Had a very fun but tiring weekend.  Saw a TON of people I haven't seen in decades. I mean that.  And saw some absolutely amazing costumes. The Dealer's Room was extremely dangerous- however as I was broke, it wasn't too hard to avoid buying anything.  Eventually I want to get a new corset from the fabulous corsetier that was selling at the con, but must save up $$$ for that. They have a great proprietary fabric in several shades which features gears, perfect for your steampunk needs. :)

Two pix, one of me in my new 'rustic' steampunk:



Not entirely happy with the color scheme. In person the corset looks decidedly less yellow- it's a cross-dyed blue and gold- kind of iridescent but it photographs yellow. Bleah.  The gray over-skirt doesn't look as good with the rest of the outfit as I had hoped, so I will probably make a new one in brown. Also, must do another holster as the one from my dressy steampunk is wayy too bright for this outfit.

The other photo is Kham as Mab, the Winter Queen from Jim Butcher's 'Dresden Files' novels.  This costume came out GORGEOUS!  I swear she got stopped every five minutes for pix. 



This photo's a professional one done by an outfit called "FantaScenes" who take green-screen photos and then insert the appropriate background of your choice. The color of the dress is a bit dark in the picture, you can't really tell what a fantastic royal purple it is. Check out their Facebook for a few more photos from the Con, including the absolutely AMAZING Darth Maul Cyborg and the gorgeous Moondragon.

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I should have posted about this before- in case any of you will be there.  This weekend is Costume Con 31 and since it's in Denver this year, I couldn't not go.  I've spent the last several weeks working on a new Steampunk costume, a more 'rustic' one that I can wear several different ways for variety.  It involved making about 8 yards of 1.5" pleated trim for the skirt, which just about killed me, but it turned out really well.  I'm also re-wearing an old Lwaxana Troi costume which I wore at the *last* Costume Con I attended- which was CC10 waaay back in 1992.   I have also been helping the Kham with some hand sewing (trim) on a gorgeous Queen Mab from Jim Butcher's "The Dresden Files" novels. It may be the single most expensive costume we've ever made - high quality royal purple velvet, iridescent embroidered & beaded trim, iridescent chiffon lining (for the sleeves), and Swarovski crystals  (the fabric and trim were bought at the amazing Allyns Bridal & Millinery in Denver) I'll try to get some pix of us.


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Oh, wow. Patrick and Ian on Broadway. Man, I would LOVE to see that!!
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So, I missed the 11th of March!! Argh. Stupid Norovirus. Grrr.

I'm gonna post it anyway.

They have called this day the Eleventh of March! And whomsoever of you gets through this day, unless you are shot in the head or somehow slain, you will stand at tiptoe when e'er you hear the name again, and you will get excited at the name March the Eleventh!

We happy few, we few, we band of brothers. Our names will be as like household names. And those who are not here, be they sleeping or doing something else, they will feel themselves... sort of crappy. Because they are not here to... to join the fight, on this day, the Eleventh of March! You can also view this post on http://kelliem.dreamwidth.org/239238.html

It's time for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count!

February 15-18

The GBBC is a cool citizen-science effort where tens of thousands of bird watchers from around the world get outside (or even just look out their windows!) and start counting the birds in their communities to help inform scientists and conservationists on how best to protect bird populations. It takes as little as 15 minutes, or you can count all weekend long. And it's fun. If you're unsure about identifying birds, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology has a fabulous online reference site. In past years the counters were limited to North America but I believe this year they have gone global.

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Hee!

(Ok, why is it that it works fine when I view it on my own journal but it looks like a different video entirely is embedded when I look at it on my flist?) It's this: http://youtu.be/fAVeAjPzGxE

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So, anyone got an AO3 invite going wanting? I think that's how it works, anyway... not sure. I'm so hopelessly behind the times on everything!

eta: got one, thanks!!

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So, I was watching a favorite movie over the holiday weekend, and realized something. These two fellows bear a rather uncanny resemblance to one another:



I suspect most of you can ID Mr. On-The-Right. How many of you can tell me who
Mr. On-The-Left is?

Hint 1: He's Canadian!
Hint 2: He starred in a very famous film which was shown on US network TV last weekend.

If you still have no idea, look behind the cut for another separated-at-birth photo of these two, showing Mr. On The Left in a scene from that very famous movie. :)
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Happy solstice to my fellow pagans.  :)

And it's 12/21/12 and we're all still here!  Well, I suppose it's too soon to assume, it's not over yet.

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This is me with my fingers in my ears singing LA LA LA at the top of my lungs to drown out the incessant media coverage/speculation about the election. At this point, I don't want to know anything about it until it's settled. I just can't handle the stress.

So, in the meantime have something pretty to look at - this handsome bird is a Stellar's Jay (Rocky Mountain form).

Just this weekend a pair of Stellars made themselves at home in my yard- it's the first time I have seen any in my yard. They usually prefer to live higher up on the slopes. I guess this year's drought and fires have taken their toll on the food supplies in their normal range- which probably also accounts for my recent sighting of a Red-naped Sapsucker, also not a usual denizen of my area.  I'm happy to have them, though!  As opposed to the bear. ;'D
A few more Stellars pix are available on my Flickr stream.

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...to my fellow pagans, and Happy Halloween to the non-pagans. :) My favorite sort-of-holiday!

As usual I wore my Steampunk to work - it's the one reliable costume I have at this point. I'm working on a more industrial-looking (and more comfortable!) Steampunk so I have some variation but didn't get it done in time for this year. I did change out the corset this year for a slightly different look. ( pic behind cutCollapse )

Hope all you east-coast folks are safe.

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Actually, I got my ballot on the 15th and send it back on the 17th.  I checked, and it was received the 19th.  Vote by mail rocks!
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I totally meant to mention that shrewreader has been doing some very fun Avengers stuff, both in her regular and her fic journal, shrewreadings .  Go read and enjoy!

And here's a screengrab play-by-play of the IM3 trailer released yesterday.

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I have an Avengers BigBang fic rec for those of you who enjoy Steve/Tony.  Though most of the fic is more of a teamfic, it does have some STony in it.

Containment by D (come_feed_the_rain)

Caveat: This was written by a friend and I did a minor amount of beta on it so I may be a tad prejudiced, but I think it's excellent!

eta:  and as long as we're talking about things Marvel, the first Iron Man 3 trailer has been released.  Wow. (ganked from bethbethbeth )

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I am not a summer person.  I hate being hot, and this summer has been that and then some!  So it is with great relief I observe the shortening days, cooler temperatures, and the gorgeous fall colors.  There's a quality to the light this time of year that feels magical, especially around dusk.  Maybe it's because I have a fall birthday, but this time of year always makes me feel-- connected-- to the earth in the way I don't normally.  I feel more alive.  

I took a few photos this weekend, some of a rare visitor to my yard (a melanistic fox squirrel, which I've never seen before!), others are just prettiness.  Look behind the cut to see them.
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We had some excitement this morning! About a quarter of four we were woken up by loud banging coming from outside- I figured out it was something trying to get into our compost bin (which we store next to the garage behind our fence).  It was loud enough to wake up both Kham (the kidunit) and I, and we wondered if it might be a bear, since the raccoons aren't usually that loud, but since there are no windows on that side of the house we couldn't tell. About a minute after we wondered that, we started hearing noise out back, so Kham went downstairs and turned on the back porch light to find... yep.   It was a bear all right!

I could see it from upstairs once she turned the light on. It wasn't a big bear, maybe about the size of a large Newfoundland dog, but big enough to want to avoid!

It tore down my bird-feeder along with the hanger it was on which was screwed into some decorative trim on the wall above the sliding glass doors. Fortunately it doesn't seem to have really damaged the feeder, though it did mess up the trim. I hadn't bothered to bring it in, since the birds pretty much empty it by evening, but I guess I will have to start doing so!

It also knocked down my two hummingbird feeders which I was leaving up in case of any stragglers, and smushed the little decorative wire fence we have separating the flower garden from the lawn. It then went back up on the porch and Kham banged on the door to scare it off. It ran away and scrabbled noisily over the fence.  This morning I discovered that the fence seems to have suffered a bit of damage. I guess it's not meant to have bears climbing it!

Unfortunately it was much too dark for photos of the actual bear, so all I have are pix of the damage taken this morning after the bear was long gone.
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Originally posted by silme at Reproductive Rights

As seen at silme : Bold the ones you have and use at least once a year, italicize the ones you have and don't use, strike through the ones you had but got rid of.

I wonder how many pasta machines, breadmakers, juicers (just the manual kind), blenders, deep fat fryers, egg boilers, melon ballers, sandwich makers, pastry brushes, cheese boards, cheese knives, electric woks, salad spinners, griddle pans, jam funnels, meat thermometers, filleting knives, egg poachers, cake stands, garlic crushers (though I usually chop garlic by hand), martini glasses, tea strainers, bamboo steamers, pizza stones, coffee grinders, milk frothers, piping bags, banana stands, fluted pastry wheels, tagine dishes, conical strainers, rice cookers, steam cookers, pressure cookers, slow cookers, spaetzle makers, cookie presses, gravy strainers, double boilers, sukiyaki stoves, ice cream makers (I only recently got the ice-cream maker and haven't had a chance to use it yet), fondue sets, healthy-grills, home smokers, tempura sets, tortilla presses, electric whisks, cherry stoners, sugar thermometers, food processors,bacon presses, bacon slicers, mouli mills, cake testers, pestle-and-mortars, and sets of kebab skewers languish dustily at the back of the nation's cupboards.

I do a lot of cooking and baking, but I seem to have absorbed Alton Brown's philosophy that "UNITASKERS=BAD!" so I don't have a lot of specialized kitchen items. Plus my kitchen is woefully lacking in storage space so even if I wanted a bunch of specialized kitchen items I wouldn't have anywhere to put them. If I ever won the lottery (unlikely, as that would mean I had to actually buy lottery tickets) I would have a house built with a kitchen designed to MY specifications, which would include a pantry of TARDIS-like proportions! 

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It's International Book Week. The rules: Grab the closest book to you, turn to page 52, post the 5th sentence as your status. Don't mention the title. Copy the rules as part of your post.


(This could be seen as the 6th sentence, I didn't count the one at the top of the page that's split between pages 51 and 52.)

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Aha! Found a new word for my "words frequently mixed up in fanfic" list. It's not exactly a homophone but it's kind of a fake visual one. We need a fancy word for that. Pseudohomooptic? Aaaanyways, here it is:

Rouge =/= Rogue.
Rouge is an old-fashioned word for a cosmetic used to make the cheeks or lips red. Or a reddish powder, chiefly ferric oxide, used to polish metals or glass.
A Rogue is a scoundrel or a scamp. Or a vagabond. Or a vicious and solitary animal. Or an X-Man (X-Woman?). ;D

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Anyone else watching Copper?  It's interesting so far.  The historical details seem good (apart from a couple of costuming nitpicks*) and doesn't shy away from the seedy underbelly of the times.  Racism, violence, child and adult prostitution, classism, poverty... it's all there.  Excellent acting as well.  I somehow guessed that it was shot in Toronto even before I looked it up on the IMDB to check.  I think it was a specific church that made me think that- well, that and the fact that I recognize some of the 40 Canadian actors in bit roles, including David Keeley and Kyle Schmid (Blood Ties). I'll definitely keep watching.  It's hard trying to figure out who the good guys and bad guys are because there's a lot of ... ambiguity.  I do wish that the actors playing Kevin Corcoran and his sidekick Francis Maguire didn't look/weren't styled so much alike though. I keep getting them mixed up.

*Costuming nitpicks: A) They need to use more petticoats.  One should not be able to see the outline of the hoops from a hoop skirt through a woman's outer skirt. B) I could be wrong about this but don't think they made a lot of men's coats in leather in those days. Not frock-coat style coats anyway.  I had a similar nitpick with Lord Blackwood's leather greatcoat in the first RDJ Sherlock movie.

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Do any of you who are Americans say 'meant to' instead of 'supposed to' (as in "You were meant to be at work" rather than "You were supposed to be at work.") and if so, what part of the country are you from? I'm just curious because I keep running across the phrase in Avengers fanfic and every time I read it I hear the phrase in a suspension-of-disbelief-breaking British accent in my head. I've run across a quite a few Avengers fic which badly needed US-picking (just as I've read a lot of Sherlock stories that really needed Brit-picking) but 'meant to' keeps appearing in stories which don't otherwise appear to need it so I am wondering if there are places in the US where that's common usage. 

Also, as long as I'm here- I have a sort of mini-rant: when did the word "important" lose it's first "T"?  Lately it seems like about 90% of the time I hear it pronounced on (US) TV, the person saying it says "impor'ant" not "imporTant". It drives me nucking futz.

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Finally, something not-boring to post about!  Went to see Dead Can Dance on Sunday night at the Buell Theater in Denver with the kidunit and a friend.  We got great seats, six rows back on the right side of the theater.  We had a fantastic view and the acoustics were great.  The concert was absolutely amazing.  A percussionist named David Kuckhermann opened for them (he's actually part of DCD's backup band), playing an intriguing new instrument called a 'hang' which was apparently invented only about 12 years ago.  It looks a lot like a flying saucer and sounds a bit like a cross between a steel drum and a gamelan. Actually he played three of them, each tuned differently, and also  proceeded to do absolutely astonishing things with a tambourine.  It was a great set and the audience was quiet and respectful during each piece and enthusiastic afterward, which you rarely see during an opening act.

Once he was finished there was a bit of a delay while all the people out getting drinks at the bar were herded into the theater and then the lights went down and DCD came out.  I was slightly amused by the fact that the women - Lisa Gerrard and the female keyboardist/backup singer - were both wearing formal black velvet dresses, Lisa with a golden satin stole/cape over hers. All the men were in careless casual - tees, untucked button-downs, cargo pants- it looked kind of like they were from two completely different bands. ;D   But once the concert started we forgot about everything but the sound. 

Brendan Parry's voice has really matured, and his range in startling.  At one point when Lisa was singing I thought the other woman was doing a descant in a high alto range, then I realized to my shock that it was Brendan!  He has a sort of warm, lazy, sliding quality to his singing that draws you in. Lisa Gerrard has one of the most powerful voices I have ever heard. I think she could use her voice as a weapon if she needed to!  It just soars, but not in a floaty, delicate way - more like a bird of prey. They performed a very well balanced mix of older works and songs from their new album, Anastasis (which they are offering streaming for free in full at http://deadcandance.com/ along with a free download of one of the songs) and came back for THREE encores!  They played for a solid two hours, with no formal intermission.  I did see Brendan sipping from a thermal mug regularly, and Lisa slipped offstage a few times, probably for something throat-soothing.  Our altitude and dry climate are very hard on the vocal cords.

The variety in the audience was interesting: everything from leftover new-agers like myself, aging hippies, some Goths, a few folks who looked like they walked off the Leave it to Beaver set, hipster-looking 30-somethings, and a decent scattering of younger enthusiasts many of whom, I suspect, came to DCD through their parents like my kidunit.  Like the band, there were folks in semi-formal wear and others in tees and Birkenstocks.  For the most part the audience was great, apart from one drunk girl who kept yelling unintelligible things and "We love you" and a drunk guy who kept screaming that everyone should get up and dance - unfortunately the Buell's not a really danceable venue. Oh, and there seemed to be a bull moose somewhere in the audience- at least that's what he sounded like. Fortunately they mostly restricted their inappropriate noises to the pauses between songs. The band took it all with good humor.

It was an amazing night, and if they're coming to a venue in your town on their current world tour and you like their nearly-indescribable (ambient/gothic/world/folk/tribal/celtic/gregorian/middle-eastern/african?) music I highly recommend you see them!
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Found this story on the HuffingtonPost.com so I assume they did their homework and it's legit.  I have to wait until payday to donate, but I'm definitely going to.  It's about time Tesla got the recognition he deserves! :D

If you don't want to read the whole story, here's the gist of it:
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I keep saying I'm going to post more and then failing miserably to do so. I guess it's mostly because I'm just Ms. Boring McYawnypants these days, as I said to shayheyred the other day. I just don't seem to have much interesting to say. However, this video got mentioned briefly on NPR this morning and I had to go look it up when I got to work and I was very amused by it, so I figured I'd share:



Also, just to share one fannish thing- I just watched the Teen Wolf season 2 finale last night (slightly time delayed as I was doing other things on Monday evening), and I gotta say, that show has turned out to be one of the better things on TV. For something which, when I first tuned in, I figured would be lame at best, it's really amazingly well plotted and acted. Not to mention it really brings the pretty, even if I do feel a bit pervy since I could probably be the *grandmother* of some of those people!

I did feel like they rushed the finale a bit- it probably should have been two episodes because some things that happened were never really explained (I suspect they got cut for time) but over all, this season has been awesome. I love that the teens really act like teens and some of the parent/kid relationships on the show are great. And I have to give a shout out to my favorite character, Stiles, who always has the best lines. I understand that the actor who plays him, Dylan O'Brien, adlibs some of his lines, so go him! Also, props to the series for having an openly gay jock character, and for none of the other characters even batting an eye. Even when they ended up at a gay bar this season and some of the characters were getting hit on, they didn't really play it for laughs or have the characters recoil in horror. They just went with it. :D

My one problem with the finale (and presumably the set up for next season's Big Bad) was the ( cut for spoilerCollapse ) But I'll wait and see how it plays out next season. I understand that they've got an 24 episode 3rd season pickup (they've been doing 12 eps/season) and that the show is moving from filming in Georgia to LA. I hope that doesn't negatively affect its tone or writing!

PS: Does anyone on DW know why when I am reading my DW reading list half the youtube embeds posted all show the same thing, rather than whatever they are supposed to show? (For instance, even on this post, on my DW reading list instead of the NASA parody embed it shows one of some gopher at a Russian rocket launch facility.  ALL the embeds on my DW reading list are currently showing that dang gopher.)

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To: Network TV Execs
Re: Season Finales

I point you to Criminal Minds and suggest you all watch this season's finale and take a lesson.  Now that is how you do a great season finale. 

You may notice that it was not a cliffhanger.

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Just FYI, yesterday I disabled non-registered user commenting on my DW account but today thanks to bethbethbeth  I found a different way to discourage spammers so I've reenabled it, anons just have to use CAPTCHA if they want to comment.

What follows is Adventures in Elder Care with Bonus Food Poisoning, and it's long and whiny so I am cut-tagging it so those who don't want to read it don't have to.  ( Feeling masochistic? Read more!Collapse )

However, I am feeling quite a lot better now and am planning to go with Kham and one of his friends to see Avengers tomorrow after first having a DVD mini-Marathon of both Iron Man films, Thor and Captain America.  I am SOOOO looking forward to that.  Hot men on screen!  Stuff blowing up!! Snarking!  Rampant homoeroticism!! Women kicking butt!  Good guys (in the non-gendered sense) saving the world!  That's exactly what I need right now.  And I promise I will post about the movie because I really must post something other than bitching once in a while!
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Not that I have much to say very often, but I just want to let y'all know that I have disabled commenting on my DW account from anonymous users due to being pornspammed.

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Electronic Arts (EA) -- one of the largest video game makers in the world - is the target of a hateful boycott campaign. Why? Because they approved a gay romance story in one of their partner BioWare's most popular games: Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Anti-gay letters are flooding Electronic Arts headquarters, calling for a boycott. Without our help the company, its staff and more than 100 million registered players could be pushed to the dark side if the forces of hate get the last word.

Master Yoda wants to make sure Electronic Arts knows anti-gay haters don't win the game. Add your name to Yoda's letter urging the company to stay away from the dark side. Yoda himself will deliver the message directly to the headquarters of Electronics Arts in Redwood City, California. Petition Here

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Saturday I was talking with a friend about some of the more... unusual slash pairings and stories I've read and I mentioned a movieverse Tony Stark/Jarvis-Armor story I read, and she wanted to see it. I know I originally found the story linked on a friend's LJ but I can't remember whose it was, and it was probably a few years ago, I think before Iron Man II came out. Does this ring a bell for any of you? (I don't have an Iron Man icon so Astroboy will have to do...)

eta: Found thanks to crimsonquills! You can also view this post on http://kelliem.dreamwidth.org/232816.html

So I was on my way to work this morning, and is often the case, got stuck behind the schoolbus that goes through our neighborhood. I think it's an elementary school bus, as the one that picks up the older kids goes by earlier than the one that gets the younger kids. As I sat there idling, waiting for the kids to board, I suddenly noticed that one of them looked a tad odd. At first I thought it was just a trick of the eye or something but I kept looking and it didn't change. One of the kids had a wolf's head. Seriously. A complete, rather well done prosthetic wolf's head. At least, I assume it was a prosthetic and werewolves aren't riding the bus to elementary school these days. Although, that would be pretty cool. ;D

Watched the premiere of 'Awake' last night. I had thought the premise didn't sound very interesting but I love Jason Isaacs so I gave it a shot anyway and was surprised how much I liked it. Very good acting all around (including an almost unrecognizable Wilmer Valderrama). I will definitely keep watching it.  Also, just for the record, Jason Isaacs has amazing eyes.

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Man, I haven't posted in forever- seems like I rarely have anything interesting to say! But I did have to acknowledge the passing of one of my very earliest crushes: Davy Jones, gone at 66. Far too young!

All the icons of my youth are disappearing! Wah!
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Last weekend the kidunit and I were at PetSmart and saw a kitty drinking fountain that was a new design, very slim, and quite inexpensive.  We'd always wanted to get one for the cats but were stymied by the fact that all the ones we'd seen were all too big to fit in the space where they like their water dish (in the bathroom between the toilet and the wall, yes, we've tried moving it other places and they don't like it), but this one was a lot narrower and we figured it would fit, so we bought one, took it home, and it fit in the space just fine and once hooked up was a lot quieter than we'd thought it would be, so yay!

Now, both our boys are complete wusses.  They freak out at the slightest change to their environment (OMG a piece of paper!  OMG a wrinkle in the bedspread! OMG your PANTS!!  OMG the pizza guy!!!) so needless to say they were a bit weirded out by the fountain at first.  But after some encouragement they both were eventually persuaded to drink from it and we thought all was set.  Oddly, Riku (the gray one in my icon) who's normally the more skittish of the two was the first to accept the new dish.  Probably because he likes to drink out of faucets so running water was a Good Thing. Sora on the other hand was Very Suspicious of this new device, no doubt some sort of Fiendish Human Plot.  He took to sitting on the toilet staring down at the fountain like this:

(You can just barely see the edge of the fountain down on the floor between the toilet and the furnace grate. And yes our bathroom is a hideous shade of turquoise.)

You may notice in the above pic that we have a covered toilet-paper dispenser. This is because when he was a kitten, Sora used to play with the TP, unrolling it and shredding it so we installed the covered dispensers in self-defense.  Once he outgrew his fixation with TP, we got a little... lax... about putting the cover down (see below).  You see where this is going, right? 


We went to bed that evening thinking all was hunky dory, because both kitties had, if reluctantly, drunk out of the new fountain.  When I woke up the next morning I could hear the fountain making a lot more noise than it had been the night before.  I just figured it was low on water, and got up to go fill it.  And proceeded to step into a huge puddle. ARGH!!!!

Apparently one of us had left the TP cover up, and to express his displeasure with this new Infernal Device, Sora unrolled about half the roll into the fountain which made it overflow and clog.  The floor was wet, the bathroom rug was soaked, it was a complete mess.  I cleaned it all up, dug the wet TP out of the fountain, discovered he hadn't actually managed to break it, and reinstalled it.  Needless to say, since then we have been very careful not to leave the cover up on the TP.  Sora still spends quite a lot of time lurking on the toilet seat staring at it, but he is actually drinking out of the fountain regularly now, so we have hopes he'll eventually stop trying to destroy it.  All I can say is it's a good thing he doesn't have opposable thumbs. ;D

(Sora, grumpily getting a drink from the new fountain.)





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Sort of relative to my Eureka post from earlier this week, this little bit from NPR TV blogger Linda Holmes actually had me cackling out loud. No, I don't have permission to copy it here but since I am linking and crediting, hopefully she won't be too mad. ;D

Twenty Humble Suggestions For New Cable Network Slogans
by Linda Holmes

MTV: Hurry Up, Human Cloning! We've Got Plenty Of Snooki's DNA

TLC: Next To These Appalling Moms, That Time You Accidentally Dropped Your Baby Isn't Really That Big A Deal

Lifetime: Still Trying To Fill The Gap Left By Hours Of 'Golden Girls' Reruns

USA: Ha Ha, We Can Make Successful New Hourlong Dramas And You Can't

Bravo: Fighting The Real Enemy, Which Is Horrible Tiny Rich Women With Tans

Spike: We Really Show A LOT Of Wrestling

History: Patriotism, Gun Safety, And Pawn Shops, Pawn Shops, Pawn Shops!

A&E: Two Of The Letters In 'Hoarders'

Food Network: GRILL STUFF LOUD FAST CHEAP RIGHT HERE BOOM SMACKAROONIE CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT

OWN: We're Not Here To Tell Anybody How To Live. Psych, We Totally Are

TruTV: The Highest Percentage Of Squad Car Dashboard Footage Anywhere On Television

FX: So Gritty It Will Polish Your Teeth

WeTV: If We Don't Have It And It's About Absolutely Horrible People Getting Married, You Don't Need It

Animal Planet: We Still Can't Believe We Didn't Think Of Shark Week

SyFy: We Specialize In Shows You Will Hate Us For Canceling

Hallmark: Everything You Need To Know About The World You Wish You Lived In

Oxygen: We Have More Yellow Than That Coldplay Song 'Yellow'

HGTV: Resent Your Surroundings 24 Hours A Day

BBC America: We've Got Swoony Accents. You've Got Anglophilia.

TNT: We Aren't The Ones Who Watched 'Franklin & Bash,' People
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I was just perusing NPR's newly-posted list of the Top 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books and while I have plenty of quibbles (Connie Willis all the way down at 97??) one of my top ones is the presence of "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" at #63 - or frankly, on the list at all. Seriously, that was one of very few books I ever just gave up on. I found it slow, hyper-stylized, and mind-numbingly boring. Clearly, I missed something. Check out Glen Weldon's take on the list, he has some interesting things to say.

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So I heard last week that SyFy was going to give Eureka a shortened 6th season. Then yesterday they took it back and said nope, no 6th season, it ends at 5. Today, there's new news, apparently they get ONE episode extra, to 'wrap up.' One episode. Damn you cheapass SyFy execs.

I'm going to miss that show. Thank goodness there are still a few eps for next year.

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It's National Book Week. The rules: Grab the closest book to you. Go to page 56. Copy the 5th sentence as your status. Don't mention the book. Post these rules as part of your post.

"Beside me, the old woman looked up and smiled; and the executive with the briefcase gazed at me unblinking, and the drunk shifted on his seat and awoke, and his eyes were bright and knowing as he watched me."

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I haven't spammed in a while, so I guess it's time. Found these links on a couple of people's posts, and being a logophile, had to follow!

Test your vocabulary: http://testyourvocab.com/

I scored 42,200 words

And I knew 27 of their 34 "hardest words", and just learned a bunch more since of course I clicked on the definitions of the ones I didn't know previously!

Fun test! Yes, I know, I have a strange definition of fun. ;D

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Doesn't it just figure that the US mainstream media has so far completely ignored the fact that some 40 people were rescued from that horrific Norwegian shooting spree by a married lesbian couple. Heaven forfend that LESBIANS be brave and heroic.

/disgustedbymedia

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Godspeed, Atlantis.

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Still here- still boring. :)

Saw X-Men: First Class and Thor last weekend. Enjoyed XMFC way more than Thor, though Thor was still worth seeing. I loved Chris Hemsworth's Thor- he actually has great comic timing and it would be fun to see him in a romantic comedy. Where I had issues were the portrayal of Odin as a loving touchy-feely dad (SO not how Odin is shown in mythology), and in the convoluted confusing mess that they made of Loki's characterization and motivations. (And minorly, I will probably never be able to see Jaimie Alexander as anyone but Jessi from Kyle XY so her Sif didn't really work for me.) Heimdall really rocked, though.

XMFC was a delight. Despite some quibbles with the "divorce" and some continuity issues between the first X-Men films and this one, over all the movie just held together better for me and was far more enjoyable. And with McAvoy, Fassbender and Vaughn all apparently agreed on a homoerotic reading of Charles/Eric, my slasher's sensibilities were definitely pleased. Not to mention that as someone who lived through the 1960's (yes, I'm ANCIENT!) it was fun to see where they got it right in set and costume design (especially loved the oscilloscope as part of Cerebro! Every '60s sci-fi device worth its parts needed an oscilloscope!) and also the attitudes toward women. It's actually got me reading fanfic again for the first time in ages.

That said, I've found several new items for my semi-annual spelling and homophone rant! I have seen a lot of 'alot'* and 'alright' is not all right. Here are some of the new goodies:

Bare/Bear - You bare your soul, (or possibly your body). You bear a weight or a burden (or you see a bear in the park!) You can have bare skin, or a bear-skin. ;D

Feat/Feet - A feat is a noteworthy or extraordinary act or achievement, usually displaying boldness, skill, etc. Feet are those things at the bottom of legs which come into contact with the ground. Oh, and also a unit of measure.

Rein/Reign - Reins are the things by which a rider controls a horse. To Reign is to rule over. You don't reign in your passions, you rein them in. Oh, and it goes without saying (I hope) that rain is water that falls from the sky.

Wail/Wale/Whale -
*Wail: to utter a prolonged, inarticulate, mournful cry.
*Wale: 1.a streak, stripe, or ridge produced on the skin by the stroke of a rod or whip; welt. 2.the vertical rib in knit goods or a chain of loops running lengthwise in knit fabric 3. the texture or weave of a fabric.
*Whale: any of the larger marine mammals of the order Cetacea.

Whoa is not spelled woah unless you're deliberately using netspeak. (Courtesy of shayheyred)

I'll have to try to remember the other ones and update my list. :D

One other mild slash fanfic-related grumble-- can I just say how TIRED I am of the one-finger-two-fingers-three-fingers-cock thing? Seriously. It does not have to be done that way every single time!!

*And if, like me, alot bugs you a lot, check out this link which was just pointed out to me in a comment by melodyunity.

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I have one more day in which I can use my Spring icon, so I shall. Though it doesn't feel very springy today, with temps in the 50's and snow overnight in the mountains! :)

Watched the final ep of Game of Thrones s. 1 last night. I'm so pleased with how they've adapted these books for television- I have very few quibbles at all with what they've done (the main one being taking Tyrion out of last week's battle). The casting is fabulous, especially Jon, Arya, Tyrion, and Danaerys. On my first read of the books a couple of years ago I basically skimmed over Dany's chapters because I just didn't connect with her character at all, but Amelia Clarke has really fleshed her out and invested me in her story. Also, they did a great job with the baby dragons last night. I just wish we'd gotten a better look at all three of them, not just Drogon.

Also watched the Falling Skies premiere. It wasn't bad- I'll probably keep watching it at least for a while, though I do wish it had been a tad less predictable. Props for a well integrated cast though, it's nice to see that not just white people survived the coming of the aliens. It did raise yet again a long-standing question I've had - in visual media, why is it that nearly everyone in post-apocalyptic societies wears fingerless gloves?? How did that get to be THE signifier of a post-apocalypse era?

On the personal side, I did go ahead and file for bankruptcy- that is proceeding apace and I hope to soon have things resolved, which should improve my monetary situation a lot. Also, my mom is doing ok, though she's still having trouble adapting to the left-side weakness and has had a couple of falls recently, one where she gashed her head and had to have stitches and another where she broke her finger badly. She tends to forget that you just can't make sudden changes in direction when you use a walker, and she also tends to let her walker get too far out in front of her, which isn't safe. She's in assisted living now (a very nice facility- heck, I'd live there if I could!), which is expensive but it's good to know she has trained help at the touch of a call button if she needs it. We go over to visit her at least a couple of times a week to try to make sure she doesn't get too bored and lonely, but I have to say I am kind of miffed at her friends, very few of whom have bothered to come and visit her.

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There is this thing... it's called 'birth control.' You might want to read up on it.

(Apparently unplanned pregnancy was the plot device of choice this season... it came up in Fringe, Hawaii 5-0, Bones, House (two even!!) and The Event. And that's just the shows I was watching. There may be more I am not aware of.)

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I used to have a great Firefox add-on that let me right-click on an LJ (or DW) entry and expand all the comments, but it mysteriously disappeared last time Firefox updated itself, and I can't remember what the danged thing was called so I can't find it again to reinstall. Do any of you know what I am talking about and remember the name of the add-on? I used it ALL the time and I miss it a lot.

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Just ran across this article:

"Add Wiccans and Druids to the list of faiths that have their own chapel at the Air Force Academy.

A circle of stones around an altar was dedicated on a hilltop above the campus Tuesday with earth-centered prayer and speeches about religious liberty at the academy, a school that has long faced criticism as a bastion for evangelical Christianity. (more at the linked article)

That's pretty cool, even if it's sad that they have to put up surveillance cameras to keep people from vandalizing the site.

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For any of you worried about LJ stability, I have 14 unused Dreamwidth codes I'd be happy to share. Just comment on this post at either location and let me know if you want one.

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If you, like me, have ever wanted to see what the aurora borealis really looks like, but can't afford to go where you can see it... this is amazing:

The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

eta: don't know why it won't embed, but just click on the first link.

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Okay, yes, there's still some of the old Due South love burning, so a quote appropriate to the day:

They have called this day the Eleventh of March! And whomsoever of you gets through this day, unless you are shot in the head or somehow slain, you will stand at tiptoe when e'er you hear the name again, and you will get excited at the name March the Eleventh!

We happy few, we few, we band of brothers. Our names will be as like household names. And those who are not here, be they sleeping or doing something else, they will feel themselves... sort of crappy. Because they are not here to... to join the fight, on this day, the Eleventh of March! -- Buck Frobisher, Due South, "The Call of the Wild"

In a totally unrelated note, I'm sending {{{copingvibes}}} and as much good energy as I can to the people of Japan. What a nightmare.

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Hey, do any of you know the title of and original performer of the song that was used in last night's Criminal Minds episode "Coda"? The one the autistic boy kept playing? I can send you a download link to an audio file stripped off the show's soundtrack if you're curious.

I haven't posted in forever, mostly because I feel pretty overwhelmed by Real Life. Work continues to be difficult, they still haven't let us have our front-desk person back so office support for 35 faculty, plus about 90 grad students and 600 undergrads continues to be done by just two people- myself and my co-worker. I discovered that we're the lowest-staffed department in the college, despite the fact that we teach more Core student credit hours than any other department. I feel like we're being punished for being good at our jobs. Plus, state employees haven't had a raise in 3 years and on top of that, they're taking more out for our retirement, so essentially we've gotten pay CUTS.

The kidunit got laid off in mid-November, the same week that Bluster passed away, and shortly after we found out about his autoimmune issues. His being laid off was not a result of his health issues, but they make him difficult to insure, and I am dreading his fast-approaching birthday when he will no longer be eligible for my plan. In the mean time, I can barely pay my own bills let alone his, so we're seriously considering bankruptcy. I wonder if a bankruptcy attorney will give us a two for one deal?

My mother had another stroke about a month ago, and despite her showing all the classic signs of having had a stroke, it took the hospital 24 hours to actually diagnose one, by which time it was too late to give her the tPA like they did last time, so her recovery has been much, much slower this time. While the stroke fortunately did not affect her ability to communicate, she has left-side weakness/unresponsiveness which is responding only slowly to rehabilitation. They're letting her out of the hospital this weekend but sending her to a skilled nursing facility to continue rehabbing, in hopes that she will eventually be able to be independent, but it could be the best we can hope for is assisted. No matter what, she's going to have to sell her townhouse which is on 3 levels and completely unmanageable for her now, so that she can get an apartment in a senior living facility somewhere which can accommodate her needs.

I have been spending much of my free time at the hospital with her trying to help keep her spirits up, and running errands and suchlike for her since she can't do it herself. Once I get home from that, I'm pretty much braindead and only good for staring at the TV. Fortunately a lot of my shows continue to please me- Chuck, Castle, the NCISes, Hawaii 5-0, Criminal Minds (though I am leery of this Prentiss arc, I fear the worst since I know she was on the chopping block at one point this year and may still be for all I know), Top Chef, and The Mentalist. I know everyone else is hating on Supernatural this season, but I'm sort of enjoying it, though I am willing to admit that may be because my critical thinking faculties have gone on hiatus due to stress. I was bummed that Fabio went home on Top Chef. He was my favorite, though I kind of knew all along he probably wouldn't win. Sucks that he went home because of a hamburger, though.

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