100% Participation!
Dec. 25th, 2009 11:52 amI was not fail!mod this year, and I got all the gifts ( that I had ) out! And assurances that the gifts I didn't have will be here soon!
My sister will arrive soon, slightly later than I predicted. She came in at 10, I predicted that she'd arrive home around noon. The forecast was okay, but then suddenly it dropped 30 degrees and the rain turned to snow, and the doors in the car froze shut.
But I put in the lamb, hopefully I put in the lamb correctly, and we'll have Christmas soon.
I hope everyone has/had a good Christmas, or a good day off, and hope the relitives do not drive yourself to homicide. = )
My sister will arrive soon, slightly later than I predicted. She came in at 10, I predicted that she'd arrive home around noon. The forecast was okay, but then suddenly it dropped 30 degrees and the rain turned to snow, and the doors in the car froze shut.
But I put in the lamb, hopefully I put in the lamb correctly, and we'll have Christmas soon.
I hope everyone has/had a good Christmas, or a good day off, and hope the relitives do not drive yourself to homicide. = )
(no subject)
Dec. 19th, 2009 08:56 amOh dear. It's started to snow here in Bloomington. I would normally Not Care, but Mom is coming to pick me up for the drive home. And I'd really like not to drive home in Wintergeddon.
Because we once drove somewhere during a Wintergeddon - it was snowing so hard we were down to a crawl on the interstate. I will always remember the red car that blew past us, and then we passed latter because the red car had ended up in a ditch.
Because we once drove somewhere during a Wintergeddon - it was snowing so hard we were down to a crawl on the interstate. I will always remember the red car that blew past us, and then we passed latter because the red car had ended up in a ditch.
(no subject)
Dec. 18th, 2009 08:54 pmAfter my final, I went to the library to pick up some Welsh dictionaries and grammars for a Secret Project. It took a lot longer that I thought it was going to, as I had failed to take into account the age of the library books.
So, the majority of the grammars were about Literary Welsh. Which is related to Welsh the same was as the text of the King's James Bible is related to English. Except with more made up words, as the writers had some really, really wrong etymological theories. Most of these words had been thrown out of Literary Welsh, but the wacky ideas about pronouns said, so I wanted to stay away from them.
With the remaining grammars, half of those were Living Welsh. Living Welsh is the bastard child of Literary Welsh and Colloquial Welsh.
I took all this time narrowing down grammars, and the only Colloquial Welsh grammar was the one I had used before in my projects involving Welsh. I also ended up with a grammar I was unsure the exact style it covers, but since I'm familiar with the author I checked it out anyway.
Then came the fun task of finding a book that was written in Welsh. At first I thought this would be an easy task as I saw a book intended for beginners in Welsh. It was checked out. All the other novels on the shelves were translated from Welsh, which left me with poetry. Lots and lots of poetry, in medieval, Renaissance, and modern flavors. I was almost swayed by a book of Old Welsh erotic poetry, but I saw sense and picked up a book of Modern poetry.
Okay, technically there were other prose books, but it mostly consisted of reprints of medieval Welsh texts.
Since I was there, sorting though the entire Welsh section ( it's about the size of a household bookcase ) I picked up two other books. The first is about Celtic Christianity, and the other is about how Latin and Greek languages influenced the Welsh language and culture.
Oh, and I also got the most recent dictionary they had as to get the most new words possible. Such as noticeboard ( hysbysfwrdd ) and roundabout ( trogylch ). The most recent dictionary there was 1971. I'm sure that there is an even more recent one, but it's in the Reference Room. Happily, it is the revised edition of another dictionary I had checked out before, and still includes the sections that list place names, animals, plants, and food.
So, the majority of the grammars were about Literary Welsh. Which is related to Welsh the same was as the text of the King's James Bible is related to English. Except with more made up words, as the writers had some really, really wrong etymological theories. Most of these words had been thrown out of Literary Welsh, but the wacky ideas about pronouns said, so I wanted to stay away from them.
With the remaining grammars, half of those were Living Welsh. Living Welsh is the bastard child of Literary Welsh and Colloquial Welsh.
I took all this time narrowing down grammars, and the only Colloquial Welsh grammar was the one I had used before in my projects involving Welsh. I also ended up with a grammar I was unsure the exact style it covers, but since I'm familiar with the author I checked it out anyway.
Then came the fun task of finding a book that was written in Welsh. At first I thought this would be an easy task as I saw a book intended for beginners in Welsh. It was checked out. All the other novels on the shelves were translated from Welsh, which left me with poetry. Lots and lots of poetry, in medieval, Renaissance, and modern flavors. I was almost swayed by a book of Old Welsh erotic poetry, but I saw sense and picked up a book of Modern poetry.
Okay, technically there were other prose books, but it mostly consisted of reprints of medieval Welsh texts.
Since I was there, sorting though the entire Welsh section ( it's about the size of a household bookcase ) I picked up two other books. The first is about Celtic Christianity, and the other is about how Latin and Greek languages influenced the Welsh language and culture.
Oh, and I also got the most recent dictionary they had as to get the most new words possible. Such as noticeboard ( hysbysfwrdd ) and roundabout ( trogylch ). The most recent dictionary there was 1971. I'm sure that there is an even more recent one, but it's in the Reference Room. Happily, it is the revised edition of another dictionary I had checked out before, and still includes the sections that list place names, animals, plants, and food.
(no subject)
Dec. 17th, 2009 11:32 amI have 10 coupons for $10 a paid account for those without one. Please PM me to get one.
Yesterday I actually managed to get to sleep at a reasonable time. For the last couple of days my bedtime has been anywhere between 4 AM to 8 AM. Last night it was a nice, reasonable 11 PM-ish.
I have a final in a little over an hour for physics. ICK. After physics I'm getting together with my Bible study group, as we couldn't meet yesterday do to finals conflicts.
So I'm going to get a smoothie for my throught and go over to where my test is to be. Did I mention ick? 'Cause really. ICK.
Yesterday I actually managed to get to sleep at a reasonable time. For the last couple of days my bedtime has been anywhere between 4 AM to 8 AM. Last night it was a nice, reasonable 11 PM-ish.
I have a final in a little over an hour for physics. ICK. After physics I'm getting together with my Bible study group, as we couldn't meet yesterday do to finals conflicts.
So I'm going to get a smoothie for my throught and go over to where my test is to be. Did I mention ick? 'Cause really. ICK.
(no subject)
Dec. 13th, 2009 02:30 amWhich language(s) do you currently speak? If you could learn only one other language, what would you choose, and why?
The only language I'm fluent in is American English. I can muddle though in Mexican Spanish. I've studied standard Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, and Southern Welsh. I also like to think I have a good grasp of British English, but I'm open to disagreement. = P
If I could only learn one other language, I would learn Welsh. All three dialects, obviously, as the differences between North, South, and Patagonian Welsh are really interesting and a good case study on how languages and their populations interact. Southern Welsh has borrowed some English phonemes that Northern Welsh hasn't. Patagonian Welsh is being heavily influenced by Argentinian Spanish. But! They are still comprehensible to one another.
This is baring time travel. If I could learn any language EVER, I'd learn the First Human Language. After poking around and seeing if there was a monogensis of language or not, obviously.
The only language I'm fluent in is American English. I can muddle though in Mexican Spanish. I've studied standard Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, and Southern Welsh. I also like to think I have a good grasp of British English, but I'm open to disagreement. = P
If I could only learn one other language, I would learn Welsh. All three dialects, obviously, as the differences between North, South, and Patagonian Welsh are really interesting and a good case study on how languages and their populations interact. Southern Welsh has borrowed some English phonemes that Northern Welsh hasn't. Patagonian Welsh is being heavily influenced by Argentinian Spanish. But! They are still comprehensible to one another.
This is baring time travel. If I could learn any language EVER, I'd learn the First Human Language. After poking around and seeing if there was a monogensis of language or not, obviously.
(no subject)
Dec. 3rd, 2009 03:45 pmI realized I left my ibuprofen at home. I do have three other kinds of pain reliever and some badger balm, but it's still irritating.
I'm going to Margo's birthday party tomorrow. I'm not sure whether I should bring food or booze. Decisions!
I have GoogleWave. So far the primary use is spading the KoL Crimbo event. I severely dislike internet messaging, so I'm not sure how much use I'll get out of it. And I have some invitations, too, if you want one.
I also have a Farmville account. It seems... interesting, so far. Different from Second Life and KoL, but really low maintenance.
I'm going to Margo's birthday party tomorrow. I'm not sure whether I should bring food or booze. Decisions!
I have GoogleWave. So far the primary use is spading the KoL Crimbo event. I severely dislike internet messaging, so I'm not sure how much use I'll get out of it. And I have some invitations, too, if you want one.
I also have a Farmville account. It seems... interesting, so far. Different from Second Life and KoL, but really low maintenance.
that's how I deal with it all
Nov. 22nd, 2009 09:12 pm1. Where do you get good screen caps of Doctor Who series one? I've making a few different JB manips, and I want to see if I can make a decent OT3 manip.
2. How long should I wait before contacting the author I won in the September Support Stacy auction? I haven't heard from her since early October.
3. I can now watch UK television live. Those internet pixes are amazing.
2. How long should I wait before contacting the author I won in the September Support Stacy auction? I haven't heard from her since early October.
3. I can now watch UK television live. Those internet pixes are amazing.
(no subject)
Nov. 21st, 2009 01:42 amTonight ( or more properly, last night ) I saw Die Zauberflöte with two other girls from my floor. The community sprung for the tickets, and I'd never seen opera, so I went.
As you can probably tell from the title, the opera was in German. The prose bits were in English, but there were so little of them it might as well have been ALL German. There was supertitles, but since we were in the nose bleed section, you had the choice and look straight ahead at the titles or down at the stage.
But, other than language issues, it was a great play. They tilted it way towards the crack end of the spectrum, so there were puppets and the occasional Mozart popping up to introduce the acts. The set design was fucking gorgeous, and one of the most clever sets I've ever seen. Three solid walls, divided up into squares that looked like someone opened up a dingbat text. But the squares hid where the doors opened, and little cubbyholes could be revealed, and that the entire back wall could open in the middle and slide sidewards, and the two side walls swung on pivots near the proscenium arch so they could create a solid wall in front of the stage. And then the digbat text squares also hid that they could be flipped over to reveal the outdoor architecture.
Oh, and they had smoke effects. So the only two minsus was I couldn't understand what they were saying, and it had smoke effects. Pluses was EVERYTHING ELSE, so I had a good time.
I still think it should have been translated into English. I think the hilarious bird puppets made up for this. Barely, but it did make up for it.
As you can probably tell from the title, the opera was in German. The prose bits were in English, but there were so little of them it might as well have been ALL German. There was supertitles, but since we were in the nose bleed section, you had the choice and look straight ahead at the titles or down at the stage.
But, other than language issues, it was a great play. They tilted it way towards the crack end of the spectrum, so there were puppets and the occasional Mozart popping up to introduce the acts. The set design was fucking gorgeous, and one of the most clever sets I've ever seen. Three solid walls, divided up into squares that looked like someone opened up a dingbat text. But the squares hid where the doors opened, and little cubbyholes could be revealed, and that the entire back wall could open in the middle and slide sidewards, and the two side walls swung on pivots near the proscenium arch so they could create a solid wall in front of the stage. And then the digbat text squares also hid that they could be flipped over to reveal the outdoor architecture.
Oh, and they had smoke effects. So the only two minsus was I couldn't understand what they were saying, and it had smoke effects. Pluses was EVERYTHING ELSE, so I had a good time.
I still think it should have been translated into English. I think the hilarious bird puppets made up for this. Barely, but it did make up for it.
(no subject)
Nov. 15th, 2009 10:53 pmI still cannot speak about Children of Earth for more than five minutes without breaking out into CAPLOCKS OF RAGE four months after the series aired.
Sometime in the future
juliet316 will produce a post on Gwen's Heroine's Journey. I was thinking about that myself the other night, and was fairly pleased with it until I got to the "final task" portion. I was thinking that her test was keeping the kids safe, and if it was, then she failed her task. And, then, got all the traditional rewards of suceding in her task.
I'm not saying that Gwen did not deserve having her family alive at the end of the series, nor her being given the task of rebuilding Torchwood. I blame RTD. I blame him HARD. I mean, when you manage to fuck up one of the basic units of storytelling, you need to seriously examine what the fuck you're writing.
On the bright side? RTD is still better than Frank Miller. If you have never heard of Frank Miller, one of the things he's written is Batman kidnapping Dick Grayson ( Age 12 ), keeping him in the Bat Cave, and made him catch rats for food until he earned the privilege of being fed human food. For a slightly more humorous take, Linkara reviewed the first two books of All Star Batman and Robin here. Yesterday I dared myself to read series set in that universe, and I chickened out around chapter five. It was one of the more horrifying stories I've ever read.
Sometime in the future
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
I'm not saying that Gwen did not deserve having her family alive at the end of the series, nor her being given the task of rebuilding Torchwood. I blame RTD. I blame him HARD. I mean, when you manage to fuck up one of the basic units of storytelling, you need to seriously examine what the fuck you're writing.
On the bright side? RTD is still better than Frank Miller. If you have never heard of Frank Miller, one of the things he's written is Batman kidnapping Dick Grayson ( Age 12 ), keeping him in the Bat Cave, and made him catch rats for food until he earned the privilege of being fed human food. For a slightly more humorous take, Linkara reviewed the first two books of All Star Batman and Robin here. Yesterday I dared myself to read series set in that universe, and I chickened out around chapter five. It was one of the more horrifying stories I've ever read.
(no subject)
Nov. 12th, 2009 05:37 pmThough the Magic of Google, I have discovered Things. The people who did the titles for "Tonight's the Night" and several other television shows like "Strictly Come Dancing" were behind this bit of technological lulz. On their showreel they have some clips of John standing in front of a green screen, and him dancing and goofing off.
So, I'm guessing that Creative Nuts can do pretty much whatever they wanted with the footage. But if not, I've got them downloaded to my harddrive. = )
(no subject)
Nov. 3rd, 2009 07:28 pmWriter Catherynne M. Valente (
yuki_onna ) is currently stranded in a tight spot. More specifically, she's strandaded in Frankfort, Germany after receving some very, very bad advice from Expedia. When she booked her flight online, she was told she didn't need a visa to fly into Russia. She even called the agency, and was told that they did not need visas to fly into Russia.
You need a visa to fly into Russia.
So, she and her brand new husband ( did I mention that they are on their honeymoon? ) have managed to secure visas, and can pick them up tomorrow. Only they still won't get to St. Petersburg until Thursday night, which leaves them only three days to enjoy the city.
Expedia has been extremely unhelpful in this matter. They wouldn't send a note to the Russian consulate to get Valente an exception to the visa rules, forcing her to spend more time trying to find a company that would. Expedia also booked them into a wildly overpriced hotel, and then only paid a third of the price. Nor did Expedia cough up the cash for the re-scheduling penalty.
Currently, Valente is writing an online novel called The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. The table of contents is here. It's a book with-in a book from her novel Palimpsest ( which has a rec from Warren Ellis btw ). She posts a chapter every Monday, even doing so while in Airport Hell. It's price structure is that you donate what you think the novel is worth. The author has also been posting audiobook versions of each chapter.
She also a has another project called The Omikuji Project. This is a short story subscription service. You can sign up for each month's story individually, or a year's membership. But the interesting part is that you can either receive that month's story as an emailed .pdf, or as a small book printed on archival-quality paper, autographed, and stamped with a wax seal.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
You need a visa to fly into Russia.
So, she and her brand new husband ( did I mention that they are on their honeymoon? ) have managed to secure visas, and can pick them up tomorrow. Only they still won't get to St. Petersburg until Thursday night, which leaves them only three days to enjoy the city.
Expedia has been extremely unhelpful in this matter. They wouldn't send a note to the Russian consulate to get Valente an exception to the visa rules, forcing her to spend more time trying to find a company that would. Expedia also booked them into a wildly overpriced hotel, and then only paid a third of the price. Nor did Expedia cough up the cash for the re-scheduling penalty.
Currently, Valente is writing an online novel called The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. The table of contents is here. It's a book with-in a book from her novel Palimpsest ( which has a rec from Warren Ellis btw ). She posts a chapter every Monday, even doing so while in Airport Hell. It's price structure is that you donate what you think the novel is worth. The author has also been posting audiobook versions of each chapter.
She also a has another project called The Omikuji Project. This is a short story subscription service. You can sign up for each month's story individually, or a year's membership. But the interesting part is that you can either receive that month's story as an emailed .pdf, or as a small book printed on archival-quality paper, autographed, and stamped with a wax seal.
(no subject)
Nov. 1st, 2009 10:50 pmI did end up going out. Went to Vintage Phoneix and picked up Detective, Arkham Reborn, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold, then headed over to the Irish Lion. I had good food, and read my comics, and had a good time. Unforuantly, the food did not like me.
So I was misrable for a little bit and watched Linkara review "Amazon's Attack" for the fifth time.
But! I was feeling better in time for the midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I had some knowlage of the cues, though I did not bring any props. I got to toss around stuff anyway, and was covered by a 6-inch foot deep of toliet paper by the end of the movie. The prop part was actually pretty underwellming, as there was more pain involved than fun. Apparently there was a big target at the back of my head, and I was beaned with lots of stale toast.
There was also quite a bit of rice in my shoes too.
Would I go again? Probably not, unless it has acting in addition to the film presentation. Because it wasn't particularly all that entertaining. A lot of the interaction is beating a few dead horses. Like while the Brad/Janet riff was always funny, the no-neck one was very, very tired at the end. I attempted to add some varity by riffing on different things, usually the muscial numbers. I am not The Brains, so the only one worth mentioning is the one about Footlight Parade during the "Don't Dream It, Be It" number.
The TL;DR is that watching MST3K with a few friends is more enjoyable and cheaper and does not involve getting hit in the head with toast.
So I was misrable for a little bit and watched Linkara review "Amazon's Attack" for the fifth time.
But! I was feeling better in time for the midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I had some knowlage of the cues, though I did not bring any props. I got to toss around stuff anyway, and was covered by a 6-inch foot deep of toliet paper by the end of the movie. The prop part was actually pretty underwellming, as there was more pain involved than fun. Apparently there was a big target at the back of my head, and I was beaned with lots of stale toast.
There was also quite a bit of rice in my shoes too.
Would I go again? Probably not, unless it has acting in addition to the film presentation. Because it wasn't particularly all that entertaining. A lot of the interaction is beating a few dead horses. Like while the Brad/Janet riff was always funny, the no-neck one was very, very tired at the end. I attempted to add some varity by riffing on different things, usually the muscial numbers. I am not The Brains, so the only one worth mentioning is the one about Footlight Parade during the "Don't Dream It, Be It" number.
The TL;DR is that watching MST3K with a few friends is more enjoyable and cheaper and does not involve getting hit in the head with toast.