Gods of Japan, An A to Z Photo Dictionary of Japanese Buddhism

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/buddhism.shtml

Mark Schumacher has degrees in Japanese and Chinese studies and has lived in Japan since 1992. His focus is on Japanese Buddhist art and this site is the sister site to his online store. The entries are primarily his notes on the art and the stories behind it and under each heading you will find much repetition of the same information as he copies in things he has learned from new sources. However, the organization of the site with an alphabetical index in the sidebar allows the visitor to quickly find what she is looking for and the information is presented in a way that is understandable to the layman. It is presented in a dry textbook style that can cause a bit of eyelid drooping in longer entries but the huge number of illustrations keep it interesting.  Many of the pictures have been taken by Schumacher or are of things that he has personally viewed.

It's not rare for historians or archaeologists to differ on the interpretation of the known facts about something and I particularly like that when sources differ Schumacher will present both theories and the reasoning behind them. He is also open to input from his readers and updates the site regularly.
.
.
.
.

*Whew*

I put up the first post of the Reference Library project this morning and I've probably spent nearly two hours off and on jiggering around with the tags and what they mean and creating the beginnings of an index and hot linking each subject to the tag. Found three typos along the way too.

I picked the item I did BECAUSE it covered so many areas and I knew it would give me a good start on the index but the reality was nearly overwhelming. I don't think any of the others will give me quite so much trouble.

In other news...

The IYFG Awards nomination period opened today so I also spent time finalizing my nominations. Now, in previous quarters I've mostly held back until towards the end because I've usually had two, or even three, noms in one or more categories that I was having trouble deciding between and I'd pick the one that nobody else did to make sure it made it to the ballot. This time....

Okay, I screwed up.

I have a spreadsheet that I use to track the stories that I want to nominate. I keep up to three for each category and as I find stuff that makes me say "Wow!" I evaluate if it's as good as what I've already got listed and if it is I boot the weakest story and add my new find. Somewhere around mid-February I just forgot to do this. I read lots of good fic through Inuerotica and Forth's challenges and from authors that I have on notify but while I remembered to comment on the really good stuff, I forgot to keep track of it consistently. So when I opened up the list it was looking pretty bare.

I managed to fill in some stuff from memory but I KNOW that there are stories that I would normally have in there that aren't and I can't for the life of me remember them. Like, I have NO noms in the Best Romance Miroku/Sango category and I've read good Miroku/Sango this quarter. Anyway, I went with what I had and went ahead and submitted my nominations in those categories where I had something.

So, you'll never know who you are, 'cause neither will I, but to those authors who may not get nominated because I"m an idiot, I really do apologize and I'll try to do better next time.

And, please don't take this the wrong way if I did nom you. After all, your story stuck in my memory enough to make the list so I'd probably have ended up nominating you anyway. This is mainly directed at those with stories in the empty categories where I know I would have had at least one story if I'd done what I was supposed to.

Oh, well, by getting my noms in early now I can concentrate on reading what everyone else is nominating and get ready for the vote.

I'm Spaming You With 3 Posts Today and I Don't Care

Because I just completed making the first pot of chicken and dumplings I've ever made and they are awesome! Started out with a raw whole chicken and a bag of wheat free biscuit mix, ended up with sex on a plate! It took hours but man was it worth it.