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| Thursday, August 21st, 2008 |
alias_sqbr
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5:14p |
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tejolote
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1:57a |
I think it's important for me to point out periodically that I care for people whose choices I don't understand, and I respect some people whose choices (or sometimes motivations) I can't understand.
Over the last few years my arguments have gotten shorter and more frustrated, and I'm less and less willing to spend large amounts of time explaining my inner life. For the most part people see me with scorn. I'm an odd duck. I know this. Fumbling to explain and doing it badly is partially because I'm out of practice, because I no longer see the reason for the effort.
The one, the one thing that really matters to me is that people are fair to one another, and do not try to hurt others. Compassion is nice too. The rest is all semantics, and I've already cried enough and torn my hair out enough and cared too much. I just want to let it go sometimes, save for the first paragraph. That's what's always been the important thing. |
mevennen
|
8:28a |
Druids
A woman came in yesterday to talk to me about various pagan paths and wanted to know more about Druidry, so I directed her to a few places. She said that she'd seen my own order process up the Tor at the Summer Solstice and had been fascinated: she'd asked someone how you become a Druid and he replied "Ask nicely!" This seems to have been the thing that sold her on it.
Over on the blog of the person who is the current head of the order, I note a discussion about going on retreat to Iona. Someone asked why Druids chose to go on retreat to a place that has no trees. "Because we're on holiday," came the reply. |
oursin
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8:15a |
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dduane
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8:08a |
Something new in YA writers' contracts: the morality clause This popped up earlier in the month, but I was busy and didn’t notice. (Possibly a good thing: that’s three weeks less spent fuming.) A major publisher is starting to insert this clause in its boilerplate contracts for young adult writers: If you act or behave in a way which damages your reputation as a person suitable to work with or be associated with children, and consequently the market for or value of the work is seriously diminished, and we may (at our option) take any of the following actions: Delay publication / Renegotiate advance / Terminate the agreement.
(growl) I know what my agent will have to say about that clause if it ever pops up in my neighborhood. (Not that I plan to misbehave. Far from it. But this is something the publisher has zero right to be trying to manage at the contract level, and the ways this clause could be misused / misinterpreted to get a publisher off various kinds of hook — at an innocent author’s expense — are many.) Anyway, Siân Pattenden in The Guardian is properly scathing about it. |
rainbow_goddess
|
12:06a |
My Twitters for the day Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter |
lifewithlogan
|
2:47a |
Thursday, August 21, 2008 I can't sleep, so I might as well return to my computer for a few minutes before I go back to bed and try again. I have a trial scheduled at Family Court at 8 AM (summer hours) so it would be good if I can get a little sleep. Today is ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) anthrprettyface's birthday. May it be a happy one. May no dark clouds mar the day. I'm being visited by both Nik and Patricia at my desk right now - the cats are always glad to come out when the dogs are elsewhere - but I had better get back to bed before Logan jumps over to Ken's bed and starts licking him again. |
unusualmusic
|
1:55a |
I keep a blog so as to keep track of all the info that I forget...Culture clash Ben, a commenter on this blog reminds me that its a custom in Jamaica to pull up so as not to embarrass the field when you are far ahead. Why is it that the best retorts don't come up until the end of an argument? |
egretplume
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1:30a |
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| Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 |
holyoutlaw
|
9:51p |
I90  Downtown Seattle August, 2008 |
| Thursday, August 21st, 2008 |
natlyn
|
12:36a |
Now that I know what my f'ing problem is I am pushing through the wall. I have cooked, halfway cleaned the kitchen (dude, I had had enough, it was time to get out), and ironed a bunch of stuff. Now I can go to bed feeling like I'm making some headway somewhere.
G'night all. |
| Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 |
coraa
|
9:33p |
I know a dozen things to do with stale bread. Is there anything that can be done with stale tortilla chips? (Where 'stale' is partly a taste thing but largely a texture thing -- not as crisp and crunchy as they ought to be, and slightly tough.)
We can never seem to finish a bag on our own. I'll throw out the rest if not, but if anyone has any ideas.... |
| Thursday, August 21st, 2008 |
ricerurouni
|
12:19a |
Hi LJ. I've been exhausted at home and busy putting out (metaphorical) fires at work, so not a lot of updating going on right now. Obviously I care too much and should develop a healthy case of "not my job", but in the meantime I tend to stress more than I technically need to. Last weekend I flew to Cleveland and hung out with my family and most of the Goddards. They rock. We had a cookout at my parents' house and watched Michael Phelps make Olympic history. There may or may not have been a lot of yelling at the TV. Today I discovered a large mushroom growing in the Vader!Cactus, sheltered from the light by the curve of Vader's helmet. Using unsharpened pencils as chopsticks, I carefully extracted it and identified it with my leet internet skillz: Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, a common houseplant hitchhiker. I took some crappy cell-phone pictures, but it looked exactly like this, so there's no need for me to upload them. I poked it some, noticing how the stem cracked like the skin on creme brulee, with a softer fibrous texture inside. The smell was intensely metallic, something I associate with mushrooms. (Then I threw it away, because I was worried that the spores might trigger someone's allergies or something. The air circulation is fantastic in that building, but you never know.) Last week I received my official invitation to take my belt test in a couple weeks. They make a giant deal of it here. I have to go to a different dojo for the test, and nobody's allowed to tell me anything about it beforehand, except that if I pass I'll get a framed certificate and stuff. All of which is covered by the $55 "testing fee" they're slurping out of my account the week I test. I'm grumpy about it, but I do like the place, and again, giving them my hard-earned money focuses me very intensely on the training and its outcome, so it's a price I'm willing to pay. I guess everybody wins. Oh, and that blind dude called me back and thanked me for my help the other night. He's moving into a sweet condo on Little River Turnpike. He asked if we could keep in touch; I said sure. This is how Eliza makes friends. Current Mood:  exanimate |
matociquala
|
12:11a |
aim for the heart and fire away Okay, so, since a short scene is written and the bread is out of the oven and it's midnight, I should really go get in bed so I can get up tomorrow and run while it's still cool. If I manage to drag myself out of bed at six, it's supposed to be in the fifties. (It's already down to 58. Oh please, can summer be over now? A nice long autumn would be just what I like.) The seven-day forecast looks glorious, anyway. I am made of joy. Also, my new comforter should be coming in the next day or two. Yay! Thank you, mailbeings of the world. Today involved walking a lot, driving for a while, deciding not to buy those pillowcases after all because they were ridiculously expensive, and then beating up dogs, eating choclit cake, and eventually writing about 587 words. Which is not a lot, but it's something. And more than made up for by the part where I got to beat up dogs. (I mentioned on twitter, but also report here: www.fitday.com tells me over 2 months, my calorie balance is not bad. 31% from fat, 16% from protein, 46% from carbs. And 8% from, er, beer. What? It's a complex carbohydrate....)
Oh, I just yawned. I'd better take that to bed before it wears off.
Current Mood:  recumbent |
kethylia
|
12:11a |
Kethylia is all a-Twitter... Because microblogging is extremely addictive. The following tweets were posted to my public Twitter account in the past twenty four hours (or the last time LoudTwitter updated, whichever is sooner): Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter |
| Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 |
marykaykare
|
9:50p |
Not Dead Yet
Still traveling. It's fun but leaves me little energy by the end of the day. Expect to be home some time Friday. |
lexica510
|
8:24p |
Cauliflower food porn. Not an oxymoron. While entering the recipe for Roasted Cauliflower into the Team LexiMonkey Household Cookbook, I came across a pointer to an article in the New York Times by Amanda Hesser: The Celestial Cauliflower. Oh. My. God. *swoons* Jean-Georges Vongerichten's caramelized cauliflower. Roasted cauliflower. A warm salad made by toasting coarse bread crumbs and crushed coriander, then tossing with sauteed cauliflower, chopped parsley, anchovy, olives, and capers. From southern Italy, cauliflower tossed with pasta and things like pine nuts, capers, and anchovies. Cauliflower with bagna cauda. A Chez Panisse recipe for cauliflower with a homemade lemon-anchovy mayonnaise. Tuscan cauliflower soup with a swirl of olive oil on top. Creamy cauliflower soup with cremini mushrooms and walnut oil. Cauliflower with almonds and brown butter. Several variations on cauliflower puree. Cauliflower-potato pancakes with Romano. Cauliflower, beets, and watercress with orange ginger dressing. I am really, really hungry now. And the cauliflower we have in the oven (they replaced the range; it turned out the old one's computer controller was fried beyond repair) is taking forEVer to get done.. Current Mood:  hungry |
raanve
|
11:46p |
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unusualmusic
|
11:01p |
So my voice is completely gone..... HO-LY SHIT!!!! The LENGTHS!!!! The race was freaking EPIC!!!! Dear God I WISHED I was back home cause this shit? Demanded EPIC celebration like what went on down in Half-Way Tree, Jamaica. And Puma LOVES Him they just gave him a BMW *snerk* Quite a change from the Honda Civic, I must say! But NBC. That fucking Bob Newman guy. HOW the HELL could he be so insensitive to Spearmon? How can you ask him so tactlessly "Well, you were celebrating the the bronze and having a victory lap in the US flag and then you were disqualification tell me how you are feeling right now?" Dear GOD THE INSENSITIVITY! The blatant wish to dig every but of drama out of the situation and serve it up as entertainment! how could he SAY that when the guy looked so devastated! The same damn thing they did to Lolo Jones, in her freaking face when it was obvious she was looking for a nice quiet place to express her despair! GOD I wish that I could watch the thing other than that blasted station! GRRRRR Anyway. Marvelous to see Melaine equal Deon Hemmings by winning gold in the 400m hurdles right afterwards. if there is a whole pot cover left in the island of Jamaica, god knows it was strongly made indeed! Ato Bolden and Bob Costas have stirred up a firestorm of pissed off J'cans with their rather sour-grapes remarks. One particular editorial got right to the point *snickers* Also, a Jamaican reporter caught up with Mr. Bolden and close-boarded him about the matter. Mr. Bolden admitted his stupidity but the people whom he needs to tel that, his NBC audience, will of course, remain in the dark. Indeed my thought about him are sulfurous, because I expected him to be a bulwark of reason against the madness of the commentators. Silly me. Anyway! Life is good. 4 golds, 3 silvers, 13th place, and a chance to maybe do even better. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!! Current Mood:  cheerful |
| Thursday, August 21st, 2008 |
copracat
|
1:27p |
My very brief opinion on The Cancellation
Producers are moving to a model of selling their product directly to fans, not to providing product to networks who are in the business of selling viewers to advertisers.
This is going beyond the old series goes to syndication and also sells DVDs. This develop your audience with a relatively expensive per unit series, stop, sell it to syndication and DVD but only make new product for direct to DVD, independent of network or cable screening. We kinda did this to ourselves, my DVD buying friends. |
littlereview
|
12:29a |
Poem for Thursday ( Here the Birds' Journey Ends )Another day in the lead-up to the start of school next week, we made the inevitable Target run for school supplies and are now the proud owners of new dividers, lined and graph paper, composition books, colored pencils, a compass, and various other necessities (both kids swear they don't need new binders, which means that two weeks from now when Staples and Office Depot are both out of them, we will be frantically searching for one). We also stopped at the mall so Adam could sell back his Petz Catz game for half price and get a used copy of Puzzlequest Challenge Warlords, which apparently pleases him far more and the total was only about $9 more, so that worked out about as well as could be expected. Plus Adam discovered the nightmare that is Owls and proceeded to sing it to me all day, so he was in a good mood. Daniel got new clothes from both me and my mother, yet somehow this did not make him ecstatic. Oddly enough, in the midst of all this fun, I got a murderous migraine and when the kids finally went to the pool at three, I collapsed on the couch under the influence of Imitrex for two hours. This helped a great deal, though not quickly enough for me to want to go see Jennifer Cutting's Ocean Orchestra even though they were playing for free in Fairfax (we're going to see Iona on Thursday night and Great Big Sea on Friday, so I can't really complain). Instead we stayed home and watched the rest of Amadeus -- not much new material added in the last hour of the director's cut, so it played out pretty much as I remember it from seeing it over and over in the theater my freshman year of college. The kids were extremely attentive, which they are not always during historical epics or classical music, so I felt very gratified. 
( Eastern Shore Dragonflies )Daniel requested Robot Chicken before Olympic diving, so we put on the second season and got to see the hilarious Harry Potter parody with Melanie Griffith as Hermione -- ( small spoiler. ) Plus they did March of the Penguin -- Danny DeVito crossed with Morgan Freeman -- which also cracked us up because we are ALL twelve. Condolences on the cancellation of Stargate Atlantis -- I still haven't caught up on the first season, let alone on this season, but I know a lot of people are very sad! |
| Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 |
schemingreader
|
11:16p |
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coraa
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8:26p |
We definitely have more books than bookshelf space. I haven't quite run out of bookshelf yet, but I can see already that we have too many books still in boxes to fit in the remaining space.
For now there are things I can do to ameliorate this (I can certainly fit them in a bit more tightly), and I know I'll be getting rid of some of these, but pretty soon we're going to have to figure out where on earth we can fit more bookshelves..... (Hm, possibly the upstairs hallway.) |
rainbow_goddess
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8:21p |
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arielstarshadow
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8:57p |
Word of the Day
wist·ful
\ˈwist-fəl\ adjective
[blend of wishful and obsolete English wistly intently]
1: full of yearning or desire tinged with melancholy; also: inspiring such yearning (a wistful memoir)
2: musingly sad: pensive (a wistful glance) |
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whileaway
unhappily suprised