I see what I want to do there

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:20:26 GMT

Have locked my previous post as it is no longer an emergency and it had personally identifiable information. For anyone worried who can't see the original post anymore: It's all okay now.

So, apparently Apple released something?

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:29:07 GMT

Why, halo thar LJ/DW land. Long time no post ... again. Still reading flist, etc. etc. Lots of wedding prep going on, etc. etc. Might post about that soon!

But anyway, I've been prompted to write an entry about the iPad. I kept tweeting my thoughts about it, but 140 characters is not enough to really say what I think. I also appreciate that many people don't care what I think about the iPad, or might care but are so overloaded with people talking about it that they don't anymore. So I will LJ cut.

I am definitely not going to get an iPad. I will explain why. But first, a disclaimer:

I am trying to do this from the point of view of why I don't want one. I will try to explain why the iPad doesn't do what I would want a device in its space to do. I am not prescribing any opinions for anyone else. I could see many people who do have a use for the iPad. I do think some of the things I'm going to bring up are damn near universal complaints, but they are still my complaints.

My position for wanting an ultraportable device (not necessarily a tablet) is that it would have to replace my laptop for nearly all of my everyday tasks. Surfing, writing, email, IM, everything I use my laptop for now except the really heavy duty stuff. If an ultaportable could do that I'd get one as soon as finances allowed and then get a desktop for anything else I needed one for. I don't want to have an ultraportable *and* a laptop, I don't see the point. I can get an iPhone to do quick surfing, checking of email while walking down the street or looking up a map. I want more out of an ultraportable. I do realise that this, from the get-go, makes the iPad and most, if not all, tablets not the thing for me (yet), but that's my position.

So, with that in mind I'm first going to outline my issues with the iPad as a tablet, and then a few larger issues with tablets in general.

My issues with the iPad

No flash: This isn't a huge thing. Flash is a blight on the internet. It's slow and shit and clunky, even with 10.1 making things a lot better. It should be superseded by HTML5. Sites should stop using it. But until they do? I want to be able to use it. I want to be able to go to Kongregate, or play videos on CNN.com or use any of the other sites that have yet to abandon Flash for something better.

iBooks: This is less an issue with the iPad but is rather something that just has no pull for me. It sounds like a great implementation, but I have no interest in reading on an LCD display. I have my Kindle, I like e-ink and I don't see it as a third device - it simply replaces any book I might have with me.

Lack of multitasking: If I can't have my IM client and web browser and mail client all open at the same time then it certainly can't replace my laptop. It has the hardware to be able to perform fine with all those open. And if I want to open 25 applications and strain it to hell? That's my choice to make. Sure, it may sacrifice battery, but that's what a charger is for. My laptop is plugged in 90% of the time I'm using it.

Lack of a full OS / choice in applications: I get it, Apple wants to make sure you get the signature Apple dependability and experience. This make sense on a phone, which has limited resources. But something with the power of the iPad? It could run at least a trimmed down version of OS X with some touch enhancements and no restrictions on installation of applications. My laptop runs OS X and I still get my slick Apple experience and having my own choice hasn't ruined it - it's made it better. Augmented with Quicksilver, Growl and a number of other things I've made my laptop more efficient and easy to use, not less so. But Apple doesn't seem to want to give me the benefit of the doubt with the iPad.

Tablet: So, this is where it really falls out for me - I am not entirely sure a tablet is what I want as an ultraportable. I fail to see how a touch screen is better than a keyboard and trackpad for a device of tablet size. If I assume that the iPad fixes all my problems above (except for the e-ink one, I can carry an iPad and a Kindle), I can still think of very few occasions where a touch screen would be faster for me than a keyboard and pointing device. With Quicksilver I can do things stupidly fast with only a few key-strokes. I have grown up with keyboards and am very quick with them. I could, potentially, learn to be as quick with a virtual keyboard - but it takes up valuable screen space. This isn't a problem with a phone for me - a phone is small and a tiny physical keyboard is dumb. But for an ultraportable computer? I don't see why I would want to give up a physical keyboard. The best of both worlds might be good - an ultraportable laptop with a touchscreen that can do one of those swivel and fold over on itself deals. A MacBook Air with 3G, multi-touch screen and the ability to turn itself inside-out? Sounds perfect to me. It can be a tablet for when I'm walking down the street and then a Real Boy when I sit down.

Again, I realise that this last issue means I may have shot down the iPad before it got started. But if it actually solved all the other problems? I'd would be extremely tempted, even without a physical keyboard.

So, there are my thoughts on the iPad. Congratulations on getting this far!

Wedding update coming soon!

This entry also posted at Dreamwidth here. Comment here or there, I don't mind which.

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 21:24:13 GMT

Went Christmas present shopping/browsing and ended up buying a 3 piece set of Global knives for myself instead.

Got home and promptly sliced my thumb open.

Oops.

(Not that badly though, don't worry. Knife was so razor sharp it was more like a papercut.)

Oh dear, Blizzard.

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:12:23 GMT

I will have some fun wedding news to post soon! Actually, I've had it to post for awhile. I've just been too lazy to type it up.

In the meantime, have reisha and I ruminating on the fact that Blizzard has apparently sold out of a virtual item for WoW:

Me: Blizz has 'sold out' of the Pandaren pet.
Me: gg, blizz, only you could sell out of a VIRTUAL item
Kelry: how does that even
Me: they put in an arbitrary very high(tm) number as the stock count
Me: and of course
Me: they hit it
Kelry: is pixels!
Kelry: l2code
Me: yeah but their store system must require stock numbers XD
Me: it's not like they're software developers, we can't expect them to understand technical things
Kelry: i stand corrected
Me: wow isn't software
Me: it's MAGIC
Kelry: it runs on unicorns
Me: Charlie, chaaaaaarlie, chaaaaaaaaaaaaarlie.
Me: We're SOLD OUT, CHARLIE.
Kelry: rofl

VERY IMPORTANT WEDDING POLL :O

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:08:16 GMT

It is very important you all fill out this poll!

Okay, we've hammered out some wedding details. It will be on the weekend of June 19, 2010. Whether is it actually on the 19th or 20th has not been decided yet. We still have not hammered out a budget, a venue or an exact invite list.

We will also be having a party/celebration in DC the following weekend, likely on Saturday June 26th, 2010.

We are now trying to figure out a vague invite list. To that end it would be extremely helpful if everyone would fill out the poll below!

View Poll: Very important wedding poll!

Anything else you think is important? Please tell me in the comments, they are screened and only Alex or I will read them.

Do do do dooo, do do do dooo ...

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:05:52 GMT

So, we have some news! Alex and I got engaged on our six-year (?!) anniversary last month and now, having shared it with the few people it had to be shared with first, are ready to tell you all! So, there it is, we're engaged!

We do know that the wedding/ceremony/tandem-sky-diving vows will happen in June, likely the weekend before or after the weekend of the 12th. It will almost certainly happen in the UK, and we have no idea at the moment whether or not there will be something in the US as well.

We have a lot of behind the scenes stuff - venue, invitations, etc - to figure out in the next month or so, as soon as we figure out a budget. There will be a poll of some sort to see who of you all is available to come over, once we have a date set. We will be sharing information with all of you as and when we decide things!

Whee! Engaged!

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:06:59 GMT

Work is being stressful. Blergh.

It would be better was actually getting paid, but as it is now I'm doing essentially a full time job (not just normal intern stuff) and not getting paid for it.

But it's still much better than sitting around at home doing nothing, and I am learning a lot. And it is generally quite fun, but also stressful. The manager I'm working for now is a bit crazy ... not in a bad way ... just in a way where everyone acknowledges that she is insane.

So, how is everyone?

Does anyone know anyone affected by H1N1/swine flu?

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:12:31 GMT

I started an internship at a consumer think tank a few weeks ago! Hopefully it'll add enough depth to my CV to actually get a job somewhere off the back of it.

Anyway, I wanted to know, does anyone out there in LJland know anyone who's been directly affected or in contact with people who have had H1N1/Swine flu? This could be staff at schools that have closed due to students having it, nurses or staff in hospitals that have dealt with H1N1 patients, parents of children who've had it, or even simply the people themselves who have had it - anyone that has had any direct contact with the current pandemic.

If you do I'd really like to talk to them about it!

Their experiences would be a very valuable and important addition to an independent, unbiased report we're writing on the broad-ranging impact of an influenza pandemic, using this recent one as a case study. The report will focus on the personal and human effects of such a pandemic and as such anyone affected will be extremely important to our work. Anyone that we talk to would have complete anonymity, and their name or place of work would never be released to anyone. Talking to us could be done completely over email, or on the phone taking no longer than 10-20 minutes.

Ideally we're looking for people in Canada, the US and Mexico, but really anyone affected by swine flu anywhere in the world would be very valuable.

Please pass this around and see if anyone knows anyone like this, we need to have some people lined up by the middle of next week (interviews would happen in the few weeks after that).

Eurovision

Sat, 16 May 2009 22:25:39 GMT

I'm not bitter about Jade. I'm not British for one, so I'm not entirely invested in her like a lot of people. She was technically brilliant, she was emotional, and it actually moved me a but. But it wasn't very Eurovision so fifth is very respectable. But of the other top four only Azerbaijan deserved it. The others were just carbon copies of other acts:

Turkey - Shakira.
I mean, I actually thought it was Shakira for a minute, and judging from twitter so did a LOT of other people.

Iceland - Taylor Swift
She wants to be Taylor sooooooo bad. So bad. Baaaaaaad.

Norway - Mickey Mouse Club
It was just ... terrible. It didn't deserve to win. It didn't deserve to be in the top 10. The music was boring and felt like some Alan Menken cast-off that wouldn't have been good enough for The Little Mermaid 17: Ariel's Granddaughter Marries an African-American Sea Turtle. The lyrics were like something a 15 year-old dork writes for a poetry assignment in English class, all fairy tale and perfect girl. Seriously, Alexander, if those are the kind of lyrics you think are good you need to lose your innocence and get raped against a brick wall by many burly men. And then to top it off you played a violin during the song. It was barely passable when New Kids On The Block did it and that was like 20 fucking years ago. Stop it, and die. Just die.

I voted for Portugal.

The Future of Me and The Interbutt

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:27:06 GMT

TL;DR Version: I'm going to post more here. I've also started a Twitter. And a new Blog. They will all be different spaces for me. Read down if you care to hear more.

I've been thinking a lot lately about online identity. For someone who spends a rather large portion of my time online I have very little to point back to and show for it. Most of my online interactions with people happen over IM, or in Warcraft, or simply inside my own head, never leaving those arenas to a place of more permanence. It's got me to thinking what I use this LJ for. I look back and there was a point, many years ago, when I updated quite a lot. But every post of what is almost now the last four years has been very few and far between and has been prefaced with 'I'm still reading everyone's posts everyday, I just never seem to post ...'

It's true. A good portion of my online time is actually spent on Livejournal, reading my friends list and (very) occasionally even commenting on posts. I do engage with LJ but it's become very one-sided over time. This stems from me never wanting to make a post that some people wouldn't like. I don't want to post about Warcraft, because 75% of my friends won't give a fuck. I don't want to post about my random philosophical ideas because 75% of my friends won't give a fuck. I don't want to post about my life because I'm not sure if any of my friends will give a fuck. Of course, I know that some will, but the sentiment is still there.

I've thought a lot about what this LJ is, and what I want it to be. Most of my friends on it are either very old real life friends, or people I met through fandom or random LJ communities. As such I've made a decision about what I'm going to post here. I've decided to get the fuck over my insecurities or whatever the hell they are about posting random shit and just post. This LJ is going to be a place for me to post personal stuff, stuff about Warcraft, stuff about my life, shit that's happened to me and generally random stuff, many times with a geeky fandom flavor.

I've also now started a Twitter feed. This LJ is going to stay a very online interbutt sort of thing to me, something that will share my life only with those that share the sort of general internet view of the world. My Twitter, on the other hand, will be much more public, something I will give out to more recent real life friends, to random acquaintances, etc. As such Twitter and this LJ will be separate things and this is the only time I will link to my Twitter from here, and my Twitter will never mention this LJ, they are going remain separate spaces, even if some of the friends and content overlap. If you want to follow me on Twitter I am here. I won't be using LoudTwitter or anything else to ship them here, I find it obnoxious.

I'm also starting a new blog on blogger to discuss more of my ideas, stuff that I've never felt comfortable posting on LJ because they were of a totally different nature than the personal bent I want for my LJ. It can be found here. As of right now it only has a post explaining what it is, though I hope to have its first real post up later today, though it's looking increasingly like it won't be up until tomorrow. Like Twitter, my blog and my LJ will be separate and likely will never really reference each other. I'll probably cross-post my first real post to my LJ to give LJ friends an idea of what to expect if they decide to read my blog, but that will be the first, last and only time I will do that.

So, hopefully this will lead to more posting everywhere, a more permanent record of my online life, and a more social me.

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 10:11:14 GMT

OMG WORST SNOW SINCE 1991! BUSES ARE STOPPED IN THEIR TRACKS! TUBE NOT RUNNING! SCHOOLS CLOSED! OLD LADIES IN BURQAS FALL OVER ON THE PAVEMENT! GAY FLIGHT ATTENDANT'S SMART CAR BREAKS DOWN ON UPPER TOOTING ROAD, NEEDS FIVE PEOPLE TO PUSH IT IN TO A PARKING SPACE AND HE FLOUNCES DOWN THE PAVEMENT, HIS LITTLE TRUNDLEY SUITCASE FALLING OVER EVERY SO OFTEN!

I didn't see that last one, as I was in bed, but Alex says it was hilarious.

The snow was fun yesterday, though not particularly interesting as snow goes, except, of course, for London's reaction. Which is typically to completely stop in its tracks and freak the fuck out. I understand rationally that London's infrastructure is not prepared for even this little snowfall because it doesn't happen very often. I realise that it is probably more cost effective to let the city shut down for a day once every five winters than it is to keep ready and waiting the wherewithal to deal with the snow. However, none of this stops the city's reaction from being completely hilarious.

My plane took off from Dulles last Tuesday in the middle of a worse snowstorm, from a city whose trains and buses and streets were working fine and took me to a city where half that snow stops everything. I heard Gatwick and Luton actually shut down for awhile last night, and that dozens of flights were cancelled from Heathrow. As far as I know the only flights cancelled from Dulles last week were to Allentown (because who actually wants to go there except Billy Joel?) and an Air France flight to Paris (because they are French).

Alex is working from home for now, and, being a technology journalist, has ironically already gotten press releases from the scheming media departments of certain major telecommunications firms about how their infrastructure is working fine despite the weather and the ability to connect to their office is encouraging people to work from home. While the telecommunications infrastructure might not be a con when people decide to work from home, I do suspect that they are probably staying home due to the crystalized water that fell from the sky and stopped the city and not because they can connect to their work desktops from home.

Later on Alex has a PR lunch in London, which is apparently still on and he'll have to brave the Northern Line, which in a bizarre twist of London Underground fate is one of the only lines even vaguely working. None of this actually changes my day much, except that I'll need to wear slightly sturdier shoes than normal to go buy food. I should probably do this soon, as I am getting quite hungry.

Holiday Cards

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:49:35 GMT

Your addresses, give them to me! All comments screened, also mention in your comment what you celebrate if you don't celebrate Christmas (if anything).

As usual I do read flist every day, I just ... don't post anymore. I'd say I'll work on that but I say that every time. : /

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:10:08 GMT

YES

WE

MOTHERFUCKING

CAN

OVER

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:57:19 GMT

IT'S OVER GUYS.

OVERRRR.

VA AND FL CAN ONLY SWEETEN IT.

OVERRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Doot Doot ...

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:54:50 GMT

*refresh*

*refresh* *refresh* *refresh*

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:13:00 GMT

CNN.com apparently wants us to know that the economy isn't the only shit hitting the fan. From the main page the current Latest News:

- Nancy Regan falls, fractures pelvis
- Cheney's abnormal heart rhythm returns
- Freak recess accident kills 5th-grader
- Steve Ballesteros has brain surgery
- Hurricane Omar's winds up to 85mph
- Smoke, ash shut down freeway
- 'Marcia Brady' tells of trading sex for drugs
- Starved Teen begged for help in 2005
- Mom dumps kid at hospital 724 miles away

That's over half the news list, and the rest is all political stuff. Is there anything good happening anywhere? :

Well, shit.

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:19:04 GMT

I graduated on Friday. Whoo. I am a graduate.

But now I have something hilarious to share with you. Well, I think it's hilarious. My dad thinks it's hilarious. Some of you will find it hilarious. Most will probably find it boring. Read the following paragraph, from N. Gregory Mankiw's Principles of Economics, 3rd ed., Chapter 29: The Monetary System, p. 642, published in 2004 (highlighting is mine):

Bankers may have too little incentive to avoid bad risks when making loans? That's crazy talk! Lol. : /

OH. MY. FUCKING. GOD.

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:05:57 GMT

Dissertations done and handed in. Exams next week. Moving on to the OMFG.

I was looking around my old old external harddrive to find some Kyou Kara Maou (no, I don't know why) and found a bunch my old High School work. Including a script for an English project done with reservoir and others. We had to perform a modern adaptation of a scene from Macbeth, and we decided to tape ours and edit it to make it all shiny. Our modern adaptation was in the style of, uh, Valley Girls. So, Seana has said I should post it, because for all of its cracky 11th grade immaturity it is still very funny in a satire of badfic kind of way.

This is now 5 years old, unedited from that time, a lot of the humor may only make sense if you know the people involved, and it was always meant to be (awesomely) bad. So, with that in mind, I give you our 11th grade English project (Oh god ...):

Macbeth, William Shakespeare, Act IV, Scene i
Modern Adaptation: Valley Girls

Cast:

Jane (first witch) – Kerry (chibikaijuu)
Tracie (second witch) – Seana (reservoir)
Stacie (third witch) – Kat (white_howler)
Heci (Hecate) – Lowell (aegeus)
Mac (Macbeth) – Lowell

---------------------------------

EXT. A SEMI-WOODED AREA – DAY

A cauldron sits in the middle of the scene, JANE comes into the scene carrying her familiar, a CAT, and a bag.

CAT
Mew, mew, mew.

TRACIE enters with her familiar, a HEDGEHOG, who nips at her nail, and a few grocery bags.

TRACIE
Unh! Stupid animal! I broke a nail …

STACIE enters with her familiar, a CROW, and a bucket of assorted items.

CROW
Caw! Caw!

Jane starts to flounce around the cauldron, and pulls a dead frog out of her bag while Tracie and Stacie look on.

JANE
Come on, let’s like dance around the
cauldron and I’ll throw in this icky frog I found
on the side of the road … ew …

Jane’s face takes on a look of disgust as she holds the frog at arms length and throws it into the cauldron. Stacie and Tracie join her around the cauldron.

STACIE, TRACIE and JANE
Double, double toil and trouble;
fire burn …

Stacie burns her finger on the cauldron.

STACIE
Oooow!

She regains her comopsure.

STACIE, TRACIE and JANE
… and cauldron bubble.

Tracie pulls a fillet of sole out of one of her grocery bags, and steps towards the cauldron.

TRACIE
I, like, couldn’t find fillet of fenny
snake at the grocery store, so here’s,
like, some fillet of sole …

STACIE
Leather?

TRACIE and JANE
Shut up.

Tracie throws the fillet in the cauldron, and then pulls some more things out of her bags. She throws these in, getting increasingly disgusted with each that she throws in.

TRACIE
And then, like, the eye of newt …
and the toe of … frog …
and a bunch of other icky stuff … ew.

Jane and Stacie step up to join Tracie at the cauldron.

STACIE, TRACIE and JANE
Double, double toil and trouble;
fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Jane and Tracie step back while Stacie picks up her bucket and starts to put things from it into the cauldron.

STACIE
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf …
this is starting to sound like a Chinese
place … liver of blaspheming jew …

Stacie and Tracie look accusingly at Jane, who pulls an innocent face. Then Stacie dumps the rest of the bucket into the cauldron.

STACIE
And whatever else is in this bucket.

Tracie and Jane again join Stacie at the cauldron.

STACIE, TRACIE and JANE
Double, double toil and trouble;
fire burn and cauldron bubble.

TRACIE
This is getting, like, repetitive and is
taking way too long …

An easy-bake oven-esque BING.

TRACIE
… oh … it’s done!

HECI walks in wearing a bathrobe, fuzzy slippers, and a towel on her head. She is buffing her nails.

JANE
Aren’t you like, supposed to come in
with, like, a puff of smoke?

HECI
The smoke machine is broken and I
don't know how to fix it. That’s
what guys are for, duuuh!
(pause)
Well, Stacie, Tracie and … Jane …
you’ve all done a good job.
Now we dance around the cauldron
like elves … like Legolas … mmm …

Some grunge rock comes on from nowhere.

HECI
Um, like … no. Who’s picking the
music out these days? Ergh.

The Sign comes on and the witches plus Heci start to dance around the cauldron merrily. Heci dances out of the scene. Stacie knocks into Tracie, almost knocking Tracie down. Tracie stands up and looks daggers at Stacie, Jane looks daggers at both of them. Hit Me Baby One More Time comes on, we hear the lyric (Hit me …) and Tracie slaps Stacie. Jane then slaps Tracie. A fight insues, and MAC walks into the scene.

MAC
Like, dudettes, what are you doing?

The witches stop in mid-fight and look up at Mac.

TRACIE
Aerobics?

STACIE
Mulching?

JANE
(totally blank look)

MAC
Woah … dude … it’s like …
aerobic mulching! Dude! …
So, yeah, like I just came because
you dudettes are like so cool and
like my heroes and yeah. Dude.
Can I like, ask you something?

The witches scramble to their feet.

TRACIE
Of course.

STACIE
For shure!

JANE
Like, yeah … but maybe …
you want to hear your answer from
like, the higher powers that control us?

Mac looks confused for a moment … then appears to understand.

MAC
Uh … yeah, dude, that’d be cool.
Bring on the apparitions.

BLACK OUT

-------------------------

The finished product was even crackier due to someone's playing way too much with some of Final Cut Pro's sillier settings. The fight scene especially got drawn out and I believe ended up not having Britney Spears but Heart's Barracuda played over it. I also don't think this is the final version of the script, as I remember some other jokes in the final product, though those might have been improvised on the day. There was also an easter egg thing with reservoir dying of a SlimFast and cough syrup overdose that came after the credits.

We ended up getting a 100% even though almost none of classmates got the jokes. Our teacher did and that's all that matters.

asdf

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:55:22 GMT

I might die of dissertations. Due on May 12! D: I might actually start posting normally again after all of this is over. Maybe. I am however very proud of this line at the end of chapter 4 of my Language, Truth and Literature disseration:

"Therefore, Lewis’s views on truth in fiction are left completely untenable and must be abandoned."

Take that David Lewis! And I even let you keep modal realism to do it!

Oh god I just tried to save this LJ entry, spending way too much time in Word. You may now return to your regularly scheduled friends page.

BATTORU: MALFURION v MEDIVH

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:21:35 GMT

View Poll: BATTORU

Meme!?

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:01:09 GMT

I don't usually do memes, but I like this one. :O

Leave a comment and I will:

1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, a word etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

Also, I apparently win at analogies. SPN fans, please don't kill me.

aegeus: and jensen ackles is hot
aegeus: but he was much hotter in dark angel
aegeus: so after dark angel
aegeus: watching spn
aegeus: is like watching spiderman for tobey maguire because you can't get your hands on anything with jake gyllenhaal in it
reservoir: ....that is just like
reservoir: the best analogy ever.
reservoir: I mean, SERIOUSLY
reservoir: BEST
reservoir: EVER

I'VE STARTED A BLOG :O :O

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 22:39:35 GMT

Went shopping on Oxford Street yesterday. That was FUN. In all reality, it wasn't too bad. Got a scarf and some new jeans at Topman, then went Christmas shopping for Alex's family. (We're doing all shopping for US people in the US, because fuck bringing stuff on the plane ... also, cheaper!) Spent a lot of time in Liberty looking for Alex's mum, and not really finding anything, then went down toward Soho for some food, bought wine for Alex's parents (a nice 1996 Saint-Émilion Grand Crú, natch) and some other presents, then decided to walk all the way back to Liberty to check the price of a vase Alex had seen and wanted to get for his mom. That ended up being Murano glass. And £400. So, yeah. Didn't buy that. He got her a placeholder present of a bauble with promise to get a better present in the US. Went over to his parents to help decorate their tree and had a nice Sunday roast too.

Anyway, I like to talk about music. I like music. I hate some music. I rant, I ramble, I do a lot of talking at people about it. I regularly filibuster jlh in IMs because I have no real outlet for it. I don't post music stuff here much because most people just go TL;DR at it. So, I've started a music blog. It exists mostly as a place for me to write up my thoughts about music, and will generally be quite rambly and obscure, and I don't really expect anyone to read it. However, if you would like to read my music blog you can find it here. I will include recommendations, and would love comments and recommendations on it too. I'll still talk some about music here, but anything long I'll post there, and may or may not link to from here.

Have also created an LJ feed for the lazy to friend: ohnoesmusic

Recommend Me Some Musics!

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:44:40 GMT

Term is over and am up in London with Alex until next Wednesday when we go back to the US for Christmas. By the end of the holidays I need to have figured out my dissertation title, so I forsee a lot of reading during this time, but still a lot less than during term time, as it is the holidays. I went through a month of not really playing WoW much except to arena, but have gotten back into it more recently, going to Kara and clearing it with DotA. Have participated in the downing of everyone in Kara except for Aran and R&J (and Chess, but that doesn't really count). I have like 10 million heroics to do for even more badges for crap. But yeah.

Anyway, I've been thinking of coming up with some sort of best/top/favorite albums of 2007 list. I'm doing this more to listen to music I may not have given enough of a chance or overlooked than as an actual exercise in ranking the albums, but I figure if I go into with that goal in mind I'll actually listen to everything more attentively. So, I've come up with a shortlist of albums I think fall into this category, to be listened to and whittle downed into a smaller (ranked?) list, but I want some of your input too. I miss a lot, musicwise, because I don't listen to the radio anywhere near as much as I used to, and I miss a lot of some of the more obscure US stuff as I'm not there anymore. So, please, recommend me any albums that came out this year that you really liked, that you think were amazing, that are in your top albums of the year group. I don't want to accidentally miss this year's TV On The Radio. Which I totally did last year. : /

Current albums on my shortlist, in no particular order:

Foo Fighters - Echoes Silence Patience & Grace
Justice - †
Maxïmo Park - Our Earthly Pleasures
Simian Mobile Disco - Attack Decay Sustain Release
Efterklang - Parades
Feist - The Reminder
Bruce Springsteen - Magic
M.I.A. - Kala
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
The Wombats - A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation
The White Stripes - Icky Thump
Fountains of Wayne - Traffic And Weather
Future of the Left - Curses
The Pax Cecilia - Blessed Are The Bonds
Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
Battles - Mirrored
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Editors - An End Has A Start
!!! - Myth Takes
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Paramore - Riot!
British Sea Power - Krankenhaus?
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Is Is
The National - Boxer
Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew - Spirit If...
The Rumble Strips - Grils and Weather
Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position

There are a few things on there that I already want to cut out after listening to again, but I'm going to leave it up as it is for now, and whittle it down later. I may not ever actually whittle it down, as my real goal is simply to listen to a lot of new music. And ranking shit is hard anyway.

HAIRCUT ZOMG

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:16:21 GMT

I broke my habit of only having a haircut once a year by having one a mere six months (!?) since the last one. It's so SHORT. It's shorter than it's been in YEARS. The fringe/bangs is still longish, but quite short for me, and the back and sides are just absurdly short, but I really really like it. Before and after pics after cut!

Before:

After!:

You can't really see the back in those pics but it's really quite short, especially compared to the front. It feels so weird, but I really like it so far. Whoo. Also, wow, my room is a bit of a mess. I really should clean it. >.>

Smoothies with Hats

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 16:15:39 GMT

I totally forgot yesterday was Thanksgiving until I asked Seana on IM why she wasn't at work. Oops. My Thanksgiving dinner consisted of a massive korma I didn't finish and felt sick after eating. A good Thanksgiving indeed. 8D

Only two more weeks of uni until the winter holidays, and in less than a month I'll be back in the US with Alex. Whoo. chinawolf and Drae should be showing up sometime tomorrow, cruelly stolen from yuki_scorpio via our associates in Oxford. Haven't seen Tine in a bit less than a year, and have never met Drae, so should be fun! If Drae isn't secretly evil. >.> I don't think Tine would date someone who was evil though.

Anyway, the real point of this entry is that Sainsbury's is selling Innocent smoothies WITH HATS ON THEM:

They have cute little knit hats and don't cost any more than normal (in fact they cost less than they were supposed to, what :<). Supposedly 50p or so of every smoothie with a hat sold goes to help old people, but I can overlook this for the sheer fact that it is a smoothie wearing a hat. Alex is slightly worried about what we'll do with the hats when we drink the smoothies. I think he's missing the point of it being a smoothie in a hat.

ETA: Finally have Leopard. Off to installllllll.