead and by the end of the season everyone dies. So. Yeaaaahhh... still, vampiressss! (and they send Los Angeles to Hell and then the whole dead-cast is reunited and they fight crime in Hell in the comics! so.. the end is not *so* bleak!) I had a horrible, horrible time at the party yesterday. Urgggg, I had to hit a guy and give death-glares and push away another two. It was awful. D almost killed them for getting near me. Raaarrrrr! ..though I went to the movies afterwards, yay! Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:28:09 +0000 http://nisshinjen.blogspot.com/2008/07/over-investment-and-fiction.html#IDComment3244313 http://nisshinjen.blogspot.com/2008/07/uncle-toms-cabin.html#IDComment3131951 Threaded comments, yay!! I think it was a wonderful attempt of your father to try to get you to read thing, even if it would have been hard for you back then to understand them. The seeds of fairness and curiosity are best planted early, after all! I'm pretty sure you absorbed the essence of the books, even if you can't exactly remember them. We're made of the weirdest things, we people... I have never read Uncle Tom's Cabin, I guess I should! so many books I should read! I'm at work atm and not feeling very good -I think I caught a cold this past weekend or something :( I'm so behind with everything... Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:53:24 +0000 http://nisshinjen.blogspot.com/2008/07/uncle-toms-cabin.html#IDComment3131951 http://nisshindan.blogspot.com/2008/07/adventures-in-home-owning.html#IDComment3106181 Wow, Dan has threaded comments! awesome!! I really hope your home isn't in immediate danger, and that something can be worked out with the lawsuit! that's.. not a cool expat experience, I don't think... but. You're house is so pretty! Fix iiiit, Japan! no more caves under my friends' house! Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:37:15 +0000 http://nisshindan.blogspot.com/2008/07/adventures-in-home-owning.html#IDComment3106181