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Friday, August 1st, 2008
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5:30 pm - Slow like turtle, part I
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August 1: Thing That Makes Me Happy
When I put all the papers for the monthly publication in one stack, it makes my desk look like I don't have any work at all as opposed to reality, which is that I'll probably work 10 hours of overtime in the next seven days.
Ah, sweet illusion.
I've been trying to find a way into talking about why I loved IWTB so much, and finally I just had to own I love it so much because of Scully. This should not have been a surprise.
(Please to ignore the many typos thx.)
( Spoilers, IMO, YMMV, etc.) )
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(37 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, November 10th, 2006
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8:15 am - Borders Coupon
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| Sunday, April 23rd, 2006
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11:05 am - A fine Spring morning
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Bees are getting busier,
Birds are getting dizzier,
Little girls and boys are getting quizzier...
Newly found old XF Snippetfic has been posted here.
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(comment on this)
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| Monday, February 27th, 2006
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6:21 pm - A flying city, you say
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| Tuesday, October 4th, 2005
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7:27 am - For Sale
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| Friday, September 30th, 2005
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2:14 pm - Out of the closet
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9:40 am
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My father has a philosophy about couches: "You buy a couch, and that's your couch."
Which is to say, that's the couch you use until it bursts into flames or is trampled by runaway elephants. You keep the couch until there is no possible way to cover it well enough that, if you were to sit on it, you wouldn't catch a lethal disease.
I feel this way about many things that are inherently useful. Clothing, most especially. Part of my reluctance to let clothing go ::cue "Born Free":: is that the ownership of clothes has usually come after grim battle -- of finding something I like, can afford, and fits well at the time. If said article of clothing also does not make me look like I have been released from the institution prematurely, more the better.
Three years after first starting on the weird, meandering path to weight loss, I have realized that in my possession are a heap of clothes that don't fit. Don't fit at all. Could not be altered well enough to fit. Would only fit again if I won a year's supply of Valomilks.
So I have some clothes to sell, mostly Large and Larger, mostly dressy enough for Corporate America (w/ emphasis on Talbots and Eddie Bauer), mostly winter-leaning. An appalling number were worn very few times indeed. The pants are Petites. The skirts are all over the place. Nothing too wacky. With a few exceptions, I'm pricing pieces at $10 and under.
My question: Is anyone here looking for this sort of clothing? I have a list of what's available, and could probably get photos made this weekend if there was something specific someone was interested in. If I decide to go the Ebay route -- still thinkin' on it -- I'd need to make pics regardless.
Anyway: interested, let me know.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, January 14th, 2005
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12:16 pm - Josh, Donna, and the New York Times
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| Thursday, September 30th, 2004
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1:44 pm - Attn: "Lost" viewers
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"'Lost' won the 8 p.m. hour for ABC with a 10.2/16."
-- Zap2It.com, 9/30/04
My entertainment-industry-covering, Walt Disney-stock-recommending analyst coworker would like you to know he is very, very proud of you.
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(comment on this)
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| Tuesday, September 7th, 2004
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8:55 am - DVDs for Sale
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It's a JET Sales Event!
Er, or, you know, I have some DVDs I'm selling. All prices include s&h. If you'd like to purchase something, please email me at curried_goates @ yahoo.com.
$7
Ghostbusters
Secretary
State & Main
$10 (still shrinkwrapped)
The Dancer Upstairs
Possession
$20
Friends, Season 2
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| Thursday, September 2nd, 2004
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12:24 pm
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| Sunday, August 29th, 2004
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5:32 pm - List for a rainless Sunday
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1. Was supposed to storm all day, they said. Well, not so much.
2. Of all the members who use the Fitlinxx service at my Y branch, I'm currently ranked #8 for most points accumulated in August. A lot of members use Fitlinxx; I'm ranked #253 for the year, for instance -- so the August tally makes me stupidly happy.
Of course, the person ranked #1 for August has over 10,000 more points than I do. Possibly this person is entering his or her exercise statistics from Athens, I don't know. Yo! That's a ton of exercise. I hope they're getting paid or endorsed or something.
3. August is almost over. That seems unreal. I find myself falling into the always (metaphorically)fatal trap of rushing through the last four months of the year in my head: all the organizing I want to do, all the money I have to come up with to buy holiday presents, all the presents I want to make myself, all the stories I want to finish and post, all the goals for the new year to set, all the loose ends at the office to wrap, etc., etc.
And this year in particular, I'm looking at September and seeing how much I have to do in the next two weeks -- train for two charity walks that take place on one day, the same day as my class reunion (so I should train to drink, too); various work projects; a house to wrangle into shape before company arrives -- and wishing I had more than a handful of vacation days left. I could work longer hours this week, say, and flex some time, but that just adds more stress. Hrm.
4. My best friend was in thin-ones-possessions mode earlier in the year, when she was moving, and I have to say her attempts are starting to look more meaningful to me at the moment. I'm walking through my house these days with the feeling that it's far, far too full for one person. Too much stuff, and too much of my family's Hoard In Case of Grocery Strike/Nuclear War instincts keeping everything in its pile. I wouldn't mind giving a lot of things away, except that I foolishly think of my stuff as, well, worth. Which it isn't necessarily, because someone has to actually be willing to buy something for that something to have a real monetary value. And yard sales in my town are okay, but not gold mines. I could in fact use money for practical things like food and medicine, but am I willing to part with books/knicknackery/clothing for this?
I recognize that this is the whinging of someone with nothing substantive to whing about. Oh, poor kid, owns too many magazines. How tragic!
5. With the Unitarians, this is shooting fish in a barrel, and I think Louisville has a pretty good example as a gay-friendly town -- but Northern Kentucky is still Kentucky, and Kentucky's still the South: so seeing this draped on any building in town pleases me.
Walking around Downtown/Old Louisville is informative like that. Also, I discovered Louisville's consulate of Belgium office, which is helpful in case a situation arrises where I might need Belgium's help. I can't imagine what that would be but it's good to have options in an international emergency.
current mood: Brrr. Air conditioned.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, August 23rd, 2004
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4:22 pm - The one with all the fake videos.
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( I scream, you scream )
( Vid(eo) killed the fanfic star: meme )
I've been reading American New Yorker columnist Adam Gopnik's book about his time living in Paris with his wife and young son at the end of the 20th century. At lunch I read the chapter on the long trial of Maurice Papon, one of the few non-US trials I can recall hearing about (I was going to say, in the '90s, but frankly ever is more accurate). Papon was of course convicted, in what seems to be considered a quasi-compromise by the jury, not of being as evil as the Nazis, but of being not nearly as courageous as the circumstances called for in France in the early 1940s.
Gopnik wrote:
By saying that Papon didn't know where the trains were going, and also saying that he was guilty of crimes against humanity, [the jury] was making the right and courageous point. To deliver a child to the secret police is as large a crime against humanity as you ever need to find, no matter where you think he is going or what kind of car he is going to travel in.
...I had explained to Luke [Gopnik's son], over the course of the trial, what was going on and why I was away: A bad man had long ago done wicked things to little children, and now he would be put in jail for it. When I came home, he asked if they had put the bad man in jail, and I said, well, yes, they had. "And when the bad man got put in jail, did all the children come out?"
Yeah. That's where I started to cry.
current mood: Odd.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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8:48 am
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Sometimes, after the sky has changed from rose and red to indigo and then to black like an impressionist painting, they stand out in the yard and look at the stars. The sky above is heavy and the wind warm. They hardly notice the black sky because there are so many stars. Great swirls of them, dancing across the whole top half of their world in clockwork patterns. Familiar constellations are obscured by all the new points of light. Probably. Staring up so long makes them a little dizzy, as the sense of being firmly planted on the ground recedes, and all that's left is sky.
They don't do it often, or for long. The weight of all those stars gets too heavy after awhile, and even after they go inside they can feel the weight of the heavens pressing down on them.
There are no lights even from the other houses.
Tabula Rasa has a new (well, new to us) story; and it features a lovely twist on an old theme, and a fabulous last sentence.
XF, MSR, through S7. She calls it "AU High Weirdness," and if you don't think that makes me do the happy dance, then we haven't met.
Things Outside
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| Sunday, August 22nd, 2004
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4:17 pm - Heavens, they're tasty, and expeditious
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There was an old Prairie Home Companion playing this afternoon, and Garrison Keillor mentioned Kate Rusby, who didin't actually seem to be on the show my station was playing. In any case, she has performed on PHC, and that show can be found here, for those inclined to such listens.
Prairie fire
Garrison Keillor talks about why he is flamingly anti-Bush and pro-Democrat.
( From Salon.com )
current music: "Powdered Milk Biscuits"
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, August 20th, 2004
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8:52 am
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I bounced back and forth between watching the Olympics and The Exorcist last night. I had very odd dreams afterward.
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(19 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, August 19th, 2004
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9:54 am - The Food Report (icon unrelated)
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Is it absolutely insane of me that I've become much more attached to Martha Stewart now that she's a convicted criminal? I've been thumbing through the Stewart books I have -- they are gorgeous, if nothing else -- and watching the show on the Food Network in the evenings, and somehow knowing that she'll probably go to prison has made me, not more sympathetic, but less annoyed by her in general.
Also, the shows with her mother as a guest? Still priceless. Her mother is so Get Away From Me, I'm Cooking about the whole thing.
It's not like I've ever turned down a Hershey's Kiss in my life, but I've been trying to temper my chocolate urges with good chocolate, the chocolate that costs three bucks a bar. And I must say, it's working -- a square of excellent chocolate really is much more filling and enjoyable than a larger portion of something inferior. And what's being sold at Walgreen's is almost exclusively inferior. ::haughty little sniff::
Never fear, huge quantities of other cheap commercial foods are still being consumed by me. You know, to make up the slack.
I just read an article in the NYT maybe a month ago about the recent growing reintroduction, in NYC restaurants, of dark chicken meat on the menu. Many chefs, it seems, find the dark meat to be tastier. I like a breast fine, but I must concede that I agree that a leg or thigh brings qualities to the table that white meat doesn't.
It doesn't surprise me in the least, of course, that Julia Child was way ahead of this trend."When I'm home alone, I like to cook chicken thighs in my toaster oven with some salt and pepper. Now, restaurants don't serve thighs, they serve breasts. You never see a recipe for chicken thighs à la Provençal, for instance. Fat-fearful people feel that the dark meat is fattier, so they don't eat it. But I don't like chicken breasts. White meat doesn't have the taste, and it disintegrates after a while, so I make the thighs for myself. I also like a nice turkey sandwich with white meat, white bread, and a lot of mayo. The secret to staying thin is to only take one portion, never eat between meals, and eat what you enjoy." --from Epicurious, 2001
Lexington Contingent, the Courier-Journal food critic likes a new French bistro in your town.
I don't think I've mentioned that a Borders bookstore and cafe have opened up across the street from me. This is bad, because I'm broke, but good, because the smell of books (new or used) is as delightful to me as the smell of warm bread; and browsing a bookstore is somehow less awful than browsing other stores. (Also, I am shameless about bookstores. Chain, local, big, small, messy, modern, Friends of the Library or thrift or so shiny you could manufacture microchips on the escalators, I don't care. If they sell books, I'm there.) The one disappointment thus far has been the cafe's chai tea. It's far too much like dessert: too rich, too sweet. Up until this week I could buy a more expensive cup at the coffee joint on the corner, but they've closed for a month while the owners rearranges themselves.
Since I buy chai less than twice a month, and since the weather has gone from Early Autumn to Godforsaken Summer again, hot drinks are currently moot. I have been thinking a lot about bourbon this week, but possibly not for the same reasons I'd drink a chai.
Hmm, some bourbon in chai tea, now that might be interesting.
current mood: Silent screaming in my head.
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, August 18th, 2004
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2:02 pm - jumping the mid-week bump
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The goosey urge to scream I had for most of the day Monday has lessened at work, though today's lunch meeting was -- how to say it? -- no doubt the first of many, many meetings we will have over the next four months. New Boss Man (which is less offensive, I suppose than, Mr. Used Tissue) has some Big Plans for the department that may make the analysts' heads explode. The upside is that since J. has never had to deal with the service staff (ie me and my cohorts), he doesn't know enough to change our jobs yet. The downside is that he may not know enough to give us adequate raises and bonuses, but we shall no doubt cross that bridge as the angry torch wielding mobs come closer.
Viewing the Olympics should probably inspire me to work harder at exercising and losing weight, but I find that my basic reaction isn't motivation but relief: relief that the swimmers don't drown, the fencers don't poke an eye out, the gymnasts don't break their necks. I don't remember having this "WATCH OUT!" sort of reaction before. I can't imagine that the rate of injury is higher this year than last, though I do think the commentators should stop predicting things like, "This performance will be nothing short of perfection," because it's obviously a jinx. Yeesh.
I'm feeling technologically... Deprived isn't the right word. Maybe outdated is closer. Obsolete, possibly.
Many people talking about vids this week has driven home my download dearth, not to mention my gadget lack. My PC at home is a basic Dell, no bells or whistles added; I don't have enough memory and I don't have a broadband connection -- hell, I don't have a modem connection to anything currently. No soap ISP, no satellite radio. This computer at work is, well, work's, and as such is guarded by the Evil IS Overlords. No Quicktime, no upgraded RealPlayer, no WinAmp. I can unzip files and block popups only because those applications didn't make a splash on some censor's radar.
But what else don't I have? I don't have a BlackBerry, a Palm, an IPod, or a laptop less than five years old. The cellphone that belongs to my mother, and which I take on road trips, is the cellphone that came with the plan -- four years ago, and it wasn't a hip phone then. No games, no pictures, no flip, no wireless email access.
I also don't have a digital camera, a DVD player that records, a Playstation, a wee camcorder (or any camcorder, for that matter), a GameCube, GameBoy or Xbox, or any flat screen that isn't hanging in a window frame (not to be confused with a Windows™ frame).
Don't get me wrong: most of the time, I don't care one whit. There are some great vids out there, I hear, and I'd like to see those, but to see those would cost money and take time and the little of both of those things I have are earmarked for other expenses. I suppose my point is that I am occasionally confronted with how much my life hasn't changed: my parents couldn't afford to buy me Atari when I was eight, and I can't afford X-Files: Resist or Serve now. The larger picture is that my life doesn't really need a BlackBerry -- I doubt I could successfully manage a Filofax -- nor TiVo, nor a higher tech walkie-talkie so that I'm never out of contact with humanity.
And maybe it's that last thing that ironically makes me feel a little less out of touch with myself, if not the rest of society. Sure, I take a bottle of water with me if it's warmish out, like yesterday, and sometimes I even remember to tuck a dollar into a pocket (on the rare days when I have a dollar), and if I'm headed for a park and no obligation in sight I probably have a book in one hand (on plain old paper). But it's unusual that I have cause to keep open a line of communication, a microchip beacon to whoever might be trying to locate me that I'm [here] and wish to be found. At my desk, it's a small, shallow burden to be stuck unable to see something everyone's raving about; and out there, in the rest of the world -- or the small path I'm likely to be perusing -- I can still be reached, but on foot, by land or sea, in person. I'll be beneath the giant baseball bat on Main, crossing the parking lot at my town's Target, or standing on the corner of South Fourth and York, looking up at the stained glass of the Unitarian cathedral. No call necessary, stop by and see me sometime.
current mood: Escaping
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(21 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, August 16th, 2004
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1:35 pm - My general mood.
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I am feeling a lot of hatred for many, many co-employees here. Additionally, I find it deeply ironic that this company, which recently began a tutoring and literacy program to help a local elementary school, has hired so many people who cannot (be bothered to) read. Furthermore, it's the first day of the rest of our lives with Mr. Used Tissue! I could not be happier, really.
Oh, and don't even get me started on my father's health.
current mood: Lovingly stroking my knife.
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, August 13th, 2004
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5:18 pm - Oily
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I start writing the dept.'s p.m. market comments on Monday -- expect much plagerizing from Dow Jones, Marketwatch, etc.! -- but I feel that market wonk can never start too early.
Oil's starting to get/continuing to be a mite scary again. Closed at $46.65 a barrel today. But the real interest here in Louisville is that Indiana and Kentucky both have suffered oil-related explosions in the last two days.
BP Refinery Goes Boom
Oil Well Blast in Perry Co
I mean, yikes.
Weeks like this, I truly do wish bicycling in this area were safer. It would make things that much simpler.
current mood: Greasy.
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