Have just deleted the vast majority of my icons, and have a new default. Just FYI, really, since it always fucks my head when people change their default icons.

Uh. Um, guys? I am fish sitting for my neighbour while she is away on vacation, and I am pretty sure that I just changed the fish water and accidentally killed all the fishes. I'm not even sure how that HAPPENED! I pulled them out with paper cups and put them in a bucket (with water!) and then rinsed out the bowl and then put in more water and put the fish back in, and that was fifteen minutes ago and I just went into the bathroom and they are all -- you know, pretty clearly not swimming.

I should not be allowed to have fish. They always end up dead.

I always do this, but it is just not good. No. Just -- just no. There is a PERFECTLY LOVELY sushi place literally half a mile from my house, there is no reason in the WORLD for me to eat crappy TJ's sushi.

In related news: Now we have groceries.
In less related news: I bought a red bra. Also shoes. \o/

Okay, which of you floozies linked the Sock Dreams website earlier? 'cause, y'all, obviously what I need in my life is silver lurex knee highs.

a poll! everyone loves a poll.


Poll #1026725
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

if meghan were getting a tattoo, which should she get first?

illustrations:
Golden Mean/Fibonacci Spiral
Nautilus fractal
Julia Set

Please note that the above are just illustrations, and obviously any work done would be either slightly more dramatic (my spiral would need a bounding rectangle, for example) or much simplified (with only the primary spiral of the nauti shown, or the primary bits of the julia).

Opinions? I've been thinking about all of these for a while and don't think that I'd regret any of it.

Dear diary

TODAY I BOUGHT A SPINNING WHEEL.

more info and pictures tomorrow.

Important things to remember: Tissues with lotion? Bad for cleaning glasses.

I know that it's not polite to embed youtube without cutting, but this is one of the few times that I'm saying too bad. If you haven't seen this, you should.

Y'all, I will award someone with ten kisses, five internets, and a dollar if they will just please come over and make me sauteed mushrooms and tomatoes with cheese on toast. PLEASE.

Possibly worth mentioning is that they will also need to bring the mushrooms and the cheese and the toast parts of that, but hey, I've got tomatoes, so that's something, right?

Dear Fandom,

Sometimes, you know, it is not actually all about you. No, really. You're not being targeted, not any more than anyone else is.

Also, what's with this fandom_counts thing? Surely you're not trying to say that there's a larger fandom collective than there is, say, a knitting collective, or a rape survivors collective, and since fandom's bigger, it matters more, are you? ...You're not, right? Right? I don't think that anyone -- up to and including the omg evil ppls at 6A/LJ -- fails to realise that fandom is a huge influence on LJ, but again: not about you. What, exactly, are you trying to accomplish, other than to yell about being oppressed and claim that since there are lots of fans around here, there should be... what, special rules for them? They should be exempt from other rules?

Do I think that it was handled badly? Yeah, I totally do. Do I feel bad for the people who've just lost their fic or RP or whatever? Yeah, though there's a part of me that's sneering 'next time, keep a backup, you morons'. Do I feel totally awful for the people who've just lost their support group and their safe places? Yes, absolutely.

That said, I think that both fandom and LJ look like losers in this particular equation. LiveJournal has -- once again -- created a PR disaster entirely of their own making by completely failing to address user concerns in a timely manner and looking like incompetent morons who don't understand their own policies. Fandom has -- once again -- chosen to view everything through the filter of oh noes, the mainstream people are out to get us, the sky is falling the sky is falling run run run, looking like spoilt children. Way to reinforce stereotypes, LJ and fandom!

Strong work all around.


In more exciting news: LOLBOTS. Way better than cat macros.

Have just committed genocide.

It feels good.

Die, you fucking lakeflies.

omg, y'all, have you guys seen Google's street view?

It basically lets you walk down the streets of certain cities, changing direction and turning and zooming in on things as desired. If there are people, you can see their faces; you can read signs in shop windows; you can see license plate numbers. I am totally fascinated.

So far it's just for San Francisco, New York, Denver, Vegas, and Miami, but once upon, the aeriel view thing was only in a handful of cities, too. I think that it would be pretty amazing if this was available for even a handful of cities in various countries. Wouldn't it be neat to virtually walk through NYC and then walk through, say, a shopping district in New Delhi or Amsterdam or London? (Seriously, it would be awesome, don't pretend that it wouldn't.)

(Also, I know that some people think that this is creepy and privacy invading. I don't agree, and feel like while we have a right to control the use of our individual images in private spaces (i.e. our houses) and with regards to commercial use, that right evaporates when we're in a public space. As these images are all of public streets, they fall -- for me, at least -- into the 'public areas' category, and I am unbothered.)

(Also also, some people are seeing this and going to the 'oh noes, google has info on everything' place, which I think is alarmist and stupid. Google has the information that you give them -- if you're uncomfortable with them having access to your email, your spreadsheets, and your credit card number, then don't use gmail or google docs or checkout. It's not really all that hard to avoid. The maps thing isn't any information that Joe Blow wandering down your street couldn't find out, so I don't see that it's a big deal.)

So, I have this tiny little crush on Paul McCartney, right, and he's just posted his latest video to youtube, and all y'all ought to go watch it, because it -- okay, so it is Paul McCartney, Mackenzie Crook, and Natalie Portman, and there's a mandolin and dancing in shiny dresses and ghosts coming out of boxes and pictures frames and stuff, and it's bizarre and awesome and you should watch it, because it brings me happy.

Video for Dance Tonight by Paul McCartney.

This is maybe my current favourite thing ever.

Seriously, I don't know who invented Eurovision or basically anything at all about, say, what the point of it is, or when it started, or why the hell no one in America will broadcast it (and yes, I get that it is EUROvision, but I can watch a dozen freaking South American sports games on any given day, so why can't I watch European music competitions?), but it is the best part of my YEAR, y'all. (I waited to watch this year until Liza could watch with, so we're watching now and oh god, I am just so filled with joy.)

I may have to recap some of the best videos later, just because -- just -- because, okay?

(Also, yes, I realise that I have abysmal taste in music*, and that the poppier and campier things are, the more that I am inclined to like them, and I am totally okay with being judged for that.)



( * )

Time for good news, bad news!

Good news: Amazing-sounding transgender student named prom queen in Fresno.

Bad news: Newspaper insists on repeatedly referring to said studen as 'he', despite explicitly stating that she prefers to be referred to with feminine pronouns.

Good news: Dark matter detected! Please note the exclamation mark: this is awesome and exciting. Bigger picture here.

Bad news: Gonzales wants to make attempted copyright infringement (of software and music, obviously) to be a crime, and also to bump the sentence for using pirated software to life in prison. For the record, a partial list of crimes that do not carry a mandatory life sentence: rape, child abuse, bank robbery, carjacking, manslaughter. (To be fair, this might not carry one either, but seriously, software piracy < rape on any measure I can think of.)

Good news: GIANT UNDERGROUND SUPERCOLLIDER. Look at the slideshow; it is like looking into carnival lights or an amazing art installation or something else that is sort of breathtaking and unexpectedly beautiful.

Bad news: Almost half of Americans believe in strict creationism; another 30% believe that God guided evolution.

Good news: I have tea! This isn't good news for anyone else, really, but I'm pretty pleased about it. Also, I have shiny new icons that oxoniensis made me, and I love them.

Dudes, i got me a job. More info later, but omfg i am relieved.

Knitter types!

I have a short ( poll )

Thanks, y'all.

Have just painted M's nails -- silver sparkles with larger flecks of blue and pink glitter. You may be able to guess this, but she picked it out all by herself.

I am knitting my sock which is ALMOST DONE and also doing a bit of research for a website I am doing.

Also, I am out of olives, and also out of hot peppers stuffed with provolone and proscuitto. I will give someone a dollar and ten kisses to bring me stuffed banana peppers.

I don't know if anyone else is following the HD DVD debacle the way that I am, but if you are, this is totally my favourite response so far.

(If you are not, the short version is this: HD DVD processing key was found and released; today a bunch of places who had posted the key (or links to the key, or information about the key) got C&Ds. It's been interesting to watch reactions: Wikipedia has locked down their HD DVD article; Digg originally tried to follow the C&D, but a user revolt ensued -- Digg's entire front page was flooded with information about the key. Other sites weighing in include MetaFilter, Slashdog, InterVideo (who have apparently already had their key revoked), and Download Squad. There are loads of others, I just got bored after a while and stopped reading. If you want a short backstory on what, exactly, this key does, check this out.)

If you think that this is all boring and not terribly relevant to your life, just think how cool it would be if a big damn community of internet geeks forced a legal re-evaluation of the way that copyright and intellectual property work, which is ultimately what this is about.

Related news: Google and Viacom to duke it out in court re: the legality of YouTube, which Viacom is trying to shut down for copyright infringement.