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Friday, January 8th, 2010
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laura_redcloud
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I really hope IT is not keeping a log of the web block error messages I've received.
Content blocked by your organization. This category is filtered: Internet Radio and TV
Content blocked by your organization. This category is filtered: Adult Content
Content blocked by your organization. This category is filtered: Personals/Dating
Content blocked by your organization. This category is filtered: Marijuana
Ack! I know what that looks like. That looks like: porn, porn, porn, pot. I can explain, sort of! Although admittedly not working, I was doing the fairly innocent non-work-at-work activities of trying to donate to public radio, read fan fiction (okay, that's probably not super kosher, but in my defense, even the gen stuff is blocked if it's on a site with erotica), take an online quiz at what used to be TheSpark and is now OKCupid, and look at that picture of those spiderwebs spun by a spider on caffeine. I promise I am just a garden variety slacker.
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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dougdougdoug
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is giving in and ordering new checks with her married name and address on them. Only 2 years late.
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dougdougdoug
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accidentally quoted her freelance client $5/hr less than she meant to. Doh.
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theferrett
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About a month back, I discussed why I write short stories. And I said this:
"At any time, there are maybe twenty-five pro-paying F&SF markets that will accept a story from Joe Q. Nobody - and in all of them, you're competing with established authors who have name recognition. As Mike Resnick said, you don't have to be as good as those authors to get a story in, you have to be better. It's a mad chase. I'd wager that given a larger number of novels published and less worries about filling the X pages available in any given magazine, it's probably easier to sell a book."
Interestingly enough, Mary Robinette Kowal provides proof for my hypothesis by showing new SFWA memberships broken down by short story and novel entry points. She counts seventeen short story markets and forty novel publishers, so yeah. Writing short stories? Not the way to go.
(Remember: I'm doing it, but it's an exercise to get to a better novel.)
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yuki_onna
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It makes me so happy when one of my more ignored stories gets a little love.
The Anachronist's Cookbook, my steampunk story from the iPhone app Steampunk Tales, has been selected for inclusion in Ann and Jeff Vandermeer's Steampunk Reloaded anthology!
*cure kermitflail*
Not only is this an awesome series with great editors, but it means a lot more readers for that story. The ideal existence for the Cookbook is as part of a steampunk anthology, where the tropes it's reacting to are all around it, and it can almost be a real artifact within the world created by the other stories. I'm so excited to be in this one--and kudos to Ann and Jeff for looking in unorthodox places for fiction.
***
I don't think this really deserves an entry of its own, but it has been brought to my attention that the Powers That Be at Realms of Fantasy have been posting to Facebook and dismissing not only my entire post about the women-only issue, but all argument about it anywhere because I also mentioned email submissions. (I believe I am the only person to mention email submissions, in the context of other debates RoF might want to respond to editorially.)
I have no idea why mentioning another debate means this one can be ignored, but that seems to be the size of it.
This apparently means I'm just a "sour grapes" girl and can be dismissed. Actually, the phrase sour grapes means that one is denied something one truly wanted, so as a response, one disparages the thing to make oneself feel better. Since I am a woman and eligible for the issue and have never submitted to or been rejected from RoF (though I'm pretty sure I would be now), this phrase is darn near non-sensical when applied to this discussion, which let's be honest, brings the magazine tons of attention and free advertising.
So allow me to say: scratch what I said about email subs. Doesn't matter. Obscures the issue at hand.
*thinks*
Yep, I still think the issue is sad and segregating, the call for submissions poorly worded, and the implications upsetting.
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Comments: Read 12 or Add Your Own.
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theferrett
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Here's every reality TV show we've ever seen:
Step 1: "Wow, that looks stupid."
Step 2: "It's on, might as well watch it."
Step 3: "What? That guy's crazy! How does he think that's at all correct?"
Step 4: HOOKED.
I'd like to snark at American Idol and the like, but I know deep down the only reason I'm not involved is because I have studiously avoided it to preserve my time. Oh, some part of me thinks we're superior to all that fooferaw - but then I remember our obsessions with Survivor and The Apprentice, and shut my mouth.
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Comments: Read 16 or Add Your Own.
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dougdougdoug
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is wondering why her paycheck is 6 dollars less than normal.
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theferrett
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If I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn't go to a dental school for my implants. It's not that the doctors are incompetent; it's that you can't see them often enough. Between their class schedules, vacations, negotiating consults with other students, and the eternally clogged parking lots of CWRU, getting in to see one of the dentists is a laborious process. I'm saving money, yes, but at the expense of a lot of time.
This is not helped by the fact that my body is reacting to the titanium screws inside my gums (they were used to anchor some bone grafts), which is causing blisters in my gums. They're not painful, but this may require additional surgery to add more bone tissue, which means that I may be another year from getting actual front teeth.
However. I am not going to go on about this. What I am going to discuss is one of the secret joys of Cleveland:
The myriad accents of the dental school.
A disproportionate number of the students seem to have come from abroad to seek their fortune in Cleveland dentistry. Why? I have no clue. But my periodontist is from South America - he had a practice, and is now recertifying himself to launch a career here. The guy who took my bone scan today was Russian (and man, it was all I could do to bite back the "Chekov" references when he operated a large, complex machine to fill my face with radiation). The women helping me with the X-Ray? Kenyan.
I dunno, man. Not that I have anything against anyone born in America, but it's just somehow quietly beautiful to see all of these skins, accents, and nationalities finding a home here, being quietly competent at what they do, bringing their experience and eagerness and intellect all the way to Cleveland's dentistry to learn and, hopefully, take root in America.
It's a silly thing, but I'm like, "Yay, humanity's mixing here!" and it makes me deeply content. That almost makes it all worth it.
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Comments: Read 24 or Add Your Own.
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city_of_dis
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This week: Confess all the debauchery that you got up to on New Year's Eve. If none, please tell us what debauchery you WISH you'd gotten up to.
When I feel that the confession’s contents constitute an ostensible "sin," I’ll hand out a penance. Kneel and be remorseful.
IP logging is off. You may post anonymously, if you like.
While you're at it, head over to the journal of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jesus_h_biscuit and spit your venom at the assholes in your life via Rat Bastard Fridays
M-A
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zoethe
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I can't decide which is weirder: that a misdialing little old lady from New Haven, Connecticut called my toll-free number with questions about the disposition of antique bird of paradise feathers under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, or that I knew the answer.
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Comments: Read 20 or Add Your Own.
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minnesattva
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You know, I’d like to tell you that Andrew is being perfectly supportive and wonderful about my new relationship. I really would. However there’s one major problem.
He and Stu get along marvelously; they immediately get talking about Daleks and what it’s like to be in a band in Manchester and all kinds of... specialist subjects, shall we say, of theirs. He’s been open and honest about everything someone getting into a relationship with me. It’s very impressive.
But there’s still one problem. It was unexpected, sure, but it’s big and it’s getting worse.
Every time Andrew hears my phone beep these days, he’s accusing me of sexting.
Even to type the word makes me cringe. It’s so awful. It’s so abominably bad. I mean, usually I’m all for language being used however people want to use it, and I appreciate the clever and useful things that dour prescriptivists would shun.
But this I cannot handle. Even if Andrew tells me, as he often does with glee in his voice as he watches me physically recoil from the vile utterance, that it is a word because it’s been added to the OED, it is abhorrent.
If he is right about the OED, the English language really has jumped the shark.
(The fact that my texts, to boyfriends or otherwise, do not contain any sexual words and I can’t even take pictures which is what I think the word was invented for anyway, is a distant second in my protests, but I figure it’s worth pointing out here anyway.)
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Comments: Read 18 or Add Your Own.
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suibhne_geilt
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So.
The ever amazing tithenai, whilst chatting online with csecooney, & wirewalking, have created that true rarity. A meme that I will violate my no more than one meme per quarter rule for. This is as good as the "How would you dispose of my corpse" meme.
So, dear flisties. I ask you this.
If I were a summonable creature, what ritual would you craft to summon me?
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Thursday, January 7th, 2010
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dougdougdoug
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I tell ya. If Axel decided he only liked needles he could get through a
whole haystack and find that needle and touch nothing else in the
process. I tried every last thing I had in my arsenal and I still
couldn't get Axel to eat all his medicine. He managed to choke down the
bute with some brown sugar and grain. But he did not want to eat much
of the antibiotic. I tried the sugar, cinnamon, grain, those cookies I
made, water, and apples. He can pick out a chunk of sugar and not touch
any of the meds.
So it's no more Mrs Nice Girl. I'm going to mix the meds with apple
sauce and put it in a de-worming syringe and force feed him it. I just
hope I can get it all in one dose. I doubt I could get him to eat it
twice or more. Darn horse.
His swelling hasn't gone down yet but he was perkier. He should feel
pretty good tomorrow since he got most of his bute this time. His
sheath was cooler to the touch than it has been in the past. So perhaps
the swelling is going to start decreasing. Of course I'd feel better
about it if he'd actually eat those meds.
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dougdougdoug
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has to play "no more mrs nice gal" with Axel. He's getting his meds via de-wormer syringe from now on.
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revdj
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Laurel talked me out of getting cheap ceramic tiki mugs for the tasting. So now we have to get chimney glasses. And then arrange something.
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revdj
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I have enough kinds of rum now, I thought I would do a blind test.
Ronrico:
Sweet smelling
It burns us
Very much like rum.
Jamacian:
Less smell - more chemically
No burn
Tasty, like there is a bit of Coke already in it
151:
Smells strong, like rubbing alcohol
It burns! It burns! It burns! Nasty Bagginses!
Nice flavor under the burn. I quite like the taste
Bacardi Light and Dry:
Mild, neutral smell
No burn
Very mild. Almost vodka-y
Bacardi Gold:
No odor, or my sense of smell is gone from drinking all this rum
No burn at all
Tasty. Big, strong, rum flavor
Falernum Syrup (rum-based, added as a control)
Distinct odor. Like flowers on a summer day. Beautiful and fresh.
No burn at all
Sweet and complex, like candy. I get cloves, but there is much much more.
I then tried to guess which was which. The 151, the light-and-dry, and the falernum were obvious. I made educated guesses on the rest, and was wrong. Now that I know what they are like, they are distinct enough I'd be able to identify them again.
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yuki_onna
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You know, just about every time I post anything about writing, but especially if I post about increasing the visibility of women, queer culture, and people of color in literature, I get several of this kind of comment--and yes, I just got ANOTHER one on my Racefail post.
"If you want more representations of women/gays/PoC, why don't you write your OWN damn books?"
Often accompanied by the cute addendum: "Just tell YOUR story, and don't worry about politics."
Look, I don't expect every random commenter to be conversant in my complete works. I don't expect them to know me at all, given how many come via outside links. I'm not being all DON'T YOU KNOW WHO PRINCE IS?
But seriously. One might consider, when there are over 100 comments, let alone 300, that the author of the post might possibly have written something other than the post at hand, and possibly a quick google search is preferable to looking hilarious in comments. I know that assuming Everyone Else Is An Idiot is part of what makes the Internet such a jolly place, but it's LJ, there's a lot of writers here, and people who post about SFF and fandom usually have some vested interest in it, and it's not like there aren't links to my books all down the side of the page.
Not to mention, it's not actually the first best destiny of Everyone on Planet Earth to be a writer of fiction. Cultural commentary is important and valuable in and of itself, and some people need to, you know, read books and react to them. I know! Crazy! My reaction to culture would still be viable even if I couldn't string a denouement together with a duct tape, a wristwatch, and my Aunt Martha's wedding band. So would, and is, yours.
The second one, which I also tend to get when talking about any thorny issue in a work in progress, is much harder to respond to. But pretty much the only thing to say is:
My story is political.
I can write from the heart--and seriously, where else would I be writing from? I'm such a commercial sellout with my popcorn novels and my stacks of cash that I have to dig down to my Grinchy literary heart with both hands and even then I might not find anything but hot sparkly vampires? I'm all heart, baby. But I can write from my ventricles and still be political, because I am a woman and a feminist and queer and there is no telling my story, no matter how cloaked in fiction, without bringing all my uncomfortable politics in. That is telling my story. It means I worry about colonial issues, it means I worry about portrayals of gay sex, it means I consider the race and gender balance of a cast of characters, it means I think long and hard before committing narrative. Because my politics are the politics of thinking long and hard about things.
But hey, maybe one of these days I'll get around to writing my own books and not just complaining annoyingly on the Internet about how the world could occasionally suck just a little less. It could happen. You never know.
Probably not, though. I'm mostly hot air. Hot, politically correct, ugly, loud feminist air.
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Comments: Read 48 or Add Your Own.
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theferrett
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From tithenai and yuki_onna:
Were I a summonable monster, what kind of ritual would you craft to summon me? (Include items to lure monster-me and method for said fell ritual.)
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Comments: Read 37 or Add Your Own.
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dougdougdoug
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is secretly happy winter conditioning was canceled tonight and she doesn't have to stand in a cold barn. Okay not so secret.
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pecunium
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I will be teaching another Knife Skills class (Sur la Table, in Palo Alto, Calif.) on Tues, 12 January, at 6:30 p.m.
At present there are only eight people enrolled. Class cost is $59 US (you can enroll online).
It's a basic skills course. How to select, and maintain, a knife. How to hold, and handle a knife. How to do basic cutting (slice, dice, chop, mince, chiffonade), and some of the less intuitive tricks for certain vegetables.
Knives will be provided. The chance to try diffrent makes and styles will be afforded. From things chopped up in the class, bruschetta will be made.
The class lasts about 1 1/2 hours (if more questions are asked, it might go as long as two), and you get a discount of 15 percent (on the day of the class) and one for 10 percent (for the following week) on anything which isn't powered by electricty.
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yuki_onna
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Thank you, KnitLJ. I will try the non curse-making method tonight.
In the meantime, I steal an awesome meme from tithenai :
If I were a summonable monster, how would you summon me? (Include items to lure monster-me and method for said fell ritual.)
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Comments: Read 25 or Add Your Own.
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dougdougdoug
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thinks that when her Outlook decides to go home for the day, so should she.
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jwz
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Annoyingly, most of these have been pulled already, e.g. "House: every 'lupus' reference": This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal. Fuck you, NBC Universal. How do you imagine that nuking this video helps your bottom line? "Gosh, I was going to watch House, but now that I've seen all the lupus references at once, I guess I won't bother."
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Comments: Read 17 or Add Your Own.
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yuki_onna
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Knitting primal scream follows. Non fiber-geeks, move on.
OH MY FUCKING GOD.
Not since I first started knitting and had to take a ferry to the local shop to have someone fix my total cock-up of a stockinette crap scarf have I wanted to throw my needles into the ocean so much.
I'm making these, which are awesome, (chart here) and the user project comments are all: this is sooo easy and fast! Grrrrr.
I got so excited. I have the most gorgeous Blue Heron yarn for them. And I can't even start.
You start with single stitches, one on each of four dpns, in the round. Which is, you know, hard enough, thank you slippery craftdeath. And increase every row or so. But starting that small with dpns I can't even see what order the needles go in, and doing k1, yo is so horribly awkward and it's a MESS and I can't even get past the fourth round. The needles keep falling out and I can't see anything.
And you know, I've gotten pretty good at knitting. There's not a stitch in here I can't do. I'm learning to read a chart for the first time but I'm a clever girl, that's fine. I just can't get this stupid thing started and all the Ravelry girls are like: I finished in an afternoon! Hate, death, perdition.
Some note that it's easier with two circulars, which I confess is not a skill I've acquired. Also I don't have two circulars in the same size. And the knitting stores are a. a 25 minute ferry ride b. a mile walk in the snow afterward and c. arrrrgh.
I really wanted to have these for the shows with s00j at Arisia and ConFusion. They should be easy. No other gloves I've seen are this cute. And yet I am stymied and want to kill, kill, kill.
PS Fuck Vogue and their space-saving patterns with NO guidance whatsoever. Also all your sweaters in the holiday issue were ugly.
Hi, my name is Cat. I knit, and swear a lot. AGGRO KNITTER +2 NEEDLES OF POKEY DOOM.
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Comments: Read 55 or Add Your Own.
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revsphynx
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This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!
To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.
Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.
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dougdougdoug
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thinks this "almost a cold" is worse than a real cold. So completely exhausted and I look it. But not really "sick."
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dougdougdoug
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I do not appreciate driving up to the barn to find my already sick
horse laying in the pasture flat out with another horse hovering over
him nudging him like he's dead. I just about broke my neck running out
there to check on him. He wasn't dead. He didn't look like he had been
struggling at all. But he couldn't get up. I went to get J to help,
thinking we'd have to roll him over or something. It seemed like the
crusty snow was preventing him from getting up. While J was finding
clothes the vet drove up.
Axel was sick of Vinnie pestering him and was trying to chase him off
without getting up. He was stretching out his legs and neck and
squirming around. The vet drove up to me and said "that's not your
horse is it?" Um yes it is, not exactly the sight you want to see when
you drive up to a place. We were discussing what we thought was the
issue when Axel must have finally had the last straw with Vinnie and
got up. J had just gotten back to the house and Axel wasn't down then.
So we think he went down to roll and couldn't get back up. He was
laying on his right side and his right knee has been sore the past 2
days. He probably didn't want to tuck that leg under himself to get up.
When he finally got sick enough of Vinnie he bit the bullet and managed
to get up.
He had been laying down long enough to melt the snow and was pretty
wet. The vet checked out his knee. There was nothing obvious but he was
very tender and didn't want to bend it. He probably just tweeked it out
on the ice but if it doesn't improve in a week or so he wants to get it
x-rayed. So Axel got his IV of Lasix and I got a pile of other meds and
a bill. 3 huge scoops of anti-biotics per day until the container is
gone and 2g of bute per day for 5 days. We'll check in with the vet in
5 days and see how he's doing, the horse not the vet.
I put Axel in the barn and threw a wool blanket and his cooler on to
try and dry him up a bit. Supposedly it's going to get windy sometime
soon so I didn't want him soaking and standing outside. So while he
dried I thought I better give him his first dose of meds to make sure
he would eat them. So 3 scoops of antibiotics is a whole boat load of
powder. That combined with a scoop or two of bute and there's more
powder in the bucket than grain. I got another thing of bute from the
vet, this time unflavored because I thought Axel didn't like the apple
flavor. In the end I think he doesn't like any flavor. He ate quite a
bit at first, after blowing his nose in the bucket and spreading quite
a bit of the meds all over himself and me. But he couldn't bring
himself to finish all of it. I tried to get him to eat for quite some
time but he just wasn't into it.
By the time I put him out he wasn't completely dry but he was a bit
better and he seemed fairly perky. I don't want to have J&J trying to
give him these meds and him not eating them so I brought everything
home to try and formulate some sort of plan.
So my first thought was mix his meds up with some good stuff and make
some treats. But I was reading my homemade horse treats book and it
said not to mix the meds in until you were ready to serve. I'm not sure
that it would make a huge difference but since he's supposed to eat all
of that antibiotic I don't want to waste any.
So I mixed up a few different things and put them in a muffin tin. My
idea is that I would put his meds inside these little "cups" and then
squish them closed. However, with the amount of meds he has to eat, I'd
probably need to give him six of these treats every day. Maybe that's
not a big deal. I'm worried that he'll get one in his mouth, think it's
great, start chewing and then BAM! gross med taste and then he will
refuse the others. I had some extra treat mixtures so I brought them to
WCR to try them out on those horses and see if they would eat them in
the first place. They approved of my treats. They were really sticky
though and the horses made all sorts of contortions to try and eat them.
So I think tonight I will go out and try a little at a time. I think my
first try will be one scoop of powder, some brown sugar, and some sweet
feed. If that works we'll try it again. If that doesn't work well then
I'll put some in one of my treats. I could also try mixing the powder
with Karo syrup and putting that on some feed. I think I have enough
ammo to at least get him to eat today's meds. I also have some apples
which seem to mask the taste of some meds.
I'll probably give him his meds tomorrow and Sunday as well but if we
go to the farm I'll have to have J&J try and give it to him. So I'm
hoping the brown sugar trick works, it would be the easiest for me to
get ready for them and easiest for them to serve. The bute will only be
served til Monday. I'm not sure how long the antibiotics will last,
maybe 7-10 days. So I should be able to get out there through Tuesday
at least without rearranging my life.
Ahh ponies, I hope he appreciates what I do for him!
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theferrett
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I am tired and low on creative energy. I cannot write an entry today.
However, feel free to write the entry you think I should have written today in my comments.
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Comments: Read 43 or Add Your Own.
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dougdougdoug
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likes this warmer weather.
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Comments: Add Your Own.
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revdj
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So TMBG has a very funny kids song about the number 7. (Here's a link to the video - I like the song better without the video, so I'm not embedding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9PNoJuP-mk)
On an early assignment this semester, I made it work out so the answer to problem 7 is 7777. When we go over the problems in class, I will say, "Wow, that is a lot of sevens. Reminds me of a song" and I will whip out my ipod and speakers, and play them that song.
I will be wasting 3 perfectly good minutes of their time that would otherwise have been spent hearing me telling an irrelevant story.
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calm.
hungry.
amused.
enthralled.
thoughtful, dammit.
SMASH.
aggravated.
