| stuff and things |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|04:10 pm] |
There needs to be a better way to say these characters instead of "forward/back slash" in that every time I have to say it to someone, they get it wrong. So we break down to the point of describing the top and bottom, and the direction of the lean.
This first happened to me in 1995 when I would tutor the elderly on how to use a computer (Windows 95! weeee!).
But it still happens to me regularly with people who have been using computers for years, every day of their life.
Clearly they aren't going to learn with the current setup, so there is probably a better way. What that way is? Don't know - don't even really care - just would rather not have to constantly describe those fucking lines.
TweetDeck on my Mac is awesome, I love it.
FireFox on my Mac is awesome, I love it.
Replace "Mac" in the above two lines with "Windows XP" and the ending descriptor changes to "fucking hate" instead of "love". (and uh... "awesome" with "awful")
Given the way they are written, it pretty much entirely points to the OS being at fault here - no real shocker to anyone, but worth noting. |
|
|
| signal boost |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|03:18 pm] |
I was already feeling slightly under the weather today, and then I read this. It's a piece about the sexualization of even very young children, focusing on boys, and while this issue isn't new to me, it still makes my stomach churn. Why does our society seem unable to find a balance between unhealthy silence about sexuality and unhealthy, developmentally inappropriate, over-emphasis of sexuality? Ugh. |
|
|
| Boston-area Thanksgiving |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|11:16 am] |
If you're in the Greater Boston area this Thanksgiving, and don't have plans, everyone is welcome to join us at our place in Cambridge for a Very Vegetarian Thanksgiving. My sister will be joining us from Maine, but there's plenty of room at our table and lots of food to share. There will be games and Rock Band. If you're interested in joining us for our Non-Traditional Tradition, please comment so I know how much food to make.
I'll email out directions and time of the festivities to the RSVP-ers. |
|
|
| Men Who Glare at Stoats |
[Nov. 14th, 2009|04:19 am] |
|
http://houseoffame.blogspot.com/2009/11/men-who-glare-at-stoats.html 
My deere readeres,
Yf ther ys oon thyng Ich kan counte upon, yt is that straunge and distractinge events shal bifall whenevir Ich plan to wryte on my blog. For a loong tyme, Ich was so soore y-bugged by the interrupcioun of my postinge by Quanje West that Ich thoughte nat to blog ayein.
Aftir sum soul-searchinge, Ich decyded to blog ayein, and was planning wyth muchel joie a seryes of poostes on my attemptes at going through the entyre Forme of Currye and cooking ech recepye in order. And yet, sooner than ye koude saye "grounde beenes," a newe mattir grabbed me by myn litel woolen hatte and hath taken up al my tyme. At a tavern yn Londoun on Halloween night whan Ich was drinkinge wyth Tommy Vske and Dr. Hwaet, Ich did meete a Kentishman who had lived yn Bruges and recentyle retourned, a chap by the name of Caxton.
Thys Caxton felawe hath a printinge presse, the which ys a magical machine that depriveth scryveners of their livelihood. Good Will Caxton hath toold me that yf Ich get a draft together, he may paraventure make a printinge of my blogge. So, wyth fingres deeply and constantly y-crossed, Ich have been at werke on the manuscript, revysyng and adding to the most notable poostes of yore to produce a newe and definitif versioun, wyth muchel newe mateere within yt. Ich do hope that ye gentil rederes mighte be wel plesed wyth swich a book -- that ys, if thinges do ende up wel and Caxton doth actually ende up printinge yt. Yet sikerly, Ich have learned that lyf can be unpredictable, given that whan Ich was a young boy almoost half of the populacioun of Engelond was destroyed by the Black Deeth.
Thogh drowning in ink and wel-nigh swooning wyth copying of oold wordes, Ich do fynde sum tyme for fun and amusement. Just a few dayes agoon, Ich and Philippa watched the fyne filme of Men Who Glare at Stoats, the which is a trewe storye of the divers fashions in which oure realme hath usid the secrets of magique and necromancie to arme ourselves in the longe werre ayeinst Fraunce. Thes mattirs are so importaunt and unusual that Ich thoghte Ich wolde share sum of them heere wyth yow.
Gentils and churls, scarcely will ye believe the thinges that this litel filme speketh of! Ich do but liste a fewe:
--Kyng Edward III creatid a secret inner circle of the Ordre of the Garter, for knightes who have skills in magique, wyth the motto: "Yoga soit qui mal y pense."
--This order is run by a mysterious figure known only as Le Vieux Pelerin.
--By entering a deep trance, these knightes of the Privy Order of the Garter can move their imaginacioun yn to eny place on the globe of the erthe, and thus they kan see the movements of the Frensshe, and eek, if they look harde ynogh, they kan see the verye vowels of the Englisshe tonge shiftinge.
--A syde-project of the Privy Garter ys able to make the Frensshe soldiers falle yn to wepyng and crying and lamentynge of their sinnes, and thus maketh them nat fit for deedes of armes. Thys syde project is called Knightyle Emocional Manipulacioun of Powers of the Enemye, or K.E.M.P.E.
--Wyth the mocioun of the mynde and the eyes aloon, these knightes kan stoppe the beatinge herte of an adult stoat at a range of XX feet.
--Also wyth the mocioun of the mynde and the eyes aloon, these knightes kan give the scalle under the long lokkes of eny scrybe that miscopieth a text. (Scrape that, Punkhurst!)
--These knightes have so mastered their soules and their bodyes that they kan performe all the werkes of chivalrie at once. Indeed, they kan simultaneouslie playe chesse, debate heraldic devyces, write a roundelay, exploit peasant labour, carole and daunse, jouste in a tourney, and besiege a Frensshe toune.
--These knightes of the Privy Order of the Garter have divyded themselves yn to IV "houses" in which they trayne and recruit squires. The houses aren ycleped Hippogryiffin d'Argent, Serpentyne, Hurlyburle, and Rooktalon.
--These knightes have a magical garter that determineth which squire shal goon to which hous. Yt ys called the Garter Sortant and it hath a randye sense of humour.
--Henry Bolingbroke did trye to joyne these knights of the Privy Garter, and yet he was deemed too daungerous. Yt is rumoured that he hath joyned a splintre order known only as the Sithen, the which who practise the derke syde of chivalrie (the which ys indistinguishable from the light syde).
Swich fascinatinge secretes, my frendes. Whan next Ich have sum tyme away from my labour of writinge, Ich hope to see Feudalism: A Love Story. |
|
|
| The Moon Lies |
[Nov. 13th, 2009|12:51 pm] |
I don't think we can trust that the moon has water on it.
After all, everyone knows that confessions induced via torture are likely not true.
The moon clearly is like FUCK, BOMBS?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! FINE, WATER - SURE - YEAH, I HAVE IT - HAD IT FOR YEARS. JESUS - STOP WITH THE FUCKING BOMBS ALREADY. |
|
|
| They say it's her birthday! |
[Nov. 13th, 2009|11:50 am] |
Happy birthday, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) megastoat!!! One of the coolest things my uber-cool big brother has done in recent years was introduce me to you. The rest, as they say, is history. And a fine history, thus far, of shared singing, laughing, eating, game playing, and being utter dorks much of the time. I love it. Hope you have a marvelous day!
Birthday greetings are also due to dooneling. While we don't see one another very often, I always look forward to your updates on LJ and hearing what is going on in your life. And I have fond memories of our time together in 'Bethans. I hope your day is fun and/or relaxing. |
|
|
| AO3 Open Beta begins tomorrow! |
[Nov. 13th, 2009|11:25 am] |
As this blog post explains, the Archive of Our Own will be entering Open Beta tomorrow. \o/! Here's the first FAQ item from that blog post:
How do I get an invitation for the Archive?
You can get an invitation in two ways:
* You can add your email address to the invitation queue (opens Saturday 14th November see world clock for the launch time in your timezone). We'll send out invitations to addresses on the queue on a first-come, first-served basis, depending on how many new accounts we can support at a given time. This way, you won't have to know someone who already has an account in order to have a chance of getting one.
* Users who have an account on the Archive will be given a certain number of invitations to hand out to their friends. We know that people like to share the fannish glee and to build their networks on new sites, and we want to give people a chance to do that. Extra invitation codes will be issued to users periodically depending on how many new users the site can manage.
Alas, I have no invite code to offer (I gave it to the friend who pimped me into fandom in the first place :-) but the invitation queue is open to all, so if an account at the AO3 is something you might want, you can put your name in the queue tomorrow.
I am ridiculously excited about this, both because I have been an avid user of the archive during the closed beta phase (and I think it is awesome), and also because I have some sense of how much hard work has been involved in building the archive from the ground up (and, what's more, training fans who didn't previously know how to code so that they could do that building) and I am all asquee to see the doors opening to a larger userbase.
Anyway, the post to which I linked has more intel, so read that if you want to know what's up. Yay!
[read  comments at Dreamwidth | comment at Dreamwidth | How to use openID] |
|
|
| I really wanted to work in the word "apotheosis" |
[Nov. 12th, 2009|07:57 pm] |
Shoot 'Em Up in 25 words or less:
Surprisingly balletic and—dare I say it—emotionally honest, for a movie whose every pore oozes “totally unnecessary.” Well-shot, well-choreographed, appropriately unsettling, and . . . elegantly nonsensical. B+. |
|
|
| gleek speak |
[Nov. 12th, 2009|09:51 am] |
I showed elklad a couple bits from Glee last weekend. He perfectly summed up its genre as follows:
Musical Realism
Can it be said better? (Answer: NO) |
|
|
| Jetpacks would suck anyway. |
[Nov. 11th, 2009|08:52 pm] |
Today I connected a tiny device I carry in my pocket to an international network containing basically all the non-secret information in the world. I used the network to find a store, which we navigated to by another tiny device that communicates with satellites and knows every road in North America. Then I paid for my purchase by simply tapping my card against a reader. It went "boop."
There is not a goddamn thing I did today that would've been the same even five years ago. There are about three little electronic bricks I carry around (which could be consolidated into one if I had more money), summing less than a pound, that enable a lifestyle completely unlike the disconnected groping--maps! phonebooks! payphones! cash! pointy sticks!--of 2005.
THIS IS THE FUTURE. |
|
|
| LJ RSS Syndication |
[Nov. 10th, 2009|01:51 pm] |
Ok, so I finally got around to setting up a pair of LJ RSS syndication accounts for my new blog.
The first, will track all the entries that I post to my blog. The second, will get all the posts except those that deal with chess, since I know that may be of less interest to the general viewing population. There aren't that many non-chess posts right now, but they're coming, including an interview with a photographer whose work I quite like and the first book review I've written since the second grade....
So if you care about any of that, go add one or the other to your feed list. If you're the RSS reader type you can get the actual feed link from the info page for the LJ syndication account.
I'm not syndicating my tweets, because my tweets are stupid. You know how to find them if you want them.
Also, while I find this an inconvenient way to consume other people's photography, Flickr does provide an RSS feed of whatever I upload and you can find that here if you are so inclined. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
working
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif){kind=small}
