Pterophyta

Wait, Judi Dench plays Lady Catherine De Bough?! I'm going to have a harder time hating this movie than I'd thought!

ETA: If I ever became a Jane Austen fanfic writer, I'd want my name to be Caroline Bintly.

I won't link it directly since it was a friends-locked post, but someone on my flist is exploding in capslocked rage over this shit as recapped on ontd_political. In short, the Teabaggers were using images of Holocaust victims in protests against healthcare reform. An actual Holocaust survivor soundly criticized this tactic. In response, a slew of anti-Semitic vitriol ensued from the Teabaggers.

The reaction of my flister and others on the ontd_political comments is pretty much an outraged, anguished WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?!?!?! at all this. Because seriously, how can anyone accuse Jews for being overreactive about the Holocaust, especially when the accusers are the ones comparing public health care to genocide?

I have my own thought on that one, and I was going to share it over on that post, but I am trying not to spam other people's entries with my long-ass rambling replies so much! Plus, it's sarcastic and bitter. So instead I'll put it here, in my own LJ, where everyone reading knows I'm an unhelpful ass already!

Of course they don't want Jews to be angry about the Holocaust. Angry is a limited natural resource - much like oil! Once it's used up it's gone forever (world angry extraction is expected to peak by 2025, with serious shortages projected by 2040) then no one will be able to be angry about anything ever again. Where does that leave people like the Teabaggers? If they lose the ability to plaster the internets with furious and incoherent bullshit, how will they remind us how oppressed they are? How unimaginably bad they have it? The rest of us would be in danger of forgetting that they're totally important enough to be super oppressed by the scary mean government! And instead we'll all mistake them for self-aggrandizing dipshit bigots who like to publicly masturbate to their delusions of martyrhood.

Ahem.

Today's lesson: if you don't want to make asshole remarks to internet strangers, don't share those remarks with your friends over Messenger. Because your friends (at least my friends) will relay your asshole remarks to the person, thus making you an asshole by proxy.

Here is the Yahoo! Answers poster asking about ghosts:

I saw a ghost of my dead girlfriend she comes out every 2 weeks what do i do?

And here is my jackass reply as posted by my friend under the comments section:

You need to put out ghost traps. Check Amazon for the humane trap & release kind. You don't want to kill it.

Ah, trolling the trolls. It's a good use of my Saturday.

I have got to stop regarding taking the bus as some kind of moral failure. Otherwise I am going to have one wet, cold winter in front of me.

So I was browsing Amazon for a book I'd heard about. It may have been a romance novel, and then again it might not have been. If it was, it was certainly because it was mentioned a while back on Smart Bitches Trashy Books and not because I read mass market romances as a rule. And anyway, even if I did want to read a romance novel, it's totally acceptable because it's about a cabbie and a wilderness ranger and as far as I know there are no secret babies and the fact that the American publishers retitled it His For The Taking is in no way a reflection on the book itself or the author or me for wanting to read it. Which I never said I did anyway, this is all hypothetical and I don't appreciate being judged and anyway!

I put "His for the taking" (Shut up!) into the search bar and what an odd assortment of stuff comes back as results!

The obvious result Huh. Maybe that customer review has convinced me I don't want to read it, even for curiosity's sake.

Looney Tunes On Demand episodes

A CD titled The Art of Bawdy Song

Taking Risks: A Jewish Youth in the Soviet Partisans and His Unlikely Life in California

Christian contemporary music?

Something for tennis rackets?

My very favorite though are these, The Ungrammatical Underpants of Vegetarian Politicizing. Nothing says "Please don't perform sexual intercourse with me" like using your love department as a billboard to proclaim:

Human can be healthy without killing animals for food. Therefore if he eats meat he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite.

I'm not sure which I like more: the product description, or the sample image, which has the writing running on past the edge of the pants and off the end of the frame itself. It's as though the preview is forced to admit the impossibility of the product; there are just not underpants in existence political enough to hold this kind of message.

Until we can invent those boxers, you'll have to settle for tattooing the words onto your thighs.

( Goals for 2009 )

Man, only two more months. I have the chance to get most of these things done, but I seem to have completely lost the momentum I had earlier in the year. I'm not sure what to do about that except aim to make small incremental steps in November.

It's Friday afternoon, and let me just say I'm slightly tipsy and very lazy. Originally when I'd planned to do this post, I wanted to go into amazing detail, but right now I don't feel like digging out my notes. I'm sure any hardware nerds reading this already understand all the technical stuff anyway.

The most helpful resource in my DIY computer scheme has been the book Build It. Fix It. Own It. by Paul McFedries. I found this book thorough, engaging and easy to understand. I read it once to grasp the main principles behind computers, and have since skimmed through it again to take notes on the particulars. If you want to educate yourself about computers, I think you could do much worse than picking up this book. Of course it's a little outdated by now (nearly two years! eons!), and you may not want to take my word for it until I've managed to put together a working machine, but I will say it's done an excellent job at familiarizing me on the subject and given me the confidence to go out and learn more on my own.

The Ars Technica Budget Box guides for April and October 2009 have also been very helpful in giving me an idea of what I should be looking for in terms of parts. Thank you arsmusica for recommending the site to me. Also thanks for helping me with my general questions, and to firefell for offering to help me put the machine together when the time comes. Thanks of course as well to bigboots for helping explain things to me and to adoya for sending me that encouraging article.

Anyway! Parts!:

( Links and explanations. )

Monitor

I bought this today. I currently own a giant CRT monitor that comes right to the edge of my desk, forcing me to sit about a foot from the screen. I would like to replace this now rather than waiting to buy the rest of the parts in a month. Eventually I'll get rid of my television, so I wanted something with a larger screen.

Anyway, that's the preliminary list. If you have any suggestions or questions, I would appreciate hearing them!

Thanks!

Rumor has it there's going to be a ReBoot movie in 2010.

In celebration I post this:



Oh I have fond memories of that show - not just when it originally aired on Saturday mornings, but when reruns ran on Cartoon Network during my senior year of high school. I would rush home after sports practice to catch the next episode. Oh my God I shipped Bob and Dot back before I had heard of shipping or fandom or anything that would make me not weird for wanting to see cartoon characters start dating. And I loved Hex in her madness, and Megabyte was pretty much the best evil villain ever! (Even if he sorta reminded me of Kelsey Grammer. What? I dunno.)

The younger sister used to make fun of me, but she was stuck watching it with me because it aired before Dragonball Z - fucking Dragonball Z! The injustice! You know what that show was about? This is what that show was about:

( It's true! )


You know what ReBoot was about? Being awesome, that's what.

You ever read something so good all you can think is holy goddamn crap! and then run off to show it to everyone? That is the reaction I'm having to the end of a Sylvia Plath poem tonight:

Herr god, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.

The rest can be found here.

Okay, even if you don't follow Gunnerkrigg Court, how can you not want to read a chapter than begins like this?

A couple of years ago I was walking around downtown thinking "All the other girls have a wool peacoat. I want a wool peacoat!"

Eventually I got a peacoat, and I have loved wearing it ever since.

This year I am walking around downtown (and everywhere else it seems!) thinking "All the other girls have equestrian-style boots. I want equestrian-style boots!"

Except this time I will probably not get them. They'd cost several times what the coat did, and they wouldn't be so functional, they'd be shoes I couldn't really wear because I don't own the skirts required to really show them off.

However, knowing this does not stop me from wanting them anyway.

Holy crap I'm 28.

My birthday is tomorrow, and so Mom sent me an email with a couple of pictures of both of us as children.

Good Lord, in my photo I am wearing the most gigantic wolf shirt ever made. The wolf, it staaaaaares at the viewer, possibly to say "Hey you, taking the picture! You're her parents?!? And you let her wear me? In public?!? THIS IS WHY SHE DOESN'T HAVE MORE FRIENDS!"

I need a scanner so I can upload that bad boy to the internet at large.

Oh, Mom just sent another email. It's not just the picture, it's also the following message:

"Across the years, from scarves to wolfshirts, remember I love you."

This is the absolute best birthday greeting ever!

In an attempt to be slightly less culturally ignorant, I've been checking out a bunch of music albums from the library. In most cases, I don't like new music right away, so I've been listening to each album several times before I make up my mind whether I like it or not.

In some instances this has allowed me to develop a taste for something I wouldn't have otherwise enjoyed. Sadly, this is not so for Tori Amos - three to four listens of Abnormally Attracted to Sin and American Doll Posse have mostly developed the understanding that I don't like Tori Amos albums.

Bleh.

Would anyone like my copy of The Best American Erotica 1997? The only requirement is that you choose a colored pen (blue and purple are already taken) and write snarky notes in the margins, then send it on to someone else. vampireelf and I have already gone through it once each, but the more the merrier.

Edited to add: claimed by Shea! Now it just needs to be mailed to Norway. It's sad when porn anthologies are better traveled than I am.

So far today I've had ten hours of sleep, eaten pie in my pajamas, listened to the rain pouring outside and started an account on Newegg.com.

After an hour or so of browsing, I have about $400 worth of computer hardware on my Newegg wishlist. I know generally what I'm looking for, but I've realized I can't gauge where my standards for performance should be. My impulse is to look at very highly reviewed items and use their specs as my baseline. Then again, customers who take the time to review components are probably serious tech people, while I use the computer as a magical glowing gateway to internet comics and my email account. If my 10GB hard drive and 933 MHz processor have been serving me pretty well, do I really need to be looking to maximize every aspect of the new box? Probably not. While I hate the idea of spending hundreds of dollars for something that's already behind the curve, the truth is, whatever I build will be behind the curve within six months anyway.

The same thing happened when I was looking into buying a new cell phone. I finally had to let go of my worries about "missing out" and tell myself that if this was something worth using, I would probably be holding onto it well after it became outdated. So assuming it would fall short of whatever new products were available later, what features and capabilities would I want it to have? What would I actually use and enjoy? I'll probably take the same approach here. Of course before I buy anything I'll take one more read-through of my guide to building desktops, review the recommendations for the budget box on Ars Technica, and check out the system requirements for Windows 7.

Speaking of Windows 7, I went searching to see if my current operating system could qualify for an upgrade. It feels a little like blasphemy putting a ten year old operating system on a newly built computer, but if it would save me ninety bucks, why not? Sadly, the Microsoft store website has this to say:

You qualify for Windows 7 upgrade versions if you're running genuine Windows Vista or Windows XP on your PC. If you’re running Windows 2000, you’ll need to purchase the full product and do a clean install.

Haha! I almost feel like I'm being called out personally. How many people can still be running Windows 2000 anyway? At least it will be one fewer come November, I can tell you that.

I realized the other day that if I'm waiting to buy my components until next month, I may as well wait to see if there are any online sales on Black Friday. Hopefully the current computer does not completely implode in the meantime.

This weekend's To-Do list
*Finish cleaning the kitchen
*Grocery shopping for the coming week
*Laundry
*Damp Rid and Rain X anti-fogging wipes for bigboots's car
*Finish reading My Family and Other Animals
*Help former landlady clean her house Well, canceled.
*Revise cover letter and resume for volunteer position
*Declutter the apartment Done for now. More next weekend!
*Drop off donations at Goodwill
*Visit Kohl's to try on pretty things.
*Look for drinking glasses and hand towels at either Kohl's, Ross Dress for Less or Ikea.

Fabulously Broke ran a post yesterday on spending on beauty products. Since I love to share my opinion but hate to comment on stranger's blogs, I'm putting up my own beauty routine and product usage here.

Eyebrows: I try to tweeze my eyebrows about once a week. Nothing major, I just clean up the edges a little. The difference is subtle, but I find it lends better proportions to my face.

I've been doing this since college. Back in the day, I didn't like the bushy bits in the center, so I basically plucked my eyebrows until they began halfway over my eyes. Bad. Since then I've come across actual instructions on how to do it well (brows should begin directly over the tearduct, should end so a straight line runs from the edge of the nostril to the outside corner of the eye and ends at the outside tip of the brow. Clean up any sparse hairs above and below.) I'm careful not to go overboard; girls with pencil-thin or pencil-drawn brows look perpetually pissy.

Face: I wash with Paula's Choice face cleanser. She actually writes books on what to look for in makeup and skin care, and the big point she comes to over and over is that products need to be non-irritating. Irritated skin is more prone to blemishes. I have very sensitive skin, and I've never had an issue with stinging or itching when using her products. In fact, her facewash is the only one I've ever used that didn't make my skin dry, tight and uncomfortable. My complexion has improved noticeably since I've begun using her skin care, to the point where people have remarked how good my complexion* is.

*Well, at least in terms of health and texture. For coloring, I'm still obviously really damn pasty.

Sunscreen: Paula's Choice Sunscreen with SPF 45. I use a high SPF since I spend so much time outside and burn easily. It's nicely moisturizing if kinda greasy. The greasiness absorbs into the skin eventually, but it takes a couple hours.

Coverage: a discontinued Paula's Choice mineral powder. It's not for coverage so much as to counteract the greasiness I get from the sunscreen. I bought it along with some pressed powder to see which I liked better. So far I haven't gotten around to the pressed powder. I should probably give it away or chuck it or something - makeup is supposed to have an shelf life, and I don't see myself using this any time soon.

Concealer: by Aveda. I've tried with small success to cover up the dark circles under my eyes. I don't find this works well by itself, but with some extra mineral powder over top, it does passably well. It does a good job of covering up small blemishes.

Lips and Blush: Benetint lip and cheek stain. Because I hate sticky things on my face.

Tonight I watched the animated The Hobbit movie. In honor of Tolkien-based cartoons, I bring you this:

This afternoon I stayed late at work and finished an annoying task that's been hanging over my head for weeks if not months. Sometimes I put off random things, and develop a big anxiety complex around them, and avoid and deny and avoid and procrastinate until FINALLY I sit down to tackle it...and it's easy! And not intimidating at all! And I kick myself for not getting on it sooner.

Not so today! I sat down to tackle it and it was still anxiety-provoking and annoying. But it's hopefully done now. Maybe at some point in the next couple weeks I can wrap up this stupid project and move on with my life. It's been a year, you know? I'm ready to be done already.

Okay, so with that done, and the dishes washed, and the apartment clean, and the bookshelf posted to Freecycle, I have the evening in front of me. I am thinking a cartoon movie, and food prep, a hot shower, some stretching exercises, and taking a whack at the OTHER anxiety-inducing object of my procrastination.

It is now peacoat weather in Seattle.