Crowning moments of awesome

First, on Survivor, there was much maneuvering, which culminated with Sandra standing up and saying that she didn't want to go out with the immunity idol in her bra. Then she made a production of pulling it out, while the jury enjoyed Russell's discomfiture in the background.

Then there was the season finale of Supernatural. It culminated with, well, it was pretty much the yellow crayon speech, but with a '67 Impala in place of the crayon. It worked, mate.


Today's earrings: spiders, crows

Bedtime reading: Borrower of the Night, Elizabeth Peters

Caught up on my appointment television

Jerri did the smart thing, which is sad because it looks like this season is going to be a rerun of last season - a truly horrible person gets to the end because he'll be easy to beat in the final, but the editors try to convince us that he gets to the end because he's the Most Brilliant Strategist in the World. *sigh*

Followed by the saddest Supernatural ever. Poor, doomed Winchesters.


Today's earrings: spiders, crows

Bedtime reading: Microserfs, Douglas Coupland

False alarm

Yesterday's big alarums were d/t me looking at the wrong file. Up side: we do not have to add 9,000 lines one at a time by hand. Down side: some customer is still pestering IT for an update I can't find.

And I have to lead a seminar on Excel tomorrow at 2.


Today's earrings: eyes, crows

Bedtime reading: Coyote Blue, Christopher Moore

Definitely need this crown adjusted.

*sigh*


Today's earrings: spiders, crows

Bedtime reading: Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett

Getting ahead of myself

I want to listen to Christmas songs now. But if I do that, I'll be all Christmassed out by early December. *sigh*


Today's earrings: owls, crows

Bedtiem reading: A Hat Full of Sky, Terry Pratchett

So you know.

Friday's post was my 666th.

Spooky.


Today's earrings: frogs, crows

Bedtime reading: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Leverage

New season started tonight. It was the usual lighthearted romp, but, sadly, I must dock points because Parker didn't jump off any buildings. It's much better when she's jumping off buildings.


Today's earrings: spiders, crows

Bedtime reading: One Man Show, Michael Innes

Critique

I've been reading Elgin's Native Tongue trilogy. The first book was depressing - it's set in a near-future distopia where women are legally minors - but pretty darn good, I thought. The second book was longer, more scattered. It felt like the middle book of a trilogy. Then I got to the third book, in which the author loses her mind. Books one and two are about women fighting the power as best they can in a world almost like our own. The third book opens with a new character having a visionquest vision of the now-dead lead character of book one, followed by the revelation that human beings don't need food, but can live on music. No, seriously. There's a middle section that goes skipping about through the next few centuries, and reads like sketches for a bunch of short stories that don't quite all belong in the same universe. Then a denoument in which it is finally brought to the attention of the men "in charge" that a significant portion of the population has stopped consuming food. I am strongly reminded of Margaret Murray's theory that many if not most people in medieval Europe weren't actually Catholics. If there were that many not-Catholics, why did they let the Church run everything? Makes no sense.

It's like she couldn't figure out how to end the trilogy she'd started, so she swapped in the end of some other saga and hoped readers wouldn't notice.


Today's earrings: flies, crows

Bedtime reading: Earthsong, Suzette Haden Elgin

The song in my head for the past week

Look around
We’re living with the lost and found
Just when you feel you’ve almost drowned
You find yourself on solid ground
And you believe

There’s good in everybody’s heart
Keep it safe and sound
With hope, you can do your part
To turn a life around

I cannot believe my eyes
Is the world finally growing wise
‘Cause it seems to me
Some kind of harmony
Is on the rise

- - Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, and Joss Whedon



Today's earrings: bees, crows

Bedtime reading: My Aunt Christina, J.I.M. Stewart

Deep Thoughts

We were talking tonight about the fractal nature of Disneyland. How everywhere you look inside the park, there's always more to see. Was Walt a an experimental geometer? Inquiring minds want to know.


Today's earrings: eyes, crows

Bedtime reading: Dolly and the Bird of Paradise, Dorothy Dunnett

By popular demand

http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/140-S-Van-Ness-Ave-94103/unit-437/home/960155

Much cooler, but way out of my league: http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/201-Sansome-St-94104/unit-501/home/18471589


Today's earrings: coffee cups, crows

Bedtime reading: Through Elegant Eyes, R.A. Lafferty

On the current Doctors

At first, I thought it was Billie Piper. And I do find her fairly annoying as Rose Tyler. Then I saw her as Fanny Price in Mansfield Park, and I realized that Billie Piper qua Billie Piper wasn't the problem.

Then I wondered if it was Eccleston. Things improved so much when David Tennant took over. But no, Eccleston's done plenty of good work. He's not the source of the trouble either.

Then I caught the episode about the scribbling alien who was possessing the little girl, and I realized it's the writing, mostly, and the direction. That's where the trouble lies. I mean, who were they trying to kid with the "torch of love" crap? Nonsense scribbled on a anvil and thrown at my head, that's what that was. Much like the episode that made me bail mid-episode on Nine, with the idiotic philosophical conversations with the last condemned Slitheen - they wrote a silly bit of self-importance, and asked the actors to deliver it pontifically.

I blame the writers.


Today's earrings: leaves, crows

Bedtime reading: Smoke and Mirrors, Neil Gaiman

Veterans' Day

Which I ought to have spent considering the meaning of patriotism, but actually spent scrambling for financing. And sorting out which provincial taxes are collected by CA customs on non-commercial packages. I feel I've got a better grip on the provincial taxes...


Today's earrings: leaves, crows

Bedtime reading: Comeback, Dick Francis

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

- - William Butler Yeats


Today's earrings: mice, crows

Bedtime reading: Feet of Clay, Terry Pratchett

The woman at the next desk is listening to Journey

I guess her headphones came unplugged, or something, because her music is playing loud and clear. "Don't Stop Believing" added an interesting background track to the Cars' "Shake It Up," but "Wheel in the Sky" did nothing good for Michelle Shocked's "Shaking Hands."

Just thought I'd share that with everyone.

Don't stop belee-eevin'
hold on to that feeling, baby


UPDATE, 3pm: I think she went to the gym or something, because she was wearing a perfectly businesslike skirt 'n' top, and now she's in sweats and a Rolling Stones T-shirt. The one with the lolling tongue. Poseur. I know she listens to Journey.


Today's earrings: eyes, crows

Bedtime reading: Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett

Wednesday Addams

"What are you, darling? Where's your costume?"
"This is my costume. I'm a homicidal maniac. They look just like everyone else."

- - Caroline Thompson & Larry Wilson

Today's earrings: spiders, crows

Bedtime reading: Soon I Will Be Invincible, Austin Grossman

Eureka

Still like the show and all, but if they're going to disappear the Dry Cleaning Lady entirely, sooner or later I'm going to need a time loop or an amnesia fog or some such to explain her absence.


Today's earrings: eyes, ravens

Bedtime reading: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

What do you want for your birthday?

Inquiring relatives want to know.


Today's earrings: spiders, crows

Bedtime reading: Good Omens, Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

Teaspoons

Today I got a pair of teaspoon earrings in the mail. Best thing to happen today...



eta: then I went blog flipping, and found this epically cool photo on a blog written in Greek. Excellent.


Today's earrings: spiders, crows

Bedtime reading: The Franchise Affair, Josephine Tey

Tomorrow, I take flight

Fluttering off to Tigerland...

Though I hear he has lately acquired the ability to be more than one kind of cat, and also a boy.


Today's earrings: owls, crows

Bedtime reading: The Daffodil Affair, Michael Innes