wisteria

1. Since I had such great luck last time, tonight I've been making minestrone soup and white bread from scratch. I have this weird creative streak. I always have to be making something, even if the results aren't all that great. (And, as evidenced by the past few days, I also have a need to play Spider Solitaire non-stop.)

2. In today's Dear Prudence column on Slate, a debate broke out on the necessity of thank-you notes. Several people have said that they should only be sent when you can't thank the giver in person. While I'm not very good at sending them, I'll weigh in on the side of sending a note even if you've already said thanks. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I like the formality of acknowledging a substantial gift.

3. The intrepid asta77 broke the news that Jamie Bamber will guest star in the Dollhouse season premiere. In fact, I think Asta got the word out even before the media outlets! Aww, Helo and Lee together again. With him, I'll make a selfish exception to how I've been a bit annoyed by Joss's tendency to reuse his cache of actors. It yanks me out of the story.

4. Although nobody tagged me, I feel like doing the meme that has been making the rounds! ( Collapse )

I'm swiping this great meme from trinnifer. Books I've read are bolded. ( Collapse )

Thought I'd try a 20-questions meme that I snagged from asta77: ( Collapse )

1. I'm tickled that ABC is continuing the holiday tradition of The Sound of Music. My love for this movie is well-documented. ;) Yes, I'm watching even though I have it on DVD. (The Baroness wasn't evil, just misunderstood!)

2. Last night I went to a party hosted by elfgirl and dwivian, and I was thrilled to see them after a very, very long time! Though I had the usual shyness from being at a party where I knew nobody (but the hosts), I still had a good time. In the gag-gift exchange, I was quite pleased to get the Gorillaz "biography". Hee! I'd just grabbed the package because of its cool paper, and as a longtime Blur (and Gorillaz by extension) fangirl, I couldn't have chosen better.

3. A huge, festive HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my darling indigo419! And to my mother, who isn't reading this. ;)

4. Time for more knitting! ( Collapse )

5. Finally, a fic meme I swiped from minim_calibre. ( Collapse )

First up, some more knitting picspam! I finally got an invite to join Ravelry (a fancy new knitting website), and it's pretty damn addictive. You can post all your projects, talk to other knitters, and read tons of reviews/comments about yarns and patterns. Coolness! For those who are already members, I'm "chrome" -- "wisteria" was taken. And in non-Ravelry news, here are the final pics of Christmas presents. psychomab, you are not allowed to look at this, unless you want to see your present... which I've already told you about, so use your own judgment! ( Collapse )

Next up, a short linkspam.

-- RealSimple has ideas for clever hostess gifts and stress-free holiday cookies.
-- Catalog Choice allows you to remove your name from all those catalog mailing lists. Salon also has links to other services that stop junk mail, some free and some fee-based.
-- Jezebel complains about "contour" bras and how they suppress the nips. ;) I just wish I could find more attractive and affordable bras in my size. (42DD sounds like a blessing. It isn't. Ugh.)

Finally, I'm swiping a meme from luna_k and others:

I know very little about some of the people on my friends list. Some people I know relatively well. I read your journals, or we have something else in common and we chat occasionally. Some of you I hardly know at all. Perhaps you lurk, for whatever reason. But no matter what, I love that you give a damn enough to stop by my place. But here's a thought: why not take this opportunity to tell me a little something about yourself? Any old thing at all, the more trivial and fascinating, the better. Just so the next time I see your name I can say: "Ah, there's so and so...they enjoy nose-picking on balmy summer evenings, and have a giant birthmark shaped like a wilderbeest on their right buttock."

I'd love it if every single person on my friends list would do this. Yes, even you people who I know really well. Then post this in your own journal and see what gems of knowledge appear.

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(Reposting because LJ is acting very weird.)

I'm swiping a meme from marenfic. The first three questions are hers; I added the last one to keep in the holiday spirit. :)

1. Who do you ship? You can include anyone whether you're active in the fandom or just a casual fan.

2. If you could have one subtexty/unconventional 'ship become canon which one would it be and why?

3. Of all the canon pairings you ship, which one would you most like to see (have liked to seen) get a happy-ish ending as a couple? And the all important question, why this one above all of the others?

4. What holiday gift would you like to give one character on a show? Why?

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P.S. luna_k has started yet another Love Meme, since the other big ones had maxed out. My entry is here (meep!), and you can add your own name here. Go join in so that I can say lovely anonymous things about you!

The leaves are starting to change! Just the tips of the branches, but this still brings me great joy. I was also pleased to wear long sleeves today for the first time in far too long. Yay! How about some links?

-- The teams for The Amazing Race 12: Sure, the show has gone downhill, but I still love it. Most of the teams are unimpressive, but kudos for a cool-looking married lesbian couple. And while Kynt and Vyxsin's names make me cringe, I'm still cheering for the self-proclaimed "weird goths" because it turns out they're the first Dragon*Con team! Brownie points for that, even if I doubt they'll last long.

-- Via PopCandy: The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. That's #3 on my top ten list of grammar peeves.

-- A bit behind the curve here, but Consumerist snarks about airbrushing stars for hi-def TV.

-- Slate weighs in on the Jessica Seinfeld cookbook fracas. I'm already tired of that whole thing, but the article makes a point about how it's unoriginal but not plagiarism.

-- Hooray for piracy? American Gangster leaked online a whole week early! Guess I shouldn't use Comcast to download it, huh? (Not that I was planning to, and I don't use BitTorrent anyway. But still. Hee!)

-- Via DadSmacker: Strippers at a middle school carnival. As a teacher, I'm all for community business partnerships, but this one? Huh.

-- Mental Floss presents a history of kissing. I got my new issue in the mail today, and how much do I LOVE this magazine (which I pimp way too often) for the cover photo of Einstein holding a trophy with the banner headline "The Golden Lobe Awards"! I'm a sucker for a good pun.

-- How about some lists? The top 15 manipulated photographs, houses with great views, and 7 myths and trrrrruths about pirates!

And since I'm feeling meme-ish, here's one I swiped from honorh: ( Collapse )

I've realized this week that I have absolutely nothing to say. Despite trying to come up with something interesting to post, I've got nuthin'. Plus, I've been in one of my weird, vaguely shy moods this week. In the interest of breaking out of it, I think I'll do one of those Q&A memes.

So, ask me a question, and I'll try to answer it! (Nothing TMI or embarrassing, natch. ;)

Massive storm system heading my way. Guess I'd better do the daily post while I still have electricity! (Just looked at my archive and saw that this is my 890th consecutive day of posting at least once. That probably says a lot about me, though I'm not sure whether it's good or bad.) One of these days, I'll be as prolific about replying to friends' posts; I'm lucky to manage one or two replies daily. For someone who talks so damn much, I'm strangely shy. Go figure.

I go back to work tomorrow. *deep, long-suffering sigh* Yeah, I know I shouldn't complain; teachers get tons of holidays, but I still love having time off. Technically, I started back on Friday, since we had to attend an all-day seminar. Now I'm about to haul out my school laptop and get started on lesson plans. Such fun. At least we have MLK Day off a week from Monday. I need to ease back into the routine. The NY Times is starting a three-part series on the evolution of the Middle School Concept. ( Collapse )

Given how I always carry around a clipboard at school, I must remember this line from Scrubs: "That answer was either very sarcastic or very stupid. Either way, I'm whacking you with my clipboard. Brace yourself." This season has been a letdown, but I liked last week's episode just for how they addressed that Perry Cox is totally Gregory House. I've been saying that since the third episode of House. ;)

Some links:
-- Slate talks about their love-hate relationship with Whole Foods supermarkets.
-- The NY Times profiles Kate Winslet. They also spend 36 hours in Atlanta. Yay!
-- McSweeney's imagines rejected submissions for Seventeen Magazine's "Daily Traumarama".
-- Mental_Floss reveals a shocking secret about the author of Goodnight Moon! ;)
-- Time explains how $10 could help save the lives of African children with malaria.

I *love* harpsichords. I went through a classical music phase in high school (ironically, just when grunge was sweeping the land), and my favorite part of Before Sunrise is that simple scene where they walk past a man playing a harpsichord in the early morning light. The harpsichord is wildly underused in pop music. Let's spread the baroque love! Here are two songs featuring 'em: "Half a World Away" by R.E.M. (my current "Unfinished Business" theme song), and "Clover Over Dover" by Blur (the cheeriest song ever written about suicide.) If you actually have any songs featuring harpsichords, please share them!

And finally... I happened across a cool bit in Pop Candy's Friday Q&A that would make an excellent meme. ( Collapse )So, which song would you play if you wanted to pick up a cute stranger on the bus? I'd probably go with "Lady Godiva and Me" by Grant Lee Buffalo, just to see if his interpretation is the same as mine. That, or "Late in the Day" by Supergrass, because it's lovely and long. ;)