malka

usually, you don't want to read the comments

Wed, 18 Jun 2014 15:31:42 GMT

ETA: comments are much lower signal:noise now. See legionseagle's warning in comments

In this case you do: http://www.jimchines.com/2014/06/lc-on-rape-and-self-defense . There's a really interesting discussion of anti-drunk-driving campaigns and how the same methods could be applied to anti-rape campaigns.

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ow

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 08:01:40 GMT

( Cut for comic clothing physics and my painful interpretation )

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well

Sat, 05 Apr 2014 07:49:58 GMT

I just started watching House, partly as an experiment, and partly because I like medical fiction.

I am apparently more cold-heartedly goal-oriented than the show's writers. Maybe I'll decide that it is because they needed an artificial constraint, and not because they missed the (obvious, but rather distressing) conclusion.

I'm a little freaked out by this, though.

( I find this conclusion distressing, so I'm putting it behind a cut )

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religious fervor

Thu, 03 Apr 2014 04:46:07 GMT

The reading on my bus-ride home sent me into an internal discussion (and by discussion I mean towering charismatic monologue) of the reason to prefer white wine as a source to transmit into heart's blood, not the more (trivially, physically, dots-on-a-D&D-card-level) surface-level symbolic red wine. I then transitioned into a generalized mediation on belief which ended with the revelation that there is System and there is Soul and they are both all powerful and eternally interlocked.

It is worth mentioning that, due to the way on-call rotation works in my work group, I am shatteringly tired and under imperfect control.

(It is also worth mentioning that I emitted no verbalizations of these fantastic revelations or thundering visions. The fires of Truth do not override basic civilities.)

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"too hard"

Wed, 13 Nov 2013 05:41:06 GMT

Some days are sulky skirt days because pants are too hard. I am currently having a sulky bun evening because braiding my hair or having it down is too hard. I'm concerned that my definition of "easy" might be drifting towards "Victorian".

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whine

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 03:45:40 GMT

( whine )

[1] Recipe for dreary salted warm mush is as follows: get a big enough pot. Put in some pre-made veggie broth (one box) and some lentils (half a bag). Cook on a very gentle boil for a long time, stirring occasionally and adding small amounts of water if that seems like a good idea. Put some in a bowl with optional additional salt or boullion. Eat.

The warm salty mush against the roof of my mouth often helps with congestion, and the extreme boringness of the food suits me when I'm ill.

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things that should be obvious

Sat, 19 Oct 2013 09:29:08 GMT

The new computer game matches a pattern that makes computer games profoundly addictive to me. I realized this hours ago.

What that means is I need to take aggressive action to actually allow myself to go to sleep, instead of staying in pattern. I know this.

And this is why it's 2:30 in the morning and I'm still playing.

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Sat, 12 Oct 2013 04:42:16 GMT

"'It's milk. It's not for unicorns.'"
"So what's the context on that one?"
"Hockey fanfic"

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this is even better than my World Cup analogy

Fri, 06 Sep 2013 05:41:59 GMT

http://pervocracy.tumblr.com/post/51824405738/genders-are-like-cars-ive-had-several-but-i

(The first person said "Genders are like cars, everyone keeps telling me I abso need one and I keep going "I LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO"". The response was "Genders are like cars; I've had several, but I still don't know how they work.")

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think before you brand your products, people

Fri, 28 Jun 2013 07:07:54 GMT

I lost a wonderful water bottle to the TSA. I remember many things about it (It was exactly the right size and shape to fit in my carry-around bag while carrying the maximum amount of water -- narrowish and medium height. It was clear turquoise plastic. It was sturdy. It had a thumb-pop-off-cap. It was light-weight.) Unfortunately, the only word on it (in large stylized letters) was "fuel".

It is very hard to search for "fuel" and "water bottle" and pick up this company, which apparently also goes by "home presence" and "trudeau". There are a lot of other people talking about using water bottles for fuel and fuel bottles to take camping and general other noise.

Sadly, I don't think I can get my proper turquoise bottle back. I think this will be my best bet, and I won't be able to tell if it's the right size and shape until it gets here.

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weather

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:23:46 GMT

Raindrops the size of kittens!

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in a vacuum

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 19:26:17 GMT

I find it much, much easier to do self-directed learning in fiber-related areas than in math/computer-related areas. It's a weird difference. My suspicion is that it has to do with the physicality of the one and the writing skills of the people who write about the other.

Also, now I'm wondering about other people's balances.

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snark of the day

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 04:16:53 GMT

Sexism in high-tech is like water: you don't even notice that it's there until you try to breathe without it.

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symptom of Smurfette syndrome

Sun, 26 May 2013 03:51:46 GMT

I've been watching a particular TV show[1] on Netflix. At one point, the father of the monster-hunter family tells his daughter, "Our sons are trained to be soldiers. Our daughters, to be leaders."

There are ways to argue this away -- maybe most of the daughters choose to become accountants and plumbers and bakery owners instead -- but it really sounds like un-self-aware normalization of a 10:1 gender ratio.

(Admittedly, said daughter shows a strong interest in short- and medium-distance combat, and she's not nearly as weaselly or pushy as any of her male relatives that we've met. We see them maneuvering her in "leadership", boy-king-style. Maybe her father's just spinning her a line for weaselly convenience.)

[1] The quote I'm about to give is a mild spoiler, so I'm not giving the name of the show directly.

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WisCon

Wed, 22 May 2013 05:15:20 GMT

I'm not going to WisCon this year. I have reasons, which are complicated and interlocking, but it basically boils down to preferring to choose to regret not going over choosing to regret going.

I'm glad lots of other people are happily going, and I will happily read and listen to tales of what happened. Have an excellent time in Madison, folks.

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oof

Sat, 04 May 2013 04:43:10 GMT

( Nose stuff )

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closure, possibly

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:57:31 GMT

Ever since I read it, I've been frustrated by the end of the last book in Robin Hobb's Fool trilogy. It just doesn't work in narrative, especially not narrative as empassioned and dramatic as the rest of the series.

I recently had several thoughts in quick succession:
a) I could fix it with fan fiction.
b) Then I'd have to write something in which a character I identify with makes trivial and foolish mistakes that mess up all of humanity and also this relationship (small or large r) that matters so much in this character's life.
c) Given that they can't settle into smooth friendship together anyway, because Must Have All the Dramaz, Woe, maybe a softly-missed train connection is the best ending.
d) I was much more into Drama and Trauma and Woe back then.

Maybe instead I'll write an AU that starts when this character is 9.

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comparative religious belief

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 19:02:41 GMT

Biblical literalism in English makes so little sense to me. Even flat-Earthism makes more sense to me, or at least I don't personally have experience that obviously contradicts it.

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Eee!

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 04:52:03 GMT

I'm going to Stringtopia! I'm taking the backstrap weaving class from Abby Franquemont! This is not an April Fool's joke! Eeee!

frotz, I was thinking of staying at the Budget Inn, because it sounds quiet, close, and likely to still have rooms. Let me know what you decide, okay? (And if you are coming and have different hotel ideas, let me know that too.) (I would prefer to have one bed per person given the option, especially in a socially-overloading situation, so it affects what I tell the hotel re: # of beds.)

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social rule acknowledgement

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 06:29:45 GMT

I hear occasionally of psychology / sociology profs handing out assignments to break social rules. Not big ones, like wearing clothing over one's crotch, not screaming in public, or driving on the correct side of the road, but little ones, like which way to face in an elevator.

I think this is interesting, but also somewhat off. Other people did not consent to be in your scene, no matter how interesting and growthful you find it. Still, I think there's value in noting how pressure-deep our everyday waters are.

I want to occasionally attempt to notice, and postulate contrafactuals to, as many currently-functioning social rules as possible. I think it would make a simple walk down the street either interesting or tedious.

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spam addressing

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 01:56:48 GMT

One of the recent pieces of (physical-mail) spam was addressed to HerFirst & HisLast HerLast, at this address.

I am entertained by this example of mailing list evolution, and hope to eventually be getting spam addressed to HisMiddleName HerMisspelledFirstName, Esq.

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yuck

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 07:41:33 GMT

Since visiting the dentist this morning, I have eaten two meals and two snacks, drunk water, brushed my teeth, and used mouthwash. I have also had a full day of saliva production, as one does over the course of the average day.

My mouth still tastes faintly of the artificial flavoring in the fluoride treatment that was applied fifteen hours ago.

Yuck.

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I am better at rebelling by accident than I am at doing it on purpose

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 06:14:13 GMT

If your Gmail fills in the name of somebody you don't know who has the initials of my wallet name, that's probably me.

I set up a Google+ account early, because of peer pressure and curiosity. I've barely used it since, both because I find Google to be creepy and because it seemed to be trying to replicate LiveJournal circa 2003, with less fanfic and an interface I found less personally useful. I set it up with the initials of my wallet name, because a) advertising is an insufficient reason to abandon basic safety precautions and b) I was feeling too lazy at the time to think of something and didn't want to link it to other pseudonyms I have more attachment to until/unless I had a similar attachment.

After some time, Google flagged the initials and locked me out. By that point, I was fairly sure that I was almost never going to use this account, but that there would be people who persisted in sending out invitations via it, so I wanted to keep the channel at least minimally open. So I filled in a plausible wallet name with the same initials. I picked a pretty one that was easy for English-speaking Americans to handle (since I'd already heard enough about the prejudices of the Google+ name-judgers) and that didn't cause confusion with anyone else I was aware of. (It's not unique in the world, but that wasn't my goal. I just didn't want to confuse anyone I knew. Also, I didn't want to spend more than ninety seconds placating the foolish beast.)

Because I got the original Google+ invitation to my main email account, even though I think I set it up to go to an alias, Google now thinks it knows the wallet name of my main email account. It uses that name everywhere, even overriding the personal Gmail settings of friends who had stored my email address as a contact.

If Google continues to take over the world, I expect to be able to get a passport in this name in another decade.

I have decided to be amused by this whole thing, because I prefer amusement to being creeped out.

(Disclaimer: this is probably not adequate to actually separate the identities in Google's databanks. If you want that, don't take my advice; take advice from someone who actually has experience in this area. Sorry and good luck.)

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body hair (this post brought to you by procrastination and church spam)

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 05:23:49 GMT

I get a fair amount of strange church spam in my physical mailbox. Some of it's being strange deliberately to get attention (and thereby demonstrating a close cousin to "the failure mode of clever is asshole"). I'm pretty sure some of it's not. I think it's either tin-eared or aimed at a very different audience from me.

( I don't think there's anything too problematic here, but religion and bodies are both things that can be very important and complex to people, so I'm cutting it )

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balance

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 23:32:55 GMT

I have spent most of today doing computer graphics homework. The story part of my brain is apparently bored -- it just declared that Janelle Monae is the dignified, elegant, robotic descendant of Cyndi Lauper.

It's not wrong; I just find that to be a strange contrast to "the blue light is off in the shadows... ah, it's because ambient light isn't directional. Rename the variable... missed one. What's a good partitioning strategy for color space?"

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