Friends will be friends

Friends will be friends Below are the 50 most recent friends journal entries:

May 18th, 2012
01:00 pm sinfestfeed [Link]	2012-05-18: Sinfest http://www.cartoonlabs.com/comics/index.php?date=2012-05-18&show=sinfest Sinfest Tatsuya Ishida (Leave a comment)
08:00 am filkertom [Link]	My tweets Thu, 17:23: Farewell, Donna Summer http://t.co/rTmxkqFd Tags: twitter (Leave a comment)
07:38 am dhstein [Link]	At the airport. Got a slurpee, and my excitement to see all the art, artists and friends at SpectrumLive. Must try not to spend money. (Leave a comment)
07:38 am maiac [Link]	May 18 is Lion Day. On this day in history: ( Go to The List ) Picture of the Day Tags: this day in history (Leave a comment)
12:00 pm marypcb [Link]	My tweets Thu, 19:48: namecheck for QNX in the amateur European moon rover keynote Thu, 22:15: sweet; the physical volume keys on my notebook give me a pause/play control for the Metro music player, from the #win8 desktop #convenient Thu, 22:27: +1 for asking @Twitter to render SkyDrive links and images inline #skydrivepixplease RT if you want it ;) http://t.co/FPN3kLY4 @windowsblog Thu, 23:19: If GPU in the cloud is really good enough for gaming, will you still buy GPUs for your PC? Nvidia CEO says yes http://t.co/OFMOK756 Thu, 23:23: GPU in the cloud: what does it mean, how does it work and how much will it cost? http://t.co/PvxHsc2y Fri, 01:01: there are no cats in Angry Birds, right? So when describing the interface should I refer to the Bird-apult? the kamikaze-bird-apult? Fri, 03:29: @simonhackett did we just see you parked in downtown San Jose? Tags: twitter (Leave a comment)
05:44 am timprov [Link]	Random tidbits. Projects continue to come along, though slower than I would like. Learning how to work effectively is still the biggest thing going on here, but I'm making progress. Photographically the first two weeks of May have been my most productive year since 2008. You haven't seen a lot of those photos because I'm saving them for a sale next week, but it's going to be fun. I'm starting to think about what songs I need to have in shape for Fourth Street, so if anybody has anything they specifically want, this would be a good time to say so. I'm putting some design and architecture thoughts at Nefarious Designs, and a side effect is that there will be teasers of future projects there. This one is intended to be irregular, so hopefully not posting there won't stress me out like neglecting Trochaic Footbridge has been. I need to get back to that Right Soon Now, and get ahead. The previous post seems to have accomplished something - looks like 2+2 is going to be adding a photography forum. It's magic. The Minnesota Zoo will be closing their dolphin exhibit and sending the two remaining dolphins to other zoos. Not before time, I think; something bad has clearly been going on here to lose so many so fast, and without being able to identify it, they can't fix it. As much as having them here has been good for zoo attendees, I'm glad they're doing the right thing for the dolphins. Cultural milestone this week - a local sports star announced a same-sex engagement... and nobody cared. As far as I can tell there's been no media notice at all. I'll leave you with last week's LOL WUT moment: Tags: architecture, comics, guitar, my incompetent manager, photography, photos, politics, the future was wide open, you can't always do what you're supposed (Leave a comment)
05:42 am sraun [Link]	Happy Birthday dduane This entry was originally posted at http://sraun.dreamwidth.org/919288.html. Please comment there using OpenID. Current Location: home Tags: birthday (Leave a comment)
11:14 pm cmdrsuzdal [Link]	PART III: Spain The week in Spain was wonderful in the end, but started off frighteningly bad. I'd decided that I would fly to Spain on Monday and have johncoxon join me a few days later. In theory this would a) allow me to get a bit of the family stuff out of the way, b) let me ease back into my Spanish, and c) give us some days off from each other in case jet lag plus convention plus London plus family had gotten to us by then. It turned out better that I arrived alone, but for entirely different reasons. Long story short; Marta, my sister-in-law, had a heart attack the night I landed, at the same time my brother was on his way to the airport to pick me up. He didn't have his cellphone so we found out when we got back to the house, and promptly headed right back out to go to the hospital. After hours of waiting we got to see her, and she seemed okay. We talked to the doctor, and it was reassuring in some ways and scary in others, but basically my brother was terrified for the next 12 hours or so until he saw her again, then just out of his mind with worry for another day until they moved her from intensive care, and progressively better after that. So, by the time John arrived, things were a little bit more settled, but there was a receding tide of stress and worry in addition to the anticipated madness of meeting the family (Mike, Marta, and my sister Cymbeline) and visiting Spain. Additionally Marta's father had flown out the second he heard and was staying with us as well now, he was delightful but didn't speak a lick of English. Still, John seemed to take it all in stride and over the next four days we managed to eat and drink our way through most of Malaga, hitting a half dozen restaurants and tapa bars a day and barely making a dent. I had a list of things I wanted John to try and I'm glad to say we got to most of them, except paella. I also rediscovered my love for tinto de verano and am now trying to recreate it at home. Mike and Marta showed us all their favorite places which were many and all excellent, we went up the Alcazaba and the Girbralfaro (which I've done before, but was much more fun this time), and got us some culture at one of the new museums, the Carmen Thyssen, which was in a rather nice little palace of its own. I had hoped to take a day trip to Estepona, but the logisitics seemed to tedious to deal with so instead we went to the beach and I even had a very brief swim (the weather was hot but the water was still too cold). While Spain is in fact in economic dire straits, you couldn't really tell it from Malaga's center. They've closed off a bunch of streets to traffic, making the central part of the old town even more walkable than before, built a lovely modern waterfront, and opened a bunch of new museums, and the city just generally looked great. Now it's been a long time since I was properly in Malaga, and I was a teengager then and impressed with everything anyway, but the place and people looked better than ever. Just about every bar, cafe, and restaurant has a bunch of outdoor seating and everything is open till late. Because of that the streets are full all day and night, and the crowd is mixed the entire time; all ages, groups, couples, kids, whatever. There were tourists as well, but not all that many except near the Cathedral and museums, and there was a film festival going on while we were there, adding to the festive air. The other thing about Malaga is that it never disappoints. When I picked John up from the airport at 10pm or so, there were some tunos there, and then we saw some more of them singing at a bar while we walked up to Mike's place. On Friday Madrid played Barcelona in some important match or other and there was tons of loud (but good-natured) yelling and enthusiasm about that. The last night we were there we wandered by the gardens near the Cathedral and there was a busker with a beautiful voice singing Volver* and the whole thing was just ridiculously romantic without even trying. The weather was picture perfect the entire time, and therefore the views from the Alcazaba just gorgeous. It's an easy city to fall into, although I suspect the nerd side of me would get bored after a short time. Eventually it was time to get on the plane back to England. Appropriately, it was coming down buckets when we landed. Rather unoriginally, I love the Estrella Morente version from the Almodovar movie of the same name. Tags:* john, malaga, spain, tapas, travel, visit, volver (Leave a comment)
12:00 pm nwhyte [Link]	Links I found interesting for 18-05-2012 When publishing goes wrong…Starring Undead Press Nightmare experience for writer's first publication. (tags: writing ) Two dangerous myths about a 'Grexit' Myth 1) Greece faces disaster; Myth 2) the remaining Eu doesn't. (tags: euro eu ) Brussels Express A documentary about bike messengers in Brussels, the most congested city in Europe with only 4% cycling traffic. (tags: cycling belgium ) How John Roberts Orchestrated Citizens United The inside story of the death of US democracy. (tags: elections uspolitics ) Fascism on the Farm: Freddy the Politician The talking pig goes political, seven years before "Animal Farm". (tags: uspolitics books ) Two men rob internet cafe at gunpoint, but forget to log out of Facebook first \| Naked Security Top Tips! (tags: socialmedia facebook internet crime ) (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
03:35 am wiscon [bibliofile] [Link]	Last-minute info, ask a local, etc. WisCon starts in a week. What do you need to know? What do you want to know? Got any last-minute info to pass along? Weather -- It will most likely be warm, over 70'F during the day (about 25'C) and in the 50s (low teens, 'C) at night. Spring arrived a couple of months early this year, so expect to find June blooms and their allergens (for example, peony rather than lilac). Rain is always a possibility. Travel -- Will have its own comment thread in this post. I've heard of one change in the buses to Madison from Milwaukee's Mitchell airport (MKE). Anything else you've seen or heard? Ask away! Tags: pre-con stuff, travel, wiscon36 (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
01:16 am nihilistic_kid [Link]	Nearly there. The page proofs of Bullettime have been keeping me up till 1 or 2am every night for the past four, but now they are done. See? One more pass, after these corrections are made, ought to do it! (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
06:00 am terriwindling [Link]	A path of wildflowers http://windling.typepad.com/blog/2012/05/a-path-of-wildflowers.html "I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you, and that you will work them, water them with your blood and tears and your laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom." - Clarissa Pinkola Estes "Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous." - Bill Moyers When I pierce the skin of a Devon morning, here's the equation I find within: Bluebells + stitchwort + campion + sunshine + faithful canine companion = magic. (Leave a comment)
04:00 am xkcd_rss [Link]	Klout http://xkcd.com/1057/ (13 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:00 am dilbertdaily [Link]	Comic for May 18, 2012 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DilbertDailyStrip/~3/oJGqkLCYZfg/ http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2012-05-18/ (Leave a comment)
09:32 pm jedediah [Link]	Dayenu http://www.kith.org/journals/jed/2012/05/17/14074.html The other morning: If I had eaten delicious fresh avocado with breakfast but hadn't seen flowers, it would have been enough. If I had seen the lovely little blue and purple flowers that Twig planted around the trees in my front yard but hadn't felt sunlight, it would have been enough. If I had felt perfect warm California sunshine suffusing my skin and turning the drive to work into a sort of golden glow but hadn't heard music, it would have been enough. And then I listened to some cheerful music that I like, thereby pleasing four out of five senses in the span of about ten minutes. (Perhaps I should've stopped to smell the flowers!) An excellent way to start the day. The rest of the day wasn't as good, but it was enough. And it would've been hard to top the beginning part anyway. I'm awfully lucky, and privileged, to have all this. (I gather that “dayenu” is plural (“it would have been enough for us,” says Wikipedia), but I don't know what the singular is.) (Leave a comment)
12:04 am james_nicoll [Link]	Break out your space program bingo cards On a related note: Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there. (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:01 am james_nicoll [Link]	Green wet nanotech floods across landscape Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there. (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
May 17th, 2012
09:34 pm mmerriam [Link]	Sky-Tinted Waters ToC #2 - Siren by Jason D. Wittman Jason D. Wittman knows how to tell a tale. Whether it's gothic horror, science fiction, or loving homages, his prose is always spot on and his stories interesting. He’s also a pretty good guy to hang around with and talk books, movies, and other SF stuff. "Siren" heads into SF with a slight horror element. The story is tense and the character's well crafted. The reader will find themselves immersed in this tight tale and left with a sense of both wonder and dread at the end. This story pushed several of my buttons as a reader and editor. There was no way I could resist it. Sky-Tinted Waters is available from Sam's Dot Publishing. Tags: editor, minnspec, sky-tinted (Leave a comment)
09:48 pm wiscon [warriorofworry] [Link]	Thank you! Thank you to everyone who responded to my (increasingly desperate) pleas for a Governor's Club roommate. The problem has been solved. This community, as always, is stellar. ~Karen (Leave a comment)
09:21 pm desfontaines [Link]	When did LJ stop letting you see past 2 weeks on your friends' list? (Leave a comment)
07:50 pm sleigh [Link]	Jury Duty I -- or rather, I and eleven other people who were on jury duty with me -- sent a man to prison for three years yesterday. That's a really strange feeling... Current Music: Can't Win - Richard Thompson (8 comments \| Leave a comment)
04:25 pm nihilistic_kid [Link]	And now... Black Tiger Penis Whip Staff. Tiger Penis Whip! PENIS STAFF! (Leave a comment)
07:23 pm dhstein [Link]	http://fathomblue.blogspot.com/ there - I don't think I will abandon this spot, but I am going to use blogger now. I am a goddess as I have managed to update my web page and get this whole thing up with only the fiddling that I wanted to do. No headaches. (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
06:09 pm the_archfiend [Link]	There's no such thing as bad publicity, apparently... ...at least if you're a spittle-flecked state legislator like Virginia's Robert "Sideshow Bob" Marshall. Not having made enough of a name for himself by making the glaringly stupid statement that handicapped children are a punishment for legalized abortion or his equally vapid rant on flying a rainbow flag outside the Federal Reserve Bank in Richmond, he decided to up the wingnut ante by playing a central part in making sure that state prosecutor Tracy Thorne-Begland wouldn't become a judge because he seems to...er...prefer comfortable shoes (a perfectly ridiculous way to state that he suffers from T3H 3V1L GAY!!1!!, but aren't we living in ridiculous times in the first place?). Oh, and he recently doubled down on his opposition to sex that he finds simply icky. What a fun guy. Tags: us events (Leave a comment)
03:10 pm mactavish [Link]	caseyowenP1040749 caseyowenP1040749, a photo by marymactavish on Flickr. <3 (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
05:54 pm dagibbs [Link]	And new car picked up... I now have my brand-new silver ("Ironman Silver", ok, how is silver "Ironman"? Did Tony Stark pick the colour, or something?) 4-door manual transmission Hyundai Accent. w00t or something. (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
04:26 pm lukeski [Link]	Kickstarter Update: Stretch Goal achieved! Last chance to get in on LukeSkiCon & get nifty prizes! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/335203126/luke-skis-av-concert-rig/posts/229180 (Leave a comment)
04:46 pm peteralway [Link]	More sun The weather's been nice for (gulp) five days in a row. Freaky! Here's today's sun: That big naked-eye sunspot has disappeared off the right limb of the sun. But there seems to be something coming around on the left side. If you look carefully around the 9:30 position or so, there's what looks like a dark spot right on the limb. Might be something big. or not. We'll know tomorrow. judifilksign was asking why I do these in black and white. Well, I actually take these pictures in color through my mylar filter. That gives the image a strong blue tint. Here is today's raw photo: The orientation is weird because A)the sun'a orientation rotates as the earth spins, 2) the telescope inverts the image, and III) the eyepiece points it out the side of the telescope, to boot, so the image orientation is just pretty much scrambled, really. I rotate in photoshop to get north at the top. As for the color, I could change the color balance of the image to get rid of the blue, but it's a lot of work. I can use auto color in photoshop, but that ends up messing up the contrast and destroying a lot of detail in the process. And the resulting image looks pretty much black and white anyway. Also, figuring out what color is "accurate" is actually a big can of worms. So I just change the image to greyscale in photoshop, and muck around a little in "levels" to get the brightness and contrast set to show the maximum detail. (Leave a comment)
01:43 pm nihilistic_kid [Link]	Thursday quick links The Big Click's May issue is complete with the release of Mar Preston's The Man Who Loved Birds. If you like The Big Click, please consider buying the ebook! Also, our first issue, featuring stories be Ken Bruen and Anonymous-9 is now only a dollar from us and 99 cents elsewhere! Speaking of ebooks, The Damned Highway (w/ Brian Keene) is now an ebook on NOOK. And also Kobo for the seven of you out there who own that reader. No Kindle yet; it is coming soon. (Leave a comment)
03:37 pm mckitterick [Link]	Grades COMPLETE! Writing-time begins. Guess who just turned in final grades for Spring 2012? THAT'S RIGHT, A DAY AND A HALF EARLY! Praise be the benefits of modern medicine. After tomorrow, when grades are official, I go offline for a week, during which time I write the first chapter or three of my next novel - that'd be Jack and Stella's True-Life Space Adventures - so I can read from it at the upcoming ConQuesT SF convention in Kansas City. Speaking of SFnal stuff in Kansas City, this weekend is the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live! show at Bartle Hall. If the writing is well underway and I feel I can afford to get away for a day, I shall be there on Saturday. (Now begins the countdown for the lamentations of those who are shocked, SHOCKED, that they didn't get an A. And those who feel that completing missing projects on the last day will result in a positive outcome.) Chris Tags: adventures of jack and stella, teaching, writing (Leave a comment)
04:02 pm tobiasbuckell [Link]	SpaceX plans launch this Saturday http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TobiasBuckell/~3/mnrLfJ-YYLk/ http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/?p=6998 A big day for the possible future of space travel, and the return of US capability to launch people into orbit after the retirement of the shuttle, comes with SpaceX’s text flight of the Dragon capsule. It’s been delayed due to checking the software for the docking test over and over, and now looks to be locked in for this Saturday. (Leave a comment)
01:22 pm inclusive_geeks [thatwordgrrl] [Link]	Lowest Difficulty Setting So I'm curious what y'all think of John Scalzi's attempt to explain straight white male privilege to straight white males. In gamer terms. I guess as a straight white bro to straight white bro thing it works, but I'd like some other opinions. (22 comments \| Leave a comment)
04:15 pm andpuff [Link]	Tony in E-book! Remember how for the longest time you could only get the third Tony Foster book, Smoke and Ashes, as an ebook?Remember how irritating that was? Guess what? Book one and two are finally available. Big thanks to ladymurmur who let me know! So: amazon.com (kindle) chapters.indigo (kobo) barnes & noble (nook) amazon.com (kindle) chapters.indigo (kobo) barnes & noble (nook) and just in case you were waiting until book one and two came out to buy the ebook of book three amazon.com (kindle) chapters.indigo (kobo) barnes & noble (nook) All three books are also available as iBooks in Canada -- I can't guarentee anywhere else -- but because I go through the iTunes store, I have no idea of how to add a link. Sorry. Tags: ebooks, shilling (14 comments \| Leave a comment)
02:31 pm e_moon60 [Link]	And on the Home Front: Green Socks Have Heels Today my husband and son are out of the house--husband went to the city, picked up son, and took him to the dentist, after which they'll go to a movie and eat. So it was the perfect time to turn the heels of the green socks. Yesterday's knitting was such a depressing event that I was a bit scared, even though I've now turned the heels of the other pairs successfully. The heel turning went very smoothly, and I'm happy with the way the heels look. . The "eye of partridge" stitch shows clearly on the heel flap. I did the heel turn itself in stockinette. The center portion of the heel (the part with stitches that run "straight" from the back of the leg around and under) has eight stitches. That's the same as on the blue pair that preceded this pair. The heel flap itself is 28 stitches, two stitches narrower than the blue pair's heel flap because I decreased four stitches below the cuff ribbing. Now to pick up the stitches along the side of the heel flap and reconnect the heel to the top of the sock. With the family out of the house, I should be able to do this without interruption. I'd like a nap, actually (short of sleep again last night) but it's too good a chance to miss. It felt really good to have today's knitting do so well, after yesterday's fiasco. Current Mood: accomplished Tags: knitting, socks (5 comments \| Leave a comment)
03:24 pm dagibbs [Link]	3 car day Most days, I only drive one car. Sometimes my own, sometimes a rental. Some days I drive two cars -- usually on a day when I'm also flying. Today, though, I'm going to end up driving three cars: rental car, my old car, and my new car. (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
03:17 pm matociquala [Link]	i'd be drawn and quartered if i could keep you in my bed Look what the Book Elves left on my porch today! You can get yours here. Also, some other good news today, which I will share when I can. Current Mood: happy Current Music: Josh Ritter - Wings Tags: new amsterdam (14 comments \| Leave a comment)
03:15 pm dionysus1999 [Link]	Owning the most bananas does NOT make you a better ape, sir I wonder if I eat that many bananas in a year. Current Mood: amused (Leave a comment)
01:24 pm mrissa [Link]	Ah, the joys of co-writing. Nature abhors a (power) vacuum... ...but alecaustin doesn't. Tags: alec, pure silliness (Leave a comment)
09:55 am itsallonething [Link]	Banned “Tax the Rich” TED Talk slides and text here - SlashGear http://shetterly.blogspot.com/2012/05/banned-tax-rich-ted-talk-slides-and.html Banned “Tax the Rich” TED Talk slides and text here - SlashGear: "If the typical American family still got today the same share of income they earned in 1980, they would earn about 25% more and have an astounding $13,000 more a year." (Leave a comment)
10:29 am itsallonething [Link]	Is "Straight White Male" The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is? Part Four http://shetterly.blogspot.com/2012/05/is-straight-white-male-lowest_17.html I just left a comment at “Lowest Difficulty Setting” Follow-Up which went into moderation. In case it never comes out, here 'tis. The quotes are Scalzi's claims: "wealth and class are not an inherent part of one’s personal nature" Under capitalism, wealth and class are at least as much a part of one's personal nature as race, a social construct that was a creation of the slave trade. "speaking as someone who has been at both the bottom and the top of the wealth and class spectrum here in the US, I think I have enough personal knowledge on the matter to say it belongs where I put it." Herman Cain could make the same argument. Since I'm at my blog now, I'll unpack this a little: I haven't been at the top of the wealth and class spectrum, but I spent two years at Choate, so I've lived with those folks. However, I spent my earlier years at public schools in northern Florida, and I graduated from Western High School, an inner-city Washington school that was mostly poor and black, and I've mostly lived in working class neighborhoods since then. So I think I have enough personal knowledge on the matter to say it belongs where I put it. Which is the bogusest of bogus argument, of course. Let's look at a couple of people who know more about this than John or me. Regarding racism and slavery, historian Eric Williams noted in Capitalism and Slavery: Slavery was not born of racism: rather, racism was the consequence of slavery. As for classism and racism, Rev. Thandeka, author of Learning to Be White: Money, Race and God in America, wrote in "The Whiting of Euro-Americans: A Divide and Conquer Strategy": ...we must not forget that white racism was from the start a vehicle for classism; its primary goal was not to elevate a race but to denigrate a class. White racism was thus a means to and end, and the end was the defense of Virginia’s class structure and the further subjugation of the poor of all "racial" colors. Recommended: RACE - The Power of an Illusion at PBS. Race, class, and "whiteness theory" by Sharon Smith (Leave a comment)
12:38 pm cathshaffer [Link]	Update on Fitocracy’s Whites Only Group I sent a query to info@fitocracy.com to complain about the existence of a Whites Only social group on their site, and to ask them to delete my account, since I was not interested in continuing to be a member, and there’s no way to delete your own account, there. Here is the response I received on May 15: From: richard Subject: whites only? Hi Catherine, Sorry to see you go. I’ve marked your account for deletion and an admin will take care of it ASAP. Best, Dick I sent the following reply immediately: What about the Whites Only group? I’ve blogged about this with some screen caps of the offending material, and my readers are curious what Fitocracy’s response will be? Will you allow Fitocracy to be a gathering place for white supremicists? Catherine Shaffer As of today, I’ve received no reply to that second query from Fitocracy. They deleted my account quite swiftly and are done with me, and apparently have no intention of addressing this concern. It’s disappointing because, as a number of people have pointed out, Fitocracy is a place where you can track workouts socially without becoming drawn into a weight loss program, and for some people it’s been a really great tool. It’s really too bad that they’ve decided not to make the minimal required effort to remove egregiously offensive material from their servers. Originally published at So Shiny. You can comment here or there. Tags: uncategorized (6 comments \| Leave a comment)
10:34 am wiscon [holyoutlaw] [Link]	Last call for Stickers! This is it -- the last call for stickers. If you don't reply to the original posts (links below) by NOON PDT (which is UTC -8), Friday, May 18, you'll have missed out! The original posts give all the details and the procedures and the whatnots and the wherefores. DW: http://wiscon.dreamwidth.org/51610.html LJ: http://wiscon.livejournal.com/346860.html See you soon! We're looking forward to it!
01:22 pm filkertom [Link]	Farewell, Donna Summer Sadness. Singer Donna Summer has passed away at the age of 63. She had a great voice, and she was a gorgeous and gracious lady, and she will be missed. This entry was originally posted at http://filkertom.dreamwidth.org/1520415.html. You may comment there or here, although LJ tends to have a livelier conversation at this time. Tags: music, obit (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:10 pm jrittenhouse [Link]	Dogs at war: For the last few weeks, we’ve had a huge number (at least two a day) bit I’ll-Rip-Your-Throat-Out dog fights between the three dogs, one of which sent me and Susan to the ER to fix up some nasty puncture wounds from a dog bite in her forearm. Normally, these fights happens when everyone’s home, and in particular when Mere and Susan walk out or in the door. (In which case, someone, usually Jack, gets really excited, and our Alpha Bitch, Dash (who is very gentle with us and all people, and has only really hit the wall recently with the other dogs) decides to put that dog or dogs In Their Place. The hard way. And when this starts up, whoever wasn’t attacked tends to get into the fight and fuels more trouble. The worst of the fight is when the two older Wire Fox Terriers go for each other; poor blind Dot has suffered a fair amount of damage to her face and forelegs – and in other parts, too. These fights almost always upstairs or otherwise far out of my reach. Very frequently, someone struggling with a fighting-mad 25-pound Terrier will come to me and dump the dog in my lap to handle. After 50 years of being around the breed, I know how to contain them with a great deal of success. But how to stop the fights before they start? Beats me. Susan took Dash and Dot into the vet – and he said that Dash isn’t going through some obvious illness or imbalance, and suggested that it was behavioural. That’s all very nice, but what was the trigger and what will derail this process? (I’m not worried about the dogs hurting me, but about Mere, Susan or the dogs getting seriously hurt in the process of all these fights.) At this point, Susan has gotten a referral for a dog trainer in the area who’s supposed to be top notch, and the trainer will be by this Sunday afternoon. So we’ll see where it goes from there… Tags: doctors_nurses, dogs, health, home, hospital, meredith, pain-ow, personal, susan (5 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:14 pm matociquala [Link]	your brain works a lot faster than mine. Anything else I had to say about the Criminal Minds season finale is subsumed in ZOMG Reid knitted it himself! He makes a pretty good Four. Also, I'm glad they did the Emily thing the way they did the Emily thing; it's good to see Will but he should have known better; I'm pretty sure that UNSUB plan fails on usual the Evil Mastermind overclever subroutine of relying on a coincidence they could not have known about in advance; I bet that's Kevin's cousin; Penelope needs a Stern Talking To of the variety she just gave Morgan a few weeks back; I'm still the only person in this fandom who likes Strauss, but dammit I still like Strauss; and FASTER JJ KILL KILL! Discussion in comments of parallels between JJ in Hit/Run and Hotch in 100 is open for business. Current Mood: mostly quite pleased, really Tags: geeks with guns (22 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:00 pm feorag [Link]	My tweets Wed, 17:05: I just earned the 'American Craft Beer Week (2012)' badge on @untappd! http://t.co/pniNDZnd #acbw Wed, 17:05: At home. A more than adequate accompaniment to sophisticated Japanese cuisine. — Drinking a Traditional Scrumpy — http://t.co/ZYCqTCCw Thu, 08:40: Trying to order my staples, but alas, @JapanCentre doesn't have the big bottles of ooi ocha right now, nor plain konnyaku. Thu, 08:58: Oooh - several more export versions of Japanese curry brands have gone vegetarian. Time to try something different! Tags: twitter (Leave a comment)
11:39 am e_moon60 [Link]	Is That Me on a BBC Radio program? Yes! Yesterday, I sat in a basement recording studio in Austin, connected via satellite (already SFnal!) to a BBC-radio studio in London. I was participating in a panel discussion on Future Wars on the BBC Radio World Service series "The Forum." Fellow panelists were David Rodin and Elizabeth Quintana. I confess to some nervousness--though I've done radio interviews before, and panel discussions before, I've never done a long-distance panel discussion like this, where the others have the facial and body-language cues and I don't. So it was fairly intense concentration--an interesting challenge. The BBC helped me prepare for this with ample information about the process, and the other participants (as well as what I'd looked up on the internet.) "The Forum" has a superb moderator, who managed to keep us all more or less on track and moving forward, without being a tyrant about it--there was natural flow to the conversation. I enjoyed it immensely. There's information on broadcast times in the UK, plus links to the podcast or--if you want to check it out later--the archives of the series--below the cut. This is what the BBC sent me. ( Read more... ) Current Mood: busy Tags: bbc, knitting, radio, socks (8 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:37 pm dhstein [Link]	Got the post cards I had made for the show. My name (the important part) is too dark - but they are pretty and here. Gotta pick up my jacket from the cleaners and pack clothes (laundry, laundry). Gotta find something to do that will only take a day to work on... (Leave a comment)
09:30 am otterdance [Link]	Criminal Minds Season Finale ( Spoilers ) Current Mood: mixed Tags: criminal minds, fan girl (4 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:20 pm matociquala [Link]	don't you wish there were another picture of che guevara? The following contains discussion of fitness, health, and weight issues. If that is triggery for you, please page down now! Ob. Disclaimer: I absolutely support anyone's right to live in their body as they choose, at any size they find comfortable. This is entirely about me, and my efforts to reclaim my health and strength after half a decade of abusing and neglecting my poor body. Well, I'm wearing a pair of jeans that, based on the brand and cut, must date back to 1987 or so. They're Chic, size 14 tall, and in high school they would have been baggy on me. Now, they fit loosely except for the waist, which is a bit snug--but then, that happened when I was sixteen, too, though the jeans were size 11 then. This is because eighties jeans were cut to fit absolutely nobody except a young Brooke Shields. They do, however, still make my ass look fantastic, a characteristic generally not shared by modern lower-rise jeans, which make nobody's ass look good. Not mine, not yours. Possibly Jessica Simpson's. But they do let one bend at the middle without pinching one's ribcage on the waistband, which I suppose is a win. I guess that means I am officially back in my high school clothes, generously speaking. As I also have a black bat-winged sheath dress from Chico's that I loved in high school, and have been hanging on to for sentimental reasons. I might dust it off for an eighties party later this year. If only I had some slouchy elf boots. I suspect I will save the jeans for eighties nights at goth clubs. I think I still have one pair of slouchy socks hoarded away somewhere... ;-) This is all prelude to saying that I'm hovering somewhere around 187, and have been for about a month now with the usual ups and downs--but I'm obviously building muscle, because I seem to be shrinking. At one point a month or so ago I noticed I had obliques, there under the slack middle-aged tummy. This week, I noticed the top set of ab muscles. Also, my thighs are no longer getting in my way during most of yoga--that stopped after scott_lynch and I walked somewhere around 40 miles in three days of NYC. I can do Hero's Pose and Lightning Pose without cheating now, and my body doesn't actually interfere with my ability to do a lunge anymore. It's still getting in the way of twists, and my biceps interfere with Eagle Pose, but that's not new. I'm a solid girl. I can also wear most of my beloved old corp-goth work clothes again, justifying my hoarding tendencies. Two suits are a bit tight, but they were always on the skinny end of the rack. I had to move the buttons back on a green suit I love, that I had expanded a bit when I was gaining weight. It's a size 12. I am facing the surprising possibility of shrinking out of my wardrobe again. In any case, look for a much better-dressed Bear at conventions this summer, since I love these clothes and don't have a dayjob to wear them to anymore. Curiously, I'm about 17 pounds heavier than the last time I fit in these clothes, which tells us about the power of rock-climbing. Muscle is heavy! My current weight goal is somewhere in the neighborhood of 160 pounds. Which should make the same size, roughly, as when I was in high school and weighed 150-ish. I was on track and field then, and at my most muscular before now, but I'm pretty sure my upper body now dwarfs what I had then. (Shoulders! They're awesome!) Also, um. Boobs. Some cup sizes have come to roost since then. Ahem. So I'm less than thirty pounds from my goal, which is very pleasant. My body is behaving as it should; everything physical is so much easier than it was in 2004, when I couldn't walk a half-mile without agonizing pain (now I can run five 12-minute miles back to back); and I'm enjoying the reduction in back and joint pain and the ability to sleep comfortably on my side or back again without feeling like my own belly is crushing me. I seem to be part of a coterie of SFF writers and fans on the "get healthy the old-fashioned way; move more and eat less crap" bandwagon, which pleases me. (personally, I have been following the efforts of Scalzi, Doctorow, Lynch, Sykes, Downum, Silverstein, Connolly, Buckell, and I'm sure a few others whose names are eluding me because it's time for lunch.) It pleases me because I'd like to see a lot of these people around for a damned long time. I'm also noticing changes in appetite, which tell me my body is adapting to its new lower caloric demands. Two whole pieces of fruit is too much to eat with lunch now; I am contented with half of each (plus some protein and vegetables and brown carbs, of course). (I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, about ten servings most days; I've finally figured out how to reach my RDA minimum of potassium, and it goes like this: a cup of fortified cereal in the morning (Special K protein plus, since I can't find Total Protein around here anymore), half an orange, a small banana, eight ounces of green coconut water, and half a sweet potato. Some strawberries or mango don't hurt either, or some beans.)) For those who are curious about how I did it (my doctor was, and she laughed out loud when I said, "Counting calories, restricting sweets and saturated fat, and getting off my ass!" She then replied, "So doing all the boring shit we tell people to do, huh?"), here's my plan, fondly called The Discipline: It's a refined version of the Hacker Diet, which relies on good old thermodynamics to make things happen. I'm keeping my caloric intake around 1700-1900 calories a day, exercising for about an hour a day on average, drinking lots of water and not too much caffeine, avoiding refined carbs (mostly: I get 100-200 calories of "treat" a day, which could be a glass of wine or a beer, or a brownie, or... PRO TIP: Guinness is lower in calories than most "lite" beers, and tastes a fuckload better. Now you know.), eating roughly twice as many vegetables as the FDA suggests, and trying to keep my protein intake around 20% and my fat intake around 25%--and also trying to keep my protein intake above 100g a day without too much reliance on red meat, or meat at all. (I do use protein supplements--whey and soy, mostly.) I eat a lot of high-protein dairy (skyr!) and I try to limit myself to 100-200 calories a day from refined sugar, which is roughly 20-40 grams. Or, well, half a can of non-diet Coke. Managing sodium intake is a killer. But I'm working on it. Sleeping eight hours a night also pisses me off, but it seems to be necessary. I got six last night, and noticed the difference on my run this morning--I kept having to walk up hills I normally cruise up in second or third gear. I also exercise six days a week--usually two days of climbing (with a little yoga); three days of running; one day of yoga. I also try to get in some vigorous outdoor time when possible--kayaking, hiking, walking the dog. Walking to the store. Picking up my jump rope for five minutes on an otherwise sedentary day. As I said, one of the most successful weeks of the Discipline recently was when Scott and I were on Manhattan, eating every goddamned thing in sight. But we also made a point of walking two-thirds the length of the island at least once (Riverside to Chinatown, with side trips), and we walked as much as time permitted, otherwise. I know it sounds like my fitness routine is crushing, and seven or eight years ago, it would have crushed me. (Hell, I had the pleasant experience recently of putting in a Rodney Yee video that, in 2006, I could do maybe fifteen minutes of, and having the full hour workout be only just pleasantly challenging.) But remember, when I started out, I weighed 285-290 pounds and could not walk a half mile. One good habit builds on another, it turns out--and I find myself drinking more green and herbal tea because black tea doesn't taste good after the first mug, and I find myself not hungry for seconds unless the food is exceptionally good, and even then not always. There's not actually a lot of privation; I just want more of what's healthy for me. It's okay if I have a measured ounce of cheese on my beans and rice, instead of as much as I can fit in the bowl. It still tastes just as good! Better, since it's as easy to afford small quantities of really delicious food as it is large quantities of sort of icky food. And far more satisfying. Who knew? Which is so different from all my old pathological ways of dealing with food and drink that it's a little croggling. Most of this, of course, is just basic health maintenance stuff, and not too hard once you get the hang of it. And it's not like I don't give myself days off: I will in fact have two or three drinks on a night out, for example. I'm fully planning on onion rings after archery tonight when I get dinner with the Thursday Night Shooters. Just... not too damned often. And budget for it. It's not the extremes that set one's level of health; it's the baseline. Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: the sound of the sound of lawnmowers must never stop! Tags: project: less-of-me, project: valkyrie, pudge report, the discipline (56 comments \| Leave a comment)

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