Stitch 'N Bitch

England? OMG.

*is dazzled*

Stasia

O HAI GUYS ARE WE TALKING ABOUT TALES OF BEEDLE THE BARD YET?

Seriously, Dumbledore's notes are the best things that have happened to me all week.

Also, Jo's illustrations are fabulous; sort of Gorey-esque, I thought.

Read.

Actually, read the original. Because, yes.

I'm still overflowing with fandom love for the Eskimo Kiss Project. And in the few days since I last squeeed about it -- I'm sure you missed that, didn't you? -- we posted two landmark videos. I've embedded them here because you've got to see the pretty.

So I figured out how to get Breacan from A to B. He's kinda stuck between a and b. I was baulking at the idea of doing it, because I thought the actual way would be too asshole for him. But then I remember everyone says he's an asshole...so all good.

I just need to wrap up a few threads to help make that move.

Meanwhile, I discovered I have a natural inclination towards repetition. (Mostly leaning towards the negative: Repeating bad habits, bad mistakes, bad characters...)

I'm wondering if I can turn this about and actually make it work in my favor for once. I'll see, but it's worth pondering about.

There's stitching and movement on my whole cloth crazy quilt. Pictures of that soon.

Today I joined 3000 of my fellow Canadians on Parliament Hill today to support the Coalition. For a better explanation of what is happening here than I'm able to give, check out Yarn Harlot's blog. (It's also laid out here on DK.)

The big news today is that Madame Jean did prorogue Parliament. I don't think she had much choice, but I (and everybody at the rally) would have preferred if she'd refused and we'd just moved to a no confidence vote. What this means now (as I understand it, and I'm just learning this so I may be fuzzy) is that they're putting off the no confidence vote until Parliament reconvenes at the end of January. Harper's locked the doors to Parliament, winning what CBC is calling a "political stay of execution", basically saving his job by closing the government.

This means it's going to be a hard slog to keep the Coalition going. The Tories are of course going to frame the Coalition as an undemocratic process (it's not) and an anti-Canadian move (even tho they tried to ally with Bloc Quebecois when it suited them) and, if there's an election, that it's a waste of taxpayer money (which, okay, it is, but there's really no other option). The unthinkable outcome is that the Tories will come back from that with a majority government. This scares the living daylights out of me ... as it should every Canadian who is not white, rich, religious, and straight.

So it's going to be a tough few months here. I do fear the (lack of) organisational skill of the opposition, er, Coalition parties. Granted, it was awesome to pull together 3000 people on the spur of the moment to show up on the Hill. But when the MC (one of the most uncharismatic speakers I've ever heard) kept starting these convoluted chants, long and bilingual and just plain un-rhythmic, and then trying to make us sing, well, it felt a little sad. Is there no "si, se puede" in French? Fortunately there were some grassroots folks in the audience who picked up "hey ho, Steven Harper has to go", and that one took off a few times, and then we had "so so so solidarité". Can't we import some Swimmies from Ireland? Or at least some of Obama's people? Unfortunately those folks all got hefty salaries for their work, and there's nothing like that in Canada. *pouts*

But there was lots of enthusiasm for Jack Layton (the NDP leader) and for Gilles Duseppe (leader of Bloc Quebecois, who's not in the Coalition but supportive of it). Less applause for Stéphane Dion, unfortunately, he's a bit of a mess, as are the Liberals, but what can you do?

What can you do indeed? There are going to be rallies throughout Canada in the next few days, and more in the weeks to come. Go, show your support for the coalition, speak to people about it and help them understand that this is an historic moment in Canada. That this is our chance to put an end to Harper's pit-bull approach and to the intolerant, fear-based policies of his government. Canada is an amazing country and I am so proud to call myself a citizen -- I hate to see it trudging along in Bush's footsteps, and I so hope we can turn it around!

Anyway, for paraka who couldn't make it, here are some pictures (incl a rare pic of me!).

So that's been my morning!

I haven't done one of these for a while, and with Dr. Salpeter's death, I feel like I should talk a bit about some things he worked on.

So, it's story time! Today I tell the story about how we found out where the elements come from. Some astronomy, some nuclear physics. It'll be fun!

( Okay, so let's start with the elements. )

Well, that was an appalling day. Not for any particular reason, just generally quite sick and quite crazy. Awesome!

Spent the majority of the day watching CSI: Miami which, for some unknown reason, is, for me, the televisual equivalent of valium. It soothes me. HoCaine in particular soothes me. WTF? I even watched the eps I'd already seen, which I don't normally do. Also: wept actual tears when Speed died.

Anyway. Time for bed and perhaps tomorrow will be better. :sings: just thinkin' about tomorrow, clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow... :gags:

TIME FOR KITCHENER STITCH, MOTHERFUCKERS!



After eight months-- yes, EIGHT MONTHS-- I am about to finish The Socks That Never End. I am going to cry after I weave in the last end, for srs.

They were supposed to be for Father's Day. And every gift-giving opportunity since. IDEK what the problem was, except the yarn is thin and my dad's feet are enormous.

All right, I am so going to go finish these bastards FOREVER.

You can't be a Real Country unless you have a beer and an airline -- it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.

Title: Simple Pleasures
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Severus Snape/Nymphadora Tonks
Rating: gen
Word count: 100x4
Disclaimer: the world of HP belongs to JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc.

( Snow )

( his )

I think I might go back to that thing I started doing long ago, eg., posting fic snippets I have abandoned.

Mostly, I have this utterly bizarre thing on my hard drive: A beginning to an established relationship Snupin with matchmaking!Remus greatly inspired by the BritCom As Time Goes By. I find it incomprehensible that I have written such a thing, but there it is. I usually will go back to it, read what I've written, tack on a new sentance on the end, and then close it. Then a month later, the cycle begins anew.

I'm thinking it's a bit hopeless; maybe an idea better written by... someone who writes those sort of fics. There's Severus making snarky jokes, Draco/Ginny, and former Harry/Ginny. Remus schemes to get Harry and Ginny back together, while Severus most adamantly opposes such a thing, afraid of having to deal with an emotional, heartsick Draco who writes terrible poetry when dumped. Personally, I'm rooting for Ginny to dump Draco so that Draco can hook up with Neville...a pairing I discovered I liked more recently since I began the fic. HEART Draco/Neville.

Oh and I am DETERMINED to finish chapter 13 of Carpe Lupus. I just need a new beta...

We're multiplying mixed fractions tonight! YAY!!!




NOT.

Marigold.

( meme one )

( meme two )

The previous established pattern gets shaken up here. Instead of a chapter with questions at the end, here we have a chapter with questions at the end of each section. This is, I hope, an omen that the topics will begin to do more than just skim the surface of the topics and get into a bit more discussion of the thoughts behind the ideas presented rather than act as an introduction to the ideas/concepts being discussed.

The previous chapters, to me, were valuable and I liken them to taking a trip to an isolated island. Those chapters were akin to listening to a guide describe the terrain as the vessel we are on circles the island, giving us a glimpse of all its outer faces before we land and disembark to explore the inner sections. I am really hoping that this second section of the book shows the pathways leading inward to the heart of the island.

Without further ado, let's see where this leads us.

Previous answers found here.

1. In what ways do I link the words black to empty, chaos to confusion, and void to nothingness? How have these associations shaped my concepts of the dark?

Actually, I generally associate white with empty, as in 'white space' and 'white noise' with black being viewed as being filled with infinite possibility. I do admit to using chaotic/chaos to sometimes described huge events involving many, many people; but that said, there is generally a level of organisation to those events that negates any sense of confusion. Confusion, for me, is more often that not associated with disorganisation. These associations have not negatively impacted how I think about darkness. The void/abyss is not a deep dark scary place to look into; which I do think some people think, especially after they hear that Nietzsche quote 'Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.' I prefer to view the void/abyss as that which contains all creative potential: the primal caldera from which all potential possibilities spring forth.

You know, when I opened this window I had something to say. Now, I don't. Whatever it was? Gone. Gone on the breeze. I'm sure it was profound, though. Utterly and totally profound.

Ummmm... I went to the library today? Where I got some awesome, awesome books (Joyce Carol Oates! Paul Auster! Christa Wolf! Woot!), season 1 of Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles and the DVD of I, Claudius. Or I, Clavdivs, I guess you'd properly say. That one's going to be a nostalgia trip, I bet.

Also: have gotten back into Grey's Anatomy. We haven't got the new season yet, of course, but I'm watching the DVDs and somehow it's way easier to ignore the annoying bits on DVD. Plus that show is femslashy liek WHOA.

Anyway. It's actually 10.40 now so I really better go to bed. Good night, all.

( Dexter )

( House )

ETA: AHHH, I forgot: The Colbert Report tonight, how awesome? Stephen is alllll about the Jon/Stephen. It is ridiculous and makes me happy in my soul.

Title: Sleigh Ride
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Severus Snape/Nymphadora Tonks
Rating: NC-17
word count: 100 x 3
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc.

( riding )

the trend continued

So, I think I've figured out where to put a Christmas tree. I hadn't realised quite how much I want one until now - I usually think of myself as willing to go without, I mean, it's just a tree, right? I'm not even christian in any way, so what difference would it make?

Except, clearly it's much more important to me than I'd thought. Tree. Yes. Must have.

I need to clear out the place it's going, before it goes there - I'm a clutterbug.
I just wish I knew that everyone around me was as excited by this and pleased to have it. I am so terrified of being a bother to him.
We'll have to find ornaments - we shouldn't only use mine, right?

Stasia

You know, the First Amendment is one of the true Big Things that make our system here in the US Very Different... and it's forever under attack. Here's one response, regarding things we'd all prefer to not think about.

Neil Gaiman

Interesting, no?

Stasia