GIP again. Dragon's name is Cyril.

Books finished:
K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain by Ed Viesturs and David Roberts. Very opinionated. Very well written, which I think means David Roberts had a great hand in the actual word smithing. All pretty fascinating.

So I finally got around to making that lasagna recipe with the layer of Campbells cream of mushroom soup I wrote about a few weeks ago: http://baranduin.livejournal.com/1001753.html

It's tasty but I don't think this is a repeater. It has a sort of aftertaste at the back of the mouth redolent of ... how to say this ... tinned cream of mushroom soup. Kind of makes me want to go brush my teeth and then gargle for about half an hour.

Hmmm.

GIP for my dragon icon made by semyaza. Woobie woobie.

Gacked from lilybaggins.



OK, given that I've had major writer's block (aka nothing to say) for well over a year now, I'm not sure how I can cut down on my writing :-)

New Moon told in lolcats:

http://microsuede.blogspot.com/2009/11/movie-review-twilight-saga-new-moon.html

Hee hee.

This is my contribution for this month's read_lotr_aloud. This month we're doing Chapters 1 and 2 of Book II (Many Meetings and The Council of Elrond).

Er ... pardon the snuffling. I just bit into a Szechuan pepper and am still recovering :-)

VoicePost 769K 3:52

(no transcription available)

Books finished:
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. So good that I actually made myself read it more slowly than I normally would have.

I'm going to do this a little differently. Instead of looking at lifetime favorites, I'm going to just include this year. So what are my three favorite books from this year and my least favorite from this year ... among those books that I finished? I knew keeping track on LJ of everything I finish would come in handy :-)

Favorites:
1. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. Fell in love with Temeraire and his world and that doesn't happen very often.
2. The Reader by Bernard Schlink.
3. Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas MacNamee. My favorite foodie book I read this year.
4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. My favorite thriller this year, I think because of sense of mood and atmosphere.
5. Sick Girl by Amy Silverstein. Brutally honest memoir of a woman who had a heart transplant and its aftermath.
6. People of the Books by Geraldine Brooks. Beautiful beautiful book about the history of a book.
7. Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin by Kathy Griffin. Love her.
8. Ten Second Staircase: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Myster by Christopher Fowler. Favorite mystery of the year. So far. There's a whole series of these. Oh joy.

Favorite book this year that I haven't finished reading yet:
1. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. A long, gorgeous new take on Dracula. Lovelovelove. Will probably finish this one tonight.

Least favorite books this year that I actually finished. This is a short list since I typically don't finish things I'm not enjoying on account of not being in school any more :-)
1. Open Your Heart with Reading by Jeannette Cezanne. I thought I'd really enjoy this book about reading but it was like reading a bunch of Hallmark cards and TV commercials that are supposed to tug on your heart. Blech. Skimmed a lot but did make it to the end.
2. Marked (House of Night #1) by PC and Kristin Cast. First volume of popular vampire series. Full of racism. Won't read the other volumes.
3. The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd. Disappointing. The main character just got more and more annoying. Finished it because of Monk Kidd's beautiful writing but this one went in the bag to get rid of.

Books finished:
Ten Second Staircase: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery by Christopher Fowler. Big thanks to ezras_cat for steering me toward this series. Fabulous, funny, eccentric, filled with stuff about current day London and all the past Londons. Lovely.

Happy birthday, trueriver! Don't see you around much these days. Hope you're having a good birthday and that your upcoming year will be a satisfying one. *hugs*

Why is it that, when you're coming down with a cold or flu like I apparently am, you go to the store to pick up some theraflu or nyquil or whatever and find yourself fascinated by random things for sale and end up staring and staring at things you'd otherwise never even glance at? I almost bought a platter with four interlocking bowls on top.

So much for going to see new Twilight movie today. It's bed and tea for me and a good book. Am about 1/4 through The Historian. I've had this book since it came out in 2005 and for some reason couldn't get through it before. But I think I'm going to make it this time. Hope I didn't just jinx myself :-)

For my greyhound-lovin' friends :-)

So there was this guy who applied for a job about a year ago. And he ended up withdrawing his application. I don't we would have offered the job to him because we had someone else we thought would be a better fit (and he's turned out great), but I was relieved anyway since there was something I didn't click with, some that made me feel a little hinky about him.

So then he applied for another job with us several months ago and was interviewed and again withdrew. And I thought, well we've seen the last of him, good riddance.

And then came a bunch of new grant money so we have a lot of programmer openings. And here he comes again and applies. And this time he didn't withdraw, was offered a position and accepted. He started on Monday.

And quit today.

Ha. I think now he's burned his bridges. Weird. Very weird. The guy we hired a year ago has worked with him and knows him so is tasked with calling him tonight to get the lowdown.

Who knew that, when your laptop tells you that your wireless connectivity switch is turned off, what you need to do is find an actual physical switch on your laptop and turn it on?

Huh. So simple it took me an hour to figure out. D'oh!

That question meme, gacked from claudia603 and rubynye.

( Read more... )

OK I'm going to do like sophinisba did, which is to post the list of fandoms I'm offering to beta for the Yuletide rare fandoms fic exchange. There over 2,000 people signed up this year! I'm not writing this year but I can definitely beta.

I'm also going to quote some of what sophinisba said about this since I'm lazy and she's articulate :-) There's a post at yuletide where people are posting about the Yuletide fandoms they can beta for. This is something anyone can help with, even if you're not signed up for the challenge. Sometimes it can be really hard to find a rare fandom beta – like last year several of the stories I wrote were in fandoms no one had offered to beta in all the pages of comments. I have a sort of huge list (I had to go through and cut out some of the extra information to make it fit in one LJ comment) and I'm reposting it here so you'll know, since (for me anyway) it's a lot easier to ask an f-lister than a stranger.

If you find you need a beta and the fandom is on the list beneath the cut, let me know and we'll work something out. You can either respond to this post or email me directly at baranduin98055@yahoo.com.

( fandoms list )

In random reading news, I deleted a book off my eReader on account of being so irritated by it.

New Archive Pimpage!

The Archive of Our Own (AO3), the multi-fandom, fan-run archive created by the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), has gone live. In development for a couple of years now, it's been opened for people to sign up. There is a brief wait to receive an invitation but I hear that invites are going out speedily.

I've put a few fic there so far. And it's great. Really great. Highly recommend people check it out. They're still working out a few bugs (em dashes are a problem right now), but it's very easy to use, flexible, beautifully designed, and inclusive. Fandom or character not in the list when you go to add a fic? Add them yourself.

Hee-larious. Looks like Sandra Bullock is in line to be the next Nice White Lady with her new movie.

Every time I hear the name "Romo Lampkin" from BSG, I am always reminded of old Fatty Lumpkin. Though really, the two characters don't seem to have anything in common other than a certain similarity of sound ... nevertheless every time I see crafty Romo I think of old Fatty.

OK, I'm ridiculously pleased to have been thumbing through People magazine and come across a recipe for lasagna that contains a layer of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup. Definitely trying that one out, being a serious CoM soup fancier :-)

Happiest of birthdays to lovethosehobbit! Don't see you around here much lately and I miss you and was sorry not to have seen you this summer. I do hope you're having a good birthday with your family. *hugs*

rubynye, thank you for the maple candy! Best I've ever had and yes I ate it all in one fell swoop rather than drawing it out. Yum.