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You are viewing the most recent 20 entries November 2nd, 200901:14 pm: Must accomplish something...
"Any day on which you've had dental work and have also accomplished anything else may be classified as a win." I discovered that the person who picked up my shiny black MP3 player (named Avon, by the way) from the Teviot, where I lost it Saturday at a pre-Nanowrimo getogether, evidently thought "Cool! Free MP3 player!" and not "Oh, someone lost an MP3 player, let me hand it in to lost property". I don't think that counts as an accomplishment. I also lost my day ticket, but I don't think that counts as an accomplishment either. Perhaps I'll pay my phone bill. I had two fillings. The dentist asked me twice if I was OK. I spent 40 minutes or so remembering to breathe, trying not to shake, and working out prime numbers - I didn't even get as far as 97: I was still trying to work out 91 in my head when he told me we were done.       Tags: dentist panic
November 1st, 200909:39 am: On striving to think the best of people
I read on Shakesville that Emma Thompson had signed the petition supporting Roman Polanski's right not to be prosecuted for raping a 13-year-old girl - an act which the petition claims ( translate) is normally prescribed in Europe. Opinions may honestly vary on whether bringing Polanski to trial for raping an underage girl is the best thing for Polanski's victim (see Avedon on the Sideshow) but the idea that Polanski has some kind of right to go free because he committed the crime thirty years ago and he is a famous film director who ought not be treated like a "common terrorist", as the petition advocates, is beyond reprehensible. I wrote to Emma Thompson's UK agent: ( I'm striving to think the best of Emma Thompson )Yes, I admit, I'm politely lying through my teeth ("I'm sure you didn't MEAN to do that!") and I bet she did sign it, even if enough fan mail could get her to take her name off it. And there are other actors on the list I really also now hate for thinking that Polanski ought to be allowed to get away with rape because he's so famous and such a great film director that the law ought not to be applied to him as if he were just one of the terrorists kidnapped by the US. (Not that terrorists kidnapped by the US have a trial to look forward to, nor are they arrested on a warrant for which there is evidence that can be shown in court.) But as the petition makes clear, signing it affirms your support for the idea it's wrong for Polanski to be treated as if he was a common person, and the actors and other celebrities who have signed the petition have made clear their support for a two-tiered legal system, as well as for the principle that a famous rapist ought not to be forced to stand trial for his crime.     Current Mood:  angry , i am an angry feminist
October 31st, 200910:10 am: Beer pancakes for breakfast
So last night, I opened a bottle of beer and made kasha with it. (Yes, normal people would end that sentence "and drank it" but this is the beer I bought when I had no water. In day-to-day life, I usually keep beer in the house for cooking with, not drinking.) This morning I made beer pancakes: 1 cup flour (the pancake flour I bought in Montreal); and 1 cup beer, two tablespoons oil (the recipes kept saying "melted butter", but this is breakfast, who has the time?), two tablespoons maple syrup, an egg. Whisk together the wet ingredients, make a well in the flour and whisk wet into dry. (Quantities make breakfast for two, or *yum* breakfast then Saturday evening tea: the second batch I cooked I ate spread with a tomato-avocado mix and they were delicious.) You can taste the beer (so, use good beer) but it's sort of transmuted into pancake. I undercooked the first pancake, mostly because it SMELLED SO GOOD, and overcooked the second - I figured it would taste better brown/crispy, and I was right, but it was a little over-crispy. Yum. Tags: beer, my recipes, pancakes
October 29th, 200910:17 am: Why are people so cynical? Well...
![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mercurychaos asked this in context of the passing into law of the Matthew Shepard Memorial Act (yes, I know that's not it's real name) and I responded: The thing is (from my own experience as an LGBT activist and lesbian) the two big steps in any movement towards equality are equal access to marriage (or even separate-and-almost-equal, blast it, but civil partnership is so damn close it was blissful even when it missed) and equal right to serve in the military. And I say this as a militant pacifist. Because both are public statements of equality made by the national (or in US, the federal) government. Protection against discrimination and harassment at work and in access to services, etc, that's useful but it's at least partially dependent on the person being discriminated against having the mojo to react, to say no, this is illegal, you're not getting away with this. But the freedom to marry (or at least get civil-unioned if it's recognised by the government as if it were marriage) and the freedom to serve openly in the military - those two are pro-active door-opening statements made by the government both to queers and to straights, to closet-cases and to bigots. And I don't believe it's at all coincidental that those are the two steps which Obama is absolutely declining to do anything about but talk. Okay, talk is good, it means it's still on the agenda and he hasn't entirely forgotten that once upon a time he made a committment to LGBT equality and civil rights. But Obama made the same committment to the Constitution with regard to warrantless wiretapping - and broke it: he made the same committment to international human rights with regard to torturing prisoners and locking them up in extra-judicial prison camps - and broke it: and he never once made a committment to seeing the criminals responsible for torture, extra-judicial imprisonment, and aggressive war investigated or tried, which is just as well because he's done nothing else with regard to that but focus on the cover-up to ensure they can never be prosecuted, since he took office. "Better than Bush" is not a particularly high bar to get over, and Obama clears it with ease, but there's no denying he's a conservative with a track record of broken committments on civil and human rights issues that I actually consider more important than his failure to follow through on his campaign promises about marriage and the military. Significant though those are. Obama's been a disappointment - hugely better than Bush, but so much less than he could be. I don't have a problem with people continuing to hold him to a significantly higher standard than he's managed to reach. Current Mood: cynical , evil american politics, religious politics
08:37 am: All week, I've been waking up a few minutes before the alarm goes off
Probably because the clocks went back at the weekend, but possibly because I feel good. I have a meeting to go to this evening and a bunch of stuff to get written today. It's a lovely day. The sun came out. I'm going to have chickpea/tofu/pineapple curry for lunch, with half a sweet potato. Yum. (However, the soup I put together last night, while it smells good, is basically brown. Brown lentils and kale with carrots.) Bite me.Current Mood: chipper October 28th, 200910:40 pm: I'm feeling quite good
And is it at all strange that feeling good automatically makes me think "soon it's going to change"? There are valid solid reasons why I feel this good. But I might have had the reasons and not felt this good. It's all biochemical. Happiness I mean. Is that sad or what? In other news, sun-dried mango is delicious. And I still feel good.  Current Mood: tired , mango
12:21 am: Huh.
I told a joke. My brother laughed. You'd have to know our relationship since I was ten to know why that's weird. Current Mood: weird October 27th, 200912:02 pm: This must be Tuesday.
Five things I would like to happen, right now: 1. For it to stop raining and the sun come out. 2. A fresh fruit smoothie. With blackberries would be nice. Or mango. 3. A slice of hot freshly-made sourdough toast, with Marmite. 4. Wolf snuggling up to me and bumping my chin with his head. Or Bob sitting on my lap and purring so noisily it's hard to concentrate on anything else. (These two things never happen simultaneously. My cats are omgjealous of each other.) 5. Writing mojo. Lots of it. Nanowrimo and Yuletide. What five things would you like to have happen to you, right now? Current Mood: hungry October 26th, 200904:13 pm: Our Bodies Ourselves
Does anyone know of an equivalent book for boys/young men? Current Mood: chipper October 24th, 200909:27 pm: Looking backward
A year ago today I had a really bad Friday which I returned as defective. (I also got, I realise shamefacedly, nice comments about my day from the_shoshanna and strangerian, neither of which I replied to at the time. (Both of which I remember thinking out a reply to, and somehow remembering the thought as if I had actually done it.) Two years ago tomorrow I posted a poll which only two people replied to. (I probably got more answers on GJ, because this time two years ago IJ was still my mirror site. How things change. *hugs IJ*) Three years ago today the_shoshanna and her partner were visiting. I suffered from insomnia. The two were not, I believe, connected. Four years ago today I was watching House MD and talking about writing slash for it. I cannot believe (well, I can, given what the past four years have been like) that I have gone for so long liking this series so much and writing exactly one story for it. Sad. Also, I was writing about Monopoly and Quakers and arranging for an imaginary friend meetup. Five years ago today It was Sunday, and I was feeling illish enough not to go into work to do entirely very voluntary painting of the new office. (Which is now the old office where we have worked since November that year.) Six years ago today I wrote a reminiscent post about the day, 20 years earlier, when I discovered that what I liked about Blake's 7 and other TV series was called being a slash fan. I'm 42 - 43 in 2.5 months. I have been a slash fan for over half my life. Hell, I've been a slash fan since before some of my fannish friends were born. And it hasn't worn out yet. Whee. Current Mood: nostalgic , looking backward, meme
October 23rd, 200906:36 pm: Those brightly-coloured printed ribbons people stick on their badges at conventions these days
Where does one BUY them? Current Mood: hopeful , work
October 21st, 200901:38 pm: Water, water, everywhere
I don't know any of my neighbour's phone numbers. (Why would I? I never phone them!) According to Scottish Water, who rang me back quite promptly, there are no other reports of outages in my area, suggesting it's a plumbing problem, and they say that the most likely cause of the outage is someone else having plumbing work done and the plumber turning off the wrong water supply from the street. This sounds appallingly likely, and of course means zero cost to me in fixing it, but I say "appalling" because, well: the only way of finding out is to go ask all my neighbours. And there's no point doing that till post-work time. ...and at that point, there will be no getting a plumber out till tomorrow, probably, which means another evening without the capacity to make bread or soup (unless I buy beer), to shower (unless I go to the gym) or to use a flush toilet (without walking at least half a mile). This applies still more so if no one has had plumbing work done and I just have to call a damn plumber and find out what the problem is. I don't have time for this. I just want my water back. (Adding to the catalogue of problems, because of the way my heating system works, I am afraid to turn the central heating system on - I certainly don't want the boiler to heat up the empty hot water tank.)    Current Mood: stressed , water
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