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Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
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10:32 pm - OTF thoughts from a polyfannish omnivore
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I have friends who are into TPM, TPM and more TPM. Qui/Obi is their One True Pairing and they will be writing and reading Qui/Obi until the heat death of every star system in every fictional and nonfictional universe, you know? :-)
Every now and then, some of them dabble into other fandoms or other pairings, but they think of themselves as TPM fans in their heart of hearts.
Some fandoms tend to have a really high proportion of fans for whom it is an OTF. It's their comfort food, their splurge, their indulgence, their haven, their playground, their garden, their home turf, their creative center. TPM is the one that first comes to mind, but Highlander and Mag7 are not far behind.
And it's not just that they have an OTP... TPM Qui/Obi OTPers may very well read Obi/Ani or Qui/Xan or Obi/Xan if it crosses their path... but... just as importantly as their relationship of choice being so close to their heart, it's that the fandom itself is their One True Fandom.
I'm far too much of an omnivore to ever think that I'll ever be able to say that about myself. But ever so rarely, I think I've found an echo of that sort of OTP or OTF feeling, and I hear the resonant thrum of it enough in my bones to know some measure of what the OTPers and the OTFers experience.
And tonight, I want to thank ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) paian for reminding me what it feels like, because the following appeared, as if by magic, on my flist, and it encompasses and encapsulates so much of why I tumbled so hard for slash fandom, and why I tumbled so hard for SG1, and why I will always, always, always have a special place in my heart for Daniel and Jack, and for the kinky aliens who make them do it... and for every author who so skillfully offers their fresh, new take on every fabulous, familiar plot. I lack the words to convey how much I adore fandom right now.
Stargate SG1 fic by Paian: follow through (daniel/jack, ADULT)
Daniel/Jack, S5-ish, adult/explicit, ~6880 words
Aliens make them do it
*glee*
Just, *utter glee*.
current mood:  grateful
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(1 well-fed plotbunny | feed a plotbunny)
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7:56 am - In 2009, I resolve to get caught up with my life.
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If you get emails out of the blue from me regarding ancient obligations and gifties, it's because I'm making a serious effort to get caught up. This week, that'll include treewishes (email sent), wyomingnot (comment sent and answered), dragovianknight (I will email tonight), and vimeslady (who I've had trouble getting in touch with multiple times, but I will be trying again to email tonight).
If I have some obligation to you, and I have not emailed you by this coming weekend to make good, please email me and remind me of whatever it is that I've forgotten or that my old email crashes and/or overzealous spam filters ate.
And I will also be finally finishing backing up and transitioning content from my LJ this month.
It's feeling more urgent now that there are rumblings that the owners of LJ just laid off much of their LJ-related staff (possibly without severance). Some details about that are here:
http://twistedchick.insanejournal.com/79159.html?style=mine
ETA: http://twistedchick.insanejournal.com/1683461.html?style=mine
How to back up your journal:
http://brown-betty.livejournal.com/284083.html (for Windows)
http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/413098.html (yes, right now LJBook is completely overloaded because many many people on LJ are panicked and trying to use it all at once, but there are other options... and no, LJ will not be vanishing overnight)
http://antennapedia.livejournal.com/238132.html (for Mac)
http://antennapedia.livejournal.com/266462.html (for Mac)
http://zvi-likes-tv.livejournal.com/480601.html?style=mine
and my posts at http://elke-tanzer.insanejournal.com/tag/lj+transition
ETA: and http://morgandawn.insanejournal.com/221445.html?style=mine and http://morgandawn.livejournal.com/tag/ljtools
ETA: also http://karma-apple.insanejournal.com/8073.html
A note from synecdochic about the progress on Dreamwidth (for journaling):
http://synecdochic.livejournal.com/302379.html
Pages from the Organization for Transformative Works about the Archive Of Our Own project (for archiving fanfiction):
http://transformativeworks.org/node/96
http://transformativeworks.org/projects
ETA: Also a note from the OTW about Fanlore, a great place to put your contact information so that people can find you if your LJ or IJ or JF or whatever goes away unexpectedly: http://transformativeworks.org/news/our-friends-lj
And a note from squeaky about the stability of IJ right now:
http://asylums.insanejournal.com/announcements/61339.html
Additional perspective:
http://zarq.livejournal.com/846503.html?style=mine
And now I am headed to work, where I have similar organizey catchy-uppitty things to do, but for workstuff I am more like a month behind, rather than like... a year behind or more, which is the status of my fannish, extended-family and extended-RL-social obligations.
Over January and February, I'm also hoping to finish the work I began two years ago on my fannish and RL websites, as well. Being halfway between things feels rather like being uncomfortably splinched.
I will be traveling to my parents in Indiana again in February. March will be professional development class and PMI's PMP certification exam (my class will be in Los Angeles in March rather than San Jose in January because of my employer's travel expenses freeze) and a fannish weekend at the beach (yay Escapade!). If I haven't started going on Sierra Club dayhikes, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity or some other local Burbank community cause, and/or signed up for eHarmony by the end of February, I will be doing so in April.
Re: my interconnectedness with people: 2009 Will Be Better, Dammit.
In other news: I adore my wee baby dragons! :-D I am brainstorming names for these three:   
My Mom likes the little tiny dragons that don't grow very big even when they're mature, so I'm coming up with names with meaning for her that I'll use any time I am able to name one of that breed.
 And I have named this one Thunbergia Sedge, after a flowering vine that is a favorite of my father's garden and a family of plants that look vaguely grasslike which Dad likes to photograph in prairie and marshland preserves. I wonder if when it begins to grow its wings, I will be able to tell if it's male or female, or if I will have to wait until it's fully matured... Either way, this is the first egg I stole, and my first dragon to hatch, and I... I guess I'm just infatuated with the wee little virtual dragons. :-)
current mood:  determined
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(3 well-fed plotbunnies | feed a plotbunny)
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| Monday, January 5th, 2009
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10:19 pm - Passing the info along...
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A fellow fan is having trouble making her rent this month, and may be kicked out of her home. She is selling a number of books, CDs (including lots of Celtic stuff!), DVDs and tarot decks etc from her personal collection, and she also makes beautiful jewelry and altar dolls. If your finances are stable enough for you to be in shopping mode right now, please check out her posts of items she is selling, and browse her Etsy and Artfire storefronts.
Info is here: http://sixtail.livejournal.com/929401.html?style=mine and here: http://lori.insanejournal.com/3059.html?style=mine updated info is here: http://sixtail.livejournal.com/931535.html?style=mine
I know that there are at least another couple fans in similar situations, but I can't seem to find the links right at the moment... if you know of others, please feel free to link to their sale posts or storefronts in the comments here.
Which reminds me... I can't remember if I linked to this one before the holidays or not; it's another fellow fan having financial strain and selling items to pay the bills. Again, if your finances allow you to be in shopping mode right now, please check out her posts: http://digitalwave.livejournal.com/tag/sales+stuff
current mood:  indescribable
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(feed a plotbunny)
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8:11 pm - Back to bright lights, big city...
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And now I am going to have sushi for dinner, and then crawl into my very own bed so I can hibernate for a little while.
Yay for being back in SoCal! :-D
current mood:  exhausted
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(9 well-fed plotbunnies | feed a plotbunny)
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7:05 am - Thank you, US Airways...
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The Hilton Hotel near the Phoenix airport was OK to stay in last night. I am thankful that US Airways put us up overnight when many of us on the running-late flight from Indianapolis were stranded since our connecting flights had already left... it was much nicer to have a bed rather than an airport bench.
And now I am hoping to board a morning flight to Burbank. *yawn*
So much for getting to work early to catch up on things before the new year's chaos begins with a vengeance, though. Ah, well. I'm just rollin' with it...
Have a bearable Monday, everyone!
current mood:  sleepy
current music: overlapping gate announcements
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(feed a plotbunny)
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| Friday, January 2nd, 2009
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9:31 pm - OK, which of you knows about MySpace?
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Some of my younger cousins in another geographic region are on MySpace, and my Mom would like to be able to interact with these nieces of hers, but apparently the only way they "email" is through their MySpace but it's not exactly email. The last I heard, MySpace tended to grab personal information about you and your preferences from your Amazon identity and goodness knows what else, so security-conscious and privacy-valuing folks were staying away from it...
Should I be overly concerned about privacy and security if I sign my Mom up for a MySpace account (and therefore also I will probably have to sign myself up for an account as well, so I can do tech support when she runs into questions)?
Or is there some easy way for us to tell the nieces to add us to their MySpace contacts as plain old ol'fashioned email addresses rather than whatever flavor of contact MySpace uses?
Halp, oh all- knowing flist?
In other news, one of my wee virtual dragon eggs has hatched into a baby dragon!! Please click on it to help the wee little one grow... It's hopefully going to grow up happy and healthy into one of the dark green dragons that disguises itself as a tangle of plants. At first I had my doubts about the breed, but in thinking and brainstorming a bit, they remind me a bit of the Earth Dragon on the walking trail on Sentosa Island in Singapore, and in the garden landscape of my imagination, I would dearly love a set of such dragons guarding the entrance to my fantasy cottage garden of vegetables and berry brambles and fruit trees.
All three of the other eggs are starting to develop cracks, which hopefully means that they will hatch soon, too... a click or two would help them along, if you're so inclined.
ETA the next morning: Eeeeeeeeeee! Look! Two of the others have hatched! Aren't they cute?
ETA the following night: Awww! The fourth one hatched! Adorable!
And now, a New Years Meme snitched from thebratqueen...
Please comment with something you think I should do or try to do in 2009. Big or small, silly or earth-changing.
current mood: exhausted
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(20 well-fed plotbunnies | feed a plotbunny)
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| Thursday, January 1st, 2009
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11:01 am - Yuletide 2008 Revealed...
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I greatly enjoyed writing Storm Clouds Clearing in Mulan, for nephthys.
I startled the heck out of myself by not writing pr0n, by the way... somehow Shang was just too angsty about that long ride to the Fa home to even think about taking his pants off! :-)
Huge thanks to JackOfNone for writing the fabulous Captain Blood story Pecca Fortiter for me!
I note with additional glee that the other lovely Captain Blood story, Once A Pirate, was written by marshalmeg, another author I am unfamiliar with...
And this means: YAY for discovering not one but two previously-unknown-to-me fans of Captain Blood! I adore Yuletide...
:-D
current music: Winter Wonderland...
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(feed a plotbunny)
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| Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
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11:56 pm - Goodbye 2008, don't let the door hit your ass on your way out...
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OK, OK, so 2008 did include some good, and some really good, things for me. But holy crap, 2008 has sucked in so many really big ways. I am grateful for all of the good stuff, really I am. My parents and I are counting our blessings and hugging each other tight a lot. But I am really, really, really hoping 2009 will be better.
*pinches the cheeks of the wee ickle baby new year*
( Introspective stuff, feel free to skim right by... )
I do want to take this time to say: You fabulous folks here really make a difference in my life. I take great comfort knowing that you are here. I rely on your expertise on so many things, and you cheer me up and inform me about so many things in life (fannish, nonfannish and everything in between) and I am so happy that in some small way you gain some value in your life by spending time reading what I write here.
Thank you for being a part of my life.
*group husmish*
I wish that we all may have a happier, healthier, wealthier 2009... a year which allows all of us to hug our loved ones tight, to celebrate our passions and our creativity, and to make fulfilling contributions in the lives of our families, our friends, our communities and our world. Happy New Year, everyone!
current mood:  cold
current music: Wheel In The Sky/Do You Recall
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(feed a plotbunny)
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| Monday, December 29th, 2008
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12:48 pm - I am giving myself silliness for New Years.
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7:08 am - Family Favorite CrockPot Recipes, Part One
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So I don't lose these darned things again.... here are some of our wee little family's favorite crockpot recipes.
Mom and Dad and I made these recipes when I was in middle school and high school... whoever was awake early could start the recipe and we could all go about our day without thinking about who had to set aside part of their afternoon/evening to cook dinner. And with Mom returning to work full-time around that time of our lives, and Mom and Dad taking evening classes at various points, and with me having all kinds of activities, and all three of us having a bazillion hobbies... let's just say that the crockpot was a godsend and leave it at that.
Nowadays crockpots are really nice, with more complex timing settings and all that, but they're even nicer now that you can buy disposable liners for them. I am uncertain whether all of the hot water and soap we had to use scrubbing out the baked-on stuff in the pot is more or less ecologically friendly than using a disposable plastic-like bag to line the pot so you pitch the bag afterwards, but the disposable liners are certainly less work for the not-chefs (whoever cooks at our house is the chef, and the not-chefs clean the kitchen afterwards).
Anyhoo... these three recipes came from a Rival crockpot cookbook from 1975, ISBN 0-307-49263.
( International Chicken )
( Chicken Fricassee )
( Candied Polynesian Spareribs )
current mood:  busy
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(2 well-fed plotbunnies | feed a plotbunny)
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6:46 am - Family Continuity
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I have been updating my Contacts database from my Mom's addressbook. I think have the most up-to-date addresses that she has for all of my relatives now. I still don't have email addresses for many of them, but this is progress, and if her addressbook is ever damaged (it's actual, physical paper), I have a digital backup now on my laptop and my iPhone. Once I'm back in California next week, the data will be included in my regular backup schedule. This is progress.
This week, while I'm installing the replacement for her desktop computer, I'm hoping I'll have time to figure out how (if?) she has been keeping track of people's email addresses on her existing computer. Cross your fingers for me, people... my parents use Windows, and Outlook, while I am most at home in either Elm on Unix or Thunderbird on my Macs.
I am also trying to make headway towards having digital backups of old family photographs, recipes and patterns (knitting, sewing, etc). I've figured out that taking photographs of patterns and family photographs with my trusty Canon 7.1 Megapixel camera is faster and easier than using the HP scanner I got for my parents some years ago, but I have a ton of work to do. The recipes, I think I need to type (I'll be posting them to my IJ with the tag "recipes"). But the knitting patterns are really, really fussy to type and I just don't have time, so I'm photographing them.
I really, really don't want to have to worry that the pattern Mom has always, always used to make personalized knitted Christmas/Yule stockings might be lost to the vagaries of time, or that we lose the Wacky Cake recipe that Mom learned from her Depression-era Grandmothers, and I feel the same way about the knitting pattern she used to make childrens' mittens when I and the various cousins and family friends' children were little. They were mittens that were puppets... dragons and badgers and skunks and oh, adorableness. We do still have these patterns, mostly legible even! But we've been depending on photocopies of photocopies of mimeographs of magazine pages, you know? It is a miracle that we still have any of these patterns, after the carnage of the smoke damage took so much.
I am steadfastly trying to avoid kicking myself for not creating digital backups of all of these things sooner, because dammit, now I have to search the web for patterns Mom used to make dolls and stuffed animals for me when I was a child, and we don't even have a complete list of what's never coming back to us, because the cleanup crew apparently listed them as "n boxes of patterns" and similar, if they listed them at all.
*little tiny snirfle*
*squares shoulders, wipes eyes*
I damned well better be able to find them, is all I'm sayin'. Because the idea that they're gone forever and ever? Is utterly unacceptable. I can refind, recreate them for my Mom. I know I can.
Midmorning ETA: To clarify... I am now hunting down one particular sock monkey sewing pattern (which I believe will be findable, I just need to figure out from Mom which cover looks familiar (1958 or 1967 is most likely), and one particular doll sewing pattern (which is being near-impossible for me to find; hopefully Mom will be able to give me some small bit of additional detail when she gets home from work tonight to help my quest along). The doll's head and body are made from a tube sock with a layer of pantyhose over that to give it skin-tone, with muslin/cotton fabric arms and legs, and little dress pattern involves using a handkerchief cut on the diagonal as the fabric of its triangular apron, and the dollies have yarn hair. This pattern has got to be from sometime between 1975 and 1985, I just haven't found it yet...
I believe that I have found the one other doll pattern I was specifically seeking earlier this morning; I'm hoping Mom can confirm that the one I've found online is the one we're trying to replace, since I don't think I ever saw the outside of the pattern envelope. Mom had an absolutely charming and wonderful habit of sewing dolls for me as surprises, for my birthday and for Christmas.
Evening Update: The sock monkey book Mom had was in fact the 1958 printing, and the doll Mom made for me for my birthday all those years ago (with a dress for me to match hers) was a Holly Hobbie pattern from 1973 or so, namely Simplicity 6006. (Update to the Update: We have ordered them both from Amazon Sellers now.) I am still searching for the other doll pattern that uses the nylon over a tube sock for the head and body, and a handkerchief corner for the apron... Mom says it was a Woman's Day pattern, and likely a "send away for" one at that, and it could have been as early as the late 1950s, and as late as 1985 or so. If anyone has any leads on such a pattern, please send 'em my way...
Side note: Are any of you using image hosting sites to archive photos of old sewing or knitting patterns? Mom lost most of her patterns to the smoke damage from the fire last summer, but many of the remaining ones are from the 1960s and 1970s and I can't imagine that anyone would come after us for copyright violations at this point if I use Flickr for this purpose, but then again, I really don't want my account to be suspended or deleted. Hrmm...
current mood: busy
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(8 well-fed plotbunnies | feed a plotbunny)
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| Sunday, December 28th, 2008
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6:30 am - If you know middle-school-aged girls, buy them these books.
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You may have heard about them discussed on podcasts (Science Friday, anyone?) or news shows, heard about them on NPR, or maybe you read about them in Wil Wheaton's blog, and yeah, I have to agree... if you know middle-school-aged girls, buy them these books, or have them check them out at their local libraries:
Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail
and
Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who's Boss
both by the fantastic Danica McKellar.
And yeah, it's cool that she and another student with their professor at UCLA proved their own new theorem while in college, and it's very cool that Danica is gorgeous as well as smart and that Hollywood seems to be aware of that and she is doing some independent directing work as well as yoga and ballroom dancing, and it's very, very cool that the official website of Math Doesn't Suck has a special offer whereby you can buy her books to donate to libraries in exchange for an autograph from Danica.
current mood:  groggy
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(feed a plotbunny)
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| Saturday, December 27th, 2008
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8:49 pm - Blu-Ray Reviews
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If you have a Blu-Ray player and a public television addiction and/or a nature show fetish, the following reviews may be of interest...
In semi-related news... does anyone reading this journal routinely use Windows Media Center software in a computer with a TV tuner card? And if so, do you use it with a surround sound system? And if so, do you also use that same computer to play music with iTunes?
*sigh*
I am awash in new technology at my parents' place, and although I do love playing with their new toys... I am wishing I had a friend or a partner or someone similar with me this visit who was as geeky as I am (if not geekier) about this stuff, because HOLY CRAP this techie stuff is so great when it works, and it's frustrating as HELL when it doesn't do what you expect it to.
I am still in the midst of rewiring and reconfiguring the home network, plus configuring and integrating the new systems and drives. I have no idea if I can finish everything on my To Do list by the end of this trip. I have no idea if I can even get all of this technology working together and stable so that if I am unable to visit again until Easter, things won't go utterly pear-shaped. YIKES.
Anyhoo... here are my reviews of the Blu-Ray discs we've watched this week, while I've worked on an afghan I'm making for Mom... enjoy!
Earth: A Biography -- Thumbs up. Lots of thumbs up. And we've only watched the first two episodes. But OMG some people are really crazy. Do not taunt live volcanos, Dr. Iain!
Coral Reef Adventure -- Really, really lovely. And narrated by Liam Neeson. And it has a website with all kinds of information and ways you can help save coral reefs, which is really cool... http://www.coralfilm.com/ But OMG some people are really crazy. Do not taunt deep ocean pressure, Howard Hall!
Australia: Land Beyond Time -- Interesting, beautiful and yeah, cute photography of kangaroos. I learned things I haven't before about kangaroos, platypuses (platypi?), and the strange flooding cycle that creates Lake Eyre... which surprised me, since having been raised on public television, I already know lots and lots of stuff.
Over California -- Meh. It's edited to hop through the clips too fast... the shots are just too short, and the narrative is rather hokey.
A friendly little note from Elke to HD filmmakers: If you're going to bolt a fancy camera onto an airplane or a helicopter, be sure you actually capture plenty of long, sweeping shots. Don't bother with a bunch of short little shots that don't last a minute (or half a minute, or a quarter-minute!) and then string them together with little clue about the motion of your viewers' eyes will travel over the screen. Actually... now that I think about it? Most of the vids I've seen at VividCon over the years had better, more lyrical, lovely well-crafted motion-based editing than this thing. Find a VividCon vidder and get to know their work, HD filmmakers!!
HD Moods: Beaches -- Meh, but not horrible. Just... meh. These HD filmmakers need to learn some lessons in still photography composition. I can recommend some lovely fannish folks who do better nature still-photography composition than many of the shots in this production...
Mamma Mia -- We love ABBA, and we love musicals, and Greece is gorgeous, and Meryl Streep is wonderful. Thumbs up!
In general, we're finding that for us, anything nature-related or science-related created by PBS or the BBC on the Blu-Ray format is likely worth the time and money to watch (and rewatch, and re-rewatch...). The same is true of most of the Blu-Ray discs of commercial theatrical IMAX releases. The others? Not so much.
In mostly-unrelated news, I continue to adore the folks who produce NOVA for public television. My parents and I caught a big chunk of Absolute Zero tonight and now I am nearly convinced that when I return to Burbank, I need to do something to get Casa Del Fandom the ability to watch live television, something that we have never had in the nearly four years we've lived there (yeah, really... we've never had cable, dish or even a functional antenna... we like our media in tightly-controlled doses of DVDs, with no commercials at all). Recently I've also caught an episode of Antiques Roadshow for the first time in years, which was highly entertaining.
PBS, I LOVE YOU.
And just when I thought I could not love PBS more? I stumble across the fact that some NOVA shows can be streamed online, including some short NOVA Science Now blurblets which are way cool, and the latest episodes of Nature are also available. I saw the full-length NOVA Ocean Animal Emergency on my parents' TV when I was here for Thanksgiving, and it was rather amazing. And sometime during my travels this past autumn, either here at my parents' place or in hotels, I managed to catch Nature's Under The Antarctic Ice, which was also amazing.
YAY PBS!
Fannish folks are awesome, by the way. Really awesome. We create all kinds of wonderfulness with our technology, whatever technology we have. I was finally able to download and watch the new multifandom vid One-Night Fandoms: A Tribute to Yuletide (by eruthros and thingswithwings), and oh, fandom! Oh, Yuletide!! I lack words to sufficiently convey my squee!!!
:-D
current mood: tired
current music: Carly Simon, Give Me All Night
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(feed a plotbunny)
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| Friday, December 26th, 2008
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10:23 am - Yuletide squee!
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(Insert muted cursing about travel, midwestern weather, technology and internet access here... grar. Just, grar.)
Look! Oh, go and look! I got Captain Blood fanfic for Yuletide!!!
Pecca Fortiter
*SQUEE!*
:-D
(And thank heavens... my recipient likes the story I wrote, too!)
But oh, look at what was written for me!
Tipsified Captain Blood! Levasseur the rogue! And angsty Jeremy! ZOMG!
:-D
(And there's another new Captain Blood story in the archive this year, too, that I haven't had time to read yet... the wee little collection is growing! See? http://yuletidetreasure.org/archive/fandom_captain_blood.html Yay!!)
Merry Yuletide, everyone! I don't know when I'll have time and reliable internet connection to read elsewise in the archive, but oh, go and read!
ETA: And oh oh oh! Talullah wrote me a New Years Resolution fic last October and I somehow never got notice that it was there! It's beautiful! I had asked for Hawaiian Mythology, and I adore Pele and Poliahu, and oh, go read!! No One Else Around
current mood: tired
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(2 well-fed plotbunnies | feed a plotbunny)
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| Sunday, December 21st, 2008
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5:56 pm - Joyous Yule to us all...
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Although my To-Do list is about a mile long and I need to get most of it done before Tuesday, I celebrated today by taking myself to the spa for An Incredible Massage, followed by a fabulous steamy shower in The Most Decadent Bathroom Imaginable, followed by dozing off in their relaxation room in The World's Most Comfortable Chair with a cup of tea and some crackers. And then I went for a little walk, admired the blue sky above and the lovely white clouds, considered heading up to the local mountains for a stroll, but instead I had lunch at my favorite coffeeshop, came home and took a nap.
I had no idea I had been so tense, nor so tired... but I'm starting to mend.
Welcome, Winter!
Here's wishing that I always remember to slow down and take care of myself, and here's wishing all the best to you and yours, during this holiday season and throughout the coming year, through dark times and light.
current mood: relaxed
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(4 well-fed plotbunnies | feed a plotbunny)
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| Monday, December 15th, 2008
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9:45 pm - Some days, I tell you, some days...
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If anyone in the Los Angeles area was hearing a dull, repetitive thudding noise all afternoon, don't worry, that wasn't earthquake or construction related. That was my forehead hitting my desk. A lot.
*sigh*
I love my job, really I do.
But even the bestest bestest bestest job sucks like a hoover sometimes.
G'night, lovelies... may tomorrow be better than today, for all of us.
current mood:  annoyed
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(2 well-fed plotbunnies | feed a plotbunny)
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| Sunday, December 14th, 2008
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7:09 pm - This is not entirely my fault.
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| Friday, December 12th, 2008
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7:19 am - Elke, kicking and screaming into the 21st century...
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I am now the proud owner of a fancy-ass brand-new iPhone.
I have learned how download free Apps for it to turn it into a graphing calculator, a sheet of bubble wrap, and an autumn-leaves-filled snowglobe. I can make it blow virtual bubbles and play Towers of Hanoi, Tangrams, and a number of colorful memory-building games. I can check my many different email accounts on it, although I haven't yet configured it for more than just my work account. I can use it to make light-saber noises when I swing it around, and I can also use it to take photos of my cat. I can use it to browse the web (and reference my workplace's wiki knowledgebase OMG) from anywhere with wifi or a cellular signal. I can make it tell me LA freeway traffic conditions, and when I exit off the red-colored horridly traffic-filled freeway because no one let me merge into the lane I needed to be in to stay on the freeway, it can help me figure out where the hell I am so I can make my way home on surface streets from goodness-only-knows where.
And apparently I can stuff a bunch of my iTunes music library into it and stop carrying around my early-generation iPod which I usually connect to the cassette tape deck in my car allowing me to yorble along with Steve Perry on my freeway commute (or when I am lost on surface streets, using the Force to find my way home). I'll probably do that this weekend, since my iTunes library is in rather a state of flux right now, re-inputting CDs and playlists and such.
There's also an app that will help me keep track of what clothes I've worn when, and in what combinations.
Oh, and this bizarre, fabulous little thing is also a telephone.
And I still haven't read any portion of its user manual. Does it even have one? Crap if I know...
Holy crap. Just... holy crap.
What are your favorite iPhone Apps, oh all-knowing readers?
(By the way, "yorble" is my new favorite verb (which I have made up) to mean a cross between yodeling, warbling, and caterwauling, preferably done in the privacy of your own car, optionally as accompaniment to pre-recorded music, while driving alone. Achieving correct pitch and/or tempo is not required in order to yorble. Scientific research has proven that yorbling is good for improving general health and well-being, and boosting immunoresponse and emotional mood. (And no, I didn't make up the part about it being healthy -- singing along to music really is good for you!))
current mood: caffeinated!!
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(26 well-fed plotbunnies | feed a plotbunny)
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| Sunday, December 7th, 2008
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5:50 am - At home in Burbank
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Gah, what time zone is this again? :-P
In any case, here's a pretty link I found in my magazines during my flights over the past few weeks... I don't usually get Real Simple any more, but sometimes the holiday issues prove too tempting to resist.
Real Simple Magazine's Photo Gallery: Scenes of Winter (there are a bunch of other galleries there that I find inspiring, too... just as long as I skip over the wedding-related ones. The Candles one is really beautiful.
I really like a specific photo which is printed in the December Real Simple magazine on a bookmark. Seeking to make a piece of it into an IJ icon, I went on a bit of a hunt trying to find it online, and have come up empty, but I did over the course of that mini-adventure find a neat design blog with other cool photographs of homes and decorating styles: http://simplygrove.blogspot.com/
And now it is time for me to put yet another load of laundry in (OMG, I have so much laundry to do), and to make myself a hot chocolate, with a spearmint candy cane as a stirrer, so that I can make lists of all of the stuff I want to try to get done in the next two weeks, before I hop on Yet Another Flight to spend Christmas with my parents.
Yes, this is Elke, rather jet-lagged, awake entirely too early, listening to the washer as it finishes cleaning cat pee out of my bedroom quilt (someone either didn't like me gone, or didn't like me coming back from my recent travel)... but nonetheless high on winter holiday glee.
:-D
Glee!
I love this whole season. Merry December, everyone!!
ETA: OK, all-knowing readers... what do you use to organize your recipes??? I found a couple new ones in my magazines and I want to try them later, but I know if I stick them with all of the others, even organized by season, I'll never find them easily later. I'm thinking of a little database-thing on my laptop, but I know there are online services so you can make your recipe database-thing accessible from anywhere, which would be useful... but I don't know what issues might arise from typing in recipes from books or magazines which I don't own the copyright to. *confuzzlement*
ETA again: And I have to share a link to My New Favorite Suit. My Sears.com order arrived while I was away, and now I'm figuring out what I need to hem and what needs a heavier-duty hook-and-eye and what doesn't fit and will be returned (only one piece, amazingly -- Danny & Nicole rock my world). Anyway, in my mind, My New Favorite Suit is my Lois Lane outfit, and it feels very 1940s and "fearless young broad on-the-go ish" and it's gorgeous and it fits and it's lined and it's washable and *GLEE*. I don't normally wear 3/4 sleeves on suits, nor do I wear skirts much, but this suit works for me, and I think I just might want to wear skirts more often.
If the link isn't working, go to Sears.com and search for "Danny & Nichole Shawl Collar Tweed Skirtset" to see it.
GLEE, I tell you... GLEE!
ETA yet again: And a couple more nifty links from my magazines...
Need to store something and keep it from getting damp? Buy some silica gel desiccant to put in there with it.
Apparently there is a booming market in high-definition videos of fireplaces.
Scented shelf paper is somehow a flag for "cultured lady-ness" in my hindbrain, but it can't be used so much as to be overpowering or it tips into "scary overfrump YIKES" territory. Personally (and I totally imprinted on this from my Mom), I prefer Lily of the Valley for delicates like slips and hosiery, and lavender for pajamas, and I have cedar blocks hanging with my suits in my closet. Putting sachets or vented boxes with a scented soap bar into drawers is fun, too, but I adore pretty paper to line the dresser drawers. Here are some suppliers:
http://www.soapandpaperfactory.com/
http://www.scentennials.com/
http://www.caswellmassey.com/store/default.aspx?DepartmentId=100&F_All=Y
http://store.crabtree-evelyn.com/fragrancing-drawer-liners.html
http://www.shoplondons.com/asquith.html
I've changed my IJ's layout to be white and blue and green, with the wreath icon from LiviaPenn as my default. Yay for Yule!
current music: By The Fireside, A Winter's Solstice II, Windham Hill Artists
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(4 well-fed plotbunnies | feed a plotbunny)
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| Thursday, December 4th, 2008
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3:49 pm - Rocky Mountain Winter Wonderland
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Twenty degrees and snow falling... Denver is lovely.
Thank heavens for warm scarves and gloves and coats and My New Hat!
current mood: cozy
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(feed a plotbunny)
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| Monday, December 1st, 2008
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7:19 pm - Hello, Mile High City of Broncos...
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I'm in Denver. So far, the hotel is absolutely charming.
It was snowing this morning in Indianapolis. Winter wonderland and all of that... I am in such a holiday mood now!
*yawn*
But first, I sense an impending long winter's nap... well, at least until morning.
G'night, lovelies!
current mood: sleepy
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(8 well-fed plotbunnies | feed a plotbunny)
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| Sunday, November 30th, 2008
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8:52 pm - Speaking of time zones...
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I leave Indiana ungodly early tomorrow morning to fly to Denver for a week of project management training class.
*glares at 4am alarm setting*
*stares at ceiling*
Grar.
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(feed a plotbunny)
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| Thursday, November 27th, 2008
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9:39 pm - a new tradition in seven easy steps
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1. Notice a vaguely-interesting recipe in Coastal Living magazine because the accompanying article included photos of bicycles decorated with garlands and sparkly beads. Oooh, shiny sparkly.
2. Email recipe to parents.
3. Survive intervening week or two of chaos.
4. Visit parents, who have survived their intervening week or two of chaos.
5. Encourage parents to try the new recipe even if we don't have all of the ingredients because we all only just barely survived the intervening weeks of chaos... Mom goes for it, substituting pomegranate-tangerine juice for tangerine juice, doubling the dried cranberries for the dried cherries, and using flour in place of corn starch. She skips the rind-grating and the sectioning of the tangerine since we have no actual tangerines in the house. Oh, and she omits the salt and uses low-sodium chicken broth, because this is an Extremely Extremely Low Sodium household.
6. Discover that this is The Best Interesting Gravy Ever.
7. Watch in pleased amusement, and chime in wholeheartedly, as the entire table agrees that we're doing this recipe again next year. It's awesome on turkey, and I'll bet it'll be equally amazing on chicken.
:-9
The original recipe is available online at http://www.coastalliving.com/ by searching the recipes for "Tangerine Gravy" or by going directly to this link (theoretically, anyway).
( Here's a copy of the recipe for posterity in case the Coastal Living site goes down... )
Enjoy!
current mood: happy
current music: it's after midnight here, so I've started my Yule music
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(6 well-fed plotbunnies | feed a plotbunny)
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| Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
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9:31 pm - What time zone is this, again?
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*yawn*
I'm back in Indiana for the holiday weekend, helping my parents some more with the house and related paperwork. And on Monday I fly to An Unfamiliar Cold Wintery City for a week of professional development training. I'm really looking forward to it but frankly, I'd prefer to hibernate for a week.
*yaaaaaawn*
current mood: tired
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(feed a plotbunny)
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| Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
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8:10 am - Random links of happy-making
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amused