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Tracking what I read is a strange compulsion. On one hand it's a record of accomplishment, a diary, and a resource. I hope to talk to people about things we've both read, because reading is a lonely business, and thinking is only half-done when it's trapped, unarticulated in the reader. Comments sections are something, but they're not the same as sharing a few words or a full dialogue on the subject with people you know well, or hope to come to know well. On the other hand, keeping this sort of record is at best a list of the detritus involved in producing concrete work, and at worst a testament to the amount of pure faffing about I do over the course of a couple weeks.
It does bug me, though, when there's no record--for myself, or for anyone--of what I'm up to. Possibly that's a compulsion born of blogging from an early age. I don't think of it as a narcissistic 'me generation!!' trend-article-spawning psychological issue, though, just--a habit. The diarists of history probably got nervous if they didn't scrawl a few sentences about burying cheese in their commonplace books, well before facebook apparently altered our global subjectivity 4eva. In re: that, this Tolstoy quote's a bit smug, but also a bit true: "People of limited intelligence are fond of talking about "these days," imagining that they have discovered and appraised the peculiarities of "these days" and that human nature changes with the times."
I don't even think this sort of literary accountability is a particularly poor tick to pick up. It has the aforementioned benefits, and it introduces a sort of self-disciplined ordering to one's thoughts and plans, without which days would seem to spin out, messy and forever until they're not. Which of course they do anyway, but in order to get anything done with them, one has to develop a habit of Plot.
So why do you keep this sort of blog/journal? Or why did you, if lj death's driven you off? Fandom participation exclusively, and/or meeting people, and/or forming and presenting yourself via articulation?
I think all of that was why I started blogging (on another site), as a young teenager fresh out of forums, and now my reasons are both simpler (less of the youthful identity politics) and more complicated (what is it to write for myself when so much of my time is spent Forming Opinions and Writing Them professionally, either academically or for other forms of publication? And when I want to also write fiction professionally, but haven't written anything for circulation, or even completed a piece privately, for a while now?). Fandom!death (both LJ and Moffat related, in my corner of the world) has changed things--I no longer feel the same sense of community with a lively interactive group of friends, and it actually really depressed me for a while, more than I might have thought it would. I still enjoy reading friends' entries--sometimes particularly funny/informative/inspiring, sometimes quotidian. I feel warmth towards the writers, and to some degree as though I know them, even if we've spoken outside of lj only spottily for a couple years now.
I don't really have a neat conclusion here. Enjoy, or don't, a crapton of articles, I guess? There are semi-useful section headers this time!
( ARTICLES, YO )
It does bug me, though, when there's no record--for myself, or for anyone--of what I'm up to. Possibly that's a compulsion born of blogging from an early age. I don't think of it as a narcissistic 'me generation!!' trend-article-spawning psychological issue, though, just--a habit. The diarists of history probably got nervous if they didn't scrawl a few sentences about burying cheese in their commonplace books, well before facebook apparently altered our global subjectivity 4eva. In re: that, this Tolstoy quote's a bit smug, but also a bit true: "People of limited intelligence are fond of talking about "these days," imagining that they have discovered and appraised the peculiarities of "these days" and that human nature changes with the times."
I don't even think this sort of literary accountability is a particularly poor tick to pick up. It has the aforementioned benefits, and it introduces a sort of self-disciplined ordering to one's thoughts and plans, without which days would seem to spin out, messy and forever until they're not. Which of course they do anyway, but in order to get anything done with them, one has to develop a habit of Plot.
So why do you keep this sort of blog/journal? Or why did you, if lj death's driven you off? Fandom participation exclusively, and/or meeting people, and/or forming and presenting yourself via articulation?
I think all of that was why I started blogging (on another site), as a young teenager fresh out of forums, and now my reasons are both simpler (less of the youthful identity politics) and more complicated (what is it to write for myself when so much of my time is spent Forming Opinions and Writing Them professionally, either academically or for other forms of publication? And when I want to also write fiction professionally, but haven't written anything for circulation, or even completed a piece privately, for a while now?). Fandom!death (both LJ and Moffat related, in my corner of the world) has changed things--I no longer feel the same sense of community with a lively interactive group of friends, and it actually really depressed me for a while, more than I might have thought it would. I still enjoy reading friends' entries--sometimes particularly funny/informative/inspiring, sometimes quotidian. I feel warmth towards the writers, and to some degree as though I know them, even if we've spoken outside of lj only spottily for a couple years now.
I don't really have a neat conclusion here. Enjoy, or don't, a crapton of articles, I guess? There are semi-useful section headers this time!
( ARTICLES, YO )
Oh my god what.
Sep. 27th, 2012 03:08 am
This mug, guys. You could drink earl grey out of it. I am just saying. This is a rare prototype, worth £200 or some shit (though it didn't sell for that, so maybe not), but if you said the proper run was £5 on ebay... I could find myself tempted.
Yesterday I bent the wire whisk of my kitchenaid on some frozen butter whilst trying to make oatmeal cookies as a way of bribing a boss I don't like into hiring me for more freelance contracts. I then *actually cried* over having broken this treasure possession, not having used it enough, how much it HURT to bend it back into shape, and the passing of all worldly things, especially anything I particularly love. Because that is the level of HYPER-EMO I reach when furious with myself. It's like, a film!Loki-level of self-pity.
I also cursed my stupidity for having not used the paddle attachment, or realized that just because the floor mixer at the bakery could handle frozen butter, that didn't mean my beloved Kitchenaid could. I *think* it's back to near-perfect working order again--though it looks sliiightly wonky--and I could buy a new whisk for a not insignificant but reasonable cost. But these are the sort of thoughts I have now, when the emo has passed over us. At the time I cradled a whisk to my chest like a baby for no less than half an hour. Yep. *Maturity*.
Also, has anyone ever beheld the work of Clarice Cliff? Because it is the UGLIEST SHIT KNOWN TO HUMANITY. Seriously, what the hell is this? There is literally none of it I wouldn't bin, and I can see *exactly* how much it's worth. It would simply be a service to people with eyes.
( today: )
( MUSIC and Links )
In Which Kanye West Treats Kim Kardashian Like a Barbie Doll
Doctors Endorse Circumcision of Baby Boys, Eagerly Await Angry Barrage of All-Caps Emails
The Overcoat
Guide to Beef Cuts
Here, kitty kitty: Image of 'Essex Lion' that sparked massive police hunt is finally revealed as officers call off the search and admit sightings were probably of a 'large domestic cat'
How to Chop Onions Without Tears
Hamish McRae: The real worry is how have we fallen so far behind the rest of the world
The New Year Lucky Pig, Glucksschwein
Hideously judgy and poorly-formulated sj campaign in which poors are advised to subsist on mung beans for environment, selves, to save money--the 190th such ill-advised campaign
London’s best farmers' markets
A Different Justice: Why Anders Breivik Only Got 21 Years for Killing 77 People
The Wire
How to tell if baking powder is still good
the accidental artistry of colorful street markings
How Paperbacks Transformed the Way Americans Read
Jon Garrad reviewed Dracula Experience, Whitby, United Kingdom: "Cover three quid in mustard and swallow them. It'll be more fun." Pretty funny. Thanks, random and creepy TripAdvisor alert.
The Dark Knight Meets The Avengers: not as good as it thinks it is.
Michelin stars 2012: get the full list of restaurants
The whole world is watching … A Voice for Men “activists” making asses of themselves
Essex Lion Tweets!
Passed/Failed: An education in the life of Allegra McEvedy, chef, writer, broadcaster and restaurateur
Cuts of Pork: Which Cuts of Pork Are Which & How to Cook Them
The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy
Archaeological dig at Concentration Camp reveals what the Nazis tried to hide
Feel the Loathing on the Campaign Trail
Creepy Millionaire Drops Theft Charges Against Lindsay Lohan Because ‘What’s Mine Is Yours’
Arthur Brisbane and selective stenography: The real media sin is not uncritical printing of false claims: it's extending that license only to the powerful
Shulamith Firestone, radical feminist, wrote best-seller, 67
Gina Rinehart, the World’s Richest Woman, Is Really Sick of How Jeal-Jeal the Working Poor Are
Pittsburgh-Area High School Students Tweet About How Awful Their School Lunches Are
Writer Food From A To Z
Where the Women Aren’t: Drinking in the Republican Lady Lounge
Bad Recipe: Farm-to-Table Chef Accused of Sexual Harassment by 22 Former Employees
Revolt of the Rich: Our financial elites are the new secessionists.
Leann Rimes Turns 30, Checks into Clinic
Monkey tree top trail
Bad Recipe: Farm-to-Table Chef Accused of Sexual Harassment by 22 Former Employees
I Miss You, Lindsay Lohan, and I Want You Back
Meet the Women Who ‘Actually Like Men’: America’s Pro-Life Political Priestesses
Jon Stewart Basks In The Glory Of Clint Eastwood’s ‘Awesome’ Speech While Tearing Apart Romney’s
Dad Protects Son from Bullies by Wearing a Skirt. Guess What? It Works.
Dick Dilemma Reaction Scale
cute craft
Bill Maher on GOP's memory loss of George W. Bush
The Bushies are back, and playing for Romney
wow Kanye’s gettin’ real deep on twitter today check it out: ACTUALLY TRUE.
Holder Announces Impunity for Torture-Homicides
Why Are Republican States Always Leeching Off The Rest Of Us Hard-Working Taxpayers?
Somewhat interesting, long and grueilling Thorki 'stuck on earth' adaptation fic, reminiscent of Varooneeka's P/Q New Orleans thing forever ago--I'm kind of intrigued by the 'reality porn' of having fantastic characters confront the very mundane
THE FIVE REASONS WHY ROMNEY/RYAN MUST BE DEFEATED IN 2012 – AND WHY CONSERVATIVES SHOULD HOPE THEY ARE.
Madeleine Albright Can’t Fathom Why Any Woman Would Ever Vote for Mitt Romney
Louis' Beyonce Piece
The Rake
Obama did not change Washington. For each side, it’s clear who’s to blame.
Anne Lamott
Generation Read: Millennials Buy More Books Than Everybody Else
Westford man's close moose encounter
Rainbow Queen
Colorado Girl Staves Off Bubonic Plague, Gains Unfair Advantage in Future AP European History Class
GQ Ran Out of Clothes for Its Woman of the Year
Wealth doesn't trickle down – it just floods offshore, research reveals
Doctors Endorse Circumcision of Baby Boys, Eagerly Await Angry Barrage of All-Caps Emails
The Overcoat
Guide to Beef Cuts
Here, kitty kitty: Image of 'Essex Lion' that sparked massive police hunt is finally revealed as officers call off the search and admit sightings were probably of a 'large domestic cat'
How to Chop Onions Without Tears
Hamish McRae: The real worry is how have we fallen so far behind the rest of the world
The New Year Lucky Pig, Glucksschwein
Hideously judgy and poorly-formulated sj campaign in which poors are advised to subsist on mung beans for environment, selves, to save money--the 190th such ill-advised campaign
London’s best farmers' markets
A Different Justice: Why Anders Breivik Only Got 21 Years for Killing 77 People
The Wire
How to tell if baking powder is still good
the accidental artistry of colorful street markings
How Paperbacks Transformed the Way Americans Read
Jon Garrad reviewed Dracula Experience, Whitby, United Kingdom: "Cover three quid in mustard and swallow them. It'll be more fun." Pretty funny. Thanks, random and creepy TripAdvisor alert.
The Dark Knight Meets The Avengers: not as good as it thinks it is.
Michelin stars 2012: get the full list of restaurants
The whole world is watching … A Voice for Men “activists” making asses of themselves
Essex Lion Tweets!
Passed/Failed: An education in the life of Allegra McEvedy, chef, writer, broadcaster and restaurateur
Cuts of Pork: Which Cuts of Pork Are Which & How to Cook Them
The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy
Archaeological dig at Concentration Camp reveals what the Nazis tried to hide
Feel the Loathing on the Campaign Trail
Creepy Millionaire Drops Theft Charges Against Lindsay Lohan Because ‘What’s Mine Is Yours’
Arthur Brisbane and selective stenography: The real media sin is not uncritical printing of false claims: it's extending that license only to the powerful
Shulamith Firestone, radical feminist, wrote best-seller, 67
Gina Rinehart, the World’s Richest Woman, Is Really Sick of How Jeal-Jeal the Working Poor Are
Pittsburgh-Area High School Students Tweet About How Awful Their School Lunches Are
Writer Food From A To Z
Where the Women Aren’t: Drinking in the Republican Lady Lounge
Bad Recipe: Farm-to-Table Chef Accused of Sexual Harassment by 22 Former Employees
Revolt of the Rich: Our financial elites are the new secessionists.
Leann Rimes Turns 30, Checks into Clinic
Monkey tree top trail
Bad Recipe: Farm-to-Table Chef Accused of Sexual Harassment by 22 Former Employees
I Miss You, Lindsay Lohan, and I Want You Back
Meet the Women Who ‘Actually Like Men’: America’s Pro-Life Political Priestesses
Jon Stewart Basks In The Glory Of Clint Eastwood’s ‘Awesome’ Speech While Tearing Apart Romney’s
Dad Protects Son from Bullies by Wearing a Skirt. Guess What? It Works.
Dick Dilemma Reaction Scale
cute craft
Bill Maher on GOP's memory loss of George W. Bush
The Bushies are back, and playing for Romney
wow Kanye’s gettin’ real deep on twitter today check it out: ACTUALLY TRUE.
Holder Announces Impunity for Torture-Homicides
Why Are Republican States Always Leeching Off The Rest Of Us Hard-Working Taxpayers?
Somewhat interesting, long and grueilling Thorki 'stuck on earth' adaptation fic, reminiscent of Varooneeka's P/Q New Orleans thing forever ago--I'm kind of intrigued by the 'reality porn' of having fantastic characters confront the very mundane
THE FIVE REASONS WHY ROMNEY/RYAN MUST BE DEFEATED IN 2012 – AND WHY CONSERVATIVES SHOULD HOPE THEY ARE.
Madeleine Albright Can’t Fathom Why Any Woman Would Ever Vote for Mitt Romney
Louis' Beyonce Piece
The Rake
Obama did not change Washington. For each side, it’s clear who’s to blame.
Anne Lamott
Generation Read: Millennials Buy More Books Than Everybody Else
Westford man's close moose encounter
Rainbow Queen
Colorado Girl Staves Off Bubonic Plague, Gains Unfair Advantage in Future AP European History Class
GQ Ran Out of Clothes for Its Woman of the Year
Wealth doesn't trickle down – it just floods offshore, research reveals
Comedic actor William Windom dead at 88
Body shop repairs, tricks out bullied gay student’s ride
Top 9 Most Embarrassing Things My Kid Has Said About a Stranger Who’s Standing About Four Inches Away From Us
HOW MY PAST AS A BLACK WOMAN INFORMS MY BLACK MALE FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE TODAY
Best of TomDispatch: Rebecca Solnit, The Archipelago of Arrogance
Men Explain Things To Me
I Misspoke—What I Meant To Say Is 'I Am Dumb As Dog Shit And I Am A Terrible Human Being'
On Being Inefficient
Focusing on the quest for a PhD
pretty new translation of Swann's Way
How Many Arms do you Have?
War and Peace, Book 01: 1805
450 Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free
War and Peace (audible)
Good News: Cats Aren’t Really Polluting Your Brain with Poop Parasites
Mattel Introduces Their New “Drag Queen Barbie”
Is the U.S. Ready for a Gay Man to be a Comedic Super Star? We Certainly Hope So.
simon amstell on jordan catalano
It’s Time We Talked About Chris Brown’s Crazy Mom
A Tea Partier Decided To Pick A Fight With A Foreign President. It Didn't Go So Well.
Michael D. Higgins
Yiddish Curses for Jewish Republicans: which is excellent because I do think they're vile traitors. "May you be reunited in the world to come with your ancestors, who were all socialist garment workers."
A ‘Sleeping Beauties’ Art Exhibit Features Real Sleeping Women and a Real Threat of Marriage
Generation Screwed on the Daily Beast: idk, part interesting, part whiiiiiiiiining/thinly-disguised agism with boringly Ayn Randish tendencies
A ‘Sleeping Beauties’ Art Exhibit Features Real Sleeping Women and a Real Threat of Marriage
Jaded hipster owls think they've seen it all
The Audacity of Hope
How to Put a Magnetic Snap Closure onto Leather
Dickens’s Best Novel? Six Experts Share Their Opinions
Tyra Banks Needs to Stop Lying About Going to Harvard Business School
'Hello mum, this is going to be hard for you to read ...'
Blowjobs: Why Can’t Americans Be More Like the French?
Laurie Penny
Laurie Penny: My New York date was going really well. Until...
Laurie Penny: It's nice to think that only evil men are rapists - that it's only pantomime villains with knives in alleyways. But the reality is different
Body shop repairs, tricks out bullied gay student’s ride
Top 9 Most Embarrassing Things My Kid Has Said About a Stranger Who’s Standing About Four Inches Away From Us
HOW MY PAST AS A BLACK WOMAN INFORMS MY BLACK MALE FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE TODAY
Best of TomDispatch: Rebecca Solnit, The Archipelago of Arrogance
Men Explain Things To Me
I Misspoke—What I Meant To Say Is 'I Am Dumb As Dog Shit And I Am A Terrible Human Being'
On Being Inefficient
Focusing on the quest for a PhD
pretty new translation of Swann's Way
How Many Arms do you Have?
War and Peace, Book 01: 1805
450 Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free
War and Peace (audible)
Good News: Cats Aren’t Really Polluting Your Brain with Poop Parasites
Mattel Introduces Their New “Drag Queen Barbie”
Is the U.S. Ready for a Gay Man to be a Comedic Super Star? We Certainly Hope So.
simon amstell on jordan catalano
It’s Time We Talked About Chris Brown’s Crazy Mom
A Tea Partier Decided To Pick A Fight With A Foreign President. It Didn't Go So Well.
Michael D. Higgins
Yiddish Curses for Jewish Republicans: which is excellent because I do think they're vile traitors. "May you be reunited in the world to come with your ancestors, who were all socialist garment workers."
A ‘Sleeping Beauties’ Art Exhibit Features Real Sleeping Women and a Real Threat of Marriage
Generation Screwed on the Daily Beast: idk, part interesting, part whiiiiiiiiining/thinly-disguised agism with boringly Ayn Randish tendencies
A ‘Sleeping Beauties’ Art Exhibit Features Real Sleeping Women and a Real Threat of Marriage
Jaded hipster owls think they've seen it all
The Audacity of Hope
How to Put a Magnetic Snap Closure onto Leather
Dickens’s Best Novel? Six Experts Share Their Opinions
Tyra Banks Needs to Stop Lying About Going to Harvard Business School
'Hello mum, this is going to be hard for you to read ...'
Blowjobs: Why Can’t Americans Be More Like the French?
Laurie Penny
Laurie Penny: My New York date was going really well. Until...
Laurie Penny: It's nice to think that only evil men are rapists - that it's only pantomime villains with knives in alleyways. But the reality is different
( The frankly ridiculous amount of shit I have done today: )
Bank of Canada Re-Drafts Currency to Appease Bigots
Seeing Cerise: Defining Colors in Webster’s Third
IoS letters, emails & online postings (19 August 2012)
Joan Smith: Not liking the Olympics doesn't make me bad
5 Villains Who Went Out of Their Way to Screw Their Own Plan
Ways My Beard Makes Me Seem Thoughtful and Worldly
Universities can't do everything. Reinvent the polytechnic
The William Morris Gallery
Cats that beg for food aren't just hungry, they've got a psychological condition, say scientists: what the shit.
It’s Not Shocking That Republican Senate Nominee Thinks Women Can’t Get Pregnant From ‘Legitimate Rape’
Vatican Newspaper Wonders Why Bald Barbie Isn’t Actually in Any Stores
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart Pull Out of Final Twilight Conventions, Drive Stake Through Fans’ Hearts
5 Reasons Why Will Riker Creeps Me Out
Bank of Canada Re-Drafts Currency to Appease Bigots
Seeing Cerise: Defining Colors in Webster’s Third
IoS letters, emails & online postings (19 August 2012)
Joan Smith: Not liking the Olympics doesn't make me bad
5 Villains Who Went Out of Their Way to Screw Their Own Plan
Ways My Beard Makes Me Seem Thoughtful and Worldly
Universities can't do everything. Reinvent the polytechnic
The William Morris Gallery
Cats that beg for food aren't just hungry, they've got a psychological condition, say scientists: what the shit.
It’s Not Shocking That Republican Senate Nominee Thinks Women Can’t Get Pregnant From ‘Legitimate Rape’
Vatican Newspaper Wonders Why Bald Barbie Isn’t Actually in Any Stores
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart Pull Out of Final Twilight Conventions, Drive Stake Through Fans’ Hearts
5 Reasons Why Will Riker Creeps Me Out
Study Proves That Men With Shaved Heads Strike Fear Into Our Hearts, Pants
My Awesome Sister is the Zelda Gymnast and Yes, She’s a Lifelong Gamer
50 recommended shows at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe
London 2012: Jeremy Hunt dismisses claims Olympics has turned West End into ghost town
A CRITICAL CONVERSATION ABOUT LOLITA.
The 100 best dishes in London 2012 - at a glance
Wouldn’t it be Weirder If I Didn’t Think My Child Was Gifted?
Mez's cute ring thing with silicon gel and clay
Vanilla Meringue Mushrooms
Amazing obit about drug addiction
Joplin Mosque Razed in Fire; 2nd Blaze This Summer
Americans Spend Billions on Beauty Products But Are Not Very Happy: this raises a LOT of questions about cultural constructions of happiness, for me?
Married Couple Propositions 13-Year-Old Girl For Sex, and Naturally, People Blame… The Girl
Michael Phelps Gets a Girlfriend, Everyone Immediately Assumes She’s a Fame Whore
Jillian Camarena-Williams Is a Shot Putting Scientist with a License to Be Really, Really Strong
Bobak Ferdowsi's Mohawk Blows Up Twitter As NASA's Curiosity Rover Lands On Mars
Fox News Wonders Why Team USA's Uniforms Are Not Patriotic Enough (VIDEO)
The Gender Pronoun Gap is Narrowing, She Said
Delusional Magazine Editor Fired For Sexual Harassment
FOX ON TUBE OMFG
Men Too Busy Saving Their Own Asses to Let Women and Children Go First
Britain's first eco-nightclub powered by pounding feet opens its doors
Badger cull in Wales to go ahead
DHS Crushed This Analyst for Warning About Far-Right Terror
Ultra-Orthodox Men Now Wearing Special Blinders to Avoid Seeing Sexy Things
POTUS Embarrassingly Brags About Joe Biden’s Granddaughter Maisy to Her Basketball Idols
Anime Convention Bizarrely Offers Established Cosplayer a Stripper Gig in Exchange for $200 and Snacks
aforementioned lady's costumes
Laurie Penny: To hell with the Gradgrinds – go to university
Archie Bland: You're a posho, Benedict, just shut up about it
Natalie Haynes: Read Richard Burton's diaries and weep for the advent of email
Leading article: We really don't need to talk about Kevin Pietersen
Del Posto’s $500 Menu Brings Mushy Lasagne, Lousy Chips: Buzz
FBI files on Sylvia Plath's father shed new light on poet
List of mammals of Great Britain
Automating the high-tech sector
The Awakening is possibly the worst movie I have seen in years
English-language Star Trek: Catan Game Out This Fall
Russian Bigots Sue Madonna for Hurting Their Feewings
Alice Cooper’s Advice for How to Get a Job: Just Get a Really Good Job, or Be Alice Cooper
LAWRENCE MILES' DOCTOR WHO THING
: I don't even think explaining Southland Tales is possible.
( random shit done many many days ago: )
My Awesome Sister is the Zelda Gymnast and Yes, She’s a Lifelong Gamer
50 recommended shows at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe
The Rapture - "Whoo! Alright! Yeah! Uh-huh!" from Benjamin Dickinson on Vimeo.
London 2012: Jeremy Hunt dismisses claims Olympics has turned West End into ghost town
A CRITICAL CONVERSATION ABOUT LOLITA.
The 100 best dishes in London 2012 - at a glance
Wouldn’t it be Weirder If I Didn’t Think My Child Was Gifted?
Mez's cute ring thing with silicon gel and clay
Vanilla Meringue Mushrooms
Amazing obit about drug addiction
Joplin Mosque Razed in Fire; 2nd Blaze This Summer
Americans Spend Billions on Beauty Products But Are Not Very Happy: this raises a LOT of questions about cultural constructions of happiness, for me?
Married Couple Propositions 13-Year-Old Girl For Sex, and Naturally, People Blame… The Girl
Michael Phelps Gets a Girlfriend, Everyone Immediately Assumes She’s a Fame Whore
Jillian Camarena-Williams Is a Shot Putting Scientist with a License to Be Really, Really Strong
Bobak Ferdowsi's Mohawk Blows Up Twitter As NASA's Curiosity Rover Lands On Mars
Fox News Wonders Why Team USA's Uniforms Are Not Patriotic Enough (VIDEO)
The Gender Pronoun Gap is Narrowing, She Said
Delusional Magazine Editor Fired For Sexual Harassment
FOX ON TUBE OMFG
Men Too Busy Saving Their Own Asses to Let Women and Children Go First
Britain's first eco-nightclub powered by pounding feet opens its doors
Badger cull in Wales to go ahead
DHS Crushed This Analyst for Warning About Far-Right Terror
Ultra-Orthodox Men Now Wearing Special Blinders to Avoid Seeing Sexy Things
POTUS Embarrassingly Brags About Joe Biden’s Granddaughter Maisy to Her Basketball Idols
Anime Convention Bizarrely Offers Established Cosplayer a Stripper Gig in Exchange for $200 and Snacks
aforementioned lady's costumes
Laurie Penny: To hell with the Gradgrinds – go to university
Archie Bland: You're a posho, Benedict, just shut up about it
Natalie Haynes: Read Richard Burton's diaries and weep for the advent of email
Leading article: We really don't need to talk about Kevin Pietersen
Del Posto’s $500 Menu Brings Mushy Lasagne, Lousy Chips: Buzz
FBI files on Sylvia Plath's father shed new light on poet
List of mammals of Great Britain
Automating the high-tech sector
The Awakening is possibly the worst movie I have seen in years
English-language Star Trek: Catan Game Out This Fall
Russian Bigots Sue Madonna for Hurting Their Feewings
Alice Cooper’s Advice for How to Get a Job: Just Get a Really Good Job, or Be Alice Cooper
LAWRENCE MILES' DOCTOR WHO THING
: I don't even think explaining Southland Tales is possible.
( random shit done many many days ago: )
Random shit
Aug. 2nd, 2012 11:02 pmThe last month has been unrelievedly mad, so I've been pretty out of commission. I haven't been able to read, write, or do much but various kinds of work. Maybe it'll be better in a couple weeks? I MIGHT have big news. We'll see.
Toby Hadoke TV Showreel
A tumblr fusing porn and Thomas Jefferson quotes--that HAS to be pretty niche.
Who scarf pattern I'm finishing
The Providores: where I miiiiight be able to pick up some pastry shifts
more on Providores
Meh article on batman massacre
London museums and attractions
Allegra McEvedy : 'I have a fairly extreme personality'
Blake's 7 (S1 1-7)
Down and Safe: Si Hart's guide to Blake's 7
Highgate Tours
Kanye being Kanye
Hideously embarrassing Batman Massacre sketch that shame-squicks me for fandom, with its penchant for tragedy-appropriating, OTT, schmaltzy responses, as if twee sentiment is a band-aid for random acts of violence experienced only vicariously
Quite good steve/tony fic
Oh, cats
When Two Hyphenated Last Names Fall in Love
If Not for Facebook, 18 Percent of Teens Would Be Totally Friendless
Fairtrade Supporter Conference 2011: Allegra McEvedy Key Note Speech
decent S&S gen fic
something lifts towards a light
Loki action figure--I don't really go in for action figures, but this one seems v. well done
Blue Bunny Red Carpet Red Velvet Cake
Ice Cream Review
Ben & Jerry's Fair Goodness Cake!
Limited Edition Ice Cream
Ben & Jerry’s Hannah Teter’s Maple Blondie
Hannah Teter
Don't enjoy your job? Then maybe you're too smart for your own good
Savannah Dietrich Doesn't Face Contempt Charge For Revealing Names Of Sexual Attackers
Westboro Baptist Church Protesters Blocked At Fallen Soldier's Funeral
tumblr.txt: HILARIOUS
as MEz points out, 'No it's not. It's probably like, Sarah.'
If You Liked “The Hunger Games”…
Siiiigh, a game I only got silver in
Wightwick Manor and Gardens
Australian Paper Incites Backlash After Shittily Suggesting that Swimmer Leisel Jones Is Fat
Kristen Stewart Cheats on Vampire Boyfriend With Married Human Father of Two
The Myth of the ‘Booth Babe’
Comedian Gets Awesomely Meta About Her Encounter With a Flasher
The Inevitable Kristen Stewart Death Threats Begin
The Myth of the ‘Booth Babe’
Haters Need to Shut the Hell Up About Gabby Douglas’ Hair
John Scalzi Helpfully Explains Just How Not Okay It Is to Sexually Harass Someone at a Sci-Fi or Fantasy Convention
London’s Dangling Mayor Becomes Latest Delightful British Meme
The London 2012 Olympic Games unticketed-event planner
When a Boy Genius Like Jonah Lehrer Fails
Unusual clubs, classes and workshops in London
Live Rabbits, Drag Queens and Stalkers: My Life as a Mary Kay Lady
Facebook Jerks Want to ‘Beat the Shit’ Out of Teresa Giudice’s 5-Year-Old Daughter
Olympian Is 'Very Bitter' After Ban From Games for Racial Tweet
The Five Most Ridiculous Quotes From Ann Romney
Five Possible Reasons that The Hobbit is Spilling Over into a Third Movie
Sunday Times subeditors reply to Giles Coren
Read Giles Coren's letter to Times subs
See Every Harry Potter Chapter Illustration in One Stunning Illustration
A More Positive Spin on ‘Lady Geeks’
Frank Gaffney Uses Creepy Logic to Defend Fellow Crazy Person Michele Bachmann
Toby Hadoke TV Showreel
A tumblr fusing porn and Thomas Jefferson quotes--that HAS to be pretty niche.
Who scarf pattern I'm finishing
The Providores: where I miiiiight be able to pick up some pastry shifts
more on Providores
Meh article on batman massacre
London museums and attractions
Allegra McEvedy : 'I have a fairly extreme personality'
Blake's 7 (S1 1-7)
Down and Safe: Si Hart's guide to Blake's 7
Highgate Tours
Kanye being Kanye
Hideously embarrassing Batman Massacre sketch that shame-squicks me for fandom, with its penchant for tragedy-appropriating, OTT, schmaltzy responses, as if twee sentiment is a band-aid for random acts of violence experienced only vicariously
Quite good steve/tony fic
Oh, cats
When Two Hyphenated Last Names Fall in Love
If Not for Facebook, 18 Percent of Teens Would Be Totally Friendless
Fairtrade Supporter Conference 2011: Allegra McEvedy Key Note Speech
decent S&S gen fic
something lifts towards a light
Loki action figure--I don't really go in for action figures, but this one seems v. well done
Blue Bunny Red Carpet Red Velvet Cake
Ice Cream Review
Ben & Jerry's Fair Goodness Cake!
Limited Edition Ice Cream
Ben & Jerry’s Hannah Teter’s Maple Blondie
Hannah Teter
Don't enjoy your job? Then maybe you're too smart for your own good
Savannah Dietrich Doesn't Face Contempt Charge For Revealing Names Of Sexual Attackers
Westboro Baptist Church Protesters Blocked At Fallen Soldier's Funeral
tumblr.txt: HILARIOUS
as MEz points out, 'No it's not. It's probably like, Sarah.'
If You Liked “The Hunger Games”…
Siiiigh, a game I only got silver in
Wightwick Manor and Gardens
Australian Paper Incites Backlash After Shittily Suggesting that Swimmer Leisel Jones Is Fat
Kristen Stewart Cheats on Vampire Boyfriend With Married Human Father of Two
The Myth of the ‘Booth Babe’
Comedian Gets Awesomely Meta About Her Encounter With a Flasher
The Inevitable Kristen Stewart Death Threats Begin
The Myth of the ‘Booth Babe’
Haters Need to Shut the Hell Up About Gabby Douglas’ Hair
John Scalzi Helpfully Explains Just How Not Okay It Is to Sexually Harass Someone at a Sci-Fi or Fantasy Convention
London’s Dangling Mayor Becomes Latest Delightful British Meme
The London 2012 Olympic Games unticketed-event planner
When a Boy Genius Like Jonah Lehrer Fails
Unusual clubs, classes and workshops in London
Live Rabbits, Drag Queens and Stalkers: My Life as a Mary Kay Lady
Facebook Jerks Want to ‘Beat the Shit’ Out of Teresa Giudice’s 5-Year-Old Daughter
Olympian Is 'Very Bitter' After Ban From Games for Racial Tweet
The Five Most Ridiculous Quotes From Ann Romney
Five Possible Reasons that The Hobbit is Spilling Over into a Third Movie
Sunday Times subeditors reply to Giles Coren
Read Giles Coren's letter to Times subs
See Every Harry Potter Chapter Illustration in One Stunning Illustration
A More Positive Spin on ‘Lady Geeks’
Frank Gaffney Uses Creepy Logic to Defend Fellow Crazy Person Michele Bachmann
Sometimes the South follows you...
Jul. 19th, 2012 10:49 pmJust got off another exciting argument!call with my mother. I am literally never encouraging a visit again. Like, actually. This is WAY more wank than anything ever could be worth. I am willing to visit home for short periods, but no parent is coming over, ever. Too late to stop this visit, but not too late to learn from it.
She wanted to spend like £800 for everyone for three nights in a super boring, far out of town hotel b/c she'd left these arrangements too long and Fringe accomodation is difficult to get. Only like, two places were still available. I said that was a lot for the UK, where hotels were typically pretty cheap, and that Katy and I weren't v. comfortable with a super expensive place--if necessary we were cool sleeping in different places, we'd still see one another like all day.
She sent this VERY patronizing email:
"Your dad and I spoke and we agree that your idea to save money is fine. I certainly don't want either you or Katy to feel uncomfortable. I have looked through the list, and have sent you the two places that looked OK. obviously they are the most expensive on the list.
One is the 450 GBP, at the top, the other is at the bottom at 600 GBP. There are two things that we wont concede to, one, no one is sleeping on the floor, and two, Katy, will not be paying her own way. Tell her it is pointless to argue, that's the way it's going to be. She is also not going to be chipping in for her airfair, or meals and should order what ever the heck she wants. The "uncomfortableness" you mentioned is cute, beyond that offers nothing to sway us. I would have paid for Jake's hard costs of a trip like this when Molly and he were living together, so I don't recognize the difference. Please try to get the 600 GBP flat and book it from the 11th to the 15th."
So I found the people in Edinburgh renting their houses out for the Fringe--TONS--and contacted over 40 of them. I got her back like 20 NICE, available options--cheap, convenient, and characterful. She said she'd be okay with the two most expensive ones (though they were still significantly cheaper than her idea), but not without bitching a LOT about how my dad was 'making such a sacrifice here' and being really snotty about me saying that Sam, Katy and I wouldn't at all mind bringing an airmattress/sleeping bags and sleeping on the couch/the flats' fold out beds/these things we'd bring, as it was just for three nights. And there WERE suggestions with actual beds for absolutely everyone.
Today I call her back, to say 'so the one we decided on--did you firm that up, as we discussed?'
We'd finally gotten it to the two most expensive of my suggestions, before this. The cheaper one was RIGHT DOWNTOWN, so perfect. The other one was a short busride, generally a bit more inconvenient, because we'd be dependent on busses. My mom starts in all "oh well, I just don't knoooow how we can be sure these criagslist people are reeeeeeal"
And I was like, "well, er, as we discussed, you can't be 100%, but you can like, easily request a testamonial/their contact info/do a deposit to reserve it and pay in full when you get there and are satisfied?" And then she starts saying the more expensive one of my options has been talked down by £100. I say "...but that's not even conveinent, it's out on the bus route. We'd be depending on the bus, and it stops early." She's all "DON'T YOU THINK THAT DURING THE FESTIVAL THE CITY WILL CATCH ON TO DEMAND AND DO EXTENDED HOURS?!?!?!??!?!"
Um, no. I've been there. They do not. They're a civic transport infrastructure. They give no fucks about 'increased late night festival demand.' This is fucking Scotland. They want you to buy their tourist tat and BURN IN HELL.
So I try to explain this kind of cordially and she goes all "WELL I HATE EVERYTHING YOU'VE PICKED EVERYTHING EUGH." Dude, then... do it youself? But you should see the photos, these are NICE houses. I was looking through thinking, shit, all of these are FABULOUS, and give me the Shame.
Then she's all "WELL I CAN'T TALK TO YOU IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY!!! HOW DARE YOU TRY AND... MAKE SURE WE'RE NOT HOMELESS FOR THREE DAYS/THAT ALL YOUR WORK WASN'T WASTED?!?!?! SOME OF US ARE WORKING!!!!!!!"
Meanwhile she is telling my little sister Meghan how to clean the windows.
SO BUSY.
SO VERY BUSY!!!!!
Just-- every. fucking. conversation with her. It's like 'small thing'--->MUCH LARGER ACTUAL PROBLEM!!!!--->complete unwillingness to properly do it herself and not spend money like an idiot on stupid bullshit that won't even actually be convenient or give anyone pleasure. Spending money to stay somewhere nice and convenient: sure. Some fucking travellodge shit out on like, the fucking other side of the county: ...why even? She doesn't even HAVE a ton of money to throw away.
DED OF IRONY AND PRETENSION
Should I go to Edinburgh?
Georgian House
10 of Edinburgh's best hangover cafes
Kemble's Riot: grown-up panto
I can tell you that there are two kinds of dissertations: a good one, and a finished one. Finished is better.
Sylvester Stallone Releases Heartbreaking Statement About Son Sage’s Death
Ice cream soda: "In the United States, an "ice cream soda" typically refers to the drink containing soda water, syrup, and ice cream, whereas a "float" is generally ice cream in a soft drink."--Damn Right. Also: "Vaca Dourada: In Brazil, a vaca dourada or golden cow is an ice cream soda combination of vanilla ice cream and guaraná soda. It can be enriched with coconut or bananas." BRAZIL! TELL ME MORE!!
‘Weed Dating’ Is the Biggest Conceptual Letdown You May Ever Read About
contains a little bit about Doing the Fringe Cheaply
Mez's Amazing Demon Cat
Stars Use Baskets!! Can kind of not believe this is real.
Lawrence Croft
Britain flooded with 'brand police' to protect sponsors
Should bloggers charge for reviews?
Why Aren’t We Talking More About Deadbeat Dads?
Adam Worth: "the prototype for Sherlock Holmes' nemesis, Professor Moriarty."
Akbar's Adventures with the Elephant Hawa'i in 1561
She wanted to spend like £800 for everyone for three nights in a super boring, far out of town hotel b/c she'd left these arrangements too long and Fringe accomodation is difficult to get. Only like, two places were still available. I said that was a lot for the UK, where hotels were typically pretty cheap, and that Katy and I weren't v. comfortable with a super expensive place--if necessary we were cool sleeping in different places, we'd still see one another like all day.
She sent this VERY patronizing email:
"Your dad and I spoke and we agree that your idea to save money is fine. I certainly don't want either you or Katy to feel uncomfortable. I have looked through the list, and have sent you the two places that looked OK. obviously they are the most expensive on the list.
One is the 450 GBP, at the top, the other is at the bottom at 600 GBP. There are two things that we wont concede to, one, no one is sleeping on the floor, and two, Katy, will not be paying her own way. Tell her it is pointless to argue, that's the way it's going to be. She is also not going to be chipping in for her airfair, or meals and should order what ever the heck she wants. The "uncomfortableness" you mentioned is cute, beyond that offers nothing to sway us. I would have paid for Jake's hard costs of a trip like this when Molly and he were living together, so I don't recognize the difference. Please try to get the 600 GBP flat and book it from the 11th to the 15th."
So I found the people in Edinburgh renting their houses out for the Fringe--TONS--and contacted over 40 of them. I got her back like 20 NICE, available options--cheap, convenient, and characterful. She said she'd be okay with the two most expensive ones (though they were still significantly cheaper than her idea), but not without bitching a LOT about how my dad was 'making such a sacrifice here' and being really snotty about me saying that Sam, Katy and I wouldn't at all mind bringing an airmattress/sleeping bags and sleeping on the couch/the flats' fold out beds/these things we'd bring, as it was just for three nights. And there WERE suggestions with actual beds for absolutely everyone.
Today I call her back, to say 'so the one we decided on--did you firm that up, as we discussed?'
We'd finally gotten it to the two most expensive of my suggestions, before this. The cheaper one was RIGHT DOWNTOWN, so perfect. The other one was a short busride, generally a bit more inconvenient, because we'd be dependent on busses. My mom starts in all "oh well, I just don't knoooow how we can be sure these criagslist people are reeeeeeal"
And I was like, "well, er, as we discussed, you can't be 100%, but you can like, easily request a testamonial/their contact info/do a deposit to reserve it and pay in full when you get there and are satisfied?" And then she starts saying the more expensive one of my options has been talked down by £100. I say "...but that's not even conveinent, it's out on the bus route. We'd be depending on the bus, and it stops early." She's all "DON'T YOU THINK THAT DURING THE FESTIVAL THE CITY WILL CATCH ON TO DEMAND AND DO EXTENDED HOURS?!?!?!??!?!"
Um, no. I've been there. They do not. They're a civic transport infrastructure. They give no fucks about 'increased late night festival demand.' This is fucking Scotland. They want you to buy their tourist tat and BURN IN HELL.
So I try to explain this kind of cordially and she goes all "WELL I HATE EVERYTHING YOU'VE PICKED EVERYTHING EUGH." Dude, then... do it youself? But you should see the photos, these are NICE houses. I was looking through thinking, shit, all of these are FABULOUS, and give me the Shame.
Then she's all "WELL I CAN'T TALK TO YOU IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY!!! HOW DARE YOU TRY AND... MAKE SURE WE'RE NOT HOMELESS FOR THREE DAYS/THAT ALL YOUR WORK WASN'T WASTED?!?!?! SOME OF US ARE WORKING!!!!!!!"
Meanwhile she is telling my little sister Meghan how to clean the windows.
SO BUSY.
SO VERY BUSY!!!!!
Just-- every. fucking. conversation with her. It's like 'small thing'--->MUCH LARGER ACTUAL PROBLEM!!!!--->complete unwillingness to properly do it herself and not spend money like an idiot on stupid bullshit that won't even actually be convenient or give anyone pleasure. Spending money to stay somewhere nice and convenient: sure. Some fucking travellodge shit out on like, the fucking other side of the county: ...why even? She doesn't even HAVE a ton of money to throw away.
DED OF IRONY AND PRETENSION
Should I go to Edinburgh?
Georgian House
10 of Edinburgh's best hangover cafes
Kemble's Riot: grown-up panto
I can tell you that there are two kinds of dissertations: a good one, and a finished one. Finished is better.
Sylvester Stallone Releases Heartbreaking Statement About Son Sage’s Death
Ice cream soda: "In the United States, an "ice cream soda" typically refers to the drink containing soda water, syrup, and ice cream, whereas a "float" is generally ice cream in a soft drink."--Damn Right. Also: "Vaca Dourada: In Brazil, a vaca dourada or golden cow is an ice cream soda combination of vanilla ice cream and guaraná soda. It can be enriched with coconut or bananas." BRAZIL! TELL ME MORE!!
‘Weed Dating’ Is the Biggest Conceptual Letdown You May Ever Read About
contains a little bit about Doing the Fringe Cheaply
Mez's Amazing Demon Cat
Stars Use Baskets!! Can kind of not believe this is real.
Lawrence Croft
Britain flooded with 'brand police' to protect sponsors
Should bloggers charge for reviews?
Why Aren’t We Talking More About Deadbeat Dads?
Adam Worth: "the prototype for Sherlock Holmes' nemesis, Professor Moriarty."
Akbar's Adventures with the Elephant Hawa'i in 1561
MANY LINKS OMG
Jul. 15th, 2012 12:10 amFrom Fifty Shades Of Grey to a shade of brown: Boyfriend squirts girlfriend with sauce to stop her reading erotic novel
Sale formula to emulate for Torchwood books?
The Snuggery: a strange but, I suppose, not *entirely* weird business concept
Basically our Tatty Divine swag
‘The Gherkin’ to become ‘The Penguin’
Jo Walton's ranking of Heyer
Facebook Monitors Your Chats for Criminal Activity [REPORT]
Heyer: The Black Moth/Black Sheep
Loki's Official Apology II
Loki's Official Apology I
JQA’s Self-Assessment on His Birthday in 1812
Black English and the habitual "be"
Barefaced trick: can you survive without makeup for the day?: hideously stupid
Yo as a Pronoun
How To Write 80,000 Words In A Weekend
'Daily Show,' 'Colbert Report' Cease Streaming Online Due To Viacom vs. DirecTV Battle
The woe that is in teaching English
Robert de La Rochefoucauld, Wartime Hero and Spy, Dies at 88
Slashers: not all straight ladies, apparently.
Paulo Coelho calls on readers to pirate books
Letter from the Pulitzer Fiction Jury, Part II: How To Define Greatness?
Caption Me: NAACP Members Watching Mitt Romney Talk
Iocane Powder Pint Glass
It Has Come to Chloe Sevigny’s Attention She Is Being Mocked on the Internet
The Drowned World by JG Ballard: a meh novel of an excruciating novel. I cannot recommend.
Great Opening Sentences from Classic Fantasy Novels
"Taran wanted to make a sword; but Coll, charged with the practical side of his education, decided on horseshoes."
— The Book of Three, Lloyd Alexander
...but that is not even how semi-colons work. What? Embarrassing for everyone involved.
"One cannot raise walls against what has been forgotten."
...Strachey and Freud called, they want their slightly-altered sentence back.
"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."--I think this actually is one of the best opening lines ever
Rivers of London- Chapter Three: mini-essay at the beginning a waste of time, only skimmed the chapter
When The Media Found Congressional Experts Interesting
Underground Reading: Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind
DON’T KILL YOUR DARLINGS: some interesting ideas, but aaaachingly precious, over-written, poorly argued and irritating
Alif the Unseen
Designing 007 – Fifty Years Of Bond Style @ Barbican
Rape versus Mans/Laughter: Hitchcock's Blackmail and Feminist Interpretation
Sale formula to emulate for Torchwood books?
The Snuggery: a strange but, I suppose, not *entirely* weird business concept
Basically our Tatty Divine swag
‘The Gherkin’ to become ‘The Penguin’
Jo Walton's ranking of Heyer
Facebook Monitors Your Chats for Criminal Activity [REPORT]
Heyer: The Black Moth/Black Sheep
Loki's Official Apology II
Loki's Official Apology I
JQA’s Self-Assessment on His Birthday in 1812
Black English and the habitual "be"
Barefaced trick: can you survive without makeup for the day?: hideously stupid
Yo as a Pronoun
How To Write 80,000 Words In A Weekend
'Daily Show,' 'Colbert Report' Cease Streaming Online Due To Viacom vs. DirecTV Battle
The woe that is in teaching English
Robert de La Rochefoucauld, Wartime Hero and Spy, Dies at 88
Slashers: not all straight ladies, apparently.
Paulo Coelho calls on readers to pirate books
Letter from the Pulitzer Fiction Jury, Part II: How To Define Greatness?
Caption Me: NAACP Members Watching Mitt Romney Talk
Iocane Powder Pint Glass
It Has Come to Chloe Sevigny’s Attention She Is Being Mocked on the Internet
The Drowned World by JG Ballard: a meh novel of an excruciating novel. I cannot recommend.
Great Opening Sentences from Classic Fantasy Novels
"Taran wanted to make a sword; but Coll, charged with the practical side of his education, decided on horseshoes."
— The Book of Three, Lloyd Alexander
...but that is not even how semi-colons work. What? Embarrassing for everyone involved.
"One cannot raise walls against what has been forgotten."
...Strachey and Freud called, they want their slightly-altered sentence back.
"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."--I think this actually is one of the best opening lines ever
Rivers of London- Chapter Three: mini-essay at the beginning a waste of time, only skimmed the chapter
When The Media Found Congressional Experts Interesting
Underground Reading: Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind
DON’T KILL YOUR DARLINGS: some interesting ideas, but aaaachingly precious, over-written, poorly argued and irritating
Alif the Unseen
Designing 007 – Fifty Years Of Bond Style @ Barbican
Rape versus Mans/Laughter: Hitchcock's Blackmail and Feminist Interpretation
Fashion Openings are a thing, I guess
Jul. 13th, 2012 01:37 am* Dried lots of dishes
* Did 3 job applications
* wrote long-ass, 5 page follow up job thing when a recruitment lady emailed me back--going to proofread/cut that and get it back to her in the morning.
* Called (twice) and wrote Narayan's friend about teaching gig--going in for interview (I *think*?) tomorrow at 2:30, but think it's pretty much a sure thing.
* got bad news, sulked
* played AWFUL RftG game, in which my hand suuuuucked
* made English Breakfast for Dinner for 5 people
* talked to Stephanie and Katy re: my dad's travel plans
* played with NetGalley, read up on request protocol, requested and received a review book
* prevaricated over, then rejected a job ap I didn't feel quite qualified for--might come back to it
* wrote and talked to people about council tax
* talked v. briefly to Jon about script
* waited in line hour for Tatty Divine Launch Party to make sure Katy got the goodie bad she wanted--turned out not to be necessary, but still think doing it was the right idea. Rain sucked though. In the end we both got swag bags, containing some things to sell on and some to keep. I discovered I like parma violets, despite Katy's assurances to the contrary.
* listened to Dickens on the bus in/in the queue
* Looked up transport to interview tomorrow.
* Watched 'A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum' while working
* Hung out with Katy's friend, who's in town for the night
* put away Katy's pretty fresh-baked bread
* closed tabs
* took in the post
* gave Becca her book--should return Hunger Games
* asked Jon about lesson plan for Sat--getting it tomorrow.
* responded to Tor comments
* installed Adobe Digital Editions
* downloaded e-ARC
* wrote to Steph about dad's plans
* Wrote to Jo L about E.On
* Wrote LARB about second ARC--sir not appearing in my inbox.
I was a right-wing child star
Secrets of the Muslim bathroom
To Make America Great Again, We Need to Leave the Country
Delia Jacket Potatoes
22 Examples of Etsy Child Abuse
Sad Hipster is Sad
20 Sad Etsy Boyfriends
Georgette Heyer's Top Ten Novels
The Atlantic’s List of Greatest Girl Characters in Literature: Really?
So a Girl Walks into a Comedy Club….
Family of four 'need £36k for decent standard of living'
Alert to Podfic Makers and Fanfic Writers! (Random House SDCC podfic/fanfic competition): "...it is important that fans be well-informed, especially as publishers experiment with new models and sometimes try to assert greater control over fan activities."
Nigella Hams: SHOULD TRY THE GINGER ALE ONE SOMEDAY
http://jezebel.com/5924931/your-tax-dollars-paid-for-the-cdcs-sexist-wedding-day-survival-guide?comment=50826418
Who Reviews What In 2012
How the Logic of "Friendzoning" Would Work If Applied in Other Instances:
GOING PRIVATE? MY REPLY TO A JOB OFFER FROM A PRIVATE HEALTH COMPANY: arrestingly good
Just Let the Shut-Ins Bang Their Virtual Girlfriends in Peace
10 Science Fiction Novels You Pretend to Have Read (And Why You Should Actually Read Them)
Getting Your Tubes Tied Is a Giant Pain in the Ass
10 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About America: yes and no. Might well have benefitted from living longer in any one place and gotten to know the more structural differences/worldview issues there? For example, a fair amount of what he thinks about the US is true (some of it seems a bit sexist/creepy), but like, I'd say the US is baseline-friendlier than the UK, and that the UK in turn is reported to be MUCH more baseline-friendly than East Europe by Eastern Europeans I've taught and worked with. I'd also say something the US has going for it is a more ingrained sense of professionalism/efficiency/litigiousness. Some will say that's business culture infiltrating everything, and to an extent that's true. But professionalism is also a way of respecting everyone you're dealing with, getting shit done, and keeping everyone safe and above-board. I'd often prefer that to the murkylurky slop (sometimes nauseatingly dressed up with an over-compensating, twee, faux-professionalism) of ever doing anything with UK organizations, businesses and charities. That said, the UK's more relaxed actual office culture seems like a positive thing, and I think you *could* still accomplish Efficiency while maintaining that.
Comic-Con Bans Strollers Because They Just Completely Spoil the Fragile Illusion: goes weird, nerd-shamey, not... actually very funny in the middle. Don't think much of this fellow's ear for tone/demographic. At least SOME other commenters equally annoyed.
You Know What’s Great About You? You Just Can’t Take (or Give) a Compliment
* Did 3 job applications
* wrote long-ass, 5 page follow up job thing when a recruitment lady emailed me back--going to proofread/cut that and get it back to her in the morning.
* Called (twice) and wrote Narayan's friend about teaching gig--going in for interview (I *think*?) tomorrow at 2:30, but think it's pretty much a sure thing.
* got bad news, sulked
* played AWFUL RftG game, in which my hand suuuuucked
* made English Breakfast for Dinner for 5 people
* talked to Stephanie and Katy re: my dad's travel plans
* played with NetGalley, read up on request protocol, requested and received a review book
* prevaricated over, then rejected a job ap I didn't feel quite qualified for--might come back to it
* wrote and talked to people about council tax
* talked v. briefly to Jon about script
* waited in line hour for Tatty Divine Launch Party to make sure Katy got the goodie bad she wanted--turned out not to be necessary, but still think doing it was the right idea. Rain sucked though. In the end we both got swag bags, containing some things to sell on and some to keep. I discovered I like parma violets, despite Katy's assurances to the contrary.
* listened to Dickens on the bus in/in the queue
* Looked up transport to interview tomorrow.
* Watched 'A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum' while working
* Hung out with Katy's friend, who's in town for the night
* put away Katy's pretty fresh-baked bread
* closed tabs
* took in the post
* gave Becca her book--should return Hunger Games
* asked Jon about lesson plan for Sat--getting it tomorrow.
* responded to Tor comments
* installed Adobe Digital Editions
* downloaded e-ARC
* wrote to Steph about dad's plans
* Wrote to Jo L about E.On
* Wrote LARB about second ARC--sir not appearing in my inbox.
I was a right-wing child star
Secrets of the Muslim bathroom
To Make America Great Again, We Need to Leave the Country
Delia Jacket Potatoes
22 Examples of Etsy Child Abuse
Sad Hipster is Sad
20 Sad Etsy Boyfriends
Georgette Heyer's Top Ten Novels
The Atlantic’s List of Greatest Girl Characters in Literature: Really?
So a Girl Walks into a Comedy Club….
Family of four 'need £36k for decent standard of living'
Alert to Podfic Makers and Fanfic Writers! (Random House SDCC podfic/fanfic competition): "...it is important that fans be well-informed, especially as publishers experiment with new models and sometimes try to assert greater control over fan activities."
Nigella Hams: SHOULD TRY THE GINGER ALE ONE SOMEDAY
http://jezebel.com/5924931/your-tax-dollars-paid-for-the-cdcs-sexist-wedding-day-survival-guide?comment=50826418
Who Reviews What In 2012
How the Logic of "Friendzoning" Would Work If Applied in Other Instances:
GOING PRIVATE? MY REPLY TO A JOB OFFER FROM A PRIVATE HEALTH COMPANY: arrestingly good
Just Let the Shut-Ins Bang Their Virtual Girlfriends in Peace
10 Science Fiction Novels You Pretend to Have Read (And Why You Should Actually Read Them)
Getting Your Tubes Tied Is a Giant Pain in the Ass
10 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About America: yes and no. Might well have benefitted from living longer in any one place and gotten to know the more structural differences/worldview issues there? For example, a fair amount of what he thinks about the US is true (some of it seems a bit sexist/creepy), but like, I'd say the US is baseline-friendlier than the UK, and that the UK in turn is reported to be MUCH more baseline-friendly than East Europe by Eastern Europeans I've taught and worked with. I'd also say something the US has going for it is a more ingrained sense of professionalism/efficiency/litigiousness. Some will say that's business culture infiltrating everything, and to an extent that's true. But professionalism is also a way of respecting everyone you're dealing with, getting shit done, and keeping everyone safe and above-board. I'd often prefer that to the murkylurky slop (sometimes nauseatingly dressed up with an over-compensating, twee, faux-professionalism) of ever doing anything with UK organizations, businesses and charities. That said, the UK's more relaxed actual office culture seems like a positive thing, and I think you *could* still accomplish Efficiency while maintaining that.
Comic-Con Bans Strollers Because They Just Completely Spoil the Fragile Illusion: goes weird, nerd-shamey, not... actually very funny in the middle. Don't think much of this fellow's ear for tone/demographic. At least SOME other commenters equally annoyed.
You Know What’s Great About You? You Just Can’t Take (or Give) a Compliment
Really hate how doing a formal, academic-work job ap DEVOURS your day. And god forbid you get behind at all, or it's much worse. And if you let it slide when you're behind, you just don't hold yourself responsible for doing them, b/c they're such day-consuming, pointless ass-munches. There is *nothing* I hate more than applying for things, as a process. So much busywork, and so much of it essentially pointless.
--Spent like 5-6 hours on this BITCH of an overly-formal job ap.
--Had to reuse the form for another job w/ them, and it STILL took like 2 hours
to even ADAPT that first one for this. It's for Admin 101, *naturally*, where the only question should be 'if I give you a computer, will you try to eat it?' '...no?' 'Whelp, okay then.'
--finished Blackpool while doing job aps (don't have a TON to say, but still want to write about it)
--tidied room
--hung, sorted and did loads of laundry
--Finished ALL the dishes
--made a little stir-fry to use up old rice
--changed sheets
--tab-closed
--checked up on parents' travel plans
--started to look at Edinburgh program and hotels properly
--got an article posted, checked up on it, read it over
--started Jeremy Irons & Tom Hiddleston's Henry IV while doing chores
--got free books in the mail, wrote to SH about covering them
--did kitchen floor yesterday, forgot to say
--reminded Katy re: dinner tomorrow
--wrote Tu back
--prepped ham for next cooking stage
--packed Katy's lunch
9 Different Types of Depression
Love in the Time of Zombies
Letter from the Pulitzer Fiction Jury: What Really Happened This Year
‘Moonrise Kingdom’ (Wes Anderson, 2012)
‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ (Marc Webb, 2012)
On Al Sharpton’s show on MSNBC today, actors staged a “re-enactment” of Mitt Romney’s weekend fundraising jaunt in the Hamptons.
A Candid Playgirl Rejection Letter From The 1970s
Absolute Power
Julie d'Aubigny
Pony vs. Ghost
Dress Mez likes which I like bits of
Another Mez deer
Cookie Monster’s Version of ‘Call Me Maybe’ Is Way Better Than the Original: "I know, I know. All of these "Call Me Maybe" libdubs and covers are getting exhausting, but trust us. This Cookie Monster version is entirely worth your time.
FINALLY, a song we can all relate to."
11 Reasons We Still Don’t Have a Babysitter
Top 10 Films of 2011
Texts From Jane Eyre
Sad Etsy Pets: control-F for 'santaland', and weep with me.
--Spent like 5-6 hours on this BITCH of an overly-formal job ap.
--Had to reuse the form for another job w/ them, and it STILL took like 2 hours
to even ADAPT that first one for this. It's for Admin 101, *naturally*, where the only question should be 'if I give you a computer, will you try to eat it?' '...no?' 'Whelp, okay then.'
--finished Blackpool while doing job aps (don't have a TON to say, but still want to write about it)
--tidied room
--hung, sorted and did loads of laundry
--Finished ALL the dishes
--made a little stir-fry to use up old rice
--changed sheets
--tab-closed
--checked up on parents' travel plans
--started to look at Edinburgh program and hotels properly
--got an article posted, checked up on it, read it over
--started Jeremy Irons & Tom Hiddleston's Henry IV while doing chores
--got free books in the mail, wrote to SH about covering them
--did kitchen floor yesterday, forgot to say
--reminded Katy re: dinner tomorrow
--wrote Tu back
--prepped ham for next cooking stage
--packed Katy's lunch
9 Different Types of Depression
Love in the Time of Zombies
Letter from the Pulitzer Fiction Jury: What Really Happened This Year
‘Moonrise Kingdom’ (Wes Anderson, 2012)
‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ (Marc Webb, 2012)
On Al Sharpton’s show on MSNBC today, actors staged a “re-enactment” of Mitt Romney’s weekend fundraising jaunt in the Hamptons.
A Candid Playgirl Rejection Letter From The 1970s
Absolute Power
Julie d'Aubigny
Pony vs. Ghost
Dress Mez likes which I like bits of
Another Mez deer
Cookie Monster’s Version of ‘Call Me Maybe’ Is Way Better Than the Original: "I know, I know. All of these "Call Me Maybe" libdubs and covers are getting exhausting, but trust us. This Cookie Monster version is entirely worth your time.
FINALLY, a song we can all relate to."
11 Reasons We Still Don’t Have a Babysitter
Top 10 Films of 2011
Texts From Jane Eyre
Sad Etsy Pets: control-F for 'santaland', and weep with me.
Day's Links
Jul. 8th, 2012 12:18 pmWalmart closes, Community builds a giant library
Recommending Books for Grown-Ups - Cathy Butler
Epic Pool
A man carries on a snarky conversation with himself from 20 years ago, via VHS tape
More Beatonna Teens
Justices Rule Police Do Not Have a Constitutional Duty to Protect Someone
Ron Perlman Visits Child in Full Hellboy Makeup for Make-A-Wish
Brad Pitt's Mother Pens Anti-Gay, Anti-Obama Letter to Local Newspaper: THIS JUST IN, OLDER MISSOURI WOMAN IS CONSERVATIVE!!
Morgan Freeman: Obama Not 'First Black President': The mixed race point again. Though "Traditionally, Americans of mixed racial heritage are allowed to decide for themselves which, if either, of their parental communities with which to identify." ahahahah /what/? America is DEF a 'drop of blood' culture. You'll be treated like what you look like, regardless of whether that's particularly fair.
Someone attempts to draw all neopets from memory--even the shit ones
TNG Season 8
Ex-City boy: 'It's easier to get people to talk about drugs than insider trading'
Great bookshelves
Central Library, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham
Someone is mad as a box of frogs about Tony and Pepper MAYBE HAVING TOUCHED GENITALS OMFG. I just--I don't really ship it? But I see no real need to like, RETCON THIS HIDEOUS CONSENTING ADULT SEX!! because I'm not... 14. Can't they just decide they're better off as friends or peter out or have a fight or fucking anything textual and sane? Have a relationship... that ends, as otherwise nice relationships with otherwise nice people do more often than not?
Geology of Middle Earth
Katie Holmes 'Biggest Nightmare' in Scientology History, Say Experts
Athletes' fury at Team GB 'farce' sparks selection overhaul for 2016 Olympics
Swimsuit Series, Part 3: Is Today Truly the 66th Anniversary of the First Bikini?: part of the Smithsonian's v. interesting historical fashion blog
Sophie Aldred will brain you will a cricket ball, but she will look v. sorry about it
On not defining cops as a class as enemies: I'd largely agree with the sentiment here, but at the same time it can't be denied that if you're a PoC, lower-class or someone who sometimes engages in constitutional displays of civil disobedience, your experience of whether you can expect a random cop run-in to be helpful or scary may well be altered
weird candy dispenser robot thing
Jhonen Vasquez celebrates Commander Mark art program
REALLY GOOD Iron Man cosplay
An American novel adapts ‘Antigone’ to the Afghanistan war with little success: strong example of a review, should look at her strategies
Etymology of Spunk, Funk and Punk
Love Boats: The Delightfully Sinful History of Canoes: v. cute
Firkytoodle: "to indulge in physically intimate endearments, esp. in those provocative caresses which constitute the normal preliminaries to sexual congress." Dictionary of Historical Slang (1972)
Steamy stuff, Dictionary of Historical Slang!
Recommending Books for Grown-Ups - Cathy Butler
Epic Pool
A man carries on a snarky conversation with himself from 20 years ago, via VHS tape
More Beatonna Teens
Justices Rule Police Do Not Have a Constitutional Duty to Protect Someone
Ron Perlman Visits Child in Full Hellboy Makeup for Make-A-Wish
Brad Pitt's Mother Pens Anti-Gay, Anti-Obama Letter to Local Newspaper: THIS JUST IN, OLDER MISSOURI WOMAN IS CONSERVATIVE!!
Morgan Freeman: Obama Not 'First Black President': The mixed race point again. Though "Traditionally, Americans of mixed racial heritage are allowed to decide for themselves which, if either, of their parental communities with which to identify." ahahahah /what/? America is DEF a 'drop of blood' culture. You'll be treated like what you look like, regardless of whether that's particularly fair.
Someone attempts to draw all neopets from memory--even the shit ones
TNG Season 8
Ex-City boy: 'It's easier to get people to talk about drugs than insider trading'
Great bookshelves
Central Library, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham
Someone is mad as a box of frogs about Tony and Pepper MAYBE HAVING TOUCHED GENITALS OMFG. I just--I don't really ship it? But I see no real need to like, RETCON THIS HIDEOUS CONSENTING ADULT SEX!! because I'm not... 14. Can't they just decide they're better off as friends or peter out or have a fight or fucking anything textual and sane? Have a relationship... that ends, as otherwise nice relationships with otherwise nice people do more often than not?
Geology of Middle Earth
Katie Holmes 'Biggest Nightmare' in Scientology History, Say Experts
Athletes' fury at Team GB 'farce' sparks selection overhaul for 2016 Olympics
Swimsuit Series, Part 3: Is Today Truly the 66th Anniversary of the First Bikini?: part of the Smithsonian's v. interesting historical fashion blog
Sophie Aldred will brain you will a cricket ball, but she will look v. sorry about it
On not defining cops as a class as enemies: I'd largely agree with the sentiment here, but at the same time it can't be denied that if you're a PoC, lower-class or someone who sometimes engages in constitutional displays of civil disobedience, your experience of whether you can expect a random cop run-in to be helpful or scary may well be altered
weird candy dispenser robot thing
Jhonen Vasquez celebrates Commander Mark art program
REALLY GOOD Iron Man cosplay
An American novel adapts ‘Antigone’ to the Afghanistan war with little success: strong example of a review, should look at her strategies
Etymology of Spunk, Funk and Punk
Love Boats: The Delightfully Sinful History of Canoes: v. cute
Firkytoodle: "to indulge in physically intimate endearments, esp. in those provocative caresses which constitute the normal preliminaries to sexual congress." Dictionary of Historical Slang (1972)
Steamy stuff, Dictionary of Historical Slang!
Lots of random Jezebel in the tab closing today. Their new commenting system has REALLY brought all the trolls to the yard. I'm not sure why--are they moderating much less? I don't think it can just be the 'number of responses' sorting algorithm. But why would trolls SUDDENLY be interested? Comments do seem 68% more bullshit than they once were, and I hate the side-scrolly thinggymabob.
Today a friend got a job, which is GREAT for him but threw my sad underemployment into sharp contrast and made me feel like a moron for focusing on housekeeping stuff and articles the past couple of weeks, half-expecting more short-term teaching to come through, just because some employers had pretty much told me to keep July open because it for sure would!!. Like that's ever true. I mean those guys are kind of shadesters anyway, so a special level of incredulity should have been reserved for them, rather than OH THANK YOU FOR THESE WEEKS OF WORK AND THIS RENT MONEY--OH MORE WORK IN RUSSIA? YES PLEASE!!
Feeling blah about it also makes it about meeee and takes away from what should be unfiltered yay for friend/the house/things looking up for the Kitson Mafia.
So I went down to meet Katy, had a too-expensive (but not AWFULLY so) belated 4th of July dinner at the American diner. Not celebrating major US Holidays REALLY depresses me, I find, even if I think RIGHT UP UNTIL JULY 3RD that I do not care, Grandparent's Day or Arbor Day or whatever the fuck means nothing to me--come the actual day I'm crying, clutching the nearest Grandparent/tree in the street, being like DID YOU KNOW IN AMERICA IT'S YOUR DAAAAY?!?!, trying to make a grandparent/tree shaped cookie at 3am and being FURIOUS that it's not right and there were no decent **American** sprinkles in the store and blah blah blaaaaah. Basically I should always plan to do the Holidays, because when I don't, no matter HOW COOL I THINK I AM, I am /never even slightly cool/ and I RUUUUUUUE how I didn't plan, so I should buy a grandparent/tree just in case and prepare a FULL DAY OF EVENTS, lest without this, I descend into holiday madness. Again.
So anyway: belated buffalo wings. Not even slightly hot, what the jolly fuck? Who does spiceless Buffalo wings? ANYWAY.
Then we went to the Cartoon Museum (free with our new ALSO FREE Art Fund cards, omg, and they didn't check the names on the back so Sam can probs use Katy's when he's here). It's worth visiting once, and a nice place/atmosphere, but not, I think, the home of my soul or anything. So then we checked out the Liberty Sale (still SO expensive), and got a coffee b/c I was basically falling asleep standing. Cookies and Cream frappe thinggamabob: idk how I feel about it. Glad that it's essentially a milkshake, pretty much, but sad that we can't just import a Steak n Shake. Or G&Ds from CoMo. Or both FUSED INTO ONE!! ...no, not a Coney Island, why are people from Detroit reading this? Also the cookie chunks at the bottom were kind of weird and hard.
Then we visited Selfridges, which I'd never been to. Kind of weird--like a mall, in a way, with REALLY high end things and some meh low end things, and some awesome store design and some kind of shoddy, rough edges. Wish we'd perused the food court more, because I really like looking at interesting/pretty food. Also it's all one can ever afford in a big destination store. Another time.
On the way back we got food in the John Lewis!Waitrose (living like upper-middle class KINGS!! ...on the reasonably priced Twinings Everyday tea. BUMPER PACK, y'all. Feel the savings!! By this time I was basically falling asleep on Katy and looking longingly at the empty fruit baskets by the queue, wondering whether they were quite big enough to curl up in.
I came home EXHAUSTED but had a bath (and tea and cheesy pasta, made with leftovers and awesomely provided by Katy) and then settled in for another two hours (I'd already dropped at least an hour on it before going out (but after moping about jobs)) applying for a part-time archivist position at QM. I've kind of worked through exhaustion now. Got it in before deadline/the server could void my work (not that it hadn't tried to delete everything in bits several times already, hate these tedious, clunky in-house pieces of shit), but only by 20 min. Since, have done a lot of tab-closing, responded to comments, made a new job spreadsheet and finished the SH-piece edits I got this morning and started before I went out. Hopefully Katy can glance at them tomorrow, since she understood the editor's comments for the last two paragraphs and I really didn't, and tell me whether she thinks the end now makes any more sense. Have been waiting around for Danny to finish the Miss Marple episode we started last night, and for my dad, so we can finish planning his trip, as we said we'd do today. I think he's forgotten/gotten busy (annoying b/c I did remind him at eight-something, and now it's 2am, and if we don't book hotels in the next days there simply won't BE any).
Dragon Castle Dim Sum
Don’t Put Women in Combat, Says Female Combat Veteran
Relining a Coat
some gay Jon Travolta thing Danny sent me with /weird/ comments
Louis from uni's comedy sketches
Ann Romney Thinks Obama Wants to Kill Her Beloved Mitt
How to do a Slip Stitch
Palaces free w/ Art Fund Card
Congressman Invites You to Play Challenging ‘Pick Out the Immigrant’ Game
I Am Obsessed with Vacuum Sealing My Food: wonder if the plastic thing's ever an issue?
Hark A Vagrant teen comics
What are the benefits of writing in a journal or diary?
This Middle Aged Man Would Like Girls to Stop Worrying Their Pretty Little Heads About Photo Retouching
Hotels Offering Fifty Shades of Grey Theme Rooms (B.Y.O. Anal Beads)
Republican Horrified to Discover that Christianity is Not the Only Religion
This is what online harassment looks like
‘I Suck’: How Guys Use Self-Deprecation Against You: I particularly enjoy this conflict resolution comment
Today a friend got a job, which is GREAT for him but threw my sad underemployment into sharp contrast and made me feel like a moron for focusing on housekeeping stuff and articles the past couple of weeks, half-expecting more short-term teaching to come through, just because some employers had pretty much told me to keep July open because it for sure would!!. Like that's ever true. I mean those guys are kind of shadesters anyway, so a special level of incredulity should have been reserved for them, rather than OH THANK YOU FOR THESE WEEKS OF WORK AND THIS RENT MONEY--OH MORE WORK IN RUSSIA? YES PLEASE!!
Feeling blah about it also makes it about meeee and takes away from what should be unfiltered yay for friend/the house/things looking up for the Kitson Mafia.
So I went down to meet Katy, had a too-expensive (but not AWFULLY so) belated 4th of July dinner at the American diner. Not celebrating major US Holidays REALLY depresses me, I find, even if I think RIGHT UP UNTIL JULY 3RD that I do not care, Grandparent's Day or Arbor Day or whatever the fuck means nothing to me--come the actual day I'm crying, clutching the nearest Grandparent/tree in the street, being like DID YOU KNOW IN AMERICA IT'S YOUR DAAAAY?!?!, trying to make a grandparent/tree shaped cookie at 3am and being FURIOUS that it's not right and there were no decent **American** sprinkles in the store and blah blah blaaaaah. Basically I should always plan to do the Holidays, because when I don't, no matter HOW COOL I THINK I AM, I am /never even slightly cool/ and I RUUUUUUUE how I didn't plan, so I should buy a grandparent/tree just in case and prepare a FULL DAY OF EVENTS, lest without this, I descend into holiday madness. Again.
So anyway: belated buffalo wings. Not even slightly hot, what the jolly fuck? Who does spiceless Buffalo wings? ANYWAY.
Then we went to the Cartoon Museum (free with our new ALSO FREE Art Fund cards, omg, and they didn't check the names on the back so Sam can probs use Katy's when he's here). It's worth visiting once, and a nice place/atmosphere, but not, I think, the home of my soul or anything. So then we checked out the Liberty Sale (still SO expensive), and got a coffee b/c I was basically falling asleep standing. Cookies and Cream frappe thinggamabob: idk how I feel about it. Glad that it's essentially a milkshake, pretty much, but sad that we can't just import a Steak n Shake. Or G&Ds from CoMo. Or both FUSED INTO ONE!! ...no, not a Coney Island, why are people from Detroit reading this? Also the cookie chunks at the bottom were kind of weird and hard.
Then we visited Selfridges, which I'd never been to. Kind of weird--like a mall, in a way, with REALLY high end things and some meh low end things, and some awesome store design and some kind of shoddy, rough edges. Wish we'd perused the food court more, because I really like looking at interesting/pretty food. Also it's all one can ever afford in a big destination store. Another time.
On the way back we got food in the John Lewis!Waitrose (living like upper-middle class KINGS!! ...on the reasonably priced Twinings Everyday tea. BUMPER PACK, y'all. Feel the savings!! By this time I was basically falling asleep on Katy and looking longingly at the empty fruit baskets by the queue, wondering whether they were quite big enough to curl up in.
I came home EXHAUSTED but had a bath (and tea and cheesy pasta, made with leftovers and awesomely provided by Katy) and then settled in for another two hours (I'd already dropped at least an hour on it before going out (but after moping about jobs)) applying for a part-time archivist position at QM. I've kind of worked through exhaustion now. Got it in before deadline/the server could void my work (not that it hadn't tried to delete everything in bits several times already, hate these tedious, clunky in-house pieces of shit), but only by 20 min. Since, have done a lot of tab-closing, responded to comments, made a new job spreadsheet and finished the SH-piece edits I got this morning and started before I went out. Hopefully Katy can glance at them tomorrow, since she understood the editor's comments for the last two paragraphs and I really didn't, and tell me whether she thinks the end now makes any more sense. Have been waiting around for Danny to finish the Miss Marple episode we started last night, and for my dad, so we can finish planning his trip, as we said we'd do today. I think he's forgotten/gotten busy (annoying b/c I did remind him at eight-something, and now it's 2am, and if we don't book hotels in the next days there simply won't BE any).
Dragon Castle Dim Sum
Don’t Put Women in Combat, Says Female Combat Veteran
Relining a Coat
some gay Jon Travolta thing Danny sent me with /weird/ comments
Louis from uni's comedy sketches
Ann Romney Thinks Obama Wants to Kill Her Beloved Mitt
How to do a Slip Stitch
Palaces free w/ Art Fund Card
Congressman Invites You to Play Challenging ‘Pick Out the Immigrant’ Game
I Am Obsessed with Vacuum Sealing My Food: wonder if the plastic thing's ever an issue?
Hark A Vagrant teen comics
What are the benefits of writing in a journal or diary?
This Middle Aged Man Would Like Girls to Stop Worrying Their Pretty Little Heads About Photo Retouching
Hotels Offering Fifty Shades of Grey Theme Rooms (B.Y.O. Anal Beads)
Republican Horrified to Discover that Christianity is Not the Only Religion
This is what online harassment looks like
‘I Suck’: How Guys Use Self-Deprecation Against You: I particularly enjoy this conflict resolution comment
More on recent plays later...
Jul. 5th, 2012 02:28 am( Random stuff done today: )
How to Start a Review
How to Finish a Review
Traditional Roast Sirloin of Beef: too tough. Nice if left in some vinegar.
The Sharp, Sudden Decline of America's Middle Class
Reality Check: Your Love Does Not Necessarily Conquer All
It’s Your Patriotic Duty to Be Overworked and Miserable
Book Fountain
Independent bookshop directory – interactive map
Reverse Riots Campaign
Dan Brown's latest honour: 'most donated' to Oxfam
Franz Kafka Rock Opera: ...yeeeeah.
Meanwhile, did you know there was a terrible french Rock Opera version of Amadeus that looks to have been made by Fall Out Boy? Well. That happened. (er, 'thanks' Yoda, for the link)
F*ck You. Pay Me.: on the valuation of creative work
A Clockwork Orange …The Musical Opera?: "Now at last, Anthony Burgess’ longtime dream to be known for his musicals (apparently, that sentence is true. What?) may be closer to true..."
How to Start a Review
How to Finish a Review
Traditional Roast Sirloin of Beef: too tough. Nice if left in some vinegar.
The Sharp, Sudden Decline of America's Middle Class
Reality Check: Your Love Does Not Necessarily Conquer All
It’s Your Patriotic Duty to Be Overworked and Miserable
Book Fountain
Independent bookshop directory – interactive map
Reverse Riots Campaign
Dan Brown's latest honour: 'most donated' to Oxfam
Franz Kafka Rock Opera: ...yeeeeah.
Meanwhile, did you know there was a terrible french Rock Opera version of Amadeus that looks to have been made by Fall Out Boy? Well. That happened. (er, 'thanks' Yoda, for the link)
F*ck You. Pay Me.: on the valuation of creative work
A Clockwork Orange …The Musical Opera?: "Now at last, Anthony Burgess’ longtime dream to be known for his musicals (apparently, that sentence is true. What?) may be closer to true..."
Jemima Puddle Duck and Monsanto
Jul. 3rd, 2012 04:31 pmAblism and Ebooks: tbh, kind of dumb. I mean maybe this is a dimension that should enter the argument more often, but even people who are most stridently against ebooks don't like it as the huge publishing trend it is, or don't like it as an aesthetic experience. I haven't heard anyone, not even the most profound luddites, say 'yea, and take away all of the ebookes, even from thee dis-abeled, who canst reede no other way!!' What smugness there in is the debate--is on both sides. I mean I've heard oozing pretension from both camps. And I don't want to say 'omg disabled people, it's not abooooout yooooou', because that sounds like the cuntiest/aka pretty much what they hear 24/7, but I believe that the Umbrage in this argument is about Tony Stark mudwestling Walter Benjamin circa "Unpacking My Library", and that Benjamin is not saying 'fuck you, disabled people, and fuck your reading experience.'
Tilda as Bowie
People in Glass Closets: Anderson Cooper and Straight Responses to Coming Out
Garth Nix on his novel writing process
Giving Bad Advice To Kings: beginning strong, ending weaker
Fall of a Genius: On the life and death of Alan Turing. Sadly I don't really grasp the discussion of decidability and real numbers. Should read more on this.
Our Billionaire Philanthropists:
In the 1940s, The Rockefeller Foundation launched a drive to develop new high-yield crops in order to improve Mexican agricultural productivity. The subsequent explosion of food production in the developing world in the 1950s and afterward, known as the Green Revolution, is now a textbook illustration of the world-changing breakthroughs that philanthropy can achieve—and of the dangers it courts.
The Rockefeller Foundation’s original motives were not purely altruistic; there were strong geopolitical reasons for fomenting the Green Revolution. The leftist government of Mexico had nationalized Standard Oil’s assets at enormous cost to the firm in the late 1930s; when a far more business-friendly administration came into power in 1941, Rockefeller trustees and the American government were keen to prop it up by preventing increased hunger and unrest: Bread, at least, if not circuses.
Rockefeller Foundation researcher Norman Borlaug won a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in this effort; he developed a high-yield dwarf variety of wheat that boosted production so much and so quickly that by 1956, Mexico had become self-sustaining in wheat.
"Self-sustaining," that is, insofar as domestically-grown crops were now sufficient for the country's requirements. But the skyrocketing need for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides merely created a different kind of dependency on imports. "These nations became perilously dependent on foreign input suppliers for their food security," wrote Tom Philpott in Grist. Bumper crops caused prices to collapse, driving family farms out of business. Millions of Mexican farmers were driven out by Big Ag. Philpott: "Since the Mexican manufacturing economy has been nowhere near robust enough to absorb them, a huge portion of one-time Mexican farmers now wash our dishes and harvest our crops."
The immense social and environmental costs of the Mexican agricultural reforms went unmeasured. Western aid authorities exported the Green Revolution to India, with the same detrimental results: a permanent disruption or destruction of local villages and local agricultural practices; a dangerous loss of biodiversity; huge increases in pollution, particularly in tainted water [PPT]. Again, Green Revolution agricultural practices favored larger farmers, with the result that hundreds of thousands of small farmers were driven from the land, in India as in Mexico. The mass suicides among small farmers in the Punjab are widely thought to be directly attributable to these sweeping agricultural reforms. Measurable results, all right—only they measured "output," not the number of displaced small farmers or fishing ruined by toxic runoff.
These problems were evident well before 1971, when the Ford Foundation’s agricultural director, Lowell Hardin, gave a public speech warning that "the green revolution is exerting a destabilizing influence on traditional social and political institutions [...] Increased output is not necessarily associated with positive social change."
And note well that just having enough food doesn’t ensure that the world will be fed. As of 2011, 925 million people were still hungry, according to the World Hunger Organization. Thousands of children in poverty die of hunger in India every day. There is food enough in India to feed their whole population, but not the means of paying for it; the supply side of the equation has been solved, but the demand side has not. Or rather, it has been solved, but in an unintended fashion: Reuters reported last December that India had "sealed deals to export one million tonnes of corn to southeast Asia in the first two months of the season." Put another way: Export markets may come to trump domestic need.
Despite all these metrics, which researchers have collected for more than sixty years, the Gates Foundation has joined forces with Monsanto to bring Green Revolution agricultural practices to Africa. This time, though, the privately financed initiative is meeting with greater public resistance among a target population by now educated to its likely effects. As Mike Ludwig noted recently in Truthout, African opponents of the Gates initiative have latched onto a recent study by the International Assessment of Agricultural Science, Technology and Development, which found that despite its many productive successes, large-scale industrial agriculture "has caused environmental degradation and deforestation that disproportionately affects small farmers and poorer nations. … Massive irrigation projects now account for 70 percent of water withdrawal globally and approximately 1.6 billion people live in water-scarce basins."
There is also increasing evidence that sustainable farming practices that do not rely on patented Monsanto products can boost farming output without polluting the environment and without the social disruptions that have unsettled poor communities in India and Mexico. But Monsanto will presumably resist attempts to amend Green Revolution practices in favor of its own profit motive.
The metrics that guide great foundation crusades are very effective when it comes to persuading us that business, and business-trained philanthropists, can do better—but it appears that metrics don’t matter when they conflict with ideology.
I asked Kavita N. Ramdas, a scholar at Stanford, to explain to me why, in light of what we already know about the effects of these reforms in India and elsewhere, the Gates Foundation is still pursuing a new, Monsanto-driven Green Revolution in Africa.
Her response was striking. "I do not believe that the Green Revolution was an unmitigated success for India, given what we now know about the impact of these high yield seeds and intensive agriculture on topsoil, the dependence on fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation and the social effects on small farmers and landless labor in Punjab," she said. "On this, I clearly disagreed with my colleagues at the Gates Foundation, who argued that the benefits of the Green Revolution in addressing hunger outweighed the costs."
Still, she notes, the foundation’s new Africa alliance with Monsanto came about due to the culture of the metric return rather than via any malicious design. "The Gates Foundation is far from being a caricature of an evil empire. In fact, it is a foundation with extremely good intentions. I see these as the natural inclinations of a foundation so closely affiliated with a tech company that believes in the importance of measurable impacts."
Ramdas went on to suggest that the econometric model of philanthropic activity may come with dangerous blinders. "At the root of the difference in approach is what we believe causes hunger or poverty. If you think that people are poor because there is not enough food, then you will concentrate on making measurable gains, in growing more food, and more nutritious food, more efficiently. But if you think that people are poor because of problems with equality, with access, with education, then developing a concrete strategy is far more difficult; these things are not readily measurable."
Def. an article worth reading!
There’s no oversight in the spending of foundation money. The communities and individuals affected by foundation spending typically have no influence on it at all. This isn’t especially surprising, when you consider that the modern entrepreneurs who establish foundations have typically acquired an allergy to transparency; the best known philanthropists in our age, after all, are Bill Gates, a ruthless monopolist, and George Soros, a hedge fund manager. According to the cult of the alpha executive, the effective business leader makes decisions unilaterally and brooks no opposition. This model of decision-making may pose few real threats when it comes to peddling a terrible Web browser, or inflicting Mr. Paperclip Man on the hapless user of Word. But the public should take note when a billionaire philanthropist‘s tough-guy decision-making effectively sets social policy in ways that can alter the life chances of millions of other people.
Yoda's Attractive Gallifreyan Guide
Cultural relationship between the Welsh and the English
The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, by Beatrix Potter
From conversation with Katy:
beatrix potter uses a semicolon whenever she damn well pleases
she doesn't wait for it to make sense
oh no
that would just limit her
Peter; Rabbit
awh yeah, that's the stuff
Also: "Sage and thyme, and mint and two onions, and some parsley."--dear fox, wtf do you think you're going to do with the mint and parsley? You are cooking this sentient duck. Are you also providing mojitos and a garnish? #foxescan'tcook
"Unfortunately the puppies rushed in and gobbled up all the eggs before he could stop them.
He had a bite on his ear and both the puppies were limping." WHAT THE CRAP
AUGH
SO DARK!!!
JEMIMA PUDDLE DUCK, I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU WENT THERE!!
Predictive Policing: What Can We Learn from Wal-Mart and Amazon about Fighting Crime in a Recession?: despite the title, v. not about the recession. Interesting, if creepy that they're very unembarrassed about associating themselves with v. corporate bodies. Predictive policing would seem best accomplished by attaching underlying stratification issues, and those might merit a mention in re: community policing, but otherwise, the concept doesn't seem terrible (though I'm uneasy with the thought of a hyper-effective police force in general, because I don't really trust or like US law enforcement--who does?). What the article lacks is concrete examples of how they'll use analytics (other than as an extension of racial profiling).
Tilda as Bowie
People in Glass Closets: Anderson Cooper and Straight Responses to Coming Out
Garth Nix on his novel writing process
Giving Bad Advice To Kings: beginning strong, ending weaker
Fall of a Genius: On the life and death of Alan Turing. Sadly I don't really grasp the discussion of decidability and real numbers. Should read more on this.
Our Billionaire Philanthropists:
In the 1940s, The Rockefeller Foundation launched a drive to develop new high-yield crops in order to improve Mexican agricultural productivity. The subsequent explosion of food production in the developing world in the 1950s and afterward, known as the Green Revolution, is now a textbook illustration of the world-changing breakthroughs that philanthropy can achieve—and of the dangers it courts.
The Rockefeller Foundation’s original motives were not purely altruistic; there were strong geopolitical reasons for fomenting the Green Revolution. The leftist government of Mexico had nationalized Standard Oil’s assets at enormous cost to the firm in the late 1930s; when a far more business-friendly administration came into power in 1941, Rockefeller trustees and the American government were keen to prop it up by preventing increased hunger and unrest: Bread, at least, if not circuses.
Rockefeller Foundation researcher Norman Borlaug won a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in this effort; he developed a high-yield dwarf variety of wheat that boosted production so much and so quickly that by 1956, Mexico had become self-sustaining in wheat.
"Self-sustaining," that is, insofar as domestically-grown crops were now sufficient for the country's requirements. But the skyrocketing need for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides merely created a different kind of dependency on imports. "These nations became perilously dependent on foreign input suppliers for their food security," wrote Tom Philpott in Grist. Bumper crops caused prices to collapse, driving family farms out of business. Millions of Mexican farmers were driven out by Big Ag. Philpott: "Since the Mexican manufacturing economy has been nowhere near robust enough to absorb them, a huge portion of one-time Mexican farmers now wash our dishes and harvest our crops."
The immense social and environmental costs of the Mexican agricultural reforms went unmeasured. Western aid authorities exported the Green Revolution to India, with the same detrimental results: a permanent disruption or destruction of local villages and local agricultural practices; a dangerous loss of biodiversity; huge increases in pollution, particularly in tainted water [PPT]. Again, Green Revolution agricultural practices favored larger farmers, with the result that hundreds of thousands of small farmers were driven from the land, in India as in Mexico. The mass suicides among small farmers in the Punjab are widely thought to be directly attributable to these sweeping agricultural reforms. Measurable results, all right—only they measured "output," not the number of displaced small farmers or fishing ruined by toxic runoff.
These problems were evident well before 1971, when the Ford Foundation’s agricultural director, Lowell Hardin, gave a public speech warning that "the green revolution is exerting a destabilizing influence on traditional social and political institutions [...] Increased output is not necessarily associated with positive social change."
And note well that just having enough food doesn’t ensure that the world will be fed. As of 2011, 925 million people were still hungry, according to the World Hunger Organization. Thousands of children in poverty die of hunger in India every day. There is food enough in India to feed their whole population, but not the means of paying for it; the supply side of the equation has been solved, but the demand side has not. Or rather, it has been solved, but in an unintended fashion: Reuters reported last December that India had "sealed deals to export one million tonnes of corn to southeast Asia in the first two months of the season." Put another way: Export markets may come to trump domestic need.
Despite all these metrics, which researchers have collected for more than sixty years, the Gates Foundation has joined forces with Monsanto to bring Green Revolution agricultural practices to Africa. This time, though, the privately financed initiative is meeting with greater public resistance among a target population by now educated to its likely effects. As Mike Ludwig noted recently in Truthout, African opponents of the Gates initiative have latched onto a recent study by the International Assessment of Agricultural Science, Technology and Development, which found that despite its many productive successes, large-scale industrial agriculture "has caused environmental degradation and deforestation that disproportionately affects small farmers and poorer nations. … Massive irrigation projects now account for 70 percent of water withdrawal globally and approximately 1.6 billion people live in water-scarce basins."
There is also increasing evidence that sustainable farming practices that do not rely on patented Monsanto products can boost farming output without polluting the environment and without the social disruptions that have unsettled poor communities in India and Mexico. But Monsanto will presumably resist attempts to amend Green Revolution practices in favor of its own profit motive.
The metrics that guide great foundation crusades are very effective when it comes to persuading us that business, and business-trained philanthropists, can do better—but it appears that metrics don’t matter when they conflict with ideology.
I asked Kavita N. Ramdas, a scholar at Stanford, to explain to me why, in light of what we already know about the effects of these reforms in India and elsewhere, the Gates Foundation is still pursuing a new, Monsanto-driven Green Revolution in Africa.
Her response was striking. "I do not believe that the Green Revolution was an unmitigated success for India, given what we now know about the impact of these high yield seeds and intensive agriculture on topsoil, the dependence on fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation and the social effects on small farmers and landless labor in Punjab," she said. "On this, I clearly disagreed with my colleagues at the Gates Foundation, who argued that the benefits of the Green Revolution in addressing hunger outweighed the costs."
Still, she notes, the foundation’s new Africa alliance with Monsanto came about due to the culture of the metric return rather than via any malicious design. "The Gates Foundation is far from being a caricature of an evil empire. In fact, it is a foundation with extremely good intentions. I see these as the natural inclinations of a foundation so closely affiliated with a tech company that believes in the importance of measurable impacts."
Ramdas went on to suggest that the econometric model of philanthropic activity may come with dangerous blinders. "At the root of the difference in approach is what we believe causes hunger or poverty. If you think that people are poor because there is not enough food, then you will concentrate on making measurable gains, in growing more food, and more nutritious food, more efficiently. But if you think that people are poor because of problems with equality, with access, with education, then developing a concrete strategy is far more difficult; these things are not readily measurable."
Def. an article worth reading!
There’s no oversight in the spending of foundation money. The communities and individuals affected by foundation spending typically have no influence on it at all. This isn’t especially surprising, when you consider that the modern entrepreneurs who establish foundations have typically acquired an allergy to transparency; the best known philanthropists in our age, after all, are Bill Gates, a ruthless monopolist, and George Soros, a hedge fund manager. According to the cult of the alpha executive, the effective business leader makes decisions unilaterally and brooks no opposition. This model of decision-making may pose few real threats when it comes to peddling a terrible Web browser, or inflicting Mr. Paperclip Man on the hapless user of Word. But the public should take note when a billionaire philanthropist‘s tough-guy decision-making effectively sets social policy in ways that can alter the life chances of millions of other people.
Yoda's Attractive Gallifreyan Guide
Cultural relationship between the Welsh and the English
The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, by Beatrix Potter
From conversation with Katy:
beatrix potter uses a semicolon whenever she damn well pleases
she doesn't wait for it to make sense
oh no
that would just limit her
Peter; Rabbit
awh yeah, that's the stuff
Also: "Sage and thyme, and mint and two onions, and some parsley."--dear fox, wtf do you think you're going to do with the mint and parsley? You are cooking this sentient duck. Are you also providing mojitos and a garnish? #foxescan'tcook
"Unfortunately the puppies rushed in and gobbled up all the eggs before he could stop them.
He had a bite on his ear and both the puppies were limping." WHAT THE CRAP
AUGH
SO DARK!!!
JEMIMA PUDDLE DUCK, I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU WENT THERE!!
Predictive Policing: What Can We Learn from Wal-Mart and Amazon about Fighting Crime in a Recession?: despite the title, v. not about the recession. Interesting, if creepy that they're very unembarrassed about associating themselves with v. corporate bodies. Predictive policing would seem best accomplished by attaching underlying stratification issues, and those might merit a mention in re: community policing, but otherwise, the concept doesn't seem terrible (though I'm uneasy with the thought of a hyper-effective police force in general, because I don't really trust or like US law enforcement--who does?). What the article lacks is concrete examples of how they'll use analytics (other than as an extension of racial profiling).
Clearing My Tabs, P1
Jul. 3rd, 2012 01:25 amStatus Anxiety: I am living proof that ‘two-tier’ exams work
Captain America: The First Avenger Rifftrax: Has anyone seen this? I'd rather not invest unless I know it's worth watching.
The Sonnets [Paperback]: sounds either interesting or awful
Poll results on 'canceled TV shows people would most like to bring back': meh, agree with a couple, Firefly so over-rated it's not true
Paradises Lost: opera in two acts, based on the novella by Ursula K. Le Guin
How The Taste Of Tomatoes Went Bad (And Kept On Going)
The English Girls' School Story: Subversion and Challenge in a Traditional Conservative Literary Genre: "Girls school stories are dangerous; they change lives. So claims Judith Humphrey, who combines wry wit and rigorous scholarship in her wide-ranging exploration of the phenomenon of the English girls' school story and its continuing popularity with adult women. She argues convincingly that this seemingly innocuous and conformist genre bristles with subversive messages that normalise strong, proactive and intelligent women in a society that has preferred them to be quite otherwise. In this female world, women, framed by society as lacking and incomplete without men, quietly assume themselves to be whole and slip without question or contest into all positions of authority, even, as Dr Humphrey persuasively argues in the chapter on spirituality, that of the all powerful godhead. Replete with examples and quotations from the school stories themselves, this book, though academically challenging, is often funny. Crucially, it portrays a world in which girls and women are happy, loving and free a world that is still evolving in the Internet fan fiction that reworks its themes and recreates its community. Girls school stories have long been dismissed as formulaic third-rate literature. Judith Humphrey claims that, on the contrary, they are sites of empowerment, and this book explains their significance in the body of children's literature as well as their importance in the lives of many women."
Should read that for charm.
25 Things I Learned From Opening a Bookstore
The Amazing Spider-Man is So Good I Don’t Know What to Say About It
Hilariously shirty review of the John Campbell Memorial Award winner
The Strongest Woman In America Lives In Poverty
BBC's Summer Shakespeare Season Guide
McEvedy's Agent
Top 10 Non-Dickens Books for Dickens Fans
Amon, stand-up comic
36 Terrible Sex Tips for Men: "27. "81 percent of women do not want you to attempt anal sex without asking."
A unexpected loss for Team Surprise Anal."
The Avengers in Fifteen Minutes
Avengers Eating Schwarma: not thrilling, but I didn't know it happened
Catullus is FIERCE
Willow Smith Declares ‘I Am Me’ in New Video, as If We Could Ask for Anything More: meh, not v. fun
Donatella Versace Says Feminism Is Dead
Fast Roast Pork with Rosemary and Caramelised Apples: made tonight, sans sauce. Nice flavors, but not tender enough!
Literary Maps of USA and Britain
Lavie Tidhar meta short story on sf
god-awful review of Prometheus, what the actual fuck
'Derechos'/Land Hurricanes: American weather is always weirder than English weather, and way more interested in seeing you dead
Revealed: the scale of sexual abuse by police officers: horrible subject, obviously, but I kind of love the strange, detached archaism of the Guardian's language here
Captain America: The First Avenger Rifftrax: Has anyone seen this? I'd rather not invest unless I know it's worth watching.
The Sonnets [Paperback]: sounds either interesting or awful
Poll results on 'canceled TV shows people would most like to bring back': meh, agree with a couple, Firefly so over-rated it's not true
Paradises Lost: opera in two acts, based on the novella by Ursula K. Le Guin
How The Taste Of Tomatoes Went Bad (And Kept On Going)
The English Girls' School Story: Subversion and Challenge in a Traditional Conservative Literary Genre: "Girls school stories are dangerous; they change lives. So claims Judith Humphrey, who combines wry wit and rigorous scholarship in her wide-ranging exploration of the phenomenon of the English girls' school story and its continuing popularity with adult women. She argues convincingly that this seemingly innocuous and conformist genre bristles with subversive messages that normalise strong, proactive and intelligent women in a society that has preferred them to be quite otherwise. In this female world, women, framed by society as lacking and incomplete without men, quietly assume themselves to be whole and slip without question or contest into all positions of authority, even, as Dr Humphrey persuasively argues in the chapter on spirituality, that of the all powerful godhead. Replete with examples and quotations from the school stories themselves, this book, though academically challenging, is often funny. Crucially, it portrays a world in which girls and women are happy, loving and free a world that is still evolving in the Internet fan fiction that reworks its themes and recreates its community. Girls school stories have long been dismissed as formulaic third-rate literature. Judith Humphrey claims that, on the contrary, they are sites of empowerment, and this book explains their significance in the body of children's literature as well as their importance in the lives of many women."
Should read that for charm.
25 Things I Learned From Opening a Bookstore
The Amazing Spider-Man is So Good I Don’t Know What to Say About It
Hilariously shirty review of the John Campbell Memorial Award winner
The Strongest Woman In America Lives In Poverty
BBC's Summer Shakespeare Season Guide
McEvedy's Agent
Top 10 Non-Dickens Books for Dickens Fans
Amon, stand-up comic
36 Terrible Sex Tips for Men: "27. "81 percent of women do not want you to attempt anal sex without asking."
A unexpected loss for Team Surprise Anal."
The Avengers in Fifteen Minutes
Avengers Eating Schwarma: not thrilling, but I didn't know it happened
Catullus is FIERCE
Willow Smith Declares ‘I Am Me’ in New Video, as If We Could Ask for Anything More: meh, not v. fun
Donatella Versace Says Feminism Is Dead
Fast Roast Pork with Rosemary and Caramelised Apples: made tonight, sans sauce. Nice flavors, but not tender enough!
Literary Maps of USA and Britain
Lavie Tidhar meta short story on sf
god-awful review of Prometheus, what the actual fuck
'Derechos'/Land Hurricanes: American weather is always weirder than English weather, and way more interested in seeing you dead
Revealed: the scale of sexual abuse by police officers: horrible subject, obviously, but I kind of love the strange, detached archaism of the Guardian's language here
Why Women Still Can’t Have It All, by Anne Marie Slaughter.
Really excellent. Not just another muse on a much-mused-on topic, but a move towards questioning our core gendered assumptions about work on a practical level, and a strong assertion that flexibility and plurality in work will improve both organizations and lives.
She comes off as somewhat insulated from the ways the recession has caused incredible economic vulnerability in the young--vulnerability which has caused at the least a time-lag in her proposed career progressions. But that's somewhat understandable (though kind of worrying because as a professor she must have a LOT of contact with university-aged people), and I get a good sense of her overall awareness of the class dimensions of the problems under discussion. On the whole very impressed, specifically by the argument this quote highlights:
"If women are ever to achieve real equality as leaders, then we have to stop accepting male behavior and male choices as the default and the ideal. We must insist on changing social policies and bending career tracks to accommodate our choices, too. We have the power to do it if we decide to, and we have many men standing beside us."
Unfuck Your Habitat
Lithuanian Cuisine
Pretty tea drawing
Peckham Plex: Films in London for £5, £2.50 on Orange Wednesdays
Ekster Antiques: good design pinboards
REALLY good Doctor Who blogs/reviews
DIY Anthropologie Tables
Tree Cake: I really want to try baking the flat, home-oven, no-spit version
furnishing my home!: DIY/home decor stuff
DIY Projects: 9 Easy(ish) IKEA Hacks
Places to look up, according to an old Vogue Nippon
Sunday Up Market
Virginia
One
Rellik
“And Then…” is a collaborative photography project between photographer Jo Metson Scott and artist/set designer Nicola Yeoman. Each photograph depicts an open narrative set in a wooded scene, whether it be a ghostly horse drawn carriage or a downed hot air balloon — the series is ethereal, beautiful and thoughtful.
Prep School Teacher Admits He Had Sex With Students, Doesn’t See What the Big Deal Is
‘Write Something Nice,’ Aaron Sorkin Tells ‘Internet Girl’ Reporter
Good Show Sir: Only the worst Sci-fi/Fantasy book covers
I see Steampunk as “Fascism for nice people”: I think you could argue this better
Lunch: An Urban Invention
Young people are sick of being pushed around
The Great Abdication
The Most Totally Closed Mind (The Celestial Toymaker): meh. Only kind of agree.
Really excellent. Not just another muse on a much-mused-on topic, but a move towards questioning our core gendered assumptions about work on a practical level, and a strong assertion that flexibility and plurality in work will improve both organizations and lives.
She comes off as somewhat insulated from the ways the recession has caused incredible economic vulnerability in the young--vulnerability which has caused at the least a time-lag in her proposed career progressions. But that's somewhat understandable (though kind of worrying because as a professor she must have a LOT of contact with university-aged people), and I get a good sense of her overall awareness of the class dimensions of the problems under discussion. On the whole very impressed, specifically by the argument this quote highlights:
"If women are ever to achieve real equality as leaders, then we have to stop accepting male behavior and male choices as the default and the ideal. We must insist on changing social policies and bending career tracks to accommodate our choices, too. We have the power to do it if we decide to, and we have many men standing beside us."
Unfuck Your Habitat
Lithuanian Cuisine
Pretty tea drawing
Peckham Plex: Films in London for £5, £2.50 on Orange Wednesdays
Ekster Antiques: good design pinboards
REALLY good Doctor Who blogs/reviews
DIY Anthropologie Tables
Tree Cake: I really want to try baking the flat, home-oven, no-spit version
furnishing my home!: DIY/home decor stuff
DIY Projects: 9 Easy(ish) IKEA Hacks
Places to look up, according to an old Vogue Nippon
Sunday Up Market
Virginia
One
Rellik
“And Then…” is a collaborative photography project between photographer Jo Metson Scott and artist/set designer Nicola Yeoman. Each photograph depicts an open narrative set in a wooded scene, whether it be a ghostly horse drawn carriage or a downed hot air balloon — the series is ethereal, beautiful and thoughtful.
Prep School Teacher Admits He Had Sex With Students, Doesn’t See What the Big Deal Is
‘Write Something Nice,’ Aaron Sorkin Tells ‘Internet Girl’ Reporter
Good Show Sir: Only the worst Sci-fi/Fantasy book covers
I see Steampunk as “Fascism for nice people”: I think you could argue this better
Lunch: An Urban Invention
Young people are sick of being pushed around
The Great Abdication
The Most Totally Closed Mind (The Celestial Toymaker): meh. Only kind of agree.
