Cera S.'s Friends

3:53PM - Thank you

for the condolences and the congratulations. I really appreciated all of them. I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed with, well, everything right now, so I stink at replying.

And now I have a headache and the Imitrex isn't helping. And I slept till 11 AM for the first time in ages and am still totally drained. I blame the weather.

6:48PM

Making arrangements to meet someone at a cafe to drop off books and stuff. "Oh no!" I thought, after confirming the time, "how will we recognize each other?"

*pause*

*look at boots*

*look at giant kingfisher tattoo*

Yeah, probably not much of a concern. Remind me not to ever commit any crimes that will involve me getting dragged into a police line-up... 

3:18PM - NF.

Okay, so I just started reading Galileo's Commandment: An Anthology of Great Science Writing. The selection of authors and works is interesting, but so far I am most impressed by the editor himself, Edmund Blair Bolles. He discusses topics like the marriage of style, voice, and content; the great conversation that is science (which almost exactly parallels in its nature the conversation that is science fiction); and the imaginations of science and art, in harness or conflict.

The introduction begins, "I love great science writing for the same reason I enjoy splendid autobiography or classic letters and journals. It puts me in direct contact with an active probing mind." In these sentences he has clarified exactly why nonfiction -- and in particular these genres -- are generally more powerful for me than fiction, something I've never been able to understand. And every page of his introductions brings something equally revelatory for me.

Another really interesting book I have read in the last few months is The Best American Sports Writing 2007, edited by David Maraniss. Maraniss's introductions are terse and most of the articles and essays are journalism, not literature, though a couple of them are both. It's an unfamiliar world, interesting or moving or even enlightening.

6:20PM - Preakness

Big Brown again.

Well, I watched it.  Swore I wouldn't.  Tried, actually, not to be home, but post time was later than I thought, and this is one of my failings: I have to know.  I'd rather watch, whatever happens, than wait for the reports.

And no taking that away from him: helluva race.  Helluva horse.  I'm not sure he's beating much of anything?  But he's got a lovely big stride (but I like Gayego's action at least as much) and runs like a professional.

On to Belmont, then.  Hope those feet hold up.

6:08PM - Ooh, Canada!

We've just come back from the trip down to the border to actually do the "landing" bit of being landed immigrants. Some of us were a bit worried that they'd change their minds at the last minute, but they didn't. We left Z's girlfriend in our apartment with instructions to post all the books if they wouldn't let us in again... but they did. We are home! We are as Canadian as possible under the circumstances!

We've been working towards this for a long time.

5:45PM - 5 colors. one fiber. one weight. What is so hard about this?

Fiber people, I have a plea for assistance.

I am increasingly frustrated with the Sugar 'n' Creme yarn I bought for this baby blanket because the color selection simply isn't good enough. My options (as far as I know) for buying yarn in person are 1. A.C. Moore Crafts, 2. Jo-Ann's, 3. a tiny expensive arty shop with lovely stuff that's not much good to me.

Now I'm considering buying yarn online, but it seems ridiculously unlikely to be successful. I probably should just settle for colors which aren't the colors I had in mind but will look nice enough, and go with that. But I thought first I'd ask if anyone could help.

My list of requirements is, I grant you, extensive enough to be just about impossible. I'm not really expecting anything, but if you happen to magically know the answer to all my problems, that would be nice.

The (ridiculously long) list is like this:

1. *ALL* natural fibers, and not wool. Cotton, modal, bamboo, rayon...I think silk is probably out, too.

2. Machine washable, preferably machine dri-able. Low heat/gentle cycle okay.

3. Worsted weight. (I could possibly be flexible about that, but it's what I'd prefer.)

4. Decent quality yarn (not going to pill up on the second use).

5. Cheap. (Again, a little flexibility, but not a lot.)

6. A really large range of solid colors (all of the same fiber, same weight, etc.) in the blue-green range, purples acceptable. I need five or six colors which will be distinct from each other and go well with each other. My ideal would be a light sage green and a deep sage green, an indigo/denim blue (not too bright) and a light blue with no turquoise to it - a lighter shade of the same indigo - and one nice purple. Possibly with that, some neutral vanilla color for connecting everything, but I can manage without that. Not bright, god knows not pastels. If everything were a slightly sagey/smokey color, that would be okay. If nothing were, but it weren't Bright!, that would probably be all right, too.


Sugar 'n' Cream has yarn I liked at a price I can afford. I got one good sage green, a nice medium-light blue, and a nice strong purple, and that's where things fell apart. They've got a light purple which is much too bright, pinks and aquas I don't even want to talk about, lots of variegated colors which I might like for a different project, a Christmas green. They do have an absolutely lovely wine red, and if I can't find anything else, I'll use it, but it's not in the color scheme I want.

I thought that the limit in colors was the fault of the store I was in, but I've looked on line, and there really isn't much more. I'm willing, at this point, to start over, but only if I can really believe that whatever I go with now will be what I can finish a good blanket with.

I need about 60 yards of one, about 120 yards of the next, about 400 yards of the third, about 700 yards of the fourth, and about 300 yards of the fifth. That's rounding up. So I'm looking for something available in balls or skeins, because at least three of the five main colors, I won't need anything like a cone's worth of.

Should I give up? Am I lucky to have Sugar 'n' Cream and ungrateful and wildly unrealistic to look for anything better?

Help me, fiber people! You're my only hope(s)!

3:25PM - Ah ha!!

rasetsunyo has been so kind as to point out that in an earlier chapter, Ukitake's eyes are *brown*, rather decisively so, too. Hee. No wonder so many people are so confused!! Yay! It's not just me!

2:23PM - a small kdrama roundup

At the end of 3.25 dramas (one is mini) with very different foci and settings yet with some overlapping actors, I had observations. Then I misplaced the draft post and watched a few more. This post was more than long enough six months ago, so I’ve tried to tidy it without adding later perspective. It’s still not very tidy….

(The 3.25: Coffee Prince (17 eps + special), Dal Ja’s Spring (22), Taereung National Village (8 half-sized eps, so ~4), The Vineyard Man (16). Let’s use VineYard Man/VYM to keep any Veronica Mars watchers from flipping. Overlap of actors: one CP + TNV, two CP + VYM, one DJS + TNV, one CP and DJS.)

Um—series structure, the prominence of family, alcohol as narrative shorthand, and music/soundtrack usage.

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally published at the stack. Please leave any comments there.

2:59PM - Tea!!

There is nothing quite like fresh tea.

I have a collection several dozen kinds of tea, and I am sometimes hard-pressed to drink it all before it gets too old to really be good anymore. I've evolved to the point where all greens, and especially the ground matchas, I'll only buy if it's under 10 grams in weight, because I just can't drink it all. And I throw out quite a lot into the compost as it's just not worth keeping the stuff that's too old, mostly because I'm probably avoiding it for a reason.

But I have lots of blacks, oolongs, whites, greens, and one or two yellow teas, and probably more ways to brew tea than most people even know exists.

( Read more... )

5:00PM

Chicken and egg.  It's easy to get a horse going forward in balance when you're sitting well.  And it's easy to sit well on a horse that's going forward in balance.  But I seem to be spectacularly good at trying for both and managing neither.

The answer of the day seemed to be, "Go outside."  Our work in the indoor mostly sucked goats.  There was some nice walk work, some decent stuff at the canter, but--we were fighting each other.  A lot.  I'd gone in determined to hold my position come hell or high water, and ended up handsy and tense.  Tucker was not amused.  Can't say I blame him one bit.  (My lunch today also consisted of pure trash--and this after kimatyza fed me such a nice breakfast!--so I wasn't feeling exactly my most athletic.)

But then we went into the outdoor, and our work out there?  Brilliant.  Light and uphill and forward, swinging along, few corrections even needed, and those that were called for were delivered deftly, tactfully, and taken cheerfully and well.

Part of me feels like this is cheating.  I should be able to produce this kind of work--and this sense of joy--indoors.  And I suspect I'm not as accurate without the letters to keep me honest (though learning to ride the quality of gait that Tucker was offering today will give me plenty to think about, so).  But y'know.  Part of me also says that this stuff is hard enough without not taking full advantage of what gifts present themselves.

So.  It's supposed to be wet tonight and tomorrow, but footing permitting I think we'll try one step further and go school some dressage out in the XC warm up area after I finish chores tomorrow AM, maybe trot the trails after.  (Otherwise, we'll be stuck in the indoor, and I think it's maybe time for a no-stirrups session.)  Gotta ride Danny the Wonder Horse tomorrow, too, and H. was kind enough to loan me her meter wheel, so I'll be measuring out the track and some other spaces out back to at least get some sense of what exactly we're doing on conditioning days.

Onward.

5:44PM - Major Want

Hey everyone!!
I was wondering if anyone has a video (an audio would be fine too) of Peter Davison as King Arthur in Spamalot UK.

Here's my list: http://littlepriestboots.myartsonline.com - open for general trades


Thanks!! =D

1:01PM - Drool.

Despite "reduce, reuse, recycle," midrange antique furniture isn't selling well, and prices are plummeting.

I thought this was perhaps a local trend, as most of the people moving into our area and buying new houses are new, upwardly mobile immigrants who see new furniture as a status symbol and have no interested in used "junk," but no, it's a national trend. Aw, now I long for a house, even a rental house, and a bit of discretionary income...I love antiques! I'd love to just have all of my furniture be antique.

My parents used to have a lot of pretty antiques but those mostly got destroyed or sold during our multiple moves.

12:21PM - Dear Hive Mind,

Just as last year, I am teaching the Novel Writers Workshop this summer, which involves a lot of reading and preparation. However, I am insane, so (also as last year), I am planning on also taking Jim Gunn's short fiction Writers Workshop.

I find myself once more in the position of writing three stories in a limited time. Last year, I only had an idea for one of them, so I asked athenais to pick two topics from my LJ interests list. She selected macaques and gazing into the abyss, and I wrote "26 Monkeys, Also The Abyss," which is in this year's July Asimov's.

For the third story, I posted a poll, intending to use the top two ideas to get going. In the end, I used the top four: extinct birds, sex, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and a chatty fool to write "Wife reincarnated as a solitaire—Exposition on the flaws in my spouse's character—The nature of the bird—The possible causes—Her final disposition." I sent this precisely one place before I decided that the world probably wasn't interested in my Tristram Shandy pastiche, however successful I think it.

Both the poll and the LJ interests thing worked rather well, so I am going to see what happens this time. A few of these are leftover from last year, but that doesn't mean they're any more intriguing to me than the rest on the list. You don't have to pick four, though you're certainly welcome to.

Poll #1189521 What do you think? 2008 edition
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

What should the stories include?

12:13PM - Be True to Yourself

So emmacrew and I are in this show, it's actually kind of a big deal, the Mark Morris Dance Group is in town doing "L'Allegro, Il Penderoso, et Il Moderato," which has been described by some as Mr. Morris's masterwork. It's set to Handel's oratorio of the same name, which is in turn a musical setting of two poems by Milton. Being an oratorio, it has lyrics, and so they needed a choir; being a dance production, they needed a small enough ensemble to shoehorn us all in the orchestra pit along with the Seattle Symphony pit orchestra, so they culled 32 singers out of the 120-voice Seattle Symphony Chorale. And we're two of them. Truthfully it's quite an honor.

Yesterday we had a 2.5 hour dress rehearsal, followed by a 3 hour dinner break before we had to reconvene for the show at 8. Emma had discovered that these folks had a salon in Westlake Center, and that they promise a 20 minute manicure, and so we decided that that would be fun to do in the meantime. We went to make appointments and were told that the first availability was at 5:30, so we cheerfully signed up for that and went off to do some shopping in the interim. 15 minutes later, we got a phone call from the salon; there had been a scheduling snafu, and they needed to bump us to 6. No problem, we said, we'll grab dinner first in the food court. We arrived at 6, and the extremely nervous host was wringing his hands and hopping from foot to foot and told us, "the scheduling snafu was for two pedicures. It's going to be more like 6:15." We pointed out that we had our knitting, that we needed to be out of here by 7:00, but that as long as that happened, we could sit and knit in the salon as well as we could sit and knit backstage at the Paramount, and that it was truthfully no big deal. The host basically acted as though we'd just ended world hunger, and told us repeatedly how awesome we were for our flexibility, and offered us each a free $12 nail polish.

So now, we've just made these folks' day by not biting their heads off for something beyond their control (as depressing as that is), and it's time for us to choose nail polish. I pointed out that this is basically as close to glamour as I get these days, and grabbed the gold, sparkly iridescent polish called "West End Wonderland." The manicurist, who was this big black guy, said "Whoo! Yes, my sister, why half-ass it? We gonna get DOWN with some sparkly nails!" and then turned up the music and serenaded me with "You Gotta Be True to Yourself" while he did my manicure. It was, in all honesty, a super-awesome use of time, and now I have drag-queen nails (in color, not length; I sadly still have mommy nails), and I'm doing this very exclusive show, and I can't believe this is my life.

8:11PM - Soooooo tired, too early for bed

I had to work today. I nobly volunteered to do taster sessions at the new study centre in Ruthin which had it's grand opening today as part of Adult Learners' Week. Unfortunately it had to be a Saturday so that people who work full time could come along.

The centre is really nice: lots of pale wood and it's quite spacious compared to some rooms I have to teach in. I felt that the interactive whiteboard didn't really produce a good enough image for photography classes, but it may be that the setting can be tweaked. Of course I still don't know how much use the college will be making of that centre, which is on the grounds of the secondary school and I hope we will continue to use the present centre, which is more central, handy for my little 1 mile circuit around the town and conveniently near shops.

We hadn't a clue how many would turn up, but I talked non-stop for four hours and didn't even get chance to grab anything to eat. I therefore missed out on the chance to visit the themed cafes arranged for the language courses! (Welsh, French and Spanish, each with appropriate cakes.) By the time I'd finished, the cafes were closed. I was so hungry I had to pull over and eat part of one of the still lifes on the way home.

Anyway, I took lots of names for courses in the autumn. So it was worth going. If I'm going to work at a weekend, I want to actually work. :)



This wasn't the still life I ate. I'd also taken along a bowl of apples. ;)

12:01PM - if you're in Ohio...

Another version of The Disappearance of Heather Alexander is on p8 of the current issue of Columbus' Outlook Weekly, just in time for MARCON.

The website has the current issue available via a flash doohicky and PDF.

2:47PM - plant ID'd!

That weird plant with the ant on top of an odd flower on top of a leaf?  It is Euonymus americanus, aka Hearts-a-bustin' , or Strawberry-bush.  Aha!

http://www.namethatplant.net/plantdetail.shtml?plant=539

Here's what they look like later in the year:

11:43AM - Wicked trades

I'm bored, and it looks like I still won't be starting work anytime soon, so I'd like to get some trades going!

I'd especially love to do some Wicked VOB trades, but I'm up for audio trades as well.

List - http://www.freewebs.com/o0o00o0o
Email - ennaxor@live.com

11:05AM - Don't Panic!!: An analysis of the CA marriage decision on the 2008 Presidential Election

On several mailing lists I'm on (darbnet, babn-chat, ...), on LJ, and in person, I've had several allegedly pro-same-sex-marriage folks express significant concern, sometimes even mild panic, at the ruling and/or the timing of the ruling. After some time to think about it, I've concluded that it's going to be a negligible influence. Below, I'll outline the lines of argument I've used to come to this conclusion.

(Before I do, one note. The analysis below is moot. The die is cast, the decision is made. Moreover, claims that "this was bad strategy" on the part of (whom?) are ludicrous, the timing of this decision is very unlikely to have been planned, by ANYONE to coincide with the 2008 presidential elections, the justice system spent unpredictable numbers of years getting this case tried. What's done is done in any case, so chill out, okay? Good.)

Okay, here're the arguments:

First, and more generally, the same-sex marriage issue is just less new, and less news, than it was four years ago. Part of this is the success the pro-same-sex marriage camp has had already in Massachusetts, as well as civil unions in VT, CT, NJ and NH. The addition of California is less of a trigger, I think, that the Massachusetts was. If you don't doubt that this is just "not as big a deal" in the news, go ahead and check your favorite big news sources, the issue is already out of the headlines.

I think the "this isn't as big a change emotionally" sense would likely be particularly true outside of California.

Now, within California, one might imagine that the influence of the law would be greater, and yes, I might, just might, concede (although you should read the rest of this argument) that this raises GOP voter turnout for the November 2008 election (when an anti-same-sex-marriage constitutional amendment will likely be on the ballot). However, even if that's true, California is unlikely to go McCain, I don't think the Dems will have to work hard to hold California in the election (barring any big mistakes they might make going forward), and so, within California, CA's delegates will almost certainly vote Blue in the electoral college.

I'll add, in addition to this not being "new", the timing is not perfect for influencing the presidential election. It's still six months until the presidential election, I think that distance will leave other issues looking old and boring compared to whatever new stuff the parties dig up in the months to come.

I've seen the backlash arguments, and have often found them, in the fullness of time, to be overly played. Salon took this on recently, but that's not the only case, the 2004 "Valentine's Day Marriage Revolution in SF" was the cause of panic for some local Dems on my f'list, concerned that the backlash of that would spill onto the then-fragile progress of marriage in Massachusetts. That worked out okay, too.

Finally, we turn to our good friend, the data. The smart money was unmoved by the California decision. The leading for-money presidential betting line in the country is the Iowa Electronic Markets. Below I include data I've consolidated from their web site. (I'd provide a direct link to the data, but a direct link isn't possible with their site design.)

Date	Comb. Volume	Dem	Rep
5/13/08	229	0.583	0.419
5/14/08	556	0.601	0.402
5/15/08	1733	0.595	0.420
5/16/08	274	0.600	0.406

These are the "last trades" for the day in each case, so the 5/15 data represents the first day of trading with the decision. Note the increase in volume, but also notice that the fluctuations in the predicted probabilities a Democratic victory are, right now, *higher* than they were two days before the decision, and that any effect of the decision on price is hidden within the entirely normal day-to-day fluctuations of that market.

In short, people betting their own money on the 2008 presidential race are, as a whole, entirely unconcerned about the impact of the California decision on the US Presidential race. I conclude, for all these reasons, that you should be unconcerned as well.

2:09PM

Yesterday, I poked at while at the thesis (progress, slow but steady), and then Stewie showed up, being in town for a conference and being done with the conference. We went out to the co-op, because she wanted to see it, then crashed at Spring Garden Coffee, drinking hot chocolate and yarning. Eventually, we grabbed a Laurie and Jeff, and ended up at Fishbones, a local hole in the wall, drinking beer and eating dinner on their patio (very good fish tacos, though I was really more in the mood for french fries than the tortilla chips that came with it). Stewie had to get home, so we all parted ways.

Jeff and I came home, and listened to some music, and proceeded to get very tipsy. I mean, like, once a year kinda drunk for me. Oy. That was fun, and I don't need to do that for at least another year.

This morning, I was up pretty early (and fine; I don't get hungover), and wandered out to the farmer's market, and stocked up on all kinds of good things. Otherwise, we've been very lazy today. We're eventually going to make it out to a friend's graduation picnic, and there are rumors of a bookstore trip, and otherwise, we're in for a nice, quiet evening.