| Meditations on the LHC |
[07 Jan 2010|06:13pm] |
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Nothing in the known universe is quite as astounding as the insane comment threads in this article about the potential dangers of the Large Hadron Collider (from a legal perspective, of course). Really, just dig in, you'll love it. We've now proven ourselves to be the singularly most absurd organisms possible and thus are the indisputable pinnacle of evolution.
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[07 Jan 2010|11:00am] |
You know what's bad? Missing a couple of days of Anki vocab review. I have approximately bazillion items due for review today.
We finally watched Doctor Who: The End Of Time. I am not sure whether I like it or not. It wasn't really as good as I had hoped it would be. The plot was just... off. Sort of disappointing. Well, in any case, I guess we'll see what next season brings. I really hope the next doctor is good. Tennant was brilliant and will be hard to follow.
I think the borscht will feed us tonight as well. I have to think what to make tomorrow night. I've been craving oden lately, but my husband won't eat it (I understand why, I used to hate it too, it is sort of ooky-looking).
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| Weather |
[07 Jan 2010|09:44am] |
The snow has come. and it's bad enough to fuck things up but not so bad I stay home.
The result is that I am on the train and late for my shipping meeting.
Which is for the best as I'm 99 percent sure its about FedEx and UPS, not my unending love of Fraser and RayK. They don't even ship Holmes and Watson or Kirk and Spock.
Heathens! Heathens!
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| Random thoughts |
[07 Jan 2010|12:27am] |
It is midnight and the expected snowpocalypse has not yet begun. We are supposed to get between 7 and 12 inches of snow in the next 24 hours. A peep outside my window shows that Chicago is still coated with the same dirty snow it was this morning.
I want to take tomorrow off, but that is only going to happen when we get all 12 inches between five and eight in the morning.
I think I should be prepared to go to work.
Meanwhile, I've read a LOT of fic in the last three days. Possibly illegal quantities of fic. And it has left me with this:
SGA/Harry Potter
For reasons that do not need exploring at this juncture, the Atlantis-1 away team has tumbled through the gate and into a storage room at the Hogwarts School of Magic. And due to a freak accident with some ancient tech, a potions bottle, and one of the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, they currently all appear to be about 14.
Everyone thinks they are just the fourth year American Transfer Students, here for an exchange. "Canadian!" Rodney tried to tell them, but no one paid any attention to him, just waved their little sticks in his general direction.
This cannot end well.
-----
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| My Wednesday Night |
[06 Jan 2010|07:56pm] |
Tonight:
I'm going to read 97,000 words of Kirk/Spock kidfic. And drink a glass of red wine on ice cubes out of a tupperware cup with a lid. And a straw.
I had homemade Quiche for dinner, but I ate it in my underwear on the sofa, watching last night's TV.
Stay classy Nora Bombay. Stay classy.
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| Overdue new year post |
[06 Jan 2010|07:14pm] |
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music |
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Amanda Palmer - Leeds United |
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Still catching up on my LJ reading. If I commented on your entry that you wrote two weeks ago, blame the holidays.
I sort of fear 2010. It seems to me that it will be a year of much uncertainty for me, so I am not exactly looking forward to it. New year's resolutions: just a couple, I don't really make them, since as the year goes on, I tend to forget what it was exactly that I had resolved to do. I would like to be a less lousy Buddhist and sit more often than not. And I would also like to take JLPT 2級 (or whatever it is going to be called under the new system). No idea if I'll pass, I guess we'll see in December.
I made borscht a couple of nights ago. It's pretty damn good (if I do say so myself). Since I do not remember how my mother makes it, I used the recipe from Please to the Table and sort of adapted it to the way I think my mother makes it. It turned out very well and will feed us for a couple of days at least.
Now, on to book business. I read 113 books in 2009. I am not going to list them all. Here's a list of books that I thought were pretty damn good (NF = nonfiction), in order read. I apologize for the lack of accents on a couple of names. 1. John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History (NF)
2. Michael Redhill, Consolation
3. Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1962 (NF)
4. David McCallough, 1776 (NF)
5. Christina Meldrum, Madapple
6. Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
7. Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism Without Beliefs (NF)
8. Elizabeth Bunce, A Curse As Dark As Gold
9. Lara Vapnyar, Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love
10. Suzuki Shunryu, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (NF)
11. Anonymous, The Life of Milarepa (sort of NF, I suppose?)
12. Jim Butcher, Turn Coat
13. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Meditations (NF)
14. Vernor Vinge, A Deepness in the Sky
15. Anam Thubten, No Self No Problem (NF)
16. Michael Wex, Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in all of its Moods (NF)
17. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Good Omens (reread # eleventy billion)
18. Dru Pagliasotti, Clockwork Heart
19. Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine (also reread # eleventy billion)
20. Isabel Hilton, The Search for the Panchen Lama (NF)
21. Peter Hamilton, Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained
22. William Husband, Godless Communists (NF)
23. China Mieville, The City and the City
24. Caitlin Kiernan, Alabaster
25. Harold Varmus, The Art and Politics of Science (NF)
26. Paul Fisher, The House of Wits: An Intimate Portrait of the James Family (NF)
27. Caitlin Kiernan, The Red Tree
28. Catherynne Valente, Palimpsest
29. China Mieville, The Scar
30. Seanan McGuire, Rosemary and Rue
31. Meir Shalev, Russian Novel (I don't remember what the English translation is actually called here)
32. Eric Larson, Devil in the White City (NF)
33. Henry Nicholls, Lonesome George (NF)
34. Cherie Priest, Boneshaker
35. Ellen Datlow (ed.) , Lovecraft Unbound
36. David Lindley, Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Borg, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science (NF)
37. Orlando Figes, Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia (NF)
38. David Halberstam, The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War (NF)
So yeah, pretty heavy on non-fiction this year. Which is probably why I asked for fiction books for Christmas. >.<
My favorite fiction book of the year would probably be Kiernan's Red Tree. For non-fiction, it's a tie between The Coldest Winter and The House of Wits.
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| Needlepoint |
[05 Jan 2010|10:29pm] |
I was all good today and went to water aerobics. Go me!
I am now sitting here watching TV and putting together my very own needlepoint kit. I would be feel better about this if I wasn't watching Cranford on PBS. I feel very much as if I was in the 1840's.
Of course, I'm sitting in a room with central heat, on a comfy sofa, watching tv, and drinking diet ginger ale out of a glass with ice and a straw.
So, well maybe not so much.
Also: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) msnovtue the dog is in love with the Gator football. Like, more in love than I have seen him in years with a toy. He's been hauling it about the house for two days, unraveling the rope.
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| Photographers are the only real people left |
[05 Jan 2010|05:54pm] |
I haven't been to any museums or done any photography lately, so in an effort to glean some inspiration, I went with mirrored_echo to the International Center of Photography this afternoon.
It's what you'd expect - Some good photos, some not so good, some boring.
But the videos... There were a few were interesting documentary ones, and ones with nice artsy cuts and juxtapositions.
But there were two of them, one with it's own room, from the school of "stand in front of the camera in some weird outfit and move your hands/body around randomly."
What the hell is the point of that? They're all pretty much the same thing!
The first guy who did it had an original idea, but you seem to see at least one of those at every single exhibition, and each one is more boring and pointless then the last.
Really, I don't "get" them.
What's the point? Why do curators seem to orgasm over them??
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| Of Dolphins and Deadwood |
[05 Jan 2010|01:26am] |
In what will perhaps expand our limited sense of the value of empathy, the consensus is that dolphins are intelligent individuals. I solidified that position after seeing their spontaneous social behavior. I doubt that this will affect most people out there beyond boosting some sales to sea world and a bit of publicity for The Cove, but I'm hopeful that we're opening the door to somewhat less lonely and arbitrary world. Personally, I'd like even more to go swimming with dolphins.
In something a little more meaningless (well reflective and a continuation of the vast majority of my 2009 void), I've started off the year getting myself stuck hard on the sadly curtailed HBO series Deadwood. Vicious, deeply entangled, yet often meaningless relationships spin in a constant storm hovering over the eponymous gold-miner settlement, producing as much a thesis on human nature as an accurate portrayal of the "Wild West". Yeah, those words are a little too much on the side of hyperbole, but I can't recommend the shlife ow enough.
Here's hoping that 2010 finds me with a backbone and a little more self-control. Here's also hoping I can just chill the fuck out a little bit for once in my life and just let the flow of life push me where it will. Really, so long as I don't waste another year wallowing, I'll be happy as hell.
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| Jack O'Neill Disapproves of these Shenanigans |
[03 Jan 2010|10:50pm] |
Click through for the full size image. It's huge, awesome, and full of crack. I call it "Jack O'Neill Disapproves of These Shenanigans". Inspired by my spending much of the afternoon reading the latest Valdemar Anthology.
Sixth in a Series
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| Good Morning |
[03 Jan 2010|10:08am] |
I woke up this morning, and I did not feel like P.Diddy.
Instead, I reached for my laptop and managed to hit myself in the face.
A 8lb laptop, a direct hit to my nose. I don't think it's broken.
But I am not taking this as a good sign for the rest of the day. Watch me run errands and suffer a tragic manicure accident or something.
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| Leverage |
[02 Jan 2010|08:52pm] |
I think I have just successfully pimped msnovtue into Leverage. I feel proud of myself.
Also have a new office chair from IKEA. With padding. I think I'm in love.
And finally, there will pictures of the world's cutest dog shark appearing here shortly.
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| Book of 2009 |
[02 Jan 2010|04:27pm] |
First things first - Happy new year everybody!
And here are the books I've read this year.
My favourites were
Arika Okrent - In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language. Just what is says, a book about some of the people who have invented languages, how the languages work - and how they don't work.
Christer Hermansson's Ich bin ein Bibliothekar! : en bibliotekaries berättelse Absurd and hilarious Swedish novella about a librarian by the name of Oliver Cromwell Johanson (guess who his father's greatest hero was!), he is a nice guy, and loves referencing. Then the library gets a new boss with new ideas. Which everybody hates, except Oliver C. Johanson.
Two of the books we read at the Icelandic course alsomade quite an impression on me, namely Sjón's Skugga-Baldur (I think it is called The blue fox in English, amusing enough the fox is red-brown in the Icelandic, Faroese and Norwegian version, brown in the Swedish and grey in the Danish - and blue in the English version!) It is a short book, but has some wonderful language, especially in the beginning.
Halldór Laxness's Sin egen herre (Sjálfstætt fólk /Independent people). This is possibly the book I read with most detail in the year, since I ended up doing writing analysis of the supernatural phenonmena in the book (which our teacher loved, even though I still hold that my theory is nothing but hot air:) Anyway a good book. And horribly depressing.
Also next year I will have to stop tormenting myself with Jasper Fforde. I do not like his books!
And since it is now a tradition, the yearly "I have read this book"-poll. Click the books you have read to make me feel normal.( Click to click! )
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| The Aquarium |
[01 Jan 2010|09:10pm] |
Went to the Shedd Aquarium today and spent some quality time with the fish.
Now have a chorus of giant tropical fish singing both 'Bad Romance' and 'Kanye West is a gay fish'.
They were doing the velociraptor dance.
Actually, the aquarium was pretty darn awesome.
Now watching HP and the Half Blood Prince. Been so long since I read the book that the plot is all new.
Also: Triple Points to the Half Blood Prince for disposing of the entire Half-Blood Prince part of the sub plot. A very very good decision. AND msnovetue had never even heard the Kanye West is a Gay Fish joke. This has been remedied. Yes. Yes it has.
Gay Fish! Rah Rah Oh La La Rah Rah Gaga Ga! GAY FISH!
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[31 Dec 2009|11:34pm] |
あけましておめでとうございます！今年もよろしおねがいします。 Happy New Year!
I shall post some of the best books I've read in 2009 in the next couple of days. We spent the past two days playing Arkham Horror, celebrating Christmas part 2, and doing nothing in particular. Now we are sitting here eating cheese and drinking wine and champagne, watching people getting wet in Times Square. We had to put our champagne outside to keep it cold (it doesn't fit in the fridge), so now every time we have to go get champagne, the dogs get out and run around barking.
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| Bring it on 2010! |
[31 Dec 2009|03:56pm] |
I have done all my errands and gone to the grocery store. I do not need to leave the house until Monday morning.
I can haz a msnovtue for the weekend.
So really, all that is left is cleaning the house and getting the icecream in from the car.
I think I can handle that.
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| So that's happy. I forgot. |
[30 Dec 2009|11:20pm] |
This is how I spent my day:
-took the GMAT this morning, got in the 99th percentile in the world on the verbal section.
-followed that up with lunch at Chipotle
-wandered down to the State Street Macy's (nee Marshall Fields)
-hit up the TJMaxx/Filenes's next to Macy's
-bought a new and AWESOME orange Victorinox backpack (indirectly enabled by shinetheway)
-took the bus up Michigan Ave to the AMC River East 21
-saw Sherlock Holmes (so damn awesome) for free thanks to a gift certificate
-bought a copy of "Changing the World: all new tales of Valdemar" which is not only Lackey crack, but is Lackey crack featuring a story by somebody I know from LJ.
In the middle of this I took three buses, two trains, and two cabs. I walked about four miles.
And I came home to realize this: That weird feeling I was having?
That was me being happy.
It's been a while. I've been in a massive depressive funk for most of the last oh, year and a half. This happy feeling may be fleeting, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.
Apparently what it takes to make me happy? Is being one of the top 1100 people to take a test in the entire world this year. The problem with life as a sort of child prodigy is that when you get to adulthood, many of those awesome skills you used to be special at are completely useless.
It's nice to do something I'm really really good at. And have flat out quantitative confirmation of it.
It also clarified some things: I need to look at non-MBA Master's programs. I have no interest in finance, and I can get a much cheaper degree that is more suited to my talents easily. I just need to talk the school into accepting the GMAT scores, instead of making me take the GRE again. It's been 15 years since I originally took the GRE, and I don't want to deal with that again.
I need to see Sherlock Holmes again.
And I think I need to write a novel in 2010. Maybe something epistolary, or "based on a true(ish)story". Given that I can't manage to write 1000 words about Dief on deadline for the Due South fic exchange, it's a tall order. Even if in my defense I totally forgot about it until the reminder the night before.
Something. I've got to do something in 2010. I just don't know what.
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