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( cut for recipe and rambling ) :: +Memory :: Tell a Friend :: 4 replies :: Reply
[Actually, let's start off by admitting, yes, someone will have read Donaldson for the first time in 2009 and if eligible Thomas Covenant wins this sort of thing hands down so he gets his own special lifetime achievement award and is removed from consideration] My money is on Todd Hewitt from The Ask and the Answer. He was merely annoying and ineffectual in The Knife of Never Letting Go but in the sequel he is the most technically virgin technical virgin I've seen in the field of non-violence in a long time. He's quite vocal about not being willing to hurt people but he manages to actively facilitate a considerable amount of suffering despite this. His personal body count may be low but he has an impressive number of assists. It's not a book that has a lot of human characters one can like, actually. I am cheering for the Spackles to clear their world of its off-world visitors.
Williams AZ, Tuba City AZ, Kayenta AZ, Blanding UT, Bicknell UT, Las Vegas NV*, Barstow CA, Cambria CA, Pacific Grove CA, San Francisco CA*, Paso Robles CA*, San Jose CA*, Sunnyvale CA*, Palm Desert CA*, Kirkland WA*, Aberdeen WA, Pacific City OR, Brookings OR, Barcelona, Cincinnati OH*, Orlando FL*, Los Angeles CA*, Palm Springs CA*, San Diego CA, Coronado CA, La Jolla CA, Escondido CA, Santa Monica CA, Campbell CA, Willlows CA, Eugene OR, Kailua HI, Hilo HI, Boston MA*, New York NY*, Santa Barbara CA, Scottsdale AZ, Flagstaff AZ, Gallup NM, Trinidad CO, Grand Junction CO, Elko NV, Cameron Park CA, Mountain View CA*, Jersey CI As always * denotes a place with more than a one night stay. Countries: USA, Spain, Jersey CI. Airports: SFO, MCO, LAS, LAX, EWR, CVG, BOS, JFK, HNL, ITO, ONT, SJC, JER, BCN Airlines: Virgin Atlantic, FlyBe, JetBlue, Alaska, Southwest, Delta, Iberia, Hawaiian Airlines Aircraft flown: Boeing 747-400, various 737 variants, Boeing 717, McDonald Douglas MD-80, Airbus A320, Airbus A321, Embraer EMB-195, Airbus A340-600 Trains taken: Acela (Boston-NYC), London Underground, LA Metro, NJ Transit, NY MTA, BART (Phew.)
A MATTER OF FACE by Scott K. Jamison (Ranma 1/2 and its associated characters created by Rumiko Takahashi. No infringement intended.) ( Something for a dark season... ) Comments, thoughts? SKJAM! Dec 24th: Worked and took call. Stared at snow, wondering if I would make it to Omaha. Dec 25th: Woke up, looked outside, saw snowflakes and huge drift in driveway. No Omaha. Dec 26th: Woke up, looked outside, saw even bigger snowdrift in driveway. Went back to bed. No Omaha. Shoveled for three hours. Still not done. Dec 27th: Continued shoveling. And shoveling. Three more hours and finally have path large enough for car. Not a terribly exciting/fun Christmas for me. The only thing I got this Christmas were sore muscles. :( Oh well, at least I didn't get into a car accident, right?
In other news, stuck the "Christmas" ham in the oven for an hour to warm it up. SO GOOD. I had to put it away before I went face-first into it, it was that good. Yum. :) Surgery followup appointment tomorrow at the VA downtown. Booya.
I'm at this moment working on my applications (essays, CVs, etc.) and I'm stressed out! Did you kill yourself making the wording of your application absolutely perfect? Or did you have try your best and cross your fingers? My grades aren't super strong, so I feel a lot of pressure to make my essay perfection. Advice? Words that could calm me down? These are some point-form ideas I have so far of why I want to do this (I want to be an academic librarian): -help people find stuff, write their papers, etc. make their lives easier -love information -really old profession – that’s cool -get people to use libraries more -ex. Ubc’s self-checkout =win an ipod -workshops for how to use libraries and build websites etc. - online help like UBC's Askaway - (if relevent) the co-op program -transfereble skills -I already work in a library and love my job
( poll ) I'm in the middle of Framley Parsonage at the moment.
On the other hand, people change a lot in 30+ years; facets of their personality emerge that you hadn't seen before, and you get the rare opportunity to see yourself through somebody else's eyes. It was a good time; her husband is a really cool guy, the kids well behaved, and her friends are pretty cool people too. Lots of good food, good conversation, not too much picking at emotional scars. (Although I have to wonder: is there something in the human brain, some obscure social software thing, that compels divorced people to do memory dumps about their exes to each other? Even though the last thing in the world you want to do with people you haven't seen in 30 years is talk about that stuff...) So I think we'll be getting together again, maybe for table games or something. LH was one of the people I felt really bad about losing touch with, even though we weren't all that close in high school, and it's good to be seeing her again.
( poll ) NB some of these I wasn't sure of myself and had to check, as follows: For Your Eyes Only - is a collection of James Bond short stories Jeeves in the Offing - is the one which starts with Bertie discovering that he is engaged to Bobbie Wickham (when her mother phones up, sobbing, to ask if "the dreadful news" is true); also features Aunt Dahlia, the psychiatrist Sir Roderick Glossop and the Rev. Aubrey Upjohn, but not much Jeeves A Burnt-Out Case - is the particularly depressing Graham Greene set in a leper colony in the Congo Dorsai! - an episodic book about Donal Graeme, warrior extraordinaire The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding etc - is a short story collection mainly featuring Poirot False Scent - is the one with an aging actress who is murdere with ehr own insecticide The Clue in the Old Stagecoach - is the one where Nancy Drew searches for an antique stagecoach that, according to legend, contains something of great value to the people of Francisville Happy to clarify any other cases where confusion is possible...
( Read more... )From State Papers concerning the Irish Church, ed. W.M. Brady, 1868.
Part of getting into the lot involves driving down a somewhat narrow road. To one side there is a hill, which had been turned into a sea of mud by people using it as parking. As we were driving, someone in a truck crested the top of the hill, clearly convinced a truck can drive anywhere, hit the mud and then slid sideways towards the two lanes of traffic in the lane. He hit the bottom and the edge of the paved lane, teetered for a bit and then settled on all four tires before proceeding on his way. Then the second truck appeared. Rinse, lather and repeat, again narrowly missing a collision with traffic because the hard edge of the lane stopped the wheels abruptly. This was pretty nerve-wracking from my side of the road so I can't imagine what it was for the people on the other side, the people who were in cars inadvertently serving as shields for my side. Once we were in we had no trouble finding parking around the side, in a legal, marked spot. I made a point of mentioning the problem and was directed to someone I assume was in authority. He told me that they did not have the man-power to deal with the problem. As far as I know, nothing was done. This was about 3 PM.
![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small} hepburnesque I got a postcard, Austrian candy and a CD of an Austrian singer. As expected, the package from celeria was a copy of "The Mermaid Chair", but the embossed gift card was a nice bonus.And two DVDs, "Serenity" from greenhawk and "Star Trek" (the reboot movie) from my Hero Games Secret Santa.Thanks, everyone! In the afternoon, I headed out to the movie theater. The temperature had gone up considerably, so the heavy snowfall of the previous night had turned into inch-thick sludge on the sidewalks, and meltoff ponds at every street corner. My feet were soaked through by the time I got to Block E. It's been quite a while since I was stuck in the cities for Christmas, and I was a bit disappointed to discover that absolutely everything in Block E was closed except the theater itself. I'd hoped to get dinner in before the show. Instead I wound up hanging in the lobby for an hour--and the Kerasotes no longer has video games as a distraction. The Sherlock Holmes movie itself was a fun film. I could have done without the flatulence, and some of the fight scenes were unnecessarily confusing, but overall quite good. Afterwards, I found that Gameworks (the actual video arcade) had opened, but only had bar food. Didn't matter, I just wanted something warm. I waited on the bus rather than slog the eight or so blocks back to my apartment, though this didn't keep my feet from getting soaked again on the last block taken on foot. This morning, the temperature had dropped again, turning the sludge and melt into a lovely layer of ice. Slick in spots, yes, but far less annoying. At the post office, another card had arrived from fushiforever, a handmade card that says "Merry Christmas from California!" and by golly depicts the state of California topped by a Santa hat. Also included was a mix CD, no tracklist so everything's a surprise. Thanks to you also!Did a little post-Christmas shopping, then headed home.
Animal lover warning ( Read more... )
My thinking is twofold: Classical European languages probably didn't have exactly the same number of words for colours as modern English and they could either have more or fewer. I'll ignore any that had more. Also, if I aim this at monolingual English-speakers they won't be able to check (Bear in mind I am monolingual and I certainly won't be checking). I might cherry-pick some examples from languages that happen not to have a lot of basic words for colours and which happen to be spoken by people in extremely underdeveloped regions. For extra hilarity, I'll make some sweeping assertations about Japanese and Chinese languages that are clearly false that nobody will check. Would it be going too far to slip in a reference to Calvin's dad?
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But otherwise, excellent. E got here late Eve afternoon, and stayed over that night. We had meatball hoagies for supper, with the usual some-veg and such, and E and I had oyster stew, which C also sampled. Then we opened our family presents (as my family always did). I woke up very early (like before 5 a.m.), prepared socks for our kids and C (unless and until I have grandchildren to do it for, my "kids" get socks!), and watched the Katherine Hepburn Little Women. Several hours later, other people started waking up. In the course of the day we opened presents from J's mother (as J's family always did), the young people opened their sock gifts, we ate various things, watched TV, read, played video games (P and C--both enjoying being in the same dwelling as another game nut). Dinner was spiral ham ($1.69/lb. from Target, and as good as--J and I think better than--previous years' HoneyBaked), mashed garlic potatoes (prepared by R from a Bobby Flay--her cooking idol--recipe), a couple kinds of veg, biscuits, and three kinds of Baker's Square pie. I have LOTS of ham left, including a great meaty hambone, so bean soup is in our future. Having been awake since pre-5 a.m., I fell asleep at about 7:30. And woke up again this morning before 5. ETA: I forgot to mention what I got, as that is the least important aspect. Gift cards to Caribou Coffee, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon, a Mickey Mouse T-shirt, a Mickey-and-Minnie tote bag, and a little Mickey snowglobe that E got up at 4 a.m. to get from Penney's, which gives away these little dated globes each year. And a local-artist calendar from my MIL; she also gave J and me a cool L.L. Bean crank radio that does pretty much everything--including charge up a cell phone through a USB--in case the power goes out.
Yes, I know what the canonical version is, but I don't really believe it. What should it have been? (And I never understood why it was always listed as "Boss Cat" in the BBC TV schedules, but that would be an ecumenical matter.)
Q: What kind of relationship does coral have with algae?Now, this answer turns out to be perfectly sound biology (so I at least learned something) but doesn't seem to me paticularly funny. Am I missing some point about, perhaps, two popular celebrities or fictional characters called Coral and Algy? Or is it just meant to be funny because coral is generally hard and algae generally squishy?
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I may come back to this later. I think that DeVries is using a definition of SF in his title where SF = American SF, which strikes me as very funny in this context. I think this is because I need more sleep.
From there, we took P's truck to the Amphora, which has become a weird Christmas tradition for this branch of the Trainor family, and proceeded to nibble on appetizers while swilling coffee until ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} cipherpunk arrived and we could begin the serious business of ordering & eating Christmas dinner. I'd originally thought of ordering breakfast (because sometimes I like professionals to cook my unfertilized chicken embryos) but I was convinced to try one of their holiday specials. This I did, and it was pretty damn good. The soup of the day was chestnut, which I'd never had before, and the dinner was your bog-standard turkey with sides, and they were both excellent. The Amphora, it does not disappoint! Well, okay, they were out of tiramisu, which made C&P sad, but there were suitable options. Which were also excellent. Lots of good conversation about the Internets, fandom and its subdivisions, and more internets until we headed back to P's where the conversation eventually turned to wacky tales of the intelligence & security communities, to say nothing of the regular military. Good times. P kicked us both out a little before 1800 since she had to make a not-entirely-symbolic visit to the Manassas data center, on account of she was working today, and I drove home through the rain on 28 and 66, the latter of which was infested with people who apparently had never driven in the rain before. *sigh* And now, having received glad tidings from my Aunt Pat and passed them on, I think I'm going to run the dishwasher, wash down some meds, and go to bed early in the vain hope of getting my sleep cycle back to something approaching normal.
I was sad this year that I could not afford to participate in the Secret Santa exchange we have on my stiching list. Just couldn't afford it. But I did coordinate the exchange. Then not one but TWO friends sent me Christmas packages to open today!!! yay!! One friend sent me a beautiful Dimensions Gold kit. I think it's called Pleasures of Winter.I've never seen this before but it is exactly what I like! It is gorgeous and being a kit I can start it as soon as I like!! Hooray! Another friend sent me 2 handmade items, one a crocheted dishcloth in bright yellow and green, and one a knitted microwave plate potholder in cream with colored flecks. It is so thoughtful and I love handmade items. She also sent me a Mill Hill Kit with a witch on a BROOM! Unfortunately I can't find a picture but it is a witch flying on a broom and it is very cute!!! So nice to have stitchy presents from dear friends!
Damn, I'm happy. :)
In the meantime, Merry Christmas to my friends list; belated Hanukkah and Solstice greetings to the non-Christians out there. 0730 EDIT: Actually, no. Breakfast and sleep now, Mass later. I think the last of the caffeine finally got metabolized.
When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar. ( Would you like to know more? )
Not sure which of the several Mass options I'll go for tomorrow, but I'll definitely hit one of them.
Good thing too, as I have never seen so many places close so early on Christmas Eve. Several of them without even a note saying they were closing early--including Subway! Coming home, I discovered that due to the heavy snow, the Christmas celebration for my family is pushed back to next Friday. :-{ Fortunately, thanks to my internet friends, I have some presents to open tomorrow anyway. Maybe I'll take in the new Sherlock Holmes movie, though the previews made it look a little too focused on sex humor for my tastes. And I'll be able to hit Target for their post Xmas candy sale on Saturday. Yeah, I'm a little disappointed, but not as much as one of my co-workers, who wasn't able to go home to California for the first time in twenty years due to a really bad set of circumstances. Speaking of co-workers, we finally got an address to send cards to Nicole; she's still too weak for visitors though, apparently. Oh, and one last package made it to the post office today! Thanks, greenhawk! Looking forward to seeing what's inside.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 229 Which is your favourite Galilean moon?
View Answers Io Europa Ganymede Callisto I don't know what you mean by "Galilean moon" and also I don't know how to use Google I am too egalitarian to have a favourite I now realize how impoverished my life has been without a favourite Galilean moon I wish to complain about this poll
Spoilers for more than one episode ( Read more... )
Yes, there could be birth rate implications but people in developed nations tend not to have children at a replacement rate anyway. I have some ideas for handling this (baby-drafts don't seem to work but perhaps eusociality can be adapted).
Short form: the (in the copies I have received, unsigned) communique announced that on 1 July 2010 new, mandatory contracts will go into effect, which would essentially transform Keenspot into a traditional publisher and away from the nature it has had in the past (although we should note that Keenspot has had numerous corporate personae over the years). Creators that signed the contract would be required to be hosted by Keenspot, use their updating program, turn over control of ad slots, and accept a 50/50 revenue split on the advertising.
I really should have just come back inside at that point, but once the truck was free I felt I had to go do the shopping. Which I did; I went a bit overboard and made some dumb mistakes, though. The spiral cut ham was not one of them, though; that was a hell of a deal at $1.49/pound, and I'll be munching on that for a couple months easy. Unfortunately, failure to read signs and labels properly stuck me with a bag of coffee beans I now have to find a grinder for and a couple boxes of overpriced frozen veggies besides. I also somehow left $2.50 worth of coupons in my pocket, which is annoying and stupid. Meh. I have food for the next couple of weeks, maybe more, and will probably only have to replenish my milk and egg supplies during that time. Which is good, because I have so many bills. *cringe*
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