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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
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| Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 |
kajafoglio
|
9:29p |
Experiment #1 Torments His Sister
We're leaving early tomorrow for Windycon. In the meantime, here are my children: The best part is that Alex keeps watching this over and over again, and it makes her laugh like a loon. Hm. Current Mood:  amused |
madamekat
|
9:26p |
End of Shadowland?
I have been informed that personal obligations prevent dear Fred from continuing to run Shadowland at Ulana's in Philadelphia. This Saturday will be the last. ...unless someone else decides to pick it up and keep it going. I hear there are interested parties, so keep your fingers crossed. Anyway, there is a real possibility that this Saturday is the final night, so do come out and see us all again to give the night an unforgettable send-off. Current Mood:  sad |
lj_maintenance
[ dwell ]
|
2:00p |
Network Maintenance: Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 04:00-06:00 UTC/GMT
On Saturday the 14th at 4AM UTC/GMT we will be upgrading the operating system of our network load balancers to a newer version, one that will allow us to use both CPUs! Nifty, because multiprocessing is nice. Since we have 2 load balancers, the plan is to upgrade 1 at a time, and there really should be very little impact to our website. Hopefully you won't notice a thing and I'll get to go back to the hotel and watch some wonderful late night infomercials. We've got a lot of exciting projects coming up for 2010 and we're hoping that we'll be able to deliver them all to you, that you will find it useful/cool/lovely and then you will use the site even more. Behind-the-scenes work like this will give us the capacity to handle the anticipated traffic, so expect a few more maintenance windows especially in the beginning of next year as we've got some neat ideas to improve performance around here! We had the recent 30-45 minute outage yesterday due to one of our logging databases filling up disk space -- not so great design coupled with my human error in handling the initial problem -- and it looks like we're going to finally have some resources to eliminate stuff like that. I can't wait! As usual, I will be updating status.livejournal.org before and after, just in case you are not able to reach our main website during the work. |
| Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 |
replyhazy
|
3:23p |
omg omg! oops!
There's a CSI community, did you know?
First off, I'd like to apologize for this announcement coming later than expected. But I'm finally here, ready to announce who won the first weekly contest, which was to ask a question you'd like to have answered by the CSI writing team!
Also, I'd like to mention that you guys made it SO HARD to pick just one as the winner! You all had awesome questions!
The winner of the first weekly contest is...
[info]replyhazy!!!!
Their question was: "Comparing what I read in the news about our local crime scene lab techs with what's shown on CSI, it seems like there is one area that's nowhere near reality on your show: workload. Have you ever thought about adding large backlogs and turnaround times to your plots in order to reflect how overworked many real life CSIs are?"
Congratulations, [info]replyhazy!!
You will be contacted via private message on LJ with further instructions as to how to claim your prize!
Thank you everyone for participating in the first weekly contest and I hope you continue to enter into the future weekly contests!Well, uh, that's great, except, uh.. The prize is a video game for a platform I don't own. oops! :-D Well, it would make a good present for somebody, I'm sure. I was just really intrigued by the idea of what one question I would ask the CSI writers. |
uw_photo
[ torchuck ]
|
9:43p |
Гимнаст - Gymnast
Small fishing boat, free diver and sun rays - Небольшая рыбыцкая лодка и фридайвер
Indonesia, Sulawesi, Bunaken - Индонезия, Бунакен
Canon 5D + Canon EF-15 fisheye бокс Nexus + Inon 240x2
(с) Андрей Нарчук (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) torchuck)
В роли фридайвера - Марина Кочетова, кстати на недавно прошедшем, бывшем Антибском а теперь Марсельском, фестивале она выиграла две спец. номинации, одна из который как раз "Apnoe". К сожалению на сайте вся свежая инфа на французском( |
| Monday, November 9th, 2009 |
aaron_pike
|
11:16p |
|
aaron_pike
|
6:20a |
Why Didn't You Guys Tell Us?
So, in case you're thinking about getting married, elope. Seriously. They don't tell you some things. You won't be able to invite everyone you want, and you'll feel guilty about it. Food is stupid expensive, and so is renting ANYTHING you might need, including chairs, tables, tablecloths (?!), etc. Nothing will go right. Rings take six weeks to be delivered (unless you can buy the display model, so we lucked out there). I've run LARPs before, so I figured this wouldn't be too much different (corollary to that: I'm dumb). Something you really want to attend will happen on the same day as the one you pick to get married. If I didn't have the best partner in the entire world suffering along with me, I'd have given this shtick up a month ago. |
| Sunday, November 8th, 2009 |
frausensei
|
2:25p |
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relativelylucid
|
9:05a |
S.U.N.
The event went really well. I got to attend good classes, I got some knitting done, Court was full of awesome and right things, and there was dinner with good friends. It reminded me what I like about the SCA. Congrats to all the deserving gentles who were recognized in court! I didn't get a chance to congratulate everyone or in some cases remember I wanted to congratulate them so everyone is awesome and I am sorry I didn't say so sooner. And I am totally in love with my boy. The wedding may not be perfect but at the end of the day getting married is the most important thing. And I wish there wasn't so much good stuff going to happen at Boar's Head. :( Just saying. I am happy it is happening. I just wish it wasn't then. |
chanlemur
|
5:43a |
Watch Me Write Furry Pabulum
As has been previously mentioned, I recently embarked upon a quest to kick-start my ability to write prose, which has been somewhat worn away of late due to a lot of Skin Horse scripting and, well, not much else. So, I blew a wad of inspirators all in one big fell swoop and wrote a reasonably lengthy chunk o' fan fiction set in Jessie Tracer's Thirteen Ribbons, a furry-heavy soft science fiction universe where shiny shiny brightly colored funny animals race each other for fabulous prizes at exotic venues all across the solar system. If that sounds like your Thing, and you are similarly not averse to said funny animals occasionally cussing and being naked for the textual camera, feel free to read... One In A Million...and watch me try and exorcise the demon of my writer's block the only way I know how. If, on the other hand, this does not sound like your thing, stand clear for a bit and hope, along with me, that this will help me get back on my feet. Current Mood:  tired |
shaenon
|
2:40a |
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lordaristar
|
2:15a |
The perfect breakfast, now and forever
I updated my OKC profile again. The new one is, as tradition demands, even weirder than the previous one. "I resolved that this would not be the end. I would have my breakfast, and the marshaled forces of heaven and hell themselves would not stop me." The old one, as usual, is behind the cut. ( I am quiet, careful, and hidden. ) Current Mood:  sleepy |
| Saturday, November 7th, 2009 |
frausensei
|
4:50p |
I will not mention depression in this post
The week is over. This week I found myself cooking more often - though not every night, because some nights we just ate leftovers. I was cooking more often because Erik has been feeling kind of bummed himself and didn't want to cook any of the nights this week. He says he'll do better next week. I managed to successfully use some of the CSA produce: Swiss chard in a quiche, and potatoes and leeks in potato leek soup (go figure). But I also failed to use up some things in the fridge before they went bad, and so had to throw them away today. I hate doing that - paying money for food and then missing my chance to use it. But it's better to throw it away than to get sick from eating it when it's gone bad, I suppose. I still don't look very pregnant, but more so than before. The secretary at school says it's because I'm having a girl; if it were a boy, I'd have more of a belly sticking out in front - she says. I've heard that before, but I don't know if it's an old wives' tale or not. In any case, baby has been making her presence felt in the form of movement. That's definitely an exciting development. Today I entered first quarter grades in the computer for my students. May the second quarter go better than the first! Tonight Erik and I are going out to dinner and a play with cczernia. Erik doesn't know if scout1222 is coming along or not. Current Mood:  blah |
|
goodday2dye
|
3:27p |
we have the tools
http://www.vashtisilks.com/2009/11/we-have-tools.html Well, one of my local dancer customers had contacted me about a 4 yard veil a bit ago and today I thought I better get that done going for her, as she needs it quite soon. My usual problem with 4 yarders is that I must hem them myself. Sometimes I even make them unhemmed to avoid this. :-D Okay, that's not quite correct. Some dancers have told me they prefer them unhemmed because they like max flutter in the ends. But doing that does worry me as they do tend to fray. (Every once in a while on dance boards, somebody comes out and says "Oh, if you have the right silk, they never fray!" Would sure like to know what the heck silk that is.) So I got out my sewing machine today to hem up a bunch of 4yarders to have on hand. Except... hey, I forgot! I have a new sewing machine! I got a lovely new Janome last year on clearance and have only gotten to use it for one or two projects. Now was my chance to try out its rolled-hem foot and see how it could do on thin 5mm silk. Result: very nice! For one thing it didn't try to suck the fine stuff down into the feed dogs at the beginning. No tension problems. Beautiful even tiny stitches. Unfortunately there's still the problem of correctly feeding the fabric into the rolled-hem foot, which requires some finesse. But overall I think this will be a great improvement... and the likelihood of my 4 yard veils being hemmed is going to increase dramatically. |
vanityfairy
|
10:16a |
Flemish CADD
Aaarrhh, now that I've finally found my sewing mojo, of course I had to go and get a case of costume attention deficit disorder...
I can't think of anything other than a 16th C Flemish working class gown. I've become totally absorbed in surfing working/middle class clothes just lately, there's something so pretty about the simplicity. And since I spent my teenage years living in Flanders, Belgium, I thought this might be a nice tribute.
We might be visiting some friends at an SCA event in spring, for which I have had this in mind for a while, still, I hadn't intended to get sewing on this until February at the earliest, but now I can't get it out of my head.
So I figured I'd make a little moodboard and maybe that'll ease my Flemish craving. I'm sure about the blue wool outer dress, and pretty sure about red linen kirtle, but I can't decide if I want blue sleeves or black ones to match the partlet (or add another colour altogether, apparently they were all about about mixing colours). Now, back to the 18th C! Hocus Focus! |  |
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| Friday, November 6th, 2009 |
replyhazy
|
4:59p |
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| Thursday, November 5th, 2009 | |
goodday2dye
|
11:51a |
Martha Stewart rocks
http://www.vashtisilks.com/2009/11/martha-stewart-rocks.html Here's why I say Martha Stewart rocks. She has a dyer on her show who does scrunch dyes. Don't get me wrong, I like shabd's stuff. But Martha apparently made scrunch dyeing sound like some ground-breaking new thing. It's not. Then on her website she gives "directions" for making a similar item yourself (here's an excerpt): 3. Prepare up to six different colored dyes for the gathered areas of the leggings. In each squeeze bottle, mix 2 teaspoons dye with 4 ounces water, then add 4 more ounces to fill.Then later: 6. Mix three more colors of dye in similar tones (for example: yellow, light yellow, dark yellow) for the background. One by one, completely saturate the leggings with these colors.Okay, so we have NINE colors of dye, and we have 8 ounces of dye for each. That's 72 oz of dye! And in this craft project, you are dyeing... one pair of cotton leggings.If I dye multiple tshirts, I calculate about 8 to 12 oz of liquid dye per shirt. A person following Martha's instructions is going to buy massively more dye (and probably squeeze bottles) than she needs to dye one pair of leggings. So you rock, Martha! Way to keep dye suppliers in business! |
replyhazy
|
10:20a |
today's experrrrrrrrriment
Dr. Heinrich: Und now class, ve haf today's experiment: rrreproduce the mixture in ze International Coffee Cafe Vienna BUT mit no sugar. For this trial we will refer to ze Top Secret Recipes version but we will alter it to one serving only mit no sugar. Also we shall disregard the idea of further grinding ze Kaffee into a powder. That is a question for another day. Trial mixture 1: 1 teaspoon instant coffee 1 teaspoon Splenda (4 packets) 2 teaspoons French Vanilla Coffeemate instant creamer shake of cinnamon (Dr. Henrich mixes this with hot water) Ze aroma, sehr gut. Ze cinnamon, she is pleasatn. Taste: the artificialness of the Splenda -- it is perhaps too much. For ze next trial, we shall try only 3 packets. Ja? Class dismissed, danke. |
madamekat
|
7:38a |
Shopping
An elegant friend has a well established online shop called The Art of Adornment. She sells her affordable handmade jewelry and accessories as well as pieces from other designers made especially for her store for both men and women. I recommend her shop for your holiday shopping (or anytime) needs! http://www.artofadornment.ca/catalog/index.php/cPath/1 Current Mood:  good |
princeofcairo
|
1:33a |
Crawling Toward Chaos; Inverting Lovecraft
* Surely, you've all been listening to the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast, right? Two Santa Monica film guys bust each other up and talk Lovecraft, story by story, in an engaging and often illuminating fashion. Plus, their narrative and incidental instincts are knife-keen, as befits film guys. If you haven't made a habit of listening, may I recommend the perfect jumping-on place? As those who know me may have suspected by now, it's the one featuring me as a guest: Episode 18, on the prose poems "Nyarlathotep" and "The Crawling Chaos." They've promised to have me back on, and I am eager to return. Plus, they regularly cite Tour de Lovecraft: the Tales during their show (though not during this episode), and they gave me a very nice plug for Cthulhu 101. So listen up! * In other, non-meta-plug news, mollpeartree and I watched The Ruins tonight, part of my "flood the Netflix zone" plan to make sure there were plenty of horror movie options for Halloween. It's a pretty terrific horror movie, which (like many great horror movies) makes the characters wreak at least as much horror on themselves as the horrors do. Like Lovecraft, it values verisimilitude (even moreso, given the aforementioned character-driven realism), and presents a horror of the Outside come up from Below. But interestingly, the swarthy natives who live Where Horror Dwells are the ones staunchly committed to fighting it; it's the white Americans (and German) who are decadent enough to let the Outside come In. 1 Add a nice eco-noia monster-thing and some excellent sound design and atmospherics (I'd like to see the same production team try and tackle "The Willows," come to think of it) and you got yourself a fine 21st-century weird tale. 1] There's elements of that formula in "Shadow Over Innsmouth," of course -- the Pacific Islanders slaughtered the Deep Ones, while white Obed Marsh married them -- and in "Haunter of the Dark," in which the non-WASP Italians and Poles keep the Haunter at bay while white-bread Robert Blake communes with it. But these stand out as exceptions, and "Shadow" is plenty racially fraught, for all that. |
| Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 |
replyhazy
|
6:30p |
|
aaron_pike
|
4:34p |
Music Man
A student suggested Cat Power, so I dialed her up on Pandora and started listening to her and her style. After about twenty minutes or so, I thought, "Let's throw in a bit of variety into the mix." What two bands' styles immediately leaped to mind to complement a mellow rock and R&B style? Why, Royal Crown Revue and Alien Sex Fiend, of course! There is something wrong with me. |
madamemodiste
|
4:38p |
Spill
Hee hee...there's nothing like knocking over your box of pins all over the floor for the first time in your new sewing room in your first house. The room has been initiated!! Current Mood: amused |
replyhazy
|
12:30p |
quiz for color
The following are all names of colors. The question: names of colors of what? (no googling) Kinky in Helsinki Shootout at the OK Coral Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees You Don't Know Jacques At Your Quebec & Call Dominant Jeans Call My Cell-ery Teal the Cows Come Home I'd love to have the job of the person who gets to think these up. Any guesses? ( and the answer is ) |
replyhazy
|
8:21a |
The Silver Mage is out!!
Okay, a small subset of my FL knows instantly why find this exciting. The fuller explanation: The Silver Mage is the LAST BOOK in Katherine Kerr's Deverry series. This FIFTEEN BOOK fantasy series started way back in 1986 and is, in my opinion, one of the best fantasy epics ever. Unlike LOTR, which is about epic events, the Deverry series is about the characters. Kerr builds a world in which souls are reincarnated over and over and which become linked with "chains of wyrd," so they tend to re-encounter each other. This is a world in which only particular people have talent for magic, and they can only control the power through hard work and study, so the books aren't teeming with casual wizards; the civilization is rather medieval in nature. I first got addicted to these books back in the mid-90s. Imagine finding a book you really love and then finding out it's got six sequels! Wow! So over the years as the books have appeared I've snapped them up for my library... in fact for the last four or so I've bought them in hardcover, something I rarely do any more. While the books aren't all equally good, the pacing and the way the plots spool out over the series is tremendously engaging. Several times over the years I've wished for Katherine Kerr to come to WisCon, but apparently she has some serious health problems which preclude traveling. This makes me sad as I'm sure people would pack a room at the con to hear her speak. But for now I must content myself with the email I just got from Amazon saying that my copy of the Silver Mage is on the way. I can hardly wait! |
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silly
