Amanda Lane's Favorite Holiday

Daria the not-so-social butterfly is ready to help us celebrate National Learn about Butterflies Day. The first lesson is that you can take that jar with holes punched in the lid and shove it somewhere uncomfortable.

Today is also Pi Day, for the math geeks out there. It's generally accepted that you can celebrate by eating some pie, but make sure you calculate the circumference first!

Fanfic Update!

• Camp Feel (IC: Random Pairing Challenge 2018), by JoeMerl (COMPLETE!): "Thirteen-year-old Amelia Drew walked slowly around the grounds of Camp Grizzly, head down and feeling depressed."


• Clash of the Families (Quinn, Season 3), by WildDogJJ (part 1): "Quinn and Jim are having Sunday dinner with Jake and Helen. Jake is serving up...something. Jake said 'You guys are gonna love this. I call it Linguine a la Jake!'"


• Daria of the Milieu Something Slimy, by Meester_Lee (part 3): "'Want me to walk you back to your classmates?' asked Luanne. 'Sure,' said Daria. Daria had limited experience with metapsychics; unlike their counterparts in dolphin and cetacean species, human metapsychics were few and far between."


• Daze of Thunder, by WildDogJJ (COMPLETE!): "Quinn is having pizza with Sandi and Joey. It was supposed to be a double date but Jim had to work late. Sandi asked 'So, where's Jim? Did he actually blow you off for another girl?' Remembering what happened the previous month Quinn said 'Sandi, don't even joke about that.'" (Part 2) (Part 3)


• Harry Potter Morgendorffer, by Meester_Lee (part 20): "Helen's telephone rang a couple of minutes later. It was the receptionist from downstairs. 'Mrs. Morgendorffer,' she said, 'there is an Alban Doubledoor here to see you.'"


• Letters for Grandma (IC: Random Pairing Challenge 2018), by nightbeast37 (COMPLETE!): "Grandma Barksdale calmly relaxed on the recliner seat of the family home she had lived in for the past 40 years. She had endured a rather heated family reunion and just wanted to pretend it never happened."


• Life, family and friends, by JPAGC (part 2): "Daria arrived home from school late afternoon. It was the beginning of Autumn. The sun was setting down earlier and the air was getting cold, but there was still enough sunlight to walk home with a clear path."


• Problem solving, by Rémi (part 2): "Trent was feeling very ill at ease while Jane fixed the necktie she forced him to wear with the suit she had chosen for him. He protested weakly : - Girls, I don't like this date idea at all. Couldn't we make it... simple and quick, as it was with Daria ?"


• Reflections, by Lady Evil (part 14): "Jane stirred the soup as Vixx borrowed the phone to call Ollie. 'Yeah, honey, I'm real sorry I can't come to dinner tonight.' she was saying. 'In fact I might not be home until early tomorrow morning.'"


• Search Engine Obfuscation, by WellTemperedClavier (parts 3 - 6): "By the time she'd graduated, Daria knew how to write a literary paper without having read all the literature in question. Doing so was mostly about figuring out how to torture the text into making the point she wanted." (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6)

So Are Rats Just Squirrels Without Fluffy Tails?

If you've got rats in your medicine cabinet, today is the ideal time to do something about it because it's Ratcatcher's Day! Or you could just call Sick, Sad World and get some free fame out of it.

Today is also Pi Approximation Day for all you (ugh!) math geeks out there. Celebrate by having some approximate pie!

Fandom News!

• Compare the current temperature where you are with other places on a fun site shared by MartinUK.


• ST91 is looking for help with some big changes in his life.


• Terry Pratchett fans, discuss the recently-announced Wee Free Men movie.


• What did you think of the new movie Star Trek Beyond?

Mmm...Butterfly Pie

Daria's here to help teach us because it's Learn about Butterflies Day. Jane already knows all she needs to know about them: if you try to hold one tightly in your hand, it will blah, blah, blah. Whether or not she's tested her theory regarding tearing off its precious little wings is unknown.

For the math geeks out there, this is also National Pi Day. Celebrate by calculating the circumference of a circle, or by eating a nice piece of pie. Your call.

Fandom News!

• Mike Quinn wonders if there's a problem with the forum's e-mail button.


• Wouter recommends creating a specialist site for Dariarotica.


• Kem shares her experience with her recent LASIK surgery, and you can vote in MartinUK's related poll about vision.


• ceforman shares his personalized answering machine messages from Daria.

Definitely Don't Hold This One Tightly in Your Hand!

It's Learn about Butterflies Day, and Daria appears to be taking the direct approach to learning. Jane's not interested, because she's learned as much as she cares to about butterflies from her mother.

For the math geeks out there, this is also National Pi Day--3/14! Have some pie, either dessert or pizza, but make sure you calculate the circumference before you eat it. If you're not already aware, today at 9:26:53 it will be 3/14/15 9:26:53, which corresponds to 3.141592653, the beginning digits of pi. Geek on, my friends!

Fanfic Update!

• ПРЕКРАСНЫЕ УТРА, by Shad_Tkhom (COMPLETE!): "Том на­пил­ся. Пер­вый раз в жиз­ни. Ут­ром по­нял, что в пос­ледний."


• ХОЛОДНЫЙ ДОМ, by Shad_Tkhom (COMPLETE!): "... Дарья открыла глаза ... Она ушла из своей палаты ранним утром и свернулась в этом кресле клубочком не только чтобы быть поближе к Джейн. Больничная кровать оказалась вампиром — Дарья чувствовала себя не отдохнувшей — скорее наоборот — ослабевшей ... И этот сон ..."


• A Boring Summer, by ST91 (part 6): "As the first act of his work as a tutor, Dario asked Brittany which were the subjects in which she had difficulty and of these, which were the most difficult topics. Once he learned that Brittany had difficulty in all subjects except PE and that for each subject there were many topics not clear to her, an hour and a half had passed and the situation wasn’t very good."


• #eyepatchgate (Scenes No Daria Fan-Fic Should Have: The Madness Sets In), by Smijey (COMPLETE!): "Joe Adler sidled up to the witness stand, at which sat the cool, composed Daria Morgendorffer sat. He had her dead to rights, and nobody, not even that shark lawyer of a mother she had, could do anything about it."


• Lies of Life, by Princess_Pasta (part 1): "'I'm sorry, Daria, there's just nothing I can do.' 'You don't understand. I need this grade. All I'm asking for is a few more days. Three at the most.' 'My hands are tied. I'm sorry.'"

Mmm...Approximate Pi....

Today is Pi Approximation Day! It's not as exact as Pi Day, but I figure it's still a good excuse to geek out and eat pie, so where's the downside? Even Quinn is getting into the spirit, although I'm sure she has no intention of telling Sandi about it. And presumably the pie is low-fat.

Fandom News!

• cfardell_Brenorenz29's website, Lessons from Lawndale, has been updated again.


• Share your thoughts and commiserations about the shooting in Aurora, Colorado.


• Four new Iron Chefs have been posted in the Creative Writing forum: Charles RB's Selective Soulmate, Scissors MacGillicutty's Crossovers with NonFictional Works (and Beyond), Greystar's Post-post Apocolyptic Daria and ST91's Willow Lane and Amanda Yeager.

Mmm...Pi!

Happy Pi Day! You could celebrate by calculating pi to 500 digits, or--and this is my preference--eating some delicious pie. Just make sure you calculate the circumference of the pie first.

It's kind of fitting in the math/science geek vein that today is also Albert Einstein's birthday. Apparently Kevin resembles the late great physicist when he wears glasses, but I don't see it. Maybe he needs to tease his hair more.

Finally, today is Learn About Butterflies Day. Thanks to Amanda Lane, we have a pretty good understanding of the pros and cons of holding butterflies tightly versus letting them go, and in Jane's opinion that's more than enough information.

Fanfic Update!

• After the Disaster 2 :: Esteemers, by Fhujeth_x (parts 2 and 3): "Sandi sat quietly for a moment, thinking to herself before turning to Tiffany, 'We have a situation.' She commented quietly. There was a new girl in the school with nearly perfect bouncy red hair, a great fashion sense, and most of all... she seemed to get instant popularity with the guys, 'A situation we need to have an emergency meeting about right away.'" (Part 3)


• Alienated, by misericordia (COMPLETE!): "'And yet -' He peered at Daria myopically. 'I calculate that the photons falling upon my eyes are sub-atomic messengers of hope for both of our peoples. For you, the one known as Daria The Morgendorffer, are -' Daria winced 'Puh-lease don't say that you're my father. That was old back when being old was still new.'"


• Clique Swap, by psychotol (parts 12 - 16): "Stoner (Man in jeans, green tee shirt, goatee): Wanders around, looking like he’s not quite with it. Daria: 'Now, the Senate has 100 seats, two per state, and congress has 435 seats, each congressman is allocated to an equal portion of the United States population, both houses can submit bills for consideration, but anything requiring direct allocation of money needs congressional approval because only congress can set taxation.' Stoner: looks at Darth Maladi, 'Wow.'" (Part 13) (Part 14) (Part 15) (Part 16)


• Daria DeMartino, by Reven384 (part 1): "Ms. Li gritted her teeth and decided it was time to use all that spy equipment she used the school’s money for. She’d find someway to get that girl in that self esteem class. She went to her office and listened. The hidden cameras did their job and caught everything the students did. All she had to do was wait and listen. A girl like Daria would provide all the rope she needed. She had no desire to lose a student whose test scores were so good, but the girl needed to be humbled."


• Daria/Dorian Ch.16: Sugar High, by LadieT (part 3): "Dorian agreed and went back to the pizza. A few minutes later, Quinn walked in to check on her big brother. As she took the cheese off of a slice, he asked Quinn if she heard Ms. Li at the end of the day. Quinn mentioned something about Friday night. We need to attend that meeting. We can't - Friday is our biggest game of the season. We are playing Oakwood at Oakwood, it's even going to be televised. Great, maybe we can talk mom or dad into going."


• Dylan, by J-D (part 2b): "The unfortunate part about this was that it made Kent grateful to Dylan, even if the gratitude was sure to be ephemeral. When they went from art class into lunch period, he followed Dylan into the cafeteria. It emerged that as well as being grateful he was uncomfortable at the idea of owing a debt to Dylan, and wanted to cancel it as soon as possible. 'You want to do something for me? How about if you don’t ask me for help again in art, or speak to me about anything else at all, or even notice that I exist? Ever?'"


• God Save The Esteem ep41: Is It Fun Yet?, by Charles RB (part 2): "The sun was rising when Jane arrived at Ashfield: rustic, remote, peaceful. Jane was mentally playing the Friday the 13th theme from the instant she saw it. Daria would’ve got that joke. Ah well. Just a few weeks, Jane-oh, best make the most of it."


• A New Beginning (IC Runaway Daria), by LadieT (part 3): "About an hour later, Monique and Trent entered Daria's room and began helping her put up her posters and paintings. By the end of afternoon, the four had already agreed to get together the next day so that the Lanes could give the Meades a proper tour of the town. As Jane and Trent headed home, Trent looked down at his little sister. For the first time since Penny left, Jane was actually smiling."


• Quinn's Code Story 6: The Lab Mouse, the Geek and the Convention, by cfardell_Brenorenz29 (part 3): "Quinn was playing Guild Wars when Daria slammed open the door to the room. Quinn turned from the computer. 'What is it, Daria?' 'The mouse is missing!' 'I'm surprised as you are, Daria.' 'You're saying that you had nothing to do with it?' 'Exactly,' Quinn said."


• Sandi :: Well... This Sucks :: Chapter 11, by Fhujeth_x (COMPLETE!): "'I feel horrible....' She mentioned as she slid the rest of herself under the covers to put on the remainder of the clothes given to her, 'What's with these bandages?' She said coming out of the blankets and stumbling to her feet. 'You'd feel even more horrible if I had not stopped you last night.' Barch moved to the chair near the cell and sat down, yawning, 'After all, you almost killed your family.'" (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4)


• Something Something Slam (Match 1), by TheExcellentS (parts 1 and 2): "Barch: '2011 was the biggest year in LFC history, O'Neill, and 2012 looks to be even bigger! We have a hell of a show right in front of us, and I can hardly wait to get started!' O'Neill: 'Seven matches are lined up for tonight's card, with five LFC championships to be fought for in them. Let's go through the card. Next to our entrance stage, you see our specially-built replica Western saloon all set up. In just a few moments, that will be a hive of flying chairs, broken glass and spilled beer as thirty LFC fighters compete for $10,000 cash in our first ever Bar Room Brawl.'" (Part 2)


• To Annoy a Mockingbird, Chapter 4, by BF110C4 (parts 1 and 2): "'Do you know what time it is? ...the police, yes, yes I’m Angela Li... Yes, ‘alt.lawndale.com’ is a cybercafé belonging to Lawndale High School... break in... anybody hurt... thank goodness... All of them! What a disaster... I’ll make a statement in the morning... yes, we are insured... can you? ... Ok, thank you.' It had worked like a charm, just like her associate had predicted. Now the claim adjuster would never learn that the computers of the cybercafé were more outdated that the receipt she summited to the insurance company after her budget for impact resistant windows was denied by the PTA. Didn’t they knew what kind of people was out there?" (Part 2)


• Unnamed story (Scenes That Should Be: Breakfast of Zombie Champions), by Charles RB (COMPLETE!): "And then Andrew trailed off as Jake Morgendorffer ran across the lawn, a leather gimp mask on his head. 'DARIA! EMERGENCY! HOW LONG DO INTESTINES TAKE?!'"


• We're Going to the Bank? (Iron Chef: How did we get here? (Round 2:FIGHT)), by Fhujeth_x (part ): "'Drive faster, Mr. Griffin.' Trent held Jane's glue gun to his head, 'Or you know what I'll do...' Then inspiration started, 'But I'll give you a clue...' He continued, 'I'll stick onto you... A football player or two.'"


• Wheels of Fire (Iron Chef: How did we get here? (Round 2:FIGHT)), by BrownEyedBagel (parts 1 and 2): "Tom’s gripped the wheel as his knuckles went white with desire. Trent hummed to himself as many dirty thoughts flooded his mind. Jamie didn’t quite understand what was going on, but he didn’t care. He was just stoked to be along for the ride. They had pulled off the perfect crime without any hitches, and some unexpected rewards waiting for them." (Part 2)

Rats and Pi...but not Rat Pie!

Happy Ratcatcher's Day! Whether they're on Ritalin or not, those little guys apparently need catching. Hey, I wonder if The Ratcatcher would be Ratboy's arch nemesis? I suppose we'd have to ask Kevin.

Today is also Pi Approximation Day, so those of you who missed Pi Day earlier this year can now have some pie--or at least something close to it.

Fandom News!

• Deref is now on the Boston leg of his trip, and has posted photos.


• The Space Shuttle Atlantis has returned home.


• The Boston Dariacon 2011 will start later today, and a Skype invitation has been extended.


• What do you think about Jodie's future maladjustment?


• TP Roll: choose your preference in the poll.


• Will any of the Daria characters keep in touch after IICY? If so, which ones?


• Discuss "A Dance with Dragons" in the thread, but watch out for spoilers!


• Two new Iron Chefs in Creative Writing: Hyrin's Defenestration! and OverlordMikey's Eric’s an okay guy?

Pi are Squarish, Just Like Quinn's Tooth Preference!

Happy Pi Day, everyone! Today you can celebrate by deriving a circle's circumference from its diameter, calculating the value of pi to five million digits, or (like I plan to) cheating and just eating some pie.

I suspect that Jane, with her less-than-stellar math grades, will choose that last one as well. Although she might prefer a pizza pie, especially one with a pretty large circumference.

Mmmm. Pi.

And now for some non-math-related fandom news!

• People are expressing their concern and sharing news about the Japanese earthquake and its aftereffects.


• Discuss March Madness in this thread.


• CR85747 wonders about "Bad Ass High" and Daria's "bad attitude."


• Want to appreciate live music? Here's the place to do it!


• OverlordMikey has started a 12 POVs Challenge.

Pi and Chocolate

Yes, it is Pi Day again, as was explained in an earlier post, and it is also the anniversary of Albert Einstein's birthday. Much goodness there. Not only that, it is the birthday anniversary of Linux, too, with its cute sexy logo of my special life companion Tux.

Like chocolate? Today is White Day, a Japanese sort of Valentine's Day in which gifts of chocolate are given by men to their loved ones. You know what to do, people: tell that special someone to give you chocolate right freaking now if they know what's good for them. That's the spirit!

Outstanding new art on SFMB: Yeahrobots is a new artist in our fandom with incredible stuff! Go see teh awesomeness!

Stuff and More Stuff, with Pi

So I did a Google search for July 22, Daria, and Jane, and I got this blog. WTF? What is that? Must not be a guy thing.

Anyway, today is the 111th birthday of famed author Stephen Vincent Benét, whose stories both you and Daria undoubtedly read in middle and high school. ("The Devil and Daniel Webster"? "By the Waters of Babylon"?)

Most importantly, today is Pi Approximation Day (hooray!), just like it was last year at this time, but remember it is not Pi Day, which was in March. Also remember it is not appropriate to write pi as "pir." That is another kind of p-word.

Let's see what the Urban Dictionary says about Daria.... interesting. How about Quinn.... whoa! Ouch! OMG! Whew, sorry about that! Had no idea that... never mind. Moar l8r.

Brainy Quinn Loves Pi Day

Today is Pi Day, as all mathematically inclined people know. Everything you need to know about Daria and Pi Day was explained in an earlier post, so I won't repeat it here.

Latest entry in DariaWiki: Daria IRC Chatroom. João Paulo Costa, Disco316, Brother Grimace, Vlademir1, Quiverwing, BlackHole, and Ranger Thorne have added great stuff to this resource. You might also want to look over the page on Horror, which has finally been expanded.

More online praise of Daria, this time from Entertainment Weekly.com. Interesting article. Daria on Bachelorette? This sounds like an Iron Chef challenge.

Here is a really weird news item for you. Another Daria alumnus does good.... I think.

Need to work on Backgrounders this weekend and write another fanfic chapter. L8r.

[This blog entry will expand unpredictably within the next 24 hours. Stay tuned.]

[First part:] Echopapa is sending up a trial balloon on PPMB for an idea called "X-23." Respond to it, if you dare.


PPMB

• Apocalyptic Daria: Brave New World, by Doggieboy (Part 6): Odell Jones sat in the driver’s seat of his minivan and hummed along with an Elvis Presley song as it played on the CD player. Sun’s out, good song from the King, a beautiful piece in the back, and all I need to totally make my day is one good “sale." (SFMB)
• Complications, by Legendeld (Part 4): “I need to get laid. If something doesn’t happen soon, my wrist is going to end up in a sling.”
  
• Daylight: Falling from Grace: I Should Have Been Home Yesterday, by Disco316 (Part 1): “West Virginia! We made it!” rang the cheery voice of Quinn Morgendorffer. Quinn’s voice betrayed none of the hardship she had to endure over the last month. “It’s about freaking time,” added Sandi Griffin.
• Love Is a Series of Burning Sensations (ex-Accidents Will Happen), by Undefinedlust (Part 4): Sometimes unicorns have to die... wait, where have I heard that one before?
• Other Side, by Legendeld (COMPLETE!): “They are the machine Hands. Those that worked in the world to ensure the Engines were obeyed.” Daniel answered Jane’s question concerning what the men were. “But they were all destroyed.”
  
• Quinn Angel, by Lawndale Stalker/Lurker (continued): “You succeeded, Daria! My life is over! But I’m taking you with me! You hear me, Daria? You’re dead!”
• Stacy Rowe, Seeker (Part II), by jtranser (continued): Daria reflected on how much her father had deteriorated since that day when Link, dressed in a squirrel suit and lederhosen, attacked her family. In a few seconds his tenuous grip on sanity finally slipped away.
  

Happy Pi Day!

Today, March 14th (a.k.a. 3/14) is Pi Day. On this day, we commemorate the brainiest Quinn in fanfic, the math wizard created by Kara Wild for the Driven Wild Universe. This is the Quinn who said, in "Breaking the Mold": "Pi is cute. If pi were on the Endangered Species list, I'd be, like, really upset."

How many Daria fanfics involve math, other than DWU? I will investigate.

Meanwhile, Hershey-chan continues a most excellent series of shipper pics with a real shocker. That totally rules. Love it.

More soon after I see what math-related fanfic there is (excluding stories where people say, "You do the math," which a lot of stories do).

LATE ADD: Hmmm, not coming up with much. John Lane and Daria argue over John's math grades in Richard Lobinske's "Echoes of a Relationship" (great story, that one), and Daria tutors Jane and Stacy in math in "The Law of Inclusion and Exclusion," by William Gasarch (also good story).

Back later. The Evil Quinn from Thomas's most excellent tale, "It's a Wonderful Life, Not," is also a genius, but she's, um, evil. She likes calculus, though. And murder, true, but anyone who likes calculus isn't all bad.

Back later.