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22-Nov-2009 12:06a
We got over to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
joyful_storm's place about 2:30 or so. There were a lot more people there than I'd quite expected -- perhaps a dozen. It was great to see so many people coming through to help out with painting. The house is a pretty nice one, though a lot of work remains to be done before they can move in. We saw most of the folks from the CR schmooze there. I painted trim on the fireplace & mantel, one of the windows in the library, and the floor trim along one side of the laundry and crafts room.
By that time my back was pretty messed up, as were my knees, so I popped some Tylenol and we begged off for the rest of the work. We put in about 3 hours or so. I'd intended to be there for four, but by then we were waiting for paint to dry so second coats could be put on things. Because the house is in a semi-deconstructed stage, there was no place to sit and rest, so we got changed into paint-free clothing and headed out to Greenwood for a bit until it was time for dinner.
There was bookshop browsing, then tea at the Wayward, where I kicked alfrecht's arse at checkers. It had been so long since I'd played that I had to look up the rules again in order to figure out what moves were legal. *yeesh*
We headed out to Kasbah and got there about half an hour early for dinner, but sat at the table watching the dancer as we waited. Craigula got there about 20 minutes after we did. yiaya had some traffic trouble on her way but finally arrived. She and I both had the T'faya tagine, a lamb dish that's a little sweet and quite savory. We're thinking about doing Moroccan sometime soon after she gets back from her California turkey day trip. She's heading out Tuesday and will be back the Tuesday after that -- I'll be picking her up at the airport.
Dinner was excellent, particularly given the company. It's always good to have time to talk to Craig. Usually I see him really briefly at Edge when we're hanging out for a few or are on our way elsewhere. It was good to catch up with him and hear about how he'd been doing since his art show at Gargoyles earlier this fall.
I'd been hoping to do some reading tonight but I'm really and truly fried so I'll be heading for bed here shortly. Tomorrow will be finishing up reading the dissertation and then, possibly, getting back into writing the geilt article. alfrecht informed me that the article for the queer magic anthology will be due end of January, so that's another deadline I need to be concerned with at the moment. That one won't have to be so long, though.
And here, below the cut, is a speech given this week by my friend Jan Buterman for Trans Day of Remembrance. ( Given in Edmonton, Alberta. )
Current Mood: 
drained
Current Music: Dennis Kostler: Tarantas
22-Nov-2009 12:01a
~
This is the letter I sent to the Ventura County Public Administrator today. (the ongoing situation with my mother's items being ruined is explained in the letter)
I am beyond angry, but tried to be civil. I'm tired of being nice.
Dear Jeanne,
I am extremely upset, so I am going to try to be calm, brief and as nice as humanly possible (to be honest, I'm not feeling very nice right now).
I needed to get this off my chest, or I am not going to sleep tonight.
I don't care whose fault it is. It is inexcusable that my mother's treasured things are being ruined.
Today was the last straw for me.
I'm sure you tried, and I'm sure you meant well, but to have my mother's turkey platter that she had since 1958 (four years before I was born), the one I grew up with arrive broken as I was planning my own thanksgiving, the first one since she died, tore my heart out.
I am tired of crying when I go pick up my mail. I am tired of being launched back into depression, I am tried of losing sleep and I am tired of being sad and angry.
This whole thing is hard enough without receiving boxes of her treasured items, shattered.
Please DO NOT send any more breakable items.
If you have already shipped another box that has breakable items in it, please contact UPS and request and RTS (return to sender)
I do NOT want to see another box of broken items.
In order to file an insurance claim with UPS I would be required to hold on to those boxes and let them come inspect them. If they determined that the packing was insufficient (it was, in all cases; the first ones had china wrapped in paper napkins and or single sheets of newspaper all rattling around in the boxes) they would not pay the claim anyway and I would have inflicted further pain on myself for nothing.
I am not going to torture myself by hanging on to something so upsetting only to have UPS turn down the claim.
This has never been about "stuff" or "money" to me.
The sentimental items can't be replaced (like the china plate that had a picture of my mother and I on it that I gave her for mother's day 20 years ago, or the Ladro figurine she had been saving for me for 30 years) and the valuable ones that weren't sentimental can not be sold.
At the very least, I don't think that I (her estate) should be paying for the packing or shipping of those boxes.
I am hurt and I am angry.
And I'm going to stop there, because going any further with this will not be productive.
To be clear.
I expect that no more breakable items will be shipped. (and that if any were, the package will be recalled, I am NOT going through this again)
I expect that I (the estate) will not be charged for the shipping/ruining of my mother's items.
Please do not call me regarding this; as I already stated, I am not feeling very nice right now.
I sincerely hope that this will all be over as soon as legally possible.
Respectfully,
L. Lisa Lawrence
Mood: Sad, Depressed and Very VERY ANGRY 
~L
~
22-Nov-2009 12:01a
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21-Nov-2009 9:03p
Gurren Lagann is a very, um, masculine show . . .
(What with the titular mecha sprouting giant drills from every joint . . . )
21-Nov-2009 9:01p
Random awesome stuff found on the internet in the last 24 hours...
contemplative
pissed off
21-Nov-2009 1:32p
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )
Current Mood: 
lethargic
amused![[info - livejournal.com]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dot_pagan_snark, and it's been on stupid_free, so apologies to people who already know about it. Sharin' the pain, folks; sharin' the pain.)I have a few news items to start off your Saturday, beginning with a story that’s spread like wildfire through the political and religious blogospheres gaining mainstream coverage, and its all about prayer. Specifically its about “imprecatory prayer”, the Christian equivalent to malefic “black” magic (you’re basically asking God to kill, maim, or trouble some person). While there have been a few high-profile imprecatory prayer stories popping up lately, the most recent centers on a meme and line of merchandise urging people to “pray” for President Barack Obama, invoking the biblical Psalm 109:8 “let his days be few; and let another take his office”. It seems rather harmless as imprecatory prayers go until you read the rest of the psalm in question.
“It was, most likely, intended as a joke. But it isn’t really very funny. Especially since the next verse reads, “May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.” The passage goes on the same way--asking God to pulverize this poor fellow--that he lose all his worldly goods, that his orphans be abandoned, that his father be remembered as a sinner, and finally, that “his memory be cut off from the earth.” Thus, the “Prayer for Obama,” does more than anticipate that he leaves office; it entreats God to destroy the president.”
Supporters and opponents of this prayer are battling it out at Cafe Press, with stores being removed and reinstated. Meanwhile, pundits are split on whether this is harmless fun, or yet another sign that far-right Christianity is coming unglued and “trawling for assassins”. How should Pagans and occultists, many of whom believe in the power of magic and intention, react to these sort of stories? Harmless? Or the beginning of a particularly nasty egregore?
Turning from prayer to more material conflicts over belief, Chas Clifton reports on a Russian Orthodox priest who was recently murdered in his church. 34-year-old Daniil Sysoyev was missionary who bragged of converting 80 Muslims personally, and wrote several books critical of Islam, gaining many death-threats in the process. But while this seems a rather open-and-shut case of a Russian Muslim taking revenge against a firebrand converter of Muslims, authorities are also looking at other groups, like Russian Pagans.
“Sysoyev also worked with former members of religious sects and wrote a book on Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovahs’ Witnesses. He also spoke out against nationalists and Stalinists, whom he criticized on his blog for ignoring the murder of innocent people.”
None of the articles specifically mentions Pagans when they mention “various religious sects”, but the ABC article links the phrase to another report they did on Russian Pagans, so they must know something we don’t. Clifton points out that Russian Pagans do come into direct conflict with the Russian Orthodoxy and “are more likely to have their own line of “blood and soil” rhetoric and to claim that they represent the true spirituality of their people”. All that said, I’m siding with Occam’s razor on this one, so the Russian Pagans and hard-liner Stalinists most likely have little to worry about during the investigation.
In a final note, it looks like “Agora”, which centers on the life (and death) of Neoplatonist pagan philosopher Hypatia, has finally found an American distributor and will hit theaters in early 2010.
“Alejandro Amenabar’s intellectual epic that had sat without a U.S. buyer for six months, has found a stateside home. Newmarket Films has picked up U.S. rights to the Rachel Weisz starrer and is prepping a release for the first half of 2010.”
Distribution deals finally materialized after the film starting doing far better than expected in European markets. So we’ll finally get a chance to see “Agora” on the big screen, anyone want to place bets on if/when it will gain American protesters?
21-Nov-2009 5:52p
Not too bad a day at work. Yesterday had been worse. I still get irritated by the smallest thing, but I am trying to slowly work on my anger. I know it's very old and I know it's very useless. Rather unproductive, but it has been with me for so long that I don't know how to be without it.
Anyway, it wasn't a busy day but we had some queues and that's good.I had a look at my shifts next week and apparently they have decided that my not being available Monday and Thursday morning means that they have to give me afternoon shifts. What it means is that Monday and Thursday evenings I'll be so tired that my anger will be curling low in my belly and that my hands will probably shake. At least I am off both Tuesday and Friday, so i can recover. I have Saturday free, I'll see if my dad wants to do something together.
Stopped for food on the way home, ate Profitterols while watching White Collar (I am still on the fence on that one. Neil Cafferty is an interesting character and the relationship between the male leads is captivating in a snot slashy way, but it can easily become just another cop show). Now I am eating eggs while reading House/Wilson/Chase threesome fics:
Try this: http://alex51324.livejournal.com/?tag=th
Current Mood: 
grumpy
I have a few news items to start off your Saturday, beginning with a story that’s spread like wildfire through the political and religious blogospheres gaining mainstream coverage, and its all about prayer. Specifically its about “imprecatory prayer”, the Christian equivalent to malefic “black” magic (you’re basically asking God to kill, maim, or trouble some person). While there have been a few high-profile imprecatory prayer stories popping up lately, the most recent centers on a meme and line of merchandise urging people to “pray” for President Barack Obama, invoking the biblical Psalm 109:8 “let his days be few; and let another take his office”. It seems rather harmless as imprecatory prayers go until you read the rest of the psalm in question.
“It was, most likely, intended as a joke. But it isn’t really very funny. Especially since the next verse reads, “May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.” The passage goes on the same way--asking God to pulverize this poor fellow--that he lose all his worldly goods, that his orphans be abandoned, that his father be remembered as a sinner, and finally, that “his memory be cut off from the earth.” Thus, the “Prayer for Obama,” does more than anticipate that he leaves office; it entreats God to destroy the president.”
Supporters and opponents of this prayer are battling it out at Cafe Press, with stores being removed and reinstated. Meanwhile, pundits are split on whether this is harmless fun, or yet another sign that far-right Christianity is coming unglued and “trawling for assassins”. How should Pagans and occultists, many of whom believe in the power of magic and intention, react to these sort of stories? Harmless? Or the beginning of a particularly nasty egregore?
Turning from prayer to more material conflicts over belief, Chas Clifton reports on a Russian Orthodox priest who was recently murdered in his church. 34-year-old Daniil Sysoyev was missionary who bragged of converting 80 Muslims personally, and wrote several books critical of Islam, gaining many death-threats in the process. But while this seems a rather open-and-shut case of a Russian Muslim taking revenge against a firebrand converter of Muslims, authorities are also looking at other groups, like Russian Pagans.
“Sysoyev also worked with former members of religious sects and wrote a book on Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovahs’ Witnesses. He also spoke out against nationalists and Stalinists, whom he criticized on his blog for ignoring the murder of innocent people.”
None of the articles specifically mentions Pagans when they mention “various religious sects”, but the ABC article links the phrase to another report they did on Russian Pagans, so they must know something we don’t. Clifton points out that Russian Pagans do come into direct conflict with the Russian Orthodoxy and “are more likely to have their own line of “blood and soil” rhetoric and to claim that they represent the true spirituality of their people”. All that said, I’m siding with Occam’s razor on this one, so the Russian Pagans and hard-liner Stalinists most likely have little to worry about during the investigation.
In a final note, it looks like “Agora”, which centers on the life (and death) of Neoplatonist pagan philosopher Hypatia, has finally found an American distributor and will hit theaters in early 2010.
“Alejandro Amenabar’s intellectual epic that had sat without a U.S. buyer for six months, has found a stateside home. Newmarket Films has picked up U.S. rights to the Rachel Weisz starrer and is prepping a release for the first half of 2010.”
Distribution deals finally materialized after the film starting doing far better than expected in European markets. So we’ll finally get a chance to see “Agora” on the big screen, anyone want to place bets on if/when it will gain American protesters?
21-Nov-2009 10:50a
At 7am I woke up to Petrie SCREECHING.
I bolt up, like a mother to a crying child, and I check on him. He's pacing the cage, screech screech screech.
I pick him up, cuddle him, and then look in the cage, to see that Kiwi's missing. I put Petrie down, screech screech screech.
I start calling out for Kiwi, looking high and low, around the cage, under, trying to find him.
Finally, I spot him, he'd flown clear across the room, landed on a hat, and then couldn't figure out how to get back, so he decided to sleep there.
You know, Kiwi talks a whole lot, and sometimes it seems like he's saying relevant words for given situations and everything. But that bird is tremendously dumb. He often gets one place and then can't figure out how to get back. He has no physical intelligence, no sense of where he is, how to fly (he just randomly does it). He just always seems confused.
I love that little bird, but wtf?
Whereas Petrie talks rarely, but his gaze is so discerning and he never seems confused. He always knows where he is and how to get where he wants to go, and if there's no way, he makes a way.
I love my birdies. They're so... different.
Current Mood: 
amused
21-Nov-2009 9:52a
Scandinavian Fair 10-3 today Saturday Nov 21, 2009; Acton/Boxborough High School Acton MA. Ragnar and Daniela are picking me up so I don't have to drive myself! Food, gifts, music, national costumes, etc etc
Already did 4 loads of wash this morning and went to the store, and cleaned out a little clutter (2 trash bags worth), so feel free to go enjoy...
21-Nov-2009 8:45a
You may or may not remember the novel I'm working on now, which has a U.S. Corps of Linguist candidate -- who has failed three of her final exams -- ordered to do a penalty monograph on the grammars of four previously unstudied ET languages. [First page, draft 17, is at http://ozarque.livejournal.com/621925.h
Which means that I've had to spend this past week doing the following:
1. Thumbnail sketches of each of the four languages.
2. Phoneme lists for each of the four languages. [That is, the list of meaningful sounds].
3. Swadesh lists for each of the four languages. [That is, the core vocabulary list of roughly 100 words that the linguist would use to start her fieldwork.]
These three things have to be done before I can do the plotting, and they take a lot of time. And of course, for a linguist they're mind-candy. I'll be sorry when I've finished doing them.
No title yet. Not even a glimmer of an idea for a title.
21-Nov-2009 5:29a
We didn't manage to get out until 11am. I'm still trying to get rested from working all week and hubby is having a terrible time with his sleep schedule. He'll sleep for an hour or two and then is up for four -- back and forth.
Today we managed to make it to the mint and the Smithsonian for American History. We took the subway down to the Smithsonian and started walking. The mint is next to the Holocaust museum, which we *should* see, but just didn't have the heart to go to.
The mint had a sign saying you had to walk completely around the Holocaust building to get tickets, so we trudged over there. However, the ticket booth was closed because it said at this time of year no tickets were needed. Uh, couldn't they have said that on the OTHER side? So we trudged back.
The tour was nice. The workers who do their job in the observation rooms (we were in glassed-in walkways above them) would wave and smile. One of them held up a huge packet of money and acted like he would hand it to us....if only that pesky glass wasn't there! It was funny.
The mint is located close to the Dept of Agriculture building (where my check comes from for some reason) and outside of the Dept of Treasury Department....who I really work for. So we took pictures of those buildings.
The Washington Monument is also down that way and we got some nice shots of that. Haven't actually been over yet since we were planning on monuments for today and tomorrow.
Found the Smithsonian American History museum after we grabbed a really quick lunch. I had a hot dog. Seating was on metal benches outside. A flock of little birds attended us while we ate, so we gave them part of our lunch. The were very cute.
The museum is large...I don't have to tell you all that. It's on 3 floors and with all the trudging, we were tired by the time we got there. We are so not in shape, unless you count round as a shape. They have moved the flag hanging over the fort that inspired the Star Bangled Banner into an exhibit of its own. Last time I was there in the 70's, it was just hanging.
We sat through a civil rights demonstration lesson where they had actors teaching the audience what it was like to do a sit in at an all white's lunch counter. Then over to a presentation of native american art done by plains indians who had been taken to St Augustine, FL (where I just was) and held in the fort there until "rehabilitated". Kind of sad, but interesting art mostly of the things they had lived through before they were taken away.
We walked through an exhibit of photographs done by this well-know studio in the Washington DC area depicting black culture in the 40's-50's. They are in the process of putting up a full exhibit for African Americans and this was just a taste. Very nice photos.
Then up we went to see the Lincoln exhibit. The displays went through his life fairly well. They had his actual clothes and hat as well as one of Mary Lincoln's felt dresses. I think the part that impressed me the most was photographs taken of him for almost each year of the presidency. My god, by the time the Civil War ended, it looked like it had ran across his face! He had aged so much in those few years he was in office. I know it happens to a lot of them, but this was striking.
I would have liked to see the exhibit next to it which was for all the presidents, but by then we were both just out of steam. We had bought some guidebooks of DC, found a place to sit down and I took a look for how to get back to the hotel. Hubby fell promptly asleep. That's how tired we were.
When I saw that, I decided the hell with the subway and we'd get a cab. I looked in the guidebook and found some restaurants in the Georgetown area (which is not too far from where we are staying). Woke up hubby and we decided to try a BBQ place. Finding a cab was another story.
We walked out of the museum. By now it was dark. How does one get a cab? We had our cell phones, so we walked down to the corner of 14th and Constitution. When we would see a cab go by in traffic, we would get the number off the side of the cab and try to call. This just did NOT work. I don't know why. Many of the cabs did not have area codes on them. Sticking on the 202 area code for DC didn't help. I just kept getting other people's voice mails. Directory assistance didn't help. The company they connected me to would not answer.
Finally, I'd had enough of this. I walked part way down the street and just started waving at cabs. I know I'm a rube, but I've never hailed a cab before. This one guy stopped 3 lanes into traffic and we had to run across to get in. The traffic was stopped at a light, but eeeeeh. We gave him the address and suddenly felt the luxury of riding in a car after a week of being on foot or on subways. I am just not a big city girl.
Dinner at the Old Glory All American BBQ was not impressive. It was ok. The meat was good, but the sides weren't much. Dessert was good and I could only eat a bit and brought the rest home (peanut butter pie). Hubby had the dark chocolate cake and ate all of his.
So, we started walking down the main street of Georgetown, which is like walking down Broadway at home except the sidewalks are more narrow and uneven and the architichure is interesting. Then suddenly, we ran out of Georgetown and now what? We kept walking, realizing that our energy was now about out and found the Westin Hotel. Happy days! Four cabbies sat outside and one took us back to our hotel.
This morning hubby has woken up with a swollen "dongle" as he calls it...that thing that hangs down in the back of your throat, so he is still sleeping. I've given him aspirin and Vit C and have the tea kettle on for hot tea when he wakes up. I'm hoping he doesn't come down sick because I still have a lot I want to see.
So, that's day one. Today is kind of on hold for now.....
Current Mood: 
optimistic
21-Nov-2009 7:00a
21-Nov-2009 12:59a
I'm about 109 pages into the dissertation and finding it very useful so far. I'm quite pleased that I was able to have a copy. This is going to be an important thing for the geilt article and for the book, I think.
Tomorrow is painting. We'll probably be over at joyful_storm's place by about 2pm. I'm figuring about 4 hours will be the limit of my ability to paint usefully, but we'll bring stuff to help out with and leave it for others to use after we're gone if it's needed.
Moroccan dinner tomorrow, yay!
Bedtime now. Yes.
Current Mood: 
enthralled
Current Music: Frank Zappa: Opus 1, No. 4, 2nd Movement Allegro
21-Nov-2009 12:01a
( if you really must... click here... )
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter and LJ cut just to be contrary
20-Nov-2009 8:49p
I got out to the Walgreens today for ink and walked over to Freddie's after that for paper so I could print out the 200+ page Suibhne dissertation. Looks like it will be excellent! I'm very excited to finally have got that project done. Right now, though, I'm having dinner. Can't read, type, and eat all at the same time. I need more hands. Or maybe tentacles.
Called and talked to mom today to catch up with her and the family. She's talked to quite a few of the relatives recently. For the most part things are going well, though both one of the Griswold cousins and his wife have developed various cancers and this is a cause for some concern. I'm keeping them in my thoughts.
Tomorrow is painting day over at joyful_storm's place, then a birthday dinner for yiaya at Kasbah. Oh, I do so adore Moroccan! There will only be four of us this year, but it should be a lovely party regardless. I'm thinking one of their delicious lamb tagines and a Moroccan red wine -- they have some very good ones there. I took mom to this place a couple of years ago when she came to visit and she really enjoyed it.
And now it is time to stop procrastinating and go read the dissertation.
Current Mood: 
content
Current Music: Pam Nation: Lochaber No More/MacPherson's Rant
accomplished
20-Nov-2026 7:58p
Aha--that greyhound email from earlier? There are greyhounds, but the info I gave was incorrect--here's a link to the real info. Apologies for the mistake.
20-Nov-2009 6:32p
The Sean-nós Festival Northwest is having its 3rd annual Sean-nós festival in Olympia on January 15th & 16th. There will be workshops on singing and Irish language. This is taking place at Evergreen State College. Looks like it would be a lot of fun!
Current Music: Walter Sickert &the Army of Broken Toys: Revenge of the Rats
20-Nov-2009 6:32p
What’s the first thing you do when you log into your computer everyday? <input ... > View 609 Answers |
Current Mood: 
cheerful
20-Nov-2009 7:00p
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curious