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unexpectedly nice weekend	[May. 18th, 2009\|12:20 am]
So, I didn't do much this weekend, but it turned out nicely. Saturday, I went for a bicycle ride, a couple hours long. Nothing special there, except I felt peppier and more energetic than I have all year. Nice weather, too. Sunday, I met quietann and went up to her riding lesson, and got to see her horse, and her on her horse, and her horse's neighbors, and her horse's neighbor's riders, and the dog from the next barn over who likes to come up and play catch with a ball. We had lunch and talked for a while about many things, and then we went to see goddessfarmer 's animals, and guests, though she wasn't actually there. I just felt better and more alive this weekend then I have in a while. I actually felt kind of coordinated for the first time in a while. I think I blame goddessfarmer 's eggs for this pleasant state of affairs, at least partly.
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it must be spring	[Apr. 5th, 2009\|07:35 pm]
In the same day: 1) first SCUL mission. 2) last day of skiing at Wachusett. I conclude that it isn't winter anymore and it isn't summer yet, so it must be spring.
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(no subject)

[Jun. 26th, 2008|10:18 pm]

[

mood

not yet sleepy

]

So, inspired by

miss_chance and

palmwiz, I'm bicycling out to That Icecream Party. This is rather late planning, made more exciting by my gut being rather cranky this morning. But it and my head seem to have settled down, and I have everything together, so it looks like a go.

I'm planning to leave at 5am, and I'm guessing it'll take 11-13 hours, so I'll be there perhaps 6pm. I have lights, so I could safely arrive as late as 11 or so.

See some of you there!

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a low-key weekend*	[May. 4th, 2008\|07:20 pm]
* Others may not think so. Saturday: I grump and grargh about the weather, which is not ideal for cycling, or much of anything else outdoorsy. I am somehow convinced by one IRC friend in the PNW that rain is not all bad, and going out for a hike is OK. Due to the afternoonishness of it all and the snotty weather, I decide going off to Wachusett is probably not a good idea. Instead, I go traipse around in the Fells for 3 hours, mostly on Skyline and the Cross-Fells trails. What a nice little surprise. Things I found out: * The trails are pretty dry, in spite of the showers. There's only any serious mud at the stream crossings. * Proper hiking socks, all four of them, would have been good. One of my feet still hurts because the tongue didn't lace up too well with just a thin sock on. * The Fells looks almost...unspoiled early in the season before the trails have seen much traffic. Skyline looks used, but the Cross-Fells trail was very quiet and pretty. * Things are all green, and red, and popping out, and stuff. Quite a change from Mt. Washington last weekend. * The Fells would feel a lot more pleasant and remote if there weren't this noisy major highway running through it. * The softshell I got is a nice jacket, but it doesn't keep me dry. * I think I like hiking with more up and down than the Fells. Actual mountains, say. * Hiking is tiring, even if it's not aerobically vigorous. My HRM says I went easier than I ever do on a bicycle, but my muscles feel it. * Everything's interconnected in there, and it's small. I saw 2 different hiking parties 3 times each, I think. Sunday: I overstuff myself with a pancake brunch, which puts me in a coma for a couple of hours. I finally go "meh, it's stopped raining, I'll go out for a lazy ride", about 5pm. It did start off lazy, thanks to the pancakes and the hike, but about an hour in, I found some legs. On the way back home, the clouds actually part and the sun peers through, making the brightest part of the day be 6:30pm. I picked a nice couple of hours to be outside.
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(no subject)	[Dec. 12th, 2007\|10:34 pm]
Conundrum: You know you get the winter blues. You know a winter beach trip would probably be a very good thing. Yet you are too blah to make the necessary plans. What to do? (feoh's trip to St Martin a few years back has been dancing in my head as a Wonderful Idea.)
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ethical dilemma to wake up by	[Dec. 8th, 2007\|11:19 am]
So there I am, sleeping in bed on a lazy saturday morning, perchance to dream... ...and the dream involves Work. I'm working at a random company in a development group, along with R, someone I know, who is quite smart, but also unassuming and unassertive enough about it that it's not immediately obvious. We're all working on this difficult project/problem. We're in a meeting; R's reporting on her progress on her difficult corner of the problem (literally-- there's something geometric about it and she's got a corner that looks like, oh, Kendall Square), which is to say, not much. The italian stallion in the group (not modeled on anyone I know) comes back with some incredibly cutting childish remark that includes "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen". We all look around at each other for a second, rather surprised. R, of course completely offended, walks out of the meeting. The other woman there, also offended, also walks out. I mull this for a second, decide (in dream-land unconsciousness, of course) that supporting R and sending a message is more important than continuing the meeting, or what the boss (a random middle manager, plays no big part in this dream scene) thinks, walk out too. (I find myself in the hallway outside our company in my long underwear walking towards other people and deciding "I should go put some clothes on", so much for continuity.) semi-rhetorically speaking, what would you do? (I'm going to get breakfast.)
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(no subject)

[Apr. 29th, 2007|10:39 pm]

[

mood

grieving

]

Frank Smith, my mom's partner of 28 years, died April 22nd. I was down there for a week helping her through some of it. I've been hiding since.

I'd known I'd miss him, but I'd never expected I'd miss him this much, and I'm truly mourning his loss. He touched me more than I ever knew.

They live/lived at a Quaker continuing care community in Pennsylvania. I read this at his memorial:

( Thank you, Frank )

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a modest proposal, or, SKIING

[Mar. 16th, 2007|11:52 am]

[

mood

enthralled

]

My original plans for this weekend are falling through, so:

Is anybody interested in joining me skiing this weekend?

I'm wanting to go up to the Whites in NH, or possibly over to Waitsfield VT, this afternoon/early evening, ski in the glorious foot+ of snow, and come home Sunday afternoon/early evening. Company would be Good.

--jh

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The book list list, or, I like literary memes

[Nov. 19th, 2006|03:19 am]

This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club. Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.

* 1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien

* 2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov

3. Dune, Frank Herbert

* 4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein

* 5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin

6. Neuromancer, William Gibson

* 7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke

8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick

9.The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley

* 10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe

* 12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.

13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov

14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras

* 15. Cities in Flight, James Blish

16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett

17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison

18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison

19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester

* 20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany

21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey

* 22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card

23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson

* 24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman

* 25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl

26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling

* 27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson

29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice

* 30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin

31. Little, Big, John Crowley

32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny

33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick

* 34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement

35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon

36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith

37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute

* 38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke

* 39. Ringworld, Larry Niven

40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys

41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien

* 42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut

43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson

44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner

45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester

* 46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein

47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock

48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks

49. Timescape, Gregory Benford

* 50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

I'm rather surprised at how many of these I've read, and how good I think the list is. I may have read more, but I don't always remember well books that I have read. It would be interesting to see this same list sorted by date, rather than alphabetically.

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120 miles of mean streets	[Sep. 14th, 2006\|02:32 am]
So, on a last minute whim, I went down to NYC for dinner with my dad and my London sister, and then rode Transportation Alternatives' NYC Century on Sunday. This ride is a four borough tour, starting and ending in Central Park. It roughly circumnavigates Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. Staten Island gets left off, being logically part of New Jersey. Thoughts: That's a big ride. 5, or 8, or 10 thousand people, depending on who you believe. More people came from out of town than I would have guessed. I had lots of interesting company through the day. ( cut for much more trivia ) I'd been wanting to do one of the long organized NYC rides for many years; it finally worked out. I definitely recommend it, but only if you're comfortable with urban riding; it's not an easy ride. It's a wonderful way to see the outer boroughs.
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not quite completely pointless	[Sep. 7th, 2006\|11:08 pm]
If there is one person or more on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the Internet, then post this same sentence in your journal. (hi, wb!)
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beach beach beach!	[Aug. 24th, 2006\|09:24 pm]
Given that one certain Saturday party has been rendered an appendix, I'm calling a beach foo. The idea is to carpool down to East Beach in RI, where the water is actually somewhat warm, leaving Somerville at around 9am, leaving the beach at 2pm or so. pheremone expressed some interest in stopping in Providence for dinner and Waterfire, but I haven't made contact with her recently. So that's a bit up in the air. Any takers? EDIT: Mother Nature's crashing the party with showers, clouds, light wind, and 71dF high predicted. So I'm calling it off.
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you don't want my infectious humor	[Jul. 8th, 2006\|09:34 pm]
i will not be seen much this weekend (no, this is nothing particularly new) because I'm...ick. I've caught a throat bug, and even if I wasn't sleeping 4 extra hours a day and didn't think myself infectious, my vocal cords turn to rags when I talk. It's unpleasant. It's not horrible. I will survive. I now return you to your regular weekend programming.
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