kaigou | read

Cordelia is now saying that she wants to stay at her current school. I didn't think to ask her why. I need to do that. I was just thrilled to have her open to the possibility of staying.

Scott's trying to process the video of the school meeting. It's taking a lot longer than he expected to get it formatted and uploaded. I think it will take him a few days to get it done. I know there are several people who are interested in seeing the video. If we can get it posted in time, the urls might well go into the next school bulletin.

I have three phone calls to make today. At least, I hope I can make them today. Cordelia's friend's brother will be playing on the Wii all day, and that's noisy. Actually, now that I think about it, there's a fourth call I ought to make-- I have to deliver paperwork to my psychiatrist this week, and I need to find out when her receptionist will be there.

While shopping for a sleeping bag, Cordelia discovered that there's a DVD of Teen Titans Go! out. She bought it and has been watching it every free moment since. The effect is rather overwhelming and makes me miss the old show even more. Teen Titans Go! is funny and clever, but there's no continuity, and the characters get warped in service to the jokes.

edenfalling

Summary: Nyota and Gaila talk about species diversity. In bed. (200 words exactly)

( Musings on Impractical Phylogeny )

An experiment with Google docs, since I still don't have a viable version of Word. :-/

mood curious
location ithaca, ny
xpost: http://edenfalling.livejournal.com/761365.html

the_rck

One packet of stevia is definitely too much for a sixteen ounce mug of tea. The flavor of it overwhelmed the flavor of the peach blossom oolong when I tried them together yesterday. I'll try half a packet next time. I think that's a more sensible amount even if it is inconvenient. I might even end up using less than that if I can meter the dose well enough and figure out how to store the opened partial packet.

snarp

Finished The Pillow Book, and Sei Shonagon is still an asshole, and Ivan Morris's footnotes still have some bullshit in them. Neither of these things has changed in the years since I last read it. However, reading an segment, then going back and looking through the footnotes, and then re-reading it, has at some point in the interim become extremely soothing for me.

I am now instead reading a Night Vale/His Dark Materials crossover and enjoying it.

boxofdelights

First 72-degree Sunday in spring. 33 cars parked on the road outside Horsetooth Mountain Park because the parking lot was full. The last of the ROTC kids heading up the hill past the reservoir with his full backpack was alarmingly red in the face.

I went to Masonville to take care of the horses, because Neal and Mungo are skiing. Passion is very old and very thin. I think this is the third winter we've said that we'll be surprised if she makes it through. Today, I'll be surprised if I see her tomorrow. I brought her a bowl of oatmeal, but she wasn't interested. I pulled some big knots out of her mane. It's superstitious to think that knots will bind you and untying them will release you, but, you know. Tomorrow I'll go back with a comb and without the dogs, who were being annoying.

xpost: http://boxofdelights.livejournal.com/237888.html

edenfalling

Hey everyone! RemixRedux is back this year, thanks to the wonderful

laurificus, who is currently soliciting advice on the qualifying fandom list.

Basically, in order to sign up for RemixRedux, you must have written a minimum of fics (5 of over 500 words, or 7 of over 100 words) in at least one qualifying fandom. Qualifying, in this case, means large-ish and with enough other people who are willing to sign up for Remix who have written stories in that fandom and are willing to remix in it. You must also be willing to remix in at least one qualifying fandom. (I think one of your "I have enough stories" and "I'm willing to write this" fandoms must be the same, but I may be misremembering.) The point of that is to make sure every participant can be matched! You can, of course, offer and request other fandoms -- not to mention your remixer may decide to work with a completely random story in some other tiny fandom you happen to have written for, so long as you didn't declare that story off-limits -- but the qualifying fandoms are a big deal.

There is a poll and suggestions post open right now over on LJ. Go! Vote! Try to round up other people interested in your pet fandom!

Speaking of which... would anybody be interested in trying to get Homestuck listed as a qualifying fandom? It's certainly large enough, but I don't think the Homestuck demographic has a huge amount of overlap with the traditional RemixRedux demographic. On the other hand, Ouroboros Mix (a Homestuck-only remix fest) generated reasonable interest and participation last year, so... more remixes, more fun? Yes? I think yes!

(I also qualify in Chronicles of Narnia, Naruto, Harry Potter, Inception, and Star Trek: AOS, so getting Homestuck onto the list will not make or break my participation, but I am always in favor of more options. *grin*)

mood cheerful
location ithaca, ny
xpost: http://edenfalling.livejournal.com/761137.html

mishalak

One of the great joys of no longer being sick is the first drink. I have been dry for a week and there is nothing like a week long abstinence from all alcohol to make a bottle of beer a real joy. I generally drink a bottle of beer or homemade mead most days of the week. I do not exceed this because I do not wish to end up a scary guy with a beard living in a box. I know that scenario escalated quickly, but that is how my brain works. I think of having two drinks and my paranoia says, “And then you will end up an alcoholic.” Unless I am with friends.

So I had a cold most of this past week and so I did not allow myself any alcohol as it depresses the immune system. Since I drink all the time my immune system ought to be used to the abuse, but I figure give it every advantage. I hope forgoing all alcohol while sick is rather like walking around with weights all the time and only taking them off for emergencies and thus becoming a superhero. This is probably insane troll logic, but those are the rules that I made up and I enforce them with unwavering faithfulness. Mostly.

So the first drink after a period of lenten self denial is great. Just like the first beer I ever had years ago. Slightly numb lips and full of joy. Also a slight desire to get it on with someone cute. Even though I generally do not like having sex with people. I do like people and socializing, but having sex with them is generally weird because then I have to think about other people's feelings and desires. Though it works out for other people I have found that a solitary life is the right way for me to live because I am slightly more narcissistic than Cordelia Chase.

So this has been a long winded way of me saying, “Back on the alcohol and it makes me happy!”

xpost: http://mishalak.livejournal.com/557775.html

firecat

I don't know anything about this blogger except that this post includes a snark-free photo of Gabourey Sidibe and her gorgeous fuchsia lace gown from this year's Oscars.
http://myvintageonline.blogspot.com/2014/03/top-ten-dresses-from-oscars-2014.html

Portraits of Boston published a very thoughtful interview with a woman who works with homeless people.

It’s absurd to say that someone chooses homelessness because given the choice for housing that’s affordable and realistic, no one would.

The same is true of saying, ‘Oh well, they choose homelessness because they are mentally ill.’ First, being mentally ill is not a choice. An individual who is mentally ill has trouble navigating everyday normal social situations, particularly if they have Axis I mental health diagnosis or even Axis II mental health diagnosis. These diagnoses make it difficult to navigate everyday life. To say that they’ve chosen homelessness would be simply to say that they’ve chosen it over trying to navigate normal society. That’s just not an answer. So, do I think people choose homelessness? Never.

xpost: http://firecat.livejournal.com/826791.html

the_rck

Cordelia lasted the night at the slumber party. We thought she would, but it was always at the back of my mind that she might call, wanting to come home. She says she stayed up until four, talking to another girl. There were four girls sleeping on one big air mattress. (There were two other girls who went home last night, one because she got sick, the other for unspecified reasons.)

Scott and I had dinner last night at a place called the Palm Palace. The website says it does Mediterranean food, but I'd have called it Middle Eastern food. Is that the same thing? It occurs to me that 'Mediterranean' may be more socially acceptable these days. At any rate, they started us out with freshly baked pita and a garlic spread. We ordered hummus. By the time our actual meals came, we weren't very hungry. Scott had lamb and chicken shwarma with vegetables, and I had a lamb sampler with couscous. Both of us had soup, too. We finished out by sharing a little bit of baklava. We tried to buy some baklava to take home, but there wasn't anybody at the cash register in the 'gift shop,' and nobody came when Scott called.

We picked Cordelia up at eleven this morning. After we got her, we tried to go to IHOP, but the line there was crazy. We went to Bob Evans instead. Cordelia had some fruit and a smoothie because it hadn't been long since she had breakfast. Scott and I hadn't eaten yet. He had French toast with bacon (shared with Cordelia), and I had banana caramel pancakes. I ate about half of my serving. Scott and Cordelia managed to come close to finishing off the rest.

We stopped briefly at home to get the library bag (if we'd been thinking, we'd have taken it when we left). Then we went to the library. The hold I put on the new Origami Yoda book came in, and Cordelia grabbed it and started reading it immediately.

Bubble Island is due to re-open tomorrow. That did us no good today, so we went to TK Wu's. I ordered watermelon, and Cordelia ordered strawberry. She wasn't happy with what she got, so we swapped. The strawberry has the virtue of having bits of actual fruit mixed in.

masqthephlsphr

Happy Birthday, shadowkat67!!!

Happy Birthday, marciaelena!!!

mood chipper
xpost: http://masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com/972232.html

issenllo

Newest update, chapter 23 to The Best and the Brightest, Sherlock, AU, by wordstrings, which is spectacular enough to set the screen alight with its genius.

Let Parker be Parker, The Amazing Spider-Man/West Wing/Avengers, by lonelywalker

Bondlock: Mycroft's Son, Skyfall, Sherlock, by IBegToDreamAndDiffer

***

Sober things:

I tried posting about this a few days after the funeral, but couldn't make myself set the post to 'public'. ( family stuff )

littlerhymes

Okkervil River
Eminem and Kendrick Lamar
Placebo
Jimmy Eat World, Panic! At the Disco and Alkaline Trio
Neko Case

( music )

xpost: http://littlerhymes.livejournal.com/189651.html

umadoshi

Beginning with a digression: as I figure is likely true of most people in close relationships,

scruloose have our own sort of shorthand when talking to each other. Some parts of it are weirder than others. And sometimes it results in things like me looking into a mostly-empty container and saying, out of the blue, "The love is almost gone."

(Translation: "We're almost out of chocolate marshmallow squares." I do the baking/sweets-making around here, generally, but

scruloose has let me arrange things so that the default is him making marshmallow squares (those rocky-road sorts of things, not crispy rice squares) and scones, because if I learn to make them we'll drown in the things. Somewhere along the line, I started claiming that the squares are proof of love.)

Oh, time change. :/ We have Pumpkin coming over in the morning, and I should've been in bed over half an hour ago, given that we're losing an hour tonight. Here's hoping I can approximate consciousness!

The point of the post: I've been thinking for a while that I'd like a pair of all-weather boots other than my combats, and when Ginny was here at Christmas I was admiring the fact that she has Fluevog boots that she wears outside in imperfect weather. (I can never shake the feeling that my 'vogs are not to be risked in less than ideal conditions. >.>)

And now the Pattis are hugely on sale, and I already have the Jonis from that family, so if the soles are consistent across the family (I know they're not always; apparently with the Minis you should always try on each style no matter how many other Minis you've worn), I can reasonably assume I'd find these boots comfortable. (The day I bought my Jonis, I walked around Toronto in them for about eight hours, straight out of the box, and my feet were fine--especially impressive since they have an admittedly-low heel, and I don't generally wear heels at all. The Jonis are by far my favorite of my Fluevogs, and they're the ones I almost didn't buy.)

Thing is, there's nowhere around here to try Fluevogs on, so I'd have to gamble on mail ordering them, and sale items can only be returned for store credit. And the key worry: I have the Jonis in a 6, and the Pattis aren't available in a 6, so I'd have to get a 6.5. And I know very little about shoe sizing, so I have no real sense of whether the fact that the Jonis are sandals and therefore worn on bare feet and the Pattis are boots and would be worn with socks would make up the difference.

Do any of you have input? I've looked at a couple of shoe sizing charts online, but they're not helping me get a mental idea of the difference. (I've also dropped Fluevog a note on Twitter to ask if the soles in that family are consistently sized.)

mood curious
music Tom McRae - End of the World News (live, solo)
xpost: http://umadoshi.livejournal.com/486742.html

edenfalling

Dear Internet,

I downloaded Office 2013, which makes a big fucking deal of how it's always available on all devices and yay OneDrive and what the fuck, I don't care, just give me MS Word ON MY OWN COMPUTER, YOU ASSHOLE PROGRAMMERS!

By which I mean, I have downloaded this thing TWICE and I cannot find hide nor hair of MS Word on my computer, no matter what search terms I use.

Which would seem to defeat the purpose of purchasing and downloading a program suite that explicitly claims to contain MS Word.

So. Anybody out there have any tips for FINDING Word and then for CREATING A GODDAMN DESKTOP ICON SO I DON'T LOSE IT AGAIN?!?!?!

Fucking Microsoft.

And their chat client is continually busy. I have refreshed it three times now and it keeps timing out and telling me to try again later.

Assholes.

...

...

AIPHGPAREIUHP98Q36YQYTPSREIUHEPHIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mood pissed off
location ithaca, ny
xpost: http://edenfalling.livejournal.com/760835.html

snarp

Because I'm trying to do that every day, as a method of tracking my moods and coherency for future reference in evaluating the effectiveness of these unpleasant psychiatric drugs I'm on.

I could post about my brain or I could post about Sei Shonagon's brain. Different sets of problems with those two brains. I hope, anyway? I hope I don't have Sei Shonagon's problems, buried deep within me. I re-read half of The Pillow Book today, which is more than I've managed to read at a stretch in months, is where this is coming from.

I also listened episode 39 of Night Vale, and was pleased that there was a reference to Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds. That's a really good book.

This has been my report on my brain, which is probably in my head still. When I knock on the side of my head, it does not make a hollow sound. (I just knocked lightly on the side of my head with my right fist.) Brain's probably in there, it's probably my own brain.

umadoshi

Tom McRae has a new release. It's a limited edition solo live album called "From the Solo Lands" (his last album having been "From the Lowlands"), and its packaging is a board game. (I haven't looked at the pictures or promo video closely enough to see how that works.) And buying it today gave me immediate access to digital copies of the whole thing and eleven extra digital tracks...but buying the main collection digitally-only doesn't result in the extra tracks, which seems weird to me, but...okay.

(There's also a decent spring discount deal if you buy both "From the Lowlands" and "From the Solo Lands".)

(I don't do specific music associations with Newsflesh the way I did with Fruits Basket, but this song ["Second Law"] is high on my mental list of things that could theoretically make me learn to vid if we ever get good movies.)

Links!

Via

marina, this Kickstarter for "period panties" (which ends in about twelve hours, which, uh, tells you how long I've had tabs open). The international shipping has kept me from seriously considering it, but the idea pleases me immensely. *g*

A site called Organization Anti-Social Geniuses has a post on advice from manga letterers, from a variety of people working in the field, including

lyschan and

kaitou_ace (Annaliese Christman).

Over at Jezebel, there's "Taste Test From Hell: We Cooked a Bunch of Gross Recipes From the '50s", which is exactly what it sounds like.

A couple weeks ago,

skygiants posted about figuring out how a French Revolution Sleepy Hollow AU would work, and it sounds fantastic and I would like to read it now, please.

Via

newredshoes, this Salon piece: "The trouble with virginity: What America's sexual language leaves out".

Via

ironed_orchid, a post by Mallory Ortberg boils generic YA dystopian fiction down to its key traits: "It's A Bunch of Years After The War And Everything Is Different".

Via

lnhammer, "Twitter I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down: Learning to live on the net". [Warning: busily animated post header.]

Via

notalwaysweak, "somebody alert the authorities there's too much red meat in this romance" is an Ann/Ron Parks and Recreation fic and it is DELIGHTFUL.

Via BoingBoing, danah boyd has made a .pdf of her new book It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens available for download. (The first of those links goes to her post explaining her reasons.)

A few days ago,

sara posted about how fanfic gets less respect than similar endeavors in other artistic mediums. (There's good discussion in the comments, too.) "and I thought, you know, writing is about the only creative discipline where people give you shit for doing covers. [...] And it's entirely acceptable to play the piano on weekends, or only in front of friends, and nobody's ever going to say to you, 'You know, you should book some shows down at the club. Just because everyone will be drunk is no reason to imagine it won't be a great experience.' I know musicians who go years without performing for the general public, and that's a completely normal part of the cultural experience of being a musician."

And a few links to stuff relating to Seanan McGuire's writing:

For the daily posting meme, I asked

kass to talk about Seanan's work in some way, and she wrote about the recurring reasons why she loves it. ^_^

A little over a week ago now, Seanan posted the cover for Symbiont, the sequel to Parasite.

From the department of "yes, she does research the hell out of everything", someone was listening to the audiobook of Feed and got to the part early on where a zombie grabs Shaun and rips his sweater, and asked Seanan if she'd researched the tearing strength of a wool sweater. Answer: "We hung a friend of mine over a rail while wearing a wool sweater. Because we are either a) metal or b) jerks, depending on your perspective."

And finally, someone left her a note about Indexing, which I'm quoting from here simply because it's true and lovely: "the whole book just felt like waves of love about how we're not our narratives, how it's not our fault, the way we were raised, and about how we have the right to fight the emotional abusive narrative we were forced to take in our whole lives."

mood cold
music Tom McRae - Second Law (live, solo)
xpost: http://umadoshi.livejournal.com/486600.html

edenfalling

I have the laptop set up and connected to the internet! Yay! (Thank you, Upstairs Neighbor R, for writing out and leaving me the network security key last time you reconfigured your router and accidentally kicked me off your network access list. I must remember to write you a note explaining that the new computer on your network is not an interloper but just me by a different name -- Shadowfall instead of Thief-of-Always.)

Unfortunately, it turns out I forgot to unplug the little USB port connector/adapter thingy that lets my wireless mouse talk to a computer, so I am stuck using the touchpad that comes with the laptop. Also, my keyboard turns out to be one of the last old-style ones made, with the round plug instead of a USB plug, so I can't use it either and am stuck using the laptop's own keyboard. I hate laptop keyboards and touchpads. They are at a horrible angle and hurt my wrists something awful after a few minutes. Also, I have no scroll wheel. That is TRAGIC.

But still, computer! With internet access! And presumably a word processing program, somewhere, since the Office download claims it did its thing successfully.

I am not keen on this Windows 8 touchscreen nonsense, and went to the old layout as fast as humanly possible, because dude, this is a computer, not a phone. I don't want my greasy fingers all over my nice clean screen.

I also don't have any of my bookmarks, because they are trapped on my old hard drive until Tuesday at the earliest, more likely Wednesday or Thursday. Best Buy is slightly backlogged on data transfer requests right now, so it will take them a while to retrieve my files and put them onto my external backup hard drive. (Yes, I know I should have been backing up ALL my data all along, not just a few story files. I will be better about that in future.) But I think I can manage without bookmarks for a few days. It may take me a bit more banging around to find some pages I want to check, but eh, I found them in the first place; I can find them again.

And now onward to other sites, such as email and Tumblr and my lesson plan for tomorrow's RE lesson, which ought to be on Google Drive somewhere...

mood frustrated
location ithaca, ny
xpost: http://edenfalling.livejournal.com/760667.html

edenfalling

My computer died today. Took it to Best Buy to get data off hard drive, and bought new laptop, which I'd meant to do for a while. Guess life got tired of me waiting. *sigh*

Will see if I can get laptop set up and allowed access to Upstairs Neighbors' wireless network tonight. Wish me luck?

mood frustrated
location my phone
xpost: http://edenfalling.livejournal.com/760503.html

the_rck

Scott took his Science Olympiad team and Cordelia to the local natural history museum's planetarium this morning. Scott is a bit annoyed at the young woman who was running the show because she very obviously didn't know what she was talking about. As an example, she kept saying 'galaxy' when she meant 'solar system.'

After that, Scott and Cordelia went looking for a sleeping bag. They went to two or three different stores before they found something appropriate. The new sleeping bag isn't rated for cold weather; it's meant to be used when it's warmish (I think the tag said 40 F to 60 F, but it also mentioned summer time use). I don't expect she'll be using it anywhere that's colder than 40 F, not unless something goes seriously wrong.

Cordelia wanted me to come along to drop her off at the slumber party, so I did. After we left her, Scott and I went to Meier's to do our grocery shopping. That's not normally where we go, but it was close to the party and on our way home. It's occasionally a good idea to try shopping somewhere new. Sometimes, we find new things that we really like.

We had to stop at Kroger on the way home anyway because I had two prescriptions to pick up, and Scott may have to make a stop at Busch's mid-week because that's the only place that carries the particular brand of chicken sausages that I eat for lunches (a lot of types of sausages give me reflux, so I'm cautious). It will depend on how the week goes.

I do have to go into town some time this week. I have long term disability paperwork to be filled out by my psychiatrist, and the sooner I get that to her the better. She said she'd still be willing to fill it out after her baby arrives, but we both agreed it was better all around to get it done before that. I'd do it Monday, but I shall have three kids all day (and, if Cordelia is correct, four kids for part of the day). Tuesday or Wednesday will be soon enough.

dsgood

Thursday March 6, 2014 From sciencedaily.com: Robotic prosthesis turns drummer into a three-armed cyborg
Date: March 6, 2014
Source: Georgia Institute of Technology
Summary: Scientists have created a robotic drumming prosthesis with motors that power two drumsticks. The first stick is controlled both physically by the musicians’ arms and electronically using electromyography (EMG) muscle sensors. The other stick 'listens' to the music being played and improvises.

***Shopped at the Wedge Coop and Steeple People Thrift Store.

Attended Adult Children Anonymous meeting.

***From minnpost.com:

Rachel Stassen-Berger of the Strib covers that diversity endorsement by the GOP for the House seat held by DFL Rep. Phyllis Kahn: "Over the weekend, local Minneapolis Republicans endorsed Abdimalik Mohamed Askar in his run for state House in Minneapolis. His name might be familiar: he ran for president of Somalia a few years ago. Republican Party chair Keith Downey said he is the first Somali-American the party has backed."

***From news.google.com:

In a brazen attempt to "bring home the bacon," meat producer Oscar Mayer has come up with an iPhone app that doubles as an alarm clock and gives off the sound and scent of sizzling slices of pig loin and belly.
San Jose Mercury News
Written by Pat May

location Minneapolis, Baja Manitoba
xpost: http://dsgood.livejournal.com/1284348.html

whois

锴 angry fishtrap 狗

to remember

"When you make the finding yourself— even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light— you'll never forget it." —Carl Sagan

March 2014

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strange bedfellows

read

(no subject)

[Fic] "Musings on Impractical Phylogeny" -- Star Trek: AOS

(no subject)

Typing words in a box

phenology

RemixRedux qualifying fandoms!

Sunday and Homebrew

Convalescent linkspam II

(no subject)

Birthday Girls!!!

fic things, sober things

February (and March) music

A shoe-sizing question

a cry of rage and frustration

I feel like I should type something in this box here.

Tabs, tabs everywhere, but at least there's tea to drink

victory!

computers, argh

(no subject)

(no subject)

whois

to remember

tags

March 2014

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