Ex Judge of the day
2006-10-31— Posted by: allegra
No, not my dad.
http://abovethelaw.com/ (Scroll down until you hit a picture of a derelict vehicle…..)
Obit
2006-10-31— Posted by: allegra
Maggie Mae, runt of Scooter and Cody’s final litter, has passed on from pneumonia. Love each other while you can.
Had a good long talk with my brother yesterday. The kids are thinking of coming to visit him when they next have two spare days to rub together.
You start out thinking they’ll never leave and the next thing you know they’re never here.
???
2006-10-30— Posted by: allegra
Since when is Tony Blair a friend of the environment? The world’s gone mad, I tell you, mad!
But why?
2006-10-29— Posted by: allegra
George W Bush Speechwriter software….http://www.actofme.co.uk/bush_speech/bushspeechwriter.html
More retro motor pron
2006-10-29— Posted by: allegra
Oooh, look, a Hubbard steam powered motorcycle. It’s so hot I could die.
rude awakening
2006-10-29— Posted by: allegra
There I was dreaming about lecturing my coworkers on how to emasculate certain other coworkers and somebody abruptly woke me up. Really, it was a lovely dream. But that’s okay, because there was homemade french toast and sausages and coffee. Happy sigh. Today I will do nothing except possibly breakfast dishes and a nice long walk…
Yesterday was eventful; I went to the Bodyworlds III show again (my, what a lot of dissected penises there are at that show!); I saw The Prestige with Hugh Jackman (swoon, double swoon, in Edwardian evening dress), Scarlet Johannsen (swoon) and Christian Bale (meh) and Michael Caine (swoon) and Andy Serkis and David Bowie (interesting pairing, wot?) and I definitely was kept guessing til the end so no spoilers. Then Alan took me and Paul to the Keg in New West and we did NOT have dessert.
Visiting
2006-10-28— Posted by: allegra
Keith and Alan and I will be off to see The Prestige today for our movie, and then before that we’re going to the Body Worlds III exhibit.
I had the single weirdest migraine ever last night. I got 15 minutes of practically hallucinatory and very beautiful aura – brilliant alien letters in firegold and rainbow colours dancing and shifting in the middle of my visual field – and then no headache. I feel mildly headachy this morning and it hurts to sneeze, but other than that I seem fine. I think this one was triggered by changes in the air pressure. The neurologist told me I have “atypical” migraines, and he wasn’t just whistling Dixie.
Hanging out
2006-10-27— Posted by: allegra
Alan’s here, and pulled about half a dozen items of clothing for me (courtesy Janice, thank you) out of his bag, and an equal number of books for Keith and myself. His bus trip was fine except that it’s not nice when they have the air conditioning running in October.
Today bookstores and assorted running around including dealing with Kira’s asthma, tomorrow dead bodies at the Science Center.
Shout out
2006-10-26— Posted by: allegra
Big beeg shout out to Andrew S my worksibling who got the Echo running again… Paul’s off to buy a battery. Katie ditched work today, but she’s been feeling off colour for a while and will be seeing the doc on Monday.
Moving Day
2006-10-26— Posted by: allegra
I will have my new cube at work this morning.
Oysters
2006-10-26— Posted by: allegra
I think those oysters were….
yeah.
Car died.
Dead in parking lot at work. Man, it was dark.
Powerpack could not revive it.
Sneezing all day.
Finishing up Komarr.
Keith’s dreaming up Lymond fanfic. “Give me a few years and I could totally take him. He’s all about the grappling, and I’m all about the kicks to the face and testicle shots.” Snicker, I get to listen to this shit every night. “My kumite is based on fast reflexes and return.” And so it goes.
Have worked on the song and have ALL THREE CHORDS worked out, and Dr. Filk says I should debut it at Orycon. Bedtime. Two verses. Happiness.
Candles
2006-10-25— Posted by: allegra
I light a candle for Frances, Phyllis’ dear friend and the mother of one of my oldest friends, Liz, who is gravely ill in hospital in London ON.
I light a candle for Paul, who dutifully reports that his mother sailed through the surgery, was up walking with a walker today, and kicked his ASS at Scrabble. Sounds to me like he needs the candle more than his mum did for the surgery! Bless her, she’ll live to be a hundred, and I’m likin’ that.
Note to the world
2006-10-25— Posted by: allegra
Any company email (where said company does not actually EMPLOY anybody named ‘Guido’) that mentions Guido is automatically funny. In a sick, uncaring, I break your face kinda way.
I have written the second verse to the Lady of Komarr. Man, I love driving in the car because it makes me write songs. Driving by myself, I mean. Being driven or having passengers doesn’t cut it.
Best of all………. I sang it for Keith and he DIDN’T PUKE.
Katie didn’t come home last night but she phoned. It’s a shame, because I bought about $20 worth of junk food to get her through the door.
A cat in the house
2006-10-24— Posted by: allegra
My worksibling Dave has inherited – temporarily – this fine feline, name of Romeo. This cat reminds me SO MUCH of a person, particularly the facial expression, that it’s quite ludicrous.
Forgot to go walking with Peggy yesterday – just as well, or neither of us would have gotten the garbage out – but we did go this morning.
Woke up at three thirty and didn’t go back to sleep.
Dr Filk is still all bubbly and happy about OVFF; I asked which the best concert was and he was incapable of speech for about thirty seconds, and then said, “Now that would be hard to say.”
I am working on a Vorkosigan love song. I have the first verse and chorus but now I have to back and read Komarr.
Pumpkin Patch
2006-10-23— Posted by: allegra
It’s been ages since I posted a pic of a REALLY HAPPY KID. This is my coworker’s littl’un, obviously having a really good time at the pumpkin patch.
It’s nice to know who’ll survive the end of the world
2006-10-23— Posted by: allegra
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S16/13/72E53/index.xml?section=newsreleases
No rants today
2006-10-23— Posted by: allegra
We celebrated Samhain, Diwali AND Eid last night (Welcome to Vancouver!) (okay, Eid was early, ditto Samhain) at Tom and Peggy’s. So, fresh bread and corn (courtesy Paul), one of THE yummiest veggie curries ever (mild but oh so subtle) courtesy Martha, a jumbo prawn stirfry (PNW cooking) courtesy Marnie, butter chicken (omgomg), two kinds rice, two kinds naan, fresh pineapple, trifle, home made chai and gulab jaman from Baba Sweets on 6th St, which I immediately absconded with so I could nuke them until they were just the right temperature. Ten years ago I didn’t even KNOW what gulab jaman was and now I’m so fussy about them that I reheat them… Vancouver is the city that nudged me from being a glutton into being a foodie. But I still don’t like tripe, and you can’t make me.
And we went walking to Burnaby Lake, where we saw this goose pair. The almost albino one is called Al. Why? I dunno, that’s just what we were told. Been there for years apparently. Lovely lovely day for a walk and we ALMOST saw a tree frog, but man, they are little, and the tree it was hiding in was big. The leaves came CRASHING down. Interesting sound effect. And, as always, when leaves come down, it made me think of the song that Galadriel sings (in the book, not the movie) when the folks are leaving from Lothlorien.
I started feeling weird, and then I realized it was three o’clock in the afternoon and I hadn’t eaten or drunk all day. So we stopped off at Katie’s work and found out that instead of her being moved into line prep and cold side she stays in dish pit, grr grr grr. She’s asleep now, although I should prob’ly wake her shortly. I did some of her laundry yesterday and she was so grateful, she hasn’t had a minute of her own in what feels like an eternity to one so young. Working full time and going to school is definitely harder than anything she’s previously taken on.
Paul’s off to London to be there when his mum wakes up from the anaesthetic (she’s turning into bionic gramma, this time it’s a knee) and look up some old friends. I light a candle for Phyllis’ rapid and and comfortable recovery.
Oh boy, less than a month to Orycon, and Powell’s books. Happy sigh.
Willy Pete
2006-10-22— Posted by: allegra
Good morning, everybody. Israel has acknowledged that it used white phosphorus against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon during the last round of hostilities. It strikes me that Israel would do well to learn from its old Uncle Sam and tell international nosy parkers to shove off and mind their own business, rather than to submit to the white hot glare of obloquy.
Have you ever heard what, whether the recipient be uniformed or civilian, white phosphorus (Willy Pete in American military parlance) does to human beings? Google Italian documentary Fallujah phosphorus and find out.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1108/dailyUpdate.html links to a number of interesting sites.
The short version is that Americans did use white phosphorus in Fallujah. The Israelis used white phosphorus in Lebanon. Israel admits it, and the US doesn�t.
A professional attitude
2006-10-21— Posted by: allegra
I remember Tammy and Gary being a little shocked when, with my characteristic tact, I told them they weren’t professionals. In those days I didn’t think that Corporate Communications and IT were ‘professions’. When, with some asperity, Tammy asked me how I’d classify their careers, I said, “Hired guns,” which made Gary laugh, but I don’t think Tam was too impressed. When I think of a ‘profession’ I think of a category of work that has a governing body which can cashier you. So a profession is: the military; law; nursing; medicine; teaching; policework; dentistry; accounting; massage therapy; midwifery; architecture; chiropractic, audiology; veterinary medicine; optometry; yes, of course PHARMACY Brooke; social work; speech pathology; physiotherapy; psychotherapy and all of the various and interesting stripes of engineering. Since prostitutes don’t have a governing body, I guess they aren’t professionals. Somethin’ must be wrong with my take on things.
Professionalism is an attitude. It consists of working to a high standard set by your conscience and your closely examined understanding of what you, personally, are capable of doing. There are always minimum requirements in a job…. a professional attitude means that you don’t automatically work to the minimum standard. A professional attitude means that you know there are times when ‘good enough’ really IS good enough. I’m not a working musician, but I tune my instruments before I perform. I don’t proofread for a living (as this blog, alas! shows) but I do care about spelling, punctuation, grammar and little fiddly things like assonance and layout and type size. One of the reasons that I like how limited I am in changing those little fiddly things in this blog is that it FORCES me to concentrate on staying current; otherwise I’d be dicking with the typeface constantly. I keep thinking about changing things, but I am crazy; I enjoy working inside constraints and having well defined limits placed on things. And I’d have to learn a lot more XHTML, or whatever it is people are coding with these days.
I guess I have a professional attitude about biscotti. I DON’T have a professional attitude toward clothing. Any day with no bra and no pantyhose in it is a damned good day. And if a coworker I dislike asks me something work related, I don’t mess around. I just DO THE JOB. Empire building is for little people. Enterprise building is for adults. We rehearsed the show for the congregational dinner last night. Man, I really LIKE Peggy’s bass. It is one of the sweetest sounding instruments evah. And Donna’s harp sounded gorgeous.
I heart Stan Goff
2006-10-20— Posted by: allegra
I don’t always agree with what he says, but I love the way he says it. There have been times, reading his stuff, that I think that Stan Goff is who Hunter S Thompson would have turned into if he’d stayed with the military. Here he is on revolution in everyday life: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/members/100506_insurgent_handbook.shtml. His comment on the preacher made me laugh, very hard. This is the only pic of him I was able to find in which he is smiling.
Cheerful….
2006-10-20— Posted by: allegra
Well, actually, this isn’t cheerful at all…. http://www.fromthewilderness.com/members/101606_leaves_water.shtml
Dr Filk, take a bow
2006-10-19— Posted by: allegra
Dr Filk is off to OVFF in Columbus OH, one of the stations of the filk year.
And what is filk?
It is a sociable and relatively egalitarian musical genre practiced mainly by a subset of science fiction fans, mostly sf convention attendees, which is characterized by emphasis on group performance until late in the evening, spontaneous harmony and clever lyrics, which leans to the folk/Celtic trad end of the spectrum, and in which at least 95% of the songs deal with science, science fiction, fantasy and cats, or are parodies of songs covering these subjects. AND most of them are too damned long. It is mainly practiced in the US, Canada, the UK and Germany, although Australia & Singapore have been infected.
Duels have been fought over the definition, with copious quantities of pixels shed, but frankly filk music is what filkers sing when they get together, and that’s everything from x-rated rounds to zither music. Filk music comes in three subcategories: heartwrenching, funny, and hymns. Which last is pretty funny, considering.
I light a candle for Riverbend
2006-10-18— Posted by: allegra
Riverbend, the ‘Iraqi girl blogger’ who is actually a young woman, has finally posted again… it had been more than two months and Keith and I were starting to get a little panicky.
mmm mmm
2006-10-18— Posted by: allegra
http://www.mit.edu:8001/activities/safe/notsee.html
The legendary twin Spokelsemoose
2006-10-18— Posted by: allegra
Twin ghost mooses! It’s been bally ages since I posted a decent moose pic. This from New Brunswick, via Chipper.
New scarf
2006-10-18— Posted by: allegra
My mom knitted me a DNA cable scarf, and I’m wearing it right now. Tom and Peggy fed me and Paul and Katie last night (spag). There wasn’t enough sauce – only five gallons. I wish I was joking. I am joking about the enough, but not about the five gallons. Tom is a big guy, and his notion of portion sizes is “lots” “vats” and “dozens”. Pears in quince jelly with ice cream for dessert. Life is HARD, not. It’s time for me to buy more hazelnuts!!!!
Look Brooke! Zombie job picture!!!
2006-10-17— Posted by: allegra
All we want to do
is eat your brains
(J Coulton).
The phone rings and….
2006-10-17— Posted by: allegra
We hear that John Makela has been injured in Afghanistan. I light a candle for his speedy and complete recovery, and for the poor shattered nerves of his parents, family, girlfriend and friends.
Holiday in Hrvatska
2006-10-16— Posted by: allegra
“It is a perfect opportunity to combine holidays and dental care,” she said.
This plucked, a direct quote, from a travel blurb about why to visit Croatia. Hrvatska – which is what the folks who live there call it, is a beautiful country, dropping slightly or stable in population, welcoming to immigrants (or so they claim) and practicing of religious tolerance and civil rights – and interestingly, possessing really good, cheap dentistry. Come to Hrvatska and get your choppers cherished for 1/4 what it would cost you in Britain. I mean, who could desire more of a vacation than a damned fine bargain in extractions? $50 US to get a tooth pulled? I know a good deal when *I* see one. The rest of you are just flower maimed wusses.
I …. live for a good cleaning. Feeling half a teaspoon of toxic bacteria being liberated from my oral crevices gives me a thrill words cannot contain.
And cleanings are CHEAP in Hrvatska. I haven’t priced crowns and (dAMN! Root canals! Lord have mercy!) yet, but I want to walk through the streets of Dubrovnik with a headful of dental anaesthetic. That sounds cool. That sounds like the vacation my grandchildren will ask me to tell stories about, over and over.
The only reason Hrvatska exists, in my opinion, is so that there is at least one country in Europe that sounds like it fell out of a Tintin graphic novel. And now, I must bid a fond farewell to the hardworking dentists of Split.
Hey – I found a pic of Thomas Pynchon!
2006-10-16— Posted by: allegra
He’s legendarily private, but I found a pic of him that’s so old that I wouldn’t know him now if he walked up and bit me on the lip.
What doesn’t get reported
2006-10-16— Posted by: allegra
From Arnaud de Borchgrave, UPI.COM
Anti-Semitic incidents have proliferated in France in recent times, but the news seldom makes it across the Atlantic and when it does, it must still fight to be heard above the constant melodrama of constant trivia. A Jewish sports club in Toulouse attacked with Molotov cocktails; in Bondy, 15 men beat up members of a Jewish soccer team with metal bars and sticks; the bus that takes Jewish children to school in Aubervilliers attacked thrice in the past 14 months; synagogues in Strasbourg and Marseilles and a Jewish school in Creteil firebombed in recent weeks; in Toulouse, a gunman opened fire — all ignored in the mainstream media in the U.S.
The metropolitan Paris police tabulated 10 to 12 anti-Jewish incidents per day in the past 30 days throughout the country.
2.5 million people live in Paris. This is on a par with the GVRD. Okay, you tell me. If there were a dozen anti Jewish (or anti Muslim, for cry eye) incidents involving desecration and violence in Vancouver every day for a month, do you suppose for a minute you would somehow NOT have heard about it?
I light a candle of solidarity with the Jews of Paris. Siz shver tzoo zein ah yid, as one might say phonetically in Yiddische.
And I'm not too thrilled with Jean le Pen, either; he's trading in his expensive hatred of Muslims – 40% of the population under 20 is 2nd or 3rd gen North Africans – for the much cheaper hatred of Jews. Fewer of 'em, and EVERYBODY hates 'em, to coin a phrase. Nothing like political expediency to trim your ideological sails.
What a world.
Retro scooter porn
2006-10-16— Posted by: allegra
This is so hot it defies description. Motorcycle pr(n!
I curse my oven
2006-10-16— Posted by: allegra
I made a hazelnut torte last night which everyone ate, but it wasn’t entirely cooked all the way through. (Cooked enough that nobody was going to die of some bacillus, but even so.) I cooked it at the prescribed temperature for the correct length of time, and the surface redefined “golden brown”, but I have come to the inescapable conclusion that it is not a good idea to trust the gauge on that oven. Oh well, throw whipped cream on the torte and the world’s all good.
Feasted John at Tom and Peggy’s last night, it being the celebration of his birth, lo these many years ago. We were eagerly awaiting what confection Brooke was going to whip together for him, and were treated to the one, the only, MeatCake. (Insert George Carlin reference >>here<<). It was meatloaf, cooked in a bundt pan, and assembled in layers, the icing for which was whipped mashed potatoes dyed a splendidly virulent green, and garnished with bacon bits. It was yummy as well as visually striking. Yes indeed, it was no surprise how many people took pictures of the Birthday MeatCake. Then she made ‘t-bone steak’ for dessert, which was actually a fudge-y thing with marshmallows (for the t-bone) which I passed on because it was so dense (except for the marshmallow bits) that it was appearing to make time run backwards. Oh, and it came with ‘blood’ sauce – something red and deliciously gooey. So there were three desserts, counting the hazelnut torte, because there was also fresh pear (from their garden) flan. As John was heard to remark, “Three desserts! That’s almost adequate!”
Then we played and sang, including my new favourite song, Brooke’s Tune Away Boys, a sea shanty which promises untold horrors if you don’t tune your damned instrument before you go to filk circle. All in all a splendid evening!
