Brathor's Live Journal

Good Evening various LJ users (to those of you who're still around, anyway!).

Quick Update:

I've been attending graduate school for the last few years, and have finally graduated with my M.A. in English. I'm currently working as a part-time content developer for the web, and do a little publicity work on the side. I'm working for something more permanent. My thesis project was a table top RPG handbook, which was actually pretty fun to work on. Yes, furry races were involved, because why not. I'm hoping to develop it into something awesome over the coming years.

I've also started using my newfound free time (and reduced stress) to write furry stuff again. I managed to put out a couple of stories while attending graduate school (one of which was published), but I'd like to do more. For now, I've started work on a furry-themed novel. I hope to begin work on a shorter story I've been mulling around in my head for the last few months, and I have a pair of collaborative RP-based stories that might see the light of day sometime soon.

If you'd like to follow more about my writing, consider watching my alternate LJ account, Brathor_Cyr, which I'm officially pulling out of the mothballs today with a crosspost and a new writing exercise.

Other places to find me:

• Twitter


• Google+


• Writing LJ Account


• Facebook


• FurAffinity (NSFW)


• FList (NSFW)

How to contact me:

• Email and Google Talk, etc.: brathor@gmail.com


• AIM, Yahoo, Skype: BorderFollie

Hey,

I don't really use my LJ much anymore other than to occasionally check out my friends page. Those who are interested in what I'm up to should probably look me up on facebook, I'm much more active there!

I am so frickin' happy that Obama won, I've been pulling for him ever since he announced his candidacy and frankly, for the first time in a long while, I think the government is in good hands. Here's hoping I'm not being overly optimistic.

I honestly haven't been impacted very harshly by the NIU shooting. In the initial aftermath of the shooting I was concerned that some of my friends might have been involved, but that was not the case, and as such I didn't really think it was my place to comment very much. Nevertheless, I felt like I should write something in response.

Basically, as with most of the community, I am very surprised that this happened. NIU is a decently-sized campus, but it's nestled in such a rural environment, I really never thought that we would have to deal with a shooting here. My thoughts of disbelief are compounded by the fact that the shooter was not even a current student here. At this point, it looks like there isn't going to be a definitive motive revealed, and I can't help but wonder what it was. It's obvious the guy planned this thing out for awhile: he pulled his hard drive from his computer, the memory chip from his cellphone, and purchased the guns and ammunition (obviously not bought for personal defense) several months ago. It's frustrating too, that the shooter killed himself like they all seem to do. It's hard to deal with the idea that someone who would kill others so haphazardly won't have to deal with the consequences. Even if you believe in an after-life, there's no way to take comfort in the idea of 'justice' like people can with most crimes.

In terms of the university, I think the response has been as effective as you can reasonably expect. Police responded in two minutes, the campus was locked down only 20 minutes after the fact, and the majority of students learned about the shooting within just a few minutes. I think that the students (encouraged by the fleet of news vans that were here all last week) over-dramatized a lot of what was going on last week, but all-in-all, even the student response has been mature and respectful. I think it's silly that some students are considering leaving the university over what they call safety concerns, but if they really no longer feel comfortable here, let them leave.

After the campus-wide memorial service on Sunday, I think that this will (for the most part) be over, and things will start going back to normal around town. I'm sure that in a few months, very few people outside of DeKalb will even remember what happened here, and there are bound to be other shootings in the meantime. I don't want to use the phrase "NEVER FORGET" that I've seen all over town, but I do think we should strive to take something positive away from this experience. Unfortunately, I'm still trying to figure out exactly what that is.

I know I haven't posted anything in.. forever, but rest assured no news is good news.

I took a meme based on the upcoming Golden Compass movie which is based off of one of my favorite books. Those of you who know me can answer questions about me to make the result more accurate. I promise I'll give a real update in a week or so.

Happy Birthday meryl_jed

I found this awhile back and thought it was pretty neat. http://www.freedomship.com/
Basically, it's a ship that would, if ever actually built, be a floating city capable of housing around 50,000 people. The ship would slowly circle the world (each circuit would take three years), but the ship would have nearly constant transportation via ferries and an airstrip on top. The ship itself would be almost a mile long and would be about 25 stories. I know it's probably not going to happen, at least not in the near future, but it's still a neat concept in my opinion. In fact, if something like this were to exist I would probably look into getting onto it. Any others out there care to comment?

1.) Name one CD that you own that you think no one else on your friends list owns:
The key word here is own, lol. I, in fact, only own a few CD's and the one I think the fewest people would have is one that I am most ashamed of: Behold, the Digimon movie soundtrack!

2.) Name a book that you own that you think no one else on your friends list owns:
Aung San Suu Kyi's Freedom From Fear which is actually a very good autobiographical/history book about the Burmese struggle for independence. I actually received this book as one of many small gifts for being awarded one of the Al Neuharth Free Spirit scholarship a few years ago for high school journalism.

3.) Name a movie that you own that you think no one else on your friends list owns:
Again the word owns limits my possible responses, I'd have to go with Pom Poko though with the fur/anime crowd I am probably not right about this one.

4.) Name a place you have visited that you think no one else on your friends list has:
Heidelberg, Germany. A very cool little town in Germany that I visited way back when I was 13.

5.) Name a peice of technology or tool that you own that you think no one else on your friends list owns:
I'm afraid i don't think I have anyone on my friends list beat in this area. I'm not very tech savy and as an English student I don't have much need for this kind of thing.

• after 4 our of my 5 room mates started playing Second Life I submitted and decided to give it a shot. I'm not really sure if I'm gonna do it for very long, but I've finally got my avatar looking how I want it, so now I'm sharing:
  


• After getting my hair to a respectable length and tying it back for a couple months I finally decided that while I liked how it looked it was too much hassle. So, I got a hair cut, which ended up looking pretty nice.


• Spring semester is now two weeks old, I have 4 classes once again this semester and am now less than two years away from graduation. My classes are all looking like their going to kind of kick my ass though. First, I have History of South East Asia from 1800 which is pretty nasty, then I have Latin 2 which is proving to be even more difficult to keep up with than the last class. On tueday and thursday I have just one class, which is American Literature from 1960, which like all lit classes will involve a lot of reading. Fortunately there are no papers for this class; instead there are two essay-exams which collectively make up 80 percent of the grade, the other 20 percent comes from four pop quizzes that will be spread throughout the semester. Finally on Wednesdays I have a nonfiction writing workshop class that I'm not really sure on at the moment.


• Unfortunately it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to attend anime club regularly this semester due to the fact that Soro's work schedule this semester is going to be pretty rigid as far as Tues. and Thurs. goes.

***Also, masumichi1996 and elfwyn should call, or IM or something so we can set up something fun to do... as well as organize an ambush for "someone's" upcoming birthday.

Since it's been three months since I last updated, this may be rather long, so I'm cutting it into a few different sections.

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The bulletted format really truncated this entry, but like I've said before the fact is that I don't really have much going on with me right now. I'm continuing to play video-games, I'm reading, and I'm hanging out with my friends at the house. But as the saying goes, no news is good news. I'll start updating on a regular basis again soon.

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