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July 4th, 2009
06:37 pm
More wacky goodwill finds.
Pan! He was creepy, but awesome. Unfortunately, they wanted ten dollars for him and he was pretty badly chipped. Otherwise he would've come home with me.
...eek.
( Read more... )
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06:07 pm
Sometimes I actually feel attractive.
Right now is not one of those times.
Sigh.
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06:43 am
THERE IS A BABY WALRUS AT THE AQUARIUM.
WHO WANTS TO COME SEE IT WITH ME?
My dad is possibly more excited than I am. Which is very excited.
BABY LOLRUS. Do you think it has a teeny little sand pail for a bukkit?
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July 3rd, 2009
04:08 pm - You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and then you have...
This book is one of those things that gets the same reaction from every single person I tell about it. "Pics or it doesn't exist."
Well, I've been meaning to take pics for years now, and finally got around to it. I saw this at a used bookstore in the science section. The title caught my eye for the sheer childishness of it and I thought it might be one of those books to help well-meaning parents through that awkward day when Jilly asks if babies REALLY shoot out of her pee hole or what.
Y'all, it was so much better. I'm pretty sure it's not actually for children (possibly for adults with questionable taste), but it's a picture book. Better than that, it's a pop-up books. A pop-up book about human reproduction. A very scientifically written, adult oriented pop-up book - the text is more sophisticated than my high school biology textbook's.
I know what you're thinking. The answer is yes. Exactly what you think will pop up at some point does indeed pop up.
May I present, for your approval, The Facts of Life:
( The rest of the book is this way! )
There we go. I have pics, so it did happen. It wasn't a store that liked to give exceptional deals - you generally paid half the jacket price, so this thing cost me fifteen dollars. Totally worth every penny.
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01:42 pm
Happy 4th weekend. Try not to blow any fingers off.
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July 2nd, 2009
05:28 pm
Happy birthday, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) celeria! I can't think of anything clever to say. CAKE!:
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July 1st, 2009
08:41 pm - stuff.
Stuff what I read:
A Playdate With Death, The Big Nap - Ayelet Waldman Finished the series. Sad to see it go. They were always fun.
Doubt: A Parable - John Patrick Shanley Outstanding read, but I think I'd need to see it performed to really grasp how good it is (or isn't, I guess, but I don't see that being the case.)
Crawling: A Father's First Year - Elisha Cooper Annoying, annoying writer. If I knew him, I think I'd dislike him immensely. The book was...I don't even remember how the book was, so it can't have been good.
Attending Children: A Doctor's Education - Margaret Mohrmann Pretty much as painful to read as you'd think it would be. I'm generally not the sort to find a child's death so much more tragic than an adult's, but shit. She's a gifted writer, and you end up feeling as if you know these kids and their families - which makes it terribly sad when the majority of them inevitably die.
Almost Home: Stories of Hope and the Human Spirit in the Neonatal ICU - Christine Gleason, MD An interesting read, sad, of course, but she also devotes a couple of chapters to those "What the hell, how did this kid get better?" stories where she freely admits that she in fact has no fucking clue what saved them. I suppose they can be unnerving, but I for one have always liked the notion that even if the doctors don't know what the hell to do for you, all hope is not lost. It's also a marker of a book that WON'T have the "doctors are gods, bow before me" tone.
Wrong - Dennis Cooper He's the gay male A M Homes. Didn't finish the book.
Runaways volumes...whatever I've lost track of where I am in the series, but I'm still loving it.
A Little Bit Wicked - Kristin Chenoweth She is indeed one of those people who's so damn HAPPY you could punch her, but she's so damn cute you just can't make yourself do it. Much of the book is devoted to her faith - mainly because she doesn't separate it from...anything, really - and yet she's not grating about it, and if you know me, you know I'm easily grated on. I'm not entirely surprised, though, I mean, she and Aaron Sorkin have been on again off again for how long now? If she's secure enough to date a guy who cheerfully informs her that he thinks she's insane for believing in a magical carpenter, she's secure enough to not need to convince the whole world that she's right. (Also, I think the speculation about a falling out with Idina Menzel is true - she barely mentions her, despite a good chunk of the book being centered around Wicked.) It's a fast read, and worth it if you're a fan.
The Year They Burned the Books - Nancy Garden A reread. Nancy Garden makes a good attempt at the political issues involved, but it still bothers me that in the end she has the "good" conservative characters "come around" to a more liberal way of thinking. I really don't think that's what she intended, but nevertheless... It's also nice to have a teenage protagonist who is "probably maybe" gay - usually gay teen novels start with an oblivious or deeply in denial kid and go on through their eventual acceptance. Nothing against that, but it was nice to have the sexual identity crisis be the b-plot to the censorship mainplot instead of the whole book. Also appreciated: the realistic and varied reactions to the kids' coming out (though we do have the stereotypical OMG NO CHILD OF MINE ranting, and the "we love you no matter what!" speeches) and the gay girl falling for her straight best friend, wherein the straight girl does not miraculously turn gay at the end, and the gay girl in fact doesn't end up with a girlfriend. And it's nice to at least HINT at the idea that the people who think homosexuality is a sin aren't necessarily OMG EVIL and can be nice, decent people. I'd say the book either should've been longer, or the c-plot with the protag's gay male best friend's boyfriend's daddy issues should've been dropped, as the a- and b-plots really could've done with a bit more fleshing out and tying up. Overall, I don't think the writing's as strong as Nancy Garden usually is, but the book is very different, and in a subgenre full of the same old stuff, sometimes that's enough.
Stuff what I watched:
Rachel Getting Married Hated it.
Julia Aside from Jane Fonda's acting and a slow beginning, it's damn near flawless. Gorgeous movie, and now I feel like an idiot for resisting watching it for so long. (Also, it's creepy just how much young Vanessa Redgrave looks like Natasha Richardson.)
My Bloody Valentine Only made it a few minutes in. Worth trying again? Let me know.
Chapter 27 Made it about halfway. Jared Leto is surprisingly good, and it's a good movie in the sense that it's a movie to be appreciated. However, it was just too damn slow for me. Good movie. Just not for me.
My Name is Bruce Funny stuff. I've always appreciated Bruce Campbell's willingness - bordering on insistence - to make fun of himself.
Jekyll Normally I don't do miniseries in these lists because they tend to take too long to talk about, but I'll bend the rules but keep it brief. Another one of those things I feel like I should've thought of in the sense of the premise being SO OBVIOUS in hindsight, but I couldn't have written it nearly as well. Strong lead, good writing, excellent pacing (it's like they knew exactly when I was going to think "okay, can we move on now?" and DID IT!), why the hell has nobody in the States seem to have seen it?!
The Nines I love a good mindfuck, and this was a very good one. Maybe a liiiittle too much explaining - I prefer for something to be left to interpretation - and I still have trouble looking at Melissa McCarthy and not seeing Sookie St James, but I have no real complaints. Don't know that I'd watch it again, but I don't regret spending the time on it.
Fido Classic coming of age tale about a boy and his zombie. What's not to like?
Junebug A rewatch. One of those movies I can never decide if it's funny or just sad. I wish I knew more people who've seen it, because it's one of those movies that invites discussion. It was harder to watch this time through, Ashley's pure joy at her impending birth, knowing how it would end. Once again I came away from it hating Alessandro Nivola's character, which I don't think I'm supposed to. I'm supposed to not like his fiancee, right? Because I can't hate Madeleine. Can't do it. She's ten different kinds of unbearable, but so is his family - however, she's rich and therefore can't get away with being kind of rude.
Cashback - Inventive and fun. Quirky without being forced. (Or too forced, anyway.) Disappointed by the lack of extras, though - a commentary would have been interesting.
The Sarah Jane Adventures, season 1 (and bits of 2) I also don't tend to do TV series, but I'll make an exception because I'm so enamored of this show. No surprise there - it's really unintentionally gay, but also terribly charming. It's so rare to find a show that's actually family-friendly - either it's too adult to really be child appropriate, or no adult can watch it without their brains turning into soup - but they've managed. It's got all the exhilaration and inventiveness of Who without most of the angst. I'm really not liking Maria's replacement, though.
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07:16 pm
ooog. dizzy. room spinning kind of dizzy. making me very queasy. also shaking very hard. not sure if it's another one of those spells or just the cipro. either way, bleargh. must. not. barf.
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03:37 pm - from aily_
Post your TOP 30 of sexy actors/actresses in alphabetical order and choose three persons to do so as well.
Wait, alphabetical by first or last name?! And I'm doing this based purely on sex appeal, not how adorable or pretty someone might be. Unless the cute makes them sexy. There's a fine line. It's also a list made up of people I already had pictures of, because I'm too lazy to do intensive googling right now. And it's really "sexy people who first occurred to me." Y'all, it's a meme. Just shut up and enjoy the pretty. I tried to keep it pretty even, genderwise, so everyone would have something nice to look at.
( not dial-up friendly. also not work-friendly. )
This was harder than I thought it'd be, seeing as that I usually get hung up on characters rather than real people. Runners-up include Tina Fey, Angela Kinsey, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Walsh, Nathan Fillion, Taye Diggs-and-Idina Menzel, Liv Tyler, Kathryn Morris, Jessalyn Gilsig, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Seal. Yes, Seal. Shut up. He's hot.
( And pictures of them too, just 'cause, though they are not alphabetized )
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June 30th, 2009
08:42 pm
Happy belated to bluepony0628! I would've been on time, I swear, but I was out of town! Here, have some cupcakes turned into a narwhal:
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02:11 pm
Back from unexpected trip away.
Tried to make my time more fun by writing bad and wrong Sarah Jane Adventures fic, but it didn't turn out. Haven't written anything in almost two years.
Antibiotics not helping. Parents never want to eat anything but grilled meat up there - my stomach is killing me. Today I saw a pony.
That's pretty much it.
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June 26th, 2009
02:24 pm
I had a bad reaction to the bactrim my doctor had me on, so I'm back on cipro, but I'm having the EXACT SAME REACTION to that (minus the insufferable itching), despite having taken it before with no trouble. My arms and legs are so weak moving them is a chore, and my eyes ache like someone's kicking them.
I also have a big nasty bite on my leg that I thought was a mosquito's doing, but it's huge and purple and angry-looking now.
I'm a wreck.
Talked to mom about seeing if I know anyone who wants to take Alf's saddle and bridle to use, with the caveat that I can have them back if I ever get another horse. I mean, it's a $2.5K saddle (yeah, that's, like, two thirds of what my HORSE cost, but hey, I was still young enough when mom bought it that I didn't feel like I had to try really hard to talk her into a cheaper one. How old was I? Still a teenager, that's about as well as I can remember) that was used twice. The bridle never at all. And they're gorgeous, and comfortable. Need some care before they can be used, but nothing irreversible, I think. But, I dunno. It seems like too weird a thing to ever be worked out. And mom's worried about them getting too worn out and being in bad shape should I ever reclaim them. Dunno. Was just a thought I had.
I had another epic dream last night, though it wasn't the cool epic, it was more lesbian arthouse epic. I wish I could remember them better. But they're usually mostly gone by the time I wake up. Which is too bad, because it's another one that would've made a good story. Don't think it could be stretched into a movie, though. Oh, and I actually got to be on the receiving end of some fun naked time stuff for a change. Seriously, first time ever I wasn't the one doing all the work. (Yes, even in my subconscious it's like that. Sigh. Mutter.)
Meh. I still don't have anything to say. My head hurts. So does my heart. Not figuratively. I have terrible heartburn.
Okay, figuratively too.
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10:23 am - fannish five
Name your favorite character's five favorite books.
Ugh, this is a hard one, as most of my favorite characters are scientists, psychotics, or psychotic scientists.
So I'm gonna do Snoopy.
Divina Commedia, Dante Alighieri.
Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant.
La Nausee, Jean-Paul Sartre.
The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka.
and, of course
Der Rote Kampfflieger, Manfred von Richthofen.
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01:19 am
Happy belated to athena2693, whose birthday I could've SWORN was the 26th, but it isn't, it's the 24th. Sorry 'bout that. I suck.
And a happy belated to gonzo21, who once requested that I not embarrass him with birthday posts. But he never said anything about posts AFTER his birthday. Caught you in a loophole, so there. Love you.
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June 25th, 2009
08:56 am
Post Ten of any pictures currently on your hard drive that you think are self-expressive.
NO CAPTIONS!!! It must be like we're speaking with images and we have to interpret your visual language just like we have to interpret your words.
They must ALREADY be on your hard drive - no googling or flickr! They have to have been saved to your folders sometime in the past. They must be something you've saved there because it resonated with you for some reason.
You do NOT have to answer any questions about any of your pictures if you don't want to. You can make them as mysterious as you like. Or you can explain them away as much as you like.
( NSFW and also lots of pictures )
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June 23rd, 2009
11:27 am
My doctor is finally doing something proactive about my latest stomach issues.
He's sending me to be tested for intestinal parasites.
My life is fucking awesome. [/sarcasm]
(This actually makes sense when you consider the number of dogs and cats I'm in contact with on a daily basis, and the fact that we had a wicked flea infestation of unknown origin right around the time this all started. But still. Bit embarrassing, this.)
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June 22nd, 2009
07:59 pm
It feels weird to not have anything to say to my LJ. But I don't.
I am sad.
Finley seems in better spirits. (That's not why I'm sad.)
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June 20th, 2009
07:06 pm
instead of meeting up with someone i've been looking forward to meeting for ages, i spent my day searching for vaccination records in the giant cavern of papers known as my parents' room and dealing with my mom's histrionics. and taking brief naps because i haven't slept in two days. and dealing with stabbing stomach pains. i'm beginning to think that simon's right and they are actually stress related.
oh, and our vet is moving to brooklyn. i don't WANT to look for another vet. it took me ages to find a good one. and i like her. *sulks*
today sucks. seraphicideals, let me know if you want to do breakfast or something tomorrow, my treat.
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