Dept. of Getting Back Up On The Horse
Jun. 22nd, 2017 03:49 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaffyrFor A Start
lydy is brilliant. She is a bit of a force of nature, one I would like to see more of, learn more about, and in general have more a part of my world. I still treasure a night many, many years ago, in the "secret" consuite at Minicon, when I had the benefit of her humor and intellect.
I think I agree with her on things cultural, political, emotional and intellectual at least 80 percent of the time. The other 20 percent of the time? I suspect that we'd probably have some interesting discussions.
She has written an essay that I believe is well worth reading and thinking about, concerning how women, the world, and "the rules" - for every single value and power of "the rules" that might exist in this universe - intersect. It is her answer, or at least an excellent precis of her answer (because her real answer is the way she approaches the world every day), to the question many men ask (in which the asking is too often more complaint about having their privilege questioned than actual question) of women: "How can I interact with you women without being a douche, if you won't tell me the rules?"
I think I agree about 95 percent with this one. And even if I didn't agree with it nearly that much, it's still an excellent starting place for conversations, or indeed for an internal dialogue, if one were inclined to think about it. Because, as I said,lydy is brilliant, and brilliance nearly always is an excellent light by which to make one's way in this world. And, as she said to me when I asked if I could link, she wants to start conversations.
lydy is brilliant. She is a bit of a force of nature, one I would like to see more of, learn more about, and in general have more a part of my world. I still treasure a night many, many years ago, in the "secret" consuite at Minicon, when I had the benefit of her humor and intellect. I think I agree with her on things cultural, political, emotional and intellectual at least 80 percent of the time. The other 20 percent of the time? I suspect that we'd probably have some interesting discussions.
She has written an essay that I believe is well worth reading and thinking about, concerning how women, the world, and "the rules" - for every single value and power of "the rules" that might exist in this universe - intersect. It is her answer, or at least an excellent precis of her answer (because her real answer is the way she approaches the world every day), to the question many men ask (in which the asking is too often more complaint about having their privilege questioned than actual question) of women: "How can I interact with you women without being a douche, if you won't tell me the rules?"
I think I agree about 95 percent with this one. And even if I didn't agree with it nearly that much, it's still an excellent starting place for conversations, or indeed for an internal dialogue, if one were inclined to think about it. Because, as I said,
lydy is brilliant, and brilliance nearly always is an excellent light by which to make one's way in this world. And, as she said to me when I asked if I could link, she wants to start conversations.
VHS TAPES
Jun. 22nd, 2017 11:28 americadawn16My VCR died but I don't want to just throw my tapes out. I'd rather they got to good homes.
Any ideas?
Any ideas?
Markers of adulthood.
Jun. 21st, 2017 10:56 pmhannahI met a friend for coffee after work today. That's it, that's the big Solstice news. It's something new to me, and it turns out that even though it cut into my evening writing time, I really liked it, and I'll have to try it again sometime. Just not soon, given the aforementioned writing time. But definitely before August.
The end of an era.
Jun. 20th, 2017 09:15 pmhannahLast Thursday, I brought some key lime cookies from Trader Joe's to work, because I didn't have much in the way of impulse control. The cookies were eaten up fast, with a lot of powdered sugar left over. So I took the key lime-infused sugar, poured it into a mug, mixed it with instant coffee, and made myself a key lime flavored latte.
Last Sunday, it was the last day of my long-standing part-time telecommuting job. It's not quite completed - I've still got one last paycheck coming - but all the work and responsibilities are now gone. Over and done with. At thirty-six months, it was the longest I've ever had a job in my life, and it'll be the new measurement for employment length. The work was sometimes annoying and petty, and I really only had to put a lot of effort into it during the first couple of months to make everything easy enough to sustain my responsibilities on an average of ten minutes a week for the rest of things. Still, I liked it well enough. On Sunday, as I've done about a dozen times in the past three years, I went to my boss' house in Jersey City, except this time it was to wrap everything up. I sent out a few emails, completely cleaned out the organization's email inbox and got it to zero, put every related file I had on a USB drive and handed it over, and that was pretty much it. She gave me tea, a mug with a giraffe on it, and the two of us and her husband went out to lunch together.
Today I would have liked to have gotten more stuff done, and I don't even have reasons for it, just excuses.
Last Sunday, it was the last day of my long-standing part-time telecommuting job. It's not quite completed - I've still got one last paycheck coming - but all the work and responsibilities are now gone. Over and done with. At thirty-six months, it was the longest I've ever had a job in my life, and it'll be the new measurement for employment length. The work was sometimes annoying and petty, and I really only had to put a lot of effort into it during the first couple of months to make everything easy enough to sustain my responsibilities on an average of ten minutes a week for the rest of things. Still, I liked it well enough. On Sunday, as I've done about a dozen times in the past three years, I went to my boss' house in Jersey City, except this time it was to wrap everything up. I sent out a few emails, completely cleaned out the organization's email inbox and got it to zero, put every related file I had on a USB drive and handed it over, and that was pretty much it. She gave me tea, a mug with a giraffe on it, and the two of us and her husband went out to lunch together.
Today I would have liked to have gotten more stuff done, and I don't even have reasons for it, just excuses.
Fic: Baby, You're My Flame (Person of Interest, Root/Shaw, Teen)
Jun. 21st, 2017 10:22 amst_aurafinaTitle: Baby, You're My Flame
Fandom: Person of Interest
Rating: Teen
Words: 709
Characters/Pairings: Root/Shaw
Warnings/Content: Sick fic
Notes: For![[community profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
15kisses, Prompt: Endure. Part 3 of Fever (Part One: Getting Warmer, Part Two: What a Lovely Way to Burn)
Summary: Root is convalescing. She's just not very good at it.
Also at the Archive
( Root was tired of being sick )
Fandom: Person of Interest
Rating: Teen
Words: 709
Characters/Pairings: Root/Shaw
Warnings/Content: Sick fic
Notes: For
15kisses, Prompt: Endure. Part 3 of Fever (Part One: Getting Warmer, Part Two: What a Lovely Way to Burn)Summary: Root is convalescing. She's just not very good at it.
Also at the Archive
( Root was tired of being sick )
The Wonder Woman Moment
Jun. 20th, 2017 01:18 americadawn16Everyone kept talking about Wonder Woman in this revolutionary way, how it made them cry.
I felt left out a little.
It was cool to see her kick ass but it also felt...normal, how things should be.
I thought maybe it was how my generation was raised. We had Ripley, She-Ra, Dana Scully, Buffy, Kim Possible, Mulan and countless others showing us how strong women were normal...
But some of those crying women WERE my age so...
It was something else and then, I realized I already had my "Wonder Woman Moment". It was when, for the first time in my life, I saw a woman in a live action Star Wars film take up a lightsaber and defeat the male patriarchy with it.
It was pretty freaking sweet.
I felt left out a little.
It was cool to see her kick ass but it also felt...normal, how things should be.
I thought maybe it was how my generation was raised. We had Ripley, She-Ra, Dana Scully, Buffy, Kim Possible, Mulan and countless others showing us how strong women were normal...
But some of those crying women WERE my age so...
It was something else and then, I realized I already had my "Wonder Woman Moment". It was when, for the first time in my life, I saw a woman in a live action Star Wars film take up a lightsaber and defeat the male patriarchy with it.
It was pretty freaking sweet.
note to self
Jun. 20th, 2017 01:14 amarduinnaWhen you keep seeing the "create factory recovery media" messages on your laptop, click okay at some point and create the freaking factory-reset backup.
This lesson brought to you courtesy of my small but intense panic when my laptop shut off and came up with a "boot drive not found" error, and then a "hard drive not installed" error when I found my way into the diagnostics. Gah.
Happily, it looks like it was just overheated/overhumid and a bit unhappy from some jostling, and it let me boot up a while later. At which point I sacrificed my good USB stick to the whole recovery-media thing pretty damn fast, lemme tell you, while crossing my fingers it wouldn't black-screen at me in the middle. (It did not! \o/) And then once that was safe I updated the backup software to the new version, and here I am.
... and yet, when the laptop popped up a chirpy "there's a new version installed, we need to update your backup media", I nearly hit "remind me later" because I was typing this post. *facepalm* *hits 'update now'*
And, uh, hi!
This lesson brought to you courtesy of my small but intense panic when my laptop shut off and came up with a "boot drive not found" error, and then a "hard drive not installed" error when I found my way into the diagnostics. Gah.
Happily, it looks like it was just overheated/overhumid and a bit unhappy from some jostling, and it let me boot up a while later. At which point I sacrificed my good USB stick to the whole recovery-media thing pretty damn fast, lemme tell you, while crossing my fingers it wouldn't black-screen at me in the middle. (It did not! \o/) And then once that was safe I updated the backup software to the new version, and here I am.
... and yet, when the laptop popped up a chirpy "there's a new version installed, we need to update your backup media", I nearly hit "remind me later" because I was typing this post. *facepalm* *hits 'update now'*
And, uh, hi!
James Gunn Facebook Q & A
Jun. 18th, 2017 10:40 pmericadawn16It turns out that James Gunn did a Q & A on Facebook over a month ago and I didn't find out until a couple of days ago.
It's really awesome. He discusses almost everything...really, no one asked him whether the Zune will mean more up to date tunes next time? 80s?
There are also multiple appearances by his cats and we almost had a cameo by Michael Rooker. Gunn explains what happens between the spacesuit scene and the funeral, Jossing a LOT of fanfic out there right now. It's also WAY more angsty than any of those stories have come up with.
https://youtu.be/LW3VkOkrFMA?list=
It's really awesome. He discusses almost everything...really, no one asked him whether the Zune will mean more up to date tunes next time? 80s?
There are also multiple appearances by his cats and we almost had a cameo by Michael Rooker. Gunn explains what happens between the spacesuit scene and the funeral, Jossing a LOT of fanfic out there right now. It's also WAY more angsty than any of those stories have come up with.
https://youtu.be/LW3VkOkrFMA?list=
Fic: What a Lovely Way to Burn (POI, Root/Shaw, Teen)
Jun. 18th, 2017 09:38 pmst_aurafinaTitle: What a Lovely Way to Burn
Fandom: Person of Interest
Rating: Teen
Words: 100
Characters/Pairings: Root/Shaw
Warnings/Content: Sick fic, show-level injuries, Shaw has no bedside manner
Notes: Part Two of Fever (Follows Part One, Getting Warmer)
Summary: Shaw's bedside manner is a little brusque but Root wouldn't have any other doctor.
Also at the Archive
( Root wanders a New York dreamscape with leaden legs )
Fandom: Person of Interest
Rating: Teen
Words: 100
Characters/Pairings: Root/Shaw
Warnings/Content: Sick fic, show-level injuries, Shaw has no bedside manner
Notes: Part Two of Fever (Follows Part One, Getting Warmer)
Summary: Shaw's bedside manner is a little brusque but Root wouldn't have any other doctor.
Also at the Archive
( Root wanders a New York dreamscape with leaden legs )
Gilmore Girls
Jun. 17th, 2017 11:50 pmericadawn16I didn't watch Gilmore Girls consistently when it was new because half the run happened when I was at college although I always tried to catch up during the summer. I remember at one point, it must have been my first year away, that my mom was actually watching every week and she's not a big fictional television person.
Still, I'm pretty sure I've seen every episode at least once but when people described the Netflix season as "meh", I thought they must be right since it's pretty hard to recapture magic like that and the last season on regular tv...yeah, that was hard to watch.
But then, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 happened and I've been watching Gilmore Girls a LOT. It's on Up!, not just Netflix but...it doesn't have the Netflix season...
Which I thought was okay until I was watching Luke and Lorelai break up for the hundredth time and I...wanted that payoff, dammit!
The wedding is on Youtube, yay! But now I know there's an adorable pig and of course, that pig's owner and I WANT THAT SEASON!!!
*fingers crossed it comes out on dvd like the Arrested Development Netflix season*
Still, I'm pretty sure I've seen every episode at least once but when people described the Netflix season as "meh", I thought they must be right since it's pretty hard to recapture magic like that and the last season on regular tv...yeah, that was hard to watch.
But then, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 happened and I've been watching Gilmore Girls a LOT. It's on Up!, not just Netflix but...it doesn't have the Netflix season...
Which I thought was okay until I was watching Luke and Lorelai break up for the hundredth time and I...wanted that payoff, dammit!
The wedding is on Youtube, yay! But now I know there's an adorable pig and of course, that pig's owner and I WANT THAT SEASON!!!
*fingers crossed it comes out on dvd like the Arrested Development Netflix season*
merryghoulThe one day I go out on a Saturday and do morning errands, forget to check Dreamwidth for a while, and unconventionalcourtship finally opens up for signups.
This year, I'm thinking of something similar to a Harlequin Desire or Harlequin Presents summary. Leaning towards a Harlequin Desire where the plot was originally "billionaire impregnates hotel employee," but that could change, because I think way too much about how fpreg can possibly work and about Me's feelings towards losing her children in canon. The pairing will either be Clara/Me or Missy/River. Although I don't know about a possible Missy/River child. Different, yes, but I don't know if it's my kind of thing or not.
unconventionalcourtship finally opens up for signups.This year, I'm thinking of something similar to a Harlequin Desire or Harlequin Presents summary. Leaning towards a Harlequin Desire where the plot was originally "billionaire impregnates hotel employee," but that could change, because I think way too much about how fpreg can possibly work and about Me's feelings towards losing her children in canon. The pairing will either be Clara/Me or Missy/River. Although I don't know about a possible Missy/River child. Different, yes, but I don't know if it's my kind of thing or not.
arthuriana and announcements
Jun. 17th, 2017 11:19 amaraliasi finally bestirred myself to re-open unconventionalcourtship. as usual the new banner that i choose to make reflects whatever i'm watching at the moment. this year - it's a medical romance. tee hee.
very near the end of brett!holmes - just two more episodes to go, and then theoretically i have to go back and watch 'The Eligible Bachelor', which is another short story they've blown up into a film. i couldn't bear it at the time, since the two previous ones (master blackmailer and the last vampire) were almost unwatchably bad. turns out almost everything on the first boxset is spectacularly wonderful and perfect ... and everything on the second boxset is... not. the nineties have a lot to answer for. i've also been reading the stories - now most of the way through 'the return of sherlock holmes'. v good, v readable, but had to take a break and read something else for a while as all pretty similar.
i read ishiguro's 'the buried giant' as we owned it, and a lot of people i know have read it, and i knew it was something to do... with arthur. having read it, i don't know how i feel about it really. i liked the ending a lot - i tend to like endings that draw lots of past threads together, which this did; i thought it was very little to do with arthur - he just stood for the idea of a man who had been a myth, and perhaps for chivalry (really, as we all know, what i like about arthuriana is arthur - and white's arthur through 'camelot' - which means that while i can respect people trying to trouble the idea of arthur's goodness, i do not like it). gawain might as well have been anyone, and in fact it's a bit weird that he's such a famous one when there's very little of gawain's story in here. the prose is effectively blanket-y, given the idea of everyone living inside a mist. i probably wouldn't read it again.
i also recently saw 'king arthur - legend of the sword' aka the guy ritchie movie. i dont think i've talked about this before on my LJ, have i? if i have, please forgive me, as we must try and forgive guy ritchie. this was a very bad movie, composed of a number of bits of different movies (very few of which had much to do with any known versions of arthurian legend). some of those stitched together movies could have been ok, and some (most notably the most CGI sections where giant elephants fought eric bana) were objectively bad. to my great amusement it re-united nathan and stuart from queer as folk as arthur and smirking yet somehow emotionally resonant mentor figure. also - morgana from merlin was in it as jude law's wife who gets murdered for plot (by him) 5 minutes in. these things amused me enough, and of course i laughed til i almost cried when i described the plot of the movie later. it was mostly just bemusing during the actual watching of it, but when you think back... eric bana as uther fought giant elephants conjured by mordred while jude law got a nosebleed for no reason. i was very funny, and worth the price of admission.
since i started this post with an announcement, here's another one: the hammer to fall/bang and blame move is official, and is officially happening... some time. i guess it will be happening at the beginning of july (though the text is very vague), and whether it will be done automatically or whether i will be doing it by hand is still something i do not know... i'm not mentioned at all in the announcement so maybe i don't have to do anything. we will find out!
unconventionalcourtship. as usual the new banner that i choose to make reflects whatever i'm watching at the moment. this year - it's a medical romance. tee hee.very near the end of brett!holmes - just two more episodes to go, and then theoretically i have to go back and watch 'The Eligible Bachelor', which is another short story they've blown up into a film. i couldn't bear it at the time, since the two previous ones (master blackmailer and the last vampire) were almost unwatchably bad. turns out almost everything on the first boxset is spectacularly wonderful and perfect ... and everything on the second boxset is... not. the nineties have a lot to answer for. i've also been reading the stories - now most of the way through 'the return of sherlock holmes'. v good, v readable, but had to take a break and read something else for a while as all pretty similar.
i read ishiguro's 'the buried giant' as we owned it, and a lot of people i know have read it, and i knew it was something to do... with arthur. having read it, i don't know how i feel about it really. i liked the ending a lot - i tend to like endings that draw lots of past threads together, which this did; i thought it was very little to do with arthur - he just stood for the idea of a man who had been a myth, and perhaps for chivalry (really, as we all know, what i like about arthuriana is arthur - and white's arthur through 'camelot' - which means that while i can respect people trying to trouble the idea of arthur's goodness, i do not like it). gawain might as well have been anyone, and in fact it's a bit weird that he's such a famous one when there's very little of gawain's story in here. the prose is effectively blanket-y, given the idea of everyone living inside a mist. i probably wouldn't read it again.
i also recently saw 'king arthur - legend of the sword' aka the guy ritchie movie. i dont think i've talked about this before on my LJ, have i? if i have, please forgive me, as we must try and forgive guy ritchie. this was a very bad movie, composed of a number of bits of different movies (very few of which had much to do with any known versions of arthurian legend). some of those stitched together movies could have been ok, and some (most notably the most CGI sections where giant elephants fought eric bana) were objectively bad. to my great amusement it re-united nathan and stuart from queer as folk as arthur and smirking yet somehow emotionally resonant mentor figure. also - morgana from merlin was in it as jude law's wife who gets murdered for plot (by him) 5 minutes in. these things amused me enough, and of course i laughed til i almost cried when i described the plot of the movie later. it was mostly just bemusing during the actual watching of it, but when you think back... eric bana as uther fought giant elephants conjured by mordred while jude law got a nosebleed for no reason. i was very funny, and worth the price of admission.
since i started this post with an announcement, here's another one: the hammer to fall/bang and blame move is official, and is officially happening... some time. i guess it will be happening at the beginning of july (though the text is very vague), and whether it will be done automatically or whether i will be doing it by hand is still something i do not know... i'm not mentioned at all in the announcement so maybe i don't have to do anything. we will find out!
Six lots of five
Jun. 17th, 2017 01:53 pmst_aurafinaSo cold this morning. For values of cold in Australia, which is to say there's frost on the grass and I have my giant scarf on. I am having crappy, crappy low moods but weirdly and ferociously creative times. It is strange and I don't understand the rhythms of it at all. I feel like the world is being sucked into a black hole, and yet I cannot stop writing POI fic.
Five things about winter Saturdays in rural Australia:
- Frosty, foggy mornings that will become clear and sunny by twelve
- The footy scoreboard shining orange through the fog as the under-twelves play the 8am match
- Teenage girls in netball skirts with goosepimpled legs, poor things
- People leaving their shoes at the front door so they don't track mud through the pharmacy
- Farmers all hollow-eyed from helping calves into the world, eating hot pies for breakfast
I want to say some things about media I've been enjoying but I keep procrastinating because I don't have the time to write long and involved things. So, here are some short thinkings on things:
Five things about Wonder Woman
( Not very spoilery but I wouldn't want to ruin anyone's joy )
Five things about Legion
( Not too spoilery. Defs not addressing the big spoilers, anyway. )
Five things about Twin Peaks
( I have seen episode five, so assume spoilers for up to there )
Five Things to Do
- Vialeecetheartist, a zooniverse project based in Western Australia: Western Shield Camera Watch. Their description: Western Shield is a government funded conservation project that is dedicated to managing introduced predators, primarily foxes and cats, that threaten native wildlife in Western Australia.
This is a very gentle and calming kind of thing to do, I enjoy it a lot. You get to identify kangaroos and emus and all sorts of weird little hopping things. You could also identify this murderous looking bird:
[A giant, yellow eyed bird, going at the lens of a camera with an angry beak]
-anandrine is talking about communities on Dreamwidth: active comms, comms you'd like to see become more active. let's talk communities
- read this Beatles zombie AU webcomic: Eleanor Rigby
(when i was very small i assumed this song was about some lady who literally kept a human face in a jar by the door and since father mckenzie buried her that meant that he also killed her and basically i thought eleanor rigby was about zombies until i was like 12 years old)
- Check out this new prompt comm,picture_prompt_fun, write a story for a picture prompt.
- sign-up formultifandomdrabble, and write someone 100 words. I did this last year, when it was being trialled at Imzy, and it was fun! More details here.
Five Linkspams to make your day a little better
- This woman's joyful reaction at a woman proposing to her girlfriend at a museum: No One Can Get Over This Older Lady's Reaction To A Woman Proposing To Her Girlfriend (This gave me life at a time when I was feeling very bitter at yet another friend's marriage where they did not do anything about the hateful 'Man and woman' clause of the marriage act that must be read out at a wedding in Australia. Like this: Objectors block out Marriage Act's 'union of man and woman' words at civil weddings.)
- The Grenfell Tower fire is a horrible, terrifying tragedy. I am buoyed by the stories of how people have helped, how emergency workers have been amazing. (Like Mr Rogers: "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world.) Today in my email, I saw this about pharmacists dealing with the logistics of people losing all their medication and prescriptions and records: Pharmacists in West London have been working to help people affected by the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.
- Remember Tommy Westphall and the snowglobe phenomenon? Check in with it again here: The Tommy Westphall Universe. Apparently reboots have really kicked the database into overdrive this year. I saw a pack of Morley cigarettes on Twin Peaks, which means the Twin Peaks verse doesn't exist. No surprises there, though.
- Knitting spies!! The Wartime Spies Who Used Knitting as an Espionage Tool
- From some of my Person of Interest research: The 10 Best Bottles of Vodka in the World. Linked because the tasting notes are even more amazing and wanky than wine tasting notes. For example: Soft and laser-precise on the palate with a seamless balance and great length of flavor.
Now I want vodka. But it is illegal for me to drink vodka and be a health professional. So cruel.
Son of ETA: As people have asked, yes, I am legally forbidden to drink vodka only while I am at work being a health professional. After work, I may freely engage in the drinking of vodka, and indeed, many other spirits.
Five things about winter Saturdays in rural Australia:
- Frosty, foggy mornings that will become clear and sunny by twelve
- The footy scoreboard shining orange through the fog as the under-twelves play the 8am match
- Teenage girls in netball skirts with goosepimpled legs, poor things
- People leaving their shoes at the front door so they don't track mud through the pharmacy
- Farmers all hollow-eyed from helping calves into the world, eating hot pies for breakfast
I want to say some things about media I've been enjoying but I keep procrastinating because I don't have the time to write long and involved things. So, here are some short thinkings on things:
Five things about Wonder Woman
( Not very spoilery but I wouldn't want to ruin anyone's joy )
Five things about Legion
( Not too spoilery. Defs not addressing the big spoilers, anyway. )
Five things about Twin Peaks
( I have seen episode five, so assume spoilers for up to there )
Five Things to Do
- Via
leecetheartist, a zooniverse project based in Western Australia: Western Shield Camera Watch. Their description: Western Shield is a government funded conservation project that is dedicated to managing introduced predators, primarily foxes and cats, that threaten native wildlife in Western Australia.This is a very gentle and calming kind of thing to do, I enjoy it a lot. You get to identify kangaroos and emus and all sorts of weird little hopping things. You could also identify this murderous looking bird:
[A giant, yellow eyed bird, going at the lens of a camera with an angry beak]
-
anandrine is talking about communities on Dreamwidth: active comms, comms you'd like to see become more active. let's talk communities- read this Beatles zombie AU webcomic: Eleanor Rigby
(when i was very small i assumed this song was about some lady who literally kept a human face in a jar by the door and since father mckenzie buried her that meant that he also killed her and basically i thought eleanor rigby was about zombies until i was like 12 years old)
- Check out this new prompt comm,
picture_prompt_fun, write a story for a picture prompt. - sign-up for
multifandomdrabble, and write someone 100 words. I did this last year, when it was being trialled at Imzy, and it was fun! More details here.Five Linkspams to make your day a little better
- This woman's joyful reaction at a woman proposing to her girlfriend at a museum: No One Can Get Over This Older Lady's Reaction To A Woman Proposing To Her Girlfriend (This gave me life at a time when I was feeling very bitter at yet another friend's marriage where they did not do anything about the hateful 'Man and woman' clause of the marriage act that must be read out at a wedding in Australia. Like this: Objectors block out Marriage Act's 'union of man and woman' words at civil weddings.)
- The Grenfell Tower fire is a horrible, terrifying tragedy. I am buoyed by the stories of how people have helped, how emergency workers have been amazing. (Like Mr Rogers: "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world.) Today in my email, I saw this about pharmacists dealing with the logistics of people losing all their medication and prescriptions and records: Pharmacists in West London have been working to help people affected by the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.
- Remember Tommy Westphall and the snowglobe phenomenon? Check in with it again here: The Tommy Westphall Universe. Apparently reboots have really kicked the database into overdrive this year. I saw a pack of Morley cigarettes on Twin Peaks, which means the Twin Peaks verse doesn't exist. No surprises there, though.
- Knitting spies!! The Wartime Spies Who Used Knitting as an Espionage Tool
- From some of my Person of Interest research: The 10 Best Bottles of Vodka in the World. Linked because the tasting notes are even more amazing and wanky than wine tasting notes. For example: Soft and laser-precise on the palate with a seamless balance and great length of flavor.
Now I want vodka. But it is illegal for me to drink vodka and be a health professional. So cruel.
Son of ETA: As people have asked, yes, I am legally forbidden to drink vodka only while I am at work being a health professional. After work, I may freely engage in the drinking of vodka, and indeed, many other spirits.
TV Died, Long Live New TV!
Jun. 16th, 2017 11:25 pmericadawn16Obviously, Wednesday's storms were bad. I just didn't think they were that bad. There was definitely a close lightning strike but it wasn't like the time that tree beside my bedroom was struck and broke in half.
Still, there was a POP and everything went off and on like a surge. I assumed the power was out but the backups weren't beeping and the kitchen light was working. Still, the tv wouldn't turn back on. It was dead. Now I think of it as almost like a heart attack because in about 20 years, it's the only time I've had a failure with a surge protector. The tv was 8 years old which is a decent age nowadays...even though the 22 year old Philips and 14 year old Sanyo still work fine.
Did you know they don't even make Philips tvs any more?
Also, Best Buy now charges 25 dollars to recycle flat screens.
I ended up with a Samsung LED. It wasn't until I was adjusting the color on Star Wars that I realized my previous tv was definitely NOT an LED. BB-8 was so beautiful like I could touch him! I could make out individual leaves on Luke's island. Everything was so pretty. I had considered going up to 1020 p but it was a hundred dollars more so I stuck with 720 and now it's like...1020 must be crazy and I can't imagine those new 4K tvs.
I'm also really happy about the Closed Captioning. The last time I tried Directv captions, they sucked so I went back to the television ones. This time, I tried Directv again and now the Captions are a LOT better. I can easily read them and they move around so they aren't blocking crucial information.
My mom's a little jealous about my remote. When you press a button, all the buttons light up.
Oh, and I'm talking about a 24 inch because I've never had bigger than that.
My mom's Directv receiver also died so today, awesome technician Eavan ended up replacing...almost everything. Apparently, when you trouble-shoot and fix everything yourself for 8 years, the equipment can really change and become obsolete. If it wouldn't have taken so long, he wanted to replace the satellite dish, too. Also, it turns out that the DVR technician fucked stuff up when he installed it and that had to be fixed today, too. I was a little pleased about that because that technician was rude to me. Yeah, it's 8 years later and I still remember, I'm a grudgey person that way.
It is a little annoying that my remote is messing with her set.
We bought two new battery backups but since the other two are still decent, we put those two on her television setup and the refrigerator so everything except the washer/dryer is set.
Still, there was a POP and everything went off and on like a surge. I assumed the power was out but the backups weren't beeping and the kitchen light was working. Still, the tv wouldn't turn back on. It was dead. Now I think of it as almost like a heart attack because in about 20 years, it's the only time I've had a failure with a surge protector. The tv was 8 years old which is a decent age nowadays...even though the 22 year old Philips and 14 year old Sanyo still work fine.
Did you know they don't even make Philips tvs any more?
Also, Best Buy now charges 25 dollars to recycle flat screens.
I ended up with a Samsung LED. It wasn't until I was adjusting the color on Star Wars that I realized my previous tv was definitely NOT an LED. BB-8 was so beautiful like I could touch him! I could make out individual leaves on Luke's island. Everything was so pretty. I had considered going up to 1020 p but it was a hundred dollars more so I stuck with 720 and now it's like...1020 must be crazy and I can't imagine those new 4K tvs.
I'm also really happy about the Closed Captioning. The last time I tried Directv captions, they sucked so I went back to the television ones. This time, I tried Directv again and now the Captions are a LOT better. I can easily read them and they move around so they aren't blocking crucial information.
My mom's a little jealous about my remote. When you press a button, all the buttons light up.
Oh, and I'm talking about a 24 inch because I've never had bigger than that.
My mom's Directv receiver also died so today, awesome technician Eavan ended up replacing...almost everything. Apparently, when you trouble-shoot and fix everything yourself for 8 years, the equipment can really change and become obsolete. If it wouldn't have taken so long, he wanted to replace the satellite dish, too. Also, it turns out that the DVR technician fucked stuff up when he installed it and that had to be fixed today, too. I was a little pleased about that because that technician was rude to me. Yeah, it's 8 years later and I still remember, I'm a grudgey person that way.
It is a little annoying that my remote is messing with her set.
We bought two new battery backups but since the other two are still decent, we put those two on her television setup and the refrigerator so everything except the washer/dryer is set.
movie recs
Jun. 16th, 2017 11:01 pmchina_shopRecently seen:
- Adult Life Skills (UK), which was self-consciously quirky and sadder than I expected, but still fun and good.
- Rosalie Blum (France), which was great and cleverer than I expected (since I went in knowing almost nothing).
Current tally for the year: 8.5 US films vs 9.5 other1
1 The .5s are for Denial, which was a US/UK co-production.
ETA: Most anticipated upcoming release:
- Monsieur Chocolat (France) starring Omar Sy. BECAUSE OMAR SY.
- Adult Life Skills (UK), which was self-consciously quirky and sadder than I expected, but still fun and good.
- Rosalie Blum (France), which was great and cleverer than I expected (since I went in knowing almost nothing).
Current tally for the year: 8.5 US films vs 9.5 other1
1 The .5s are for Denial, which was a US/UK co-production.
ETA: Most anticipated upcoming release:
- Monsieur Chocolat (France) starring Omar Sy. BECAUSE OMAR SY.