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June 19th, 2013
the_siobhan
 | 01:31 pm - no updates. only bullets
Axel's party was a lot of fun. From all reports people had a good time. Axel had a blast, so mission accomplished.
I have so far done six loads of washing up and I'm not done yet. Holy shit. That's the one downside of homebrew - all the reusable beer bottles that have to be cleaned and stored. On the plus side the decorations are cleaned and packed away and I think we've located all the places where empty beer bottles were hidden. I also spent two days hacking through all the leftover pig and seperating out the meat for sandwiches(lots) from the meat that's going for dogfood (four big bags of it!.
******
I have moved from the "gentle" into the "intermediate" yoga class at the back clinic. I am very sore as a result. But it's the good kind of muscle sore that you get from doing a billionty squats as opposed to the "oh shit, I fucked something" sore, so I'm pretty happy about it.
I continue to be crap about doing my homework. But I'm getting better anyway.
******
Only one!(1!) medical date this week. So I'm making up for it by having two appointments with banks and a follow up at the vet. Just in case I should ever get the mistaken impression that my time is for spending on shit that I actually want to do.
******
I was in a work session yesterday with people from various departments talking about what can be improved in our job processes. I mentioned to the instructor how I had come up with a bunch of ideas for my role during the session and normally I struggle with that. "Because I work by myself so I'm not talking with other people as a part of my day to day job. I find it's the back and forth with other people that makes these things really bubble to the surface."
Later on in the day the instructor was talking and she looked at me and said, "and as you said earlier, you don't have time in your daily job to think about making improvements..."
I find little incidents like that interesting. My best guess is that she gets so many people saying they have no time that that particular more common complaint just wrote right over the one I actually made.
******
I am so tired. I am doing nothing productive this weekend and anybody who tries to make me will get bitten on the nose.
This entry was originally posted at http://the-siobhan.dreamwidth.org/379017.html. There are  comments on this post. Please comment there using OpenID.
Current Mood: canoe
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dandelion_diva
 | 05:13 pm
First posts on some of the web's biggest sites.
~~~
Captain Kittypants is doing *very* well. He's becoming more vocal and is having a good time exploring while one of us keeps an eye on him, as he is *tiny* and I remember when Brooklyn was a teeny pup (though, possibly larger than the Captain) and managed to crawl up in this weird little space under the cabinets in the kitchen. We only found him 'cause he made noise. We never thought to look there 'cause we didn't know that weird little gap *was* there. I can only imagine where Kittypants would end up.
He's used the litterbox three times now. We're *very* pleased. I think something just clicked.
And he's getting a backstory, as do many things and beings in this house. He's currently a Captain in the kitten Naval reserve. I suppose that means we'll have to find him a first name. :D
~~~
John Scalzi, I adore you. Guilt, Mine, and Paying It Forward, Me.
Current Mood:  good
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alankria
 | 09:17 pm - Mercantile 1925, Dallas TX
Do you like deer? Do you like dead deer? Do you like the feet of dead deer?
A vital accessory for all book-owners, yes?
When I was staying in Dallas with Brooke Bolander, we went to a café (Mudsmith’s) she described as “hipster”. It had deer heads mounted on the walls and a taxidermied bobcat on the fridge. TEXAS HIPSTERS ARE THE BEST. Then Brooke took me to the shop (Mercantile 1925) where the café probably got their decorations.
DEAD ANIMALS
SO MANY
WAIT WHAT
Originally published at Alex Dally MacFarlane. You can comment here or there.
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heinous_bitca
 | 03:55 pm - CSA #1, 2013
I always say I'm going to post more, and never do. But you'll have me posting weekly now for at least 20ish weeks, because it's CSA time, baby!
( Pic & description under hereCollapse )
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singloom
 | 08:06 pm - Fire Emblem Awakening : Shipping Wars
For those that are curious, Chrom proposed to me on Fire Emblem Awakening. Poor Lon'Qu still has a high bond with Loomy and the Hubba Ranker says he has feelings. I feel terrible.
And Frederick is getting pretty friendly too. HELP MEH.
Current Mood:  anxious
Current Music: Watching Mr & Mrs
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othercat
 | 12:00 pm - My tweets
- Tue, 20:33: Photo: bryankonietzko: Toph: Moment’s Reprieve by ~c-dra I came across a bunch of amazing cosplay pics... http://t.co/yXLOcI1OdP
- Wed, 06:00: Early morning fic snarling - THE FIC UPDATES AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH SOMETIMES TWICE. QUIT SAYING ANY... http://t.co/AS1s3uErmR
- Wed, 06:39: TALK TO YOUR MOIRAIL, GALLEY.: ==> Be the nosy Troll Redditor. - analyticrecluse: bustedcrankshaft: BC: WHAT... http://t.co/ORMBmmjO8A
- Wed, 07:06: upd8 - ceruleancynic: Read More That was just a really great update. http://t.co/3OrPQSGA9x
- Wed, 10:42: Video: nightmareloki: hentaitaskforce: SOMEONE MADE THE ATTACK ON TITAN OPENING BUT WITH THE MADOKA GIRLS IM... http://t.co/kvlLMOeMJC
- Wed, 10:49: "Swear to God, I can’t stand to hear a woman claim that she thinks like a guy and hates women because..." http://t.co/HFlS7I6xWx
- Wed, 11:09: Some post-chapter blather for contra legem 34 - I will probably repost the chapter a little later.[[MORE]]... http://t.co/ZKOTnDduVI
- Wed, 11:44: Reading: Telempath, by Spider Robinson, Part Four http://t.co/w01gGpQwyn
- Wed, 11:57: I like the series, though there are moments when eyes roll, specifically every time the mars and venus bullhockey… http://t.co/vNjGneELjr
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makeme_moo
 | 02:32 pm - My First Year of Marriage (Part 2)
After much hinting and joking and maybe begging, Dima got me a kitten for Christmas. My intentions were to adopt a stray, no matter the age. I was even leaning toward an older cat, because they need homes. We looked at photos online, visited a few of the cats at nearby pet shops, and then visited the Ottawa Humane Society. We were only there to look around and meet some kitties, but then... we found Rudolph.
It was a room of 3 kittens. A ginger kitten with small, brown eyes. A black and white kitten hiding under a box. And him. He was just a small, stripey ball of fuzz, fast asleep in the communal litter box. Dmitri picked him up and pretended to inspect him - stretched him, lifted his paws, looked into his eyes. He sat the kitty down. The little boy cat looked at him playfully. There was something about his demeanor, so sweet, innocent and friendly. I started jumping up and down on the spot - "Can we get him, can we, can we?!"
We adopted him that evening, December 12th, 2012. He was a week shy of 3 months old.
His personality was huge; his health problems were many. At first, he was just gassy and occasionally had diarrhea. However, 2 weeks after we got him, he became lethargic and began losing weight. He visited the vet a few times - they gave him appetite stimulants, fluid injections, and an enema for constipation. We began testing out new wet foods to get him eating more.
He recovered without any official diagnosis, but continued to suffer from bouts of diarrhea mixed with bloody mucus. The vet ran a second, more thorough test on a stool sample, and found two viruses, one of which was the Feline Corona Virus. No one at the vet's office seemed concerned. FeCV is very common, and most healthy cats shed it in the litter box and go on their merry way. The vet put him on a hypoallergenic diet in the hopes of helping his body pass it.
In that time, he was his happy, usual self. He chewed on all the wires, bent the chord for my laptop while trying to pull it out of the wall, grew big enough to jump on the kitchen counter tops, etc. He followed me from room to room, and cried whenever a door was in his way. He played fetch with his toy mice, jumped up and down to catch any and all strings, tried to climb all the screens, and ran circles around the livingroom. He loved to play outside. He would stick his big, foofy tail in Dima's face while Dima was eating. He napped on my lap during the day, and slept between us in bed at night.
But he hated the hypoallergenic diet. He did not like any of the wet foods, but he would not eat enough of the dry food to gain weight. We went through countless brands, looking for something he was willing to continue after more than a week. Nothing. He hit 8 lbs, and then started to lose weight again. In desperation, I asked the vet if we could put him back on the food he was happily eating in January. But by then it was too late.
In a single week, he went from a happy and playful little munchkin (albeit skinny), to a bony, weak, tired and miserable little kitten. He sleeps all day, and even on a diet of eggs, fresh fish and other meats, he has not managed to gain any weight. He scarfs down a few pieces and goes back to sleep. Even with the back door left wide open, he just sits on the deck for a bit and then climbs back onto the couch to sleep. He won't cuddle anymore - he scrambles out of my arms and curls up on the other side of the couch. He has a persistent fever.
After reviewing his history, performing a physical exam, running several blood tests, and taking an x-ray and fluid sample, both doctors at the vet seem certain that Rudolph, who is 9 months old as of today, has Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP), which occurs when that harmless FeCV mutates. The disease is fatal, and there is no cure. And this tiny little kitten, with the biggest, friendliest personality, will be leaving us soon.
My birthday is next week, and what little we have left has already been invested into a trip to Moscow next month, where I would have finally met the rest of Dima's family and visited the places he grew up. But there's no telling how much time Rudolph has left, and neither of us are prepared to leave him while he's suffering. We have gone broke dealing with living expenses and vet bills, and all of this is just salt on the open, weeping wound that was this entire last year.
Current Location: Ottawa, ON
Current Mood: sad
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ysabetwordsmith
 | 12:47 pm - Slavery in Star Wars
Here's a devastatingly brilliant essay on slavery in Star Wars, about the droids.
This is something that has always bothered me about the franchise. It's a common problem in science fiction, but as the author explains, particularly ruthless and explicit in Star Wars. Me, I don't have a speciesist perspective. If a character behaves like a person, then I consider them a person. I don't care if that character is metallic or alien or whatever. I don't like it when people are treated as property or canon fodder.
So I think about things most people don't. I think about the desperation in C3PO's phrasing. He's a protocol droid, a translator; he understands language. Yet most of what he does with it is beg or nag. R2D2 doesn't even have language in the human sense. He has a communication handicap; he can only converse with other droids. People could have given him a voice but chose not to. They're loyal to humans anyway, in ways that human slaves typically are not. One wonders why; they probably aren't Asimoved because they can assist Luke in his violent heroing ways, and besides, that universe has battle droids. Given their behavior, it's likely what the author suggested, an Uncle Tom situation. Sucking up to the people in power can keep a slave alive. Droids don't seem inclined to run away, either.
Another thing that sticks in my mind is the casual abuse. I remember the torture/dismemberment scene. Droids pulled apart, bodily organs dangling loose. Kicking feet, red-hot metal, screams. The body language indicates emotions and personhood. This is typical of how people treat misbehaving slaves. It bugged me, even when I was really little and watching Star Wars for the first time, because I saw the parallels with slavery. (I grew up reading my father's history books and things like Uncle Remus, so while I couldn't articulate my observations as clearly then, the connection still fit.) That scene is meant as an aside in the movie, a reminder that human viewers should sympathize with the droid characters but not too much -- their pain is meant to be funny, not alarming.
But look at the fucked up mess that is "a galaxy far, far away." With all their technology they still haven't figured out that owning and torturing people is not okay. They also haven't noticed, or don't care, that owning people is damaging to the owners. Not sure about that part? Consider Luke's indifference to droids when he first bought C3PO and the red droid. Not C3PO and R2D2. It goes by in a blink, played for laughs, but it's a scene endemic to slavery, splitting up a family. It's only avoided by authorial fiat. Luke doesn't care what droids he goes home with, so he shrugs and takes R2D2. This is supposed to be the great hero of the series, and he doesn't care about hurting other people. That's part of what he takes into the Force tree later; it doesn't show in the images he confronts, because he's obsessed about his father. But it's there anyway, the dark matter of the soul.
I can't help thinking, this is where the Dark Side gets much of its energy. Power corrupts; owning slaves turns most people into beasts, as attested in slave narratives. And suffering warps; slaves tend to live with a hidden, simmering cauldron of wrath. Think about what Yoda lists: fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. Those all lead to the Dark Side, and they are the warp and weft of a slave's life. Just because the meat people don't "count" the droids, doesn't mean they aren't contributing to the Force. It's energy, and what else are minds made of? No matter how the Jedi try to rise above it, they're still part of that society, and the energy still clings to them. The Sith are more honest about their enjoyment of power imbalance, their love of mastery and torment over those beneath them. No wonder the place is such a mess.
The movies are what they are and say what they say. But what I bring into them changes my experience of them.
Current Mood:  thoughtful
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esprix
 | 01:38 pm - Lovely
Oh goody, someone vandalized my car this morning... :-/
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rkt
 | 12:00 pm - My tweets
- Tue, 12:23: RT @Colorlines: This Is a Really Helpful List on How Not to be a Good Ally http://t.co/uUNgjW1jo6
- Tue, 12:25: RT @norbizness: Tomorrow's Juneteenth in TX, or as our reactionary history books put it, Filthy Yankee Interference With Our God-Given Prop…
- Tue, 13:02: Always waiting
- Tue, 14:16: Was surrounded by valley girls, but now they have moved
- Tue, 15:06: Shout out to Priceline for getting me into a 4 star hotel in downtown LA for under $130 after taxes #yay
- Tue, 15:09: View from the train http://t.co/oYRMTrVzwc
- Tue, 15:24: woot! RT @gothamgazette: Legislature Set to Approve Lever Machines For Primary and Runoff http://t.co/ye3TVQyka6
- Tue, 15:38: RT @ftrain: “...but then men have always confused length with quality.” http://t.co/IZpg4xWowG
- Tue, 20:21: RT @AIsForOrg: Be shAmeless! Wear your support & change the conversation w/ our limited edition t-shirt! http://t.co/mA5ldFuM8h Only 217 le…
- Tue, 20:23: Will the officer be charged w copmurder? RT @cnnbrk: Police dog dies after being left in patrol car in Georgia. http://t.co/2O0klDn5O4
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othercat
| 07:46 am - Fic: contra legem M, 34/?
Title: contra legem
Characters/Pairings: Vriska/Terezi Terezi/Dave Strider Aradia/Terezi
Summary: Terezi Pyrope is a Neophyte Legislacerator looking to lease an administrative assistant. She was not expecting to find Dave Strider, a secretarial asset with a sense of integrity as strong as her own. Dave Strider is a secretarial asset with "personality problems" that would have gotten him culled if not for his otherwise exemplary administrative abilities. He finds himself drawn into the quadrants of the would-be social reformer who leased him. He finds he is surprisingly Okay with this.
Both their lives become interesting (in the curse sense) when the Heiress retains Pyrope and her team.
Rating/Warnings: M, Graphic violence, implied Noncon
Tags: Moirallegiance/Pale Romance, Non SGrub Au, Conquered Earth AU, Slavery , Dave being Dave
In which Dave is counseled by his human palebro and his human palebro’s Significant Other, and there is another party
He wasn’t sure how he ended up on the shuttle, wasn’t sure how the shuttle ended up in Steadfast’s docking bay, or how John knew to be there. Dave didn’t have a tracer on him, hadn’t had one in sweeps because he had never been a flight risk except for now. (Not that he was running very far at all.) Some part of him was screaming that he was in so, so much trouble right now, even if he knew he wasn’t. “I’m sorry for absconding,” Dave said immediately. “I’m reporting for discipline.” It was the first thing that came to mind to say and he was endlessly relieved that John just went along with it.
“Well, you’re reporting for discipline, so your punishment is detention,” John said cheerfully, and took the husktop he’d been clutching to his chest during the entire shuttle ride. “Follow me.”
***Cross-posted from Dreamwidth***
Current Mood:  accomplished
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othercat
| 06:57 am - Life Update...
Okay, so, Dad has ended up in the hospital twice so far, possibly his heart, I don't know. This is extremely worrisome.
As far as the job is going...I am having trouble making "rate." I am apparently too slow, even when I am walking as fast as I can which admittedly, is not very fast because chronic bronchitis/asthma. Also, I seem to have joint problems with my knees. I am at the end of my anti-depressant prescription but I still have the anti-anxiety med. (I strongly suspect that the Pharmacist fucked up the order in some fashion.) Probably on Friday, I am going to be going into the clinic where I got my prescriptions. Will probably need to talk about the entire "hi, still feeling depressed and now also freaked out because I am wearing myself down and still not achieving anything. Which is par for the course because I fail at anything I try."
***Cross-posted from Dreamwidth***
Current Mood:  anxious
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othercat
| 06:01 am - Early morning fic snarling
THE FIC UPDATES AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH SOMETIMES TWICE. QUIT SAYING ANY VARIATION OF “THIS FIC HASN’T UPDATED IN A WHILE.” IT IS THE ONLY FIC I’VE BEEN ABLE TO UPDATE CONSISTENTLY DESPITE THE MASSIVE LOAD OF SHIT THAT IS MY REAL LIFE.
***Cross-posted from Dreamwidth***
Current Mood:  annoyed
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greenwick
 | 05:13 am - My tweets
- Tue, 14:43: Deployed military people can't use Xbox One - http://t.co/BZR0fDNS9B
- Tue, 14:43: RT @attackerman: This House intel hearing is seriously called "How Disclosed NSA Programs Protect Americans & Why Disclosure Aids Our Adver…
- Tue, 14:44: RT @fabhcun: Dear rich Conservative Americans funding the #prolife campaign in Ireland. Please stop.
- Tue, 14:45: RT @plunderpuss: Spam is offering "get bigger boobs." If the boobs can be detachable, I'm on it! Gimme two--no, THREE--of the biggest you g…
- Tue, 14:45: RT @plunderpuss: Spam also offers e-cigarettes & cheap Louis Vuitton knockoffs. I feel like spam doesn't know me anymore. (Those boner pill…
- Wed, 01:40: Just pull on the pullem and push on the pushem, and the pickles go into the jar.
- Wed, 07:24: I used to work at this call center. It could have doubled as a knitting convention. http://t.co/LFaSkciIpp
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singloom
 | 12:01 pm - My tweets
- Tue, 17:46: Photo: mandy23b: happyun-birthday: jasmine-blu: Is this real SHIT. EXCUSE ME WHILE I THROW MY �SCHOOL... http://t.co/EhWmB6HlVj
- Tue, 17:53: Photo: illusionwanderer: Midnight lights, Helsinki, Finland by�Pete Huu http://t.co/xTVhlqsuoI
- Tue, 17:56: Photoset: trappedinhermind: disengagethemexican: MARIO FUCKING KART Lmfaoo http://t.co/OiBnCMFJlF
- Tue, 17:59: Photo: http://t.co/r6UZMLrLDD
- Tue, 18:01: A haiku about Mario Kart - Are you kidding me Who the fuck threw that blue shell I will fuck you up http://t.co/nJzd27tqpW
- Tue, 18:04: Photo: http://t.co/KNt7KaDrXo
- Tue, 18:07: Photo: pokemongeographic: by Delano-Laramie Audino is a pokemon so helpful it will go on Starbucks runs for... http://t.co/iXFTcJ5VJk
- Tue, 18:13: Photo: silver-gambit: ワドちゃん可愛いよ by アキラ http://t.co/NN8JYnoXlk
- Tue, 18:15: Photo: Recruited Donnel today. He’s been a little tricky to level up without risking him being defeated, but... http://t.co/8UnqigMWM4
- Tue, 18:20: Photoset: Best friendship skit ever. http://t.co/KskF5ZiIzi
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singloom
 | 08:23 am - Story of my Life
I'm having Tales of the Abyss feels far too early in the morning and I still have work to get through. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Current Mood:  bouncy
Current Music: Watching GMTV
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June 18th, 2013
cho_malfoy
 | 10:12 pm - The new Queens of the Stone Age album's really good, too. Kind of morose.
Since I skipped last week's Wednesday Reading and posted the one from the week before super late, I'm posting this week's early. (Well, I'm actually posting it early because I'm taking a day off from things, and none of my other options sound particularly interesting. But making sure it doesn't get skipped while I putter around the house tomorrow is a good reason, too.)
( Wednesday Reading.Collapse )
Those were all original fic readings, but there's a fanfic rec I want to share outside the cut: the Paris, je t'aime series by la_faerie. It's One Direction fic, but you don't need to be a part of the fandom to read it. It's priestfic at its finest, and more; the author clearly loves a lot of things, and the stories brim with art and culture and the different kinds of relationships that people can have that might not be Hollywood, and they might not be resolved, but they're still good as far as they can go. The crying I did over them was cathartic, and the whole thing was just the amount of bittersweet I like.
...and then there's the fic I wrote over the weekend, and it's none of those things, but I really enjoyed writing it. There's room for all kinds of stories in the world!
"red, gold, and blue" (AO3 | DW)
NC-17, 1500 words, Mikey/Gerard/Frank, June 2013
Mikey knows Gerard's ideological reasons for posing in alpha/beta erotica with his brother. He doesn't get the rest of the reasons until he sees the hot photographer.
( A couple thoughts.Collapse )
So that's some of the catch-up I've been meaning to play. (It's amazing how far behind you fall when you go to Disneyland, move between houses, and rewrite a 30k word story in about two weeks' time.) Comments will happen soon, I hope!
Also posted on Dreamwidth ( comment[s]). Comment using a DW account or LJ OpenID.
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inclusive_geeks
amused
busy