Let it be known heretofore that I hate the Capitol beltway with the firey passion of a thousand angry suns.

Three hours stuck in traffic, and I missed two important errands, plus I am completely wiped out and got nothing done today. I spent about five hours in the car today, going back and forth from Pikesville to Fairfax for a memorial service.

Also? Assholes who drive in the faster-moving exit lane only to try to merge back into the main lane right before the exit should DIAF promptly.

STABBITY STABBITY STABBITY

http://www.transgenderdor.org/


sparkymonster has some good suggestions:

I urge people to go here to remember and honor people who were murdered for being trans. Lets not just remember our dead, but also celebrate the living. Read some of the many excellent blogs by transgendered people (including one of my faves, Questioning Transphobia). Read a book by a transgendered author. Watch a movie made by a trans person. Read people twittering about it. Take some time to honor those who are alive and fighting as well as those who have died.

Still in progress, but this is far more what Nilu's actually like already:
Happy! Working, and since it's another layer I still have what I did before :)



Also, being able to draw (being able to make anything) is a very good sign. I seem to be pulling out of the scary no-creative-brain slump I had post-WFC. *hoping*

This ficlet brought to you by How Penknife Spent Her Evening, or Why Penknife Is A Big Giant Dork. SGA, John, Rodney, and Sam gen, post-series.

( Roadside Service )

ceciliatan has released one of my favorite erotic sci-fi books, Telepaths Don't Need Safewords, as a FREE e-book for the month of November! Get the details here!

ceciliatan has released one of my favorite erotic sci-fi books, Telepaths Don't Need Safewords, as a FREE e-book for the month of November! Get the details here!

Okay, so I'm not the world's biggest fan of small humans. Nevertheless, I'm going to watch this every single day for the next week. Twice on Thursdays.



::ded::

I need to repack my luggage. I have no idea how I'm going to make all this stuff fit. I'm bring back a lot of gluten-free croissants for me, and chocolate and trinkets for everyone else.

Things I would squeal if I could find here as souvenirs, but I've tried and have failed: 1) a non-sporty looking stopwatch (do they even make such anymore? I've not seen one other than the one my father has from his days clocking ad copy) 2) bike bells. I would totally send all my Torchwood peeps bike bells. Alas, I can only find cow bells. I bet some of you actually want cow bells, but I have to draw the line somewhere.

Outside suddenly there are a lot of hollering young people, drunk and dancing about, I assume after some sort of sports match. I went out there to look at them, and felt all sorts of bittersweet, mainly about people who have never existed; a lot of this trip has been like that for me, but I've not been awake enough to find the words for it, or really, much of anything. I'm so permeable, and really, as a writer and as an actor, that's my job and because it's my job I can be all clinical about it like I'm supposed to be. "It's just stories," we say. "It's just pretend."

Well, yes, because I'm well-trained and have good filters and all that, but I also feel things I'm not "supposed" to feel all the damn time ... so the kids screaming outside as I watch them from the balcony where I'm storing the cheeses and chocolate creams I bought since my room doesn't have a refrigerator make me mourn for a gap year I didn't take, but wrote about once in the life of a man some other people made up.

Switzerland has been like that constantly. The storing pots of chocolate on the terrace too! OMFG, the pots of chocolate!

Meanwhile have just caught the Doctor Who preview for the Christmas episode. It manages to ( Read more... ) and also make me cry because he's wearing a lei, and it's the weird thing where it's like OMGWTFBBQ, he's just come from Jack telling him thank you for the favor he hasn't done him and Ianto yet in IHNIIHBT and there's a banana daquiri sitting on the TARDIS console, RIGHT NOW. Okay, you don't care, but I CARE.

May finally do an LJ Idol home game entry. "Bearing False Witness" is very tempting, although I am unlikely to address the literal meaning of the phrase and instead focus on story telling and what it means to honor things that have never even happened.

I wonder how the Duty Free is at the airport here.

I was not feeling well at all when I woke up this morning. My tummy felt a little off and I just felt completely meh. So I lounged around for a couple of hours, then had some mint tea and bread and felt marginally better. I did my 30 minutes on the Wii Fit, though I took it easy and didn't push too hard. Then I showered and got in comfy clothes so I could lounge around more.

Of course, now I am going to get dressed so I can go to the grocery store and buy things to begin my holiday baking. I didn't really want to go shopping tonight, but it's when my mom is going to do her shopping and she's my ride.

And she is on her way and I am still in jammies. Bye!

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EcoGeek/~3/SxsrUMnyyMg/3000-wind-power-could-be-stored-as-ice

http://ecogeek.org/power-storage/3000-wind-power-could-be-stored-as-ice

A perfect way of storing electricity generated by wind turbines has been elusive so far.  Ideas like super-sized batteries, compressed air and hydroelectric storage have all been floated.  One company though thinks the answer could be as simple as making ice.

Calmac has come up with a storage system called IceBank that uses the energy generated at off-peak night-time hours to make ice.  That stored ice is then used for cooling purposes during high-demand daytime hours.  The company claims that reducing electricity demand for cooling can cut energy costs by 20 - 40 percent.  That reduction also means fewer emissions from power plants.

This a great solution for harnessing wind power that might otherwise go to waste during night-time hours.  And it's pretty low-tech - no need for lithium or rare earth minerals - just a souped up ice maker.

via Treehugger

Astronauts await word of baby girl on Earth

(AP) -- Atlantis' astronauts anxiously awaited word on the birth of one crewman's daughter Friday, as they moved more supplies into the International Space Station and geared up for another spacewalk.

molly_church mentioned the beach at Ballybunion in the rain

( Wet sands, wet skies )

I got my first comment on the Authonomy site. Whhhhheeeeeee!

“The HeartTown Witch and Other Stories

Hi Kat,

There is a fable-like, Tim Burtonesque feel to these set of stories, each with a moral, each weird enough to keep our interest, it is so long since I read a story that begins once upon a time! I wonder if you will have illustrations because this wonderful world would be truly fascinating to see. Aimed at the read to your children market I would think and it is a lovely suite of stories exploring love and human behaviour for young children. Backed.

Andrew W”

I never thought of myself as Tim Burtonesque. I didn’t think they were that dark but I guess people who aren’t used to witches being common place or goddesses roaming around might think that. Maybe the Lonely Little Star. The only one I thought might go there was Dreams of Wings which I love but some people might think a bit dark. Made sense to my brain at the time.

Anyway since yesterday it has risen in the rankings from somewhere north of 5000 to 3158. Not bad for the first day. We’ll see how people like how my perverse brain works on people who haven’t been exposed to it before.

I start Monday for a 5 week assignment. At least it’s something.

I’ve been playing a new game on FB called EnchantedGardens. It’s kind of a combination of Hatchlings and a Colorforms kit from when I was little. You visit other people’s gardens to carry out tasks or look for acorns. There are some people in the game that need to learn the concept of negative space. And there are some people that have a positively eye watering concept of colour. Either that or they absorbed too much Peter Max in the 60’s.

They also have 2 kinds of anmals, one that looks really Disney-like, I can deal with that but the other is a “furson”. I find them incredibly creepy. They look like animals but they are drawn with human sexual characteristics and they wear clothes. I’m not sure why I find them so creepy but I do.

Rapperswil

( mostly Rapperswil and a few from my return to Zurich. Also, suit! )