[Most Recent Entries] [Calendar View] [Friends View]
Below are the most recent 13 friends' journal entries.
| Saturday, November 28th, 2009 | ||
|
yonmei |
5:36p | Same-sex handholding dragons Today is Sssh! Saturday, which is an invention of a Londoner who wants it to become an international last-Saturday-of-the-month celebration of people holding hands in public. I didn't hold hands with anyone today. One of my dragons is about to die. I have to go have dinner with my parents shortly. None of the above statements has anything to do with each other or with this one. As far as I know.   Current Mood:  indescribable |
| Friday, November 27th, 2009 | ||
|
yonmei |
11:24p | Dull week... Monday: still at work till 10pm, till TSH#1 and I finally packed up and left. Tuesday: Took Bob to vet: she weighs the same as she did last time, so the vet hopes she's plateau'd out. Stayed at work till 10pm, till TSH#1 and I finally packed up and left. Wednesday: Worked at home till 3pm, went into work, stayed at work till 10pm. (TSH#1 was through in Glasgow at a work-related event.) Thursday: Twerp and FreshStart had meeting, which - towards the end - I overheard enough (door opened) to make clear they had been talking about me. Huh. Left work at 5:30 to attend work-related event. Left at 8pm and went to non-work wine-tasting. (White Rioja is great stuff, by the way.) Friday: Left work at 5:10 to attend work-related event. Left at 7:30pm, did shopping, got home at just after 9pm. Am attempting to figure out where I want to go for Christmas. For the last sixteen years, with only a couple of exceptions, I've been meeting up with two friends for mince pies, wine, and midnight mass. This Christmas, one of them is dead, and the other plans - rightly, I think - to go on holiday somewhere else. (I would go with him if he were going, but I have been going to that church specifically for midnight mass on Chriatmas Eve since 1987, first with one friend, then with another, and now both of them are dead. It feels too weird to be going there on my own. I'd like to be somewhere else instead.) Current Mood: busy |
|
yonmei |
1:19p | |
| Thursday, November 26th, 2009 | ||
|
yonmei |
12:55p | Nanowrimo "Group Three: The Go On Without Me's. For you, November turned out to be a very bad month to try and write a novel. Life went completely crazycakes, and you faced a never-ending series of demanding work or school projects, health emergencies, social obligations, and/or tech meltdowns. You managed to get a few good ideas down on paper, but never quite found your novel's rhythm. You're thinking of bowing out, and planning on giving it a try next year." That was me. But I still want to write... *is sadface* Current Mood: sad |
| Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 | ||
|
yonmei |
12:25p | If I ever use the word "cerulean" to describe House's eyes Please take away my writer's licence. Cerulean is not just a fancy word for "blue", though I'd guess from some writers' use they think it is. There is a specific pigment of which the primary chemical constituent is cobalt, which has been used by painters to get a stable blue colour without greenish undertones since it was invented in the early 19th century. It's also got a specific colour-name use to describe two hues of blue: very light blue (synonyms sapphire, lazulin); or a dark almost purplish blue which is also known as "bright blue", oddly enough. Both can be called "sky blue". But really. Like most people with pure blue eyes, Greg House's eyes sometimes look colourless (absence of pigment) sometimes you can see the blue colour more strongly. They do not ever look like sapphire, or like potassium, or like cerulean blue paint. What POV character in House MD would be likely ever to look at blue eyes and think "cerulean!" anyway? None of them are painters. Or photographers. Or even graphics designers. Current Mood: amused |
| Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 | ||
|
yonmei |
12:57p | It is a truth not sufficiently acknowledged... ...that no one ever sees themselves as the villain: no one ever thinks of themselves as the bully. Healthcheck warning: this leads to Kathryn Cramer's website via HideMyURL In other, more pleasant thoughts, it has occurred to me that there is a lovely meme to be had comparing fandoms to cake. The manly moustachio'd fandoms of the 1970s and 1980s are chocolate cake, solid and multilayered with thick chocolate frosting and sandwiched with more chocolate. (The Professionals has an unexpected chocolate-ginger layer that involves Gordon Jackson/Cowley. Bodie and Doyle are chocolate cake even though neither of them have moustaches.) House is a series of green tea vegan cupcakes with rosewater icing and little silver balls, though attempts keep being made to stir it in a more normal direction. What is your fandom? What is its representative cake? (This post wants you to know *bouncing up and down a little* that it was inspired by ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jekesta's RiptideIsLove multifandom vid, which is all about being in love with a fandom so much you can't really think about any of the rest. Or anything else. Really. It is (the fanvid, not this post) deep and meaningful and clever and funny and cute and full of Avons, or at least one Avon.) Current Mood: bitchy |
| Monday, November 23rd, 2009 | ||
|
yonmei |
8:01a | On the sea where there is no Monday Gdansk at dawn! (Which is at 8:26, this time of year.) Current Mood: happy |
| Saturday, November 21st, 2009 | ||
|
yonmei |
9:22a | Nibling in utero? I had a will. (And my previous will included the possibility that my brother might have children, or that my sister might have more children, so technically my newest nibling was covered.) But, named bequests are better, and this month is Will Aid month, so I looked up the nearest solicitor to me who was participating and this time, helped by the fact that the solicitor was doing it for free and so had no investment in making it more complicated, I had him write me a classically simple will with a small handful of cash bequests, an explicit instruction to my executor to honour any handwritten bequests that had been dated and signed (legal in Scottish law: I don't even have to get a witness), and the main division of residual legacy* to residual heirs, this time including both nephews by name. But, as the solicitor pointed out (as the last one did) there is the possibility that either my brother or my sister might have more children, and so there's an additional clause adding any other offspring of my brother and my sister as equal heirs with the two named nephews. When the will arrived, these potential niblings were identified as "born or in utero at the time of my death" - and this actually left me wondering - in the kind of way one does speculate about wild improbabilities - what happens if my brother's girlfriend is pregnant at the time of my death, then has a miscarriage afterwards? Would the dead fetus get a share, which would by default be inherited by my brother's girlfriend? The whole thing has a massive improbability score which I am not seriously worried about - not least, because it's not as if I'm actually going to be around to worry about it if it happens - but it's a curious thing to will money to a fetus. Anyway. I need to get the will witnessed and a copy in store, but once done that should do me for another ten years**. Unless Flow is planning to give newest nephew a sibling. (My sister has already, many times, said emphatically that there are not going to be any more from her.) Anyway. Making a will is important! Even if you have nothing to leave except twelve books and three sex toys and a kitten, the only reason for not making a will is to cause guaranteed amounts of trouble for whoever is required to deal with your crap after you die. *My house. When sold. **Unless I buy another house in the meantime. Or register a civil partnership. Or the world as we know it comes to an end in 2012. Or have a baby. I mention these things in increasing order of wild improbability, but any one of them could invalidate*** my will. ***Not legally. In Scotland nothing invalidates a previous will but a new will, though you and your heirs and executors ought to be identified by name/address, and a spouse can claim a share. And Scottish courts can process Scots law anywhere, so technically it wouldn't matter if the UK was completely drowned by giant tsunamis. Actually having a child would make a will effectively invalid since a child is legally entitled to a specific share in a Scottish will and can contest the will if they don't get it. Current Mood: amused |
| Friday, November 20th, 2009 | ||
|
yonmei |
12:08a | |
| Thursday, November 19th, 2009 | ||
|
yonmei |
6:40a | Emotional shocks, sleepless nights, and travelling to Glasgow Yesterday at work I had a big emotional rock thrown through my window (metaphorically speaking). So I slept badly last night. Also, while sleeping badly, I didn't notice that Bob was outside until I woke up this morning and it occurred to me that she wasn't there. Also I have to go to Glasgow this morning for a 10:30 meeting, which is not unfortunately in the dead centre of Glasgow where I could reach it within 10 minutes walk, or I would plan on getting the 9:15 train that gets me at 10:06 and costs my project £11.50. No: it's just over a mile away, which is doable in 20 minutes if I walk briskly, but a route I don't know and an address I haven't been to before, and I had rather plan on getting there early than late. :-( I'm an Edinbugger: we're good at getting lost in Glasgow. Anyway, so, I figured I should probably plan instead on getting the 8:30 train (makes no difference: any train before the 9:15 one will cost my project £18.80) and get there at 9:21 and have loads of time to wander over. This doesn't interest you, I know: it's boring. I promised myself I would make it to a transgender day of remembrance ceremony this weekend (since the MCC is doing one of their determinedly-not-too-religious ones on Saturday) but Jo Clifford is running two, lunchtime and early evening, at GOMA, today: so I thought I'd go there at lunchtime. I like Jo. (I've never been into dresses. But this is definitely a Dude, where's my jetpack? dress. It's a shame that apparently no one's ever worn it. "A woman can never be too fine when she is all in white." Then she lights up the room.... H/t: Avedon.) I hope Bob shows up before I have to leave. *frets* (The front door downstairs is open: the glass inner door is closed: I let Wolf out. This is usually a good way of getting Bob in, assuming she's not curled up in a neighbour's house right now.) [Update, 7:45 - Bob trots back in, complaining that she's been OUT ALL NIGHT. Yes, lovecat, that tends to happen if you insist on going out in the late evening when I'm TIRED.] Current Mood: awake |
| Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 | ||
|
yonmei |
10:23p | Recipe: daal Buy daal. (They sell it in big bags at any local South Indian shop.) In a slow cooker, add two cups daal, seven cups boiling water, and a teaspoon of salt. (Properly speaking you should also add a tablespoon of turmeric, but I didn't have any: I'd forgotten that before I went to Montreal, I threw all my old herbs/spices out.) Put the slow cooker on High for a couple of hours. Stir sporadically. The daal will be a thick porridge. (Rather pale, since I had no turmeric. I added a vegie stock cube instead.) Classically daal is flavoured with garlic and fresh coriander cooked together and swirled through the daal once it's porridge. I chopped a lot of garlic, a lot of fresh ginger, and two tomatoes. I fried it all in butter with a teaspoonful of coriander and a tablespoon of curry powder. When cooked, I swirled the mix through the daal, which by this time was really pretty thick. Switched off the slow cooker and left it to soak up the flavours (though I did try it fresh and it was pretty good even then). Current Mood: full |
| Monday, November 16th, 2009 | ||
|
yonmei |
2:24p | |
| Sunday, November 15th, 2009 | ||
|
yonmei |
9:06p | House, Cottages, and death ( Mildly spoilery for up to Season 6 - Known Unknowns ) Current Mood: quixotic |
