Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.

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Sunday, December 27th, 2009
norabombay	11:50p	Sad Truth After a week off of work, calling in sick because you were up all night reading Yuletide is not an acceptable execuse. Even if you were reading a Beyonce/Jay-Z body swap piece, with bonus Kanye. Sigh. Priorities. Why must I have them? Curse you paycheck. Things I would rank higher than going to work in the morning, if it were not for the fact I have to pay rent, and bills, and for the dog's orthodontics: -Leverage/SGA Crossovers -Leverage threesome fic with Alec/Eliot/Parker -White Collar threesome fic with Peter/Elizabeth/Neal -That awesome Ciera/Rhianna story -The rest of the stories for the SGA Big Bang -the entire Yuletide archive -The entire Due South Secret Santa -That episode of Cranford on the TIVO -everything. Alas, that paycheck thing is sort of a trump card here. (Comment on this)
Monday, December 28th, 2009
amireal	12:03a	Handy Dandy Twitter Post ( Hey look, I remembered I have twitter. ) (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 27th, 2009
ase	11:06p	Holiday Weekend Yesterday I experienced a five hour Lego fugue while watching The Hunt for Red October and Band of Brothers. Apparently I really am an eight year old boy at heart: this hypothesis would also explain why I think of makeup as something that happens to other people. Dad and Second Wife are enthusiastically packing in preparation for March, when Second Wife hits retirement and they relocate to Arizona. This has been coming since about 10 seconds after dad figured out his career track didn't include transfer back to the West: dad's decoration style since 1989 has been American Southwest In Exile. (Sometimes he mixes it up and adds some electric elements, leading to the adobe-and-computer-and-chili-pepper-lights themed home office.) So this weekend we ate lavishly, baked, sorted deep-storage boxes for moving / donation / trash, recounted horrible family stories about the dead and absent, and watched (for values that include extensive laptop time) Quantum of Solace. Second Wife thought it was dumb, which brought out my "yeah, Bond flick, duh" side. When I returned home with the final dregs of my childhood (see "moving and sorting") I thought, "I should try to reconstruct the Legos, take a couple of snapshots for posterity, then donate them somewhere." Five hours later I was thinking, "I should buy more Legos and we should make them an entertainment fixture in the living room! It would be a roommate bonding experience!" Regression is hilarious. Today I saw Avatar in 3D with samthereaderman (cathydalek bowed out with a head cold). It is a triumph of really spiffy special effects over an average-to-obnoxious screenplay. I saw it called Dances with Blue Cats and there is an unfortunate ring of truth to that. So this is likely to piss off people involved in disability activism, or actively engaged in the standing cultural appropriation / racism discussion, or anyone who can count the number of awesome women in the film vs the number of awesome women who die for the cause. Also, the sound effects and soundtrack did not win me over (the future has to sound right) and I think the laws of physics as established in the movie took a beating for the sake of the plot. So I am on the fence: I loved the visual effects, and my "the future is shiny" nerve center got a nice hit, but the screenplay didn't live up to the eye candy. Tomorrow I go to work. I plan to motivate myself with Sherlock Holmes some day after work. Do I need to see RDJ in theaters? Technically, no. Do I need a reason to be sunny and upbeat at work? Yes I do. Current Mood: awake (3 Comments |Comment on this)
norabombay	6:20p	I will be switching Car Insurance companies Look: I have good car insurance. Really good insurance. And I'm willing to pay for it. However: $785 for six months. For a 33 year old female driver, with one 8 year old Mazda is flat out insane. That's after the multiline and accident free discounts. And $150 more than I paid for the same six month period in July. I don't know what State Farm is smoking, but they are going to be getting calls. And I may well take my ass to AllState. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
iroshi	11:14a	Zodiac Signs Meme Stolen from zianuray RULES: 1. Pick your birth month. 2. Strike out anything that doesn't apply to you. 3. Bold the four that best apply to you. 4. Post birth month results here. 5. Copy to your own journal, with all twelve months under a cut. JULY: Fun to be with. Secretive. Difficult to fathom and to be understood. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Takes pride in oneself. Has reputation. Easily consoled. Honest. Concerned about people's feelings. Tactful. Friendly. Approachable. Emotional temperamental and unpredictable. Moody and easily hurt. Witty and sparkly. Not revengeful. Forgiving but never forgets. Dislikes nonsensical and unnecessary things. Guides others physically and mentally. Sensitive and forms impressions carefully. Caring and loving. Treats others equally. Strong sense of sympathy. Wary and sharp. Judges people through observations. Hardworking. No difficulties in studying. Loves to be alone. Always broods about the past and the old friends. Likes to be quiet. Homely person. Waits for friends. Never looks for friends. Not aggressive unless provoked. Prone to having stomach and dieting problems. Loves to be loved. Easily hurt but takes long to recover. ( Here's the rest ) Current Mood: silly (Comment on this)
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
norabombay	1:55p	Christmas of the Cars Things I have gotten for Christmas: 2 new car keys 1 GPS Unit 1 new car batter 1 tank of gas 4 cans of cincianatti chili 4 single serve bottles of liquor: rum, gin, vodka, and very very nice Woodfield Reserve Borbourn 2 old chairs (as in old. Not antique.) 1 ancient craft table 2 boxes of philo shells 1 can of PAM 1 box of spiced nuts In short: My parents are as always cleaning out the house- I'm going to be getting a fine selection of "things in my mother's freezer" in the morning when I start back to Chicago. Also, my car died again. Leading to this morning's fun $68 search for a newer, more powerful battery. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
ase	1:27p	Brown Sugar Cookies Brown Sugar Cookies From Cook's Illustrated When I made these, they came out of the oven fairly soft, but hardened so much they were only really edible as "dipping cookies" (dip in milk / drink of choice) the next day. If you think the only way to eat cookies is with milk, this is fantastic, because they do a great job absorbing liquid and softening into crumbly deliciousness, but if you like your cookies without milk these aren't as good. Note: before/after pictures not only not particularly to scale, they're probably not even on the same scale relative to each other. ( Recipe, with footnotes. ) Current Mood: working (2 Comments |Comment on this)
ratcreature	2:12p	yikes I am not actually in the "adverbs and adjectives always suck" camp of stylistic advice or anything, but wow, I just tried to read a story in which the overabundance of them threw me right out. I don't think I've ever had that happen before. Not recently anyway. I counted over twenty adjectives and adverbs in the first paragraph of six sentences with 130 words in total. And that was not including nouns being modified by other nouns in some sort of tacked on thesaurus, like if I wrote "the purple prose, this murky miasma of adjectives,..." I counted only the two adjectives, not the whole mess -- what do you call that kind of construction anyway? (The story didn't do it with alliterations though, I just did that in my example for humor, it was just two nouns, both modified with adjectives, saying the same thing, one after another.) That was even more jarring than the adjectives. The writer should just have settled on one of the two choices. (Comment on this)
amireal	12:02a	Handy Dandy Twitter Post ( Hey look, I remembered I have twitter. ) (Comment on this)
Friday, December 25th, 2009
norabombay	9:18p	Somebody May have WON Yultide 2009 The Cable & Deadpool Yuletide Special Deadpool and Cable, 10,000 words. Summary:...summary? Is that like a recap page? Huh. Okay. I'm Deadpool, the Merc with a Mouth. You may remember me from such comics as "Deadpool," "Deadpool," and "Cable & Deadpool," and from my brief appearance in Wolverine's first solo movie, which for now makes me Marvel's latest license to print money -- thank you, Ryan Reynolds. Anyway, now I'm in a Yuletide story, so join me and my buddy Nate Summers, aka Cable, for wacky hijinks and reality-hopping adventure. Say hi to the fangirls, Nate. "Wade? Who are you talking to?" Every year there is that one story? The story that effectively "wins" Yultide. This story is a contender. 10000% worth it if for no other reason than it manages to reference what is possibly the most notorious Yuletide Story of all TIME. It's funny. It's awesome. And you should read it now. (Comment on this)
norabombay	6:40p	Christmas As always, the bee's from Heifer were a huge hit with my family. My brother and I totally scored: GPS Units. This is because neither of us would ever voluntarily purchase one. Thus driving the whole world crazy as we drive about, pulling over to check google maps on occasion. The world should thank my parents, as we now have no excuse. Of course, I went to go install it in my car, and the battery on my car died. Such is the holidays. I've got to go at 7:30 in the morning to get a new one. Why? Because apparently there is a rush in Lexington, of people who want to get oil changes and stuff at 7 am. I don't even know. Happy Friday everyone! (Comment on this)
ase	6:43p	Double Chocolate Cookies ( Dad's Double Chocolate Cookies, the recipe ) Current Mood: accomplished (Comment on this)
mamadeb	3:14p	My Yuletide Story Blow Out - The American President Beautifully rendered character piece and a pleasure to read. (Comment on this)
mamadeb	2:04p	Yuletide question I can't get the collection page to load. How do I read the story some lovely person wrote for me? vETA: Managed to get to story and read it. Much thanks to the person who wrote it. I just didn't want hir to wait until after Shabbat to get any feedback. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
ase	1:31p	If I See One More Piece of Chocolate I May Lose My Lunch. Which Was Also Chocolate. My father has never heard of Celine Dion. "Celine Dion?", I said, over blueberry pancakes and all natural pomegranate juice. "Celine 'My Heart Will Go On' Dion? 'It's All Coming Back To Me Now'? Queen of the '80s and '90s power ballad?" Now dad's accusing me of making him look like a blithering idiot on the internet. He is pulling up a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young documentary on the HD as an example of "real music". Apparently, liking CSNY is proof you are not an idiot. This would be a lot more convincing if he weren't reminiscing about what he got up to when he saw CSNY in '74; also if I hadn't seen people try to use Coldplay and the Decemberists as evidence against the same charges. Bless you, dad: 30 years is the only thing separating you from the hipsters. Next up: double-chocolate cookies in the oven. Dad and I agree the recipe is suspect, but that's okay: I know where to find a triple-ginger cookie recipe for backup desert. Current Mood: mellow (Comment on this)
fairestcat	3:35a	Yuletide Redux - My Awesome, Awesome Stories I haven't commented on my stories yet, but I have read them all (even though I'm tired and meant to be in bed at least an hour ago) and they are, in fact, ALL just incredibly awesome. THANK YOU ALL MY WRITERS. I am still just boggled by the generosity I received this Yuletide and by how marvelous all your stories are. My stories by fandom: Breakfast at Tiffany's - This was the request I was absolutely the most nervous about. I asked for fic about Mr. Yunioshi, Holly Golightly's upstairs neighbor, played in the movie by Mickey Rooney in one of the most appalingly racist performances I've ever seen on film. I shouldn't have been nervous, the two stories I received for him are both just perfect. Such A Lot Mr. Yunioshi's Photographs Two backstories for Mr. Yunioshi, each perfect and entirely different from the other. I love how both writers managed to really ground the stories in the time-period Roman Holiday - Quite possibly my favorite movie of all time. Wanting this prompt was the deciding point in my signing up for Yuletide. One Day would still rejoice I asked for future-fic within the context of the social upheaval in the decades following when the movie is set, and both my writers absolutely delivered. Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown - I was convinced I wouldn't be getting any fic for this prompt. I nominated it, was the only requester, and I think exactly two people offered to write it in their sign-ups. Like Graffiti On The Walls Of The Heartland Life Is Calling Oh, Gloria. I love, love, love this character so much and both these stories are just wonderful takes on her, fleshing out the snatches of information we hear about her in the songs. This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. Please comment there using OpenID. reply to post. view comments</
fairestcat	2:45a	OMG Yuletide!!!! I did in fact get my yuletide story in on time, despite writers block issues and computer troubles. And then of course, I decided that the entire second half of the story was wrong and completely rewrote half the fic yesterday morning (thank god for self-editing). And the archive is now live and I got SIX stories, which is OMG AWESOME. Five full-length stories and one which I thought was a Yuletide Madness treat, but according to comments in yuletide_admin and [Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<a [...] smaller;">') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] I did in fact get my yuletide story in on time, despite writers block issues and computer troubles. And then of course, I decided that the entire second half of the story was wrong and completely rewrote half the fic yesterday morning (thank god for self-editing). And the archive is now live and I got SIX stories, which is OMG AWESOME. Five full-length stories and one which I thought was a Yuletide Madness treat, but according to comments in <lj user="yuletide_admin"> and <a href="http://www.isityuletideyet.com/>www.isityuletideyet.com</a> those haven't gone live yet. Even better, my six stories are split evenly between three of my requests - two each for Breakfast at Tiffany's, Roman Holiday and Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown. Which were also the fandoms I was most uncertain about getting stories for, since I believe I was the only requester for Breakfast at Tiffany's and the Green Day album and one of two for Roman Holiday. I'm only just reading my stories now, but I want to say and advanced OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH to all my writers. This is my first Yuletide and I am absolutely overwhelmed by how awesome it has been. <span style="font-size: smaller;">This entry was originally posted at <a href = "http://fairestcat.dreamwidth.org/519197.html">Dreamwidth</a>. Please comment there using OpenID. <a href = "http://fairestcat.dreamwidth.org/519197.html?mode=reply">reply to post</a>. <a href = "http://fairestcat.dreamwidth.org/519197.html#comments">view <img src="http://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=fairestcat&ditemid=519197" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments</a></
amireal	12:04a	Handy Dandy Twitter Post ( Hey look, I remembered I have twitter. ) (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
ase	10:42p	At the Homestead I got out of work on time today. I still haven't recovered from the shock. However, Chinese buffet with dad and Second Wife helped a lot. It's good to see dad, and it's great to veg out and mooch delicious food (tomorrow may be Experiments With Baking day), but I am mildly creeped out because there are no bookcases in the house. I finished one book on the metro, so I am down to a collection of best fantasy short stories of 2006. And the internet, of course. Send help. Send nonfiction. Send my bookcases. I go home Saturday to my to-do list. To those who celebrate, have a happy Christmas Eve, and a merry Christmas. Everyone else, enjoy your Friday. Current Mood: relaxed (Comment on this)
norabombay	7:28a	YIPPIE! The Senate just gave me a lovely Christmas present: They passed the health care bill. It's not perfect. Indeed it's not nearly socialist enough. However: It's a good start. And as for the Senators who voted against it? Screw you guys. I'm partisan. And I'm keeping score. I have a long memory, and I will not forget. Insert Eric Cartman Voice, dance of glee. (16 Comments |Comment on this)
ratcreature	1:40p	Merry Christmas! I haven't drawn any Christmas cards this year, but it's been a month since I last posted photos of my rats looking adorable, so I thought I'd use them for cute and happy content. And that's what online journals are there for after all, inflicting photos of your pets on the world at large. :) ( rat pictures ) (8 Comments |Comment on this)
amireal	12:04a	Handy Dandy Twitter Post ( Hey look, I remembered I have twitter. ) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
norabombay	10:35p	Star Trek Watched Star Trek with my Dad & Brother (Mom fell asleep early on). Internets, you have NO idea how much I womanfully restrained myself. NO IDEA. Because there are people on this earth- even people who live in SAN FRANCISCO! who do not see that Star Trek is the story of the immortal love of Spock and Kirk. It was killing me. Especially when my brother said that what a scene needed was a traditional towel slap to the ass. Yes. And on the internets I'm certain that it exists with that. Which is exactly what I said. I think next time I see this film, it should be in a crowd of slashers, and we should all have little signs, that say things like: Teh Gay! Kiss Him! Kiss Her! Etc. Imagine how useful they would be at conventions... PS: My parent's computer network is named "Lance". I know full well why it is named what it is named, but it makes me imagine that my connection to the world is entirely via Lance Bass. Lance Bass? I bet he ships Kirk/Spock. (Comment on this)
amireal	8:18p	Signal boost perclexed's living space has been lost to a fire and can't be reclaimed for upwards of 9 months. She's stuck with little to her name and nowhere to go. If you were looking for someplace to give a little or just have a little extra to give, help pay a little kindness foward. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
iroshi	12:00p	Winter Wonderland! As I posted earlier on twitter, but didn't have the time for a full post here until lunch, it is now official: we have a Winter Storm Watch from the National Weather Service for tomorrow afternoon through evening. Tomorrow morning's rain is supposed to transition to snow as the cold front comes through over the course of the day, and an accumulation of 4 to 8 inches is expected. The actual wording of the warning states, "4 TO 8 INCHES OF SNOW ACCUMULATION IS EXPECTED FROM THURSDAY MORNING THROUGH LATE THURSDAY NIGHT. NORTHWEST WINDS WILL GUST NEAR 35 MPH... POTENTIALLY CAUSING NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS." So yeah, we'll have snow on the ground for Christmas morning. WOOT! I haven't had that since I lived in Missouri. (Yes, it snowed on occasion even in Dallas, but never earlier than January.) Current Mood: chipper (7 Comments |Comment on this)

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