The Christmas tree is now decorated, despite the best efforts of Katie and Julie. :)
We like it. If we're lucky, tomorrow there will be pictures.
We like it. If we're lucky, tomorrow there will be pictures.
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Steve Brinich's Reading List
06 December 2009 @ 11:01 pm
06 December 2009 @ 10:19 pm
Every year, at about this time, I determine who's been naughty and who's been nice, based on whether or not they've sent me any holiday cards in the past few years. The naughty ones get knocked off my card list. The nice ones stay on, and get greeting cards. Last year, I only sent out 40 cards. This year, I might bump it up to 50, since I'll be sending to a few more relatives this year.
I usually send a photo card with a picture of my daughter. That goes to family, relatives, and a few good friends. I also write an annual newsletter, updating people of the significant events in the past year.
This year, in an effort to reduce my greeting card costs, I'd like to use email to send my holiday greetings. But I have a question. Is it still considered tacky to send holiday greetings by email?
If you want a holiday newsletter from me this year, and you don't mind it being sent via email, drop me a line at jim dot poltrone at gmail dot com.
I usually send a photo card with a picture of my daughter. That goes to family, relatives, and a few good friends. I also write an annual newsletter, updating people of the significant events in the past year.
This year, in an effort to reduce my greeting card costs, I'd like to use email to send my holiday greetings. But I have a question. Is it still considered tacky to send holiday greetings by email?
If you want a holiday newsletter from me this year, and you don't mind it being sent via email, drop me a line at jim dot poltrone at gmail dot com.
Current Music: Sunday Night Football
06 December 2009 @ 10:05 pm
Sigh. Tomorrow morning, around the time I usually am getting dressed, I am to report for Federal jury duty in Center City Philadelphia. Two days or one trial. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
bensanaz , who had this a year or two ago, tells me that no laptops are allowed; there's no mention of that on their documents, but I can believe it, and do not want to check my laptop! So I will take in papers, printouts, and notebook to work with.
And leave the Swiss Army Knife home.
(And now toward bed.)
bensanaz , who had this a year or two ago, tells me that no laptops are allowed; there's no mention of that on their documents, but I can believe it, and do not want to check my laptop! So I will take in papers, printouts, and notebook to work with.And leave the Swiss Army Knife home.
(And now toward bed.)
Current Mood: 
listless
listlessCurrent Music: kitchen faucet dripping
06 December 2009 @ 05:00 pm
GO! GO! it ain’t gunna get any greener
wheerz traffic kitteh wen u needz him?
Picture by: nicknasty Caption by: Danoz via Advanced Lol Builder
06 December 2009 @ 09:21 pm
06 December 2009 @ 05:51 pm
Title: Days of Christmas
Rating: G
Fandom: Eureka
Synopsis: What is Christmas like for Henry in today's Eureka?
( What is Christmas like for Henry in today's Eureka? )
Rating: G
Fandom: Eureka
Synopsis: What is Christmas like for Henry in today's Eureka?
( What is Christmas like for Henry in today's Eureka? )
Current Mood: 
chipper
chipperCurrent Music: Commander Cody, "Hot Rod Lincoln."
06 December 2009 @ 08:36 pm
06 December 2009 @ 08:15 pm
Current Music: this wasn't a feline charmer, this cat was all dressed in armor...
06 December 2009 @ 04:41 pm
Apropos of my upstream post about watching people work, it isn't just confined to the kitchen. Watching professionals in some unfamiliar field do their job can be a revelation.
If you'd told me a year ago that my geeky younger daughter was capable of going to a professional photo shoot looking calm, poised, happy, comfortable in her skin, comfortable in front of the camera, and drop-dead gorgeous, I would have asked you for a toke of whatever you were smoking.
If you'd told me that after seeing her senior picture, I might have
believed you. I'm still somewhat blown away. I was pretty sure that J.R.
Powers was going to be good for her when I signed her up. I mean, ...
WOW! (She's not a professional model yet, obviously, but I now think that
she can become one if she wants to. I wouldn't have believed it two months
ago.
It wasn't just the photographer and her assistant who were fun to watch this afternoon. My Younger Daughter was damned impressive in her own right.
Current Location: Grand Central Starport (lr)
Current Mood: 
impressed
impressed06 December 2009 @ 03:00 pm
No. I forbid you to read this. You’ll thank me later. Trust me.
Picture by: dunno source Caption by: lummox via Advanced Lol Builder
06 December 2009 @ 06:28 pm
Just went out for samosas to accompany the chicken that bensanaz is roasting and the curry sauce that dunkelpig made yesterday. (crankyinfrance , wanted reassurance that wouldn't drive while plugged into the iPod; "Never," I assured her.)
But this time, going out and in, I remembered to replace the porch floodlight, which burned out a few days ago. There is light. And it is good.
*(B is playing Fallout 3.)
bensanaz is roasting and the curry sauce that dunkelpig made yesterday. (crankyinfrance , wanted reassurance that wouldn't drive while plugged into the iPod; "Never," I assured her.) But this time, going out and in, I remembered to replace the porch floodlight, which burned out a few days ago. There is light. And it is good.
*(B is playing Fallout 3.)
hungry06 December 2009 @ 06:15 pm
Busy weekend, and productive. Things accomplished:
And yet, Still Not Benevolent Dictator. I do wish the world would hurry up and get that one over with, already :-)
- Ripped a FLAC backup copy from a 2-disc set I purchased at OVFF. Given that there were tracks that were trying hard to be unreadable, this means I can create both audio discs (for the car, and for security) and MP3 files for the Archos.
- Watched the penultimate Top Chef, Season 6. Without spoilers, I can say that the judges actually have the three most talented chefs in the finale, and the choices range from good to excellent.
- Got my daughter to her soccer clinic this morning, at a different time and location (now indoors for the winter) despite her having an extremely difficult and violent wakeup.
- Grocery shopping for staples and materials for tonight's dinner.
- Moved the car to avoid having to do it in the morning.
- Garbage and recycling (lots of it) out and down.
- Critical laundry in process (now drying).
- Photos taken of Isis (and the other cats); yet to grab them from the camera.
And yet, Still Not Benevolent Dictator. I do wish the world would hurry up and get that one over with, already :-)
06 December 2009 @ 05:00 pm
As everyone in the Boston area knows, last night we had the first accumulative snowstorm of the season. On December 4 at 12:29 pm, Universal Hub declared the French Toast Alert level to be at Elevated.
That put me in the mood for French toast. So on Friday, Nomi went out to the supermarket to make sure we were well stocked with eggs and milk. We had plenty of homemade challah for French toast, so we didn't have to worry about buying bread.
This morning, Nomi and I made French toast. (Well, I sliced the challah at the start and washed the dishes at the end; Nomi had the hard job of making all the French toast.) I documented the making of the French toast because I felt it was important to note the first French toast of the season. I've placed most of the photos behind a cut to spare your browsers the download, but if you want to see the whole French Toast Alert photo essay, click away. Or you can skip to the end, which is a good bit and has Marvin in it.
( Read more... )
And finally, the reason we have French Toast Alerts in the first place.
I hope you've enjoyed this photo essay. For the next snowstorm, maybe I can convince Nomi to make pancakes.
That put me in the mood for French toast. So on Friday, Nomi went out to the supermarket to make sure we were well stocked with eggs and milk. We had plenty of homemade challah for French toast, so we didn't have to worry about buying bread.
This morning, Nomi and I made French toast. (Well, I sliced the challah at the start and washed the dishes at the end; Nomi had the hard job of making all the French toast.) I documented the making of the French toast because I felt it was important to note the first French toast of the season. I've placed most of the photos behind a cut to spare your browsers the download, but if you want to see the whole French Toast Alert photo essay, click away. Or you can skip to the end, which is a good bit and has Marvin in it.
( Read more... )
And finally, the reason we have French Toast Alerts in the first place.
 |
French Toast Begins to Accumulate Photo copyright ©2009 by Michael A. Burstein. |
 |
More French Toast On the Way Photo copyright ©2009 by Michael A. Burstein. |
 |
French Toast Alert: Three to Five Inches of French Toast Photo copyright ©2009 by Michael A. Burstein. |
I hope you've enjoyed this photo essay. For the next snowstorm, maybe I can convince Nomi to make pancakes.
06 December 2009 @ 04:46 pm
interviewed by shalmestere
shalmestere 06 December 2009 @ 03:40 pm
Skxawng!
By BEN ZIMMER
Published: December 4, 2009
Published: December 4, 2009
When James Cameron’s science-fiction opus “Avatar” comes to the screen this month, audiences will witness meticulously conceived alien characters — speaking a meticulously conceived alien language. To lend extra authenticity to the Na’vi — the tall, blue-skinned, vaguely feline humanoids living on the distant world of Pandora — Cameron enlisted the help of a linguist to construct a full-fledged language, with its own peculiar phonetics, lexicon and syntax. From the mind of Paul Frommer, a professor at the University of Southern California, was born a Na’vi language, with mellifluous vowel clusters, popping ejectives and a grammatical system elaborate enough to make a polyglot blush.
[click headline for story]
This is the latest On Language column of the New York Times magazine. Ben Zimmer is a linguist, a trained language scientist, unlike his honorable predecessor William Safire, who never claimed to be more than a "language maven".
Current Mood: 
dilatory
dilatory06 December 2009 @ 11:00 am
Mom left shoppin list fur dad. I jus addz a few fings. hmm… cheezy poofs toona katnipz meeces peeces
Picture by: dunno source Caption by: splittycat via Advanced Lol Builder
06 December 2009 @ 03:21 pm
06 December 2009 @ 03:15 pm
Pretty graphs of the roots of polynomials.
I wish I knew enough math to get the logic of the patterns.
Link thanks to
en_ki.06 December 2009 @ 11:55 am
I was suddenly reminded, while doing the dishes of all things, that I get an odd sort of pleasure out of watching other people work. Not because they're working and I'm not, but because I like seeing how other people do the same kinds of tasks that I do. Sometimes I end up liking my way better; sometimes I decide to change.
I was reminded of this because I'd observed cflute washing a
pan by dribbling a little soap on it and then attacking it with a sponge.
I do the opposite, putting the soap on the sponge first. It was from C,
also, that I rediscovered how much better bacon is when you fry it rather
than microwaving it.
In the other direction, I remember how surprised jenkitty was
to learn that I scramble eggs in the pan instead of in a bowl. I enjoy
hanging around, chatting and occasionally helping, while people in a
household I'm visiting go about their daily chores. I don't
think this is weird, but I suppose it might be. I don't get out
much.
Anyone else? Actually, I expect this is pretty common, especially among geeks. Is there anyone out there who doesn't like to see how other people do things? Or who prefers to be left alone while they're doing chores?
Current Location: Grand Central Starport (lr)
Current Mood: content
06 December 2009 @ 10:06 am
( raw notes )
A good day, even though it started out with the news that Liam Clancy had died. But I had a rare, good conversation with the YD on the way to her modeling class, and a great afternoon out shopping with Colleen. I got my exercise trying to walk fast enough to keep up with her scooter -- it's wonderfully different from the years when I had to slow down to stay with her.
A couple of good insights: Graham Leathers' song "Don't Swear at Machinery" is completely wrong for me. Swearing at machinery is safe -- it lets off steam, and lets me redirect the anger into an intense need to find the problem and fix it. (N pointed out that this isn't universally true; venting anger uses up spoons for her.) I usually find it counterproductive to vent anger at people; it could even be dangerous. (Although carefully-controlled anger can be useful at times.)
The other was noticing that, if social interaction is anything like a language (either programming or human), the only way to learn it is to get a lot of practice. Which, because I'm introverted and shy, I don't. It's another feedback loop: I feel awkward around people, so I avoid them, so I don't get the practice I need that would make me less awkward. :P
As for links, ysabetwordsmith posted about Role Models for
Introverts. I'm finding her posts about loneliness and introversion
very helpful.
(added 10:52) After noticing that Colleen was going through Amazon and Mobipocket looking for ebooks, I introduced her to Project Gutenberg". Happy Cat. *grins*
Current Location: Grand Central Starport (o)
Current Mood: 
calm
calm06 December 2009 @ 12:56 pm
In case you haven't seen it. It has a little behind-the-scenes footage as well.
I really hope the movie isn't going stink on ice, but then I remember the source material, and I remember the movie of Half Blood Prince, where Harry & Ginny and Ron & Hermione showed no chemistry at all, and I just don't know.
Thoughts?
I really hope the movie isn't going stink on ice, but then I remember the source material, and I remember the movie of Half Blood Prince, where Harry & Ginny and Ron & Hermione showed no chemistry at all, and I just don't know.
Thoughts?
06 December 2009 @ 01:07 pm
Hey, I’ve been chosen as the Geek Of The Week over on BoardGameGeek! Thanks to my friend Alison George for inspiring the tiara and sash in the cartoon above.
Mirrored from Debbie's Blatherings.
06 December 2009 @ 11:55 am
Facebook outdid itself just now. It asked if I wished to add Hal Haag as a friend. *sigh* There really needs to be some way to tell various social media when someone has died.
06 December 2009 @ 11:35 am
A video of deep sea scavengers, speeded up 500 times (because they move very slowly at that temperature) to get vaguely unnatural looking movement.
I'm a little surprised that there doesn't seem to be anything which shoves starfish off the spots they've softened up so as to take advantage of someone else's stomach acid.
Link thanks to Marginal Revolution.
I'm a little surprised that there doesn't seem to be anything which shoves starfish off the spots they've softened up so as to take advantage of someone else's stomach acid.
Link thanks to Marginal Revolution.
06 December 2009 @ 08:23 am
06 December 2009 @ 11:22 am
06 December 2009 @ 07:00 am
Anime kitteh wuvs u!
i cant wayt until iz compleet!
Picture by: dunno source Caption by: kawaii-chan via Our LOL Builder
06 December 2009 @ 06:59 am
Happy Friday, friends! We’ve saved a great design for the weekend. It’s quite possible that if you decide not to purchase this soon-to-be-classic now, you’ll spend all next week (and perhaps the rest of your life) regretting it. Visit LOLMart Shirts to avoid regret.
Today is the last day you can purchase our Sad Bukkit shirt, and then it will be gone forever!
So you’ve heard LOLrus’ side of the story. Now it’s Bukkit’s turn to have a say.
Bukkit first rose to prominence as LOLrus’ silent but graceful co-star in what has now become a very famous and popular meme. The storyline was as follows: LOLrus has a bukkit. The antagonist, an evil zookeeper, takes LOLrus’ bukkit away, and LOLrus no longer has a bukkit. Heartbreaking stuff here, folks.
Now you can wear your heart(break) on your sleeve. Or chest, rather.
So why don’t you swim on over to our store and show support for Sad Bukkit. Purchasing his shirt is a surefire way to cheer him up.
LOLMart t-shirts are priced at only $15 (that includes FREE US ground shipping!) and make the perfect holiday gift for a friend (or for yourself).
06 December 2009 @ 09:26 am
... Maybe that didn't pop out right. But still.
This country has an unhealthy, ridiculous obsession with sex. Some see it as Teddibly Teddibly Harmful, to the point that even a flash of what turned out to be a covered nipple sent paroxysms of freak-out across the nation (most of which were by the vast profusion of self-appointed scolds; everybody else DVR'd and downloaded that clip like crazy). Others want every bit of stimulation and titillation they can find. I think the vast majority of us are somewhere in the middle: Yeah, sex is fantastic, but now and then somebody's gotta do the laundry.
I am a heterosexual male. I love looking at breasts, under most circumstances. But I'm no longer fourteen, y'know? And even if I was, it's not like a breast-feeding mom is offering her other breast, goin', "Hey, sailor, check it out." (I understand that there are guys who go to Lamaze classes for unwed mothers, cruising for a date: they have tangible proof that the girl puts out. I wish to FSM I was kidding.)
Fer cryin' out loud, all you need to do to see all the nekkid boobies you can possibly handle, har har, is to turn off Safe Search on Google.
If you are threatened, offended, disturbed, riveted, whatever, by the flash of a nipple, especially from a breastfeeding mother, something is not right and it's likely you. And if your concept of civilization can be threatened by it, maybe you should put the deck of cards away and start using bricks and mortar.
This country has an unhealthy, ridiculous obsession with sex. Some see it as Teddibly Teddibly Harmful, to the point that even a flash of what turned out to be a covered nipple sent paroxysms of freak-out across the nation (most of which were by the vast profusion of self-appointed scolds; everybody else DVR'd and downloaded that clip like crazy). Others want every bit of stimulation and titillation they can find. I think the vast majority of us are somewhere in the middle: Yeah, sex is fantastic, but now and then somebody's gotta do the laundry.
I am a heterosexual male. I love looking at breasts, under most circumstances. But I'm no longer fourteen, y'know? And even if I was, it's not like a breast-feeding mom is offering her other breast, goin', "Hey, sailor, check it out." (I understand that there are guys who go to Lamaze classes for unwed mothers, cruising for a date: they have tangible proof that the girl puts out. I wish to FSM I was kidding.)
Fer cryin' out loud, all you need to do to see all the nekkid boobies you can possibly handle, har har, is to turn off Safe Search on Google.
If you are threatened, offended, disturbed, riveted, whatever, by the flash of a nipple, especially from a breastfeeding mother, something is not right and it's likely you. And if your concept of civilization can be threatened by it, maybe you should put the deck of cards away and start using bricks and mortar.
06 December 2009 @ 09:50 am
A lovely group of people brought much music, friendship and food to our house yesterday. Most seemed not to want to leave and I didn't want them to.
We did NOT make Heather wear horns while cutting her birthday cake!
Thanks everybody. To those who missed it, you shouldn't have!
We did NOT make Heather wear horns while cutting her birthday cake!
Thanks everybody. To those who missed it, you shouldn't have!
Current Music: Gypsy Rover
06 December 2009 @ 08:38 am
From Thorne Coyle
It's not giving me huge amounts of hope-- the Koran's been a center of the religion for some 1300 years, and so far as the treatment of women is concerned, the prestige of the religion has been put behind misogyny rather than being used to moderate or eliminate misogyny.
There was a recent study which concluded that people tend to assume that God agrees with them, even if their opinions change. More discussion here.
On the one hand, the study was done on average American Christians, so it's not clear how far it generalizes to other religions. What's more, it hasn't been done on people with active prayer/meditation lives, nor on those who actively study their religion or who say that their religion has significantly affected their choices.*
Anyway, the question of how much difference religion makes wasn't intended as a snark. It's a real question. What do you think?
*Afaik, studies of religiousness ask about such things as attendance at religious services. I've never heard of a survey which asked people whether their religion had a significant impact on their choices about sex and/or money and/or how they treat people.
Hearing Anwar Ibrahim and Pal Aluwalia – prominent Muslim and Sikh thinkers – state unequivocally and clearly that any inferior or unequal position of women was strictly cultural and not part of their religions, gives me hope for our world. (I have heard this stated by feminist Muslim thinkers, but hearing it from these two respected men was heartening confirmation).
It's not giving me huge amounts of hope-- the Koran's been a center of the religion for some 1300 years, and so far as the treatment of women is concerned, the prestige of the religion has been put behind misogyny rather than being used to moderate or eliminate misogyny.
There was a recent study which concluded that people tend to assume that God agrees with them, even if their opinions change. More discussion here.
On the one hand, the study was done on average American Christians, so it's not clear how far it generalizes to other religions. What's more, it hasn't been done on people with active prayer/meditation lives, nor on those who actively study their religion or who say that their religion has significantly affected their choices.*
Anyway, the question of how much difference religion makes wasn't intended as a snark. It's a real question. What do you think?
*Afaik, studies of religiousness ask about such things as attendance at religious services. I've never heard of a survey which asked people whether their religion had a significant impact on their choices about sex and/or money and/or how they treat people.
06 December 2009 @ 07:06 am
Aside from lots of impressive scenery, Second Life is a prime example of Sturgeon's Law to four or five decimal digits. But once in a while it has something that's really wonderful.
The Dresden Gallery is a simulation of the Kunstsammlung in Dresden, with beautiful buildings and hundreds of paintings, mostly from the Renaissance through the 18th century (my favorites), reproduced on the walls. Your avatar can walk through four floors of halls looking at them. Yesterday there was a concert in the SL Dresden Gallery by Juliane Gabriel, as part of a fund-raising effort for a restoration project. She was apparently performing from her home; she mentioned that she had to be careful not to annoy the neighbors.
The format allowed for an unusual form of interactivity, since comments went to text chat and didn't interfere with the sound. Discussions were mostly in English, with a fair amount of German and occasional bits of other languages. The performance raised over 20,000 Lindens -- which is impressive till you realize that that's less than $80. But its main value for the gallery was probably in making the Canaletto restoration project better known.
For me it was a way to "attend" a concert in Germany without leaving home. But now, of course, I want to visit the Dresden Gallery for real!
The Dresden Gallery is a simulation of the Kunstsammlung in Dresden, with beautiful buildings and hundreds of paintings, mostly from the Renaissance through the 18th century (my favorites), reproduced on the walls. Your avatar can walk through four floors of halls looking at them. Yesterday there was a concert in the SL Dresden Gallery by Juliane Gabriel, as part of a fund-raising effort for a restoration project. She was apparently performing from her home; she mentioned that she had to be careful not to annoy the neighbors.
The format allowed for an unusual form of interactivity, since comments went to text chat and didn't interfere with the sound. Discussions were mostly in English, with a fair amount of German and occasional bits of other languages. The performance raised over 20,000 Lindens -- which is impressive till you realize that that's less than $80. But its main value for the gallery was probably in making the Canaletto restoration project better known.
For me it was a way to "attend" a concert in Germany without leaving home. But now, of course, I want to visit the Dresden Gallery for real!
06 December 2009 @ 03:00 am
06 December 2009 @ 06:50 am
The cats woke me up this morning, as they often do. I may go back to bed later, but for now, I'm up.
While I was going through the stuff I have in the basement of my mom's house, I came across two boxes of magazines. One was filled with issues of Communications of the ACM from 1983-89, and the other had issues of the IEEE Spectrum and Computer magazines from 1985-86. These are publications from technical/professional societies I belonged to at the time. My professors saved their old issues, as they had them displayed in their offices. And so I thought, why shouldn't I?
Somewhere, in a corner of my garage, I think I have a box or two of issues of Communications of the ACM from 1989-1999, when I chose not to renew my membership with ACM. I felt that I was paying for a magazine that I wasn't reading, and at the time, the society's news and activities were not relevant to what I was working on at the time.
I'd hate to throw out these old magazines. As with most of my paper output, I'd rather recycle them. But I think they'd be useful to someone. So I've been hanging on to them, hoping for a worthy recipient. I thought about local college and university libraries, but they probably already have the issues. Does anyone have any other ideas?
I'm keeping the issue that has Donald Knuth's "The Telnet Song", and the issue that Cliff Stoll signed for me. But everything else can go. And I'm keeping all the SIGGRAPH stuff because I think they're way cool.
While I was going through the stuff I have in the basement of my mom's house, I came across two boxes of magazines. One was filled with issues of Communications of the ACM from 1983-89, and the other had issues of the IEEE Spectrum and Computer magazines from 1985-86. These are publications from technical/professional societies I belonged to at the time. My professors saved their old issues, as they had them displayed in their offices. And so I thought, why shouldn't I?
Somewhere, in a corner of my garage, I think I have a box or two of issues of Communications of the ACM from 1989-1999, when I chose not to renew my membership with ACM. I felt that I was paying for a magazine that I wasn't reading, and at the time, the society's news and activities were not relevant to what I was working on at the time.
I'd hate to throw out these old magazines. As with most of my paper output, I'd rather recycle them. But I think they'd be useful to someone. So I've been hanging on to them, hoping for a worthy recipient. I thought about local college and university libraries, but they probably already have the issues. Does anyone have any other ideas?
I'm keeping the issue that has Donald Knuth's "The Telnet Song", and the issue that Cliff Stoll signed for me. But everything else can go. And I'm keeping all the SIGGRAPH stuff because I think they're way cool.
Current Mood: 
awake
awakeCurrent Music: STS9, "Metameme"
06 December 2009 @ 05:29 am
06 December 2009 @ 03:05 am
- 08:40:03: Is it crazy that I miss Salem? Not the town so much, but the people I hung out with were awesome. STOP HAVING LIVES WITHOUT ME!
- 08:42:39: I am a little bummed I cannot make Katsucon meeting. But our car can't do snow; it can barely drive in the rain.
- 09:11:16: @katsucon okay for ice cream and pony rides? I am so there. Let me get my mukluks.
- 09:13:12: Despite the snow and all the French Toast supplies I garnered, I am going to the Katsucon meeting anyway. Because I am that dedicated.
- 09:18:57: Okay, I lied. I am staying home. Snow coming down in sheets of fat white clumps now, and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge will turn invisible.
- 09:22:23: Woooo heavy snow http://flic.kr/p/7kz71T
- 11:17:38: One hour later... http://flic.kr/p/7kAj2r
- 12:41:08: Still pouring snow. Now up to my dogs' chins.
- 15:04:21: No one uses the word "boffo" anymore. I need to fix that.
- 20:08:11: Legos and Pekingese http://flic.kr/p/7kLiTy
- 20:09:35: Chance in a classic WTF???? http://flic.kr/p/7kGs7Z
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
06 December 2009 @ 01:49 am
The Christmas tree has been sitting it its stand since Monday, so it was really getting to be time to start decorating it. Of course, the first step in this process is to put the lights on the tree.
As it happens, I managed to score four sets of LED sequencing Christmas lights from Sam's Club right after they went on display last month. They are, naturally, long gone now. (Along with the net LED lights that are on the dwarf Alberta spruce trees outside. I really need four more sets of those. Good luck!) But having found these means that I'm able to retire the venerable sequencers that I've been using for years while waiting for the LED sequencer lights to come along.
The angel has been on top of the tree since we put it up, since the eight foot ladder was already in the house for some curtain hanging. And the eight foot ladder was necessary, because this is easily the tallest tree that we've ever had. It's a good ten feet tall from floor to top of the angel. Fortunately, it is not ten feet wide, so it's still smaller than Treezilla in total bulk.
There were two problems with trying to put up the lights: Katie and Julie.
Katie wanted to help, but she wasn't really able to help string lights yet. She was able to dump the big Ziploc bag full of spare bulbs everywhere. Oh, well. That's what brooms and dustpans are for.
Julie, on the other hand, wanted to climb the ladder. And when I caught her on the fifth rung -- having turned my back -- with Katie right behind her, we decided that it was time to take the girls upstairs, put them to bed, and finish putting the lights on the tree afterwards.
Yeah, sure. Neither girl went to bed easily tonight. Julie fussed and fussed before finally falling asleep. Katie went through three bottles of formula (mixed at the usual 1/5 strength for her), half of Chapter Three in the new Winnie-the-Pooh book, and a diaper change (which was no surprise after 30 ounces of liquid) and finally fell asleep a bit after midnight.
The lights are on the tree now. The older strings have now been wrapped up for the Amvets collection on Monday, along with a number of never-unwrapped sets of lights that we'll now never use due to the great LED revolution.
But it's a very pretty tree. It'll be even prettier tomorrow once the ornaments are on it.
And since we bought a lot of unbreakable ornaments both before and after Christmas last year, that'll be something that Katie and Julie can help with. :)
As it happens, I managed to score four sets of LED sequencing Christmas lights from Sam's Club right after they went on display last month. They are, naturally, long gone now. (Along with the net LED lights that are on the dwarf Alberta spruce trees outside. I really need four more sets of those. Good luck!) But having found these means that I'm able to retire the venerable sequencers that I've been using for years while waiting for the LED sequencer lights to come along.
The angel has been on top of the tree since we put it up, since the eight foot ladder was already in the house for some curtain hanging. And the eight foot ladder was necessary, because this is easily the tallest tree that we've ever had. It's a good ten feet tall from floor to top of the angel. Fortunately, it is not ten feet wide, so it's still smaller than Treezilla in total bulk.
There were two problems with trying to put up the lights: Katie and Julie.
Katie wanted to help, but she wasn't really able to help string lights yet. She was able to dump the big Ziploc bag full of spare bulbs everywhere. Oh, well. That's what brooms and dustpans are for.
Julie, on the other hand, wanted to climb the ladder. And when I caught her on the fifth rung -- having turned my back -- with Katie right behind her, we decided that it was time to take the girls upstairs, put them to bed, and finish putting the lights on the tree afterwards.
Yeah, sure. Neither girl went to bed easily tonight. Julie fussed and fussed before finally falling asleep. Katie went through three bottles of formula (mixed at the usual 1/5 strength for her), half of Chapter Three in the new Winnie-the-Pooh book, and a diaper change (which was no surprise after 30 ounces of liquid) and finally fell asleep a bit after midnight.
The lights are on the tree now. The older strings have now been wrapped up for the Amvets collection on Monday, along with a number of never-unwrapped sets of lights that we'll now never use due to the great LED revolution.
But it's a very pretty tree. It'll be even prettier tomorrow once the ornaments are on it.
And since we bought a lot of unbreakable ornaments both before and after Christmas last year, that'll be something that Katie and Julie can help with. :)
05 December 2009 @ 11:45 pm
A couple of days ago I posted a link to
ysabetwordsmith's post on Loneliness and
Fraying Social Fabric.
She has since followed it up with Fighting Loneliness, Part 2: Very Basic Steps and Fighting Loneliness, Part 3: Friendship Tips for Introverts. Wow! I'm finding these incredibly useful.
It's hard for an introvert like me to learn how to function around people, especially when they were raised by introverts like my parents (Dad was, certainly. I'm not sure about Mom). And especially when they're shy and have learned to avoid people. All of the role models the media present us with are extroverts. At least all of the really conspicuous ones. Because, well... extroverts.
It occurs to me that if social interaction is anything like a language (either programming or human), the only way to learn it is to get a lot of practice. Programming languages are easy for me -- computers are patient, and I can practice programming any time I like. They're not likely to get upset at me when I make stupid mistakes, and I'm not likely to get upset at myself. And there are lots of useful manuals to read, to help learn computer languages.
There's a lot to read about interacting with people, too, but it's difficult for a novice to tell what's useful. And of course most of it is written by and for extroverts.
More on that later, perhaps; it needs a longer post, and it's getting late.
Current Location: Grand Central Starport (o)
Current Mood: not unhappy
06 December 2009 @ 02:05 am
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06 December 2009 @ 01:01 am
05 December 2009 @ 11:08 pm
05 December 2009 @ 10:21 pm
I have a lot of Christmas shopping left to do and although Katie is pretty thoroughly taken care of, I have a vast shortage of presents for Julie and daisy_knotwise. Thus, I spoke to my lovely wife this morning:
"After lunch, why don't I take Katie out shopping with me? She needs to learn about buying gifts for others. You can take Julie out with you."
This seemed like a good idea.
( What could go wrong? )
daisy_knotwise. Thus, I spoke to my lovely wife this morning:"After lunch, why don't I take Katie out shopping with me? She needs to learn about buying gifts for others. You can take Julie out with you."
This seemed like a good idea.
( What could go wrong? )
05 December 2009 @ 11:05 pm
I asked Kip if he would love me if I were a mermaid.
He said absently "Yes. We'd have to live near the coast. You could be a lifeguard"
And I said "I would love you too, with my cold fishy heart. And yes, I would be an excellent lifeguard."
So that's settled.
He said absently "Yes. We'd have to live near the coast. You could be a lifeguard"
And I said "I would love you too, with my cold fishy heart. And yes, I would be an excellent lifeguard."
So that's settled.
05 December 2009 @ 11:02 pm
05 December 2009 @ 10:22 pm
Last year I participated in Fun-A-Day here in Philly, in which you create one artwork every day for a month -- drawing, haiku, photo, whatever -- and submit it for a one-day show. My project was "Character-A-Day": Every day of the month a written character from a different script -- current, historical, or invented / fictional -- and something about it. The first was Hebrew ב bet, the first letter of בראשית "bereshith", usually translated 'in the beginning': the first letter of the first word of the bible. The last day's character was Greek Ω omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet, used metaphorically in 1:8 and 22:13 (first and last chapters) of the Acid Trip Revelation of St. John the Divine: τὸ Α καὶ τὸ Ω, I am "the Alpha and the Omega", i.e. the Beginning and the End. For each one I hand-lettered a page and mounted them in a notebook.
Well, I still haven't written that up neatly or posted it. And I found I had a big problem in getting myself to do one each day. So for this year I've got a project better suited to my personality: Procrastination-a-Day, or "why I'm not doing an entry today". I think I can manage that.
Well, I still haven't written that up neatly or posted it. And I found I had a big problem in getting myself to do one each day. So for this year I've got a project better suited to my personality: Procrastination-a-Day, or "why I'm not doing an entry today". I think I can manage that.
Current Music: Cat Faber, "Jack Frost" (in head)
05 December 2009 @ 09:38 pm
dunkelpig looked at the weather forecast last night and said "Better rake the leaves early, before the rain and snow. And if you can, trim the hedge at the end of the alley so I can see the cars coming." We live in a row house, one door down from the corner. The owner of the corner house rents it out, and neither he nor the renters do much about the bushes.So I did that. As I often do, I sang while working. Here are some of the songs I remember singing as I raked and bagged fallen leaves and trimmed thorny bushes:
- Jack Frost - Cat Faber
- This one's obvious.
- Your Seasons, New England - m a m
- [Good grief, I haven't posted that one? Well, it's in Primary Beams, and there may be a few copies left.]
- Leaves That Are Green - Paul Simon
- Well, I was going to sing it, but I found myself stuck instead in ...
- Kathy's Song - Paul Simon
- Also appropriate: "I hear the drizzle of the rain..."
- Scarborough Fair - trad., and also done by S&G.
- Well, it's seasonal: "Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme"
- Mountains of Mourning - a Dendarii Mountain ballad collected by Pat Mathews
- "There are thorns among the roses!"
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Current Location: home, downstairs
Current Music: Leaves that are Green (in head)
05 December 2009 @ 10:01 pm
Baaaa! I'm following those who ship tweets...
( Cut for the sanity of those who can't stand more twitter posts )
( Cut for the sanity of those who can't stand more twitter posts )
05 December 2009 @ 08:59 pm
...the very strange comments people have been making to me all day about "being on another Worldcon bid." Most folks assumed I was at last night's Smofcon ice breaker, rather than having a 4-hour dinner with friends at one of Austin's most elegant old hotels.
So, to clarify: the chances of me being a member of another Worldcon bid committee are very, very small.
There are two chances of me chairing another bid committee for anything, and "slim" just left town.
If people throw $20 bills at me, I will assume they are kindly funding my next shopping trip...for clothes.
So, to clarify: the chances of me being a member of another Worldcon bid committee are very, very small.
There are two chances of me chairing another bid committee for anything, and "slim" just left town.
If people throw $20 bills at me, I will assume they are kindly funding my next shopping trip...for clothes.
05 December 2009 @ 05:00 pm
Please don’t eat me. I gots a fambily. I have 13 girlfriends, and 3,502 kids. On second thought.. eat me, please – eat me!
Picture by: dunno source Caption by: Tarantino via Advanced Lol Builder
