The Remissness of our People in Paying Taxes is highly blameable; the Unwillingness to pay them is still more so. May 31, 2013
Posted by Erin Ptah in News Roundup.Tags: Ben Franklin, Elizabeth Warren, meme, Politics, quotations
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Ben Franklin on taxes: “The Remissness of our People in Paying Taxes is highly blameable; the Unwillingness to pay them is still more so. [...] All the Property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition.”
“Fincher’s $70,000 farm subsidy haul in 2012 dwarfs the average 2012 SNAP benefit in Tennessee of $1,586.40, and it is nearly double of Tennessee’s median household income. After voting to cut SNAP by more than $20 billion, Fincher joined his colleagues to support a proposal to expand crop insurance subsidies by $9 billion over the next 10 years.“
“The IRS actually threatened to revoke the church’s tax-emption because Pastor George Regas said: ‘Mr. President, your doctrine of preemptive war is a failed doctrine,” on the Sunday before the 2004 election. [...] Conservative churches that actively campaigned for President Bush in 2004 were not audited by the IRS.“
“‘When he came in and showed me all of the documents, it was just unbelievable,’ Henry said. ‘Who gets foreclosed on when they’ve made all payments on time?’“
“Obamacare passed a major milestone in California, which late last week announced lower-than-expected healthcare premiums for its 5.3 million uninsured, less than many small businesses now pay in group plans….In contrast, the refusal by red-state America to create these health exchanges, which would be more local control—a supposed Republican value—and to accept federal funds to expand state-run Medicaid programs for the poor, means that about half the states are turning their backs on their residents, especially millions of the poorest people.”
Old Economy Steven. It hurts my heart a little how true some of these are.
At least we can leave all this on a hopeful note:
“The [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] reviewed my complaint, and sent me an email the very next day saying they had submitted it to Fifth Third Bank. The email directed me to my own account page that would show all the correspondence among the parties. When Fifth Third Bank responded two days later, CFPB notified me immediately by email of the new development. [...] A week later, the bank refunded $280 – all the fees they had charged me.“
This Week, 12/29-1/3 January 3, 2010
Posted by Erin Ptah in Art, Comics, Doctor Who, Fake News, Fic, Hellsing, meme, Misc Work, Miscellaneous, Mixes.Tags: And Shine Heaven Now, aww look it's a baby giraffe!, Bill Bennett, Bobby, genderswap, Jimmy, Killer, Meg, meme, Ric Ocasek, Strangers With Candy, Tad, The Ten Doctors, The Zen and the Damaged
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Doctor Who
The nth Doctor (art | n | worksafe)
Fake News
Needs Met page 14 (art/sketches | Jon/c!Stephen, Jon/l!Stephen, Joan | NSFW)
I Like You (Too Much) (half of a two-part Jon/Stephen mix)
I Hate You (Don’t Leave) (the other half of said mix)
I Like You, I… (portraits | Jon, Stephen | worksafe)
Assorted Belatedly Collected Drabbles: Stephen’s Staff Edition (ficlets | Bobby, Ric Ocasek, Stephen, Tad, Meg, Jimmy, Killer | G-PG)
Assorted Belatedly Collected Drabbles: Sam, Jon, and Stephen Edition (ficlets | Sam/OC, Jon, Bill Bennett, “Stephen”, Bobby, Jon/”Stephen” | G-PG)
Uniform Swap (art | Stephen, girl!Jon | worksafe)
Fake News/Strangers With Candy
Why Should I Care – Ensemble (sketch | George/Seamus, Chuck/Geoffrey, Claire, Jerri, Jon/Stephen, Charlene | worksafe)
Hellsing
The Giraffe Problem (art | giraffe!Alucard, giraffe!Seras | worksafe)
Timothy’s Happy 2010 (art | Timothy’s shoulder sprites | worksafe)
General/Miscellaneous
2009 In Review (art meme | Stephen, Jon, Alucard, Integra, Seras, Tenth Doctor, Sailor Pluto, Sailor Moon, Lister and Rimmer, George William | worksafe)
“wait a minute? since when were they working there? since when were they dating him/her? since when!? (personal-information Q&A-type meme)
Next Week in Shine:
Integra deals with her 38th attempted kidnapping.
Website Updates
Every single link on Shine Hell’s fic page was broken, and nobody told me? Pfft. They’re fixed now, at least.
Speaking of links, there are more on the webcomics page, albeit mostly in the “unsorted” category.
And let’s not forget the scans page, which features some new download links for Hellsing doujinshi as well as old works of Hirano’s.
The About Shine page is finally in line with the new layout. And up-to-date, to boot!
The long-missing You Know You Read Shine Too Much When… list is back online!
Speaking of long-missing things, The Zen and the Damaged now features two recently re-unearthed reports: the Report, 2007.10.31 and Jon in standup, 2006.10.06.
Desktop screenshot meme November 7, 2009
Posted by Erin Ptah in And Shine Heaven Now, Fake News, Hellsing, Miscellaneous.Tags: Liberalverse, meme, Needs Met, The Wizard of Oz
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The meme: Post a screenshot of your desktop, no altering backgrounds!
As with my RL one, I have a habit of letting Things I’m Working On At The Time pile up randomly on the desktop.
At the moment you can see, among other things, a bunch of pages of the current comic-in-progress Needs Met; the current reward picture for voting for Shine (“seraschains”); and the folder for the Wizard of Oz comic I’ve been tapped to do the art for (“Emeralds”).
Most of the folders open on the taskbar are music; there’s also “Hellsing 4.5″, the manga chapter I’m referencing for the current Shine arc. At the very end are a couple of fics-in-progress (both fake news): “kink AU”, which will have a proper title someday, and “Clover and Shadows”, which may be getting a better title depending on whether I think of one.
Getting to know you September 23, 2009
Posted by Erin Ptah in meme.Tags: meme, reader participation, survey
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A survey meme, snagged from Puella_nerdii. Because I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as much as you deserve.
Leave your answers in a comment!
Catmeme. November 1, 2008
Posted by Erin Ptah in meme, Personal.Tags: cats, meme, Tabitha
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If you are reading this, post a picture of a cat in your journal. (Your cat, a lolcat, or someone else’s cat. But preferably yours, if possible.)
Three for the price of one:
Investigating my mother’s bowl of cookie dough and glass of milk.
Helping my brother with homework.
Sitting at the home computer. (This was actually taken on Halloween, four years ago – thus the black plush cat with a pumpkin on the desk. Look closely at the floor and you can see a vampire book of mine, plus one of the Hellsing OSTs.)
The first raincoat was sold on this day in 1823. October 12, 2008
Posted by Erin Ptah in meme.Tags: meme
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If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now (even if we don’t speak often or ever) please post a comment with a completely made up, fictional memory of you and me.
It can be anything you want – good or bad – but it has to be fake.
When you’re finished, post this little paragraph in your blog and see what your friends come up with.
Fanfiction meme October 8, 2008
Posted by Erin Ptah in Fake News, Fic, Hellsing, meme.Tags: Doctor Who, meme, Sailor Moon, Zanna Don't!
3 comments
Sometimes it’s okay to pimp yourself out. Post a list of your top five favorite fics you’ve written, regardless of fandom or the reason you love them. This isn’t about the BEST things you’ve written, but what you LOVE most. Then tag five other people to do the same.
Sailor Moon/Hellsing
The woman with two hearts! Blessed are the pure. This one gets meta about Yumiko/Yumie’s mental condition and pokes fun at a towering stack of Sailor Moon anime clichés. A good combination.
Sailor Moon
The Sailor Senshi of Xyll saga. An epic about one of the systems that fell to Chaos, its five sailor senshi fighting a losing battle while the population fled to the Sol system. No longer on the Internet, and probably never will be again, because I don’t have the energy to rewrite it the way it deserves . . . and because the heroine was one Sailor Ptah, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully wash the Sue-ness away. But, oh, it had its moments.
Fake News
The Robert Report. The last couple of chapters, at least. My first attempt at TCR fic, and though it’s from Bobby’s POV, you can see early ideas about Stephen’s characterization: his loneliness, his obliviousness, the way he inspires affection even in people who think he’s a bit of an idiot, his conflicting desires to let Jon take care of him and make a name for himself outside of Jon’s shadow. Also, there’s a ghost!
Expecting/State of Grace. I get the impression that readers in general prefer Expecting – it was lighter, funnier, and less esoteric. In State of Grace, too, I had a lot of balls in the air, and towards the end you can see me starting to drop them. It’s the one I think needs more revision; that said, it’s also the one that interested me more, and that I had tons of fun researching. (Yes, I like research. Shut up.) So, rather than try to pick a favorite, I’m going to cheat and list them together.
Fake News/Zanna, Don’t!
Your Moment of Zanna. Because it was kind of hilarious to write straight!Stephen. And because I want a Zanna.
—
I almost went the cheesy route and named “The thing I’m going to post next” as one of the favorites. I always love whatever I’m working on at the moment. (At least, up until the point when I post it, after which I begin to suspect that it is the worst thing ever to grace the Internet. Between reader feedback and time, my views eventually settle somewhere more balanced.)
But in all seriousness: Ten Times The Doctor Met Sailor Pluto is gonna be a good one.
(To all fic writers who are reading this: You have been tagged. Go forth and meme.)
Don’t dream it, B it September 26, 2008
Posted by Erin Ptah in Fandom, meme.Tags: Desperate Housewives, meme, music, The Lord of the Rings, The Powerpuff Girls, The Wizard of Oz, vintage comics
12 comments
1. Comment on this post.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Think of 5 fictional characters and post their names and your comments on these characters in your LJ blog.
Mogget gave me B:
1. Bilbo Baggins; The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings. Bravest little hobbit of ‘em all. (Okay, so Frodo and the gang are also contenders for the title.) Starts off a bit helpless, but once he gets used to adventuring he proves himself to be the kind of sensible fellow you want in any party.
2. Bree Hodge; Desperate Housewives. After a cheating husband and a crazy stalker boyfriend, she held back with Orson (her then-boyfriend, now-husband) until this time when he started earnestly describing how he dealt with tough wine stains, and she cut him off by jumping him then and there. This is why I love Bree. Plus, she’s incredibly hot.
3. Blossom Utonium; The Powerpuff Girls. Could’ve used all the ‘Puffs for this meme, but that felt like cheating. Growing up, I loved them all, but Blossom is the smart and somewhat bossy one, so guess which one I identified with?
4. Buster Brown; Buster Brown. One of the earliest American comic strip characters. Don’t let the girly outfit fool you: he and Tige (possibly the first talking pet in the comics) are distant ancestors of Calvin and Hobbes.
5. Betsy Bobbin; The Wizard of Oz series. One of the somewhat interchangeable Oz girls. Since the source books are in the public domain, hundreds (thousands?) of people have published what is essentially Oz fanfiction, but most of it attempts to imitate Baum’s style, as did the officially-designated sequel-writers. (Wicked is a notable exception.) I kind of want to write Oz fic that gives Betsy and the others more sophisticated characterization.
A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel. August 29, 2008
Posted by Erin Ptah in And Shine Heaven Now, Hellsing, meme, News Roundup, Personal.Tags: Barack Obama, Hellsing manga, Hellsing: The Dawn, John McCain, meme, Sarah Palin, writing, Young King Ours
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(Subject line is from Robert Frost.)
A meme:
1. Your name/username.
2. Left-handed or right-handed?
3. Favourite letters to write?
4. Least favourite letters to write?
5. Write “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
6. Tag 6 people.
—
Of the top six stories on Yahoo, four are about Sarah Palin; the fifth was about the Obama camp’s reaction to Sarah Palin; and the last one was comparing Obama to Sarah Palin. The McCain camp has wrapped the news cycle around its little finger. It’s impressive.
Speaking as a moderate who is still sold on the Obama-Biden ticket, there’s a lot to appreciate about Sarah Palin, on top of the fact that she brings let’s-break-a-glass-ceiling mojo to Old Man McWhiteguy’s ticket. Here, have some thoughtful analysis.
—
According to Young King Ours, the Hellsing manga is about to end.
I’m torn. I do want to see the series finish (not because I’m tired of it, of course, but because the alternative—in which it jumps the shark and limps on, worn-out and tired, for decades— is worse). On the other hand, it doesn’t seem like there’ll be enough time to wrap up all the loose ends Hirano has left, even with more of The Dawn still to come.
That said: readers of Shine, prepare yourselves for Plot.
This Week, 7/28-8/3 August 2, 2008
Posted by Erin Ptah in Art, Comics, Fake News, Fic, Hellsing, meme, Miscellaneous, Mixes.Tags: Anderson Cooper, Formidable Opponent, Heinkel Wolfe, HeinkelxYumie/ko, Keith Olbermann, meme, Otakon, rewatch, Stephen Colbert, typing, Witch Hunter Robin, Yumie Takagi, Yumiko Takagi
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Its fancy code isn’t working on WordPress, but the 10-fast-fingers Speedtest clocked me in at 111 words per minute.
Fake News (and real)
Red Versus Blue (mix, PG-13)
The Search For Elle Woods (comic, G)
Hellsing
In The Beginning (fic, PG-13, for HeinkelxYumie/ko claim)
Servants of the Empire (art, PG, ditto)
Witch Hunter Robin
The big rewatch starts next Friday!
Next Week in Shine:
Erin gears up for Otakon. Oh, and there are comics, too.
