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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
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| Saturday, July 18th, 2009 |
adularia
|
1:03p |
fun with formica
Squeeeeee. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) digitalemur just made me a present of a bunch of pictures of her kitchen countertop, because she photographed her breakfast, as one does, and her kitchen countertop finish happens to exhibit a mosaic pattern I've been trying to replicate with complex paths in Illustrator for, oh, about a week now. Graphic source material from other people's tea-eggs, I has it. I will now go click around like a delighted five-year-old with AutoTrace. |
supercheesegirl
|
12:02p |
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| Friday, July 17th, 2009 |
supercheesegirl
|
1:39p |
Friday
Last night, I had yoga class, so I got home late. F's new phone that he ordered on ebay got delivered to our old address by mistake, so he had to drive all the way to the other side of the city and back to pick it up, so we actually got home at around the same time. Then we made zucchini and squash wraps for dinner, which was awesome, even though I had to walk down to the coop to get more tortillas. The goat cheddar was AWESOME with the zucchini and we were literally licking our plates after we were done. Then we moved the couches all around the living room and came up with an arrangement that will hopefully work for a while. And we moved the spare mattress (anyone need a mattress?) and hooked up my computer in the bedroom, which was excellent and which ceased all productivity because I had to go play spider solitaire (no internet yet), but by then it was around 9:30 and we were slowing down anyway. Today has been a good day! I knew I had to stay late today for a meeting, so I went in late, which gave me time in the morning to work on my closet. The Good Closet. Which has proven itself to be a little bit less good, as the shelves were totally covered in paint/plaster dust and we were really disgusting. It took me 40 minutes to clear them off satisfactorily. If I die from asbestos poisoning now you all know why. But the closet is ready for action now! Then here at work I actually had something useful to do--calculate page counts per chapter and work on writing author instructions. Logical problem solving skills and creative writing skills. No wonder I actually enjoyed my work today. And Dr. S was actually available for our conference call, and apologized for being MIA for the last month, and suggested himself that the rest of the chapters will be submitted by the end of the summer, so that is also excellent. Now, home, to do more closet work, and take the Comcast cable box and cable modem back to the service center. Where they WILL accept them and give me a receipt, because I am not driving my ass back over to the other side of the city to the closest service center to my previous service location. The one that's close to my new home will just have to freakin' deal. |
supercheesegirl
|
1:37p |
yoga # 36.5
I went to Lucia's yoga class last night, for the first time in AGES. It was awesome. She kicked my ass, made me do dolphin and dolphin plank, made me hold standing poses longer than I normally would. It was excellent and I really needed it. Let this be the start of me getting back into yoga classes. |
| Thursday, July 16th, 2009 |
jsciv
|
12:03p |
I really need to catch myself up
Part of the dual nature of something like LJ is that not only are you commiserating about things with friends, you're creating a record (a journal, duh). This is definitely the case here moreso than on Facebook or Twitter, which while indeed ARE records that can be scoured and plumbed, feel far more ephemeral and far less contextual than a journal. How many Twitter conversations do you see that feel like half of a phone conversation? How many FB updates that lack all context (Soandso made a decision!)? That's not to belittle those services: as social networking they succeed wildly. As a record to look back through though, not so much. That little tangent was what I was thinking about when I looked at LJ earlier this week and then again today and realized that I haven't made time to finish the update that I've been meaning to make about last weekend. Because posting random updates just doesn't really do it for me. So, rationale aside, it's worth mentioning the weekend and week so far. I went into the weekend with yet another Disneyland trip: turns out it was P's birthday and he'd done the "get in free" thing (and upgraded it to a 3-day hopper) so of course the gang was obligated to join him in the festivities. :) I had kind of planned to play WoW for the evening, but oh well. Saturday I had been hoping for a solid day of gaming in Pasadena, and I did indeed manage to get that to happen! We started slowly because everyone was in the pool, but after a learning game of Race for the Galaxy for P, we got going. First up was Finca, one of the SdJ nominees, and I can see why. Its central mechanic was simple, but fun and interesting. I'm definitely playing it again soon! After that was one that I haven't played in far too long, Brass. Such a good game (if only the rules didn't take so long to explain). Still, it's coming out to the table more if I can help it. Following that we played three on Agricola where two of us tied (and the other guy to tie with me for the win had one begging card even!). For the first time I was really able to make some good synergy out of my cards and use a lot of bonus points. We closed out the night with a round of Dominion, the SdJ winner. Most of the day was the three games in the middle ( Brass being the longest), but it was a great time all around. Well, until we decided to leave. It was about 2am, and we discovered that someone had egged the cars on the street. WTF? So we spent a while cleaning up cars before the sun and egg could hurt the paint. Andy's car was the only one unscathed, but he waited for the rest of us to wash down. I'm not sure why or who, but it seems weird that in this day and age there's still such stupid petty vandalism. At least it wasn't too serious. Sunday was TV and nap day, so nothing to report there. Tuesday I got to see an early showing of Half-Blood Prince, which was kind of neat: as we were going into the theater at 8am there were already a dozen people or so camped out (I was going to say "lined up" but tents and sun umbrellas and chairs and all... that's more than simple queuing), and when we left in the heat of the day the line was growing. I've read the books so there was nothing new for me there, but I enjoyed the movie even knowing what I know from having read it (and the conclusion) already. TV is still out: I have determined that it's not my DirecTV equipment, it's the tree that wasn't trimmed this year so I've got a request in with the rental company to trim it. I called them back yesterday and they said they're getting a price from the gardener to do the work. I certainly hope they're not expecting me to pay or going to say "it's too expensive" or something. They've trimmed that tree every year (this is my fourth year in this apartment), so if the trimmers skipped it then it's not my problem, and it needs a trim for sure, as there are little dead bits on the ends of some of the branches. So we'll see. In the meantime I've been relying on the internet for my TV (which turns out to be not so bad). If there's any hangup on the dish I'm going to just suspend my service until the new HD TiVo unit comes out in the fall. The main things I'll miss are a) Big Brother After Dark on Showtime (the ultimate background TV: other people living in the box!) and b) Virginia Tech football games. I'll miss B more than A. This weekend is the opening weekend of the annual invasion of the parents: I have weekend 2 planned out, but I have no idea what we're doing on Sunday. Ah well, I'm sure I'll figure it out. |
adularia
|
4:48p |
infinite quiet
This is, by far, my favorite image out of the hundreds I've seen today from the Apollo 11 mission. http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/07/remembering_apollo_11.html#photo37The sky goes on forever, like the edges of the photo aren't there, because truthfully they aren't. The Earth precesses, soundless, alone but integral. This frame isn't eternal - sunlight is evidence for entropy - but that doesn't matter. People made the photo happen, by collective will. The universe remains. |
supercheesegirl
|
9:06a |
Books 2009: What's Eating Gilbert Grape, by Peter Hedges
I've had this on my To Read shelf for several years now. I only vaguely remember the movie--enough so that I knew what the ending would be, but I didn't remember how they got there. The book was really good, really engaging, and I was rooting for Gilbert (although picturing him as Johnny Depp didn't hurt). I'm guessing that everyone has forgotten about this book, but it's actually a very worthwhile read. |
| Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 |
sorakirei
|
10:19p |
OMG otakon!
I can't believe I'm leaving for Otakon tomorrow. I totally don't feel ready and I'm taking Neil with me. He's a new staffer helping out in the Photo suite. As usual my precon jitters will settle soon. Here's hoping I can at least get a good night sleep tonight. Current Mood:  nervous |
sorakirei
|
9:42p |
video games live!
Just last weekend Video Games LIVE! finally stopped in Pittsburgh. I almost missed the show despite a few people telling me about it in advance. Many thanks to my coworker Beth for telling me about an ad she heard on the radio about a video game music concert soon. I hadn't been to Heinz Hall in AGES. I was totally getting lost in the building and wished I had arrived sooner to explore more. I ran into many people I know which isn't really a shocker, yet when I'm not expecting to see someone it's still a surprise. The show itself was great. A wide variety of music. I was even stunned... Halo has plot?! *cough* *giggle* I really hope the show comes back again next year! ps: Post Gazette review Current Mood:  happy |
sorakirei
|
8:52p |
weddings!!
Over 4th of July weekend I was quite busy attending weddings. One for my cousin Cyndi and the other for my FFXI friend kamalloy. I got really lucky. The weddings were not on the same day, but were in the same region. I was able to stay with my family and not have to worry about arrangements for the other wedding. ( My cousin Cyndi got married )( My long time FFXI buddy got married )Congratulations again to everyone! And if you are curious... click a bag!   Current Mood:  loved |
| Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 |
supercheesegirl
|
1:34p |
books 2009: Burning Bright, by Tracy Chevalier
Pleasant historical fiction. I don't think it was as good as Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring, but it wasn't bad. Maybe I'm not familiar enough with William Blake's poetry to get a lot out of it, I don't know. I guess I'd rate it two stars: pleasant, enjoyable, but ultimately, probably forgettable. |
sorakirei
|
3:00p |
visual basic ~ please help
I'm hoping one of you has some familiarity with Visual Basic and writing macros for MS Office products. ( the issue )Any help will be greatly appreciated. Current Mood:  frustrated |
supercheesegirl
|
12:27p |
yoga # 35.5
I managed a 30-40 minute yoga session last night. I was feeling really depressed and down, and that feeling really stuck with me through the yoga. It was unpleasant. I am glad I got in a little practice, but I was so deep in bad feelings that even yoga couldn't help me climb out of it. Also, note to self, I really should not try a crow while wearing shorts. The skin-on-skin really hurt. Last night, I kept thinking about a particular Gary Young poem, so I'll share it here: I don't know where the owls go when they leave this place, or if they never leave, but simply leave off calling sometimes in their hollow voices. But tonight they are here: one in a redwood beyond the creek, one high in the fir tree above the house. Rappelled through their voices, those three long vowels the darkness speaks in, I forget my own worthlessness which has troubled me all day. |
adularia
|
11:12a |
donuts!
Indulgent brandwhoring, with added Canada-envy: They replaced the Dunk's at 86th and Lexington with Tim Horton's! I can has edible donuts nao. It's next to a bakery, which has inferior bread, but really, really good short pastries; H&H is a few blocks south. My neighborhood may be terrible for coffee and wifi, but it has its bread products figured out. |
| Monday, July 13th, 2009 |
supercheesegirl
|
9:26a |
books 2009: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, by Kate Wilhelm
I found an old paperback copy in Baskets Bookstore in Brattleboro, VT. I've been looking for this for a while, and Baskets is just the kind of wonderful used bookstore where I could dig around and find it. I picked up some Le Guin and Asimov there, too. In any case. This is a Hugo Award winner, and I thought it was great. The novel describes the collapse of human civilization, and the efforts of an isolated group to save humanity through cloning--but the clones are different in key ways from naturally conceived humans. An excellent read, highly recommended. |
sorakirei
|
2:01a |
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sorakirei
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1:34a |
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| Friday, July 10th, 2009 |
foxbat
|
9:56p |
One Reason I LIke Baseball...
One of the reasons I enjoy baseball is that I like the stories that come from it. Tonight's story was a classic example. Jonathan Sanchez is a young pitcher cursed with carrying the heaviest label of them all: he's a guy with potential. While he's got some wicked stuff, he hasn't been living up to his potential, and the Giants finally pulled him out of the starting rotation and put him in the bullpen a couple of weeks ago or so. They brought up another young pitcher to take Sanchez's place in the rotation and it sure looked like Jonathan had lost his starter's job. Then Randy Johnson got injured in his start on Sunday. The Giants needed someone to fill in a start, and call on Sanchez to do the job. Tonight, Jonathan Sanchez lived up to every bit of his potential as he became the first Giants pitcher in 33 years to throw a no-hitter. He was so good, he carried a perfect game against the San Diego Padres into the 8th inning, where an error by the 2nd baseman let a runner on base. Sanchez didn't let that throw him; he got the rest of the batters out, behind some excellent defense. Tonight's story is about redemption, about how a man can step up and make the most of a second chance. I don't know if this is going to be the spur that Sanchez needs to settle down, or if he's going to return to his form as a young guy with a million dollar arm who gets rattled and loses game. Only time will tell us that, and I'm happy to have the chance to see how it plays out. For now, I'm just thrilled for Jonathan Sanchez; I hope he enjoys his evening of rare accomplishment. Go Giants! |
| Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 |
jsciv
|
10:35a |
No water cooler discussions...
My boss is the other big SF (and reality TV) nut in my office, so when Torchwood, Children of Earth started this week, I made sure he knew about it too. He even has the wife at home to start downloads. But yesterday he hadn't watched it, though he promised to catch up last night. Today, he called in sick. So I have nobody to have the "OMG did you see that?" water cooler discussion with! Argh! I went over to a coworker who sometimes keeps up and told him to get it, so maybe tomorrow I'll have someone else.. but today I must suffer in silence..... |
supercheesegirl
|
1:03p |
books 2009: The Best American Essays: 2008, edited by Adam Gopnik
Dear Lord, I've been working on this for WEEKS. Maybe even over a month--I know I had it with me through our whole New England road trip. That's not to say it wasn't an excellent collection--in fact, that was probably the issue. I'm much happier when I can read an easy fun light story here and a serious one there, but this is a collection of the best essays that were published last year, so you can safely assume that at least some of them deal with some heavy shit, and all of them are deep and multi-faceted and full of symbols and other things you have to think about. This has not been a good thinking-type month for me, so this took a while. (Although it's true that I usually find nonfiction anthologies and literary journals very hard to get through, which makes me feel hypocritical--I want them to publish my essays, so I really should read more of theirs, but it just takes so long!) In any case. There were some really amazing pieces in this collection, and some that didn't really reach me. ( Here's the breakdown ) |
| Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 |
adularia
|
9:11p |
fashion by committee
Okay, one more stupid internet dalliance and then I'll work on the talk we're banging on for Frayed Wire. It's summer. It's hot. Lately I've been growing my hair out, and playing a bit with putting it up in scarves -- it's about 4" long overall. The thought was to grow it long enough to be tie-able, and then put colors in it, but I'm bored with waiting. Also, I own two skirts, both of which are a bit trashed from contra dancing. As a rule, I don't wear skirts. However, because my brain is never actually content with anything, it has been suggesting "You know what you need? You need really!really! short hair again. And skirts to go with your sandals. Truuust me. It'd be cute. And you're allowed to be cute." (Owing to my face shape, I think, I am called 'sir' pretty often with short hair, especially in winter. NYC is just that gender-normative. Since I don't actually wear men's clothing, and it's not a reading I intend, it's more annoying than entertaining. It seems my desired presentation permits either androgynous hair or androgynous clothes, but not both at the same time.) So! Poll #1426611 make my aesthetic choices for me
Open to: Friends, detailed results viewable to: AllWhat should I do with my hair? Do I need skirts? |
jsciv
|
2:52p |
Long weekend o' fun... and some unexpected games.
So we had this long weekend for July 4th, didn't we? I seem to be accumulating July babies as friends lately, and Friday the 3rd was my friend B's 21st. Where else were we spending it but Disneyland! (Oh yeah, in my last post I forgot to mention that on the 1st I was able to beat B's high score that had beaten my high among my friends, so I'm the champ again!). He was opening the park, but with a day off work I was instead sleeping late, so I arranged to meet up with him in the afternoon. In other news, R (my USUAL Disney buddy) had a friend, H, in from Toronto, and though R isn't a fan of the place, since H wanted somewhere vegetarian-friendly, they were going to Souplantation for lunch and wanted to know if I felt like joining them. Sure! So I met them there, and we had a really great lunch: H is a doctor and has lived in Canada all his life, so we had a lot of fun conversation. After that, it was off to B's party at Disney, which was also a lot of fun. Since it was his 21st, a stop by the Hearthstone Lounge before dinner was in order for his first legal drink (possibly his first ever, I dunno): his friend the wine guy ordered him a sparkling red that I did think was pretty good when I got a sip, but for B's first drink... not so much. I've always heard you need to ease into reds. From this experience I'd guess "they" are right. We headed back into the park after dinner and got a special treat: Disneyland was playing their July 4th fireworks on the 3rd as well! So that was really keen! After that and a few rides, it was home from a nice day. The 4th was the by now traditional dinner and fireworks over at Andy's Mom's place. With the view up the coast it's really quite amazing, and the weather cooperated this year: we could see shows from Palos Verdes right in front of us all the way up to (and maybe past, we weren't sure) Malibu. It's really cool to see so many shows going off up the coastline and inland! As a bonus, while Andy's Mom talked with her relatives, Andy and I got to play Le Havre! So yay! Sunday I had agreed to go with Andy and his shopping buddy S to lunch. I don't particularly get along with S, but it turned out to be a nice (if long) lunch: S brought along a couple of friends and the conversation was interesting. After lunch it was errand time: groceries, laundry, etc. It turned out that H was still in town and interested in dinner at Souplantation, so I bowed out of my WoW raid for the night and joined them. We had more good conversation (they had asked where a good beach to walk on was and I had directed them to Newport so we had that to talk about as well), and afterward H was interested in all of these "games" R had told him about, so we headed back to my place and ended up playing Thurn & Taxis: Power and Glory, and then after Andy arrived TransAmerica. So all in all a pretty good weekend! Oh and in WoW news (non-WoW players, you can stop reading now, the rest is gibberish): they almost got Mimiron without me on Wed. when I went to R's birthday, but as expected our third night of 25 fizzled. BUT, the shaman lead and I got a 10-person group together for Thursday that rocked, not only doing almost all of the watchers, but also managing Hodir Hard mode. Sunday they got Mimi without me with some Vezax attempts, and then last night (after a weak Sarth+2 and Maly fail night at less-than-25) we one-shotted Vezax (a guild first) giving us a good hour of Yogg attempts. So much fun!!! I still stayed up late to watch Torchwood after it finished downloading, but I really should have gotten sleep.... |
jsciv
|
10:26a |
33 #4
Let's see if I can scrape the time together this week to actually post some content... The first of this month was R's birthday, and he managed (through a friend) to get reservations at Disneyland's exclusive Club 33 for dinner. I took a half-day from work and hung out with R, C and M for a while at the park, then R's family met us and we went up to the club. There was a bit of delay (and drama) as Andy was stuck late at work, but eventually everyone got there and things worked out okay. I of course did a little souvenir shopping after dinner as well. :) The fun thing was that I surprised R with a cake: when we got word of the reservation I made a few calls and got one ordered up to surprise him. As we came into the club I saw the telltale pink cake box over to the side, but fortunately he didn't place it, and later it was actually out on the counter as he went by to the restroom, but when it was brought out instead the little freebie dessert he was expecting, it was a shock to him! Win! We didn't get to do anything in the park afterward of course because it was a long dinner, but it was a fun day. |
supercheesegirl
|
2:51p |
Today's Scrabble
I know, it's been ages since I posted a Scrabble game. Ages since we had one, too, but Kari decided it was time for a summer Scrabble revival. Kristina, Christine, Kari, and I went outside to LOVE Park for Scrabble at lunch today. Other than the random bagpiper, it was pretty awesome. Here are my words: 14 points - PEED 51 points - MOCK (the K was on a double-letter block, and the M landed on the triple-word block!) 23 points - QUIT (Q on a double-letter block) 33 points - JILT (on a triple-word block) 09 points - PANG (killing time...) 13 points - ZERO (I'd had both the Z and the Q since the first turn, and finally found a place for the Z, even though I didn't get any extra points for it) 17 points - HEW -5 points to Kristina, who went out first 155 points total I had a really solid start in this game, but then the Z tripped me up since there was nowhere to put it. I really wanted to play QUIZ early on but there was just nowhere. Still, it was a solid game, and I won. Final scores: Christine, 142, Kristina, 120, and Kari, 94. I now have the Scrabble crown at my desk for the first time in months--Christine won the last time we played and she's had it since then. |
supercheesegirl
|
9:27a |
yoga # 35
This has been a terrible couple of months for yoga, and my body is really feeling it. It had been two weeks since my last practice, which was only a little short practice at Miles's house while I was on vacation. So I'm really glad F made me do yoga last night. My body felt all weak and out of whack and sore, but there's so much else to do in the apartment that I was going to unpack instead, but F made me get out the mat for half an hour. It took almost 15 minutes for my body to remember what we were doing, but after that it was a really enjoyable little practice. Did a nice tree pose, and also a tripod because Rowan reminded me how fun that is. Managed about 35 minutes total, and I felt much better afterwards. Nice and refreshed. |
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sleepy
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