Sotto voce

Oct. 27th, 2007 03:12 pm
cleolinda: (Default)
I'm in the kitchen making caramel brownies for the pumpkin-carving party tonight. Sister Girl, a certified pastry chef, is helpfully ("Use a spatula") pointing out ("Stir it like this") everything ("That's too much cooking spray") I'm doing wrong. (Laughing: "Well, am I putting it into the pan wrong?" Also laughing: "I don't know, I haven't seen you do it yet.") In the den, the Charter guys are here to hook up all the tentacly bits of the TV/cable box/DVD player, while my parents assist.

Sister Girl: "Mom's hitting on the tall one."

Me: "Heh."

Sister Girl: [indicates her approval nonverbally]

Me: "So it's worth it, then. But why is he wearing a safety vest? What is it, hunting season?"

Sister Girl: "I have no idea."

Me: "Heh. For
cougars."


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cleolinda: (Default)
Okay, so... it's been a while. I'm not sure why I haven't updated in a few days; I feel like I've been busy, but I'm not sure doing what. Well... )

A little bit of linkspam )


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cleolinda: (eowyn)

Today's weather forecast on Yahoo Weather (12:54 pm):

High: 38
Low: 37
Current: 35

Wha?

VP Accident Tale Filled With Discrepancies. O rly. Ya rly: far from "zero drinking," there was, in fact, beer. Which... well, when you put it that way, doesn't sound all that awful. But then, I didn't think lying about a blowjob was so terrible, either. Clearly I'm not cut out for this politics thing.

From [livejournal.com profile] suenosdejmi: "There's a website, www.invisiblechildren.com, which is of a non-profit that is working to help children in Northern Uganda. There's groups of people travelling the country showing this documentary film about these kids, and the war, & their lives there...it's all really powerful stuff.  I feel really compelled to help, but there's not too much to be done, you know?  If you could just help me spread the word about this website, there's all sorts of information there about the cause & the mission. Thanks!!"

Isaac Mizrahi Defends Red-Carpet Behavior. Except he doesn't so much "defend" it as defy all critics, promising more of the same (most famously, he grabbed Scarlett Johansson's breast and squeezed, like, three times). I would give my eyeteeth to see some starlet mace him on the red carpet come Oscar night.

Co. Hopes to Market Kid Rock, Stapp Tape. But I thought assisted suicide was illegal...?

Apple Hackers Encounter a Poetic Warning.

Nick Lachey files for spousal support. And jewelry. No word on who gets custody of the boobs.

NBC goes after You Tube. That's right! How dare you make "Lazy Sunday" a cultural zeitgeist! It was particularly cruel, how you revived the show's flagging ratings! And the way you updated the video with "We know how popular that video is but YouTube respects the rights of copyright holders. You can still watch SNL's Lazy Sunday video for free on NBC's website"? Reprehensible.

Michael Jackson has a Katrina song. God help us all.

redrum! redrum!

Words you never expect to see in a cookbook, no matter how old it is: To make the Brain Cakes.

Franz Ferdinand cover of Gwen Stefani's "What You Waiting For." Right-hand side, near the bottom, go!

Sonic teenager repellent. There's a fifteen-year-old in me that's totally indignant. There's also a twenty-seven-year-old who hopes the man who came up with this becomes so rich.

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog ("Top X searches in myne networke: 10. John Gowere swyving a donkey").


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cleolinda: (Default)

Okay, I have a metric fuckton(ne) of linkspam, so we'll leave that until later, after I've had a chance to sort through it. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Valentine's Day was actually fairly pleasant. There was chocolate, and it was good. There was Ferrero Rocher, and it was awesome. Mom (who gives us little gifty bags for any and every holiday) gave me a little Paperblanks book, and since I'm in love with those journals I was totally asquee, and also a green glass perfume atomizer (I think; I haven't tried it out yet, because I'm in deep turmoil over what to actually put in it, and how much to dilute it). Sister Girl brought home a cake that she was really proud of--a sponge cake she'd had to slice horizontally into layers herself, and then layer with crème Chantilly, chocolate chips, and orange bits. The cake was then frosted with more crème Chantilly and topped with whole cherries, one on each slice, and a little cluster of chopped candied fruit in the middle. She's bringing home a tiramisù tonight that she said didn't turn out as well--she forgot to soak the ladyfingers in espresso, which is more than fine by me, because I don't like coffee anyway. ("But the custard is also flavored with coffee." "Well, shit.") In fact, the only thing that went at all wrong between today and yesterday is that I haven't been able to work worth a damn.

(Consider this your Lost Discussion prompt as well, because I don't know if I'll be back at the computer before eight.)


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cleolinda: (eowyn)

Okay, I wrote this earlier today:

On one hand, I just burned my fingertips on the toaster oven. On the other hand, I just made a totally awesome sandwich with Em's sun-dried-tomato-edged turkey, paper-thin smoked cheddar, Swiss cheese, and marble rye. With dill pickles on the side. Mmm.

Sounds pretty chipper, right? Well, two hours later I was crying over having to wash dishes I didn't even cook with or eat on. (Yes, we have a dishwasher. Yes, I was running it. That's how many dishes had been dirtied--so many I had to wash a separate sinkful by hand just to get them all done before my stepfather got home and blew a fuse. This is what happens when multiple cooking students come over for the afternoon. No, I don't know why I had to wash them, except that... no, I still don't know.) What I'm saying is, running out of one's antidepressant medication at the beginning of the week is a bad, bad thing.

(And then Sister Girl was miffed because there wasn't much hot water for her shower. Because I had used it all WASHING HER PANS.)

*sells kidney, moves out*


Update from previous entry: Whale Swimming in London Lost, Likely Sick.

Second update: Lost whale heading back to sea.

Peaches Honeyblossom Michelle Charlotte Angel Vanessa Geldof to celebrity parents of the world: STOP IT.

Speaking of Peaches Geldof: Paging Gwyneth!

[livejournal.com profile] robyn_ma: "Tom Cruise stops the South Park Scientology episode from airing in the UK."

More Atropa's Cottage drama. The link up top is to a really funny BPAL/Atropa's Totally Unlike BPAL Cottage parody and refers to the drama in the comments, not any displeasure with the parody itself.

[livejournal.com profile] dailydigestnews: Reese AND Natalie scammed by Chanel!



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cleolinda: (susan)

New Narnia Heroine Addict icons. As a Sagittarian, I'm a teensy bit obsessed with archers, so... sorry about that. But there are Lucy icons in there as well.

The official Narnia movie site has some fun 360-degree walkthroughs and games. You get to play Tumnus's flute and try to save Edmund and read excerpts from the book, all in the search for "tokens" (which will unlock bookmarks and wallpapers and blah blah I'm not sure all what, but pretty pictures whee!). Also, one of the tokens? Unlocked a recipe for Turkish Delight. I have to say, the movie succeeded in making it look less nasty than I've heard. If you are in the mood for something that looks like Turkish Delight but doesn't taste "like soap," you might try Fruit Jewels over at Swiss Colony, which basically sells gifty-basket food. I think it's the same principle as TD, only with fruit. This is an innovation whose time has come.

(Or... you can buy real Turkish Delight here.)

(Also, Skandar Keynes [Edmund] is apparently the great-great-great grandson of Charles Darwin. Both [livejournal.com profile] anne_jumps and I think this is hilarious.)

(Also, more on Tilda Swinton, who is... well, "rebel" doesn't quite cover it. If you want to look into more of her work, start with Orlando [omgsogood] and The Deep End. You've probably seen her in Constantine, Vanilla Sky, or possibly The Beach and not realized it.)

You know, I have to say, I think we've had a really great year for movies. I mean, even the summer movies were better than usual, or at least Batman Begins certainly was. Either last year or the year before I tried to make a top ten list, and realized that not only could I not come up with a top ten I'd seen, I couldn't even come up with an any ten I'd seen--I bottomed out at nine. This was mostly a function of my not getting out much; now that the Lovely Emily is back in town, we tore it up this year. Assuming I do go see King Kong next Wednesday and the earth isn't destroyed by the mighty hand of Xenu first, here's what I've seen this year:

Read more... )



and then King Kong next week. That's right: twenty movies. *flexes* I'm not going to try to do any kind of recreational ranking until after Christmas, though.  

Speaking of Kong, reader Isaac emailed me the other night and said he and his wife were going to a preview, and would I like him to report back afterwards? I'm never one to turn down a movie report, so here's part of what he said: Read more... )

I didn't read the rest because, as he warned me, it was something of a blow-by-blow full-length spoiler, and I feel like I know so much about this one--it being a remake and all--that if there really are twists and surprises, I'd like to save them for the theater. I have, however, suggested that he send the spoiler on to The Movie Spoiler, which would either be glad to have it or will have one already, so those of you who are kicking me for not sharing it, you'll have access to one either way.


More linkspam:

RIP Richard Pryor.

Damon and Barroso Expecting -- And Married Too.

Photographer Hits Back at Aniston. AKA "Hello, I am an asshat."

'King Kong' sixth most expensive Hollywood film. (Note, if you will, that the top three most expensive involved large water sets. I maintain that water sets, particularly water battle sets, are the leading cause of runaway expenses in filmmaking.)

Katrina Deaths Lead to Real-Life 'CSI'.

Trailer for Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette with Kirsten Dunst. It's set to the music of... New Order. ("Age of Consent." I actually feel like there is nothing wrong with this trailer that could not have been fixed by using "Regret" instead. I'm kind of a famous queens buff, and after reading Antonia Fraser's MA bio, I feel like Dunst is actually pretty good casting. Jason Schwartzman doesn't seem... hapless enough, but I guess we'll see. Norma Shearer's Marie Antoinette is pure romantic fantasy-fluff [and yet... not entirely without basis], but that movie's Louis is really, really good, going by what I've read of him.)

Pictures from the set of Lost taken earlier this week.

Satirical blog comment picked up as news.

Barbra Streisand cancels newspaper subscription. Why is this news?

Pat the Bunny for the 21st century. I think the article's work-safe, but the concept certainly isn't.

[livejournal.com profile] barrelgoddess: "Ack, some disturbing news that relates to the Sony rootkit thing. Since you've been posting stuff about/following this, I thought I'd let you know. Apparently, they've been caught in another DRM snafu."


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cleolinda: (Default)

I am wiped, you guys. And it's not even that I did any particularly heavy lifting. But it did involve trying to buy a Christmas present for Sister Girl on eBay, a situation that spiraled so badly out of control in the space of half a minute that I was relieved to lose the auction, for the reason that I actually will need to pay taxes and tuition next year.

So, three mild heart attacks later, I work on an email interview (more on that later in the week), slice up my pound cake, and go to class. No one eats any of the pound cake, which is my grandmother's recipe, and possibly the best, moistest pound cake you will ever taste. I am miffed, until I realize that this... leaves me with more pound cake. Also, we didn't workshop the first thing in class, which was awesome, because I had gone completely unprepared and unpapered (I'd spent so much time taking notes and cataloguing evidence that I hadn't begun to try to stuff it all into an outline), so sitting around and eating and shooting the American Renaissance shit was completely fine as far as I was concerned. And that was my class for the semester.  

We didn't go to Aeon Flux tonight because both Em and I were exhausted, and because we started hearing that it's "the worst movie of the year." Which I think means I should totally see it; I just don't know that I want to pay eight dollars for the privilege, and then fall asleep while I'm at it.

Tomorrow: tree decorating, and I am going to try to sit myself down to take care of all the mail I have piled up. Or finish annotating The Morgesons. Or finish Christmas shopping. Or SOMETHING, so long as it's useful, because I've got a solid week until the exam and I do not want to faff around for seven days. The faffing we save for Christmas vacation.

Livejournal is still not sending me all my comments. It has, however, begun to send me comments from November 20, which is... instructive.

 Linkspam:

[livejournal.com profile] allthelivesofme: "Saw this, and immediately thought, 'Cleolinda and Sister Girl would probably appreciate it...' Celebrity cookies."

The answers to the Virgin Digital band picture game.

Poodlepanda WTF.

Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese marry. 

"Splitney" calls in the lawyers.

omg The Wide, Wide World is online. READ THE FRENCH PORN!

Professor Loses Weight With No-Diet Diet

Arkansas Man Scales White House FenceLook at the picture: this man may actually be possessed by Satan.

[livejournal.com profile] syneblue: "In the vein of Memoirs buzz, here's an interesting little essay on geisha in American culture."

Warring Narnia essays:

>> "Narnia is everything hateful about religion. See, Philip Pullman says so!"

>> "Before C.S. Lewis became a famous Christian, he was already a famous scholar - and there’s a lot more going on in his Narnia series than Christian allegory." 

>>  "The Chronicles of Narnia, seven tales penned between 1950 and 1956, are not so much Christian stories as stories penned by a Christian."

>> Philip Pullman is a stupidhead.

(I love His Dark Materials, but when it comes to his irrational hate-on for Lewis... he kind of is.)

The most awesome Narnia pendant ever. (Better picture.)

A first look at X-Men 3, a movie I fear greatly. (Here's the new trailer.) "We want this to look different from the first two." Uh, why? I mean, considering that the first two movies were good, and people liked them?

A site all for the O RLY? owls. I am way too happy about this.




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cleolinda: (Default)
Horoscope of Intriguing Ideas:

Quickie: Today, follow your instinct for music and art. They hold answers you're looking for.

Overview: If you don't have plans to travel, you probably will soon enough. Someone new, interesting and skilled at taking chances will entice you to take off for an exotic locale you've always wanted to see.

Daily extended (by Astrology.com)
Get out your list of places to see in this lifetime and add those new ones you keep thinking about -- the ones in your personal zeitgeist, which keep coming up over and over and sound just amazing. Now maybe it's time to reprioritize. If you could go right this instant, which one would win out? Move it to the top. Then maybe there are some others nearby you could hit. Now on to finding the time -- as soon as possible.



I love December. In fact, I love it so much that I had to go look over last year's entries to make sure I didn't repeat myself. We were going to decorate the tree tonight, which is my FAVORITE PART EVER except for maybe the part with the presents, but I think we're holding off until tomorrow night. Which is a bit problematic, as the Lovely Emily and I had planned to go see Aeon Flux tomorrow night, and even if we did try to cram the tree in tonight, I still have miscellaneous paperage due tomorrow. Also a pound cake. It's our last day of non-exam class, and so we're bringing food, which... does not really make it any different from any other class we've had this semester, but this time the food has to have appeared in one of the books. So I'm frantically flipping through The Morgesons muttering about pound cake, because I am not in the mood to take a stab at apple fritters or sponge cake or "Indian bannock," whatever in five hells that is. ("Thin cornbread baked on a griddle," apparently.) I could fire up the wafflemaker and make a pile of Belgians, since the Morgesons do serve waffles at tea, but... I'm not thinking they're going to keep too well. Actually, it would be hilarious if I brought the batter and the wafflemaker with me and made them to order during class, but... I don't know that I have the energy for that right now. 

That's the problem with December--the first part of it, you're too tired to do anything fun. I do sort of dread the first couple of weeks a little, because they usually mean feverish procrastination and the desperate burning of midnight oil, but fortunately most of that is over before my birthday. It's usually pretty tight, though, and I've had a few exams on my birthday before. So December is usually a very busy month--term papers, nervous breakdowns, my birthday, my sister's birthday three days later, frantic powershopping, last-minute wrapping (ALL the wrapping is last-minute, quite honestly. Well, 70% of it. Mom likes to wrap a few things early and have them under the tree to look pretty. She got in trouble over this last year because she accidentally put out a few packages marked "From Santa," and Sister Girl never let her hear the end of it. "THANKS FOR STABBING MY CHILDHOOD IN THE HEART, MOM!"), 783 viewings of A Christmas Story (although last year we substituted Monty Python and the Holy Grail for midnight wrapping--first time I'd actually seen it, if you can believe it), a round of Christmas parties and, if we're lucky, three or four of those corporate gifty-foody baskets. I love those baskets, man. They're always full of things you would never have occasion to buy for yourself, like strange cheeses and summer sausage and weird honey-butter-mustard-jams and tins of Danish butter cookies (and tea and chocolate, if you get the really fancy baskets). Speaking of cookies, I think Sister Girl's making Christmas sugar cookies tonight--she even has fresh lemons for the icing, which seems a bit Martha to me, but hey, she's the one in cooking school.

Oh, and while we're on the topic of Christmas, Sister Girl has decided that she only really wants three things between that and her birthday, and they're all killers. Like, the Vosges truffles aren't hard to find, but we're not giving her a $500 subscription to the Chocolate of the Month Club, so I'm weighing my Haut Chocolat options for something less, uh, haut. I think I know what I'm getting, but I'm not divulging that here.

The other two things she wants are a little harder to find. She wants a set of Oz books--they're apparently written by Baum and then a woman after his death--but they need to be a matched set. The best I could find was the fifteen Baum books in a single volume, and she didn't like that, so... I don't really know what to do about that one.

The third thing? A pair of ruby slippers.

You can get them, you know. There's a guy who makes $250 custom replicas, but even if you blow off the price (which I can't), he'd need six weeks to make them and six weeks until Christmas there ain't. So I'm looking at more down-market replicas (which Sister Girl said would be fine) in size 9-1/2 (what? We [Jones] women, as it were, have hobbit feet). So... I'm on the lookout for that.

Meanwhile, I've spent the day cataloguing every. single. reference. to clothing in The Morgesons. It feels a bit futile, because even I know I won't have room to use them all in the paper even if I could figure out a way to do so, but it has been fun to make connections I hadn't noticed before (both Veronica and Cassandra wear merino dresses when they're in love). I can probably squeeze out a quick five-page version for the workshop tomorrow, and then I have a solid week to see midnight Narnia zomg write the full 15-pager and review the other books for the exam. And I am not allowed to play Neoquest II until I have done it, and I have even managed to hold off all day, less ye have little faith in my resolve to not have a nervous breakdown starting the paper the day it's due.

(By the way: I'm a dumbass, you guys. The point of posting the White Witch icons the other day was that I have a whole folder of them for y'all.)


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cleolinda: (black ribbon)
Oh my God, Melville's Pierre. I hope to God that this is not on the exam in any substantial way, because I finally got to the end by way of a hard skim, and I really do not want to spend any more time on this book, what with the ridiculously florid style that may or may not be purposely satirical (and if it is, maybe it ain't satirical enough). Maybe it's the kind of book that grows on you, I don't know. All I know is, we were warned that it was "really weird" and "deals with incest," and I was like, "Well, you just described half the internet right there, bring it on," and then in the first chapter you find out that Pierre and his mother are a little too close. Like, they call each other brother and sister, and they're so soppy over each other that you'd be disgusted even if they were completely legal, unrelated husband and wife. And Pierre is in love with Lucy Tartan (...okay), which Pierre's mother approves of entirely, because she figures Lucy will totally roll over and basically let her (Pierre's mother) continue to be the wife in the relationship.

And then I find out that that's not even the incest the professor was talking about )

Meanwhile, the jeans I ordered came in yesterday. They're a lighter blue than I wanted, but they fit me like a charm, so all's well. Plus, Em is coming over for Lost tonight and I am making my famous Italian chicken salad, which is not "chicken salad" in the salad-spread sense of the term, but rather a green tossed salad with sliced grilled chicken and tomatoes and pepperoncini and mozzarella and roasted red pepper dressing and, if you can get it, crusty French bread. Mmm.

I may go ahead and post the Lost discussion entry early, but postdated, so I won't forget. Also, if you have previously commented anon, please consider taking two seconds to get a free LJ account, because anon commenting will still be off. And if someone does decide to make trouble anyway, please IGNORE THEM ENTIRELY, I am begging you. If you still feel like I need to know about it, email me at cleolinda @ livejournal.com, because I turn off email notifications on Lost entries (for reasons that will be obvious if you look at the average comment count).

Hmm... what else... Out of curiosity, is anyone else going to the midnight Goblet of Fire screening at the Vestavia Rave tomorrow night? The temperature has dropped beautifully, so I probably will be able to wear my Ravenclaw scarf. Not that this will help you identify me, I'm sure, but if anyone else is going, I'll post a more helpful identifier closer to time.

(The last time I went to a midnight or opening night screening: Two Towers in 2002. Because yes, I have to trot this piece out every year. Some people have pieces they post every Christmas; I have the time we nearly died at the movies. P.S. It is almost entirely true.)

Fun Triwizard Challenge games at the official site.

CRUCIO!

Another Memoirs of a Geisha link, this time from [livejournal.com profile] la_sonnambula: You too can be oppressed by societal standards of beauty, just like a geisha!

[livejournal.com profile] drpeprfan: "I found this online and it made me laugh, I don't know if it would interest you or not, but it's called 'If Dr. Seuss wrote for Star Trek: The Next Generation.'"

Celebrity Rent wank!

And in more serious news, from [livejournal.com profile] anniesavoy: "I read an article recently that said up to 5,000 people are still missing with regard to Katrina, and I was shocked. I can't imagine why that is not front page news! Ai yi yi."


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cleolinda: (rapunzel trinascharthyman)

I have felt like crap all day, including but not limited to breaking out in a cold sweat at the grocery store and nearly blacking out, so you're going to have to wait a bit longer for the Lost recap.

Mom's having knee surgery tomorrow. It's a short, common procedure, and she'll be back at work on Monday. But still. I'm probably going to be running around for her a good bit this weekend, so you may not hear from me much. Or maybe you will. There's no telling.

(Have been having weird food cravings all day--starch, mostly. I really, really wanted bread pudding or rice pudding, which is really weird considering that I've never had bread pudding or rice pudding. I also felt a deep urge to try out a shortbread recipe [can you make shortbread with margarine, or is there just really no point to that? I can't remember if Sister Girl has any more butter around from baking or not] and possibly a gingerbread recipe to take to class. You know, when I have it again next week. Why am I so bake-y all of a sudden? And then I found englishteastore.com and was in big trouble. Which reminds me: 101 Great British Foods, a must-read.)

Got a Click-n-Ship notification for a BPAL order, which is exciting--it might be the big Carnaval Noir order I made a while back.

Also got an email from my editor, who says that my copies of the book are on the way over. That's going to be surreal. If I can get my camera phone to work (it works; it just doesn't want to send pics to my email so I can post them, which is kind of the point of having it), I'll post a picture of them when they get here.

Linkspam:

Had a request last night, so: Charlie makes faces at the baby, who seriously does have a turniphead.

"The Feel Good Hit Of The Summer!"

Flight attendants outraged over Jodie Foster film. (Warning: major spoilers, apparently.)

The Penny Arcade boys vs. Harlan Ellison. "I said that I had [in fact 'at least finished high school'], but you couldn’t really hear me because the audience is laughing at me along with Harlan. So once they stop, I turn to him and I say, 'While I’ve got you here I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the Star Wars stuff you wrote.'" OH NOOOOO.

*writes that one down*

(I in no way condone PA fans' subsequent trolling on Ellison's website or the remarks about his wife. I'm just saying.)

It's Banned Book Week and nobody told me! Bonus: Astonishingly stupid reasons why these books were challenged.

And now I'm off to find something to eat. Be afraid.




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cleolinda: (Default)

Linkspam while I debate whether I really want to go through the trouble of washing my hair for class or not:

I'm not sure what hi5 is, but... I have one now.

Why Nice Guys Suck. Let me clarify that we're talking about self-proclaimed "Nice Guys" here, not actual nice guys who are independent and grounded and "nice" in the purest sense of the word.

The wit and wisdom of Tallulah Bankhead.

Canadian pulp fiction. Delightfully sleazy, eh?

Livejournal FINALLY makes the Yahoo Picks link archive... via Poppy Z. Brite.

An old favorite: bubblewrap!

The Worst Album Covers Ever. No, seriously.

Kidman: Psychiatry Is Worthwhile Field; Oh, Snap.

Vampire names: Depending on which name I usw, I get either Marion Darling, Bast of the Crows ("Intelligent, knowing, wise and shrewd. This winged one was cast from the firmament") or Persephone Saint Clair, Artemis of the Howling Wolves ("Hot of blood and running wild with the hungry wolves").

Time: The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth.

Just ask two of the ringleaders of this bloodless, prom-dateless coup: archgeek Joss Whedon, the man behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the science-fiction movie Serenity, which opens this Friday; and Neil Gaiman, creator of the classic comic book Sandman and author of the fantasy novel Anansi Boys, which comes out this month. Gaiman also has a movie opening this Friday, the Dark Crystal--flavored fantasy Mirrormask. "It will be national geek day!" he says.
Plus, the full text of a group interview with Gaiman and Whedon. Gaiman on blogging: "These days there are 1.2 million people reading it. It's very, very weird. We have this enormous readership, as a result of which now I feel absolutely far too terrified and guilty to stop. I'd love to stop my blog at this point, but there's this idea that there will be 1.2 million people's worth of pissed-off-ness that I hadn't written anything today." Keep reading for Gaiman's experience with a human Klingon shield. 


Katrina links:

Ex-FEMA Director Brown Blames Others. Absolute best part:
His efforts to shift blame drew sharp criticism from Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike.

"I'm happy you left," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. "That kind of look in the lights like a deer tells me you weren't capable of doing that job."

Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., told Brown: "The disconnect was, people thought there was some federal expertise out there. There wasn't. Not from you."
Brown Rehired At FEMA. "CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports that Former FEMA director Michael Brown told congressional staffers on Monday that he has been rehired by the agency as a consultant to help evaluate how FEMA responded to the Katrina disaster." I'm going to look at this as optimistically as possible and assume they want to study his dumbassitude for posterity.

Leader of New Orleans Police Resigns.

Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina. (Thanks, [livejournal.com profile] eve_the_just.)


Miscellaneous notes:

Cooking: I have been craving salsa from that burrito place in New Orleans for more than a year now, so I've finally decided to try making my own fresh salsa. I dug up several recipes from a site and I'm looking over them for ratios and common denominators, but here's the thing: I don't really like the bitterish flavor of jalapenos and green bell peppers, which you get in salsa a lot, apparently. (Actually, I don't mind the jalapenos in Green Mountain Gringo Salsa, but still.) Usually I use a taco sauce instead of salsa--Ortega? I can't remember--because I really like the sweet/savory taste, and I finally went, HEY! I can just look at the ingredients and translate this to an actual salsa and stop hoarding bottles of this hard-to-get sauce like a loser! The flavor seems to come mostly from green chiles and paprika, which is interesting. So I'm looking at making a fresh salsa from plum/Roma tomatoes, red and possibly yellow bell peppers (which I really like), sweet onions, fresh cilantro, green chiles, fresh garlic, lime juice, kosher salt, and... well, here are the "maybe" ingredients: olive oil, apple cider vinegar, banana peppers, Tabasco, and the aforementioned paprika. Oh, and tomatillos. Not sure if I'm going to bother roasting any of the ingredients, although several recipes mentioned roasting, broiling, or grilling various items. But it's starting to turn into such a laundry list that I'm not sure if it's overcrowded. 

Meanwhile, my sister is wandering around the house muttering, "I must have SAUSAGE." I think she's doing something with a jar of spaghetti sauce, I'm not sure.

New shots from Narnia: BEAVERS! Also: the White Witch will EAT YOUR SOUL. ETA: AIEEE.

The Incredible Edible Syncophantic Horoscope:

Quickie: Your luck is about to change -- get ready for some outlandish dreams to come true.

Overview: Everyone wants to hitch their wagon to a star like you, especially when your powers of persuasion get going. Go ahead and use liberal amounts of your playful charm to grease the wheels and a good time will be had by all.

Daily extended (by astrology.yahoo.com)
Cast aside any self-doubts -- or better yet, recast them as positive statements. So instead of beating yourself up by saying, 'I make terrible choices,' tell yourself, 'I remain open-minded to all possibilities.' It's amazing how spinning things the right way can give you a new sense of perspective on circumstances that previously had you in the pit of despair. You can see your true potential if you try -- really.


That's deep, yo.


    Site Meter

cleolinda: (Default)
Odds and ends:

I've got a little story today for you about baked goods gone horribly, horribly wrong. Well, actually, if you want to get technical, we're talking about fried goods--Sister Girl is having to do cajun cooking, or something New Orleans-related, essentially, that resulted in her having to make beignets.

Now, I bought her a box of mix at Café du Monde that produced light, fluffy, delicious beignets. But seeing as how this is cooking school, they are not so much interested in the box mix. So Sister Girl makes the beignet dough from scratch and lets it sit for a day to rise and all that, and she takes most of it to school and leaves a plastic bag of leftovers at home. (Side note: this was mutant beignet dough to begin with. The day she made it, she came back that night and it was, like, already bubbling over and trying to climb out of the bowl and take over the world. "Uh, I think your dough is riz," I said. "Uh... YEAH," she said.)

Two days after that, she gets it into her head to actually make beignets from the leftover dough. Now, I can make cake or cookies from scratch, but generally my experience with baking is the glorious boxed mix, so I'm all like, "You let it rise for three days? Is it... still good?" Also, she didn't refrigerate it at all--just let it sit on the counter, in front of a window, in the sun. So she's heating her oil and getting it ready to fry and she doesn't like to cook (or do much of anything) alone, so I'm downstairs as her audience. And then she opens the plastic bag to roll the dough out. My Lord have mercy, I could smell it from across the room. What did it smell like? Beer.

"Your dough... fermented?"

"...Apparently."

But Sister Girl is nothing if not intrepid, so she decides to make the beignets anyway. Now, the last time I was really, truly ill with a stomach bug, I think we all decided that it was actually very mild food poisoning, and I can specifically point to bad pizza we were eating that night. And my God, was that painful. So I'm sitting here now going, Oh God. If she makes them, I'm going to have to eat them, because she always gets upset when you don't eat her cooking, even though maybe I don't WANT to eat baby cow, okay? And I seriously do not have time to die of bad beignet.

But the oil gets hot and she drops one in and it puffs up like whoa and she fishes it out and powders it down with sugar and drops another one in and this one is mine and she cuts each one in half and hands me one half on a fork. Hilariously, she makes a big show out of biting into hers and says, "Mmmmm, it is SO GOOD." So I carefully, gingerly sort of approach mine with my teeth and tear out a nibble and MY GOD IT BITES BACK.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you a new taste sensation: the beergnet. Those of you who don't have time for pastry and booze, well, now you can get them both in one convenient atrocity. My tongue immediately went numb. It was awful.

"Uh... yeah... it's... I really... I think I can still taste the beer."

"No! It's not that bad! All the beer cooked out. You just think you taste beer because you're expecting to."

What I really want to say is, "No, really, dude. It's okay. It's not your fault. But this is mutant beergnet and we have to nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure," but she's very touchy about her cooking, and I really don't want to cause a scene.

"So! I! I really! I really need to get back to--! I'm just going to--! Take my beignet and--go back upstairs!"

But Sister Girl looks sort of unhappy, and the oil is getting a little too hot and starting to smoke, and Mom is unobstrusively fiddling around at the sink pretending not to be up in Sister Girl's culinary Kool-Aid, and there's some sniping going on, and--well, I grew up as the family mediator. I'll stay a few minutes longer, just to make sure that Sister Girl does see reason and decides to close down the Little Beignet Shop of Horrors for the night. Unfortunately, she's still got one last monstrosity floating in the oil and--you know--she really hasn't--it's been a while--hey, you might need to--for the love of God, turn the beignet over!

And then the stove bursts into flame. So that was interesting.


And then I saved the universe. Again )


Links and quizzage:

As a reporter, it's important to say what you really think:

Are you dating anyone now?
Nothing serious, but I'm not lonely. I'm kind of in a phase right now where I'm in love with my girlfriends. I'll literally be sitting across the table from them and I'll think, Your eyes are so pretty.

Keri, that's called being a lesbian.
[Laughs] I might be. I love them so much.



I told you people would start handicapping next year's Oscars.

Now we are all going to die. (Thanks, [livejournal.com profile] supersyncspaz7.)


Blanchett and Pitt may costar in ''Babel'' )

Am I a drama queen? )
cleolinda: (eowyn)
Internet access out all day for reasons still not understood. Very pissed about this.

I forget whose icon it was, but it was a picture of Legolas early in TTT with that caption: "Man, I hate you all." That's kind of me right now. Let me put it this way: I sat through a pious recap of the entire second fight (and thanks for the kind words, guys. I was afraid we were all going to come off like psycho harpies, me included) at lunch with my mother, and finally I whispered, "Thanks, I know" (we were talking very quietly so as not to wake Sister Girl--you know, let sleeping dogs lie--and she says, "I know. I'm saying this in case she's listening." And then I went and made myself a tinfoil hat. It's quite fashionable, what with the tinfoil roses around the brim and all...

More deathly Philip Larkin:

This is the first thing
I have understood:
Time is the echo of an axe
Within a wood.


I turn 25 in a month. I need to stop reading Philip Larkin.

Stayed up all night watching TTT--until 6 am, actually. Had to wait quite late to start, to make sure Sister Girl didn't discover me and the DVD, because quite frankly I am selfish and do not want to share it with freakshow hissybitch at the moment. (No soup for you!) Also, because every time I lend her a DVD, I never see it again. I have to parachute into her room and go on a search-and-rescue mission. I did that last month and found my DVDs of Sleepy Hollow, American Beauty, Bridget Jones' Diary, Down with Love and--ohhhhh, beeyotch--my Moulin Rouge that had been "missing" for a year.

So. Watching the TTT EE. On the cast commentary, first disc, now (I'd be further ahead, but I went to bed after I finished the EE proper). Boyd and Monaghan crack my shit up. I can't wait to get to the featurettes, though--I just really enjoy seeing the actors clown around, and I really want to see the featurette with all the Andy Serkis footage. I've been dying to see more tape of just him acting all the scenes in his mo-cap suit.

There's still nothing that compares to Tig in the commentary this time around, though. Not yet, anyway.

Much nerdy lembas baking )

Off to get dinner and watch the rest of the first commentary...
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