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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
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| Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 |
mousme
|
2:37a |
And while I'm rocking the night-shift vibe...
It's probably a little wrong that Supernatural makes me laugh as hard as it does. I don't remember ever enjoying a cheesy WB/Fox show this much, not even Buffy. Maybe if Firefly hadn't been canceled... Also, I am LOVING the meta episodes. Only the X-Files ever poked fun at itself with this much success. *happy sigh* Current Mood:  amused |
mousme
|
1:13a |
Cocooning
I am watching the fourth season of Supernatural that arrived via Amazon today (yes, I caved and bought the DVDs). The fourth season is turning out pretty damned good, I must say. Better than I'd hoped for, which is nice. So now I'm lying on the sofa with a fuzzy blanket and Gretzky and Pan-Pan lying on my legs. Smudge is on the back of the sofa, and George is on the prowl —alternately yowling at the window and coming over to demand cuddles. Domestic bliss. Unfortunately, Pan-Pan and Gretzky together weigh about 35lbs, which is totally cutting off the circulation to my legs. Current Mood:  content |
| Monday, November 16th, 2009 |
mousme
|
8:06p |
Oh THAT's what that is!
I just recognized a pattern of behaviour. Why I didn't notice before is beyond me. See, I always knew November kind of sucked for me. What I *didn't* see until today is that every November I go into survival hyperdrive, withdraw from humanity, and find something to obsess over. Every year it's something different. 2006 was the zombie novel, 2007 was the new job at the RCMP, and last year I read something like forty-three books (yes, I went back and checked) and spent all my free time (which wasn't much) with BorderCrossing. This year it appears to be watching Supernatural and reading fanfic. Yes, fanfic. There's been a new thing every year. I was wondering why I wasn't "feeling" the same thing as in 2006 when I was writing about zombie, why this novel isn't coming together in my head, and now I understand why: the obsession is different this year. It's too bad, but at least I get what's going on now. Current Mood:  huh |
ladyiolanthe
|
5:00p |
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ladyiolanthe
|
12:22p |
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| Saturday, November 14th, 2009 |
elanya
|
7:10p |
Yuletide!
I take glee in the thought that there are hundreds of other people out there nervously considering what the heck they are going to do to please the random stranger they've been assigned! I'm not alone! someone is probably looking in terror at my yuletide letter as we speak! or did it, like, 20 min ago ;p I'm actually quite excited :D I think I can pull this off! Huzzah! Current Mood:  excitedCurrent Music: Der Blutharsch - Novy Svet |
mousme
|
3:54p |
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elanya
|
1:44p |
=^.^=
May I present the latest household member? Maze, Lord Grey, in a box.  Miao :o Current Mood:  surprisedCurrent Music: Jack Off Jill - My Cat |
forthright
|
11:04a |
Book-hawking
Several of you have asked when and how my book, Numerical Notation: A Comparative History, will be available for purchase. I've been told that the official date of January 31, 2010 is more or less accurate, but it could be as late as February/early March, depending on how the final stages of production proceed. Sorry to those of you who were hoping to get it as a Christmas present. The list price has changed several times - I've seen it listed for pre-order at $111.95 but also as low as $76 (at Barnesandnoble.com right now). I consider $76 to be a very reasonable price for a 500-page hardcover academic volume. The irony is that while sales only really take off once a (much cheaper) paperback edition comes out, the press will only put out a paperback edition if sales of the hardcover are good. I do have some hopes though - stay tuned! I realize that even $75-100 is a lot to pay for a specialized volume. |
joane
|
8:34a |
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| Friday, November 13th, 2009 |
mousme
|
7:38p |
Chemical warfare
No, seriously, it is RIDICULOUS that chemicals in my brain can do this to me. Ridiculous. I refuse to be held hostage by a bunch of freaking neurotransmitters. I have spoken. Current Mood:  crazy |
longpig
|
7:05p |
update
Ian spoke to the vet at the SPCA today who maintains that Sierra's shot is fine and that the other vet just has different standards, and also cautioned *against* vaccinating too soon/often. So it looks like we will go get the rest of Sierra's shots there just to avoid hassles. It's a long walk but she certainly has the energy for it, so meh. |
joane
|
7:19p |
Ugh - internet at home is down; a tree took out a wire or something along those lines. They couldn't give us an eta, so the crackberry, for the moment, is it. Ergh. I can't even remember if Rich has a YAFGC uploaded for tomorrow. Also, baby is being very, very two. On the plus side, mom bought us a dishwasher as an anniversary present, and while dad was up he ran the plumbing (there was nothing roughed in yet) and installed it. Glee, dishwasher! Almost makes up for toddler teething tantrums. Almost. Post from mobile portal m.livejournal.com |
elanya
|
2:41p |
fail, fail, sick, fail
Accidentally stood up Megan at the gym. Then slept until 11. Then figured out that I had incorrectly posted grades after I thought I'd fixed them, twice. Then had a student snark at me because they didn't do as well as they'd hoped even after the curve. Then was late getting in to school to meet another student for a make-up exam, despite leaving the house 40 minutes early, because there was an accident on my bus route and my stop was missed for 20 min and then re-routed. And am now stuck waiting for a file to save in the copy room. And because I was sick yesterday I'm behind on course prep for next week and haven't touched the next grant application that is due, I think, on Sunday. And don't even ask about my artifacts. Also I have some kind of horrible death plague, see above re: sleeping until 11. Ugh. |
shenlo
|
6:43a |
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| Thursday, November 12th, 2009 |
forthright
|
9:07p |
Badicklebop
Well, Arthur may hate French, but he sure does love Japanese. Of course, our little Japanophile doesn't know any Japanese except for Totoro and Pitagora Suichi, so he's taken to inventing his own Japanese words. The first and more important of these is badicklebop, which means 'backpack', or so I'v been told. I can see it becoming a regular part of the lexicon ... but maybe we should try to find him some lessons locally before he invents Japanese from scratch. |
longpig
|
3:49p |
|
longpig
|
3:37p |
ugh
How come it never goes smooth? I took Sierra to get her stitches out today, at our local vet. That part was no problem - she was very good and lay on her back sweetly; didn't make a peep. However, having spoken to the vet tech on the desk, there appears to be a problem with her vaccinations. According to the sticker in her file she got her initial vaccine on September 16. According to the tech I spoke to, the booster needs to be administered no later than a month after that or it is basically null and you have to start over - this would have been October 16, before we had even seen her... Basically we need to know whether the date on the file is a mistake (could have written down 16/9/09 instead of 16/10/09, but it is in two places so doubtful), or whether maybe her vaccine was re-done while she was in foster care or at Le Refuge for her spay... Otherwise we are going to have to pay to get it done over, which obviously we are not thrilled over... Especially since we have the choice of paying for the exam before the shot at our local vet (that plus the shot is about 80 bucks) or renting a car to get her up to the SPCA vet (assuming they will even agree to do it for free). Ugh. I sent an e-mail to our SPCA adoption counselor but I am most unimpressed. Current Mood:  annoyed |
mousme
|
11:19a |
How did THAT happen?
November is kicking my ass. I didn't really notice because I was trying to keep busy, but this week between the new schedule, night shift, and George going AWOL for so long, it kind of all came down like the proverbial ton of bricks. If you need me, I will be hiding under the nearest available rock. Apologies to people waiting on a NaNo update from me. I'll get to it, I swear, even if it looks like I won't hit 50K. Right now, it just doesn't feel that important. Current Mood:  depressed |
wererogue
|
6:54a |
How I Sleep
A quick thought on the way out of the door - ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) longpig often has trouble sleeping (although not so much recently.) I have always had a tendency to wake up a couple of times in the night, but when I go to bed, and even more so when I go *back* to bed, I'm out like a light. I can turn the alarm off and go back to sleep literally before I've woken up enough to realise that the alarm went off. (I've also had a tendency to sleep-walk occasionally, and to hold a conversation in my sleep which I won't remember when I wake up. At various times this has terrified me - what if I told someone a secret, like about what I got them for Christmas, while asleep? Luckily, sleep-me is discrete so far.) So, the question in my mind, is how did I get this way? I wasn't always conditioned to sleep so well - in fact, I clearly remember going to my parents aged 10 or so, and asking them "How do I go to sleep? I've forgotten" which confused them greatly. They gave me some good tips, but I was disappointed that there wasn't a formula. So, my method is to read books. From a really young age I used to read a *lot*. I'm talking about getting a book from the school library, and finishing it in two hours (when quiet reading time had finished, and I was supposed to be doing maths.) After that, I'd get *another* book before we left school, and finish that in the evening. We'd go to Milton Keynes library every other weekend or so, and I'd carefully select 10-20 books (they put up the limit at some point) and finish them before Thursday. All this time, I'd *always* read when I went to bed. There's a point, though, especially when you're lying down, that your eyes defocus or close, and the book slips from your hand. To start with, my response was to shake it off, prop myself up and carry on reading. But as time went on, I trained myself that when I woke up once after reading, I'd quickly find the book, jam a bookmark in it (if my finger was still in the page) and lie down to sleep. Later, I got into video games, movies and friends, and didn't have as much time to read. My sleeping during that time was varied, but never awful - I'd have some nights where I couldn't sleep for a long time, but usually I'd drop off. Sometimes I'd read a book, in fact. Much later still (we're talking maybe a couple of years since I read a book cover-to-cover) at university, I started getting into reading again, and I discovered something crazy - reading made me fall asleep. I'd start reading, and drop off. I've slowly trained myself out of that, but I can still produce the state that it put me in, and fall asleep pretty quickly. If I put my mind to it, I can even sleep badly on a sunny day - I've always been a non-sleeper in daytime. So my theory is that you can train yourself, by doing a specific thing until you are too tired not to sleep, to not only make that thing a trigger for sleep, but learn to recreate the mental conditions for sleep. And to read a lot of books! |
shenlo
|
6:32a |
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| Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 |
curtana
|
3:39p |
|
elanya
|
11:03a |
Veterans/Remembrance Day Food For Thought
I am going to be talking about the Hmong in my class next week, so I have been reading a lot about them - about their history, the Silent War in Laos, how they were used by the CIA to fight local communists, and then abandoned after the Americans withdrew from the area and the Pathet Lao took over the country. Many made a difficult, peril-filled journey to refugee camps in Thailand, the larges of which was Ban Vinai. The camp was closed in 1992, and many of the remaining Hmong were sent back to Laos, or forced to emigrate to other countries. Those who returned to Laos still face problems with the local government because of their involvement in the war. Some never left Laos, and are, along with their families, still actively targeted by Laotian troops. One of the things I came across during my image hunts was this slide show hosted by the New York times, and the related story talking about the experiences of Hmong groups who are essentially still on the run, almost 35 years after the 'end' of the war... Current Mood:  thoughtful |
elanya
|
10:36a |
I still feel bad about not having a real poppy to wear, so I'll 'wear' one on LJ for today. Thanks for the icons, meallanmouse :) I'm also posting The Poem, because I've got nothin' else, save a minute of silence about 20 min from now. I spend so many years going to, and being in, Remembrance Day ceremonies that the day always makes me think, and it always makes me a little sad. A grateful sad, but still. There is so much to think about when it comes to war, past present, and inevitably future. In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders' fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.~Lt. Colonel John McCrae Current Mood: pensive |
forthright
|
10:57a |
The enemy
When I was a kid, one of my friends had a father who had fought in World War II (a second-family situation) ... in the German army. This was quite a shock to my nine-year-old self, who had even by that young age absorbed the idea that we remember our own soldiers and vilify the bad guys. The idea that my friend's dad was a Nazi (which of course he wasn't, but I was in no position to make that distinction) was aberrant. It couldn't be right. My friend was quick to note (as I'm sure he'd been taught from a very young age), that his dad had fought the Soviets on the Eastern Front, which I suppose made it better somehow, because obviously the Soviets were bad guys too. So as we bow our heads today to rightly remember those Canadian soldiers who served and continue to serve in wartime and peacetime, I will take a moment also to remember the soldiers of 'the enemy' (whatever that means), past, present and future. Lest we forget. |
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chipper
rushed
