There's an FAQ meme going around, and I am finding it really useful to categorize things, and by "useful" I mean "calming" and "things" I mean "my life", so, here it is.

( FAQ meme )

Tags: coursing myself

Meanwhile, in potentially awesome news, I may be getting a netbook type titchy writing laptop for Christmas. Whee!

The question is, what sort? Does anyone with knowledge/experience of these want to give me advice? I have to research them myself and as usual am dazzled by information.

Priorities are: it must be VERY VERY VERY LIGHT, really as light as possible, must have at least one USB port, and have several hours of battery life.

Things I DON'T need or want: a large hard drive, disc drives of any sort (extra unnecessary weight). Or excessive RAM or processing speed, come to that.

OS: Windows XP or earlier preferred. Vista is too clunky for this purpose, I don't know when Windoze 7 comes out. I dislike Macs and don't want to take the time to learn a new operating system, so XP is probably my fate; I can manage that. Windows 7 would be fine, since I'm told it's out and seems to do well for this purpose. =) Not Vista, though.

Things that are negotiable: size of screen/keyboard (ideally I'd like to go find some and experience them and see how small I can get without dying of annoyance). Not fussed about a mousepad either really, I used to do fine with a mouse "button"-thing. So long as there's something that works, I'm good.

...what else am I not thinking of?

I'm hoping I can find a not horribly expensive one (it might be a present but that's no reason not to be frugal) given that I'm really not fussed about hard drive/ram/processing speed, which are usually what bloat the price, in my experience. All my initial research seems to take it for granted that everyone wants a computer that can do everything though, which I really don't. Hmmmm.

Any thoughts or experience on this, or links to info that would be helpful, would be greatly appreciated. =)

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

I am looking for somewhere nice to live between 5-7.30 this evening. It is warm and quiet and preferably serving warm drinks. Ideally it is near Green Park or Bond Street.

Any ideas? And anyone want to join me? I have a stupid amount of time to get from Barking to my church group.

(Life also may or may not be goo, as I originally typed.)

Life is good, seriously lovely and warm. Life is good.

Poll #1493355 Life is good poll.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 21

Life is good?

My life is good because...

Yay!

Tags: life is good, poll

Oh dear, I haven't been doing very well at listing all the books I read this year. Here is a quick summary of eleven I happen to remember.

( Read more... )

Oh bother, I think I've made the Globe's Twitter feed mad at me. D:

Tags: theater: shakespeare

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Cock, the play I saw last night (link is my review) at the Royal Court, is quite possibly the best thing I've seen all year. The perfect dialogue, the fascinating story, the agony of watching it take place feet away from me ... close enough that every twitch of a cheek was visible.

Since it's sold out, here are the rules of the game for returns. Royal Court does not seem to want to be selling them over the phone. Instead, at 6:30 the write a list of the people who are waiting in line for tickets, and at 7:30 they give away any that are left. At 7:45, if there are any remaining seats, they will sell those (the difference is that these are not returns but merely people who have not shown up; as the play runs straight through latecomers cannot get in the theater). the queue starts forming around 5 and thankfully people are allowed to stand IN the theater (and not out in the rain and cold).

SEE THIS BRILLIANT SHOW IF YOU CAN. There is little chance of it being remounted in its current configuration. THIS IS PROBABLY THE BEST SHOW I'VE SEEN ALL YEAR. (I'm going to go back and read my list and see if I still feel that way after reflection.)

It's odd, before the show I was thinking that I need to rethink my approach to the theater and see less shows, later in the run. Writing the blog has made me a bit of a slave to my statistics, and early reviews get more hits. But I think the toll on me of seeing so many shows I haven't enjoyed means I should see less. Maybe part of it is seeing so many new plays, which can turn out good or bad; but this past month has been full of theatrical disappointments - and has been pricey to boot.

The cat is curled up next to me and I hate to leave, but needs must. And I have a feeling I'm probably hung over after all of th wine I drank last night (with the West End Whingers) after seeing the show. It was so good I just had to celebrate.

Tags: reviews, theater

( Tweets enclosed )

Tags: twitter

I'm afraid that was my first thought when I read Lionel Shriver's anti-fat acceptance article.

Thoughts? On either topic?

Tags: online things, political
Current Mood: bitchy
Current Music: v/a - 'Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited'

You guys, you guys, Chad's recreated the debates between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein over quantum physics with puppets. With cameos from a bunch of other physicists of the era and, of course, our dog Emmy.

It is adorable and historically accurate (reasonably) and so very silly—and SteelyKid approved, as in, she giggled all through it. You have to check it out behind the cut (smaller) or at Vimeo (larger). Or if you don't like Vimeo, it's at YouTube in three parts: one, two, three. (It's eighteen minutes, but some of that is credits, and it moves right along.)

( embedded video )

The article is here, for those who were interested!

Tomorrow is a big day and, frankly, I'm scared. I don't know what's happening. I'm going to see my brother, and I haven't seen him in years, not since before our father died. We didn't part on the best of terms.

It just didn't seem fair. As the younger son, I always got the short end of the stick. It's customary that the elder son inherits everything. What was I supposed to do? It was so arbitrary. After all, it's not like my brother is a better person than me. If anything, I thought I was better. I'm certainly smarter than him. When we were kids, I used to fool him all the time. Whenever our father gave him some extra treat or some extra privilege, I could trick him out of it. It was like taking candy from a baby. How could I resist?

So this time, Mom helped, and I tricked my brother out of his inheritance. Dad was almost blind and kind of senile, and he only kind of knew what was going on when we made our agreement. Then Mom warned me, because she heard my brother threaten my life. So I ran away to save myself. I ended up in the town where my mom used to live before she left to marry my dad. I got a job, working for a friend of hers, but I was in way over my head with him.

This guy manipulated me. He got everything he wanted out of me. I tricked him in return, too, a little, but it couldn't make up for what he did to me. He even got me to marry his daughter. I wasn't that into her--she wasn't that pretty, and we didn't really have a lot in common. But then there was this one night when I had way too much to drink, and you know the rest. These were old-fashioned people, with old-fashioned rules, and the next thing I knew, I was stuck with her. Part of the reason I haven't left is because of my father-in-law. He's way too crafty for me. I know he could take me for everything I have if I left his daughter. I can't win.

This all made me feel kind of bad about my brother. Maybe I should have been nicer to him. It's not his fault he's kind of dense--and he's good at some stuff. It's not his fault, either, that he was the elder brother and the one bound to inherit, yet I made him suffer for it. I wasn't a very good brother. And I realized I need to make up for what I did.

So I contacted my brother, and he agreed to see me--but I don't know why. I don't know if he's going to forgive me. Hell, maybe he's going to try to kill me... and if he did, maybe I'd deserve it. But I ran from his anger once, and now that I've contacted him, I'd be ashamed to back down. So when I traveled back to my hometown, I sent my wife and kids to stay with a friend for a little while. They don't need to be part of this meeting. And they don't need to see me like this. Pacing in the darkness, afraid for my future. Wrestling with God.

God, I know I haven't been much of a believer. I know I haven't been a good man all my life. The opposite, really. When I was younger, I promised to follow You if you would give me what I wanted. Now I know it doesn't work that way; I can fool everybody else, but I can't fool You. And I shouldn't have tried to fool them, either. 

I know it's time for me to pay for what I did. I never showed love to my brother--I treated him like dirt. I only saw him in terms of what I could get out of him. What would it mean to act in love towards my brother? I don't know if I'll ever find out.

I can't sleep, so I'm waiting. At sunrise I'm going to go see my brother. To see if he forgives me, to see if he accepts me the way I never accepted him, to see if it's too late. One way or another, I'll never be the same.

Reference: Genesis 25:19-34, Genesis 27:1-32:31, particularly 32:22 - 32:31.

Tags: public post, reflection

A sunny afternoon in summer. More correctly speaking, it may be said a summer's evening, for the bright beams were already slanting athwart the substantial garden of Mr. Justice Hare, and the tea hour, seven, was passing. Mr. and Mrs. Hare and Barbara were seated at the meal; somehow, meals always did seem in process at Justice Hare's; if it was not breakfast, it was luncheon--if it was not luncheon, it was dinner--if it was not dinner, it was tea. Barbara sat in tears, for the justice was giving her a "piece of his mind," and poor Mrs. Hare deferently agreeing with her husband, as she would have done had he proposed to set the house on fire and burn her up in it, yet sympathizing with Barbara, moved uneasily in her chair.

"You do it for the purpose; you do it to anger me," thundered the justice, ( bringing down his hand on the tea-table... )

Seriously, is your instore muzak a mix tape made by a suicidal 14-year-old in 1990? Enjoy The Silence followed by Nothing Ever Happens followed by This Is How It Feels To Be Lonely will not, I can guarantee you, cheer your customers into a state of acquisitive glee, leading them to make an impulse purchase of more expensive cornflakes or a jar of shitake mushrooms from the 'speciality ingredients' shelf that stands like a monolith of pretention between the deli and the booze aisle.

It might do wonders for your sales of razor blades and own-brand paracetamol and vodka, though.

Oh well,I suppose it's not as bad as Somerfield, whose playlist features both Road To Nowhere and You Can't Always Get What You Want - a sentiment customers can only empathise with.

No love

Me.

Tags: no love letters
Current Mood: bitchy

【ANOTHER ANON MEME】

(there is a link on the middle word, but you have to be looking at the entry {not viewing it through a friendslist} to see it. Took me a while to figure that out)

So karma just punished me for going 'hmmm, I'm tired of reading for university, let's take a crack at the Elite Four' by wiping my game of Pokémon Gold. Man, karma, a person cannot revise every moment of the day! Now I'm procrastinating by updating my Livejournal instead, so your stealing my Pokémon from me achieved nothing. Please do not delete my journal, karma.

(Daxyn the Typhlosion, Supersoar (shush) the Fearow, Silver the Shellder, Zuko the Ampharos, Toph the Graveler, Shay the Weepinbell: we may not have become Pokémon masters, but we fought bravely. Let your names stand on my Livejournal as a reminder of your noble efforts.)

Worse things happen at sea (and indeed on land, and indeed to Anthy Himemiya), of course, but the Pokémon trainers amongst you will understand that I am still somewhat put out by this turn of events. Here is an entry of stupid Utena-related things with which I intend to cheer myself up.

It seems appropriate to begin by speculating on which Pokémon the Utena cast would have.

Anthy has a collection of grass types, primarily Tangela, Oddish, Gloom, Vileplume, Bellossom and a vast number of (of course) Roselia. She is particularly fond of one Gloom. Utena suspects that Anthy's refusal to send it out of the kitchen may in part explain her questionable cooking skills.

Akio has something ridiculous. Probably Arceus itself chained up somewhere. Unless he is Arceus, which I suppose is possible.

I was planning to colour-code the Duellists' Pokémon to them, but then my mind gave me the image of Saionji with a Primeape and it won't go away. You've ruined everything, Saionji. Fine, you can have a Primeape. Juri has a Jolteon, and possibly an unwanted shoal of Luvdisc that swim through the air behind her and make her very angry. I can see Touga with a Ninetales, which means Nanami has a Growlithe (Pokémon-assignation logic is an esoteric field), and, er. Sorry, Miki, but I really want to give you a Piplup. I promise the adorable baby penguin doesn't mean I don't respect you as a Duellist.

Wakaba has a Normal or Flying type. Perhaps a little Taillow that sits on her shoulder and whistles incessantly. If Saionji upsets Wakaba, he is in for a great deal of pecking.

Utena herself is really difficult, though. I'm wondering whether perhaps she has an Eevee at the beginning, something with many different paths open to it, and it evolves significantly towards the end of the series. But into what?


And now, a couple of ridiculous Utena videos for you:

- This is the opening video for, I believe, an Utena game for the Sega Saturn, and it actually made me laugh until I cried. Akio, Touga and Saionji simply cannot keep their shirts on.

- I have mostlyacat to thank for drawing my attention to this, a Touga/Akio fanvid set to something called 'The Ding Dong Song'. It is hilarious, and it works disturbingly well.


FINAL HORRIBLE THOUGHT: Akio Ohtori is Edward Cullen. Or, well, perhaps not Edward Cullen specifically (can you imagine Akio driving a Volvo?), but Akio would make an amazing sparkly vampire.

Enjoy the image.

Tags: i disapprove, insane crossovers, pokémon, sparkle sparkle, utena, watch these clips i command you

【ANOTHER ANON MEME】
(click on link in middle to go to my thread)

I'm feeling much better but still a bit grumpy! Say nice things about me under veil of anonymity if you like, and I might even start making cheery posts again!

Seriously, my washing machine is fixed and even though several books on the bottom shelf were ruined, they were all a bit shit anyway (although one was a hilarious Wars of the Roses romance novel that I am rather sad to see go). All my Margaret books, Tam Lin retellings and Jewish feminist tracts are on the top shelf, so, SAFE. \o/

SteelyKid is sleeping in this morning, so:

White Collar: new TV show, art forger reluctantly helps FBI to keep from going back to prison, having escaped to look for his girlfriend, who has gone *poof*. Fairly appealing leads, good diversity in cast, not hugely caper-y but had some clever moments. Didn't love it, liked it well enough, will do until Leverage comes back. (Speaking of which: "Accessories," a crossover between the two, general-audience, gen, 1300 words.)

( quick spoilers )

Tags: tv: white collar