The Life and Times...

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:57:58 GMT

crossposted from my friend ferlonda's LJ, because it is too cool not to. Octopods being smart (go figure): http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34417758/ns/technology_and_science-science/. Make sure you watch the linked video: http://www.livescience.com/common/media/video/player.php?videoRef=LS-091214_octopus-tools . It starts with a commercial, but then it's all octo-goodness.

We all breathe the breath of dead people. How's that for fun? :D

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:13:01 GMT

Oh, and the other randomness of life? had a conversation with myself about democratic dictatorships, benevolant dictatorships, dictatorial communism, and whether or not these can even exist as functional governments - China, I'm looking at *you* - or if the actual type of government rolls over into a different description, regardless of what you call it. Really, what do you want for brain freeze-30 in the morning?

Also? Finally started the early 17th century outfit. Trying to diary the process for a change. So far it's involved sacrificing a pretzel box to the corsetry gods. *sigh* There will eventually be pictures. I also caved and ordered the pattern for the dress style - I realized I have no interest in reinventing this wheel, and I can always sell off the pattern later if I truly only want to use it once. Now I just need the fabric for the dress proper ::shakes fist at the shipping demons::.

Oh, there's that Holiday spirit-thing...

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:04:00 GMT

Okay, well, not really. I haven't been really into winter holidays for years now. No particular reason I know of, just - it was fun, and now it's other people's fun, and I'm okay with that. I will say that other people's fun, however, generates yummy food and an excuse to slack off work by permission of the director, so this is me not arguing at *all*! Not going to do anything for my overall health and weight, but...

Yesterday was the department potluck. For the price of a couple hours making a few types of scones, I get fed for two days (there's always leftovers) and, in this case, win a fiver to use in the cafeteria later on. I may not know anything about Christmas pop culture, but I apparently I know people who do. Reindeer -- not so much. And ... The O.C. (Who's that aimed at? You know who you are. And we shall *never* speak of this again).

Today was the knitting group with snacks. I had leftover scones to bring (2! 2! 2 parties in one!), and in exchange got lemon hummus, disturbingly yummy parmesan artichoke jalepeno dip, and a lot of complements on the sconage. Just... Wow. I have things to bribe people with! :D

And because I'm getting *myself* in the mood, a repeat from earlier in the year: Alison Krauss/Yo Yo Ma - Wexford Carol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRW0sPoT5kw

Kitteh zombeh LIVES!!!

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:31:34 GMT

Hopefully this will be a nearly final update on Kitty. At least, health related update. She's been home 2 weeks (yay!). The vet was very appropriately cautious at the time - just because she was coming home didn't mean everything was cool. All it meant was, she was feeding herself finally, and it was time for some individual lovin'. So it was a pill poppin', kibble counting fun fest. We went from 'OMG!! FOOD!!' to "oh yeah. that food thing...' 10 days later, I skip a day of work and take Kitty in to the vet for a progress report blood test. Wednesday I remembered (*sigh*) to call back... And she's fine. A little high in the billirubin(sp?) count, but otherwise we're clear. I'll be feeding her a single pill for a little while longer, but that's *so* very livable-with. She's a little thin, but she's also a young, energetic cat, so there's going to be an element of boniness as a natural consequence of that. But her keelbone and spine don't scare me with their definition any more.

As flechyr points out, there may still be some kitty health posts. Mostly (hopefully(or not)) they will consist of us figuring out where to bury her fuzzy little corpse after the next idiotic thing she does/eats/jumps on/destroys/etc. But that's just the joys of living with a cat, so no biggee. And honestly... This evening, flechyr was over at a friend's place. I get cranky coming home to an empty house - I've just gotten used to having flechyr around, and I like just having him here when I get home. But tonight, having Thalia yelling at the door until I got my tushy through it... yeah, it's nice to be wanted at home :D . Now I just have to find a good brush for a short hair cat - Thalia's finally discovered the joys of shedding! Oh yay :/

Until 3 AM, when Thalia will cry mournfully because she's not allowed in the bedroom (damn allergies) and dig at the door and spill the bathroom trashcan, waking us up, I will love my kitty. I'll even love her after she wakes us up. It's just right at that moment that I might question our sanity...

Kitty updates

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:15:04 GMT

I went from a cat that ate too much (that would be Marta aka The Sofa Cushion That Ate Sheboygan) to a cat that ate too little (Thalia, the anorexic teenager cat 8/ ). After near two weeks (is that all?! Great Scot it seems like a year) in the vet's tender care, Tally has apparently decided that Food is Good. We may even have a cat again by the weekend (crosses all 8 fingers so hard they lose circulation). I still fear pill applications, and a future with a fragile cat because I have a hard time believing you ever fully recover from this sort of thing, but those are questions for the vet to answer tomorrow when blood work comes back and we find out just where it all stands. I *will not* borrow trouble, not right now anyway. I will merely take this moment to bask in a Good Thing happening, and hope that it continues to improve.

Not totally out of the woods, but ... *Whew!* I can maybe start breathing again :)

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. - Dr. Carl Sagan

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:37:37 GMT

http://www.symphonyofscience.com./index.html (thanks to rowandollI think ;D )

I remember that, as a child, the harshest punishment my parents could give me was to deny me Sunday evening TV. I would far rather have been spanked, yelled at, *anything*. Sunday night was Battlestar Galactica and Cosmos. To this day I wish I'd had the right kind of interest in space, because I listen to Carl Sagan talk about the universe and the amazement and joy he had in looking out at the universe and then looking at our own planet and seeing the interconnections and possibilities and just the sheer awesomeness of it all. Okay, yes, he sounded like a Muppet and a lot of his theories seemed more grounded in his desires than in fact. He approached the world with a sense of wonder and skepticism I have seen only in the truly passionate, or maybe fanatic. I know there are still people who complain that he wasn't really a *good* astronomer, just a popular one. But you know? He made me look up, into the sky, and realize that as vast as the cosmos is and as infinitesimal as any one of us is in relation to it, it's still a part of me and I am a part of it, and in some respects the cosmos exists as it does *because* I am here. I never became a scientist, but Dr Sagan left an indelible mark on me. Most of the time I never notice it, but it is part of the filter I see the world through. "We are star stuff which has taken its destiny into its own hands. The loom of time and space works the most astonishing transformations of matter. "

catness is not always good

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:16:05 GMT

Oh New Cat, why do you do this? Why do you make cheerful purrings and loving pounces only to waste away in sickness? It's barely been three weeks! You get better, or so help me I'll... I'll... Well, I don't know *what* I'll do, but it's going to involve a lot of stomping and screaming, and won't *that* make the neighbors look at me funny! And then you'll be embarrassed to be our kitty, just you wait! Stupid cat, being all sick 'n' stuff...

Feh.

I find anger and despair to be flip sides of the same coping mechanisim coin. I'm desperately trying to stay angry right now. I just have to be real careful where I direct that anger. So just... bear with me. Or ignore me. I'll be in the corner, bitching.

Feh, again.

waxing poetic on yogurt (?!)

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:10:59 GMT

Because it's that kind of week, and I somehow got sucked into reading the archives for Girls With Slingshots:
http://www.daniellecorsetto.com/archive.php?today=796&comic=278
The rest of the comic is really not usually safe for work, nor for the delicate of sensibilities*, but it is strangely amusing. The specific comic referenced here, however, *is* safe, and is totally a propot considering our new family member. Who is definitely getting more comfortable around us. (Seriously, cat. The trash can? At 4 in the morning?! Witch!!) (Actually, I think the trash can may have woken me up, but i didn't really hear it. What I heard was little kittty paws trying to get into the under-sink cabinet. It didn't worry me, but I sure wasn't going to get back to sleep while she did it.) Ahem. I digress.

Breakfast this week has been Greek yogurt and either berries and granola or honey. Through a chance comment on a lace discussion e-list I'm on, I became (more) aware of Greek yogurt. I knew it was different from commonly found American varieties, I knew it was fantastic in that cucumber sauce that is the only really reason I ever eat gyros. But I never thought of it as breakfast food - I really don't eat yogurt much. It's wierd stuff, all tart and acidic and bacteria-ey (it is *so* a word!!) Sometimes I'm in the mood. Usually, not so much. Unless it's frozen, but that's just different, and still not breakfast. Breakfast at WMAW included yogurt one day, and it was quite yummiliscious (*also* a word!) with the home-made granola, so I was enticed to be curious and experimental. Turns out the Jewel across from work has a couple varieties of Greek style yogurt, some including little side cups of inclusions. Remembering the commentary on the e-list, I grabbed one with honey. Not somethign I ever would have considered (you'd think honey butter might have clued me in, but you would be wrong). It was quite tasty. Greek yoogurt is tarter, grainier almost where American style seems almost gelatinous, and reminds me very much of the kitchen cheese from an SCA event years ago. I'm sure it's got a real name, and it's cheese like cream cheese is cheese (which is to say, not really) but kitchen cheese is basically milk and lemon juice and a whole lot of boiling and stirring, as I recall. You get a tart, creamy curdle that stays soft, but spreads very nicely on warm, fresh bread. Use yogurt cultures instead of lemon juice and you've got Greek yogurt. Which I think I like best with the honey, oddly enough. American yogurt gets fresh berries, Greek gets honey. Ooh... I may have to try it with the cranberry honey from Pennsic, although that might be too tart-on-tart. Ponder ponder. I certainly don't see it as an every day thing, but now that they have fridges at work it becomes a much more attractive change.

I'm so wierd (like no one else figured that out). I'm waxing poetic about freakin' breakfast food. Ah well. At least I'm getting my dairy product :)

*edit: but the comic does have a Scotch-Irish cactus with a French mustache. Who is also not safe for work, mostly due to his passion for spider plants.

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:08:02 GMT

"It's my superpower. I am Sarcasmo, woman of sarcasm. My enemies are struck down by my barbs of steel. Barbs - barbed comments? Heh."
--Lucy Miller, BBC7 Doctor Who Adventures

There's a lot of things in my head that never make it to the keyboard - new cat, wierd relationships, sword stuff. But by the time I'm at a keyboard I've either forgotten or think I've parsed it out in my own head and so it loses importance - until the next time something goes wonky. Nothing terribly disturbing in the long run, just - wonky. Whatevs.

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:29:11 GMT

Welp, I am now an officially registered student of CLC. If they ever remember to bill me, I'll even be a *paid up* student :D . I've put off or forgotten to register for training courses for so long now... and I still need to find access to a couple. The joys of hunting online-only courses :/ But at least this is a start -- 'Introduction to SQL'. I suspect it's stuff I've managed to teach myself by now, but I'd rather have an official nod to how it all functions. Still need to find Visual Basic for Applications, and maybe some SAS training (although I have a book for SAS; might even read it some day)

Now to get through the next hour without going spare from bitchy docs who can't get their way and want to throw hissy fits about it. Not even a psychiatrist (they're usually the worst)! This woman... Yah! ::deep breath:: And in-house IT people who have no grasp of how the business side works, so they just throw data around because it's easier for *them*... Never mind how that mysterious data affects anyone else, like our outside vendors and end users, and not like they *told* any of us they were doing it - even if we hadn't anticipated the problems it caused, we would at least have been prepared to deal with the fallout. *GRRRRR!!* Id10ts! Meh; could'a been worse. I think I only really care because, if my unit had tried to blanket add a metric ton of data to the database, IT and the rest of the groups would be hunting our heads, as has happened in the past. Double standard, much? ::vent vent vent::

Whew! done now :) Tonight will be Imax StarTrek, tomorrow will be me talking out of my @$$ in a classic case of 'those who know, do; those who don't, teach', (which isn't fair to me. I do know, I just can't quite do. Yet.) and folk house-concert in the city, and Sunday will be me trying to make up for not being available to help out the event tonight and tomorrow :( But time is crunchy this month, and I do what I can when I can and complain the rest of the time. It is, after all, what I'm very good at :)

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:10:32 GMT

My cube smells like an Italian restaurant - there was a group walk to one of the farmer's markets downtown. I was buying some pretty green peppers and a couple tomatoes when I got blind-sided by a bunch of basil that forced me to buy it. So fresh, the stem ends are in water. I was very tempted to by some of the herbs still in pots, but I can't afford to plant them outdoors - the grounds crew would think they were weeds, with my luck, as they seem to have a penchant for randomly ripping plants out of my front (oh, the wonders of condo living when it conflicts with the casual wildflower gardner. I wouldn't mind so much if they only planted things as well as ripping them out :/ ). Plus, all their tags said 'full sun', and the only patch I have is maybe half a day of sun. Overthinking things? Yep, I know I am. I may try some basil anyway - It's very pretty just as a plant. I'm thinking of throwing some willow withies woven together as a bit of a fence. Maybe that will fend of the rampaging groundsmen. Fun to contemplate :)

Pennsic prep

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:44:45 GMT

T-70 hours and counting (give or take)

battery for watch = check
ground coffee = sorta check. I'll need to make more.
Still need to check my class instructions.
Last bits of coif for me, collar thingie for flechyr - I may just pack the last of the white linen and my scissors and deal with it when we get there.
Also need to put together a music list, although since I dont' drive, I have very little right to the radio. MP3 player goes on the charger tomorrow.
Boss knows what he has to cover while I'm out. Whether or not he remembers... Not my chicken.

Still not sure what I've forgotten, but I'm confident I have enough to fake it. As long as we remember the tent and all the stuff to put it up, almost everythign else can be dealt with. Actually, my class supplies are probably the only thing I *can't* fake, but ::shrug:: I'm freaking out a bit about that. I can't decide if I want no one to show up, or lots. I want lots of people to be interested in bobbin lace, but I can't really effectively teach more than 6 or so at a time, and I'm still not great at dealing with people, so... Ah well, fate shall determine.

This is definitely one of those things - I can't wait to be at Pennsic. Getting there, packing, dealing with the car - not so fond. But once we're there and set up, it'll be great. Hopefully :D This oughtta be a heckuva week, with all the sword-geekery going on this weekend and the shopping and learning stuff the rest of the week. And stuff.

For my Ravenslake ( and affiliated) friends

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:37:45 GMT

*snrk* today's Two Lumps.
http://www.twolumps.net/d/20090722.html
Explains a bit about our wacky little group, now, don't it? :D

Oh, that wacky Diogenes Club...

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 22:14:38 GMT

...I want to be Fred Regent. I really, really do. Maybe more than to be the Doctor's companion. Oh, the horror -- or something.

If you like wacky Brit WTFery, read Man from the Diogenes Club. It's utterly bril'.

Pace et memorium

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:07:55 GMT

I was worried, I admit. I don't do memorial stuff very well - I'm very circle of life/never say goodbye, just see you later. I was afraid of a weepfest. I got a nice celebrate-as-you-will. I'm glad.

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:25:49 GMT

Dear Universe, or To Whom It May Concern;

KNOCK IT THE HE!L OFF; 'k thx bai.

Sincerely,
me

Mind the (brain) gap

Thu, 28 May 2009 18:46:56 GMT

Boy. There is a lot that's gone on in just the past few days. I'm stuck in a place where I"m not sure what I want to say about any of it, though -- some of it was disappointing, some of it ws great, some of it just sucked rocks. Well, the sucking-rocks part was wholly work related, and entirely my own stupid fault, so the main reason I don't want to talk about it is cuz I don't need any more reminders of how irresponsible I can be over projects I hate. Nothing to see here, move along, move along. On the up side, I now know that I can make nearly 130 phone calls in a seven hour time span. Go me :/

Shibaricon, for the most part, was Teh Awsum!! Old friends, new friends, I think I had more quality chat time this year than ever. Certainly more than I expected. Classes were fun, the presenters were, as usual, great people with some really interesting stuff to share. Play time was fun, if only because I got to watch what others were doing and realize I *didn't* want to go there - an important thing, IMO :D Sure, some things could have gone better, but where lst year I wasn't sure if I wanted to go back, this year I'm pretty sure I do want to attend next year just because of all the other cool stuff that can happen. (Sorry, I know that's vague. My ears are still ringing from the constant dial tone, so my coherency is really down right now. I'll sort it out later. Maybe.) I do owe some 'personal' time to a couple people - It's not that promises were made,but I do still want to try being more open and playing with other people. Circumstances made it impossible for me to get beyond talking about it this year, but don't think I've forgotten you! I'm just shy. And angsty. And did I mention shy? A work in progress, that's me :)

And this weekend is Reclaiming our History, which is probably Tourdion's only gig this summer. Ye gods and hairy fishes, I hope it goes well! I need my performance fix!

Free Comics!!

Sat, 02 May 2009 17:51:49 GMT

Ah, May. I've never been a fan of my birthday, so to ease my pain I've decided to give everyone FREE COMICS! Weeeell... maybe it's not really *my* idea...

www.freecomicbookday.com

W00T! :D

from the mouths of radio plays

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:35:03 GMT

I'm listening to The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency on BBC7 (it's about a woman starting a detective agency in Botswana). At some point she describes herself as a Traditionally Built Woman, and procedes to describe why being a Traditionally Built Woman is a better thing than being a skinny woman - snakes do not mistake you for trees, for one thing, and they will hear you coming and not bite you. A wonderful doctor cannot be her husband, as he is not very Traditionally Built, and he does not think he will fatten up well :) It's all so very pleasantly presented, too. Cultural exposure is an interesting side benefit, too.

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:34:13 GMT

I need to get off my arse and see the dentist for the first time in too long - I finally noticed that my bottom wisdom teeth are canted forward instead of up. I doubt there's anything that can be done other than pull them, which I really prefer not to do, but I'll never know if I don't ask someone who knows more than I. It annoys me, because the upper ones grew in perfectly. Stupid teeth. Actually, can't argue too much - they're otherwise intact, and I know that's still rare in sugar-fed America. Only reason I care is that I don't want to accidentally chew through my own cheek :D

At some point I also need to do some serious mental prep work for Shibaricon. Half the time I don't want to go at all, as it seems like most of the people attending are 'in the scene', where I'm a self-admitted private hobbyist. I don't walk the walk or talk the talk, and I'm shy enough by nature with people I don't know that, especially in this very, erm, *physical* hobby, I feel very left out much of the time. The classes are fine, it's the stuff around the classes that I'm trying to deal with. ::shrug:: I just need a button that says "Clueless newb; Play nice" or something. *sigh* What's a girl gotta do to find a nice Top to play with? ;D Plus, there will definitely be more people there this year that I know through other avenues, so I had better deal with my automatic reaction of "oh NOES! They will learn my durty little sekretz!" as much in advance as possible. I don't care that I'm into bondage, I certainly don't care that you're into bondage, I just care that you *know* I'm into it. :/ I'll blame prim-n-proper upbringing for this nonsensical feeling. I never claimed to make sense...

So generally speaking, life continues. This is good, as the alternative would leave me unable to bask in my angstiness -- and what other fun could I *possibly* have in life? ;D

what fills the empty spaces

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:50:15 GMT

There's a lot in the blank spot between posts. I'd have to say it was all made of epic fail this time, unfortunately, particularly last week. Nothing made it to LJ, as most of my issues were worked out in long rambling talks with myself, for which I can thank the mile+ walk to the morning train - passing cars can't tell that the crazy lady is talking to herself, and suburbanites are otherwise too lazy to walk the walks, so I'm safe to be my own therapist (healer, heal thyself...) Some fail = mine, some fail = others (and mostly entwined with mine), some fail = fate with a lousy sense of timing, or perhaps caused by fail #2. At least one fail that's added itself to my personal scourge of stupidity, the one that gets pulled out and caressed like a sharpened bone knife when I don't feel *quite* bad enough about being such a screw-up. ::rolls eyes:: Drama princess...

One of the fallouts from the morning 'therapy' sessions has been that I've drawn my attention to some personality changes I hadn't actively noted. I'm still workign on the good/bad/indifferent aspects of these changes, if they even exist. At some point in the near future I'll have to see if corrective measures are needed. The tricky bit is always identifying which changes are justified and which should be reversed if possible. The filter of 'I'm always wrong' is thick and hard to ignore, regardless of how invalid it may be. I'm not worried about fixing it today, though, and it's nothing that's (big air quotes here) "life threatening". I just want to figure out where I stand with myself before it *does* become a cruciality. Proactive, not reactive - not something I'm good at, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try.

work avoidance techniques

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:13:53 GMT

Totally ganked from emyrldlady , who I happened to stumble on when she posted a fanfic to a shared list. And I'm trying to look busy without actually looking at this stupid *many expletives deleted* data interface I'm supposed to be proofing. What some people think "just needs a little tweaking"...

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here (many of which have been made into famous films). How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions:
Look at the list and bold those you have read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (not all of it, admittedly)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (Some of 'em)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (I tried, honestly)
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (X)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I'm more amused by the number of these I've heard radio plays of on BBC7.

Brit Love

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:06:15 GMT

Two random British awsomenesses(esessesesessesseses)

1. I can has British books! W00t!! (Which is to say, I got my 'Tak V Bowes' today. Something super cool about getting stuff from overseas. I need silk now.)

2. BBC7 'Catch My Breath'. Super f-ing creepy horror story. Started Monday, only stays online 7 days, so go NOW to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2009/02/17 or www.bbc.co.uk/radio7 and go to Schedules. Not the usual bogey men, and some loverly Scottish accents for people like me what adores them.

Yay!

I need a fiber icon...

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:41:01 GMT

Apropot of absolutely nothing... At Maidens, I finally got to meet the elusive Adam ( I believe that's his name) of "Philip and .." which was wonderful, because I have a much better chance of knowing who is being referenced when I have name and face together. He's well known by people who aren't me (seriously; it's been my loss) for obsessively teaching finger loop braiding - that's how I spotted him at Maidens, he had Seraphina attached to a chair by a braid she was working on. He had with him a copy of "Tak V Bowes Departed", one of the most recent and most useful books on fingerloop braiding that details historic documetned braids that have been found and then explains them in 21st c. English. I never bothered to get a copy simply because I've been cheerily working out of the Compleat Anachronist (the predecesor to "Tak V...". Then Adam told me the book was out of print...

Turns out, so far as I can tell, that it's merely out of print in the USA. Amazon UK still had copies listed, so I've ordered 2. They're more than I'd really like to pay, but I'm sure enough that I can use this book, and quite possibly offload a copy to someone. or not. Either way, I felt the need to spend money, and limited availability fiber arts books seem like a good spend.

Brain, I no can has

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:57:03 GMT

Today's lesson: when creating one's own check tracking spreadsheet, it is wise to a)maintain consistency in how calculations are being made - are subtractions/additions being made in line or in column, are subtractions by function or by number - and b)occasionally *do your own damn math* to make sure that the spreadsheet is behaving as expected, and that you haven't... oh, say, entered an $800 debit that the sheet thinks is actually a *deposit* because *someone* forgot how she was supposed to be entering numbers!!!!!!!!!

::Insert long, loud, multilingual rampage here. The fact that I am not, in fact, multilingual should not hamper your imagination::

Of course, sometime *after* the error was made, I made the data entry portion much more (to me) intelligent and simple. I simply failed to apply my intelligent solution to preceding entries. I didn't compound the error, per se, I simply continued on throwing good data at a bad initial point.

We will try to skip the part where it has taken me a *week* to find this error. Well, a week of trying to figure it out while at work, so really only about 5-6 hours, but that's still seven days after I wanted this thing done and out of my hands. I think this episode, more than anything, has finally convinced me it is okay to let someone else deal with the treasury. If nothing else, it will be nice to have someone else to commiserate with when the inevitable little f-up happens. And if not, then I will simply assume that the calm, untroubled face (that is no longer mine) is merely hiding a seething battlefield of plusses and minuses and uncashed checks, concealed not for duplicity, but because she just *knows* it's some dumb mistake that she just hasn't found - yet. And at the end of it all, it will be OK.