eruthros

1. Friday night, I didn't have anything to watch after dinner, and cereta has been posting about mid-season-three B5 and making me nostalgic, so I put on 3x09, Point of No Return.

... yeah, I should know better. Especially since this happens every time I watch an episode between the middle of season two and the middle of season three. *claws up from underneath like five episodes in a row* Well, except I skipped Late Delivery from Avalon, because really, jms.

2. Favorite typo seen today: "... and untied the red silk chords."

3. This picture is for thingswithwings, who didn't really believe me when I told her how tall the tomatoes were. ( The tomatoes are this tall )

4. I have now given out eight hundred kink_bingo cards, and T'wings has given some out, too, which is just ... wow. Now I have to make some more (using chagrined's lovely program! zie is still kb mvp!) which is kind of hilarious, because it takes the program like three minutes to make a thousand bingo cards ... but it does them in huge 744 kb bmp files. So then I put them through a photoshop batch processor to convert them to smaller jpgs, which takes like forty-five minutes. This never ceases to amuse me.

1. Lately I have been having a weird dreamwidth commenting problem, and I'm not sure if it's my ISP or something I should ask about. I'll comment using the quick-comment form, and instead of posting inline it'll take me to a blank talkpost page. Then when I go back to the original page, the comment will have either a) posted twice, once with the icon I chose and once without it or b) posted once, without the icon I chose. But pages load okay, and so do other people's comments, and I don't have a problem posting. So, weird. And annoying.

(I've previously had a problem with dreamwidth not loading or timing out, and when I tracert it's always these cogentco domains between my ISP and dw bouncing me around for ages. *fist shake at problems that can't be solved by my isp or dw*)

2. I don't read a lot on ff.n, but when I do, I'm often startled by the different kinds of metatext that come with ff.n stories. In the part of fandom that I mostly read in, stories are posted all in a go, and even if they're in several parts because they won't fit in individual posts, the metatext is meant to apply to the whole story: if there's an author's note or comment, it's for the story as a whole. I occasionally see stories posted in parts for pacing reasons -- a chapter a day or whatever -- but usually with the same header text on all of the chapters.

What I don't see a lot of on the communities/journals I follow is the kind of chapter-by-chapter metatext that goes "this is set in the same forest as the scene two chapters ago" or "this is slightly out of chronological order, but it made more sense here" or "I'm introducing an OC, but she's not a Mary Sue" or "okay, so this chapter isn't about the main OTP, but it's a necessary interlude and I swear I'll get back to them in the next chapter." (The other space in which I see that kind of metatext is kink memes.) And because those notes are unfamiliar to me I find them interesting as writing shortcuts -- especially because they're often not set off from the text visually, so I have to read them to find the start of a chapter.

I don't really have anything here in terms of conclusions, I'm just always intrigued by how that kind of note allows skipping around in a story, or clarifying the connections of settings or characters, or giving the reader two different choose-your-own-adventure versions of a chapter, or including things that (in my fannish spaces) might have been cut from a story and then posted as deleted scenes later, or whatever.

3. Soooo here is a question for you. My jury service was scheduled for tomorrow. The only place that I can check to see if I've been called is the city's website, because their phone tree just goes "to see if you're called for jury service, plz see internet."

The website says: "Jury reporting message: JURORS SUMMONED FOR TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 2010 ARE NOT TO REPORT; YOUR SERVICE IS COMPLETE."

Only... tomorrow is Tuesday, June 15th. So my question is, basically: huh? The offices are closed and won't be open until the time I'm supposed to show. Should I go in tomorrow just in case? Or should I assume this means I'm okay and they just are VERY CONFUSED?

1. Why has it been fifty-five degrees (13* C) out and raining for most of the last week?

I turned the heat off at least a month ago, but it keeps getting down to the low forties at night and then only hitting 55 or so during the day, so the house is pretty chilly. To the point that I'm wearing my winter socks and fleece and drinking hot tea. And whining. Brrrrr. But listen, June, even if you've decided to be spring instead of summer, I'm not turning the heat back on. (I did, however, make cookies to heat up the place.)

Also, the first tomatoes were looking nearly-done a week ago, but because of the cool weather I've had no tasty tomatoes -- the tomato plants are going "what is this?" Instead I've had to weed a lot, which is much less fun.

Plus the probably-upstairs-neighbors who have been pretending to "compost" dumped more "compost" in the yard, so I gave up on polite and sicced the property management company on them. Gratifyingly, the person who took my call was like "how many times has it happened? what, seriously?"

2. I wish dreamwidth had a jabber/xmpp service. I have made many new friends here, but finding everyone's gtalk or lj talk names and adding them in manually is a pain in the ass, and also requires that I remember to do it.

3. In a week or so I have an appointment with a physiatrist (me to doctor on getting this referral: oh come on, now you're just making doctors up!) who is supposed to consult regarding hand orthotics and PT. Which is really exciting! Especially because I've been waiting to see hir for like four months. And maybe I'll get something better or more useful than my current tape-knuckles-as-they-act-up approach, which a) requires waiting until they've acted up and b) involves a lot of tape.

4. I am always amused when I'm icing something and heating something else. (Currently, heating the neck, icing the wrist.)

5. When I came home today, a dude biked up the driveway to follow me to the door of my apartment -- which is set back from the street -- and said "do you live here?" And when I just sort of blinked, he said "hey, what's your name? what do you do?" To which I said "I don't have time to talk right now" and shut and locked the door behind me. (Actually I said I was sorry first, because I never do manage not to apologize.) But, just, what a great illustration of the ways in which people demand information from people with less power/privelege sometimes, and the way in which that's creepy. And I bet if I'd tried to call him on it, he would've done the "I was just trying to be friendly and make conversation!" NARGH. As if being followed to my door isn't a potentially-threatening intrusion into my space.

I was linked to an essay on this somewhere -- though of course I can't find it now -- that talked about how the kinds of "small talk" that are common in public space translate to "give me information that will allow me to track you down." (ETA: found by livrelibre! It's brigid's post men and women in public spaces.)

6. Mythbusters! I have been watching it! Last week's episode -- Fireball Stun Gun -- was massively meta, because ( Mythbusters spoilers )

7. Doctor Who! I am incredibly behind on it. *facepalm* I just now watched The Hungry Earth, and I should probably watch the rest of the two-parter, but meh. I think I will watch some Avatar instead.

On December 26th last year, I wrote down what I wanted for yuletide this year. And that was:

"Nominate yuletide challenge itself! database/dynamically generated yuletide treat request page enemies!fic!"

... yes. Seriously. I was maaaaaybe a little yuletide!obsessed at the time.

Also I said that I wanted Eddie Izzard fic. "Eddie Izzard/Steve, on the moon." Per this email to myself, I contemplated Eddie Izzard/The President of Burundi. I am now thinking about asking for some sort of Eddie Izzard fic. I nominated it, anyway. And I wasn't even thinking about it three days ago! This is how I am with yuletide nominations -- I change my mind constantly.

All of which is to say, hurrah for yuletide nominations! I nominated fandoms a couple hours ago, but I totally just went back and changed them -- I realized that nobody had nominated Super Mario Galaxy. I hope someone asks for creepy Freudian Cosmic!Mario fic, or intriguingly kinky Star Bunny fic, or adorable Toad Brigade orgy fic.

***

thingswithwings and I baked a pumpkin pie a couple days ago. (Substitution: all whipping cream instead of half milk, 3/4 cup of honey for a single recipe). Last week, I made muffins! This means two things: first, that it's fall, and I'm happy to have the oven on; and second, that this is really our apartment now. Pie is the official inauguration of an apartment!

Also, it's really tasty pie. We made a recipe and a half, because that was the size of the pumpkin, so now we have pumpkin tartlets too. I totally had a slice of pumpkin pie for first breakfast yesterday. YUM.

(Between the pumpkin pie and the hum of the radiators, you can tell it's fall here. We just gave in and turned the heat on, but to be fair to us it was 58* inside before we caved. And it was COLD.)

***

Also I would like to rec isagel's new Touching Evil vid, Wither and Die. I know next to nothing about the series, but I the vid is gorgeous and interesting and sort of heart-clenchy even without the context.

Things That Make Me Say "Woe!":

1. Bonny Doon is apparently no longer making their Ca'Del Sol freisa frizzante. This saddens me: it was a lovely sparkling dessert wine, done with freisa grapes, which means an incredible strawberry aroma and taste. Also, it had the kickest-ass label ever. In searching for wine to take back to the east coast, it's gonna have to be their Muscato Vin de Glaciere instead. Pah.

2. Indian Springs' Moscato Bianco 2005 is not yet released, and they're no longer selling the 2004. Pah! This is not my favorite moscato in the world, but it is quite good. (And even I can taste the apricot notes.)

3. I am basically working every day I'm in the Bay Area; I haven't even made it to Thrifttown, which is walking distance from my parents' house. I got breakfast at the Ferry Building one day, which was exciting. Still, it's kinda silly to be here and do nothing home-towny. (I am, in fact, at work now. I am, to be more specific, in my second exam room of the day, having arrived at 7.30 and planning to leave by 6 pm by the grace of SofTest and Microsoft.)

3a. Natural conclusion of 3: Ded of tired. Nothing like twelve-hour workdays to really perk you up.

Things That Make Me Say "Yay!":

1. The Suns won last night without going into overtime, so I didn't have to make that irritating decision about getting enough sleep versus watching the end of the game. Even though Radmanovic made four three-pointers in a row, taking it near a tie, he missed his fifth. Thank heavens. (Also, the Suns won the game despite getting under 100 points and despite Steve Nash making only three shots in the whole game. Take that, people who say that Steve Nash needs to make baskets for them to win! He's a point guard! He just needs to get his teammates in position to make baskets! And take that, commentators! Who spend entire games claiming that if the Suns make less than thirty points in even one quarter, they're gonna lose the game!)

2. Doing crossword puzzles at dinner with the whole family. "Okay, 'a little lower,' cee-blank-ell-blank." "Calf." Et cetera. This is only yay if the crossword puzzles are fun; frankly, I often find the NYTimes one tries too hard to be clever, doing things like running some words off the edge of the puzzle, or starting every long clue with a Q, or whatever. (Also, in my years of doing crossword puzzles, I have discovered that "grand relative" or "upright relative" is always spinet, never harpsichord or virginal or clavichord. I mean, I can understand why it's never a clavicytherium, because it probably wouldn't fit, but surely "virginal" would be nice and confusing. Also, any imported car will be an Audi, for the three vowels, and any Middle Eastern grp OPEC, for the ending 'c.')

3. In response to 3a, above: iced coffee with soymilk from the place down the street. Iced coffee: making six am seem like a slightly less sucktastic idea since 1598!