|
|
|
October 7th, 2008
wiredferret
 | 01:54 pm - Church lady sewing
Last night, sil picked me up from work, we collected the Pook, and then he got Baz from school and I flung some dinner at people and chucked a whole bunch of stuff into my sewing bag so I could go sew with the church ladies. Baz's shirt now has sleeves! And side-seams. All I need to do is hems and buttons, for which I needed my iron and my chalk, neither of which I'd brought. On the bright side, hemming is just the sort of thing he can help with. Instead I worked on another bed pocket. I should take a picture of the one I made for sil.
In church lady gossip, B had fun in the southwest, other B is studying Excel and making heavy work of it, A is doing some amazing things with machine applique, I should really remember to do my homework for my committee, and a newcomer is connected to me six ways to Sunday -- goes to church with a long-ago pastor, and her dad pastored Alder (bless their hearts), and she works at World Vision. I minded my Ps and Qs.
And then I came home and sil was already asleep and Baz was already asleep and Kay was.... well, she doesn't believe in going to sleep. And it was only 9 PM.
Today I look fetching. Black boots, salt-and-pepper tweed skirt at knee length, and clingy ribbed black cowl-neck sweater. Rawr. I can take a hint, Macy's windows. I am down with your TWEED. (Of course, today it's all shiny black skinny pants).
|
talheres
 | 01:30 pm - Grabbed from Daemonwolf-
|
jennaxide
 | 01:17 pm - Coffee cake
I made the apricot & almond version of this coffee cake recipe to rave reviews! I used Tofutti brand sour cream replacer instead of sour cream and groovy non-dairy, non gmo etc. margarine instead of unsalted butter. Thanks again to the lovely and talented (and newly teacher-tastic!) ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) caliginous for the recipes. As always, you rule, lady!
( Coffe cake recipe & variations )
|
enlightened77
 | 04:12 pm - Dead Violets @ Velvet Lounge
This is my favorite image from the show:
( More behind the cut )
|
theoryofgravity
 | 04:07 pm - Bizarro Politics: You People REALLY Disgust Me Edition
This just in: John McCain may be even more of an asshole than I ever suspected.
Yeah, it's a long ass article from Rolling Stone, which I generally avoid. But it's worth reading, if you can stomach it. Parts of it are a pearl-clutching level of shocking.
Right now I think my outrage is directed at both McCain-as-microcosm, and at the simple, purely American reality that those with the luck to be born into money and privilege can do whatever the fuck they want, and get away with it, and succeed in life anyway.
Current Music: tom waits - "whistlin' past the graveyard"
|
ifimust
 | 09:01 pm - Ravelry group
I've just started a group on Ravelry for charity crafting in the UK go here. A lot of the groups on ravelry are US based, which is good, fine and laudable but it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense for us here, to send things to the States, unless the charity is going to distribute them in the US (which is also good, fine and laudable).
Feel free to join, and to spread the word! You don't need to knit/crochet for charity to join - if you know of someone/some group that would benefit, please let the group know! Or if you'd be willing to say, join squares that other people knit or ... whatever!
What I'd like to see in the future is this becoming a sort of clearing house where people can find info and go off and do their own things (not that I'm not already thinking about a knit along or three!). :)
|
dmlaenker
 | 04:02 pm - 4:00! Time for Twits.
On this day, Daniel M. Laenker spewed forth:
Automatically aggregated and shipped in bulk by LoudTwitter, or so we hope.
|
nykeyoung
 | 02:27 pm
Why is it when I forget to bring my earphones to DMACC, everyone nearby has to see how loud they can get?
|
wolven
 | 03:23 pm - Are you reading, wearing, and looking, today?
Important thoughts from smart people, in this month's Wired: http://www.wired.com/politics/law/magazine/16-10/sl_intro
No, I'm not in there, but I might as well be.
From mendori, 'Voodoo Priestess Says Cobb Official Bounced Checks': http://www.11alive.com/rss/rss_story.aspx?storyid=122063
Today is... Pretty weird.
Remember, possesions don't make you happy, but they Can make you the envy of everyone you know. And that will make you happy:
mech_angel has things for sale, including some pretty bad-ass t-shirts, and the freakiest [Shub-Niggurath] you'll ever see.
Tell your friends.
[3.32pm: From dmlaenker, Eidolon Career Solutions: Career Management Solutions for Dark Cultures, Goths, and Alternative Livestyles": http://www.eidoloncareersolutions.com/
That. Is. AWESOME.]
Current Mood: Informative
Current Music: Food Network
|
deathboy
 | 08:06 pm - bleak
A very cool bloke - unimag - whose LJ, with its thoughtfully acerbic vitriol, has amused me regularly is having a shit time of it.
In short, his mom passed away recently, and the funeral expenses have been financially crippling. Related to this, he's having some rather unpleasant family hassle.
He seems fairly antsy about asking for help, but if you have a few quid to rub together, spare a thought and get your paypal out. Losing your mom to cancer is plenty to happen to a person, without any other nastiness.
If you'd like something for your buck and like your humour dark and brutal, you could do worse than add his LJ, he's a good read.
|
wordweaverlynn
 | 12:01 pm - Me-me-memes
According to a test I'm not bothering to post, I am Balanced in my chakras and elements. No, I'm just crazy in mutually contradictory ways. I am also barbecue sauce, white tea, chardonnay, and a complete bitch. (The last is not a quiz result, just reality.)
The enneagram result makes sense. The political quiz is no surprise whatsoever.
( A special special snowflake )
( An even more special autumn leaf )
( bread and snowflakes )
( just falling there )
|
theoryofgravity
 | 02:55 pm - Bizarro Politics: You People Disgust Me Edition
"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.
Palin also told those gathered that Obama doesn't like American soldiers. "He said that our troops in Afghanistan are just, quote, 'air-raiding villages and killing civilians,' " she said, drawing boos from a crowd that had not been told Obama was actually appealing for more troops in Afghanistan.
McCain's and Palin's most recent talking points - "Who is the real Barack Obama?" and "Barack Obama doesn't see America like you and I do," respectively - are both coded speech intended to exploit the subliminal undercurrent of racism that is woven into the experience of every single white American every single day of our lives. That's right, I said every single white American, whether you fight it or not, whether you're the Greatest Anti-Racist Activist EverTM, or whether you're plain ignorant, or whether you've decided that while racism sucks, it's just easier not to think about it. It affects you, it benefits you, and if you tell me it doesn't you're a fucking liar. That said, benefiting from racism doesn't make you a racist; it makes you white.
McCain/Palin are consciously stirring up sentiment that Obama is not merely unfit for the presidency, but that he is dangerous. McCain/Palin, most terrifyingly of all, are also pointedly not correcting those who actually think Barack Obama is a radical muslim terrorist in disguise. Because it works in their favor. They don't need to run an honorable campaign rooted in respect, intelligence, and good judgment if they can convince a brain-dead public that Obama is an imposter of some kind. They're playing to a stereotype of people of color as "mysterious" and "othered", as untrustworthy, as devious.
They are doing this by lying. We're past being misleading. This is pure motherfucking cloak-and-dagger deception, and it bets that Americans are ignorant enough that given the choice, they'll indulge their groundless racist fears instead of voting on issues. It bets that Americans are so beat down and poisoned by our government and our political system that we'll vote based on a fear of the unknown rather than take a chance on believing that things can change for the better. It assumes that Americans have been so brutalized that we're incapable of hope, that we're incapable of making decisions based on the issues that affect us. McCain's message right now is: "Vote for me, because Obama will fuck shit up worse than I will, and you'll believe this because that man doesn't look like you, nor does his wife look like your wife nor his kids like your kids. You don't know what he's thinking, because he doesn't even think like you think. You're going to trust that man with your life?"
It's disgusting.
Both of these candidates promised to not let their campaigns devolve like this. I fault McCain for this, because he kicked this off, and as the Bush/Kerry contest in 2004 made clear, a Democratic candidate who fails to strike back against negative attacks is a candidate who doesn't make it into office.
I honestly, truthfully, do not know how John McCain and Sarah Palin sleep at night right now. I don't know how John McCain looks in the mirror, as this new direction of his campaign seems to be moving in the opposite direction of everything he's claimed to stand for, that being a bipartisan aisle-crossing no-politics-as-usual non-insider non-mudslinging approach. Ultimately it begs the question: who is the real John McCain?
|
lucindalunacy
 | 02:36 pm - Food Porn Part 3
This one took three stages.
Pumpkin Cupcakes with Walnuts
Pumpkin Walnut Cupcakes with Caramel Filling
(I cheated and I got the filling at this Russian Deli that we found last week.)
Pumpkin Walnut Cupcakes with Caramel Filling and Cream Cheese Frosting with Jimmies on top
This concludes your pic spam for the day.
|
jennaxide
 | 11:32 am - How many camels is my girlfriend worth?
'Iko: if you were wondering... "well, i reckon your girl is worth more or less 23 camels, 2 goats and 9 sheep" Not sure what to compare that to, but it seems pretty good?'
++
Which begs the question: what is the value of a camel? Last April Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, bought a female camel for a record $2.72 million.
I ask again, in the market of girlfriend bartering, what is the value of a camel?
(wait for it)
A: It depends on the hump.
(rimshot!)
Current Location: 98104
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/opiummmm/foxies/happy.gif) amused
|
lucindalunacy
 | 02:26 pm - Food Porn Part 2
Pumpkin Muffins with Cinnamon Chips and Walnuts
I made these last week and they were delicious.
|
lucindalunacy
| 02:22 pm - Food Porn Pt 1
Have Great Fall Fun
Apple Muffins with Walnuts and Cinnamon Chips
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/full.gif) full
|
kopyor
 | 01:03 pm - Status Update Warning: More Than 140 Characters.
So this morning I went to Boston to meet with my therapist, and it's been about a year since I saw him. And it's been three years since we were able to meet on a regular routine basis. Boy am I glad that I'm starting back up with him! Today he helped me put my current situation in perspective, the conditions of which I intuitively understand, but for which I had not put any words, names, labels. That's so therapy language LOL but whatever. The basic over-arching issue is now that I live back in Cambridge again, I can do a real compare and contrast with the last time I lived here, and quite frankly, I don't even recognize the person I was when I lived here three years ago. So much change, it's not bad, just so different, and I have to adjust to the same place but on new terms.
A quick summary of the last three years, in terms of big changes since I left Cambridge:
1. Did my fieldwork in a rather rough and tumble post-earthquake, post-tsunami, post-conflict zone that is totally PTSD, and lived there for three years. Secondary trauma, my friends, is not just a theoretical construct!
2. Had a few big jobs there, with a salary like I never had before (plus hazard pay! and travel per diems! OMG!).
3. I am now financially secure like I never have been before (thanks to said salary plus investments)
4. I am in my first serious long-term relationship ever since Carlos and I finally called it quits for realz in 2003. Dezant and I have been together for more than 30 months now!
5. I own property for the first time, an apartment in Jakarta.
6. Can you think of any others?
Greg (my therapist) was rather impressed with all this. But while I'm glad to be home, to see family, my dog, enjoy New England in the autumn, and eat my favorite healthy veggies and grains again, I've been feeling incredibly shitty! The main reason is that Dezant couldn't get a visa and join me here for my homecoming. As a result, I've had a harder time than usual getting my work done, I've been incredibly anti-social and distant from friends and family, and my approach to teaching and other academic obligations has taken on a purely functional quality, neither gratifying nor frustrating.
Greg summed it up real nicely with two major take home points:
1. I've totally entered a new life stage, and Greg thought it was terrific!
2. But I'm a displaced person... figuratively and physically. OMG JADI PENGUNGSI!
So while I can meet the routine requirements of everyday life, which is an achievement in and of itself for any displaced person, that's all I can do to keep up with current expectations. He suggested that I'm on the right track by setting up my daily routines (walk the dog, do some cooking, do some work, watch Rachel Maddow / Daily Show / Colbert Report, get a good night's sleep, etc.), but to stop seeing them as distractions from the work I'm having a hard time completing. Instead, those are the things to enjoy more, and in fact, I should add more stuff to my day that I like, especially while the autumn weather is so perfectly wonderful right now.
It's funny, when I finally talk about these things with someone, like Greg, or like I did when my friend Sharon came to Cambridge and we had dinner two weeks ago, it all seems so eminently possible and manageable, and yet I still stumble and slump in my effort to complete the task. And Greg just kind of legitimated it, said it makes sense that I'm having this trouble, but also suggested it's temporary, and with slow and steady steps to address the problem, I'll come out ahead once again.
Current Location: Cambridge, MA
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/square/b/hopeful.gif) hopeful
|
|
|