Niblik's Friends
[Most Recent Entries]
[Calendar View]
[Friends View]
Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
[ << Previous 25 ]
| Monday, July 20th, 2009 |
ms_danson
|
4:34a |
|
| Sunday, July 19th, 2009 |
ms_danson
|
11:12a |
|
ms_danson
|
9:12a |
DA Art Feature: Women
DA Art Feature Theme: Women - Mostly portraits. A few NSFW... two of which are wonderfully happy-fun photos. I had a tongue-in-cheek request for more NSFW stuff so I shall be doing a nudes feature soon. Any other requests? |
siderea
|
12:00a |
[gastronomy] Mysteries
Huh. It has only just now occurred to me to wonder: Beer is supposed* to be served cold, right? So why has it never become the custom to serve it with ice in it? (Can't possibly be that it would dilute the booze. Have you seen what Americans drink?) [* In the US -- land a Gaiman character once described as that where they think beer should be cold and sausages should be hot -- at least.] |
| Saturday, July 18th, 2009 |
playing_tragic
|
10:26p |
Sometimes, life makes as much sense as trying to play chess on a parcheesi board. |
siderea
|
9:43p |
[gastronomy] FYI
Dear S. Bostoniensis,
Thank you for your email regarding Häagen-Dazs® Five Coffee. We appreciate the time you have taken to pass your comments on to us.
Please be advised that there are 30 mg of caffeine per serving (1/2cup).
We thank you for sharing you suggestion with us. Our flavor team works year-round experimenting with new flavor ideas or modifications to flavors we already offer. While we cannot guarantee that your request for Decaf Coffee Ice Cream will be acted upon immediately, we can assure you that we will pass along your welcome suggestion to our flavor team for their consideration. Well, that answers that. Häagen-Dazs Five Coffee is too for breakfast. If you think a Häagen-Dazs® Five Decaf Coffee Ice Cream is as a good an idea as I do (and I think it's a really, really fabulous idea), please tell them so at their website. |
ekeppich
|
4:50p |
|
ekeppich
|
3:29p |
Vessels and then some
For the past two days, as well as the next two, I'm making line drawings of the vessels recovered from the 2003-2007 excavations at El Peru-Waka. (The wikipedia entry, by the way, is oh-so wrong. Should I even bother fixing it?) Anyway, making line drawings. I generally put oh something to listen to while I make the drawings. Generally, I alternate back and forth between "This American Life" and "Starship Sofa." This American Life is quite good, ut I've pretty much listened to every show they've made. It is very hit-and-miss, with birlliant shows followed by ones that tetter on the verge of complete retardation. In fact, listening to it the other day, listening to Ira Glass ask for money to support the podcast, an essay popped into my head. The title of this unwritten essay, "Why I will never give money to 'This American Life,'- or really PBS in general- with the exception of Sesame Street.". (The reasons would be: 1) they don't provide any service that I would actually pay for, 2) the political slant, especially under the aegis of government support, is deeply offensive, and 3) Journalism is general provides no essential service to our nation or culture.) But mostly, I've been listening to "StarShipSofa." It's a little thing of a audio magazine dedicated to Science Fiction with an editorial, a fact article, book reviews and a reading of a classic or contemporary science fiction short story. Each show is about 1.5 hours long. I highly recommend it. Simply the odd enthusiasm of the host itself makes it really quite fun. I haven't dug deeply into science fiction for many years and listening to Tony Smith's podcast makes me realize five observations about science fiction. 1: I am somewhat fond of science fiction, but find the "science fiction community" really quite repellant.
2: The more I read of Cory Doctorow, the more convinced I am that he's self-important, vapid, and marginally talented.
3: The whole idea of the "Singularity," as such, is very stupid.
4: Cyberpunk is dead (deservedly so) and "postcyberpunk" should be as well.
5: Charles Stross, Dan Simmons, and Jeff VanderMeer deserve som serious attention. Frighteningly good writers. And, lastly, I should read more science fiction. It's fun. http://www.starshipsofa.com/ Current Music: StarShipSofa and her aural delights |
ms_danson
|
12:01p |
Places to spend your money
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) bluetourmaline has the best taste in jewelry I have ever encountered. The stuff I've seen her wear makes me drool usually. It's always beautiful and unusual and perfectly her. In my last photo post she mentioned something new she had found: Nervous System Jewelry"Nervous System creates experimental jewelry, combining nontraditional materials like silicone rubber and stainless steel with rapid prototyping methods. We find inspiration in complex patterns generated by computation and nature."That is so cool. She's also the person who introduced me to: Made With MoleculesWhich includes neurotransmitter and other molecules as necklaces, charms, etc. I am still intending on buying something from here to represent bipolar. |
phaid
|
9:19a |
Almost finished
Today we drive back to Milford and get our fourth and final little U-Haul. This load is the last one; whatever we don't bring back will be hauled away by 1-800-got-junk or similar. My parents are still here and have been nothing but helpful the entire week. They've cleaned, painted, shelved, and watched William all week. The house would be nowhere near this nice without their help. I'm still pretty beat, since other than taking it easy yesterday I really haven't had a break in two weeks between moving and driving all over New Jersey for work. But it's all coming together. And I love it when a plan comes together. Current Mood:  determined |
ms_danson
|
9:00a |
A letter from a reader:
I received an email back before my trip east that I am only now getting to. In it, a friend asked, on behalf of another mutual friend, me to put this question to my readers: "What makes up a 'community' to you?" and as a corollary - "If you lost power, would you still have a community?" I suppose you could always put it another way - "is a neighbourhood a community and/or vice versa?"I thought it was an interesting question. Interpret it as you will. |
| Friday, July 17th, 2009 |
jenmcd
|
10:36p |
Survey time... books!
I am compiling a list of books to put on my "to read" list. Please list your favorite and/or most influential and inspirational books. I have no genre preferences, so feel free to suggest anything -- non-fiction, biographies, self-help, trashy romance, humor, children's, horror, etc. List as many as you want. It might be helpful for me to know why you think I should read it or why it was important to you. What am I trying to accomplish? I want to learn more. I want to expand my reading circles a bit and read books I wouldn't normally pick up. I figure you can help me. Have a great weekend! |
grendel1031
|
10:25p |
And that's the way it is
July 17, 2009. Walter Cronkite has "entered into the nearer presence." I knew it would happen; it happens to everyone, But still, what a loss! |
ms_danson
|
9:24p |
Do not eat anything neon coloured. |
seraphicideals
|
1:25p |
sometimes when somebody loves you miracles somehow appear
And we were all so in love with each other... That's one of my favorite feelings, and it's one of the most imperfect. It's a tenuous balance, a tightrope we walked. It's not easy when one person alone can break your heart, and the difficulty increases when you let even more than that one person affect your happiness. And I think and dream a lot; contrary to my reality, I am plagued by frequent dreams of being rejected by those that I even have potential of caring about. It would be infinitely more accurate to admit that I reject others much more often. I was just watching Cabaret, and there's this scene where Sally and Brian and Max are all high on wine and music and dancing; first Sally and Max, Brian smiling and watching and pulled in close, gazes shifting between the three and I wonder who would kiss who, but nothing; it dissipates. That kind of flickering air of everyone caught up in the excitement of each other, it always gets to me, I feel wistful and warm and wonder when it will come again. It has nothing to do with sex or sexual orientation, but simply being caught in the delight of someone's happiness, in affection and fondness. And just as easily, it floats away. That's important too; it isn't the kind of feeling that can be held in place. Those who try to cling inevitably crush it. I realize all of the good important parts of my life happen over the duration of a month. It only takes about an hour for things to go wrong in my life; but for my best, it is cultivated over a month. And it involves most of the time a long car trip or plane tickets. And of all of those moments best remembered, I recall the beds so much. Alone, in some different room, in my own room, I always know where I have slept when it was important. I've only owned one bed in my whole life. Many, many months have passed on that tired, loved mattress. I think most "romantics" know very little of love, because their love is so narrow. Because they pine and sigh and whine only over One True Love, and glare distastefully upon any love that isn't that... pretending that any feelings other than that are for some reason banal and meaningless. How sad that the people who fret the most over love can only stand so little of it, when the world is filled with love... Current Mood:  chipperCurrent Music: Charlotte's Web - Deep in the Dark |
|
megatokyocomic
|
6:11p |
|
ms_danson
|
8:59a |
|
| Thursday, July 16th, 2009 |
siderea
|
8:28p |
[humor] Targetted Marketing
So, there I was at my local Tags hardware/housewares store. (The one in Porter Square.) I was looking for something and came, completely randomly, across a vaguely entertaining novelty product: "To-Do Tattoo". It's a temporary tattoo kit which puts the words "to do..." and a series of rules (lines) onto your skin; the kit includes a washable pen, so that you then can write on your handily ruled skin. The product tagline is "the perfect solution for your shoddy short-term memory". Ok, whatever. That's not the funny bit. The kit has a picture on it of the product in use. It shows such an application in a person's palm (oh, ha ha, I get it, "I'll keep my to-do list on my Palm.") The first item on the example to-do list caught my eye, so I read the whole thing, and was Amused. I tried to take a picture in the store so I could share it with you, but couldn't get it into focus so you could read it. I didn't actually want the darned thing, so I didn't buy it. I figured I'd go google it and point you at some online vendor's picture. Lo and behold, there are only several zillion places selling this product. However, for not one that I've found so far has the example to-do list in the product photo matched the one for sale at my local Tags. Here's an example of what you find online, courtesy of www.ohmygizmo.com. The list in their photo (not the big one, the one in the photo of the actual product) reads: - buy eggs
- lightbulbs
- sand paper
- bacon
- kitty litter
- vodka
Well, I went back to the store and bought the (one! last! remaining!) To Do Tattoo kit, and I here read you the example thereon: - repair costume
- hire minions
- furnish lair
- build giant laser
- televise demands
- rule the world
I have photographic proof.Apparently, they have decided to regionalize their packaging to address to the unique cultural considerations of the greater MIT area. (Now, obviously, this a terrible example of a to-do list, listing whole projects and objectives instead of small atomic milestones. I recommend any aspiring evil overlords to check out GTD.) |
siderea
|
6:30p |
[psych/anthro/soc] Meritocracy?
This is an unstructured poll. I'm trying to get a read on attitudes in the completely-non-random sample that is my readership. What do you think of the concept of meritocracy, in the abstract, per se? Ignore for the moment issues of implementation or intersections with other issues. Do you think of meritocracy as a good thing or a bad thing? (Please keep responses to no more than the length of one comment. :) |
ms_danson
|
3:24p |
|
ms_danson
|
10:51a |
Gaming with me
My "Accidental Heros" game is over so I'm taking a much needed break from gaming for a few months before starting "Eden Three" worldbuilding. I may run a few one-shot or very short games in the interm (Paranoia and spies pop to mind) but "Eden Three" is my next long game and it won't run until 2010. There are a few things about my games that somebody new to them should probably know: - There is always something BIG going on in the world that will not wait around patiently for the players to find and diffuse it. This will not be visible at first but will be revealed a part at a time for the players to figure out (or not) and react to (or not). I'm perfectly fine with reducing the world to slag. That is an acceptable ending. So far I haven't done that but players have blown themselves up repeatedly. - My NPCs have motivations. It's been pointed out that this is a characteristic feature of my games. Everybody has a plan, plot, or wants to get theirs. - I heavily lean towards natural consequences of actions. - Players and/or player characters may not be hostile or threaten to kill other Players and/or player characters. - I choose consistancy and creativity, over absolute rules enforcement and strict interpretation. Rules serve the world, not the other way round. A Rules lawyer would probably put a dent in their forehead from hitting the table repeatedly. - I trust my players to interpret and inform me of appropriate rules as necessary. (We play HERO. Do you think I'm going to memorize the book?? Are you nuts?) This works out so that everybody is an expert in the rules that matter to them. - Worlds often have flexibility and I encourage player involvement in worldbuilding after I've created the basic structure. I am final arbitrator. - Risking failure (and failing well) is a good way to get ahead. Only doing what puts you at no risk or which is entirely within your skill set will probably make you bored and wonder why others are getting all the face time. - Player characters usually end up in situations where their initial stats/skills/etc are not even close to optimal to needs. (Next game will start with people going to another world and getting amnesia.) I like to see how people cope with being a fish out of water. Creativity bonus. - I don't use alignment. I use psych-lims and an expectation that character behaviour will make sense given character personality and motivations. - If I'm allowing you all the power and weaponry that your little heart can concieve of... consider building a fallout shelter. |
ms_danson
|
7:00a |
Movie reviews
Yes! entropicana used to do movie reviews of B-Movies ("Turkey Dinner") that I loved. Entropicana rants very well. That was about a dozen years ago. I (and others) poked him periodically trying to get more Turkey Dinner out of him. It didn't work but he made a few comments about a project he was was working on. That project is Aftermath Cinema Quoting from his post: "Hello, I'm Neutron Bill. Outpost 786, Gamma Patrol. And I am bored right out my mind.
You see, I'm posted in the deepest part of the irradiated wastelands. There is no one out here. No one but me.
Well, me and Ted. Ted's a mutant hamster. He's like a regular hamster, but bigger and with opposable thumbs.
I haven't seen another human being in a long, long time. I just keep sending in reports on the prevailing conditions in my corner of what's left of the world. You know what's going on up here? NOTHING.
So to hell with my reports. I've trained Ted to run the camera, and I'm going to do something useful with my time.
I'm going to review movies.
Not just any movies. The kind of movies I relate to, the kind that I think most of us in this radioactive age can relate to. The ones that teach us important lessons.
In other words, post-apocalyptic films. Kick-ass post-apocalyptic films.
I've scavenged a lot of films and I can't go outside until the avian bovine season is over.
So here is my first review. Enjoy! " This makes me so happy. |
| Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 |
ekeppich
|
5:33p |
More vessels
Now this turned out fairly well Here's the original photo:  Now, LiveTrace and LivePaint have, to date, proved as useless as anything, so I had to add it all the details straight into them through Illustrator. So, after that, I end up with: ( Read more... ) Current Music: StarShipSofa and hr Aural Delights |
ms_danson
|
3:22p |
|
empaths
[ houseava ]
|
10:56a |
|
[ << Previous 25 ]
|
1 (5.6%)