Most importantly, happy birthday to refractednotion!

And a merry Christmas/Mithramas to anyone who cares to participate.

I had a lovely evening last night observing Wigilia with LK and her family. And in keeping with Polish tradition, there was an empty place at the table for Elijah so when Sinthrex unexpectedly got the night off, he joined us. The whole thing was cool and while I don't have any (significant?) Polish ancestry, Polish food remains comfort food. And I got to recommend Morning Side Bakery and apparently shock a random Navy wife by using "Jewish" to convey complex meaning about a bakery ("Jewish bakery" means likely to have Eastern European baked goods, quality, & delicious, as well as "run by a nice Jewish family"). My hostess understood ("babka!!!").

A little googling has also provided me with a variety of vegetarian Polish recipes for Wigilia as well, which makes me happy. I've had a notion for a while about collecting fast-day recipes for international vegetarian deliciousness, but they don't tend to make it into readily available ethnic cookbooks. I bet if I could find a Polish church that's put out a fast-day cookbook for a fund-raiser I'd find some deliciousness. (This is not just a Polish thing, they are just clearly on my mind because I ate Polish food last night.) My Lebanese cookbook has a section on fast-day foods that I have found very helpful.

And now ( Hail the risen meme! )

With a thankful heart that is wide awake
I do make this promise, every breath I take
Will be used now to sing your praise (Used now to sing your praise)
And to beg you to share my days (Beg you to share my days)
With a loving guarantee that even if we part
I will hold you close in a thankful heart

Merry Christmas.

164. All Together Dead
Charlaine Harris

163. Definitely Dead
Charlaine Harris

Another strange thing I've noticed about this series is that the main character (and narrator) is often getting physically injured, but she worries about her clothing far more than her injuries. I'm not sure there's any intended depth to that, but one could argue the point, I suppose.

I recently picked up a second translation of Yagyu Munenori's book that I'm just going to call The Life-Giving Sword (which is Wilson's title/translation). I can't tell how it stacks up as a translation: I find Wilson easier to read but I am definitely finding different knowledge in this rendition. At some point in future, I will try to read them side-by-side. (Which I haven't done with the two translations of The Demon's Sermon, and also ought.)
( Read more... )

i've had a lot more headaches lately. nothing out of standard pattern for me, tension that rolls from my right shoulder, up my neck, and feels like a c-clamp with contacts behind my eye and at the back of my skull. i know the warning signs and how to effectively treat them. but they had been a monthly or less occurrence, and now they are weekly or more.

this doesn't really fit with the general sense of peace in my household, the books i've been devouring*, a new quilt underway, a good last session of D&D before the holidays, and lovely visits with friends (just passed and planned in the near future).

this does fit with 2009, though. i'm coiled and waiting for the next blow.** i was going to post this quote from warren_ellis earlier today, but i thought that i was just asking for trouble. with more lousy news coming from all quarters it seems more appropriate than ever:

"I’m starting to get the sense that 2009 wants to finish me off before it dies of old age. A calendrical unit yelling "I’m taking you with me, you bastard!" from its vanishing final paper bunker marked December, every spent day a room deleted from the structure until 2009 is finally huddled in one small box marked 31 and screaming obscenities in stark terror."



*i'm on a big Bujold kick. somehow i avoided reading any of her books previously, and now i have a steady flow coming in on library holds. they seem to be the grilled cheese and tomato soup of speculative fiction - i don't know that they're terribly good, but they are fatty and salty and filling and exude comfort. the only minus is that Baen has the worst art direction possible. i find myself wanting to hide the covers when i read on the bus because they are so embarrassingly ugly. i have an idea for an epic linkpost of bitching about this, but may never get around to it.

**and i'm pretty sure i'm grinding my teeth in my sleep. i should see a dentist about that. did i mention that my dentist seems to have retired with zero fanfare? i have several hearty recommendations to sort through. staying at the practice he joined before disappearing is not acceptable.

162. Monster Volume 6
Naoki Urasawa

161. Monster, Volume 5
Naoki Urasawa

Longest night of the year! Yay!

And man, am I ready for it.

Anyway, tonight, cookie baking! I have no idea what cookies I will bake but there will be baking. Mmmmm.

In other news, three more workdays for the year. Yay!

Uh... I'm sure I had other things, but those are my yays for the morning. Here, have a helpful mistletoe hint!

Something I've been working on the past couple of days.

Click this link for progress photos.



(filing this under "miniatures" as I don't have a tag for "sculpting")

160. Monster, Volume 4
Naoki Urasawa

159. Monster Volume 3
Naoki Urasawa

 i feel just terrible.  i haven't checked my professional email in several months, and i realized that i missed this email from this very nice girl: Hey from Russian Federation.  I am a girl of 27 years.  This is Alisa.  I live in Neya.  It is near Moscow.  I would like to become friends with a man from USA.  I took your email on the Internet dating agency.  I hope that you will answer me and we will try to create our romance with you.  Hope you are not against of it.  I have no children.  I have no man.  My height is 163 cm.  My weight is 53 kg.  Age 27.  I am slim.  Please, if you like me, right.   I feel so bad...she must be so lonely...

158. Monster, Volume 2
Naoki Urasawa

As I suspected, the depth of the story was going to start coming out as I read further. I'm really enjoying this, and it's funny to have read this author's second (and technically third) manga prior to reading his first (this one). Many of the same elements of character and story are present, which is not to say he's just writing the same thing over and over again.

Suck it, The Elements of Style! :)

50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice

Hated going over this book in high school English class. Or perhaps I just didn't like my smug teacher. No, wait, it's both!

Thanks to savageplanet's twitter for the link!

This is probably applicable to most of us.

157. Monster, Volume 1
Naoki Urasawa

By the same author as 20th Century Boys. I didn't know there was an anime, though I saw it on the shelf at Wal Mart the other day and remembered that I hadn't read this before. I'd read part of it once, perhaps even this whole first volume, but it didn't drag me in the way 20th Century Boys did, which isn't to say that it isn't good, but it's got a deeper hook and a slower build, I think.

i suppose it's been long enough since the death of Michael Jackson that i might as well put some thoughts down on paper.  I grew up right through the rise and fall of Michael Jackson, and i can honestly say that i never really liked the guy from the beginning.  i didn't like the music, his voice made me uncomfortable and i thought his dancing was weird.  when i was a kid, i loved to tell people i "hated Michael Jackson," without realizing that it was, essentially, a pre-Internet meme.  as i grew a little bit older, i began to discover bits and pieces of his work here and there that appealed to me, like Thriller or even Black Or White.  i recognized that there was talent and skill there, even if it was applied to create art that i didn't like.   there were, however, two things that he did that stick with me.  even when i was a kid and in the middle of my "I hate Michael Jackson" conviction, i would make vocal exception to these.   the first is, of course, Captain EO.  i saw it at EPCOT Center when i was seven or so.  granted, it's still pretty weird, but it was the first movie in 3D i ever saw and it had lasers and spaceships and robots and a cool evil spider queen, so it appealed perfectly to a little seven-year-old geekling in training.   the second thing was Moonwalker.   as i was going down memory lane with Captain EO, i decided to show lady_trinket  Moonwalker as well. "why are we watching this?"  she asked.   "because it's on the internet," i replied "there's lots of things on the internet that you shouldn't watch.  Two Girls, One Cup...this..."   yes, it makes no sense.  it's completely random to the point of being utterly fucked up.  and, in light of what we know now about the kids and the drugs, it's mostly downright creepy.  but it does have two things going for it, especially when viewed through those male geekling eyes i spoke of earlier:  First, Michael Jackson turns into not just a car, not just a spaceship, but also a missile-launching, laser-firing robot.  Second, to be fair, Smooth Criminal is a freaking awesome song.   as far as i'm concerned, we lost Michael to madness long ago. 

156. Mad Dash
Patricia Gaffney

Sort of goofy and overblown, but overall amusing.

a few days ago i posted a forwarded email that i thought was just too funny not to share.  well, digging back through my old emails, i discovered another version of it, with more than twice the material.  enjoy

- I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

- More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

- Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

- I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter

- Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

- That's enough, Nickelback.

- I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

- Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

- Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

- There is a great need for sarcasm font.

- Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.

- I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

- How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

- I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

- The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

- A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

- Was learning cursive really necessary?

- LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

- My brother's Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, "Cuz we beat you, and you hate us." Classy, bro.

- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

- What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

- Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

- I would like to officially coin the phrase 'catching the swine flu' to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: "Dave caught the swine flu last night."

- I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories.

- Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

- If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

- Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

- You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

- Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

- There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

- I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

- I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

- I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

- When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

- I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

- Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles.

- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

- Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

- It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

- I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

- Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

- Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time.

- My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

- It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

- I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

- I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

- I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

- The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.