| Snowpocalypse? |
[Jan. 6th, 2010|08:50 am] |
Kinda, for local values anyway. 14cm/5.5 inches of snow here as measured with my ruler outside the back door - much to the perplexity of Buzz cat watching me do this. The schools are all closed and one glance at the state of our side road at 6 am persuaded husband to come back to bed and announce he'd be working from home today.
Though we did get to aikido last night, which was a good thing, coz so did half a dozen other students. Fortunately Husband is reasonably sanguine about driving in snow - it's about a fifteen mile round trip for us. He's old enough to have had sufficient relevant experience and also to have learned stuff like slowing-using-the-gears-not-the-brakes which seems not to be taught so much these days. Which is only one reason why his main concern isn't his own driving in such weather but someone else getting it catastrophically wrong and taking us out along the way. But just about everyone else seemed to be heeding the don't-drive news reports and we saw very few other cars.
Mind you, of those we did see, most were more-photons-for-extra-traction drivers. Y'know, the ones who must put their fog lights on even though at the time, no snow was falling and we could see the trees oh, a good half mile away across the fields. Husband proved as sarcastic as me about them.
Anyway, we took it carefully through the couple of inches that had fallen thus far and all was well. The rest of it came down overnight and it's still falling. Not heavily but persistently, and it's that very fine powdery snow, so all the trees are frosted white in authentic winter-wonderland style. Very picturesque.
And now, to work. |
|
|
| Japanese spam |
[Jan. 6th, 2010|08:12 am] |
I have been getting a lot of Japanese comment spam in the last couple of months - always from anonymous users, usually entirely in Japanese though with the odd random word in English; no links, just text. I have set up automatic screening for anonymous comments, so nobody apart from me sees them before they are deleted; but I am surprised that this has persisted, even after I switched on the option requiring anonymous commenters to identify the letters in a randomly generated image. This must mean that someone is physically going to the trouble of posting these comments which I cannot read and nobody else will read.
Why? |
|
|
| Entomology WTFery |
[Jan. 6th, 2010|01:18 am] |
So...
We're nearly 2 weeks into the longest sustained cold snap in yonks. There's snow galore throughout all these isles, cars are slipping all over the place on the ice, people are getting trapped by the snow in pubs (your heart really goes out to them, doesn't it? poor wee lambs!) and the Met Office says it's going to stay like this for another couple of weeks.
So, with that in mind, can anyone explain just why the hell I saw a wasp in our kitchen about half an hour ago when I was getting a bowl of cornflakes?
OK, it wasn't exactly in the best of health; in fact, it looked on it's absolute last legs. And has now joined the choir eternal to sup on the great jam-jar in the sky. But still. A wasp. In this weather. WTF??? o.0 |
|
|
| Not that I've been as inspired to write lately |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|06:31 pm] |
Filched from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) taraljc
Your result for The Fan Fiction Personality Test... The MindgamerEverything is possible, nothing is ever really over. Fanfiction is a creative outlet for you. You don't intentionally write it, it just happens. You find inspiration in several fandoms, but are not obsessed with only one. You like to explore "what if" situations. What if this character had never made this very choice? What if this event had taken place sooner, never, elsewhere? What if these people had never met? You are likely to write Alternative Universes, fan seasons or sequels and just follow your (sometimes pretty strange) plot bunnies. Take The Fan Fiction Personality Test at OkCupid |
|
|
| January Books 2) Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|10:57 pm] |
An enjoyable new Discworld novel, with the new theme of football playing out against a plotline of bigotry, prejudice and redemption - the old question of whether or not there can be a Good Orc is answered definitively, at least for Discworld. Lots of other entertaining satirical jabs and character moments, and generally good stuff. |
|
|
| ˈʁoɐʃax ... |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|09:40 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  O rly? | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Tuesday Blue, "Tunnel Vision" | ] |
Take a look at this photo:
Do you see it? If so, what do you see? Answers in comments please, and then, only when you've commented, take a look here to see what it's all about (of course, if you don't want to bother commenting, don't want to join the highly scientific photographic Rorschach test, or already know what it is, feel free to jump on to the link). |
|
|
| So... |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|09:10 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cold | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Florence and the Machine, "The Drumming Song" | ] |
There's a very lot of weather at the minute, isn't there?
Doubtless, some people will look at the prolonged cold snap Britain and much of Europe (and parts of the USA and Canada) are undergoing at the minute and go "Global warming? My arse!"
They should probably have a gander at this, though. It's a lot colder here than the average, but there are areas in the northern hemisphere where it's a lot warmer than the average (e.g. Yakutsk, Newfoundland).
( So I was thinking of sending an email: ) |
|
|
| SF/SF |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|10:57 am] |
Exciting things are afoot with SF/SF in the coming months, hopefully.
Here's the #100 issue, which technically was also the last for 2009, since it should have been up on Dec 30th.
|
|
|
| January Books 1) Framley Parsonage, by Anthony Trollope |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|05:52 pm] |
So, my first book of 2010 was published exactly 150 years ago. Framley Parsonage is the fourth of Trollope's six Barsetshire novels, mainly concerning the initial hostility and eventual approval of Lord Lufton's mother towards her son's love for the more humbly born Lucy Robarts; a substantial subplot concerns the financial problems of Lucy's brother Mark, who is the vicar of Framley and whose home therefore gives the book its title. Although it recapitulates much the same plot as Doctor Thorne, the third in the series, I think it is rather better: the characters are more likeable, and the rather nasty sneering at the lower orders which crept into Doctor Thorne is replaced by some jabs at the comfortable contemporary reader which are a little (though only a little) more savage than Trollope's usual gentle mockery: "There are two classes of persons in this realm who are constitutionally inefficient to take any part in returning members to Parliament—peers, namely, and women." "You millionaires always talk of Christian resignation, because you never are called on to resign anything. " And, summing up pretty much the whole book: "A lady who can sell herself for a title or an estate, for an income or a set of family diamonds, treats herself as a farmer treats his sheep and oxen". Trollope is particularly cynical about party politics; he sees almost no ideological difference between Whigs and Tories, simply different styles of snobbery and patronage. But his cynicism is not especially vicious, and he sees the situation as part of the natural order, peculiar and quirky though it may sometimes seen. (There is no suggestion that women might perhaps be given the vote, let alone that the peerage could be reformed.)
This has been my Blackberry book for a couple of months - progressing at about a chapter a day. I'll download the next from Project Gutenberg in due course, but may try something other than Trollope first.
LibraryThing unrecommendation: Prey by Michael Crichton |
|
|
| 30 Days of stuff... Day 2 |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|01:55 pm] |
My favourite movie.
This will probably not come as any surprise to anyone who knows me, but it has to be Lord of the Rings. Not Fellowship, not Two Towers, not Return of the King, but the whole thing, all 10 hours of it. Okay, it takes liberties with the source material (what dramatisation doesn't? Even the Radio 4 version didn't stay 100% true to the book) but most of those changes were made for sound movie-making reasons, and while I might not agree with the others I can at least see why they were made.
Everything about this movie is epic, in all the good ways (except for the bladder, obviously!). The cast list is stellar, the special effects are astonishing, Gollum is a triumph of the characterisation of an animated character (for which I still think it was a damn shame that Andy Serkis didn't get the best supporting actor oscar in 2004), and the soundtrack is simply awe-inspiring. All in all, a fitting package for Tolkien's great work.
:) |
|
|
| 2K9 Movies |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|10:38 am] |
A bit of a slack year this time around, with little more than a couple of flicks a month viewed by me, and only four of them actually in a cinema; but as I’ve invested in a PlayStation 3 (complete with built-in Blu-Ray player) and upgraded my Sky TV box to an HD unit, I’m resolving to watch more movies in the coming months... But; what was my best of 2009? I enjoyed pretty much everything I saw, with only a couple of “I-want-those-two-hours-of-my-life-back” moments. The much awaited Star Trek movie was good fun, despite plot gaps you could fly a starship through, and I liked Doomsday with its heartfelt riffing on fave movies like Escape from New York and Mad Max; but top pick for me was the excellent Moon, which confounded my expectations and harked back to the industrial sci-fi traditions of Alien, Outland and the like. What am I looking forward to for 2010? Iron Man 2. Tron Legacy. If there are other films coming out, I’m so blinded by my nerd-joy that I’m not really aware of them. Here’s the list... ( Read more... )
|
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Jan. 4th, 2010|10:41 am] |
In recent years I haven't gone out for New Year's, mostly out of laziness. This year I was figuring on Twilight Zone reruns when Mette called on Wednesday and asked if I wanted to do a pub crawl. I figured why not and signed up.
We started early the Gallery Lounge which was quiet but friendly (I had a Mango Martini), then Zeke's (Sambucca) where we had nachos and chatted about Japanese fire drills with a nice fellow named Derek. Next was the Hotel Utah, the bartender, Piper, was a hoot and shared a house creation called an 'Bonita Applebomb' (?) which was probably the beginning of my eventual hangover (but so worth it). Mette brought along some Christmas crackers (mine had a parachute guy) which were also a success. Eventually we moved on to a Fidi place called Annbelle's (shot of tequila, shot of bourbon) which was meh so we headed over to Les Joulins Jazz Bistro (um... Washington Appletini, I think) where we met a couple from Sacramento who came along with us on the next leg of the journey.
Now we were in the heart of things and it was about 9:30 so it was a little harder to find someplace not crowded or charging a cover. but eventually we found Minx (Stella), which was hilariously having a Unicorn theme with Legend playing on a large monitor and the staff in party hats with horns. It was going on eleven at this point so we figured we had time to find one last place to settle until midnight and off we went, somehow losing our Sacramento friends along the way, and found ourselves at Fly where there was a DJ and a small space to dance (yay!) and a good vibe. We met a terribly nice Simm/Pegg look-alike and his less friendly cousin, I drank whatever Mette handed me until the bartenders handed out champagne and we rang in the New Year.
Then we tried to get a cab, for something like an hour and eventually flagged down a limo (I think they aren't supposed to do that but I am so very glad this one did) and made it home at about 3AM where Mette who had wisely made us stop at a corner store cooked up some bacon and eggs for us, bless her heart.
Yes, I woke up with a hangover, but it was completely worth it and just the right way to start 2010. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
wtf???
exhausted
drained