yonmei

whatho @ 08:52 pm: Boris the spider.
I keep thinking I'm fine and dandy and blase about spiders, then a whacking great big one crawls out from under the 'phone and mimbles right up to my elbow before I notice it. I didn't end my conversation immediately anyway. I took a not entirely casual step backwards and then monitored its progress until it began roaming a bit too freely and I thought it prudent to summon my father for its removal before it crawled out of sight. Also I think there's a pregnant female roaming rapidly about the living room. My brother and I lost sight of it the other day. We think it spent the night camping in the Lost season 2 DVD box, but by morning it was gone. I used to be happy to let them amble all over my arms and probably face when I was a kid, then I became mildly disconcerted by them. And really I'm all right with them once I know where they are and what they're up to. I can happily share the bathroom with one if it's not too energetic. And I want to pick a big one up on my hand again one day to prove I can. But basically I'd rather they were butterflies.

lavendertook @ 03:41 pm: From the Department of Faux-Meritocracy . . . .
Have you shown deference to Sarah Palin lately?

On your knees, peasant!

WE ARE NOT WORTHY!!!!!




You can't make this shit up.

dragovianknight @ 11:42 am: Thanks to manga_queen
I am now the proud mommy of a guardian egg:

Innit pretty?

And for the first time in over a week, Zhara went to her breakfast spot when I was feeding the cats this morning. She only ate a few bites of food, but at least she felt like going and getting fed. Plus, she licked some gravy out of a can, and periodically she goes up on the desk and eats individual pieces of kibble. Yay! ^__^

Tags: cats, dragons n eggs

versaphile @ 02:24 pm: Fic: Praxis part 30 (Ten/Master, NC-17)
Title: Praxis part 30
Pairing: Ten/Master
Rating: NC-17
Summary: The Year That Wasn't. All of it, from The Sound of Drums to The Last of the Time Lords and beyond.
Link to all my DW fic | All Parts
Warning: Novel-length. Horror/romance.


( It could be worse, the Doctor thinks. There could be paperwork. )

Tags: doctor who, fanfic, praxis

the_shoshanna @ 02:23 pm: update
My stepmother got to Boston at about the same time I got to sleep: three am. (They were having a horrible storm; the drive took her five hours.)

My father is doing fine and has recovered all function. They're not precisely sure what happened; an MRI would clear up all confusion, but he can't have one because of the implanted pacemaker/defibrillator. The doc said at 3 am that this kind of bleeding stroke (if that's what it was) isn't unusual with people in his general condition; they're giving him vitamin K and plasma to counteract the blood thinner he's on, and the best guess at that point was that he'd be hospitalized about three days. Also, the CAT scan showed something that may be related to the presumed bleed, or could be a growth or mass of some kind, or could be completely irrelevant. They're pondering how to figure it out.

It still seems likely that I'll go down, but there's a small chance I won't. I'm going to check in for more news after church, when my stepmother will have gotten back to the hospital and gotten some.

----

I wrote all that while I was on hold with Air Canada around eight-thirty or nine this morning, since Geoff had suggested that rather than drive down, I see if I could cash in some miles for a flight. Which I did (although fees and taxes still made it a cash hit as well), booking a ticket to go down this evening and come back Wednesday.

As soon as I hung up, my stepmother called me again ("I tried you a few minutes ago, but the line was busy"; "Um, yes"), this time from the hospital, to say that really he was doing fine and I probably didn't need to come down. I talked to him as well; he's clearheaded and in reasonably good spirits and has definitely recovered all the lost function. Mostly they were sitting around the ER, and every now and then they'd send him for a test of some kind, while waiting for a bed to open up in neurology. The "something" on the CAT scan is a 1x2 cm shadow at the junction of his white and gray matter, no further info as yet. He may have an all-body CAT scan to see if there are any more scattered around, or they might find another way to investigate. A neurosurgeon came in to check out the situation, but there are no plans for anything as drastic as surgery yet.

So I went to church (I am so glad I could go to church) and am now home again. While I was gone they called to say he's been moved to the neurology ICU; they left the phone number, but I just called and it turns out you can't actually talk to a patient in an ICU, so I asked the nurse to let him know that I had called. But it looks as though I won't be going down after all. (I think I can use the ticket any time in the next year. I think it's pretty likely I'll be going to Boston sometime in the next year. But I'll wait until I can talk to them again before making a final call; my bag is still packed.)

I got about four hours of sleep last night, and I'm pretty wiped. But I'm okay. All your notes of caring help a lot; thank you, truly.

anysia @ 11:22 pm: The Muse of Art is whispering in my ear again.
Digital Art: Moss covered Celtic spirals, carved into rock.





Tags: digital art, wacom

anysia @ 05:45 pm: Beauty and color in odd places
Vertical macro view of a small section of crystal and glass light.





Tags: photography

ruthi @ 04:24 am: Dragged outdoors today by the apiphile. Hello, big grey room!

Rainy Oxford street - sudden forest of other people's umbrellas at eye-level.

At Top-Shop, displays of Englishness:
"That can't be a working till! There isn't a queue!"

Jellybaby sweets in the form of old people instesad of babies, labelled 'Jellyatrics'.
The Jellybabies! The horrible pun! The joy in the discovery of the horrible pun!
(So you start from the legs, and they are relieved because their knees and hips stop hurting.)

Had an umbrella with me, so it stopped raining. That is a good umbrella.

In Selfridges - an department store of many wonders - a can of Pimm's-and-lemonade, with a glass properly accessorised with a strawberry, and slices of lemon, orange, and cucumber. Oh, and a piece of watermelon. Some English traditions are as wonderful as they are weird.

Also, Selfridges has a tattoo-and-piercing shop inside it. So there are visibly tattooed and pierced people working there.

Tags: london, shopping

the_shoshanna @ 09:54 pm: phone calls that begin "Your father is doing fine"
are not always better than ones that don't.

My father had a stroke tonight. He's doing much better now; at first he couldn't use his left arm, had no sensation on the left side of his body, and was confused, but two and a half hours later, after various treatments and interventions, all that has come back. He's in the local hospital, but they're planning to transfer him to Mass. General. I'm planning (unless the phone rings again tonight, which please god no) to go to church tomorrow (first service of the season) and then go straight on to Boston from there. My stepmother isn't terrified and says his heart seems fine, but I still want to go down.

Everyone I know in Boston has my cellphone number, since I just made sure of that when I was there five weeks ago. I don't know how long I'll be in town (depends how long he's in the hospital) or where I'll be staying, but I'll probably welcome calls to check in.

I wonder if I'll be able to sleep tonight.

rusty_halo @ 09:07 pm: I REALLY Love This Cat

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2691

My blood glucose level is 99. Lucifer’s is 282.

Also, cats really do not appreciate it when you stab them in the ear with a lancet.

I just hope I gave him enough cooing and treats that he’ll let me do it again.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

Tags: cats

dragovianknight @ 04:54 pm: KITTY EATED IT!
I put a dish of dry food on the desk today, and Zhara went and ate from it three times this afternoon. Granted, only a couple of bites each time, but that's still more interest in food than she's shown in over a week. \o/

Tags: cats

pepys_diary @ 10:00 pm: Wednesday 6 September 1665

http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1665/09/06/

Busy all the morning writing letters to several, so to dinner, to London, to pack up more things thence; and there I looked into the street and saw fires burning in the street, as it is through the whole City, by the Lord Mayor's order. Thence by water to the Duke of Albemarle's: all the way fires on each side of the Thames, and strange to see in broad daylight two or three burials upon the Bankeside, one at the very heels of another: doubtless all of the plague; and yet at least forty or fifty people going along with every one of them. The Duke mighty pleasant with me; telling me that he is certainly informed that the Dutch were not come home upon the 1st instant, and so he hopes our fleete may meet with them, and here to my great joy I got him to sign bills for the several sums I have paid on Tangier business by his single letter, and so now I can get more hands to them. This was a great joy to me: Home to Woolwich late by water, found wife in bed, and yet late as [it] was to write letters in order to my rising betimes to go to Povy to-morrow. So to bed, my wife asking me to-night about a letter of hers I should find, which indeed Mary did the other day give me as if she had found it in my bed, thinking it had been mine, brought to her from a man without name owning great kindness to her and I know not what. But looking it over seriously, and seeing it bad sense and ill writ, I did believe it to be her brother's and so had flung it away, but finding her now concerned at it and vexed with Mary about it, it did trouble me, but I would take no notice of it to-night, but fell to sleep as if angry.

cmshaw @ 05:50 pm: packing
putting things in boxes: even better than whitewashing fences! anybody fancy joining me for this partytime? i'm going to be packing this sunday and next saturday afternoon, and -- as if the putting of things into boxes weren't enough -- i can even offer food and vid-watching too!

Tags: life

evie @ 02:37 pm: Tech survey of the day
I'm evaluating my tech, and have decided that I really want to add both PDA and GPS to my life. As near as I can tell, this means that I can either:

1. Buy two separate devices, a PDA and a GPS unit, in addition to to my cell phone. That's three separate items, offering three times the opportunity to lose something. :-(
2. Buy one device - either a PDA with GPS capability or a GPS unit with some PDA functionality. More on that below.
3. Replace my cell phone with a smart phone that gives me PDA and GPS. My problem - I'm stuck with Sprint for at least another year, because I'm not willing to pay the extra cost of a new phone line in addition to my family bundle. (I currently have 3 lines bundled together, and while my phone is no longer on contract, the other two are. I might be able to downgrade those lines but it's complicated.) And I'd have to upgrade my service to accomodate a data plan.

Of the devices that I've seen so far, I'm not thrilled by any of them.
--Samsung Instinct, a phone with GPS and some PDA functionality. I'm going to go look at it in the shop and see if it's more exciting in person.
--Blackberry. Not sure that any of the models will give me what I want.
--From what I've read about the GPS units vs. the PDA with GPS, it looks like I'd be better off with a GPS that uses Windows Mobile OS, because I could add PDA to a unit with good GPS functionaltiy. The PDA units aren't well-reviewed at all, when it comes to their GPS functionality. Garmin and Mio both look like strong possibilities to me.

Here's what I want from a PDA:
--Address book with actual addresses, not just e-mail and phone
--To do list
--Calendar
--Notes (to scribble ideas)

I want either a qwerty keyboard or handwriting recognition for input. This takes the GPS unit out of the running, unless it has a virtual keyboard or stylus.

Given that I'm looking in the under-$200 market, what would you suggest? Do you use any of these devices? What do you use? What do you think looks promising?

das_dingsi @ 11:13 pm: On My Imaginary And Totally Unsubstantiated Anger
A few days ago I watched some interviews with Andrew Vachss -- about whom I'm going to write a detailed entry soon, at least that's what I'm planning to do, because he's an attorney exclusively representing children and youths, working in child protection, has a fascinating biography and also writes crime fiction, and he's one of my heroes. But anyways, for now I want to mention something he said during those interviews, because people often accuse him of being too aggressive, or ask him WHY SO ANGRY?, isn't that too negative and eating you up inside and couldn't you achieve more by being friendlier and WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS SO ANGRY zomg.

(And I'm absolutely certain that a lot of you just nodded tiredly and thought I know that one, and how.)

And he said -- quoting from memory, here -- he said, I could let go. I could make the decision, today, to stop being angry, and I'd have no problems doing so, I'd be calm.

But, he said, I assure you, that after a single week I'd be back where I was before, because in that single week I'd have seen enough shit to make me angry all over again. ~

It felt good to hear that statement. To have those feelings acknowledged. Because the sad, the sickening thing about that kind of anger, is how you don't even have to look for a reason to come along. You don't have to make shit up, despite all kinds of racist, sexist, homo- or transphobic, sadistic, thoughtless, or privileged people trying to tell you otherwise. You're not "trying" to "find" things to "get offended or angry about". You don't have to do that. They find you. I spend a few days just reading blogs online, with a very limited range of topics, but still in no time I end up with news about male-to-female transsexuals being murdered, a lesbian author whose book I bought turned out to have written transphobic articles for the Village Voice, some misogynistic idiots told my friend that she was actually the "real" sexist by telling them how sexist they were because that meant she was telling other women what to think, a psychologist claiming in his paper that the fact women in earlier centuries didn't sail around the world and discover new countries had nothing to do with the "conspiracy theory of a patriarchal system" but rather it was somehow "designed" to be and women just weren't "motivated" to do something worthwhile, and during a discussion about transphobia I was accused of being a coward hiding behind my "professional victimhood" because I wasn't willing to stay in a thread where I was made to feel unwelcome as a transperson, and I haven't even touched on politics and racism and reproductive rights yet --

BUT OF COURSE I'M ONLY PULLING THAT ANGER THING OUT OF MY ASS.

I totally get the sentence "If you're not angry, you're not paying attention". I'm not thinking it means that you must be angry, all the time, or that we all have to be angry about the same things. What it says for me is, dude, you don't have to fucking LOOK for the fucked-up things, they're there, and also you can't unsee it, although sometimes I feel so exhausted or down that I wish I could go back to not seeing certain -isms and issues, because it would make my life easier, but then I remember it would also make me an asshole, and I tell myself that being less of an asshole to other people is fucking worth it, so there.

In short: the solution to the anger "problem" is not telling people to shut the fuck up and be happy instead, it's to behave less shitty.

Tags: .en, isms, rants

the_willow @ 04:01 pm: *sighs* Why is the world promoting stupidity? How do all these people not die out??
I wanted to watch kid anime. And then I couldn't find the one I wanted to watch. Then I found one based on fairy tales and I was happy. Until everybody went stupid.

Stupid boy. Stupid important, never fights any battles. Can't stay safe where he's told when people are risking their lives for him. BOY. Stupid wolf for letting the boy. It's STUPID to mess up people trying to protect you by doing the very thing that will get you in trouble that they tried to keep you from doing.

Otogi Jushi Akazuki is STUPID. Baaaaaaaaaka!

Little kids have sense. It's stupid to make them not have sense. It's stupid to teach a messed up version of loyalty that amounts to nothing but showmanship and self ego.

STUPID.

At least I have pizza.

Tags: willow's not here

dragovianknight @ 12:21 pm: It would be totally wrong
...to create a Predacon with a tick beast mode and the battle cry of "SPOOOOOOOOON!", wouldn't it?

It would, however, be dreadfully fun to roleplay.

I seem to have forgotten how to write anything that's not porn or crack. Assuming I ever knew. So any Beast Wars fic I post will not be posted under this intarwebz ID, because I'm unwilling to admit to actually trying to write Real Stories. I mention this only to reassure you that if you ever see my OCs showing up under an unfamiliar pen name, it's not because anyone wants to steal my crap.

Hi, this is me babbling in an effort to not throw up worry about next Thursday and another $200 worth of blood tests on my cat. ::buries face in kitty's fur::

Tags: transformers, writing:beast wars

dragovianknight @ 09:41 am: Update on kitty!Zhara
So, her blood work came back with elevated white blood cell and liver counts. We're finishing the Clavamox, and then she's going back on the 11th for a followup, after which if we can't figure this out she might have to be referred to one of the big vet hospitals in Vegas.

Tags: cats

bethbethbeth @ 10:47 am: Various and Sundry Recs...
A few Alec Hopkins (young!Snape) youtube links: first a little comedy interview from the summer of 2007, and then one where he talks about OotP/HBP from September 1. (And as an added bonus, a strange little video of young!Snape visiting Diagon Alley filmed with a young lookalike.)

***

In other news, one of my very non-fannish sisters (wife, 'homemaker,' and mother of two), emailed me the other day to tell me that Edward (from SMeyer's Twilight series) is her new boyfriend (displacing Mr. Darcy, apparently) and ordering me to read the 'wonderful books' a.s.a.p. so that we can bond over them. In a fandom context, I have no problem saying "Eek, no! Never in a million years!" (based, admittedly, on little more than reading two chapters, plus skimming the various MST'ings of the series), but with my sister, it's...more problematic, since we have so little in common to begin with and she knows I'm a vampire fan. *sigh*

Speaking of vampires, though, I have no problem reccing the following to fellow vamp fans:

Evernight by Claudia Gray (contemporary YA book that crosses over easily. Smart and with utterly believable character voices. One odd plotting decision, but as the story progresses, that ceases to matter.)

Matters of the Blood by Maria Lima (A very unusual backdrop for the supernaturally-tinged events that take place in the first of Lima's mystery series. Great atmosphere.)

The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris (eight books, all set primarily in northern Louisiana in a Alternative Universe where vampires have "come out of the coffin." Like...okay, kind of like the Anita Blake books, but only if Anita hadn't turned out to be such a damned unappealing character. Eight books in and I still love Harris's Sookie Stackhouse. This, by the way, is the series that's the basis of HBO's new series True Blood, which starts on Sunday)

(Note: two of the authors above are fans. Obviously I'm not linking their fannish names here, unless they write to say it's okay, but...they're us)

Oh, and a non-vampire rec:

Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. (Alternating povs between an experienced supervillain and a novice super-heroine. Very, very clever. And please note it was written before Dr Horrible when you're reading it. Joss...my eye is upon you.)

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afrai @ 01:32 pm: I am in London. I staggered off my flight and into my flat on Sunday night, registered with school on Monday, and contracted a ghastly species of death flu on Tuesday, leading to the highlight of my week on Thursday when I attended a drinks reception (spit spit) running a high fever and doped up to the point of near-insensibility on Beecham's All-in-One. (This burns your alimentary tract as it goes down, eventually leaving you with a radioactive glow in the pit of your stomach: a very singular sensation.)

So, um, my first week living in London hasn't really been happy pixies dancing in fields of flowers all day long, but it's been okay! I guess it could've been worse. Like ... if my fever had persisted for more than three days? If there wasn't an Internet connection I could pirate from the comfort of my bedroom. (Thought: could you acquire an easement to use another person's Internet connection?) Oh, on that note, do please feel free to recommend reliable service providers if you live in England and know about these sorts of things. I'm probably going for Virgin, at least partly because they've got a £10/month mobile phone tariff you can get along with it, but I am open to suggestions.

Oh dear, how many parentheses are there in this post already? I think I have lost the knack for blogging, to be honest; it feels like I haven't done it in ians. Cephas' visit went well, I should say. That was rather like happy pixies dancing in fields of flowers etc. etc. Let's not talk about it; it is rubbish of him not to be here.

( Some observations )