10 Day Meme
Day 1 - Ten random facts about yourself
Day 2 - Nine things you do everyday
Day 3 - Eight things that annoy you
Day 4 - Seven fears/phobias
Day 5 - Six songs that you're addicted to
Day 6 - Five things you can't live without
Day 7 - Four memories you won't forget
Day 8 - Three words you can't go a day without
Day 9 - Two things you wish you could do
Day 10 - One person you can trust

1. I am a coffee snob of the varietal type because I can taste the differences. I don't like dark roast, generally, or most South Asian beans. My biggest preference is for medium roast East African and medium-dark Central American, blended in a 3:2 ratio. I drink it with a fair bit of whole milk, and no additional sweeteners. When I do get an espresso drink, it's a whole-milk latte. No, I don't want a fucking cappucino.

2. I like tea more in theory than practice. When I brew coffee, it's done immediately. Tea? I have to come back to it. I think I'll enjoy more tea as my kids get older.

3. I'm recovering from 2-3 decades of strong aversion to the color pink and floral prints in general. Dressing Miri has been therapeutic/cathartic, as has making sure Ty has plenty of pink and purple around to make it non-exclusive.

4. I will probably never warm up to wearing yellow or orange because they generally make me look awful. That doesn't keep it out of Ty's wardrobe, because most shades of both look really good on him. Okay, I can see getting away with some yellow when the hair goes all grey-white, but that's still many years from now.

5. I use my paternal grandmother's old bed step-stool at my desk to keep me from putting too much weight on my feet while I sit (especially while nursing Miri). I had to get speshul shooz for a reason.

6. I'm probably playing WoW less than I otherwise would simply due to the wrist brace I got for my De Quervain's tendosynovitis. It's a lot easier to play RTS/city-builders that are pausable point-and-click rather than live combat rotation stuff.

7. Like many people with messy families--and a lot of bad mental programming from growing up in such a family, I'm finding my thirties to be that time when all that shit starts shaking loose from my head for various reasons. Thus, while there are drawbacks, I'm glad I'm an older mom than average. I needed the extra years.

8. I was reading mostly-female SFF authors way before it was cool. Barbara Hambly, MZB (yes, I know; didn't then), Andre Norton, Katherine Kerr, Anne McCaffrey, Robin McKinley, Patricia McKillip, Kate Elliott, Martha Wells, Connie Willis, Michelle Sagara West and Lois McMaster Bujold were all well-represented in my book collection by the early '00s; David introduced me to Tanya Huff, P.C. Hodgell and Nina Kiriki Hoffman in '05. Granted, it was a fairly white, US-centric collection, but I've been continuing to broaden my horizons over the past 10 years.

9. However, my listening tastes have tended towards non-US Anglophone male singers, starting with Depeche Mode and INXS, then progressing to David Bowie, Sisters of Mercy, Peter Murphy/Bauhaus, Nick Cave, etc. Could just be that I'm a straight Anglophone woman. Also, I enjoy minor keys a lot.

10. I find myself watching Dr. Phil sometimes in a mix of horrified fascination and de-bubbling to remind myself what people outside my social circles (online and off) are like.

This entry was originally posted at http://katyakoshka.dreamwidth.org/144813.html.

For any POC geek grrls out there, I'd just like to say that my fave moment of my totally guilty pleasure [the torrid psuedo-medical romance series, aka Grey's Anatomy] season finale was watching Bailey geek out with her Star Wars fangirl in the OR.

Hands down. Everything else was all drahmah and handwringing and whatev TBD (with some nice moments mixed in, yes), but the shoutout to POC fans of SFFH... intentional or not, it makes it seem like someone's listening, no?

ETA: I would like to point out that Bailey is the biggest geek in the primary cast. ( in case you careCollapse )

So, no, Prop 8 has nothing to do with schools. It has everything to do with restricting rights. Prop 22 was overturned because it violated the state constitution. Anyhow, I am glad that the superindentant of schools is on record and on TV denying these stupid claims.

Also, over 75% of the funding for the "Yes on Prop 8" campaign seems to have come from the Church of Latter-Day Saints and its members in a bid to help Mormon candidates become more accepted by the religious right base as true social conservatives. (See here.)

Gay marriage will not cause the end of the world. That's the job of asteroids and supervolcanoes.

Cut people with whom I have little interaction. No hard feelings, please.

( Socio-economic, bold-all-that-apply survey.Collapse )

Caldera status:: contemplative

If you just noticed me unfriending you, and it bothers you, post here -- it's screened.

1. If I don't know you, and you add me... I will look at your journal. If I don't return the addition, it may have nothing to do with you, and everything to do with my own life being hectic.

2. If I've added you, I find you interesting to read, potentially for the long-term, at that point in time.

3. I really do have a hectic life. I work. I'm married. I have RL friends. Life happens.

Yo assholes. Fucking vote and shit. In California alone, if the people who were living to see the long-term effects of legislation actually bloody well participated, we'd have different results in every election for the past 10+ years.

Stop being morons. Take 10 minutes to vote. Don't let geriatric patients decide the future when they won't see it.

Beat the seniors in voting rates. They're moribund. And hate premarital sex.

You can't trust a generation who's anti-premarital sex!

( I am a sucker for the Interest Collage lemming-jump.Collapse )

Ganked from cmpriest: As one viewer put it, Christian Klingons in Finland, a.k.a. the band Lordi, with the live performance of their Eurovision contest-winner "Hard Rock Hallelujah."

Scary. Funny. Bizarre. And obviously meant for a Guitar Hero future.

Please take this survey! In particular, any of you who play trading card games (like Magic, Vs. System, etc.) should take it. It's for my fiance's product, the World of Warcraft trading card game which Upper Deck Entertainment will be releasing later this year.

There are some prizes offered; only the first respondent from any given IP address is eligible.

Thanks!

Best wishes and highest hopes to you NOLA folks. Hope all of you stay okay, and that you have a city to come home to.

[x-posted as comment to her journal in a post from a month or so ago]

( Coming out of the clothes-horse closet.Collapse )

1. Small ISBN/marketing/sales/inventory/purchasing clusterfuckery on the day that the catalog is to go to the printer... it should be expected. As usual, I'm sure there is no answer to the seamless transition attempt that will please everyone. At least the messenger (me) didn't get killed.

2. Shower today. Pastels make me cranky. The Aleve I took after eating something wheaty is making me sleepy. I might want to stock up on black, burgundy, brown, forest green, midnight and deep purple dyes if I choose to attempt the kid thing.

3. Saw Sin City. Enjoyed muchly. Reminded me of Thieves' World. Good times.

4. Introduced D. to his local Cuban restaurant. We split a sampler and still had l.o.'s.

5. Off tomorrow.

6. Tomorrow morning, I should be able to get my place into some semblance of order.

7. I'd already typed up a more wordy entry, but my computer's sulking due to abandonment issues in anticipation of my planned absence, so it decided to freeze. Fucker.

Spider in my car, crawling up the left edge of the windshield above me as I'm driving = not good.

I hate psychosomatic post-arthropod-viewing itchiness. The nagging fear that somewhere on your body, there is some creepy-crawly lurking, possibly a biting sort.

That I have two hits from the mosquito army already, one per shin... No, that isn't helping. Not a bit.

Desperately attempting to believe that there is not a baby spider in my tepid coffee. *twitch*

Is there a psychosomatic version of Benadryl? I wants some, I do. Ghaa.

Add some sort of allergic skin reaction around the base of my nose and under the nosepiece of zee glasses... helpmeiaminhell.

Okay, just irritating discomfort. Oh, botheration, anyhow.

EDIT: Dur. Dust. From shelves which have finally returned to me. Bah. More than what I'm used to dealing with. It might be a Benadryl night for me. Ghaa. Should get some anti-inflammatory going, just in case. Meh.

I have started noting a side effect of Broke-Ass Disease: not-eating. When the wallet, it sickens, my appetite has a sympathetic lack-of-desire-for-food.

[Let me just add that smelling Emergen-C in the air -- that, or the chronic rot lingering in the depths of the dysfunctional ventilation system -- well, chalk and rotting peaches helps suppress that gnawing hunger, but the dizzy, it does not dissipate.]

Oh, and the roommate being a constant fixture out in the living room doesn't help, for some reason. Maybe it's my social overload exacerbated by sleep dep, excess caffeine and not-eating, but...

Or maybe I'm just really fucking lazy. I hate preparing food. You know why I don't eat chicken? Work. It takes work. Steak? Marinade, broil, snarf. Soup? Microzap and snarf. Chips and dip? No cooking at all, usually. Straight to the snarfing.

And when I've got broke-ass, I can't get no mo' easy-snarf. *sigh*

So, while my laundry progresses (with aching, painful slowness) at my mother's, I can go to Tarzhay for the necessities (batteries for 'mote, hand soap, more dish scrubbies, cat fud), plus TJ's for the easy-snarf. The fact that she has no real snarfage there, part of the problem. And by the time I get home, I don't care so much about the eating. Or not-eating.

Bottom line: Food is work. Why can't I eat by osmosis?

Last thought: Being a vampire almost sounds appealing, except for that hunting bit. But, you know, "Happy Meals with legs," right? Oh, bother.

Osmosis is much more amenable to sloth anyhow.

( Dude, I am so sheepling like mad.Collapse )

If you want to believe my ex, whatever.

There's a whole 'nother side to the story, which I've tried to keep out of the local scene for the purpose of minimizing drama.

For the record, though, I moved out when I was 10 weeks pregnant. Had already scheduled the abortion (with his agreement to the course of action, so it's not like I did it on the sly). Had it the week after I finished up. It took me a month to move in, and a week to move out.

Now, I wish he'd not contact me ever again. I don't want to hear from him for my own reasons, and he has not chosen to respect that.

I am definitely taking NYE off. I have the time available, and, well, I will have two four-day weekends.

Yeah.

Three days of holiday time and one of vacation. Sounds about right to me.

Also, s'pos'd to talk on the phone with another guy with whom I've been corresponding via the personal ad. Works for HP, has an MBA, undergrad in comp sci, left-leaning and politically involved.

On another note, sending stabby thoughts to the desperate, passive-aggressive, no-effort-expending dweeb who sent me a "wink" (which merely says "I'm interested" without demanding any sort of composition of note), followed shortly by a note, followed by a note a couple days later soliciting my response. Considering the string of idiotic events of late, and the fact that his notes had no. fucking. content. of. worth. to which I could respond... The first went unanswered because I couldn't figure out what to say, and his photos made him come off as less than appealing. While his profile did show some good writing, politely bitching about the lack of response -- on a personals site, hello! -- revealed the inner clinging vine, the character that would turn cloying and sappy and spineless. Needy. I guess he doesn't realize that persistence with a stranger comes off as needy, since my profile says, basically, ix-nay on the eedy-nay.

I did send him a reply to the second one 'cause I was PMS-y and irritable (and thus not keeping to the wise rule of ignore-and-they-go-away), though I put politely the list of distracting events in my life of late which made it difficult to respond to his [near-contentless] "efforts"... okay, the last three words weren't in there, just that I felt too brain-fogged to write.

Said I'd write Monday. Oops. It's Wednesday, isn't it?

So, guys, if you ever decide to use a service like that, the rule is, one try. Whatever you do, one try. If you send a "wink" of some sort -- make your profile rich, full of humor and fodder for conversation. And never, ever use anything like "right under your nose" or "Where are you?" or anything else that smacks of petulant "Nice Guy" syndrome. You might think you're a nice guy. Chances are, you come off as a blandly manipulative creep.

And if you actually write a note, give real evidence you read the gal's profile. Ask about some things, share perspectives on others, and leave enough content for her to respond to, between the profile and the note.

In a sense, this goes for girls as well, but the passive-aggressive nice person crap... I've mostly seen it in guys. I think women make slightly different passive-aggressive stupid trying-to-date moves. Yeah.

Fucking sweet. Classic. LiveJournal drama in pagan makes the WSJ's opinion section's "best of the web today" (scroll down halfway, look for "Psychics Stole the Election!").

First, presidential candidate & enemies of the US Sim-slash, now an LJ pagan community featured as "best of the web" for hilarity factor...

Loving. It.

I done voted. And I gots a sticker. (Not trying to rub it in, belladonna_; be glad that enough people voted for them to run out -- what commentary is that on my voting precinct?)

Only one person ahead of me getting checked in/off. Then I was on my merry way through the ballot, with secrecy envelope. No, SD didn't do electronic voting, just "optical scan" (a.k.a.... Scantron). It doesn't have that happy fun stabbiness of the old punch-throughs. Le sigh.

In addition to having voted, I've also cleaned two litter boxes today. At least three cats definitely love me, for now. ;P

So glad to have shaken the general meh-ness of the past couple weeks. Seems like ages since I could contemplate a walk to and from Muir on UCSD; whether just plain dead tired, or gimped up with pain, or just plain rained out of it... I can consider doing so tonight.

Also: Frontlist on Floppy people (NAIPR).... WTF @ "fax or mail catalog proofs" and "please do NOT e-mail Excel files. Many, many problems can occur." I mean, you think we have someone free to retype all 28+ pages of the frontlist in Word if our catalog proofs aren't ready by 12/01/04? So. Tedious.

Voting later today. Late lunch, to miss the lunchtime voters, the pre-work voters, and the post-work voters. I'm not sure if it's good or bad that I'll be in a suburban polling place. It might not make much difference. At least I've done some research on the props.

Started in on The Group by Mary McCarthy. Enjoying so far. Witty, observant, etc. Probably a wise choice for today.

Wearing my *sigh* shirt today. Seemed appropriate. Because of the high AC here, I'm wearing another shirt, long-sleeved and black, underneath. Looking more casual than usual.

I want more coffee. Already did a Fall 2004 export for some mega-sale at B&N of all the current catalog stock. Had to re-export as I obviously hit "Move All" at some point, which totally messed up the whole damned thing.

Also, made the mistake of going to Electoral-Vote.com, and finding it Kerry 262, Bush 261. This is what I was avoiding with the no-TV.

My brother may be recruited this weekend for some visiting of the storage unit. I need to at least be able to watch videos. And I have a fair number. There are times when you just don't want to read, even, you know? And I want to watch all the movies I didn't watch when I got them ages ago. What's the point of owning something if you don't watch it/listen to it/read it, you know?

Meh. Did nothing for Halloween, per usual. Last year was an enjoyable exception. I should try to make the exception the rule, but.... Other years, I suppose. :P

I was totally boring this weekend. I mean, really boring. I think the high point was laundry.

I was feeling PMS-y ranty at the end of last week, frustrated by the fruitless arguments of a dozen different political positions (fruitless because most people's minds are probably set, and many of them will claim indecision to avoid other reactions, I'd wager). Luckily, that ebbed under the influence of dated fantasy (the works from one decade reveal a belief that certain sets of assumptions would still flourish for a long, long time, which isn't true, while more recent stuff... it's interesting to see an author anticipating the general tack of this country's private and public sector leadership a few years ahead of time). I'm being vague. Deal.

Other people had the excitement for me: A coworker managed to step in broken glass barefoot, both feet, and spent the weekend recovering from that; my mother met her first ever online acquaintance, and ended up at a party where the decor was more of my "scene" (apparently, it's a private club). My brother worked until 1 am, crashed at my mom's to avoid the wild party upstairs from his pad, beating her home, and rising in just enough time to eat/shower/dress and go back to work for 2 pm.

The Santa Ana today is giving me a headache; I probably need water more than anything.

1. Dressed up for work today -- costume, that is -- Drusilla, primarily Buffy season 2 Dru. Since co worker K. and I had discussed Jossverse costume options, I felt I must, since I have the wardrobe to support it.

In fact, I think that subconsciously, I took style cues from Dru, to an extent. Either that, or I like her for her excellent fashion sense.

2. I have introduced my coworkers to Pinstruck.com. This might have been a mistake, and not in the uber-bad way, just... Oh, dear, the vengeance curses!

3. Brought cider for potluck.

4. Soup's on.

Calendario Romano 2005

Catholic hotness via PopBitch. Let the drooling commence. (This is going to become an annual ritual, I guess.)