yonmei

08:46 am: Today: a fantasy to-do list
1. By the time I get into work, the server will be working again. By 11am or so.
2. I will be able to correct our database and print out the labels. Yes, corrected.
3. And contact our designer re the comet thing. Yes, phoned.
4. And e-mail the people working at the Event about early trains.
5. I will also be able to compile and send the newsletter.
6. And the Event volunteer will be able to update the registration list.
7. I will finish everything by 6pm and be able to go to a party at 7pm.

I suppose 5 out of 7 isn't bad....

Tags: lists, work

12:02 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?



Tags: lists

09:27 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.



Tags: lists, looking backward, meme

11:01 am: Five Favourite TV series
Meme gacked from alixtii: Pick five of your favourite shows, in no particular order, before you read the below questions, then answer them!

1. Blake's 7
2. Doctor Who
3. M*A*S*H
4. House
5. West Wing

( Q&A )



Tags: blake's 7, doctor who, fannishness, house md, hugh laurie, lists, m*a*s*h, meme, slash, someone died, tv addiction, west wing

05:13 pm: Am HOME!
Priority Actions:
1. Hug Bob, because she's acting awfully unloved.
2. Open windows! 'cause the place smells awfully stuffy
3. Feed cats.
4. Pet Wolf's nose, because it's the longest I've ever been away in his LIFE and he had his 2nd birthday while I was gone and he's acting like he's not sure who I am any more
5. Change litter in litter trays, light incense and oilburner in bathroom
6. ...check e-mail! E-mail solo to tell her I'd love to go bungee jumping with her and another slash fan in a couple of weeks.
7. Also, need to e-mail catsitter to tell her I'm home and catsitter's employer to ask her to bill me.
8. While hoping it will stop raining before I walk over to Tattie Shaw's, get involved with the retweet game on #welovetheNHS.
9. Realise it is Scotland, after all, and the rain is not going to stop, so go out anyway to buy fresh fruit and milk

Tags: bob, everybody lies, evil american politics, evil americans advertising against nhs, health, lists, weather, wolf

09:43 am: Montreal: Tuesday
1. I got here safely. (Would I lie to you?)
2. Shoshanna is lovely. (As is her husband and both her cats, though one of the three is particularly beautiful.)
3. Gingerbread Manor is delicious. (Yes, there is actual gingerbread.)
4. The battery charger for my camera works here. (I wasn't sure.)
5. I have just had the most stupendously delicious breakfast, including cheese and vegetable quiche that took two days to make with homemade pastry and everything. OMGdelicious. Excellent coffee.
6. I walked the route to the Palais de Congres and back again before breakfast (jetlag) and saw a flock of fans leaving the con hotel for breakfast at Eggspectations. (Isn't it curious how you can tell fans from the crowd? I saw several fans on the plane, though no one I knew.)
7. Meeting Shoshanna for lunch. (I have no brackets for that.)



Tags: lists, montreal

10:13 pm: Meme: Things I want to happen in my lifetime
First five personal, last five general.

1. I want to be able to see the Earth from space with my own eyes.
2. I want to experience free fall.
3. I want never to run out of ideas for stories, or the ability to write them.
4. I want to retain the ability to perceive something new and like it just because it's new to the end of my days. ("Ooh, shiny!" aka sensawunda...)
5. I want to be able to say, someday, "My country hasn't taken part in a war for thirty years". (Unfortunately, the earliest year that can be is sometime around 2045...)
6. The discovery of an alien lifeform. (Even if it was a unicellular protoplasmic globule: the amount we would KNOW, suddenly - does it have DNA/RNA? What proteins does it use, if it binds them in spirals like we do? How does it reproduce? What does it consume? Whee.)
7. All women, everywhere on Earth, have access to effective contraception, safe legal abortion, and reproductive healthcare.
8. Driving a private car is seen as insane and extravagant as flying a private jet.
9. Nobody needs to come out to their parents any more, because no parent decides before their child can express an opinion what their child's sexual orientation or gender identity must be.
10. Number 5 has not come true because of global winter, nuclear holocaust, or the complete collapse of civilisation due to the oil running out. ...of course, in that case, no one will be reading my journal anyway.



Tags: lists, meme

11:40 pm: Today was not a good day.
Yesterday wasn't a good day either. (Though whatho and jekesta slay me for it, I will admit I am actually enjoying Torchwood.) I may even put some spoilery comments up about it. Eventually.

My manager got a virus which destroyed a file of useful notes he was supposed to send me. Or rather his laptop got a virus. He's been having unprotected Internet access in a cafe in Glasgow, tut tut. (Fortunately, our work system has a better protection set - it shut down his infected laptop forbiddingly as soon as he tried to let it access our server.)

Also we've been having a wearying argument about the date for our annual conference, and oh my god I want to be a dictator, I really do.

I picked up this meme from tagging old posts in the years before tagging was invented: the last line from the most recent 10 posts on your friends-list. (The un-f-locked ones, obviously.)

1. It is really too damned hot outside for me to be walking anywhere in heels and a business suit. Ugh.
2. I am -- a little apprehensive.
3. sind eigentlich noch Leute auf meiner IJ- oder DW-Leseliste die ausschließlich oder weit überwiegend auf deutsch schreiben, sodaß ich sie auf den zweites_dingsi-Account packen könnte?
4. I don't even know how I'm supposed to keep track of what takes place where any more.
5. But the fear of being robbed, having so much money in the house, was very great, and is still so, and do much disquiet me.
6. I'm just having a happy and I wanted to share. <3!
7. As I said, damn.
8. The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself. Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821 - 1890)
9. Mainly, I wanted to say thanks for introducing me to the game, and state how much I enjoyed our discussion of it. ^^
10. Totally forgot I had some great shots of herpetofauna.
11. Usual deal -- Akame, Adult, and we thought we'd managed a PWP but have been informed that we are wrong: Getting with the Plot.

Yeah, so it went to 11: I couldn't decide whether a post that was itself a meme counted or whether this would throw my entire friends-list into an ever-recursive loop, possibly destroying the universe.



Tags: just my life really, lists, meme

09:23 am: Wednesday morning lists
1. Bob's home! Yay.
2. Have important meeting to prepare for tomorrow.
3. Made rye bread with cocoa nibs.
4. Also made more rye bread without cocoa nibs.
5. Saw Star Trek and Wolverine (not the same evening). Star Trek is better technically but Wolverine is more fun. Both have ( spoiler ) Also, which is not a spoiler, Nyota Uhura was a good-lookin' woman at any age: she was not Walking Skellington. Also - Skellington though she was, I could believe she was The Best Xenolinguist Anywhere: she had that attitude. But the other fubsy li'l Baby Officers, who kept appearing while I said What? WHAT? WHAT? (silently) - they did not.
6. Also, lack of chemistry. If they want to expand the franchise from now to eternity, they've really, really got to look for actors who feel like they're comrades and friends and lovers.
7. Also, help my baby cloud dragon not die! Give clicky! Thanks.



Tags: bread, lists, star trek, work

11:59 pm: Okay, so: the character list meme!
Hmmm, when xkcd is just depressing and even lolcats don't do more than raise a smile...


moar funny pictures

I need distracting. And lexin was doing it! (Listing characters, I mean, obviously)

I have made a list of 15 fictional characters.

Ask me questions about one or more of these characters by number, and I will respond (eventually...) with an answer.





Tags: fannishness, lists, meme, xkcd

11:23 pm: The list of characters
( the list )

Tags: fannishness, lists

08:46 pm: Listy meme
From ngaio: You're on my friends list! I wanna know you. I want to know 33 things about you. I don't care if we never talk, talk every day or already know everything about each other. Short and sweet is fine. I just want to know you. Copy this and post it with your answers in the comments.

1. Can you cook?
2. What was your dream growing up?
3. What talent do you wish you had?
4. Favourite place?
5. Favourite vegetable?
6. What was the last book you read?
7. What zodiac sign are you ?
8. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings?
9. Worst Habit?
10. Do we know each other outside of IJ?
11. What is your favourite sport?
12. Negative or Optimistic attitude?
13. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14. Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15. Tell me one weird fact about you:
16. Do you have any pets?
17. Do you know how to do the macarena?
18. What time is it where you are now?
19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
22. What colour eyes do you have?
23. Ever been arrested?
24. Bottle or Draft?
25. If you won $10,000 dollars today, what would you do with it?
26. What kind of bubble gum do you prefer to chew?
27. What 's your favourite bar to hang at?
28. Do you believe in ghosts?
29. Favourite thing to do in your spare time?
30. Do you swear a lot?
31. Biggest pet peeve?
32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?
33. Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?



( my list of 33 )

Tags: lists, meme

12:15 am: To Do list: Thursday
0. Hang up Wednesday's wash
1. Do a laundry.
2. Collect prescription drugs
3. Collect laptop for User2
4. Call Ajay check time for wakeup call
5. Book taxi
6. Pack Redemption stuff
7.1 Make vegan cupcakes: Chocolate with Guinness
7.2 Make vegan cupcakes: Almond
7.3 Make vegan cupcakes: Vanilla
7.4 Make vegan/gluten-free cupcakes: Banana-Walnut
7.5 Make vegan/gluten-free cupcakes: Chocolate
7.6 Make gluten-free cupcakes: Cranberry-Vanilla
8 Bake bread
9. Buy dried fruit and washing-up liquid and gluten-free vegan chocolate
10. Print out Tarot and such
11. Go to Milk.
12. Check out Dan Savage ILSLISC.
13. Call home insurance and add laptop / camera
14. Buy cat biscuit
W3. Tell Transamurai what did. Be apologetic.
W6. Format the thing, email round.
W7. Fill out PB form, return by post.
W8. Fill out coop form, return by post.
T5. Insert remaining 30+ records in portrait for directors Monday: email to Fresh Start.
T6. Finish Vacuuming hall carpet and stairs.
21. Ice 7.1, 7.4, 7.5 with chocolate ganache
22. Set all three alarm clocks
23. Make green soup
24. Write to do list for Tuesday
25. Freeze green soup




Tags: baking, lists, redemption

05:19 pm: Hello. I'm in London.
I'm feeling tremendously happy for multiple reasons:

1. I can get online at my hotel! At the little desk conveniently provided!
2. MY LAPTOP WORKS. (Admittedly, the nice repairperson warned me, the power connector should be considered on its last legs, may give out at any time, and as of next week I need to start pricing new laptops.)
3. I wrote nearly 400 words of my wrimowrimo story this morning: I am only 600+ words off being able to post part 3 of the current section.
4. I just had a really lovely day with ruthi in which we wandered around Burrough Market, bought CHEESE and other lovely things, and then had a really tremendously gorgeous lunch at Imli's.
5. I just drank a nice cup of freshly-brewed coffee and ate a cappuchino-flavour cream puff that we were both too full to eat for dessert after Imli's.
6. I am about to go out and hench for World AIDS Day with the London convent. This should be fun, and if it's not, I can always escape early, go back to my hotel room, and wrimowrimo some more.
7. The window in my hotel room opens! I'd taken for granted it didn't, because they usually don't, and last night was rather stuffy, but it does. Fresh air is cheering.

Oh, and tomorrow I get to meet up with first Helen Raven and then afrai. So that will be good. And Monday night dinner with the Maenad. Two lawyers in two days, can I cope? Probably. I believe they're both nice lawyers.

Tags: just my life really, lists, travel

07:25 pm: The Sarah Palin Meme: Free People Read Freely
In the US, it's Banned Books Week. This is the ALA's list for top 100 Banned/Challenged Books in 2000-2007. "Out of 3,869 challenges reported to or recorded by the Office for Intellectual Freedom, as compiled by the Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom does not claim comprehensiveness in recording challenges. Research suggests that for each challenge reported there are as many as four or five which go unreported."

And, in the US, the Republican nominee for Vice President is someone who actively tried to have books banned from her local public library: "While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla [1996–2002] she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day." - Letter About Palin

Usual rules:

If it's bold, I've read it.
If it's italicised, I've read part of it.
If it's underlined, I'd like to read it.
If it's strikethrough, I don't want to read it - but feel strongly that my dislike doesn't mean other people shouldn't be able to make that decision for themselves.

( The ALA's 100 Most-Banned Books List 2000-2007 )

Tags: angry queer, big read, books are what i read, evil american politics, evil awful mondays, harry potter, imagine better, let's all be outcasts together, lists, meme, outcasts should stick together, powerful speech vs. powerless silence

11:11 am: Things that I would like to consider about British politics, should I get around to writing them
( 10 things to think about and in the darkness bind them )

Tags: evil british politics, i am a feminist, lists, scottish politics

04:42 pm: What fresh hell is this?
( My woes, let me show you them )

I am trying to think of nice, happy, fluffy things.

1. I made a cake. It is a very good cake, and I shall ice it with lemon icing.

2. I can go home now. It's after five.

3. My garden is nice.

4. My cats are lovely.

5. Bob is well and purring.

6. Cake is nice.

give dragon eggs clicky

Tags: bloody work, bob, cake, computer disasters, dragon eggs need clicky, family stuff, lists, self-obsession

11:06 am: HSA ad? Also, YouGov!
I've been repeatedly seeing an ad for "HSA" with the annoying "Hey! Just say!" whisper, which I keep not understanding.

It's about a woman who's married with two children. I think she's supposed to live in the UK. They appear to be a fairly comfortably-off middle-class couple.

But the woman keeps panicking about the children's dental checkups. Both children are under 18, and so entitled to free dental treatment. (Admittedly I'm told it can be tough these days finding an NHS dentist/an NHS dentist who is taking child patients, but the issue is not whether a parent can afford to pay, it's where the dentist is. I go to an NHS dentist who is a long bus ride across Edinburgh because he's the one I'm registered with and attempts to find one nearer to home all kind of fell over.)

The woman also seems to be worrying about getting new glasses. But she's over 40 (I guess - she could be late thirties) and so entitled to free eye tests. Even if she weren't, there are so many opticians these days that will offer free eye tests, the main problem is getting out afterwards without getting pressured into buying expensive frames. (I go to the same optician I've been going to for 34 years, give or take, and they have a nice range of frames including the basic NHS plastic, but if you haven't got a good family optician who want to keep you as a long-term customer, I recommend Boots). Granted the cost of lenses is going up to a scary degree, but it's not unmanageable - if you have the kind of eyes that require complex (ie, expensive!) lenses, you get a voucher to help pay for them. Getting proper frames is a bigger issue, but you can get decent ones for not too horribly much.

And the woman is worrying about her partner's back treatments - what if they get too expensive? Is there a significant problem? Well, if there is, he should be talking to his GP about it and getting his GP to recommend him to a consultant. Again, the issue is not cost, it's time and energy, if the GP is reluctant to admit there's a problem or if there's a significant waiting list to see the consultant.

Why is the woman only concerned about the cost, which is the least significant issue in all three areas? And why in particular is she concerned about her children's dental checkups, when they have a car and they don't therefore need to consider public transport accessibility?

Is this advert intended to scare people out of using the NHS? (You can watch it here if you've missed it on TV.)

Anyway.

If you live in the UK and like answering silly questions, you might be interested in joining YouGov - you sign up and they send you surveys and pay you 50p (or sometimes more) for every one you complete. They won't send you a cheque till you've earned at least £50, so it's not a very efficient way of earning money, but the questions are sometimes interesting: government agencies and NGOs (including Stonewall) and private companies pay to have questions asked via YouGov, and YouGov uses the info you give them to confirm they've asked the questions of a certain number of people from each age group and income range and parents and non-parents and etc etc.

You don't actually need to join by clicking on the link - google YouGov and you're there - but if you do, I get money for everyone who joins via the link, at least if you stick around for three months and complete some surveys.

I need to:

go swimming
write to-do list for coming week
write other stuff
make lunch

Probably not in that order, though.

I added a lot of new photos to Redbubble yesterday.

Tags: evil americans advertising against nhs, health, lists, nhs, swimming, yougov

07:18 pm: Chin Shengt'an's Thirty-Three Happy Moments
Well, mine, actually. Inspired by afrai, who was inspired by Chin Shengt'an.

( First ten )

Tags: lists, meme

05:56 pm: Me me me me mee meme
( 10 Things I Assume You Know About Me )

Tags: chocolate, lists, silly memes